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 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 Ex Libris 
 ISAAC FOOT 
 
 V 
 
 s
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP
 
 Giyz^ -1^.<!y </2^'/!yJc^ yC<r //€/\^-rw7iy y/ieaUa. .
 
 ^Up> '^>o^A"r^ (6ah ^ Ote^ TT' 
 
 xA'ti^TTZ't^^^l^ <^J(?t^-'t- - 
 
 DOWNEY & CP L'™
 
 Harry Coverdale's 
 Courtship 
 
 AND 
 
 ALL THAT CAME OF IT 
 
 BY 
 
 (prank e. smedley) 
 
 AUTHOR OF " FRANK FAIELEGH,' " LEWIS ARUNDEL,' ETC. 
 
 "Those false alarms of strife, 
 Between the husband and the wife, 
 And little quarrels, often prove 
 To be but new recruits of love; 
 And tho' some fit of small contest 
 Sometime fall out among the best, 
 That makes no breach of faith and love, 
 But rather (sometimes) serves t' improve.' 
 
 BUTLEE. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK COMPANY 
 
 LONDON 
 
 DOWNEY & CO., Limited
 
 as H27 
 
 1900 
 
 LONDON: 
 PEIKTBD BT GILBERT AND EIVINGION, LTD., 
 
 ST, John's house, cleekbnwell, k.c.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CEAPTEK PAGE 
 
 I. TREATS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE ... 1 
 
 II. AFFORDS A SPECIMEN OF HARRY's " QUIET 
 
 MANNER " WITH HIS TENANTRY .... 5 
 
 III. HAZLEHURST PLEADS HIS CAUSE AND WINS IT . 11 
 
 IV. CONTAINS, AMONG OTHER " EXQUISITE " SKETCHES, 
 
 A PORTRAIT OF A PUPPY (NOT BY LANDSEER) . 16 
 
 V. PROVES THE ADVISABILITY OF LOOKING BEFORE 
 
 YOU LEAP 21 
 
 VI. JEST AND EARNEST 27 
 
 VII. WHEREIN SYMPTOMS OF HARRY's COURTSHIP BEGIN 
 
 TO APPEAR ON A STORMY HORIZON ... 33 
 
 VIII. HARRY CONDESCENDS TO PLAY THE AGREEABLE . 38 
 
 IX. CONTAINS LITTLE ELSE SAVE MOONSHINE ... 45 
 
 X. "equo ne credite teucri." — Yirgil ... 53 
 
 XI. " POST EQUITEM SEDET ATRA CURA." — Horace . . 56 
 
 XII. HARRY PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT 62 
 
 XIII. "deeper and deeper still" 67 
 
 XIV. DECIDEDLY EMBARRASSING 73 
 
 XV. RELATES THE UNEXPECTED BENEVOLENCE OF 
 
 HORACE d'ALMAYNE 79 
 
 XVI. TREATS OF THINGS IN GENERAL 84 
 
 XVII. PLOTTING AND COUNTER-PLOTTING .... 92 
 
 XVIII. ALICE'S FIRST INTRODUCTION TO HER HUSBAND'S 
 
 "quiet manner" 96 
 
 XIX. A COMEDY OF ERRORS 106
 
 vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 XX. THE MORNING OF THE FIEST OF SEPTEMBER . 109 
 
 XXI. THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAT .... 112 
 
 XXII. KATE SOWS THE WIND 117 
 
 XXIII. ADVICE GRATIS 122 
 
 XXIV. A STORM BREWING 126 
 
 XXV. THE STORM BURSTS 132 
 
 XXVI. THE ATMOSPHERE REMAINS CLOUDY . . .135 
 
 XXVII. THE PLEASURES OF KEEPING UP THE GAME . , 141 
 
 XXVIII. ALICE SUCCOURS THE DISTRESSED .... 151 
 
 XXIX. HOW TO MAKE HOME HAPPY 158 
 
 XXX. INTRODUCES A LORDLY GALLANT 163 
 
 XXXI. SPIDERS AND FLIES 168 
 
 XXXII. A GLIMPSE AT THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER . . 180 
 
 XXXIII. TELBMACHUS AND MENTOR 184 
 
 XXXIV. CIRCE 193 
 
 XXXV. FLOWERS AND THORNS 200 
 
 XXXVI. ARCADIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY , . 205 
 
 XXXVII. A CONCESSION AND A " PARTIE CARREE " . . 211 
 
 XXXVIII. SOME OF THE JOYS OF OUR DANCING DAYS . . 218 
 
 XXXIX. ARABELLA 229 
 
 XL. DEEPER AND DEEPER STILL . . . . . 237 
 
 XLI. ADVICE GRATIS 244 
 
 XLii. l'embarras DES RICHESSES 250 
 
 XLIII. EATING WHITEBAIT 257 
 
 XLIV. LORD ALFRED COURTLAND SOWS A FEW WILD 
 
 OATS 263 
 
 XLV. THE OVERTURE TO DON PASQUALE .... 270 
 
 XLVI. KATE BEGINS TO REAP THE AVHIRLWIND . . 275 
 
 XLVII. A GLIMPSE AT THE CLOVEN FOOT .... 283 
 
 XLVIII. MAGNANIMITY 289 
 
 XLIX. ALICE PERCEIVES THE ERROR OF HER WAYS . 292 
 
 L. THE LETTER . . . 297 
 
 LI. OTHELLO VISITS CASSIO 306 
 
 LII. A GLEAM OF LIGHT 313
 
 CONTENTS vii 
 
 CIIAPTEE PAGK 
 
 LIII. AFTER THE MANNER OF " BELL'S LIFE "... 316 
 
 LIV. SETTLING PRELIMINARIES 326 
 
 LV. THE RACE 331 
 
 LVI. THE CATASTROPHE 335 
 
 LVII. AN ANONYMOUS LETTER 339 
 
 LVIII. DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 343 
 
 LIX. HORACE WEATHERS THE STORM 350 
 
 LX. ANXIETY 355 
 
 LXI. ALICE APPOINTS HER SUCCESSOR 363 
 
 LXII. MRS. COVERDALE THINKS BETTER OF IT . . . 369 
 
 LXIII. LORD ALFRED SEVERS HIS LEADING STRINGS . . 375 
 
 LXIV. d'ALMAYNE plays HIS LAST CARD .... 382 
 
 LXV. SETTLES EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING . . . 387
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 A " ctit " not like to be soon healed . . . . 
 
 A promising Foru'-year-old 
 
 A Specimen of Harry's " Qniet Manner " . 
 Unaccountable Bebaviour of Aunt Sally . 
 
 A Fencing Lesson 
 
 For the last Time 
 
 Han-y's quiet manner of taking " tbe sby " out of liim 
 
 Paterfamilias sbows bis Teetb 
 
 Han-y's first appearance as Romeo .... 
 
 Getting up Steam ! 
 
 Wife-breaking — (Tbeory) 
 
 Wife-breaking — (Practice) 
 
 Tbe Crime 
 
 Tbe Capture 
 
 Alice's debut as Lady Bountiful 
 
 HigbArt 
 
 L'Inferno 
 
 Paradise 
 
 A pleasant Sigbt for a Husband 
 
 An agreeable Prospect for a Wife .... 
 
 Mistrust 
 
 Spitting a Spy 
 
 That dreadful Leg of Mutton ! 
 
 Rejected Addresses 
 
 Tbe Wife's Secret 
 
 A Clencber 
 
 Starting from tbe Pandemonium .... 
 
 A foul Stroke 
 
 Tbe tender Mercies of tbe Wicked .... 
 Hope deferred 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Engraved title 
 
 face page 
 
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 364
 
 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TREATS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 Harry Coverdale stood six feet one in or oiat of his stockings, 
 rode sometliing over eleven stone, was unusually good, or, as young 
 ladies term it, interesting-looking, numbered six-and-twenty years 
 last gi'ass, and lived at Coverdale Park when he was at home, with 
 five thousand a year to pay for his housekeeping, of which he spent 
 about two. At the happy moment in which we have the pleasure of 
 introducing him to our readers he was not at home, at least not 
 literally, thoiigh figuratively he appeared to be making himself so 
 very decidedly. 
 
 He had anived in London that morning, and had dined at his 
 club, and strolled down to the Temple aftei-wards, where, finding 
 that his friend, Arthur Hazlehurst, was expected to return every 
 minute, he had taken possession of his vacant chambers, lighted a 
 cigar, laid hands on a number of " The Sporting Magazine," and 
 flinging himself at full length on the sofa (sofas do occasionally 
 appear in the chambers of the briefless), looked, and was, especially 
 comfortable. He was not, however, allowed to enjoy his position long 
 in peace ; for scarcely had he established himself when a man's foot- 
 step was heard running hastily up the interminable staircase, while 
 a quick eager voice, addi*essing the small boy who did duty for clerk, 
 exclaimed, — 
 
 " Eh ! a gentleman whom you don't know lying on my sofa and 
 smoking my last cigai" ! that's coming to the point and no mistake ; 
 cool though — I wonder who the deuce it can be — not a client, of 
 course. — Ah ! HaiTy, my dear old boy, this is an unexpected pleasure ; 
 why, I'm as glad to see you as if yo\i were a client almost. I thought 
 you were in the Red Sea, man, dredging for defunct Egyptians, or 
 chipping old blocks with Layard, or some such slow thing ; when did 
 you retul^rl ? " 
 
 Arthur* Hazlehurst, the originator of the foregoing speech, was an 
 
 B
 
 2 HARRY CO VERD ALB'S COURTSHIP 
 
 old college chum of Coverdale's, who, when his friend had taken his 
 de^-ee (a highly respectable one) and started on an enlarged edition 
 of the grand tour, had gone to read \yith a special pleader. Having 
 by a special slice of luck contrived to acquire a knowledge of the law 
 from that process, instead of the more usual result of learning how 
 to spend five hundred per annum out of an allowance of two, and 
 possessing, moreover, an acute intellect, and a fair portion of industry, 
 Arthui' Hazlehurst was looked upon as a rising young man. In 
 appearance he was, for a fair man, rather handsome than otherwise, 
 but if his talent for rising could have been exercised bodily, as well 
 as professionally, it would have been as well for him, for his friend 
 had the advantage of him in stature by some three inches ; his 
 manner and way of speaking were quick and eager, and he had 
 altogether a wide-awake look about him, as though he regarded 
 society at large as perpetually in a witness-box, and was always 
 prepared to cross-examine and be down upon it. 
 
 "I returned to England some three weeks since," replied Cover- 
 dale, abstracting the cigar from his mouth, and lazily flipping off the 
 ashes from the lighted end with his finger ; " but I went quietly down 
 to the Park, and hav^e been plodding over accounts with the agent 
 ever since. Shocking bad tobacco they make you put up with here ; 
 you shall try the glorious stuff I've brought back from Constanti- 
 nople — your Turk is the boy to smoke. So you've become learned in 
 the law, I hear, since I went abroad." 
 
 " Eh ! Yes, I believe I've picked up a thing or two," retimied 
 Hazlehurst modestly; " I've found out the great secret of life ; the 
 next move is to make the knowledge pay, and that's not so easy." 
 
 " I didn't laiow there was a great secret to find out," observed 
 Coverdale, stroking his curly black whiskers, " the rule of life seems 
 easy enough to me — make up your mind what you want to do, and 
 then quietly do it — that's my recipe." 
 
 " A very good one for you, my dear fellow, you've only to put your 
 hand in your pocket, and, as your money rattles, difficulties disappear ; 
 but we're not all boi-n to ^65000 a year, worse luck ; fathers have 
 flinty hearts, and even the amenities of the nineteenth century hare 
 failed to macadamize them — ' I've given you an expensive education, 
 sir, and I expect to see you turn it to account.' That's about the 
 style of blessing we inherit now-a-day ; however, my secret of life is 
 this : everything has a culminating point, and the dodge is to hit 
 tipon it yourself, and bring others to it with the least delay possible ; 
 in these four words — come to the point, is embodied the whole 
 philosophy of existence." 
 
 "Well, yes, I dare say there is something in it," retui'ned Cover- 
 dale meditatively, " it never exactly struck me before, but there's a 
 beaiitiful simplicity about it that I rather admire— a little too rail- 
 roadish, perhaps, unless a man's in an awful huny; you lose the 
 bright sunny peeps and the jolly old roadside alehouses of life by 
 rushing so straight to your object."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 3 
 
 " Sunny nonsenses," was the uncourteous rejoinder — " none of your 
 old slow-coaching days for me ; life's not long enough for dreaming 
 — Parr's life pills are a swindle, and Methuselah died without leaving 
 his recipe behind him ; — so come to the point say I." 
 
 '' Though I won't promise to adopt your philosophy for a perma- 
 nency, I'll act upon it for once, at all events," replied Coverdale, 
 smiling (and a nice, genial, pleasant smile it was too, showing a 
 white, even row of teeth, and lighting up a pair of large, dark, 
 intelligent eyes, and making the " smiler " look particularly hand- 
 some). "So to come to the point, I'm here to enlist you in my 
 service for what the women call a ' day's shopping ' to-morrow : I've 
 no clothes to my back, no horses to ride, no dog-cart to knock about 
 in — in fact, none of the necessaries of life ; — then, having benefited 
 by your advice and experience, I mean to carry you off to Coverdale 
 for a crack at the rabbits ; thank goodness ! they've got the game up 
 and the poachers down since I've been abroad: that was the only 
 thing I made a row about when I came into the property. Why, 
 there are no preserves like the Coverdale woods in the county, and 
 yet my poor uncle never had a pheasant on his table. Things are 
 rather different now, my boy, and my only real sorrow at the present 
 moment is, that there are two whole months to be got rid of before 
 the first of September : well ! what do you say to my proposal ? " 
 
 " Done, along with you," replied Hazlehurst ; "but on one condition 
 only, viz., that when we've polished off the rabbits, you'll come with 
 me to the Grange, and make acquaintance with those members of 
 the worthy family of Hazlehurst, whose virtues are as yet unknown 
 to you." 
 
 " You're very kind ; but you've a lot of sisters, or she-cousins, or 
 some creatures of that dangerous nature, haven't you ? Of course I 
 mean no disparagement to the ladies of your family in particular ; 
 but 'pon my word, my dear feUow, I cannot stand women : in Turkey 
 they shut 'em up, you know, so that I'm not accustomed to them ; 
 I've given up flii-ting and dangling, and all the rest of it, long ago ; it's 
 very well for green boys, but at my time of life a man has something 
 better to think about : " and, as he spoke, Coverdale flung the end 
 of his cigar into the empty fireplace, pitched " The Sporting Maga- 
 zine " unceremoniously on the table, and, looking at his watch, 
 continued, " It's eight o'clock ; I took a couple of stalls for the 
 'Prophete' this morning, on the chance of catching you; so jump 
 into a pair of black trousers and let us be ofB." 
 
 " Not a bad move," replied his companion, " I'll adorn and be with 
 you in — " 
 
 " ' Einem augenblick,' " suggested the grand tourist, philologically . 
 
 "If that's Gei-man for the twinkling of a bed-post, yes!" was the 
 rejoinder, and in less than ten minutes the friends descended the 
 staircase arm-in-arm, Hazlehurst leaving strict directions with the 
 small clerk to inform any one who might ask for him, that he was 
 summoned to attend a very important consultation.
 
 4 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 The next day was devoted to the piarchase of Coverdale's neces- 
 saries of life. Owing to Hazlehurst's perseverance in bringing all 
 the tradesmen to the point, a vast deal of business was transacted, 
 and before nightfall Han-y was the fortunate possessor of a spicy 
 dog-cart, a blood mare to run in it, who could trot fourteen miles an 
 hour, and really did perform ten miles in that space of time, equally 
 to her own satisfaction and to that of her new master — two showy 
 saddle-horses, the best being vip to fifteen stone with any hounds — a 
 double-barrelled gun, by a famous maker — a brace of thorough-bred 
 pointers — and a whole host of the minor " necessaries " animate and 
 inanimate, all of which, put together, made a considerable hole in a 
 thousand pounds ; but, as Harry sapiently obsei'ved, " a man could not 
 live in the country without them, so where was the use of bothering." 
 
 On the following morning the two young men and all the pur- 
 chases, horses included, started by the Midland Counties Railway, 
 and dinner-time found them safely deposited at Coverdale Park, a 
 fine old place, which, with its pictm-esque mansion, beautiful view, 
 and goodly extent of wood and water, field and fell, was as desirable 
 a property as any English gentleman need wish to possess. After 
 dinner the gamekeeper was summoned : he was a sturdy, good-looking 
 fellow, who had filled the post of imder- keeper in the time of Admiral 
 Coverdale (Harry's deceased uncle, an old bachelor, to whose in- 
 vincible hatred of matrimony his nephew was indebted for his present 
 position). Harry, before he went abi-oad, bad discovered the head- 
 keeper to be in league with a gang of poachers, receiving a per- 
 centage on all the game they sold; he had accordingly dismissed 
 him, and elected his subordinate to fill the vacant situation — an 
 experiment which had proved eminently successful. 
 
 " Take a glass of wine, Markum ; this is my friend, Mr. Hazle- 
 hurst. We mean to have a slap at the rabbits to-morrow ; so be 
 here at eight o'clock, and then we shall get a good long day : any 
 more poachers since we caught those last fellows ? " And, as 
 Coverdale spoke, he filled a large claret glass to the brim with 
 splendid old port, and handed it to the keeper, who received it 
 bashfully, and then, scraping with his foot and ducking his head 
 twice with an expression of coitntenance as of a sheep about to bvitt, 
 replied, — 
 
 " Your 'ealth, Mr. Coverdale, sir — your 'ealth, gents both," tossed 
 it oif at a di*aught — " there ain't been no reglur poarchin a-goin on, 
 sir," he continued, setting down his glass as if it bumed his fingers, 
 and then jibbing away from the table as though he had shied at it 
 " but that 'are young Styles has been a-shooting rabids on Wild Acre 
 farm, and seems to say as he considers he's a right so to do." 
 
 " Styles ? who is he ? " inquired Harry, quickly. 
 
 " Well, he's the son of old Farmer Styles, and he used to shoot 
 just when and where he liked in the Admiral's time, and that's how 
 he fancies he's got a sort of right, do you see, Mr. 'Enery — that is, 
 Mr. Coverdale, sir."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 5 
 
 " Rabbits are not game, so you can't touch him on the score o£ 
 poaching, Harry ; but, to come to the point, if he's on your land 
 ■without your permission, he's trespassing, and that's where you can 
 be doAvn upon him," inteiTupted Hazlehurst, sententiously. 
 
 " Then I shall have the law o' my side in pitching into him, I 
 suppose, sir ? " inquired Markum, eagerly. 
 
 " No, no, my good fellow ; I don't wish to quaiTel with any of my 
 tenantry, about here," exclaimed Coverdale hastily, "they'll be 
 breaking pheasants' eggs, and playing up all sorts of mischief, — no : 
 we must have nothing of that kind — I'll s^jeak to the young man 
 myself ; there's a quiet way of doing these things, as I must teach 
 you all. Good-night; remember eight o'clock to-moiTow:" and 
 Markum, looking sheepish and rebuked, quitted the room, to tell 
 the tale in the kitchen with the following reflection appended, " And 
 if that 'are young Styles happens to be as cheeky to master as he is 
 to other folks, it strikes me the quiet dodge won't pay." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AFFORDS A SPECIMEN OF HARRY's " QUIET MANNER" WITH HIS 
 
 TENANTRY. 
 
 By two o'clock next day, Coverdale and Hazlehm-st had walked for 
 some six hours, and conjointly taken the lives of seven couple of 
 rabbits, ten unfortunates having fallen victims to the new double- 
 barrel, while Hazlehurst had disposed of the remaining four. A 
 sumptuous luncheon, with unlimited pale ale and brown stout, 
 awaited them at the gamekeeper's cottage, to which repast they did 
 ample justice. 
 
 " I tell you what it is, Harry," exclaimed Hazlehurst, setting down 
 an empty tumbler, " if I eat any more luncheon, you will have to 
 send me home in a wheelbarrow, for to walk I shall not be able — 
 as it is, I feel like an alderman after a city feast." 
 
 " In that case, you'd require a very capacious wheelbarrow, and I 
 should pity the individual who had to trundle it. Come ! finish the 
 bottle — you won't ? then I will — and now we'll be off^it strikes me 
 fatigue has something to do with it, as well as the luncheon ; you've 
 been smoke-diying in London, young man, till you're out of condi- 
 tion," retiumed Coverdale, laughing, as he remarked the stiff manner 
 in which his friend rose and walked across the cottage. 
 
 Another hour's striding through high grass and fern proved the
 
 6 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 correctness of this assertion ! for Hazlehurst, unaccustomed to such 
 severe exercise, hep^an to show unmistakable symptoms of knocking 
 up. His friend observed him with attention — '" You really are tired, 
 Arthur," he said good-naturedly, "you'll be fit for nothing to-morrow, 
 if you walk much farther. Go back, Markum, and send one of your 
 boys for the shooting pony ; let him bring it to us at the bridge foot 
 — I am going over Wild Acre farm next : I shall try through the 
 spinney and round the large meadow, so you can cut across and join 
 us again in half an hour — and, Markum — wait one moment : — What 
 sort of person is this man Styles P How should I know him if I 
 should happen to run against him ? " 
 
 " Well, he be a tall, broad-shouldered, roughish-looking chap, 
 rather an orkard customer for to tackle, Mr. Coverdale, sir, and he 
 generally have a sort of cross-bred, lurcher-like dog along with him, 
 if you please, Mr. 'Enry, that is, Mr. Coverdale, sir " — and so 
 saying, Markum stai*ted at a swinging trot to execute his master's 
 wishes. 
 
 " The fellow looks as if he could go on at that pace for a fortnight 
 without turning a hair," observed Hazlehui-st, pausing to wipe his 
 brow ; " I never saw such a cast-iron animal." 
 
 " He's at it every day, and that keeps him in good order," replied 
 Coverdale : " but I've walked him down before now, and should not 
 wonder if I were to do so to-day — I'm just getting what the jockeys 
 call my ' second wind,' and am good for the next four hours at least 
 — ha ! there's a rabbit sitting, pull at it when I clap my hands." 
 
 " It's too long a shot for me," replied Hazlehm-st, " bag him 
 yourself." 
 
 Thus urged, Coverdale brought his gun to his shoulder and drew 
 the trigger, but the cap was a bad one, and would not go off, and his 
 second ban-el being loaded with small shot, in the hope of picking up 
 a landrail (of which Markum had reported the probable whereabouts), 
 the rabbit skipped away uninjured. It had not proceeded ten paces, 
 however, when it sprang into the air, and rolled over dead — at the 
 same moment the report of a gun rang out from behind some low 
 bushes, and a lurcher dog dashed forward, and picked up the defunct 
 rabbit. Coverdale's face flushed with anger, and hastily exchanging 
 the defective perciission cap for a sound one, he i-aised his gun with 
 the intention of shooting the dog; but, though quick-tempered^ 
 Hai-ry was a thoroughly kind-hearted fellow, and a moment's 
 reflection caused him to relinquish his purpose ; recovering his gun, 
 he muttered — " Poor brute, why should I kiD it ? — it's not his fault, 
 but his master's." 
 
 As he spoke a tall figure rose from behind the bushes, whence 
 the shot had proceeded, and whistling to the dog, took the rabbit 
 from him, and put it in the pocket of a voluminous-skirted shooting- 
 jacket. 
 
 " That's the redoubtable Mr. Styles, ' in propria persona,' I imagine," 
 obBerved Hazlehurst.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 7 
 
 " And a cool hand he seems too," returned Coverdale, scowling at 
 the delinquent, who stood quietly reloading his gun, as though he 
 were " monarch of all he surveyed," — " however, I'm not going to 
 lose my temper about it; it's a great object with me, just now, to 
 conciliate all the neighbouring farmers." 
 
 " Then are you going to give him ' carte blanche ' to spiflicate rabbits 
 when and where he likes P " inquired his fi-iend. 
 
 '■ Not a bit of it ! " was the reply, " I mean to put a stop once for 
 all to such practices ; but there is a quiet way of managing these 
 matters quite as effectual as putting oneself into a rage." 
 
 " Don't be a week about it, that's all— come to the point at once, 
 there's a good fellow, for I want to knock over another rabbit or two 
 before my Bucephalas arrives," rejoined Hazlehurst. 
 
 Thus urged, Coverdale advanced towards the stranger, and 
 slightly raising his wide-awake as he approached him, said with an 
 air of Grandisonian politeness — " Mr. Styles, I presume P " 
 
 " Yes, young man, my name's Styles. What's yourn ? " was the 
 unceremonious reply. 
 
 He does not know me, thought Harry : now for astonishing him — 
 rather! "My name, sir, is — ahem! — Henry Coverdale, of Coverdale 
 Park, at your service." He paused to watch the effect of this 
 announcement. Ha ! I thought so, he trembles, he is — why, con- 
 found the scoundi'el ! I do believe he's giinning — he can't have 
 Tinderstood me — " My name is Coverdale, I say, sir." 
 
 " Well, then, Mr. Coverdale, if that's your name, the sooner you 
 take yourself back to Coverdale Park the better I shall be pleased, 
 for I'm a shooting rabbits, and your jabbering scares the creeturs," 
 was the astounding rejoinder. 
 
 Coverdale could scarcely believe his ears ; however, he contrived 
 by a strong effort to subdue his rising passion, as he answered, " If, 
 as I imagine, you are the son of old Farmer Styles, of Wild Acre, 
 you must be aware, sir, that the farm your father rents is my pro- 
 perty, and that the rabbits you are shooting are my rabbits ; I must, 
 therefore, trouble yoii to hand over the one you have just killed, and 
 to abstain from shooting entirely, except on any occasion when I may 
 invite you to join me, or otherwise give you permission." 
 
 " I knows this, that father and I have got thirty years' lease to 
 run, and that when I wants a day's rabbiting, I means to take it, 
 whether you likes it, or whether you doesn't. Why, the old Admiral 
 never said a word agen it ; but he was something like a gentleman, 
 he was ! " was the surly answer. 
 
 Harry's eyes flashed fire. " Do you mean to insinuate that I 
 am not one then, fellow P " he asked in a voice that trembled with 
 passion. 
 
 "And suppose I does, what then? feller!" returned the other 
 insolently. 
 
 " This ! " was the reply, as springing hastily forward, Coverdale 
 struck Styles so violent a blow on the cheek with the back of his
 
 8 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 open hand, that he staggered and nearly fell ; — recoverinof himself 
 with difficulty, and holdino; one hand to his injured jaw, he muttered 
 with an oath, " If it wasn't for the confounded guns, I'd give you the 
 heai-tiest thrashing ever you had in your life." 
 
 " Or get one youi-self ," replied Harry, now thoroughly roused ; 
 " but, if you're at all inclined that way, don't disturb yourself about 
 the guns ; if you will discharge yours, I and imy fi-iend will do the 
 same by oui'S, it's only wasting a charge or two of powder " — and, as 
 he spoke, he fired both barrels in the air. Styles paused a moment, 
 to assui'e himself that no stratagem was contemplated, and then dis- 
 charged his gun also, while Hazlehurst, having glanced at his friend 
 with an expression of the deepest astonishment, hastened to follow 
 their example. At this moment the clatter of a horse's hoofs was 
 heard, and Markum, the keeper, cantered up on the shooting pony. 
 " Ah ! that's right ! " exclaimed Coverdale, who appeared suddenly 
 to have regained his good temper — " tie the pony up to a tree and 
 come here. Hazlehurst, you will pick me up if I require it, and 
 Markum will do the same kind office by Mr. Styles, and I don't intend 
 him to have a sinecure either," he added. ' sotto voce.' 
 
 " Tou don't mean seriously you're going to fight the fellow ? " 
 inquired Hazlehurst. 
 
 " Indeed, I do, and, what's more, nobody shall prevent me, unless 
 he shows the white feather," was the positive answer. 
 
 " But — bvit you'll get knocked about so : besides, the brute's a 
 bigger, heavier man than you, and as strong as an elephant. 
 Suppose he should injiu-e you," remonstrated Hazlehurst. 
 
 "He may if he can," was the confident reply; "why, Arthm*, 
 you're as nervous as a girl ; this is not the first time you've seen me 
 use my fists, and I've taken lessons from Ben Gaunt since the old 
 Eton days." 
 
 " Go in and win, then, if you will make a fool of yom-self," rejoined 
 Hazlehurst moodily, as he helped his friend to divest himself of his 
 shooting- jacket and waistcoat. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Styles, I'm at your service," remarked Coverdale, 
 addressing his antagonist politely. 
 
 "So you mean fighting, do you?" inquired Styles, half in- 
 credulously. 
 
 " I mean to try and give you the thrashing with which you have 
 threatened me," was the reply. 
 
 " And if you do, I'll promise never to shoot another rabbit without 
 your permission ; but if I'm best man, blest if I don't smash 'em 
 when and where I likes," was the rejoinder. 
 
 " It's a bargain," returned Coverdale, " so come on." — As his 
 antagonist bared his brawny arms and muscular throat, Harry felt 
 that, if his skill were at all commensurate with his strength, he had 
 cut himself out a somewhat troublesome task, and he l>egan to own, 
 in his secret soul, that Hazlehurst was right, and that he was about 
 to do a very foolish thing. However, he had great confidence in his
 
 
 51* 
 
 
 'Ai»(^ 
 
 ■/;,lffi!^ 
 
 
 
 H;?!|fe 
 
 rAv^ 
 
 111 J ' 

 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 9 
 
 own skill and activity, and to these qualities did he trust to relieve 
 him from his difl&culties. If those amiable philanthropists, whose 
 ranks, once numbering a large majority of the aristocracy and gentry 
 of the land, have, as civilization has spi'ead, grown " small by degi'ees 
 and beautifully less " (we allude to the " Patrons of the Ring,") — if 
 these humane and enlightened individuals expect a detailed account, 
 a la " Bell's Life," of.the " stunning mill between the Coverdale Cove 
 and the Stylish Farmer," they must be doomed to the pangs of dis- 
 appointment ; for unfortunately neither our taste nor oiu* talent lies 
 in that direction. Suffice it then to relate, that Mr. Styles' science 
 proving an article of the very roughest country manufacture, while 
 his antagonist went to work with the skill and composure of a 
 finished artist, Coverdale soon perceived that he had only to stop or 
 avoid his opponent's blows, to keep cool and to abide his time, in 
 order to insure him an easy victory — and the event justified his 
 expectations. After six rounds — in the course of which the farmer 
 acquired two beautiful black eyes, while Coverdale had not got a 
 scratch — time was called and the seventh round commenced. Styles, 
 smarting from the punishment he had received, and in-itated to the 
 highest degree by his adversary's coolness, I'ushed on so fm-iously, 
 and hailed such a shower of blows upon his opponent, that Coverdale 
 found it would be impossible entirely to ward them off, and not 
 wishing to be disfigured by a black eye or flattened nose, was forced 
 to exert himself in real earnest to endeavour to bring the battle to a 
 conclusion; — watching his opportunity, therefore, he drew back, 
 stopped a terrific hit cleverly with his left hand, and then flinging 
 out his right arm straight from the shoulder, and bounding forward 
 at the same moment, he struck his antagonist a crashing blow, 
 which, catching him full on the side of the head, sent him dowTi like 
 a shot. 
 
 " That has terminated the case for the defendant, I expect," 
 observed Hazlehuret, sententiously, as, breathless and with bleeding 
 knuckles, his friend seated himself on his extended knee — " he had 
 had nearly enough before, and he has got rather too much now. 
 You hit him an awful crack ! " 
 
 " It was his own fault," returned Coverdale. " I did not want to hurt 
 the man if he would have fought quietly, and like a civilized Christian, 
 instead of a raging lunatic ;— but he's only stunned — see, he's reviving 
 already. Confound the fellow, his head is as hard as a cannon-ball, 
 to which fact my knuckles bear witness." So saying, Coverdale rose, 
 and resuming his coat and waistcoat, approached his fallen foe, who, 
 with his head leaning against Markum's shoulder, was staring 
 vacantly at the sky. 
 
 " He's as unconscionable as a hinfant, Mr. Coverdale, sir : you've 
 been and knocked his hintellects slap out of him, which only sarves 
 him right, and is what all poachers 'andsomely desarves," i*emarked 
 the gamekeeper cheerfully. 
 
 " I know what will be the medicine to cure him,'' exclaimed
 
 10 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Hazlehurst, producing a pocket-flask, and applying it to the lips of 
 the vanquished Styles. At first the patient seemed inclined to resist ; 
 bnt as soon as he tasted the flavour of the contents of the pocket- 
 pistol, he raised his hand, and pushing aside Hazlehurst's fingers, 
 drained it to the bottom. 
 
 " Gently, my friend," remonstrated the young barrister, " that's 
 Kinahan's best whisky — fortunately I supplied the vacuum created 
 at luncheon with spring water. Ah, I thought as much, that's the 
 true ' elixir vitas,' " he continued, as Styles, relinquishing the flask, sat 
 up and began to stare wildly about him. 
 
 "Styles, my good fellow; how do you feel now? You were 
 stunned, you know ; but I shall be vei-y soiTy if I've hui-t you ? " 
 observed Coverdale, good-natxu-edly. As he spoke. Styles tunned and 
 regarded him attentively, measimng his tall, active figure with his 
 glance from top to toe. At length he muttered, "WeU, I didn't 
 think he had it in him, that I didn't ; " he then rubbed his head, with 
 a look of thorough perplexity, once more fixing his eyes on his late 
 opponent, as if he were some strange monster, wonderful to behold : 
 having, apparently, satisfied himself that he was a real flesh and 
 blood man. and not some new-fangled, cast-iron boxing-machine, he 
 turned to the gamekeeper, observing, " Markum, lend us a fin, old 
 man, for I feels precious staggery-like, I can tell you. Tour guv'nor 
 hits hard." On obtaining the required assistance, he rose, not with- 
 out difficulty, approached Coverdale, and holding out a hand some- 
 what smaller than a shoulder of mutton, said, " Shake hands, sir, 
 you're a gentleman, and what's far more in my eyes, you're a man 
 every inch of you, and I humbly begs your pardon for insulting of 
 you." 
 
 " Say no more about it, my good friend," returned Coverdale, 
 heartily shaking his proffered hand, "we did not understand each 
 other before, but we do now, and shall get on capitally for the future 
 I don't doubt." 
 
 " I shan't disturb your rabbits again, sir," continued the penitent 
 Styles, entirely subdued by Coverdale's hearty manner, " and if the 
 creeturs should do any damage to the crops, why I know a gentleman 
 like you will bear it in mind on the rent-day." 
 
 " Certainly," was the eager reply ; " my object now is to get up 
 the game, and no tenant who assists me in this will find me a hard 
 landlord." 
 
 And so, after an amicable colloquy, they parted the best friends 
 imaginable ; Styles observing, as he turned to go, " I did not think 
 there was a man living who could have sewn me up in ten minutes 
 like that; but you are imaccountable quick with yoiu- fists, to be 
 sure, Mustur Coverdale." 
 
 " Pray, Hari-y. is this to l)e considered a specimen of your ' quiet 
 manner ' with your tenantry ? " inquired Hazlehurst dryly, as he 
 bestrode the broad back of his shooting pony. 
 
 His friend coloured as he replied with a forced laugh, " "Well, I
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 11 
 
 must confess that for once in my life I a little lost temper ;— but you 
 see, old boy," he continued, bringing his hand down upon Hazlehurst's 
 knee with a smack which caused that delicate youth to spring up in 
 his saddle — " but you see I managed to conciliate him after aU." 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HAZLEHURST PLEADS HIS CAUSE AND WINS IT. 
 
 "And the worst of it is the fellow's right — what a bore life is — 
 confound everything ! — " As he gave utterance to this sweeping 
 anathema, HaiTy Coverdale lifted a shaggy Scotch terrier by the 
 ears out of an easy chair wherein it was reposing, and flinging him- 
 self on the seat thus made vacant, waited disconsolately till Hazle- 
 hurst should have finished a letter, which, with uuwontedly grave 
 brow, he was perusing. 
 
 Having continued his occupation till his friend's small stock of 
 patience was becoming well-nigh exhausted, Hazlehiu'st closed the 
 epistle, muttering to himself — " Well ! they know best, I siippose— 
 but I don't admire the scheme, aU the same — " then, tunaing towards 
 his companion, he continued aloud — " I beg yoiu- pardon, my dear 
 fellow ! but the governor's letter contains a budget of family politics, 
 which is, of coui*se, moi'e or less interesting to me, especially as, in 
 the event of certain contingencies, he talks of increasing my allow- 
 ance. But you're looking sentimental — what's the matter ? " 
 
 " Oh ! nothing," was the reply, " only that fellow Markum has been 
 boring about the rabbits ; he says we've woiked them quite enough, 
 and that the" foxes will be pitching into the pheasants if they can't 
 get plenty of rabbits to eat, and that so much shooting will make 
 the birds wild before the 1st. — I know it as well as he does— there 
 ought not to be another gun fired on the property till the 1st of 
 September. But then what is a fellow to do with himself ? I might 
 go to Paris— but I've been there and done it aU — besides, I hate their 
 dissipation, it bores me to death ; London is empty, and if it wasn't, 
 it's worse than Paris — more smoke and less fun. I'd start to 
 America, and do Niagara, and all the other picturesque dodges, 
 only, if the wind were to turn restive, or anything go wrong in the 
 boiler-bursting line. I might be delayed and miss the first day of 
 partridge-shooting, so it would not do to risk it.'' 
 
 " By no means," rejoined Hazlehurst, shaking his head with an air 
 of mock solemnity — "but luckily I've a better plan to propose; I
 
 12 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 must make my way home at once — you shall come with me, and stay 
 till we are all mutually tired of each other." 
 
 " But your father and mother? " urged Coverdale. 
 
 "Are more anxious than I am on the subject. Read that, you 
 unbelieving Jew!" So: saying, Hazlehm-st turned down' a portion 
 of his letter, and handed it to Coverdale ; it ran thus — " Mind you 
 bring your friend with you ; independently of our desire to become 
 acquainted with one who has shown you such unvarying kindness, 
 Mr. Coverdale is just the person to make up the party." 
 
 " Yes, they're very kind," began Coverdale, returning the letter, 
 " very kind, but — " 
 
 " But what, man," rejoined Hazlehurst quickly, " we want you to 
 come to us ; you have not only no other engagement, but actually 
 don't know what to do with yourself, and yet you hesitate. How- 
 ever, to come to the point at once, I ask you plainly, and expect a 
 plain answer— where's the hitch ? " 
 
 " Well done, most leai'ned coiinsel, that is the way to browbeat a 
 witness, and no mistake," replied Coverdale, laughing at his friend's 
 vehemence ; " however, I won't provoke any farther display of your 
 forensic talents by attempting to prevaricate. The fact is, I know 
 you've a bevy of sisters, she-cousins, and what not, very charming 
 girls, I daresay ; but yoii see I'm not fit for women's society, and 
 that's the truth of it — I've chosen my line — I know what suits me 
 best — and I daresay I shall live and die a bachelor, as the old 
 Admiral did before me. I know what women are, and what they 
 expect of one ; if a fellow happens to be a little bit rough and ready, 
 they call him a bear, and vow he's got no soul ; 'gad, that's what the 
 Turks say of them, by-the-bye ! — Poetical justice ; eh ? " 
 
 " My dear boy, you'll excuse my saying so, but you really are talk- 
 ing great nonsense," interrupted Hazlehiirst ; " you're a thorough 
 gentleman in mind, manners, and appearance, if I know the meaning 
 of the term, and neither my sisters, nor my cousin (there is but one), 
 have such bad taste as to prefer a finical fop to a fine manly fellow 
 like yourself — no, they're more likely to fall into the other extreme." 
 
 " And that would be the worst of the two by long odds," exclaimed 
 Harry aghast ; " only fancy me with a wife in the shooting- season — 
 bothering me to stay at home with her, or to drive her out in a 
 four-wheeled arm-chair with a pair of little hopping rats of ponies, 
 that the best whip in the thi'ee kingdoms could not screw above six 
 miles an hour out of, if he were to flog their hides off ; or, worse still, 
 to take me boxed up in a close carriage to call upon somebody's 
 grandmother, and I breaking my heart all the time to be blazing 
 away at the partridges. I know what it is— I was staying down in 
 Leicestershire, before I went abroad, with poor Phil Anderton, as 
 staunch a sportsman, and as thoroughly good a fellow, as ever drew 
 trigger, before he married Lady Mirvinia Bluebas. Well, they hadn't 
 been coupled six months before she'd got him so tight in hand that 
 he daren't smoke a cigar without a special licence. The first season,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 13 
 
 she let him shoot Wednesdays and Fridays, and hunt Thursdays 
 and Satiirdays. The next year she made him sell off his ^iins, dogs, 
 and horses, and carried him over to the Continent. What was the 
 result? — why, the poor fellow became so bored and miserable, that 
 he took to gamblinff, lost every farthing he had in the world at 
 roulette, and — didn't blow his brains out ; so my lady has the pleasm-e 
 of keeping him, and living herself, upon five hundi'ed a year pin- 
 money." 
 
 "Verdict, served her right" — observed Hazlehurst judicially; 
 " but you forget, my dear boy, that Anderton, though a good fellow 
 enough in his way, was made of such yielding materials, that anybody 
 could do what they liked with him — rather soft here," he continued, 
 tapping his forehead ; " now you have got sterner stuff in you, and if 
 a woman were to try it on with you in that style, it strikes me she'd 
 find her master." 
 
 " Ah ! I don't know," sighed Coverdale reflectively : " it's easier to 
 talk about managing women han to do it — they've got a way with 
 'em, at least the pleasant ones have, of coming over a fellow some- 
 how, and making him fancy for the moment (it doesn't last, mind 
 you — and there's the nuisance of it) that he'd rather do Avhat they 
 wish him, than what he wants to do himself. Then again, if a man 
 offends you, you can quietly knock him do^vn, and if he feels 
 aggrieved, he can have you out (not that I admire duelling) ; bx;t if 
 you quaiTel with a woman, there's no ' dernier resort,' you can't knock 
 her down, poor weak thing, and so you're reduced to growl like a 
 dog, and she to spit like a cat, and you leave off as you began, with- 
 out having attained any definite result." 
 
 " I have heard of such a thing as moral force," suggested Hazle- 
 hurst ironically. 
 
 " That's one's only chance," returned Coverdale, " though it is one 
 that, to speak seriously and sensibly, I've tolerably strong faith in. 
 A fellow miTst be wanting in manliness of chai-acter, if he cannot 
 contrive to manage a woman by moral force, as you call it ; there's 
 a quiet way of doing that as well as everything else, only it's such a 
 confoimdedly slow process." 
 
 " No making 'em to come to the point, eh ? " rejoined Hazlehui-st ; 
 " Well, I have my own ideas about it ; how they would work, remains 
 to be proved ; but as you've such splendid theories on the subject, 
 don't pretend you're unfitted for woman's society. Why, man, you're 
 equal to a whole seminary of young ladies — your ' quiet manner ' 
 would prove as irresistible with them as it did with the redoubtable 
 Mr. Styles." 
 
 By way of reply to this impertinent allusion, Coverdale shook his 
 clenched fist (which still bore traces of his late encounter) in his 
 friend's face with a pseudo-threatening gesture. Hazlehurst sprang 
 back in pretended alarm, with so sudden a movement as to arouse 
 the Scotch terrier from his nap, who, waking up in a fright, 
 immediately recun-ed to his leading idea that there were thieves in
 
 14 HARRr COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 the house, and rushed to the door barking furiously. When the 
 laughter, which this little incidenb excited, had in some degree 
 abated, Hazlehvirst resumed, — 
 
 " But seriously, Harry, I want you to come home with me, and I'll 
 tell you in confidence why. You and I have known each other from 
 the time we were schoolboys tos^ether, and though, as in re Styles, 
 you act a little hastily sometimes, there is no man on whose clear 
 judgment and high principle I've greater reliance than on yours. 
 I've received a letter from home this morning, which has annoyed 
 me more than I can tell you. To come to the point at once, the 
 case stands thus : — My father's pet weakness (rather a creditable 
 one) is family pride ; now, the Grange has belonged to the 
 Hazlehiu'sts for the last three hundred years, but in my great- 
 grandfather's time the estate became woefully diminished — the 
 old scamp was a regular wild one, and not only made ducks and 
 drakes of everything he could lay hands on, but as soon as 
 my grandfather came of age, induced him to cut ofE the entail, 
 and sold the best half of the family property ; some of this 
 my gi'andfather contrived to redeem in his lifetime, and my 
 Governor has been scheming and screwing all his days in order to 
 buy back the rest. In an evil hour he was induced to invest his 
 savings in a railroad, hoping to attain his object sooner ; of course 
 it paid beautifully at first ; of course in due time a crash came, and 
 the pater not only lost all his savings, but was forced to sell a farm 
 of five hundred acres, dear to him as the apple of his eye. The in- 
 dividual who purchased it, and who owns the property my great- 
 grandfather sold, is a certain millionaire cotton spinner, as 
 rich as Croesus ; the fellow is said to have .£20,000 a year. "Well, 
 since the railroad affair, a jolly old aunt has died, and left the 
 Governor some tin. and he's breaking his heart to buy back the 
 farm, but cotton spinner refuses to sell. Now, at the last Hunt Ball, 
 my eldest sister came out — she is very pretty, and a nice, taking 
 sort of girl in society — and said cotton spinner came, saw, and was 
 conquered ! so much so, that having offered serious intentions ever 
 since, he has ended by offering himself. Thereupon arose a difference 
 of opinion between Alice and the Governor — Alice pleading that she 
 didn't love cotton spinner one bit, and didn't expect she ever should 
 do so, and Governor declaring that it was all sentimental bosh, and 
 that if she manned the man. as much love as it was at all proper for 
 a young lady to feel, would come afterwards. At last, they made a 
 compromise — Alice was to consent to see more of Mr. Crane, and do 
 her best to like him, in which case, said Crane would allow her to 
 postpone her decision till a future period : to this Alice was fain to 
 consent, and now the suitor is coming to the Grange, on approval, 
 and the Governor's asked a party of people to meet him." 
 
 " And how do you stand affected towards the proposed alliance ? " 
 inquired Coverdale, lifting the Skye terrier into his lap by the nape 
 of its neck, and then curling it up like a fried whiting.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 15 
 
 " Not over favourably," returned Hazleliui'st, " which, by the way, 
 is very disinterested of me ; for if the affair comes off, and the 
 Governor buys his farm back ag^ain — which of course is what he is 
 looking to — he promises to settle the residue of the aunt's legacy 
 upon me, by which I should be some ^200 a year the better ; but it 
 would not be a match to please me. I'm very fond of Alice ; she is a 
 dear good girl as ever lived, and I don't admire the cotton spinner : 
 in the first place, he's nearly or quite forty, while she was nineteen 
 last term ; in the second place, he's a slow coach, good-natured 
 enough, and all that, but notliing in him." 
 
 " No soul," suggested Harry. 
 
 " Not enough to animate a kitten, I should imagine," was the 
 reply; — "not that the man's a fool — indeed, in his own line he is 
 said to be clever. He invented some dodge to simplify his machinery, 
 by which he nearly doubled his fortune." 
 
 " That was decidedly clever " — remarked Harry, busily engaged in 
 dressing the " Skye " in a muslin " anti-macassar," placed clean upon 
 the sofa that morning. 
 
 " To come to the point, however," continued Hazlehurst — " I want 
 you to see the man, and try and find out what he's made of." 
 
 " Fool's-flesh probably," suggested Coverdale ' sotto voce.' 
 
 " I wish you would try and be serious for five minutes," returned 
 Hazlehurst testily ; " nothing is more provoking than small attempts 
 at wit, when one wants a man to give his attention sensibly to that 
 which one is saying." 
 
 "I stand, or more properly sit, connected: so continue, most 
 sapient and sm-ly brother ! " was the mocking answer. 
 
 Hazlehurst tried to look angry and dignified, but a glance at his 
 friend's handsome, meny, and, withal, slightly impudent face, dis- 
 armed his wrath, and muttering — " Confound you for a stupid, 
 provoking old humbug " — he burst into a fit of laughter. As soon 
 as he had recovered his gravity, he resumed : " As I said before, I 
 want you to come and make youi- observations on the cotton spinner, 
 and if your opinion agrees with mine, you must back me up in 
 making a serious remonstrance with the Governor. I know the old 
 gentleman well, and am sure he'll think twice as much of what I say 
 when he finds that you, a man of the world and a large landed 
 proprietor (that'll tell with hira immensely) look upon the matter 
 in the same light. And now you know my reasons, what do you 
 say ? " 
 
 " Say ! what can I say but that I — ahem ! — respect the sacred call 
 of friendship, and am prepared to sacrifice nayself upon its altar : 
 that's the correct phraseology, isn't it ? I tell you what, though," 
 continued Harry gravely, " I make one condition, without which I 
 don't stir a peg : I'm at your service and that of the cotton spinner, 
 as much as you please ; but beyond the requirements of society, I'm 
 not to be expected to concern myself about the women — I'm not to 
 be forced into ' tete-a-tdte ' drives in pony-chaises, or set to turn over
 
 16 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 mnsic-books at the piano — I know what all that sort o£ thing leads 
 to well : is it a bargain ? " 
 
 " Of course it is," returned Hazlehurst eagerly ; " come to please 
 me, and I leave you to please yourself when you get there." 
 
 " Then, as Sam Weller says, ' Tou may take down the bill, for I'm 
 let to a single gentleman,' " was Coverdale's reply — and so the affair 
 was settled. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONTAINS, AMONG OTHER " EXQUISITE " SKETCHES, A PORTRAIT 
 OF A PUPPY (not by LANDSEER). 
 
 Hazlehurst Grange was a picturesque old mansion, modernized 
 out of all resemblance to its moated namesake which Tennyson has 
 immortalized, by the addition of gay flower-beds, closely-shaven 
 lawns, judiciously -planted shrubberies, and other appliances of land- 
 scape gardening. It was situated about eighteen miles from Cover- 
 dale Park, a distance which Harry's trotting mare, who had grown 
 plump and saucy upon rest and good keep, accomplished, to her 
 owner's intense satisfaction, in less than five minutes over the hour 
 and a half. 
 
 " Pretty fair travelling that, eh, Master Arthm'," he observed, 
 replacing his watch in his waistcoat pocket, " and what I particularly 
 like about it is, that the mare did it all willingly and of her own 
 accord, took well to collar at starting, and kept it up steadily, and in 
 a business-like manner, till her work was done." 
 
 " In fact, behaved as utterly unlike a female throughout the whole 
 affair, as if she had belonged to the nobler sex," returned Hazlehurst, 
 sarcastically. 
 
 '* ' Infandum renovare dolorem ! ' why will you remind me of my 
 coming trials, and not suffer me to enjoy the pleasiu-es of forgetful- 
 ness while I may?" was Coverdale's desponding rejoinder. 
 
 " Simply because, xmless I am greatly mistaken, they literally are 
 coming trials," was the reply. " Look through that belt of trees on 
 the left ; don't you see the flutter of something white ? " 
 
 " Muslin, by all that's flimsy, frivolous, and feminine ! " exclaimed 
 Harry, aghast : " I say, Arthur, can't we turn off somewhere ? " 
 
 " By all means, if you wish it ; there's a gravel-pit on the right- 
 hand, and a precipitous bank sloping down to the river on the left, 
 which will you prefer ? " was the obliging rejoinder. As he spoke, a 
 turn in the road disclosed to their view a group of three figures.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 17 
 
 slowly advancing' in the same direction as that in which they were 
 themselves proceeding. 
 
 " My cousin, Kate Marsden, my sister Alice, and a gent, name 
 unknown," observed Hazlehurst, as his eyes fell upon the trio. 
 " Why, sm-ely it is — ^no, it can't be — yes, it is, Horace D'Almayne." 
 
 " Allowing, merely for the sake of ai-gument, that it is the indi- 
 vidual you mention, who may he happen to be ? " inquired Hany, 
 taking up the whip which had hitherto reposed innocuously between 
 them, and performing rash feats with it over the ears of " My old 
 Aunt Sally " — (for so in honour of the Ethiopian Serenaders, then 
 in the zenith of their popularity, had Harry named his new 
 favourite) . 
 
 " My dear fellow, you don't mean to say that you never heard of 
 him ? Not to know Horace D'Almayne argues yourself unknown ; 
 why, man, he is a noted wit, a successful poet, the greatest dandy, 
 and the most incorrigible male flirt about town : knows everybody, 
 has been everywhere, and done everything." 
 
 " What is he like across a stifE line of country, and how many 
 brace can he bag to his own gun ? " inquii-ed Harry di'ily. 
 
 " Not knowing can't say," was the rejoinder, " but that's not at 
 all in his way; he affects, if it is affectation, the man of sentiment ; 
 however, just now he is believed in to the fullest extent, and con- 
 sidered a regular lion." 
 
 " A regular tiger, I should have fancied rather," was the cynical 
 reply. " Why, the brute actually wears moustaches." 
 
 " He has served in the Austrian army, and sports the mouse-tails 
 on the strength of his military pretensions," was the reply. 
 
 After a minute's pause, Coverdale observed, inquiringly, " I 
 suppose we must needs pull up and do the civil by these good 
 people." 
 
 " Why, considering that I have not seen my sister for the last five 
 months, family affection (to say nothing of the duties of society) 
 demands the sacrifice," retiu-ned Hazlehurst. 
 
 " Cut it short then, there's a good fellow, the mare's too hot to be 
 allowed to stand long, and I would not have anything go wrong with 
 her after the splendid manner in which she has brought us to-day, 
 for three times the money I gave for her." 
 
 As he spoke, Hany again impatiently flirted the whip over the 
 ears of " My old Aunt Sally," an indignity which excited the fiery 
 disposition of that highly-descended quadruped, who, throwing up 
 her head and tail, flinging out her fore feet, as though she were 
 sparring with the distance her speed must overcome, and altogether 
 looking her very handsomest, dashed up to the group of pedestrians 
 so suddenly as to cause the two ladies to draw back in alarm ; while 
 even the redoubtable Horace himself sprang out of the way with a 
 degree of alacrity which evinced a stronger regard for his personal 
 safety than might have been expected from so heroic a character. 
 For this sacrifice of dignity to the first law of nature, self-preserva- 
 
 c
 
 18 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 tion, lie endeavom-ed to compensate himself by stroking his mous- 
 taches, and staring superciliously at the new comers. 
 
 While Hazlehnrst, who sprang down the moment the dog-cai-t 
 stopped, was exchanging greetings with his cousin and sister, Han'y 
 was left undistui-bed to make his observations on the trio to whom 
 he was about to be introdiiced. The elder of the two young ladies, 
 who responded to the definition, " My cousin. Miss Kate Marsden," 
 was above the middle height, and of a singularly graceful figm-e ; 
 her featiu-es were delicately formed and regular, her complexion pale, 
 but clear, her hair and eyes dark, the latter being large and expressive, 
 her hands and feet small, and her whole bearing and appearance 
 refined and aristocratic in the extreme ; but her features bore a look 
 of proud reserve, which interfered with the effect which her beaiity 
 would otherwise have produced — an inscrutable look, which seemed 
 to say, " I have a peculiar and decided character, but I defy you to 
 read it." 
 
 It is of no iTse to attempt to describe Alice Hazlehurst, for the 
 simple reason that no description could convey an adequate idea of 
 her. Not that she was anything particularly wonderful; she was 
 not even a miracle of beauty — she was only about the best thing this 
 fallen world of ours contains — a bright, high-spii-ited, pm-e. simple, 
 true-hearted, lovely, and loveable yoitng girl, just emerging into 
 graceful womanhood; veiy shy, slightly romantic, full of kindly 
 sympathies and generous impulses, which she concealed as carefully 
 as bad men hide unpopular vices, and with all the deep and noble 
 qualities of her woman's nature, as well as, alas ! its faults and foibles, 
 lying donnant within her, either to be developed in their full com- 
 pleteness, or dwarfed into comparative insignificance, as the hands 
 into which she might fall should prove fitted or unfitted to the great, 
 yet enviable, responsibility of foi-ming her character. As Hazlehurst 
 leaiDt down, she sprang forward to meet him ; then drew back from 
 his hearty embrace with a smile and a blush, which very unnecessarily 
 made her appear prettier than before, to acknowledge, with a bow, 
 her introduction to her brother's friend. 
 
 The third member of the party, Horace D'Almayne, had been well 
 fitted by nature to sustain the chai-acter of "exquisite" — tall, and 
 with a graceful, slender figure, his well-formed and regular features, 
 soft dark hair, and brilliant complexion, gave him an undoubted 
 right to the epithet handsome, although it was in a style suited 
 rather to a woman than to a man. The expression of his face, cynical 
 and supercilious when in repose, or when he spoke to one of his own 
 sex, relaxed into a smile of sentimental self-confidence when he 
 addressed a woman. He appeared veiy young, probably not above 
 two or three and twenty, and was dressed up to the " ne plus ultra " 
 of refined dandyism. 
 
 " Why, D'Almayne," exclaimed Hazlehin-st, " how is it that we 
 come to be honoui'ed by your company ? I was not even aware that 
 my father possessed the pleasure of your acquaintance."
 
 i ,7' "" ■
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 19 
 
 " Nor did lie a week ago ; but tlie matter came about thus," was 
 tlie reply. " Dui-ing the London season I was introduced at one of 
 
 the Duke of D 's parties, to an opiilent individual of the name of 
 
 Crane, learned his opinion prospective and retrospective in regard to 
 the weather, bowed adieu, and straightway forgot him. About a 
 month since, being in a cafe at Baden-Baden, my attention was 
 atti'acted by an awful ' charivari ' ; and on attempting to investigate 
 the cause thereof, discovered Friend Crane lamenting himself 
 pathetically in bad French and worse German, and surrounded by a 
 mob of foreigners. Having in some degree appeased his polyglot 
 passion, I soon contrived to make out that his pocket having been 
 picked by A., he had accused innocent B., and denounced un- 
 offending C. — a vicarious system of reprisals which those victimized 
 individuals appeared, not unnaturally, inclined to resent. Under- 
 standing somewhat better than our irascible friend the language and 
 customs of the natives, I contrived to extricate him from the 
 dilemma; for which act of good Samaritanism I have been, from 
 that time foi*ward, more or less the victim of his indefatigable 
 gi'atitude. Your worthy father finding me a few days since located 
 in the Chateau Crane, j)olitely included me in his invitation. I 
 amved this morning, and under the able tuition of your cousin and 
 sister, was rapidly becoming acquainted with the beauties of 
 Hazlehurst, when you drove up." 
 
 As he insinuated this skilfully-veiled compliment, the exquisite 
 Horace pointed its application by favouring Alice with a langxiishing 
 ■' ceillade," which was certainly not without effect ; for it excited in the 
 breast of HaiTy Coverdale a sudden, intense, and unreasonable 
 desire then and there heartily to kick the talented originator of the 
 compliment. This impulse he was only enabled to check by a 
 powerful effort, which caused him to twitch the reins so suddenly, as 
 painfully to compress the delicate mouth of "My Aunt Sally," to an 
 extent wbich justified that outraged quadi'uped in converting herself 
 for the time being into a biped, by standing erect on her hind legs, 
 and pawing the air with her fore feet. 
 
 " Soho, girl ! gently, gently ! " exclaimed Hazlehurst, who, not 
 having perceived the exciting cause of the manoeuvre, attributed 
 the mare's unmannerly behaviour to an otitbreak of inherent 
 viciousness. " Why, Han-y, what on earth is the matter with the 
 creature ? " 
 
 " Probably nothing more than a reasonless caprice natural to 
 her sex," was HaiTy's ungallant reply. " Possibly she may have the 
 bad taste to prefer the creatm-e comforts of a cool stable and a good 
 feed of corn, to remaining in the broiling sunshine, even with the 
 opportunity of becoming acquainted with the beauties of Hazle- 
 hiu'st ; " and as he made this sarcastic remark, Harry glanced 
 carelessly round over wood and field, so that any one not well 
 acquainted with the play of his features would have been puzzled to 
 decide whether he was himself aware of the full meaning of his words.
 
 20 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " A pretty broad hint tliat I am not to keep the mare standing- 
 any longer," retui-ned Hazlehurst, turning to his cousin and sister. 
 "That fellow cares for nothing in the world biit his horses, except 
 his dogs and his double-barrel. Well, I suppose you girls will be 
 coming home soon." 
 
 " Quite as soon as we are wanted if your amiable and compli- 
 mentaiy friend has any voice in the matter," returaed Alice, " sotto 
 voce." 
 
 " Nonsense," was the I'eply in the same tone ; " you know nothing 
 about him, you silly child. Harry is the kindest-hearted, best- 
 tempered fellow in the world, as you'll find out before long." 
 
 Alice's only reply was an incredulous toss of her pretty head, and 
 the parties separated. 
 
 " Of all the puppies I ever beheld, that creatm-e D Almayne is the 
 most insufferable — the very sight of him irritates me. What busi- 
 ness has he to pay his absurd compliments to your sister, when he 
 has only known her for a few hours ? If I were you, 1 should not 
 stand it." 
 
 " At all events, his compliments are of a more civil natui'e than 
 yours," returned Hazlehurst with a smile ; " why, Harry, you are 
 becoming as peppery a character as your namesake Hotspur 
 himself." 
 
 " I am like him in one particular, at all events," was the i'eply, 
 " for I cannot abide a coxcomb." 
 
 " It strikes me, that is not the only point in which you resemble 
 the ' gunpowder Percy,' as old Falstaff calls him. By the way," he 
 continued, " what in the world was the matter with ' Aunt Sally,' a 
 minute ago ? she seems to go quietly enough now." 
 
 " I rather fancy something must have hurt her mouth," replied 
 Harry, turning away his head to conceal a smile. As he spoke, they 
 drove round the gravel sweep leading to the hall door of Hazlehm-st 
 Grange. Beneath the porch st-ood two gentlemen — in one of whom, 
 corpulent and elderly, Coverdale had little trouble in recognizing, 
 from his likeness to his friend, Mr. Hazlehurst senior ; while the 
 other, tall, thin, and cadaverous-looking, he rightly conjectured to 
 be the opulent and amorous cotton spinner, Jedediah Crane.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 21 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROVES THE ADVISABILITY OF LOOKING BEFORE YOU LEAP. 
 
 Nearly a week had elapsed since Hairy Coverdale liad first become 
 an inmate of Hazlehiirst Grange, during which period he had con- 
 trived to win the good opinion of the elders of the party, pique the 
 young ladies by his " brusquerie " and neglect, annoy Hazlehurst by 
 his insensibility and determination not to make himself agreeable, 
 and finally to have provoked the enmity of the fascinating Horace 
 D'Almayne, which last piece of delinquency was a source of unmiti- 
 gated satisfaction to its perpetrator. The day on which we resume 
 the thread of our narrative, was to be devoted to a picnic party, the 
 object being to devour unlimited cold lamb and pigeon-pie amongst 
 the ruins of an old abbey, some eight miles from the Grange. The 
 morning was lovely, everyone appeared in high spirits, and the ex- 
 pedition promised to be a prosperous one. 
 
 "Now, then, good loeople," exclaimed Arthur Hazlehurst, " what 
 are the arrangements — who rides, who drives, who goes with who ? — 
 come to the point and settle something, for the ' tempus ' is ' fugit '-ing 
 at a most alarming pace." 
 
 "I am desirous," observed Mr. Crane slowly and solemnly, "of 
 soliciting the honour of driving Miss Hazlehurst in my phaeton, if I 
 may venture to hope such an arrangement will not be disagreeable to 
 that lady ; " and as he spoke, the cotton spinner, whose tall, ungainly 
 figure, clad in a dust-colo\u*ed wrapper, white trousers, and white hat. 
 gave him the appearance of a superannuated baker's boy nin very 
 decidedly to seed, bowed appealingly to Alice, who, perceiving her 
 father's eye upon her, was forced unwillingly to consent. 
 
 " Mr. Coverdale, will you drive a lady in the pony-chaise ? " inquired 
 Hazlehurst pere. " My niece will be happy to accompany you, or 
 my saucy little Emily here," he continued, gazing with paternal 
 fondness on his younger daughter, a pretty but slightly pert girl of 
 sixteen. 
 
 " I should have much pleastu-e," muttered Hari-y ; " but — but — I 
 contrived to hurt my right hand a few days ago, and — ar — not being 
 used to the ponies, I should scarcely feel justified in undertaking the 
 charge." 
 
 "Indeed," was the rejoinder; " I noticed you always wore a glove 
 — how did the accident happen, pray ? " 
 
 " I hit — that is — I struck my hand against something very hard," 
 stammered Ham-y, actually colouring like a girl, as he caught Hazle- 
 hurst's suppressed chuckle, and obsei-ved Alice's bright eyes fixed 
 upon him inquisitively.
 
 22 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " Kate, if nobody else will dinve you, I suppose I must take com- 
 passion on you myself," remarked Arthur, " sotto voce," to his cousin. 
 
 " Ah ! but here comes somebody who intends to relieve you of the 
 trouble," was the reply, in the same low tone ; " do not make any 
 objection," she continued quickly, " you will only annoy my uncle to 
 no purj)ose ; he would not have even a feather of the Crane's tail 
 niffled on any account." 
 
 As she spoke, she glanced meaningly towards Horace D Almayne, 
 at that moment engaged in drawing on a pair of kid gloves too small 
 even for his delicate hands. Coming forward, he languidly, and in 
 an absent manner, volunteered to di-ive Miss Marsden — an offer 
 which that young lady quietly accepted, either not pei'ceiving, or dis- 
 regarding, the look of annoyance with which her cousin turned and 
 left the spot. 
 
 " Oh, you are going to ride, Mr. Coverdale ; here comes Sir 
 Lancelot, looking like a pictm-e," exclaimed Tom Hazlehurst, a fine, 
 handsome lad, " anno setatis " foui-teen, an Etonian, and (need we 
 add ?) a pickle — " Oh ! do let me go with you ; Alice will lend me her 
 pony — won't you, Alice ? I'll take such care of it, and you don't want 
 it yoiu'self , you know — ask her to lend it to me, Mr. Coverdale, do, 
 please." 
 
 If Harry had a weakness, it was that he could never say no, when 
 his good natui'e was aj)pealed to in any matter in which another's 
 pleasui'e was involved. Tom, moreover, had conceived for him one 
 of those violent friendslii])s which boys feel towards men a few years 
 older than themselves who realize their " beau ideal " of perfection ; 
 and Hari-y, pleased with his luidisguised admiration, responded to it 
 by indulging the yoimg scapegrace in all his vagaries. 
 
 " I'm afraid my voice is not so potential as you imagine, Tom," was 
 his reply ; " butiif my assm-ance that I will use my best endeavoiu-s to 
 keep you and the pony in good order, will have any weight with Miss 
 Hazlehurst, I am i^erfectly willing to give it." 
 
 " If papa has no objection, Tom, you have my consent,"' replied 
 Alice, blushing and smiling, while, at the bottom of her heai't she 
 wished both Mr. Crane and Harry safely located at Coventry, Jericho, 
 or any other refuge for bores, that might be suitable for putting 
 those who are in the way out of the way ; in which case she would 
 herself have enjoyed a canter with Master Tom. 
 
 " Oh. the Governor won't say no — will you. Daddy ? " was Tom's 
 confident reply ; and Mr. Hazlehurst, who, being a dreadful autocrat 
 to his elder children, made up for it by weakly indulging his youngest 
 born, having signified his consent, the cavalcade proceeded to staii; — 
 a close carriage and a barouche conveying the remaining juveniles, 
 and all the elders of the pai-ty, with the exception of Mrs. Hazle- 
 hurst, who, being a confirmed invalid, i-emained at home, in company 
 with a weather-wise old maid, proprietress of a meteorological com, 
 which having given warning that a change was at hand, led her to 
 mistmst the brilliant sunshine.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 23 
 
 " Can't we find our way across the fields somehow, Tom, without 
 riding' along the dusty road the whole distance ? " inquired HaiTy. 
 
 " To be sure we can," was the reply ; " don't I know a way, that's 
 all ? Turn down the next lane to the right, and then there are lots 
 of jolly grass fields and a wide common, so that we can gallop as 
 much as we like, and get there before them — won't they be surprised 
 to see us just ? What a lark ! " 
 
 Tom's topographical knowledge proving' correct, they cantei-ed away 
 merrily over field and comaion, till they had ridden some five or six 
 miles. 
 
 " You really have an imcommonly good seat, Tom," observed his 
 friend ; " only remember to turn your toes in, and keep your bridle 
 hand low, and you'll do— you've plenty of pluck, and when you've 
 acquired a little more judgment and experience, you'll be able to 
 ' hold your own ' across a coimtry with some of the best of 'em." 
 
 " Ah, shouldn't I like to go out himting, that's all ? " exclaimed the 
 boy eagerly. 
 
 " Have you never done so ? " inquired his friend. 
 
 " No ; I tried it on last winter, but the Governor cut up rough, and 
 wouldn't stand it." 
 
 ■' Can you sit a leap ? " asked Harry. 
 
 " I believe you, rayther, just a very few," was the confident reply, 
 
 " Well, you must come to Coverdale, in the Christmas holidays, 
 and I'll mount you and take you out with me ; I mean to get up a 
 stud, and hunt regularly this season," obseined Harry. 
 
 " Won't that be jolly just ? — I'll come whether they'll let me or not, 
 depend upon it ; but now this is the last grass field, let's have a race 
 for a wind-up." So saying. Master Tom laid his whip smartly across 
 his pony's shoulder, and dashed off, while Coverdale, gradually giving 
 his spirited but pei-fectly broken horse the rein, soon overtook him. 
 A brushing gallop of five minutes brought them to the border of the 
 field, which was surrounded by a ditch and bank, with a sufficiently 
 high rail at top to constitl^te an awkward leap. 
 
 " How are we going to find our way out ? " inquired HaiTy. 
 
 " Get off, pull down a rail, and then jump it," was the reply. 
 
 " Yes, that will be the best way for you and the pony to get over," 
 returned Covei'dale, " but I'll take it as it stands. I've never yet had 
 a chance of trying Lancelot at a stiff fence, and I want to see how 
 he'll act : don't you attempt to follow me ; as soon as I am over, I'U 
 dismoimt and pull down the rail for you." 
 
 As he spoke Harry put his horse in motion, cantei'ed him up to the 
 fence, and faced him at it. Sir Lancelot did not belie the chai*acter 
 that had been given of him. As he approached the bank he quick- 
 ened his pace of his own accord, gathered his legs well under him, 
 and then rising to the leap, sprang over with a motion so easy and 
 elastic that his rider appeared scarcely to move in his saddle. The 
 descent on the farther side was steeper than Harry had expected, and 
 the leap altogether might be considered a difficult one. Delighted
 
 24 HARRY COVERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 with his horse's performance, Harry pulled up, and turned, with the 
 intention of alighting, in order to remove a rail of the fence, and thus 
 facilitate the transit of Tom and the pony ; when, to his alarm and 
 vexation, he perceived that the boy, deceived by the appai'ent ease 
 with which he had accomplished the task (a delusive appearance, 
 produced as much by the coolness and address of the rider as by the 
 power and excellent training of the horse), had determined to display 
 his prowess by following him ; nor could HaiTy interfere to prevent 
 him, for at the moment he turned, Tom was in the act of galloping 
 up to the fence : all that remained for him, therefore, was to shout, 
 " Give the pony his head, and hold tight with your Knees," and to 
 await the result. The pony, excited by seeing its companion on the 
 other side, faced the leap boldly, and cleared the ditch and bank, but 
 catching its hoofs against the rail, fell, pitching its rider over its 
 head into the field beyond, where he lay as if stunned. In an instant 
 Han-y had sprung from his saddle and lifted him in his arms. 
 " Thank Heaven ! " he exclaimed as the boy opened his eyes, and, 
 perceiving Coverdale bending over him, smiled to evince his 
 gi'atitude. 
 
 " You don't feel as if you were seriously hurt anywhere, do you ? " 
 
 " All right ! " was the reply. " I feel a little bit shaky and con- 
 fused ; rather as if somebody had gone and kicked me into the middle 
 of next week, that's all." 
 
 " Then you've escaped more easily than you had any right to 
 expect, you heedless, impetuous young monkey," returned Coverdale, 
 sharply. " You must have been mad to suppose that a half-bred, 
 thick-headed beast like that pony would can-y yoii over such a fence 
 as that. Why, I know men, who call themselves good riders, who 
 would refuse it, unless they were very well mounted." 
 
 " If the pony did not caiTy me over, he shot me over, and that did 
 just as well," was the careless reply. " But I say, Mr. Coverdale, 
 only look at his knees ! Oh ! shan't we get into a jolly scrape just P " 
 
 Thus appealed to, Harry turned to examine the pony, which, in his 
 anxiety for the safety of the boy, he had hitherto forgotten. The 
 result of his scrutiny was by no means satisfactory. 
 
 " He has broken both knees ! " he exclaimed ; " the right one is cut 
 severely, and however favourably it may go on, there will always 
 remain a scar ; you've knocked ten pounds off the pony's price by 
 that exploit of yours, Master Tom, besides rendering the animal 
 unsafe for your sister to ride." 
 
 " You've put your foot in it as well as I, Mr. Coverdale," returned 
 the young imp, grinning. " You promised Alice you would do your 
 best to keep me, and the pony too, in proper order, you know P " 
 
 " Why, you ungrateful young scamp, I'm sure I told you not to 
 attempt the leap," replied Harry, restraining a strong inclination to 
 lay his horsewhip across the young pickle's shoulders. 
 
 " Yes ; and then you and Lancelot went flying over it as lightly as 
 if he had wings, like that fabulous humbug Pegasus, that old Buzwig
 
 k.- 

 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 25 
 
 is always bettering us about. The copy-book says, ' Practice before 
 precept,' and so say I. Why, you did not expect I was going to be 
 such a muff as to stay behind, did you ? " 
 
 " I was a fool if I did, at all events," muttered Harry, " sotto voce " ; 
 then, turning good-naturedly to the boy, he continued, " The copy- 
 book also says, ' What can't be cured must be endui-ed,' does it not, 
 Tom ? So we must get out of the scrape as best we can. We'll 
 leave the pony at the nearest farm-house, and I'll send my groom to 
 doctor him — so lead him by the rein and come along." 
 
 Of course, when they joined the rest of the party and told their 
 misdeeds, Alice lamented over the pony's troubles after the usual 
 fashion of tender-heai-ted young ladies. Of course, Hazlehurst 
 senior, discerning a long fan-ier's bill in prospective, with the possi- 
 bility of being coaxed out of a new pony as a not unlikely contingent 
 result, was gi'umpy, as governors usually are when they foresee a 
 strain upon their purse strings ; and, of com-se. although these 
 lamentations and threatenings were launched at the curly head of 
 Master Tom, they yet glanced off that unimpressable substance, only 
 to fall upon and ovei-whelm with shame and confusion Hany Cover- 
 dale, who began mentally to curse the day when, false to his own 
 presentiments, he had yielded to his friend's impoi'tunities, and 
 sxiffered himself to become an inmate of Hazlehiu-st Grange. 
 
 Bent on avoiding young ladies, and having no taste for the society 
 of old ones, Han-y wandered about disconsolately, until, attracted by 
 a dark archway and a worm-eaten winding staircase, which, as 
 Master Tom expressed it, looked " jolly queer and ghostified," he 
 made his way up the mouldering steps imtil he found himself at the 
 top of a battlemented tower, where he was repaid for the trouble of 
 the ascent by a beautiful and widely-extending \iew. Ha-v-ing con- 
 trived to get rid of the voluble and restless Etonian, Coverdale 
 seated himself on a projecting fragment of masoni-y, and glancing 
 round to see that he was not observed or observable, lit a cigar, and 
 his raffled feelings being soothed by its mollifying influence, 
 remained lazily watching the movements of the pleasure-seekers — 
 his reflections running somewhat after the following fashion : — 
 
 " There's old Crane maundering about after Alice as usual — don't 
 think he gets on with her though, rather t'other way — decided case 
 of jibbing, I should say. She looked awfully bored and frightened 
 too, up in that phaeton with him ; and no wonder either, for the old 
 boy is nothing of a whip — I should be soiTy to trust a cat of mine to 
 his driA-ing. Ah ! she's given him the slip, and that Miss Marsden 
 has taken him in tow. I can't make that woman out — she is so civil 
 to him ; perhaps she thinks the affair with Alice may miss fire, and 
 she is looking out for the reversion of the cotton spinner herself. 
 Arthur says she's vei-y poor, and that there are a large family of 
 them ; if so, it's not a bad dodge, and, supposing she plays her cards 
 ■well, one by no means unlikely to succeed. There's that confounded 
 puppy D'Almayne swaggering up to Alice, stroking his stupid
 
 26 HARRY COVERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 moustaclies — yes, and she smiles and takes his arm, of course — 
 believes all his lies, and thinks him a hero, I dare say. Oh ! the poor 
 silly fools of women that can't distinguish a man from a jackanapes 
 — I should have fancied Alice had more sense ; but they're all alike. 
 Look at the idiot simpering ; that's only to show his white teeth 
 now: the brute has no idea of a real joke — hasn't got it in him. 
 Well, thank 'goodness, it's no concern of mine : but if I were Crane, 
 I'd interfere with his flirting rather. The fellow talks as if he were 
 a dreadful fire-eater — I should like to try what he's made of : but I 
 expect it's all talk and nothing else — I wish I could coax him into 
 putting on the gloves with me some day — I'd astonish his moustaches 
 for him. Well, he has walked her off at all events. I wonder where 
 they're going to. Are they ? Yes — no— yes, by Jove, if he isn't 
 going to take her across that field which Tom and I rode through, 
 where the bull was grazing — the biiite is mischievous, too, or I am 
 much mistaken — confound the fool, he'll go and frighten the poor girl 
 out of her senses, and, perhaj^s, get her hm-t into the bargain ; for, if 
 the bull i-eally is vicious, ten to one Moustaches loses pluck, and 
 bolts or something ridiculous. I've a great mind to follow them, it 
 can do no harm, and may do some good — 'gad, I will too. Alice is 
 far too pretty to be gored by a bull ; besides, for Arthru"'s sake, one is 
 bound to take cai-e of her — luckily, I've just finished the cigar, so ofE 
 we go." 
 
 Having arrived at this point in his meditations, Harry rose from 
 his seat, ran lightly down the stairs till he reach a i-uined window 
 about six feet from the gi'ound, through which he leaped, then 
 settling into a long swinging trot, he ran, at a pace with which few 
 could have kept up, in the direction taken by Alice and D'Alraayne : 
 they had, however, obtained so greatly the start of him, that they 
 had already entered the field occupied by the dangerous bidl, ere he 
 had overtaken them. 
 
 It was a remarkably warm day — the field in which pastnred the 
 alarming bull was distant from the abbey ruins half a mile at the 
 very least. Now, to jvmip thi-ough a window six feet or thereabouts 
 from the gi'ound, run at the top of one's speed half a mile, leaping 
 recklessly over two gates and a stile in the course of it ; and to do 
 all this in a state of anxious excitement on a day when the thermo- 
 meter stands at seventy degrees in. the shade, naturally tends to 
 make a man not only hot, but (if his temper be not semi-angelic) 
 cross also. At all events, Harry Coverdale was in the former, if not 
 the latter, condition, when, panting and breathless, he overtook Alice 
 Hazlehurst and Horace D'Almayne, half-way across the dangerous 
 field.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 27 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JEST AND EARNEST. 
 
 " Mr. Coverdale, is anytliing the mattei'? — why, you are quite out 
 o£ breath with running ! " exclaimed Alice, starting as she beheld 
 him. 
 
 " Uncomfortably warm, too, I should say," drawled D Almayne, 
 glancing significantly at Harry's glowing cheeks, which were certainly 
 too red to be romantic ; " really now, do you consider it judicious to 
 overheat yourself so ? — of coiu'se, I merely ask as a matter of 
 cui'iosity." 
 
 HaiTy magnanimously repressed a strong inclination to knock him 
 down ; but he felt that to answer him coolly was both litei'ally and 
 metaphorically out of his power, so he confined his reply to Alice's 
 question. 
 
 "There is nothing the matter, Miss Hazlehui'st," he said; "but 
 seeing you take this direction, and thinking that Mr. D'Almayne 
 might not be aware a bull was grazing in this meadow, I thought it 
 advisable to follow and put you on your guard, even at the risk of 
 making myself unbecomingly hot ; " and as he pi'onounced the last 
 two words he looked at D'Almayne as though he wished he had been 
 the bull, and would oblige him by evincing an inclination to attack 
 them. 
 
 " How very kind and thoughtful of you ! " i-etumed Alice, bestowing 
 on him one of her brightest smiles; "but is there any danger? — 
 what had we better do ? " 
 
 "Eh, really, danger! not the slightest; am not I with you?" 
 interposed D'Almayne, majestically bending over her. " A bull, did 
 you say, Mr. Coverdale ? — ar — really, I don't perceive such a creature. 
 — Are yoii quite sure he exists anywhere but in your vivid and 
 poetical imagination ? " 
 
 Hari-y's reply, if reply it can be called, to this impertinent ques- 
 tion, was made by gi-asping D'Almayne's elbow so tightly as to cause 
 that delicate young gentleman to wince under the pressui'e. Having 
 thus attracted his attention at a moment when Alice's head was 
 turned in an opposite direction, he pointed towards a group of trees, 
 under the shadow whereof might be discerned a large brindled 
 individual of the bovine species, who stood attentively regarding the 
 trio with a singularly unamiable, not to say vicious expression of 
 countenance. Placing his finger on his lips as a hint to D'Almayne 
 to keep the knowledge thus acquired to himself, Harry answered 
 Alice's inquiry by saying, —
 
 28 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " It is always tlie safest policy to misti'ust a bull ; so I would advise 
 you to turn and make tlie best of your way towards the stile over 
 whicli I came ; walk as quickly as you please, but do not ran, as that 
 would only tempt the animal to follow you." 
 
 " Yes, really, Miss Hazlehurst, we must not risk the chance of 
 frightening you merely because we men enjoy the excitement of a 
 little dangei — take my arm," hastily rejoined Horace D'Almayne, 
 and suiting the action to the word, he drew Alice's arm within his 
 own, and marched her off at a pace with which she found consider- 
 able difficulty in keeping up. Harry, ere he followed them, remained 
 stationary for a minute or so, to reconnoitre the movements of the 
 bull. That animal, having apparently satisfied his curiosity in regard 
 to the intiaiders on his domain, was now assiduously working himself 
 up into a rage, preparatoiy, no doubt, to institiiting vigorous 
 measures for their expulsion. The way in which he signified this 
 intention was by tossing his head up and down, tearing up the tiu-f 
 with his fore-feet, and uttering from time to time a low angi-y roar, 
 like the rvxmbling of distant thimder. When HaiTy turned to leave 
 the spot the animal immediately followed him, though only at a 
 walk. As soon as he became aware of this disagreeable fact. Cover- 
 dale paused and faced his undesirable attendant ; which manoeuvre, 
 as he expected, caused the bull to stop also, though it was evident it 
 had the effect of increasing the creature's rage. In spite of this 
 discovery, Harry waited till his companions had reached the stile, 
 and D'Almayne had assisted Alice to get over it— a piece of chivah-y 
 by which he very materially lessened his own chances of safety, as 
 the bull's small stock of patience being exhausted, it became evident 
 he was preparing for a rush. Trusting to his swiftness of foot, 
 Harry was about to make an attempt to reach the stile before the 
 bull should overtake him, when suddenly the yelping of a dog was 
 heard, and a terrier belonging to Arthiu- Hazlehiirst, which had 
 followed them unobserved, ran foi-ward and distracted the bull's 
 attention by barking round him, taking especial care to keep out of 
 the reach of the animal's horns. This diversion in his favour enabled 
 Coverdale to rejoin his companions unmolested. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Coverdale, what a savage-looking creature ! I was so 
 afi-aid it was going to attack you. I do not know how to thank you 
 properly for having saved me from at least a terrible fright," ex- 
 claimed Alice as Harry ran up to them. 
 
 " Ar — from alann possibly ; but really I don't conceive there was 
 the slightest danger ; the animal was a very mild specimen of his 
 class ; even a little dog, you see, was sufficient to turn him," observed 
 DAlmayne slightingly. 
 
 " I'D bet you fifty pounds to one you don't walk across that field 
 while the buU remains there," exclaimed Han-y eagerly — "Miss 
 Hazlehurst shall be umpire, and I'll promise to come and do my 
 best to help you if you get into any scrape— what do you say, is it 
 abet?"
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 29 
 
 " I never bet, and — ar — never do useless and unreasonable tbings 
 on a bot day in order to establisb a fast reputation. Sucb little 
 excitements may be all very well for a sporting ebaracter like your- 
 self, my dear Coverdale ; but — ar — a man wbo has sbot bison on the 
 American prairies does not need them ; so really you must hold me 
 excused. Shall we rejoin the rest of the party, Miss Hazleluirst ? 
 they seem assembling for luncheon. Let me recollect, we were 
 talking of that charming soul-ci"eation of Tennyson, ' Locksley Hall.' 
 I think, before this absurd interruption occurred ; what an imrivalled 
 pictm*e does it not present of the spirit torture of a proud despair ? " 
 — and chattering on in the same pseudo-romantic and grandiloquent 
 strain, the man of sentiment fairly walked Alice off, leaving Cover- 
 dale in the unenviable position popularly ascribed to virtue, viz., 
 that of being its own reward. Having waited till the pair were out 
 of sight he flung himself down at the foot of an old beech-tree, and 
 indulged in the following mental soliloquy : — 
 
 " Well, Master Harry ! you've been and done something clever— 
 you have, certainly ; run like an insane creature more than half-a- 
 mile, on by far the hottest day we've had this summer, and placed 
 yourself in a situation where nothing but a lucky accident saved you 
 from being run at, and possibly gored, by rather a mad bull than 
 otherwise, only to be pooh-poohed by an insolent coxcomb, and have 
 a cold-hearted ungrateful girl lisp out a missish inquiry, ' whether 
 there was any danger,' forsooth ! 'gad, I almost wish I'd left her and 
 her swain to find out for themselves." 
 
 He i^aused, removed his hat to allow a slight breeze which had 
 sprung up to cool his heated forehead, and then sti'etching himself, 
 resumed, — 
 
 " I hope I'm not really becoming morose and ill-tempered, as 
 Arthur hinted the other day. I mi^st take care, or I shall be grow- 
 ing a savage old brute, and have everybody hate me. It's all that 
 puppy D'Almayne ; he keeps me in a constant state of suppressed 
 irritation with his affected airs of superiority; — but puppies will 
 exist on the face of the earth, I suppose, whether I like it or not, 
 and must be endured; so we'll endeavour to look upon him as an 
 appointed trial, and see if we can turn him to good account in that 
 way. There's always the possibility of horse-whipping him as a 
 ' deraier resort,' that's one consolation. Now I'll go to luncheon, 
 and try whether I can put some of my good intentions into practice. 
 Heigho! life's hard woi-k, and no mistake; particularly in warm 
 weather." Thus cogitating, HaiTy slowly gathered himself up, and 
 betook himself to join the luncheon party, actuated thereunto, 
 amongst other reasons, by the discovery of a serious attack of 
 appetite. In the meantime, a scene of a very different character was 
 being enacted between two others of oui* " dramatis personse." 
 
 Arthur Hazlehurst, foiled in his attempt to secure a " tete-a-tete " 
 drive with his cousin, Kate Marsden, having, after his usual habit, 
 bustled about, settled everything for everybody, and made himself
 
 30 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 very generally useful and agreeable, had contrived on amving at the 
 rnins to withdraw himself from the rest of the party, and having 
 watched the proceedings of his cousin and Mr. Crane, waited until 
 she separated from that gentleman, when he joined hei', and induced 
 her to stroll with him along a shady, serpentine, romantic-looking 
 pathway leading throiigh a wood. Agreeable as were external 
 circumstances, however, neither the lady nor the gentleman appeared 
 to be in a sympathetic frame of mind ; for a cloud hung on Arthiu*'s 
 brow, while his cousin's features wore a cold, uncompromising look 
 of defiance. They ])roceeded for some little distance in silence; 
 Hazlehurst was the first to speak. 
 
 " Tou found yom* companion amusing, I hope ; pray what might 
 he be talking about so earnestly ? " 
 
 " Do you really care to know ? " was the reply ; " he was making 
 me his ' confidante ' in regard to Alice. The poor man is at his wits' 
 end — if a quality which he does not possess can be said to have an 
 end ; at all events, he is ' au desespoir.' Even his obtuseness cannot 
 be blind to the fact that she dislikes him, and the worthy soul is now 
 beginning to gi'ow mildly jealous of D'Almayne." 
 
 " And what advice did you give him ? " inquired her cousin 
 sternly ; " tell me the truth." 
 
 As he spoke the girl's eyes flashed, and a slight coloiu* burned for 
 a moment in her pale cheeks. 
 
 " How dare you say such a thing to me ! " was her indignant 
 rejoinder; "have I ever attempted to deceive you? — you know I 
 have not ; but let it pass. You ask me what advice I gave him : I 
 told him to persevere, reminded him that a faint heai-t never won a 
 fair lady, which I believe he took to be an entirely original remark 
 on my part, and gently insinuated that no girl in her senses could 
 refuse him." 
 
 Ai-thur fixed his piercing glance upon her, as he replied, — 
 
 " And why did you say this ? Do you believe, indeed, that Alice 
 will eventually be prevailed upon to man-y him ? — or did you say it 
 to deceive him for a purpose of your own ? " 
 
 "I gave him good sound advice," was the answer; "I do not 
 believe Alice will man-y him ; but that is no reason why he should 
 not use his best endeavoiu-s to obtain what he wishes, or fancies he 
 wishes. I shall advise him to prosecute his suit, and at the right 
 moment to ofEer to her in person." 
 
 " In order that she may iiTitate him, and offend my father, 
 by a refusal. Kate, you are playing some deep game in all this, 
 and one of which you know I should disapprove, or else you 
 would not so studiously conceal it from me," returned Hazlehurst, 
 gloomily. 
 
 There was a moment's pause ere the yoimg lady replied, — 
 
 " Let events um-avel themselves, my worthy cousin ; the result will 
 appear all in good time." 
 
 They walked on in silence, till a turn in the path brought them
 
 --v-
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 31 
 
 before a smootli moss-prrown bank, on wbicli the varied roots of an 
 old pollard-oak formed a natural rustic seat. 
 
 " Let us rest here, and enjoy the sunshine while we may ; there is 
 not too much of it in the world," observed Kate, in a srentler tone 
 than she had hitherto used. There was a touch of sadness in her 
 voice which Arthur could not hear unmoved, and merely waitino^ till 
 she had seated herself, he placed himself on a root of the tree at her 
 feet. For some minutes neither of them spoke, till as it were 
 imconsciously, Kate allowed her hand to rest on his head, while her 
 fingers played with a lock of his rich chestnut hair. As he felt her 
 soft touch upon his brow, he raised his eyes to her countenance — the 
 stern, hard expression had vanished, and in its place appeared that 
 look which, once seen, the recollection dies only with memory itself, — 
 the fond, wistful, tender gaze a loving woman turns on him she loves. 
 For a minute he remained silent and motionless, subdued by the 
 power of her rare beauty ; then springing to his feet, he exclaimed, — 
 " Ton shall trifle with me thus no longer ; I am no petulant boy, 
 to be repiilsed one hour, and caressed into good humour the next. 
 What is the meaning of this estrangement which you have chosen 
 shall spring up between us ? Why do you ? — but such questions are 
 useless — this shall decide the point — once and for ever : — Do you love 
 me, or do you not P " 
 
 For a moment she was silent ; then turning her head to avoid his 
 eager sci-utinizing glance, she miirmured, — 
 
 *' Have we not known each other from childhood, and loved each 
 other always ? " 
 
 " That is no answer ; you only seek to evade my question," was 
 the angi-y reply. 
 
 He stood for a moment, his lips quivering with emotion, and his 
 hands clenched so tightly that the blood receded from the points of 
 his fingers, leaving them cold and colourless as marble. His 
 companion did not speak, but continued to regard him with a look 
 half-pitying, half-imploring pity. As their eyes met, his mood 
 appeared suddenly to change, and springing to her side, he exclaimed 
 in a voice tremulous with emotion, — 
 
 " Kate, dearest, why will you thus torture yourself and me ? Hear 
 me, dear one ; you know I love you better than any created thing — 
 better than my own soul. You say truly, that I have loved you 
 always^with the tender unconscious love of the child, with the 
 happy romantic love of the boy, and, lastly, with the deep, earnest, 
 absorbing passion of mature manhood ; and you, Kate, you must — 
 nay, you do love me ! " 
 
 As he spoke, he drew her gently towards him, and unrepulsed 
 pressed a kiss upon her soft lips. She did not resist or respond to 
 his caress, but suffered her head to rest passively against his shoulder, 
 as he continued, — 
 
 " I do not inquire — I heed not — what mad schemes you may have 
 dreamed of ; but I ask — nay, I implore you, by all you hold sacred to
 
 32 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 put them away from you, and to wait patiently for a few, a very 
 few short years, until I can claim you for my beloved, my honoured 
 wife. Kate, you will do as I desire ? — speak to me, my own love ! " 
 
 Unheeding his appeal, she remained for a minute silent, while a 
 few tears stole imchecked down her pale cheeks, then rousing herself 
 by an effort, she wiped away the traces of her late emotion, gently 
 removed her cousin's arm, which still encircled her waist, and draw- 
 ing herself up, exclaimed, — 
 
 " This is weakness — folly; I never intended it should have come to 
 this ; but I was taken by surprise — unprepared — " 
 
 She paused, struggling to regain self-possession, then in a calmer 
 voice resumed, — 
 
 " My poor Arthur ! I do, indeed, appreciate your noble, generous 
 self-sacrifice, and were I alone concerned, would desire no happier 
 fate than to share and aid you in your struggle with the world ; but 
 it may not be so ; others have claims upon me — my father's health is 
 failing— the cai'es of that bitter curse, poverty, are wearing out my 
 mother's little remaining strength, and blighting the talents and 
 crushing the youth and spirits of the childi-en. Dear Arthur, for- 
 give me the pain I cost you when I tell you — I can never be your 
 ■wife ! " 
 
 " But, Kate," inteiTupted her cousin, eagerly, " listen to me, dear 
 one ; you do not suppose that I had forgotten all this ; only agree to 
 my proposal, and I will be a son to your mother, a father — if, as you 
 fear, my uncle's health is breaking — to her children. My practice is 
 increasing every day ; I shall soon be in the receipt of a good income ; 
 Coverdale is rich, and loves me as a brother ; he will advance me 
 money ; I will work day and night to repay him." 
 
 " My husband destroy his health to support my family ! — is this 
 the prospect of happiness you would offer me ? — ai'e these the 
 arguments you would bring forward to induce me to agree P " was 
 the reply. " No, Arthur, I can never be your wife ; you must fi'om 
 this moment forget that such an idea has crossed your mind." 
 
 " But, Kate, only hear me ! — " he exclaimed passionately. 
 
 " I have already heard too much for your happiness, or for my 
 own," was the moimiful reply ; then, by a powerful effort i-esuming 
 her usual manner, she exclaimed, " Come, no more of this folly, our 
 paths in life lie separate ; it is inevitable — therefore repining becomes 
 worse than viseless ; we are not boy and girl, to stand rehearsing 
 romantic love-scenes together ; let us rejoin the others." 
 
 For a moment Hazlehurst remained silently gazing on the cold, 
 immovable expression of her features ; then, coming close to her, he 
 said in a low, hoarse whisper, " I read your heart, and perceive the 
 wickedness, for such it is, you contemplate. I will give you till to- 
 morrow morning to reflect on what has passed between us ; if then 
 you adhere to your determination, I leave you to the fate you 
 HAVE chosen ! " and as he uttered the last words, he turned and 
 quitted her.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 33 
 
 Kate Mavsden gazed aftei- him witli the same cold expression of 
 defiance on her featiires till his retreating figure became no longer 
 visible, then, sinking back upon the rnstic bench, she covered her 
 face with her hands and wept bitterly. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WHEREIN SYMPTOMS OF HARRY's COURTSHIP BEGIN TO APPEAR 
 ON A STORMY HORIZON, 
 
 The humom-s of a picnic have been too often described to need 
 repetition ; suffice it to say, that the picnic in question was decidedly 
 a favoiirable specimen of its class. Of coiu-se everybody voted it to 
 be the siimmit of human felicity, to sit in an uncomfortable position 
 upon something never intended for a seat, beside a table-cloth 
 spread upon the grass, which, being elastic and uneven, caused 
 everything that should have remained perpendicular to assume a 
 horizontal attitude. Of course, when the inevitable frog hopped 
 across the table-cloth, and, losing its presence of mind on finding 
 itself so unexpectedly launched into fashionable life, sought refuge 
 in the pigeon-pie, the ladies screamed little picturesque screams, 
 which were increased twentyfold when Tom Hazlehurst fished it out 
 with a table-spoon, and sun-eptitiously immersed it in the jug of 
 beer, which liquid he artfully incited Mr. Crane to poui' out, thereby 
 landing the frog, decidedly inebriated and most uncomfortably 
 sticky, upon the elaborately embroidered shirt-front of Horace 
 D'Almayne. Of course the salt and the sugar had fraternized, and 
 the cayenne had elicited new and striking effects by mingling 
 indiscriminately with things in general, and the sweets in particular ; 
 and of course all these shocking disasters irritated the few and 
 delighted the many, and added immensely to the liveliness and 
 hilarity of the party. 
 
 " Tom, you're di'inking too much champagne ! " exclaimed an 
 elderly maiden sister of Mr. Hazlehui-st, decidedly like a hippo- 
 potamus in face and figm-e. " Mi'. D'Almayne, may I trouble you to 
 hand me his glass, the boy will make himself poorly." 
 
 Thus appealed to, DAlmayne languidly extended his arm in the 
 necessai-y direction, but the Etonian was not to be so easily desiDoiled 
 of his beverage. 
 
 " Mille pardons, mounseer ! " he exclaimed, mimicking the affected 
 half -foreign accent with which the exquisite Horace usually spoke ;
 
 34 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " ' mais c est tout a fait '—out of the question ; ' ne souhaitez-vous pas. 
 que vous pouvez I'obtenir ? '—don't you wish you may ^et it ? Equally 
 obliged to you, but I'd rather do my own drinking myself. Why, my 
 dear Aunt Betsy, how dreadfully ungrateful of you, just when I was 
 going to propose your health, too ! Silence, gentlemen, for a toast ! 
 Come, Governor (to his father, who. delighted with the young 
 pickle's ready wit, was vainly endeavouring to preserve an appear- 
 ance of majestic disapproval), fill up; DAlmayne, my boy. no heel- 
 taps ; are you all charged ? ' My Aunt Betsy, and the rest of her 
 lovely sex !— hip ! hip ! hip ! hun-ah ! ' " So saying, and with a know- 
 ing wink at Coverdale, who. if the truth must be told, encouraged 
 him in his inclination to be impei-tinent to DAlmayne, Master Tom 
 tossed down his glass of champagne amidst a general chorus of 
 laughter. And thus the "dejeuner" passed off to all appearance 
 men-ily enough; though in two, if not more, of the company, a 
 smiling exterior hid an aching heart. 
 
 " Have you seen the rabbit waiTen yet, Mr. Coverdale ? Do come, 
 there are such a lot of the beggars jumping about ! I found my way 
 there before limcheon, and it won't take long," exclaimed Tom Hazle- 
 hurst, gi-asping Hany's arm imploringly. 
 
 " It strikes me I shall be considered especially rude if I again 
 absent myself," was the reply. 
 
 " Who by ? — the women ? " inquired Tom, scornfully. " Never 
 mind them — poor, weak-minded, fickle things ; there is nothing I 
 consider a greater nuisance than to have a pack of silly girls 
 dangling about one, that won't leave a fellow alone ; there, you 
 needn't toss youi* head and tui'n up yoiu* nose about it, Emily, 
 beneficent Natiu-e's done that for you sufficiently already. Now will 
 you come, Mr. Coverdale ? there are some black rabbits among them, 
 such rum shavers ! " 
 
 " Ai-e there ? " exclaimed Haia-y, eagerly. " I wonder whether I 
 could contrive to buy a few couples of them ; I want to get some 
 black rabbits at the park excessively ; come along, for our time is 
 gi'owing short, I expect." And as he spoke, Coverdale strode off, 
 entii-ely forgetful of the pretty Emily, with whom, on the strength 
 of her juvenility, he had considered he might safely allow himself to 
 laugh and talk, and to whom he had, therefore, been unconsciously 
 rendering himself very agreeable. 
 
 The wan-en was further than he had expected it would be, and the 
 black rabbits were so long before they chose to show themselves, 
 that Han*y began to grow sceptical as to their existence ; even when 
 they did appear, a gamekeeper had to be routed out, and terms for 
 the transfer of ten couples to Coverdale Park agi-eed upon ; so that 
 by the time Tom and his companion rejoined the pleasure-seekers, 
 there were but few left to rejoin. These few consisted of the old 
 maiden aunt; a time-honoured female friend of the same — older, 
 uglier, still more like a hii^popotamus, and with a double portion of 
 the vinegar of inhuman unkindness in her nature ; and, lastly, a
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 35 
 
 plain youn^ lady, tbe daughter of nobody in particular, who lived 
 with the time-honoured friend as companion, in a state of chronic 
 martyrdom, for which perpetual sacrifice she received thirty pounds 
 a year, and pel-mission to cry herself to sleep every night, in misty 
 wonderment why so sad a ci-eature as she was, should ever have been 
 born into the world. Besides tliis uncomfortable trio, who composed 
 the cargo of a brougham, and were rather a tight fit, there remained 
 Mr. Crane and Alice, who, it seemed, were waiting for the phaeton, 
 which had not yet made its appearance. 
 
 " Upon my word. Miss Hazlehurst," began the sour friend, 
 addressing the acidulated aunt, " this is very provoking, ma'am ; 
 it's six 'o'clock, and it's growing cold, land it will be quite dusk 
 before we get home ; and I really believe Miss Corntoe was right 
 this moi'ning, and that we shall have a wet night after all." 
 
 " Shall I run down to the inn and see what causes the delay ? 
 I must go there to get my horse," inquired Coverdale, good- 
 naturedly. 
 
 "If you would be so kind, we really should be extremely obliged 
 to you," returned Miss Hazlehurst senior, with her most gracious 
 and least hippopotamic smile ; and thiis urged, Coverdale huiTied off. 
 In the meantime poor Alice, who by no means admired the posi- 
 tion of affairs, and had mox-eover been considerably alarmed in the 
 morning by Mr. Crane's unskilful di'iving, whispered a pathetic 
 appeal to her aunt to be allowed to accompany the brougham party, 
 — " she could sit on the box, Wilson, the coachman, was so incon- 
 ceivably respectable, and she was almost sure it would not rain ; " — 
 but her aunt was a strong-minded woman, and a warm advocate of the 
 Crane alliance, and she would not hear of such a change of plan. As 
 soon as Coverdale aiTived within sight of the inn, he perceived the 
 missing phaeton standing in front of the doorway, the horses ready 
 haraessed, and the groom seated on the driving-seat; accordingly he 
 made signs to him to come on, of which, for some unaccountable 
 reason, the man took not the slightest notice. Surprised at this, 
 Harry made the best of his way to the spot, and on reaching it dis- 
 covered, from the swollen, heated look of the fellow's features, and 
 the stupid, obstinate expression which characterized them, that he 
 had been di-inking to excess. 
 
 " Why, the man is intoxicated ! " exclaimed Coverdale, turning to 
 the ostler, who, with one or two hulking village lads, stood staring 
 at the coachman with a grin of amusement on their vacant faces ; 
 "why did not you make him get down, and bring the carriage 
 yourself ? " 
 
 " A did troy, but a woldn't budge a inch — a be properly dnink, to 
 be zure ! " 
 
 " Oh, he would not, eh ? " inquired Coverdale ; then turning to the 
 groom, he continued, " Get down directly, my friend, I want pai-ticu- 
 larly to speak to you." 
 To this the groom contrived to stammer out an insolent refusal,
 
 36 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 accompanied by a recommendation to Coverdale to mind liis 0"\vn 
 business, and give orders to his own servants. 
 
 " My business just at present is to make you get down from that 
 phaeton," returned Harry, bis eyes flashing. 
 
 " Oh ! it is, is it ? — I should like to see you do it, that's all ! " re- 
 joined the other, with a gesture of drunken defiance. 
 
 " You shall," was the concise reply, as,'directing the ostler to stand 
 by the horses' heads, Coverdale, ere the fellow was aware of his 
 intention, or could take measures to prevent him, sprang lightly up, 
 forced the reins from his uncertain grasp, twisted him suddenly 
 round, then placing his hands under his arms, lifted him by sheer 
 strength, and dropped him to the ground. Having performed this 
 feat -with the neatness and celerity of some harlequinade trick, he 
 glanced round to see that the fellow had fallen clear of the wheels, 
 and taking the reins, drove off. 
 
 While this little affair had been proceeding, the sky had become 
 overcast, and a few large drops of rain came pattering heavily to the 
 ground ; alarmed by these symptoms, the brougham party no sooner 
 perceived the phaeton approaching, than they scrambled into their 
 vehicle and started. As their road lay in a direction opposite to that 
 by which Coverdale was advancing, they were nearly out of sight by 
 the time he reached the spot where Alice and Mr. Crane awaited 
 him. Jumping down with the reins in his hand, he was explaining 
 to the owner of the phaeton the plight in which he had found his 
 servant, when a faint flash of lightning glanced across the sky, 
 followed after an interval by a clap of distant thunder, at which the 
 horses, which were young and spirited, began to prick up their ears 
 and evince such unmistakable signs of alarm, that their master, 
 fearing they were about to dash off, ran to lay hold of their heads. 
 Misfortune often brings about strange associations. If any one had 
 that morning told Alice Hazlehurst that before the day should be 
 over she would have appealed for protection to, and confided in, 
 " Arfhiu-'s cross, disagreeable friend," she would have utterly dis- 
 believed the statement — and yet so it was to be. The moment Mr. 
 Crane left her side, she turned to Harry exclaiming, — 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Coverdale, I am so frightened ! He will never be able 
 to manage those horses : he could scarcely hold them in this morning, 
 and the groom was forced to get down to them twice — he does not 
 know how to drive one bit ! " 
 
 Poor little Alice ! she was trembling from head to foot, and looked 
 so pretty and interesting in her alarm, that Hariy felt peculiar, he 
 didn't exactly know how, about it. 
 
 " I'll speak to Mr. Crane, and persuade him to let me drive you 
 home," he replied eagerly. (He would have knocked him down 
 without the smallest hesitation, if Alice had in the slightest degree 
 prefen-ed it.) " I've been accustomed to horses all my life, and have 
 not a doubt of being able to manage these, even if the thunder 
 should startle them ; so please don't look so frightened."
 
 AND ALLiTHAT CAME OF IT 37 
 
 And as Hany said tliis with his very brightest, kindest smile, 
 Alice wondered she had never before noticed how handsome he was, 
 and began to think he could not be so very cross after all. 
 
 When Hany lu-ged his request, Mr. Crane was considerably 
 embaiTassed as to the nature of his reply. In his secret soul he was 
 delighted to be relieved from the danger and responsibility of driving 
 Alice and himself home through a thunder-storm ; but, on the other 
 hand, he could not disguise the fact, that by allowing himself to be 
 so relieved, he should detract from the heroic style of character he 
 wished Alice to impute to him. Had it been D Almayne instead of 
 Coverdale who sought to become his substitute, he would probably, 
 at the hazard of breaking his own neck and that of his lady-love, 
 have refused to permit him ; but he had observed, as indeed he must 
 have been blind if he had not done, Harry's marked avoidance of the 
 young lady, and trusting to these liis mysogynistic principles he. 
 with many excuses and much circumlocution, agreed to Hairy's 
 proposal that he should ride his horse, and allow him to drive the 
 phaeton. 
 
 " Ahem ! — if the storm should come on violently," observed the 
 cotton-spinner, as a second growl of thunder became audible, '" I 
 shall wait till it has subsided ; so don't let them expect me till they 
 see me : getting wet always gives nie cold." 
 
 " All right, sir," returned Harry, as he wrapped Alice carefully up 
 in his own mackintosh ; " take care of yourself by all means — good 
 people are scarce. We shall see nothing more of friend Crane to- 
 night," he continued, as he drove off ; " the old gentleman is very 
 decidedly alarmed — that is, I suppose I ought not to call him an old 
 gentleman," he stammered, suddenly recollecting with whom he was 
 conversing. 
 
 " Why should you not when he is so? " returned Alice, innocently. 
 Han-y turned his head away to conceal a smile which the " naivet6 " 
 of the reply had called forth, muttering to himself as he did so, 
 " Poor Crane ! " 
 
 After a few minvites' silence, Alice began abruptly, and apolo- 
 getically, — 
 
 " I'm sure I ought to feel very much obliged to you, Mr. Coverdale 
 —and indeed I do; this is the second really good-natured thing 
 you've done by me to-day." 
 
 The tone in which she spoke so completely betrayed that sui-prise 
 was the feeling uppermost in her mind, that Han-y, slightly piqued, 
 could not help replying, — 
 
 " You did not, then, give me credit for possessing the least particle 
 of good-nature ? " 
 Alice smiled as she answered, — 
 
 " If I had had a proper degree of faith in Arthur's representations 
 I need not have felt surprise." 
 
 The delicate irony of this reply was not lost upon Coverdale ; bu 
 he knew that he had deserved it, and, with the ready frankness
 
 38 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 which was one of his best characteristics, he hastened to acknow- 
 ledge it. 
 
 " I certainly have done little towards practically vindicating the 
 character yoiu- brother's partiality has bestowed upon me," he said ; 
 "but I must be allowed to plead in justification, that I am quite 
 aware of my own deficiencies, and told Ai-thur that I had been 
 roughing it abroad so long, that I was totally unfitted for ladies' 
 society. He would not admit the excuse ; but it was a full, true, and 
 sxTfficient one, nevei-tlieless." 
 
 As he uttered the last words, a dazzling flash of lightning 
 appeared almost to envelop them, followed instantaneously by 
 a deafening peal of thunder. Half blinded by the blaze of light, the 
 frightened horses stopped abritptly, then terrified at the prolonged 
 thunder, tried to tm-n short round ; foiled in this attempt by the skill 
 and promptitude of their driver, they began rearing and plunging in 
 a way which threatened every moment to overturn the phaeton. 
 Fortunately the road happened to be unusually wide at this point, 
 and Hairy, who never throughout the affair in the slightest degree lost 
 his presence of mind, deciding that whatever might most effectually 
 frighten the horses, would create the impulse they would eventually 
 obey, determined to try the effect of a little judicious discipline. 
 Accordingly, standing up, he began to administer the whip to their 
 sleek sides with an amount of strength and determination which, 
 from the contrast it afforded to the mild and timid driving to which 
 they were accustomed, so astonished the animals, that bounding 
 forward with a snatch which tried the soundness of their harness, 
 they dashed off at a fiu-ious gallop ; at the same moment, a second 
 peal of thunder, even louder than the preceding one, increased their 
 alarm to siich a degree, that Coverdale, despite his utmost efforts, 
 found it completely beyond his power to hold them in. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HARET CONDESCENDS TO PLAT THE AGREEABLE. 
 
 " Miss Hazlehurst !— Alice ! are you mad? Only ^t still, don't 
 go and scream or anything, and all will come right." 
 
 Thus appealed to, or rather commanded— for the tone of the 
 speaker's voice was unmistakably imperative — Alice, who when the 
 horses bolted had half risen from her seat, and in an agony of teiror 
 glanced round as though she meditated an attempt to jump out, shrank 
 down again, and covering her eyes with her hands, remained per-
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 39 
 
 fectly still and motionless, tlins enabling Coverdale to devote his 
 whole attention to the horses. The terrified animals, after galloping 
 nearly a mile, their fears being kept alive by repeated flashes of 
 lightning and peals of thunder, while a perfect deluge of rain con- 
 verted the dusty road! beneath their feet into a morass, at length 
 began to relax their speed. As soon as Harry perceived this to be 
 the case, he turned to his companion, saying, " There, Miss Hazle- 
 hurst, I have got them in hand again, they'i'e quite under command 
 now, and the worst of the stonn is over too, so you needn't be 
 frightened any longer ; you have behaved like a " — (regular brick 
 was the simile that rose to his lips, but he refrained, and substituted) 
 — " complete , heroine, since you overcame that slightly insane 
 impulse to commit suicide by jiTmping out." 
 
 Reassured by his manner, Alice ventured to open her eyes, and the 
 first use she made of them was to fix them upon the countenance of 
 her companion, sti-iving to read therein whether the hopes with 
 which he sought to inspire her were true or false. But Harry's was 
 a face about which thei'e could be no mistake ; truth and honesty 
 were wi-itten in every featm-e so legibly, that the veriest tyro in 
 physiognomy cordd not fail at once to perceive them. 
 
 " How fortunate it was that you were di'iving, and not Mr. Crane ! " 
 were the first words Alice uttered; " we should have been overturned 
 to a certainty if the horses had behaved so this moiming. I'll take 
 good care not to let him di'ive me again. How cleverly you managed 
 the creatures when they were phmging and rearing ! I should never 
 have dared to whip them while they were in that furious state, but it 
 answered capitally." 
 
 " Yoii observed that, did you ? " inquired Harry in a tone of 
 siu'prise. 
 
 Alice favoured him with a quick glance, as she replied, half archly, 
 half petulantly, " Of course I did ; what a stupid siDy little thing you 
 seem to consider me ! " 
 
 HaiTy paused for a minute ere he rejoined, laughingly, "You 
 know nothing about what I consider you. Miss Hazlehiu'st, and 
 therefore I advise you not to form any theories whatsoever on the 
 subject, as they are tolerably cei-tain to be wrong ones." 
 
 " I daresay you. have never given yourself the trouble to reflect at 
 all on so fi-ivolous a topic," returned Alice ; " I know your heterodox 
 notions in regard to our sex ; you consider us all simpletons." 
 
 " I'm sure I never told you so," Avas aU the denial Harry's con- 
 science permitted him to make. 
 
 " Not ' viva voce,' perhaps," replied Alice ; " but I have heard it 
 second-hand from Master Tom : the boy was vmcomplimentary 
 enough before you came, but he has been fifty times worse since 
 you've been here to encourage him in his impertinence." 
 
 " A young cub ! " muttered HaiTy aside, " I'll twist his neck if he 
 
 teUs tales out of school in this way ; " turning to Alice, he continued, 
 
 ' it is never too late to mend, is it ? If I confess my sins, promise
 
 40 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 never to do so any more, and throw myself on the mercy of the com-t, 
 is there any chance of my obtaining forgiveness ? " 
 
 "As far as I am concerned, yes," was the reply; "in consideration 
 of your sendees this afternoon, I graciously accord you a free pardon 
 for all past offences, and for the futiu-e we will try and be fi-iends." 
 As she spoke she half playfully, half in earnest, held out her hand. 
 HaiTy took it in his own, and shook it — even in a glove it was a nice, 
 warm, soft little hand, a kind of hand that it was impossible to relin- 
 quish without giving it a squeeze, at least such was Hari-y'slimpression, 
 and he acted upon it, although to do so was by no means in accord- 
 ance with his iDrinciples; but he did not happen to be thinking 
 about his x>rinciples just then. By this time the storm, which had 
 pretty well exhausted itself by its violence, resigned in favour of a 
 lovely sunset; and the horses having come to the conclusion that 
 they had thoroughly disgraced themselves, and behaved with an 
 equal disregard of i^rinciple and propriety, trotted steadily along 
 under Coverdale's skilful guidance, like a pair of four-legged 
 penitents, anxious to retrieve their character. And HaiTy and Alice 
 sviddenly found a great deal to talk about, and were quite surprised 
 when they perceived themselves to be in sight of the Grange ; and the 
 gentleman felt moved by a sudden impulse to declare that, despite 
 its rmpropitious commencement, he did not know when he had 
 had such a delightful drive, to which the lady replied that it certainly 
 had been veiy agreeable, an admission which she endeavoured 
 to qualify by attributing her pleasurable sensations to the influence 
 of the setting sun and the delicious coolness of the evening air — 
 a transparent attempt at decei^tion that only rendered the tmth 
 more obvious. 
 
 The next morning a groom brought back Sir Lancelot, together 
 with a note from Mr. Crane, saying that he had contrived to get wet 
 thi-ough on his way to the inn, that he feared he had taken cold, and 
 therefore considered it most prudent to return home for a day or 
 two ; adding that he should hope to be sufficiently convalescent to 
 rejoin the pai-ty at the Grange that day week, when a dinner was to 
 be given by Mr. Hazlehurst to some of the county magnates. His 
 note wound up with an elaborate inquiry as to whether Alice had 
 expei'ienced any ill-effects from the " atmospheric inclemency," as he 
 was pleased to style the thunder-storm, accomj^anied by an infallible 
 specific against all sore throats, colds, hoarsenesses, and rheumatic 
 affections, which that yoimg lady straightway committed to the 
 waste-paper basket. There was also a note for Horace D'Almayne, 
 from which dropped an inclosui'e that, as the exquisite stooped to 
 pick it up, looked marvellously like a cheque. 
 
 " A — really I find I must go to town — a — business of importance — 
 can I execute any little commissions for you, Miss Hazlehurst ? I've 
 excellent taste in ribands, I assure you." 
 
 " There, do you hear that ? " observed Tom " sotto voce " to Cover- 
 dale. " I always thought he'd been a coimter- jumper ! "
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 41 
 
 " Kate, must I accompany him ? " inquired Ai-thur of his cousin, 
 " sotto voce " ; " remember, if you send me from you now, we meet 
 a^ain as strangers ! " There was a moment's struggle, and her coloiu- 
 went and came — then in a cold, hard voice she answered, " Yes, 
 go!" 
 
 Arthur looked at her ; her features might have been sculptured in 
 marble, so fixed and immovable was their expression. That look 
 decided him ; and with set teeth and lowering brow he rose and 
 quitted the room. 
 
 In less than half an hour he returned, prepared for a journey ; and 
 beckoning Coverdale aside, began, " Harry, I have a favour to ask of 
 you. I am obliged to go to town suddenly, in consequence of an 
 afBair which has caused me some annoyance ; but I shall come back 
 for the dinner-party on the — th. Crane will also retm-n then ; and 
 from what I can make out, Alice's affair will be definitely settled one 
 way or other. The more I see of Crane, the more I perceive how 
 thoroughly he and Alice are imsuited ; but my father appears 
 obstinately bent on the match : and if Alice is to refuse him, she will 
 require all the support that can be given her. My poor mother's 
 health is, as you are aware, so delicate, that although she is as much 
 averse to the match as any of us, we cannot expect her to exert her- 
 self ; indeed, our chief anxiety is to prevent her attempting to do so. 
 The whole thing will, therefore, fall upon me : and your support and 
 assistance will be invaluable. My father has taken a great fancy to 
 you ; and your opinion weighs with him more than you will believe. 
 I am sorry to perceive that you are bored to death here ; but I trust 
 to your friendship to remain till after my return. Am I taxing your 
 kind feeling too far ? " 
 
 " My dear boy, don't make pretty speeches ; for I can stand any- 
 thing but that," was the reply. " As to staying here, I had no thought 
 of going away till you had done with me. In regard to being bored, 
 I'm getting over that beautifully. Your family are charming jieople. 
 I'm becoming used to women's society, and, in fact, find it's not by any 
 means as bad as imagination painted it ; and when DAlmayne is 
 fairly out of the house, I really shall not care how long I remain in 
 it ; so will that satisfy you ? " 
 
 " My dear fellow," rejoined Hazlehurst, warmly, " there's nobody 
 like you in the world ! I've always said so, from the day that I first 
 set eyes on you at Eton, when you thrashed the bully of the form for 
 striking me, and then boxed my ears because I took a blow from a 
 boy less than myself, without returning it. I shall never quite turn 
 misanthrope while I've you for a friend." 
 
 " Misanthrope ! no, why should you ? " was the surprised rejoinder. 
 " What ails you, man ? — you look ill and luiliappy. It's nothing in 
 the money way, is it ? I've got a few odd thousands lying idle at my 
 bankers, that I should really be obliged to you to make use of." 
 
 Hazlehurst shook his friend's hand heartily. " God bless you, old 
 fellow! I know you would," he said; "but money can't help me : I
 
 42 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 must fight it out alone. I shall be myself again by the time I return 
 — till then, good-bye," and wi-inging Coverdale's hand once more, he 
 turned and was gone. 
 
 " Alice, here's a treat ! evei-ybody's going away except that hoiTid 
 Harry Coverdale! " exclaimed Emily, in a tone of despair; " we shall 
 have him on om- hands, talking stable, and wishing we were dogs and 
 horses, for a whole week ! What are we to do with the creatui-e ? " 
 
 Alice tiu-ned her head to hide her heightened colour, as she 
 replied, in a tone of voice that was almost cross, " Really, Emily, you 
 should be careful not to carry that absurd habit of yoiu'S of laughing 
 at everybody too far. People -will begin to call you flippant. Mr. 
 Coverdale is so good-natured that he is the easiest person in the 
 world to entertain. Sui-ely, Arthur has a right to ask his friend to 
 remain here without consulting you or me on the subject." 
 
 " Phew ! " whistled Emily, and a droll little parody of a whistle it 
 was ; " the wind has changed, has it ? I suppose that was the 
 thunder-storm yesterday; not to mention a certain "tete-a-tete" 
 drive. Take care. Ally : recollect that sweet bird the Crane ! what 
 does the song say ? " and popping herself down at the pianofoi'te, she 
 ran her fingers lightly over the keys, as she sang with mischievous 
 archness : — 
 
 " 'Tis good to be merry and wise, 
 "lis good to be honest and true, 
 'Tis good to be off with the old love 
 Before you are on. with the new." 
 
 The party which sat down to dinner at Hazlehurst Grange on that 
 day was a very select one. Mr. Hazlehurst had driven over to the 
 neighboiuing town on justice business, and having sentenced certain 
 deer-stealers to undergo divers unpleasantnesses in the way of oakum- 
 picking, solitary confinement, and other such amenities of prison 
 discipline, had stayed to reward virtue by dining with his brother- 
 magistrates upon orthodoxly-slaughtered venison. Accordingly, 
 Mrs. Hazlehurst and the three young ladies, Hari-y Coverdale and 
 Master Tom, sat down to what Mrs. Malaprop would have termed 
 " quite a ' tete-a-tete ' dinner " together ; — a tame and docile curate, 
 invited on the spur of the moment to counterbalance Hairy, having 
 missed fire, owing to the untimely repentance of a perverse old 
 female parishioner, who, being taken poorly and penitent simultane- 
 ously, had sent her imperative compliments to the Rev. B. A. A. 
 Lambkin, and she would feel obliged by his coming to convert her at 
 his very earliest possible convenience ; to which serious call he felt 
 obliged to respond. 
 
 Coverdale had found himself in an unusual and peculiar frame of 
 mind all day ; for perhaps the first time in his life he had felt disin- 
 clined to active exertion ; and had positively gone the length of 
 abstracting from the library a volume of Byron, and spent the after- 
 noon lying under a tree, reading the " Bride of Abydos." Now his 
 peculiarity took a newtiu-n; and, freed from his incubus, DAlmayne, 
 a sense of the domestic and sociable suddenly sprang up within him,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 43 
 
 and throwing off all reserve, lie appeared for the first time during his 
 yisit in his true colours — that is, unaffected, courteous, kind-heai-ted, 
 amusing, and well-informed. In consequence possibly of this change, 
 the dinner went off most agreeably ; and the absence of the Reverend 
 Lambkin was mentally decreed to be a subject of thanksgi\'ing, by 
 more than one member of the party. 
 
 In the evening there were certain wasps' nests to be destroyed, 
 about which Harry had expressed much interest ; but now he dis- 
 covered that he had blistered his heel on the previous day, by running 
 in a tight boot ; and Tom, mightily discontented at his defection, 
 was forced to invade the enemy's country without the assistance of 
 his ally. When Coverdale rejoined the ladies, Emily was reading 
 Tennyson's " Princess " aloud, and the moment he appeared, she 
 declared she was tired, and handed the book to him, begging him to 
 proceed; her mischievous intention being thereby to overwhelm him 
 with confusion, and derive amusement from his conseqi^ent mistakes. 
 But she met her match for once, as Harry, coolly replying that he 
 should have much pleasure, took the book and began reading in a 
 deep rich voice, with so much taste and feeling, that her surprise 
 soon changed to admiration. After tea, music was proposed, and the 
 moment Alice began to sing, Coverdale, for the first time since he 
 had been in the house, approached the piano, and actually turned 
 over the leaves for her ! 
 
 " That lovely ' La ci darem ! ' Ah, Alice ! if we had but a gentle- 
 man's voice to take the second ! Why don't you sing, Mr. Cover- 
 dale ? " exclaimed Emily, turning over the pages of the duet. 
 
 " I'D try what I can do if you wish it," was Coverdale's quiet reply. 
 
 Alice, to whom he spoke, glanced at him in speechless surprise, 
 but Emily, at once making up her mind that he was attempting a 
 hoax, and eager to turn the tables upon him, resumed, — 
 
 •' Bravo ! give me your seat, Alice, I'll play the accompaniment for 
 you both." 
 
 Now the truth was. that Harry had been gifted by nature with a 
 rich powei-ful voice and excellent ear, qualities which the admiration 
 of his " set " at Cambridge had induced him to cultivate. When he 
 first started on his grand tour, he encountered at Florence the 
 mother and sisters of an old college friend, and those being the days 
 before he had forsworn young ladies' society, he was let in for a 
 mild flirtation with one of the daughters. The "emphatic she" 
 happened to be " fanatica per la musica." Accordingly for three 
 months Han-y took lessons of the best master in the place, and 
 sang duets morning, noon, and night ; at the end of which period the 
 " loved one " bolted with a black-bearded native, who called himself 
 a count, and was a courier. Since which episode, Harry, disgusted 
 with the whole affair, and all connected with it, had chiefly confined 
 his singing to lyrical declarations that he would " not go home till 
 morning." It will therefore be less a matter of surprise to the 
 reader, than it was to his audience at the Grange, that Coverdale
 
 44 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 performed liis pai-t in tlie duet with equal taste and skill, and very 
 mucli better than Alice did hers— that young lady pronoimcing her 
 Italian with rather a midland-county accent than otherwise, 
 although her sweet, fresh, young voice, in great measure atoned for 
 this little peculiarity. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Coverdale, what a charming voice you have, and how 
 beautifully you sing ! " exclaimed Emily, looking at him as if she 
 could not even yet believe that it was possible he should have so 
 distinguished himself. " I thought you were hoaxing us, and I sat 
 down to play the duet for the amiable purpose of exposing you.r 
 ignorance." 
 
 " How did you acquire such a pure Italian accent ? " asked Mrs. 
 Hazlehurst ; " it will be of the greatest advantage to my girls to sing 
 with you." 
 
 " I learned of an Italian fellow when I was at Florence, and I 
 suppose he taught me to do the business all right," was the careless 
 reply. 
 
 " And yoii have been here more than a week," continued Mrs. 
 Hazlehiu'st, " and allowed Mr. D Almayne to monopolize both the 
 reading and singing department, though he cannot fill either one 
 quarter as eflficiently as you are able to do. You really are too 
 diffident." 
 
 " I don't imagine diffidence to have had very much to do with it," 
 observed Kate Marsden, quietly raising her eyes from her work (a 
 crochet piirse with steel beads), and fixing them on Coverdale. 
 
 Harry laughed slightly as with heightened colour he replied, 
 " You are too clever. Miss Marsden. I by no means approve of 
 being subjected to such subtle clairvoyance ; however, I may as well 
 honestly confess that you are right, and that a feeling more akin to 
 pride than to humility has prevented my seeking to rival Mr. 
 D'Almayne." 
 
 " We have found you out at last thoiigh," returned Emily, " and 1 
 for one will do my best to punish you for your idleness, by making 
 you sing every song I can think of. I don't believe it was either 
 pride or humility which kept you silent — it was nothing but sheer 
 idleness." 
 
 " Judging of her principles from her practice, I can readily believe 
 Miss Emily Hazlehurst must consider silence to result from some 
 reprehensible cause," replied Coverdale, with a meaning smile. 
 
 Of course Emily made a pert rejoinder, and of course Coverdale 
 was forced to sing half-a-dozen more songs, which, as he had by this 
 time got up the steam considerably, he did in a style which won him 
 fresh laurels ; but it was a remarkable fact, that from the moment in 
 which Harry began to read aloiid, Alice, although her attention had 
 never flagged, had scarcely uttered a single word— perhaps it was 
 because she thought the more.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 45 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONTAINS LITTLE ELSE SAVE MOONSHINE. 
 
 Mrs. Hazlehurst was so confii-med an invalid as to be unable to 
 walk, even so short a distance as from the drawing-room to her own 
 bed-room, whither she was nsually carried by either her husband or 
 her son. She was in the habit of retiring at nine o'clock, but on the 
 evening referred to in the last chapter the clock chimed the haK-hour 
 after nine, and Mr. Hazlehurst had not returned. 
 
 " Mamma, dear, you are looking tired — you ought not to sit up so 
 late ! " exclaimed Alice, who had been observing her mother atten- 
 tively for some minutes. " Do allow Evans to carry you up : papa 
 is sometimes kept till eleven o'clock at these magistrates' meetings, 
 you know." 
 
 One great charm which Alice possessed in Han-y's eyes was her 
 devotion to her mother, for whom she entertained an affection which 
 was, perhaps, one of the strongest feelings of her nature. 
 
 " I had rather wait, dear," was the patient reply : — " the worthy 
 Evans is growing fat and old, and I am always afraid of his falling ; 
 and James is very willing, poor lad, but he is so awkward that he 
 rubs me against all the comers we pass, and only escapes knocking 
 my brains out by a succession of miracles." 
 
 " If you would allow me to assist you, Mrs. Hazlehurst," began 
 Coverdale, in a hesitating voice, as though he were about to ask 
 rather than to confer a favour — " I am siu-e I could carry you safely; 
 I have observed exactly how Arthur holds you, and it would give me 
 so much pleasure to be of use to you." 
 
 " You are very kind," returned Mrs. Hazlehurst, while a glow of 
 grateful siu-prise coloured her pale cheeks; "but I cannot bear to 
 give you the trouble — you do not know how heavy I am." 
 
 " You do not know how strong I am, my dear madam," was the 
 good-natm"ed rejoinder; "allow me — that I think is right," and 
 raising the light form of the invalid in his powerful arms he carried 
 her, as easily and tenderly as a mother would her child, to her room, 
 where carefully depositing her in an easy-chair, he wished her good 
 night, and left her, withoiit waiting to receive her thanks, 
 
 " Alice, love, Emily will stay and read to me — go down and tell Mr. 
 Coverdale how much obliged I am ; he carried me as comfoi-tably as 
 if he had been in the constant habit of doing so for years. The kind- 
 ness of heart, and delicacy of feeling with which he made the offer, 
 have gratified me exceedingly ; depend upon it he is an unusually 
 amiable, excellent yoimg man."
 
 46 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 "He certainly appears in a new character to-night." returned 
 Emily, laughing; "hitherto he has performed the modern Timon 
 most naturally and successfully. I wonder what made the creature 
 take it into his head to act the man — or rather the woman — hater ! 
 You'd better ask him, Alice, perhaps he will tell you ! — What, gone 
 already ! " she continued, glancing round the room. " Well then, 
 mamma dear, as there seems to be no more fun forthcoming, let me 
 give you your dose of Jeremy Taylor ; that is our present good book, 
 I believe." 
 
 A reproof for the levity with which Emily spoke rose to her 
 mother's lips ; but Mrs. Hazlehurst was a sensible woman as well as 
 a good one, and so, being able to distinguish between the exuberance 
 of high spirits and a scoffing turn of mind, she only murmured, 
 " Silly child," and shook her head, with a reproving smile. 
 
 When Alice returned to the drawing-room she at first imagined it 
 to be tenantless ; but on looking more attentively she perceived the 
 tall figure of HaiTy Coverdale standing with folded arms in the 
 recess of one of the windows. So noiselessly did she enter that 
 Harry, whose face was turned away from the door, was not aware of 
 her approach until she was within a few yards of him. As with a 
 sudden start he looked round, she was svirj^rised to observe the 
 traces of deep emotion visible on his features, which were usually 
 characterized by an expi-ession of so completely opposite a nature. 
 With a miu'mured apology for intruding on him. Alice was about to 
 withdraw, when Coverdale hastened to prevent her. 
 
 " Do not run away," he said quickly, then continued. " Tou are 
 surprised to see me look sad ; I think I should like, if you will 
 permit me, to tell you the cause. It is so seldom I meet with any- 
 body to whom I can talk about such things — people in general would 
 not understand me, but I feel an instinctive certainty that you will. 
 It is such a lovely night, would you object to come out? Your 
 cousin, Miss Marsden, is already enjoying the moonlight." As he 
 spoke, he pointed to a white figure pacing, with bent head and 
 measured steps, along a teiTace-walk on the further side of the lawn. 
 Throwing a shawl over her head to protect herself from the night 
 dew, Alice signified her consent, and opening one of the French 
 windows, they descended into the garden. For some minutes they 
 strolled on side by side without speaking; the silence at length 
 becoming embaiTassing, Alice broke it by obser\'ing, — 
 
 " I must not forget to deliver mamma's thanks for your kindness. 
 You carried her so easily and carefully, she says, she could almost 
 imagine you must have been accustomed to such an occupation 
 before." 
 
 HaiTy smiled a melancholy smile. " That was what I was going 
 to tell you about," he said, " only when it came to the point, I felt as 
 if it were impossible to begin. Carrying Mrs. Hazlehurst to-night 
 brought back such a flood of recollections ! " He paused, then in a 
 low tone continued : " For many months before her death my own
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 47 
 
 poor mother became perfectly helpless, and I used to can-y her like 
 a child from room to room. I was only seventeen when I lost her, 
 and, except your brother, I have never had any one to love since ; and 
 though Arthur is as good a fellow as ever breathed, and all that one 
 can wish a friend to be, yet somehow, whether it is the diiference 
 between's a man's mind and a woman's, or what, I cannot tell, but 
 there are things I've never talked about with anybody since my 
 mother died, because I've felt that nobody else could understand 
 me. Perhaps, if she had lived, I might have been more what I some- 
 times wish I were — less rough, and — but I do not know why I should 
 bore you with what must be singularly unintei'esting to you." 
 
 " Pray go on," replied Alice ; " I have heard so much of you from 
 Arthur, that I always hoped I should some day know you myself . 
 and that we might become friends; but — " here she stopped, 
 apparently embarrassed how to proceed. 
 
 Harry came to her assistance — " But when I did appear, I made 
 myself so disagreeable that you naturally repented ever having 
 wasted a thought upon such an unamiable savage. Is not that what 
 you would have said ? Well, you are quite right, I deserve that it 
 should be so." 
 
 There was a degree of regretful earnestness in his voice and 
 manner which touched Alice's gentle heart, and she hastened to 
 reply,— 
 
 " Nay, it was only that you did not know us ; and — I think that 
 silly Mr. D'Almayne annoyed you with his airs and affectation ; but 
 I am sure you will never be so — so — " 
 
 " Brutish ! " suggested Harry. 
 
 " So unjust to yoiu'self again," resumed Alice. 
 
 " You are very kind — kinder than I deserve by far," i-eplied Cover- 
 dale. He paused, then continued, " I don't think I was naturally 
 such a bear ; but from childhood I have had to battle with the world 
 on my own behalf. Did Arthur ever tell you any of my earlier 
 histoi*y ? " 
 
 " No ; he often alluded to it as curious, but said we ought to see 
 you first, and then we should understand you better and care more 
 to hear it," was the simple reply. 
 
 Harry smiled. " The only romantic episode in my career occui-red 
 when I was a very young boy," he said, " so young, that if I had not 
 heard the story over and over again from the mouth of my late 
 uncle, the old Admiral. I should scarcely have remembered it. To 
 enable you to comprehend the situation properly, I must trouble you 
 with a few family details. My grandfather had two sons — the 
 Admiral the elder, and my father the younger. My father, when a 
 lieutenant in a marching regiment, fell in love with a very pretty, 
 amiable, but portionless girl ; my grandfather desired him to marry 
 an heiress ; my father refused, and urged his affection for another ; 
 my grandfather grew imperative, my father recusant ; my grandfather 
 stormed, my father persisted ; and the affair ended by my father
 
 48 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 maiTying his lady-love, and my grandfather disinheriting him for so 
 doing. The natural consequences ensued : my grandfather devoted 
 his fortune and influence to my uncle's advancement, and at the age 
 of fifty he became an admiral ; at the same age my father found 
 himself a captain, existing on half -pay, with a microscopic pension 
 and an incurable wound in his side, as rewards for having served 
 his country. ' England expects every man to do his duty,' and 
 occasionally recompenses him for it with honourable starvation. As 
 my father's health decreased his expenses increased, unpaid doctors' 
 bills stared him in the face, and butchers and bakers grew uncivil 
 and imiDortunate. 
 
 "At my grandfather's death he left every farthing he possessed to 
 his eldest son. Angry at the injustice, my father refused his 
 brother's offer of an allowance, and unwisely determined to dispute 
 the will. Accordingly, he not only lost his cause, but irritated my 
 imcle to such a degree, that all communication ceased between them. 
 When I was approaching the august age of ten years, and affairs 
 seemed to be coming to a crisis, by some chance I, playing with and 
 apparently absorbed by a regiment of tin soldiers, happened to be 
 present at a family committee of ways and means. During this 
 colloquy, the unfortunate disagreement between the brothers was 
 talked over and lamented by my mother ; who exei-ted all her 
 eloqiience to persuade my father to wi-ite to the Admiral and inform 
 him of his failing health and ruined fortunes, and trust to his 
 generosity to forgive and forget the past. But my father's pride 
 stood in the way. He would willingly have been reconciled to his 
 bi'other, if he had not required pecxmiary assistance at his hands ; 
 but the consciousness of this necessity rendered him inexorable. So 
 finding his wife's arguments unanswerable, he adopted the usual 
 resource in such cases — viz., he talked himself into a rage, and 
 flinging out of the room, slammed the door behind him, leaving my 
 mother and me ' tete-a-tete.' 
 
 " After a minute's silence, I surprised her by asking, ' Papa's very 
 poor, and my uncle's very rich ; and papa would ask uncle to give 
 him some money, only they quarrelled when grandpapa stopped 
 papa's pocket-money : isn't that it, mamma ? ' 
 
 "'Yes, my dear,' was the reply; 'but you must not talk about it 
 to anybody, remember.' 
 
 " I nodded assent, then resumed, ' Uncle's a good, kind man, isn't 
 he?' 
 
 "'Yes, my love; a good man I know him to be, and he was kind 
 once,' was the reply. 
 
 " ' Then why don't you go and tell him that papa's very sorry he 
 was naughty, and wants to make friends again ; and if imcle is good 
 and kind, he will say yes ; and when they are friends again, uncle 
 will be sure to give him some of his pocket-money without being 
 asked, because they are brothers. Won't that do, mamma ? ' 
 
 " My mother rose with tears in her eyes, stroked the haii- back from
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 49 
 
 my forehead, impi-inted a kiss on it, and murninrinpf, ' Your papa 
 would never allow me to do so, darlinor,' qiiitted the room. 
 
 " Well. I sat and cogitated the matter : even as a child I was of a 
 fearless nature, and confident in my own resources ; and at last a 
 plan occun-ed to me. At that time we lived in London, and I 
 attended a public school as a day-scholar. At this school I had a 
 friend — a boy some two or thi-ee years older than myself. To him. 
 in strict confidence, I imparted my scheme, which he was pleased 
 prraciously to approve of, and in which he volunteered to aid me. 
 Accordingly, on the following morning, when my parents imagined 
 I was declining ' hie, hsec, hoc,' I was, under the able guidance of my 
 school-fellow, making my way to the office of a coach which passed 
 within half a mile of Coverdale Park. Having seen me set ofE in 
 high health and spirits, my friend after school-hours left the following 
 note at our house : — 
 
 " ' Dear Mamma, — I have gone to see my uncle Coverdale, as you 
 could not do it. Papa never told me not to — so he won't lie angry 
 with me. Thompson saw me off, and will leave this, so no more at 
 present, 
 
 " ' From your dutiful son, 
 
 "'H. C 
 
 "I reached Coverdale Park without adventure, and greatly 
 astonishing a solemn butler by demanding to see my uncle forth- 
 with, was ushered into a large oak-panelled apai-tment, wherein sat 
 a fine, portly-looking gentleman, eating his dinner in solitary 
 dignity. As soon as his eyes fell upon my features he started, 
 exclaiming, — 
 
 " ' Bless my soul, boy ! who are you ? ' 
 
 " ' Tour nephew Harry Coverdale, uncle,' returned I, looking him 
 full in the face. My gaze seemed rather to emban-ass him, for his 
 lips moved convulsively ere he was able to frame a reply. At length 
 he exclaimed angrily, — 
 
 " ' And pray, sir, what do you want here ? ' 
 
 "Feeling by no means inclined to enter abruptly upon family 
 affairs in presence of the servants, I paused. But certain inward 
 cravings, aroused by the sight of the good things before me, soon 
 furnished me with an idea, and with a decidedly suggestive emphasis, 
 I answered, ' I have not had any dinner yet.' My uncle again looked 
 at me, to see whether my observ^ation was the result of impudence or 
 simplicity — deciding apparently in favour of the latter, he desired 
 the servant to place me a chair and give me a knife and fork. 
 Fortified by a good dinner, and encouraged by a kind twinkle in the 
 comer of my uncle's eye, which belied all his attempts to look angiy, 
 I soon began to chatter away freely and enlighten my newly-found 
 relative as to my opinion of things in general. After the cloth was 
 removed, and I had volunteered grace, at which my uncle appeared 
 first surprised and then edified, he began, — 
 
 E
 
 50 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " ' Now, boy, tell me tlie tnitli— but first, you shall have a glass 
 of wine ; which will you take ? ' 
 
 " ' I always tell the truth, uncle, even if it gets me a thrashing ; 
 and I'll take port, for that's the only wine fit for a gentleman,' 
 answered I, which reply so delighted my uncle, that he poured me 
 out a bumper, and patting me on the back exclaimed, — 
 
 " ' Bravo, my boy ! stick to truth and port wine through life, and 
 you'll be a credit to your name ! ' 
 
 " That speech of mine won the day. I explained the object of my 
 visit, and that it had originated wholly with myself ; and succeeded 
 so well, that on the following moraing my uncle accompanied me 
 home, was reconciled to my father, to whom, till the day of his death 
 (which occuiTed within the next year), he showed every kindness, 
 and after that event took my dear mother to reside with him at the 
 Park, provided for my education, and eventually made me his heir." 
 To this recital, followed by a detail of "many of those piu'e thoughts 
 and deep feelings which lie hidden in the breast of every generous- 
 hearted man, till heaven blesses him with a female friend woi-thy to 
 receive such sacred confidence, did Alice listen with growing interest 
 and sympathy ; and when, two hours afterwards, Mr. Hazlehurst 
 returned home in a great state of universal vinous philanthropy, 
 Harry and his companion could scarcely believe they had been 
 walking together for more than half an hour. 
 
 The week passed away like a dream. Harry walked, and drove, 
 and sang, and read poetry with the young ladies,' and found himself 
 especially happy and comfortable. Moreover, he contiived to institute 
 a system of romantic rambles with Alice, during which they talked 
 about all those peciiliar subjects Avhich can only be discussed comfort- 
 ably in a ' tete-a-tete ' — thoughts and feelings too delicate to be sub- 
 mitted to the rough handling of a crowd. And Alice, after three 
 days' experience, told Kate Marsden, in strict confidence, that she 
 had formed the highest opinion of Mr. Coverdale's principles ; that he 
 was so good and sensible, and in every way su^Derior to the young 
 men one generally meets, that it was quite a pri^alege to possess his 
 friendship— didn't Kate think so ? To which Kate replied in the 
 afl&i'mative, adding that girls were usually so frivolous and empty- 
 headed that they were not worth cultivating. " Where was the good 
 of making friends of people, unless one coidd look up to them ? " 
 Alice responded, " "Where, indeed ! " and considered that Kate took a 
 very proper and sensible view of the matter. 
 
 One small incident occurred, however, which somewhat rufiled the 
 smooth surface of Alice's tranquillity. Two or three days after the 
 picnic, there arrived from Mr. Crane a note, together Avith a slim 
 and genteel quadnaped, possessing a greyhound-like outline, shadowy 
 legs, and a long tail, and purporting to be a thoroughly-broken lady's 
 horse, with which the cotton-spinner begged— "Miss Alice would 
 allow him to replace the pony injui-ed by the furious riding of her 
 brother and Mr. Coverdale,"— an association in iniquity which
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 51 
 
 ■delighted Tom as mucli as it provoked HaiTy, and, secretly, Alice 
 also. This horae Mr. Hazlehiirst insisted upon it Alice should not 
 refuse ; and he became so angry when a faint remonstrance was 
 attempted, that the poor girl quitted his study in tears — a melancholy 
 fact, which Emily, in a truly feminine and injudicious hurst of 
 virtuous indignation, revealed to Coverdale. thereby laying in him 
 the foundation of a deeply-rooted aversion to the animal, which led 
 to results that would have been better avoided. 
 
 The morning following the arrival of this undesirable addition to 
 the family, Mr. Hazlehurst announced his intention of riding over to 
 call upon and inquire after Mr. Crane, and his wish (which meant 
 command) that Alice should accompany him on her new horse. 
 " Mr. Coverdale, will you ride with us ? " continued the head of the 
 family graciously ; " I do not think you have seen Cra.ne Court yet. 
 The scenery in and around the park is very rich, and the view from 
 the teiTace most extensive." 
 
 Harry, in his secret soul disliking Mr. Crane and all that apper- 
 tained to him, and fancying, moreover, that the presence of Mr. 
 Hazlehurst would effectually neutralize the pleasure of Alice's 
 society, as their conversation would be thereby restricted to unmean- 
 ing commonplaces, was about to invent some polite reason for de- 
 clining, when, happening to glance at the young lady in question, he 
 read, or imagined he read, something in the expression of her counte- 
 nance which induced him to alter his determination. Accordingly, 
 Tom was made happy by obtaining permission to go to the village 
 inn, where Coverdale's horses were put up, order the groom to saddle 
 Sir Lancelot, and ride that exemplary qiiadruped back, as a reward 
 for his trovible. 
 
 " How do you like Mr. Crane's present to my daughter? In my 
 opinion it is one of the most perfect lady's horses I have ever seen," 
 complacently remarked Mr. Hazlehiu'st to Coverdale, as they stood 
 at the hall door, criticizing the horses which a groom was leading up 
 and down. 
 
 " I dare say the old gentleman " — (Mr. Hazlehurst's brow darkened) 
 — " paid a high figure for the animal," was the reply ; " it has its 
 good points, and is very well fitted for a park hack ; but it's a weedy, 
 straggling sort of beast — showy action, but badly put together; — 
 and there's something queer about its eyes — it has an uncomfortable 
 way of leering round at you, and showing the whites, that I don't 
 like. You can see it's been fed under the mark, and I shouldn't 
 wonder if, now it's on full allowance, it were to turn out skittish." 
 
 " I can't say I at all agree with you, Mr. Coverdale," was the hasty 
 reply. " I flatter myself I know something of horses, and I consider 
 this as perfect a lady's hack as I ever beheld, and a most valuable 
 animal into the bargain. As to temper, it's as quiet as a lamb — a 
 child might ride it. I must beg you will not say anything which 
 might tend to alarm my daughter or prejudice her against it." 
 
 Harry tm-ned away to hide a smile, as he replied, " Never fear, sir ;
 
 52 HARRY COVERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Miss Hazleliurst shall form her own opinion of its merits, without 
 my attempting to bias her judgment." 
 
 When Mr. Hazlehurst assisted his daughter to mount. Harry, who 
 really doubted the temper of the animal, watched it closely, and his 
 previous opinion Avas confirmed by observing that it laid back its 
 ears, glanced viciously round, and at the moment when Alice sprang 
 up, made a faint demonstration with its mouth, as though it coveted 
 a sample of Mr. Hazleliurst from the region of that gentleman's 
 coat-tails, and was only restrained from attempting to obtain one by 
 a recollection of former punishment. The preliminai-y an-angements 
 being safely accomplished, the trio started, followed by a mounted 
 groom, Coverdale keeping close to Alice's bridle-rein. 
 
 They had proceeded some distance without anything occiUTing to 
 justify his suspicions; and, in spite of all drawbacks, Alice was really 
 beginning to enjoy her ride, when her father proposed a canter ; and 
 on quickening her pace, the odd manner in which her horse tossed 
 and shook his head in some degree alarmed her. 
 
 " Loosen the cux-b-rein a little." suggested Harry, " and try to hold 
 him entirely by the snaffle. I wll keep close to you, so do not be 
 afraid, lest he should bolt." Alice complied, and the horse appearing 
 to approve of the alteration, ceased to shake its head ; but as it 
 became warm to its work, it pulled so hard against the snaffle, that 
 Alice's delicate hands were imable to prevent the canter from 
 increasing into something very like a gallop. Sir Lancelot kept pace 
 with him, stride for stride; but Mr. Hazlehurst's short-legged cob 
 — the " dray-horse-in-miniature — wan-anted-equal-to-sixteen-stone '* 
 style of animal, which elderly gentlemen ride for the benefit of their 
 digestions, not being calculated for such fast work, was very soon 
 distanced. 
 
 " What has become of papa ? " exclaimed Alice, glancing I'ound ; 
 " we ought to wait for him, but I can't make this creature go slower 
 — it pulls dreadfully. May I use the ciu'b ? " 
 
 " I had rather you did not," was the reply ; " the biiite seemed so 
 uneasy when you tried it before — perhaps its mouth is tender ; I will 
 examine it when you dismount. Canter on to the next hill, and then 
 we will stop for Mr. Hazlehurst."' And they did so accordingly, 
 though Alice was unable to pull in her horse until Harry leaned over 
 and gave her the assistance of his strong arm.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EQUO NE CREDITE TEUCRI. — Virgil. 
 
 " Why didn't you hold in yoin- horse, Alice, and ride at a proper 
 lady-like pace, instead of tearing along in that extraordinary 
 manner ? " inquired Mr. Hazlehurst, coming up very red in the face, 
 hot, and discomposed, both himself and the coh being entirely out of 
 that useful article, breath. 
 
 " I could not contrive to make him go slower, i^apa," replied poor 
 Alice timidly; " even now you see he is very fidgetty and keeps con- 
 tinually pulling." This was perfectly true ; for the horse, excited by 
 its gallop, began to demonstrate its real character, and i-efusing to 
 walk, sidled along, tossing its head impatiently, pricking up its ears 
 at every soimd, and looking as if it were prepared to shy upon the 
 very slightest provocation. 
 
 *' Pulling ! — yes, of course it does," rejoined Mr. Hazlehurst 
 angrily ; " you can't expect to hold a fine, liigh-coui'aged animal like 
 that wdth the snaffle only— tighten the cm-b-rein directly. Take care 
 what you are doing ! — steady ! horse, steady ! — touch him with the 
 whip on the shoulder. Bless me ! she'll be thi'own ! " 
 
 While Mr. Hazlehurst was speaking they had, in turning a corner, 
 come suddenly upon a wheelbarrow, in which were deposited two 
 jackets and a hat, belonging to some men who were mending tbe 
 road. The moment Alice's horse caught sight of this object it 
 stopped short, and as, in obedience to her father's directions, the 
 frightened girl jerked the curb-rein, and struck the animal with her 
 whip, it reared, and at the same time plunged round so suddenly as 
 to unseat its rider. Fortimately, Coverdale had kept as near to her as 
 possible, and by a quick motion of the bridle-hand and touch with 
 the spur, he caused his horse to turn at the same moment as did that 
 on which Alice was mounted ; he was thus enabled to pass his arm 
 round her waist and prevent her from falling. 
 
 " Is your foot clear of the stiiTiip ? "' he inquired hastily. Percedv- 
 ing that it Avas so, he continued, " Let go the rein, then, and trust 
 yourself entirely to me."' As he spoke, the groom came up, and 
 catching the bridle of the plunging horse, led it away ; while Mr. 
 Hazlehurst, descending from his saddle with a gi-eater degree of 
 celerity than might have been expected from a man of his age and 
 stoutness, received his daughter in his arms, and lifted her to the 
 grormd ;— for which feat of agility, Harry, who was by no means im- 
 patient to be relieved of his lovely bui-then, mentally anathematized 
 him. Then ensued a great confusion of tongues ; Mr. Hazlehurst
 
 54 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 being himself chiefly to blame, evinced his penitence by accusing^ 
 everybody else, especially the groom— an old favourite retainer, who 
 held and expressed a strong imgi-ammatical and illogical opinion, 
 diametrically opposed to his master's, on all subjects, divine, moral, 
 and physical. At length, in utter despair of attaining any practical 
 result, Harry, nnittering to himself his surprise that people would 
 not adopt his system, and strike out for themselves a quiet way of 
 doing things, coolly took the matter into his own hands, by shifting 
 Alice's saddle to the back of the cob ; when he had completed this 
 arrangement and assisted the young lady to mount, he politely held 
 Sir Lancelot's stirrup for the accommodation of Mr. Hazlehurst, 
 observing, — 
 
 "He will carry you just as quietly and easily as your own horse, 
 sir ; he is a hand or two higher, certainly ; but if you should take a 
 sudden fancy to leap the next stiff fence you come to, he'll can-y you 
 over it like a bird ; so you must set the good against the evil." 
 
 " You're very kind, sir. Ugh ! what a height the brute is ! " — 
 (these words accompanied the effoi't of literally climbing to the 
 saddle) — " But — but — I've dropped my pocket-handkerchief — thank 
 you. What are you going to ride yourself ? " 
 
 " I am going, if you have no objection, to find out why Mr. Crane's 
 purchase dislikes to pass that wheelbaiTow, and to convince him that 
 there exists a strong necessity for his so doing," returned HaiTy, with 
 his head under the flap of a saddle — he beuig engaged in securing 
 with his own hands the girt around Alice's discarded steed, despite 
 sundry futile attempts at kicking and biting instituted by that un- 
 amiable quadruped. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Coverdale — please — pray do not attempt it ! " exclaimed 
 Alice eagerly ; " I'm sure the creatui-e is vicious ! you will be thrown 
 and huiii, to a certainty ! " Haiiy, thus apostrophized, emerged from 
 beneath the saddle-flap, and tossing back his dishevelled hair, and 
 replacing his hat, which for the greater convenience of strenuous 
 buckling he had taken off, crossed over to Alice's side. 
 
 " You are holding the reins twisted, Miss Hazlehurst," he said ; 
 " let me aiTange them for you." As he restored the reins properly 
 placed to her grasp, somehow their fingers became interlaced, and 
 Han-y appeared unable to disentangle his for some seconds ; during 
 which space of time, Alice, blushing and turning away her head, 
 mm'mured imploringly, — 
 
 " You wiU not ride that creatm-e ! " 
 
 " Your father will never be convinced that the brute is unsafe for 
 you \inless he sees it in its true colours ; besides, I dare say I shall 
 have no trouble in getting it past the barrow — there is a quiet way of 
 doing these things," was the confident reply. Alice still sought to 
 remonstrate, but in vain ; for pressing her delicate fingers as though 
 he were loath to relinquish them, Coverdale turned away with a gay 
 smile, and placing his toe in the stirrup, vaulted lightly to his 
 saddle.
 
 
 X 
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 55 
 
 Having waited till Mr. Hazleluirst and his daughter had ridden ou 
 a short distance, Harry put his horse in motion and prepared to 
 follow them ; but the moment it caught sight of the alarming wheel- 
 barrow, it again stopped short and attenuated to repeat its former 
 manceuvi-e. Willing to try mild measures first, Coverdale, although 
 he prevented the animal from dashing round as it had done when it 
 unseated Alice, allowed it to turn, and riding it back a few paces, 
 gave it time to compose its excited feelings, ere he again brought it 
 up to the object of its fear. As it approached the spot he kept" it 
 tightly in hand, and, when it began to waver, stimulated its flagging 
 resolution by the most delicate hint imaginable from his " armed 
 heel." The instant it felt the spur, it swerved aside, dashed round, 
 and as soon as its head was tui-ned in a homeward direction, evinced 
 an unmistakable desire to bolt. HaiTy's brow grew dark. " Lend 
 me your whip," he said, appx'oaching the servant, who sat gi-inning 
 with the satisfaction usually displayed by professional horsemen ou 
 witnessing the discomfiture of an amateur rider — more especially if 
 the amateur happen to be a gentleman. 
 
 " You be too good-natured with him, Mr. Coverdale ; you should 
 give it him hot and strong, sir. But law ! that hanimal ain't fit for 
 ladies and gentlemen ; he wants a reglar sharp rough-x-ider on hi* 
 back, that'll take the nonsense out of him, he do." 
 
 " Your whip is too light ; get down and cut me a good, tough ash 
 stick out of the hedge there. I will hold your horse," was the only 
 reply Harry vouchsafed. 
 
 The man glanced at his face in surprise, and seeing that he was in 
 earnest, hastened to execute his wishes, returning in two or three 
 minutes with a couple of plants of ground-ash about the thickness of 
 a finger. Having carefully examined these, Han-y selected the one 
 he considered the most serviceable. 
 
 The groom watched him narrowly. " So you really means business, 
 eh, sir ? " he said. 
 
 " I do," was the concise reply, as, with compressed lips and flashing 
 eyes, Harry turned and rode oif . 
 
 Probably, from some instinctive consciousness that he was not to 
 be allowed his own way without more serious opposition than he had 
 yet encountered, the horse, as he drew near the dreaded spot, dis- 
 played stronger signs of fear and ill-temper than before, staring from 
 side to side, with his ears in constant motion, arching his neck, and 
 tossing the foam-flakes from his mouth, as he impatiently champed 
 the bit. The moment he caught sight of the wheelbarrow, he swerved 
 aside with a boimd which would have imseated any but a first-rate 
 horseman, and attempted his usual manoeuvre of turning round. In 
 this he was foiled by an unpleasantly sharp stroke on the side of the 
 nose from the ash sapling, which, obliging him to turn in an opposite 
 direction, brought him again in sight of the wheelbarrow, while a 
 stronger application of the spm-s caused him to bound forward ; 
 thereupon he reared, but a crack over the ears brought him down
 
 56 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 again; then be set to kicking, for wliich he was rewarded by finding 
 his mouth violently sawed by the snaffle-bit, while a perfect tornado 
 of blows from the ash stick was hailed upon his flanks and shoulders. 
 Finding this the reverse of agreeable, he, as a last resoiu'ce, reared 
 ■till he stood perfectly erect, pawing the air wildly with his forefeet. 
 'Bxit he had overshot the mark. 
 
 At the conclusion of the previous stmggle, the ash stick had broken 
 off short in Coverdale's hand ; consequently, he was prevented from 
 a{)plying the counter-irritation principle as before, and was only able, 
 by great quickness, to extricate his feet from the stirnips, ere the horse 
 overbalanced itself, and fell heavily backwards. Fortunately for his 
 own safety, HaiTy was unusually prompt and active in all situations 
 of danger; and, in the present emergency, these qualities stood him 
 in good stead. Althoiigh, of course, unable entirely to free himself 
 from the falling animal, he contrived to slip aside, so that it should 
 not fall upon him ; and almost as soon as the frightened creature had 
 regained its legs, he also had sprung up, apparently unhurt, and 
 leaped upon its back. But the fight was won. Completely cowed by 
 its fall, and wearied out by the pertinacity of its rider, the conquered 
 animal permitted Coverdale to ride it backwards and forwards past 
 the dreaded wheelbarrow, approaching nearer at each turn, until at 
 length he made it pause, with its nose within half a yard of the 
 alarming jackets, and discover for itself that they were made of 
 fustian, of the most innocent quality, and flavoured with the usual 
 cottage smell of bacon and wood smoke. 
 
 Elated with his success, he rejoined Alice and her father, saying, 
 as he did so, " Well, Miss Hazlehurst, I told you there was a quiet 
 way of taming the dragon, and you see I was right." 
 
 Alice, who was very pale and trembling, murmured something 
 about her " rejoicing that he was not hurt." But Mr. Hazlehurst, 
 who appeared unusually cross and grumpy, replied, " If that's what 
 you call a quiet way of enforcing obedience, Mr. Coverdale, all I 
 can say is, I pity any poor creature that happens to be under your 
 •control ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 POST EQUITEM SEDET ATRA CURA. — Horace. 
 
 Mr. Hazlehurst, in his position of father of a family, had been so 
 long accustomed to consider his will law, that the possibility of his 
 being in the wrong was one which he never contemplated ; the fact, 
 therefore, of any one having proved him to be so constituted in his
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 57 
 
 «eyes a Higli and unpardonable misdemeanour. Of this capital crime 
 had Harry Coverdale, on the occasion just described, been guilty ; 
 and Mr. Hazlehnrst, albeit outwardly he resumed his usual manner 
 towards his guest, could not in his secret soul either forget or 
 forgive his offence — more especially as the circumstance of Mi*. 
 ■Crane's present being demonstrated to be unsafe for a lady to ride 
 (and that it was so, even Mr. Hazlehurst's powers of self-deception 
 <;ould not conceal from him) was at that particular juncture of 
 affairs singularly embarrassing. Of this change of sentiment, 
 straightforward, unsuspicious Harry never dreamed ; accordingly, 
 he continued to behave towards the old gentleman as freely as he 
 had hitherto done, maintaining his own opinions, even when they 
 ^ntii-ely differed from those of his host, courteously, indeed, but with 
 the sturdy independence natural to his character — a sturdiness 
 which, until it was exerted in opposition to his sovereign will and 
 pleasure, Mr. Hazlehurst had particularly admired. So for the rest 
 of the week affairs (with this single exception) went on most agree- 
 ably and satisfactorily to all parties. 
 
 Harry, having once broken the ice, contrived speedily to win the 
 good opinions (to use no stronger term) of all the female portion of 
 the community. From the kind attention he paid Mrs. Hazlehurst. 
 he soon acquired so much influence over that amiable lady that, to 
 ijlease him, she consented to varioiis schemes devised for her benefit 
 ■and amusement, which her daughters had previously urged upon her 
 in vain ;— for instance, when Harry, instructed by Alice in regard to 
 times and seasons and the like minor particulars, came at the very 
 moment when she was going to decide that she did not feel equal 
 to going out at all that day, to tell her that the pony-phaeton was 
 waiting at the door, and that he should really think her unkind and 
 imagine he must have done something to offend her, if she refused 
 to allow him the pleasure of can-ying her to the chaise, and driving 
 her just far enough to do her good, and not to tire her, — what could 
 she do but consent ? " Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute." This 
 point gained, it was easy to persuade the invalid to take a short 
 excursion daily ; and as her complaint was in some degree on the 
 nerves, the beneficial effects of the fresh air and exercise soon became 
 apparent. Moreover, as Alice knew how to drive a little, and wished 
 to improve in that useful accoTuplishment, Harry could do no less, 
 when he had brought Mrs. Hazlehurst safely home from her daily 
 drive, than take out the yoimg lady, and give her a lesson, and as 
 these lessons usually lasted some two hours at a stretch, the fat 
 ponies began to get into excellent working condition, and considering 
 themselves put upon, wondered why the Society for the Prevention 
 -of Ciiielty to Animals neglected to interfere in their behalf. Emily,, 
 too, had quite altered her opinion of their guest, and entirely 
 sympathized with Tom's declaration that he was " a stunning good 
 fellow, and no mistake ! " Kate Marsden said little, but obsei-ved 
 the progi-ess of events with calm approval ; for she perceived that
 
 58 HARRY COVER DALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 to be going on which would gi-eatly facilitate the execution of certain 
 schemes which she had deWsed. 
 
 At length arrived the impoi'taut day of the dinner-party. Wei'e 
 we called upon to define the meaning of the term dinner-party, we 
 shonld denominate it an awful immolation of mind to matter, a 
 wanton sacrifice of the head to the stomach. Why. on a hot 
 summer's day, eighteen individuals, supposed to be in their proper 
 senses, who might dine at home if they chose, should agree of their 
 own free-will to victimize themselves and each other by congregating 
 together in one room, for the space of two mortal hours, to eat — 
 and, in the case of the lords of the creation, probably to drink also — 
 a gi-eat deal more than is good for them, is one of those social 
 problems of which we expect to arrive at the solution about the time 
 when mankind is thoroughly regenerated by Miss Martineau's 
 atheological views (to coin a word), but not before. 
 
 If there were no other argument against this insane system of 
 monster dinner-parties, the frightful state of discomfort into which 
 the family of the giver of the feast is thrown by the coming event 
 would alone be sufficient to prove our case. Uidess the establish- 
 ment be on a scale proportionable to that of the individual wlio, on 
 finding the number of his guests exceeded the means of conveyance 
 provided for them, coolly ordered round " more phaetons ! " anarchy 
 and confusion reign predominant throughout the devoted mansion 
 for at least foxu--and-twenty hours before the affair comes off. In 
 the first place, the sen'ants, male and female, all go mad ; if you 
 give an order, the reciijient stares you vacantly in the face, and 
 does something else immediately ; if you lay down a book, or any 
 similar ai-ticle, in its proper i^lace, somebody instantly removes it 
 and hides it in an imjiroper one, where you are fortimate if you 
 stumble upon it by accident in the course of the following six 
 months. The lunacy of the servants reacts upon their betters — 
 everybody is a little out of temper, everybody is over-officious, and 
 has a way of his or her own for doing everything diametrically 
 opposed to the various diverging ways of everybody else. From the 
 earliest dawn the very garrets are redolent of " making soup," which 
 odour remains in possession of the house till about the time at which 
 hmcheon should be, but of course is not, forthcoming, when it is 
 superseded, and retires vice the venison put down to roast, which we 
 would rather decree should be " put down " as a nuisance — at least, 
 as far as regards our olfactory nerves. But it were an endless task 
 to attempt to sum up all the miseries incidental to the preparations 
 for celebrating one of those " feasts of un-reason," nor do we expect 
 very many of the gentle public to sympathize in our views ; for in 
 every society which we have as yet frequented, " L' Amphitryon ou 
 Ton dine," though he be heavy as his own dinners, is certain to be a 
 popular' man. 
 
 However this may be, one thing is certain, that Harry Coverdale. 
 on the morning preceding the dinner-party at the Grange, experienc-
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 59 
 
 ing in his proper person many of the inconveniences alluded to, 
 and having made several attempts to improve his position by- 
 seeking to induce somebody to do something sensible or agreeable, 
 all of -which proved abortive, by reason of the impossibility of 
 extracting even Alice from the vortex of preparation — Haii'y Cover- 
 dale, thus victimized, " faute de mieux." mounted his good steed and 
 set off to ride away from the blue devils ; but the remedy did not 
 succeed— the devils folio-wed him, and grew bluer and bluer with 
 every mile he passed over, and, at last, the bluest of them all assumed 
 the likeness of Mr. Crane ! 
 
 " Confound Mr. Crane ! " — thus ran Harry's thoughts — " confound 
 the old fellow ! he's coming to marry Alice — my nice, warm-hearted 
 little friend, Alice ! I don't by any means approve of it ! He's old 
 enough to be her father, or anybody else's, for that matter : the 
 thing is ridiculous — quite absurd ! — Besides, the dear little girl 
 dislikes him — naturally she does : there's nothing to like in him. 
 Why, she cares aaore aljout me than she does abovit him ! " He 
 paused in thought, removed his hat, pushed back his thick, clustering 
 hair, put his hat on again, and continued : " I declare if I'd not 
 entirely made up my mind against maiTying, I'd enter for the stakes 
 myself, and see if one could not jockey the old fellow and governor 
 Hazlehurst too. Alice is a prize well woi'th winning, but it's too 
 late to change one's mind ! I ought to have behaved differently to 
 her at first, if I'd wanted her to fall in love with me — though I think 
 I've got over ail that pretty thoroughly, too. Ah ! well, I've chosen 
 my line, and must stick to it ; and as the shooting season isn't so 
 very far off now, thank goodness, I shall contrive to make it out 
 somehow, I dare say. And, by Jove, there's a whole pack of birds 
 sunning themselves in that great field — five ,or six coveys all got 
 together — and stunning good coveys they must be, too ! There's a 
 gap in the hedge ; I'll leap over and see if I can get near enough to 
 count them. Kow, Lancelot — steady, sir ! — you must do it — over we 
 go ! Famously cleared ! I wouldn't take five hundi'ed guineas for 
 you, you beauty ! that I wouldn't. We'll show some of 'em the way 
 across country when the hunting begins ; won't we astonish their 
 weak minds for them, rather ! " and so, patting and caressing his 
 horse, HaiTy made a wide circuit, and availing himself of the 
 shelter of a belt of trees, contrived to get near enough to the par- 
 tridges to count them ; by Avhich i^rocess he arrived at the interesting 
 discovery that there were exactly thirty brace, with one bird over; 
 which ornithological irregularity rather distressed and provoked 
 him, though why it should have done so, neither he, nor, as we 
 imagine, anyone else, could possibly conceive. 
 
 But the partridges being counted, back came the blue devils in 
 greater force than ever, and his thoughts grew so troublesome, not 
 to say unbearable, that Han-y began to imagine he must be be- 
 witched — a supposition in which, perhaps, he was not so very far 
 wrong after all. As a last refuge against his persecutors, he
 
 60 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 resolved on a good gallop ; and so made his way across country, a 
 distance of some eight miles, as straight as the crow flies, leaping 
 gates and crashing through hedges in a very reckless and steeple- 
 chasing kind of manner, which obtained for him a more than 
 suflicient amotmt of hard British swearing from sundry irate 
 members of the Agricultural Association, who, for once in their 
 lives, had a real gi-ievance to complain of. As he cleared the last 
 fence leading into the park in which the Grange was situated, the 
 village clock struck six, and he could 'perceive a carriage, with the 
 Crane liveries (green turned up with yellow), winding slowly 
 through the trees. Three minutes more found him in the stable- 
 yard, and flinging the bridle of his reeking steed to his groom, while 
 he uttered the hasty caution, " You see the state he's in ; take proper 
 care of him," he made his way to his bedroom by a back staircase, 
 ovei-tuming a water-can, and running into the arms of a pretty 
 hoiisemaid (to whom he aisologized by mentioning that he was sori-y 
 he was in too great a hun-y to give her a kiss), in the course of his 
 rapid career. And so, very hot, very dusty, considerably tired, and 
 with a most unromantic appetite, he set vigorously to work to (as 
 servants inelegantly, but graphically term it) clean himself. 
 
 When, some twenty minutes afterwards, Coverdale reached the 
 drawing-room, he found all the guests assembled. Many of them, to 
 whom he was personally known, immediately claimed acquaintance, 
 recognizing him in spite of the improvements which his residence 
 abroad had wrought in his manners and appearance. Some two or 
 three of the younger men were old college chums, who were really 
 overjoyed to see him again, and who immediately gathered round 
 him and besieged him with questions. Glancing round the circle, 
 he perceived D Almayne bending tenderly over Alice ; but the sight 
 no longer annoyed him — he had got over that. Alice saw the 
 exquisite in his true colours ; Alice had laughed at him — poor D' Al- 
 mayne ! But on her other hand sat the cotton-spinner, and he was 
 more formidable ; for he did not (fortunately for himself) depend on 
 his personal attractions alone — there were twenty thousand solid 
 good reasons per annum why he should not be refused; reasons 
 which rendered his alliance with Mr. Hazlehurst's family so desir- 
 able, that all that gentleman's paternal authority was certain to be 
 stretched to its uttermost limit to enable Mr. Crane to carry his 
 point. Moreover, as Harry entered the drawing-room, Tom had 
 given him the following note : — 
 
 " Dear Hal, — I have written to tell the governor that I shall be 
 detained in coui-t so late that it will be impossible for me to get 
 away to-night (the truth, you heretic!). I shall start [by the first 
 train to-morrow, and be with you to breakfast. Keep a sharp look- 
 out upon the cotton-spinner ; and if at any moment he appears as if 
 he were prepai'ing to pop, throw a book at his head without hesita- 
 tion ! So will you continue to deserve the good opinion of 
 
 "Arthur H."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 61 
 
 At dinner, Coverdale was seated next a fast young lady, who 
 rather made love to him than otherwise ; but she did not take much 
 by her motion, for Harry had a good deal of business on his hands. 
 First, there was his appetite to satisfy, and the monster was very 
 insatiate after his gallop across coimtry ; next, he felt it incumbent 
 upon him to keep a strict watch over Mr. Crane and Alice, who were 
 seated nearly opposite to him ; and he seriously debated in his own 
 mind whether a finger-glass might not be considered a legitimate 
 substitute for a book, on one or two occasions, when the cotton- 
 spinner appeared to be attempting the excessively tender. Good 
 eating requires good drinking ; thirst demands pale ale, etiquette 
 obliges champagne, and the mixed duties of society necessitate 
 port and sheri-y ; hock is very refreshing in hot weather ; it is no 
 use to hand round curagoa, if jjeople won't drink it ; Hermitage and 
 Lunel are so nice that everybody takes them ; claret is a necessity in 
 all properly ordered establishments ; and if your host produces a 
 bottle of good old burgundy, he must be a fool who refuses to taste 
 it. But for a man to do all this, and at the same time to think, feel, 
 and express himself as coolly and prudently as he would after a 
 mutton-chop and a glass of table-beer, would require him to possess 
 a brain made of cast-ii-on and no heart at all ; and such was by no 
 means the physical conformation of our hero. Harry, however, 
 possessed a good strong head of his own ; and although, as dessert 
 proceeded, his eyes grew brighter, and he invohmtarily emulated 
 D'Almayne by smiling frequently and unconsciously, displaying an 
 even row of white teeth, these peculiarities only sei'ved to make him 
 look especially handsome. But the wine did something else ; for, as 
 the ladies rose to leave the room, it inspired him with a determina- 
 tion to jockey DAlmayne, who usually usurped the privilege of 
 opening the door on such occasions— a " cutting out " expedition 
 which Harry conducted with equal skill and success. As Alice, who 
 came last, passed him, some spirit (whether of wine, or another 
 equally favourite theme for minstrel's lay, we cannot tell) urged him 
 to bend his head and whisper the inquii-y, " Have you been happy 
 with your delightful companion ? " 
 
 A contemptuous smile, and a slight negative motion of the 
 lips answered the question; and, for a moment, their eyes met. 
 Alice's must have been a singularly expressive glance, for Harry 
 read therein that she was anxious and dispirited, but felt a vague and 
 general reliance on his willingness and ability to afford her comfort 
 and protection. 
 
 Had Mr. Crane known the exact feelings with which Coverdale 
 gi-asped a finger-glass and mentally calculated the amount of force 
 it would require to launch the missile against the chinchilla-crowned 
 head of his opposite neighbour, that woi-thy man would scarcely have 
 ventured to continue his mild and meaningless prosing so con- 
 tentedly.
 
 62 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HAREY PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT. 
 
 The moment Harry reseated himself at the dining-table, two of his 
 old college friends placed themselves beside him, and plunging at 
 once into recollections of '" auld lang syne," completely monopolized 
 him. The sound of his own name eagerly pronounced roused him at 
 length from an interesting reminiscence of how gloriously drunk 
 Jones of Magdalen had been at Tipple ton's wine-party (when he 
 woiild sing a pathetic ballad, beginning, " There's a wail on the 
 mountain ! " and was stopped by a roar of laughter, chorusing the 
 inquiry, "how the deuce it— the whale— got there?"). The speaker 
 was Mr. Hazlehurst. " Excuse my interrupting your conversation 
 for a few minutes, Mr. Coverdale," !he began, *' but we want your 
 opinion. You've travelled and seen the working of different tariff 
 regulations, and had opportunities of comparing the prosperity of 
 other nations with that of our own, while at the same time you are a 
 sufficiently large landed xDroprietor to give jow a stake in the country 
 and to induce you to feel a strong interest in the general prospects 
 of the agricultural population. I am sure you must agree with me 
 in considering iDrotection a most essential and salutary measure." 
 
 " If I might be allowed to make just one observation before Mr. 
 Coverdale favours us with his views on this imi^ortant question," in- 
 sinuated Mr. Crane, in the mildest and most affectionate tone of 
 voice imaginable — wine always reducing this excellent man to a state 
 of weak and inappropriate iphilanthropy — " if I might observe that, 
 with the highest respect for, and admiration of, the agricultural 
 popxilation of this great country, I feel it incompatible with my 
 feelings as a Protestant, and therefore, so to speak, in a general way 
 as a brother, not to say as a man also, and more particularly as a mill- 
 owner, to forget the thousands of operatives who crowd our large 
 cities, and who, when satisfied with cheap bread, add to the dignity 
 and prosperity of the nation ; but, on the contrary, when deprived of 
 this means of support, object to resign themselves to the dispensa- 
 tions of a beneficent Providence, and fly in the face of society as 
 chai-tists, levellers, red republicans, and all that is dangerous and 
 subversive of morality and security of property. If I may so far 
 presume as to call Mr. Coverdale's attention to the desirableness of 
 providing food at a rate which will enable the manufacturing classes 
 to exist without constantly working themselves up into a state of 
 illegal desperation, I shall feel that I have, if I may be allowed the 
 expression, unburthened my conscience." Thus saying, Mr. Crane
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 6:3 
 
 cast a timid and appealing look from Harry to his host, and sipped 
 a glass of bm-gnndy with the air of a man apologizing for some 
 misdeed. 
 
 " It is not a subject upon which I have ever exi^ended any vast 
 amount of consideration," began Coverdale. wishing in his secret 
 soul that he might have the feeding of Mr. Crane for the ensuing 
 six months entrusted to him, in which case he would have afforded 
 that gentleman an opportunity of practically testing the merits of 
 very cheap bread indeed, and of nothing else — except, perhaps, cold 
 spring water ; " but the common sense of the matter appears to lie 
 in a niitshell : the two great divisions ( f the poorer classes are the 
 manufactiu'ing poor and the agricultural poor, the manufacturers 
 being the most numerous— to sacrifice one to the other is unfair, 
 but to offer up the greater to the less is ridiculous. Free trade has 
 had a fair trial, and has been proved to benefit the masses, though it 
 lies heavily on the land-owners. Well, then, relieve land of its 
 biu-thens, and make the income-tax permanent to reimburse the 
 Exchequer. That's the line I should take if I were Premier, which, 
 thank heaven, I'm not." 
 
 As HaiTy concluded, two or three men began to speak at once, 
 but Mr. Hazlehurst, by a solemn wave of the hand, immediately 
 silenced them. That excellent magistrate had drunk more wine than 
 was by any means good for him ; his constitution was gouty, and he 
 had not had a fit for some time ; before such attacks he was usually 
 as iiTitable as though his bi-ain were a hedgehog and society at large 
 a pack of wire-haired terriers attempting to unroll it. Claret was 
 the most imwholesome wine he could take, and on the evening in 
 question he had imbibed nearly a bottle thereof ; but of all this 
 " dessous des cartes." Harry was innocently unconscious. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, gentlemen." began Mr. Hazlehurst solemnly, 
 " but the right of reply at present rests with myself. Moreover, if 
 my ears did not deceive me, Mr. Coverdale has made an observation 
 which I must call upon him either to explain or retract ; but in the 
 first place, let me express my surpi-ise and regi-et, sir," here he 
 addressed himself pointedly to Harry, " that a young man in your 
 position, a large landed proprietor, a lover of field sports, possessing 
 a practical knowledge of land, and a personal acquaintance with the 
 habits and customs of the agricultural poor — the bone and sinews of 
 om- coxmtry, should thus turn against and betray the interests of 
 the class to which he belongs, and league himself with those who 
 would, in their short-sightedness, sap the \atals of that free and 
 independent character which has made us the great nation that we 
 are. With regard to the observation to which I alluded, I believe, 
 that having stigmatized the opinions I hold as a sacrifice of the 
 greater to the less, you deliberately pronounced those opinions 
 ridiculous. Have I not repeated your words correctly ? " 
 
 " I certainly said that to sacrifice the greater number to the 
 less wo\ild be ridiculous," returned Han-y, completely taken
 
 64 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 aback at this sudden and unexpected accusation ; " but I only 
 meant — " 
 
 ■' You meant what you said, I presume ? " interposed Mr. Hazle- 
 liurst, in the magisterial tone of voice in which, he was accustomed 
 to cross-examine and be down upon equivocating poachers. 
 
 " Of coiu'se I did," returned Harry, his eyes flashing as he obsei-ved 
 a sarcastic smile upon the face of Hoi'ace D'Almayne. " I always 
 mean what I say ; but my remai-k related solely to general principles, 
 and had not the smallest reference to you personally, sir." 
 
 " Which is equivalent to saying that I do not understand the 
 common meaning of words," returned Mr. Hazlehurst, in the same 
 in-itating tone of voice. " Really, Mr. Coverdale, your explanations 
 do not tend to do away with the rmfavourable impression your 
 observation forced upon me." 
 
 " It is equivalent to nothing of the kind, sir," rejoined Harry, 
 losing his self-command as a second glance at D'Almayne I'evealed 
 the fact that he was hiding a laugh behind an elaborately-worked 
 cambric handkerchief ; " but if you choose to put a wrong construc- 
 tion upon every word I utter, it is useless for me to discuss the 
 matter further with a man so — a — so " 
 
 At this critical moment Tom Hazlehurst, who had been listening 
 with a countenance of blank dismay to the altercation between his 
 father and his friend, contrived, either by accident or design, to 
 throw down and break a valuable china plate. This incident created 
 a diversion by calling forth an outburst of parental wrath, under 
 cover whereof Harry regained suiiicient self-control to enable him 
 to suppress the word " wrong-headed," with which he had been on 
 the point of concluding his sentence. At the same time, Mr. Crane, 
 having a mortal antipathy to anything like qiiaiTclling, which, as he 
 said, produced " an insalubrious agitation of his nervous system," or, 
 in plain English, frightened him out of his wits, suggested that they 
 should join the ladies — a proposal which led to a general move. 
 Five minutes' reflection, in an atmosphere less oppressive than that 
 of the heated dining-room, caused Han-y to perceive that, by 
 having allowed himself to be provoked by the obstinacy of a pig- 
 headed and slightly tipsy old gentleman into even a momentary 
 forgetfulness of the respect due to Mr. Hazlehurst's years and posi- 
 tion, he had acted wrongly and foolishly. It moreover occun-ed to 
 him, now that it was too late to be of the slightest use, that owing 
 to this unfortunate disagreement he must have completely neutral- 
 ized any influence he might have possessed with his host, and thus, 
 in fact, frustrated the whole purpose of his visit, by which means 
 Arthur would be vexed, and the possibility of Alice's marriage with 
 Mr. Crane rather increased than otherwise. Just as he was about 
 to exchange the cool air of the garden (whither, on leaving the 
 dining-room, he had betaken himself) for the less agreeable tempera- 
 ture of a crowded drawing-room, he was patted on the shoulder by 
 one of his college acquaintance.
 
 %
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 65 
 
 "All. Knigliton ! what is it, man? " observed Harry, wishing his 
 dear friend at Jericho. " I took you for the stem of a tree, you stood 
 so motionless." 
 
 " Why, the fact is, my dear fellow," returned Knighton, a well- 
 disposed goose, who, when Harry first commenced his college career, 
 had formed an enthusiastic attachment for him, in return for which 
 he expected his friend to advise him how to act and what to say upon 
 eveiT occasion, trifling as well as important — a tax which even 
 Harry's good-natui-e found somewhat oppressive, " the fact is, I 
 consider it quite providential, if I may say so, finding you here to- 
 night : you know I always like to have your opinion before I make 
 up my mind ; there is nobody with such good sense as you, at least, 
 nobody that I've ever met with. My dear Coverdale, I'm going to 
 take the most important step — that is, if you see no reason against 
 it, which I can scarcely feel a doubt of ; but I'll tell you the whole 
 affair, beginning properly at the beginning. When I was down in 
 Hampshire three years ago " but we will not inflict Mr. Knigh- 
 ton's amiable prolixity on the reader, suffice it to say that, having 
 linked his aiTU within that of Coverdale, he paraded his victim up 
 and down a gravel walk for the space of at least three quarters of an 
 hour, while he pom-ed into his ears as dull a tale of true love as ever 
 ran smooth : true love of the very mildest quality, which, from the 
 beginning, was certain to end simply and naturally in a stupid 
 marriage, about the whole of which affair there could not by 
 possibility be two opinions. At length, when HaiTy had agreed with 
 everything and to everything at least twice over, and strongly 
 advised his tormentor to act as he felt certain he would have done if 
 his advice had been just the other way (for this young man, although 
 he eagerly sought counsel, by no means considered himself bound to 
 walk thereby), it suddenly occui-red to Mr. Knighton that he was 
 doing an unkind thing by his friend, and a rude one by his host, in 
 not sooner joining the ladies ; accordingly, at (literally) the eleventh 
 hour, he exercised thus much self-denial, viz. having nothing more 
 to say, he said it. 
 
 When Coverdale entered the drawing-room, he cast round his eyes 
 to discover what might have become of Alice and Mr. Crane, and 
 failing to perceive them, was about to find some excuse for making 
 his way into the boudoir beyond, when Emily pounced upon him to 
 entreat him to sing for the edification of some dear Mai-y Jane 
 or other, who was dying to hear him ; and the very identical Mary 
 Jane herself seconding the request in a mild, insinuating, blatant 
 tone of voice, as of some bashful but persuasive sheep, there remained 
 nothing for him but to consent, which he did with a very ill grace 
 indeed. Having dashed through a tender and sentimental Italian 
 love ditty in a ferocious, not to say sanguinary, style, he declared he 
 was so hoarse that he could not sing another note, and again made 
 an attempt to enter the boudoir, which he succeeded in reaching just 
 in time to see Alice quit the room with a heightened coloiu' and in a 
 
 F
 
 66 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 manner which "betokened liurry and agitation, wliile Mr. Crane 
 remained gazing after her with a coimtenance indicative of the 
 deepest and most helpless bewilderment. From these symptoms 
 Han-y rightly conjectured that while he had been off duty the cotton- 
 spinner had popped; hut whether his offer had been accepted or 
 rejected he was iitterly imable to divine. Mr. Crane looked stupid 
 and puzzle-pated — but that he was sure to do in any case. For the 
 rest of the evening Coverdale was in a fearful state of mind ; people 
 stayed late, and it seemed to him as if evei-ybody had entered into a 
 league to worry and torment him. First, the young lady who had 
 sat next him at dinner got at him again, and flii-ted at him so 
 violently, that (his thoughts running entirely on man-ying and 
 giving in marriage) he became possessed of a nervous dread lest she 
 should be going to make him an offer — this idea gaining confirma- 
 tion from its suddenly occurring to him that it was leap year, he 
 grew desperate, and pretending that Emily had made him promise to 
 sing again, astonished that damsel by crossing over to inform her 
 that his hoarseness had entirely departed, and that he should have 
 the gi'eatest pleasure in favouring her friend with the song she had 
 wished to hear; for which piece of inconsistency Emily bestowed 
 upon him a glance so penetrating and satirical, that he longed to box 
 her pretty pert little ears for it. When the song was over, Knighton 
 emerged from behind a broad old lady, somebody's mother-in-law, 
 very far gone in CuraQoa, which she concealed behind a pious zeal 
 for clothing the female natives of Barelyaragon (an unknown 
 island, discovered by Juan de Chuzacriiz in the sixteenth centui-y, 
 and forgotten ever since) in the cast-off garments of the Bhiecoat- 
 School boys. The moment Knighton got clear of this philanthropic 
 elder he pounced upon Coverdale, and caiTying him off to a recess, 
 then and there related to him an additional episode in his amatory 
 career, which was not of the slightest importance either to himself 
 or to anybody else, but which took nearly as long to communicate as 
 the original histoi^y. Diuing this infliction, HaiTy's attention was 
 occupied by observing the behaviour of Mr. Crane. Almost as soon 
 as Alice quitted the boudoir, Kate Marsden had entered it, and 
 begun a long and apparently interesting conversation with Mr. Crane, 
 during which that gentleman, who at the commencement appeared 
 rather low and desponding, gradually brightened up, and, under the 
 influence of his fair companion's society, grew quite lively and 
 animated ; in fact (if by any stretch of imagination the reader can 
 connect two such antagonistic and incongruous ideas as Mr. Crane 
 and flii-tation), an uninitiated spectator, beholding the pair, might 
 legitimately have come to the conclusion that Kate Marsden and the 
 cotton- spinner were very decidedly and unmistakably flirting. 
 
 The longest evenings come to an end at last, and Coverdale having 
 seen Knighton safely deposited in a dog-cart, with nobody to bore 
 but a sleepy groom, was making his way to the spot where the bed- 
 room candlesticks were usually to be discovered, when he suddenly
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 67 
 
 encoxmtered Mr. Hazleliiirst. Standing aside to let him pass, Hai-ry, 
 in his most polite and conciliatory manner, wished him good-night 
 Tlie only reply vouchsafed was the slightest and stiffest possible nod 
 of the head, and with a countenance as dark and lowering as the 
 most viciously disposed thunder-cloud, the offended autocrat passed 
 on. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " DEEPER AND DEEPER STILL." 
 
 "When Coverdale reached his own room, his first act was to lock the 
 door, his nest to fling open the window ; he then untied his neck- 
 cloth, pulled off his coat and boots, and substituting for them a 
 dressing-gown and slippers, cast a long, lingering glance at his cigar- 
 case. Shaking his head negatively, he muttered, "I daren't risk it; 
 old Hazlehurst has a wonderful nose for tobacco — if it were but 
 as good for partridges and pheasants he'd make an invaluable 
 retriever ! " — he paused, sighed deeply, partly for want of a. cigar — 
 partly because, though he Avas not at all aware of it, one of the 
 g'reat realities of life was for the first time dawning upon him ; then 
 drawing a chair to the open window he seated himself, and gave way 
 to thought. 
 
 " I've made a pretty mess of it this evening, and no mistake ! " 
 — thus ran his ideas — " gone and offended the governor, and rendered 
 him as cantankerous as an old rhinoceros, so that the more I want 
 him to do anything, the less likely he'll be to do it. Then, in my 
 confounded good-nature, I've allowed that ass Knighton to detain 
 me with his stupid prosing, so that I lost sight of the cotton-spinner, 
 and gave him a chance of making Alice an offer — a chance of which 
 the old fellow was inspired with wit enough to avail himself, I'm 
 almost certain, Arthiir will be pi'eciously savage ! and enough to 
 make him— the notion of sacrificing Alice to siTch an old anatomy as 
 that — a yellow-skinned brute like a resuscitated miimmy, without 
 more than two ideas in his head, and two such ideas — cash and cotton ! 
 he thinks of nothing else, asleep or awake. I wonder what answer 
 Alice gave him ; but there isn't much doubt of that, the poor girl 
 daren't disobey her father — besides, women don't refuse =£20,000 a 
 year. Well, I wish old Crane joy of his bargain. She'll soon get sick 
 of him, and be miserable of course ; then she'll take to flirting with 
 every young fellow she meets, to get rid of her ' ennui ' ; choose out one
 
 68 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 to establish a platonic f riendsliip with, perhaps !— I've seen all that 
 sort of thing in France and Italy often enough. D'Almayne very 
 likely, he's just the sort of puppy to lead a woman on — she lavighs at 
 him now, but it may be different when she's only old Crane to 
 contrast him with. By the way, I'll give Arthur a hint on that 
 score." He rose, paced up and down the room several times, then 
 continued—" I wonder what the deuce is the matter with me ! I feel 
 most absurdly and impleasantly miserable." He reseated himself by 
 the window, tossed back his hair, and sat silently watching the moon, 
 just then emerging from behind a bank of clouds. It was a time and 
 scene to elevate and refine man's nature ; and Harry was not in- 
 sensible to the influence. He thought of his boyhood, and his 
 mother's tender love ; he recurred to the moonlight stroll in which 
 he hadi confided these cherished memories to Alice, and the warm 
 and ready sympathy with which she listened to the recital ; then 
 minute points in their subsequent intercom-se forced themselves into 
 his recollection — smiles, words, and glances, trifles in themselves, but 
 when collected, suggestive of a definite idea ; and lastly, her look 
 when she quitted the dining-room that evening flashed across him, 
 and with a sudden start he pressed his hand to his forehead as he 
 resumed — " Fool that I am, I see it all now — now when it is too late ! 
 I love her, and I might have won her love— it only required to tell her 
 of my own feelings, to change the affectionate interest she has con- 
 ceived for me into a warmer sentiment ; and now, perhaps piqued by 
 my apparent indifference, she has accepted this man, and sealed her 
 own unhappiness — and mine too, for that matter ; but I deserve it ! 
 Why did I let this chance of a bright future escape me ! To fancy 
 that the mere physical excitements of hunting and shooting (pastimes 
 for a thoughtless boy) could content a being endowed with reason 
 and feeling ! — though really I doubt whether I deserve such a title. 
 I must have been blind — stultified, not to see all this before ! " 
 Burying his face in his hands, he remained for some time in deep 
 and self -upbraiding thought ; rousing himself at length by an effort, 
 he continued — " well ! it's no good sitting here tormenting myself all 
 night long — I'll go to bed (though, of course, I shall not sleep a 
 wink), and in the morning I'll walk over to the station, meet Arthur 
 — tell him how I've mismanaged everything he expected me to do, 
 and find some excuse for leaving this place to-morrow. I should go 
 mad if I were to stay here longer ! Heigho ! I wonder what will 
 become of me — it will be no i^leasure to look forward to the shooting 
 season now ! I don't believe I shall ever care to hit a bird or mount 
 a horse again. I'll go to India, and join the army as a volunteer, or 
 start off to look for the north pole, or something. I shall hang 
 myself if I stay at home, and do nothing but think about Alice and 
 that detestable old Crane!" By the time his meditations had 
 reached this point, Coverdale was unrobed, and, jumping disconso- 
 lately into bed, had not laid his head on his piUow for five minutes 
 ere he fell soimd asleep, and dreamed of a battue, in which he triei
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 69 
 
 to shoot Mr. Crane (who, on that occasion only, appeared ornitho- 
 loorically and picturesquely attired in the tail and plumage of a cock- 
 pheasant), and could by no means induce his gun to go off. 
 
 The sun shining in through the open window awoke Harry, when 
 he fancied he might have been asleep about a quarter of an hour ; on 
 referring to his watch, however, he found it was half -past six, and as 
 the train by which Arthur Hazlehurst was expected would arrive at 
 twenty minutes past seven, and it was a good half -hour's walk to the 
 station, he rose and began dressing. As his thoughts recurred to the 
 events of the previous evening, all his cares and anxieties came back 
 upon him with redoubled force, and he felt more thoroughly out of 
 sorts and unhappy than he ever remembered to have done since he 
 had come to man's estate. When the operation of shaving obliged 
 him to look in the glass, he was surprised, and if the truth must be 
 told, rather alarmed also, as he caught sight of the expression of his 
 features. " "What a hang-dog, miserable brute T look like ! " he 
 muttered to himself ; " it strikes me I drank more wine than is good 
 for one last night — that comes of old Hazlehurst bringing out 
 burgundy after everybody had had enough. The old boy must have 
 been frightfully screwed himself, or he would never have got so 
 cantankerous with me about nothing — I hate a man who grows 
 quairelsome over his liquor ! Heigho ! I feel shockingly seedy and 
 down in the mouth. What the deuce am I to say to Arthur ! — how 
 on earth am I to set things right again with the old man ! I wonder 
 whether he will be stupid enough to expect me to make an apology ? 
 I wouldn't mind doing it to an old codger like that, but 'pon my word 
 I should not know what to say— I've nothing to apologize about that 
 I can see. I hope Arthur won't be angi-y, or worse still, unhappy 
 about Alice — poor, dear Alice : if she comes down to breakfast look- 
 ing miserable, I shall never be able to stand it ! I'd better not look at 
 her at all — that will be the only plan : I'll be oif before hmcheon. 
 "When I get home, all by myself, and have nothing to do but sit and 
 think, I shall have a pleasant life of it ! Well, I certainly have gone 
 and done it this time handsomely — rather ! " 
 
 Thus fretting and worrying himself he finished di-essing, and, 
 making his way quietly do^vn stairs, effected his exit imobserved. 
 Fancying he was late he started at a brisk walk, and having crossed 
 the open part of the park, reached a stile at the entrance of a grass- 
 grown footpath overshadowed with trees. Before entering this he 
 looked at his watch, and found that instead of too late he was too 
 early, by nearly half an horn* ; accordingly, getting leism-ely over the 
 stile, he strolled onward in the direction of a rustic bench, which he 
 remembered to have seen some short distance farther up the path, 
 where, if the truth must be told, he proposed to console himseH with 
 a cigar. As he came in sight of this bench he perceived that it was 
 occupied, and a second glance was scarcely needed to convince him 
 that the oecii]5ant was Alice. For a moment he was perplexed as to 
 what com-se to take, whether to join her, or to retrace his steps, and
 
 70 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 avoid a meeting wliicli lie felt, under the circumstances, must 
 necessarily be most embarrassing. Perceiving that the yovmg lady's 
 head was turned in the opposite direction, and that she had therefore 
 not yet seen him, he drew back a pace or two, so as to place the trunk 
 of a towering elm between them. " What shall I do ? " thought 
 HaiTy ; " I have not an idea what to say to her that would be likely 
 to be of any use ; in fact, there's nothing to be said. She has 
 accepted old Crane, and now she's come here to meet Arthur, tell him 
 what she's done, say she could not help it, and ask him to forgive her 
 and make the best of it. I shall be ' de trop ' evidently, so the best 
 thing I can do is to jog back again ; and yet — and yet I should like 
 to walk by her side, and look into her dear blue eyes once more — 
 heigho! I almost wish my dream would come true, only reversed, 
 and that I were the pheasant and Crane going to shoot me, though 
 I should not be in much danger, for the old mufO would be safe to 
 miss me. Well, I suppose I'd better be ofB — is she there still ? yes, 
 but what is she doing — crying ? — why, by heaven, she's crying as if 
 her heai-t would break ! Oh, you know I can't stand this, so it's no 
 use thinking any more about it ; speak to her I must and will ! " 
 And, suiting the action to the word, he was about to spring forward 
 and join her, when it occurred to him that it would only distress and 
 annoy her if he were to obtiTide his presence upon her when, 
 imagining herself alone, she was unrestrainedly giving way to her 
 grief ; so, with that tact springing from innate delicacy of feeling 
 whicli prevented Coverdale's honest, straightforward character from 
 ever becoming rough or overbearing, he waited till poor Alice had 
 dried her tears, and with slow, listless footsteps (sadly different from 
 her usual bounding and elastic gait) resumed her walk in the direc- 
 tion of the railway station. As soon as she was fairly started Harry 
 emerged from his hiding-place, and followed her with vigorous 
 strides. When he had approached within hearing distance, he 
 endeavoured by various means, such as stamping with his feet, 
 bnishing against the underwood as he passed, and the like, to render 
 her aware of his presence, but for some minutes without success. 
 At length, however, a violent onslaught he made against a blackthorn 
 bush (by which means he acquired a practical knowledge of the 
 penetrating i^roperties of thorns) attracted her attention, and with a 
 start sufficiently violent to show that her nervous system was un- 
 usually excited, she turned and beheld him. Reassured by finding 
 that the alarming sounds had been caused by the approach of a 
 friend, rather than by that of a wild beast or an ogre (plagues so 
 common in the midland counties of " England in y^ nineteenth 
 centui-y," that of course her imagination had instantly suggested 
 them), Alice waited till he came up, and received him with her cus- 
 tomary bright smile, although her heightened colour, and an unusual 
 degree of consciousness in her manner, proved that for some reason 
 the meeting rather emban-assed her also. 
 " You walk betimes, Miss Hazleliurst," liegan Harry, anxious to
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 71 
 
 break tlie ice, but not knowincr in the slightest degree how, when it 
 should be broken, he was going to proceed : "' Tou are really a pattern 
 of early rising ; but I have a notion we are both bound on the same 
 eiTand. namely, to meet Ai-thur — am I wrong ? " 
 
 " QiTite right," was the reply ; " I got up at a wonderfully early 
 hour ; I siippose I was too much excited by such an unaccustomed 
 event as a dinner-party to be able to sleep at all soundly." 
 
 "Tou look fagged and weary even now," returned Coverdale, 
 regarding her anxiously, " and you will fatigue youi-self still more 
 by walking to the station and back. Are you prudent to undertake 
 so long an expedition before breakfast ? " 
 
 " Oh yes," was the reply ; it will refresh me and do me good ; 
 besides, I want particularly to see and talk to Arthur." 
 
 " I will accompany you as far as the station, if you will allow me," 
 returaed Harry, " and, as soon as your brother amves, leave you to 
 talk with him in peace ; the few words I have to say to ,him will do 
 equally well after breakfast." 
 
 Alice signified her consent, and the conversation continued for 
 several mintites to turn on indifferent subjects, though the burden of 
 sustaining it fell chiefly upon Alice, Harry's observations becoming 
 shorter and less coherent at each reply. At length, however, Alice's 
 stock of small talk failed her, and Hariy, in despair, was about to 
 hazard some such original observation as, that the grass was looking 
 remarkably green, when his companion suddenly addressed him. 
 
 " I am afraid that you will think that I am interfering very un- 
 necessarily and impertinently, Mr. Coverdale, but I must trust to 
 your kindness to make allowance for me." 
 
 " She is actually going to confess the cotton-spinner to me, and 
 tell me I'm in the way, I do believe ! Cool hands women are, and no 
 mistake ! " thought Coverdale ; he only said, however, " Pray go 
 on." 
 
 "The fact is," resumed Alice, -wdth a faltering voice, " my brother 
 Tom informed me (you must not be angry with the poor boy, for he 
 did it out of regard for you) that you — that is, that my father and 
 you differed about some political question after dinner yesterday, 
 and that my father was so can-ied away by the subject as to become 
 injudiciously warm, and, from Tom's account, personal, and that his 
 observations annoyed you. Now, I am so veiy soiTy this should have 
 occurred, for he had formed such a high opinion of you, and Ai'thur 
 was so much pleased to see how well you got on with him — a point 
 on which he appeared particularly anxious." (Coverdale bit his lip, 
 and cut off a thistle's head viciously with his cane.) " But, if you 
 could be so very good as to overlook anything my father may have 
 said, it would make me — I mean it would make Arthur, and — and — 
 all of us so much happier." 
 
 "My dear Miss Hazlehurst," began Harry vehemently, "how 
 very kind of you to trouble yourself about me ! I can assure you I 
 am most anxious to say or do anything to regain Mr. Hazlehurst's
 
 72 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 good opinion. I know I made him rather an impertinent answer ; 
 but really I was so unprepared for such an attack ; and then, to 
 make matters worse, that old idiot, Mr. Crane — that is," he con- 
 tinued, suddenly recollecting' to whom he was speaking, and turning 
 crimson as he did so, " I beg yoiu- pardon for speaking so disrespect- 
 fully of him to you; I really forgot — I am certainly losing my 
 senses ! " With a blush as bright, though not quite so deep coloured 
 as that of Coverdale, Alice, turning away her head, replied, — 
 
 " Mr. Crane's only claim on my respect is, that he is my father's 
 friend ; if I must own the truth, I do not myseK consider him very 
 wise." 
 
 " His only claim did you say ! " exclaimed Han-y earnestly. " Oh, 
 Miss Hazlehurst — Alice — pardon me if I ask yoii to deal openly with 
 me ; am I indeed wrong in supposing that you are engaged, or about 
 to become so, to Mr. Crane ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! " was the hiuTied reply ; " such a fate would render me 
 most miserable." 
 
 Upon this hint Harry spake ; the reality and strength of his 
 feelings imparted an earnest dignity to his manner and an imwonted 
 eloquence to his speech, which woiild have deeply affected his fair 
 auditor, even had her o"^\ti heart not pleaded warmly in his favoiu*. 
 As it was, before they arrived in sight of the railroad station, Han-y 
 had somehow come to the conclusion that the communication he 
 should have to make to his friend Arthvir would be veiy miich more 
 satisfactory, though perhaps little less emban-assing, than the one he 
 had originally designed. It certainly was a considerable change in 
 the tenoiu- of his report to be forced to explain that, instead of con- 
 sidering himself the most miserable being in the world, he felt con- 
 vinced he was by far the happiest ; for that Alice — resolved not to 
 man-y the cotton-spinner — had given her heart, and promised her 
 hand, to him. 
 
 And thus, short, sharp, and decisive, began and ended " Harry 
 Coverdale's Courtship;" all the results, good and evil, '"that 
 came of it," may be learned by any reader sufficiently perseveiing 
 to peruse that which remains to be told of this veracious history.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 73 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 DECIDEDLY EMBARRASSING. 
 
 Alice and Harry were so deeply engrossed with each other, and so 
 absorbed in the interchange of those mysterious but delightful 
 nothings which form the staple of lovers' communications, and 
 which, deeply interesting to the happy pair, appear to the un- 
 susceptible public the veriest nonsense imaginable, that they were 
 still some distance from the station when the train rushed up, 
 sneezed out a few passengers, and, snorting and coughing, dashed off 
 like a well-disposed fiery dragon, warranted quiet to ride and drive. 
 Walking on rapidly they soon discovered Arthur, embarrassed by a 
 carpet-bag and a mackintosh, making the best of his way to meet 
 them ; the moment he came within speaking distance, he ex- 
 claimed, — 
 
 " What do I behold ! Harry Coverdale with a yoixng lady on his 
 arm ! Surely the age of miracles is returaing ! well, I never did ! 
 did you ever ? And Alice looking so deliciously self-satisfied and 
 unconscious, too ! Why, you stupid little owl (you're very like one, 
 with your hooked nose and great eyes) , don't you know you're boring 
 him to death ? he cares for nothing but horses, dogs, and guns, and 
 above all perfectly abominates women." 
 
 Alice smiled, and attempted to make a playful rejoinder, but in 
 vain, — her heart was too full ; had she spoken at that moment she 
 must have burst into tears. The speech affected Han-y differently. 
 
 " I do nothing of the kind," he said angrily; " Ai'thur, how can 
 you be so absiird ! " Pausing for a moment, the ludicrous nature of 
 the situation occuiTed to him, and with difficulty restraining a 
 laugh, he turned the conversation by seizing his friend's carpet-bag, 
 exclaiming as he did so, " Come, give it up, of course I'm not going 
 to let you carry it; you're looking horridly thin and pale, as 
 Londoners always do : is he not, Al — a — , Miss Hazlehurst ? What ! 
 you refuse ; give it up this instant, or I declare I'll can-y you and it 
 too." 
 
 During the playful striiggle which ensued for the possession of the 
 cai-pet-bag, in which contention Han-y was soon victorious. Alice, 
 glad to obtain a few minutes in which to compose herself, walked on. 
 As the young men hastened to rejoin her, Hazlehurst, laying his 
 hand on Coverdale's arm, inquired, " How has it all gone off P Crane 
 hasn't ventured to offer yet, of course ? " 
 
 "Yes, by Jove, he has thoiigh!" was the reply; "the old muff
 
 74 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 contrived to pop last night— confound liim ! — wlien I was out of the 
 room, and hadn't a chance of throwing anything at his head." 
 
 " And Alice ? '" iiiquii-ed the brother eagerly ; but his eagerness 
 frustrated its own purpose (no uncommon case by the way), for, 
 pronouncing the name in a louder key than he was aware of, the fair 
 OAvner thereof stopped short, and thus prevented the possibility of 
 further explanation. As they continued their homeward walk, 
 Arthur, who was a quick observer, soon detected a change in Haii-y's 
 manner towards his sister; for which, at first, he felt excessively 
 puzzled to account. A respectful tenderness was apparent in his 
 tone when he addressed her, and he exhibited a degree of eager, 
 almost affectionate, solicitude for her ease and comfort, in all the 
 minor incidents of a coimtry walk, such as Hazlehurst, during the 
 whole of their intimacy, had never before seen him evince towards a 
 young lady. 
 
 " What has come to Harry now, I wonder P " thus ran his reflec- 
 tions ; '■ if it were any one in the world but him, I should say he was 
 flirting with Alice ; but Harry never flirted in his life, so that is 
 impossible." He pondered for a moment, then an idea struck him. 
 " I see it now ; my father has forced the poor child to accept old 
 Crane : Harry knows it, and the pity his kind wai'm-hearted nature 
 leads him to feel towards her influences his manner. They were 
 each coming to tell me all that has occurred, and have met by 
 accident ; yes, that must be it." In oi'der, however, more fully to 
 satisfy himself of the correctness of his theory, he observed, in his 
 usual light, jesting manner, "I think, Mr. Coverdale, it behoves me, 
 as ' a man and a Ijrother,' to inquire how you happen to be marching 
 about the country, ' tete-a-tete ' with my sister, at this unconscionably 
 early hour ? " 
 
 Harry, who, between his desire to enlighten Arthur as to the new 
 and transcend ently tdelightful, but especially embarrassing turn 
 affairs had taken, and the impossibility of doing so before Alice — 
 the overpowering nature of his feelings towards that young lady, 
 and his extreme happiness at finding them reciprocated — the great 
 and imminent danger in re Crane, and the humiliating confession 
 regarding his lost inflxience with Mr. Hazlehurst, together with the 
 awkwai'd position in which he stood towards that outraged and 
 obdurate elder — was in a tremendous fi'ame of mind, merely started 
 and stared vacantly at his interrogator. 
 
 But Alice, having by this time regained in some degree her self- 
 possession, replied qiiietiy, '" Mr. Coverdale and I were both coming 
 to meet you, and encountering each other accidentally, walked on 
 together." 
 
 As she spoke, Arthur, striving to i-ead her countenance, fixed his 
 eyes upon her. Unable to meet his glance she turned away with an 
 April look, half tears half smiles. " It must be as I thought," 
 reflected Ai-thur ; " but if anything is to be done to save her. no time 
 should be lost. Ill not waste the present opportunity. My dear
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OB^ IT 75 
 
 Coverdale," he continued aloud, "I wish to have a few minutes' 
 private conversation with my sister ; you and I are too old friends to 
 stand upon ceremony, so you will not be offended if I ask you to 
 walk on, and wait for us at the stile at the end of the ])ath." 
 
 This direct appeal brought Han-y to his senses, but not feeling 
 sure whether Alice would approve of ha\'ing the whole burden of 
 explanation thrown upon her, he glanced inquiringly towards her 
 ere he ventured to reply. Now. Alice, fond as she was of her brother, 
 was also (from their difference in point of age, as well as from the 
 fact that Arthur's nature was more firm and resolute than her own, 
 and his manner quick and abrupt) a little afraid of him. Thus, 
 being aware how very highly he esteemed Coverdale — an estimation 
 which she was inclined to transcend rather than to depreciate — a 
 sudden fear seized her lest Ai-thur, deeming her a mere silly child, 
 should consider his friend had done a fooHsh thing in choosing her 
 for a wife, when he might have selected, at the very least, some 
 strong-minded peeress, and that he might be augry with her for her 
 presumption in having accepted him. This feeling, overpowering 
 for the moment every other, induced her to respond to Hany's look 
 of inquiry by a slight shake of the head, and a glance which would 
 have kept him by her side if a whole regiment of brothers, armed 
 with Minie rifles and Colt's revolvers, had attempted to separate 
 them. But Arthui-, being totally unarmed, and having simply asked 
 a civil question, the answer which Harry, appropriately quoting 
 Walter Scott, might have made to the hypothetical regiment, " Come 
 one, come all, this rock (not that there was a rock, but that is a trifle) 
 will fly from its firm base as soon as I," was imfitted for the present 
 emergency, and no other equally good suggested itself. What he 
 did say was this, — 
 
 '• A — really — of course I'd do it in a minute, my dear fellow — but 
 — a — I'm not quite sure," — here he glanced at Alice — " that is, I'm 
 positively certain that— a — in fact, the thing's impossible." 
 
 '• You're certain that it's impossible that you can walk on to the 
 stile before Alice and me ! My dear Harry, what are you talking— 
 or rather (for the truth is you're preoccupied), what are you thinking 
 about ? " inquired Arthur, in amazement, seeing from the expression 
 of his friend's countenance that he was really anxious and excited. 
 Coverdale was again hesitating how to reply, when Alice relieved 
 him from his difiiculty by saying hurriedly, " I will walk on, and 
 leave you to talk to Mr. Coverdale." 
 
 As she spoke, they reached the rustic bench before alluded to, and 
 Ai-thur. completely mystified, seated himself, and made a sign to 
 Coverdale to follow his example. 
 
 " One moment, and I'll be with you," replied Coverdale, springing 
 to Alice's side ; " then I may tell him everything ? " he continued. 
 
 " Oh yes," was the unhesitating answer. 
 
 " And you will wait for us at the stile ? I won't detain him five 
 minutes."
 
 76 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " If you wish it." 
 
 " Can yoiT doubt it ? " were the necessary lover-like rejoinders ; 
 and Coverdale returaed to his friend, who looked especially puzzled 
 and slightly provoked. 
 
 " Now be silent ! " exclaimed Hazlehurst, as Han-y was about, with 
 the greatest volubility, to plunge at once " in medias res." " You 
 have lived amongst women till you've learned to chatter like them, 
 I think. I shall never bring you to the point, unless you vnll let me 
 cross-examine you." 
 
 " Fire away, then ; only look sharp, for your sister must not be 
 kept waiting," was the reply. 
 
 " YouVe grown wonderfully polite and attentive all of a sudden," 
 returned Arthur sarcastically. " But now listen to me. Has Crane 
 made Alice an offer ? " 
 
 Harry replied in the aflBrmative. 
 " Did she refuse him ? " 
 
 " Of course she did," was the disdainful rejoinder. 
 " I don't see any ' of course ' in it," returned Hazlehurst moodily. 
 " My father is resolved on the match : Alice has been brought up 
 to obey him implicitly, and the habit of obedience is very strong in 
 such a gentle, yielding nature as hers." 
 
 " If she is gentle and yielding, I'm not ! " exclaimed Harry 
 vehemently ; " and with your support, and the knowledge that his 
 daughter's happiness is at stake, Mr. Hazlehurst must listen to 
 reason." 
 
 " My dear boy," returned Ai-thur earnestly, " what a warm-hearted, 
 thorough-going friend you are ! You really take as much interest in 
 the affair as if it were youi* own. I see you naturally reckon on the 
 extent of your influence with my father, and I have reason to believe 
 you do not oveiTate it. Why, what is the matter now ? Have you 
 taken leave of your senses ? " 
 
 This inquiry refeiTed to a sudden and alarming outbreak on the 
 part of Coverdale, who, when his influence with Mr. Hazlehurst was 
 mentioned, sprang to his feet, uttering what mild mammas, engaged 
 in the moral instruction of their tender offspring, tei'm a " naughty 
 word." 
 
 " You are enough to drive one mad ! " he exclaimed angrily ; 
 " saying, and making me say, all sorts of absurd things at cross- 
 pui-poses, because you won't listen to the explanation I'm remaining 
 here on purpose to give you ; keeping Alice waiting, too ! " 
 
 " Well, let her wait," returned Arthvu- testily, woiTied by HaiTy's 
 constant reference to this point ; " anybody would think you were 
 Alice's lover instead of old Crane ! " 
 
 " And so I am," was the iinexpected rejoinder ; " and what is more, 
 old fellow, her accepted lover also ! Oh, Aithur," he continued, 
 seating himself by his friend's side, and laying his arm on his 
 shoulder, " I'm the happiest, luckiest dog in existence ! To think 
 that she should be able to love such a rough, uncultivated — but
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 77 
 
 you are not displeased, are you — surprised, of course, you must 
 be." 
 
 " Surprised, indeed," was tlie reply ; " so much so, that even yet I 
 can scarcely believe it ; it has almost taken my breath away ! But 
 displeased !— why, my dear Harry, I'd rather she married you than 
 any man breathing, be he prince, duke, or what not. It is the most 
 charming, glorious, wonderful thing that ever haiDpened ! Biit even 
 now I can't conceive how it has come about ; and yet, when I begin 
 to reflect, I fancied that Alice was growing shy and conscious in 
 regard to something or somebody, before I went away. It's natural 
 enough that she should fall in love with you ; but that you should 
 take a fancy to her, or indeed to any girl, does, I own, surprise me. 
 I had so thoroughly made up my mind that you meant to be an old 
 bachelor." 
 
 " You could not have done so more completely than I had," 
 rejoined Hariy ; " but the fact is, that from the first moment in 
 which I saw your sister I fell in love with her, though I had not the 
 most remote idea of it at the time. I can trace it all now ; hence my 
 dislike of D'Almajme and the iDOor old cotton-spinner. I was afraid 
 the fascinations of the one might win her heart, or the fortune of 
 the other obtain her hand — in fact, I was unconsciously jealous of 
 them both. But now come on, we are really keeping Alice an un- 
 reasonable time. Aye, you may laugh; I don't care a sou now that 
 you know all about it. Why, Arthiir, old boy, you will be my real 
 ' bona fide ' brother one of these days ! — that is a contingent ad- 
 vantage Avhich has only just occurred to me." 
 
 Seizing his friend's hand as he spoke, he pressed it with such good- 
 will, that Hazlehurst was enabled to give a shrewd guess at the 
 sensation prodiiced by that interesting medieeval amenity, the thumb- 
 screw. And thus mutually pleased and excited, the young men 
 proceeded, both talking volubly, and generally at the same moment, 
 till they reached the stile, where they found Alice awaiting them, 
 looking very timid, very conscious, but exceedingly pretty. She 
 need not have been luieasy, however, for Arthur had too much good 
 taste and kind feeling to laugh at her at that moment ; on the 
 contrary, he hastened to set her mind at rest by whispering, as he 
 imprinted a kiss on her glowing cheek, — 
 
 " My darling child, you have made me almost as hajppy as you have 
 rendered him." 
 
 The walk home was a very delightful one. Alice leaned on Harry's 
 stalwart arm, and felt the most perfect and in-ational confidence in 
 his power to shield her from the effects of her father's anger, Mr. 
 Crane's despair, and all other uncomfortable consequences of the 
 act of filial disobedience which she meditated. Harry, already 
 experiencing a sensation of delicious proprietorship in regard to the 
 sweet girl beside him, felt himseK exalted in the scale of humanity, 
 and held his head a good inch higher on the strength of it ; from 
 which moral and physical elevation he looked down upon all field-
 
 78 HARRY CO VERB ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 sports as soulless and ignoble pastimes, and despised them 
 accordingly. Arthur, Loping that his sister's attachment to a man 
 in every way so worthy of her would inspire her with the firmness 
 requisite to withstand successfully his father's possible opposition 
 to the match, and that the matter would eventually end by securing 
 her happiness and that of his friend, " forgot his own griefs," to 
 rejoice in their bright prospects. And so they reached the pleasure- 
 grounds, where Alice, sejjarating from the two gentlemen, ran in to 
 compose her excited feelings before appearing at breakfast. 
 
 " Arthur, wait one moment," exclaimed Coverdale, laying his hand 
 on his friend's arm to detain him ; " I have something important to 
 say to you ;— isn't she an angel, my dear boy ? " 
 
 " Why, really, my good fellow, betAveen friends, and seeing that you 
 appear to attach so much importance to the fact, I should say. taking 
 into consideration the evidence in the case, and coming to the point 
 without any unnecessary prolixity, that she was by no means an 
 angel, but simply a very pleasant little female mortal, and — ahem ! 
 my poor sister, sir." 
 
 " Psha ! you stiipid old humbug ! " returned Harry, giving him a 
 playful push, which caused him involuntarily to leap over a flower- 
 bed; "do just listen to me for a minute, and give me a sensible 
 answer if you can. It's all very pretty for my darling Alice, and you 
 and I, to settle this matter so sweetly and easily ; but remember, 
 there's the governor to bring round, and Crane and his confounded 
 ^820,000 a year to beat out of the field ; it strikes me we're in an 
 awful fix, and about to become an interesting young couple. What 
 is to be the next move, eh ? " 
 
 " Oh, the affair lies in a nutshell," returned Hazlehurst. " Foi-tu- 
 nately, my father has always appreciated you properly, and now the 
 xmusual degree of influence you have acquired over him will stand 
 you in good stead. He may be a little annoyed at first, when he 
 finds he miist relinquish his favourite design of pui'chasing old 
 Crane's farm ; but he is very fond of Alice, and very proud of her." 
 
 " He'd be a most unnatural old heathen if he wasn't," muttered 
 Harry, sotto voce. 
 
 " Conseqviently," continued Hazlehurst, not heeding the interrup- 
 tion, " when he perceives the immeasurable advantages to be obtained 
 by alloAving her to marry a man she loves, and who is in every way 
 deserving of her affection, instead of an old scarecrow, who will be 
 in his dotage (I believe he is so already, more or less !) while Ally is 
 still quite a young woman, he cannot hesitate for a moment in giving 
 his consent. Tou had better speak to him the instant breakfast is 
 over ; depend upon it yoii'll find him all amiability." 
 
 " Depend upon it I shall find him nothing of the kind," returned 
 Coverdale snappishly ; then, seeing the look of surprise that spread 
 over his friend's countenance, he continued, dejectedly : — '* Ah, my 
 dear boy, you little know the extent to which I've been putting my 
 foot in it since you went away. Tom tells me I annoyed your
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 79 
 
 governor three or four days ago, by taking tlie nonsense out of tliat 
 beast of a horse old Crane bad the stupidity to give Alice ; a brute 
 which would have bi'oken her sweet neck, if I hadn't luckily been at 
 hand to catch her as she was falling. Then, to improve the matter, 
 last night we all drank wine enough, and the head of the family 
 got a little too much into it to be good for its proprietor ; accord- 
 ingly, he forced me to give my opinion about Free-trade, and then 
 pitched into me for so doing, and declared I'd insulted him : upon 
 which I lost my temper, and said something rude ; and, to come to 
 the point, as you call it, he is now as savage as a bear with me, and 
 all the blessed influence you've been paying me such pretty compli- 
 ments about, if it ever existed, is scattei'ed to the winds. I dare not 
 speak to him, it would be worse than useless ; he'd be only too glad 
 to refuse me at once, lest he should lose such a good opportunity of 
 paying me ofE for last night. Ah ! " he continued, " you may well 
 look pvizzled — you would not like to have many clients with such a 
 talent as I possess for unconsciously cutting their own tlu-oats ! 
 What's to be done ? — divide the wires of the electric telegraph at 
 King's Cross station, and then take Alice along the Great Northern 
 to Gretna Green — though Gretna Green has been done brown by 
 some recent act, has it not, and the harmonious and hymeneal black- 
 smith retired into private life ? Come, advise, for I can hit upon 
 nothing ; only remember one thing — since Alice is good enough to 
 say she will have me, married I must and will be, if all the fathers in 
 England were to set themselves against it ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RELATES THE UNEXPECTED BENEVOLENCE OF HORACE 
 D'aL3IAYNE. 
 
 Arthur Hazlehurst, with an aspect gi-aver than his wont, replied 
 to HaiTy's appeal — " It cei-tainly is veiy imfortunate that you should 
 have selected last night, of all others, to displease my father; 
 because, owing to the Crane o:ffer, time is of the greatest importance ; 
 but for that I should not have cared ; you would only have had to 
 wait for a week or two, taking pains to be especially polite and 
 deferential in the interval, and he would have totally forgotten his 
 anger. As it is, perhaps I had better speak to him— he is sure to 
 tell me about the cotton-spinner, and I can avail myself of that 
 opportunity to come to the point; and now, if you have nothing
 
 80 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 better to propose, we'll go in to breakfast. Love may possibly 
 destroy the appetite, but a raili-oad journey lias a directly contrary 
 effect." 
 
 Harry bad nothing better to propose— for a vague suggestion in 
 regard to punching old Crane's head, if he (Crane) did not mind 
 what he was about, could scarcely be considered in the light of a 
 serious, practical amendment— so they wentin to breakfast accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 This meal appeared to be a most unsatisfactory one to " all who 
 assembled within those walls ; " for, despite the presence of every 
 delicacy of the season, and a few over, each individual seemed 
 labouring under some secret sorrow, and a general wet blanket 
 damped, and hung hea\'y on, the spirits of the whole party, with the 
 exception, perhaps, of Horace D'Almayne, who was unusually 
 animated, and watched the proceedings with a look of quiet pene- 
 tration. 
 
 When the ladies quitted the room, Mr. Crane called Mr. Hazle- 
 hurst aside, and informed him that he wished for the honour of an 
 interview; to which request that gentleman acceded in his most 
 gracious manner, and they adjourned together to the library. 
 
 Harry, with a significant glance to Ai'thur to remain on the look- 
 out and watch proceedings, strolled off with Tom on some horse-or- 
 dog-inspecting pretext, but really to keep himself out of harm's way 
 till he was wanted — so low an estimate had he now acquired of his 
 own diplomatic abilities. D'Almayne and Arthur being thus left 
 tete-a-tete, the former accosted the latter after the following 
 fashion : — 
 
 " Hazlehurst, ' mon cher,' I shall die of ennui if we have many such 
 ' tristes affaires ' as this meal of which we have just pai-taken. Now, 
 without being more inquisitive than my neighbours, you cannot 
 suppose I have remained entirely in the dark in regard to the little 
 amusements your friends and relations have devised to vary the 
 monotony of life withal." 
 
 " And the result of these your observations ? " inquired Arthur 
 coldly. 
 
 " Is, that the various interests clash, and that delicate dilemmas 
 innumerable must, ere long, present their horns ; — now I, being an 
 easy-tempered fellow, like to be happy myself, and to see every 
 brother man, and sister woman, hai^py also. I shall, therefore, have 
 much pleasure in doing ' mon petit possible ' to smooth away these 
 difficulties— an endeavour in which my influence with our good 
 friend Crane will gi-eatly assist me ; but to enable me to do this, you 
 must of course take me so far into your confidence as to tell me 
 whether I am right in my preconceived ideas — ' che dice, Signor ? ' " 
 
 Arthur reflected for a moment — he knew D'Almayne to be quick- 
 sighted, clear-headed, and fertile in expedient, at the same time he 
 believed he was designing and self-interested ; in the present emer- 
 gency, however, he might, from his influence with Mr. Crane, be
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 81 
 
 possibly of some use, wliile lie could scarcely, witli the worst inten- 
 tions, render the aspect of affairs more complicated and unsatisfactory 
 than it now appeared. 
 
 Accordingly, he replied, " It cannot involve any alarming stretch 
 of confidence on my part, merely to tell you whether youi* ' guesses 
 at tiiith ' have hit the mai-k, or flown wide of it. So you have only 
 to propound yoiu- queries, and I will answer them as clearly and 
 concisely as in me lies." 
 
 " C'est bon ! " was the reply. " A — to begin with — I am correct 
 am I not, in supposing that last night my worthy friend Crane 
 offered his hand and ,£20,000 per annimi (in which latter item his 
 heart is of course wrapped up and included) to your amiable and 
 accomplished sister?" Hazlehurst nodded assent, and DAlmayne 
 continued, — " The young lady, however, or I am much mistaken, 
 gi-eatly prefers your excellent and energetic friend, Mr. Coverdale 
 (who, you must pardon me for saying, reminds me of a well-inten- 
 tioned, enthusiastic bull in a china-shop), which preference the gentle- 
 man returns to such a degree, that I am inclined to believe he has 
 told, or in some other manner rendei-ed the fair Alice aware of his 
 love. Her manner at breakfast this morning, was compounded of 
 such an elaborate endeavour to conceal the conscious and confiding, 
 behind the most transparent eidolon of indifference, that no one at 
 all acquainted with woman's nature could doubt about the matter." 
 
 " Tou are indeed a close observer ! " exclaimed Arthur, surprised 
 out of his caution. " Coverdale's attachment was a thing I never 
 even suspected till — a — till this morning." 
 
 '■ Mr. Crane tells me, your father is intensely anxious to purchase 
 one of his fai-ms adjoining your estate, which he (Ci'ane) is unwilling 
 to part with," resumed DAlmayne ; " thence, I imagine, proceeds 
 your respected i^rogenitor's anxiety to bring about the match. To 
 finish the catalogue of my observations up to the jpresent time, I 
 conceive Mr. Crane to be now in the act of urging his suit to Mr. 
 Hazlehurst, and complaining that ' Miss Alice ' as he calls her (he 
 always talks on such subjects like an underbred greengrocer, or 
 second footman), rather kicked, than jumped, at him when he 
 offered her — ahem — his income and his affections." 
 
 " Tour sumiises are so wonderfully correct," rejoined Arthur 
 (determining to make a merit of necessity, and appear open with 
 one who seemed thus well acquainted with all the family secrets), 
 '■ that in telling you that as soon as Mr. Crane leaves the study, I 
 mean to appeal to my father in my fi-iend's behalf, I shall, probably, 
 only forestall you in ex^Dressing another of your judicious anticipa- 
 tions." 
 
 " I rather imagined that would be the next move," was the easy, 
 self-satisfied reply, — " Mr. Coverdale, with all his surprising fresh- 
 ness and naivete of character, could scarcely propose to lu-ge bis 
 suit in person, after having quarrelled with your father over his 
 wine last night ; for which reason, by the way, it requires no very 
 
 G
 
 82 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 s:reat tact to divine tliat Mr. Crane's proposal will find 'favour in 
 Mr. Hazlehurst's eyes, and Mr. Coverdale's be rejected." 
 
 ■' And the remedy ? " inquired Arthur eagerly. 
 
 DAlmayne paused, then a meaning but disagreeable smile 
 passed across his handsome features, as he replied, "If I can 
 induce Mr. Ci'ane to withdraw his suit of his own accord, yet con- 
 tinue his amicable relations towards this family, and be willing to 
 sell the farm to your father at his own price, and by these means 
 lead Mr. Hazlehnrst to regard your friend's offer favourably, shall I 
 be acting in accordance with your wishes ? " 
 
 " Nay, my dear D'Almayne, if you can indeed persuade Mr. Crane 
 to perform so magnanimous a part, I shall consider you the best and 
 cleverest fellow in the world. As to my wishing you to do so, I 
 should as soon have thought of wishing you to appoint me First 
 Lord of the Treasury — one only wishes for such things [as one, in 
 some degi'ee, expects to obtain. But surely you over-calculate your 
 powers of persuasion," returned Hazlehurst, scarcely knowing 
 whether D'Almayne might not be amusing himself at his expense. 
 
 " I will remain here and await the result of your inteiwiew with 
 your father, and if it terminates as I predict, I wiU attempt my little 
 bit of diplomacy ; — the result will prove to you whether or not I 
 overrate my Machiavelian talents," was the confident reply — and so 
 they pai-ted. 
 
 Mr. Hazlehurst, senior, was by no means in an amiable frame of 
 mind when his son entered the librai-y — the gout, considerably in- 
 creased by the wine-bibbing of the pre"\"ious evening, pervaded his 
 entire system, mental and bodily; and through the atrabilious 
 medium of a disordered stomach, he looked back upon his disagree- 
 ment with Coverdale, till it became magnified into a serious quaiTcl. 
 Mr. Crane had just informed him that, on renewing his offer to Alice 
 on the previous evening, the young lady rauttered a few words, 
 incoherent indeed, but, as he conceived, of a negative tendency, and 
 instantly conveyed herself away without affording him an oppor- 
 tunity of obtaining an explanation. Whereupon Mi-. Hazlehurst, 
 waxing wroth, declared she should accept him that very morning ; 
 begged him to retire until he should have seen his daughter, and, as 
 he was pleased to term it, brought her to her senses ; and having just 
 despatched a summons to the poor girl, was waiting her arrival to 
 perpetrate an act of parental tyi-anny, when his son entered. The 
 consequences may readily be imagined : — Coverdale was angrily and 
 unceremoniously refused ; Alice anathematized, excommiinicated, 
 and ordered magisterially to be imprisoned in her own room till 
 f ai-ther notice ; and Arthur severely reprimanded for having intro- 
 duced Coverdale to the family (which, be it remembered, he had 
 done at his father's particular request), and cautioned against 
 venturing to countenance Alice in her disobedience, or ever again to 
 refer to the subject in his (Mr. Hazlehurst's) sovereign presence, on 
 pain of being cut off with the trifling patrimony of one shilling
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 83 
 
 sterling. Arthur attempted a mild remonstrance, wliereby lie 
 obtained a pai-ticiilar request instantly to leave the room, and a 
 general order in regard to the entire altei'ation of his conduct, and 
 abnegation of his present opinions on all subjects, human and divine. 
 Returning to the breakfast-room in the frame of mind naturally 
 consequent upon such a reception, he discovered D'Almayne com- 
 fortably lounging in an easy-chair, and perusing a handsomely 
 bound copy of the " Pleasiu'es of Memory." 
 
 Glancing up as Hazlehurst entered, he observed coolly, '" I need 
 not ask you how it has gone, ' uion ami,' yoiu" face tells me." 
 
 Hazlehurst strode impatiently up and down the apartment ; then 
 stopping short in front of his companion, he exclaimed abruptly, 
 " Try your plan, whatever it maybe; for common sense is thrown 
 away iipon a man so prejudiced and positive as my father has shown 
 himself to be ; and common patience cannot bear the irritating 
 speeches he makes, when all the time one feels that one is striving 
 for the right, and that he is totally and entirely wi'ong." 
 
 " Tou are warm, ' mon cher,' " was the calm reply. " Papas have 
 been wi-ong-headed time out of mind, and will probably continue so 
 till time shall have passed away, together with all other sublunary 
 weights and measm-es ; so why afflict yourself at the inevitable ? 
 But I will now proceed without delay to try my eloquence upon the 
 dear rejected Mr. Crane— a — by the way, you must give me one promise. 
 ' On their own merits modest men are dumb ; ' now my modesty 
 is so outrageously sensitive, that I am 'not only dumb myself, but 
 require my friends to be so likewise ; in plain English, if I do this 
 thing to oblige you, you must promise me to keep my share in the 
 transaction a secret ; the change must appear to emanate from the 
 united kind regards and amiable self-sacrifice of your father and 
 Mr. Crane." Seeing Arthur hesitate, he continued, " Withovit this 
 assurance, you must excuse my declining to interfere." 
 
 " Be it as you will then," began Arthur. 
 
 As he spoke the door flew open, and Alice, eager and tearful, 
 Inu'ried in, exclaiming, " You have seen my father ! Can it be true 
 that he is so cruel as to refuse his consent. He has just written me 
 such a dreadful note, ordering me not to quit my room ! " 
 
 Here, catching sight of D'Almayne, she stopped short in confiision 
 and alarm. That individual hastened to relieve her by walking to 
 the door; but as he passed Arthur he whispered, "You may make 
 an exception in your sister's favour. I absolve you from your vow 
 of secrecy as far as she is concerned. I am a tender-hearted fellow, 
 and beauty in tears is always too many for me." As he spoke, he 
 left the apartment, and closed the door behind him. 
 
 Alice heard Ai'thm-'s account of D'Almayne's unexijected access 
 of benevolence with surprise ; but not having witnessed the quiet 
 confidence with which he asserted his power of inliiiencing Mr. 
 Crane, she put but little trust in his assurances, merely setting them 
 down as the vain boasting of a conceited youth, who was actuated by
 
 84 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 a good-natui-ed desire to lielp them out of their difficulties. That 
 she did him injustice may be gathered from the fact, that hater in 
 the day Mr. Crane sought a second interview with Mr. Hazlehurst, 
 after which the latter gentleman summoned Harry Coverdale to his 
 august presence ; and when that happy but much confused young 
 man entered the " sanctum sanctorum " of the library, sent for his 
 daughter Alice likeAvise, and having pronounced a strongly 
 acidulated, not to say, crabbed, benediction upon their youthful 
 heads, dismissed them in time to write by that day's post to his man 
 of business, to prepare the purchase-money for the Hazlecroft fai-m, 
 then the property of Jedediah Crane, Esq. The dinner-party that 
 evening passed off much more agreeably than the breakfast had 
 done. Coverdale sat by his lady-love, looking the picture, or better 
 still, the reality of happiness ; but Arthur Hazlehurst wore a gloomy 
 brow when he perceived that his cousin, Kate Marsden, had paired 
 off with the cotton-spinner, and that they appeared mutually satisfied 
 with the an-angement. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TREATS OF THINGS IN GENERAL. 
 
 It must be confessed that Harry Coverdale was of a somewhat 
 impetuous disposition. No sooner had he obtained Mr. Hazlehurst's 
 consent to the match, than he commenced a system of alternate 
 petting and persecution, whereby he contrived to render the lives of 
 Alice and her mother scarcely endurable, until he had induced them 
 to fix an early day for his " execution," as Tom irreverently para- 
 pkrased the solemnization of the marriage ceremony. This object 
 happily accomplished, a journey to London was proposed, whereat 
 Mr. Hazlehurst looked very black ; but when Alice seated herself on 
 his knee, and, stroking his bald head, called him a dear, good, kind, 
 papa (on speculation, i)robably, for at that moment he did not in the 
 slightest degree look the character), his heart softened, and he con- 
 sented to the plan. Then somebody told Arthur of a wonderful 
 doctor, who had found out a new system of curing everything, and 
 especially complaints analogous to that under which Mrs. Hazlehui'st 
 laboured; accordingly, he determined his mother should form one 
 of the London party, and consult this fashionable fee-taker ; and 
 when Ai'thur had determined on a thing, it generally came to pass. 
 Therefore, after considerable pro-ing and con-ing, and macadamizing
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 85 
 
 of difficulties, the matter was finally arranged by Mrs. Hazlehui-st, 
 her son, and her two daughters, taking np their abode at Cherry's 
 Hotel, in Jermyn Street, while Coverdale established himself in his 
 old quaiiers at the Tavistock, in Covent Garden. 
 
 Then they began to be overwhelmed with business. First, the 
 infallible doctor was to be consiilted ; so poor Mrs. Hazlehnrst was 
 dragged ont of bed some three honrs sooner than usual, breakfasted 
 in a nervous tremor, which rendered the ceremony a most unreal 
 mockery, was transported from her carriage to a stately dining-room, 
 where some twenty fellow-victims were already incarcerated, whence 
 (having waited two hours, because, in her ignorance of London 
 rascalities, she had omitted to fee the noble creatiire in plush and 
 powder who had admitted her) she was at length (his nobleness not 
 being able longer to exclude her) ushered into the presence of the 
 potentate of pills himself. This erudite individual was a short, stiff 
 man, with a short, stiff appearance — the result of the most severe 
 application of starch and hair-brushes, — and a short, stiff manner, 
 assumed, as are the stare and swagger of Van [Amburg and other 
 tiger-tamers, for the ]3urpose of browbeating and mentally subduing 
 refractory or sceptical patients. Seeing at a glance, however, that 
 poor Mrs. Hazlehm'st was already subdued, he obligingly let off a 
 little superfluous starch, slightly disarranged his hair, smiled, to 
 show a fine set of false teeth, put in at trade-price by a fi-iendly 
 dentist, and having thus brought himself somewhat nearer the limp- 
 ness of average humanity, added (as he would have probably 
 expressed it) a couple of drachms '" syrupi saccarinis " to his manner, 
 ere he proceeded to catechize his patient as to her symptoms, and 
 the remedies that had been applied to remove them. To each fact 
 thus elicited, he replied by frowning ]3ortentously, screwing round 
 liis mouth, and muttering, "I knew it,"' in a gloomy and mysterious 
 manner, as though he had acquired the knowledge by some awful 
 and supernatviral coiirse of study ; and, indeed, as Mrs. Hazlehurst's 
 confessions involved her having had a dangerous fall from her horse 
 at a period when he. the doctor, must have been about five years old, 
 and that she had been laid up with a bilious fever exactly two 
 calendar months and four days before he was born, he can scarcely 
 be supposed to have come by his information honestly and lawfully. 
 In fact, to a logical mind, the question resolved itself into the 
 following hypothesis — that he must either be a ti-ue prophet, or a 
 lying doctor. 
 
 Having elicited all the facts he cared to learn (which, if he knew 
 them before, he might as well have saved himself the trouble of 
 doing), he drew himself up to his extreme altitude, — which was 
 nothing very tremendous after all, — got his starch up to high- 
 pressure pitch, judiciously tempering its stiffness with soothing 
 syrup, and delivered himself of the following opinion : — 
 
 " Madam, you have told me nothing that, the moment I beheld you, 
 I was not prepared to hear. I do not in the slightest degree impugn
 
 86 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 tlie judgrnent and skill of Mr. Smitliers " (the Hazlehurst general 
 practitioner), "but tlie instant I glanced at his first prescription I 
 saw he had taken a -vvi-ong view o£ our case. Superacetate of 
 Euroclydon and bi-carbonate of Hydrocephalus would never remove 
 the pain and pali^itation on our right side — " 
 
 " The left is the side on which I usually feel the pain," began Mrs. 
 Hazlehurst mildly. 
 
 " Eh ! left — yes, of course ; I said left, didn't I ? I believe I 
 observed to you before, madam, that the moment I set eyes on you 
 I became aware of — in fact. I felt (if I may so express myseK) that 
 pain and laalpitation on our left side ; and I said to myself, if that 
 very talented practitioner, Mr. Smithers, has administered Super- 
 acetate of Euroclydon, and bi-carbonate of Hydrocephalus to that 
 pain of ours — with the highest respect for Smithers (he was walking" 
 St. Bartholomew's when I was dresser to the late celebrated and 
 lamented Flayflesh), I must say he has mistaken our case. Now, I 
 shall just — I make no secret of my practice — I shall just throw in 
 three gi-ains of extr. Borealis Aurorse, with equal propoi'tions of 
 Astri caninis, Geminorum siamesiae, and sesqui-carbonate (mind 
 that) sesqiai-carbonate of Pantapolion, and oiu' pain will lapse (as 
 Byron so beautifully expresses it) into ' a happy memory of the past.' 
 You will take the mixture six times in the twenty-four hours, and 
 the pills immediately before dinner. With regard to diet, everything 
 you have been accustomed to eat is wrong ; your appetite is weak, 
 and yoti like delicacies, as they are called, better than substantial 
 joints, I dare say ? " 
 
 Mrs. Hazlehurst acknowledged that his penetration had not failed 
 him ; and he resumed sharply, — 
 
 " Madam, we musn't touch them ! they are poison in such a case 
 as ours. No ; we must restrict ourselves to plain beef and mutton, 
 very much underdone ; stale bi'ead, no vegetables, no fruit, no nice 
 things, very bitter beer, with plenty of the camomile in it (that's the 
 brewer's secret, strychnine's all a delusion), and stick to the sesqui- 
 carbonate of Pantapolion, and we shall be a different woman in a 
 short time. Let me see you again on Friday. Good morning. And 
 so, pocketing his guinea with less respect than many men pay 
 to a fourpenny-piece, the fashional)le quack allowed his -victim to 
 escape. 
 
 Then there was shopping. There are a good many shops in Regent 
 Street, and those that are not there are in Bond Street, at least a 
 fair sprinkling of them ; but Harry solemnly declared (after his 
 marriage) that during the fortnight the party were in London, they 
 went into them all, and every man knows what that involves. Give 
 a woman her head, so far as to allow her to put it into a shop, and 
 he must indeed be a clever fellow who can coax or coerce her out of 
 it under half an hour. But Harry was in love, and love is blind 
 (though it has an awkward trick of recovering its eyesight after 
 marriage, and making up for lost time, by spying out all kinds of
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 87 
 
 things to wliicli it had far better liad remained blind) ; besides, Alice 
 was not more " exigeante " than a lovei generally desires his mistresa 
 should be : too much independence of character in a young girl being 
 by no means an attractive quality. 
 
 Then there was a good deal of sight-seeing to be got through. 
 Emily had never been in London before, and Alice only once for a 
 week. So they " did " "Westminster Abbey, which, they really 
 enjoyed ; and St. Paul's, which they pretended to admire, and didn't : 
 and the Tower, where Emily called the figures in the horse-annoury 
 a set of qiiizzical old things ; and the Polytechnic, where they saw 
 a man go down in a diving-bell, to pick up nothing at the bottom of 
 a large wash-hand-basin, and come up again half suffocated, which 
 they considered curious and highly satisfactory, as no doubt it was 
 to everybody but that unfortunate martyr to popular science himself, 
 who (taking the most cheerful view of his amphibious occupation) 
 can scarcely be i-egarded in the light of a jolly young watemian. 
 Then they went to the National Gallery to see the pictures, which, 
 as it was not an unusually bright and clear day, of course they were 
 unable to do ; but they had the pleasure of seeing the building itself, 
 and the fountains in Trafalgar Square, which they all agreed they 
 had never beheld anything like before ; and Han-y added, that in his 
 travels he had not met with anything to equal the whole affair in its 
 peculiar style, and that he thought foreigners must be very strongly 
 impressed by it, and that it must at once give them a clear idea of 
 English taste ; which remarks it was a pity the architect was not 
 there to hear, as they might possibly have been of use to him. Emily 
 had never beheld a play, so they went to the I-see-um Theatre, where 
 they witnessed the performance of a veiy long melodrama, adapted 
 from the French (that is, all that was national and peculiar — without 
 which the plot became a mere silly tissue of improbable events and 
 impossible situations — omitted, and the place supplied by worn-out 
 and conventional clap-traps). This " piece de resistance," which was 
 to last the play-going public for some foiu* or six months, according 
 to the degree in which it suited their appetites, was so well put on 
 the stage, and so well acted, that the false sentiment and worse 
 morality which pervaded it were for the 'time forgotten, and it was 
 not till Arthur called his attention to the fact, that Harry recollected 
 this un-English jumble of crimes and follies, was played night after 
 night to crowded houses, while the masterpieces of Shakspere, the 
 greatest dramatist who ever lived, were banished to an obscure 
 theatre in the outskirts of London, or wei-e forced to be translated 
 into a foreign language, and acted by a foreign company, ere the 
 " ears polite " of London fashionables could be persuaded to listen to 
 them. The two young men argued the question in all its bearings, 
 and arrived at this conclusion, viz. either that if Shakspere were 
 better acted it would be better attended, or that if Shakspere were 
 better attended, better actors would soon be found to perforai the 
 chaa'acters ; though which of these statements might be regarded as
 
 88 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 the cause, and wliicli as the effect, they could by no means agree. 
 And by that time, the play being concluded, Emily declared that it 
 was quite perfect, really charming ; and that, as to Shakspere, he 
 was an obsolete old slow-coach, and very wicked too — or else, why 
 did they want a family edition of him ? Whereas, if there had ever 
 been any harm in this play, which she did not believe could have 
 been the case, dear Mr. Kingsby Florence had translated it so 
 beavitifully that it might have been acted anywhere — in a church 
 almost. Then she turned and appealed to her sister, to support her 
 in her girlish and unorthodox enthusiasm. 
 
 Alice replied gravely, and with a pseudo-matronly air which was 
 highly amusing, that although she miist confess she had been 
 interested and entertained by the play she had just witnessed, yet 
 that she had listened to Arthur's argument with Mr. Coverdale, and 
 quite agreed in the view taken by the latter gentleman ; for which 
 sympathy of opinion Harry possessed himself of the lovely 
 sympathizer's hand, and pressed it gratefully ; while he inwardly 
 thanked heaven for having bestowed upon his future wife such a 
 correct taste and sound understanding. And so, between doctoring, 
 and shopping, and sight-seeing, and hurrying dressmakers, and 
 tailors, and coach-builders, and a host of minor tradesmen, all the 
 wedding paraphernalia were purchased, a vast amount of business 
 transacted, settlements prepared, and money spent ; and a fortnight 
 passed away so quickly, that it appeared like two or three days to 
 the actors in the genteel comedy thiis performed. 
 
 Then they all returned to the country, Han-y going to the Park 
 to make arrangements for the incoming of ho use- decorators and fur- 
 nishers innumerable, who were to put to the rout all the old admiral's 
 bachelor abominations, and prepare the mansion for the reception of 
 its fair mistress. That auaiable young lady was beginning to find, 
 by experience, that to be " going to be married " is very hard work 
 indeed, the wear and tear of the feelings being a marked and alarm- 
 ing feature in the case. Thus, whenever Harry was away for a day, 
 she found herself anxious, low-spirited, and a prey to innumerable 
 misgivings lest evil should befall him. On one evening in particular, 
 when he returned full twenty minutes later than he should have 
 done, she felt so convinced that " dreadful trotting-mare " had by 
 some means compassed his destruction, that she received him with 
 a gentle shower of tears, which of course he kissed away, as he 
 whispered that very soon she would be his dear little wife, and then 
 nothing should part them even for an hour ; and Alice smiled through 
 her tears as she thought how, with every taste and feeling in common, 
 they should trip gaily along the pathway of life, hand in hand, like a 
 conjugal couple of Siamese twins. Dreams! pretty Alice, dreams ! 
 which many a young girl's loving heart has framed ere this, only to 
 awaken to a far different reality, and weep over the depai-ture of 
 such bright illusions. 
 But there was not much time for di'eaming or romance at the
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 89 
 
 Grangre, for the " fatal day " came nearer and nearer witli alarming 
 velocity, until at last it actually arrived ; and everybody was in such 
 a state of excitement, that an uninitiated spectator might have 
 imagined the whole household, instead of merely one member of it, was 
 going to be married. As every one expected a most fatiguing day, 
 of course no one slept a wink during the previous night ; and as the 
 match was in every way most desirable, and Alice enjoyed as fair a 
 prospect of happiness as those who loved her best could wish her, of 
 course all the women, the moment it was light, indulged in the 
 feminine luxury of " a hearty cry " ; after which libation to sensibility, 
 they set to woi'k in real earnest to dress themselves and each other 
 as becomingly as they possibly could. On the bride's dressing-table 
 was found a set of pearl ornaments, supposed by the learned in such 
 matters to have cost at least ^£500, together with a slip of paper, 
 representing Mr. Crane's best Avishes for her happiness ; which piece of 
 generosity Alice thoiight very amiable and pretty of him, as indeed 
 it was. Kate (wearing a splendid bracelet, giver unknown) and 
 Emily were to be bridesmaids, and four of the prettiest bosom 
 friends the bride possessed made up the team. These six susceptible 
 young creatures turned out in light blue, and very nice they looked, 
 only (as Master Tom, reprieved for a week from Eton in order to be 
 present at the ceremony, observed) they did not step well together — 
 a deficiency for which he accounted by remarking that his cousin 
 Kate carried her head so high, without a bearing rein, and had such 
 grand action, that it naturally made the other girls look rather 
 screwy ; and indeed Master Tom's descriptive powers so far exceed 
 our ovra, that we shall violate confidence by availing ourselves of a 
 letter he despatched the next morning to one of his friends at Eton 
 in which he gave his own impressions of the eventful day. It ran 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Dear Tipsbt, — If this blessed hot weather does not make 
 dripping of a fellow prematurely, you will have an opportunity of 
 weeping on the affectionate bussim of ' Yoiirs, truly,' by the 5 p.m. 
 train on Monday next. The cause of my shirking a week is not, as 
 you impertinently insinuate, my having ' over-goosebeiTied myself,' 
 but the no less alarming fact that my eldest sister has been and gone 
 and committed matrimony, and I have waited to see her tiu-ned off. 
 The ' shocking event ' arrived at a climax (that's grammar, ain't it ?) 
 yesterday. I rose with the lark (i.e. Arthur, my big brother, came and 
 dragged me out of bed at seven o'clock), and dressed myself. Yes, 
 I should think I did — rather ! Kerseymere sit-upons, made precious 
 loose in the leg, and with a large pink check on a lavender ground — 
 stunnin ! satin vest, colours to sympathize ; silk necktie, pink gi-ound, 
 lavender jDattem, once round— ends at least a quarter of a yard long, 
 and such a bow ! — there's high art for you, my boy ! — and last, not 
 least, real Oxford bang-tail coatee (none of your blackguard boys' 
 jackets), bright blue, with only two buttons and buttonholes about 
 it, and all sorts of jolly pockets in original places ; but, don't fret.
 
 90 HARRY CO VERB ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 you shall see it. Well, to return to our mutton, as the French say : 
 very few showed at early breakfast, sensibilities superseding' appetites 
 in a general way, though I can't say I perceived much difference as 
 regarded number one : yet, when I come to think of it, I recollect I 
 only eat three eggs ; but then the ham was a real brick. Nothing 
 particular occurred till we were to go to church ; but when the traps 
 came round, you may fancy there was something to look at. My 
 brother-in-law, Coverdale— oh. Tips, he really is a fine fellow, as 
 handsome as fun^cau ride anything you like to put him across — a 
 dead shot — A 1 with his fists ('gad, I should be sorry to get even a 
 left-hander from him), and as good-tempered and jolly as a cock; 
 but you shall see him some day : well, he came up with his own 
 horses, a pair of blood bays, he gave ^350 for 'em, and they're dii-t 
 cheap at the money; he is a first-rate judge of a horse : but I'll tell 
 you all about the traps when we meet. Then down came the girls; 
 Ally (that's my eldest sister) was smothered with veils, and flounces, 
 and pearls, and that sort of nonsense ; and looked precious pale and 
 interesting, and like to blub; so we bundled her into the family- 
 coach, and Coverdale jumped into his own trap, and away we all 
 scuttled to church. We've got a good, sharp parson, that can go the 
 pace slap up when he likes ; and, knowing that the chami)agne was 
 waiting for him, he put the harness on 'em in no time; and the 
 women did the water-cart business in style — where all their tears 
 came from I can't think — but they laid the diTst beautifully. 
 Then there was signing names in the vestry, and a lot of chaff about 
 kissing the bride, which so upset that muff. Lambkin, the parson's 
 apprentice (curate, I suppose, is what they call the chap), that he 
 fairly turned tail and bolted. Next, we all bundled home again; 
 Ally in Coverdale's trap this time (and precious handsome he looked, 
 as he handed her in, I can tell you) ; and then came the ' crowning 
 mercy ' (as Lambkin said in his sermon last Sunday), the wedding 
 breakfast. The governor had done the thing well for once in his 
 life, I will say that for the old boy. There were all the delicacies of 
 all the four seasons (one only Avished one had four stomachs, like a 
 camel, to pay them i^roper attention : though I didn't do badly, in 
 spite of my mono-stomachic conformation). Then the champagne; 
 — my dear Tips, I am not iising a mere figure of rhetoi-ic when I say 
 the supply was unlimited ; — how much I drank I literally cannot 
 tell, but, in mentioning the affair to inquiring friends, you had 
 better restrict your statement to half-a-dozen bottles — as a general 
 rule, a gentleman should not take more on such occasions — it is not 
 every man who possesses my strength of head and self-control. I 
 sat next to one of the bridesmaids, — 
 
 " ' A little, laughing fairy thing, 
 Just like an angel on the wing ; ' 
 A rosebud 'neath the moon's pale ring 
 A playful zephyr, whispering 
 Some secret to the early Si)ring. 
 
 As Tennyson has it— stunning poet, Tennyson ! At first my
 
 AND ALL THAT CAIVIE OF IT 91 
 
 modesty prevented my fretting on witli lier quite as fast as I 
 could have wished ; in fact, till after my foiu-th glass of champagne, 
 I had not gone beyond asking if she liked roast chicken, and saying 
 ' Bless yon,' when she sneezed ; which I have since thought might 
 not be quite etiquette, for she certainly looked surprised. However, 
 ' in vino jollitas,' as Cicero says ; after imbibing the ' rosy,' I went 
 ahead like beans, and I flatter myself — ahem!— made a very con- 
 siderable impression ; but then recollect the expense with which I 
 was got up ! the woman who could look on that bang-tail coatee with 
 indifference must be a heartless tigi-ess. At all events, Juliana 
 Georgina (sweet, poetical name ! ain't it, Tips P) didn't ; and if my 
 mother invites her here dm-ing the Christmas holidays — which, 
 betwixt you and me and the post, is not impossible — I should not be 
 surprised if the affair were to assume quite a serious complexion. It 
 is some time since I have experienced what the mounseers call a 
 ' grande passion.' When the pai-ty generally had pitched into the 
 gi-ub, till the powers of nature were forced to ci-y 'Hold, enough !' 
 (though, for my part, I don't think one's bread-basket does by any 
 means hold enough on such occasions) everybody drank everybody's 
 health, and everyl^ody returned thanks. My brother-in-law. Cover- 
 dale, made a stunning speech, the best that was made, by long odds ; 
 though Master Arthur didn't disgrace his profession in the jawing 
 line either. The governor did the ])athetic and paternal ; but it was 
 precious slow, and all his jokes old ones. Mr. Crane (he's a rich old 
 buffer that was nibbling after Ally, but it wasn't likely she'd have 
 anything to say to him when she'd a chance of taking such a trump- 
 card as my brother-in-law, Coverdale, into her hand) followed in the 
 benevolent and philanthropic line ; but he made a regular mull of it, 
 worse than the daddy ; and when they'd done making fools of them- 
 selves, the sitting broke up, and my brother-in-law and Alice started 
 for the Continent. And the last thing before they were off. Cover- 
 dale, while he was waiting in the hall for his wife (women are always 
 too late for everything) , tipped me a flimsy to the time of ten pounds, 
 and told me not to forget I was to come to the Park in the hunting- 
 season, and he'd take care to find me a good mount ; but if ever 
 there was a real brick, my brother-in-law Coverdale is the identical 
 article, and no mistake. And that this is a full, true, and pai-ticular 
 account of this wonderful wedding, sayeth and attesteth, 
 
 " Tours, in the bonds of jollity, 
 
 "Tom Hazlehurst." 
 
 " P.S. — Advice to cricketers ! Mind your batting, old fellow ; for 
 I've been put up to some first-rate bowling dodges by my brother-in- 
 law, Coverdale (he's one of the top-sawyers at Lord's), that will send 
 your stumps flying about your ears, if you don't mind your eye. 
 Yerbum sat. slow-coachici ! "
 
 92 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 PLOTTING AND COUNTER-PLOTTING. 
 
 The same post-bag in whicli Tom Hazlelmrst despatched liis letter 
 to liis schoolfellow, conveyed also two other epistles written by 
 inmates of the Grange. For the reader's benefit we will take the 
 same liberty with them, which we have already taken with the 
 Etonian's literary effusion. The first was from Kate Marsden to 
 Miss Arabella Crofton, a lady some three or fom* years older than 
 herself, who had been one of the teachers at the school at which 
 Kate had been brought up, and was now governess in a German 
 family. Miss Crofton was a woman of unusual mental ability, and 
 having in a great degree moulded Kate's character, was now her sole 
 confidante and mentor. It ran thus : — 
 
 " Dear Arabella, — Since I finally determined on following 
 your advice, fate seems to have played my game for me, and I now 
 consider it as secure as anything which has not actually come to pass 
 can be. I told jo\i, when I wrote to yon at Baden-Baden, that his 
 friend, Mr. Coverdale, and my cousin Alice, were evidently becoming 
 attached ; you will, therefore, be the less surprised to hear that they 
 were man'ied yesterday ; the matter came about thus : — Soon after I 
 wrote to you, Mr, Crane, by my advice, offered ; Alice of course 
 refused him, but so equivocally (she is quite a child in such things) 
 that the poor, dear, dull creature scarcely caught her meaning. I 
 immediately took him in hand, and, availing myself of the situation, 
 flattered his vanity to such a degree, that ere the evening finished he 
 believed not only that Alice would accept him, but that I, Kate 
 Marsden, was hopelessly in love with him. Accordingly, when he 
 learned unmistakably next morning that Alice meant to refuse him, 
 my good taste stood out in very favourable contrast. In the mean- 
 time, Mr. Crane's offer brought Mr. Coverdale to the point, and 
 Alice gladly accepted him, in doing which she acted wisely, for he is 
 a good, amiable, sterling man ! and when the romance has worn off, 
 and they have got over the bore of awakening from ' Love's yoimg 
 di'eam,' I believe they will settle down into a very happy couple. My 
 uncle at first refused his consent, for Coverdale has only five, instead 
 of twenty thousands a year ; and Mr. Crane sulked in a comer ; but 
 that strange Mr. D'AImayne, about whom I told you before, and who 
 possesses a degi'ee of influence over Mr. Crane of which I by no means 
 approve, went to him, and persuaded him not only to give up Alice 
 good-humoiiredly, but actually to play a generous part, and talk my
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 93 
 
 uncle over to give his consent to my cousin's union with Mr. Cover- 
 dale. Thus, you see, as I began by saying, my game was played for 
 me, and I had only to sit still and avail myself of the moves as the 
 others made them . 
 
 " I am miich puzzled by this Mr. D'Almayne. He is, unless I am 
 much deceived, a complete adventurer, scheming for his own advan- 
 tage (I ought to be able to recognize such a character) ; but what 
 his object can have been in this affair I cannot jDossibly conjecture. 
 Pure philanthropy had nothing to do with it, of that I am certain. 
 Again, how he contrived to influence Mr. Crane to behave so amiably 
 I cannot conceive. Sometimes I fancy he has divined my intention 
 of mai-rying the millionaire ; but if so, why should he aid me in my 
 project ? — for I know by his manner (although he is very cautious) 
 that he admires me himself. Certain it is, that since the conversa- 
 tion I have alluded to, Mr. Crane has been at my feet, and is only 
 waiting to offer till he imagines time enough shall have elapsed to 
 prevent the transfer of his affections (?) from Alice to me appearing 
 too ridiculous. However, the affair will unravel itself some day. 
 And now that my plans are likely to be crowned with success, you 
 will ask me how I feel on the subject. Determined as ever ! that 
 which I have begun I will carry through ; but, Arabella, I am most 
 miserable ! For myself alone I should not care ; to rescue my family 
 from poverty, I should be happy to sacrifice my personal hopes and 
 wishes ; but to see Arthur suffer is indeed bitterness, and tbat he 
 does suffer frightfully, I, who can read his every look and gesture, 
 cannot for a moment doubt. Oh, that I had known the depth and 
 reality of his affection sooner, or that the necessity were less cogent ! 
 Then he bears it with such manly endurance! his manner to his 
 family is exactly the same as i;sual ; not one of them suspects that 
 anything has occurred to pain him. Again, it is such an aggrava- 
 tion of my sorrow that he blames me so deeply ! Sometimes, when I 
 am talking to Mr. Crane, I catch his stem, penetrating glance fixed 
 upon me -svith a calm earnestness of rebuke, which affects me more 
 deeply than covild the most vehement reproaches ; and when I have 
 acted my part for the day, and, in the solitude of my chamber, I 
 recall all that has passed between us, and reflect that it is I who have 
 brought this sorrow upon him — I who even now feel that I love him 
 better than my own soul — I who woidd gladly have died for him, I 
 sit, night by night, like a cold statue of despair, or lie sleepless, 
 shedding such tears as I trust God's mercy permits not to flow quite 
 in vain ! Tet it is my duty — you know, you cannot doubt for a 
 moment, it is my duty — you could never have dared to counsel such 
 a sacrifice of the only thing which can make the biu'den of life en- 
 durable, a real, deep, trae affection, if you had not felt certain it was 
 my duty. 
 
 '■ You have set me a ci'uel task, Arabella, but I do not flinch from 
 it; you shall find your pupil worthy the trouble you have bestowed 
 upon her. I shall write again when anything conclusive is settled.
 
 94 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 If all .?oes well. I shall be in a position to fulfil my old promise, and 
 offer you a Lome on yonr return to England. Would to God it were 
 likely to be a happier, though a humbler one ! But that is past now. 
 
 Farewell. 
 
 " Yoiu's, in many senses of the word. 
 
 " Kate Maksden." 
 
 The third epistle was from Horace D'Almayne to a friend and ally 
 in Paris. We transcribe it verbatim :— 
 
 " Alphonse. mon CHER, — I enclose you a draft for 3000 francs, 
 wherewith I beg you to satisfy CaiTcau, the tailor ' et tous les 
 autres brigands,' who render Paris an unsafe residence for me. 
 Ton will naturally ask how I have obtained the money ; not at 
 the gaming-table, nor on the highway, like Claud Duval. Rail- 
 roads and police have freed England from highwaymen. No; I 
 have for the present filled my purse by studying the great game 
 of life; in which, like all other games, you must either pillage, 
 or be pillaged. You and I, men of wit and of action, naturally 
 belong to the former class, and have meritoriously laboured to 
 fulfil our destiny. Since I have been in England this time, I 
 have seditiously cultivated the millionaire I introduced to you last 
 season, whose pocket you so obligingly relieved of .£500 at piquet. I 
 made a bad bargain there in only claiming one-third of the spoil; I 
 should have demanded half, for without my assistance you could 
 have done nothing with him ; but I understand them, these cautious 
 islanders, some of their blood runs in my veins — my mother, as you 
 know, having been an Englishwoman. However, the time spent on 
 my millionaire has turned out a more profitable investment than I 
 at all calculated upon. He is a weak, vacillating character, one of 
 those feeble-minded mortals who always require some intelligence 
 stronger than their own to lean upon. This support he has found in 
 your humble servant; and so convinced has he become of my 
 diplomatic powers, that just at present he can do nothing without 
 my approval and sanction. His great object in life is to marry, and 
 it is to assist him in obtaining a wife that my counsel is required. 
 When I first anived here, I found he was dangling after a charming 
 little country girl, the daiighter of a landed proprietor, in these parts. 
 I soon discovered that the said proprietor, for mercenary reasons, 
 desired the match ; but with the young lady I could do nothing. I 
 gave her the fuU benefit of my eyes, which, as you know, are not 
 wont to look in vain; but it was no use — even 'les petites 
 moustaches noires,' iisually so in-esistible, were thi-own away upon 
 her; nor had friend Crane's ,£20,000 per annum ("mon Dieu, 
 Alphonse, quelle somme merveilleuse ! ') any more effect upon her. 
 But I soon found a clue to her obduracy — the silly child was 
 enamoured of her brother's friend, a fox-hunting squire, a true 
 specimen of young John Bull. I saw how the game would go, John 
 Bull returned her affection; he is a real type of his class. Rich,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 95 
 
 oTjstinate, and impetuous, he was resolved to maiTy tlie pretty rustic ; 
 she was equally determined ; her brother befriended him ; the thing 
 was to be, so I arranged my hand accordingly. There is in the 
 family a ' belle cousme ' — such a splendid creature, Alphonse ! 
 beautiful as an angel, the contour of a Juno, the port of an empress. 
 She has tact and talent ! a soul of fire beneath an exterior of ice ; 
 she is poor and ambitious. I could not have hoped to find one better 
 suited to my purpose. She shall marry Crane ; his purse will be in 
 her hands ; he will become her slave ; and, Alphonse, she shall 
 be mine ! Do you doubt my success, ' mon ami ' ? Bah ! the game 
 is as simple as child's play. She is young, ardent ; she will marry 
 an old man to satisfy her ambition — she will despise him. Her heart 
 will pine for an object on which to lavish its tenderaess ; I shall 
 present myself, become her friend, her counsellor — and the result ? 
 Oh, you cannot doubt it. So I have pulled the strings, and my 
 marionettes have danced and are dancing. My millionaire offered — 
 the little rustic refused him. While he was smarting from this 
 insult, I suggested to him that ' la belle coxisine ' pined for love of 
 him ; praised her wit and beauty ; and advised him to revenge himself 
 by transferring his attentions to her. The bait took ; I worked out 
 all the minor incidents admirably ; the young fox-hunter has 
 married the pretty rustic, and taken her out of my way yesterday. 
 The lovely Kate, playing her own game, laboui's indefatigably for 
 my interest also. My friend Crane is delighted, and shows his 
 gi'atitude by tirging me to borrow money of him — (I have mort- 
 gaged my farm in Brittany to him for sis ;times its value ; when 
 the three prior claims upon it are satisfied, and he brings forward 
 his, this fact will surprise him, and teach him prudence for the 
 future) — I avail myself of his liberality with caution, for I must not 
 cut up my golden goose too quickly. But it is well to have more 
 than one resource to rely upon; so if your rich young German 
 countess should resolve on visiting England, send me timely notice. 
 I feel that my star is in the ascendant. Cher Alphonse, wish your 
 friend the success which should reward talent, in the use of which 
 you have so well instnicted your devoted 
 
 " Horace."
 
 96 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 Alice's first introduction to her husband's " quiet 
 
 MANNER." 
 
 If our readers, gentle or simple, will obligingly sti-etch their imagina- 
 tions sufficiently to depict for tliemselves the happiness of Alice and 
 Harry during the first month of their married life, popularly 
 denominated the honeymon, and be content to permit us to resume 
 oru- office of clu-onicler at the termination of that mellifluous (though 
 to all but the parties concerned, especially insipid) season, the readers 
 aforesaid will merit our eternal gratitude, which we hereby beg to 
 present them with. 
 
 Alice and Harry, then, having been married one calendar month, 
 dm-ing which i^eriod they had been " up " the Rhine, and one or two 
 of the Swiss mountains — having seen a great many strange things 
 and strange people — having talked a vast amount of bad French and 
 worse German, and narrowly escaped an attack of cholera from listen- 
 ing to the dissonance of that arch-delusion the " Ranz-des-Vaches " 
 — having eaten such wonderfid articles, cooked in such wonderful 
 fashion, that if the genus Bimana were not providentially omnivorous, 
 they would infallibly have been poisoned — having travelled overland 
 and water by every species of conveyance known to the annals of 
 locomotion, except iDerhaps a balloon, or the back of an elephant — had 
 at length made their way to Paris ; and as the inhabitants of that 
 skittish and inconstant capital were then figuratively patting each 
 other on the back, by way of congratulation on the fortunate 
 accident which had preserved those that remained alive after the 
 latest revolution from having shot each other through the head, our 
 bride and bridegi'oom, established in a comfortable hotel, had de- 
 termined to remain there till such time as they should mutually 
 agree upon for their retiirn to England. For, be it observed, that 
 enough of the halo of the honeymoon yet lingered around this young 
 couple, to keep them in the misty delusion that they possessed but 
 one " will of their own " between them. They had yet to leam that 
 there is a higher, truer, nobler state of association to be arrived at 
 even here on earth — a state in which we recognize the deep happiness 
 of being inivileged to sacrifice ovir own desires to those of the being 
 we love better than om-selves. A logician may stigmatize this as 
 merely a refined iDhase of selfishness ; but it is such selfishness as 
 might cling to us in heaven, and we yet remain sinless. Be this as 
 it may, Alice, who had never been abroad before, found eveiy pleasui-e 
 enhanced by the charm of novelty, and was in a perfect Elysium of
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 97 
 
 happy excitement. Harry had seen and done it all, and a great deal 
 more besides ; and would have found it a bore, only it was sufficient 
 amusement to him to watch his young wife's delight at all she saw 
 and heard. Whether this amusement of watching, petting, and 
 spoiling Alice was at all beginning to lose its charm, may be 
 gathered from the following conversation : — 
 
 " Harry, you sleepy old thing, this is the third time I've asked 
 you whether Madame de Beauville is certain of getting us an in- 
 vitation to Lord N 's picnic at Versailles ; do rouse yourself and 
 
 answer me ! " 
 
 Thus apostrophized, Coverdale — who was stretched at full length 
 on (and beyond) a brocaded sofa, and had been lazily watching his 
 wife, as with a vast deal of imnecessary energy, she stitched away at 
 a button, which, according to button nature, had " come ofE " her 
 husband's glove the very first moment he attempted to draw it on — 
 half -raised himself on his ell^ow as he replied, — 
 
 " There is nothing certain under the sim, except that my little 
 wife has the prettiest hand and arm of any woman (I don't care who 
 she may be — Jew, Turk, infidel, heretic, or Christian) in the known 
 world. But that old humbug, Madame de Beauville, promised me 
 faithfully to do her best for us — not that I'd believe her on her oath ; 
 she tried to book me for one of her scraggy daughters, the last time 
 I was here ; but it wouldn't act — the trap was too visible, and the 
 bait not sufficiently tempting. What very high action you have with 
 that needle-hand of yours ! you'll overreach yourself, or get sprained 
 in the back sinews, some of these days, if you don't look out." 
 
 "I will not allow you to ' talk stable ' in that way, sir," returned 
 Alice, playfully shaking her finger at her reciimbent spouse ; " you 
 shall not go to the picnic at all, you naughty boy, unless you behave 
 better. Come, get up," she continued, " if you lie dovm again you'll 
 be asleep in a minute ; you're so idle, you're actually growing fat! " 
 
 " Nonsense, you don't really mean it ! " exclaimed Harry, springing 
 up with a bound which shook the room, and startled Alice so much 
 that she dropped the glove, needle, thread, button, and all, pricking her 
 finger into the bargain. " By Jove," he continued, regarding himself 
 anxiously in a large pier-glass, "so I am! I tell you what, Mrs. 
 Coverdale, this is getting serious, and must be put a stop to ! " 
 
 "My dearest Harry, how dreadfully impetuous you are!— you've 
 made me jump so, that I've dropped my work, and been and gone 
 and pricked my favourite finger, as you say in your horrid slang — 
 look!" So saying, the pretty Alice pouted like a spoilt child, as 
 she then most assuredly was, and held iip the injured finger to 
 excite her husband's commiseration. When a proper degree of pity 
 had been shown, and the necessary amount of matrimonial felicity 
 transacted, Alice resumed : " What a dreadfully conceited fellow you 
 are, to be so alarmed at growing fat ! Are you afraid of losing yom- 
 beauty ? " 
 
 " My how much ? " was the astonished reply. " What funny ideas 
 
 H
 
 98 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 do come into a woman's head, to be sure! Why, you silly child, do 
 you think I ever set up for a ' beauty ' man ? or care two straws 
 what I look like ? Such follies are very well for got up puppies, like 
 Horace D'Almayne ; but they're not in my line." 
 
 " I'm sure you're fifty times as handsome as Mr. D'Almayne," was 
 Alice's ea^ev rejoinder ; " but," she continued reflectively, " if you 
 are not afraid of your good looks, why are you so horrified at the 
 idea of growing fat ? " 
 
 Harry coloured slightly, and tried to evade the question ; but his 
 wife's curiosity being by this time excited, was not so easily baffled, 
 and Ooverdale had nothing for it but to confess the truth, which he 
 did thus : — 
 
 " Well, if you must know, little Avife, I've a bay colt by Fencer out 
 of a Harkaway mare, and a chestnut filly by Hercules out of 
 Bullfinch, both rising five (I refused 600 guineas for the pair of 'em 
 a year ago), which I expect to do most of my work with next hunting 
 season ; but as they're both young unmade horses, I would not ride 
 over twelve stone for anything ; nothing cows a young horse more 
 than overweighting him at starting." 
 
 " Oh, Harry ! " exclaimed Alice reproachfully, " I thought you 
 meant to give up hunting now — I'm sure you said so when you 
 
 were , that is, before we were married. Why, you -would be away 
 
 from me more than half the day every time you went out ! besides, 
 it's so dangerous ! Oh, no ; you may go shooting sometimes, and I 
 can ride a pony and mark for you, as I used to do with papa and 
 Arthur, but you must not hunt." 
 
 " And can't you ride and see the hounds throw off, darling ? It's 
 one of the prettiest sights in the world. The first thing I mean to 
 do when we get back, is to buy jow a perfect lady's horse ; something 
 rather different from that brute j^oor old Crane gave you." 
 
 " Then you won't promise to give up hunting, you naughty boy — 
 not even when I ask you to do so to please me ? " 
 
 And, confident in her own power, the young wife cast a look, half- 
 imploring, half-commanding on her lord and master, which he would 
 have fovind it no easy matter to resist to a degree Avhich should 
 vindicate his right to such a title, when the opportune entrance of 
 the valet, with a packet of letters, extricated him from his dilemma. 
 
 " A note from Madame de Beauville, containing an invitation to the 
 picnic !— how delightful ! " exclaimed Alice, appealing for sympathy 
 to her better half ; but he was engaged in perusing the following 
 epistle, which, owing to the peculiarities both of diction, writing, and 
 spelling, it was not too easy to decipher : — 
 
 "HoNOUiiED SuR,— I remain your humbel survunt and gaim- 
 keepur as wos, John Markum, whech I would not 'ave intruded on 
 you injoying of yourself in furring parts as is most fit. having married 
 a beutiful yung English lady, as they do tell me, and the darter of 
 Squire Hazlehurst likewise ; which having caused a many things to go
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 99 
 
 rong at home, I thort you wovild be glad to hear on it, and so rite, 
 which I 'ope is no offence, the same being unintenshonal on my part ; 
 but the new stewart is agoin on oudacious, a ordering of me to kill 
 gaim for him to sell, which, refusing to do, agin your ordurs, 
 Honoured Sur, and he putting the money in his durty pocket, savin 
 your presents, am discharged with four small childring, and a little 
 stranger expected, which would have been welcome, but now must be 
 a birding on the parish with his poor mother; which, knowin 
 Honoured Sur, as injustice to unborn innocents is not in your line, 
 nor in that of any gents but dishonest stewarts spoken agen in 
 Scriptiu', I umbly takes the liberty of trustin in Providence, which 
 supports his poor mother agen the thorts of workous baby-linen, that 
 hangs heavy on a woman accustomed to wash for the family and 
 keep herself respectabul ; so do not give up all hope of seeing you 
 home. Honoured Sur, before every bed of gaim is destroyed, in which 
 case Mr. stewart may lurn that honesty is the best politics arter all ; 
 and so remain, 
 
 " Your humbel survunt to commarnd, 
 
 " John Markum." 
 
 "P.S. — The I'abbids is agoin to town in the carriiu*'s cart, frightful, 
 likewise the peasants." 
 
 " My dearest HaiTy, there is to be a ' bal costum^ after the picnic, 
 and that kind Madame de Beauville sends us tickets for both ! How 
 charming ! " exclaimed Alice, so engrossed in her pleasant anticipa- 
 tions that she had not observed the gloom gathering upon her 
 husband's brow, and was, therefore, quite unprepared when he broke 
 out suddenly, — 
 
 " 'Pon my word, it's enough to drive a man distracted ! the 
 moment one turns one's back everything goes to — —Ahem ! — Here's 
 a scoundrel, who lived eight years with Lord FlashiiJan, and who 
 came to me with a character fit for a bishop, and now he's not only 
 selling my game by cart-loads, but has actually dared to discharge 
 Markum ! — as honest, trustworthy a fellow, and as good a keeper as 
 man need to require. Oh, if I was but near him with a horse-whip, I 
 wouldn't mind paying for the assault ! I'd give him something to 
 remember Harry Coverdale by — he might thank his stars if I didn't 
 break every bone in his skin. And that poor fellow Markum turned 
 out, and all his little curly-headed brats, too— that makes me as mad 
 as any of it ! " He strode wp and down the room angrily, his wife 
 watching him in terrified amazement. At length he exclaimed 
 abruptly, " Alice, my dear, we must start for England to-moiTow 
 morning ! " 
 
 " But the picnic and the ' bal costume,' Harry, dearest, do not come 
 off till the day after that ; and Madame de Beauville has just sent 
 me tickets for them both ! " urged his wife, timidly. 
 
 " I'm sorry, my love, that it should have happened so, but go we 
 must," was the unyielding reply.
 
 100 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " But Madame de Beauville has taken so miicli trouble, and been 
 so kind," miimanred Alice. 
 
 " The devil fly away with the old hag and her kindness too ! " was 
 the angry rejoinder. " I wish to heaven she'd attend to her own 
 afEairs, and not try to inspire you with a taste for dissipation. How- 
 ever, there is a quiet way of settling this question : if you choose to 
 stay and go to this partj^ stay ; and when I've been to Coverdale, 
 and settled scores with that rascal Cribbins, I'll come back and fetch 
 you ; so please yourself." 
 
 Poor Alice ! this was her first experience of Harry's " qiiiet way " ; 
 the implied indifference was more than she could bear, and miu'mur- 
 ing, in a broken voice, " Do you wish to leave me already ! " she burst 
 into a flood of tears. 
 
 Of course, that settled the question. Harry called himself a brute, 
 and thought he was one, and felt as if he could have cried too, when 
 he saw the bright drops glistening in Alice's soft, loving eyes, and so 
 set himself to work in earnest to console her ; and succeeded to such 
 an extent that ere a quarter of an hour had elapsed, Alice pronounced 
 herself to be a silly child, and wondered how she could have been so 
 foolish as to cry because Harry, the kindest and most affectionate of 
 husbands, had evinced his just indignation on learning how the 
 miscreant Cribbins had tyrannized over the faithful and unfortunate 
 Markum, and his dear little interesting, curly-pated family. Then, 
 as a personal favour to herself, she begged Harry would let her give 
 up the picnic, and stai-t for England next morning ; she would be 
 quite ready to go at five a.m., or earlier, if he wished it. To which 
 Harry replied that nothing should induce him to deprive her of a 
 pleasure he knew she had set her heart on ; that a French picnic and 
 ' bal costume ' were things she could never see in England, and that as 
 they were there it would be really a pity not to avail themselves of so 
 good an opportunity ; and he begged she would instantly sit down 
 and write his thanks, as well as her own, to that thoroughly friendly, 
 kind-hearted woman, Madame de Beauville. 
 
 "While Alice was thus engaged, Hari-y took pen in hand, and dashed 
 off a hurried epistle to Arthur, begging him to run down to Coverdale 
 Park by the next train, and in his name cashier Cribbins, and re- 
 instate the ill-used Markum, and his much-enduring wife, if possible, 
 before the arrival of the expected little sti'anger should add another 
 small item to his embaiTassments. 
 
 The picnic was a very gay one, and the ' bal costume ' all that Alice's 
 " fancy had painted it," — and a few over, as her slang husband was 
 pleased to express it. The young couple went dressed as Romeo 
 and Juliet. Hari-y, if left to himself, would have chosen a clown's 
 suit of motley ; but Alice considered the romantic preferable to the 
 ridiculous, and so he yielded ; though it must be confessed that he 
 afforded the most stalwart, robust, and cheerful representation of the 
 forlorn Veronese lover that can well be imagined. Alice (although 
 she also would have looked the part better if her damask cheek had
 
 
 ^^
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 101 
 
 not glowed quite so brio-litly witli health and happiness) made an 
 extremely fascinating? little Juliet, and produced a sensation which 
 delighted her husband, and bid fair to turn her own pretty head. 
 
 The ' bal ' and picnic being safely accomplished, and Alice pei-ceiving 
 that, although he did not again openly broach the subject, Han-y's 
 thoughts Avere continually wandering to Coverdale Park, pretended 
 (like a loving little hypocrite as she was) that she also began to feel 
 home-sick ; and that, although Paris was all very charming and 
 agreeable for a little while, she should be very sorry to stay there 
 long. Thus, the day of their departure was fixed, so that Harry 
 should be enabled to reach home before the first of September — as 
 Alice (choosing the lesser of two evils) meant to encourage his shoot- 
 ing (occasionally for a few hours), as a bribe to induce him to give 
 up that senseless and dangerous pastime, hunting ; and she actvially 
 believed that her influence could accomplish all this — dear, innocent 
 little Alice. 
 
 On the morning before they were to start, a letter arrived from 
 the Grange. Alice read it eagerly. 
 
 " Oh, Harry ! " she exclaimed, " what do you think Emily tells 
 me ? What a strange, extraordinary, wretched thing ! — it seems 
 quite impossible ! " 
 
 " What is it, little ,wife ? " returned Harry. " Has your father 
 turned free-trader, and invited Messrs. Cobden and Bright to stay 
 with him ; or has Arthur been made Lord Chancellor ? " 
 
 " Something almost as wonderful," was the rejoinder. " Mr. Crane 
 has f»roposed for my cousin Kate's hand and she has positively 
 accepted him ! " 
 
 " And a vei-y sensible thing too," replied Harry, who, leaning over 
 the back of his wife's chair, was wickedly and surreptitiotisly 
 attaching an ornamental pen-wiper to the end of one of her long, 
 silky ringlets ; " I dare say, now, you're bitterly repenting your own 
 folly in having allowed her the chance." 
 
 Alice, turning her head quickly to administer condign punish- 
 ment for this speech, by a tug at her lord and master's ample 
 whiskers, became aware of the scheme laid against her unconscious 
 ringlet by reason of a twitch, which Harry, unprepai'ed for her 
 sudden movement, was unable to avoid giving it. 
 
 " You silly boy ! what are you doing to me ? oh ! you've tied a 
 liori'id thing to my pet curl ; take it off directly, sir ! But seriously, 
 now, about Kate ; — dearest Harry — do be sensible, please, and let me 
 talk to you." This exhortation was called forth by the fact of the 
 incon-igible Coverdale having placed the pen-wiper — which was a 
 sort of cross between a three-barrelled cocked hat and an improbable 
 pyramid — on the top of his wife's head, just where the cross-roads in 
 the parting of her hair occurred. 
 
 " Talk away, darling ; I'm about as sensible as it's at all likely 
 yoii'll ever find me," was the reply. 
 
 " Well, don't you really and truly think it very shocking that such
 
 102 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 a girl as Kate — so clever and handsome, so unusually superior in 
 every point — should throw herself away upon that silly old man, 
 whom she cannot even respect ? " rejoined Alice. 
 
 *' If I must speak the plain truth," replied Harry, " I should say 
 that a girl who could make such a sacrifice of her own free will isn't 
 worth pitying for it ; she must be both mercenary and ambitious — 
 serious faults in a man, but positive vices in a woman, because in 
 yielding to them she is sinning against all the better instincts of her 
 nature : for such a character I can feel no sympathy." 
 
 " But indeed, Harry, she is not such a dreadful heartless creature 
 as yoii imagine her : at least, she never used to be. On the contrary, 
 when we wei'e all children together, she was rather high-flown and 
 romantic. It was during the time that she was at school, and xmder 
 the care of a horrid woman, a Miss Crofton — " 
 
 '* A Miss how mvich ? " inquired Harry. 
 
 " Miss Crofton." 
 
 " What was her Christian name ? " continued Hany. 
 
 "Arabella," was the reply. 
 
 " By Jove ! did you ever see her ? Was she a tall, dark-looking 
 ci'eature, with great flashing eyes like a gi^Dsy's ? " 
 
 "Yes, that is an exact description of her," returned Alice, 
 in surprise ; " but why do you ask ? What do you know of 
 her?" 
 
 " No good," returned HaiTy, mysteriously, shaking his head ; " but 
 never mind, go on." 
 
 " I was only going to say that I feel sure Kate must have some 
 better reason than a mere wish to become a great lady, to induce 
 her to marry Mr. Crane. Tou know her father and mother are very 
 poor, and she has several younger brothers and sisters ; perhaps she 
 wishes to help them." 
 
 " I dare say she does," replied Hany, turning away to conceal a 
 yawn ; " nobody is all bad, any more than they are all the other 
 thing. Characters are like zebras — alternate stripes of black and 
 white ; the only difference is, that in some one colour predominates, 
 in some the other." 
 
 There was a pause, then in a lower voice Alice resumed, " Harry, 
 did it ever occur to you (of course, I do not want you to betray con- 
 fidence even to me), but did you ever suspect that Arthur was 
 attached to Kate ? " 
 
 " Never in my life," was the unhesitating reply. " Arthur 
 always laughed the tender passion, as he used to call it, to scorn." 
 
 " I felt almost certain it was so," continued Alice ; " but I most 
 earnestly hope, for his sake, that I was mistaken ; if not, only con- 
 ceive how wretched this engagement will make him ! " 
 
 " Judging by my own feelings, when I fancied you had accepted 
 the in-esistible cotton-spinner," returned Coverdale, " I should say 
 that Prometheus, who had a perennial vulture making ' no end ' of a 
 meal on his liver (which I take to be simply a metaphorical method
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 103 
 
 of stating that the unfortunate Titan was afflicted with hepatic 
 disease), was, by comparison, 'a gentleman who lived at home at 
 ease.' " 
 
 " I used to fancy sometimes," pvirsued Alice, " that Kate returned 
 his afPection ; but she was so reserved, and her manner was always so 
 calm and self-possessed, that it was impossible to judge, with any 
 degree of certainty, what her feelings might be. However, this 
 settles the point so far as she is concerned ; if she had really cared 
 about him, she could never have consented to marry Mr. Crane." 
 
 " Hum ! well I don't know that," returned Han-y meditatively ; 
 " it is not all women who have such simple, true, loving hearts as you, 
 my own darling; and a pupil of Arabella Crof ton's may very well be 
 capable of loving one man and marrying another." 
 
 " Why, how came you to know anything aboiit Miss Crofton, 
 Harry ? " exclaimed Alice, her curiosity being thoroughly roused by 
 her husband's second allusion to some previous acquaintance with 
 her cousin's ci-devant governess. 
 
 " I met her in Italy, if you must know," returned Coverdale. " She 
 lived as governess in a family where I visited, and I saw a good deal 
 of her at one time." 
 
 There was something so odd and conscious in his manner of 
 speaking, that Alice exclaimed, " She fell in love with you, I am 
 certain of it. Come, confess now that I am right." 
 
 " Do you think that every woman must needs be as foolish as 
 yourself, you silly child ? " was the iincomijlimentary reply. " I can 
 assure you, Miss Crofton is as utterly unlike you in tastes, habits, 
 and opinions, as she is in person ; and that is a pretty considerable 
 assertion, I take it. And now it is time for you to get ready for our 
 last drive in the Bois de Boulogne, and I must go out and buy a 
 clean pair of gloves ; so for ten minutes I shall wish yovi an affec- 
 tionate farewell." 
 
 Thus saying, Harry quitted the apartment ; and Alice, going to 
 prepare for her drive, forgot, for the time, her husband's mysterious 
 intimacy with Miss Crofton — it occurred to her afterwards, indeed, 
 
 when , but we must not anticipate. The next morning saw them 
 
 ' en route.' As they were about to embark at Boulogne, a sensation 
 was created, at the hotel at which they waited till the tide served 
 for the packet to start, by the arrival of a travelling carriage drawn 
 by four horses, with a lady inside, and her soubrette, and an out- 
 landish, courier-like creature in the rumble. 
 
 " By Jove ! " exclaimed Harry, who, ensconced behind a window- 
 curtain, had been examining the turn out with all the interest with 
 which a position of enforced idleness invests every trifle. "By the 
 powers, there's a foreign coronet on the carriage, and ditto on Don 
 Whiskerando's buttons ! I wonder what she is like ! Young and 
 pretty, by all that is interesting and romantic ! I dare say she is 
 going to cross in the same boat as we are. Yes ! Whiskerandos is 
 gesticulating and explaining, and the landlord waves his hand in the
 
 104 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 direction of tlie pier. Now comes the bore of being a married man : 
 wliat a splendid adventure I am shut out from ! If I were but 
 single, an opportunity now offers of captivating a lovely and accom- 
 plished foreign countess, with a dowi-y of diamonds in her di'essing- 
 box, and a gold mine in her precious pocket : there's a good opening 
 for a nice young man ! " 
 
 " Pray avail yourself of it," retin*ned Alice. " Don't let me be any 
 obstacle ; carry off the countess, and I will remain behind with that 
 noble creature whom yoti style Don Whiskerandos. I prefer him 
 infinitely to you, he is so like a very well-trained baboon." 
 
 Harry's conjecture that the mysterious countess meant to cross in 
 the same vessel with himself and his wife proved correct ; for, 
 scarcely had he seen Alice comfortably established on a snug bench, 
 where, if the sea-fiend should be so uncourteous as to attack her, 
 she could on an emergency lie down, when daintily tripped along 
 the human chicken-ladder which connected the vessel with the shoi-e, 
 the graceful, " bien chausse," little feet of the countess. Then 
 ensued a grand scene. Whiskerandos either did not comprehend, 
 or refused to comply with some demand of the hotel commissionaire, 
 who had taken i;pon himself the charge of the baggage, and who 
 accordingly resisted his conveying his mistress's luggage on board. 
 Whiskerandos grimaced and chattered in a polyglot jargon, 
 apparently compounded of every language imder heaven, and 
 utterly incomprehensible to the deei^est philologist extant: the 
 commissionaire was immovable. Whiskerandos implored — the 
 commissionaire was deaf to his entreaties. Whiskerandos stormed — 
 the commissionaire was inexorable. Whiskerandos, unable to endure 
 his fate with calmness, went raving mad — he swore oaths so replete 
 with improbable consonants that it is only a wonder they did not 
 smash every tooth in his head ; he stamped, shrieked, clenched his 
 fists, and shook them in the face of his adversary — in vain; the 
 commissionaii'e remained adamant, and prepared actually to carry 
 off the offending luggage. 
 
 " Look at that ape," observed Harry to his wife, who was watching 
 the scene, half in amusement, half in terror ; " he's going into sky- 
 blue fits apparently : of all absurd sights an angry foreigner is the 
 most ridiculous. Do you see his moustaches p^they actually stand 
 on end with fury, like the hairs on the tail of an excited cat. But 
 see, the Don appeals to his mistress ; the Countess will have to settle 
 the affair ' in ])ropria iDcrsoua.' " This affair, however, was not to be 
 arranged so easily ; for the inflexible commissionaire proved as deaf 
 to the entreaties of the mistress as he had shown himself to the 
 thi'eatenings of the man ; and the Countess, if countess she was, 
 having remonstrated to no purpose in a gentle, timid voice, looked 
 helplessly round, as though she would appeal to society at large to 
 aid her in her difficulty. 
 
 " Poor thing ! those men have frightened her ; she looks ready to 
 cry ! " exclaimed Alice. " Harry, dear, do go and see if you cannot
 
 ^ 

 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 105 
 
 assist her — you iinderstancl how to manage those people so well ; 
 besides, they always attend to a gentleman." 
 
 Thus urged, Han-y crossed the deck, and Alice saw him take off 
 his hat and address the interesting foreigner ; she bowed her head, 
 and was evidently making a grateful answer ; then Harry turned to 
 the disputants, who both assailed him with a volley of words, upon 
 which he first silenced Whiskerandos, then he exchanged a few 
 cabalistic sentences with the commissionaire, and slipped a talisman 
 into his hand, whereupon, with the celerity of some harlequinade 
 trick, he changed into an amiable, obliging creature, only too 
 anxious to please everybody, and went olf, patting Whiskerandos on 
 the back, and calling him a " brave gar? on," to assist with his own 
 silver-absorbing fingers in conveying the Countess's luggage on 
 board. Then the Countess overwhelmed Harry with thanks, and 
 Harry smiled benignantly upon the Countess, and they " talked 
 conversation " for a few minutes ; after which they both looked at 
 Alice, and Harry with his best company manner on (which was 
 merely his own natural manner brushed smooth), crossed over to her, 
 
 "She is really a Countess," he began, " and a very charming, 
 refined style of young woman too. She wants to be introduced to 
 you, so come along." 
 
 " But, Harry, dear, I shall break my neck, or tumble into the sea, 
 if I attempt to walk ; just look how it's rolling about ! " remonstrated 
 Alice, whose essentially terrestrial education had given her rather a 
 horror of all nautical matters. 
 
 " We'll fall in together then," returned Harry, laughing, " at all 
 events don't let us fall out about it. Come along, littla wife, and 
 trust yourself to me ; I've paced a vessel's deck when the sea's 
 shown rather a different sort of surface from that which it wears 
 to-day." 
 
 As he spoke, he lalaced his arm I'ound his wife's slender waist, and 
 half supported, half led her across the deck in safety. 
 
 " What is her name, Harry ? " inquired Alice, as they were effect- 
 ing the transit. 
 
 " Bertha seems to be her Christian name— of course her surname is 
 something unpronounceable and appalling ; but if you call her 
 Countess Bei-tha that will do ; at all events, as long as our acquaint- 
 ance with her is likely to last," was the reply. 
 
 Alice having never before encountered a real, live Countess, felt a 
 little shy at first; but the young foreigner's manner, which was 
 perfectly easy without being too familiar, soon reassured her, and 
 the two girls (for the Countess appeared little older than Alice) 
 chatted away, at first in French, but when it came out that the 
 stranger likewise understood English, in that language to their 
 mutual satisfaction. But in about half an hour a breeze (not 
 metaphorical, but literal) sprung up, and the Countess signified her 
 wish to retire to the cabin, upon which Coverdale summoned her 
 maid, and then assisted her to effect the desired change of locality.
 
 106 HARRY COVERDALES COURTSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A COMEDY OF ERRORS. 
 
 " There now, I consider I've done the polite in tlie first style of 
 fashion and elegance," observed Harry, self-comf)lacently, as he 
 rejoined his wife; " Horace D'Almayne himself could not have 
 polished off the young woman more handsomely, for all his 
 moustaches." 
 
 " How you do hate that poor Mr. D'Almayne ! " retui-ned Alice, 
 laughing. " Do you know, I think you are jealous of him." 
 
 " I was once, and that's the truth — very savage it made me too ; 
 for if you could have been fascinated by such a puppy as that, I felt 
 I had mistaken your character ' in toto,' and that the Alice I loved 
 was a creature of my own imagination, not a reality — but I soon saw 
 my eiTor." 
 
 Alice glanced at him archly. " Are you quite sure you did not fall 
 into a greater mistake when you fancied yourself so certain of my 
 indifference ? " she inquired. 
 
 Harry fixed his eyes upon her with a look of inquiry, which, when 
 he saw that she was joking, changed to an expression of tenderness ; 
 — " I could not look in that dear face, where every thought can be 
 read as in a book, and remain jealous for five minutes," he answered. 
 
 Alice made no reply, unless placing her little hand in that of her 
 husband, with a confiding gesture, can be called so. 
 
 The wind continuing fresh, the unfortunate Countess did not re- 
 appear ; but Coverdale and his wife, being so happily constituted 
 that the tossing produced no ill-effects upon them, remained upon 
 deck till the vessel reached Dover. Amid the scene of confusion 
 attending the arrival of a steamer, Harry, having secured his 
 luggage, was standing sentinel over a moderately-sized pyramid, 
 which he had caused to be erected of the same, when Alice, then 
 seated upon a large black trunk, which she had seduced her husband 
 into buying in the Rue St. Honor<5, and which would very easily have 
 held her, bonnet, cloak, and all, suddenly exclaimed, — 
 
 " Oh, Harry ! do look at that yoimg exquisite who has just come 
 on board : why he's the very moral, as the old women say, of the 
 person we've been discvissing — Mr. D'Almayne ! " 
 
 " By Jove, he's more than the moral ! " returned Coverdale, as the 
 individual thus alluded to advanced towards them bowing and 
 smiling, " it's the veritable Horace himself, I vow — talk of the devil—. 
 My dear fellow, how are you? who'd have thought of seeing you
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 107 
 
 here ! You've not turned Custom-house ofl&cer, have you ? I've 
 nothing contraband about me, except this morning's ' Galignani ' ; if 
 you are inclined to make a seizure of that, you're very welcome." 
 
 " You're nearer the mark than you imagine, my dear sir," was the 
 reply ; " though not exactly a professional attache to the Customs, I 
 must own that I am here as an amateur in that capacity — my object 
 being to facilitate the transmission of a lady's luggage." 
 
 " Yes P — how interesting ! I hope she's yoimg and pretty," 
 observed Alice. " Come, Mr. D'Almayne, having let us so far into 
 the secret, it's no use to affect the mysterious, so tell us who and 
 where she is." 
 
 " Where she is, perhaps you may be able to inform me, my dear 
 Mrs. Coverdale," replied D'Almayne, smoothing his moustaches. 
 " The object of my search is a young German lady, the Countess 
 Bertha Von Rosenthal, to whom I have promised my friend, the 
 Honourable Mrs. Botherby, to act as ' preux chevalier.' Accordingly 
 I came down by train this morning, provided with an order from the 
 Board of Customs to the people here to pass the Countess's luggage 
 unexamined, and show her every attention which may facilitate her 
 transit ; thence I am to escort her and her i)roperty to Park Lane ; 
 by all which ' double, double, toil and trouble,' I secure an early 
 introduction to, and confer a favour upon, a young and lovely 
 heiress." 
 
 " That's my Countess, as sure as fate ! " exclaimed Harry. " She 
 said her name was Bertha " — and he then related to D'Almayne the 
 circumstances with which the reader has already been made 
 acquainted. " And," he continued in conclusion, as a female figure, 
 leaning on the arms of the soubrette and Don Whiskerandos, 
 emerged from the ladies' cabin—" and here she comes, looking rather 
 poorly still — nothing of the v/ater-witch about her, at all events. 
 Have you met before, or shall I introduce you ? " 
 
 " Do, by all means, ' mon cher ' ; we are total strangers to each 
 other," was the reply. And with an injunction to Alice to remain 
 where she was till he should return, Harry seized D'Almayne's arm, 
 and hurried him away. Before two minutes had elapsed, Coverdale 
 returned alone. 
 
 "It's all right," he said: "but come along; D'Almayne's order 
 will clear our luggage also, and we can all get away together." 
 
 Then ensued a grand scena of bustle and confusion, during which, 
 supported by her husband's stalwart arm, Alice caught glimpses of 
 D'Almayne smiling to show his white teeth, and striving vigorously 
 to enact the part of guardian angel to the rich young heiress. 
 
 " That puppy is in his glory now," observed Coverdale snap- 
 pishly ; " I dare say that silly woman will take him at his own price, 
 and believe in him to any extent to which he may like to lead her 
 — perhaps marry him after all, and make him Count von Rosenthal : 
 that would suit his complaint exactly, the fortune-hunting young 
 humbug ! "
 
 108 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " My dear Harry, what words ! " exclaimed Alice. " You are really 
 quite savage to-day ; I shall he ohliged to take Mr. D Almayne under 
 iny protection, if you go on so." 
 
 " No need to do that, my dear," rehirned Hai-ry, his face resuming 
 its usual hright, kind expression, as his glance fell upon his wife ; 
 " your protege is quite certain to take the hest possible care of him- 
 self — now come along ; " and in another five minutes they had left 
 the vessel and entered a railroad-carriage, in which the Countess and 
 D Almayne had already established themselves. 
 
 The journey to London was a very agreeable one ; — the Countess, 
 having recovered with marvellous celerity the moment she placed 
 her pretty little foot on ten'a firma, exei-ted herself to make up for 
 lost time, and succeeded so well that DAlmayne, who became more 
 and more '* empress^ " and devoted every moment, determined, if he 
 should be able to ascertain beyond a doubt that her fortune was as 
 large as it had been represented, to give up every other speculation, 
 and devote all his energies to secui-e the hand and purse of this 
 fascinating foreigner. As they approached the London Bridge 
 terminus the Countess, turning to her new guai'dian, inquired 
 whether it was very far to Park Lane : — 
 
 " About half an hour's drive. The carriage will, I trust, be there 
 to meet this train ; though, owing to our having avoided all delay at 
 the Custom-house, we shall be in town some two hours sooner than 
 the other steamboat passengers. However, if we arrive earlier than 
 is expected, it will only be an agreeable surprise to our kind friend, 
 Mrs. Botherby." 
 
 " Mais oui ! " returned the Countess with a look of innocent per- 
 plexity ; " and who may be ' cette chere ' Madame Bodairebie ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Botherby, my dear Countess," returned DAlmayne, Avho 
 began to think his charming friend must be slightly insane, " Mrs. 
 Botherby — the Honourable Mi-s. Botherby — is the lady who obtained 
 for me the j)leasure of rendering you this slight service." 
 
 " Quelle drole de chose. I shall not know some Mrs. Bodairebie no 
 veres," was the astounding reply. 
 
 "But — but — "stammered DAlmayne, as an idea occurred to him 
 sufficiently alarming to surpi-ise him out of his usual " sang froid," 
 "excuse me — but surely you are the Countess Bertha von Rosen- 
 thal ? " 
 
 A peal of silvery laughter was the only reply the unhappy exquisite 
 was at first able to obtain ; but as soon as she could recover hei'self , 
 the mysterious lady began : " Mille pardons ! I am so rude to make 
 a laugh at you, but I am so gay I alvays must laugh ven I see a 
 ridiculous thing in front of — bah — vot you call before me. Mon 
 cher Monsieur, you have, I know not how, tumbled into a delusion. 
 I am not at all zie Coimtess Bertha von Rosenthal, but zie Countess 
 Bertha Nasimoif , en route to stay viz my fi-iend. Lady St. Clare, in 
 Park Lane, London, till my hosband shall capture zie permission 
 of die Czar to leave Petei-sburg and transport liimseHs after me."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 109 
 
 Coverdale, Alice, and the Coiintess Nasimoff, glanced first at 
 D'Almayne, then at one another, and then — but if they were heart- 
 less enough to laugh consumedly, we will draw a veil over such un- 
 feeling conduct. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE MORNING OF THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER. 
 
 The first of September ! We wonder if we were a covey of partridges 
 what we should think about the first of September, and how, 
 generalizing from that idea, we should feel towards the race of men, 
 — sons of guns, as in partridge parlance we should, doubtless, 
 metaphorically term them ! We wonder from what point we should 
 regard pointers (disappointers, as a witty friend of ours called a 
 couple of " wild young -dogs," who ran in upon their game, and 
 cheated him of a promising shot), or how we shovild look upon a 
 setter making 'a " dead set " at us ! Reasoning by analogy, and not 
 supposing partridges to be better Christians than Christians them- 
 selves, we fear we should consider sportsmen (the very name is an 
 addition of insult to injury) greater brutes than their four-footed 
 allies ; and that the idea of standing fire (either kitchen or gun), the 
 notion of the roasting we must undergo after we have been plucked, 
 • — of the way'in which we should be cut up by a set of blades, who are, 
 after all, ready enough to pick our brains, and avail themselves of 
 our merry thoughts, would put us in such a flutter that it would be a 
 mercy if we were not to show the white feather, and refuse to die 
 game after all. 
 
 Such, however, were by no means the sentiments with which Harry 
 Coverdale looked forward to the first of September. On the con- 
 trary, although he endeavoured to disguise the fact from his wife, 
 and indeed from himself, as far as in him lay, the truth was that he 
 was as much delighted at the prospect of a good day's partridge 
 shooting, as the veriest school-boy released from the drudgery of 
 dictionary and grammar. Markum, that trustworthy custodian of 
 game, and original specimen of a polite letter- writer, who had been 
 safely re-instated in his office, and received such handsome presents 
 of baby-linen and other infantry accouti'ements that the ilhistrious 
 " little stranger," who had wisely postponed his arrival till the evil 
 day had departed, bid fair to be clothed in a style befitting the heir- 
 apparent to a dukedom rather than to a double-barrelled gun —
 
 no HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Markum repoi'ted that altlioiigh tlie liares and pheasants (which 
 he persisted in calling peasants) had suffered some diminution from 
 the practices of the dishonest steward, yet that he'd never " in all 
 his bora days seen such a blessed sight o' partridges." Stimulated 
 by this information, and by the recollection that on the preceding 
 first of September he had been kicking his heels and ciu'sing his 
 evil fortune, as he jDerformed quarantine in a red-hot port of the 
 Mediterranean, Harry — having greatly amused Alice by the earnest 
 zeal with which, on the 31st of August, he examined and re-examined 
 his " Joe Man ton," and the exact and stringent orders he gave in 
 regard to the feeding of his dogs, than which the most fastidious 
 invalid could not have been more delicately and precisely dieted — 
 awoke at four o'clock on the eventful morning, and, without disturb- 
 ing Alice, who was sleeping as calmly as a child, arose and dressed 
 himself in a thoroughly workmanlike shooting costume. Having 
 accomplished this feat without waking Alice, he wrote on a bit of 
 paper, " Good morning and good-bye, dearest. As I intend to have a 
 glorious day of it, do not expect me till near dinner-time, when I 
 hope to return with a full bag and an awful appetite. Tours ever, 
 H. C," and placing it on his wife's dressing-table, stole on tiptoe to 
 the door, closed it noiselessly after him; and when, three hours 
 afterwards, Alice opened her eyes, he was striding through stubble 
 on the farther side of the estate, having bagged four brace of birds 
 and a well-conditioned and respectable Jack hare. 
 
 Mrs. Coverdale was some few minutes before she was, literally, 
 awake to a sense of her situation ; and the lady's-maid entei'ing 
 while she was still between sleeping and waking, she half uncon- 
 sciously asked the not unnatural question — " What has become of 
 your master ? " 
 
 " If you please, Mem, Master's been out shooting pai-tringers ever 
 since five o'clock, Wilkins says. It you please, Mem, there's a note 
 for you, Mem, lying on your dressing-table, in Master's hand- 
 ■svi-iting." 
 
 Rousing herself, Alice read it eagerly. The contents did not seem 
 particularly to please her. for, as she refolded the paper, she looked 
 grave, and gave vent to a mild sigh. " Do not undraw the curtain," 
 she said ; " come again in an hour, Ellis ; I feel sleepy, and there is 
 nothing to get up for," she added, in a slightly pettish tone. Falling 
 asleep the moment she laid her head upon the pillow, Alice dreamed 
 that when she came down to breakfast she found Harry had returned, 
 saying that he could not bear to leave her alone all day, and so had 
 come back and wished to drive her to call upon that agreeable 
 woman, Mrs. Felicia Tabinette (a name Avith which she was inspired 
 for the occasion, as no such neighbour existed), to which proposition 
 she gladly assenting, they had gone out in a pony-chaise made of 
 coral and mother-of-pearl, and drawn by two lovely little sea-green 
 ponies with lilac manes and tails, and harness made of the best point 
 lace. And she was just advancing the unanswerable proposition
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 111 
 
 that, as lace was the fittest material of which to make a lady's collar, 
 it must also be the most propei' fabric for that of a horse, when the 
 inexorable Ellis appeared for the second time, and dispelled all her 
 bria^ht visions by awakening her to the dull reality. Alice, however, 
 took her revenge upon that " dis-illusioning "—as a Frenchman 
 would have called it— lady's maid, for she was more fastidious and 
 difficult to please, and almost snappish, than Ellis had ever known 
 her before, insouiuch that the excellent Abigail afterwards pro- 
 pounded her opinion in the servants' hall, that " Missus was ' tuter 
 fay ' outer sorts," which disheartening fact she accounted for by the 
 hypothesis that she— Mrs. Ooverdale— must have got oxit of bed 
 with the wrong foot foremost. 
 
 While the tea for her solitary breakfast was drawing, Alice, 
 having no one else to look at, amused herself by regarding her own 
 natural — no term could be more appropriate — face in a large pier- 
 glass, and was quite startled to behold the immistakably ci-oss 
 expression which characterized it. Taking herself to task for this, 
 she, sipping her tea, which did not taste nearly so good as when 
 Harry was at home, mentally decided that she was very unreason- 
 able, and childish, and ridiculous— that when Harry had been 
 devoting himself for the last month to her pleasure and amusement, 
 going to balls and all sorts of places which he did not care a pin 
 about, solely to please her, it was horribly selfish in her to griidge 
 him a few hours to devote to a favourite pursuit — though how men 
 could find delight in killing those poor birds, she could not tell. She 
 did not so much wonder about other people ; she believed men were 
 generally cruel; but Hariy was so unusually kind-hearted. She 
 supposed it must be the excitement, and the beautiful scenery, and 
 the interest in watching those dear, clever dogs stick out their long 
 tails to point at the partridges with — which, looking at it in a 
 Chesterfieldian point of view, was decidedly impolite, if not positively 
 rude, of them ; and yet she had heard gentlemen talk about their 
 sporting dogs being so well-bred. 
 
 Having thus reasoned herself into a wiser frame of mind, she 
 resolved to make the best of it ; and suddenly recollecting she had at 
 least a thousand things to do, which she was continually putting 
 aside till some time or other when Harry should be out, she decided 
 that this was the time, and that now or never must they all be done. 
 Accordingly, she set vigorously to work, and wrote three letters one 
 after another, to three former schoolfellows, whei'ein she described 
 her husband as a species of modern demi-god, compounded of equal 
 parts of Solomon and Adonis, with a dash of Achilles thrown in to 
 do justice to his heroic qualities ; and depicted matrimonial felicity 
 in such glowing colours, that the richest and prettiest of her 
 correspondents eloped the next week with her music-master; and 
 one of the others, who was neither rich nor i^retty, turned pious out 
 of spite, and went into a sort of High. Church Pi'otestant nunnery- 
 and-water, to punish the men, who, it must be confessed, appeared to
 
 112 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 submit to the trial with the most cheerful resignation. Then Alice 
 brought out a large roll of bills, and a thick house-keeping book, 
 ruled with blue lines, and having a business-like smell of new leather 
 about the binding, which Alice flattered herself would impress even 
 the stately housekeeper (who Avas old enough to be her mother, and 
 stiff enough for anything ; and of whom Alice, in her secret soul, 
 stood very much in dread) with a deep sense of her being a very 
 dragon of housewifery, prepared to be down upon the slightest 
 attempt at peculation like an avenging fury. But the bills were so 
 complicated, and never would add up twice alike, and the butcher 
 was so inconsistent and slippery about his prices, sometimes charg- 
 ing 7d. and sometimes Tid., as " if once a pound of mutton, always a 
 pound of mutton," were not an incontrovertible axiom ; and the 
 baker was as bad, besides choosing to spell dough, d-o-e, which at 
 first made her think that he was the butcher and sold venison ; and 
 the hams seemed always to come from the tallow-chandler's with the 
 candles, which wasn't by any means an agreeable association of 
 ideas ; and the footman was evidently of Esquimaux descent, and 
 lived sumptuously upon lamip-oil at 8s. the gallon ; and the coachman 
 appeared to feed the carriage-horses with sponges, wash-leather, and 
 rotten-stone, which she was sure could not be good for them ; and 
 she thought the under-housemaid had ordered herseK a " Tiu-k's- 
 head " dessert-cake, for her own private eating, but it turned out to 
 be a particular species of broom ; while the amomit of hearth-stones 
 and house-flannels that girl consumed would have served to build an 
 "Albert pattern" model cottage once a quarter, and furnish the 
 pauper inhabitants thereof with winter clothing : so that by the time 
 luncheon arrived poor Alice, tired and confused, with inky fingers 
 and an aching head, had come to the conclusion that she had nothing 
 in common with Joseph Hume, M.P., and that for the future she 
 should resign the glory of managing the housekeeper's book to Mrs. 
 Gripples, and restrict her department to the equally dignified, but 
 less onerous, duty of making Harry sign the cheques, and handing 
 them over to that august domestic to pay the bills with. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAY. 
 
 Luncheon — a dreadful hot kmcheon— luncheon enough for four 
 himgry men, at least; and Alice had a headache. Of course she 
 could not touch a bit, so she listlessly nibbled a biscviit, and sipped
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 113 
 
 lialf a glass of wine, and felt very lonely and nncomfoi'table, and sat 
 down to think — whicli was just the very worst thing she could have 
 done under the circumstances, for it brought on a second attack of 
 the " neglected wife " state of feeling ; and she had actually proceeded 
 so far, that she was about mentally to convict Harry (that 
 matrimonial phcenix) of positive selfishness, when the enormity of 
 the idea horrified her, and pi-oduced an instantaneous reaction, and 
 she told herself, roundly and sharply, that she was ungrateful in the 
 extreme, and weak, and childish, and vacillating, and altogether 
 iinworthy of such a blessing of a husband as Harry Coverdale. 
 And thus, having taken herself severely to task, and repented 
 and confessed, and promising amendment for the future, yet 
 refused herself absolution, she recovered sufficiently to determine 
 that she would do something energetic to dissipate reflection, 
 though of what nature the deed was to be she had not the smallest 
 conception. Should she order the carriage, and pay visits ? — no, 
 impossible ! they were all first visits to a set of total strangers, and 
 she could no more call upon them alone than "she could fly : besides, 
 she would be lost in that great carnage all by herself, and the horses 
 would be sure to avail themselves of the opportunity to shy and run 
 away, if Harry were not there to protect her. She knew the white- 
 legged horse had a spite against her, for when she wanted to pat his 
 nose one day, he tried to bite her — what a wonderful thing instinct 
 was, to be sure ! No, she would go and take a brisk walk, that 
 would rouse her and do her headache good ; besides, she could have 
 the dear dogs for company — oh yes ! a walk by all means. Where 
 should she go ? — why, across the fields to visit Mrs. Markum, and see 
 how the little stranger looked in his gorgeous apparel, and learn 
 whether mother or son wanted for anything. Harry would like her 
 to do that, he was so fond of Markum. Ah, Alice ! had you no 
 mental reservation ? — did not a hope lurk in the bottom of your 
 heart that at the gamekeeper's cottage you might possibly catch a 
 glimpse of his master, calling in for dry shoes, or a relay of powder 
 and shot P Poor, loving little Alice, ashamed to confess, even to 
 herself, the depth and sti-ength of her affection !— silly little Alice, 
 jealous even of her involiuitary rivals, the partridges, who would 
 gladly have dispensed with the attentions her husband was paying 
 them ! — weak, foolish, little Alice ! — and yet more truly wise in such 
 loving folly, stronger in the weakness of such tender womanly 
 devotion, nearer the Divine ideal, whence God, who made man in His 
 ONvn image, formed woman as a helpmeet for him, than the most 
 self-engrossed esprit fort who ever confused herself and others by 
 prating of things above her comprehension. 
 
 So Alice set out for her solitary ramble, taking with her Pepper 
 and Ginger, which (although the former was often found in a pretty 
 pickle, and woiild have been wholly inappropriate in a cream tai-t ; 
 a,nd the latter, judging by the appearance of a very red tongue, was 
 
 I
 
 114 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 decidedly " liot i' the mouth ") were not a couple of spicy condiments, 
 but a brace of Skye terriers. The dogs were in charming spirits, 
 which they displayed by running after and barking at respectable 
 blackbirds seeking their frugal " diet of worms ; " coming back in 
 eccentric and violent circles, to twitch the ends of Alice's boa and 
 the corners of her shawl, only to dash away again and lose themselves, 
 by forcing burglarious entrances into forbidden rabbit-burrows, with 
 the vicious intention of worrying the timid inmates, in their little 
 brown coats, with iDractical jokes of tails. And here be it observed 
 parenthetically, that of all the freaks of nature, the unexpected way 
 in which she has seen fit to turn u]) rabbits' tails and to line them 
 with white, to the great disfigurement and i)ersonal hazard of the 
 owners, has always appeared to lis one of the strangest, and only to 
 be accounted for by the hypothesis of a chronic practical joke. 
 Whether this idea enhanced the fun Pe])per and Ginger had with 
 the rabbits during that expedition, or whether it never occiu-red to 
 them, is more than we can tell ; but the extent to which those dogs 
 persisted in bui-ying themselves alive, and harassing their mistress 
 by a succession of these amateur extramural interments, almost 
 justifies us in supposing it must have done so. 
 
 Having at last succeeded in reducing her four-footed torments to 
 such a measure of obedience that, when thoroughly tired of scamper- 
 ing and scratching, they condescended to follow her, Alice entered 
 a grass field, and had walked half across it ere she discovered the 
 alarming fact that there were some cows gi'azing in it, one of 
 which she, to her intense discomposure, immediately decided to be a 
 bull, because, as she afterwards graphically described it, " it moo'd 
 so low down its throat that it almost growled at her." Of course all 
 bulls being mad, and a mad bull being enough to frighten anybody, 
 Alice began to run ; which feat of activity (or activity of feet, if any 
 reader should prefer the phrase so transposed) charmed the dogs — 
 who thought she did it for their express delectation — to such an 
 extent, that they began to bark furiously, which frightened the cow 
 (for despite her bass voice, she was a " very " cow after all, and 
 fortunately a qiiiet one into the bai-gain), so that, exalting her tail, 
 and twisting it like a corkscrew for the greater effect, she also set 
 off running, thereby adding to Alice's terror to such a degree that, 
 if a providential stile had not mercifully rescued her, the consequences 
 might have l)een serious. This last " spirt," however, brought her to 
 Markum's cottage, where she foiind the Isaby in a great state of 
 slobbering splendour — very red, ugly, and ]:)roniising, and altogether 
 (as an assistant old lady, not to say hag. rather the worse for some- 
 thing that had dropped into her tea out of the gin bottle, and who, 
 from the accident, was in an extensive condition of maudlin and 
 inappropriate Christianity, piously observed), a "little crowing- 
 mercy." Having done her duty by this young child — that is, having 
 said it was very pretty, which, to speak mildly, was untrue — and 
 a very fine child^ which, as far as regarded its dress, it certainly
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 115 
 
 was' — and exactly like its f atlier, which was an awful well, never 
 
 mind, pious fraud we'll call it, — Alice tipped the inappropriate 
 Christian half-a-crown (in exchange for which she received a tipsy 
 blessing), and took leave, having obtained geographical instructions 
 by which she might, on her homeward route, avoid the proximity of 
 the basso profondo cow. 
 
 The walk back (with the trifling exception of an episode wherein 
 Ginger disturbed the tenants of a wasps' nest) proved singularly 
 uneventful, and Alice, in her secret soul, pronounced the whole 
 expedition a failure — which, as it had cured her headache, was very 
 ungrateful of her ; but she was so engrossed by a little pain about 
 the heart, which nothing but her husband's retui'n could cure, that 
 she had entirely forgotten her headache. 
 
 The hall clock struck four as its mistress entered — four o'clock, 
 two long- hours to dinner time ! the time when Hariy would, that is, 
 ought to, return ; for she daresay'd he would be late, and that they 
 should not sit down to table till half -past six at the very earliest. 
 What should she do to fill up this unharmonious interval ? Why, 
 as she had worked so hard all the morning, surely she had a right to 
 amuse herself now. She would read some entertaining book, which 
 would make her laugh and raise her spirits ; for, despite her best 
 endeavours, she was getting decidedly miserable. So to this end 
 she opened a parcel of books from the library, and began upon a new 
 novel by that veiy talented lady, Mrs. Bluedeville, and read how a 
 " fair and gentle girl," brougbt up by a select coterie of fiendish 
 relations, and subjected from infancy to a series of tortures, sufficient 
 to have expended the stoutest negro, developed, under these favourable 
 circumstances, into a perfect Houri of Paradise, with the " additional 
 attraction " of possessing the mind, manners, eiaxdition, and phrase- 
 ology of an old divine of the Church of England. This interesting 
 young mart3T.% released from her educational Bastille, and turned 
 out to grass for a brief space in a pleasant meadow, wherein pastured 
 a gallant, but very moral, officer of dragoons, naturally falls in love 
 with the same, who fortunately does not resent the liberty. Angelica, 
 taken up from her month's run and put to work much too heavy for 
 her, becomes better and better, until, as might have been expected, 
 she overdoes the thing, and getting too good to ;live, has nothing left 
 for it but to die, which she accordingly does on the anival of the 
 post which brings an account of the bold dragoon (in whom, from a 
 fancied resemblance to Harry, Alice had taken the deepest interest) 
 having fallen a \'ictim to his dauntless courage, which, leading him 
 to kill sixteen mounted Sikhs in single combat, had failed to preserve 
 him from the vindictive fury of the seventeenth evil-disposed 
 survivor. Strange to say, this talented work, delightfvil as it was, 
 failed to render Alice much more cheerful ; but it succeeded in 
 occupying her till it was time to go and dress for dinner, and for 
 this she was grateful to the genius of Mrs. Bluede-vdlle. 
 
 By six o'clock Alice, ready for dinner in more senses than one.
 
 116 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 betook lierself to the drawing-room, wliei-e she waited patiently for 
 half-an-hour, reading up svmdi-y parts of Mrs. Blnedeville, which, in her 
 rapid flight through that lady's insti-uctive romance, she had failed 
 to peruse. At seven o'clock she rang the bell, and inquired of the 
 butler whether his master had come in, or whether, if not, anything 
 definite was known of his whereabouts. The reply was unsatisfactory 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Master had not returned, he (Wilkins) could form no idea where 
 he was likely to be ; but, as a general maxim, considered shooting to 
 be a highly dangerous amusement. "Would Mrs. Coverdale obligingly 
 condescend to ring the bell when she wished the dinner to be brought 
 lip? 
 
 Shooting a dangerous amusement! Yes, of course, so it was — 
 gims constantly went off of their own accord and shot those who 
 were can-ying them. How was it she had never thought of this 
 
 before ? and she had been blaming Harry, when, perhaps the idea 
 
 was too hon-ible to clothe in words, but it had occun-ed to her, and 
 for Alice now there was no peace. 
 
 Mrs. Blnedeville was thrown aside with no more ceremony than if 
 she had been a penny-a-liner ; and with flushed cheeks and a beating 
 heart the anxious young wife began to pace up and down the apai-t- 
 ment. As the minutes crept by (so slowly !) Alice's fear increased, 
 until, at half-past seven, the suspense grew intolerable ; and. ringing 
 the bell, she was just giving incoherent orders for two mounted 
 grooms to set off in utterly useless directions, when bang ! bang ! 
 went a double-baiTelled gun in the stable-yard, and Wilkins (an 
 amiable but timid London servant) and his mistress nearly jumped 
 into each other's aiTus. 
 
 Still haunted by the conviction that something untoward must 
 have happened, Alice hastened to meet her husband as he entered 
 the hall. " Oh, Harry dearest, how glad I am yoii are safe ! " she 
 exclaimed ; " but tell me," she exclaimed, refeiTing to the mysterious 
 cause of his prolonged absence, " tell me — what is it ? " 
 
 " Sixteen brace of birds, three hares, two couple of rabbits, a land- 
 rail, and a wood-pigeon ; and a vei-y fair bag I call it for one gun," 
 was the unexpected reply. 
 
 Relieved, yet slightly provoked, Alice resumed : " But what has 
 made you so late ? I have been dreadfully frightened about you — " 
 
 " Frightened ! what at ? oh, you silly child ! But come, let us 
 have dinner ; I shall be ready in less than ten minutes. The idea of 
 being frightened ! " and with a smile of compassionate derision, Hany 
 marched off to dress, humming, — 
 
 " A southerly wind and a cloudy sky 
 Proclaim it a hunting morning-." 
 
 And this was Alice's recompense for a lonely day spent in looking 
 forward to, and longing for, her husband's return, ending in half an 
 hour of breathless anxiety for his safety ! She felt decidedly cross,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 117 
 
 and we think she had a right to be so. During dinner she was silent 
 and dignified on piinciple — her husband should see that she felt his 
 neglect. But Han-y didn't see it one bit, bless him ! He was very 
 hungiy, so for some time kept strictly to business, and he was very 
 happy, so when his appetite was appeased, he rattled on about any- 
 thing and everything, and was so pleasant and cheerful that Alice 
 felt dignity would be quite out of place, had a little struggle with 
 her feelings, and then mentally forgave him. 
 
 To prove that she did so, she laid herself out to entertain and 
 amuse him, and with this view, when the servant had left the room, 
 she treated him to a comic account of her day's adventures, and 
 having talked herself into a great state of communicativeness and 
 sociability, had just reached the bass cow episode, when a slight 
 sound, not very unlike the voice of the cow itself, reached her ear — 
 Harry had fallen fast asleep ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 KATE SOWS THE WIND. 
 
 So Kate Marsden man-ied the cotton-spinner, and old Mr. Hazlehurst 
 repurchased his farm on very easy terms. We wonder which of the 
 two was best pleased with the bargain ! Kate tm-ned very pale when 
 she promised to love, honour, and obey a man whom she disliked, 
 despised, and intended to rule ; nor do we wonder at it, for, with all 
 her faults, Kate perceived the intrinsic beauty of truth, and loved it, 
 as she did everything beautiful. But though she loathed herself for 
 what she was doing, though her bitterest enemy could not have 
 taken a harsher view of her conduct than she herself took, she had 
 gone too far to retract, and having swallowed the camel of crushing 
 her own heart and that of Arthur Hazlehurst, she could not stultify 
 berself by straining at the gnat of swearing falsely in the service for 
 the solemnization of matrimony. Kate's was one of that peculiar 
 order of consciences which can commit a sin knowingly, on an 
 emergency, but dare not be guilty of a bliuider. In the one case, the 
 end appears to justify the means ; while in the other, the entire 
 transaction is unworthy. Sophistry, Kate, sophisti*y ! which, while 
 you think it, and act upon it, fails to satisfy even your warped and 
 distorted sense of right and wrong. 
 Kate Marsden man-ied Mr. Crane — there was a union ! On the
 
 118 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 one side youtli and Ijeaiity ; intellect, lofty enough to have aimed at 
 any achievement which the mind of woman has accomplished ; energy 
 sufficient to have gained the object striven for ; ambition, that when 
 all was won would have despised the trophies at her feet, and sighed 
 for more worlds to conquer ; and a deep passionate nature, combin- 
 ing the fiery elements of a southern temperament with the steady 
 perseverance and inflexible resolution characteristic of a daughter of 
 the sturdy north ; on the other side, advancing age, mental weak- 
 ness, timidity, and its natural concomitant — suspicion, together with 
 a general paucity of ideas, centred in a vulgar pride of wealth. All 
 Kate's friends congratulated her, and many envied her good fortune ; 
 and Horace DAlmayne smiled on his future victim, as he surely 
 reckoned her; and Arthur Hazlehurst sat alone in his dusky 
 chambers, with bitter thoughts busy at his heart, struggling, like a 
 brave and good man, against the tempting fiend that bade him rise up 
 and curse her who had thus rendered desolate his young existence; 
 and the minister of religion stood before the altar and pronounced 
 his blessing over this hollow mockery of maiTiage, which no amount 
 of blessing could hallow ; and the happy pair drove off to some 
 fool's paradise to enjoy the honeymoon. 
 
 Poor Mr. Crane ! if he had dreamed of the volcano of feeling that 
 smouldered at his side beneath that cold, calm exterior, he would 
 assuredly have flimg open the carriage door, sprung out (albeit not 
 accustomed to such feats of activity), and never ceased running 
 until he had reached Manchester. Fortunately, however, his wife's 
 mind was a sealed book to him, and so he reached the end of his 
 journey in peace and safety. 
 
 Having borne the honeymoon with resignation, Kate endured her 
 bad bargain tete-a-tete at various watering-places and amongst 
 innumerable lakes and mountains of toiirist notoriety, until she had 
 taught him the only accomiDlishment she cared to inculcate, viz., 
 obedience, which he learned very readily, seeing that it relieved him 
 from all trouble and responsibility. This point accomplished, she 
 took him to a fashionable hotel in St. James's Street, where she wi-ote 
 to her friend, Arabella Crofton, to join her. However, before that 
 excellent young woman of the world had time to wind up the ends of 
 a few trifling skeins of policy, with which she had been constructing 
 nets for small birds at Baden-Baden, Horace D'Almayne found out 
 the residence of the happy couple, and proceeded to call upon, dine 
 with, and make himself generally useful and agreeable to them. 
 Kate did not like him, but she had been for two months tete-a-tete 
 with Mr. Crane, and Horace possessed this advantage over that devoted 
 husband, that he was not a fool, and Mr. Crane was. Horace was not a 
 fool ; on the contrary , he was such a clever knave that it was really a pity 
 that he was not something better ; he saw the game he had to play, 
 and he resolved to play it as skilfully as his faculties and experience 
 would enable him. He possessed considerable insight into character, 
 and sufficient tact to accommodate himself to the peculiarities, and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 119 
 
 avail himself of the weaknesses, he might thus discover. Accordingly, 
 his fii'st move was to endeavonr to lull Kate's suspicions of him, which 
 he saw had been aroused ; his next to make himself by degrees useful 
 to hei* — necessary to her ; then, let him win her confidence on any 
 subject (he would have been delighted if she had told him the day of 
 the month, or that she had dropped a pin, in confidence, for it would 
 have been a beginning), until by word, look, or sign, she admitted 
 her indiiference towards her husband, and then the game would be 
 his own. 
 
 With Mr. Crane, D Almayne's course appeared very simple. The 
 millionaire's one clear idea was the omnipotence of wealth ; he knew 
 D'Almayne was poor, and that he had lent him money which he 
 never exiiected to be repaid. He considei'ed him in the light of a 
 sort of master of the ceremonies, who could guide him in the ways 
 of fashionable life, whereof he felt his ignorance — a kind of iipper 
 upper-servant — the vizier to his caliphship, and he lent him money 
 as a delicate way of paying his wages. At present D'Almayne was 
 in high favour with Mr. Crane ; his wife was looking very handsome, 
 quite a gem of a wife — equal to his pictures or his port wine ; 
 DAlmayne had negotiated his marriage for him, and the specula- 
 tion had been a successful one ; he lent D'Almayne ^500 before he 
 had been in town a week. Horace saw it all, but he was not proud ; 
 as he would have said, " It suited his book too well," so he pocketed 
 his. wages meekly. 
 
 " My dear Kate, can yoii amuse yourself for a couple of hours or so 
 alone ? D'Almayne and I are going to look at a pair of carriage- 
 horses — a — I shall bring him home to luncheon, and — a — now I 
 think of it, I asked him to dine here and go to the concert at the 
 Hanover Square Rooms with us afterwards ; " and having thus un- 
 folded his programme for the day, Mr. Crane glanced timidly towards 
 his wife, to learn whether it would receive her sanction and approval. 
 There was a moment's silence, and then in a low, musical voice, Kate 
 replied coldly, — 
 
 " I have letters to write this morning, so the arrangement will 
 suit me perfectly. If the horses are fine ones, I hope you will buy 
 them." 
 
 Mr. Crane stroked his chin (a habit in which he indulged when any- 
 thing pleased him) and smiled. His wife was satisfied with him 
 — happy man ! But he had stroked his chin rather prematurely, for, 
 in the same cold tone, Kate resumed, — 
 
 " There is one point on which I am anxious clearly, to understand 
 you. Is it your wish that Mr. D'Almayne should virtually live with 
 us ? because, that he will do so, unless some decided measui-es are 
 taken to discourage him, is self-e"vident." 
 
 This was a straightforward and uncompromising way of putting 
 the case which slightly discomposed poor Mr. Crane. D'Almayne 
 was, as we have said, eminently iisef vil to his patron, so much so, that 
 at that precise epoch the good gentleman would have been sorely
 
 120 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 puzzled how to get on without him ; but the more he acknowledged 
 this in his secret soul, the less did he desire that any one, and 
 especially his young wife, should perceive it. 
 
 " Well, my dear Kate," he began, " you see Mr. D'Almayne has 
 turned his attention to points which, engaged as I have been for 
 many years in commerce, I have never found time or opportunity 
 to render myself acquainted with." 
 
 " In fact, he has made himself necessary to yon," interposed 
 Kate. 
 
 " No, my dear, no — by no means necessary — not at all so ; but that 
 he is useful, very useful to me, I confess. I am sorry to perceive 
 that you have taken up a slightly unreasonable (if I may be permitted 
 to say so) prejudice against this young man." 
 
 "Ton are mistaken," returned Kate calmly. "I am perfectly 
 indifferent to him. If it is your wish to make use of him, he will of 
 course be here constantly ; but as yoii have so kindly yielded to my 
 desire that my friend. Miss Crofton, shoidd reside with us, his 
 presence or his absence will make little difference to me — only, if at 
 any future time you should hear comments on the intimacy, you will 
 remember that I have admitted it solely to gratify you." 
 
 Mr. Ci'ane, propitiated by this concession, and by the grounds on 
 which Kate had placed it, was endeavouring to stroke some form of 
 thanksgi'S'ing out of his chin, when the door opened, and the subject 
 of their conversation was shown in. After a few desultory remarks, 
 Horace, turning to Mr. Crane, observed, — 
 
 " I called at the house agent's in my way here, and have obtained 
 the particulars of two houses which it will be quite worth your 
 while to look at; one is in. Belgrave Square, the other in Park 
 Lane." 
 
 As he spoke Kate raised her head and fixed her large eyes upon 
 his face; but he appeared unconscious of having deserved her 
 scrutiny, and was quietly examining some memoranda he had written 
 on the back of a card" regarding the number of rooms and other 
 particulars I'especting the houses. So perfectly unconscious was his 
 manner, that for once Kate's penetration was at fault. She re- 
 membered ha\'ing on one occasion, months befoi'e, at the Grange, 
 mentioned in his i)resence that if she went to live in London she 
 should prefer either Belgrave Square or Park Lane for her residence ; 
 but whether he also had recollected this, or whether his selection 
 was the result of accident, she could not decide. Moreover, it was 
 not easy for her to determine how to act in the matter. If he had 
 made the selection intentionally, and she allowed it to pass unnoticed, 
 it would be a sort of tacit admission that she was willing to receive 
 such secret attentions fi-om him, appreciating them as kindnesses 
 rather than resenting them as impertinences ; while, on the other 
 hand if by any chance it was a mere coincidence, she was unwilling 
 to afford him even the minute triumph of perceiving that she felt 
 sufficient interest in him to remember whether or not he had been
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 121 
 
 present on an occasion, since wliicli sereral montlis had elapsed, or 
 that she cared to know if he had observed or regarded her wishes. 
 So she took a middle course, and, availing' herself of a pause in the 
 conversation, inquired carelessly, — 
 
 " Where did you say the houses were situated, Mr. D'Almayne ?" 
 On obtaining the information she required, she added, " And how 
 came you to select those particular localities ? " 
 
 As he tunied to reply, their glances met, but his face was perfectly 
 inscrutable. 
 
 " If. as your tone implies, they do not meet your appi-oval, my dear 
 Mrs. Crane, we need take no fui-ther trouble in regard to them," was 
 his ambiguous reply. " I chose them because I fancied situations so 
 generally popular might not be displeasing to you." 
 
 Kate was again foiled, and D Almayne, as he quietly observed it, 
 muttered inwardly, " Won the first trick, at all events ! " 
 
 Mr. Crane, leaving the room to put on his great-coat, a precaution 
 without which he was most careful not to stir from home, D'Almayne 
 observed, — 
 
 " You would prefer bay carriage-borses to grey, or any moi'e 
 conspicuous colour, would you not ? " 
 
 Surprised at his having thus discovered lier taste, Kate was so far 
 thrown off her guard as to exclaim, — 
 
 ■' How in the world do you know that ? " 
 
 Horace smiled a quiet smile. 
 
 " I reasoned from analogy," he said ; " your dress is always rich, 
 and striking, but never showy ; and the effect is produced by its 
 consistency as a whole." 
 
 Kate involuntarily returned bis smile ; tact and keen intelligence 
 were qualities she highly appreciated. 
 
 " Ton are a close obsei-ver," she said, " and shall be rewarded by 
 learning the interesting fact that I do prefer bay horses to those of 
 any other colour." 
 
 Before the week was over, Mr. Crane had purchased a magnificent 
 pair of bay cai-riage-horses, and had taken a lease of a noble mansion 
 in Park Lane. The only fault Kate could discover in either was the 
 conviction forced upon her that it was to the agency of Horace 
 DAlmayne she was indebted for them.
 
 122 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ADVICE GRATIS. 
 
 Harry could not give iip shooting, Han-y wonld not give up shoot- 
 ing, and Harry did not give np shooting. On the contrary, he conld, 
 would, and did shoot every day, and all day long, except on Sundays, 
 throughout September and October ; at least, there were so few 
 exceptions that they only proved the rule. Alice did not like it at 
 all; at first she was very miserable. One day Harry found her 
 ci-ying, and being considerably surprised and greatly concerned at 
 the unaccountable discovery, did not rest tuitil he had ascertained 
 the caiise, when he was particularly shocked, and blamed himself so 
 miich, that he refrained from shooting for two whole days, and 
 really would have striven to reform his conduct, only that, unfortu- 
 nately, an invitation arrived to join a grand battiie at a certain 
 Colonel Crossman's. This, in his then frame of mind, he would have 
 refused ; but there being a Mrs. Crossman in the case, Alice was 
 included in the invitation, and they were begged to stay three or 
 four days, which, as Popem Park preserves were the best stocked of 
 any in the county, was an offer not likely to be rejected. Thus, 
 xinfortunately, they went — we say unfortunately, because Colonel 
 Crossman Avas, taken as a whole, a jovial, hot-tempered, selfish 
 brute ; and his wife a quick-witted, worldly-minded, selfish fool. 
 They did very well together, because, as he usually lived out of the 
 house, and she in it, and both did exactly as they liked, when they 
 liked, their faults seldom clashed ; if such a collision did take place, 
 there was an awful tumult, in which brutality had his way for the 
 minute, and paid for it in minor miseries which folly inflicted upon 
 him for the next fortnight. And yet this amiable couple had a kind 
 of theoretical and useless affection for each other, which was 
 engendered partly by habit and partly by a deep and essentially 
 vulgar reverence for appearances, which, together with going to 
 church once on Sunday, stood them in the stead of religion and of 
 morality. Thus were they bad counsellors for our young married 
 couple. On the first morning of her visit, Alice was standing at the 
 drawing-room window, watching the figm-es of her husband and 
 Colonel Crossman striding through a turnip field about a quarter of 
 a mile distant, when Mrs. Crossman joined her. 
 
 "Ah! there they go," she observed, in a vinegar-aud- water 
 voice ; " we shall see no more of them till seven o'clock, depend 
 upon it." 
 
 " Does Colonel Crossman never return to luncheon ? " inquired
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 123 
 
 Alice timidly, for she stood slightly in awe of ithe female soldier 
 "beside her. 
 
 " Return to luncheon ! " was the astonished reply, delivered in 
 much such a tone as might have been anticipated if Alice had 
 inquired whether the gallant Colonel usually made his mid-day meal 
 upon red-hot ploughshares ; " come home to luncheon ! not he. He 
 wouldn't do such a thing to save my life, I believe ; certainly not if 
 the scent was lying well. Why, Mr. Coverdale does not spoil you in 
 that way to be sm'e, does he ? The Colonel told me he was a thorough 
 sportsman." 
 
 " So he is," returned Alice with a sigh, which escaped her 
 involuntarily. 
 
 " Ah ! no woman with a heart should ever mari-y a sportsman," 
 rejoined Mrs. Crossman, with rather more vinegar and less water in 
 her tone than before. " Out all day, from the first of September till 
 the breeding season comes round again ; then the moment they've 
 finished dinner and .their bottle of port wine, asleep they go, and 
 only wake to stamp and swear with the cramp and drop off again, 
 till they tumble iipstairs to bed, and are no comfort to anybody. 
 You are a young wife yet, my dear, and your husband's hardly grown 
 tired of you, perhaps ; but wait another month or two and yoii'll see 
 — men are all alike ! " 
 
 There was just enough applicability to her own case in this tirade 
 to make Alice feel rather angry and thoroughly uncomfortable ; but 
 the idea of comparing Harry with Colonel Crossman was too bad, 
 and anger predominated as she replied, " Mr. Coverdale is not 
 quite so selfish as yoii imagine, my dear madam ; certainly he left 
 me a good deal alone when the shooting season first began, but as 
 soon as he was aware how dull and lonely I felt, he gave up shooting 
 for, for—" 
 
 "Half a day ? " inquired Mrs. Crossman sarcastically. 
 
 " He did not go out for two whole days, and since that he has 
 generally returned to luncheon," replied Alice, colouring from 
 vexation. 
 
 " Wonderful ! " exclaimed Mrs. Crossman, with an affectation of 
 extreme surprise ; " actually stayed at home for two whole days, 
 when he's been married as many months — what a model man ! Not 
 that I believe Colonel Crossman ever did so much as that even," she 
 continued, turning on the vinegar. " I picked him iip in India, you 
 know— was actually weak enough to fall in love with the creature ! 
 even went the length of refusing two district judges and the resident 
 at Bamboozle for his sake ! And would you believe it, we hadn't 
 been married above a week, when the man was brute enough to go 
 out hog-hunting and leave me all by myself at Boshbogie, on the 
 borders of the great Flurry-yunghal Jungle, with nothing more 
 conversable than tawneys and tigers within thirty miles of me ; but, 
 however, I was not long before I learned how to take care of myself 
 — and the sooner you do the same, my dear, the better for your
 
 124 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 happiness. Men are easily enough managed if you do but set the 
 right way to work. If you choose to he always humble and meek to 
 'em, they'll let you lie down for them to wipe their boots on, but if 
 you only show them you've got a spirit of your own, and don't cai-e 
 
 for 'em " 
 
 " But I don't know that I have got what you call a spirit of my 
 own," interrupted Alice, smiling at her companion's vehemence, 
 " and I certainly do care about my husband." 
 
 " Ah, my dear, that's all very well now ; but wait a bit — wait till 
 some day when he wants to go shooting, and you want him to do 
 something else, and then see of how much use your meekness and 
 fondness will be to you. He will think to himself, ' Oh ! she will be 
 just as well pleased a couple of hours hence, as if I had lost my day's 
 sport for her silly nonsense.' I know he will, men are all alike. 
 No ; sooner or later you'll find you will have to pluck up a spirit, and 
 treat your husband as he will treat you. If he leaves you by yoiu-self 
 all day, fill your house with company ; if he goes out shooting and 
 hunting with his friends, do you go out riding or dri\ing with yours ; 
 if he has his season in the country, do you have yoiu's in London ; 
 operas and shopping are amusements you've just as good a right to 
 as he has to go popping at the partridges and pheasants ; and if you 
 care so much about keeping him at home, hook some young dandy 
 (there will be plenty ready to nibble when such a bait as your pretty 
 face is hung out for them), and flii-t with him steadily till the desired 
 eifect is produced. That will bring your husband to his senses, if 
 anything will. I once settled the Colonel in three days by going all 
 respectable lengths with Adolphiis Fitz-duckling. It led to a duel, 
 though ; biit that was because both Duck and Grossman were army 
 men and mixed up with a fighting set. I took care never to go quite 
 so far again, except with a civilian ; but then I hadn't got such a 
 quiet, demure manner as you have. A set of impudent yoimg 
 puppies in the Old 43rd used to call me ' Flii-ting Fan.' However, 
 1 can tell you I was able to keep the Colonel in much better order, 
 ' flirting him down,' as I used to call it, than I've ever managed to 
 do since I grew old — that is, less young than I was at that time." 
 And so this good woman, or rather this woman who, despite her 
 favdts, had some good in her, whereby she rindicated her title to 
 humanity, ran on until Alice heariily wished her back again amongst 
 the ta^vTieys or the tigers ; we ai*e afraid that at that esf)ecial 
 moment our little heroine would decidedly have prefeiTcd the latter. 
 In the meantime, Harry and the Colonel wei'e blazing away at the 
 long-tails most unmercifully, Harry, who was a crack shot, bringing 
 down everything he pointed his gun at, while the Colonel, whose 
 hand had an awkward trick of shaking, as if its proprietor was in 
 the habit of imbibing too much port wine, missed much oftener than 
 was agreeable to him, on each of which several occasions he 
 attributed his failure to, and condemned in no measured terms 
 either the gun, or the bird, or both. About two o'clock Han-y pulled
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 125 
 
 ©tit his watch, and glancing at it obsei-ved, " I don't know what your 
 aiTangements may be, Colonel, but if Mrs. Grossman is of as sociable 
 a disposition as my little wife, she will consider ns great bears if we 
 don't return till dinner time." 
 
 At this moment a splendid cock-pheasant rose, *" whirring " into 
 the air at some considerable distance from the sportsmen, whereupon 
 the Colonel, considering it a difficult shot, called out, " Your bu-d, 
 Coverdale." Han-y, embarrassed with his watch, which he still held 
 in his hand, i*aised his gun, and catching his finger in the guard 
 chain, pulled the trigger too soon, and missed with both barrels, 
 while the Colonel, seeing that the pheasant was now so far off that it 
 could be no discredit to miss it, pulled at it, and by accident brought 
 it down. 
 
 " Bravo ! Colonel, that is the cleverest shot that has been made 
 to-day by long odds ! " ejaculated Harry. 
 
 " Ah ! that's a trifle to what I used to do when I was yoiu- age," 
 was the slightly apocryphal reply ; " nothing with feathers or hair 
 on it had a chance, if I put my gun up at it, I can tell you. But 
 what were you saying about going home ? why, I'm just getting into 
 shooting order ! you're not knocking up, to be siire, already." 
 
 " No ; nor six hours' more hard walking would not do it," i-eturned 
 HaiTy, laughing, as he mentally contrasted his own powers with 
 those of the Colonel, who, although he had carefully assigned all the 
 toughest of the work to his guest, was evidently beginning " to want 
 his corn," as Coverdale metaphorically paraphrased the fact of his 
 entertainer's requiring his luncheon. " I merely asked you whether 
 Mrs. Crossman would not disapprove of our remaining out all 
 day?" 
 
 " Mrs. Crossman may go and hang herself in her own 
 
 petticoat strings ! " was the uncoiuteous rejoinder. " Ah ! I see how 
 it is," continued the " old soldier." " I see all about it : you're a 
 young hand yet, Coverdale, and I'm an old one ; take my advice. 
 You've man-ied a nice gal, and a pretty gal — don't you go and spoil 
 her ; it's the nature of women to like to have their own way ; and 
 one of their ways — and a most aggravating and unaccountable one it 
 is — is always to have a fellow dangling about after them, and there 
 they'll keep him driving 'em out, or riding with 'em, or dawdling in 
 shops, and paying their bills for 'em — they don't forget that, mind 
 you — or reading to 'em, or some such confounded humbug. Hang 
 it, sir, I'd sooner be a galley-slave or a black nigger at once ! Well, 
 if yoii begin by indulging a woman (they're all alike in such points), 
 
 she'll be yoiu* master ever after, and youi* life won't be worth a " 
 
 (As we do not know the exact value of the coin to which the Colonel 
 alluded, we abstain from a moi-e particular mention of it.) " No ; if 
 you're to have any peace or comfort in the maified state, you must 
 let your wife see that you're determined to show you're the superior. 
 The only way to do it effectually is — come to heel. Countess, ah ! 
 would you then ! " (and whack, whack, went the dog- whip against
 
 126 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 poor Countess's sides) — "tlie only way to break 'em in is — (whack) — 
 to show 'em clearly whose will is the strongest, and whose must 
 yield. I had trouble enough with Mrs. Grossman, I can assure you. 
 She was not an easy woman to break in, sir ; but she found she'd 
 met her match. If she scolded, I stormed ; if she raved, I swore; if 
 she sulked, I whistled ; if she cried, I lit a cigar ; if she fainted, I 
 laid her on the hardest board that I could i)ick out in the floor, and 
 smoked till she came round again. The only time she went into 
 hysterics I flung a pail of cold water over her— that cured her at 
 once and for ever. I dare say you think me an old brute, but the 
 day will come when you'll recollect my advice, and be glad enough 
 to act upon it. Women are all alike, more or less." 
 
 Harry did think him an old brute, and thanked his stars that 
 neither in mind nor in person did Alice in the smallest degree 
 resemble Mrs. Grossman ; he also thought that he should never 
 remember the Golonel's advice with any other feeling than disgust. 
 Ah ! Harry — Harry ! 
 
 GHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A STORM BREWING. 
 
 Harry ! My dear Harry ! — Wilkins, where is your master ? I told 
 you I must speak to him before he went out, and now you've let him 
 go without " 
 
 " Wilkins ! where the d Oh ! Wilkins, what did you do with 
 
 that bag of snipe-shot I brought down from London ? " 
 
 Thus apostrophized by an agitated soprano at the drawing-room 
 door, and an impatient tenore robusto in the entrance-hall, Wilkins, 
 the amiable and timid London butler, who had played the character of 
 Job's comf oi-ter to Alice's " Didone abandonata " on the memorable 
 evening of the first of September, made two or thi-ee steps in the 
 direction of the drawing-room, then twisting round with a sudden 
 jerk, as though he had been worked by machinery with which 
 somebody was playing tricks, rushed frantically into the hall, and 
 handing his master a wi'ong bag of shot exclaimed, without any 
 breath left, — 
 
 " This — a — is them, sir ; and my mistress — a — says " 
 
 " Swan-shot, you fool — that is, Wilkins, big enough to roll over a 
 bxxllock ! It's the snipe-shot I'm looking for. No, not that. Don't 
 you know snipe-shot when you see it ? When the scent's getting 
 duller every miniite, too ! I ought to have been out these two hours.
 
 ^. 
 
 \V^
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 127 
 
 That's right, my good fellow ; don't he a month about it — give it me. 
 I shall be home to dinner." 
 
 " But my mistress particularly wishes to speak " faltered poor 
 
 Wilkins. HaiTy, flinging down with an angry gesture the shot-belt 
 he had just filled, and muttering that he had better give up going 
 out at all, strode off to the drawing-room, and putting his head in 
 through the partially opened door, as though he were afraid of 
 being taken prisoner if he trusted himself bodily in the apartment, 
 exclaimed, — 
 
 '■ Now. then, little woman, what is it ? Quick, please, for I want 
 to be off." 
 
 " There is an invitation just amved fi'om AUerton House for 
 Tuesday week. What am I to say ? " 
 
 " Oh. we must go, of com-se. I want you to get intimate with 
 Lady Allei-ton, she's a charming woman, and Lord George is a good 
 little fellow in his way, though an awfully bad shot. Dinner, I 
 suppose ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but, HaiTy, wait one moment and listen to me ! " exclaimed 
 Alice. ''You need not be in such a hurry; you will have plenty of 
 time for that hoirid shooting before six o'clock." 
 
 "■ Hon-id shooting, indeed I Much you know about it," muttered 
 the victimized spoi"tsman, inwardly chafing at the delay ; " it will be 
 hoiTid shooting in one sense, if I am hindered much longer. The 
 scent won't lie when the dew is off, and I may as well go out with 
 a walking-stick as with a gun, for there will be nothing to shoot at." 
 " Well, I'll let you go dii-ectly, you impatient, siUy boy," returned 
 Alice, smiling at the serious, business-like view her husband took of 
 his amusement. " The only thing I wish to say is, that if we accept 
 this invitation, we shall be almost certain to meet the Duke and 
 Duchess of Bi'entwood there ; and j'ou know I've been waiting for 
 you to go with me. day after day, and I've never returned their visit 
 yet. You must take me to call before Tuesday week ; I've been quite 
 rude already." 
 
 " All right." returned Hany ; " we'll go in style, and call on the old 
 duchess. I'll wear a red coat, and stick a peacock's feather in my 
 hat, if that will please you. It's a pity she's so like a chimpanzee ! 
 Most probably she is related to the monkey tribe — suppose we ask 
 her when we call ; it will be a new and original style of conversation, 
 eh ? Well, ta-ta ! It's so late now that I'm afraid you won't have 
 the felicity of seeing me again till dinner time ; " and without 
 allowing his wife an opportunity of remonstrating, Harry closed the 
 door, and was soon paying off the long-bills in a way in which they 
 scarcely approved of having their " little accounts " settled. Alice 
 watched him depart with a smile, .which faded into a sigh as she 
 tm-ned to write an acceptance to the dinner invitation, and then 
 employ and amuse herself as best she might dui-ing the weary houi-s 
 which must elapse ere her husband would retxu-n. 
 Lord Allerton was the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of
 
 128 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Brentwood, who were the great people, ' par excellence,' of the Cover- 
 dale Park neighbourhood ; and when the Duke and Duchess came 
 to spend then* Christmas in the country, Alice, stimiilated thereunto 
 by the conversation of the Mesdames Jones, Brown, and Robinson 
 of those parts, felt slightly curious to know whether these ancient 
 and venerable limbs of the aristocracy would deign to honour her by a 
 call, and was iDroportionably gratified and bored when, on a di-eary 
 morning, the dull old Duchess came and paid her a singularly heavy 
 and iminteresting visit. To induce Hai-ry to accompany her when she 
 returned this equally flattering and alarming civility had been for 
 several days the sole object of Alice's existence, — an object in which, 
 as the reader may perceive by the foregoing conversation, she had 
 hitherto been unsuccessful. 
 
 The next morning Alice once again made an attempt to entice her 
 better half away from the pleasures of the plains ; but the rabbits 
 had begun barking the iyoung ash-trees in a favourite plantation, 
 and were to be " pulled down " accordingly. This occupation lasted 
 several days, at the expiration of which period certain poachers, 
 choosing to join in the ami;sement uninvited, had to be " pulled up " 
 for their iniquities — a series of ups and downs which left only two 
 days vacant before the impox'tant Tuesday dedicated to the dinner- 
 party at Allerton would an-ive. The first of these days it rained 
 cats and dogs, and snowed fragments of polar bears so decidedly, 
 that even Han-y could not get out till about half -past three, when, 
 in desperation, he enveloped himself in a macintosh, and galloped 
 over to the town, five miles off (as aD to^vns are from all country 
 houses), to match some ribbon for Alice and look at the newspaper 
 on his own account. The " County Press " was just out, and therein 
 Harry ijerceived a leading article attacking the decision an-ived at 
 by himself and his brother magistrates in the case of the " pulled 
 up " poachers. This being equally irritating and interesting, he sat 
 down in the reading-room of the librai-y diligently to peruse the 
 same — phsa-ing, pish-ing, and ".confounding the fellow " at every 
 second line. He had just got to a paragi-aph beginning, " Mr. 
 C — d — le may be well qualified to lead the way across a stiff line of 
 country after the hounds, or roll over unoffending hares and rabbits 
 in a battue — but that is no proof that he possesses an equal right 
 to ride rough-shod over the enactments of a British Parliament, or 
 to ovei-turn the decrees of abler lawyers than are to be foimd among 
 
 the bench of magistrates at H ," when a large hand was placed 
 
 over his eyes, and a loud, jovial voice exclaimed, — 
 
 " Never mind, Harry, my boy — little Flipkins the editor's got a 
 wife with the devil's own temper, and she helps him to write the 
 leaders ; she took a dislike to you when she was Miss Jamby, and 
 kept the confectioner's shop, when you neglected her, and flirted 
 with the girl behind the counter, because she happened to be the 
 prettiest, and now she's paying you off ; you can't horsewhip ^a 
 woman, you knoAv, so you'd better take it easy."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 129 
 
 Before the speaker had arrived at the conclusion of his advice 
 gratis, Coverdale had removed the hand which impeded his vision, 
 and turning round, exclaimed, — 
 
 "Why, it's Tom Rattleworth, by all that's extraordinary— I 
 thought you were in Canada, with your regiment, man ! " 
 
 " So I was till the gout can-ied ofE the governor, and left me a 
 miserable orphan with ^15,000 a year in my pocket. When that 
 lamentable event occui-red I thought I was, for the first time in 
 my life, worth taking care of, so determined to cut the red cloth 
 and pipe-clay business, and come home and live virtuously ever 
 
 after." 
 
 " You seem to have recovered your spirits pretty well, if one may 
 judge by present appearances," returned Coverdale, half-amused, 
 half-disgusted at his quondam friend's sentiments—" at all events 
 you've not grown thin upon it." 
 
 " No ! but that's the very fact which proves how deeply I feel my 
 forlorn condition; it's old FalstafE— is it not— observes how grief 
 swells a man ? I don't ride a pound under twelve stone," was the 
 rejoinder. " By the way," continued Rattleworth, " that reminds me 
 —it's deucedly lucky I met you ; you're the very man that can tell 
 me all about it— Broomfield is anxious to give up the fox-hounds ; 
 he is gi-owing old and lazy, and he wants me to take 'em." 
 
 "My dear fellow, I'm delighted to hear it," exclaimed Harry 
 eagerly ; " old Broomfield is completely past his work, and of all the 
 men I know you're the fittest to succeed him— you will do the 
 thing as it ought to be done. I should have undertaken them my- 
 self, if I had not become a Benedict : Broomfield tried to persuade 
 
 me." 
 
 " Well now look here," resumed Rattleworth, meditatively ; " I've 
 promised to meet Broomfield to-mon-ow, and take his horses and 
 evei-ything at a valuation. Now there is not a man in the county 
 whose opinion aboiit a horse I'd sooner have than yours ; can you 
 spare time to go with me ? I shall really consider it a personal 
 favour if you -w-ill do so." 
 
 " Of course I will." returned Harry ; for if he had a weak point on 
 which he was accessible to flattery, it was conceming his knowledge 
 of horse-flesh ; " there can be nothing I should like better, in f act— 
 what time do you go ? " 
 
 " I was to lunch with him at one," was the reply ; " and we were to 
 look at his stud afterwards." 
 
 " Then I'll meet you at the cross roads by Hanger Wood, at half- 
 past twelve." returned Han-y ; and so, with a hearty shake of the 
 hand, the friends parted. 
 
 Tom Rattleworth was the only son of a man who had begun life 
 
 as a land-agent and attorney in H ; but having very early in his 
 
 career dabbled in stock-jobbing till he made a considerable sum of 
 money, which his business connection enabled him to lay out to great 
 advantage, he gi-ew rich, purchased an estate, married into one of the 
 
 K
 
 130 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 county families, and brought his son up " as a gentleman "' — that is, 
 he sent him to Eton, where he learned nothing but how to get into 
 and out of scrapes ; and bought him a commission which he would 
 have done better without. Nature having thus ])laced a silver spoon 
 in Tom's mouth, appeared to consider his head sufficiently furnished 
 without going to any unusual expense in the article of brains ; so she 
 gave him barely an average quantity, and made up the deficiency by 
 an actual passion for horse-flesh. Thomas, thus endowed, was the 
 schoolfellow and holiday associate of Harry Coverdale ; and having 
 one, and only one taste in common, they had kept up their intimacy, 
 until HaiTy started on his gi'and toi^r, and Tom was sent with his 
 regiment to Canada, since which period the inter\'iew we have just 
 described was their first meeting. 
 
 As Coverdale cantered home through the mud, and rain, and sleet, 
 it suddenly flashed across him that the next was the only day 
 remaining in which to call on the Duke and Duchess of Brentwood 
 before the dinner at AUerton House ; and his conscience smote him 
 as he reflected that the engagement he had formed would prevent 
 him from accompanying Alice ; indeed, so annoyed did he feel at 
 thisimlucky coincidence, that for a moment he was on the point of 
 turning his horse's head, and liding after Tom Rattleworth to get 
 off the engagement ; but it was growing dusk, and he reflected that 
 Chase Hall, the residence of the renowned Thomas, was so far otit of 
 his way that he should be iinable to reach home by dinner-time, and 
 then Alice would get fi-ightened about him, which would annoy her 
 more than being obliged to pay hei- visit alone ; so with this bit of 
 sophisti-y he, for the moment, quieted his conscience. Before he 
 an-ived at his own house, he had mentally decided that, as it would 
 only worry his wife, he should say nothing about the Rattleworth 
 engagement to her that evening, and that in the moniing he should 
 mention it as an equally unfortunate and unavoidable necessity, 
 and persuade her to pay the first visit without him. Of course 
 she would be a little annoyed just at first, but she was so sweet- 
 tempered and amiable, that — that — and here his reflections refused 
 to clothe themselves in intelligible language; — had they done so 
 honestly, the sentence would have ended thus — " that she would 
 submit without making a scene." And so he cantered home, where 
 Alice, with her sunny smile and bright loving eyes, was waiting 
 to receive him, and made a vast fuss with the poor dear liecause 
 he must be so wet, which, thanks to Mr. Macintosh — his admirable 
 invention— he was not in the slightest degi-ee, though he appreciated 
 the affectionate fuss Alice made about him all the same. 
 
 Han-y ! you blind, stupid Hairy ! — as if her little finger, bless it, 
 were not worth all the horse-flesh that ever was foaled, fi-om 
 Bucephalus, down to the winner of the last Derby. 
 
 The next morning was a very fine one. Alice and HaiTy made 
 their appearance in the breakfast parlour about nine o'clock ; each 
 was a little out of sorts. Alice, not having been able to get any air
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 131 
 
 or exercise on the previous day, had waked with a headache, which 
 Han-y continually forgetting', would leave the door of his di'essins:- 
 room open, and attire himself to the tune of " A hunting we will go." 
 Then a new morning gown, on which Miss Flippery, the dressmaker 
 
 at H , had staked her credit, did not fit, and in turning round to 
 
 look at the set of the back, Alice trod on the skirt, and tore it out of 
 the " gathers " — whatever they may be ; and as women seldom swear, 
 and the evil was scarcely serious enough to cry over, poor little Mrs. 
 Coverdale was unable to vent her annoyance, and brought it down 
 to breakfast with her accordingly. Harry, on the other hand, 
 conscious that he was about to commit an act of injustice, on which 
 (although he repented of it suflBciently to feel very uncomfortable) 
 he was still determined, tried to keep up his courage by affecting a 
 degree of hilarity which caused him to make bad jokes about every 
 subject mentioned, and to evince such a total want of sympathy 
 with his wife's headache and consequent depression of spirits, that 
 Alice for the first time in her life considered him tiresome and in 
 the way, and felt inclined to say sharp things to him and snub him. 
 After a longish pause, inten-upted only when, on two occasions, 
 Harry was pulled xip for whistling, and a third time for beating 
 the devil's tattoo on the chimney-piece, Alice began, *" Really Wilkins 
 has taken to buraing the toast so black, it is impossible to eat it. I 
 wish you would speak to him about it, HaiTy." 
 
 " Certainly, my love," was the cheei-ful reply ; " what shall I say 
 to him ? That although I approve of his blacking my boots, I dis- 
 approve of his blacking my toast, and that I shall tha,nk him to do it 
 brown in future ? " 
 
 '* If you like to risk the chance, which is almost a cei"tainty, that 
 the man will misunderstand you, for the sake of making a stupid 
 slang pun, I advise you to do so," was the captious reply. 
 
 '■ Phew ! " whistled Harry ; " how solemn, and sensible, and 
 serious we've gi'O^vn all of a sudden ! I beg to inform you, Mrs. 
 Coverdale, that I expect my wife to admire my puns, if nobody else 
 does." 
 
 " Then you must contrive to make better ones, and to time them 
 rather more appropriately," rejoined Alice, so snappishly, that her 
 hiisband looked up in surprise. Recalled to herself by the un- 
 mistakable astonishment depicted on the bright, good-natured 
 countenance of her better half, Alice continued in a milder tone, 
 '* You must not mind what I say this morning, Hany, dear, my 
 headache makes me so dreadfully cross and stupid." 
 
 " Poor little thing ! you were shut up all yesterday, you know, and 
 that is enough to give anybody a headache," returned Hariy, who 
 considered houses were built only to dine and sleep in. and would 
 have had Alice spend her days "al fresco," even as he delighted to do. 
 " You must go out as much as possible to-day ; luckily it is very 
 fine" 
 
 '■ Yes; and I am to be honoured with my husband's company too,
 
 132 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 which is a most unaccustomed pleasure," rejoined Alice, brightening' 
 up at the recollection. '' It is certainly very jjood policy to make 
 youi-self so scarce, though I Avish you did not adhei-e quite so 
 strictly to it; why you have not driven out with me since we 
 returned from Popem Park ! At what time do you mean to order 
 the carriage ? " 
 
 "Why it's an hour's drive at least; James had better be at the 
 door by two o'clock," replied Han-y. Then turning towards the fire, 
 and moving the ornaments on the chimney-piece into wrong posi- 
 tions, he continued, with an elaborate attempt at nonchalance, which 
 veiled most inefficiently his consciousness that he was about to 
 perform an act against which his moral sense rebelled, he resumed : 
 '■ I'm afraid, my love, that I must ask you to call upon the Duchess 
 of Brentwood without me this morning — a lousiness engagement 
 of — a — importance — that is, one that I cannot avoid, will, I am 
 afraid " 
 
 And here he broke off abniptly, for, glancing at his wife, he 
 l^erceived an expression in her pretty face that he had never beheld 
 thex'e before ; the bright eyes were flashing, the soft cheeks biu-ned. 
 and the coral lij)s pouted with unmistakable anger. Han-y had at 
 length gone too far. and his sweet-tempered, loWug-heai-ted little 
 wife was positively and seriously angry with him. But so unusual a 
 circumstance demands a fresh chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE STORM BURSTS. 
 
 Alice Coverdale, annoyed and pained by what she considered 
 her husband's injustice and unkindness, did not leave him long in 
 doubt as to her feelings upon the subject ; for as soon as she could 
 conquer a choking sensation in the throat sufficiently to speak, she 
 exclaimed, — 
 
 '' Really, Hany, I must say you are most imkind and incon- 
 siderate ; you chose of youi- own accord to accept the iiiA-itation to 
 Allerton House, though I warned you at the time that it would 
 necessitate your calling on the Duke and Duchess first : you agreed 
 — in fact you promised to do so. There has not been a day since 
 that I haven't reminded you of this promise, so it is impossible you 
 can have forgotten it ; — there was a time, and not so very long ago- 
 either, when you were ready enough to go anywhere with me, and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 133 
 
 were only too glad to find I wished yoii to do so. I little thought, 
 poor foolish gii-1 that I was, how soon things would alter ; and now, 
 when you knew as well as I did that this is the last day on which we 
 can pay this visit, you've f omied some stupid engagement (to go and 
 shoot somewhere, I dare say ; I wish gi;ns had never been invented — 
 hon-id dangerous things— always going off unexpectedly and killing 
 people), and so made it impossible to retuni the Duchess's call : and 
 to-morrow I shall be ashamed to look her in the face, or to speak to 
 her ; though I dare say she won't give me a chance to do that, for 
 she is as proud as Lu as a woman can be." 
 
 Here, from sheer want of breath, Alice being forced to pause, 
 HaiTy qiiietly remarked : " Women can be as proud as men for that 
 matter, ' ecce signum ' ; but now just listen to a little common sense 
 for a minute. I fully intended and wished to accompany you, but I 
 
 happened yesterday, at H , to meet with a very old fi-iend of 
 
 mine, who informed me tliat he was going this morning to transact 
 ceiiain business matters which would involve the expenditure of a 
 considerable sum of money, in regard to which aifair he particularly 
 required my advice and opinion." 
 
 " He must be going to buy a gun or a horse then," intemipted 
 Alice ; " those are the only things people imagine you understand ; 
 and I don't wonder at them either, when they see you waste half 
 your life about this horrid sporting. If yoia give up all intellectual 
 pursuits in this way. you'll go on till you become fit for nothing biit 
 to himt, shoot, eat, drink, and sleep, like that dreadfiil old creature, 
 Colonel Grossman." 
 
 Thoroughly provoked by this last speech (which touched on a 
 sensitive point in Han-y's disposition, and aroused a latent fear, by 
 which he was always more or less oppressed, lest people should 
 consider him, from his fondness for field sports, a mere addle-pated, 
 fox-hunting squire), he replied, with more asperity in his tone than 
 he had ever before used, or believed it possible he could use, towards 
 Alice, " Take care you don't become a peevish shrew, like Mrs. 
 Crossman. You are angi-y, and foi-get yourself ; when you gi-ow 
 calm again, you will perceive how foolish and unreasonable you have 
 been to lose your temper about such a silly ti-ifle." 
 
 " You think being i-ude to your friends and unkind to your wife a 
 silly trifle, do you ? '' inquired Alice. 
 
 HaiTy's colour rose as he took a turn up and down the room to 
 compose his feelings ere he would trust himself to reply. " You 
 Avant to make me angiy," he said, " but I do not intend to afford you 
 that satisfaction. Listen to me," he continued, seeing that his wife 
 was again about to inteniipt him, " listen to me, and when you have 
 heard what I am about to say, you can reply as you please. I made 
 this engagement to oblige my friend, without at the moment 
 recollecting that to-day was the time appointed for caDing on the 
 Duchess; but when I reflected that one was business of importance, 
 and the other a mere visit of ceremony, I hoped and believed you
 
 134 HARRY COVERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 would be reasonable enougrh. when I should have explained the 
 matter to you, not even to wish nie to give up my engagement, and 
 would exercise sufficient common sense and self-control to go and 
 pay the visit alone." 
 
 " Then you thought wrongly," returned Alice, with vehemence ; 
 " if you required a wife who coiild go al>out by herself and visit a set 
 of proud, stiff people, who are strangers to her, and keep up your 
 position in the county, while you are out himting and shooting all 
 day. for your own selfish amusement, you should have chosen some 
 fashionable woman of the world, and not a poor simple country girl 
 like myself, who relied on your affection to protect and encourage 
 her ; " and here Alice showed strong symptoms of a disposition to 
 bring that " young wife's last resource " of a flood of tears to bear 
 upon her disobedient and refi"actoi*y spouse. 
 
 HaiTy, seeing this, and having been throughout the inten'iew 
 haunted by a latent consciousness that he was in the wTong, was 
 strongly tempted to yield, and despatching a messenger to Tom 
 Rattleworth furnished \vith some good and sufficient social white 
 lie to account for his non-appearance, to stay quietly at home till the 
 time should have an-ived to accompany his wife to visit their aristo- 
 cratic neighbours ; but, unhappily. Colonel Crossman's caution, 
 " You've man-ied a nice gal and a pretty gal, take care you don't go 
 and spoil her," flashed across hiui : " women are all alike, more or less ; 
 it's the nature of 'em to choose to have their own way ; if you indulge 
 'em at first, they will be your masters ever after ; show your wife she 
 has met her match," &c., &c. — these, and such like precepts, rang in 
 Harry's ears. Alice was angry and unreasonable, striving for the 
 upper hand, in fact ; he must not permit this : for her sake, as much 
 as for his own, he was called ujjon to assert himself, and vindicate 
 his marital authority. Yes, painful as it was to his feelings to speak 
 or act harshly to his young wife, whom, even at that moment, he 
 cared for more than any other created being, he would give her a 
 lesson which should cure the evil at once and for ever. So putting 
 on a very grave look he began : " My dear Alice, you are forgetting 
 yourself, forgetting our relative positions ; but there is a quiet way 
 of settling such affairs ; verbose discussions of this nature do not 
 suit me — I am essentially a man of action. It is the husband's right 
 to command, the wife's duty to obey. I had hoped your own proper 
 feeling would have saved me the pain of being forced to remind you 
 of this. I must now add, that I consider myself bound to fulfil my 
 engagement to my friend, and intend to do so : during my absence, it 
 is my wish and desire that you should drive and call on the Duchess of 
 Brentwood ; if, which I can scarcely conceive i^ossible. you still refuse 
 to do as I have pointed out, I shall, before I leave this room, -svi-ite a 
 note to Lady AUerton, infomiing her that we are unable to dine with 
 her to-moiTOw, without assigning any cause whatsoever for this 
 change of intention — which, as I cannot give the true reason, and 
 will not stoop to invent a false one, is the only course left open to me."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 135 
 
 Having delivered liimself calmly and firmly of this despotic speech, 
 HaiTy folded his amis across his broad chest, and leaning his 
 autocratic back against the chimney-piece, stood looking as if he 
 felt himself completely " monarch of all he surveyed," his wife 
 included. Meanwhile a fearful struggle between good and evil was 
 proceeding in Alice's mind ; a kind word or look would instantly 
 have caused the good to triumph : but her husband stood cold and 
 inexorable as a statue of Fate. Then the same personage who 
 tempted Eve to the sin which lost her Eden, suddenly caused to 
 flash across Alice's recollection all Mrs. Grossman's arguments, and 
 she deteiTnined to follow her advice, to " pluck up a spirit, and treat 
 her husband as he treated her," &c. Accordingly, by a gi-eat etforf 
 restraining her tears, which during HaiTy's harangue had begun to 
 flow, she looked up with flashing eyes and ci'imson cheeks, as she 
 replied, — 
 
 "' The ol>edience you require is not that of a wife but of a slave, and 
 I refuse to yield it. You have treated me unkindly and unjustly, 
 and I will not sacrifice myself to oblige you." 
 
 Han-y made no reply, though his lips moved convulsively, as though 
 he could scarcely command himself to keep silence ; then snatching 
 pen and ink, he scrawled a hasty note, sealed and directed it, and 
 rising, quitted the room without uttering a single word. As the 
 door closed behind him, the tears which Alice had hithei-to with such 
 difl&culty repressed, burst forth luirestrained. She was roused from 
 a paroxysm of weeping by the sound of horses' feet, and springing 
 to the window, reached it in time to see Hany give a note to a groom, 
 who rode away at speed in the direction of AUerton House ; then 
 moivnting his own horse, he also galloped off, ere Alice could muster 
 sufiicient presence of mind to attempt to recall him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE ATMOSPHEEE REMAINS CLOUDY. 
 
 Falling out with the wife of one's bosom is a process that bears a 
 marked affinity to two other domestic operations which, from time 
 immemorial, have lapsed into well-merited disrepute — viz. quarrelling 
 with one's bread and butter, and cutting off one's nose to spite one's 
 f nee ; the same moral but uncomfortable necessity of inherent self- 
 chastisement being common to all thi'ee. Thus Harry Coverdale,
 
 136 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 having vindicated his marital dignity, and galloped ofP the irritation 
 conseq\ient upon so acting, heartily wished the deed undone, and 
 Alice and himself friends again ; for, little as he appeared to prize 
 it. her affection had become necessai-y to him, and he conld no more do 
 without it, than he could have dispensed with sunshine in summer 
 or fires at Chinstmas. Accordingly it was in no very amiable fi*ame of 
 mind that he joined his fox-himting ally ; and it required all the 
 allurements of oysters, poi-ter. devilled bones, and unimpeachable 
 port wine, to enable him to " cast dull care away," sufficiently to 
 take a proper and spoi*tsman-like interest in all the miniitise of the 
 proposed transfer of stock, canine and equestnan. Once fairly in 
 for it, howevever, his stable-minded propensities asserted them- 
 selves, and he spent a deeply interesting afternoon in feeling back- 
 sinews, detecting incipient curbs and spavins, condemning an incur- 
 able sand-crack, and othei-wise testing and pronouncing judgment 
 upon the quadi'upedal inmates of Squire Broomfield's hunting 
 stables As the waning light heralded the approach of dinner 
 time (that important epoch in the day with all country gentlemen, 
 and with most London ones also), and the last horse had been 
 trotted out and trotted in again, and its petticoats (which gi-ooms 
 call " body clothing '') replaced, Han-y's thoughts fell back into their 
 former gloomy train. Anxious, therefore, to leam how Alice was 
 progressing under the weight of his high displeasure, he was about 
 to take leave, when Tom Rattleworth drew him aside, obseiwing in a 
 confidential whisper, — 
 
 " I say, Coverdale, old Broomfield is going to ask you to stay and 
 dine — I know he is. he looks so pleased with himself. For mercy's 
 sake don't refuse, or else I shall have to endure a ' tete-a-tete ' with 
 the old boy. and that will use me up all together — horse, foot and 
 artillery ; for besides being bored to extinction, he will do me out of 
 every advantage you have obtained for me to-day. He's an awful 
 screw, and I'm good for nothing at a bargain after the first bottle ; 
 so if you leave me to his tender mercies, I'm safe to be butchered 
 like a lamb, and served up in my own mint sauce befoi'e we quit the 
 mahogany." 
 
 " I'm afraid I must decline," was the reply, " for my wife has been 
 at home by herself all day, and it is not fair to expect her to spend 
 the evening in solitude also. But you need not be victimized on that 
 account ; come home and dine with us. Tou've never met my wife ; 
 she was in the school-room and a pinafore when you went abroad 
 with your regiment. Say yes, and then you can tell old Broomfield 
 that you are engaged to me." 
 
 " So be it then," was the rejoinder, and thus was Mr. Broomfield 
 cheated of his guests, and Harry enabled to avoid a ' tete-a-tete ' 
 dinner, and possibly a scene, with his outraged spouse. In the mean- 
 time, Alice had been enduring all the mental torments consequent 
 upon having been angry with the person one loves best in the world. 
 First, the idea that she had been most cruelly used, and extensively
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 137 
 
 sinned against, and put upon, was the only one whioli presented 
 itself to her mind in anything like a clear and definite shape ; and 
 she be-wailed her evil fortune in a very thunderstorm of weeping. 
 Having by this means condensed, juid disposed of, a vast amount of 
 superfluous steam, she grew calmer and more reasonable, when the 
 uncomfortable possibility gi-a dually dawned i;pon her, that she also 
 might have been to blame — that she had first irritated, and then 
 defied Harry, and utterly and completely failed in her duty as a wife ; 
 and so penitent did she become on the strength of this conviction, 
 that if her husband had returned at that moment, she would have 
 thrown herself at his feet and humbly implored his pardon, which 
 act of unqualified submission must have disarmed Harry so entirely 
 and totally, that he would instantly have forgiven her, and frankly 
 confessed himself to blame, and Alice would never again have 
 experienced the eifects of his " quiet manner." But, unfortunately, 
 Harry was at that moment difPerently occupied, in impressing upon 
 Tom Rattleworth the impoi-tant fact, that Lucifer would be all the 
 better for having a red-hot iron passed lightly over his off fetlock at 
 the first convenient opportunity, and thus Alice's extreme penitence 
 evaporated as her anger had done. The final conclusion at which she 
 aiTived was, that she would confess her fault to Harry on his return, 
 and then tiy calmly and quietly to convince him of his injustice. If she 
 shoiild siicceed in this, of which she did not feel by any means certain, 
 they would exchange forgiveness ; and, warned by that which had 
 occurred, take heed to their ways, and live in harmony and affection 
 ever after. All these sentiments Alice proposed to deliver when she 
 and her husband should be ' tete-a-tete' after dinner, at which time she 
 had obsei-ved Hariy to be usually in an amiable and convincible frame 
 of mind. It may easily be imagined, therefore, that when she heard 
 Tom Rattleworth declare with much enthusiasm, and in a voice 
 raised to the pitch in which its possessor had been wont to direct the 
 gallant fraction of the British army lately under his command to 
 "Shoiild — der ar-r-ums," that he was open to " be blessed," on the 
 spot, if " the joUy old place did not look stunning," she was by no 
 means inclined to afford him the benediction he had invoked, and 
 heartily wished him at the bottom of the Red Sea, which we take to 
 be the lowest geographical limit to which a lady's anathema can be 
 permitted to descend. She had not time to do more than condemn 
 her unknown visitor to the oceanic penal settlement aforesaid, ere 
 a sound as of a jibbing man impelled forward by some powerful 
 agency in the rear, together with the following expostulation, met 
 her ear : — " My dear fellow, I'm not fit to be introduced ; I'm all over 
 mud, I am upon my life ! " 
 
 In another moment the drawing-room door flew open, and her 
 husband and a tall, large, bushy-whiskered, bluff, young man, who 
 looked as if he could only have been brought in doors by way of a 
 trick, like a pony, or a wheelbarrow, stood before her. 
 
 " Alice, this is Tom Rattleworth, an old schoolfellow of mine, who
 
 138 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 is very anxious to form j'our acquaintance, and has kindly consented 
 to dine with us," observed Harry. 
 
 " Hey ! — haw ! " besran Tom Rattleworth, uttering' sounds like a 
 bashful Off re in his intense consciousness of his muddy disqualifica- 
 tion for female society ; '" haw ! hey ! the kindness lies all — haw ! — 
 the other way. I hope— Mrs. Coverdale — my dear fellow — will 
 excuse — I told you I wasn't fit to be seen ; but you seem to be — the 
 roads are — impetuous as ever — so very muddy." Having delivered 
 himself of this slightly incoherent address, the embryo M.F.H. 
 '■ made his revei-ence " to Alice, and then performing the militaiy 
 evolution expressed in the mysterious terms "To the right about! 
 wheel ! " he laid violent hands upon his host, and forced shim out 
 of the room as energetically as he had been himself propelled into 
 it. 
 
 The dinner soon made its appearance, and was a '' real blessing " 
 to all i^arties, for it provided them something wherewith to occupy 
 their mouths, and thus obviated the painful necessity of manu- 
 facturing small-talk — a toil compared with which the labours of 
 Hercules appear child's play, and the up-hill work of Sisyphus a 
 mere game at hall. 
 
 The first shai-p edge of his appetite taken off, Tom Rattleworth 
 began to converse fluently upon the only topic which never failed 
 him, and which invariably formed the staple ingredient in his 
 discourse, and, indeed, in his thoughts generally — viz. himself and 
 his own sayings and doings. 
 
 Alice, bored and unhappy, uttered monosyllabic rej)lies, when she 
 perceived that she was expected to do so ; and remained silent and 
 " distraite " when such exertions were not required of her. 
 
 Han-y, partly grieved at perceiving the accustomed smishine in 
 his wife's pretty face overcast, partly iiritated at what he imagined 
 to be the sulkiness of her manner; annoyed at liis friend's egotistic 
 chatter, which he felt was disgusting Alice, and which he could not 
 contrive to check (seeing that the obtuseness of Tom Rattleworth's 
 faculties rendered him totally impervious to a hint) ; and generally 
 provoked by the change from his usual state of careless, light-hearted 
 happiness to his present iincomfortable frame of mind — a change 
 which he rightly enough attributed in a great measure to his o^Ti 
 hastiness and mismanagement, almost lost his temper. This he 
 displayed by rating the lad who assisted Wilkins, until he reduced 
 that unhappy juvenile to such a pitch of nervousness and general 
 mental debility, that, having inveigled his mistress into sugaring 
 instead of peppering a broiled turkey's leg, and reijlenished the 
 Champagne glasses from a bottle of bitter ale, he was sent out of the 
 room in disgrace. But in this mortal life (which would be qtiite 
 ujiendurable if such were not the case) all things sooner or later 
 come to an end — and dull dinners are no exceptions to the rule — 
 thus, after the dessert had been placed on the table, Alice, having 
 finished her half -glass of sherry and nibbled a fragment of some
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 13» 
 
 little vegetable absurdity preserved in candied sugar, and looking 
 like a geological specimen rather tban a sweetmeat, reckoned slie 
 had sufficiently fulfilled her duty as hostess, and was watching 
 for an oppoi-tunity to escape and go and be wi'etched comfortably 
 by herself, when Tom Rattleworth, addressing her especially, 
 Ijegan : — 
 
 " 'Pon my word, my dear Mrs. Coverdale, when I see you and my 
 friend HaiTy here so happy together" (Harry seized a pear and 
 began denuding it of its rind Avith a kind of ferocious eagerness, 
 suggestive to any one acquainted with the " dessous des cai-tes " of his 
 willingness to perform a similar operation upon his " mal a-propos " 
 guest), ■■ I declare it makes a fellow feel quite doA\Ti in the mouth 
 when he thinks of going home to enjoy his own single blessedness, 
 as they call it — though single t'other thing would be more like the 
 truth, I fancy — but then it isn't everybody that's as lucky as Han-y 
 and you — not suited to each other so charmingly, you understand." 
 (Alice, avoiding her husband's eye, bent over her sweetmeat as 
 though she were anxious to count the number of spangles of candied 
 sugar it took to cover a square .inch thereof.) "Now there was a 
 man in our regiment — cui'ious coincidence, his name was Han-y, too — 
 but ^hose things do happen so curiously — Han-y Flusterfon his name 
 was — well, ma'am, when we were quartered up at Montreal, there 
 was a family there to whom Han-y and I took out introductions, and 
 as we found ourselves decidedly hard up for amusement, we used to 
 visit there pretty much. There were two or three daughters in the 
 family, but the eldest was the one that took my fancy most, and 
 Harry Flustei-ton was of the same opinion. Accordingly we both 
 laid siege to her, but Han*y soon began to shoot ahead, and I, find- 
 ing that it was no go, quietly took up with number two, who, 
 although she hadn't her sister's points, figure, or action, was by no 
 means a girl to be despised, especially in a dull place like that ; well, 
 my dear fellow — haw ! — my dear ma'am, I mean — 'pon my word, I'm 
 not fit for ladies' society — but the long and short of it is, Han-y was 
 married — everybody thought he was the luckiest dog ))reathing — I'm 
 sure I did for one, and said as much to Eliza — that was the younger 
 one, you undei-stand, that I was obliged to put up with. When I 
 made that remai-k to her, she looked at uie queer like, and says she, 
 ' I hope your friend is a very sweet temper, Mr. Rattlewoi-th ? ' 'Of 
 com-se he is,' retm-ned I, for he was, up to the day he man-ied, as 
 easy tempered a fellow as you'd wish to meet with. Would you 
 believe it, Mrs. Coverdale, this charming creature that we had both 
 fallen so desperately in love with (not but that I liked Eliza just as 
 well when I once got used to her) turned out a regular vixen — a 
 perfect vii-ago, ma'am ; why Harry himself told me that they hadn't 
 much more than got over the honeymoon, when the first time he 
 wanted her to do something she didn't like, some nonsense about 
 visiting, or some such stuff, the way she flared up was a caution to 
 single men — "
 
 140 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " My dear Rattlewortb, I'm sorry to interiiipt you," exclaimed 
 Coverdale, who coixld bear it no longer, " but I'm afraid my wife is a 
 little overcome by the heat of the room — those servants will make 
 such ridiculously large fires. My dear Alice, if you i^refer the 
 drawing-room, I'm sure Rattleworth will excuse you ; this place is 
 like the black-hole in Calcutta." And while Rattlewoi-th, talking all 
 the time, sprang to open the door, Harry covered his wife's retreat 
 by instituting a fm'ious onslaught upon the unoffending fire. It was 
 well he came to the rescue when he did, for in another minute Alice 
 would have been in hysterics. To get rid of his dear friend as soon 
 as possible was Haii-y's next anxiety, but this was no such easy 
 matter. Thomas Rattleworth, Esq., M.F.H., was at that happy 
 moment the victim of two strenuous necessities — one to listen to the 
 sound of his o^vn voice, expressing not so much his ideas as his 
 paucity thereof ; and the other to imbibe a bottle of poi-t wine, in 
 twelve doses of a wine-glass each ; and these necessities had the 
 imf ortunate property of re-acting upon and increasing each other ; 
 for talking made him thirsty, and drinking made him talkative, so 
 that it was eleven o'clock before he had talked himself out, by whicb 
 time the terminus of a second bottle of port had been arrived at. 
 With a feeling of relief such as Sinbad the Sailor might have 
 experienced when he felt the legs of the Old Man of the Sea 
 gi'adually relaxing their clasp around his weaiied shoulders, did 
 Han-y assist his friend to light a cigar, then Avatched its fiery tip 
 gradually disappear in the darkness, as Rattleworth's cover hack 
 cantered off with its master's six feet one of good-natui-ed goose- 
 flesh. 
 
 Left to his own meditations, Han-y started a cigar on his own 
 account, and, the night being a fine one, he paced up and down the 
 gravel walk in front of the house until he should have cleared his 
 brain from the fumes of the wine civility had forced him to swallow. 
 The calm stars came out one by one, and as he watched their bright 
 effulgence, an idea of his childhood, that they might be the eyes of 
 angels, recun-ed to his memory ; and he could even fancy they 
 appeared to gaze upon him reproachfully. No human being possess- 
 ing even the lowest order of reflective powers, or the faintest vestige 
 of imagination, can watch the tranquil splendour of a starlight night 
 — a scene which at once proclaims God's omnipotence, and appears a 
 work fitted to the majesty of the Great Being who created it for His 
 own glory — without becoming imbued with the idea of rest and peace, 
 and desirous of realizing these blessings in his own life. With God 
 and infinity so near us, how we loathe the trifles of existence ! and, 
 above all, how we despise and contemn the littleness of our fallen 
 nature ! how we repent with bitter tears of shame and contrition the 
 evils they have vsrought in ourselves, and through us to others ! And 
 how, at such a moment, do the qualities we inherit from heaven — 
 truth, and love, and mercy — expand within us, and fill om- soids. and 
 raise us, for the time, above ourselves, and nearer to the high estate
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 141 
 
 from which we have fallen— alas ! that it should be only for the 
 time ! Coverdale was not insensible to these elevating inflnences ; 
 his love for Alice returned in all its original strength and pm-ity, 
 and he determined, before he slept that night, to bring about a 
 reconciliation, even if his wife should refuse to confess that she had 
 acted wrongly. Yes ! he would actually go the length of owning 
 that he had been to blame and was soriy for it, and then Alice 
 would forgive him, and all would be as though this foolish disagree- 
 ment had never occurred. 
 
 False reasoning, Hany ! there are two things a woman, however 
 thoroughly she may forgive them, never forgets — neglect and 
 unkindness ; and when once these have cast their shadow across the 
 bright eager gladness with which she yields i;p her whole soul as a 
 thank-offering to him she loves, man, with his stronger, sterner 
 nature, can no more bring back the delicacy and freshness of that 
 young affection, than he can restore to the peach the bloom which 
 his careless fingers have profaned — the love may still exist in its full 
 reality, but the bright halo of early romance which surrounded it has 
 been dispelled, never to return ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXYII. 
 
 THE PLEASURES OF KEEPING UP THE GAME. 
 
 Having looked at the stars, and profited Isy their quiet teaching, 
 Hai-ry went in a sadder and a wiser man, resolved, ere he slept 
 that night, to confess his fault, and. if it might be so, obtain Alice's 
 forgiveness. But Alice, tired and imhappy. had gone to bed, and 
 cried herself to sleep like a weary child ; and when Hai'ry entered 
 her room, he found her lying with her head pillowed on her arm, and 
 the tear-drops scarcely dried upon her long silken eyelashes, as 
 soundly asleep as though care, and sin, and soitow, were evils of 
 which her philosophy had never dreamed— so Coverdale could only 
 invoke a silent blessing upon her, and hasten to follow her example 
 by going to bed and to sleep himself. Thus an opportunity was lost 
 of regaining the " high estate " in his wife's affections, from which 
 he had fallen by reason of his inconsiderate selfishness, and hasty 
 and impetuous temper ; and it is a fact equally true and tiying, that 
 an opportunity once lost never returns, even an advertisement in the 
 *' Times " would fail to regain it. 
 
 One of the strangest and least comprehensive of psychological
 
 142 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 phenomena is the total change produced in our thoughts, feelings, 
 opinions, hopes, fears, sympathies, antipathies, and all the other 
 component pai-ts which make up that wonderful spiritual steam- 
 engine, the mind of man, by a good night's sleep. We go to bed 
 desperately in love with some charming girl we have flirted with half 
 the evening, despising her cruel old male parent, who would come 
 and disturb ovir ' tete-a-tete,' and take her away at least an hour 
 sooner than anybody not utterly callous to all the finer feelings of 
 human nature would have dreamed of doing; and hating with un- 
 christian mtdignity her tall coiisin in the Blues, who, having known 
 her from her cradle upwards, dared to call her " Gussie "' to ow' very 
 face — we sleep soundly, om* mind lies fallow for some six hours, and 
 lo ! a change has come o'er us ; our goddess has stepped do^NTi from 
 ber pedestal, and appears a very average specimen of white muslined 
 femininity and flirtation, while her father has improved into quite an 
 amiable model paterfamilias, at whose patient benignity in remain- 
 ing, to please his daughter, at an evening parfy till half-past three 
 a.m. we actiially marvel ; and as to that fine young fellow her cousin, 
 we are really shocked when we recall om* unchnstian feelings towards 
 him, and, as some slight compensation, mentally book him for an invite 
 to that dinner at Blackwall which we propose bestowing upon a dozen 
 of our very particular friends, in the unlikely event of our exchequer 
 holding out till the whitebait season. Thus, by the next moniing, 
 Coverdale had slept off the sharp edge of his penitence, and when 
 Alice began by a great efforf to refer to the events of the previous 
 day, with the intention of confessing herself in the "WTong, and asking 
 forgiveness, Hany, dreading a scene with a degree of hoiTor equally 
 masculine and English, checked the flow of her eloquence by ex- 
 claiming abruptly and cheerfully. '' Yes, dear, certainly — but don't 
 say another word about it ; we were both very silly, and made each 
 other very miserable, Avhen we might be as happy as the day is long ; 
 let bygones be bygones, we will forgive and forget, and be wiser for 
 the future, eh ? " As he spoke, he drew her to him, and sealing his 
 forgiveness on her lips with a kiss, rendered all discussion impossible 
 by leaving the room. 
 
 This speech (kiss included) ought to have satisfied any reasonable 
 wife, but unfortunately at that moment Alice was not exactly in a 
 reasonable frame of mind ; she had dwelt so long on one idea, in 
 accordance with which she had aiTanged the whole progamme of a 
 dramatic reconciliation scene, that she by no means approved of 
 Han-y's short cut to concord, rendering null and void aU her explana- 
 tion of how, and why, and wherefore she had come to behave ill, to- 
 gether with a spu-ited sketch in monologue of her contrition for the 
 past and vows of amendment for the future ; the whole to conclude 
 with certain annotations and reflections, which she trusted would so 
 affect her husband's feelings, and convince his understanding, that 
 he would for the future restrict shooting to two short mornings a 
 week, and cast hunting " to the dogs " entirely, and now all the
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 143 
 
 mysterious pleasure tlie gentler sex derive from talking a thinof well 
 over, was denied lier. 
 
 Ah ! that "' talking over," what a wonderful female attribute it is ! 
 how vast and impoitant a part of " woman's mission " does it con- 
 stitute I in fact, we have met innumerable women — the majority of 
 our female acquaintance, we should say — whose whole and entire 
 mission appears to consist of a " call " to "' talk over," first, their 
 neighbom-s' affairs (a duty to their neighbour in which they never 
 fail), secondly, their own. The French aphorism (seldom acted upon 
 by its voluble originators), " Cela va sans dire," must seem imspeak- 
 ably absurd to these advocates for an indefinite extension of the 
 " freedom of debate ; " while the " silent system " must appear a 
 more " capital punishment " than death itself, always supposing the 
 excellence of a punishment to be tested by its severity : — but we are 
 slightly digressing. 
 
 If anything were needed to prove the absurdity of human beings 
 — creatures with immortal souls, placed in this world to prepare for 
 eternity — darkening the sunshine of each other's lives by bickering 
 about trifles, that evidence wouldl be afforded when we observe the 
 manner in which such mental " nebulie " vanish before the presence of 
 any of the stem realities of existence. Thus when, breakfast being 
 concluded, Hairy was called mysteriously out of the apartment to 
 leaiTi that a moimted gi-oom had just an-ived from Hazlehurst Grange, 
 with the intelligence that old Mr. Hazlehurst had been seized ^^^th a 
 fit, from which, when the servant came away, he was not expected 
 to recover. Coverdale's only thought was how most tenderly and 
 judiciously to break the sad news to Alice. Having executed his 
 painful task with a degi-ee of tact and delicacy of feeling for which 
 those who knew only the rough side of his character would scai-cely 
 have given him credit, and soothed, to the best of his ability, the 
 burst of gi'ief with which Alice received the intelligence, Harry con- 
 tinued, "And now, love, the moment you are able to start, the 
 phaeton will be ready : it is lighter than the close can-iage, and in an 
 emergency like the present, eveiy minute becomes of consequence." 
 
 "And you ? " inquired Alice, glancing at him timidly thi-ough her 
 tears. 
 
 "I of course will drive you myself; you did not suppose I should 
 let you go alone." 
 
 Alice could not reply, but as she pressed her husband's hand 
 caressingly, the old loving look came back into her eyes, and Harry 
 felt that he was forgiven. On reaching the Grange the report of the 
 sick man was more favoui'uble than Alice had dared to hope. An 
 apoplectic fit constitutes one of the few exceptional cases in which 
 prompt medical assistance does not necessarily increase the evil. 
 and the Esculapius of the neighbourhood had this time successfully 
 intei-posed between death and his victim ; while Mr. Hazlehurst had 
 received a lesson sufficiently severe to prevent him from objecting to 
 the substitution of toast and water and " bland " puddings for port
 
 144 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 wine, bottled in the year 1830, and the roast beef of Old Enerland. 
 Coverdale having remained at the Grange for thi'ee days, during 
 which time he had shaken hands with, and lamented over Arthur 
 (who, summoned at the commencement of his father's illness, 
 appeared looking so pale and thin, that it was decided " nem. con." 
 that he was working himself to death — a view of the case which he 
 rather than othenvise encouraged by the faintness of his denial), was 
 forced to retm-n to the Park to attend the next meeting of magis- 
 trates, and finally to dispose of the offending poachers. Accord- 
 ingly, ha^•ing arranged with Alice to send the close carnage for her 
 on the day but one following, he took leave of the Hazlehurst family, 
 
 and drove to H . Here, after a long examination, the aforesaid 
 
 poachers were convicted, and sentenced, one to nine months', another 
 to a year's imprisonment — Markum's evidence being so clear and 
 convincing, that such an issue became inevitable. As the game- 
 keeper left the coiu-t, a tall, gipsy-looking fellow came up to him, 
 and muttered in his ear, "You'll live to repent this day's work, 
 Master Keeper ; look to yoiu-self one of these dark nights." 
 
 " Look to yom-self if I catch you on om* groimd," was Markum's 
 
 contemptuous rejoinder; "there's enough oakum to "pick in H 
 
 gaol for Tom and you too." 
 
 " Who is that fellow 'i " inquii'ed Coverdale, as the man, percei\-ing 
 that the keeper's reply was beginning to attract attention, turned 
 away with a scowl. 
 
 " That be Jack Hargiave. Mi\ Coverdale, sir," returned Markum ; 
 " brother along o' Tom, as we've give twelve months to ; and sarve 
 'im right, a poachin', thievin' wagrant." 
 
 ■• Is this fellow a poacher also ? " asked HaiTy. 
 
 *' That is he then," was the reply ; '" a reg'lar bred un, and as deep 
 a hand as ever set a snare, only he's so ' wide o',' that it's not so easy 
 to nab the warmint; but I'll be down upon 'im yet, for all his 
 threatenings. He's bin heai-d to swear he'll put a charge o' shot 
 under my veskit some o' these nights ; he'd better not, though, or he 
 may find there's two can play at that game." 
 
 " No \dolence, my good fellow, no violence ; it's not a light thing to 
 shed the blood of a fellow-creature — besides, there's a quiet way of 
 managing these affairs. I shall warn the police to keep an eye on 
 that man Hargrave; he looks dangerous; and you may as well put 
 on another watcher, it won't do to be short-handed just now." So 
 saying, Coverdale tm-ned away, and was soon deep in conversation 
 with the inspector of the mounted rui-al police ; after which, refusing 
 to make one of a jo^^al party who were about to dine with Tom 
 Rattleworth, and were tolerably certain to remain playing whist, 
 and imbiliing strong liquors till the small hours should be again 
 upon the increase, he drove home to his solitary mansion. 
 
 It was the first time since his maniage that Coverdale had dined 
 by himself, and he felt propoi-tionably lonely ; everything tended to 
 remind him of Alice — her favourite dog, a little black-and-tan
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 145 
 
 spaniel, witli large loving eyes, not unlike her own, leaped on his 
 knee after dinner, and gazing wistfully at the empty chair opposite, 
 uttered a low whine, as though it would inquire, " Where's my 
 mistress P" The footstool,' whereon her dainty little feet were wont 
 to repose — the screen with which she was accustomed to shade her 
 fair cheek from the too (ardent advances of the fire — each object, 
 animate or inanimate, recalled his thoughts to Alice ; and feeling, even 
 more strongly than he had ever yet felt, how deeply and tenderly he 
 loved her, he for the first time perceived that love in its true light, 
 and, in acknowledging its full reality, became conscious of the duties 
 and responsibilities such an afEection entailed upon him. Faintly and 
 dimly at first the light broke in xipon him ; deeply did he feel the 
 difficulties of the task, and his own inability to perform it ; and 
 bittei'ly, most bitterly, did he regi'et his own selfish carelessness, 
 which had, as he was fain to confess, tended ah-eady to estrange his 
 young wife's afEection, and to convei-t a gentle, yielding girl, into a 
 wilful and exacting woman. And thus he sat, pondering over and 
 regretting the past, and forming wise and good resolutions for the 
 future, while minutes gliding by unobserved grew into houi-s, until 
 the sudden restlessness of the little dog, which had been sleeping 
 quietly iipon his knees, roused him, and looking at his watch, he 
 perceived it was nearly midnight. As he did so the dog, whose 
 restlessness appeared to increase, uttered a short bark, while at the 
 same moment a distant sound was faintly audible, which Han-y's 
 practised ear instantly recognized as the report of a gun. To spring 
 to the window, open the shutter, and fling up the sash, was the work 
 of an instant ; a like space of time sufficed to resolve doubt into 
 certainty, — guns were being discharged in a favourite plantation 
 about half a mile from the house — a plantation in which the 
 pheasants were as well fed and tame as bani-door fowls ; it was 
 evident the poachers were taking their revenge, and that these sacred 
 birds, the Lares and Penates of Han-y's sporting mythology, wei'e 
 being ruthlessly slaughtered on their roosts. Han-y rang the bell 
 furiously ; then before the alarmed Wilkins (who, having commenced 
 his career in the service of an apoplectic alderman, laboured under a 
 chronic impi-ession that somebody was in a fit) had passed beyond 
 the door of the servants' hall, he mshed impetuously out of the 
 dining-room, and meeting that bewildered domestic in full career, 
 nearly frightened him into an attack of the malady he so much 
 dj-eaded for others, by exclaiming, " Here, quick ! Tell Saunders, or 
 some of them, to saddle the shooting cob and bring him round 
 instantly ; then find me a hat and pea-jacket. Quick, I say ! " 
 
 As the butler vanished on his mission, Coverdale took down from 
 a peg in the hall, a special constable's staff which had been entrusted 
 to him on behalf of her gracious Majesty, at a time when an extra 
 dose of politics and strong beer had proved too potent for the dense 
 agricultm-al pates of certain free and independent (alias bribed and 
 tipsy) electors of the neighbouring county town. It was a stout 
 
 L
 
 146 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 piece of ash, about a foot and a half lon<?, thicker than an ordinaiy 
 broom-stick, and weighted with lead, for the benefit of any unusually 
 opaque skull into which it mig^ht be deemed ad\'isable to knock a 
 respect for our glorious constitution. Harry felt its weight, and, as 
 he passed his wrist through the leather thong attached to it, he 
 thought to himself they would be bold men who could prevent him, 
 with that in his hand, from going where he pleased. The instant 
 the cob appeared he sprang into the saddle. " Do you and 
 Marshal get a couple of stout sticks, and make the l)est of your way 
 to the ash plantation ! " he exclaimed hastily ; " there are jjoachers 
 out, and from their venturing to come so near the house, I should 
 fancy there must be a sti-ong gang of them, and Markum may want 
 all the help we can give him." 
 
 So saying. Coverdale gathered up the reins, and without waiting 
 the groom's i-eply, rode off at a brisk canter. As he approached the 
 wood, he di'ew in and paused, uncertain whether Markum might yet 
 have reached the scene of action : as he listened, the sound of 
 men crashing through the diy undei-wood became distinctly audible ; 
 then shouts and a clamour of angi-y voices, and finally, the un- 
 mistakable noise of a conflict met his ear. Pausing no longer, he 
 put his horse into a gallop, and dashed on till he reached a hand- 
 gate leading into the wood. This, to his annoyance, he found 
 locked ; true, he had a master-key, which he had fortunatel 
 brought with him, but he was forced to dismoimt in order to 
 unfasten the padlock. While thus engaged, the sounds proved that 
 the affray was still i-aging fiercely, and, as he flung the gate open, a 
 gun was discharged, followed almost instantaneously by the report 
 of two others. Fearing mischief might occur before he could reach 
 the combatants, Coverdale remounted hastily, and heedless alike of 
 obstacles and darkness, galloped down one of the grass rides 
 through the plantation, avoiding collision with the trunks and 
 branches of trees by, as it appeared, a succession of miracles. Before, 
 however, he could an-ive at the scene of action, the sound of blows, 
 the shouts and imprecations, had ceased, and nothing but a confused 
 hum of voices, together with a low moaning, as of some person ill or 
 in pain, met his ear. Forcing his horse through the tangled iinder- 
 wood. Coverdale came suddenly upon a group of men, amongst 
 whom he recognized several of his own farm labourers, while two 
 iinder-keepers were kneeling beside the prostrate figure of a man who, 
 from the stiff, unnatural attitude in which he lay, appeared either 
 dead or dying. To leap to the ground, and snatch a lantern from 
 one of the bystanders, was Harry's first act ; then bending over the 
 fallen man, he recognized in the ghastly features, distorted and 
 conA'vilsed with agony, the well-known countenance of honest, sturdy 
 Markum. while from a gim-shot wound in his right side the dark 
 life-blood was slowly flowing. 
 
 " How has this happened ? " was Coverdale's luirried inquiry. " Is 
 it an accident, or have any of those scoimdrels dared to shoot him ? "
 
 -c;^^ 
 
 ^.- 
 
 
 l^.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 147 
 
 There was a moment's pause, and then one of the elder men 
 replied, '' It wor no accident, Mr. Coverdale; but Giles there can tell 
 you best, squire ; he wor nearest to un when he di-opped." 
 
 The under-keeper thus appealed to — a tall, strapping yoiuig' fellow, 
 who was vainly attempting? to staunch the blood which still 
 continued to flow — turned to reply, while Coverdale, kneeling beside 
 the wounded man, endeavoured to arrange a more effectual bandage. 
 " All as I know, sir," he said, " is that I wor a watching nigh down 
 by the waiTcn, when up cum poor Master Markum here, and ' Giles,' 
 says he, ' ye're wanted, lad ; there's them out as didn't oughter be. 
 So him and I, and the rest o' our mates here, which master had 
 appinted to meet at eleven o'clock — for I expect he'd had some hint 
 give him of what was to be up, made for the ash spinney, and laid us 
 down in a ditch. Well, it wam't long afore we heard the black- 
 guards at work among the pheasants, a banging away like blazes. 
 We waited till they got near us. and then we up and at 'em like good 
 uns. There was more of 'em nor there was o' we, so they showed fight a 
 bit. Poor master there he jest wor real savage ; he hit out hard and 
 straight, and rolled 'em over like nine-pins ; they wom't o' no manner 
 o' use again him, not none on 'em. Well, tiiey soon got enough of that 
 sort of fun, and one arter another cut away, till at last they all fairly 
 turned tail and bolted — that is, all but one, and hini master collared, 
 and says he, ' Stop a bit, Jack ; I'm agoin' to send you . to see 
 
 your brother in H gaol ; I'm afeared Tom should be dull for 
 
 want o' cumpany, poor chap ! ' Well. Jack Hargrave. for him it 
 wor. fit sharp for his libm'ty, but master wor too good a man for 
 him ; and he'd a took him as safe as mutton, only Jack bollard arter 
 
 one of his mates as had a gun, and told him to shoot the keeper, 
 
 and not let him be took. The fellow stopped and faced round — he 
 wor a young chap as I knows well — I'd cotched sight of his face afore 
 he cut away, a soft young feller, as anybody might bully into any- 
 thing; and when Jack rapped out a volley of oaths, and told him to 
 let fly, and chance hittin' hin;, shoot he did, and poor master let go 
 his hold o' Jack's collar, and rolled over and over like I've seen many 
 a hare and rabbid roll over afore his gim." 
 
 " But there was more than one barrel discharged," interposed 
 Coverdale ; " I heard three shots in succession — how was 
 that ? " 
 
 '■ Why, when I see poor Master Markum fall, I was jest agoin' to 
 kneel down to raise him a bit, when I ketched sight o' Jack 
 Hargrave and his pal a cutting away like lamplighters, and I felt 
 mad like to think he should get off scotfree arter what he'd been and 
 done, and having my gun in my hand, I give 'em the contents of both 
 barrels ; it wom't right. I knows, Mr. Coverdale, but if you'd been 
 in my place, squire, I'm blessed if I don't think you'd ha done the 
 same, axing your jjardon." 
 
 Feeling a strong private conviction that "' Giles " had only judged 
 him con-ectly. Harry looked grave and shook his head, as if such a
 
 148 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 possibility could not exist in the case of a mapristrate, ere he inquired, 
 " Do you think you hit either of them ? " 
 
 " They'd got a farish start before I pulled at 'em." was the reply, 
 " and the light ain't that good for a long shot, but I fancy Jack 
 Hargrave's got something to take home with him, for he gave a rare 
 jump as the charge reached him ; but it wani't enough to stop him, 
 for I see him a runnin' like a gi-eyhound arterwards." 
 
 Wliile this conversation was proceeding. Cover dale, by aid of 
 sundry neckcloths, and a strip that he cut from his o^vn pea-jacket, 
 had contrived a bandage which in great measure stopped the 
 bleeding, and Markum revived sufficiently to recognize those about 
 him ; as his eyes fell on Coverdale, a faint smile passed across his 
 features. 
 
 " Is it you, squire ? " he murmured in a low voice. " Ah ! you 
 always had a kind heart of your own; Jack Hargi-ave's kep his 
 word, you see. I expects him and his mate 'as finished me atween 
 'em this time." 
 
 " We'll hope not, my poor fellow — but don't speak. Do you think 
 you can bear can-ying yet — yes ? Four of you take that hand-gate 
 off its hinges, and bring it here ; we'll lay him on that. We shall 
 have a surgeon for you directly, my poor fellow ! I sent one of the 
 lads off on my horse to fetch Mr. Gouger the moment I came up — 
 now, steady with him. I'll lift his head — that's it ; now raise the 
 gate steadily. Gently there — well done — are you all ready ? Step 
 together, mind — march." 
 
 As he spoke, Hax-ry (who himself suppoi'ted one corner of the 
 temporary litter he had contrived) and three others raised the 
 wounded man on their shoulders, and can-ied him to his own cottage, 
 which fortunately was near at hand. He bore the transit bravely, 
 though the pain occasioned by such motion as was unavoidable, 
 reduced him more than once to the verge of fainting. Shortly after 
 he had reached his destination the surgeon arrived. Coverdale 
 waited until he had pronounced the wound dangerous, though not 
 necessarily mortal, then leaving him to make a more minute ex- 
 amination, he quitted the house. He foimd a mounted policeman 
 awaiting him outside, who, making his rounds, had been attracted by 
 the sound of guns at that unusual hour. 
 
 "Ah, policeman, I was just going to send after you; my head 
 keeper has been shot by these poaching rascals, and is seriously 
 hurt, I'm afraid ! " exclaimed Coverdale. " How are we to make sure 
 of the fellows who did it? It lies between a man called Jack 
 Hargi-ave — " 
 
 " A reg'lar bad un," observed the horse-patrol, parenthetically. 
 
 " You said you knew the other man," continued Harry, appealing 
 to the under-keeper ; " are you acquainted with his name ? " 
 
 " They do call him ' Winkey ' in a general way, from a trick he's 
 got with his eyelids; but his right name be Jim Fags," wa*s the 
 reply.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 149 
 
 " I know liim," observed the policeman, " Well, sii', as we're 
 acquainted with the parties, I should say we're safe to be down upon 
 
 'em somewheres to-mon-ow. I'll ride over to H , and put all our 
 
 men on the scent." 
 
 " Stay ! that ^ves me an idea," said Coverdale ; then turning to 
 the under-keeper, he continued in a lower voice — " You are sure you 
 hit Hargi-ave — are you, Giles ? " 
 
 The young man nodded in the affirmative, and his master 
 resumed, — 
 
 " Go and fetch Nero, poor Markum's night-dog, muzzle him, and 
 bring him in one of the greyhound leashes. We'll contrive to take 
 these rascals before day dawns, policeman." 
 
 While Coverdale was explaining his plan to the patrol, Giles re- 
 turned with the dog : it was a splendid animal, a cross between the 
 English mastiff and a Spanish bloodhound. Its size was unusual, 
 and its strength enormous. Its eyes glared red in the torchlight, 
 like those of some wild beast. When it saw the policeman it 
 uttered a low growl, and the bristles on its back stood up like a 
 mane; but at a word from Coverdale it relinquished its hostile 
 attitude, and, with a sagacious look, which said almost as plainly as 
 words could have expressed it — " I comprehend ; it's not him they've 
 sent for me to won-y " — thiaist its huge head caressingly into its 
 master's hand. 
 
 " Now, patrol," resumed Coverdale, " if you will ride along the 
 skirts of the wood, and lead my horse, I fancy I shall be able to 
 put the dog on the track of these fellows — and, if so, he will 
 never leave it till the game is run do\vn. You have handcuffs with 
 you ? " 
 
 " Aye, and pistols too, for the matter of that," was the reply. 
 
 "I don't expect they will be required," rejoined Covex'dale ; "the 
 scoundrels will scarcely want more fighting than they've had 
 already ; " then signalling Giles to follow with the dog, he tunied, 
 and, re-entenng the plantation, soon reached the scene of the late 
 conflict. 
 
 " Now try and find, as neai-ly as possible, the spot where Hargi-ave 
 was when you fired at him," began Coverdale ; " give me the dog to 
 hold, and take the lantern with you." 
 
 Giles obeyed ; and having walked about fifty paces down a narrow 
 pathway through the wood, began carefully to examine the ground 
 on either side. Having pursued his investigations for some minutes 
 in silence, he paused, examined the spot still more closely, and then 
 made a sign to Coverdale to join him. 
 
 On reaching the place Harry observed, by the light of the lantern, 
 several dark spots, and a long mark on the soft ground, as though 
 some person had slipped and nearly fallen, then deep footsteps led 
 towards the outskirts of the wood. The moment the dog perceived 
 the scent of blood, all the savage instinct of its nature awoke, and, 
 with a bound, which tested the strength of the leash, and nearly dis-
 
 150 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 located Coverdale's shoulders, it sprang forward along the track of 
 the fugitives. Five minutes' painful toiling through bush and briar, 
 brought them to the outskirts of the plantation, where they found 
 the policeman waiting with the horses. Hastily springing to the 
 saddle, Coverdale made Giles attach a small cord he had brought 
 with him to the end of the leash, against which the bloodhound now 
 sti'ained impatiently ; then twisting the other end round his own 
 wrist, he was about to desire the under-keeper to retm-n, Avhen the 
 patrol interfered by observing, — 
 " Better take Giles with us, sir !" 
 
 " Why so, policeman P " rejoined Coverdale sharply ; " we're two 
 to two, fresh men against tired ones; besides, you're armed and 
 they're not." 
 
 " Jack's got a gim with him, and is likely enough to use it now his 
 steam's up," insinuated Giles, who by no means approved of losing 
 his share in the expedition. 
 " And when we have nabbed 'em, I shall want help to convey 'em 
 
 to H gaol," pleaded the policeman. " I can take him up behind 
 
 me." 
 
 " As you will ; only lose no more time," was Coverdale's reply ; and 
 cheering on the dog, he rode forward at a brisk trot. 
 
 The track led them through the Park, and then over hill and dale, 
 ploughed field, and rough stubble, till it brought them out upon a 
 wide bleak common, dotted here and there with patches of furze and 
 broom, which showed dark and shadowy in the moonbeams, like 
 plumes upon a hearse. Across the wildest and most tangled portion 
 of the heath the dog led them, still straining at the leash, and utter- 
 ing from time to time a suppressed whimper indicative of impatience. 
 On the farther side of the common rose a steep bank, in one portion 
 of which a deep hollow had been excavated for the purpose of 
 obtaining gravel. As the dog approached this place, its eagerness 
 became, if possible, stronger than before, until, at about thirty yards 
 from the spot, it suddenly stopped, and again erecting the bristles 
 on its back, uttered a deep growl. At the same moment, Coverdale, 
 whose sight was remarkably keen, perceived a figure cautiously 
 stealing away undercover of the bushes. Pointing him out to the 
 policeman, whose horse was beginning to evince symptoms of distress 
 under its double bm*den, Coverdale observed, — 
 
 " I can only see one man, but let us make sm-e of him. Get down, 
 Giles, and hold the dog. Now patrol, while I ride round that bush 
 and head the fellow, do you go on and seize him ; and if you want 
 any assistance, I shall be ready to afford it." 
 
 So saying, Coverdale rode forward to cut off the poacher's retreat, 
 while the policeman, putting spurs to his horse, and drawing his 
 cutlass, dashed iip to the fellow, and seized him by the collar. 
 
 Overawed by the gleaming weapon, and exhausted by his previous 
 exertions, the unfortunate Jim Fags (alias Winkey) attempted no 
 resistance ; and the policeman availed himself of his pusillanimity to
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 151 
 
 produce the handcuffs, and dexterously secure his prisoner. He was 
 thus engaged when Coverdale, who was walking his horse quietly 
 towards them, suddenly caught sight of what, at the first glance, 
 appeared to him only the stump of a tree, but on closer inspection 
 proved to be the figm-e of a man, crouching under the shadow of the 
 gi-avel-pit, while, at the moment in which Coverdale first perceived 
 him, he was taking a deliberate aim with a shoii; gun at the imcon- 
 scious patrol. For a moment the policeman's life hung upon a thread ; 
 but a slight movement of the horse brought the unfortunate 
 Winkey's head into the line of fire, and his accomplice lowered his 
 piece and slightly altered his position, while he took fresh aim. The 
 oppoi-tunity was not to be lost— quick as thought Coverdale rose in 
 his stirmps, and with the full force of his muscular ann hurled the 
 constable's staff, which he had retained the whole evening, at the 
 head of the kneeling figure. Fortunately for the policeman, the 
 missile took effect, and stunned by the force of the blow, Jack 
 Hargi-ave (for he it was) measured his length upon the turf, dis- 
 charging the gun harmlessly as he fell. Before he could regain hia 
 feet, Giles and the dog (who, but for his muzzle, would have torn 
 the poacher to pieces) were upon him. In less than two hours from 
 that time both the culprits were safely lodged in H gaol. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ALICE SUCCOURS THE DISTRESSED. 
 
 Mr. Hazlehurst's progress towards recovery was so satisfactoiy 
 that Alice, when the caiTiage an-ived to fetch her home, felt not the 
 smallest scruple in leaving him. As Han-y considered the distance 
 between the Grange and Coverdale Park too gi'eat for his carriage- 
 horses to perf oral twice in one day, the equipage had been despatched 
 the previous evening, and the servants were consequently unacquainted 
 with the events of the past night. Having taken leave of her mother 
 — who, roused by the necessity of becoming a nm-se instead of a 
 patient, appeared rather benefited than othei-wise by the unusual 
 demand upon her energies — and of Emily, now fast developing into 
 a very pretty girl, Alice started on her retura home, and accom- 
 plished the greater portion of the transit without let or hindrance. 
 When within about five miles of the Park, however, one of the horses 
 was discovered to have cast a shoe ; and as it would have been worth 
 more than his situation to have taken it farther in so defenceless a
 
 152 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 condition, tlie coacliman drew up at a villag^e blacksmith's, where 
 the evil might be remedied. Under these circumstances, Alice 
 detei'mined to walk on till the carriage should overtake her, which, 
 as the morning was fine, she considered the reverse of a hardship. 
 Pondering many things — for Alice was no longer the careless, light- 
 heai-ted girl we once described her — she trudged on, at first briskly, 
 then more leisurely, as the road began to ascend, until she might 
 have proceeded some two miles ; and yet the can-iage did not make 
 its appearance. Toiling up hill, attired as ladies usually ai-e from 
 November to April, with an amount of merino, velvet, and fur, which 
 might defy the severities of a Siberian winter, and is clearly '* de trop " 
 under the influence of a sunshiny morning in March, not unnaturally 
 rendered Alice hot and tired ; and fancying, from her imperfect 
 knowledge of the locality, that she must be upon her husband's temtoiy, 
 she determined to make acquaintance with the inmates of a cottage 
 which she perceived by the roadside a short distance higher up the 
 hill, and with their permission, to rest herself until the carriage should 
 aiTive. With this intention she approached the cottage, and finding the 
 door closed, rapped at it with first her knuckles, then the handle of a 
 most frivolous and ephemeral little parasol ; but neither of these appli- 
 cations producing the desii-ed effect, she, like little Red Riding-hood, 
 raised the^latch and opened the door. The sight which met her eyes was 
 one calculated alike to stimulate her curiosity and interest her sym- 
 pathies. In a cradle on the opposite side of the room, lay an uncon- 
 scious and remarkably pretty and comfortable-looking babyfast asleep, 
 while near it, with the light from the casement streaming full upon her 
 smooth dark hair, only partially concealed beneath her neat white cap, 
 sat the young mother, her face hidden in her hands, weeping bitterly. 
 Starting at the sound of the opening door, she removed her hands, 
 and disclosed featiu'es which, swollen and disfigured as they were by 
 grief, yet evinced tokens of unusual beauty. She rose as Alice 
 entered, and hastily drying her tears, stood regarding her with a 
 wild eager glance of inquiiy. 
 
 " What have you come to tell me ? " she said : " they have not 
 relented — not set him at liberty again ? — or the other one — he is not 
 worse — oh, God '.—not dead ? " 
 
 Surprised and embarrassed by the strange eageraess of her manner, 
 and interested by her appearance and evident distress, Alice hastened 
 to assm-e her that she was not the bearer of any tidings, good or evil, 
 and having explained the object of her intrusion, continued. — 
 
 " But you are anxioiis or unhappy about something ; will you not 
 tell me why you were crying so bitterly when I came in — perhaps I 
 may be able to assist you ? " 
 
 Thus appealed to, the girl (for she appeared scarcely above twenty) 
 fixed her dark eyes on Alice's face, and reading therein her kind and 
 loving nature, which indeed was so legibly depicted that the veriest 
 dullard at deciphering character could scarcely fail to discover it, 
 answered more gently than she had before siioken, —
 
 \^ 

 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 153 
 
 " I heg pardon, lady ; but I'm amost crazy with ^-ief this morning, 
 and my head's so a-running on it, that I hardly know what I'm 
 a-saying or a-doing on. Ye're welcome to rest, lady, as long as you 
 please ; " and as she spoke she dusted a chair with her apron, and 
 placed it for Alice, who seating herself, resumed, — 
 
 " You say you are unhappy, biit you do not tell me what about." 
 
 The woman paused for a moment in thought, then continued, — 
 
 *' I need make no secret of it ; the whole country round is ringing 
 with it by this time. Some poor fellows, lady, as had wives and 
 children to feed, and no money to buy bread to give to 'em, went to get 
 a few of the birds and things that's running wild in the woods of 
 them that's rich, and don't want 'em ; and the keepers cum to stop 
 'em, and one of 'em got shot in the confusion ; and the police have 
 took my husband and my brother, and swear the're the men that did 
 it; and the're to be had up to-day before them that's sure to condemn 
 'em, innocent or guilty — gentlemen that chuses to keep the wild 
 creatures that God sent for food for them as wants it. all for their 
 own selfish amusement — begging your pardon, lady — but it's the 
 tinith; and when one's heart aches like mine does, the truth will 
 out." 
 
 *' It is natural, perhaps, that you should think thus in your situa- 
 tion,"ireturned Alice gi-avely ; " but depend upon it your husband and 
 your brother will not be punished unless they justly desei-^'e it. The 
 gamekeeper was not killed, I hope ? " 
 
 " Oh no, my lady ! not hurt very serious neither I do hope ; only 
 they want to make the most of it, to get a chance to punish my poor 
 fellows, don't you see ? " was the reply ; " and if my husband is put 
 in prison for long, and lays out of work, what's to Ijecome o' me and 
 the children ? " 
 
 " You have more than this one, then ? " inquired Alice. 
 
 For answer the woman rose, and passing into the inner room of 
 the cottage, in less than a minute returned, bearing in her amis a 
 little girl, apparently about two years old. whose bright rosy cheeks, 
 and eyes evidently distressed by the vivid sunlight, gave unmistak- 
 able tokens of having been roused out of a sound sleep. Alice 
 possessed a thorough woman's love of children, leading her to 
 consider ugly ones pretty, and pretty ones " little angels " ; so she 
 immediately took this particular duodecimo angelic specimen on her 
 knee, and won its celestial affections by allowing it to play with her 
 watch, and a bunch of miscellaneous rubbish attached thereunto, and 
 denominated, on the *' lucus a non lucendo " principle, a chatelaine. 
 This reinforcement of infanti-y having completely won the day (the 
 " dear " sleeping baby had been a powerful unconscious advocate of 
 its parent's cause), Alice began to consider how l>est she could assist 
 the distressed mother. The fii'st point was to leant to whom to 
 apply in favoiu- of the culprits, and she accordingly inquired on 
 whose land they had been taken, and in whose service the wounded 
 gamekeeper resided ? The answer was at the same time emban-assing
 
 154 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 and satisfactory. Of cotu'se, if the offence had been committed upon 
 her husband's propei'ty, he could, if he would, decline to prosecute 
 the offenders — if he would ? — there lay the difficulty. Alice was 
 well aware of the serioiis li.£?ht in which Han-y regarded the crime of 
 poaching ; and the attack on the gamekeeper even she was forced to 
 reprobate ; but if it should prove that the man was not seriously 
 injured, she trusted to her newly-regained influence to enable her to 
 place the matter in such a light that Harry would agree with her in 
 overlooking the culprit's offence for the sake of his family ; or, at all 
 events, if that was expecting too much of his penitence, she had only 
 to ask it as a personal favour, and he surely could not refuse her. 
 So, carried away by her feelings of kindly sympathy, and acting on 
 the impulse of the moment, she put|f orth all her powers of consolation, 
 and ended by disclosing her name, and the relation in which she stood 
 towards that persecutor of poachers. Harry Coverdale, at the same 
 time promising to use her influence, whicli she represented as all-power- 
 ful, to screen the culprits from the effects of their misdemeanoiu-s. 
 
 Before her consolatory harangue was well concluded, the caiTiage 
 arrived, and Alice, having kissed the children (the unfortunate baby 
 being ai-oused expressly for the performance of the affectionate 
 ceremony, a violation of the rights of the siibject which it resented 
 by crying and slobbering with a twenty-infant power over Alice's 
 velvet mantle), left five shillings in the hands of their mamma, by 
 way of a peace-offering, and departed, thoroughly satisfied with her 
 ' debut ' in the character of poor man's friend and cottager's comforter. 
 All the way she drove home she was building castles in the air for 
 the benefit and behoof of the ruined family, having mentally adopted 
 the little girl as lady's-maid, and apprenticed the baby, which was of 
 the nobler sex, to a serious and immaculate cai-penter, before she 
 reached the Park. 
 
 Coverdale was absent when his wife anived, having ridden over to 
 
 H , to assist at the committal of Jack Hargi'ave and his 
 
 accomplice ; but she received from Wilkins, who was, in more senses 
 than one, a confidential servant, an over-fvdl, untrue, and particularly- 
 exaggerated account of the aff'ray of the previous night, from which 
 she acquired two facts, which tended considerably to disquiet her, 
 viz. : — first, that the wounded man was Markum, her husband's 
 especial favourite; and secondly, that Harry had been personally 
 involved in the affair ; both of which considerations increased the 
 difficulty of the negotiation for gaol-delivery to which she had 
 incautiously pledged herself. Having taken off her things, she 
 proceeded first to fraternize with her King Charles spaniel and the 
 two canary-birds (which latter plumed bipeds celebrated her return 
 in songs of shrill triumph, like a couple of inebriated penny 
 whistles), then to put all the ornaments right, which the housemaid 
 had dusted into uncomfortable and heterodox positions. She had 
 just discovered a china cup, which nobody had broken, and which 
 yet was divided in several places, having probably split its own sides
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 155 
 
 laughing at the grotesque figures with which its manufacturer had 
 seen fit to embeUish it, and she was hunting for a bottle of diamond 
 cement wherewith to repair the damage before her husband's retui*n, 
 when the sound of horses' feet announced that event to have taken 
 place. 
 
 The first words that met her ear were, " Let one of the helpers go 
 down to Mai-kum's cottage, wait till Mr. Gouger has seen hiiu again, 
 and bring me his report without a moment's delay ; if it should be 
 unsatisfactory I'll send for Brodie by electric telegraph. Is youi- 
 mistress returned ? " 
 
 A warm embrace, an expression of his delight at having her back 
 again, a hurried inquiry after Mr. Hazlehm-st, and then Han-y 
 rushed into his narrative of the poaching aifair, and in his eagerness 
 to detail eveiT circumstance of a matter which interested him so 
 deeply, did not notice the tameness of Alice's sympathy, or the 
 lukewarm manner in which she seconded his vii-tuous indignation 
 against the miscreants who had all but murdered good, honest 
 Markum : " And small thanks to them that it was ' all but,' for, 
 if ever a scoundrel meant mischief, that scoundi'el was Jack 
 Hai'grave." 
 
 Alice saw tliis was no time to urge her suit, and so merely confined 
 herself to tlie general remiu-k, that it was a dreadful affair for all 
 parties, and that she pitied the wives of the wretched men who had 
 committed the rash act, as much as anybody concenied in the 
 matter ; to which Harry replied, — 
 
 " That it sei-ved them right for maiTying poachers, and that they 
 might think they were lucky not to be the victims themselves, for 
 that a fellow who would take to poaching was capable oi cutting his 
 wife's throat, or of any other enormity." 
 
 Mr. Gouger' s report was, on the whole, satisfactoi-y- Markum was 
 going on well, though he (Gouger) could not pronounce him out of 
 danger; the injury was very serious, and several days must elapse 
 before the idterior consequences would be apparent; or, as the 
 doctor himself remarked, " the effect of extraneous particles of 
 plumbago, or lead, introduced into the vital system by the sudden 
 expansion of saltpetre and other explosive compounds compressed 
 within the narrow limits of a gun-barrel, and discharged thence by 
 ignition, according to the natural laws of projectiles, was most 
 subtle and deleterious, leading sometimes to the total destruction of 
 animal life, at others to a concussion of the nervous system; or 
 again," &c., &c. : from which sapient opinion Harry collected that 
 Brodie need not be sent for immediately. 
 
 Days glided by, the prisoners were remanded till Markum's chance 
 of life or death should be ascertained, and Alice had not found a 
 fitting moment in which to make her appeal. At length the surgeon, 
 with grave looks, which might mean everything, anything, or 
 nothing, advised, merely as a matter of precaution, that the wounded 
 man should make a deposition before a magistrate, so that if any-
 
 156 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 thing were to happen, the jury mio^ht have the advantage of his 
 statement of facts. Coverdale, therefore, having persuaded one of 
 his brother magistrates to accompany him, proceeded to the cottage 
 for the above pui"pose. Shoi-tly after he had set off, Alice waa 
 informed that a poor woman was desirous of speaking to her ; and 
 on ordering her to be shown in, she was less surprised than 
 embaiTassed to recognize in the tearful applicant her cottage 
 hostess, the wife of the culprit, Jack Hargrave. The result of the 
 interview may be easily foreseen. Alice descanted on the greatness 
 of the crime committed, Mr. Coverdale's virtuous indignation against 
 the offendei's, and the consequent difficulty of persuading him not to 
 prosecute them. Mrs. Jack brought foi'ward, in reply, the l)aby and 
 a flood of tears, — arguments so xmanswerable that Alice, having 
 kissed the one, and all but joined in the other, dismissed the afflicted 
 matron, having renewed her pledge of exerting her whole influence 
 in favour of the prisoners. It was with a feeling akin to desperation 
 that she determined to plead her prot^g^es' cause the moment Harry 
 should return, certain that if she again allowed her ardour to cool, 
 she should never have courage to enter upon the subject to him. 
 Accordingly, as soon as he had finished giving her an account of the 
 clear and able manner in which Markum had detailed the proceed- 
 ings of the eventful night on which the affray had occurred, she 
 began, — 
 
 " I, too, have had rather a tiying interview ; the wife of one of the 
 men who have been taken up on suspicion has been here — a frail, 
 delicate-looking, young creature, scarcely more than a girl, with the 
 dearest, sweetest little baby imaginable. I do so wish you had seen 
 it!" 
 
 HaiTy muttered a reply, which, though scarcely audible, conveyed 
 the impression that he was perfectly content without haWng had 
 ocular demonstration of its infantine perfections ; and Alice 
 continued, — 
 
 " Yes, I wish you had seen both mother and child — its sweet, 
 innocent looks, and the poor girl's tears, would have pleaded her 
 cause better than any arguments of mine can do, your kind heart 
 could never have resisted them." 
 
 " Plead her cause," repeated Coverdale ; " that means, because her 
 husband and his accomplice have been so obliging as to destroy my 
 game, and murder, or half murder, as the case may prove, my head 
 keeper, she considers it my duty to support herself and family, I 
 suppose ; she has brought this irresistible baby as a safe dodge to 
 work upon yom* feminine susceptibiUties ; and, with thorough 
 woman's logic, she has persuaded you to look upon her as a suffering 
 innocent, and upon me as a tyrannical oppressor. Now confess — is 
 not this the truth ? " 
 
 " No, really it is not," replied Alice eagerly. " I own I think you, 
 from your passion for field-sports, take rather an exaggerated vievf 
 of the crime of poaching ; but I quite feel as you do. that wounding
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 157 
 
 poor Markum was a cruel and cowardly act ; still, revenging it upon 
 this family wiU not benefit him nor ourselves." 
 
 " I don't wish the people to stai've, of course," returned Hari-y, 
 moodily, " though I should imagine the young woman and her brats 
 can scarcely have got through all the game in her larder yet. I 
 should not mind starving on hashed hare and broiled pheasants' legs 
 myself for a week or two ; however, if the poor gii-l really is in want, 
 I have no objection to your relieving her, but do not be imposed 
 upon, darling, that is all that I mean to say." 
 
 The kindness of her husband's manner, and the good-natured way 
 in which he appeared willing to support the family of the man who 
 had injured him. served alike to remove Alice's fears, and to lead 
 her to oveiTate the extent of her influence with her husband ; so, 
 leaning her arm on his shoulder, while with her other hand she 
 smoothed back his clustering hair, she continued, " What a good, 
 kind boy it is, though it does growl sometimes. But now, to show 
 you that my protegee is not seeking to impose on me for the sake of 
 obtaining money, I will tell you that her petition was for quite a 
 different object, and one ci'editable alike to her feelings as a wife and 
 a sister : she wants you to act as only a high and generous nature 
 like your own would be capable of acting — she implores you to 
 pardon her husband and her brother." 
 
 " To do WHAT ! " exclaimed Hari-y sharply, a dark shade coming 
 across his features. 
 
 "To let off two of the men who were engaged in this unlucky 
 business — her husband and her brother — not to prosecute them, I 
 mean." returned Alice, removing her hand from her husband's 
 shoulder and preparing to '" hold her own," in the dispute she fore- 
 saw impending. 
 
 " And their names ? " inquired Coverdale. 
 
 Alice repeated them. 
 
 " As I expected," resumed Coverdale ; " the man who fired the shot 
 and his accomplice, who, more guilty than himself, xirged him to do 
 it. Now, ask your own good sense, Alice, and reflect a moment 
 before you answer. Even were I willing, can I in common justice let 
 these fellows off ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes I " exclaimed Alice, without a moment's deliberation ; " it 
 is so great— so noble to forgive an injui-y ! Revenge is but a mean, 
 petty feeling, after all." 
 
 " An admirable reason for shaking hands with an individual who 
 has knocked you down," returned Coverdale, " but none whatsoever 
 for screening two malefactors from the just punishment of their ill- 
 deeds ; " then, lapsing into the magistrate, he continued, " You 
 mistake the whole scope and intention of our penal code, my dear 
 Alice. We do not punish offenders as an act of revenge upon the 
 individual, but in order to benefit society by deten*ing others from 
 committing a like crime ; thus, laying aside personal feeling, I 
 should be doing an injury to the community at large, by
 
 158 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 refusing to prosecute these fellows. You see this clearly, do you 
 not?" 
 
 Alice's reasoninff powers did see it, and had seen it all alonof, but 
 Alice had also seen the poor wife and the meritorious and seductive 
 baby, and she cared " fifty thousand times " (as she herself would 
 have expressed it) more for them than for the community at larsre ; 
 so finding that the argument was going against her, she, woman-like, 
 adroitly shifted her ground. " According to your reasoning, there 
 woiild be no room for such a quality as mercy," she began ; " stem, 
 inexorable justice would condemn every criminal, no matter what 
 extenuating circumstances there might be; in each case punishment 
 must follow sin, as effect follows cause. I, for one, should be very 
 sorry always to be judged by such a cruel rule." 
 
 " Oh. if you're going to put German metaphysical sophistries in 
 the place of English common-sense, I've no more to say about it." 
 I'etunied Harry giniffly ; " only it seems to my simplicity that punish- 
 ment always does follow crime in this world, as soon as it's found 
 out. If a brat steals the sugar, its mother slaps it ; if a schoolboy 
 prigs apples, the master flogs him ; if an apprentice bolts with the 
 till, the law transports him ; if Jack murders Tom. the hangman 
 stretches his neck for him ; — and serve 'em all right say I ; it would 
 be a precious deal worse world to live in if it were not so, to my 
 thinking." 
 
 Alice paused to consider the justice of this remai'k — we will follow 
 her example ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 H0V7 TO MAKE HOME HAPPY. 
 
 Mrs. Coverdale, resuming the matrimonial discussion broken off 
 at the end of the last chapter, thus pursued the argument by which 
 she hoped to induce her husband to let off her poaching protege. 
 
 " In the present case the innocent must suffer with the guilty. I 
 see no justice in ruining a poor family by imprisoning or transport- 
 ing the only member who is able to work and support it." 
 
 " The said member should have thought of that himself," 
 returned Harry ; " if he had been working and supporting his 
 family, he would have been safe fi'om transportation, like any other 
 honest man ; but as he preferred to steal my game and shoot my 
 keeper, he thereby deprived his family of .the pleasure of his inestim- 
 able society ; it is he, therefore, who has brought this evil upon them.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 159 
 
 not I ; and when I consent to your relieving their necessities out of 
 my pocket, I think I am doing, to say the least of it, as mnch as any 
 reasonable woman ous^ht to expect of me." 
 
 Despite her prejudices in favom* of the seraphic baby and its 
 interesting mother, Alice felt the tiiith of her husband's reasoning ; 
 but she had boasted of her power too confidently, and pledged her- 
 self to exert it too deeply, to retreat; so, perceiving that argiiment 
 woidd avail her nothing, she was obliged to fall back upon woman's 
 last resoiu'ce — personal influence, and strive to win from Hairy's 
 affection that which his reason had denied her. A dangerous experi- 
 ment, pretty Alice ! and one in which, if your philosophy did but go 
 deep enough to enable you to discern it, you would perceive success 
 to be a greater evil than failure, for it would argue culpable weakness 
 in him on whom jou have to lean for support through life. But 
 Alice was by no means in an ethical frame of mind at that moment, 
 and cared only for obtaining her point by any means which occurred 
 to her ; so, drawing a stool close to Han-y, she meekly seated herself 
 at his feet, and looking up into his face with her large imploring 
 eyes, began coaxingly, " Han-y, deai", ai-e you quite, quite determined 
 to say No ? " 
 
 An affirmative bend of the head was the only reply. 
 
 " Biit if I make it a personal request," she continued, laying her 
 soft cheek caressingly against his hand ; " if I ask you to forgive 
 these men for my sake, and so afPord me the exquisite pleasure of 
 making this poor woman happy ? Oh ! you will not refuse me. If 
 you do, I shall think you do not love me. Come, you will say Yes." 
 
 Poor Hany ! he was sorely perplexed. Had it been any personal 
 sacrifice — even a pledge to give up hunting or shooting — which she 
 required of him, he would gladly have yielded, in the true and deep 
 tenderaess towards his wife which his late self-examination had 
 aroused. But the serious thoughts which a review of his past eiTOrs 
 had called forth, while they pointed out to him how he had failed in 
 his duty to her whom he had vowed to love and pi'otect, also proved 
 to him that whei'e Alice was inclined to act wrongly, or foolishly, he 
 was bound to save her even from herself ; and his clear, good sense 
 instantly told him that this was a request which she ought not to 
 have urged, since to grant it would necessitate a sacrifice of principle 
 on his part. Accordingly, he replied, — 
 
 " Alice love, listen to me ; this is not a mere matter of pex-sonal 
 feeling, or I would jaeld to you withoiit a moment's hesitation, but 
 it involves a question of right and wrong. I could not i-efuse to 
 prosecute these men without diffusing an amount of moral evil 
 amongst the whole of my poorer tenantry, which years of the most 
 careful supei-vision would fail to eradicate. The utmost I can 
 promise you is, that the culprits shall have every opportunity 
 afforded them of clearing themselves ; and if, as I am convinced, 
 that proves impossible, every palliating circumstance shall be 
 brought forward and allowed its fullest weight. I have already
 
 160 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 given you my fvee permission to assist tlie poor woman and lier 
 children, and more than this you cannot expect me to say." 
 
 " But I do, or rather I did, expect you to say more," returned 
 Alice, with flashing eyes and glowing cheeks ; " I expected you to say 
 what I would have said to you, if you had appealed to me thus — that 
 there was nothing, even if it were life itself, that I would not give 
 up for your sake. But I see how it is, you do not really care for me, 
 or, if you do, man's love is not like woman's ; it is merely the excite- 
 ment of the pursuit that interests you — the prize once attained 
 becomes valueless in your eyes : in fact, love, which makes the entire 
 joy or soiTOw of a woman's life, is to men but a superior kind of 
 sporting — more engrossing than a fox-chase, or than hunting a poor 
 stag to death, simply because the game is of a higher order." She 
 paused to give vent to a sob which she was unable entirely to repress, 
 then continued in a sarcastic tone of voice : " However, mighty hunter 
 as you are, I do not intend to give you the satisfaction of being in at 
 Tny death ; I have too much of the old Hazlehurst spirit about me to 
 break my heart for a man who does not love me. There is a quiet 
 way, as you call it, of an-anging these affairs : you have yoiir own 
 I)iu-suits and amusements, henceforward I shall have mine. You 
 need not di-ead my again attempting to interfere either with your 
 pleasui-es, or your graver occupations. I have had too severe a 
 lesson on each point to forget it readily. But I expect you to 
 exercise the same forbearance towards me. From this day forth we 
 each follow our ovra line ! " and, di-awing her shawl over her shoulders, 
 with an imperious gesture, as of an offended queen, Alice swept out 
 of the room, leaving Han-y in a frame of mind which may be more 
 easily imagined than described. 
 
 A complete change, which might have been dated from the above 
 conversation, appeared to have taken place in Alice Coverdale. 
 Instead of shrinking, as she had hitherto done, from society, she 
 rather courted it than otherwise — ordering the carriage, and visiting 
 the different families in the neighbourhood, without consulting 
 Harry on the subject, or seeming to care in the slightest degree 
 whether he accompanied her or not. At first this conduct on his 
 wife's part occasioned Coverdale the greatest uneasiness ; but, after 
 a time, seeing that she was amused and interested by the new 
 acquaintances she thus formed, he began to hope that good might 
 perhaps come out of evil, and that the intimacies then commenced 
 might afford sources of lasting pleasm-e when the feeling of pique 
 which had led her to seek them should have long since died away. 
 And so the time glided on, working its usual changes in men and 
 things as it passed away. 
 
 Mr. Gouger having ventured one day to commit himself to the 
 rash assertion that Markum was sinking rapidly, and could not 
 possibly survive the week, from that hour the gamekeeper began to 
 amend, and had sufficiently advanced in bis progress towards 
 recovery to be able to appear and give evidence in person, when Jack
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 161 
 
 Har^rave and his accomplice took their tnal at the next assizes. So 
 unmistakably was their guilt brought home to them that they were 
 each sentenced to seven years' transportation, and would probably 
 have had fourteen allotted to them, but for the thorough good faith 
 with which Harry redeemed his promise to Alice that every 
 extenuating circumstance should be clearly placed before the jury. 
 Indeed, he laboured so strenuously to impress this point upon the 
 counsel for the prisoners, that the learned brother, entertaining a 
 proper degree of professional scepticism in regard to the purity of 
 human motives, immediately settled, to his o^vn satisfaction, that 
 Jack Hargrave must be a natural son of the late Admiral Coverdale, 
 commended, with his dying breath, to his nephew's especial care and 
 protection. Alice received the news of the verdict with great sang- 
 froid, merely remarking that she had felt certain all along that it 
 would be so; but when she had gained the privacy of her own 
 chamber she indulged in a hearty flood of tears, occasioned as much 
 by what she was pleased to consider her husband's inhumanity as 
 by he)- compassion for the poor woman and her transcendental baby. 
 
 As these latter individuals exercise no further influence over the 
 destinies of our principal " dramatis persona;," we may as well, ere 
 we finally take leave of them add the information that Alice (having 
 supported them much l^etter than Jack Hargrave had done in his 
 best days), at the expiration of two years sent them out at her own 
 expense to join that worthy, who, reformed by sea sickness and the 
 amenities of convict discipline, had obtained a ticket of leave, by 
 reason of which privilege he was enacting the part of a penitent 
 buUock-diiver, to the admii-ation of all right-minded settlers in 
 Australia. 
 
 The month of May had begun to temper with a dash of simshine 
 the fine old English east winds of April, which annually sow their 
 share of the seeds of consumption in the glorious British constitu- 
 tion—Harry Coverdale had ceased to oppress the brute creation, 
 leaving foxes and pheasants to increase and multiply by antagonistic 
 progression— and all London was flocking to the Royal Academy 
 Exhibition, to see a great many very original portraits of gentlemen, 
 who scarcely looked the character after all— when one fine morning 
 Alice received a letter from the modern Babylon in Mrs. Crane's 
 handwriting. Having eagerly perused it, she exclaimed,— 
 
 " Kate has written a most kind and pressing invitation to us to 
 come and stay with them ; Mr. Crane wishes it as much as she 
 does." 
 
 " Or as much as she orders him to do rather," muttered Coverdale, 
 ' sotto voce.' 
 
 " Of course you can have no objection to my accepting it," con- 
 tinued Alice ; " for myself, at all events ? " 
 
 " Am not I invited ? " inquired Harry gravely. 
 
 " Yes, certainly ; only I did not know whether you could tear your- 
 self away from your dearly beloved dogs and guns." 
 
 M
 
 162 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " And you were willing to have gone without me ? " 
 
 " I did not wish to be any tie upon you," was Alice's reply, though 
 she coloured slightly and tunied away her head as she spoke. 
 " You remember our compact; I am a great advocate for free will." 
 
 " Between husband and wife such a question ought never to arise," 
 rejoined Harry seriously biit kindly ; " there should be complete 
 imanimity. I hoped you had forgotten all that folly." 
 
 " I never forget uukindness," was the cold reply ; " but I see you 
 are going to favour me with a specimen of your ' quiet manner,' and 
 as I am not in the humour for a scene or a lecture, you really must 
 excuse my leaving you;" and as she spoke she rose to quit the 
 apartment. 
 
 For a moment Han*y's eyes flashed, then a look of pain passed 
 across his features, and, taking his wife's hand, he led her back to 
 the sofa on which she had been seated, saying gently, but i-eproach- 
 fully,- 
 
 " Why will you misunderstand me thus ? You wish to accept your 
 cousin's invitation ?"' 
 
 Alice bowed her head in token of assent. 
 
 " Then write and tell her we shall be happy to do so ; I shall be 
 ready and willing to accompany you at whatever time you and she 
 like to arrange together." 
 
 " Oh, that is very nice and kind of yon ! " returned Alice, " de- 
 lighted at getting her way so easily ; I thought you were going to 
 be cross and disagreeable, as — as you sometimes are." 
 
 " As usual, you were going to say," rejoined Hairy ; " speak yoiu* 
 thoughts honestly, whatever injustice they may do me. But if, in 
 future, instead of condemning me unheard, you were to admit the 
 possibility — nothing more — of my being willing occasionally to 
 sacrifice my wishes to yours, it might save us both considerable pain 
 and misconception ; recollect this, and reflect upon it quietly and 
 calmly." So saying, he lilaced his wife's writing-table before her, 
 found her a foot-stool, and left the room. 
 
 As the soimd of his retreating footsteps died away in the distance, 
 Alice felt decidedly penitent, and wished she could unsay all the 
 sharp things she had uttered at the beginning of the conversation ; 
 but this was a frame of mind too uncomfoi-table to last long, and so 
 she consoled herself by the reflection that if, on this particular 
 occasion, she had done her husband an injustice, it was his conduct 
 at other times which had led her to do so. It was imfair to blame 
 herself for the natural effect his selfishness and unkiudness had 
 produced tipon her mind; she was sure there had been a period, 
 before she was so rudely awakened from her "love's young dream," 
 when she had given him credit for possessing every noble, heroic, 
 and tender quality under the sun : it was not her fault that she could 
 think so no longer — people must take the consequences of their own 
 misdeeds. And so, consoling herself with these and many like 
 arguments, and magnifying the mote in her husband's eye and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 163 
 
 ignoring the beam in her o^vn, Alice talked herself into her former 
 frame of mind, and sat down to write her acceptance of Kate's 
 invitation, convinced that if her husband had said " Yes " on this 
 occasion, he woiild say " No " on evei*y other. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 INTRODUCES A LORDLY GALLANT. 
 
 That day week saw Alice, Han-y, and Celeste (a little pert ' soubrette,' 
 whom Alice had brought back from Pains \vith her) on their way to 
 
 the railway station at H , a gi'oom and a couple of saddle-horses 
 
 (without which Harry could not support the burden of a London 
 life) having preceded them by a slower train. As HaiTy had a great 
 hoiTor of being too late, and had flumed and bustled Alice to such a 
 degree that, if she had not been the most good-natured little woman 
 in the world (except in matters connected with the feelings), she 
 would assuredly have lost her temper, of course they wei'e at least a 
 quarter of an hour too soon, and were forced to promenade up and 
 down beneath a Brobdignagian glass roof, open at each end, and 
 enjoy the lai-ge supply of draughts afforded by this ingenious 
 compromise between indoors and out of doors. Having paced up 
 and down the platform for some ten minutes or so — lost Celeste and 
 the trunks, and found them again — and narrowly escaped violent 
 death from wild luggage-barrows, m-ged by reckless and excited 
 porters, neatly bound in gi-een corduroy and numbered like the lots 
 in a sale-room, — the train by which they were to fly to London 
 crawled uj) ignominiously at the tail of a strong-minded cai't horse, 
 which a heroic but unclean supernumerary conducted in the way he 
 should go. Just as Alice had taken her seat, and was imploring 
 Harry to join her before a dreadful green dragon of a locomotive 
 engine (which had been getting up its steam, and taking in its fuel, 
 and wetting its whistle, and otherwise pei-foi-ming its awful toilet in 
 a neighbouring cavern, whence it issued looking as vicious, and 
 dangerous, and eager to burst in a tunnel as a furious steam-devil 
 could do) should get at him and do him a mischief, a tall elegant- 
 looking young man, who was seeking for an unoccupied place, 
 suddenly exclaimed, — 
 
 " I beg pardon, but surely I have the pleasure of seeing Han-y — a 
 —that is— Mr. Coverdale ? " 
 
 " A true bill, sir," replied Han-y ; " but just at present you've all 
 the pleasure to yoiu-self , for I must honestly confess that I do not
 
 164 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 recollect you ; and yet — no— yes — why, it can't be little Alfred 
 Courtland P " 
 
 "As for the ' little,' I must leave you to judge for yourself; the 
 copy-books tell us that ' ill weeds grow apace,' and I'm afraid I'm a 
 shocking example ; but Alfred Courtland I most certainly am, and 
 delighted tx) meet an old acquaintance — if an lu-chin in the under- 
 school dare pretend to have been on such a footing with one of the 
 sixth form." 
 
 "Little Alfred Couiiland, six feet high, and cultivating whiskers ! 
 Wonders will never cease," resumed Harry, meditatively ; " but are 
 you going by this train ? Jump in here, man, and I'll introduce you 
 to my wife. Alice, this is Alfred — I beg his pardon, but I can't 
 remember he's not a little boy still —Lord Alfred Courtland. You 
 remember Arthur Hazlehurst, my ' fidus Achates,' don't you. Court- 
 land ? My wife is his sister. Tickets ! well, here they are. What a 
 suspicious generation these railway ofiBcials are ! anybody would 
 suppose they had been accustomed to deal with thieves and pick- 
 pockets all their lives, instead of honest Englishmen. But I hate 
 the railroads, root and branch, that's a fact ; they've ruined the 
 breed of horses in this country." 
 
 While Harry ran on in this style, Alice had time to observe her 
 new acquaintance more attentively. He appeared very young, 
 scarcely above nineteen or twenty. His figure, though tall and 
 graceful, was slight and boyish ; his head was smaU and well set on, 
 and his pale, delicate features were shaded by a profusion of fair 
 curling hair; while his bearing and appeai-ance were singularly 
 refined and aristocratic ; or, as Harry afterwards observed, " He 
 looked thoroughbred, eveiy inch of him." His expression was good 
 and amiable; but a want of firmness and resolution a1)Out the lines 
 of his mouth belied the promise of intellect afforded by his high 
 smooth brow, and bright, speaking eyes. 
 
 " And what are you doing with yourself ? " inquired Coverdale, 
 after si;ndi'y mi;tual acquaintances had been talked over and the 
 reminiscences usual between old schoolfellows ran through ; " are 
 you at either of the universities ? " 
 
 " Yes, I'm a Cantab," was the reply ; " but scarcely more than 
 nominally so, for during my first term I got a tumble into the Cam, 
 boating — dined at Ely in my wet clothes, and was rewarded for my 
 carelessness by an aguish low fever, which I am only now recovering 
 from ; so I am ordered to be perfectly idle and amuse myself — a 
 prescription which, I am afraid, agi'ees but too well with my tastes 
 and habits." 
 
 " And finding country ingredients too mild, you are going to town 
 to try and get a stronger dose there, I suppose ? " inquii-ed Harry. 
 
 " You must be a wizard," was the reply. " The fact is, my people 
 have wintered abroad, and Chiselborough became so duU the moment 
 the hunting was over, that I found ' ennui ' was bringing my ague back 
 again; so holding solemn conclave with the apothecary and my
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 165 
 
 valet, we yesterday decided, ' nem. con.,' upon a couple of months' 
 sojourn in the modera Babylon." 
 
 To this piece of intelligence Hari-y vouchsafed no further answer 
 than a shrug of the shoulders by which significant gesture he 
 intended to telegraph to his wife his opinion as to the wisdom of 
 trasting the young gentleman to his own sapient guidance amidst 
 the shoals and quicksands of a London season. At this period 
 the dragon, which had been drawing the train very quietly and 
 peacefully, suddenly gave a prolonged scream (by courtesy termed a 
 whistle), panted violently, hissed a good deal, and having by these 
 manoeuvres " blown off " its superfluous steam, it kindly postponed 
 bursting for a short time, and condescended obligingly to stop at 
 the Tearem and Smashingly Junction, without demanding any 
 immediate sacrifice of human life. Coverdale and Lord Alfred 
 instantly jumped out (although perfectly aware that they should be 
 obliged to jump in again at the expiration of three minutes and a 
 quarter), and, after the fashion of impatient male humanity, which, 
 as Harry somewhat paradoxically observed, " Cannot stand sitting," 
 began stamping up and down the platform as though a legion of 
 black-beetles, or some such entymological freebooters, had crept up 
 their trousers' legs, and they were striving to dislodge them. Some 
 operation, however, which was going on under one of those queer 
 kind of sheds peculiar to railway stations, which give one an idea of a 
 child's toy magnified, attracted their attention and caused them to 
 discontinue their amusement. After gazing earnestly for a few 
 seconds, Harry exclaimed, — 
 
 " They'll never do it so, never ! There, do you see, he's standing 
 right before him, dragging at his head, and yet expects the poor 
 animal to go on ; the man must be an idiot ! Yes, of course, hit the 
 poor thing for your own fault, and frighten him, so that you'll be 
 able to do nothing with him. Ah ! I thought so ; they'll have an 
 accident directly, the fools ! as if there wasn't a quiet manner of 
 doing these things. Hold my great coat, Alfred ; I shall be back in 
 two seconds." And suiting the action to the word, he tossed his 
 coat to his companion and ran off. 
 
 " Where has he gone to ? " inquired Alice disconsolately, from the 
 window of the railway carriage. 
 
 " To assist a stvipid groom to put a very fine horse into one of the 
 horse-boxes," was the reply. " He said he should be back in a 
 minute." 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, take your places ; the train's going to start — 
 take your places," vociferated an individual, who looked like a very 
 oddly-dressed soldier, but who was the railway guard. 
 
 " Oh ! where can he be P We shall start without him ! " exclaimed 
 Alice in dismay. 
 
 " I'll go and look for him," rejoined Lord Alfred good-naturedly. 
 
 " If you would be so very kind," returned Alice, her lovely eyes 
 sparkling with gratitude.
 
 166 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 » 
 "Better not, sir; only lose your own place, without finding the 
 
 gent — train's agoin' to start. I must shut the door," grumbled a 
 
 cynical porter. 
 
 " Pray keep it open till the last moment ! " exclaimed Alice, 
 drawing out her purse, while Lord Alfred, disregarding the porter's 
 advice, dashed off on his mission. 
 
 " Am I allowed to give you anything ? " continued Alice timidly, 
 as a vague suspicion of the illegality of bribing railway porters 
 flashed across her. 
 
 The man looked up and down the platform, and perceiving no 
 informer near, did not commit himself by words, but partially 
 closing the door, so as to conceal the action, held out his hand, with 
 the palm turaed suggestively upwards. As his fingers closed over 
 the half-crown which Alice, with a strong idea that she was commit- 
 ting an indictable offence, placed within his grasp, an angry and 
 imperative voice called out, " Now then, shut that door there ! " and 
 in spite of Alice's remonstrances, the poi-ter was about to obey, when, 
 bi'eathless with running. Lord Alfred sprang into the carnage, the 
 door was slammed to, a bell rang furiously, the dragon gave a short, 
 pert scream of delight at getting its head, and the train started. 
 Unheeding, in fact, scarcely hearing Lord Alfred's mild remonstrance 
 that he believed it was reckoned dangerous to put one's head out of 
 the window of a railway can-iage, Alice immediately committed that 
 folly, and was rewarded for her impnidence by seeing, just as the 
 train was getting to its full speed, Harry rush distractedly on to the 
 platform, shake his fist at the reti'eating carnages, and then, watch 
 in hand, stride up to the station master, and evidently afford him a 
 specimen of his quiet manner. With a feeling half way between an 
 inclination to laugh and a disposition to cry, Alice resumed her seat, 
 and, imder pretence of arranging her veil, took a glance roimd the 
 cari'iage. Her only companion, besides Lord Alfred Courtland, was 
 a species of prize old gentleman, who having spent his life hitherto 
 in gi-owing as fat as the nature of the case admitted, was evidently 
 resolved to guard against the possibility of his shadow becoming 
 less, by devoting the remainder of his existence to the duties of 
 eating, drinking, and sleeping, which latter accomplishment he was 
 then displaying to the admiration of all lovers of that science of 
 which honest Sancho Panza so fervently blessed the inventor. 
 Having mentally summed him up in the definition "wi'etched old 
 thing," Alice next took a siu-vey of her new friend, and decided that 
 he had such a good, innocent, childlike expression of countenance, 
 that young and handsome as he was, she would not have minded 
 even if the " wretched old thing " had not been present to play 
 chaperone in dumb show. 
 
 " How very provoking for Mr. Coverdale to lose the train, and all 
 through his good-nature, too," began Lord Alfred ; " I saw the 
 affair as well as he did, but it would never have occun-ed to me to 
 interfere."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 167 
 
 "Nor to anyone else except to Mr. Coverdale," returned Alice 
 scornfully ; " his devotion to horses and dogs is quite exemplary." 
 
 " As a pattern or as a warning ? " inquired Lord Alfred, favouring 
 her with a look of intelligence for which she was scarcely prepared. 
 
 " You ai'e laughing at me," she said ; " but I will honestly confess 
 that it is rather trying to see Mr. Coverdale place himself and me in 
 a ridiculous, if not actually an embarrassing situation, merely for 
 the sake of a horse." 
 
 " It was a very fine horse," observed Lord Alfred meditatively. 
 
 " And therefore the worthier animal of the two — thank you for the 
 compliment, my lord," was the slightly piqued reply, which of course 
 produced a carefully veiled but teasing rejoinder ; and with such 
 like light badinage did they beguile the time, until having rushed 
 for some distance over acres of turnips, stubble, grass-land, and 
 other such agricultural territory, changing as by some pantomimic 
 agency to the roofs of houses, with elegant parterres of chimney- 
 pots, they were surprised to find they had reached the London 
 terminus. 
 
 The cessation of movement having roused the prize elder from his 
 meritorious slumbers, Alice waited until, with many snorts and 
 grunts he had ai'oused his legs (which were evidently each enjoying 
 a separate and independent nap of its own) and toddled off upon 
 them ere she inquired in rather a forlorn tone, " and now I wonder 
 what is to become of me? Would yon kindly ascertain when the 
 next train will be in ? " 
 
 Lord Alfred made the inquiry, and obtained the cheering intelli- 
 gence that the next train which stopped at the Tearem and Smash- 
 ingly Junction wovild amve in exactly two hours fifteen minutes and 
 a quarter, at which time, as nearly as Alice could calculate, the 
 Crane butler would be removing the fish and soup. 
 
 " It is impossible that you can wait here all that time, my dear 
 Mrs. Coverdale ! " exclaimed Lord Alfred. " What will you like me 
 to do for you ? You must tell me exactly what you wish." 
 
 " You are very kind," returned Alice, feeling much inclined to get 
 into a fuss at the odduess of the situation which thus forced her to 
 rely on a handsome young man with whom she had been acquainted 
 some two hours. Then submitting to her fate with a feeling of 
 desperation, she continued, " First give me your arm, and conduct 
 me to the ladies' waiting-room ; and then if you would be so kind as 
 to look for Celeste, my maid, and — really I am ashamed to trouble 
 you, my lord, but there are some trunks she ought to find, and she 
 can't speak a dozen words of English intelligibly; and — how you're 
 to recognize her I can't tell ; really how Mr. Coverdale could — " 
 
 But before she could finish her accusatoi-y sentence Lord Alfred, 
 anxious to distinguish himself in his new capacity of squii'e of dames, 
 had disappeared. In less time than Alice had deemed possible, he 
 i-etunied with Celeste and a bundle of shawls and wi'appers on one 
 arm, and carrying a carpet bag with the other.
 
 168 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " My mission has been accomplished with the most signal success, 
 I flatter myself : and now I hope your difficulties are ended, my dear 
 Mrs. Coverdale ; Celeste and I have found all the trunks. Fortu- 
 nately, my brougham is here, and I need scarcely add, entirely at 
 your service." Seeing she hesitated, he continixed, " Don't be 
 alarmed about the propiueties, I have been too well drilled in such 
 matters by my sisters to intiiide where I am not wanted." 
 
 " Really, your loi-dship is most kind," exclaimed Alice, all her 
 scruples vanishing before his good-nature and consideration. And 
 there being nothing for it but to take his arm (relinquished somewhat 
 hastily by Celeste when she discovered that it was a ' milor anglais ' 
 with whom she had made so free) and allow him to put her into the 
 well-appointed brougham, Alice did so with an interesting succession 
 of smiles and blushes which made her look most dangerously pretty. 
 Thei'eupon the two hundred guinea horse, which was so thoroughly 
 stuffed with oats that it might almost as well have been a corn-bin, 
 and which, being an animal of the highest breeding, had evinced 
 such an amount of disgust and terror at the hissing, snorting, 
 whistling, and other low habits of the steam dragon, that nothing 
 but the strongest sense of propriety and a very severe curb bit could 
 have kept it from running away, stood on its hind legs like a 
 Christian, vindicated its transcendentalism by salaaming like a Turk 
 ere it resumed its quadrupedal attitude, and finally set off, at about 
 the rate of fifteen miles an hour, %vith its head and tail as erect as if 
 some invisible giant were attempting to lift it up by them. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 SPIDERS AND FLIES. 
 
 " Mt dear Kate, I think your cousin, Mrs. Coverdale, has just driven 
 up ; and yet I don't know. Is it likely, or, as I may say, probable, 
 that she should arrive in a brougham ? " 
 
 "With a high-stepping horse and a coronet on the panels? — 
 scarcely, I should imagine." 
 
 The speakers were Mr. Crane, who had grown rather less like a 
 scaffold pole since we last were favom'ed with his society, and Horace 
 D'Almayne, who appeared quite himself and quite at home. 
 Attracted by their remarks, Kate joined her husband at the window. 
 
 " It can't be them," she said, " there is no luggage ; " but, as if to 
 contradict her remark, at the moment she ceased to speak a cab 
 dashed into Park Lane with a fair amount of imperials, cap-cases,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 169 
 
 poi-t-manteaus, cai-pet-bags, and otlier female travelling miscellanea, 
 and drew up behind tlie brougham. As it stopped, a tall, handsome 
 yoimg man sprang out ; and opening the door of the brougham, 
 offered his arm to Alice, and conducted her up the steps most care- 
 fully. 
 
 " Why, that surely cannot be Mr. Coverdale ; or, at least, if I may 
 be permitted to say so, he has become singularly thin and— and 
 youthful-looking, if it is," bleated Mr. Crane. 
 
 *' No, that is not Han-y Coverdale," returned Kate wonderingly, 
 " nor do I see anything of him either ! " 
 
 " If Mrs. Coverdale has lost her husband, really she has found a 
 most attractive substitute— a— it almost seems one of the cases in 
 which such a loss might be considered a gain," lisped D'Almayne, in 
 so low a tone that Mr. Crane, who was nearly as slow of hearing as 
 he was of understanding, did not catch the remark. " Really, quite 
 a touching farewell," he continued, as Alice, ere she entered the 
 house, shook hands most cordially with her young cavalier ; " and 
 the gallant, gay Lothario jumps into the brougham (which coronet, 
 high-stepping horse, and all, evidently calls him master) and is lost 
 to our admiring gaze." 
 
 At this juncture a fat and rosy butler (who looked as if he had 
 been brought up by hand upon port wine and had remained faithful 
 to it ever since) flung open the door, and announced Mrs. Cover- 
 dale. 
 
 Throwing off, for once in her life, all coldness and reserve, Kate 
 embraced her cousin warmly, and holding her by both hands, led her 
 to the sofa. 
 
 " My dearest child," she exclaimed, " how delightful it is to see 
 you once again ! " 
 
 " But if I may be permitted," began Mr. Crane, " if I may be 
 allowed to inquire, what have you done with— or perhaps I should 
 rather say— what has become of our good friend, Mr. Coverdale ? " 
 
 " And how came you in a brougham with a coronet upon it ? and 
 who was that handsome and distinguished-looking yoimg exquisite 
 whom you had inveigled into playing courier— eh, Mistress Alice ? " 
 inquired Kate archly. " I expected to find you a pattern wife, and 
 to have your example held up for my imitation twenty times a day ; 
 but I have alarmed myself very unnecessarily, it seems." 
 
 " Don't tease, dear," was the reply ; " it was all the fault of that silly 
 husband of mine : he got out at one of the stations, and seduced by 
 the attractions of a restive horse, contrived to be out of the way 
 when the train stai-ted, and so I was forced to do the best I could for 
 myself." 
 
 "Which theory you reduced to practice by selecting the hand- 
 somest young man you could find as a ' cavalier servente,' " returned 
 Kate, laughing. " But who is your friend ? I hope he is coming to 
 call upon you ! " 
 " Oh, yes, he means to call— to-morrow I think he said. I'm glad
 
 170 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 you consider him handsome : it's always satisfactory to have one's 
 taste approved of by one's friends ; and I honestly confess I admire 
 him particularly." 
 
 Ml*. Crane's countenance, during this speech of Alice's, was 
 wonderful to behold ; the intense sui-prise with which he listened to 
 the beginning of it gi-adually changing to the deepest disgust as she 
 continued, afforded such a clear index to his thoughts that Horace 
 D'Almayne turned away to hide an in-epressible smile, which Kate 
 perceiving, observed with a slight shade of annoyance, — 
 
 " And now, having mystified us thoi'oughly, be kind enough to tell 
 us who the gentleman really is, and how he came to offer you his 
 brougham and his services." 
 
 Thus appealed to, Alice was obliged to confess that, in point of 
 fact, there was nothing wrong or romantic in the adventure from 
 beginning to end — that Lord Alfred Com-tland was an old school- 
 fellow of her husband's, who had travelled in the same carriage with 
 them, and who had naturally done all he could to save her from 
 being inconvenienced by the effects of Han-y's stupidity, on which 
 she dwelt rather more at length than Kate approved of, that young 
 lady having a very keen perception of right and wi-ong, although 
 she by no means always acted up to the light thus afforded her. 
 
 Some few hours later HaiTy arrived, very anxious about his wife, 
 and decidedly crestfallen and penitent, and bore all the quizzing 
 which fell to his share with most exemplary patience ; although any 
 attempt to excite his jealousy in regard to Lord Alfred Coui-tland 
 proved a dead failure, his reply being that " He was always a very 
 good little boy, and that he did not see much difference in him 
 except in height." 
 
 When the Coverdales went up to dress for dinner the following 
 dialogue ensued : — 
 
 " How well your cousin Kate is looking," observed Hairy ; " the 
 pomps and A-anities of this wicked world appear to agi'ee with her ; 
 now she has grown a little stouter, she really is a splendid woman." 
 
 " Yes. she appears in better health," returned A.lice slowly, 
 " but—" 
 
 "But what?" inquired Harry. "A woman's 'but' is like the 
 postcript to her letter; it unsays all she has said before. Come, out 
 with this ' arriere-pensee,' as that puppy D'Almayne would call it. 
 By the way, he seems regularly domesticated here. I wonder old 
 Crane likes it; I should not, in his position, I know." 
 
 " I wonder Kate likes it," returned Alice ; " however, my ' but ' 
 had nothing to do with the fascinating Horace. I was going to say 
 that although Kate looked well, yet she had a listless, weary 
 expression of countenance, which gave me the idea that, with all her 
 riches and splendoiir, she was far from happy." 
 
 " The same being a result rather to be expected than othei-wise, 
 when a lovely and talented young female sees fit to espouse an 
 elderly and feeble-minded old scarecrow," rejoined Han'y, making
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 171 
 
 frantic dives into his portmanteau, and fishinpr up patent bootjacks, 
 miraculous I'azor-strops — everything but the dress neck-tie he was in 
 search of. 
 
 " I don't believe they see anything of Ai'thur," continued Alice 
 reflectively ; " I asked Kate, and she seemed to know nothing about 
 him— such friends as they used to be at one time— it's very 
 odd ! " 
 
 " I don't see the oddness myself," retimied Hany, speaking 
 through his dressing-room door, which stood ajar; " there is a great 
 difference between feeling spooney about a pretty cousin, when 
 you're living in the house with her, and have nothing better to do, 
 and dangling after her to the neglect of your business, when she 
 lives at one end of London and you at the other — when, moreover, 
 she's married to a dreadful old muff, antiqiiated enough to be her 
 father, and slow enough to be the father of every fool in the 
 kingdom. I think it's easily accounted for by prose means, without 
 adopting the poetical hypothesis of a romantic attachment — two 
 fond young hearts blighted, and all that ' Keepsake ' style of 
 business ; besides, Arthur's a great deal too good a lawyer to fall in 
 love ; it's only idle fellows like myself who commit such follies." 
 
 " You must go and call on Ai-thur to-moiTOw, and you will soon 
 perceive by his manner whether he is averse to coming here; but 
 mind j'ou are very caref id not to let hini see that you suspect any- 
 thing ; I am quite sure he would be most sensitive on such a point," 
 observed Alice, in a tone in which you would caution a schoolboy 
 against playing with gunpowder. 
 
 " Keep your advice for your own benefit, most sententious Alice, 
 seeing that you are the suspecting party, and that such an idea 
 would never have occurred to my unassisted reason," was Harry's 
 rejoinder ; and the dinner-bell at that moment ringing, the conver- 
 sation ceased. 
 
 The next day, however, Ai-thur put an end to the controversy by 
 making his appearance in Park Lane soon after luncheon. Although 
 no one alliided to the circumstance, it was the first time he had set 
 his foot in Mr. Crane's house, or indeed seen Kate since her man-iage. 
 He looked pale and ovei'worked, and thei'e was a restless excitement 
 in his manner, which Alice's quick eye at once discovered. Beyond 
 this, however, there was nothing which tended in the slightest degi-ee 
 to confirm her in her suspicions. He apologized quietly and naturally 
 to Kate for not having called oftener, adducing business as a good 
 and sufficient reason for his remissness ; then, turning to Alice, he 
 informed her that she could not have chosen a more unfortunate 
 time for her visit to London, at least, as far as he was concerned, as 
 he was obliged to stai-t the next morning for Naples, being sent out 
 by the Foreign Office on an affair of some importance, which, if he 
 could bring the matter to a successful issue, might tend to his 
 ultimate advancement. Kate, on the contrary, appeared nervous 
 and ill at ease, and probably feeling that for once she could not rely
 
 172 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 on her self-command, took an early opportunity of quitting the room, 
 leaving the brother and sister ' tete-a-tete.' 
 
 " Alice, you are changed," exclaimed Arthur, as the door closed on 
 her whom he had once so deeply loved, towards whom he now felt 
 as we can only feel towards those whom we have admitted into the 
 inmost recesses of the heart, and who have availed themselves of 
 the privilege to profane and make desolate the sanctuary, " you were 
 a girl, you have become a woman ; has matrimony produced the 
 alteration ? " 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so," was the rejoinder. " You know one can't 
 remain a child always ; the realities of life are sure to find one out 
 sooner or later, and I was a mere baby in the ways of the world when 
 I married." 
 
 There was a spice of regret in the tone of this remark, which did 
 not escape Ai'thur's quick ear and keen intelligence, and he hastened 
 to reply, — 
 
 " You mean more than you say ; why, surely, Alice, with such a 
 husband you must be perfectly happy ; it is impossible that it can 
 be otherwise." 
 
 As he spoke, he fixed his dark eyes questioningly upon her. 
 Unable fairly to meet his gaze, Alice tunied away her head, as she 
 replied, with an effort at careless gaiety, — 
 
 "Don't alarm yourself, most romantic of barristers; there is no 
 Bluebeard's closet at Coverdale, nor does Hari-y turn into a skeleton, 
 or anything else but his bed, at twelve o'clock at night. He is just 
 the thoroughly good fellow (that is the term you men delight in) he 
 always was, and devoted to — " 
 
 " His wife ! " interrupted Arthur. 
 
 " Well, I was going to say dogs, guns, and horses," returned Alice ; 
 " and I'm afraid I must adhere to my text, unless you prefer fiction 
 to fact." 
 
 She spoke jestingly ; but the lines which care, and thought, and 
 intellectual exertion had already traced on Arthur's brow deepened, 
 as, after a pause, he mui'mured, half in reply to Alice, half in 
 soliloquy, — 
 
 " I am disappointed, deeply disappointed ; it ought to be so 
 different ! I — I wish I were not going abroad to-moiTOw ; and yet I 
 could not be a frequent visitor in this house ! " 
 
 The last words were inaudible, though, by one of those intuitions 
 which often compensate for the inefficiency of our physical powers, 
 Alice divined his train of reasoning, and with subtle generalship 
 diverted the attack by carrying the war into the enemy's country, as 
 she replied, — 
 
 "Do not puzzle your brains about me and Han-y; we jog on 
 very serenely together, now we have found out each other's 
 peculiarities." 
 
 " But you never had any peculiarities, either o you," interrupted 
 Arthur positively ; " except that Harry was the finest, noblest,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 173 
 
 manliest fellow going, and you were a good, simple-hearted, sweet- 
 tempered little girl. What do you mean by peculiarities ? " 
 
 " Never mind us," continued Alice, not heeding his inteiTuption ; 
 " I want to know something about you. You say I have changed 
 from a child into a woman, but you have turned from a young man 
 into a middle-aged one during these last six months ; you are either 
 ill or unhappy, or working yourself to death— all three, perhaps." 
 
 " Oh, you are fanciful, and not used to the pale faces of us 
 Londoners," returned Ai-thur. 
 
 "You cannot put me off in that manner," continued Alice 
 pertinaciously ; " people do not look ill and careworn without some 
 cause for doing so. Hoav is it, pray, that you never come here ? so 
 fond as you used to be of Kate, too ! I expected to find you regularly 
 installed as ' I'enfant de famille.' Do you know I begin to have my 
 suspicions — " 
 
 "Hush!" inten-upted Arthur, in a low, stem voice; "whatever 
 you may suspect, never refer to this subject again, there are some 
 sorrows in life for which there is no remedy ; these must be endured 
 and stniggled with in silence, for so only can they be borne. If you 
 would not give me pain, forget that this idea ever occmTed to you." 
 As he spoke his pale face flushed, and his lip quivered with tlie 
 emotion he strove, but was unable entirely to conceal. 
 
 " Forgive me, dear Arthur ! " exclaimed Alice, whilst tears of ready 
 sympathy glistened in her eyes ; " I spoke carelessly— foolishly : in- 
 deed, indeed, I did not mean to give you pain ! But you are not 
 angry with me ? " 
 
 As she spoke she laid her hand caressingly on his shoulder, and 
 glanced up in his face with a beseeching look which would have 
 melted the most flinty-hearted stoic. Arthur drew her to him, and 
 kissed her smooth brow, in token of forgiveness, ere he replied,— 
 
 " Before we quit this subject, never to resume it, let me say this 
 much to you: in this matter I have nothing to reproach myself 
 with ; as far as I have been able to see what was right, I have acted 
 up to it. This is my only comfort. That I have suffered much, I 
 will not attempt to deny ; but I am thankful to say the blow, though 
 severe, has not paralyzed me. The sunshine of my life may be 
 destroyed for years, perhaps for ever, but my vigour and energy are 
 left me, and I will yet make myself a name and win myself a posi- 
 tion that the mere possession of wealth can never bestow. Now, 
 forget that this conversation ever took place." 
 
 As he spoke the door flew open, and Han-y and Lord Alfred 
 Courtland, having encountered each other at the club, made their 
 appearance arm in arm, like a pair of well-grown Siamese twins, and 
 Alice was dispatched all in a huriT to put on her " things," to be 
 taken to a private view of the annual exhibition of the Society of 
 Amalgamated Amateurs in Water Colours, whom Han-y irreverently 
 paraphrased as the " Amalgamated Muffs," a definition the truth of 
 which a closer inspection of the efforts of those mild and amiable
 
 174 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 caricatm-ists did not tend to disprove. As tliey strolled up and 
 down the rooms, waiting for Kate and Mr. Crane, who had promised 
 to join them. Lord Alfred, on whose arm Alice was leaning, and 
 who had been rattling on with great volubility and in the highest 
 possible spirits, suddenly observed, — 
 
 " I do find myself such a complete country cousin in London, that 
 really it's quite ridiculous ! I meet all sorts of celebrities, and don't 
 know one of them by sight. Now, for instance, do you see that pair 
 of young exquisites lounging elegantly along, like a couple of self- 
 enamoured sleep-walkers, and dressed like beatific visions of dandies, 
 rather than mere sublunary fops ? I'm sure I've met the youngest 
 of them somewhere — he with the ' petites moustaches noires,' which 
 are so iiresistible that I should certainly cultivate a paii' myself, if I 
 did not feel morally certain that my prejudiced progenitor would cut 
 them and me off with the same shilling." 
 
 " In fact, cut off his beir because you would not cut off yours," 
 punned Coverdale. " But in regard to your beatific swells, I fancy 
 Alice can enlighten you as to the patronymic of one of them, if she 
 chooses ; he is a very jiarticular friend, to say nothing more, of hers. 
 She only married me because she failed in captivating him." 
 
 Alice rej>lied to Lord Alfred's expressive look, which asked as 
 plainly as words could have done, " Is this all jest, or is there a small 
 foundation of fact for it to rest upon ? " — " If that had been my only 
 reason for accepting my romancing husband, I should have remained 
 Miss Hazlehurst still ; however, I plead guilty to knowing Mr. 
 D'Almayne, as he happens to be an intimate friend of Mr. Crane, the 
 gentleman who married my cousin Kate, and in whose house we are 
 now staying." 
 
 While they thus chatted, the following conversation was being 
 carried on in French between the subject of their remai'ks and his 
 companion, a showily-dressed man, some half-dozen years older than 
 Horace D'Almayne, with handsome featui-es, but a worn dissipated 
 look, which involimtarily prejudiced one against him. He spoke 
 with a thoroughly foreign accent, and the animated gestures with 
 which he sought to elucidate his meaning also tended to prove he 
 was not a native of this country. 
 
 " The plan has been worked out," he continued, referring to some 
 subject with which D'Almayne appeared acquainted, " and with his 
 name as director, and .£1000 ready money to pay clerks and establish 
 the concern on a respectable foundation, the affair will go charm- 
 ingly ; John Bull shall buy our shares and hand us his money, and 
 in six months' time, with that and " — here he sank his voice — " the 
 club in J Street, we may set fortune at defiance." 
 
 " Mind you are careful aboitt keeping our connection with the club 
 secret," returned D'Almayne, almost in a whisper ; " we are not in 
 Pai'is, remember ; and the slightest suspicion that we played would 
 be fatal to your hopes of inducing men of capital to join the other 
 affair."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 175 
 
 " Do not fear, * men clier ' ; I know my game," was the reply. As he 
 spoke, his eye fell upon the Coverdale party, and hastily indicating 
 Lord Alfred Courtland to his companion, he continued, " Do you see 
 that stripling? he was pointed out to me last night as a pigeon 
 worth plucking and easily handled; he is a young milor, very soft, 
 and what you call ' green.' You must get introduced, and bring him 
 to ' the club.' " 
 
 " The boy is not of age yet," returned D Almayne, " and English 
 fathers never pay gambling debts ; so you must not hope for large 
 gains from him." 
 
 " He can sign bills and post-obits, I presume," rejoined his 
 companion, with a sneering laugh ; " but the people he is with are 
 regarding you as if they were of your acquaintance — is it so P " 
 
 " Decidedly," was the reply. " I will effect the introduction you 
 desire at once, biit as soon as it is over you must find an oppoi'tunity 
 of withdrawing ; I will join the party, feel my way cautiously, and 
 
 you shall see Milor Courtland's childish face in J Street before a 
 
 fortnight has passed. ' Allons, mon cher.' " 
 
 Having offered two fingers to Coverdale and three to his wife, 
 DAlmayne glanced towards Lord Alfred with a supercilious look, 
 which seemed to express, " I perceive you, but on account of your 
 extreme youth and inexperience, am wholly indifferent to the fact of 
 your existence ; " at least so his lordship interpreted it, and was 
 immediately seized with an eager desire to know the man who could 
 thus afford to look down on him. 
 
 " Introduce me to your friend, will you, Coverdale ? " he said ; " I 
 must get him to give me a few lessons in dress and deportment ; he 
 really is a second Brummell." 
 
 " He really is a conceited, empty-headed puppy," returned Cover- 
 dale, sotto voce, "and it's little good you'll leara of a jackanapes 
 like that ; but I suppose if I didn't introduce you, somebody else 
 would — so come along." Then placing his hand upon his shoulder, 
 and urging him forward, he continued, 1 " D'Almayne, here's my 
 friend, Lord Alfred Courtland, wishes to be introduced to you : he 
 thinks it is his duty to know every well-dressed man in London, and 
 you're so ' facile princeps ' in that line — so transcendently got up — 
 that he's dying to ask your tailor's address and the length of tick he 
 allows." 
 
 " You're so obliging as to laugh at me, Mr. Coverdale, because I 
 cannot reconcile myself to yom- English Schneiders, and still 
 patronize Blin et Fils, in that paradise of tailors, Paris ; but — ar — 
 really you are uncivilized in this particular, and require reform in 
 your coats more than in your constitution, which, glorious as you 
 consider it, you are always altering. Does not Lord Alfred Court- 
 land agree with me ? " And as he made this appeal, Horace 
 D'Almayne simpered, to show his white teeth, stroked his moustache, 
 and awaited a reply. 
 
 Ere Lord Alfred had found words to imply his admiration of
 
 176 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Horace's taste without paying liim an actual broad and unmistak- 
 able compliment, Harry put his ideas to flight by exclaiming,— 
 
 " Listen to a word of common sense, Alfred, my boy. Men make 
 coats — if you can properly call a tailor a man — but coats can never 
 make men. You may dress an ass up in the grandest lion skin 
 going, but you can make nothing of him but an ass, neverthe- 
 less. In fact, I never believe a man's a man till I've seen him with 
 his coat off ; then if he can use liis fists as a man should, I believe in 
 him." 
 
 " Aha! I comprehend ; ce monsieur refers to your English science 
 of the box. Very clever science is the box ; I am acquiring him of a 
 professeur, who keeps a restaurant, what you call a public-house in 
 Smissfiel." 
 
 As D'Almayne's companion thus spoke, Horace seized the oppor- 
 tunity of introducing him, which he did as follows, — 
 
 " Allow me to make you acquainted with my friend. Monsieur 
 Adolphe GuiUemard, a gentleman connected with the financial 
 interest in Paris and with that of Europe generally." Then in a 
 stage whisper, he added, " He was educated in Rothschild's house." 
 
 So Harry bowed, and Lord Alfred bowed, and Alice inclined her 
 head in rather a stately manner, because she did not approve of 
 Monsieur Guillemard's roving eyes; and Monsieur GuiUemard 
 bowed and scraped, and laid his hand on his waistcoat, where his 
 heart ought to have been, and abased his unappreciated optics, and 
 appeared profoundly touched and anxious to weep on the bosom of 
 society at large ; and Mr. Crane, who at that moment came up in 
 his wife's custody, not making allowance for foreign manners, 
 thought he was in a fit. Then Monsieur GuiUemard drew out his 
 watch, and found he had an engagement at the Bourse, as he was 
 pleased to call the Stock Exchange; and so took leave of his 
 new acquaintance, squeezed both the yellow kid hands of his cher 
 Hoi'ace, and with short, jaunty footsteps as of a male ballet-dancer, 
 quitted the spacious gallery, sacred to the noble efforts of the Amal- 
 gamated Amateurs. And when he had depai-ted, of course his 
 friends began to talk him over. D'Almayne drew Mr. Crane aside 
 and related to him wonderful anecdotes of his (GuiUemard's) skill in 
 foreseeing political events and their consequences, and the splendid 
 hits he had thus made in stockjobbing for himself, and others who 
 had wisely availed themselves of his talent, and what Baron Roths- 
 child", had said and thought of him, until Mr. Crane began to imagine 
 him an incarnation of Mammon, and yearned to fall down and 
 adore him on the spot. For, be it observed, parenthetically, that Mr. 
 Crane, albeit nominally a member of the Established Church, was 
 verily and indeed a worshipper of a certain golden calf, to whose 
 likeness he had for years striven earnestly, and not unsuccessfully, 
 to assimilate himself. And Harry remarked confidentially to Alice, 
 Kate, and Lord Alfred, that he was prepared to bet a pony that 
 GuiUemard was neither more nor less than a " leg," and that whoever
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 177 
 
 had many dealings with him woidd be safe to put his or her foot in 
 it— which sentence sounded like nonsense, but was only slang. And 
 Lord Alfred laughed, and replied that Harry said so because he was 
 jealous of the superior cut of Monsieur Guillemard's garments. 
 Alice agreed perfectly with her husband, which, Kate remarked, was 
 the most original feature of the whole aif air — an observation intended 
 for a mild and playful jest, but at which Alice blushed and Harry 
 suddenly became engi-ossed by a spirited sketch, in very water colours, 
 of Ophelia as she appeared when drowning, which, according to the 
 talented representation of Miss Appela Brown, M.S.A.A., was remark- 
 ably jolly and slightly inebriated — next to which hung a portrait of 
 Miss Brown herself, seated at her easel, her pre-Raphaelite countenance 
 beaming with mingled talent and astonishment on the picture growing 
 beneath her gifted brush — a compound expression, at which, as the 
 subject was some demi-god or other mythical celebx'ity, in heroic 
 muscular proportions strongly developed, and nothing else, we can 
 scarcely feel surprise. Then the whole party devoted their serious 
 attention to the performances of the amalgamated ones, and were re- 
 warded by beholding many fearful and wonderful things. There were 
 " young gentlemen taken from life " and transported by amalgamated 
 magic into the regions of romance — an unlikeness of Snook's niddy 
 face being affixed to Hamlet's velvet body, or Mary Ann Jones's very 
 retrousse profile heading Joan of Arc's steel bodice, and a select 
 squadron of twelve French soldiers in gi-een hunting-coats and fancy 
 hats and feathers, prepared to " mourir pour la patrie" to any 
 extent which the said Mary Ann might require of them. Then there 
 were landscapes with gamboge foregrounds, pasturing comical cows 
 of shapes and colours iuikno\vn to zoology ; tind middle distances, 
 gloomy with indigo trees, and cast-iron rivulets purling rigidly over 
 wild rocks, suggested by bald places, showing the naked paper 
 through a severe application of sepia and neutral tint. Ferocious 
 battles were there also, designed by gentle girls, who had never 
 witnessed so much as a street row, wherein gallant Henri Quatre-like 
 parties, with slim waists, feminine complexions, and white waving 
 plumes, slaughtered strong men in funny dresses and pranced over 
 their dead bodies with the most heroic magnanimity and indiffer- 
 ence. Then there was Mount Vesuvius during an eniption, Avhich, to 
 ji;dge by the colouring, must have been the eruption attendant on 
 scarlet fever ; and Mont Blanc well iced, showing the " mer de glace " 
 (the most difficult mare to mount on record, as *' we know who " 
 would say), and the last batch of proselytes from the Egyptian Hall 
 sliding serenely down on their haunches, as wolves are repoi-ted to 
 do, only the proselytes appear to have got the advantage of the wolves 
 by reason of their coat-tails. Scripture pieces, too,'.had some of these 
 rash amateurs perpetrated, wherein " daughters of Babylon" appeared 
 like the '' corps de ballet," and kings, prophets, and patriarchs had 
 evidently found their prototypes in Mario, Lablache, and Tamburini 
 — a fact which afforded Horace D'Almayne an opportunity of observ-
 
 HAR] 
 
 Horace's taste \v\ 
 able complimen.| 
 
 " Listen to a 
 coats — if yon 
 make men. 
 going, but 
 less. In fa(j 
 his coat off j 
 him." 
 
 "Aha! 
 of the 
 professej 
 Smissfif 
 
 As 
 tunitj 
 
 anee l'< 
 jAbvlt Giitl 
 ament a' 
 
 aatit 
 
 I the 
 
 t non 
 
 indeed 
 
 had f^, 
 
 te himr 
 
 Lord . 
 
 •d was n' 
 
 jicMi it-ur 
 lie financial 
 ." T- Ma 
 
 ^hiM 
 
 lice inclined her 
 
 d not approve of 
 
 nsieiir Guillemard 
 
 ■nistcoat, where his 
 
 lilted optics, and 
 
 som of 
 
 • up in 
 
 -II manners, 
 
 ; irew out his 
 
 'ursc, as he was 
 
 i"ok leave of his 
 
 ip yellow kid hands of his cher 
 
 "> as of a male bullet-dancer, 
 
 t li. noble effoi-ts of the Amal- 
 
 le had departed, of course his 
 
 D'Almayne drew Mr. Crane aside 
 
 ! lul anecdotes of his (Guillemard's) skill in 
 
 s and their consequences, and the splendid 
 
 i stockjobbing for himself, and others who 
 
 ' 03 of his talent, and what Baron Roths- 
 
 ' )f him, until Mr. Crane began to imagine 
 
 nimon, and yearned to fall down and 
 
 . l)e it obsei-ved, parenthetically, that Mr. 
 
 a member of the Established Church, was 
 
 .rshipper of a certain golden calf, to whose 
 
 ears striven earnestly, and not imsnccessfuUy. 
 
 And Han-y remarked confidentially to Alice, 
 
 ;, that he was prepared to bet a pony that 
 
 more nor less than a " leg," and that whoever
 
 vT C41tl. 
 
 >lMa ibai H.. 
 J of Hr— im I, 
 
 er hut^iaad. vlAet 
 
 le whole aflair— A. 
 
 it at which kiy 
 
 uiritedikaikci. 
 
 ■rownine. ■• 
 
 
 lumn^-coatH and fancy 
 
 pouilu patrie" to any 
 
 lit require cthem. Then there 
 
 foi'egroiinds. paairiuK comical cowa 
 
 ^o^^^l to zooloj^y ; at iniddle diHtances, 
 
 m, and cast-iron vivu!- • ii,' riffidly over 
 
 by bidd places, shux'. i naked paper 
 
 iition of sepia and neuul tint. FerociouH 
 
 desijfued by gentle jtIk, who had never 
 
 Street row, whei-ein gallab Henri Quatrc-like 
 
 ^vaists, feminine complexion and white waving 
 
 ;d strong men in funny dresw and pranced over 
 
 ies with the most heroic mapiuuir''y and indiffer- 
 
 lere was Mount Vesuvius during n iiiitiou. which, to 
 
 colouring, must have been the erjt n attendant on 
 
 and Mont Blanc well iced, showinji:!:'- ' nier deglace " 
 
 lifficult mai-e to mount on record, cj " we know who " 
 
 and the last batch of proselytes fix>ithe Egn^tian Hall 
 
 jnely down on their haunches, aa wives are reiKji-ted to 
 
 ke proselytes appear to have got the adviti^'c of the wolves 
 
 of their coat-tails. Scripture pieces, t«,.li;id some of these 
 
 jurs perpetrated, wherein "daughters oBabylon" appeared 
 
 coips de ballet," and kings, prophets^nd patriarchs had 
 
 found their prototypes in Mario, Labhhe, and Tamburini 
 
 rhich afforded Horace D'AlmajTie an ojortunity of observ- 
 
 «•
 
 
 '^Lii^tL^''
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 170 
 
 his eyes steadily fixed upon au amalgamated catalogue, desirous not 
 to add to Kate's embarrassment; but at length, surprised at her 
 silence and immobility, he ventured to glance towards her, and was 
 alarmed to perceive that she had turned pale to her very lips, while 
 she grasped the brass rail, which was placed to protect the pictures, 
 convxilsively, in order to save herself from falling. Anyone with less 
 tact than D'Almayne would, in officious eagei-ness to assist her, 
 have made a fuss, and caused her to become the subject of general 
 attention ; but Horace knew better how to turn the situation to 
 account; handing her a chair, he said quietly, — 
 
 " The heat has made yoix feel faint ; sit dovm. for a moment, and 
 perhaps the feeling may pass otf ." 
 
 As Kate hastened to follow his suggestion, she glanced towards 
 him to read in his featui-es whether he also had overheard the conver- 
 sation which had affected her. Whether his subtle intellect had led 
 him to divine hei" intention, and he was enacting the character he 
 considered most likely to tell with Kate, or whether he was merely 
 obeying a natural impulse, we do not attempt to decide ; suffice it to 
 state that, when she looked at him, he was scowling after the 
 amiable family whose conversation had caused the eml>arrassnient, 
 with so angi-y an expression of countenance, that a fear seized his 
 companion lest he should be about to do something indignant and 
 foolish, which might attract attention to her and produce the scene 
 she dreaded. A moment's reflection on his cautious, pnident 
 character would have pi-oved to her the unreasonableness of such a 
 fear ; but she spoke without allowing herself this, — 
 
 "What are you going to do?" she said, in a hui-ried whisper; 
 
 " you can take no notice of — of ; " and unable to find words to 
 
 express her meaning, she paused in confusion. D'Almayne finished 
 her sentence for her : — 
 
 " — Of those people's ignorance of the usages of society ? No, I 
 am not so inconsiderate ; pardon me that I allowed you to see my 
 just indignation, but for the moment I was completely earned away 
 by feeling. Now," he continued, " if you can make the effoi-t, let 
 us join the othei's ; no one has, as yet, observed your indisposition." 
 
 By Avay of reply, Kate rose and took his proffered arm. 
 
 " Get them away from this place," she said humedly ; " I shall 
 suffocate if I remain here longer." 
 
 Horace bowed assent, and after exchanging a few indifferent 
 remarks with Alice and Lord Alfred Courtland, turned to Mr. 
 Crane, observing, — 
 
 " Will you forgive me for pleading the cause of one of your new 
 caiTiage horses ? The coachman tells me it has a slight cough ; and 
 it will scarcely tend to get rid of the ailment to wait too long in this 
 piercing east wind." 
 
 " No, indeed," chenipped Mr. Crane ; " and a horse that cost 
 a hundred and thirty puns " (he meant pounds !) " must not be 
 injured, even, if I may be allowed to say so, to please the ladies."
 
 180 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 And havinf? spoken, straightway he fell into a fidfret ; so that, in 
 less than two minutes, the noble productions of the Amalcjamated 
 Amateurs became as a dream of the past to oiir dramatis 
 person*. 
 
 On reaching the street, with his wife hanging on his arm. Mr. 
 Crane, ere he placed her in the carriage, thus addressed his 
 domestic, — 
 
 '* Why, coachman, you never told me one of the horses had a 
 cough." 
 
 As he spoke, Kate, perfectly understanding that the horse's cough 
 was ;in invention of DAlmayne's to enable them to get away from 
 the gallery in accordance with her wishes, involuntarily glanced 
 towards him. But where manceuvi-ing and finesse wei'e required, 
 Horace was quite in his element. Catching the attention of the 
 servant (whom he had himself recommended) by a fictitious attack 
 of the malady under which the quadruped was supposed to labour, he, 
 by an almost imperceptible contraction of the eyelid, telegraphed his 
 wishes, ensuring their fulfilment by suggestively tapping the silver 
 head of his cane to express that in that metal should his compliance 
 be rewarded ; so Mr. Crane was glibly informed that his horse had 
 suffered under a bronchial affection for about the space of four days, 
 more or less ; but that he, the coachman, having applied an invalu- 
 able specific, kno^vn only to himself, had not considered the matter 
 sufficiently serious to trouble his master withal ; — for which reticence 
 he bore meekly Mr. Crane's peevish rebuke, consoled by the expec- 
 tation of five shillings the next morning from Horace D'Almayne. 
 
 The polished boots of that good young man trod upon roses rather 
 than granite, as he ambled down Pall Mall ; for, by means of those 
 trifles which make the sum of human things, he had achieved a 
 great and almost unhoped-for success — he had succeeded in establish- 
 ing a private understanding with the young and beautiful wife of the 
 millionaire ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 A GLIMPSE AT THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER. 
 
 Having consoled himself by a canter in Rotten Row for the minor 
 martyrdom he had undergone in his pursuit of the fine arts, as mis- 
 represented by the Amalgamated Amateurs, Harry made the best of 
 his way to Park Lane. As he entered, a note was handed to him by
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 181 
 
 the pompous butler, who took the opportunity to inform him, in a 
 voice husky with the bee's-wing, from which his throat was never 
 entirely free, that " dinner would be served in a quarter of an hour." 
 — " Then I've no time to lose," was the reply, and without looking at 
 the note, Han-y dashed upstairs, three steps at a time. On reaching 
 his room, however, and finding that Alice's toilet was by no means 
 in an alarming state of forwardness, he recovered his composure, and 
 opened the note ; it i-an as follows :— 
 
 "On my arrival here two hours ago, I was surprised and em- 
 ban-assed by hearing that you and your bride are staying in the 
 house. Had I been aware of this fact, I need scarcely tell you I 
 would have delayed making my appearance until your visit should 
 have ended. But, although I knew you had married a connection 
 of Mrs. Crane, such a probability never occin-red to me. However, 
 it was not likely that, mixing in the same gi-ade of society, we should 
 pass through life without ever again encountering each other; and 
 I am still weak enough to dread our first meeting and to wish it 
 over. I know your generous nature, and feel the utmost confidence 
 that the past will remain a secret between us. It will, perhaps, be 
 better— easier for us both, not to pretend to uieet as strangers. An 
 accidental travelling acquaintance will sufficiently account for our 
 knowing the same places, people, &c. For your own sake as well as 
 mine, I implore you to be careful— I have never forgotten your 
 advice and have striven to act upon it— but mine is ?. rebellious 
 nature. Destroy this note as soon as you have read it. 
 
 " Arabella." 
 
 With stem compressed lips and knitted brow Harry perused this 
 mysterious epistle, and when he had finished it, ci-ushed it in his 
 hand and threw it on the fire with a gesture of impatience. 
 
 " Your letter does not seem to please you," observed Alice ; " does 
 it come from a dun, or is there a screw loose (don't I get on with my 
 slang !) in the stable or the kennel ? " 
 
 Absorbed in thought, Han-y made her no reply, until, sui-prised 
 and slightly annoyed at his silence, she resuuied,— 
 
 " Has the mysterious epistle stricken you dumb, or have we become 
 so thorouglily matrimonial that you don't consider it worth while 
 to answer your wife when she asks you a question ? " 
 
 " Eh ! what f* I beg your pardon, dear, the letter ? no it was not 
 from a dun. I never was preyed upon by those vampires, thank 
 Heaven ; ' out of debt out of danger,' has always been my motto," 
 replied Coverdale, rousing from his reverie. 
 
 "If it was not from a dun, whom was it from then ?" continued 
 Alice pertinaciously. 
 
 "You are singularly curious all of a sudden," rejoined HaiTy; 
 " all I shall tell you about the matter is that the note refen-ed to 
 a disagi-eeable affair which happened three or four years ago, and 
 which I had hoped was entirely passed and forgotten."'
 
 182 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " And having raised my curiosity thus, do you actually mean to 
 Bay that you will not gratify it farther ? " inquired Alice. 
 
 " As you can have no good reason for asking, and as I have a very 
 good and sufficient one for keeping my own counsel, I am afi-aid I 
 must leave you in ignorance," was HaiTy's tantalizing reply. 
 
 Alice glanced at his face, and reading there that he was in earnest 
 and meant to act on what he had said, pouted like a spoilt child who 
 had been refused some coveted plaything, while Coverdale betook him- 
 self to his dressing-room in a " who-the-deuce-would-have-thouglit- 
 of-her-tuming-up ! " frame of mind, from which he had by no means 
 recovered when, with his wife, still mildly vindictive, hanging on his 
 arm, he descended to the drawing-room. 
 
 There they found Mr. and Mrs. Crane and a lady whom Kate 
 introduced as her old and particular friend, Miss Crofton. Having 
 bowed to Alice, Miss Crofton tui'ued towards Harry, observing to 
 Kate, as she did so, — 
 
 " I have never had the pleasm'e of meeting Mrs. Coverdale before ; 
 but Mr. Coverdale and I ai-e old acquaintances ; when I was travel- 
 ling in Italy with the Muirs, Mr. Coverdale was also indulging his 
 taste for the fine arts, and we encountered each other at several 
 points of the route." 
 
 As she spoke she held out her hand to Coverdale, who, after a 
 moment's hesitation, and with a slight accession of colour, just 
 touched and immediately relinquished it, saying, in a cold but polite 
 tone of voice, — 
 
 "Do you know whether the Muirs are in England now. Miss 
 Crofton ? " 
 
 As the person addressed remarked his look and tone, she pressed 
 her lips together so forcibly that every trace of red vanished from 
 them ; but repressing all other signs of emotion, she i-eplied to his 
 question. Then taking a seat next Alice, she began cultivating her 
 good graces with a degree of tact and talent which evinced her 
 powers of shining in society, and deserved more success than it 
 appeared to meet with. 
 
 Arabella Crofton was a handsome woman of thirty, looking 
 younger than her age. She was taU, and her figiu-e was fully 
 developed without being actually embonpoint. Her hands and feet, 
 although proportioned to her height, were beautifully modelled, and 
 the fonner imusuaUy white and soft. In feature she resembled 
 Kate, so much so that she had more than once been mistaken for 
 her former pupil's elder sister ; but the expression of the two faces 
 was totally dissimilar. In Kate Crane a fiery passionate natm-e was 
 kept under control by an equally strong degree of pride and an 
 amount of self-respect which served her in place of a higher 
 principle ; in Arabella Crofton lay concealed even a gi'eater depth of 
 passion, but its sole antagonist was an intellect keen, strong, and acute, 
 though not of the highest order, and a determination of will and 
 fixity of purpose which, while it led her straight towai'ds the object
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 183 
 
 she sought, rendered her somewhat unscrupulous as to the means by 
 which it was to be attained ; and as the mind usually writes itself 
 more or less legibly on the countenance, so did the expression differ 
 in Kate and her late governess. Still Miss Crofton's was a face 
 to attract and rivet attention, a face which exercised a species of 
 fascination over those who beheld it, so peculiar that it is not easy 
 to define it. As you gazed upon it, you felt that you were in the 
 presence of an intelligence of no common order, but of whose nature, 
 hopes, fears, wishes, and designs, you were entirely ignorant — nay, 
 in regard to which you could not decide whether the good or evil 
 principle predominated. In this sense of power with which she 
 impressed others, together with the uncertainty how it might be 
 directed, lay the secret of much of Arabella Crofton's influence. 
 Alice, not being metaphysical, did not attempt to define the sensa- 
 tions with which her new acquaintance inspired her ; had she done 
 so, it might have appeared that she had formed much the same 
 estimate of her manner and appearance as that with which we have 
 furnished the reader. But if Alice did not moralize, she arrived at 
 strong and definite conclusions without that process, for before she 
 had been half an hour in Miss Crofton's company, she felt morally 
 convinced that she should hate her, and tliat it would turn out that 
 the ci-devant governess either had done, or was about to do, some- 
 thing which would completely account for and justify this sudden 
 animosity. 
 
 During dinner a note arrived from Lord Alfred Courtland, offer- 
 ing Alice and Han-y seats in his opera-box, which offer, after a few 
 polite speeches to and from Mr. Crane, in his (in ?) capacity as 
 master of the house, was accepted. As they di'ove to the theatre, 
 the following conversation jjassed between the husband and wife, the 
 lady of course beginning it. 
 
 " What a detestable woman that Miss Crofton is ! I'm sure I shall 
 never be able to endure her. I see now where Kate's faults came 
 fi'om. Miss Crofton has taught her to be worldly-minded, and 
 ambitious, and all sorts of hon-id things which she never used to be ; 
 and the creature is an old acquaintance of yours, too ! Did you 
 know her well — intimately ? " 
 
 " Eh ? yes ! I saw a good deal of her at one time. How slow this 
 fellow drives, we shall lose the overture ! " was Han-y's reply, which, 
 if he intended thereby to change the subject of the conversation, 
 proved a dead failure, for A.lice continued, — 
 
 " Oh ! then you are not mere acquaintances, as she tried to make 
 out ! I thought she wasn't speaking the truth. Well, and did you 
 like her ? — I dare say you did, for I feel sui-e she was in love with 
 you ; indeed, I think she is still, by the way she casts down those 
 great roUing eyes of hers whenever you say a word to her. I declare 
 I feel quite jealous." 
 
 Coverdale paused for a moment, ere he replied : " My dear Alice, 
 you speak thoughtlessly, but you do not know how such remarks
 
 184 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 annoy me — faults I have, and more serious ones than until lately I 
 was at all aware of; but to suppose that since I fii'st saw you, I have 
 ever devoted one minute's thought to any other woman breathing, 
 would be to do me a foul injustice." 
 
 Alice perceived, from his manner of speaking, that her vague 
 suspicions had really pained him, and having no other ground for 
 them but an instinct which she confessed to herself to be utterly 
 unsanctioned by i-eason, she determined to confess her sin and obtain 
 absolution. This is in many cases a tedious and difficult opei'ation, 
 but when individuals are on those easy and agreeable terms which 
 sometimes last so long as a year after man-iage, the process 
 becomes greatly facilitated. Thus, by a little gi-aceful and appro- 
 priate pantomime, Alice caused it to be understood that she felt 
 deeply penitent, and in a state of mental self-accusation only to be 
 allayed by a remedy consisting (as some light-minded jester has 
 phrased it), like a sermon, of " two heads and an application." When 
 this specific for female grief had been duly administered by Harry, 
 peace was for the time restored, and the evening passed away most 
 harmoniously in every sense of the Avord. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 TELEMACHUS AND MENTOR. 
 
 The opera-house was very full and pi'oportionably hot on the 
 evening when Coverdale and his wife visited it (it being the d^but 
 of the since famous Signora Bettimartini). Alice, unused to London 
 gaieties, and uneasy from the suspicions she could not contrive to 
 banish, acquired a headache, which, when she went to bed, prevented 
 her from falling asleep. Thus being anxious to court without loss 
 of time nature's sweet restorer, of course she chose the most vexatious 
 and exciting topic she could select as a subject of thought, and began 
 to speculate on all the evidence she could call to mind in regard to 
 her husband's relations, past and present, towards Arabella Crofton, 
 who, as the reader must have perceived, was just at that especial 
 epoch poor little Mrs. Coverdale's " bete noire." The first circum- 
 stance she could recollect to form the initial link in her chain of 
 evidence was Harry's inquiry about her when Alice casually men- 
 tioned her name during the halcyon days of their honeymoon. In 
 this conversation, Harry had confessed to a previous acquaintance 
 with Miss Crofton, and when pressed farther, added that he knew no
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 185 
 
 g'ood of her, or words to that effect. His manner, Alice remembered, 
 was so peculiar that her curiosity had been at once excited, or as she 
 mentally put it, that " naturally she felt her husband ought imme- 
 diately to have told her everything about it — she had no conceal- 
 ments from him, she was sure." Following up this train of thought, 
 another instance of this unkind and unflattering want of confidence 
 occurred to her — the mysterioiis epistle which he had received that 
 veiy afternoon, which had annoyed him so much, and about which 
 he had refused to afford her any explanation ; and here a new idea 
 flashed like an infernal inspiration across her brain — could that note 
 be in any way connected with Miss Crofton's aiTival? " Yes! it must 
 be so." She remembered when they entered the drawing-room, and 
 she had felt surprise at finding a stranger there, Harry seemed to 
 take it as a matter of course : good reason why, he knew it previously 
 — this hateful woman, this detestable creatui'e, Arabella Crofton, 
 had written to him privately, informing him of her an-ival ! Oh ! 
 she saw it all ; and how she would try to wean his affections away 
 from his poor wife — his poor, neglected, betrayed wife ! and succeed 
 most likely — men were such fickle, wicked things ; and then it would 
 break her heart, that there could be no question of ; and she should 
 die in the course of a year— in six months, very likely, for she wasn't 
 at all strong, though she had a colour — consumptive people always 
 had brilliant complexions — think of her poor aunt Kitty ; and Han-y 
 would be sorry when it was too late, perhaps. And so, di'awing a 
 vivid picture of her repentant husband grieving over her untimely 
 decease, she cried herself to sleep, bedewing with her tears the 
 *' fickle, wicked thing," calmly slumbering at her side, who straight- 
 way dreamed that, being out hunting and riding a young thorovigh- 
 bred, he had chai-ged a brook, and that his horse refusing it, had 
 pitched him head foremost into its rapid watei's. 
 
 A month soon elapsed — the London season was at its height. 
 Evei-ybody had been everywhere, and was going again ; Grisi and 
 Mario had an-ived, recovered from sea-sickness and British catarrh, 
 and " surpassed themselves " in their favourite characters. A mob 
 of costly equipages jostled each other round Hyde Park every after- 
 noon ; can'iage-horses, deprived of their sleep o'nights, began to grieve 
 coachmen's hearts by revealing the position of their ribs ; young 
 ladies from the country danced away their roses and their " embon- 
 point "; men whose book for the Derby was at all " shy" trembled in 
 their patent leather boots ; the glory of the lilacs in the squares had 
 departed ; water-carts made unpleasant canals of the principal 
 thoroughfares ; the Honourable Mrs. Windsor Soape had presented 
 her youngest daughter at the last drawing-room, and tried without 
 success to stuff her down the throats of several eligible eldest sons ; 
 Lady Close Shaver had inveigled a hundred and seventy unfortu- 
 nates into her hot drawing-rooms, bored them with Signor Violini's 
 scientific rendering of Beethoven's sonata in A B C minor, poisoned 
 them with bad ice and worse champagne, and turned them out to
 
 186 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 grass upon lobster salads, of which the principal feature was the 
 xmaccoiintable absence of lobster : these, and many other miseries 
 attendant on the " joys of our dancing days," had been gladly 
 suffered by the fanatical votaries of the Juggernaut of Fashion, and 
 still the Coverdales lingei'ed within the precincts of the modem 
 Babylon. Lord Alfred Coui-tland, having received a summons to 
 join his family at Leghorn, had refused to obey it on the plea of ill 
 health, backed by a physician's opinion, which cost one guinea, and 
 
 was worth ! Well, really in this case it was worth something, 
 
 for it saved Lord Alfred a lecture, and he disliked being lectured, 
 even for his good — silly young man ! so he stayed in town, doing as 
 other folks did, and hoping thereby to become a man of fashion ; but 
 as he only acted like other people, and did nothing very clever, or 
 vei'y foolish, or very wrong, he by no means succeeded in obtaining 
 the reputation he coveted. With this consciousness of failure befoi-e 
 his eyes, he one night lounged dismally out of his stall at the opera 
 and was proceeding with dejected steps along the lobby when he 
 suddenly encountered Horace D'Almayne, better dressed and better 
 pleased with himself than ever. 
 
 " Well met, my lord ; I was just wishing for an agreeable com- 
 panion,"' was his complimentary salutation. " I am natiu'ally a 
 sociable animal ; if you have no better employment, will you take 
 pity on me for an hour or so ? " 
 
 Deeply impressed with such unexpected condescension, and over- 
 come by the transcendent cut of D'Almayne's waistcoat, nothing 
 remained for Lord Alfred but gratefully to consent, which he 
 accordingly did. Linking his arm in that of his companion, 
 D'Almayne continued, — 
 
 " You are looking ' triste, ennuy^ ' ; has Grisi developed a cold, or 
 Cerito a corn ? is it opera or ballet which has thus bored you ? " 
 
 "Neither one nor the other," was the reply, " though even operas 
 cease to excite after one has grown accustomed to them." 
 
 "Yes! that is true; except to an educated musician" (and 
 D'Almayne looked as if he humbly trusted that he was equal to 
 Mendelssohn, at the very least), " I can conceive they grow tedious ; 
 but," he continued, " you should seek some moi-e exciting amuse- 
 ment : mix in clever, witty society ; do things — see things ; in fact, 
 enjoy life as a young man with such advantages of person and of 
 station should do." 
 
 " It may seem easy to you, who have achieved a reputation in the 
 ' beau monde,' and can command any society you please, to accom- 
 plish this ; but it is the reverse of easy for a yoimg man in these 
 days, even if he have a handle to his name, to persuade people that 
 he has anything in him ; in fact, I think a title stands rather in a 
 young fellow's way on entering London life ; people have somehow 
 taken to connect the ideas of a lord and a fool, until I believe they 
 begin to think the tei'ms synonymous ! " 
 
 " What a frightfully democratic opinion for one of your order to
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 187 
 
 promulgate ! " returned D'Almayne, smiling at the disconsolate tone 
 in whicli Lord Alfred spoke ; " really, you ought to have been born 
 on the other side of the Channel ; but I think I perceive your 
 difficulty : you do not cai'e to be admitted into society merely for 
 your rank, but wish to achieve a distinctive social reputation for 
 yourself; is it not so ? " 
 
 " Yes ! you have expressed my ideas exactly, a great deal better 
 than I could have done myself," was the reply. " And now tell me 
 in what way is this desirable consummation to be effected." 
 
 " Nothing is more easy. In the first place you require self-con- 
 fidence ; let people see that you think yourself a fine fellow, and they 
 will begin to think so too. In the next place, take a decided line of 
 some kind and adhere to it steadily ; but, in order to be able to do 
 so, be careful, ere you select it, that it is in accordance with your 
 natural dispositions and tastes." 
 
 " Good general maxims," returned Lord Alfred ; " and now to 
 apply them to the pai-ticular instance." 
 
 D Almayne paused for a moment ere he replied, — 
 
 " If you really wish me to constitute myself your Mentoi-, you must 
 allow me more opportunities of enjoying your society than I have 
 hitherto possessed, and then, from time to time, I dare say I may be 
 able to give you a few hints which you may find practically 
 beneficial ; and as there is nothing like making use of the present 
 occasion, what say you to allowing me to introduce you to a kind of 
 private club, where I and a few of my particular set sometimes meet 
 after the opera, and while away an hour or two with a hand at whist 
 or ^cai-t^, or exchange our ideas on the topics of the day over a game 
 of billiards ; the stakes are, of course, suited to the measure of our 
 pm-ses, my own being an uncomfortably shallow one. We are close 
 to the entrance, shall we turn in ? " 
 
 After a moment's hesitation, the result of an indefinite notion that 
 he was about to do something wi'ong, Lord Alfred consented ; and 
 D Almayne knocked at the door of what looked like a good private 
 house. The portal unclosed and immediately shut again by some 
 mysterious agency, for, when they entered, no domestic was visible ; 
 and they proceeded along a passage to a second door covered with 
 red baize, with a glass eye, lilaced cyclop-like in the middle of its 
 forehead, through which a human face observed them for a moment, 
 then disappeared, and the red baize door opened and admitted them 
 of its own accord, as the outer one had set it the example. Follow- 
 ing his companion up a flight of stone stairs, at the top of which yet 
 another baize door with a cyclopian optic presented itself. Lord 
 Alfi'ed Coiu-tland heard the sounds of laughing and conversation, 
 and in another moment found himself in a lai'ge, well-lighted apart- 
 ment, round which were dispersed sundi'y small tables, at which 
 wei'e seated, in gi'oups of thi*ee or four, from a dozen to fifteen men, 
 all of whom were recruiting exhausted nature with champagne, pine- 
 apple ice, or more substantial viands, if their tastes inclined them
 
 188 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 thereunto. Placing himself at an unoccupied table, D'Almayne in- 
 quired in his most insinuating tone,— 
 
 " Champagne, claret, johannisherg — what is your pet vanity, my 
 lord ? — ' c'est affreux,' the inefficient ventilation of that opera-house. 
 I am positively famished with thirst, and must drown my enemy 
 before Horace is himself again." 
 
 "Having obtained the privilege of considering you my Mentor, I 
 cannot do better than avail myself of yom- valuable taste and 
 experience in the selection of a beverage," returned Lord Alfred, 
 falling into his companion's humour with that dangerous facility 
 which was at once his bane and his greatest charm. So champagne 
 and ice, and biscuits, all first-rate of their kind, were brought and 
 discussed, and during the demolition thereof, one or two intimates 
 of D'Aluuiyne, faultless in mien and manners, lounged up, and were 
 introduced to his lordship, and drank wine dreamily, and talked 
 smart nothings with a sleepy wittiness as of inspired dormice; and 
 otherwise exhibited symptoms of that life-weary, all-to-pieces con- 
 dition which very young men believe in as the " ne plus ultra " of 
 modern dandyism ; and Lord Alfred's heart leaped within him as he 
 thought that now he had at last reiJly begun " life," and was in a 
 fair way to become a nuin about town. Such wonderful beings are 
 we, " a3tatis " nineteen I 
 
 When a man is thirsty nothing is easier than to drink a bottle of 
 champagne without knowing it, perhaps even till the next moraing ; 
 I never heard of the delusion lasting longer. Whether Lord Alfred 
 Courtland drank more or less than a bottle on the occasion in ques- 
 tion, history relateth not, but certainly, when he rose and strolled 
 into the billiard-room, he felt considerably exhilarated, and eager to 
 achieve something " fast," which might tend to impress his incipient 
 " about-townishness " on the minds of his fashionable acquaintances. 
 Thus, hearing the rattle of dice in a further apartment, he, to 
 D' Almayne's surprise and amusement, declared billiards a bore, and 
 whist " slow," and " voted " for something with a little more fun in 
 it. So, " Dante "-like, entering the infernal regions, they very soon 
 *' knew a bank whereon " much " wild time " had been wasted, and 
 an immense crop of wild oats sown; — and off which cei-tain pro- 
 prietors had reaped many golden sheaves, while the sowers them- 
 selves had gained only experience, teaching them how to take care 
 of their money, about the time when their money was all gone, which 
 must have been more improving than consolatory to the " cleaned 
 out ones." Then first upon Lord Alfred's youthfvd ear fell the 
 command, diabolical in its persuasive eloquence, " Faites le jeu, 
 messieurs!" then timidly, and with feelings akin to those of 
 mediaeval youths who, in the good old feudal times, signed imcom- 
 fortable compacts with the Evil One, which never turned out 
 satisfactorily for them even in this world, did Lord Alfred stake his 
 first guinea, and unfortunately lose it. We say unfortunately, for 
 had he won, and so come, seen, and conquered, he might have
 
 \ 

 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 189 
 
 listened to the appeals of conscience which just then were striving 
 to make a coward of this neophyte man aljout town ; bnt, as matters 
 stood, he felt a stern necessity to vindicate the "sang froid" with 
 which lie could support a run of ill luck, and playing again — won, 
 doubled his stake — won ; then, against D' Almayne's advice, staked 
 his winnings on " le rouge," and that colour proved successful; and 
 then the gambler spirit came upon him, and he played with a fierce 
 eagerness, and drank more champagne, and played again, until two 
 hours later D'Almayne almost forced him away from the table, and 
 took him home, flushed and excited, a winner of one hundred pounds ! 
 Poor boy ! as he left that haunt of soi'did vice and idle folly, he 
 believed that he had done something clever, and spirited, and manly, 
 and longed for the next evening, when he might again distinguish him- 
 self ; but could he have foreseen half the consequences of this, his 
 first step in evil, or the sorrrow he was thereby bringing upon true 
 hearts that loved him, he would have shrunk from again crossing the 
 threshold, as though it were indeed that of the hell which in their 
 unseemly jesting men term it. 
 
 Rising late the next morning, he was informed that a gentleman 
 was waiting to see him, and on entering the sitting-room found 
 Horace D'Almayne in an easy chair and an elegant attitude. 
 
 " I was anxious about you, mon cher" (they had grown wonder- 
 fully familiar over their champagne), "you appeared so much 
 excited last night,"' he began, uncrossing his graceful legs, clad in a 
 seraphic pair of Blin et Fils' chefs-d'ojuvre. 
 
 " Sure Buch a pair wore never seen ! " 
 
 "You seemed so caiTied away by your enthusiasm that I thought 
 you would not sleep, and thus ventured to call at this unreasonable 
 hour to see how you were getting on." 
 
 " Very kind and friendly of you, I'm sure," returned Lord Alfred, 
 quite overcome by such unhoped-for condescension on the part of his 
 model Mentor. " I suppose I did get rather excited, but I'm all right 
 again this morning, — at least I shall be," he continued, as a dizzy 
 swimming in the head obliged him to grasp a chair- back for support, 
 " as soon as I have had a cup of coffee." 
 
 " Or if I might suggest, a bottle of seltzer water with a susi)icion 
 of cognac in it, is a much more efficient substitute : allow me to 
 brew for you ; — may I ring the bell ? " 
 
 Receiving the permission he sought, Horace acted accordingly, 
 and when the seiwant appeared, desired him (on a glance from Lord 
 Alfred, delegating all authority to him) to bring a bottle of seltzer 
 water, brandy, and a lemon. Possessed of these desiderata, he 
 commenced shredding off two or three delicate little spiral circles of 
 lemon-peel, like yellow watch-springs, then dropping these into a 
 Brobdignagian tumbler, warranted not to run over under any 
 severity of effervescence, he added thereunto a liqueur glass full of 
 the purest (and strongest) cognac. Unwiring the seltzer water, he
 
 100 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 allowed it to draw its own cork (for thus, under his skilful control, 
 did the operation appear to be performed), and, forcinpf it to explode 
 into the tumbler, he presented the beverapje, foaminj? wildly, to Lord 
 Alfred, who. at the risk of immediate suffocation, drank it off in that 
 rabid condition, and providentially survivinj?, declared himself 
 greatly benefited by the treatment. Havinp thus re-inviporated his 
 patient's exhausted frame, DAlmayne proceeded to pei-form the 
 same friendly office by his mind, and very {jood counsel did he bestow 
 upon him — only that his advice had this peculiarity, viz., that whilst 
 in words he recommended Lord Alfred Courtland to bend his steps 
 in a northerly direction, that youn^r nobleman felt an unaccountable 
 conviction that by proceeding; due south, he should raise himself in 
 the estimation of his Mentor and of all other men of s))irit. Thus he 
 heard, with a complacent smile, tliat DAlmaynewas surprised at the 
 manner in which he had carried all before him at the f^^aminj^-table 
 on the previous evening ; that every one imagined him to be an old 
 hand at such matters ; and one individual, who was generally 
 supposed to make a very decent living by gambling, had declared his 
 conviction that Lord Alfred played on a system, and a deiicedly 
 clever system too ! — At all of which D Alma)Tie appeared alarmed 
 and imeasy, and assured his friend that it was a very dangerous 
 talent for a young man, and that it would be a gi'eat relief to his 
 mind if Lord Alfred would promise never to go there again; to 
 which his lordship replied by lighting a cigar, handing the box to his 
 Mentor, and asking him whether he considered him such an irre- 
 claimable muff as not to be able to win or lose a matter of a hundred 
 poiinds without making a ninny of himself. Declaring himself 
 innocent of any such disrespectful innuendo, D Almayne also lighted 
 a cigar (it being impossible in these piping times to do anything 
 withoiit plenty of puffing), and these new allies grew loquacious and 
 confidential ; but with this difference, that Lord Alfred gave his 
 confidence, and Horace obligingly received the sacred deposit. Thus, 
 after a fair amount of the hoiiicultural ci-iielty, yclept "beating 
 about the bush," had been committed, that good young man was 
 made acquainted with the '* secret sorrow," which, as the reader is 
 aware, was with much success performing the part of the " womi i' 
 the bud " to Lord Alfred's " damask cheek." As soon as Mentor 
 thoroughly imderstood the state of the case, which he did in an 
 incredibly short space of time — tact being so strongly developed in 
 him that it almost amounted to intuition — he followed the advice 
 of Polly in the " Beggar's Opera," by " pondering well " before he 
 ventured to prescribe for the complaint of his Telemachus. Having 
 sat with bent brows until his cigar was exhausted, he flimg the end 
 into the grate, smoothed his beloved moustaches, and then spoke 
 oracularly : — 
 
 *' You see, mon cher," he began, " you are taking to the rule of a 
 ' flaneur,' what you call a man about town, full early for an English- 
 man ; thus, the chief thing you want is self-confidence, without
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 191 
 
 which a man can neither do proper justice to himself nor to his 
 position. Now it seems to me the best thing for you would be to 
 get some pretty woman of good station to take you in hand ; you 
 must try and establish a flirtation with somebody." 
 
 " Cui bono?" inquired Telemachus; "the governor would never 
 stand me maiTying for — oh ! not for the next five years ! " 
 
 " Marrying before you're one-and-twenty ! My dear fellow, what 
 can have put such a frightful idea into your head ! " exclaimed 
 Mentor, aghast at tlie supposition. " No, no ; marriage is the last 
 thing I should dream of recommending, except quite as a ' dernier 
 ressoi't.' For which reason I was about to add that the best practice 
 to sot you at ease with yourself, and therefore witli other peojjle, will 
 be to devote your attentions to some pretty and fashionable married 
 woman ; — there ! don't look so awfully scandalized ; of course I only 
 mean a sentimental and platonic affair — just enough to excite and 
 interest you into self-oblivion. When you once forget your 
 " ipsissimus ego " — when, as that j)unning friend of your.'^, Mr. 
 Coverdale, would say, you cease to mind your I — all your anxieties in 
 regard to popular opinion will vanish, and you will soon find that 
 with your face, figure, address, and position. Lord Alfred Courtland 
 will become the admired of all admirers. And that reminds me that 
 Mrs. Coverdale would be just the person for that pui-pose;— she is 
 very pretty, moves n good society, and, ' entre nous,' is smitten with 
 you already ! " 
 
 " But really— of course I don't set up to be any better than my 
 neighbours," stammered the poor boy, colouring at the possibility of 
 being suspected of such slow attributes as good feeling and right 
 principle, and yet unable entirely to silence the promptings of his 
 better nature; — "of course I don't set up for a saint; but Harry 
 Coverdale is an old friend and schoolfellow, and one of the best 
 creatures in the world ; I should not like — that is, I really couldn't — 
 But, I beg your pardon, I don't think I exactly understand your 
 meaning." 
 
 " I don't think you do," returned D'Almayne. his sarcastic tone 
 expressing such unmistakable contemjit that Lord Alfred actually 
 winced as if in pain ; " I don't think you have the faintest glimmer 
 of my meaning. You don't suppose I intend you to order a chaise 
 and four and run off with pretty Mrs. Coverdale to the Continent, 
 do you ? My ideas are much less alarming, I can assure you ! ' par 
 exemple ' — your friend Harry is a physical force man ; he is a mighty 
 hunter, a dead shot ; he loves only his dogs and his horses ; but 
 requires a Joe Manton to ensure him good sport and a pretl y wife 
 to sit at the head of his table : Mrs. Coverdale, on the other hand, 
 has a soul— reads Tennyson, feels her husband's neglect, and pines 
 for some one who will appreciate her and sympathize with her ; you, 
 in the kindness of your heart, pity her, and knowing you can afford 
 her the consolations of congeniality, obligingly make up for her good 
 man's deficiency ; therefore, you read poetry with her, explain the
 
 192 HARRY COVERDALES COURTSHIP 
 
 obscure passat^cs which neither she, you, nor any one else can under- 
 stand ; her mind reposes on your superior intelligence ; she trusts 
 yon and confides to you impoi'tant secrets, — the exact age of her 
 dearest female friend, whom she snspects of designs upon your heart, 
 the dress she is going to wear at the next fancy ball, — and eventually, 
 with heightened colour and averted eyes, the history of that ring 
 with the turquoise forget-me-not, together with a biographical 
 sketch of the noble giver — showing how he lived pathetically, and 
 died in the odour of heroism, fighting at the head of his regiment in 
 the Punjaub, the centre of a select circle of slaughtered foemen ; 
 which latter confidence may be considered as the latch-key to the 
 fair lady's heart, ensuring yon admittance at all times and seasons." 
 
 " And having attained this agreeable position, how long do you 
 expect so pleasant a state of things to last, and what is to be the end 
 of it? " inquired Telemachus. 
 
 " Oh ! until she has got rid of her romance, and you of your 
 diffidence, by which time you will have gro^vn mutually tired of each 
 other, and the London season will have come to an end," was 
 Mentor's oracular reply. Telemachus mused, lit a fresh cigar, and 
 nursed again. He liked the idea, had a faint suspicion it might be 
 \vi'ong, but was quite sure it would be very pleasant. Mentor, 
 thinking this a prouiising frame of mind in which to leave his pupil, 
 would not weaken the force of his argument by vain repetitions, so 
 made an engagement to meet again in the evening, and departed. 
 And while " les petites moustaches noires " wounded female hearts 
 as he passed down coui-tly St. James's Street, the spirit of the good 
 young man, their wearer, glowed within him, and. — 
 
 " As he walked by himself, 
 He talked to himself, 
 And thnu to himeelf said he ! " 
 
 "Ha! ha! Milord Coiirtland, you are mine- -your purse, your 
 credit, yoiir influence — all are mine ! But what a child it is ; what a 
 baby ! ' Sacr6 ! ' at his age I was winning twenty pounds a day at 
 billiards in New Orleans !— And you, Harry Coverdale, ' mon ami,' 
 I will teach you to watch me with black looks when I am conversing 
 with ' la belle millionaire ' ; yoiT had better attend to your own wife 
 now — young, pretty, and neglected ! ' Le petit ' Alfred has a fair 
 game before him, if he have but wit to play it— yes ! all goes as it 
 should ! fortune fills the sails ! there is a cool head and a steady 
 hand at the helm : ' vogue la galere ! ' "
 
 AND ALL THAT CABIE OF IT m 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 CIRCE. 
 
 In this " ticrht little island,"' — of which as a whole we are all so proud, 
 althougrh it aiSords amjile occupation for its public in grumbling at 
 its institutions, via its *' Times " newspaper — the only season of the 
 year when fogs are not, and every day does not resemble a " washing- 
 day " on a large scale, the only period in fact when the country is 
 endurable, is the early summer. Thus the educated classes, whose 
 well-balanced and cai'efully-developed minds enable them to arrive 
 at sound conclusions, and whose well-stored pockets render them 
 free to come and go untrauimelled by pecuniai-y considerations, have 
 bound themselves by the laws of the tyrant Fashion to spend June 
 and July in London, where they simmer in hot rooms, when they 
 should be in bed and asleep, until all the goodness is boiled out of 
 them — which new " theory of evil " we beg to offer to the notice of 
 Miss Martineau, and all other speculative minds anxious to elevate 
 humanity by substituting earthly nonsense for heavenly revelation. 
 But however you may brick her up and smoke-dry her, nature will 
 assert herself, and, turning with disgust from oats at 40s. the quai-ter 
 in a mahogany manger, pine for green meat and a canter over the 
 spring turf. So a compromise has been effected between town and 
 countiy amusements, and horticultural fetes have been devised to 
 afford parboiled fashionables breathing time between their rounds 
 of dissipation, together with a gentle reminder of the " pleasures of 
 the plains," which they are sacrificing to their craving for unnatural 
 excitement. Horticultm-al fetes are brought about in this wise : 
 Early in the inclemency of a British spring, when all London is 
 shivering over its fondly cherished fire, that noun of multitude per- 
 ceives in the first column of its " Times " a notice that members of 
 the Horticultural Society may obtain tickets at priWleged prices 
 until some specified day; thereupon All-London writes to its par- 
 ticular friend the M. H. S. for an "order," and the member vouching 
 by implication for All-London's standing and respectability — into 
 which he has probably gone no deeper than its coat — All-London 
 besieges the ofiice of that floral autocrat. Dr. Lindley, and clamours 
 for tickets, crying " Give, give," and insatiable as the daughter 
 of the horse-leech. Having at length obtained its desire, All-London 
 buttons up its great-coat and waits timidly but eagerly for the first 
 Horticultural. But the London season is an outrage upon, and an 
 insult to natm-e, and nature takes her change out of the first Horti- 
 
 o
 
 194 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 cultural ; it is a poiu'ing wet day, Chiswick becomes Keswick, and 
 the Duke of Devonshire's grounds, yielding to hydraidic pressure, 
 cease to be dry grounds any longer. Dr. Lindley ... we have not 
 the pleasure of that gentleman's personal acquaintance, but we can 
 imagine Dr. Lindley feels disappointed and . . . expresses it. Then 
 All-London exchanges its great-coat for a paletot, and looks forward 
 with a timid anxiety to the second Horticultural, which being in 
 June enjoys the advantage of April weather, and is only showery, so 
 the boldest quarter of London goes, from the Herbert Fitz-tip-tops, 
 careless of the bronchial tubes of their serving-men and carriage- 
 horses, down to the Robinson Joneses, safe in the immunity of a 
 hack brougham, driver, and horse — a long- suffering trio, so ac- 
 customed to wait in the rain, that use has become a second nature to 
 these amphibious hirelings. Om* enterprising pleasure-seekers come 
 back ere de^vy eve, and say that, considering the fact that flowers 
 won't blow out of doors in cold weather, and that the gravel was a 
 swamp, and the turf a morass, the tents very hot, and the east wind 
 very cold, and that there was nobody there except a few dreadful 
 people who really ought not to be anywhere— (Mrs. Robinson Jones 
 was actually pushed up against Mr. Cutlet and his rib, her o^vn butcher, 
 who makes a clear .£2000 a-year, while genteel Robinson Jones 
 scarcely averages ofiloOO at the Bar ; but what does that signify h) — 
 and that the female Quarter-of -London had got the ridiculous soles 
 of its little French shoes wet through in five minutes, and had felt 
 a tightness at its chest ever since ; allowing for these and several 
 other slight drawbacks, it really was not such a complete failure after 
 all ! But even English weather has its bright side ; and, content 
 with taking the shine out of the first two, on the third Hoi-ticultural 
 fete the sun seems resolved to come out strong, and, setting parasols 
 at defiance, imprint his burning kisses on the pale features of all the 
 pretty women in' town, like an ardent old luminai-y as he is. And 
 All-London finding that it really is a beautiful day, puts on its best 
 bib and tucker, and takes its wife and daughters to Chiswick. 
 Where the roads are watered they are very muddy, Avhere they are 
 not watered they are dusty ; and as the dust sticks to the carnages, 
 and the dust sticks to the mud, and the horses get first very hot 
 going there, then very cold waiting there, and the pole of every other 
 carriage invariably runs through the back panel of the [vehicle 
 immediately preceding it, coachmen are not, as a general rule, fond 
 of the third Horticultm-al ; but nothing can please everybody, and 
 these Flower-shows " please the ladies "' (to quote Mr. Crane's 
 favourite phrase), and that is the great point after all. It was 
 probably with a view to " pleasing the ladies " that Mr. Crane had 
 thought proper to invest capital in half-a-dozen Horticultural tickets 
 — seeing that his own horticultural tastes were confined to drinking 
 Sherry-cobbler in an arbour, whenever such a privilege was vouchsafed 
 to him, and his knowledge limited to the capability of discriminating 
 between a cabbage and a cauliflower. The weather having been such
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 195 
 
 as we have described it during the first and second fetes — on both 
 which occasions Mr. Crane bewailed the useless expense into which 
 his gallantry had seduced him, with a truly touching degree of pathos 
 — these tickets remained unused until the third and last flower-show, 
 when " the face of all nature looking gay," and " bright Phoebus '' 
 obligingly condescending to " adorn the hills," the ex-cotton-spinner 
 and his spouse, Harry Coverdale and Alice, together with Arabella 
 Crofton, availed themselves of five of them — Horace D'Almayne 
 quietly pocketing the sixth in a fit of mental (and physical) abstrac- 
 tion. They were to stai-t at a quai'ter before two, as Mr. Crane 
 always prefen-ed being early on all occasions ; but at a quarter before 
 two, when the carriages drew up to the door, Alice was not ready ; 
 and moreover it was Alice's own fault that she was not ready ; and 
 thus it fell out. Lord Alfred Courtland played the flute well for so 
 young a man. and an amateur ; since he had been in town, a talented 
 professor instructed him in this art, who was an exiled patriot — that 
 is to say, he and several other ardent young men had attempted one 
 fine morning to take their " Fatherland " away from the gentle- 
 man in possession, and give it to the Secret Blood-and-bones-united- 
 brother-band — the same being a pet name by which they saw fit to 
 call themselves. What they would have done with their fatherland, 
 if they had got it, neither do they nor does any one else appear to 
 have the least idea ; bi;t this difficulty of disposing of their country 
 was fortunately spared them, as their enterprise consisted simply of 
 a stroll along the principal street of their native city, in company 
 with a drum and a little red flag, bearing the cheerful device of a 
 skull and cross-bones, with the motto, " Death to Tyrants ! " which 
 stroll continued until they accidentally encountered a company of 
 soldiers, who conveyed them — drum, flag, and all — to the state prison, 
 where they were detained, until it being discovered that they were 
 eating their heads ofp, the authorities exiled them, to save their keep. 
 Herr Hildebrand TootletootzakofEski, one of this devoted band, had 
 brought his Polish sorrows and his German flute to England, and 
 between them both managed to make a much more comfortable 
 income than tyranny had hitherto allowed him to enjoy under the 
 mildewed institutions of his o^vn blighted country. For the rest he 
 was a mild little man, addicted to conversing on music and patriotism 
 with a sort of washy sentimentality which enabled him to pass as an 
 individual of refined tastes and cultivated mind with those who did 
 not look beyond the surface ; personally he rejoiced in a complexion 
 as of bad putty, and an amount of hei'oic Vjeard and moustaches 
 which would have stufEed a chair-cushion very comfortably. And 
 being such as we have described him, Herr Hildebrand— an acquain- 
 tance of and introduced by Horace DAlmayne, who, in his multi- 
 farious occupations, may have been a banded-brother, for aught we 
 know to the contrary — had suggested to Lord Alfred Courtland the 
 great advantage it would be to him in his, the professor's talented 
 absence, if he, Lord Alfred, coidd find any amiable pianiste of his
 
 196 HARRY COVERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 acquaintance, able and willing to play duets with him, to " impi-ove 
 his time " ; and as he said this in the presence of and immediately 
 after a tete-a-tete with Horace D'Almayne, it really was scarcely 
 necessai-y for that judicious Mentor to suggest to his lordship pretty 
 little Mrs. Coverdale, although to guard against mistakes he did so. 
 Thus Alfred Courtland and Alice had played a good many duets in 
 Park Lane ; and on the morning in question, luncheon being 
 announced in the middle of one of these interesting performances 
 half an hour sooner than usual, to guard against the possibility of 
 anybody's being too late, Alice, feeling by this time quite at home 
 in her coiisin's house, coolly told Lord Alfred to come down and 
 partake of the mid-day meal, as she was resolved to finish the duet 
 after it was over, before she went to dress, and if they made haste 
 she was sure there was plenty of time. But time unfortunately is 
 one of those stubborn facts with which it is impossible to take a 
 liberty without suffering for one's rashness ; and, although the latter 
 part of the duet was rattled through with a Costa-like rapidity, which 
 elicited from his breathless lordship an acknowledgment that " it is 
 the pace that kills," yet when all the rest of the party were assembled 
 Alice was only half dressed. Then, as was his wont on such occasions, 
 Mr. Ci-ane fell into a fi*etful fuss, and trotted up and do\vn the room, 
 and made everybody fidgety and unoomfoi*table, especially Harry, 
 who was provoked with Mr. Crane for being annoyed with Alice, and 
 with Alice for having given him cause for annoyance. 
 
 " There is a quiet way of arranging the matter, my dear sir," he 
 said ; " let those who are ready start in the bai'ouche, and I will wait 
 and di'ive Alice in the mail-phaeton." 
 
 " Yes, and then we shall never meet at the gardens, and never all 
 come away at the same time, and my aiTangements will be completely 
 subverted, and everything will go wi-ong," whined Mr. Crane. On 
 this Harry ran up to hasten Alice, and Alice, who was attiring her- 
 self at express speed, was cross, and snubbed him out of the room, 
 and he rejoined the company in the di'awing-room with compressed 
 lips and an angry flush on each cheek ; and Arabella Crof ton f avoui'ed 
 him with a glance of intelligent pity, which, if it were intended to 
 soothe his wounded spirit, failed in its effect most signally. After 
 the lapse of an a%vful ten minutes, by the expiration of which period 
 Mr. Crane was on the verge of tears, the culprit Alice made her 
 appearance, looking very pretty, but not altogether as penitent as 
 might have been desired ; but as she said in a cheerful tone that she 
 "really was quite distressed at having kept them all waiting," we 
 will hope she felt more than she allowed to appear. Then arose a 
 debate and confusion of tongues and opinions as to how the party 
 was to di\'ide. Hari-y offered to drive the phaeton, Mr. Crane having 
 privately hinted that such an an-angement would meet with his 
 approval — who was to accompany him? HaiTy suggested his o^vn 
 wife, meaning to treat her to a gentle reproof on the road for her 
 ■want of consideration in having kept a whole party waiting merely to
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 197 
 
 finish a silly duet with that boy Alfred Coui'tland. But Kate dis- 
 approved of this arrangement — pei'haps because she had begun to 
 suspect that the Coverdale couple did not always in " their little nest 
 agree," and had read in Han-y's flashing eyes warning of a pertiu-bed 
 spirit. Whether Alice's conscience led her to the same result we do 
 not pretend to decide, but for some reason she seconded her cousin 
 until she discovered that by doing so Arabella Crofton would be her 
 substitute, by which time the affair was settled beyond her power of 
 altering. Her annoyance would have been sensibly diminished, 
 however, if she could have known that the arrangement was, if 
 possible, more distasteful to her husband than to herself, but un- 
 foi-tunately there was no clairvoyant at hand to afford her this 
 desirable intelligence. Having handed up his companion, and done 
 all that his chivalrous nature taught him was due from a gentleman 
 to any woman entmsted to his care, and nothing farther, Han-y 
 gathered up his reins, placed himself by Miss Crofton's side in the 
 phaeton, and sitting bolt upright, drove off with an unapproachable 
 expression of face, which indicated, as plainly as words could have 
 done, his resolve not to advance beyond monosyllables until they 
 reached Chiswick. But Hai-ry was in such matters no match for the 
 astute woman of the world who sat beside him. Apparently falling 
 in with his humour she leaned back in the can-iage, and the only 
 sign she gave of her presence was an occasional sigh, which escaped 
 her, as it appeared, involuntarily. Before they had proceeded far, 
 however, they encountered the i)eripatetic theatre of that inconvenient 
 humorist, dear old Punch, with his private band pop-going-the- 
 weasel hke an harmonious steam-engine; whereat the horses (the 
 identical pair which had nan away with Han-y and Alice in the early 
 springtime of their courtship, and which Mr. Crane still retained, 
 although he carefully avoided driving them himself) — preferring 
 probably a more classical style of music — began to express their 
 disapprobation by plunging violently, nearly dashing the phaeton 
 against a coal waggon, a catastrophe which nothing but the most 
 consummate skill on the part of their driver could have averted. As 
 Coverdale succeeded in reducing the rebellious steeds to order, he 
 could not help involuntarily glancing at his companion to ascertain 
 how the incident had affected her. She was leaning forward, her 
 attitude and the expression of her features indicated excitement and 
 interest rather than tenor, while her fine eyes, dilated and sparkling 
 with a more than ordinary lustre, were fixed upon his countenance 
 with looks of unmistakable admiration. Courage, or as he would 
 have tenned it, '' pluck," especially in a woman, where he considered 
 it as an "additional attraction," while in a man it was simply a " sine 
 qua non," always delighted Han-y Coverdale ; and, being as innocent 
 and natural as a child, he could no more help expressing his senti- 
 ments, than he could exist without inhaling vital air. 
 
 " Well, I never did see such nerve in a woman ! " he exclaimed ; 
 " why you look pleased rather than frightened ! not that there was
 
 198 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 any danger, except of damaging Mr. Crane's near hind wheel. They 
 don't bit these horses properly, and that white-nosed animal hasn't 
 the tenderest mouth at the best of times." And as he spoke he 
 administered a smartish cut across the ears as a practical comment 
 on the delinquent's oral insensibility. 
 
 " You are such a good whip," was the reply, " and it always interests 
 me to see brute force controlled by skill, energy, and strength of will. 
 You guide these fiery horses with such a calm sense of power, that T 
 could never feel afraid when you were driving me." 
 
 Miss Crofton was decidedly a clever woman ; if there was one thing 
 on which in his secret soul Harry prided himself, it was on his 
 driving ; and this practical compliment, standing as it unfortunately 
 did, in somewhat marked contrast to his wife's feminine dislike of 
 certain contentions with " queer tempered " horses, which had at odd 
 times come in for a specimen of Coverdale's " quiet manner," appealed 
 to his weak point — he was mortal, and it touched him, and at the 
 touch his taciturnity vanished, and straightway he began to confide 
 to his dangerous comi^anion all his most secret thoughts and feelings 
 
 in regard to bitting hard-mouthed horses. It seemed an unlikely 
 
 topic for Arabella to make much of, and yet she allowed him to I'un 
 on, listening with a smile of pleased attention ; for though his talk 
 was solely equestrian, yet it served as well as any other subject to melt 
 away the icy ban-ier behind which Harry had hitherto entrenched 
 himself, and thus effectually defended himself against all attempts 
 at a renewal of the former intimacy which appeared to have existed 
 between them. Having explained couii)letely to his own satisfaction 
 the advantage which in the instance under consideration would be 
 gained by dri\'ing " brown muzzle " up at the " cheek," and the white- 
 nosed horse in the " lower-bar," together with copious notes, descrip- 
 tive and explanatory, and voluminous annotations and reflections on 
 this momentous question, Harry metaphorically resumed his seat 
 amid continued cheering, and Arabella Crofton rose in reply. Of 
 course she started on horses, to which she soon attached carnages, 
 by means of which she in an incredibly short time contrived to ride 
 back to Italy, and finding Harry stood it better than she expected, 
 she continued in a voice indicative of deep but repressed feeling, — 
 
 " Ah ! that was a strange, strange summer we passed there ! And 
 yet, now I can calmly look back upon it, there were many happy 
 hours, bright, sunny little bits, to set against the deep shadows of 
 such a life as mine, times when I enjoyed the privilege of your fi-iend- 
 ship, before " — and here her voice faltered — " before I forfeited that 
 and everything, even my self-respect, by my o-mi mad folly ! " 
 
 She paused in emotion, and her companion replied in a kind, frank 
 manner, — 
 
 " Why distress yourself by reviving a disagreeable reminiscence ? " 
 (as he used the word a slight shudder seemed to convulse her, and a 
 look of pain, but not the pain of contrition, flitted across her hand* 
 some features) — " an affair which I have, as I promised you, practi-
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 199 
 
 cally forgotten, whicli I should never again have entered upon with 
 you, and in regard to which my lips are sealed to every other living 
 creature." 
 
 " You are kind and generous-hearted, as you ever were," was the 
 rejoinder, " but I cannot forget so readily " — here she paused, sighed 
 deeply, then continued — " I am so glad to have had this — this 
 conversation with you ; your manner has been so cold and stem, I 
 was afraid you had repented of your promise that if we ever met 
 again it should be as fi-iends." 
 
 " Well, you see," returned Harry, in an embarrassed tone, " you see 
 circumstances have changed with me since the time to which you 
 refer ; and I thought — in fact, you yourself said in that note it would 
 be better — I assiu-e you I meant nothing unkind, why should I ? as 
 
 long as you " and here, having been on the point of " putting his 
 
 foot in it," as he mentally paraphrased his colloquial " etourderie," 
 Harry paused in confusion, actually blushing in his generous fear of 
 wounding his companion's feelings. Having relieved his emban'ass- 
 ment by giving that unfortunate scajDCgoat, the white-nosed horse, 
 one more for himself, he resumed—" And now let me ask you whether 
 you approve of the wife I have chosen 't " 
 
 Hairy made this inquiry, not because he felt particularly anxious 
 to learn Arabella's opinion of Alice, but because he wanted to say 
 something.'and this was the first ideawliich occurred to him, thus the 
 moment he had spoken he wished the speech unsaid. Miss Crofton 
 hesitated for a moment ere she replied, in a slightly constmined tone 
 of voice, — 
 
 " Yom" choice does your taste credit; for, in her style, Mrs. Covei'- 
 dale is singularly pretty, and I can imagine her very attractive — 
 when she pleases." 
 
 "You speak as if she had not pleased, in your case," rejoined 
 Harry, smiling at the unmistakable emphasis with which the con- 
 cluding words had been spoken. Miss Crofton smiled also; then 
 with a melancholy expression she replied, — 
 
 " In my anomalous position in life, I am too well accustomed to 
 slights to feel a moment's annoyance at such trifles." 
 
 ■' But it annoys me though," returned Coverdale, fii'ing up with the 
 indignation all generous natures feel at the idea of indignity being 
 offered to any one in a dependent situation. " I am surprised at such 
 want of right feeling, or even common courtesy, in Alice ! She 
 cannot be aware of the impression her manner has made on you. I 
 shall speak to her about it," 
 
 '* Do not think of such a thing ! " exclaimed Arabella hastily ; " it 
 was folly in me to mention it ; " — she fixed her eyes on his face, and 
 reading there that his resolution was unchanged, she laid her hand 
 gently on his arm, and continued. " Listen, and I will tell you the 
 whole truth : womanly instinct, I suppose, made your wife dislike me 
 from the first moment she was introduced to me. I have tried in vain 
 to conquer her dislike, and we now, by a sort of tacit consent, avoid
 
 200 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 each other ; were yon to interfere in my behalf, it would be of no 
 avail ; on the contrary, it woiild inci'ease the evil, and, pardon my 
 saying', mip-ht lead to a disagreement between you ; for, I may be 
 mistaken, but I have fancied Mrs. Coverdale appears a little im- 
 patient of control sometimes — I hope I am mistaken." 
 
 She waited for a reply ; but Han-y, not beiug able to deny the 
 charge, and not choosing to assent to it, remained silent, and she, 
 rightly inteiTsreting his reserve, continued, — 
 
 " In that case, I implore you, do not dream of advocating my caiise. 
 Were I to be the occasion of any difference between you, it would 
 render me most unhappy." 
 
 After a moment's silence she added, — 
 
 " I was so much interested when I heard you were going to be 
 man-ied, and hoped, nay prayed, that you might ,be as happy as 
 I woiild — would always have you. I am gi-ieved to think that Mrs. 
 Coverdale should not fully appreciate the prize she has drawn in that 
 most uncertain of all lotteries, man-iage ; but I feel sm-e she will leani 
 to understand you better, and all will come right : you are evidently 
 much attached to her, and that being the case, she must love you." 
 Then in a lower tone she added—" You are not one likely to love in 
 vain." 
 
 What reply, if any, Harry would have made to this speech, will 
 never be known, as at that minute they entered the line of carriages 
 setting down at the gate of the Chiswick Gardens, and Coverdale had 
 enough to occupy him in preventing his excitable horses from com- 
 mitting a breach of the peace. Whether or no the phaeton groom 
 was an observant man we cannot say, but if he felt the degree 
 of amiable interest usually displayed by domestic sen'ants in the 
 affairs of their superiors, he must have been struck when mentally 
 contrasting Mr. Coverdale's manner of handing Miss Crofton into and 
 out of that open can-iage by an immense accession of cordiality, for 
 which he was probably more puzzled to account than we trust the 
 reader finds himself. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 FLOWERS AND THOENS. 
 
 " We have somehow contrived to lose sight of the barouche," ex- 
 claimed Coverdale, after looking up and down the line of carriages in 
 vain ; " I expect they must have escaped us when that white-nosed 
 horse shied at Punch ; I fancied I knew which way they bad turned,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 201 
 
 but I nmst have gone clown a wi-ong street— poor old Crane will be in 
 fits — I wonder what we had better do P " 
 
 '■ What I should suggest is to walk slowly backwards and forwards 
 inside the gate, and watch for their an-ival," returned Arabella, 
 wishing in her secret soul that one of the barouche-horses might have 
 fallen dead hime, or that any other catastrophe, not involving injury 
 to life or limb, might have befallen the rest of the party. 
 
 After parading up and down with most laudable perseverance for 
 nearly half an hour, during which time the crowd grew thicker and 
 thicker, and everybody an-ived except the party they were in search 
 of, Harry suddenly exclaimed, — 
 
 " You'll be tired to death with all this pushing and squeezing ; 
 they must have come some shorter way, and got here before us ; let 
 us go on to the conseiTatory, we shall meet them there, I dare 
 say." 
 
 When they reached the consei-vatory, however, they found the 
 crowd so dense that to attempt to discover their missing friends 
 would have involved a difficulty, beside which that popular defi- 
 nition of a forlora hope, " looking for a needle in a bottle of hay," 
 would have sunk into comparative insignificance. There were a 
 couple of chairs near the exit from the conservatory, from which a 
 lady and gentleman rose as they approached. 
 
 " Suppose we take possession of those seats," suggested Arabella, 
 " and watch the people as they come out ; I must honestly confess 
 I am both hot and tired." 
 
 " I sympathize in the first adjective," retunied Harry, taking off 
 his hat to allow the air to cool his heated brow ; " I've walked up hill 
 through heather on the moors for six hours at a stretch, and not been 
 so warm as this ; but then I must own I was in better condition ; one 
 eats too many dinners in London, don't you see, and can't get 
 exercise enough to keep a fellow in working order." 
 
 Having made a suitable reply to this and sundry other thoroughly 
 Han-y Coverdale-ish remarks, Miss Crofton turned the conversation 
 by asking, — 
 
 " Pray, is that Mr. DAlmayne a particular favourite of yours ?" 
 
 " Not a bit of it," was the unhesitating reply ; " rather the other 
 thing, in fact. I consider him a confounded puppy ; and have what 
 you ladies call a presentiment that some of these days I shall be 
 obliged to give him a lesson which he will not forget in a huny." 
 
 " Then you also have obsei'ved— " began Arabella. 
 
 " I have observed nothing in particular," interrupted HaiTy 
 quickly ; " but I know this, if I were old Crane I would not have an 
 insufferable, ridiculous, young fop dangling about my house every 
 day, and all day long." 
 
 " I think it is silly and imprudent in Kate to allow it," returned 
 Arabella, " and I ventured to tell her so, but she did not take the hint 
 kindly, and I have not attempted to recur to the subject. I am afraid 
 her man-iage has not improved her ; I reaUy believe since I spoke to
 
 202 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 her she has been kinder to Mr. D'Almayne than before ; he and his 
 insinuating yonng friend, Lord Alfred Courtland, have almost 
 lived in Park Lane this last week." 
 
 " His friend ! " exclaimed Harry, '' little Alfred is my friend — he 
 and I were at school together — that is, he was at the bottom when I 
 was at the top ; I introduced him to D'Almayne myself, and now I 
 wish I had left it alone ; oh, there's no hai-m in little Alfred — besides, 
 I never heard him speak a dozen words to Kate Crane." 
 
 A meaning smile passed across his companions handsome features, 
 bxit she only said, — 
 
 "I am sorry he is your friend; I am afraid Mr. DAlmayne is a 
 dangerous acquaintance for so vain and weak a young man.'' 
 
 " Alfred is no fool, tliough perhaps firmness is not his strong point," 
 returaed Coverdale ; " vain perhaps he is — all handsome boys are, I 
 suppose. But why do you say you are soiTy he is my fxnend ? " 
 
 Miss Crofton was silent for a minute, then in a timid and hesitat- 
 ing voice replied, — 
 
 '■ You will be angry with me if I tell you my reason for disliking 
 Lord Alfred's constant visits ; you will doubt what I say, and impute 
 to me all kinds of false and evil motives for saying it." 
 
 " Go on," retui'ned Harry, in a low, stern voice, " you have said too 
 much for me to rest satisfied not to hear more— tell me all you know 
 or suspect ; but take care— if, as you say, you value my good opinion 
 — that you speak only the simple truth." 
 
 Thus urged. Miss Crofton proceeded cautiously to relate, that 
 much as it gi'ieved her to say anything which might cause him pain 
 or annoyance, she would not disguise from him that she felt con- 
 vinced Lord Alfred Courtland was deeply smitten with Alice, and 
 that his frequent visits to Park Lane were the result of his ad- 
 miration—that, moreover, Horace D'Almayne was evidently doing 
 his best to nurse what had been a mere boyish fancy into a warmer 
 and stronger feeling ; of his motive she was unable to judge, but of 
 the fact she was certain ; she believed, moreover, that he possessed 
 a strong and daily inci'easing influence over the young man. 
 
 " And Alice ? " inquired Coverdale, with flashing eyes, " what of 
 Alice ? Beware how you tell me that she encourages this misguided, 
 foolish boy ! for by heaven, if you do, and it should appear that you 
 have misjudged her, I should be tempted to inform her and all the 
 world the reason which has induced you to invent such malicious 
 calumnies ! " 
 
 *' You wrong me by yoiu' unkind suspicions," was Ai'abella's calm 
 reply, " as much as you wi'ong yourself by an luigenerous threat 
 which you would be incapable of executing ; it is not for me to judge 
 Mrs. Coverdale one way or the other. I have satisfied my conscience 
 in warning you ; I leave you now to examine and observe for your- 
 seK, and test the ti-uth of my statement — but of one thing I am 
 certain, Horace D'Almayne has some deep scheme ' in petto,' and 
 that he is an unsci'upulous adventurer, clever enough to render him
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 203 
 
 a most dangerous associate for any one — a person to beware of, in 
 short." 
 
 "If I become convinced lie is putting young Alfred up to any 
 such rascality as you imagine, I'll break the scoundrel's neck for 
 him ! " gi-owled Coverdale, in a tone like the rumbling of distant 
 thunder. 
 
 As he spoke someone touched him on the shoulder, and looking 
 roimd, he was more surprised than pleased to see the object of his 
 kind intentions standing behind the chair on which he was seated. 
 How long he might have been there, or how much of their conversa- 
 tion he might have heard, it was impossible to tell ; but so convinced 
 was Coverdale that D'Almayne had been playing the eavesdropper, 
 that he was on the point of inquiring what amount of information 
 he had thus acquired, and especially whether he had clearly under- 
 stood the fate that awaited him, if he were really inciting " little 
 Alfred " to make love to his wife, when D'Almayne, who possessed 
 a womanly predilection for always having the first and last word, 
 began, — 
 
 " Pardon me if I interrupt what appears a most interesting con- 
 versation, but I have been hunting aU over the gardens for the last 
 half-hour to find you. Mr. Crane imagines you have eloped with his 
 phaeton and horses, and Mrs. Coverdale is so completely ' au 
 d^sespoir ' at the loss of her husband, that even Lord Alfred Court- 
 land's attentions are powerless to console her ; — really, Miss Crofton, 
 it is too ciiiel of you to seduce Benedick from his allegiance 
 to his Beatrice — you might be content with enslaving us poor 
 bachelors ! " 
 
 This speech was not particularly palatable to Arabella, and she 
 would probably have passed it over in contemptuous silence had she 
 not glanced at Coverdale ; but, perceiving by his flashing eye and 
 quivering lip that he was so angry that he literally dared not trust 
 himself to reply, she hastened to prevent anything unpleasant 
 occurring between them, by observing in her usual calm, slightly 
 sarcastic manner, — 
 
 "It is like Mr. D'Almayne's policy to screen himself by throwing 
 the blame on the injured party. We have been roaming up and 
 down like restless ghosts, hunting for Mi-s. Crane and Mrs. Cover- 
 dale for the last half-hour — ever since we anivedin fact, until I grew 
 so tired, that out of compassion Mr. Coverdale allowed me to sit 
 down and rest." 
 
 " One word, Mr. D'Almayne," interrupted Harry, regardless of an 
 imploring look and gentle pressure of the arm from Arabella 
 Crofton, " you made a joke (for I suppose you do not wish me to 
 consider you spoke sei-iously) about my wife a minute ago ; now I'm 
 a quick-tempered fellow — touchy you may call it, upon some points, 
 and this happens to be one of them ; so to prevent anything 
 disagreeable, I tell you frankly I don't like such jokes— you under- 
 stand ? "
 
 204 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Horace did understand ; he glanced at Han-y's face. The hand- 
 some mouth was sternly compressed— the small, well-cut nostril 
 quivered, and the large dark eyes flashed with the anger he could 
 scarcely restrain, his tall form was drawn up to its full height— his 
 broad chest dilated, and the muscles stood out on his stalwart arms 
 until their shape became visible beneath the '" Zephyr Paletot " ; 
 altogether, Coverdale did not look just then the kind of man with 
 whom it would be pleasant to quarrel : so D'Almayne, deeming 
 " discretion the better part of valour," smiled, and said something 
 which might mean anything, and conveyed a clear idea of nothing, 
 in his most fascinating manner, and then piloted his companions to 
 the spot where he had agreed on a rendezvous at a certain time with 
 the Crane party. They had not yet made their appearance, however, 
 and D'Almayne (who, since Harry gave him the " caution " conveyed 
 in his last speech, had evinced a marked desire to keep on good 
 terms with, and out of arms reach of, so dangerous an acquaintance), 
 guessing their whereabouts, volunteered to go and fetch them. 
 
 •■ Pray do not quanel with that man." iirged Ai-abella, as 
 D Almayne quitted them ; " you are as little his equal in scheming 
 and mananivring, as he is youi-s in strength and ;com-age, and for 
 this reason he is more to be dreaded than if he were a very Hercules ; 
 do not lose your temper with him, for by so doing you will put your- 
 self in the wrong and play his game ; come, be guided by me in this 
 matter ; believe me, my only object is to secure your happiness." 
 
 As she spoke, she looked xip in his face with such an expression of 
 interest, not to say affection, that Coverdale. whose anger at the 
 worst was always a very evanescent affair, felt an impulse of pity 
 for her, which appeared in the [softened tones of his voice, as he 
 replied, — 
 
 " Dont be afraid ; I'm not going to give him his deserts at present, 
 and I'm very soiTy I spoke harshly to you just now ; but I know 
 Alice to be so good, and true, and pure — innocent and spotless as a 
 child (by heaven, the slightest blow to my faith in her would drive 
 me mad !), and the mere mention of that foolish boy supposing Iher 
 to be a fit recipient for his romantic sentimental nonsense, made me 
 lose my temper : but you need not fear my doing anything hasty. I 
 shall, as you advise, observe Alfred Courtland, and if, as I feel 
 certain, his attentions annoy Alice, I shall speak to him seriously 
 and kindly (I know the boy has a good heart, and that it is 
 D'Almayne who has set him on this business, if he is set on it) ; 
 then, finding I am aware of it, his fancy wiD die a nattu-al death ; 
 but I have little expectation that my preaching will be required, 
 Alice's indifference will work the best cure." 
 
 As he spoke, the Crane party came in sight, Kate and her husband 
 leading the van, closely attended by Horace D'Almayne ; while, at 
 some little distance behind them, lingered Alice on the arm of 
 Lord Alfred Courtland. As they came up, he was addressing her 
 in an earnest, pleading manner. Alice appeared thoughtful and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 205 
 
 " distraite," bxit the moment her eye fell upon Harry and Miss 
 Crof ton she started, coloured up, and turning to her companion, said 
 in a hui-ried, eager tone, — 
 
 " Such constancy and perseverance, my lord, deserve rewarding; " 
 and as she spoke she gave him a rosebud she carried in her hand, 
 which he fastened in his button-hole with an expression of eager 
 delight. 
 
 Alice's words and action were neither of them lost iipon her 
 husband or his companion. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 ARCADIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 It is popularly asserted and believed that everything has two sides 
 to it. Even a plum pudding has an inside and an out ; and that 
 romantic malady, yclept " love unrequited," although at first sight it 
 appears an entirely one-sided affair, often demonstrates its bilateral 
 capabilities by proving a much less heai-trending business than was 
 imagined, when the lapse of time enables one to discern the bright 
 side of the picture. The Crane expedition to the Horticultural Fete 
 formed no exception to this law of nature : — thus at the moment 
 Avhen Harry, like Hamlet's unfortimate papa, was having poison 
 iwured into his ear, and was gradually w^orking himself up to the 
 bolster scene in Othello pitch, Alice, that pleasant little Desdemona, 
 imconsciously amused lierseK with Cassio, Lord Courtland, emida- 
 ting Dr. Watts's ''busy bee," by flitting from flower ^to flower, 
 laughing at very small jokes, and altogether conducting herself with 
 great levity, and in a singularly iindignified manner— at least, so Mr. 
 Crane thought ; and as he was said to be made of gold, his opinions 
 ought to have partaken of the value of that precious metal. But 
 Mr. Ci-ane had never quite forgiven Alice for not appreciating his 
 many excellences, and was disposed to judge her harslily. After a 
 time, however, when the novelty of the scene began to wear off — 
 when Alice had reviewed the contents of Howell and James's, Swan 
 and Edgar's, Redmayne's, and other ruination shops, on the fair 
 forms of the ladies of the land — Avhen she had " oh-how-beautiful-ed " 
 and " is-n't-it-lovely-ed " the flowers to her heart's content — when she 
 had heard, and longed to dance to, the Guards' band, suddenly a 
 dark vision rose to her mind's eye — her husband tete-a-tete with that 
 evil mystery, Arabella Crofton, obscured the sunshine of her spirit ;
 
 206 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 the rose-coloured spectacles through which she had beheld Vanity 
 Fair fell oft"; the serpent had entered in; and, for Alice Coverdale, 
 Chiswiok was Paradise no longer. Thereupon she decided that 
 Lord Alfred was a silly tiresome boy, and worried her with his 
 childish nonsense ; that Mr. Crane was a fractious old idiot, who 
 ought to be shut up in an appropriate asylum ; that Kate looked 
 bored and tired, which she did not wonder at; that Horace 
 D'Almayne was fitter for the Zoological than the Horticultural 
 Gardens, and deserved to be caged with the chimpanzees without 
 loss of time ; and, finally (forgetting their separation had resulted 
 from a caprice of her o^vn), that Harry was very unkind to stay 
 away from her in that way, with that hateful creature, Arabella 
 Crofton, whom she was sui'S he liked after all, though he did pretend 
 to treat her so coldly. 
 
 Then people began to push and crowd, and dresses became tumbled ; 
 and D'Almayne having left the party to look for Han-y and Miss 
 Crofton, Mr. Crane misled them, and they fell into difficulties, and 
 were very hot and uncomfortable ; and Alice quite pined to meet 
 her husband, whose sturdy arm would have supported her, and 
 whose tall figure and broad shoulders would have forced a way for 
 her through the crowd. Next, Lord Alfred began to tease her to 
 give him a flower from her bouqxTet, and got snubbed for his pains ; 
 until Horace D Almayne, returning, made his report, viz. that, after 
 much toil and trouble, he had at length discovered Miss Crofton 
 and Mr. Coverdale, seated together in a shady corner, apparently 
 absorbed in some deeply interesting topic of conversation. This 
 information, tallying so exactly with her worst fears, and finding 
 poor little Mrs. Coverdale both vexed and tired, very nearly produced 
 a burst of tears, to avoid which pathetic display she did that which 
 the unfortimate first Mrs. Dombey failed to effect — viz. she " made an 
 eft'ort," and became, not exactly herself again, but Alice Coverdale 
 as she ai^peared when enacting the heai-tless coquette. And this she 
 did, poor child ! not from a want, but from a superfluity of heart. 
 So, seeking to read her truant husband a jjractical moral lesson on 
 the iniquity of charioteering dangerous damsels, in common with 
 whom he possessed mysterious antecedents, she afforded Lord Alfred 
 a " material guarantee " of her favour, in the shape of the flower he 
 had coveted ; and haA'ing thus firmly riveted his chains, ostensibly 
 petted and made much of her captive. This conduct on his wife's 
 part was by no means calculated to soothe Harry Coverdale, pained, 
 rufiled, and excited by his conversation with Arabella Crofton ; and, 
 without reflecting on the prudence or politeness of such a proceeding, 
 he left his late companion to take care of herself, and stalking with 
 stately steps, as of an offended lion, up to Lord Alfred Courtland, 
 observed, in a tone of dignified irony, — 
 
 " I am much obliged to your Lordship for taking such extreme 
 care of Mrs. Coverdale, but will now relieve you from any further 
 trouble on her account : take my arm, Alice."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 207 
 
 Lord Alfred, stronc? in the possession of his rosebud, felt inclined 
 to resist, and murmured something about its being a pleasure rather 
 than a trouble ; while Alice was just determining to suppoi-t her 
 swain, when luckily she ha]Dpened to read in Harry's flashing eye 
 symptoms of the approach of an attack of his " quiet manner," so 
 hastily disengaging her arm, she placed it within that of her husband, 
 saying, as she did so, — 
 
 " I am not going to let this truant escape, now that I have caught 
 him. He deserves punishment — so I shall inflict my society upon 
 him for the rest of the afternoon, unless," she added, with a glance 
 which bewitched Lord Alfred more comiDletelyithan before, " I should 
 find any stringent necessity to exercise my feminine pi-erogative of 
 changing my mind." 
 
 " Your fnend Mr. Coverdale's method of relieving you of your 
 fair charge was more vigoi-ous than polite, mon cher," remarked 
 D Almayne to Lord Alfred, who, feeling he was " de trop," had left 
 the wedded pair to their own devices. " However, I think I have 
 obtained a clue, which I have only to follow up to arrive at a dis- 
 covery which will help you on with your pretty little lady-patroness, 
 by rendering her more the ' femme incomprise,' and neglected wife 
 than ever." 
 
 " Indeed ! " was the reply ; " what a clever fellow you are ! I 
 certainly owe Coverdale one, for his muuner to me just now was 
 anything but nice. Tell me, what have you discovered ? " 
 
 " Well, it seems nothing very remarkable at first ; but many a 
 large and goodly oak has grown from as small an acorn. Listen : — 
 the immaculate Harry Coverdale has a private understanding with 
 that dark-eyed gipsy, Arabella Crofton ; they are a great deal more 
 intimate and confidential in a ' tete-a-tete ' than they allow themselves 
 to appear in general society. I must try and learn what passed 
 between them in Italy, and I think I can do so with very little 
 trouble. I saw a man in to-wn yesterday, Archie Campbell, who 
 married one of the Muir girls, ,witli Avhom the fair — or rather the 
 dark — Arabella lived as govenie8s,Iwhen they tried to exchange their 
 Scotch brogue for the 'lingua Toscana.' She went to Italy with 
 them, and there met Han-y Coverdale — that I know as a fact; for 
 additional particulars, I shall apply to the said Archie." 
 
 "Then do you think — do you conceive — do you mean to imply, 
 in fact, that Mr. Coverdale is attached to this Miss Crofton ? " 
 stammered Lord Alfred, colouring, as though he, and not Alice's 
 husband, were the supposed delinquent. 
 
 " You always put things into such plain words, ' mon cher ' ; it is a 
 foolish habit, and the sooner you can divest yourself of it the better," 
 was D'Almayne's reply ; " probably the mighty Nimrod, in flirting 
 with Miss Crofton, means no more harm than you do by your 
 Platonic attachment for his pretty wife. Nevertheless, if such 
 should prove the fact, and you gently insinuate the same to la belle 
 Alice, the chances are that she will be kinder than ever, to evince
 
 208 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 her gratitude for your having rendered her jealous of her husband 
 —not that you seem to require any help— I saw where that rosebud 
 came from, coquin ; but now you may, if you will, render me a 
 service ; find your way to the entrance gate, and wait till my friend. 
 Monsieur Guillemard, makes his appearance— probably you will 
 find him iwaiting there ah-eady— and having discovered him, bring 
 him here." 
 
 As the obedient lordling strolled away on his mission, the inde- 
 fatigable Horace gathered a rose ; then approaching Kate Crane, he 
 lisped in his most dreamy and affected style,— 
 
 "I've been searching everywhere to find a rose of that peculiar 
 tint which might harmonize and yet contrast well with your di'ess ; 
 at length I am charmed to say my effoi-ts have l)een successful. Mr. 
 Crane, will you favour me by presenting this rose to Madame P 
 Coming through your hands, I feel sure it will be accepted." 
 
 " No, positively ; that is, really it will be much more fitting — if I 
 may be allowed to say so — that, as you have been so obliging as to 
 find it, you should yourself present it. Mrs. Crane will, I feel con- 
 vinced, be happy to acknowledge your politeness by accepting a 
 flower offered— if I may be permitted to say so — with such propriety 
 and respect." 
 
 D'Almayne appeared about to avail himself of the permission which 
 Mr. Crane thus graciously accorded him ; when s\iddenly drawing 
 back, he exclaimed. " Excuse me one minute ; the thonis are so very 
 sharp, I am afraid to hand it to you without some protection against 
 them ; " — then, taking a slip of paper from his waistcoat pocket, he 
 wound it round the stem of the flower, and fixing his eyes with a 
 meaning look on those of Kate, he gave her the rose. Having done 
 so, he began talking to Mr. Crane ; and soon contrived, by a judicious 
 selection of topics, chiefly connected with the Stock Exchange, to 
 engross that zealous Mammonite's attention. As soon as his wife 
 perceived this to be the case, she unrolled the paper from the stem 
 of the rose, and, glancing at it hastily, perceived the following words 
 wi'itten in Horace D'Almayne's neat hand : " Give me five minutes' 
 conversation — I will make the opportunity, if you -will avail yourself 
 of it." Instantly crushing it in her hand, she i-ushed into conversa- 
 tion with Arabella Crofton, on the merits and demerits of certain 
 new annuals; which subject, skilfully managed, lasted her until 
 Lord Alfred Courtland retiu-ned, arm in arm with Monsieur Guille- 
 mard, better got up, more jaunty, and in yellower kid gloves than 
 ever. This ^^vacious foreigner was instantly captured by Horace, 
 and desired to explain, " as he alone could do," the peculiar advan- 
 tages of that famous investment in Ten-a Cotta preference bonds, 
 as Mr. Crane had an odd .£10,000 lying comparatively fallow— only 
 at three-and-a-half per cent. — which he would be glad to put out 
 well. So foolish avarice and clever roguery ambled off together. 
 Then D'Almayne contrived to despatch Coverdale and his wife to 
 look at a wonderful specimen of the Hypothetica Screamans, and to
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 200 
 
 saddle Lord Alfred with Arabella Crofton, although that smitten 
 young aristocrat would have jjreferred to have trotted mildly about 
 after Alice, like a pet lamb. Having disposed of these super- 
 numeraries, he as a matter of coiu-se offered his arm to Kate, 
 who had quietly acquiesced in his arrangements, and followed 
 at such a judicious distance that, although they still belonged to 
 the party, in effect they enjoyed all the advantages of a tete-a- 
 tete. 
 
 D'Almayne was the first to break silence. 
 
 " This is most kind," he said, " and leads me to hope that you are 
 at length beginning to understand me — to pei'ceive that my only 
 wish is to act the part of a true friend towards you. I have a con- 
 viction that I owe a duty to you, for I often i-eflect with pain how 
 large a share I had in bringing about your mannage." 
 
 At these words Kate gave a slight start, and her colour 
 deepened ; not appearing to observe these signs of agitation, her 
 companion resumed : — 
 
 " You may not be aware that it was by my advice that Mr. Crane 
 transferred his attentions fi'om your cousin (whose affection for 
 Mr. Coverdale I perceived would oppose an effectual barrier to his 
 wishes) to yourself : — my object in doing so was twofold. Mr. Crane 
 had shown me much kindness and attention ; he was anxious to 
 maiTy some one whose presence would invest his home with an air of 
 distinction and attractiveness which his wealth could never bestow. 
 The moment I belield Miss Marsden, I felt that no one could do so 
 more efl&eiently. Thus, from an impulse of gi'atitude towards Mr. 
 Ci'ane, I persuaded him that it would be in every way a most suitable 
 and desirable match, and induced him to make such an offer to Mr. 
 Hazlehurst as should neutralize any objection that gentleman might 
 have had to your occupying the position he had destined for his 
 daughter. Again mistaking, in great measure, both your character 
 and that of Mr. Crane, I believed you would have suited each other 
 far better than I fear is the case : I fancied you ambitious, and that 
 the power which wealth would bestow would render you not only 
 contented, but happy, while I trusted man-iage would develop in 
 Mr. Crane traits of generosity and tenderaess of which I now am 
 forced to confess his nature is incapable. Had I guessed this sooner, 
 I need scarcely add, the respect and admiration I have always 
 experienced for one so gifted as you are would have prevented my 
 advocating the match. All that now remains for me is to compensate, 
 as far as it is in my power to do so, for any little failures in tact 
 (believe me they are nothing more) of which my excellent friend, 
 Mr. Crane, may be guilty ; and I speak thus honestly and openly in 
 order that, appreciating my motives, you may place full confidence 
 in me, and thus enable me "—and here he sank his voice almost to 
 a whisper — "to assist you in bearing the burden which I have 
 unconsciously helped to place upon you." 
 
 " I must believe you mean kindly by me," was Kate's reply ; " but 
 
 p
 
 210 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 you are aware that -wltli me deeds tell better than words. Has the 
 application been made ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And with what result ? But I fear I need scarcely ask." 
 
 " Not a favourable one, I rep:ret to say. Mr. Crane saw Mrs. 
 Leonard, hoping, I fancy, that she might have learned some tidings 
 of her husband ; but when he became aware of the object of her visit, 
 he not only refused to assist her, or to do anything for her childi'en, 
 but grew irritated, reproached her with what he termed her husband's 
 infamous conduct, declared he had lost thousands of pounds by his 
 negligence, and wound up by threatening that, if she ever set foot in 
 his house again, he would give her in charge to the police. When I 
 visited her, I found her in tears, and utterly heart-broken by this 
 failure of her last hope." 
 
 " You must go to her again," exclaimed Kate eagerly ; " tell her 
 you have mentioned her necessities to a lady of your acquaintance, 
 who is willing, and, thank God, able to assist her ; give her money ; 
 find out what she most requires ; devise some plan by which she may 
 be enabled to support herself and educate her children. Oh ! if I can 
 
 save this poor family from ruin, it will be some little " She 
 
 checked herself abruptly, then continued : " Mr. Crane is most 
 liberal to me, and allows me more than 1 have the least occasion or 
 desire to spend on myself — so do not let them want for anything 
 And oh ! be most careful— you say she is a lady, poor thing ! — be most 
 careful not to wound her feelings. You do not know how shrinkingly 
 sensitive poverty makes natures that are at all refined." 
 
 " I fear Mr. Crane's words, spoken, I dare say, under a very just 
 feeling of annoyance, both pained and irritated her," returned 
 D'Almayne. " She naturally draws a strong line between the fact 
 that her husband has been imprudent and unfortunate and the 
 insinuation that he had been criminal. Mr. Crane, I grieve to say, 
 appeared to doubt the truth of her statement that Mr. Leonard was 
 ignorant of his partner's intended flight and defalcation." 
 
 " Ungenerous ! cruel ! " murmured Kate, carried away by her ex- 
 citement, and forgetting, or perhaps at the moment scarcely heeding, 
 the fact that D Almayne's quick ears were eagerly drinking in these 
 acknowledgments of the estimation in which she held her husband. 
 
 " I am most anxious to save you all trouble in this matter," 
 resumed D'Almayne ; " but it would be a great satisfaction to me, 
 and relieve me of a responsibility for which I am scarcely fitted, if you 
 would not object to visit Mrs. Leonard yourself. She is alreadj'^ most 
 anxious to see and thank the kind benefactress to whom I have in- 
 formed her she is indebted. "Were you once to talk to her. you would 
 Ijerceive the gentle yet strong nature we have to deal with; you 
 would learn her hopes, fears, and prospects from her own lips rather 
 than thi-ough such an unworthy interj^reter as myself ; you would 
 see the interesting children ; — may I hope that you will consent ? " 
 
 Kate i)aused — considered ; but her answer demands a fresh chapter.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 2n 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 A CONCESSION AND A " PABTIE CARRIE," 
 
 The question we left Kate Ci-ane considering in the last chapter she 
 decided thus : — 
 
 " I should like to visit Mrs. Leonard," she said slowly. " I feel the 
 truth of all you urge — but there are difficulties in the way ; Mr. 
 Crane would greatly disapprove of such a proceeding on my part." 
 
 " He need never know it," suggested D'Almayne, in a voice little 
 above a whisper. 
 
 " He need not," returned Kate calmly, " but I have since my 
 marriage made it a point of conscience never to do anything which 
 I should object to Mr. Crane's hearing of ; I still consider the rule at 
 good one, and am disinclined to break thi-ough it." 
 
 "Does not your sensitive conscience," rejoined D'Almayne, "lead 
 you to refine rather too much, until, adhering to the form of goodness^ 
 you in a great degree lose the substance, and thus, by a chivalrous 
 scruple of never disobeying your husband, miss an opportunity of 
 doing real good, by which you would neutralize the injury which Mr. 
 Crane's peculiarities may otherwise inflict upon this unfortunate 
 family ? I think, if you reflect on this for a minute, your excellent 
 sense will convince you that your amiable but romantic scruple is 
 fallacious." 
 
 Kate did reflect, and apparently her convictions assumed the shape 
 D'Almayne had predicted, for she replied in a less assured voice than 
 that in which she had formerly addressed him, — 
 
 " Mr. D'Almayne, you have spoken more honestly and openly 
 to-day than you have ever done before, and I will treat you with equal 
 frankness. You were acquainted with Mr. Crane before I had ever 
 heard his name ; you appear to know him well ; you have alluded gene- 
 rally to his good points, and have pointed out his weak ones with equal 
 talent and perspicuity. I neither admit nor deny your statements — 
 but, in the individual instance before us, I believe that you are right. 
 You have been very kind in this matter ; you first introduced this 
 poor Mrs. Leonard to my notice ; you have since taken much dis- 
 interested trouble on her account ; you possess great tact, and have 
 divined the happiness it affords me to assist those who, from mis- 
 fortune and poverty, have fallen from the rank of gentlewomen ; — 
 therefore in this matter, I feel you have a claim to woi-k with me ; 
 for the first time, therefore, I will repose confidence in you. I wish 
 to visit this poor lady — how am I to accomplish it without my 
 husband's knowledge ? "
 
 212 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Horace D'Almayne had won his point, Horace D'Ahnayne was 
 happy! yet he did not clap his hands, neither did he hurrah wildly, 
 nor dance a lively measure around Kate Crane, whom he believed he 
 had circumvented in a different manner ; but he forced his imper- 
 turbable countenance into an expression of philanthropic benevolence 
 and gratitude, and arranged with Mrs. Crane a plan by which, during 
 her husband's daily worship in the temple of Mammon, his god — an 
 edifice more familiarly known in the good city of London as the 
 Stock Exchange — she should visit unfortunate Mrs. Leonard, and 
 witness with her own eyes how justly the prince of this world (who 
 is identical with the monarch of a lower kingdom still) distributes 
 his subjects' property. 
 
 About this time all the members of this disunited party assembled 
 and jointly and severally ended their day's enjoyment (?) by returning 
 home tired, dejected, and suffering more or less from that ailment 
 which defies those guinea-pigs, " the faculty " — an ailment as rife in 
 St. James's as are cholera and small-pox within the precincts of St. 
 Giles's — an ailment which, thanks to those bitter curses, the forms, 
 ceremonies, requirements, and prejudices of society, afflicts and 
 hangs heavily on many an honest man and loving woman — an ailment 
 indigenous even in our glorious constitution, and which has as many 
 aliases as shapes, the spleen, ennui, but truest name of all, the 
 Heart-ache. 
 
 " Ogni Medaglia ha il suo reverso," there is no rule without its 
 exception! Horace DAlmayne was the exception to this particular 
 rule — he was not troubled with heart-ache, because in the meta- 
 physical sense of the word, he did not possess a heart ; but nature 
 had made it up to him by giving him a very clear head, and thus it 
 reasoned : — 
 
 " Yes, my pi-etty Kate, ' tout va bien ' ; you have grown civil, almost 
 kind— not yet affectionate, but that is to come. Yet she is clever, 
 doubts, suspects me ! — what children women are, even clever women ; 
 once appeal to their feelings, their impulses — bah ! their reason lies 
 captive before you — they are puppets in yoixr hand. ' Ah ! c'est bien 
 drole, cette petite existence ici-bas ! ' for the rest, all goes well ; the 
 beautiful Kate shall compromise herself — the millionaire shall open 
 wider his purse strings — the bank wins for me — the little Alfred 
 plays my game — courage, Horace ! thy star is in the ascendant, you 
 will die a rich man yet ! " 
 
 The morning after the Horticultural Fete, Coverdale suggested to 
 his wife that they had, in his opinion, spent sufiicient time and money 
 in the gay metropolis, and that agricultural and manorial duties 
 called him to the country forthwith ; but Alice pleaded so earnestly 
 for only one week more of dissipation, with Lady Tattersall Trotte- 
 mout's " soiree dansante " at the end of it, that Harry could not 
 find it in his heart to refuse her. Scarcely had he yielded the point
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 213 
 
 wlien a letter arrived from Tom Rattleworth, Magristrate, and Master 
 of Fox-hounds, to inform liim that, owing to the baneful influence of 
 a certain grand seigneur in the neighbourhood, it was proposed to 
 enclose a common and turn a road, which would desti'oy a favourite 
 fox cover and give Coverdale half a mile further to drive to the 
 nearest railway station — that the matter was to be decided at the 
 next meeting of magistrates — that he (Thomas) had striven tooth 
 and nail to get up an opposition, in which he had been tolerably 
 successful, and that he considered it only required Coverdale's 
 presence to prevent the evil altogether. Thus urged, Harry had but 
 one coiu'se to pursue, viz. commend his wife to Mrs. Crane's safe 
 custody, and start for Coverdale Park forthwith, promising to return 
 in time for " Lady Tat. Trott.'s benefit," as he was pleased to term it. 
 Alice at first opposed his going, but when she found the question 
 resolved itself into one of these altei'natives, either that she must 
 let him go alone, or give up her ball and accompany him, her 
 opposition ceased. So Harry packed his carpet-bag and departed 
 — and the hours rolled by on their patent noiseless wheels, until the 
 time appointed for that notable solemnity, Lady Tattersall Trotte- 
 moiit's " soir<5e dansante," arrived. 
 
 On that day Lord Alfred Courtland invited to a quiet dinner, at 
 his comfortable bachelor lodgings, Horace D'Almayne, Monsieur 
 Guillemard, and a youth who, because he was in every particular Lord 
 Alfred's exact opposite, was an especial crony of his. Jack Beaupeep, 
 getatis twenty-five, was a clerk in a public ofiice with a salary of ^6150 
 per annum, on which, by means of his talents, he contrived to live at 
 the rate of — anything under a thousand. As, however, we shall 
 not have very much to do with him in the course of this history, we 
 will spare the reader further details by summing up his character in 
 the two expressive words, " fast " and " fimny." Everybody knows 
 a fast, funny man ; and his was a bad case of the complaint. At a 
 quarter to eight, p.m., on the day in question, this excellent young 
 buffoon of private life betook himself to Lord Alfred's lodgings, and 
 finding himself first in the field looked around with a practised eye 
 for the best means of turning the situation to comic effect. First he 
 perceived a valuable statuette of Yenus, as she appeared before the 
 discovery of the art of dress-making, for which his innate sense of 
 propriety led him to improvise a petticoat, by means of a doyley 
 and a small portion of the red tape of Old England, purloined from 
 her Britannic Majesty's stores that morning, and secreted by the 
 delinquent for any possible exigencies of practical jesting. Having 
 attired this young lady to his satisfaction, he obligingly bestowed on 
 her a real Havannah cigar, which, thrust through an opening left by 
 the sculptor in her clenched hand, with the end resting against her 
 ambrosial lips, resembled a speaking-trumpet, and gave her that 
 " ship-ahoy ! " kind of appearance with which early engravers were 
 pleased to endow Fame. He then wrote and wafered on the pedestal 
 of the statuette thus embellished a label, bearing the inscription.
 
 214 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 "Eugenie, Empress of tlie Frencli," munnuriiig to himself, 
 "Delicate little compliment to the illustrious foreigner who is 
 coming." Next he availed himself of a pair of boxing-gloves ; 
 " unearthing," as he termed it, the rolls inserted in two of the dinner 
 napkins, and substituting for them these elementary instructors in 
 the noble art of self-defence ; and, lastly, espying the cruet-stand, 
 he had just time to reverse the contents of the pepper and sugar 
 casters, and confuse all the sauces, when to him entered Lord Alfred 
 Courtland. 
 
 This young nobleman's appeai-ance had considerably changed since 
 first we had the pleasure of describing him. By abstruse study and 
 imflagging attention to the sayings and doings of men-about-town, 
 he had acquired many noble attril)utes — he could lounge and dawdle, 
 aad walk with a pert yet lazy roll in his gait, as of a tipsy dancing- 
 master, or of a cock-sparrow afflicted with sciatica ; he coiild lisp 
 as though his A-^ery tongue was too about-town-ish to speak plain, 
 unadulterated English; he could make play with his eyes half 
 shut, like a timid girl, or stare with them offensively wide open, like 
 an insolent coxcomb, though he was not quite perfect in this last 
 manceuvre as yet. Also his clothes were large and loose enough for 
 himself and half another man-about-town besides; and he had a 
 bunch of baby's toys, modelled in gold, dangling from his watch- 
 chain — Lilliputian house furniture, and a gun, and a sword, and a 
 pistol to match, and a little man in armour with impossible features, 
 aiccompanied by a horrid little skull of the same after his decease, 
 with two of his little golden mari-ow-bones crossed lunder it, as if 
 tliey were saying their prayers ; there was likewise a ri-dicnlous fish, 
 which wagged its tail, and a fox's mask, as it is " knowing " to term 
 the physiognomy of that astute quadrapedal mai-tyi- ; the whole to 
 conclude with a limp and jointed puuchinello, or tomfool, as a 
 pendant (in evei-y sense of the word) to the fool of larger growth who 
 wore these childish absurdities. Thus attired and adorned, Lord 
 Alfred Courtland withdrew one white hand from a pocket of his 
 liberal trousers, and laying it on Beaupeep's shoulder with a want 
 of energy, general lassitude, and fish-out-of-water-ishness of manner 
 which did him infinite credit, drawled forth, — 
 
 " Ay ; my dear fellar ! this is veray good of you to come at such 
 short notice ! " 
 
 " Not at all, not at all," was the brisk reply, for Beaupeep did not 
 go in for, or revere, the all-to-pieces style, but rather made it a theme 
 for playful jesting ; " when I got your invite, I just scribbled off a 
 line to Palmerston to say I'd dine with him to-morrow instead of to- 
 day." 
 
 Lord Alfred quietly raised his eyebrows, while, nothing abashed 
 Beaupeep continued, — 
 
 "It's very jolly to be on those terms with a man like ' Pam.,' and I 
 consider it quite sufficient recompense for my unwearying devotion 
 to my public duties,"
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 215 
 
 " It really won't do with me, my dear Jack," interrupted Lord 
 Alfred, in a tone of affectionate remonstrance ; " reflect how lon<? 
 we've known each other ! " 
 
 " By the way," recommenced Jack, ignoring the interruptional 
 rebuke, " talking of ' Pam.' puts me in mind of the Foreign Office, 
 which, not unnaturally, leads to the inquiry of who may be the 
 illustrious ' Mossoo ' who is to make our fourth to-day ? " 
 
 " Monsieur Guillemard ! oh, he is a very gentlemanly and intelli- 
 gent Fi'enchman and a particular friend of Horace D'Almayne's." 
 
 " But what is he ? " continued Beaupeep pertinaciously ; " is he a 
 noble political exile, or a perruquier from the Palais Royal, who can't 
 meet his liabilities ? does he gain a frugal living by imparting a 
 knowledge of his native tongue in six lessons, at half-a-crown each ? 
 or — " 
 
 " Hush ! here he is," interrupted Lord Alfred, as a smart rat-tat- 
 tat at the house-door announced an arrival ; " he has something to 
 do with the funds, and the financial interests, and the Rothschilds, 
 and all that mysterious pounds, shillings, and pence business in 
 regard to which I have, I am afraid, no clearly defined ideas." 
 
 " Except to spend 'em first, and make your governor shell out 
 afterwards, you lucky beggar, you ! " was the plainly audible 
 aside, as the servant announced Monsieur Guillemard and Mr. 
 D'Almayne. 
 
 After the ceremony of introducing the volatile Jack to the new 
 comers had been performed, that individual immediately attached 
 himself and devoted his conversation to Monsieur Guillemard, 
 whom he persisted in addressing as " Mossoo le Comte," and whom 
 he seemed to imagine just caught in some very foreign country 
 indeed, and ignorant of the simplest English manners and customs ; 
 a delusion to which that gentleman's limited acquaintance with 
 Lindley Murray's, or indeed, any other British grammar, lent some 
 slight colouring. 
 
 " I think I observed, Mossoo le Comte, that you came in a hansom 
 cab ? " remarked Jack. 
 
 " Ters, we promenaded in a ver handsome carb, a handsome horg 
 also; you shall di*ive some much more handsome hors in your street 
 than with us," was the reply. 
 
 " The native British cab is a great and noble product of the liberal 
 institutions of this free and happy land," returned Jack oratorically ; 
 " if an Englishman chooses to walk, an enlightened legislatui-e not 
 only allows him to do so, but provides him with a granite pavement 
 to walk upon ; if he chooses to I'ide, the legislature has a cab awaiting 
 his slightest wink — a mere contraction of the eyelid, Mossoo le 
 Comte, obtains for the wearied Englishman a luxurious vehicle, a 
 swift and steady horse, and a skilful driver, prepared to convey him 
 one mile in any conceivable direction, for the trifling outlay of six- 
 pence sterling." 
 
 " With the advantage o£ studying the patois of Billingsgate in for
 
 216 HARRY COVERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 the money, when the cabman returns tlianks for his fare," added 
 D'Almayne. 
 
 Jack Beaupeep favoured him with a glance of inquiry which, if it 
 had been fi-amed in words, would have run thus — " Are you a knave 
 or a fool ? " Apparently deciding in favour of the former hypothesis, 
 he I'esumed, — 
 
 " The additional attraction to which you so perspicuously allude, 
 my dear sir, involves yet another striking peculiarity— viz. this 
 driver, who so carefully conducts yoii through thecrowded thorough- 
 fares of oiu" colossal metropolis, is no servile hireling, no parasitical 
 serf to crouch at your feet, but A man, sir — a freeborn Briton — with 
 as much vested right in ' Rule Britannia ' as yourself. Sir ! when a 
 dissatisfied cabman alludes to my eyes and limbs, I open widely 
 those aspersed optics, proudly draw up those vituperated limbs, and 
 rejoice that he and I ai-e fellow-countrymen ! " 
 
 " My dear Jack, we're not vnpon the hustings ; we have none of us 
 the slightest intention of coming in for anywhere ; and dinner has 
 been served for the last five minutes," suggested his host mildly. 
 
 Favouring him with a melodramatic scowl, which, at Sadler's 
 Wells or the Victoria, would, in theatrical parlance, have 
 " brought down the house," Jack exclaimed, — 
 
 " Is it thus a haughty aristocracy strives to trample on the honest 
 poor man ! it is not well in ye, my lord, and before an illustrious 
 foreigner, too ! alas, my country ! "—then perceiving that Guillemard 
 was regarding him with a glance which evinced extreme doubts as to 
 his sanity, that DAlmayne was looking supercilious, and Lord Alfred 
 annoyed at his absurdity. Jack experienced the proud conviction that 
 he had attained his object — viz. to astonish, confuse, and discomfit 
 everybody. Having done so, he dropped the heroic, and condescended 
 to make himself agreeable after the fashion of ordinary mortals, 
 which, as he was really clever and well-informed, he succeeded in 
 doing to a degree that, in great measure, efi'aced his previous mis- 
 conduct from the recollection of his associates. He prefaced his re- 
 formation, however, by contriving to seat Guilleraa)"d by one of the 
 boxing-gloved napkins, a manoeuvre which elicited from that per- 
 plexed foreigner the exclamation, " Mais que diable ! vot shall zies 
 be ?" and a reproving " Jack, you idiot, how can you !" from Lord 
 Alfred, who was equally amused and scandalised at his friend's 
 absurdities. But a Frenchman's tact is seldom long at fault ; and 
 by the time Guillemard had extricated the boxing-glove from its 
 envelope, he continued, — 
 
 " Ah, je comprends, I apprehend ! Monsieur Jacques Pipbo ! il est 
 gai. il estfarcevu-, he vos play vot you call von practicable joke, n'est- 
 ce pas, Milor ? — bien comique ! ver fonney, ha ! ha ! " 
 
 So, harmony being established, they ate, drank, and were merry ; 
 Champagne Moselle, Rhine wines, French wines, wines with names 
 we know bvit cannot pronounce, wines with names we do not know and 
 could not spell if we did, were produced, and done justice to, during
 
 AND ALI. THAT CAME OF IT 217 
 
 dinner and dessert ; and tlien fhey quietly settled down to claret at 
 80s. the dozen, which tasted best, as they agreed, out of tumblers ; 
 Friboursr's finest cigars also made their appearance and were not 
 neglected ; and for some time these four lords of the creation enjoyed 
 life undisturbed. But Frenchmen seldom sit long over their wine. 
 D'Almayne had too many schemes, which required a cool head to 
 carry them out, to venture to inflame his brain with the juice of the 
 grape ; and by ten o'clock Lord Alfred proposed a hand at piquet, to 
 while away an hour or so, until it should be time to adjourn to Lady 
 Tattersall Trottemout's ball, to which Mentor and his pupil were in- 
 vited ; so Guillemard and his host began to play. Jack Beaupeep and 
 his companion watching them, and betting half-crowns on the vary- 
 ing chances of the game. At first, fortune seemed inclined to be- 
 friend Lord Alfred, for he won three times consecutively ; and Jack, 
 who, as he observed, was resolved " to back the thoi'ough-bred colt," 
 realized capital to the amount of seven-and-sixpence. 
 
 " Ah ! bah ! Horace, mon cher ! you shall bet wis me 'centre moi- 
 meme!' I cannot play for a so little stake, he does not agree wis 
 me ! " exclaimed Monsieur Guillemard, tossing down the cards 
 pettishly. 
 
 " Let us double them, Monsieur," began Lord Alfred eagerly; " I 
 was just going to propose it when you spoke; nothing is more 
 ennuyant than playing for inadequate stakes." 
 
 " Mais oui ! you have reason, my lord. Horace, mon ami, mix me 
 de I'eau sucr^e wis a Ouinam Laque ice in him ; I have thirst ; he 
 makes hot this evening." 
 
 "Not a bad idea, only I've a better one," rejoined Lord Alfred; 
 " brew some sherry-cobbler. Jack ; ring the bell, and order the 
 materials : it's your deal, Monsieur Guillemard." 
 
 Sherry-cobbler is not a safe thing to play piquet upon, especially 
 when your opponent confines himself to eau sucree. Lord Alfred 
 lost, grew excited, doubled the stakes again and lost, trebled them 
 and won, then played on recklessly against a run of ill-luck, until 
 D'Almayne interfered. 
 
 " It is twelve o'clock, Alfred, mon cher ; we shall be late for Lady 
 Tatt.'s." 
 
 " Lady Tatt. ! " was the uncomplimentary reply ; " I shall not 
 
 go." 
 
 D'Almayne leaned over him, and observing in a whisper, " You 
 forget la belle Alice is expecting you," drew the cards from his 
 reluctant hand. 
 
 Rising siilkily. Lord Alfred walked with a slightly unsteady step 
 to a writing-table, took pen and ink, and hastily tracing a few words, 
 handed the paper to Monsieur Guillemard — it was a cheque for 
 ■£500! 
 
 " Ring for the broiigham, D'Almayne," he continued ; "Monsieur 
 Guillemard, you must give me my revenge at an early opportunity; 
 good-night, Jack ; " then turning away with a laugh, as he perceived
 
 218 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 that youtliful legislator, wlio had " gone in " for sheiTy-cobbler 
 rather too zealously, fast asleep on the sofa, he retired to his dressing- 
 room to remove, as far as he was able, the outward effects of wine and 
 excitement. 
 
 As he quitted the apartment, D'Almayne, after a hasty glance at 
 the " used up " Jack, drew Guillemard aside, and speaking Fi-ench, 
 said in an eager whisper, " You are much too precipitate, and will 
 ruin everything ; what could persuade you to win so large a sum from 
 him at one sitting ? " 
 
 " Ton conceive it that I am too impressed ! Regarde ! One gave 
 to me this billet at the dinner-table," was the reply. 
 
 Hastily snatching it, D'Almayne read as follows : — 
 
 " Street, Eleven p.m. 
 
 "Prince Ratrapski, the Russian nobleman, has been playing 
 deeply; has had a run of unparalleled luck and broken the bank; 
 unless you can come by ^BoOO iiaimediately, there will be an unpleasant 
 exposure, and D'Almayne and yourself will be, before morning, the 
 tenants of a debtor's prison, with 
 
 " Your devoted, 
 
 " Le Roux." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 SOME OF THE JOYS OF OUR DANCING DATS. 
 
 Lady Tattersall Trottemout lived in the Brompton and Ken- 
 sington region and knew everybody. Her deceased papa had walked 
 into Manchester some fifty years since, with a good head on his 
 shoulders and fourpence-halfpenny in his breeches-pocket. Bein^ 
 tired with his walk, he sat down in Manchester, and rested there for 
 the space of forty years, during which time, by a process peculiar to 
 that city, his foiirpence-halfpenny grew into an hundred and forty 
 thousand pounds. Unto him was born, in lawful wedlock, one only 
 daughter, the subject of the present brief memoir, who, on his retire- 
 ment to " 't Oud Churchyard " (as, in his Lancashire dialect, he was 
 accustomed to denominate his final resting-place in the burial-ground 
 of the Collegiate Church), inherited the foiu-pence-half penny and its 
 compound interest ; with which, when her mourning for her father 
 was ended, she purchased Sir Tattersall Trottemoiit. This noble 
 baronet, who was by no means worth the price she gave for him, had 
 been essentially a fast man, and had run through everything he could
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 219 
 
 lay his " blood-red hand " upon — liis own fortune and tlie fortunes of 
 several of liis relations included — and wlien they were all gone and 
 spent, he ran tkrough his reputation ; which last " rapid act " did not 
 take him long, as that " bubble " was not as " wide as a church-door, 
 nor deep as a draw-well," when he began upon it. Tluis, finding him- 
 self under a cloud and in difficulties — the only things he had yet en- 
 countered which he could not run through (the good old days of 
 " pinking " one's tailor instead of paying him being unfortunately 
 past) — Sir T. T. felt that his time was come, and that he must pre- 
 pare his mind for another — that is, a man-ied — life. So, aetatis forty- 
 five, he went into dock, dyed his hair and whiskers, purchased a new 
 set of teeth, laid in a stock of patent leather boots, and ran down to 
 Manchester, to captivate an heiress. The respectable owner of the en- 
 larged and embellished f ouri^ence-halfpenny had, at that epoch, been 
 about one year under the turf which his future son-in-law had been 
 on for above twenty ; and his orphan daughter, of sweet nineteen, 
 was immediately smitten and wounded by the aristocratic appear- 
 ance and distinguished manners of the broken-down titled black- 
 leg who sought her . . . fortune. She, being then a simple-minded, 
 honest girl, absurd as it may appear, loved the creature ; and, despite 
 the advice of several kind-hearted, strong-headed, fearfully vulgar old 
 men, who were her ti-ustees, guardians, legal advisers, &c., &c. (police- 
 men, so to speak, appointed by the lamented deceased to prevent his 
 developed fourpence-halfpenny being prematurely reduced to its 
 pristine elements), this young lady vowed she would marry Sir 
 Tattersall Ti'ottemout — and did so. But, as the baronet's talent 
 for running through any amount of cash was rumoured even at Man- 
 chester, the ancient policemen tied up the fourpence-halfpenny 
 so tightly that nobody could manufacture ducks and drakes with it 
 — not even Sir Tatt. Trott. ; so, after a few abortive attempts, that 
 ornament to his order gave up his evil courses, and settled down 
 quietly on cigars, brandy and water, and whist with half-crown points 
 —a notable example of the reformatory powers of matrimony. His 
 lady-wife went through the usual agreeable process of awaking 
 from " Love's young dream," and discovering that, after the manner 
 of Caliban, she had in her simplicity, 
 
 " Made a wonder of a poor drunkard," 
 
 she, like a sensible woman, resolved to put up with her bad bargain, 
 keep her husband in respectable order, and create or discover some 
 fresh interest in life for herself. In accordance with this determina- 
 tion, she restricted the marital cigars and brandy and water to 
 certain definite limits ; tested several phases of London society ; and 
 then took her line, and chose her associates accordingly. Being an 
 intellectual woman, and having literary taste up to a certain point, 
 she affected the society of artists of all classes, and in every depart- 
 ment of art. Thus, at her soirt5es. you might meet literary men of 
 various species : historians, novelists, journalists, critics, " et hoc
 
 220 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 genus omne ; " paintei's, sculptors, musicians ; the leading actors of 
 tlie day, male and female, — in fact, all the celebrities whom the 
 London season delij^hteth to honour. But, knowing that talent 
 requii-es an intelligent audience. Lady Tattersall Trottemout 
 associated a certain proportion of the " profanum vulgus " to worship 
 her collected divinities. Her parties, therefore, soon became noted 
 as the most agreeable of their kind ; and to one of these meetings, in 
 which dancing was to be the chief feature of the evening, were our 
 friends in Park Lane invited. Harry had promised Alice that, if it 
 were possible, he would return to escort her to this notable gather- 
 ing ; however, on the aj^pointed evening, ten o'clock arrived, but no 
 Coverdale. Alice was rather frightened and considerably annoyed, 
 but Kate persuaded her that there was no just cause for alarm ; and 
 so, leaving a note for Harry, begging him to join them, if he should 
 arrive in time to make it worth while to do so, they proceeded to the 
 " spacious mansion " of Lady Tattersall Trottemout. 
 
 For some time, little Mrs. Coverdale was sufficiently amused by 
 observing the appearance, manners, and customs of the various 
 notabilities, as they were pointed out to her by no less a personage 
 than her hostess, who, attracted by the simple beauty of her new 
 acquaintance, and the evident pleasure and interest she took in all 
 that was going on around her, actually devoted to her ten minutes of 
 the valuable time in which, on such occasions, a clever mistress of 
 the house is expected, and actually contrives, to say and do some- 
 thing civil to an hundred and fifty human beings, all prepared to 
 magnify any accidental neglect into an intended slight, and to resent 
 it accordingly. But, ere ten minutes had well elapsed, an illustrious 
 stranger arrived, who was so intensely foreign that he could not be 
 prevailed upon to speak or understand any language of which the 
 deepest philologists present were able to make head or tail, and who, 
 in his consequent bewilderment, had seated himself on the music- 
 stool, with his back towards the key-board of the pianoforte — there- 
 by establishing a complete blockade of that harmonious and indis- 
 pensa.ble instrument, which no representations in French, German, 
 or Italian could induce him to relinquish : so a breathless female 
 aide-de-camp, in flaxen ringlets and white muslin, hurried up to 
 report this frightful dilemma to the commandress-in-chief , who, with 
 the greatest presence of mind, dispatched her to summon Count 
 Cacklewitz, the young Hungarian patriot, who, it was generally 
 believed, could speak everything, even his own langiiage, and then 
 hastened in person to raise the siege of the pianoforte. Alice, thus 
 deserted, fell into the hands of a tall, gaunt, blue woman, rejoicing 
 in a red nose and a long fluent tongue, who began to talk high art 
 to her, and confused her about transcendentalism and Carlyle, — the 
 Oxford Graduate (viz. Turner's single and singular disciple, 
 wonderful Mr. Ruskin), and pre-Raphaelism, — the meaning of 
 Tennyson, when he condescends to be obscure (for he can write real 
 poetry, which "he who runs may read" and feel), — and of the dark
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 221 
 
 Brownings, and Macaulay and the romance of histoiy, and many 
 other hackneyed psendo-literary topics of the day, until our unlucky 
 little heroine lapsed into that state of mental incapacity usually 
 described as not knowing whether one is standing on one's head or 
 one's heels. Then began vocal music, which mercifully silenced 
 Alice's strong-minded persecutor; and a rather raffish baritone 
 gentleman, who wanted shearing dreadfully, and was all voice, eyes, 
 and feathers, like a lean bird, accosted a singularly hard-featured, 
 middle-aged German lady, as " Oh ! thou beloved one ! " to which she 
 made an appropriately tender soprano reply; and the company 
 listened with much forbearance, for quite ten minutes, to the united 
 aifections of this interesting couple, detailed to an accompaniment 
 now rapturous, now pathetic, at the end of which period they both 
 suddenly exalted their voices, bellowed their love at each other in 
 one final outburst of sympathetic insanity, and subsided into a 
 refreshing silence. Then a young lady in a i)ink sash informed the 
 company that her brain was on fire, her heart consuming, and her 
 digestive organs generally in a state of spontaneous combustion, 
 because her fatherland writhed in the grasp of tyrants — " tra la, tra 
 lira la ! " — which unpleasant state of affairs was much applauded by 
 hairy exiles, with microscopic washing bills, which they never paid, 
 and a monomania in regard to freedom, which they never obtained, 
 but which had kept them in hot water (the only water they patron- 
 ized) from their youth upwards. Lastly, a very mild young gentle- 
 man of England excited himself about some " Rivar ! rivar ! shining 
 rivar ! " into which pellucid stream he kept putting his foot " deeper 
 and deeper still," until every one was so son'y for him, that the whole 
 party appeared on the verge of hysterics, and were forced to conceal 
 their emotion behind fans, flounced pocket handkerchiefs, and white- 
 gloved hands. Then the votai-ies of Terpsichore stood at ease upon 
 their light fantastic toes (except in the cases of tightly-shod 
 martyrs), and polking was the order of the night — at which period 
 Alice looked about and wondered what had become of Lord Alfred 
 Courtland, who had said a great deal on the subject of the delight he 
 expected in dancing with her, and had engaged her hand for the first 
 polka. 
 
 Now, whether any strictly moral reader, with that bad opinion of 
 poor human natiire which very strict morality usually induces, has 
 decided that " every woman is at heart a rake," and believed our 
 little heroine about to prove herself a " dreadful creature," and 
 transfer her affections from her lawful husband to her unlawful 
 admirer, we do not know ; but if any reader has set his (or her) heart 
 on such a consummation, we are sorry to be obliged to inform him 
 that he is mistaken. Alice considered Lord Alfred a good-natured, 
 agreeable boy, whose conversation served to amuse her, and to 
 whose society she had become accustomed ; she would a thousand 
 times rather have talked to Harry at any time, but Harry was not 
 always attainable— indeed, the chaaices were generally against her
 
 222 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 seeing anything of him from breakfast till dinner-time, and then 
 Lord Alfred became a very good and safe substitute. 
 
 But the first polka was over, and a " valse a deux temps " followed 
 it, neither of which Alice danced, and still no Harry, no Lord Alfred 
 appeared; and in despair she was obliged to say yes to a heavy 
 cornet in the Life Guards, who was big enough to eat her, and 
 polked like a polite young elephant. Glad to escape without being 
 squeezed to death or trampled under foot by this ponderous young 
 warrior, Alice had just found a seat when D'Almayne and Lord 
 Alfred lounged in ; the latter immediately joined her, and claimed 
 her promise to dance with him ; but Alice was tii-ed and bored, and 
 feeling that it was in some degi'ee owing to him that she had become 
 so, and that he ought to have been there sooner, she replied coldly,— 
 
 " I promised to reserve the first dance for you, my lord, but the 
 first dance has been over some time, and several others have 
 followed ; I do not feel disposed to dance at present." 
 
 Of course. Lord Alfred endeavoured to excuse himself, and when 
 Alice declined dancing, said, " Very well, then he should sit still too 
 — all the night, if she pleased, for he certainly should not dance with 
 any one else." So, after she had teased him until he very nearly lost 
 the little good temper which the events of the earlier part of the 
 evening had left him, she took compassion on bim, and danced with 
 him twice consecutively ; but when he urged her to do so a third 
 time she refused ; and on his pressing her, told him plainly that, as 
 her husband was away, she felt bound to be more than usually 
 particular, and that it was not etiquette to dance the whole evening 
 with one gentleman ; at which rebuff his lordship was pleased to 
 take offence, and leading her to a seat, he bowed and left her. 
 Desei-ted by his lady-love, and swindled out of his money by his 
 pseudo-friends, this victimised young nobleman looked about for 
 his protector and adviser — at once patron and parasite — Horace 
 D'Almayne, but for some time without success ; when at length he 
 did discover him, he was engaged in siTch an eaimest private conver- 
 sation with some gentleman unknown, that Lord Alfred felt it would 
 be ill-bred to interrupt them ; accordingly, he lounged through the 
 rooms, resisting several inti-oductions to " great heiresses " and 
 " loveliest girls in London," all declared to be dying to dance with 
 Mm, wandered listlessly into the refreshment-room, drank a 
 tumbler of champagne and soda-water, and was thinking seriously of 
 turning sulky and going home to bed, when D'Almayne seized him 
 by the arm, exclaiming, — 
 
 " Alfred, mon cher, where bave you hidden yourself ? I've been 
 hunting for you for the last half -hour. Why have you left la belle 
 Coverdale ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; that is good ! looking for me, indeed, when I passed you 
 twice close enough almost to brush against your elbow, and you 
 never even saw me, so engrossed were you plotting treason with some 
 party unknown," was the captious reply.
 
 AND AI.L THAT CAME OP IT 223 
 
 " Unpfratef 111 ! when it was for your interest I was exerting myself," 
 returned D'Almayne i-eproaclif ully ; " but you do not explain why 
 you have quitted la belle Alice ; you really are not sufficiently atten- 
 tive ; no pretty woman likes to be neglected." 
 
 " She's a little fickle, heartless coquette, and I'll let her see that I'm 
 not so completely her slave as she appears to imagine," answered 
 Lord Alfred snappishly, at the same time filling his glass with cham- 
 pagne ; " she refused to dance with me more than twice because it 
 was not etiquette, and she wished to be extra particular because her 
 husband was not here. I don't think he'd overwhelm her with his 
 attentions if he were, unless he means to alter very much. No : the 
 fact is, she is out of humour, and chooses to vent it on me ; it would 
 just serve her right if I were to go home and leave her to her own 
 devices." 
 
 " Do nothing of the kind, ' mon cher,' but listen to me, and — excuse 
 me, but don't drink any more champagne, or you'll do something 
 absurd ; your comic friend brewed that sherry-cobbler too strong. 
 Go quietly back to the Coverdale ; try and persuade her to dance, but 
 if she refuses, show no annoyance, and get her to allude again to her 
 husband: then carelessly and incidentally, as if you had no design 
 in what you were saying, suggest that she would scarcely be so par- 
 ticular, if she knew what a naughty boy he had been in Italy, and 
 having excited her curiosity, tell her the following little anecdote." 
 
 As a bevy of men entered the refreshment-room at that moment, 
 D'Almayne, linking his arm with that of Lord Alfred, led him aside, 
 and made to him a communication, the nature of which will appear 
 in the due course of this history. Lord Alfred seemed surprised, and, 
 to his credit be it spoken, even pained, by the information thus 
 afforded him; and when D'Almayne had conckided, his auditor 
 remained a minute or so buried in thought, then he asked 
 abruptly, — 
 
 " Tou are sure there is still some clandestine understanding- 
 between them — you are quite certain ? " 
 
 " I am as certain as a man can be of any clandestine proceeding to 
 which he is not a party," was the reply ; " you are aware of what I 
 observed on the occasion of the Hoi-ticultural Fete. I now relate to 
 you the antecedents ; you are no longer a child, but.sufficiently a man 
 of the world to draw your own deductions." 
 
 The adroit flattery .on the weak point told : faith in truth and 
 honour would argue a want of knowledge of life ; so with a slight 
 laugh, assumptive of an omniscience in evil, he replied, " I was willing 
 to give him the benefit of a doubt, if it were possible ; but, as you say, 
 the thing is clear enough ; and now, how is this to advantage me ? " 
 
 " Do you ask ? " was the surprised rejoinder; " I thought you told 
 me just now that the cruel fair one had snubbed you by throwing her 
 duty to her husband at your head ; so it occurred to my simplicity 
 that this information, properly applied, would prevent a recurrence 
 of such rebuff."
 
 224 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " But surely you would never have me tell her, and her o^vn husband 
 the hero of the adventure ! " expostulated Lord Alfred. 
 
 " Listen, ' mon cher,' one moment," was D'Almayne's reply, spoken 
 in a low, impressive voice ; " I do not wish you to follow any particular 
 line of conduct ; I have no interest to serve, no desire to gratify, by 
 your doing or abstaining fi'om anything ; but when you tell me you 
 desire to gain such and such a social position, and ask my advice as to 
 the best way of attaining your wishes, I, as youi- friend, point out the 
 means to you — it is for you to judge whether they are such as you 
 choose to emi^loy. You must now excuse me : I see some old acquaint- 
 ances of mine, to whose memory I am anxious to I'ecall myself." 
 
 " Then you really advise me to tell her ! " exclaimed Lord Alfred, 
 seizing D'Almayne's arm in his eagerness and indecision, 
 
 " I really advise nothing of the kind, mon cher," was the reply ; " I 
 have already cautioned you against that abrupt plain-speaking of 
 yours ; you should divest yourself of that rustic habit. You could 
 scarcely sin more deeply against good taste and good breeding than 
 to go to ' la belle Coverdale,' and bring a railing accusation against her 
 husband, nor could you divine a plan more certain to frustrate your 
 hopes and wishes : but if, grieving over her misplaced confidence, you 
 philanthropically incline to hint to her that he is scarcely the im- 
 maculate ascetic Ver imagination depicts, ' c'est tout autre chose ! ' and 
 now you must excuse me ; " and as he spoke, he gently freed his coat- 
 sleeve from Lord Alfred's grasp, and regarding him with a half- 
 sarcastic, half -compassionate, but wholly irritating smile, he turned 
 and quitted the spot. 
 
 Thus left to his own reflections, which were none of the most agree- 
 able. Lord Alf x-ed paused for a few moments in indecision ; then, with 
 a hand tremulous from excitement, again replenished his glass, 
 tossed down the champagne, and returned to the dancing-room. 
 
 During her admirer's absence, Alice had, for want of some more 
 interesting occupation, been conversing with Arabella Crof ton, using 
 all her skill to try to elicit some particulars of her acquaintance with 
 Harry in Italy, in which endeavour she had been most adroitly foiled 
 by the quiet self-possession of the ci-devant governess, who told her 
 most readily all she did not care to learn and nothing that she did. 
 As Lord Alfred approached, an individual was introduced to Miss 
 Crof ton, who desired the honour of her hand for the next polka, which 
 desire that young lady obligingly gratified, thus affording his lord- 
 ship an opportunity of seating himself by Alice, of which he instantly 
 availed himself. 
 
 " It is never right to believe in a fair lady's nay," he began, " so I 
 have returned to afford you an opportunity of confessing your change 
 of mind with a good grace ; come, they are just going to begin a new 
 polka, let us take our places." 
 
 " If ladies do always change their minds, I am going to be the 
 interesting exception which proves the rule," was Alice's reply. 
 
 "How provokingly and unnaturally obstinate you are to-night.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 225 
 
 Mrs. Covevdale ! You pretend to be fond of dancing, and yet, because 
 I ask you, you resolve to sit still ! " 
 
 " I have already told you my reason," rejoined Alice ; " in Mr. 
 Coverdale's absence I do not clioose to dance the whole evening with 
 any one gentleman." 
 
 " What a pattern wife you are ! "' was the reply ; " you give up your 
 own amusement, and destroy all my pleasure, out of regard for the 
 ghost of a scruple, which I dare say has never entei'ed Mr. Cover- 
 dale's brain ; really, the patient Griselda was nothing coniijared to 
 you." 
 
 Alice was annoyed by his pertinacity, and, considering this speech 
 impertinent, was about to repeat her refusal in terms which would 
 have enlightened his lordship vei'y considerably on these i^oints, when 
 it flashed across her that he might have taken rather too much cham- 
 pagne ; and the idea having occurred to her, his flushed face and 
 excited manner confirmed it. Having sufficient liking for him to 
 wish to prevent him from making himself ridiculous, she good- 
 naturedly resolved to engross his conversation herself, and, awai'e of 
 what she conceived to be the true state of the case, not to take ofilence 
 at anything he might say, intending to read him a lecture on the 
 following day. In accordance with this resolution she replied, — 
 
 " I consider it a great compliment to be compared to the patient 
 Grisel, more particularly as I was not of opinion that she and I 
 had very many qualities in common. By the way," she continued, 
 seeking to change the subject, and taking the first idea that occui-red 
 to her, " what do you think of the lady whose chair you are occupy- 
 ing ? I have never asked your opinion of Miss Arabella Crofton." 
 
 The question was a most imfortunate one. Alice's continued 
 refusal to dance with him had annoyed Lord Alfred, and wounded his 
 vanity ; the reason of her refusal was her absurd devotion (as he con- 
 sidered it) to her husband ; and now she, as it were, held the cup of 
 revenge to his lips by the question she had asked him. Up to 
 this point his better nature had struggled with the temptation 
 successfully, but now it had acquired an additional strength, and 
 overcame him. 
 
 " I wonder you should care to know my ideas on the subject," he 
 said ; and as he proceeded to work out Horace D'Almayne's sugges- 
 tions, his tone and manner unconsciously assumed a resemblance to 
 that excellent young man's sarcastic and suggestive delivery : " Miss 
 Ci'ofton is merely a recent and very slight acquaintance of mine ; you 
 should apply to Mr. Coverdale — he could tell you many much more in- 
 teresting i^articulars of her history than I am able to communicate, 
 if he were willing to do so." 
 
 All temptations to do things foolish or wrong ai*e orthodoxly 
 supposed to come from the Prince of Darkness ; if it be so, the fact 
 speaks very highly for the intellectual capacity of that sable 
 potentate, as the said temptations invariably adapt themselves in a 
 most wonderful manner to the various weaknesses and incon- 
 
 Q
 
 22G HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 sistencies of our nature. Thus, as Alice's speech had, unintention- 
 ally on her part, appealed to Lord Alfred's leading foible — vanity, 
 so, in turn, did his reply re-act upon Alice's vulnerable points— 
 j ealousy of Arabella Crofton, and consequent curiosity as to her 
 former relations with Harry Coverdale. Accordingly, forgetting 
 time, place, proprieties, even her doubt in regard to the perfect 
 sobriety of the person she was addressing, in the overpowering 
 interest of the question, she asked, hurriedly, — 
 
 " Why do you say that ? to what do you refer ? has Mr. Coverdale 
 ever told you anything on the subject ? " 
 
 Lord Alfred smiled at the effect which his hint had produced ; 
 though, when he marked his victim's eager eye and trembling lip, 
 his good feeling made one last appeal, and he half resolved to leave 
 D'Almayne's communication untold. Had he been completely 
 himself, the good resolution would have been formed and adhered 
 to ; but he had " put an enemy into his mouth to steal away his 
 brains." and was no longer able to control his impulses ; so, by an 
 effort, he silenced the voice of conscience, and replied, — 
 
 '" I shall break no confidence by telling you why I supposed Mr. 
 Coverdale better ' up ' in Miss Crof ton's previous history than I am, 
 for he never mentioned her name in my presence ; indeed, now 
 I come to think of it, it is a subject he always studiously avoids ; but 
 my information relates to certain romantic passages said to have 
 occiuTed in Italy." 
 
 " In Italy ! " exclaimed Alice, aghast at this apparent realization 
 of all her vague fears and suspicions. " Go on," she continued, 
 impatiently ; " I can listen to no hints aspersing my husband's 
 character ; if yoi; have anything to say against him, do not insinuate 
 it, but speak out plainly and honestly." 
 
 " Really, you mistake me," was the reply ; " I have no accusation 
 to bring against Mr. Coverdale : but your question recalled to my 
 mind an anecdote which I heard lately, and I was amused at your 
 requiring infomiation from me which yoxir own husband was so 
 much better able to afford." 
 
 " And what was this remarkable anecdote ? Pray let me have the 
 benefit of hearing it, my lord," rejoined Alice, in vain trying to look 
 and speak in an unconcerned manner. 
 
 " Really I think I had better not tell you ; yoii ladies are apt to be 
 a little jealous sometimes without i-easonable cause. ' Where 
 ignorance is bliss,' you know — " He paused with a tantalizing 
 smile, then seeing from Alice's manner that she was not in a 
 humour to be trifled with, he continued — " Well, I see you mean to 
 hear it, so I may as well tell you at once — not that there is anything 
 very wonderful to tell. You must know that, some three or four 
 years ago, Miss Crofton, being then younger and handsomer than 
 she is now (she is not my style, but many people consider her vastly 
 attractive still), was living as governess with a family of the name of 
 Muir, and in that capacity accompanied them to Florence. John
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 227 
 
 Muir, the eldest son, was an old college friend of Mr. Coverdale's, 
 and meeting by chance in Switzerland, they joined forces, and spent 
 two or three months at Florence, making occasional excursions into 
 the adjoining country. Everything progressed with cheerfulness 
 and serenity in this Italian Arcadia, until one fine day the eldest 
 Miss Muir eloped with an individual who represented himself as a 
 Neapolitan count, and proved to be mei'ely either valet or courier to 
 the same. This broke up the party, and Mr. Coverdale took his 
 leave ; but scarcely had he been gone twelve hours, when, lo and 
 behold. Miss Crofton, who had been much blamed for not having 
 looked after the eloped-with young lady more closely (I suppose she 
 was looking after somebody else), suddenly disappeared. After 
 hunting about Florence in vain, Pater Familias Muir somehow 
 obtained a clue to the lady's whereabouts, following which he 
 reached a village some thirty miles distant, where he discovered 
 Miss Crofton, and, if my informant did not err, Mr. Coverdale also. 
 Whether it had been his intention to place her in that position now 
 so much more worthily filled, or whether he proposed an arrange- 
 ment of a less permanent character, history telleth not ; suffice it to 
 add, as the books say, that the eloquent representations of Pater 
 Muir induced the lady to return with him to Florence, whence he 
 instantly despatched her to England under some safe escort, while 
 Mr. Coverdale pursued his onward course to Turkey and the East." 
 He paused, but as Alice made no reply, merely concealing her 
 countenance behind a voluminous fan, somewhat smaller than a 
 peacock's expanded tail, he continued—" Such was the historiette 
 related to me ; but scandal-mongers are so given to exaggerate, that 
 I dare say it is not half true, so do not wori-y yourself about it, my 
 dear Mrs. Coverdale." 
 
 This consolatory codicil was added because his lordship heard, or 
 fancied he heard, a sound analogous to a repressed sob proceed from 
 behind the fan, and this pseudo-profligate young nobleman carried a 
 very tender heart under his embroidei'ed waistcoat. 
 
 On receiving this confirmation of her worst, nay, more than her 
 worst, fears, Alice's first impulse was to give way to a flood of tears 
 — an impulse so strong that, unable entirely to check it, the sob 
 which Lord Alfred had partially overheard was the result. The 
 story chimed in with her jealous suspicions so exactly, that it never 
 for a moment occuired to her to question the truth of it ; on the 
 contrary, it would have required the clearest evidence of its false- 
 hood to make her disbelieve it. Having by a gi-eat effort repressed 
 her tears, her next impulse was to prevent any one, especially Lord 
 Alfred, from perceiving how deeply his intelligence had affected her. 
 Accordingly she turned to him, and replied in as careless a tone as 
 she could summon, — 
 
 " A very pi*etty bit of scandal, truly ; and, as you say, worth as 
 miich, or as little rather, as scandal visually is ; however, the tale 
 has served to amuse me and put me in a good humour ; so, as you
 
 228 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 seem to liave set your heart upon another dance, I suppose I must 
 exercise my woman's privilege in your favour, and change my mind. 
 They are going to waltz — shall we begin ? " 
 
 Surprised and delighted at the success of his experiment, and 
 almost inclined to attribute supernatural wisdom to Horace 
 D'Almayne, Lord Alfred hastily offei'ed his arm to his enslaver, and 
 in another minute they were whirling round the room in all the 
 giddy excitement of a rapid waltz. While the dance was still pro- 
 ceeding, a tall, striking-looking man entered the room, and shading 
 his eyes from the unaccustomed brilliancy of the lights, carefully 
 scrutinized the dancers, until his glance fell upon the figures of 
 Alice and Lord Alfred, when a shade came over his handsome 
 features, and leaning his shoulder against the side of a dooinvay, he 
 remained with his eyes tracking the evolutions of two of the figures 
 glancing before him. After he had remained motionless for some 
 minutes, absorbed in his own thoughts, which were, apparently, of 
 no over-pleasant nature, a gentle touch on the arm aroused him, 
 and, looking roimd, he perceived Arabella Crofton. She was about 
 to address him, but by a warning gestm*e he silenced her, and she 
 remained standing silently beside him until, in a low, stern voice, he 
 asked abruptly, — 
 
 " How often has she been dancing with him ? " 
 
 " Three times, I believe ; but I assure you — " 
 
 " Hush ! " continued Coverdale in the same stei'n, impressive voice, 
 which was just above a whisper ; " I want facts, not comments. Has 
 she danced with any one else since he has been here ? " 
 
 " Not that I am aware of," was the reply. " She danced with a 
 young guardsman before he came." 
 
 " And since ? " 
 
 " They have been either dancing or talking together, except for 
 about ten minutes, din*ing the last two hours." 
 
 Coverdale made no reply, biit his lips became more sternly 
 compressed, and the shade on his brow grew deei^er, until the dance 
 concluded, then muttering, — 
 
 " This must not go on : I shall make her come away " — he strode 
 across the room to where (her late partner bending gracefully over 
 her, and talking about nothing with the deepest empressement) his 
 wife was seated.
 
 ///' 
 
 
 
 \^:-
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 229 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 ARABELLA. 
 
 On percei\'inpr her hnsband, Alice started, and, between surprise 
 and anger, her cheeks assumed a hue more resemblin^f that violent 
 and unsentimental flower the {jeony. than the blush-rose, to the use 
 of which our minor poets are bo strongly addicted. Tliis blush, 
 which, with all his trust in and affection for his wife. Hairy could 
 scarcely fail to misinterpret, did not tend to impart any great degree 
 of cordiality to his manner, as he thus accosted her : — 
 
 '* I scarcely expected to find you still here, so late as it is ; but I 
 only reached Park Lane within the last half-hour. There had been 
 an accident on the line, and our train wiis delayed between two and 
 three hours. You look flushed and tired. You've Ijeen tempting 
 her to dance too much, I'm afraid, Courtland. I saw the carriage 
 waiting as I came in. I should think you must have had enough of 
 this nonsense, Alice! What say you to coming away? I've lots of 
 news to tell you from home." 
 
 " I'm afraid your budget must wait a little longer. I'm engaged 
 to Lord Alfred for the next dance, and intend to fulfil my engage- 
 ment ; so you had better submit to your fate quietly, and provide 
 yourself with a partner," was Alice's cool reply. 
 
 "Courtland will excuse you, I am sure," urged Han-y ; "come 
 away, if for no better reason than that I wish it." 
 
 •■ An all-sufficient one in your autocratic eyes, I dare say," was the 
 flippant rejoinder; " but the ban-el-organs remind us too constantly 
 that ' Britons never shall be slaves,' for me to think of sacrificing my 
 freedom to all your imperious fancies. Come, my lord, they are 
 going to wind up with Sir Roger de Coverley ; let us take our places." 
 So saying, Alice accepted the proffered arm of her " cavalier servante," 
 and walked off with him, leaving her husband to straggle against 
 his rising anger (which in her then frame of mind she saw and dis- 
 regarded) as best he might. A severe struggle it was, and one^ in 
 which nothing but his deep love for her. and fear of compromising 
 her by word or deed, could have rendered him successful. By a 
 powerful exercise of self-control, he contrived to avoid any outward 
 manifestation of his feelings; and after watching Alice and her 
 pai-tner for some minutes, with flashing eyes and an aching heart, as 
 they hun-ied through the boisterous evolutions of that romping 
 dance, he wandered listlessly through the rooms, now partially 
 deserted, seeking some spot whei-e he might be alone with his 
 troubled thoughts, and avoid the necessity of replying to the common-
 
 230 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 places of society, to which, at that moment, he felt himself com- 
 pletely unfitted. Having passed throngh the muBic-room, he f<»ind 
 himself in an elepantly-i'uinished boudoir, which at first sij^lit ho 
 believed to be imtenanted, luid, tiinginfj himself into an easy-chair, 
 leaned his head on his hands, and gave way to painful reflections. 
 After remaining in this attitude for several minutes, a sound 
 resembling a sigh caught his ear, and, hastily looking up, he perceived 
 Arabella Crofton. 
 " Were you here when I entered ? " he inquired. 
 " Yes ; I was standing in the recess of the window, and the curtain 
 concealed me. I should have spoken to you, but as I perceived yuu 
 were preoccupied, I was afraid to disturb you, and did not intend to 
 move until you had left the boudoir, but your ears are so quick that 
 you detected me. I wish," she continued, in a timid, faltering voice, 
 " your brow did not wear so deep a shade, or that I were in any 
 degree able to remove it." As she spoke, she drew nearer to him, 
 and leaned her arm on the back of the chair on which he was 
 sitting. 
 
 Kindness and affection are never so much prized as when we have 
 suffered injustice at the hands of one we love. Words cannot 
 console at such a moment ; but sympathy — the conviction that 
 another heart feels for and with us, is able in some degree to do so. 
 Whatever faults Arabella Crofton might possess,— and that they 
 were neither few nor light no one was better aware than Han-y 
 Coverdale, — the tnith and strength of her regard for him he did not 
 doubt. Deeply, fondly, earnestly as he loved his wife, he must have 
 been more than mortal had he not perforce contrasted the levity (to 
 use the mildest term) and unkindness of her on whom he thus 
 lavished his whole treasure of affection, with the ready sympathy, 
 the watchful tenderness of one who, if she had been all evil, nay, if 
 she had not possessed in some degree imusual generosity of character, 
 might have hated him with a strength ijroportioned to the regard 
 she now appeared to feel towards him. Men are constitutionally 
 denied the relief which the gentler sex derive from tears ; but if, 
 when a woman would weep, a man of deep, stiong feeling can be 
 sufficiently softened to give vent to his sorrow in words, the effect 
 is somewhat analogous. Han-y's heart was full to overflowing, and 
 Arabella's well-timed sympathy caused the torrent of his gi'ief to 
 burst forth. 
 
 " Why does she try me thus ! " he said ; " it is, it must be. mere 
 want of thought ; she is wilful, I see it, as clearly as I see and know 
 that it was my culpable neglect which first made her so ; but this is 
 a hard pimishment for even so gross a fault ! If she knew how her 
 cold looks and hard words pain me — how it grieves, destroys me to 
 be forced to deny her anything— to feel it my duty, as I perceive it 
 to be now, to oppose her slightest wish ! And then to see her doing 
 things which may give those who do not know her truth and purity 
 as I do, occasion to slander her— Arabella, it maddens me!" he
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 231 
 
 pressed bis hand to his forehead to still its throbbinof ; but when his 
 companion appeared about to attempt to console him, he resumed, 
 abruptly — " Don't speak ; you cannot defend her — her conduct 
 admits of no defence, and I will not hear her blamed ! Neither can 
 you advise me ; as far as action goes, my course is clear — I shall 
 take her out of town to-morrow ; and as I cannot have it out with 
 that scoundrel D'Almayne, or the weak, ungrateful boy he is ruining, 
 without compromising her, I nnist postpone the day of reckoning 
 with them — it will come sooner or later, that is all clear enough ; but 
 that is not the point" — here words failed him, and covering his eyes 
 with his hand, he relapsed into his former gloomy silence. 
 
 Arabella Crofton was a woman of strong passions, and naturally 
 of strong impulses also, but these she had learaed in great measiu-e 
 to conti-ol ; thus her manner was usiially quiet and collected, and 
 she both spoke and acted according to a rule laid down by herself 
 for her ovm guidance, and tending towards some definite end. But 
 when, as in the present instance, she was actuated by any over- 
 powering feeling, she was for the moment completely earned away 
 by it, and would act for good or evil, as the impulse which controlled 
 her was a right or wrong one. even in direct opposition to her own 
 plans and intentions. She disliked Alice most heartily, and she had 
 many — we cannot say " good." but sufficient — reasons for doing so ; 
 yet she sympathized so strongly with Harry's grief at the idea that 
 his wife was encouraging the attentions of Lord Alfred Coui-tland, 
 that— believing, as she did honestly, Alice to be merely amusing 
 herself, possibly for the sake of annoying her husband, but evidently 
 not from any deep feeling for her admirer — she could not help trying 
 to comfort him. 
 
 " Do not afflict yourself so deeply," she said ; " I cannot bear to 
 see you suffer thus ! Believe me, you think too seriously of this 
 matter; Mrs. Coverdale is only amusing herself with this foolish, 
 infatuated young man. I am as certain as if I were in her confidence 
 that she does not really care for him ; the very openness with which 
 she accepts his attentions proves that it is so ; as soon as she has 
 left the gaieties and frivolities of town, she will forget his veiy 
 existence." 
 
 " She may forget him," was the bitter reply ; " but will she ever 
 forget the cause which has driven her to encourage him — which has 
 forced her to seek amusement in all these heartless gaieties and 
 follies ? will she ever forget the time when, pui-suing my own selfish 
 pleasures, I left her, day after day, alone— she who had always been 
 accustomed to live in a cheerful family, will she ever forget my 
 neglect, and restore to me that love without which life has no longer 
 a charm for me — that love which I once possessed, and which, God 
 help me ! I fear I have alienated for ever ! " 
 
 '• Yes, she will," was the eager reply ; " if she ever loved you, she 
 loves you still ; real, true love never dies : it would be better for 
 some of us if time could efface feeling ! "
 
 232 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 The evident emotion with which she uttered these hist words 
 touched Harry's kind heart, and, regarding her with a look of 
 pitying interest, he rejoined, — 
 
 " Poor Arabella ! you too have had much soitow to contend 
 with ; and no one can lament more deejjly than I do the share I 
 have had in increasing it. Mine is a stninge fate!— love that I 
 cannot return is lavished and wasted on me, and the only affection 
 I pine for, I have alienated by my own rash and inconsidei-ate 
 conduct ! " 
 
 She stood by him as he spoke, in the excitement of his feelings 
 he had taken her hand and clasped it in his own. At this moment 
 two figures, which had been pausing at the door of the lx)udoir, 
 passed hastily on— by the rustling of the dress, one of them was 
 evidently a woman. 
 
 " But now hear me once more," he continued, raising himself, and 
 regarding her kindly but steadily ; " I am soiTy, very sorry, to find 
 that you have not yet overcome — however, we will not allude to that 
 — if at any time you want a friend's advice or assistance, apply to 
 me : my purse, I need scarcely say, is always at your command ; in 
 fact, as I am well-off. and you unfortunately are not, I think it is an 
 over-refined though generous scruple, which prevents you from 
 allowing me to assist you as I might and wish to do. Why do not 
 you remember and strive to follow my advice ? You are still in a 
 dependent situation quite unworthy of you; while you have talents 
 and powers which, if you would employ them in some straightforward, 
 honest avocation — instead of forming plans and seeking objects of, 
 to say the least, questionable advisability — would secure you a 
 respectable and comfortable position. Think of all this, dear 
 Arabella, and then apply to me, as to an old friend, to advance you 
 funds to cairy out my ideas in any way which seems to you most 
 advisable." 
 
 For a moment she remained silent ; then bending over him, so that 
 her ringlets mingled with his dark curling hair, she murmured, — 
 
 " You are good, and kind, and generous, as you ever were ; and — 
 yes, I will strive to make myself Avorthy of your friendship; if T fail, 
 you know my impulsive, passionate nature, and you will pardon, not 
 condemn me ; for my gi*eatest sorrow, you now know how to pity 
 me ! You say you intend to leave London to-morrow, and I tliink it 
 will be wise in you to do so — perhaps we may never meet again, and 
 so, my dear, dear friend, farewell ! " 
 
 He had retained her hand, and she returned his cordial, warm 
 pressure ; then, by a sudden impulse, she stooped, pressed her pale 
 lips upon his high, smooth brow, and— was gone. 
 
 Harry followed her with his glance as she left the room. 
 
 " Poor thing I " he munnured, " she has many high qualities ; and 
 such a life as she leads must be a complete purgatory to her proud, 
 impetuous disposition ; I hope she will fall into good hands, and— 
 and keep out of my way. Alice evidently dislikes and suspects her,
 
 —-^/V/^ r^^/i^^,<f 
 
 y
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 233 
 
 and nothing I can say is likely to lessen the feeling. Now for 
 taking my poor, dear, naughty, foolish, little wife home, and lectur- 
 ing her. She seemed angry with me ; because I did not arrive in 
 time to accompany her to the ball, I suppose — as if I could prevent 
 railway trains from breaking down ; — ah, it's wretched, miserable 
 work all of it ! " 
 
 Having an-ived at this cheerful conclusion, Harry rose and pro- 
 ceeded in search of his wife. 
 
 In the meantime, the coimtry-dance being ended. Lord Alfred had 
 offered his arm to his partner, and proposed a stroll through the 
 rooms— a proposition to which Alice, who, in her present state of 
 feeling, was anxious to do anything rather than haste the inevitable 
 'tcte-^-tcte' with her husband, consented. As they passed a group 
 who were gathered round a clever copy from one of the great works 
 of some old master, DAlmayne approached Lord Alfred, and making 
 some light remark to screen his real object, found an opportunity to 
 whisper to his pupil, — 
 
 " Take her to the door of the boudoir, and detain her there to look 
 at the pictiu'es in the ante-room for a minute ; there is a ' tableau 
 vivant' inside the apartment which will interest her deeply ! " 
 
 Partially guessing his meaning. Lord Alfred executed the task 
 with so much tact and skill, that all this by-play was completely 
 unnoticed by Alice, and when they reached the door of the boudoir, 
 which stood ajar, she stopped to examine a picture, in perfect 
 unconsciousness of any plot or contrivance; as she did so, the 
 following sentence, spoken in tones of deep emotion, fell upon her 
 ear : — 
 
 " Love that I cannot return is lavished and wasted on me, and the 
 only affection I pine for, I have alienated by my own rash and incon- 
 siderate conduct ! " 
 
 The sound of the voice was all that Alice required to enable her to 
 decide that the speaker was her husband; and a hun-ied glance 
 I)roved to her that his speech had been addressed to Arabella 
 Crofton, her rival, as she had long suspected her to be— a fact in 
 regard to which she now received the assurance of her o^vn senses. 
 
 Harry's speech could bear but one intei-pretation : the " love 
 wasted on him which he could never return," was her own — his 
 wife's ! the " affection he pined for, and had alienated by his rash and 
 inconsiderate conduct," was that of Arabella Crofton ! the " rash con- 
 duct " he was so bitterly repenting— his marriage ! Yes, she saw it 
 all, and felt that for her there was no longer such a thing as happi- 
 ness in this life. Now that she knew, that she had heard from his 
 own lips, that he no longer loved her,— nay, that he had transferred 
 his affection to anotner,— she felt how all-imporfant, how essential 
 it had been to her— existence without Harry's love to brighten it, 
 would be like the un ver&e without sunlight— cold, dark, desolate. 
 
 Poor little Alice ! she had acted very wrongly ; she had been self- 
 willed, petulant, unjust, and disobedient to her husband; but if
 
 234 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 suffering could atone for sin, the bitterness of that moment mi^ht 
 have expiated graver offences than those of which she had been 
 guilty. Her first idea was to get away from the spot : lost iis he was 
 to her, Harry should never say she was a spy upon his actions. She 
 tunied to communicate her wish to her companion, and saw his eyes 
 fixed on her face with a peculiar intelligence which she had never ob- 
 served before, and in an instant the thought flashed across her that 
 she had been brought there by design ; and, without allowing time 
 for reflection as to the advisability of making such an accusation, 
 she exclaimed, — 
 
 " You knew they were there, and brought me on purpose to see 
 them, and so to destroy the happiness of my future life ! what have 
 I ever done to you to desei-ve this at your hands ! " 
 
 Utterly taken aback by this direct and unexpected attack, Lord 
 Alfred coloured up, stammered something unintelligible, and at last 
 attempted to screen himself behind the equivocation that he did not 
 know Mr. Coverdale was in the boxidoir. 
 
 " If you did not know it, you suspected it," was the reply ; " your 
 featui-es are more honest than your words, my lord, and bt'tray 
 you." 
 
 Greatly confounded at this most unexpected result of his scheme, 
 Lord Alfred vowed, and protested, and attemjited to cleai* and 
 defend himself, but in vain. The shock Alice had received had 
 couched her mental vision, and, turaing a deaf ear to his excuses, she 
 sternly desired him to take her back to Mrs. Crane immediately ; 
 and then preserved an offended silence, so that his lordship was glad 
 to take her at her word, and lead her back to the drawing-room, in 
 ■which the Crane pai-ty had ensconced themselves. 
 
 " Kate, let us get home — I am wearied to death ; somebody said the 
 carriage was waiting." 
 
 The words were commonplace enough, but something in the tone 
 in which they were uttered caused Mrs. Crane to regard her cousin 
 attentively, and her quick eye soon discerned that there was some- 
 thing amiss. " Alice, is anything wrong, deai* ? you ai*e not ill ? " 
 " Yes ! no ! my head aches— only let us get away ! " was the reply. 
 " But someone told me that Mr. Coverdale had arrived ; where is 
 he ? — you will wait for him ? " returned Kate, alarmed and sui-prised 
 at Alice's unwonted agitation. 
 
 " He will come when he likes ; he — has found some friends of his, 
 I believe," niurmm-ed Alice. " Only let us get away ! " she added, in 
 so imploring a tone that Kate, convinced some contretemps had 
 occurred, despatched Mr. Crane in search of Miss Crofton, and, 
 taking leave of Lady Tattersall Ti-ottemout (who thinking they had 
 resolved to spend the night there, naturally deplored their " lamning 
 away so early ") , repaired to the cloak-room. Here the others, in- 
 cluding Han-y Coverdale, joined them, and in another quaiier of an 
 hour they were safely housed in Park Lane. 
 Thus ended Lady Tattersall Trottemout's ' soiree dansante ' ; but
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 235 
 
 its consequences continued to influence the lives of those whose 
 fortunes we are tracinj?, for many a long year. 
 
 Nothing passed between Coverdale and Alice in reference to the 
 scenes we have just described until the next morning, when, before 
 they went down to breakfast, Hany observed abruptly, " Alice, it is 
 my particular wish that you should go down to the Park to-day : can 
 you be ready to start by the four o'clock train ? " 
 
 "Yes," was the imexpectedly acquiescent reply; tlien after a 
 moment's pause, " What reason am I to give Kate for leaving her so 
 suddenly ? " 
 
 Astonished at such a ready consent where he had expected strong 
 opposition, if not an actual refusal to comply with his desire, Harry 
 looked steadfastly at his wife, but her face was turned away, so that 
 he could not read its expression. " My true reason I will explain to 
 you at some time when we can talk the matter over coolly and 
 quietly," was the reply; "the reason I wish you to give your cousin 
 — which is a good, true, and sufficient reason in itself, although not 
 the only one by which I am actuated— is. that your sister Emily has 
 received an invitation to stay with a friend of hers, which Mi-s. 
 Hazlehurst is anxious she should accept, thinking she requires 
 change; but Emily very properly refused to leave her mother. I 
 dined there the day before yesterday, and hearing of the dilemma, 
 proposed that you should take Emily's place for a fortnight or three 
 weeks— I was not wrong in making such an offer, was I ? " 
 
 "No ; I shall be vei-y glad to see and be of use to dear mamma," 
 was the reply. 
 
 ^^ " I should have told you all this last night," continued Coverdale, 
 " but for reasons I will not enter upon at present." 
 
 He waited for some comment on his speech, but he waited in vain ; 
 Alice continued to add the finishing touches to her toilet, until, 
 being completely equipped, she quietly observed, " It is time to go 
 down, I think ; the breakfast bell will ring directly ; " and, suiting 
 the action to the word, she departed, leaving her husband to follow 
 when he pleased. Kate was surprised to hear of their sudden 
 determination to leave town, and sori-y to part with them ; but their 
 reason for so doing was such a plausible one, that she could urge 
 nothing against it. She saw that there was something more— that 
 neither Harry nor his wife were at their ease ; but Alice kept her 
 own coimsel so closely that all Kate's endeavours to win her confi- 
 dence were futile, and she was obliged to content herself by suppos- 
 ing that it was a mere matrimonial breeze which Avould blow over, 
 as such affairs usually do, without any very serious consequences 
 resulting from it. 
 
 Coverdale Park was reached without adventure, and appeared as 
 cool, and calm, and happy as the country usually does to the eyes of 
 fashion-wearied Londoners; and HaiTy, unaffectedly delighted to 
 escape from the uncongenial atmosphere of a crowded city to his 
 home,— which he loved with his whole heart,— forgot, in the pleasure
 
 236 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 he experienced, the amount of Alice's misdemeanours, and was only 
 anxious to be reconciled with her, and to assure her of his pei-fect 
 and entire forgiveness. But since the jn-evious evening a change — 
 for which he could not accoimt, and which began to lender him very 
 uneasy — had come over Alice : she was no longer in-itable and petu- 
 lant at one moment, yet amused and light-hearted at the next, but a 
 settled gloom hung o'er her brow, which indicated soitow rather 
 than anger; and although she had never allowed hiui to sunn-ise her 
 in tears, her eyes bore unmistakable traces of weeping. Their tete- 
 ^-tote dinner passed off heavily enough : as they sat moodily over 
 their dessei-t, Han-y observed, " The evening is most lovely— come 
 out and take a stroll." He spoke kindly, almost tenderly, and as 
 Alice looked up to reply to him, her eyes filled with tears ; hastily 
 checking them before they could be observed, she agreed. Her hus- 
 band carefully ])luced a shawl over her shoulders. l>rought from the 
 hall her garden bonnet, and drawing her arm within his own. they 
 walked on for some distance in silence. At length Han-y observed, 
 "Alice, dear, you seem downcast and unhappy — why is this ? surely 
 you cannot regret that hot, miserable, artificial London ? you must 
 be glad to get back to our own dear, quiet home again ? " 
 
 " I do not in the least regret London," was the reply ; " on the 
 contrary, I am glad to be once more in the countiy again." 
 
 " Then why this gloomy manner ? " urged Coverdale ; " I may 
 have been a little annoyed with you at times lately, but I am quite 
 prepared to believe it was mere thoughtlessness on your part ; in 
 fact, I never considered it anything else. I feel sure when you 
 come to reflect seriously on the matter, you will yourself see that 
 your conduct was a little injudicious ; and, in that case, believe me 
 the affair is from this moment forgotten and forgiven." Hairy 
 paused for a reply, but for several moments none was forthcoming ; 
 at last, his patience being exhausted, he inquired in a tone of 
 surprise, " Alice, did yol^ hear what I was saying ? " 
 
 "I beg your pardon," rejoined Alice, starting, " I was not attend- 
 ing properly at that moment; you were blaming me for something, 
 were you not ? I am very sorry — what was it ? " 
 
 As she spoke Harry glanced towards her to discover whether she 
 had been really too much pre-engrossed to attend to him, or whether 
 she merely affected to have been so for the amiable purpose of 
 provoking him ; deciding in favour of the first hypothesis, he 
 resumed : " I was saying, my dear Alice, that although your flirtation 
 with that foolish boy, Alfred Courtland, had caused me some un- 
 easiness — because people dared to remark on it, unluckily not in a 
 way that I could take up — yet that I was convinced it was merely 
 thoughtlessness on your part, and was anxious to forgive and f oi'get 
 it." 
 
 If he had expressly tried to rouse Alice from the state of gloomy 
 depression into which she had fallen, Harry could not have devised 
 means more effectual than the speech he had just addressed to her.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 237 
 
 With flashing eyes she heard him to the end, then inquired • " And 
 pray, who has dared-(you may well use the word!)-who has dared 
 ^accuse me of flirting? But I need not ask," she continued 
 bitterly ; no one but Miss Crofton would have ventured to asperse 
 your w.fes character before you-from no one else would you have 
 belfeve it ' '''' "" ^^l^ehood-no one else could have induced you to 
 
 Astoni^shed. and if the truth must be told, somewhat confounded at 
 having the tables thus turned upon him, Harry exclaimed, "Alice 
 what do you mean? what ai-e you talking about? have you taken 
 leave of your senses all of a sudden ? " 
 
 " If I had I should scarcely be surprised," was the rejoinder • " but 
 I k-now only too weU what I am saying, and the cause I have to sav 
 and believe it; however, I do not want to reproach you, that would 
 do no good: but-but- knowing what I know-" an hysterical sob 
 choked _her voice-'- it is too hard that you should accuse me of 
 flu-tmg -and here, utterly overcome by her feelings, she burst into 
 a paroxysm of weeping. WhoUy confounded at this unexpected 
 result of his veiy mild remonstrance, which had been intended more 
 as a judicious way of forgi^'ing Alice's misdemeanours than as a 
 reprimand. Harry led her to a seat, and then used his best endeavours 
 to console and bring her to reason ; but in vain, nor was it until she 
 was fam to stop through sheer physical exhaustion that her tears 
 ceased; by which time, what between bodily fatigue (she had not 
 been in bed imtil between three and four on the previous night 
 or rather mommg, could not sleep then, and had accomplished a 
 railway journey smce) and mental agitation, she was so completely 
 wora out that even Hany, who was not usually too clear-sighted on 
 such pomts. perceived this was not a fitting opportunity to continue 
 the discussiou. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER STILL. 
 
 On the afternoon of the day after that on which she returned 
 home, Alice was to go to the Grange, and take her sister's place as 
 compamon to Mrs. Hazlehurst. During the morning Harry was 
 occupied with his bailife and the farming accounts, but he made his 
 appearance at luncheon. When that meal was concluded, and the 
 servants had quitted the room, he began gravely, but kindly :—
 
 238 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " Alice, dear, I do not wish to distress or annoy you, but, 1)efore 
 you leave home, I must once ajjain refer to the convereation of lust 
 nif,'ht. I know not who has coupled my name with that of your 
 cousin Kate's friend. Miss Crofton, nor what falsehoods they may 
 liave coined to blacken my character in your eyes ; but, since I have 
 known you, I have never attempted to deceive you on any point ; 
 and I tell you now, on my honour as a prentleuum, that nothing; ever 
 has passed, or is in the smallest depn'ee likely to pass, between 
 myself and that young lady, calculated to cause you the sliprhtest 
 pain or even uneasiness. Does this satisfy you, or, if not, can I say or 
 do anything that will ? " 
 
 "Yes!" exclaimed Alice, her face flushing with eagerness as the 
 idea stiixck her. " Promise to tell me exactly all that passed 
 between you and her in Italy ! — promise me this ; show me that you 
 are willing to confide in me ; trust to my affection to forgive you, 
 should you tell me anything you think may displease me ; and I will, 
 on my part, tiy to forget my own convictions that— that — in fact, 
 that you do not love me as I believe you once did! Tell me all 
 frankly, and there may yet be happiness in store for us both." 
 
 She paused, breathless with emotion, and fixing her large eyes on 
 her husband's countenance, as though she fain would read his very 
 thoughts, awaited a reply ; but for a minute none appeared likely to 
 come. Coverdale. pushing back his hair, rubbing his forehead, and 
 evincing unmistakable signs of annoyance and perjilexity, at length 
 roused himself by an effort, and. in a constrained, emban-assed tone 
 of voice, replied, — 
 
 " Ask me anything but that: I am under a solemn promise never 
 to mention the facts you desire to learn ; I cannot l)reak my word 
 even to regain your affection." 
 
 "I will ask nothing more of you," retunied Alice, in a tone of 
 deeply-wotmded feeling ; " it was foolish to ask that — I might have 
 known you would I'efuse to answer me ; ;ind it was woi-se than folly 
 to fancy you eared to retain my affection ! And now let me go home 
 to mamma ; thank God I may yet be of some use and comfort to her, 
 and, at all events, I know that she loves me — oh ! that I had never 
 left her ! " and disregarding Harry's exclamation, " Alice, hear me ! 
 indeed you mistake — " she hurried out of the room. 
 
 Her huslxind remained motionless until her retreating footsteps 
 became inaudible, then, springing from his chair, he began pacing 
 up and down with hasty strides, while his ideas an-anged themselves 
 somewhat after the following fashion ; — 
 
 " Well, I've made a pretty mess of it now, and no mistake ! Of all 
 things in the world for her to have fixed upon — to want to know 
 about Arabella ; and poor Arabella has behaved so nicely and kindly 
 too in this affair ! I can't tell her ! besides, there's my promise — 
 come what may I'll keep my promise ; but I am an unlucky dog as 
 ever lived ! Ah ! I never ought to have mari-ied, that's the whole 
 truth. Women don't seem to understand me, and I'm sure I don't
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 239 
 
 understand them ; whetlier I'm stern or whether I'm kind it all tnnis 
 out alike, and all Avi-ong. Poor, dear little Alice ! she is makinj^ 
 herself just as miserable as she has made me : and for the life of me, 
 I don't know how to say or do anything to mend matters ! I must 
 leave it to time, I suppose. Perhaps her mother may talk her into a 
 happier frame of mind. I am glad she is going back to the Grange ; 
 I think 111 leave her there for a shoi-t time — home influences may 
 soften her, and induce her to judge me more charitably. I'm certain 
 it's all my own fault, somehow ! She was as sweet-tempered as an 
 angel when I married her." He continued to pace the room, and after 
 some moments a new notion seemed to strike him. " I wonder who has 
 l)een putting these ideas about Arabella into her head," he resumed, 
 " somebody has been telling her about the Florence business, that's 
 clear — lies most likely, and in order to set her against me. That 
 man D'Aluiuyne, I mistrust him — he's playing a deep game of some 
 kind ; and his manner to Kate Crane I disapprove of strongly. If 
 he has been meddling— if he has dared to say or insinuate anything 
 against me to Alice, by heaven, I'll— I'll - no, I could not trust 
 myself to horsewhip him, at least not just yet, I should kill the 
 scoundrel. I've a gieat mind to run up to London, when I've taken 
 Alice to the Grange, and ti-y and find out something about it ; but I 
 won't be hasty — I must not I the interests at stake are too important 
 — Alice's happiness for life, to say {nothing of my own, which is 
 bound up in hers, depends upon how I behave for the next few 
 months — no ; I won't act rashly or hastily, nothing shall induce me 
 to do so ! " 
 
 Of all the high and solemn mysteries that enshroud the spirit-life 
 none are more inscnitable, yet invested with a deeper and more vital 
 interest, than those apparently in-econcilable paradoxes — predestina- 
 tion and free-will. Our possession of this latter attribute is a tenet 
 held, and carelessly acquiesced in, by Christians of every denomina- 
 tion; yet how little do we realize or estimate its practical importance. 
 It is impossible to reflect, even for a moment, on so vast a field of 
 thought without eliciting ideas at once salutai-y and impressive. Nor 
 can we fully recognize our obligations as responsible beings until, in 
 tracing the fortunes of some fellow-creature, of whose path through 
 life oui' limited powers enable us to perceive only the dim and 
 shadowy outline, we see how what appear trifles— made a right use 
 of, as they should be, or abused, as they too often are— influence a 
 lifetime here, and fearful thought, determine an eternity hereafter ! 
 
 In things spii-itual, as well as in things material, cause goveiTis 
 effect, and the laws which regulate consequences are equally stringent 
 and immutable in both cases, although in the former they are not so 
 easily traceable. Still to the earaest, careful, and patient observer 
 of the mysterious ways of Providence, suggestive glimpses are 
 afforded, aided by which he may reason from things seen to things 
 unseen. Thus remarking how some strange train of events result 
 from a single act which we may long have feebly i^roposed to perform,
 
 240 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 but the execution of whicli we have delayed from day to day, until 
 some unexpected excitement has quickened our resolve into action, 
 we may le{?itimately arL,'ue that tliese events have been, as it were, 
 ■waiting? for the touch which was to set the train in motion ; that if that 
 motive power had been applied sooner, the same results would have 
 been proportionably hastened ; and that if it had never been applied 
 at all, the history of events would have borae a different record. 
 "We are so fearfully and wonderfully constituted, and the dealinjfs of 
 the Creator with His creatures are so complicated and inscrutnble. that 
 we know not what <,'reat events may hinpfe upon our sli^'htest iictions. 
 The avalanche lies in all its dread sublimity, apparently as immovable 
 as the mountain sid« it rests on; the careless foot of some chamois 
 hunter di8U)dges a stone— the spell which enchained the destroyer is 
 broken — with the velocity of the whirlwind the mass descends, 
 crushing and overwhelming all before it — and heart-rending 
 memories are all that reauiin to beai* witness of some once prosperous 
 village and its inhabitants. 
 
 One, who saw all clearly where we but blindly and feebly catch a 
 ray of light, i)rayed for His executioners in these remarkable words 
 — "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!" Ideas 
 such as the foregoing are calculated to inspire feelings of awe ; but, 
 if they are true, they should not be put aside because they give a 
 solemn view of oiu- responsibilities ; when, moreover, rightly con- 
 sidered, they teach an important practical lesson — namely, never to 
 neglect what appear to be little duties, or carelessly to fall into little 
 sins. It seems but a little duty to extinguish a fallen spark ; yet 
 that spark may kindle a fire Avhich may consume a city, which, save 
 for that accident, might have endured for centuries. It seems but 
 a little sin to utter a playful jest on some serious subject ; but that 
 jest may inspii'e a doubt which may injure a wavering faith, and en- 
 danger a soul's salvation. Some may deem these remarks misplaced 
 in a work of fiction ; but if it be a novelist's endeavour to depict 
 truly the various phases of human life, nought that truly affects the 
 springs of human action can be foreign to his subject. 
 
 The evening of Lady Tattersall Trottemout's party was not the 
 first occasion on which Harry Coverdale had bestowed good and 
 sound advice on Arabella Crofton, but never before had it produced 
 the desired effect. Now, however, a new impulse spi-ang up within 
 her — she would conquer her hopeless, selfish, sinful love for him. and 
 strive to render herself worthy of his friendship, and win at least his 
 esteem ; but how should she begin practically to work out his advice 
 — how attempt to render hei'self independent — what duty lay most 
 directly in her path ? Her intention was honest and sincere, and 
 that morning's post brought an answer to her question. A female 
 relation whom she had hitherto neglected, was taken sei-iously ill, 
 and wi'ote wishing, but scarcely expecting her to come to her im- 
 mediately. This lady was old, uninteresting, and in straitened cir- 
 cumstances ; to go to her was an act of unmitigated self-sacrifice.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 24t 
 
 and in Ai-abella's then frame of mind this was its prreat atti-action. 
 Kate Crane was sori-y to pai-t with her, although the short time they 
 had passed together had sufficed to convince her of the disagieeable 
 fact that her dear friend no longer suited her as she had done in her 
 schoolgirl days. There was a very simple reason for this, although 
 Kate did not at once perceive it : Ai-abella Crof ton was at an age 
 when the mind and body having reached maturity, if they do not 
 remain stationary, yet alter so gradually, that the change is almost 
 imperceptible ; she was, therefore, much what she had been four years 
 previously. Kate, on the contrary, had advanced from a girl into a 
 woman ; and her intellectual powers had not only developed until 
 they were now in every respect superior to those of her " ci-devant " 
 governess, but her taste had been formed on a better and purer 
 model, and her natural instincts were of a higher and more refined 
 character. Thus, Arabella was constantly jamng against and 
 annoying Kate's sensitiveness by thought, word, and deed ; and she 
 felt that a gulf had gi-own up between them, which would effectually 
 prevent her friend's society from affording her the comfort and 
 support she had hoped and expected. Aral)ella was much too quick- 
 sighted not to have perceived the effect this feeling had produced 
 uix)n Kate's manner, although she was ignorant of the cause. Thus, 
 the parting between the friends — for, from old association, friends 
 they still were — was by no means so painful as under other circum- 
 stances they might have considered it. 
 
 Left to her own devices, Kate bethought her of the expedition to 
 visit Mrs. Leonard, which Horace D'Almayne had proposed to heron 
 the occasion of the horticultural fdte, but which she had never yet 
 found an opportunity to accom[)li8h. Mrs. Leonard's history was a 
 distressing one. Her husband had been partner in a north coimtry 
 bank, at which Mr. Crane usually kept a considerable account. On 
 one occasion, when his balance there exceeded even its usual limits, 
 a junior partner suddenly absconded to Amei'ica, taking with him so 
 considerable a sum that the bank was obliged to stop payment, and 
 Mr. Leonard found himself a ruined man. In his adversity, his mind 
 became engrossed by one fixed idea, which almost assumed the 
 character of a monomania — viz., that it was his mission to trace out 
 his late partner, and recover the money with which he had made 
 away ; this notion preyed upon him until one morning he, too, 
 suddenly disappeared, leaving a letter to inform his wife that he 
 had set out in search of the delinquent, and that she would hear 
 nothing more of him until he had succeeded in his object. On 
 inquiry, it appeared that he had taken a berth in an American 
 packet, which had just sailed, and, beyond that, all trace of him was 
 lost. Consequently, his family had fallen into actual poverty, which, 
 day by day, assumed a sterner and more hopeless character. A 
 gentleman well versed in the details of Mr. Crane's early acquaintance 
 with Mr. Leonard (who, before Mr. Crane had amassed the fortune 
 he now possessed, had several times advanced him money, and in a 
 
 a.
 
 242 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 measure, therefore, contributed to his success in life) advised Mrs. 
 Leonard to apply to him for assistance ; and beiucf aware how much 
 the millionaire was guided by the opinion of Horace D'Alniayne, 
 suggested that she should make her first application through him : 
 in which ap[)eal the fertile brain of that good young man perceived 
 matter which might be made profitable to the furtherance of hiii 
 designs, and rean-anged his hand, so as to take in the new cards thus 
 placed within his reach. 
 
 The plan which D'Almayne had settled with Kate was this : — she 
 was sitting for her portrait to an artist friend of Horace's, to whose 
 painting-room she went twice a week ; D'Almayne proposed to send 
 away the carriage and servants, when he would have a hired 
 brougham in readiness to convey her to the obscure sulnirb in which 
 Mrs. Leonard's poverty compelled her to reside ; he would meet her 
 on her aiTival there, and introduce her to Mrs. Leonard ; she could 
 then return to the artist's, whence her own carriage could again 
 fetch her and convey her home. Kate disliked all this clandestine 
 contrivance; but, considering the end of sufficient importance to 
 justify the means, she was unable to devise any less objectionalde 
 scheme, and so reluctantly consented. She reached her destination 
 •without adventure. The dwelling occupied by Mrs. Leonard was 
 situated in one of the labyrinths of small, unwholesome streets which 
 lie between Islington and Pentonville, and contain a description of 
 houses too good, or, more truly speaking, too expensive, for the 
 very lowest orders to reside in, and yet so confined and comfortless 
 that it appears incredible that any persons, accustomed to even 
 the ordinary requirements of respectable life, can tolerate them. 
 D'Almayne was waiting in readiness to receive her, and. offerinjf 
 her his arm, led her up the narrow steps and into a miserable parlour, 
 some eight feet square, with the same elaborate and coxcombical 
 politeness with which he would have conducted her across the 
 receiving-room of a duchess. Mrs. Leonard was a singularly gentle, 
 lady-like pei'son, evidently worn down by her continued stinaggle to 
 support herself and family, which consisted of two boys and three 
 girls, the eldest son and daughter being respectively fourteen and 
 fifteen, whence their ages decreased down to a little pale thing of 
 four years old, whose juvenile roses coidd not bloom for want of 
 purer air and more nutritious diet. To them, with the greatest tact 
 and kindness, did Kate proceed to enact the character of guardian 
 angel ; and, ere she had been half-an-hour in the house, had 
 completely won all their affections, from the poor mother, who began 
 to see light breaking in upon her darkness, to the olive-branch of 
 four — whose visions of unlimited sugar-plums bade fair to be realized. 
 Ah ! it is easy to buy golden opinions of the poor and needy in this 
 world : generosity, i.e., judiciously disposing of superfluous cash, is 
 a virtue strangely overrated. The widow's mite is an offering for 
 which one can feel respect, even -with a well-filled stomach ; but that 
 shrine for an Englishman's heart must be indeed empty ere he can
 
 "i/
 
 AXD ALL THAT CAME OF IT 213 
 
 thank Dives for his crumbs. But, when Kate smiled brightly, and 
 8ix)ke kindly and tenderly as she opened her purse-strings, what 
 wonder that the inmates of that house of mourning were ready 
 almost to worship her beauty and munificence? nay, in the excess of 
 her gratitude, poor Mrs. Leonard so lauded Horace D'Almayne for 
 the sunshine he had caused to faU upon the " frost of her despair," 
 that this excellent young man really began to believe himself to 
 have been actuated by pure philanthropy, and wished he had not, 
 from disuse, entirely lost the power of blushing. So he talked, and 
 she talked, and they talked, and were all very much pleased with 
 themselves and with each other ; and Kate Crane turned to depart, 
 with her puree and her heart etiually lightened by this most 
 satisfactory visit. D'Almayne, enraptui-ed alike with tiie success of 
 his scheme, and with himself for having so cleverly devised and 
 executed the same, led Kate to her brougham with nearly as 
 conspicuous a display of gallantry to the lady, and admiration of 
 himself, as that which distinguished Lord Bateman's proud young 
 porter on the memorable occasion of his playing gentleman usher to 
 the fair Soi)hia. Having placed her in the brougham, handed her 
 parasol (why do ladies take parasols about in carriages, where there 
 is not the most remote chance of their being required ?), and a shawl, 
 and a carriage-bug full of elegant rubbish, and smirked to show his 
 white teeth three times — once for each article -ho received as a 
 reward a kindly smile (for Kate really felt obliged to him for tho 
 opportunity of doing good which he had afforded her), which he 
 received with a look of deferential ecstasy, and the brougham, with 
 its fair occupant, drove off. 
 
 On a sordid pallet, in the garret of the house opposite to that in 
 which Mrs. Leonard resided, lay a man who, having lived wickedly, 
 was then dying miseral>ly : stricken with remorseful terror at the 
 near approach of death — inevitable, fearful, retributive death— gate 
 to the stem, inexorable Future, when he would be weighed in the 
 balance and found wanting — he had wished, poor wretch 1 to undo 
 some of the evil he had committed, and so sent to a rising young 
 banister, then getting up evidence in a disputed peerage case, to 
 confess to him the forgery of a name in a pai-ish-register and other 
 iniquities, the knowledge of which would materially strengthen the 
 cause of the young lawyer's client. The interview, a most painful 
 one to any man of feeling, was concluded ; and, having taken copious 
 notes of the dying forger's confession in the presence of a competent 
 witness, soothed the miserable being with such comfort as human 
 sympathy could suggest, and promised to send the clergyman whom 
 his patient and gentle persuasion had induced him to receive, the 
 young ban-ister left the house at the moment D'Almayne handed 
 Kate Crane to the brougham. Why does the stranger turn first red, 
 then pale ? why does he clench his fist till the nails dig deep into the 
 flesh ? why does he make a hasty stride forward, then, with an 
 exclamation half curoc, half sob, as hastily draw back, and screen
 
 244 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 himself in the shadow of the doorway until the carriage had driven 
 off ? He starts because he has seen the woman he once loved better 
 than his own life — the woman he has striven to forgive and forget, 
 and has succeeded in accomplishing neither the one nor the other — 
 leave a shabby house in a disreputable suburb, whither she has been 
 in the society of a notorious libertine ! He clfnched his fist and 
 strode forward from an impulse of rightful indignation, which made 
 him burn to annihilate the scoundrel who stood triumphing in his 
 villainy before him : but he checked himself as the bitter remem- 
 brance flashed across him that he had no claim on her which could 
 give him a right to interfere, although — and this, even at that 
 moment, was the most painful thought of all — another had ! — who 
 was evidently incompetent to fulfil the sacred trust which he had 
 xmdertaken. So, with old wounds thus cruelly reopened, Arthur 
 Hazlehurst, heai't-sick and weary, returned to his chambers, ponder- 
 ing many things, both of this life and of the life to come. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 ADVICE GRATIS. 
 
 It is a dreary thing when much of life seems still before us, and a 
 dark, unfathomable f utiire lies between lis and the grave ; it is a 
 bitter thing to sit alone and ponder on the days to come, and 
 discover no bright spot in the darkness — discern no kind hand to 
 beckon us forward — hear no friendly voice to counsel and encourage 
 us in the battle of life ; it is an uphill task to struggle through 
 existence without an object on this side the tomb — a hard and cruel 
 lot to hope for nothing until death shall have changed hope into 
 f i-uition ! To live in order to fit oneself to die is the duty of every 
 Chi'istian, but to live for that alone requires a far higher degi'ee of 
 sph-ituality than to lay do^vn one's life for the faith : the stake and 
 the axe of persecution are tender mercies compai'ed with the chronic 
 martyrdom of such a life-long sacrifice. 
 
 Some such gloomy thoughts as these passed through the over- 
 wrought brain of Arthur Hazlehurst as, late in the night after Kate's 
 visit to Mrs. Leonard, he folded up the last document of which he 
 had made himself master relative to the disputed peerage case in 
 which he was retained. The evidence of which he had that day 
 become possessed would, he felt certain, ensure his client's success, 
 in which event his own career would in all probability be a prosper- 
 ous one, and fame and fortune become his ; but how worthless did
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 245 
 
 these appear now they could no longer be shared with her he loved. 
 Until the incident of that morning had so powerfully affected him, 
 he hoped that he had in gi-eat measure eradicated this affection, 
 which his good sense enabled him to perceive could only be a source 
 of grief to him : but the pain he had then experienced effectually 
 dispelled the illusian, and he was fain to acknowledge that, strongly 
 as he condemned her conduct in sacrificing his deep and true regard 
 to (as he deemed it) a desire for wealth and the pomps and vanities 
 of fashionable life, he yet, despite his reason, loved her as he felt he 
 never could love any other woman ; and the thought that through 
 her husband's neglect and incompetency she was exposed to the 
 insidious advances of such a character as Horace D'Almayne 
 weighed upon him, and grieved and in-itated him until he could 
 endure it no longer. " C >me what may of it, I will see her and warn 
 her; she shall not be led on by that scoundrel without knowing his 
 true character ! " he exclaimed, rising and hastily pacing the room. 
 "For what purpose could she have accompanied him to such a 
 neighbourhood as that? "he continued, musing ; "he may possibly 
 have got up some plausible lie to induce her to do so, merely to com- 
 promise her in the eyes of her husband— such a scheme is not 
 unlikely to have occun-ed to his subtle brain. Yes, come what may, 
 I will see her to-morrow ; and, unless she is indeed lost to all better 
 feeling, I will rouse her to a sense of duty, and thwart that 
 scoundrel's designs. If her husband should learn my interference, 
 I care not ; because, in his incapacity, he neglects the sacred tinist 
 he has undertaken, that is no reason why I should stand tamely by 
 and see her sacrificed ; no— I will save her in spite of herself ! this 
 shall be my revenge for the happiness which she has blighted. God 
 grant my interference may not prove too late ! " 
 
 His mind occupied with such thoughts as these, Ai-thur Hazle- 
 hurst passed a sleepless night, and the first moment he could tear 
 himself away from business on the following day, he betook himself 
 to Park Lane. Kate was from home when he an-ived ; but having 
 notified to the servant his intention of awaiting her return, he was 
 shown into the drawing-room, where he foimd a tall, fashionably, 
 dressed young man standing in a disconsolate attitude by the fire- 
 place, to whom he made a slight inclination of the head, heartily 
 wishing him at Jericho, or any other locality equally remote from 
 Park Lane ; then, taking up a book, he left him to his own devices. 
 Things remained in this thoroughly English and unsociable state 
 for about ten minutes, towards the end of which period the 
 fashionable yoimg man, having stared hard at Hazlehurst, grew 
 first interested, then excited, and finally the spirit moved him, and 
 he spake : — 
 
 "I beg pardon— a— really I don't think I can be mistaken— a— 
 very absurd, I'm sure, if I am — but I was at school with one Arthur 
 Hazlehurst — and — " 
 
 " And I am he," was the reply ; "but you have the advantage of
 
 246 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 me ; for I was at school with some four hundred boys, and, to tell 
 you the honest truth, it does not at this moment occur to me which 
 of them you may have been." 
 
 " Yet Alfred Courtland has to thank you for such slight skill as he 
 may possess in the noble ai-ts of boot-cleaning, brushing clothes, and 
 frying sausages ; besides early lessons in the demolition of oysters 
 and poi-ter— enforced by example rather than precept," was the re- 
 joinder; and the unsocial ice of Old England being thus broken, the 
 " ci-devant " schoolfellows talked on until they grew quite intimate. At 
 length,Lord Alfred looked at his watch, was silentand" distrait " fora 
 minute or two, then began in a timid, hesitating voice, " I was waiting 
 here to see Mrs. Crane ; but, I don't know— that is, I feel as if I could 
 tell you all about it quite as well ; you can do what I wish better than 
 she could ; and I don't think you'll be angry with me when I've made 
 you understand the affair." 
 
 " Suppose you come to the point, and tiy to do so at once," replied 
 Arthur, anxious to get him away, if possible, before Kate's retiu-n. 
 
 " Well, you see, my dear Hazlehurst, I wish you hadn't been 
 abroad, and then you would have understood it all so much better ; 
 but since you went away — though, by Jove, now I come to think of 
 it, I saw you here one day when Coverdale and your sister first came 
 to town— deuced odd I didn't make you out then ; but if I recollect, 
 you went away just as I came in — " and thus rambling on, he gave a 
 time though by no means a full and particular account of his intimacy 
 with the Coverdales, continuing : " Your sister was veiy kind to me, 
 and took so much trouble about our duets. She pianos, and I do a 
 little in a mild way on the flute, you know, and we were gi'eat friends, 
 and got on very serenely until the other night, when I was fool 
 enough to do, or rather to say, something which made her angry — a 
 good right she had to be so ; but the fact is, I'd had some men dining 
 with me, and we drank a lot of wine, and then sat down to cards, and 
 I lost my money and my temper, and in this frame of mind I met Mrs. 
 Coverdale at Lady Tattersall Trottemout's ' let off,' and she snubbed 
 me— I dare say I deserved it, but I didn't like it ; and, as my evil genius 
 would have it, a man I know related to me a tale in regard to her 
 husband's flii'tations with a pretty governess in Italy, and to tease her 
 I, like a fool, must needs go and repeat it to her ; and she took it more 
 seriously to heart than I had expected, and was angiy with me, and 
 — but I see you are getting impatient — " 
 
 " Not at all, not at all," returned Arthur, who, preoccupied with his 
 own cares and anxieties, and nervous in regard to the approaching 
 interview with his cousin, scarcely heard or understood half Lord 
 Alfred was saying, and was only desirous to get rid of him before 
 Kate should arrive ; " no ; it's merely a legal habit I've fallen into of 
 ti-ying to bring people to the point with as little delay as possible. 
 Yes ; I quite understand— Alice told her husband of your flirting with 
 a pretty govei-ness, and he said something which offended you." 
 
 " No ; it was I who told the stoi-y,'" interrupted Lord Alfred, aghast
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 247 
 
 at the state of confusion his auditor appeared to have fallen into, and 
 from which he immediately endeavoured to extricate him by com- 
 mencing a long explanation. 
 
 Obliged in self-defence to attend, Arthur soon found out that Lord 
 Alfred's object in his ill-timed confidence was to ask him to convey 
 his apologies to his sister, whenever he might be wi-iting to her; 
 whereupon, considering the whole affair a mei*e silly, boyish pimctilio, 
 he replied, — 
 
 " If you'll take my advice, my Lord, I should say, get a sheet of rose- 
 scented paper and a diamond-pointed pen " — (a sheet of foolscap and 
 a goose-quill would be more appropriate, was his mental commen- 
 tary) — " and sit down and write yoiu' penitence to the fair lady yoiir- 
 self . Alice must be greatly altered for the worse if she does not grant 
 you a ready pardon." 
 
 '* But do you really think — " began Lord Alfred, in remonstrance. 
 
 Arthur cut him short — " I don't think about it, my dear Courtland ; 
 I feel as certain of the result as if I had already seen her answer. Do 
 you suppose I don't know my own sister, man ? But, to come to the 
 point, here's her address ; " he drew a card from his pocket, hastily 
 scribbled a few words, then handing it to Lord Alfred, continued, 
 " and the sooner you go to your club and write the letter, the sooner 
 will your mind be at ease." 
 
 Puzzled, confused, half -alarmed and half -pleased with the new idea 
 thus forced upon him, one thing alone seemed clear to the bewildered 
 yoimg nobleman, viz. that for some reason unexplained his old new 
 acquaintance was desii'ous of getting rid of him ; and, not having yet 
 sufficiently acquired the habits and feelings of a man-about-town to 
 be utterly regardless of the wishes of others, he shook Arthur's hand, 
 promised to act upon his advice, and departed. 
 
 He had scarcely been gone five minutes when a thundering knock 
 at the house-door announced that its mistress had returned, and ere 
 Arthur had time to do more than spring to his feet, Kate, attired in 
 the richest and most becoming out-of-doors costume, entered. As she 
 perceived who was her guest, she started, and her colour went and 
 came rapidly ; but I'^covering herself by a powerful effort, she 
 advanced towards him, and, extending her hand, obseiwed, — 
 
 " You are such an unaccustomed visitor, that I could scarcely 
 believe my eyes. When did you return from the Continent ? I 
 am afraid you expected to find Alice here, biit she and Mr. Coverdale 
 left me some days since." 
 
 " I returned the day before yesterday," was the reply, " and found a 
 note from Coverdale, informing me they had left town ; my visit here 
 to-day is to yourself." 
 
 As he uttered the last words, his voice unconsciously assumed a 
 stenier tone, and a shade came across his careworn features. An idea 
 suddenly flashed into Kate's mind, and in a voice which sufficiently 
 attested her alarm, she exclaimed, — 
 
 " Something is the matter ! I was sure of it the moment I saw you.
 
 248 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Yov would not come here"— (she unconsciously emphasized the 
 words in small capitals)—" unless such were the case. What is it ? I 
 am strong, I can bear it— is my father worse ?— dying ? " 
 
 As she spoke she sank into a chair, and fixing her eyes upon his 
 face, awaited his reply. 
 
 " You alarm yourself imnecessarily," he said calmly, almost coldly; 
 " I am the bearer of no ill tidings : that I have an object in visiting 
 you I do not deny; whether you will consider it a justifiable one I 
 know not ; I regard it in the light of a duty, and therefore, even at the 
 risk of paining and offending you. it must be performed." He paused 
 for a reply, but as Kate remained silent, he continued: "Your 
 brothers are mere boys, your father a confirmed invalid; circum- 
 stances lead me to doubt whether your— whether Mr. Crane is aware of 
 the character of a person who is, I am grieved to find, a constant 
 visitor at this house; and I therefore conceive I have a duty to dis- 
 charge to one whom I have known from childhood — one in whose 
 welfare an in-evocable past, which cannot be forgotten while 
 memory remains, forces me to interest myself. Kate, I am here to 
 warn you against the insidious advances of that heai-tless profligate, 
 Horace D'Almayne ! " 
 
 As he spoke, he fixed his eyes upon her with a searching glance. 
 Kate coloured, drew herself up haughtily, and appeai-ed about to make 
 an angry reply ; cheeking the impulse almost as it arose, she 
 answered, — 
 
 " I am bound, and indeed most willing to believe, you mean kindly 
 by me ; I will therefore explain to you that which I would not have 
 condescended to explain to any other man living— that I merely admit 
 Mr. D'Almayne's intimacy to oblige my husband, who has become so 
 accustomed to his society and services as to consider them indispen- 
 sable. Mr. D Almayne may or may not deseiwe the harsh epithets 
 you apply to him ; but if you are aware of any circumstances seriously 
 affecting his character, it is to Mi*. Crane you should mention them, 
 not to me." 
 
 For a moment Ai-thur remained silent, then pressing his hand to 
 his forehead, he murmured inaudibly, " She can actually stoop 
 to deceit ! — is such a change possible ! " 
 
 Surprised and hurt at his silence, Kate resumed : " Why do you not 
 speak ? You look at me as if you doubted my assertion ! " 
 
 Unheeding her question, Arthur still continued to regard her with 
 an expression in which grief, surprise, and disapproval contended for 
 the mastei^y. At length he said, in a low, deep voice, which caused a 
 shudder to pass through the frame of his auditor, — 
 
 " I have suffered much on your account, but such pain as this I 
 never thought to experience ! Kate, you once said you had never 
 attempted to deceive me — can you say so now ? " 
 
 " I am at a loss to understand you," was the reply ; and as she grew 
 angry at what she deemed unmerited insult, her self-possession 
 retm-ned, and she spoke in her usual cold, hard tone of voice. " I can
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 249 
 
 only repeat what I before stated, that I allow Mr. D'Almayne's in- 
 timacy merely to obligre my husband. From yoiir manner you 
 still appear to doubt the fact— may I ask why ? " 
 
 Arthur paused a moment, then, with an eager and excited voice, he 
 exclaimed, — 
 
 " Kate, hear me ! I have not taken this step lightly, or without due 
 consideration. I seek not to refer to the past, though that past is 
 never absent from my memory ; but you may imagine it cost me some 
 resolution to come here to-day, when I tell you that I had rather have 
 seen you lying dead before my eyes, feeling towards you as I felt one 
 short year ago, than behold you sun-ounded by the luxuries of 
 wealth-knowing as I do that you have obtained them by the sacrifice 
 of all that is lovable in woman, by sinning against all your best and 
 noblest impulses, by forfeiting all that renders life aught but 
 one weary endless round of cares and duties ! To look on you as you 
 ai-e now— to read, as I can read, in every feature of your countenance, 
 which, though a sealed book to others, I have studied too long not to 
 decipher at a glance, traces of that desolation of heart which you have 
 prepared for yourself-to see you thus, and to know that I am 
 powerless to help you, and that you must sustain the burden of such 
 an 'existence unaided, is to me bitter pain, and I have avoided 
 this house as though it were plague-stricken. But as I sat through 
 the long hours last night, striving to weigh dispassionately the past 
 and the present, I arrived at the conclusion that even yet I owed you 
 a duty, and I came here to-day actuated only by a desire to warn you, 
 and to save you from a fate, to contemplate the mere possibility of 
 which inspires me with hoiTor. I came, regardless of my own 
 feelings, forgetful of my wrongs, to do you a benefit; ana now you 
 close your soul against me, and receive me with hard words and cold 
 looks ! Kate, I have not deserved this at your hands ! " 
 
 "But, indeed— believe me you are mistaken," replied Kate, 
 eagerly ; " I appreciate and thank you for the interest you still take 
 in one who, as you truly say, has forfeited eveiy claim on your 
 regard ; but your fears and suspicions are groundless— the intimate 
 footing Mr. D'Almayne has attained in this house is merely a 
 natural consequence of the trust Mr. Crane reposes in him. Why 
 will you not believe the truth of what I tell you ? " 
 
 "Because it is impossible for me to do so without doubting the 
 evidence of my own senses," was the stem reply. " If you require 
 
 any further reason for my scepticism it is this : I was in Street, 
 
 Pentonville, at two o'clock yesterday ! " 
 
 "And if you were," rejoined Kate, with flashing eyes, " you saw 
 nothing to justify you in entertaining such a cruel and unjust 
 suspicion of one whom you should have been the last to believe 
 likely to sacrifice anything for love ; and whom you might have 
 known better than to deem an easy prey for the first self-confident 
 libertine who should condescend to display his butterfly attractions 
 in her presence. I consider that you have insulted me deeply— so
 
 250 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 deeply as to relieve me from part of the weight of self-i-eproach with 
 which I have hithei*to deplored the injury that by my choice of a 
 career I have inflicted on you. You say it pains you to enter this 
 house; I now therefore heg you to leave it, and will esteem it a 
 favour — the only one I desire of you — not to enter it again until — 
 yes ! until I send for you ! " 
 
 As she spoke she rose hastily, and rang the bell. Astonished at 
 the effect of his speech, and for the moment oveipowered by lier 
 vehemence, Ai-thur stood speechlessly regarding her. Then rousing 
 himself by an effort, he said in a low, deep voice, that trembled with 
 suppressed emotion, — 
 
 "Remember the words you have spoken! I shall need no 
 second bidding ; I will not enter this house, nor will I see your 
 face again, until you send for me ! And since you thus drive your 
 best friend from you, and encourage your bitterest enemy, may God 
 protect you; and when you see and repent of your eiTor, may He 
 bless you also ! " 
 
 As he uttered the last words, he seized his hat, hun-ied from the 
 room, and ere Kate could sufficiently recover herself to attempt to 
 stop him, she heard the house-door close behind him : and then the 
 proud woman's haughty spirit failed her, and murmunng — " I shall 
 never see him again — never, never ! " she buried her face in her 
 hands, and wept bitterly. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 l'embarras des richesses. 
 
 The reader, if that noble myth who rules the destiny of us poor 
 wi-itei's be possessed of an average amount of memory, will recollect 
 that on the evening when Lord Alfred Courtland entei-tained Jack 
 Beaupeep and friends at his comfortable bachelor lodgings, a 
 gentleman then first mentioned, bearing the euphonious patronymic 
 of Le Roux, conveyed to Monsieur Guillemard the startling intelli- 
 gence that the Russian Count Ratrapski had broken the bank in 
 
 J Street. Now, although immediately after receiving this news, 
 
 Horace D'Almayne had proceeded to Lady Trottemout's " soir6e," 
 and, according to his wont, made himself universally agreeable, and 
 transacted a more than usual amount of mischief, by bringing about 
 the most serious disagreement which had yet occurred between 
 HaiTy Coverdale and Alice his wife, it must not be supposed that 
 the intelligence did not interest him. On the contrary, it appealed
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 231 
 
 invested «s mt\e aM, at f.ti^ZZZTjT, ^^^oTltt It 
 
 those who had not, he rather prefened beiag insolrent- and pa^ 
 
 worltoff"f T ^7--' T^'""'"^ himself best oft when he T^ 
 voi-t off-for then he was obliged to exert all his energies to ensnm 
 
 pro ilT T" ^""^ *"'* *■"" "^ °™ »''°"1-1 -lax its^ti" s ": 
 provide for his necessities. ^^^i^oS to 
 
 Thus on the vei-y day on wHch Arthur Hazlehurst had his un 
 satis actory interview with Kate Crane, the husband of that pJud 
 beauty met by appointment, at an office not far from the Royal 
 Exchange, Monsieixr Guillemai-d,-Mr. Vondenthaler a BeS 
 capital.t,-Mr^BonusNu.,et,a man well known upok 'Chl^'^- 
 n Alnmjne. Mr. Crane havmg seated himself, after undergoing the 
 mTXr 'of tif "'r'"\*^ Mr. Yondenthaler,who wasThe^oL, 
 
 prreer/sbyXr^W^^^^^^ "" '^" ^'^'"^^^^ ^^^^^^ ''^ 
 " Well, gentlemen, I am glad to tell you that everything is pro 
 
 Ih^d th \' "' '"^l'/^^'' ''^^ '^^* ™y 1---- calcu'latiofs wMch 
 I had the honour of laying before you at our last meeting, appear 
 
 infoims me that the apphcations for shares from the principal 
 
 O Bnen wiU tell you the same in regard to their own connection Is 
 it not so, Captam ? " 
 
 r.1 ^l^^i' ^""^^^ '": *^.^°'" '■"P""'^ *^^ gentleman thus Boosted, who 
 possibly, from his having mixed so much with the aristocra;y o^ 
 Eniope generally, spoke with a strong Irish accent. "Bedad sir 
 the way they come tumbling in is perfectly astonishing; 'tis upo^' 
 me conscience ! ' "^'^" 
 
 " The only thing that remains then, before we proceed to issue the 
 shares and receive deposits, is to decide how many we shall aUot to 
 
 wd:^i^.Ta:rafhl;r'^^^'^^^^^^^ 
 
 fiv^tx^^ittTcre^ "-''' '^ ""'-'-- ' -^^ -^-* 
 
 ." ' ;^^' ^'* ^"^ ' ' ^^* ^l^^ll be him," muttered Mr. Vondenthaler. 
 ].. ^ f^ ^ *^^* '^°'^'" exclaimed the Captain, "if you 
 leave a thundering wide margin for the shares we may retaii for our 
 friends; for, to be plain with ye, gentlemen, my best friend in the
 
 252 HARRY COVERDALES COURTSHIP 
 
 world, and that's Terence O'Brien, means to go in for this business 
 in real earnest; and if I can't invest capital that will take five 
 figures to write, bedad I'd rather be out of it altogether." 
 
 "Ten thousand, which I presume is the sum you hint at. Captain 
 O'Brien, could not, I think, be objected to," observed Mr. Bonus 
 Nugget, as if .£10,000 were a mere cab-fai-e. 
 
 "' Mais oui,' we will all demand so much as him, he is so small; 
 ' n'est-ce pas, mon cher ' ? " interposed Monsieur Guillemard, favour- 
 ing Horace D'Almayne with a grimace indicative of the tenderest 
 affection. 
 
 " If I might be allowed— if I might venture to suggest," began 
 Mr. Crane, timidly, " I would propose that, at so early a stage in the 
 affair, no limit should be placed to the number of shares the 
 directors may hold. I am, ahem ! a— myself I am a man who 
 has been tolerably fortunate in my commercial speculations, and 
 might be disposed— in fact. I may say I am disposed— to embark an 
 amount of capital considerably above the sum lately mentioned by 
 Captain O'Brien." 
 
 " Sir ! your sentiments do you honour ! Sir. I'm proud of your 
 acquaintance ; you're not one to do things by halves, I see. I like 
 plain speaking — the speculation's a da-vlish good speculation, or you 
 would not find such men as Mr. Vondenthaler and my fiiend Bonus 
 Nugget in it. We're going to give our valuable time and trouble to 
 work the thing ship-shape ; and bedad, sir, if we're not to profit by 
 it, I'd jist like to know who should ! " 
 
 " Yes, that is aU vei-y well for you, O'Brien," observed Mr. Nugget, 
 speaking with an air of authority ; " but I happen to know a thing 
 or two. Mr. Crane, gentlemen, is — I say it to his face — able to go 
 doviTi to his bankers, and draw a cheque, which they will honoiu', for 
 more money than any two of us could raise between us. Vei^y well ; 
 now, it's no news to any of us to be told that ' money is power.' But if 
 Mr. Crane thinks, because he can embark his ,£50,000, — or I believe 
 I might raise the figure as high again without overstating the 
 matter, — that he is going to ride rough-shod over the practical men 
 who have started this scheme, and to take the lion's share of the 
 enormous profits that he is sharp enough to foresee must accrue, I 
 for one beg to tell him I won't stand it." 
 
 " Ta ! ya ! ' das ist gut ' ! Ye have not started to be shod rough by 
 Cranes ! Herr Bonus he knows a thing ! 'das ist recht und gut ' ! Ve 
 vill not be roughed by Cranes ! " muttered Mr. Vondenthaler through 
 the thick hay-colom-ed moustachios invariably worn by Belgian 
 capitalists. 
 
 " ' Mais oui,' you have reasons, Monsieur Vondenthaler, ' mon ami ' : 
 but if you yourself have mistaken, ' n'est-ce pas ' ? " interposed 
 Monsieur Guillemard, eagerly. " I am assured Monsieur Crane is 
 not ' vm homme comme ga ' ; he shall not ' se promener a cheval ' — vot 
 you call ride on a horseback ovaire us ' du tout ' ; 'an contraire,' zies 
 grate skim whom we are zie undairetakers for, shall advance herself
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 233 
 
 on his capital for zie goods of us all. ' Voyez vous, clier Monsieur 
 Bonous ' ! " 
 
 " Ton me conscience, now ye're the first set of men I ever yet 
 clapped eyes on that made a fuss about taking money when it was 
 offered to 'em ! " exclaimed the Hon. Captain O'Brien, sui-prised into 
 a stronger brogue than he had yet allowed to appear. " Sure, now, 
 by the time we've tunnelled imder the whole of Arabia Pethreea, and 
 flimg our Britannia-metal tubular bridge across the Persian Gulf, 
 we'll find money growing pretty tight with us." 
 
 " As there seems some difference of opinion on the point," 
 returned Mr. Bonus Nugget, " I would suggest that we summon a 
 general meeting of all the directors, and appoint a managing 
 committee to decide such matters for the future." 
 
 This proposition was agreed to " nem. con ,"and a day having been 
 fixed for their next meeting, D'Almayne began : — 
 
 '* In my capacity as secretary, I have to call your attention to one 
 point before this meeting breaks up. I have, in accordance with a 
 resolution passed at the last board, gone into the current outlay, and 
 find that to pay the engineers now sui-veying the portion of the line 
 already decided on, and other expenses which I will not detain you 
 by enumerating, the account at our bankers is overdrawn. I would 
 propose, therefore, that two of the directors should sign a cheque for 
 jBSOOO, to be placed to the company's credit." 
 
 "Better say five," interposed Nugget; "it don't do to be over- 
 drawing our accoimt ; I've known a trifle like that ruin a speculation 
 as promising even as the present one. Don't let this occur again, 
 D'Almayne ; I can let you have money at any moment, as you are 
 well aware." 
 
 " Ya ! ya ! or I, vin you please ; you must not stance him for no 
 accounts," chimed in the Belgian capitalist. 
 
 " Certainly, ^£5000 should be paid in at once," obsei*ved Mr. Crane, 
 producing a cheque-book. " I shall have much pleasure in advancing 
 the sum, if you gentlemen will sanction my so doing." 
 
 This both Nugget and the Belgian protested against, each urging 
 their claims as oi'iginators of the scheme ; but O'Brien silenced their 
 opposition, and settled the matter by exclaiming in his off-hand 
 manner, — 
 
 " Let Mr. Crane have his way, sir ! — he's a fine fellow entirely— a 
 liberal and enlightened man he is— one of the merchant princes 
 of this great counthry ; • and though I'd the misfortune to be born an 
 aristoci'at myself, I've no class bigotiy about me. I admire a. 
 true Briton when I meet with one ; and whoever wishes to bully and 
 browbeat that Briton in my presence, must do it some time when 
 Terence O'Brien isn't there to stand up for him. Shake hands, Mr. 
 Crane— I'm proud to know you. Take this pen and write, sir! 
 Browbeat a man like that, indeed ! — 'pon my conscience, what next, I 
 wonder ! " 
 
 And so, under cover of the Captain's blustering, Mr. Crane signed
 
 254 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 a cheque for £5000, for wliicli D'Almayne grave him a receipt in the 
 
 name of the company ; then howinf? to his co-directors, and exchang- 
 ing a word or two aside with D'Almayne, he depai-ted. As the sound 
 of his retreatiuff footsteps died away in the distance, D'Almayne, 
 quietly pocketing the cheque, observed,— 
 
 " If we can but get the shares to sell for— say twenty thousand, the 
 speculation will not pay badly. You see, Guillemard, these crafty 
 islanders- these denizens of ' perfide Albion ' — their pockets are not 
 impregnable when you assault them judiciously. Five thousand 
 pounds from one man is not such a bad morning's work ! '* 
 
 " Tlu'ue for you, me boy!" exclaimed the Irishman: "by the 
 powers, a few more such mornings' work will make men of us, if it 
 please Providence to keep us out of jail so long ; but it's a dangerous 
 game you're playing. Sure, now, there's jist five of us here present 
 — why wouldn't we take a thousand a-piece, and make ourselves 
 scarce without any more ado ? I'm content for one, bedad." 
 
 " You'll do nothing of the soi-t, Terence," was the reply : " for two 
 very good reasons : one Ijeing, that if you remain quiet and follow my 
 lead, I will enable you to bolt — if it come to bolting — with X 10,000 
 instead of one ; and the other, that Mr. Crane's cheque is very safely 
 buttoned up in my pocket, to be applied as I think best ; and any man 
 who attempts to take it from me will become practically acquainted 
 with the merits of this ingenious little instrument," and as he spoke 
 he drew from his breast-pocket a small, beautifully-finished revolving 
 pistol, whereupon the individual termed Nugget interposed by 
 observing, — 
 
 " Nonsense, D'Almayne, put that thing away : we're not in 
 New Orleans, man ; and the report of that would blow our schemes to 
 the devil long before the bullet had penetrated O'Brien's thick skull. 
 But really thei'e is nothing to disagree about that I can see ; it's quite 
 clear, gentlemen, that D'Almayne knows perfectly well what he's 
 doing, and that om- interests could not be in better hands. "We meet 
 
 again on Friday. D'Almayne, you'll see me to-night in J Street ; 
 
 and now that we're in funds again. Ratrapski will be as 'good as 
 a fortune to us : a man does not break the bank twice." Then, 
 nodding familiarly to the others, Mr. Bonus Nugget resumed his 
 usual " City " look (worth five hundred a-year to him at the most 
 moderate computation), and departed. 
 
 " Terence, never look sulky, man ; I meant no harm ; what I said 
 was as much for your good as my own," began D'Almayne, in a con- 
 ciliatory tone. " Come, I want you and Guillemard to dine at Black- 
 wall, to meet an unfledged lordling, to whom I'll allow you to sell a 
 horse, if you like ; and you may do a little bit of ' turf ' business too, 
 if he'll bite ; only it must be done in a quiet, gentlemanly way. mind, 
 because I've ulterior views in regard to my young friend : he has a 
 taste for the club in J Street— you understand ? " 
 
 " I believe ye, me boy ! an it's a fine child ye are intirely ; and the 
 way ye've cut yer wisdom teeth is a credit to yer blessed mother —
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 255 
 
 always supposing ye ever possessed sucli a respectible relative," was 
 the Hibernian's reply. 
 
 '■ By the way, if you're really going in for the horse business," 
 resumed D'Alaiayne, meditatively,," you may as well do the thing 
 properly. Get a flash trap, you know, and di-ive us do\vn; and— 
 who's that sporting-looking young fellow you had backing you 
 at Epsom — dark cui-ly hair, and grey hawk's eyes ? " 
 
 ''Oh, Phil Tirrett, the great Yorkshire breeder's son; he is 
 his father's London agent, and a very promising young — " 
 
 " Scoundrel," interposed D'Almayne, " I read it in his face. How- 
 ever, you'll want somebody to back up your lies, and he'll pass with 
 such green boys as we shall have to-day ; so bring him. Let me see 
 — it's now two o'clock— call for me at the Pandemonium at five ; and, 
 excuse me, but drop the Irish blackguard, and assume the foreign 
 militaire as much as you conveniently can. Remember, you're 
 captain in the Austrian service, and I was in youi* regiment, your 
 sub., for a year." 
 
 " Bedad I it's as well you reminded m^ of that same, for it 
 had slipped my memory some way," was the afEable reply, as, ari-ang- 
 ing his aubm-n, not to say red, hair under his hat, the gallant Captain 
 prepared to take himself off. Ere he did so, however, he chanced to 
 cast his eyes on the Belgian capitalist, who was amusing his leisure 
 moments by performing some intricate manoeuvres with a pack 
 of cards, an occupation which he interrupted by slapping Vonden- 
 thaler on the back with such force that a covey of cards flew out of 
 the pack about the room. 
 
 " What devil's dodge are you planning there, you old sinner ! " he 
 exclaimed ; " let's look at ye ! " he continued, seizing him by the chin, 
 and turning his head so that the light fell upon his countenance ; 
 " bedad ! them moustachios alter you sui-pi-ising ! Nobody that had 
 not known ye as I've done, since I. could liandle a dice-box, and that 
 was before I was into me teens, would recognize in Mr. Vondenthaler, 
 the Belgian merchant, Le Roux the old croupier ! " 
 
 "Leave him alone," observed D'Almayne; "Le Roux's a steady, 
 sensible man, and one I have a great respect for; he knows his work, 
 and does it well and quietly ; and I'd back his long head against your 
 noisy talent (for the ' gift of the gab,' as you term it, is a noisy talent 
 and a dangerous one) any day. Captain." Then, turning to Le Roux, 
 he said — " The bank will reopen to-night, and we shall be there in 
 force. Mind the champagne's better than the last batch. Let every- 
 thing be in first-rate style, and spare no expense. Guillemard, you 
 heard the rendezvous ? Five o'clock, monsieurs, ' au revoir.' " 
 
 So saying, D'Almayne bowed with as much scrupulous politeness 
 
 to the worshipful fraternity of men of science he was quitting, 
 
 as if he had been leaving the council-chamber of a prince. Calling 
 a hansom cab, this industrious and zealous young man di'ove to his 
 ■west-end lodgings, and exchanging his suit of quiet black, in which 
 he had dressed the man-of -business character he had been pleased to
 
 25« HARRY COVERDALES COURTSHIP 
 
 enact, for more butterfly garments, went down to a certain fashion- 
 able club, where he felt sure of meeting Lord Alfred Courtland, and 
 found him accordingly, but by no means in the amiable, docile frame 
 of mind in which he usually rejoiced. The hour preceding that at 
 which D'Almayne entered the club had been spent by Lord Alfred 
 in concocting, pursuant to Arthur Hazlehurst's advice, a penitent 
 letter to Alice Coverdale — a composition which had cost him much 
 trouble and anxiety, and wherein he had endeavoured in some 
 measure to justify himself, by shifting as much of the blame as he 
 truthfully could on to the shoulders of Horace D'Almayne ; and he had 
 just closed and disi)atched this accusatory epistle, when, as though to 
 overwhelm him with shame at such a betrayal of one who professed 
 himself, and whom in gi-eat measure he still believed to be his friend, 
 his aspersed mentor seated himself opposite to him, and addressing 
 him by his usual endearing epithet of " mon cher," invited him to 
 dine with him that day, and meet a few choice spirits at Blackwall. 
 
 " You're vei"y kind, bxit you really must excuse me," was Lord 
 Alfred's reply. " I've been knocking about a good deal lately, and 
 begin to want a little quiet." 
 
 " Yes, I know," was D'Almayne's rejoinder : " such is always one's 
 morning theory — but one never puts it into practice ; when eight 
 o'clock comes, ' il faut diner ' ! Seriously, however, I can't let you off. 
 1 have asked two or three men to meet you. who are most anxious to 
 make your acquaintance " — (this was strictly true), — "and who will 
 be aAvfully savage if you don't come." 
 
 " Come — of course hell come, and so will I too, if anybody will 
 ask me, and there's a lark in hand — what does Milton say r* — 
 
 ' A bird in hand is better far. 
 Than two that in the bu.shea are.' 
 
 Fine poem, * Paradise Lost.' By the way, did you ever hear my riddle 
 on that head ? Why is the fact of the contents of a backgammon- 
 board having been thi'own out of the window like Milton's ' chef- 
 d'ceuvi*e ' ? Do you give it up ? Because it's a pair o' dice lost. 
 None so dusty that— eh ? for a commoner like me ? We poor devils 
 that have to gr-ind all day to procure oiu* modest chop and our un- 
 assuming pint of London porter, can't be expected to say such 
 brilliant things as you noble swells, who have had nothing to do 
 but cultivate your understandings ever since you came into the 
 world with gold spoons in your mouths. But you have not told me 
 what's up yet." 
 
 Here the speaker, who was none other than the facetious Jack 
 Beaupeep, paused for want of bi-eath, and DAlmayne interposed 
 with a reply to his question, — 
 
 " The pai-ticular event exalted at the moment you joined us is a 
 bachelor dinner at Blackwall to-day, for which I am trying to beat 
 up a few recruits ; let me hope you will enlist under my banner, and, 
 with such a reinforcement, I am sure Lord Alfred will surrender at 
 discretion."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 257 
 
 " All serene ! " rejoined the voluble Jack ; " I was ' to let un- 
 f uraislied ' (with a dinner) — and let me tell you a Blackwall feed is 
 a special mercy that's not to be sneezed at. Come, Alfred, my boy, 
 merge the haughty noble in the jolly-good-fellow till further notice, 
 and say ' I will.' " 
 
 " Have it your own way. Since you're both determined on my 
 capture, it's hopeless to resist," said Lord Alfred, his feeble attempt 
 at reformation completely defeated; *' but I certainly had made up 
 my mind to spend a quiet evening." 
 
 " So had I," returned Jack ; " but then I did not expect such luck 
 as to come in for a noisy one. What time, and where do we meet ? " 
 
 " At the Pandemonium, at five o'clock," was D'A.lmayne's reply ; 
 " and mind you are both punctual." 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 EATING WHITEBAIT. 
 
 Nero fiddled while Rome blazed ! We possess the record of the main 
 fact, but all details connected with that memorable perfonnance 
 have perished in the lapse of ages. We can imagine, however, that 
 the novelty and horrid grandeur of the situation by no means inter- 
 fered with the skill and execution of the imperial amateur; but 
 rather added a force and brilliancy to his playing, for which it may 
 not have been usually remarkable. If he had at all a tui*n for im- 
 provisation, an opportunity then offered for his making a great hit ; 
 the roaring of the flames, the crash of falling buildings, the coai-se 
 huighter of a biaital soldiery, mingling with the shrieks of women and 
 children, and with the shouts changing to the half-curse, half-prayer, 
 of the death agony of brave, true-hearted men, striving to rescue the 
 helpless ones, and perishing in the exei'cise of their noble daring, 
 all must have afforded a sviggestive theme for the crescendo and 
 diminuendo of the tyrant's catgut, which may have been handed 
 down to posterity, until the tradition may have furnished the thesis 
 of that classic and artistic composition, the " Battle of Prague." 
 
 Everybody considers Nero a hateful tyrant, and everybody may be 
 in the main right ; although good Dr. Goldsmith, in his interesting 
 Roman history (which has been pei^petually " abridged for the use of 
 schools " ever since it was wi'itten, and is not half short enough yet), 
 has probably applied too deep a coating of lampblack even to Nero. 
 But, though as manners and customs change, the outward seeming
 
 258 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 of things varies with them, human nature, too bad ever to be all 
 good, and too good to be all bad, remains much the same, despite the 
 preaching of Paul and the watering-pot of Apollos. 
 
 Thus, while in the heart of mighty London vice filled model prisons 
 with tlie recklessly depraved, or, far worse, the recklessly hypocritical 
 —while hospital wards teemed with those comparatively fortunate 
 victims of disease and improvidence whom some good Samaritaji had 
 thus far rescued, when a frightful majority were dying untended in 
 reeking alleys and other hotbeds of pestilence— while covetousnesa 
 and hatred were scarcely restrained from breaking forth into rapine 
 and murder by the strong arm of the law— my Lord Alfred Court- 
 land, and the leeches who sought to prey upon his youth and in- 
 experience, drove do^\Ti to Blackwall to nibble a small fry of ridicu- 
 lous little fishes, enveloped in batter, called whitebait, and esteemed, 
 for some undiscoverable reason, a delicacy. 
 
 Exactly as the clock stiaick five, a dark, well-appointed drag, with 
 three bays and a chestnut — all thoroughbred, or thereabouts — drew 
 up at the entrance to the Pandemonium. Captain O'Brien, handing 
 the reins to a dark-whiskered, good-looking young fellow, who was 
 his companion on the box, descended, and entering the club, was 
 introduced by D'Almayne to Lord Alfred Courtland and Jack 
 Beaupeep ; the first mentioned individual acknowledging his saluta- 
 tion by the slightest possible removal of the hat, together with an all 
 but invisible motion of the head, the latter by a profound salaam, 
 together with the diffident remark, — 
 " Sir, you do me proud." 
 
 " Not at all, sir, not at all ; on the contrary, it's proud I am to 
 make your acquaintance, and you a mimber of the government, too. 
 Did ye know Smith O'Brien, now ? " Not waiting a reply, he con- 
 tinued. " Oh, he's a great legislathur entirely ; and sure them that 
 don't die first will live to see him prime minister of this counti'y,one 
 of these fine mornings ; and a ' prime ' minister he'll make, sure ! 
 ' Justice to Ireland ' will be found engraved in copper-plate on his 
 heart by any gentleman who may have the pleasure of attending the 
 post-mortenr examination of his remains, and long life to 'em ! " 
 
 " Are we waiting for any one ?" inquired Horace, fearful lest his 
 Hibernian associate should disgust Lord Alfred by his offensive 
 familiarity at first starting. " Guillemard has, I see, ali'eady taken 
 his seat. Have you any objection to pull up at the Guards' Club, 
 O'Brien ? There are three or four army men who have promised to 
 come, and your drag will carry them easily." 
 
 The Captain agreeing to this— as indeed he appeared willing to 
 agree to any and everything suggested by D'Almayne— they took 
 their places ; O'Brien insisting on Lord Alfred succeeding to the 
 box-seat, vacated for that purpose by the dark-whiskered, hawk-eyed 
 youth, who was none other than Phil Tirrett, the horse-breeder's son, 
 whom Horace D'Almayne had designated as a very ijromising young 
 scoundrel— a style of character which he was so well able to recognize,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 259 
 
 and so thoroughly competent to form an opinion upon, that we feel 
 convinced he only did the youn^ gentleman's merits justice. 
 
 By no means captivated by O'Brien's manners or address, Lord 
 Alfred was at first haughty and monosyllabic ; but perceiving that 
 D'Almayne was as scrupulously polite to this son of Erin as to the 
 most polished member of the fashionable world, it occurred to him 
 that in his character of man-about-town the correct thing was to 
 assume a general languid citizen-of-the-worldship ; and, as a duty 
 to his presumed impei-tm-bability, to appear, not all things to all 
 men, but the same thing to every man. Thus, I'ousing himself, he 
 paid a die-away and meaningless compliment to the workmanlike 
 manner in which Captain O'Brien — " Ar — put his team along, and — 
 ar— the correct style of the whole affair." 
 
 This led to an equestrian and sporting rhapsody on the part of the 
 Hon. Terence, interspersed with anecdotes — strange, if true — of the 
 dams and the sires, and the own brothers and sisters, of the 
 individual members of the team, and especially of the chestnut, 
 which had been " The sweetest thing, sir, across a stiff country that 
 ever man rode ; no day was too long and no burst too fast for him, 
 bedad ! and the bittei-est moment ever I, Terence O'Brien, knew 
 (ban-ing the loss of me matei*nal grandmother, by spontaneous com- 
 bustion, from fortuitously sitting down upon a lighted cinder, which 
 had providentially popped out of the fire for that purpose), was when 
 I staked him above the near hock at Melton, last season ; and he's 
 never been fit to gallop since, or it isn't in harness ye'd see him now 
 — and him costing me a cool <£400, and worth all the money now, if 
 he was but sound," &c., &c. 
 
 The witty author of " Tristram Shandy," in introducing to the 
 reader that most lovable of humorists, my Uncle Toby, has dis- 
 coursed eloquently on the various hobby-horses which take posses- 
 sion of, and enslave, the mind of man. Fortification, which was my 
 Uncle Toby's mania, engi'ossed his thoughts, and influenced his 
 conversation, until nothing but his simplicity and kindness of heai-t 
 saved him from degenerating into a complete bore ; but when a man's 
 hobby-horse is the equine animal itself, you can no more unhorse 
 him than if he were — as assuredly he ought to have been, if mind and 
 body had bonie a pi'oper affinity to each other — a centaur. O'Brien 
 was a centam-, and having once mounted his hobby, he rode him all 
 the way to Blackwall, to Lord Alfred's extinction, or thereabouts ; but 
 considering that a certain amount of " tui-f " adheres to the character 
 of a man-about-town, he bore the infliction like a — well, suppose, 
 though we have foresworn slang as low, we for this once say — a 
 brick. 
 
 Three guardsmen, and a young heavy dragoon who lived to con- 
 sume beer and cigars and produce moustachios and stupidity, were 
 duly added to the party ; and by the time they reached Blackwall 
 everybody grew hungry, and prepared to do ample justice to the 
 whitebait. Of course, everybody has at some period of their earthly
 
 2G0 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 career eaten a Blaclcwail dinner, and such feeds are all exactly alike. 
 First appears a course of fish, enough to constitute a dinner in itself ; 
 sea-fish, river-fish, pond-fish— fishes boiled, fried, stewed, and be- 
 deviled in various ways, which it would require the knowledge of the 
 supposed inventor of cooks himself to detail ; then come the wonder- 
 ful whitebait themselves, their stupid little bodies enveloped in 
 skeleton dresses of batter ; and then fishes are ignored, and develop, 
 according to the " Vestiges of Creation " theory, into the higher 
 forms of animal, into which the highest form of all— man— pitches 
 cannibal-like, until the culinary cosmos is resolved into its pristine 
 chaotic elements. And around this hecatomb of slaughtered zoology 
 and feasting humanity skip nimble waiters, furnished with bottles of 
 every shape and hue ; for, since Noah first discovered the seductive 
 beverage, wine-bibbing has been a levelling principle, by means of 
 which the lords of the creation have been accustomed to assimilate 
 themselves to their subjects the brutes, despite the hydraulic 
 pressure of Father Mathew and all others who have pledged them- 
 selves to cold-water such degrading customs. And. indeed, we fear 
 that of the two parties whose respective mottoes might be " in vino 
 Veritas," and " truth lies at the bottom of a well," the latter will 
 continue to constitute the minoi-ity until the end of the chapter ; or, 
 as Jack Beaupeep expressed the same sentiment, when DAlmayne 
 propounded to him a somewhat similar theory, be " safe to kick the 
 bucket if they don't put their foot in it in any other way " : but that 
 misguided young man not only made, but rejoiced in, shocking bad 
 puns. 
 
 The dinner had been done ample justice to — the wines (and their 
 name was legion) had not been at all neglected — Lord Alfred had 
 become quite intimate with the guardsmen, who, as the wine un- 
 locked their tongues, began, in a quiet, gentlemanly way, to qiiiz 
 everything and everybody, especially the heavy dragoon, who 
 rejoiced in the patronymic of Gambler — a name on which the other 
 military gentlemen were pleased to exercise their wit whenever they 
 addressed him. As, for example, 1st guardsmen, loquitur : — 
 " I say, Beaupeep, have you heard Fred's (2nd guardsman's) last ? " 
 " I haven't even heard his first," was the rejoinder, 
 " No ; I should think not," continued No. 1 ; "he made that when 
 he was quite a baby in arms." 
 
 " Ye may as well say before he could speak, while ye are about it," 
 suggested O'Brien. 
 
 "Bravo, Captain! you won't better that," said the narrator. 
 " However, Fred's last and worst was this — ' "Why is the gallant cornet 
 opposite an addition to any mess-table?' Do you give it up? 
 ' Because he's half game and half beer ! " 
 
 " I dare say it's very funny," muttered the heavy subject of the jest, 
 " but I don't see the point myself." 
 
 " It's a pint of half-and-half," obsei-ved Jack Beaupeep, explana- 
 torily.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 261 
 
 " Or ' heavy ' wet if he were out in the rain," added guardsman 
 No. 2. 
 
 " Talking of heavy wet puts me in mind of coming down with the 
 dust. When are you going to pei-form that operation in regard to 
 the Windsor Steeplechase ? " inquired the comet surlily, who, not 
 having anything witty to reply to his assailant, substituted instead 
 the most unpleasant topic he could select. 
 
 " That is soon answered," was the rejoinder ; "whenever you'll malce 
 a fresh match between the horses, and give Rattletrap a chance of 
 showing Teacaddy the way home, when he's not been pricked in 
 shoeing by a confounded blacksmith." 
 
 " Oh ! if that's all, you may hand over the cash to-morrow 
 morning," returned the dragoon ; " the mare's in first-rate order, and 
 I'm game to back her for a match, hurdle-race, steeplechase, or what 
 you will," was the confident reply. 
 
 " Ah ! Is It II steeplechase now, ye' re talking of ? " inteiTupted 
 O'Brien, filling himself a tumbler of claret ; " sure, an' I've got a 
 horse I'd be proud to enter, if it wasn't jist putting me hand in your 
 pockets and taking the money out of 'em ; for if he's in the race, I'd 
 name the winner before they start." 
 
 " He must be a wonderful animal, Captain," observed the first 
 guardsman ; " high-pressure, express train style of quadruped, eh ? " 
 
 " Furnished with a screw-propeller, more likely," added his 
 companion ironically. 
 
 " Faith, an' ye're wi'ong there entirely : it's little of the screw ye'll 
 find about Bi'oth-of-a-boy. Talk about railroads, indeed, I never 
 knew what flying was till the day I first galloped him in the Phcenix 
 Pai-k. I only wish I'd had him in Spain, when I served with the 
 legion of Sir De Lacy Evans; it isn't overtaken and kilt entirely by 
 their blackguard dragoons I'd have been then — though it's little but 
 hard blows and hard swearing they got out of me, as it was, the 
 Lord be praised ! " 
 
 " Hear, hear ! a stoi-y, a story ! " " Military reminiscences of 
 Captain O'Brien ! order, order ! " " Silence for the noble anecdote ! " 
 " Out witli it, Captain ! " &c., &c., were some of the exclamations 
 with which the Hibernian's last speech was hailed by various 
 members of the party, upon whom the whitebait (?) was beginning 
 totcU. 
 
 Thus urged, that worthy, clearing his throat by a sip at the claret, 
 which half emptied the tumbler, began : — 
 
 " WeU, boys " (here he caught a look from Horace D'Almayne, 
 which caused him, nothing abashed, to add parenthetically), "if 
 in the congeniality of good fellowship you will permit me to call 
 ye so, the stoiy's nothing so very wonderful, after all — it was 
 just a bit of a spree, do ye see, nothing more ; but such as it is 
 ye're welcome to it " — (polite aside from Jack Beaupeep for Lord 
 Alfred's benefit — " You're too liberal, really ! ") " I was with 
 Sir De Lacy Evans in Spain, captain in a regiment of lancers;
 
 262 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 a rare set of rattling dogs tliey were too— up to everything, from 
 robbing a henroost to burning towns and sacking monasteries " — 
 (Beaupeep aside — " A decidedly sac-religious act, that last ! ") 
 " On one occasion, we were stationed at a place distant about four 
 miles from a village occupied by a strong body of Carlists ; well, 
 sir, for several nights nmning, our sentinels on the side towards 
 the village were assassinated — stabbed through the heart they 
 were ! We had 'em doubled, two men to each post ; bedad, the 
 only improvement that effected was, we got two men murdered 
 instead of one ; and yet the scamp that did it always contrived to 
 get away clear and clean — we never so much as clapped eyes on 
 him ! Well, I bothered and puzzled the matter over, and thought 
 of this thing and that thing, and at last I got hold of a notion I 
 fancied might work well ; so I cut off to our Colonel, and 
 ' Colonel,' says I, ' with your kind permission, I thiiik I can stop 
 these assassinations.' ' What is it, O'Brien ? ' says he, ' you're a 
 clever, rising yountr officer, and a man that bids fair to be an 
 oniament to his profession ; ' but I won't trouble ye with the illegant 
 eulogy he was so polite as to pronounce upon me that day " — (" Hear, 
 hear! "from Beaupeep and the guardsmen). "So I jist obtained 
 his permission to select two well-mounted troopers out of my own 
 company, and leave to do what I pleased with them and myself 
 during the night, and that was all I wanted. I happened at that 
 time to have a particularly fast mare — a sweet thing she was, bay, 
 with black points, nearly thorough-bred, a head like an antelope, 
 and as to pace, 'gad there wasn't a horse in the regiment could come 
 near her. Before nightfall I picked out my two troopers — sharp, 
 plucky young fellows, that I knew I could depend upon if it came to 
 hard fighting, each of them well moiinted ; and I took care to see 
 that their horses and the mare were properly fed and watered, so as 
 to be fit for a stiff burst ; then I amused myself with sharpening the 
 point of my lance till it was as keen as a razor. About a stone's 
 throw from the post where the sentry they used to assassinate was 
 stationed" — ("Of course, the same man every night till fui-ther 
 notice," murmiu-ed Jack Beaupeep, continuing his running com- 
 mentary) — " there was a thicket of olive bushes and other shrubs ; 
 behind this, as soon as it grew dusk, I posted my men with the 
 horses, while I availed myself of a rise in the ground to advance 
 nearer, and lie down, hidden from sight by a stunted Isush or two. 
 Well, I waited and waited, and watched and watched, so that a 
 mouse could not have stirred without my noticing it ; but nothing 
 did I see, except the shadowy figure of the sentinel pacing up and 
 down in the moonlight, as though he were the discontented ghost of 
 one of his murdered comrades "—(" Very pretty— quite poetical, I 
 declare ! " from Beaupeep). " Well, at last, just about a quarter of 
 an hour before daybreak, which is the darkest period of the night in 
 those latitudes, whether I had dozed off for a minute I don't know, 
 but I was staitled by a noise differing from the monotonous tread of
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 263 
 
 the sentinel, and which sounded to my ear like the cracking of a di-y 
 twig ; in another moment I perceived a dark, round object movinpc 
 upon the ground which I soon made out to be the head of a man 
 drawing himself along, snake-fashion, upon his stomach — while so 
 close had he got to the unconscious soldier that I perceived, if I would 
 save the poor lad's life, not an instant was to be lost. I therefore 
 gave the signal to my troopers to come up, and drawing my sword 
 rushed forward to secure the assassin. As I did so, a light, active 
 figure sprang up from the ground, and brandishing a long, keen 
 dagger, made a furious stab at the sentiy; but, fortimately, my 
 approach confused the scoundi-el, so that he missed his stroke, and 
 instead of killing the man, merely inflicted a slight flesh wound of 
 no consequence. Notwithstanding his sxirprise — for, as the soldier 
 afterwards declared to me, his antagonist seemed to have risen out 
 of the earth— the senti-y attempted to seize him ; but he contrived 
 to slip out of his hands like an eel, and before I could reach the 
 spot, had disappeared in the darkness. In another moment the dull 
 sound of a horse's feet galloping over the turf jn-oved to me that he 
 was away ; but my oAvn horse being brought up, I sprang into the 
 saddle, snatched my lance from the trooper who held it, and ordering 
 the men to follow me, started in pursuit. 
 
 " 'Pon me conscience, gentlemen, I niver reflect on me feelings at 
 tliat critical moment but it makes me — Ah, well! I'll jist trouble 
 your Lordship for the claret." 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 LORD ALFRED COURTLAND SOWS A FEW WILD OATS. 
 
 Captain O'Brien, having finished his glass of claret, and turned 
 lip the points of his carroty moustaches, thus resumed his stoi*y : — 
 
 " At first it was as much as I was able to do to track the fellow by 
 the sound of his horse's hoofs upon the soft tui-f, but I trusted a 
 good deal to the mare's instinct to follow the horse before her; 
 fortunately we had not very far to go before we got upon the hard 
 village road, and then there was nothing to do but ride him down, 
 for the grey light that precedes the dawn enabled me to see his 
 figure distinctly. But that same riding him down was easier to talk 
 about than to do, for the scoxmdrel had obtained a long stai-t of us, 
 and thoiigh I was well mounted, I soon perceived that he was 
 equally so. Away we rattled at a slashing pace, and for about a
 
 264 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 mile the two troopers managed to keep up pretty tolerably ; but by 
 
 the time we had ridden rather more than twice that distance, I 
 
 found my friend was gi'adually drawing^ ahead, and that if I waited 
 
 for my men, I should soon have seen my last of him ; so {^ivinf? the 
 
 mare her head, and a triflinf^: reininder with the spur besides, I left 
 
 them, and they p^"adually tailed off in the distance, until a turn of 
 
 the road hid them altof»ether. In my time I've ridden st-eeple- 
 
 chases, hurdle-races, and every species of race that the divil ever 
 
 invented, but a faster thinj? than that morning's ride I never saw 
 
 nor heard of. The horses wei'e well matched as to speed, mine was 
 
 rather the freshest, but then the Carlist was the lighter weight; the 
 
 thing could not have been fairer. However, after a couple of miles 
 
 or so more, I was glad to perceive that I was gi-adually creeping up 
 
 to him ; and I suppose he began to suspect it too, for, as the light 
 
 increased, 1 saw him every now and then look round suspiciously, 
 
 and m-ge his horse still faster at each successive glance. Al>out a 
 
 mile from the village, I had gained upon him so decidedly that it 
 
 was evident I must overtake him before he could reach its friendly 
 
 shelter. Apparently he was of the same opinion, for, before I was 
 
 aware of his intention, he unslung a carbine he carried, pulled up 
 
 suddenly, and turning in his saddle, levelled it, and took a delil)erate 
 
 aim at me. Everybody that knows Terence O'Brien, knows he's no 
 
 coward; but 'pon me conscience, at that moment, I wouldn't have 
 
 been son-y to have turaed my horses head, and cried quits with him ; 
 
 however, a bullet is a style of ai'ticle that doesn't allow a man much 
 
 time for deliberation, so seeing it was a case of hit or miss, I only 
 
 rammed in the spurs harder, bent down my head, couched my lance, 
 
 and galloped on. Bang went the carbine ; and almost before the 
 
 report reached me, a bullet whistled through the air ; I heard a sort 
 
 of ' thud,' as when an arrow strikes a straw target, and felt my 
 
 throat-strap suddenly tightened — the messenger of death had 
 
 passed through my cap, sevenng a lock of hair and just raising the 
 
 skin, without doing me the slightest injury ; but it was a close shave 
 
 in every sense of the word. Well, as soon as the scoundrel 
 
 perceived that his shot had failed, he felt that his only chance was 
 
 to exert every nerve to reach the village before I overtook him ; so, 
 
 flinging away his dischaa-ged carbine, he dashed on, urging his failing 
 
 steed with voice and spurs, and even, as I gained upon him, with the 
 
 point of his dagger. Another minute brought us in sight of the 
 
 village, where a sleepy sentinel was pacing up and down the road in 
 
 front of a sort of toll-house. Astonished at the sight of two men 
 
 riding like lunatics, he first attempted to close the bar fixed there to 
 
 defend the entrance to the village, then, recognizing my companion, 
 
 he paused, and before he had come to any decision, we had dashed 
 
 past him — my friend obligingly desiring him to ' shoot the dog of a 
 
 Christino,' as we flew by ; an order which, fortunately for me, he was 
 
 too much confused to execute, discharging his fii-elock harmlessly 
 
 into the air. As we passed the toll-house, I was not above two horse-
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 2G5 
 
 leiif?ths from my antajfonist, and graininff upon him at evei-y stride. 
 Any feelings of compunction I might have had at the thought of 
 sLiying a fellow-creature had been effectually pxit to flight by the 
 shot he had so deliberately fired at me ; thus when I found myself at 
 length coming up with him, I grasped my lance more firmly, set my 
 teeth, drove the spurs into the mare, and dashed at him. In another 
 moment I had overtaken him, the point of my lance entered his 
 back between the shoulder-blades, and by the mere impetus of my 
 onwai-d career I drove it through him. As the weapon transfixed 
 him, the poor wretch uttered a yell of agony, and fell forward on his 
 horse's neck a coi-pse. If you'll believe me, gentlemen, it wasn't till 
 I'd thus squared accounts with the rascal for our sentries that he'd 
 murdered in cold blood, that the idea ever striick me how I was to 
 get back again, with the Carlist village between me and oiir camp. 
 The first thing I tried was to pull my lance out of the dead assassin, 
 as he lay on his face in the middle of the road ; but the more I pulled, 
 the more it wouldn't come — I'd driven it in with such force ; and, at 
 last, with a wrench I gave it, I snapped the staff in two. Seeing 
 there was no time to lose, I was about to turn my mare's head in a 
 homeward directiun, when it occurred to me that they'd never believe 
 in the regiment that I'd killed the fellow;" — (" Not an improbable 
 thing,'' soliloquized Beaupeep) — " so I jumped down, secured the 
 scoundi-el's sash and dagger, remounted, and rode off. As I expected, 
 the sentinel's shot had roused the village, and just as I got back, a 
 company of soldiers were turning out, half-awake and in gi'eat con- 
 fusion, and the lieutenant contrived to draw a file across the road to 
 stop me. There was nothing for it but impudence ; so, drawing my 
 sabi-e, I waved it in the air, then looking round, as if I'd got a regiment 
 at my back, I sang out, ' Come on, boys ! — trot, gallop, charge ! ' and 
 dashed at 'em, cut do^vn the lieutenant, and what between their 
 fright and their confusion, broke their line, rode slap through 'em, 
 escaped by good luck half-a-dozen bullets that were sent after me, 
 and should have got clear away but for a patrol of dragoons that 
 came up on hearing the firing, and who, learning how the matter 
 stood, gave chase. As their horses were fresh, while the race she'd 
 won had piunped every puff of wind out of my mare, they soon over- 
 took me ; and after two or thj-ee minutes' hard fighting, a cut in the 
 sword-arm disabled me, and I was forced to give in. Well, they 
 canned me back to the village, settled that I was a spy, besides having 
 killed Don Pedrillo Velasquez de Matadoro, or some such jargon » 
 for which double crime I was to be hung at noon. Owing to the 
 fortunate an-ival of my lancers and a regiment of rifles, however, that 
 event was indefinitely postponed ; but I'll mercifully spare you the 
 recital of the scrimmage, which ended in our taking the village ; and, 
 as talking is dry work, I'll just thank you for the claret, D'Almayne, 
 me boy ! " 
 
 Much cheering and acclamation followed the conclusion of the 
 Captain's story, under cover whereof Jack Beaupeep insinuated to
 
 266 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Lord Alfred his opinion tliat the history in question was better 
 suited to the capacity of the marines than to that of able-bodied 
 seamen, to which his Lordship, quoting' Horace, replied, that 
 " Judseus Apella " might believe it, but that he did not ; which, as he 
 said it in the original langnage of the Roman poet, elicited from his 
 companion the remark that it sounded very pretty, and he wished 
 that he understood Dutch. 
 
 " But about this said race ; what is it to be, and when is it to come 
 off ? " inquired the heavy cornet, who possessed every requisite 
 except brains to become a first-rate blackleg. 
 
 " Do you really mean that you've a horse you'd like to enter for, 
 say, a hurdle-race, Captain O'Brien P " observed the first guardsman, 
 thinking the gallant Hibernian had been rhapsodizing, and desii'ous 
 of exposing the fact. 
 
 " Indeed, then, an' I have, if you're plucky enough to enter any 
 horse against him," was the confident reply. " Broth-of-a-boy will 
 show 'em the way home in style ; but there may be a very pretty 
 race for second, nevertheless." 
 
 A laugh followed this slightly gasconading assertion, and the 
 " Heavy " continued : " Suppose we try and make a good race of it, 
 and each of vis here enter a horse, and do the thing well." 
 
 " " Mais que diable ' — vot shall he mean ? " inquired Monsieur 
 Guillemard, completely out of his depth ; " to entaire, to valk into ! — 
 how shall ve valk into a horse ? " 
 
 " Oh, it's a mere ' fagon de pai-ler,' " retm-ned Beaupeep, delighted at 
 an opportunity of mystifying a foreigner ; " it's merely a term used 
 in this kind of game ; it is a soi-t of lottery, in which each person 
 thinks of — invents, in fact — some horse's name, Jaques-bon-Homme, 
 or Moi-t-de-ma-Vie, or any other name that occixrs to him; then, 
 some day that may be agreed on, these names are written on slips of 
 paper, and drawn out of a hat or cap, and those that don't lose, win ; 
 but there's very little chance of losing — almost everybody wins ; it's a 
 pretty game, and very simple when you're used to it. Do you quite 
 understand, or shall I say it again ? " 
 
 " ' Mais oui,' you ai*e polite, not at all. I shall apprehend him one 
 day, when I shall have played at him : ' vive la bagatelle ! ' long live zie 
 rubbish ! " was the cheerful rejoinder. 
 
 While this little conversation had been proceeding, the dark, 
 handsome young man, yclept Phil Tirrett, receiving a hint from 
 O'Brien, conveyed in a contraction of the eyelid, so slight that 
 no one but himself perceived it, wrote a few words on a scrap of 
 paper, and tossed it to Horace D'Almayne. Having read it» 
 D'Almayne crushed it in his hand ; then, turning to Lord Alfred, he 
 said, — 
 
 " Do you know who my left-hand neighbour is ? " 
 
 " What, the good-looking, gipsy-like pai'ty P — no ; you will 
 surprise me if you tell me he's a gentleman," was the sarcastic 
 reply.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 267 
 
 " By no means," returned D'Almayne, helping himself to claret, 
 and pushing tbe bottle to Lord Alfred; "but, although he would 
 pass with less discriminating critics than ourselves, what I like about 
 him is, that he never pretends to anything of the kind— he knows 
 perfectly well his position, and the terms on which he gets admitted 
 to society such as the present. His father is a great Yorkshire 
 horse-breeder — a man who supplies half the London market, 
 and exports largely into tbe bargain; there's not a year in 
 which old Tirrett does not turn over his ten or fifteen thousand 
 pounds, and bag four or five of 'em clear profit by the end of it. 
 This lad is his eldest son, and comes up to town every season with a 
 lot of young horses ; some are bought by the dealers, others, gener- 
 ally two or three of the best, he shows himself, and keeps back till he 
 finds an opportunity of placing them to advantage. This is his third 
 season in town ; and from his manner and appearance, not to men- 
 tion the chance of picking up a first-rate liorse from him, he has 
 acquired a sort of standing among tui-f-men." 
 
 " And this brief biography comes ' a propos ' to what ? " inquired 
 Lord Alfred languidly, filling his glass. 
 
 '"A propos' to his banding me this bit of paper," rejoined 
 D'Almayne. 
 
 Lord Alfred unrolled the mysterious " billet-doux " ; it ran as 
 follows : — 
 
 " If your friend Lord A. C. has a fancy to enter a horse, I can 
 show him one to-morrow no one in London has yet seen, or heard of ; 
 it can beat any animal that will be named to-night, I know ; and, for 
 its stamp, the figure is not a high one. If he likes the idea, let him 
 name Don Pasquale." 
 
 Lord Alfred pondered : during his life in London his money had 
 been making itself wings, and .using them also with alarming assi- 
 duity. For a peer, his father was not a rich man, and his own 
 allowance, although enough for a gentleman to live tipon carefully, 
 was by no means calculated to withstand stich reckless inroads as 
 bad lately been made upon it. As yet he was not in debt, and had a 
 virtuous horror of becoming so ; but to purchase a racehorse, with 
 such a name as Don Pasquale — an animal with a reputation which 
 would ensure its beating any horse likely to be entered by cavalry 
 cornets, real live guardsmen, or} captains of lancers who had speared 
 Carlist spies, was an idea equally fearful and fascinating, which, 
 even the mystical information tbat (for such an unparalleled 
 quadruped) the figure was not to be a high one, was unable to divest 
 of its equal powers of terror and temptation. He glanced at the 
 cornet and at the guardsmen ; the cornet might be about his own 
 standing, but he felt a proud consciousness that if the prejudices of 
 bis benighted country had alloAved him to wear a moustache, lie could 
 have grown a much more imposing style of article. One guardsman 
 was a noble adult, endowed by nature with unimpeachable black 
 whiskers, and impregnable in the " sang-froid " of three decimals ; but
 
 268 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 the other, the fastest and punningest of the pavty, was a mei*e boy, 
 apparently his lordshi^D's junior by a year or more : yet this pre- 
 cocious young warrior talked of entering racehorses and betting 
 cool hundreds as though such pursuits were analogous to playing 
 marbles for stakes payable in the copper coinage sacred to the effigy 
 of Britannia, of wave-ruling celebrity. And should he, the knowing 
 man-about-town, the friend and favourite pupil of Horace 
 D'Almayne, should he be deterred by prudential considerations which 
 even that boy had the spirit to ignore and disregard ? 
 
 D Almayne's eyes looked through him as if he had been made 
 of plate-glass, perceived his hesitation and its cause, and hastened 
 to put an end to it. " Have nothing to do with it, ' nion cher,' " he 
 said, " sotto voce " ; " you've been spending money pretty fast lately, 
 and we shall have yoiir noble father cutting up rough, and refusing 
 the supplies." 
 
 " You seem to think I am a baby ! " was Lord Alfred's piqued 
 reply, as he filled a large claret-glass to the brim, having already 
 partaken of that liqiior and others freely ; " yon fancy I am to go 
 through life in leading-strings ; but you will learn better some of 
 these days ; " then with a confidential nod to Phil Tirrett, which that 
 accomplished young scoundrel acknowledged with a significant smile, 
 he continued aloud, " Captain O'Brien, I am cvirious to test your 
 assertion, and beg to enter a horse of mine, Don Pasquale, in order 
 to discover whether Broth-of-a-boy can show him the way home, 
 as that is a feat which I have yet to seek the animal able to 
 perform." 
 
 At this challenge, so boldly thrown down, evei-ybody grew 
 clamorous and excited, with the exception of Jack Beaupeep, who, 
 for the delectation of himself and the younger guardsman, went 
 through a pantomimic representation of first hanging himself, then, 
 with a dessert-knive, severing his carotid artery — regarding Lord 
 Alfred the while with a smile of mock commiseration, as though to 
 signify his conviction that the yoimg nobleman was metaphorically 
 performing a similar suicidal operation on his own account. 
 Horace D'Almayne, with a face indicative of deep concern, vainly 
 endeavoured to dissuade Lord AKred from having anything to do 
 with horse-racing, which he described as a snare and a delusion, with 
 such pathetic earnestness that his Lordship, bent on vindicating his 
 enfranchisement from parental or moral leading-strings, even if he 
 were necessitated to throw himself over a precipice in order to do so, 
 became more than ever determined to have his own way. Accord- 
 ingly, he made an appointment to meet the guardsman and Captain 
 O'Brien on the following morning at the Pandemonium, and settle 
 all the preliminaries of the race. This interesting and important 
 matter being thus pnt properly in train, much " turf " conversation 
 followed ; and too much wine was drunk by the pai-ty generally, and 
 Captain O'Brien in particular ; until somebody suggesting that they 
 had a longish drive before them, the meeting broke up, and D'Almayne
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 269 
 
 retired with the head-waiter, to undergo that uncomfortable opera- 
 tion yclept " paying the bill." As he did so, Tirrett drew Lord 
 Alfred into a corner, and inquired in a low tone, — 
 
 " How early may I call on your Lordship, and take you to see Don 
 Pasquale ? " 
 
 " Eh ? early did you say ? — do you mean really and positively early, 
 or early for London ? I seldom breakfast before eleven," was the 
 " about-townish " reply. 
 
 " I did mean really early," rejoined Tirrett. " Don Pasquale is at 
 a stable a little way out of town, whei'e I would advise your Lordshix) 
 to keep him quiet tiU after the race ; and, as there is no good in letting 
 too many people into the secret of his whereabouts. I was going to 
 propose to meet you at Hyde Park Corner at eight o'clock to-morrow 
 morning, and drive you down ; in which case you might be in town 
 again by your usual breakfast bour, and no one any the wiser for our 
 expedition." 
 
 " Yes — you know best, of course; but really it's an alarming sacri- 
 fice of ' nature's sweet restorer ' ; still, I'm game for the exertion — a — 
 eigbt o'clock did you say ? 'Gad, I'd better book it, for my memory 
 is not my strong point," and as he spoke Lord Alfred produced a 
 knowing little betting-book, wbich he considered it the correct thing 
 to carry, and, in the portion thereof dedicated to memoi'anda, entered, 
 " Mr. Tirrett, H. P. C, 8 a.m. " ; then, replacing it in his pocket, joined 
 a group, in the centre whereof Jack Beaupeep was spinning a 
 dessert-plate on the point of his f orefingei', and performing various 
 feats of legerdemain. The drag being reported in readiness, this 
 facetious young gentleman was obliged summarily to discontinue 
 His performance, or, as he expressed it, " shut up shop, in conse- 
 quence of the early closing movement"; and, after an agi-eeable 
 moonlight drive, they reached town without adventure about eleven 
 o'clock. 
 
 " D' Almayne, my boy, what are we to do with ourselves ? " inquired 
 the punning guardsman ; " I'm open to anything — except, of course, 
 going quietly to bed." 
 
 " Sure, and can't we get into a row anywhere, now ? — is there any 
 gentleman's head handy that we could punch for a little harmless 
 divarsion ? " asked O'Brien. 
 
 " What do you say to kidnapping a policeman, charter a cab, convey 
 him to a gin-palace in some obscure locality, fill him blind diimk, 
 shave off his whiskers, blacken his face, and then dei)osit him at the 
 door of the nearest station-house, to be pimished for insobriety, 
 riotous conduct, and neglect of duty ? " suggested Beaupeep, with 
 the air of a philanthi-opist proposing some plan for the benefit of his 
 species. 
 
 " Sure, an' it's a gi-eat idea intirely, and a thing that should be done 
 forthwith," observed O'Brien, meditatively and approvingly. 
 
 " You can, of course, please yourselves, gentlemen," replied 
 D'Almayne : " but such valorous achievements are scarcely in my
 
 270 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 line, or in tliat of my friend Lord Courtland ; ' n'est-ce pas,' Alfred, 
 ' mon clier ' ? " 
 
 " Yes, decidedly. I was going to propose that we should look in at 
 
 J Street for an liour or so, and then go quietly to bed — I don't want 
 
 to be late to-night." 
 
 " I'm with you," chimed in the first guardsman, "what say you, 
 Fred ? " 
 
 " All serene ; though I was in a position to vocalize in the teeth of 
 a footpad — ' vacuus canit,' etc., you know — regularly cleaned out, the 
 last time I quitted those realms of enchantment ; but never mind, 
 faint heart never succeeded with lovely woman, eh ? Go in and win, 
 that's aboiTt the time of day ! " 
 
 " Of night, rather," suggested Beaupeep critically ; then, assum- 
 ing a severe tone and manner, he continued, " I'll tell you what it is, 
 you're a set of very dissipated young men, and gambling is a vice of 
 which all your anxious parents most strongly disapprove ! " 
 
 " Faith, and if mine should happen to do that same it won't cost 
 me any overpowering amount of remorse thin ; for me father died 
 some years before I came into this wicked world, and my mother was 
 so cut up by the catastrophe that she did not survive him many 
 days," remarked O'Brien, with drunken gi-avity. 
 
 And having by this time reached the door of the mysterioiis club 
 
 in J Street, DAlmayne knocked a peculiar knock, and the whole 
 
 party entered, with the exception of Jack Beaupeep, who, observing 
 that he had to wi-ite a private despatch to the Pope, and a confidential 
 note to Abd-el-Kader, before he went to bed, excused himself on the 
 score of his official duties. As he turned to depart, he glanced at 
 Lord Alfred Courtland, who, with flashing eyes and heightened 
 colour, was the first to enter. " If that poor boy has not fallen into 
 the hands of the' Philistines, it's a pity ! " was his mental comment, 
 and he shook his head with the ominous i^rof undity of a second Lord 
 Bui-leigh, 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 THE OVERTURE TO DON PASQUALE. 
 
 No one could justly accuse Mr. Philip Tii-rett, son and agent to the 
 well-known Yorkshire horse-breeder, of that prolific vice, idleness — 
 mother of evil— on the night and morning after D'Almayne's white- 
 bait dinner. So far, indeed, was he from evincing any reprehensible 
 slothf ulness in attending to his father s (and his own) interest, that
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 271 
 
 hastening, tlie moment lie quitted his companions, to his lodgings, 
 he exchanged his evening costume for his every-day habiliments ; 
 then lying down, ready dressed as he was, he snatched a couple of 
 hours' sleep ; and, as soon as the first ray of daylight became visible, 
 rose and took his way to a neighbouring livery stable. Arriving 
 there, he roused a sleepy helper, and desired him to saddle the bay 
 mare ; which, when his order had been complied with, he mounted ; 
 and telling the man to have the tilbury and the chestnut thorough- 
 bred ready by a quarter before eight, rode ofE. As at that early hour 
 the entrances to Hyde Park were still closed, he followed the wind- 
 ings of Park Lane, until he reached Cumberland Gate, when, giving 
 his mare the rein, he rode at a smart trot down the Bayswater Road, 
 until he reached the turnpike, after passing which he increased the 
 trot to a fast canter. This pace he kept up for about four miles along 
 the Harrow Road ; then tui'ning off to the right, he ijroceeded about 
 a mile farther, until he came to a gate leading across a field, on the 
 opposite side of which were situated a cottage and some farm build- 
 ings. Riding into the yard, Tirrett gave a shrill whistle, and 
 immediately a round, bullet-shaped, close-cropped head was pro- 
 tnided from a stable -door. 
 
 " Come and take my mare, Dick ; put her in and give her a handful 
 of corn to nibble at. How is the Don ? " 
 
 " He be a getting on stunnin', Mr. Philip ; I've kept him bandaged, 
 as you told me, sir, and it ain't hardly noticeable." 
 
 " Let me have a look at him," was the reply ; and after leading the 
 mare into the stable from which he had originally himself appeared, 
 Dick produced a key, and, imlocking therewith the door of another 
 stable, Tirrett entered. In a loose-box, enveloped in cloths, stood a 
 remarkably fine horse, which, as the door opened, turned its small, 
 well-formed head to gaze at the intruders, laying back its ears and 
 showing its teeth when Tirrett approached it. Master Phil, however, 
 appeared perfectly aware of its varioiis little peculiarities, both of 
 temper and bodily estate. " Put a saddle and bridle on him," he 
 said ; " I want to see him out." The execution of this order invoked 
 a scene analogous to the little " ballet d'action " usually performed 
 between a refractoi'y child requiring to have its face washed and a 
 firm but tender and judicious nurse. Thus, on Dick apiDroaching 
 his charge gingerly, with the bridle held out in a tempting and 
 sedtictive manner, that perverse quadruped immediately elevated its 
 head to the altitude of that of a cameleopard, or thereabouts ; which, 
 as Dick was rather under than over the middle height, completely 
 frusti'ated his purpose ; whereupon the groom told Pasquale to "now 
 then ! " supei-adding a request to him to " come out o' that, will yer ! " 
 without unnecessary delay. If the demonstrative pronoun refen-ed 
 to the Don's attitude, he did "come out of it" instantly, by turning 
 short round, and in a most senseless and uncivil fashion presenting 
 his tail to be bi'idled instead of his head ; but this little display of 
 wilfulness and ill-breeding defeated his object, for by his sudden
 
 272 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 gyration lie placed himself in a corner of his loose- box, where Dick 
 cleverly contrived to pin him, and before (if he had possessed the 
 faculty of speech) he could have invoked .Tack Robinson, clapped the 
 bridle on him, and " brought him round " in every sense of the term. 
 " Take the bandage off the foreleg," was Tirrett'snext order; as soon 
 as the groom had executed it, his employer stooped down and care- 
 fully felt and examined the uncovered leg. " The heat and tender- 
 ness seem aU gone," he said ; " there's a little fulness still, but that 
 will go down when you've had him out for half an hour. Does he 
 show lame at all ? " 
 
 "I ain't took him out of a valk, you know, since it happened, 
 Master Phil ; but he don't valk lame none," was the reply. 
 
 " I must see him out, Dick ; take him down to the meadow with a 
 saddle on over his clothes. How is his temper ? " was the next 
 inquiry. 
 
 " Veil, he ain't jist the sort o' hanimal for a timid old gentleman, 
 you know, Master Phil ; it takes a man to ride him ; but he'd be 
 civil enough with you or me on his back, after the first five minutes," 
 rejoined Dick, buckling the girths so tightly as disagreeably to 
 compress the person of the irascible Don Pasquale, who, fortunately 
 for himself, by no means resembled in figure his namesake, as 
 enacted by the inimitable Lablache; but who still resented this 
 indignity by making sundry vigorous but aboi-tive efforts to bite 
 and kick his attendant, by which he obtained an exhortation to 
 "cup!" (which we take to be an abbreviation of "come up!"), 
 together with the inteiTogative remonstrance, " what are you ai-ter — 
 can't ye ? " His toilet thus completed, the Don was led, snorting 
 and curvetting, across the yard to a gate opening into a grass 
 paddock of from ten to twelve acres ; where, as soon as he was 
 fairly inside the gate, he commenced a series of violent pantomimic 
 protestations against the indignity of being mounted ; nor was it until 
 Dick, having exhausted his entire vocabulary of eqiiine endearment, 
 had been forced to betake himself to a course of hard Yorkshire 
 swearing, that he could be induced to stand still for ten consecutive 
 seconds. That desideratitm being fortunately attained just before 
 Dick became black in the face from the force of the language he was 
 compelled to employ, the groom, gathering up the reins, grasped the 
 fi'ont of the saddle firmly, and requested from Tirrett the favour of 
 a " leg up," a demand to which that young gentleman responded 
 by seizing him by the right knee, and flinging him recklessly upward 
 into space, whence by a special mercy he descended on the saddle, 
 and therefore on the back of Don Pasquale. Then that noble 
 quadruped tried to obtain forcible possession of his own head, with 
 the felonious intention of careering madly round the meadow, and 
 annihilating Dick in his rapid cai-eer ; but the astute groom, fore- 
 seeing some such catastrophe, would by no means permit liim to 
 accomplish his design, but retained possession of his head by a 
 strong hand, a stout rein, and a powerful bit. Frustrated in his
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 273 
 
 amiable intention, the Don appeared determined to prove to society 
 at large that, if he had lost his head, he at all events possessed the 
 f i-ee use (not to say abuse) of his limbs ; so he pranced, and sidled, 
 and jumped with all four feet off the ground at once, varying the 
 performance by alternately kicking and rearing, until he had in that 
 rash and inconsiderate manner made the circuit of the paddock, 
 when, finding his rider clung to the saddle with an adhesive perti- 
 nacity which rendered the prol^ability of throwing him completely a 
 forlorn hope, he apparently gave the matter up in despair, dropped 
 quietly into the habits and customs of ordinary horses, and permitted 
 himself to be ridden hither and thither at his master's and his 
 master's master's pleasure. 
 
 " Take him by at a slow trot, then at a fast, then at a canter," was 
 Tin-ett's first direction ; when this had been complied with, he 
 continued, " Now take him over the leaping-bar." Dick, who seemed 
 devoid of all individuality of will, and to exist only in order to do as 
 he was bid, without the slightest reference to its compatibility with 
 the safety of his own life and limbs, immediately turned to obey; but 
 Don Pasquale, whatever degree of fondness he had evinced for 
 gymnastic exercises on his own account, clearly had not the smallest 
 inclination to i^erform such feats for the pleasure of others : thus, 
 when brought up to the leaping-bar, he not only refused to go over 
 it, but actually turned his " head where was his tail," and dashed 
 ofE in a diametrically opposite direction. But it was of no avail ; 
 Dick, once mounted, was immovable, inexorable ; moreover, he wore 
 a ])air of singularly sharp spurs, with which he had a disagreeable 
 habit of excoriating the sides of any cantankerous quadruped he 
 might bestride. So, after fight number two, the Don was again 
 conquered, and taken over the leaping-bar, which he cleared in 
 gallant style. " That will do, bring him here," continued Tirrett ; 
 "he scarcely shows lame at all; but he's too fresh, his temper 
 appears too plainly, he wants severe exercise. Will the fore-leg 
 stand training for a race, do you think ? " 
 
 " Yell, if ve has the doing of it. Master Phil ; so as we can humour 
 liim, and doctor him, and vork him only on the soft turf, and little 
 and often, not to overtire the back sinews, do yer see ; and keep him 
 cold-bandaged at night ; and so work the horacle that fashion, the 
 thing may be done without making a mull on it." 
 
 Tirrett removed his hat, passed his fingers through his hair, re- 
 placed it again, thought for a moment, once more felt the suspicious 
 back sinews, shook his head, and then resumed : " Keep him out for 
 the next two hours ; give it him sufficiently stiff to take the devil 
 completely out of him ; then feed and clean him, and have him ready 
 to show by half-past eight. Get yourself dressed, too, for if I sell 
 the horse I shall let you go with him for a time — you understand ; 
 but you shall have full directions when I see my way clearly. Now 
 I must be off ; you need not come in, I can get the mare myself. 
 Take him over that bar again once or twice ; it won't do for him to
 
 274 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 shirk it wlieii I'm sliowin^^ him — remember, half -past eight." So 
 saying, Tirrett returned to the stable, brought out his mare, re- 
 mounted, and rode off at the same speed as that at which he had 
 arinved. 
 
 When he reached the livery stable whence he had procured the 
 mare, it still wanted a quarter of seven ; calling a cab, he drove 
 without delay to a small street in the neighboiu-hood of Leicester 
 Square, and rang twice at one of the houses without producing any 
 result, but a third and more strenuous application of the bell-pull 
 uneai-thed a curl-papered and slip-shod maid-servant, who replied to 
 his inquiry, " Whether the captain was at home ? " that he was in 
 bed and asleep, for aught she knew to the contrary. " Show me his 
 room," was the reply. The girl scrutinized him with a doubtful air, 
 which TiiTett, perceiving, continued, " It's all right, my good girl, 
 I'm not a dun ; " at the same time he placed a shilling in her hand, 
 and, her scruples vanishing at the magic touch of silver, she led the 
 way up two flights of stairs, then, tapping at a bedroom door, she 
 exclaimed, — 
 
 " Here's a gentleman to see you. Captain." TiiTett, without 
 farther announcement, opened the door and walked in ; thereby 
 relieving the gallant tenant of the apartment from an alarming 
 suspicion which was continually haunting him. 
 
 " Ar, Phil me boy, and I'm glad to see you are your own self then, 
 and not a sheriff's officer. What has brought ye here at this 
 onconscionably early hour of the night ? Have ye set the Thames on 
 fire, or bolted with the Bank of England ? " 
 
 "Neither," was the reply; "both exploits are more in your way 
 than mine ; but I've not a minute to lose. I've just come back from 
 the stables at Shark's Farm, and I'm to drive that green goose, with 
 a handle to his name, down to look at the horse at eight o'clock." 
 
 " You've got his Lordship so far as that, have ye ? 'Pon me 
 conscience, you're a clever lad, and your father ought to be proud 
 of ye," was the complimentary remark this announcement drew 
 forth. 
 
 Unheeding it, Tirrett continued : " And now. Captain, before we 
 go any farther, let us come to a clear understanding ; the matter, I 
 think, at present stands thus : I sold you the horse for 200 guineas, 
 and half everything he might win during the ensuing year ; 100 you 
 paid out of your Derby winnings, 100 you still owe me; you next 
 made a foolish bet, when you wei-e half screwed, that the horse could 
 perform an impossible leap, and in attempting it thi-ew him dowm 
 and lamed him ; from that lameness he has wonderfully recovered — 
 sound I never expect him to get ; though, with care and manage- 
 ment, he ;may now be sold and trained ; but how are we to arrange 
 about terms ? " 
 
 " Terms, indeed ! " was the astonished reply. " Why, I'll pay you 
 your second hundred out of the price I get for him ; and well content 
 ye should be with your good luck, — for if the nag had gone to the
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 275 
 
 bad, it's more kicks tlian ha'pence ye'd liave got from Terence 
 O'Brien." 
 
 "Won't do, Captain," was the cool rejoinder: "I must have the 
 hundred down, and half whatever you get beyond. Why, there's a 
 bill of thirty pounds from the ' vet.' for time and medicines, besides 
 the half share of the winnings which I lose by your selling him." 
 
 The angry discussion which ensued, and which ended in O'Brien's 
 obtaining terms slightly more favourable for himself, we will not 
 inflict on the reader; suffice it to say that, ere the associates parted, 
 all their differences were reconciled, and their alliance likely to be 
 cemented more firmly than ever, by their proposed inroad on the 
 credulity and cash of Lord Alfred Courtland. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 KATE BEGINS TO REAP THE WHIRLWIND. 
 
 Kate Crane was the eldest of a large family ; two children younger 
 than herseK had died in infancy, so that her next brother was five 
 years her junior. He was a fine, high-spirited lad, generous to a 
 fault, as wilful and determined as his sister, but unfortunately with- 
 out her power of self-control or steadiness of principle. Thus 
 constituted, he was at once the darling and the torment of his 
 family. Through Mr. Crane's interest he had obtained a good 
 position in a large mercantile establishment in the City, where, 
 though Kate had at first entertained considerable apprehensions as 
 to his steadiness, he appeared to be going on satisfactorily. 
 
 One moraing, about three weeks after the date of the occun-ences 
 we have related, Mr. Crane having as usual departed for the City to 
 coin money, the mid-day post brought the following letter for his 
 wife : — 
 
 " Dearest Kate, — It is with reluctance that I take up my pen to 
 ask you whether it will inconvenience you to pay me a part of the 
 next quarter's allowance you so generously make us, in advance. 
 You know well how I strive and struggle to keep down our expenses, 
 without depriving your dear father (who, I grieve to say, gets weaker 
 and weaker) of the comforts which his declining health renders 
 daily more necessary for him. My best endeavours cannot, however' 
 prevent some of the tradesmen's bills from getting in arrear, — the 
 fearful expense of your father's illness absorbing the addition to our
 
 276 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 income which your kind husband's liberality has enabled you to make. 
 Such a difficulty is now pressinf? upon me, and induces me to apply 
 to you. If you can help me, I am sure you will ; if you are unable 
 to do so, I can only trust that the beneficent Providence who has 
 hitherto supported me under my heavy trials will not now desert me. 
 Believe me to remain, dearest Kate, 
 
 " Ever yom* affectionate mother, 
 
 " Rachel Marsden." 
 
 " P.S. — I am uneasy aboitt Fred ; his letters have been short and 
 unsatisfactoi'y for some time ; and for the last three weeks he haa 
 not written to me at all. I wish you would see him, and endeavour 
 to learn from him how he employs his evenings, &c. You will think 
 my fears unreasonal^le ; but you know how fond and proud we both 
 are of our boy. If anything were to po wrong with him, in your 
 father's present stat^ of debility, I believe it would be his death- 
 blow." 
 
 Kate's first impulse on reading the above epistle was to fly to her 
 writing-desk — ten, twenty, thirty pounds, was all that remained : the 
 liberal assistance she had bestowed on Mrs. Leonard and her family 
 having reduced her finances to this low ebb. Reserving only five 
 poimds for her own use, she immediately dispatched a hun-ied 
 answer, enclosing an order for five-and-twenty pounds, and explain- 
 ing, in general terms, the reason of her inability to render her parents 
 more effectual assistance, promising to be more cai-eful of their 
 interest for the future. 
 
 As she was desiring the servant to ix)st her letter without delay, a 
 shai-p knock at the street-door caused her to start, and she had 
 barely time to close her writing-desk, ere Mr. Frederick Marsden was 
 announced, and a tall, handsome lad entered. 
 
 " Why, Fx-ed, how is this ? away from business at this hour ! what 
 will that tremendous individual, the 'Head of the Firm,' say to 
 you ? " inquired Kate, with an attempt at gaiety which scarcely 
 concealed an undefined dread of something having gone wrong, with 
 which her brother's unexpected arrival, and the information contained 
 in her mother's letter, had inspired her. 
 
 Young Marsden waited until the sei'vant had quitted the room, 
 then, meeting his sister's glance steadily, he replied, — 
 
 " It does not much signify what he might say, Kate, for I no 
 longer am a member of his establishment." 
 
 " What do you mean ? You have surely never been so mad — so 
 ungrateful to Mr. Crane — so cruel to oiu- mother, as to throw up your 
 appointment ! " 
 
 *' Do not add to my misfortimes by upbraiding me, for I am 
 wretched enough as it is ; or, at all events, hear what I have to tell 
 you first," was the reply. 
 
 Kate made a gesture for him to continue; and he immediately
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 277 
 
 bepran an eager, hurried recital of bis troixbles and difficulties. It 
 ■was the old story — poverty and pride, temptation resisted often, 
 yielded to once ; and that once effacing in a moment the recollection 
 and results of the repeat-ed resistance. Youth and impetuosity, led 
 astray by high and generous impulses, without judgment to control 
 them ; meanness and malevolence profiting thereby to effect the poor 
 boy's ruin. And as he stood before her, with his fair clustering hair 
 in wild disorder, his bright cheeks glowing with contrition for the 
 past, and real, earnest, good i-esolutions for the future, — with the 
 tear-di-op sparkling in his bright blue eye, suggesting the childhood 
 from which he had so lately emerged, while the compression of the 
 short, stem upper lip indicated the approach of the full rich man- 
 hood into which, if the world will but grant him forbearance for the 
 present and fair play for the future, he will surely develop, — what 
 wonder that his sister, deeming him more sinned against than 
 sinning, shoi;ld press him to her warm woman's heart, as she 
 murmured, — 
 
 " My poor boy ! don't make yourself so miserable ; we must see 
 what can be done to help you." 
 
 When, however, she had in some degree succeeded in calming his 
 emotion, and they came quietly to review his position, the said 
 question of " What could be done to help him ? " appeai-ed no easy 
 one to answer. 
 
 The son of his late employer, and junior partner in the establish- 
 ment — a dissipated and unprincipled young man— had, on Fred 
 Marsden's first arrival, taken, or pretended to take, an extreme fancy 
 to him, introduced him to his sporting acquaintance, and made him 
 his constant companion. The first fruits of this ill-assorted alliance 
 were, that the high-spii-ited boy, eager to vie with his associates, was 
 led almost unconsciously into expenses, which soon left him first 
 penniless, then in debt. 
 
 In debt! — to owe a few shillings, a few pounds, appears a mere 
 trifle — an imprudence, perhaps, but scarcely a sin ; or if a sin, a veiy 
 venial one — a peccadillo, nothing more. Believe it not ! the fact of 
 owing that which, if it be required of him, a man cannot pay, is the 
 step across the Rubicon between honesty and dishonesty, between 
 honour and dishonour, between being a free agent or a bond-slave. 
 To be in debt is to forfeit self-respect ; to lose self-respect is to lose 
 the practical i-esult of obedience to the guiding principles of religion 
 and morality; a loss too soon followed by a distaste for the holy 
 things thus dishonom-ed, by a relaxation of all attempts at self- 
 improvement, by a reckless indifference to the opinion of the good 
 and the true : — the stone set rolling gathers speed from its own 
 impetus; the wedge inserted, the seam widens, and the stoutest oak 
 is riven. Let a young man be once in debt, and no helping hand 
 stretched out to save him from the consequences of his imprudence 
 before the sense of shame has depai-ted, and the dereliction of duty 
 acquired the fatal force of habit, and it does not require any very
 
 278 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 profound experience of life to prophesy his future career. No one 
 who has witnessed the mean siabterf uges — the palti-y evasions — the 
 shameless encroachment on kindness— the parasitical cringinpr to 
 opulence, which the burden of debt forces on natures not originally 
 deficient in generosity and delicacy of feeling, but must dread for 
 those near or dear to him the first downward step towards this abyss 
 of misery, and exert every nerve to restrain them, ere it be too 
 late. 
 
 Frederick Marsden, ignorant as a child of the value of money, and 
 imagining his salary calculated to supply his every ftincy, had spent 
 it at least three times over, ere the uncomfortable possibility of 
 being in debt occuiTcd to him ; and when he did open his eyes to the 
 fact, his pseudo-friend soon quieted his scriiples by lending him a 
 sum — not indeed sufficient to defray his debts, but to enable him to 
 continue his career of extravagance a little longer. But the delusion 
 was soon rudely dispelled : after a wine-party, at which Marsden 
 had drunk quite as much, and his friend considerably more than was 
 good for him, the latter, returning home, chose to follow and insult 
 an unprotected girl. Fred attempted to restrain him, but in vain ; 
 and on his instituting a more vigorous remonstrance, a quan-el 
 ensued, in which, heated by wine and anger, the junior partner 
 struck his subordinate, by whom he was immediately knocked down 
 in return. Becoming from this moment Frederick's bitter enemy, 
 he commenced a series of petty persecutions, to which the high- 
 spirited boy submitted with unexpected patience, until on one 
 occasion, stung beyond his powers of endm-ance by some unjust 
 indignity inflicted on him in the presence of several of his fellow- 
 clerks, he gave vent to his anger, and was instantly summoned before 
 the head of the firm, and only saved himself from dismissal by taking 
 the initiative, and resigning his situation, 
 
 " And now, Kate," he continued, " I have told you the whole 
 truth ; I own myself to blame, I see where I have been weak and 
 foolish, where I have been headstrong and impetuous ; and I admit 
 that by contracting these debts which are weighing me do^vn, and 
 paralyzing any efforts I might hope to make to regain my character 
 and position, I have acted weakly, and— and" — (with a choking sob) 
 — " almost dishonestly ; — " he paused, then added, " and now, seeing all 
 this, feeling it most deeply ; anxious only to retrieve the past, or if 
 that is impossible, at all events to do better for the future, how am I 
 to carry out my intentions — how prove to my poor mother that I am 
 in earnest ? Oh, Kate, dear Kate, help me— advise me ! I know I 
 don't desei-ve it ; but I have nobody but you to look to ! " 
 
 Thiis appealed to, Kate would not have been the true woman she 
 was, had she hesitated. Fred had acted wrongly, foolishly, but he had 
 one nothing unmanly or mean ; he was her own dear brother stiU, 
 and all the assistance in her power she would render him gladly. But 
 what was in her power ? there was the rub. What were his own ideas ? 
 Had he any friends, any future prospects ? Friends likely to assist
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 279 
 
 him lie had none — future prospects he had plenty, but they were 
 very hazy. He should like to go out to India— could Mr. Crane get 
 him a cadetship, or anything else which would enable him to earn his 
 own living ? Kate did not know. Mr. Crane would, of course, be 
 very angry, but she would talk to him, and see what could be done ; 
 these debts were the worst part of the alfair— did Fred know their 
 amount ? 
 
 Fi-ed was not exactly aware of their uncomfortable total, but was 
 afraid they could not be less than ^150: and a peculiar feature in 
 the case was, that the tradesmen appeared by instinct to have dis- 
 covered his altered prospects, and were all sending in their bills at 
 once, and clamouring for payment. And so while they schemed and 
 devised, and hoped, the time slipped away, imtil it approached the 
 hour at which Mr. Crane usually returned, when Frederick grew 
 alarmed, and would by no means risk meeting him until Kate had 
 talked to him well— from which colloquial process he seemed to 
 expect extraordinary results : thereby proving that this young 
 fellow, however deficient he might be upon most points of worldly 
 knowledge, was not wholly ignorant of some of the ai'cana of mamed 
 life ; especially of those private enactments relating to the mainte- 
 nance of the proper authority, rule, and goventiance of the wife over 
 that legal and clerical fiction, her loi'd and master. 
 
 When her brother had left her, Kate sat down, and endeavoured 
 to review quietly and dispassionately the circumstances of the case. 
 Her brother must be saved at all hazards ; as a first step, his debts 
 must be paid; to do this .£150 were required, and she possessed 
 exactly ^5, and would not receive any more for another month. She 
 must apply to her husband, that was clear ; and now she should reap 
 the advantage of her sacrifice. Had she married Arthur Hazlehurst, 
 knowing that every farthing he possessed was acquired by his mental 
 labour, she could not have ventured to ask him— it would have been 
 unfair to him, wrong on her part ; but now the case was different. 
 What were a couple of hundred pounds to a man whose income was 
 reported to be .£20,000 a year? True, Fi-ed had thrown up the 
 appointment which Mr. Crane had obtained for him ; this she knew 
 would offend and vex him : worse still. Fred had run in debt— a sin 
 which, as he had no temptation to it himself, her husband regarded 
 with the gi-eatest hoiTor. He would be very angry with Fi-ed, and 
 perhaps refuse to assist him. No doubt she had great influence with 
 him, and where money would in any way make a show, as in the matter 
 of carriages and horses, plate, jewellery, and the like, he was liberal 
 in the extreme ; but on other points he was strangely parsimonious. 
 She had never known him give a sixpence away in charity since she 
 had been married ; and all such appeals invariably in-itated him, and 
 threw him into a state of dogged obstinacy, in which it was perfectly 
 impossible to influence or in any way control his actions. Her pride 
 rebelled against asking him a favour, even for her brother's sake ; 
 but the mental suffering Kate had gone through since we first made
 
 280 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 her acquaintance, had given her truer views on certain important 
 points, and she had begun to perceive pride to be one of the rocks on 
 which she had shipwi-ecked her happiness, and had learned to mis- 
 trust it accordingly. Occupied by such thoughts as these, she, for 
 the first time in her married life, sat awaiting her husband's return 
 with a feeling of mingled anxiety and impatience. At last the ex. 
 pected knock sounded, and in due time Mr. Crane made his appear- 
 ance in the drawing-room ; his greeting to his wife ran thus : — 
 
 " Really, my dear, I must be excused for observing that I know no 
 door in London at which I am kept waiting so long as at my own. 
 I am sure my establishment costs me money enough ; but the better 
 servants are paid, and the more they're indulged, the more useless they 
 become. I shouldn't be surprised if I've taken cold standing there. 
 I did hope — no doubt it was unreasonable of me — but I certainly did 
 expect when I married, that a household conducted on so liberal a scale 
 as — I must be allowed to remark — mine is, would be well regulated ; 
 that the eye of a mistress would see whether the domestic duties were 
 performed properly." 
 
 He paused, so evidently expecting a reply, that Kate felt it in- 
 cumbent on her to say something, so she began, — 
 
 " If Thomas is inattentive, you should desire Roberts to reprove 
 him ; and if that does not produce the desii'ed effect, give him warning 
 and let him go." 
 
 " Yes, it is easy to say, ' Let him go,' but you forget that one has 
 to teach a new servant all one's habits and wishes. Thomas has 
 lived with me for some years, and though at times he is slow and 
 dilatory, yet he knows my ways — not that I require much waiting on ; 
 thank Heaven, I can wait upon myself : still, I am not going to part 
 with a faithful servant merely to satisfy — if I may be allowed the 
 expression — female caprice." 
 
 Having delivei'ed himself of this sensible and consistent opinion, 
 Mr. Crane solemnly stalked off to prepare for dinner. Poor Kate ! 
 she had by this time become acquainted with her husband's small 
 and di'eary peculiarities, and she perceived, from his fretful, in-itable 
 manner, that something had occurred to disquiet him in the course 
 of the morning. It was clear that this was no favourable moment in 
 which to make her appeal ; and yet time pressed. She trusted the 
 dinner would produce a tranquillizing effect on him ; and she must 
 choose a favourable opportunity, while he was sitting over his wine, 
 to introduce the subject of her brother's troubles and indiscretions. 
 
 Mr. Crane [reappeared with a gloomy brow ; he had been obliged 
 to wash his hands in cold water — the hot was a perfect sea of blacks. 
 " Why were his things not put out for him to dress ? " Kate believed 
 they had been ; unless she was very much mistaken, she had seen 
 them laid out in his dressing-room. " What, his dress shoes ? " Kate 
 did not remember to have seen the shoes. " No ! he should think not ; 
 the shoes were what he was particularly alluding to — they were not put 
 out : ou the contrary, it took him quite five minutes to hunt for them.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 281 
 
 But it was always the case — few things as he required, those few 
 were certain to be neglected ; " and in this strain did he bewail him- 
 self, until, to Kate's inexpressible relief, dinner was announced. 
 
 Without being exactly a gourmand, Mr. Crane took a deep and 
 solemn interest in his dinner, the cooking of which he criticized with 
 equal acumen and severity. On the present occasion he helped him. 
 self to soup, and tasted the first spoonful with an air of anxious 
 inquiry. As he became aware of the flavour, his countenance fell, 
 and the shadow on his brow darkened. 
 
 " Have you tasted that compound, Mrs. Crane ? " he asked, in a 
 tone indicative of deep but tragic feeling. 
 
 " It's rather salt, is it not ? " returned Kate. 
 
 " Rather salt ! it's brine, made with sea- water, I'm certain ! such 
 a deleterious mixture as that is siu'e to disagree with me : the way 
 they dress my food in this house is undermining my constitution — 
 bringing me to my grave ! I'm certain of it ! Roberts, take that 
 do-v\Ti to Mrs. Trimmins, and tell her I can't touch it ; and mind 
 such stufE as that does not come lap again. That's the way money is 
 wasted in this family; that woman gets the best and most expensive 
 materials, and then, just because she has not to pay for them herself, 
 goes and spoils them by her unpardonable carelessness — it's too bad ! 
 — oyster sauce. My dear Kate, you've given me no sounds now ! " 
 
 "Really." rejoined Kate, colouring with annoyance, and making 
 vigorous but fruitless pokes at the cod with the fish-slice, " really, I'm 
 afraid there are no sounds with this fish." 
 
 " No sounds ! " repeated Mr. Crane, in a high, whimpering falsetto ; 
 " codfish and no soimds ! the only part, as Mrs. Trimmins knows, 
 that I care about ! Serve up a codfish without sounds ! No, really 
 this cannot be allowed to go on ; there's no man cares less about his 
 eating than I do. Take it away, Roberts, I shall not touch a bit. A 
 crust of bread and cheese, if it is but clean and wholesome, is all I 
 require ; still, when I do sit down to a dinner, I like to have that 
 dinner fit to eat. As a bachelor, I put up with such annoyances ; if 
 they spoilt one's dinner, one dined at one's club for the next week, 
 and so gave the cook a hint, which rendered her more careful ; but I 
 own, when I married, I did hope that these things might be remedied ; 
 that while I was out, working hard from breakfast till dinner-time, 
 to provide funds for all these expenses, the eye of a mistress might 
 have been applied to an occasional inspection of her household ; and 
 that her husband's comfort would have been a fitter study for an 
 amiable and domestic character than the immoral and pernicious 
 wa-itings of German and French novelists. Take that horrible joint 
 up to your mistress, Roberts, and bring me the cutlets and tomato 
 sauce. I should have thought Mrs. Trimmins might have known by 
 this time how much I dislike a great coarse leg of mutton ; but I 
 suppose your rural tastes lead you to prefer it to a more refined style 
 of cookery, in which case I must only request that your favourite 
 dish may always be placed at your end of the table ; I declare the
 
 282 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 sigM of it is enougli to destroy my appetite, and makes me quite un- 
 comfortable ! " 
 
 " Don't you think there may be a little fancy in that P " returned 
 Kate, as cutlet and tomato sauce at last filled Mr. Crane's mouth, 
 and stopped his gi-umbling monologue ; " I cannot help thinking 
 good roast meat must contain more nourishment, and for that reason 
 be more wholesome than made dishes." 
 
 A struggle between his rising anger and his descending food 
 having occasioned a fit of choking, which did not tend to increase 
 his general amiability, Mr. Crane, as soon as he was sufl&ciently 
 recovered, continued, — 
 
 " Unless it may be for the sake of contradicting me, my dear, I 
 cannot conceive — ugh ! ugh ! — I cannot conceive why you should 
 imagine it possible you can form a judgment about the matter; with 
 such a strong — I may say Hei-culean — digestion as you are gifted 
 with, how should you guess how these things affect a delicate organi- 
 zation like mine ? Toil can doiibtless eat these feai-f ul legs of mutton 
 with impunity ; but were you to eat the legs of a horse — as I verily 
 believe you could — that would be no argument in favour of dieting 
 me on dog's meat. I know you think me fanciful ; your more robust 
 temperament does not enable you to sympathize with the difficulties 
 my delicate, sensitive digestion subjects me to — ugh ! " 
 
 " The better way will be to give the housekeeper a general order 
 never again to send a leg of mutton up to table," returned Kate ; " I 
 have no especial predilection for the joint, and can dine quite as 
 satisfactorily on anything else." 
 
 " No, my dear ; I beg you will give no such order. I am not of 
 such a selfish disposition as to wish the dinner ordered merely with 
 a view to my likes and dislikes ; neither is it my desire to curtail any 
 of your enjoyments, however much I may regret that they are not of 
 a more refined or intellectual nature ;— have your legs of mutton as 
 you have been accustomed to have. I dare say there will always be 
 bread and cheese or cold meat in the house ; thank Heaven, I am not 
 particular, anything simple and wholesome — give me some wine, 
 Roberts ; no, the Burgundy, only half a glass — simple a,nd wholesome 
 does for me. Roberts, desire Mrs. Trimmins to take care that she 
 provides a liberal supply of legs of mutton for her mistress." 
 
 " Really, Mr. Crane, you mistake me ; I have no particular prefer- 
 ence for legs of nuitton, I assm*e — " began Kate. 
 
 Mr. Crane raised his hand deprecatingly, and checked her in mid 
 speech. 
 
 " Quite enough has been said on this subject," he inteiposed 
 severely ; " these endless discussions weary me. I come home tired 
 and annoyed wdth the cares, and anxieties, and fatigues of business : 
 and when I seek for quiet and repose in the bosom of my family, I 
 am met by these frivolous and vexatious complaints, my dinner made 
 a trial to me, and my digestion upset, my constitution undennined, 
 and my comfort in my home— my domestic comfort, Mrs. Crane —
 
 

 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 283 
 
 entirely destroyed ! However, one word shall end this matter ; if I 
 am to be subjected to these ebullitions of — I am afraid I must say, 
 a fretful and dissatisfied temjjer, I dine at my club in future." 
 
 And having thus worked himself up into a mild, childish, and 
 ineffectual rage, Mr. Crane continued to growl at his wife and harass 
 the seiwants until dinner was over and the domestics had departed. 
 And then came out the cause of this agreeable episode in Kate's 
 married life — the " Bvindelcundah," East Indiaman, had gone down 
 at sea, all hands had perished, and ,£40,000 worth of cargo, the pro- 
 perty of Jedidiah Crane, had gone down with them ! 
 
 Tears for their loved and ]ost ones dimmed the eyes of the widows 
 and orphans of the gallant seamen who had sunk in the " Bundel- 
 cundah " ; mothers wept as memory recalled some bright young face, 
 glowing with health and youthful daring, which now lay pale and 
 swollen in the depths of mighty waters ; girls, with blanched lips and 
 hollow eyes, grieved for the lovers whom they should behold no more 
 till the sea should give up its dead, in an agony of speechless 
 anguish, to which the soirow that can find vent in tears would have 
 been a merciful relief ; and Crane, the millionaire, fretted over the 
 loss of his .£40,000 with a grief as lively and earnest as any of them — 
 for " where the treasure is, there shall the heart be also." 
 
 During all this scene her brother's difficulties were never absent 
 from the mind of Kate Crane, but she felt that this was not the time 
 to bring them forward, and kept silence. Did the idea occur to her 
 how differently she would have felt had Arthur Hazlehurst been the 
 person to whom she had desired to confide her ti'ouble ? Let us hope 
 not, for her heart was full enough without it. 
 
 CHAPTER XL VII. 
 
 A GLIMPSE AT THE CLOVEN FOOT. 
 
 " So he will not do anything for me ? " 
 
 " Nothing, my poor boy ! " 
 
 " And you asked him — pressed him very much ? " 
 
 " Don't speak of it! I actually stooped to implore him ; I did my 
 duty by you thoroughly ; I kept down my rebellious heart, though it 
 throbbed as if it would burst. I told him of your youth, your peni- 
 tence, and I entreated him to befriend you." 
 
 " And he still refused ? " 
 
 " He said money was ' tight ' in the City, and that he had none to 
 waste on an ungrateful boy who did not know its value."
 
 284 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " I am not likely to leani it practically now, unless by trying liow I 
 can live without it. I have just five shillings left though as I am in 
 debt, I cannot honestly call those my own," was the bitter re[)ly. 
 Tliere was a pause ; then suddenly raising his head, Frederick asked 
 abruptly, " Kate, have you got any money ? " 
 
 "Never was anything so unfortunate!" was Kate's answer; "I 
 have been at a good deal of expense lately in assisting a distressed 
 family ; and yesterday, just before you came, I received a letter from 
 mamma, telling me she was pressed for money in consequence of 
 poor papa's illness, and, excepting five pounds, I sent her every 
 ftu-thing I had." 
 
 As she thus destroyed his last hope, her brother sprang to his feet, 
 and began to pace the room with hun-ied strides. At length he 
 exclaimed, " I'll not stay here to beg or starve — I'll enlist in a cavalry 
 regiment ; I'm quite six feet now, and i-ide under nine stone : I should 
 not wonder if they'd take me in the Lifeguards or the Blues." 
 
 Kate's only reply was by a mournful and dissentient shake of the 
 head, and Frederick continued, — 
 
 " What ! you don't think it gentlemanly to enlist as a private ? 
 Well, it would be a bore, having to associate with the common men — 
 not that I've any false pride about me, but a gentleman can't help 
 being a gentleman, and I own I should feel out of my element. I 
 have it — I'll work my way out as a sailor to Avistralia, and go to the 
 gold-fields— eh ? Gold is what I want, you know. I'll dig up enough 
 to pay my debts, and keep a decent coat on my back for a year or 
 two, and then I'U come home, and be a credit to you yet — why won't 
 that do ? " 
 
 " Think of our poor mother, Fred ; it would break her heart ! She 
 is so wrapped up in you — has always loved you the best of all her 
 children ; think of all she has upon her now — you would not add to 
 her distress ! Oh, no, you must give up all such wild thoughts, it 
 would be too cruel ! " 
 
 As she spoke the boy paused in his impetuous walk, and murmur- 
 ing, " I shall break her heart any way, miserable wi'etch that I am ! " 
 he flung himself on the sofa, and gave vent to an outburst of mingled 
 shame and contrition. 
 
 Kate's unhappiness at witnessing his grief — which she could 
 soothe, indeed, but of which she was powerless to remove the cause — 
 may readily be imagined. Having after a time succeeded in subdu. 
 ing his extreme sorrow, of which unavailing self-reproach formed the 
 sharpest sting, Kate gave him thi-ee out of her five pounds, to pro- 
 vide for his immediate necessities, and dismissed him, promising to 
 take advantage of any symptoms of relenting which Mr. Crane might 
 evince, again to press her suit ; and the poor boy departed, in some 
 degree reassured by hopes of which, even as she expatiated upon 
 them, she j)erceived the probable fallacy. 
 
 As soon as he had quitted her, she sat down and fell into a train of 
 gloomy and bitter reflections. Tliis wealth that surrounded hei', of
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 285 
 
 what use was it in her trouble ? None ! She could not convert it 
 into money to save her brother ; and its possession had hardened the 
 heai't of him to whom she should naturally turn for assistance — her 
 husband ! And as she pronounced the name, an involuntary shudder 
 came over her. She had sold herself to a man she despised for the 
 pood of her family ; sold herself to save them from the curse of 
 poverty ; and now, at her utmost need, her self-sacrifice proved un- 
 availing — the money she required was denied her — her earnest 
 pleadings were disregarded — the evil she dreaded had come upon her 
 in its bitterest form, and she was powerless to avert it. Was it for 
 this, then, that she had stifled the voice of affection in her heart — • 
 was it for this she had thrown aside the priceless love of Arthur 
 Hazlehurst, and embittered his life and her own by so doing ? And 
 now the harrowing doubt which, from the first hour in which she 
 had conceived the project of marrying Mr. Crane, to this moment in 
 which the conviction of its fri;itlessness was forced upon her, had 
 never ceased to haunt her, recurred with redoubled vigour. In so 
 acting, had she indeed deceived herself ? — had she, instead of 
 performing an act of generous self-sacrifice, committed a sin against 
 her better nature, for which she had no justification, and of which she 
 was now paying the bitter penalty ? As she thought it over, the 
 conviction forced itself upon her, more and more strongly, that she 
 had rebelled against the decrees of Providence, and sought to free 
 herself and her family from the cross He had seen fit to lay upon 
 them, by unlawful means ; that, blinded by the proiid and haughty 
 spirit which precedes a fall, she had done evil that good might come : 
 she had sown the wind — what wonder that she should reap the whirl- 
 wind ! It was a cruel discovery to make now, when it was too late 
 to remedy the evil ; but, fortunately, Kate had a strong, brave spirit 
 for good, as well as for evil ; and though this new aspect in which 
 she regarded her past conduct occasioned her the deepest remorse, 
 though it displayed her faults of pride and overweening self- 
 confidence in their worst and most repulsive aspect, yet she did not 
 shrink from the scrutiny, but honestly sat in judgment on herself ; 
 and where, weighing herself in the balance, she was found wanting, 
 she recognized the deficiency, and unhesitatingly acknowledged her 
 transgression. Yes ! she saw it clearly, now it was too late — in the 
 deep, earnest, tender affection of Arthur Hazlehurst, Heaven had 
 bestowed upon her an inestimable blessing, which she had no right 
 to cast from her. By so doing she had inflicted the bitterest wound 
 man can receive on him who thus had given her his all of love — 
 a woimd which time indeed may heal superficially, but which 
 contimies to throb and bleed internally while life remains; — that 
 death-blow to hope which the heart receives, when the conviction is 
 forced upon it that the idol enshrined in its inmost recesses is un- 
 worthy of such holy sanctuary. 
 
 Well, she had chosen her lot, and m^^st abide by it ; repining was 
 worse than useless ; all chance of happiness she had forfeited by her
 
 286 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 own act ; but there still remained to her tlie possibility of resi^a- 
 tion, wbicb, persevered in, mierlit produce contentment. Could she 
 gain that, and the self -approval of her own conscience, life might 
 become endurable, after all. But, to obtain this, one path alone was 
 open to her — the rigid path of duty. She had done Mr. Crane 
 sufficient wrong in marrying him without affection, and for the sake 
 of expediency : if she could not love and honour him— as at God's 
 holy altar she had falsely sworn to do — she could at least obey him, 
 and strive to render his life as easy and comfortable as in her lay : 
 she would alter her cold manner towards him ; she would refrain 
 from the covert sarcasm which lurked under every word she had 
 hitherto addressed to him, and which so thinly veiled the contempt 
 she felt for him, that occasionally even his dull perception penetrated 
 it. Oh, how as the clearer light in which she now regarded her past 
 behaviour fell upon each separate fault and error, did she abhor 
 herself ! with what bitter tears of unavailing contrition did she 
 bewail the thoughts, words, and actions, which could never be re- 
 called ! — unavailing contrition ! yes, unavailing as regards the 
 ii-revocable past, but the past only, for there was One who witnessed 
 her true penitence, who has declared, in His gi'acious mercy, that " a 
 broken and contrite heart He will not despise." 
 
 How long she thus sat, reviewing and grieving over her past 
 errors, and forming good resolutions for the future, and imploring 
 strength from above to enable her to carry them into effect, Kate 
 Crane knew not ; but she was startled from her reverie by a knock 
 at the house-door ; and ere she had time to banish the traces of her 
 late emotion, a light footstep bounded up the stairs, and Horace 
 D'Almayne entered. AssTiming as composed a manner as she was 
 able, she began, — 
 
 " You are an early visitor to-day, Mr. D'Almayne ; so early, indeed, 
 that Mr. Crane has not yet returned from the City." 
 
 " I am aware of that fact already, my dear Mrs. Crane, having 
 parted from my good friend scarcely an hour since, when I left him 
 engaged at Lloyd's, going into the details of his losses on the un- 
 fortunate East Indiaman. I was on my way to visit a friend in 
 Belgravia, when a circumstance occurred which induced me to alter 
 my destination and take the chance of finding you disengaged ; in 
 which case I ventured to hope you would allow me a few minutes' 
 conversation." 
 
 Rather surprised at his mysterious manner, though by no means 
 so much so as if she had been unacquainted with his habit of making 
 a mountain of any molehill he might happen to stumble upon, Kate 
 motioned to him to be seated, resumed her own chair, and wondered 
 what was to come next. 
 
 Probably reading as much in her expression, D'Almayne 
 began, — 
 
 " You will at once imderstand why I have thus pi-esumed upon my 
 privilege as an old friend, when I tell you that I have just met, and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAjME OF IT 287 
 
 had a long, and I liope not entirely profitless, conversation witli your 
 brother." 
 
 " With Fred ! " exclaimed Kate, colouring with mingled surprise 
 and annoyance, for D'Almayne was about the last person to whom 
 she desired to confide her family troubles. 
 
 D'Almayne read her thoughts. 
 
 " Tour brother." he said, in a tone expressive of wounded feeling, 
 "your brother, entertaining no unkind suspicions of my friendly 
 interest, imhesitatingly confided to me the dilemma in which his 
 inexperience has placed him, and which his want of knowledge of the 
 world has magnified into something much more alarming than it 
 really is. So I obtained his permission to speak to you on the 
 subject, promising, if he would alloAv me to do so, that between us 
 we should very soon devise means to relieve him from his 
 dilficulties." 
 
 " I'm afraid, then, you have only prepai'ed a fresh disappointment 
 for the poor boy," returned Kate. " Did he not tell you that he had 
 already applied to me, and that I was so unfortimate as to be unable 
 to render him any effectual assistance ? " 
 
 " Surely a word from you to Mr. Crane would remove all difficulty ? 
 Believe me, you are the only person who could for a moment doubt 
 the effect of such an appeal; "and, as he spoke, D' Alma jTie fixed 
 his dark, piercing eyes upon her, as though he would read her very 
 soul. 
 
 For a moment Kate looked down in confusion and annoyance ; 
 then her spirit rose, and calmly returning his glance, she replied, — 
 
 " My brother, no doubt, wished to spare me pain, by concealing 
 from you that I have ah-eady applied to Mr. Ci-ane ; but that, 
 irritated against poor Fred, and vexed by the loss of this ship, my 
 husband refused my request." 
 
 Smarting under Mr. Crane's unkindness, anxious and unhappy 
 about her brother, provoked at Fred's imprudence in admitting 
 Horace D'Almayne to his confidence, yet clinging to the hope that 
 her companion's tact and knowledge of life might devise some means 
 of extricating her brother from his difficulties, Kate forgot her usual 
 caution, and spoke eagerly and hastily. 
 
 D'Almayne glanced at her as, with flushed cheeks and sparkling 
 eyes, she owned her vain appeal to her husband's liberality — never 
 had he seen her look so lovely; he had always admitted her 
 statuesque grace, but now the statue had become animated, and her 
 beauty appeared to his fascinated vision enthralling, entrancing; 
 while the absence of the reserve she usually maintained towards 
 him misled him and threw him off his guard. Thus, utterly 
 sceptical as to the existence of female vii-tue, urged by the impulses 
 of his wai-m southern blood, and deceived by his experiences of 
 foreign society, he conceived the moment for which he had so long 
 waited and schemed had arrived ; gamester-like, he resolved to stake 
 all on the hazard of a die; and, turning towards her, while his
 
 288 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 voice trembled with an emotion which for once was not fei^ed, he 
 exclaimed passionately, — 
 
 " I have witnessed long and silently,' though that silence has 
 proceeded from an effort of the sti-ongest self-control, the mean- 
 spirited and selfish conduct of the cold-hearted, witless ' imb(5cile ' to 
 whom it is youi' misfortune to be allied ; I have seen also, with 
 sentiments of the warmest and most vivid admiration, the heroic 
 endurance with which you have borae his insults — the gentle 
 tenderness with which you have striven to conceal his faults — the 
 noble generosity with which you have impoverished yourself to 
 atone for his selfish parsimony. I have seen all this with feelings 
 of the deepest indignation towards him — of the warmest, the 
 most devoted admiration towards you. I have perceived the low, 
 sordid spirit of the one — the beautiful angelic nature of the other ; 
 and I have afflicted myself with a vain remorse when the reflec- 
 tion that I was a weak, blind instrument in bringing about this 
 incongi-uous, this most abhon-ed union, forced itself upon me — 
 night after night have I lain sleepless, indulging in these sombre 
 reflections. At length a thought, an idea, an inspiration, as it 
 were, flashed across my brain, like lightning through the darkness 
 that ovei-whebned me. The laws of man change, it said ; they 
 are weak, vain, frivolous; a breath can make, a breath can alter 
 them ; but the laws of Heaven are immiitable — written on human 
 hearts, whence death alone can efface them. In the stillness of 
 night a voice said, ' Look within ; read your own heart ; what do 
 you find written there? Is it not that a strange, sweet, yet 
 mysterious sympathy atti-acts you towards her — links you to her ? 
 Does not an intuition teach you her evei-y thought and wish ? When 
 she smiles, does not an extatic joy pervade your frame ? "When she 
 suffers, do you not suffer also ? ' I recognized the truth, delightful 
 yet exquisitely painful ; but I put it away from me. I said. ' Our 
 paths in life diverge — the joy of such soul-communion is not for me 
 — I am alone in life ! ' But I watched you ; I saw yovu* unhappiness 
 increase; you required a friend — again the voice addressed me; it 
 said, ' Be that friend; ' and I came, and did the little I was able to 
 aid you. I was of use to you, and for the time I was happy. Once 
 more, this day, when your brother confided in me, the voice spoke, 
 ' Go, Horace,' it exclaimed, ' she requires you.' It had not deceived 
 me; I found you pale, dejected, traces of tears on your silken lashes, 
 sorrow marked in every line of your speaking countenance — in eveiy 
 pose of youi- graceful figure; and with flashing eyes and burning 
 cheeks you tell me of your wrongs. Again, at this moment, the 
 voice addresses me :' It is in vain to strive,' it cries, ' you cannot 
 silence the titterances of the heart ; they may be repressed for a time, 
 but they will make themselves heard. Listen to their dictates now. 
 She who is part of your soul is unhappy : she seeks affection, and is 
 repelled with insensate coldness ; she requii'es a mind capable of 
 appreciating and reciprocating her own, and is met by feeble in-
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 289 
 
 capacity; she asks foi* common justice — common courtesy, and 
 encounters sordid illiberality, fretfid cliurlislmess. Oppressed by 
 her dismal fate, she sits alone and weeps. And shall this continue ? 
 — no! break throiigh the trammels of dull conventionality, and let 
 heart speak to heart; tell her of your ardent sympathy — of your 
 tender devotion ; ask her to permit your boundless love to compensate 
 for the eiSfete indifference of her despicable pai-tner.' " 
 
 Up to this point Kate had been so entirely taken by surprise, and 
 so carried away by the A^ehemence of D'Almayne's address, that she 
 could scarcely collect her ideas siifficiently either to comprehend his 
 meaning' or to attempt to check him ; when, however, encouraged by 
 her silence, he exchanged his German sentimentalism for the plain 
 speaking contained in his last sentence, Kate's indignation could no 
 longer be restrained, and she cut him short by exclaiming, — 
 
 " Do not further degrade yourself or insult me, Mr. D'Almayne, 
 by continuing to address to me language which I should have 
 thought you had known me sufficiently to feel sure could excite in 
 me no other feelings than those of contempt and disgust. Leave 
 me, sir ! I am disappointed in you ; I believed you were too much of 
 a gentleman to have presumed upon Mi-. Crane's mistaken confidence 
 in you, and dared thus to insult me ! I shall now, however, feel it 
 my duty to enlighten him as to the true character of the mau he liaa 
 BO injiidiciously trusted." 
 
 As Kate thus reproached him, a look of fiend-like malignity, com- 
 pounded of disappointed passion, baffled rage, and an eager thirsting 
 for revenge, passed across D'Almayne's usually immoved counte- 
 nance ; it came and went in an instant, but not so quickly as to escape 
 Kate's keen glance ; and, from that time forth, she knew that he was 
 a man to be feared, as well as to be disliked. 
 
 CHAPTER XLYIII. 
 
 MAGNANIMITY. 
 
 The malevolent glance with which D'Almayne favoured Kate passed 
 away in a moment, and was succeeded by his usual expression of 
 quiet, contemptuous sarcasm. 
 
 " If you choose thus to i-eseut the warmth of expression into which 
 my sympathy for your trials has betrayed me," he said, " at the same 
 time that you inform Mr. Crane of my delinquencies, pray tell him 
 of the attentions which you have accepted from me, as well as of the 
 
 u
 
 290 HARRY COVE RD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 one you reject. Tell him of the scroll wrapped round the rose-stalk, 
 asking a private intei'view, which you instantly gi-anted; tell him of 
 the ostensible visits to the portrait painter, undertaken to conceal 
 the secret expedition to Mrs. Leonard ; tell him that this expedition 
 was made in a carriage hired by me to convey you to meet me by 
 appointment at a hoiise in an obscure quarter of London ; and ask 
 him, as a man of the world, whether he imagines you went there 
 simply out of pure benevolence, and whether that benevolence to the 
 wife of a man whom he supposes to have defrauded him meets with 
 his approval ; or rather, I will ask him all this when he applies to 
 me for an explanation of my conduct." He paused, then perceiving 
 from Kate's look of emban-assment and annoyance that she recog- 
 nized and was disconcerted by the force of his remarks, he continued : 
 " You now see the absurdity, as well as the danger, of threatening 
 me. Were Mr. Crane to break with me toonorrow, it would only l^e 
 the loss of a dull acquaintance — " 
 
 " Indeed ! " interrupted Kate, with quiet but cutting ii'ony ; " I 
 should rather have compared it to the fact of yoiu- banker failing." 
 
 D'Almayne's cheeks gi-ew pale, and his lips quivered with suppressed 
 anger, but he continued as if she had not spoken : — 
 
 " His vengeance does not gi-eatly alarm me. A man who can snuff 
 a candle with a bullet at twelve paces need not fear an old gentle- 
 man!" — (he sneered as he pronounced the word) — "who pi-obably 
 never saw a pistol levelled in his life, and woiild not easily be brought 
 to face one." Finding that Kate made no reply, he resumed in a 
 more conciliatoi-y tone : " I think your quick intelligence has by this 
 time sho-\\Ti you the folly of quaiTcIling with me ; let there be truce 
 between us. I will ovna. that, carried away by my feelings, I used 
 language in which perhaps I was scarcely wan-anted ; but you must 
 remember that the blood of sunny Fi-ance sparkles through my veins 
 — that one of my parents spi-ang from a race, who (unlike you cold 
 and cautious islanders), when they feel strongly, speak with warmth 
 and ardoiu* ; and now say, is it to be peace or war between us ? " 
 
 "I perceive that by my own imprudence, springing not so much 
 from a misconception of your titie character as from a desire not to 
 act from the dictates of what I strove to convince myself was an 
 unfounded prejudice against you, I have so far placed myself in 
 your power that I cannot in a moment judge whether I shall be 
 doing right or wrong by infonning my husband of your conduct 
 towards me ; but of two things be sure, first, that whatever I decide 
 to be right, I will do ; secondly, that neither your threats nor your 
 sophistries will turn me from my pui-pose ; for the rest, after what 
 has occurred to-day, there can be no farther — friendship I will not 
 call it, for it never was so — but alliance between us. I now know 
 you, sir ! and that is enough." 
 
 Again the evil look flashed across D'Almayne's handsome features, 
 but so transient was it that even Kate failed to perceive it. 
 DAlmayue's quick wit showed him that he had already gained an
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 291 
 
 advantage, which, if he could follow it x\p, would <?o far to retrieve 
 the false, or as he considered it premature, step he had taken. If 
 he could induce Kate to conceal the declaration he had made her, 
 tlie vei*y fact of her having done so would place her still more in his 
 power, his schemes in regard to Mr. Crane might yet be prosecuted ; 
 and so confident was he in his own resources, that he even believed 
 he might gain from Kate's fears that which he began to doubt 
 whether he should obtain from her affection. So assuming the 
 manner of a good man suffering injustice meekly, he rose to depart, 
 saying.— 
 
 "Tou are now angry, and unable to regard the matter in its true 
 light. You have confessed you are prejudiced against me, but I 
 know you well enough to feel sure of justice at your hands; nor 
 shall I allow this painful misunderstanding between us to cause any 
 relaxation, on my part, of such efforts as I may be able to make 
 towards fi'eeing your brother from his embarrassments — do not 
 inten-upt me," he continued, seeing Kate was about indignantly to 
 refuse his aid, " I know what you would say — how, still mistrusting 
 me and misinterpreting my motives, you would reject my assistance 
 — and I would gladly save myself the pain of hearing from your lips 
 bitter words, which at some future time you would repent havdng 
 uttered. I will now leave you, nor shall I again intrude upon you 
 until I have won, at least, yoiir forgiveness." 
 
 D'Almayne was an excellent actor, and as he pronounced the con- 
 cluding words of the last sentence, his voice trembled with so good 
 an imitation of the pathos of real emotion, that Kate actually 
 glanced towards him to ascertain whether the expression of his face 
 confiraied the idea. Unwilling, however, to weaken the effect he 
 trusted his words had pi'oduced, he turned and quitted the room 
 without having afforded her the opportunity she sought for. 
 
 Mr. Crane did not return home that day, being summoned by tele- 
 gi-aph to Liverpool, — a merchant there, who was concerned with him 
 in the speculation for which they had chartered the " Bundelcundah," 
 East Indiaman, having, on hearing of its loss, blown out his brains. 
 Thus Kate had no opportunity of revealing to her husband 
 D'Almajme's misdeeds. As soon as she found Mr. Crane had left 
 town, she sent to her brother, intending to warn him against accept- 
 ing D'Almayne's offers of assistance, but her messenger brought 
 back her missive, with the announcement that Mr. Marsden had 
 quitted his lodgings. Early the next morning she received the 
 following note : — 
 
 "Dear Kate, — You need be under no further uneasiness on my 
 account. My difficulties are at an end, and a career far better suited 
 to me than the drudgery of a counting-house is afforded me. I am 
 not at liberty to inform you to whom I am indebted for this unhoped- 
 for assistance ; but I have indeed met with a true friend in my dis- 
 tress, towards whom I, and all who care for my welfare, must ever
 
 292 HARRY CO VERB ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 feel the deepest gratitude. I am bound by an express stipnlation not 
 to reveal the name of the benefactor who has so generously come 
 forward to assist me. even to you ; but, believe me, I am not deceived 
 this time. I long to tell you all. but my lips are sealed. I will write 
 to my mother when I can explain more fully my future prospects. 
 Farewell, dear Kate, my faith in human nature is restored ; this is 
 not one of the least obligations I owe to my noble-hearted friend. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 "Fred. Marsden." 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 ALICE PERCEIVES THE ERROR OF HER WATS. 
 
 " My dear Alice, what has changed you so completely ? Ton have 
 lost your spirits, and appear to take a dark, morbid view of life. 
 You find a thousand faults with things and people you used to be 
 perfectly satisfied with ; and you look thin and ill ! Are you un- 
 well ? " inquired Mrs. Hazlehurst of her daughter, after Alice had 
 been staying some days at the Grange. They were sitting together 
 in Mrs. Hazlehiirst's morning room, which commanded an extensive 
 view across the park. Alice's eyes had been for some minutes fixed 
 upon one particular spot, and as she gazed they filled with tears — it 
 ■was the stile leading to the shady walk wherein Hairy had first told 
 his love, and the sight of it called up a host of tender recollections. 
 How different was the bright, sunny, trusting affection which she 
 then felt for him from her present perturbed state of mind!— in 
 which jealousy of Arabella Crofton and estrangement from her hus- 
 band (springing originally from his neglect and injustice, and kept 
 alive by the untoward events of their London season) contended with 
 a love, the strength of which was proved by the wretchedness all 
 these doubts and misunderstandings caused her. Scarcely hearing 
 her mother's question, she replied mechanically, " No, that she was 
 not ill," and relapsed into her train of gloomy musing. Mrs. Hazle- 
 hurst regarded her in anxious silence for a few moments, then 
 observed abruptly, — 
 
 " Alice, you never speak of your husband now ; yet, when you were 
 first married, your letters were full of his praises, and you could 
 neither talk nor wi-ite of anything but Harry's perfections. How is 
 this ? " 
 
 " Oh ! one cannot be always a baby," was the reply. " While I
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 293 
 
 ■was a new plaything, Mr. Coverdale spoiled me, and made mncli of 
 me ; and I was child enough to be delighted with his attentions — to 
 fancy they would always continue the same, and that life would 
 prove a path of roses, so I rhapsodized about it accordingly. I have 
 now found out my mistake, and indulge in raptures no longer — that 
 is all ! " She strove to speak lightly and carelessly, but her tearful 
 eyes and quivering lips belied the sense of her words. Her mother 
 saw it, and could abstain no longer. 
 
 " Alice, my child, you are unhappy," she said ; " it is useless to 
 attempt to conceal it. Come, tell me what it is. Tou know of old 
 that I am to be trusted, and who so fit as your mother to confide in ? 
 — who so well able to sympathize with — and perhaps to counsel 
 you ? " As she spoke, she passed her arm caressingly round Alice's 
 slender waist, and drew her towards her. For a minute or so Alice 
 submitted passively to her embi'ace, then, with an hysterical sob, she 
 flung her arms round her and burst into a passion of tears. Mrs. 
 Hazlehurst allowed her to weep in silence, until the violence of her 
 grief had in some measure subsided, then, by degrees, drew from her 
 an account, at first broken and disjointed, but becoming fuller and 
 more coherent as she proceeded, of all her woes, real and imaginaiy, 
 with which the reader is already acquainted. 
 
 " And now, mamma dearest, how can I ever again be happy, 
 knowing as I do that Hari-y is still attached to that dreadful woman, 
 and that he regrets his mairiage with me more, because it places a 
 bar between them, than because I have disappointed him by not 
 proving the spiritless, tender, and affectionate doll he fancied me 
 when I first mai-ried ? I — I almost wish I was, for then perhaps I 
 could make him happy, and I'm sure I don't now ! " She paused, 
 then resting her head against her mother's shoulder, added," Mamma 
 — you will tell me honestly — do you think I have behaved very ill ? " 
 
 " I certainly cannot exonerate you from blame, my poor child ; 
 there have been, as it seems to me, serious faults on both sides. Mr. 
 Coverdale's appear to me to have proceeded more from thoughtless- 
 ness than from intention; while yours, I am both sori-y and sur- 
 prised to find, seem chiefly to have arisen from wannth of temper." 
 
 "Yes, I see it now ; and yet you know, mamma, I am not really ill- 
 tempered — at least, I never used to be ; but you know I loved, or," 
 she added with a sigh, " I may say I love Han-y so very dearly, that 
 the slightest neglect or unkindness on his pai*t appears such a cruel 
 return for my affection that I cannot bear it quietly ; if I were not 
 to lose my temper and get angi-y about it, I should pine away and die 
 — I know I should ! " 
 
 " Did you ever tell him this ? " inquired Mrs. Hazlehurst. 
 
 Alice shook her head. " One does not tell such things," she said ; 
 " if Han-y cared for my affection he would soon perceive how entirely 
 I love him ; if, as I fear, he is indifferent to it, all the telling in the 
 world would make no difference ; besides, I have heard from his owh 
 lips that he loves another."
 
 294 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " I do not make o\it that alfaii' at all," observed Mrs. Hazlelinrst 
 reflectively ; " it is so completely unlike Mr. Coverdale's straight- 
 forward, honest character, to marry one woman when he cared for 
 another, that I cannot but think there must be some mistake about 
 it." 
 
 " How can there be any mistake, dear mamma P " was the 
 rejoinder. " I have long felt certain that Miss Crofton was attached 
 to Harry ; and I myself heard him say to her that he was most un- 
 fortunate, because love which he could not retni-n was lavished upon 
 him (meaning mine), while he had alienated by his own act (his 
 man-iage, of course) the only affection he cared to possess (that is 
 Arabella Crofton's) : I do not know what could be clearer." 
 
 " Did you not say that Mr. Coverdale appeared aware that he had 
 neglected you for his sporting, and blamed himself for so doing ? " 
 
 *' Yes ; I think he knows it, and is sorry for it — and — and he does 
 not leave me nearly so much alone as he used ; only I fancied— that 
 is, I was afraid he did so from a sense of dnty, and not because it 
 was a pleasure to him to stay with me. Harry has a very strict sense 
 of duty." 
 
 " You say he seems to doubt your affection," continued Mrs. Hazle- 
 hurst, " and you own you conceal it from him, treating him to bursts 
 of pettislmess and ill-humour, of which you refuse to explain the 
 cause. You also tell me that this Miss Crofton appears to have been 
 attached to Mr. Coverdale ; now, from what you have told me of the 
 way in which you behaved at Lady Trottemout's pai'ty — which I con- 
 fess I think was both foolish and wrong — I can easily conceive your 
 husband to have been greatly annoyed with you ; and it seems to mt3 
 that nothing would be more natural than for him to have told, or in 
 some way to have allowed Miss Crofton to perceive his annoyance ; 
 in which case, as I fear she must be a designing, unprincipled 
 woman, she might avail herself of the opportunity to contrast her 
 own affection with your disobedience and petulance. Thus your 
 husband's speech, on which you have built up all this alaraiing 
 fabric of futiu-e unhappiness, may be interpreted much more satis- 
 factorily : as, for instance, the affection lavished on him, which he 
 could not retiu-n, might be Miss Crofton's, and the love he coveted, 
 yours, which he by his own neglect had alienated. Do you per- 
 ceive ? " 
 
 *' Oh yes, mamma ! " exclaimed Alice eagerly, her face lighting up 
 with the ray of hope thus given her : " I see it really might mean 
 that. Oh, if I dare but believe it was so ! " 
 
 She paused to reflect, and as the recollection of Han-y's frank, 
 earnest face, and simple, truthfiil manner came across her, when in 
 their last discussion he had told her there was not, and never had 
 been, anything between himself and Miss Crofton which need give 
 her uneasiness, she, for the first time since Lady Tattersall Trot- 
 temout's soir(5e, allowed herself to hope that she had mistaken the 
 meaning of the words she had overheard; that her husband still
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 295 
 
 loved her ; that slie had only to show him how these troubles and 
 estrangements had served but to prove to her the depth and reality 
 of their mutual affection ; and that, warned by past experience to 
 bear and forbear, a life of happiness still awaited them. 
 
 " No one could be more averse than I am to raise false hopes," 
 resumed Mrs. Hazlehurst ; " but I really believe, from my previous 
 knowledge of Mr. Coverdale's character, as well as from aU you have 
 told me to-day, that my interpretation of the enigmatical speech is 
 the true one." 
 
 " If it is, dearest mamma, I shall owe the whole happiness of my 
 life to you," exclaimed Alice enthusiastically ; " already I feel as if 
 a load which had been crushing:: me to the earth was taken off my 
 shoulders : the thou<?ht that Hariy prefen-ed that woman to me 
 haunted me continually, and embittered my existence. Even now," 
 she continued, soiTOwfully. *' as long as the fact of Han-y's refusal to 
 tell me what has passed between them remains unaccounted for, I 
 cannot feel quite satisfied." 
 
 '' Do you know, Alice, I think you are evincing extreme naiTOW- 
 mindedness in these unworthy suspicions : if you do not take yoiu'- 
 self sei-iously to task, and strive to overcome this very grave fault 
 in your character, I am afraid the evil you so much dread — the loss 
 of your husband's affection, may come upon you after all ; but it will 
 be solely to your own ungenerous mistrust that you will owe it. I do 
 not wish to distress you," she continued, as Alice burst into tears at 
 this, the most severe rebuke she had ever received from her mother's 
 lips ; " but if I did not tell you what I believe to be the tmth, I 
 should fail in my duty to you." 
 
 Alice wept for some moments in silence, then di-ying her tears, 
 she said in a submissive, child-like manner, " I have done very, very 
 wrong ; advise me, mamma, and I will try and act according to your 
 wishes." 
 
 Mrs. Hazlehurst drew Alice towards her, and kissing her pale 
 cheek affectionately, replied, — 
 
 " My advice is this, love ; when you return home, do not enter 
 upon any of these matters which have been subjects of dissension 
 between you and Mr. Coverdale ; and should he do so, take care to 
 reply gently and without in-itation, remembering that ' a meek and 
 quiet spii-it is a woman's chiefest ornament ' ; for the rest, try and 
 make yourself as pleasant and agi-eeable as you can to him. Let 
 him perceive your affection in the thousand constantly-reciu-ring 
 trifles of which a loving woman can avail herself for such a purpose, 
 but be careful not to bore him with it at unsuitable times ; above all, 
 do not be 'exigeante' and expect or desire him to give up his 
 sporting tastes, or his love of farming, or even the society of his 
 gentlemen friends for yom- sake : yovi could not do it if you would, 
 and you would only deteriorate his frank, manly character, if you 
 were to succeed. At the same time you may, by your influence, lead 
 him to cultivate some of his more refined pursuits, into which you
 
 29G HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 can enter with him. He sings charmingly ; get him to keep up his 
 miisic, procure the cleverest and best-written books, and persuade 
 him to read and discuss them with you. His clear intellect and 
 strong good sense will be of the greatest use in expanding and 
 forming your mind, and supplying the deficiencies which my ill- 
 health has occasioned in your education. I see I need not go farther 
 into detail — you understand me ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, mamma ! and if I were but able to realize the picture 
 you have dra-wn of our domestic life, how happy we might yet be ! 
 but I will try my very best, only I feel so weak, and sometimes so 
 wicked ; if I were but as wise and good as you — but I will try. Ah ! 
 if I had done so at first, I should have had so much easier a task — 
 however, they say it is never too late to mend." She paused, sighed 
 deeply, then continued : " Emily comes home to-morrow ; I will 
 write to Hari-y to send for me the next day, and then — and then — 
 Mamma, do you think I shall succeed ? " 
 
 At the very moment Alice was thus repenting the past, and 
 forming good resolutions for the future, Han-y, with gloomy brow 
 and clenched teeth, was sti-iding impatiently up and down his 
 library, holding in his hand a sealed letter — it was addressed to his 
 wife, and the wi-iting was Lord Alfred Courtland's. " So," he 
 muttered, " so, not content with amusing (that's the phi-ase nowa- 
 days) himself during his London season by dangling after my wife, 
 he must try to keep up the thing now she is away — foolish yoimg 
 idiot ! — but I feel sure that scoimdrel D'Almayne is at the bottom of 
 it, setting him on for some purpose of his own. Well, I've borae it 
 patiently — more patiently than one man in fifty would have done — 
 nobody can say I've been rash or hasty in this matter ; but it's time 
 to act, and when 1 do begin, I'll astonish them. I'll take Alfred 
 Courtland off to his father, and tell him the boy's not fit to be trusted 
 alone. If he won't go, I'll horsewhip him : and as to D'Almayne, by 
 the Heaven above me, I'll shoot him like a dog ! such a scoundrel is 
 not fit to live ! it would be a benefit to society to rid it of such a 
 fellow. But I may be wi'ong ; I said I would do nothing hastily in 
 this business, and I'll be tiiie to my word. I'll wait till Alice comes 
 home, give her the letter myself, and ask her to show it to me. If 
 she refuses, or if it contains such matter as I expect, I shall then 
 know how to act,"
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 297 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 THE LETTER. 
 
 When thing's happen not to go smoothly in this mortal life (that is, 
 about nine times out of evei-y ten) people are apt to rail against 
 destiny, deploi-e their evil fortune, or, if they happen to be very good 
 indeed, reckon up the number of crosses vouchsafed them with self- 
 complacent resignation ; in fact, they each, after their own fashion, 
 give cuiTcncy to the sentiment expressed by our neighbours across 
 the water in the proverb, " L'homme propose, Dieu dispose." Now, 
 although we acknowledge that this proverb embodies a gi-eat truth, 
 yet, looking at the present state of things more closely, we conceive 
 it to be by no means the whole tnith — for this reason :— a large pro- 
 portion of the evils of life ai-e no results of blind chance, or, more 
 correctly, no chastisements proceeding direct from the hand of 
 Providence, but the natural, almost the necessai-y, consequences of 
 our o\vn actions. Action might be generally defined as the working 
 — according to certain fixed rules — of cause and effect ; if we would 
 but bear this in mind, and reflect that every action produces some 
 result good or evil, we might not indeed (so wrong-headed is human 
 nature) act more wisely, but we should at all events feel less surprise 
 when the inevitable results followed ; and so, knowing that we had 
 only ourselves to thank for our punishment, gain experience which 
 might make some few fools of us wiser for the future. 
 
 These remarks were called forth by, and therefore might have 
 occurred to, Alice Coverdale, had she been of what it is the fashion 
 to term an " introspective habit " — i.e. had she been accustomed to 
 turn her mind inside out before its own eye. Not, however, being 
 given to this uncomfortable practice, she failed to discern the 
 troubles in store for her, and returned home fondly deeming that 
 having at length perceived the error of her ways, she need only 
 confess, and receive her husband's absolution, to set every wrong 
 right again. Han-y did not come to fetch her, it being a day on 
 which there was a magistrates' meeting ; but he was standing at the 
 hall door waiting to receive her, which he did warmly, and as if he 
 was very glad to have her back again, though a gloom hung on his 
 brow which, when the first confusion of her arrival was over, Alice 
 could not fail to perceive ; but conscious to a painful degree of her 
 own faults and shortcomings, she did not venture to remark upon it 
 When they reached the drawing-room, Han-y threw back her veil, 
 and regarded her with a long, earnest gaze, which brought the 
 warm blood into her cheeks as in the days of her girlhood.
 
 298 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " Tou are looking better, brighter, and more like your former self 
 than I have seen you for some time," he said. He paused, then 
 resumed sadly : — " Ah, Alice, I'm afraid you were happier in your 
 old home than you will ever be in your new one ! " 
 
 " Do not say so — do not think so, dear Harry ! " was the eager 
 reply. "I may have been silly, and — and wicked enough to have 
 been unhapi)y, and to have vexed you and rendered you so, too ; 
 but I have been taking myself seriously to task since I have been 
 away, and have come home full of good resolutions, and intending 
 to strive hard to keep them ; and if you would be so very good as 
 to forgive me the past and help me in the future, I think perhaps I 
 may succeed." 
 
 Touched by her words and by the evident feeling with which they 
 were spoken, Harry drew her to him, and kissed her tenderly. 
 
 " We may both have been in some measure to blame," he said, 
 " but I by far the most so, for neglecting the sacred tiiist I took 
 upon me when I possessed myself of your affection ; but I was a 
 heedless boy then — expei-ience has made something rather more 
 like a reasonable being of me by this time, I hope ; at all events, I 
 now know how to appreciate and gnard the treasure I possess." 
 But even as he uttered these words his brow grew clouded, for he 
 thought of Lord Alfred Courtland's letter, lying at that moment in 
 his pocket. Should he give it to her at once, as she stood by him 
 blushing and smiling, and looking up at him with all the light of 
 her foraier love beaming in her soft bine eyes ? What if she refused 
 to show it him ? — if its contents should destroy the harmony so 
 happily re-established between them ? Still it must be done sooner 
 or later, and Han-y was not one to put off the evil day. "With that 
 letter on his mind he could not meet Alice's affection warmly and 
 frankly as it deserved, and as she would expect him to do ; besides, 
 the contents might be of a nature to relieve, rather than to increase 
 his anxiety, in which case he was needlessly prolonging his own 
 uneasiness. So turaing towards her, he said in a tone of voice 
 which he vainly endeavoui-ed to render easy and unconstrained, 
 "Alice, love, here is a letter for you, which I chose to give you 
 myself, and which, when you have read it, I hope and believe you 
 will allow me to see also." As he spoke he led her to the sofa, then 
 handing her Lord Alfred's unopened letter, waited in a state of 
 anxiety which he vainly attempted to conceal, imtil she should have 
 perused it. Alice coloured slightly when she perceived by the hand- 
 writing from whom the epistle proceeded; but, judging from her 
 consciousness that nothing really wi-ong had passed between them 
 that certainly she should be able to show it to Han-y, and so eradi- 
 cate any seeds of jealousy which might be lurking in his mind, she 
 hastily broke the seal. 
 
 The letter was a long one, for Lord Alfred, being really very son-y 
 for his misconduct on the night of the ball, and very anxious to 
 retrieve Alice's good opinion, waxed eloquent upon his theme, and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 299 
 
 expended as much fine wi-iting iipon liis exculpation as would have 
 formed a leader in the " Times." After two sides of penitence, he 
 continued : — 
 
 " In fact, my excuse amounts to this : that I was, and I may say 
 am, a fool in the hands of a knave ; and a very, very had excuse I 
 feel it to he. But really D'Almayne is such a clever rogue, if ro.gue 
 he be— knows so much of life— is so brilliant and amusing— dresses so 
 well — does everything with such perfect tact and good taste— is, in 
 shoi-t, so consistent as a whole, that although one neither respects nor 
 approves of him, yet it is impossible (at least for me) to resist his 
 influence; time after time have I resolved to break with him, and 
 time after time have I allowed him again to do what he pleased with 
 me. I can truly and honestly dechu-e that everything that I have 
 said or done which could cause you a moment's annoyance has been 
 prompted by him ; he flattered my vanity by urging me to get up a 
 sentimental flirtation with ' la belle Coverdale,' as he impertinently 
 styled you ; and, but for your good sense in showing me you had no 
 taste for such folly, I know not what absurdities I might have 
 committed. Again, he told me that ill-natured story of Mr. Cover- 
 dale, which I believe he embellished, and gave a much more serious 
 colouring to than the truth would bear out ; and finally and lastly, 
 he it was who persuaded me to take you to the door of the boudoir 
 to witness that scene between Miss Crofton and your husband, of 
 which I feel certain we do not know the tiiie explanation ; for I am 
 most confident my good friend Coverdale cares for you, and you only, 
 as an affectionate husband should do. Why DAlmayne did all 
 this, except that I fancy he has some spite against Coverdale, I do 
 not know or care. Nor do I think I am wrong in thus showing the 
 exquisite Horace up in his true colours to you, as evei"y word I have 
 stated is the simple ti-uth ; and were he to tax me with having done 
 so, I should be perfectly ready to justify my conduct and abide the 
 consequences, though he is such a dead shot, and fond of ' parading 
 his man' at daybreak. Of course you will not show this letter to 
 your husband, as, although I do not think, if he knew the whole 
 truth, he would be vei-y angiy with me, such would not be the case 
 in regard to DAlmayne, and might lead to something serious between 
 them. But if, my dear Mrs. Coverdale, I can obtain your forgive- 
 ness, and (after my retiirn from Italy, where I am shortly about to 
 join my family) you will, in consideration of my penitence, still allow 
 me the privilege of your friendship, I shall not so deeply regi-et the 
 inexcusable folly of 
 
 *' Yours vei-y sincerely, 
 
 " Alfred Courtland." 
 *' His lordship has treated you to a voluminous epistle," obseiwed 
 Han-y ; " I am, I own, curious to learn what the boy can have found 
 to say to you ; he was by no means so prolific with his pen in the 
 days of Greek exercises." 
 
 As he spoke he held out his hand for the letter; but Alice drew
 
 300 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 back; the words "of course you will not show this letter to your 
 husband" — "dead shot"— "fond of paradinpr his man before day- 
 break " — " lead to something serious," &.c., swam before her eyes, her 
 brain reeled, all the blood seemed to rush to her heart, and for a 
 moment slie felt on the verge of fainting. By an effort she recovered 
 herself sufl&ciently to falter out, — 
 
 " Dear Harry, do not ask to see it — I cannot show it to you — it is a 
 private letter, meant for my eye only; and— and — you will not ask 
 to see it ! " She spoke in the humblest, most imploring tone; but 
 the shadow on Harry's brow grew deeper. 
 
 " It is most strange— incomprehensible, in fact— how and why you 
 misunderstand me in this way ! " he said. " I have a right to ask to 
 see that letter ; I should be neglecting a plain and positive duty if I 
 failed to do so — putting aside all personal feeling in the matter — the 
 duty I owe to you, the responsibility I took upon myself when I 
 married you, requires it. I have suffered too much already from my 
 careless neglect of these sacred obligations to fall into the same eiTor 
 again ! " He paused ; then taking Alice's hand in his own, he 
 continued with a mournful tenderness: — " You are but a young girl 
 yet, my poor child ; as ignorant of the ways of the world as if you 
 were a child ; I have deijrived you of the safeguard of a father's 
 authority, of a mother's watchful tenderness, and, with my best 
 endeavours, it is but most imperfectly I can make up for these defi- 
 ciencies. You may trust me in this matter ; in trifles I know I am 
 rash and headstrong, but in a case like this, where my deepest, 
 strongest feelings are concerned, you need not fear me; your 
 happiness is not a thing to trifle with. Understand me clearly; I 
 do not in the slightest degree suspect you of anything in this affair 
 but thoughtlessness ; I do not believe anybody or anything could 
 depnve me of yoiu* affection but my own acts ; and if, by my heed- 
 less folly in neglecting you to follow my selfish amusements, I have 
 not already alienated your love, I hope and believe that I shall give 
 you no farther cause for repenting that you ever enti-usted me with 
 so priceless a treasure." A warm pressure from the hand, which he 
 still retained, assured him better than words could have done that 
 his wife's heart was still in his keeping, and he continued : — " With 
 every confidence in you, however, it is not right that I should allow 
 this foolish boy to continue his intimacy with you, after the tone he 
 and his libei-tine friend, that scoundrel D'Almayne, have chosen 
 to give it. I have heard more than one conversation at clubs and 
 elsewhere in regard to ' D'Almayne's promising pupil and la belle 
 Coverdale,' as the puppies had the insolence to call you" (Alice 
 started as she remembered Lord Alfred's allusion to the phrase being 
 D'Almayne's), " which would have caused your cheeks to bum with 
 shame and anger, and which, if I were quite the rash, headstrong 
 character people would make me out to be, might have led to 
 unpleasant consequences ; — men have been shot for such remarks 
 before now. Thus, it is quite time this folly should be brought to an
 
 2^ '' 
 
 Gy^^ //^/^ yi^^yy/y.'
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 301 
 
 end. I hoped it would die a natural death when I took you out of 
 town ; but as Alfred Courtland has chosen to wnte to you, I think it 
 my duty, as I before said, to see the letter, that I may be able to judge 
 what steps it may be necessary to take to bring the affair to a close." 
 
 " Indeed, Harry dearest, there will be no need to take any steps at 
 all ! " exclaimed Alice eagerly. " Lord Alfred simply writes to 
 apologize for something he did which annoyed me on the evening of 
 Lady Tattersall Trottemout's pai-ty, owing, as he confesses, to his 
 having drunk more champagne than was wise. I can assure you the 
 letter evinces nothing but good feeling on his part, and is rather to 
 his credit than otherwise." 
 
 " Then in the name of common sense, why not show it to me — write 
 him a good-humoured, friendly answer— and there will be an end to 
 the matter without any more fuss ? " exclaimed Hany. 
 
 Poor Alice, she could only repeat " I cannot show it you — do not 
 ask me ! " and as the words iDassed her lips, she felt how foolish, or 
 obstinate, or wicked, they must make her appear. Her husband rose 
 and took a turn up and down the room, as was his wont when any- 
 thing annoyed him, yet he did not wish to lose his self -control— the 
 first symptom, in fact, of the approach of his " quiet manner." Alice 
 recognized it and her heart fluttered, and her colour went and came. 
 Having regained his self-command, Harry reseated himself, and 
 began : — 
 
 " You need not be afraid to trust me in this matter, Alice, love ; I 
 promise you I will do nothing inconsiderate or hasty, if you will but 
 act straightforwardly by me, and treat me with proper confidence. 
 Alfred Courtland is a mere boy ; the utmost I suspect him of is 
 foolish romance, which, joined by his inexperience in the ways of the 
 world, enables such men as D Almayne to guide him as they i)lease. 
 I have an old regard for him, having kno^vn him from his childhood ; 
 and the worst I am likely to do to him is to read him a lecture, give 
 him a little good advice, and possibly write to his father, and suggest 
 that he had better look after the young gentleman until he is a year 
 or two older, and, it is to be hoped, wiser. Perhaps, even, when I 
 see the letter I may not deem it necessary to intei-f ere at all. Come, 
 do not let any fanciful punctilio weigh with you, but give it me at 
 once." 
 
 " Harry, do not ask me ! Indeed, indeed, dear Han-y, I cannot — 
 must not show it to you ! Oh ! how unlucky, how strangely un- 
 foi-tunate I am ! — now, too, when I wanted so to do right ! " and, 
 overcome by the emban-assment of the situation, Alice burst into 
 tears. 
 
 Surprised and annoyed at her continued refusal, HaiTy, despite his 
 confidence in his wife's fidelity, not unnaturally began to suppose 
 there must be more in this letter than he had at first imagined ; and 
 his desire to see it increased, as he became more and more convinced 
 that Alice meant to adhere to her determination not to show it to 
 him. Again he rose, and again, more impatiently than before, began
 
 302 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 to stride up and down the room : lie continued silent for two or three 
 minutes and wlien lie did address his wife, it was without resuming 
 liis place by her side. 
 
 " Many men," he said, " would consider themselves justified in 
 forcing you to show that letter ; but I do not feel so. I will, instead, 
 put clearly before you the effect which your agitation and your deter- 
 mination to conceal its contents must necessarily jiroduce on my 
 mind. Either the wiiter must addi-essyou in such language that you 
 are afraid to show it, lest it should lead to a serious misunderstand- 
 ing between him and me ; or he refers to some previous passages 
 between you, with which you are unwilling your husband should 
 become acquainted. Now, as I have before said, I have every con- 
 fidence in you, which nothing but proof positive that you are not 
 deserving of it could shake. The matter then resolves itseK into 
 this : — that Couriland has addressed you in that letter in some un- 
 becoming style ; and if you persist in refusing to satisfy me on this 
 point in the only effectual manner, viz. by showing me the letter, I 
 shall be under the necessity of obtaining the information in some 
 other way ; and when once I have taken up the matter and begun to 
 act for myself, depend upon it I shall go thi-ough with it, to whatever 
 consequences it may lead. Should they be such as to cause you 
 soiTow, remember it is now in youi- power to avert them — then it will 
 be too late ! Go to yom- own room, and reflect on all this quietly and 
 calmly. If you decide to show me the letter, rely on my moderation 
 and discretion ; if you persist in youi* refusal, I must act as I may 
 consider my position renders necessary ; and may God help us both 
 if evil should come of it ! If you should think better of your unwise 
 determination, bring or send me the letter at any moment ; laut if not, 
 I had rather you remained in your boudoir during the evening, as I 
 feel deeply on this matter, and cannot trust myseK to speak of it 
 without saying things which I should be sorry for aftei-wards. Now 
 go, and think it over. Do not look so frightened," he continued in a 
 gentler tone ; " believe me, I speak more in sorrow than in anger." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! I see you do," returned Alice, in a tone of the deepest 
 emotion ; " and it is that which is breaking my heart ! I had rather, 
 ten thousand times, that you were angi-y with me : and yet I know I 
 am doing what is best ! " She paused ; then, with a fresh burst of 
 tears, she threw herself into her husband's arms, exclaiming, " Hai7*y ! 
 dearest Harry ! have pity on me ! " 
 
 Her husband soothed and supported her tenderly till she grew some- 
 what calmer, then, kissing her forehead, he led her to the door, saying 
 kindly but gravely, " Have pity on youi'seK, darling; act as I would 
 have you, and all will go well." 
 
 Greatly perplexed, considerably frightened, and altogether in that 
 state of mind which can best be described by the term " upset," poor 
 Alice's first performance was the thorouglily feminine one of " having 
 her cry out." Having thus poured forth her grief, via her eyelids, 
 she set to work seriously to face her difiiculties, and come to some
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 303 
 
 decision wliicli might, if possible, reconcile lier conflicting duties. 
 The simplest and easiest way woiild, of coiu'se, he to do as Harry- 
 wished her ; show him the letter, and leave him to decide on the 
 matter, both for her and for himself. With this view she carefully- 
 re-read it ; and when she had done so, felt more than ever convinced 
 that to allow her husband to see it would be to ensiu-e a quan-el with 
 Horace D'Almayne — and from that to a hostile meeting, Han-y shot, 
 and herself sent for by telegraph to receive his dying benediction, 
 was only a natural feminine transition. Supposing she were to adhere 
 then — as adhere she miist — to her resolution, what would Harry do ? 
 Set ofE for London to seek an explanation from Lord Alfred ; yes, 
 and he would get it too ! Lord Alfred would be forced to say much 
 the same as he had written ; for it was clear he felt no delicacy about 
 showing up D Almayne ; and though, perhaps, he might not mention 
 the business in regard to Miss Crofton, yet Harry would soon collect 
 that D Almayne had first suggested to Lord Alfred to flirt with her, 
 and then encouraged him to try and change what would have been 
 simply an agreeable acquaintanceship into a sentimental love affair ! 
 Oh ! if she had but known all this sooner, she would have effectually 
 cured Lord Alfred of his " penchant," instead of encoui'aging him in 
 order to pique Harry out of his supposed indifference. How blind, 
 how stupid she had been ! how she had mistaken everybody and 
 everything ! even in regard to Harry — his conduct about this letter — 
 trusting her when she was obliged to confess appearances were 
 strongly against her — treating her with such tender forbearance 
 when her behaviour must seem to him, to say the least, perverse and 
 incomprehensible ! How differently had she behaved in regard to 
 Miss Crofton ! how ready had she been to suspect Harry on the 
 slightest grounds ! Yes, she saw it clearly now, her mother's inter- 
 pretation of that speech was the true one — Harry loved her still ; 
 nay, had never ceased to do so. Ah ! her first idea of him was right 
 — there was nobody like him ; and she was not worthy of such 
 happiness as to be his wife — his chosen one — the object of his deep, 
 tender, manly affection. Her eyes were open at last ; she saw the 
 truth ; recognized his worth, perceived her own deficiencies and 
 faults. If this wi-etched business could ever be got over, how careful 
 she would be to guard against her former errors! what happiness 
 was there not yet in store for her ! Could nothing be devised ? As 
 she pondered, an idea struck her. Harry evidently would take no 
 step till the next morning ; the post had not yet gone out ; thei-e 
 would be time for her to write to Lord Alfred, explain her dilemma, 
 and appeal to his good feeling to leave town for a day or two. Harry, 
 thus missing him, would naturally return home, when she would ask 
 Lord Alfred to write him such a letter as would satisfy his doubts — 
 a duplicate, in fact, of the one which had caused all this trouble, only 
 without the attack on D Almayne. The scheme was not perfectly 
 satisfactory ; still, the more she thought of it the more she became 
 convinced that it was the only way of escape from the present emer-
 
 304 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 gency. Lord Alfred, slie felt pretty sure, wotild act as she wished, if 
 she made his compliance the condition on which iher forgiveness of 
 the past and friendship for the future must depend. Then she 
 trusted a good deal to the chapter of accidents to help her ; and at 
 some indefinite epoch, when Horace DAlmayne should have gone 
 abroad, and be out| of Harry's way, she would show him the letter, 
 explain why she had not done so sooner, confess the words she had 
 overheard at Lady Tattersall Trottemout's party, the history she had 
 been told in regard to Arabella Crof ton, and in fact (to use an inele- 
 gant but graphic expression) make a clean breast of it, and trust to his 
 affection to pity and forgive her. So she sat down and scribbled off a 
 hun-ied but eloquent letter to Lord Alfred, which she flattered herself 
 would produce the effect she desired. Having completed it, she 
 indited a few lines to HaiTy, telling him she had thought the matter 
 over calmly and seriously ; and with the strongest desire to do as he 
 wished her, she yet felt it her duty to adhere to her former decision. 
 In the meantime Coverdale sat in gloomy meditation : why would 
 not Alice let him see that letter ? he could not, he did not imagine it 
 contained anjrthing to lessen his respect and affection for her ; but if 
 not, what could it contain to make her so resolute not to show it to 
 him ? He x^erceived with pleasui'e, though it added to his perplexity, 
 that she was not swayed by any ebullition of temper, but was acting 
 from a sense (however mistaken) of duty ; he saw the pain it gave 
 her to refuse him, and appreciated and rejoiced in the good resolutions 
 she had formed at the Grange. It was strange, certainly, how events 
 seemed to militate against the happiness of his man-ied life ! he had 
 forfeited his domestic felicity by his own selfish addiction to his 
 bachelor pursuits and habits, and it appeared impossible to regain 
 it. Then he commenced a minute and painful review of all the 
 occurrences of his matrimonial career, endeavouring to trace out 
 the causes which had led to each several result, and carefully 
 scrutinizing his own conduct, to discover how far he had acted up to 
 the rules he had laid down for himself. He was thus engaged when 
 Alice's note was brought to him ; he read it, and his resolution was 
 formed : he would go to London by the first train the next morning, 
 see Lord Alfred Coui-tland, and learn the contents of his letter, either 
 by fair means or foul ; he would try fair means first, and be patient, 
 and for Alice's sake endeavour to avoid a quarrel — yes, that was 
 decided on. So he sat down and wi'ote a couple of notes to put off 
 engagements in the neighbourhood, then rang the bell. " Has the 
 post-bag gone ? " he asked, as the servant appeared. The reply was 
 in the negative, and in another minute Wilkins returned with it. 
 Harry and Alice had each a key, bvit when he was at home hers was 
 seldom used ; he was therefore rather surprised to find it already 
 locked. Unlocking it, he attempted hastily to insert his two notes, 
 but a letter which was in the bag had become fixed in a fold of the 
 leather, and prevented his doing so. With an exclamation of im- 
 patience he took it out, and was about to replace it, when the address
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 305 
 
 accidentally cau.^lit his eye ; it was in his wife's handwriting, and 
 directed to Lord Alfred Courtland, with " immediate " wi-itten in one 
 corner. " Leave the bag two or thi-ee minutes, Wilkins," he said 
 hurriedly. " I have thought of something else." As soon as the 
 servant quitted the room, Coverdale again took up the letter. What 
 could it mean ? — why had Alice written off in such hot haste to this 
 young man ? Had she divined his intention of seeking out Lord 
 Alfred, and was this letter sent off thus hurriedly to tutor him what 
 to say — or, worse still, what to conceal ? Should he end all these 
 wretched douijts and suspicions at once — should he send for Alice, 
 and in her presence open and read the letter ? The temptation was 
 a strong one, but he overcame it. Even if the cii'cumstances of the 
 case were sufficient to warrant him, he felt it would be an act of 
 domestic tyranny against which his generous nature revolted. "What 
 should he do then ? Suffer the letter to go, and so throw away his 
 only chance of an-iving at the truth ? No, that would be mere weak- 
 ness : his resolution was f onned. Putting Alice's letter in his pocket, 
 he relocked the post-bag, and ringing the bell, desired it might be 
 taken immediately. Having seen his order executed, he sat down 
 and wrote a note, and sealed up a packet. Aboixt four hours later on 
 the same evening, i.e. between nine and ten o'clock, this packet was 
 placed in Alice's hands ; it contained her letter to Lord Alfred 
 Courtland, unopened, and the following note from her husband : — 
 
 " My dear Alice, — When you receive this I shall be on my road 
 to London, whither I am going to have a little serious conversation 
 with Alfred Courtland. As I wish and intend him to tell the truth 
 uninfluenced, I have taken upon me to delay your letter a post. 
 Trusting this affair may end so as to secure your happiness, in which 
 I think you now see mine is involved, 
 
 " I am, ever yours affectionately, 
 
 " H. C. 
 
 " P.S. — If you have occasion to write to me, direct to Arthur's 
 chambers."
 
 30G HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER LT. 
 
 OTHELLO VISITS CASSIO. 
 
 Contrary to Mr. Philip Tirrett's expectation, Don Pasquale's 
 delicate fore leg improved under training, and became so nearly- 
 sound that he and Captain O'Brien were quite depressed when they 
 reflected that but for its temper, which was vile, the horse was really 
 worth two out of the .£350 they had received from Lord Alfred 
 Courtland for it, and regretted with sundry strong but unavailing 
 expletives their folly in not having demanded .£500, which they now 
 considered to be its figure in " proper " (i.e. their own dirty) hands. 
 A conclave had been held at the Pandemonium, and the handsome 
 guai'dsman, and the fast comet, and the heavy lieutenant, and sundry 
 other noble and gallant cavaliers, had entered spicy screws, with 
 impossible names : and a steeple-chase, with gentlemen riders, was to 
 come oif in a sporting locality, within easy distance of London, on a 
 certain day. This day had nearly an-ived, when on the same after- 
 noon which witnessed Alice Coverdale's i-etum home, and the 
 uncomfortable scene produced by the delivery of Lord Alfred's 
 letter, that yoimg nobleman was seated at a library table in his 
 fashionable lodgings, poring over his betting book, which, since the 
 Blackwall dinner, was, we suspect, the only book he had looked into, 
 when " to him entered " Horace D Alraayne. 
 
 ** What ! at it still ? " he exclaimed ; " why, ' mon cher,' you'll be 
 fit for some ' bookkeeping-by-double-entry ' style of appointment 
 before this business comes off. How do you stand by this time ? " 
 
 " Safe to win jESOO if the Don does but run true," was the reply. 
 
 " And if he should make a fiasco by any unlucky chance P " 
 
 " Don't talk about it ; time enough to face evil when it comes, 
 without going half-way to meet it. The Don is looking splendid ; he 
 improves every day under training, and even Tin-ett seems sui-prised 
 at his performance. Dick took him over the brook this morning, and, 
 by Jove ! he cleared it in his stride, and six feet beyond, at the least. 
 TiiTctt seems sure about the line of course ; if so, that brook will win 
 us the race. Captain O'Brien's is the only horse that I'm at all 
 afraid of, and Tirrett's got out of his groom that Broth-of-a-boy 
 won't face water." 
 
 " Witnessing these trials necessitates a frightful amount of early 
 rising, does it not, ' mon cher ' ? " inquired D'Almayne, with a half 
 pitying, half-provoking smile ; " breakfast comes off at six, I suppose 
 instead of eleven or twelve ? You look sleepy now from your unusual 
 exertions."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 307 
 
 "Weill may," was the reply; "I dined with the Guards' Mess 
 yesterday, and went knockin,^ about with Bellingham and Annesley 
 afterwards ; got home about 3 a.m., had a cigar and a bottle of soda- 
 water, changed my dress clothes, and slept in the arm-chair until 
 Tirrett came for me in a dog-cart at half-past four, — for they take 
 the Don out as soon as it's light." 
 
 " Tou certainly improve, ' mon ami ' : you have learned how to 
 live, instead of merely existing, as you used to do, and are better able 
 to take care of yourself : — which is foi-tunate, by the way, for I've 
 come to tell you (what on your account I'm very sorry for) that I 
 shall be unable to be with you at this said steeple-chase." 
 
 A start and an exclamation of surprise, we had almost said of con- 
 sternation, which escaped Lord Alfred at this announcement, might 
 have suggested that he did not feel quite such implicit confidence in 
 his own resom-ces as his associate's compliment would seem to imply. 
 He only said, however, — 
 
 " Eh, really ! what an awful bore ! But why are you going to 
 throw me over ? " 
 
 " Simply because, not being a bird, my presence in Brussels and 
 at the steeple-chase at one and the same time is, to speak mildly, 
 impossible." 
 
 "And, in the name of common sense, why go to Brussels at this 
 particular juncture ? " inquired his lordship. 
 
 " Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere ! " quoted Horace ; 
 " business takes me — not pleasure, I assure you. It seems this East 
 Indiaman, over the loss of which old Crane has been whining and 
 pining for the last three days, was heavily insured in a Belgian 
 house ; but owing to some supposed informality in the drawing up of 
 the papers, they, on hearing of the shipwreck, deny their liability. 
 Now, a cousin of mine is an ' avocat ' — the same thing as a barrister 
 — at Brussels, so I am going over to put the case in his hands. Old 
 Crane pays my expenses, and gives me a very handsome commission, 
 and — you know I never make any secret of the unfortunate anomaly, 
 that my habits are expensive, and my pocket shallow — I can't afford 
 to throw such a chance away. I tell you this in confidence, to prove 
 to you that I really am unable to see you tlu-ough this horse business, 
 which from the first, you are aware. I never liked ; Ijut I find, as I 
 suspect many mentors have found before me, that it's a good deal 
 easier to lead on a young fellow of spirit like you, ' mon cher,' than 
 to hold him back." 
 
 Lord Alfred smiled faintly — a pre-occupied smile— at the implied 
 compliment, for his mind was engrossed by the prospect of the loss 
 of D'Almayne's presence and support at the steeple-chase— a loss at 
 which he felt vastly more uneasy than he would have been at all 
 willing to confess. Anxious as much to be re-assured himself as to 
 inspire his companion with confidence, he said, in a tone which, 
 desi^ite his endeavours to the contrary, betrayed his self-distrust, — 
 
 " Yes, but really, D'Aluiayne, even taking your view of the matter,
 
 308 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 I don't see reasonably what there is to ci'oak about: that younpf 
 fellow TiiTett, who has been born and bred among horses, and knows 
 practically what those prigs of guardsmen — the frightfully heavy 
 dragoon, the romancing Irish captain, and last and least, my innocent 
 self — pretend to know, assures me there's no horse entered that can 
 come near the Don. As they are to be all ridden by gentlemen, and 
 he is a gentleman rider (so called, like the theatrical walking gentle- 
 man, from his being utterly unlike the genuine article — on the 
 ' Incus a non lucendo ' principle, I imagine), he rides for me, and I 
 depend a great deal on his perfect acquaintance with all the peculi- 
 arities of the horse (for, ' entre nous,' I fancy his temjDcr is his weak 
 point) ; and as his pay is to be more than doubled in the event of his 
 winning, I think I have every reason to believe he will do me justice 
 and to feel sanguine as to the result." 
 
 " Well, ' mon cher,' I wish you most heartily success," was the 
 reply ; " and I still more wish I could remain and see you through it ; 
 for without meaning to throw discredit on young Tirrett, or any of 
 them in particular, I, as a general rule, mistrust these horse people. 
 However, I think you have your eyes open, and may be trusted to take 
 care of yourself. And now I must be off ; I embark at eight to-night. 
 By the way, I dare say you'll allow me to write a note here ; it will 
 save my going roimd by the cliib." 
 
 Suiting the action to the word, he seated himself at a librai-y table 
 and wi'ote as follows : — 
 
 "Dear Tirrett,— Your game is clear; let A. C. and O'B n 
 
 each believe that you will ride for him, and at the last minute throw 
 both over. In this case Captain Annesley's Black Eagle is safe to 
 win, as I dare say you know better than I do ; thus you will perceive 
 how to make a paying book. If I prove a true prophet, I shall expect 
 
 a .£50 note from you, as O'B n will (before you quarrel with him) 
 
 tell you I got up the whole affair myself, introducing him to A. C, &c. 
 
 " I i-emain, yours faithfully, 
 
 " ToTJ'lL know who VFHEN I CLAIM THE TIN. 
 
 " P.S. — If you make a heavy purse out of the business, I shall 
 expect ten per cent, on all beyond <£500." 
 
 Having sealed this precious missive, and put a penny stamp of 
 Lord Alfred's upon it, he consigned it to his pocket, took an affec- 
 tionate farewell of his victim, and departed. 
 
 When Harry Coverdale reached London that evening, Horace 
 D'Almayne was " off the Nore," and feeling none the better for sea- 
 air, wished most heartily that he was " off " the ocean also. In order 
 to make up for his want of sleep on the previous night. Lord AKred 
 Courtland desired his valet not to let him be disturbed until he rang 
 his bell, the result of which order was, that at one p.m. on the follow- 
 ing moi-ning his lordship was eating his breakfast in that state of 
 dreamy imbecility usually induced by an over-dose of "nature's 
 sweet restorer." From this mental torpor he was in some degree
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 309 
 
 aroiised by a quick, sharp, and decided knock at the door, followed 
 by a heavy but active footstep on the stairs, and ere he had time 
 properly to regain his sleep-scattered senses, the valet announced 
 Mr. Coverdale. 
 
 " You're just about the last person I expected to see in town ! " 
 exclaimed Lord Alfred, languidly rising and holding out two fingers 
 — a mild civility of which Harry did not avail himself. " I thought 
 you were revelling in all the sweets of rural felicity, and that nothing 
 would have tempted you to leave them. I'm uncommonly glad to 
 see you, though," he continued, as it suddenly occun-ed to him that 
 Coverdale would be a vei-y good substitute for Hoi-ace D'Almayne, 
 to advise and see him through this alarming steeple-chase, in regard 
 to which two fixed ideas constantly haunted him, viz. that he had 
 risked a sum of money upon it much larger than he had any right to 
 have done ; and that he was as entirely ignorant of the whole affair, 
 and as completely in Tirrett's hand, as a baby could have been under 
 the circumstances. " I'll tell you why," he continued ; " the truth ia, 
 I've got in Lfor an affair, the magnitude of which I by no means 
 bargained for ; in fact, I should not be surprised or offended if (as I 
 know you're both a kind friend and a i^lain-spoken fellow) you were 
 to tell me I'd made a considerable ass of myself." 
 
 " One moment, Courtland," inteiTupted Coverdale ; " I have come 
 to town expressly to see you in regai'd to a matter which neai'ly 
 concems me ; and until we have discussed that I really cannot give 
 my attention to anything else. Now listen to me, Alfred," he 
 continued gravely, but not angrily : " I've been acquainted with you 
 since you were a child, and I know your good points as well as your 
 weak ones. I know, althoiigh you're easily led away by bad precept 
 and worse example, that you've a kind heart and a generous nature ; 
 and so, for the sake of this old regard, I have allowed you to — to 
 amuse yourself and occupy your idle time by devoting yourself to 
 my wife ; and I am now about to talk to you, and reason with you 
 on the subject, in afar milder tone than I should use to any other 
 man under the circumstances." 
 
 Lord Alfred was abo^^t eagerly to interrupt him, but by a gesture 
 Harry restrained him, — 
 
 " Hear me out," he continued, " and then, when you understand 
 the tenour and amount of my accusation, you can say what you like 
 in your defence. Tou considered my wife pretty and good-natured, 
 and you fancied, or were told, it would give you eclat with the set 
 you have unfortunately mixed up with — and a very shady set I'm. 
 afraid they are — to have a sentimental love-affair with some pretty 
 young married woman. I was not quite the blind careless creature 
 you imagined me all the time we were in London ; on the contrary, I 
 saw what was going on plainly enough, and was annoyed at it — but 
 nothing more. I had the most thorough confidence in my wife ; and 
 she is so real in all her feelings, so completely fresh and genuine, 
 that I was not afraid your sentimentality would infect her ; more-
 
 310 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 over, I trusted to your own good lieai-t to keep you from going very 
 far wi-ong ; but, towards the conclusion of our stay in Park Lane, I 
 teard remai'ks dropped at clubs, and observed other things, which 
 made me resolve to put an end to the folly : and as the quietest and 
 best way of doing so, I took Alice out of town. As far as she was 
 concerned, the experiment appears to have succeeded, for I can't 
 flatter your vanity by saying that I believe she ever gave you a 
 second thought. But with you it does not seem to have had the 
 desired effect; for, a few days since, I was not best pleased to 
 perceive a letter for my wife in youi- handwriting. Wait ! " he con- 
 tinued, seeing Lord Alfred was again about to speak ; " hear me 
 out : I shall not try your patience much longer. This letter I chose 
 to give her myself, for the puri)ose of asking her, as soon as she had 
 read it, to show it to me — " 
 
 " And she refused ? " observed Lord Alfred coolly. 
 
 " Yes, sir, she did ! " returned Han-y, with flashing eyes ; " she 
 refused to show me that letter ; and at the same time was unable or 
 unwilling to give me any good reason for objecting to satisfy my 
 just demand : and now, perhaps, you can guess at the nature of my 
 business with yon. I have come ^^p to town to obtain from you the 
 information I have been unable to gain from her ; and I now ask you 
 to repeat to me, as nearly as you can, word for word, the contents of 
 that letter." 
 
 " Under what penalty if I should decline to comply with your — 
 somewhat unusual request ? " was the reply. 
 
 Haii-y's brow grew dark. " I have not wasted a thought on so 
 unlikely a contingency," he said abruptly. 
 
 There was a pause, then Lord Alfred rose, and drawing up his tall 
 but slender figure to its full height, replied, — 
 
 " Now listen to me, Ooverdale ; you have spoken unpleasant truths 
 to me in an unpleasant manner — a manner which, boy as you deem 
 me, I should in any other man resent; but you are, as you have said, 
 one of my oldest friends, and as such privileged. Moreover, in the 
 transactions you allude to, I freely confess that I have been to 
 blame ; and I have no objection to tell you that my chief object in 
 writing to Mrs. Coverdale was to make her aware of this, and ask 
 her to forgive me any annoyance I might have caused her. Having 
 explained thus much to you, you must excuse my declining to say 
 more." 
 
 " Indeed I shall do no such thing," was Coverdale's angi"y reply ; 
 " you have told me no more than Alice told me herself. Sir, I came 
 to town expressly to learn from you the contents of that letter, and 
 by fair means or foul I intend to do so ! I may not know how to 
 deal with women, but, by heaven ! I do know how to deal with men, 
 or with green boys, who give themselves the airs of men, before they 
 have acquired a man's strength, either of mind or body ! " He took 
 a turn up and down the room, then continued in a milder tone — 
 •' Come, Alired, do not let us quarrel about this foolish affair ; you
 
 a^ 
 
 w^/y. 
 
 /
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 311 
 
 see I am in earnest, so satisfy me on this one point, and let there be 
 an end of these absurd misunderstandings between us." 
 
 " You pay Mrs. Coverdale a very bad compliment," rejoined Lord 
 Alfred, " when you make out that she refused to comply with her 
 husband's wish without some very good reason ; at all events, I so 
 entirely differ with you on this point that I feel called upon to follow 
 her example." 
 
 " Am I then to understand — " began Harry. 
 
 " You are to understand clearly and distinctly that I refuse to tell 
 you one single line in that letter," was the unexpected answer ; " and 
 so now do your worst, for to this decision I intend to adhere, and no 
 representations or threats shall induce me to alter it." 
 
 As he spoke. Lord Alfred again drew wji his slight graceful figure 
 with a degi-ee of dignity of which those who had seen him only in his 
 languid affected moods would not have deemed him capable, and, 
 folding his arms calmly, awaited Coverdale's reply. But that reply 
 was for some little time not forthcoming ; the truth being that, in 
 spite of his assertion to the contrary, Harry for once in his life did 
 not know how to deal with a man. He was very angry with Lord 
 Alfred, and felt strongly tempted to knock him down; but even 
 at that moment his old feeling that it was his duty to protect the 
 high-spirited but delicate boy, though it were from himself, came 
 across him, and paralyzed his energy. 
 
 Lord Alfred, however, who, like all very good-tempered easy 
 people, when once roused, felt a necessity to give immediate vent to 
 his anger, possibly from a secret consciousness of its evanescent 
 character, did not wait the termination of this mental struggle, but 
 continued, — 
 
 " Well, Coverdale, do you perceive the reasonableness of my 
 position, or am I to incur the penalty of my disobedience, and 
 become acquainted with your terrific method of dealing with refrac- 
 tory men P " 
 
 As he spoke sarcastically, and with a slight resumption of his 
 fashionable lisp, Coverdale made one step towards him, and clutching 
 his shoulder with his left hand in a vice-like grasp, while the fingers 
 of his right clenched themselves involuntarily, he said in a low deep 
 voice, — 
 
 " For your own sake — nay, for both our sakes — Alfred, I advise you 
 not to provoke me farther ! " 
 
 *' And why not ? " inquired Lord Alfred firmly, though he gi-ew 
 a little pale at the expression he saw stealing over Coverdale's 
 features. 
 
 " I will tell you why not," was the reply; " look at this ! " and he 
 raised his clenched fist to a level with his companion's features; 
 " with one blow of this I believe I could fell an ox. I have felled a 
 man of double your weight and power, and I did not use my full 
 strength then ; if I had, I believe I should have killed him. I have a 
 quick temper, and you have roused it. I don't want to hxirt you, but
 
 312 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 I can't tnist myself; so if you are not utterly reckless, leave me 
 alone ! " 
 
 As he spoke, he unconsciously tightened his grasp on the young 
 nobleman's shoulder, till it became so exquisitely painful that it 
 required all the fortitude Lord Alfred could muster to endure it 
 without flinching. Whether owing to this practical proof of his 
 adversai-y's strength, or whether he read in Harry's flashing eye and 
 quirering lip the volcano of passion that smouldered within, cei-tain 
 it is that as soon as the gi-asp was removed from his aching shoulder, 
 Lord Alfred turned away, and seated himself with a discontented air 
 in an attitude of passive expectation. 
 
 After pacing the room in moody cogitation for several minutes, 
 Coverdale suddenly paused, and said, — 
 
 " I was unprepared for this refusal, so pertinaciously adhered to, 
 and I confess it embarrasses even more than it provokes me. I 
 fancied— that is, I forgot you were not really a boy still, and imagined 
 that when you found I was serious about the matter, your will would 
 yield to mine ; it seems I was mistaken. Any other man who had 
 withstood me as you have done, on such a subject, would now be 
 lying at my feet ; but I can no more bring myself to use my strength 
 against you than I could bear to strike a woman ; and as to the 
 alternative which equalizes strength, I shudder at the idea as a 
 temptation direct from Satan. If I were to shoot you, I should 
 never know another happy moment. How should I face that kind 
 old man, your father, who, when I was a boy, has given me many a 
 sovereign in the holidays ? I should feel like a second Cain, as if I 
 had slain my brother ! " 
 
 This speech, which Han-y delivered eagerly and with evidences of 
 deep feeling, appealed to Lord Alfred's better nature : he gi-ew more 
 and more excited as it proceeded, and at its conclusion he sprang up, 
 exclaiming, — 
 
 " 'Pon my word — 'pen my honour as a gentleman, Coverdale, I 
 assure you you are woiTying yourself about notliing ! I own I have 
 behaved wrongly— foolishly in this matter, and I am very sorry for 
 it. But your wife is an angel, and cares for you and you only : she 
 treated me with friendly kindness, but nothing more : I am to blame 
 entirely." 
 
 " Why then does she so obstinately refuse to show me your letter, 
 and why do you object to enlighten me as to the contents, and so 
 satisfy me and set the matter at rest for ever P " inquired Hari-y. 
 
 Lord Alfred paused for a moment in thought ere he replied. 
 
 " I think I can divine Mrs. Coverdale's reason for not showing my 
 letter to you, and if so, it is one that does her credit ; but it is enough 
 for me to know that she does not wish its contents revealed, to make 
 me feel that, as a man of honour, I am bound to be silent. Believe 
 me, Coverdale, I do not say this to annoy you, or to set you at 
 defiance. I would gladly tell you, if I did not think it would be dis- 
 honourable and wrong to do so. I wish to heaven I had never written
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 313 
 
 the letter now, since it has produced all this annoyance ; but I really 
 did it for the best — I did, upon ray honoixr ! " 
 
 He spoke with such an air of truthfulness, and his manner was so 
 simple and ingenuous, that Coverdale felt it impossible to doubt 
 his veracity ; and for a moment he was on the point of flinging his 
 suspicions to the winds, and, shaking hands with Lord Alfred, to tell 
 him everything was forgotten and forgiven. But Harry's mind was 
 of that order which is slow to receive a feeling so foreign to its 
 general tone as suspicion, and which, when the idea has once become 
 fixed, finds equal difficulty in relinquishing it. Thus, in the present 
 case, having convinced himself that the only satisfactory way of 
 clearing np his doubts would be by gaining oral or ocular acquaint- 
 ance with the contents of the mysterious letter, he could in no way 
 divest himself of the conviction, but was continually looking out for 
 reasons in its favour. Instead, therefore, of yielding to his first 
 impulse, he reflected that having refused to put faith in Alice's 
 unsupported assertion, he should equally be unjust to her, and un- 
 true to his own convictions, if he gave credence to that of Lord 
 Alfred Courtland. So, taking up his hat, he said, — 
 
 " Since you persist in your refusal, I must go and think this matter 
 over coolly and quietly ; you shall see or hear from me before this 
 time to-morrow." He tm-ned to depart, but Lord Alfred held out 
 his hand, — 
 
 " We part as friends ? " he said inquiringly. 
 
 " Neither as friends nor foes," was the reply. " You shall learn 
 my decision to-morrow." And rejecting his proffered hand, Cover- 
 dale quitted the apartment. 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 
 A GLEAM OF LIGHT. 
 
 No alarming amount of imagination will be required to enable the 
 reader to conceive that Harry returaed to his hotel considerably 
 provoked and dissatisfied at the result of his interview with Lord 
 Alfred Courtland. He had encountered opposition where he had 
 expected an easy victory ; where he had felt certain of success, he 
 had failed most signally ; and by no means the least embaiTassLng 
 part of the matter was, that he really did not know whether to be 
 most angry, or pleased, with Lord Alfred, for his unexpected firm, 
 ness. But, if the past was perplexing, the future api^eared much
 
 314 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 more so. On quitting Lord Alfred, he had called at Horace 
 D'Almayne's lodginf^s, where he acquired the information that their 
 usual occupant had started for the continent on the pi-evious even- 
 in^''. Baffled in eveiy attempt to obtain information concerning; the 
 mysterious letter, which haunted his imagination with the pertiniicity 
 of some intiiisive spectre callous to the restringent influence of bell, 
 book, and candle, Coverdale, after lying awake the greater part of 
 the night, bent his steps, the first thing the next morning, in the 
 direction of his brothei'-in-law's chambers, wishing to consult him, 
 but at the same time feeling so unwilling to blame Alice, even by 
 imputation, that the chances were against his taking such a step. 
 On reaching his destination, however, the difficulty solved itself, for, 
 early as was the hour, Ai-thiu' was from home, but Coverdale found 
 a letter awaiting him in Alice's handwriting. Hastily tearing it 
 open, an enclosure di-opjoed from it, and on stooping to pick it up he 
 perceived, to his extreme surpnse, that it was the identical epistle 
 which had ab'eady caused him a journey to London and a sleepless 
 night; and which, but for his forbearance and kindliness of dis- 
 position, might have involved him in a serious quan-el — if nothing 
 worse — with his former friend and school-fellow. Alice's letter, 
 which bore every mark of having been written under feelings of the 
 gi-eatest excitement, ran as follows : — 
 
 " Dearest Harry, — Tour hasty departure has overturned all my 
 plans and anangements, which, believe me, were made with a view 
 only to try and avert the catastrophe which, I shudder to think, may 
 be even now impending. Justice to Lord AKred, who may have 
 incurred your indignation, as well as my anxiety to clear myself in 
 your eyes by making you acquainted with the whole truth, induce 
 me to send you the intei'esting letter which has given rise to all this 
 sad misunderstanding ; and, as I imugine you ha,ve ere this seen and 
 come to some sort of explanation with Lord Alfred, my reason for 
 withholding it exists no longer. When you read it, you will perceive 
 why I was so unwilling to show it to you. I felt convinced that the 
 passages referring to Mr. D'Almayne, which completely confii-m the un- 
 favourable opinion you have always entertained of him, would imtate 
 you greatly against him ; and, when Lord Alfred proceeds to write 
 of him as a noted duellist, a dead shot, etc., you may smile at my 
 womanly weakness, but can you wonder that I hesitated to show you 
 the letter, that I chose rather to allow you to think untrue things of 
 me than to clear myself at the risk of imperilling your safety P And 
 now, dearest Harry, if you love me as you say, and as I hope and 
 believe you do, if you would ever have me know another moment's 
 peace, and not be weighed down by endless self-reproach, return 
 home, I implore you, without taking any further step in this matter. 
 I am not afraid, when you have seen his penitent letter, that you will 
 be angry with Lord Alfred, but I entreat of you to avoid that hateful 
 Mr. D'Almayne. Even supposing that he has been the cause of all
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 315 
 
 this itnhappiness ; that is row passed, and he will be powerless to 
 influence our futiu-e life. I am quite willing, if it will be any satis- 
 faction to you, to agree never to spend another spring in London ; 
 I have seen enough of its heartless dissipation and frivolity, and for 
 the future hope to find my happiness in our own dear home, which, 
 if you do but return to it safe and sound, I would not exchange for 
 a queen's palace. Pray, pray, dearest Harry, come back without 
 delay. I have womed and fretted myself quite ill already, and shall 
 be wretched till I see you again. Ever your i^enitent, but loving, 
 
 "Alice." 
 
 Having pemsed his wife's letter with mingled feelings of satisfac- 
 tion and regret — satisfaction to find how completely she was able to 
 clear herself, and regret at the pain and annoyance which he was 
 sure this affair must have occasioned her, — Coverdale unfolded and 
 read carefully Lord Alfred's epistle, which had occasioned results 
 the Ava-iter little contemplated. At his lordship's ingenuous confes- 
 sion of his follies and absurdities, HaiTy smiled, muttering, " Poor 
 boy ! I wish I had not been so sharp with him yesterday ; " bi^t as he 
 went on his brow contracted, and when he came to the account of 
 Horace D'Almayne, and the repoi-t he had circulated in regard to 
 Coverdale and Miss Crofton, he could restrain his rage no longer, 
 and spnnging up, be exclaimed, " Scoundrel ! mean, pitiful, lying 
 scoimdrel ! but he shall answer to me for this. A bold rogue, who 
 would execute his own villainy, is a prince to a rascal like this, who 
 lays a plot to deprive me of my wife's affections, and then makes a 
 cats'-paw of that poor foolish boy to can^f it out. I see it all now. 
 The behaviour which appeared so strange and imaccountable in my 
 darling Alice, proceeded from a very natural feeling of jealousy, 
 excited by all these abominable reports ; and, the worst of it is, that 
 even now I can't be entirely open with her, because of my promise to 
 Arabella. I wish to heaven I had never been fool enough to bind 
 myself! — and yet how could I avoid it? for she has a good heart and 
 a generous disposition — though, partly from a bad education, partly 
 from natural temperament, her ideas are sadly wai-ped. I am sure 
 she really loved me ; of course, in a conventional point of view, it 
 was not right in her to do so ; but — well, it's no use humbugging — I 
 don't believe the man ever bi-eathed, who honestly, and from his 
 heart, could blame a woman for loving him ; principle and reason 
 may accuse her, but feeling defends her so eloquently, that the cause 
 is gained at the first hearing. I think I acted rightly by her. If I had 
 it to do over again, I don't see how else I could honourably behave ; 
 perhaps it was weak to make her a promise of concealment, but 
 she was so unhappy, her proud spirit was so utterly crushed and 
 broken down, that I would have done anything, not actually wrong, 
 to console her." 
 
 He paused, reseated himself, then resumed more quietly, " Perhaps 
 it as well that scoimdi-el D'Almayne is not within reach : if I were
 
 316 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 to lioi'sewhip him, as I most assuredly should and would, I suppose I 
 
 should be forced to meet liim, blackguard as he is, if he were to 
 
 challenge me ; and he would do so, I dare say, though I know him to 
 
 be a coward at heart, for his social position is his livelihood, and he 
 
 niust maintain that, or stai've. I utterly abhor duelling — it's so very 
 
 like deliberate murder ; it was different in the old days, when men 
 
 wore swords habitually ; then, a couple of fellows quan-elled and 
 
 tilted at each other across the dining-table, while their blood was up, 
 
 and a flesh wound or two generally let off their superfluous energy, 
 
 and cured their complaint — it was little more than knocking a man 
 
 down who has insulted you. There was none of that waiting, and 
 
 then coolly, calmly, taking the life of a fellow-creatm-e in cold blood, 
 
 which is the disgusting pai-t of the modem duel. And now about 
 
 little Alfred. Poor boy, he has been sadly led away by that 
 
 scoundrel, but his heart is in the right place still ; that is a very nice 
 
 letter of his to my wife, and I'm glad he wi-ote it, though it has 
 
 caused me some trouble and annoyance. Well, I'll call on him, and 
 
 tell him I did him injustice, and then go down to the Park by the 
 
 next train, to comfort my darling Alice. By Jove, I feel quite a 
 
 different man since I read that letter — Harry's himself again." And 
 
 in proof of his assertion, he began, for the first time for many weeks, 
 
 to whistle his f avoui'ite air — 
 
 " A southerlj' wind, and a cloudy sky, 
 Proclaim it a hunting morning." 
 
 Another ten minutes, and a hansom cab sufiiced to take him to 
 Lord Alfred's lodgings. 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 AFTER THE MANNER OF " BELL'S LIFE." 
 
 " I DARE say the lazy young dog isn't up yet," was Coverdale's 
 mental comment, as he knocked at the door of Lord Alfred Court- 
 land's lodgings. Although, as a general iiile, the idea might not be 
 a mistaken one, yet this particular occasion was evidently an excep- 
 tion, for, on entering Lord Alfred's sitting-room, Coverdale found 
 that young gentleman most elaborately got up in an xmimpeachable 
 spoi-ting costume, but sitting with an open letter and his betting- 
 book before him, looking the picture of despair. As Coverdale 
 entered, he glanced upward with a slight start ; then, without waiting 
 to be spoken to, he exclaimed, in a strange reckless tone, as different 
 from his usual manner as a tempest from a zephyr, " Well ! which is
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 317 
 
 it to be ? peace or war ? either will suit me, thougfh I should rather 
 prefer the latter ; about the best thing that can happen to me would 
 be for you to put a bullet through my head ; at all events, it would 
 save me the trouble of blowing my own brains out, for I expect that 
 is what it will come to before long." 
 
 "Nonsense!" was the reply. "What do you mean by talking 
 such childish rubbish ? what is the matter with you, man ? " 
 
 " First answer my question, and let me know whether I am speaking 
 to a friend or a foe," rejoined Lord Alfred. 
 
 " A friend, as I always have been, and always will be, to you, as 
 long as you deserve an honest man's friendship," returned Coverdale 
 heartily. " Alice has sent me your letter, and it does you great 
 credit ; but I always knew you had a good heart ; so, for any trouble 
 or annoyance you have caused me, I freely forgive you, and I'll 
 answer for it Alice does the same ; and I don't know that you may 
 not have taught her a lesson which may be very useful to her in after 
 life. She was young and giddy, and pleased with admiration and 
 gaiety ; and this has shown her the danger and folly of such frivolous 
 pursuits as these tastes lead to." 
 
 As he spoke, he held out his hand ; Lord Alfred seized and shook 
 it warmly. 
 
 " My dear Coverdale," he said, "you have made me happier, or I 
 might more truly say, less miserable, than five minutes ago I would 
 have believed it possible for anything to do ; it was not your anger, 
 or its consequences, I dreaded ; but the truth is, I always had the 
 greatest regard and respect for you — I was proud of your friendship 
 — and the idea that, by my faults, I had forfeited it, lowered me in 
 my own estimation and was a source of continued uneasiness and 
 regret to me. Tou thought I was talking exaggerated nonsense just 
 now, but I assure yoii when you came into this room five minutes 
 ago, I was thoroughly reckless ; just in the frame of mind in which 
 men commit suicide, or any other act of wicked folly." 
 
 Coverdale, though he by no means comprehended the " situation " 
 (as it is now the fashion to term all possible combination of events), 
 yet perceived that his companion was thoroughly in earnest, and 
 required sympathy and assistance ; so he evinced the first by getting 
 up and laying his hand encouragingly on Lord Alfred's shoulder, 
 while he offered the latter in the following words : " What is it, my 
 boy ? anything that I can help you in ? " 
 
 " If anybody can, you are the very man," replied Lord Alfred, as 
 he eagerly gi-asped his friend's hand ; " but really," he continued, 
 Avhile the tears that sparkled in his clear blue eyes proved his 
 sincei'ity, "really, I don't know how to thank you for all your 
 kindness, when I have deserved so differently at your hands too ; 
 but you always were the most generous, best-hearted " 
 
 " There ! that will do, you foolish boy," interrupted Coverdale, 
 who, like all simple truthful characters, felt uncomfortable at hearing 
 his own praises ; " we'll take it for granted that I'm no end of a fine
 
 318 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 fellow, and proceed to learn what particular scrape your wisdom has 
 failed to keep you out of." 
 
 " Scrape, you may call it," was the reply ; " partly through my own 
 folly, partly tbrouf?h the rascality of others, I am almost certain to 
 lose a couple of thousand pounds on a steeple-chase, for which I've 
 been idiot enough to enter a horse, and where to lay my hands on as 
 many hundreds is more than I know. I shall not be able to meet 
 my engagements, and shall be stigmatized as a blackleg and a 
 swindler, at the very time when it is through the villainy of blacklegs 
 and swindlers that I shall be placed in such a position ! " 
 
 " Can't your father ? " began Coverdale. 
 
 " If you don't wish to render me frantic, don't mention my father," 
 was the unexpected rejoinder ; he paused, then resumed — " Cover- 
 dale, I will not trust you by halves. I know you will hold my confidence 
 sacred. My father is most kind and liberal to me, more liberal almost 
 than he should be, for he is not a rich man, and has many calls upon 
 him, and this year I know he has met with severe losses. I had an 
 allowance on which I could have lived well, and as becomes my rank, 
 but Horace D'Almajme, under pi-etence of showing me life, took me 
 to a gaming-house, I acquired a taste for play, or rather I played, 
 because I thought it the ' correct thing ; ' and I am now not only 
 without money, but actually in debt. Then came this horse 
 business," — here Lord Alfred gave Coverdale a succinct account of 
 the various particulars of the affairs with which the reader has been 
 already made acquainted. " I felt, up to this morning," he resumed, 
 "tolerably confident of success, relying chiefly on Tin-ett's riding, 
 which is said to be first-rate ; imagine, then, my rage and disgust 
 when half an hour ago this was given me ! " — As he spoke, he handed 
 Coverdale the following note :— 
 
 " I am soiTy to inform your lordship that circumstances over which 
 I have no control oblige me to decline the honoui- of riding Don 
 Pasquale for you to-day. 
 
 " I am, 
 " Your Lordship's obedient servant, 
 "Philip Tirrett." 
 
 " Pleasant and encouraging, certainly," observed Coverdale, when 
 he had finished reading the note. 
 
 " That fellow Tirrett is the greatest scoundrel unhung ! " exclaimed 
 Lord Alfred, crushing the paper in his hand with an action sugges- 
 tive of his willingness to perform a similar process of annihilation 
 upon its writer. 
 
 " By no means," returned Han-y cooUy ; " he is simply a very 
 avex-age specimen of his class, half -jockey, half- dealer, and whole 
 blackleg of a low stamp — there are hundreds such on the turf; 
 however, he seems to have got you into an awful fix this time — we 
 must try and find out what can be done. I'll stay and see you through
 
 AND ALL THAT CAIME OF IT 319 
 
 it at all events ; it's fortunate to-day is tlie day, for I could not have 
 remamedbeyond; Idaresayl shall be back in time to catch the 
 eight o clock train, and I shall then be at home by eleven. What 
 time do you start, and how do you get down P " 
 
 T'lw^ r '^""''' "^"^ ^ ^'■''^ '^^'''^ ^^""^^^ *^® Pandemonium at twelve 
 1 11 take care to keep a seat for you, if you really are kind enough to 
 go with me. I am really quite ashamed to avail myself of your 
 kindness, when I know how anxious you must be to get back and 
 calm Mrs. Coverdale's fears; but I feel your presence and your 
 knowledge of the right way in which to deal with these people will be 
 so invaluable to me that I have not sufficient self-denial to denrive 
 myself of them." ^ 
 
 .< t! ^^ ^^^'^^^ ■ *^^^'* ^^^^ ^°® speeches about it," rejoined Han-y 
 I ve one or two places to call at, and I'll meet you at the Frying 
 Pan, as they call that diabolically named club of yours, five minutes 
 before twelve; and, above aU, don't look so woe-begone, or you'll 
 have the odds against Don Pasquale increased to a frightful degree • 
 Piit on a cool nonchalant air, like your precious friend and adviser' 
 D Almayne, who may thank his stars that the German Ocean lies 
 between him and me just now, for I'd have horsewhipped him as 
 sure as I stand here, so that he should have spent the next fortnight 
 m his bed at all events, and it would have been a mercy if I hadn't 
 broken some of his bones for him ; but I'm glad he's away, for, after 
 all, I suppose one has no right to take the law into one's own hands 
 Well I must be off, but depend upon my meeting you, and in the 
 meantime look alive, and don't sit poring over that stupid betting- 
 book ; you re in a mess, that I don't deny, but that is no reason why 
 you should lose heart ; on the contrary, you'll have need of aU your 
 pluck to get you through it. Never despond, man ! when things come 
 to the worst, they're sure to mend. Look at me: since I received 
 that letter from my little wife, and read your notable composition 
 Im a different creature." So saying, Coverdale resumed his hat' 
 and was about to quit the room, when glancing at his companion's 
 countenance he suddenly stopped. 
 
 " Alfred, my poor boy," he said kindly, " I cau't leave you with such 
 a face as that ! hsten to me, I'll do all I can for you to get you out 
 ot this scrape to-day, and very likely things may tum out better than 
 we expect; but if the worst comes to the worst, you have only to 
 proniise me two things, viz. to give up your intimacy with Horace 
 D Almayne and not to enter a gambling-house again for the next 
 ten years ; and whatever money you require shall be placed in your 
 banker s hands before settling-day." 
 
 As he spoke, Lord Alfred grasped his hand, endeavoured to falter 
 torth a few words of gratitude, but, utterly breaking down in the 
 attempt, burst into tears. 
 
 Harry, neariy as much affected at the sight of his friend's emotion 
 muttered, " Pshaw ! there's nothing to make a fuss about," wruncr' 
 his hand cordially, and hastily quitted the room.
 
 820 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 At ten minutes to twelve a well-appointed drag, with four slapping 
 greys, excited tlie admiration of street boys in the vicinity of the 
 Pandemonium, by drawing up at the door of that fastest of clubs, 
 and five minutes later, Harry Coverdale, habited in a loose dust- 
 coloured wrapper, made his appearance, and tossing a small carpet- 
 bag to one of the grooms, desired him to put it in the boot. Lord 
 Alfi'ed was eagerly waiting to receive him, and introduced him 
 to sundry noble sportsmen, or men desiring so to be considered, 
 who were to compose the live freight of the drag ; one or two of them 
 wei'e old acquaintances of Coverdale's, amongst them being the 
 facetious Jack Beaupeep, who appeared in his usual channing spii-its, 
 and took an early opportunity of informing Coverdale, in the stnctesfc 
 confidence, that a certain yoimg man, with pale and swollen features, 
 who, he declared, lived only to play on the cornopean, might be ex- 
 pected to produce new and startling effects upon his next perform- 
 ance, he (Jack Beaupeep) having already contrived to insinuate 
 percussion crackers into all three valves of his victim's instrument. 
 One minute before twelve a taU, good-looking man, attired in a white 
 hat and a wonderful driving cape, whose Chi-istian name was 
 William, and his patronymic Ban-ington, but who, from his passion 
 for di-iving, was more commonly knowTi by the sobriquet Billy 
 Whipcord, descended the steps of the Pandemonium, and, arranging 
 the reins scientifically between his fingers, mounted the box and 
 assumed his seat, at the same time, not taking, but bestowing, the 
 oaths for the benefit of an obtuse helper, who had " presumed to 
 buckle the off leader's billet in the check, instead of the lower bar, 
 
 when he knew the mare pulled like " well, suppose we say, " like 
 
 a steam-engine ! " As the first stroke of twelve pealed from the high 
 church steeple of St. Homonovus, which, as everybody knows, stands 
 exactly opposite the Pandemonium, the afoi'esaid Billy Whipcord 
 obligingly made his team a present of their respective heads, the 
 attendant helpers seized the comers of the horsecloths which had 
 hitherto guarded their thorough-bred loins from whatever may be 
 the eqiiine equivalent for lumbago, and jerked them off with a 
 degree of energy which threatened to take hide and all together, 
 \vith a boimd and a plunge the denuded quadrupeds sprang for- 
 ward, the boys cheered, the club sei^A^ants perforaied pantomimic 
 actions, indicative of admiration and respect, and the di-ag 
 started. 
 
 Monsieur de Saulcy, Mr. Kinglake, and other travellers, French, 
 English, and American, who take pleasure in going to the East to 
 make mistakes about the site of Sodom and GomoiTah, hazard a futile 
 hypothesis in regard to the Holy Sepulchre, or, in some similar 
 fashion, exert themselves to prove that other than wise men come 
 from the West in these latter days, inform us that when a camel 
 dies, vultures and other strange fowl suddenly congregate around 
 the body, though in what way the intelligence (for those birds can 
 have no " Bell's Life") reaches them is a point on which no savant
 
 ^
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 321 
 
 has yet been found wise enough to enlighten us— wherefore, in 
 general terms, the fact is stated to result from instinct. By a like 
 nstinct do strange creatures mysteriously appear on the face of the 
 earth, when a steeple-chase, or other sporting event, is an-anged to 
 come off in any given locality: human vultures, hawks, carrion- 
 crows, bats, and owls, all (singular as an ornithologist may deem it) 
 with veiy black legs, attracted by the fascinations of horse-flesh, 
 assemble from the four quarters of — heaven, we were going to say, 
 but on second thoughts, we cannot so conclude the paragraph. Still, 
 from whatever locality they come, come they do in flocks, and gather 
 at certain points, whence they may witness the stai-t, or " the jump 
 into the lane," or " crossing the brook," or the " awkward place," 
 over which the horse that leaps, tumbles, or scrambles first, is safe to 
 win, as their various tastes may lead them. 
 
 There is one feature in these affairs, for which we have never been 
 able to account, viz., the mystex-ious presence of a certain average 
 amount of babies ; they invariably arrived in taxed carts, and entirely 
 engi'oss the mental and bodily faculties of one mother and one female 
 and sympathetic friend each, so that every ten babies necessitate the 
 presence of twenty women, who, from the moment they set out, to 
 the time at which they return, never appear conscious of the race- 
 course, the company, the jockeys, the horses, or indeed, of anything 
 save their infant tyrants. That these women can have brought the 
 babies for their own pleasiu'e, is an hypothesis so absurd, that no one 
 who had seen the goings on of these young Pickles towards their 
 parents and guardians, can for a moment entertain it ; a more, 
 perhaps, the most probable one is, that the infants come to please 
 themselves, for, although we have never observed that they pay much 
 attention to the strict business of the race, yet, in their own way, 
 they appear to enjoy themselves very thoroughly. Their manners 
 and customs are marked by an easy conviviality, and absence from 
 the restraints which usually fetter society, which we can conceive 
 must render their babyhood one epicurean scene of gay delight. 
 Thus, monopolizing the best place in the cai't, shaded by the family 
 umbrella, and dressed in the latest fashion from Lilliput, these young 
 Sybarites recline languidly on the maternal bosom, or sit erect, 
 "mooing," crowing, and " wa-wa-ing" in the faces of the company 
 generally, roaring at the sight of family friends whose acquaintance 
 they do not desire to cultivate, or clawing at the eyes and hair of 
 the select few whose homage they are willing graciously to receive. 
 Then, wildly reckless of appearances, and consulting only their own 
 ungoveiTied appetites, they not only resolve to dine in public at the 
 maternal expense, but when their desire has been gratified by their 
 self-sacrificing parents, betray a thankless indifference to the safe 
 custody of the good things afforded them, which renders their vicinity 
 dangerous to all decently-attired Christians (those only excepted, 
 who consider a " milky way " the way in which they should go), 
 during the remainder of the festivities. Thus (we say it boldly, 
 
 Y
 
 322 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 thou{?h we know we are provoking the enmity of all our female 
 readers, who consider a darling baby can never be " de trop "), we 
 hereby declare our opinion, that by the laws of the Jockey Club, all 
 dogs and infants found unmuzzled on any race-course, should be 
 
 seized by the police, and instantly we leave the minds' eyes of 
 
 the anxious mothei'S of England to supply the blank. But we are 
 slightly digressing. 
 
 As they reached the field whence the start was to take place, 
 in which a booth or two and a very mild specimen of a grand stand 
 had been erected, Harry found an opportunity to whisper to Lord 
 Alfred,— 
 
 " Now, remember what I told you ; appear as cool as if you hadn't 
 sixpence depending on this race ; if long odds are offered against the 
 horse, take 'em ; I'll stand the risk up to a fifty-pounder ; if it has 
 transpired that Tirrett won't ride for you. say quietly that you are 
 provided with an efficient substitute — as soon as I see clearly how 
 the land lies, I'll tell you more." 
 
 Lord Alfred looked— as he was— singularly puzzled, but of the 
 hundreds who were flocking to that race-course, Coverdale was the 
 only man on whom he felt he could rely, and he most willingly placed 
 himself in his hands. 
 
 Having insinuated the di-ag into the most favourable position for 
 beholding from its roof the line of the course, the Hon. Billy Whip- 
 cord, having acquitted himself so as to call forth an encomium 
 even from Hany Coverdale, who was a severe critic in such 
 matters, descended fi'om his seat, and, with most of the others, 
 repaired to an extempore betting-ring, composed of aU the knowing 
 ones present. 
 
 Lord Alfred was about to accompany them, when Harry laid his 
 finger on his arm to detain him. 
 
 " What time did you order the Don to be on the ground ? " 
 
 Lord Alfred referred to his watch. 
 
 " He won't be here for the next half-houi-," was the reply. " It was 
 considered advisable to spare his excitable nerves as much of the 
 noise and bustle as possible." 
 
 " He is at a farm somewhere near, is he not ? " continued Coverdale. 
 '* I see your saddle-horses on the ground ; let us canter down and 
 have a look at him." 
 
 Lord Alfred agreeing, at a signal from his master the pad-gi-oom 
 rode up, and resigning his horse to Coverdale, the friends mounted, 
 and were aboiit to ride off in the direction of the farmhouse, when 
 the Honourable Billy Whipcord intercepted them with a face 
 expressing the deepest concern, 
 
 " My dear Courtland," he began, " a report has somehow got abroad 
 that Tirrett won't ride for you, and that Irish blackguard. Captain 
 O'Brien, does not scruple openly to declare that he is to ride 
 Broth-of-a-Boy for him instead ; the rumour gains ground every 
 minute, and the Don is going down accordingly ; all his best friends
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 323 
 
 ave hedging wherever they can get a bet taken. I hope there's no 
 truth in it." 
 
 Coverdale glanced for a moment towards Lord Alfred, who replied 
 carelessly, " Don't alarm yourself, my dear fellow, I can hardly 
 suppose even Phil Tirrett would have the face to throw me over and 
 ride for O'Brien ; but, if he should indulge in such a caprice, I know 
 my man, and am prepared with a substitute so efficient, that I rather 
 hope your tidings may be tnie." Seeing that the Honourable 
 William looked incredulovis, he continued, " If you're inclined to 
 follow the hedging dodge yourself, I'm as willing as ever to back the 
 Don against the field : how do the odds stand ? " 
 
 Reassured by this practical proof of his Lordship's sincerity, the 
 Honourable William (who, in spite of his innate honourableness, was 
 rather a "leg" than othei-wise), hastily muttered "that he'd a very 
 safe book as it stood, and that if the Don was all serene, he had no 
 wish to alter it," and returned to reap some advantage from the 
 information he had acquired. 
 " How did I do that ? " asked Lord Alfred, as they cantered off. 
 " Splendidly ! " was the reply ; " when all other trades fail you, 
 you'll be able, with a little of my able tuition, to turn horse-chaunter 
 and blackleg." 
 
 Loi'd Alfred shook his head, adding, " Only let me get out of this 
 affair safely, and if you find me doing anything in the horse line 
 again, write me down the veriest idiot that ever ran his head, open- 
 eyed, against a brick wall." 
 
 Five minutes' brisk riding brought them to the gate at which 
 Tin-ett had entered on the moraing after the Blackwall dinner- 
 party. As they did so, a horseman left the yard by a hand-gate at 
 the opposite comer. Lord Alfred gazed after him eagerly. 
 " Who is your mysterious friend ? " inquired Hariy. 
 " I can't be cei-tain," was the reply, " but the figiu'e, and the 
 way in which he sits his horse, are very like that young scoundrel 
 TiiTctt; I've a great mind to gallop after him, and either make him 
 ride for me, or horsewhip him ; " and Lord Alfred looked quite 
 fierce and determined, as if he meant to do as he said, and was able ; 
 but Coverdale, smiling at his energy, restrained him. 
 
 " Gently there — take it coolly ! why, you're becoming quite a 
 fire-eater," he said, laughing ; " but, seriously, if you could make 
 him ride for you against his will, he would only contrive to lose 
 you the race. And, as to horsewhipping, if you were to horsewhip 
 every blackleg who breaks down with you in tui-f affairs, you'd 
 require a portable thrashing-machine, for mortal arm could never 
 stand it." 
 
 As he spoke, they reached the stable, dismounted, and, tying 
 their horses up to a couple of rings in the wall. Lord Alfred drew a 
 key from his pocket, and, applying it to the lock, admitted Harry 
 and himself. So quietly did they enter, and so engrossed was the 
 groom with his occupation, that they had full time to observe him
 
 324 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 before lie was aware of their presence. Fully equipped (with 
 the exception of his coat) for appearinof on the race-course, he 
 was stooping over a pail of water bathing his nose, from which the 
 blood was still rapidly dropping. Coverdale glanced expressively 
 at Lord Alfred, then whispered, " Speak to him — I want to see his 
 face." 
 
 " Why, Dick, what is it ? have you hurt yourself, my lad ? " he 
 inquired, good-naturedly. 
 
 Raising himself, with a start, the man looked round. " No, my 
 Lord, it is no thin' to sinnify ; honly, has I wos a reching hup to get 
 the Don's saddle, hit slipped, hand fell right hon my blessed nose, 
 hand set hit a bleeding howdacious ! " 
 
 " Did you obtain that genius, with the horse, from Tii-rett ? " 
 inquired Harry, " sotto voce " ; receiving a reply in the affirmative, he 
 continued, " Then led me have a word or two with him in private— 
 I think he may be made useful, but one never can get anything out 
 of these fellows, except in a tete-a-tete." 
 
 Lord Alfred nodded assent, and, feigning some plausible excuse, 
 left the stable. 
 
 As soon as they were alone, Harry addressed the groom with an 
 intelligent half-nod, half-wink, which, however ineffectual it might 
 have proved in the case of a blind horse, produced a decided 
 impression on the shai-p-sighted Dick. 
 
 '" Hark ye, my friend," he began, " it strikes me you and I are old 
 acquaintances." 
 
 " Can't say as I ever remembers setting heyes on your honour 
 afore," was the reply, though something in the expression of the 
 man's face contradicted his assertion. 
 
 " Did you never live with Count Cavalho, a Spanish nobleman ? " 
 
 The man i^aused, then answered in a surly tone, " And suppose I 
 did, what then ? " 
 
 " Merely, that while I was in Paris, a gi-oom in his employ was 
 detected selling the corn and hay ; the moment the charge was 
 brought against him the fellow decamped, but the evidence of his 
 dishonesty was so clear, that the Count offered a reward of fifty 
 pounds for his apprehension; the man was not found, but I should 
 know him by sight if I were to meet him," and again Coverdale fixed 
 his piercing glance upon his companion's features. 
 
 Having paused for a minute, during which time the groom stood 
 eyeing him furtively, and shifting uneasily from leg to leg — at the 
 expiration of that period, HaiTy asked abruptly, " Why did young 
 TiiTctt strike you in that brutal manner, before he left the stable 
 just now ? " 
 
 He spoke at a venture, but the arrow hit the bull's-eye. Thrown 
 completely off his guai-d, the man exclaimed, with an oath, " You 
 know everything ! who in the world are you ? " 
 
 " My name's Coverdale," was the reply, " I'm no wizard, but I've 
 been on the turf long enough to keep my eyes and ears open ; and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 825 
 
 now listen to me ; yon know all I've said is true, you perceive that I 
 could expose you if I were so inclined ; you have no cause to enter- 
 tain any very strong affection for Mr. Philip Tirrett ; therefore I see 
 many reasons why you should do as I wish you — none why you 
 should not." 
 
 He paused for a reply, and, after a moment's hesitation, the groom 
 began, " I see it ain't o' no use trying to gammon you, Mr. Coverdale, 
 you're right about Tirrett, he cum here a wantin' me to lame that 
 horse, and so git myself into trouble, may be ; when, as I told him, 
 there ain't no need for it, for he ain't agoing to ride it, and barrin 
 myself and him, there ain't nobody else as can i-ide it to win, I'll take 
 my davy o' that, so he'd no call to cut up rough, and knock a feller 
 about like that — but I owe him one for it, and I'll pay it some of these 
 days. As to that hay and com business of the Count's, I didn't do 
 the correct thing altogether by him, I know, but though I had to cut, 
 and it was all laid on to me, there was others more to blame nor me, 
 I do assure you, I was but a boy like at the time, and I wor led on, 
 don't ye see ? Still, it's true enough ; I don't want the thing brought 
 up again. My lord here, he's a nice young feller — precious green, 
 tho' ! I never did — " he added parenthetically, with a sympathy- 
 demanding wink at Coverdale, " and he's treated me very kind and 
 liberal, and so the long and the short of it is, if I can oblige you, sir, 
 why, I'm agreeable." 
 
 " Well, you can oblige me, and it shall be worth your while to do 
 BO," was the reply ; " and as I see you've got an honest side to your 
 nature, I'll be frank with you. Lord Alfred has trusted Tirrett to 
 win this race for hiui, and has betted very largely on the faith of his 
 riding for him ; Tirrett, being a scoundrel, has thrown him over, 
 and we'i'e in a fix — the only way I see of getting out of it is to ride 
 the horse myself." 
 
 Here the groom interrupted, by audibly ejaculating, " The Lord 
 have mercy on your poor neck ! " 
 
 " To ride the horse myself," continued Coverdale, coolly ; " and I 
 want you to tell me honestly, first, whether if the brute is properly 
 ridden, he has a fair chance to win, and secondly, if you were going 
 to ride, and try all you knew to come in first, how you would set 
 about it." 
 
 For a minute, the man remained mute with surprise, then, 
 muttering, " Well, I've seen you ride, and you've a better seat, and 
 nearly as good a bridle-hand as Phil Tirrett himself ; but, lor, to 
 think of riding a steeple-chase on that beast the first time you're on 
 his back ! however, if you will do it, listen to* me," and, drawing 
 Han-y aside, he whispered innumerable hints and directions in his 
 ear, in as low a tone as if he feared the very winds of Heaven would 
 reveal the matter.
 
 326 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER LIY. 
 
 SETTLING PRELIMINABIES. 
 
 " To keep a light but steady hand on him ; to be careful not to pull 
 at him or check him with the cm'b ; but to saw his mouth with the 
 snaffle, if he can't be held without ; never to hit him, uijon any 
 consideration, by reason that he'll stand the spur, but not the whip ; 
 to be prepared for his knocking' my brains out when he throws up his 
 head, or breaking my back by a way he's got with his hind-quarters 
 ■when he flings up his heels ; to look out for his pleasant little trick 
 of jumping off the ground all four feet at once in a slantindicular 
 direction, when anything sui'prises him ; to let him take his leaps in 
 his own fasliion, or he'll either rush at them or refuse them 
 altogether ; to jump on his back before he bites or kicks me, if I can 
 possibly do so ; and, above all, to show him, from first to last, that 
 I'm not in the slightest degi'ee afraid of him — I think these are the 
 chief points to which I am advised to direct my attention in riding 
 the fascinating quadruped on whom you have invested your capital," 
 observed Coverdale to Lord AKred, as they cantered back to the 
 race-ground. 
 
 " You shall not do it — yoti must not think of it ! " rejoined Lord 
 Alfred, hastily ; " you'll be thrown and killed, and Mrs. Coverdale 
 Avill say it's my doing. I could not bear it — it would drive me mad. 
 Come, pi-omise you'll give it up ! " 
 
 " Silly boy ! " returaed Coverdale, with a good-natured smile ; " tell 
 me, would you give it up in my position ? " 
 
 " Well, yes — no, perhaps I should not ; but then you know the case 
 would be a very different one." 
 
 " Certainly it would," returned Coverdale ; " I am not the heir to 
 an ancient peerage — the noble constitution of England would not 
 suffer injury in one of its three notable estates, if my neck were 
 broken; but I don't see the necessity for pre-supposing any such 
 sombre contingency — this is not the first time, by many, that I've 
 galloped a queer horse across country. Why, man, from the day I 
 was foiu-teen I've broken all my own hunters, and let me tell you, a 
 hot-tempered four-year-old thoroughbred is rather an awkward 
 customer to deal with. A timid old gentleman would find himself 
 decidedly misplaced astride such a quadruped. But here we are. 
 Now recollect, keep wg a bold exterior, as the melodramatic gents 
 paraphrase ' never saying die.' Back the Don as freely as if Tirrett 
 was going to ride for you, and mention me as the illustrious gentle- 
 man-jockey you have secured as his substitute." 
 
 Lord Alfred nodded assent, and they rejoined the group around
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 327 
 
 the betting-ring', in the centre o£ which stood the gallant Milesian, 
 Captain O'Brien, vociferating loudly in what he would himself have 
 termed a thundering rage. The cause was soon discovered : Mr. 
 Philip Tirrett had, five minutes before, made his apjjeai'ance on the 
 covirse, and coolly informed the captain not only that he was 
 mistaken in supposing he intended to ride for him, but that he was 
 going to perform the service for Captain Annesley, of Her Majesty's 
 Life Guards, t^pon his famous steeple-chaser Black Eagle, which, in 
 his poor opinion, looked very like a winner. As Lord Alfred and 
 Harry came up, the Honoiu*able Billy Whipcord, who, so to speak, 
 lived upon horseflesh, and having a tolerably heavy book on the race, 
 was in a great state of agitation and excitement, exclaimed, " Here, 
 Lord Alfred, what do you say to all this ? there's a squabble as to 
 who Mr. TiiTctt is to ride for. I thought you'd settled with him 
 long ago, to ride Don Pasquale ? " 
 
 *' Such was, no doubt, the understanding between us," returned 
 Lord Alfred, firmly ; " nor had I reason to suspect that he meant not 
 to fulfil his engagement, until I received a note some two hours ago, 
 telling me that circumstances prevented him from riding for me. 
 These circumstances I now, for the first tim.e, conjecttii'e to resolve 
 themselves into the fact that he has been bribed by some one to ride 
 for Captain Annesley." 
 
 " Pray, my Lord, do you intend that remark to apply to me ? " 
 inquired Captain Annesley, who was a tall, handsome, fashionable- 
 looking man, with black whiskers and moustaches. 
 
 " I intended the remark to apply to Mr. Tirrett," was Lord Alfred's 
 reply ; " he had engaged to ride for me ; I believe he has been bribed 
 to break that engagement, because I can imagine no other reason so 
 likely to influence a person of his character ; but it's a matter of 
 perfect indifference to me who may have bribed him, and as I am 
 fortunate enough to have secured the services of a gentleman on 
 whose honour I can rely, as well as upon his horsemanship, I care 
 very little about the whole matter, and must leave you, gentlemen, 
 to settle yoiu" differences without my interference." 
 
 As he spoke he was turning to leave the spot, when Tirrett stepped 
 before him and prevented him. 
 
 " Not so fast, my Lord," he said, insolently ; " I consider that 
 you've insulted me by the terms in which you have just spoken, and 
 I desire you to recall your words." 
 
 An indignant refusal from Lord Alfred apparently exasperated 
 the young blackleg beyond endurance, and raising his horsewhip 
 threateningly, he advanced a step towards his opponent. As he did 
 so, a heavy hand was pressed against his chest, effectually ban-ing 
 his farther progress, while a deep voice said sternly, " Stand back, 
 sir ! I should have thought you had been on the turf long enough 
 to recognize a gentleman when you see him, and to know that such 
 persons are not to be bullied, though they may be swindled. Let 
 me give you a word of advice : you will have quite enough on your
 
 328 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 hands to get out of this morning's work without some unpleasant 
 expose. Your associate, Captain O'Biien, seems inclined to be 
 disagreeably communicative — don't get yourself horsewhipped into 
 the bargain ! " 
 
 When Coverdale made the reference to O'Brien, Phil Tirrett 
 turned pale, and gnawed his under lip in fruitless anger ; but, as he 
 concluded, he got up the steam sufficiently to inquire, with an 
 insolent laugh, " Horsewhipped, eh ? — who's likely to do it, I should 
 like to know ? " 
 
 "I am," was Ooverdale's quiet answer. Their eyes met — but 
 Tirrett could not endure Harry's steadfast gaze ; so favouring him 
 with a most melodramatic scowl of hatred, he slunk away through 
 the crowd. After much angry altercation. Captain O'Brien's horse 
 was withdrawn — other preliminaries of the race settled — and the 
 time appointed for starting drew nigh, when Captain Annesley 
 lounged up to Lord Alfred Courtland, and twisting his moustaches, 
 drawled out, " Haw ! ar' spose yur 'ware m'lord that — haw — tha're all 
 gentlemen riders ? — eh ! yur friend comes imder that denomination, 
 'spose, haw ? " 
 
 " When the officers of the — th chose me as umpii-e about a dis- 
 puted stroke at billiards, and I decided in favour of one Cornet 
 Annesley, he did not object to the verdict on the score of my posi- 
 tion," retm'ned Coverdale, with quiet self-possession ; upon which the 
 captain miittered, — 
 
 " Hey, haw, Mr. Coverdale, aw think — arm sor davlish short- 
 sighted — ar reely didn't recognize yar — haw ! beg par'n, reely," and 
 lounged off considerably discomposed. 
 
 After the ceremony of weighing the riders had been satisfactorily 
 performed, and other preliminaries an-anged, the bell rang for 
 saddling, and Coverdale, flinging off his wi-apper, and removing a 
 pair of leggings which had effectually concealed his top-boots, 
 appeared in full and appropriate racing costume, to Lord Alfred's 
 intense surprise. 
 
 " By Jove ! " he exclaimed, as the blue silk racing shirt revealed its 
 glories to his astonished optics — " by Jove ! Coverdale, you really 
 are one of the most wonderfid. fellows I ever came aci'oss ; why, you 
 were not aware two hours ago that there was a chance of your being 
 required to ride this race, and yet you come togged out in as noble 
 and appropriate garments as if you had been preparing for the last 
 month — it is all a perfect mystery to me ! " 
 
 " The mystery is easily explained," returned HaiTy, laughing at 
 his companion's puzzled look. " When I left your rooms this morn- 
 ing, the idea of riding for you had already occm-red to me; it so 
 happened that I, when last in town, ordered a new pair of hunting 
 breeches and boots of my tailor and boot-maker, which I knew would 
 be ready for me to jump into ; the tailor directed me to a masquerade 
 warehouse, where I procured the racing shirt ; and I purchased the 
 wrapper and leggings ready made. In the cai-pet-bag I have a coat.
 
 AND ALL THAT^AME OF IT 329 
 
 which I could have put on at the stables, had Tirrett chosen, at the 
 last moment, to keep his engagement with you : so you see there's no 
 magic in the business, after all." 
 
 As he spoke, Don Pasquale, arching his neck, snorting, laying back 
 his ears and pointing them forward alternately, rolling his eyes until 
 the whites were plainly visible, and altogether showing symptoms of 
 a temperament quite unlike that popularly attributed to the genus 
 pet lamb, was led in by Dick and an attendant satellite, at the 
 imminent risk of their respective lives and limbs. As the clothing 
 was removed, Coverdale scrutinized him narrowly without speaking : 
 at length he exclaimed — " He's a devil, that there's no mistaking ; 
 biit he's a sjDlendid horse : if he's sound, and it's at all possible to 
 screw him along, I'll give yoii all the money you paid for him, and 
 fifty pounds to the back of that, if you don't like to part with him 
 under." 
 
 " My dear Coverdale, in that and everything else I shall be guided 
 by your wishes," was the reply. " I'd make you a free gift of him 
 and be glad to get rid of the brute, if it wasn't for the money I 
 owe." 
 
 At this moment, the groom made a signal, to which Coverdale 
 immediately attended. 
 
 " The longer he stays in this here crowd and bustle, the wilder 
 and savager he'll get, and the worser he'll be to moimt : so the 
 sooner I sees yer honour in the saddle, the better I shall be pleased." 
 
 " All serene, Dick," returned Harry, cheerfully. " Wish me luck 
 and keep yoiu- spirits up, Alfred, my boy ! " he continued, shaking 
 his companion's hand heartily : then with a nod to the gi'oom, to 
 announce his intention, he approached the horse leisurely, and 
 watching his opportunity, waited until something had attracted the 
 animal's notice, and caused it to turn its head in an opposite direc- 
 tion ; when placing his foot quietly in the stirrup, he was firmly 
 seated before Don Pasquale became aware of his intention, or had 
 time to attempt any resistance. Slowly gathering up the reins, 
 Coverdale desired Dick to " give him his head " ; the first use he 
 made of it being to place it between his fore legs with a jerk, which 
 if his rider had not judiciously yielded to it, would have pulled the 
 reins from his gi-asp. But Don Pasquale had an object in thus lower- 
 ing his haughty crest — namely, at the same time to fling up his heels, 
 and eject the intruder who had dared so unceremoniously to usurp 
 the seat of dominion on his august back, much as a stone is hurled 
 from a sling. Harry, however, being prepared foi' any eccentricity 
 of motion on the part of the amiable quadruped he bestrode, retained 
 his seat in spite of the Don's strenuous efforts to dislodge him ; a 
 performance which appeared to astonish and impress the creature to 
 such a degree, that he tossed up his head so suddenly as to render 
 Dick's caution in regard to " knocking out brains " by no means a 
 supei'fluous figure of speech, and abruptly started off in a kind of 
 half-sidling, half-dancing canter. Having indulged the Don with a
 
 330 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 preliminary gallop up and down the first quarter of a mile of the 
 course, during which he amused himself by occasionally lashing out 
 in a way which soon obtained for him those popular desiderata — a 
 clear course and no favour, Harry brought him back to the starting, 
 post just as Phil Tirrett appeared, looking the perfection of a jockey, 
 and mounted on a splendid black thoroughbred, which Coverdale 
 conjectm'ed must be — from its superiority to every other horse on the 
 course — Captain Annesley's Black Eagle. At this moment, Dick, 
 the groom, handed Coverdale a leaf of a betting-book, ciaimpled up 
 into the fomi of a note ; seizing an opportunity when his horse was 
 for an instant quiet, Harry opened it, and read the following words : — 
 
 " Hond. sur, Black hegel's wery prity to luke hat, but he han't got 
 the Don's pluck, nor P. T. han't got yourn — hin ther last field but 
 won ther's a corner may be cut hofE by taking a dich with a low ston 
 warl hon the bank abuv, and a rail atop — hits a properly dangerous 
 leep, but if oui- 'orse is rode boldly and ain't blowd, he'll face hit and 
 clear hit, hand B. E. and P. T. won't. — Yr humbel survent, Dick 
 Dodge." 
 
 Hastily casting his eye over it, Harry caught the general meaning 
 of the note, and, tearing it, he gave his confidential adviser a glance 
 which so clearly conveyed his recognition of the merits of his scheme, 
 that Dick in soliloquy confided to himself, that he was at that 
 moment open to be " blowed " if it was not his conviction that if 
 Coverdale could keep his seat for the first five minutes, he might do 
 the trick after all. As Harry rode up to the starting-post, Tin-ett 
 perceived, from his firm but easy seat in the saddle, his strong yet 
 light hand on the rein, restraining without irritating his horse, that 
 he had a first-rate rider to contend against ; and knowing, as no one 
 did so well as himself, the powers of the animal on which Coverdalewas 
 mounted, he, for the first time since he had refused to ride for Lord 
 Alfred, felt anxious as to the result of the race, which, reckoning it 
 completely secm-e, he had betted on much more largely than was his 
 habit. After relieving his feelings by a muttered volley of oaths, he 
 continued mentally, — 
 
 " This is pleasant : the fellow sits his horse as composedly as if he 
 were in an arm-chair ! he seems to understand the temper of the 
 brute too ! I suppose Dick has put him up to that in revenge for the 
 blow I gave him. I've got a frightfully heavy book on the event — 
 nearly .£1000. I was a fool to risk it; and yet I thought the money 
 was as safe as if it had been in my pocket. I never expected the 
 horse would have trained sound as he has ; if I'd been sure of that I 
 would have ridden him myself. Well, the race must be won at all 
 hazards ; if the Don would but get into one of his tantarums now, 
 nobody that didn't know his ways could sit him. Ha ; yes, a good 
 idea ; I think it may be done that way — and yet it's hazardous — but 
 I won't be rash — only Black Eagle must not lose, whatever may be 
 the consequence." "While such thoughts as these were passing hur- 
 riedly through his brain, the signal was given, and the horses started.
 
 ^^ZA.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 331 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 THE RACE. 
 
 Afteb making one violent effort to get his head and bolt, — an effort 
 which it tasked Harry's strength and skill to the utmost to counteract, 
 — the Don gradually settled into his stride, crossed a grass-field, and 
 flew across an easy fence at the end of it, with a bound which would 
 have cleared one of three times its magnitude, in a style which convinced 
 Hariy of the superior powers of the animal he bestrode. Besides 
 Black Eagle and Don Pasquale, six other horses started. Of these, 
 one, a fiery chestnut colt, rushed at his first fence, fell, threw his 
 jockey, then got away, and was not caught for the next two houi-s ; a 
 ploughed field pumped the wind out of two more so effectually, that 
 for all chance of winning the race they might as well never have 
 started ; the jump into the lane settled a fourth, which was led off 
 with two broken knees ; while a furze common used up a fifth ; so 
 that as they approached the brook, the sporting coa-net (who rode his 
 own horse, Grey Robin), TiiTett, and Harry, were the only remain- 
 ing competitors. About five hundred yards from the brook (which 
 was a very picturesque but singularly imcomfortable looking stream 
 to ride over, having steep rugged banks, being too deep to ford, and 
 quite as wide as a horse could conveniently leap), Tirrett, who 
 was leading, held in Black Eagle with a view, as Coverdale 
 imagined, to save his wind, and get him well together for the 
 leap. His own horse, which was going beautifully, was so fresh, 
 that Han-y considered him able to clear the brook without any 
 such precautions, and believing, if he kept on at the same pace he 
 should either gain ground which Tin-ett iwould be unable to re- 
 cover, or force him to press Black Eagle to a degree which might 
 break him down at his leap, he did not draw rein until he came to 
 within about fifty yards of the bank. Having mentally selected the 
 spot at which he meant to charge the brook, he was about to put his 
 horse at it, when a rushing sound caused him to turn his head. As 
 he did so, Tin-ett dashed by him like a flash of lightning, so closely 
 that their elbows brushed, while as he passed he turned in his saddle, 
 and brought his riding whip down with his full force between Don 
 Pasquale" s ears. The effect of his villainous scheme fully answered 
 his expectations; the horse, which had been going at an easy 
 stretching gallop, and was just gathering itself up for the leap, 
 stopped so abruptly, that it was with the greatest difficulty Harry 
 was able to prevent himself from going over its head ; the next 
 moment the animal reared, and stood pawing the air wildly with its 
 fore legs, so that Coverdale was forced to thi-ow himself forward and
 
 332 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 cling to the creature's neck to prevent it from falling over upon him. 
 Then commenced a furious struggle for mastery between man and 
 horse. Tirrett's cowardly stroke had aroused the vicious temper of 
 the brute, and failing in its first desperate attempts to unseat its 
 rider, it laid back its ears, planted its feet firmly on the ground, and 
 obstinately refused to move. Irritated beyond control at the 
 rascally trick which had been played him, and at its complete 
 success, Coverdale, with whip, spurs, and bit, gave Don Pasquale a 
 thorough specimen of his quiet manner, but with no other result 
 than one or two futile attempts to bite or kick its rider : at length 
 he was comijelled to desist from pure exhaiTstion, and, laying the 
 bridle on the animal's neck, he shifted the whip to his left hand, 
 while he extended the cramped fingers of his right, preparatory to 
 recommencing hostilities. Whether through mere caprice, or 
 whether, as is more probable, the Don caught sight of the other 
 horses, which had safely accomplished the transit of the brook, and 
 were resuming their course on the other side, it is not easy to decide ; 
 certain it is, however, that the moment it found its head at liberty, 
 it dashed off at full speed ; and before Harry could gather up the 
 reins, the creature had reached the bank, phmged madly forward, 
 and in another moment Coverdale found himself up to the breast in 
 water, with no part of his horse visible except the head. Although 
 taken completely by surprise, his presence of mind did not forsake 
 him ; thanks to his experience in the hunting-field, the situation was 
 not new to him, and scarcely had he glanced round ere his quick eye 
 selected the point at which he should effect a landing ; guiding his 
 horse to a spot where the bank was least steep and abrupt, he waited 
 until the animal obtained a precarious footing ; then, encouraging it 
 by hand and voice, he lifted it by the rein, and urged it forward ; 
 there was a scramble and a slip, then a more violent struggle than 
 before, and the Don and his rider were once again high, though by no 
 means dry, on '* terra firma." As soon as he could find time to look 
 after his competitors in the race, he became aware that both had 
 cleared the brook in safety, and were half across the field beyond, 
 Tirrett some twenty yards ahead, — a distance which he kept so 
 completely without effort, that Harry at once perceived Grey Robin 
 was beaten. That Tirrett thought the same of both his antagonists 
 was evident, from the easy pace at which he was going. In order to 
 accomplish his rascally manoeuvre before crossing the brook, he had 
 pressed Black Eagle injudiciously ; and, confident that both the 
 other horses must be in an equally exhausted condition, he was 
 saving him for the final struggle. He was, however, wrong in regard 
 to Don Pasquale ; true, its contention with its rider had taken for 
 the time a good deal out of it, but the last act of that affair having 
 consisted of a display of passive obstinacy, had in some degree 
 refreshed it; and its plunge into the brook had also exercised a 
 beneficial influence ; so that Harry perceived, to his great delight, 
 so eoon as they resumed their course on the farther bank, that his
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 333 
 
 horse had plenty of good running still left in it, and when it got 
 again into its stride, that it was improving every minute. Thus, if 
 Coverdale could manage to creep iip to his opponent so gi-adually as 
 not to alarm him until he had regained a portion of the gi'ound he 
 had lost, and Dick's suggestion of the desperate leap over the wall 
 should prove at all practicable, he did not despair of the race yet. 
 In accordance with this view, Harry rather restrained than urged 
 the Don, until Tirrett had cleared the next fence, and entered the 
 field beyond ; but the moment the ovei'hanging brances of the hedge 
 closed behind him, Coverdale gave his horse the rein, came up with 
 Grey Robin, who disputed precedence with him for a few yards, and 
 then fell back beaten ; flew over the fence like a bird, took up the 
 running on the other side in first-rate style; and before Tin-ett had 
 got Black Eagle fairly into his stride again, the Don was alongside 
 of him. And now the race, properly so called, began in earnest : for 
 nearly a mile the course lay along a slight descent of smooth, springy 
 turf, terminated by a ditch, and a low brick wall heightened by a 
 rail, beyond which the ground rose more steeply for a short 
 distance, up to the winning-post. Thus, as Dick had foreseen, the 
 man and horse that first cleared the wall in safety must of necessity 
 win. At one spot the fence was broken, and the wall partially 
 knocked down ; but this gap, although within the marked line, was 
 somewhat out of the direct course. Thus, by taking the ditch, wall, 
 and fence, at the nearest point (always supposing any jockey bold 
 enough to attempt such a leap, and fortunate enough to accomplish 
 it in safety), an amount of distance would be saved which would 
 eusm*e success to the entei'prising rider. Harry's quick eye took in 
 the situation at a glance, and he resolved to attempt it, unless he 
 should gain such an advantage over his adversary, before reaching 
 the boundary wall, as should render his success no longer a doubtful 
 matter. That Tirrett equally perceived the critical nature of the 
 situation might be gathered from the fact that, although aware of 
 the task before him (for even across the gap the leap was one which 
 a good horseman, on a fresh steed, might congratulate himself on 
 having accomplished safely, and which, on a tired one, he would 
 think twice ere he ventured to attempt), he pressed the pace to the 
 utmost extent of his horse's power, with the evident intention of 
 rendering Don Pasquale so blown that it must break down at the 
 leap. Unwilling to risk the desperate chance which Dick's billet 
 had suggested, Coverdale exerted all his skill to maintain the 
 position he bad gained, which at one moment was in advance of, and 
 for some distance neck and neck with, his opponent ; but, although 
 Don Pasquale was the stronger animal of the two, and gifted with 
 greater powers of endurance, on soft, level tui'f Black Eagle had 
 decidedly the advantage in point of swiftness ; moreover, in a mere 
 trial of speed, TiiTett's acquaintance with all the resources of 
 professional jockeyship stood him in good stead, so that befoi'e they 
 had approached the wall Black Eagle had not only passed, but was
 
 334 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 several lengths ahead of his opponent. Thus, Coverdale perceived 
 that, unless he chose to adopt Dick's dangerous suggestion, he must 
 relinqiiish all chance of winning the race. Had it been simply a 
 trial of speed and skill, good sense and right principle would 
 probably have prevented Harry from risking his life for so in- 
 adequate an object ; but Tirrett's dishonourable behaviour towards 
 Lord Alfred, and his rascally attempt to excite the vicious temper 
 of Don Pasquale (an attempt which all but gained its object), had 
 irritated and excited Coverdale to such a degree that, reckless of 
 consequences, he was eager to dai-e any peril rather than allow such 
 infamous conduct to be triumphant. Accordingly, keeping the 
 direct line, he shouted to Tirrett, who had tui-ned off to the left and 
 was making for the gap, " Why don't you follow me, sir, like a man, 
 instead of sneaking over gaps like a coward ? " he got his horse well 
 in hand, and rode boldly on. 
 
 "When Tin-ett became aware of his intention he half drew in his 
 rein, irresolute what course to take; if he refused to follow, and 
 Coverdale should by any chance succeed in getting safely over, he 
 knew that the race, and all he had depending on it, wovild be lost, 
 and he eagerly scanned the leap with his practised eye ; but it was 
 too formidable, and, as Dick had foreseen, his courage failed him ; 
 so, turning first red, then pale, he muttered an uncharitable wish 
 concerning Harry's neck, and rode on towards the gap, hoping for 
 its fulfilment. As Coverdale approached the wall, the conviction 
 that he was about to attempt a most hazardous, if not an impossible 
 feat, forced itself upon him ; still his resolution never wavered, and 
 he was preparing himself for the leap, when a figure, which he 
 recognized as that of the gi-oom, suddenly rose from the ditch, and, 
 pointing to a particular spot, shouted, " Come over here ! give him 
 his head, and let him take it his own way ; he's got his steam up, and 
 wouldn't refuse a haystack." 
 
 Relying on the man's acquaintance with the animal, HaiTy 
 resolved to follow his advice implicitly, and, slackening his rein, 
 pressed his hat firmly over his brows, clasped his saddle tightly with 
 his knees, and awaited the result. 
 
 Dick was not mistaken in his estimate of the Don's courage ; for, 
 as soon as the horse perceived the obstacle before it, it pricked up 
 its ears, gathered its legs well under it, and dashed forward. Nor 
 had he formed a wrong conception in regard to the animal's general 
 powers of endurance ; but the episode occasioned by Tirrett's foul 
 blow, with the subsequent immersion in and struggle out of the brook, 
 were incidents on which he had not calculated. Thus, although 
 Don Pasquale rose to the leap gallantly, and by a prodigious bound 
 cleared ditch, wall, and fence, the exertion so completely exhausted 
 its remaining strength, that, on its descent on the further side, all 
 Harry's efforts were unable to keep it on its legs, and it pitched 
 heavily forward, falling with and partially on its rider.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 335 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 THE CATASTROPHE. 
 
 Stunned by the violence of the shock, Harry was aware vaguely 
 and as in a dream, that the horse had risen, and that some person 
 was soothing and caressing it : from this state of semi-unconscious- 
 ness he was aroused by the voice of Dick, the groom, exclaiming 
 " If you b'aint too much hurt, Mr. Coverdale, you may do it yet, sir, 
 if so be as you can sit your horse ; for Black Eagle has I'efused the 
 gap, and Tirret's a bullying him to get him over now." 
 
 Thus appealed to, Harry rose with difficulty (littering an 
 exclamation of pain as he did so), and gazed confusedly round him. 
 Uninjured by its fall, Don Pasquale was standing by him, held by 
 Dick ; while, considerably to the left, Tirrett, having ridden back a 
 few paces, was forcing Black Eagle, by a severe application of both 
 whip and spur, to attempt the leap over the gap, which he had just 
 refused. 
 
 " Here, quick ; " exclaimed Coverdale eagerly, " hold the stin-up — 
 that will do — don't touch my arm — I'll disappoint that scoundrel 
 yet ! " and, gathering up the reins with his right hand, he put 
 spurs to his horse, and galloped off. After a struggle, Tin-ett 
 succeeded in forcing Black Eagle across the gap, and by dint of 
 spui-ring and shaking, got him into a sort of shambling canter on the 
 fai'ther side of it ; but it was of no avail, for, as Don Pasquale passed 
 the winning post, Black Eagle was still several lengths behind : 
 Coverdale's desperate leap had accomplished the purpose for which 
 it had been attempted, and Lord Alfred Courtland's horse remained 
 winner of the steeplechase. 
 
 As he rode in ti-iumphant, an eager crowd of Don Pasquale's 
 backers surrounded him with loud congratulations. "Splendidly 
 done ! I never saw such riding in my life ! " " That leap with a 
 tired horse was the pluckiest thing ever attempted — there's not 
 another man on the course would have faced it ! " " The business 
 of the brook was the cleverest dodge of all — I saw it through a race- 
 glass, and I never expected you could have kept on him." "Didn't 
 the horse fall on you ? are you hui't, Mr. Coverdale ? " Such were 
 some of the numerous remarks and exclamations which rang in 
 Harry's ears, as faint and giddy, it was as much as he could do to 
 retain his seat without falling from the saddle. 
 
 " Han-y, my dear, kind friend, how can I ever thank you 
 sufficiently P " exclaimed Lord Alfred Coui-tland, forcing his way 
 through the crowd.
 
 33(3 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " Find the groom," was tlie hurried reply, " for I can't keep on tlie 
 horse much longer." 
 
 As he spoke, Dick, with a face crimson with heat and triumph, 
 made his appearance, and took charge of Don Pasquale, while Harry, 
 with a painful effort, swung himself to the ground, where he 
 staggered and appeared scarcely able to stand. 
 
 " You are faint ! " exclaimed Loi*d Alfred hastily, " here, lean upon 
 me, and let us get out of this crowd." 
 
 *' Take care of my arm," murmured Harry, compressing his lips as 
 though to restrain an expression of suffering. 
 
 " Your arm ! why, good heaven ! what is the matter with it ? " 
 
 " It is only broken," returned Harry quietly ; " the horse fell 
 upon it with his full weight at the last leap; but I was able to hold 
 him with one hand, so it did not signify." 
 
 "And you mounted again, and won the race with your arm 
 broken ! " exclaimed Lord Alfred. " Why, it's the most gallant, 
 noble — but yoii ai-e suffei'ing di-eadfully! Oh, what am I to do 
 for you ? why did I ever let you ride that vicious, dangerous 
 brute ? " 
 
 " There, don't make a fuss," returned Coverdale ; " let us get out 
 of this crowd ; find me a glass of wine, for I've a sort of f aintuess 
 comes over me every now and then, and when I've drank that I 
 shall do well enough until we can get a surgeon to set my arm ; 
 don't worry about it— when I put the horse at that wall I fully 
 expected to break my neck." 
 
 Five minutes' rest, and a couple of glasses of old sherry, restored 
 Coverdale sufficiently to enable him to announce his readiness to 
 pi'oceed, though he refused to leave the ground lantil the Honourable 
 Billy Whipcord had undei'taken to see that the winner was defraiided 
 of none of his rights ; and then, and not till then, did Han-y accept 
 Lord Alfred's offer to accompany him to town in a hansom cab, 
 which a gentleman who had engaged it for the day obligingly gave 
 up the moment he leai'ned for what pm-pose it was required. 
 
 The conversation of the two friends during the drive to London 
 afforded a curious illustration of character. Lord Alfred, grieved 
 and shocked beyond measure at the accident which had occurred to 
 his old schoolfellow in his service, was engaged the whole time 
 in pouring forth unavailing lamentations and self-accusings ; while 
 Coverdale, although suffering the most excruciating anguish from 
 every motion of the cab, was so touched by the evidence of feeling 
 shown by his companion, that he not only repressed all outward 
 signs of pain, but used his best endeavours to comfort and console 
 Lord Alfred. On their way to Lord Alfi-ed's lodgings, where he 
 insisted Coverdale should take up his abode until he should be well 
 enough to travel, they called at the house of a surgeon celebrated for 
 his skill in cases of fracture, and were fortunate enough to find him 
 at home. On learning the natui'e of the accident, he provided 
 himself with the necessary apparatus, reached the lodgings as soon
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 337 
 
 as liis patient, and, within an hour of the time at which the injury 
 was inflicted, Coverdale's arm was set, and the fracture pronounced 
 to be not a very serious one. 
 
 " And now for my i)oor Alice," was Harry's first exclamation, 
 when, with strict injunctions to go to bed and keep his arm quiet, 
 
 Mr. B had departed ; " how am I to act about her ? If I ^vl•ite 
 
 her word I've met with an accident, she'll be frightened out of her 
 wits ; and yet if I don't, she may hear of it some other way (those 
 confounded newspapers are sure to get hold of the affair), and fancy 
 I am killed, or some such notion ; I'd better vsrrite — give me the tools, 
 there's a good fellow." 
 
 '* But really you ought not to exert yourself to do it, remember — " 
 began Lord Alfred deprecatingly. 
 
 " I remember, sir, that my wife is alone, and anxious aboiit me 
 already, and that if I can spare her any shock or alarm, I will do so 
 as long as I can hold a pen," was Coverdale's positive and somewhat 
 snappish answer, for which he must be held excused, as severe 
 bodily pain does not tend to improve the temper. 
 
 Lord Alfred, seeing it was useless to contend the point, gave him 
 pen, ink, and paper ; and, unfit as he was for such exertion. Cover- 
 dale wi'ote Alice a full account of his day's adventures, only con- 
 cealing the nature and extent of his accident. The letter was most 
 kind and judicious, and well calculated to soothe and console her to 
 whom it was addressed, and no doubt would have succeeded in so 
 doing, but for the following and untoward events. 
 
 Alice, left to herself, had grown desperately frightened as to the 
 possible upshot of her husband's i-ash expedition to London ; and, 
 as the reader is already awai-e, had dispatched after him Lord 
 Alfred's lettei', and her own I'easons for so doing, fairly written upon 
 two sheets of scented notepaper. But although she rightly con- 
 sidered this the best thing she could do, yet it by no means afforded 
 her lasting comfort, and she remained restless and unhappy until, 
 on the evening of the day on which the steeplechase occurred, she 
 w^orked herself up to such a pitch of nervous anxiety, that she was 
 becoming quite ill, when the idea struck her that perhaps Harry, 
 having received her letter, might set off at once, and aiTive by a train 
 which got in about seven p.m. On the chance of this she dispatched, 
 to meet the aforesaid train, a groom and a dog-cart. Now, as the 
 reader knows, it was impossible Harry could arrive by that train, 
 because, at the time it started, he — having wi'itten to Alice — had 
 just been undressed by Lord Alfred Courtland's valet, and gone to 
 bed, which no one can doubt was by far the best place for him. But 
 though he did not come by that train, a young farmer did, who was 
 one of Harry's tenants, and who, as ill-luck would have it, had been 
 at the steeplechase, witnessed Coverdale's leap and fall, and heard 
 afterwards an exaggerated account of the injuries he had received. 
 Thus, when the groom inquired if he had seen his master get into 
 the train, he favoured that equine servitor with a gra])hic history of
 
 338 HARRY CO VERD ALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 the morning's proceedings, illustrated and embellished by the 
 naiTator's imaginative powers, which i-ecital, producing much grief 
 and consternation in the mind of the faithful fellow, who was much 
 attached to his master, induced him to drive home as fast as the 
 trotting mare could step to destroy his mistress's peace of mind by 
 imparting to her these disastrous tidings. Having gi-eat and, as 
 the sequel proved, unfounded reliance on his own tact and eloquence, 
 he, on his aiTival, would by no means allow Wilkins to be his mouth- 
 piece ; on the contrary, nothing would serve him but to be shown 
 into his mistress's presence, and, as he termed it " break it to her 
 easy like " himself — which judicious intention he can-ied out thus : — 
 " If you please, Mrs. Coverdale, ma'am, I'm soiTy to say somethin' 
 dreadful's been and happened, which I thought p'raps you might like 
 to ear : so, not to frighten you, I made bold to come and break it to 
 you myself." 
 
 Poor Alice ! all the blood seemed to rush to her heart, while a 
 choking sensation in her throat totally deprived her of the power of 
 speech. After a moment she conti-ived to gasp out interrogatively, 
 "A railroad accident? your master — " 
 
 Answering her idea rather than her words, the man replied, " If you 
 please, ma'am, it wasn't on the railway as poor master met with his 
 accident ! " 
 
 " Then he has met with — " began Alice, and the idea at that moment 
 flashed across her mind that he had encountered D'Almayne, and 
 been wounded, perhaps killed, in a duel, she shrieked out, " Oh ! I 
 see it all ; he is dead or dying, and I have been his murderess ! " and 
 sank back in a fainting fit. 
 
 The groom, frightened at the effect of his tidings, summoned the 
 female servants, and Alice was caiTied to her room, imdressed, and 
 placed in bed, befoi'e she had by any means recovered from her 
 swoon ; and even when, after one or two relapses, she did regain her 
 consciousness, her buraing hand, flushed cheeks, and unnatiirally 
 brilliant eyes, together with an incoherence of expression and an 
 excitability of manner occasionally verging on delirium, so alarmed 
 the stately housekeeper that she, on her own responsibility, sent off 
 for that eminent medical practitioner, Gouger ; the result of his visit 
 was, that Han-y, braised and sore from head to foot, having lain 
 awake half the night from the pain of his broken arm, was aroused 
 from an uneasy slumber, into which, towards morning, he had fallen, 
 by the following telegraphic message : — " H. Coverdale, Esq., from 
 Scalpel Gouger, M.D. — Was called in to Mrs. C. last night, at nine 
 p.m. — symptoms acute, febrile, threatening the brain ! state critical 
 — if Mr. C. can ti-avel without danger, let him come at once ! " 
 
 In less than half an hour, Han-y Coverdale was up, dressed, and in 
 the first railway train which left London. As he had lain sleepless 
 through the weary hours of the night, he had thought the pain of his 
 broken limb all but unbearable; during his jom-ney home he never 
 even felt it, so deep and absorbing was his mental agony.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 839 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 AN ANONYMOUS LETTER. 
 
 While Han^ Coverdale, witli the best possible intentions, had been 
 breaking his wife's heart and his own bones, the world had not stood 
 still, nor had the ordinary com-se of events been in the slightest degree 
 retarded. On the contrary, the unsympathizing globe we inhabit had 
 revolved on its axis with its accustomed perseverance, and men had 
 been born into it in their first childhood and died out of it in their 
 second ; and the sons and daughters of men had married and given 
 in marriage, and the many had gone on sinning and the few repent- 
 ing, vei'y much as it all happened in the days of Noah, while the ark 
 was a-building and the long-suffering of God waited to allow the 
 evil-doers to perceive the error of their way, and to turn from it ere 
 the day of mercy should be over and the destroyer should be let 
 loose upon them. The world was then a profligate young world, 
 sowing its wild oats broadcast with a frank and careless disregard 
 of appearances, which involved at least the one virtue of sincerity — 
 the world is now a crafty old world, in its dotage, one is sometimes 
 tempted to imagine ; but even the flood only whitewashed its outside, 
 for it still clings to its darling sins, though no longer openly — the 
 world has grown too cunning for that, it knows the value of a good 
 name, and has set up a gilded idol of clay, yclept Respectability, to 
 resemble the refined gold of which virtue's image is composed ; and 
 because it worships this idol zealously, short-sighted optimists mis- 
 take hypocrisy for true religion, and deem the world has grown pious 
 in its old age ; but there are those who fear that if, once again, the 
 waters should overspread the earth, sin would weigh so heavily on 
 the inhabitants thereof, that not very many of them would swim. 
 
 Be this as it may, certain it is that while Han-y was riding Don 
 Pasquale across the country at the risk of his neck, and Alice was 
 fretting herself into a brain fever on the chance of liis being shot by 
 Horace £)'Almayne, that talented young gentleman was labouring 
 most industriously, with the assistance of his cousin, the avocat, at 
 Brussels, to obtain the sum of money due to Mr. Crane, on the cargo 
 of the vmfortunate " Bundelcundah," East Indiaman. When men 
 exert their utmost energies to attain an object, success nine times 
 out of ten is the result ; consequently, very few days had elapsed 
 after Horace's departure before Mr. Crane had the pleasui-e of learn- 
 ing that the mere threat of energetic law proceedings had brought 
 his adversary to reason, and that the money had been actually paid 
 into D'Almayne's hands. But somehow this announcement did not
 
 310 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 appear to afford tlie worthy ex-cotton-spinner sucTi satisfaction as 
 might have been expected ; on the contrary, when he closed the letter 
 •which conveyed the intelligence, he, to his wife's sui-prise, muttei-ed 
 something very like an oath ; whereupon, after the laudable fashion 
 of her sex, that lady appeared deeply scandalized, and exclaimed, 
 " My dear Mr. Crane ! " in a tone of voice which metamoi-phosed that 
 affectionate addi'ess into " Ton wicked old man, where do you expect 
 to go to ? " Replying rather to her tone than her words, her husband, 
 exalting his peevish treble, began : — 
 
 " Yes, it's all very well for you, Mrs. Crane, who have nothing to 
 do but sit here and spend the money I pour into your lap, to keep 
 your temper and look horrified if one utters a hasty expression ; but 
 if you had to toil and moil all yoiu* days to scrape it together, and 
 then be defi'auded out of yom- hard-earned gains by creeping sei-pents, 
 whom you have warmed and cherished — in — if I may be allowed the 
 expression — in your breeches pocket, and who have availed them- 
 selves of their iDOsition to — yes! I may say — to pick that pocket, I 
 wonder what expressions you would indulge in then, l^Ii-s. Crane ! " 
 And haA-ing worked himself up almost into a fit of crying, Mr. Crane 
 once more turned to his lettei*. 
 
 " Ah ! coming home, is he ? I've a great mind to have him an-ested 
 as soon as he places his foot on British soil; I wonder at his 
 impudence, that I do ! " 
 
 '• To whom do yoia refer ? " inquired Kate quietly, as soon as she 
 could get in a word ; for Mr. Crane, when excited, was as voluble as 
 a washerwoman. 
 
 '■ To whom do I refer ! " repeated her husband, in the highest note 
 of his shriU falsetto ; '" why, madam, to whom should I refer, except 
 to your precious friend and admirer, Horace D Almayne ? " 
 
 *' Mr. D'AlmajTie ! " exclaimed Kate in suz'prise ; for only two 
 days befoi'^, Mr. Ci-ane had detained her for a good half -hour to 
 listen to the praises of his factotum's zeal and fidelity. " Mr. 
 D'Almayne ! why I thought you were so much pleased with the tact 
 and intelligence he had displayed in yoiu- service ! sin-ely, you told me 
 he had actually received the money of which your foreign agent 
 attemi^ted to defraud you." 
 
 " And if he has, how do I know that it's any safer in his hands 
 than it was before ? it's a large siim to trust a needy man with : how 
 can I tell that he won't bolt with it ? " 
 
 '■ Surely, you do not suspect him of dishonesty ? " 
 
 "I suspect him of everything that's wicked and deceitful, and 
 di-eadful," retiirned Mr. Crane, in a tone of voice so dismal, that 
 Kate could scarcely restrain a smile. " But of course you defend 
 him — yes, Mrs. Ci^ane, I say, of course you defend him ! I am not 
 sm-prised at that — in fact, I may add, I expected as much. I had 
 reason, good reason, madam, to imagine such would be youi' line of 
 conduct." 
 
 Kate paused until her husband had talked himself into the state
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 341 
 
 of mean and abject peevisliness, wliicli was the nearest apjDi'oaeli lie 
 could ever make towards bein^ in a rage with one who was not 
 utterly weak and powerless, and, when he stopped from sheer want 
 of breath, observed quietly, — 
 
 '■ I really am at a loss to comprehend to what you allude, or what 
 reason you can possibly have to connect me with this sudden change 
 of opinion in regard to Mr. D'Almayne : would you oblige me by 
 explaining ? " 
 
 " I sha'n't do anything of the kind, madam ; I don't see that I'm 
 obliged to give you any reason ; it ought to be enough for you to 
 know that I disapprove of your conduct — conduct which could give 
 rise to such representations, madam; and — and comments, Mrs. 
 Crane, impertinent remarks, derogatory to my position — must be 
 reprehensible." 
 
 " I do not desire to annoy you, but I must again ask to what 
 remarks and representations you refer ? " was Kate's reply. Mr. 
 Crane fidgeted, looked lieii^lexed, tried to get angi-y, and carry it 
 through with a high hand, met Kate's calm eye and could not, and 
 at last with a very ill grace drew from his pocket a letter, which he 
 unfolded and prepared to read, saying, — 
 
 " There, Mrs. Crane ! since my word is not sufficient to gain your 
 credence, or my desires, ahem ! my wishes, if you prefer the expres- 
 sion, to seciu'C your obedience, you force me to submit to you this 
 singular — I may say, this offensive document, which, ahem ! in 
 conjunction with other information, has occasioned me much 
 justifiable annoyance, and, I may add, mental anxiety and distress." 
 
 The letter was written in a bold, dashing, though e\'idently 
 disguised, hand, and ran as follows : — 
 
 " Sir, — I have no doubt you consider yourself a clever, cautious 
 man of business, a prudent master of a family, and a kind and 
 judicious husband — if you do, all that I can say is, that ' I am unable 
 to agree with you.' A clever, cautious man of business would 
 scarcely leave important money transactions to the management of 
 Horace D'Almayne, a needy and unprincipled adventvu-er ; a prudent 
 master of a house would not encourage such an intimacy ; nor would 
 a kind and judicious husband allow a notorious libertine to be 
 constantly in the society of his young and pretty wife. Your 
 infatuation has already produced some of the unpleasant results 
 natm'ally to be expected from it : you have advanced above .£5000 on 
 a bubble company, not one farthing of which you will ever see 
 again, whilst you have incuiTed liabilities, to learn the extent of 
 which you had better consult your man of business, and I wish you 
 joy of the revelation I expect you will obtain from him. In regai'd 
 to your young wife, I have no positive information to afford you ; 
 but that D'Almayne has designs upon her, I know, — and he is not a 
 man to fail in an adventure of that description, even without taking 
 into consideration the circumstance of a beautiful young woman
 
 342 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 being married to a man of your years. You may wonder why I 
 trouble myself to wi'ite thus to you; so I will tell you: I owe 
 D'Almayne a grudge, and it suits me to take tbis opportunity of 
 discharging the debt. But though this is my object, all I have told 
 you is only the plain truth ; I suspect it comes too late to be of much 
 use to you ; but that is your look-out, not mine." 
 
 The letter was without signature. 
 
 Kate listened attentively while Mr. Crane read aloud, with much 
 hesitation and stammering, such portions of the alarming epistle as 
 concerned his i)roperty and his wife, carefully suppressing every 
 sentence which related to his own weakness and gullibility. When 
 he had concluded, she remarked, " The letter is a singular one, and 
 appears to me to bear a certain impress of truth ; if I were you, 
 I would attend to the hints in regard to your pecuniary invest- 
 ments." 
 
 " And as to those which affect my wife, what would you advise in 
 regard to them, madam p " inquired Mr. Crane, screwing up his face 
 into an expression of feeble sarcasm, which gave him very much the 
 appearance of an ancient monkey. Kate paused : here was an 
 opportunity which might never occur again of enlightening her 
 husband as to her experience of Horace D'Almayne's true character. 
 She had every reason to do so ; his threat of revealing the clandes- 
 tine visit she was prepared to forestall, if necessary, by an honest 
 confession of the entire affair, prefen-ing to bear with her husband's 
 fretful displeasure (of which, if the truth must be told, she did not 
 stand very greatly in awe) rather than to excite his suspicions by a 
 concealment which would lend countenance to the insinuations of 
 this anonymous coiTespondent — yes ! she had every reason to tell all 
 she knew concei'ning him, even to his late avowal of affection, and 
 yet she felt she could not do it. In the first i^lace she shi'ank, as 
 any pure-minded woman would shrink, from confessing that such 
 an avowal had been made to her ; but especially did she shiink from 
 confessing it to such a nature as that of Mr. Crane : he would 
 never see the matter in its true light — never believe that she had not, 
 in some measure, encouraged such advances — never comprehend the 
 disgust and loathing with which they had inspired her. But 
 another and more stringent reason withheld her — her brother 
 Frederick ! she still believed that D'Almayne had befriended him, 
 and saved him from, at all events, the immediate conseqiience of the 
 dilemma into which his youth and inexperience had plunged him : 
 true, she mistrusted his object in i^erforming this act of benevolence 
 — or, rather, she felt convinced that he had done it merely to estab- 
 lish a claim on her gratitude ; — still, the fact remained the same — in 
 her difficulty, when all other human aid appeared to have forsaken 
 her, he had come to her assistance, and by doing so had saved her 
 brother : believing this, could she expose his baseness ? The question 
 was a diflBcult one.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 343 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. 
 
 DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND. 
 
 Those who are skilled to read that strange, yet easily to be pene- 
 trated mystery, a woman's heart, will have at once decided how 
 Kate Crane determined to act in regard to D'Almayne — he had 
 saved her brother, and though he had oifered her an unjpardonable 
 insult, she would not betray him, so she replied calmly, — 
 
 "I should on that point advise you as I did on the former one : 
 reflect whether the accusation is likely to be true ; whether you have 
 observed any encouragement given by me to Mr. D Almayne ; 
 whether, from what you know of my character, you imagine it likely 
 that I should be so devoid of principle, so wanting in self-respect, as 
 to accept Mr. D Almayne's or any other man's attentions. Recollect 
 a speech I once made you, which really appears as if I had had a pre- 
 sentiment of this accusation — a speech in which I begged you to 
 bear in mind that, if at any time comments shoiild be made on the 
 intimate footing on which Mr. D'Almayne visited at this house, it 
 was according to your expressed wish and desire that he did so, and 
 on that account only did I tolerate it. If, when you have thus con- 
 sidered the matter, you still feel dissatisfied, I advise you to use every 
 endeavour to an-ive at the truth. My own opinion is, that the 
 letter being written by (as the writer honestly enough confesses) an 
 enemy of Mr. D' Almayne's, he has raked up every accusation which 
 scandal may have invented to blacken that gentleman's character; 
 still, as, if there is any truth in the charges, the knowledge of it 
 would prove of great impoi'tance to you, it behoves you quietly 
 and carefully to inquire into them, and I would recommend you to 
 do so without delay." 
 
 Kate's pei-fect self-possession and coolness always produced great 
 efEect on Mr. Crane, and in the present instance they so thoroughly 
 convinced him that his anonymous coiTespondent had accused his 
 wife falsely, that without more ado he started for the city to 
 investigate the truth of the other charges, leaving his better half to 
 strive against the uncomfortable conviction that imintentionally 
 she had played the part of a hypocrite. 
 
 One of the elements of Horace D Almayne's success in life was his 
 punctuality in all matters of business : if he said he woxild do a 
 thing, he did it ; if he promised to be at any place by a fixed time, at 
 the appointed day and hour there was Horace to be found : this con- 
 sistency even in apparent trifles caused others to place great reliance 
 on him, and contributed to establish a certain degree of prestige and
 
 344 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 wei^lit of cliaractei" wliich often stood liim in good stead. No one 
 was better aware of this fact than Horace himself, who, perceiving 
 the vahie of the practice, had adopted it as one of his gniding 
 principles, to which he invarialily acted up with a consistency worthy 
 of a better code. Accordingly, having transacted Mr. Crane's 
 busiiiess to his own satisfaction, he appointed a day on which to 
 return to England, and when the time arrived, embarked ; but, 
 unable finally to conclude the transaction without proceeding to 
 Liverpool, he selected a vessel bound for that port. On his arrival, 
 after a favourable passage, he took up his abode at a small, quiet 
 hotel, much frequented by foreigners. Having engaged a in-ivate 
 room, he was looking over the papers which he had brought with 
 him, when his quick ear caught the sound of a voice with the tones 
 of which he fancied himself familiar — listening attentively, he over- 
 heard the following colloquy, — 
 
 " Can I have a private sitting-room here ? " 
 
 " Well, sir, we're very full ; should you require a bedroom 
 also P " 
 
 " No ; I am going by the New Yoi'k packet, which leaves at eight 
 o'clock this evening." 
 
 " If you'll wait one moment, sir, I'll see ; but I'm a'most afraid 
 we're full." 
 
 Anxious to obtain a view of the speakers, D Almayne crossed the 
 room with noiseless tread, and looked out through the half-opened 
 door ; the figure nearest to him was that of the waiter at the hotel ; 
 the person with whom he had been conversing was, or apjjeared to 
 be, a seafaring man of the more respectable class, and at the first 
 glance D'Almayne believed him to be an entire stranger — still, the 
 voice, so peculiar and so well known, he surely could not be mis- 
 taken in that ! and again he scrutinized the stranger's appearance. 
 He was a tall thin man, well advanced in life, with sharp acute 
 features and keen grey eyes; his hair was cut short, and of an 
 unnaturally raven blackness ; and his face was closely shaven, 
 without the slightest trace of whisker or moustache. For a moment, 
 Horace D'Almayne paused in doubt, during which interval the 
 stranger's evil genius obliged him to cough, a dry husky cough 
 which, once heard, was not easily mistaken — it was enough. In 
 going to seek the master of the hotel, the waiter had to pass the 
 door of D'Almayne's room ; a sign from that individual's finger 
 caused him to enter it. 
 
 " Show that gentleman into this room, as if it was the untenanted 
 apartment be has inquired for — leave the key in the lock inside, and 
 if I ring the bell twice fetch a policeman instantly ; but as I hope 
 such an extreme measure may not be necessary, do not say a word 
 about the affair to any one." As he spoke, he slipped a sovereign 
 into the man's hand, adding, " Manage this cleverly and quietly, and 
 a second awaits you." 
 
 The waiter bowed, and with a nod of iutclligcnce quitted the room.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 315 
 
 The door of the apartment was so phiced that Avhen opened it shut 
 in an angle of tlie wall, in which stood a screen quite large enough 
 to conceal the figure of a man ; in this comer did D'Almayne 
 ensconce himself ; scarcely had he done so ere the waiter retunaed, 
 ushering in the stranger for whose benefit these arrangements had 
 been made. Perfectly unsuspicious of any stratagem, the newcomer 
 signified his appi'oval of the accommodation provided for him, placed 
 a leathern valise which he carried in his hand on the table, and then 
 seated himself by the window with his back towards the door, which 
 the waiter immediately closed, at the same time leaving the room, 
 when with noiseless steps D'Almayne glided fi'om his place of 
 concealment, and double-locking the door placed the key in his 
 pocket. The slight sound made by the bolt shooting into its socket 
 attracted the stranger's attention, and ttirning round qiuckly, he 
 gave a most perceptible start as his eye fell upon his companion ; 
 recovering himself instantly, he rose, and bowmg to D'Almayne, 
 said, — 
 
 " The waiter mxist have made some mistake ! I asked for an 
 imoccupied room. I must apologize for thus intruding on you, sir ; 
 but the mistake is not on my part." As he spoke, he took up his 
 valise pre)3aratory to leaving the room, but D'Almayne motioned 
 him to a chair, as he replied, — 
 
 " There is no mistake in the case, my friend, unless it be your 
 fancying that, because you have shaved off yoiu* whiskers and 
 dyed your hair, I shoiild not recognize yon — that is a complete 
 mistake." 
 
 The person thus addressed turned pale and bit his lip ; but, making 
 an effort to recover himself, replied, — 
 
 " I do not understand you, sir ; you are labouring under some 
 delusion ; allow me to pass directly, or I shall ring and summon the 
 waiter." 
 
 "You'd better not," returned D'Almayne drily, " for that is the 
 signal agreed on — for him instantly to fetch a policeman." 
 
 The stranger glanced towards the door, on which D'Almayne 
 quietly produced the key, and when it had caught his eye replaced it 
 in his pocket ; he then stretched his hand, with a hesitating and 
 uncertain action, towards a stout stick on which he carried his 
 valise; but D'AlmasTie drew from the breast pocket of his surtout 
 the beautifully finished little revolving pistol which he always 
 carried, and, having somewhat ostentatiously displayed it before the 
 eyes of the individual he was thus browbeating, returned it to its 
 place of concealment, as the other with a sullen dogged look replaced 
 his stick, and murmiu-ed, — 
 
 " Well, Mr. D'Almayne, supposing you do happen to recognize me 
 indulging in a little freak — supposing I have disguised myself the 
 better to cany out a little intrigue of my own, why should that so 
 greatly surprise you ? I do not think you have ever found me al^sent 
 from my post when business required me ; you must be aware I have
 
 31G HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 the interest of the establishment as much at heart as any of the 
 parties connected with it ; when they begjin to phiy to-night in 
 
 J Street, my frolic will be over, and I shall be in my proper 
 
 place." 
 
 " I think it's highly probable you will, always supposing that place 
 to be a cell in Pentonville prison, or, as you lodge in Westminster 
 the Penitentiary, perhaps; but it strikes me, that if I had not 
 fortunately met you, you would at that hour have been tossing about 
 in St. George's Channel — as I happen to know you have taken your 
 passage in a New York packet, which is to sail at eight this evening." 
 As D'Almayne spoke, he fixed his piercing eyes on the individual he 
 addressed, who, unable to bear his scrutinizing glance, turned away 
 
 muttering with an oath, " him, I thought he was safe in 
 
 Holland." After a moment's reflection, he appeared to decide on the 
 course best for him to follow — rmder what was evidently a contin- 
 gency equally unforeseen and unsatisfactory. 
 
 " Assuredly there never was any one like you, Mr. D'Almayne, for 
 shrewdness and penetration," he said, in a tone of apparent frank- 
 ness ; " here am I (supposed by all who take an interest in my 
 whereabouts to be in London), in a disguise in which my own 
 mother (the poor soul has been dead these twenty years) would not 
 have recognized me ; at the first glance you penetrate it, and by 
 intuition apj)ear to have discovered my intentions. How you have 
 tracked me, or whether you have met me by accident, I am unable to 
 divine ; but, as you have discovered me, I think it is best to be frank 
 with you and to throw myseK on your generosity — confident that 
 you will deal leniently with youi* old associate, if I may venture to 
 use the term, though, perhaps, your faithful follower would be more 
 true ; for I am well aware how such talent as yours raises you above 
 us plodding poor fellows. But I will make a clean breast to you, 
 sir. The fact is, I am no longer young, scarcely still middle-aged, 
 and the life I have been for so many years engaged in is a hazardous 
 and exhausting one. I have been a frugal and careful man, and I 
 do not scruple to tell you, sir, that I have contrived to save a few 
 hundred pounds. Well, sir, I have for some time wished to leave 
 England and settle in America, where I am unknown, and might 
 begin the world afresh— in some quieter and more respectable line of 
 life; so I thought I would avoid all the difficulties and all the 
 troubles which, none are better aware than you, sir, would attend my 
 quitting London just at this time, by taking French leave, and 
 setting off in disguise and under a feigned name, hoping that in 
 Mr. Maxwell, the traveller for a Manchester cotton firm, no one 
 would recognize Le Roux, the croupier; and now, sir, having 
 told you all, I throw myself on your generosity not to attempt 
 (though I see no pretext on which you could legally do it) to detain 
 me." 
 
 While Le Roux had been making this statement, which he did 
 with the air of a man convinced against his Avill that the only course
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 347 
 
 left open to him is to declai-e the whole truth, come what may of it, 
 D'Almayne had taken a pencil from his pocket, with which he had 
 been writing certain calculations on the back of a card. As soon as 
 the other had concluded, he observed quietly, — 
 
 " I have been making a rough estimate of all the available cash on 
 which you could lay your hand, and it appears to me that, owing to 
 my folly in resting contented with the belief that it was your interest 
 to be honest, you have at least ^15,000 in that leathern case of yours 
 — a sum quite sufficient to tempt you to bolt, esi^ecially at a time 
 when you fancied I was safely out of your way. I make it out thus : 
 
 the establishment in J Street has never less than ,£5000 ready to 
 
 pay all demands ; to that, of coiu'se, you have luilimited access, and 
 have availed yourself of it. Then comes the Overland Route Rail- 
 road speculation ; Guillemard writes me word that the shares are 
 going off tolerably fast, and that something like ■£ 10,000 in hard cash 
 has been paid into our bankers; a cheque signed by two of the 
 directors would enable you to draw out the whole amount at any 
 moment— your own signature as Herr Yondenthaler, the Belgium 
 capitalist, provides for one, and the other would offer little difficulty 
 to a man of your talent and experience. I have so strong a convic- 
 tion that, in consequence of my absence, you will have done me the 
 honour to select my name, that it is upon a charge of foi-gery I 
 intend to have you apprehended, and to take you up to London in 
 my company and that of a policeman." 
 
 During this speech the varying expression on Le Roitx's face 
 would have formed an interesting study to the physiognomist or the 
 artist — at first, assumed indifference, changing to surprise, anxiety, 
 and ill-concealed alarm— then astonishment and fear, merging in a 
 state of bewildered terror, which again gave place to an astute subtle 
 look, as an idea occurred to him which might yet interpose to save 
 him from the utter ruin to which the supernatural discovery, as it 
 appeared to him, of his intended and partially executed villainy 
 exposed him. As soon as D Almayne had ended, Le Rous turned to 
 him, and said in a low calm tone, — 
 
 " You are, without any exception, Mr. D'Almayne, the cleverest 
 man, for jovlv years, that I have ever met with in oiu- profession. I 
 don't say it to flatter you, sir ; but I say it because it is my deliberate 
 conviction. One of your strong points is your clear good sense, and 
 it is to that I am now about to appeal. You have, how I cannot 
 divine, got me completely in your power, and, knowing or svispecting 
 all you say or do, it is useless for me to attempt to deceive you ; it is 
 clear you can ruin nae if you choose ; but how will it advantage you 
 to do so ? or, rather, how can you expose me without exciting a host 
 of unpleasant inquiries about yourself ? I presume you scarcely 
 
 wish your connection with the gaming-house in J Street 
 
 published to the world at large, nor would you like too much revealed 
 concerning the private history of the directors and general manage- 
 ment of the railway company, and yet I don't eee how you could
 
 318 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 pLace me in the hands of justice without my enlightening' the public 
 on some of these points. As I am sure you are aware of the force of 
 these remarks, I need say no more; but I put it to you, as a sensible 
 man of the world, will it not be better for me to pay you that ^1000, 
 which, I dare say, you can remember, I am indebted to you, for 
 ' value received,' we'll say, and for you to forget that you happened 
 to meet me here to-day ? " As he spoke, he fixed his shaii^ cunning 
 glance upon D'Almayne, as though he would fain read his inmost 
 thoughts ; but even to such an old hand as Le Roux the gambler, 
 Horace's expression was a sealed book. But he was not long in 
 doubt as to the effect of his appeal ; for in his usual tone of calm 
 sarcasm, Horace replied, — 
 
 " Cleverly piit, Monsieur Le Roux ; but there are two important 
 flaws in your argument. In the first place, your ofEer proves the 
 truth of my suspicions, only that, as you are not usually famous for 
 the liberality of your disposition, its amount satisfies me that I have 
 rather under than oven-ated the sum of which you have contrived to 
 gain possession. As to any accusations you can bring against me, 
 I care little or nothing for them ; they may be true, biit you have 
 damaged your own character so deeply that no one will believe you. 
 You may assert that I am part proprietor of the gambling-house, 
 and you may call Guillemard to prove it ; I shall deny the fact, and 
 he will back my denial. You will assei't, also, that I have got up 
 this nefarious railroad speculation in order to levant with the capital 
 as soon as I could obtain a sufl&cient amovmt to gi-atify my cupidity ; 
 I shall reply that you have done what you accuse me of intending to 
 do, and that I have been the means of bringing you to justice. You 
 will adduce, in proof of your assei*tion, the fact that I introduced 
 you as a director under the feigned name of Yondenthaler ; I shall 
 rebut this accusation by declaring that I had always known you as 
 Yondenthaler, which I believe to l>e your true name ; and that your 
 identity with Le Roux, the croupier, was never even suspected by 
 me. Of course, in these instances, I shall be swearing falsely ; you, 
 truly ; nevertheless, I shall come off with flying colours, and you will 
 be transpoi-ted. ' Telle est la vie ! ' Would you oblige me by ringing 
 that bell twice, for the laoliceman ? " 
 
 The transition, from the assurance of successful cunning, to self- 
 distriist, anxiety, rage, despair, which flitted across the sharp but 
 expressive face of Le Roux, showed how strongly D'Almayne's words 
 had agitated him. For a moment, he stood trembling in every limb, 
 clenching his hands until the nails dug into the flesh ; then, carried 
 away by the impulse of his overpowering terror, he flung himself at 
 Horace D'Almayne's feet, exclaiming, — 
 
 " For God's sake, Mr. D'Almayne, have pity on me ! I am an old 
 man, sir ; older than I seem. I am sixty -five next month ; I am, 
 indeed ; and I have led such a wretched, miserable life ! I have 
 always been somebody's tool, somebody's slave. Sir, I have been for 
 years the victim of a monomania : as a very young man, I lost every
 
 ■^yn^^tcc^
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 349 
 
 halfpenny I possessed (and that was enounrh to have secured me a 
 competence in some i-espectable line of life) at the gaminc^-table ; 
 and since that time I have been haunted by the idea that, by intensely 
 studying, and constantly calculating the chances, I should discover 
 some infallible system by which I could not only retrieve my losses, 
 but realize a large fortune. Over and over again have I tried, and 
 over and over again have I failed; until, at last, experience has 
 brought some little wisdom, even to such a miserable fool as I have 
 proved myself, and I have given iip all attempts at discovering a 
 system ; but, sir, when this last hope failed me, the little honesty 
 I had left deserted me, and you have divined the result. Mr. 
 D'Almayne, I have a wife and three little innocent children at 
 Biiissels ; they were to join me in America if this attempt (which 
 they only know of as a mercantile speculation) had proved successful. 
 If I am sent out of this country as a convicted felon, it will break 
 my wife's heart ; and my little children will be left to starve. Mr. 
 D'Almayne, for the love of Heaven, have pity, if not on me, on 
 them ! " 
 
 During this appeal, Horace remained in an easy and fashionable 
 attitude, with his back against the closed door which detained his 
 captive, and the points of his white and taper fingers inserted in his 
 trousers pockets ; at its conclusion, he said, in his usual cool and 
 indifferent manner, "I think, my good friend, you began this 
 harangue with a complimentary appeal to my common sense ; not 
 wishing to discredit your flattering opinion, let me ask you, is it 
 likely that, having toiled and schemed for the last twelve months to 
 bring these two projects of the gambling-house and the railroad 
 company into working (and paying) order, I should allow you to go 
 quietly to America, carrying with you the fruits of my labour, fore- 
 thought, and sagacity, merely because, when your last subterfuge 
 has failed you, you whine out a beggar's petition about the love of 
 Heaven and a wife and three children ? Bah ! it is childish, it is 
 really too absurd ! Still, for old acquaintance sake, I do not want 
 to be hard on you; and if you will do exactly as I shall propose, 
 perhaps there may still remain some middle course, by which such an 
 uncomfortable result as transportation for life may be spared you. 
 What say you ? " Poor wretch ! his crime discovered, its fearful 
 penalty awaiting him, and the " tender mercies of the wicked " his 
 only hope and refuge — with remorse for the past and desjmir for 
 the future, rending his very heart asunder — what remained for him 
 but to give himself up, soul and body, as the dupe, tool, and agent 
 of Horace D'Almayne? 
 
 Long and earnest was their conference: the valise was opened; 
 money and papers produced and examined ; accotmts gone into ; 
 arrangements for the present, and schemes for the future, discussed 
 and agreed upon. The result may be summed up in a few words : 
 when the New York packet sailed, at eight o'clock that evening, Le 
 Roux had taken possession of his berth, with his valise considerably
 
 350 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 lightened ; and Horace D'Almayne, having seen his associate safely 
 out of the country, departed by the last ti-ain which left for London, 
 some ten thousand pounds richer than he had been on his arrival 
 that moi-ning in the good city of Liverpool ! 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. 
 
 HORACE WEATHEBS THE STORM. 
 
 Mr. Crane obtained nothing by his visit to the city, except a bad 
 cold, caught in a draughty omnibiis, in which he rode because he was 
 too stingy to indulge himself with a cab ; all the men he wished to 
 see were out of town, or attending some special appointment, and no 
 information could he obtain in regard to the seciu-ity of his propei-ty 
 invested in the "Direct Overland Route to India Railway " shares, 
 so he i-eturned home in a worse temper than any in which Kate had 
 yet seen him, and led her such a life of misery, during the evening, 
 by means of a process termed, in the patois of back kitchens and 
 washhouses, " nagging " at her, that when she retired to her own 
 room, at ten o'clock, she was so utterly worn out, that she sat down 
 and cried, from sheer nervous depression. If Arthur Hazlehurst 
 could have seen her then, he would scarcely have recognized in that 
 shrinking, trembling, spirit-broken woman, the proud, cold, haughty, 
 beautiful Kate, who had won his heart but to trample on it in her 
 career of worldly ambition ; — if he had heard her broken, faltering 
 prayer that death might soon relieve her from the daily, hourly 
 martyrdom of striving to render respect and obedience to a man 
 whom she did not hate, only because hate involves some degree of 
 equality, and Mr. Crane she too utterly despised ; — if Arthur could 
 have witnessed her total prostration, mental and bodily, he would 
 scarcely have retained his hard thoughts of her, although the gentler 
 ones which might have replaced them would, in their way, have been 
 exquisitely painful to him. 
 
 The next morning, Mr. Crane's cold was worse, and Kate recom- 
 mended him to dispatch a note to his man of business, asking him 
 to come to Park Lane ; which advice, being good and sensible, was, 
 of course, rejected, and Kate was asked whether, not content with 
 impoverishing him by her extravagance and by the burden of 
 supporting her i^auper relatives, she wished to ruin him quite, by 
 inducing him to neglect the management of his property. Having
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 351 
 
 delivered himself of this kind and judiciotia remark, so well calculated 
 to call forth and rivet the affection of the wife of his bosom, this 
 noble specimen of "Man, the great master of all," took 'bus for the 
 city, to clip the wings which, he feared, his riches were about to make 
 for themselves. His man of business was again " in court," and 
 tincome-at-able ; but when he reached the office of the " Overland 
 Route to India Railway Company," he found there Mr. Bonus 
 Nugget in as near an approach to a rage as was at all compatible 
 with his high standing and intense respectability ; a frame of mind 
 in which Mr. Crane speedily sympathized, when the disastrous 
 intelligence was communicated to him that a sum of nearly ^18,000 
 had been drawn out of their bankers' hands, in the joint names of 
 Horace D'Ahnayne and Herr Vondenthaler, the former being 
 abroad, and no trace to be discovered of the latter. Poor Mr. 
 Crane! he loved his money dearly, he could not bear to part 
 with it even to pay a bill ; and, as to giving it in charity (" fooling 
 it away" was the term he applied to such a senseless squandering), 
 that was an unbusiness-like weakness of which he had never been 
 guilty ; and now to have his idol thus rudely torn from him, oh ! it was 
 too cruel. If Nugget had not been present, he would have sat down 
 and cried, for his sympathy with, and pity for, himself was un- 
 bounded ; but, as he was not alone, he swore instead, for the sake of 
 appearances ; but he did not swear well : for to anathematize, " con 
 brio," demands more energy than Mr. Crane possessed. Having 
 sworn, however, to the best of his ability, he and Mr. Nugget 
 went into the affairs of the company together, and really, according 
 to the latter gentleman's showing, the speculation appeared to be 
 progressing so well, that these ministers of Mammon agreed the 
 defalcation must be made good and the public be kept in the dark as to 
 aught being "rotten in the state of Denmark." So .strange and 
 mysterious pi'oceedings were entered upon ; bills for large sums of 
 money, drawn by Mr. Nugget and endorsed by Mr. Crane, and cheques 
 bearing that gentleman's signature were deposited with the company's 
 bankers, to replace the ^818,000 with which Herr Vondenthaler had 
 eloped ; also astiite detectives were placed on that gentleman's track, 
 and desired to look out for Horace D'Ahnayne, should he venture to set 
 lais foot on English soil — an imprudence which Mr. Crane declared, 
 confidentially, he was sure he never would be fool enoiTgh to commit. 
 For once, however, that worthy man's sagacity was at fault, as he was 
 informed on his retura home that a gentleman was waiting to see him 
 in his library ; and greatly was he astonished, and if the truth must 
 be told, considerably alarmed also, when the stranger proved to be 
 none other than the unblushing Horace himself. Thei)* interview 
 was long, but it ended much more agreeably than it began; for 
 Horace, first clearing himself from the imputation of having had 
 any hand in the railway company defalcation by proving that, at 
 the time the cheque was drawn and presented, he was at Ostend, 
 gradually elicited from Mr. Crane the fact of the anonymous letter,
 
 352 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 wliicli, when it was witli mneli reluctance submitted to him, he at 
 once recognized to be in the handwriting of the perfidiou.s Vonden- 
 thaler. Having produced satisfactory evidence of this fact also, he 
 produced something still more satisfactory, viz. certain bills promis- 
 ing to pay on demand, at an early date, the cash which he had pro- 
 ceeded to Holland to obtain. 
 
 This palpable proof of his factotum's integrity quieted all Mr. 
 Crane's suspicions, and D'Almayne was fi'om that moment reinstated 
 in his pati'on's good opinion. But now, according to his own show- 
 ing, this excellent young man was himself the victim of circum- 
 stances. His name, having been the name selected by the forger 
 Vondeuthaler, he felt that he ought to withdraw from the railway 
 company altogether ; if he remained, he should always be an object 
 of suspicion. He knew the nature of city capitalists well; they had 
 not all such enlightened views, such generous souls, as his excellent 
 friend Mr. Crane ; besides, he could not reconcile it with his honour 
 to remain a director withoiit paying, in ready money, his share of 
 the loss they had sustained by the rascality of Vondenthaler — a man 
 who, he blushed to reflect, he had introduced. He would most 
 gladly pay his share that minute, but he honestly confessed he had 
 not the money ready. He knew what he would do; he would sell 
 his estate in Normandy — England was the country of his adoption ; 
 if he could not live there, life woiild become a burden to him. No ; 
 he would go to France, sell his estate, and with the i^roceeds, return 
 to redeem his honour. But it would be at a sacrifice ; he must part 
 with his shares in the Overland Railway, shares that were cei-tain to 
 become so fine an investment: did Mr. Crane know anyone who 
 would like to purchase them ? Mr. Crane paused, considered, and 
 then, in what he considered to be an off-hand, indifferent manner, 
 though eager rapacity twinkled in his cunning eye and quivered on 
 his trembling lip, he replied, " If it will be any accommodation to 
 you, D'Almayne, I don't know that I should object to take your 
 shares myself ; and, in regard to your Normandy estate, it seems a 
 pity you should be forced to sell it at a time, perhaps, when you may 
 not obtain its pro])er value. You have the title deeds in England ; 
 suijpose we look through them together. I have lent you money on 
 them already, and might perhaps be willing to advance you more on 
 the same terms — six per cent., I think ? this would afford you time 
 to look about you, and to sell your estate, if you must ]iart with it, 
 to better advantage." Horace D'Almayne's gratitude was quite 
 touching to witness ; so was his manner at dinner, which Mr. Crane 
 insisted upon his stopping to partake of. Kate was greatly 
 astonished, and not best pleased, to find him reinstated in his former 
 high ])osition in her husband's favour ; Ijut he treated her with such 
 respectful deference, and his conversation was so clever and 
 interesting, that it was impossible for her not to contrast his social 
 advantages with those of Mr. Crane, which did not gain by the 
 comparison. Kate was nervous and unhappy, a state of mind in
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 353 
 
 wliich kindness, or its i-everse, is felt with a morbid deppt'ee of 
 acuteness ; and just as much as Mr. Crane's peevish imtability 
 oppressed and annoyed her, did Horace D'Almayne's soft voice, 
 polished manner, and considerate tact calm and soothe her, and 
 reinvigorate her drooping s])irits. If Kate Crane had a heart to 
 win, now was the time to gain it. Horace D'Almayne was by no 
 means a tyro in such cases ; he perceived the situation at a glance and 
 availed himself of it to the utmost. When he rose to take leave, Kate, 
 knowing to what his departure would expose her, and being, as we 
 have before explained, overwrought and ill, forgot her self-control so 
 far as to observe, " It is vei'y early ; are you obliged to go so soon ? " 
 The moment she had spoken the words she would have given worlds 
 to have recalled them. Her husband's fretful observation, " Really, 
 my dear, it's j)ast ten o'clock," — and D'Almayne's look of triumph, 
 ill-concealed under the guise of polite, conventional regret at being 
 obliged to leave such kind friends, showed her the indiscretion of 
 which she had been guilty. But ere she could sufficiently collect 
 her ideas to attempt to redeem the false step she had made, Horace 
 had bowed himself out. Then Mr. Crane took up his parable, and 
 drew a feeble pictm-e of a vicious young wife, who, possessing a 
 sapient, tender, and judicious husband, in the prime of life, laid 
 herself out to attract the attentions of, if he might be allowed the 
 expression, mere boys, who, fortunately for her, had too strongly 
 innate ideas of— yes, of propriety and morality, to avail themselves 
 of her very reprehensible levity, &c., &c. Poor proud Kate ! she 
 bore it all silently — her will was now as strong for good as it had 
 once been for evil, and duty sealed her lips, though she siiffered 
 none the less for her silence. Saint Bartholomew was flayed alive, 
 yet we nowhere read that the good man was garruloiis under the 
 operation. When D'Almayne quitted Park Lane he returned to his 
 former lodgings, and taking pen, ink, and paper, wrote the following 
 note to the waiter at Liverpool : — 
 
 " A well-wisher of yours has much pleasure in enclosing for your 
 acceptance a ^£10 note ; should any impertinent inquiries be made 
 in regard to the gentlemen who have visited your hotel lately, he 
 feels sure you know your duty too well, as a faithfiil servant of the 
 establishment, to reply to them in any way which might injure the 
 interests of your employer or your own ! in which case you shall 
 hear again from — 
 
 "More v^^hebe this comes from." 
 
 Having dispatched this Machiavellian document, Horace the 
 indefatigable sought and obtained interviews with Guillemard, 
 Bonus Nugget, and Captain O'Brien, from all of whom he obtained 
 
 useful information ; then proceeded to the gaming-house in J 
 
 Street, where he found the Russian Prince Ratrapski, unprofitably 
 sober and playing for sovereigns only. To him therefore he 
 
 A a
 
 354 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 devoted himself with so much success, that between five and six on 
 the following morning the Russian was taken home in a cab, con- 
 siderably disguised in liquor, having lost above .£20,000 to the bank. 
 It is a laudable practice of some pastors to exhort the members of 
 their flock to chew the cud of reflection before they retire to rest, and 
 so to strike a balance of the good and evil deeds which, in the course 
 of that day's transactions, they may have performed. Now, 
 although Horace D'Almayne had either no conscience at all, or one 
 of such an elastic material that its expansive limits were still un- 
 discovered ; although, moreover, if he belonged to a flock, it must 
 have been composed of the very blackest sheep known to zoology, he 
 nevertheless conformed to this good habit of self-examination ; and 
 on the night, or rather morning in question, his meditations assumed 
 some such shape as the following : — 
 
 " Voyons, Horace, mon ami ! Tou have not been slothful, what 
 have you accomplished ? the affair of Le Roux safely got over, 
 without the fact of our having encountered each other being 
 suspected ; good so far : but the interview might transpire at 
 any moment : I dare not remain here very many days, scarcely 
 hours longei' — Crane, ha ! ha ! there is no pleasure in duping 
 him, he is so dense a fool ; but if there is no pleasure there is 
 pi'ofit, which suits my book equally well — what between the 
 shares and the Normandy mortgage, I shall draw ^5000 of him ; 
 to-morrow morning I must obtain the money. — Then the 
 Russian ; I did that neatly ; my share will be .£7000 ; though I 
 shall claim more, for it was all my management — yes, when I 
 turn my back upon this triste and mercenary country, I shall be 
 able to take at least ^£30,000 with me." He paused, reflected 
 for some minutes, then continued, " With such a capital as that 
 to start with in America a man with a head on his shoulders 
 may do and become almost anything, president perhaps, who 
 knows ? She is ambitious, I can read it in her haughty glance, 
 her queenly step ; such a career might tempt her ! " Again he 
 mused, but the working of his features showed how deeply his 
 feelings were excited. Rousing himself with a start, he ex- 
 claimed passionately, " I shall fail with her, I know ; I feel it ! 
 — she does not love me, nor, excepting at times when I make her feel 
 my power, does she even hate me ; I wish she did, for then I should 
 have more hope — why should she be so indifferent to me ? I have 
 played my game well and carefully ; if I had it to play over again, I 
 do not see how I coiild mend my hand. That declaration, perhaps, 
 was premature ; yet with any other woman, though it failed at the 
 time, it wo aid have told afterwards. I wonder whether she had any 
 attachment before she married Crane ? that cousin Arthur Hazle- 
 hurst, perhaps ; if so, she loves him still ; in that case, I need not 
 seek far for revenge, even if she again disdains my iDassion. Married 
 to Crane and loving her cousin, she must bear about a living hell in 
 her own bosom. Sti'ange the power she has over me ; I really and
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 355 
 
 honestly believe I am as completely in love with her as if I were a 
 green boy of eighteen ! if I had known her five years sooner, before I 
 became so thoroughly and hopelessly involved, I might have been 
 very different, who can say ? that old man Le Roux was right, the 
 life of an adventiu-er is an unsatisfactory affair, either to look back 
 upon, or worse still, to look forward to ; but so it is with eveiy phase 
 of life when you come to know it well and examine it closely ; — for 
 what are we placed here ? nay, what are we ourselves ? have we lived 
 before ? shall we live again ? can spirit exist without matter ? who 
 knows ? the religionist ? bah ! a set either of feeble-minded enthu- 
 siasts, bigoted to childish superstitions, or canting hypocrites, who 
 assume piety as a cloak beneath which to conceal their vices, as the 
 devil is said to lurk behind the cross. Who then ? philosophers, meta- 
 physicians, your men of science P solemn pedants, dreamy mystics, 
 vain fools, who, because they have invented a rxishlight, fancy they can 
 illuminate the universe — ah ! charlatans, all of them ; an adventurer's 
 career is preferable to a life devoted to such dreary mummeiies, 
 I may succeed with the fascinating Kate yet ; she was singularly 
 amiable last night ! and if so, Horace, ' mon ami,' the line you have 
 selected will not prove such an unprofitable one, after all." 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 ANXIETY. 
 
 Harry Coverdale was blessed with an iron constitution, or, as he 
 would himself have expressed it, the good keep and training he had 
 come in for ever since he was a colt had put real hard flesh and muscle 
 on him, so that take him when you would, he was always in work- 
 ing order. Thus, although the hurried journey he had performed 
 with a broken arm and a series of bruises from head to foot would 
 have stretched most men on a bed of sickness, and although Scalpel 
 Gouger, M.D., elongated his already sufficiently lengthened visage on 
 beholding his condition, and prophesied results of which lock-jaw 
 was by no means one of the most terrible, Harry yet experienced no 
 ill effects from his imprudence. His stiffness wore off after a day or 
 two, the biniises disappeared one by one, and the broken bone began to 
 reunite as quickly as in the nature of things was possible. But 
 although his bodily ailments gave him little cause for uneasiness, his 
 mind remained a prey to anxiety, grief, and remorse ; for Alice, his 
 young wife — the depth and strength of his love for whom he became 
 painfully aware of, now that, as it appeared, he was about to lose her
 
 350 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 — lay at the point of death. The demon of fever had fixed his burn- 
 ing fingers upon her, and held her in an iron grasp which no moi-tal 
 power seemed able to unclasp. When Harry an-ived, Alice did not 
 recognize him, her state alternating between attacks of delirium, in 
 which she talked with the wildest incoherence, and intervals of stupor, 
 during each of which she lay perfectly unconscious and prostrated 
 by the violence of the paroxysm which had preceded it. Poor Harry 
 lost not an instant in making his way to her room, disregarding the 
 housekeeper's entreaties to wait for Dr. Gouger's return. When he 
 entered, Alice was sitting up in bed, with flushed cheeks and eyes 
 brilliant with the unnatural lustre of feverish excitement, and talk- 
 ing with the utmost volubility ; at first he fancied she recognized 
 him, for regarding him earnestly, she exclaimed, — 
 
 " So you have come at last, have you? — and now tell me quickly, 
 what news do you bring me ? " Without waiting a reply, she con- 
 tinued : " Why don't you speak ? No news, do you say ? — it is false, 
 you are trying to deceive me; I can read it in your face. — What! 
 have they met already ? then Harry is killed. Ah ! I knew it, I knew 
 it ! D'Almayne is a dead shot — Alfred Courtland told me so in that 
 letter. — What did you mutter ? — au accident, — it was no accident. — 
 D'Almayne has shot him, killed him in a duel ; but it was my fault, 
 I made him angry, — I drove him to go up to London, — it is I who 
 have murdered him. Oh, Han-y, my own loved husband, if I could 
 but have died for you ! — shall I never see him again ? " She con- 
 tinued wildly : " Ah, yes, I must, I will ! Let me go to him, I say ; " 
 and as she spoke she attempted to get out of bed. Throwing his un- 
 injured round her, Harry prevented her from accomplishing her 
 purpose, though she struggled so violently that he was obliged to 
 obtain the assistance of the hired nurse who had been recommended 
 by the medical man. 
 
 " Alice, love, look at me," he said tenderly. " I am safe — I am here 
 by your side — I will not leave you. Do you not know me ? " Gazing 
 at him wildly, she tore herself from his embrace, exclaiming in a tone 
 of horror, — 
 
 " Know you ? yes, I know you, fiend ! demon ! you are Horace 
 D'Almayne ! Do you come here with my husband's blood fresh upon 
 your hands, and dare to insult me by your detestable caresses ? — are 
 not you afraid that the ground will open and swallow you ? Leave 
 me, leave instantly, or, weak woman as I am, I will take my vengeance 
 into my own hands, and stab you to the heart ! " 
 
 This idea that Harry was D'Almayne recun'ed to Alice's mind 
 whenever she beheld her husband, and was the source of so much 
 pain and distress to him, that for both their sakes Mr. Gouger for- 
 bade him to enter her room for two or three days, by which time he 
 tnisted the delusion might have worn itself out. The prohibition 
 was a judicious one, as it enabled Harry to obtain the rest he so 
 much required; and when, after an intei-val of nearly a week, he 
 again returned to his wife's apartment, although she was still unable
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OP IT 357 
 
 to recoernize him, she no longer evinced any repugnance on his 
 approach. Her fits of delirium became less violent and frequent, but 
 she appeared to be gradually sinking into a state of prostration, 
 mental and bodily, which to the eye of the medical man was even 
 more alarming. Her next fancy was, that Harry was her brother 
 Arthm- ; she talked to him of old scenes and recollections, of their 
 childhood, and half bx-oke poor Han-y's heart by deploring in the 
 most pathetic terms the loss of her husband's affection, which she 
 declared Arabella Crofton had stolen from her. 
 
 " Ah, Arthur," she would exclaim, " it is cniel of her, because, you 
 know, I loved him so very, very much ! Until I saw him I meant 
 never to marry ; I fancied I could not bear to leave dearest mamma, 
 and Emily, and Tom, and all of you. But it was of no use : he was 
 80 good and kind, and brave, and handsome ; and though he was a 
 little rough at first, I soon saw what a noble, gentle heart his rough 
 manner concealed, and when I foiind he loved me (for he did love me 
 once, Arthur), how could I, how could any girl, help loving him with 
 her whole soul ? " 
 
 Poor Hari-y, as she thus wildly talked, would lean over and kiss 
 her pale, worn cheeks, and tell her he was her o^vn loving husband, 
 and doted on her, and her only, — that he never cared, and never 
 would care, for any other woman, and she would smile faintly, and 
 reply, — 
 
 " No, Aithur, Harry would not say that ; he loved her before he 
 knew me, over in Italy ; Alfred Courtland told me all about it, — how 
 they ran away together, and all." 
 
 As she uttered these words Coverdale started, and a shade passed 
 across his brow ; not heeding it, Alice continued, — 
 
 " Oh ! she is a dreadful woman, and so clever ! all the foolish things 
 I did to pique Han-y, in order to regain his affection, she showed 
 them up to him in a false light, and made him believe me as wicked 
 as herself, and so she stole his love away from poor, poor Alice ; " 
 then she would turn her face from him, and wail feebly like an un- 
 happy child. At other times she would burst into the most violent 
 self-reproaches. 
 
 " Yes, I deserve it all," she would exclaim ; " I deserve to lose his 
 affection ; what right had I to expect him to give up all his manly 
 sports, which had made him so brave and strong, to sit at home with 
 a poor foolish girl like me, who have not even wit enough to amuse 
 him ; I who should have been too proud even of his slightest notice, 
 and to thwart him and try to make him do foolish and wrong things, 
 and to lose my temper, and grieve and wrong him, — oh ! how wrong 
 and wicked of me ! — I must have been mad to do it ; and now he has 
 left me, gone with Arabella Crofton to Italy, and I shall never see 
 him again, never, never ! " and then she would break off and resume 
 her weeping. 
 
 And so the weary days passed on ; Emily, who had come over as 
 soon as she had heard of her eister's illness, was an indefati-
 
 358 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 gable nurse, and slie and Harry sat up with the patient on alternate 
 nitjhts, Coverdale having on one occasion discovered the hired nurse 
 fast asleep when she ought to have been wide awake and giving Alice 
 her medicine. As soon as his arm ceased to cause him such violent 
 Ijain, Harry's attendance by his wife's bedside became unremitting, 
 and night after night he sent Emily to bed, and remained watching 
 Alice's broken slumbers, or to the best of his power soothing her, 
 during her fits of delirious excitement. Could those who had known 
 Coverdale as the rough and eager sportsman, or the just, but stem 
 and inflexible, magistrate, have seen him then, as (heedless of the 
 pain of his injured arm) he tended with all a woman's devotion, and 
 more than woman's strength and judgment, the sick couch of his (as 
 at times he feared) dying wife, they would have been unable to 
 recognize the same individual whose nature they, in their hasty 
 judgment, had so wholly mistaken. His dying wife ! ah ! how the 
 idea haunted him. Alice, his loved one, would die ; she would be 
 taken from him while they were both so young, and he would have to 
 live on during long, dreary years alone ! — alone ! yes, but how bitterly 
 did he feel the hope-crushing significance of that cruel word ! true, 
 his married life had been a somewhat stormy one, still it had taught 
 him the charm of that spiritual companionship with a beloved and 
 loving woman, without which a man's best nature remains incom- 
 pletely developed. To feel a deep, true, and unselfish affection for 
 an object worthy of so precious a boon raises a man's whole moral 
 nature, and (if he is good for anything) makes him wiser and better ; 
 to be loved in return renders him happy, despite the toils and trials 
 of life. 
 
 Of these great truths, the events which we have in the course of 
 this history endeavoured to portray, had caused Harry to acquire a 
 painful consciousness ; he had become aware also of the caiises which 
 had hitherto militated against the full amount of the happiness to 
 be enjoyed in such a position. He had learned from poor Alice's 
 delii-ious confessions both the depth of her attachment to him and 
 the fact that experience had in her case also produced its bitter but 
 salutary fmits. Thus, should she indeed be restored to him, what a 
 bright, enviable future lay extended before them ! even as the 
 thovight occuiTcd to him, his eye fell upon her thin, pale f eatiares, her 
 parched lips, sunken cheeks, and the dark, ominous hollows beneath 
 her closed eyes ; nay, as she lay motionless, wrapped in a heavy, 
 oppressive slumber, the hoiiible idea flashed across him that she 
 might be dead already ; and with a shudder he placed his hand upon 
 her wrist, to feel the beating of her feeble yet rapid pulse, ere he 
 could satisfy himself that his frightful suspicion was but the off- 
 spring of a morbid fancy. Still, the idea had occui-red to him, and 
 he could not divest himself of it — what if she should never wake 
 again, or if she should die without any return of reason — die, ignorant 
 of the depth of loving tenderness towards her which filled his breast. 
 Oh! if he could but pui'chase her life at any sacrifice; there was
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 359 
 
 notliing he would not gladly give np — wealth, position, even his 
 cherished field sports, everything ! — how powerless he was, and how 
 utterly wretched! Accustomed, as he had hitherto been, to rely 
 entirely on his own strength, both o£ mind and body, to accomplish 
 his wishes, the situation was equally new and painful to him. But 
 Coverdale had a powerfiil and singularly healthy mind, and even 
 while he smarted under this severe chastening, he recognized the 
 Hand which inflicted it, and the purpose for which it was sent ; and, 
 mindful of the lessons of his childhood, the strong man sank upon 
 his knees by the side of his wife's sick cox^ch, and prayed to his 
 Father in Heaven to si^are, in His mercy, the one little ewe-laml) 
 without which he must wear out the rest of his earthly pilgrimage 
 desolate and lonely-hearted. 
 
 The crisis of Alice's complaint was now rapidly approaching, and 
 Harry sent for one of the leading London i^hysicians, who, after a 
 careful examination of the patient, and a long and solemn consulta- 
 tion with Dr. Gouger, was pleased to say the latter gentleman had 
 pursued exactly the orthodox method of treatment ; that he feared 
 Mrs. Coverdale's state was a very precarious one, but that she could 
 not be in safer hands than those of Scalpel Gouger, M.D. 
 
 After Sir J. C had taken his departure and his fee of fifty 
 
 guineas, Coverdale, who had sent Emily from Alice's bedside, with 
 strict orders to take a long stroll and refresh herself, was somewhat 
 surprised to see her return in less than half an hour considerably 
 excited and with a heightened colour, which made her look remark- 
 ably pretty. She beckoned Coverdale out of the sick room, and then 
 began, — 
 
 " Oh ! Harry, dear, I want to speak to you, please ; and you must 
 be good and kind, and not fierce, you know ! " 
 
 In spite of his heavy heart, Coverdale could not help smiling at his 
 little sister-in-law's address. 
 
 "What is it, my dear child?" he said kindly. "I'll promise to 
 behave prettily ; my fierceness, as you call it, is tolerably well taken 
 out of me by this time." 
 
 "Well, I was walking in the Park, you know," resumed Emily, 
 " and just as I got to Markum's cottage, I perceived a tall, aristo- 
 cratic-looking young man talking to Mrs. Markum ; as soon as she 
 caught sight of me, she exclaimed, ' Here is Miss Hazlehurst, sir ; she 
 has just come from the house, and can tell you the last account of 
 poor mistress.' Whereupon, the gentleman approached me, and 
 taking oif his hat, said, ' I believe I have the pleasure of addressing 
 a sister of Mrs. Coverdale P ' I bowed assent, and he continued, ' My 
 name is Alfred Courtland. I do not know whether Coverdale has 
 told you— (here he stammered and blushed, so like a frightened gii-1, 
 that I began to feel quite brave) — that is, whether you are aware, 
 that it was in my service he met with his accident, and that— that, in 
 fact, I cnnnot but feel that your sister's illness has been, in great 
 measure, brought on by my folly ; the consequence is, that ever since
 
 360 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 I heard of her attack, I have been miserable. Coverdale said he 
 would write me word how she was goin^ on, but I suppose in his 
 soiTow and anxiety his promise has escaped his memory. I bore the 
 suspense so long as I was able, until yesterday, hearing by accident 
 
 that Sir J. C had been sent for, I could stand it no longer ; so I 
 
 put myself into a train the first thing this morning, and came down 
 to leara the truth ; may I ventui'e to hope that, as you are able to 
 leave your sister, her danger has been exaggerated ? ' Then I told 
 him that dearest Ally was still very ill, but that you were head nurse, 
 and had forced me to come out to get a little air ; and I said I was 
 sure you would like to see him. He was dreadfully afraid of intrud- 
 ing, and for some time refiTsed to come, but at last he changed his 
 mind, and walked home with me ; he's in the library, and you will go 
 and see him, there's a dear boy, for he is very rmhai^py, and I'm sure 
 he's a nice fellow." 
 
 At any other time Coverdale would have been amused at the 
 extreme zeal with which Emily had taken up and advocated Lord 
 Alfred's cause, and have teased her about her undisguised admira- 
 tion of the handsome young peer, but his heart was too heavy for 
 jesting, so he merely replied, — 
 
 " In the library, did you say ? it's very good of the boy to take such 
 interest about poor Alice, but he always was kind-hearted. Go to 
 her at once, Emily, dear ; she was asleep when you sent for me, but 
 she might wake at any minute, you know — go to her, I won't be away 
 long." 
 
 On reaching the library, Coverdale found Lord Alfred awaiting his 
 arrival in an extreme state of nervous trepidation ; gi-asping his band, 
 Harry shook it warmly, saying, — 
 
 " This is very kind of you, Alfred, my dear boy ; you see you find 
 ITS still anxious ; I hope there is no serious cause for alarm, but you 
 know it's a case in which a man can't help feeling very, veiy 
 anxious." 
 
 As Coverdale thns spoke words of encouragement, which his looks 
 and manner, his quivering lip, brimming eye, and the forced cheer- 
 fulness of his voice, alike belied, Lord Alfred, more deeply affected 
 than he could have been by the most vehement reproaches, lost aU 
 self-control, and, bursting into tears, exclaimed, — 
 
 " Do not speak so kindly to me ; it kills me. I'd rather by half 
 you would horsewhip me until I conld not stand, for that is what 
 I deserve. Oh ! what misery my wicked folly has brought about ! 
 But for me, you would never have met with this accident, and Mrs. 
 Coverdale would have escaped the anxiety and the shock which has 
 brought on this illness ; if I could but do anything to help you or her, 
 I should hate myself less." 
 
 Han-y approached him and laid his hand on his shoulder. 
 "Listen to me, my dear boy," he said kindly, but impressively, 
 " these things cannot happen to a man without obliging him to reflect 
 seriously, and, as I hope, to some good purpose ; you should not judge
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 361 
 
 of your own conduct, or of any one's else, simply by results; we are 
 instruments in God's liand to work out His designs ; and all that we 
 can do is to make ourselves acquainted witli the rules He has laid down 
 for our guidance, and strive to act according to them, but the results 
 are in His hands, and there we must be content to leave them. You 
 have acted foolishly, but you are aware of it, and sorry for it; and in 
 such a case, to look back is worse than useless ; the only good in ever 
 recalling the past is, that the recollection may guard you against 
 falling again into a similar temptation should such a one come in 
 your way. So much for sermonizing ; and now, you say, you want 
 to make yourself of use, and I can see you mean it. My poor Alice's 
 mother is a great invalid, and the shock of hearing of this affair has 
 made her more ill than usual : she is most anxious about her daughter 
 Emily — you met Emily ? " 
 
 " Tes, a most interesting, charming young lady ; I knew her 
 directly from her likeness to poor Mrs. Coverdale," was the reply. 
 
 " Well, Emily or I write every day, but the letter ta,kes twelve 
 
 hours to get there by post ; now. Sir J. C is coming down this 
 
 afternoon to see poor Alice again, and Gouger fancies some change is 
 about to take place in her ; he snpiDoses the crisis of the complaint is 
 at hand — in fact — " Han-y paused, for as he spoke of the approach of 
 the moment in which Alice's sentence for life or death was to declare 
 itself, a choking sensation in his throat deprived him of the power of 
 ntterance ; trying to conceal his emotion under a feigned cough, he 
 resumed, " Now, if you wish to perform a really kind and good- 
 natured action, will you remain here until the physician has given 
 his opinion, and then take my dog-cart and mare, and drive over 
 to the Grange and detail his report to Mrs. Hazlehurst ? They will 
 give you a kind welcome and a bed, and you can either go to town 
 from thence, or come back and dine and sleep here ; you'll not be a 
 bit in the way, and will help to amuse Emily, and tempt her out 
 of the sick room : for the good little girl is so zealous in her atten- 
 dance on her sister that I live in constant dread of her knocking up, 
 and then I should have two of them on my hands at once — what do 
 you say ? " 
 
 " Say ! if you think that by going to the world's end I can be of 
 the smallest use or comfort to you, you have only to speak the word, 
 and I'm off," was the eager reply ; then in a jjlaintive tone. Lord 
 Alfred continued : " Coverdale, are you quite sure you don't hate me 
 for all this misery I've brought upon you ? " 
 
 " Go into the dining-room and eat some luncheon, you young 
 muff," was the unsentimental reply; "why, you have not a better 
 friend in the world than I am, or at all events a more sincere one, 
 you stupid boy ; but, come along, I'll send Emily to play hostess, and 
 mind you make her eat well. I know that girl will knock up if she 
 refuses her corn." 
 
 The luncheon passed off pleasantly enough — Emily not being 
 overburthened with shyness, and possessing a flow of animal spirits
 
 362 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 whicli even her anxiety for lier sister coiild not wholly overcome, 
 chatted away so pleasantly that Lord Alfred caught the infection, 
 and took his share in the conversation with spirit, so that when the 
 
 meal was over, they parted mutually pleased. Sir J. C arrived 
 
 true to his appointed time, examined his patient, looked grave, con- 
 sulted with Dr. Gouger, and then the two medicos summoned 
 Coverdale. As he entered, the physician, who was a tall gaunt man, 
 ■with a large, sharp nose, raised himself on tiptoe, as if he were trying 
 to fly, then giving it up as hopeless, subsided on his heels again, 
 cleared his throat, stroked his chin, looked at Coverdale as if he 
 wished to feel his pulse or give him a pill, and began in a bland and 
 insinuating tone of voice, — 
 
 " You are anxious, my dear sir — naturally anxious as to the 
 state in which we (here by a little condescending but patronizing 
 pantomimic action he indicated Gouger) have found Mrs. Cover- 
 dale ? " 
 
 Poor HaiTy, boiling with anxiety and impatience, shot a " Tes, of 
 course," at him as if he had been a partridge. In no way disturbed, 
 however, the autocrat of all the jjill-boxes continued, — 
 
 " The duration of your justifiable anxiety, my dear sir, will not be 
 much further prolonged ; in less than twelve hours the complaint 
 will have reached its crisis, and the result will not be long in reveal- 
 ing itself to educated eyes." 
 
 " And you think you feel reason to believe that the 
 
 result -will be favourable," stammered Harry, his stalwart frame 
 trembling from head to foot with the emotion he was unable to 
 conceal — " You do not think your patient worse than when you last 
 saw her ? " 
 
 The physician paused, then replied gravely, — 
 
 " It would be mistaken kindness to disguise from you the truth, 
 sir. Mrs. Coverdale is in a most precarious state — her life hangs 
 on a thread; I do not say that she must die, but it is my duty to 
 tell you that it is more than probable that she may do so ; the next 
 twelve hours will probably decide the question. She is now appar- 
 ently sinking into a heavy slumber — from this she may never awake, 
 or it may be succeeded by fits of delirium, from which she would be 
 unable to rally." 
 
 Harry shuddered, then asked, — 
 
 *' And what woiild be a favourable symptom ? " 
 
 " If Mrs. Coverdale should wake free from delirium, so as to be 
 able to recognize those about her, you may reckon that the fever 
 has worn itself out ; and the only thing then to dread will be her 
 extreme weakness ; in that case every effort must be made to keep 
 her up : give her port wine, or even biandy, a teaspoonful every 
 five minutes if she appears faint; but my friend, Mr. Gouger, is 
 quite aware of the proper measures to be taken— she cannot be in 
 better hands."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 3G3 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 ALICE APPOINTS HER SUCCESSOR. 
 
 That stipposed .trreat arbiter of life and death, the London ]:)liysician, 
 bad departed, leaving' at least one aching heart behind him; for 
 Coverdale could not disguise from himself that, although Sir J, 
 
 C ■ had not actually pronounced Alice's sentence in plain words, 
 
 bis intention had been to prepare him for the worst. In pity to 
 Emily's youth and warm affection for her sister, he did not acquaint 
 her with the immediate proximity of the crisis on which depended 
 their loved one's fate and his happiness ; nor, not placing any great 
 reliance on Lord Alfred Courtland's power of keeping a secret, did 
 he enlighten him either; but he made some excuse for detaining him 
 and offering him a bed. so that he might be unable to start on his 
 mission to Hazlehurst Grange until the next moraing. 
 
 As the evening advanced, Alice, who bad been alternately dozing 
 and waking \ip to bewail herself in wild, incohei'ent sentences, fell 
 into a deep, heavy sleep. 
 
 Dr. Gouger, having yielded to Harry's earnest request that he 
 would return and sleep at Coverdale Park that night, set out to 
 pay two or three indispensable visits, promising to be back in good 
 time. 
 
 Abovit eleven o'clock, Emily used every argument she could think 
 of to try and induce Harry, who had sat up during the last three 
 nights, to allow her to take his place, but in vain ; and reading in his 
 pale, anxious countenance that his mind was made up, she contented 
 herself with obtaining his promise that if any change took place, 
 she should be summoned immediately, went to bed, and dreamed 
 that Lord Alfred Courtland was a Persian prince, disguised as a 
 physician, who had brought a talisman to cure Alice, for which he 
 was to be liberally and appropriately rewarded with her (the 
 dreamer's) own fair hand and the Archbishopric of Canterbury. 
 
 Emily had scarcely retired when Dr. Gouger returned. Alice was 
 still rapt in a heavy sleep, from which, he gave strict orders she 
 should not be aroused. 
 
 " Who sits up with her P" he inquired. 
 
 " The nurse, of course," returned Harry : " that is, if snoring in an 
 arm-chair deserves to be called so ; and, until she is out of danger, 
 or, if it should be so, until God may see fit to take her from me, I 
 will never leave her ! " 
 
 " Well, then, if she wakes cf herself before morning, be very careful 
 not to startle or alarm hei-. Watch her eyes closely, and see if she 
 i-ecognizes you ; if she does so, that will be a favourable symptom ; if
 
 364 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 she speaks to jon, control yoiii" feelings, and answer lier quietly and 
 calmly ; then instantly send for nie. I think you perfectly under- 
 stand P Well then, as I've ridden a good many miles to-day, and 
 have even a longer round to take to-morrow, I'll go and lie down. I 
 shall not undress, so I can be with our patient the moment you send 
 for me." 
 
 Thus saying, the doctor, who was a short, plump, florid little man 
 with a plain face preserved from insignificance by a pair of bright, 
 keen eyes, and a magnificent forehead, yawned twice, and betook him- 
 self to the spare room allotted to him. 
 
 Twelve o'clock ! Alice still asleep ! The nurse having arranged 
 a formidable line of medicine bottles ready for use, produces a well- 
 thumbed volume from her pocket, and adjusting her si^ectacles, sits 
 down to read by the night-lamp. One o'clock ! The nurse, after 
 many fruitless attempts to keep up appearances, and delude Harry 
 into the belief that she is wide awake, begins to nod over her book, 
 occasionally varying the performance by trying to swallow a sup- 
 pressed snore, and choking in the attempt. Two o'clock ! No change 
 in the patient ; but the nurse, who during the last half -hour has 
 settled down into a deep and undisgiiisable sleep, begins to snore 
 so loudly that Ooverdale, afraid of her disturbing Alice, takes her 
 by the shoulder and leads her quietly, but unresistingly, into the 
 dressing-room, and seats her on a sofa ; to which discipline the 
 nurse, who has once or twice before experienced the force of Han-y's 
 quiet manner, submits with a lamb-like meekness and docility, of 
 which those who had seen her tyrannizing in the sick chambers of 
 her poorer clients, would scarcely have deemed her capable. Three 
 o'clock ! How long the hours seem, and how dreary ! The stillness 
 — broken only by the measured breathing of the patient and the 
 distant snoring of the banished nurse — the deep, solemn stillness of 
 a country house at night, becomes painfully oppressive to the over- 
 •wi'ought senses of the watcher. Will the crisis never arrive ? Alice 
 moves slightly, and moans in her sleep. Harry trembles from head 
 to foot. Is she about to wake ? Will she recognize him ? No ! — 
 she sinks again into a deep, heavy slumber, and Harry breathes a 
 sigh of relief and of thankfulness that the fearful moment is again 
 postiDoned. Four o'clock ! The dim grey light of dawn begins to 
 peep in through the opening in the shutters, caiising the lamp to 
 shed lurid, flickering rays round the sick room, and thus adding to 
 rather than diminishing, the darkness. How cold it has become ! 
 and how every nerve and fibre in Harry's injured arm aches and 
 throbs ! What an etenaity of anguish appears capable of being 
 condensed into a few minutes of severe bodily pain ! 
 
 Hark ! what is that low, wailing sound outside the window ? He 
 starts, and turns pale ! Why do those foolish, hateful legends of 
 banshees throng and crowd into his brain? Why does he remember 
 with shivering dread that old wife's tale of a white lady who weeps 
 and wrings her hands before the death of any member of the
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 30j 
 
 Coverdale family ? He lauj^lied at it as a boy, and dressed himself 
 in white to frighten the maids. He cannot laugh at it now ! Again 
 it comes, louder and more prolonged ; but he knows this time that 
 it is the howling of a dog — the King Charles's spaniel, Alice's pet, 
 which he has been obliged to have tied up, lest it might disturb her ; 
 but hitherto it had bome its confinement quietly . "Why should it 
 howl so dismally to-night ? Did any strange instinct warn it of its 
 mistress's danger ? Ah ! that word — danger ; — yes, a danger from 
 which all his deep fervent love, and his unequalled, manly strength, 
 were alike powerless to shield her. How crushed, and helpless, and 
 miserable, well-nigh despairing, he feels ! And yet are they not 
 both in the hands of a merciful Father ? God's will be done ! but as 
 the words of resignation pass his lips, the big tears roll down his 
 cheeks as the recollection of all that he might be resigning wrung 
 his loving breast. Covering his eyes with his hand, he strove to 
 shut out all thought, all feeling ! How long he remained in this 
 position he never knew; but as soon as he removed his hand, it 
 struck him that Alice had changed her attitude. Shading his eyes 
 from the glare of the lamp, he gazed earnestly at her. Tes, she had 
 moved, and surely she was awake. While he yet looked, unable 
 to trust the evidence of his senses, a soft, faint voice, scarcely above 
 a whisper, pronounced his name: so low was the sound, that, 
 fancying it might be a delusion of his own overwrought senses, Harry 
 bent down his head, as he asked, in a quiet, gentle tone of voice, — 
 
 " Alice, darling are you awake ? Did you call me ? " 
 
 For a moment there was no reply, and then the same gentle voice 
 whispered, — 
 
 " Harry, dear, you have been away a long, long time." 
 
 As she spoke, she tried to raise her arm to draw his face nearer ; 
 but the wasted muscles refused to do their duty, and the poor thin 
 almost transparent hand, di'opped powerless beside her. 
 
 " I am very weak. Hairy, love," she said ; then, with an effort at 
 recollection, she added : " Where am I ? — here, at home ? Have I 
 been ill long ? " 
 
 " You have been very ill, my own darling ; but you will soon get 
 well now. Don't try to talk, or think about it yet. I will fetch you 
 a soothing draught, and then you must endeavour to go to sleep 
 again." 
 
 Fearful of over-exciting her, he rose to call the nurse. As he 
 turned to leave her for this purpose, Alice again stretched out her 
 hand to detain him. 
 
 " Harry, love, do not go away, please. I will do everything you 
 tell me, but I shall die if I lose you again." 
 
 Harry stooped and kissed her pale, thin cheek. 
 
 " I am only going to call the nurse," he said. " I will never leave 
 you any more, dearest ! " 
 
 Alice faintly endeavoured to return his caress, and sank back 
 exhausted on her pillow.
 
 366 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 HaiTy roused the still sleeping nurse, and dispatched lier to 
 summon Dr. Gouger. Then returning to his wife's bedside, he took 
 her thin hand in his ; and as his affectionate pressure was feebly 
 returned, the hope that Alice might be restored to him — a hope 
 which that night of anxious watching had nearly destroyed — began 
 once more to reanimate him. 
 
 Dr. Gouger, accustomed to be called up at all hours of the night, 
 made his appeai-ance in an incredibly shoi't space of time. As he 
 approached the bed, Alice perceived him, and smiled faintly in token 
 of recognition— a favourable symptom, at which the doctor nodded 
 approval. Having made a careful examination of the patient, he 
 prepared a draught, which he gave her. Then saying, " Now try 
 and go to sleep, my dear madam, and I trust to find you much 
 refreshed to-morrow morning," he turned to leave the room. 
 
 HaiTy followed him to the door. 
 
 *' Well ? " he said, in a tone of the deepest anxiety. 
 
 '■ The disease has worn itself out. Mrs. Coverdale is free from 
 fever, and the only thing we have now to fear is weakness," was the 
 doctor's reply. " She must be kept perfectly quiet both in mind and 
 body for some days. "When she wakes in the morning, throw a cape 
 or something over that arm of yours ; it might give her a shock if 
 she were to perceive it suddenly. It is a very favourable symptom 
 her having recovered consciousness so completely, — in fact, the case 
 is going on as well as, under the circumstances, I conceive to be 
 possible." 
 
 " Thank GOD ! " was all the reply Harry could make ; but as Alice, 
 with her hand in his, fell into a sound, refreshing slumber, his whole 
 soul poured itself out in silent but heartfelt thanksgiving to the 
 Father of all mercies, who had accepted his penitence, and again 
 entrusted to his care the tender flower which, in his inconsiderate 
 carelessness, he had once neglected. 
 
 When Emily came down to breakfast on the following morning, 
 she quite started with pleased surprise to perceive the bright, happy 
 expression of her brother-in-law's countenance. 
 
 " I need not ask whether Alice is better," she began ; " I can read 
 it in your face. But has any gi-eat change taken place since yester- 
 day?" 
 
 In reply to her question, Harry told her all — told her even more 
 than he had ever confessed to himself — how, day by day, his hopes 
 had diminished and his fears increased, until, after the physician's 
 caution on the previous morning, he had made up his mind that the 
 medical men considered Alice dying ; how he had concealed from 
 her that the crisis of the complaint was at hand ; and how he had 
 passed the night in an agony of trembling expectation, longing for 
 and yet dreading the moment in which she should awake ; together 
 with his delight when he heard her pronoimce his name. 
 
 Lord Alfred Courtland set off in high glee for Hazlehurst 
 Grange, certain of a hearty welcome, as bearer of such good
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 367 
 
 tidinsrs, and happier, as he dechired, than he had felt for the last six 
 months. 
 
 A week passed away. For two or three days, Alice appeared to 
 progress favourably — as favourably as even her husband's anxiety 
 could desire. She knew every one, and conversed reasonably upon 
 all subjects ; but with the return of consciousness, a settled melan- 
 choly appeared to have taken possession of her. This, together with 
 her extreme weakness, gave uneasiness alike to her indefatigable 
 nurses, Harry and Emily, and to Dr. Gouger. Taking Harry aside 
 one morning, he began, — 
 
 " There are symptoms about Mrs. Coverdale which I cannot under- 
 stand, and which appear to me more mental than bodily. They are 
 retarding her recovery ; and if you could ascertain the cause, and 
 were able to remove it, I do not hesitate to tell you that you would 
 prove a more effectual physician than I, or any one else, can be to 
 her ; but you must bear in mind her state of extreme debility ; she is 
 not fit to discuss any exciting topic at present." 
 
 *' Then how would you recommend me to proceed ? " inquired 
 Harry, the doctor's warning having impressed him with two 
 diametx'ically opposite ideas : — first, that it behoved him to ascertain 
 whether anything, and (if anything) what, was preying upon his 
 wife's mind ; and, secondly, that by so doing, he should probably 
 lead her to talk on some exciting subject, which, in her present weak 
 state, was the thing of all others to be avoided. How were these 
 difficulties to be reconciled ? 
 
 Dr. Gouger's ansvver did not tend greatly to elucidate matters. 
 
 " Really, my dear sir, that is a point on which I can give you no 
 advice. In the treatment of all bodily ailments, I, with all due 
 deference to my professional bi-ethren, consider myself as com- 
 petent as any man ; but were I so far to overstep my proper 
 province as to attempt to ' minister to a mind diseased,' as our 
 great poet has it, I shoxild be guilty of unpardonable presumption. 
 No, my dear sir, I have given you the suggestion, and must leave 
 it to your sound judgment how far, or in what way, it may be 
 desirable to act upon it." 
 
 Poor Harry! just the very points upon which he felt most 
 incompetent to form an opinion were those on which he was 
 called upon to decide and act ; but Harry had one adviser which 
 never failed him — his own simple, straightforward commonsense ; and 
 to that, and the so-called chapter of accidents, he resolved to trust. 
 
 During the remainder of that dtiy, however, the aforesaid chapter 
 did not afford him the opportimity he sought for. Alice appeared 
 weak and depressed, and more inclined to sleep than to converse. 
 On the following morning, she seemed a degree stronger and less 
 disinclined to exertion. She inquired into the particulars of the 
 steeple-chase, and especially interested herself in all the details relat- 
 ing to the leap at which he met with his accident, and his " pluck " in 
 remounting and winning the race with a broken arm.
 
 3G8 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 After Hariy bad ^iven a full, true, and particular account of the 
 affair from beg^inning to end, and bis wife bad evinced all proper 
 interest and sympatby, a pause ensued in tbe conversation, wbich 
 was broken by Alice. 
 
 " Emily bas been telling me bow you would sit up witb me, nigbt 
 after nigbt, wben you ougbt to bave been lying in bed yourself witb 
 your poor arm," sbe said ; " bow kind and good it was of you ! I 
 bope you do not suffer very miicb pain now ? " 
 
 *' Ob, no ! it is troublesome at times, biit in general it is pretty 
 easy," was tbe reply. 
 
 After anotber pause, Alice asked, in a low, trembling voice, — 
 
 " Did you tbink I sbould die, HaiTy ? " 
 
 " I was natm-ally very anxious and unhappy about you," returned 
 Coverdale, " and^well, since you are getting on so nicely, I will 
 confess that I was terribly frightened about you at one time, — that 
 night on which tbe crisis took place especially ; I never wish to pass 
 such another six hours, I assiire you ! " 
 
 " HaiTy, love, I hope it would not make you very unhappy to lose 
 me. Just a little sori-y I sbould wish you to feel ; I should like you, 
 when you are recollecting me, to think, ' she was a poor, foolish little 
 thing, very obstinate and perverse at times, but still she loved me as 
 well as such a silly little thing could.' " 
 
 " Alice, my own darling, why indulge in such gloomy fancies ? " 
 replied her husband tenderly; "you know, you must be sure, it 
 woidd break my heart to lose you. Ask Emily whether I am not a 
 different creature since the doctors bave pronoimced you out of 
 danger P " 
 
 " Harry, my own dearest husband, I love to hear you say that, and 
 I know it is true ; but, dear Harry, you must not be very unhappy if 
 stich a thing were to occur, for — for — I think I shall die yet ; I tbink 
 I grow weaker and weaker every day ; I shall never bave strength 
 enough to get well again." 
 
 Coverdale was about to interrupt her, but she placed her finger on 
 bis lips to imply her wish that be should remain silent as sbe con- 
 tinued, — 
 
 " Yes, dearest, I believe I am gradually sinking into my grave ; it 
 made me very, very unhapi)y at first ; for life is pleasant, and I am 
 yoimg to die ! besides. I know, love, what a bad, tiresome wife I liaA^e 
 been to you, and I did so want to try if I could not do better ; I know 
 what a proud, rebellious, wilful temper I have shown towards you, 
 but indeed I don't tbink I bave altogether a bad heart, and I did 
 hope if I tried very bard, perhaps I coiild make you happy ; but 
 lately I have begun to think it may be better for you as it is." 
 
 " My own darling, what strange, silly fancies are these ? Gouger 
 says you are going on as well as possible ; you make me wretched to 
 hear you talk so, and what do you mean by it being better for me 
 as it is ? If I were to lose you, I sbould never know another happy 
 hour."
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 3G9 
 
 " Ton tliink so now, deai'," was the reply, " and very kind it is of 
 you to be so fond of your naughty, tii'esome little wife ; and I know 
 you will be very unhappy at first when I die ; but you must go abroad 
 or take a shooting tour somewhere, to keep you from thinking and 
 fretting about me ; and — you must not be angry at what I am going 
 to say, dear — in a year or so you must come back, and then you can 
 maiTy some one who will make you a better wife than jjooi", silly 
 little Alice — some one who has been attached to you a long time, and 
 whom there will be no I'eason why you should not love in return when 
 I am out of the way ; she is more clever and courageous than I am, 
 and vsall be able to enter into your pursuits, and help you with your 
 magistrate's business, and — and — oh ! I am sure you will be very 
 happy with her, dear ! " 
 
 CHAPTER LXIL 
 
 MRS, COVERDALE THINKS BETTER OF IT, 
 
 Harry listened with all the patience he could muster while Alice was 
 thus comfortably arranging her o"vvn decease and his second marriage, 
 then speaking gi-avely, though still in the most affectionate manner, 
 he replied, — 
 
 " I cannot even feel annoyed with yoti now you are so ill and weak, 
 nay poor child, but the matter to which you allude is most repugnant 
 and distasteful to me ; it is a subject, in fact, on which I wonld not 
 allow any human being but yoiu-self to address me. I will not 
 pretend to niisvmderstand your allusion; but I do most solemnly 
 assure you that you are mistaken, and that were it, indeed, God's 
 will that you should be taken from me, no new ties should come 
 between my soul and the memory of the only woman, except my poor 
 mother, whom I have ever really loved. I see that you do not believe 
 me ! it is unjust, almost unkind of you ! " 
 
 Harry spoke with deep feeling ; and. Alice, with tears in her eyes, 
 placed her poor, thin hand within that of her husband as she 
 replied, — 
 
 " I do most fully believe that you love me as you say, and that at 
 this moment you do not imagine you could be happy with anybody 
 else, but it is a comfort to me to think that when I am parted from 
 yoix there will still be some one to care for you. I assure you I feel 
 quite differently towards Miss Crofton now ; I was jealous of her, 
 dreadfully jealous— I confess it ! but I now am grateful to her for 
 
 £ b
 
 370 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 loving you, and sorry I ever entertained such uncharitable feelings 
 towards her. I mean to leave her all my jewels, except one or two 
 little things I should like to give poor Emily." 
 
 Alice paused, partly through weakness, partly because she wanted 
 her husband to signify his approval of her sentiments, which she 
 considered was the least he could do, in return for what was, in fact, 
 to her, an act of almost supei'human charity and self-denial. But 
 Coverdale was in no humour to comply with her desire ; on the con- 
 trary, so distasteful was the whole matter, and poor Alice's idea of 
 the situation so far from the truth, that he was driven to his wits' 
 end with perplexity and annoyance, which nothing but a sense of his 
 wife's unfitness to sustain so energetic a mode of address prevented 
 from breaking forth in a burst of his " quiet manner." As he con- 
 tinued silent, Alice resumed : — 
 
 " You mvist not be angry with me for knowing about it, HaiTy 
 dear, for the knowledge was forced upon me, nor was I aware 
 what Lord Alfred Courtland was about to tell me until I had heard 
 so much that my womanly dignity would not allow me to stop 
 him ; I did not choose to let him think I could believe it possible 
 you had done anything I should be afraid to hear, and so he told me 
 all." 
 
 " And pray what might all be ? " inquired Harry, as calmly as he 
 was al)le. 
 
 " Oh ! about her being in love with you, and your a'unning away 
 together, and old Mr. Somebody (I can't remember names) taking 
 her away again, and preventing you from marrying her ; yes, he told 
 me all about it." 
 
 " He told you a pack of lies, so mixed up with a little truth, that 
 unless I were able to give you a detailed account of the affair I could 
 not separate them, and I am under a solemn promise not to say any- 
 thing about it : but I know what I wiU do. In the meantime believe 
 this — I love you with my whole lieai't and soul, and you only, and if 
 you have any regard for me you will strive to banish all these silly 
 fancies, which only delay your recovery, and get well as fast as you 
 can for my sake. And now you have talked more than is good for 
 you, so I shall send Emily to you to read you to sleep." 
 
 As soon as he had put this resolution into practice, he betook himself 
 to the library, and wrote as follows : — 
 
 " Dear Arabella, — The promise I made you at the inn, at 
 Fiumalba, I have up to this time kept faithfully ; I now ask you to 
 release me from it. My wife's happiness (in which my own is bound 
 up), perhaps her life even, depends upon your doing so: she has 
 just passed the crisis of a brain fever, her bodily weakness is 
 lamentable to witness, and the mental depression naturally arising 
 from it leads her to take a morbid and desponding view of her own 
 chances of recovery : in such a position, anything that will conduce 
 to raise her spirits and tranquillize her mind will effect more than
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 371 
 
 twenty doctors. Some mischief-maker lias caused her to obtain a 
 garbled account of a certain occurrence, to which I will not farther 
 refer ; nothing but the whole truth will suffice to set her mind at 
 rest. Arabella ! I deeply regret this necessity ; but it cannot be 
 avoided, and I trust to you to act towards me as I would act by you 
 if the situation were reversed. 
 
 " I remain always, 
 
 " Your true and sincere friend, 
 
 "Haert Coverdale." 
 
 For two or three days after that on which the foregoing conversa- 
 tion between Coverdale and his wife took place, Alice continued 
 much in the same condition, the idea that she should die, and that 
 after her death Harry would espouse Arabella Crofton, and be much 
 happier than she had been able to make him, appeared never absent 
 from her mind ; her appetite decreased, her sleep became broken and 
 fitful, and Mr. Gouger's face grew longer, and his head shook more 
 and more like that of Lord Bui'leigh in the " Critic," every time he 
 visited her. 
 
 One morning, on Coverdale's return from the neighboiiring town, 
 whither he had ridden to procure some delicacy wherewith to try and 
 tempt Alice's capricious appetite, he was equally surprised and pleased 
 on entering her room to perceive a brightness in her eye and a colour 
 in her cheek, such as he had feared never to see there again. 
 
 " Why, Alice darling, this fine morning has inspired you — you are 
 looking more like yourself than I have seen you this many a long 
 day!" he exclaimed, as he seated himself by the easy-chair which 
 Alice had gained sufficient strength to use as a substitute for her 
 couch. 
 
 Regarding him with a smile and blush, which tinged her pale 
 cheeks with the most delicate rose-colour, she replied, — 
 
 " You have grown very clever in reading people's faces of late, 
 Harry dear; but you are quite right in fancying something has 
 inspired me— at least, if feeling very happy is what you mean by 
 inspiration. But oh ! how foolish I have been ! how wrong, how 
 unjust I was ever to doubt you ! Harry dearest, can you forgive me 
 for not feeling certain that you had always acted as nobly and 
 generously before I knew you as you have done since ? If you could 
 tell how I hate and despise myself for my silly, illiberal suspicions ! 
 But you must wonder all this time what has set me raving in this 
 strange way. What do you think of my having had a letter from — 
 yes ! actually from Miss Crofton, telling me — here, read it yourself, 
 I am certain every word of it is true ; and oh ! how I pity her for 
 being obliged to write it, and, indeed, for the whole affair, poor 
 thing ! " 
 
 As Alice spoke she drew a letter from the pocket of her dress, and 
 gave it to her husband ; it ran as follows : — 
 
 " I have received a note from Mr, Coverdale, urging me to release
 
 372 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 liim from a promise lie most kindly made me at a time when, bowed 
 down by sliame and contrition, liis doing so saved me, as I verily 
 believe, from madness or suicide. He tells me your bealtb and his 
 happiness depend upon my complying with his request ; it becomes 
 then a duty in me to do so ; and, however painful it may be, I will 
 not flinch from it. It appears to me that the most effectual way to 
 remove any misapprehension from your mind in regard to the natiire 
 and extent of my acquaintance with Mr. Coverdale before his 
 marriage will be to give you a concise account of the occurrences 
 which took place during the summer I spent in Italy, whither I had 
 accompanied a family of the name of Muir, in the capacity of 
 governess. The Muirs were well-meaning, commonplace people, not 
 possessing the slightest tact or refinement of feeling. I was at that 
 time young and morbidly sensitive ; and the slights they put upon 
 me, without, as I can now perceive, intending any unkindness, or, 
 indeed, being aware of the effect their thoughtlessness was producing 
 upon me, were a daily martyrdom to my proud spirit. We spent 
 three months at Florence; and shortly after we had settled there, 
 John Muir, the eldest son, who had been making a tour among the 
 Swiss mountains, rejoined his family, accompanied by Mr. Coverdale, 
 who had known him at the university. Slightly attracted, I fancy, 
 by the good looks of my eldest pupil, who was an iinusually pretty 
 nonentity, Mr. Coverdale, always talking of tlie necessity of continu- 
 ing his journey to the East, still lingered at Florence. The great 
 kindness of heart and delicacy of feeling which lie hid under a 
 roughness of manner that can only mislead a very superficial 
 observer, soon led him to perceive and pity my isolated position ; 
 and from the moment in which he became aware how keenly the 
 sense of dependence preyed ujDon me, he treated me with a degree of 
 defei'ence and attention which could not but conti-ast most favourably 
 with the neglect I experienced from others. Under the cold manner 
 which circumstances have forced me to assume, I have concealed a 
 naturally ardent and impetuous disposition, and as deeply as I had 
 been affected by the ungenerous conduct of the Muirs did I now 
 appreciate Mr. Coverdale's sympathy and kindness — in a word, for 
 I have resolved to conceal nothing from you, I loved him with all 
 the force of my passionate nature. But the very strength of my 
 feelings led me studiously to conceal them ; nor, until the elopement 
 of my eldest pupil with a scheming Italian adventurer broke up the 
 party, did I give Mr. Coverdale the slightest opportimity of suspect- 
 ing the warm interest he had excited in me ; but when about to bid 
 him farewell as I imagined for ever, my self-control gave way, and I 
 burst into a passionate flood of tears. Equally grieved and surprised, 
 he soothed me with his accustomed kind and considerate delicacy, 
 begged me always to look upon him as a friend, and apply to him in 
 any emergency, as to a brother ; and as soon as I became somewhat 
 more composed, left me. The next tidings I heard of him were that 
 he had quitted Florence. Scarcely had I retired to my room, to
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 373 
 
 endeavour to calm my excitement, and to struggle to subdue my 
 hopeless attacliment in tears and solitude, when Mrs. Muir sent for 
 me, and reproached me with equal virulence and unkindness for her 
 daughter's elopement, Avhich she declared to have been the conse- 
 quence of my neglect. ' Had you,' she continued, ' been less engrossed 
 by seeking to ensnare the aifections of Mr. Coverdale, you would 
 have been better able to perform the duties of your situation, and 
 this misfortune might never have come upon us.' Stung by the 
 mixture of truth and falsehood in this cruel reproach, I replied— I 
 know not what — proudly, and I can now well believe impertinently ; 
 and the next thing that I became aware of was, that a sum of money 
 sufficient to defray my expenses to England was placed before me, 
 and that I was dismissed. Thrown thus on my own resources in a 
 foreign land, withoiit a single friend near to help or advise me, what 
 wonder that I instinctively tunied to the only quarter from which I 
 had for years (for mine had been a desolate youth) met with kindness, 
 consideration, and sympathy ; and that from the chaos of conflicting 
 emotions one idea alone stood out clear and defined — to seek Harry 
 Coverdale, tlii'ow myself on his generosity, tell my tale of sorrow and 
 of love, and leave the result to him and destiny. That such a course 
 was unwomanly, almost unpardonable in me, none can be more 
 bitterly aware than I am ; but I pray God that those of my own sex 
 who are inclined to condemn me may never be tempted as I was 
 tempted — may never fall as, but for the superhuman goodness of 
 heart, and the tender, simple, yet chivalrous nature of yoiu' husband, 
 I should have fallen. With me, to resolve and to act were simul- 
 taneous. I lost not a moment in ascertaining the route Mr. Cover- 
 dale had taken, and ere the Muir family were aware of my departure 
 I had followed him to Fiumalba, a small town within a few hours' 
 journey of Florence. Without allowing myself an instant's time for 
 reflection, I sought the hotel at which Mr. Coverdale was stopping, 
 and in my distraction flung myself at his feet, and told him every- 
 thing — how I loved him better than any other created being — better 
 even than my own womanly pride and good name — how I felt con- 
 vinced that such love as mine mvTst in time win return — how that if 
 he would make me his wife, I would devote every thoiTght, every 
 action of my future existence, to secure his happiness— how, if he 
 refused me, I would lie down at his feet and die, but never leave him. 
 Then did he indeed redeem his promise of acting by me as a brother 
 — then did he save me from my worst enemy — myself. Having 
 soothed and quieted my agony of spirit, by his calm good sense and 
 judicious kindness, he appealed to my reason — set before me how, by 
 yielding to my request, and making me the partner of his future life, 
 while unable to feel for me that degree of afilection without which 
 such a tie must become unbearable, he would be doing me an injury 
 i-ather than confemng a benefit ; nor did he leave me until he had 
 obtained my consent to allow him to return to Florence, explain the 
 whole matter to Mr. Muir, expostulate with him as to the cruelty
 
 374 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 and injustice of thus dismissing me with an undeserved shir on my 
 character as a governess, and endeavour to arrange that I should 
 remain with his wife and daughter, and accompany them on their 
 return to England. In this negotiation he was successful. Mr. 
 Muir — an easy, self-indulgent character, yet one who coiild, on 
 occasions such as that to Avhich I refer, act kindly and honourably — 
 accompanied Mr. Coverdale back to Fiumalba, where he informed 
 me that he had prevailed on Mrs. Muir to agree to the above 
 proposal, adding that he and Mr. Coverdale were the only persons 
 aware of the imprudent step I had taken, and that they were both 
 willing to make me a solemn promise never (unless by my desire) to 
 reveal the transaction to any one. Utterly broken-spirited and 
 miserable, I consented, and, taking leave of my preserver, returaed 
 with Mr. Muir to Floi'ence. Frora that day, imtil our accidental 
 meeting in Park Lane, I saw Mr. Coverdale no more. What it has 
 cost me to write this I will not attempt to describe, but that every 
 word of it is the simple truth, I call Heaven to witness ; that the 
 knowledge of it may for ever reconcile all differences between you 
 and your noble, generous-hearted husband, and that you may be 
 restored to make him as happy as I am cei-tain it is in your power to 
 do, is the wish and prayer of one who, if she has erred deeply, has 
 suffered equally, as she hopes not without some good result. 
 
 "Arabella Ckofton." 
 
 When Harry had finished reading the letter, he returned it to his 
 wife, observing, — 
 
 " That is, as she says, a faithful account of all that ever occun-ed 
 between us. You now see why I was unable to explain to you the 
 apparent mystery. I hold a promise to be so sacred a thing, that 
 nothing — not even the loss of your affection — could induce me to 
 break one. And now, my poor child, I hope you are satisfied that I 
 indeed love you with my whole heart, and that the affection of a 
 thousand Arabella Crof tons would never compensate me for the loss 
 of one bright smile or fond look from my own darling wife." 
 
 Alice attempted to reply, but her heart was too full for words : 
 bursting into a flood of tears of mingled joy and contrition, she flung 
 her arms around her husband's neck, and in that prolonged embrace 
 ended once and for ever all Harry Coverdale's matrimonial disputes 
 and discomforts.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 375 
 
 CHAPTER LXIII. 
 
 LOKD ALFRED SEVERS HIS LEADING STRINGS. 
 
 Lord Alfred Courtland and Horace D'Almayne were both 
 members of the Pandemonium, at which notable club the latter, 
 when he had no rich victim on whom to quarter himself, chiefly 
 spent his days. The visit which Lord Alfred had paid to Coverdale 
 Park, and his subsequent mission to Hazlehurst Grange, had 
 impressed him deeply and brought out all his best qualities. On 
 his return to town, he took himself to task more seriously than he 
 had yet done for the careless and extravagant life he had been 
 leading ; and, warned by experience how futile such repentance might 
 prove, unless followed by some practical eiforts at self-reform, he 
 set to work with his accustomed impetuosity to remedy the evils 
 resulting from his injudicious attempt to become a fast " man-about- 
 town." The Honourable Billy Whipcord relieved him of one difiiculty 
 by purchasing Don Pasquale for the same amount which Lord 
 Alfred had given Tirrett for the animal, and with the money thus 
 obtained, together with his winnings on the steeple-chase, he, like an 
 honest fellow, paid all his creditors. Feeling much happier for this 
 step in the right direction, he determined to follow it up by another, 
 and accordingly wi-ote to his father, saying that, bis health being 
 now re-established, it was his wish to return to Cambridge, and 
 endeavour to make up for lost time. Having dispatched this letter 
 and ridden for a couple of hours in the Park, the necessity of dining 
 occurred to him, and he turned his horse's head towards the 
 Pandemonium. As he rode thither, it struck him that he might 
 possibly encounter Horace DAlmayne, and he bethought him of his 
 promise to Harry Coverdale to give up the acquaintance of the man 
 whom he had so incautiously trusted, and who had abused that trust 
 by leading him into evil whenever an opportunity presented itself 
 for so doing. 
 
 Tes ! disagreeable as it was, perhaps even dangerous (for 
 D Abnayne was not a man to insult with impunity), he would redeem 
 his pledged word — he would show his gratitude to Coverdale. If 
 DAlmayne was at the club, he would cut him in a marked and 
 unmistakable manner! As these thoughts were passing through 
 his brain, he became aware of a young man, flashly dressed and 
 mounted on a magnificent horse, who, as he passed, took off his hat 
 to him. Confused for the moment by the idea that it must be some 
 acquaintance whom he ought to recognize, he bowed stiffly, where- 
 upon the horseman wheeled his steed, and rode up to Lord Alfred's 
 side, —
 
 376 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 " I beg your Lordsliip's pa,rdon," he becran, " but I wish to say a 
 few words to you. Does not your Lordship remember me ? " 
 
 " Your behaviour towards me, Mr. Tirrett, was of a nature neither 
 easily to be forgotten, nor calculated to make me desirous of 
 cultivating your fui-ther acquaintance. I have the honour of wishing 
 you good morning." 
 
 Saying this with the hauteur and dignity of the whole House of 
 Peers combined, Lord Alfred turned his head away from his unwished- 
 f or acquaintance and rode on ; but Tirrett had an object in view, and 
 was, therefore, not to be so easily shaken olf . 
 
 " I won't deny," he said coolly, " that your Lordship has good 
 reason to be angry with me, for I played you a trick that, if I'd been 
 a gentleman, and your Lordship's equal, I should consider a very 
 dirty one ; but, if yoiu: Lordship will consider a minute, you'll 
 perceive the difference between us." 
 
 Amused, in spite of his anger, at the fellow's cool audacity. Lord 
 Alfred replied, with a sarcastic laugh, — 
 
 " I should scarcely imagine that would require any very deep 
 thinking to discover ! " 
 
 " Tour Lordship is sharp upon me this afternoon," observed 
 Tirrett, in no way disconcerted, " but I was going to remark that 
 horse-dealing and horse-racing, which you gentlemen enter into for 
 amusement, is the regular business by which such men as myself 
 gain oiu' livelihood ; it's a ticklish sort of trade at the best of 
 times, for we're liable to be deceived and cheated on all sides as 
 well as other people ; so a fellow's obliged to look out and never 
 throw away a chance. Now your job was just this, — the Don was 
 recovering from a bad sprain in the off -foreleg when I sold him to 
 you." 
 
 " Pleasant intelligence for the Honourable Billy ! " miu'mured 
 Lord Alfred. 
 
 " I thought he'd stand]training, but expected he'd break down in the 
 race, and as I never like to ride a losing horse if I can help it, I made 
 my book to win on Black Eagle, but I was obliged to promise to ride 
 Don Pasquale for you, or else you wouldn't have bought him. I don't 
 say I acted right by you ; but I mean to say that I didn't act any 
 worse than others that call themselves gentlemen and your friends 
 too ! " 
 
 '* Do you allude to any one in particular, may I ask P — it is' as well 
 to know one's friends from one's foes," inquired Lord Alfred, his 
 curiosity beginning to awaken. 
 
 " I allude to Horace D'Almayne. Your Lordship best knows 
 whether you consider him your friend," was the reply. 
 
 " I certainly did at one time, if I do not now ; but what has he to 
 do with the affair ? " asked Lord Alfred, his attention now fully 
 aroused. 
 
 In answer to this question, TiiTett entered into a full account of 
 the plot connected with the white-bait dinner, his own acquaintance
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 377 
 
 •witli Captain O'Brien, and other particulars, witli which the reader 
 is ah-eady acquainted, dwelling especially on D'Almayne's advice 
 to him to throw over Lord Alfred and ride for Captain Annesley, 
 for which D'Almayne bargained to receive a percentage on his 
 winnings. 
 
 " And now," he continued, " if I can afford your Lordship proof of 
 the truth of my statement, in D'Almayne's o^vn hand-writing, and 
 let you have that proof, so that you may, if you please, coufront him 
 with it, perhaps your Lordship will set that off against my refusal 
 to ride the steeple-chase for you." 
 
 " Let me see your proof, sir ; I shall then be better able to judge 
 of my amomit of obligation to you," was the curt reply. 
 
 Thus urged, TiiTctt drew from his pocket the identical epistle 
 which D'Almayne had written to him from Lord Alfred's lodgings 
 on the morning (as the date testified) before he started for the 
 continent. Lord Alfred perfectly remembered his writing the note; 
 but the authenticity of the document was established beyond a doubt 
 by the paper, which was stamped with a coronet and the cyi^her A. 0. 
 As this proof of his Mentor's treachery was brought before him, 
 Lord Alfred coloured with anger, and drawing out his pocket-book, 
 he said, — 
 
 " You must permit me to keep this document, Mr, Tirrett ; but, as 
 I consider it of value, I shall give you an equivalent for it." Then 
 handing him a ten-pound note, he continued, " Note for note is a fair 
 exchange." 
 
 Tirrett glanced at the money as if he had half a mind to return it ; 
 but a moment's reflection served to dispel the romantic scruple, and 
 adhering to his rule of never throwing a chance away, he pocketed 
 the cash, and raising his hat, began, — 
 
 " Really, your Lordship's too liberal ! I am off for Yorkshire to- 
 morrow morning ; but I shall be up again before the hunting season 
 with a lot of very first-rate horses ; and as I hope I've now made all 
 straight with your Lordship, I shall be highly honoured if your 
 Lordship will look through the stable before I let the dealers see 
 them." 
 
 Then, with another low bow, he turned his hoi'se's head, and 
 touching him with the spur, cantered off, leaving Lord Alfred to his 
 own reflections, which ran somewhat after the following fashion : — 
 
 " So much for there being honour amongst thieves ! Tirrett coolly 
 sacrifices his accomjjlice in order to retain my custom ! What an 
 inconceivable scoundrel that Horace D'Almayne turns out! I'm 
 about as easy-tempered a fellow as can be ; too much so, I'm afraid ; 
 for I often say Yes when I feel I ought to say No; but I'll cut the 
 swindler dead at the club, or wherever I meet him, and if he does not 
 like it, I'll show him his note to Tirrett, or better still, read it out at 
 the club ; such perfidy ought to be exposed, and I'll not flinch from 
 doing so. Coverdale shall see that his example of straightforAvard 
 manliness is not quite thrown away upon me. I've followed a bad
 
 378 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 model witli tolerable success, and reaped the fruits of sucli folly, and 
 now I'll try whether I cannot imitate a ^ood one. I'd do a great deal 
 to reinstate myself in the good opinion of Harry and his wife ; they've 
 been very kind to me, too kind, for it overpowers me ; but of course 
 they must have lost all respect for me— Harry thinks me a soft, 
 foolish boy, and Alice, a weak, sentimental puppy. Well, I'll do my 
 best to gain their esteem, and if I fail, I shall be none the worse for 
 having tried. How pretty that little Emily is ! prettier than her 
 sister, I think ; and she believes in me to a great extent, that's some 
 comfort ! " 
 
 By the time his Lordship's meditations had reached this point, his 
 Lordship's horse had reached the Pandemonium, which fact, forcing 
 itself on his Lordship's attention, he dismounted, and, consigning the 
 animal to the care of his groom, entered the club-room, when, of 
 course, the first person he encountered was Horace D'Almayne. 
 Owing to Lord Alfred's absence from town D'Almayne had not seen 
 him since his return from the continent, he, therefore, advanced to 
 meet him with the greatest empressement, greeting him with the 
 usual "Ah ! mon cher," which he reserved for those of his associates 
 whom he particularly delighted to honour. Great, therefore, was his 
 astonishment and disgust when Lord Alfred walked past him with 
 his head in the air and his eyes immovably fixed tipon the cornice of 
 the apartment. 
 
 For a moment D'Almayne could scarcely believe the evidence of 
 his senses, so much at variance was his late pupil's conduct with 
 Horace's pre-conceived ideas of his gentle, yielding character ; but 
 a covert smile on the faces of Barrington and several of the usual 
 club-loungers was sufiicient to convince him of the irritating fact 
 that, in the presence of the very men before whom he had often 
 boasted of and paraded his intimacy with and influence over Lord 
 Alfred Courtland, that young nobleman had most decidedly and 
 unequivocally cut him. For some days past D'Almayne had 
 perceived a change to have "come o'er the spirit" in which he had 
 been received by society at large. Intimates had suddenly become 
 slight acquaintances ; slight acqiiaintances had grown strangely short- 
 sighted ; and when he forced himself upon their notice, appeared 
 afflicted with a painful degree of stiffness in the " upper spine." 
 Still, until that moment, no one had ventured actvially to cut him. 
 Now the matter had come to a climax, Horace felt himself brought 
 fairly to bay, and in such a frame of mind he was dangerous. After 
 Lord Alfred had passed D'Almayne, he touched the Honourable 
 William Barrington, alias Billy Whipcord, on the arm, and drawing 
 him aside, said, — 
 
 " I have just been let into a pleasant little secret ; it seems that 
 the reason my dishonourable young acquaintance, Mr. TiiTctt, set 
 his face so detenninately against riding Don Pasquale was that the 
 notable quadruped had a screw loose in the back sinew of one of its 
 inestimable fore-legs, and Tirrett was afraid he would break down in 
 the race. Now as I have become aware of this only within the last
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 379 
 
 half hour, I daresay I have asked and you have given too much for 
 the brute. ' Caveat emptor ' may be a very good general maxim, but I 
 never can see why a gentleman should act about selling a horse in a 
 manner undeserving that title — so, if you find the creature unsound, 
 I shall be happy to hand you back a fifty-poxind note, or more, if you 
 require it. I've passed my ' little go,' as a patron of the turf, and 
 wish to come out of it with clean hands ere I take my leave of that 
 noble pastime." 
 
 " Really, my dear Com'tland, yoxi're too chivalrous," was the reply ; 
 " but I'm quite content with my bargain ; the Don is sound enough 
 to answer my purpose " (he had sold him that morning, and pocketed 
 a cool hundi-ed by the transfer), " and if he were not, I have pur- 
 chased him, and must abide the loss ; — but, excuse me, are you aware 
 that you have just cut Horace D'Almayne ? " 
 
 " As he deserves to be cut by every honourable man," interrupted 
 Lord Alfred, " and, for reasons which I will ex})lain here, before every 
 member of this club now present, if he has the audacity to — to 
 venture to force himself upon me," he continued angrily, as he per- 
 ceived D'Almayne sauntering up to him, with his accustomed listless 
 gait indeed, but with a sparkle in his eye and a red spot on each 
 cheek, which to those who were well acquainted with him showed 
 that he was unusually excited. 
 
 " Has foreign travel and the lapse of a fortnight really altered me 
 so much that your Lordship is unable to recognize an old friend ; or 
 to what other circumstance am I to attribute your singular failure of 
 memory when I accosted you on your entrance ? " he inquired in his 
 most superciliously polite tone and accent. 
 
 " Attribute it to its right cause," was the spirited reply ; " that I 
 desire to associate only with men of honour, an idiosyncrasy which 
 precludes my longer availing myself of the privilege of Mr. D'Al- 
 mayne's society." 
 
 " In fact, that, having made use of me to convert a raw school-boy 
 into a very tame specimen of a fast man, yoii fancy now you are able 
 to run alone, and that it will add to your reputation for fastness to 
 kick down the ladder by which you have mounted the social mole-hill 
 you stand on," was the sneering answer ; " but you have mistaken 
 your man, my Lord. Horace D'Almayne is not a puppet of which 
 you hold the wires to dance, or to be thrown aside, at your Lordship's 
 pleasure. Had you simply chosen to deny me your further acquain- 
 tance, I should have set the gain of valuable minutes against the loss 
 of one of the social incubi my good-nature has entailed upon me, and 
 overlooked the boyish impertinence ; but as you have seen fit to insult 
 me publicly, nothing short of an equally public apology will satisfy 
 me. Should you be infatuated enough to refuse me this, I will for 
 once flatter your Lordship's vanity by supposing you man enough to 
 be aware of the alternative." 
 
 As D'Almayne spoke, he drew himself up with an expression 
 of contemptuous superiority, half-pitying, haK-defiant, which he 
 imagined highly effective.
 
 380 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 It certainly liad one effect, that of rousing Lord Alfi-ed's temper to 
 tlie utmost extent ; and, with flashing eyes and quivering lips, he 
 replied, — 
 
 " If I could believe that you had one thought or feeling of a gentle- 
 man in your composition which my conduct could wound, I would 
 accept one of the alternatives you propose ; but to a man who can 
 abuse the confidence of friendship by availing himself of it to swindle 
 and betray the friend who trusted him, — to such a low, sordid black- 
 leg, I will neither apologize, nor will I afford him the satisfaction due 
 to wounded honour." 
 
 For a moment, as D'Almayne's glance met that of the man he had 
 wronged, his self-possession failed him ; and, ignorant to what extent 
 Lord Alfred might have become cognizant of his nefarious iDractices, 
 he hesitated how far he dared provoke any disclosure. But it was 
 too late to retract : his social position, on which depended his very 
 means of existence, was at stake; and as the thought crossed his 
 mind, the gambler spirit awoke within him. He would carry the 
 matter with a high hand; a bold course was always the wisest; 
 Fortim.e would favoui- those who trusted her. It was his only article 
 of faith, and he clung to it with the pertinacity of a zealot. 
 
 " Highly melodramatic ! " he! said, with a sarcastic sneer. " Tour 
 Lordship has a real speciality for juvenile tragedy. But may I be 
 allowed to inquire what pai-ticular perfidy of mine has elicited the 
 burst of virtuous indignation which you have selected for yoiu* 
 histrionic debut ? " 
 
 " I was willing to have spared you the disga-ace of a public ex- 
 posure," was Lord Alfred's reply ; " but since you choose thus to 
 provoke your fate, I can have to reason for longer concealing the 
 cause which has led me to consider you unfit for the society of 
 honourable men." Tiiming to Barrington, who happened to be 
 standing next him, he continued, " You, sir, and other gentlemen 
 present, may remember how, not many weeks since, a certain steeple- 
 chase rider, named Tirrett, suddenly left me in the Im-ch, by refusing 
 at the last minute to ride for me, by which rascality I was on the 
 point of losing the race, upon which I had made an imprudently 
 heavy book. Mr. D'Almayne was at that time abroad, and, I presvime, 
 imagined, owing to that circumstance, he might transact a little 
 profitable black-leg business with impunity. He accordingly wrote 
 a note to Tirrett, suggesting to him the scheme which he afterwards 
 attempted to carry out ; stipulating, in case of its success, to be paid 
 fifty ]30unds and a percentage on Tirrett's winnings." 
 
 As Lord Alfred concluded, a murmur of disap]jrobation ran round 
 the room, and all eyes were tmnied upon Horace D'Almayne. 
 
 " A cleverly devised tale ! " he said scornfully ; " a mole-hill 
 ingeniously inflated until it appears a mountain. I certainly betted 
 on the race ; I may have given the jockey Tirrett the benefit of my 
 suggestions on the subject, as any other man who has ever been on 
 the turf would have done ; but that all this demonstrates anything,
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 381 
 
 except Lord Alfred Courtland's deplorable ipfiiorance of that said art 
 of ' life about town,' in which he appears to have striven in vain to 
 become a proficient, I am at a loss to conceive." 
 
 " Perhaps the simplest answer to Mr. D'Almayne's statement will 
 be to place the note, on which the foundations of my ' mole-hiU 
 inflated into a mountain ' rest, in Mr. Barrington's hands, asking 
 him, for his own satisfaction, and for that of the other gentlemen 
 present, to read it aloud." 
 
 As he spoke. Lord Alfred drew from his pocket the note given him 
 by Tirrett, and handed it to Barrington, who, after a moment's 
 hesitation, read aloud the following notable epistle, which the reader 
 may remember was written by D'Almayne, with his usual cool 
 audacity, in Lord Alfred Courtland's lodgings : — 
 
 "Dear Tirrett,— Your game is clear : let A. C and O'B- — n 
 
 each believe that you will ride for him, and at the last minute throw 
 both over. In this case. Captain Annesley's Black Eagle is safe to 
 win, as I daresay you know better than I do ; thus you will perceive 
 how to make a paying book. If I prove a true prophet, I shall 
 
 expect a fifty pound note from you, as O'B n will (before you 
 
 quan-el with hiin) tell you I got up the whole affair myself, 
 
 introducing him to A. C , &c. 
 
 " I remain, yours faithfully, 
 " You'll knov^t Who w^hen I claim the Tin. 
 
 " P.S. — If you make a heavy purse out of the business, I shall 
 expect ten per cent, on all beyond five hundred pounds." 
 
 As Barrington ceased reading, D'Almayne obseiwed coolly, — 
 
 "Exactly as I expected — an anonymous letter, supposed to be 
 mine on the word of a blackguard horsedealer (who probably wrote 
 it himself to conceal his own rascality) , and eagerly caught at by 
 this fiery young gentleman, who, anxious to prove that he is out of 
 leading-strings, gladly seeks any pretext for quarrelling with one to 
 whom his Lordship has a painful consciousness that he appears no 
 more a hero than to his valet de chambre. Tirrett declares that I 
 wrote this letter, I say I did no such thing ; there is no proof about 
 the matter, it is simply a question of assertion — Tirrett's word 
 against mine. I leave it to the gentlemen present to say which is 
 most worthy of credit." 
 
 " Allow me to mention one small circumstance which may assist 
 them to an-ive at a just decision," interposed Lord Alfred quietly ; 
 " I have a perfect recollection of Mr. D'Almayne's writing a note, 
 much resembling the one in question, at my lodgings, on the 
 morning before he left England. If I am right in my conjecture, 
 the date would be the 5th of last month, and the post-mark 
 Pall Mall ; may I trouble you to ascertain the point, Mr. Bar- 
 rington? " 
 
 " Right in both respects," was the unhesitating reply. " Moreover,
 
 382 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 here is a coronet and the initials A. C. stamped on the paper, a 
 corroboration which quite satisfies my mind on the subject." 
 
 D'Almayne glanced round, and read his sentence on the faces 
 which surrounded him — faces of men, who, in the insolence of his 
 false position, he had made to feel the lash of his covert sarcasm. 
 Amongst the many there he could not discern one friend. But his 
 self-possession did not forsake him. 
 
 " Of course, all against me," he said ; then turning to Lord Alfred, 
 he continued, — " Your Lordship once expressed a doubt as to the 
 social value of a title; you now, I shonld imagine, perceive your 
 error : for the rest, the letter is an impudent forgery, and the accusa- 
 tion false ; but until I can prove the whole story the clumsy fabrica- 
 tion I know it to be, I shall leave the matter where it stands, unless" 
 — and he glanced round the circle with a savage light in his cold, 
 grey eyes, which no one cared to meet—" unless any gentleman 
 feels inclined to make a personal affair of it, in which case I shall 
 have much pleasure in affording him the satisfaction he requii-es." 
 
 No one appearing desirous of improving the occasion as D Almayne 
 had suggested, the baffled intriguer stalked out of the room with a 
 look of scornful indifference on his features, and rage and hatred 
 burning in his breast. 
 
 CHAPTER LXIV. 
 
 D' ALMAYNE PLATS HIS LAST CARD. 
 
 "Leave me, sir ! I consider yoiu* very presence an insult ! " 
 
 " Before you drive me from you for ever, I am determined to set 
 plainly before you the results which must inevitably follow your 
 decision, and show you unmistakably the difference between the 
 future which awaits you and the lot which might even yet be yours 
 if you have only sufficient strength of character to cast aside the 
 meaningless conventionalities of a false and hollow state of society." 
 D Almayne — for as the reader has no doubt ab-eady conjectm-ed, the 
 foregoing speech proceeded from his lips — paused for a moment to 
 control the excitement under which, despite his endeavours to 
 conceal it, he was evidently labouring. Kate Crane appeared again 
 about to interrupt him ; but by a glance and a gesUire of the hand 
 he resti-ained her, while he continued : — " Ton talk of marriage 
 as a holy tie, and where such a bond is indeed one of the heart, I, 
 sceptic and libertine as you consider me, entirely agree with you; 
 but such a term cannot apply to the cruel mockery which has bound 
 youth, beauty, and intellect to age, decrepitude, and imbecility.
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 3S3 
 
 But putting aside all idea of affection, the temptation wliicli led you 
 to commit this outrage against every better feeling of your nature 
 exists no longer. Mr. Crane is a ruined man; if, therefore, you 
 adhere to the conventional prejudice which you vainly endeavour to 
 dignify by the name of duty, you have nothing to hope but to 
 sacrifice to it the best years of your life, years in which you will still 
 be young, when your queenly beauty and bright clear intellect will fit 
 you to shine in and lead society of a class in which your elegant 
 tastes and refined sympathies would meet with a gratification 
 sufl&cient in itself to render life one scene of pleasurable excitement. 
 But, more than this, you are ambitious ; I can read it in your flash- 
 ing eye, in the curl of your haughty lip. I would open to you such 
 a field for that ambition as in your wildest moments you have never 
 dreamed of. You do not believe me ! you consider me a base, un- 
 scrupulous adventurer. If it wei'e so, what have I ever had to call 
 out the higher, nobler qualities of my nature ? Nothing ! But with 
 such a soul as yours to urge and inspire me, and with your love as my 
 reward, to what height might not my genius soar ! What was the 
 gi'eat Napoleon but a Corsican adventurer ? and yet his was a career 
 an Emperor's daughter was proud to share. You think I am 
 romancing — talking bombastic nonsense ; but it is not so. In 
 America, at the present time, there is an immense field for talent. 
 I know the character of the nation well, know how both its strong 
 and weak points could be turned to account, and form the ladder by 
 which I might climb even to the President's seat, and once there ! — 
 Presidents have ere now become Emperors — from democracy to 
 despotism is the natural transition — history proves it. Since I have 
 known yon, a change has come over my every thought and feeling ; 
 hitherto I have exerted my talents merely to supply my own 
 fastidious requirements, but now my ideas are enlarged, my aspira- 
 tions heightened. Broiight i;p from my earliest childhood among 
 men, clever indeed, but without one pure thought, one disinterested 
 feeling, I became — what I am. You have excited in me higher, 
 nobler feelings. I will not deny that your beauty first attracted me ; 
 but since I have known you, and each day discovered new qualities 
 with which I could sympathize, I have learned to love yoiT with the 
 only deep, real sentiment I have ever yet felt for one of your sex. 
 Hitherto I have looked on women as mere toys wherewith to solace 
 one's leisui-e hours ; but in you I recognize a loftier nature ; I feel 
 not only in the presence of an intelligence equal to my own, but I 
 have an instinctive perception that you might become my leading 
 star, my tutelary deity ! Kate, hear me ! my destiny is in your 
 hands. Fly with me to America — everything is prepared ; and when 
 we aiTive on the soil of a new world, yoii shall become the bride of a 
 man already possessed of riches sufficient to obtain for you luxuries 
 greater than you have yet enjoyed, and with a gift riches are 
 Ijowerless to procure — talent which has never yet failed me, however 
 critical the position — talent which, henceforward, you shall direct
 
 384 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 into any coiu'se tliat best may win yoTir approval ; knowing- that 
 whatever career you may select, the sole reward I shall seek will be 
 your appi'obation — my only happiness, your affection. You have 
 not heard me unmoved — you cannot, will not refuse me ! " 
 
 As D'Almayne concluded, he fixed his eyes on Kate's face, as 
 thou,^h he soui^ht to read there his sentence before her lips should 
 pronounce it, while his cheeks flushed, and his eyes glistened with 
 unfeigned emotion. For an instant, unable to bear the intensity of 
 his glance, Kate turned away with a heightened coloui*, then, 
 recovering her self-possession by a powerful effort, she replied 
 calmly, — 
 
 " I have heard you thus far, Mr. D'Almayne, without inteiTuption, 
 partly because I believe that, for once, you are speaking under the 
 influence of real feeling ; partly because I owe you, as I imagine, a 
 debt of gratitude for your kindness to my brother; these reasons 
 have induced me to listen to addresses, every word of which I 
 consider as the deepest insult which can be offered to a pure-minded 
 woman. You tell me I married Mr. Crane for money; I neither 
 admit nor repel the accusation — like most taimts, it contains a half- 
 truth, so disguised by sarcasm as to appear a whole one. But how 
 doubly sordid should I be, were I to act on your suggestion and quit 
 my husband, — who, if yoiu' supposition be coi'rect, I have sufficiently 
 wronged akeady, — because he has, as you inform me, been swindled 
 out of his wealth — how I leave your own conscience to inform you ! 
 The fact that he is poor, and that you profess yourself rich, is enough 
 to carry conviction to my mind. But I will not enter further into 
 the question : suffice it that your sophistries have failed to blind me, 
 and that I am still able to discern the path of duty — let it lead 
 whither it may, I am resolved to follow it. I have given you, as you 
 requested, a fair hearing and a deliberate reply. For your kindness 
 to my brother I again thank yo\i. As I gather that you are about 
 to leave this country, and can well imagine it may be necessary for 
 you to do so, farewell for ever ! I set your one good deed against 
 your evil ones, and bear you no ill-will. We part neither as friends 
 nor foes." 
 
 As Kate spoke, she rose to quit the room, but D'Almayne inter- 
 posed between her and the door — 
 
 " One moment," he said in his usual tone of sarcasm ; " my modesty 
 cannot permit me to depart, taking credit for a good deed which I 
 have never performed. It was not I who rescued your brother from 
 his difficulty ; though, as a stepping-stone to your favour, I would 
 willingly have done so : for that act of kindness you are indebted 
 to-" 
 
 " Whom ? " inquired Kate eagerly. 
 
 " One to whom, if he had this morning pleaded as I have done, I 
 fancy even your rigid virtue might have afforded a kinder answer — 
 your cousin, Arthur Hazlehurst ! " 
 
 D'Almayne spoke at random, but the arrow wounded as dee])]y as
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 385 
 
 even his disappointed malevolence could have desired. With every 
 vestige of colour banished from her pale cheek, Kate sank back upon 
 her chair, and drawing her breath with diflBculty, i^laced her hand 
 upon her side, as if in pain. Heedless of her suffering — nay, rather 
 rejoicing in it— the evil expression came across D'Almayne's face as, 
 in a tone of sarcastic triumph, he exclaimed, — 
 
 " You love him ! I was certain of it, and am fully avenged. 
 Chained by your marriage vow to a decrepid imbecile, while you 
 love another with all the depth and fire of your passionate nature, 
 you will experience the torments of the damned. To the remorse 
 and despair these reflections will engender, — a despair so desolating 
 that you will live to regret even your decision of this morning, — 
 I leave you. When your husband returns to-night, a ruined man, 
 remember my words — the curse that you have brought upon yourself 
 v/ill have begun to work ! " 
 
 Unable to reply, Kate remained leaning back, her eyes fixed upon 
 him with a kind of horrible fascination. Leisurely drawing on his 
 gloves, he appeared to be feasting his gaze with the misery he had 
 created ; then, casting on her a look of sardonic malevolence that a 
 fiend might have emulated, but could scarcely have surpassed, he 
 turned and quitted the apartment, and immediately afterwards the 
 house. 
 
 Kate's reflections after D'Almayne had left her may easily be 
 imagined ; all feelings of resentment against the man who had 
 insulted her were merged in the one thought that her cousin, Arthur 
 Hazlehurst, had been her brother's unknown benefactor. When she 
 had imagined him implacably offended at the unjustifiable manner 
 in which, during their last interview, she had treated him, he was 
 still watching over her interests, and with a chivalrous devotion to 
 the remembrance of their former attachment (for such could be the 
 only kindly sentiment he could now cherish towards her), he had 
 come forward and saved'^her brother from the ruin which had 
 appeared inevitable. She had received a note that morning from 
 Frederick, informing her of his retuiii from the Continent, and 
 stating his intention of ^payingjher a visit immediately, adding that 
 he had obtained his benefactor's sanction to tell her to whom he was 
 indebted for his present good fortune, and all other particulars she 
 might wish to learn. While thus engaged, a knock at the door 
 announced a visitor, and in another moment her brother's arms were 
 thrown around her. Sixlmonths' foreign travel, and daily association 
 with persons mixing in fgood society, had produced a great change 
 in Fred Marsden's appearance : the handsome boy had become a fine 
 manly young fellow, whose frank address and courteous manners 
 were cei'tain to ensure him'Ja kindly welcome and greatly increase 
 his chances of success injlife. Fred had much to tell, and found an 
 eager listener in Kate. Arthur was the best, kindest, wisest, most 
 generous of men ; Arthur had sent him abroad more to finish his 
 education than for any iTselhe could be of in a business point of view ; 
 
 c c
 
 386 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 Arthur was most liberal to him in money matters ; and yet supei-ior 
 as lie was in evei-ything — talent, age, position — Arthur treated him 
 like an equal, nay, like a brother. 
 
 While he thiis ran on, a cab drove up to the door, and shortly after 
 Mr. Crane entered the apartment ; he appeared to walk feebly, and 
 once staggered, and nearly fell in crossing the room. Glancing 
 angrily towards Fred, he muttered, " Send that boy away, Mrs. Crane 
 — I— I wish to speak with you on matters of importance." 
 
 Hastily dismissing her brother— promising to \vi-ite him word 
 when to come again— Kate returned to her husband. " Tou look 
 ill and won-ied," she said ; " let me fetch you a glass of wine and a 
 biscuit." 
 
 " 111 and won-ied indeed ! I tell you, Mrs. Crane, I have tbis day 
 received my death blow. Don't reply, madam ; don't mock me with 
 any pretence of affection — I know its worth. Tou married me for 
 my money — I am not so blind as you may imagine — yes ! you maiTied 
 me for my money ; and now you are rightly served, for I am a ruined 
 man. Tou may well stare and look surprised, for I can scarcely 
 believe it myself. Oh, it is too cruel — hon-ible, to think that I, 
 Jedediah Crane, whose name has been good for five hundred thousand 
 pounds any day, should die a beggar,! " Here he paused, and broke 
 into a fit of childish weeping ; after a time he again resumed angrily, 
 " And for this, madam, I have chiefly to thank your precious admirer, 
 Horace D'Almayne ; my money was safe enough till he led me on to 
 speculate ; and I believe your arts and allui-ements were the chief 
 cause that attracted him here. But your wickedness has brought 
 its own punishment, for you must work for your living now — you 
 and all your pauper family, whom you have supported out of my 
 pocket; and as for D'Almayne, may the bitterest curses light upon 
 
 him — may " Here, siiddenly breaking off, he stared roimd him 
 
 wildly, raised his hand to his forehead, murmured, " Oh, my head ! " 
 and sank back in his chair. Greatly alai-med, Kate rang the bell 
 violently, and whilst the butler and another servant conveyed Mr. 
 Crane to his room, she dispatched a third in search of medical 
 assistance. That evening Ai-thur Hazlehurst received the following 
 note : — 
 
 "In the unpardonable pnde which has been my besetting sin 
 through life, but to which, if suffering can eradicate faults, I ought 
 never again to yield, I requested you not to enter my house imtil I 
 sent for you ; deeming, when I said it, that I was pronouncing a 
 sentence of banishment which would continue in effect as long as we 
 should both survive. Having placed this bar between myself and 
 the generous friendship you have always evinced for me, I dare not 
 now ask your assistance ; but if in the gi-eat strait in which I am 
 placed you would advise me to whom I ought to apply, you will be 
 rendering me a kindness I have little deserved at your hands. Mr. 
 Crane returned home this evening greatly excited, and declared that
 
 AND ALL THAT CAME OF IT 387 
 
 lie was a ruined man ; whilst still raving almost incoherently on the 
 subject, he was attacked with paralysis, and now lies in a state which 
 the two physicians I have called in inf oi-m me is in the highest degree 
 critical. He has recovered his conscioiisness, but his speech is so 
 much affected that I can only collect that his mind is still troubled 
 by business details. I am not aware of the name of his legal adviser, 
 nor, indeed, certain whether he was in the habit of consulting one. 
 I await your reply with much anxiety. 
 
 "Kate Crane." 
 
 Within a quarter of an hour after he received this note Arthur 
 Hazlehurst was in Park Lane. 
 
 CHAPTER LXV. 
 
 SETTLES EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING. 
 
 PiVE years had elapsed since the events narrated in the last chapter 
 occurred — five years ! — a twentieth portion of one of those centuries 
 which stand like milestones along the path of time and index the 
 slow but steady march of human progress and development. To the 
 different characters of our story these years had brought many 
 changes. Arthur Hazlehurst, summoned by Kate Crane in her hour 
 of need and difficulty, fully justified the high o]3inion she entertained 
 of him. Aijplying all the powers of his acute intellect and legal 
 experience to the involved affairs of Mr. Crane, he contrived to secure 
 a small competency from the wreck of his once colossal fortune, on 
 which, by Arthur's advice, Kate, as soon as her husband was 
 sufficiently recovered to bear the joiu'ney, retired to a small town in 
 the south of France, where she continued to reside until some 
 arrangement could be effected with the shareholders of the railway 
 company started by Monsieur Guillemard and Horace DAlmayne. 
 After a severe illness, from which he was at one time not expected to 
 recover, Mr. Crane partially regained his health, but the paralytic 
 stroke which had reduced him to this extremity had aifected his 
 mind to such a degree that he remained nearly cliildish. His wife's 
 attention to him was most kind and devoted. When he was able to 
 walk out for the finest half hour in the day it was Kate's arm which 
 supported his tottering footsteps. So strong was her sense of the 
 duty she owed him, that the tenderest affection could not have dic- 
 tated a more exemplary line of conduct. Arthur Hazlelnirst, who 
 was rapidly acquiring a very high standing in his profession, paid
 
 SSS HARRY COTERDALE'S COrRTSHIP 
 
 them occasional visits, to report as to the siare of ilr. Crane's aSairs, 
 ■w-hicli were left entirely to his control. His manner to Kate on snch 
 occasions was that of a kind and judicious friend, but nothing' more. 
 He never niade the least allusion to old times : indeed, his avoidance 
 of any approach to topics which might elicit the slightest display of 
 feeling was most marked, yet a close observer might have seen that 
 he noticed Kate's every word and action, especially her behaviour to 
 her husband, with a keenness of scrutiny which allowed nothing to 
 escape it. Of Horace D'Almayne nothing more was known than that 
 he had somehow ehided the search made after him, and got clear 
 away, as it was supposed, to America. 
 
 We will now trouble the imagination of our readers to travel with 
 
 ns as far as H shire, and join a group gathered one fine autxtmn 
 
 mor nin g around the hall door at Coverdale Park. The centre of it, 
 and the especial object of interest to the bystanders, was a rough 
 little Shetland pony, on which was mounted a singularly pretty boy 
 of some, possibly, four years of age, in whose chubby features might 
 te traced a marked resemblance both to Harry and Alice, the farmer 
 of whom was settling the reins in the child's hand, and giving Tiim 
 directions both how to sit and to manage the pony, while the latter 
 was regarding the young equestrian with looks of mingled anxiety 
 and affection. A sweet little girl, the image of her mother, perhaps 
 a year older than her youthful playfellow, was endeavouring to 
 attract the pony's attention towards a tuft of grass, which she held 
 at a respectful 'iistance from his nose. 
 
 " Xow, my boy, stick your knees well into the saddle, give bim his 
 head, and let us see how you can canter round the sweep," observed 
 Coverdale, who, save that his complexion had assumed a more manlj 
 brown than ever, and that his broad shoulders looked broader stDl, 
 was little altere<i since we last had to do with bim. 
 
 "Dear Harry, you will not let him go by himself — suppose he 
 should tumble off I " 
 
 Alice, the speaker, whose rounded fignre and matronly air only 
 added to her beauty, smiled at her own fears, as. placing his arm 
 round her still tap^ waist, her imsband replied, — 
 
 " We are to be frightened about otit dear boy now, are we ? What 
 a miaerable little woman it is, and how she does delight in torment- 
 ing herself ! Why, you silly child, little Harry has as good a seat as 
 I have. He would be no son of mine if he could not ride by instinct. 
 Hollo 1 what is the young dog at now ? he never can mean to try and 
 leap that ditch, surely I " 
 
 And as he spoke Coverdale ran off at the top of his speed, to secure 
 the safety of his self-willed son and heir, who, having cantered round 
 the grass plot, coolly turned his pony's head towards a low haw-haw 
 which separated the garden from the park bejond. Before his 
 father had half crossed the lawn, he slackened the reins, and, giTing 
 his pony a cut with the whip, cleared the smiken fence with greater 
 ease than many of his elders with whom we are acquainted conid
 
 AND ALL THAT CA3IE OF IT 38» 
 
 Lave done, then tumingr, cantered back throngh a band-gate wMch 
 stood open, and rejoined his motHer and sister. 
 
 " Ho-w c-onld TOTX do sucli a dangerous thing. Harnr 'i Ton might 
 hare broken your neck, and I am very angry -witli yon ! " exclaimed 
 Alice. 
 
 '■ And wliat do yon say, papa ? '" inqnired tbe yoimg hopeful, in no 
 way abashed by his mother's reprimand. 
 
 " What do I say ? "" returned his father, coming np out of breath 
 with running, and considerably i>erple5ed between his parental 
 responsibility and his delight at his boy's spirit ; " why, I say that if 
 you don't mind what your mother tells you, the thrashing I shall 
 give you one of these days will considerably astonish your jurenile 
 intelligence ; with which qualification I confess, taking you alto- 
 gether, I consider you a very promising young four-year-old. And 
 now, brats, be o5 with yon ! I hare got a letter which I want to talk 
 to Tnamma about.'' 
 
 As soon as the children had departed, in conToy of a groom and a 
 nnrsoy-maid, Harry drew from his pocket a letter with a black 
 border and seal. 
 
 " It is for you, love." he said, " from your cousin Kate ; but I can 
 tell you the news it will contain ; Arthur enclosed it to me, with a line, 
 telling me that poor old Crane is dead at last." 
 
 •• And Arthur writes to teU you — what does he say r "' demanded 
 Alice eagerly. 
 
 " He siniply informs me of the fact ; states that, for business 
 reasons, Kate, who is left sole executrix, must immediately return to 
 England ; and suggests that till some i)ermanent arrangement can 
 be made for her, it would be weUthat she should cx^me to us : adding, 
 that if we agree with him in thinking so, he would be glad if I could 
 make it convenient to go down to Dover and meet her, as profes- 
 sional duties will detain bim in town. — ^which of course I shall be 
 delighted to do, and she must come and live with us, poor thing." 
 
 Alice could not for a moment reply ; but she pressed her husband's 
 hand in silent acknowledgment of his kindness. Another week saw 
 Kate domesticated bene-ath their hospitable roof. 
 
 Header, our tale is weU-nigh told. Horace D'Ahnayne had 
 absconded with a considerable sum of money in his possession, and 
 all attempts to trace him failed. His less fortunate co-swindler (if 
 we may coin a word), Guillemard, became practically acquaint-ed with 
 the interior of a British prison and the amenitiK of haz^d labour. 
 All that transpired in regard to D'Almayne's forther career "was, tliat 
 some years after he was connected with a kindred spirit in oondnct- 
 ing a notorious gambling house in X ew Orleans ; a quarrel ensuing 
 between Sedgwick (for so was his paitnar named) and D'Ahnayne, 
 the latter gave his antagonist a practical l^ecai as to the advisability 
 of studying the habits and customs of the natives before you settle 
 in a country, by discharging the contents of his revolver into his
 
 390 HARRY COVERDALE'S COURTSHIP 
 
 ribs. Unfortunately for society, the wound did not prove fatal ; but 
 not choosing to await the result, D'Ahnayne again made himself in- 
 visible ; he was last heard of at the head of a band of very question- 
 able individuals, who were proceeding to the diggings to procure 
 gold, whether by fair means or foul, history sayeth not. 
 
 Lord Alfred Courtland, warned by the disastrous results of his 
 attempt to become a fast " man-about-town," contented himself for 
 the future by fulfilling his duties as a high-born gentleman, and if he 
 ever did anything at all likely to disgrace his noble order, it was by 
 the obstinate determination he evinced to marry none other than 
 Emily Hazlehurst ; but " a wilful man must have his way," and 
 eventually, after much useless opposition from his patrician papa, 
 Lord Alfred had his. 
 
 Of Harry and Alice we need say no more ; perfectly happy in each 
 other's aif ection (which, warned by the past, they never again suffered 
 their faults or foibles to endanger), theirs was a joy to which only 
 hearts, true, pure, and simple as their own can ever attain. 
 
 And what of Arthur Hazlehu.rst ? Kate, his first, his only love, 
 was again free ! — true, she had eiTed deeply, but had she not repented 
 more deeply, and worked out her penitence during long years of trial 
 and of suffering ? She was free ! would wounded pride prevent him 
 from taking the only step which could ensure his happiness and her 
 own ? or should " Love be still the lord of all ? " Those only who 
 have siiffered and loved as he had done can be competent to decide, — 
 and in their hands we leave the matter ! 
 
 THE END.
 
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