ELTHAM HOUSE
 
 s 
 
 -c
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. HUMPHRY WARD 
 
 AUTHOR OF " DELIA BLANCHFLOWER." ETC. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE BY 
 
 FRANK CRAIG 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HEARST'S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY COMPANY 
 
 1915
 
 Copyright, 1915, by 
 HEARST'S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY Co., INC. 
 
 All rights reserved, including that of translation into the foreign languages, 
 including the Scandinavian 
 
 THE QUINN A BOOEN CO. PRES* 
 RAHWAY. N. i.
 
 URL 
 
 51.41751 
 
 J. H. W. 
 
 ' The thought of our past years in me doth breed 
 Perpetual Benediction."
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 How far away seem the beginnings of this book ! It 
 was in the spring of 1914 the last spring of the old 
 world, when one could still listen to the thrushes 
 singing, and watch the blooming of the gorse and the 
 hawthorn without that tragic intervening sense which 
 now oppresses us of the veil of death and suffering 
 " spread upon the face of all peoples " that I was 
 turning over one day some of the books about Holland 
 House and its Circle, which stand in a favorite cor- 
 ner of my working-room. And it idly occurred to me 
 to wonder what would have happened to Lord and 
 Lady Holland if they had walked in with their story 
 upon the London world of to-day or rather yes- 
 terday. Lord Holland, in 1796, ran away with the 
 wife of Sir Godfrey Webster, who, with difficulty and 
 after some time, was bribed to divorce her by the 
 surrender of her fortune. Then Lord Holland and 
 Lady Webster were married, and entered upon their 
 long and royal reign in Holland House. Lord Hol- 
 land never seems to have suffered any social or po- 
 litical penalty whatever. Socially, he was one of 
 the best liked of men, and never ceased to be so; 
 politically, no price to be paid for what he had done 
 was ever asked of him. He was always a force in
 
 vi FOREWORD 
 
 the House of Lords ; he was eagerly included in Whig 
 Ministries; and he went to Court as and when he 
 pleased. Lady Holland, on the other hand, was not 
 ' ' called upon ' ' ; women, unless they were relations 
 or friends made abroad, did not at any rate, in all 
 its early years go to Holland House. Lady Hol- 
 land had no particular reason to care; she was not 
 a sensitive person; she was very much in love with 
 Lord Holland, and she took an easy revenge, with 
 wealth and an incomparable house to help her, by 
 creating in her own drawing-room the most famous 
 salon of the day attended wholly by men. It was 
 understood and accepted that women did not visit 
 her; but their husbands, brothers and sons coveted 
 and schemed for her invitations. 
 
 But if these two people had gone their headlong 
 way in the social world of which I was then thinking 
 the world before the war what would have hap- 
 pened? That was the question that suggested itself. 
 How are things modified in a hundred years? What 
 would the Nonconformist conscience have to say, and 
 all that artificially stringent opinion which is, so to 
 speak, made by publicity and the newspapers? Are 
 we more moral, or simply more afraid of each other? 
 Which would suffer most now the woman or the 
 man? In the old famous story the man suffered 
 nothing ; and because he suffered nothing, the woman, 
 also, who loved him had never any real reason apart 
 from moral or religious scruple to repent her action. 
 But in the modern world, with those instances in 
 it we can all remember of public careers ruined or 
 permanently hindered by private conduct, how would 
 it be ? Reproduce all Lord Holland 's advantages and 
 more, a hundred years later, and what could an
 
 FOREWOBD vii 
 
 ambitious man in a similar position do with them? 
 Could he fight through? And if not, how would 
 the failure react on the woman? 
 
 So it was that the figure of Caroline Wing rose 
 out of the mists that encircle one's first thoughts of 
 a new subject; and in the dark days of last winter, 
 those hours that could be spent in writing were 
 entirely occupied in weaving the story of her discom- 
 fiture at the hands of circumstance a story that for 
 months was like " a wind- warm space " amid the 
 horrors and griefs and tasks of the war, into which 
 one could retreat for a little while every day and 
 forget the newspapers. When it was done, I asked 
 an old friend to read it, who returned it with the 
 criticism that there was " too much beauty and too 
 much wealth " in it. I was a little cast down, but 
 I protested then and protest now that beauty and 
 wealth are of the very essence of the subject, which 
 belongs indeed to that long series of the " falls of 
 princes ' ' that endless descent of ' ' tribal lays ' ' con- 
 cerned with the ensnaring of the strong and the 
 fortunate by the unforeseen consequences of their 
 actions which has occupied story-tellers since story- 
 telling began. Moreover, without beauty and wealth, 
 and all the other things which men and women 
 socially desire in an old society, there would have been 
 no story of Caroline Wing to tell. For the question 
 which concerns her is: How much could the pride 
 of life and the desire of the eyes do for this woman ? 
 and how little ? What she really desired was some- 
 thing intangible and spiritual which was denied her. 
 She tried to reach and hold this something gal- 
 lantly, like one fighting a forlorn hope through a 
 lavish use of the tangible and the earthly. But the
 
 viii FOREWORD 
 
 weapon broke in her hands; and there could be but 
 one end. 
 
 This was the idea of the story, and with this little 
 prefatory word I commend it to those who may 
 chance to read it. 
 
 MARY A. WARD.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 "I TELL you, Carrie, your blessed Italy can't beat 
 this! What stuff you did talk yesterday about an 
 English spring!" 
 
 And Alec Wing turned round triumphantly upon 
 his wife, as she sat beside him in the motor which had 
 met them at Charing Cross station. As he spoke 
 he pointed vaguely to the gardens of St. James's 
 Palace and Stafford House, just flushed with the first 
 spring green, to the distant line of Piccadilly glitter- 
 ing under a bright April sun, to the slopes of the 
 Green Park, bestrewn with children and loungers. 
 London lay smiling under that most winning of all 
 created things, a genial April day. A sudden rush of 
 warmth had brought out all the spring flowers under 
 the trees; and the hurrying sun-lit streets seemed to 
 be full of people men and women and children in 
 light, fresh clothes, as though one happy, renewing 
 impulse had swept through them all. 
 
 "I noticed you discreetly turn a blind eye to the 
 Palace ! ' ' said his wife, mocking. 
 
 "Never you mind. They'll wash its face some day. 
 Meanwhile, I don't care what you say I jolly well
 
 2 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 prefer it to the Strozzi or the Pitti as a place for 
 humans to live in!" 
 
 Caroline Wing laughed. She too was excited. She 
 too admired this brilliant sun-warmed London. But 
 her thoughts about it were more complex than her 
 husband's. 
 
 "How do you know you won't regret Italy, Alec?" 
 she asked him presently. ' ' You may. We both may. ' ' 
 
 "How do I know I won't regret Italy?" he 
 repeated, in amazement. ' ' Why, in thunder, should I 
 regret it? Oh! I say " he caught himself up hastily 
 ' ' Of course I don 't mean that. We 've had a ripping 
 time the time of our lives you darling! As if I 
 don't know that. But that wasn't Italy that was 
 you and me!" Catching her small hand in his big 
 one, he crushed it boisterously. "Shouldn't we have 
 had a ripping time anywhere, eh?" Their eyes met, 
 and she flushed. He resumed "And of course I 
 loved the musty-fusty old villa too for your sake 
 for everything's sake. But I think we'd had enough 
 of it don't you?" 
 
 "Perhaps," she said, reluctantly. Then with a 
 change of tone "Yes, certainly, we'd had enough 
 of it. Neither you nor I was born to live in a desert. 
 But still Well, of course, you know, Alec, we've 
 come home to a pretty stiff fight, you and I. I don't 
 mind so long as you play up old boy ! ' ' She gave 
 him a look half proud, half laughing, the full mouth 
 set imperiously. 
 
 Caroline Wing was twenty-eight. Her erect and 
 confident bearing, and her radiant good looks had 
 already attracted the notice of many passers-by, when- 
 ever the pace of the motor slackened in the traffic. 
 Her traveling dress of blue serge showed a very
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 3 
 
 slender long-limbed body, sloping shoulders, and a 
 bare throat still brown from Italian sun. The head, 
 in its close-fitting black hat, was heavy with rich 
 brown hair, but in itself small and nobly carried ; the 
 eyes of a liquid brown with touches of gray, were 
 of astonishing beauty; the nose, very delicate, with 
 a sharpened point, that gave a charming touch of 
 gayety espieglerie to the face ; while the mouth, red 
 and full-lipped, was not only lovely in line and 
 color, but of a singular significance and energy. 
 
 Her handsome young husband, a year older than 
 herself, made a no less vivid impression on the spec- 
 tator of restless and overflowing life; and the two 
 together were a striking pair. They were well aware 
 of it; well aware, also, that in circumstance and his- 
 tory, as well as in looks, they were no ordinary per- 
 sons; and that London would very soon be alive to 
 their coming, if it were not already inconveniently 
 expectant. 
 
 The motor turned up Constitution Hill. 
 
 "I don't see a soul I know," said Wing discon- 
 tentedly. "They can't all be dead. You won't mind, 
 Carrie, will you, if I telephone to a couple of fellows 
 to come and dine ? ' ' 
 
 Caroline Wing raised her eyebrows "The first 
 evening? You don't know whether there'll be any- 
 thing to eat!" 
 
 Then seeing a slight shadow on the face beside her, 
 she added "But of course, dearest do as you like. 
 You'll let me go to bed early? I'm rather a rag." 
 
 "Well, it was a beastly crossing. Perhaps I won't. 
 But I vow, Carrie, I never saw you look better than 
 you do to-night. You may feel a rag you don't 
 look it."
 
 4 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 And this time he not only pressed her hand, but 
 would have kissed it, had she not rebuked him. 
 
 "Alec really! just as we are going into the Park ! 
 That policeman could have seen you perfectly. ' ' 
 
 "Drat him who cares! Any other woman after 
 such a crossing would look disheveled and bilious. 
 But you turn up smiling whatever happens." 
 
 He looked at her with a fondness in which there 
 was a touch of excitement. But his phrase was not 
 apposite; for she was not smiling. He broke out 
 impatiently 
 
 "I tell you, darling, people are not half as 
 puritanical as they used to be! You'll see. We 
 shall have no need to do anything but sit tight, turn 
 our backs on the people that give themselves airs, 
 collect the decent ones, give 'em proper dinners, keep 
 out the bores show everybody we don't care a two- 
 penny d what they do and in two seasons, 
 
 Carrie, you'll be the rage!" 
 
 She looked at him with a smiling shake of the head. 
 
 ' ' Oh I dare say we '11 get along ! ' ' she said, lightly. 
 "And anyway, I shan't go on my knees to anybody. 
 Hullo ! aren 't we nearly there ? ' ' 
 
 She looked out eagerly. 
 
 "Yes, there's the house!" And he pointed to a 
 huge building, behind gates and overshadowed by 
 trees, which appeared imposingly at the end of the 
 Mayfair street into which they had turned. 
 
 "Good heavens, I had forgotten it looked so like 
 a fortress!" 
 
 "The gates are rather like those of Gaza!" he 
 admitted, laughingly. "But it's not so bad when you 
 get in." 
 
 The motor drew up, and the chauffeur rang.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 5 
 
 Instantly the ponderous gates rolled smoothly 
 back, and, from the hidden lodge inside, a gentleman 
 in a long livery coat reaching to his heels, and a laced 
 hat, appeared bowing, to watch them pass. 
 
 "Alec! he comes out of the Ark!" 
 
 "It's the old livery. My father always would keep 
 it up. We 11 make short work of it, won 't we, darling ! ' ' 
 
 His wife laughed a little excitedly; but she had 
 no time to reply, for behind the well-dressed youngish 
 woman standing in the doorway, who announced her- 
 self as the "housekeeper," a young man came for- 
 ward, lean, bronzed, curly-haired, with no features to 
 speak of, and an amiable grin. 
 
 "Hullo, Alec!" 
 
 Wing jumped from the motor in delight. 
 
 "Hullo! Jim, you here! Well that is jolly! You 
 don't know Carrie, do you? Carrie, this is my cousin, 
 Jim Durrant. I say, Jim, you are a brick to come 
 and meet us like this ! ' ' And the young man slapped 
 his cousin on the back with hearty good humor. 
 
 But Captain Durrant 's attention was fixed upon 
 the lady. 
 
 "I don't know what you'll think of my bothering 
 you, Mrs. Wing, when you'll be wanting to rest," he 
 said, very pink, and evidently embarrassed. "But 
 Lord Wing made me. He said I was to come and see 
 everything was ready for you, to come back and 
 report to him and to tell you that he would come 
 round himself to see you after dinner. ' ' 
 
 "That was extremely nice of him!" said the lady 
 addressed, as she entered the house. Her color too 
 was high. "I shall be ready for anyone and any- 
 thing when I've had a bath and some food. I say, 
 what a place!"
 
 6 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 She stopped to look round her at the marble hall 
 crowded with pillars and statues in which they stood, 
 and at the elaborate double staircase which rose out 
 of it a staircase of pretensions, much quoted among 
 architects, the walls of which were covered alternately 
 with niched statues and family portraits. 
 
 "Lots of room, anyway!" said Captain Durrant, 
 twisting his mustache. 
 
 "Why on earth won't Lord Wing live in it?" She 
 brought her penetrating eyes to bear, suddenly, on 
 the young man, who shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "Sick to death of it! I believe. Hates big 
 rooms, hates staircases like that hates statues, 
 hates everything!" 
 
 "It must certainly take a deal of living in!" said 
 Mrs. Wing, thoughtfully, as she slowly ascended the 
 stairs, while her husband, the housekeeper, and vari- 
 ous splendid persons in livery stood colloguing below. 
 
 "Well, we've made one room quite human for 
 you got you tea and newspapers, and everything 
 jolly. Lord Wing's sent flowers and and a 
 gramophone." 
 
 "A gramophone!" Mrs. Wing paused on the first 
 floor landing. Her eyebrows had mounted, and her 
 look was sarcastic. "Does does Lord Wing think 
 that Alec and I are already tired of each other's 
 society?" 
 
 The youth showed renewed embarrassment. 
 
 "He's gone on gramophones and pianolas. Spent 
 a thousand on a pianola last week. He says music 
 would be all right if it weren't for the people who 
 make it. Now he can get rid of them, he's enchanted. 
 These are the drawing-rooms but I don't expect you 
 want to look at them."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 7 
 
 He threw open a stately mahogany door, and 
 Caroline Wing found herself on the threshold of an 
 immense room, shrouded in dust sheets, with other 
 rooms opening out of it to right and left. Some of 
 the pictures on the walls had apparently just been 
 unveiled, and a Dancing Girl, by Romney, one of the 
 finest of the innumerable studies of Lady Hamilton, 
 a magnificent full-length Reynolds of a red-coated 
 man beside his horse, and a great Constable, driving 
 the power and light of its sky through the shadows 
 of the room, met the eyes of their new mistress. 
 
 "He said you were to arrange everything as you 
 liked. He left it all to you. But he told the house- 
 keeper to have a few pictures uncovered for you, so 
 that it shouldn 't look too like a tomb. ' ' 
 
 "Very nice of him," said Mrs. "Wing again. 
 Then she walked deliberately through the suite of 
 rooms, looking about her, and seeing a few shutters 
 undone, she pulled them open and studied the 
 garden outside. There, in the heart of Mayfair, 
 it spread before her the famous garden as full of 
 spacious shade and quiet as though London lay a 
 hundred miles away. The flower-beds on the green 
 lawn were full of tulips; broad bands of hyacinths 
 massed in splendid reds and blues and whites ran 
 round the shrubberies, already delicately green, fol- 
 lowing the inlets of grass like a coast-line ; while the 
 thin plane trees just coming into leaf made a back- 
 ground through which distant walls and roofs were 
 still visible which in midsummer would be completely 
 shut out. At the end of the suite of rooms, Caroline 
 Wing paused and faced her companion. 
 
 "No use trying to live in this house under twenty 
 thousand a year!" she said, with emphasis.
 
 8 BLTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Oh you'll have that! anything you want," said 
 Captain Durrant hastily. "Uncle Wing's as rich as 
 rich." 
 
 Something however in her attitude as she turned 
 a little from him to look at a picture challenged him 
 to a closer examination of her, and sent various com- 
 ments flying through his brain. "Handsome by 
 George! and a headpiece of her own! if I'm not 
 mistaken. She'll want to boss it, in London or 
 wherever she goes. And how can she?" 
 
 Aloud he said "You must be dog-tired. Come 
 and see the place we've got ready for you." 
 
 And opening a side door, he led her out of the 
 series of state drawing-rooms into some passages 
 beyond them, finally ushering her into a room of 
 moderate size, at sight of which Mrs. Wing drew an 
 evident breath of relief. 
 
 Two footmen in livery, who had been arranging a 
 tea-table, bowed nervously as the lady and gentleman 
 appeared. Mrs. Wing walked up to them, greeted 
 them with a few smiling words, and sent them to tell 
 Mr. Wing the tea was ready. Then she looked about 
 her, at the Whistler drawings on the dim gray walls 
 at the yellow chintz and Persian carpet. 
 
 "Who did this? you or Lord Wing?" 
 
 "Oh, Lord Wing. I helped. You know he's 
 awfully fond of Alec!" Then realizing that he had 
 scarcely expressed himself with tact, he fell suddenly 
 silent. 
 
 Caroline Wing stood erect, her hands on one of the 
 low chairs, which were gathered invitingly round a 
 small fire, lit for welcome not for warmth, while the 
 windows to either side of it let in the cool spring 
 wind freely.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 9 
 
 "I wonder if he's going to be fond of me!" She 
 looked keenly at Captain Durrant, whose difficulties 
 were evident, through his laugh. 
 
 "Naturally! if you make Alec happy. But of 
 course you know there'll be hitches!" 
 
 "Hitches?" said Mrs. Wing, flushing. "Yes 
 that there will! However, let's have some tea! I 
 suppose I ought to go and talk to the housekeeper. 
 But I can 't ; I 'm too tired. How cozy it looks ! ' ' 
 
 And she gave a glance of approval to the room 
 and its furnishings, which tickled the young man's 
 nerves agreeably, as though a queen had smiled. And 
 nothing less than queenly indeed was her movement, 
 as she walked across the floor, took off her hat and 
 traveling-cloak, arranged her hair a little before a 
 mirror, with her long slender fingers, and finally took 
 possession of the tea-table, as though by that familiar 
 womanly act she entered upon a sovereignty which 
 was merely her due. 
 
 "She carries it off! my word, she does!" 
 thought Durrant, with half-reluctant admiration. 
 
 Meanwhile he took the tea she handed him, and 
 they began a disconnected conversation which had 
 but little to do with the things each was bursting to 
 say which however she was too proud and he, as 
 yet, too shy to say. She inquired after Lord Wing, 
 and was informed that he was at Claridge's Hotel, 
 very well ' ' though he looks like a walking corpse, as 
 usual! He won't see anybody but the two or three 
 booksellers who collect for him and a few of his 
 relations women who don't mind being snubbed. 
 All his old political friends declare he cuts them in 
 the streets." 
 
 But Lord Wing, it seemed, had no intention of
 
 10 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 staying in town. He was going back to Warwickshire, 
 as soon as he had seen his son and his son's new wife. 
 
 Mrs. Wing listened in silence. But it was a 
 silence full of energy. The young soldier felt her, as 
 it were, charged to the muzzle; though exactly why 
 and how she should make this impression upon him, 
 he could not have explained. After all, her explosion 
 was over; it was now rather a question of picking 
 up the pieces. Presently, as they talked, he found 
 himself comparing some old recollections of her that 
 haunted the back of his mind, with the living woman 
 sitting behind the tea-table. He had seen her once 
 or twice at balls in his first youth, though he could 
 not recall that they had ever actually made acquaint- 
 ance. But he remembered her vividly. In white 
 always ; tall, thin, farouche; and in the charge of an 
 aunt, who kept a strict eye upon her. Her people 
 lived at Oxford, he seemed to recollect, and she used 
 to come up to this aunt for part of the season. She 
 was a quiet sort of girl then, with few friends ; hand- 
 some of course, but nobody noticed her much. She 
 seemed to have "come on" enormously. 
 
 "Alec! Where have you been all this time!" 
 cried Mrs. Wing. For the door had opened, and 
 Alec Wing stood looking at the pair at tea, his sun- 
 burned face aglow with amusement and pleasure. 
 
 ' * Couldn't help it, darling ! I was having a chat with 
 Burnett, the old house steward here, great pal of 
 mine. And I've been telephoning to some fellows " 
 
 "Oh, but, Alec! Lord Wing's coming, after din- 
 ner." 
 
 "I know. I didn't ask them for to-night. We'll 
 have a few to-morrow, won't we? Well, Jim, tell me 
 something about my papa?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 11 
 
 And he sat down beside his wife, evidently in top 
 spirits, devouring her with his smiling eyes, while 
 he attacked the tea and hot cake she handed him 
 with a boy's appetite. 
 
 Captain Durrant repeated the various items of 
 news he had already given Mrs. Wing, with additions, 
 relating to various members of the Wing family. This 
 person was married and that one was "broke," or 
 near it. Lady Murthly's twins were having a raging 
 season extraordinarily pretty, both of them. The 
 Duchess's youngest girl was pretty too if she 
 weren't a little cock-eyed. Jack Murthly had been 
 getting into another gambling scrape only just 
 dragged out of it by the skin of his teeth family 
 awfully upset et cetera 
 
 Meanwhile Alec Wing sat with his elbows on the 
 tea-table, his teacup in both hands, and his laughing 
 eyes staring over it at his cousin. He was absorbed 
 in the gossip offered him, only breaking in upon the 
 stream occasionally with comments of his own, which 
 drew chuckles from the Captain. 
 
 But all the time Durrant 's inner mind was held by 
 the spectacle of the pair before him, the handsome 
 silent woman who seemed to be paying very scant 
 attention to his talk with Alec and the young 
 husband. Never had he seen Alec in such splendid 
 form. Clearly he had come home prepared to take up 
 his old role of universal favorite, as though he had 
 never laid it down. Not a trace, in his talk, of 
 the chasm which had intervened. He seemed as uncon- 
 scious, as gayly, confoundedly certain of himself and 
 the world as when he first left Oxford, and began a 
 conquering career in London as guardsman, owner 
 of race-horses, member of all the fashionable clubs,
 
 12 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 and withal heir to one of the oldest peerages, and an 
 immense fortune. Alec had always been a popular 
 creature, happy himself, and diffusing happiness; 
 full of ability and ambition too, with a mind set on 
 politics, according to the traditions of his family, and 
 with every card of the great game in his hand. 
 
 And then to do this idiotic thing ! Durrant, after 
 a joint explosion of laughter from both himself and 
 Wing, caused by a comment of Alec's on a family of 
 puritanical Scotch relations they owned in common, 
 seemed suddenly to hear in it, as it died, "the crack- 
 ling of thorns under a pot." 
 
 But it was clear that Wing had no such feelings. 
 He presently sprang to his feet, and drawing his wife 
 with him, went to the open window. 
 
 "I say isn't London scrumptious? Just you 
 sniff it, darling! it's good. And I declare there's 
 something to be said, even for this pompous old bar- 
 rack of a place. I used to hate it when I was a boy. 
 But you'll put some life into it, Carrie! Look here, 
 Jim!" he turned to his cousin "What races are 
 there on this week? I'm simply dying to see an 
 English race again! And I'm dying to take Carrie 
 to Ascot, of course it 'a weeks off yet but whom does 
 one write to ? I 've forgotten all about these things. ' ' 
 
 Durrant 's fair skin flushed inconveniently. 
 
 "For the Enclosure you mean?" 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 "Well, I suppose it's the Lord Chamberlain." 
 
 "Let's see who is it now? I've got so stale about 
 everything? Oh, I know Sol way who married a 
 first cousin of father 's. Of course I can write to him. ' ' 
 
 "You'd better not, Alec," said Mrs. Wing quietly. 
 
 It was the first time she had spoken. She lifted
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 13 
 
 her beautiful eyes to her husband smiling, but 
 grave. 
 
 ' ' What do you mean, Carrie ? ' ' 
 
 "You won't get them, that's all." 
 
 "Get them! Why, I'm a member of the Jockey 
 Club ! They elected me just three years ago before 
 I went out to Florence. I'd jolly well like to see 
 anybody at Ascot stop me from going where I 
 please ! ' ' 
 
 "Oh, you can go there's no doubt about that." 
 
 "And so can you, Carrie!" he said in a troubled 
 voice, coming to stand beside her. Durrant was 
 sitting with his head turned away, pretending to look 
 at an evening paper lying on a small table near a 
 very red, uncomfortable man. 
 
 Mrs. Wing lifted her face to her husband, with 
 a tender, smiling look ; and their eyes met. 
 
 Captain Durrant rose to go. 
 
 "Awfully sorry I can't dine with you ! But you're 
 tired and I've got an engagement. Hope they'll 
 give you decent food. Lord Wing engaged the chef 
 himself. So I may tell him he can come about 
 nine?" 
 
 Husband and wife were left together. Through 
 the thick walls and closely fitting doors of the house 
 not much could be heard of the bustle that was in 
 truth pervading it, the bustle of arrival and un- 
 packing. Yet somehow Caroline Wing's nerves were 
 conscious of it, and of its significance. It was like 
 the vague preparatory noises which a spectator may 
 hear from the stage, before the curtain goes up. 
 
 "My dear Alec, how on earth are we going to live 
 in this huge place?"
 
 14 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Her expression, as she turned to him, was all alert 
 perhaps defiant intelligence. 
 
 He threw his arms round her, and kissed her 
 passionately. 
 
 "Just as we lived in Italy! I made you happy 
 there, you angel ! I '11 make you happy here. ' ' 
 
 "We were alone there. We lived our own lives 
 and nobody interfered with us. And here Alec, 
 you know, I wasn't made for a fighter! I'm dread- 
 fully keen to be liked and and spoken kindly to." 
 She sighed, turning her lips to kiss the coat against 
 which she was leaning, as she spoke. 
 
 "So you will be liked adored! you darling. I 
 shouldn't like to see anybody rude or rough to you! 
 Well of course I know there will be a certain num- 
 ber of stuck-up people who won't have anything to 
 say to us. I dare say there '11 be rubs. But look at all 
 the new spirit there is abroad about marriage and 
 divorce! Reasonable people now look at such things 
 reasonably. It's jolly different from what it used 
 to be." 
 
 She only answered him indirectly. 
 
 ' ' Friends and children" she murmured. ' ' That 's 
 what it wants this house." 
 
 He folded her close murmuring in answer 
 
 "There will be children and friends." 
 
 After a silence she said, her eyes still hidden 
 
 "I dreamed of Carina last night. I must see her, 
 Alec somehow. ' ' 
 
 "You shall, darling, you shall." 
 
 Another silence. Across Wing's features, as he 
 stood bending over his wife, a number of different 
 expressions chased each other, all merged in a final 
 exhilaration. The distant sounds of Piccadilly were
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 15 
 
 in his ears; and they were as march music to the 
 soldier. London again good old London! grimy 
 old London with its movement, its chances, its 
 daily flood of events. Love on the Tuscan hills had 
 been delicious love in Mayf air, with wealth, politics, 
 ambition thrown in, and lots of jolly old friends to 
 chum with, whatever their silly wives might do, 
 should be better still. His pulses raced under the 
 sheer joy of return the Homeric "coming home," 
 after nearly three years of exile. 
 
 "Look here!" he said at last, rousing himself and 
 her; "you've got to change and rest, Mrs. Wing, 
 before dinner! Don't forget we've come from Paris 
 to-day ! You 've got to put on a scrummy frock too ! 
 that Worth tea-gown I helped you choose in Paris 
 and look your very best, my dear, when you see my 
 papa ! ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Wing withdrew herself from his arms. 
 
 "I rather dread it, Alec. Why has he given us 
 this house? Why does he make us live here? I 
 can't begin to understand. I don't believe you know 
 yourself." 
 
 "We'll get it out of him," he said, half grave, half 
 laughing. 
 
 And with his hands in his pockets, whistling as he 
 went, he left her, turning back at the door to bid her 
 again go and lie down. 
 
 But she did not immediately obey him. The spring 
 twilight was falling; and lights were twinkling 
 through the trees. The garden below was all dim 
 and rich with color; the scents from it floated round 
 her. For a moment as she stood there, she was seized 
 with an anguish a woman's savage longing for the 
 children she has borne. Two! and one was lying
 
 16 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 on a Tuscan hill-side, and the other had been taken 
 from her in punishment for what the world called 
 "sin." "Sin! what is sin?" she asked herself im- 
 patiently. 
 
 The sound of a gong far away startled her. She 
 turned, and opening a side-door tentatively she 
 went back again through the great series of shrouded 
 drawing-rooms. And, tired as she was, her step grew 
 firmer as she moved, her stature rose. It was as 
 though she began already to match herself against the 
 house to take up some challenge brooding within it.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE husband and wife dined in the vast dining-room 
 at the back of the pillared hall, which had been 
 hastily got ready for them. The finely carved and 
 paneled walls were hung with family portraits, 
 ranging back to 1600; ladies beruffed, cavaliers in 
 plumed hats, bad Lelys, and good Lelys; a pleasant 
 tapestry of dim reds and blues and golds, crowned 
 by two famous Vandycks which faced each other at 
 either end of the room a King Charles on horseback, 
 and a full-length Henrietta Maria. The pictures 
 were broken at intervals by a fine series of French 
 Renaissance cabinets ; the mantelpiece had come from 
 a chateau in the Bourbonnais ; and two or three price- 
 less French busts of the dix-huitieme, among them 
 a Voltaire by Houdon stood in the deeply embayed 
 windows. Altogether a room to stir the nerves of 
 any gentleman with the collector's mania and an 
 adequate purse. 
 
 "My dear Alec, why did you never talk to me 
 about this house and the things in it ! I really ought 
 to have been coached." 
 
 The servants had left the room, and Caroline 
 Wing, in a tea-gown of shimmering white, had moved 
 closer to her husband. The small round table at which 
 they had dined was a mass of pale roses, and Caro- 
 
 17
 
 18 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 line's dark head, and long white neck took an added 
 beauty from the neighborhood of the flowers. She 
 was dandling a cigarette with her elbows on the table. 
 The lace sleeves of her tea-gown as they fell back 
 revealed hands and arms which delighted the eyes of 
 the man beside her. He kissed the arm nearest to 
 him, indeed, before he replied indifferently 
 
 "Darling, one doesn't talk about one's things! 
 I 'm so used to them. ' ' 
 
 ' ' Well I 'm not, ' ' said Caroline firmly. ' ' And I give 
 you warning that if we're to live here, I shall want 
 to know everything about everything. I despise 
 people who can 't talk about their own pictures. ' ' And 
 she waved her cigarette towards the family gallery on 
 the walls. 
 
 Alec's expression was first perplexed, then frankly 
 explanatory 
 
 ' ' Of course I can talk about them, if you like. As 
 a matter of fact I know a lot about them. I could 
 yarn away no end about most of these fellows. His- 
 tory 's the only thing I 'm good at. That 's because it 
 comes into politics." 
 
 ' ' Politics ? So you 're still set on politics ? ' ' 
 
 "Naturally. It's the first business of civilized man 
 after love-making!" His lips touched her brow as 
 she leaned against him. "But why do you say 'if 
 we're to live here'? Of course we're to live here 
 when we're in town. Pater's set his heart on it and 
 if we want to keep friends with him, we've got to 
 humor him." 
 
 "And what about the money?" said his wife 
 quietly. "To be poor in this house would be purga- 
 tory. I gave your cousin my views which were 
 lordly."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 19 
 
 Alec laughed. "That's so like you, darling 
 you're always so practical. You see things in a 
 moment which I never do. But my father for all 
 his oddities, is a practical man too. If he writes 
 'I give you up Eltham House and it's my wish 
 you should make it your London home' why, of 
 course he knows what it means, financially. And we 
 shall soon know! He'll be here directly." 
 
 Caroline rose and began to wander around the 
 room, looking at the pictures. He stayed where he 
 was, partly to finish his coffee, partly to have the 
 pleasure of looking at her from a distance. Her white 
 moving figure, seen against the darkly rich back- 
 ground of the paneled and pictured wall, possessed 
 an atmosphere and a magic which enchanted him. 
 She moved so easily held her head so nobly his 
 incomparable Carrie! What storms he had passed 
 through to get her! But she had steered the ship. 
 And she should go on steering it. His belief in her in- 
 telligence her luck was, at that moment, boundless. 
 
 "Why is there a picture missing here?" she asked 
 presently. He crossed the room to her side. 
 
 "Ah that's where my mother's picture used to be. 
 Pater's taken it away. But, by Jove, he's left us 
 Aunt Libby!" 
 
 He pointed to the other side of the fireplace. 
 Caroline perceived there a portrait of a slight elderly 
 lady, with a shrewd, plain face, and a lace cap. She 
 went to look at it in silence. There was no need to ask 
 questions. She knew of course that Lord Wing had 
 lost his wife when Alec, his only child, was three years 
 old, and that his sister Elizabeth had lived with him 
 and kept his house, till her own death, some four or 
 five years before this date. Alec's mother, to judge
 
 20 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 from a miniature he possessed, had been a small 
 childish creature, with laughing brown eyes; a 
 Ravencross to boot, and connected thereby with half 
 the great families in England. As far as Alec knew, 
 she and his father had been happy together; but he 
 evidently knew very little of his mother, and Caroline 
 had already begun to guess that, in any intimate way, 
 he knew and had always known very little of his 
 father. But Aunt Libby, spinster and Evangelical, 
 had mothered him well in his childhood, and even his 
 comic recollections of her did her credit. 
 
 "She made me read the Bible she hunted me to 
 church in the country. Pater of course never went. 
 And she made him let me be confirmed at Eton. But 
 I was always shocking her, poor dear. Once when I 
 was ill and feverish I must have been a little sprat 
 about six she talked to me about Heaven, and I asked 
 her whether we all went up there when we died and 
 she said " Yes, dear I hope so." And I began to cry, 
 sleepily and said I thought it was very unfair, and 
 the dogs ought at least to have the bones. And then 
 when I was at Eton, and seventeen, about, she was hor- 
 rified at the novels I read. And there was one, which 
 would have given her a fit if she'd known. So I 
 covered it in brown paper and labeled it "Hervey's 
 Meditations among the Tombs ' ' and she never found 
 out. Poor old dear ! She had a class for the servants 
 every Sunday; and when Pater had gone to Nice, 
 she had two or three missionary meetings in the big 
 hall every winter; and that made her happy for the 
 year. Pater used to laugh at her, but I suspect he 
 missed her when she died. There was a memorial 
 service held for her in a Whitechapel church where 
 she used to help. And I went. It was curious. Hun-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 21 
 
 dreds of little servant girls and errand boys and 
 mothers with babies. They really seemed cut-up." 
 
 Mrs. Wing looked at the picture, frowning a little. 
 
 ' ' She has a strong puritanical mouth. ' ' 
 
 "Yes, she was a sabbatical old party. But an 
 awfully good sort. She preached at me a great deal 
 when I was a boy. But she gave me chocolates too ! ' ' 
 
 "And she was mistress here twenty years?" said 
 Mrs. Wing. 
 
 "She was housekeeper here for twenty years. She 
 hated the house. It oppressed her. She and Pater gave 
 two or three magnificent parties in the season all the 
 opera singers, and that kind of thing but she never 
 appeared at his dinners. It wouldn't have done. Oh 
 they understood each other ! She had no social gifts. ' ' 
 
 "Poor house!" Caroline's tone was soft and 
 thoughtful, as she looked round the splendid room 
 "It seems to want something doesn't it?" 
 
 "It wants a mistress! " he said joyously, throw- 
 ing his arm round her "and now it's got one. 
 Carrie, you look too divine in that dress ! And those 
 pearls on your white neck you go to my head ! But 
 they're not good enough! nothing you have is good 
 enough. I wonder" his voice hesitated "I wonder 
 what's become of my mother's jewels." 
 
 She put a finger on his lips. 
 
 "Don't ask I don't want them!" she said per- 
 emptorily. "Wasn't that a ring? Yes! there's 
 someone in the hall. You see him first, Alec. I'll 
 come back in half an hour. He'll want to see you 
 alone. It's awfully important this, old boy!" 
 
 "Don't I know it? Well go away, dearest give 
 me half an hour, and then you come back and finish 
 up"
 
 22 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Do you mind our having our talk here, Pater? 
 These seem to be the only two habitable rooms at 
 present this and Carrie's sitting-room. Carrie 
 thought you and I had better have some talk without 
 her first she '11 come down later. ' ' 
 
 "Any room does for me, my dear boy! except" 
 Lord Wing turned his head from side to side, sniffing 
 slightly "except for this very strong smell of pine- 
 apple. All strong scents worry me. Kindly ring and 
 have it removed. And put out some of this electric 
 light." 
 
 Alec obeyed. When the footman bearing the pine- 
 apple had shut the door behind him, Lord Wing sank 
 back in the deep armchair of scarlet leather that 
 Alec had placed for him, crossed his very long and 
 thin legs, and accepted a cigarette. Alec stood on the 
 hearth-rug, looking down upon his father, suppressing 
 all signs of the agitation or excitement which in 
 truth possessed him. He was very conscious that his 
 father held the keys of his future; and he believed 
 that Lord Wing had "a plan" of some kind. The 
 question was, Should he be able to fall in with it? 
 
 The father and son were undoubtedly alike. In 
 the prime of his young good looks, well-made and tall, 
 with an open and fearless countenance nose a little 
 too small lips a little too full a good chin eyes 
 a trifle over prominent, under a beautiful brow, the 
 brow and curls indeed of an Adonis Alec Wing 
 stood the challenge both of his cavalier ancestor in 
 hat and plumes, who towered above the mantelpiece 
 behind him, and of his handsome father in the chair 
 beneath him ; and stood it well. Lord Wing had far 
 more regular features than his son, a more adequate 
 and aquiline nose, and a play of mouth subtler and
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 23 
 
 more sensitive than any of which Alec was master. 
 But Alec's young bloom carried it. None but a 
 trained eye would have preferred the father's extraor- 
 dinary distinction to the florid charm of the young 
 man. 
 
 One of the chief elements in Lord Wing's distinc- 
 tion, perhaps, was that it was impossible to think of 
 "bloom" as having, at any period, belonged to him. 
 There were indeed many of his contemporaries living 
 who could remember at the distance of half a cen- 
 tury a young Lord Wing, as ruddy and of as goodly 
 a countenance as the present heir to the name. But 
 the man who now sat looking up at his son had been 
 for years blanched to a most singular and ghostly 
 whiteness. His silky hair, though still abundant, 
 was snow-white; his features and his hands might 
 have been carved in wax or alabaster. His lips had 
 scarcely more color than his cheeks. It was an 
 aspect which in any other man would have stirred 
 ideas of disease and death. And yet such was the 
 force which breathed from the whole personality, such 
 was the energy of the black eyes in the white face, 
 that the father at seventy-four seemed not a whit less 
 toughly and invincibly alive than his splendid son of 
 twenty-nine. Alec indeed was well aware that his 
 father was still in all respects his match, and as he 
 stood waiting for what Lord Wing might say, a cer- 
 tain tremor ran through him. 
 
 "Well, Alec, so here you are! Quite old married 
 people, eh ? Rather more settled in your minds, than 
 when you and I met last?" 
 
 "Naturally!" said Alec, with a hesitating laugh. 
 ' ' If I remember right, it was the day after the trial. ' ' 
 
 "It was. Those things are disagreeable even
 
 24 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 at the best. Well that was eighteen months ago. You 
 have been married a year. And I suppose you still 
 think it was worth it?" 
 
 Alec Wing flushed. 
 
 "Carrie and I are as much in love as we ever 
 were!" he said, vehemently. "You may take that, 
 father, for granted." 
 
 "Of course of course. I do take it for granted. 
 Young men of your ability don't do such things with- 
 out good reason. My question was an idle one. I 
 hope Caroline is well." 
 
 "A little tired and a little frightened by the 
 house ! ' ' 
 
 "The house? But she must have seen it when 
 she was a girl. You told me she used to stay with an 
 aunt in Foster Street. ' ' 
 
 "She remembered the gates of course, and the 
 distant view of the roof that you get from outside. 
 But she had never been inside the gates she had no 
 idea what a place it was. ' ' 
 
 "And she feels it will be a big job to live in it?" 
 
 "Well, yes, she does, Pater." 
 
 "That alone shows her intelligence," said Lord 
 Wing slowly. "It will be a big job to live in it. But 
 if she shirks it, she will not be the woman I think her 
 the woman you have described to me. Now look 
 here, Alec do you mind if I speak plainly ? ' ' 
 
 "Certainly not." 
 
 Lord Wing threw back his head and considered a 
 moment, his bright eyes fixed on his son. 
 
 "You see, Alec, there is no denying that you have 
 done a thing which morals apart is directly cal- 
 culated to wreck the whole scheme of life on which 
 you have set your heart, from the time you were a
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 25 
 
 small boy. I won't say anything of my own desires. 
 My principle has been to make you happy. But you 
 made up your mind from the time you got into tails 
 at Eton, that you were going into Parliament, and 
 of course going to be Prime Minister ! Eton, I think, 
 gave you a taste for debating, and then there are the 
 traditions of the family, etc. And those traditions 
 count for something still, even in these democratic 
 days. A Wing going into Parliament has a pull over 
 the ordinary Jones or Snooks. The Radicals may 
 rage as they please, but it is so, and will be so, for 
 some time to come. Well now, by ill-luck, you your- 
 self have put a considerable spoke in your own 
 career ; and the question is how to get over it. ' ' 
 
 Alec's expression showed a similar impatience to 
 that roused in him by his wife's forebodings of the 
 afternoon. 
 
 "Surely, Pater, you put it a good deal too 
 strongly! Things are very different nowadays from 
 what they were under the Evangelical tyrannies of 
 your young days. We are in sight, too, of a new 
 divorce law, which is going to be much less strict than 
 the old." 
 
 "Nothing it is at all likely to contain would have 
 given any relief to Caroline and you so far as I can 
 learn." The tone was deliberate. 
 
 "I don't quite follow you," said Alec, uncomfort- 
 ably. 
 
 "You see, my dear fellow, there is no doubt that 
 yours was a bad case. Caroline's plea is that Sir 
 John Marsworth was impossible to live with, and 
 made her miserable. But the misfortune is that he 
 was and is a man of immaculate reputation, that she 
 had no cause of complaint against him that any ordi-
 
 26 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 nary mortal could understand, and that the case was 
 in fact undefended. There were also aggravating 
 circumstances, which I find weigh abominably with 
 the women the desertion of the children the death 
 of the little boy" 
 
 ''What responsibility had Caroline for that?" 
 Alec broke out hotly. 
 
 Lord Wing waved a deprecating hand. In the 
 now dim lighting of the room, his ghostly aspect had 
 grown more ghostly, the ethereal whiteness of the 
 head and face more strange. 
 
 "No doubt none whatever! But you know what 
 the public is what women are. It is their tongues 
 that do the mischief. At any rate you may take it 
 from me I should of course put these things more 
 gently to Caroline that public opinion is hostile 
 disagreeably hostile. ' ' 
 
 The speaker paused a moment, and Alec, whose 
 aspect was one of increasing irritation, did not reply. 
 
 Lord Wing resumed 
 
 "You wrote me from Italy that you wished to 
 find a seat in Parliament as soon as possible, and 
 you asked me to sound the Whips. But I have not 
 done so for various reasons. It is all very well, my 
 dear boy, to talk of the 'Evangelical tyrannies' 
 of my youth. I can assure you the 'Nonconformist 
 conscience' of the present day runs 'em pretty 
 close!" 
 
 "Canting humbugs!" cried Alec, throwing away 
 his cigarette with a vehement gesture. 
 
 ' ' Hm ' ' said Lord Wing. ' ' Perhaps. I don 't love 
 them any more than you. But the Dissenters are 
 an increasing force in politics just now and unfortu- 
 nately in our party that's the point. You and I
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 27 
 
 with our Whig and Gladstonian traditions couldn't be 
 Tories, if we tried. There we are, on the Whig side 
 of Liberalism, and there I suppose we shall stay. As 
 a family we don't understand 'ratting.' But the 
 Dissenters, with us, are the tail which at present is 
 wagging the dog. They are the 'purity' party, par 
 excellence, and, as you know, they have got their backs 
 up rather particularly high just now, because of the 
 
 C case on the other side and other things. I am 
 
 afraid they've power enough to make things very hot 
 for you, my dear boy, in any constituency, for a good 
 while to come. So, all things considered, I did not go 
 to the Whips. Those cigarettes of yours are Al." 
 
 And without any change of manner or voice, Lord 
 Wing held out his hand for another. 
 
 "And you suppose I'm going to sit down under 
 this damned Pharisaism!" said Alec, furiously, after 
 a moment. 
 
 "Ah there we come to the point! Not at all. But 
 you can only get what you want, my dear Alec, by 
 fighting fighting hard and that 's what I 'm here to 
 impress upon you. Hence my discouraging remarks. 
 Eecognize your situation locate your enemies and 
 then go for them hammer and tongs! That's why 
 I've given you this house though to be quite honest 
 I was heartily sick of the bother of it long ago. And 
 that 's why I 'm ready to supply you with any amount 
 of money in reason to enable you to make use of 
 it. You understand?" 
 
 "I suppose I do," said the other, unwillingly. 
 "We are to bribe Society to forgive us?" 
 
 "Damn Society!" said Lord Wing contemptu- 
 ously. "As if it were worth buying for itself at 
 any price ! No but I gather from your recent letters
 
 28 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 to me that you want a perfectly definite thing. You 
 want to find yourself in the House of Commons 
 and ultimately in a Government. And unfortunately 
 this social and political world, on which you must 
 depend, is against you will very stubbornly set its 
 chin against you. Ergo you must propitiate your 
 world, or rather your wife must. It's she who'll 
 have to do the greater part of it. Can she?" 
 
 Lord Wing rose, looking keenly at his son. 
 
 "Well wait till you see her, Pater!" said Alec 
 proudly. 
 
 "I take it on your word." The tone was courtly. 
 "You and she, then, can make this house one of the 
 most powerful centers in London, if you set your 
 minds to it. You can certainly pull the political 
 strings and some of the social ones. After all, the 
 women of our family will stand by you ; at least some 
 of them. But don't worry about the women. Go to 
 the men! They'll come. Carrie will capture them; 
 and gradually you'll find the way open. But for 
 heaven's sake don't rush it! and don't bother for a 
 constituency for months to come. These fellows 
 the present Government are in for another year 
 probably two years two years safe. Now then for 
 practical matters. How much money do you want?" 
 
 "I leave it to you, Sir! You've always been most 
 awfully generous. Anything you say will do for us. ' ' 
 
 The young fellow spoke with the frank effusiveness 
 which had made him so easily popular at school and 
 college. Lord Wing smiled, and put a hand on his 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Well I'm pretty well off just now. My broker 
 did well for me in Kafirs last week uncommonly 
 well I netted a big sum. And those Canadian mines
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 29 
 
 have been doing splendidly. By the way, I sent thirty 
 thousand to your account yesterday." 
 
 Alec opened his eyes wide and laughed. 
 
 "Upon my word, Pater, when you do a thing you 
 doit!" 
 
 "And now what about Carrie's jewels? Is she 
 properly provided?" The voice was short and busi- 
 ness-like. 
 
 ' ' She has a few nice things not very much. ' ' 
 
 Alec looked a little askance at his father. The 
 recollection of some of the famous jewels he knew his 
 young mother to have possessed, was running in his 
 mind. They must be still in his father's keeping. 
 But Lord Wing made no allusion to them. 
 
 "Ah well, I have set aside a considerable sum 
 for this object also. I thought that your wife would 
 probably require it. That's all right. You and she 
 can choose them at your leisure. Anything else you 
 want, my dear boy, let me know. Now where 's 
 your fair lady? Ah! one word of advice. Tell 
 Carrie not to be too sensitive ! She shall queen it I 
 promise you. But for your sake, she must sometimes 
 know how to take an affront and take it smiling. 
 After all, you and she have broken the whistle 
 you'll have to pay something for it! Well, now then, 
 go and find her." 
 
 Lord Wing was pacing the long room with his 
 hands behind him, when the sound of a footstep made 
 him turn and he saw his daughter-in-law standing 
 before him. Alec had left them alone. In a flash, the 
 old man's eyes took in the beauty of the woman Alec 
 had so unlawfully captured. Beauty ! and what is 
 much more important in a fastidious society charm,
 
 30 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 manner, dignity. She showed no agitation at the 
 sight of her father-in-law, and she put out her slender 
 hand to him, with an air which delighted him. 
 
 "It is very good of you to come and see us so 
 soon. ' ' 
 
 "But of course I came. Alec, you, and I, are 
 partners aren't we in this game? Now suppose 
 we sit down." He pushed an armchair towards her 
 in which she composedly settled herself. "You must 
 be tired?" 
 
 "A little. It was a rough crossing." 
 
 "You show no signs of it," he said pleasantly, his 
 keen look studying her all the time. 
 
 A little desultory talk followed, about their jour- 
 ney, their arrival, and the servants Lord Wing had 
 provided. The chef was he decent? 
 
 "Too good!" said Carrie, with a laugh. "Alec 
 will put on weight again which will make him 
 miserable. ' ' 
 
 ' ' He looks in splendid condition. So you have had 
 a good time at your villa? Where was it exactly?" 
 
 "In the Apuan Alps just north of Lucca. We 
 had glorious views over Lucca and Pisa to the sea 
 on fine days." 
 
 "Quite in the wilds?" 
 
 "We never saw an English person!" 
 
 "And you kept Alec happy?" 
 
 Then he saw her look change. 
 
 "I believe so," she said quietly. "Do you think 
 it's so difficult to make him happy?" 
 
 "Not to make him happy," said Lord Wing, with 
 slight emphasis. "Sometimes to keep him happy, 
 is not so easy. ' ' 
 
 "You think him such a changeable creature?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 31 
 
 Carrie's smile was lightness itself. But her com- 
 panion thought he perceived some quick attention in 
 the brown eyes. 
 
 "Not more so than the average man. But the 
 average man is not the average woman. ' ' 
 
 The smile which accompanied the words seemed 
 to Caroline Wing as cold as the icy whiteness of the 
 old man's features. A vague pang struck through 
 her. But she gave no sign of it. 
 
 "Of course it was natural that Alec should want 
 to come home, and of course I encouraged it." 
 
 "Perfectly. But now may I speak plainly to you 
 as I have done to Alec ? ' ' 
 
 Carrie nodded in silence. Lord Wing moved his 
 chair a little nearer, and laid a hand on her knee. 
 
 "My dear I know Alec perhaps better than you 
 do though I don't expect you to believe it. Alec is 
 passionate you have touched his passion. But he is 
 also, young as he is, a man of affairs by nature, and 
 tremendously ambitious. If we can't get him into 
 politics, you and I, and carve out a career for him 
 there, we shall both suffer. It bores me dreadfully to 
 see him unhappy, and it would bore me still more to 
 feel that he had the bad manners and the bad taste 
 to make anybody as pretty as you unhappy also. ' ' 
 
 The young woman before him bent forward. 
 
 "Oh, but we love each other!" she said impetu- 
 ously magnificently her soul in her face. 
 
 Lord Wing looked at her liked her but was not 
 quite so sure as before of her intelligence. 
 
 "I know that." The tone was dry. "But the 
 point is how can we secure the permanence of that 
 desirable state of things. If Alec is not amused if 
 Alec is not taken out of himself if you can't make
 
 32 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 his life dramatic for him in the way he under- 
 stands lif e among men and his equals and give him 
 a leading part in it, there will be the deuce to pay 
 for both you and me some day." 
 
 "Was that why you sent me a gramophone?" said 
 Carrie suddenly, her eyes sparkling. 
 
 Lord Wing laughed. 
 
 "I meant it allegorically. Somehow well or ill 
 you must keep Alec entertained. Remember that, 
 when you look at the vile thing. If you take my 
 advice, you will now turn your backs altogether on 
 the solitude a deux. Your business now is to make a 
 life for Alec the kind of life he is fit for. As things 
 are, you may find that a very tough proposition. But 
 if you succeed " 
 
 "And if I don't?" 
 
 "But you will succeed. Your situation reminds 
 me oddly you know of course the famous story of 
 Holland House? of the situation of Lord and Lady 
 Holland, a century ago. Lord Holland ran away in 
 Italy with Sir Godfrey Webster's wife. Webster 
 divorced her, and the Hollands came home to face 
 London. They had money, brains, and Holland 
 House to do it with. So far the cases are alike. But 
 the great difference lies in this. Whatever penalty 
 there was, fell heavily at first on Lady Holland 
 not at all on Lord Holland. Lady Holland was 
 boycotted by the women and retaliated by making 
 Holland House the most famous gathering-place of 
 men in Europe. Lord Holland paid no penalty at all, 
 either social or political. He was welcome everywhere, 
 and the Whig Governments, when they came along, 
 welcomed him with open arms. That was before 
 democracy and the Dissenters. You also will be
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 33 
 
 boycotted, by the women but less severely because 
 of the feminist spirit abroad. But to get Alec into 
 Parliament and then into a Ministry will require 
 a surgical operation. I deliberately think the only 
 person who can do it will be you! though Alec of 
 course must put his best foot forward. Now this is 
 what I suggest." 
 
 Lord Wing talked for twenty minutes. At the end 
 of it Caroline Wing sat erect, her color high, her 
 brows drawn a formidably beautiful creature, in- 
 stinct both with passion and will, in whom the man 
 of mingled character beside her began to feel a very 
 decided interest. 
 
 "I see what you mean," she said, at last, with 
 slow and pregnant emphasis. "I quite understand. 
 And I agree it ought to be tried. Well as far as I 
 am concerned, if it can be done it shall." 
 
 "All right." Lord Wing rose. "Our hands upon 
 it. Now a parting word of warning. The women will 
 boycott you but they will run after Alec all the 
 more, because they will be able to leave you out. 
 And Alec is not averse to being flattered. Be on your 
 guard. And keep your temper and your head. As 
 to the women of our family, you will find them in two 
 camps. The Duchess is or will be your friend. Lady 
 Theodora is on the warpath. But I shall be two days 
 more in town before I go north. There will be time 
 to talk over details, to show you the lay of the land. 
 London of course is humming with talk about you. 
 That you must expect. Now both you and I must 
 go and rest. Ah, Alec, my boy!" as Alec re- 
 entered the room "Good night. Your wife and I 
 have signed a treaty of London. Send her to bed. 
 Goodnight."
 
 34 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Alec Wing accompanied his father to the door. On 
 the step Lord Wing turned 
 
 "Tell Caroline about the jewels. I shall send a 
 man to her with some pretty things to-morrow 
 morning." Alec hesitated. 
 
 "Aren't there some things belonging to the family, 
 Pater? that might save your money?" 
 
 "Not at all not at all!" said Lord Wing gayly. 
 "New gauds for new necks! Good night." 
 
 Alec, as he led his wife upstairs, repeated his fa- 
 ther's message as to the jewels adding indiscreetly 
 
 "I suggested there might be something in the 
 family treasures but he didn't see it." 
 
 Carrie was silent. Hand in hand, they climbed 
 the wide staircase, while a footman beneath them 
 began to put out some of the lights among the pillars 
 of the hall. The impression as the hard glitter of the 
 too white marble sank into shadow, and the heavy 
 gold of the roof disappeared, was one of instant relief 
 as when a glare is shut out. 
 
 "Rather like a Ritz hotel, isn't it?" said Alec 
 looking down. "When this house was built some- 
 where about 1800, I believe this kind of thing, I 
 suppose, was called 'princely.' The architects bagged 
 it from Versailles. Now the hotels can do it better. 
 . . . We're in the left wing, aren't we? I swear 
 I 've forgotten how to find my way. ' ' 
 
 In the distance of a long corridor, Carrie saw her 
 maid hovering as though to guide her through the 
 labyrinthine place. They passed through lines of 
 closed doors, across vistas of regions unexplored ; and 
 it was to Caroline as though the great empty palace 
 watched her, jealously, murmuring to itself.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 35 
 
 Her maid threw open a door, and Carrie entered 
 the luxurious room with which she had already made 
 perfunctory acquaintance. Lord Wing had furnished 
 the whole suite anew; and the color and decoration 
 of bedroom, dressing-room and bathroom had been 
 designed by a woman decorator, who was the rage 
 of the moment, and had given sleepless nights to the 
 artistic renovation of the west wing. 
 
 As she looked round its costly simplicity, its 
 cunning bareness, where every object on the deep- 
 piled carpet bed, or cabinet or table had belonged 
 to some historic collection, and not one meuble was 
 allowed to hide the exquisite quality of its neighbor, 
 Caroline Wing felt a sudden wild longing for her room 
 in the ramshackle Tuscan villa, the vast canopied 
 beds, the curtains of old yellow or blue watered silk, 
 the coarse abundant linen, the old mirrors, tarnished 
 and cracked, the queer eighteenth century pictures, 
 the bare brick floors, with their strips of gay though 
 faded carpet beside the beds aye, even that cattiva 
 bestia running up the wall the first scorpion lured 
 out of its hole by the first heat. . . . What happiness ! 
 ye gods, what happiness! mingled always with 
 that recurrent anguish, that vision of a little white 
 bed a child's head on the pillow. 
 
 The maid was soon dismissed, and Carrie in a thirst 
 for air threw the window open to the moonlit gar- 
 den, and the sudden spring warmth. 
 
 She had quite done with her passing fit of home- 
 sickness for Italy. Her mood was hardening, her 
 spirit rising. She sat, now, listening for her lover, 
 every nerve alert, and all her senses on the watch. 
 She had forfeited her children, and broken an honest
 
 36 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 man; she had gone through those agonies which lay 
 shut away in the innermost cells of memory all for 
 Alec. She had lost her place in the world of honor- 
 able women for Alec. 
 
 And now her conversation with Lord Wing had 
 brought her face to face with further possibilities 
 which she had already guessed, and must at last 
 reckon with calmly. Alec his mere presence was 
 enough for her; but if she were to make herself and 
 her love enough for Alec, it could only be it seemed 
 by letting in that world again which they had both 
 defied, and helping him to reconquer it. 
 
 Beyond the garden, a ball was going on in a large 
 house within a stone's throw of Piccadilly. The 
 waltz-music pulsed through the night, challenging 
 all the youth in Carrie; all her love of life; all her 
 passion for success. And meanwhile, her heart 
 thirsted for Alec's knock at her door for his step 
 beside her in a kind of terror. Some mysterious 
 force seemed to be lying in wait coiled in the 
 recesses of the great house to avenge upon her what 
 she and Alec had done. It was as though Lord Wing 
 had shown her its dim presence couchant in the 
 darkness of the future. . . . The next moment, she 
 was in Alec's arms, as he knelt beside her; and all 
 doubts had vanished in the arrogance of a renewed 
 and intoxicating joy.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IT was an afternoon in May. Lady Theodora Webb 
 had laid aside her outdoor garment, and rung the bell 
 for afternoon tea. She was a tall and thin woman 
 verging towards sixty, with a long bluntly featured 
 face, and gray hair worn in window-curtain fashion 
 so that it framed her prominent brow, and flat cheeks. 
 She had never been handsome, but she possessed a 
 certain stately effectiveness of which she was well 
 aware, and on which she prided herself. 
 
 She had just been attending a charitable committee 
 which was organizing tJie costume ball of the season, 
 and her expression was somewhat irritable and jaded. 
 On her way home she had called at Mudie's and 
 brought away Lady Cardigan's Memoirs, which now 
 reposed on a table by the fire. For she was a de- 
 vourer of memoirs, mainly because, as she said, she 
 could always find something about her relations in 
 them; and her family curiosity was boundless. But 
 her mental indolence matched it. The political and 
 historical passages in these many volumes of biography 
 and "reminiscence," she skipped when she could; so 
 that she had only a confused idea of the modern 
 course of things, even of those English Ministries in 
 which her uncles, cousins and brothers had taken 
 more or less conspicuous parts; and she was never 
 
 37
 
 38 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 quite sure whether it was Dizzy or Mr. Gladstone who 
 had said "Peace, with honor." All the same she was 
 in her way a clever woman, and the sharpness of her 
 tongue made her cleverness tell beyond its deserts. 
 
 She was just settling down to her tea in her cool 
 and shaded drawing-room with a sense of well-earned 
 repose, when she heard the front door bell. 
 
 "How stupid! Why didn't I tell Kipping to let 
 no one in?" 
 
 She sat up to listen in frowning suspense, which 
 soon passed however into a look of relief. 
 
 "Oh well it's only Oliver." 
 
 The door opened, and a gray-haired, fresh-com- 
 plexioned man, immaculately dressed, stood smiling 
 on the threshold. 
 
 "Send me away if you don't want me. I believe 
 you wish me at Jericho!" 
 
 "No" said Lady Theodora, with resignation. 
 "I don't mind you. Come in. Kipping! no one 
 else unless well, unless it's Mrs. Whitton." 
 
 "An exception in which I support you," said Sir 
 Oliver Lewson, shaking hands. "I have come sim- 
 ply and solely for gossip, and Mrs. Whitton under- 
 stands the art, if anyone does." 
 
 "Madge can do more mischief in ten minutes than 
 anyone else I know," said Lady Theodora, sinking 
 back into her chair, after providing her guest. "It 
 seems so charming her chatter and it is " 
 
 "So deadly?" put in her guest, who had now 
 leisurely taken his seat, with the air of one who 
 meant to keep it. "Well, what is the use of a gossip 
 without stings! Should I frequent you as I do, if 
 you hadn't long ago given up Christian charity and 
 that kind of nonsense?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 39 
 
 "Of course I know exactly what you've come for 
 to-day." 
 
 "I never contradict you." 
 
 "You want to hear about that woman at Eltham 
 House." 
 
 "The man and the woman. After all Alec 
 counts for something. And there they are lawfully 
 married. Don't forget that." 
 
 "That won't help them much," said Lady Theo- 
 dora, with a smooth voice, which seemed to have been 
 dipped in gall. ' ' I regret it of course, for Lord Wing 's 
 sake, but the fact is I never knew public opinion so 
 stiff about any case of the kind, as it is about this 
 one. There will be a few eccentrics, of course, who 
 will call upon her ; but as for the people who count 
 the boycott will be complete simply complete." 
 
 "Poor lady! But perhaps she won't mind it. She 
 will have Alec to make love to her Eltham House 
 to live in and as much money as she chooses to ask 
 for. One might put up with a good deal of boycot- 
 ting on those terms. Have you seen Lord Wing?" 
 
 "He walked in this morning talked preposter- 
 ously, as usual. As to morality upholding estab- 
 lished things well you don't expect that from 
 Wing!" said Lord Wing's sister-in-law, with acerb- 
 ity. "He's just amusing himself with the whole 
 business wants to back them against the rest of us 
 and see what '11 happen. He's given up racing 
 sold his stud. So here's a new excitement for him. 
 But what can he do? He can't get Alec into Par- 
 liament, or that woman to a drawing-room. " 
 
 "You forget. We live in feminist days. There 
 will be a party for Mrs. Wing. To be frank, I always 
 thought Marsworth a sad stick."
 
 40 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Well, if everyone might throw a husband over" 
 cried Lady Theodora and then paused, applying her- 
 self with energy to the cutting of cake. Sir Oliver 
 looked away. He did not believe Lady Theodora 
 meant anything personal by her outburst ; but still he 
 was glad to remember that it wanted nearly an hour 
 to the time when Colonel Webb usually returned 
 home from his office, and when Lady Theodora's 
 friends generally avoided her drawing-room. 
 
 "Besides" resumed his companion, angrily "the 
 whole circumstances were so flagrant, so abominable ! 
 Both children delicate an untrustworthy governess 
 and the little boy already ill! She has that child's 
 death on her conscience." 
 
 "I am told she tried to go back to him, and there 
 was a terrible scene between her and Marsworth." 
 
 "I dare say. Of course he refused to let her see 
 the child!" 
 
 "Hm" said Lewson "I don't know. There is a 
 certain change of feeling about all that sort of thing. ' ' 
 
 ' ' Not as far as I know ! And then the audacity of 
 her whole behavior at Florence flaunting her con- 
 quest in everyone's face! No attempt at conceal- 
 ment, or reserve! A shameless creature! What 
 chance has a modest girl against such women? They 
 are just harpies who take the bread out of her mouth. 
 What's the good of telling girls it pays to be virtu- 
 ous, when such goings on " 
 
 "End in Eltham House and thirty thousand a 
 year?" put in Sir Oliver, mildly. "Well, I warn 
 you I am going to dine there to-morrow. I came 
 across Alec at Brooks 's, and he asked me. But I want 
 to know what Wing really thinks of her. Did you 
 get it out of him?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 41 
 
 "Well, of course she's handsome you know that," 
 said Lady Theodora grudgingly. "And he says he 
 thinks her clever undeveloped, naturally but with 
 a head-piece. And he seems to be urging her to what 
 I should have thought" the speaker tossed her head 
 "the very worst policy imaginable for a woman in 
 her position magnificent entertaining, and so on." 
 
 "Well, she seems to be taking his advice. I am 
 beginning to hear of the Eltham House dinners, and 
 Mrs. Wing's 'evenings' in many quarters. I felt 
 indeed quite shut out till Alec asked me yesterday. 
 And after dinner, to-morrow, I understand they give 
 their first reception. Interesting to see who comes! 
 But of course, if you spend enough money, you can 
 always fill your rooms." 
 
 "But that of course is not the least what Wing 
 wants. He doesn't want the rabble nobody does. 
 What use are they? He wants the cream." 
 
 "I dare say. But what's to be the object of the 
 entertaining? Are the young people already bored 
 with each other?" 
 
 Lady Theodora shrugged her shoulders. "Don't 
 ask me! I gather they are to make themselves so 
 important and so interesting that all doors are to be 
 opened to them whatever they may have done." 
 
 ' ' Including Parliament and the Cabinet for Alec ? 
 Well, you know, it's not a bad idea though a des- 
 perate one. But it depends upon the woman!" he 
 repeated in meditation, his chin propped upon his 
 hands, and those upon his stick. "And you haven't 
 yet told me anything that enables one to judge. 
 Has she charm?" 
 
 "Well, she charmed Alec worse luck!" 
 
 "Has she industry?"
 
 42 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Industry! My dear Oliver, what has industry to 
 do with a salon f" 
 
 1 ' Everything ! To work a salon properly as some 
 Frenchwomen have worked it as Lady Holland 
 worked it a hundred years ago, is a life's work. A 
 woman must never forget it. It means remembering 
 the habits, the whims, the prejudices of scores of 
 touchy people the more important, the more touchy. 
 What they like to eat, and drink their birthdays, 
 and their children's birthdays their religious opin- 
 ions, or their lack of them and in the case of poli- 
 ticians, reading all their speeches ! flattering all their 
 vanities ! helping their friends, and slaying their ene- 
 mies keeping up a vast correspondence: in short, 
 never having an hour or an opinion to yourself!" 
 
 "Good heavens!" said Lady Theodora, raising her 
 eyebrows. "How can a woman of twenty-eight make 
 a success of such a business? She hasn't enough 
 knowledge of the world. ' ' 
 
 "Ah, no: you're wrong there. It wants youth 
 at the beginning. Youth charm money and 
 work." He checked off the requirements on his 
 fingers. "Well! I shall see her to-morrow, and I'll 
 come and report. Where's the little girl?" 
 
 Lady Theodora believed that Carina, aged nine, 
 the eldest and only surviving child of the Marsworth 
 marriage, was with her paternal grandmother, old 
 Lady Marsworth, in Oxfordshire. Access to her by 
 the mother had been left entirely to the discretion of 
 the father by the Court. As to Sir John 
 "You know he has gone over?" 
 
 Sir Oliver nodded. "And is to be a Jesuit?" 
 
 "So they say. The death of the child, and Caro- 
 line's behavior settled it."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 43 
 
 "I believe he made her miserable it's the way of 
 saints," laughed Lewson. ''Well so you don't mean 
 to call?" 
 
 "Certainly not! I don't intend to run any risk 
 for my girls thank you!" said Lady Theodora, with 
 vehemence. "If Alec likes to come here, he may." 
 
 "The Duchess, I hear, intends to take them up?" 
 
 "By all means!" But a flush and some signs of 
 agitation accompanied the words. 
 
 Sir Oliver smiled to himself. He was well aware 
 that Lady Theodora had destined one of her plain 
 daughters for Alec Wing, and that her moral dis- 
 approval was in part genuine, in part firmly based 
 on her maternal disappointment. 
 
 But at this point the conversation was broken 
 by another arrival. The butler announced "'Mrs. 
 Whitton." 
 
 Madge Whitton had taken off her gloves, accepted 
 her tea, and sat with her pretty hands clasped upon 
 her knee, looking from Lady Theodora to Sir Oliver 
 in a smiling silence. She was a slight woman with 
 a rather sallow complexion, very fair hair, bluish- 
 gray eyes, and small white teeth. The features were 
 delicate, the mouth especially attractive, with its 
 smiling trick, and its alternate childishness and 
 malice. But Mrs. Whitton was no beauty, and an 
 ordinary woman possessing such a physique would 
 have made little of it. Mrs. Whitton made everything 
 of it. She was amazingly run after, and always in 
 request. A young widow, good-looking, well-bred, 
 and apparently well-provided, who can always be 
 trusted to make herself agreeable, who has the inde- 
 pendence of marriage, without the possible drawback
 
 44 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 of a dull husband, is welcome in any world. Mrs. 
 Whitton had the best of times in London. 
 
 She was the daughter of a younger son of a great 
 family; and in her impecunious but well-connected 
 youth, she had learned all the arts of social depend- 
 ence, earning the luxuries she wanted by simply mak- 
 ing herself pleasant to great relations. She helped 
 them to write their notes, and invite their parties; 
 she arranged the flowers, and talked to the bores ; and 
 in return Lady Eawdon, for instance, her great aunt, 
 gave a ball for her coming out, and for the two years 
 of her maiden career had paid for most of her gowns, 
 in the hope of thereby floating a penniless girl into a 
 satisfactory marriage. And Madge had justified all the 
 kindness shown her by carrying off two years after 
 her coming out a very substantial country squire, 
 with a house in the Midlands, who settled a thousand 
 a year upon his wife, and then died of typhoid fever 
 at Venice, within twelve months of their marriage. 
 
 This sad event had been one of the chief elements 
 in Mrs. Whitton 's subsequent success. She came back 
 to London life, haloed by a tragedy, which in her 
 secret mind she knew to have been a release. Every- 
 body pitied her ; everybody said and thought that she 
 looked charming and "so touching" in her black. 
 She set up an elderly maiden cousin as housekeeper 
 and companion, and observed all the proprieties. It 
 was not till the proper two years after her husband's 
 death had elapsed that her position in London life 
 became at all clear to the crowd, although those who 
 knew her well were aware that she had been quietly 
 and irresistibly preparing it, almost from the first 
 moment of her widowhood. She had various gifts. 
 She was something of an actress, and something of an
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 45 
 
 artist. She spoke French beautifully ; and her dress 
 was perfection. It may be added that her enjoyment 
 of life was both surprising and infectious ; so that, as 
 she entered a room, people were apt to think "Here 
 comes an agreeable woman." And moreover, accom- 
 plished Londoner as she was, she was only seven-and- 
 twenty. She had been married at twenty-one, and 
 had now been a widow nearly five years. 
 
 Lady Theodora, while providing her with tea, had 
 been all the while scanning her closely. Madge 
 Whitton's dress was a source of frequent inspiration 
 to the hard-worked maid who kept the Miss Webbs 
 respectable during the season, on small allowances. 
 Mrs. Whitton herself was well aware of it ; but in all 
 such things she was carelessly good-natured, and it 
 merely tickled her sense of humor to see a Paris 
 masterpiece transformed into one of the characteristic 
 Webbian garments. 
 
 "We were talking of the new arrivals," said Lady 
 Theodora abruptly, having at last mastered, as she 
 thought, the whole cut of the short silk coat which 
 became Madge so well. 
 
 ' ' The Wings ? Have you called ? ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Whitton's bright eyes half mocking studied 
 her hostess over the brim of her cup. 
 
 Lady Theodora repeated stiffly that she had not 
 called. People might think her puritanical and old- 
 fashioned if they pleased. 
 
 "On the contrary, you will be quite in the fash- 
 ion!" laughed Mrs. Whitton, "I don't know anybody 
 who is going to call the women, I mean except the 
 Duchess." 
 
 "A large 'except,' " said Sir Oliver. "I shouldn't 
 wonder if the Duchess routed you all. ' '
 
 46 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 ' ' Oh, no ! " Lady Theodora 's voice was coldly con- 
 fident. "If Caroline Wing were the first But the 
 Duchess has taken up too many of the same sort. She 
 doesn't count any longer as far as influence goes." 
 
 "I called at once," said Mrs. Whitton quietly. 
 "I too don't count." 
 
 Lady Theodora surveyed her. 
 
 "You can do what you like. But ycm are very 
 young, my dear, and you ought to take care. ' ' 
 
 "What are you afraid of for me dear Lady 
 Theodora? I knew Alec Wing before I married 
 and the story well, I confess it just thrills me ! So 
 few people plunge nowadays." 
 
 "Very few women would desert their dying child 
 for their lover that I grant you," said Lady Theo- 
 dora, grimly. 
 
 Madge Whitton clasped her hands pleadingly to 
 her breast. 
 
 "Oh, but we really don't know, do we, Sir Oliver? 
 People are so unkind they love to believe the very 
 worst! I don't mean you, dear lady! of course not! 
 You are always so kind! But don't you think people 
 do like running a woman down especially if she 
 won't grovel if she defies them? It turns them 
 savage, when the woman refuses to wear a white 
 sheet like Jane Shore. ' ' 
 
 "Who was Jane Shore?" said Sir Oliver, delib- 
 erately. "Somebody else mentioned the lady to me 
 in connection with Mrs. Wing. But I have forgotten 
 all my history." 
 
 Mrs. Whitton laughed, a low, gurgling laugh of 
 purest mirth. 
 
 ' ' I heard a girl ask an undergraduate that once on 
 the river at Oxford. And the boy looked her full i
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 47 
 
 the face, and said quite innocently 'I don't exactly 
 know, but I think she was the Maid of Orleans'!" 
 
 Even Lady Theodora laughed. 
 
 "You do tell such tales, Madge! I am sure you 
 invented that." 
 
 "Wish I had!" said Mrs. Whitton, coolly. "Well, 
 Sir Oliver, I hear you dine there to-morrow night. 
 So do I." 
 
 "Oh, you do, do you?" Sir Oliver surveyed her 
 ironically. ' ' Nobody like you, dear Mrs. Whitton, for 
 being always in it whether it 's the start or the finish. 
 Perhaps you know who the other guests are to be?" 
 
 "Certainly! some of them. Alec Wing told me. 
 The French Ambassador, and Ambassadress the 
 Scandinavian Minister, and wife Mr. Llewellyn the 
 Duchess two or three M.P.'s the poet who wrote 
 that horrible thing in the Futurist Review last month 
 Kaminski Lord Forres Lord Llanberris the 
 American naval attache that Russian traveler peo- 
 ple are making such a fuss about I know no more ! ' ' 
 
 "Not bad for a beginning," said Sir Oliver, re- 
 flectively. ' ' Mrs. Wing has been six weeks in London. 
 And Kaminski!" He raised his eyebrows. 
 
 "Who goes nowhere, as you know, and gives her- 
 self abominable airs. But for Mrs. Wing! she is 
 going to dance after dinner." 
 
 ' ' Like hostess, like guest ! ' ' The voice of indignant 
 scorn was Lady Theodora's. "Kaminski dancing 
 in that house! It's enough to make Aunt Libby 
 turn in her grave ! ' ' 
 
 "Or slip in to see?" suggested Sir Oliver, slyly. 
 ' ' I shall think tenderly of her scandalized little ghost ; 
 I was very fond of her. And the reception after- 
 wards?" he turned to Mrs. Whitton.
 
 48 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Crowds! And I hear the most wonderful reports 
 about the house. They have turned on that decorat- 
 ing woman the American genius whom people rave 
 about and she has done extraordinary things in 
 three weeks. Hangings and carpets and china! 
 They say they have discovered all sorts of treasures 
 hidden away in the house, which Lord Wing had 
 forgotten all about. He has given carte blanche, and 
 talks of coming up to-morrow, to see 'Carrie's first 
 rout'!" 
 
 "The more fool he!" said Lady Theodora grimly. 
 "What good, I ask you, will all this silly display do 
 Alec? which is really what Wing cares about. It 
 would have been infinitely better for Alec's political 
 chances, supposing he has any left, if they had kept 
 quiet for a time, and shown some proper feeling 
 instead of braving us all." 
 
 Lady Theodora crossed her arms over her ample 
 breast personifying an outraged society. But the 
 two others were incorrigibly gay. Sir Oliver pointed 
 out that the culprits had been "keeping quiet" for 
 two years, or thereabouts. And as life is short, they 
 probably thought they had done enough in that 
 direction. 
 
 "And 'proper feeling' would never have done them 
 an ounce of good, socially, ' ' threw in Mrs. Whitton. 
 "Their only hope is well, just brazening it out!" 
 
 Lady Theodora declared hotly that to hear them 
 both talk one might suppose there was no question 
 of morals of right or wrong involved at all. These 
 people had broken the Seventh Commandment and 
 "who breaks, pays." 
 
 "Hm yes" mused Mrs. Whitton, her chin on 
 her hand. "But you know, Lady Theodora, there
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 49 
 
 really are all sorts of new ideas abroad nowadays 
 aren't there? on the subject of divorce and un- 
 happy marriages? It isn't as simple as it used to be. 
 Well anyway Sir Oliver and I are going to see the 
 fun aren't we?" 
 
 Sir Oliver and Mrs. Whitton left the house together. 
 As they turned into St. James's Street, Lewson 
 remarked that Lady Theodora seemed really very 
 much upset. 
 
 "You see, she had fixed on him for Nelly!" said 
 Mrs. Whitton, with her confiding, childish look. ' ' You 
 do know that, don't you, dear Sir Oliver? And it 
 was a disappointment." 
 
 "I don't believe he ever gave either of them any 
 reason whatever " 
 
 "Oh, no of course not. But that doesn't matter." 
 
 "So you knew him before the scandal?" 
 
 ' ' Oh, well, as boy and girl. There was a commem 
 at Oxford he was nineteen, and I was seventeen. 
 We danced together night after night, and made peo- 
 ple talk. Just a baby flirtation. He behaved ab- 
 surdly and I was a goose. But then well, I mar- 
 ried!" 
 
 Lewson smiled indulgently. He seemed to recog- 
 nize the familiar weakness of a popular woman; the 
 belief, that is, that all her men acquaintances had 
 been or were still in love with her. 
 
 "And you've seen him since his return?" 
 
 "Once. We ran across each other in the Park. 
 He's just the same dear as he always was. Trust 
 him always for getting what he wants!" 
 
 They walked on, and as they passed a famous party 
 Club, Sir Oliver said
 
 50 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "I hear vaguely that he's come home deter- 
 mined to go into politics. And I see his name down, 
 to speak at the Hull election. But you know it'll 
 be no good!" 
 
 "What '11 you bet?" laughed his companion. "I 
 prophesy that Alec Wing will be in Parliament be- 
 fore the year's out." 
 
 Lewson shook his head with energy. 
 
 ' ' You are mistaken. ' ' 
 
 "Well, if he isn't, somebody will smart for it ! Ah ! 
 here 's my bus. Good-by ! ' ' 
 
 And Sir Oliver presently caught a last glimpse of 
 Mrs. Whitton's amused countenance, as her bus dis- 
 appeared amid the traffic of Piccadilly. 
 
 He had scarcely reached the top of the street, when 
 he was aware of a lady's voice calling him per- 
 emptorily by name. Looking round, he saw a motor 
 standing in front of a silversmith's and a hand 
 beckoning. 
 
 "Why, Duchess, how are you?" 
 
 He approached the window of the car, and shook 
 two fingers which were thrust out to him from 
 within. 
 
 "What were you doing with Madge Whitton?" 
 said a masterful voice. 
 
 "We have both been having tea with Lady 
 Theodora." 
 
 The lady inside the car shrugged her shoulders 
 impatiently. She was stout, with fair hair fading 
 to white thrown back from an imposing forehead, fine 
 features, and the look of a well-intentioned despot. 
 
 "Then I am certain you have been hearing ill of 
 your neighbors. Theodora is really impossible, just 
 now. ' '
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 51 
 
 Lewson leaned smiling over the window of the car. 
 
 ' ' You and she, I understand, are on different sides, 
 in t Jie affair?" 
 
 "Of course, we are. I am I hope a reasonable 
 woman, which Theodora never was, and never will 
 be. I accept the fait accompli. Good heavens! if 
 we were all to go ferreting into each other's pasts." 
 Two large hands flew up expressively. 
 
 ' ' You think it is not going to make -much difference 
 to them?" 
 
 "To whom the Wings? Of course it'll make a 
 difference. They'll be the most interesting people in 
 London for a good while to come. It'll be a succes 
 d' execration one of the best there is. They'll split 
 the rest of us into two camps, and we shall do nothing 
 but talk about them, and quarrel about them. I'm 
 for liberty and I shall stand by them now, that 
 he's married her, Men entendu!" 
 
 ' ' I understand he wants to go into politics. ' ' 
 
 "Oh well, he must take advice. Wing and I shall 
 find him a seat somehow. But of course he must wait 
 a bit. I'm already asking him to meet people. 
 Kichard Washington, of course." 
 
 Mr. Richard Washington, a Midland manufacturer, 
 was at that moment leading the Liberal Opposition 
 in the House of Commons. 
 
 "And Mrs. Washington?" 
 
 "Good heavens, no! But you only asked it 'to 
 annoy.' You know that woman as well as I do. A 
 greater Pharisee doesn't exist. She, a Liberal! She 
 flaunts her morals as other people do their pedigrees. 
 What's that striking?" 
 
 "Half -past six." Sir Oliver showed his watch. 
 
 "Go into that shop" said the Duchess with quiet
 
 52 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 exasperation "and tell my daughter in there to come 
 out at once!" 
 
 "What's she doing there?" 
 
 "Changing some of her hideous wedding-presents. 
 But I can't wait any longer. I've read the whole 
 of last night's debate" the Duchess pointed to the 
 Times beside her "and I must get home to my let- 
 ters. Fetch her!" 
 
 Sir Oliver went, smiling. Instantly, a frightened 
 bride emerged, begging her mother for a few more 
 minutes to complete important negotiations. The 
 Duchess declined, the daughter gave way and the 
 two drove off, leaving everything in confusion, and 
 the shopman in a rage. 
 
 Sir Oliver walked on in meditation. The word 
 "liberty" on the Duchess's lips always delighted him.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 "MRS. WING will be down directly, sir," said a 
 footman. 
 
 Sir Oliver Lewson passed through the door thrown 
 open for him, and found himself in a room on the 
 ground floor of Eltham House, known as ' ' The Small 
 Library." The large official library, so to speak, was 
 continuous with the splendid series of drawing-rooms 
 on the first floor, and was a room for show occasions, 
 and otherwise little used. But "The Small Library" 
 represented the soul of the house, if it had a soul. 
 It contained the collection of early French and Italian 
 books made at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury by a traveled and learned Lord Wing, and the 
 warm browns and golds of their bindings, behind a 
 brass lattice, made all other decoration superfluous. 
 Yet over the mantelpiece a great Vandyck a man of 
 science, in flowing robes, and holding a skull gath- 
 ered up and concentrated all the rich tones of the 
 room ; while from the garden a shimmer and scent of 
 May flowers wallflowers and narcissus flowing in 
 through the open windows, completed the general 
 impression of delicacy and charm. 
 
 Sir Oliver perceived another guest already in pos- 
 session ; a friend and the son of friends. 
 
 "Hullo, Durrant, we are before our time! Why 
 53
 
 54 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 aren't you at the Palace to-night for the drawing- 
 room?" 
 
 "I am not on duty." 
 
 "You, I imagine, have dined here before?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, several times." But instantly, the young 
 soldier's honest snub-nosed countenance seemed to 
 lose something of its openness. 
 
 "I am told the chef is a marvel," said Sir Oliver, 
 smiling. 
 
 ' ' Trust Lord Wing for that I ' ' 
 
 "What he's responsible?" 
 
 "He captured him from Voisin's, at Christmas 
 bought him literally for some unheard-of sum 
 carried him over here, and has given him to Alec. 
 Yes, he 's frightfully good. ' ' The young man grinned. 
 "But he has 'nerves,' and whenever there's any- 
 thing on like a dinner party the other servants go 
 in peril of their lives. But Mrs. Wing knows how to 
 manage him. He says she's the only lady he ever 
 met who was worth cooking for." 
 
 "She understands the art?" 
 
 "She understands the importance of it," said the 
 young man sententiously. "She seems to know what 
 greedy pigs men are." 
 
 Sir Oliver laughed. 
 
 "Men?" he said interrogatively. 
 
 "Well, of course there aren't many women." The 
 words came out reluctantly. "But I can tell you Mrs. 
 Wing Carrie is going to be splendid. Here she is ! " 
 
 The door was thrown open, and Caroline Wing 
 entered hurriedly, with hands outstretched first to 
 her husband's cousin, whom she greeted now as an 
 intimate, and then, a little more guardedly, to 
 Lewson.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 55 
 
 "Jim! Sir Oliver! How late I am! Well, any- 
 how I'm before the Duchess thank Heaven! And 
 Alec's still dressing! We've been to Henley, and 
 only got back half an hour ago. Please sit down, 
 I aw tired." 
 
 And she subsided into a chair, her thin white arms 
 hanging beside her, on the shiny folds of her dress, 
 and her dark eyes dancing above the superb jewels 
 that covered her breast. 
 
 "I can't say you look it!" said Lewson. 
 
 Sir Oliver surveyed her, indeed, with an admira- 
 tion not to be concealed. A creature more radiant, 
 more alive, he thought he had never seen. Her tall 
 and supple body, her proud head on its long throat, 
 the sparkle in her look, the grace of movement which 
 was also the grace of power and energy, as of one 
 mistress of herself and her environment no sensitive 
 observer but would have found it hard to take his 
 eyes from her. A woman with a story behind her 
 and perhaps? a story to come: that seemed to 
 Sir Oliver the message of her personality and her 
 beauty. He was sorry for Sir John Marsworth ; and 
 he was conscious of a secret wonder whether Alec 
 Wing was man enough to hold her. 
 
 The room began to fill. A small whirlwind accom- 
 panied the entrance of the Duchess, fat, fair, and 
 sixty, leaning on her stick, and taking in all the guests, 
 with a pair of the shrewdest eyes in London. 
 
 "Well, my dear," this to Caroline "so this 
 house is lived in again. Congratulate you. Wing has 
 neglected it shamefully for years. The last time I set 
 foot in it, it smelled like a cellar. You seem to have 
 done wonders. How do you do, Alec. Late as usual ? ' ' 
 
 For the young master of the house had just hurried
 
 56 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 into the room, full of apologies. He bent over her 
 hand, smiling. 
 
 ' ' I 'm afraid you know me of old, Aunt Lucy ! ' ' 
 
 "I do." The tone was just touched with sarcasm. 
 Then in his ear "Don't you put me near that man 
 Llewellyn I saw him in the hall I can't be civil to 
 him." 
 
 Mr. Robert Llewellyn belonged to the Front Oppo- 
 sition Bench, and had been Financial Secretary to the 
 Treasury in the preceding Liberal Government. The 
 Duchess imagined herself to be a great Whig lady; 
 but her hatred for the Radical wing of her own party 
 was only equaled by her contempt for the "extinct 
 volcanoes" of the other. Alec laughed. 
 
 "Trust Carrie! She has arranged it all." The 
 Duchess's eyebrows went up as much as to say 
 "What can she know about it yet?" Her nephew 
 resumed "You'll have to be content with me you 
 know on one side but we've given you the Scandi- 
 navian Minister on the other." 
 
 The Duchess's brow cleared. 
 
 "All right! an agreeable man. His wife too 
 since she gave up the youth and beauty business. 
 Go along, Alec there's the Ambassador." 
 
 For the French Ambassador, and his wife had that 
 moment appeared. The Ambassador, a robust, black- 
 haired, black-bearded man, looked extremely formid- 
 able, and had the softest possible manners, as though 
 to make amends both for his appearance and for the 
 revolutionary memories suggested by his name. His 
 wife beside him, thin, ultra-refined, with large, 
 prominent eyes, was a miracle of well-preserved 
 elegance. She belonged to a Legitimist family who 
 had renounced her with horror on her marriage. The
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 57 
 
 Ambassador greeted Caroline with particular effusion. 
 They had already met at the Opera, where her beauty 
 had made an instant captive of him. As for her 
 story, it was only an added attraction. For all crimes 
 passionels, he felt the boundless indulgence of his 
 nation. 
 
 His wife behaved with more reserve. After a few 
 words with the Wings, she retreated to a seat beside 
 the Scandinavian Minister's wife, with whom she 
 talked eagerly of the State ball the night before. But 
 as the buzz in the room grew louder, the French 
 Ambassadress bent over her neighbor. "Have you 
 seen her before Madame Wing? No? Oh, yes!" 
 indifferently "she is lovely! the men rave about her. 
 But poor thing! what a pity! There was so much 
 talk at supper, last night. The Royalties have set 
 their faces. They mean to show their opinion if they 
 can. But indeed, there was scarcely a voice for them. 
 Isn't it tragic? Such wealth and such beauty! 
 Of course we diplomats can do what we please ! And 
 I find her charming ! ' ' 
 
 The speaker put up a gold-rimmed eyeglass in a 
 fleshless hand and watched the movements of Mrs. 
 Wing from a distance, as she might have watched the 
 first act of a play that promised emotions. 
 
 "Ma chere," said the excited voice of the lady 
 beside her. ' ' Voila Kaminski ! ' ' 
 
 And amid a sudden hush in the now crowded room, 
 a group round the door fell back, to let pass a singu- 
 lar figure that of Eugenie Kaminski the famous 
 Servian dancer of the moment herald and fore- 
 runner of a Slavonic art, which had not yet dawned 
 on London. She came in with a gliding step, swathed 
 in some glistening white stuff, and glittering with
 
 58 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 jewels. A deep scarlet belt, and a scarlet silk cap, 
 emphasized the audacity of the eyes, the deathly 
 pallor of the skin, the high cheek bones, the wide 
 nostrils, the slow, half dreamy smile of the red lips. 
 The eyes were blackened above and below, the cheeks 
 rouged. Something Asian and barbaric seemed to 
 enter with her, and sent a pleasing thrill through the 
 London drawing-room. The Duchess rose from her 
 seat, and hobbled as fast as she could to add her 
 greetings to those of the Wings; the French Am- 
 bassador, Robert Llewellyn, various young peers, and 
 diplomatic underlings, among the foremost "bloods" 
 of the moment, hurried to the scene. With half -shut 
 eyes, her long hands and snaky arms quivering in ac- 
 companiment to every word and change of expression, 
 the dancer held her court. 
 
 Captain Durrant did not join it. He fidgeted, 
 uncomfortable and frowning, in the background. He 
 was a plain man strictly brought up in an old and 
 pious Scotch family, who was always getting into 
 trouble with his own moral principles. He had 
 yielded so far as to become the friend and champion 
 of his new cousin "Carrie." But in inviting this 
 Servian Dalila of whose history, as a member of one 
 of the Household regiments, he knew more than he 
 wanted to know it seemed to him that Alec's wife 
 had made a serious mistake. "It will do her harm," 
 he said to himself, fuming. "In her position she 
 ought to be doubly careful. A stupid blunder! I 
 shall talk to Alec." 
 
 Meanwhile the Ambassadress was murmuring to the 
 Duchess. 
 
 "Quelle triomphe pour Madame Wing! She goes 
 nowhere. Only a week ago so they told me at the
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 59 
 
 Palace last night she refused a Windsor 'command' 
 and quite insolently. Her little dog was ill, she 
 said, and she could not leave him." 
 
 "Carrie! Mrs. Whitton!" 
 
 "Am I the very, very last?" said Mrs. Whitton, 
 throwing up her hands in dismay "A thousand 
 apologies, dear Mrs. Wing. I " 
 
 But Carrie, after greeting her tardy guest, had 
 flown at a signal from Lord Wing, who had recently 
 entered, and had something to whisper in her ear. 
 Mrs. Whitton looked at her host. 
 
 ' ' I was at Henley too. I saw you. What a pace you 
 must have come home at! Were there no police?" 
 
 Alec was conscious, as she spoke, that her looks 
 were extremely agreeable, though not in any way 
 brilliant. She was dressed in black, with some fine 
 pearls, which suited the pale fairness of her head, 
 and the air and exercise of the afternoon had 
 given freshness to her complexion. She was certainly 
 distinguished, he said to himself; one would notice 
 her anywhere. And he thought with a passing 
 amusement of their old boy and girl flirtation at that 
 Oxford ball St. John's, wasn't it? He seemed to 
 see the beautiful old garden with its fairy lamps, 
 and the gray front of the College. She had actually 
 let him kiss her under the trees. What a pair of 
 babes! He must tell Carrie about it and make 
 her laugh. And now, here was the poor little thing 
 left alone ; and not too well off, so it was said. Why, 
 she couldn't be more than six or seven and twenty. 
 It was very hard on her. 
 
 Some unspoken consciousness seemed to pass 
 between their eyes, and she smiled.
 
 60 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "When one is with a future Prime Minister, you 
 know," she continued, still softly excusing herself, 
 "one has to do what he does. He joined us about 
 five just to see his son Billy row Billy's race came 
 on late, and I couldn't get away." 
 
 "Oh, you were with the Washingtons ? " There 
 was a sudden eagerness in Wing 's voice. ' ' I thought I 
 saw him in the distance. Is he a friend of yours ? ' ' 
 
 She nodded, moving on into the crowd of the 
 room. 
 
 "We must have a talk after dinner, mustn't we?" 
 said Wing, following her, and perceiving at the same 
 moment that dinner had been announced. 
 
 Mrs. Whitton looked back over her shoulder, 
 smiling. ' ' I shall expect you. ' ' 
 
 But her manner, though gracious, was a trifle 
 queenly. Nothing at all in it of the "poor little 
 thing." It and she piqued his curiosity, and when 
 a few minutes later he found himself between the 
 Ambassadress and the Duchess, he was still speculat- 
 ing about her. How had Caroline got hold of her 
 for this dinner? He could not remember except 
 that he had told his wife of his chance meeting with 
 Mrs. Whitton in the Park. 
 
 "So you think there is really no chance of an elec- 
 tion this year?" 
 
 The question was Mrs. Wing's. She addressed it 
 to her neighbor on her left, Mr. Robert Llewellyn, 
 a gentleman holding a remarkable position in the 
 Liberal party, and destined, it was thought, to high 
 office, whenever the hungry "Outs" should succeed 
 in hurling the "Ins" from place. He was a chubby- 
 faced man of middle age, with blinking eyes, which
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 61 
 
 for all their blinking were yet extraordinarily kind 
 and straight, a large expressive mouth, and a delib- 
 erately courteous manner. 
 
 He smiled at the question and shook his head. 
 "None whatever. And certainly our side has no 
 reason to wish it. We are not in the least prepared." 
 
 Ca oline bent her beautiful eyes upon him, and 
 with a pretty deference quoted some opinions of a 
 very different kind of Mr. This, and Lord That 
 who thought there would and must be a general 
 election in the autumn. She quoted them intelli- 
 gently. Her voice pleased the ears beside her. But as 
 for the opinions, they only produced a more decided 
 head-shake, and a touch of contempt in the smile. 
 
 "These men the present Government are in 
 certainly till next year probably for two years more. 
 I advise you not to believe any reports to the con- 
 trary. And on our side we have a great dearth of 
 candidates and no money. ' ' 
 
 "Really? a lack of candidates?" 
 
 "Undoubtedly. The constituencies grow very 
 particular nowadays. They want either the solid 
 respectable men, with money, and large local inter- 
 ests; or young men without money, good speakers 
 men of ability whom it may be worth the party's 
 while to finance." 
 
 "Isn't there a third kind?" asked Caroline, smiling 
 ' ' the young men of ability with money ? ' ' 
 
 "Of course! the rare birds! But it doesn't do 
 to reckon on too many of them. And as to money 
 we have plenty of rich men on our side, but they 
 don't do their duty; they don't stump up as the 
 Tories do." 
 
 He saw his hostess glance towards the white head
 
 62 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 of Lord Wing, conspicuous on the further side of 
 the round table. Then moving confidingly towards 
 Llewellyn, she said under her breath laughter in 
 voice and eyes 
 
 "I hope my father-in-law stumps up ! He could!" 
 
 Her neighbor looked as he felt a little em- 
 barrassed. 
 
 "I have no doubt Lord Wing gives us all that he 
 thinks we deserve," he said dryly. 
 
 "I see!" said Caroline, with the same joyous ani- 
 mation. " Alec must talk to him. " 
 
 Llewellyn smiled at her discreetly, but without 
 reply; and she at once changed the subject. The 
 French Ambassador indeed claimed her, and Llewel- 
 lyn who, in the vast preponderance of men, had only 
 a young civil servant on his left, of no apparent con- 
 versational powers, listened a while to their conversa- 
 tion. Mrs. Wing's French was evidently good, and 
 the Ambassador, who was in general proud of his 
 English, had no chance of using it. It was said indeed 
 that he only spoke French when his country was pur- 
 suing an aggressive policy, and it was necessary to 
 assume that Europe had only one language worth 
 talking. Llewellyn, who was a great student of char- 
 acter, presently came to the conclusion that Mrs. Wing 
 was exceedingly intelligent, with a very considerable 
 knowledge of books, persons, and affairs ; at the same 
 time, excitable, with indications not to be mistaken of 
 a rash and headlong temperament, which accounted, 
 he supposed, for the scandal and the divorce. 
 
 Then he considered the dinner-table. About five 
 women to an intolerable deal of men ; brought there, 
 no doubt, partly by Alec Wing's personal popularity;
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 63 
 
 partly by his father's prestige and immense wealth; 
 by curiosity as to the house and the divorce ; by reports 
 of Mrs. Wing's beauty, and the chef's perfection; by a 
 variety of motives, in fact, creditable or calculating. 
 
 "Why am / here?" he thought; for he was a Stoic 
 both in philosophy and practice, quite undazzled by 
 either money or cooks. The explanation really lay 
 and he knew it in a romantic mind, which no one 
 ever thought of suspecting in combination with his 
 trivial nose and round cheeks. But the fact was 
 that a woman who had risked something for love 
 appealed to him. 
 
 Presently Mrs. Wing returned to him from the Am- 
 bassador, with that slight change of manner which 
 flattered the English politician against his will. 
 
 ''Alec will be speaking at Hull next month. I 
 am going down with him. He laughs at me for being 
 nervous but I can't help it." 
 
 "Hull? The by-election?" 
 
 Mrs. Wing nodded. 
 
 "An old friend of Alec's is standing. Alec wired 
 a few days ago to ask if he should come and help, and 
 they've put him on at the last big meeting before the 
 poll. The man who's standing told me last week he 
 never heard anybody speak so well at the Oxford 
 Union in his time as Alec. They were very keen to 
 get him. He really has a great natural gift." 
 
 Llewellyn was touched by her wifely eagerness. 
 Yes, he remembered to have heard that Alec Wing 
 had considerable speaking talent. But, good heavens ! 
 didn't this handsome creature know how much else 
 was concerned? She did know she must know. 
 He began to be angry with so much naivete, or the 
 appearance of it. If that fellow Bothwell, who was
 
 64 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 standing at Hull, was really going to put up Wing 
 for his last important meeting, he was a great fool. 
 The party newspapers on the other side would be 
 lively reading for days before. 
 
 Mrs. Wing did not seem to notice his somewhat 
 monosyllabic replies. She kept the conversation on 
 politics, declared her own strong sympathy with the 
 Opposition programme, and talked vivaciously of the 
 recent debates in the House of Commons. Llewellyn 
 gathered that she must have already secured pretty 
 constant access to the various ladies' galleries of the 
 House, and a rather astonishing knowledge of the 
 party men and party relations. She congratulated 
 him on a passage of arms he himself had had with the 
 Home Secretary in the House the week before, and 
 she did it so well that he could not help coloring a 
 little, and feeling pleased. Certainly women could 
 be sirens when they chose; and he had never yet 
 been able to shut his ears to them. 
 
 But their talk was interrupted from the other side 
 of the table, where the Kaminski sat among a group 
 of admirers, by a sudden outbreak of noise, which 
 deafened everything else. The great danseuse, flushed 
 with flattery and perhaps also with champagne, was 
 chaffing and teasing a young Scotch peer beside her, 
 to the delight of their neighbors. She wound up 
 with a challenge to him to dance with her after 
 dinner, "Oui, Monsieur! Oui, Milord! apres le 
 diner vous danserez avec moi!" 
 
 The splendid youth, one of the prize guardsmen of 
 the day, half flattered half fluttered looked her 
 full in the eyes, and stammered "Je voudrais, Ma- 
 dame si je coudrais!" 
 
 The dinner broke up in a shriek of laughter, the
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 65 
 
 French Ambassador congratulating the flushed young 
 man on having added a new and useful verb to the 
 French tongue. 
 
 The few ladies slowly mounted the great stair- 
 case ablaze with light and flowers, while a small but 
 perfect orchestra hidden away among the pillars of 
 the hall sent a swaying music after them. The 
 Duchess turned to her hostess. 
 
 " There is no doubt of it, my dear you have a 
 magnificent house. I shall be curious to see what 
 use you make of it." 
 
 Caroline flushed, but could not for the moment 
 think of an answer. She led the way to an open 
 doorway, and smiling stood aside for the Ambas- 
 sadress and her other guests to enter. 
 
 "Superb!" said the Duchess, looking round her. 
 To right and left stretched the long suite of drawing- 
 rooms, new-hung, new-carpeted, but designed first and 
 foremost as a background for the famous pictures 
 of the family. Gainsboroughs, Eomneys, Reynoldses, 
 breathed and moved upon the walls. Beautiful 
 children, fair women, red-coated soldiers, comely 
 youths, and weather-beaten seamen looked smiling 
 down upon these new guests, who came, once more, 
 like those of earlier generations, to do them homage. 
 The electric lighting had been graduated by the most 
 skillful of electricians, so that everything was illumi- 
 nated, and nothing glared. The Persian carpets on 
 the floors old, dim and priceless made the Duch- 
 ess's mouth water. Such things were her particular 
 passion, in which, however, she was far too frugal to 
 indulge ; and it seemed to her that her mad brother- 
 in-law, Lord Wing, must have been spending ab-
 
 66 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 surdly! Her curiosity ached within her. So that 
 after the new mistress of the house a glittering 
 figure in her white satin, and the jewels Lord Wing 
 had been hanging upon her had led a kind of royal 
 progress through the rooms, and the women were 
 grouped in the furthest drawing-room, where some 
 old Chinese tapestries on a ground of pale yellow had 
 evoked little cries of pleasure from the instructed, the 
 Duchess no longer even pretended to take it quietly. 
 
 "You seem to be uncommonly rich, my dear!" she 
 said, as she and Caroline sat together in a corner of 
 the yellow room. "Lord Wing, I suppose, has been 
 making things easy for you?" 
 
 "He has been showering money on us!" said 
 Caroline Wing, throwing back her head, and looking 
 full at her husband's kinswoman. "We didn't ask 
 him. Alec, you know, has money of his own. So 
 have I some. But Lord Wing insisted on our 
 living here " 
 
 *'And, of course, doing it properly? Well, it's 
 uncommonly interesting like a play. At the same 
 time, my dear, you are too much a woman of the 
 world not to know" the speaker coughed slightly 
 "that in making this house a political center which, 
 I understand, is what Wing is after you'll have a 
 good many difficulties to meet." 
 
 ' ' I know, ' ' said Caroline, smiling. Did the Duchess 
 suppose she was the first to say so? 
 
 "It's the women, of course. Take my sister 
 Theodora. A potato-headed woman, I call her, 
 wholesome of course, but dense no adventure in her, 
 no give and take. And there are scores of them. But 
 you'll have to learn to get round them, if it's true 
 that Alec wants a political career?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 67 
 
 The Duchess turned a look, sharply interrogative, 
 on her companion. 
 
 "Why shouldn't he have a political career?" said 
 Mrs. Wing, proudly. "It's what he's always looked 
 forward to. They were thinking of a seat for him 
 before he left England." 
 
 The Duchess shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 "It's the way, of course, that people have nowa- 
 days directly a man becomes a public man of 
 poking their noses into all his private concerns. 
 There are two roads, I always say, to political success 
 in this country ; one, through courting the multitude 
 Alec, in my belief, had better let that alone for the 
 present ! the other through the people that count, the 
 few score people who really do govern the country. 
 That's Alec's game if he's a sensible man. That's 
 why I've asked him to meet the Washingtons. You 
 weren't angry with me that I didn't ask you too?" 
 
 The Duchess laid a propitiatory hand on Caroline's 
 knee. Mrs. Wing flushed a little, but laughed. 
 
 "I wasn't angry at all. Why should I be?" 
 
 "It was the only way that Alec should drop in, 
 and find him there. I'll take care he gets his talk. 
 Richard Washington's an uncommonly clever fellow 
 the best leader we've had for a long time. Thor- 
 ough middle-class, of course; but none of our men 
 just now are worth sixpence. As for his wife!" 
 the Duchess threw up her hands. 
 
 "A bore?" said Caroline. 
 
 "A bore to the bone! and very large Aberdeen- 
 shire bones too. The woman looks like a dragoon. 
 She was the daughter of a Free Kirk minister, not 
 far from us in Perthshire, and she just bristles with 
 the Ten Commandments. I can't abide her but I
 
 68 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 hardly ever dare ask him without her. She governs 
 him completely. They say she has immense influence 
 with him. Both he and the sons adore her." 
 
 ''Political influence?" 
 
 "All sorts. If Alec wants a chance in politics, he 
 will just have to square her somehow!" 
 
 "How can he, if she disapproves of us?" 
 
 The Duchess laughed. 
 
 ' ' Because she is one of those women who can some- 
 times make allowances for the other sex, but never 
 for her own." 
 
 "I see. She might forgive Alec, but not me." 
 
 The Duchess assented; then bending forward, said 
 abruptly 
 
 "If you take my advice, you'll make friends with 
 that clever creature, Madge Whitton." 
 
 Caroline followed the direction of the Duchess's 
 eyes. 
 
 "Tell me about her," she said softly. "She left 
 cards, and Alec said he used to know her. So I 
 asked her to dine " 
 
 "My dear, she is a little intrigante, with a great 
 deal more power than is good for her! She has a 
 way of forcing intimacy upon you sometimes at the 
 point of the bayonet; but that's the defect of her 
 quality. She knows everybody especially on our 
 side and there are few things she can 't do for a man, 
 if she chooses." 
 
 "Do you believe as much in 'back-stairs' as all 
 that?" said Caroline, a little contemptuously. 
 
 "I believe in what I see," replied the Duchess r 
 shaking an obstinate head on which a diamond tiara 
 sat, somewhat insecurely, in the midst of fair, grayish 
 coils, too abundant to deceive. "Women have just
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 69 
 
 as much influence as they ever had. And they'll 
 always have it vote or no vote. The men are no 
 match for them poor things ! ' ' 
 
 Caroline rose with a laugh, brought over the Am- 
 bassadress to keep the Duchess company, and went 
 herself to explore Mrs. Whitton. 
 
 Mrs. Whitton offered her compliments on the house 
 and the pictures. Then Caroline said with a slight 
 shyness, agreeable in one possessing such obvious per- 
 sonal advantages 
 
 "You used to know Alec when he was quite a 
 boy?" 
 
 "We met at a commem when we were very young 
 and very green. But he hardly looks a day older ! ' ' 
 said Madge Whitton, turning round on her chair and 
 propping her face on both hands, so as to look straight 
 into the dark eyes above her. ' ' He 's splendid. I was 
 glad to see you had come home ! ' ' 
 
 Caroline stiffened. Why should Mrs. Whitton be 
 glad? what affair was it of hers? The Duchess's 
 remark about ' ' forcing intimacy ' ' recurred to her. 
 
 ' ' We had been a long time in Italy. One gets tired 
 of it after a while," she said, rather coldly. 
 
 "Oh dear, yes." The tone was careless. "But I 
 was thinking of the party and the country. We want 
 young men and new blood so badly! And I 
 remember seeing Mr. Wing just before he went 
 abroad, nearly three years ago oh, just a few min- 
 utes at some party or other and he talked to me 
 about Parliament, and a seat that somebody had pro- 
 posed to him. It's wonderful what people say about 
 his speaking at Oxford. Of course there are lots of 
 clever boys every year who speak at the Union. But 
 he seems to have been so exceptional so remarkable !
 
 70 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 And speaking is such a power nowadays ! We haven't 
 got enough of it on our side." 
 
 "You take such a great interest in politics?" 
 
 Mrs. Whitton laughed. 
 
 "Well! I suppose I'm what an enemy would call 
 a 'political woman.' I'm not ashamed! It seems 
 to me the only game worth playing nowadays. It is 
 such a good game! and it's getting better. The 
 questions are so big and the issues so thrilling. 
 Don't you agree? Whether it's only for fun and 
 excitement or whether it's for what people call their 
 principles I don't much care. The great thing is to 
 join in. Play it if you can!" 
 
 Caroline conquered a certain vague distaste, and, 
 for Alec's sake, began to pick Mrs. Whitton 's brains. 
 In a quarter of an hour's conversation she began to 
 discover how much Mrs. Whitton knew of this life and 
 this world, where she herself was a tyro and beginner. 
 
 The coming men, and the disappearing men; the 
 quarrels and the rivalries ; the motives animating this 
 leader and that ; the place hunters and the idealists ; 
 the love-affairs and their bearing on the game; the 
 wives who were a help, and the wives who hung like 
 the dead albatross round their husbands' necks : Mrs. 
 Whitton 's talk flowed like a chattering stream among 
 them all. Caroline Wing was presently listening to 
 her spell-bound, her own mind in a ferment. 
 
 All the same it was a motley gathering this, that 
 Lord Wing called "Caroline's first rout." The 
 Duchess watched it with some amusement, occasional 
 satisfaction, more discontent, and repeated resolves 
 to give Caroline good advice. She understood that 
 Alec had done a good deal of indiscriminate inviting,
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 71 
 
 through his clubs, especially the Jockey Club, and 
 through his old cricketing friends who had given him 
 a rousing welcome at Lords when he showed himself 
 there, at the first match of the season. So that of 
 "smartness" there was no lack, so far at least as 
 men can represent it. There was also a sprinkling 
 of those distant and collateral relations in which any 
 conspicuous family is always rich; and among them 
 people, some dowdily artistic, some ultra-fashionable 
 but needy, who were delighted to leave their cards 
 at Eltham House, and to claim cousinship with the 
 Wings, whatever their sins. All the same, Caroline 
 Wing receiving at the top of the magnificent stair- 
 case was presently sharply aware that a great many 
 persons who had been invited had taken no notice 
 whatever of Mrs. Wing's invitation. Especially was 
 this the ease, perhaps, among Caroline's own belong- 
 ings, who were of an academic and University type, 
 she herself having been the daughter of the head of 
 an Oxford College. Some of them had been on very 
 affectionate terms with her as Lady Marsworth; she 
 had gone venturesomely calling among them, and 
 leaving cards of invitation, since her return; and it 
 was with a keen hidden soreness that she realized 
 her rebuff, as the evening wore away. 
 
 "A queer lot!" said Lord Wing to the Duchess, 
 as they stood together watching the throng streaming 
 up the stairs. "Caroline, of course, will have to set 
 up an inner circle." Then he turned and looked his 
 sister-in-law in the face. He and she were old and 
 excellent comrades. 
 
 "How long do you give them to live it down?" 
 he said, coolly. 
 
 The Duchess shook her head.
 
 72 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "They'd better not be too eager about it!" 
 
 "No. But it's like furnishing when people are 
 young and poor. You have to begin. You put in 
 a lot of cheap stuff, and then gradually, as circum- 
 stances improve, you turn out the rubbish and replace 
 it by something better. Or put it another way. If 
 Alec had married this young woman before she saw 
 Marsworth, they would have the world at their feet. 
 Now, as I've told him, if they want the world, they 
 will have to fight for it. And in these days, the half of 
 fighting is advertising. This, I suppose, is advertise- 
 ment. ' ' 
 
 He made a movement of his hand towards the crowd. 
 
 "Stand back, please!" shouted an excited-looking 
 youth, "Madame Kaminski is going to dance!" 
 
 Kaminski danced, and the surrounding crowd held 
 their breaths to watch her. She danced the mar- 
 velous, barbaric creature beneath the English beau- 
 ties, the women and children of Romney and Gains- 
 borough on the walls, who seemed to look down upon 
 her, half affrighted at the scene. All the same, before 
 the end, one of their own kind was mingled in the 
 spectacle. For Madame Kaminski suddenly beckoned 
 to the handsome young fellow she had challenged at 
 dinner, and as though hypnotized by her, he obeyed 
 her. He was the eldest son of a Scotch duke, bearing 
 one of the great names of the kingdom. But it was 
 soon evident that, in spite of his modesty at dinner, 
 he was no amateur at the business to which he was 
 summoned. The rumor went round that Kaminski 
 had taught him; that they had already performed 
 before small audiences, at one or two great houses. 
 Together, indeed, they turned and twisted, they posed
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 73 
 
 and leaped, while the Hungarian band accompanied 
 them with a wild or melting music: and when Ka- 
 minski at last sank exhausted the frenzy of the spec- 
 tators matched the passion of the dance. 
 
 The Duchess drew a long breath, turned, and 
 walked with tight lips into the next room. 
 
 11 Abominable!" she said, fiercely to the person be- 
 side her, who happened to be Mr. Llewellyn. "That 
 a man of our class should do such a thing! What 
 are we coming to ? " 
 
 "All the same," said Llewellyn, with his quiet smile 
 "for Mrs. Wing, it has been 'a famous victory.' " 
 
 The crowd had melted away, and the outer doors 
 had been shut at last on the last car and taxi. In 
 the central drawing-room, Alec Wing stood with his 
 arm round his wife. His looks were flushed, excited 
 a little frowning besides. 
 
 "You were a marvel!" he said to her, kissing her 
 repeatedly "and as beautiful as a dream. And the 
 house was wonderful. Oh, it wasn't bad for a pair 
 of boycotted people! Of course, we'll improve we'll 
 improve. ' ' 
 
 And leaving her, he began to walk up and down, 
 ruminating aloud 
 
 "I don't think I liked the dance it gave me the 
 creeps somehow. Perhaps, we won't ask her again, 
 darling? We'll trust to our own attractions! Now 
 that you've been seen and the house that's enough. 
 But I've had some awfully good talks with several 
 people " 
 
 He turned and looked at her joyously. 
 
 "That fellow Llewellyn's no end of a good chap, 
 Carrie! He's promised to put me in the way of sev-
 
 74 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 eral things. I'm to work at two or three subjects 
 he'll advise me. And I shall make father find some 
 money for the party. We're in a bad way, we really 
 are. By George! life is interesting, isn't it! I shall 
 do something in politics, I really believe!" 
 
 ' ' Of course you will, darling ! ' ' said Carrie, almost 
 impatiently. ' ' I made Mr. Llewellyn confess that the 
 one thing our side wants just now is young men with 
 brains and money. You'll be a godsend." 
 
 She stood leaning against the mantelpiece, her dark 
 hair, caught, as it were, among the roses and carna- 
 tions of a great Dutch flower-piece, built into the 
 cheminee behind her, while the real flowers, banked 
 along the floor, at her feet roses, red and white 
 mingled with the folds of her white dress. Nothing 
 could have been more brilliant than her figure, thus 
 flower-circled, or than the proud affection in her eyes. 
 
 He drew fresh certainty, fresh ardor from hers. 
 
 "I must say that letter from Both well was encour- 
 aging!" he said, in high good humor. "In the first 
 place, it showed that people hadn't forgotten I could 
 speak. In the next, that my father's view of the part 
 which the 'unco guid' were going to play in our case, 
 darling, was overdone ! Of course a great number of 
 people who might have been here to-night didn't 
 come. We shall be cold-shouldered and tabooed, 
 no end, by all the people who take their cue from the 
 Court that's clear and that we expected. We shall 
 beat them in the long run! But, it's also clear as 
 I have always believed in politics that kind of 
 thing is weakening. And that's all I ask." 
 
 He paced up and down before her, running his 
 hand absently through the masses of his fair hair 
 turning presently to say
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 75 
 
 ' ' You know, Carrie, politics are going to be absorb- 
 ing the next few years. The Tories will go back to 
 protection as soon as ever they see the chance and 
 there'll be a big fight! I've thought of all sorts of 
 jolly things to say in my Hull speech things that 
 will sound new, anyway, if they aren't new and 
 things that will go down! And then if I make a 
 success there, the Whips will prick up their ears, and 
 I can begin to press for a seat." 
 
 "Of course you can!" said Carrie eagerly. "It is 
 your sort, Alec, that are really wanted in Parliament 
 the men who will work, and throw their whole lives 
 into great questions." 
 
 And all the time she devoured him with her tender 
 look, only anxious that he should be happy, that he 
 should find his sphere, that his days should be full 
 and gay. 
 
 "And that little woman" said Alec, pausing in 
 his walk "that Mrs. Whitton did you get any talk 
 with her, Carrie? A clever little puss! Very good 
 talk too. She reminded me that she and I flirted one 
 whole evening at a commem ball nearly ten years ago. 
 She was a babe, just out of short frocks rather 
 sweet and rather go-ahead! I believe she let me 
 kiss her!" He laughed out. "Can't you see us! 
 "Well, now, she seems to have come on tremendously. 
 She knows all the political people, and she really gave 
 me some useful hints. Now you won't mind, darling, 
 if I go to see her on Sundays, if I lunch with her 
 sometimes? You won't be jealous?" 
 
 He held out his hands to her, laughing. 
 
 Caroline laughed scornfully in reply, then suddenly 
 changed her note. 
 
 "Yes, I shall be jealous!" she said breathlessly.
 
 76 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "I'm always jealous when you look at anybody else. 
 But I'll be good, all the same. The Duchess said I 
 ought to make friends with her and I did try. But 
 were you pleased, Alec, to-night? Did I do my 
 best ? Praise me ! I Ve earned it. Oh, I 'm so tired ! ' ' 
 
 "Go to bed, foolish woman! I must say good- 
 night and ' thank you ' to the band. They 're just off. ' ' 
 
 He hurried away, and she was left alone. In the 
 farther drawing-rooms the lights were being ex- 
 tinguished by a servant; only some of the pictures 
 were still illuminated. Suddenly, as Caroline turned 
 to look for her husband in the increasing darkness, 
 only one radiant figure remained, which seemed to be 
 actually moving towards her. It was the figure of 
 a child, a boy of four or five years old bright hair 
 blown back soft hands outstretched the sweet 
 mouth open. 
 
 A thrill of anguish and horror passed through 
 Caroline. She stood spell-bound looking. Then at 
 a touch, all was dark, the vision had disappeared. 
 
 "It was the Reynolds boy," she said to herself, 
 trembling in every limb "not like him really only 
 just something in the hair the expression oh, 
 darling ! darling ! ' ' 
 
 She stood there, her hands on her breast, quieting 
 herself. Then she hurried out of the room and up- 
 stairs that Alec might not see the tears in which she 
 was bathed.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE fame of the Elthara House " entertaining" had 
 soon spread far and wide. London was full of it. 
 The Wings' dinners and receptions were much more 
 discussed than a small crisis in Parliament, just before 
 Whitsuntide, which might have put the Government 
 out, but didn't; or than an episcopal dispute which 
 filled the newspapers. The house, the company, the 
 Kaminski dance, Mrs. Wing's beauty, and Mrs. 
 Wing's jewels the supposed brazenness of the lady, 
 the lavish generosity of the father-in-law these topics 
 kept many tongues going. In the more old-fashioned 
 sections of the world of birth and wealth, where 
 everybody is a cousin of everybody else, and more or 
 less acquainted with everybody else 's affairs, the older 
 men and women, especially, shook their heads, and, 
 like Lady Theodora, pronounced the whole thing a 
 bad mistake. The Wings could not possibly hope to 
 win their way back into "society," properly under- 
 stood, by mere extravagance and notoriety; it was 
 just like Lord Wing to aid and abet them in trying 
 to do so ; and if the attempt were pushed, some very 
 plain language would have to be used. 
 
 Among some of the younger folk, on the other hand, 
 there was a disposition to look with much tolerant 
 amusement on the Wings ' great adventure. The wives 
 
 77
 
 78 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 were not going to call that was settled; but the 
 husbands were constantly coming across Alec Wing 
 at one or other of the clubs they frequented, at Lord's, 
 or at the principal race meetings, while Mrs. Wing's 
 box at the opera, which she had taken off the hands 
 of the old Marchioness of Doncaster for the last half 
 of the season, was rapidly becoming thronged by men, 
 whenever she appeared, and those some of the most 
 courted of their day. It was said that she was 
 decidedly agreeable, with a pleasant down-rightness, 
 and a vehement way of expressing herself when she 
 was moved, which gave a remarkable brilliance to 
 her beauty. There was no doubt as to the devotion 
 of the two culprits to each other; it was conspicuous, 
 sometimes embarrassing; and as Madge Whitton 
 was constantly telling people a real passion, however 
 lawless, is always in a way respectable. It began 
 to be said in some quarters that Sir John Marsworth 
 had really been "impossible"; doubts were expressed 
 here and there as to the blacker facts of the story; 
 and eagerness to be, at least, kept well informed of the 
 doings at Eltham House grew with the season. Mrs. 
 Wing, it was presently known, had taken the line of 
 not accepting invitations. She saw the world only at 
 home, and so on her own terms; which showed her 
 cleverness. She had made no attempt to show herself 
 at Ascot ; although Wing himself had defiantly braved 
 the inclosure. On Sundays, and at Whitsuntide, she 
 was to be found at a charming house on the river, 
 which Alec Wing had taken furnished till August, 
 expressly for "week ends," and it was known that 
 political gatherings of interest had taken place there 
 once or twice. Meanwhile, and especially as the season 
 advanced, the great house in Mayf air kept open doors
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 79 
 
 night after night. To judge from the names which 
 got into the newspapers, politicians and diplomatists 
 dined there freely ; while the ' ' evenings, ' ' always two 
 a week, were crowded and the entertainments of the 
 most lavish kind. The best of singing and of acting ; 
 all the great names of the Opera and the theaters; 
 with plenty of space also for quiet talk, in the long 
 series of beautiful rooms; plenty of space, too, for 
 some of the best bridge in London. Mrs. Wing did 
 not play, but Alec was an average steady player, high 
 up in the second class, and won or lost with the same 
 good humor. 
 
 Meanwhile, amid all this more or less indulgent or 
 laughing comment, there was what gave it all zest a 
 current of opinion strongly and implacably hostile. 
 The Royalties were as flint, even though Lord Wing 
 had been a rather special favorite with the old Queen, 
 and Alec Wing himself had been the chosen playfellow 
 and comrade of some of the younger princes. Royalty 
 had let it be known that it would not attend the annual 
 dinner of a certain famous club, if Alec Wing claimed 
 his right to be there ; and when Wing accidentally 
 for he had not meant to put himself forward came 
 face to face with the Royal party, in the Ascot in- 
 closure, they looked through him and round him, to 
 perfection, although a prominent member of the 
 group had been once on particularly friendly terms 
 with Wing, as his fellow officer in the same guards 
 regiment; a regiment, by the way, which had put 
 such pressure, so it was said, on Wing, at the time 
 of the divorce, that he had been practically forced 
 to send in his papers. And there were plenty of 
 private enemies ready to put the dots on the i's, in 
 support of the Court attitude.
 
 80 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 In this respect, Lady Theodora was unceasingly 
 busy. One afternoon, at a singularly expensive and 
 correspondingly fashionable fete in aid of some Royal 
 charity, given in the Regent's Park in the last week 
 of June, she felt herself touched on the shoulder, and 
 looking round saw an immensely tall woman, heroic, 
 indeed, in stature, who could not move without being 
 noticed, and was always more sensitively aware of 
 the fact than anybody gave her credit for. In truth, 
 she managed her height uncommonly well ; and those 
 whose notice was first attracted by the masculine 
 stature of the lady were apt to be agreeably surprised 
 by the face accompanying it, a face capable, indeed, 
 of the most stern and repellent expressions, but, as 
 a rule, marked by a quiet serenity, and aloofness, as 
 of one who rather shrank from than challenged the 
 world about her. 
 
 Lady Theodora grasped Mrs. Washington's hand 
 with effusion, and they adjourned to a shady corner 
 under the trees, where the noise of the band and the 
 crowd interfered with them but little. 
 
 It was from here that the two ladies almost 
 immediately became aware of the passage one might 
 even say the triumphal progress of Mrs. Alec Wing 
 across a lawn some few yards away. Her handsome 
 husband was beside her, with half a dozen other 
 young men, and two or three older celebrities, Mr. 
 Llewellyn among them, hovering in the rear. She 
 herself, beneath the shade of her large hat lined with 
 faint rose-color, stepped like a goddess, charm and 
 youth personified. 
 
 Lady Theodora raised an eyeglass and looked 
 fixedly after the departing group. 
 
 "Is that the first time you've seen her?" she asked
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 81 
 
 Mrs. Washington, who had quickly withdrawn her 
 eyes. 
 
 "Not quite. I have seen her at the Opera from 
 a distance. A most beautiful creature! that no one 
 can deny." 
 
 "She does not attract me," said Lady Theodora 
 dryly. ' ' But one never knows what men will admire. 
 I hear Mr. Washington thinks her clever. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Washington turned a guarded look on her 
 companion. 
 
 "He was introduced to her first at the Opera, in 
 April, and has been to see her once or twice since. 
 He is much interested in her conversation. He says 
 she is passionately political. ' ' 
 
 "So I understand. She seems to be playing every 
 possible card for Alec. And with money and good 
 looks, she will no doubt get what she wants." 
 
 Lady Theodora's tone and shrug implied that Mrs. 
 Wing, and the world which accepted her, were about 
 worthy of each other. Mrs. Washington paused a mo- 
 ment and then said "Mr. Wing seems to be making 
 great effort to push himself politically. I see he has 
 been speaking in one or two small places. But I 
 imagine candidates will soon find out that he does 
 them no good. And they say he wants a seat. But 
 the moral standard in politics has been steadily going 
 up. I am afraid no, I hope" her grave smile broke 
 out "that he will find it impossible. It is of course 
 a thousand pities for everybody. For we want can- 
 didates, and we want money." 
 
 Lady Theodora's look was still ironical. 
 
 "Well, of course there's plenty of money!" 
 
 Her companion's gray eyes seemed to rouse; and 
 slight ripples of expression began to run over the
 
 82 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 large and finely cut face, animating and transforming 
 it. Mrs. Washington in her youth and before her 
 marriage had been a welcome speaker in great evan- 
 gelical gatherings, where she was often spoken of as 
 "inspired." 
 
 "I don't know about money," she said, with slight 
 emphasis. "That compromises nobody unless there 
 are conditions. But our Anglicans and our Dis- 
 senters will both see to it that a co-respondent in such 
 a divorce case is not accepted by us as an official 
 candidate for Parliament!" 
 
 "All the same, I imagine" said Lady Theodora, 
 pondering, "that before long, Alec will be in the 
 House of Lords. Wing 's is not at all a good life. And 
 then suppose he has put the party under obligations 
 great obligations by the time we come in what 
 then? won't it be impossible not to admit him?" 
 
 " 'What then?' " repeated Mrs. Washington. She 
 turned sharply towards her companion, and Lady 
 Theodora was slightly startled by her manner. ' ' Well, 
 then if the men are inclined to give way, there are 
 always the women! What is the Woman's Move- 
 ment worth, dear Lady Theodora, if it can't exclude 
 people like these from our public life ? ' ' 
 
 Lady Theodora did not kindle. She was not a 
 feminist, in any sense, and had no special belief in 
 her own sex. But she was aware of Mrs. Washing- 
 ton 's opinions, which had to be borne with like all the 
 other distasteful things in life a cold in the head, or 
 an unsatisfactory balance at the bank and could not 
 be argued with to any useful purpose. Besides, she 
 was rather puzzled. Some feminists, she was certain, 
 would defend the Wings. So she merely murmured, 
 as her eyes followed the retreating figures
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 83 
 
 "There's no doubt it was a bad story." 
 "Could it possibly have been worse?" said Mrs. 
 Washington ardently. "When you think of it! A 
 good man a man of the highest character, who had 
 always treated his wife most kindly, most affection- 
 ately, leaves her alone in Florence, with her two chil- 
 dren, while he goes home in a hurry, to see his only 
 brother who is desperately ill it is supposed, dying. 
 The brother lingers, and the husband Sir John 
 can 't leave him. Meanwhile the wife takes a lover ! 
 flaunts it indeed, in the most shameless way makes 
 no attempt to conceal it. She goes about with him 
 everywhere, and the poor children are left to a gov- 
 erness and a nurse well, of course, you know all 
 that's said about that governess! The little boy is 
 very delicate; the doctor doubts if he can live. He 
 gets a chill and fever is actually in bed with high 
 temperature when there is a report of the husband's 
 return. Instantly, the wife and the lover go off. Sir 
 John finds his wife gone his child dying and neg- 
 lected. And the child does die! murdered by those 
 two people. To see that young man smiling and talk- 
 ing at a place like this makes me shudder. And 
 as for the mother she seems to me to have blood on 
 her hands ! ' ' 
 
 A shiver ran through Lady Theodora. She had 
 been saying much the same things herself, to her 
 intimates, for many weeks; but to hear them from 
 Mrs. Washington's mouth made them somehow more 
 terrible, and more convincing, even to herself. For 
 Mrs. Washington was a person round whom a kind of 
 halo floated. The gay world scoffed at her, but for 
 the sake of her husband's great position, had to bear 
 with her. She was known to be passionately religious ;
 
 84 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 a mystic, who carried austerity into daily life. You 
 might think her a canting Pharisee, or you might 
 think her a saint. In any case, she was formidable; 
 and there was no society in which she could be over- 
 looked. She was also a devoted wife, and the mother 
 of three satisfactory sons, now growing up. Her influ- 
 ence over a strong man, soon, if political omens told 
 true, to be England's Prime Minister, was well-known. 
 It was therefore to be expected that few people should 
 be at once more cordially detested and more whole- 
 heartedly admired than Elizabeth Washington. 
 
 After she had delivered her denunciation, Mrs. 
 Washington sat erect with her hands clasped on her 
 knee, looking straight before her, over the lawns cov- 
 ered with animated groups, white tents, and pretty 
 women in gay trailing dresses. Her lip and nostril 
 quivered; and the little suffering child she spoke of 
 seemed to be present to her mournful look. 
 
 Lady Theodora appeared to have nothing left to say. 
 Her eyes turned to search the further lawn for her 
 girls, and she began to think a little restlessly of tea, 
 when suddenly a recollection struck her 
 
 "Yet you tell me that Mr. Washington admires her 
 and goes to see her ? ' ' she said brusquely, not with- 
 out a certain tone of remonstrance. 
 
 A quick, slight change passed over Mrs. Washing- 
 ton's countenance. "Men naturally look at such 
 things rather differently from women. And perhaps 
 it is right they should." 
 
 "Why, I thought you were all for equal standards 
 for men and women!" cried Lady Theodora, aston- 
 ished. 
 
 Mrs. Washington smiled, and colored a little. 
 
 "As far as personal conduct goes, certainly. But
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 85 
 
 I think men may perhaps be allowed to judge more 
 leniently than women. Ah, Dick, there you are!" 
 
 She rose with an almost girlish alacrity, her whole 
 face lighting up, as a broad-shouldered man ap- 
 proached them. 
 
 Richard Washington nodded affectionately to his 
 wife, and extended a friendly hand to Lady Theodora. 
 He too like his wife was of large and imposing 
 physique; though he was stout where she was pain- 
 fully thin. Except that his hair was a reddish brown, 
 and his coloring fair, he was not unlike the statue 
 of Gambetta which stands eternally haranguing the 
 Place du Carrousel, and the vanished Tuileries. The 
 same open brow, the same aquiline features, the same 
 trick of gesture. He looked an orator, and was one. 
 It was not so easily intelligible that he had been a 
 successful cotton-spinner for twenty years before he 
 entered Parliament; and yet the very precise and 
 sensitive lines of the delicate mouth, the slight double 
 chin, and the tendency to weight, betrayed the man 
 of sedentary life, accustomed to detail. And it was 
 indeed exactly in the combination of an accurate and 
 methodical mind with on occasion an amazing 
 power of thunderous or moving speech, that Washing- 
 ton 's hold on his party lay. Other people could make 
 a Budget speech as well ; other people could denounce 
 or plead as eloquently; but none but he could do 
 them both to the same effect, and the same per- 
 fection. 
 
 He sat down between the two ladies. He had, it 
 seemed, returned only that afternoon from a speaking 
 expedition to the north, and finding the House was 
 up it being a Friday had pursued his wife to 
 Eegent's Park.
 
 86 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Has it all gone well, Dick?" asked his wife. The 
 light in her eyes seemed to envelope him. 
 
 He pushed his hat to the back of his head. 
 
 "Oh yes," he said, but in rather a tired voice 
 "fairly. But we want a lot more organization in the 
 north." 
 
 "And candidates," said Lady Theodora. 
 
 "And candidates" he repeated. "We can't get 
 anybody to attack the safe seats to put up a losing 
 fight. I can't think what's happened to our young 
 men. In my young days, there was always somebody 
 to try a forlorn hope just for the fun and the kudos 
 of the thing. And now it 's all caution and calculation. 
 If they fight, at least they must have all their expenses 
 found. And we simply haven't got the money." 
 
 As he spoke, two persons a lady and gentleman 
 detached themselves from the moving crowd, and 
 began to walk towards the exit from the Park. The 
 lady on the left bowed smiling to Mr. Washington, 
 who raised his hat, as did the lady's companion. 
 
 Lady Theodora and Mrs. Washington sat motion- 
 less. 
 
 "Wing, I suppose, is no use," said Lady Theodora 
 grimly, looking after the retreating pair, whom she 
 had recognized as Lord Wing and his daughter-in-law. 
 
 Mr. Washington made circles on the ground with 
 the point of his stick. 
 
 ' ' I suppose Lord Wing is immensely rich ? " he said 
 pleasantly, looking up. Lady Theodora's irritable 
 gesture, in answer, implied that the mere thought of 
 so much undeserved wealth was hard to bear. 
 
 ' ' He made one fortune in South Africa, and another 
 in the Argentines, and a great deal in rubber. Then 
 there are the estates and the mines, and the London
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 87 
 
 property. I turn socialist when I think of Wing's 
 possessions! And nobody can get anything out of 
 him. I 've tried for my charities till I am tired. But 
 as for the party funds, he could finance a whole 
 general election to-morrow if he pleased ! ' ' 
 
 ' ' Mrs. Wing must persuade him ! ' ' said Washington, 
 smiling and dropping his eyes again to the ground. 
 
 Lady Theodora turned upon him rather suddenly. 
 
 "Well, you'd better persuade Tier!" she said 
 bluntly. She and Richard Washington were very old 
 acquaintances, and, partly from lack of imagination, 
 she was not afraid of him. 
 
 "Ah so you've heard of my visits?" He looked 
 round to smile at her, not without mischief. "I 
 found an extremely interesting party there last Sun- 
 day afternoon. She seems to be making her way." 
 
 "No doubt." Lady Theodora threw back her head, 
 adding slowly, after a moment " 'In the morning 
 it is green and groweth up.' " 
 
 Washington shrugged his shoulders, and in a mus- 
 ing tone, continued the quotation 
 
 " 'In the evening it is cut down, dried up, and 
 withered.' Withered! Such a face! Difficult to 
 conceive it!" Then, addressing his wife, "My dear, 
 let's get some tea, and go home." 
 
 They said good-by to Lady Theodora, who on her 
 side went to look for her daughters in the throng. 
 The Washingtons moved towards the tea-tent and 
 were soon waylaid and surrounded. The speech that 
 Washington had made the night before at Sheffield 
 was in all the papers, reported verbatim, and com- 
 mented upon in every tone of alarm or satisfaction. 
 From the eager looks of those who came up to con- 
 gratulate him, in this crowd of Londoners, and the
 
 88 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 sour looks of those more numerous persons who 
 avoided him, it could be gathered that the speech had 
 been a sensation, and had carried him a long step 
 farther in a remarkable career. 
 
 Alec Wing, who was getting an ice for Mrs. 
 Whitton, turned to meet the great man, as soon as he 
 perceived the conspicuous lion head. He came beam- 
 ing, with outstretched hand. 
 
 "Magnificent! Congratulate you, Sir! You have 
 given the whole party a lift." 
 
 The touch of old-fashioned deference, implied in 
 the ' ' Sir, ' ' on the lips of this golden youth, was not at 
 all disagreeable to the democratic leader. He smiled 
 on the speaker. 
 
 ' ' Glad you were satisfied. It was a splendid meet- 
 ing a good omen for Hull. I think now we ought 
 to win Hull but it will be a close fight ! ' ' 
 
 "I'm sure we shall win! after the lead you've 
 given. Both well's awfully confident. He's roped me 
 in! I'm going down to speak for him the eve of 
 the poll." 
 
 Washington's look rested a moment, attentively, on 
 the young man. 
 
 "Are you? Well, we hope for good news!" 
 
 The leader of the Opposition passed on. Alec Wing 
 perceived that Mr. Washington was followed by his 
 wife, whose great height and striking spiritual face 
 were already well-known to him. Washington had 
 not introduced him, and the stately woman, whose 
 flowing dress of plain gray satin, and white veil 
 thrown back from a coif-like head-covering, distin- 
 guished her from the fashion plates around her, had 
 evidently no intention of looking his way. Wing felt 
 half angry, half scornful, as she passed him by.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 89 
 
 ' ' Bigot ! " he thought. ' ' Doesn 't she look it ? But 
 she'll have to call on Carrie before long, all the 
 same ! ' ' 
 
 He left the Park with Durrant, and, as they neared 
 the gate, they perceived Washington and the chief 
 Opposition Whip, pacing a secluded lawn with their 
 hands behind them, deep in talk. 
 
 "Hull I '11 bet!" said Wing, with a laugh, indicat- 
 ing the distant pair. "The speech last night of 
 course was entirely aimed at Hull. All the local 
 people and our Central Office have been working like 
 horses. Jim, my boy, if we win Hull, you may pack 
 up, for your blessed Government will be out in a 
 month ! Come down, and hear me speak ! ' ' 
 
 "Not I! I couldn't keep my temper." 
 
 "What do you mean, you old Tory?" 
 
 ' ' I can 't stand hearing a man who lives in Eltham 
 House talk socialistic bosh; you can't mean it, and 
 you don't! " 
 
 Wing burst into a fit of laughter. 
 
 "I mean it, as much as anybody else does. How 
 much do you mean it, when you talk big about your 
 blessed Empire?" 
 
 ' ' Every word, ' ' said Durrant stoutly. 
 
 "Not you. I play 'the people'; you play 'the 
 Empire.' One stalking horse is as good as the other. 
 But it's a jolly good game all the same." 
 
 ' ' By-by ! ' ' said Durrant, as he disappeared into the 
 doorway of Baker Street Station. 
 
 Alec walked on, southward and westward, till he 
 found himself crossing Piccadilly, and at the top of 
 St. James's Street. On his way down the street, he 
 chanced to meet an unusual number of acquaintances 
 men with whom he exchanged greetings. A more
 
 90 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 keenly sensitive person would perhaps have noticed, 
 long before this, the change which had taken place in 
 the quality of these greetings, as compared with the 
 days before that hastily arranged visit to Florence 
 which had decided his life. They seemed friendly 
 enough; but there was nevertheless a subtle loss in 
 them a loss of what the French call ' ' consideration. ' ' 
 When his London life had first begun, he was the 
 young Adonis, envied and admired by troops of 
 friends, with some University successes behind him, 
 and apparently a boundless future before him, what 
 with his father's wealth, his own popularity, and the 
 political traditions of his family. He was still young 
 and rich, and he was abler and better informed, by 
 far, than he had been three years before ; the husband, 
 moreover, of one of the most beautiful women in Lon- 
 don. And yet there was a difference a kind of queer 
 descent in the temperature of life. And in spite of 
 bravado, it was beginning to tell upon him now much 
 more strongly than on his first reappearance in 
 London. Some recent occurrences had annoyed him. 
 One or two fellows old friends who had engaged 
 him to speak in their constituencies, had lately put 
 him off, for reasons not particularly convincing. He 
 hated shufflers! If they didn't want him, why 
 couldn't they say so! Well, anyway he would have 
 his chance at Hull. He began to think of his speech 
 confident that it would make a mark, and envisaging 
 already the crowded hall, and the applause. 
 
 He had nearly reached the Palace, when he became 
 aware of a tall, sallow-faced man with iron-gray hair 
 and mustache mounting the street towards him. For 
 a few seconds he was conscious of a violent shock, an 
 impulse of flight. He would have hastily crossed the
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 91 
 
 street, but that long lines of closely jammed traffic 
 made it impossible. No friendly shop or club pre- 
 sented itself. He walked desperately on. What lies 
 people had been telling! This man in his path was 
 supposed to be in a Jesuit training college, placed high 
 and solitary among Welsh mountains. 
 
 The two men passed. As they met, there was a 
 momentary pause, then a sudden recognition a flash 
 in the eyes of the elder. Alec Wing passed on, 
 partly relieved. Not John! no, not John but 
 Henry Marsworth, the brother to whom John was 
 devoted, whom he so closely resembled, whom he had 
 rushed home to nurse, leaving his wife in Florence. 
 Quickly, an annoying thought occurred. Henry 
 Marsworth was a shipowner, with an estate some- 
 where in the East Biding, within twenty miles of Hull. 
 An active politician too, on the Conservative side. 
 
 He hurried on, disturbed, and angry with himself 
 for a lack of forethought, towards the great political 
 club in Pall Mall whither he was bound. He found 
 it full of talk and bustle. One of those waves of 
 unreason to which the business of politics is always 
 exposed was running high in the Radical party. The 
 caution of men like Llewellyn was for the moment 
 out of fashion. The Tory Government were going to 
 lose Hull ; they had done badly in the House of Com- 
 mons that week; a few weeks, three months at most, 
 must see an election. How to force them to it ! How 
 to get them out! 
 
 Alec wandered from group to group of eager and 
 smoke-wreathed talkers, hearing always the same wail 
 Funds! It had lately come out through various 
 odd channels, that the party funds had been seriously 
 mismanaged by those appointed to look after them.
 
 92 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 There had been some unlucky investments, and a great 
 deal of carelessness. The other side, on the contrary, 
 was reported to be exceedingly well provided. One 
 of the party millionaires had recently ratted to the 
 Government side; in hopes, no doubt, said the bitter 
 gossips on the club hearth-rug, of a more speedy 
 peerage from the Tories. "The rest of our rich men 
 are sitting on their money-bags and much good may 
 it do them ! ' ' cried a fierce young M. P., haranguing a 
 circle of elder men, who kept their own counsel. 
 
 Wing listened a while, then slipped away, jumped 
 into a taxi, and drove to Claridge 's Hotel, in search of 
 his father. On the way, he bestowed more thought 
 upon his father 's character and idiosyncrasies than he 
 had ever done in his life. Was it at all likely that 
 Lord Wing would be greatly moved by the party 
 necessities ? That he could do anything he pleased, if 
 he pleased, Alec was tolerably certain, "though we've 
 been costing him a pretty penny!" But would he 
 please ? He could be lavishly and absurdly generous ; 
 he could also higgle stubbornly over a sixpence, and 
 refuse the most reasonable claims. "But by George, 
 it might mean something for me, if he did come 
 down!" The young man's thoughts wandered to 
 contingencies ahead. There was a promising seat in 
 the Midlands, on which he was beginning to set his 
 heart. The holder of it was an old man, who had 
 recently been very ill, and Wing had it from one of 
 the junior Whips of the party that the seat would 
 probably soon be vacant. But it would be hopeless 
 for anyone to put up, except as the official candidate, 
 supported by the Whips. As for his father's counsels 
 of delay he thought of them with more and more 
 impatience. The political atmosphere was already hot
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 93 
 
 with battle. He himself had been haunting the 
 House of Commons, throwing himself into party ques- 
 tions and really working hard at two or three of 
 them, under Llewellyn's friendly advice. Why hesi- 
 tate and shilly-shally? It was absurd in these days 
 of free action and free opinion that a man with his 
 gifts and resources should let himself be deterred by 
 the fear of puritanical opposition. He and Carrie 
 were married. What had anybody to do with their 
 private history ? If he stood and won, it would be not 
 only a victory for the party, it would be a victory 
 for the personal liberty of the individual over the 
 eternal Tartuffe. 
 
 Many motives were at work in him. He was con- 
 scious of considerable abilities never yet adequately 
 used. His wild passion for Carrie Marsworth had 
 swept him out of all the recognized paths and chances. 
 But he must and would lay hold on them again. There 
 was an unspoken feeling, hardly shaped even to him- 
 self, that other people might suffer permanently for 
 such a thing as he had done, but not he not a man 
 with such extraordinary advantages as he. Of course 
 people had been cruelly down on him just for that 
 very reason his advantages! There was that cant- 
 ing judge, and a lot of newspaper fellows and his 
 brother officers who had treated him abominably and 
 others. But it couldn't last let him "ram ahead," 
 and it would come right. 
 
 He felt within him a violent egotistic will which 
 would not let him rest; which could not stand even 
 the postponement of what he desired. But at the 
 same time nobler feelings entered in honorable am- 
 bition, and the strong desire to shine in the ways his 
 forefathers had trod; the personal zest of one who
 
 94 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 had been brought up from childhood on intimate 
 terms with the men and the causes involved in Eng- 
 lish political life; the longing for something to do, 
 and for an object in life; together, no doubt, with the 
 unconf essed and creditable hope that by the vigorous 
 and disinterested service of his country he might 
 before long wipe out the recollection of his fault, and 
 appease his judges : all these feelings and facts were 
 elements in the young man's impetuous resolve. 
 
 Then, as he drove along, full of eager scheming, he 
 found himself haunted against his will by the look on 
 Henry Marsworth's face. Courted and flattered as 
 Wing had always been, the stern contempt in that 
 passing look disturbed not only his self-love, but his 
 natural and hitherto amiable wish to stand well 
 with everybody. The love-dream on the Tuscan hills 
 had been so perfect, so intoxicating, so sheltered from 
 all things jarring and hostile! And here in this 
 London street those eyes with their unspoken word 
 "Adulterer!" Wing's cheeks burned, while his 
 mind quickly and angrily recoiled upon the argu- 
 ments that had satisfied his conscience under the 
 stress of passion, two years before. 
 
 He was still defending himself to himself, when the 
 taxi stopped at Claridge's. Lord Wing was in the 
 hotel, though about to leave that evening for Scotland. 
 In a mood of mingled eagerness and trepidation, Alec 
 took the lift up to his father's rooms.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ' ' OH, Alec ! how late you are ! ' ' 
 
 "Are there some people coining to dinner?" said 
 Wing impatiently. ' ' Bother ! I had quite forgotten. ' ' 
 
 "Mr. Llewellyn and that Treasury man you told 
 me to ask. Oh, and Alec! my little cousin, Joyce 
 Allen, will be there. She came this afternoon for a: 
 few days, just to be looked at and I couldn't leave 
 her out. I hope you won't mind." 
 
 Caroline was in the hands of her maid, dressing 
 for dinner. The eyes she turned upon her husband, 
 as he stood in the open doorway of his dressing-room, 
 shone out from the cloud of dark hair that fell about 
 her neck and shoulders. Such beauty as hers is at its 
 best in disarray. But Wing, almost for the first time, 
 did not notice it. She saw indeed that he looked 
 preoccupied and excited. 
 
 "Well, I hope they won't stay late. I've got lots 
 to talk to you about. ' ' 
 
 She smiled at him. 
 
 "Important? Well, go and dress. And I'll get 
 rid of them as soon as I can." 
 
 When Alec followed his wife down to the yellow 
 drawing-room, he found as he had been warned a 
 slim creature in black standing shyly beside Carrie. 
 She was introduced to him as "Joyce." He vaguely 
 
 95
 
 96 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 remembered that Caroline had spoken to him some 
 weeks before of a death she had noticed in the Times 
 that of a favorite first cousin of her mother's, a 
 clergyman in Yorkshire. "He was a widower, with 
 one girl" she had said, musing "I haven't seen 
 them or heard of them for years. But they were 
 very poor. I expect she is left without a penny. She 
 used to be a dear little thing. I wonder if I could get 
 hold of her ? I dreadfully want somebody to help me, 
 Alec, in this big house ! There 's so much to do ! " 
 
 Whereby Alec had understood that Carrie wanted a 
 secretary, after the manner of other great ladies, and 
 that it would give her pleasure, were it possible to 
 fill the post with this presumably forlorn cousin. 
 He knew very well that Carrie's pride and feelings 
 had suffered sorely, though silently, under the com- 
 plete severance between her and those relations of her 
 own for whom she cared most. He was well aware, 
 too, of yearnings in his wife's heart which neither 
 passion nor society were likely to extinguish. Possi- 
 bly the sheltering and mothering of this orphan girl, 
 supposing the girl turned out to be suitable, might do 
 something to soothe them. He hastily gave his bless- 
 ing on the scheme, taking for granted, of course, 
 that Carrie would not let the new-comer interfere with 
 their life a deux; and then thought no more about it. 
 
 But now here was the young lady a girl, appar- 
 ently about twenty, in the very simplest of black 
 frocks, her hair coiled in large fair plaits at the back 
 of her head, and a narrow black ribbon carrying a 
 locket round her neck. "Not pretty," he thought, 
 after a first cursory examination "but might be 
 worse. ' ' She had given him her hand with quiet self- 
 possession, and as there was no other lady in the party,
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 97 
 
 he found himself presently taking her down to dinner, 
 not without some bored wonder on his own part as to 
 how much attention Carrie might expect him to give 
 this little person. 
 
 The little person herself did not seem to expect any 
 attention. She sat quietly beside him, answering 
 when he spoke to her, without awkwardness or hesi- 
 tation, though always, as he could not help noticing, 
 with a slight rush of color to the pale cheeks. Six 
 weeks, was it, since she had lost her father ? His easy 
 good-nature made him sorry for her, and he could not 
 help speculating inwardly with some boyish amuse- 
 ment as to what the young woman, fresh from her 
 country parsonage, must be thinking of Eltham 
 House. Sometimes, whenever the conversation flagged 
 at all, he caught the girl 's brown eyes traveling round 
 the room, taking in apparently the great Vandyck, 
 the series of family portraits, the tapestries, and the 
 superb silver Renaissance flagons, bowls, and salvers 
 ranged on the carved buffet which faced the Van- 
 dyck. They were intelligent eyes he thought; cer- 
 tainly not the eyes of a fool. 
 
 But the conversation did not often flag. Llewellyn 
 led it, and in a small gathering, where he felt himself 
 at ease, there was no better talker. Jim Durrant had 
 dropped in, and besides the Treasury man, one Axe- 
 ham, whose brain was the unfailing resource of each 
 successive Chancellor of the Exchequer, there was a 
 young Lord Merton whom Alec had himself invited the 
 day before, and then forgotten. He was the heir of a 
 great Midland magnate ; a little foppish perhaps, in a 
 grave way, with his drooping mustache, and pointed 
 black beard, trimmed like a Valois portrait, but able 
 and sympathetic, especially to women. That he was
 
 98 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 simply dazzled by Carrie was evident, and his lover's 
 vanity laughed inwardly, well pleased. For he re- 
 membered that Merton, who had been his latest fag 
 at Eton, had hesitated perceptibly before accept- 
 ing his invitation. 
 
 The talk fell on Germany, and that possible 
 Armageddon of the future, of which the world in 
 general thought then so little, and the men closely 
 in touch with European affairs so much. Llewellyn, 
 who spent part of every year in Germany and spoke 
 as a German-lover, gave a graphic account of anti- 
 English feeling in the northern towns. 
 
 "We stub their toes wherever they turn. The 
 feeling is absurd mad but horribly dangerous. " 
 
 Axeham cheerily pooh-poohed him. " Germany at 
 war would be bankrupt in three months and the 
 Kaiser knows it. ' ' Durrant, for his part, only hoped 
 he might live to see the struggle that every English 
 soldier was thirsty for. "But you Liberal fellows, if 
 you come in, will never fight! Your tail won't let 
 you and England will take a back-seat for good. 
 Ah well, if you funk it, some of us can always shoot 
 you!" 
 
 "Pour encourager les autres!" laughed Llewellyn. 
 But in the eye that met Durrant 's there was a gentle 
 mockery, as of one who kept his own counsel. 
 
 "My cousin has just come back from Germany," 
 said Caroline, bending kindly towards the girl. 
 "Haven't you, Joyce?" 
 
 Miss Allen colored again, evidently from shyness. 
 But she answered readily. She had been teaching, 
 she said, in the family of a German officer of high 
 rank. She mentioned the name, and Llewellyn bent 
 across the table with an exclamation. "One of the
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 99 
 
 very best of their military historians," he said, "and 
 one of the most fiercely anti-English." 
 
 A sad expression darkened the young face. "Yes, 
 they hate us, ' ' she said simply, adding immediately 
 "but they were very kind to me." 
 
 Durrant who was sitting next her looked at her 
 with sympathy. "Well, no wonder!" he thought 
 "with such a nice little creature!" 
 
 And he began to draw her out. Her account of her 
 German experiences amused and pleased everybody. 
 Caroline made a little signal to Alec, as much as to 
 say "isn't she rather a dear?" and Wing signaled 
 graciously in return. But as soon as her short inn- 
 ings were over she relapsed into a bright-eyed silence, 
 following all the talk with evident though suppressed 
 eagerness. Durrant liked her increasingly as time 
 went on, little as she allowed him to get out of her. 
 But he gathered presently that she was a cousin of 
 Mrs. Wing 's, and this was the first time she had been 
 inside Eltham House. He could not help wondering 
 what she knew about her cousin's story. 
 
 Meanwhile for other persons at the table, the dinner, 
 when over, remained in memory as simply Caroline 
 Wing 's opportunity. Alec Wing indeed had observed 
 and listened to his wife with some secret amazement. 
 How awfully clever Carrie was getting! She was 
 quite able to hold her own with Llewellyn, who was 
 clearly becoming devoted to her; and as for Merton, 
 she had just knocked him over. In their long love- 
 making in that upland of Vignale, she had been the 
 most delightful of companions, ready to listen or talk, 
 to read or be read to, to draw embroider idle 
 just as he pleased. But intellectually he had been 
 the guide, and she the happy follower. Her life with
 
 100 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Marsworth had been an isolated and cloistered thing. 
 Living all the year round in a remote Yorkshire dale, 
 with a man of austere religious belief, a stifled intel- 
 lect and a morbid conscience, she had seen little or 
 nothing of the world and its affairs. Wing had 
 taught her a good deal, had delighted in teaching her, 
 and in watching the quick response that roused at 
 once his pride and his passion. 
 
 But now Carrie had really "come on" astonish- 
 ingly ! And he recalled a dinner of the week before 
 Washington's persistent vigil at Carrie's side, at din- 
 ner and afterwards ; the great man 's evident absorp- 
 tion in his hostess, and submission to the spell by 
 which she made a reticent man talk, and talk his 
 best to his own pleasure, and that of a delighted 
 circle. Washington was fast becoming one of Carrie 's 
 best friends. 
 
 And yet what good was it going to do Mm after 
 all? The young man's self-conceit was taking alarm. 
 He could not help seeing that Llewellyn, whose ap- 
 proval and friendship he himself ardently desired, 
 was much more ready to listen to her than to him- 
 self; that Axeham was genially communicative to 
 Carrie, while inclined to hold his host at bay, and that 
 Merton too showed the same kind of discrimination. 
 Of course men, first-rate men, were always deferential 
 to women, and women were taken in by it. A certain 
 discomfort of the male, obscurely threatened in his 
 natural role of superiority, swept across him occa- 
 sionally as he watched his wife. But it was very 
 vague and fugitive; quite effaced in the end by a 
 reflux of pride in her charm and her good looks. 
 
 After the general conversation of the dinner-table,
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 101 
 
 the evening passed in a series of duologues Caro- 
 line and Lord Merton in one corner of the yellow 
 drawing-room, Durrant, with the little cousin in tow, 
 walking about among the pictures, Alec, Llewellyn, 
 and Axeham discussing the Parliamentary situation. 
 Alec however grew very soon impatient to see the last 
 of his guests, and he was presently reduced to stroll- 
 ing morosely through the pictures by himself, occa- 
 sionally appealed to by Durrant and Miss Allen, as 
 he happened to come across them. 
 
 That little girl must be sent to bed ! Caroline must 
 really see to it that she did not become a nuisance. 
 And as to that fellow, Merton, would he never go? 
 A philandering chatter-box! He would give Carrie 
 a hint not to encourage him. 
 
 He was fairly on edge by the time Llewellyn 
 and the rest rose to take their departure; so much 
 so that Durrant remarked upon it to Llewellyn, as 
 they walked away together. "What was wrong with 
 Alec? He seemed to have something on his mind?" 
 
 "It's true, I understand, about that dinner and 
 H.M.," said Llewellyn cautiously. 
 
 Durrant shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "But of course it's true! What else did Alec ex- 
 pect? Why can't he make up his mind to take his 
 snubs like a man! He's got Carrie, and Eltham 
 House, and pots of money. Did he think everybody 
 was going to shake hands and make it up, besides?" 
 
 Meanwhile Alec, on turning back again from the 
 outer hall where he had taken leave of his guests, to 
 rejoin Carrie upstairs, perceived a letter lying on the 
 hall-table. It was addressed to him, and he opened 
 it eagerly. The hot color rushed to his temples; he
 
 102 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 crushed it violently in his hand, and mounted the 
 stairs in moody thought. 
 
 At the top of the stairs a little figure in black 
 crossed his path. "Good night, Mr. Wing," said a 
 shy voice. 
 
 "Oh, good night," he said, with a sudden effort at 
 courtesy, holding out a perfunctory hand. The figure 
 disappeared along the eastern corridor. "That's a 
 blessing" he thought. "I wonder if I can stand 
 her always about." 
 
 He found Carrie in her sitting-room, opening the 
 letters of the evening. She had exchanged her even- 
 ing dress for something soft and flowing, and her 
 radiant looks showed not a trace of fatigue. 
 
 "Wasn't it a pleasant evening, Alec?" she said 
 joyously as he entered, holding out her hands to him. 
 Then, arrested by his expression, she changed her 
 tone 
 
 "Darling! is there anything wrong?' 
 
 He threw himself into a chair beside her, made a 
 movement to give her the letter in his hand, thought 
 better of it and put it in his pocket. 
 
 "They won't have me at Hull," he said, trying to 
 laugh off the blow. "Never mind. We'll be even 
 with them yet hypocrites!" 
 
 "Won't have you at Hull?" she repeated. "You 
 don't mean " 
 
 "I do mean it, I mean just that. I don't suit their 
 puritanical taste." 
 
 The color died out of Caroline's cheeks, and then 
 returned upon them with a rush. 
 
 "What have they to do with our private affairs!" 
 she said passionately. 
 
 "Bothwell writes a very decent letter," said Wing,
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 103 
 
 after a pause. ' ' He says the newspapers on the other 
 side have got hold of the divorce reports and are 
 threatening to republish them with the Judge's 
 remarks, etc. if they bring me down ; so he just begs 
 me not to come 'very sorry' of course and that's 
 all!" 
 
 Caroline was silent a moment then broke out 
 bitterly 
 
 "It's perfectly intolerable there should be this per- 
 secution! Why can't they let us alone !" 
 
 Wing sprang up, and began to pace the room with 
 his hands in his pockets. 
 
 "Well, we've got to make up our minds, Carrie, 
 what we're going to do! Am I to knuckle under 
 give up all thought of politics take to farming or 
 aeroplaning anything you like or are we going to 
 stick to it, through thick and thin? If there is a 
 general election this autumn and they're all talking 
 of it at the clubs am I to stand or not? Will the 
 Whigs give me a chance, or won't they? Is there any 
 way of inducing them to give me a chance?" Then 
 his tone changed "Look here! I've got something 
 very interesting to tell you." 
 
 She looked up. He described the scene at the 
 "Forwards" Club and the despairing cry for funds. 
 "Then I went on to see Pater at Claridge's just 
 caught him. Well, of course he 's all for delay ! I 'm 
 not. I don't believe time will make any difference 
 whatever, unless we choose to wait till you and I, 
 darling, are both old dodderers! And he doesn't be- 
 lieve in an election; and on the whole I do some 
 time in the autumn. But he's a brick all the same. 
 Practically, I may have whatever money I please, to 
 use as I please a cool hundred thousand if neces-
 
 104 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 sary. He knows everything about the straits the 
 party are in; and he's ready to back me to the last. 
 But, of course, he won't pay till he knows whether 
 the goods will be delivered!" 
 
 ''Which means" Carrie had dropped her voice, 
 and was looking at him with wide anxious eyes 
 "till you know whether they'll give you a seat or not. 
 You are to buy your seat?" 
 
 "Well, darling! and doesn't a man buy his 
 baronetcy or his peerage? What's the difference? 
 All I buy is the chance of getting a few thousand 
 duffers to elect me." 
 
 "Oh, Alec, it's dangerous!" she said, after a mo- 
 ment, in a tone that trembled. 
 
 Wing looked at her, half amused, half irritated. 
 
 "You needn't look so scared, Carrie! If it did 
 come off, it wouldn't be exactly published in the 
 newspapers. It would be known to about three 
 people besides you and me the Opposition Whips 
 and Pater." 
 
 "That doesn't make it any better not a bit bet- 
 ter!" she said, earnestly. ' ' Don 't do it, Alec, don 't ! " 
 
 He could not understand her distress, and began 
 to be angered by it. 
 
 "Don't do what? Anybody may offer money to the 
 party. And as for my part in it, it's a mere incident 
 of war," he said, bitterly. "You and I are at war, 
 Carrie with a lot of people who want to humiliate 
 and punish us. We must just understand that. Pater 
 understands it perfectly! If I'm ever to recover 
 my place and my opportunity, we must play every 
 card we've got. And it is absurd not to recognize 
 that money is perhaps our biggest card money 
 and Carrie!"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 105 
 
 He came to stand behind her, and dropped a light 
 kiss on her hair. 
 
 She sat irresponsive, her face in shadow, her hands 
 on her knee. 
 
 "How will you ever do it?" she asked, after a 
 pause. "How does one do such a thing?" 
 
 ' ' Perfectly simple ! I write to our Whips to say I 
 want a seat for the General Election, and such and 
 such a seat would suit me. Will they adopt me as an 
 official candidate and recommend me to the local 
 people ? At the same time, by the same post perhaps, 
 Pater writes to them to ask confidentially about the 
 party funds says that I have been advising him to 
 contribute a substantial sum something of that kind ! 
 Easiest thing possible ! Well, then they have to make 
 up their minds. Will they risk it? or will they 
 refuse what will fill their war chest ? ' ' 
 
 "Alec dear! Won't you wait a little after all?" 
 she said, suddenly holding up her arms to him and 
 drawing his face down to hers. "I don't I don't 
 believe you could keep such a thing such a a bar- 
 gain from Mr. Washington. And, Alec, you can't 
 buy people like Mr. Washington and Mr. Llewellyn. 
 If they think it would damage the party to help you 
 to a seat, they won 't do it whatever you offer them ! 
 And you would be so disappointed if they refused 
 and I should be so miserable!" 
 
 He drew himself away. 
 
 ' ' My dear, what 's the good of being as beautiful as 
 you are, if you can't influence a man like Washing- 
 ton? All the world knows that he can't say 'No' to 
 a pretty woman." 
 
 He came round her chair to stand in front of her, 
 flushed and laughing, his hands on his sides.
 
 106 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "If I were to ask Mr. Washington to do something 
 he thought dishonorable he'd never look at me or 
 speak to me again, or Mr. Llewellyn either," she said, 
 with vehemence. "Oh, do understand, dear Alec! 
 Don't trust to money! Trust to making friends. 
 There are many kind people who will give us a 
 chance there are indeed when they've had time to 
 forget what we did." 
 
 He looked at her, fairly amazed. 
 
 " 'Don't trust to money'! Why I thought you 
 understood Pater's plan, and agreed with it, Carrie! 
 What on earth are we here for in Eltham House 
 if we're not going to use all possible weapons 
 against this British philistinism and cant? If not, 
 better go and live in a cottage on twopence a year! 
 We're here, I repeat, to bluff it to see if we can't 
 force the position fight the Pharisees and beat 
 them! And I thought you agreed, Carrie you did 
 agree!" he repeated. 
 
 ' ' I know I '11 do anything I can ! ' ' she said, plead- 
 ingly. "But you see, Alec, since that evening we 
 came home, I've got to know some of these men in 
 these three months. They've been awfully good to 
 me. Take Mr. Washington, for instance. I can't 
 tell you what I feel about him. He's such a real 
 great man and so so kind and true. I should hate 
 to offend him to set him against us. And Mr. 
 Llewellyn! What does he care about our being 
 rich? not a pin! it makes not the smallest differ- 
 ence to him. But I think he's really well sorry 
 for us" her voice faltered a little strangely. 
 
 " 'Sorry for us!' " repeated Alec in wrathful as- 
 tonishment. "What on earth do you mean, Carrie? 
 What is there to pity, I should like to know? You
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 107 
 
 and I love each other, and we've had a jolly good 
 time. We mean to go on having a jolly good time, 
 don 't we ? Let him keep his pity to himself ! ' ' 
 
 "Perhaps he envies us too for our love!" she 
 said, steadily. "I know he does. I see that in him. 
 But all the same he knows very well that we've set 
 the world against us, and that" she turned away, 
 and her voice grew muffled "I've lost Carina 
 and Let's go gently, darling! We're not very old, 
 are we? And we go on making friends all the 
 time." 
 
 "And much good it does us ! Look at that letter ! " 
 he pointed to it as it lay on her lap. "Didn't you 
 have that man here? didn't we both make ourselves 
 as pleasant to him as we could? didn't I offer to 
 help him with his election expenses? and what was 
 the use of it all ! He thinks just as we do about that 
 ass, the British public! But when the pinch comes, 
 he shirks. Hard facts, Carrie! that's what we've 
 got to face. And it may sound gross but the only 
 way to beat them is by hard cash!" 
 
 The two young creatures faced each other, divided 
 for the first time in the history of their passion by 
 a real conflict of feeling. In him the arrogance, the 
 excited will, the fundamental stupidity of a spoiled 
 darling of fortune, accustomed to make the world 
 give way, and infuriated by any real or prolonged 
 resistance. The same excited will had prevailed, 
 when, finding the beautiful woman with whom he had 
 fallen desperately in love alone and undefended in 
 Florence, he had laid violent siege to her, and had 
 finally carried her off from her husband and children 
 in triumph. And now it was incredible to him that 
 he should not be able by similar methods as violent
 
 108 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 and as determined to force his way back into the old 
 position of vantage he had thrown away. 
 
 While in Carrie, on the other hand, this renewed 
 contact with English life had brought back upon her 
 all the force of old traditions the traditions of con- 
 duct, honorable, law-abiding, self-controlled, which 
 had surrounded her childhood and youth, within gray 
 college walls. Her personal defiance, in truth, had 
 spent itself. For Alec's sake she was ready to brave 
 and attempt most things. But new compunctions, 
 new perceptions, were busy in her. She was scarcely 
 conscious of them. But she was aware at least of a 
 sighing wish to recover her position with men of high 
 character good men whom she must needs respect 
 like Mr. Llewellyn and Richard Washington who 
 had treated her gently and respectfully, when good 
 women had renounced her. She had begun to foresee 
 vaguely a long process of reconciliation, long, and 
 delicate, and ultimately successful. A vain dream, 
 perhaps ; for it involved making the best of two wholly 
 incompatible worlds. But it had comforted her con- 
 science. And now here was Alec spoiling everything ! 
 For it seemed to her she already knew the men he 
 had to deal with better than he did. 
 
 She rose, and put her arms gently round his neck. 
 "Alec! can't you do it in other ways! Even if the 
 people at headquarters here in London agreed, 
 how could they answer for the local people? It 
 would be Hull over again. Be patient, dearest! 
 When I hear you and Mr. Llewellyn talking, I feel so 
 sure you '11 do splendid things some day ! Why don 't 
 you take up the housing on the estates ? There 's lots 
 wants doing. Mr. Llewellyn suggested it to me. 
 Pater would give you all the money you want. You
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 109 
 
 might lead the way for England. And then they 
 couldn 't keep you out ! ' ' 
 
 His face darkened. He took her hands in his and 
 drew them down. 
 
 "My dear Carrie! if I don't get into Parliament 
 soon, I shall never get into office, and for an ambitious 
 man and I am ambitious I have set my heart on 
 politics since I was in knickerbockers what are 
 politics without office? It will take me longer now 
 than other people to get to the front and I want 
 my chance!" 
 
 And almost throwing her hands from him in the 
 passion of his mood, he began to pace the room in 
 front of her. She followed him, pleading 
 
 ' ' Alec, dear Alec ! let us make friends ! not try to 
 bribe. You know how angry people have been lately 
 about buying honors peerages and decorations! 
 Wouldn't there be an outcry, if it were ever known 
 or suspected that your father had paid 100,000 to 
 make the Whips adopt you? Wouldn't it be called 
 all sorts of horrid names?" 
 
 "It wouldn't be known!" he said, frowning. 
 ' ' These things are generally in the hands of one man. 
 Trust my father to manage it." 
 
 "But it might so easily get out," she said, breath- 
 lessly. "And how can it be kept from Mr. Washing- 
 ton or Mr. Llewellyn? Alec, they'll never risk the 
 party for 100,000!" 
 
 He was silent a moment, and then said, looking at 
 her rather darkly 
 
 "And when I do try to make friends, you are 
 jealous directly!" 
 
 She wavered a moment, as though she had been 
 struck. He had never yet spoken to her in that tone,
 
 110 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 and with that look. Then she flushed crimson, and 
 turned away. 
 
 "I don't mean friends like that!" 
 
 "Like what?" 
 
 "I am certain that woman is flirting with you!" 
 she said proudly. "I see it in her whole manner to 
 you. She is trying to lead you on to make a con- 
 quest of you! Else why should she ask you per- 
 petually? and why should you go to her, Alec? You 
 have lunched with her three times in ten days and 
 paid calls in the afternoon besides. And at the fete 
 yesterday she simply made a slave of you! People 
 will talk, I tell you, if it goes on!" 
 
 Ah! she was the jealous woman now; no longer 
 the prudent and diplomatic adviser. Her breath came 
 fast. The elemental feeling which had swept them 
 together broke through, undoing for the moment all 
 the recovered instincts and habits. He looked at her 
 in amazement; indignant, yet half appeased. 
 
 " Carrie you are a goose! Why, I asked yon 
 beforehand if I might go and see Mrs. Whitton if 
 I might accept her invitation, without you ; and you 
 promised you promised not to be jealous. Every 
 time she has asked me, it has been to meet somebody 
 political. You might have heard everything! Well, 
 upon my word, if this is the way you are going to 
 treat me, when I do try to follow your advice, and 
 'make friends' I don't see how you can expect me 
 to pay much attention to you ! ' ' 
 
 She saw at once that she had made a bad mistake, 
 and that he triumphed over her. But her outburst 
 had been beyond her control. It was the result, 
 unforeseen by her as by him, of a hundred creeping 
 fears, small wounds, accumulating hurts. She had
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 111 
 
 promised, and she had meant to keep her promise. 
 But in these three months had she already become 
 conscious of the truth of Lord Wing's warning that 
 she had most to fear from her own sex? from the 
 women who would be only too ready to welcome Alec 
 back to their society, while they ostracized herself? 
 She had begun to feel herself obscurely threatened 
 in her passion, her possession from many quarters; 
 to be conscious of enemies in the dark whom she could 
 not see. Hence this conflict in her between old and 
 new; between the reviving instincts of prudence and 
 high thinking, and the instincts of passion. 
 
 He pursued his advantage at once. 
 
 "And if it comes to that" he said, half smiling, 
 and yet bitter, "I don't think you need talk, Carrie! 
 Anyone could see that that fellow Merton to-night 
 was making love to you!" 
 
 "Alec! when I was thinking of you the whole 
 time I was talking to him! I was pumping him 
 trying to get to know things simply for your sake 
 for nothing else in the world! Well, that is hard!" 
 She fell into her chair, hiding her face in her hands, 
 her pride struggling with her tears. He stood over 
 her half ashamed, yet full of a vague irritation, which 
 was another kind of jealousy from hers, and yet was 
 jealousy. 
 
 "I didn't mean it, Carrie of course, I didn't. 
 Don't cry. I'm a brute. But look here! I can't 
 only succeed through you! you can't expect a man 
 to accept that "position you really can't. I must 
 stand on my own feet, and fight my own fight, however 
 you help me. Of course you get on with men like 
 Eobert Llewellyn and Washington. You're a pretty 
 woman! they want to please you. But it doesn't
 
 112 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 follow that 7 shall get anything out of them, for your 
 beaux yeux, Carrie! What I feel the whole time is 
 that they accept you, and draw the line at me ! " 
 
 She lifted a pale face. 
 
 "Alec, just have patience till next year! There 
 won't be an election!" 
 
 "There probably will," he said steadily. "And 
 there's a seat in Staffordshire I want." 
 
 "Just a few weeks, Alec! because I ask you!" 
 
 "I should lose my chance," he said doggedly. 
 
 She rose, despairing, and so wounded, so annoyed 
 that he should have been able to deny her, that she 
 could not or would not speak another word. 
 
 She gathered up a book and some letters and moved 
 towards the door. He stood looking at her in silence. 
 Both were conscious that something new and sad had 
 happened to them not beyond repairing, oh no! 
 not really touching their love but still pointing 
 forward to a new scene, a new chapter, in their 
 history. She opened the door, looked back at him, 
 her dark eyes one mute and splendid reproach and 
 disappeared. 
 
 She hurried along the corridor, holding down her 
 pain. The house was dark, and heavy with the scent 
 of flowers ; a few shaded lights here and there, which 
 burned through the night. In the gallery running 
 round the central staircase, a window had been left 
 open on the garden side. It was long past midnight 
 and all was still. A windy moonlight was on the 
 grass ; the plane trees tossed and sighed. And round 
 the dim oasis of the garden ran the night-murmur of 
 London, like a receding voice. Caroline stopped a 
 moment to breathe in the freshness of the wind that 
 was stirring the curtains. The house seemed to her
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 113 
 
 stifling ; and for a moment she hated it. Then in the 
 garden wing, at the end of which lay her own rooms, 
 she perceived a light in another open window. 
 
 Joyce ! so late ? 
 
 She went on, filled with a slight sudden remorse 
 that she had thought so little of the girl since dinner. 
 While she was still talking to a servant about some 
 letters for the midnight post, Joyce had said a quiet 
 good night and disappeared. But the quick sym- 
 pathy in Caroline protested that on this first night in 
 the great strange house, it would have been kind to 
 show the new-comer to her room, to exchange a few 
 cousinly words with her before sleep. 
 
 Some yearning instinct born obscurely of her own 
 distress made her pause outside the door of the room 
 which bore the name "Miss Joyce Allen" and then 
 knock softly. 
 
 ' ' Come in ! " said a surprised voice. 
 
 Caroline entered. 
 
 She saw a little figure in the plainest of cotton 
 wrappers rise from a chair by a writing-table stand- 
 ing near the open window. 
 
 "Oh, I'm so sorry!" said Joyce, in confusion "I 
 didn 't know it was so late ! ' ' 
 
 "I thought perhaps you couldn't sleep," said 
 Caroline, uncertainly. ' ' You must excuse my coming 
 in. Have you all you want?" 
 
 And involuntarily her eyes perceived the girl's 
 preparations for the night; the photographs put out 
 beside the bed, one of the chancel of a church, filled 
 with Easter flowers, the other of a gray-haired man; 
 the worn Testament, and two or three other little 
 pious books ; the neatly folded clothes. She seemed to 
 see her own maiden room in her father's house.
 
 114 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "I was writing to a friend a very great friend" 
 said Joyce shyly. "She was married last year but 
 we always write to each other." 
 
 "You ought to be in bed," said Caroline, putting 
 an arm round the thin shoulders. "You look very 
 tired!" 
 
 "Oh no, I'm not tired. It was all so interesting 
 so beautiful to-night. It's you that look tired." 
 The tone was shy, but the speaker took Caroline's 
 hand in hers. 
 
 Something in the voice soothed Caroline wonder- 
 fully. She kissed her little cousin affectionately, 
 made her promise to go to bed, and said good night. 
 ' ' We '11 have a talk to-morrow. ' ' The girl 's large eyes 
 followed the brilliant figure to the door. 
 
 "I wonder if Alec will let me keep her," thought 
 Carrie as she went to her own room "and I won- 
 der if she really knows. ' ' 
 
 But then all thought of Joyce of anything else 
 in the wide world was swept away by the recollection 
 that she and Alec had quarreled almost quarreled 
 for the first time in their lives ; and by the passionate 
 expectation of his return to her. 
 
 She waited for him in darkness; and when he 
 came he brought the emotion of reconciliation, of 
 murmured words given and received, of long embraces 
 and tears kissed away. His will was to prevail in the 
 ordering of their new life, as in all else ; and for her 
 jealousy of Mrs. Whitton she was much mocked at, 
 and soon shamed.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 IN a drawing-room of a little house in West Square, 
 Buckingham Gate, Mrs. Whitton was sitting up late 
 over her accounts. She was much worried by them, 
 and her eyes showed dark rims of fatigue. It was 
 certainly annoyingly true that she had been getting 
 rather deeply into debt. Apparently it was not 
 possible to maintain a remarkable position, once you 
 had achieved it, so cheaply as she had once fondly 
 thought. What with little lunches to Cabinet Min- 
 isters, and little frocks for Ascot, or the Opera, or 
 week-ends, and little journeys to Italy in the spring, 
 or to Paris in the winter, from which one returned 
 primed with the latest literary or artistic or dramatic 
 information, life was really unreasonably expensive. 
 Mrs. Whitton had a kind of injured feeling about it, 
 like that of a person who has been overcharged. It 
 ought not to cost Tier so much to live, because she 
 returned society so much more for its money than 
 other people. 
 
 However, society, as represented by dressmakers, 
 milliners, bootmakers, and her household books, did 
 not seem to be of the same opinion; and there were 
 the bills! The tone of the letters accompanying the 
 bills, also, was changing disagreeably, and Madge felt 
 that something would have to be done. Her money, 
 
 115
 
 116 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 however, was her own. There were no tiresome 
 trustees to interfere. She could always sell out some- 
 thing. But of course there is an end to that process 
 some time. 
 
 Oh, what it would be to have unlimited money! 
 Like the Wings for instance ! Mrs. Whitton fell back 
 in her chair with closed eyes, and bathed a hungry 
 fancy in the golden memories of Eltham House. 
 The perfection of that dinner! of every detail of 
 food, service, wine, the gorgeous flowers and fruit, 
 that buffet of historic silver at the end of the room, 
 the lighting, the pictures everything! Why should 
 the Wings possess so much and others so little? 
 She supposed Caroline Wing had a housekeeper, and 
 a major-domo, not to speak of the already famous 
 clief, and never troubled herself personally about any- 
 thing. She had simply to press a button, and the 
 thing was done, so to speak. "So many people to 
 lunch or dinner to-day," "a reception to-morrow 
 night," "a, concert, Friday" and she didn't proba- 
 bly even condescend to pay the bills herself ! It was 
 all done for her by some magnificent slave of the 
 lamp in the background. 
 
 Well, of course, the invitations, the matching of 
 people, which is the really important business in any 
 social success, couldn't be done in that way, by 
 Caroline Wing or anybody else. But Mrs. Whitton 
 felt sorely that with such opportunities, such backing, 
 and such a purse, she could have pitted herself 
 against any rival whatever and beaten them. The 
 mistress of Eltham House was certainly making a 
 name and place for herself in this hostile London. 
 Madge Whitton did not deny it. She simply denied 
 the performance any special merit at all. Given
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 117 
 
 Eltham House, Lord Wing's money, and a very mod- 
 erate intelligence, the thing was bound to succeed! 
 Up to a certain point bien entendu! 
 
 At the same time if the truth were known, there 
 was already in the mind of this very successful little 
 "climber" a certain social jealousy of Caroline Wing, 
 mingled with the envy of her money. There were 
 certain prominent men with whom Madge Whitton 
 had never really felt herself successful Eobert 
 Llewellyn and Mr. Washington, in particular and 
 two or three others, who were among the most cov- 
 eted guests of the moment in political London. They 
 accepted her invitations, because no one could arrange 
 a small party better, and because in her pleasant 
 rooms such men found another opportunity for the 
 only recreation which really attracted them, good 
 talk, without noise, or overcrowding, or bores, with 
 people who shared the same interests, and under- 
 stood the shorthand of each other's conversation. 
 But Madge had noticed already in the tone of such 
 men towards Caroline Wing a touch of tenderness, 
 of something intimate, gentle, profound, which she 
 resented as a kind of rebuff to herself, because she 
 had never been able to evoke it. Must one go to 
 all lengths, as Caroline Wing had done, before one 
 became really interesting to the men best worth 
 knowing ? 
 
 Of course Alec Wing was amusing, and by now a 
 constant frequenter of the house in West Square. 
 She thought with a certain thrill of his physical per- 
 fections his open, handsome face, his clustering hair r 
 and gallant bearing. It was true apparently that he 
 had not resigned his commission in the Guards of his; 
 own accord, but had been forced to do so by the actioa
 
 118 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 of his brother officers. That showed how strong a 
 feeling there was in some quarters, even among men 
 of the world. No doubt because of John Marsworth 's 
 high reputation his many friends in the army his 
 exploits in the Boer War, and the rest of it. 
 
 "All very well, but I couldn't have lived with John 
 Marsworth for six weeks!" thought Madge Whitton. 
 "My old man was tiresome enough, but John Mars- 
 worth!" She remembered a chance encounter with 
 him, in the country house of one of her relations years 
 before, when she was only seventeen, and he was still 
 unmarried. She had tried to flirt with him, at first 
 successfully, and then had been aware of a sudden 
 flinty change in him of something contemptuous, 
 before which she shrank. Was it because he had 
 come to know of certain passages between her and 
 another man in the house an older man married to 
 one of her own cousins and of the young wife's dis- 
 tress? Her conscience admitted it might have been 
 so. Well, anyhow he was a bigot and a martinet, and 
 any wife not entirely subservient must have had a 
 bad time with him. 
 
 So that the charm of Alec Wing for anyone who had 
 been condemned to seven years of Marsworth was 
 easily understood. How agreeable he could make him- 
 self to the people he wished to please "to me for 
 instance ! ' ' Impossible for such a being to understand 
 that there really did exist a great many sensible 
 people determined to send him to Coventry! He 
 himself could be so friendly, so easy-going; and al- 
 ways so sorry apparently for people less prosper- 
 ous than himself. 
 
 And she thought of a hint she had dropped the 
 slightest of being hard up and his quick, com-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 119 
 
 passionate look; followed by shyness, lest he should 
 say anything indiscreet, anything to wound her feel- 
 ings. He needn't have been afraid! "though I've 
 never let a man help me out yet," she thought, not 
 without pride. But again the recollection of the 
 Wing wealth came stingingly across her. Why, it 
 would cost Alec Wing nothing just nothing! to 
 lend a friend a thousand pounds. A signature on a 
 piece of paper! something never felt which need 
 never be remembered. And again she closed her eyes 
 and let fancy play. All her bills the bank over- 
 draft Cousin Kate 's loan everything ! swept away 
 and smoothed out. She drew a long, sighing breath. 
 
 "I should like to know when you're going to bed," 
 said a gruff voice from the door. 
 
 Madge turned to see her middle-aged maid, for- 
 merly her nurse by name Anne Street bending dis- 
 approving eyes on her from the doorway. Street was 
 a power in the West Square household, its real ruler 
 in fact. It was she who did all the practical work; 
 who managed the lackadaisical Miss Elwood, ' ' Cousin 
 Kate," the lady who played chaperon to Mrs. Whit- 
 ton, and also contributed a solid three hundred a 
 year to the expenses ; and it was she who kept a sharp 
 eye on the tradesmen and the servants, and one not 
 less sharp on Madge Whitton herself. Madge ac- 
 knowledged her indispensable; was fond of her; and 
 groaned under her. 
 
 ' ' Go away, Anne, ' ' she said crossly, at sight of her 
 domestic mentor; "go away, and go to bed. I'm 
 doing my accounts." 
 
 Instead of obeying, Anne came into the room, and 
 began to pick up some of the litter of books, letters, 
 and newspapers with which it was strewn.
 
 120 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "There are two new hats come from Madame 
 Therese, ' ' she said severely, after a pause. Her mouth 
 opened and closed on the words like a steel trap. It 
 made a straight slit, almost lipless, in her face, which 
 possessed besides a pair of pale blue eyes, a nonde- 
 script nose, and a square chin. She was very stout, 
 and seemed to be bursting out of her clothes, which 
 never appeared to have either color or make. She had 
 a right to Madge's cast-offs, but as she never wore any 
 of them, Madge could only suppose that she sold them 
 to advantage. If so, her mistress was uneasily aware 
 that some of the money was probably indeed cer- 
 tainly used in paying some of her mistress's small 
 and constantly forgotten debts. It should be added 
 that she belonged to an obscure dissenting body, and 
 entertained a curious scorn, not unmixed with com- 
 passion, for the rich and prosperous. 
 
 "Well, I wanted another hat," said Mrs. Whitton, 
 with an attempt at dignity. "And I'll thank you, 
 Anne, not to interfere." 
 
 "You've more than you can wear in a week of 
 Sundays upstairs already. We'd better have paid 
 for some of them first." 
 
 Madge bent over her accounts in silence, pretend- 
 ing not to hear. 
 
 "And if you go on, sitting up like this, you'll be 
 ill," pursued the harsh voice; "and then there'll be 
 doctors to pay for." 
 
 "For goodness' sake, go away, Anne! and let me 
 alone!" The maid looked at her quite unmoved. 
 
 "If I don't bring it home to you, no one else will," 
 she said doggedly. "You can't go on like this. 
 Miss Elwood told me last night, she wouldn't lend 
 you another farthing."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 121 
 
 "Well, you goose, I can always sell out." 
 
 "Yes, so long as there's anything to sell which 
 won't be long. We ought to leave this house and 
 take up another way of living altogether, ' ' said Anne, 
 coming to sit down heavily beside her mistress. 
 "You'll be in Queer Street you know you will if 
 this goes on." 
 
 ' ' How you croak, Anne ! ' ' 
 
 ' ' No. It 's true, ' ' persisted the other. 
 
 Mrs. Whitton looked round her drawing-room with 
 a sigh. She was very proud of her little house, its 
 taste, its convenience, its social capabilities. It was 
 identified with her part of her all her friends 
 praised it. How odious to have to go and live in a 
 cheaper part of town or in a flat ! So much depends 
 too on having a particular gite with its atmosphere 
 and associations where people can always find you. 
 "And there never was a flat yet that had any indi- 
 viduality," she thought. "I hate them!" 
 
 " Go to bed, Anne ! ' ' she repeated, as she rose with 
 a stretch. "And I'll come too. You may brush my 
 hair for me; it's coming out abominably. I shall 
 soon have to buy some." 
 
 "There's never a blessing on bought hair," said 
 Anne sententiously, beginning to put out the lights. 
 "You've got to put up with it. The Lord gave, and 
 the Lord taketh away. All the same it's nonsense. 
 You've got plenty." 
 
 And in the neighboring bedroom, when Mrs. 
 Whitton unloosed her fair coils, Anne enjoyed one of 
 her few pleasures in brushing them. She did it with 
 a thoroughness which sometimes evoked protests 
 from the patient ; and few people watching the process 
 would have guessed at the strength of passionate and
 
 122 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 yet clear-eyed and disapproving affection with which 
 she regarded the young woman under her hands. 
 But Madge knew herself loved, and to do her justice, 
 was not ungrateful. 
 
 She lay awake, afterwards, thinking of her diffi- 
 culties, and thinking also of a visit which Alec Wing 
 was to pay her on the morrow. He had paid her a 
 good many lately. One could only suppose that 
 Caroline Wing knew and approved ! For there could 
 be no doubt that the two sinners were still deeply in 
 love with each other. As far as appearances went 
 anyway ! 
 
 "But one simply can't help flirting with him!" 
 thought Madge sleepily. "I don't believe Elizabeth 
 Washington herself could if he gave her the chance. 
 . . . Suppose I asked his advice about investments. 
 There couldn't be any harm in getting a few tips. 
 Why, Lord Wing must be made of them! And I 
 dare say I can do something for him. I have done 
 him some good turns already. But if he's really set 
 his heart on Parliament silly fellow! let's think! 
 who could help, that I know?" 
 
 And running over names in her head, she fell 
 asleep. 
 
 "Lucky beggars!" thought Alec Wing, as he 
 stopped to look at a private omnibus that was being 
 loaded up before a house in Eaton Square. Evidently 
 a family going north perhaps to Scotland in prep- 
 aration for the Twelfth. Guns and cartridge cases 
 mixed up with miscellaneous luggage; fishing rods 
 strapped together et cetera. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the London square, autumn was 
 already visible, though it was but the first week of
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 123 
 
 August. The leaves were beginning to drift down- 
 wards in the hot and lifeless air; many blinds were 
 drawn, the flowers in the balconies drooped. 
 
 The moors ! Wing thought it was about time to be 
 getting out of this dusty wilderness. Brown plashing 
 water and gray stones; the white flicker of a trout 
 in a mountain burn; stretches of pink heather with 
 the hot sun wringing its scent from it, and the bright 
 wind beating over it, the rush of the grouse, and the 
 friendly faces of the dogs: these images came in 
 teasing swarms about him. He himself had rented 
 a famous moor for the season, and Carrie had ar- 
 ranged a series of parties for the later autumn. But 
 he and she had long since made up their minds to 
 stay out Parliament in London. In these last weeks 
 of the Parliamentary session, it was easy to get hold 
 of the busy men, in a more intimate and informal way 
 than was possible amid the "social junketings" of 
 June and July. One could sift out the people who 
 mattered, and let the rest go. No more miscellaneous 
 crowds! But every night the beautiful house was 
 open to its favored guests. A few people to dinner, 
 almost exclusively men; politicians, soldiers, officials, 
 men of letters, artists ; and after dinner, ' ' Mrs. Wing, 
 At Home," night after night, to a circle of people 
 again, mostly men who already felt themselves in 
 some sort a corporate entity, a recognized body, with 
 incipient powers and common interests; above all, a 
 common loyalty to the beautiful and attractive woman 
 who was beginning after three months' continuous 
 effort to show what she might be capable of in the 
 future, as a social artist. And as for her past, while 
 half the world still shunned and condemned her, the 
 other half were being rapidly caught and disarmed
 
 124 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 by those brown eyes of hers their wistful humanity, 
 their passion. 
 
 "By Jove! Carrie's superb!" was the recurring 
 thought of her young husband as he walked on 
 through the August streets. The "little girl" had 
 been useful, too. Joyce Allen was promising to be- 
 come a lieutenant worth having. It was evident that 
 she was devoted to Carrie, who seemed to have won 
 her heart, as usual. She had now promised to stay 
 with them for a year. In some ways she was an odd 
 customer. The allowance alias salary which Carrie 
 had offered her, had been refused as too generous. 
 The young lady had finally accepted half, Carrie 
 having pointed out that a certain number of pretty 
 frocks for Mrs. Wing's cousin, who now appeared at 
 all her "evenings," was really indispensable. Alto- 
 gether, rather an inscrutable little being! So maid- 
 enly and yet so independent! Carrie was certain 
 that various common relatives had tried to dissuade 
 her from coming to Eltham House had indeed cut 
 her since she arrived there. And yet there she was 
 a fixture. 
 
 How much did she know of the "Wing Divorce 
 Case"? Not a word or a look revealed. Yet about 
 the slight figure and all its ways there floated a kind 
 of fragrance of delicate feeling and high conscience, 
 which Wing at any rate sometimes found embarrass- 
 ing. It seemed to him, however, that to have the 
 little creature at her side did something to mend the 
 wounds and slights that British philistinism must 
 needs go on aiming at Caroline. And if so, and it 
 suited her to keep the girl by all means ! But why 
 should Jim Durrant have taken to fooling round with 
 the young woman ? It was absurd and it was unkind
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 125 
 
 besides. For although Jim was not rich, he was very 
 well born, and well-connected ; his parents and sisters 
 were ambitious for him, and not the least likely to 
 welcome such a little Cinderella in the part of Jim's 
 wife, without a severe struggle. To do the child 
 justice, she could not be said to encourage him; but 
 there he was perpetually, doing her errands and Caro- 
 line's, and becoming, so far as his military duties al- 
 lowed, the tame cat of the house. Alec Wing, from 
 his height of superior wisdom as a married man of 
 eighteen months' standing, thought that Jim was be- 
 having foolishly, and that something must be done. 
 
 And as to his own affairs ? It was now three weeks 
 since he and Caroline had had their first quarrel, and 
 everything was still in suspense. As a matter of fact, 
 his wife's arguments had impressed him more than 
 either he or she had known at the time. Also Hull 
 had not been captured. The Government candidate 
 had just held the seat. The Tory spirits had im- 
 proved, and even Alec was forced to admit that the 
 chances of an election were receding. But meanwhile 
 there was fresh news as to the Midland seat on which 
 he had his eye. The old fellow who held it had not 
 been seen in the House of Commons for months ; and 
 the newspapers of that morning reported him as 
 dying. There was an excellent sporting chance of 
 capturing the seat ; and the man who achieved it would 
 be the hero of the hour. And there the great bribe 
 lay still, warm and waiting to be used, at Wing's dis- 
 posal. He was in twenty minds but once more 
 vehemently inclined to risk it. 
 
 "Mrs. Whitton at home?" 
 
 The pretty parlor maid, whose cap and dress showed
 
 126 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 the artistic hand of her mistress, admitted him without 
 difficulty, and as he entered the pale green drawing- 
 room, well screened from the August sun, Mrs. Whit- 
 ton, in white, rose smiling to meet him. 
 
 "Still in town?" she said, as she pointed him to a 
 chair. "I couldn't believe it, when I got your tele- 
 phone message yesterday. Why aren 't you shooting ? ' ' 
 
 "Because there may be other things more impor- 
 tant! And you? Why aren't you on the move? I 
 expect you've more invitations than you know what 
 to do with!" 
 
 "A good many invitations" she admitted. Then 
 with a sigh "But I'm too poor." 
 
 "Too poor? Nonsense!" His laugh sounded 
 embarrassed. 
 
 "I can't afford the frocks ! It's perfectly appalling 
 what the frocks are coming to now, in country 
 houses. ' ' 
 
 "Do without them!" 
 
 "So easy for a man to say! Ask an officer to do 
 without his uniforms. My frocks are just as much 
 de rigueur." 
 
 He shook his head gayly, showing his white teeth. 
 They sparred a little ; and then she abruptly changed 
 her tone. 
 
 "All very well to laugh but it's serious. I'm 
 afraid I shall have to give up this house." 
 
 "Give up this house? Why it's part of you! 
 you've made it so jolly!" 
 
 And he turned his brilliant head to look round 
 the room, which had a pleasant emptiness, entirely 
 devoid of the usual feminine litter, in which a few 
 beautiful things drawings, antiques, engravings 
 showed themselves, without jostling, and chairs of all
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 127 
 
 sizes, in many nooks and corners, suggested talk with- 
 out crowding. 
 
 ' ' Yes I 've been here a good while. I 've made it. 
 It 's full of memories. But well, it can 't be helped ! ' ' 
 
 And suddenly, he saw the eyes which were her chief 
 beauty fill with tears. 
 
 Wing's easy susceptibility was touched. He moved 
 nearer to her. 
 
 ' ' I 'm awfully sorry ! Is it really ' ' 
 
 She laughed hysterically. 
 
 "Really so bad? Well, I don't want to be in the 
 courts. I should be all right if my investments would 
 only pay as they used to do." 
 
 ' ' Investments ? ' ' He hesitated, flushed, and at last 
 put the natural questions "what are they? what's 
 the matter? Can I help?" She laughed again 
 beat about the bush was alternately proud, and ap- 
 pealing and finally threw herself on his help. "If I 
 only had someone to advise me! But what can a 
 woman do all, alone!" 
 
 It ended in his making a list of all her investments 
 in his pocketbook, and promising to ask his father 
 how they could be improved. Nor was this all. He 
 mentioned a great coal and iron business one of the 
 most famous in the north just about to turn itself 
 into a limited company, and raise fresh capital. 
 
 Her eyes suddenly flamed. 
 
 "Heavens! if one could get in there, before the 
 public!" 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 "My father's sure to have a large slice. Suppose 
 I get hold of what? a thousand shares? and let 
 you have them?" 
 
 She clasped her hands.
 
 128 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Oh, if you could!" 
 
 "Well leave it to me!" He smiled down upon 
 her rather guiltily, conscious of Carrie, and Carrie's 
 jealousy, at the back of his mind, but all the same 
 enjoying the role of benefactor to this little woman 
 who had given him many pleasant hours, and intro- 
 duced him to not a few profitable people since his 
 return to London. She smiled in return, all radiance, 
 and then bending over, she laid her hand lightly on 
 his. Somehow at the touch the recollection of a 
 moment long gone by under the trees of an Oxford 
 garden recurred to both. He slightly drew back his 
 chair. 
 
 "Well now" his voice had taken another tone 
 "didn't you say something to me yesterday 
 through the telephone about Maurice Black, Captain 
 Black, possibly coming here this afternoon?" 
 
 "Certainly!" Mrs. Whitton got up and rang the 
 bell for tea. "He promised to come. You want a 
 talk with him?" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 After giving the order, Madge came back to her 
 seat, and studied the male countenance before her, 
 her fingers lightly joined upon her lap. In the mirror 
 on the opposite wall, she was dimly aware of a reflec- 
 tion of herself golden hair, with the light behind it, 
 slim figure, and lines of white drapery; a reflection 
 which gave her pleasure and confidence while she 
 talked. 
 
 "You're looking out for a constituency?" 
 
 He admitted it, adding frankly that she knew as 
 well as he did the difficulties in the way. 
 
 Madge considered, saying after a minute, with ap- 
 parent irrelevance
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 129 
 
 "The party's even more 'stony' than I am! How 
 can we fight?" 
 
 "Is that what Washington says to you?" He 
 paused on the name. 
 
 "No. He's not a great friend of mine. But I've 
 other means of knowing it. I do know it. ' ' 
 
 ' ' Well, I suppose Maurice Black as a Junior Whip 
 could tell us all there is to know," laughed 
 Wing. "I understand he's very well in with his 
 Chief." 
 
 "I don't think he knows much. The Chief Sir 
 Lawrence Penwenack, keeps everything in his own 
 hands. Nobody else, they say, knows where the funds 
 are. Certainly no one else signs checks. Maurice 
 has raked in a few big subscriptions lately, but not 
 nearly enough. They 're awfully hard up ! There 
 are quite thirty seats they can't fight that they 
 ought to fight." 
 
 "Hm. So the Chief Sir Lawrence has the sole 
 responsibility. I wonder if that's really true?" 
 He pondered, his eyes fixed upon her. Was it at all 
 likely that a woman that this woman knew any- 
 thing substantial about it? But her cool self-confi- 
 dence impressed him. 
 
 "Absolutely true. Washington knows scarcely 
 anything about the funds. Maurice tells me so, at 
 least. He doesn't want to know!" 
 
 Wing laughed. 
 
 "Sensible man! Why should he know? Much 
 better not. Well now but this, mind, is a secret ! " 
 he turned round to look at her full "I Ve been trying 
 to persuade my father to come down handsomely. ' ' 
 
 "Lord Wing!" She clasped her hands again. 
 1 ' But that is interesting ! Will he save us ? "
 
 130 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "On conditions!" said Wing, lightly but delib- 
 erately. 
 
 Their eyes met. "You see" he added "I want 
 my career." 
 
 She studied him quietly. 
 
 "Of course you do. And why shouldn't you have 
 it? Now, what can I do? Will you stay to 
 see Maurice, or will you trust me to well, give a 
 message?" 
 
 "I can't imagine a better diplomat!" he said, after 
 a moment, smiling at her. Yet it was evident that 
 some meditation had preceded the smile. 
 
 Her expression grew more serious. 
 
 "I must have things a little plainer. Do I under- 
 stand that Lord Wing wishes to help the party 
 generously?" 
 
 ' ' Generously. ' ' 
 
 "One hears such odd stories! I remember there 
 was a silly tale two or three years ago of an 
 American million " 
 
 "Ah, well we don't do things on that scale!" 
 laughed Alec. "But wouldn't a tenth go a long 
 way ? ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Whitton delicately poured herself out another 
 cup of tea, and made no reply. Wing examined a 
 photograph beside him. 
 
 "Lady Aysgarth one of my best friends isn't 
 she charming?" said Madge, slowly sipping her tea. 
 "Well now tell me about that constituency. I see 
 the old man is dying." 
 
 Wing's expression kindled. 
 
 "I believe I could win it for them!" he said, with 
 energy. "Here is what I know." 
 
 And he plunged into an analysis of his chances,
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 131 
 
 every detail of which she discussed with him. The 
 shrewdness and quickness of her mind struck him 
 with amazement her knowledge of the ins and outs, 
 the by-ways, the tricks and shifts, the cruder and 
 corrupter sides of politics. To discuss politics with 
 Carrie had begun to bore him. There was something 
 large and romantic in the way she took them, which 
 was not really at all congenial to him. It was said 
 of Lord Randolph Churchill that he "loved life and 
 despised ideas. ' ' Wing was instinctively cold to ideas. 
 It was the clash of the mere game that attracted him. 
 But on Carrie ideas were beginning to lay hold ; per- 
 haps under the influence of some of the men who were 
 now forming a little court round her. And Madge 
 Whitton's talk, alive to all the harder and baser facts, 
 her quick practical mind, ready to chaffer with any- 
 body and about everything, suited this handsome 
 fellow, for all his gallant poetic looks, a great deal 
 better. He listened to her eagerly drinking in all 
 her suggestions; and they were still quite absorbed 
 in each other's conversation, when the drawing-room 
 door opened again to admit "Mr. Maurice Black." 
 
 After some discursive talk a trois, Wing took his 
 leave, and the new-comer stood in the background 
 watching his departure. He was a lightly built man 
 of forty, with a prominent nose and forehead, hair 
 already grizzled, and a chin slightly underhung. A 
 look of ability; expressions that rather masked than 
 revealed the man; amiable manners, and faultless 
 dress: such was the outer aspect. 
 
 The Junior Whip was a rising politician, much 
 employed said his enemies on the muddier jobs 
 of politics. He was a constant visitor to the house;
 
 132 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 and as he was still a bachelor, rumor had often con- 
 nected his name with that of the young widow. In 
 reality both understood each other far too well. 
 
 "Sit down!" said Mrs. Whitton, raising her hand, 
 with smiling peremptoriness, as she turned back from 
 the closed door "I have got something very interest- 
 ing to say to you." 
 
 Black obeyed her, chose a particularly comfort- 
 able chair, crossed his knees, and prepared himself 
 indulgently for the latest gossip. He had been em- 
 ployed all day in trying to settle an odious dispute 
 between a Liberal and Labor candidate for a London 
 seat, and Madge Whitton 's tea and Madge Whitton 's 
 company seemed to him the very least of what was 
 due to him. 
 
 His hostess however, in spite of her promising 
 beginning, was some time in opening fire. She gave 
 him tea, and instead of amusing him, she made him 
 describe the adventures of his own day. This sud- 
 denly struck him as so unfair that he flatly refused 
 to go on. Let her explain herself instantly. 
 
 Then putting delicate hand to cheek, she consid- 
 ered, her eyes upon him. 
 
 "So you really are expecting an election? if you 
 spend so much time and trouble on a silly quarrel 
 like this?" 
 
 "Of course something may always force an election 
 in a situation like ours." 
 
 "But you don't want it?" 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "Our situation is too unfavorable you know it!" 
 
 "Well now I have a little suggestion to make to 
 you a mission! Isn't that amusing? I feel so im- 
 portant! Would a large sum" she named it
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 133 
 
 "make the difference?" And dropping her graceful 
 head a little to one side, she watched him. 
 
 He sat up at once, all attention. 
 
 "Well of course it would make a difference! 
 perhaps all the difference. Does someone want a 
 peerage?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 ' ' A Privy Councilorship ? ' ' 
 
 "Neither Find Alec Wing a seat!" 
 
 The words, though low-spoken, came out sharp 
 and clear, as though a shot found its target. 
 
 He gave a low whistle then smiled. 
 
 "I see that's your mission." 
 
 She nodded, drew her work-basket towards her, and 
 took out a piece of embroidery. After a few moments 
 she said, without looking up 
 
 "Can you do it?" 
 
 "I'm thinking. You know of course the fuss that 
 we have been making about the case on the other 
 side?" 
 
 The reference was to a divorce case, affecting a 
 prominent Tory peer, who had been forced to resign 
 a subordinate post in the Government, as soon as the 
 first rumors of the affair appeared in the news- 
 papers. 
 
 "I know all about it. But this case is two years 
 old." 
 
 "You think that improves it?" 
 
 "Certainly. People have had time to get accus- 
 tomed to it and they're married." 
 
 "I admit that makes a difference but no, 
 I don't think it can be done! Of course, it's Lord 
 Wing?" 
 
 He eyed her keenly.
 
 134 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Of course. Who else could it be?" 
 
 "Old heathen! Just like him to try such a coup!" 
 
 He paced the room, much excited his lips working. 
 She watched the bribe working in his blood. At the 
 last he turned upon her 
 
 "You 're safe?" 
 
 "Absolutely." She looked up gayly. 
 
 "And the Wings too? I imagine they're not 
 fools. They'll be advised? And they can hold their 
 tongues ? ' ' 
 
 ' ' They 're certainly not fools ! ' ' 
 
 "Well, well I must go I'll see to it and you 
 shall hear." 
 
 He shook her hurriedly by the hand, and departed. 
 
 Madge lay back in her chair awhile, her hands 
 behind her head ; her look joyous and absorbed.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ROBERT LLEWELLYN, Privy Councilor and member 
 of Parliament, lived in one of the streets opening off 
 Portland Place. He was unmarried, and the ancient 
 Welsh dame who looked after his household, and kept 
 it in spotless order, was the widow of one of his 
 farmers on the small Welsh estate which meant prac- 
 tically nothing to him in point of money for he had 
 a large and lucrative practice at the criminal bar 
 but an infinity in the way of tradition and associa- 
 tion. One of the most self -controlled of orators, and 
 one of the shrewdest of lawyers, he yet possessed, 
 deep down, the characteristic Celtic qualities the 
 power of dreaming awake contempt for some of the 
 commonest standards of value instinctive sympathy 
 for the under-dog. 
 
 His house was full of books, and in the bare drawing- 
 room on the first floor it possessed a piano, on which 
 Llewellyn himself occasionally played, with great ex- 
 actness of finger and severity of taste. Modern music 
 did not appeal to him. Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart and 
 Beethoven were enough for him, which, considering 
 the passionate modernness of his taste in literature 
 and poetry, was rather surprising. He devoured the 
 young poets of the day, and was personally acquainted 
 with many of them; he was wondrously learned in 
 
 135
 
 136 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 the contemporary French, or Italian, or Spanish 
 novels, and yet when his briefs or Parliamentary 
 business allowed, he was apt to plunge headlong back 
 into the Classics, especially Homer and Sophocles, as 
 the best means he knew of raising "a man's mind 
 out of the dirt." But he was none the less an ex- 
 cellent gossip, with something of the cheerful old 
 maid in his composition, and when on some off day 
 Mrs. Evans was allowed to bring him afternoon tea, 
 and invited to sit and chat a bit while he drank it, 
 the two might have been taken for a pair of village 
 cronies, laughing and squabbling over the simplest 
 and humblest affairs generally concerned with the 
 twenty small farms, and the one straggling village 
 which far away in Breconshire among the Black 
 Mountains, owned Kobert Llewellyn as landlord; 
 where he always spent some three or four weeks of 
 the year, in a tumble-down country-house, on the 
 edge of a small lake. At the same time he was a 
 growing power in Parliament and politics, Washing- 
 ton's lieutenant on the front Opposition bench, and 
 increasingly followed and trusted in the country. 
 Some people found it hard to understand why. When 
 told so, his friends laughed and did n3t trouble to 
 explain. 
 
 It was a Friday evening. Llewellyn having re- 
 fused with glee the week-end invitation of a Duchess, 
 with a view of getting for once a Sunday to himself, 
 had dined alone in one of his oldest coats, and was 
 now seated in the drawing-room, tranquilly smoking, 
 with a cargo of new foreign books strewn around him. 
 The windows were open, but the street was quiet. 
 London had gone into the country. He looked out 
 occasionally, through the mingled lights and shadows
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 137 
 
 of the evening, noticing the few dim people passing 
 along the pavement, and the effect of a patch of 
 evening sky at the end of a side vista; enjoying the 
 physical and mental rest of the moment with a positive 
 and acute pleasure. "Now" he said to himself, 
 "I know what the Greeks meant by 'arapagia.'" 
 
 Immediately after this reflection the telephone 
 rang. Smiling at himself, and the small ironies of life, 
 he went to take the message. 
 
 "Hullo! who is it? You! I thought you were 
 at Windsor?" 
 
 "Next week I'm having a holiday in town. I 
 thought you were at " 
 
 "Not if I knew it! Do you want to see me?" 
 "Yes. Will you be in, if I come round?" 
 ' ' By all means. Or shall I come to you ? ' ' 
 "No. We shall be less disturbed, if I come to you." 
 Llewellyn put down the receiver, rang for Mrs. 
 Evans, to order some coffee, and began to pick up the 
 paper-bound books lying on the floor. What could 
 Eichard Washington want with him at that time of 
 night ? He knew of nothing new in the political field. 
 In the House of Commons the Government were 
 getting through, and in his opinion they were 
 going to get through, and would wind up the 
 session without disaster. He had always said so, 
 in spite of beautiful Mrs. Wing, and her circle of 
 hot-heads. 
 
 And as he sat waiting for Washington, he fell into 
 a reverie on the subject of Caroline Wing. It was 
 quite true that he was becoming very deeply interested 
 in her. Her character, impulsive, willful, passionate, 
 yet always sincere, attracted him; her beauty was a 
 perpetual charm for one in whom all the aesthetic sus-
 
 138 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 ceptibilities were sharply developed; her situation, 
 with its possibilities, its mingling of danger and mag- 
 nificence, awoke in him a kind of tender and fatherly 
 interest. He was not however fast becoming her most 
 intimate man friend, without some self-examination. 
 But so far as he knew his own mind, there was no 
 danger for himself from the relation arising between 
 them; and men and gods could only laugh at the 
 notion of any danger to Tier, from the devotion of the 
 middle-aged man, with the snub nose, and ample 
 figure, whose reflection he saw every morning in his 
 looking-glass. The brilliance of her outer life, and of 
 that vast social effort on which she was launched, as 
 compared with what seemed to him the hollowness 
 of her happiness it was on this he was always pon- 
 dering after their frequent meetings. He felt for her 
 a sharpness of pity which surprised himself, and 
 depended almost entirely on his judgment of the char- 
 acter of Alec Wing. 
 
 Meanwhile it was evident both that young Lord 
 Merton was losing his head, and that Mrs. Wing, in 
 her complete absorption in her husband, was not 
 only indifferent to the young man except so far as he 
 might be profitable to Alec, but quite unconscious of 
 what might be said, what was of course beginning to 
 be said, about his constant visits to Eltham House, 
 and his undisguised infatuation. Could an elderly 
 friend venture a hint of counsel? He discovered 
 in himself an absolute distrust of Wing as her pro- 
 tector. 
 
 Mrs. Evans brought up the coffee, Llewellyn put 
 out his best cigars, and in a few minutes more the 
 door opened to admit his political chief, whom he
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 139 
 
 had last seen some hours before at the House of 
 Commons, in the private room of the Leader of the 
 Opposition. 
 
 Llewellyn went eagerly to meet him. 
 
 "Is anything wrong?" 
 
 "Nothing political," said Washington, as he took 
 the armchair pointed out to him, and helped himself 
 to a cigar. "At least not directly political. But I 
 wanted to consult you." 
 
 He pulled thoughtfully at his cigar for a while 
 however, before opening his business, and Llewellyn 
 did not hurry him. He had a great liking and a 
 loyal respect for Washington, though he was by no 
 means certain yet that the adroit party leader who 
 had stepped into his present conspicuous post rather 
 through a series of accidents than because of any 
 commanding personal claims, was going to turn out 
 a great man. But it was on the cards that he might 
 so turn out. And meanwhile he was trusted and 
 deserved it. And no doubt the stately presence of 
 the man his clear challenging eyes, the kingly car- 
 riage of his broad shoulders had played a consid- 
 erable part in the growth of his ascendency, both in 
 and out of the House of Commons. 
 
 "I have had a bribe offered to me," said Washing- 
 ton, abruptly. ' ' And I want to know what you think 
 whether the party can accept it?" 
 
 Llewellyn looked up attentively. 
 
 "We can't make any peers yet!" he said, smiling. 
 
 Washington shook his head. 
 
 "It's not quite so simple as that. And yet, of 
 course " the tone was good-humoredly ironic "the 
 proposal itself is simplicity itself. It is just this. 
 Lord Wing offers us a hundred thousand pounds
 
 140 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 down for the party funds if we will provide his 
 son with a constituency, and back him officially." 
 
 He spoke deliberately, looking his colleague in the 
 eyes. 
 
 Llewellyn's eyebrows lifted. 
 
 "So Alec Wing has taken that plunge?" 
 
 Washington nodded. 
 
 "The offer comes through the Whips and partly 
 through a woman. You will agree there's always a 
 woman in such a pie ! Penwenack thought the matter 
 so important that he finally decided he could not 
 settle it by himself, and so, for once, he came to me. 
 Of course, in general, I never know, and never inquire 
 about the funds." 
 
 "Well and I suppose you refused?" said Llewel- 
 lyn, after a pause. 
 
 "Penwenack was with me before dinner. I told 
 him to look in again, on his way back from the theater 
 to-night, and I came over to see you. As to our need 
 of money it's almost absurd. We can't fight the 
 elections we ought to fight the publication depart- 
 ment is starved candidates are discouraged et 
 cetera. But you know it all. Well, of course the first 
 thing to say about Lord Wing's condition is, that if 
 we accepted it, we should have a row a bad row! 
 The commotion at Hull in all the religious circles 
 Anglican and Dissenting when it was realized that 
 Wing was coming down to speak for our candidate, 
 was, they tell me, astounding. Man after man re- 
 fused to stand on the same platform with him, and 
 most of the women working for our man practically 
 all of them would have thrown up." 
 
 "The Marsworths have strong local influence in and 
 round Hull," mused Llewellyn. "That man Henry
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 141 
 
 Marsworth will hunt down Wing if he can. He is an 
 implacable sort of beggar, and devoted to his brother." 
 
 Then he raised his eyes. 
 
 "What if I may ask are your own feelings 
 about it?" 
 
 Washington laughed with a slight embarrassment. 
 
 "Ought I to have any feelings of my own? But 
 if you want them it doesn't seem to me that a man's 
 private love-affairs except of course in the case of 
 something flagrantly disgraceful have anything to 
 do with his political career. I have always thought 
 Parnell hardly used. Everybody knew ! and nobody 
 stirred, till he was found out ! ' ' 
 
 "All the same you would have done just the same 
 as Mr. G.," said Llewellyn with decision. "Isn't it 
 the finding out that counts politically ? As you say, 
 politics are not concerned generally speaking with 
 a man's love-affairs till they come into court. Then 
 they become political material. ' ' 
 
 "Perhaps " said Washington slowly "perhaps. 
 Well, that is what I meant by asking whether one's 
 own feelings had anything to do with it. What we 
 have to think of naturally is the party. Would 
 the party gain more from Lord Wing's check than 
 it would suffer from backing his son " 
 
 "Plus the possibility of the bargain getting out," 
 put in Llewellyn, smiling. 
 
 "Well, the bargain would be pretty obvious 
 wouldn't it? No, it won't do it won't do! All the 
 same " the speaker sighed "we are in a devil of a 
 hole financially and the temptation has been sore 
 I can see even for Penwenack." 
 
 "Ask Mrs. Washington!" said Llewellyn, after a 
 moment.
 
 142 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Certain furrows appeared in Washington's broad 
 brow. ' ' Oh, I know very well what she would think, ' ' 
 was the quick reply. ''She holds very strict views. 
 It is one of her attractions towards woman suffrage 
 that it would brighten up the standards of character 
 in public men." 
 
 Llewellyn smiled, a little dubiously. "Would it? 
 Mrs. Washington must remember that there are plenty 
 of women nowadays all the advanced feminists 
 who would take precisely the opposite view ! Caroline 
 Marsworth had ceased to care for her husband the 
 immorality, in their opinion, would have lain in stay- 
 ing with him." 
 
 "Ah, but they don't count yet that sort politi- 
 cally," said Washington, his eyes twinkling. "Let 
 them wait till they have got rid of the vast majority 
 of women who still prefer to keep the word 'obey' in 
 the marriage service. What we have to deal with is 
 the general tightening up for men of the connec- 
 tion between public service and private morals. 
 Something quite new in our days! In previous gen- 
 erations the unfaithful wife has always been tabooed ; 
 the seducer has always got off scot free. When Lord 
 and Lady Holland " 
 
 ' ' Ah, that 's struck you ! " 
 
 "Of course. Well, that was a hundred years ago. 
 The Hollands had done, as near as possible, what 
 the Wings have done. Lady Holland was boycotted 
 for years by all but a handful of women but Tie 
 not a bit of it: He went everywhere, was welcome 
 everywhere especially in each Whig Government, 
 as it came along. But now no Liberal Government 
 would touch him with a barge-pole! Morals? or 
 hypocrisy?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 143 
 
 ' ' Neither ! The rise of the Protestant middle-class ! 
 . . . But the distinguishing feature of this business 
 is the part in it played by money sheer cash! " 
 said Llewellyn, after a pause. "That was absent 
 from the Holland case." 
 
 "Not entirely. There was Holland House. But 
 the bribe here is far more gross and palpable. It 
 was dressed up of course in Lord Wing's letter. But 
 the meaning of it was as plain, as if the check had 
 been pushed under our noses. I shouldn't wonder 
 if Lord Wing had been deliberately influenced by the 
 Holland case. It would be like his queer kind of 
 humor. Well! things don't repeat themselves." 
 
 Both men smoked in silence for a time. Then after 
 a little more discussion, Washington looked up. 
 
 "I see you're a friend of hers?" 
 
 "Of Mrs. Wing? Certainly. You, too!" 
 
 "A fine creature!" said Washington, his brown 
 eyes softening. "She wins on us all. Why did she 
 do it ! The man 's not her equal ! ' ' 
 
 "Why did Helen listen to Paris?" laughed 
 Llewellyn. " It 's the eternal situation. The dull hus- 
 band the beautiful woman, rebellious and dissatis- 
 fied the splendid youth " 
 
 "And the 'Aurum vestibus illitum'?" put in 
 Washington. 
 
 The slight gleam in the eyes of his companion an 
 ex- Craven scholar like himself showed that the 
 Horatian tag pleased. Llewellyn resumed with 
 energy 
 
 "This woman took no account of that! Now 
 what I dread is the third stage." 
 
 "When she finds him out? Why should she? 
 Give her some advice, can't you? Let her set him
 
 144 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 to work! He'll live it down in time. But he can't 
 ride rough-shod, by simply rattling a bag of gold. 
 He's got to recognize that. Well!" the leader rose 
 "So we're agreed you and I? Penwenack can't 
 have that check ! ' ' 
 
 "Not on those terms. But I suggest a moving ap- 
 peal to Lord Wing's disinterested love of Liberal 
 principles ! ' ' 
 
 Washington laughed. They moved towards the 
 door, where Washington made a pause. 
 
 "Don't let's imagine " his mouth showed a little 
 wry smile "we've been doing anything heroic!" 
 
 ' ' Quite the contrary ! ' ' said Llewellyn dryly. ' ' By 
 the way, I may as well hand on to you the report I 
 got from a neighbor of Lord Wing's this morning 
 his Lord Lieutenant that his state of health is bad 
 some people think alarming." 
 
 "That opens new vistas!" said Washington, with 
 a shrug. "Well, then the young man will get his 
 chance in the Lords. But go and see her, Llewellyn. 
 Tell her to hold him in. Poor thing! It's she that 
 interests me in the whole business. Somehow there 
 she is, with all that wealth, and that beauty that 
 vast house! and something tragic about her all the 
 time." 
 
 "I feel the same," said Llewellyn gravely. They 
 grasped hands and Washington departed. 
 
 Washington made his way home. 
 
 As he entered his library, where he expected the 
 Chief Whip, a tall figure rose from a seat by the 
 window. It was his wife. She approached him, and 
 he saw her wide gray eyes, and the question in 
 them.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 145 
 
 ' ' All right, ' ' he said abruptly. ' ' We shan 't do it. ' ' 
 
 He turned away to his writing-table, where pres- 
 ently she followed him. 
 
 "Good night, dearest!" 
 
 Something in her quiet satisfaction stung him a little. 
 
 "You good women are terribly cock-sure about 
 these things," he broke out, with some vehemence, 
 looking up at her. 
 
 "Only for the sake of other women " she said 
 softly "and children." 
 
 He made no reply. She laid a caressing hand on 
 his shoulder, and went away. 
 
 The following evening, in consequence of a tele- 
 phone conversation with its mistress, Llewellyn arrived 
 at Eltham House for dinner. It had astonished him 
 greatly to find the Wings in town for an August week- 
 end. But it suggested to him as did their lingering 
 on in town an anxious waiting on events. 
 
 The magnificent gentleman in the hall with whom 
 he was now on the most friendly terms informed him 
 that Mr. Wing was away. Captain Durrant and Miss 
 Allen were upstairs. 
 
 Llewellyn mounted in some trepidation. Had Pen- 
 wenack's letter arrived, and if so, what sort of a 
 reception awaited him ? Not likely ! Penwenack was 
 a leisurely person, and took some time over an im- 
 portant letter. 
 
 Caroline received him, indeed, with her usual gay 
 effusion ; and they dined in an open balcony or loggia 
 overlooking the garden, and tapestried with rambler 
 roses red and white. Alec, she said, was playing golf, 
 and would not be home till late. It was awfully good 
 of him to take pity on her. And she had wanted to
 
 146 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 say good-by ; for they were really off now in a very 
 few days. 
 
 He presently perceived, however, that she was tired, 
 excited and on edge. And it was plain to him that 
 her two devoted companions knew it too. How that 
 little Miss Allen had fitted in ! She had lost her ex- 
 treme shyness ; though nothing of her pretty modesty 
 and tact. It was evident that Mrs. Wing was begin- 
 ning to lean upon her tremendously ; and that the girl 
 was picking up things with astonishing quickness. 
 And he perceived already a close alliance between her 
 and Durrant, in Mrs. Wing's interest. Whether there 
 was anything else in it, who could say ! but the young 
 man's eyes and conversation had certainly a constant 
 trick of wandering in the little cousin's direction. 
 She wore the simplest of white frocks, and Caroline, 
 declaring that the night was chilly, had wrapped 
 round her a costly lace hood and cloak, from which the 
 girl 's deep fawn eyes and gentle face shone rather in- 
 congruously. 
 
 Caroline herself was in black, and Llewellyn found 
 her alternately touching and superb. She talked 
 but little politics; and through all the chatter about 
 music and books, he seemed to feel in her the tremor 
 of something captured and in pain. 
 
 After dinner she led the way into the garden, and 
 Llewellyn found himself pacing a long trellised walk 
 with her, under a glorious though stormy moonlight. 
 She moved beside him dim and queenly ; and he be- 
 came more disagreeably conscious every minute that 
 something had got to be said, and that it was uncom- 
 monly difficult to say it. He applied to a cigarette 
 for inspiration, and they walked for a while in silence 
 through the hot exhausted air.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 147 
 
 Between the branches of the trees girdling the gar- 
 den shone the lights of distant houses; in one corner 
 the slender complicated lines of a newly erected wire- 
 less apparatus, on the top of a public building, made 
 a curiously pleasant pattern sharply black on the 
 night sky; while, far and near, London seemed to 
 be talking round -them, in a thousand low blurred 
 voices, and the lights of innumerable streets, strik- 
 ing heavenward, were reflected back and down among 
 the quiet spaces of the garden, and under the old 
 planes. So that the garden produced no sylvan 
 illusion, in spite of its great trees and dense leaf; 
 it was always London masquerading. The dry earth 
 and the tired flowers sent forth no fragrance. And 
 the withered leaves lay already thick upon the 
 grass. 
 
 ' ' I trust you are soon going north, out of this ? " he 
 said to her presently. "I just long to hear of you in 
 Scotland!" 
 
 "I hope we shall soon go. But Alec has some 
 business that keeps him." 
 
 "Do you mind if I guess what it is?" 
 
 She looked at him doubtfully startled and un- 
 certain what to say. Alec had convinced her at last, 
 by much assertion, that the coup he was attempting, 
 against her advice, was a matter entirely for one 
 man's decision Sir Lawrence Penwenack's and that 
 neither Washington nor Robert Llewellyn would know 
 anything at all about it. Otherwise she would never 
 have asked Llewellyn to dine with her on this 
 evening of suspense driven by her vague desire 
 for his strong friendly presence. And now she was 
 alarmed. 
 
 "I can't help your guessing!" she tried for a light
 
 148 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 tone. "But it's nothing that matters. We shall 
 soon get away." 
 
 His heart was sore for her. He groped on under 
 its guidance. 
 
 "Don't think me intruding. But I not only guess 
 I. know what it is. And I want to say a word, as 
 your friend and his." 
 
 He heard the quickening of her breath. 
 
 "I don't understand " 
 
 "I hear from Washington" he went on steadily 
 "that Lord Wing has offered a large sum to the 
 party Whips for the party expenses and that Alec 
 has written to the Whips asking them to recommend 
 him for the North Brookshire vacancy." 
 
 "And why shouldn't they?" she asked coldly, 
 after a moment. "Alec wants a seat. Lord Wing 
 wants to help the party." 
 
 "It is impossible for us to give Alec a seat just 
 yet," he said quietly. "We realize fully his wish to 
 help the party. We wish with all our hearts we could 
 say to him ' Go in, and win. ' We know what a help 
 he might be in so many ways. But it is too early 
 days ! Persuade him, dear Mrs. Wing ! persuade him 
 to wait and above all not to try this line of approach 
 again. It will do him harm." 
 
 He felt, though he could not see, the rush of color 
 to her cheeks. 
 
 "Then he has been refused? Mr. Washington has 
 interfered?" 
 
 The voice was low and excited. 
 
 "It was absolutely necessary to consult him; 
 though as a rule he leaves the party funds to others. 
 And now forgive me if I speak plainly for Alec's 
 sake and yours no less than ours. We cannot do
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 149 
 
 what he wishes about this seat. And that being so, 
 we shall of course understand that Lord Wing with- 
 draws his offer. For Wing to fight a contested 
 election yet this year would provoke an opposition 
 an odious opposition from which your friends 
 could not save you. And we are your friends, dear 
 Mrs. Wing! Believe it! Washington and I would 
 do anything we could, anything in the world, to shield 
 you from distress and attack. But this course would 
 only provoke it; even if we could consent which we 
 can 't for the party 's sake. ' ' 
 
 She could hardly restrain herself till his words 
 dropped, before she broke out in a white heat of scorn 
 and resentment. 
 
 "Distress! attack! Do you suppose people want 
 any provocation to attack us? Alec and me! They 
 are always attacking us. As if your keeping Alec 
 out of Parliament would prevent it! I have a 
 dozen anonymous letters a week disgraceful! 
 abominable!" 
 
 Her choked voice failed her. He longed to comfort 
 her, and he felt himself dumb and helpless. They 
 moved on in silence. At last she said 
 
 ' ' Did Mr. Washington ask you to tell me this ? ' ' 
 
 "We didn't want you to have no answer but 
 Penwenack's letter," he said gently. "We wanted 
 you to know, he and I, how much we felt for you 
 and how earnestly we hope that with time Wing 
 will get his chance of return. But he must do good 
 work good public work and earn it." 
 
 "For me! what's the use of feeling for me!" she 
 cried. "What do I matter! It is only Alec that 
 matters ! ' ' 
 
 Silence for a moment. Then she broke out again
 
 150 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "When one thinks of the hateful hypocrisy of it 
 all and the lies! They say I murdered Dicky my 
 boy whom I adored " 
 
 ''Dear Mrs. Wing! " he turned to her in deep 
 distress "don't let's talk any more " 
 
 "Yes let me talk! You must! You say, Alec 
 can't stand for Parliament because people would 
 attack his character and mine and to adopt him 
 would disgrace the party. And all the time / know 
 we know what we suffered and that we have 
 never told our story not with any chance of making 
 people believe it! against John's. Do you think I 
 deserted my child, knowing he was dying?" She 
 turned upon him with passion. 
 
 "I am sure you did no such thing!" he said with 
 energy. "You don't need to convince me." 
 
 "Yes but you must listen! You must hear the 
 story ! You and Mr. Washington have been discussing 
 us you have been told what everybody says about 
 us what everybody believes Well, it isn't true! 
 Tliis is what happened ! ' ' 
 
 A garden seat was near them, and she dropped 
 upon it, pressing her hands to her eyes. He stood 
 near her, in great distress, trying again to stop the 
 confession on her lips. But it would not be stopped. 
 
 "Oh, don't think I'm going to make excuses to 
 ask anybody's pardon for falling in love with Alec! 
 Please don't imagine that! I was miserable I had 
 come to hating my husband. I should have killed my- 
 self if it had gone on. Then Alec came and he 
 changed the whole world for me. And I was just his 
 and he mine. No good talking about it! We had 
 a right to be happy ! Don't you believe that?" 
 
 She fiercely challenged him. He made a little sad
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 151 
 
 gesture, as though putting her question gently aside ; 
 and she went on 
 
 "Well, then there were the children. I knew 
 they would take Carina from me. But I thought 
 the baby would be left with me. Anyway I deter- 
 mined to keep him if I could. "When Sir John left 
 us at Florence it all came to a crisis between Alec 
 and me. We lost our heads " she turned away her 
 face, speaking in a hard, clear voice ' ' and it was only 
 a question of when I should tell Sir John and what 
 to do. Dicky had a cold, just a trifling cold. He 
 was a very strong, healthy child and I thought nothing 
 of it. He had an Italian nurse, who had brought him 
 up from a baby he was born in Rome and was 
 devoted to him. The doctor said he wanted a change 
 to the hills ; it was May, and it had suddenly got very 
 hot. So I told everybody that I was sending him and 
 the nurse to Vallombrosa. But instead, Alec and I 
 took them to a little village in the Val d'Aosta, and 
 told nobody. And then we went off together to 
 a villa in the Apennines behind Spezia. Carina was 
 left in Florence with her English governess, a woman 
 who hated me, and had been spying upon us for weeks 
 though I didn't know. And she found out that 
 Alec and I were together; and she found out where 
 Dicky was. She wrote to Sir John and he came 
 rushing back to Italy. Meanwhile I went on tele- 
 graphing to the nurse in the Val d'Aosta almost every 
 day. Dicky was all right she said just a little cold 
 nothing more. And then no answer came to my 
 telegrams and I got alarmed. But Alec laughed 
 at me. He said the child must be all right only the 
 nurse didn't want to spend francs for nothing. If 
 he were worse she would of course have telegraphed;
 
 152 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 but instead she had written ; and it was only that our 
 posts up there in the hills were often irregular. They 
 were irregular we had often complained. So we 
 waited three days ..." 
 
 Her voice failed her. She began mechanically 
 to fold and unfold her handkerchief, and through 
 the darkness, Llewellyn perceived the desperate 
 agitation that she held in check. But she mastered 
 it completely, and the rest of the story she told quite 
 calmly. 
 
 "Then I made Alec take me back to the Val 
 d'Aosta. We went without stopping, and we took 
 a motor at Ivrea to the village, which was twenty 
 miles up the valley. I found the little house, and 
 knocked at the door it was ten o'clock at night. 
 And John opened it. Then oh, it was very awful! 
 John told me I was a wicked, cruel woman that I 
 had left Dicky when he was ill that he was dying 
 of septic pneumonia would probably die that night 
 and that I should not see him. I went on my 
 knees to him but he and his brother Henry refused 
 to let me enter the house. Alec came up and 
 there was a terrible scene. They brought the doctor 
 out, and he told me that I was disturbing the 
 child's last moments, and all I could do was to 
 go away and let him die peacefully. Then they got 
 me away somehow. There were two English ladies 
 in a little hotel near. They took care of me that 
 night. I wanted to kill myself and I wouldn't see 
 Alec. And next morning Dicky was dead and 
 Alec came for me. I was very ill and he took me 
 away " 
 
 There was a long pause. Then Llewellyn inclosed 
 her hand in his, and raised it to his lips.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 153 
 
 She drew it away, and dashed the tears from her 
 eyes. 
 
 "But you know I did wait three days!" She 
 half whispered it as though it were dragged from her. 
 "Alec didn't quite persuade me I wasn't quite 
 happy. That's all the truth there is in it . . ." 
 
 In the quiet, poignant words, he seemed to hear 
 the ultimate verdict of her conscience; to perceive 
 the mixed truth as it appeared to her and as it still 
 tormented her. She went on 
 
 "But John told everybody his story, and I 
 could never tell mine till at the trial our lawyers 
 protested. But nobody believed us nobody ever 
 has except those two Englishwomen. I told every- 
 thing to them that night they took me in. But 
 then Alec wouldn't let me keep up with them and 
 we lost sight of them. He said I must forget it 
 all everything connected with it. I knew it was 
 best and I have tried hard. ... It wasn't my 
 fault! " she broke out "it wasn't my fault. Oh, 
 my Dicky, my Dicky!" And again she pressed her 
 hands to her eyes. 
 
 Llewellyn felt himself in the presence of something 
 as irrevocable and as far-reaching as any Greek doom. 
 On this woman's nature, in spite of all her passion 
 of self-defense, the death of her child had never 
 ceased to work, and would probably go on working, 
 through all the penetrative and transforming processes 
 of the moral life. That she could feel it so, was to his 
 own ethical sense a proof of a certain greatness in her. 
 "Can a woman forget Tier child?" The prophetic 
 words flashed into memory. This woman, at least, was 
 still tortured, after two years of passionate happiness 
 with her lover, by the charge that she Tiad forgotten the
 
 154 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 little helpless thing ; still more by the bitter infinites- 
 imal grain of truth in it that could not be denied. 
 
 But the woman who can carry such a thorn 
 about with her, of her own free will, pressing it into 
 her flesh, as it were, in penance, is of no common 
 sort. Behind all the noise and glitter of her great ad- 
 venture, he found himself realizing the true Caroline 
 Wing; and with a profound and painful sympathy. 
 Her wealth, her beauty, her social triumphs these 
 were not going to satisfy her ! And the man who had 
 captured her how long would Tie content her? 
 
 Gradually he was able to soothe her, and to trans- 
 form her outburst, and his pity, into a talk of inti- 
 mates; one of those conversations which are among 
 the landmarks of life. There was very little in it 
 of herself. Alec was her whole preoccupation Lewel- 
 lyn divined indignantly the terror that she felt of 
 her husband's disappointment, and its possible con- 
 sequences. Was she afraid that his inability to force 
 his way, the shock it involved to conceit and self- 
 importance, and to the headlong will of " a young man 
 in a hurry," would recoil upon her and presently 
 detach him from her? 
 
 As to herself, and the judgment of this new and 
 true friend on the catastrophe of her first marriage 
 apart from the death of her child she carefully, 
 and with dignity, refrained to the end from inviting 
 it. She felt that, in the matter of her child, she was 
 acquitted; and she was prepared to stand upon her 
 own responsibility as against any outside judgment 
 for the rest. And if there was one Christian precept 
 more than another which commended itself to the 
 philosopher Llewellyn, it was "Judge not, and ye
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 155 
 
 shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not 
 be condemned!" Life, and the discipline of life, he 
 thought, must deal with such breaches of law, in 
 the individual. Personally, he refused altogether to 
 play the policeman. But the law itself is the ex- 
 pression of man's self-defense against tyrannous 
 instincts which are always threatening to undermine 
 his partial, spiritual victory. So that this thinker of 
 subtle perceptions, of tender feeling and ascetic 
 ideals, could sympathize both with the woman who 
 had defied the social law, and in a hidden, remoter, 
 but still resolute way, with those who upheld it. 
 
 At the end of their talk she rose and gave him 
 her hand, with a touching word or two of gratitude, 
 and they walked back to the house. As they ap- 
 proached it, a servant brought out a telegram. 
 Caroline read it, and could not conceal her relief. 
 
 "Alec has had splendid golf. He sleeps at Sand- 
 wich, and will be back to-morrow morning." 
 
 So she would not have to grapple with the golden 
 youth and his anger till the morning. Kemembering 
 her pale and worn looks, under the lights of the hall, 
 Llewellyn found considerable comfort in this reflec- 
 tion, as he walked home through the empty streets.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE morning after her conversation with Llewellyn, 
 Caroline Wing, after a restless night, woke under a 
 sense of bitter depression, of which her thoughts as 
 they grew active soon discovered the reasons. Yet 
 there she lay, in the beautiful room which Lord Wing 
 had furnished with such refinement of costly design 
 for his son's wife; while the deep surrounding quiet 
 of the house and garden, here in the heart of London, 
 suggested a multitude of unseen persons waiting 
 upon the wishes the caprices of their mistress, 
 and careful not to let a sound disturb her till she 
 chose to wake. 
 
 And the subject of all this luxury, the envied of in- 
 numerable women, was only conscious in this August 
 dawn of a shrinking dread not essentially different, 
 after all, from the fear of the docker's wife, who knows 
 that when her husband returns drunk from the foot- 
 ball match on which he has betted and lost, she may 
 expect "knocking about." That Alec's whole present 
 temper and outlook would be vitally affected by this 
 refusal of the party Whips to lift a finger in his aid, 
 Alec 's wife was certain. How curt that refusal would 
 have been but for the personal friendship felt for her- 
 self by two of the party leaders, she rather dismally 
 guessed. She tried feverishly to plan for the future. 
 
 156
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 157 
 
 How could she now content and soothe him? Would 
 he soon begin to think of her as the person who had 
 spoiled his life, soon be impatiently asking whether 
 the game had been worth it? Instinctively, she had 
 become aware of certain mean or disloyal possibilities 
 in his character, which had been absolutely hidden 
 from her through all the love-dream of Italy. Her 
 inmost mind even put the question half in dread, 
 half in mockery of herself "will he tell me some day 
 I tempted him! I was the treacherous Eve and he 
 my poor Alec just an innocent unwilling Adam?" 
 Then, as she lay high on her embroidered pillows, 
 her black hair loose about her white brows, and the 
 rosy color rushing into her cheeks, like the princess 
 in Grimm's fairy tale when the poisoned fruit drops 
 out of her mouth, the scenes of their love-making ran 
 before her mind; a veritable pageant of Youth and 
 Desire. Alec at her side under Vallombrosa woods 
 Alec at her feeet in some old Italian garden Alec 
 rowing her on Maggiore, under the moonlight, his 
 eyes upon her face, the boat drifting on the still water 
 while the thoughts of both were breathless under 
 the memory of hours that had been, and the eager 
 vision of those that were to come. Her breath failed 
 her now, her life seemed to faint within her once more 
 as she re-lived that utter delight that is so near to 
 pain ; delight in a voice, a look, the touch of a hand, 
 the sound of a step ; when passion is young. Yes, 
 everything that passion promises to man and woman 
 had been theirs; except, indeed, innocence, and "silly 
 sooth," such as may enrich any foolish youth and 
 maid who fall stupidly in love and marry. But to 
 compare their love with any other ! That was always 
 her half -realized cry to herself "We were not like
 
 158 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 others! there was no law for us there could be 
 none! What we felt made its own law. Those who 
 judge us, and would like to punish us, are like blind 
 men who would punish those with eyes, for seeing. ' ' 
 
 And in that exalted mood, and that defiant freedom 
 of conscience, she had practically lived until their re- 
 turn home. By that return, they had come back from 
 fairyland into common life. And instantly, almost, 
 she had become aware of motives and interests in Alec, 
 she had scarcely dreamed of before. She had thought 
 herself all his world. And within the first weeks of 
 their home-coming, the real man, with his tough, 
 inherited traditions, the Englishman, of a certain 
 class and type of whom the lover was but a phase 
 and part, had emerged solidly into light; and she 
 had been painfully learning her new lesson ever since. 
 
 She softly stepped out of bed and drew the cur- 
 tains. A hot and misty world outside the dead 
 leaves strewn on the burned grass a veiled sky. 
 
 And, she thought just for a moment with a pang 
 how often love ends so "like the summer in a 
 slow dry death. ' ' 
 
 Then she laughed at herself. ' ' Ah ! but not for Alec 
 and me not for us ! " Not for those who have lived 
 heart in heart, life in life, day and night through the 
 heights and depths of a great passion? But can a 
 great passion a real "great passion" even conceive 
 its own decline ? And she knew well that Alec already 
 loved her less absorbingly ; that his mind was rushing 
 to other things that he desired as much as the things 
 of love ; things that she could not give him, and must 
 suffer for because she could not give them to him. 
 
 "The best is gone is gone!" she said to herself 
 with a great sigh of confession, clasping her hands
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 159 
 
 above her head; and, for a moment, it seemed to 
 comfort her to be looking, without excuses or make 
 believe, into a great darkness. 
 
 But she did not really believe it; and her state of 
 depression presently reminded her of the famous cry 
 of Melisande "I-am-not-liappy!" and how, as a girl 
 who despised sentimentality, she had always mocked 
 it. And now it had come to have a queer representa- 
 tive truth in her ears; as the tormented cry of all 
 passion when its first flowering time is over. Must 
 the best of everything always pass ? always die ? 
 
 She went back to bed, and quietly asked herself 
 "what shall I do if Alec ever gives up loving me? 
 I shall have no one no one in the world. Perhaps 
 when she is grown up, Carina will come back to me 
 ten years hence. ' ' 
 
 She turned her head, and there on the table beside 
 her bed was the photograph of her little girl ; a slim 
 and graceful creature holding herself like a bird 
 poised for flight ; with the deepest blue eyes, and the 
 slenderest neck ; an expression sweet yet full of fire 
 intent, thoughtful, proud a look beyond her years. 
 
 The look of a motherless child ! Carrie 's heart hun- 
 gered for her. Tears streamed over her cheeks quietly 
 unheeded. On their way north, in a few days, she 
 was to be allowed to see Carina. She and Joyce were 
 to stop for the night at a hotel in Oxford, and the 
 child would be brought to the hotel for a couple of 
 hours. And then no more for a year. 
 
 Suddenly through the quiet of the house, she became 
 aware of the sound of a distant door opening and 
 shutting. Joyce? going to early service? Bells 
 were ringing far away, from all sides ; a confused and 
 plaintive clamor through the summer air. Joyce al-
 
 160 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 ways went to early Communion on Sundays, wherever 
 they were. "And I can never go with her," thought 
 Carrie. "There are many clergymen, of course, who 
 would refuse to give me Communion if I did go. ' ' 
 
 A fierce gust of wounded pride swept through her 
 at the thought. Narrow and insolent fanatics ! 
 
 But the sound of the bells flowed on, and she found 
 herself following Joyce in thought through the morn- 
 ing streets to some quiet church, fragrant with 
 flowers, and scantily filled with kneeling figures. Just 
 because it was to her a closed and forbidden scene, 
 Carrie was conscious of a bitter wish to be there 
 beside her cousin, within touch of the old spiritual 
 joy, the ineffable self -surrender she could remember 
 in her youth. So Christianity had nothing for her 
 any more ? because she loved Alec ? because she had 
 wrenched herself free from the man she hated, to give 
 herself, honestly, to the man she adored ? 
 
 So much the worse for Christianity! for things 
 outworn and dead. The old revolt awoke in her, the 
 fever, the arrogant will of those Italian days. She 
 and Alec and others like them were the pioneers 
 of a new freedom ; and they would achieve it in spite 
 of priests. It was the bigotry, the Pharisaism of John 
 Marsworth, the tyranny of his conscience and his 
 creed over hers, which had first driven her into re- 
 bellion. Was she to be tamely capitulating now, hum- 
 bling herself before standards her intelligence denied 
 and rejected, because Joyce her cousin Joyce was 
 a dear pure-souled thing, who went ardently, yet so 
 silently, every Sunday morning, through the great 
 house, to that mystic meeting of the altar? 
 
 Eight o 'clock ! In the quiet of the Sunday morning, 
 even in this vast London, the strokes of Big Ben came
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 161 
 
 borne to her, muffled, on the southerly wind. Alec 
 would be home by luncheon, and then the task of 
 pacifying and cheering him would begin. And after 
 luncheon, no doubt, when she had done all the com- 
 forting she could he would go and complain to Mrs. 
 Whitton. Why was that woman still in town? Be- 
 cause Alec was? It was hateful that she should have 
 anything to do with Alec's affairs that she should 
 be ' ' taking him up ' ' that Alec should owe anything 
 to her or any other woman than his wife. Carrie's 
 proud jealousy was in full flood. She thought with 
 joy that they could go off to Scotland now, without 
 waiting another day, that Alec's weeks immediately 
 ahead were very full of sporting engagements with 
 many friends, and that Mrs. Whitton would naturally 
 drop out of his ken for a time. Carrie could even 
 find a miserable consolation for the failure of Alec's 
 scheme if it was to fail in the fact that Mrs. 
 Whitton, who no doubt had been pulling wires in 
 connection with it, had not been able to make it suc- 
 ceed! For there was something in Madge Whitton 's 
 personality which had by now roused a hot antag- 
 onism in the mistress of Eltham House. 
 
 "When we meet, she turns me into a snob!" 
 thought Carrie. "I want to lord it over her to put 
 her down to make her feel that we are great people, 
 and she nobody. And she, on her side, seems to be 
 always mocking or patronizing or pitying me. It 
 is as though she were always looking out for a chance 
 of reminding me of how we are boycotted of what 
 people think of us ; and all the time she never says a 
 single direct word on the subject. Yet, what a fool I 
 am ! If I played my cards properly I should ask her 
 here constantly. I should keep her in sight. I
 
 162 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 should never let her dream that I was afraid of her. 
 But to see her and Alec together! how she appro- 
 priates and cajoles him it is too odious! And he, 
 poor darling, he means nothing, of course ; and he is 
 half shocked and half amused by my feeling about 
 her. All the time if she could do me a mischief, she 
 would. That absurd thing Mr. Llewellyn said to me ! 
 very likely she started it ! " 
 
 She lay and thought of the "absurd thing," re- 
 senting it and yet troubled by it. During their 
 long talk, when she had begun to realize in the party 
 politician, Robert Llewellyn, that strange pastoral 
 gift that so many pastors and priests are without, he 
 had ventured the very gentlest hint on the subject of 
 Lord Merton. She pondered it unhappily. Had she 
 really been seeing too much of the young man? 
 Ridiculous ! All the same, she thought with some dis- 
 comfort of the phrases and expressions of a letter now 
 lying beside her in a little bundle of recent letters. 
 Lord Merton belonged to one of the most famous fami- 
 lies of England; famous for its virtues even more 
 than its accomplishments; fruitful in bishops no less 
 than in statesmen. He was the pink of conduct the 
 ' ' mold of form. ' ' All sorts of fair ladies, of the most 
 spotless reputations, had laid siege to him in vain; 
 and, in her precarious position, Carrie had been far 
 from insensible to the compliment of his devotion. 
 No woman, however deeply in love with her husband, 
 could help being flattered by it. Carrie had certainly 
 been flattered touched grateful. But if people like 
 Mrs. Whitton were going to spread scandal about it; 
 if even Mr. Llewellyn were to misunderstand it ; and 
 if Alec could not be argued out of the unreasonable 
 dislike he had taken to the young man why the
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 163 
 
 young man must go! "What does he matter to me?" 
 thought Carrie with a proud bitterness. Nothing mat- 
 tered, but Alec nothing in the world. She fell again 
 into a tender absorption of thought as to his future; 
 how to help him how to devise work for him which 
 would bring him success and fame, and silence all 
 their enemies. 
 
 "Good morning! How cool you are here!" said 
 Joyce Allen, settling herself on the grass at Carrie's 
 feet. She had seen nothing of her cousin that morn- 
 ing, and now after matins she had returned to find 
 Carrie established under an awning on the great lawn, 
 with books and newspapers beside her. 
 
 "And how fresh you look in your black and 
 white!" said Carrie holding out a hand which the 
 girl took and pressed affectionately. And certainly 
 Joyce was pleasant to look upon, though in her quiet 
 pale face nothing held its own against the brilliance 
 of her cousin's beauty, except perhaps the eyes which 
 were of a bright and delicate blue, fringed and eye- 
 browed with black. She gave you the impression of 
 a person of great reserves; and these all good, all to 
 be trusted. A person, too, born without the personal 
 claim which makes both the weakness and the charm 
 of most women. In exchange, nature had given her 
 powers of sympathy that vibrated to any need which 
 happened to be near her. So that while absurdly un- 
 selfish, she was defenselessly human, and by the time 
 you had discovered the saint in her, you had learned 
 to love her for so much else that it did not 
 matter. 
 
 Caroline had already come to depend upon her 
 greatly. The mere business correspondence of the
 
 164 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 huge house was a burden, apart from its social cor- 
 respondence. Carrie was unpunctual, untidy, with a 
 mind full, first of all, of Alec, then of politics, then of 
 some daring social combination or other which might 
 help Alec. She hated drudgery, and she hated ac- 
 counts; she was generous, quite unspoiled by money, 
 and extravagant out of mere impatience. Joyce, it 
 seemed, had a practical mind, and untiring industry. 
 Carrie was gradually heaping more and more responsi- 
 bility upon her ; the girl reluctantly accepting. 
 
 Carrie had herself planned the black and white 
 dress, and looked at it with pleasure, for it certainly 
 did her credit. 
 
 " Where have you been?" 
 
 "To the Abbey. There was a lovely anthem by 
 a new man." 
 
 She began to describe it with enthusiasm and the 
 phrases of one who had been musically trained. 
 
 But in the midst of her description, she suddenly 
 noticed that Carrie had taken up from the chair on 
 which it was lying a small worn Bible, which Joyce 
 had brought back with her from service. A sudden 
 look of alarm flashed into the girl's eyes; she bit her 
 lip, and stumbled in what she was saying. Rising, 
 she held out her hand for the book. 
 
 "I must go in and get ready for lunch." 
 
 But Carrie was already turning the book over. She 
 raised her eyes. 
 
 "You don't mind, do you, .my looking at these 
 photographs?" 
 
 The tone was kind and careless. But Joyce had 
 turned white. 
 
 A cry from Caroline. 
 
 "Joyce!" She had risen to her feet, holding out
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 165 
 
 the book. A photograph a "snap" had fluttered 
 to the grass. Joyce picked it up, and stood hanging 
 her head. 
 
 "Who is it?" asked Caroline breathlessly. 
 
 "My aunt my mother's sister," said Joyce, her 
 timid eyes on the ground. 
 
 "Your aunt? Where is she? did she ever men- 
 tion me to you?" 
 
 The voice was peremptory the breath fluttered. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Is she alive?" 
 
 "No. She died last winter. She told father and 
 me" 
 
 "About Dicky's death?" said Caroline, panting. 
 
 The girl made a sign of assent. There was a si- 
 lence. Then Caroline handed back the book, and 
 resumed her seat, her face pale and stormy. 
 
 "So you know all that and you never said a 
 word ! ' ' The tears rushed to Joyce's eyes. 
 
 ' ' How could I ? " she said gently. 
 
 "Was that was that what made you come when 
 I asked you?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Caroline fell back in her chair, and closed her eyes, 
 her lips quivering. Joyce looked at her irresolutely 
 then with a sudden movement came and knelt beside 
 her. 
 
 ' ' It was one day last year. Aunt Agnes was staying 
 with us, and father was very ill. We saw the an- 
 nouncement of your marriage in the paper and 
 father said something " 
 
 The young voice wavered, and resumed 
 
 "He felt very strongly about divorce and 
 divorced people marrying again. So it was natural.
 
 166 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 He he didn't mean to be unkind. And he had 
 heard something about Dicky. And then Aunt Agnes 
 looked at him and me, and we saw that she was 
 crying and she said "Edward, I know a great deal 
 about Mrs. Wing. I was with her through a very 
 terrible night. I should like to tell you and Joyce, 
 because she is our cousin, and Joyce perhaps will see 
 her some day and get to know her and hear things 
 said of her. And about the little boy and the worst 
 things that are said I can tell you the real truth. 
 I was never so sorry for any human being, in my 
 life!" 
 
 "And then she told you ?" 
 
 Yes" 
 
 "How she took me in she and her friend? Is the 
 friend alive?" The questions were low-spoken, and 
 though Carrie had taken the girl's hand, the eyes 
 were still shut. 
 
 "Miss Nelson? Oh, yes." 
 
 After another pause Caroline said 
 
 "I had no idea she had any connection with my 
 family. We never gave our names that night. Next 
 morning after Dicky died I was hardly conscious 
 Alec took me away. Then somehow I heard the 
 name Miss Penrose Miss Agnes Penrose. But it 
 conveyed nothing to me. I didn't know your mother's 
 maiden name, and I hadn't seen your father since I 
 was a child of twelve or thirteen." 
 
 "But he always remembered you!" said Joyce 
 eagerly, venturing to kiss the hand she held. "He 
 said you were so beautiful! in the old college 
 rooms; like a young Muse. He always kept up his 
 classics; and there were some passages he loved 
 Greek poetry that seemed to him to describe you.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 167 
 
 There was one about Nausicaa 'like a xall poplar 
 tree ' I forget! But he translated some of them 
 for me, and gave them to me after Aunt Agnes told 
 us that I might know what he had felt about you. ' ' 
 
 By this time Carrie had recovered her composure, 
 and that proud bearing which was habitual to her. 
 She raised herself in her chair, and Joyce slid into a 
 sitting posture on the grass, her face against Carrie's 
 knees. 
 
 ' ' So Cousin William gave you leave to come ? ' ' she 
 asked, in a still tremulous but slightly sarcastic voice. 
 
 ' ' Before he died if you should ever ask me, ' ' said 
 Joyce softly, her face hidden. 
 
 "Because he was sorry for me about Dicky? He 
 thought me wicked, of course ! ' ' 
 
 "He was very sorry " said the girl almost 
 inaudibly. 
 
 Caroline divined that there was much more to 
 know. But she did not intend to ask for it. The thin 
 ascetic face of the old college vicar, as she remem- 
 bered seeing him several times in her childhood, in her 
 father's study, was sharply present to her. 
 
 "Would you have come if I hadn't written to 
 you would you have written to me?" she inquired 
 rather sharply. 
 
 "I don't know. I should have been too shy 
 perhaps!" said Joyce, looking up with a smile, and 
 trying to give the conversation a lighter turn. 
 
 "I have no doubt many of our relations tried to 
 dissuade you. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Wing named some of them, but carelessly, as 
 though their names could not possibly matter. 
 
 "I am twenty-three," said Joyce quietly. 
 
 Both speakers fell silent. But Carrie was full of
 
 168 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 tumultuous thought. So this delicate, maidenly crea- 
 ture had accepted her invitation, out of pure pity, 
 anxious only to serve her; sent by that dead saint, 
 her father. The sin waived only the suffering re- 
 membered ! ' ' Neither do I condemn thee go and sin 
 no more. ' ' The proud tears flashed again into Carrie 's 
 eyes. And again she rebelled fiercely against this 
 weak susceptibility in herself to the old Christian 
 ideas and traditions. Perhaps after all it was a 
 Christian plot of these two pious people, the one dead, 
 the other living, to bring her to her senses. She rose, 
 saying with a cold dignity 
 
 "I wish you had told me all this before." 
 
 And she went slowly into the house, while Joyce, 
 looking after the queenly figure, became very red 
 and bit her lip furiously. Had she, after all, made a 
 foolish perhaps unpardonable mistake ? 
 
 ' ' Good morning ! This is astonishing ! to find you 
 aU still here!" 
 
 Joyce looked up startled. Captain Durrant was 
 coming to her across the lawn very tall and soldierly 
 his young countenance expressive of an uncon- 
 cealed pleasure at the sight of Miss Allen, alone. But 
 he was not long to enjoy it. Joyce gave him the most 
 perfunctory of greetings, and with a hurried excuse, 
 went into the house, leaving him to walk about dis- 
 consolately till lunch. Where had they all vanished 
 to? And why had Miss Allen been crying or some- 
 thing near it? Had Carrie perhaps been unkind to 
 her? for that Carrie had lately been on the lawn, 
 her wraps and books scattered under the awning 
 showed. The notion raised a momentary storm in the 
 young man's breast. Then he dismissed it. Carrie 
 unkind to her ? Why, she had been goodness itself to
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 169 
 
 her orphan cousin! Durrant was well aware of all 
 the domestic detail of the preceding weeks since 
 Joyce 's arrival ; and the result had been to make him 
 more than ever Caroline's apologist and champion. 
 For he was rapidly coming to measure all that befell 
 him by one standard only how he could possibly 
 secure a good time for Miss Joyce Allen: and, in 
 return, a due payment in smiles from that young 
 woman's very soft, and most attaching eyes. 
 
 Alec had not returned by luncheon-time. But a 
 few habitues appeared ; either stranded in London for 
 various official reasons, or birds of passage. The 
 Duchess, for instance on her way from a castle in 
 Devon, to a castle in Perthshire; the French Am- 
 bassador, without his wife, who was at Vernet-les- 
 Bains; the permanent Secretary of one of the great 
 offices; Sir Oliver Lewson, and an M.P. or two, 
 wearily expecting the adjournment of the House. 
 
 At luncheon, and on the lawn afterwards, Carrie 
 was at her best and gayest. She got through a great 
 many cigarettes, she chattered French with the 
 Ambassador, who sat for an hour and more, openly 
 and undisguisedly worshiping at her shrine, as he 
 would never have dared to do had not his wife's 
 migraines driven her to the Pyrenees. She sparred 
 with the Duchess. And no one guessed that on her 
 passage through the hall, she had seen a large official- 
 looking letter addressed to Alec, bearing in the corner 
 of it the initials L.P. ; nor did anyone notice that 
 every sound from the garden entrance of the house 
 made her start and look round. 
 
 The Duchess strangely garbed on this hot summer 
 day, in a heather-mixture coat and skirt, with a tweed
 
 170 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 traveling hat of the same material was describing 
 some very great people with whom she had just been 
 staying on her triumphal progress through the south- 
 west. The wife "dreadfully stupid, but you can't 
 help liking her she flounders, more than she errs! 
 The husband, a big jealous fool, jealous of everybody, 
 his wife, his agent, his son even, because the youth 
 shoots better than he does; and they say last year, 
 when they stayed at Zermatt, he was jealous of the 
 Matterhorn, because every morning people asked 
 'How's the Matterhorn to-day?' and it annoyed 
 him." 
 
 "It's that national self-importance saves you," 
 laughed the Ambassador. "If you didn't believe in 
 yourselves " 
 
 "Who would believe in us? Yes but we over-do 
 it. Our class my class" she pointed calmly to 
 herself "don't recognize what's happened to them. 
 They're so 'damned surly about facts' excuse my 
 language! as somebody said of Fox. You can't per- 
 suade 'em. But their day's done. And they still go 
 on some of them still imagining they're the hub of 
 things, and the universe waits on them. You know 
 Alec's a deal too much like that," said the terrible 
 lady, composedly turning to Carrie who sat near her. 
 Carrie flushed. 
 
 "That's not fair!" she said rather indignantly. 
 "Alec's not here to defend himself." 
 
 "No but he soon will be. You say you expect 
 him directly. I'll return to the charge. Wing his 
 father is another of them. He can't get his way 
 now, as he used to do ; on his estates, or in Parliament. 
 So he won't play the game any more; shuts himself 
 up ; goes out shooting alone with an army of keepers
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 171 
 
 and beaters; and despises everybody. But what's the 
 good ? Can I make a scullery-maid stay with me now 
 if she doesn't choose? Not I. She and the hall-boy 
 have got the whip hand of me, and they know it. We 
 talk or if we don't talk, we think of our money 
 and our pedigrees; and the other sort don't talk 
 but they've got the numbers and the brains and 
 that 's enough for them ! ' ' 
 
 "Monstrous!" said Sir Oliver. "Why attack ua 
 like this? We're all Liberals here!" The Duchess 
 shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 "I'm a Liberal when it suits me not otherwise. 
 Ah! here's Alec!" 
 
 Caroline half rose from her chair, and sank into 
 it again. The tall figure of Alec Wing came slowly 
 down the garden steps. The Ambassador, waving a 
 welcoming hand, turned to look at the splendid young 
 Englishman his curly hair, his shoulders, the slim 
 strength of his athlete 's body. So did Oliver Lewson, 
 who was struck however by something else ; as though 
 the handsome face had been suddenly blanched. The 
 owner of it held a letter crushed in his left hand, 
 which he put into his coat pocket as he approached the 
 group. He greeted them all however as usual, except 
 that as the Duchess noticed he scarcely spoke to 
 his wife. Carrie, on her side, made a smiling inquiry 
 after his fortunes at golf, which remained almost 
 unanswered. The Duchess resumed her attack on the 
 still surviving vftpiZ of the poor battered British no- 
 bility, but Wing rather scornfully put her shafts 
 aside, and plunged into golf -talk with one or two of 
 the men present. 
 
 Somehow his coming broke up the party. Carrie's 
 talk ceased to flow; everyone was conscious of some-
 
 172 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 thing wrong ; and one by one the guests melted away, 
 till only the husband and wife and the Duchess 
 were left. 
 
 When Alec came back from escorting the Am- 
 bassador through the house, the Duchess fixed him 
 with a fearless eye. 
 
 "Alec! are you going to jump down my throat 
 if I make a remark that doesn't please you?" 
 
 "Isn't it too hot to do either?" he said haughtily, 
 stretching himself at full length in a garden chair, 
 and drawing down his hat over his eyes. 
 
 "Well, I happen to know what you've been after," 
 said the Duchess calmly. "I found Penwenack down 
 at Merstham " she named the latest castle on her 
 list "He's an old friend of mine, and I can get most 
 things out of him. He didn't tell me much but 
 enough. Eeally, Alec! now don't be angry with me 
 but you have put your foot in it!" 
 
 Alec sat up. Carrie, outwardly impassive, watched 
 him, shrinking at heart. How strange that she could 
 not even put out a hand to him! It was as though 
 some baffled force, at a white heat of friction, held 
 the man she loved, dividing her from him. The 
 Duchess too quailed a little. 
 
 "My dear Aunt Emily let me point out to you 
 that I am not a schoolboy any longer to be either 
 scolded or tipped by you though I fully admit you 
 used to do both magnificently ten years ago. And 
 if you wish to remain friends with Carrie and me, 
 you won't gossip about my private affairs with 
 Penwenack or anybody else!" 
 
 The Duchess had turned a little pale. But she rose 
 with dignity. Her old eyes were full of softness and 
 compunction.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 173 
 
 "I seem to have made a fool of myself. Well, 
 good-by, Carrie. I didn't mean any harm. Alec, you'd 
 get through all your troubles if you'd be content to 
 go slow. But you always would rush at things head- 
 down. Good-by don't bother about seeing me out." 
 
 But Wing ceremoniously escorted her to the door 
 and bowed her to her car. Then he slowly returned 
 to his wife. 
 
 "Well, Carrie," he said sitting down beside her, 
 "Don't worry!" 
 
 But his eyes were singularly somber, and the brow 
 above them furrowed. 
 
 "Darling!" she said piteously, holding out her 
 hands to him. 
 
 "You seem to know all about it," he said bitterly. 
 
 "Mr. Llewellyn came last night." 
 
 "Oh, well " he spoke hastily "I don't the least 
 want to know what he said! Lots of good advice, 
 no doubt. I'm not in the mood for it. But I'll be 
 even with them all some day! And now I'm going 
 out a bit. I shall be back for dinner." He rose as 
 he spoke. Carrie 's cheeks flamed. 
 
 "Alec! you're not going away! without letting us 
 talk it over? And mayn't I see the letter?" 
 
 ' ' Penwenack 's ? What 's the good ? Canting hypoc- 
 risy like all the rest of it. Well, that chapter's 
 closed. Don't let's talk any more of it. I shall get 
 my chance some day. Good-by for the present. Shall 
 I find you a wrap? It's getting cold." 
 
 He rose as he spoke. And she rose too. 
 
 "Alec! why can't you stay? I haven't seen you 
 since yesterday morning and I've been thinking of 
 you all day and all night. Alec ! don 't be so unkind ! ' ' 
 
 "We shall meet to-night," he said, moving away.
 
 174 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "But where are you going now? Why are you 
 so strange? Is it any fault of mine what has hap- 
 pened? Haven't I done everything " her voice 
 broke, and she regained it with difficulty "every- 
 thing I possibly could?" 
 
 ' ' Yes, of course you have ! ' ' His manner was one of 
 somber impatience. "But for goodness sake, Carrie, 
 don 't make a scene. I hate scenes. I must go. ' ' 
 
 She paused a moment. A throb of sudden passion 
 ran through her from head to foot. She drew away. 
 
 "You are going to that woman to Mrs. Whitton! 
 You won't talk it over with me your wife but you 
 will, with her! It's an insult to me, Alec, you know 
 it is!" 
 
 "Why shouldn't I talk it over, with any friend 
 I please ! " he said, with an answering flash of wrath, 
 but coldly restrained. "We shall have time enough, 
 you and I, God knows, to discuss what I 'm to do with 
 myself, and my future. You're a goose, Carrie- 
 you really are to behave like this ! ' ' 
 
 And without another word, he walked away ; while 
 she, as he finally disappeared, felt her way blindly 
 to the deep shelter of a close-set avenue of limes 
 which ran along the eastern edge of the garden, and 
 dropped upon a seat, as though the words hurled at 
 her had been daggers indeed. 
 
 And there, screened from all eyes, but within hail 
 of the magnificent house which called her mistress, 
 Caroline Wing went through one of the blackest hours 
 of life. Hers had been no mercenary bargain, what- 
 ever the public hostile to her might think. She had 
 given her all for Love, as she understood it, and she 
 seemed already to hear the rustle of his departing 
 wings along the darkened air.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 BUT life has a way of dealing disrespectfully with its 
 own crises. It huddles them up and effaces them as 
 soon as it can. The wave, crested and foaming, which 
 looked so formidably high to the weak swimmer, car- 
 ries him into seas gentler than his fears; and the 
 demand for a tragic endurance, to which a torn heart 
 braces itself in the morning, drops by the evening to 
 something very different, though perhaps not less 
 difficult. 
 
 Alec Wing returned to dinner that evening, bring- 
 ing with him a couple of casual club acquaintances; 
 and the guests at any rate served the purpose, which 
 Caroline at once suspected, of preventing any im- 
 mediate renewal of the scene between them. A few 
 other habitues of the house turned up ; the chef, whose 
 huge salary was largely paid him on condition that 
 he was at all times equally ready for two or twenty, 
 performed brilliantly, and the easy perfection of the 
 Eltham House entertaining was once more proved 
 even in this deserted London. Wing himself was 
 apparently in high spirits, as shown by much talk, 
 and the drinking of more wine than usual. Every 
 now and then indeed he had sudden relapses into 
 silence, his prominent eyes staring absently before 
 him, which betrayed him to Caroline. He was pale 
 
 175
 
 176 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 too, still, and Carrie found herself watching him at 
 intervals as though some novelty in his bearing, 
 something at once lost and discovered, arrested her. 
 Homer says of the garden of Alcinous ' ' On one side 
 the ripe grapes were drying in the sun; on another 
 the young clusters were just dropping their blossom ; 
 on a third the bunches were beginning to color." 
 Wing's youth, like the grape-flower, was just dropping 
 its blossom; and the human plant knows no second 
 spring. It was some faint desolating perception of 
 this which stirred intermittently in Caroline as she 
 noticed her husband's imperious bearing, on this 
 summer evening to which both afterwards looked 
 back with eyes cleared by distance. For their love 
 for each other had dealt so violently with life, had 
 claimed so much and drunk so deep, that the first 
 check, the first change of atmosphere had produced 
 in the one a sudden hardening, and in the other a 
 shiver of bewildered fear fear of things unknown. 
 The man unconsciously was tired of feeling; and 
 the woman in perceiving it, knew indeed that the first 
 perfect hours were done. 
 
 And yet the evening, outwardly, ended much like 
 other evenings. While Alec saw his guesrts to the hall, 
 Caroline dreading the moment when he and she must 
 be again alone, went to Joyce's room, and stayed 
 there disjointedly talking, till she heard him calling 
 her from the gallery. Then she got up from Joyce's 
 bed on which she had been sitting, and Joyce saw her 
 for a moment draw herself to her full height, as 
 though something in her prepared for testing. She 
 was a glittering vision in the girl's white room; a 
 sash of deep blue, like an order, slung from shoulder 
 to waist, defining the long body in its lace dress, and
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 177 
 
 one sapphire shining, where the white brow and the 
 dark hair met, above the deep-set eyes. To Joyce, 
 she was still a queen of fairy-tale, as beautiful and 
 as mysterious; but since their conversation in the 
 garden the girl knew very well that their relations 
 had changed perhaps fundamentally. Carrie had 
 not so far said another word about the discovery of 
 the afternoon, but some proud aloofness had insensi- 
 bly passed away. The soul in her seemed to be feeling 
 dumbly for Joyce 's sympathy ; yet still with intervals 
 of withdrawal and flight. 
 
 But that night there was no time for any further 
 nearing of each to the other. Caroline hurried back 
 to the gallery, and found Alec pacing up and down 
 it, with his hands in the pocket. He stopped at sight 
 of her frowning. 
 
 ' ' Carrie ! when can we get off ? " 
 
 ''Whenever you like. The servants will take two 
 days to make things comfortable. But I " 
 
 "Yes? " he pressed her impatiently, seeing her 
 hesitate. 
 
 "I must go to Oxford to see Carina." 
 
 His face changed. 
 
 ' ' Must you ? You won 't want me ? " 
 
 ' ' I can take Joyce. ' ' 
 
 "Yes, that will be capital," he said, with evident 
 relief. "I should be only in the way. I might go 
 to a Perth hotel for two nights, or perhaps happy 
 thought! run down, and look in on Pater. Some- 
 body from Brookshire I came across in the Mall just 
 now, gave me rather a poor account of him. ' ' 
 
 Caroline was conscious of a stab of pain. Any 
 reference to Carina on her part had never yet failed 
 to bring him to her side, challenged as a lover to
 
 178 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 make up to her for the children she had lost through 
 him. For, as tenderness is always to women the better 
 half of passion, it was, strangely enough, through 
 her boy 's death, and her exile from Carina, that Caro- 
 line had known the most poignant and intimate hap- 
 piness however bitter-sweet that love had brought 
 her. And now this half-strained, half indifferent 
 tone, in relation to what touched her to the quick, 
 was a new suffering. But she said nothing. She 
 came to stand beside him, resting her beautiful head 
 against him, as though to show mutely that their 
 quarrel of the afternoon was forgotten. He put his 
 arm round her and kissed her, but he was evidently 
 preoccupied. 
 
 "Whom have we asked for Scotland? Are we full 
 up?" She ran through the list, and he exclaimed 
 impatiently at some of the names. 
 
 "Of course the men are all right. But it doesn't 
 sound much fun for me, darling. Do you mean to 
 say the wives won't come?" He named a peeress, 
 and a marquis's daughter, married to one of his Eton 
 friends. 
 
 "They won't," said Carrie, raising herself and 
 looking him straight in the face, her cheeks burning. 
 " I 've done everything. ' ' 
 
 "But they called?" 
 
 "They sent cards by a footman to please their 
 husbands, I suppose who have dined here about once 
 a week. Then I wrote I wrote very nicely and they 
 wrote quite correctly and of course they have en- 
 gagements for every possible date. Can't you make 
 up your mind to it, Alec ? ' ' She surveyed him quietly. 
 
 "And both those women have asked me," he said 
 indignantly. "I have had invites from them both."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 179 
 
 "I dare say. That's their line. Oh, Alec, if you'd 
 only believe " 
 
 "Believe what?" 
 
 ' ' In waiting. I 'm content to wait. ' ' 
 
 "But that's different!" he said, with energy, guess- 
 ing rather angrily at her thought. "After all you 
 can do without those women. But if I am cut off 
 indefinitely from the only career I care for the only 
 career I am fit for how can I make up?" 
 
 His face flushed again, and he began to walk 
 stormily up and down, thinking aloud. 
 
 "A boycott which ruins a man's life is very dif- 
 ferent from a little social cold-shouldering. It's per- 
 fectly monstrous the way in which we have let these 
 hypocritical Dissenters, and purity people these 
 canting women above all domineer over a man 's pri- 
 vate affairs ! Where 's it to end, I should like to know. 
 No! I'm going to fight! I'm going to make this 
 Liberal gang Liberals indeed! smart for it. My 
 head's full of plans, Carrie. If this hundred thou- 
 sand can 't be used for one thing it can for another. I 
 shall get Pater to hand it over to me unconditionally, 
 and we'll see. There's an evening paper on the 
 market, and I have my eye on an editor. "We can 
 make things pretty hot I think for Washington and 
 his crew and for your pious friend Llewellyn too ! 
 
 The bitterness and malice in his tone struck Carrie 
 with dismay. 
 
 "Alec, for goodness' sake let me tell you what Mr. 
 Llewellyn really said to me last night!" she begged 
 him piteously. And hurriedly she forced her report 
 on Alec's reluctant ears. She said nothing of her 
 confession with regard to Dicky. Instinctively she 
 hid from this splendid youth, half Apollo, half
 
 180 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 grandee in a temper pacing before her, all that 
 moral trouble and softening which her talk with 
 Llewellyn had awakened in her. But she laid stress 
 on Llewellyn's friendly kindness on the advice he 
 had given on the hopes he had held out. She 
 pleaded, however, in vain with a man for whom the 
 mere crossing of his will was an intolerable humilia- 
 tion. And very soon she realized that for her to argue 
 and plead at all, instead of throwing herself, at once, 
 passionately and blindly, into his resentment and his 
 plans was becoming a crime in his eyes. Dalliance 
 in Italian gardens was all very well his tone seemed 
 to imply but there were male affairs in which she 
 was not asked to meddle. Or if she did meddle, it 
 must be only as his docile advocate and champion. 
 Her quick intelligence felt itself once more brushed 
 aside. She could only listen, silenced and uncon- 
 vinced, to his torrent of angry talk, dismally conscious 
 soon that her silence annoyed him as much as any 
 words. 
 
 "Well, there's one woman at any rate that under- 
 stands the situation!" he said at last. "You go 
 and talk to her, Carrie! She'll tell you a lot of 
 things you don't know. She'll tell you that beyond a 
 certain point, it's no good playing doormat. You've 
 got to make people afraid of you! And I intend to 
 do it." 
 
 "You mean Mrs. Whitton?" 
 
 "I do. She put new life into me this afternoon," 
 he said defiantly. 
 
 Caroline's face had grown rather hard and white. 
 She looked at him askance. 
 
 "And you're going to follow her advice rather 
 than mine, Alec?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 181 
 
 "I'm going to follow my own judgment," he said 
 stubbornly. Then as he turned to look at her, his 
 senses were suddenly appealed to by the loveliness 
 of the drooping form, the slender arms and hands 
 that lay languidly on her knee. He came up to her 
 impetuously, and raised her in a vehement embrace. 
 
 "Carrie, my girl, don't you worry and oppose me! 
 you're mine come in along with me trust me 
 do as I tell you! We'll have a grand time fighting 
 them all you in your way, and I in mine. Only I 'm 
 Captain mind that! Don't you love me, Carrie? 
 Won't you back me, whatever anybody says? You 
 couldn't love a weakling and a coward. But you 
 do love me, Carrie ! you know you do ! " 
 
 He held her triumphantly and she felt herself 
 mastered. Whatever violence he might plan against 
 her best friends! she would have to follow. She 
 clung to him trembling, almost asking for pardon, and 
 he almost exacting it. But she could not restrain the 
 inevitable shaft 
 
 ' ' I won 't play second to Mrs. Whitton, Alec ! ' ' 
 
 He laughed and kissed her again. 
 
 "You baby! As if she mattered, except just as 
 a pawn in the game. But I tell you she is a clever 
 woman, and one can pick her brains most profitably. 
 Why don't you do it, Carrie? And as to jealousy, 
 I like your finding fault with me! I don't think I 
 need bother about Llewellyn. But what about that 
 fellow Merton? If ever I saw a man bowled over, 
 it's he. You've got a letter from him there!" He 
 pointed peremptorily to a book inside which, with her 
 usual carelessness Caroline had been carrying Mer- 
 ton 's letter all day. 
 
 She drew herself away from him, flushing deeply.
 
 182 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Taking up the letter, she held it out to him. 
 
 "Read it! I like him, Alec, and he likes me." 
 
 "So I have long perceived. Well, as you say I 
 may, I think I will read it. Anything / write to 
 Mrs. Whitton might be cried on the house-tops." 
 
 She said nothing. He read the letter, and put it 
 down with a smile in which however there was some 
 bitterness. 
 
 "He seems a sentimental kind of beggar. I never 
 can understand the tone these men friends of yours 
 take up Carrie! It isn't at all complimentary to 
 me! You said once Llewellyn was 'so sorry for us.' 
 Why should he be? It's like his impertinence. And 
 that man's letter " he pointed to it "I don't 
 know it's very queer. He talks somehow as 
 though he were St. George, offering to save you from 
 the dragon. What's wrong? Who's the dragon? 
 Much obliged to him but I decline the part for my- 
 self. And if there is any dragon, it's my business to 
 settle him not Melton's. Don't you let yourself be 
 pitied, Carrie! That man '11 be making love to you 
 before you know where you are ! ' ' 
 
 And he turned to look at her half hectoring, half 
 laughing. He sat on the arm of an easy chair, 
 dangling his crossed legs, his hands in his pockets. 
 Grace, insolence, the passionate self-confidence of the 
 aristocrat, which scarcely shows till contradiction 
 from the common herd develops it : the young figure 
 breathed them all. It was the emergence, as the 
 Duchess had shrewdly seen, of something which the 
 democratic modern world believes itself to have done 
 with, and is yet compelled, again and again, to reckon 
 with. This handsome youth was as much convinced 
 of his absolute right to the best of things, to every-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 183 
 
 thing he might chance to wish for, as any seigneur 
 of the ancien regime. Carrie's main danger indeed 
 lay in the fact that their two lives sprang from quite 
 different traditions hers from the intellectual pro- 
 fessional class, sober, scrupulous, and self-controlled 
 his from a noblesse accustomed for generations to 
 command and enjoy. 
 
 Caroline met his onslaught with composure. 
 
 "The man who makes love to me, Alec, must be 
 a great fool." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "You know why. I am not going to flatter you 
 by saying it." 
 
 "You may flirt with Melton, if you like, Carrie." 
 
 "That you may have the pleasure of laughing at 
 him ? Thank you, I like him too much. ' ' 
 
 "Well, I give you leave anyway. I'm not in the 
 least afraid. And you won't be afraid either, if I 
 amuse myself a little?" Then his face changed sud- 
 denly. "However, I shall have more serious matters 
 to think of this autumn and winter. We shall make 
 things hot for old Washington. ' ' 
 
 And rising, he flung an arm round her, and made 
 her pace the gallery with him, while he talked ex- 
 citedly of his plans for the winter the formation of 
 a new party, the buying or founding of a newspaper, 
 the use of Eltham House as the headquarters of a 
 policy and a group. 
 
 "They won't have me as a friend very well, they 
 shall reckon with me as an enemy. I can speak, 
 I can write, I can set other people to write and 
 speak. I've got money, and go, and plenty of time. 
 I mean to make it a glorious campaign and you'll 
 become a very famous woman, Carrie! But I won't
 
 184 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 have Llewellyn preaching to you. Hullo, what's 
 that?" 
 
 For the sound of an electric bell rang loudly 
 through the great empty spaces of the house. 
 
 "A telegram; at this time of night?" 
 
 He hurried to the staircase to meet the servant 
 coming up. 
 
 "Carrie!" 
 
 She came running. 
 
 "Pater's ill very ill! Why didn't the idiots send 
 for me before! This is from the doctors. It looks 
 serious. Harrison! " he turned to the butler 
 "Let somebody go and ring up one of the chauffeurs, 
 and say I must have a motor at once." 
 
 Carrie looked at the message in dismay. "Lord 
 Wing 's state has this evening become alarming. Please 
 come at once. He would not allow us to summon you 
 before." There followed the signatures of two Lon- 
 don specialists, and the name of a Sussex village. 
 
 Carrie flew to give orders. A sleepy valet was 
 told to pack, and Wing went to change his clothes. 
 When he came back to his wife in traveling dress, 
 Carrie was aware of a strange ardor, even gayety in 
 his manner. 
 
 "Poor Pater!" he said, as they waited in her 
 sitting-room for the announcement of the motor "I 
 trust it won't be long. He was never meant for a 
 dragging sort of illness. He couldn't stand it. Nor 
 could I. He has enjoyed his life, Carrie! On the 
 whole, for all his oddities, he's had a ripping time, 
 and he knows it. It'll be awfully important of 
 course for me." 
 
 Carrie looked at him interrogatively. There was 
 sadness in her dark eyes, and in her mind a strong
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 185 
 
 compassion for, and loyalty towards Lord Wing ; who 
 had always been her friend, in his strange way. 
 What did Alec mean? 
 
 "If I do go to the Lords" he resumed thought- 
 fully "it will affect all my plans. I shall be in poli- 
 tics and in Parliament directly. Do you understand 
 that, darling? whatever Washington and his prigs 
 may say ! By George, it would give me openings ! ' ' 
 
 He stood thinking his face working under the 
 energy of his thoughts and desires. Carrie under- 
 stood, with a secret shiver, that his father's approach- 
 ing death was, at that moment, to the son on whom 
 that father had lavished every possible gift and 
 indulgence in his power, merely an element in a cal- 
 culation, a card in his game. 
 
 The motor arrived. He turned to his wife. 
 
 "I shall be there in less than two hours. If things 
 are very bad, you'd better follow first thing. If 
 there's a change for the better " 
 
 "I should go to Oxford first for the day," she 
 said quickly, ' ' and then come. Give him my love. ' ' 
 
 He threw his arms round her. 
 
 "It's all made up isn't it?" he murmured in his 
 old voice the voice of her lover. 
 
 A sudden gush of tears came to her eyes. She 
 pressed his fair curls back from his forehead, and 
 kissed him passionately. He smiled, and went. 
 
 Before eight o'clock next morning, a messenger 
 arrived from Bracebridge, bringing a note. "Pater 
 has rallied wonderfully. No immediate danger, but 
 shall stay on. Expect you Tuesday." 
 
 The next morning, Mrs. Wing left Eltham House 
 by motor for Oxford. Everything had been arranged
 
 186 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 by telephone. Carina would be brought by a maid 
 to the Bishop's Hotel, Oxford, to meet her mother, 
 that evening, and the following day she would be 
 taken back again to her grandmother's house, some 
 twelve miles from the University town. 
 
 It was a morning of light mists, broadening into 
 splendid sunshine. Joyce sat by Caroline's side. 
 Caroline had come in to see the girl in bed that 
 morning, and had abruptly asked her to come with 
 her. And Joyce throwing timid arms round the beau- 
 tiful creature looking down upon her, had murmured 
 ' ' how sweet of you to ask me ! ' ' Afterwards Caro- 
 line had lingered in the girl's embrace, talking under 
 her breath of Carina and Lord Wing. It was the 
 talk of one seeking blindly for a friend. 
 
 Joyce's spirits rose as the motor left London be- 
 hind, and they were soon speeding through the green- 
 country to the foot of the Chilterns at High Wy- 
 combe. Up the long hill they rose into the heart of 
 the hills, and so over the little pass whence the main 
 road descends upon the Buckinghamshire and Ox- 
 fordshire plain. The scent of the woods, the play of 
 the clouds, and the wide beauty of the unrolling 
 northward plain, as they looked down from the crest 
 of the Stokenchurch hill, put life into Caroline 's eyes, 
 and color into her cheeks. That haunting sense of 
 something changed, something broken, passed away 
 for the time. Alec and she had kissed again; Lord 
 Wing had rallied ; Carina was to be hers, for twenty- 
 four hours, without interruption, and without wit- 
 nesses. The child would come in a maid's custody; 
 but that night she would sleep in her mother's room, 
 her mother's hands would put her to bed. 
 
 Meanwhile her young and starved maternity showed
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 187 
 
 itself in mothering her cousin. Unspoken gratitude, 
 appealing affection breathed from her; so that Joyce 
 found her irresistible. And always the girl felt her- 
 self the elder; although Carrie was in truth four 
 years older than Joyce. But there would always 
 remain something of the " imperishable child" in her; 
 something uncertain, confiding, pliant. And it was 
 the mingling of this childish temper, with quick con- 
 science on the one hand, and the daring of her 
 lawless history on the other, which made her spell. 
 Joyce the little Anglican maiden, brought up under 
 the strictest canons knew well enough that this 
 magnificent Carrie had sinned grievously and could 
 not somehow love her one whit the less. 
 
 The car sped on over the crest of the Chilterns, 
 and down upon the gracious wooded plain beyond, 
 with its low hills, and its old towns steeped in history. 
 And now came Oxford Magdalen Bridge, and that 
 tall tower, that seems neither secular nor religious, 
 to belong neither to war nor piety, but to things 
 universal poetry, beauty, grace. Then the famous 
 curving street, with its ranged colleges, and its crock- 
 eted church and so to the old inn, which has seen 
 Johnson and Gibbon pass. For Carrie it was a coming- 
 home; her eyes took greedy note of each successive 
 landmark, each familiar spot. For five years or 
 more of her girlhood she had lived in Oxford; the 
 old college, of which her father had been Head, lay 
 in one of the narrow streets opening on the High. 
 She had danced her first dance in Oxford, and had 
 known there two crowded glorious years with troops 
 of young men waiting on her smiles; till, suddenly, 
 John Marsworth had carried her off. The country 
 house where she had lived with him those eight years
 
 188 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 was only twenty miles away. As the motor carried 
 them through the half-deserted street for it was of 
 course the middle of the Long Vacation Caroline's 
 eyes glanced in a bright absorption from side to side 
 and her mind was full of recollections that half 
 amused, half hurt her. There was the old furniture 
 and curiosity shop where so many of her Oxford 
 friends had bought their wedding presents for Caro- 
 line Delaney; there was the church porch where she 
 had first seen John, coming out of University sermon ; 
 the turn to Christ Church meadow 
 
 How vividly she saw herself, the slim girl in white, 
 walking beside her fiance down the Broad Walk, to 
 the boats, proud of his stature and strength prcrud 
 to be seen and congratulated. And those long hours 
 of drifting down to Iffley and Nuneham! the green 
 peace of the backwaters the foaming white of the 
 weirs 
 
 No those first pleasant days had not been wholly 
 wiped out in memory, though, in comparison with 
 what life had exacted from nerve and feeling since, 
 they had been but faintly lived. The old Oxford 
 atmosphere stole over her, indeed, with every step 
 along the famous street, inter-penetrated with the 
 fears and hopes and compunctions of her present ex- 
 istence. She had been happy in those far off years, 
 happy and good! The history, the ideals, the per- 
 sonalities of the great University town, had made an 
 environment in which a romantic child had been 
 insensibly fashioned to fine issues. She remembered 
 her confirmation; the shy clergyman who had pre- 
 pared her; her first communion, and all the moral 
 and spiritual fervor which had accompanied it. Her 
 mother was dead by then, and her father had not
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 189 
 
 meant very much to her. He was absorbed in his col- 
 lege business, and in the collection for his spare mo- 
 ments of old prints, and pre-Ming china. An ultra 
 refined, rather selfish man, with irritating parsimoni- 
 ous ways towards servants and dependents, which 
 Carrie soon learned to notice and resent. But he had 
 been proud of her, and there had been no sparing on 
 her education. A younger sister of her mother had 
 looked after her for a time, but she and Carrie had 
 never got on. ' ' She was jealous of me ! " thought Car- 
 rie, with a mind suddenly illuminated, as she looked 
 back. "I suppose I was handsome!" And she re- 
 membered with a pleased vanity what Joyce had 
 reported of her father 's impressions of the child the 
 Muse of fourteen. How sheltered, and innocent and 
 peaceful, it all seemed as one looked back upon it ! 
 that past childish scene, set in gray college walls. 
 
 Twelve o'clock chiming from all the steeples and 
 towers of Oxford. Carrie came back suddenly to the 
 present moment. The motor was stopping before the 
 old inn, with its Georgian front and shallow bow 
 windows. Through the open door, one saw paneled 
 passages and stairs old racing prints and a grand- 
 father's clock. Waiters came running out; and 
 Carrie descended. She went quickly into the hotel, 
 and Joyce was left to superintend the unloading of 
 the car. 
 
 And there, as Miss Allen stood looking on under 
 the shadow of the old doorway, while the hotel porters 
 shouldered the luggage, she became gradually aware 
 that the process was being observed from the other 
 side of the street. Looking across the roadway to a 
 very wide and shallow window, above a tailor's shop, 
 just opposite, she saw a man standing in the window ;
 
 190 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 a tall man with a black, or grizzled mustache, 
 and a domed, slightly bald head. He stood behind 
 muslin window curtains, supposing, Joyce thought, 
 that he could not be seen. But her sharp eyes per- 
 ceived him quite clearly, and the frowning attention 
 with which he watched the arrival at the inn. Who 
 could he be? 
 
 She followed the porter upstairs, to find Mrs. Wing 
 inspecting the rooms they had ordered, and eagerly 
 directing changes in the furniture so as to make them 
 brighter and more home-like. A footman and maid 
 had been sent down by an early train. They had 
 brought flowers, and a few pieces of old brocade. 
 With these, and some new books from Carrie's 
 dressing bag, the sitting-room had soon lost its hot 
 and dingy look ; while next door, luncheon was already 
 laid, and the table was a mass of roses. 
 
 "She will be here, directly," said Carrie, pausing 
 to look at their handiwork. "We have made it look 
 as nice as we can. ' ' And she went to the window to 
 watch. Joyce, following her again, examined the 
 window across the street with curiosity. But the man 
 she had noticed was no longer there. And before she 
 could mention him, Carrie gripped her by the arm. 
 
 "I shouldn't wonder if she's quite forgotten me!" 
 she said in a choked voice. 
 
 "Oh, no! Don't think that. How long is it since 
 you saw her?" 
 
 "Fourteen months. I came over from Paris on 
 purpose to see her in June last year. They sent her 
 down to Dover. We met there too in a hotel ! ' ' 
 
 Then with dull passion "Isn't it monstrous 
 monstrous! that I should have her so little! Ah, 
 if women made the laws ! ' '
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 191 
 
 Joyce only pressed her hand for answer. She could 
 not answer in words. The girl's mind, torn perpetu- 
 ally between law and sympathy, as she became daily 
 more attached to her cousin, and better acquainted 
 with her history, was like an army hotly attacked yet 
 steadily holding its positions. She loved and she 
 condemned. 
 
 Caroline vaguely understood; and was sometimes 
 though rarely inclined to force her to speak out, 
 to drive her into argument. Her dignity, as wife and 
 lover, had forbidden her anything of the kind in the 
 case of Llewellyn. But with this girl, so near to her, 
 yet so unlike, she was often desperately inclined 
 indirectly and impersonally to test the various argu- 
 ments which had soothed her own conscience so far. 
 But she had never yet done it. 
 
 "There they are!" 
 
 Carrie's nerve suddenly failed her. She turned 
 helplessly to Joyce 
 
 "Will you go and bring her up?" She pointed to 
 a mud-splashed motor, which had arrived at the inn 
 door, and to the figure of an elderly woman in black 
 descending from it. 
 
 Joyce went downstairs. In the hall she found 
 the elderly woman, with a little girl clinging to her 
 hand. 
 
 ' ' You are from Lady Marsworth ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes, Madam. Where shall I find Mrs. Wing?" 
 
 "She is upstairs. I came with her this morning. 
 I am her cousin. She sent me to show you the way. 
 Will you shake hands, Carina? I am your cousin 
 too." 
 
 At the sweet voice, the child whose eyes had been 
 on the ground from the moment she entered the hotel,
 
 192 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 looked up. She was Joyce saw a fragile, slimly- 
 built creature, with long legs and a delicately small 
 head, on which she wore a motor-cap of pale blue. 
 Her very thick and beautiful hair of brownish gold 
 hung to her waist, and seemed to overburden the 
 small shoulders and the slender neck. Altogether an 
 attractive, distinguished little figure. But the look 
 in her eyes when she showed them was so touching, 
 that Joyce longed to kiss and comfort her there and 
 then. The child was very pale. It was evident that 
 she shrank from the meeting with her mother. 
 
 But she went quietly upstairs clinging to the hand 
 of the woman who had brought her. At the door of 
 the sitting-room, the maid released herself and said 
 
 " I '11 go and unpack, Miss Carina, if this lady will 
 show me your room." 
 
 Joyce opened the door, and the child mechanically 
 entered. As the door closed behind her, the maid 
 said, as though something in Joyce's face invited 
 speech 
 
 "She's simply made herself ill, Miss, about coming. 
 But she'll be all right soon." 
 
 "Carina, darling!" 
 
 Caroline ran forward, and in a moment she was 
 kneeling before Carina, unbuttoning the long silk 
 coat, and taking off the child's gloves and cap. Then 
 when the small form in a white frock stood revealed, 
 Carrie wound her arms round it, and sinking herself 
 into a low chair, gathered her daughter to her, and 
 kissed her hungrily murmuring over her tender, 
 inarticulate things. 
 
 Carina lay passive, for a little while. But as soon 
 as she could, she disengaged herself, and sat erect on
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 193 
 
 Caroline's knee, looking round her shyly, and some- 
 times straightening the dress and hat of her doll 
 which had got a little crumpled in the course of her 
 mother's embraces. 
 
 ''You weren't cold in the motor, darling?" said 
 Carrie, taking two small and icy hands into hers, 
 while her eyes devoured the pretty head with its 
 flower-like droop. 
 
 "No, I had a shawl Grannie's shawl," said the 
 child, turning her head away, as though her mother's 
 gaze made her uncomfortable. 
 
 "How is Grannie?" 
 
 ' ' She 's very well. She had a cold, last week. But 
 Nannie and I nursed her. Now she's quite well." 
 
 The child's voice was thinly sweet, and her manner 
 curiously precise, as though she were going through a 
 lesson. 
 
 "Do you have a governess now, Carina?" 
 
 "Oh, no. Grannie teaches me and sometimes 
 Father." 
 
 "Father?" said Carrie in astonishment. "But 
 Father's in Wales?" 
 
 "No Father isn't! He's staying with Grannie. 
 We've got to meet him to-morrow at St. Aloysius. 
 He 's coming for us. ' ' Carrie could only suppose that 
 Jesuit novices were allowed occasional holidays. But 
 she could not bring herself to question the child 
 about her father; though it gave her a momentary 
 excitement to know that on the morrow she might be 
 for a short time in his neighborhood. 
 
 "And what does Father teach you?" she asked 
 after a moment. 
 
 "History and " 
 
 "And what, darling?"
 
 194 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 ' ' We read about Jesus, ' ' said the child, turning back 
 to look at her mother, with a shy, bird-like gesture. 
 
 Carrie was silent a moment. Then she resumed her 
 catechism. 
 
 "And does someone teach you music?" 
 
 "Yes but I don't like it." 
 
 "What do you like, Carina?" 
 
 "I like reading and poetry and riding and I 
 love drilling. When we go to London, Grannie will 
 let me go to a gymnasium." 
 
 "Do you have some children to play with you, 
 darling?" 
 
 "Sometimes not very often," said the little voice 
 reluctantly. "But once " she looked up suddenly 
 ' ' I had a little brother. Only he died. ' ' 
 
 Silence again. Then Caroline rose, keeping the 
 child's hand. 
 
 "Now you must come and have dinner, darling. 
 And then we will go out. Would you like to go in a 
 boat on the river with Mother, and Cousin Joyce?" 
 
 Carina looked scared. 
 
 "Nannie will come too?" she asked quickly. 
 
 Carrie's heart knew its wound, but she merely said 
 that of course Nannie should come, if she and Carina 
 wished. Then by the door she paused 
 
 "You remember coming to see Mother last year, 
 Carina?" 
 
 "Yes," said the little girl slowly "a little. You 
 had on a blue dress ? ' ' She looked up vaguely. 
 
 And that, in a whole year of life, was all the im- 
 pression the child had retained had been allowed to 
 retain of her mother. Carrie realized that, probably, 
 during that year, Carina had never heard her men- 
 tioned. She had been kept out of memory and out of
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 195 
 
 speech, till the unwelcome date came back when she 
 must be allowed to see the child again. And yet it 
 was evident that the little girl was now aware of 
 some tragic association with the tall lady with whom 
 she was thus brought into periodic contact. She was 
 very silent, both at the mid-day meal, and afterwards 
 on the river, where they took a boat down to Iffley, 
 and Carina, sitting between her mother and Joyce, 
 was wooed piteously, tenderly wooed by Caroline, 
 as only a mother can woo a child. But the little per- 
 sonality never gave itself away. She looked at Carrie 
 often, with her beautiful puzzled eyes. She answered 
 a little primly, when she was spoken to; she gave 
 particulars about her pony, and her two dogs "at 
 home"; and she broke into a gurgling laugh of pure 
 delight when she saw a brood of gray cygnets disport- 
 ing themselves on the river bank. But all the time she 
 clutched her doll tightly to her, she watched her 
 Nannie perpetually, and as soon as they landed, she 
 was at the maid's side, slipping her little hand into 
 hers. 
 
 And at night there was almost a scene, when 
 Carina discovered that she was to sleep in a little 
 bed in her mother's room, and not with her Nannie. 
 She gave one great sob, and then throwing herself 
 on the floor face downwards, she cried bitterly, but 
 as silently as she could. The child's pain, and her 
 self-control, were equally pitiful. Carrie turned 
 white. But she sent the maid and Joyce away; and 
 when the maid came back she found that Mrs. Wing 
 had undressed the little girl, had washed her face 
 and hands, and plaited her hair ; and Carina was sit- 
 ting on her mother's knee, pacified and smiling, con- 
 descending even to eat a banana for her supper. It
 
 196 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 was Mrs. Wing so the maid thought who was near 
 crying now. 
 
 And indeed when the child was safe asleep in 
 her cot, and the long lashes lay quiet on the soft 
 cheek, Carrie was seized with a restlessness of grief 
 and longing that could hardly be borne. While 
 Joyce was writing a letter, Mrs. Wing put on her hat, 
 and slipped out of the house into the summer 
 evening. 
 
 The beautiful city lay before her flushed with 
 rose in the sunset. The High Street was full of a 
 cheerful crowd, imitating the crowd of term time. 
 Young men in flannels, and girls in light summer 
 dresses filled the pavements, coming back apparently 
 from the river and the boats: a crowd of Oxford 
 citizens enjoying their own town. Carrie passed 
 through them, and struck westwards and northwards, 
 making for the river meadows, and the Godstow 
 towing path, which had been the favorite walk of 
 her girlhood. And soon she was hurrying along the 
 bank of the brimming river, amid a wide-spread 
 marvel of light and color. The sunset clouds were 
 reflected in the wide slipping stream ; all things were 
 rose or gold; the tall poplars on the opposite bank, 
 strained skyward in a wind-blown rank, scratched 
 in dark line upon the splendor of the west. Around 
 her, and in front of her, spread a vast green 
 meadow, with flocks of geese upon it, and scattered 
 horses grazing. 
 
 She felt very much alone, haunted by miserable 
 thoughts, and consumed by an anguished longing for 
 her only child "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." 
 ' ' Who has the right to take her from me ? ' ' she asked 
 fiercely of the evening sky. "Hypocrites Pharisees!.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 197 
 
 Z suffered for her I bore her. She is not John's 
 she is mine ! " . . . 
 
 Then in the wide expanse of the great meadow, 
 she became aware of a solitary figure, a man, descend- 
 ing the towing path from Godstow, and coming 
 towards her. For some time as she walked on, she 
 was vaguely aware of him, as she was of the distant 
 tower of Godstow church, or the line of the Great 
 Western railway. But there came a moment, when 
 a sudden perception rushed upon her. She stood 
 still breathless, and trembling; and the figure ap- 
 proached, a man with his eyes on the ground, switch- 
 ing absently at the reeds along the bank with his 
 stick. Then he too looked up looked ahead 
 started and paused a few yards from her. 
 
 "John!" 
 
 The name died on her lips. Then an idea, a resolu- 
 tion took possession of her. She walked up to the 
 man in front of her. 
 
 "It is very strange that we should have met like 
 this," she said, with composure. "But as we have 
 met I want you to let me speak to you."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SIB JOHN MARSWORTH recoiled a step or two, as he 
 recognized the woman who in this complete solitude 
 addressed him by his Christian name. He took off his 
 hat, and then stood silent, very pale, his deep-set, 
 small, but penetrating eyes fixed upon the speaker. 
 It was evident that he was wholly and disagreeably 
 taken by surprise; that he had had nothing to do 
 with the meeting. 
 
 Carrie too had turned very white. But she spoke 
 quite calmly. 
 
 "I have had Carina with me all day, John. And 
 it has made me so unhappy that I could not stay 
 quiet in the house. She is asleep now and I came 
 out because I could not bear it and and it seemed 
 to help to walk and walk till one was tired. I 
 had no idea you were anywhere near." 
 
 "Let me say the same," was the stiff reply. "I 
 had not the smallest intention of intruding on you. It 
 was my intention to take Carina home to-morrow. 
 My business was finished earlier than I thought." 
 
 "And you too came to look at old haunts," said 
 Carrie quietly. ' ' I quite understand. ' ' 
 
 But in reality she did not understand at all. Why 
 had he not come to Oxford by Lady Marsworth's 
 motor with Carina and the nurse? Why tell them 
 
 198
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 199 
 
 nothing of his business? He must have actually 
 started from the same house, about the same time as 
 they, for the same town, and said not a word about 
 it. However, she was only conscious of a momentary 
 feeling of puzzle. She had graver things to talk 
 about. 
 
 "May I walk with you for a time!" she said, 
 looking him full in the face. ' ' I want to talk to you 
 about Carina. Whatever I may have done, she is my 
 child it was I brought her into the world." 
 
 Her lips trembled a little. Yet as she spoke her 
 defiant pity for herself was drowned in something 
 even sharper a startled sense of the change which 
 time had brought about in him, since she had seen 
 him last in Florence some two and a half years before. 
 Then he was a tall man of forty-one, looking younger, 
 erect and vigorous in build, with peculiarly thick 
 black hair, a strong black mustache, and a broad 
 weather-beaten face, where the shaven whiskers and 
 beard showed bluish-black through the tan of the 
 skin. What had happened to him? He appeared to 
 have shrunk in stature, in breadth of shoulder, in 
 power of limb. A meaner and lesser man altogether 
 seemed to be masquerading in John Marsworth's 
 clothes, which by the way had no clerical or monastic 
 suggestion about them whatever. And when he lifted 
 his hat, she had noticed that the top of the head was 
 bald, and the hair nearly gray. Was this what the 
 Jesuit novitiate a year of it did for those sub- 
 jected to it? Yet she had often heard it said that 
 the hard training of it was physically as good for a 
 man, as the training of an army recruit. 
 
 As she mentioned Carina she had seen the man's 
 whole aspect freeze. He did not move.
 
 200 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "I do not think we can profitably discuss Carina. 
 Everything with regard to her was settled long ago." 
 
 He stood there, leaning on his stick, haughtily 
 inflexible. Carrie looked this way and that. Then 
 the touch of comedy in the situation, tragic as it was, 
 struck her. Here they were, two human beings alone, 
 in the midst of this flat expanse of meadow, much of 
 it marshy after recent rain, with only one available 
 path along the river back to Oxford. Even after all 
 that had happened between them, could they not, as 
 civilized man and woman, control feeling so far as to 
 walk a mile in each other's company? 
 
 She waited a moment, poking the ground with her 
 umbrella, and half -smiling as he angrily perceived. 
 How young and girlish she looked still ! in her close- 
 fitting serge suit, and sailor hat. In the deepening 
 twilight, she seemed to him scarcely a day older than 
 when he had seen her first a child of seventeen 
 with the same background of stream and poplar- 
 fringed meadow. Her youthfulness, her unspoiled 
 beauty awoke a hidden storm in him. Such women, 
 born to wantonness, cannot suffer they are incapable 
 of what ages and wastes finer stuff. Insolence! that 
 she should speak of her suffering to him ! 
 
 But she found speech at last. 
 
 "We are a mile from Oxford, John. If you will 
 allow me to walk with you to Bossom's " she 
 pointed to the well-known boat-houses on the upper 
 river "I won't ask you to endure my company any 
 longer. But you were always a just man at least 
 you meant to be though you hate me now. Let me 
 speak to you for a few minutes. You had your way 
 with Dicky " 
 
 Her voice broke, much against her will
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 201 
 
 John Marsworth hesitated a moment longer, then 
 made a movement of reluctant assent. 
 
 "You will only exhaust and agitate yourself. For 
 if you mean to appeal to me to alter my decision with 
 regard to Carina, I must tell you at once that you 
 will appeal in vain. But if you must inflict such an 
 experience of, us both, I cannot help it. I will take 
 you back as far as the boat-houses. ' ' 
 
 They stepped out side by side. And both thought 
 inevitably of other summer evenings in the past, when 
 they had drifted down that famous stream as an 
 engaged couple, or had moored their boat beside the 
 lock at Godstow, or gathered the yellow noli me 
 tangere under the ruins of the priory. 
 
 But Caroline did her best to concentrate her mind 
 on what she had to say. 
 
 "John, I want to ask you don't interrupt me for 
 a moment to let me have that child for at least a 
 fortnight in the year. It's too, too cruel these few 
 hours. She dreads the thought of coming that's 
 plain. She looks at me as a stranger she hardly 
 understands who I am and by the time she realizes 
 a little, she's snatched away again. I don't plead for 
 myself. But John, nothing can undo the fact that 
 she's my child! She'll know and think much more 
 about it as she grows older. And now it's so hard 
 on her this fresh shock and strain every year and 
 she gets nothing for it. I could make her so happy ! 
 if I might have her a week at a time two separate 
 weeks, one in the summer perhaps and again in 
 the winter. You have her all the rest of the year. 
 Of course I know how wicked you think me. But 
 that's all done. I'm married. I have my cousin 
 Joyce Allen living with me. She's as good as gold,
 
 202 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 and very religious. Her father was a clergyman. 
 She would always help me to look after Carina. ' ' 
 
 She paused, her breath fluttering. The expression 
 of the man beside her showed not the smallest 
 response beyond a touch of satire. He shook his 
 head. 
 
 "Your arguments don't affect me at all. You say 
 for instance, you could make her happy. But I have 
 no wish whatever that you should make Carina happy. 
 I wish you to count for as little as possible in her life. 
 It did not seem to me that I was justified in prevent- 
 ing your seeing her altogether. But I warn you not 
 to attempt to force my hand. My bargain with you 
 was made after much thought, and I intend to stick 
 to it." 
 
 There was a pause. Then Caroline's bitter eyes 
 met his. She could not restrain herself. 
 
 "And that's what a Christian says to me! to a 
 mother who who longs for her child her own, own 
 baby! Isn't it enough what you did with Dicky, 
 John? and the wicked falsehood that you've let 
 people believe of me, all this time ? ' ' 
 
 "I never told any falsehood of you," he said 
 sternly. ' ' You did desert your child and he did die. ' ' 
 
 "Yes and by your cruelty not in my arms!" 
 she said wildly. 
 
 "What is the good of recrimination like this!" he 
 said, after a moment, more calmly. "It's the last 
 thing I have ever wished. You have chosen your 
 life, and I have had to adapt mine as best I could. In 
 my eyes of course, you are not married you are 
 living in sin. I am a Catholic " 
 
 "Then why are you here?" she interrupted 
 sharply. "Have you given up the Jesuits?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 203 
 
 The question evidently struck home. In her mode 
 of making it, and his of receiving it, there appeared 
 some past knowledge in each of the other. 
 
 "I owe you no account of my life. I repeat, I 
 am a Catholic, and for me divorce does not 
 exist." 
 
 "You are a Catholic, but you have already begun 
 to quarrel with them," she said triumphantly. "I 
 understand. What ever contented you for more than 
 a few months, John? your wife or your country 
 or your religion? And I know when Carina grows 
 up you will make her miserable by that harsh, judg- 
 ing, criticising way that that " She turned her 
 face away towards the still radiant west, trying 
 to beat down emotion. 
 
 Over John Marsworth's countenance there passed 
 first a spasm of anger; and then, something quite 
 different a look of pain perplexity weakness as 
 though her attack had found the soft places in a 
 troubled consciousness. But he braced himself to 
 answer. 
 
 "You have nothing to do with that. It is not for 
 you to complain. Your own acts have cut you off 
 from your child." 
 
 "Yes if you insist that they shall!" she cried. 
 "But if you believed what you're always saying, 
 John, you'd admit there are other sins than the sin I 
 committed which God punishes. Carina says you 
 read to her 'about Jesus.' Do you ever let her read 
 the things He said about 'mercy?' and 'forgive- 
 ness?' If I've broken one law, you've broken a good 
 many too! I may question this law or that law, 
 because I'm an unbeliever, but you can't you're a 
 Catholic. If there's a Judgment Day, John person-
 
 204 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 ally, I can't believe in it but if there's one, as 
 you're bound to hold you'll have to answer for that 
 night in the Val d'Aosta!" 
 
 Her voice, her look lashed him into rage. He saw 
 her, dark against the blood-red sunset behind the 
 river poplars, like an insolent, attacking Fury, when 
 her proper place should have been at his feet grovel- 
 ing. He spoke with quickened breath, striking at 
 hex blindly. 
 
 "Our Lord offered mercy to the humble, the 
 repentant not those whose sin has been apparently 
 so triumphant so profitable as yours ! ' ' 
 
 "Do you mean that I am rich and live in 
 Eltham House?" she said contemptuously; "and all 
 the rest of it! You know me better, John. You 
 know very well that money never bought me, and 
 never could. Women like me live by the heart. If 
 you had won mine! but you never did." 
 
 "Then, let me ask, why you consented to marry 
 me? On your own showing according to your own 
 doctrines, that, at least, was a crime." 
 
 "I suppose because you persuaded me," she said, 
 with a voice which had begun to falter. "I was so 
 young and you seemed so good and wise. But 
 oh, for Heaven's sake, don't let's go on like this, 
 John. I didn't mean to say unkind things when I 
 began this talk. What's the good? What I wanted 
 to say when I saw you so suddenly was vaguely 
 something like this. You and I could do nothing 
 but hate each other so far. If I wronged you, 
 you wronged me! horribly. The night of Dicky's 
 death wiped out all my score. We are quits more 
 than quits up to now. But it might be possible 
 for some kinder thoughts on both sides if you would
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 205 
 
 be good to me now about Carina. I never forget 
 Dicky ! day or night. But I might learn to be sorry 
 for us both for you, as well as for myself in 
 looking back if you would atone for what you did 
 then by being generous and merciful now." 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "If you imagine that I could ever let my child 
 set foot inside Alec Wing's house, or sit at his table 
 you are indeed deluded." 
 
 "I don't imagine it!" she said quickly. "Alec 
 would never interfere. I should take her to the sea 
 or some quiet cottage in the country. How could 
 I do her any harm, John? In spite of everything, 
 you know you know I am not a bad woman I am 
 not depraved. I have many friends men whom 
 you respect men like Mr. Washington or or 
 Mr. Llewellyn men whom everybody admires. ' ' Her 
 pleading, her quavering breath were very pitiful 
 to hear; he found himself wincing under it. "They 
 come to see me often. I take an interest in politics 
 in many public things. I am learning a great deal. 
 As for flirting with men, that's all over for me, long 
 ago. I'm not fast. Our house is not fast. The 
 people who come politicians and writers and 
 diplomats are just the same sort as those you know. 
 How could I do Carina any harm ! ' ' 
 
 "How many women come?" he asked her 
 roughly. 
 
 "More than you'd think!" was the defiant answer. 
 "Times are changed, John, in many ways. Half 
 the world, I dare say, sides with you. But there's 
 a large slice of it that understand me. And when 
 such a girl as my cousin as Joyce Allen consents 
 to live with me "
 
 206 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "How much does she know of your history? Not 
 much, I think!" 
 
 "Everything." 
 
 "Then you are doing the girl a wrong. She risks 
 her reputation." 
 
 Caroline laughed out. The words reminded her, 
 too vividly for self-control, of those "home truths," 
 those admonitions "for the good" of those subjected 
 to them, so freely dealt out by the John Marsworth 
 of old days. 
 
 The laugh was heard by two people in a passing 
 boat on the river, a "lover and his lass" coming down 
 from Godstow through the rosy dusk. 
 
 "There's two other sillies like you and me!" said 
 the lad joyously, to the girl in the stern, and she 
 smiled, and nodded, trailing her hand in the water, 
 and so absorbed in her own dream of happiness that 
 she scarcely turned to look at the pair walking along 
 the towing-path. 
 
 But the laugh was as painfully effective as many 
 of Caroline's laughs in the past had been. John 
 Marsworth smarted under it. And Caroline followed 
 it up, at first, in the old mocking way. 
 
 "I had almost forgotten you could say such brutal 
 things! Now I remember. Well, never mind. Say 
 what you like to me only listen to me!" And 
 suddenly her voice sank again to the soft imploring 
 note. "I shall go back to the inn and I shan't let 
 myself go to sleep. That would be wasting my few 
 hours. I shall sit up beside her all night just 
 watching her and perhaps in the early morning 
 when she's less strange with me she'll she'll let 
 me take her and hold her while she sleeps. And 
 then it will be all over. You'll force her away from
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 207 
 
 me. And I love every inch of her from top to toe 
 every look every word my little darling! John, 
 it's only a short life that any of us has. How do we 
 know what will happen before we die? or when 
 we shall die? Why be so hard on me? What good 
 can it do you? Give me a little bit more of Carina's 
 life! You'll be happier too if you do. God will 
 give it back to you ! ' ' 
 
 Her face was now wet with tears. He saw that she 
 was terribly agitated, that her soul was in her words. 
 But the sight only strengthened his stand against her. 
 The undisciplined, romantic, eloquent Carrie so 
 stubborn, and so plausible so appealing and so un- 
 manageable the Carrie who had betrayed him, 
 ruined his life, and made him a laughing-stock he 
 heard only that woman in these beseeching cries, and 
 he turned from them in disgust. 
 
 Standing still upon the path, he pointed to the 
 boat-houses, which lay straight ahead of them. 
 
 "It is time, I think, Mrs. Wing, this scene should 
 end. I shall leave you here. My will with regard 
 to Carina remains absolutely unchanged by anything 
 you have said. If possible I see more plainly than 
 before, how your temperament might affect her, if 
 I allowed her to see you more freely. Don't oblige 
 me to withdraw my permission entirely." 
 
 ' ' Do you know that when she is eighteen, she may, 
 if she chooses, come to me altogether, and you can't 
 prevent her!" said Caroline, breathing hard. 
 
 "I think I shall manage to prevent her. Now 
 if you will allow me, I'll leave you here. It is not 
 really dark, and the way is quite plain. But you 
 know it. And there are two people " he pointed 
 to the young man and his sweetheart, just leaving
 
 208 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 the raft where the boats were moored, and turning 
 towards Oxford ' ' who are going the same road. You 
 will not be alone. I beg to wish you good evening. ' ' 
 
 He raised his hat again, walked on quickly, and 
 hailed a boat to put him across the river. In a few 
 minutes he was lost to sight on the further side. 
 
 Carrie walked on blindly, trembling in every limb. 
 What a scene! how unexpected how bitter! She 
 felt like one physically beaten and worn out. What 
 would Alec say to her, when he heard what had 
 happened? Would he blame her, for having spoken 
 for having risked the rebuff the humiliating rebuff 
 inflicted upon her his wife, his possession, his repre- 
 sentative? His personal pride and she knew it for 
 measureless would be wounded in her. She smarted 
 indeed already, under the thought of his anger the 
 thought of confessing to him what had happened. Yet 
 she could never conceal it. If she and Alec were to 
 hide things from each other, ' ' of what good shall my 
 life be to me?" to what 1 purpose all this pain and 
 loss and hatred ? If that, for the sake of which she had 
 spoiled John Marsworth's life, and forfeited her child, 
 and shut herself out from the respect of law-abiding 
 men and women, were to fail her then indeed! 
 
 A great wave of fear swept across her leaving 
 her with fresh tears on her cheeks, while at the same 
 time she mocked herself. As if Alec could ever fail 
 her ! Alec, who adored her though of course he was 
 self-willed, and ambitious as all strong men are. No, 
 she had made no mistake. Alec, and their happi- 
 ness, Alec's arms round her, Alec's kisses, all the thrill 
 and passion of his presence, of their life together day 
 and night, were worth it all well worth it all! "I 
 would do it again again!" she said to herself, with
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 209 
 
 clenched hands, passionately. "Who could live with 
 such a being as John so cruel so unforgiving ? His 
 treatment of me to-day his manner to Carina's 
 mother incredible shameful ! How it showed what 
 he is what I had to bear!" 
 
 A wild west wind was rising over the river flats. 
 She walked on, battling with it, and with the spiritual 
 blasts within anger, self-pity, self -justification. She 
 had done wrong of course she had done wrong, ac- 
 cording to the canons in which she had been brought 
 up. She was thankful her father had died two years 
 before her meeting with Alec Wing. But looked at 
 from any ideal standard, anything beyond the com- 
 mon foot-rule of vulgar minds, John had sinned at 
 least as badly in selfishness, cruelty, tyranny. They 
 were quits indeed! as she had said to him to his 
 face! just once. It had done something to slake an 
 old thirst. She owed him nothing nothing! They 
 were enemies now for ever. And as soon as she 
 could take Carina from him, by force or fraud, she 
 would. 
 
 The strangest medley of wounded feelings possessed 
 her. All that was best and all that was worst in her 
 rose against the man she had just parted from. Her 
 passion for her child, and her injured vanity as a 
 great lady, who in spite of all boycottings, had held 
 the attention of London, and some of the most famous 
 people in it, for the greater part of a season, were 
 both alive in her. How dared John Marsworth 
 speak to her treat her so! How little he realized 
 that she whom he had married as an inexperienced 
 portionless girl, was now abler, better informed and 
 much more powerful in the world than himself ! He 
 did not realize it, because he was ignorant of all but
 
 210 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 a small fanatical society, in which he could make 
 things be as he wished them to be. 
 
 But after all, he was the father and present 
 owner of Carina! 
 
 Carrie re-entered the inn worn out. Joyce, who 
 had been watching for her, exclaimed softly at her 
 looks. The girl ministered to her in the tenderest 
 way, guessing that she had been out by herself in 
 search of healing solitude; and when Carrie, satisfied 
 that Carina was sleeping quietly, allowed herself to 
 be put on the sofa in the sitting-room, after dinner, 
 Joyce came to sit on a stool beside her, and attempted 
 to distract her. By way of gossip, she described the 
 man she had seen in the bow-window over the way 
 at the time of their arrival. Caroline started, opened 
 her languid eyes, and asked questions. John! 
 clearly John! What on earth made him do such a 
 thing? Her familiar knowledge of Oxford told her 
 that the fine old room over the tailor's shop was used 
 as a club-room for the Catholic members and students 
 of the University. John no doubt was a country 
 member; and had used his membership in order to 
 watch her coming that morning. Why? What 
 should make him wish to see from a safe distance 
 the woman he scorned and hated? She could not 
 help pondering the incident, half resenting it, half 
 moved by it. But she did not enlighten Joyce. She 
 supposed she said it was someone who knew her 
 or thought he did from the old Oxford days. 
 
 Then they said good night to each other, and 
 Carrie was glad to shut out even Joyce's tenderness, 
 and to be alone with Carina. She drew her own bed 
 close to the child's and lay high on her pillows, 
 bending over that soft and perfect sleep. It was
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 211 
 
 a night in which the maternal passion in Caroline 
 the only enemy of importance that Alec Wing had 
 had to fight in the crisis of their lives reached a 
 kind of ecstasy at once of joy and grief. The light 
 was low in the room, but it was enough to show all 
 the unconscious beauty, the helpless confiding grace 
 of the little form. Sometimes Carrie would stretch 
 out a hand and draw it lightly over the coverlet that 
 she might realize the childish limbs beneath, and feel 
 them for one night her own. And sometimes, watch- 
 ing every line of the closed eyes, the tranquil brow 
 and rose-leaf cheeks, she would try and fancy how 
 Carina would grow up what she would be like at 
 seventeen at twenty. 
 
 All night the beautiful mother, beside the sleeping 
 child, scarcely slept herself. The Oxford bells 
 from St. Mary's, the Cathedral, Carfax called to her 
 through the darkness as they used to call to her on 
 those rare nights in her own youth when only a 
 stone's throw away, in her little maiden room she 
 was awake to hear them. They brought with them 
 associations, strange and subtly strong; suggestions 
 of order, law, tradition something stern and august 
 from which in her splendid maturity she shrank as 
 she had never done in girlhood. Voices of a place 
 where men have labored for generations not pri- 
 marily for gold, or success, or fame, but for some- 
 thing outside themselves and near to God; voices 
 of England's soul. 
 
 And in the early morning Carina stirred and 
 opened her eyes. When she saw the face bending 
 over her, and the hungry love in it, she was at first 
 frightened. She frowned, her mouth took the shape 
 of tears. But Carrie opened her arms ; and the child
 
 212 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 let herself be drawn irresistibly out of her own bed 
 into her mother 's. Half asleep still, by some heavenly 
 instinct she threw her hand round Carrie's neck, 
 and Carrie in a passion of joy, that scarcely dared to 
 breathe, held her securely wrapped in warm arms, 
 till, with the child upon her breast, the soft beating 
 of Carina 's heart stilled and calmed her own, and at 
 last she slept. 
 
 Later, when Carrie stepped out of bed, after 
 the nurse had carried away Carina to dress her, 
 she was so startled by her own appearance in 
 the glass pale cheeks and dark-rimmed eyes that 
 she must needs think with great alarm of Alec 
 Alec whom she was to find that afternoon at Brace- 
 bridge, the house recently built by Lord Wing on 
 the Sussex downs. What would he say to such a 
 scarecrow ? And some instinct told her that she could 
 not now afford to be careless of her looks. She must 
 not cry any more; she must not grieve any more. 
 And when it was a question of Alec, her will rarely 
 failed her. 
 
 So it was a composed and smiling though heavy- 
 eyed mother who kissed Carina in the old hall of the 
 Bishops' Inn and waved to her from the doorway 
 as the motor disappeared along the High Street. 
 Then Joyce was dropped at the railway station to 
 return to London, and Carrie started by herself, in 
 the magnificent Mercedes that Alec had lately given 
 her, for the South Downs. The day was clear and 
 hot. All horizons were blue; all the woods at their 
 deepest; the shorn hay meadows garishly green. 
 The luxurious motion, the beauty of this England 
 flashing by, the reaction from the scene of yesterday
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 213 
 
 and the sorrow of the night, had soon brushed the 
 cloud from Caroline's young senses. She was gay 
 and happy again. For in a few hours she would be 
 with Alec. 
 
 Yet she was far from insensible to Lord Wing's 
 state, and possible death. She had had no time 
 indeed to grow intimate with him. The relation of 
 father and daughter had never been established 
 between them; and probably never could have been. 
 He was too old perhaps; and his life had been too 
 remote from hers. But he had been very kind to her 
 very chivalrous and generous; when he might very 
 well have rejected and disowned her. And she was 
 grateful. 
 
 The dropping sun saw her climbing a long road 
 east of Brighton to the top of the downs, where Lord 
 Wing, tired of his various houses, and whimsically 
 sick of antiquities, had built himself a low spreading 
 bungalow, with few rooms, but those spacious, and 
 windows looking north over the weald, eastward along 
 the rolling crests of the downs, and southward over 
 the sea. 
 
 Alec ran out to meet her, with a face in which, as 
 it seemed to her, a mask of gravity hid something 
 else, quite different, and forcibly repressed. 
 
 "He is very ill, but quite himself. He is expecting 
 you." 
 
 Lord Wing in a flowered dressing-gown, sat with 
 his hands upon his knee, quietly watching the lights 
 over the Channel. His head and face were more 
 spectrally white than ever; he seemed indeed an 
 apparition, fading, almost diaphanous. But the eyes 
 glittered still invincibly alive. 
 
 He held out his hand feebly but with his old
 
 214 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 courtly manner. Carrie stooped and kissed him at 
 which he faintly smiled. 
 
 11 Thank you, my dear. Sit down." 
 
 She sat down, and he turned to look at her. 
 
 "What a beautiful woman!" he said, as though to 
 himself half dreamily. 
 
 Carrie flushed. 
 
 "Is there anything I could do for you, Father?" 
 she asked timidly. It was the first time she had called 
 him that name. 
 
 "I want nothing," he said quite cheerfully. "And 
 the doctors know nothing. But they can give me 
 morphia which is all I want. Well " his blood- 
 less lips attempted a smile "and how goes the 
 salon?" 
 
 Caroline looked perplexed. 
 
 "I did my best, Father. And you've been so good 
 to us so wonderful! But Alec has told you of his 
 disappointment. ' ' 
 
 Lord Wing still smiled. 
 
 "What does that matter? Hell be in the Lords 
 directly with all the money he wants. Let him keep 
 up the fight. One must have something to make the 
 days move. That's the difficulty. It's like what 
 Dizzy once said to me of Parliament ' a horrid bore 
 except for moments!' One must try for as many 
 'moments' as possible. I have tried all kinds of 
 things to not much purpose. Alec must go on ex- 
 perimenting. It makes life amusing." 
 
 There was silence for a little. He closed his eyes 
 awhile. When he opened them again, he said sharply 
 
 "I have got more pleasure out of Alec than out of 
 anything else in life. But you know or perhaps you 
 ought to know Alec's heart is not his strong point!"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 215 
 
 His expression of indulgent mockery sent a pang 
 of fear through her. She looked at him without 
 speaking. He laid his hand on hers. 
 
 "I hope it won't fail you. You've staked a good 
 deal. I see that. Keep him busy. Life for him 
 should be a bustle no stagnation. I should like to 
 be there to see." 
 
 Silence again. His last words to her were very 
 soft. 
 
 ' ' Give him a child. It would help you. ' ' 
 
 Carrie kissed his hand with a little sob. 
 
 After that, he spoke very little, and he parted from 
 life with a wholly pagan urbanity and composure. 
 Nobody proposed any religious function to him, and 
 he asked for none. His last look was for Alec and 
 possibly by some trick of lip or eye, persistent to the 
 last, the affection in it seemed to be still tinged with 
 satire. 
 
 They took him back to the great ugly pile in the 
 Midlands where Alec had been brought up; and he 
 was buried with all the usual pomp and para- 
 phernalia. Then came the opening of the will, and 
 after his long interview with the lawyers Alec came 
 out to his wife. His excitement was evident. He 
 made her walk up and down a long passage with him, 
 and ran through a first list of the possessions which 
 had come to him. The wealth he had inherited was 
 evidently far greater, even, than he had expected; 
 and his exultation was plain. 
 
 "I shall take my seat in the Lords next week be- 
 fore the House rises, and shall be in politics directly. 
 We'll form a new party, Carrie, you and I! we'll 
 have a press of our own and, by George ! if Wash- 
 ington comes in next year, or the year after, and
 
 216 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 tries to boycott me, it will be at his peril. We'll play 
 money and brains against cant. Neither he, nor 
 your prating friend Llewellyn, has any idea of the 
 kind of resources I mean to develop !" 
 
 Carrie listened to him half dazzled half fore- 
 boding. That night she told him the story of her 
 meeting with Marsworth. As she expected, it made 
 him furiously angry, and he positively forbade her 
 to run any such risks again. That the possession of 
 Carina should give that curmudgeon of a fellow any 
 opening, any excuse, for such an attitude, and such 
 language to his, Alec Wing's, wife, stirred all the 
 arrogance of a nature intoxicated anew by wealth, 
 and by grandiose dreams of pow.er. What he had done 
 might seem to others cruel or wicked. It seemed to 
 himself perfectly reasonable, because lie had done it. 
 
 There was one personal sting for Caroline in these 
 first days of Alec's inheritance, though neither she 
 nor he acknowledged it to each other. The wonderful 
 jewels which had belonged to Alec's mother, and to 
 many of his ancestresses before her, were not, it 
 seemed, heirlooms. They were entirely in Lord 
 Wing's power to will. And they had been placed by 
 his will, in a special trust, for "the wife of Alec's 
 eldest son" should he have a son, or sons. Should 
 there be no son, they were to go to Alec's daughters 
 in order. And should Alec have no lawful issue, they 
 
 were to pass to the family of the Duchess of C 
 
 in order of survival. 
 
 "In no case, are they to be mine," thought Caro- 
 line, who understood him perfectly. The jewels which 
 the old man had lavished on her, were the signs of 
 an individual indulgence, personal to himself. The
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 217 
 
 jewels his dead wife had worn were the signs of some- 
 thing bigger than himself the instinct and continuity 
 of race. The Wings had been in many ways an 
 unscrupulous clan, but their women had been chaste. 
 There had been no adulteress among them. 
 
 That Lord Wing, with his singular attachment to 
 Alec, his freedom from ordinary conventions, not to 
 speak of the various liaisons with which he was 
 ordinarily credited since his wife's death of which 
 indeed there were traces in his papers should have 
 felt and acted so, produced a deep effect for a time on 
 Caroline's inner consciousness, though she never spoke 
 of it, and had indeed long since divined this particular 
 reluctance on Lord Wing's part. Yet as she and he 
 had become better friends, she had perhaps ceased to 
 believe in it; and this renewed proof of it hurt her. 
 It was indeed a curious instance of that instinctive 
 respect for law which can exist, as a kind of corporate 
 sense, in the mind of one personally lawless. It was 
 another and chilling indication of that strength of 
 public opinion she and Alec for all their enormous 
 good fortune had still to face.
 
 PART II
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 IT was the night before the opening of Parliament. 
 London, or rather the West End, was full of anima- 
 tion. The Ministerial and Opposition dinner parties 
 were going on. Motors were dashing in all directions, 
 and in one West End square, the ordinary traffic was 
 entirely held up to allow the guests of a great Whig 
 house to go and come, under the long portico, where 
 amid bustling servants in splendid livery, a constant 
 succession of women muffled in their opera cloaks, and 
 men in uniforms and decorations, held a kind of out- 
 door reception, which was often more amusing than 
 the party within. 
 
 Sir Oliver Lewson had put a lady into her motor, 
 and was trying to get a taxi for himself, when he saw 
 the portly form of the Duchess struggling through 
 the throng, with a meek daughter behind her. 
 
 "Where are you off to?" he asked her. "Why 
 you've hardly put the tip of your nose in here, before 
 you're gone again ! ' ' 
 
 "I've seen everybody I want to see. And now I'm 
 off to something much more exciting." 
 
 "To Eltham House? Of course I'm going there 
 too." 
 
 "So I supposed. Well, if you'll tell my man to 
 go for the car, and then come and talk to me a few 
 
 221
 
 222 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 minutes out of the draught, we might pick each 
 other's brains on that subject a little." 
 
 Sir Oliver's expression in reply was not quite so 
 forthcoming as usual. However the car was sent for, 
 and with no expectation of seeing it emerge from the 
 choked roads of the Square under at least a quarter 
 of an hour, he, the Duchess and the wisp-like daughter 
 retired to a corner of the outer hall to talk. 
 
 The Duchess, Lewson perceived, was charged to 
 the muzzle with that phenomenal interest in the 
 affairs of her neighbors, which made her so formida- 
 ble. As to the Wings she could not ask questions fast 
 enough. Wrapped round in a purple opera cloak, 
 like a toga, from which emerged her plain, large- 
 nosed face, her untidy hair, which she never allowed 
 her maid time to dress, and her diamonds, she held 
 Sir Oliver under fire. 
 
 "I suppose you stayed with them in the autumn? 
 Of course you did!" 
 
 "I did for five or six weeks. You know, of 
 course, that I have become Alec's head-agent and 
 factotum?" 
 
 "H'm. Yes, I did. Well, I hope he pays you 
 well." 
 
 Sir Oliver laughed. The Duchess was allowed to 
 say these things, and it was not worth while resenting 
 them. 
 
 " Thanks! The work is enormous, and at present 
 I can't overtake it all." 
 
 "Of course it is preposterous that any man should 
 be allowed to have so much. I believe Wing, my 
 Wing, Alec's father, just died of the fuss and worry 
 of it." 
 
 ''I don't think so. Lord Wing died because he was
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 223 
 
 bored with living. There was no fuss or worry. He 
 took care there shouldn't be." 
 
 "By neglecting all his duties? "Well, of course 
 Alec will do the same though I do hear all sorts of 
 queer tales about him." 
 
 "You are quite mistaken, my dear Duchess. Alec 
 is working himself to death." 
 
 "Because he wants to win something or crush 
 somebody. Don't deny it. You know perfectly well 
 those are his motives. Washington has offended him, 
 and he intends to pay out Washington. What's this 
 I hear about the newspaper?" 
 
 "The first number comes out next week. You'll see 
 the staff at Eltham House." 
 
 "He won't succeed. There's a woman in the 
 way just one woman." The Duchess' small eyes 
 twinkled 
 
 "I suppose you mean Mrs. Washington?" 
 
 "Of course. The power that woman has is amaz- 
 ing. You should hear her speak in one of their 
 tabernacles. I always go. Look here! " 
 
 The Duchess glanced round her to see whether her 
 daughter was listening. But that limp young lady 
 was for once quite unconscious of her mother. She 
 was watching a handsome Hussar in uniform, who was 
 standing in the inner hall. The Hussar was flirting 
 with a married woman, and had bestowed nothing 
 but the most perfunctory notice on Lady Ida, as she 
 descended the broad staircase in his neighborhood. 
 But she did not mind. It was enough that he was 
 handsome, had white teeth, very black hair and wore 
 his jacket magnificently. It was enough indeed to 
 be in the same world with such a creature. 
 
 The Duchess therefore was safe from her off-
 
 224 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 spring, and could whisper her advice into Lewson's 
 ear. 
 
 "Tell Lady Wing if she minds you! to snub 
 Washington a little. His visits to Elthani House are 
 much talked about. And even saints can be jealous. 
 Why does he go? He must know that the house 
 Carrie's salon and all the rest of it represents a 
 'cave' that may upset him. All sorts of plots are 
 hatched there against him and his leadership. And 
 yet he and Llewellyn dangle round Carrie as much as 
 ever. It's undignified." 
 
 "Conscious power perhaps," laughed Lewson. 
 "They 're not afraid." 
 
 "More fools they. Washington's by no means so 
 safe as he and his friends think. He may play the 
 Johnny Head-in- Air once too often." 
 
 ' ' Well, my dear Duchess, I have nothing to do with 
 Alec's politics. I am only concerned with his estates, 
 which I assure you are enough for any reasonable 
 man." 
 
 "How many country houses?" asked the Duchess 
 peremptorily. 
 
 "Six or seven important ones with villas and 
 bungalows innumerable. To build a new house was 
 Lord Wing's way of taking a tonic. It gave him 
 a fillip which was all he wanted. But the really 
 interesting thing is that we have discovered a lot of 
 London property. I, being old-fashioned, desire to 
 treat it commercially. Alec seems to wish to treat 
 it politically to make a Socialist splash. Don't tell 
 him I told you!" 
 
 "Alec, I always knew, would .turn on his own 
 class, ' ' was the impatient reply. ' ' He '11 play Philippe 
 Egalite, because Washington wouldn't give him a
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 225 
 
 seat, and because Carrie can't go to a drawing-room. 
 But he won't get anything by it. Several people 
 you and I know have tried it mostly women. It 
 don't answer. The working-class isn't taken in. But 
 there's something much more important than this I 
 want to know " 
 
 The Duchess looked round her but Lady Ida was 
 still watching the Hussar. Her mother lowered her 
 voice. 
 
 "Tell me about Madge Whitton. There are all 
 sorts of rumors. They say Alec's been seeing a great 
 deal of her that somebody 's been lending her money 
 and so forth. H'm?" The speaker turned a 
 sharply interrogative eye on the man beside her. 
 
 Lewson shrugged his shoulders 
 
 "Ask me another, Duchess. A man as deep in 
 death-duties as I am has no time for these matters." 
 
 ' ' How tiresome you are ! ' ' cried the Duchess impa- 
 tiently. ' ' You and I have gossiped for twenty years. ' ' 
 
 Sir Oliver laughed, but without yielding a fraction. 
 Immediately afterwards, the Duchess caught sight of 
 a gesticulating footman. She invited Lewson to ac- 
 company her, and all three were soon on the way to 
 Eltham House. But midway as Lewson noticed 
 Lady Ida was dropped at home. 
 
 "Heavens, what a crowd!" cried the Duchess, as 
 they entered the street, towards the eastern end of 
 which rose the great gates of Eltham House. "And 
 what impudence it all is! Four official parties 
 and Eltham House! bigger than any of them. 
 Look at the men pouring in without their wives ! ' ' 
 And she pointed to a large limousine in the rank 
 beside them full of men in uniform, much be- 
 medaled.
 
 226 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Some pretty women too!" said Lewson con- 
 fidently, as another car passed them. 
 
 "Pooh! Foreigners or actresses. All the diplo- 
 mats' wives go to Carrie the rich Americans the 
 feminists artists and theatrical people and all 
 Wing's poor relations." 
 
 "A pretty big London, by itself!" 
 
 "Ah, I dare say, but not the London Wing wants. 
 He knows what the women of our class can do for 
 a man. ' ' 
 
 "Apparently according to you it is one woman, 
 of another class a woman who preaches in taber- 
 nacles that matters most." 
 
 "That's the religious force. Horribly strong I 
 grant you. But if they had the social force with 
 them, they could beat it. The Royalties however have 
 settled that." 
 
 Lewson did not pursue the subject, and the 
 Duchess at last plainly perceived that while Wing 
 had gained an invaluable agent, she herself, on the 
 subject of the Wings, had lost a confidant. All that 
 Lewson knew he would no longer communicate to her, 
 and she chafed, like the autocrat she was, under such 
 inconvenient discretion. 
 
 The crowd was indeed enormous, and the scene in 
 the glistening hall, and on the famous double stair- 
 case of Eltham House except for those who had an 
 intimate knowledge of those particular groups and 
 persons supposed, by themselves at any rate, to be 
 leading London society could scarcely have been 
 more brilliant. 
 
 At the top of the stairs stood Caroline Wing, the 
 most beautiful woman amid a throng of other women 
 of very varied types; a throng which in Lewson 's
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 227 
 
 eyes made up in good looks what it lacked in birth 
 or, possibly, morals. Her hair, her neck, her dress, 
 shone with jewels, and she herself shone more than 
 they. It seemed to him, as he withdrew to a position 
 in a doorway near, whence he could watch her re- 
 ceiving her guests, that she had both gained and lost 
 since her arrival in London as Wing's wife nearly a 
 year before. She had lost something of freshness, of 
 that intangible enchanting bloom which is merely 
 youth, merely the dew on the rose. On the other 
 hand she had gained enormously in self -governance, 
 in consciousness of the world about her, in personal 
 dignity; so that on the whole her beauty was a more 
 dazzling thing than ever. 
 
 As to her character, Lewson reflected that he had 
 gained a much clearer knowledge of it, during the 
 six months which had elapsed since he had last come 
 with the crowd to Eltham House. A kind of accident 
 nothing more than a casual meeting and conversa- 
 tion at a shooting party, early in the preceding 
 autumn, had led to Wing's offering him the principal 
 agency on his enormous properties, with a salary so 
 high that the ex-Indian civilian could not resist it. 
 Perhaps however, Lewson had been as much attracted 
 by the work as the money. He had been a very suc- 
 cessful Indian administrator, and since his return 
 home, at not much more than fifty, he had known 
 moments of dullness, which had never attacked him 
 before. Land and all the problems of land were his 
 hobby, and when Wing came to him, impulsively 
 offering some of the greatest estates in England as a 
 field for experiments, and unlimited money to try 
 them with, the quick mind and vigorous personality 
 of the elder man caught fire. He accepted the charge,
 
 228 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 and had been since renewing his youth. Incidentally 
 also, he had been making a close study of his em- 
 ployer and his employer's wife; for which the ma- 
 terials had been ample, seeing that he had spent much 
 of the autumn in their company at one or other of 
 their super-abundant country houses. 
 
 It was clear to him that Lady Wing had been at 
 first excited and amused by the multitude of their 
 new possessions ; flattered too, possibly, by the natural 
 subservience of a large section of mankind towards 
 the possessors. Pictures, books, heirlooms of all 
 sorts, the spoils of generations, which in many cases 
 had been lying forgotten for years, in houses sub- 
 stantially ' ' kept up ' ' but never visited ; all these had 
 supplied adventure and entertainment for months. 
 Lady Wing had called in experts to help her, and 
 there had been a fine searching of treasure-heaps, as 
 thrilling as such searches commonly are. But in 
 other ways she and Wing had passed through a 
 very checkered experience. They had made a kind 
 of royal progress through the Wing estates, and their 
 reception had varied greatly. In general the tenants 
 had welcomed them effusively, understanding that 
 a regime of general neglect was coming to an end, 
 and that the young lord was prepared to carry things 
 with a high and generous hand. Wing had made 
 several political speeches, which had been well re- 
 ceived by both farmers and laborers. There was to be 
 liberal expenditure on small holdings and allotments 
 liberal allowances for repairs in some districts 
 liberal reduction of rent. So far, so good. But the 
 social side of the business had been a good deal moi*e 
 doubtful. 
 
 In some districts indeed, Lewson had seen but
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 229 
 
 small signs of boycotting. The newcomers had found 
 a whole neighborhood apparently on tip-toe 
 expectant of subscriptions, entertainments, favors 
 of all kinds; ready to offer bouquets to Caroline, 
 and addresses to Wing, on the smallest provocation. 
 In other places the pair had seemed to come and go, 
 amid a frozen silence. No notice taken of their 
 arrival by any of the neighbors, except such as were 
 in some business relation to them; a few paragraphs 
 in the local papers; a few official visits from people 
 who could not help themselves and nothing more. 
 Sometimes this had happened under the influence of a 
 local religious leader Anglican or dissenting; some- 
 times it was the local big-wigs the neighboring land- 
 owners who had dictated a rigorous ostracism, 
 especially of Lady Wing. But well-received or ill- 
 received, these two handsome young people had been 
 always in the limelight, always conscious that they 
 were the talk of a countryside, and that their doings 
 and sayings were of great importance to thousands 
 of people. 
 
 Under these influences, as Lewson's secret thoughts 
 admitted very plainly, Alec Wing to put it gently 
 had not improved. The megalomania always latent 
 in his temperament had developed amazingly ; opposi- 
 tion enraged him; and the men who opposed or dis- 
 appointed him, were always according to him, either 
 sickly hypocrites, or envious fools. 
 
 And had this general temper of bitterness, of 
 thwarted, and yet determined ambition, reacted, in 
 some strange way upon his relation to his wife? in 
 that she was constantly reminding him of the most 
 teasing barriers in his path? That was what Lewson 
 occasionally asked himself ; always with an indignant
 
 230 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 rush of feeling on Lady Wing's behalf. "Was it 
 Wing's instinct to visit the "cutting" which befell 
 them both, especially in certain high quarters, upon 
 the beautiful woman who worshiped him as in some 
 way her special fault? Lewson knew very well that 
 a man who is forced by her kindred or by public 
 opinion to marry the woman he has betrayed, can 
 hate the victim now become the avenger as keenly 
 as he had ever wooed the mistress. The same uncon- 
 scious reasoning seemed to be at work here. When- 
 ever penalty made itself felt, Wing's irritability or 
 arrogance seemed to suggest that it was the woman's 
 affair only. The man resented any share in it. 
 
 As to Caroline Wing herself, Lewson, now that he 
 knew her better, was aware of just the same mingling 
 of homage and pity in his feeling towards her, as he 
 perceived in Robert Llewellyn and other men. Her 
 beauty was wonderfully appealing, partly because she 
 thought so little of it herself, partly because of the 
 frank or childish elements in her nature which made 
 it more difficult for her than for other women to hide 
 the movements of conscience or feeling. He saw, for 
 instance, that she suffered much more now than 
 when they first reached London from the strength of 
 public opinion against her; that there was something 
 indeed in her own mind which was always betraying 
 her to her judges, while yet always rallying in the 
 end to a passionate defense of love and its rights. 
 And he often perceived a great weariness in her; 
 weariness, he thought of the endless parade and 
 clatter of the life that Wing made her lead. Sorrow 
 too for causes he could only guess at. But he per- 
 ceived that she was made for children, and she had 
 none. That supreme sacrifice of her Marsworth chil-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 231 
 
 dren she had faced for love of Wing; and she had 
 never recovered it. 
 
 Was there anything serious in the talk about Mrs. 
 Whitton in the gossip about Lord Melton's devo- 
 tion? Lewson felt that he knew no more than any- 
 body else. . . . 
 
 . . . Ah! there was Melton coming upstairs and 
 Mrs. Whitton a few steps behind him. Involuntarily 
 Lewson moved forward a little to watch. He saw 
 young Melton's dark and striking face striking 
 rather than handsome break into a charming smile, 
 as he reached his hostess; and he perceived that 
 instead of going on into the drawing-room, young 
 Melton took his place beside Lady Wing, ready to win 
 a word or a look from her in the intervals of her 
 handshaking, and that she turned to him when she 
 could, with a soft and open expression, as one turns 
 from strangers to a friend. Her reception of Mrs. 
 Whitton, on the other hand, seemed to him markedly 
 cold and careless. "She can't pretend as well as 
 others, ' ' he said to himself and he liked her the better 
 for it. But if she had little to say to Mrs. Whitton, 
 Mrs. Whitton was apparently primed with a great 
 deal to say to her and others. She too stood for a 
 little while at the stair head, conspicuously talking 
 and laughing. Then Lewson perceived Alec Wing in 
 the doorway behind his wife, and presently Mrs. 
 Whitton had slipped through the crowd in his direc- 
 tion. Lewson caught her smiling upward glance, and 
 Wing 's recognition. She seemed to pass her host and 
 go on into the crowd behind him; but Lewson had 
 a curious certainty that they would not lose sight of 
 each other. 
 
 "Well how's the new post going?"
 
 232 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 The speaker was Llewellyn. Lewson hailed him 
 with pleasure, though not without something of the 
 same surprise that he should be there as the Duchess 
 had expressed. 
 
 They talked a little about the agency. Then 
 Lewson inquired after the King's Speech, which, 
 according to time-honored custom had just been read 
 at the official dinners of the night given by the 
 leaders in both Houses to their supporters. 
 
 "Anything new or exciting?" 
 
 "Oh, Lord, yes! They've made up their minds 
 at last. They're bringing in a strong Protectionist 
 budget. It will be a splendid row, and we shall beat 
 them on it. They're probably riding for a fall. Our 
 host here, I understand, will support them." 
 
 Llewellyn turned his chubby cheeks and smiling 
 eyes upon his companion. He looked extraordinarily 
 wise, ugly and confident. 
 
 "I hear also," he resumed, "that Wing will make 
 his first speech to-morrow in the Lords a hot attack 
 on Washington?" 
 
 Lewson nodded. 
 
 "He has been taking great pains with it." 
 
 "No doubt. Can you point me out any of the men 
 who are running the paper?" asked Llewellyn. 
 
 Lewson picked out one or two from the crowd. 
 Llewellyn looked at them with a benevolent half 
 satiric interest. 
 
 "Ah, yes I know clever fellows. But I under- 
 stand the editor is not yet found. ' ' 
 
 ' ' No. Wing has set his heart on a particular man ' ' 
 
 "And can't get him!" laughed Llewellyn. "I 
 think I'll back Wing. Well, the programme of the 
 paper looks very catching protection, socialism
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 233 
 
 and militarism. I dare say Wing '11 make us old Lib- 
 erals sit up." 
 
 Sir Oliver surveyed him. 
 
 "I never saw anyone less alarmed," he said dryly. 
 Llewellyn laughed. 
 
 "I assure you, if Wing gets the man he wants, 
 Washington and I shall shiver in our shoes. There 
 are a number of M.P. 's here to-night, ' ' he added, look- 
 ing round the surging crowd with a sudden intentness. 
 
 Lewson made no remark. There were a number of 
 M.P.'s streaming in from the different official parties, 
 some in levee dress. 
 
 ''I foresee an 'Eltham House party,' " said 
 Llewellyn, smiling. "But Lady Wing promises still 
 to let me come and see her! I must go and get a 
 word with her. ' ' 
 
 Llewellyn found his hostess in one of the inner 
 drawing-rooms, a very famous room, walled with 
 cases of old Nankin, which English and European 
 museums had so far sighed after in vain. Amid the 
 gleaming show of lustrous blue and white, where all 
 light in the room came from the illuminated vitrines, 
 he found Caroline Wing holding a court of intimates, 
 while the mass of her guests were streaming down- 
 stairs to supper. 
 
 She made room for him beside her with a grace 
 in which, however, he now perceived an increasing 
 embarrassment. And he himself was much more 
 keenly aware that his position in the house was a 
 difficult one than the Duchess gave him credit for. 
 Wing indeed had taken the Penwenack letter which 
 was couched in perfectly civil terms with haughty 
 sang-froid, so far as the Liberal leaders were con-
 
 234 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 cerned. A few gibes as to "your Non-con masters," 
 conveyed his answer to Llewellyn's advice, given 
 through Carrie ; and there had been a short conversa- 
 tion between Washington and the new peer, in which 
 Washington had expressed his regrets for a decision 
 inevitable "at the present moment," and Wing had 
 given warning of his intentions as a political free 
 lance, without however any personal rupture between 
 the two men. 
 
 Both Washington and his chief lieutenant, there- 
 fore, had been seen occasionally at Lady Wing's Sun- 
 days, since the Wings had returned to Eltham House 
 in November, to the astonishment of many beside the 
 Duchess. 
 
 To-night, however, in the Eltham House crowd, 
 Llewellyn was very conscious of a new atmosphere 
 of agitation of "things" going on and those things 
 not at all to the interest of the Front Opposition 
 bench. Groups melted away as he approached; con- 
 versations were hushed. He recognized a number of 
 journalists, some of them belonging to that army of 
 discontent which gathers on the flank of any great 
 party, and is always ready for adventures. Wash- 
 ington had indeed lost ground somewhat since his 
 speaking campaign of the summer. He was said to 
 have wasted or misused opportunities given him by his 
 opponents, to have offended important members of 
 the party in small social ways; the blame for which 
 was generally put down to Mrs. Washington. Wash- 
 ington's own followers were confident of success in 
 the coming battle with the Government. Llewellyn 
 himself was confident. All the same there were ele- 
 ments of danger in the situation. And this rise of a 
 party of frondeurs amply supplied with money, and
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 235 
 
 led by a man bearing a great name, and commanding 
 vast resources handsome, vain, eloquent and, in 
 many circles, likely to be extremely popular was by 
 no means an incident to be despised. 
 
 "Well, so Wing speaks to-morrow?" said Llewellyn 
 to Carrie, having at last secured a few private minutes 
 with her. " I wish him all success. Of course he will 
 attack us. That we expect. But I hope you will be 
 pleased with him." 
 
 Caroline's eyes rested upon him in reply, with an 
 expression sweet and dumbly appealing which 
 seemed to say "Yes! we are friends but now 
 alack! we can't talk!" Llewellyn understood, some- 
 how, that she remembered well would never indeed 
 forget their intimate conversation on that August 
 evening under the trees ; but that life since then had 
 passed into a new phase, and she was now her hus- 
 band's unquestioning and obedient lieutenant. She 
 spoke guardedly of Alec's plans. She said it was all 
 "very interesting"; he had found a great deal of 
 unexpected support in many quarters; and so on. 
 Llewellyn realized that he had personally lost much 
 ground with her; though perhaps not by her own 
 wish. And the heart of a man, simple and sensitive 
 to a point not easily guessed by those who chiefly 
 realized in him the gifts of the shrewdest brain in 
 the Liberal party, suffered sharply. He valued her 
 friendship enormously. He knew too that he had been 
 able to befriend her; and it was no more easy, now 
 than in the summer, for him to divest himself, in re- 
 gard to her, of a deep and prophetic instinct of pity. 
 Such a feeling seemed of course ridiculous. Here 
 was a woman, under a certain amount of social punish- 
 ment, no doubt, from various powerful forces in the
 
 236 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 life around her, evidently conscious of it and wounded 
 by it, but at the same time, in other respects, at the 
 envied top of fortune. The very society which ex- 
 cluded her talked incessantly, of her beauty, her 
 doings, her dress and her wealth. And that wealth 
 was no vulgar new-made store which could be laughed 
 at and despised by an aristocratic class. On the con- 
 trary it represented all that is most coveted in an old 
 society. Was there indeed any woman who had 
 mounted the Eltham House staircase that night, who 
 would not have taken Lady Wing's role with all its 
 drawbacks if it had been offered her? Perhaps a 
 few but certainly not many. Why then this sore 
 premonition at the bottom of his mind this emer- 
 gence in a scholar's memory of well-worn lines and 
 phrases in which men of old expressed their own 
 haunting sense of human fate? 
 
 "Many things ilne Gods accomplish unexpectedly. 
 And the things that were looked for come not to 
 pass" . . . 
 
 And again 
 
 "Call no one happy till he have passed the goal of 
 life, and the chances of pain." 
 
 Pedantic absurdity! who else would dream of 
 bringing such thoughts into connection with this 
 radiant creature in her splendid dress, who sat beside 
 him waving her fan backwards and forwards, and 
 occasionally detaching her eyes from her companion 
 to send a nod or smile to some passer-by eager for 
 notice. In this world she had gathered about her 
 he saw that she was now a queen, and beginning to 
 play the role consciously. Would it spoil and coarsen 
 her ? If so once more the pity of it !
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 237 
 
 "You are going to-morrow to the show?" he 
 asked her as he rose from the chair which was evi- 
 dently coveted by other people. 
 
 "To the House of Lords? Oh yes. I must hear 
 Alec of course!" 
 
 But a sudden flush invaded her cheeks, as she gave 
 him her hand in farewell, and she turned rather hur- 
 riedly from him to speak to an old diplomat who was 
 approaching her. 
 
 Llewellyn went off, and by the time he had found his 
 coat and was waiting on the steps for a taxi, he had 
 remembered stimulated by Lady Wing's change of 
 color certain things, which a man who cared little 
 for forms and ceremonies had temporarily forgotten. 
 
 The Wing peerage was a very old one, and the 
 holder of it wasn't he entitled to some special func- 
 tion in Royal processions? Not the bearing of the 
 "cap of maintenance" exactly! but something akin 
 to it; tomfoolery in democratic eyes, and coveted 
 honor in those of ordinary mortals. He could not 
 remember precisely what it was, and did not care. 
 But some privilege of the kind existed he was cer- 
 tain of it. What was going to happen in the pro- 
 cession to the House of Lords on the morrow ? Would 
 Wing be allowed the bauble, or denied it? What 
 gossip, what agitation must be going on! Yet the 
 wife, who adored Wing, and would be up in arms for 
 him, were a slight inflicted, meant all the same to 
 brave the public eye. Plucky woman! 
 
 Llewellyn drove off, more concerned than he had 
 ever been yet for a detail of Court ceremonial. 
 
 The crowd in the great house had thinned a good 
 deal. A few young people were dancing in one of
 
 238 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 the drawing-rooms to an enchanting band ; there was 
 still a room full of bridge-players, and a last relay 
 at the supper-tables. Beyond the supper room 
 stretched the spacious winter garden of the ground 
 floor, a conservatory which, in defiance of the winter, 
 was now a marvel of bloom and scent. In its further 
 corner amid a brilliant labyrinth of azaleas, two 
 people had just met for intimate conversation. They 
 were Lord Wing and Madge Whitton. Lord Wing 
 had only just escaped from his host's duties towards 
 various diplomatic big-wigs, and it was evident that 
 Mrs. Whitton had been waiting for him in this se- 
 cluded spot by arrangement. 
 
 "A plague on Ambassadors!" he said as he threw 
 himself into a low chair beside her. "I thought I 
 should never get rid of them. Well, have you any 
 news?" 
 
 He raised himself to look at her. His face was 
 flushed, and frowning. The eyes showed deep lines 
 of fatigue, and the careless good nature which had 
 shone from Caroline's splendid lover less than a year 
 before had dropped like a cloak from his restless and 
 hardened maturity. 
 
 Madge Whitton smiled. She slowly drew up her 
 long gloves over her thin arms; then leaning back 
 against a gorgeous background of red azalea, which 
 seemed to be there on purpose to make a setting for 
 her fair hair and slender frame, she lifted her eyes to 
 her companion. 
 
 * ' Oh ! how hard I have been working for you ! ' ' 
 
 "Have you? You little brick! But have you got 
 him?" 
 
 "I told you he was the most impossible person to 
 manage didn't I?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 239 
 
 "And I gave you carte blanche!" he said impa- 
 tiently. "Don't please keep me on tenter hooks. 
 Yes or No?" 
 
 "You never saw such airs and graces! 'He was 
 not the man to be bought money was of really no 
 importance to him' ahem! 'the work, the oppor- 
 tunity was all he thought about.' I could hardly 
 keep from laughing in his face. But I played him 
 like a trout. I gave him as much posing and bluffing 
 as he liked to take and then I struck!" 
 
 "You mentioned the terms?" said Wing, smiling, 
 his tension relaxing. 
 
 "I just put the figures delicately! oh, so delicately 
 under his nose, and in twenty minutes I had him in 
 the basket. I'm afraid my metaphor has got a little 
 mixed. But never mind. Now what do I deserve?" 
 
 "You've got him really?" he said joyously. 
 
 "Really. He's coming to see you to-morrow and 
 will take up work whenever you choose." 
 
 He stooped, raised her hand which was lying on 
 her lap, and kissed it. 
 
 "You are a winner! Carrie could make no im- 
 pression on him whatever ! ' ' 
 
 "Ah, well, you see you want a vulgar creature like 
 me!" said Mrs. Whitton composedly. "Lady Wing 
 is too refined grand style! to deal with that kind 
 of man. One must put things plainly. But you've 
 got him!" 
 
 She lay back again, with a little nod of triumph 
 adding after a moment with a touch of affected 
 shyness 
 
 "I really think I have done something for you this 
 time!" 
 
 "I should think you have!" he said, with eyes that
 
 240 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 sparkled on her. "I don't like the man any more 
 than you do or Carrie does. But he's the only man 
 to make that paper go." 
 
 "The only man!" she repeated. "But I wish you 
 joy of him! Now I must go home." 
 
 "May I come and see you to-morrow?" 
 
 "I suppose you may," she said slowly, with her 
 eyes on the ground. 
 
 "Of course I may. Aren't you in it this new 
 venture with all of us? And I shall want to know 
 what you think of my speech. ' ' 
 
 "Yes? By the way, many thanks for my ticket 
 for the House. I have read the MS. you sent me. 
 It's splendid!" 
 
 "I'm glad you think so! Carrie criticised it 
 enormously ! ' ' 
 
 "Ah well, she's the critic on the hearth that's 
 her function. I couldn't criticise, I confess. I was 
 carried away." 
 
 His face showed his pleasure. They walked along 
 together into the hall crowded with departing guests. 
 She went for her cloak, and Alec with easy courtesy 
 looked after various ladies who were waiting for their 
 cars. But when Madge Whitton reappeared he took 
 her to the door, and saw her safely into a particularly 
 elegant landaulette, from which she smiled to him her 
 farewells. 
 
 "Well, she's done me a good turn no denying it! 
 and I gave her that motor ! " he thought to himself 
 half laughing, as he turned away. "But anybody 
 who supposes that I'm in love with her is a fool 
 beginning with Carrie. I like going to see her and 
 I mean to go to see her. And I 've found her uncom- 
 monly useful. And that's all there is to it."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 241 
 
 As he recrossed the hall, however, his face resumed 
 its bitter and harassed expression. To avoid his 
 guests he went up one of the subsidiary staircases 
 leading to the first floor, and the gallery running 
 round the central hall. 
 
 And there suddenly he caught sight of his wife 
 standing in the doorway of one of the drawing-rooms 
 watching someone who was descending the stairs. 
 Her look arrested him. It was full of emotion, as of 
 one who has just gone through some touching or 
 surprising experience. And as he came nearer Wing 
 perceived that the person she was watching was Lord 
 Merton, who was slowly descending the stairs on 
 which he was now the only figure with his eyes fixed 
 on Caroline. Eyes of worship and of grief in a pale 
 strained face; eyes unmistakably of a man des- 
 perately in love. 
 
 Alec Wing stood still, possessed by a silent fury 
 of jealousy. It was not jealousy however of any 
 ordinary kind. He had no doubts whatever of Carrie. 
 But he resented the particular quality of Merton 's 
 devotion to her. That Merton disliked him, and 
 thought him unworthy of his wife, he had long 
 divined, with the instinct of the egotist. And the 
 letter Carrie had once let him read had never ceased 
 to smart in memory; even when Merton was staying 
 in his house, during the autumn, and they were on 
 outwardly good terms. 
 
 He walked up to Caroline with a careless air. 
 
 "That was rather public, Carrie. Lucky for you 
 there was no one about. I wouldn't let that youth 
 give himself away quite so Byronically if I were you. ' ' 
 
 Caroline looked at him quietly, and he saw that 
 her eyes were brimming with tears. But she said
 
 242 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 nothing, and he followed her towards her sitting- 
 room, in a growing temper. 
 
 When the door was shut upon them, she went 
 towards the fire, shivering a little, and throwing a 
 light lace shawl over her neck and throat, she stood 
 with one foot on the fender, staring down into the 
 dying embers, and evidently wrestling with herself. 
 
 "Upon my word, Carrie!" he exclaimed angrily 
 "Anybody who didn't know you as I do, would 
 think a thousand things." 
 
 "Well, you know better!" she said, in a stifled 
 voice. "But if you suppose that any woman can lose 
 a friend like that so kind so, so devoted without 
 feeling it, you are mistaken, Alec. ' ' 
 
 "So you've given him his conge?" 
 
 " I 've told him not to come here again. ' ' 
 
 "A good thing too, my dear. There is a great deal 
 of talk about. I wonder why you have let him come 
 so long?" 
 
 "By your express wish!" said Carrie, raising her 
 head indignantly. ' * I asked you when we came up to 
 town, whether he should be invited, and you laughed 
 and said, 'Why not! What does it matter!' And 
 as to talk!" 
 
 The wounded pride and passion in her look af- 
 fected him perhaps daunted him a little. But he 
 tried not to show it. He dropped into a chair, and 
 crossed his knees, with a laugh. 
 
 "For Heaven's sake let's drop this. On your own 
 showing, I'm not jealous of you never have been. 
 But you make my life a burden to me for no reason 
 at all. Look here! I've got two pieces of news for 
 you. Of course I managed to get some private talk 
 with Madge Whitton to-night! She's done me you
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 243 
 
 and me a rattling service, and she's worked hard 
 for it. She's got Donovan to take the post." 
 
 "She has?" The tone was surprised hesitating. 
 "Well, I congratulate you." 
 
 "You may. And I say it for the hundredth 
 time don't please make yourself and me ridiculous 
 in that quarter again. The other piece of news, I 
 of course expected. So did you. I have heard from 
 Ashmole. ' ' 
 
 He named a well-known friend and confidential 
 adviser of Eoyalty; an intermediary through whom 
 the delicate social affairs of a generation, so far as 
 they concerned the Court, had been transacted, with 
 a minimum of friction and a maximum of success. 
 
 "Well?" His wife turned to him, very pale now, 
 but with the look of one forewarned. 
 
 "What we expected. If I claim my rights, there 
 will be no public refusal of them. Indeed, it's most 
 probable that I could enforce them in a law court. 
 But Ashmole appeals to me to my good feeling 
 consideration for H. M. and all the rest of it. On 
 his own account, of course." 
 
 "So you won't claim them? And you still wish 
 me to go ? " 
 
 "Go? I should think so! Fling defiance in their 
 teeth!" 
 
 "I would force the thing in a moment," he went 
 on fiercely, "if it weren't for my campaign. But 
 people are so besotted in this country as to Roy- 
 alty! No! let the rotten thing go! I have more 
 serious business on hand ! But you and I, Carrie, have 
 got our backs to the wall! no mistake about that!" 
 
 She sighed involuntarily. And the sound enraged 
 him.
 
 244 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "You haven't got the spirit of a mouse!" he 
 declared. "You fail me just when you should be all 
 iron and fire!" 
 
 He had risen, and she quailed before his wrath. 
 
 "I don't fail you I will never fail you!" she said. 
 And then irresistibly she raised her arms, and put 
 them round his neck. "But I'm so tired!" 
 
 The low-spoken word with its half despairing 
 intonation was lost upon his breast. 
 
 "Why are you always complaining of being 
 tired?" said Wing, half vexed, half appeased. As 
 if it wasn't the natural thing! "Haven't you been 
 shaking hands with eight hundred people? Run 
 along now, and get rested for to-morrow. I must sit 
 up a bit answer this precious production of Ash- 
 mole's and go through the proof of my speech."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 "ALL very well, my dear Theodora" said the 
 Duchess, unloosening the strings of her bonnet 
 "You may say what you like, but Wing's speech yes- 
 terday was an event!'' 
 
 "I don't see that that matters," was the obstinate 
 reply. "It was an event when our first footman 
 stole my diamonds and turned out to be an escaped 
 burglar, so that we had to call in the police." 
 
 "Ah, but your man got nothing out of his splash, 
 and Wing's got a good deal already. All the world's 
 talking about his speech, and his blessed paper 
 when they're not talking about the procession affair 
 of which of course not a word has got into the 
 press!" 
 
 "People will talk about anything and everything," 
 said Lady Theodora, rather pettishly. She poured 
 out her own cup of tea, having already provided her 
 sister-in-law, and then resumed in an argumentative 
 tone "Nobody ever said that Alec Wing was a fool 
 and with all that money of course anybody can 
 make a flare-up. But nobody that / see believes that 
 he'll get what he's evidently driving at a place in 
 an English Government!" 
 
 "He has a very good chance of it if it weren't 
 for Elizabeth Washington," said the Duchess in 
 
 245
 
 246 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 meditation. Then she pushed her empty cup towards 
 the tea-maker. 
 
 "Tell me, Theodora, where do you get your tea? It 
 does you credit." Lady Theodora gave the address 
 much flattered, though nothing in her somewhat gray 
 and bony countenance revealed it. But she regarded 
 her sister-in-law, though she was not in the front 
 rank of Duchesses, and far from well-to-do, as 
 Duchesses go, as yet a great person, and her approval 
 warmed the cockles of the heart. 
 
 The Duchess took out a shabby little note-book 
 from a capacious pocket, and wrote down the address. 
 She was attired with her usual contempt for seem- 
 liness, in a long fur coat much the worse for wear, 
 and a comfortable bonnet of her own design which 
 she tied under the chin. Her daughter and maid 
 insisted that when she opened bazaars, or gave prizes, 
 or did any other of the ceremonial things that noble 
 flesh is heir to, she should appear, as they said, "de- 
 cent." This particular afternoon however she had 
 spent in bargaining with an Oriental dealer in the 
 East India Dock Road for a Persian carpet; so that 
 she had dressed as she liked, and having beaten down 
 the dealer to her own figure, she was in high spirits 
 and much at her ease. 
 
 Returning to the subject of the Wings, Lady Theo- 
 dora declared with emphasis that it would be a great 
 mistake to attribute too much to the influence of Mrs. 
 Washington. 
 
 ' ' The whole party stands together. I may claim to 
 know something about the feeling of Church people! 
 Elizabeth Washington of course takes her cue from 
 the Dissenters. She was brought up a Quaker; but 
 now she sits at the feet of that Presbyterian preacher
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 247 
 
 somewhere in Westminster. There isn't a hap'orth 
 of difference between us all. The Church Liberals 
 and the Dissenting Liberals are equally determined 
 that we won't have men in Parliament who have 
 seduced other men's wives if we can help it and 
 we won't have them in the Government!" 
 
 Lady Theodora, in delivering this verdict, reminded 
 the Duchess of nothing so much as of a figure on a 
 piece of archaic Greek sculpture, in the hall of her 
 Leicestershire house, representing, so the scholars 
 assured her, Khadamanthus a gentleman employed 
 in judging the dead. His long forbidding features, 
 mostly rubbed away, had long been associated in her 
 mind with the function of "damning." It was odd 
 how much her sister-in-law resembled him. 
 
 Aloud, she said, with a shrug 
 
 "All very well, my dear Theodora, but you won't 
 get a Government or a Parliament of 'plaster saints,' 
 whatever you do. However I dare say you're right in 
 your facts. We live in a queer world. And I admit 
 that Alec is fair game. But the odd thing is now 
 don't scream! that all the time Caroline is just as 
 'religious' a woman as Elizabeth Washington!" 
 
 The Duchess, with malicious eyes waited for her 
 sister-in-law's outcry. 
 
 Lady Theodora relieved herself by driving off her 
 lap her little black Spitz who had clambered there. 
 The dog descended on the rug, and sat there in in- 
 jured dignity, turning reproachful eyes on its mis- 
 tress. 
 
 ' ' Well, of course, if you choose to use the words in 
 a meaning that nobody else understands! " 
 
 "Not at all! what does anybody mean by 'reli- 
 gious'? You mean a person that wants 'to be good'?
 
 248 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Well I say that Caroline Wing 'wants to be good' 
 just as much as Elizabeth Washington or you ! ' ' 
 
 Lady Theodora laughed indignantly. 
 
 "She has gone an odd way about it!" 
 
 "That doesn't matter. How many great saints 
 have been great sinners, please ? and what about the 
 woman 'who loved much'? etc. All I mean is that 
 Caroline Wing is a good woman still in spite of every- 
 thing. It's queer, but it's true. Of course we can't 
 let that kind of thing off we all know that. What 
 are the laws for?" 
 
 The Duchess lay back in her chair, untied her 
 bonnet-strings a little more, and crossed her plump 
 hands upon her knee. 
 
 "They're just dykes to keep the flood out. We've 
 got to protect marriage; else we should turn into 
 Barbary apes again. So it's all right to make it 
 reasonably hot for Caroline ! All the same, I repeat, 
 at bottom she is a better woman than all but a few 
 of those who are now engaged in sitting on her." 
 
 Lady Theodora disdained reply. She had taken 
 up her knitting, and her fingers flew. The Duchess, 
 observing her, with an eye half good humored, half 
 satirical, went on 
 
 "I hear for instance there's a horrid row in the 
 Committee of the Royal Hospital League. Perhaps 
 you know all about it? Somebody seems to have 
 proposed to put Caroline on the Committee. She 
 made Wing give them a thousand pounds just before 
 Christmas, when they were desperately hard up. 
 So old Lady Watts asked her if she would join the 
 Committee. And the poor thing said yes. And now 
 half the big-wigs are threatening to leave the Com- 
 mittee if she comes on and someone has the pleasant
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 249 
 
 task of writing to her to say that her name must be 
 withdrawn. Z say, they ought to return the thou- 
 sand pounds ! ' ' 
 
 "You seem to think a Committee can be bought 
 like a penny bun!" said Lady Theodora angrily. 
 ' ' Why should we be forced to associate with a woman 
 who has behaved like Caroline Wing ? ' ' 
 
 "Oh, you're on it, are you? " the Duchess tied 
 her bonnet-strings again .with unnecessary energy 
 "Well, it is a good thing I refused to let them put 
 me on, for I should have fought you all! I can see 
 some reason for not asking Caroline Wing to dinner 
 on the Barbary apes' ground but none at all for 
 not putting her on a charitable Committee. Oh, 
 you Pharisees! you Pharisees!" And the Duchess 
 shook her finger as she rose from her seat, in her 
 sister-in-law's face. 
 
 Lady Theodora stood rigid. 
 
 "How do you know she isn't behaving in the same 
 way now?" she said slowly. "What's all this talk 
 about Lord Merton?" 
 
 "Moonshine, my dear, moonshine! Now, if you 
 were to ask what that minx Madge Whitton was 
 about, there might be some sense in you!" 
 
 " If a woman has been unfaithful herself, what can 
 she expect?" 
 
 "Oh, go to, go to!" cried the Duchess angrily. 
 "Your mind is all topsy-turvy, Theodora. If Merton 
 proposes for one of my daughters, I shall jump at 
 him. And for the future I don't intend to ask Madge 
 Whitton to dinner. When a woman accepts money 
 and motor-cars from a man, she may be virtuous 
 but, personally, I don't care whether she is or not!" 
 
 "How do you know she accepts them?"
 
 250 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "How do you know Lord Merton makes love to 
 Carrie! Well, well, let me go before we quarrel. 
 You're a good soul, Theodora, but when you get on 
 morals I want to make a clean sweep of the ten com- 
 mandments. Good-by. Good-by! No good asking 
 for the car. And don't bother about a taxi. I'm 
 going home by bus. ' ' 
 
 ' ' Bus ? ' ' Lady Theodora stared at the notion. But 
 the stout and shabby woman was already at the door, 
 from which she turned to deliver a final shaft. 
 
 "Bus, Theodora! You, and Alec Wing between 
 you, are bringing 'the people' on us as fast as you 
 can. So I'm trying to make friends with the people 
 a bit, before the crash comes. Good night. Good 
 night!" 
 
 Her sister-in-law was left to reflect that the Duchess 
 was becoming more eccentric than ever, and that the 
 Duke who did not count, and was scarcely ever 
 seen by the outer world and the Duchess's daugh- 
 ters, ought really to restrain her. 
 
 After a few minutes' profound meditation on this 
 theme, Lady Theodora drew her writing-case towards 
 her, with a sigh, ran through some letters in it, and 
 penned the following herself 
 
 "DEAR LADY CHARLOTTE, You ask my advice in 
 this very painful matter of Lady Wing and the Royal 
 Hospital League. I cannot of course answer for 
 what others may think right, but / personally 
 could never sit on a Committee with poor Lady Wing. 
 Her conduct has been too flagrant, and her example 
 too shocking. However, you and I and others who 
 feel strongly on the subject may have great difficulty 
 in convincing the Committee. A pretty woman, who
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 251 
 
 is also a very rich woman, can always find friends. 
 We must hope for the best, keep our forces together, 
 and of course be ready to resign en Hoc if we are 
 beaten. Could you look in on me to-morrow morning? 
 Naturally I hate taking action, as Alec Wing is my 
 nephew, and I used to be very fond of him. But there 
 are things more sacred than relationships. It is of 
 course a difficulty that we allowed Lord Wing to give 
 us so much money a little while ago. But he made no 
 conditions, and we are not bound to admit Lady Wing 
 because her husband did what after all is only his 
 public duty. All Lord Wing 's relations at any rate 
 a good many of them feel very keenly the scandal of 
 the way in which he and she are trying to thrust 
 themselves on London through all this entertaining 
 and display. It is not easy for us to stand up 
 against it. But if we care for principle at all, it has 
 to be done. 
 
 "Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' ' THEODORA WEBB. 
 
 "P.S. We can go through the names of the Com- 
 mittee to-morrow. I think I can tell you something 
 about most of them." 
 
 Lady Theodora laid her pen down, and in the dark- 
 ness of the February afternoon, gave herself again 
 to meditation, with her feet on the fender. She was 
 recalling that agreeable " season" four years before 
 this date, when her eldest daughter, Milly, had been 
 presented, and had enjoyed an amount of social suc- 
 cess which had never fallen to her or her sister since. 
 Milly had had a moment of beauty, which had quickly 
 passed indeed; but in that moment of beauty there 
 had been some "talk" about her and her cousin Alec
 
 252 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Wing. Who knows what might have come of it, but 
 for "that woman"? And now Milly was restless to 
 go and study music at Dresden; she did not trouble 
 about her clothes; and no longer cared about young 
 men. In a few years she would be plain and faded. 
 She had no money, and no one knew better than Lady 
 Theodora how exacting were the demands of such 
 young men as Milly was likely to meet. 
 
 Lady Theodora gave an angry poke to the fire, 
 then rose, and rang for the butler to put her letter in 
 the post. 
 
 Meanwhile London the London that attends to 
 such things was bubbling with excitement on the 
 subject of the new campaign. Wing's speech on the 
 Address in the House of Lords had made it clear 
 indeed that the young man had some formidable 
 qualities. Parliament, in both Houses, sets high store 
 now, as always, by youth, manners and good looks. 
 None of these things will ultimately avail a man who 
 turns out to be a fool. But granted a moderate 
 amount of wits, they tell heavily. Wing had un- 
 doubtedly wits ; and the spectacle he presented, as he 
 rose from the back benches on the Opposition side to 
 pour a good-humored but none the less damaging fire 
 into the flank of his own party, was one that pleased 
 the eyes of the old Conservatives lounging on the 
 benches opposite, most of whom had been very well 
 acquainted with his father. "Damned handsome fel- 
 low!" said the Lord Chancellor to his neighbor, "and 
 a remarkable voice. I shouldn't wonder if he gave 
 Washington trouble. ' ' 
 
 And indeed it was soon evident that the handsome 
 fellow was determined if possible to give trouble.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 253 
 
 The new party paper, which was launched the week 
 after its owner's maiden speech, did not in its first 
 number so much attack the Liberal party chiefs as 
 handle them with a light irreverence which amused 
 the town. Durrant, pondering the number in a 
 corner of the Carlton, perceived Lewson come in, and 
 went up to him, paper in hand. 
 
 "It's good fun but I don't see how it's going to 
 upset Washington." 
 
 "How do you know that the owner wants to upset 
 Washington?" asked Sir Wilfrid with a smile. 
 
 Durrant stared. 
 
 "What do you mean? As I read it, Alec would 
 sell his soul to upset Washington." 
 
 "Up to a certain point. But if Washington were 
 too seriously damaged, where would Alec's chances 
 be?" 
 
 "I see. Well, it's a difficult game. I understand 
 the new editor Donovan is a clever beast ? ' ' 
 
 "Your language, my dear Jim! All I can say is 
 that Alec is delighted with him, that Lady Wing 
 doesn't take much to him, and that his plans for the 
 whole campaign are at any rate colossally expensive. ' ' 
 
 "That won't matter to Alec. Well, we shall see," 
 said Durrant dubiously, as he walked away. Leaving 
 the club he proceeded by St. James' Street to Eltham 
 House, pondering as he went. 
 
 He wondered in the first place how Miss Allen was 
 getting on. 
 
 He had not arrived at calling that young lady 
 Joyce yet, even in his thoughts, though he had known 
 for some time that he was most solidly and unchange- 
 ably attached to her. And indeed she had given him 
 no excuse whatever for "Christian-naming!" for,
 
 254 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 after a first period of growing friendship between 
 them, based on a common affection for Caroline Wing, 
 Miss Allen had suddenly altered her manner towards 
 the young officer. Her girlish frankness and fun 
 which combined so agreeably with the touch of reli- 
 gious strictness in her character, had passed into a 
 general reserve which seemed impenetrable, and had 
 altogether taken the shine out of Durrant's autumn 
 and winter. He knew very well that she had neither 
 birth nor money; and that if she were to consent to 
 marry him he would have to face his family in arms. 
 But he happened to want to marry her intensely; in 
 the constant familiarity of Eltham House, during the 
 preceding summer, her freshness, her innocent up- 
 rightness, her sweetness had stolen his heart before 
 he knew where he was. He was quite aware that 
 being well-born, moderately well off, and an officer in 
 the Household troops, he might have married either 
 for money, or for rank, whichever he pleased; but 
 he had observed among his acquaintances a number 
 of unsatisfactory marriages which seemed to have 
 been made for those reasons; and as for himself, if 
 he married, he was determined to be happy. And 
 being of a simple and loyal nature underneath his 
 man-of-the-worldishness, he desired nothing better on 
 his part than to make Joyce Allen happy. Moreover 
 although there had never been a trace of flirting on 
 Joyce's part with him, or with anybody else in the 
 Eltham House circle, there had been delightful weeks 
 in the preceding summer when their relation had 
 seemed to the young man at any rate to be running 
 smoothly on to a golden end. 
 
 And then Joyce had suddenly withdrawn herself 
 behind the gentlest and most impenetrable shell.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 255 
 
 What had happened? Some impertinence of Alec's? 
 From a hint or two in that quarter, of which the Cap- 
 tain had preferred to take no notice, he had realized 
 that Wing was on the alert, and in a hostile spirit. 
 If he had dared to say anything, to suggest anything 
 to Joyce herself, it would be like his insolence! 
 
 Durrant's opinion of his cousin, indeed, had been 
 steadily worsening ever since Wing's accession to the 
 title. Wing appeared to him, as to Oliver Lewson, 
 to be suffering from a kind of intoxication by his own 
 wealth; and the nakedness of his present bid for 
 power through his money offended and disgusted the 
 young officer. In many quarters he heard vaguely of 
 poor men being nobbled by Alec, such men as were at 
 all likely to help his ambitions. Durrant suspected 
 that money had been lent, on the easiest possible 
 terms, to various men in Parliament, even in office; 
 and where circumstances made any direct money 
 transaction undesirable or impossible, there were a 
 thousand ways in which the great Wing fortune, 
 involving investments over half the world, could be 
 made useful to a friend. 
 
 "Dirty ' work!" thought Durrant indignantly. 
 ' ' He thinks, I bet, that he 's going to buy himself into 
 Washington's Government! He's probably trusting 
 more to that than to his precious newspaper. We 
 shall see ! ' ' 
 
 So cogitating he found himself walking up to the 
 door of Eltham House, and inquiring for Lady Wing. 
 The footman said that she was not at home, and 
 Durrant was turning away from the inner hall where 
 he had been writing a message on his card, when he 
 perceived Wing accompanied by a stranger walking 
 towards the hall along the corridor leading to the
 
 256 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 West wing. Wing at the same moment saw his 
 cousin, and hailed him. 
 
 "Hullo, Jim, where are you off to? Carrie's out 
 a matinee or something. Let me introduce you to 
 Mr. Donovan our new editor." 
 
 Durrant turned unwillingly, and shook hands with 
 a tall bald-headed man, possessed of piercing black 
 eyes, hanging cheeks, full lips and a muddy com- 
 plexion. 
 
 "I've just been looking at your first number," he 
 said, speaking to Alec rather than to the editor, whose 
 aspect he disliked. 
 
 "Not my first number!" interrupted Mr. Donovan, 
 with a smile in which he showed too much gum and 
 too many teeth for Durrant 's taste. "I shall only 
 be responsible from next week. Oh, the first number 
 is very well very well, indeed, considering but we 
 must bring some rather heavier guns to bear. In 
 time, my dear Sir, in time, we shall do everything. ' ' 
 
 "Well, you haven't got very much time," said 
 Durrant bluntly, "I hear Washington's going to 
 turn us out on the Budget. Seven or eight weeks, I 
 suppose. You can't do much in that time." 
 
 "Oh, we can make a very fair splash," said 
 Donovan cheerfully. ' ' Our business is to be personal 
 very personal!" And he looked with twinkling 
 eyes at Wing. 
 
 Wing nodded. "If we can't take the shine out of 
 some of the nobodies on our side, who've got to the 
 front, God knows how before Washington forms his 
 Government, we shall only come in to be kicked out 
 after a few months. We're going for new blood, 
 aren't we, Donovan?" He smiled triumphantly, his 
 hands on his sides, his fair curls and ruddy counte-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 257 
 
 nance lighting up the shadows of the hall. Durrant 
 thought ''Ah, but who's going to turn the nobodies 
 out to put you in?" Yet his irritation must admit 
 that Alec Wing, as he stood there, towering over 
 Donovan and himself, was a splendid apparition a 
 young god going forth to battle. He was in the full 
 excitement and exultation of its beginning, tasting 
 sensations hitherto unknown to him, and confident of 
 success. 
 
 "Well then till to-morrow!" said Wing, dismiss- 
 ing his new editor with a gracious nod. "I think 
 we've done all our business for to-day. Don't go, 
 Jim. Come into my den, and have a smoke." 
 
 Durrant rather unwillingly agreed. To his aston- 
 ishment he discovered, as he followed his cousin, that 
 Wing's den was now the beautiful small library on 
 the ground floor, one of the few rooms in the costly 
 house that Durrant, who cared little for works of art, 
 and thought scorn of overgrown magnificence, hon- 
 estly admired. Its delicate emptiness, the perfection 
 and grace of its decoration, the charm of its latticed 
 books, always produced a soothing impression on him. 
 He liked to see Caroline receiving in it her choicest 
 company. But as he crossed the threshold he ex- 
 claimed in dismay 
 
 ' ' Goodness, Alec, what have you been doing to this 
 room?" 
 
 For the latticed bookcases with their rows of mel- 
 lowed books, and the wall-arabesques between the 
 cases, together with the refined Georgian furniture 
 tables, cabinets, and chairs were all snowed under 
 by a recent accumulation of books, maps, pamphlets, 
 blue books ; the litter of the rising politician. Charts 
 and diagrams on various sociological matters
 
 258 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Housing Reform" "Cost of Living " " Congested 
 Areas" and so forth, hung untidily from drawing- 
 pins driven into the carved frames of the book-cases ; 
 a typewriter, and a pile of MS. on one table, had been 
 hastily left by Wing's secretary on the arrival of Mr. 
 Donovan; while on another, an open box of cigars 
 between two chairs, showed where the young employer 
 had just been sitting in conference with the famous 
 or notorious journalist who was to help him to the 
 storming of London. 
 
 "What was the good of the room before!" said 
 Wing complacently. "It suits me better than my 
 father's old library a dismal hole! so I have 
 annexed it." 
 
 "It was such a perfect thing," murmured Durrant, 
 looking round him, "and you had twenty others to 
 choose from. ' ' 
 
 "Don't be an ass, old fellow!" cried Wing, slap- 
 ping him on the shoulder. "Whatever does the room 
 matter? Sit down and have a talk. There are a few 
 cigars left. I tell you that fellow Donovan's a 
 marvel! we're going to make Washington smart." 
 And standing on the hearth-rug, with his thumbs in 
 his waistcoat pockets, he began to pour out his plans 
 for the coming months, evidently delighted to find a 
 listener, intelligent, yet of not too much importance, 
 who would let him run on. 
 
 Accordingly he did run on, while Durrant smoked 
 and listened, throwing in occasionally a caustic word 
 or two, the chief effect of which was to let loose more 
 talk. The mind of the young soldier was in some 
 astonishment as he listened. Since when had Alec 
 developed this craze for politics? He was no doubt 
 a budding orator at Eton, and his speaking at Oxford
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 259 
 
 during his undergraduate days had made a stir, and 
 not only among his University contemporaries. It 
 was always understood that he was going into Par- 
 liament, and he had been actually adopted for a 
 North country constituency, before that journey to 
 Florence, which had decided his life and Caroline 
 Marsworth 's. As soon as the divorce was made public, 
 the local association had sent him about his business ; 
 and then, for two years, the political world had known 
 nothing of Alec Wing. 
 
 And now did the fellow suppose he was going to 
 carry the whole position by storm ! Durrant was not 
 brilliant, and generally with Alec inarticulate. 
 But he had a shrewd headpiece of his own, and a 
 considerable quiet knowledge of men and affairs. No 
 doubt, Alec's speech in the Lords had been a success 
 a great success. So much was apparently proved 
 by the newspaper headlines; though Durrant sus- 
 pected that the size of the print was partly due to 
 that other and more picturesque side of Lord Wing's 
 career of which the papers said nothing. And it was 
 evident that Alec had been spending the whole of 
 the first part of the winter in laying foundations for 
 his campaign; while the estates had been handed 
 over to Lewson, and Caroline had been doing her best 
 to grapple with the houses and their contents. 
 
 But what was it all aiming at ? And why such rush 
 and hurry? Durrant put the questions not without 
 sarcasm. 
 
 "My dear fellow!" laughed Alec "it's very sim- 
 ple what I 'm aiming at. I mean to force Washington 
 to give me office I don't care what the smallest 
 foothold will do. But I'm putting up a fight for my 
 career. Of course" he added hastily "I believe in
 
 260 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 the principles we're advocating in the paper; I'm 
 a convinced supporter of them. But I shouldn't 
 take all the trouble I am taking, and spend all the 
 money I am spending, if it weren't that I'm 
 determined to stand up against this damned cant 
 and boycotting, which is driving a man like me out 
 of public life and will drive others out, if I don't 
 fight it now." 
 
 Durrant took his cigar out of his mouth, and sur- 
 veyed his cousin. "After all you did break what 
 most people think a law and a Divine law, too, ' ' he 
 said dryly. "Can't you lie low till people have for- 
 gotten it?" 
 
 "Why should I?" said Wing haughtily. "I have 
 got my place in Parliament now, in spite of Mrs. 
 Washington and her gang. No one can dislodge me. 
 I'd rather it were the House of Commons, but I can 
 make do with the Lords. I'm going to fight; and 
 like other people, I 'm going to spend money. They '11 
 have to come to terms. To think of the duffers on 
 our front bench!" 
 
 He turned round with a scornful gesture, and flung 
 the remains of his cigarette into the fire. 
 
 "Does it ever occur to you that you'll draw the 
 enemies' fire not only on yourself, but on Lady 
 Wing?" said Durrant after a pause. "She'll have a 
 pretty hot time of it as well as you. You know what 
 the baser sort of party newspapers are. It doesn't 
 seem to me that Caroline's been looking very strong 
 lately." 
 
 "Carrie? She's a magnificent constitution! " 
 said Wing half annoyed, half smiling "stand any- 
 thing ! especially for my sake ! ' ' 
 
 "No doubt. But she's been hard at it since last
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 261 
 
 April. One way or another she's been fighting your 
 battles ever since she set foot in this house. Does 
 she ever have an evening alone? She's always 
 talking and entertaining, always making plans. She 
 never gets a moment 's rest. The notes she writes ! 
 I've seen the piles of them. It's a dog's life I con- 
 sider ! ' ' said the young man warmly. 
 
 "Why, Carrie loves it! It's what she's made for. 
 She was born to hold a salon and, by George! she 
 does it rippingly! What else is left to her, I should 
 like to know, by these prudes that boycott her? 
 Carrie like Italy fara da se. She'll make this 
 house as famous as any of the great salons Holland 
 House the whole lot of them before she's done. 
 She needn't step out of her drawing-rooms, to know 
 all the London she wants to know; and all the for- 
 eigners too." 
 
 Durrant 's countenance relaxed. So, after all, Caro- 
 line was appreciated. He had often, of late, accused 
 Alec in his thoughts of neglect and even unkindness 
 towards a wife, who in the young soldier's opinion, 
 was infinitely superior to him. 
 
 He replied with greatly increased cordiality 
 
 "She does it magnificently indeed. But it's a 
 strain. ' ' 
 
 "Oh, no, my dear fellow not at all, to a woman 
 with such a gift for it ! " Then after a pause, Wing 
 added in a reflective tone "The growth of English 
 Pharisaism is to me the most extraordinary phenom- 
 enon! The women poor things! used to suffer in 
 the old days as they do now, if they chose to follow 
 their hearts, and flout society; but the men at least 
 were let alone. Nobody tried to mix up morals and 
 politics a hundred years ago for men; unless of
 
 262 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 course there was open scandal going on. But now- 
 adays! these Dissenting prigs and asses! " 
 
 He threw back his handsome head with passion, as 
 though he flung defiance at the crew. 
 
 Durrant stiffened again, as he rose. 
 
 ''Well, you wouldn't wish that kind of thing back 
 again! would you? when the woman bore all the 
 brunt. Good heavens!" 
 
 He looked, frowning, for his hat. Wing flushed. 
 
 "I don't follow you, Jim! It's the confusing a 
 man's private life with his public affairs that I'm out 
 to stop." 
 
 "And because a woman has no public affairs, she 
 must submit to be cut and cold-shouldered take it 
 as the natural thing while her husband's in the 
 Cabinet, and goes everywhere? Is that what you 
 suggest ? ' ' 
 
 "What nonsense you talk, Jim!" said Wing, 
 beginning to lose his temper under what he now felt 
 to be the hostile attitude of his cousin. "But after 
 all, it's not a matter we can discuss," he added, with 
 offended dignity. 
 
 "Certainly not. I didn't mean to be impertinent," 
 said Durrant hastily. He was not at all anxious to 
 quarrel, and he felt that he had gone too far. "Of 
 course it's beastly for you both I know that and I 
 wish you luck. Well, now I'll just run up and see if 
 Carrie's come in, before I go." 
 
 He went upstairs. In the yellow drawing-room 
 where the lights were being put on, he saw a girlish 
 figure in the distance, and recognized Joyce Allen. 
 She was "tidying" performing one of those small 
 yet priceless services that only delicate and fastidious 
 women can render to a house. Flowers, books, news-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 263 
 
 papers, all the litter of life, fell into order at her 
 touch. Durrant advanced slowly, delighting in the 
 movements of her pretty figure, and capable hands. 
 
 "Is Lady Wing coming in?" he asked her, as they 
 greeted. 
 
 "I hope so!" the girl's tone was anxious. "I 
 begged her to come in and rest before dinner. There 's 
 a large dinner party, and she'll have to talk for 
 hours. ' ' 
 
 "I can't think how she stands it," said Durrant. 
 "Mayn't I help you in putting these books away?" 
 
 "Oh it's done," said Joyce, and then seeing that 
 he did not intend to go away, she quite composedly, 
 though with heightened color, seated herself, and pre- 
 pared to entertain him. 
 
 "I've heard a horrid thing to-day," said the young 
 man abruptly. "I wonder can we do anything?" 
 
 "What have you heard?" said Joyce, sitting up, 
 with eyes instantly alert. 
 
 "I have a sister on the Committee of the Eoyal 
 Hospital League Mrs. Mallon you know her she 
 comes here sometimes." 
 
 "Oh!" cried Joyce, with a note of pain. 
 
 "Ah, you've heard! It's abominable! There's 
 been the most appalling row. But they've carried it. 
 My sister and two others have resigned. It's that old 
 cat Lady Theodora's doing, as much as anybody's!" 
 
 Joyce Allen suddenly put her hands over her 
 eyes. 
 
 "She minded" her voice shook "she minded so 
 much." 
 
 ' ' Lady Wing ? When did she hear ? ' ' 
 
 "This afternoon before she went out. One of the 
 ladies who resigned, wrote to her a kind letter an
 
 264 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 awfully nice letter. There was a regular debate upon 
 it! It was dreadful to Carrie to think that she had 
 been discussed by all those people as if she had 
 wanted to force herself on them and then rejected. 
 And she was planning all the things she would do 
 for the League. It had made her so happy ! ' ' 
 
 "It's devilish!" said Durrant heartily. 
 
 Joyce was silent. She sat looking straight before 
 her, with a sad and troubled face. "If one could 
 only protect her from these things ! ' ' she said, in a low 
 voice apparently to herself. 
 
 "It was awfully plucky of her to go last week to 
 the opening of Parliament," said Durrant, after a 
 pause, also in lowered tones. He was most genuinely 
 sorry for Caroline, and angrily on her side in spite 
 of his strict, Scotch religion against a world of "old 
 cats." But perhaps his dominant feeling at the mo- 
 ment was acute pleasure and surprise in finding him- 
 self thus admitted to Joyce Allen's confidence; 
 allowed to share her feelings about her cousin. It was 
 long indeed since she had allowed him any such inti- 
 macy. And he suddenly had the impression as of 
 some long strain of sympathy and pity, which had 
 broken down the girl's reserve, and made her stretch 
 out her hand metaphorically to a friend of whom 
 she was sure. His heart throbbed with joy, and he 
 longed to tell her that he would do anything in the 
 world he could to serve her first and Caroline next. 
 
 At his mention of the opening of Parliament, he 
 saw her shrink. She turned her frank gray eyes 
 which made such a pleasant combination with her 
 reddish gold hair, upon him, hesitated and then 
 as though she could not help herself broke out 
 
 "She had a horrid time! At the opening itself,
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 265 
 
 nobody spoke to her, though she was quite close to 
 two or three people she used to know very well, 
 before " 
 
 "Before the crash?" 
 
 Joyce nodded. "Then in the evening when Lord 
 Wing spoke, she and the Duchess went back to the 
 House together. She was awfully proud of his 
 speech! But " 
 
 She paused again. Durrant waited for her. She 
 went on timidly her eyes filled with tears 
 
 "I I think people women behaved even worse 
 to her than at the opening. Many men came up to 
 her, and congratulated her; even those Lord Wing 
 had been attacking. But not a single woman 
 spoke to her; and in the evening there were two 
 or three horrible letters anonymous letters and 
 newspapers " 
 
 "Pigs!" said Durrant hotly. 
 
 "It's this story of little Dick Dick's death that 
 people are so cruel about. And I know I know it 
 isn't true!" cried Joyce, sitting upright with her 
 hands round her knees, a vision of indignant pity. 
 
 "Tell me what you know," said Durrant per- 
 emptorily. "Tell me what you know." 
 
 Joyce looked at him doubtfully a moment, then 
 yielded to the warm kindness in his eyes, and told 
 him the story which she and her father had heard 
 from one of the two eye-witnesses of Caroline's agony 
 in the Val d'Aosta. 
 
 Durrant listened carefully, made a few notes on 
 the back of a letter, returned the notes to his pocket, 
 and then rose to take his departure. 
 
 "Thank you. I shall make that useful. Now look 
 here. You and I are allies in this business. I don't
 
 266 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 know why you've been sending me to Coventry all 
 this time " 
 
 "Oh, no!" cried Joyce, putting out protesting 
 hands. 
 
 "You have," said Durrant firmly, catching one of 
 the hands. "I'll make you tell me why, some day. 
 But now we're allies; we're going to look after Lady 
 Wing. She'll have a tough time of it. All the 
 enemies Wing makes in politics and he'll make 
 bushels will try to take it out of her I mean the 
 big- wigs, and their wives. Never mind. We'll stand 
 bodyguard. That's a bargain! And don't send me 
 to Coventry again I won't stand it!" 
 
 Whereupon before she could stop him, he kissed her 
 hand. Then with a joyous, triumphant look at her, 
 repeated from the doorway, he turned and went. 
 
 "What have I been doing?" thought Joyce, 
 standing bewildered where he had left her. And sit- 
 ting down by the fire in her own room, whither she 
 had fled for refuge trembling under the shock of 
 feelings she had repressed and trampled on for 
 months she tried to think it out.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THOSE who loved Caroline Wing and by this time, 
 in spite of her exclusion from a large section of the 
 social world, she had made many friends in London 
 who were not only the friends of her wealth could 
 never look back upon the hurried weeks of this event- 
 ful spring without bitterness of heart. They knew 
 they had been watching something at once tragic and 
 beautiful, without realizing the tragedy or the beauty ; 
 like some moment of nature, some exquisite light of 
 sunset or dawn, some spring or autumn scene which 
 we have never really felt till it was gone. What made 
 the tragedy and the beauty ? Nothing but the gradual 
 development of a woman's spiritual nature amid 
 surroundings that might have seemed to stunt and 
 degrade it. Caroline during these months was a dis- 
 appointed lover, wounded to the core by the growing 
 indifference and coolness of the man she adored; she 
 was a starved mother, separated from the children 
 she had already borne, and with no hope of others; 
 she was made for the best in society, with rich gifts 
 that only asked to spend themselves on friends and 
 kinsfolk, and those she could have loved, those by 
 whom she wished to be loved, women, of course, espe- 
 cially, turned away from her time after time in indig- 
 nation or contempt; while hundreds of others with 
 
 267
 
 268 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 whom she had nothing in common, whose ways and 
 modes of thought disgusted or repelled her, crowded 
 officiously round her, hailing her as a flag-bearer in 
 the fight for sexual freedom, and applauding her as 
 one who had braved the forces of law and society on 
 behalf of a woman's right to break the marriage bond 
 when it had ceased to satisfy her, and to follow pas- 
 sion wherever it might lead. But in truth Caroline 
 Wing was no conscious and deliberate rebel. Quite 
 the contrary. Like any other weak woman of strong 
 emotions, she had been conquered by a great passion 
 which had given her for a time great happiness; but 
 there was that in her, all the while inherited forces, 
 compunctions, and traditions, which steadily reap- 
 peared, like sediment in calming water, as life went on. 
 Yet she fought these compunctions steadily. She 
 went on her proud way, and did her best to fulfill the 
 brilliant and yet futile role that her father-in-law, by 
 his gift of Eltham House to the ostracized couple, had 
 imposed upon her. And there were many times when 
 youth and vanity and excitement told her that all was 
 well ; that Alec would come back to her with the old 
 devotion when his political campaign was over; that 
 some day when she was less tired and driven, the child 
 on which Lord Wing had warned her so much might 
 turn, would be given to them; and that, meanwhile, 
 life was amusing and triumphant enough, in spite of 
 social shocks and rebuffs. She would have been less 
 than human, less than woman, if she had not inter- 
 mittently exulted in the splendor of Eltham House, 
 and found a creative pleasure in the remodeling and 
 adorning of the two or three country "places" in 
 England and Scotland, out of Lord Wing's miscel- 
 lany, where she and Alec had elected to live. There
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 269 
 
 were times when it bored her to spend time and 
 thought upon her dress; and other times when she 
 would spend feverish days with her dressmaker, and 
 delight in outshining other women; generally, if the 
 cause could have been tracked, because of a look or 
 a word of Alec's, in careless praise or blame. And 
 she had begun to find a new amusement and enjoy- 
 ment in "charity" the giving of large sums of 
 money, and watching what happened to them. 
 
 But nevertheless she was at bottom one with the 
 fretful child who "disliked the things he disliked 
 more than he liked the things he liked." The slings 
 and arrows of Fortune hurt more than her gifts 
 pleased. What a proud and sensitive woman went 
 through, this second year, in braving London, on so 
 large a scale, only Joyce knew. The day of the open- 
 ing of Parliament remained in the minds of both as 
 a day of nightmare, though Caroline had spoken of 
 it, even to her cousin, with difficulty. When would 
 she ever forget the moment of the entry of the royal 
 procession, when, as the brilliant ranks of the peer- 
 esses in their shimmering plumes rose to greet it, the 
 first look of the women to her right and left was for 
 the Royalties, and the splendid figures behind them 
 carrying the traditional emblems of the English mon- 
 archy regalia, sword, cap of maintenance, orb, 
 scepter, and the rest ; and the second look, swift, fur- 
 tive, piercing, was for the wife, standing erect and 
 pale beside them, whose husband, instead of filling 
 his hereditary post among the King's attendant 
 "thegns" was ostentatiously yawning and smiling on 
 the further side of the red and gold chamber, in the 
 back-bench ranks of the Opposition ? 
 
 Caroline's spirit had risen under the challenge.
 
 270 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 She turned and looked several of her neighbors quietly 
 in the face; then she threw a nod and smile to Alec 
 across the moving throng grandees, heralds, Bishops 
 in white sleeves, soldiers in glittering uniforms, the 
 Beef -eaters with their Tudor doublets and staves 
 which filled the floor of the House; and finally she 
 tried to listen to the King's speech, which every 
 political ear in that glittering crowd was craning to 
 catch. But in truth she heard nothing of it. Her 
 mind was in a whirl of mockery and defiance. She 
 was thinking of a famous page of sarcasm in Carlyle, 
 a piece of diablerie which she remembered from her 
 schoolroom days, when, at seventeen, she cherished 
 an adoration for an elderly tutor of Queen 's, who was 
 coaching her in history, and had given her "Sartor 
 Eesartus" for a Christmas present. To please him, 
 she had learned pages of it by heart, slept with it 
 under her pillow, declaimed "The Everlasting Yea," 
 and generally behaved, as her grandmother might 
 have behaved half a century before, when Carlyle was 
 the fashion. And now, how the mocking words sprang 
 out in memory, under the heat of coincidence ! 
 
 "Society, which the more I think of it astonishes 
 me the more, is founded upon clothes! . . . Often in 
 my atrabiliar moods, when I read of pompous cere- 
 monials, Frankfurt Coronations, Royal Drawing- 
 rooms, Levees and how the ushers and macers and 
 pursuivants are all in waiting ; how Duke this is pre- 
 sented by Archduke that, and Colonel A by General 
 B, and innumerable Bishops, Admirals, and miscel- 
 laneous Functionaries, are advancing gallantly to the 
 Anointed Presence; and I strive, in my remote pri- 
 vacy, to form a clear picture of that solemnity, on a 
 sudden, as by some enchanter's wand, the shall I
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 271 
 
 speak it? the Clothes fly off the whole dramatic 
 corps! . . . Imagination, choked as in mephitic air, 
 recoils on itself, and will not forward with the pic- 
 ture. What would Majesty do could such an accident 
 befall in reality should buttons all simultaneously 
 start, and the solid wool evaporate, in very deed, as 
 here in dream! Ach Gott! How each skulks into 
 the nearest hiding-place their high State Tragedy 
 become a pickle-herring Farce to weep at, the whole 
 fabric of Government, Legislature, Property, Police, 
 civilized society dissolves, in wails and howls. ' ' 
 
 She looked again at her neighbors to the right and 
 left. They were now absorbed in the spectacle. But 
 she felt herself master of it. What did it matter 
 to her? 
 
 Ah! but the cool inner mind bided its time; 
 and before the King's speech was done, reflection had 
 thrown a quieting dust on Caroline's swarming 
 thoughts. 
 
 ' ' Pickle-herring Farce ' ' ? Perhaps ! But the world 
 to which you belong without escape has taken advan- 
 tage of this particular "Farce" to make a demon- 
 stration against you and the man you love; to 
 inflict punishment on you and him. And it hurts. 
 You know it hurts. All the same brave it! show 
 nothing ! ' ' 
 
 And as far as she could remember, she had shown 
 nothing. After the ceremony, as she pushed her way 
 through the lobbies towards the outer doors, amid a 
 throng of peeresses and politicians, she found herself 
 again entirely alone, without a friend. The Duchess 
 had promised to accompany her, and had gone to 
 bed with a cold instead. No one, through the whole 
 function, had looked at her, no one had spoken to her.
 
 272 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Suddenly, she passed a great mirror set in the wall, 
 and was aware of a stately and beautiful vision in 
 black satin, white plumes, and a blaze of diamonds. 
 Herself ! A throb of defiance ran through her. Her 
 own beauty rallied her nerves, gave her back self- 
 confidence even moral strength. If indeed she looked 
 like that, no one could say that she had given ground 
 by an inch ! 
 
 Later, in the evening, when all the fine clothes 
 were gone, when serious business was forward, and the 
 first night of the debate, including Alec's speech, was 
 over, Caroline emerged once more into the outer lobby 
 of the House of Lords, but thrilling this time with 
 triumph and emotion. How well he had spoken! 
 How perfectly he had managed his voice his 
 gesticulation! Ah! there he was, coming to meet 
 her! 
 
 "Well, darling! how do you think it went?" 
 
 "Oh Alec! it was splendid!" 
 
 "You little goose! All the same I think it got 
 them! They say Washington's very angry. Let him 
 be! Did you see him in the House? Some of the 
 fellows on the other side have been congratulating me 
 like fun. The papers will have it verbatim. I say! 
 you look ripping ! ' ' 
 
 And in his exultation, he had seized her hand under 
 her opera cloak and pressed it for a moment in the 
 crowd. And then he was gone, to speak to a journal- 
 ist, bidding her go home. And she had pressed on 
 through the crowd, happy, passionately happy, be- 
 cause he had looked at her had spoken to her so. 
 How right he had been to take his own course to 
 venture everything to scout all the prudent counsel
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 273 
 
 of the wise men ! This was life adventure the joy 
 of battle! It would make a great man of him, in 
 whose success she could lose herself; it would bring 
 back their first enchanted days of perfect oneness, 
 perfect love. 
 
 "Ah! Lady Wing! Congratulate you ! Your hus- 
 band has made a capital speech ! ' ' 
 
 So said man after man, catching sight of her, on 
 her way to the entrance. 
 
 Caroline shone upon them, in return. 
 
 But what was that? A face of a woman, turning 
 round on the steps of St. Stephen's entrance to look 
 for a companion. . . . 
 
 Caroline saw the face, and gave a gasp of pleasure. 
 She recognized a school friend whom she had not 
 seen for years a charming Scotch girl, married to a 
 Scotch peer, to whom in the days when Caroline had 
 first appeared in London as John Marsworth's wife, 
 she had been warmly attached. They had shared the 
 common interests natural to young mothers; had 
 advised each other, helped each other, praised each 
 other's children and fought each other's foes. Then 
 Lady Dunkeld had gone to India with her husband; 
 Carrie had lost sight of her; and after the crash, 
 Carrie had written one letter and waited in vain 
 for an answer. 
 
 "Emmie!" She found herself calling, standing on 
 tip-toe to wave to the woman ahead. 
 
 And the pretty blue eyes saw her ; a visible tremor 
 ran through the soft features ; and without a sign of 
 recognition, Lady Dunkeld looked her old friend in 
 the face and turned away. 
 
 Caroline entered the car, and drove home, like a 
 person half stunned. Emmie! Emmie Dunkeld!
 
 274 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 She could see herself in bed, and Lady Dunkeld sitting 
 beside her with a white bundle on her knee. And 
 her throat contracted, as she thought "She was al- 
 ways so fond of Dicky ! ' ' 
 
 Nor had that been the end of that day's emotions. 
 She remembered Joyce's ministrations all that even- 
 ing, and how she had puzzled the dear, tender child 
 by the alternations of a mood, which was now greedy 
 of congratulations, and wildly confident of good days 
 coming; and now bitterly restless, and silent, as 
 though some secret thought turned everything to gall. 
 With the last post that night there had come a rush 
 of letters: congratulations from a number of the 
 Eltham House habitues, her old friend the French 
 Ambassador, for instance, a score of men in both 
 Houses of Parliament, who cared indeed very little 
 for Alec Wing's success, but cared a great deal that 
 the charming mistress of Eltham House should find 
 pleasure in it; Robert Llewellyn, also, who wrote a 
 criticism of the speech, candid, but full of kindness 
 the kindness of the veteran to the youth ; dwelling on 
 its merits of delivery and arrangement "a voice to 
 be envied" "the points clear" "the jests new" 
 "altogether a great success!" "though, of course, 
 fundamentally, you won't expect one of the Old 
 Guard like me to agree with any of its main proposi- 
 tions. I dispute every one of them ! But what does 
 that matter ? A great success, I repeat ! and Wash- 
 ington adds his congratulations to mine." 
 
 A letter which she had put down with a sharp 
 sense of comfort, and a grateful vision of the possi- 
 bilities of friendship pure and disinterested be- 
 tween men and women. Then, what evil chance had 
 made her open the next letter in the pile which had
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 275 
 
 been given her? a note delivered by hand, and 
 brought up, so Joyce said, by the butler, only ten 
 minutes before her own arrival at home. She had 
 read it at first without understanding it, in a kind of 
 languid half -consciousness ; for the emotions of the 
 day had tired her out. Then again and again. 
 
 Of course only a woman could have written such 
 a letter ! could have put such quintessence of malice 
 into words and on paper. It had been evidently 
 written in haste by a spectator of the debate in the 
 Lords; someone who, to private reasons for disliking 
 and despising Alec and Caroline Wing, joined po- 
 litical fury with a man attacking Tier party, and so 
 perhaps endangering the interests of a husband or a 
 brother. A good deal of Alec's speech had consisted 
 of sarcasm at the expense of the younger ''nobodies" 
 who formed a court round Washington, and were 
 reckoning on the minor seats in his Government. No 
 doubt, a wife or a sister of one of them ! For a mo- 
 ment, indeed, Caroline had thought ' ' Elizabeth Wash- 
 ington!" and then in a flash knew that for such a 
 woman to have written such a letter was impossible. 
 
 What matter who wrote it ! It fell from Caroline 's 
 hands, and her head dropped against the back of the 
 chair. Joyce, looking round, astonished at the sudden 
 silence, saw that she was half -fainting. . . . When she 
 had shaken off her weakness, and was sitting with her 
 hand in Joyce's, Caroline let a few broken words 
 escape her. "It was an anonymous letter, dear! 
 horrible! burn it, please." And Joyce had burned 
 it, beside herself with wrath, and sympathy; but ask- 
 ing no questions. 
 
 Then she had helped her cousin to bed. But Caro- 
 line had quickly dismissed both her and the maid;
 
 276 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 to lie sleepless and feverish, waiting for Alec, the 
 phrases of the mean, scurrilous letter, which seemed 
 to strip their victim of every rag of seemliness or self- 
 respect, to leave her naked in a world of enemies, 
 running in her head. 
 
 And as she lay there, two things happened. The 
 first was she made up her mind that she would 
 never tell Alec a word of the letter or a word of the 
 meeting with Lady Dunkeld. Probably mere delu- 
 sion, that last ! something imagined, not seen. And 
 anyway, all such things she would bear alone. No 
 need to worry him with them. 
 
 And the second thing that happened, as she lay 
 there storm-beaten in the spacious room, through 
 which the fire-light flickered, was a sudden invasion 
 of the whole mind by a marvelous sense of companion- 
 ship of help of lightening and raising up flooding 
 the whole being. 
 
 She sprang up in a kind of ecstasy, stretching out 
 her hands to the darkness "What was it? Who 
 art Thou?" 
 
 And nothing answered. Only the February wind 
 went sighing round the house, and in the distance 
 the Abbey bell struck midnight. But as she sank 
 back again on her pillow, half sobbing the pain and 
 bitterness had gone. She lay like a child depending 
 on clinging to she knew not what. When Alec 
 came in, elate and excited, brimming over with the 
 gossip of his Club, he found her eagerly waiting for 
 him, all smiles and triumphant sympathy. And she, 
 hungrily watching for the old devotion, the old words 
 and looks, that had made her life a heaven, was only 
 too ready to mistake his satisfaction with the praises 
 she poured on him for that return she longed for.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 277 
 
 The promise of that ineffable moment seemed to her 
 fulfilled. 
 
 And that moment was the first of others. . . . She 
 began to be secretly haunted waylaid by that Pres- 
 ence which pursues Man's soul. To perceive it, to 
 thrill to it, is itself a natural gift or capacity. And 
 for the first time in her life, she began to discover that 
 she possessed it. 
 
 Strange that such a gift should have revealed itself 
 in those days of constant effort and turmoil, of a fight 
 that grew hotter and hotter as the weeks passed. 
 Carrie threw herself into her husband's campaign 
 with all the energy, all the ability of which she was 
 capable. She wrote for him; she hunted up books 
 and references for him ; she accompanied him through 
 a round of public meetings in the north, by which 
 Alec enormously increased his fame as a speaker, and 
 where the handsome couple were the objects of end- 
 less talk and curiosity, of angry attacks, or excited 
 support. Wing's State Socialism grew more and 
 more advanced; and the astonishing experiments he 
 was beginning to make with his London property rang 
 through the press. At the same time he was a Pro- 
 tectionist on Trade Union principles and a pas- 
 sionate advocate of national strength by land and sea. 
 He soon developed all the popular arts, could tell a 
 story admirably; meet violence with a triumphant 
 good humor; and give charm and savor to the oldest 
 tags. In the Lords he spoke again and again, gain- 
 ing force with every attack on his own side. The 
 Government were visibly weakening; the Opposition 
 divided and anxious. The avowed object of the Wing 
 group was to infuse new blood into the ranks of the
 
 278 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 coining Liberal Government, and force some portion 
 at least of an unauthorized programme on the Liberal 
 leader. 
 
 Llewellyn through it all showed an unmoved aspect. 
 He generally managed to find his way to Eltham 
 House on Friday evening when the House of Com- 
 mons was not sitting, and there he met all Wing's 
 sallies and gibes with the sly and smiling composure 
 which suited his snub-nosed, shrewd-eyed countenance. 
 
 To watch Alec Wing during these months, indeed, 
 was to see in him a kind of "Lucifer fallen from 
 heaven," and striving with might and main to climb 
 back into "the shining place" that should have been 
 his. English political life has always lain open to the 
 assaults of youth, audacity, and brains. The careers 
 of Dizzy, Randolph Churchill, and of others still liv- 
 ing are there to prove it. That a man should be reck- 
 less and violent, if he is also young and full of wits, 
 is all to the good in English politics. Men watch and 
 talk, open-mouthed ; and to be hated is as useful as to 
 be loved. Very soon indeed the new Lord Wing, by 
 his speeches in the Lords and the country, and the 
 exploits of his editor, Donovan, driving the free- 
 booting coach of The New Gazette became names of 
 scandal and fury in thousands of decent households. 
 The peculiarities personal and political of the Op- 
 position leaders were mercilessly chaffed. Washing- 
 ton's "lion head," and the flattery of it in the official 
 Liberal press; Llewellyn now as the Menelaus, now 
 as the Socrates of the party; Washington's anxious 
 courting of the Dissenters, and uneasy haunting of 
 their "tablernacles"; Lord T caressing the Brit- 
 ish workman in public, and cursing him in private; 
 the colossal ignorance of S proved by a most
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 279 
 
 skillful series of extracts from the luckless man's 
 
 speeches over ten years; the inconsistency of D 
 
 who in playing his many parts had never taken Mel- 
 bourne 's advice to his Cabinet "It doesn't matter 
 what we say, but damn it, let's all say the same!"; 
 this man's platform tricks, or that man's luxurious 
 habits: the New Gazette made daily mock of them 
 all. And as anger grew, so also laughter; and that 
 chuckling delight natural to Englishmen, in the mere 
 impishness and malice of the new campaign. 
 
 Then in March came the long expected Budget. 
 Down to the House of Commons went the Tory Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, and in one night the edifice 
 of English Free Trade fell crashing to the ground. 
 
 "We shall beat them," said Llewellyn to Wash- 
 ington as they walked away from the House together 
 "by the skin of our teeth. But they'll be back 
 again in a year, and they'll carry their Bill!" 
 
 But meanwhile and the Tories were quite pre- 
 pared for it their defeat was certain. The day and 
 the hour of it were calculated to the minute, and 
 already the candidates for office were beginning to sit 
 on the Liberal doorstep. 
 
 "I shall ask nothing, write nothing!" said Wing 
 triumphantly to Caroline. "Let them come to me. 
 The question is Can they carry on, with our men 
 barking at their heels? I say no! Well, then, let 
 them buy us off. A few minor offices that's all we 
 want a foot in the doorway. They'll have to do it. 
 You '11 see!" 
 
 Would they? 
 
 The whole political world began to seethe with 
 this question, and with the multitudinous answers to
 
 280 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 it, from the vehement "See them hanged first!" of 
 the enraged main body of the party, to the hesitating 
 "Well, after all, why not?" of those born to com- 
 promise. 
 
 Meanwhile Alec Wing went night after night to one 
 or other of the big towns, expounding the Budget, 
 supporting this, attacking that, always attended by 
 a bodyguard of young speakers, and owing nothing 
 to any party organization. Money indeed was 
 poured out like water, had been so poured out for six 
 months; in the creation of a press and an organiza- 
 tion. But the money was Wing's, frankly, notori- 
 ously, Wing's; and he did as he pleased, owing no 
 man obedience. It was a new form of the money- 
 power in politics. There was no disguise about it, 
 and there being many qualities in the political soil 
 at that moment which suited it, it grew and flourished 
 like a green bay tree. 
 
 And all this time Carrie followed in the wake of 
 her buccaneer, tremulously, feverishly absorbed. All 
 her vague terrors and jealousies on the subject of 
 Madge Whitton were at this time laid to sleep. She 
 never saw her, for Mrs. Whitton had ceased to show 
 herself at Eltham House on the nights when it was 
 open. Nor had she any reason to think that Alec saw 
 her. Certainly he never spoke of her. 
 
 Meanwhile, on the nights when Eltham House set 
 wide the doors of its beautiful rooms, to receive a 
 world which now contained the best foreign society of 
 London, together with all the distinguished migrants 
 of the moment from Paris, Rome, or New York, and 
 a multitude of men, well-born or plebeian, young and 
 old, representing the brainwork of the country, its 
 politics, journalism, and art, together with the pick of
 
 BLTHAM HOUSE 281 
 
 the public services, Caroline Wing was the sovereign 
 of a large and ever-spreading court. Women were 
 always in a small minority in it, mainly because of 
 the social boycott that existed, but partly because men 
 had somehow made a masculine thing of Caroline's 
 salon, and men were more at home there than women. 
 Men talked there as they talked with each other, or 
 at their clubs without mutes on the strings, only 
 with a certain added zest and brilliancy, because of 
 the beautiful woman who made the bond of this mis- 
 cellaneous world, towards whom indeed a wonderful 
 loyalty was growing up among them. Caroline 
 naturally escaped neither adorers, nor scandal. But 
 the adorers she laughed away; soon wooing them 
 back to her, however, as friends, by virtue of a frank 
 camaraderie, which seemed to say to them all without 
 words "What do you what can you expect of a 
 woman who is in love with her husband ! ' ' 
 
 None of them indeed touched even the fringes of 
 her heart except Lord Merton. Him she often 
 thought of; and always with pity, and a stirring of 
 the pulse. The memory of that sudden outburst of his 
 on the night before the opening of Parliament, when 
 he had found her alone, in one of the deserted 
 drawing-rooms, stayed with her, though in a dim 
 dream-like way. She knew that he could not escape" 
 his own Christian standards and traditions that he 
 judged her, while yet he fell at her feet. And that 
 double fact it was which moved her. He had appar- 
 ently the same vague premonitions of evil, of calam- 
 ity, with regard to her, as she had sometimes about 
 herself. That made him passionately want to protect 
 and help her ; while she knew very well, all the time, 
 as a woman of the world, that she must not let him
 
 282 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 help her. But she clung to the thought of him in a 
 wistful, perfectly innocent way. She wanted to be 
 friends with him, as, but for politics, she would have 
 been friends with Llewellyn. And she saw quite 
 plainly that it could not be ; and had never wavered in 
 her decree of banishment. 
 
 But one morning one cold, sunny morning in 
 the week before the critical divisions in the Budget 
 Committee which were to determine the fate of the 
 Tory Ministry, Caroline escaped for half an hour from 
 the great house of which the size and magnificence had 
 begun of late to fret nerves sorely strained, and went 
 into the Park with only her favorite dachshund not 
 even Joyce to keep her company. She wanted soli- 
 tude, and the sting of frosty air. "Walking rapidly 
 westward, she soon found herself on the edge of the 
 Serpentine, which was just filmed with ice and glis- 
 tening with sun. It was too early for any but those 
 who walked for business ; she found herself practically 
 alone, except for a figure of a man advancing from 
 the distance, to which she paid no attention till the 
 man was close upon her, so absorbed was she in the 
 calculations of Alec's chances in the coming struggle. 
 
 Suddenly, she raised her eyes and saw that the man 
 approaching her was Merton. She recognized the tall 
 loosely jointed figure, the small head, and drooping 
 mustache. He had been aware of her for some min- 
 utes, had had his chance of disappearing into a side- 
 path, and had, none the less, blindly come on. 
 
 As they met, she stopped, without any apparent 
 hesitation, and they shook hands. In his face there 
 was a rush of color ; on hers a rather timid smile. 
 
 "Are you out for a constitutional like me? And 
 like me do you never own to such things?"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 283 
 
 He explained that he was on his way to Brook Street 
 to inquire after a brother who was ill. Caroline 
 quietly turned and walked beside him. 
 
 The young man went red and white by turns. At 
 one moment he trod on air; the next it stabbed him 
 to perceive the changes wrought by sheer stress and 
 haste of living in the woman who interested him so 
 deeply. The face was paler, the cheeks and temples 
 thinner, and there were fresh lines, though infinitely 
 delicate, round eyes and mouth. The effect was of a 
 loveliness more human and touching less Juno-like, 
 less triumphant. "She has been working herself to 
 death for that fellow ! " he thought indignantly ' ' and 
 when he comes to grief, as he will, he '11 ill-treat her. ' ' 
 
 All the same, to be walking beside her was delight, 
 and she frankly let him see on her side that it 
 gave her pleasure to meet again. 
 
 They talked of politics. "We shall be out next 
 week," he said, speaking of the Tory Cabinet, "and 
 all the fat will be in the fire." 
 
 Her face showed both her eagerness and her anx- 
 iety. 
 
 "Of course, the whole question for us is can our 
 group get its just share? the share it ought to 
 have?" 
 
 "In the spoils?" He laughed awkwardly. "Who 
 can tell? Washington's gang won't let anybody else 
 in if they can help it. ' ' 
 
 "Ah, but they won't be able to help it!" she said 
 joyously. "Alec's very hopeful!" 
 
 "Yes? Well, whatever you want" (there was the 
 slightest emphasis on the "you") "I hope you'll 
 get. But I think perhaps in London we overestimate 
 the effect of well! what interests the clubs and
 
 284 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 politicians. You don't mind my saying so? It takes 
 a long time for any new propaganda to reach the 
 country. I was down, last week, at a meeting in 
 Oxfordshire, in a little town called " 
 
 He gave the name. Caroline started. Her beau- 
 tiful eyes turned upon him. 
 
 "I know it," she said. 
 
 Mertoii flushed violently. Clumsy ass ! to have for- 
 gotten that the Marsworth estates lay all round that 
 town. 
 
 He hastily gave an account of the meeting, meant 
 to show the dogged adherence to the traditional party 
 lines and shibboleths on the part of the average British 
 voter. But Caroline took no heed. And when he 
 stopped, she said, slowly, with her eyes on the further 
 reaches of the Serpentine : 
 
 ''Lord Merton! I I believe that you know Sir 
 John Marsworth?" 
 
 It was his turn to start. 
 
 "Yes, certainly! We were in the same Yeomanry 
 regiment. ' ' 
 
 "I gathered that from something I saw quite 
 lately in the Times. How much do you know him?" 
 
 Her questions embarrassed him. 
 
 "We have been associated in various ways during 
 the last three years," he said, hesitating. "We met 
 on Church matters for instance before he became 
 a Roman. About eighteen months ago, we used to 
 meet at an East London Mission in which we were 
 both interested. Then his change came and he went 
 to that Jesuit place in Wales." 
 
 ' ' He has left it now, ' ' she said quickly. 
 
 He showed her a puzzled countenance marveling 
 indeed at their conversation.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 285 
 
 Then she added 
 
 1 ' I saw him not long ago. ' ' 
 
 Whereat he wondered more; and could find 
 nothing at all to say. But after a moment she 
 broke out, with quickened breath and fluttering 
 color. 
 
 "You said the last time we met you would like 
 to help me. Of course, I want no help in an ordi- 
 nary way. I adore my husband. I have everything 
 I want. Except! " 
 
 She paused a moment painfully, resuming at last, 
 with agitation: "I want to ask you something! If 
 you know Sir John if you have any influence with 
 him if you know anyone who has who could per- 
 suade him will you do something for me ? Will you 
 try and get him to let me see my child my little girl 
 oftener and for a longer time than he permits 
 now? Once a year for a few hours! that's all it 
 has been since I parted from her. Isn't it hard? Of 
 course I know I brought it on myself. But what 
 harm could I do her? You know me you would 
 speak for me. Just for one fortnight in the year 
 or even a week what it would mean to me ! ' ' 
 
 She spoke very low, her eyes on the ground, her 
 voice trembling. Merton's mind was shaken by the 
 pathos of it ; and also by the sincerity, the unconscious 
 skill, by which she had suddenly transformed the 
 relation between them. Six weeks before, he had made 
 her a passionate declaration, and here she walked 
 beside him, neither goddess nor prude, but simply a 
 mother, hungry for her child! She appealed inno- 
 cently, impulsively to the friend in him; and the 
 friend responded. He had gone through weeks of 
 feverish grief and self-reproach since he had parted
 
 286 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 from her; and suddenly, as she spoke, he found 
 himself. 
 
 He gravely promised to help her, if he could. They 
 walked on, talking earnestly of persons who might be 
 of use in the business, and in the course of their dis- 
 cussion Merton gave her some further information. 
 Marsworth, it seemed, had left the Jesuits because of 
 Modernist opinions. He was still nominally a Cath- 
 olic, but was in a very confused and uncertain state 
 of mind ; full too of personal grievances against mem- 
 bers of the Order, or against important persons at 
 Rome. 
 
 "He always seems to me very unhappy, but he 
 never admits that he himself has had any hand in it. ' ' 
 
 A little bitter smile hovered on Caroline's lips. 
 
 "He never could!" she said, as though involun- 
 tarily. 
 
 Then as they neared the more frequented region of 
 the Park, she paused and held out her hand. 
 
 "I shall tell Alec all I have said to you," she said 
 and Merton wondered again at her frankness ! ' ' Of 
 course in this matter he can do nothing. Only 
 last week I saw that sentence in the Times your 
 name and John's together. And then we met and 
 you see, I have taken you at your word ! ' ' 
 
 He again assured her he would do all he could. 
 Then he wished her good luck in the turmoil of the 
 coming week; and they parted. He went on hur- 
 riedly through the traffic of Piccadilly, head down, 
 conscious of nothing but the eyes and voice he had 
 left behind, and of his own strange situation. He 
 felt that he would gladly have faced death for her. 
 Yet was it consciously or unconsciously? her ap- 
 peal to him had done more to kill the passion in his
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 287 
 
 veins than any other kind of action on her part could 
 possibly have achieved. 
 
 And again, he was haunted by foreboding terrors 
 about her. "In a few years, she will be the unhap- 
 piest woman in London!" he said to himself with 
 vehemence "and none of us will be able to do any- 
 thing!" 
 
 It was quite possible, he thought, that "Wing had 
 been already unfaithful to her. It was said by her 
 intimate friends that she was entirely in the dark 
 suspected nothing. But most people who cared to 
 know, knew very well that Madge Whitton was sup- 
 posed to be living on Wing's money, and was at last 
 after successfully protecting herself for years 
 against any adventure of the sort deeply and blindly 
 in love. As to Wing's attitude, opinion was more 
 divided. He had clearly found Mrs. Whitton useful, 
 and had paid her handsomely for her work. But 
 there were those who thought him a cool hand, not at 
 all likely to be carried away a second time, and for a 
 woman so inferior to the first. These skeptics however 
 were all the more certain that Madge Whitton had 
 this time met her fate, and singed her wings. 
 
 And with every day of hot debate in Parliament, 
 of gossip in London drawing-rooms, of commotion in 
 the country, the tragi-comedy in which Caroline Wing 
 was so deeply concerned ran onward to its climax 
 to the moment of violence and explosion, after which 
 nothing could be again as before.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE Washingtons lived in a house secluded at the 
 back of a Chelsea square. They were rich, but the 
 avoidance of all show of riches was a passion with 
 them both. They were served by parlor maids, who 
 had of course stout lads in the background to do the 
 heavy work. But to be waited on by obsequious men 
 at table seemed to Elizabeth "Washington an insolence 
 on the part of the employer, and a degradation to the 
 employed. Men were intended for nobler functions. 
 Her Quaker spirit, and her democratic instincts, 
 which were strong, even violent, loathed the 
 "flunkey." But that women and men too should 
 be served by women, was in the order of things ; and 
 she was a rigid though a just mistress. 
 
 The house was very simply furnished, and con- 
 tained engravings of famous evangelicals, Wilber- 
 force, Mrs. Fry, Mrs. Opie, John Bright, Richard 
 Cobden, Zachary Macaulay and many others. Wash- 
 ington's study contained books, an armchair, a 
 writing-table and a Turkey carpet. Mrs. Washington 
 carried on a vast correspondence from a corner of the 
 back drawing-room ; which was never left untidy, and 
 made no parade whatever of the work that was done 
 there. The same fastidious order, indeed, prevailed 
 wherever Elizabeth Washington had sway. Her dress,
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 289 
 
 though not affectedly plain, was always simple, and 
 varied no more than from gray to black, or black-and- 
 white. She affected long cloaks which disguised her 
 height. But she was not thin rather the reverse. 
 
 On the Monday evening of the week which was to 
 see the critical divisions on the Budget, Mrs. Washing- 
 ton sat up, expecting her husband. He came in a 
 little after eleven, evidently tired out. His wife 
 smiled at him, prepared him some cocoa on a little 
 stove by the fire, and waited for him to talk or not as 
 he liked. She knew well that he was in the very thick 
 of the melee. Her own pulses were running fast ; and 
 she longed for news. But her self-control was in- 
 vincible. 
 
 When he had had his cocoa, and had set a while 
 with shut eyes, his long legs stretched to the fire, 
 and the lion head thrown back, he said, without 
 moving 
 
 "It will be a famous victory to-morrow!" 
 
 A gleam shot through his wife's eyes. 
 
 "I'm glad you're so certain, Eichard. " 
 
 She came to sit beside him, and laid her hand on 
 his. 
 
 "You've waited for it you've earned it!" she 
 went on after a moment, with quiet exultation. 
 
 "Have I?" the tone was weary. "Well now, 
 hell begins ! ' ' 
 
 His wife smiled in sympathy. 
 
 "How people write to you! it's appalling!" 
 
 "Write! It's much worse than that. I can't 
 escape them anywhere. The House swarms with 
 fellows who want places; the Club's almost as bad 
 and I shall soon not dare show myself in the street. 
 I went down to the City this morning, and an old
 
 290 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 General who saw me jumped upon the taxi while 
 we were blocked opposite the Mansion House, grew 
 purple in the face, and shouted through the window 
 to me at the risk of his life that there was only one 
 man in Parliament fit to be made Under-Secretary 
 for Foreign Affairs, and that was his son one of the 
 biggest louts in the House! And as for letters! 
 look here!" He opened his coat. "My pockets are 
 stuffed with them and from the most important 
 people possible. Everybody has got some fish to fry 
 either for himself or somebody else. ' ' 
 
 "I saw a complete list in one of the evening 
 papers, ' ' said his wife smiling ; but observing him the 
 while. 
 
 "Of my Government?" he laughed contemptu- 
 ously. "I know I saw it. Well, it amuses them, 
 and don't hurt me." 
 
 "I saw Lord Wing's name in it." 
 
 "Oh, all the lists put Wing in somewhere." 
 
 He shut his eyes again. 
 
 His wife was silent for a little. But after a while 
 she put her hand on his again. 
 
 He made a slight irritable movement, but let the 
 hand stay. 
 
 "Eichard, you won't do that will you?" She 
 spoke with a low voice of entreaty. 
 
 "My dear Elizabeth, I must be guided entirely by 
 the party interests. ' ' 
 
 "Entirely, Richard? Isn't there something higher 
 even than party interests?" 
 
 "Not in this connection," he said testily. "If I 
 do put Wing in, he will do no harm to anyone. He 's 
 so anxious to get on politically, that once in, he'll 
 give no trouble. I shall be able to manage him. But
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 291 
 
 if we leave him out, he's strong enough now to worry 
 us abominably." 
 
 "Oh, Eichard! surely not." 
 
 "You must leave me to judge, my dear. Llewellyn 
 agrees with me. Something very small will be 
 enough to content him; so that he just scrapes into 
 the Government. And on the whole it will suit us 
 better than a quarrel, and having that wretched paper 
 on our flanks. ' ' 
 
 "All the Puritan elements, on our side, Eichard, 
 will be up in arms!" said Mrs. Washington, with 
 energy. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "I doubt it. I think they'll take it lying down. 
 We shall be in a very shaky position for a bit. We 
 really can't afford to have Wing's money and Wing's 
 press against us. It's like Dizzy or Eandolph again 
 with a difference. People are shocked but the 
 man gets what he wants ! It is really astonishing the 
 way he has made, in these eight months ! in spite of 
 everything. . . . Well, now I must go to my letters. 
 Llewellyn and two or three others are coming to see 
 me presently. We shall probably sit till late. You'd 
 better go to bed." 
 
 He rose, and as he stood swaying a little with 
 fatigue, his fine shaggy head under the light, he said 
 reflectively 
 
 "I confess I shall be glad if I can to do some- 
 thing for Wing, though I neither like him nor respect 
 him. And of course I see certain risks, though I 
 think you exaggerate them. It was obvious we 
 couldn't be bribed into running him for a constitu- 
 ency. But this is different. At least I think it is. 
 And certainly there never was a woman who put up
 
 292 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 a pluckier fight for the man she loved than Lady 
 Wing! You ought to appreciate that, Lizzy!" 
 
 His fine face broke into a smile. Bending over, 
 he kissed his wife 's forehead, hurrying from the room 
 immediately afterwards, as though to escape any fur- 
 ther conversation on the matter. 
 
 No more childish lack of insight was ever shown 
 by a great man than in these farewell remarks ! 
 
 His wife remained standing where he had left her, 
 her face set in a kind of pale intensity. Then she 
 went slowly into the back drawing-room, lit the 
 electric light over her writing-table, and sat down be- 
 fore it, for some time motionless, her hands lying on 
 her knee. Her thoughts were flying far ahead. Lord 
 Wing in the Ministry; Eltham House, not hostile as 
 now, but friendly and indispensable; the common 
 meeting-ground of the party; all the members of the 
 Government, with Richard at their head, becoming 
 the familiars of the splendid house, the friends of its 
 beautiful and triumphant mistress : she foresaw it all. 
 Richard would go there constantly she never. She 
 had refused to have any dealings with Lady Wing, 
 even to be introduced to her. And pride and self- 
 respect, to say nothing of moral considerations, must 
 entirely prevent a change of attitude on her part. 
 Meanwhile at the back of her troubled yet determined 
 mind lay the gnawing thought "Can I trust my 
 influence with Richard, as against Tiers f Could any 
 man resist so much beauty and such surroundings if 
 he were always seeing her on her own terms in a 
 world from which his wife was banished ? 
 
 No ! she was not sure enough ! she was not! Had 
 she ever been quite sure? Were not the critical 
 years of middle age now in front of them, when
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 293 
 
 Richard's natural susceptibility, his eager pleasure 
 in the companionship of women, a susceptibility 
 absorbed, so far, or directed, by his wife, might easily 
 detach him from her? And who so likely to rouse 
 that susceptibility to lead him astray as Caroline 
 Wing? A woman of no scruples, as her history 
 showed, and with every possible motive for capturing 
 the man, on whom her husband's advancement would 
 depend. 
 
 Not that Washington's wife feared any vulgar 
 denouement, any ordinary scandal. Richard would 
 never betray any trust, let alone the trust of mar- 
 riage; and Lady Wing, it was said, was still infatu- 
 ated and enslaved by the man for whom she had 
 broken both divine and human law. But what she 
 did fear was a loss of empire ; a loss of influence over 
 her husband's mind and sympathies. She was a 
 strong and able woman. It galled her unspeakably to 
 think of entering into any sort of competition with 
 Lady Wing, even were she certain of winning it. And 
 she was not certain. 
 
 She thought long. And presently she began to 
 write letters. All the chief Evangelical and Non- 
 conformist leaders in the country were well known 
 to her. She was in close touch with them all. Some 
 of them were her intimate friends, to whose preach- 
 ing and example she owed a great personal debt. To 
 two or three of these friends especially to the emi- 
 nent Presbyterian minister of whose church she was 
 a member she wrote long and eloquently. The moral 
 standards of the party of the country were at 
 stake. She asked them to strengthen her husband's 
 hands, against the pressure now being brought upon 
 him to include a notorious offender, somehow and
 
 294 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 somewhere, within the four corners of his administra- 
 tion, and she pleaded, on public grounds, that what- 
 ever steps they might think it necessary to take, her 
 letter her one and only warning should be treated 
 as matter of the strictest confidence by those whom 
 she addressed, she had felt it her duty to give the 
 signal. It was for them to fight. 
 
 It was a great night in the House of Commons. 
 Every seat was full, the spaces behind the Speaker's 
 chair and beyond the bar crowded with members for 
 whom there was no room on the benches. The second 
 reading debate on the famous Tory Budget had occu- 
 pied the best part of three weeks, and the division 
 was to be taken at the close of the evening. 
 
 In the private Ladies' Gallery of the Speaker sat 
 the Duchess and Caroline Wing. There also were 
 the great Tory ladies, knowing they were beaten, and 
 determined to show their Liberal supplanters that 
 although they were sorry of course for "the poor 
 country" it did not matter to them personally one 
 rap. In a dark corner, very much out of sight, and 
 with their faces close to the grille, sat Mrs. Washing- 
 ton and an old-maid sister, amiable and gray- 
 haired, of Robert Llewellyn. In the gallery opposite, 
 over the clock, Caroline could distinguish her hus- 
 band among a group of peers his arms resting on 
 the rail in front of him, and his face upon them 
 absorbed in what was happening below. 
 
 There was considerable excitement, and even tumult 
 on the floor of the House. Speakers were constantly 
 interrupted, and the bores at least were subjected to 
 the rhythmic chant of '"Vide!" ' "Vide ! "from 
 those who felt that everything had been said that
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 295 
 
 could be said, and were impatient for the vote. In 
 the Ladies' Gallery, behind the grille, and immedi- 
 ately above the Speaker's chair, the Duchess and 
 Caroline had been much harassed by the sarcastic 
 comments too audibly whispered of a stout lady be- 
 longing to the outgoing party, standing behind them ; 
 and the Duchess had required much keeping in order. 
 At one time she indignantly proposed sending a note 
 down to the Speaker asking him to maintain the rule 
 of silence in his own gallery. Then her anger suc- 
 cumbed to her sense of humor. "Poor wretch! He's 
 too busy, I'm afraid, with the devils below, to give 
 any attention to the angels above!" she said, twin- 
 kling, to Caroline ; and was thenceforward so pleased 
 with her own mot as to "suffer fools gladly." Caro- 
 line however was too much on edge to laugh ; too con- 
 scious through every nerve of the neighborhood of 
 Mrs. Washington, and of Alec's face opposite. By 
 intuition and by report Carrie knew a good deal of 
 the incoming Premier's wife; she knew in particular 
 that she and Elizabeth Washington had never shaken 
 hands, and with that lady's free will never would; 
 and she was well aware of the power exercised by the 
 tall fine-faced woman over Richard Washington and 
 the party. Despairingly Caroline felt her the obstacle 
 in the path; and vague, foolish imaginings surged 
 up in her mind of seeking an interview arguing 
 entreating. 
 
 Carrie herself was tired out; and so was Wing. 
 During the preceding days and weeks he had become 
 increasingly excitable and short-tempered; now at 
 the top of certainty and hope, now in the depths; 
 now extolling the men who served him, including 
 Donovan, as the cleverest and noblest fellows going;
 
 296 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 the next denouncing them as a set of fools and asses, 
 and only preserved from irremediable quarrels by 
 Caroline's tact and diplomacy. She herself had been 
 going through a time of hard disillusionment, not to 
 be confessed even to herself. Her husband's arro- 
 gance and self-seeking, the coarse or gritty elements 
 in the clay of which he was built, had become plain 
 sometimes even to her fond eyes. She loved him as 
 much as ever ; she lived in him and for him ; but her 
 love was passing steadily, though unconsciously, from 
 the first stage of passion which clings and adores 
 and wonders into the second, which protects and 
 cherishes. To make him happy, to give him what he 
 desired, and so to make up for the wrong she had 
 done him (she had begun to put it so to herself!) 
 these were the objects of her soul. 
 
 . . . She was suddenly recalled to the scene below. 
 The Speaker rising put the question 
 
 "Aye!" the shout rang up to the galleries fol- 
 lowed instantly by the answering No a roar from 
 the Opposition side. 
 
 "The Ayes have it," said the Speaker. 
 
 "No!" thundered out again. 
 
 "Ayes to the left Noes to the right." 
 
 Immediately the floor below became a moving hive 
 of men leaving the House for the division. 
 
 Ten minutes more, and the Opposition had done 
 its deed. Familiar scene! but never without its 
 thrill for those who have English history in their 
 veins, who remember that these men of to-day are 
 the heirs of Pitt, Fox, and Burke. The tellers with 
 the numbers had walked up the floor of the House 
 bowing to the Speaker, and as soon as it was seen that 
 the Opposition tellers were on the right or winning
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 297 
 
 side, pandemonium broke loose. The House became 
 a forest of waving order-papers, a tumult of cheering 
 men. Ministers, pale and smiling, rose from the front 
 bench, gathered up their papers and prepared to 
 leave the stage of their long ascendency. Behind 
 them their followers applauded; in front of them 
 their opponents jeered and shouted. Then, as though 
 at a signal, the whole tumult dropped. Ministerial- 
 ists and Opposition rushed off into the lobbies where 
 the journalists were waiting for them. 
 
 Caroline and the Duchess rose too. They were 
 to meet Wing in the Central Lobby. Caroline was 
 trembling with excitement. She was in evening 
 dress as she had returned to the House after dining 
 at home. The Ladies' Gallery was hot, and her 
 sable cloak had dropped from her shoulders, showing 
 the white throat and breast, the gleam of jewels, and 
 the folds of a velvet gown. A twisting of thinnest 
 gold lay on her dark hair, with one sparkling stone 
 an emerald set just above the brow, and all the 
 brilliant flush and softness of her face. As she 
 stepped into the light of the corridor outside the 
 Ladies' Gallery, even the Duchess, who was not ob- 
 servant of such things, was startled by her beauty. 
 But the moment afterwards the Duchess noticed 
 something else ! that a woman in a plain black dress 
 was coldly and silently making room for Caroline to 
 pass her. The Duchess recognized Mrs. Washington ; 
 she saw Caroline's look hesitating impulsive the 
 lips opening as though to speak, and the sudden 
 marked movement by which Mrs. Washington re- 
 treated into a doorway behind her till the other had 
 passed by. 
 
 "Just like her! " thought the Duchess indignantly.
 
 298 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "A dragoon of a woman! I hate her! And I expect 
 she has Carrie in the hollow of her hand." 
 
 Now they were in the Central Lobby. Caroline 
 a little pale, but queenly, moving through a whirl 
 of friends and foes; eagerly greeted by some, stared 
 at by others, observed by all. 
 
 Alec she perceived in the distance, lounging, his 
 hands in his pockets, talking to the sallow-faced man 
 with the long hatchet chin, hair straggling over his 
 forehead, and shabby clothes Edward Donovan 
 who had been instructing the public all these weeks 
 through the megaphone of Wing's principal news- 
 paper. He wore a quiet, mocking look; saying little, 
 and that little ambiguous; but he made his way 
 obsequiously to Lady Wing to shake hands on the 
 exit of the Government. 
 
 "Very good fun all that shouting!" he said, point- 
 ing with a smile to the entrance of the House of 
 Commons "but the real work now begins. I 
 wouldn't be in Washington's shoes for the next few 
 days." 
 
 "A beastly business! always is," said Wing who 
 had joined them. "Well, Washington has nothing to 
 fear from me. I shall toady nobody! What we ask, 
 we ask publicly." 
 
 There was a slight satiric compression in the 
 strong mouth of the editor. But he assented with the 
 remark : 
 
 ' ' Certainly. All the world knows what we want 
 ring out the old fogies, and ring in the new men ! ' ' 
 
 Sir Oliver Lewson caught the words as he made 
 his way through the crowd to speak to Caroline. He 
 nodded to Donovan : 
 
 "Which are we, eh?" Then, in Caroline's ear
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 299 
 
 "I just want to say that as far as I can hear, pros- 
 pects are good!" 
 
 She flushed brightly, thanking him with her eyes, 
 and they gossiped a little, while Alec stood moodily 
 by her, glancing restlessly from face to face among 
 the throng of members and journalists. Then 
 Llewellyn passed with his sister, and Caroline held 
 out a welcoming hand. 
 
 ' ' How long will it take ? ' ' she asked him, smiling. 
 
 "The new Ministry? Oh, a week for the prin- 
 cipal offices a fortnight till everybody's appointed. 
 Washington of course will see the King to-morrow." 
 
 A fresh outburst of cheering startled them both. 
 "Washington had just emerged from one of the inner 
 doors accompanied by his wife. His friends pressed 
 round him in a tumult of enthusiasm and triumph. 
 He was very pale, but his eyes glowed, and he had 
 never been more completely master of himself. He 
 found the right word to say to each man who 
 approached him, and all the time he made his way 
 towards Caroline, who awaited him with a throbbing 
 pulse. In another minute her hand was in his. 
 
 "Now you have your chance!" she said ardently. 
 "It's too, too splendid!" 
 
 But, as she spoke, she moved forward involuntarily, 
 expecting that at last he would introduce her to his 
 wife. 
 
 But Mrs. Washington had already disappeared. 
 
 Carrie looked round her, bewildered. Meanwhile, 
 the Liberal leader warmly pressed the hand he held. 
 
 "It's worth something when you are pleased!" he 
 said, so that only she could hear. Then, with a laugh, 
 "Pray for me these next days. Good night!" And 
 with a grip and a smile for Wing, of the same sort
 
 300 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 that he gave to scores of others, the great man 
 passed on. 
 
 "Caroline! let's go home! I've sent for the 
 motor, ' ' said Alec peremptorily, beside her. 
 
 "I thought you'd be going to the Club, Alec! or 
 the office." 
 
 "Let's go home!" he repeated impatiently. 
 
 Husband and wife sped home together through 
 streets already placarded with the news of the fall of 
 the Ministry. Alec gathered up the pile of letters for 
 him in the hall, and followed Carrie into her sitting- 
 room. 
 
 When the door was shut, she turned to him with 
 outstretched hands eying him half joyous, half 
 shrinking. 
 
 "I think it's going well, Alec! oh, I think it is!" 
 
 He took the hands, indifferently, and let them 
 drop 
 
 "I'm glad you do. But I'm afraid what you or 
 I think matters uncommonly little. ' ' 
 
 "But you've worked so hard! and there are so 
 many with you supporting you." 
 
 "Hm more cry I think than wool! At least I 
 think so to-day. I don't know what to think." 
 
 And with an angry shake of his fair curls he thrust 
 his hands again into his pockets, and began to pace 
 the floor, in a frowning restlessness. 
 
 She tried to soothe him, to discuss the great events 
 of the evening. But he scarcely listened to her; 
 and presently she became vaguely alarmed. Thia 
 despondency was unusual, unlike him. Was he over- 
 done with the six months' campaign, or were things 
 known to him that were still unknown to her? And
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 301 
 
 always this guilty sense that it was she who was the 
 difficulty ! she who was undoing him ! 
 
 She grew pale, but she went up to him, and slipped 
 her arm in his. 
 
 "Darling! if it goes wrong if you can't get what 
 you want, it'll come in time." 
 
 He turned upon her. 
 
 "If I don't get what I want now it will never 
 come and I shall give it up ! " 
 
 "Alec! and you're so young! we've got all the 
 years before us!" 
 
 ""Worse luck! I sometimes think. What are we 
 going to do with them? And I can tell you, Carrie, 
 I'm not going to carry on the life I've been leading 
 this last six months for ever. Don't think it! I'm 
 sick to death of it ! It 's been a dog 's life ! ' ' 
 
 "Alec! and I thought you'd been enjoying it! 
 You've been so successful. Think of the meetings 
 the speeches all the friends you've made! Oh, 
 Alec, darling! don't be discouraged! If not now 
 another time!" She nestled her beautiful head 
 against his shoulder pleading. 
 
 "No!" he said, with an obstinate vehemence that 
 amazed her "If not now never! The hypocrites, 
 and Pharisees who will have beaten me, will beat me 
 always. TTiey don 't change ! curse them ! ' ' 
 
 "But they won't beat you, Alec! Mr. Donovan 
 is persuaded you'll get your opening. Think how 
 friendly Mr. Washington was just now!" 
 
 "To you they're all nice to you!" he said, almost 
 fiercely. "What does it mean? Nothing! And I 
 won't go on with it, Carrie. If I fail now, I cut the 
 business. I'm not meant for a demagogue. I can do 
 the trick as well as most people, if it succeeds. If
 
 302 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 I don't succeed Good-by! I'm not going to spend 
 my life in flattering and wheedling ugly, stupid people 
 who don't understand a word you say to them, packed 
 into stuffy, smelly rooms in stuffy, smelly towna 
 in shaking their dirty hands, and listening to their 
 silly talk. It's worth while as a prelude to some- 
 thing else. In itself it's beastly!" 
 
 "Alec!" She was aghast at the outburst. After 
 a minute she asked him in a low voice, her eyes on 
 the floor, as they paced. 
 
 "What would you do, then?" 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders impatiently. 
 
 "I don't know I suppose there's always travel." 
 
 ' ' Of course there is ! " she said, brightening. ' ' We 
 could go away together again and throw off every- 
 thing ! ' ' Her eyes looked tenderly into his. 
 
 "Couldn't we, Alec?" 
 
 "Well, I don't know," he said slowly. "Some- 
 times when a man's in the mood that I shall be if 
 Washington fails me, he's best alone." 
 
 " Alone f" She came to a sudden startled pause, 
 her arms dropping to her sides, her pale looks turned 
 upon him. 
 
 "There, there, I didn't mean it," he said hastily. 
 "Of course we shall have time to think it out plenty 
 of time. Why don't you go to bed, Carrie? You 
 look like a ghost." 
 
 But she would not go till driving back by main 
 force the fears that surged upon her she had drawn 
 him out of his pit of depression. She used all her 
 powers; she made play with all her beauty; and in 
 the end she succeeded. The black moment passed. 
 She made him read his letters which were full as it 
 happened of encouragement; she reported to him
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 303 
 
 all the friendly and hopeful things that had been said 
 to her, she reminded him of the powerful friends he 
 had lately made. Before half an hour was over he 
 was his sanguine, confident, boasting self again. 
 
 But that night Caroline slept little. Some of the 
 things Alec had said went echoing dismally through 
 her mind. Nonsense! nonsense! She pushed them 
 from her. Alec forsake her? leave her alone? He 
 never would! His talk had been the mere passing 
 extravagance of a tired man. 
 
 Cabinet-making went merrily on. There was first 
 the inner Cabinet the half dozen men about whom 
 nobody doubted; they were in constant communica- 
 tion with the new Prime Minister, grinding other 
 people's axes, since their own were safe. Then came 
 the middle line, the men who wanted more than they 
 were worth, and vowed they would take nothing less ; 
 among them, perhaps, Washington found his hardest 
 task. And finally there was the large border throng, 
 made up of the new men of ability, and the old medi- 
 ocrities, struggling for the minor offices. And it was 
 here especially that women came in the mothers and 
 the wives, whose letters and intrigues and cajoleries 
 made the new Premier's life a burden to him. 
 
 Every day the newspapers contained long lists of 
 the embryo Government, and every day the list of 
 certainties men who had found their billet grew 
 longer, and the list of doubtfuls, names with a query 
 after them, grew shorter. In this latter section, day 
 after day, appeared the name of Lord Wing; as 
 representing now this, now that office, for the Gov- 
 ernment in the House of Lords. 
 
 Meanwhile Eltham House was filled every night
 
 304 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 with a gossiping, political crowd, all cheerful and 
 congratulatory. The New Gazette had hauled down 
 its flag of attack, and was ingeminating peace 
 and compromise. Alec, under one excuse or another, 
 sat at home in case he should be sent for ; and Carrie 
 could hardly breathe for excitement. Alec's success 
 seemed so near ; a new and honorable future, blotting 
 out the past and giving an able man his chance, ap- 
 peared so certain; she already felt herself forgiven 
 and restored; readmitted above all to that world of 
 good women which had cast her out. Not all at 
 once, of course but by degrees. And then surely 
 John would be less cruel about Carina! She 
 thought with hunger of the child, and of Lord Mel- 
 ton's promise. 
 
 Then, without any warning, one or two less favor- 
 able signs began to appear. Some Liberal papers, 
 of Dissenting tendencies, began to publish articles on 
 the need for exacting a high standard of personal 
 character in the public men of the nation; one or 
 two Tory papers, referring to the Liberal attacks 
 which had been made on the private affairs of a Tory 
 politician earlier in the year, allowed themselves 
 mysterious sarcasms to the effect that it was easier 
 to be virtuous for other people than for oneself ; and 
 a High-Church, Socialist weekly, called upon Wash- 
 ington in impassioned language not to admit any 
 man with a smirched record to his administration. 
 To appoint such a person to any office whatever 
 would be to challenge the conscience of the country. 
 After which, other rumors began to creep about in 
 the inner circles. And presently to some few per- 
 sons the affair began to present itself as a duel a 
 strange and silent duel between two women, who
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 305 
 
 never met, who were not acquainted with each other, 
 but on whose rival power the political career of Alec 
 Wing in truth depended. 
 
 At last one evening, after a day marked by attacks 
 more numerous and outspoken than ever before on 
 the proposed admission to the Government of a 
 "co-respondent in a recent notorious divorce case," 
 Robert Llewellyn ran into Sir Oliver Lewson at the 
 corner of St. James 's Street. 
 
 "Hullo, Lewson? I was just coming to look for 
 you. Can you give me ten minutes' conversation? 
 Come into the Park. ' ' 
 
 The two men turned back into the Mall. Llewellyn, 
 who was now Secretary for India, looked extremely 
 grave and worried. Lewson guessed in a flash 
 what was coming. 
 
 "I want you to go and tell Lady Wing" said 
 Llewellyn abruptly "now, if you can at once! 
 before she sees the final list in the papers that we're 
 all awfully sorry! but we find it can't be done. 
 Washington's tried his best, but the purity party 
 High and Low Church have got wind of the thing, 
 and the pressure on him is simply extraordinary. 
 Letters arrive by every post from the leaders of the 
 Dissenting bodies Deans Bishops clergy Heaven 
 knows who! the whole black crew. And in addi- 
 tion" he lowered his voice "as of course you know, 
 Washington has a preacher of his own on the 
 hearth!" 
 
 Lewson shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "Naturally, we suspected danger from that 
 quarter. ' ' 
 
 "In my belief the whole difficulty springs from 
 there has been organized there," said Llewellyn,
 
 306 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 with something like vehemence. "But one can't say 
 so to Washington. He's really distressed. He meant 
 to have done it for Tier sake, chiefly. I can venture 
 to say that to you ! But we can 't break up the party. 
 You know what English people are how a thing of 
 this kind, a trifle with no bearing at all on the main 
 issues becomes a main issue before you know where 
 you are and the whole pitch is queered. But some 
 of us wish a certain lady and her crew at the bottom 
 of the sea ! ' ' 
 
 ''So it's all settled?" said Lewson after a pause. 
 
 "I'm afraid so. It's spoiled the whole of this ex- 
 citing and otherwise most satisfactory week for me. 
 A constituency was out of the question. But this 
 was different. I thought we could just have done 
 it, and I believe it would have been the making of 
 the man. However to be honest it wasn't him I 
 cared about." 
 
 "Poor lady!" said Lewson softly "Poor brave 
 lady!" 
 
 Lewellyn nodded, with a countenance of distress. 
 
 "She'll have a time of it with Wing, before she's 
 done. He's extremely able that we've all found out 
 but absolutely violent and unbalanced. However, 
 I oughtn't to say these things to you." 
 
 Lewson smiled queerly. He too was beginning to 
 find his agent's task no easy one. 
 
 "Say what you like." 
 
 "No use! I suppose money goes to some men's 
 heads like champagne. It makes them insolent 
 fools. Wing might get all he wants by time and 
 diplomacy. And he won't try either. But please 
 go and warn her at once! That's why I stopped 
 you."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 307 
 
 The voice, the small round eyes were full of con- 
 cern. Never was there a more disturbed philosopher. 
 
 "I saw Wing at the Club just now." 
 
 Llewellyn assented. 
 
 "He was there. Possibly Washington's letter will 
 find him there. I left the Prime writing it twenty 
 minutes ago we'd had a long discussion and the 
 messenger would have instructions to track Wing 
 down and deliver it." 
 
 Lewson opened his eyes. 
 
 "It's got as far as that?" 
 
 "Yes I believe so," said Llewellyn reluctantly. 
 "Washington had made up his mind; and I had his 
 leave to give Lady Wing warning." 
 
 The two men parted; and Lewson made his way 
 quickly along the Mall towards Eltham House, 
 through a March evening breathing spring. 
 
 An hour later, in a corner of the great Liberal club, 
 which had been seething with life and excitement all 
 these critical days, Alec Wing received and read a 
 letter short, kind, regretful, but decided from the 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 Having read it, its recipient thrust it into his 
 pocket, and pushing his way blindly through the 
 groups in the Club smoking-room, he went out into 
 the mild spring air. Walking through back streets 
 he made his way across Piccadilly and into Mayfair. 
 Then he stopped at a small house in St. John Street, 
 and knocked at the door. A maid opened it, who 
 smiled discreetly at the sight of Lord Wing, as though 
 at something familiar. 
 
 "Is Mrs. Whitton at home?" 
 
 ' ' Oh yes, my lord. Will you please walk upstairs ? ' '
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 MRS. WHITTON was not in the drawing-room, and 
 Alee Wing stood waiting for her, hat in hand. 
 
 His eyes wandered round the room. How familiar 
 it had grown! All the same he hated it. It was 
 associated with all that he now wished to forget. 
 
 Carrie had known nothing of his visits there, had 
 believed, innocent as she was, that he and Madge 
 Whitton no longer saw each other. Well! He had 
 not betrayed his wife he had done nothing irrep- 
 arable so he angrily assured himself. Madge 
 Whitton had suited him; had been of use to him. 
 Carrie was so absurdly romantic and fastidious; al- 
 ways objecting to this or that. Madge was a woman 
 of the world ; and knew that no omelets could be made 
 without eggs. She understood the shadier sides of 
 people ; no insipid belief in human nature in her ! 
 
 All the same, she Tiad suited him, and suited the 
 campaign the horrid campaign he had been 
 waging. He and she, and that chap Donovan rather 
 a comfort by the way to be rid of him, and his daily 
 lectures and liberties ! had really planned the attack, 
 week by week, in that room, discussing especially a 
 number of private matters relating to individuals; 
 how to bribe one man ; how to threaten another ; dirty 
 work, most of it! Wing's pride looked back upon it 
 
 308
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 309 
 
 with abhorrence. But Madge had shown herself ex- 
 traordinarily clever over it. Nothing tangible 
 nothing to be traced and apparently great success. 
 Apparently! for after all what had come of it? 
 His cup was filled to overflowing with bitterness and 
 wounded vanity. 
 
 And Madge? Well, he had paid handsomely. All 
 her debts were settled; her investments changed; her 
 income nearly trebled. He had heaped gifts upon 
 her; and was uneasily conscious that a certain num- 
 ber of people knew it. 
 
 But as to anything else? Well, that was her fault 
 if "anything else" had happened. He thought, 
 with discomfort, of his leave-taking from her on the 
 occasion of his last visit to her three days before. 
 Suddenly near that door she with her back to it 
 had said "Kiss me Alec!" hungrily, perempto- 
 rily; and he taken aback confused flattered had 
 stooped and kissed her. Then, with a sudden sob 
 and fluttering breath, she had let him go ; and he had 
 walked away feeling himself a great fool and angry 
 with her. He had never made love to her ; he vowed 
 he hadn't; not more, at any rate, than any man 
 must, under the circumstances. She couldn't have 
 misunderstood him ; she was too old a hand. 
 
 And in the evening he had written to her apologiz- 
 ing for his behavior "which mustn't spoil our 
 friendship!" It seemed to him the best thing he 
 could do. There had been no reply. 
 
 And now this was the last time they would meet 
 for a long, long time. But this visit he owed her. 
 She had been a stanch ally! 
 
 A sound at the door. She came in slowly in 
 a pale purple dress, her fair hair catching the light.
 
 310 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "How do you do! Alack! I know. Penwenack 
 has written to me. I'm awfully sorry." 
 
 She spoke in a slow tired voice; and he saw that 
 she was very pale. 
 
 "Well nobody could have fought for me better 
 than you," he said, as he touched a languid hand. 
 
 ' ' Yes, I did my best. ' ' She sank into a chair ; and 
 he found one not far off. But his eyes avoided hers. 
 He did not want to see what was in them ; he wanted 
 to get away. Yet they sat and talked a while, about 
 the persons and forces that had after all won the 
 victory a spiritless talk. 
 
 "And what are you going to do now?" she asked, 
 after a pause. 
 
 "I shall take myself off somewhere the farther 
 the better." 
 
 "Won't that seem like running away?" 
 
 "I don't care a devil's halfpenny if it does!" he 
 said bitterly. " I 'm sick of London for a bit. I shan 't 
 stay here to be jeered at." 
 
 "Well, you've plenty of places to go to!" She 
 smiled faintly. 
 
 "Oh, I shall get out of England! I've just tele- 
 graphed to the yacht. I sent orders to get her ready 
 some weeks ago in case. I shall do some climbing 
 in the Andes shake the cobwebs out of one 's brain. ' ' 
 
 He rose as he spoke, and she saw him, sharply out- 
 lined against the western light which was streaming in 
 through a bow window. A splendid figure of a man, 
 with the piled curls and aquiline features of an 
 Apollo ; doubly splendid in this golden twilight, which 
 magnified the whole, while it disguised the details ; the 
 arrogance in the eyes, the sensuous obstinacy of the 
 mouth.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 311 
 
 But Madge Whitton saw only the Apollo the man 
 whose physical attraction had slowly and fatally cap- 
 tured her through the weeks and months of the winter 
 and spring. She too rose, and for one moment the 
 impulse was on her to throw herself into his arms, 
 and so test at last what her woman's power might be. 
 And it was as though he divined it and feared it. 
 For he stepped backward. She read the movement; 
 she remembered his letter, his cold, shuffling letter; 
 and with a lif e-and-death effort she recovered her self- 
 control. After all, what had she ever expected from 
 him? Had he ever really been in love with anybody, 
 except himself? As for his campaign, she had never 
 really believed in it for an hour. 
 
 "So it's good-by for a long time?" She held out 
 her hand. 
 
 "Possibly. I want to thank you awfully for what 
 you've done. I shall never forget it. When I'm far 
 away I shall write and tell you what I feel. And 
 mind you let me know if you want anything. ' ' 
 
 "You've given me too much already," she said, 
 with a forced laugh, her hand still in his. "When 
 you're far away you'll think of me as a grasping 
 woman who got money out of you ! ' ' 
 
 "I shan't I never shall!" he said, in rather irri- 
 table embarrassment, the color rushing into his face. 
 "You mustn't say such things! I shall always think 
 of you as the kindest of friends." 
 
 "And the most useless!" she said, with a great 
 sigh which seemed to him theatrical. Their hands 
 dropped apart. "Good-by. Bon voyage! and all 
 the adventures that are good for you! I suppose 
 Lady Wing goes with you? " 
 
 "I am going alone."
 
 312 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 She was conscious of a fierce satisfaction. If she 
 had been no use, no more had his wife, for all her 
 famous salon. Then, half turned away, her head over 
 her shoulder, with a graceful half-mocking gesture 
 that became her, she waved her hand to him as he 
 left the room. 
 
 She waited till the hall-door closed. Then for long, 
 she sat motionless on the edge of a sofa, staring into 
 the sunset, seeing nothing, unless it were the mental 
 image of the man who had lately stood there. Her 
 whole nature was in a grip of suffering, ugly unex- 
 pected suffering; as though she had been caught 
 unawares and crushed. Looking back over the year 
 that had passed, she knew that almost from the first 
 moment of their re-acquaintance she had meant to 
 possess herself of Alec Wing, to appeal to him, not 
 only through her wits, but through his senses. His 
 wealth had excited in her a greed for money and 
 luxury ; and his political obligation to her had pleased 
 her vanity, and tickled ambition. But there had been 
 a good deal more than that in it a good deal more. 
 She had worked precious hard for him ; though lately 
 without hope of success. 
 
 And the net result of it all was this dumb tumult 
 of mind and heart; wounded pride and wounded 
 feeling struggling in darkness. She had fallen in 
 love with this man, all the more desperately because 
 nothing but that one kiss had ever passed between 
 them. And from beginning to end she had meant 
 no more to him than an agent and go-between! 
 that was now clear. He had paid her handsomely 
 and escaped her! The thought of his instinctive re- 
 treat returned upon her again and again, and the 
 humiliation of it burned within her.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 313 
 
 Yet after a while the cynic in her recovered some 
 command. Nothing fatal had happened. She had 
 not given herself away to anybody but him. Her 
 debts were paid, her income doubled. In time this 
 miserable ache would get better, in time "I shall 
 forget all about him! And meanwhile his beautiful 
 wife has no more hold over him than I." He was 
 not going to take that fair lady with him in his flight 
 from London. That made the only pleasing point in 
 a dark horizon. 
 
 Whereupon she went to the mirror over the mantel- 
 piece, put her hair straight, and arranged various 
 laces and folds of her bodice, carefully examining her 
 white face and dark-rimmed eyes the while; after 
 which, when her elderly cousin, and paying guest 
 descended ready for dinner, in complete ignorance 
 of course of all that had happened, Madge suddenly 
 remembered a theater engagement for nine o'clock, 
 and instead of telephoning and retiring to bed with a 
 headache, forced herself to go and put on her best 
 gown, and to order the car which Wing had given her. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the yellow drawing-room at Eltham 
 House, Durrant and Joyce Allen sat uneasily talking. 
 Durrant had just come back from a fortnight's train- 
 ing in camp, and had the lean wholesome look of a 
 man who had been rising at five o'clock, riding for 
 hours in the open air, and sleeping the soldier's sleep. 
 It seemed to him on the contrary that Miss Allen had 
 grown extremely thin, and looked as though London 
 were taking the life out of her. But the same thought 
 was in both their minds. What was Sir Oliver talk- 
 ing about in her sitting-room with Lady Wing? 
 
 Not that Durrant was much in doubt as to the
 
 314 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 situation. He had come across various men in the 
 course of the afternoon who had told him confidently 
 that Lord Wing's name would not appear in the 
 completed list of Washington 's Administration, which 
 would be in all the newspapers on the morrow. He 
 had communicated his information to Joyce, and she 
 had said simply "I'm very sorry!" But Durrant 
 didn't believe that she was sorry for Wing or sorry 
 for the country. He was tolerably sure that Joyce's 
 little white soul was all for rigor in such things. But 
 she was sorry as he was desperately sorry! for a 
 woman, whose daily happiness depended, apparently, 
 on Wing's getting everything he wanted. Joyce gave 
 him a low-voiced account of the preceding weeks, the 
 perpetual effort and strain of them Caroline 's fever- 
 ish absorption in the campaign her triumphs in one 
 direction her mortifications or rebuffs in another. 
 
 "Of course it's made people more bitter against 
 her, ' ' said the girl sadly. 
 
 "Of course," Durrant assented. And the look 
 of sympathy in his kind bronzed face upset Joyce's 
 discretion. 
 
 "She thinks of him nothing but him morning, 
 noon, and night," she cried her eyes blinking with 
 sudden tears. "While he " 
 
 "Never thinks of her at all! Don't I know it!" 
 said Durrant gloomily. ' ' The question is now what 
 can she do with him?" 
 
 As he spoke, the door leading from the yellow 
 drawing-room into Caroline's special sanctum opened, 
 and Caroline came in, with Sir Oliver. 
 
 She was talking fast. Her eyes were shining and her 
 cheeks pink. "Good-by, dear Sir Oliver good-by! 
 A thousand thanks. I '11 think of all you say. ' '
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 315 
 
 She gave him her hand; he hesitated a moment; 
 then bent over it, and kissed it. After which he 
 walked out of the room apparently unconscious of the 
 two other persons there. 
 
 But Caroline came towards them, pressing her 
 hands to her eyes. 
 
 "Sir Oliver tells me it's no good," she said, in a 
 voice that quivered slightly, her eyes still hidden: 
 "I'm afraid Alec will be dreadfully disappointed." 
 
 "Alec must buck up!" said Durrant with a 
 cousinly bluntness, as he sprang up to get a chair for 
 her. "What does it matter! He has everything in 
 the world a man can want. What wouldn't a lot of 
 fellows give to be in his shoes for a year ! And heaps 
 to do if he would only do it!" 
 
 Carrie did not reply. She sat with her hand in 
 Joyce's, looking restlessly about her. 
 
 ' ' I wonder where he will have heard it ? " she said, 
 as though to herself. "He ought to be in soon." 
 
 The next minute she sprang from her seat and went 
 to the fire as though shivering. 
 
 "Why don't they turn on the heat properly?" 
 she said fretfully. "But it's the house. You can't 
 warm such a place as this. It's too big too big 
 for anyone. If I were Alec I'd turn it into a 
 hospital. ' ' 
 
 And she crouched over the fire spreading her deli- 
 cate hands to the blaze. Durrant came to stand 
 beside her, his heart full of compassion. 
 
 "You've found a use for it!" he said kindly. 
 
 "What my salon?" She laughed. "It gives me 
 no pleasure, Jim. I should be much happier in a 
 small house with just a few friends." 
 
 "You want a rest," said Durrant decidedly.
 
 316 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Why don't you take Alec abroad? clear out of Lon- 
 don for a bit. There's that yacht eating its head off 
 at Southampton." 
 
 Caroline turned her head suddenly as though she 
 heard a footstep. Nor did her instinct mislead her. 
 The door opened, and Alec Wing came in. 
 
 He stopped abruptly on the threshold, looking with 
 annoyance at his cousin and Joyce Allen. Joyce 
 gathered up her work and letters, and fled hastily. 
 Durrant stood his ground, as Wing came forward. 
 
 "Awfully sorry, Alec, that you haven't pulled it 
 off. Better luck next time ! ' ' 
 
 "Well, that's not my point of view," said Wing 
 shortly. "But I won't argue it. So you've heard?" 
 he turned to his wife with a somber countenance. 
 
 "Sir Oliver came in, Alec," she said, as though 
 she excused herself. "Mr. Llewellyn sent him." 
 
 "Damned officious!" was the sharp reply. "Well, 
 Carrie, I have a lot to say to you. ' ' 
 
 Durrant took the hint, and departed, throwing a 
 last look at Carrie, as she lay back in her chair, her 
 eyes fixed on Alec eyes full of shrinking, of love, of 
 entreaty. 
 
 The young soldier went downstairs possessed by a 
 strong desire to kick something or somebody. From 
 the look of him Alec was bent on being disagreeable 
 to his wife by way of paying his scores against other 
 people. What a fool! what an incredible fool! 
 charging the world, head down, like any mad bull 
 because he could not at once get his own way. "We 
 can't have licked him half enough at Eton! And yet 
 I remember taking a hand." For when Durrant had 
 been in the Sixth, Alec had been a Lower Boy, in the 
 same house, and had been duly "worked off" by his
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 317 
 
 elders on two or three occasions for outrageous 
 behavior. Clearly a great deal more had been 
 wanted. 
 
 "Well, Carrie, so that's done with!" said Wing, 
 standing on the hearth-rug beside his wife, his hands 
 in his pockets. 
 
 As he spoke, a footman noiselessly entered the 
 room, in order to draw the curtains and make up the 
 fire. Wing turned on him with fury. 
 
 "Can't I ever be left alone! Go, sir, and don't 
 come back till you're rung for." 
 
 The footman made a hasty exit. Carrie flushed 
 hotly, and then restrained herself. 
 
 "They say" her voice was low and bitter 
 "that Mrs. Washington has done it. She's stirred 
 up people in London in Manchester Birmingham 
 all over. Mr. Washington 's been flooded with letters. 
 He would have done it he wanted to do it but 
 she wouldn't let him. It is strange she should hate 
 us hate me so ! ' ' 
 
 And again, Carrie covered her eyes with her hands. 
 
 "Why of course I know all that!" said Wing 
 impatiently. "And it's not the least strange. We 
 always knew that woman would do her worst. But 
 we thought that we had got the better of her clique 
 cut their claws that Washington would think it on 
 the whole better policy to square us than to square 
 them. Well, we've failed she's won all along the 
 line. And for me it's decisive. If I'm a 'co-re- 
 spondent in a notorious divorce case' now, and the 
 fact is going to bar me from political life, it'll be 
 no different a year two years three years hence. 
 There'll always be some old cats on the watch male
 
 318 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 and female. And I could never bring myself to lick 
 their paws again, as I've done this year. It's 
 sickening to think of. No it's done with it's done 
 with!" 
 
 He spoke with terrible violence, and as he paced 
 up and down, the force of passion in him silenced 
 and almost paralyzed his wife. It was with difficulty 
 she managed to say imploringly 
 
 ''But, Alec there's so much else!" 
 
 He turned upon her 
 
 ' ' What is there that I care about ? What is there 
 for a man in my position with a political family 
 behind him and our English traditions what game 
 is there worth playing but politics? Don't talk 
 nonsense, Carrie ! If I were an American, I suppose 
 I might be a Mugwump and not mind. But an Eng- 
 lishman of my class what is there, but politics? 
 They won't have me in the Army they won't have 
 me in the House of Commons and if I were to claim 
 my rights at Court if I had claimed them the other 
 day in the Lords' procession, Court flunkeys would 
 insult me. Here I am, married by the law of the 
 land with ten times as clean a record, if you come 
 to that, as half the men aye, and the women too! 
 who are hounding us out of public life. I have the 
 wish to serve my country, and the power to serve my 
 country; and a parcel of damned Pharisees make it 
 impossible. And perhaps you don't realize the humili- 
 ation of it! I admit I have played high, and I have 
 lost you and I have lost in the sight of the whole 
 country. It doesn't matter to you " 
 
 ' ' Alec ! " It was a cry of one wounded to the heart. 
 But in his bitter agitation it did not stop him. 
 
 "How can it matter to you in the same way!
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 319 
 
 What does a little social boycotting matter, to you 
 or to me? We can snap our fingers at that. It's 
 the spoiling a man's career the refusal of public 
 openings and opportunities to a man who could use 
 them well, to please a lot of canting hypocrites, that 's 
 the damnable, the unpardonable thing!" He struck 
 his hand on the table beside her. ''I can't stand it, 
 Carrie. I'm going out of this. I can't meet these 
 men in the street or the Club. I'm not going 
 to dine or smoke or shoot with them. I've 
 had a sickening of London and the country too. 
 I wash my hands of England, and the whole 
 business ! ' ' 
 
 ' ' Alec ! think of the estates all we might do there. 
 Come down with me to the country let's live our 
 own life depend on ourselves!" 
 
 She held out her hands to him, entreating. But 
 he shook his head. 
 
 ' ' How am I ever to get away from what 's happened 
 away from politics? They'll want my money my 
 influence all the same though I am a pariah. Thank 
 you! No! I'm going out of sight and sound of it 
 all to freedom and the backwoods ! ' ' 
 
 And throwing himself into a chair, he lit a cigarette 
 with a hand that shook. She sprang up, and ran 
 across to him, kneeling beside him. 
 
 ' ' Alec, what do you mean ? ' ' 
 
 Her terror was in her face. 
 
 " Don't make a scene, Carrie! It will be much 
 better for you to let me go. I 've been a beast to you 
 lately I know that. I should only make you misera- 
 ble if I stayed. I shall come back of course when 
 I 've had time to think things over. ' ' 
 
 "Where are you going, Alec?"
 
 320 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "I've told the yacht to be at Southampton, the day 
 after to-morrow. There's an old pal of mine in the 
 Guards Charlie Wells who knows South America, 
 has done some climbing in the Andes, and that kind of 
 thing. He says he'll come with me. The point is 
 to drop Europe out of sight for a bit ! " 
 
 ''And your wife, Alec?" She rose and stood 
 beside him, her hands behind her. 
 
 "We've got to think out our lives again," he said 
 obstinately. "I admit you've done all you could to 
 help me." 
 
 But the tone was strangely grudging. Every word 
 hurt. 
 
 "You mean you really are going away alone? 
 that I mayn't come with you?" 
 
 "I shall do better alone. If you're wise, Carrie, 
 you won't make a fuss." 
 
 "And how long will you be away?" 
 
 "Oh I don't know six months certainly perhaps 
 a year!" 
 
 She grew deadly white. 
 
 "And what am I to do?" 
 
 "You will have everything you can possibly want. 
 Lewson will be at your orders. You can live where 
 you please here or in the country. There'll be 
 plenty of money. ' ' 
 
 She moved on slowly over the polished floor, her 
 hands still behind her, her eyes on the ground. There 
 was silence till turning she came back to him. 
 
 "Alec were you ever really in love with me?" 
 
 The words came quietly but brokenly. 
 
 A reply dictated by the brutality of wounded 
 pride leaped out. 
 
 "Well, I think I risked enough for you, Carrie!"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 321 
 
 "Too much you think now?" 
 
 "Nonsense!" 
 
 "No, it's not nonsense!" she said, drawing her 
 breath with difficulty. ' ' You are sorry now you ever 
 met me sorry you ever persuaded me. For you did 
 persuade me, Alec. It was not I who begged and 
 prayed in those days. You think in your heart of 
 hearts that I've ruined your life that I tempted 
 you and ruined you ! I who gave up my children 
 my good name relations friends everything ! for 
 you my Dicky ! Carina ! ' ' Her voice choked. She 
 pressed her hands to her breast, trying to keep down 
 the actual physical storm. "What do you suppose 
 your money or your great houses really matter to 
 me? What '11 this house be to me when you're gone 
 but a ghastly sham and weariness! Oh, I've been 
 so tired so tired for months!" she wrung her 
 hands, piteously, unconsciously. "But I could do 
 anything face anything for you, so long as you 
 loved me. And now instead of our facing this to- 
 gether helping each other clinging together all the 
 closer, because of those who condemn and despise 
 us you are going to leave me alone to bear every- 
 thing without you. But I 'm not fit to bear it alone, 
 Alec I haven't the strength. You offered me hap- 
 piness and I took it because I was weak and 
 couldn't stand alone. It's unkind, what you propose 
 it's cruel. Why mayn't I come with you? Should 
 7 ever reproach you or jeer at you?" 
 
 "No but you would remind me," he said stub- 
 bornly. "We should talk the beastly thing over, and 
 we should always have it in our minds. I want to get 
 quit of it!" 
 
 "And of me!" she said, under her breath. There
 
 322 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 was a forlorn passion in the words which almost 
 moved him. But he braced himself against it. 
 
 "Of everybody for a time. Let me go, Carrie, 
 or I'm afraid you'll repent it. And the sooner I go 
 the sooner I shall come back." 
 
 She pleaded and argued a while longer; but 
 wholly in vain. Then there came a moment, when 
 she suddenly ceased to wrestle with him; when a 
 silent despair seized upon her; and the inglorious 
 fight was won. 
 
 Nor did anyone else avail anything. Lewson and 
 Durrant tried their best; but Lewson 's hands were 
 tied by his position as agent, and Durrant 's by the 
 peremptory necessity for doing nothing which could 
 jeopardize Joyce Allen's position in Wing's house, 
 and at Carrie's side. A quarrel between him and 
 Alec would have led to some insolence towards Joyce 
 which must have dislodged her, and so despoiled Lady 
 Wing. For he knew very well that Wing had guessed 
 his affection for Carrie's young cousin, thought him 
 a fool, and would probably say so, on small provoca- 
 tion. And to tell the truth, he was not sure enough 
 yet of his chances with Joyce to risk an upheaval. 
 
 The Duchess came in furious and told Wing 
 some home truths, which he took with philosophy, 
 she being his aunt and a Duchess. But her on- 
 slaughts did not move him. 
 
 Three days of feverish preparations, and he was 
 gone. On the night before his departure, Caroline 
 who had become a pale and speechless ghost, the 
 pity of all who watched her, for the first time in their 
 joint lives, shut her door against her husband. She 
 spent the night in a chair beside the fire, sleepless 
 and motionless, haunted by visions of the past, and
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 323 
 
 seeing no hope in the future. That Alec could do such 
 a thing could resist her love, and all her sorrow 
 broke the spring of life, and in some bitter way dis- 
 solved the bond between them. Without love 
 without the justification of a great unbroken love 
 what was she indeed but Alec 's mistress an immoral 
 and dishonored woman? 
 
 Wing looked at her the following morning askance, 
 but said nothing. They parted with a formal kiss, 
 she like a stone, and when Joyce, herself sobbing, 
 led her back into her sitting-room, she quietly dis- 
 engaged herself from the girl's tender clasp, and 
 saying she would rather be alone, she shut herself in 
 for some hours, emerging a calm and lifeless creature, 
 to whom no one dared offer sympathy. 
 
 In the evening arrived a note from Southampton, 
 brought back by messenger. Caroline read "Good- 
 by, Carrie. I know you think me a brute. Perhaps 
 I am, but I believe it will be for the best. If you 
 care at all to do what I want I admit I have 
 precious little right to ask you you won't give up 
 Eltham House, and you'll go on with your 'evenings.' 
 They're the only bit of success we've managed be- 
 tween us, so you might as well stick to them. But do 
 as you like. The yacht's in splendid trim, and the 
 smell of the sea has already put new life into me. 
 Mind you go somewhere for Easter. Good-by." 
 
 A fortnight later, Caroline found herself on the 
 Cornish coast, in a small summer house which had 
 belonged to Alec's grandmother. In the autumn she 
 had marked it as a place to breathe the spring in; 
 and she went there blindly, dragging her broken 
 wings. Like other stricken things she went to hide
 
 324 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 herself in Nature's quiet places, appealing for comfort 
 to that life 
 
 Whose dumb aim is not missed, 
 If birth proceeds, if things subsist. 
 
 She would sit for hours in a fringe of oak-wood on 
 the end of a cliff, now watching the glistening gulls 
 inland, on the bits of fresh plowed field, and now the 
 same gulls on the tide far below, "their white breasts 
 dancing on the restless sea." Sometimes under the 
 April sunshine she would lose herself among the 
 gorse, and the young oak-leaf, and sometimes she 
 would go with Joyce further afield, take long walks 
 along the coast, and talk to fishermen in the little 
 steep villages hidden in the cracks and chines of the 
 cliffs. But it was all the talk and the action of an 
 automaton; that it had little or nothing to do with 
 the real Carrie was evident. 
 
 The real Carrie was drowned submerged in a 
 perpetual dream, a ceaseless struggle of thought, of 
 which only the rarest signs appeared on the surface 
 of the outer life. She tried not to be idle, and it was 
 during these weeks that she made her first serious 
 attempts to know the poor, and to imagine their lives. 
 The Cornish fisherman has a free soul, and gives it 
 away neither to riches nor to rank. But she won 
 some friends among them, who were attracted by her 
 beauty and kindness; men and women who secretly 
 wished her "childer," to cheer her up. The villages 
 were mainly Methodist, with a good deal of Revival- 
 ism going on, and Carrie would sometimes slip into a 
 chapel in some hamlet where she was not likely to 
 be recognized, and listen to the preaching. It often 
 touched and surprised her; but it was not in these
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 325 
 
 neat slated Bethels that her own "voices" came to 
 her. Beside the sea at night in the woods she was 
 conscious again and again of the same mysterious 
 Life appealing to life which had first spoken to her 
 in London; the gleamings of a spiritual vision that 
 was no sooner felt than it was gone. She did not 
 know herself for the same Carrie as the Carrie of the 
 winter; and she often seemed to herself to have 
 stepped out from the living, and to be waiting by the 
 roadside, for she knew not what a step, a light in 
 the distance? a recognition, or a joy, austere and 
 wonderful, which yet always escaped her. 
 
 Occasional telegrams came from Alec from different 
 South American ports. But his movements were so 
 uncertain that she could rarely do more than cable 
 in reply; and indeed for a time she did not attempt 
 to do more. Once or twice she talked of going back 
 to London and re-opening Eltham House; but she 
 was so obviously unfit for any kind of effort that 
 Joyce, and Lewson Durrant also, who kept in as 
 constant touch with the two ladies as his military 
 duties allowed did nothing to encourage the notion, 
 and it soon died away again. 
 
 One evening, one glorious evening at the beginning 
 of May, before a sea of rose and pearl, she was sitting 
 with a book on her knee, one frail hand idly plucking 
 at a tuft of seagrass beside her, when the afternoon- 
 letters were brought her. She perceived one in Lord 
 Merton's handwriting, and opened it eagerly. 
 
 DEAR LADY WING I have at last had an 
 opportunity of talking to Marsworth. I regret to say 
 he is obdurate. I never saw anyone less accessible to 
 reason or kindness in such a matter. Please believe
 
 326 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 that I did my best; but he would yield nothing 
 nothing! as to Carina. Indeed I think that if any 
 fresh effort were made to alter his resolution, he might 
 cut you off from her altogether. He is in a curious 
 restless state, half on with Rome and half off. They 
 treat him very gingerly, and give him all the latitude 
 they can. It is important to them to keep so big a 
 capture if it is any way possible. But I doubt whether 
 they will. At present he is up to the neck in a number 
 of religious controversies which seem to keep him 
 occupied. But it is a dreary state of life, and he is 
 an unhappy man. 
 
 ''You cannot know how much I would do and give 
 to bring you pleasure or comfort if only for a few 
 hours. But I am afraid you won't let me do any- 
 thing, and I am a poor hand at writing. All I know is 
 that your friends in town never forget you, and would 
 only be too thankful if you could show them how to 
 serve you. I hope you have good news of Wing." 
 
 Carrie put the letter down, and sat staring through 
 tears into the crimson leagues of air and sea before 
 her. Her whole nature was athirst for Alec, athirst 
 for her child. ' ' I must try and live for other things, ' ' 
 she said to herself. But how, and for what? All 
 other things seemed to have lost their savor; and 
 that deep weariness of which she had been conscious 
 so often during the winter dragged her down like a 
 weight. 
 
 It was that night, after Joyce the faithful and 
 tender had left her, that Caroline was first con- 
 scious of the ill that destroyed her. Sudden, sharp 
 pain came upon her, and the first discovery of those 
 symptoms that stand, for helpless mortals, like omens
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 327 
 
 of doom, between the life that was and the death that 
 shall be. 
 
 The following day Joyce telegraphed for the 
 Duchess, who came down, and behaved like the good 
 woman she was. Within a week Caroline was in a 
 nursing home, and the knife had done its part. No 
 one knew where Alec Wing was, and she insisted 
 that no one but herself should write to him when 
 she was able. After three weeks she struggled back 
 to an ordinary existence again, and after another 
 fortnight she was walking about as usual, except that 
 those who saw her beheld in her only the lovely 
 shadow of her former self. All that had happened 
 had been kept profoundly secret, and by the begin- 
 ning of June Carrie announced her firm intention of 
 going up to London, and seeing friends again in the 
 old way at Eltham House. 
 
 "She can't do it, my dear," said the Duchess 
 despairingly to Joyce. ' ' But we shall have to let her 
 try." 
 
 And then remembering what the surgeons had said 
 to her, as Lady Wing's nearest available relative, on 
 a certain recent occasion, she broke down and cried. 
 What the surgeons had said she had never reported 
 to Joyce; and Joyce did not question her now. The 
 girl sat still, her kind young hand seeking for that of 
 the Duchess. She did not need to ask; her love for 
 Carrie had taught her all there was to learn. 
 
 "And where, I should like to know, is her worth- 
 less husband!" cried the Duchess, catching at anger 
 as the only way out of tears. "And who on earth 
 is going to make that poker John Marsworth hear 
 reason ! ' '
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 IT was a Friday afternoon in June; the House of 
 Commons had risen early, and Washington and 
 Llewellyn meeting casually in Palace Yard walked 
 together across St. James's Park. London was once 
 more decked in the fresh beauty of its summer leaf. 
 White clouds overhead in a stainless blue, leaves 
 quivering in a sunlit air, white and red hawthorns 
 in the parks, lilac and laburnums in all the squares, 
 gay lines of shops and crowded streets ; a swift inrush 
 of lights and shadows over the stately offices in White- 
 hall, the houses in Carlton House Terrace and the 
 distant line of Piccadilly; a fragrance of mimosa in 
 the air from the laden baskets of the flower-sellers; 
 fluttering summer dresses, and everywhere the sharp 
 recrudescence of life that comes with the heat: 
 Llewellyn, as he walked, was conscious of all these 
 things, as an artist might have been. Washington 
 observed none of them ; he moved, absorbed in cogita- 
 tions of his own, till, as they turned back along the 
 Mall, he said abruptly 
 
 "I hear Eltham House is open again?" 
 "Yes, Lady Wing is there. And I saw her in Bond 
 Street yesterday." 
 
 "You saw her? Good!" Washington's voice rose 
 to a higher key a key of satisfaction. "I heard a 
 horrid rumor that she had been ill." 
 
 328
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 329 
 
 "She looks frail; but extraordinarily lovely! She 
 stopped the car and spoke to me. ' ' 
 
 "Good!" said Washington again, with an even 
 livelier accent. "Does that mean that you and I 
 may go and see her and that she won't show us the 
 door?" 
 
 "She told me she should be at home to-night, and 
 on Sunday as usual." 
 
 "I shall write to her at once!" said Washington, 
 with decision. 
 
 "Do. She told me she had no idea where Wing 
 was. The last word of him came by cable from Val- 
 paraiso, but he himself was far inland. ' ' 
 
 Washington's thin but large mouth set con- 
 temptuously. 
 
 "Mad fellow!" he said curtly. "Of all the in- 
 glorious flights from a field of battle, that was the 
 worst I remember. Yet I see his newspaper still 
 keeps up." 
 
 "Certainly! but run by Donovan now in his own 
 interests. They say he has been adopted by some 
 Yorkshire town I forget the name and will be in 
 Parliament directly. You may be quite sure, he 
 drove a stiff bargain with Wing, financially, when 
 Wing bought him. And now he is his own master, 
 with a clear field." 
 
 "Well, well, if I were she, the more Andes Wing 
 found to climb, the better. ' ' 
 
 "I wish to Heaven it was as simple as that!" said 
 Llewellyn with vehemence. 
 
 ' ' You mean ? ' ' Washington shrugged his shoulders 
 sadly. "Well, I shall go home and write to her. She 
 needn't quarrel with me. Nobody, under the circum- 
 stances, could have written a more civil letter than I
 
 330 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 wrote to Wing. I took particular pains for her sake 
 to smooth him down." 
 
 "And I wrote to her next day the day the list 
 was out. But she never answered me. So I didn't 
 know yesterday whether she would cut me or not. 
 But nothing could have been more charming." 
 
 There was a softened tone of recollection in his 
 voice. 
 
 "Well, we all know how charming she can be," 
 said Washington dryly. 
 
 They walked on in silence, both thinking of the 
 woman to whom they were both so deeply and loyally 
 attached; whom they would both so willingly have 
 befriended. But what could they do for a woman 
 who wanted nothing in the wide world but what 
 could not be given her, even by a Prime Minister? 
 including, chiefly, a husband worthy of her! 
 
 Washington reached the official residence to find a 
 deserted house. His three sons were all away at 
 school; his wife was out. Avoiding his secretaries, 
 and flinging some correspondence which awaited him 
 on one side, he sat down by windows opening on the 
 garden to write to Caroline Wing. 
 
 He wrote with that ardent chivalry and kindness 
 that some men can feel for women; a tone of mind 
 which owes nothing to passion, though something, no 
 doubt, to sex. He expressed in warm terms the 
 pleasure that all her friends would feel in seeing her 
 in London again; hoped that none of the rumors 
 of her having been ill were true; asked after Wing, 
 in a few friendly words ; and then went on to talk of 
 the political situation, and his own hopes and fears for 
 his Government, in a tone of intimacy, of complete 
 confidence and equality, such as coming from a
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 331 
 
 Prime Minister whose power and reputation were 
 increasing every day could not but flatter and please 
 the woman to whom it was addressed. He greatly 
 wished to please her. There was in his mind a 
 strange compunction and foreboding about her, which 
 he could not at all explain as though one must hurry 
 to make her smile, to give her pleasure, before some- 
 thing happened. 
 
 He finished the letter, read it over, liked it, put it 
 up, and left it for immediate posting. Then throwing 
 himself into a low chair beside the open window, with 
 a cigar, and a book on some recent Greek finds in the 
 Troad, he gave himself up to an hour 's rest ; and was 
 half asleep when his wife came in upon him. 
 
 "Richard! I thought I should have been home 
 before you!" she said in vexation as she stooped to 
 kiss him. "But I was kept." 
 
 "Committees?" he said, with a smile, looking up 
 at her. 
 
 She assented wearily, and taking off her hat, she 
 sat beside him, possessing herself of one of his hands, 
 and looking at him with anxious affection. 
 
 "You've had a terribly hard time, Eichard! 
 you didn't get any real holiday even at Whitsuntide. 
 Let me take you away down to the cottage to- 
 morrow. ' ' 
 
 "The cottage" a tiny country house on the 
 Surrey commons had been recently bought and 
 entirely arranged by the wife, as a means of occa- 
 sional escape for the husband from the pressure of 
 office. 
 
 "I think I won't go away to-morrow," he said 
 quietly, with his eyes shut. "I want very much to 
 go and see Lady Wing on Sunday."
 
 332 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Elizabeth Washington flushed violently involun- 
 tarily. But her husband did not perceive it. 
 
 "I saw you had written to her," she said, after a 
 moment. 
 
 "Llewellyn told me she'd come to town, and that 
 he'd seen her. He and I have both been doubtful 
 whether she would ever speak to either of us again. 
 But he reported her as quite friendly. There's a 
 story she's been ill, and has taken Wing's going-off 
 in this absurd manner very much to heart. So I 
 think I shall stay in town, and pay her a visit on 
 Sunday." 
 
 He drew his hat over his eyes, as though he were 
 going to sleep, invited thereto by the quiet garden, 
 and the drowsy warmth of the fine day. But his 
 wife interposed. 
 
 "Don't you think, Richard, that might be mis- 
 understood?" 
 
 He made a sudden movement. 
 
 "Misunderstood! Good Heavens! Nobody can 
 suppose that Lady Wing wants a post in the Govern- 
 ment ! What do you mean, Lizzy ? ' ' 
 
 "Lord Wing has still a party the remains of one. 
 Won't it be thought that well, that you're still 
 afraid of him?" 
 
 Washington laughed contemptuously. 
 
 "I was a great fool ever to be afraid of him. I 
 might have known he would turn out in the end to 
 be his own worst enemy. My dear Lizzy, I assure 
 you that nobody in the world will trouble their heads 
 politically, if I attend Lady Wing's Sundays. Wing 
 has destroyed himself and his own movement neck 
 and crop." 
 
 "All the same" said Mrs. Washington, with
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 333 
 
 gentle persistence "I wish, Richard, you wouldn't 
 go." 
 
 Her husband opened his eyes wide, pushed his hat 
 back and surveyed her. Her sudden color had quite 
 gone; and there was that in her face which stirred 
 a dormant pugnacity in him. 
 
 "My dear I have just written to tell her to expect 
 me!" 
 
 "Ought you in your position?" she said reso- 
 lutely. "You can't deny that what you do is impor- 
 tant, Richard. Everybody will think you approve of 
 such conduct as Lady Wing 's. ' ' 
 
 "My dear Lizzy, we're not all prigs and busybodies, 
 meddling with each other's concerns as you seem to 
 suppose ! " he said, with some heat. ' ' I repeat nobody 
 will take any notice of my going to see Lady Wing 
 or see any harm in it whatever. There may have been 
 some sense in the dead-set that was made against 
 Wing ; though I 'm often very sorry I gave way to it. 
 It has always been a mystery to me how it got up, 
 and who stirred it up. But Lady Wing wants nothing 
 from me, or the party. And she has been perfectly 
 irreproachable since her marriage. ' ' 
 
 "Has she?" said his wife quickly. 
 
 "Perfectly irreproachable!" Washington repeated, 
 almost with passion. "I suppose you're thinking of 
 the gossip about Merton. Nobody who had ever seen 
 her and Merton together could listen to such nonsense 
 for a moment. I tell you she has never cared a brass 
 button for anybody but Wing worse luck! All the 
 same she is a woman who makes friends and keeps 
 them." 
 
 He got up in his irritation, and began to walk about 
 in front of her, till suddenly he stopped beside her.
 
 334 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Why don't you make friends with her too, Lizzy? 
 Come with me on Sunday ! ' ' 
 
 "Women don't condone such things, Richard as 
 easily as men do. ' ' 
 
 "What? the elopement and the divorce? Very 
 wrong, of course, I admit; though I confess, the only 
 time I ever met John Marsworth he bored me to death. 
 But the thing's over and done with. And the poor 
 woman's paying for it, I can tell you." 
 
 "With all that money! and Eltham House!" 
 cried his wife, with sparkling eyes. 
 
 "That only shows you don't know her. If Wing 
 disappoints her, these things will only be intolerable 
 burdens. She 's one of those women who live by their 
 affections and are very apt to die of them ! They're 
 not common nowadays and, by George, they're at- 
 tractive to men at any rate when you find them!" 
 
 He took another turn the length of the small lawn, 
 and again paused in front of her. 
 
 "Come with me, Lizzy!" 
 
 "Lady Wing hasn't asked me and wouldn't ask 
 me," said his wife coldly. "And I could never forget 
 if I did go that she deserted her dying baby to go 
 with her lover!" 
 
 "Now, Lizzy! how do you know that's true?" 
 
 ' ' It came out at the trial ! ' ' 
 
 "Yes, I recollect. The judge was severe. But it 
 was contradicted then by her lawyers; and it's denied 
 now. I had an interesting talk with young Durrant 
 about this very thing not long ago. He has first 
 hand information; and he denies it altogether. She 
 did not desert the child, knowing it to be ill she 
 rushed back to it and his death, and the circum- 
 stances of it nearly killed her !"
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 335 
 
 Mrs. Washington smiled. 
 
 "You don't believe me?" said Washington, exas- 
 perated. 
 
 "I think it's easy for a beautiful woman to make 
 people believe what she likes." 
 
 Washington stood over her for a few moments 
 longer, looking down upon her, with sparkling eyes. 
 Then with a shrug of the shoulders he left, paced up 
 and down a few minutes longer, and then quickly dis- 
 appeared through the door leading to his secretaries' 
 room. 
 
 Elizabeth Washington sat on, lost in disagreeable 
 meditation. The scene which had just passed made 
 the nearest approach to a quarrel that had ever 
 happened between her and Richard. And she owed 
 it to Lady Wing. Surely she was right altogether 
 right, in her responsible position, to fight hard against 
 laxity and immorality in high places. It was right 
 that Lord Wing should be excluded from political 
 life ; it was right that the houses and feasts of scrupu- 
 lous decent folk should be closed to him and his wife ; 
 it was right that they should be banished from the 
 Court. How else could law be vindicated against 
 such prosperous and splendid sinners ? 
 
 But Elizabeth Washington was no mere hypocrite. 
 She differed widely from such a woman as Lady 
 Theodora. The spiritual energy in her was real ; her 
 conscience lived. She was well aware that her hus- 
 band always singularly generous and unsuspicious 
 with regard to those he loved had no idea of the 
 part she had taken in the sudden movement which 
 had swept Lord Wing out of public life; and she 
 dreaded lest he should know it. Not that she was 
 ashamed of it; but she ought long ago to have con-
 
 336 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 fessed it. The concealment weighed upon her; hurt 
 both her conscience and her pride. And now there 
 was this rift between them and these hours that he 
 would soon be spending with Caroline Wing ; worked 
 on by a charm, a subtle appealing sweetness, entirely 
 beyond her own reach or rivalry. 
 
 She felt shaken and unhappy. But she said no 
 more; and when Washington left her at home, after 
 their Sunday walk in Kensington Gardens, and went 
 off by himself, it was understood between them that 
 he was bound for Eltham House. 
 
 Washington found his hostess in the .garden, under 
 a group of lime trees in flower, and as she rose to 
 greet him, it was with difficulty he restrained a cry. 
 Good God! what had come over her? She was in 
 white, with clouds of some white gauzy stuff round 
 her shoulders and neck. Her beautiful eyes shone 
 welcome ; and the face they illumined was still lovely. 
 The whole aspect of her indeed was no less steeped 
 in charm than it had ever been; but mingled with 
 it, what an impression of fragility, of evanescence! 
 The memory of her as he had first seen her, the year 
 before, swept down upon him; and as he took a seat 
 beside her, putting force upon himself to show nothing 
 of the distress he felt, it was as though he became 
 aware of dim heralds and messengers of doom hover- 
 ing above her dark head, amid the fragrant shadows 
 of the limes. 
 
 Where, in Heaven's name, was her husband? 
 and what had happened to her? alone! 
 
 But after a little the impression lessened; and in 
 the end almost died away. Caroline insisted gayly, 
 to him and every other inquirer "Oh, I'm so well!
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 337 
 
 I've been down in Cornwall, by the sea a quiet old 
 house of Alec's and it's done me a world of good. 
 Of course I'm thin! I've taken such walks! Alec? 
 he's in the Andes, climbing. I had a cable the 
 other day from a place called Concepcion. But I 
 expect him home before long. ' ' 
 
 She told the same story to all her old friends, as 
 the afternoon wore on, and the famous garden filled 
 with a remarkable company. The French Ambassador 
 came, enfolded her slender hand in both his, looked 
 into her face, with some of the dexterous compliments 
 of his race upon his lips, and somehow failed to say 
 them kissing the hand instead. Llewellyn found a 
 chair near her and kept it against all comers. "Wash- 
 ington was never far from her. Writers, artists, 
 politicians, diplomats, all eagerly waited their turn 
 with her, and went away, sobered and restless, to pace 
 the shady walks of the garden; conscious of some 
 vital change in the fair lady of their little court, and 
 not willing to speak of it, even to each other. But 
 with them, as with Washington, the infection of 
 Carrie's smiles, her evident pleasure in being among 
 them again, the quickness with which she remembered 
 all the little details concerning them this man's 
 trouble, and that man's success the launching of a 
 new book a son's coming of age an actor's triumph 
 in a new play a brother 's promotion grandchildren 
 here the birth of a first baby there: these old 
 wiles of hers were so effective in the end that cheerful- 
 ness came back ; so that everybody fell again with zest 
 on the chief business of the Eltham House salon 
 free discussion of all topics and persons under the 
 sun, simply with a view to the amusement of the hour 
 and the sharpening of wits.
 
 338 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 The garden was still full of folk, when Llewellyn, 
 emerging from a good talk with an Indian general 
 just returned from Bombay, perceived the entrance of 
 Lord Merton. He saw also Caroline's greeting of the 
 young man her flashing look and the response in 
 the youth's prematurely grave countenance: saw it 
 with a moment of discomfort. Was it wise of her 
 to receive him in her husband's absence? After all, 
 there had been a good deal of gossip, mainly, no 
 doubt, because an idle world with an appetite for 
 scandal cannot possibly resist such a morsel as Caro- 
 line Wing's position and Caroline Wing's story 
 offered them. But anyhow there had been gossip ; the 
 youth was clearly hit; and Llewellyn wished him 
 banished. 
 
 Then as he watched her with Merton, and with 
 two or three other magnificent young men, who, if 
 she had ever given them the smallest encouragement 
 would all have been at her feet, a curious impression 
 shaped itself in Llewellyn. It was as though he 
 beheld a new and strange freedom, a new and strange 
 dignity in this frail ghost of Caroline Wing ; and he, 
 like Washington, found himself sorely thinking of the 
 woman he had known the year before impulsive, 
 shrinking, slave to a great passion, now defiant of 
 the world which exiled her, and now painfully con- 
 scious of its ban; but always most human and most 
 vulnerable. What he saw now was something which 
 seemed to have escaped the world ; and to be moving 
 with free feet in a world of its own. 
 
 Washington and Durrant walked away together. 
 
 "You and Lewson," asked Washington abruptly, 
 ' ' have been looking after her ? ' ' 
 
 Durrant nodded assent.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 339 
 
 "She was seriously ill?" 
 
 The young guardsman evaded the question. 
 
 "She is now perfectly well," he said, almost an- 
 grily. "Next month Miss Allen will be taking her to 
 Scotland. That will quite set her up." 
 
 Washington dropped the subject; but after some 
 silent walking, he threw a sharp look at his com- 
 panion "Can't you get that man home?" 
 
 "No the brute!" cried Durrant, thrown off his 
 guard. Recovering himself, he added 
 
 "We can't get at him. He seems to be somewhere 
 far in the interior climbing. However, I sent out 
 a special messenger by the mail boat last week." 
 
 Here they were overtaken by the French Am- 
 bassador, who had left Eltham House a little later 
 than they and was now walking in a great hurry. 
 
 The Prime Minister laid a friendly hand upon his 
 arm. "Whither away? Can you give me ten min- 
 utes' conversation?" Lowering his voice, he men- 
 tioned an important foreign matter, then before the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 The Ambassador hesitated. 
 
 "Let me go first to Hachette's," he said pleadingly. 
 "I promised to order a French book for Lady Wing." 
 
 " Is it so pressing ? ' ' 
 
 "Mon Dieul yes," cried the Frenchman, his dark 
 southern face clouding over. "Let us all make 
 haste! if she has a wish the most trifling wish! " 
 
 "I will go with you," said Washington, and they 
 walked on to Hachette's together. 
 
 Meanwhile Caroline and Lord Merton were walking 
 slowly in the lime walk. She had thrown her white 
 gauze scarf round her head; and he scarcely dared
 
 340 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 look at her, so spirit-like was she, and so great the 
 growing terror in his own heart. 
 
 ''They are in town?" she said. 
 
 ' ' Sir John came up yesterday, with his mother and 
 Carina. They have taken a house in Upper Brook 
 Street." 
 
 He gave the number. Caroline pondered. 
 
 "You are sure?" 
 
 "Henry Marsworth told me." 
 
 Caroline shivered a little. She knew well that 
 Henry Marsworth 's hatred, his implacable resentment 
 of his brother's disaster had pursued both her and 
 Alec, ever since their return to England. The name 
 struck dismally on her ear. 
 
 "Is Henry with them?" 
 
 "I don't know." Then, eying her uncomfortably, 
 the young man broke into entreaty. "Dear Lady 
 Wing, don't write to Sir John! don't attempt to see 
 him! he is not to be moved. You will only make 
 pain for yourself. ' ' 
 
 Caroline looked straight before her into the high 
 gloom of the limes a shining look. 
 
 "I must have her!" she said softly. 
 
 "If there was only someone who could influence 
 him!" said Merton despairingly. "But I can't hear 
 of anyone." 
 
 Caroline did not seem to hear him. 
 
 " And I must have her before Alec comes back" 
 she added, in the same murmuring voice. 
 
 "I hate the thought of your wrestling with him! 
 You are not strong enough. ' ' 
 
 The tone was reproachful indignant. Caroline 
 smiled. 
 
 "You don't know how strong I am I can do any-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 341 
 
 thing! And now pray, what have you been doing 
 with yourself, since April?" 
 
 She put him through a gay catechism, and at the 
 end she said, with mock solemnity 
 
 "All these things ought you to have done, and not 
 to have left the other undone. ' ' 
 
 "What other?" 
 
 Caroline threw him a sweet, bantering look. 
 
 "What, in all my letters, have I been urging you 
 to do?" 
 
 The young man was silent. But his thin, agreeable 
 face expressed a certain resentment. 
 
 "There is a cousin people tell me of," said Caro- 
 line slyly. "A very pretty cousin. They say her 
 name is Sybil and that last year people thought " 
 
 "Don't go on! That was in the dark ages," he 
 said recklessly. "You make me quote: 
 
 " ' You violets that fresh appear 
 As if the spring was all your own, 
 What are you when the rose is blown?'" 
 
 Caroline stepped apart from him. He saw that he 
 had displeased her. 
 
 "One does not say things like that to a person 
 in my" she hesitated, and then said gravely "in 
 my position. You must please not say them again." 
 
 What did she mean? That she was still and 
 always would be as much in love with Alec Wing as 
 ever? Or something else? something quite dif- 
 ferent ? 
 
 He looked at her doubtfully, and asked her pardon. 
 
 "Yes! if some day, you bring Sybil to see me. 
 But I forgot" there was a sudden crease of pain on 
 the white brow "she wouldn't come."
 
 342 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Merton stammered out that she certainly would 
 come that she was a charming girl, and he was very 
 fond of her but 
 
 " 'But me no buts' ! " said Caroline, all smiles again. 
 "I'll ask you when I want to see her. I don't think 
 she'll refuse. But there's so much to do before " 
 
 "Before what?" 
 
 She took no notice of his question. 
 
 "My mind is full of nothing but match-making," 
 she declared lightly "for you and others!" 
 Through the lime leaves, her eyes traveled to Joyce 
 Allen, who was still on the lawn. 
 
 "Leave me out leave me out!" cried Merton 
 passionately. 
 
 She looked distressed, and holding out her hand, 
 said she must go and rest. He went away, raging at 
 himself, and more miserable than he had ever been 
 in his clean, equable, happy life. What was wrong 
 with her? What had they done to her? That 
 villain, Wing ! to leave her like this ! 
 
 The following afternoon, Caroline going into a shop 
 in Bond Street sent her car away, saying that she 
 would walk home. When she emerged from the shop 
 she turned into the nearest wide street, leading west- 
 ward. She met no one she knew; no one was there 
 to notice the languor or the hesitation with which she 
 moved. Once or twice she stopped, as though either 
 her feet or her will failed her. But she always pushed 
 on again slowly looking at the numbers on the 
 house-doors. 
 
 "I am mad to try it" she said to herself "Alec 
 would be angry. But if he isn't here, I must do my 
 best with my poor life till he comes."
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 343 
 
 The house she finally paused before was gay with 
 flower-filled balconies, and fresh white curtains. 
 Caroline looked it up and down with flagging courage, 
 but finally rang the bell. Supposing John had altered 
 all his habits since she knew him ? In old days when 
 his old mother came to be their guest in London, he 
 had never or rarely failed to come home to tea with 
 her, smoking a cigarette in his study afterwards, and 
 then going out again to the Club. Lady Marsworth 
 had been a feeble woman for many years; she came 
 down late and generally retired to her room again 
 before dinner; so that her devoted son, who could 
 seldom be at home for luncheon owing to some city 
 directorships, used to make a point of seeing his 
 mother at afternoon tea, if it could possibly be man- 
 aged. But everything of that sort might have 
 changed. Well, if this bit of recollection did not help 
 her, she must try something else. 
 
 "Is Sir John Marsworth at home?" 
 
 The butler looked at her with some astonishment. 
 
 "He was in, ma'am, a few minutes ago." He 
 turned his head towards the inner hall, where a man's 
 hat and stick lay reposing on the hall table. "Yes, 
 ma'am. I see Sir John is at home. Whom shall I 
 say?" 
 
 Caroline stepped into the hall. 
 
 "Would you kindly take him that note" she 
 produced one from her bag ' ' I will wait here for an 
 answer. ' ' 
 
 The man again looked doubtful, but the distinction 
 of the lady and the elegance of her dress were evi- 
 dent. He asked Caroline to take a chair, and disap- 
 peared with the note. 
 
 Caroline remained sitting in the front hall, on a
 
 344 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 stiff mahogany chair placed against the wall. A 
 tall clock ticked behind her the most intimate and 
 domestic of sounds. Suppose Lady Marsworth came 
 downstairs? The years seemed to have rolled back 
 . . . she sat in a dream. 
 
 The man reappeared, holding the swing door open 
 for someone behind a tall dark man. He came 
 forward. Caroline and he looked at each other. Con- 
 vention was sorely strained, but the presence of the 
 butler insured its holding. 
 
 "Will you come into the study?" said the master 
 of the house coldly. Caroline passed through the 
 swing door, leaving the butler on the other side to 
 some rather excited reflections. 
 
 Caroline found herself in a large and pleasant 
 library, where she hurriedly looked for a chair, being 
 quite unable to stand. Marsworth who had grown 
 very pale threw away his cigarette with a jerk. 
 
 "I should very much like to know, Lady Wing, 
 what could possibly be your purpose in coming to see 
 me here?" 
 
 Caroline lifted her veil and threw it back. There 
 was something deliberate in the action which fixed the 
 attention of the man standing opposite to her upon 
 her face. She saw him start. Her own eyes suddenly 
 filled with tears, and she held out her hand to him, 
 which he mechanically touched, and she instantly 
 withdrew. 
 
 "I am come, John, because something has hap- 
 pened which makes it easy for me to come this 
 once. I am not likely to live more than a few months 
 and I want you to let me have Carina now, while 
 I am alone in London before it is too late. ' ' 
 
 "What do you mean?" He sat down bewildered
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 345 
 
 on the other side of a table which separated them. 
 ''What makes you say such a thing?" 
 
 She quickly recapitulated certain facts of her recent 
 history, naming near the end one of the most eminent 
 of London surgeons. ' ' Sir Lionel said he would write 
 to you about me, if you wished it. I insisted that he 
 should tell me the truth. They don't often do it. 
 But I made him. ' ' 
 
 John Marsworth stared at her stupidly for a few 
 seconds, at the delicate familiar face, the eyes, the 
 brow. Incomparable, all of it, still! but how 
 changed! Like Washington, like Llewellyn, he was 
 strangely aware of a woman unafraid ; a woman who 
 had shed all ordinary shynesses and timidities, and 
 was moving at large among the most poignant of 
 realities. Then, gradually, his head fell; he hid his 
 face in his hands. 
 
 "I did not of course come" said Caroline, her lips 
 trembling a little "to make a scene to attempt any 
 foolish reconciliation. You do not wish to see me 
 and Alec my husband would be very angry if he 
 knew I had come here. He was very angry when he 
 heard of our meeting at Oxford. But I want my 
 child I want Carina very, very badly, John ; and I 
 want her now, while I am all alone at Eltham House, 
 and before Alec comes back. You said you would 
 not let her be under the same roof with him. Of 
 course I understand that. We do not know where 
 he is exactly at present, but we are sure he cannot 
 be home for three weeks at least. And directly I get 
 a cable he is certain to cable I would send Carina 
 back. Or if I were suddenly much worse I would 
 send her back at once. It is not good for children 
 to be mixed up with illness and suffering. But the
 
 346 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 probability is, I shall be able to live much as usual 
 for a while. I should like, just for these weeks, to 
 live only for her to make her happy so that when 
 she grows up, and will know everything, she may have 
 it to look back on. Perhaps you will think I don't 
 deserve it you don't want her to remember me. 
 But you can't help it. She will try and find out about 
 her mother. And if you don't tell her, she will ask 
 other people. At present I am a stranger to her ; but 
 if she learns to love me a little, then when it is 
 all over, you can tell her something, and when she is 
 grown up, you can tell her more and it would all be 
 less bitter and sad for her." 
 
 Through what long years was John Marsworth to 
 remember that figure in the light summer dress ! aye, 
 and the very material of the dress a white soft stuff, 
 striped with black ; the violets in the black belt which 
 set so loosely on the wasted body; the large black 
 hat, and under its shadow, the ghostly beauty of the 
 face which was Carrie's and yet not Carrie. She sat 
 in an Indian chair of carved ebony, a green velvet 
 cushion behind her, her thin arm resting on the ebony, 
 bending towards him with a soft and pleading com- 
 posure. No! she was not afraid and she was not 
 self-conscious, not posing. The tragic sincerity of her 
 action and her prayer struck deep into the man's 
 ironic and stubborn nature. He would have liked to 
 believe it a ruse a device. But he could not. She 
 conquered him. 
 
 He looked up ; and while, after that first dilemma, 
 she had shown no symptom of tears whatever, his 
 strong face was wet with them. As she perceived it, 
 for the first time, Caroline shrank. She flushed and 
 looked down timidly.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 347 
 
 "You shall have her," he said brokenly. Then 
 rising, he felt for his handkerchief, and went away to 
 the window where he stood with his back to her for 
 a little. 
 
 When he came back, he had recovered himself. 
 Caroline had risen, and stood with one hand leaning 
 on the table waiting for what he had more to say. 
 
 "I hope from my heart, Lady Wing, that you are 
 mistaken " 
 
 She interrupted. 
 
 "Shall I ask Sir Lionel to write to you?" 
 
 "No, no! " he said, with a return of agitation. 
 " I see you believe it. But you may be wrong. Please 
 believe " 
 
 He broke off. 
 
 "Good God! How can one say these things?" 
 
 He turned away, and again she waited. When 
 he returned it was with a changed manner. He 
 caught both her hands before she could withhold 
 them, and looked down into her face, his own gray 
 and drawn. 
 
 "Good-by, Carrie. Perhaps we shan't ever see 
 each other again. As I said, I hope it isn't true. You 
 are young you may escape yet. But what you have 
 told me is terrible. I should be a brute if I refused 
 you. ... I don't refuse. Forgive me all my faults 
 towards you as I forgive your sin against me. God 
 bless you God protect you. Carina shall come to- 
 morrow some time in the afternoon. I shall hear 
 from you when she comes back. Of course I trust 
 your promise to me. ' ' 
 
 Carrie gently pressed his hands, and withdrew her 
 own. 
 
 "Thank you very much." Look and voice were
 
 348 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 simple and grave. "Indeed I will keep my promise. 
 It will be a great comfort to me and and what you 
 have said." 
 
 The dimness was in her eyes again. But she 
 pulled down her veil over them; and with a quiet 
 good-by she went to the door and disappeared. He 
 did not attempt to follow her. 
 
 Carrie went quickly home. Joyce was anxiously 
 looking out for her. Why had she attempted to walk 
 home from Bond Street? It was mad; she had not 
 strength for it. 
 
 But the Carrie who walked into the drawing-room 
 was a transformed being red cheeks, and shining 
 eyes ! an embodied joy ! 
 
 "Joyce, she's coming! my little, little girl! 
 Carina's coming. I went to John and asked it. 
 Come upstairs, darling, and let's choose her rooms: 
 she shall sleep in the one next to mine, the white room 
 looking on the garden. We must change the pictures. 
 To-morrow I '11 put the beautiful old doll's house there 
 that Aunt Libby used. And there are some toys put 
 away. I found them in a cupboard. I must go out 
 early and get some new ones too. And we'll put 
 flowers everything to make it bright. Joyce, I think 
 I shall die of joy! Darling, don't worry me about 
 resting. Come now come at once ! ' ' 
 
 Carrie's night was made restless by sheer happiness. 
 No sleeping draught was of use. And in the early 
 morning, propped up in bed, she wrote her last letter 
 to Alec Wing.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 INTO that letter Caroline Wing tried to put all her 
 love, all that she had learned from pain, and from that 
 stirring message of a sudden and irrevocable doom, 
 which was now ringing always in her ears. 
 
 It ran thus : 
 
 "My beloved It is so early and so still. Yet the 
 sun is coming in at the windows, and far, far away 
 one hears the sounds in the streets beginning. Busy 
 old earth! Mother Earth! I don't want to leave it. 
 How I have loved the sea, and the clouds, and the 
 gorse, and the spring green this year more than all 
 years! I have had time to love them, because you 
 were away, and the hours were so empty. At first, 
 that is to say. After a little, the mere watching and 
 feeling made one's life so full. So many new things 
 came into it the trees, and the splendid cliffs, and 
 the waves, the sea-gulls, the fishermen's children, the 
 clouds piled above the sea, and the game of the sun 
 with the clouds, day after day, sometimes so grave 
 and splendid, like a Greek festival and sometimes 
 so full of tricks and surprises, as though angels were 
 at play in heaven. Since you came into my life, I 
 have hardly looked at such things, or thought about 
 them. But when I was a girl they spoke to me. 
 Don't think, beloved, when I say they filled my life, 
 they ever for a moment took your place. They came 
 
 349
 
 350 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 crowding into the outer halls; they were very dear 
 and comforting; but in the inner chambers of my 
 heart I could always go quietly to you, and shut the 
 door. I could look into your eyes, and hold your 
 hand. And so, with those times within, and the 
 stream of beautiful things without, flowing over me, 
 whether I would or no, I managed to live ; I did not 
 let any sorrow, any despair destroy me quite. 
 
 "For I have been in sorrow and despair too. If 
 you have received our letters before this, you will 
 know all that has happened. But I somehow believe 
 that you never have received them; or you would 
 have sent me a word I think by cable. All the 
 same, I write as if you had got them that my spirit 
 may talk to yours. Jim tells me he has now sent 
 out a special messenger. It was not at my bidding. 
 But when he finds you he will give you all the ugly 
 facts the doctors ' letters and so forth and you will 
 come hurrying home I know you will. I do not be- 
 lieve for one moment you have forgotten to love me. 
 When I think of seeing you again, I could faint with 
 joy. I shall see you again you will put your dear 
 arms round me and I shall go to sleep, without pain, 
 upon your heart. 
 
 "Nevertheless, dearest, I have been through sorrow 
 and despair too. After you left me, I could hardly 
 bear my life. That you could leave me when I 
 begged you not that was the bitter thing the thing 
 which seemed to change everything, the old blessed 
 times in Italy everything! And the agony about 
 Dicky came back upon me and Carina. For what 
 had I given them up to be so forsaken? to feel so 
 humbled and of no account? It was no use scolding 
 oneself, or laughing at oneself. I got to know a great
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 351 
 
 many poor people, and at first I used to reproach 
 myself for making so much of your going away 
 taking it so tragically when there were such ghastly 
 misfortunes and grief close to me ; poverty, and help- 
 lessness, and miserable old age, and sudden horrible 
 deaths at sea; mothers losing their sons, and wives 
 their husbands, all in a moment. But then I came to 
 think that substantially we are all equal as to hap- 
 piness or unhappiness. There are of course the 
 people who can't love and can't feel plenty of them 
 in the world. But for the rest, rich or poor, it is 
 all the same especially for women. It is only love 
 that really matters the touch of the man we love 
 best the look in our children's eyes. When I missed 
 you most, I was nearest to the cottage women; they 
 constantly said, in their splendid simplicity, things 
 for which I could find no words. 
 
 "Then suddenly came the shock and, for a time, 
 despair. Life was very strong in me. I could not 
 submit. I raged like someone in a dark prison who 
 throws himself against the door, trying madly to get 
 out. I fought against my fate, till I was blind and 
 dumb and battered all over. The doctors and nurses 
 said I was brave. I wasn't. I was horribly afraid. 
 And my heart broke under what seemed to me the 
 hideous, hideous injustice of it. I so young already 
 out of the world already put aside with no future, 
 no middle life with you, no old age. I had lost 
 Carina; but I might had this not been have had 
 Carina's children in my arms. And now never! 
 How impossible it seemed! . . . You remember 
 you can't have forgotten my birthday, darling? I 
 was twenty-nine just the month after you went away ; 
 before I knew there was anything wrong. And I said
 
 352 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 to myself, the morning of my birthday, 'I am so 
 strong and well life is longer than it used to be I 
 shall have forty years more perhaps fifty. If Alec 
 comes back to me, with the old love, and if he and I 
 live on together, I shall want more time, more years 
 even when these are done. I shall never want to go 
 out of this warm life ! But if not if not how shall 
 I get through the years ? ' 
 
 "And then I had to see plainly there was not 
 one year left not one. 
 
 "And now I am always so quiet, and, but for the 
 times when I thirst for you, I am so strangely peace- 
 ful and serene. I cannot tell you how it happened. 
 I went down into darkness; but I was never alone. 
 It has been just the mysterious strengthening and 
 comforting which comes to others, and has now come 
 to me. And in the end I knew Who it was that held 
 me. Many things came back to me things I had 
 learned and felt at Oxford in the old days. But I will 
 tell you more about this when you come. 
 
 ' ' And before you come you, my last, my supremest 
 joy! I shall have another joy, only second to what 
 you hold in your hands for me, beloved, to give or 
 not to give I shall have Carina she comes to- 
 morrow, for a little while. I went to John Marsworth 
 and begged him. Why shouldn't I now? And he 
 gave way. To-morrow night she will be sleeping in 
 that next room to mine; I can steal in and look at 
 her when I like. . . . Everybody is wonderfully 
 kind. When you come back, dear Alec, you will 
 find all the old friends. And the house is beautiful. 
 I have changed the pictures a little here and there 
 grouped them differently. I think you will like it. 
 I am strong enough still quite strong enough for
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 353 
 
 one evening a week, and the Sunday afternoons. Soon 
 they will give me morphia, and then I shall get 
 through it even better for a little while. 
 
 "Joyce is such an angel, Alec! You can never 
 thank her enough for my sake. She has never let 
 Jim Durrant propose to her yet for my sake and 
 because she thought- you disapproved. But you 
 couldn't disapprove now. I must straighten it out 
 and I must do it soon. 
 
 "You will get this sometime, dearest, because I 
 am sending it to the care of the British Consul at 
 Valparaiso, with instructions to return it to you 
 here in case it arrives after you have sailed, or he 
 cannot discover your whereabouts within a fortnight. 
 But it may not reach you or Jim's special messenger 
 may not find you in time one never knows. So I 
 add a few things that must be said that burn in my 
 mind till they are said. First, you must never blame 
 yourself for this that has happened to me. It 
 would have happened anyway; the mischief had 
 begun months ago. I blame you for nothing, my 
 beloved, and I thank and bless you for so much. I 
 love you with all my heart I shall love you to the 
 last last minute. 
 
 "As to what we did, I have had to think it out all 
 again. The other day, in one of my drawers, among 
 old letters, I came across an old note-book of my 
 father's. I don't remember ever opening it before. 
 It contained a number of extracts passages from 
 poetry, or philosophy, or the Bible, which seemed to 
 have helped him. You can't think how it touched me 
 to read them how near it brought me to him. After 
 all I never knew him very well; and it was strange 
 and sweet to find the same needs, the same doubts, the
 
 354 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 same prayers in his mind, as in mine. One passage 
 from Plato, I think has been often in my thoughts. 
 Socrates' friend Crito you will have read it all at 
 Oxford ! is persuading him to run away from prison, 
 and so escape from execution. And Socrates refuses, 
 because he has been condemned according to the laws 
 of Athens, and to break them even to save his life 
 is to do injury to the City and the State, which must 
 perish if law is not obeyed. And he makes the laws 
 themselves into persons august protesting ghosts 
 who come and say 'Socrates, did not we watch over 
 you at your birth, through your education, your mar- 
 riage, the births of your children? what would you 
 have possessed or enjoyed without us? And now, 
 because we who brought you good fortune so long, 
 bring you ill fortune, will you try, as far as in you 
 lies, to destroy and overthrow us? and so to destroy 
 the state the Athens you love?' 
 
 "And Socrates dies, because he will not break even 
 an unjust law, and so injure the City which has given 
 him all good things. Ever since I read this, in my 
 father's quavering hand, those Great Ghosts the 
 oaths, the laws, we broke come and visit me, and 
 look into my heart. Yes, we were bad citizens ! We 
 made it worse for others ; easier to sin, harder to re- 
 sist. And I lost my children. John's life was broken, 
 and you have found these barriers built across the 
 paths the honorable paths you longed to walk in. 
 
 "And yet my God! those months of utter one- 
 ness on the Apuan hills, two made one were they not 
 heaven? akin to heaven? Is not such love sacred? 
 Does it not ennoble redeem ? And what of the mar- 
 riages which destroy and brutalize? 
 
 "I wear myself out with thinking. But in the end
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 355 
 
 the Great Ghosts beat me down. I submit. We did 
 wrong ; we broke a law which is there to defend men 
 and women from themselves ; there to save the State ; 
 and that City of God which is within the State, 
 and greater than it. We need not have broken it. 
 With more patience, could I not have borne my life 
 and mended it ? I had my children. 
 
 "And yet if I had never had you! Alec, Alec, my 
 darling ! How can I bear even to imagine a life into 
 which you had never come ? 
 
 "My head aches with thinking, and my heart with 
 feeling. Then something seems to say to me 'Shall 
 that power that made man's heart not feel? shall 
 it not understand shall it not pity? Lie still, poor 
 soul! lie still, and ~hope!' 
 
 "There! the sun is up, and the lime leaves are 
 rustling outside. Good-by, Alec ! Good-by ! ' ' 
 
 Carrie spent the morning, with Joyce's help, in 
 arranging her child's room a white room with a 
 flowery paper looking on the garden. Aunt Libby's 
 doll's house, with a vast array of dolls, all dressed in 
 the fashion of 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition 
 when the doll's house was bought, was moved into it. 
 It had three stories, and the sitting-rooms had ma- 
 hogany doors, and pictures by Sir Edwin Landseer on 
 the walls, and grates filled with red tissue paper to 
 represent fires. Carrie went shopping also, and re- 
 turned, tottering, but triumphant, with various new 
 books, a doll, and some picture-puzzles. 
 
 "But we won't overdo her with things!" she said 
 to Joyce, half smiling, half grave. "Life in this 
 house is so overdone with things so choked!" 
 
 Then after luncheon Carina came, a serious, pale
 
 356 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 little girl intimidated by the vast house, the strange 
 people, above all by the strange mother, whose love 
 for her, however restrained, was at first positively 
 frightening to the child. She shrank into herself, and 
 behind her nurse. Carrie used all her arts, and with 
 what seemed to her a most unnatural discretion. But 
 to little purpose. At last, after tea, Joyce separated 
 them by force, and took Carrie into the garden, and 
 made her rest in a long chair, while she sat beside her, 
 crooning. 
 
 "Shall I have time to make her love me, Joyce?" 
 said Carrie piteously. "She's like a caged bird. 
 Every time you open the door, she seems to look 
 through it, as though she just longed to escape!" 
 
 "Give her two days, and don't be always thinking 
 about her," laughed Joyce. "Try to behave some- 
 times as if she wasn't there." 
 
 Caroline lay still for a little, and then said 
 
 "If I'm not to think about her, I must have 
 something else to think about. Joyce, come 
 here!" 
 
 Joyce came apprehensively; and Caroline took 
 the girl's face in her two hands. 
 
 "Joyce, why did Jim Durrant go away so early 
 last night after dinner? You sent him away!" 
 
 The girl's cheeks took fire. 
 
 ' ' He wanted something I can 't give him, ' ' she said 
 quietly. "But he promised to forget it, and come 
 to-day to dinner just as usual." 
 
 "As if either you or I could do without him! 
 Don't wriggle, Joyce! you know it's true. "Well, / 
 wrote to him, this morning a little note I dropped 
 it while I was out. I said 'If Joyce doesn't know 
 how to give you a proper answer, I shall have to give
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 357 
 
 it for her. Please come and see her and me as soon 
 after five o'clock as convenient.' ' 
 
 "Caroline! you didn't!" said Joyce, aghast. 
 
 Carrie fell back in her chair. 
 
 "I did and you know that you are not to agitate 
 or excite me ! " She held up a finger of mock warn- 
 ing, but her eyes danced. 
 
 "Carrie, darling you know I can't marry him!" 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because I have got just forty pounds a year. 
 And he must marry somebody with money or if not 
 with a family, who can help him on." 
 
 "Who told you so?" 
 
 Joyce colored again. 
 
 "I heard Lord Wing say so," she said, after a 
 moment. "I think he meant me to hear. He said 
 it to Sir Oliver Lewson, one evening, looking at me. 
 It wasn't unkind. It was quite true, and wise. Don't 
 try and upset things, Caroline!" She pleaded with 
 all her eyes. But Carrie only laughed. 
 
 "It isn't Alec's affair it's mine. Sick folk must 
 have their way. Jim has quite enough for two. 
 Alec's notions are so lordly! And I squared the 
 Duchess long ago ; and she 's talked to his mother and 
 sisters. You know what a fancy she has for you, 
 Joyce! And really they were perfectly meek. It's 
 all right. I can't have you playing the martyr any 
 more though I know there's nothing you love so 
 much. And Jim shan't be put upon. He'll be here 
 at half-past five, at latest. I shall then retire. You 
 will have the garden to yourselves. And at six 
 o'clock, I request the pleasure of Mr. Jim Durrant, 
 and Mrs. Jim Durrant that is to be in the yellow 
 drawing-room."
 
 358 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Joyce sat on the grass, in a white frock, with her 
 feet tucked under her, arguing and remonstrating in 
 vain. Caroline just lay still, laughing her sweet, 
 tired laugh. 
 
 Captain Durrant arrived at half-past five. Every 
 possible advantage was taken of Joyce. And by six 
 o'clock, three people in the yellow drawing-room 
 were laughing and talking, all at the same moment; 
 holding each other's hands, accusing each other of 
 tyranny, or shyness, or hypocrisy, and to all appear- 
 ance as happy as two engaged people and their best 
 friend and fairy godmother need wish to be. 
 
 And yet none of them forgot for a moment the 
 shadow at the door. Such are the many phases of 
 this long play-acting we call our life. 
 
 "May I come in?" 
 
 Caroline's face lit up with sudden delight. She 
 was lying on her sofa in her own sitting-room, a book 
 on her lap. But her hands were upon it; and her 
 eyes were shut. Her dark hour was once more upon 
 her; the old horrible feeling as of a trapped and 
 captured creature. 
 
 But the soft voice roused her. Forty-eight hours 
 had passed, and this was the first time Carina of 
 her own free will had approached her mother's room. 
 Towards all the amusements which had been provided 
 for her she had behaved like the shy birds in winter 
 who will not come near the plates piled with bread- 
 crumbs we have placed on the snowy window-sill, 
 because they see or guess at the watching human 
 eyes behind. And at the slightest movement they 
 scatter to the winds. So it had been with Carina. 
 Half -whispered "No's" and "Yes's" "Thank
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 359 
 
 you's" and "No, thank you's" had been her only 
 form of conversation, except with the maid she had 
 brought with her, and any attempt at caresses on 
 Carrie's or Joyce's part would send her retreating 
 to the maid's skirts, where she would sit reading an 
 old story-book, or nursing an old doll of her own, 
 sometimes raising her beautiful long-lashed eyes to 
 look intently at some person or thing presented to her. 
 Carrie, after the failure of her first attempts, had 
 tried to follow Joyce's advice, and not to court the 
 child so hungrily. But she had felt repelled and sad. 
 Was even this light, this sweetness, in so dark a scene, 
 to be refused her 1 
 
 But Carina stole softly in, and Carrie smiled at 
 her. The child came- up to the mother's side, and let 
 Carrie take her hand. 
 
 "Are you resting?" she said timidly. Her eyes 
 considered her mother's face. 
 
 "Yes, darling, I have been ill, you see. Have you 
 been in the garden with Cousin Joyce ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes." A moment's pause. "Do you like being 
 stroked?" 
 
 ' ' Very much. Can you stroke ? ' ' 
 
 "I stroke Grannie's head when it aches. May I 
 stroke your hand?" 
 
 Carrie eagerly turned back the lace sleeve of her 
 dress, and put a thin white hand and arm on the 
 child's lap. 
 
 Carina had found a stool to sit on. With fingers 
 light as butterflies' wings she moved up and down 
 over the white flesh. Her flushed face, her soft com- 
 pressed lips showed her earnestness in her task. 
 
 "Grannie's arm is so wrinkled," she said, at last, 
 looking up.
 
 360 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "Grannie is an old lady, darling. We shall all be 
 wrinkled when we are old. ' ' 
 
 "You are not old," said Carina, and her gaze 
 seemed to envelope her mother, the delicate form 
 lying there, under the silk coverlet, and the face which 
 smiled at her. Then with a sudden movement, she 
 slipped from her stool to her knees, laid her head on 
 Caroline's shoulder, and stole an arm round Caro- 
 line's neck. Carrie felt a throb of exquisite pleasure. 
 She turned her own dark head, and kissed the child 's 
 cheek. Carina returned it with a thistle-down touch 
 of the lips, very quick and shy. 
 
 "Darling!" murmured Carrie, her eyes dim- 
 ming. 
 
 "I should like to call you Mummy," said Carina 
 gravely. "May I? My little friends Elsie Watson, 
 you know, and Jenny Holmes" she nodded con- 
 fidentially "always call their mothers, Mummy. 
 Only" she hesitated, with a puzzled look "their 
 mummies never go away. ' ' 
 
 Carrie was silent. Under her closed lids two tears 
 made their way. She raised her free hand and 
 brushed them off hastily, hoping that in the shadowed 
 room for the outer blinds were drawn against a hot 
 sun Carina had not seen them. Then she said, with 
 difficulty 
 
 "Even if Mummy does go away you won't forget 
 her now, Carina?" 
 
 "No, not now," murmured Carina, with an em- 
 phasis on the word, and nestling up closer to her 
 mother, she lay there with her face buried, her long 
 golden-brown hair covering Carrie's white dress, and 
 Carrie, clasping the little form passionately to her, 
 went through one of those mingled moments of purest
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 361 
 
 joy and sharpest anguish which strain the heart- 
 strings of women. 
 
 A few days later Sir Oliver Lewson coming from 
 the London office of the Wing estates turned into a 
 street beaten with summer rain, and knocked at the 
 door of Lady Theodora Webb. He had not seen her 
 for long. Before he knew the Wings, Lady Theo- 
 dora had represented to him merely an old friend of 
 his mother's, with a large command of caustic gossip. 
 Now that he was Wing's agent, and Lady Wing's 
 friend, his visits to Lady Theodora were made rather 
 in the spirit of one who keeps an enemy under observa- 
 tion. And the pugnacious quality in her made her 
 always glad to see him. To talk ill-naturedly of the 
 Wings to those who had already banned them, or sent 
 them to Coventry, was much less stimulating than to 
 make a friend and defender of theirs uncomfortable. 
 
 But she barely now succeeded in making Sir Oliver 
 uncomfortable. The malice in her talk was too evi- 
 dent. And, moreover, he knew so very much more 
 about the Wings. However he still wished to find out 
 periodically what she was "at." 
 
 He found her at tea, and with her a fair-haired 
 woman in the most fashionable and fantastic of gowns. 
 He recognized Mrs. Whitton with annoyance. Lady 
 Theodora was an open and clumsy foe. But in the 
 case of Madge Whitton his mind had been full for 
 some time past of suspicions and surmises, and all of 
 them disagreeable. Nothing could be less open than 
 Mrs. Whitton ; and he believed her unfailingly adroit. 
 
 But he was wrong, as he presently discovered. For 
 in the course of the tea-table chatter, Madge Whitton, 
 out of sheer vanity, and perhaps, too, out of pique 
 since she had long since detected that Lewson who had
 
 362 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 once belonged to the band of her admirers now dis- 
 liked and thought ill of her fell into an astonishing 
 indiscretion. The talk came round quickly to the 
 Wings and Eltham House, as Lewson knew it must. 
 Lady Theodora understood that Lady Wing was now 
 entertaining every week. Never, so she heard, had the 
 throng of men been more brilliant. Evidently, then, 
 there was no truth in the report of failing health. 
 
 Sir Oliver did not contradict her. 
 
 And what, she sarcastically asked, was known of 
 Alec? Had he yet had enough of the Andes? His 
 flight no doubt had been a sensible step after the 
 hopeless fiasco of Marsh. Never had anyone made a 
 more ridiculous mess of things. Still an English peer, 
 with half a dozen estates, could hardly spend his life 
 in the Andes. Poor Lady Wing! it certainly left 
 her in a strange position. Had anyone, might she 
 ask, the smallest idea where he was ? 
 
 Lewson evaded the question. "We expect him 
 home in a few weeks, ' ' he said confidently. But as he 
 spoke, he caught Madge Whitton's eyes upon him, 
 and the queer triumphant gleam in them. 
 
 "He was at Santiago a month ago," she said 
 quickly. 
 
 The look which Lewson turned upon her had been 
 learned in an Indian law-court. She flushed hotly. 
 
 "You have heard from him?" 
 
 "Just a line," she said carelessly. "I have no idea 
 where he is now. He had promised to send me news 
 of a Spanish friend of mine in Santiago." 
 
 Lewson cautiously cross-examined her a little fur- 
 ther, so as to satisfy himself that she had no recent 
 information, without suggesting that Wing's wife 
 had none. Then he took his leave, and walked medita-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 363 
 
 tively westwards. "She has been in correspondence 
 with him," he reflected, "while neither his wife nor 
 I have had a word. By George! I never thought 
 that little woman would turn out such a minx ! ' ' 
 
 For by now his confidential knowledge as Wing's 
 agent and general factotum of the financial transac- 
 tions in which Alec Wing had befriended her was a 
 good deal more accurate and extensive than Mrs. 
 Whitton at all suspected. 
 
 The gathering at Eltham House some ten days 
 later than this was long remembered as a landmark 
 in London social history. 
 
 In the first place, for the splendor of its setting. 
 All the rooms of the great house were open. The 
 famous pictures showed to greater advantage than 
 ever, owing to the rehanging that Caroline had had 
 the strength to direct. Flowers were everywhere, and 
 a softened light in which the treasures the house 
 contained seemed to unfold all the secrets that art 
 and age had stored in them, like plants in a favoring 
 atmosphere. There was no crowd, yet no emptiness. 
 There was occasional music for those who wished it, 
 in one of the drawing-rooms, but no other entertain- 
 ment. Talk was the real business of the evening, and 
 Caroline guided it "a life, a presence like the air" 
 now moving slowly from room to room, generally 
 with Washington beside her, chatting here, introduc- 
 ing there, and leaving everywhere the impression of 
 a frail and gracious loveliness, which many a guest 
 turned to watch with lingering eyes, as though some 
 mysterious breath of warning had passed with her. 
 
 The Duchess came early "to help Carrie" and 
 wore an anxious brow. ' ' Are you fit for it ? " she said
 
 364 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 peremptorily before the first guests arrived. "Just 
 show yourself go through the rooms then off to 
 bed! we'll do the rest." But Caroline laughed her 
 to scorn. She had put some rouge on for the first 
 time in her life a mere touch but it gave her 
 brilliance. The Duchess noticed it with a pang, and 
 noticed, too, that the beautiful shoulders and bosom 
 were entirely covered by the dress of white embroid- 
 ered crepe which flowed plainly from throat to foot, 
 adorned only by a necklace of sapphires in an old 
 Spanish setting which Wing had given her in Italy. 
 
 Washington, Llewellyn, other members of the 
 Cabinet, the Ambassador, politicians of both parties, 
 diplomats, artists, writers, rich folk and poor folk, in 
 evening or morning dress, as the individual chose : 
 the intellectual life of England was nobly represented 
 in the animated scene. The tawdry or vulgar ele- 
 ments of the earlier gatherings had disappeared. It 
 was as though Caroline's personality had sifted out 
 the self-seekers, the braggarts, and the posers. 
 Everyone men and women felt themselves parts of 
 a whole, contributing to a kind of human orchestra, 
 each playing his or her best, but in harmony; none 
 overlooked or out of tune. 
 
 Llewellyn and Sir Oliver stood chatting beside 
 an open doorway whence they commanded a wide 
 view. 
 
 "A remarkable thing, these evenings," said Llewel- 
 lyn presently, his eye wandering over the different 
 groups in sight. "It is easy to get an aristocratic 
 mob together in a fine house; it is easy compara- 
 tively to start a literary coterie; but this is society, 
 grouped round a single figure a single influence 
 and that, of course, a woman's! It has always hap-
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 365 
 
 pened so ; but not often in England. Lady Wing has 
 found the way." 
 
 The eyes of both men paused affectionately on the 
 slender figure in white moving through a distant room. 
 Then Lewson was conscious of a contraction in the 
 throat, a mist in the eyes. 
 
 "Let us make much of it," he said, in a voice that 
 only Llewellyn heard; "while we have it and her." 
 
 Llewellyn threw him a startled look. The two men 
 fell into silence, watching their hostess till she disap- 
 peared from view. 
 
 Midnight had struck, and the guests of Eltham 
 House were beginning to make their way towards the 
 supper-room, when a late traveler descended from a 
 Folkestone train at Charing Cross, and leaving a 
 servant to look after his luggage and the custom-house, 
 stepped into a taxi, telling the driver to make haste. 
 
 "Whereto, sir?" 
 
 1 ' Eltham House. Be quick ! ' ' 
 
 The taxi sped along King William Street, and 
 through Trafalgar Square. The night was balmy ; and 
 the great city, with its brilliant streets crowded by 
 an outward-flowing stream from the theaters and 
 music-halls, spoke welcome to an exile who had grown 
 by now very tired of the caprice which had sent him 
 to the wilds. Alec Wing, in the open taxi, looked out 
 on London, and wondered why he had ever left it. 
 But his expression was by no means merely that of a 
 man delighted to come home. 
 
 "Perhaps I shall find the house shut up. She is 
 very likely gone to the country. I suppose I ought 
 to have cabled. But if she has been amusing herself 
 as they say, I don't matter to her, and I'm not
 
 366 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 bound to consider her. Well, I dare say it was my 
 fault." 
 
 He looked gloomily out of the window at the passing 
 motors in St. James's Street. He was thinking of a 
 letter in his pocket, a letter which in fact had finally 
 brought him home, in a manner no less sudden and 
 capricious than that of his outward journey. It was 
 a letter from a woman he despised, a woman he longed 
 to break with finally. All the same it had been the 
 only news from home which he had received since the 
 beginning of May. Something must have happened 
 to his letters. Someone had blundered himself 
 probably. He knew that he had given only the most 
 casual directions. But there was the fact, that on his 
 descent from the mountains about the middle of June, 
 he had found Madge Whitton 's crowded sheets waiting 
 for him at a provincial town, and nothing from home, 
 nothing from Carrie. The fact had made him angry 
 he was so easily made angry ! It had disposed him 
 to give some credit to Madge Whitton 's gossip; 
 though he perfectly understood that Madge disliked 
 Carrie and was jealous of her. He saw through much 
 of her talk; but some stuck and rankled. So Carrie 
 was giving parties again? sending out invitations at 
 any rate Madge had seen one for the 14th of June. 
 Well, he had told her to do it. But it meant, of 
 course, that she couldn't be missing him very much. 
 No doubt Merton had been making way with her. 
 Nobody like your virtuous prig for taking advantage 
 of an absent husband. Yet he wondered that Carrie 
 could put up with him a prince of milksops ! Any- 
 one who had been at school with him knew that. 
 
 Well, if there was to be a breach between him and 
 Carrie a final breach better get it over, and have
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 367 
 
 done with it! He seemed to have offended her 
 mortally, and she had retaliated. A bad business! 
 But that was the way in which adventures like theirs 
 did end too often. His heart was bitter ; savage with 
 himself, and savage with her. And all the time there 
 was an obsession in his mind a vision of Carrie in 
 her glorious young beauty among the acacias and the 
 broom on the Apuan hills. 
 
 "Good heavens a party this very night!" 
 
 He stretched out of the window, to see the whole 
 street in front of Eltham House packed with waiting 
 carriages; so that it was with difficulty he made his 
 way to the gates. 
 
 "Set me down outside," he called peremptorily to 
 the driver. " I '11 walk in. ' ' 
 
 "Move on there!" cried a policeman as the taxi 
 stopped. But Wing was already on the pavement, 
 and throwing the man his fare, he dived through a 
 rank of slowly-moving cars, and made for a side door, 
 on the extreme left, which was used on reception 
 nights as a servants' entrance. He dashed into it 
 through an out-coming throng of footmen who looked 
 at him in astonishment. Inside he found himself 
 in a broad basement corridor, a part of his own 
 house quite unknown to him, with rooms opening out 
 of it, where the chauffeurs and the footmen had been 
 having supper. Everybody stared at him; nobody 
 knew the tall handsome man in the light overcoat, 
 till he suddenly saw in front of him a couple of men 
 in the Wing livery, at the foot of a staircase. One 
 of them he remembered. 
 
 "Hutchins!" he called, as he approached them. 
 
 The man turned in amazement, and stood gaping.
 
 368 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 "I have come home, Hutchins, unexpectedly. Lady 
 Wing doesn't seem to have received my telegrams, nor 
 I hers. Well, now I don't want to alarm her, and I 
 can't appear in these clothes. I have no doubt you 
 can find me some. My luggage won't be here for half 
 an hour. I'll go up this way. Say nothing, please, 
 to anyone. ' ' 
 
 His peremptory gesture included the two men ; and 
 he hurried up the staircase, followed by the astounded 
 valet, and by the looks of all below. 
 
 A little later, Caroline in the south drawing-room 
 was listening to the praise that Washington and the 
 Ambassador were freely bestowing on the arrange- 
 ment of a fine group of French pictures Paters and 
 Lancrets with which she had taken particular pains. 
 Washington happened to know, or guess why ; because 
 he remembered that Wing had been especially proud 
 of his French pictures, about which, indeed, he knew 
 a good deal. The Ambassador went from one to 
 another, holding up his hands in delight, and saying 
 things that sounded amazingly clever to Washington, 
 who, on the subject of pictures, had no small talk 
 whatever. Caroline had smiled at first, pleased by 
 their compliments. Then she fell silent; and Wash- 
 ington, looking round at her, received a sudden shock. 
 She was standing motionless in the center of the 
 now empty room, conspicuous in her straight white 
 gown, over which Joyce, the ever-watchful, had just 
 thrown a silk wrap, lest the night air from the many 
 open windows, blowing through the cooling house, 
 should bring chill to one who was in truth an invalid. 
 The wrap was of a bright flame color. Carrie had 
 gathered the dazzling folds of it about her with an
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 369 
 
 absent hand, and Washington saw that she was quite 
 unconscious of the persons near her, and seemed to 
 be absorbed in some thought or dream of her own. 
 Her eyes, wide open, were fixed on one of the noblest 
 possessions of the house, the Reynolds boy, visible 
 under a brilliant light through the doorway on the 
 left; her lips parted eagerly. He almost thought 
 she spoke, though not to him or the Ambassador. 
 And at the same moment he perceived, for the first 
 time, that she was rouged, and that her face, but 
 for the bright incongruous spots on either cheek, was 
 ghastly, the eyes straining from dark pits of shade, 
 the mouth bloodless. A thrill of horror ran through 
 him ; he moved towards her to speak to her, and take 
 her hand ; and as he did so he perceived Lord Merton, 
 who had just come into the room, and stood like 
 himself, transfixed, gazing at the central figure ; while 
 the Ambassador, still babbling art-criticism, stood 
 with his nose in the pictures, and his back to the 
 others. 
 
 And behind Lord Merton there was a hurrying 
 woman the Duchess, with ribbons and skirts flying, 
 dropping fan and handkerchief as she ran. 
 
 "Darling Carrie!" 
 
 Caroline started looked at the newcomer in be- 
 wilderment. 
 
 "Yes what is it?" 
 
 The Duchess took her hands, panting and kissed 
 her. 
 
 "Dear Carrie! such a wonderful thing has hap- 
 pened ! Guess ! ' ' 
 
 The color rushed into Carrie's face. 
 
 "Alec!" she said gasping, and Washington saw 
 her put her hand over her heart.
 
 370 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 Then, behind the Duchess, a man in evening dress 
 came rapidly forward. He had reached the middle of 
 the next room in the suite, beyond the open doorway 
 towards which they were all looking, when Caroline 
 perceived him. She gave one cry, and began to run. 
 On the way she tottered. Merton rushed towards her, 
 but Alec Wing thrust him fiercely aside, and caught 
 her as she fell. 
 
 "My God! Carrie my God!" 
 
 He carried her to her room, and while she lay 
 unconscious, and doctors were being summoned, it 
 was the Duchess who told Alec Wing the truth, the 
 whole bitter irrevocable truth. It broke down the 
 nerves of a selfish, arrogant, but not altogether heart- 
 less man, and he fell into a passion of grief beside the 
 helpless form of his wife. 
 
 When in the early light, Caroline recovered con- 
 sciousness with only her husband and a nurse beside 
 her, she called feebly for Joyce, who with a doctor was 
 in the next room. Joyce came and Carrie whispered 
 to her. 
 
 "Send Carina home. She mustn't see me again 
 comfort her if you can. I kissed her last night 
 just before people came in her sleep." 
 
 Then she turned to Alec, and laying her cheek 
 against his, she said drowsily "I shall be all right 
 now sweetheart ! ' ' 
 
 But from that day forward, the deadly mischief 
 which had already returned upon her made rapid 
 progress. She lived for six weeks after Wing 's return, 
 then, on his breast, she died. London held its breath 
 beside the tragedy, and there was true grief in many 
 hearts.
 
 ELTHAM HOUSE 371 
 
 On the day of her burying, Washington, who had 
 broken every political engagement to go to the memo- 
 rial service in the morning, came home alone and 
 very sad, from the House of Commons. His wife was 
 expected that evening from the north, where she had 
 been paying a visit. He had not pressed her to return 
 for the service, and she had not offered it. He could 
 not help, indeed, being glad that she was away. 
 
 The House had risen early, and the summer day 
 was long. Washington sat in the twilight garden, 
 snatching half an hour's rest before a heavy evening's 
 work, and thinking over the life which had just closed. 
 He was a convinced Christian, no less than his wife, 
 and he was conscious of no incongruity between the 
 traditional Christian creed and all the other knowledge 
 and stored reflection of a powerful mind. The words 
 of the psalms and hymns he had heard that morning 
 ran through his memory, vaguely soothing him, and 
 that other saying which no Christian in thinking 
 about Caroline Wing could possibly forget. 
 
 Her sins are forgiven for she loved much! 
 
 Yes, she had loved much and how wastefully! 
 What was left of all that love and charm ? Alec Wing 
 would forget her before long, would return, absolved, 
 to political life, and make in time probably soon 
 a second marriage which would complete his rehabili- 
 tation. Her child might remember her for a little. 
 Her cousin and friend would mourn her sincerely. 
 And a bright memory and legend of her as something 
 rare something perhaps unique would linger no 
 doubt for years in the society through which she had 
 passed, over which she had so briefly reigned. But 
 when all was said, how little! compared with the 
 enchanting beauty, the passionate joys and sufferings,
 
 372 ELTHAM HOUSE 
 
 the magic, the kindness, and the grace of the living 
 woman. 
 
 Washington was glad to have known her; he 
 wished he had known her better. And his thoughts 
 at last fell into words of a dirgelike music, words long 
 familiar to him, and to all for whom English poetry 
 is a mother tongue : 
 
 Rose Aylmer! whom these waking eyea 
 
 May weep but never see 
 A night of memories and of sighs, 
 
 I consecrate to thee! 
 
 He breathed the verse into the silence of the 
 garden, bowing his head upon his hands. The name 
 of that other beauty long dead, enshrined in it, mat- 
 tered nothing. The name had become universal. It 
 stood for all the lovely and the lost, and fitted 
 Caroline, as it would fit others for generations. 
 
 Then, lest his wife should return upon him un- 
 awares, before he was ready or able to speak to her of 
 the day's events, he rose and went heavily to his work
 
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