LOVE AND THE 
 
 SOUL HUNTER 
 
 BY JOHN OLIVER nOBBES 
 
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 Love 
 
 AND THE 
 
 Soul Hunters 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN OLIVER HOBBES 
 
 LONDON 
 T. FISHER UNWIN 
 M-D-CCCC-II
 
 "Thus saith the Lord GoJ ; Will ye luint the souls of my people, 
 and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you ? 
 
 "And will yc pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley . . . 
 to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that 
 should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies? 
 
 " Wherefore thus saitli the Lord God ; Behold ... I will tear them 
 from your arms, and will let the so\ils go, even the souls that ye hunt 
 to make them fly." — Ezekiel xiii. 18-20. 
 
 (/■/// righti rcseiTtd.)
 
 c7^ 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. IN WHICH AN EXILE MOURNS 
 II. HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT " . 
 III. CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER, AND HER 
 FATHER ENCOUNTERS AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE 
 
 IV. INCIDENTALLY CONCERNS THE MERITS OF A 
 
 GOOD FIGURE 
 
 V. TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING 
 
 VI. A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 
 VII. CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES . 
 
 Vin. WAYS AND MEANS .... 
 
 IX. A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS . 
 
 X. HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE, AND WHY 
 
 MANY DO NOT .... 
 
 XI. OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 
 
 XII. THE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY . 
 
 XIII. HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER . 
 
 XIV. MR. GLOUCESTER HiVS SEVERAL SURPRISES 
 XV. WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER ALL THINGS 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 24 
 
 38 
 
 55 
 68 
 
 81 
 
 94 
 
 102 
 
 116 
 132 
 
 150 
 160 
 
 170 
 
 i8i 
 
 86C-781
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVI. A QUESTION OF UNDERCURRENTS . . .197 
 
 XVII. LA BELLE VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 
 
 AND UTTERS IT 2o6 
 
 XVIII. FURTHER REVELATIONS OF THE MATERNAL 
 
 INSTINCT 2X8 
 
 XIX. STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT .... 226 
 XX. PRINCE CONSTANTINE RECEIVES TWO VISITORS 
 
 ON FRIENDLY BUSINESS .... 243 
 
 XXI. MR. GLOUCESTER DRAWS A CHEQUE . . 252 
 
 XXII. THE CONSIDERATION OF SOULS . . . 263 
 
 XXIII. TWO WAYS OF PLAYING THE FOX . . 274 
 
 XXIV. THE DUTY OF RELATIVES .... 285 
 XXV. THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS . . . 298 
 
 XXVI. FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN .... 306 
 
 XXVII. DR. FELSHAMMER WRITES HISTORY . . 324 
 
 XXVIII. FELSHAMMER SPEAKS 332 
 
 XXIX. THREE POINTS OF VIEW . . . -341
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN WHICH AN EXILE MOURNS 
 
 Prince Paul of Urseville-Beylestein had ordered 
 the shutters closed of every room in his vast hotel in 
 the Avenue Kleber, taken to his bed, turned his face 
 to the wall. One of his beautiful friends was dead. 
 Three months before she had been dancing in a 
 cotillon ; he could see her still, dressed as La Belle 
 Simonetta, partner to himself, made up, inappro- 
 priately enough, as the young Raphael. It had 
 been such a happy idea, and all her own — this fete 
 in honour of the Old Masters. And now she was 
 dead of typhoid fever, aged eighteen years and two 
 days. Her tomb should be covered in lilies each day 
 of the month for ever. He would build a marble 
 pavilion to her memory — a pavilion where music 
 should be perpetually played. She had been the gayest 
 creature — a virginal embodiment of une mye du roy — 
 always smiling, blushing, singing, or trifling, with 
 light fingers, at the piano. She had been so very 
 fair, so very fresh, so very helpless, so very pretty ! 
 " Poor little child ! Poor little girl ! Poor little
 
 t LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 child ! " he repeated, again and again, as he lay, sick 
 from grief, with her miniature (no likeness) set in 
 brilliants almost crushed in his hand. "Poor little 
 girl ! I was so fond of her ! No one was half so 
 good or so amusing." 
 
 The sorrow was real, and in spite of the senti- 
 mental libertinism which belonged to his nature, his 
 household felt that he would not easily recover from 
 this unforeseen blow, — the first he had ever received 
 where his affections or his pleasures were concerned. 
 Some hoped that the period of mourning would assist 
 the maturity of his moral character. Sobering medi- 
 tations in solitude, while they produced fits of 
 impatience, temper, and a kind of indifference to 
 ordinary ideas, were conducive, nevertheless, to the 
 development of a man's will and energy. Many saw 
 in the virtuous Countess's death a stroke of Divine 
 discipline. Of all Prince Paul's favourites, she had 
 been the unworldly one, the redeeming angel. The 
 household were pleased, therefore, at his weeping. 
 He had a heart. He could be touched. With all 
 his faults he could love true merit. 
 
 "She will be of more help to him in Heaven," said 
 his aged unmarried aunt, the Princess Wilhelmina ; 
 " she can never grow old or tiresome, and he will 
 never want to get rid of her. He will remember 
 when he is tempted that she prayed for him." 
 
 Another aunt, equally devout but more expe- 
 rienced, and possessing the common sense which
 
 IN WHICH AN EXILE MOURNS 3 
 
 goes with minds of somewhat ordinary intelligence, 
 went further : 
 
 "She was a good influence. All the same, we 
 don't want him to get morbid." 
 
 Emotion in their family was a force to be held in 
 check. The two ladies, who were sitting in an ante- 
 room near the Prince's private apartments, exchanged 
 a long glance and tried to think what ought to be 
 done. Paul was seven-and-twenty — the second son 
 of a monarch who had not been driven from his 
 kingdom by the sword, but contemptuously swept 
 out with a broomstick. So the legend ran in a 
 popular song of that day. Educated in exile, where 
 vengeance, deception, and debauchery had seemed 
 the chief, if not the only, employments of the Royal 
 circle, the young man was still amiable and generous. 
 Ambition had lately troubled his thoughts, however, 
 and as he lay tossing in his grief he felt between the 
 cries of "Poor little child! poor little girl!" that 
 the main obstacle in the way of his boldest designs 
 was no more on the earth. He had seriously weighed 
 the possibility of renouncing his princely rank, his 
 discredited claims, and marrying the darling Sophia. 
 All such heroic speculations were now at an end. 
 She was dead — the one hostage he had ever offered 
 to fortune — the sole impediment between him and 
 his worst pleasures, between him and his loveless 
 schemes for power. Surely at her burial some part — 
 the better part perhaps — of himself perished with the
 
 4 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 frail slight body — so soon to be dust. While she lived 
 the choice of two lives had ever seemed open to him ; 
 in certain moods, the serene, the unselfish, the chival- 
 rous life domestic called him steadily ; in other moods, 
 the exultant, unscrupulous, imperial life of his an- 
 cestors — spent in adventures and intrigues, burned in 
 his veins — not to be restrained without indulgence 
 of a kind. He would plot against his foolish elder 
 brother — a poor creature ! He would raise an army, 
 march into Beylestein, have himself proclaimed, and 
 carry all before him with a high hand. The poor 
 little dead girl alone had been able to chasten these 
 imaginings, partly by the sweetness of her affection, 
 partly by the angelic candour of her soul. In a sullen 
 fit he told himself tiiat Fate had chosen to deprive 
 him of his saving weakness. 
 
 " So much the better ! So much the better ! " he 
 murmured, still tossing and still complaining. " Poor 
 — poor little child ! " 
 
 He looked around his room hung with orange- 
 coloured silk, and resolved to have it all changed 
 on the morrow. It should be purple. But on the 
 suggestion of Dr. Felshammer, his secretary, he left 
 Paris that same evening for Salsomaggiore. For two 
 days he read novels in bed, and smoked — speaking to 
 no one. After that, in the early April mornings, 
 when the half-drunken masons had ceased singing; in 
 the tavern near the hotel^ when the stars were still 
 brilliant in the sky, and the birds still slept, he would
 
 IN WHICH AN EXILE MOURNS 5 
 
 go out on the balcony and breathe the pure strong air, 
 and wonder why he had not been born a peasant. 
 He fancied he had a great desire to work in the fields, 
 tend vines, and drive white oxen dragging carts of 
 grain. He felt himself being drawn towards the 
 warm green earth — not the earth of the grave and 
 the worm which he trembled at with loathing ; but 
 the earth fragrant, blossoming, fertile, smelling of the 
 grape. All that was dreary in thought fled away ; 
 death itself, remembered in the sunlight, seemed but 
 a calmer development of the joy of life, instead of an 
 ecstatic union with the soil, its inexhaustible health 
 and abundance — it would be a peaceful identification 
 with the everlasting sky. 
 
 " Can one get drunk on milk ? " he asked 
 Felshammer, smiling as he spoke. Dr. Felshammer 
 had an imposing figure, but a plain, almost sinister, 
 face. The features had a certain emphatic sensuality, 
 a strong animation, humanly marked by lines of hard 
 thinking, strong feeling, and possibly rough living. 
 Several scars disfigured his spare dark cheeks, and the 
 deep furrows between his eyebrows emphasised his 
 forty years of experience in the world. He was 
 heavily built, with square shoulders, a short neck, 
 and powerful hands. He had been an army surgeon, 
 and now, after a short but highly distinguished service, 
 he was in attendance on Prince Paul, nominally as his 
 medical adviser, actually as his confidential secretary. 
 In ideas he was socialistic with a cynical affection for
 
 6 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 the aristocracy, and a contempt for the stupidity — 
 without charm — of the classes usually described as 
 labouring. Happy in having found a hero — for he 
 believed that his Prince was a genius — he asked no 
 more from Fate, and he wore, habitually, the air of a 
 man who has chosen his road and his companion and 
 is prepared as well for the possible misadventures as 
 the uncertain good fortune of the way. 
 
 " Can one get drunk on milk r " asked the Prince 
 a second time. " These normal things are changing 
 my whole philosophy. They intoxicate me." 
 
 " After morphia, the mud bath ! " answered 
 Felshammer. " When the mud is well settled in 
 one's system I see no reason why one's heart should 
 not be accessible to real sane pleasures. Those of the 
 imagination — delightful in their way — always end so 
 badly." 
 
 "Here I am quite happy," said the Prince. "It 
 revives my Arcadian ideal of a country landlord 
 with his double-entry book-keeping and chemical 
 experiments." 
 
 " That, too, is largely a question of the circulation 
 of the blood. Your health has improved." 
 
 Paul looked at him as though he were a disembodied 
 intelligence without feelings or humanity. 
 
 "Again, there is much in what you say. I am 
 at times a solitaire consumed by the desire of beauty 
 — more beauty — always more beauty. I seek for it 
 everywhere — in nature^ in art, in souls, of course, too,
 
 IN WHICH AN EXILE MOURNS 7 
 
 in bodies. When I find it I want to keep it for- 
 ever." He bit his lip. " How sweet she was ! " 
 
 " Ach ! " said the other, ignoring the last sigh, 
 " the overstrained nervous system ! There is a 
 great deal of that kind of thing about. Hundreds, 
 thousands, suffer similarly." 
 
 " You call it suffering ? " said Paul. 
 
 " Saint Teresa's word — not mine. I call it excess 
 of self-consciousness — egoism, that's all. Every one is 
 consumed with the desire of beauty, and more beauty, 
 without knowing it. Especially at your age. The 
 point is your conception of it." 
 
 "Naturally," said Paul, thinking of the darling 
 Sophia. 
 
 " You," said Felshammer bluntly, " wanted your 
 beautiful countess for ever in the most beautiful scene. 
 The main difference between you, Altesse, and 
 others, is that they will take their beautiful or good 
 when and where they may, and for so long as God 
 chooses ! " 
 
 " It must be the spirit of contradiction which always 
 makes me long for what I have not. During her life- 
 time — much as she pleased me — I never had this ache 
 to see her ; this needle in my heart is quite new. I 
 am lonely." 
 
 " That will pass." 
 
 " No doubt, but the best in me will pass with it. 
 That knowledge adds to my loneliness. I miss a better 
 part of myself. This isn't a sentimental fancy — it is
 
 8 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 a fact. I could never love again. What are you 
 
 staring at ? " 
 
 " That girl on the balcony — to your left." 
 
 " Don't you know her ? " said Paul, who had been 
 
 studying her graceful figure for some time, while he 
 
 paced the floor; "that is Clementine Gloucester. 
 
 She was at the funeral. No other woman present 
 
 could compare with her — not even the Duchess of 
 
 Annebault ! "
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT " 
 
 The PERSON on the balcony was a girl of about two- 
 and-twenty, with a clear rosy skin, dark blue eyes, and 
 coal-black hair dressed in a foreign way with tortoise- 
 shell combs. She had a short upper lip, which just 
 escaped silliness by a blemish, in the shape of a small 
 mole. Although she was English, her countenance 
 had a Florentine mould ; the nose was a little short, 
 the brow a little broad, the chin slightly square. 
 When she glanced up in response to the Prince's bow, 
 he thought her smile charming, and her manner 
 perfect. 
 
 " She is so distinguished," he remarked to Fels- 
 hammer ; " absolute ease, combined with that sureness 
 of touch, look, and movement which you find in real 
 aristocrats or pure yeomanry. Those who come 
 between miss it altogether." 
 
 Then alone, without a cigar, he went for a two 
 hours* walk on the highway. There were days and 
 moods which he would share with no one ; a mood of 
 
 9
 
 10 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 the kind was on him now. Felshammer did not 
 venture to ask when his Royal Highness might be 
 expected to return, but he gave instructions to have 
 the Prince followed at a respectful distance, and he 
 himself sat down to work at some dispatches in 
 cypher. One, dated from the English Embassy in 
 Berlin, ran as follows : — 
 
 There is a great commotion in Urseville-Beylestein ; 
 the Republicans and Royalists have collected a rabble, 
 and now they wish Prince Paul proclaimed King. They 
 say that he only can make Beylcstcin prosperous and 
 restore peace. But that's a devil of a long story. I hope 
 he will have the sense to remain in exile. Where is the 
 fun of reigning over such a crew ? He is too civilised to 
 make a good monarch in his part of the world. A man 
 can't be educated at Eton and Oxford, in the best society 
 of England, France, Germany, and Italy, and then live his 
 mature years with a pack of mongrels — far less control 
 them. It isn't good enough, and I don't see why he 
 should gaier himself in the least. By the by, the chief is 
 satisfied with the new chef. He ought to be more careful, 
 however, with his sauces. They are always too fiery, or 
 too sweet, or something. But his entrdcs are rattling good. 
 Thanks for recommending him. I suppose you arc doing 
 well, so far as comfort and inclination go, in sticking to 
 the Prince. As to your career, that's another thing. If 
 you were me, I should stay on by all means. You are 
 clever enough, however, to take a strong line of your own. 
 There's an American here, I daresay you have heard of 
 him ; his name is Cobdcn Duryee, he has " money to 
 burn," as they say in the States. He has been ordered 
 to Salsomaggiorc, and I have given him an introduction to
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT " ii 
 
 you. He is a good sort ; is anxious to play the traditional 
 Rothschild in European politics. He wants to "back 
 wars " — that kind of thing, restore dynasties. At any rate, 
 there's no harm in your meeting him. He knows that the 
 Prince is no fool. He has ideas about the Medici and the 
 Doges. I think he would like to be an American Doge in 
 the Venetian style. I know it's all rot — in a way. Yet 
 it isn't such rot as it might have been once. Ideas are 
 changing so rapidly, or rather they are rolling back to the 
 primitive point of view. Bismarck saw this coming ; 
 Tolstoi is meeting it. If you and I live as long, we may 
 come to regard it as the regulation scheme — mere 
 commonplace, in fact. 
 
 Felshammer's reply to this letter ran as follows : 
 
 Dear Hollie, — I will come at once to what you say 
 about myself. I shall remain with Prince Paul. I am no 
 believer in charming weaklings, and I am not a man to 
 devote myself to an irresponsible, fluctuating soul, seeking 
 pleasure only, and shirking all things incompatible with 
 indolence. I am too just, I hope, to be merciless in 
 my estimate of feeble natures — knowing that men are 
 punished — by the law and otherwise — not because they 
 deserve punishment, but because Nature herself makes 
 inexorable war upon her failures. Her legislature is for 
 the robust in mind and body — one or the other at least — 
 and while religions preach benevolence, patience, charity, 
 long-suffering, we know that strength where it meets 
 weakness must prevail, and industry, no matter how 
 wrongly directed, where it meets half-heartcdness, no 
 matter how well-trained, must of necessity conquer. If 
 so-called good people had the energy, the nerve, the back- 
 bone, of so-called bad people, the bad would be trampled
 
 12 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 out of existence. So I shall waste no time on idlers — let 
 them be never so clever — or on the unconvinced — let them 
 be never so adroit in argument. I may wait a little while 
 the young Prince becomes one of the two men within 
 him — a king in the best sense (with an earthly throne or 
 without one, I care not), or an individual — in the most 
 futile sense. If he becomes the latter I shall have done 
 with him. That is no reason, of course, why God should 
 have done with him. Paul, in losing me, might lose little 
 enough, but I want you to understand clearly that I hold 
 definite views of human duty. Passions and enthusiasms 
 leave one ; they depend on our happiness, our health, a 
 host of accidental, non-essential things, whereas you can 
 remember your duty at every turn — on your death-bed, or 
 at your gladdest moment. (Your death might be just such 
 a moment, so the alternative is not so sharp as it ought to 
 be.) I have attended the Prince now for seven years. In 
 that time I have watched his mental, moral, and physical 
 development. So far it is a progression. Do not imagine 
 that I love the man he might be or might have been. Put 
 the thought of might-have-beens, ought-to-have-beens for 
 ever out of your calculations. There are no might-have- 
 beens. There is what has been, what is ; to regret lost 
 possibilities and anticipate probabilities is the vice of 
 dreamers. Therefore I take Paul just as he acts and 
 speaks each day, and give him marks, saying to myself, 
 this is good; that is less good; that is bad; this is worthy; 
 that is wretched. Without prejudice I examine the total, 
 never asking myself what his intentions were. Who can 
 swear to another's intentions .'' I care less and less for 
 what a person thinks or says that he thinks. When I was 
 younger I wasted much speculation on what theologians 
 call the interior life. It is all trop de bruit pour une omelette. 
 There is too much fuss about motives, scruples, doubts,
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT" 13 
 
 misunderstandings, and so on. Tell me what a man does, 
 and I will tell you what he is. What he did not do, or 
 intended to do, is inconsiderable. 
 
 At this point his attention strayed to the balcony 
 where Miss Gloucester was now reading aloud, in a 
 clear voice, to two companions, evidently relatives 
 from their likeness to her and to each other. They 
 were girls of nineteen and twenty-four apiece. One 
 was tall, very elegant, sallow and dark. She seemed 
 languid and kept her melancholy glance fixed on the 
 white clouds of the horizon. The other had auburn 
 hair and a white skin. She sat well in the sunshine, 
 which showed her nose and cheeks almost powdered 
 with small freckles. They were not unbecoming ; 
 the purity of her profile, the thickness of the lashes 
 which darkened her hazel eyes, and her long slender 
 throat were flattered by the bright light. 
 
 " Cousins ! " thought Felshammer. He strained his 
 ears to catch some words of the book, and reco2:nised, 
 with surprise, a passage from " Peer Gynt." It was 
 Peer's last scene v/ith Solveig : 
 
 Peer : Where was I, as myself, as the whole man, the 
 true man ? 
 Where was I, with God's sigil upon my brow ? 
 Solveig : In my faith, in my hope, and in my love. 
 
 At the conclusion of the act the sallow girl's eyes 
 filled with tears.
 
 H LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Poor Solveig ! " she said j " how she must have 
 suffered all those years ! '* 
 
 "I won't set up as a critic," said the girl with 
 auburn hair ; " but, to my taste, the whole story is 
 mad. No one can save another person's soul. I had 
 a friend who tried to do good that way. She is now 
 an invalid, and her Peer Gynt married a rich 
 widow." 
 
 " Because one fails, Leonore, that is no reason why 
 all should fail," said the sallow girl. 
 
 "A course of conduct based on sentimentality can 
 never succeed," insisted Leonore. " No amount of 
 sentiment, for instance, will make water shoot out 
 flames or fire turn to ice. Life is equally rational. 
 You must learn natures, and not expect from any 
 what they have not got to give. What do you think, 
 Clementine ? " 
 
 Clementine waited a moment, stretched out her 
 hands, which were beautiful, and said : 
 
 " I don't think." 
 
 " But you must have some opinion." 
 
 "Not necessarily.'* 
 
 " You observe people, surely ? " said Leonore. 
 
 " I shouldn't call myself observant. If anything 
 guides me, it is feeling. I feel certain moods and 
 thoughts in the atmosphere. Some atmospheres make 
 me happy, others make me wretched ; nothing can 
 make me inquisitive. What is it to me what others 
 say, do, or want to do ? I believe in influences, of
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT" 15 
 
 course. But if Peer was saved, it was because he 
 
 wished to be saved — and not at all because Solveig 
 
 tried to save him." 
 
 " That's asireeins: with me ! " exclaimed Leonore. 
 
 " You can help and encourage a desire ; you can't call 
 
 it up where it doesn't exist. Augusta has such 
 
 pathetic fancies about life.'* 
 Augusta flushed painfully. 
 " I daresay you are both very clever," she answered ; 
 
 " but I keep seeing Solveig waiting on the hill for Peer 
 
 to come back. And he came back, and he was sorr}'-, 
 
 and she sang him to sleep." 
 
 " Do you suppose he wasn't bored when he woke 
 
 up ? " said Leonore. 
 
 Felshammer, fascinated at first by the three voices, 
 reminded himself that he was eavesdropping, and moved 
 his writing-table further from the window. The girls 
 were certainly uncommon ; not at all the bread-and- 
 butter misses, the " English roses " of tradition and 
 domestic novels and the London stage. They had 
 been taught to use their reasoning faculties ; they 
 were companionable. He, too, had noticed Clementine 
 Gloucester at the Countess Sophia's funeral, and been 
 struck by her appearance. Had he not persuaded Paul 
 to try the baths at Salsomaggiore solely because he had 
 heard that Miss Gloucester and her father were bound 
 for that watering-place ? Despising all superstitions, 
 he had, nevertheless, a few fancies of his own which 
 he took for signs and omens when special wishes
 
 i6 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 assailed his heart. It made him smile now to 
 remember that he had said to himself at the church, 
 " If she takes the seventh pew from the door, we shall 
 be married some day." She chose the ninth pew, and 
 he had been disappointed to an absurd degree, feeling 
 downcast all the evening as though he had been 
 defrauded of something which, by every right, was his. 
 He had a good position, fair means, and an experience 
 which enabled him to promise strict loyalty to a girl 
 worth possessing. The idea of settling down with a 
 virtuous partner did not alarm him as it did many 
 younger men, who, having spent their lives studying 
 a class of fashionable women but too easy to study, 
 imagined that they knew the whole sex, and were 
 justified in holding it contemptible except for amuse- 
 ment. Once, since the Countess Sophia's death, the 
 Prince had said — 
 
 " If I marry it will make me so old ! " 
 " The Prince is wrong," thought Felshammcr ; 
 "wives are not, as a rule, monsters of egoism, vanity, 
 foolishness, and mediocrity in all things. But what 
 can one expect from his early associations ? No love 
 between his parents, no respect. Unintelligent tear- 
 fulness on one side, energy running riot on the other. 
 He would do well to avoid relations with the tender- 
 hearted. What a mercy that the poor little Sophia is 
 dead ! " 
 
 While these reflections were passing through his 
 mind another more vehement spirit within him
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT " 17 
 
 was wondering how an acquaintance could most con- 
 veniently be brought about with Mr. Gloucester. 
 
 " Does he care for boolcs, or politics, or would he 
 sooner discuss his complaint ? I will ask him his 
 opinion of Napoleon and Bismarck — there is no 
 quicker way of fixing a man's intellectual pitch. 
 'PeerGynt' was an unusual book for a girl to choose. 
 I doubt if she understood half of it." 
 
 The room suddenly seemed too small and 
 oppressive for him. He locked away his papers and 
 hurried through the corridor down the stairs into the 
 hall, where the porter happened to be sorting out the 
 mail which had just arrived. Felshammer took up his 
 own budget, sauntered out into the porch, and began 
 to cut, with complete indifference, the various enve- 
 lopes. One letter, bearing a small pink seal, caught 
 his attention. He drew out the contents, and found 
 it began, " My darling Clem." It was addressed to 
 Miss Clementine Gloucester. Here was a fortunate 
 accident. He would send it to the lady with an 
 explanation of the error. Or should he speak about 
 it ? While he hesitated, a small basket-carriage, 
 which, drawn by two ponies, was always on hire for 
 any visitor at the hotel, came up to the entrance, the 
 coachman cracking his whip, the little animals shak- 
 ing the bells on their harness. In a few moments 
 Mr. Gloucester and two of the young ladies came 
 down, evidently to take a drive round the neighbour- 
 hood. Felshammer turned pale, lifted his hat, and 
 
 3
 
 i8 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 made his best bow. Clementine met this advance 
 without surprise, and also without acknowledgment. 
 Her splendid eyes rested for a moment on his as 
 much as to say : " I am sorry you have made 
 some mistake. I have not the pleasure of your 
 acquaintance. I am sure that you have not the 
 smallest attention of annoying us. But we are 
 complete strangers." 
 
 He remained, however, hat in hand, stammering : 
 "I beg your pardon ten thousand times. This 
 letter was among mine. I opened it before I read the 
 address." 
 
 At this she smiled agreeably enough, and assured 
 him, in a musical voice, that it did not matter in the 
 least. Felshammer gave Mr. Gloucester his card — an 
 act which flurried the old gentleman because he had 
 none in his pocket to offer in exchange, and he had 
 already recognised the newcomer as a member of 
 Prince Paul's suite. He expressed a hope that they 
 might see each other again, and stood twitching with 
 nervousness and irresolution till Leonore got into the 
 carriage unaided. Then, murmuring, " Dear me, 
 I am forgetting the ladies ! We are going for a drive ; 
 dear me ! " he handed the melancholy girl and his 
 daughter into the chaise, seated himself with his back 
 to the ponies, gave an order in good Italian to the coach- 
 man, and drove off, just touching the brim of his cap 
 with one hand. He did not wish his soft white hair 
 disturbed a second time by the breeze. Felshammer
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT" 19 
 
 thought he heard him apologising for a bad cold as the 
 party disappeared from sight. Clementine's presence 
 had given him the greatest delight. Trembling with 
 an indefinable sense of exhilaration, he went back to 
 the hall and studied the register. These were the 
 names copied out in the hotel clerk's large sprawling 
 hand : 
 
 Mr. Alfred Gloucester. 
 
 Miss Gloucester. 
 
 Miss Augusta Romilly. 
 
 Miss Leonore Townshend. 
 
 A reference to Burke soon explained that the girls 
 were Mr. Gloucester's nieces — daughters of his 
 married sisters, Mrs. Romilly and Mrs. Townshend, 
 wires of English officers — one a Hussar, the other a 
 Guardsman. The head of the family was, it also 
 appeared, a very old man, Sir Wentworth Gloucester, 
 Bart., of Trendlesham Hall, Suffolk. Mr. Alfred was 
 his third son, and had married the only child of a 
 French-American Senator from Baltimore, and by her 
 he had one daughter, the aforesaid Clementine. The 
 family was large and probably poor for its antiquity ; 
 there was also a strange absence of distinguished 
 members either in the diplomatic, political, naval, 
 or military world. County gentlemen who enjoyed 
 a local reputation in the hunting field — such were 
 and had been the Gloucesters from the beginning of 
 the race — some time in the reign of Edward I.
 
 20 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "We cannot find authentic records prior to that 
 date," Mr. Alfred would say, with a gentle grief, 
 which found its only mitigation in the knowledge 
 that it gave a proper example to be so scrupulously 
 truthful in matters of the kind. Mr. Alfred was a 
 very handsome man, very devoted, in a helpless way, to 
 his lovely girl. He was a little afraid of her because 
 every one told him that she was clever, whereas he 
 knew himself to be uncontrollably stupid. But he 
 enjoyed his own stupidity, he thought it a sign of good 
 breeding, and he shone as a star in a small circle of 
 extremely pretty inane young creatures whose husbands 
 allowed him to take them about to plays, picture- 
 galleries, cricket matches, and the like. He was 
 always amused to read in The World small paragraphs 
 to the effect that " Mr. Alfred Gloucester^ with his fine 
 patrician j eatures of the old school^ was pointing out the 
 successes of the exhibition to Lady Tenneway and Mrs. 
 Keston, the two most beautiful women in the brilliant 
 throng'^ He entertained a little at the Wellington 
 Club and at Ranelagh ; had week-end parties in 
 July at his home. Eastern Acres, in the Isle of 
 Wight ; spent two months in town every season — 
 stopping at Thomas's Hotel in Berkeley Square, 
 which he grumbled at but liked on the whole. 
 Winter he usually spent abroad. Springs he dreaded. 
 His circle of acquaintances was enormous, and he 
 regarded himself as the happiest of men. 
 
 " If a fairy came down the chimney this minute,"
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT » 21 
 
 he would say to Clementine, " I shouldn't know what 
 to wish for." 
 
 He had been brought up by an old north-country 
 woman, and a belief in fairies was fixed as permanently 
 on his mind as the foolhardiness of cutting one's 
 finger-nails on a Friday. 
 
 Clementine had been born in Paris, where her 
 mother, as a schoolgirl, had first met Mr. Gloucester. 
 No one at St. Aelred's had ever seen the lady, but, 
 from her portraits, she had been fair to look at. 
 Clementine's remembrance of her mother was slight, 
 and the influences of her childhood were those of the 
 artists' colony in Paris. She had met in easy fashion 
 nearly every European celebrity at the house of a great 
 painter in the Rue du Bac. Her dream now was to 
 have a home of her own where she could see and 
 hear all that was interesting, all that the newspapers 
 would never print. A delight in knowing secrets, 
 having them, and keeping them was strong in her 
 blood. One secret, however, which concerned her 
 own life had been carefully concealed from her. Mrs. 
 Gloucester was not dead. She had left Mr. Gloucester 
 three years after their marriage to become a dancer of 
 Greek dances illustrative of Theocritus and others. 
 The dancing continued till the lady was past forty, 
 and her renown — as La Belle Valentine — world-wide ; 
 then she retired and lived sumptuously in Vienna as 
 Madame de Montgenays. She never troubled either 
 her husband or her daughter. If La Belle Valentine
 
 22 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 had hours of bitterness they were not squandered in 
 remorse over any neglected duty. She lived to " keep 
 her figure," and no other consideration ever agitated 
 her mind for long. Reckless, unmoral, self-absorbed, 
 and highly artistic, she was the pride of dressmakers, 
 and the pensioned love of two rich Russians. 
 Clementine always observed the official anniversary 
 of her mother's death, and, when she was at home, 
 decorated daily with pious wreaths the marble tablet 
 to her memory over the family pew at the parish 
 church of St. Aelred's. Gloucester, a man of frivolous 
 mind, had persuaded himself that he was in reality the 
 heart-broken young widower he had played so well 
 after the separation from his wife in 1882. His very 
 greatest friend, Mrs. Sylvester, knew the whole story, 
 and always assumed, nevertheless, with exquisite tact, 
 that Alfred was an inconsolable mourner for the loss 
 of a perfect companion. Clementine, as a little girl, 
 had been a good child with a gay disposition and 
 pretty ways. She could steal on to a knee, and, 
 perched there, sit like a flower on its stem, scarcely 
 moving. She inclined towards caresses, and was fond 
 of touching or stroking or petting those whom she 
 found sympathetic. Yet, with all this, she was known 
 to be somewhat cold — self-sufficient without being 
 ungraciously selfish. Now at two-and-twenty she 
 was well educated, observant, father sarcastic, and far 
 too impulsive in spite of her calm dem.eanour. There 
 are two kinds of composure. One is morbid and arises
 
 HOW THREE GIRLS READ "PEER GYNT" 23 
 
 from a reeble or fatigued vitality. It betokens a genuine 
 lack of interest in all things and is the least pleasing 
 form of egoism. The other kind, which is magnetic, 
 is the sign of complete sanity — a heart at peace and 
 a physical organisation without weakness. This last 
 was the composure characteristic of Miss Gloucester. 
 She had never experienced a strong emotion, a violent 
 sentiment, a really unhappy hour. Her face, in spite 
 of its fitful and almost mocking beauty, seemed as 
 unalterable in its lines as some calm portrait by 
 Leonardo da Vinci. By no effort of the imagination 
 would one picture her as older, or tearful, or laughing, 
 or m.elancholy, or impassioned. What was she thinking 
 of ? An unwavering disdain of small ideas shone in 
 in her eyes. Mr. Gloucester was never clever enough 
 or profound enough to wonder how she would have 
 treated the history of La Belle Valentine.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER, AND HER FATHER 
 ENCOUNTERS AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE 
 
 Clementine, on returning from her drive, wrote the 
 following letter to her friend. Miss Ruth Hollemache : 
 
 My Dear Ruth, — When we left London I heard the 
 birds trying to sing through the fog in St. James's Park. 
 On the night we arrived here the whole sky was filled 
 with stars ; it was a June morning by moonlight. Papa 
 said, " Dear Italy ! " But he thought the drive from the 
 station to the hotel was far too long. 
 
 I hear that Prince Paul has come, or is coming, for the 
 cure. I used to know him rather well when Aunt 
 Emmeline was at Osborne with the Queen. Papa and I 
 stayed with the Bernards at Cowes three years in succes- 
 sion ; the Prince was always on the Duke or Naples's 
 yacht. I met him at a lunch given by Mrs. Lorimer. 
 1 was about sixteen and very plain, or rather unsettled- 
 looking. I liked him in a dim way, but there was always 
 a certain restraint because of his position, and people ran 
 after him, making themselves very vulgar, I thouglit. He 
 is handsomer now than he seemed in those days ; he is tall 
 and dark, with a pointed chin and cold, hazel eyes. In 
 fact, the eyes are distinctly peculiar. They arc almost 
 
 24
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER 25 
 
 like onyx eyes in a statue or bust. The effect is startling. 
 Papa says that the Prince's elder brother is so sickly and 
 dissipated that he cannot live, and this one is certain to 
 make a name for himself even if he is never restored to his 
 right place in Beylestein. How interesting it will be to 
 watch his career from a distance and trace in the actions 
 of the man the little conversations we had together, as boy 
 and girl, on history ! Will he be able to carry out any of 
 his ideals ? Now that the poor Countess Sophia is dead, 
 I may say that it was always a certain surprise to me that 
 she attracted him so much. She was exquisitely pretty, 
 of course, and so angelic, and the most perfect dancer I 
 ever saw ; no one could help loving her, but, dear and 
 sweet and good as she was, I could never imagine them, 
 somehow, being real companions. He was serious and 
 sombre, whereas she was a delicious sort of talking baby. 
 You know how Leonore prattles when she is in a fluffy 
 mood. Well, the poor Countess was far more childish, 
 and continually so. I suppose she amused him. But 
 could such an affection have lasted ? I admit that I do 
 not understand love. I find it impossible to get interested 
 in novels. They seem to me absurd and unlike life. 
 Papa is pleased because I do not read them, and he tells 
 people, I know, how sensible I am. But am I sensible ? 
 Am I not rather deficient in sympathy or common feelings ? 
 When I saw the Prince almost fainting with grief at the 
 funeral, I could only think, " How very strange ! " and I 
 merely wished that, if I myself were dead, I could know 
 that some one mourned as much for me. This, I assure 
 you, was my one emotion. I find something quite inhuman 
 in the thought now I recollect it at this interval. And 
 yet I did see how sad it all was. Write soon, my dear 
 Ruth, and believe me, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Clementine.
 
 26 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 After signing this she slept till it was time to dress 
 for dinner. Mr. Gloucester and his party always 
 dined in the restaurant of the hotel, because the 
 table d^hote made his head ache, and he liked 
 especially prepared dishes. Chicken broth, lamb 
 chops, and rice pudding he demanded in every 
 climate. When he entered the restaurant that 
 evening; he was overwhelmed to find Prince Paul 
 and Felshammer waiting on the threshold. The 
 Prince's manner was irresistible. Would Mr. 
 Gloucester and the ladies take pity on him and be 
 his guests ? He had taken the liberty of counting on 
 their kindness ; the table was laid ; flowers were 
 placed at each of the five plates ; the lights had 
 rose -silk and filigree silver shades. His Royal High- 
 ness had begged dear and amiable Mr. Ritz to have 
 some music played by local musicians. 
 
 " There may be great talent," said Prince Paul, 
 smiling with delicate irony. He was amazed at 
 Clementine's appearance. She did not seem to him 
 a beautiful girl, but a girl with an undeveloped 
 ^ fascination. " In five years' time," he thought, 
 "she will make mischief!" During the meal His 
 Royal Highness talked incessantly. He was a bad 
 listener at all times, and, although he always caught 
 what was said, he maintained that it was seldom worth 
 catching. He spoke to Clementine of the influence 
 of colour on life. 
 
 "In England, for instance," said he, "all rooms
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER 27 
 
 should be as brilliant as you can make them in order 
 to counteract the greyness of your atmosphere. But 
 I don't mean by brilliancy gilding and lustres. I mean 
 Oriental colours — the most vivid greens, reds, blues, 
 pinks, and mauves. Chinese mauve — you know it ? 
 Use wood — wood is always beautiful — and have it 
 inlaid with ivory, tortoiseshell, copper, silver, or 
 enamel." 
 
 He asked Mr. Gloucester a question about forestry in 
 the British Isles. 
 
 " A thing you neglect altogether," he added, before 
 Mr. Gloucester made his timid reply — 
 
 " I admire trees very much, sir — an English oak 
 now, or a beech — I have seen beeches in Norfolk 
 which I won't describe lest I should be accused of 
 exaggeration. And in Berkshire there is Savernake ! '^-- 
 A picnic in Savernake ! Clementine has planted some 
 poplars and sycamores at our little place. She likes 
 poplars. They form a protection and they grow 
 quickly. Ah, they are not the poplars of France ! " 
 
 He was habitually nervous, but during the Prince's 
 conversation he had observed two ladies enter the 
 room and sit down at a table close by. He recognised, 
 by an instinct of terror, the younger of the couple, 
 and nearly sank into a fainting fit. The sense of good 
 manners — stronger in the unhappy gentleman than 
 any emotion — prevented such an accident. Madame 
 de Montgenays was the lady's name, and they had not 
 met for eighteen years. She had altered entirely j the
 
 28 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 nut-brown hair was now of ebony blackness, her 
 fresh complexion was now artificially white — a very 
 smooth waxen white. She had shining grey eves and 
 vivid red lips, the upper of which had an elaborate 
 Cupid's bow well defined by a brush. She did not 
 appear to be more than five-and-thirty, and her slim, 
 supple figure was still that of an unmarried girl. No 
 corset interfered with her admirable grace of move- 
 ment ; she wore a white lace gown, one row of 
 superb black pearls around her throat, pearls in her 
 ears, and a bunch of heliotrope in her belt. Her 
 companion was elderly, well dressed in silk, and 
 implacable. She spoke in undertones, ate without 
 pleasure, and was the one of the two who took wine. 
 This she appeared to enjoy, although she sipped it 
 with extreme moderation. Mr. Gloucester remained 
 as still as a fallen horse till the dinner came to an end. 
 When the Prince rose, he staggered to his feet (con- 
 trolled by a lifelong training in propriety) and managed 
 to follow the party from the restaurant into the hall. 
 
 Felshammcr, who was the last to leave, bowed 
 discreetly to Madame de Montgenays, who gave him 
 a rapid signal. Bowing, he went up to her, shook 
 hands with a certain tenderness and a great demon- 
 stration of respect. He hoped that he did not appear 
 to force the latter. 
 
 " Tell Mr. Gloucester," said Madame de Montge- 
 nays, " that I want to see him. He can get away while 
 they are all listening to that crazy band. My room is 
 No. 6 1."
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER 29 
 
 Felshammer hid his astonishment, and the lady, 
 showing her excellent teeth, gave him the impression 
 that she was laughing. 
 
 "It is not a caprice," she observed; "it is not a 
 case of love at first sight ! But he must come. Tell 
 him quietly." 
 
 " Which of the three young ladies," said the com- 
 panion, in a deep voice, " is his daughter ? " 
 
 "The one who sat at the Prince's right hand," 
 replied Felshammer. 
 
 " Is that so ? " said Madame Montgenays, exchang- 
 ing a glance with the other woman. " Is that so ? I 
 guessed as much, but I wasn't sure. I heard that her 
 mother was almost ashamed of her when she was 
 little — couldn't bear to have her round," 
 
 " She is good-looking enough now," said Fels- 
 hammer, with resentment. 
 
 " She's got some style about her, anyway," said the 
 lady. " Now go and give the old man my message. 
 Break it to him gently." 
 
 Felshammer bowed once more and hastened after 
 his Prince. He had decided that La Belle Valentine 
 and Mr. Gloucester were acquaintances of long ago ; 
 that, although she was too prudent to wish for an 
 introduction to the daughter, she wanted, in some 
 obscure feminine way, to make matters difficult for the 
 father ; an old grudge, a womanish determination to 
 assert herself, no excuse would be too trivial for a 
 person of her type once bent on gratifying vanity or
 
 30 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 spite. Gloucester had passed her by without the 
 faintest acknowledgment. The secretary shrugged 
 his shoulders, and soon found an opportunity of 
 delivering the message. Gloucester received it 
 without flinching. 
 
 "Did she say anything else ? " he asked. 
 
 " Nothing else about you. I knew her very slightly. 
 We met once in Milan." 
 
 Gloucester seemed relieved, but offered no informa- 
 tion. Ten minutes later, when the party were all 
 seated on the Prince's balcony, Felshammer saw him 
 steal away, looking miserable, yet holding his fine head 
 erect, and moving his feet with decision. As he went 
 up the stairs he rubbed his face and his hands with his 
 handkerchief. *'The most painful moment of my 
 life," he murmured to himself, "and wholly uncalled 
 for." Conquering a horrible dread, he knocked at 
 the door of Madame de Montgenay's sitting-room and 
 was instantly admitted by her maid. He had just 
 time to notice that some splendid pieces of old brocade 
 had been thrown over the hotel furniture when his 
 wife came in. 
 
 "We needn't shake hands, Alfred," she said at 
 once, conscious enough with perfect good-humour of 
 the aversion he felt to the meeting. " This is a 
 rehearsal of the resurrection. Let us sit down." 
 
 Once he had thought her American accent piquant ; 
 now it seemed vulgar, odious, rasping. She had 
 always considered him a weak, effeminate creature —
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER 31 
 
 "a pretty boy" ; she made no attempt to conceal her 
 scorn. 
 
 " If he had only blown somebody's brains out — 
 even mine ! " she would sav. 
 
 " I will tell you right away that I'm not going to 
 bother about Clementine," she said, " but she's 
 certainly a success. I'm real glad. I haven't got the 
 maternal instinct. I don't know why, but I simply 
 haven't, so I won't say that I want her. As for 
 seeing her and saying, ' I am your long-lost parent ' — 
 no. I am one of the few women who are poor 
 actresses, and who are still not stagey. I'm as natural 
 and unpremeditated as I ever was. The stage hasn't 
 spoiled me. I loathe scenes. What I want is this — 
 you must clear out of Salso. I'm here on business. 
 My friend, Cobden Duryee, is working out a deal 
 with Prince Paul. Cobden Duryee has known me 
 all my life ; he wants me to marry him ; he says my 
 record is as good as his, anyway. He's a very wealthy 
 man ; he doesn't care two snaps for society, and he's 
 dead in love with me. He thinks I just about win it." 
 
 She looked at Gloucester and chuckled kindly : 
 
 " If I had a mind to, I could almost make you sue 
 for a divorce. You could get one in the States for 
 incompatibility of temper. He'd marry me." 
 
 " Not a divorce so late in the day as this surely," 
 said the wretched man, " for the child's sake. It has 
 been for the child's sake all along." 
 
 " I believe in being white," observed the lady,
 
 32 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " and so I am not going to press that point. But 
 I want you to understand that it is a sacrifice on 
 my side. As Mrs. Cobden Duryce I could have 
 a perfectly magnificent time. He adores me ; he 
 knows all about me ; he only says : * Val, you don't 
 know enough to go in when it rains ! That's been 
 your trouble, my dear child.' I am always a child to 
 Cobden. A man who can talk and feel that way 
 commands a woman's allegiance." 
 
 She fastened her glorious eyes on his pale ones, and 
 curled her tinted lips while his trembled. 
 
 " What's more," she went on, " he says my soul is 
 the purest he ever met. When other people talk 
 about purity I have to smile. They don't know 
 what the word means. They seem to think it's 
 being dull and driving honest people to the eternal 
 dogs ! Well, will you go away to-morrow and take 
 Clementine ? It isn't decent — our all being here 
 together. It's making a burlesque of the whole 
 business. Besides, I won't have Cobden mortified. 
 And I must stay whatever happens." 
 
 " We'll go," said Gloucester, " we'll go, of course. 
 It's most extraordinary, I'm sure, our meeting in this 
 way." 
 
 " Not at all. The wonder is that we don't meet 
 constantly. Have I changed much ? " 
 
 " Yes," he said, " you have changed. I shouldn't 
 have known you, perhaps. You look very young for 
 your age."
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER 33 
 
 " Don't forget that I'm fifteen years younger than 
 you are. But, it seems to me, you were born tired." 
 She surveyed his delicate, handsome features, his fine 
 clear skin, his white hair perfectly brushed, his slight 
 figure, languid, frail, timid. 
 
 " Mercy ! " she exclaimed. " Will any one tell me 
 why we married ? How did we ever stand each 
 other for one second ? " 
 
 " I suppose I was attracted by your vivacity. I 
 couldn't pretend to know what you saw in me." 
 
 "We didn't even dance well together — it was like 
 a whirlwind and a pond lily ! You were considered 
 a good dancer too. I wasn't happy at school — that 
 would account for a good deal. It's too bad, anyhow. 
 We have almost ruined each other's lives." 
 
 " Almost ? " he repeated, looking up with hatred — 
 " almost ? Is anything left of me ? I have gone to 
 pieces absolutely. I exist for no one but the child." 
 
 " Then I'm glad she was born. That's as true as 
 I'm alive, Alfred. You were always good to me and 
 I haven't a single thing against you. Clementine is 
 going to give you trouble, of course. But I don't 
 think she will cut up. She's the kind that marries 
 three or four times and is a model wife to each one 
 while he lives. There's a steadiness about the square 
 chin. Send me her photograph." 
 
 He stood up, walked to the door, bowed. 
 
 " We shall leave in the morning," he said ; " you 
 shall have a photograph." 
 
 4
 
 34 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Thanks." 
 
 And so they parted. Madame de Montgenays 
 went to the looking-glass and practised several 
 expressions — some tender, some vindictive, some 
 haughty. 
 
 " Say, Mabel ! " she called out. 
 
 Her companion, the large lady, came in from the 
 adjoining bedroom. 
 
 " Did you hear every word ? " asked Valentine. 
 
 « Yes." 
 
 " Could I have said more or less ? " 
 
 " I never, in my life, met any one with such tact. 
 It was superb ! " 
 
 " Pshaw ! Was it ? Well, I didn't prepare a 
 syllable. I just spoke from my heart." 
 
 " It couldn't have been better. The tears came 
 into my eyes when you mentioned Cobden Duryee." 
 
 " No ? Did I speak so well of him ? " 
 
 " Well ? " said Mabel—" well ? Wait till I tell 
 him about it, and see what he thinks." 
 
 " Are you going to tell him ? " said Valentine 
 ingenuously. " Had you better ? " 
 
 " The idea ! You can bet that I will tell him ! 
 He ought to know how he's appreciated." 
 
 " Mabel," said La Belle Valentine, " if it weren't 
 for Cobden I shouldn't be a bit happy — not a bit. I 
 believe I'd pass out. I should just lose my grip. 
 And it isn't because he's rich either. And he's as 
 homely as a mud fence. It's because he understands
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER 35 
 
 me, and never says mean things when he's mad. 
 He'll get so mad sometimes that he ahnost kills me, 
 and yet he has never once — never once, mind you — 
 said a single thing he might have said. That old 
 pancake who was here just now doesn't say much, 
 but he looks at me as though I were mud under his 
 feet." 
 
 " Who cares," said Mabel, "for that silly old fool ?" 
 
 " I don't," said Valentine ; " and I've been 
 
 Quixotic about Clementine — absolutely Quixotic 1 " 
 
 " Noble, that's all. Unsurpassed nobility ! " 
 
 "I can afford to be noble," replied Madame de 
 
 Montgenays, drawing herself up. "I have nothing to 
 
 lose by it. I don't have to look in an etiquette book 
 
 to find out whether I am being noble in the correct 
 
 way. I'm individual — I am a personality, thank the 
 
 Lord ! Now come and brush my hair. I told 
 
 Helene that she could go to bed. It's a mistake to 
 
 let her hear so much I " 
 
 All this time Clementine and the Prince were 
 sitting side by side on the balcony while the brass 
 band played vigorous airs from " Rienzi " and 
 " Othello." They had exchanged ideas and glances 
 — long meditative glances which stirred, fascinated, 
 and absorbed them to the degree where self-conscious- 
 ness ceases altogether. Their young clear voices 
 trembled ; neither heard with any distinctness what 
 the other said ; her body, without her knowledge, 
 swayed towards his ; his towards hers ; the secret
 
 36 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 forces of attraction had mastered their wills ; they 
 spoke lightly enough, they realised nothing, but the 
 impelling deities were at work in a silent, invincible 
 way. 
 
 " I remember you long ago at Cowes," Prince Paul 
 said more than once. "I thought you the strangest 
 little girl — so earnest. You wouldn't dance with 
 me. 
 
 " I dance now." 
 
 "You scolded me for wasting my time. You said 
 I was too fond of pleasure." 
 
 " I must have been impertinent as well as 
 strange !" 
 
 " No, I liked it. I always felt happy when I saw 
 you. Once you lent me a book — one of Ruskin's. 
 I was very ungrateful — I didn't read it. In those 
 days, when I read at all, I preferred Zola and Shelley. 
 What a mixture ! How absurd people are ! But I 
 have decided to lead a life of action ; there has been 
 enough literature. Give me Tacitus now and an 
 unexplored country. Let us found an Empire 1 I 
 ought not to joke about such a serious idea — because 
 I am serious on that subject. 
 
 " Why not on all subjects ? " 
 
 " Most subjects collapse when you make fun of 
 them. Don't you know that ? Some day I will tell 
 you my philosophy." 
 
 " Can't I hear it now ? " 
 
 "It would take too long. Besides, I may be wrong,
 
 CLEMENTINE WRITES A LETTER 37 
 
 and I want to be quite sure that I am right before I 
 try to convert you." 
 
 " When will you know that you are right ? " 
 
 He looked at her and made no reply for several 
 minutes. She thought he had forgotten her presence. 
 Then he said : 
 
 " Perhaps you may be able to help me. Will you 
 — if you can ? " 
 
 " O yes ! I suppose it won't be for ages. We 
 both have to watch things. Then, afterwards, we 
 can compare notes." 
 
 "But why must we wait for ages? I wish you 
 hadn't said that. I believe in the strength of things 
 once said." 
 
 " You are full of beliefs 1 " 
 
 They both laughed, but he repeated : 
 
 " I wish you hadn't made it ages. A year or two 
 would have been enough ! " 
 
 When Clementine said good-night and went to her 
 room she seemed to be moving on wings. The two 
 other girls ate chocolates in their small salon and 
 discussed the events cf the evening, but she locked 
 her door and sat at her window, looking at the sky 
 and meeting, in fancy, Paul's eyes aga:n and again.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 INCIDENTALLY CONCERNS THE MERITS OF A 
 GOOD FIGURE 
 
 Mr. Gloucester took a sleeping-powder after his 
 interview with Mme. de Montgenays, and when he 
 awoke the next morning with a numbed brain it was 
 some time before he could remember why he felt 
 miserable. 
 
 " Have you got the toothache, Wedge ? " he asked 
 his valet, in the hope of tracing his own depression to 
 something infectious and impersonal. 
 
 " No, sir, but Miss Townshend has sprained her 
 ankle. She tripped over some matting." 
 
 " Sprained her ankle ? Then we can't leave Salso 
 to-day. It is quite impossible. Send for a doctor. 
 No one can see me till twelve o'clock." 
 
 He turned over, and sank again into a doze. La 
 Belle Valentine had already heard of Leonore's 
 accident. 
 
 " It is just Alfred's luck," she exclaimed j "every- 
 thing always happens for his convenience." But she 
 
 38
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 39 
 
 maintained the good-humour which had helped to 
 keep her cheeks as smooth as porcelain for five-and- 
 forty years. On her return from the bath-house, she 
 met Felshammer. 
 
 "Cobden Duryee arrives to-day," she said gaily. 
 " He has got a letter of introduction to you from 
 young Frank Hollemache. Keep a look-out for him. 
 He's a rough diamond, but he can pull every rope in 
 the States." 
 
 Felshammer, gazing after her divine figure and 
 admiring her gait, thought it a shame that she was so 
 horridly vulgar. Commonness jarred upon him to a 
 poignant degree that day because he was enjoying a 
 good many fine reflections about Clementine's brow 
 — the sweetest brow, and Clementine's upper lip — 
 that silly, provoking upper lip, and Clementine's voice 
 ■ — that husky, low-pitched, most caressing voice. It 
 was a new recreation to amuse himself by this 
 conscious indulgence in sentimentality. He laughed 
 at his own fancies and improvised little poems which 
 were ridiculously bad. All the same, he was not 
 quite at ease. The saying to oneself a pretty brow 
 is unquestionably pretty, but what of that ? what 
 does it matter ? is simple. One can repeat it quite 
 often — as often as the brow occurs to the memory or 
 the imagination. To find an adequate reply is the 
 difficulty. What does it matter ? It may matter a 
 great deal. He did not mention her name to the 
 Prince. Both men lurked about the hall in the hope
 
 40 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 of seeing her, but they heard that Miss Gloucester 
 was devoting herself to her cousin. She would take 
 her meals upstairs. The Prince sent her some 
 magazines with his compliments. He received a 
 charming note of thanks in reply. This he did not 
 show to his secretary. Felshammer, black with fury, 
 began to think the girl an insufferable coquette. It 
 was hard to like her. Were girls, in any case, ever 
 interesting ? Why did men marry ? For a home 
 and for children, of course (any fool knew that), but it 
 was never for companionship. " I am a man's man, 
 after all," he informed himself. " Women bore me. 
 She would bore me, I believe, if I saw much of her. 
 I doubt whether she has more than a rather charming 
 face. It is a charming face ! If a mere face could 
 satisfy one's heart," and so on, and so on. He knew 
 that this was insincere. Not a word of it had a 
 genuine thrill. He was suffering from a violent 
 infatuation — one of those forms of desire which, with- 
 out warning, enter a stubborn nature, and, without 
 encouragement, endure. The idea of sanely loving 
 some appropriate person at a fitting moment was 
 acceptable enough to him, but to find himself suddenly 
 jealous of the Prince, driven into rivalship with him, 
 criticising him with actual malice, was humiliating, 
 odious, almost painful. If he could have brought his 
 reason to admit that there was any real danger of a 
 quarrel — or worse, a gradual estrangement — on the 
 subject ot this girl who had strayed uncalled-for into
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 41 
 
 their path, he might have found some excuse for 
 demanding a short leave of absence. This danger, 
 however, v^^as just the thing he refused to acknow^- 
 ledge. Already he had reached the stage when a 
 mere sight of the girl herself was infinitely more 
 important than any consideration or claim ; he told 
 himself that he wanted to see now what would 
 happen. Probably nothing, he said, aware that he 
 was trying, by an affectation of indifference, to ward 
 off the cruel disappointment. Prince Paul, on his 
 part, had been fascinated by Clementine, was still 
 fascinated, and took an artist's interest in his own 
 emotions. The normal vanity of the male was 
 flattered, too, in his case, by the girl's evident interest. 
 His temperament quickened under kindness, respond- 
 ing to it as a flute does to a dexterous touch. 
 Felshammer, harsh, authoritative, and loving power 
 over others, was, on the other hand, stimulated by 
 Clementine's indifference. It excited his love of 
 domination ; he would show his mastership ; bend 
 her spirit to his will ; happiness or tenderness in 
 affection was not what besought; for him — authority, 
 a right to govern some body and subdue some soul. 
 
 Clementine had appeared at a decisive moment. 
 The Prince was becoming rebellious. Felshammer 
 could still manage him to a considerable extent, but 
 the time had passed when the secretary's glance of 
 approval or word of discouragement could influence 
 Paul's actions. The devoted man felt this ; he
 
 42 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 redoubled, trebled his efforts, and so still carried the 
 day on important points. Yet his pride suffered from 
 the very necessity for these unusual exertions ; he 
 foresaw the final equality of wills between the Prince 
 and himself, and, following an instinct rather than any 
 process of reasoning, he sought an opportunity to 
 retire, while in the ascendant, from a position he 
 could not hope to hold. If it was amusing to govern 
 a capricious, clever young man, it was not a dull 
 change at least to bend the humours of a brilliant girl 
 — a girl, plainly, with a career before her. 
 
 "I'll do it ! " he exclaimed to himself. "I'll marry 
 her. I'll show her that I won't stand any nonsense ! " 
 
 By chance he saw her crossing the corridor from 
 her own room to Leonore's. 
 
 " You look tired," he said brusquely. 
 
 " I may look so — I don't feel so," she answered, 
 with a certain annoyance. 
 
 " It is a mistake to keep indoors on such a day." 
 
 " I like to make mistakes — they rest me." 
 
 "That is because you are perverse. But I am 
 perverse too. We ought to agree." 
 
 " We don't," she said firmly ; " we could never 
 agree. Any agreement between us is not to be 
 imagined." 
 
 " That does not dismay me in the least." 
 
 " Why should it ? " she asked, beginning to detest 
 him. Fear was not in her character, or, without feel- 
 ing any repugnance for the individual, she might have
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 43 
 
 been afraid of a determination stronger than her 
 own. 
 
 "I am sorry," exclaimed Felshammer, with his eyes 
 fixed on her beautiful brow, " you don't understand 
 me." 
 
 " Why should I ? I don't know you. I believe I 
 shall say something rude in a minute. You ought to 
 feel that we cannot get on at all." 
 
 "I never feel as I ought." 
 
 She wished, or thought that she wished, to join 
 Leonore without any further delay. But she did not 
 move ; she studied his face and noticed characteristics 
 which in another man of better manners she might 
 have respected. 
 
 " Your frankness is magnetic," he said. " I have 
 never met anything of the kind in a woman. It 
 is boyish — little-boyish — for one finds it in very few 
 men. It means such courage." 
 
 " I must say," she admitted, " that if there is one 
 thing I despise it is social tact. But courtesy is 
 another matter." 
 
 Felshammer on all occasions had one natural gift in 
 his favour — this was a courteous voice. The abrupt- 
 ness of his conversational method found its mitigation 
 always in his persuasive and musical tones. Uncouth 
 as he seemed to Clementine, she could not think him 
 impertinent. But she passed him at last, and, enter- 
 ing Leonore's room, closed the door sharply behind her. 
 
 " Why were you so long ? " asked Leonore, who
 
 44 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 was stretched out on the bed while a maid brushed 
 her auburn hair. 
 
 " I met that Dr. Felshammer," rcph'ed her cousin ; 
 " he's a bear." 
 
 She repeated all he said, adding : " It's so intimate, 
 and I hardly know him. I must teach him his place." 
 
 " What is his place ? " said Leonore. 
 
 " He's a chance acquaintance. I don't want to 
 know what he thinks of my frankness, do I ? I am 
 not interested in his opinion of me, am I ? " 
 
 " Why should you be ? " exclaimed Leonore. 
 
 Women of scrupulously truthful nature ask rhetorical 
 questions when they cannot or will not admit a fact. 
 The two girls stopped talking about Felshammer and 
 discussed the Prince. Leonore called him handsome. 
 Clementine said she did not admire him in that sense. 
 But he was, of course, a good-looking man. 
 
 "Very original, too, I should say," observed 
 Leonore. 
 
 "Dreamy," suggested Clementine. 
 
 " Not altogether dreamy either." 
 
 Then they tried to define the especial peculiarities 
 of temperament conveyed by the term dreaminess. 
 
 "Perhaps dreamy was not the best word," said 
 Clementine at last. 
 
 " I wonder whether he is capable of a great love ? " 
 said Leonore. 
 
 Clementine, with unconscious hypocrisy, tried to 
 think that this was a point she had not yet considered.
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 
 
 45 
 
 " Psychology is so interesting," continued Leonore, 
 " and I could speculate about a character for hours." 
 
 Encouraged by this scientific attitude in her com- 
 panion, Clementine made a few remarks to the 
 following effect : 
 
 " I think that the Prince believes himself to be 
 independent of other people. The love of freedom is 
 so strong in him that he would resent any human 
 affection which might interfere with his liberty. He 
 would always fight his own feelings, and live, as far as 
 possible, by reason alone. I see this plainly. Intellect 
 is his idol, and his soul is quite frigid towards every- 
 thing else. He is all but heartless." 
 
 "And yet you like him ! " said Leonore. 
 
 Clementine met her eyes gravely. 
 
 " For his spirit," she replied ; " for his hatred of 
 pretence." 
 
 " I think it is for his figure," said Leonore. 
 
 " Other men have figures." 
 
 " Rarely such a good one." 
 
 Clementine made no hurried contradiction. She 
 walked to the window, and, as it happened, Paul was 
 walking on the road toward the town. 
 
 " I daresay there is something in your idea," she 
 owned ; "one is influenced, of course, by the shell." 
 
 She watched him out of sight, being too simple to 
 move away when she was so entirely pleased to remain. 
 
 " Let me know," said Leonore, " when you don't 
 like him any more."
 
 46 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "I shall always like him," replied Clementine, with 
 decision — "always. Nothing could make the slightest 
 difference." 
 
 " Suppose he had his leg shot oflF and his nose 
 broken?" 
 
 " I shall always sec him as he is now." 
 
 "That is the right thing to say, I know," answered 
 Leonore ; " but is it the true thing ? " 
 
 " I wouldn't say what I didn't feel if it were ever 
 so right. This isn't because I am too honest to 
 pretend. I am merely too lazy to act," she added 
 hastily. " I want to be myself in peace, and I don't 
 care whether I am inconsistent or not — that isn't half 
 so bad as being uncomfortable." 
 
 Augusta joined them then, and Clementine went 
 back to her own room, where she could brood 
 without interruption over her recollections of Prince 
 Paul. 
 
 Paul, meanwhile, was making the acquaintance of 
 Mr. Cobden Duryee. The American financier was a 
 tall lean man with a florid complexion, a harsh black 
 moustache, eyes that glanced swiftly, lips that moved 
 slowly, and a jaw which seemed made of cast iron 
 covered with parchment. Paul noticed his admirable 
 hands and feet, his perfectly-cut clothes. He spoke 
 with a slight New York accent, and had the manner 
 of one accustomed to make his own terms in every 
 circumstance of life. After a short conversation 
 Duryee came at once to the point.
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 47 
 
 " I want your Royal Highness to settle for a while 
 in the States — not as a social figure, but as a man of 
 affairs. I have spent the last three months in 
 Urseville-Beylestein. It is a fine country, but when 
 the science of economics and commerce de2:enerates 
 into the game of politics the era of decadence usually 
 is recognised. Your people have ceased to feel the 
 dignity of work ; they hanker after officialism, empty 
 distinctions, little posts, the praise of the press. It 
 has ceased to be a nation — it is a large parish controlled 
 by little ideas." 
 
 " My poor country ! " exclaimed the Prince. 
 
 "You can't save it," said Duryee, "and it is quite 
 contented. Journalists are writing up the scenery 
 and buying railroad shares. It will soon be a paradise 
 for hotel-keepers and bead-sellers. The valley peasants 
 have started a bead industry already — a Jew from 
 India is giving them points — and the hill population 
 are taking lessons in folk-songs from a Berlin singing- 
 teacher — for the summer season. They are also 
 building a gambling saloon in order to attract a bright 
 crowd. Beylestein, in fact, is coming along splendidly. 
 All the best couriers have taken it up. No, sir, I 
 wouldn't bother about Beylestein if I were you. The 
 old notions about monarchy were great — simply great, 
 but they are as dead as Alexander. You must start 
 fresh. Come and manage one of my steel foundries. 
 I have no children ; it's just as well, for I am a con- 
 firmed neuropath, and I have suffered from insomnia,
 
 48 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 depression, and dyspepsia ever since I was thirty. Bat 
 I am a very rich man. I should like to build one 
 beautiful city — and I want a king for it — a Doge, a 
 born one. Think it over." 
 
 Not knowing what to make of his singular new 
 friend, the Prince said : 
 
 "This news about the bead-making and the rail- 
 roads interests me very much. Do tramways run 
 through the lovely valley of the Dormer ? " 
 
 " Not yet. But a syndicate from Vienna has 
 bought the whole valley — there was one proprietor 
 only who refused to sell his estate. He owned about 
 five acres on the best site, and he kept them for an 
 old charger who carried your father on his last ride 
 through the capital. He wanted to bury that horse 
 where the view caught the rising sun. His neighbours 
 thought him sentimental. So did the syndicate. 
 Well, the horse was poisoned, and the sentimentalist 
 met with a queer kind of an accident on a lonely 
 road. He didn't recover. Don't ever worry about 
 Beylestein. I see life the way animals do, sir : to 
 them it is very pleasant or very disagreeable, but never 
 comic. That's the sole reason why I can't laugh over 
 the development of Urseville-Beylestein." 
 
 Paul stretched out his hand toward an emerald and 
 copper cigarette box, pushed it in the direction of the 
 millionaire, and by a gesture indicated the polite hope 
 that Mr. Duryee would smoke. He found it impossible 
 to speak, because he remembered the old charger.
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 49 
 
 He had a white star on his forehead and he answered 
 to the name of Charmides. 
 
 " Your father was a king," said Duryee, putting a 
 cigarette into his mouth, but rejecting, mournfully, a 
 light ; " mine was a Presbyterian minister way up in 
 the country. You can't forget His Majesty, and I 
 don't forget the Doctor. He used to pray for me 
 every evening at half-past nine. Well, every evening 
 at half-past nine, sure enough, I begin to feel lone- 
 some, and, in a way, home-sick. But I struck out in 
 a new line although I had five ancestors in the 
 ministry. I said to father at the end of my first year 
 at Yale : * This has got to stop.' He said : * What, 
 my son ? ' I said : ' I'm a financier. Everything in 
 me pulls that way. I want to work in an office.' 
 The old man was disappointed at first, because he had 
 it all fixed up that I should be a minister too, and 
 finish his edition, with notes, of the Prophet Amos. 
 He slept on my statement, however, and came down 
 smiling the next morning. * Go ahead,' said he, ' it 
 may be that the Lord has employment for you in 
 Wall Street. Your mother thinks it's about time for 
 one of the Duryees to make money.' And she was 
 right, sir. Now, why can't you follow my lead ? 
 Start something new. People talk about merchant 
 princes. Be a prince merchant." 
 
 Paul removed a ladybird which had settled on the 
 sleeve of his coat and put it outside the window on a 
 fruit-leaf. This took time, because the leaf had to be 
 
 5
 
 50 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 taken from a dish of peaches on the sideboard. Paul 
 ordered peaches all the year round. Duryee watched 
 each of his graceful, languid movements, and finally 
 caught Felshammer's eye. Felshammer had been 
 present during the whole interview. 
 
 "Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home. 
 Your house is on fire ; your children will burn ! " 
 
 said the American, with religious solemnity in his 
 tone and resentment in his glance. He felt that 
 Felshammer disliked him. 
 
 " Arc you serious ? " asked Paul, watching the 
 insect. 
 
 " What about ? " said Duryee, equally indifferent. 
 
 The Prince, piqued by Duryee's change of tone, 
 showed more vivacity, and said : 
 
 " The American proposition." 
 
 " Oh, that ! " replied Duryee, with good-humour. 
 " I was serious enough about it. I never go 
 crazy." 
 
 " I want to hear more," said the Prince ; " it isn't 
 altogether a project in the vein of comic opera ! " 
 
 " First, you ought to work in a lawyer's office for 
 two years. I am a lawyer myself by profession. 
 How can any man get along unless he knows technical 
 right from technical wrong ? The old Romans 
 understood education. Law is the essence of it." 
 
 Paul threw back his head, straightened his shoulders,
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 51 
 
 and then sat on the edge of the table, supporting 
 himself on his hands while he looked Duryee in the 
 face. 
 
 " You want me to renounce Urseville-Beylestein ? 
 Felshammer is appalled." 
 
 Duryee accepted this information with a slow 
 movement of the jaw as though he were testing his 
 powers of mastication. 
 
 "Dr. Felshammer has the European's dread of 
 Americanitis. He forgets that we get our worst 
 characteristics from the discontented, ill-used European 
 who goes to the New World for a chance to breathe. 
 He brings with him a good many crude, possibly 
 vulgar notions — the result of oppression, injustice, 
 suffering, and the abuse of authority in high places — 
 the contempt of the well-to-do for the shabby un- 
 fortunate. But such poor devils are not American — 
 although they may tinge American life and thought." 
 
 He rose to his feet ; the Prince accompanied him 
 to the door of the room and, fascinated by his 
 personality, walked with him down the corridor to 
 the lift. Felshammer followed them, biting his nails 
 as he went and full of forebodings. 
 
 La Belle Valentine was waiting impatiently for 
 Duryee's call. When at last he tapped at the sitting- 
 room door and called her name she forg-ot that she 
 was graceful by profession ; she tripped over a foot- 
 stool and saved herself from a fall by permitting him 
 to catch her in his arms.
 
 52 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Wliy, Cobcicn," she exclaimed, " is that you ? O 
 say, Mabel, it is Cobden 1 " 
 
 She shed tears of real joy ; she gazed at his iron and 
 parchment face with the rapture of a girl admiring 
 the heroic ideal of a first love. 
 
 " How young you keep I " observed the financier. 
 " You don't change a bit, do you, Val ? " 
 
 " Never for you," she said. " I couldn't fool you 
 anyway." 
 
 " That's why you like me," he said grimly. 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 She sat at his feet j she wound her arm round his 
 knees. 
 
 "This," she remarked, "is my idea of perfect 
 happiness. I was afraid you wouldn't get here. 
 I worried. Don't you ever go back on me, Cobden, 
 because I could not stand it. Have you seen tiie 
 Prince ? " 
 
 He repeated a little of their interview. 
 
 " What do you think of him ? Is he a superior 
 Willy Wimble ? " she asked. 
 
 " He must meet some men of the right sort," said 
 Duryec. " I think he has seen enough of women for 
 the present. He wants a bracing environment." 
 
 " You funny old thing ! You don't want him to 
 meet me ! " 
 
 Duryee stroked his own chin, and then patted, very 
 softly, her charming shoulder. 
 
 " You have missed it, pettie," said he; "he can meet
 
 THE MERITS OF A GOOD FIGURE 53 
 
 you as often as he has a mind to. You are inteUigent ; 
 you have sized up the value of most things. I mean 
 he has seen enough of silly women." 
 
 " Lucie arrives this afternoon." 
 
 " So I vmderstand." 
 
 " You know," she said presently, " that Clementine 
 and her father are here ? " 
 
 Every reference to Mr. Gloucester invariably made 
 Duryee speechless. A strong sense of justice kept 
 him alwavs aware that Valentine's husband had been 
 altogether ill-used. He did not like him ; he had 
 called him a "dude" some time before that word 
 came into general fashion as an epithet for the agree- 
 able foolish amons: well-born men. But, althousih a 
 
 O JO 
 
 *'dude," Gloucester had shown unusual loyalty toward 
 his wife, and his touching, if timorous, affection for 
 the child had thrown her mother's selfishness into a 
 light beyond the reach of any softening haze. The 
 financier could explain La Belle's conduct on reason- 
 able grounds — she lacked the maternal instinct, and, 
 granting this defect, it was a merit, he thought, that 
 the flattery-loving creature, quite conscious of an un- 
 sympathetic failing, affected no sentiment she did not 
 feel. Nevertheless he sighed when she mentioned 
 Clementine. It reminded him of the irremediable 
 blot on his idol. Why did she call his attention to 
 it ? Couldn't she understand how it jarred ? And 
 she did understand ; she was neither tactless nor blind. 
 But she longed greedily, with an incessant desire, to
 
 54 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 be loved for herself as she was, in spite of all her faults, 
 in spite of her history, in spite of a nature, to its 
 depths, unlovable. This vi^as her triumph over life 
 and her joy in living. Cobden knew her temper, her 
 vices, her age to the hour of her birth, the many 
 changes of her hair, the variations of her wonderful 
 complexion j he knew everything, and still he adored 
 her. 
 
 ''You can't beat it," she would say to Mabel. 
 " I want to ask every woman who is mean to me and 
 thinks herself winning it all along the line : 'Tell me 
 this — does your husband know you as well as the 
 Devil knows you ? Would he love you just the 
 same if he did ? Answer me that.' I want to see 
 just how I stand and where I stand. I want to be 
 sure of my ground." 
 
 Duryee glanced round the sitting-room, noticed the 
 pile of theatrical newspapers from all parts of the 
 world, the countless photographs signed of royal and 
 other personages, of famous " stars " in their most 
 popular roles^ of himself in cap and ulster, in evening 
 clothes, in fancy dress as Francois Premier, in a golfing 
 suit. 
 
 "It looks home-y, doesn't it? " she said, delighted.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING 
 
 Felshammer did not attempt to vindicate his antipathy 
 for Duryee. He owned that the man was genuine, 
 but he held that genuineness in the wrong direction 
 was far more dangerous than insincerity striving, by 
 means of histrionics, for the noble course. Yet when 
 Prince Paul asked his opinion of the financier, he found 
 himself understating his objections to their new 
 acquaintance. He wound up by admitting : " I 
 admire him. He is as hard as nails." When he left 
 Paul he realised that, so far from remaining at any 
 rate neutral, he had strongly encouraged the 
 American's influence. It was vain to blink facts. 
 He wanted the Prince to leave Europe ; he found 
 him, for the first time, in his way. 
 
 " He will dazzle that young girl. Naturally 
 enough, she will feel flattered by his notice. He 
 cares nothing about her ; once his vanity is gratified 
 she may jump into the first pond or spend her youth 
 
 55
 
 S6 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 forgetting him — if she can. He will say — and the 
 whole world will say : 'She ought to have known that 
 it was hopeless.' In theory we all think alike on 
 these points — extenuating circumstances occur to us 
 only when we care for the individual or individuals at 
 stake." 
 
 Thus he analysed his own mood, but as he possessed 
 robust health in conjunction with a highly-trained 
 self-consciousness the fact that he knew why he said 
 and thought certain things in no degree disturbed, as 
 it does in many reflective temperaments, the ultimate 
 execution of his ideas in action. The suddenness of 
 his passion for Clementine now seemed to him normal, 
 pre-ordained, and unalterable. A man must settle 
 down ; a man worthy his sex must have a hearth, 
 whether happy or the reverse ; once pleased, he must 
 be determined in courtship, concentrating on the 
 business as a life and death-bed affair. Clementine, 
 legally secured, could then take her share in his 
 existence, making his mental, spiritual, and physical 
 interests — now scattered curves — into a perfect circle. 
 Did not the wedding-ring symbolise this mystic fusing, 
 by the spell of wifely love, of the separated elements 
 in human nature ? " Clementine suits me " was the 
 conclusion of this transcendental soliloquy. A sincere 
 lover of poetry, he became sentimental too, and 
 " Clementine suits me " also summed up the many 
 metaphors by which nightingales, roses, spring, 
 blossoms, and the moon did their usual service for the
 
 TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING 57 
 
 translation of primitive decisiveness into picturesque 
 uncertainty. 
 
 When he next met the Prince he called his 
 attention to the beauty of a young person who sat 
 with La Belle Valentine and her companion at a table 
 near them in the Restaurant. 
 
 "Duryee has asked me to supper this evening," 
 said Paul. " I hope La Belle will be there." 
 
 " He and his party clash with the Gloucesters," 
 observed Felshammer carelessly ; " it is a pity that 
 they are all here together." 
 
 Paul looked again at the young person. She seemed 
 about five-and-twenty. Although she had very 
 curling flaxen hair and dark-blue eyes, there was 
 something so indolent underlying her evident vigour, 
 such a curious vivacity in the full mouth and the 
 movement of the nostrils, that, in spite of an almost 
 classic profile, she suggested irresistibly an African 
 type. She displayed her teeth, which were dazzling, 
 when she talked, but her heavy eyelids seemed 
 oppressed by a constant need of sleep, and she kept 
 them half-closed the greater part of the dinner. 
 
 " She might be an allegorical design for Sloth," 
 said Paul. But he was interested because she was 
 uncommon and indifferent to his presence. The 
 head-waiter was asked to discover her name. It was 
 found that she was Mme. de Montgenay's guest and 
 had been described in the register as the Hon. Mrs. 
 Basil Hollemache.
 
 58 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " It must be our Hollie's sister-in-law," said 
 Felshammer. "I remember that his brother made an 
 odd marriage." 
 
 The Prince could find nothing better to offer than : 
 " How small the world is ! " 
 
 " I remember Hollie's telling me that Basil took up 
 with some mysterious girl whom he met most 
 informally at Naples. At Naples, sir ! This must 
 be she." 
 
 " What was Basil ? Where is he now ? " 
 
 " He has suffered all his life from religious mania, 
 and so they gave him the family living. He is now 
 in a Home." 
 
 "I wonder," said the Prince, "whether she has 
 anything to say for herself. She doesn't look 
 stupid." 
 
 " There is a rumour, according to Hollle, that her 
 
 father was Lord M ." He mentioned the name 
 
 of a well-known diplomatist. Paul was more amused 
 than ever, and Felshammer, from long knowledge of 
 his character, did everything possible to stimulate his 
 curiosity. Clementine was not once mentioned. 
 With the Prince little flickers of love blazed up and 
 went out in a day. It had always been to the interest 
 of the exiled court to encourage this illuminative, if 
 fickle, temper ; caprices he might enjoy to his heart's 
 content, but the fairly durable ascendancy of any one 
 woman was something which his supporters could 
 not permit without strenuous opposition, or con-
 
 TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING 59 
 
 template without the bitterest misgivings. In the 
 sporting art of substituting at precisely the crucial 
 moment one dangerous alluring study for another 
 Felshammer had proved himself an unprejudiced 
 and supreme tactician. Unprejudiced because he had 
 never once been actuated by an egoistic motive, 
 and supreme because he had never yet failed to 
 accomplish his purpose. But now his judgment, for 
 the first time, trembled with personal feeling ; he was 
 so anxious for success that Paul, curiously sensitive 
 to all emotional under-currents, became irritable and 
 perverse. 
 
 " I am getting sick of this place ! " he said abruptly. 
 " I shall either go on to Florence or visit America 
 with Duryee." 
 
 As he spoke he looked from the corner of his eye at 
 Felshammer, and in that flash of distrust, not missed 
 by the secretary, a silent antagonism sprang into life 
 between them. It affected the Prince with a kind of 
 cynical wretchedness. He had been disappointed so 
 often in human nature that a lost illusion seemed to 
 him but a commonplace of daily experience. 
 
 " He, too, has at last an axe to grind," passed 
 through his head. " I wonder what it is ? Has 
 Duryee got hold of him ? " 
 
 He continued acting, but talked more pleasantly, 
 discussing the news of the day and making caustic 
 jokes about his advisers in Urseville-Beylestein. After 
 dinner he went to the millionaire's private apartments,
 
 6o LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 and did not ask any member of his suite to accompany 
 him. 
 
 Felshammer seized the opportunity to inquire about 
 Miss Romilly. He went himself to the door of the 
 Gloucesters' sitting-room, and was asked to join the 
 party at whist. The game bored him, but Clementine, 
 looking sad, he thought, was there, and he did not 
 hesitate to accept the invitation. No one seemed in 
 a mood to play. Augusta could watch herself in a 
 little glass near the table, and this kept her amused 
 for the first round. Presently, however, she began to 
 yawn. Mr. Gloucester, weary after his excitement 
 of the previous evening, could not keep his eyes open, 
 and trumped his partner's king. 
 
 Felshammer accepted with stoicism this glimpse of 
 a traditional evening in the home-circle. It was 
 cheerfully endured as a necessary part of the courtship 
 of Clementine. The girl was too intelligent to 
 suppose that he could have found the smallest enter- 
 tainment with her father, even at his brightest, and, 
 although she was the last as a rule to detect attentions 
 offered to herself, there was a fire in the secretary's 
 eyes and restrained ardour under his calm bearing 
 which she could not ignore. 
 
 Outwardly she could and did appear unconscious, 
 yet within she resented his admiration, quivered under 
 it with a sensation of fear, with a desire to escape, 
 with an instinct that his love was kind but his power 
 sinister. The game went on — Felshammer, with the
 
 TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING 6i 
 
 disadvantage of a reluctant partner and a bad hand, 
 was winning most of the tricks. He smiled at 
 Clementine once and she felt herself turn pale. She 
 had never before come into contact with any 
 dominating, resolute, and passionate disposition ; her 
 relatives and intimate friends had all been people who 
 were violent, if they ever were violent, in their 
 tempers only — in squabbles with lawyers, servants, 
 and each other, but their affections were mild and 
 domestic, their wills grumbling but never invincible, 
 their tastes could be removed by argument, their 
 desires suppressed or concealed at the first whisper of 
 an acknowledged authority. She knew herself no 
 match for determination of the uncompromising 
 Teutonic mettle ; a weight fell on her heart, she was 
 unable to think or to feel ; a numbness came over 
 her whole being, and she followed the game 
 mechanically, as much dazed by Felshammer's peculiar 
 influence as though she had taken heavy wine. At 
 ten o'clock they had finished the rubber. 
 
 " One keeps such early hours at dear Salso," 
 observed Mr. Gloucester, with an apologetic voice 
 and an air of saying good-night. 
 
 " Where is your Prince ? " said Augusta, rubbing 
 her eyes. She was altogether sure that Felshammer 
 took no interest in her or her appearance, and she 
 asked the question with instinctive malice. 
 
 "He is playing poker, perhaps, with Mr. Duryee 
 and Madame de Montgenays," said the secretary.
 
 6t LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 watching Clementine. He missed, therefore, the 
 look of agony which passed over Gloucester's now 
 livid face. 
 
 " Mme. de Montgenays is the beautiful lady, isn't 
 she ? " said Clementine — " the one who sat at the 
 little table ? I should like to know her." 
 
 Her father tried to think of something to say — 
 something to change the subject. But his tongue 
 clave to the roof of his mouth, and he sat twirling his 
 shaking thumbs and wondering what he had done to 
 deserve such misery at his time of life. And he began 
 to associate Felshammer with the misery in question. 
 He had brought him the hateful woman's message ; 
 he had just dragged in her name most unnecessarily — 
 a person, in any case, who ought not to be so much 
 as hinted at in the presence of his innocent girl. The 
 girl, too, by a fatal accident, was standing at an angle 
 when the resemblance to her mother — all but im- 
 perceptible to strangers — was terribly clear to the 
 nervous old man. What could he do ? Clementine 
 began to praise Mme. de Montgenays; she looked 
 fascinating — who was she ? Every one in the hotel 
 seemed to know about her. They waited about the 
 corridor and in the hall to see her pass. 
 
 " She is called La Belle Valentine," said Augusta j 
 "she used to dance. Barker told mc." 
 
 Barker was their maid. 
 
 " I wish you wouldn't talk to servants and people !" 
 exclaimed Mr. Gloucester, finding his voice ; " it's a
 
 TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING 63 
 
 shocking habit. You are not to do it ! If Barker 
 comes gossiping to you, I will give her notice." 
 
 Augusta made no reply, but she managed to say 
 under her breath to their guest : " Dear uncle is not 
 himself this evening. He is never like this." 
 
 "But he is right, all the same," replied Felshammer. 
 Mr. Gloucester's fit of exasperation had given a note 
 of intimacy to the talk v/hich the secretary was not 
 slow to emphasise. He sat down and gave his views 
 about the management of servants as though he had 
 been appealed to, as a near relative at least, to support 
 the head of the family. It was half-past ten before 
 he left them, and, although they all felt relieved at his 
 departure, Clementine, when the door closed upon 
 him, was conscious of a flatness in the atmosphere and 
 a loneliness in the room. 
 
 Prince Paul, meanwhile, had spent his time in a 
 very different manner. Mr. Duryee's small party 
 were in brilliant spirits. La Belle Valentine, being 
 entreated, actually danced a cake-walk to Mrs. Holle- 
 mache's accompaniment, in sparkling style, on the 
 banjo. But this rare entertainment took place 
 towards midnight, after several games of poker and a 
 good many delicious cock-tails prepared by the 
 sympathetic Mabel. What makes an evening gay ? 
 Is it the talk ? an accident of temperature ? the actual 
 company ? On this particular occasion everything 
 seemed perfectly delightful. The room had been 
 transformed by glorious stuffs, bowls of flowers,
 
 6+ LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 exquisitely bound books, splendid trifles in silver and 
 bronze and gold, rare pieces of china. IVIr. Duryce 
 always included a number of such things in his 
 luggage ; a wandering man, he liked to invest hired 
 apartments with as personal an air as private property 
 could give them. La Belle Valentine was on her 
 best behaviour. Paul, as the hours advanced, found 
 himself believing in her innocence ; such liquid 
 eyes, such fine chiselled lips, such a subdued, all but 
 reproachful smile, such a tranquil brow, surely went 
 with potential if misunderstood virtue ? And Lucie 
 Hollemache ? She was so assertive in her mysterious 
 languor, so pleasant in her idleness, so uncritical in 
 her slow, aflfectionate glance. She was one of the few 
 women whose faces do not look sad or perplexed in 
 repose. Animation, in fact, did not suit her, and 
 when she laughed the effect was unnatural, even dis- 
 figuring. While she played the banjo, her features 
 were lit up by some curious emotional power from 
 within — ^just as a flame or any number of flames will 
 show through tinted glass. The flames may move 
 and vary, but the glass remains changeless. Li con- 
 versation she showed a dry, rather subtle humour ; 
 but silent by preference, she said little and listened 
 admirably. Duryee told stories, and at poker showed 
 his knowledge of human character by winning the 
 Prince's money. Paul played a good game, and in 
 beating him Duryee used all his wits — which pleased 
 the young man. He could be won by the homage of
 
 TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING 65 
 
 the brain — never by the agency of a cheque-boolc. 
 Perhaps this was why he enjoyed that evening with 
 peculiar zest. His companions treated him less as a 
 social superior than an intellectual one. They led 
 him on to talk, weighed his words, and were openly 
 impressed by the force of much that he said. But 
 how gracefully it was done ! Sometimes one or the 
 other ventured to differ from him. Duryee protested 
 that he would have to think over this idea, get at the 
 bed-rock of certain propositions, see how some scheme 
 worked out in practice. It was all very stimulating, 
 and, when at length they had to say good-night, Paul 
 resolved that he should see a great deal more of these 
 new acquaintances. They were such a change after 
 exhausted, fussv, time-serving courtiers. As for 
 Clementine or the dear Countess Sophia, they never 
 once came into his remembrance. Darlings both, no 
 doubt, but experience had to be gained. He found 
 out from a member of his suite that Felshammer had 
 spent the evening with the Gloucester party. 
 
 " Poor fellow ! " said he, in fits of laughter : " I 
 feel for him. I can't imagine anything duller on earth." 
 
 The conversation between the several ladies who 
 had contributed to the events, tedious and otherwise, 
 of that night was not insiQ;nificant. 
 
 Augusta sat at the foot of Clementine's bed and 
 studied her serious face. 
 
 " Do you think you will sleep well, Clem ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 6
 
 (i(i LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " No," said truthful Clementine ; " I take too 
 much interest in my friends to be happy when I know 
 that mischief is brewing." 
 
 "What mischief is brewins; now ?" 
 
 " Why did Prince Paul go alone without Fels- 
 hammer to Mr. Duryee and those women ? I saw 
 that Mrs. Hollemache — she's handsome and horrid." 
 
 " Then the Prince won't like her." 
 
 *'0, yes, he will ! Men will forgive any fault in 
 a person so long as she can make a meal pass 
 pleasantly. They don't want wonderful characters — 
 they like people who are civil at dinner." 
 
 " How do you know that \ " 
 
 " I feel it all over me." 
 
 " Do you like Felshammcr better than you did at 
 first ? " 
 
 " Not a bit better. Yet he is far more trustworthy 
 than Prince Paul — far more faithful. Doesn't that 
 show that it isn't character always ? It is something 
 else, something indefinable." 
 
 "I see," said Augusta slowly, "why you seem to 
 understand men — you judge them by yourself." 
 
 "I'm sleepy now," observed Clementine. But her 
 cousin, on leaving the room, noticed several books on 
 the bed. As she stood on the threshold, she looked 
 back and asked : 
 
 "Why are you studying guide-books ? " 
 
 " I want to get away. I want to go to Florence. 
 I want to look at pictures. I am tired of people."
 
 TWO WAYS OF SPENDING AN EVENING e-j 
 
 Augusta closed the door softly and went away 
 smiling. She was engaged to a good-looking, clever 
 chivalrous young man in the Treasury — an old Blue, 
 one who had taken high honours, a marvel. Clemen- 
 tine, dear impossible Clementine, was too eccentric and 
 uncertain to attract the men who made, undoubtedly, 
 the best husbands. Augusta, once locked in her own 
 little room, kissed the edifying photograph of Mr. 
 Jim Hazeltine, L.LD., F.S.S., put his last precious 
 letter under her pillow, undressed, and said her prayers 
 — mentioning Jim several times disguised under 
 various interests, and expressing a hope, in conclusion, 
 that poor Clementine might learn to be happy in a 
 reasonable way with a suitable individual. 
 
 La Belle Valentine and Lucie were more laconic. 
 
 " What do you think of Prince Paul ? " asked 
 Valentine. " He isn't a patch on Cobden, of 
 
 course." 
 
 *'He has brains," said Lucie, "and he's magnetic." 
 
 " Mercy ! I don't think he's got a particle of 
 magnetism. Now Cobden " 
 
 " Cobden, my dear," said Lucie, " is not the be-all 
 and end-all of everybody's existence. He's superb, 
 but there are others ! " 
 
 Valentine smiled good-naturedly and patted her 
 friend's shoulder. 
 
 " You can have them," she replied j " I'm willing."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Mrs. Basil Hollemache before her marriage had 
 moved a great deal in sporting and gambling circles 
 under the protection of her parents, Captain and Mrs. 
 Gaveston. The gallant Captain was a gentleman 
 who had left his regiment under painful if obscure 
 circumstances. One heard rumours of a conspiracy, 
 and complaints to the effect that, without money, 
 slander could not be fought to the bitter end. He 
 had kept a certain number of friends, however, and it 
 came to be assumed among most people that he could 
 say a good deal if he chose, and had been made, very 
 cruelly, a scapegoat. " But for my son, my wife, and 
 my daughter — " he would observe, shaking his head 
 with the agony of thoughts too appalling to be for- 
 mulated. For the rest, he drank to excess, although 
 he never appeared intoxicated. His life was a state of 
 chronic torpor. Handsome in his youth, he dyed his 
 hair before he was forty, put on stays, and curled his 
 moustache with the tongs. Some one had bought 
 
 6S
 
 A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 69 
 
 him a decent annuity, he paid as he went (to use his 
 own phrase), his wife enjoyed a separate but more 
 indefinite income, his son received an ample allowance 
 from some mysterious trustees, and they all lived 
 together on the kindest terms in Savile Row. Rents 
 in Savile Row were not at that time what they are 
 now, but the address was a capital address, all the 
 same, and the house was frequented quietly by well- 
 known persons, chiefly of the male sex, from every 
 class of society. Mrs. Gaveston's little dinners and 
 suppers, followed by singing, gossip, cards (in which 
 the Captain could never be prevailed on to take a 
 hand), were much appreciated even by those who, it 
 might be thought, had the world and its best amuse- 
 ments at their feet. Lord Munalley, P.C, K.P., 
 G.C.B., &c., would now and again figure at these 
 simple entertainments, and bring little Lucie sweets 
 (but, naughtily, he could seldom remember her name), 
 and delight the heart of little Charlie with rare foreign 
 stamps, beautiful crests for his album, and shining 
 coins fresh from the Mint. Whenever Lord 
 Munalley called he was invariably unexpected. Mrs. 
 Gaveston, who was interesting rather than pretty, with 
 irregular features and raven hair brushed straight back 
 from a low brow, would advance gravely, saying ; 
 " You are indeed a stranger ! " But these happy 
 days and evenings did not last. When Lucie and 
 Charlie reached respectively the ages of sixteen and 
 fourteen they found themselves orphans. Lord
 
 7© LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 Munalley, too, passed away — he was an old man 
 long before the children knew him. The dear com- 
 fortable house in Savile Row was let ; its treasures 
 were sold, and Lucie, with her brother, had to regard 
 Messrs. Gregory, Hawkins, Hawkins, and Palmer, of 
 Lincoln's Lin, as her guardians. The head of the 
 firm informed her that, in accordance with the wishes 
 of his late client, Charlie should finish his schooling at 
 Eton, and proceed to Oxford, where it was hoped he 
 would qualify for a good position later on at the Bar. 
 
 " You," he continued, looking thoughtfully at 
 Lucie and comparing her mentally with a certain 
 early portrait (by Lawrence) of Lord Munalley, 
 " you " — and his voice softened as he traced the 
 undeniable curves of a genuine Munalley nostril — ■ 
 "you, my dear Miss Gaveston, may travel, if you 
 like, with a companion. I can recommend several 
 ladies for such a post. There is, for instance. Miss 
 Travers, the daughter of the late Dr. Travers, an 
 eminent man in his own profession. As for finishing 
 your education — every young lady, no matter how 
 gifted, must of course be finished — you can have the 
 best masters." 
 
 "And my allowance ? " asked Lucie. 
 
 " Your allowance," said he, looking at his notes, 
 " will be seven hundred a year — exclusive of your 
 companion's salary and expenses. When you are 
 one-and-twenty you are to have a thousand a year. 
 It is strictly tied up," he added ; " the capital can't
 
 A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 71 
 
 be touched. Your brother will have exactly the 
 same fortune — to a penny — and on the same condi- 
 tions." 
 
 " Dear papa I " said Lucie, with swimming eyes. 
 She had always been honestly attached to Captain 
 Gaveston. " Dear papa ! Who would have thought 
 he was so business-like ? " 
 
 Mr. Gregory simpered, and the interview came to 
 an end. Lucie eventually went to Italy with Miss 
 Travers, but they could not agree, and Miss Travers 
 was supplanted by a Baroness von Trier. The 
 Baroness was a lady who wrote an admirable letter. 
 On paper she was the most prudent, the most austere 
 of women. Messrs. Gregory, Hawkins, Hawkins, 
 and Palmer felt that she conducted her correspon- 
 dence with them on model lines ; she became their 
 ideal pattern of female intelligence. Her photograph, 
 too (sent from Heidelberg), gave the best possible 
 impression. She was tall, spare, agreeable in visage, 
 white-haired (she had borrowed a touph from her 
 mother for the sitting). They engaged her for their 
 ward, and no girl could have fallen under a worse 
 influence. In the first place, she was wholly frivolous. 
 Passionate natures make mistakes frequently, come to 
 ruin not seldom, but flippant people have often a great 
 deal of shrewd sense in the conduct of life. Their 
 hatred of peril and pain makes them instinctively far- 
 seeing. The Baroness was judicious, therefore, in 
 this calculating way. Without the borrowed toupee
 
 72 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 she looked about thirty-seven. Her hair was sandy 
 and she had a look of Diirer's Eve. From morning 
 till night she poured her silly experience and sharp 
 counsel into Lucie's ears. The two trapesed through 
 Europe (no one could get better value for her money 
 than the Baroness) ; they stopped always at first-class 
 hotels, and made the best sort of acquaintances only. 
 
 "Rich vulgar people won't think us worth while 
 or smart enough," she would say ; "our chance is 
 with la crerne de la creme only — those who are too sure 
 of themselves to be snobs." 
 
 At Naples, when Lucie was nineteen, they came 
 across the Dowager Lady Hollemache, who was there 
 with an invalid son. He was at death's door ; the 
 unhappy mother was too glad to liave his last hours 
 soothed by Lucie's faultless sympathy ; the Baroness 
 read him bits from Heine and the whole of Goethe's 
 " Hermann and Dorothea." The poor young man 
 was a good German scholar, and many feared that he 
 had overtaxed his brain by a too profound devotion to 
 Teutonic metaphysic. His manner, talk, and gaze 
 at times were very wild. But he liked Lucie ; 
 presently he needed her ; finally he swore he would 
 marry her. He got better ; he cursed and raved at 
 the Dowager ; he seized her chaplain — an inofi^ensive 
 good soul who followed her ladyship everywhere — by 
 the shoulders and thrust him from his room, shouting : 
 "I'll soon show you whether I am dying I " 
 
 Such monstrous behaviour could not be kept a
 
 A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 73 
 
 secret from the other inmates of the hotel. As the 
 chaplain murmured, it was the general opinion that 
 such a dangerous character ought to be locked up. 
 Who could wish to read of the tears, expostulations, 
 threats, insults, and abuse which formed the overture 
 to Lucie's married life ? For, of course, after his 
 mother cut him off with two hundred a year, the 
 romantic Miss Gaveston married him. He sot rid of 
 the Baroness — which was a wise move — although the 
 lady declared that but for her efforts he could never 
 have found a wife to pay his bills or support his vile 
 disposition. The young couple were together for 
 three years. They were really attached to each 
 other ; no cross word ever passed between them ; 
 Lucie's conduct was impeccable, and Basil had no 
 reason to regret his passionate choice. Yet, such is 
 the irony of appearances, that in spite of their great 
 and genuine affection, the unfortunate man fell a 
 victim at last to his constitutional melancholy, and 
 the poor wife — still a girl in years — was blamed by 
 every member of the family for a collapse which had 
 been inevitable from the beginning. If anything had 
 delayed the blow or given the afflicted man an idea 
 of normal human joys it was the time he spent with 
 Lucie. But the HoUemaches were too glad to find 
 an excuse for their relative's mania, and, when it 
 became common knowledge that Basil was under 
 the care of two keepers at a Home, rumour, on the 
 highest authority, added, as a qualifying clause, that
 
 74 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 his wife's heartlessness had driven him there. She 
 found herself in London without a single friend. 
 The people who would have received her were not 
 themselves received in select circles. This was the 
 moment for the Baroness von Trier. She wrote 
 announcing her willingness to forgive the past and 
 reassume her former position. 
 
 " Tou loved hbnju loved you" was one passage in 
 that fatal epistle ; " this is my own reply to all my own 
 questions^ some of them rather bitter, I admit, on the 
 subject of your strange unkindness to me — your devoted, if 
 dependent, friend.^* 
 
 "This woman," thought Lucie, made cynical by 
 injustice, "in spite of her faults, had the sense to see 
 that my poor darling and I were all the world to each 
 other." 
 
 She drove to the Baroness's lodgings (curiously 
 enough the lady was in England on private business) ; 
 they embraced, cried, and talked for five whole houps. 
 A week later they left England for " dear Lucerne," 
 where Lucie spent six months, telling over and over 
 V again every conversation and incident which had 
 transpired from the moment of the Baroness's pathetic 
 departure till her magnanimous return. During that 
 period of sympathy and fatigue the companion never 
 once lost courage. Ever cheerful, interested, and 
 consoling, she heard the eternal " he said," and " I 
 said," and " they said " of domestic reminiscence 
 without any flagging of the spirits or diminishment of
 
 A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 75 
 
 attention. The stories, or rather chronicles — for they 
 were strictly epic in character — seemed always fresh 
 so far as the inexhaustible listener was concerned. 
 Lucie was the first, the only one, indeed, to grow 
 tired. Suddenly she stopped talking. She began to 
 take long slumbers twice a day and in the evening she 
 yawned over French novels. The Baroness suggested 
 a change, and they went to Berlin. There they 
 stopped at a pension kept by an officer's widow, and 
 became acquainted with a few celebrities — friends, it 
 was understood, of the late Baron von Trier. Lucie 
 really enjoyed herself in Berlin. For the first time 
 in her life she began to feel genuine. Lady Holle- 
 mache's loud whisper : "And who, pray, was Mrs. 
 Gaveston ? Didn't she play old Smokie at Baden- 
 Baden ? Wasn't she photographed with her tiresome 
 hair hanging down her back ? " had made Mrs. 
 Gaveston's daughter extremely thoughtful. But in 
 Germany there was, to begin with, no mistake about 
 the Baroness's authenticity. She was well connected ; 
 her late husband had been dissipated, stupid, unpopular, 
 but he belonged, beyond a doubt, to the old nobility. 
 The Baroness was not liked because she was regarded 
 as a vain and worldly woman ; she was also poor, but 
 no one had ever attacked her reputation or denied her 
 actual social rank. 
 
 " If I had only the merest apology, an oaf, an 
 imbecile, for a son," she would say, " how these good 
 ladies would welcome me ! It is the greatest mis-
 
 76 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 fortune to be a middle-aged, penniless, respectable 
 widow without a son." 
 
 Things were going on in the pleasantcst way when 
 her brother-in-law was appointed as an Attachd to the 
 English Embassy there. He was a good-hearted 
 man, but he had his mother's version of the Basil 
 marriage. When Lucie's name was mentioned to 
 him by a Graf at some very grand dinner-party, he 
 felt himself, as he declared, in a painful position. He 
 really did not know, he wrote home, " which way to 
 look or what to say." But he found out Lucie's 
 pension^ and, too prudent to call upon her, sent her a 
 carefully expressed letter : 
 
 Inasmuch as my dear mother is, reasonably or unreason- 
 ably, so much estranged from you, I feel sure you will 
 understand why I am at a loss to know precisely the right 
 course to adopt. But as some error in judgment is, per- 
 haps, in such distressing circumstances unavoidable, it 
 must be, I think, in my mother's favour. You will, I 
 know, have the generosity to admit this. What, therefore, 
 is to be done ? It is scarcely likely that we should meet, 
 as I am hedged about with strictly official duties and 
 acquaintances. Yet here we are in the same city. I 
 should never, of course — and here you may rely on my 
 discretion — give myself the pain of, or place you at a very 
 grave disadvantage by, mentioning any definite reasons for 
 my mother's attitude, yet neither of us wish to set people 
 guessing. It would be unfair to all parties concerned. 
 With perfect confidence in your good taste and sense 
 I put the circumstances before you and await your 
 reply.
 
 A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 77 
 
 Lucie, on receiving this, was for showing a proper 
 spirit and teaching Frank Hollemache a lesson. She 
 would not budge — no, not an inch. What had she 
 done to be so insulted ? What business was it of his 
 whether she lived in Berlin or in Timbuctoo ? What 
 next? But the Baroness took a strictly impartial 
 view. 
 
 "Behave well, and he is gentlemanly enough to 
 appreciate it. Then, when the old termagant dies, 
 he may come round." 
 
 " Who cares two snaps whether he comes round or 
 not ? " cried Lucie, pale with anger. 
 
 " If he chooses he can make it most disagreeable for 
 us, and what can we two women do against society ? 
 Nothing." 
 
 " Very well," said Lucie, " this ends it. Hence- 
 forth I shall go only among people who won't be so 
 good that they will have to drop me when they hear 
 ill-natured lies. I will not know a creature who isn't 
 notoriously shady, and they may all judge me, if they 
 please, by my associates. I shall be absolutely 
 defiant.'* 
 
 And she kept her word. On leaving Berlin she 
 went to Vienna, where, by degrees, for it is difficult 
 to get a firm footing in any set, no matter how un- 
 prejudiced it may be, she made a number of friends — • 
 including Mme. de Montgenays. La Belle Valentine 
 had a sound instinct ; she could recognise virtue when 
 she saw it.
 
 78 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " That little ?vlrs. Hollemache is silly," she would 
 say, " but good — as good as wood (gold is not good). 
 1 like to have her around." 
 
 Lucie had known this protectress for about a year 
 when she appeared at Salsomaggiore as her guest. 
 The Baroness von Trier, of course, could not approve 
 of any intimacy with such a doubtful character. She 
 found another engagement, and wrote to Frank 
 Hollemache : " Dear Lucie is becoming headstrong — not 
 to say heedless. I have lost my influence^ which I hope was 
 a good one^ and as I still wish to keep her affection and my 
 own first impressions of her nature, I am resigning my 
 post^ He never answered this ; he thought her a 
 cat ; but, when he met her taking tea at the Russian 
 Embassy, and actually chatting on intelligent terms 
 with the Ambassador, he made himself civil, and dis- 
 covered that she was a superior sort of woman. But 
 a still greater surprise was in store for the youno- 
 Attach6. The illustrious Cobden Duryee invited him 
 during his first leave of absence to join him on a little 
 tour through Hungary. They halted at Vienna, and 
 behold ! at a brilliant supper given by Mme. de 
 Montgenays in honour of her dear old friend Cobden 
 — Cobden, who as a little boy had used to carry her 
 satchel to school — Hollemache sat several places from 
 his own sister-in-law. She occupied a seat between 
 the Crown Prince of Alberia and the First Consul of 
 Urseville-Beylestein. Lucie was at last very happy. 
 It is true that she saw few members of her own sex —
 
 A STUDY IN SECRET BIOGRAPHY 79 
 
 except nuns. La Belle Valentine held the strictest 
 views about the women she v/ould admit into her 
 house ; but the men who came were the most dis- 
 tinguished in Europe. They treated Mme. dc 
 Montgenays— so far as Lucie could judge — with the 
 utmost courtesy. Perhaps it was known that she 
 controlled the financial and other interests of Mr. 
 Duryee. It is certain that all were anxious to stand 
 well in her favour, and the one ambiguous criticism 
 ever passed upon her was this : " If only she had never 
 met Louis Napoleon ! Such a pity ! " Hollemache, 
 meeting his relative under such auspices, decided to 
 unbend. He bore a strong resemblance to his brother, 
 and this softened Lucie's heart. She forgot her 
 proper pride, she smiled affectionately, she spoke with 
 a gentleness which touched the pompous but not 
 insensible young man and roused his better nature to 
 something approaching enthusiasm. He felt ashamed 
 of his letter ; he longed to make amends. He went 
 so far as to ask her pardon (not crudely, but in veiled 
 language) if he had ever inadvertently or in a blunder- 
 ing way in the objectional character of trustee hurt 
 her feelings. 
 
 " It is beastly to be a trustee," he explained ; "one 
 has to be so impartial that one becomes a brute. But 
 one doesn't mean it really." 
 
 Later on he spoke of her to Duryee as a perfect 
 brick ; her marriage with so delicate a man as Basil 
 had, no doubt, been a mistake — a mistake due to love,
 
 8o LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 and youth, and inexperience. But she had behaved 
 most awfully well, and any one could see at a glance 
 that she was a lady in every sense of the word. 
 Having delivered all this, he felt he had done the 
 right thing. He wrote a prudent version of the affair 
 to his mother, who sent one comment back by return 
 of post : 
 
 ^^ Lucie is the kind of woman who will always deceive 
 Tnen. They respond to hypocrisy as reptiles do to musicy 
 and they love paint. They think it means a heart. ^*
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES 
 
 The morning after the dull whist, Mr. Gloucester, 
 looking very ill, took Clementine for a walk. They 
 went, without speaking, through the picturesque old 
 town, with its market-place, its narrow streets where 
 children, goats, and dogs played together on the 
 cobble-stones, and past the quaint church full of 
 peasants at prayer. Presently they came to the open 
 country and a winding high-road. Then Mr. 
 Gloucester found his voice — a forced, weak voice 
 which seemed strange to Clementine. 
 
 " I have had a worrying letter," said he. " Haxs- 
 worth " — the name of his agent — " seems to have 
 made rather a muddle of things. I can't make head 
 or tail of this long yarn he has sent me. But a lot of 
 money has been used, I fancy, in an irregular way. I 
 wish I had a good business head. I thought Haxs- 
 worth was a treasure, and I left it all to him. I shall 
 be blamed, of course." 
 
 "It is your own capital." 
 
 n 81
 
 8z LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " No, my darling, it is yours." 
 
 " It comes to the same thing." 
 
 " No, no ! Do you think I might consult Fels- 
 hammer ? I hear he is wonderful at law and 
 accounts. He is a professional actuary — as well as a 
 heap of other things. He would give a friend's 
 advice, and that's what I want — a friend — some one 
 who has nothing to gain." 
 
 Timid and trusting natures, once deceived, in- 
 variably become more suspicious than the sceptical. 
 One unkind doctor will make them detest the whole 
 medical profession, and a single encounter with some 
 dishonest person will drive them to a really vindictive 
 misanthropy. The gentle Mr. Gloucester now felt 
 that he hated the entire tribe of lawyers ; they were 
 all bloodsuckers, knaves, and liars ; they all sought his 
 life, he knew j daily they murdered hundreds by 
 tormenting communications, and not a soul was ever 
 the wiser. His eyes brimmed over with tears at the 
 idea of the perishing innocent families — done to 
 death and ruin through the worries of a legal corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 "It will kill me ! " he said to his daughter. " Kill 
 me ! 
 
 She did her best to comfort him, but, as he could 
 remember neither dates, figures, nor facts, she caught 
 a little of his own despair. He kept repeating : " I 
 don't know what I have done to come in for all this 
 at my time of life, when we were so happy, and
 
 CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES 83 
 
 everything seemed going on beautifully. It is very 
 hard." 
 
 " But, papa, every one must expect a little anxiety 
 sooner or later." 
 
 " I don't know what I have done ! " he said once 
 more. 
 
 "I hate the idea of consulting strangers. Dr. 
 Felshammer is a stranger." 
 
 "Far better than any so-called friend, my poor 
 darling — far better. Wait till you know the world," 
 said the unhappy gentleman ; " wait till the creature 
 you have fed turns round and rends you." His sighs 
 were sobs ; their curious sound haunted Clementine 
 for days. 
 
 "Shall we be poor ? " she asked. "Are we poor 
 already — very poor, I mean ! " 
 
 " As poor as rats." 
 
 This was a blow, but her idea of the rat-degree in 
 poverty depended on her aunt, Mrs. Romilly, who 
 constantly compared her position with that of insecure 
 domestic vermin because she could not afford a box 
 at the opera and a house at Ascot for the races. 
 Clementine saw her own dress allowance reduced, 
 their travels cut short, a house or so sold, a smaller 
 suite of rooms at dear Thomas's in Berkeley Square, 
 fewer dinners at Ranelagh, perhaps no suppers at the 
 Wellington. They might have to let Eastern Acres 
 furnished for six months. How horrid ! She would 
 not let her poor shattered papa sec that this final
 
 84 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 possibility seemed almost more than she could stand. 
 He groaned at her cheerfulness, and the more she 
 dwelt on the bright side of his difficulties the more 
 desperate he became. As a matter of fact, he was a 
 penniless man at that moment, and he had been 
 swindled out of Clementine's fortune, bequeathed to 
 her by her mother's father, the rich French-American 
 Senator. 
 
 "Do let me talk to Felshammer ! He's young; 
 he is up to all their dodges. I know he is only ar 
 acquaintance ; but really at such a crisis, and far awa) 
 from home, it is excusable to trouble him." 
 " You are right, of course," said the girl. 
 This note of perfect confidence was like balm 
 applied with a dagger on the man's wounded heart. 
 " No, no ! I am much at fault," he faltered ; "my 
 judgment is not suited to business. But you like Dr. 
 Felshammer, don't you ? " 
 
 " I am sure he is very clever and very strong." 
 " That's just it — he's strong ; he's a fighting man, 
 and I am not. My dear, there is the omnibus return- 
 ing empty from the station. I am very tired. Let 
 us stop it and drive back." 
 
 So they got into the omnibus, and, without speak- 
 ing, stared out of opposite windows at the charming 
 landscape till they reached home. Mr. Gloucester 
 went to his room on arriving in the hope of getting a 
 little sleep before lunch. Clementine lingered in the 
 courtyard to watch a boy who had brought some
 
 CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES 85 
 
 performing mice. They walked on a tight-rope, and 
 played tambourines, and valsed. 
 
 Felshammer saw her from his window and hurried 
 down. 
 
 " You have walked too far," he said, with his usual 
 abruptness, as he came up to her. " You're quite pale." 
 
 "I am worried. Papa isn't well. He wants to ask 
 your advice about something." 
 
 " Come over here to that seat and tell me about 
 it. Is it his health ? " 
 
 " No — it is his ao;ent. He has an agent, vou 
 know, for our little property." 
 
 After some hesitation she told him that Mr. 
 Gloucester, five years before, had formed the ac- 
 quaintance of a rising young solicitor in their county; 
 he was the town clerk's son. Mr. Gloucester knew 
 nothing at all about the management of an estate or 
 the laws with regard to land. Mr. Haxsworth had 
 been in the habit of spending week-ends at Eastern 
 Acres. Her father would show him his prettily 
 bound books, his small but choice collection of 
 eighteenth-century prints, his tiny cabinet of cut 
 gems, very curious and valuable, his roses, his pug- 
 dogs, his few and genuine antiquities from Pompeii. 
 And in the evening he read Lamb and Thomas Love 
 Peacock and Horace Walpole's Letters aloud to Mr. 
 Haxsworth. Papa, it seemed, always thought it 
 indelicate to discuss financial matters with a guest. 
 Besides, he did not understand them, and he did not
 
 86 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 wish Mr. Haxsworth to find out the full extent of his 
 ignorance. 
 
 " And what sort of man is this Haxsworth ? " asked 
 Felshammer. 
 
 "A man about thirty — rather good-looking in a 
 common way — with a quiet manner. Papa calls him 
 gentleman-like — which means, of course, that he isn't 
 a gentleman." 
 
 "And you — what do you think?" asked Fels- 
 hammer quickly. 
 
 "I had to be civil to him because he was papa's 
 discovery, but I never liked him. He would be quite 
 honest, I believe, with a man as sharp as himself. 
 My poor papa's simplicity has tempted him. It is 
 like leaving a purse full of gold on the high-road. 
 Many who would never steal it would pick it up and 
 keep it without trying to find the owner." 
 
 Felshammer, already in love with her appearance, now 
 felt the fascination of her compassionable good sense. 
 He was leaning forward in order to gaze more earnestly 
 into her eyes when the sound of a short, quick, familiar 
 step on the gravel made him spring to his feet. Paul 
 had joined them. Clementine blushed to the roots of 
 her hair ; her lips took a deeper red ; Felshammer 
 saw that she was actually trembling with emotion at 
 the mere sight of the young Prince. And he began 
 to hate Paul as he had never in his life hated any man. 
 It was a hatred which rose like a flame from his heart ; 
 it seemed to scorch his throat, and it had the taste of
 
 CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES 87 
 
 blood. This revelation of his own capacity for brutal 
 feeling made him as pale as the girl became when her 
 blush died away. Felshammer, unable to command 
 either his rage or his tongue, muttered some excuse 
 and left the two together. His first clear thought, an 
 hour later, was : " Now I understand Cain ! " 
 
 Paul, however, took his seat by Clementine, and 
 looked affectionately after the secretary's retreating 
 fit^ure. 
 
 " He suffers from moods," he said, smiling, "and his 
 manners are bad. I have told him so. He doesn't 
 mind. He declares that manners were invented as a 
 refuge for the malicious and an easy game for fools. 
 I think he is right. Do you know that I have 
 decided to go away — to America ? " 
 
 " To America I " repeated Clementine, reminding 
 herself that she had no right to care so terribly where 
 he went. 
 
 " Yes. I shall often think over our talk about 
 * Peer Gynt.' Everything you do or think will affect 
 my soul, and all I do and think may affect yours ! Is 
 that the idea ? " 
 
 He spoke in a light tone, quoting idle words which 
 they had exchanged at the dinner-table ; but some- 
 thing in his glance was more serious, more tender 
 than he was aware of. Destiny is no miracle-worker, 
 and the event which is mistaken for a sudden develop- 
 ment is no more than the final visible touch to a 
 gradual hidden process.
 
 88 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " So you are going to America ? " said Clementine. 
 " We, I think, are going home. Papa has been 
 obliged to change his plans." 
 
 "I want to see whether Duryee's notions are true," 
 replied the Prince, still engrossed in himself. "Duryee 
 maintains that we are so undiscerning in Europe that 
 when a clever fellow happens to be born in the 
 working classes he goes straight to the New World 
 or to the Colonies. We do not know how to make 
 use of him, and therefore, while the strong leave us, 
 the weak and inferior ones — without spirit or ambition 
 — remain." 
 
 " I wish I were a man ! " exclaimed Clementine. 
 " I should like to be the private secretary to some 
 great statesman." 
 
 " I am nobody," said the Prince, " but if we had 
 lived a few centuries ago you might have dressed up as 
 a page and travelled with me all over the world. 
 Would you have enjoyed that ? " 
 
 "No. I could never enjoy being dressed up as 
 somebody else. I hate a false position. I should like 
 to be a boy in reality, but as I am a girl I don't want 
 to be a sham page. Viola, on the stage, always looks 
 ridiculous to me. And Rosalind is as foolish, so far 
 as her appearance goes. No man or woman could be 
 deceived by them." 
 
 " I call you extremely serious," said Paul, smiling. 
 " I am afraid that your soul will make mine rather 
 melancholy. My main delight now is in things
 
 CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES 89 
 
 which are artificial. Suppose I change ? I sha'n't 
 know myself. It will be awkward." 
 
 He thought it was impossible not to be fond of this 
 sombre, picturesque child. But he dreaded another 
 honest attachment. Had he not suffered enough on 
 account of the darling Sophia ? He compared them 
 both with Lucie Hollemache. Lucie he could never 
 love ; Lucie seemed facile, worldly-wise, tearless — O, 
 above all, tearless — and she was very amusing. That 
 is to say, she had the peculiar attractiveness of a 
 sleeping kitten. One always expected her to wake 
 up. Lucie was going to America. There would 
 certainly be a delightful party on Mr. Cobden 
 Duryee's very famous steam yacht. 
 
 "And you are going back to the country ? " he said, 
 turning again to Clementine. How pretty she was 1 
 
 " Yes — back to Eastern Acres." 
 
 " You won't forget me when you get to England ? 
 Perhaps you will write to me sometimes ? " 
 
 No, she would not forget him, but letter-writing 
 was another matter. This piqued him. 
 
 "But I want you to write," he explained. 
 
 " It will all depend on whether I have anything to 
 say," replied Clementine. To herself she was saying: 
 " Here is some one I must never see again." 
 
 When he asked her whether there might be some 
 chance of their meeting, later on, in London, she 
 answered without hesitation : 
 
 " We shall go straight to Eastern Acres."
 
 90 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 He showed his disappointment, which gave her a 
 fearful happiness and a still greater determination to 
 avoid him eternally. She caught sight of Augusta 
 waving from her bedroom window. 
 
 " I'm afraid I am wanted," she said. " Papa is not 
 very well." 
 
 Paul walked with her to the lift, and, trivial as the 
 incident seemed, he always thought of her as being 
 borne away from him in that silent machine. What 
 did she mean ; why this sudden reserve ? Why the 
 cold voice and the kind, almost beseeching glance ? 
 She had character, that was clear. Later on he 
 made some remark on the subject to Felshammcr at 
 luncheon. The secretary fairly snarled with irritation, 
 and he ate nothing. 
 
 There are two ways of loving — one is joyous, 
 active, sane, without questionings and without bitter- 
 ness — the young and beautiful love which makes life 
 charming and is its recompense. The other sardonic, 
 agitated, complaining, more full of tears than laughter, 
 makes its victims idle, cowardly, cruel, and capricious. 
 Felshammer's passion for Clementine had long passed 
 the bounds of a sane affection. Somewhat cold as a 
 very young man, he was now indulging, with all tlie 
 strength of maturity, the dreams and frenzy which are 
 the undoing of youth. He was learning each moment 
 some fact about a force in human nature which he 
 had heretofore thouglit an overestimated thing. 
 The newness and strangeness of the experience but
 
 CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES 91 
 
 deepened its intensity, just as one who begins 
 gambling or any vice in middle life will fall more 
 completely under its spell than any other. It was as 
 though the devil had entered into him, and he knew 
 it, and welcomed the invader because he felt an energy 
 in loving, a vindictiveness in hatred, he had never 
 imagined possible. 
 
 That afternoon, while Mr. Gloucester was seeking 
 peace in a second sleeping-powder, and Augusta was 
 writing to her Jim, and Leonore was reading " The 
 Blessed Damozel " (her favourite poem), Clementine 
 heard a sudden sound of horses and voices rising from 
 the courtyard below. Madame de Montgenays and 
 Mrs. Hollemache, dressed to perfection, attended by 
 the Prince and Mr. Duryee, were stepping into the 
 little pony carriage. A large omnibus, surrounded by 
 porters with luggage, gesticulating maids, and valets 
 of debonair mien, was being loaded with trunks. 
 The manager presented bouquets to La Belle Valen- 
 tine and Mrs. Hollemache ; he bowed obsequiously to 
 the millionaire, and with irreproachable courtesy to 
 the Prince. Felshammer came out, followed by the 
 rest of the royal suite. What did it all mean ? 
 Another vehicle, driven at a furious pace by a 
 shouting coachman, clattered up to the door. The 
 pony carriage started. Madame de Montgenays blew 
 a kiss to some one on the balcony and called out, " A 
 demain ! " fell forward, and balanced herself by catching 
 the Prince's arm. " A thousand pardons, Altesse 1 "
 
 9z LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 His Royal Highness laughed aloud. Clementine 
 trembled from jealousy. Then the omnibus followed, 
 full of the maids and valets, and swaying with the 
 weight of immense boxes. What did it all mean ? 
 The secretary, grim and sulky, threw himself into 
 the chaise, looked up straight at Clementine, lifted 
 his hat, and bowed as he had never been seen to bow 
 to any Imperial Majesty. " A la gore ! " He, too, 
 and his companions were soon out of sight. Clemen- 
 tine stood leaning against the shutter of her window. 
 Had they gone ? Was it then at an end so soon ? 
 She must have stood there for nearly half an hour, 
 immovable, disconsolate, and confused, when the 
 page-boy, having tapped at her door and hearing no 
 answer, entered with a letter on a salver. How she 
 sprang forward with colour once more in her 
 cheeks ! 
 
 But it was not the Prince's handwriting, and she 
 opened the envelope sadly. Felshammer had scrawled 
 these words in pencil : — 
 
 " I will write from Paris. I don't know what pos- 
 sesses H.R.H., but he is leaving at once. A caprice. 
 Duryee has bewitched him. I will write from Paris. 
 — K. F." 
 
 The girl tore the note into fragments. 
 " It isn't Duryee," she said to herself. " O, I 
 know it isn't Duryee ! It is that woman with tlie
 
 CLEMENTINE HAS A FEW SURPRISES 93 
 
 sleepy eyes. Poor little Countess Sophia ! How soon 
 he has forgotten her 1 " 
 
 And she paced the floor at the thought of Paul's 
 inconstancy to his dead love.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WAYS AND MEANS 
 
 Three weeks had passed. The Gloucesters were 
 now in London living at the back of Mrs. Romilly's 
 house in Chester Square — for she herself was out of 
 town, and she did not wish her best rooms occupied. 
 But Mr. Gloucester, thankful to be spared hotel bills, 
 climbed five flights of stairs to an old dismantled 
 nursery, and ate without murmuring, when he had 
 any appetite, the bloaters, rabbit-pies, and steak- 
 puddings prepared for him by the charwoman. His 
 health was failing fast, and daily interviews with his 
 lawyer left him haggard and sleepless for the night. 
 When the charwoman presented her accounts he 
 looked very grave and told Clementine later that 
 expenses would have to be reduced. " I haven't 
 the money," he said piteously. She undertook the 
 housekeeping herself, and Mr. Gloucester soon had 
 reason to praise her good management. Once more 
 he had roast chicken and cutlets and rice-pudding — • 
 she cooked tlicm with her own hands. As for her 
 
 94
 
 WAYS AND MEANS 95 
 
 own diet, she declared a preference for milk and buns. 
 He did not see her steal out one evening with a little 
 packet containing a ruby bracelet — one of his own 
 presents in happier days. On reaching the pawn- 
 broker's shop she looked for some time at the 
 brooches, umbrellas, tea-pots, and old rings in the 
 window. Presently, with a gasp, she darted in, and, 
 assuming a firm voice, actually drove a good bargain. 
 Her papa needed champagne. It was not a moment 
 for the refinements of timidity. 
 
 " The stones are perfect," she said ; " they were 
 chosen by a great connoisseur. I shall certainly 
 redeem them — so the more you advance the more 
 interest you v/ill have." 
 
 After some grumbling, but with much respect for 
 her intelligence, the man gave her thirty-five pounds 
 — in the circumstances a fair loan. Money-lenders, 
 notoriously alert to the deceitfulness of female beauty 
 in business transactions, are always impressed by plain 
 dealing. 
 
 " You won't have to do much of this ! " thought 
 Mr. James Metcalfe to himself, counting out the 
 bank-notes. He was not a Jew, but a Presbyterian 
 of strong religious views, with an admirable Scotch 
 wife and seven docile children — the eldest destined 
 for the Ministry. Clementine thanked him as he 
 took the trouble to bow her out of the shop and 
 watch her walk down the street. He was an expert 
 in discerning the uncommon case — not uncommon
 
 96 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 because she was a lady in appearance, but because she 
 had told the truth about the rubies. And he knew 
 that if she lived she would redeem them. Among 
 other qualities, he had recognised an indomitable 
 determination to succeed. 
 
 " No, my lady," he repeated, " you won't have to 
 do much of this ! " — and he went back to lock away 
 the bracelet. He could think of five customers for it 
 straight off. Perhaps he sighed ; the resolute, strictly 
 considered, are not always the most remunerative 
 clients. 
 
 Clementine found that Dr. Felshammer had called 
 during her absence, and was waiting for her in the 
 oppressive apartment which Mrs. Romilly called a 
 "snuggery." Remembrances of Salsomaggiore, the 
 sunshine, the music, the brilliant dinner-party, the 
 Prince, swept over the girl with a suffocating violence. 
 She had not wept for months. But now she fled up 
 the staircase to the bath-room, where she sobbed 
 wildly, stifling the sound in the coarse bath towels. 
 It was not romantic ; it was not the way in which 
 she would have wished to weep over a hopeless love, 
 a royal lover, and domestic misfortunes. Romance, 
 however, depends on the soul, and not on upholstery. 
 When she had finished crying she went down, care- 
 less of her altered appearance, and greeted Felshammer 
 as kindly as she could. He held her beautiful hand — 
 absorbed, in one passionate glance, her face. 
 
 "I have just come from Southampton," he said j
 
 WAYS AND MEANS 97 
 
 "straight from Waterloo here. I saw them off — the 
 Prince, Mr. Duryee, Madame de Montgenays, Mrs. 
 Hollemache. The yacht is superb. They have 
 gone ! '* 
 
 "Gone!" said Clementine, taking a chair in the 
 corner, far away from the wretched fire of cheap coals. 
 She could not feel cold enough ; all she asked was to 
 be numb, wholly numb from head to foot. 
 
 "And I thought they would never get off! Now 
 I can devote myself entirely to" — he paused — "Mr. 
 Gloucester, if he will let me. He is too chivalrous 
 for these rascals." 
 
 " Haxsworth has robbed him of everything. Papa 
 gave him what is called a power of attorney." 
 
 "That is a pity. But don't get discouraged." 
 
 In spite of her desolation, her anxiety, and an un- 
 conscious wish to remain wretched, Felshammer's 
 presence gave new vigour to the girl's spirit. The 
 Prince's secretary had no sense of humour, and, 
 however precious this particular gift may be, it is a 
 question whether those who possess it love the best 
 or make the truest friends. Terror of the laugh and 
 a knowledge that the laugh can be justified is often a 
 paralysing misfortune, oftener still a restraint on confi- 
 dences, but oftenest of all it gives an ironical sting to 
 sympathy. Clementine could not analyse her relief 
 for the fact that Felshammer did not appear to hear 
 the angry tones of the charwoman squabbling with 
 her husband in the scullery below them, did not seem 
 
 8
 
 98 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 to notice the odour of onions which filled the whole 
 house, did not have contempt for the halfrfurnished 
 room (Mrs. Romilly had locked all her nice things 
 away), did not feel the great, great change between 
 the serene gaiety of her former life and the squalid, 
 humiliating gloom of poor relationship, pawn-ticket 
 in pocket, at the back of Chester Square on 
 sufferance. 
 
 " I am not discouraged," she said. " I mind 
 nothing for myself. I am nervous about my father. 
 Wait till you see him ! I hate poverty in England, 
 where the mere decencies of life are made impossible 
 on a small income. Here to be poor is not a dis- 
 cipline — it is a degradation. We could be happy 
 enough in Dresden or in Touraine." 
 
 " I had no idea that matters were so serious." 
 Mr. Gloucester had stated his case after lunch on 
 Felshammer's last day at Salsomaggiore, and had ex- 
 pressed himself as greatly reassured by the interview. 
 The secretary had discussed the affair from every 
 standpoint, and discussed it in vain, for the old gentle- 
 man either never told or could not remember the 
 whole story. Felshammer, not at all realising tlie 
 actual circumstances, and knowing that the mind of 
 a country squire is given to exaggeration, did not 
 attach any importance to Gloucester's panic, and 
 treated it as a humour to be pacified for Clemen- 
 tine's sake. Lideed, he had been intolerably bored, 
 and more than once during the course of Mr.
 
 WAYS AND MEANS 99 
 
 Gloucester's narrative, he had wondered how such a 
 fussy, doddering, tiresome person came to have such a 
 fascinating child. But to see her now, wan and list- 
 less, to find her humiliated by a harsh reverse, to hear 
 a bitter note in her husky, caressing voice, to know 
 that she was suffering, touched his heart to its 
 depths. He thrust his hands into his pockets, walked 
 up and down the room, and directed his glance, each 
 time he turned to face her, towards the little mole on 
 her upper lip. This he considered a defect, though 
 not unpleasing. 
 
 " You will find that it is all right ? " he exclaimed. 
 
 " It is kind to say so, but the affair is beyond 
 flattery. The money has gone." She did not look 
 at him, but studied a tabby cat which was arching 
 itself on the window-sill outside. 
 
 Wishing that she possessed a more feminine soft- 
 ness, he asked : "Are you sure you understand 
 business ? " 
 
 " I may not understand business ; I know that we 
 have nothing. I am afraid, too, that papa will be 
 blamed, and he is not able to bear criticism." 
 
 " It is an absurd theory that the party who loses 
 must be in the wrong. What are your plans for the 
 moment ? " 
 
 " We must let Eastern Acres." 
 
 " I see," he said, adding, v/ith characteristic abrupt- 
 ness : " I want your father to dine at the Travellers' 
 with me. I'll call again to-morrow."
 
 100 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Please do." 
 
 She went to the front door with him, and then he 
 walked back with her to the little sitting-room. 
 
 "We are too polite," she said; "or perhaps you 
 are merely absent-minded ? " 
 
 Long after he had gone she kept smiling, and, with 
 every cause for depression, she was irresistibly cheer- 
 ful — running up and down the stairs forgetting why, 
 looking out of the windows thinking of no one and 
 nothing, yet sensible of some great relief. At moments 
 she would sigh ; once she heard herself say, " But he is 
 not like Prince Paul. I wish he were." 
 
 Felshammer had resolved to let nothing stand be- 
 tween him and his wishes. A materialist by instinct 
 and an adventurer in disposition, he could scheme 
 when the humour seized him with audacity, eager- 
 ness, unhesitating perseverance. And he was one 
 who lived for the moment only and this world 
 always. He would have thought it a piece of 
 extreme folly to bring the question of eternal pos- 
 sibilities into any calculation, nor did he care to 
 consider too closely a future which comprehended 
 more than seven days of time. Three vehement 
 motives were now directing his soul j one was the 
 infatuation for Clementine, the other was a desire to 
 assert himself in some new way, the third was a 
 sudden perception of the indispensability of wealth to 
 a man who has to fight for what he wants. He had 
 always taken a contemptuous view of money ; for,
 
 WAYS AND MEANS loi 
 
 having inherited a moderate fortune, he lacked that 
 embittering experience of poverty which is the 
 common ordeal of the ambitious and the cause of 
 such innumerable moral failures. Broadly speaking, 
 a man is independent whose purse is so, and the pride 
 which Felshammer displayed in all his human relation- 
 ships was — while a genuine quality — a quality greatly 
 assisted by the knowledge that he had satisfactory 
 private means. These same resources, nevertheless, 
 proved each year somewhat confined for his position. 
 Court life, even spent in exile, is costly. Fashions 
 every season became more extravagant, and an income 
 which had seemed handsome to his father — a success- 
 ful timber merchant in the fifties of the last century — 
 required in the nineties too much carefulness in the 
 spending to be regarded as much more than a 
 provision against positive discomfort. 
 
 " I'll do it 1 " he thought, as he left Chester Square. 
 The touch of Clementine's hand still lingered in his, 
 and the brightness of her eyes still shone before him, 
 lighting the way he cared not whither. 
 
 "I'll do it!"
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS 
 
 At eleven o'clock the next morning Felshammer 
 drove to the Prince's London agents, Messrs. Sachs 
 and Bickersteth, of Lombard Street and Suffolk Street, 
 Pall Mall. Their clerk was expecting him, and he 
 was ushered at once into a small office (panelled with 
 mahogany in the Empire style) where the partners 
 were sitting. After a welcome of the utmost 
 cordiality from both gentlemen, they invited him, 
 through a narrow passage, into a fine room beyond, 
 furnished with a number of deed-boxes bearing 
 impressive names, and a few choice objects of art or 
 historical value — including a chair once the property 
 of Pope Leo X., as Mr. Sachs declared when he 
 offered it to Felshammer. 
 
 " We still conduct occasional transactions on behalf 
 of the Vatican," added Mr. Bickersteth — "if I may 
 say so without indiscretion." ] 
 
 Mr. Sachs shrugged his shoulders in an amiable 
 way. 
 
 102
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS 103 
 
 Sachs, among financiers, came of a highly dis- 
 tinguished stock. One Sachs, in direct line witli 
 himself, had lent money to the great Cecil, and 
 another had been a general merchant during the 
 reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain. The 
 Biclcersteth respectability dated only from the time of 
 the first Duke of Marlborough ; but, although this 
 made him meek in the presence of Mr. Sachs, it was 
 not contemptible as a record in the City. 
 
 " I have called this time," said Felshammer, admir- 
 ing the Pope's chair and accepting it with easy 
 reverence, " on my own affairs." 
 
 "So we thought," said Bickersteth. " We said so, 
 didn't we, Oscar ? " 
 
 Oscar Sachs was small, smooth, polished, and 
 vigorous. He wasted no strength, however, in words, 
 but used his head as much as possible when he wished 
 to express agreement or dissent. Prince Paul always 
 declared that Sachs had inherited this nod from the 
 ancestral accommodating goldsmith, who had, in his 
 case, caught it from his famous client, Lord Bur- 
 leigh. 
 
 " I want to make money. I want to go into 
 business," said Felshammer. " Now that the Prince 
 has gone, they are not dying to have him back, and, 
 to be candid, I myself am not sorry as I thought I 
 should be to lose him. He needs a change. Nothing 
 but danger can come from persisting in his present 
 policy — which is no policy at all. It is not that he
 
 10+ LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 shows contempt of public opinion, but ignorance of it. 
 A different thing, you will agree. Cobden Duryee 
 was right. Urseville-Beylestein has been put on its 
 legs again, and it is marching straight to the Stock 
 Exchano-e." 
 
 "We don't require Mr. Cobden Duryee to come 
 from America in order to tell us that," said Bickersteth. 
 " We have known it all along:." 
 
 " Well," said Felshammer, " I know more about 
 Beylestein than any one ; and, if there is money to be 
 made there, I intend to have my share." 
 
 Sachs tried a new pen-nib on his own excellent 
 thumb nail. 
 
 "Beylestein has had a set-back," he explained. 
 " When the Rothschilds withdrew their offer for the 
 Largs district it created a bad impression. Responsible 
 backers became shy of the whole concern. What are 
 they, after all, but sheep ? The Prince ought to have 
 closed with the Rothschilds at once. He carries his 
 system of procrastination too far." 
 
 " Yes, we thought so distinctly," said Bickersteth ; 
 " he missed an opportunity which won't occur again." 
 
 " Have you ever travelled through Largs ? " asked 
 Felshammer. 
 
 " We sent our expert — Mr. Campsey. His report 
 was not altogether satisfactory, was it, Oscar ? That 
 is why we urged His Royal Highness to get rid of the 
 province. Vulgarly speaking, it is a fancy article," 
 
 Mr. Bickersteth was good-looking, florid, middle-
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS 105 
 
 aged. He was not a bad painter in oils, and he had 
 also acquired, by the aid of an old confidential clerk, 
 considerable lcnowled2;e of financial affairs. At the 
 Bank of England he was re2:arded as "no fool." 
 " Bickersteth," a Governor now and again would 
 remark, " is really no fool." Moreover, he followed 
 the arts, and shone at dinner-parties if one wanted 
 light but competent conversation at the right side of a 
 peeress. His method at Lombard Street, when he met 
 subordinates, was to convey hard truths in a familiar 
 manner. This made him popular. 
 
 "Largs," he continued, "is not precisely another 
 name for market-money." 
 
 Felshammer saw that Mr. Bickersteth regarded him 
 as a subordinate — a subordinate, too, whose influence 
 was not all it had once been at headquarters. From 
 that moment he resolved to master Bickersteth, 
 humiliate him, harass him. " I should like to see him 
 a little paler and thinner," thought the vindictive 
 secretary; "he has too easy a life." 
 
 " You had better change your expert," he said 
 aloud ; "it is true that I advised the Prince to dawdle 
 over Rothschilds' offer — if he had refused outright he 
 would have offended them for nothing. Why offend 
 them ? They are admirable people. As it has 
 happened, no one has to put his pride in his pocket. 
 The matter is simply ' off.' You can have Largs on 
 a lease of twenty-one years for nine hundred thousand 
 pounds."
 
 io6 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "All I can say is," replied Bickersteth, "I wonder 
 you stop short at the million ! But I am afraid " 
 
 " Yes, I am afraid too," said Sachs. 
 
 " Not that we wish to discourage you," added 
 Bickersteth. 
 
 "You couldn't if you tried," replied Felshammer, 
 " because you don't know what you are talking about. 
 It isn't worth quite a million yet — it is worth exactly 
 what I asked for it. And I shall get my price." 
 
 Bickersteth, with good-humour, asked : 
 
 " Will you be paid in cash or in a term of years ? " 
 
 " Seriously," added Sachs, who thought that Bicker- 
 steth sometimes carried banter too far. 
 
 " I want a lump sum down, and the rest pretty soon 
 either in hard money or the equivalent of hard money 
 — something I can sell in the market." 
 
 " You have got your terms all cut and dried," said 
 Sachs. 
 
 "I do not come here by appointment in order to 
 think out my propositions while you wait," said 
 Felshammer, " Why did the Rothschilds want 
 Largs?" 
 
 " We don't say that Largs is valueless — we say it is 
 not worth nine hundred thousand. Isn't that our 
 point, Oscar ? " 
 
 Oscar nodded, 
 
 "It is worth that to me," was Felshammer's reply. 
 
 The three men sat for a moment in silence looking 
 at each other and blinking.
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS 107 
 
 " What will you do with it ? " asked Sachs. 
 
 " What would the Rothschilds have done with it ? " 
 
 " We don't know," said Sachs. 
 
 " But we can surmise," put in Bickersteth. " They 
 intended, doubtless, to develop the place and sell it 
 back eventually, at a profit, to the Beylestein Govern- 
 ment. That's fair enough, too, because it is a pure 
 gamble. The Government won't risk a farthing.** 
 
 "It is not in a position to do so," said Felshammer. 
 
 " Then it must pay those who are willing and able 
 to back a highly speculative enterprise." 
 
 " I'm glad to hear that you think so," said Fels- 
 hammer, drawing a letter-case from his pocket ; " but 
 you haven't answered my question. What would 
 the Rothschilds have made of Largs i Railroad 
 stock?" 
 
 " I daresay. Wouldn't you say so, Oscar ? '* 
 
 « Probably." 
 
 Felshammer asked them whether their expert's 
 name was Campsey — Henry Denzil Campsey. Yes, 
 that was the man — a man in whom they placed the 
 utmost reliance. 
 
 " He has great influence," added Sachs. 
 
 " It seems to me, too, that he has a great deal of 
 influence ; whether he always uses it to the best 
 advantage I cannot say," replied Felshammer. " He 
 advised you, for instance, that the Largs district was 
 not altogether promising ; he told you that you had 
 better close with the first fair offer.'*
 
 io8 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Well, practically," said Sachs, becoming more 
 interested. 
 
 "I happen to know," continued Felshammer slowly, 
 " that it was Campsey himself who urged the Roths- 
 childs to withdraw, which they did. Campsey then 
 wrote to Hermann Gessncr to secure it at any price, 
 but to offer as little as possible on the ground that the 
 Rothschilds' action had created a prejudice against the 
 investment. A neat touch. You see, it is an oil 
 region, and it's larger than the State of Pennsylvania. 
 Do you smell petroleum ? Read that." 
 
 His own hand shook a little as he took out 
 Campsey's letter to Gessner, which he gave to 
 Sachs. 
 
 " Gessner," said Felshammer, " is more daring than 
 the whole gang. He pays big prices and he has 
 bought Campsey." 
 
 Mr. Sachs and Mr. Bickersteth studied the Campsey 
 document, looked at each other, shot out their lips, 
 sucked in their cheeks, looked at Felshammer. 
 
 "I am free to confess," said Bickersteth, with an 
 indescribable loftiness of tone, "that I do not understand 
 these modern methods of transacting business. I have 
 always regarded Mr. Campsey as a person of experience 
 and respectability." 
 
 " I," said Sachs, " would not have believed Campsey 
 capable of such conduct. Have you told the 
 Prince ? " 
 
 " No," replied Felshammer slowly, " I have not
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS 109 
 
 told the Prince. It would mean several changes. 
 He would say that he paid you to guard his interests. 
 I think you could still guard them — if you had some 
 one with a real knowledge of Beylestein in your firm. 
 Am I clear ? " 
 
 " I think you have been quite successful in putting 
 your case clearly," said Sachs. 
 
 Both he and his partner were now livid. They 
 were honest, unimaginative, self-satisfied men who had 
 grown careless and over-confident from a success 
 which they owed to tradition and by no means to 
 their own efforts or their own intelligence. The 
 old-fashioned way had made their business — an 
 inherited one — and given them their connections — 
 also inherited ; they refused to mix with the new 
 generation of financiers, and sniffed when the rising 
 firms at Frankfort were mentioned. Frankfort gossip 
 seemed to Messrs. Sachs and Bickersteth perfectly 
 absurd. As for Gessner — 
 
 " He is not a stayer," they would say. " Who is 
 Gessner ? The Rothschilds are good enough for us. 
 What do you think ? " 
 
 " Too much was thrown on Campsey," continued 
 Felshammer. " It was a big deal, you must remember. 
 I am not a capitalist, but I paid three thousand pounds 
 for that letter to Gessner. It is worth far more than 
 three thousand pounds to you " — and he restored it to 
 his pocket-book. 
 
 "If it is genuine," said Sachs, clearing his throat,
 
 no LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "I won't deny that it is marketable in a strictly 
 limited sense." 
 
 " The Prince," Felshammer went on, *' had a letter 
 from you yesterday urging him strongly to close with 
 Gessner — Gessner offering a far lower sum than 
 Rothschild. That didn't show good judgment on 
 your part — in view of this fresh information." 
 
 " We did our best. We acted, as we thought, in 
 the Prince's interests," said Sachs. 
 
 Bickersteth added : 
 
 *' You must bear in mind, Dr. Felshammer, that 
 we were misled by Mr. Campsey." 
 
 " Yes," replied Sachs ; " grossly deceived by Mr. 
 Campsey." 
 
 " But it is your business to make it impossible for 
 Mr. Campsey or any one else to mislead you. The 
 Prince pays you to keep your eyes open. You seem 
 to reason as though the City were Paradise, and every 
 man there was above temptation." 
 
 "All legitimate investigation and legitimate pre- 
 cautions we take, and are, of course, delighted to take. 
 But we have never stooped to bribery," said Bicker- 
 steth, looking towards the letter-case. " We do not 
 want to begin it. Not that we grudge the money — 
 it is the idea." 
 
 *' Yes, the idea," said Sachs — " not the money." 
 
 Felshammer buttoned up his coat and laughed 
 aloud. 
 
 " You are supposed to be substantial people," said
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS in 
 
 he, "and you have still got an immense pull over new- 
 comers. On the whole, I'd sooner be in your firm 
 than in any other I know. But if this particular story 
 got about — coupled with a few others of the same 
 kind — people would begin to get anxious. They 
 appreciate honest men, but honesty is not enough. 
 A bishop, for instance, ought to be virtuous, but he 
 must be a good administrator unless the diocese is to 
 go to pieces. So in financial matters. Employ a 
 trustworthy agent if possible, but get a sharp one in 
 any event." 
 
 " I cannot admit the least negligence on our part," 
 said Sachs firmly, "and it is worth noting that Mr. 
 Campsey is in the employ of the Government. He is 
 the greatest living authority on land values. Our 
 good faith " 
 
 "That's just it. There has been too much good 
 faith. You must be in the very centre of things and 
 know every move." 
 
 " There is no use, Dr. Felshammer, in going on in 
 this way with us ! " exclaimed Bickersteth, showing 
 spirit because he was terrified, and because he had 
 already decided to accept the secretary's terms what- 
 ever they might be. "And I am not aware that 
 the Prince's interests have suffered. Mr. Campsey's 
 negotiations have proved ineffectual." 
 
 " Thanks to me," said Felshammer. 
 
 " What do you propose ? " said Sachs. 
 
 " I should like to be a partner in this firm. I can't
 
 112 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 plank down capital, but I will undertake to stand 
 permanently at the wheel." 
 
 "From all I am able to gather from your disposi- 
 tion," said Sachs drily, " we should soon find ourselves 
 a pair of dummies." 
 
 "Have a fourth man, if you like — one who will 
 bring money," said Felshammer, "and hold his 
 
 tongue." 
 
 " A permanent man at the wheel with a casual 
 quorum would, in point of fact, be the real head of 
 affairs," said Sachs. " We couldn't possibly agree to 
 that. But " He paused. 
 
 " Oddly enough," observed Bickersteth, " we were 
 looking about for a new manager, weren't we, 
 Oscar ? " 
 
 " Write me your suggestions on that line," said 
 Felshammer quickly. " I wish to have all the facts 
 before me. Meanwhile, I can't afford to keep three 
 thousand pounds locked up in this letter of 
 
 ampsey s. 
 "The first two years' salary in advance," murmured 
 
 Sachs. 
 
 "I prefer to call it the first year's bonus" said 
 
 Felshammer. 
 
 Mr. Sachs and Bickersteth showed a just irritation. 
 
 " I call this pressure ! " exclaimed Bickersteth. " I 
 do, indeed. It is not what I should have expected 
 from you. I can't help saying so." 
 
 "Your expectations are apt to be too idealistic ! "
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS 113 
 
 said Felshammer grimly. "It isn't Quixotic — if you 
 mean that, and it is not the style of Monte Cristo. 
 But my case is a good one and the ground is fair. 
 The fact remains — you have not been sharp. You 
 don't want to lose your best client, and I want to get 
 on a little faster in this world. You haven't seen the 
 real point of the matter even now. Why should 
 Rothschild, or Gessner, or any of these firms have the 
 Largs district ? With your connections and record — 
 so far, and my knowledge, why can't we strike oil on 
 our own account ? " 
 
 " And the Prince — what about the Prince ? " said 
 Bickersteth, dropping his voice. "Is he to know ?" 
 
 Felshammer took his exact measure in that one 
 remark. 
 
 *'I suggest the Prince," said he loudly, "as the 
 fourth man. He will not interfere with us. Of course 
 he is to know." 
 
 Sachs burst out laughing, shook him heartily by the 
 arm, and considerately waved Bickersteth toward a 
 very handsome Spanish mahogany cabinet. 
 
 "You will take something ?" said Sachs, "There's 
 some wonderful sherry just sent us by the Grand 
 Duchess of Wesen. We haven't opened it yet. I 
 must congratulate you on your ideas. They will give 
 us a lot to think about for the next few days." 
 
 " My address is the Travellers, till Wednesday 
 morning. Allow me ! " 
 
 His attention had been diverted to Mr. Bickersteth, 
 
 9
 
 114 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 who was now fumbling in his pocket for a knife with 
 which to cut the string of a small basket. Felshammer 
 cut the string himself, and noticed a card attached 
 to it bearing the following name, address, and 
 inscription : 
 
 IVith Mr. Hermann Gessner's compliments. 
 I 8b, Grosvenor Square, W. 
 
 The sherry proved the finest he had ever tasted. 
 He suggested drinking the health of the Grand 
 Duchess of Wesen, and he reflected inwardly on the 
 fact that men who are conventionally truthful in large 
 transactions will lie in the cause of snobbery, or accept 
 bribes when they are not too valuable to be in strictly 
 good taste. 
 
 "And now tell us," said Sachs, remarking Gessner's 
 card and tearing it off carelessly in the hope that 
 Felshammer had not seen it — " tell us how you got 
 hold of Campsey's letter ! That would be worth 
 hearing." 
 
 "As good as a play!" added Bickersteth, much 
 restored by the wine. " Such a thing doesn't happen 
 once in a blue moon." 
 
 " I should call it a fairly common occurrence," said 
 Felshammer ; " but, if you like, you shall hear all 
 about it after we have settled down." 
 
 When he had gone Mr. Sachs and Mr. Bickersteth 
 gave their clerks and callers a bad day. The two
 
 A GAME OF POKER WITHOUT CARDS 115 
 
 gentlemen were considered " upset " about something. 
 But the chief accountant felt consoled when he heard 
 them wrangling with each other. 
 
 " They are only human after all," said he ; " they 
 are just like everybody else when you come to know 
 them."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE, AMD WHY MANY 
 
 DO NOT 
 
 Mr. Cobden Duryee was on friendly terms with 
 Hermann Gessner, and he had recommended to his 
 service young Charlie Gaveston, Lucie's brother. 
 Charlie was a delicate youth of luxurious tastes, but 
 he had a perfect manner, a handsome countenance, 
 and the ingenuous charm which had been his mother's 
 supreme attraction. Out of amiability and the wish 
 to please Duryee, who was beyond the usual favours, 
 Gessner appointed Charlie, u'hom he considered at 
 first sight a safe fool, his private secretary. Charlie, 
 in the character of safe fool, was allowed to hear 
 conversations and read letters many of which would 
 have been the ruin, or made the fortune, of an 
 experienced clerk. But he was not intelligent ; he 
 obediently wrote down, copied out, or repeated word 
 for word what he was told to write, copy or report. 
 Matters of great importance literally went in one ear 
 and out the other, impressing his memory, which was 
 
 iiC
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 117 
 
 remarkable, but leaving his imagination untouched, 
 his sense dormant. Gessner treated him generously, 
 carefully as an invaluable machine, paying him well and 
 liking him w^ith a semi-paternal affection. The Mun- 
 alley story was a help too ; Gessner had the German 
 liking for romance. All went well and was well till 
 Charlie at his club made a friend of the secretary, a 
 Major (retired) who had a dashing daughter. This 
 dashing daughter (one of seven) was perfectly respect- 
 able, but she had a passion for the Turf. In the course 
 of a fearful scene, during which Charlie restrained her 
 with difficulty from eating some smelling-salts, she 
 confessed to the loss of something more than three 
 thousand pounds. She was not pretty ; she was not 
 wicked ; it was a case, not so uncommon as the 
 cynical might think, where virtue was the most 
 dangerous weapon she could employ. And she 
 employed it well. Her remorse was real ; her tears 
 were real ; her odd, expressive face disfigured by 
 weeping would have wrung a harder heart than 
 Charlie's. Besides, she had grace and fire in addition 
 to her Irish chastity. Charlie swore that she must 
 and should be his. He would give himself the blessed 
 right to pay her rather large bets. She slipped out 
 of the house one morning after this distressing inter- 
 view and the two were married at the registrar's. 
 Launched thus into matrimony, the young couple 
 spent the hours and enthusiasm usually sacred to the 
 honeymoon in somewhat harassing discussions on
 
 Ii8 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 financial points and very wearisome letter-writing to 
 lawyers. Charlie's capital was strictly tied up. His 
 income, combined with his salary from Gessner, was 
 always anticipated for months in advance. He had 
 always lived carelessly among rich people, and, 
 although he was not extravagant in comparison with 
 other members of his set, he could not save, and 
 he did not know how to economise. The dashing 
 girl, whom he now had the privilege of calling his 
 own, showed herself adroit at this early crisis, and, in 
 spite of the fact that he was driven to associate her 
 most disagreeably with his first bitter experience of 
 money worries, she managed to keep his affection 
 by deserving it. Good-humoured, gay, resourceful, 
 and witty, she made his chambers in the Albany 
 so bright that he could scarcely believe that he was 
 anything so dull as a married man. Her friends — a 
 host of accomplished persons, mostly of her own 
 nationality — rallied to her support ; he spent lively 
 evenings in a charming circle, where he heard the 
 best songs, the cleverest conversation, the finest music 
 he had ever listened to. He had the same dogged 
 fidelity in loving which was considered so eccentric in 
 poor Lucie, whose indifference to all men — except 
 Basil Hollemache — had become a kind of family 
 grievance. Charlie admired his wife, was proud of 
 her, devoted to her ; frankly, he thought her poverty 
 a drawback and her bills awful, but she had abnormal 
 elegance, and she was as true as a die.
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 119 
 
 *' VVe must scrape through somehow, Libbic 
 dear 1 " said he. 
 
 It happened shortly afterwards that Mr. Gessner 
 had occasion to go to Paris, and, liking young 
 Gaveston, took him as a member of his suite. 
 Mr. Gessner never travelled with less than three 
 secretaries, a valet, a footman in livery, and a courier. 
 Gaveston, to the disgust of the old staff, had charge 
 of Mr. Gessner's private correspondence, and was 
 treated in every way as an especial favourite. Gessner 
 had an invalid daughter but no son. Charlie's airy 
 gift in conversation amused the old banker ; the stupid 
 fellow's greenness in business matters disarmed him, 
 his delicacy of mind, colouring, and temper seemed 
 peculiarly lovable to a man who detested most women, 
 finding plain ones grotesque and pretty ones exacting. 
 Charlie, without being effeminate, had feminine tact 
 and grace ; he brought charm, without danger, into 
 the sombre magnificence of Lombard Street. Gessner 
 however, was close-fisted, particularly with those 
 whom he liked, because he was morbid on the subject 
 of disinterested friendship, and no one in the world 
 could influence him, because he was jealous of his own 
 will. Charlie, obeying a sound fear, was never foolish 
 enough to confide his trouble to Mr. Gessner. But 
 he met Felshammer at Cobden Duryee's during the 
 Paris visit, and he told Felshammer his entire life — 
 omitting only what may have seemed discreditable to 
 Libbie. He took, for instance, the whole re-
 
 120 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 sponsibility of the bets. Libbie in the narrative shone 
 out only as his good angel, the noblest, the best of her 
 sex. Felshammer recognised at once a young man 
 who, not persevering enough for an independent 
 career, vi^as too proud for a servile one — the kind of 
 young man who was good-hearted, easily deceived, 
 easily broken, and as easily mended. Such persons are 
 often very useful, and Felshammer soon found a use 
 for him. Charlie never discussed Mr. Gessner's 
 affairs ; he did not understand them to begin with, 
 and, in the second place, he would have considered 
 any breach of confidence a dishonourable thing. But 
 one night the Prince's secretary invited him out to 
 dinner. The host, by assuming a knowledge which 
 he did not possess and taking things for granted 
 which he merely guessed at, extracted a great deal 
 of information from his guest — after he had once 
 persuaded him to take far too much iced champagne. 
 Charlie, indeed, when it was all over, and the jolly 
 evening was ended, and he found himself at his hotel 
 somehow or other in bed, had little recollection of 
 anything he had said. Felshammer, nevertheless, had 
 heard about Campscy — which was all he wanted 
 to know, inasmuch as the Prince was already 
 considering the offer from Gessner for the Largs 
 district. 
 
 The morning after the dinner, therefore, Charlie 
 woke up with an insane headache to find Felshammer 
 sitting by his side reading Le Figaro and smoking a
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 121 
 
 cigarette. Greatly bewildered, the foolish youth was 
 no match for that citizen of the world. He found 
 himself being reminded of statements he ought not to 
 have made, and pinned down to promises he ought 
 never to have given. One was an undertaking to 
 produce Campsey's last letter — or, failing the original, 
 a copy. And he (Charlie) was to receive three 
 thousand pounds for his pains — just the sum he 
 wanted for Libbie's bets. Was it a dream ? 
 
 " If I said I would do it, I suppose I must see it 
 through ! " observed Charlie, wretchedly hoping that 
 Felshammer would respect him for such a Quixotic 
 sentiment. " I must stand to my guns, of course. 
 We Gavestons always keep our word — at any cost." 
 
 Felshammer did not smile ; the little vanities and 
 fiilse sentiments that chequer human weakness always 
 seemed to him more curious than amusing. He 
 looked at Gaveston inquisitively — much as a doctor 
 would observe in a patient the manifestation or 
 development of any expected symptom. 
 
 " I never doubted that you would see it through," 
 he answered gravely ; " it's a case of noblesse obl'ige.^^ 
 
 "It isn't quite square all the same," faltered 
 Charlie. " Gessner would call it a mean, shabby 
 trick." 
 
 " Gessner is willing to take advantage of the 
 Prince's ignorance," said Felshammer, whose eyes 
 flashed at the thought. " It is not for Gessner to 
 prattle about meanness or shabbiness. If you deal
 
 122 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 with these men as you would with gentleman of strict 
 and rigorous codes of honour, you will come to 
 smash. With them it is always war, and always, in 
 one disguise or another, * sharp practice.' " 
 
 Two weeks later Charlie paid Libbie's bets — not 
 through his bankers, but by an arrangement with 
 Libbie's godmother — a woman of some means — to 
 whom Felshammer sent a cheque. It was supposed 
 to represent the proceeds of a small transaction in 
 freehold property — the godmother owned a little 
 estate to the south-east of London. She did not 
 understand business, but she could grasp it sufficiently 
 to know that she was to call something a sale which 
 was not a sale, because it would mean not a penny's 
 loss to her and a very great convenience to Libbie, of 
 whom she was exceedingly fond. She made one con- 
 dition. Did dear Charlie know and approve ? She 
 could not encourage wives to play tricks on their 
 husbands. Oh, yes, Charlie knew and approved 
 thoroughly. It was Charlie's suggestion, in fact. 
 So it was all arranged in a friendly manner. 
 
 Felshammer, with a copy of Campsey's letter in his 
 despatch-box, was able to advise Prince Paul to great 
 advantage. His Royal Highness, on leaving Europe 
 for the United States, left the settlement of the Largs 
 affair in his secretary's hands absolutely. 
 
 " Are you wise, I wonder, to trust him ? " said 
 Duryee. 
 
 " He would sooner rob and ruin himself than
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 123 
 
 swindle me out of a farthing I " replied Paul. " I 
 should be an idiot if I didn't trust him. He might 
 shoot me — but he would never cheat me." 
 
 Felshammer was a man of inspirations ; he did not 
 prepare schemes, mature them, and execute them with 
 care. It is quite possible that but for the sight of 
 Clementine in trouble he would never have proposed 
 himself as a partner in the firm of Messrs. Sachs and 
 Bickersteth. The idea came unsought as he looked 
 round their imposing offices and observed their con- 
 tentment and realised the undeniable wealth and 
 influence which contributed to the support of such 
 serenity. At first he had intended to frighten them 
 only, and make them pay him handsomely for his 
 astuteness. Then the bigger notion entered his brain, 
 and, as he drove away from Suffolk Street, he felt that 
 he had made a decisive stroke — perhaps the great 
 stroke of his career. He dined alone at his club, 
 went to the play, and walked past Clementine's 
 window in Chester Square before he could settle 
 down for the night. 
 
 "Love may not last long," he said to himself, 
 " but while it lasts there is nothing so amazing." 
 He remembered all the words she had ever spoken 
 to him — not many, and some of them more tlian 
 cold. The voice he could not recall — for a voice 
 seems to defy the memory and is the most elusive 
 of all personal things. Yet he thought it the most 
 enchanting voice he had ever heard.
 
 124 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Furthermore," he said, continuing his meditation, 
 "if I save her father's life and make her the richest 
 woman in London, she will never look at me as she 
 looked at Paul when he offered her a box of choco- 
 lates." This certainly appealed to his ironical sense 
 of humour, and did not humiliate him, because he 
 considered all girls very wretched judges of men, and 
 very foolish in the bestowal of their love. There was 
 just that touch of pity in his passion for Clementine 
 which the enamoured immortals of classic poetry felt 
 for the liuman objects of their interest. 
 
 The window, however, which he was watching 
 with such tender concern was not Clementine's at 
 all. She slept at the back of the house, and at that 
 very hour she was talking with Augusta Romilly, 
 who had come to town that day to see the dress- 
 maker. The girls were together in a large four- 
 posted bed, and for two hours they had discussed the 
 various ways of wearing a wedding-veil, till Augusta, 
 exhausted, fell asleep, leaving her cousin to watch the 
 shadows cast by the night-light on the ceiling and to 
 wonder what other ornament she could most advan- 
 tageously pawn. It is often held that it is better to 
 have trouble in one's youth than in one's middle-age ; 
 the fresh heart, it is thought, is stronger to bear grief. 
 But this is not the case. A fresh heart is also an im- 
 mature one ; it is tender, impressionable, unseasoned, 
 altogether too delicate for hard blows. No sorrow is 
 so bitter, because it is so little expected, or so un-
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 123 
 
 mitigated, because it is so little understood, as the 
 sorrow in a young mind. The world at once seems 
 squalid, Providence unjust, and when the sense of 
 suffering injustice begins to dominate a soul at its 
 first flight the wings grow heavy, the way looks 
 dark with unknown terrors, and the ultimate goal 
 is considered as some probable mockery, cruel and 
 desolate. Clementine resented the social law which 
 gave Prince Paul full liberty to make himself charm- 
 ing to irreproachable women, whom, nevertheless, he 
 could not marry, and who would be blamed if they 
 presumed to fall in love with him. Her pride was up 
 in arms at a notion of any inequality in breeding 
 which was based on something neither in nature nor 
 in logic. Official rank she could appreciate easily 
 enough ; etiquette, where etiquette reduced soci:il 
 jealousies and obligations to a system, she considered 
 an indispensable thing ; can one play a game without 
 rules ? But that love should be treated as a game 
 seemed to the high-spirited girl revolting. Nor did 
 it occur to her, as a quick way out of all her pressing 
 difficulties, that it might be possible to make a good 
 match. No ; she and her poor papa would go away 
 to some little town in France, live simply, and die 
 decently. 
 
 Sleepy Augusta, on being called the following 
 morning, said : 
 
 *' Some brides wear myrtle. A myrtle wreath looks 
 very well, but orange-blossoms are more appropriate,
 
 126 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 and one can only wear them once. I wonder what 
 you will wear when you marry, Clem ? " 
 
 " I don't think that I shall ever marry," said 
 Clementine. 
 
 " That's perfect nonsense, of course," replied 
 Augusta ; " but it will be your own fault if you don't." 
 
 "I suppose it is called a fault," said Clementine 
 drily, " if one doesn't marry." 
 
 Augusta was too gentle to own this, and she felt 
 also that as she was engaged herself, whereas Clem 
 was still free, it was only kind to drop the subject. 
 So she said : 
 
 " O you funny old Clem I I wish my hair was as 
 pretty as yours ! " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly appeared after luncheon, on her 
 way to the station, in order to have a chat, as she 
 said, with Alfred about his affairs, and tell him that 
 she would soon be requiring the house for spring- 
 cleaning. 
 
 " We come up for the season in May, you know," 
 she observed. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly was tall and gaunt. She always 
 looked cold, and her skin seemed stretched too 
 tightly over the bridge of her nose. Habitually 
 she wore a short serge skirt, a black silk blouse, a 
 stiff collar, and an emerald and pearl brooch which 
 Queen Victoria had given to her mother-in-law, 
 the late Mrs. Adolphus Romilly, daughter of Lord 
 Breechmerc.
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 127 
 
 "Poor dear Alfred," said his sister, putting two 
 cans of Brand's Extract (which she had bought as 
 a little present for him from the Stores) on the table, 
 "you are in a pretty pickle! I feel for you. Can 
 nothing be done ? " 
 
 "I am dining with a man named Felshammer 
 to-night," replied Mr. Gloucester ; " he writes in a 
 hopeful strain. He says he believes he can offer one 
 or two useful suggestions." 
 
 " Who is Felshammer ? Married or single, rich or 
 poor ? " asked his sister rapidly. " Clementine must 
 marry. As she won't have much money after this, 
 she can't give herself airs, or expect to pick and 
 choose. I have always thought that she was too 
 ambitious for words in her ideas. Her chance now 
 is with some man of means who wants to get on 
 socially — a brewer, or a stock-broker, or tea, or wine 
 — or something like that. It happens every day — ■ 
 there you have a prospect within the range of proba- 
 bility. But as for anything else — don't prepare for 
 miracles." 
 
 " How quickly you talk ! " answered Mr. Gloucester. 
 " I hear only half you say. I am very sorry, but my 
 brain has been so tired that I can't follow you." 
 
 " Good gracious ! This will never do. You must 
 rouse yourself, my dear Alfred. Lethargy soon grows 
 upon one. Who is Felshammer ? I hope he is not 
 another swindler. You are so facile with swindlers. 
 From what Augusta tells me, I can see that Clemen-
 
 128 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 tine had her head turned, completely turned, by 
 Prince Paul. It is the greatest mistake to encourage 
 girls in these friendships with Royalties. Americans 
 go in for it, I know ; but remember the Emperor 
 and Valentine. Did that association make for any 
 one's happiness ? Very well, then ; if this Dr. 
 Felshammer is taken with Clem — and Augusta 
 thinks he is — don't play the fool, my dear man ; 
 an unmarried daughter soon begins to look rather 
 like a failure after five-and-twenty," and so on, and 
 so forth. Mrs. Romilly did not leave her shrinking 
 brother till Mrs. Townshend, from Aldershot, ap- 
 peared on the scene of action. The sisters k'ssed, 
 studied rapidly each other's toilettes, and exchanged 
 " Tut, tuts ! " behind Alfred's bowed back. Ada 
 Romilly and Louise Townshend never agreed on 
 any subject, but as Ada had nursed Louise through 
 a dangerous malady, and as Louise was paying for 
 Augusta's trousseau (Romilly being hard up at the 
 moment), they did not like to quarrel. So Mrs. 
 Romilly left Louise alone with Alfred, although she 
 felt convinced that Lou would do a lot of harm by 
 talking religion, praising Prince Paul, and showing 
 the whites of her eyes at the first murmur of common 
 sense. Louise had been what is called sweetly pretty, 
 and she was still most charming in appearance. She 
 was wistful, untidy, picturesque, and good — a divine 
 woman. Other women and all children instinctively 
 sought her hand — not because it was strong, but
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 129 
 
 because it was sympathetic. At her approach, the 
 word "darling" formed spontaneously on male or 
 female lips. Weary, heart-broken Alfred called her 
 "darling" now, while the tears which Mrs. Romilly 
 had frozen melted pitiably and rolled down his cheeks. 
 
 "Darling Lou," he said, "you are so good to 
 come ! " 
 
 "I can't tell you how much I feel for you," said 
 Louise ; " it is something awful ! But God means 
 it for the best, I am sure. Dear Clemmi will soon 
 learn to despise the unmeaning and artificial habits 
 of living which we are all brought up to consider 
 indispensable to our happiness. All seek their own^ 
 not the things which are yesus Christ''s. She will feel 
 out of it at first ; yet, when she is offered love, she 
 will know that it is for herself only — and what a 
 blessing that is ! I hope she won't want to earn her 
 living, because she is not cut out for anything except 
 a domestic life, the life of the wife and mother. But, 
 even if she doesn't marry — and a poor girl must face 
 this possibility always — isn't it far more dignified to 
 remain single and true to an ideal — of course she will 
 have an ideal — than to marry for convenience or 
 be married to a fortune ? Don't you agree, dear 
 Alfred ? " 
 
 Both sisters were voluble, but whereas Ada ex- 
 pressed a practical mind in sharp tones, Louise was 
 sentimental and had an odd sing-song voice which 
 her husband called soothing and absurd. 
 
 10
 
 130 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "Do you think that Clementine cares for Prince 
 Paul ? " she asked. " Not in any forward way, dear, 
 but simply — almost without knowing it herself — as 
 the very nicest girl would, if she saw much of such a 
 fascinating man. It would be tragic, I admit. All 
 the same, how much more interesting, really, than 
 any mere commonplace attachment ! " 
 
 " I don't know what you and Ada are talking 
 about," said Mr. Gloucester. " Clementine never 
 mentions the Prince. He is nothing to her, I am 
 certain. She admires him, and finds him agreeable, 
 and all that sort of thing ; but, believe me, she cares 
 no more about him than I do for — for whom shall I 
 say ? — the caretaker here, if you like." 
 
 "Perhaps Leonore is wrong. Then what about 
 this Dr. Felshammer ? Is he suitable ? " 
 
 " Why any man ? " exclaimed their brother irri- 
 tably. " Haven't you said that she can't expect offers 
 now that I have lost her dowry, poor child ? I suppose 
 her beauty, and her talents, and her sweet disposition 
 count for nothing." 
 
 " Young men nowadays are very self-seeking. 
 They don't seem to fall in love as they did when 
 I was a girl. I don't mind telling you in strict 
 confidence that Leonore hasn't had a single offer. 
 Men dine and dance, but they are not proposing 
 right and left — especially in good society." 
 
 " Then more shame to them ! Leonore is well rid 
 of such poor creatures,"
 
 HOW ONE MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE 131 
 
 " Oh, I quite agree ! " said Mrs. Townshend. 
 "And you must realise that the same idea applies 
 to Clementine. Leonore is also considered very 
 pretty and attractive." 
 
 She did not stay much longer, but she had made 
 him happier than he had been for some time, because 
 she left purposely behind her, in addition to a ten- 
 pound note (a sum put aside for her summer mantle), 
 a large roll of papers and magazines, including the 
 IVorldj the Art Journal^ and the Studio^ his favourite 
 light reading.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 
 
 A WEEK later Mr. Bickersteth informed his wife that 
 the new manager, Dr. Karl Felshammer, would dine 
 with them. The Bickersteths had no town residence 
 of their own, as they preferred to hire famous mansions 
 from peers who were embarrassed or anxious to augment 
 a daughter's dowry. For that year Mr. Bickersteth had 
 secured Carlington House, Park Lane, from the Duke 
 of Edenborough, and there Mrs. Bickersteth, with a 
 state formality to which no duchess could pretend, lived, 
 moved, and had her being in what she liked to call 
 " a hidden way." 
 
 " Our home life," she would say to her friend Canon 
 Galesworthy, " is very, very old-fashioned. Ernie and 
 I have such quiet tastes ! " 
 
 The facts were that she had no children living ; 
 
 her strength had failed, and she was not fond of what 
 
 is called society. She came of too sound a Quaker 
 
 stock to care for any host of fashionable acquaintances 
 
 132
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 133 
 
 who would feel that they did her great honour in using 
 her house as a rendezvous and assisting her to squander 
 Mr. Bickersteth's money. Money was squandered, it 
 is true, but it went in the gratification of her own 
 taste for gowns, laces, jewels, and pomp. An imagi- 
 native creature, she saw herself always as a lonely 
 empress (the late Empress of Austria was her ideal 
 woman), and when this magnificent solitude was dis- 
 turbed by callers of superior social rank she resented 
 the intrusion, and found all contact with the in- 
 habitants of an outside world discouraging, depressing, 
 and detestable. 
 
 "And do you really wish me to meet this Dr. 
 Felshammer ? " she said to Mr. Bickersteth, turning 
 from him to look, in turn, at the two pictures by 
 Greuze and the two by Watteau, a Ruysdael land- 
 scape and a lovely Poussin, the Manets and the 
 exquisite Daubignys which hung on the faded guilt 
 leather panelled on the walls of the historic morning- 
 room. 
 
 " Yes, we shall have to see a good deal of Dr. Karl," 
 replied Bickersteth ; " he is Prince Paul's right-hand 
 man. The Prince is under his thumb." 
 
 She said, " Very well," and was not interested. 
 Men appealed to her as little as women. 
 
 Felshammer, cynically amused on his arrival at 
 Carlington House by the imperial splendour and 
 circumstance affected by the banker's wife, was 
 astonished to find himself ushered, after passing
 
 134 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 through a gallery and three large saloons, into the 
 presence of a striking personage about five-and-thirty, 
 who was standing by the fireplace of a small octagonal 
 boudoir without windows. The lady was of medium 
 height ; her figure was unusually supple and well 
 proportioned ; she wore white velvet trimmed with 
 sable ; a diamond chain, once the wedding gift of a 
 Spanish infanta, hung round her waist ; her neck and 
 arms were bare. Neither pretty nor beautiful, nor 
 fascinating nor pleasing, she possessed, nevertheless, 
 great distinction. A smooth olive skin and black hair 
 added to her foreign appearance ; her features would 
 have looked classic in marble. They seemed irregular. 
 She had deep, very dark hollows, probably due to ill- 
 health, under her eyes, which were brown and 
 melancholy, proud in expression, and, though full of 
 fire, full also of an irremediable fatigue. Felshammer 
 observed these points by degrees ; the first charac- 
 teristics which impressed him were the dark hollows 
 under her eyes and the gracious indifference of her 
 smile. Bickersteth was at the piano playing, with 
 exaggerated feeling and far too slowly, the accom- 
 paniment to Schubert's Serenade. He rose when 
 Felshammer entered, presented him to Mrs. Bicker- 
 steth, and said — 
 
 " I told you there would be no party. It is so 
 much pleasanter by ourselves. Rachel, you must 
 know, once travelled from London to Portsmouth 
 with Prince Paul. There was a great crowd, and he
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 135 
 
 carried her pillow to the boat. His manners are per- 
 fection. You thought so, didn't you, Rachel ? " 
 
 Pride and anxiety were mixed in Bickersteth's 
 glance whenever he looked toward his wife. The 
 profound affection he felt for this being, whom he was 
 utterly unable to understand, showed itself in various 
 ways, but chiefly, to a man of Felshammer's penetra- 
 tion, by the nervousness of his speech and the trans- 
 formation of his whole personality in her presence. 
 Manner, bearing, mien — all were changed, subdued, 
 not by fear, but by the desire to please. The real 
 weakness of his character became far more evident 
 than it was at Lombard Street, where the habit of 
 authority and the traditions of the firm provided him 
 with an artificial strength. During dinner Mrs. 
 Bickersteth talked seldom, but always admirably. 
 She had read solid books in three languages ; her 
 knowledge of foreign affairs was most unusual ; she 
 cared evidently for things only, and not at all for 
 people. Felshammer soon realised that he had never 
 before met a woman quite so well informed, so wholly 
 lacking the sense of humour, so strangely picturesque, 
 yet so deficient in the ordinary feminine charms of the 
 most commonplace member of her sex. Intellectual 
 vitality had perhaps exhausted her physical magnetism. 
 Of the latter, she had none. Her individuality filled 
 the room, just as a fine work of art, whether in 
 painting or sculpture, will dominate its surrounding 
 atmosphere ; she was at once a restraint and an
 
 136 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 attraction. When the dinner — the best Felshammer 
 had ever tasted in England — was ended, Rachel left 
 the two men, and, complaining of a headache, said 
 good-night to both. 
 
 "She is a great sufferer," explained Bickerstcth, 
 reseating himself after watching her unconsciously as 
 she walked away down the long corridor. " She has 
 never recovered from the death of our two boys in 
 one week. Women, I suppose, feel these sorrows as 
 men do not, but my wife's devotion to her children 
 went beyond all reason. The doctors were of that 
 opinion ; it amounted to a mania. They absorbed 
 her life. In one way the terrible loss may have been 
 a blessing in disguise. Naturally, I shouldn't mention 
 this if you were not bound to hear about it, perhaps 
 less accurately, from other people." 
 
 Was he jealous of his own dead sons ? The fretful 
 bitterness underlying his words could not have been 
 an unintentional revelation of feeling, thought Fels- 
 hammer. Clearly Bickerstcth wished to be regarded 
 as a man with a grievance, a man to be pitied not 
 envied, excused not condemned, one who, bearing 
 every outward token of fortune's favour, had, never- 
 theless, a sword through his heart. 
 
 "He gives me the key to his character," said the 
 secretary to himself, changing the subject adroitly to 
 City affairs, and deepening, in consequence, the good 
 impression he had already produced on his host. A 
 confidence should never be received cither as a sur-
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 137 
 
 prise, an indiscretion, an apology, or a hostage. It is 
 something understood yet scarcely heard, something 
 unforgettable yet too little our own to be trusted even 
 to the memory ; uttered, it must be as though it had 
 never been told ; at each rehearing it must seem 
 more distant and delicate. 
 
 Five days afterwards Felshammer called on Mrs, 
 Bickersteth and found her considering the purchase of 
 some old Venetian lace which had been spread out 
 before her over a screen. 
 
 " It is very beautiful, isn't it ? " she said quietly. 
 "Do you care for such things?" 
 
 No ordinary interruption was ever permitted to 
 disturb either the current of her life or the course of 
 her ideas. A story was told to the effect that she 
 once made a very pompous Lord Mayor read aloud 
 the greater part of Shelley's " Epipsychidion," because 
 he happened to call when she was studying it. 
 
 " Yes," said Felshammer. "I think that women 
 should wear as much lace as they can afFord. It makes 
 young ones seem ethereal and old ones sublime." 
 
 " I agree," she answered slowly. " I have a whole 
 collection of lace dresses myself. You don't look the 
 kind of man who would notice clothes or jewels, 
 but you do notice them all the same. I wonder 
 why ? " 
 
 " Because they are lovely to look at ! " 
 
 " I am wondering how you will like living in 
 England," she continued, gazing at him with un-
 
 138 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 emotional but marked interest. "Have you many 
 friends here ? Do you want to have friends ? " 
 
 " My sole object for the next few years will be to 
 make money. A person who is concentrating all his 
 energies on money-making is not agreeable socially, is 
 he?" 
 
 "You want to make money," said Rachel ; " is it 
 for spending or keeping ? " 
 
 Her directness, free from any hint of vulgar 
 curiosity, was so much like his own that he felt as 
 though they had been well acquainted for years. 
 
 " I hope to spend my fortune after I have made it," 
 he answered. 
 
 " Not on yourself, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Not altogether on myself." 
 
 "I am a Quaker," said Rachel ; " but, although 
 my people rarely spoke of money, I am sure that they 
 thought about little else. They were all rich and in 
 earnest and kind ; we lived perpetually with the value 
 of money and the fear of God before our eyes. Look- 
 ins back, I see how dull and calm it was." 
 
 "But sane." 
 
 " Too sane ! It was saner than life, if you under- 
 stand me. It made every emotion seem over-violent 
 and unreal by contrast. If I had any strong feeling, 
 I thought it couldn't be true. You see, it was an 
 education based on the principle that existence has 
 two dangers only — debt and eternal punishment. 
 This would not be the case even if the whole world
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 139 
 
 were a Quaker colony. So I am no longer a con- 
 sistent Quaker. My husband " — she hesitated, then 
 repeated — " my husband says I am a rationalist. What 
 are you ? " 
 
 " A rationalist also," said Felshammer. " I agree 
 with Huxley. * Of moral purpose, I see none in 
 Nature.' " 
 
 She began to move, with great deliberation, as 
 though they were chessmen, some silver and other 
 trinkets, snufif-boxes and Japanese baubles, on the 
 table by her side. 
 
 " Then I wonder how we shall both end ? " she 
 said at last. " I am always wondering about the end." 
 
 " Doesn't the present interest you enough ? " 
 
 " It does not interest me in the least ! " She 
 waited a little, but he offered no protest. "I am 
 glad," she went on, " that you don't tell me, as most 
 people might, that I have everything mortal could 
 wish for." 
 
 " I wouldn't be so presumptuous. Besides, I 
 couldn't be so blind." 
 
 " You have heard about the children ? " she said 
 quickly. 
 
 " Sorrow is in your face." 
 
 " I suppose it is. Who are your friends ? '* 
 
 "They know me very little. They are a Mr. 
 Gloucester and his daughter." 
 
 As he spoke the word " daughter " their eyes met. 
 Rachel lowered hers at once.
 
 140 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Clementine Gloucester ? " she asked. 
 
 « Yes." 
 
 "I know her. She is very pretty, a brilliant girl. 
 If she is in town I should like to call upon her. I 
 pay few calls." 
 
 Felshaminer told her a little about Mr. Gloucester's 
 difficulties. 
 
 " But they are passing difficulties," he added ; "so 
 don't appear to know about them unless she herself 
 says something — which is unlikely." 
 
 " London is a hard place for a brilliant girl with 
 no money." 
 
 *' No harder than any other place." 
 
 " It is obvious," said Rachel, " that I have more 
 than I need, while she has nothing that she deserves." 
 
 "Don't pity her!" exclaimed Felshammer, 
 nettled. 
 
 " I am pitying myselr. You have missed my 
 point ! " 
 
 "It sounded like pity ! " he insisted. 
 
 "You are quite right ; but it was self-pity. Won't 
 you admit that men are sometimes obtuse ? " 
 
 " They are often wrong ! " He felt sorry, and an 
 ambiguous retort was the nearest thing in his nature 
 to the admission of a mistake. But Rachel remained 
 the same, placidly indulgent, because so slightly 
 touched by the sentiments or words of any one. The 
 secretary's rough ways pleased her, if anything could 
 be said to give her pleasure. She knew no man well,
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 141 
 
 because men were afraid of her, and she took no pains 
 to encourage them. Felshammer without encourage- 
 ment treated her rather as an intelligence than as a 
 woman, and to her inexperience this seemed an 
 approach to the Platonic friendship of which she had 
 read in biographies. All the love of her soul and body 
 had gone to her children and was now in the dust 
 with them. The cleverness which was hers, clever- 
 ness inherited from five generations of acute financiers, 
 craved male companionship nevertheless ; there were 
 days when her mind seemed like a ball whirling 
 through space and seeking, vainly, some wall to beat 
 against and rebound from ; or like an arrow sent with 
 great impetus, yet without aim, into an atmosphere 
 where neither rising nor falling but only unresisted 
 flight was possible. 
 
 " Here," she said " while I keep alone, the world 
 looks large, and I can believe that people understand 
 human nature. The first hour I spent in society and 
 the first words I hear at a dinner or during some call 
 show me that we are cramped, bigoted, and false in 
 nearly all our relations with others. To be rescued 
 from narrowness, and for ever, is all I ask of the 
 future life — if there be such a thing. Personally, I 
 don't want it." 
 
 " Because you aren't well," replied Felshammer. 
 
 " No, that is not the reason. I had the same idea 
 as a girl when I was strong, and they used to say I 
 had everything before me."
 
 142 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "But you have told me that you had a dull girlhood. 
 Youth wants romance, tumult, passion.*' 
 
 Colour rushed into her face as she heard these 
 expressions, which seemed to her too vehement, and, 
 distressed she began to fold up the lace. Felshammer 
 wondered then at the transparency of her hands, 
 although her sudden vivid blush had entirely escaped 
 his notice. 
 
 " I had a short girlhood," said Rachel. " I married 
 before I was twenty, and my marriage, of course, was 
 entirely one of affection on both sides. My view of 
 life has not been affected by individuals." The last 
 sentence was added in a colder voice. 
 
 Felshammer, unconcerned, met it with : 
 
 " That's probably true enough." 
 
 " Are you, by any chance, going to the Oscar Sachs' 
 to-night ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I must ! I have not yet met Mrs. 
 Sachs." 
 
 " She is much admired, and she gives a great many 
 parties, but I don't attend all of them. I must be 
 there to-night, as Ernie says, *for the look of the 
 thing.' Isn't it irrational ? She knows that I dislike 
 entertainments ; every one who will see me there 
 knows the same fact. And yet I go because it would 
 be thought unfriendly if I stayed away ! The smallest 
 and the greatest feelings we possess are sacrificed to 
 this very ' look of the thing.' How silly and how 
 tedious ! "
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 143 
 
 " Still, your presence is bound to give pleasure." 
 
 "If you care for lace," she replied, with a rigid 
 countenance. " I shall be wearing some very curious 
 old Brussels point. For those who like beautiful 
 things it will be a certain compensation for my 
 unutterable dulness." 
 
 Felshammer had invited A'Ir. Gloucester to dine 
 with him that evening for the third time, and after- 
 wards they were going together to Mrs. Oscar Sachs's 
 party. The music there, it was hoped, might distract 
 him a little from his perplexities. But at the first 
 dinner Felshammer had learnt the folly of endeavour- 
 ing to help a man who could only show determination 
 when he was being advised for his own good, 
 Gloucester, by suspecting the motives of his firmest 
 friends, now sought to atone for the implicit faith 
 which he placed in a rascal. He began to take a 
 childish pride in looking wise over the most innocent 
 suggestion, and whereas he had once signed recklessly, 
 without misgivings, papers of the highest importance 
 to his estate, he could scarcely be induced now to 
 write a line to his favourite sister. 
 
 " I am surrounded by vultures," he told Clementine 
 — "vultures and jackals." 
 
 When Felshammer reached his club, he found a 
 telegram awaiting him to the effect that Mr. 
 Gloucester was unavoidably detained. Mr. 
 Gloucester was dining at that moment at Holland 
 Park with an acquaintance whom he had met through
 
 144 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 the agency of his new man of business. He was more 
 terrified of this personage, a Mr. Keeping, than he 
 had ever been of Haxsworth at his worst ; he trifled 
 with Keeping, shuffled, equivocated, procrastinated, 
 coquetted, but he knew that in the end Keeping 
 would have matters arranged in his own way. 
 Keeping, for instance, had sent the telegram to 
 Felshammer. 
 
 "Chuck him!" Keeping had said. Mr. Gloucester 
 protested, murmured that such a proceeding would be 
 grossly uncivil. 
 
 "But you must meet Bingham. It is imperatively 
 necessary, believe me. Every day now is precious. 
 This is a matter of duty, not pleasure." 
 
 Mr. Gloucester talked with boldness on the obliga- 
 tions of common courtesy while Keeping wrote out 
 the telegram, rang for his office boy, and had the 
 message carried to the post. 
 
 "It's really too bad ! I hope he won't be offended," 
 said Mr. Gloucester, offering Keeping his cigar-case, 
 as the door closed on the boy's retreating figure. 
 
 Keeping chose a cigar, fingered it, held it to his 
 nose, cut off the top, held a match to the end, and 
 drew three long whiffs before he made any reply. 
 
 " O, that's all right ! " he said at last. " You must 
 take things quietly, Gloucester." 
 
 It had come to this ; his man of business addressed 
 him as Gloucester. But the moral strength which 
 surrendered to Keeping's will was also beyond the
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 145 
 
 stimulus of offended personal dignity. Resentment 
 overflowed in his heart and rose scalding to the 
 sockets of his eyes. Outwardly he showed the 
 uncomplaining shame of one who has drifted, from 
 no motive, into a false position. 
 
 Bingham proved to be a plausible, good-looking 
 person, for whom Keeping had conceived one of those 
 curious infatuations which are so common between 
 scoundrels and their dupes. Keeping, who was 
 shrewd and scheming but quite honest according to 
 moderate standards of rectitude, had been dazzled by 
 what he considered the brilliant financial genius of his 
 friend Catesby Bingham. Bingham's ringing laugh, 
 his intimate anecdotes about aristocratic society, his 
 resource, above all his success, for he handled a large 
 amount of money in the course of the year, fascinated 
 the commonplace solicitor, who was the average 
 well-to-do man of the average conventional world. 
 " Bingham," he would say, "always makes me think 
 of Sherlock Holmes." The cleverness of Sherlock 
 Holmes was Mr. Keeping's ideal of ingenuity 
 amounting to the miraculous. 
 
 Gloucester himself began to feel, half-way through 
 dinner, the charm of Catesby Bingham's glossy ease. 
 If he was not well bred, he came so very near it that 
 he would have passed in polished circles for a polished 
 person who had mixed perhaps a little too much with his 
 inferiors and had become a shade coarse. 
 
 He walked part of the way to Chester Square with 
 
 II
 
 146 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 Mr. Gloucester, and the following conversation 
 occurred between them. Bingham said — 
 
 " By the by, have you ever heard anything about 
 East Reefs ? " 
 
 " No, nothing," replied Mr. Gloucester. 
 
 *'I can give you a tip. You can make twenty 
 thousand pounds as certain as anything. You may 
 regard it as made." 
 
 " I had better not begin to spend it ! " replied 
 Gloucester, but he began to tingle at the idea. 
 
 " No, no ! I'm not ragging ! " continued Catesby 
 Bingham. "If you like to apply for four hundred 
 East Reefs between this and to-morrow night, I can 
 tell you of a market for them at treble the price and 
 treble that again." 
 
 " But if I apply for these shares, where am I to get 
 the money to pay for them ? " said Gloucester. 
 
 " It is morally certain that you can part with them 
 within forty-eight hours. You'll only have to pocket 
 the difference." 
 
 " Or pay the loss ! " said Gloucester, who had 
 gained some knowledge of business since his troubles 
 began. 
 
 "Or pay the loss, of course. But there's no chance 
 of that." 
 
 « I don't like the risk." 
 
 *' I'll take the risk. It is only upon those terms 
 that any man in his senses would give you such 
 advice." He caught hold of Gloucester's arm,
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 147 
 
 slackened his pace, and added : " I can readily believe 
 that you don't wish to place yourself under any 
 obligation to a mere acquaintance. This is no favour, 
 I assure you. The advantage will be mutual. Say 
 that I take a third of the profit." 
 
 " I still do not see how to work it." 
 
 "Well, you go to Larrington's. Apply for the 
 shares " 
 
 " Larrington knows that I haven't the private 
 means which could justify such an order. Suppose he 
 won't take the order without cover — what then ? " 
 
 " That will be all right. Use my name if they 
 press. But they won't ; they'll take it for granted 
 that you have got a backer somewhere. They prefer 
 private buyers of your stamp. The idea is that you 
 intend to invest — not to speculate." 
 
 " Then," said Mr. Gloucester, " do you mean to 
 say, if I win, I take part of the profits, and if those 
 shares go down you'll pay all the losses ? It seems too 
 unfair." 
 
 "There won't be any losses. It's absolutely safe." 
 
 "I have always steered clear of this kind of thing," 
 murmured Gloucester. "It would make all the 
 difference in the world to me if I could get a little 
 extra money now, yet " 
 
 " You really do me an enormous favour. They 
 might allot you every share you ask for. They want 
 solid investors. They know me. They would think 
 I was merely buying to sell. It's child's play.
 
 148 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 Consult Keeping first, if you like. I know he would 
 urge you to follow my suggestion." 
 
 Mr. Gloucester had already resolved to try his luck. 
 Gambling on the Stock Exchange or anywhere else 
 seemed entirely proper to the foolish, inconsistent 
 gentleman. Nearly all the Dukes indulged in this 
 particular amusement, which happened to be lucrative 
 as horse-racing was, sometimes. Trade, on the other 
 hand, still filled him with repugnance. 
 
 He drew himself up and announced proudly : 
 
 " I do not care to throw too much onus on Mr. 
 Keeping." Keeping might address him as an equal 
 but he had determined to Mister the solicitor so long 
 as he had the power of utterance. " Mr. Keeping is 
 too kind frequently, he is a most obliging person, most 
 friendly, indeed, in every way, but I beg that you will 
 consider me as a man by myself." 
 
 "Exactly!" said Catesby Bingham, in a sympathetic 
 tone. "Keeping is willing to communicate all he 
 knows, which, in these matters, docs not amount to 
 much. It is not for me to take the wind out of his 
 sails. He's perfectly reliable and so forth, but " 
 
 " Quite so, quite so ! " replied Gloucester, feeling 
 what a pleasure it was to meet with some one in 
 business very nearly of his own class and sentiments. 
 
 Clementine was waiting up for her father, and let 
 him in when she heard the ring and knock, bolder 
 than it had been for a long time, at the front door. 
 He was good-tempered and, as he drank his glass of
 
 OLD WAYS OF FORMING NEW ALLIANCES 149 
 
 freshly-boiled hot water before retiring, gave a graceful 
 imitation of Mr. Keeping, who had a marked cockney 
 accent. 
 
 "I wish, darh'ng, you could hear him say, *Try a 
 little of that port, Gloucester.' I give you an imperfect 
 idea of the original ; yet he's a well-meaning creature ; 
 never condemn any man merely because he is vulgar. 
 Vulgar people are frequently obliging and respectable. 
 Once or twice I felt tempted to give him a 
 tremendous dressing, but toutes les viritis tie sont pas 
 bonnes a dire. Why wound him ? " 
 
 ** Was he with Dr. Felshammer ? " asked 
 Clementine, surprised. 
 
 Mr. Gloucester looked annoyed at once. Since his 
 troubles he had become irritable and uncertain. 
 
 "I couldn't dine at the Travellers'. I spent the 
 evening with Mr. Keeping and Catesby Bingham — 
 one of my best acquaintances. You look tired. 
 Give me a nice new nib and some of our Eastern 
 Acres notepaper. I must write a letter or two." 
 
 " So late as this I " 
 
 "I am not tired. Now run away to bed." 
 
 She did not sleep till she heard him mounting the 
 stairs at midnight. The next morning she found that 
 he had scribbled rough copies on more than a quire of 
 paper, and had consulted the dictionary, the Stock 
 Exchange Tear Book^ and Every Man His Own Lawyer 
 in the successful attempt to write a short note to 
 Messrs. Larrington & Co. — a name she did not know.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY 
 
 Mrs. Oscar Sachs's evening party took place. at her 
 house in Prince's Gate. A number of City and pro- 
 fessional men, with their wives and daughters, were 
 present. All the male guests had an air of alertness 
 and power ; a few looked overworked, a few were 
 sickly, but the crowd, as a body, seemed composed 
 of strenuous, robust, self-satisfied, and confident 
 individuals. The women, many of whom were 
 handsome, wore superb jewels clumsily set in 
 massive pendants, necklaces, and bracelets. One 
 here and there carried a set of large diamond stars 
 on her head ; several had tiaras. Their clothes 
 were of brocade, or velvet richly trimmed, or satin 
 embroidered ; they carried fans and pocket-handker- 
 chiefs edged with Duchcsse lace ; when they talked 
 they employed admirable English, free from slang. 
 Felshammer, vi^ith a foreigner's discrimination, thought 
 them dignified, virtuous, unimaginative, sincere, asser- 
 tive. He did not recognise a single face he knew. 
 
 150
 
 THE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY 151 
 
 Neither Sachs nor Bickersteth, in spite of their pride 
 in royal and noble clients, had the smallest desire 
 to shine in what is known as society. They were 
 aristocrats themselves in the cosmopolitan world of 
 finance ; they cultivated their own substantial set and 
 were even inaccessible, except at Lombard Street, to 
 the numerous persons of high rank who were disposed 
 to regard most favourably, and attend, the entertain- 
 ments given by Mrs. Oscar Sachs. Of the two 
 partners, Bickersteth was the more ostentatious, 
 perhaps because his home was desolate and his wife 
 an invalid. He would never have loved a Mrs. Sachs 
 himself, but there were hours when he recognised that 
 Oscar had made a wise choice, and was, beyond doubt, 
 a domestic man engrossed in his own family. Bicker- 
 steth was troubled by ideals of life which he was 
 neither strong enough to keep nor cynical enough 
 to renounce. He longed for changes which he did 
 not really want, for adventures which he was well 
 aware would bore him, for gaieties which were alien 
 to his bilious disposition. Rachel was the ennobling 
 element in a life which might have been easily ruined 
 for the sake of a half-hearted caprice, or spent in 
 vacillation between feeble scruples and feebler 
 passions. 
 
 Mrs. Oscar Sachs was the mother of two beautiful, 
 precocious little girls. She herself was as swarthy as 
 Mrs. Bickersteth, and what she lacked of Rachel's 
 grand air she atoned for in vivacity. The traditional
 
 152 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 contrast between a fair woman and a dark one can 
 never be so great as a contrast between two pro- 
 nounced brunettes of different styles. Mrs. Sachs 
 was small ; her pretty neck, round arms, and mobile 
 face was almost brown ; so were her eyes, although 
 they seemed as black as her silky hair ; an intense 
 if innocent love of excitement animated every gesture, 
 glance, and word ; her laughter rippled like a child's — 
 when she played with her own children she was always 
 the most boisterous and least fatigued of the three. It 
 was her idiosyncrasy to dress invariably in plain gowns 
 of dull colours. That evening she wore a black 
 chiffon over white silk, diamond earrings, but no 
 other ornament except one pink rose in her belt. 
 By birth she was English ; her father was a wealthy 
 cotton-spinner who had gone into Parliament. She 
 had been christened Nadeshda because there was 
 Russian blood in the family on the grandmother's 
 side. Sachs told his wife many things relating to 
 business, and when Felshammer made his appearance 
 she looked at him with real admiration as the man 
 who had been clever enough to make good terms with 
 her husband. 
 
 " Wasn't it shameful about Campsey ? " she said 
 almost immediately, opening her eyes very wide and 
 pouting her lips. "Wasn't it too disgraceful? An 
 expert need not be a saint, but he must be a gentle- 
 man. It has made Oscar perfectly ill, although he 
 won't admit that for an instant. Now, do you know
 
 THE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY 153 
 
 any one here ? I want you to enjoy yourself — a 
 difficult thing at an English party." 
 
 She smiled gaily at her own small joke, and added : 
 " We call this breaking the ice." 
 
 " But how ungracious it is to assume that there is 
 any ice to break 1 " replied Felshammer. She put her 
 head slightly on one side with an almost apologetic air: 
 
 " Oscar likes you very much. Yet the whole thing 
 was unpleasant j don't you think so ? People say that 
 business men are hard. I find them, as a matter 
 of fact, far more tender-hearted than artists and others 
 who are supposed to be above commercial affairs. 
 Poor Oscar feels so hurt at Campsey's ingratitude, 
 but he is happy about you, honestly and truly. I 
 mean it. In the circumstances that's a high com- 
 pliment, because it is such thankless work as a rule 
 to give information about some trusted person who 
 has been deceitful." 
 
 Nadeshda seemed to him a straightforward, charming 
 little woman, one with whom many men in his place 
 would have certainly attempted to establish senti- 
 mental relations. To be prudent under the alluring 
 mask of indiscretion is a rare faculty. It was the 
 unspeakable gift of Mrs. Oscar Sachs. Felshammer 
 had resolved, however, to avoid every danger, small or 
 great, of the kind, because he loved Clementine, and 
 had nothing more than criticism to bestow on others. 
 By her youth, by her natural fascination, by her good- 
 ness, by her very indifference to himself, his affection
 
 154 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 for the high-spirited girl had risen, gained power, and 
 kept it. In time the exclusiveness of that strong 
 feeling might have lost its vigour ; it is possible that, 
 as the youth waned, and the beauty of the face grew 
 familiar, and the precious attributes of the mind, once 
 proved indelible, ceased to cause wonder, he might 
 have sought amusement at least in studying new 
 creatures and their ways. But for the present he 
 knew her actually so little, they had met so seldom, 
 exchanged such few words, she was so close and 
 delicious in his memory, so distant in his presence, 
 that she engrossed every thought and emotion of his — 
 every hope which was not concentrated absolutely on 
 the money-market. But the policy of his whole 
 career had been opposed to friendships with women. 
 He did not believe in them. Had he not seen 
 ambitions wrecked, existences made contemptible, 
 hearts left void or full of bitterness for no worthier 
 reason than some unconsidered flirtation, begun 
 through vanity or self-interest, continued out of habit 
 or false politeness, and ending in lifelong bondage ? 
 No chains for him ! After he left Mrs. Sachs he 
 watched groups, compared manners, gaits, voices, 
 attitudes, marvelled at the loveliness of many of the 
 girls, the freshness of the matrons ; he overheard 
 fragments of dialogue ; one remark, offered by one 
 comely woman who looked like a Rubens to another 
 who looked like a Reynolds, made him say almost 
 aloud to himself:
 
 THE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY 155 
 
 " Just as I thought ! " 
 
 This was the remark : 
 
 " I wonder that Nadeshda invited Lady Greenslade 
 when she must have known that Mrs. Bickersteth was 
 coming." 
 
 It was late when the Bickersteths arrived. Fels- 
 hammer did not hurry forward to meet them, nor did 
 he approach Rachel till he saw her, haggard, inatten- 
 tive, and contemptuous, sitting alone near the window, 
 listening to the last song on the programme. The 
 moonlight streamed in upon her through a break 
 in the awning over the balcony ; yet even these 
 romantic beams, which, on the stage, would have 
 seemed a deliberate, unreal, but flattering effect, could 
 not cast any glamour over her singular personality. 
 When Felshammer came up she showed neither 
 surprise nor pleasure, but she looked towards a vacant 
 chair by her side, and he received the slight movement 
 as an invitation to sit down. 
 
 " Have I been here long enough yet ? " she asked. 
 
 « Hardly." 
 
 " Do you know why I was so late ? Ernie is 
 rather cross with me. I was afraid I couldn't come 
 after all. I was tired. After you had gone I ordered 
 the carriage and called on Miss Gloucester." 
 
 He could think of nothing to say ; he flushed, his 
 heart began to beat violently, he looked down and 
 felt as foolish as a lovesick boy. 
 
 "I found her at home," continued Rachel, "and I
 
 156 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 asked her to come here with me to-night, but she says 
 that she is not going out just now. For a girl that's 
 a mistake. I told her so." 
 
 Encouraging as this indirect kindness might have 
 been from any other woman, it was impossible for 
 Felshammer to regard it as more than an act of dutiful 
 amiability. Mrs. Bickersteth's face remained impas- 
 sive ; she took up the programme, which she had 
 dropped into her lap for a moment, and began to read 
 very gravely to herself the following verse : 
 
 "Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow. 
 How can thine heart be full of the spring? 
 A thousand summers are over and dead, 
 What hast thou found in the spring to follow ? 
 What hast thou found in thy heart to sing ? 
 What wilt thou do when the summer is shed ? " 
 
 " How many here could understand this ? " she 
 asked, handing it to him. 
 
 " They seem to listen to it," he replied. 
 
 " That is because Madame Cherrington is very 
 expensive and her voice is good. I was thinking 
 of the poem." 
 
 "Well, to be candid, it would not chime in 
 naturally with my own mood. There are too 
 many questions : — 
 
 "'The world's gone, yet the world is here? 
 Arc not all things as they appear?'
 
 THE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY 157 
 
 I prefer to take that view, if I must take any, of life. 
 You think too much. One does not go to a party in 
 order to think." 
 
 "Evidently you are right, if I may judge by the 
 apparent enjoyment of my fellow-revellers ! " 
 
 " That's severe," said Felshammer. 
 
 " Can't you see," she said, with a sudden animation 
 which failed almost as swiftly as it came, " that 1 wish 
 I could take it all as they do ? What, for instance, is 
 your opinion of the woman over there in yellow ? I 
 heard her call this song a sweet little thing." 
 
 The woman in yellow was short, stout, frowsy, and 
 excitable. She lounged on a rose brocade sofa, and 
 was talking at the top of a high nasal voice about 
 some "poor dear old Duke" to Mr. Bickersteth, who 
 looked amused. 
 
 " She is Lady Greenslade ; her father is Lord 
 Coverley," said Rachel. 
 
 "Vulgarity, like beauty, is distributed by the gods 
 without prejudice," said Felshammer ; "it has nothing 
 to do with one's birth. Besides, what is vulgarity but 
 the unrestrained exhibition of too common human 
 feelings ? When we call persons vulgar we mean 
 that they are commonplace in an artless and energetic 
 way." 
 
 Rachel looked at him with an air of baffled adroit- 
 ness. 
 
 "After all, how can it matter what anybody 
 wonders about anybody else ? " she said. Bickersteth,
 
 iS8 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 conscious that he was being observed, made an excuse 
 for leaving Lady Greenslade and came over to his 
 wife. 
 
 " You look tired to death ! " he exclaimed. 
 " Would you like to go home ? " 
 
 Without a word she rose, and, half smiling at 
 Felshammer, took her husband's arm. They walked 
 together in silence till they reached Lady Greenslade, 
 to whom Rachel bowed coldly. But her ladyship 
 stood up. 
 
 " Have you seen Greenslade ? " she asked. 
 
 It was her method in society to ask every person 
 she met whether he or she had seen Greenslade. He 
 always escorted her to entertainments, and invariably 
 left at the end of the first half-hour. 
 
 " Hasn't he gone to his club long ago ? " said 
 Rachel, and she passed on. 
 
 Felshammer caught the question and the reply. 
 "And yet," he thought, "women are surprised when 
 they find they have made enemies ! " 
 
 He took leave himself soon after the departure of 
 the Bickersteths. His evening, on the whole, had 
 produced a painful and, what was worse, a wearisome 
 effect on his spirits. He remembered a text which 
 his mother, a very pious woman, used to quote, as a 
 rule, after any festivity among her neighbours : " The 
 new wine mourns^ all the merry-hearted do sigh." There 
 had been something blighting in the atmosphere of 
 both the houses he had visited that day — a withering,
 
 THE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY 159 
 
 spoiling, creeping influence, which had entered every 
 fibre of his body, every secret recess of his mind ; he 
 felt languid, callous, actually numb. A couple in the 
 street were bidding each other good-night or goodbye 
 as he turned the corner leading to his hotel. The 
 woman was sobbing ; the man seemed unable to 
 speak. They clung together, parted, and returned 
 twice for one more last touch and glance. 
 
 " How can they care so much ? " thought Fels- 
 hammer, hating himself for the sneer. But he 
 resolved to see Clementine on the morrow. He 
 knew by instinct that she was his necessary salvation.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER 
 
 Clementine was playing some Schumann the next 
 afternoon when Dr. Felshammer called. She had 
 tried to feel cheerful all that day, and had walked in 
 Kensington Gardens before lunch and bought theatre 
 tickets for herself and her father. But her mind was 
 oppressed ; the tragic, feverish music of the Carnival 
 found an unhappy echo in her own thoughts — perhaps 
 because the loneliness of the young is sadder than any 
 other loneliness. It has no memories ; its hopes are 
 perilous, impatient, and untried. Felshammer, as he 
 entered the drawing-room, mistook the flush of 
 welcome on her face for something altogether more 
 encouraging. 
 
 " You are evidently quite well again," he said, with 
 his eyes full of admiration. "I have never seen you 
 look better. I have come to ask why your father 
 threw me over last night. And why didn't you accept 
 Mrs. Bickersteth's invitation ? Do you like her ? " 
 
 "I think so. Was the party amusing ?" 
 
 i6o
 
 HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER i6i 
 
 He gave an account of his evening, but he walked, 
 while he spoke, about the room, turning over the 
 music on the piano and the books on the table. 
 
 " What's this — Byron ? " he exclaimed, picking up 
 a small blue volume and glancing at some of the 
 poems. "I believe he is my favourite poet. Listen 
 to this : 
 
 " 'Alas, the love of woman ! It is known 
 To be a lovely and a fearful thing ; 
 For all of theirs upon that die is thrown, 
 
 And, if 'tis lost, life hath no more to bring 
 To them but mockeries of the past alone. . . . ' 
 
 That is very fine. I see you have marked it. Was 
 your admiration impersonal or sympathetic ? " 
 
 "I thought it was sad," she answered, "and I 
 wondered whether it was true." 
 
 " You ought to have gone to the party. You are 
 moping too much ! " 
 
 " But I don't care about parties just now." 
 
 " I can't bear to hear you talk that way ! You're 
 so young ; you ought to have every pleasure." 
 
 " If I were not anxious about papa, I should be 
 perfectly happy, Dr. Felshammer." 
 
 "I'm glad to hear that. I am supposed to be 
 selfish. My own dear mother often said so." 
 
 But he was looking at Clementine and deciding 
 that she would still be beautiful even at sixty. He 
 
 12
 
 i62 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 was delighted, confused, and resolved at the same 
 time. He had never before spoken to her of love. 
 Surely there had been something fatal in the volume 
 of Byron ! 
 
 "Yes, I am supposed to be selfish," he repeated ; 
 " but, on my honour, I could find my happiness in 
 yours. I haven't this feeling about any one else in 
 the world. I have never had it before. It is a 
 surprise to me, I own. You see, I keep nothing 
 back. Whatever the truth may be, you shall have it." 
 
 He had not intended to declare himself suddenly, 
 but the words came before he could check them, and 
 he caught her arm without knowing that he touched 
 it. 
 
 " I can't go on in this uncertainty," he continued. 
 " I want you always with me. I love you, Clemen- 
 tine. I think I could make you love me. Will you 
 be my wife ? " 
 
 For a moment the girl was fascinated and flattered 
 by his appeal. He was not eloquent in speech and he 
 had said nothing remarkable, but he trembled, he was 
 pale, the domineering, scornful, uncompromising man 
 seemed almost afraid of her. She had never before 
 received an offer of marriage, and, as she was neither 
 sentimental nor vain, her first instinct was one of 
 gratitude for his affection. In after years he often 
 laughed bitterly at the recollection of her reply. 
 
 "I wonder why you like me?" She drew away 
 from his grasp as she spoke.
 
 HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER 163 
 
 " How can I help liking you ? " he exclaimed. 
 " You are everything I love j you are pretty, sv/eet, 
 kind, good, clever I " 
 
 " Good and clever come last ! " she said, smiling. 
 " But that's because you are truthful, I suppose." 
 
 " Is that all you have to say ? You can't really be 
 startled. You must have guessed. Women alvi^ays 
 know. It is we men who are at the disadvantage. 
 I can tell nothing about you one way or the other. 
 Perhaps that's the charm. At any rate, I'm mastered. 
 I'm bewitched, I shall never be able to get 
 free ! " 
 
 He drew a step nearer and kissed timidly her cheek, 
 which seemed as soft and fragrant as a leaf growing in 
 the sun. 
 
 " You mustn't do that ! " said Clementine, with 
 a self-possession which would have warned a less 
 infatuated lover that his suit was vain. " I ought to 
 be angry, but I am not, because you .^re my best 
 friend. I didn't want you for my best friend, and I 
 used to think I could never care for you. I do care 
 for you now very much — oh, very much, but not in 
 a kissing way — even if you get vexed and say we 
 cannot remain as we are." 
 
 "As we are — no I Haven't I said enough ? Could 
 we be ever again just as we were — after this ? Every 
 time we have met there has been some difference, and 
 this will make the greatest difference of all ! " 
 
 "That's what I meant when I said it was vi^rong.
 
 164 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 I can't say now that I have never been kissed, and I 
 wanted to be able to say that." 
 
 " To whom ? " 
 
 " To myself, I suppose." 
 
 " I knew you were a prude. That is one more 
 reason for hating and loving you. A good thing, 
 too ! I like your spirit. It shows in your eyes — you 
 could kill me. Besides, marriage demands considera- 
 tion. I want you to accept me, but I don't ask you 
 to say ' Yes ' as though you had been preparing your 
 answer for days. What have you against me ? Is it 
 my age ? Am I too plain ? Somehow, I don't believe 
 you would be influenced by one's looks." 
 
 She glanced away, and the Prince's handsome face 
 rose to her memory. 
 
 "It has nothing to do with age," she said, "and I 
 am more grateful than I sound. I think it is very 
 kind of you to want to marry me." 
 
 " I am a fool about you ! I have been begging and 
 pleading for the last half-hour as though my life 
 depended on your reply. Perhaps it does." 
 
 " Oh, why can't you see that you make me 
 miserable ? I know quite well all you are offering 
 me. I trust you. I like you. But my heart stops 
 there. It isn't because I'm romantic. Yet I must 
 wait. You are not the one ! I could only marry a 
 man I loved." She blushed at the word. 
 
 " Love comes. You are not much more than a 
 little girl ! "
 
 HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER 165 
 
 " Please, please say no more now ! " 
 
 " I'll return to the question another time, then. I 
 won't give up my idea — I swear I won't ! '* 
 
 " You must ! " she said earnestly. " I should like 
 to be your friend, if you will allow me, but this is not 
 the way to keep friends." 
 
 The tender and profound sadness of her expression, 
 her soft gestures, the delicate flush which rose and 
 wavered and mounted almost to her temples while she 
 spoke, restrained Felshammer's impetuosity, but they 
 deepened his determination to gain the day. 
 
 " They say I always drive hard bargains," he 
 exclaimed, pacing the floor. " Devilish hard bargains 
 too 1 I am going to consider myself, and you must 
 see life as it is. I love you and I want you, and I 
 haven't thought of any one else for the last weeks. 
 And if you will be my wife, I'll do any mortal thing 
 you ask. I don't mind what it is. I wish to make 
 you happy, that's all." 
 
 "But you cannot. Haven't I told you so ? You 
 cannot." 
 
 "I have got a strong will, and if I undertake a 
 thing, I generally pull it through. I am plain and 
 over forty, not a lady's man, but I'll protect you and 
 be kind to you. I'll help your father." 
 
 " I can't do it. I can't think of it. It is not fair 
 to press me." 
 
 "I know it isn't magnificent, but it is war," he 
 answered. "I have set my heart on you. I don't
 
 1 66 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTER-S 
 
 ask you to love me — I dare not. But trust me ; 
 believe in me." And he knelt by her side. 
 
 "I have always believed in you, but I don't love 
 you. I cannot love any one, perhaps." 
 
 " I'll make you love me. I have fairly grovelled in 
 the dust for you." 
 
 "It is impossible," said Clementine; "and if I 
 vv^ere dead and in my grave, it could not be more 
 impossible." 
 
 " I refuse to be discouraged," he replied. But lie 
 walked avv^ay and stood at the window with his back 
 to her as though he were looking out on to the square. 
 Clementine, terrified by his mood, went to the piano 
 mechanically, closed it with trembling fingers, and 
 put her music back into its portfolio. She had been 
 on the point of doing these things when he was 
 announced, and now, in a kind of dream, she fulfilled 
 the half-formed intention. Would no sound break 
 the painful silence ? Would Fclshammer ever turn, 
 ever speak, ever go ? Each second seemed an hour. 
 Was it all really happening ? Was the whole scene 
 her fancy ? She touched her own face, but it was 
 numb. She caught sight of her own reflection in the 
 mirror — and moved her head. Yes — the reflection 
 moved also. At last she could bear the strain no longer. 
 
 " Dr. Felshammer," she said, " I am frightened. 
 Your thoughts are angry and cruel and bitter. I feel 
 them all around me like knives in the air. I have 
 done nothing to deserve this."
 
 HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER 167 
 
 " No," he said, wheeling round ; " but I have been 
 a fool — a blundering fool ! The moment a man is in 
 earnest he had better cut his throat than talk to a 
 woman. Yet you are a good little girl. I have got 
 a reverence for you, on my soul. I am sorry if I 
 fri"-htened you. I will send you some chocolates. 
 That is the thing to offer — a box of chocolates. 
 Never love, never your whole life. Poor little pretty 
 child ! " 
 
 He took her face between his hands and smoothed 
 back the soft brown hair from her brow, which was 
 entirely clear and flawless. Tears sprang into his 
 eyes as he repeated — 
 
 " Poor little pretty child ! Forget all the rest." 
 
 When he had gone Clementine cried bitterly. It 
 had been her first encounter with a strong emotion, 
 and she began to fear that there were evil possibilities 
 in men's love ; that it was not always the sentimental 
 heroic affection described in tales and ballads. There 
 had been something fierce, something unsparing and 
 implacable underlying Felshammer's manner during 
 their interview. Had some madness beset him ? She 
 could not think that a mere girl could so affect any 
 man — least of all one who met beautiful women con- 
 stantly in society, one who had seen life in all quarters 
 of the globe. " He sees me as I am not," she told 
 herself; "it is some sort of accident or mistake. 
 How could it be anything else except a mistake ? " 
 
 Then she wondered what she would have thought
 
 i68 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 if Prince Paul had said all that Felshammer had said. 
 Would it have seemed such madness ? No ! The 
 instantaneousness of the response filled her whole soul 
 with a wild joy. She stretched out her arms to greet 
 the imagined speaker, and the lonely room had, for a 
 moment, the charm, the fragrant stillness of a summer 
 garden. The moment passed, but the self-knowledge 
 gained in that instant remained. Clementine had 
 learnt her own secret. 
 
 She was roused by the sound of footsteps on the 
 uncarpeted stairs outside. Leonore, flushed, breath- 
 less, and excited, burst into the room. 
 
 " I ran into that Dr. Felshammer's arms ! " she 
 exclaimed. " What a fascinating man ! I be^in to 
 like foreigners. They have so much feeling. But 
 you are getting quite American. You have callers 
 without a chaperon. It's nice to be you, I must say. 
 He looked at my hat." 
 
 " It is very picturesque," said Clementine, anxious 
 to divert Leonore's attention. 
 
 " Is he really in love with you ? " asked Leonore, 
 watching herself in the mirror, and deciding that she 
 was, beyond question, the beauty of the family, 
 although she had never received an offer of marriaae. 
 
 " Has he proposed ? " she continued. " He had a 
 strange expression." 
 
 " How can you have such ideas ? " asked Clemen- 
 tine. 
 
 " You wouldn't be foolish enough to refuse him ? "
 
 HASTY FRUIT BEFORE THE SUMMER 169 
 
 said her cousin. " You wouldn't throw away the 
 chance of a lifetime just because the Prince has a 
 better figure ? " 
 
 "I wish you wouldn't talk about the Prince. I 
 think it is wrong. Do I ever speak of him myself?" 
 
 " Goose ! Goose ! Goose ! You can't deceive 
 your little cousin. You might let me meet Dr. 
 Felshammer again some time at tea. I see possi- 
 bilities." 
 
 " I think you must be fond of flirting ! " said 
 Clementine. " I believe it amuses you." 
 
 " I hate flirting, my dear child. But I don't want 
 to be an old maid. I have never before seen a man 
 who had the air of wishing to marry anybody. Fels- 
 hammer is in a marrying mood. He wants to settle 
 down. I sav/ that at a glance. What a mercy it is 
 that I wore this new hat I People get to like a soul, 
 but a satisfactory hat makes an impression at first 
 sight." 
 
 " You are more flippant than you used to be 1 " 
 sighed Clementine. 
 
 " Felshammer has made me flippant," answered 
 Leonore. "I am always what papa calls giddy when 
 I am hopeful." She pretended to be jesting, but in 
 her heart she was planning serious projects.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER HAS SEVERAL SURPRISES 
 
 Mr. Catesby Bingham was disturbed that evening 
 in his chambers at the Albany by an unexpected call 
 from Mr. Gloucester. Nevertheless he said pleasantly 
 enough — 
 
 " It is nice of you to look me up. Anything very 
 special on the carpet ? " 
 
 Mr. Gloucester, vi^ho had a drawn face, held out a 
 letter. 
 
 " I am afraid it is very serious," said he. 
 
 " Ah, you're not used to the City yet I '* 
 
 " Well, read that," gasped the older man. 
 
 " Who is it from ? " asked Mr. Bingham, lighting 
 a cigar. He remembered that his guest did not 
 smoke. 
 
 " It is from Larrington's." 
 
 " I don't quite understand it," said Bingham, after 
 he had read it, with a thoughtful air, twice. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you do," replied Mr. Gloucester, speaking 
 
 rapidly — "it is terribly plain ! I applied for the shares 
 
 170
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER HAS SURPRISES 171 
 
 — shares in the East Reef, as you said — and they have 
 gone down from twenty-eight to three and a half. 
 The syndicate was carrying a large amount of stock 
 on which collateral loans had been obtained. Several 
 banks on Thursday threw out the stocks and insisted 
 on additional security. The syndicate was seriously 
 embarrassed for funds, and now there's a slump. But 
 you know all this as v/ell as I do ! " 
 
 Bingham paused to admire one of his own photo- 
 graphs on the mantelshelf and observed — 
 
 " You must make yourself a little clearer, my dear 
 Gloucester." 
 
 " Well, it looks to me as though — I am very sorry 
 to say it — but it looks as though you were let in for a 
 matter of thirty thousand pounds." 
 
 Bingham lifted his eyebrows and screwed up his 
 mouth. 
 
 " Did you say that I was let in ? " he asked. " This 
 is a private speculation entirely on your own part, I 
 take it." 
 
 " Why, I never knew of the East Reefs till you 
 mentioned them to me ! I merely carried out your 
 instructions. I have no money for speculation." 
 
 " There I agree with you. But I am at a loss to 
 account for your delusion with regard to my liability 
 in the matter." 
 
 He surveyed his bewildered companion with an air 
 of reproachful and injured confidence. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " said Gloucester, stupefied.
 
 172 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " You must find the money yourself." 
 
 "Find the money myself! What are you talking 
 about? I have no capital. Besides, you know per- 
 fectly well what you said." 
 
 " Really, Mr. Gloucester, this is too bad ! It is 
 very painful." 
 
 Gloucester by this time was frightened into 
 courage. 
 
 " Are you going to lie about it ? " he asked. " Be- 
 cause I am not going to stand any underhand dealings." 
 
 Catesby Bingham drew out a pocket-handkerchief 
 scented with white rose and used it noisily. 
 
 " No heroics, Mr. Gloucester, please ! Spare me 
 heroics ! " he said. " They don't answer in the City 
 at all. You have done an extremely foolish thing — 
 not to say dishonest — thing, and, if you had approached 
 me in the proper spirit, I might have taken " 
 
 Gloucester brought his delicate fist down on the 
 table, and uttered an oath for the third time in his 
 life. 
 
 " You yourself told me to apply for the shares in my 
 own name. If the speculation did not turn out well, 
 you undertook to see the thing through." 
 
 " I have not the slightest recollection of any such 
 conversation." 
 
 " Good God ! " 
 
 "It is charitable to suppose that you are the victim 
 of some hallucination I " continued Bingham, who, as 
 a constant patron of melodrama, employed stage
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER HAS SURPRISES 173 
 
 phrases when he wished to be especially impressive. 
 " An hallucination won't pay the deficit, and, so far as 
 I can see, it will not preserve you from bankruptcy, but 
 it will be a sop to your relatives. As for your story, 
 any one would say that I am incapable of making 
 such absurd propositions." 
 
 "Then let me say that you are an infernal black- 
 guard ! If you manage to ruin me, you won't get 
 off scot free. I have got a few friends in the world ! " 
 
 " Will they pay up ? " asked Bingham drily. 
 
 " They will stand by me," said Gloucester. " They 
 are gentlemen and men of honour." He knew, how- 
 ever, that they would not lend him money. He 
 turned once more to study Bingham's insolent face. 
 " I can't think that you are in earnest ! " he exclaimed. 
 " You can't mean to break your promise. It's incon- 
 ceivable. Keeping spoke of you in the highest 
 terms." 
 
 " I deny the promise, and I deny my liability — what 
 is more, I deny absolutely any knowledge of the affair. 
 Keeping does himself rather well. He gave us a good 
 dinner." 
 
 "All right. I begin to see your line of defence — 
 an unworthy one, a disgraceful one. You must be pre- 
 pared to face the consequences." 
 
 " What consequences ? " 
 
 "I don't know," said Gloucester; "but I know 
 that there is such a thing as justice, and I know that 
 blackguards don't have it all their own way."
 
 174 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 He was unnerved, shaking, livid, almost lifeless, yet 
 there was a quality in his voice which made the 
 stronger man quail — not with fear, but at the blind, 
 superstitious dread of an honest curse. 
 
 " Perhaps, if you take a more conciliatory 
 
 tone " he began. 
 
 " I don't want any conciliation. I ask you whether 
 you intend to keep your word. You know perfectly 
 well what passed between us. You have proved your- 
 self a liar, but you cannot prove me one." 
 
 " Mr. Gloucester ! I must warn you that your 
 expressions are becoming actionable." 
 
 " And a very good thing too ! But you would no 
 more dare bring an action against me than you would 
 fly. I am not in the least afraid of an English jury — 
 not in the least ! " 
 
 "You are excited, sir I I decline to hold you 
 responsible. This is the worst of admitting amateurs 
 
 into business. If you will take my advice " 
 
 "Again!" cried Gloucester, with a withering 
 glance. " Do you ask me to take your advice 
 again ? " And, in a paroxysm of rage, he fled from 
 the room, rushed down the stairs into the street, and 
 walked towards the river. People were swarming on 
 the pavement ; carriages, omnibuses, cabs, and con- 
 veyances of every description were blocking the road ; 
 it was the hour when most of the theatres and large 
 music-halls are open to the public ; newsboys were 
 shouting special editions of the evening papers ; the
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER HAS SURPRISES 175 
 
 sound of many thousand voices and all the traffic acted 
 as an anodyne to the desperate man, and his frantic 
 thoughts were overpowered by the roar. Twice he 
 was nearly run over ; he was elbowed, and jostled, and 
 trampled on by laughing couples or hurried youths ; 
 he was exhorted to " look where he was going," and 
 pointed at by the wild girls who, in twos and threes, 
 trailed past him, rolling their eyes and dragging their 
 skirts in the mud. Where should he go ? What 
 could he do ? He had boasted to Bingham of his 
 friends. Did he possess any ? He thought of 
 Felshammer. 
 
 Panic and troubles had so changed Mr. Gloucester's 
 character that he easily dismissed the remorse he 
 began to feel at the remembrance of his ungracious 
 conduct towards the Prince's secretary. " I didn't 
 want to trouble him unless I was obliged to do so," 
 he told himself; "one has a natural disinclination to 
 approach a mere acquaintance on such matters." No 
 hesitation stood in his way now, however. He called 
 a hansom and rode to Felshammer's hotel, where he 
 found him dressing for dinner. With tears, sighs, and 
 bitterness the old gentleman told of his disastrous 
 experience. At the end, Felshammer turned to him 
 kindly and said — 
 
 "I can help you. Tell your daughter I can help 
 you, and I will." 
 
 *' But Clementine knows nothing," said Gloucester j 
 " it would break her heart."
 
 176 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 *' Would my help," said the German grimly, " break 
 her heart ? " 
 
 "No, no ! My weakness ! My folly ! Nothing 
 could be more beautiful or more touching than her 
 affection for me ; it mustn't go." 
 
 "She won't alter because you have been unfortunate," 
 said Felshammer ; "and I think it is your duty to 
 make the whole situation clear to her. But let us get 
 things in perfect order first. Let her have the truth, 
 although there is no reason why she should suffer any 
 suspense." 
 
 By mortgaging his property, crippling his own 
 resources in every direction, and binding himself to 
 severe sacrifices, he placed Gloucester in a position, 
 after a few weeks, to deal with Larrington's account. 
 It was all brought to pass with so little trouble to the 
 obliged man that, so far from realising the vast extent 
 of his indebtedness, he forgot to be grateful. Once he 
 told Clementine — "That fellow Felshammer is literally 
 rolling in money. Some day I will tell something 
 about him which I know for a fact. He can draw 
 his thirty thousand pounds and never miss it. He has 
 a good billet, too, at Sachs and Bickersteth's. They 
 will make him a partner one of these days." 
 
 By this time the Romillys were at their house in 
 Chester Square, and, as Eastern Acres was let, Mr. 
 Gloucester and Clementine had taken unpretentious 
 apartments in a small crescent near Gloucester Road. 
 There the two enjoyed iiidepcndence at least.
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER HAS SURPRISES 177 
 
 Keeping had secured a small sum of ready money by 
 selling two villas near Blaclcheath, which Mr. 
 Gloucester suddenly remembered having inherited 
 from his godfather. 
 
 " We shall have a happy season, after all, my 
 darling," said Mr. Gloucester ; " and, if we can't be 
 at dear Thomas's, the woman here cooks admirably. 
 We might ask Dr. Felshammer to lunch some 
 Sunday." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said Clementine. 
 
 *' It would be a little civility to ask him," insisted 
 her father ; " he is much taken up with the City set 
 and he may not be able to accept the invitation ; but 
 the fact is, he has done me a favour." 
 
 Her heart sank. She guessed at once the favour 
 had reference to a loan — a loan which could never be 
 repaid. 
 
 " Was it much ? " she asked faintly. 
 
 Mr. Gloucester flushed ; his complexion was still 
 perfect and his skin transparent. 
 
 " Not much for him," was the evasive reply. 
 
 " That is why he has never called, I suppose," said 
 Clementine. She had attributed his absence to another 
 reason ; perhaps he had come to his senses and seen 
 that he did not love her. A vainer girl might have 
 felt a certain chagrin at the thought of a lover cured 
 so swiftly of his passion, but she valued his friendship, 
 and, in her inexperience, she believed that they might 
 come together again, after an interval, on the old 
 
 13
 
 178 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 footing. Indeed, she had permitted herself to look 
 forward to their peaceful reconciliation ; yet he was 
 keeping away, it seemed, merely because he had lent 
 her father money. What a humiliating thought ! 
 Could she bear it ? 
 
 " Oh, papa ! " she exclaimed, " why from Dr. 
 Felshammer ? Why not from the bank ? " 
 
 Mr. Gloucester did not know how to explain that 
 his bankers could no longer see their way to help him 
 through his embarrassments. 
 
 " It was a matter of business, darling," said he. "I 
 shall give 5 per cent, interest. To him it was a 
 pure investment. Try to understand the v/eight of 
 the misfortune which has fallen upon me, and do not 
 add to it by reproaches." 
 
 " Reproaches ! " she said, as tears sprang to her 
 eyes. " How could I ever reproach you? But — but Dr. 
 Felshammer asked me to marry him when I last saw 
 him. Don't you see how awful it is for me to think 
 that we owe him money ? " 
 
 " God bless my soul ! " exclaimed Mr. Gloucester. 
 " How awkward ! How shocking ! I don't suppose 
 he meant to be presumptuous. Yet what presumption ! 
 On the whole, I am glad that I knew nothing about 
 it. Of course, I cannot ask him to lunch. I am 
 surprised ! I am amazed ! What next ? I am sorry, 
 in a way, that you have told me. It puts everything 
 in a new light. I hope he is aware that I didn't know." 
 
 " He must know that, papa."
 
 MU. GLOUCESTER HAS SURPRISES 179 
 
 "I am not so sure." 
 
 " But he must be certain that you would never ask 
 a favour in such circumstances. Why, it would seem 
 like taxino- him ! " 
 
 Mr. Gloucester was wondering at that moment 
 whether his own position with regard to Felshammer 
 was not greatly strengthened, nevertheless, by such an 
 asset as Clementine. He had never before regarded 
 Clementine as a form of security. The idea gave him 
 new hopes and new courage. 
 
 " I remember now," he said, " that at the time of 
 our transaction he mentioned you. I thought it rather 
 bad taste on his part, and I kept him in his place. 
 Poor fellow I I hope you never led him to believe 
 that there was the least chance " 
 
 He stopped short and observed how extraordinarily 
 attractive she had grown. He had always been a 
 judge of beauty, and he knew the kind of charm 
 which appealed to the best type of man. Clementine 
 possessed that charm — it was partly composed of shy- 
 ness, partly of sympathy, partly of gaiety, but chiefly 
 of a deep, unchangeable innocence which the know- 
 ledge of evil could neither destroy nor mar. He 
 thrilled with pride as the conviction of her assured 
 power over the world flashed across his mind. Men 
 and women too would acknowledge her spell. Her 
 youth would pass no doubt, her fresh brilliancy fade a 
 little, but the essential lovableness of her nature would 
 last as long as she lived.
 
 i8o LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "But you are not having the right opportunities !" 
 he exclaimed, finishing his thoughts aloud. "Some- 
 thing must be done before business and lawyers have 
 demoralised me utterly." 
 
 At moments he was conscious that the terrible work 
 of demoralisation had begun, and his one cure for the 
 melancholy produced by this reflection was an opium 
 pill. Long before he had sometimes taken this remedy 
 most unwillingly for neuralgia. The prejudice in his 
 mind against drugs was waning. Had not Providence 
 provided a solace for the killing cares of life ? Why 
 quarrel with benefits ? 
 
 " My darling," said he suddenly, " I wish I had 
 never been forced to think about money. It is 
 degrading."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER ALL THINGS 
 
 Mr. Cobden Duryee was as astonished as his know- 
 ledge of life permitted him to be at Prince Paul's 
 demeanour in the United States. Without surprise 
 and without effort, the young man had responded to 
 the incalculable moods of that vast cosmopolitan 
 democracy. But his innate character received no 
 modification ; he longed perpetually for the country 
 of Urseville-Beylestein and the sceptre of his ancestors. 
 An aristocrat can never alter ; the traditions of caste 
 are stronger than the strongest religious belief, and 
 men who have changed the faith of all their ancestors 
 have never surrendered their pride in possessing a 
 certain rank, or their desire to exercise a once 
 acknowledged rule. Prince Paul at his simplest never 
 forgot that he was a monarch's son — the descendant 
 of a great and glorious dynasty ; he belonged to the 
 Lord's Anointed — he had grave responsibilities, but 
 also a magnificent distinction. His easy, winning 
 manner was the result of this inherent creed. When 
 
 iSi
 
 i82 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 he heard that there was petroleum in the province of 
 Largs, he showed the first excitement which Mr. 
 Duryee had ever seen on his handsome, occasionally 
 arrogant countenance. 
 
 " 1 must know what they are doing. I must go 
 back at once. I must be on the spot," he cried. The 
 American, always interested in new speculations, 
 offered to accompany him, and the two set out for 
 Liverpool. La Belle Valentine and Mrs. Basil HoUe- 
 mache, with a staff of secretaries, companions, and 
 maids, followed them three days later. Prince Paul 
 had grown to regard Lucie Hollemache as a most 
 interesting young woman. She had neither the 
 quickness of mind nor the dashing beauty of many 
 Americans, but she was mysterious ; she made no 
 attempt to amuse or attract him ; she would look far 
 away into space when he actually tried to make him- 
 self agreeable ; she was amiable enough, yet she kept 
 him at a distance, received his compliments, charming 
 notes, flowers, and books as mere random civilities. 
 He had never before been so treated, and, had the 
 indifference been assumed, it would have proved 
 unsuccessful. But it was genuine ; she cared nothing 
 about him or any one else — so far as he could gather. 
 She seemed an enigma, and, whereas a more common- 
 place man would have either disliked her for her 
 coldness or avoided her altogether as a person whom 
 no mortal could understand, the Prince was fascinated 
 by the strangeness of her temperament. Lucie obtained,
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER 183 
 
 by not striving to do so, a great ascendancy over his 
 tastes ; it soon became apparent to the members of his 
 suite that Mrs. Hollemache's word was paramount. 
 He poured out to her the secrets and the ambitions of 
 his heart, to which she would invariably reply : 
 
 " They are too deep for me. But it is very fine to 
 feel like that." 
 
 He intended to offer romantic protestations some 
 day, although he had not yet done so, for he feared to 
 disturb the charm and intimacy of their curious 
 relationship. Besides, he did not love her. "One 
 cannot love so many," he told Duryee, who had heard 
 the pathetic history of the Countess Sophia ; " the 
 days are past when, as Dumas says somewhere, one 
 ruined duchesses and was ruined by opera-dancers. It 
 would seem vulgar." The real cause of his self- 
 restraint was a certain haunting recollection of 
 Clementine. She always stood, not among his 
 morganatic loves possible or impossible, but among 
 the Princesses — one of whom he would have to choose 
 eventually for his wife. They were the Princess 
 Marie, his first cousin ; the Princess Adelaide, his first 
 cousin once removed ; and the Princess Olga, his first 
 cousin twice removed. 
 
 " Of course, I can never marry Clementine 
 Gloucester," he would say to himself impatiently. 
 Several times he thought of writing to her, but he 
 checked the impulse because it was too strong to be 
 strictly prudent. If he could not write as he felt —
 
 i84 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 and his feelings were more than kind — he preferred to 
 remain silent. 
 
 During the voyage to England he realised that one 
 of his first pleasures on arriving would be a meeting 
 with the Gloucesters. The father and daughter had 
 a homely simplicity which refreshed those who were 
 trying to emphasise the enjoyments of life by making 
 them its chief end. The Prince was tired now of 
 elaborate inanities. It is true that his brain was busy 
 with many projects. He read works on finance, and 
 talked with Cobdcn Duryee from noon till the small 
 hours of the morning about petroleum, mines, com- 
 pany promoting, the Stock Exchange, Trusts, and 
 banking. On moonlight nights, when the sea had the 
 green of dark emeralds and the bright sky was softened 
 with small grey floating clouds, the two men would 
 pace the deck arm-in-arm discussing the money 
 market, till their jaws grew rigid, and their lips thin, 
 and their eyes harsh at the thought of the determina- 
 tion, the sharpness, the strength needed in the conduct 
 of business affairs. 
 
 Duryee had the name of being hard but fair in 
 his dealings, although he had ruined thousands of 
 unimportant persons during the course of his 
 career. 
 
 " You must do it," he said to Prince Paul ; " they 
 are going to ruin themselves anyway — that is part of 
 the economy of Providence. The intelligent man 
 can always turn another man's inevitable ruin to his
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER 185 
 
 own advantage. That is the whole secret of success. 
 Utilise other people's failures." 
 
 No woman's name ever passed their lips during the 
 voyage. At Oueenstown the Prince received a letter 
 from Mr. Biclcersteth, saying that he had taken the 
 Marquis of Stokehampton's seat in Suffolk for the 
 summer months. Would the Prince give Mrs. Bicker- 
 steth and himself the honour of a visit ? Would the 
 Prince also say whom he would like invited to join 
 the party ? Paul sent a long telegram in reply accept- 
 ing the charming proposal, and suggesting that Mr. 
 and Mrs. Sachs, Mr. Cobden Duryee, Dr. Fels- 
 hammer, and Mr. and Miss Gloucester should be 
 included in the house-party. 
 
 Felshammer, who looked to the Prince much 
 thinner and somewhat haggard, met them at Liver- 
 pool. The three dined together at the Adelphi Hotel 
 and talked till five in the morning about petroleum. 
 They travelled to London a few hours later and talked 
 on the same subject all the way. Duryee had one of 
 his secretaries in the saloon carriage, and he dictated 
 letters, telegrams, and cables at intervals. These last 
 were dispatched at Rugby. Mr. Sachs and Mr. 
 Bickersteth were awaiting at Euston Station. Each 
 gentleman had brought a brougham and pair for the 
 Prince's use. But, thanking them, he drove with 
 Felshammer in a hansom to the Carlton Hotel, while 
 Duryee went off in another cab to some chambers 
 which he always kept in Piccadilly. The three had
 
 i86 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 arranged to meet again at dinner in order to resume 
 their discussion of petroleum. The next day they all 
 went up to Stokehampton Hall, and in the train they 
 were once more able to concentrate on petroleum 
 without hindrance. 
 
 Stokehampton Hall, which was built during the 
 reign of Henry VIIL, stands in a fine park, and is 
 surrounded by a wide moat. The atmosphere of the 
 whole estate — far from the town and railways — is still 
 feudal, and it would not seem an appropriate back- 
 ground for a group of financiers bent on the formation 
 of a City enterprise. A thought to this effect darted 
 into Prince Paul's mind as they went down the avenue 
 of superb elm-trees which, with the grandeur of a 
 Gothic aisle in an old cathedral, led to the main 
 entrance and the picturesque drawbridge. 
 
 The peacocks strutting over the splendid turf 
 screamed in terror, and the doves and rooks alike flew 
 towards the sky, at the sight of Mr. Bickersteth's 
 motor-car rushing through their beautiful, stately, and 
 historic demesne. Cardinal Wolsey had read his office 
 in the noble garden ; Queen Elizabeth had danced as 
 a young girl on the lawn ; James I. had rested in the 
 house for two days ; Vandyck had painted portraits 
 there ; the great Duke of Marlborough had written 
 letters in the oak library ; Congreve had composed an 
 act of one of his comedies in a little ante-room ; 
 Handel had played on its harpsichord near the spinet 
 which had belonged to Queen Mary j Charles L, with
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER 187 
 
 Queen Henrietta Maria, had supped in the banquet- 
 hall and slept in the wonderful tapestried rooms. The 
 place was full of many striking associations. Its 
 hereditary possessor, the Marquis of Stokehampton, 
 was always ill at ease there ; he had grown estranged 
 from all the traditions of his family ; he was glad to be 
 rid of what he called " a white elephant," and he lived 
 by preference at the Savoy Hotel, London, or at the 
 Ritz in Paris. 
 
 All the guests had assembled to receive the Prince 
 in the picture gallery at the top of the carved staircase. 
 Rachel Bickersteth amazed him by her air of dis- 
 tinction. Mrs. Sachs pleased him by her vivacious 
 smile and the fact that he had never seen her before ; 
 but when he discovered Clementine, standing half 
 hidden behind an immense screen, his heart leapt, he 
 forgot that he was being observed, and she herself 
 trembled with joy at the delight which showed in his 
 features. 
 
 " Miss Gloucester ! " he exclaimed. " You see I 
 have come back far sooner than Peer Gynt." 
 
 The others could not understand the allusion, but 
 Felshammer suffered torture at the sight of the girl's 
 happiness. When he shook hands with her, her hands 
 felt like little birds struggling to get free ; she looked 
 away from him, and, utterly unable to speak, slipped 
 away to her father's side. She had not wished to 
 accept Mrs. Bickersteth 's invitation to Stokehampton 
 Hall, and the ordeal of meeting Prince Paul had
 
 1 88 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 seemed too painful even for her own unusual courage. 
 What would happen ? What could they say to each 
 other ? Mere friendship between them was something 
 which she could not offer and dared not cultivate ; 
 indifference was impossible. In such cases one had to 
 live perpetually in mask and armour, guarding every 
 word, look, movement, tone, only to possess at last, by 
 the strain of such severe self-restraint, a dead heart 
 which could no longer need any control. This grim 
 reward for fortitude appalled her bright and naturally 
 gay imagination. She wanted her heart to live so long 
 as she lived, and perhaps in that other world elsewhere. 
 But a complete separation from the Prince seemed the 
 best safeguard of her dignity ; it was one thing to love 
 in silence, without hope, no doubt, but at least unde- 
 tected ; it was altogether another thing to carry a 
 perilous secret affection in circumstances which might 
 compel in a hundred ways its irreparable betrayal. 
 Under the first rapturous surprise of his greeting, she 
 had forgotten every barrier between them, she had 
 forgotten the company, forgotten the jealous, watchful 
 gaze of Felshammer. A moment afterwards, every 
 danger of the situation seemed magnified, and when 
 the men, after tea, went to the smoking-room, she fled 
 upstairs in order to school herself afresh for the diffi- 
 cult time which was to come. They all reassembled 
 before dinner in a beautiful white panelled drawing- 
 room full of Sevres china in cabinets. Clen:>cntine had 
 dressed plainly in black, but she knew that she was
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER 189 
 
 looking her best. Her colouring had never seemed so 
 brilliant, and Mrs. Sachs, a good-natured woman, could 
 not help wondering whether the girl was not using 
 paint on her cheeks and mouth. Nadeshda had been 
 greatly surprised when she heard that the Gloucesters 
 were coming to Stokehampton. She did not know 
 them, and, inasmuch as the party was a business 
 matter, a strictly private meeting in the pleasantest 
 way between Messrs. Sachs and Bickersteth and 
 Prince Paul of Urseville - Beylestein, Clementine 
 Gloucester seemed a remarkable addition to the 
 group. Rachel Bickersteth hinted, however, that 
 Dr. Felshammer was deeply in love with poor old 
 Gloucester's daughter. 
 
 " Oh, I see ! " said Nadeshda. " That explains 
 everything. How kind and clever of the Prince to 
 arrange such an opportunity for a proposal ! " 
 
 Both ladies were thus absorbed in watching the 
 progress and development of Felshammer's suit. They 
 were especially satisfied by Clementine's quiet, elusive 
 manner with the secretary. She avoided him, although 
 it was evident that the two knew each other more 
 than well. She made every effort, they thought, to 
 conceal her conquest, and did not seek to display, as 
 many others would certainly have done, her power 
 over the hard, almost inaccessible man. Rachel and 
 Nadeshda, who disagreed on every subject, were 
 divided more bitterly than usual in their opinion of 
 Felshammer. While they acknowledged that he was
 
 190 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 a valuable addition to the firm, Rachel thought him 
 sympathetic, honest, and faithful ; whereas Nadeshda 
 regarded him as unscrupulous, rather brutal, calcu- 
 lating, and uncertain. 
 
 "Just the one for his post," she added. " Oscar can 
 use his brains and watch him." 
 
 This idea was odious to Rachel. 
 
 " If I felt as you do about him," she told Nadeshda, 
 "I would not have him in my house." 
 
 Nadeshda laughed. "That's an indirect graceful 
 compliment to all your guests," she said quickly ; 
 "you are really a dear woman." 
 
 She did in truth think her hostess a dear woman, 
 but she disliked her cordially nevertheless. Rachel's 
 imperial manner, contempt for the world, indifference 
 to the pleasures of life, roused the younger woman's 
 unwilling respect ; they challenged her own fever for 
 success, and were an incessant irritation to her restless 
 mind. Rachel, moreover, had been a great heiress, 
 which made Bickersteth the richer man in the firm, 
 although he was the junior partner. To Nadeshda 
 this seemed hard ; sometimes she cried and made 
 Oscar Sachs, who adored her, most unhappy, because, 
 with all his wealth, he could not spend so much money 
 as Bickersteth, or see his wife in such magnificent 
 jewels. 
 
 At dinner, Sachs sat next to Clementine, and, while 
 he admired her appearance, he was annoyed to think 
 that she might marry his manager and take social
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER 191 
 
 precedence of Nadeshda. Men who concentrate their 
 intellect on great projects, financial, imperial, and 
 otherwise, will often become very small in their 
 domestic ideas. Sachs, in the home circle, was as 
 petty as a little power in a provincial parish. 
 Nadeshda, who had fostered this capacity for silliness, 
 sometimes found him narrow-minded — he was too apt 
 to imagine that she was being slighted or placed to 
 some disadvantage. Such suspicions offended her 
 vanity and also her common sense, which really was 
 common to a robust decree. She smiled at Oscar 
 several times during the course of the dinner in order 
 to let him know how happy she was with the Prince. 
 He sat between herself and Rachel, and as Rachel said 
 little or nothing, although she looked regal, Mrs. 
 Sachs carried off" the conversational honours. She was 
 the life of the table, and made an hour, which might 
 have passed in painful dulness, as satisfactory as the 
 unexceptionable cooking. Poor Clementine, who sat 
 opposite, heard, from the laughter, how greatly the 
 Prince was amused by the companion on his left, but 
 she kept her eyes fixed on her plate, because she was 
 afraid to look where she longed to look, and she 
 shrunk from encountering Felshammer's burning 
 glance, of which she was now uncomfortably con- 
 scious. Oblivious of the others, he barely took part 
 in the talk or tasted any food, but, absorbed in his own 
 jealous feelings and thoughts, stared, almost entranced, 
 at the embarrassed object of his unhappy love. There
 
 192 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 is no granite where there has not first been fire — some 
 convulsive violence underneath the earth — and in the 
 same way Felshammer's outward hardness was due to 
 a volcanic nature which, ill-subdued in his early youth, 
 had become a merely tempered ferocity in his middle- 
 age. 
 
 "How I hate Paul!" he thought. "Why did 
 I ever admire his effeminate face ? How could I 
 have stood his mannerisms ? Why do such inver- 
 tebrate creatures please the best women ? He is not 
 a man — he is bric-a-brac^ or rather a troubadour." 
 But, as he felt too surely the unfairness of these 
 strictures, they did not console him. " How he flirts 
 with every woman he meets ! " he reflected. " He is 
 gazing now at Mrs. Sachs as though he had never 
 seen her equal on this earth. Will Clementine have 
 the sense to take that lesson to heart ? Paul cares for 
 no one but himself; he is agreeable out of sheer 
 vanity. I am sick to death of his conceit." 
 
 Although his old fondness for Prince Paul had given 
 place to a cruel and infinite resentment, he meant to 
 keep scrupulously loyal in the conduct of their busi- 
 ness relations. He desired to see him dead — not to 
 see him fail. He had never harboured the least envy 
 of the Prince's position, prospects, or wealth j he 
 wished him to reign over Urseville-Beylestein ; he 
 hoped earnestly that if he lived he would come into his 
 own. But he could not have Clementine. Clementine 
 was not for any Prince Paul.
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER 193 
 
 As the ladies left the drawing-room Felshammer 
 fixed her with his glance, and she was so overcome by 
 terror at his dire and menacing expression that she 
 almost sank on the ground. Surely there was no love 
 in such a threatening look I Surely it was a kind of 
 madness ! 
 
 "You are ill, Miss Gloucester," said Rachel, as 
 the three ladies went into the state saloon, which was 
 lit up with dozens of wax candles in rose-coloured 
 shades. They twinkled and floated before Clementine's 
 eyes till she could see nothing else. 
 
 "It is a hot night," observed Mrs. Sachs, watching 
 her with an amused expression. In her opinion the 
 girl was hysterical. 
 
 " If I may," said poor Clementine, " I should like 
 to go to my own room. Don't frighten papa, but ask 
 him to come to me presently when they begin to play 
 cards. He won't be missed then.'* 
 
 " Yes, you had better lie down," said Rachel, with 
 serene kindness. She saw that Clementine was not 
 over-interested in Dr. Felshammer. 
 
 Half an hour later, Mr. Gloucester, much agitated, 
 entered his daughter's room. She was standing in the 
 centre of the floor as though she had been hewn out of 
 stone and placed there. But anger had so transformed 
 her features that he scarcely recognised her face ; it 
 was bloodless, quivering, and fierce ; she seemed 
 scarcely able to breathe, and she shook with the 
 vehemence of her feelings.
 
 194 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Papa," she exclaimed, " if you do not pay that 
 man, I shall die of humiliation. He thinks I am in 
 his power. He thinks he will break my spirit. Unless 
 you want me to die, pay him." 
 
 *' Do you mean Felshammer, my darling ? What 
 has he done ? The Prince was just saying how clever 
 and trustworthy he was." 
 
 " Pay him ! " said Clementine, stamping her foot. 
 "He takes the very heart out of my life. I can't 
 think, I can't speak, I cannot rest, sleep, or eat till we 
 have paid back every farthing." 
 
 " This is your fancy," said Mr. Gloucester ; 
 " calm yourself. I never knew that you had such 
 a temper." 
 
 " I never knew it myself," she answered. " But 
 that man will rouse everything that is bad wherever he 
 goes. He is an evil influence. He frightens me. 
 He is wicked ! " 
 
 Mr. Gloucester sat down on the sofa and held his 
 side. 
 
 " How can I possibly pay him ? " he asked. 
 
 *' Borrow it from some one else." 
 
 " I have no security." 
 
 " What security did you offer him ? " 
 
 " Nothing. He behaved most handsomely. I 
 think myself he is a rough diamond. He is one of 
 Nature's gentlemen. He is the one man among all 
 the hundreds I know who has helped me." 
 
 *' Can I go against my own instincts ? He is no
 
 WHEN MONEY DOES NOT ANSWER 195 
 
 friend. Once he was, but something has changed 
 him. Oh, what shall I do ? What shall I do ? " 
 
 She struck her forehead with her clenched hand. 
 
 " I feel degraded," she went on. " I feel as though 
 I had been bought and paid for against my will." 
 
 " But what has he said or done ? " 
 
 " It is in his air. He has not said one word." 
 
 Mr. Gloucester murmured again that it was her 
 fancy. Yet he was miserable at the sight of 
 Clementine's distress. He had never thought that 
 she could show anger, and the unexpected revelation 
 of her strength of feeling was in itself a shock to the 
 languid old man. Nor was he able to persuade him- 
 self that she was wrong ; on the contrary, he knew, 
 in his conscience, that she was right. 
 
 " I will do what I can," he said. 
 
 "But what?" she asked. "I must know this 
 time what you intend to do." 
 
 " Never mind for the moment. I have thought of 
 an old friend — some one I knew years ago." 
 
 " I wish you would tell me who it is." 
 
 *' I cannot," he said, with surprising firmness. 
 "That is absolutely impossible. You need have no 
 fear, however, that it will lead to unpleasantness. Now 
 go to bed, my dear, and try to sleep. God knows I 
 am grieved and broken." 
 
 He kissed her good-night and stole gently away. 
 She heard the men talking and laughing in excited 
 tones in the room beneath till the small hours of the
 
 196 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 morning. They were still discussing petroleum ; 
 Felshammer's voice dominated the others ; but, when 
 the Prince spoke, it seemed to the girl like music 
 breaking through the growls and snarls of hungry 
 animals. When all became silent, she got up and sat 
 by the window to watch for the dawn. A numb 
 foreboding of sorrow had taken possession of her once 
 calm soul. She began to understand that she would 
 have to fight her own battle in life, and such thoughts 
 were hard to a nature gentle and unassertive by choice, 
 yet capable of great endurance, determination, love, 
 and wrath.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 A QUESTION OF UNDERCURRENTS 
 
 Prince Paul watched eagerly all the next day for 
 an opportunity of speaking alone with Clementine. 
 At last, after lunch, the occasion presented itself, and 
 he asked her to show him the Dutch garden, which 
 had been designed as a compliment to William of 
 Orange, and was one of the most curious examples 
 of the kind in England. 
 
 " Do you know," said Paul, looking at the girl as 
 they walked together on the grass path, " that you are 
 the one person in this party who seems in perfect 
 harmony with our surroundings ? 1 could imagine 
 you here, the daughter of some Spanish grandee, in 
 the court of Catharine of Aragon. They tell me she 
 once spent a week at Stokehampton. Would you 
 have liked a court life I " 
 
 " Court life according to Dumas," she answered, 
 
 smiling. "I don't know any other kind well." 
 
 " But your Aunt Emmelinewas a maid of honour." 
 
 197
 
 198 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "Please remember, sir, my Aunt Emmeline's 
 discretion. She neither asked questions nor answered 
 them." 
 
 " You seem to resemble her. You have not asked 
 me, for instance, what I think about America. I 
 will tell you. When I met the Secretaries of State at 
 Washington, I felt as though I were dining with the 
 northern gods — Odin, Thor, Balder, and the rest. 
 Their look of power was stupendous. In New York 
 I encountered fabulous kindness, unbelievable wealth, 
 and a display which is called modern, because it is a 
 repetition of the Renaissance without the inspiration, 
 the taste, the genius of that period. Great riches have 
 led at all times to precisely the same sort of extrava- 
 gance. The word modern is ridiculous. New York 
 is old Venice without St. Mark. I miss the scenery 
 and the saint — nothing else. And now, unless you 
 are as uncommunicative as your austere aunt, tell me 
 what you have been doing ? '* 
 
 "Very little," said the girl. "I have been in 
 London, and I have seen few people." 
 
 " You saw Felshammer ? " 
 
 Clementine flushed. " He has been kind to my 
 father." 
 
 "Felshammer is secretive; he rarely mentions his 
 own affairs or talks about his friends. What do you 
 think of him ? " 
 
 " I think he is deeply attached to you," said 
 Clementine, after a moment's hesitation, and they
 
 A QUESTION OF UNDERCURRENTS 199 
 
 stopped to admire a tree that was cut in the shape of 
 a boat on a pedestal. 
 
 " Do you suppose," said the Prince, " that many 
 people are attached to me ? " 
 
 " Not many." 
 
 « Why not ? " 
 
 " Because many would fear lest you should think 
 that their friendship was interested" — and she looked 
 at another tree which was cut to resemble a bird. 
 
 " But I have little to offer any^one. I am an exile. 
 My chances of coming to the throne are remote 
 indeed. My brother may reign, yet I doubt that 
 too. My poor country, from all I hear, is going fast 
 to the devil and the companies." 
 
 " If the people are happy and prosperous, you will 
 not care." 
 
 " I cannot be so certain about my unselfishness. I 
 believe I want my own inheritance ; otherwise, where 
 is my occupation ? What is my calling ? Can I 
 become a soldier of fortune and fight for other nations 
 — an alien always ? They don't wish me in anything ; 
 I am horribly in the way here." He dropped his 
 voice and glanced over his shoulder. There was no 
 one in sight. " Both Sachs and Bickersteth are 
 annoyed to find that I insist upon knowing the details 
 of my own business. But I did not come out to dis- 
 cuss petroleum — that is for the men. I want to tell 
 you how much I have thought about you while I was 
 away."
 
 200 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " I wonder what you thought ? " 
 
 "Ah, then you have a little curiosity after all ! I 
 am reassured. I was beginning to fear I had loved 
 an angel." 
 
 She dared not allow herself to hear this, and she 
 called his attention to the tulips. 
 
 "I saw no one so beautiful in America," he 
 continued. 
 
 " That is strange, because the flowers there, I have 
 been told, are glorious." 
 
 " Nonsense ! You heard what I said that time. I 
 meant you. No one, I repeat, was so beautiful." 
 
 " This distresses me, because it is not true." 
 
 " It is true so far as I am a judge, at any rate. But 
 why do you draw away and look pre-occupied ? You 
 make me absurdly nervous. Are you so prim ? " 
 
 " Because I don't see why you should pay me 
 compliments. I dislike them ; they are flattery, and 
 flattery might make me better-tempered than I ought 
 to be in the circumstances." 
 
 " On my honour, I am not flattering you. I mean 
 that I have thought almost incessantly about you, and 
 I intended to tell you so the first time we met. I 
 asked Mrs. Bickersteth to invite you here in order 
 that we might talk. I need your friendship." 
 
 " But what of that. What is it when it is said ? " 
 
 " I think it is a great deal ; it may mean as much 
 as you wish — more than you wish." 
 
 " No, it may not. You have no right to say such
 
 A QUESTION OF UNDERCURRENTS 201 
 
 things to me even if they are a little bit, only a little 
 bit, true. How do you know that they don't make 
 me unhappy.'* 
 
 " I hoped it would make you happy.'* 
 
 " How can anything hopeless and fruitless be happy ? 
 To me friendship is a serious gift." 
 
 " I am all seriousness." 
 
 "I see no sign of seriousness at all — quite the 
 reverse. You have an hour to spare and you want it 
 to be as amusing as the occasion and your companion 
 permit. But I was never good at charades. I can't 
 improvise dialogue." 
 
 " I am not tragic — if you mean that. Just look at 
 the day ! We might be in Italy or Greece. I did 
 not know that you had such skies in the eastern 
 counties. And isn't that the nightingale ! Yet you 
 are ofFended because I attempt to tell you — very 
 badly, I admit — that there is no one in the world I 
 admire and respect as I admire you." 
 
 " And what then ? " said Clementine. 
 
 " But you are prosaic. Miss Gloucester," said the 
 Prince, somewhat confused. " I believe that I was 
 hoping that you had something pleasant to say to me." 
 
 " Would it gratify you to hear that I thought of 
 no one except you ! " 
 
 " It would enchant me j it might alter my whole 
 career." 
 
 " It would be far more likely to alter mine ! " 
 
 " Why are you so incredulous ? "
 
 202 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 Clementine did not know how to explain that she 
 had once before been told that she was loved, and that 
 the manner of the telling was very different from this. 
 The comparison was painful. Much as she now 
 disliked Felshammer, she knew that he had been 
 in earnest. She saw, with wounded pride, that the 
 Prince was trifling with his own sentiments and 
 hers. 
 
 " He shall have a lesson," she said in her heart ; 
 *' some day he at least will speak differently." 
 
 " Why are you so incredulous ? " he repeated. 
 
 " I will be frank, sir. Flirting amuses you ; it bores 
 me, and, as boredom makes a deeper impression on 
 my mind than flirting, no matter how successful, 
 could ever make on yours, I think I must beg to be 
 considered first." She spoke gaily, coloured, and 
 laughed. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that I bore you ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, when you say that you think of me 
 incessantly. If that is the truth, it may account for 
 your dulness in dealing with the theme. I have never 
 known you to be dull on any other subject." 
 
 " But this is enormous ! " 
 
 " I think it mere tedious commonplace. Confess 
 you have not known what to do with yourself this 
 afternoon. You thought, ' I must turn that girl's 
 head. It will be an easy matter, because she's im- 
 pressionable, and she has seen little of the world, less 
 of men, and she will find no reason on earth why I,
 
 A QUESTION OF UNDERCURRENTS 203 
 
 with all my thousand acquaintances, pursuits, occupa- 
 tions, interests, and duties, should not be absorbed for 
 months in the consideration, say, of her short nose ! 
 She may possibly think my nose and profile generally 
 divine, but that is not my fault. Experience is good 
 for all of us ; it will assist the maturing of her 
 unformed character to believe in my protestations for, 
 roughly, some years. She may grow to be grateful to 
 me in time, and she will remember, till she grows too 
 old to remember anything else, the lovely half-hour 
 we spent together in an old garden one Whitsuntide 
 in the country, looking at tulips and trees and each 
 other, and pretending to be alive ! ' " 
 
 '■^ Mon Dieul There is no pretence. I never 
 heard such a withering speech. I feel quite small. 
 I knew you were unusual, but I never suspected that 
 you could be so — so eloquent.'* 
 
 " But have I made myself perfectly clear ? " 
 " Too clear. Your upper-lip is very angry." 
 " Your opinion of my upper-lip does not matter ! 
 All that matters is that we should understand each 
 other. It is an insult to tell any woman in a flippant, 
 careless way, that you admire her. You see, you need 
 not tell her anything.'* 
 
 "You're very severe, but your voice is delightful, 
 and you look as gentle as the goddess Flora. You 
 can't persuade me that you are offended.'* 
 
 " How could I be offended over such a small 
 matter ? '*
 
 204 ^-OVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Ah, it is not a small matter ! You have made 
 me miserable.** 
 
 " Nevertheless," she said, smiling, " the nightingale 
 still sings 1 '* 
 
 " I want you to forgive me for thinking absurdities 
 I never thought, and saying things I never said. That 
 may sound silly, but it is sincere. And you must 
 believe that I did have you in my mind often, and I 
 do like you much more than I dare tell you,** 
 
 " I dare say you do like me. I like you too ; that is 
 why we are able to talk plainly. I was hurt, that is 
 all, when you tried to deceive me by offering me 
 exaggerated, untrue compliments, instead of a small 
 genuine confidence in my good sense. You don't 
 know what love means ; you have not the slightest 
 notion of what it means. It has never touched you, 
 never passed you by, never been near you ! '* 
 
 " Then do you know what it means? '* 
 
 "I will know it when I meet it. I have not met it 
 to-day — that is certain." 
 
 " Excuse me, it is not so certain — if you refer to 
 me.** 
 
 "Yes, I referred to you. I think I have proved 
 my friendship amply by listening to so much as I did, 
 and taking the trouble to explain my point of view. 
 Now we must go in. They want to take you for a 
 drive, I know.'* 
 
 He returned with her to the house and did not 
 speak again. But he struck at the ground with his
 
 A QUESTION OF UNDERCURRENTS 205 
 
 cane as he walked, and tried to appear absorbed in 
 impersonal reflections on abstract ideas. He told 
 himself she was rather hard and unwomanly and un- 
 lovable, and he wished she would look at him once 
 more in order that he might return the glance with 
 all the haughtiness at his command. She did look 
 just as she crossed the drawbridge, but she took him 
 by surprise, and, to his annoyance, he smiled with 
 extraordinary affection, spontaneously.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 LA BELLE VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 
 AND UTTERS IT 
 
 Mme. de Montgenays, wearing a Chinese robe of 
 cherry-coloured satin lined with sable — the fur was 
 necessary because she felt the cold even in June — 
 Mme. de Montgenays was reclining on the sofa of her 
 private sitting-room at Claridge's Hotel when a card, 
 engraved with the name of Dr. Karl Felshammer, was 
 brought to her. She read it, smiled, and asked the 
 waiter to show the gentleman up. During the 
 interval which passed between the delivery of this 
 message and the appearance of her visitor, she put on 
 a pair of unbecoming eyeglasses which she wore, as 
 a rule, before devoted women, servants, and incon- 
 siderable men only. Then she resumed the task of 
 turning over letters — most of them from the grateful 
 secretaries of the various charities to which she was a 
 constant and munificent subscriber. 
 
 " I am glad to see you," she said, when Felshammer 
 
 206
 
 VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 207 
 
 came in. " Is this a call on your own account, or do 
 you bring me any message ? " 
 
 Having kissed her hand, he chose a seat with his 
 back to the light, and wondered that she appeared so 
 young, smooth, and beautiful facing it. 
 
 " 1 have called on my own account," he said. 
 
 " That is very charming of you. I was longing to 
 hear some news. How do you think I look I " 
 
 « Perfect ! » 
 
 "Well, I haven't been to America, you know, 
 since I was a little girl. The climate braced me right 
 up ; if you could have seen me going round the old 
 schoolhouse again and kissing the trees I used to climb 
 when I wanted to see Cobden Duryee just starting 
 for college, you would have thought I was about four. 
 Not a day more ! The tears of sorrow I have shed in 
 those trees watching Cobden sally forth with two tweed 
 suits and the family Bible in his grip-sack ! But you 
 look terribly ill. Are you suffering from insomnia ? " 
 
 " Yes, to a certain extent." 
 
 " That is too bad ! Have you made up your mind 
 to settle down in London ? " She fixed her piercing 
 eyes upon his, and showed her astonishment plainly at 
 the changes in his countenance. 
 
 " I expect to make London my headquarters, but I 
 shall go rather frequently to Largs." 
 
 " Largs is a sound deal," she observed placidly. " I 
 believe in it, and I think you are the man to work it. 
 Cobden thinks so too."
 
 2o8 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "It is kind of you to say that. How is Mrs. 
 Hollemache ? Is she with you ? " 
 
 " Ah ! " she exclaimed, clapping her hands. " I 
 know now why you called. You want to find out 
 whether Prince Paul and Lucie are chums." 
 
 "It would be foolish to attempt any concealment 
 with you. That is why I came to the point crudely. 
 Is Mrs. Hollemache in good spirits ? " 
 
 " She is never in good spirits," said Mme. de 
 Montgenays, rearranging her rings ; " that is why she 
 is so reposeful. She is as strong as a tower of bricks, 
 but she is naturally lymphatic. I need some one like 
 that with me all the time." 
 
 "I think she is an ideal friend for the Prince." 
 
 " Well, that is just what I am wondering — is she ? " 
 said La Belle. " They get on well, but not quite well 
 enough. Do you follow me ? " 
 
 " Has he ever spoken to you of Miss Gloucester ? '* 
 
 " Never. Why ? What about her ? " 
 
 "If Miss Gloucester had a touch of wickedness 
 or a greater knowledge of men, she could influence 
 him." 
 
 His companion burst out laughing and seemed 
 much entertained by the humour of her own reflec- 
 tions. " How funny ! How funny ! I shall die ! " 
 she exclaimed, in extreme merriment. " You don't 
 say so ! That surprises me ! You think Clementine 
 ought to have a touch of wickedness. Don't worry ! 
 I guess it will develop."
 
 VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 209 
 
 " Pardon me — I could suggest no improvement. 
 But I noticed Paul and the girl together at Stoke- 
 hampton. I am opposed to their friendship on various 
 grounds." 
 
 " This is exciting. Tell me what you think ! " 
 
 " You are a woman of the world, madame. You 
 will understand me when I say that it is my earnest 
 wish to marry Miss Gloucester." 
 
 " For Heaven's sake ! You want to marry her ! 
 You ! " She stared at him till he left his chair and 
 walked away. He considered her manners atrocious 
 and thought he had never before encountered a woman 
 altogether without tact. 
 
 " So you want to marry her ! " she repeated. 
 " The last man on earth, I'd swear, to marry a young 
 green girl ! Why, you must be crazy ! It's all out 
 of tune." 
 
 "I don't pretend to be in the running with Prince 
 Paul," said Felshammer; " but," he added, with a 
 sarcastic smile, " I have this advantage over him — I 
 could have marriage only in my mind, whereas it is 
 the one thing which would never enter his — so far as 
 Miss Gloucester is concerned. 
 
 La Belle Valentine showed some resentment. 
 
 "I am not so sure about that. Couldn't it be a 
 morganatic affair ? " 
 
 " My dear lady, how can you suggest such a 
 thing — even for the sake of argument ! In the first 
 place, the Prince has always had the greatest prejudice
 
 210 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 against alliances of the kind ; and in the second place, 
 the one sort of woman to whom he might be tempted 
 to offer such a position would be the very last to 
 accept it." 
 
 " He could renounce his right to the throne. It's 
 pretty remote. You couldn't call it a sacrifice." 
 
 " Believe me, it is not worth discussing. I am sure 
 that he has the deepest respect for Miss Gloucester, 
 but I know him as you do not and cannot, and I tell 
 you that he has no other end in his attentions than to 
 amuse himself for the season with the most fascinating 
 girl I have ever met or he is likely to meet. Now, 
 for her sake, this ought to be discouraged. She is 
 nothing to you, I know." 
 
 Valentine stared at him again. 
 
 " Then why do you want me to interfere ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 "Because it is to our common advantage, I think, 
 that he should be so engrossed in other things that 
 they will put love affairs out of his mind. I am too 
 sane not to see that Miss Gloucester might be 
 dangerously attracted by him. Would that be to her 
 discredit? Quite the contrary! But, if he must 
 flirt, let him flirt with Mrs. Hollemache. Surely 
 that would suit your purpose and the purpose of 
 Mr. Duryee much better ! I am tolerably certain 
 that Mrs. Hollemache was brought to Salso in order 
 to amuse His Royal Highness. Your plan succeeded, 
 and it does credit to your foresight. I never inter-
 
 VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 211 
 
 fered — in fact, I thought it would improve him a 
 good deal to go to America in your party. I did 
 not oppose the project. What is more, I like Mrs. 
 Hollemache. Her influence is good. She cures his 
 conceit and his priggishness — faults of youth." 
 
 " Yes," said Valentine, " we have had a happy time. 
 But you mustn't try to rush me into decisions one 
 way or the other. I have got to think matters 
 over. I still don't see why I should interfere." 
 
 " I can tell you why. If he once takes up this 
 caprice in good earnest, neither you nor your friends 
 will see him again for weeks. You must remember 
 that I know the man. Every new and pretty face 
 tempts him to some kind of psychological experiment, 
 and when you have a lovely girl like Clementine 
 Gloucester there is a certain danger in the situa- 
 tion." 
 
 " I am glad you call it psychological ! " said Mme. 
 de Montgenays drily. But her excellent friend 
 Mabel joined them at that moment, and the conversa- 
 tion, drifting on to general topics, soon terminated in 
 Felshammer's departure. 
 
 Later on La Belle Valentine received a still greater 
 surprise. Mr. Gloucester's card was presented. She 
 read his name over three times, changed her Chinese 
 robe for a Worth teagown, and received him with 
 much dignity, standing in the middle of the room in 
 one of her most famous ballet attitudes — that of 
 Aspasia receiving Pericles at a banquet. Gloucester
 
 212 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 seemed so dejected, so old, and so desperate, as he 
 entered, that his wife could not restrain an ejaculation 
 of sympathy. 
 
 " Why, Alfred, you look simply awful ! What is 
 the matter ? 
 
 " I am in the greatest distress," he replied, speaking 
 in gasps. " My character has been so transformed by 
 calamities that where I might have hesitated a long 
 while before I asked a favour of you " 
 
 " My dear soul, sit down ! Have some vermouth ! 
 Why bother to be so flowery ? I don't want to give 
 you any favours at all. I don't see why I should." 
 
 " It is not for me," said the unhappy man, hating 
 her insolent beauty, her gorgeous attire, the perfume 
 she used, and the pose she had adopted. " It is for 
 the girl ; it is for Clementine." 
 
 "That's a little different, but you know I am 
 always direct. I would sooner surprise you by 
 behaving better than you expected than by being a 
 good deal worse. I like to say the hard things 
 first. If I can get pleasant afterwards by degrees, 
 why, I am willing ! What is the matter with 
 Clementine ? " 
 
 And she struck another famous ballet attitude — 
 that of Cleopatra before Caesar. 
 
 Gloucester, who had resolved not to sit down, 
 supported himself by leaning against one of the 
 cabinets. 
 
 "This is the matter," said he. "Dr. Felshammer
 
 VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 213 
 
 has lent me a large sum of money — thirty thousand 
 pounds." 
 
 " He must be crazy ! " exclaimed Mme. de 
 Montgenays, using her favourite comment on most 
 individuals. 
 
 " Not at all, but I found afterwards that he is deeply 
 attached to Clementine. He had asked her to marry 
 him, and she had refused his offer. She feels now 
 that I have placed her under an insupportable obliga- 
 tion. I think it is killing her. She is too proud ; 
 she cannot bear it. She will waste away before my 
 eyes. That is why I am swallowing all my own 
 pride and my dignity to implore your help. The 
 debt is killing the child." 
 
 "Then she cannot be much like me," said 
 Valentine, abandoning her attitudes and settling down 
 in an armchair. " So long as she refused the man, 
 and he knew it, and he lent you the money just the 
 same, that lets her out. The one to be worried is 
 Felshammer." 
 
 " But have you no delicacy ? " 
 
 " None," she replied, with good-humour. 
 
 " Can't you see that he must regard her more or 
 less as a hostage ? " 
 
 " It sounds to me kind of melodramatic. When 
 men pay out these large sums, it is usually, most 
 always, on a pretty distinct understanding." 
 
 "Just so. He relies, you may be certain, on her 
 gratitude, her sense of honour."
 
 214 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " He is forty years old or more. I can't heave up 
 a lot of sympathy for his disappointment. Does 
 Clementine like any other man ? Because, if I know 
 anything about girls, she would be flattered by Fels- 
 hammer's devotion if she had not some other ideal. 
 Don't try to deceive me, Alfred, because everything 
 will depend on your answer." 
 
 *' She has told me nothing." 
 
 "But what have you observed? You are not an 
 absolute fool." 
 
 "I have observed nothing." 
 
 " Have any of your friends observed anything ? 
 Think ! Has your sister Louise said anything ? " 
 
 " Louise," said Gloucester, after some hesitation, 
 " did mention that Leonore and Augusta fancied 
 Prince Paul was paying Clementine somewhat marked 
 attention." 
 
 " Well, you had a chance of seeing them together 
 at Mrs. Bickersteth's." 
 
 Few sensations in her life had pleased her so 
 intensely as the news of her own daughter's success 
 in exciting admiration. Money always impressed her, 
 and Felshammer's free tribute of thirty thousand 
 pounds seemed irrefutable evidence of Clementine's 
 power over men. 
 
 " I hate the idea of spying on the child," said Mr. 
 Gloucester. " She was out for a short time walking 
 with the Prince, that is all. I noticed that they were 
 never alone together after that ; they barely exchanged
 
 VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 215 
 
 a word. The same evening he was summoned to 
 London to see his mother, the ex-Oueen. 
 
 "She is stopping here," interrupted Valentine. 
 "Her face is marvellous for her age, but she has 
 lost her figure. It is the worst I ever saw. Go 
 on with your story." 
 
 " There is none. Surely it is conceivable that a 
 girl may refuse a man without having some other one 
 in her mind ! " 
 
 " Maybe, but it isn't likely. If there is not a real 
 live man in the way, it is some man in a book or a 
 play. You cannot tell me anything about girls. I 
 know them through and through." 
 
 " They are not all the same ! " 
 
 "I see very little difference once get your type 
 established." 
 
 " Clementine's type is uncommon." 
 
 " She is my child, isn't she ? I think you are the 
 worst special pleader I have ever heard. You have not 
 made out any kind of a case. But I am disposed to 
 help you in this scrape. It is a freak that is going to 
 cost me one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
 Cobden would kill me if he knew it." 
 
 " It is not his money, I hope." 
 
 " No, it would be mine, but he advises me. He 
 doesn't want me to do anything foolish or ex- 
 travagant." 
 
 " Is it extravagance to help your own daughter ? " 
 
 " I can answer that better when I know exactly
 
 2i6 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 what I am paying for. Why do you want the money ? 
 What have you done ? Why haven't you got the 
 money yourself ? " 
 
 Gloucester, humiliated to the quick, endeavoured to 
 tell the squalid chronicle of his misfortunes ; but, as 
 usual, his memory, his pompous phrases, his habit of 
 repeating himself, contradicting himself, and correct- 
 ing himself, exasperated his impatient listener. 
 
 " If I didn't know that you were honourable by 
 nature I should say that you had swindled everybody 
 you have ever met," she said, lifting up her voice ; 
 " but I see it is just the other way round. You have 
 got in with a whole horde of scallywags, and you have 
 been bluffed at every turn. If I give you one hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars I shall require a written 
 undertaking to the effect that for the future you will 
 hold no sort of communication with lawyers or 
 business men or any one who would be in the least 
 likely to make any demands upon your intelligence." 
 
 " I don't see why you should insult me." 
 
 *'I insult you ! I like that ! I mean it in absolute 
 comradeship 1 '* 
 
 " In my present position I cannot make terms with 
 you. I can only accept them." 
 
 "This is right. If you could get it through your 
 head, Alfred, that I am your friend and not your 
 enemy, there would be no trouble at all." 
 
 " We are not friends. Don't ask me to say so. I 
 shall never forget my wrongs."
 
 VALENTINE HEARS THE TRUTH 217 
 
 " You were always without diplomacy ! If the girl 
 makes a splendid marriage, I suppose you'll think 
 better of me. You needn't be afraid of my spoiling 
 anything. Is it likely that I should ruin Clementine's 
 chances by telling all creation that I'm her mother ? 
 Get away with you ! Some day you'll appreciate my 
 character. Come here to-morrow at tweK^e o'clock 
 and my lawyer will meet you. Fclshammer mustn't 
 know that I have stepped into the breach. He's 
 clever enough to guess the position. Keep me posted 
 if you hear any news in the meantime. Goodbye 1 " 
 
 She kissed the tips of her fingers and dismissed him 
 with a classic gesture. Then she wrote on a sheet of 
 the hotel notepaper, " Princess Paul of Urseville-Beyle- 
 steifiy Clementine of Ursevi/k-Bey/estein" in order to 
 see how the names looked. She tried another effect 
 — ^^ Prince Paul of Urseville-Beylestein and the Countess 
 Largs^ 
 
 " I don't care so much for the morganatic wheeze," 
 she said aloud to herself.
 
 CHAPTER XVIIl 
 
 FURTHER REVELATIONS OF THE MATERNAL 
 INSTINCT 
 
 " Then what is to come next, Paul ? " 
 
 The speaker, an unusually thin woman about 
 fifty-seven, who spoke German with a strong Italian 
 accent, had a narrow face and a weak piping voice. 
 She sat huddled on a chair in the corner of a bed- 
 room at Claridge's Hotel. Her toilette had been 
 hasty ; she wore a magnificent lace scarf twisted 
 round her head and an opera cloak over her pink- 
 flannel dressing-gown. Prince Paul was in the 
 august presence of his mother, the ex-Oueen ot 
 Urseville-Beylestein, cousin of two reigning sove- 
 reigns, grand-daughter of an emperor. 
 
 " Will nothing bring solace to my broken heart ? " 
 
 she inquired. "Am I to understand that you utterly 
 
 refuse to regard my ardent wishes ? Now that the 
 
 Crown Prince has quitted me in order to attach 
 
 himself to the Republicans, I must steel myself to 
 
 hear that you are about to enter business with an 
 
 218
 
 REVELATIONS OF MATERNAL INSTINCT 219 
 
 American and a Jew ! The settlement of the times, 
 the peace of the King's mind, the hopes of our 
 country, will all be once more dissolved ! Would 
 that I had never been born ! " 
 
 " As usual, you exaggerate, my dearest mother I " 
 replied the young man, turning over some beautiful 
 jewels which were scattered among the letters, brushes, 
 flowers, newspapers, and medicine-bottles on the ex- 
 Queen's table. " The confidential avowal of my way 
 of thinking ought not to be turned against me. An 
 idea, still vague, of blending the benefits of a petroleum- 
 field with our other sources of revenue may seem new 
 to you ; it is not on that account to be despised. I 
 shall not enter now into the merits of the proposal. 
 The question of my marriage falls more naturally 
 within your province. I do not wish to marry yet. 
 Least of all do I wish to marry my cousin Marie, my 
 cousin Adelaide, or my cousin Olga." 
 
 " You cannot always please yourself in this world," 
 said the ex-Queen. " I am truly sensible of the 
 very disagreeable struggles all young people undergo 
 between duty and inclination. Did I wish to marry 
 your father ? In those days a person like Lohengrin 
 on a Swan seemed far preferable. I feel for you in your 
 distressing dilemma. I pray night and morning that 
 you may be supported through the dangers of your 
 position. Certain disgrace and ruin will come upon 
 you if you persist in considering your own taste ; 
 friendship and connections will break ; all will be lost."
 
 220 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " You are over-influenced by old women," said the 
 Prince irritably. " You are quite out of touch with 
 modern life and the spirit of the age. One would 
 believe, to hear you, that we were still as we were 
 during the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella of ever- 
 blessed memory ! I wish I could feel that I knew no 
 better than to follow your advice ! " 
 
 " How often have I watched you from my window 
 at the Villa Reale," sighed his mother, " walking 
 alone in the garden, your arms crossed behind your 
 back, your hat over your eyes, talking to yourself! 
 I hoped you would prove another Frederick the 
 Great." 
 
 "I was an affected, strutting young fool ! Let me 
 entreat you not to remind me of that ridiculous 
 period ! " 
 
 " Wretched child ! My words will ring through 
 your deserted old age, and you will vainly strive to 
 drown the reproaches of your conscience. Leave my 
 sight before I pronounce the curses I may regret and 
 be unable to recall I " 
 
 She pointed one wasted finger toward the door, and 
 the sleeve of her cloak disclosed a long, emaciated arm 
 on which a brilliant diamond bracelet, far too large, 
 dangled like a manacle. 
 
 "But what a fuss!" he said, in a gentler voice. 
 " What tragedy ! " 
 
 " There is nothing else for princes," was her severe 
 response.
 
 REVELATIONS OF MATERNAL INSTINCT 221 
 
 " Why not give me time ? Why not be less 
 aggressive ? " 
 
 " There is no more time to be lost, and the exercise 
 of authority is not aggression." 
 
 " But this is comic opera ! Believe me, such 
 expressions are obsolete." 
 
 "I have observed that you regard everything 
 relating to your father's kingdom as the libretto of 
 a burlesque ! Go, I say, or I shall lose every atom 
 of self-control ! You are the bitterest disappointment 
 of my insupportable life ! " 
 
 " You will be calmer to-morrow ! " 
 
 " True. I may be dead." 
 
 " Always these threats ! " 
 
 He left her, however, and he fancied he could hear 
 her wailing as he walked down the corridor. It was 
 the old scene in the old, old manner. She did not 
 understand him ; she could not manage him. 
 
 An hour later he was delighted to find himself once 
 more in Lucie HoUemache's society. The day was 
 lovely, and he suggested a drive. 
 
 " Yes," she said, almost eagerly, " drive me out 
 toward Acton 1 " 
 
 " Toward Acton ! " he exclaimed, in astonishment. 
 " Where is that ? What a strange idea ! " 
 
 " I know the road very well," said Lucie, showing 
 unusual animation, " although I have not been there 
 for many weeks." 
 
 The Prince handed her into the brougham — a
 
 222 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 perfect vehicle lined with pale green satin. It was 
 one which had been placed at his disposal by Mr. 
 Bickersteth. 
 
 " I wanted to see you so much ? " said Paul to 
 Lucie, who was looking remarkably handsome in 
 ivory crepe de Chine and a long driving cloak. " I 
 think I shall remain in London," he continued, 
 " until Goodwood. I had no idea it could be so 
 pleasant here. But it was dull, on the whole, at 
 Stokehampton." Then he gave an amusing descrip- 
 tion of the house-party. He intended to speak out 
 that afternoon and learn a little more of Lucie's true 
 character. "You really must talk about yourself!" 
 said he, after an hour's monologue. " We have been 
 friends for ever so long, and you are more mysterious 
 every day. What can it all mean ? " 
 
 " Surely my character, sir, is quite on the surface ! " 
 
 " Don't I complain of its inscrutability ? Promise 
 me, at least, that you will not be a disappointment 
 to me ! My friends lately have not been satisfactory 
 at all. You must see how necessary it is that I 
 should have some one creature in whom I can put 
 implicit reliance. I want something more than a 
 good comrade." 
 
 " I don't think," said Lucie, " that any wise person 
 would ever want me for a comrade. I am so absent- 
 minded." 
 
 " That may be. I wonder whether you will 
 understand me when I tell you that my life often
 
 REVELATIONS OF MATERNAL INSTINCT 223 
 
 seems to me foolish, empty, and perhaps contemptible. 
 This sensation comes over me when I fall off to sleep 
 at night. I ask myself, I wonder whether death will 
 be something like this ? Nobody matters to me, nor 
 do I really matter to anybody. It is not a pleasant 
 thought, and when I wake in the morning it comes 
 over me in precisely the same awtul way again." 
 
 " Nothing can cure that," said Lucie decisively. 
 
 " I suppose not. But, if we are doomed to this 
 consciousness of our solitary existence, the most 
 delightful person is the person who can make us 
 forget this, if only for a few hours. So far as 
 pleasures and recreations go, I have them in abun- 
 dance." 
 
 " Or rather," said Lucie, " in excess." 
 
 " But they are counterbalanced by my wretched 
 position as an exile. There are hours, believe me, 
 when I get desperate at the thought of my own 
 uselessness. I had the feeling in America, where 
 every one I met seemed absorbed in some particular 
 occupation or devoted to the achievement of some 
 fixed plan. How grateful I should be to any one 
 who could make me lose my gloomy notions ! " 
 
 "You seem, sir," said Lucie, "a little out of 
 conceit with yourself to-day, but I hope you don't 
 think it is a usual mood I " 
 
 " Don't laugh at me ! I could be happy," he 
 exclaimed, "if I lived in one of these little villas, 
 truly hideous little villas, we are passing."
 
 224 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " That is nonsense." 
 
 " Ah ! I merely said that in order to find out 
 whether you were actually listening to what I was 
 saying. You looked so far away." 
 
 She roused herself with a start and put up her hand 
 to tighten her veil. 
 
 " But now," she said, " you are interested in 
 petroleum." 
 
 " I was at first. The fever has died out. I take 
 a calm commercial interest in the affair — nothing 
 more. I begin to feel as though I came from a 
 generation of country bankers. I used to hear that 
 the Stock Exchange and all these speculations were 
 a form of madness in the blood. The history of 
 modern times would seem to point that way, but it 
 all leaves me cold, untouched. I have enthusiasm 
 now for art only — art and beauty. Yet again I am 
 no artist ; I have no executive, no creative ability. 
 I am an amateur in that direction and in all others. 
 What then is left me ? An overwhelming love — the 
 capacity for a master-passion." 
 
 " Do you really think so ? " said Lucie, gazing out 
 of the window. 
 
 "I feel it," replied the young man. 
 
 " Probably you know yourself." 
 
 " But friendship is better than love — it is more 
 constant, more just." 
 
 " Beyond any doubt." 
 
 " Tell me something of your own heart, then ! "
 
 REVELATIONS OF MATERNAL INSTINCT 225 
 
 " Perhaps I will presently." 
 
 " Why not now, Lucie ? Confide in me ! " 
 
 " There is so little to tell." 
 
 " I am glad of that. A woman should not have 
 too much to tell about her heart. You see, I long 
 to hear, and yet I dread to hear. We are such 
 contradictions." 
 
 " You see that large square house to your left, up 
 that road ? " 
 
 " Yes. It looks like a home for orphans. Pray 
 don't ask me to admire suburban architecture I " 
 
 " It is an asylum." 
 
 " How sad and unpleasant ! " 
 
 " My heart is buried there." 
 
 « Your heart ? " 
 
 " Basil is there. Shall we drive back again now, or 
 would you rather go on a little further ? " 
 
 " Your heart is there ? " he repeated. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why," he asked plaintively, "do I always like 
 such strange, disagreeable women ? Why did you 
 bring me so far to look at that terrible house ? " 
 
 He ordered the coachman to return, and he main- 
 tained a sullen silence till they reached Holland Park. 
 Then he begged her pardon. 
 
 " You were perfectly right," said he j "I deserved 
 
 it." 
 
 16
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 
 
 When the Prince returned from his drive to Acton, 
 he was summoned by an anxious lady-in-waiting to 
 his mother's apartments. Queen Charlotte by this 
 time had made her toilet for the day, and was wearing 
 a handsome dress of black silk trimmed with jet. Her 
 white hair had been arranged in a pyramid of puffs, 
 little braids, and curls ; she bore herself nobly, and, 
 although morbid weakness trembled in every feature, 
 there was, nevertheless, much dignity in the mould of 
 the sorrowful face. She was seated at a writing-table, 
 staring with red eyes at a long document in foolscap. 
 Near her in an easy-chair, with one of his legs over 
 its arm, sat the Crown Prince Constantine, sucking 
 the carved ivory knob of his walking-stick. He had 
 a puffy countenance, a short neck, a low forehead, 
 and bristling hair which had been cut in the German 
 fashion and seemed to grow erect on his head. Not 
 a bad-hearted young man, nor an effeminate one, but 
 
 226
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 227 
 
 incurably idle, careless, and blundering — such was the 
 official view of his character. 
 
 As Paul came into the room, the Queen, wiping 
 away her tears, said — 
 
 " Your brother tells me, without any misgivings of 
 shame or regret, he has made some secret treaty with 
 Mr. Hermann Gessner with regard to Largs. The 
 contract was signed before you went to America." 
 " Is that true, Con-Con ? " asked Paul. 
 " Don't ask him, please, in my presence," said the 
 Queen irritably, " whether something is true of which 
 I have already informed you ! I repeat that part of 
 the Largs property which belongs to Constantine has 
 been assigned to Mr. Gessner, the banker." 
 
 "My excellent, not too luminous mother is trying 
 to tell me why I should not have done so," said 
 Constantine, who was hard to understand because he 
 had a thick lisp. "I needed money ; Gessner had it. 
 I had some land which he required ; he had fifty 
 thousand pounds which I required. Naturally we 
 soon came to terms. If my bit of Largs is not worth 
 so much — that is Gessner's affair." 
 
 " I think you should have consulted us first," said 
 Paul. 
 
 " Have conferences in this family led to such 
 satisfactory results that you recommend them ? " asked 
 his brother. 
 
 The Queen wrung her hands. 
 
 "But a secret treaty and on a business matter —
 
 228 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 when your ignorance of business is a matter of history 
 and the chief source of our present situation ! " 
 
 " It is just possible," said Paul quietly, " that we 
 can get the contract annulled." 
 
 " That would depend entirely on the means at your 
 disposal, my dear brother. But you were always 
 thrifty. I think myself that the sooner we embrace 
 the fact that no one can move without a syndicate at 
 his back, and the sooner my mother can get it through 
 her head that ex-princes are at a discount, we shall all 
 enjoy more dignified, more serene, and more pleasur- 
 able existences ! " 
 
 "Pleasure!" screamed the Oueen Charlotte. 
 " Always that word ! Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure ! 
 Pleasure and money ! Is there nothing else in the 
 world ? Have we, God's creatures, no other aims ? 
 Let me die, O God, before I live to see the final 
 debasement of my accursed generation ! " 
 
 Prince Paul sighed and Prince Constantine swore. 
 The antagonism between the latter and his parents 
 was of the most violent kind. They themselves had 
 quarrelled incessantly before his birth, and he seemed 
 to both the incarnation of their mutual hatred. 
 
 " Will you be quiet ? " he called out. " Will you 
 drop these infernal upbraidings ? " 
 
 "Not while I live!" exclaimed the Oueen. "I 
 shall die protesting ! How can I complain of the 
 ingratitude and folly of our people when I have brought 
 sons into the world who justify too well the sarcasm
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 229 
 
 and contempt in which all aristocrats are held nowa- 
 days ? O bitter hour ! " 
 
 " Then don't complain of ingratitude and what-do- 
 you-call-it ! Leave me alone and look at home ! Do 
 these laments help us ? Do they help anybody ? 
 Please remember your own extravagance, your arro- 
 gant ways, your ridiculous pride — quite out of date, I 
 can assure you ! " 
 
 Constantine rose from his chair as he spoke and 
 walked clumsily to the looking-glass, where he spent 
 some seconds examining his tongue, the state of his 
 complexion, and his necktie. The necktie and his 
 socks were supposed to be of the same shade of olive 
 green ; in the light he discovered that the match was 
 by no means perfect — a discovery which caused him 
 the liveliest annoyance. 
 
 " I must get out of this climate," he muttered. 
 " Settle the affair with Gessner any way you please, 
 and you have my full authority to cancel the contract 
 if Gessner — or Gessing, or whatever his name is — will 
 agree. It matters not to me who pays the money I 
 want so long as I get it " — and he drew himself up, 
 pinched despondently his own flabby cheeks, nodded 
 not without a kind of affection at his brother, hurled 
 a glance of venomous rage at the unhappy Queen, 
 and marched, with the sudden assumption of a soldierly 
 bearing, out of the room. Queen Charlotte, as the 
 door closed behind him, burst into sobs and, leaning 
 on the table, buried her face in her hands. Situations
 
 230 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 of this sort were over-familiar to Prince Paul because 
 he had witnessed little else in the royal circle from the 
 time he could first remember, and — apart from the 
 deep pity which he habitually felt for the unfortunate 
 lady who had brought him into the world — he was 
 not especially moved by her exhibition of anger and 
 despair. 
 
 " I never wanted children ! " she gasped, between 
 her moans. " I dreaded them always, always ! " 
 
 " Perhaps," said her son, " that is why there is not 
 that sympathy between us which exists, according to 
 tradition, between a mother and her sons ! " 
 
 " I was born for the life of holy contemplation," 
 she continued. " I seek for God. I want the mag- 
 nificent and tranquillising thought of eternity ever 
 before me, not this coarse, cruel, degrading existence 
 among heathens in a heathen land ! I 'want to press 
 toward the mark for the prize of the high calling.' 
 Not this, O God, not this ! " 
 
 "And yet you cannot keep your temper!" said 
 Prince Paul. " There are plenty of reasons for doing 
 so without any appeal to religion. The news about 
 the contract is serious. The land will be worth double 
 that amount. If Gessner has paid up the fifty thou- 
 sand, it can be refunded. I must go and see Fels- 
 hammer at once." 
 
 "But you must be careful I " screamed his mother. 
 "You have not heard half of my worries this morning! 
 One, if not all, of us will be assassinated. The In-
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 231 
 
 spector of Police has already received information that 
 we must be on our guard against these anarchists. 
 You will call this comic opera also, I suppose .? " 
 
 " Have no alarm," said Prince Paul. " By brooding 
 on these dangers one brings them to pass. I believe 
 myself that we can actually attract misfortune and 
 crimes by dreading them." 
 
 He kissed her bony hand, every finger of which was 
 covered with gems, implored her to be calm, and, 
 bound for Felshammer's office, left her hurriedly. 
 But before he had advanced two yards down the 
 corridor he heard his name called in a loud voice. 
 Turning, he saw the Queen, beckoning him to return, 
 at the door of her room. Biting his lip, he went 
 back. 
 
 "What is it now ?" he said, struggling to conceal 
 his impatience. 
 
 " Surely," said she, pulling him into the room and 
 closing the door, " I am the one now to deal with 
 Mr. Gessner ! Let me write on Constantine's account, 
 and probably, as I am a woman, he will make less 
 difficult terms and fewer objections." 
 
 "There is something in your suggestion," said 
 Prince Paul, "but I doubt extremely whether your 
 sex would make any difference. A woman can move 
 well in business when she understands it better than 
 most men, but otherwise she is at a positive disad- 
 vantage." 
 
 " At all events,'* said the Queen, " let me try.
 
 232 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 Give me the control of the money you have promised. 
 That w^ill give me confidence in approaching Mr. 
 Gessner." 
 
 Prince Paul laughed bitterly. The notorious extra- 
 vagance of his mother had been an early cause of their 
 exile, and he, as the one careful member of the family, 
 had been called on again and again for loans which 
 were never repaid, guarantees which taxed his income, 
 and debts of honour which stood for nothing except 
 an incalculable expense. 
 
 "More chiffons, I suppose ! " he said. 
 
 " My rank ! " exclaimed his mother. " God knows 
 I wish I had been a humble peasant, but that was not 
 His Will." 
 
 " Evidently," said the Prince. "If I make money 
 over this petroleum, you shall have all you want ; I 
 can't spare much now." 
 
 But he promised to consider the point and left her 
 once more. He was not anxious to inform Felshammer 
 of Constantine's action, which almost amounted to 
 treachery, in the matter of Largs. He had an odd 
 sympathy, half protective and half contemptuous, with 
 his elder brother. He was ashamed of his conduct, 
 his tastes, and his dishonesty, but he found something 
 rather charming all the same in his unconcealed 
 selfishness. Paul knew that Felshammer despised 
 Constantine, and, from a sense of loyalty, he felt 
 peculiarly unwilling to expose this new act of folly. 
 So he wrote a note to Mr. Sachs, warning him that
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 233 
 
 he might require fifty thousand pounds or more for a 
 strictly private matter ; and, although he met Fels- 
 hammer that night at dinner, he made no reference 
 to the circumstance. 
 
 The next afternoon he called at Mr. Gloucester's 
 lodgings and found Clementine on the doorstep 
 waitino; to be admitted. 
 
 "I have called to see you," said he, " because you 
 are always so unkind to me ! " 
 
 " Unkind, sir ! How could you think so ? " 
 
 " You despise my friendship and you will not hear 
 of my devotion. But I will not reproach you. You 
 make me more anxious than ever to win your 
 approbation." 
 
 The servant at this point opened the door. The 
 Prince found himself in a narrow hall with paper 
 imitating yellow marble on the walls, and a staircase, 
 covered with red and white drugget, facing him. 
 
 " Our apartments are here," said Clementine, 
 S!2:hino;, and she led the wav into a small dining-room, 
 plainly furnished but full of flowers. He sat down 
 on a horsehair sofa and wondered why he did not 
 mind poverty. Clementine had never appeared so 
 beautiful. He asked himself why on earth she was 
 not on the stage. That would have made everything 
 much simpler. 
 
 " I hope the Queen is well, sir ? " 
 
 " She is never well. She is always in trouble, and 
 she has always too many bills. What do you suppose
 
 234 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 she wishes me to do? She commands me to 
 marry." 
 
 " You must have known that would come sooner 
 or later." She hoped that she controlled her voice. 
 
 " But later — as much later as possible. Does not 
 one daughter-in-law satisfy her ? Have you ever seen 
 my brother Con-Con's wife ? " 
 
 "I have seen her photograph." 
 
 " The worst is too flattering. Poor, plain, worthy, 
 suffering creature ! She is an invalid, and she is the 
 one person in the world of whom Con-Con is really 
 afraid. That is why he is never with her. As you 
 know, he has no heir, and she and my mother are too 
 much alike in disposition to be anything but enemies. 
 When these devout women disagree, one may as well 
 pray for a grave. Each hates the other. Great 
 heavens ! Could any one ask me to introduce another 
 lady into our wretched circle ? Are there not martyrs 
 enough in the calendar ? " 
 
 " I have always heard," said Clementine, " that the 
 Princess Marie " 
 
 " Don't speak of my three cousins ! But I can see 
 what is going to happen. Between them all, they 
 will drive me into matrimony. I shall choose my 
 own wife, however." 
 
 " Does any one suppose that you would not do 
 so ? " 
 
 " My intention is to marry for love. In my country 
 such marriages are called morganatic." He tried to
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 235 
 
 catch her answering glance, but she was looking at 
 the wall behind him. " Such marriages," he con- 
 tinued, breathing more quickly, " are usually most 
 happy." 
 
 "For the Prince or for the lady?" asked Cle- 
 mentine. 
 
 " For both, I trust. My idea is briefly this — but 
 you mustn't have that stony look while I tell 
 you." 
 
 "I meant to look charming." 
 
 " No, believe me, it is stony. Of the three 
 Princesses I am expected to choose from eventually, 
 one has a lisp — a thing I hate, perhaps because it runs 
 in our family ; Adelaide has a back like a retired 
 general's, and Olga can best be described as a good 
 horsewoman. I won't conceal from you or myself 
 that destiny is whipping me towards one of these." 
 
 "I see," said Clementine, with whitening lips. 
 
 " But," said Prince Paul, " before this doom comes 
 upon me — and I can call it nothing else — I want two 
 years, at least one year, of peace with my true com- 
 panion. Surely she will not make my life harder 
 than it is already, or stand aloof, for any motive of 
 false pride, from a position which, in the sight of God, 
 is the true marriage and secondary on official occasions 
 only ! You understand ? " 
 
 " I don't choose to understand you," said Cle- 
 mentine — "you must speak more plainly." 
 
 " It must be your American blood," exclaimed
 
 236 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 Prince Paul, " which makes you so extremely and 
 unnaturally business-like." 
 
 " That is possible," said the girl. 
 
 "I have always sworn," said Paul, "that I would 
 never care for an American woman. I think they 
 are cold, independent, and exacting. I find these 
 somewhat repellant characteristics in you. Yet, 
 nevertheless, I am replying to your questions as 
 though I were a child learning his catechism. It is 
 to me inexplicable. It must, therefore, be my des- 
 tiny. There can be no will in the question." He 
 spoke half in jest, yet he intended every word as a 
 stab. 
 
 "You mean," said Clementine, "it could not 
 possibly be your choice ? " 
 
 "In a sense, no," replied Paul, becoming irritable. 
 " But you have not answered my question." 
 
 " What was that ? " asked Clementine, looking at 
 him. 
 
 " You want me to repeat it again ? I ask you 
 then if you will consent to a private marriage with 
 me?" 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 Prince Paul could not trust his ears. He sat gazing 
 at her in blank astonishment. 
 
 "I am in earnest," he said. 
 
 "I did not think that you could be anything else. 
 I don't find fault with your lack of earnestness." 
 
 "What, then, do you find fault with ?"
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 237 
 
 "A false position, and therefore a false compliment. 
 I don't care about it. How could I bear to see you 
 married a second time ? It is unthinkable ! " 
 
 " Would you care so much ? " exclaimed the 
 Prince, encouraged. He had never felt altogether 
 disheartened. Her manner, in spite of numerous 
 peculiarities in the way of primness, was always 
 sympathetic. 
 
 " Would you mind when you know that the — 
 other — is merely an affair of State ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Clementine, " I should ' mind,' as you 
 say." 
 
 " But it is done every day, my dearest ! Oh, let 
 me implore you not to be so provincial in your ideas ! 
 You are spoiling the romance of my life. You have 
 altered it so far already that you have actually reduced 
 me to make this proposition — one which, I assure you, 
 I could never have believed possible. If you knew 
 my view of marriage under any conditions, if you 
 could imagine my prejudice, you would appreciate the 
 great devotion I have for you." 
 
 "I do appreciate it," said Clementine; "I ought 
 to feel flattered. Still, why should all the flattery 
 seem to come from your side ? If I am worth any- 
 thing at all, you ought to feel flattered by my interest 
 in you." 
 
 " I am ! " he exclaimed. " I am, indeed. You 
 are certainly the most extraordinary girl I have ever 
 met. I don't believe you have a heart ! "
 
 238 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " I don't want you to believe it," said Clementine 
 with more truth than irony. 
 
 " What more can I say — offer — do ? " 
 " I would marry you on one condition only. The 
 marriage could be as quiet as you pleased and as private 
 as you pleased, but you would have to swear not to 
 marry any one else during my lifetime." 
 
 "But I have explained to you," said Prince Paul, 
 " that my position does not allow me to take this 
 purely selfish view. That is why morganatic 
 marriages are allowed. Princes cannot always con- 
 sider their own inclinations." 
 
 " They have done so often," said Clementine ; 
 "and, if a woman is worth the devotion you describe, 
 she is also worth the consideration I ask for." 
 " It is your American blood," he repeated. 
 "I can't say what it is, but I know this — I cannot 
 change my instincts." 
 
 "In other words," he exclaimed, "you expect me 
 to renounce my birthright, my responsibilities, and 
 settle down with domestic country gentlemen. And 
 why ? Because I love you, because I admire your 
 delightful face, your frigid character ; it is clear to 
 me that you don't know men. Not," he added 
 hastily, " that I want you to know them. Women 
 who understand men have, to me, lost every atom of 
 charm and delicacy. Clementine, I am not conceited, 
 but when I am with you I cannot help feeling that 
 I am liked."
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 239 
 
 " You may trust that feeling," said Clementine, 
 laughing. "I admire you extremely." 
 
 "Then why this coldness, this hesitation, this 
 formal view, this command of language ? The 
 command of language is almost unpardonable. It 
 is unwomanly — it is hard." 
 
 " It is best to know me as I am, sir ! " 
 
 "But your looks belie you!" said Prince Paul. 
 " You have a Southern, an all but Oriental air, which 
 is fascinating, submissive, gracious — everything that 
 one admires. I shall begin to think that I am no 
 judge of your sex." 
 
 *' I am sorry you are disillusioned." 
 
 " It is a shock," continued Paul. " You are not 
 the girl I took you for." 
 
 " What do you take me for ? " asked Clementine 
 pleasantly. 
 
 " Ah, guess my opinion of you," he answered, 
 " when I asked you to join your life with mine." 
 
 " That was very generous I " said Clementine. 
 
 " I offer you my liberty — liberty — the dearest 
 thing a man has ! " 
 
 " Next to himself," she suggested. 
 
 "I told you that I looked for all my earthly 
 happiness in you," he continued, with a terrible 
 glance. " What is my answer ? An icy look, a 
 lawyer's terms, a cold analysis of the position. It is 
 not what I expected." 
 
 "I suppose not," said Clementine.
 
 240 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 *'I am glad, on the whole, that you are my friend 
 and not my enemy, for I could detest a woman with 
 so little impulse and so much foresight." 
 
 Clementine sighed and sat as patiently as ever with 
 her hands clasped. 
 
 " You don't value me or my affection for you," said 
 Prince Paul, "and you have made me bitter for life. 
 Yes, that is the case — I am embittered. Perhaps, ail 
 the same, it is for the best." 
 
 " I am always certain of that in any event," replied 
 Clementine, " although the best is often the hardest." 
 
 "And so," he said, after a pause, "you refuse me ?" 
 
 " I refuse to place myself, to our common misery, 
 in an equivocal position." 
 
 "But your prejudice is fantastic. Consult any one 
 you please ; refer to your own father, to your aunt 
 Emmeline — she would tell you. Why should you, 
 a little inexperienced girl, set yourself against the 
 received customs of society ? " 
 
 " This is a matter of feeling, and the way I feel 
 cannot be altered." 
 
 The Prince by this time was in a bad temper. 
 
 " I think," said he, " tliat you have no feelings at 
 all. I shall always spealc well of you and think of 
 you as kindly as possible — not for anything you have 
 said or done, but because you have pretty, if misleading, 
 manners. It would be impossible, however, to con- 
 tinue loving any one quite void of real sweetness and 
 tenderness."
 
 STUDIES IN SELF-RESPECT 241 
 
 " I was sure," said Clementine, " that you did not 
 love me in the least." 
 
 " That again is untrue and not well observed," said 
 the Prince hastily. " I thought I proved my love — a 
 foolish love, perhaps — sufficiently in the early part of 
 this conversation. You have proofs of very unusual 
 friendship at this moment." 
 
 But Clementine shook her head. 
 
 " I don't believe," said she, " that you know what 
 love means." 
 
 And so the interview came to an end. 
 
 "She is a witch !" he told himself, as he walked 
 back to Claridge's. " I had no intention of going 
 into all these questions to-day. The mlse-en-scene was 
 impossible. I have never proposed before. A new 
 experience ! Well, one learns. This attitude on her 
 part is very clever — too clever ! I can see through it. 
 I thought that coquettes were extinct. I shall tell 
 her that this is a mere childish ruse to make herself 
 precious. Clever of her 1 " 
 
 He intended to call again and arrange a theatre- 
 party. 
 
 " I shall treat this nonsense lightly," he decided. 
 " She will be piqued, of course, but I can't help that. 
 It is too absurd." 
 
 That evening with Felshammer he attended a little 
 private supper at the house of a famous composer of 
 light music. Several accomplished and lovely young 
 ladies from the Parnassus and other theatres were 
 
 17
 
 242 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 present. They sang songs, danced dances, gave 
 imitations, and apparently excelled in the womanly 
 arts of gentleness and a limited vocabulary. But he 
 W2L5 bored. 
 
 " I suppose the time must come," he confided to 
 Felshammer, "when this sort of thing seems insup- 
 portably tedious. Yet is it fair to criticise any one 
 after I have spent the morning with my dear mother ? 
 How she depresses me ! " 
 
 Pride would not allow him to trace any failing of 
 joy to his strange treatment at the hands of Clemen- 
 tine. But among the many voices in a man's heart, 
 there is always one that remains incorruptibly honest. 
 This plaintive note warned him, through his restless 
 sleep, that Clementine had behaved, by a paradox, 
 altogether as he had hoped. 
 
 The girl, meanwhile, was thinking in despair that 
 she had lost him for ever. Yet she could not regret 
 one word she had said. Remorseful fortitude is the 
 most dangerous kind of cowardice, and it is the com- 
 monest in virtuous women. Wise virgins pray against 
 this weakness.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 PRINCE CONSTANTINE RECEIVES TWO VISITORS ON 
 FRIENDLY BUSINESS 
 
 When Mr. Hermann Gessner heard that there was 
 a hitch in the negotiations for the Largs estate, he 
 wreaked his annoyance on his manager, Mr. Draycott. 
 Mr. Draycott, in order to cover himself, began to 
 abuse the property in question, and, with mock 
 humility, confessed to Mr. Gessner that he had 
 committed an error of judgment in passing so 
 favourable an opinion upon it in the first instance. 
 
 " No one is infallible," said Mr. Draycott, who 
 had a face like a tortoise and very curious crawling 
 movements of the body; "if I did not admit my 
 mistakes, I couldn't recommend myself as a safe 
 person for these delicate — peculiarly delicate, I may 
 say — investigations. The petroleum is there right 
 enough. I'll stake my reputation upon it. But it 
 isn't for you." 
 
 " We are committed up to a certain point by this 
 contract with Prince Constantine. I must have the 
 
 243
 
 244 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 whole property or leave it alone altogether," said 
 Gessner. 
 
 *'Let me arrange it," said Mr. Draycott, moving 
 his lips as though he were silently rehearsing a part. 
 "I knowf all about that man Dr. Felshammer. He 
 may be a very good sort of equerry, but he has no 
 more know^ledge of business than a child. And as for 
 Prince Constantine " 
 
 "Oh, vi^ell," said Mr. Hermann Gessner, "I never 
 anticipated at any time the least trouble w^ith Prince 
 Constantine. You may adopt any course you see fit — 
 what you want to do is to get out of the contract. 
 I have been informed from two or three sources that 
 it is not a safe deal." 
 
 Mr. Gessner was not aware that his friend Mr. 
 Cobden Duryee had carefully spread a cautious report 
 in the right quarters to the effect that Prince Con- 
 stantine had got the better of the great Mr. Gessner's 
 great Mr. Draycott in a bargain. Duryee, with his 
 dry and sardonic humour, had told the story to per- 
 fection. Mr. Gessner fancied he saw smiles on 
 obscure faces in Mincing Lane. 
 
 "Leave it all to me," said Draycott, who was more 
 sensitive than his distinguished chief, a man of strong 
 nerves who could enjoy, after all, a small joke at his 
 own expense. " I will work this in such a way that 
 we shall have forgotten the whole annoyance in less 
 time than it takes to tell it ! " 
 
 Accordingly, by appointment, which was fixed by
 
 CONSTANTINE RECEIVES TWO VISITORS 245 
 
 telegram, Mr. Draycott, accompanied by a young 
 man of good family in order to give a certain tone 
 to the forthcoming interview, set forth for Prince 
 Constantine at the Savoy Hotel. 
 
 Mr. Draycott had lived for the greater part of his 
 life in the Western States of America and the 
 Colonies. He had been taught to think that 
 bluster, brag, and insolence were impressive. Accus- 
 tomed to deal with persons in pecuniary difficulties 
 who were anxious to make bad arrangements rather 
 than no arrangements at all, he prided himself on 
 being able to " bounce " or " rush " any transaction 
 in whichever direction he wished. As is often the 
 case with individuals of this stamp, he had no very 
 strong opinion or will of his own, and, although he 
 knew that the Largs property was a sound investment, 
 talk in the City had been so well manipulated by 
 Cobden Duryee that Draycott no longer trusted his 
 own convictions. He was extremely anxious to get 
 out of a complication which promised to cause him 
 serious anxiety and perhaps ruin his ally, Mr. Campsey, 
 the expert. 
 
 On being ushered into Prince Constantine's private 
 sitting-room at the Savoy, he was reassured to discover 
 His Royal Highness taking an afternoon siesta on the 
 sofa. When the Prince awoke, he rubbed his eyes, 
 yawned, offered his callers whisky and cigars, and said 
 that England made him drowsy. Mr. Draycott, in 
 response to these gracious civilities, assumed an air
 
 246 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 of sardonic melancholy. He affected a detestation 
 of royal and aristocratic personages, and he showed 
 his independence whenever he met them by exhibiting 
 his bad manners at their worst. The young gentle- 
 man of good family who was with him seemed a little 
 ashamed of his companion's demeanour, and kept the 
 conversation going on general topics with perfect ease 
 and propriety. Mr. Draycott disapproved of this, and 
 frowned severely at the young gentleman, who had 
 been brought on the understanding that he was not to 
 presume to open his mouth or " put in an oar." 
 
 " Business is very bad," said Draycott, in a surly 
 way; "you can't get support for a single concern. 
 Fact ! Truth is, there's no money. Naturally, this 
 does not affect Mr. Gessner, who is so busy now with 
 Russian railways that he has hardly heard of Largs. 
 It's too small a deal for him ; it was taken up without 
 my full sanction, and now Mr. Gessner seems dis- 
 inclined to move. Really, if things don't alter a great 
 deal within the next six or seven months, I don't see 
 a chance for Largs. That, at least, is my opinion." 
 
 "You must have been talking to some gloomy 
 people ! " said Prince Constantine. " I haven't heard 
 of this panic. You call it a slump, I suppose ? " 
 
 " There is no money in Largs — not a penny. It's 
 the sort of thing which absorbs thousands and hun- 
 dreds of thousands. I daresay one would get it all 
 back in fifty years. But naturally, while there are 
 less speculative investments with immediate returns,
 
 CONSTANTINE RECEIVES TWO VISITORS 247 
 
 no one, not even Mr. Gessner, is especially anxious 
 to put up any sum worthy the name for the exploita- 
 tion of Largs." 
 
 "It is rather late in the day to go into all that," 
 said Prince Constantine, "when our negotiations are 
 settled and the first draft is signed." 
 
 " I know that," said Draycott ; " your position is 
 strong legally, and, this being the case, I just want to 
 point out the difficulty before us." 
 
 " You wish to imply," said Constantine, " that you 
 consider Mr. Gessner has made an injudicious in- 
 vestment ? " 
 
 Mr. Draycott twisted on his seat and made no 
 reply. 
 
 " I don't see, however, that this is any affair of 
 mine," said Constantine. "The differences between 
 Mr. Gessner and his subordinates ought certainly not 
 to be referred to me." 
 
 " Mr. Gessner controls and directs every deal abso- 
 lutely and without qualification," said Draycott ; 
 "the only one to be reckoned with in the manage- 
 ment is Mr. Gessner. He would take over all the 
 Largs stock and finance the deal. But it would 
 be tempting fortune to do so at this moment. Small 
 as the undertaking is, he won't run it as a speculative 
 lock-up. His hands are too full just now. Later on 
 he will do his best. He always does his best. He is 
 a man of honour." 
 
 " Do you know," said Prince Constantine, " that
 
 248 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 was something I had already assumed before you 
 troubled to call ? I think myself that Mr. Gessner 
 has every reason to congratulate himself on having 
 made an advantageous purchase." 
 
 Mr. Draycott gazed in a supercilious manner at the 
 ceiling and his own boots. 
 
 " There is something in your manner, sir," said the 
 Prince, " which strikes me as being distinctly discour- 
 teous. I may be wrong. I don't care for it." 
 
 "There is no discourtesy meant," said Mr. Dray- 
 cott — " none whatever. I just came on behalf of Mr. 
 Gessner to say that we do not propose to take the 
 matter up immediately. It must stand over until 
 some more convenient moment. When we have 
 settled a few things with Russia, for instance." 
 
 " I see," said the Prince slowly ; " that is the idea, — 
 delay — indefinite delay." 
 
 " Roughly," said Draycott — " roughly." 
 " And," said the Prince, " as I myself hold a con- 
 siderable right to the profits of the venture, I am 
 expected to wait developments till Mr. Gessner can 
 find time to proceed with them ? " 
 
 Mr. Draycott once more wriggled on his seat and 
 worked his mobile lips, thrust his hands into his 
 pockets, and endeavoured to show his complete 
 indifference to princes or any of the usual con- 
 siderations in polite society. 
 
 Prince Constantine felt his anger rising at this 
 intolerable conduct, and said :
 
 CONSTANTINE RECEIVES TWO VISITORS 249 
 
 " I think I can offer to relieve Mr. Gessner of that 
 contract. I can find another market." 
 
 Draycott at this hugged himself secretly on having 
 accomplished his object so easily, but he maintained 
 a very sceptical air. 
 
 " Do you mean," said he, " that another firm will 
 take it over ? " 
 
 " That is what I mean," replied Constantine. He 
 had a letter in his pocket at that moment from 
 Cobden Duryee. Draycott attributed the Prince's 
 independence to wounded pride. 
 
 " My one aim in coming here," said Draycott, 
 with a triumphant glance at his gentlemanly com- 
 panion, who was now blushing — " my one aim was 
 to explain the matter fairly and squarely and to put 
 before you the circumstances of the case and Mr. 
 Gessner's feelings. Mr. Gessner thought this talk 
 would be pleasanter than writing. He decided — that 
 is, we both decided " 
 
 " Are you a partner in the firm," asked Constantine, 
 "or a buffer?" 
 
 He turned for information to the young gentleman, 
 who was about to reply when Mr. Draycott, indignant 
 at being overlooked, said with great anger : 
 
 " Mr. Merivale knows nothing of this business or 
 any other. I am the person with whom this matter 
 is to be settled." 
 
 "Then," said the Prince, rising, "you must 
 express any further ideas by correspondence. In
 
 250 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 view of this other offer, I can assure you that I am 
 entirely willing to annul the contract." 
 
 Mr. Draycott did not allow himself to believe that 
 the Prince had received any such offer, but he con- 
 sidered that he had exasperated a notoriously impulsive, 
 unwise man into some defensive attitude. He reflected 
 on the splendid success of his method, and he thought 
 he had never yet had a case in which he had found so 
 little difficulty in making a person give away, as it 
 were, his own interests under the stress of insult. 
 
 " I must say," observed Draycott, " that I have said 
 nothing which was in the least degree inconsiderate or 
 uncivil. If I have done so, it was entirely uninten- 
 tional and you have wholly misconstrued me." 
 
 " I can but reply," said Constantine, " that, if you 
 intended to make yourself agreeable, you have failed 
 to convey that impression to me." 
 
 The three men stood up. Mr. Draycott opened 
 the door, bowed slightly, and, followed by his 
 ashamed companion, went out of the room. 
 
 " He wasn't bluffing," said Merivale timidly, 
 when they reached the hall. " He was telling the 
 
 truth." 
 
 « Don't be a fool 1 " replied Draycott. " I knew 
 he would take that line. They always do." 
 
 Yet he began to feel uneasy. Men on the Stock 
 Exchange were influenced, he knew, by every breath 
 of criticism they received — even from the most incom- 
 petent, unreliable sources. It was absurd as generals
 
 CONSTANTINE RECEIVES TWO VISITORS 251 
 
 in opposition advising each other on tactics. He 
 himself, Ashton Draycott, had said so frequently. 
 
 " What is the Prince's game ? " he now wondered. 
 
 Prince Constantine, meanwhile, was telling his 
 mother on the telephone that he had good news. 
 
 "I have saved fifty thousand pounds," he explained 
 in Russian ; " you shall have the use of half of it 
 at 15 per cent.'* 
 
 "But it is Paul's money," she answered in Italian. 
 
 " We can discuss that another time," he replied in 
 German. He always spoke German when he remero 
 bered his brother's more careful disposition.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER DRAWS A CHEQUE 
 
 Felshammer was sitting in his private office at 
 Messrs. Sachs and Bickersteth's three days later, 
 when he received a call from Mr. Gloucester. The 
 old gentleman had recovered his buoyant step, and his 
 eyes shone — not with their original mildness and faith, 
 but with a shifting glitter. Conversation between 
 the two was brief. 
 
 " More trouble ? " asked Felshammer, in a light, 
 reassuring tone. 
 
 "I won't take up your valuable time. Dr. Fels- 
 hammer," replied his visitor, " but I want to repay 
 that loan you were kind enough to make. I didn't 
 expect to be in a position to return the full amount so 
 soon, and this is a pleasant surprise for both of us." 
 
 He picked up a pen, pulled a cheque-book from his 
 
 pocket, and signed, with trembling fingers, a draft on 
 
 his bankers for thirty thousand pounds. Felshammer 
 
 pushed back his chair, and stared first at the feeble 
 
 hand of Mr. Gloucester and then at his face. 
 
 252
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER DRAWS A CHEQUE 253 
 
 *' I don't suppose," said Gloucester, making his final 
 letter, " that you ever hoped to see the money again. 
 That makes my obligation the deeper and your kind- 
 ness the more extraordinary. But, although I have 
 had a lot of trouble, I beg you will not think that I 
 would have asked such a favour had I not felt that 
 there was something behind me." 
 
 "It has been a pleasure to me," stammered Fels- 
 hammer, " and I am in no hurry for the repayment if 
 it is any convenience to you to keep this." 
 
 " No, no ! I am beginning to love money as I 
 never did when I was comfortably off. ' Blessings 
 brighten as they take their flight ' — you know the old 
 saying. But I don't like to be in debt. You have 
 been more than generous because, after all, we are 
 mere acquaintances, and I haven't an old friend who 
 could have helped me in that emergency.'* 
 
 It was beautifully done, but Felshammer detected a 
 certain emphasis on the word " acquaintances." He 
 bowed ; the two shook hands and parted. One 
 question only troubled Felshammer. Where had 
 the money been found ? Who had supplied it ? 
 He knew Mr. Gloucester's financial position, and it 
 was certain that he had discharged one debt by 
 incurring another. Then a surmise flashed into the 
 secretary's mind. Had not Prince Paul drawn a very 
 large sum, at considerable inconvenience to the firm, 
 just two days before. For whom had he drawn it ? 
 For what purpose ? As a rule Prince Paul was ex-
 
 254 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 cecdingly open, even recklessly so, about his money 
 matters. He lived, however, vv^ell w^ithin his income 
 — a fine one — and he was not in the habit of making 
 heavy demands of the kind at short notice. Jealousy 
 now made Felshammer doubly suspicious, and he 
 formed a conviction that Clementine had been the 
 recipient of Paul's bounty. 
 
 " That is it ! That is it I That, of course, is it I " 
 he repeated aloud, beside himself with anger. He 
 cursed the girl, he cursed his own madness; he" 
 locked and unlocked the drawers in his writing- 
 desk, read letters blindly, wrote others which were 
 incoherent. At last he could bear it no longer, and, 
 sending for his confidential clerk, he made some excuse 
 and left the office for the rest of the day. He walked 
 the streets until the music-halls opened, then he 
 entered several in turn, only to find each entertain- 
 ment more vapid than the last. He went to his club 
 and ordered supper, but he had no appetite and could 
 not eat. The other members bored him, and he 
 drove to his own chambers. But the rooms looked 
 desolate, small, ghostly, so he went back again to the 
 streets and walked along the Embankment and over 
 the bridge towards Lambeth, while he heard Big Ben 
 tolling the hours two, three, four, and five — his mind 
 all the time revolving the same thoughts without 
 variation or relief. As he was crossing Belgrave 
 Square a carriage full of girls returning from a ball 
 rolled past him in the dawn. One of these waved a
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER DRAWS A CHEQUE 255 
 
 white hand to him ; it was Leonore Townshend, and 
 Clementine sat laughing by her side. He had just 
 time to catch sight of the Florentine profile. Tears 
 of admiration and fatigue sprang to his eyes, increas- 
 ing his bitterness, and also his desire to gain the 
 mastery over the provoking child. He continued his 
 wretched walk for another two hours, and entered his 
 chambers when the porters were just opening the 
 doors, sweeping out the hall, and polishing the brass. 
 They looked after him as he passed ; they liked to 
 learn as soon as possible the habits and expressions of 
 a new tenant. His expression that morning was any- 
 thing but pleasant ; they decided that he had lost 
 heavily at cards. 
 
 Later on he went as usual to the City, but, as it 
 was a Saturday, he was able to leave early, and it 
 occurred to him that the one person whom he could 
 bear to see was Rachel Bickersteth. There was a 
 London garden at the back of her drawing-room. In 
 the country it would have seemed small and dreary ; 
 the trunks of the trees were black, their dusty leaves 
 seldom stirred, the harsh vivid grass, growing in 
 sooty earth, had no vitality. The carefully planted 
 hyacinths — pink, blue, and mauve — were fragrant, 
 however, and, as Felshammer followed a servant 
 across the small lawn to some wicker-chairs with silk 
 cushions under an old elm, the place seemed 
 a delightful refuge. Rachel was there playing 
 " Patience."
 
 156 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " I have not seen you since you left Stokehamp- 
 ton," she said, without a smile. 
 
 " No," said Felshammer, " I have no leisure for 
 calling nowadays. The City turns one into a 
 drudge." 
 
 " Prince Paul was here last night. I like him 
 more and more each time I meet him. It seems a 
 pity that he, too, is becoming absorbed in financial 
 questions." 
 
 " Does he appear preoccupied ? " said Felshammer 
 eagerly. 
 
 " He talked a great deal about petroleum and some 
 contract made with Hermann Gessner. I could not 
 follow it because, as you know, business wearies me. 
 I have heard nothing else all my life, and I like 
 abstract things or beautiful ones. How I wish we 
 could all learn to be contented on five hundred a 
 year ! Why is success measured nowadays by the 
 money it can produce ? " 
 
 " Certainly the mere acquisition of wealth is not in 
 the least the only test of success." 
 
 " I begin to envy my housemaids," she sighed. 
 
 Felshammer remained there perhaps half an hour ; 
 he said nothing he had intended to say, yet her in- 
 fluence, all but sexless, was soothing. He felt certain 
 that she was in sympathy with him, and that she 
 realised, to some extent, the drift of his thoughts. 
 After he had left Rachel he felt that he could trust 
 himself to see Clementine. He drove to her lodgings
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER DRAWS A CHEQUE 257 
 
 and found her at home. Leonore was there, eating 
 chocolate?, and the two girls were discussing their 
 experiences at the ball the night before. Both were 
 flushed and excited, laughing lightly, comparing scraps 
 of conversation. Leonore, greeting Dr. Felshammer, 
 managed to throw him a speaking glance as though 
 she would say that she knew all and was, with her 
 whole soul, on his side. It conveyed also a soft 
 suggestion that, if he should ever come to think 
 better of wasting his time over Clementine, there 
 were many other attractive women still left in the 
 world. The subtlety of this glance was by no means 
 lost on its object. Clementine, on the other hand, 
 was courteous but constrained ; she shrank into the 
 background while Leonore led the conversation. 
 Balls, theatres, concerts, books, individuals — she dis- 
 posed of them all with a tripping tongue and a sarcastic 
 turn of thou2:ht. She knew that she was considered 
 a beauty, and she had an anxiety to be thought intelli- 
 gent as well. But, receiving no response from the 
 moody secretary, she soon became tired, wished him 
 goodbye, and, much to Clementine's embarrass- 
 ment, kissed her and left. Felshammer seized 
 his opportunity. As he could not be on the 
 terms he sought with Clementine, the next best 
 thing would be the exchange, he thought, of hard 
 words. 
 
 " I have come," said he bluntly, " to quarrel. That 
 is to say, I know it must end in a quarrel because I 
 
 18
 
 258 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 intend to speak the truth — the one thing which 
 
 women resent." 
 
 " But," said Clementine, " as you have so often 
 told me that I am an exception in many ways, you 
 can hardly be certain that I should dislike honesty." 
 
 Now that her father had discharged his debt to 
 Felshammer she felt free again, her own mistress, in 
 his society. He looked profoundly unhappy, also, and 
 this, in some way, made her forget the threatening 
 air he still possessed when their eyes met. 
 
 " I cannot guess what you have got to say," she 
 said, bending over a bowl of roses and lilac which had 
 been sent to her that morning by Prince Paul. 
 
 " You will think me brutal," replied Felshammer, 
 " but as I am fond of your father, sincerely fond of him, 
 I want to warn you that, owing to an unsuspecting 
 nature, he is not always careful in his choice of 
 friends." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Just that. Now there are some of us who are too 
 glad to advise or help him for his own sake, though 
 not for his own sake entirely." 
 
 " You have proved your friendship already. I have 
 never before had an opportunity of thanking you." 
 
 " I hate being thanked. Please let me finish with- 
 out thanks. He might get involved in some nominal 
 obligation to an unscrupulous person, and the result 
 might be a ruin which none of us could avert. Do 
 you follow me ? "
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER DRAWS A CHEQUE 259 
 
 « Perfectly." 
 
 "I have reason to think that he has been borrow- 
 ing money. If you remember, it was you yourself 
 who first spoke to me of your father's troubles. I 
 was proud of the confidence. Have I any thought in 
 the world except for your happiness ? " 
 
 He said this so earnestly, with such feeling, such 
 reproach, that she could find no answer. 
 
 "Do you know," he continued, " from whom he 
 has just obtained something like thirty thousand 
 pounds ? I am not going to say it is a small sum, 
 because it is not. The richest man would think 
 some time before he advanced it in the ordinary way 
 of business — even on security which he could realise 
 at a few days' notice. But Mr. Gloucester has no 
 such security." 
 
 " I can tell you nothing," said Clementine, " be- 
 cause I know nothing, except this — he did obtain 
 money from some friend — a friend whom he has had 
 for a long time, and in whom he places absolute 
 reliance. It was a present, not a loan. This is 
 what he told me." 
 
 Felshammer saw that she was giving all the infor- 
 mation in her power. 
 
 "Very well," said he, "so long as that is the case 
 you need not worry. I am relieved and glad. But I 
 have not finished yet." 
 
 " Not yet ? " said Clementine, knitting her brows. 
 
 " Prince Paul," replied Felshammer slowly, " is the
 
 26o LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 most agreeable man I know, and, without being 
 loveless or treacherous, he has broken more hearts, 
 destroyed more lives " 
 
 " I don't think that I vi^ant to hear any tales about 
 him." 
 
 " You must hear them," said Felshammer quickly. 
 " I cannot conceal from myself the fact that he 
 interests you. That is natural, and he is to be 
 envied. I envy him. But don't let your interest go 
 too far. He has charm, he has grace, he has youth, 
 he has all the glamour of a romantic, almost tragic 
 destiny ; but he is a libertine. Oh, not the swash- 
 buckler, the villain of novels, the Lovelace ; he is a 
 sentimental soul-hunter, a specialist in souls. He 
 believes that he is in earnest, whereas he is as fickle 
 as women are supposed to be and are not. He has no 
 real affection to offer any one, and you would not 
 accept less than a real affection. You would not 
 accept less than his undivided devotion. Now, his 
 devotion amounts to nothing. A few deliQ-htful 
 letters, some enchanting conversation, some divert- 
 ing monologues of self-revelation, and then — he will 
 meet some one else. She need not be half so beau- 
 tiful, she could not be so brilliant — she v/ill have the 
 solitary advantage of being new. She can be twenty 
 years older, she may be duller than a provincial 
 Egeria — that will not matter. She will be a 
 novelty." 
 
 " You are telling me nothing I did not know per-
 
 MR. GLOUCESTER DRAWS A CHEQUE 261 
 
 fectly well already. I don't believe he knows what 
 the word love means. Few people do." 
 
 She looked at Felshammer steadily as she spoke. 
 
 " You could not have known all that," he ex- 
 claimed ; " it is not sufficiently apparent in his manner. 
 He deceives himself long before he deceives others. 
 That is at once the secret and the insecurity of his 
 friendship. To him the last face represents the 
 abiding passion." 
 
 " Personally," said Clementine, " I feel no danger. 
 I judge my friends for myself. What one says of the 
 other is always worth hearing, but I don't allow it 
 to influence me. I have my own thoughts about 
 you, for instance, and about Prince Paul, and about 
 my father. I may be mistaken in all of you. I don't 
 think I am." 
 
 " You are not offended at anything I have said ? " 
 
 " No ; but, as you have been speaking plainly, 
 perhaps you will let me speak plainly. I think you 
 have more character than the Prince — many would 
 say that you were more manly. I believe that a 
 woman would be happier with you than with him — if 
 happiness can be taken to mean a sense of security and 
 the knowledge that whatever happens one will be pro- 
 vided for, shielded, and helped. Even then much 
 would depend on the woman. The Prince is an 
 egoist — not in your way. It is a light, irresponsible 
 egoism — very easy to forgive. Your egoism is 
 normal."
 
 262 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "I don't think," said Felshammer, "that you have 
 any right to call me an egoist." 
 
 " Neither of us has any right to speak plainly, but, 
 as you are determined to be unconventional, I, for my 
 part, am quite w^illing to humour you. You didn't 
 say that w^e were to talk with the simplicity of souls 
 meeting in Paradise, but I have an idea that, if the 
 disembodied ever do meet, they express themselves in 
 this transparent way. It is all impersonal, surely. 
 That is why I like it." 
 
 " Impersonal, yet — just as dissection is impersonal, 
 I suppose." 
 
 Clementine laughed. 
 
 " You began it." 
 
 " I have made you angry," said Felshammer, 
 
 " No," said Clementine, " that is the odd part. 
 You have not. I am always glad to talk about 
 Prince Paul." 
 
 A dark flush swept over her companion's hard face. 
 The scar on his cheek looked almost like an unhealed 
 wound. He dared not answer, but he struck the 
 table with his powerful hand, and, before she could 
 realise the danger of irritating a jealous man, he had 
 left the house.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE CONSIDERATION OF SOULS 
 
 Clementine suffered in the struggle to conceal a 
 love which she might not and would not express ; the 
 resolution to lock up her feelings and throw away the 
 key was not easily formed ; the cold, bantering manner 
 which she assumed out of self-defence in all her con- 
 versations with the Prince was, for its very necessity, 
 humiliating to her pride, and her spirit chafed at the 
 weakness, as she saw it, of her own heart. She 
 wondered how she could care so much for a man who, 
 she feared, was incapable of any real affection. The 
 fastidious hesitation which girls naturally experience in 
 forming an attachment added tormenting thoughts to 
 thoughts painful enough and a conflict severe enough 
 already. It is true that Prince Paul had offered her 
 marriage — an event she had never anticipated among 
 remote possibilities — but the terms had been out of the 
 question, and the manner of offering them had seemed 
 
 careless, almost insolent. The most painful tears of 
 
 263
 
 264. LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 her life were shed after she had the right to tell her- 
 self that he had offered his love — such as it was. It 
 was not worth offering or accepting ; her instinct 
 warned her of this ; curiosity stimulated all his friend- 
 ships with women — he wished to make experiments, 
 to observe, to transform, to trifle with tears, troubles, 
 kisses, and despair, to enjoy follies, vanities, reproaches. 
 And yet he had sent this verse with the basket of 
 flowers : — 
 
 Ah, love, could you and I with him conspire 
 To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, 
 Would not we shatter it to bits — and then 
 Remould it nearer to the heart's desire ! " 
 
 Surely a man who could quote that verse was not all 
 carelessness ? The shabby lodgings, her own poverty 
 had made no difference — unless for the better and 
 kinder — in his attitude. Was he beginning to learn 
 the strength, the simplicity of true love ? This faint 
 hope brought her a little peace, although she put away 
 the copied verse because she could not re-read it — the 
 words seemed to mock her, and she looked as seldom 
 as possible at the flowers. She did not wish to watch 
 them fade. 
 
 Prince Paul was dining informally that night with 
 Mr. and Mrs. Sachs. Nadeshda, in a white gown, 
 with white roses in her black hair, looked especially 
 young and innocent. She and the Prince discussed
 
 THE CONSIDERATION OF SOULS 265 
 
 the pictures of Burne-Jones and the dramas of 
 D'Annunzio. 
 
 "It is a strange thing to me," said the Prince, fixing 
 his earnest eyes on her long, sweeping lashes, " that 
 Englishmen and Turics take no interest at all in the 
 souls of women. We all admire physical beauty, but 
 moral beauty exercises the lasting fascination, and 
 as a study it is the more engrossing. Now French- 
 men are instinctively drawn toward psychology ; 
 so are Germans to a certain degree, so are 
 Russians, Italians, and Americans. Yes, would you 
 believe it, these practical hard-headed Americans are 
 greatly attracted always by the feminine soul and 
 mind ? They like to know what women think, how 
 they feel ; they are inspired by their ideas ; but in 
 England, if you speak of a woman's soul to a man, he 
 supposes you must be either mad or affected. In fact, 
 the soul is a thing which I never discuss with an 
 Englishman." 
 
 Nadeshda replied that this was too true, and she 
 promised herself a profound conversation with the 
 Prince later on in the drawing-room. Her husband 
 could be counted among those who had no patience 
 with psychological investigations. The one other 
 woman present was a very good-looking English 
 actress who was more famous for her domesticity 
 than any histrionic talent. She was always seen by 
 interviewers watching a brass kettle boiling on an 
 Adams hob in a little cottage at Bedford Park. Her
 
 266 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 clothes were made by a well-known firm, but she was 
 never foolish enough to wear jewels. Her sole orna- 
 ments were bead necklaces made by a reduced peeress 
 and sold for thirty shillings or two guineas at the 
 most. Nadeshda called this lady by her Christian 
 name — Amelia — and introduced her to the Prince as 
 " my dear friend, Miss Amelia Hoyle.'* 
 
 " Miss Hoyle," she added, in his ear, " is about to 
 create the part of the Queen of Sheba in a new 
 poetical play. It is not called the Queen of Sheba on 
 account of the Lord Chamberlain, who is afraid of 
 offending religious people. It will be the Oueen of 
 Babylon, but it is Sheba all the same, and Solomon is 
 to be called Solyman of Arabia. Rather clever of the 
 author, don't you think ? One must get a hearing 
 somehow. There is to be a wonderful scene in the 
 Desert, and we shall also have the Temple and 
 Jerusalem, but Jerusalem will be renamed also. It 
 ought to be a great success with one or two really 
 good ballets. Do tell us about your part, Amelia ? " 
 
 Miss Hoyle, with charming amiability, entered into 
 an elaborate description of her five gowns. Once she 
 referred to the merit of the poet's lines and said that 
 the piece was " a beautiful thing." She expressed her 
 regret at being unable to quote any part of it, but she 
 explained all her exits and entrances, adding each time : 
 " That is very fine you know ! " 
 
 " What do you think of her ? " asked Nadeshda, 
 when she found her opportunity.
 
 THE CONSIDERATION OF SOULS 267 
 
 " She is handsome," said Prince Paul. " I suppose 
 that is why she has gdne on the stage." 
 
 " What do you think about her soul ? " 
 
 " I have not thought about it ! " 
 
 " You wouldn't believe how kind she is to all her 
 family," said Nadeshda ; " she supports her mother 
 and two extraordinarily plain sisters. One made an 
 unhappy marriage — that is why Amelia hates men. 
 She has had a great many offers." 
 
 " Because she is so good ? " 
 
 « Yes." 
 
 " I think it is because she is clever enough to make 
 it clear that she never, by any chance, accepts a pro- 
 posal ! She begins to interest me now — such a type 
 would be impossible in any other country." 
 
 " You must get to know her." 
 
 " Would it take very long ? You see, she will be 
 handsome for a few years only, whereas she will always 
 remain a bore." 
 
 " Then what kind of women do you like ? " said 
 Nadeshda, resting her chin on her very pretty hand ; 
 " Do you admire that Mme. de Montgenays ? I think 
 her vulgar." 
 
 " She is a great artist all the same — very clever 
 too," said Prince Paul. " And, mind you, for her age 
 she is extraordinarily beautiful in an uncommon way. 
 To be beautiful in an uncommon way is the rarest 
 distinction possible." 
 
 " Can you understand Mr. Cobden Duryee*s
 
 268 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 infatuation ? My husband says it is to him incompre- 
 hensible." 
 
 " It is a case which illustrates the fidelity of which 
 men are capable. Duryee has loved La Belle Valen- 
 tine ever since she was a child. That speaks well for 
 both of them. Each must be a genius in a sense. To 
 do her justice she appears devoted to him." 
 
 "And then," said Nadeshda, "take Dr. Felshammer's 
 infatuation for Miss Gloucester." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed the Prince. But here his 
 training was useful, and he succeeded in maintaining 
 control of his astonishment. 
 
 " He is completely infatuated," continued Nadeshda. 
 " The last man on earth, one would say, to break his 
 heart over any one. I thought such crazes were old- 
 fashioned." 
 
 " I should have said so too," answered Paul, playing 
 with the gold fringe of a sofa-cushion ; " I have 
 known him for years. Romance is not in his 
 nature." 
 
 "But don't you see the change in him ? He has 
 aged terribly in the last fortnight. Of course Miss 
 Gloucester is quite lovely ; she is intelligent into the 
 bargain." 
 
 The Prince did not reply immediately. 
 
 " I knew her," he said slowly, " before she came 
 out. She has that peculiar genius I was speaking of — 
 that gift of arresting friendship or attention and keep- 
 mg It.
 
 THE CONSIDERATION OF SOULS 269 
 
 " It is seldom," said Mrs. Sachs, " that a man can 
 reach Dr. Felshammer's age without having formed 
 some permanent attachment or chain. One soon gets 
 able to recognise the chained, or rather muzzled, 
 smile ! He hasn't that air, but it is strange that he 
 remains a bachelor." 
 
 " He is cold-blooded — quite unromantic. He is 
 an instance of a man who cares not at all about 
 souls." 
 
 "I wonder whether Miss Gloucester will marry 
 him ? " 
 
 " Marry Felshammer ? Of course not ! Why 
 should she ? " 
 
 "If she is a wise girl," said Nadeshda, "she will be 
 thankful to get him. Her father has lost every penny 
 of his own money and hers — which was left to her by 
 her mother. You know what that means in society 
 as it is at present." 
 
 " I don't think she need trouble about society as it 
 is at present. She is an exception herself," said the 
 Prince — " she need not remember ordinary considera- 
 tions at all." 
 
 " I wish I could agree with you. But you don't 
 know England well ; you don't know the number of 
 extraordinarily pretty creatures of good family who go 
 nowhere, and see no one, and never get a chance to 
 marry merely because they haven't the means to keep 
 in the swim. The men they could get are as poor as 
 themselves or social inferiors. So the wretched girls
 
 270 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 grow up and become faded old maids, embittered and 
 full of fads — if they don't drift into something worse. 
 They arrange these things differently abroad, where 
 every girl has some sort of a dowry, and, when she 
 does not attract suitors, she can save her dignity by 
 becoming a nun." 
 
 "That is too cynical," said the Prince. 
 
 " Whenever one tells the truth one is called 
 cynical." 
 
 " I think, moreover, you are mistaken about 
 Felshammer." 
 
 "Is it possible, after all, that the ajffair has escaped 
 your notice ? Why, Rachel invited the Gloucesters 
 to Stokehampton out of kindness to Felshammer ! " 
 
 " Indeed ? " said the Prince drily. 
 
 " It was so like poor Rachel. She had no tact as a 
 match-maker. It was much too obvious ; the girl 
 herself saw through it, and pretended to be ill, and 
 moped in the room." 
 
 " What small dramas go on without our suspicion ! " 
 said Prince Paul, beginning to wonder whether 
 Clementine cared for the secretary. " I must have 
 this out with her," he thought. " I will go and see 
 her again to-morrow. It is preposterous. Is she as 
 deceitful as the others ? " 
 
 Then he had to take his leave in order to attend a 
 very small and very select party at the Russian 
 Embassy. He found thirty highly important person- 
 ages present, including his mother and the Princess
 
 THE CONSIDERATION OF SOULS 271 
 
 Marie, his cousin. The Princess Marie was now 
 seven-and-twenty. She had sloping shoulders, high 
 cheek-bones, and an ill-formed mouth full of pro- 
 minent irregular teeth, which made her lisp especially 
 trying. At the sight of Paul an unbecoming flush 
 covered her entire face, but her soft blue eyes sparkled 
 — which flattered the young man and made him think 
 her less plain than usual. She was not altogether plain 
 at any time ; she had a sweet, winning smile always, 
 and in full evening dress with a diamond comb in her 
 splendid blonde hair she was not without certain 
 qualifications to distinction. 
 
 " Ah, Paul," she exclaimed, " why are you so late ? 
 We have been expecting you since ten o'clock. My 
 aunt Charlotte said you would not come. I said you 
 would come, and I was right." 
 
 Her evident delight beamed from every feature. 
 
 " She was too amiable," said Prince Paul to himself. 
 " Dear good creature ! I wish her arms was not so 
 red." 
 
 She looked with triumph round the room at the 
 different privileged members of the Diplomatic Circle 
 who were observing, with discretion, a meeting which 
 they hoped would prove historical. 
 
 " It is so nice to be here in London," she said ; " it 
 is too stiff at home, and here they leave one in peace. 
 I have been shopping all day and driving in hansoms. 
 I have bought a bull-dog. But what have you been 
 doing, Paul 1 "
 
 272 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Oh, I have been in the City ! " said the Prince, 
 as they sat down in a sort of alcove near some palms 
 and azaleas. 
 
 " Ah, to be sure ! You are becoming a kind of 
 American millionaire. My dear aunt was telling me. 
 Do you like the Stock Exchange ? Does it bore you 
 as you pretend politics do ? " 
 
 She was conversing in German, but she used the 
 English word bore because she said that there was no 
 precise equivalent for it in any other language. 
 
 "All English people are bored," she went on ; 
 " everything to them is 'such a bore.' I think it must 
 amuse them enormously to be bored. When will you 
 come to our box at the opera, Paul ? '* 
 
 He was about to answer and say, " Oh, that will be 
 such a bore I " when he checked himself and said 
 instead, " Whenever you ask me, Marie." 
 
 He glanced up and saw his mother looking at him 
 with an expression of approval. The Prince had paid 
 her most pressing creditors, and she smiled as much as 
 to say : " Marry that immense fortune. The alliance 
 will prove extremely popular in many ways. Poor 
 darling Marie idolises you." The ex-Oueen saw, in 
 imagination, articles in all the newspapers about a 
 royal love-match, followed later by photographs taken 
 of the royal home-life — the Princess playing the piano 
 and the Prince turning over the music, with one hand 
 on Her Royal Highness's shoulder. 
 
 " Ach, if that could be so ! " thought the poor lady.
 
 THE CONSIDERATION OF SOULS 273 
 
 " Ach, if he would not spoil his life by foolish 
 caprices ! " 
 
 Prince Paul did his best to entertain his cousin. 
 She was charming, really, and what is known as a good 
 comrade. She had been a tomboy in her childhood, 
 and there was something virile in her vigorous hand- 
 shake. He liked her so well that he wished she was 
 his sister, although he could not picture her as his 
 wife. By and by she gave him, with many blushes, a 
 sprig of white heather from her dress. 
 
 " To remember this evening ! " she explained. " We 
 have never before met together in London." 
 
 The dull party soon broke up, and the Prince, 
 having escorted the royal ladies to their carriage, went 
 home in a bad humour. He was not given to self- 
 analysis ; his motives for action depended wholly on 
 the sensations of pain or pleasure which they involved. 
 A wish, due to imagination, the senses, the sympathies, 
 or ennui, was reason enough for him. He thought of 
 asking Cobden Duryee whether he could not go out 
 to the States disguised and work obscurely in a mine. 
 Anything seemed preferable to the life of artificial 
 ideas in which he was being gradually engulfed. And 
 then the notion of masquerading as a miner struck him as 
 one more example of the eternal verities in comic opera. 
 
 " Comic opera," he said, as he tried to fall asleep 
 after reading the latest Parisian success in fiction — the 
 squalid history of a lady's-maid — " comic opera is the 
 only true thing left in society ! " 
 
 19
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 TWO WAYS OF PLAYING THE FOX 
 
 That same evening Mr. Cobden Duryee and Mr. 
 
 Gessner were dining together at Duryee's flat. Both 
 
 gentlemen were dyspeptics, and one was endeavouring 
 
 to find nourishment in a dish of boiled rice, while the 
 
 other was taking hot water with some finely-chopped 
 
 raw meat. This plain food was served on gold plate, 
 
 but the meal was grim — an ironical if silent comment 
 
 on the strain which attends success. The two men 
 
 were good friends ; both had made large fortunes, and 
 
 neither had found much happiness in life. Gessner 
 
 was thick-set, robust, and taciturn. His wealth had 
 
 been acquired by hard thinking, laborious days, and 
 
 bold, though never dishonest, speculation. Duryee 
 
 was supposed to play the game of straightforwardness 
 
 to the verge of eccentricity. Men, surveying his luck, 
 
 attributed his ability to the devil — a vulgar error of 
 
 incompetent minds. Gessner himself could never 
 
 entirely overcome his distrust of American finance, 
 
 274
 
 TWO WAYS OF PLAYING THE FOX 275 
 
 It seemed to him far too go-ahead. He was also 
 somewhat jealous of that curious buoyancy which 
 exists in America, which allows a man to gamble away 
 fortunes, keep his credit, and retrieve every disaster. 
 Failures in the United States are even a certain cre- 
 dential ; they prove that the man who has sustained 
 them is enterprising ; his courage is admired, and he 
 is often accepted as an expert on the very matters 
 wherein he may have committed errors of judgment. 
 It is realised there that many experiments must be 
 made in the proof of a new departure. When, 
 therefore, Duryee asked Gessner in a light tone — 
 
 " Say, Gessner, what about your contract with 
 Prince Constantine ? " 
 
 Gessner replied, with an air of defiance — 
 
 "I may hold on to it. I shall keep to it perhaps 
 without any modification." 
 
 "Is it worth your while ? " said Duryee quietly. 
 
 " Why ? " said Gessner. " Do you want it ? " 
 
 Duryee lifted his languid eyes from a plate of straw- 
 berries which he dared not touch, and said — 
 
 " I don't believe I want anything. I like to have 
 everything in my own hands or let it alone — I can do 
 either just as well as not. You are the same. We 
 have got ways beyond small deals." 
 
 " Can't we work this together ? " suggested Gessner. 
 He saw an opportunity of learning American methods. 
 
 " We might," said Duryee, without enthusiasm. 
 "But I don't think we should agree. We have both
 
 276 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 succeeded, you must remember, on totally different 
 lines. The policies would not amalgamate." 
 
 " What are Prince Paul's intentions about Largs ? " 
 asked Gessner. 
 
 " Well, I thought something of making him a 
 financier, but the root of the matter is not in him. 
 All he wants is a good time, and a good time in his 
 own way. If I do anything with Largs, it will be on 
 the strict condition that he remains a mere cypher. I 
 won't touch it otherwise. Felshammer is a bright man 
 — a little visionary may be." 
 
 " Carnegie was telling me the other day," said 
 Gessner, " that it will cost about fifty million dollars 
 for pipe-lines alone if I take up petroleum." 
 
 " Guess he's right." 
 
 " Did you think of working Largs on the principles 
 of Rockefeller's Trust ? " 
 
 " No," said Duryee drily. " I was thinking of the 
 Duryee Trust ! I want to experimentalise out in 
 Largs. I may drop all I own before I'm through. 
 You see, I haven't any wife — any family, and, instead 
 of leaving my money to a lot of institutions after my 
 death, I may as well have the fun of spending it now. 
 I'll provide employment for those who are able-bodied. 
 You others can take care of the sick and the insane 
 and the criminals ! The fact is, I'm getting so now 
 — it may be owing to this confounded toast-water — 
 that I watch these young fellows on the omnibus-seats, 
 and I envy them. The enthusiasm, the ambition, the
 
 TWO WAYS OF PLAYING THE FOX 277 
 
 hopes, the fun, sir, of the world is right there — centred 
 in those shabby boys." 
 
 Mr. Gessner looked at him in surprise ; he never 
 felt anything of the kind himself, because he was 
 passionately fond of power, proud of his fortune, 
 jealous of his renown as one of the leading bankers in 
 Europe. To him movement meant pleasure, and 
 repose fatigue. 
 
 " You are a little run down," he said. 
 
 " No, I am not more run down than I was when I 
 first started years ago. I came from a tired stock. I 
 keep asking myself. What does it all amount to ? I 
 have reached the conclusion that you cannot live your 
 life fully and work the money market at the same 
 time. As for this phase of big combinations, it is a 
 sort of feudalism in money without any of the 
 romance that seems to have gone with feudalism. 
 If you have land, it is there ; you can send your 
 labourers out on it and farm it, and you can build on 
 it and make it beautiful. I love to read about the 
 feudal system — the race will never see anything so 
 perfect again." 
 
 "These are theories," cried Gessner genially — 
 " the theories and dreams of a practical man, and, if 
 you approach Largs in this frame of mind, it will 
 prove very much more satisfactory as a charitable 
 undertaking in the interests of the unemployed than 
 as a prize for shareholders ! " 
 
 He laughed at his own ponderous joke, and was so
 
 278 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 amused that he was able to swallow some rice without 
 tasting it. 
 
 " I will tell you what I am prepared to do," he said. 
 " I will sell you the contract, make it over to you, and 
 you can do what you like afterwards with Prince 
 Constantine." 
 
 " Can I have it on the same terms ? " said Duryee. 
 
 " Would that be fair to my manager, Mr. Draycott ? 
 You see, he made all the arrangements. I always 
 insist on a clause to the effect that I can transfer any 
 deal as I see fit." 
 
 "Just so," said Duryee, "and Draycott will expect 
 a profit for the sake of his reputation ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Gessner. 
 
 They discussed the terms of that profit, and it 
 worked out in Mr. Gessner's favour to the extent of 
 ten thousand pounds. 
 
 " It is purely nominal," said Gessner. 
 
 "I like to let a man feel that he' has got the laugh 
 on me," said Duryee, when explaining the interview 
 to Prince Paul ; " it makes him feel good ! Gessner 
 thinks, from the way I talked — and I must have 
 sounded like a sick fox — that I am tumbling to pieces 
 — losing my grip, as it were. He wants to make it 
 easy for me to get broken. Then he'll come to the 
 rescue and take it over. Just use the word ideal once 
 in a business talk, and they'll all subscribe right away 
 to your memorial fund. You can't tell me anything 
 about Hermann Gessner. He's great."
 
 TWO WAYS OF PLAYING THE FOX 279 
 
 Prince Paul, however, took no interest in these 
 commercial operations ; he thought them rather 
 degrading, certainly not worth his while. He 
 escaped from Mr. Duryee at the first lull in their 
 conversation and drove to Clementine's lodo-ings. 
 She was receiving a visit from her aunts, Mrs. Romilly 
 and Mrs. Townshend, and the young man's heart sank 
 when he beheld these two matrons seated in the small 
 sitting-room. The talk which followed was trite ; 
 the aunts were absent-minded because they were con- 
 sidering him in every detail — his expression, his 
 clothes, his maimer. He informed them that his 
 cousin Marie had bought a buU-dos;. 
 
 " Some people are fond of bull-dogs," replied Mrs. 
 Romilly. 
 
 " Don't you think, dear," cried Louise, addressing 
 her sister, " that bull-dogs can be great darlings although 
 they are so ugly, poor things ? I remember Anna 
 Sylvester had a bull-dog," and so on, and so forth. 
 
 The dust of the streets, the galleries of Florence, 
 the Royal Academy, Beethoven's symphonies. Major 
 Romilly 's health, and Augusta's approaching marriage 
 were discussed with vivacious gloom. Mrs. Towns- 
 hend was the first to leave, because she had to catch a 
 train, at the end of half an hour ; and Mrs. Romilly 
 followed her example fifteen minutes later with a look 
 which told plainly her opinion that Prince Paul was 
 compromising her niece. But, as the door closed 
 behind her, he said to Clementine —
 
 28o LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "I was determined to sit them out. I don't like 
 the note you wrote me about the flowers, and I have 
 brought it back. Just read it." 
 
 He brought her short letter out of his pocket and put 
 it on the table. 
 
 "There is nothing the matter with the note," 
 replied Clementine. " The flowers are beautiful, 
 and I said so. As for the poetry, that has always been 
 one of my favourite verses." 
 
 " We must come to an understanding," said Prince 
 Paul. " I assure you this cannot go on. I am not 
 absolutely blind, and I know the reason for your 
 unnatural conduct. The man you care for is 
 Felshammer. Oh, why didn't you tell me so long 
 
 ago 
 
 ? " 
 
 " Felshammer ! " she exclaimed, turning pale. 
 
 " I have not come to say anything against him, but 
 I do think it would have been more loyal to both of 
 us if you had given me a hint — what is easier to a 
 woman ? — that you loved some one else." 
 
 "I am unable to explain my friendship with Dr. 
 Felshammer," she said steadily, " but it is not at all as 
 you think. He is nothing to me although he has been 
 a kind friend in many ways." 
 
 "Young girls," said the Prince, "cannot have 
 friends. That's an American custom, I believe, but 
 it does not suit Europeans." 
 
 " In that case, sir," replied Clementine, " I can 
 scarcely know you."
 
 TWO WAYS OF PLAYING THE FOX 281 
 
 " Yes, you can, because I have explained myself. 
 I do not pretend to these absurd so-called Platonics. 
 A Platonic friendship is an unhealthy lie. But I 
 am too proud to be one of a multitude. There is 
 mediaevalism in my blood. I think that the woman 
 one loves ought to be isolated — removed from all 
 influences. You may call it jealousy, but it is the 
 primeval instinct of protecting the creature one ovv^ns." 
 
 " Dr. Felshammer is nothing to me," repeated 
 Clementine. 
 
 " And what am I to you ? " said Paul. 
 
 " That is the most difficult question to answer." 
 
 " It can't be too difficult." 
 
 " You were kind enough to make a suggestion " 
 
 " The suggestion was an offer of my whole life — 
 nothing else," he said sarcastically. 
 
 "And I told you on what terms I could accept that 
 offer. It won't make either of us happier to go over 
 that ground again." 
 
 " Oh, how foolish you are ! You are driving me 
 into that marriage with my Cousin Marie. I know 
 and fear my own perversity. I should regret the 
 marriage ever after. But you are driving me that 
 way. 
 
 " I should be sorry indeed," said Clementine, " to 
 drive you into any unhappy state." 
 
 " Marie has a heart," said the Prince, with feeling, 
 "she has a soul, she has the affection of a true woman, 
 whereas you seem to me almost inhuman."
 
 282 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " Has any one ever told you that your manners are 
 atrocious ? " 
 
 " My manners ? What do you mean ? " He had 
 always been led to suppose that they were perfect. 
 
 "I know that they are commonly considered de- 
 lightful," said Clementine, " but they are not delightful 
 at this moment." 
 
 " This is no occasion for the demonstration of one's 
 mere manners," said Paul haughtily ; "we are tallcing 
 about a matter upon which your future and mine 
 depend. I don't wish to regard anything except the 
 situation, which is sufficiently serious. I consider that 
 you have led me on to care for you, and now I take 
 the right to express myself with entire frankness. I 
 have loved you as I have never loved any one else. I 
 have endured rebuffs from you which, on reconsidera- 
 tion, I find almost inconceivable. You have a way of 
 speaking and looking which verges on the con- 
 temptuous. It is insufferable really, and I think you 
 ought to have a lesson. You have been spoilt. If I 
 am fond of you, it is in spite of my better judgment 
 and because I hope, perhaps unwisely, that your faults 
 arise from your training — not from your actual dis- 
 position 1 " 
 
 " It is very generous of you to think that," said 
 Clementine — "very generous. But I think it is 
 rather justice than generosity. There is not one word 
 of truth in what you have been saying. You know 
 this. And this is why you find you can forgive me.
 
 TWO WAYS OF PLAYING THE FOX 283 
 
 Literally, you have nothing to forgive. I can't tell 
 you how much I vi^ish I could accept your offer." 
 
 This admission, for her, was an important step in 
 the direction of surrender, and, as he was beginning 
 to understand her character more thoroughly, his spirits 
 rose. 
 
 " Why are you so impossible, darling ? " said he, in 
 his softest voice. 
 
 She smiled through her tears. 
 
 *' You can't keep it up," he continued, pressing his 
 advantage. " You make me wretched j you are 
 unhappy yourself." 
 
 "I must not alter my terms. I must not — I must 
 not I " 
 
 " Perhaps you need not. I love you so much that I 
 will promise whatever you please. We can be married 
 in a little country church and live in some villa in 
 Italy. I will renounce every right — except the right 
 to make you my wife. No one will come between 
 us. I swear it." 
 
 She put her hands over her ears. 
 
 "I won't hear you. I want to, but if you break 
 your word it will kill me. So I won't hear the 
 promise yet. Think well about it. There is no 
 happiness in haste. Don't see me or write to me for 
 a month. Then, if you wish to come, come again." 
 
 " It is quite clear," he said angrily, " that you know 
 nothing at all about men. What joy is there in 
 waiting a month ? What sense ? "
 
 284 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " I want you to be sure of yourself." 
 
 " But I am sure already. You must think me very 
 fickle." 
 
 "I know you are fickle." 
 
 "Then what are you ? " 
 
 " Constant, of course." 
 
 " You will let me kiss you goodbye — for a 
 month ? " 
 
 " No ! You may kiss me when you come back." 
 
 " But I want to take a memory with me." 
 
 They were both laughing by this time ; there was 
 sadness, however, under Clementine's gaiety. WouU 
 he come back ? Could she believe in his pro- 
 testations ? 
 
 " No," she said firmly — " no kisses." 
 
 He kissed her hand, which was trembling. 
 
 " If you were clever," said he, " you could twist me 
 round your finger. As it is, I don't know myself 
 when I am with you. You reverse every one of my 
 ideas and all my experience of women ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE DUTY OF RELATIVES 
 
 My Dear Alfred, — It is my very painful duty to point out 
 the obvious fact that Clementine cannot receive visits 
 from young men of high rank at her lodgings. I never 
 heard of such a thing, and I cannot sufficiently impress 
 upon you the importance of putting a stop at once to these 
 improper proceedings. The fact that Clementine's mother 
 was an American ought to make you not less, but more, 
 vigilant in observing les convenances. It will be remarkably 
 odd if the Prince does not jump to the most damaging 
 conclusions. What on earth are you after in the City that 
 she is so much alone ? I lost all patience long ago with 
 Clemmie's bringing up, but I have tried not to show it. 
 I know I was averse to the idea of having a paid chaperon 
 who would set her cap at you and piece the letters together 
 in your wastepaper basket (as that dreadful Mrs. Weyborn 
 did to Colonel Fletcher), yet, if you cannot be with the 
 girl, some one else must. Louise tells me that another man, 
 a foreigner too, was there the other afternoon. You must 
 be mad to allow this. Clementine is of an extremely 
 showy American type which appeals to idle fashionable 
 men of no moral character. Be warned in time, dear 
 Alfred. — Your affectionate sister. Tiny. 
 
 P.S. — Don't touch salmon just now. It is neither good 
 nor safe this year. 
 
 a8s
 
 286 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 Mrs. Romilly always signed herself " Tiny " — the 
 pet name of her childhood — and added an informal 
 postscript about Alfred's food or his valuable life when- 
 ever she felt it her imperative duty to write him a 
 harsh letter. After reading the above communication 
 he was at a loss whether he was more exhausted or 
 annoyed by its contents. At all times a man who 
 resented advice, chiefly because it disturbed his indolent 
 mind, he did not know now where to begin or how to 
 act, although the fact that Clementine was at stake 
 urged him, as a pain urges, to attempt something. 
 Instinct has its surprises, and instinct, by an un- 
 expected turn, made him think at once of his wife. 
 Greatly as he disliked and feared her, she had impressed 
 his imagination by her resource, and he saw that by 
 sheer force of temperament she could be of more true 
 service to his daughter than he with all his ineffectual 
 love. Valentine's positive ideas, her bewildering ability 
 to feel and reason at the same moment, were disagree- 
 able in a constant companion ; but to poor Gloucester, 
 sinking consciously under the demoralisation of drugs, 
 worry, and debt, she seemed less a woman than a 
 bracing atmosphere, raw, harsh, cruel, perhaps, yet, in 
 the end, wholesome. 
 
 " I am going to pieces — going to pieces," he mur- 
 mured to himself, as he drove to Claridge's Hotel. 
 " Some people can be good only while they are happy. 
 Trouble doesn't suit me. I can't stand it. My poor 
 mother was the same — she could not bear pain. It
 
 THE DUTY OF RELATIVES 287 
 
 made her quite devilish — poor, poor dear — quite 
 devilish.'* 
 
 Mme. de Montgenays, Mr. Duryee, and Mabel 
 were still at the lunch-table, and as Gloucester, obey- 
 ing a message to the effect that Madame would see him 
 at once, was shown into the room, Mr. Cobden 
 Duryee, with a courtly bow, stepped out on to the 
 balcony. The two men felt something akin to a 
 common pity for themselves and La Belle Valentine ; 
 on grave terms, they exchanged words seldom and 
 never smiled in each other's company. 
 
 *' I want you to read that letter from Tiny," said 
 Gloucester, startled into directness, and refusing 
 Mabel's silent offer of a cigarette. 
 
 Mme. de Montgenays, having perused her sister-in- 
 law's epistle, was properly indignant. 
 
 " I wish she would mind her own affairs and leave 
 my child alone ! " she exclaimed, throwing the letter 
 across the table to Mabel, who read it while she 
 sipped, at intervals, a glass of port. Admiration 
 almost shone in Mr. Gloucester's fading eyes as he 
 surveyed La Belle in her new character of an 
 aggrieved parent. 
 
 " She is wonderful ! She is marvellous ! She is 
 miraculously versatile ! " he thought. 
 
 " At the same time," she went on, after her display 
 of indignation, "from her own point of view, Tiny is 
 right. I don't think myself that Clementine ought to 
 be alone, seeing men. It isn't good form in this
 
 288 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 country. I'm getting interested in the girl myself. 
 I want to know her, Alfred, and talk to her." 
 
 He put up one hand in protest, closed his eyes, and 
 shook his head weakly. 
 
 " She needn't know who I am. I'll pretend that I 
 am a friend of her mother's. There is nothing against 
 that, and I cannot tell how to deal with the case until 
 I have seen her for myself. That is necessary." 
 
 Mr. Gloucester was so relieved to have the whole 
 burden lifted from his shoulders that, after suggesting 
 a few objections to Valentine's proposal, he expressed 
 his willingness to fall in with any plan that she might 
 be pleased to make — provided always that the girl 
 remained in ignorance of Mme. de Montgenay's real 
 identity. 
 
 " You don't suppose," said La Belle, " that I want 
 a grown-up daughter to appear suddenly on the 
 horizon ? But I must see her. If she is going to be 
 like me, I shall be sorry for your sake, and also for her 
 own, because the world has changed and so have 
 men." 
 
 « That's so !" ejaculated Mabel. " That's the truest 
 thing you ever uttered ! " 
 
 " I don't see any modern men growing up like 
 Cobden," continued Valentine ; " they have neither 
 his strength of will nor his independence." 
 
 " Clcmmie is not like you," said Mr. Gloucester, 
 drooping. "I can't see whom she takes after; she's 
 like neither of us."
 
 THE DUTY OF RELATIVES 289 
 
 " Well," replied his wife placidly, " that is altogether 
 to her advantage ! Now let me call and see her now 
 • — right away. Would she be at home ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Gloucester, " she is always in at this 
 time. The poor child takes her walk early. She goes 
 to church every morning." 
 
 La Belle Valentine smiled. 
 
 " I'm glad to hear it. This is a case for immediate 
 action. I don't want verdure to grow all around me 
 while I am wondering what to do next." 
 
 She joined Duryee on the balcony, held a short con- 
 versation with him, and then went to her bedroom, 
 from which she emerged presently wearing a black 
 dress of severe simplicity, a small plumed hat, and a 
 very delicate black veil. 
 
 " I'm ready I " said she. " Hurry on ahead and tell 
 them to call a hansom I " 
 
 When Gloucester left the room, Duryee rejoined 
 the two ladies and watched Valentine draw on her 
 gloves. He was secretly pleased to find that she took 
 some interest at last in her own daughter. It was 
 satisfactory also to see that she had still the charming 
 faculty of providing astonishment to her oldest friends. 
 She would not wait for the lift, but ran down the stairs 
 as lightly as a fawn. 
 
 "She's got more heart and soul than you would 
 think," Duryee observed to Mabel. " She never does 
 herself justice." There were actually tears in his eyes 
 as he walked about the room, picking up a handker- 
 
 20
 
 290 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 chief, a bracelet, a sable tippet, a purse, and some 
 stamps which La Belle had lost under various chairs 
 during the morning. " Val," said he, " has never had 
 fair play. Clever w^omen have an awful time every- 
 where, and when they are handsome into the 
 bargain " 
 
 " She adores you," said Mabel ; " I have never seen 
 anything like it." 
 
 He could not trust himself to speak. A lump 
 always came into his throat when he considered his 
 idol at all seriously. She had given him so much 
 sorrow and so much appreciation. 
 
 Neither Gloucester nor Mme. de Montgenays spoke 
 during the cab-drive. La Belle had a theory that it 
 injured her musical notes to speak much in the open 
 air or above the noise of traffic. Gloucester, who had 
 swallowed more opium, was dazed. He could not 
 believe that he was really sitting side by side with 
 Valentine, and that he felt altogether at ease in her 
 society. He saw her through a vast stretch of 
 atmosphere, and he heard his own voice, when he 
 gave directions to the driver, as though it were a 
 stranger speaking in the distance. Was he so attached 
 to Clementine as he had been ? He was too ill to be 
 expected to care much for anybody, and what now 
 seemed the most vivid recollection of his life rose up 
 before him — blue birds in green trees, the pattern of 
 the wall-paper on the room where Clementine was 
 born. The blue birds sang and the green trees waved ;
 
 THE DUTY OF RELATIVES 
 
 ^91 
 
 the whole coarse fabric of the real world vanished like 
 fairy gold ! he was roaming in the sweet meadow of 
 Eastern Acres. . , . 
 
 "Is this the house?" asked La Belle Valentine, 
 who told the cabman to wait. Gloucester opened the 
 front door with a latch-key and let her pass him. 
 
 On entering the sitting-room, they found Clementine 
 fast asleep on the sofa. 
 
 " Don't wake her," said Mme. de Montgenays — 
 "I just want to take a good look at her" — and she 
 stood there motionless, scarcely drawing her breath, 
 holding Gloucester's arm with a grip of iron for fear 
 he should stir or disturb the sleeper. 
 
 " She's stunning ! " she said at last, in a whisper. 
 " She is unique. The Prince hasn't made any mistake 
 this time. Better rouse her while I look out of the 
 window." 
 
 Gloucester called his daughter by name ; she sprang, 
 in confusion, to her feet, and saw a woman's figure in 
 black standing with its back toward her. 
 
 " This lady," said Mr. Gloucester, " is an American 
 lady who knew your mother." 
 
 Mme. de Montgenays wheeled round and said, with 
 her most gracious smile : "I implored Mr. Gloucester 
 to bring me here to-day. Your mother and I and 
 Cobden Duryee were schoolmates years ago." 
 
 Clementine recognised her at once as the Prince's 
 friend — the beautiful dancing lady who had been at 
 Salsomaggiore.
 
 292 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " You don*t like me ! " said Mme. de Montgenays, 
 looking at her with critical but not unkindly eyes. 
 
 " Oh, please don't think that ! " said Clementine. 
 " I was startled at first, that's all." 
 
 " Why not think it, little girl, when it is so ? You 
 are not a bit like your mother if you can't face the 
 truth." 
 
 Clementine sat staring at her, subdued by an infinite 
 influence which she could not understand and was 
 unable to combat. 
 
 " Prince Paul has often told me about you," con- 
 tinued Mme. de Montgenays ; " he thinks the world 
 of you. Now you are blushing ! Why, my dear 
 child, your mother had every man, young and old, in 
 the town wild about her, and she never thought any- 
 thing about it. If you think she was an angel, get 
 that idea out of your head " — and she gave one of her 
 rare mirthless laughs. "But I don't want to tease 
 you. Ask me things about her — that is what I came 
 for. I hoped you would be glad to see me." 
 
 "I am," said Clementine. 
 
 " No, you are not. Never mind." 
 
 It would have seemed profane, Clementine thought, 
 to discuss her dead mother with this dashing, worldly 
 individual, who had an air of wickedness, of unhallowed 
 fascination, of unlawful knowledge. Mr. Gloucester 
 meanwhile was moving the various trumpery ornaments 
 on the mantelshelf, wandering about the room, passing 
 his hands through his white hair, and muttering
 
 THE DUTY OF RELATIVES 293 
 
 incoherent phrases. He could not call the meeting 
 a success, and he began to be afraid lest Mme. de 
 Montgenays should lose her capricious interest in 
 Clementine. He was becoming conscious of his own 
 growing numbness to every duty, every tie, and he had 
 enough heart still left to know that the girl might 
 alienate, by her reserve, a strong if unsympathetic 
 protector. But, as on all other occasions, he mis- 
 calculated La Belle Valentine's moods. She was too 
 good-humoured to resent Clementine's indifference — 
 the girl's cold attitude appealed to her own peculiar 
 cynicism, her sense of the ironic tragedy in life, and she 
 promised herself much amusement in describing the 
 whole scene later on to Cobden. All that she saw, 
 heard, or learnt was invariably regarded as so much 
 material for the entertainment, in some form, of the 
 one human being whom she passionately loved. 
 
 " Well," she said, rising, " I came to gratify my 
 curiosity. I wanted to see Val's child. I am most 
 agreeably disappointed. The trouble with me has 
 been that I couldn't be satisfied with the two talents of 
 silver and two changes of raiment. Now you could." 
 
 Clementine had just time to notice once more how 
 superbly Mme. de Montgenay carried herself, how 
 handsome her face was in spite of its underlying 
 hardness, and then she heard the words — 
 
 « Goodbye ! " 
 
 To her amazement, she saw, on looking out of the 
 window, her father getting into the hansom with the
 
 294 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 visitor. The poor gentleman was really hypnotised by 
 his wife's vigour. He drove with her to Claridge's, 
 and when she did not ask him to come upstairs and 
 discuss the events of the afternoon with her and 
 Mabel he felt a little hurt. So, lonely and morose, 
 he walked away towards the Park, wondering what 
 the strange creature would do next. Her one remark 
 in the cab had been : 
 
 " She's a beauty, and she can keep her head. She 
 will have to suffer, but she will arrive.'* 
 
 Gloucester, who, like all timid persons, feared any- 
 thing in the nature of prophecy, had trembled all over 
 at this utterance. 
 
 " Please God," he had said, " it will be for the best, 
 whatever happens." He repeated this as he went on 
 his way, finishing the pious hope with a petition to 
 heaven for a brown pony — a prayer of his childhood, 
 now remembered mechanically and uttered without 
 thought. He had mumbled it at the end of the 
 Doxology for years. 
 
 Mme. de Montgenays had received a visit that 
 morning from Mr. Carrow, of the firm of Messrs. 
 Carrow and HoUingham, jewellers. Mr. Carrow had 
 informed her, among other things, in the strictest 
 confidence, that a lady of very high rank indeed was 
 anxious to dispose by private treaty of a remarkable 
 sapphire necklace. 
 
 " Let me see it," said La Belle Valentine. 
 
 When, therefore, she returned from her expedition,
 
 THE DUTY OF RELATIVES 295 
 
 Mr. Carrow was waiting in her sitting-room, with a 
 large blue velvet case in front of him on the table, 
 talking to Mabel. The necklace was beautiful and 
 costly — two irresistible attractions to Mme. de Mont- 
 genays. But she said she would have to think it over, 
 and she would have to wear it first in order to see 
 whether it suited her style. 
 
 " I have to consider my style, Mr. Carrow," said 
 she. 
 
 Mr. Carrow, a man of taste and breeding, entirely 
 agreed, and, on the understanding that she might 
 wear it as an experiment that night at dinner, he left 
 her with many poHte assurances to the effect that he 
 entertained no doubt of her success in the regal 
 ornament. 
 
 " Regal ? " she said sharply. He permitted a 
 prudent smile to hover over his lips. 
 
 " I thought as much," said she. 
 
 Prince Constantine and Mr. Duryee were dining 
 with her that night, and as the Prince's glance fell on 
 the extraordinary jewels worn by his hostess he ex- 
 claimed, being impetuous and not well mannered — 
 
 " Hullo ! So my absurd mother has sold them 
 after all. It is too bad." 
 
 " Are they the Oueen's ? " she said softly. 
 
 " I should think so. She must be mad." 
 
 " She mustn't dream of selling them," said La 
 Belle Valentine. " I couldn't think of allowing Her 
 Majesty to make such a sacrifice."
 
 296 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " She wants the money. Some of her sleeping 
 dogs have been roused from their slumbers ! " 
 
 "If she and I could meet," said Mme. de Mont- 
 genays, " we might arrange the matter without an 
 actual sale." 
 
 " My mother is bad at business — in fact, she is 
 impossible in every human relation." 
 
 *' Would she consent to meet me ? " 
 
 " God alone knows what she will do ? '* said the 
 young Prince roughly. " She lives, like my brother 
 Paul, by caprice." 
 
 "If she would dine here, it could be kept a close 
 secret " " 
 
 " Why on earth do you want to know my mother ? 
 She is not amusing ; she is in exile, poor soul ; she is 
 trh grande dame — if you like that kind of thing, and 
 she will be terribly afraid of you. She is painfully 
 shy." 
 
 "Will that matter — when I ask to meet her once 
 only, and then to discuss an affair which is rather to 
 her advantage than mine ? " 
 
 Duryee, who was standing by, enjoyed this short 
 conversation. 
 
 " Your Royal Highness must try and fix up the 
 encounter," he observed. " Madame has set her 
 heart on it." 
 
 Constantine felt tempted to say that he regarded 
 such a desire on Mme. de Montgenays's part as a 
 piece of extreme impertinence, but his eyes were
 
 THE DUTY OF RELATIVES 297 
 
 suddenly fascinated by the flash of the Crown gems 
 on her beautiful neck. 
 
 "She is not a bad sort," he reflected, "and why 
 offend Duryee ? " 
 
 He promised to exert his powers of persuasion to 
 their utmost, and he undertook to obtain the ex- 
 Queen's answer by the following morning.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS 
 
 When a great friendship is once broken it continues 
 
 like some solid frame made for a masterpiece from 
 
 which the beautiful picture has been roughly cut. 
 
 The habit of confidence, the security tried by many 
 
 tests, the knowledge gained by close intercourse 
 
 remain, but the heart of it all is absent ; the charm, 
 
 the love, and the sympathy are no more there. Fels- 
 
 hammer saw Prince Paul almost daily, and the young 
 
 man, unable to imagine the real cause of his secretary's 
 
 altered manner, attributed it to the inharmonious 
 
 career he had so suddenly adopted. 
 
 "The tenour of your reflections, Karl," he said 
 
 gaily, " has convinced me that neither now nor at any 
 
 other time ought you to have ventured into the City. 
 
 Come back with me to Italy, and look at Florence 
 
 from that old cemetery on the hill, and love the 
 
 Botticelli Venus, and adore the Botticelli Madonnas. 
 
 I used to think that marriage made men old, sour, 
 
 298
 
 THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS 299 
 
 and suspicious. I find I was mistaken. It is not the 
 wife — it is the money market." 
 
 " One cannot stroll through life merely admiring 
 works of art and enjoying romantic scenery. The 
 bill has to be paid ! " snarled Felshammer. He called 
 on the Queen that day and found her with her con- 
 fidential lady-in-waiting, the Countess von Gundling, 
 a person of prodigious stupidity with round hazel 
 eyes, a dead face, and a dishevelled wig made of 
 coarse grey hair. She worshipped her royal mistress, 
 and once she had been disposed to protect Dr. 
 Felshammer. That happy period had been outlived, 
 however ; now she regarded him as an upstart who 
 knew too much altogether about the august family 
 and probably confided facts about each member of it 
 to the Press. It was therefore a grief to her when 
 the Queen received him cordially as an old and 
 trusted friend. 
 
 "This is an inspiration !" she said. "I was long- 
 ing for some one who could give me good advice." 
 
 The Countess von Gundling, in consequence of 
 this speech, melted into tears and sniffed piteously 
 during the rest of the interview. 
 
 "We were discussing the propriety of my making 
 the acquaintance of Mme. de Montgenays," added 
 the Oueen. 
 
 " La Belle Valentine ! " exclaimed Felshammer. 
 " I cannot imagine any circumstance which could 
 bring that person and your Majesty together."
 
 300 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 The Countess was so far from feeling any grati- 
 tude for this unexpected support that she snapped 
 out — 
 
 " Who, pray is to draw the line in these Radical 
 ideas ? One endures every sort of impertinence from 
 these parvenus who seek to insinuate themselves into 
 our positions, to displace the true aristocracy by the 
 force of wealth, audacity, and, I blush to say it, morals 
 which acknowledge no sanction ! " 
 
 "Do be calm, Wilhelmina I " said the Oueen. 
 *'Mme. de Montgenays has genius — she is a supreme 
 artist. In the case of such distinguished persons 
 etiquette has always been relaxed. Besides, the 
 meeting would be private." 
 
 " Every paper will have the news to-morrow ! " 
 said the Countess von Gundling. 
 
 Felshammer, having perceived that the Oueen had 
 her curiosity aroused with regard to the famous 
 dancer, was too diplomatic to oppose their meeting. 
 At the same time he wondered how her name had 
 been brought before the capricious lady. 
 
 " She is a great friend of Paul's, and Con-Con has 
 dined with her," observed the Oueen, "and from all 
 I hear she is not so bad as many creatures in the best 
 society who behave far worse with no excuse — least of 
 all the excuse of genius or beauty." 
 
 Felshammer owned the truth of this charitable 
 assertion and remembered that women of unimpeach- 
 able virtue were always more severe toward the
 
 THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS 301 
 
 failings of those in their own class than toward their 
 humbler sisters in the human family, and further, that 
 they were invariably fascinated by the mysterious 
 lives of those enchanting beings who terminate their 
 course of folly in cruel degradation, in premature 
 death, in comfort, in happy marriages, and sometimes 
 in great affluence. 
 
 Several suppositions entered the secretary's brain, 
 but he had been told nothing about Prince Con- 
 stantine's contract with Hermann Gessner, and the 
 large sum of money drawn by Paul was still unex- 
 plained. He had never guessed the relationship 
 between Mme. de Montgenays and Clementine, 
 and he was maddened by the unanswerable 
 enigmas which occurred to his mind — a mind which 
 was little used to suspense. The Queen talked for 
 two hours about the undesirability of mixing with 
 Bohemians and wound up, as she had intended to do 
 at the beginning, by commanding the Countess to write 
 a letter accepting La Belle Valentine's invitation to 
 dinner. 
 
 "It will please Paul and Con-Con," she said, "and 
 I think it is a mistake to hold aloof from persons who 
 are respectful and loyal. It is also better to know 
 how matters stand than to remain in the dark. This 
 woman may have great power. Surely it is wiser to 
 hear the opinions of those who wish one to succeed 
 than to meet only, as I have done, supposed allies who 
 are secretly anxious for my ruin ! "
 
 302 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 At this point the Countess sobbed aloud, struck her 
 breast, and asked of what she was accused. 
 
 " Imbecility," said the Queen sharply, "and there 
 is nothing so dangerous." y 
 
 The secretary hastened to express his agreement 
 with the royal sentiments, but he left the apartment 
 in an ill-humour. What did it all mean ? Believing, 
 or persuading himself that he ought to believe, that, 
 if Clementine had been flattered by Prince Paul's 
 attentions, she was lost, Fclshammer determined to 
 make one more effort to save her. As to manner, he 
 would endeavour to be gentle. He would conquer 
 the girl's defiance by subduing his own love and by 
 forgetting his own desires, and, with whatever 
 difficulty, he would show such unselfishness that she 
 would give him at least her trust for all time. Then, 
 might she not learn the truth before it was too late ? 
 Might she not see that she was following vain hopes ? 
 
 Mme. de Montgenays, on receiving the Countess 
 von Gundling's letter, danced round the room, clapped 
 her hands, played the piano, and sang at the top of her 
 voice. 
 
 " What a triumph, Mabel ! " she cried. " What 
 a perfectly elegant time we shall have ! " Mr. 
 Duryee was enchanted by her girlish enthusiasm, and 
 went himself to order the most perfect dinner which 
 could be obtained in London. 
 
 When the hour struck for the royal guest's arrival, 
 the ex-dancer, in a gown of exquisite design, without
 
 THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS 303 
 
 jewels of any description, was waiting to receive the 
 ex-Oueen. The meeting between the two filled the 
 onlookers with admiration. The graciousness of the 
 royal lady, the superb humility of the Bohemian, left 
 nothing to be desired, and, to the astonishment of 
 no one more than the two principals themselves, the 
 scene, the dinner, and the conversation passed with 
 the utmost brilliancy. Old von Gundling, who wore 
 an air of martyrdom till she realised that her bearing 
 was not remarked, became playful long before the 
 third course, and permitted herself to laugh at Cobden 
 Duryee's American stories, whether she understood 
 them or not. The millionaire had engaged, as a 
 pleasant surprise, a famous tragedian, a violinist, and a 
 burlesque actor at five hundred guineas each to amuse 
 the party after dinner. Tears of enjoyment rolled 
 down the poor Queen's cheeks at the absurdities of 
 the low comedian. She had never passed such a 
 delightful evening. She heard about all the theatres, 
 the gossip — modified — of theatrical circles, the talk — - 
 also modified — of the Stock Exchange. 
 
 "These professional people really seem to get an enor- 
 mous amount of variety out of life," she observed, when 
 it was over, to the Countess, whose countenance was 
 now fixed in a benevolent simper. " They seem more 
 sincere than the others and more cheerful," she added, 
 as she looked around her dreary sitting-room. " Of 
 course, one would not wish to be like them, because 
 that would involve too much, but I do wish that some
 
 304 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 of our very old and dear families had equal skill in 
 making one feel loved, and in entertaining generally. 
 Perhaps Almighty God w^ishes me to do this poor 
 Mme. de Montgenays some good by knovi^ing her. 
 I shall not draw back from v/hat may be a divine 
 mission ! What was the name of that excellent entrie 
 we had ? Do remember it ! " 
 
 La Belle Valentine meanwhile was resting on the 
 sofa, covered with an ostrich feather rug, and enjoying 
 the recollection of her charming success. She con- 
 sidered the Queen the ideal of womanly tact, in- 
 telligence, beauty, and deportment. 
 
 Mr. Duryee drawled out — 
 
 "She's a very nice lady, splendid manners, and a 
 good deal of horse-sense back of it all. But why did 
 you really want to know her ? I have been waiting 
 for you to tell me." 
 
 " Well," said his friend, " my idea was this— I 
 want the Queen to see Clementine." 
 
 " What good would that do ?" asked Duryee. 
 
 "It would show Ada Romilly that my child is 
 treated with every possible consideration." 
 
 " You are somewhat elaborate in your methods," 
 said Cobden drily, "and they cost a lot of money." 
 
 "I am very thorough," said La Belle Valentine. 
 " I guess I take after mama. She not only chose the 
 text and hymns for her own funeral, but also selected 
 what the mourners should have for lunch after return- 
 ing from the cemetery. I remember she ordered some-
 
 THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS 305 
 
 thing hot, because it was in the late autumn, and she 
 didn't want any one to catch a chill." 
 
 "And she told them they would find the pickles in 
 the cellar," added Mabel, "and said they must be 
 sure to take them from the bottom of the jar, as those 
 underneath were always the best. I tell you, she was 
 a character ! " 
 
 " She could look ahead," said Duryee. 
 
 " Well, I am like her," said Mme. de Montgenays — 
 "I scan the horizon." 
 
 "See here, Val," said Duryee kindly, "I hope you 
 are not fixing up any romance between Clementine 
 and Prince Paul. There is nothing in it, believe it. 
 You'll get bitten, sure. Leave the whole scheme 
 alone ! " 
 
 " If I had listened to you, Cobden, all my life, I 
 should be sitting old and forgotten at this minute in 
 an asylum for tired-out farmers' wives ! " 
 
 But Clementine had taken the reins into her own 
 hands. She had resolved not to see Prince Paul for 
 a month, and she arranged with her father to leave 
 London that same day to visit her friend, Ruth 
 HoUemache, who lived at Kew. 
 
 21
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 
 
 The little house at Kew, occupied by Ruth Holle- 
 mache and her mother, was famous for its old red 
 barn half hidden by sycamores, and its orchard. The 
 dwelling itself, one of the cottages set in the midst of 
 a large tract of fruit and vegetable farms situated 
 between Richmond Park and the Thames, had once 
 sheltered the great Cromwell. Two centuries later 
 Wesley preached there, and the Emperor Louis 
 Napoleon, during his first exile, had used to sit on 
 the fence of an adjoining field, smoking and drum- 
 ming his heels as he dreamed of his future plans, and 
 chatted, in neighbourly talk, with Ruth's great- 
 grandfather. Railways and disfiguring villas have 
 now obstructed a view which had extended to the 
 river and beyond it ; the well-cultivated land has been 
 cut into small holdings ; the starlings still chatter, the 
 blackbirds whistle, and the thrush sings, but the 
 nightingales which once sang in the groves have 
 gone. There was in the garden a lilac thicket which, 
 
 presenting a splendid mass of colour, grew almost as 
 
 306
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 307 
 
 high as the window of Ruth's bedroom. A large 
 walnut-tree, a plum-tree, a pear-tree, and an apple- 
 tree had been planted on the stretch of lawn bordered, 
 on one side, by laburnum, white acacia, and maple, 
 and on the other by a privet hedge and beds of Mary 
 lilies, purple flags and purple iris, syringa and jessamine. 
 Clementine used to sit under the maples facing the 
 ivy-covered porch which led to the quaint panelled 
 kitchen ; to the left she could see the aspen pollard 
 quivering by the front gate, and to the right there 
 was the orchard, which, especially beautiful in the 
 blossoming-time, now, if less vivid during June, 
 presented a lovely design of young bright leaves 
 against the sky. 
 
 Mrs. Hollemache, who had inherited the house 
 from her father — the last of a long generation of 
 gentlemen farmers — was an invalid. Ruth, a girl of 
 six-and-twenty, was engaged to be married to a 
 lieutenant in the Navy. She was a sweet, rather 
 pensive creature, with a pale oval face and soft dark 
 eyes which seemed to be expecting a happiness which 
 was not yet attainable. As a distant relation of Basil 
 Hollemache, she had been able to tell Clementine the 
 little she had heard from members of the family about 
 poor Lucie. Hollemache gossip on the subject was 
 unfriendly, and Clementine found one more reason for 
 grieving about the Prince and his conduct. 
 
 It was Saturday afternoon ; the girls were seated in 
 the garden j Ruth was engaged in some plain needle-
 
 308 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 work, a garment intended for her own simple trousseau, 
 while Clementine, weary of town, sat with her hands 
 in her lap, breathing in the soft air and enjoying the 
 fragrance of the flowers. 
 
 " I wonder what you will really do with your life, 
 Clem ? " Ruth said abruptly as she surveyed her 
 companion's mobile face. " Ever since you were a 
 child I have always thought that you would have 
 some kind of a romance. Mamma thought so too." 
 
 " You don't seem to have been right so far," said 
 Clementine. 
 
 " But your friendship with Prince Paul is extra- 
 ordinary — you don't seem to realise that." 
 
 " It isn't satisfactory," replied Clementine ; " it is 
 a friendship which spoils one for other friendships ; it 
 may be very slight, and yet it comes between all others 
 and interferes with them. You may remember that I 
 wanted nothing in the first place. There are days 
 now when I almost wish I had never seen him at all." 
 
 Ruth was not in perfect sympathy with her old 
 playmate on this point, because she was contented 
 herself, and she could imagine no better lot than to 
 be the wife of her breezy lieutenant. She had a 
 placid, sensible mind, and, although she was too loyal 
 to discuss Clementine with Augusta and Leonore, 
 she had often acknowledged, in conversation with her 
 own mother, that Clem's life had already been spoilt 
 more or less by these gaudy celebrated acquaintances 
 in a society beyond her proper sphere. Clementine
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 309 
 
 had never told her about the last interview w^ith 
 Prince Paul, but Ruth felt by instinct that some 
 strange excitement was stirring the girl's heart. She 
 had a new and startling beauty — the evanescent 
 charm of dawn with its changing lights, its melting 
 promises, its intangible glow, and, for the moment, 
 she seemed enveloped in an atmosphere which 
 separated her from the pollution of the ordinary 
 world. Ruth was about to ask a few discreet 
 questions when they were both disturbed by the 
 sound of cab-wheels. The vehicle stopped at their 
 gate, and Dr. Felshammer stepped out. 
 
 " Is that the Prince ? " said Ruth. 
 
 Clementine, turning pale, explained who it was as 
 he crossed the pathway and, unannounced, came 
 toward them. 
 
 " I cannot pretend that I do not see you," he said, 
 with assumed ease; "you forgive the informality? 
 What a delightful spot ! It makes me careless of 
 all my troubles." 
 
 Ruth remembered that she had an engagement at 
 the parish-room and soon left them. Already she had 
 decided that such a suitor ought not to be discouraged. 
 
 "You are angry with me for coming," said he, 
 when Miss Hollemache had gone, " but they gave me 
 your address at your lodgings, and I drove here 
 immediately. What is the use of denying it ? I 
 can't keep away." 
 
 " I am very tired of London," replied Clementine.
 
 310 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " As I told you before, I wanted to escape to Touraine, 
 or some old French town. This was nearer, but " 
 
 " You cannot escape your fate," said Felshammer 
 huskily. "I believe you are trying to hide, but, 
 wherever you go, it will follow you and find you out.'* 
 
 " Even so. Then let it find me in peaceful sur- 
 roundings — with those I can love and trust." 
 
 " Well, you can trust me, although you will not 
 love me. I won't surrender. Why should I ? You 
 are the one thing on this earth I want. You are little 
 more than a child ; you see life and men in an artificial 
 light. In a year's time you will be laughing at many 
 of the notions you have now." 
 
 *' Then I must wait for the change. If it is to 
 come, it will come." 
 
 " Why waste a whole year ? Take my word for it." 
 
 " You don't understand. I am happier this way 
 than I could be in any other way that you could 
 suggest." 
 
 Felshammer felt to the bottom of his soul that the 
 self-willed girl was desperate. There was evil round 
 about her, temptation in prospect, the cynical and the 
 unscrupulous were in her path. How could he best 
 display the mockery of egoistic love ? 
 
 " You used to know Mile. Savary, the actress, and 
 all her friends, when you were a child ? " he asked 
 suddenly. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You could not have understood her life, but you
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 311 
 
 must have seen that it was not enviable. And take 
 the lives of girls of another caste. Brieux and Suder- 
 mann have written plays about them. They are born 
 with pretty faces and good brains ; they surpass all 
 their relatives ; they grow to despise the rough fellows 
 of their father's set ; they attract men of higher 
 position. They either return to their own class and 
 their own people, or they die, when they are sensitive, 
 of broken hearts. Those who are not sensitive are 
 below consideration. They know their way through 
 a world which they find entirely congenial. Now, I 
 do not compare you with Mile. Savary or with these 
 girls I have just described. But the same difficulties 
 ■ — less squalid, perhaps, yet just as painful — occur in 
 evecy grade of society. There seems to be no remedy." 
 
 "There is no remedy while the girls themselves 
 are willing to accept a false position," said Clementine ; 
 "their own conduct justifies, in most cases, the misery 
 which they have to sufi'er." 
 
 " Women are so afraid of loneliness," said Felsham- 
 mer. " Existence can so soon become for them dull, 
 barren, grey, and inane. And they drift into these 
 hopeless, terrible attachments ; they do not see that 
 they were not made to give love but to accept it. 
 They squander their devotion on a sex which requires 
 devotion in its infancy, or in illness only. A prudent 
 woman will permit herself to be worshipped, protected, 
 provided for ; she keeps a close guard over her own 
 affections."
 
 312 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " I agree with you." 
 
 " Then what have you against me ? " he said 
 passionately. " I don't ask for your love. I haven't 
 Paul's manners and ways, but I am a man of my 
 word. When I offer you my whole life, I mean my 
 whole life. And I am so afraid for you — so horribly 
 afraid ! " 
 
 " Why ? " said Clementine. " Why ? And what 
 do you fear ? " 
 
 " Everything that is most tragic," he replied. " He 
 will make you believe in him because he will believe 
 in himself. But his sentimental mistake will be your 
 eternal sorrow. Sorrow — that's what I fear for you." 
 
 " You have said that I can't escape my destiny." 
 
 " Let us suppose," he said, " that I am your destiny. 
 We need not stickle for petty points of romance. 
 You are beautiful ; you carry romance with you. 
 You see what an awkward fool I am at compliments, 
 but you know what I mean." 
 
 " Isn't it always a failure when we try to meet as 
 friends and talk about indifferent thinois ? " said 
 Clementine, speaking even more coldly than she 
 wanted to. 
 
 "Well, romance wouldn't suit me, nor would I suit 
 romance," he continued ; "you are heartless, you are 
 proud " 
 
 " I don't think so — at least, not now. I may have 
 been proud once." 
 
 "I daresay I am a brute, yet I can understand a few
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 313 
 
 things. You are fretting about Paul. Oh, I can see 
 it ! He is written all over your face, and he is written 
 in your eyes. It is Paul — Paul — Paul — everywhere I 
 look. And the whole time I can hear your thoughts 
 running on Paul — Paul — Paul — no matter what you 
 are saying or what you are doing. It takes some 
 nerve to stand it when one is an impatient man — as 
 I am." 
 
 " But you have no right to feel impatient with me. 
 My thoughts are not your business." 
 
 " They have become my business unhappily. I 
 cannot help myself. Therefore I should be a very 
 weak fool to give in — a very weak fool ! " He could 
 not bear to be beaten. The desire for supremacy was 
 stronger in him than any other, and he was fighting 
 as much for his own way as for what he took to 
 represent his happiness. 
 
 " It is hopeless," said the girl firmly, " and, if I 
 were dead, it could not be more hopeless." 
 
 "You said something of the kind once before," 
 replied Felshammer, " but our wills seem well 
 matched. You call out the best in my soul and 
 the worst in my temper. You are pale and your 
 hands are cold. I can't bear to see you look sad. It 
 hurts me if I think you are suffering." 
 
 " I must beg you to leave me at least — if you cannot 
 avoid these scenes," said Clementine ; " they exhaust 
 me — they humiliate me." 
 
 " That's true — you misunderstand all I say. Well,
 
 314 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 I beg your pardon. You must forgive me. If you 
 would only trust me a little — I love you infinitely j I 
 would not annoy you or wound you by a word or a 
 look — but life without you begins to be insupportable. 
 Men do not like to have their lives disturbed and 
 disorganised. You say that you can never live with 
 me, and I cannot live without you. We have reached 
 that stage. How will it end ? I am not to blame 
 for any of this — there is no one responsible. Perhaps 
 I am your curse, and you arc mine. That first day 
 when you came into the church I felt as I had 
 never felt before. I have known hundreds of pretty 
 girls " 
 
 She glanced with terror at the love which was 
 almost hatred in his excited face and especially in 
 his threatening eyes. 
 
 " You imagine," she faltered ; " you persuade your- 
 self." 
 
 " You may as well tell a man who has a knife in 
 his heart that he feels no pain. I have worn you 
 out, however, and, as usual, I have injured my own 
 cause. I believe I am possessed. I don't pretend 
 to know myself in this character. But I cannot 
 help it. I struggle against it as a weakness, as folly, 
 as madness, and the more I struggle the deeper I get 
 involved. Poor child, the fault is in human nature — 
 not in either of us ! " 
 
 There had been so much truth in Felshammer's 
 words, and he spoke with such sincerity, that Cle-
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 315 
 
 mentine felt completely dominated by his mind 
 although he had no power over her heart. She seemed 
 almost magnetised by the spell of his fierce mood, 
 which, like all manifestations of real strength, whether 
 in ideas or in emotion, made its own law and over- 
 mastered every deterrent. The man's obstinate con- 
 viction that Clementine was being gradually drawn 
 into the most appalling mistake possible to an 
 impetuous and chivalrous woman gave a note of 
 peculiar fervour to his voice. 
 
 " The spirit of revolt is in you," he continued ; 
 " you do not see why things should be as they are. 
 You do not see why you should sacrifice your 
 dreams, your pride, your youth to a tyrannical 
 etiquette. For it is a question of etiquette — not 
 morality, not heaven, not hell. All the conditions 
 are worldly in the narrowest sense — the human vital 
 conditions are wholly disregarded. Prince Paul may 
 have been pitchforked out of his country ; they may 
 have changed his residence — they cannot change his 
 hereditary prejudices. He feels, in spite of himself, 
 that his flesh and blood are vastly superior to ours ; 
 the sentiment is possibly unconscious, but it is knit up 
 in his very bones." 
 
 Clementine remained immovable, oppressed, irre- 
 sistibly subdued, yet in utter opposition. 
 
 " But," she said presently, " if I refuse to acknow- 
 ledge or accept those conditions — what then ? " 
 
 " You may refuse, perhaps you will refuse, them —
 
 3i6 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 but it will embitter you. Every day I meet men and 
 women who have withstood the cramping social laws, 
 but what is the result ? They become ironical or 
 contemptuous toward others who have had neither the 
 strength, nor the inclination, nor the courage to do 
 the same. And that is what I dread for you — cither 
 a ruined life or a spoilt nature." 
 
 '' Whatever happens," said Clementine, " I must 
 bear it alone. You cannot help me." 
 
 " Am I to regard that as your final decision ? " said 
 Fclshammer, with a hard laugh. " My dear child, 
 you cannot dispose of me so easily. Tell me one 
 thing — has the Prince made any proposition to you ? 
 For his sake, tell me." 
 
 The girl hesitated ; then she replied : 
 
 " I have no fault to find with him. I do not think 
 him weak, selfish, or vain." 
 
 " That is not the truth ! " exclaimed Felshammer, 
 in anger. " I repeat, that is not the truth. You 
 know that he is all three; you are trying to make 
 him out a hero. You forget that I am his most 
 intimate friend." 
 
 " It v/ould be a difficult fact to remember at the 
 present moment I " said Clementine drily. 
 
 " I daresay you think I am disloyal, but you are 
 mo:e to me than he has ever been or could ever be. 
 I see plainly that he has spoken to you and gained 
 ) our confidence. I am trying to save you, although 
 you won't let me. There's the eternal woman — you
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 317 
 
 are all the same. I wish you were dead." He looked 
 her well in the face, studied each feature, sighed 
 deeply, and repeated : 
 
 " Yes, I wish you were dead. If you were dead, I 
 could be just to you. As it is, there are hours when 
 I believe you are capable of anything, any deceit, any 
 folly. It is not your fault. It is my unspeakable 
 curse. And so, I wish you were dead." 
 
 Then he turned away, and, smiling quietly to 
 himself, as men do who are sustained through ridicule, 
 disaster, and persecution by a fixed sublime or insane 
 belief, he left the garden. 
 
 Ruth and Clementine were sitting at supper that 
 same evening when the maid announced a visitor for 
 Miss Gloucester. He had written his name on a 
 card which was enclosed in an envelope. 
 
 "At this hour ? " asked Ruth, glancing at the clock. 
 It was past nine. *' What a strange time to come !" 
 
 She felt dismayed, even alarmed, on her friend's 
 account, and feared that Clementine had fallen into 
 the easy customs of Bohemian society. She saw, too, 
 the girl's agitation, the sudden brilliant light in her 
 eyes, the flush of joy which mounted to her cheeks. 
 
 " Oh, Clemmie," she exclaimed, when the servant 
 had gone out, " if it is Prince Paul, don't see him ! 
 Why should he call at this time in the evening ? 
 What can he mean ? Doesn't it show that he is 
 selfish and inconsiderate ? He compromises you and 
 you don't seem to care ! Try not to like him ! Try
 
 3i8 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 to be firm ! There are no two loves possible for you 
 — if you once give yours to him, you w^ill have none 
 left for any one else. In the end you will just be 
 broken." 
 
 Clementine looked impatient, but Ruth caught her 
 arm and held her back. 
 
 " I do want you to see what all this means," she 
 persisted ; " this is not life — this is exceptional ; you 
 must look more carefully where you are going. You 
 have that uncommon vein in your character which 
 ought to make you cautious ; you know, too, that you 
 are very handsome. Handsomeness won't last, Cle- 
 mentine, and a man like the Prince wouldn't care for 
 anything else. What will you do when you grow 
 older ? " 
 
 "I can die," said Clementine defiantly. 
 
 " Oh no, you won't !" said Ruth. "That is the 
 tragedy of every woman's life. She is pretty for a few 
 years and old for a great many. If you want to be 
 happy, you must love some one who takes love in a 
 solemn way." 
 
 " Men who tell one that they take love solemnly 
 are almost always superficial," replied Clementine, 
 *' and they are constant, in many cases, merely because 
 they are lazy, or because they have neither enthusiasm 
 nor imagination. I want to be loved recklessly v^^hile 
 I am loved, and when I am no longer loved — as I 
 have said — I can die. Your warnings are too late, 
 Ruth."
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 319 
 
 Nevertheless, she did not go at once to Prince Paul. 
 Ruth heard her running lightly upstairs, and she 
 followed, because, having entered her protest, she now 
 felt at liberty to enjoy the excitement of seeing 
 Clementine prepare for the forthcoming interview. 
 
 " I don't want to keep him waiting so long that he 
 will think I am changing my dress," said Clem, as she 
 put some flowers in her belt, while Ruth opened the 
 box which contained her best hair-combs — old Spanish 
 ones made of tortoiseshell, amber, gold, and enamel. 
 
 Prince Paul was trying to interest himself in the 
 pictures on the wall of the small drawing-room when 
 Clementine opened the door. 
 
 "Surely," he explained going to meet her, "you 
 did not expect me to wait a month ? You are not 
 surprised to see me ? " He seemed nervous, and he 
 talked rapidly. 
 
 " Don't you think it ought to surprise me — to find 
 you unwise ? " 
 
 " Ah, ch}re am'ie I I have quite done with wisdom. 
 What a charming little house ! I like to see the blue 
 night outside the window. The sky is full of stars. 
 It reminds me of that evening at Salsomaggiore — 
 when we stood on the balcony and talked about Peer 
 Gynt. I remember every word you said, every move- 
 ment you made — it is unforgettable. Oh, how happy 
 I am to be with you again — yes — I am perfectly 
 happy ! And you ? " 
 
 "I am happy too.'*
 
 320 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "That is right. You are the one being in the 
 world who seems able to idealise life for me. I cannot, 
 I will not take it as it appears ; I have burnt my ships ; 
 I have put everything away from my existence, my 
 future, my duty, my ambition — everything except 
 you. I need you always. The love I feel for you is 
 not ordinary love at all. You are part of myself — 
 the other half of my soul. A chance — a divine 
 chance — brought us together. Such good fortune does 
 not come to one man out of five thousand. And 
 you ask me to think about it for another month ! 
 Impossible ! " 
 
 " What am I to do ? " answered Clementine. " I 
 am poor ; I am not a Princess." 
 
 " Haven't I just said, dearest, that you are part of 
 myself ? " 
 
 " I should like to think so," she replied, smiling. 
 
 His handsome face lit up with triumph and un- 
 feigned joy. He was so glad that he had burnt, as he 
 said, his ships. It had all been decided in a moment. 
 One morning he woke up and said to himself, " Of 
 course I love Clementine, and no one else matters to 
 me in the least." Prolonged thought, for a period of 
 years, on the subject would have brought him to the 
 same conclusion. Here, clearly, was the advantage of 
 a mind impatient under psychological analysis, or the 
 imaginative tricks of a dreaming temperament. He 
 was no dreamer — a reason, beyond doubt, why he 
 attracted irresistibly the women in whom sex was a
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 321 
 
 pure quality undisturbed by artificial sentiments. 
 Clementine felt no surprise at his abrupt dealing. 
 When two beings love each other their emotions are 
 in such true accord that the normal, if unconscious, 
 struggle for supremacy which continues in all mere 
 friendships does not exist. Delays, misunderstandings, 
 and reproofs between lovers arise from some fault, some 
 deficit, some real cause for doubt in the actual affection 
 of one or the other. But as soon as a devotion is recog- 
 nised as absolute all smaller thoughts, all common human 
 fears vanish, and the heart for the first time shows its 
 original simplicity, Clementine saw and felt that Paul 
 was at last in earnest. He was still selfish, still undis- 
 ciplined in the enjoyment of his own intelligence, sen- 
 sations, and sentiments — even love cannot alter a man's 
 essential character — but he was serious, sobered ; he 
 spoke the truth in his own way ; when he said that 
 he cared more for her than tor any one else in the 
 world he meant it, he believed it, and it was the case. 
 He no longer questioned himself in the matter, and 
 she did not question him. 
 
 " You see ," he stammered, suddenly losing his 
 
 command of words. 
 
 " Yes," she said, "I see. I think we can help each 
 other. I think we belong to each other. But don't 
 call it a mere chance." 
 
 He kissed her forehead and her hair, restrained by a 
 reverence and moved by a stronger, more intimate 
 feeling than the common impulse to touch some one 
 
 22
 
 322 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 who is beautiful or charming. She seemed to him a 
 creature apart from all he had ever known. Her eyes, 
 which were always direct and peaceful in their glance, 
 had none of the uncertainty, the morbid defiance, the 
 restlessness, the reproach, the desire almost beseeching 
 and incessant for admiration which had attracted him 
 so often in those of other women. It flattered his 
 egoism to detect in that self-reliant girl the profound 
 and tangible expression of the best in his own secret 
 nature. 
 
 " You wanted all or nothing," he said, " and now I 
 offer all I have — it seems too little. I can't be idle ; 
 I could not lead the life of the rural English duke, 
 and I may not meddle in politics. The one career 
 open to me is in the financial world. I shall work 
 under Cobden Duryee." 
 
 He was surprised to find himself able to speak 
 quietly at such a moment of plain affairs. He had 
 imagined many romantic, passionate love-scenes 
 between Clementine and himself; serenity of this 
 kind was, perhaps, not to be imagined. He felt already 
 that they were united for ever ; that they had never 
 been separate ; that they were in spirit and body 
 identical. So he drifted gradually into a conversation 
 which was the literal utterance of his thoughts as they 
 came — plans for their marriage and their common 
 future. When the clock chimed ten he apologised 
 for the lateness of his visit. 
 
 "But I couldn't wait," he said; "it had to be
 
 FATE AND THE UNFORESEEN 323 
 
 settled. To-morrow you shall meet my mother and 
 Con-Con ; I'll observe the strictest etiquette 1 It 
 is absurd, yet I know one must think of these 
 things." 
 
 Five minutes after he had left the house, Ruth ran, 
 with a white, scared face, into the room where 
 Clementine still stood entranced with happiness. 
 
 " Did you hear that shot," she exclaimed — " a 
 pistol-shot ?" 
 
 " No," said Clementine, " I heard nothing." 
 
 " I may be fanciful, but I am sure some one has been 
 hurt," said Ruth ; "there was a sort of cry too. It 
 was terrible. Did the Prince drive away ? " 
 
 " He walked to the station." 
 
 The girls stared at each other. Clementine put 
 out her hand and the two hurried out into the garden. 
 All was quiet. 
 
 " Shall we go a little way up the road ? " suggested 
 Ruth, peering and straining her eyes. Clementine 
 nodded, but her fingers were too numb to lift the 
 gate latch. Ruth opened the gate ; they passed 
 through, and some distance down the lonely road they 
 saw a dark object lying in their way. "I am afraid," 
 said Ruth, and she hung back. 
 
 Clementine went forward. Presently Ruth heard 
 her calling : 
 
 " Ruth I Ruth ! " 
 
 The object in the path was the body of Prince 
 Paul.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 DR. FELSHAMMER WRITES HISTORY 
 
 Eight days after the news of the attempted assassina- 
 tion of Prince Paul of Urseville-Beylestien had been 
 called from every street corner and talked of in every 
 club throughout the civilised world, Felshammer sent 
 the following letter to his old friend Frank HoUe- 
 mache at Berlin : 
 
 You may well ask for the true facts of this curious 
 affair. The newspapers are extraordinarily well informed 
 on many points — indeed, I am amazed at the details 
 which they have been able to discover and publish — but, 
 as usual, the whole impression given is a false one. Far 
 too much, for instance, has been made of the point that 
 the Prince was fired at in a lane not more than fifty yards 
 from the residence of Mrs. Gerald Hollemache, where he 
 had been calling on Clementine Gloucester, who actually 
 found him later lying on the road. Ruth Hollemache 
 was with her. The natural inference is that the un- 
 known assassin was an anarchist, who, having followed 
 Paul to this lonely rendezvous, seized the opportunity to 
 
 324
 
 DR. FELSHAMMER WRITES HISTORY 325 
 
 attack him on his way homeward. An element of scandal, 
 wholly misleading, uncalled for, and cruel, has thus been 
 introduced. Here, I think, the Prince himself deserves 
 blame. When he recovered from the first shock, he 
 pretended that his injury was a slight accident, insisted 
 on escorting the girls back to the house, refused all help, 
 and then walked a long distance to some livery stable, 
 where he hired a conveyance. At last, barely conscious, 
 and suffering severe pain, he reached Claridge's Hotel, 
 where, after a consultation, the surgeons, who had been 
 hastily summoned, decided that his chances of recovery 
 were not out of the question. He kept calling out for 
 Clementine — this after his senseless precautions — and 
 from the odd phrases he dropped from time to time in 
 his delirium these people readily gathered that he was 
 involved in some love entanglement. The Queen and 
 Con-Con showed their genuine grief in characteristic 
 fashion. Her Majesty disturbed the patient by sobbing 
 and praying at the top of her powerful voice all night 
 long. Princess Marie had to sit in a room on the floor 
 below chewing her pocket-handkerchief and shedding 
 torrents of tears. Why do women almost invariably 
 add a grotesque note to tragedy ? Sachs and Bickersteth 
 loitered in the corridor, seeing journalists, messengers, 
 doctors, and official personages. Need I say that the 
 ladies-in-waiting lost their nerve, and Mme. de Mont- 
 genays, with her unfailing genius, proved a friend in 
 need to the poor Queen ? The Oueen cannot exist 
 out of her sight, and La Belle, whose manners have 
 become incomparably courtly, rules her with a rod of 
 iron. A case of infatuation. Paul is dangerously ill, 
 and, if he pulls through, he cannot hope to be the man 
 he was. Shall I confess that his folly in this present case 
 has taxed my patience to the breaking-point ? What has 
 Miss Gloucester done that she should be compromised in
 
 326 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 this way ? No one can see her ; she is prostrated ; her 
 family are indignant ; the Oueen does not hesitate to say 
 that the poor girl lured Paul to his ruin and was in league 
 with the anarchists. I quote this to illustrate the im- 
 becility of ordinarily intelligent people. Mme. de Mont- 
 genays, on the other hand, defends Miss Gloucester. 
 
 "Majesty," said La Belle to the Queen, "I know all 
 about Alfred Gloucester's daughter. She is a beautiful, 
 sweet young creature. Her mother was a friend of mine. 
 The Prince has often talked to me of Clementine. He 
 loves her." 
 
 " He must be mad ! " sobbed the august Charlotte. 
 ■'Who but an idiot would fall in love with a jeune 
 filler' 
 
 When I want the brutal rhetoric of common sense I 
 listen to ladies of blameless virtue. And tell me this— 
 was there ever, at any time, a real note of the grandiose 
 in anything ? One hears that religion once was able 
 to invest even hypocrisy with a kind of grandeur. 
 Hypocrisy, however, is slowly dying out, and the 
 candour of modern souls would be sublime if the 
 souls themselves were not, tor the greater part, squalid. 
 One would prefer them to be less truthful. I am 
 grieved, disenchanted with the world, sick, not of life 
 as I could feel it, but as I see it manifested around 
 me. You will say that the strain of the last week 
 and the poison of the Stock Exchange have told on 
 my nerves. Possibly. Yet beyond and above any 
 physical malaise there is death in my heart. I begin 
 to suspect that I see the world as it is, and that it is 
 in every respect ignominious. Our greatest passions can 
 be traced to our meanest instincts, and the fine names we 
 have invented for successful selfishness mean no more 
 in reality than the base ones which we contemptuously 
 bestow on the selfishness which fails, I'll add no more
 
 DR. FELSHAMMER WRITES HISTORY 327 
 
 now. But let me assure you in conclusion that this is no 
 mood. All that existence holds for me now is distress, 
 agony, and nausea. 
 
 When he had signed this, he sealed it in an 
 envelope and locked it away with many others, 
 also sealed, addressed to one or two individuals, and 
 unsent, in a despatch-box. It was Sunday afternoon, 
 and he had formed the habit of calling weekly at 
 Carlington House to see Rachel Bickersteth. Some- 
 times she was too ill to receive him, but, as a rule, 
 she gave him tea in the still garden, where the lawn 
 looked like the lifeless grass which grows in old ceme- 
 teries. An Indian client had given Mr. Bickersteth 
 a present of some beautiful white peacocks, and these 
 alien birds moped in the tree near Rachel's chair. 
 Felshammer was beginning to regard the Quakeress 
 as his only true friend, and he found a peace in her 
 society which could usually restore his temper or 
 his spirits to something resembling contentment. 
 This day he hoped, as he had never hoped before, 
 that she would be well enough to talk to him. He 
 caught himself murmuring, " Thank God," when, 
 with the customary pomp which no longer excited 
 his ridicule, he was ushered into the octagonal 
 boudoir at the end of a gallery and three large 
 saloons. Rachel was reading a book on financial 
 matters by Paul de Rousiers, and she flushed slightly 
 as Felshammer expressed his surprise at her choice.
 
 328 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " A new departure for you," said he j " what does 
 it mean ? " 
 
 "I begin to feel my ignorance of these things," she 
 replied. 
 
 Then she noticed that his hair had turned grey, 
 that his face was drawn, that he had the air of one 
 who was on the brink of a serious crisis. 
 
 "You take Prince Paul's illness too much to 
 heart," she exclaimed, speaking with a vehemence 
 which was altogether new in his experience of her 
 character j " but why are you so anxious ? He is 
 getting better. Surely you do not fear that there 
 will be further attempts upon him ? " 
 
 Felshammer looked at her strangely and said with 
 terrible irony : 
 
 "Who can tell? Now that he knows that he 
 is a marked man, he can never feel safe so long as 
 he lives." 
 
 " And have they no suspicion — no clue ? " 
 
 "Nothing whatever. You see, that road by the 
 HoUemaches' place is deserted ; it might be in the 
 heart of the country although it is so near the 
 station. One could well say that it looks as though 
 he had been preordained to go straight to his doom 
 there." 
 
 "I suppose an anarchist shot him," said Rachel; 
 "it could not have been by any chance a private 
 enemy." 
 
 " An enemy ? " repeated Felshammer.
 
 DR. FELSHAMMER WRITES HISTORY 329 
 
 "Yes. Hasn't he been reckless in tlie past — 
 especially with regard to women ? " 
 
 "It is strange that you should think of this 
 possibility," said Felshammer slowly ; " an idea of 
 the kind occurred to me. But, frankly, it won't 
 bear analysis." 
 
 "Jealousy," said Rachel, "can excuse many crimes. 
 A jealous man would have made more sure of his 
 death — that is, if the whole thing were planned. 
 There might have been no plot. The Prince may 
 be able to throw light on the subject when he is 
 better." 
 
 " There are moments when the gruesome, hideous 
 business seems a nightmare," said Felshammer, sitting 
 with his hands clasped and his head bowed ; " I can 
 tell myself it is not true, it never happened. When 
 I go into Paul's room and see him lying there on 
 the bed, with his ghastly face and all the atrocious 
 paraphernalia of surgery about him, the nurses and 
 doctors, the poor Oueen wailing and the boy himself 
 moaning and calling in his delirium — even then, with 
 my eyes on all that, I am sometimes able to say 
 to myself — ' You will wake up ! ' I used to love 
 him better than any one in the world. I thought him 
 so handsome, so brilliant, so romantic. Imagine me 
 caught by romance ! I made myself blind to all his 
 faults, I would not admit that his follies were more 
 than the picturesque audacities of youth." 
 
 " What made you change ? " asked Rachel.
 
 330 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 "He disappointed me. I began to see, little by 
 little, perfidy, a colossal loveless egoism, a consuming 
 vanity ; perhaps I was as bad, even worse, myself, but 
 he seemed able to indulge his nature whereas I had to 
 control mine. I had admired him for what T took to 
 be his superiority to myself; he sank to my level — 
 lately I was able to consider him too often as my 
 inferior. And I hate my inferiors. They show me 
 my own lowest possibilities too clearly. I am drawing 
 my spirit in pleasant colours, I know. But, for some 
 reason, I don't mind your hearing the truth." 
 
 " Has Miss Gloucester seen him yet ? " 
 
 " She can see no one. Wouldn't it be humorous if 
 all this killed her ? " He laughed, and looked, with 
 despair in his features, at Rachel. 
 
 " Does she care — so much ?" asked Mrs. Bickersteth. 
 
 "Body and soul. I am certain of that." 
 
 " Poor child ! " said Rachel, tightening her grasp 
 on the book she still held. 
 
 "Poor child indeed! Do you wonder that I 
 cannot forgive him ? " 
 
 " Could he have guessed," said Rachel, dropping 
 her eyes, " that you were especially interested one 
 way or the other ? " 
 
 " We never discussed her. Besides, latterly he and 
 t were estranged. He became secretive." 
 
 "And she — did she say nothing ?" 
 
 "She took pleasure in wounding me whenever his 
 name came up between us. The best women are
 
 DR. FELSHAMMER WRITES HISTORY 331 
 
 cruel when they wish to defend the men they love. 
 I never blamed her." 
 
 " How long is it since you saw Miss Gloucester ? " 
 
 "It was that very day," he replied huskily; "I 
 went down in the afternoon." 
 
 "And the Prince called in the evening ? " 
 
 " So I gather," he said, after a short pause. 
 Neither of them spoke for some minutes. But, 
 as she lived so much alone, she had kept the faculty 
 of hearing unuttered thoughts — a faculty which is 
 wrongly thought supernatural, because it becomes 
 either dead or dissipated in the traffic of constant 
 affairs. Her countenance suffered a dreadful change, 
 the book fell from her fingers, she stood up and went 
 with outstretched hands toward her wretched com- 
 panion. He remained rigid, although he accepted her 
 pity, and, unflinching, met the awful question in her 
 eyes. Then she moved away, picked up the dropped 
 book, placed it on the table, and went back to him, 
 taking his hands and looking into his face once more. 
 
 " He isn't going to die," she said ; " it wasn't to 
 end like that. They used to tell me when I was 
 a child that God was full of compassion. I thought 
 so till I lost the boys. Then I said it was a lie. But 
 I begin to understand now. I have sorrowed so much 
 that you can believe me and you can trust me. Paul 
 will not die." 
 
 " Do you think I want him to live ? " he asked. 
 
 " I know you do," she answered gently.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 FELSHAMMER SPEAKS 
 
 Another week passed. Prince Paul's case had 
 excited a great amount of interest ; no ear was closed 
 to the whispers >vhich made every attendant circum- 
 stance sensational, and the season, which had been in 
 a number of ways dull, received a certain importance 
 from the fact that, during its course, an Urseville- 
 Beylestein had narrowly missed a violent death. 
 Although Clementine had never been allowed to 
 attend merely fashionable gatherings, she was known 
 in society as a singularly beautiful girl belonging to 
 one of the oldest families in the kingdom. Rumours 
 of an astonishing, even malicious, kind spread from 
 club to club and from circle to circle till Mr. 
 Gloucester found himself harshly criticised on the 
 serious ground that he had permitted his young 
 daughter to be compromised in a most deplorable way. 
 The anger of his relatives (and among them many 
 remote connections now classed themselves), while 
 violent, rhetorical, and just, was somewhat assuaged 
 
 33i
 
 FELSHAMMER SPEAKS 333 
 
 it must be owned by the fact that the erring lady's 
 name had been associated with that of an exile Prince. 
 On all sides one heard people murmuring : " It's 
 awful ! That cousin of mine, Alfred Gloucester, 
 must be mad. What will become of Clementine ? " 
 Clementine, who had sunk at first under the terror 
 and anxiety caused by the Prince's misfortune, took 
 nevertheless such confidence from the knowledge of 
 his love that the world seemed to have lost its power 
 to wound her. Whether for happiness or sorrow, 
 she saw the work of God in all that had occurred, and 
 resolving to be the mistress at least of her own move- 
 ments, she offered no reply to the questions which 
 filled the air. Paul asked for her constantly, and at 
 last the physicians agreed that if some meeting could 
 be arranged between them his chances of a swift 
 recovery would be greater. Under pressure, with 
 tearful misgivings, and fortified by the advice of Mme. 
 de Montgenays, Queen Charlotte gave her consent to 
 the proposal, and Mr. Gloucester was astonished to 
 receive an autograph letter from the august lady 
 herself asking him to bring his daughter privately to 
 visit the Prince. 
 
 . Gloucester took the communication at once to La 
 Belle Valentine, on whom he called frequently as 
 possible now in the hope of securing even five minutes 
 of her valuable time. In boundless good-nature she 
 would listen to his complaints about his health and his 
 mistakes, meeting them always with some shrewd
 
 334 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 counsel based on her unemotional yet soothing 
 philosophy. After reading the Oueen's communica- 
 tion, she observed : 
 
 " You don't want anything better than that. The 
 marriage will have to take place. That is what Paul 
 is playing hard for. He's a man. I like him. So 
 does Cobden. The marriage will take place.'* 
 
 Mr. Gloucester, unable to grasp this thought, sat 
 shaking his head and repeating : 
 
 " That will never do — never ! Horace Walpole 
 had a niece who married a royal duke, and then, of 
 course, there was Mrs. Fitzherbert, but the times 
 have changed." 
 
 " You are way behind the age, Alfred," replied his 
 wife. " You don't see that a reaction against snob- 
 bery is coming. The world is getting much more 
 healthy ; it still thinks far too much about money, but 
 all the strong folks are coming right along in splendid 
 style. Clementine is among the strong ones." 
 
 "But," gasped Mr. Gloucester, "how could a girl 
 of quiet tastes be happy with a man in Prince Paul's 
 position — with the fear, too, of assassination ever 
 before him." 
 
 La Belle looked wise, pursed up her mouth and 
 said : 
 
 " I am not talking any more to-day. I have an 
 idea about that anarchist. I do not worry about him." 
 
 Clementine was in the garden at Kew when her 
 father came to her with the Queen's message.
 
 FELSHAMMER SPEAKS 335 
 
 "I knew he would send for me," she said quietly, 
 " and I know, too, that he will get well." 
 
 " Has he ever paid you any addresses, my dear ? " 
 asked Mr. Gloucester, much agitated. 
 
 Clementine blushed and began to laugh. 
 
 " Should I go to him, papa," she said, with a charm- 
 ing smile, " if we did not understand each other ? " 
 She saw agreement written on Mr. Gloucester's 
 comforted and radiant face. 
 
 Felshammer happened to be waiting in the corridor 
 outside Prince Paul's apartments when Mr. 
 Gloucester and Clementine arrived. The unhappy 
 secretary, whose eyes still kept their look of angry 
 suffering, conquered his inner trouble and made an 
 effort to speak. But the girl was so absorbed in the 
 ecstatic prospect of seeing Paul again that she passed 
 by, lovely in her trembling joy, without noticing a 
 single bystander. Felshammer watched the two 
 visitors admitted : he saw the door closed again, 
 barring him out, as it were, for ever from the lives 
 to whom he had given every passion of his soul. He 
 went away to find Rachel, and broke down 
 completely in her presence. 
 
 " All I have done," he said at last, " is to bring 
 them nearer together and make their marriage all but 
 a necessity. What am I to do ? I cannot remain 
 here ; I cannot bear to see them together, and I 
 cannot bear myself alone." 
 
 " I think," said Rachel gravely, " that you will
 
 336 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 never be able to rest till you have told him the 
 truth." 
 
 " What ! " he exclaimed, 
 
 " I think," she repeated quietly, "that you ought 
 to tell him." 
 
 Felshammer looked furtively round the room, and 
 then lowered his voice till it was all but inaudible. 
 
 " Do you want me to give myself up ? What 
 would be the use ? It is pure sentimentality to 
 imagine that I feel the least remorse. I do not." 
 
 " I want you to let Paul know as much as you 
 know." 
 
 " You are like all good women," he said roughly ; 
 " you ask too much." 
 
 But he could not forget her wish. It followed 
 him through the days and nights — an invisible com- 
 panion. At last he heard that Prince Paul had 
 formally renounced his right, such as it was, to the 
 throne of Urseville-Beylestein. The enraged ex- 
 Queen sent for Felshammer and poured out curses on 
 the ruined careers of both her sons. 
 
 "Self-indulgent and miserable fools! " she screamed. 
 " Heaven in its wrath will smite them to the earth. 
 Unworthy of their calling ! Heedless of my voice ! 
 Let them rush to their well-merited doom ! Their 
 girls and their horses, their cards and their dissolute 
 friends are the talk of the whole world ! I have 
 brought forth manikins — not men." 
 
 The Princess Marie, who was present, wearing a
 
 FELSHAMMER SPEAKS 337 
 
 very tight tailor-made dress, stifled a bitter cry, and 
 looked, with overflowing eyes, at the secretary. 
 
 " People do not care any more for the old ideas," 
 she began, but her voice broke, and, for fear she 
 should lose every atom of self-control, she bit her 
 lip, the clumsy lip of her famous race, till it bled. 
 
 " Marie and I represent the great traditions of 
 Europe," said the ex-Queen. " Our hearts will break 
 in silence and we may be forgotten before our epitaphs 
 can be engraved. But, bless God, Who is above all. 
 He is our Support." She paused and added : " Come, 
 my poor child, with me to Biarritz I " 
 
 The Princess smiled even through her grief at this 
 absurd anti-climax. A season with her aunt at 
 Biarritz rose before her mind ; she heard the wild 
 conversation, she saw the ridiculous train of religious 
 and artistic impostors who followed in Her ex- 
 Majesty's wake — the spiritualists, the Christian scien- 
 tists, the false prophets, the cackling old nobles with 
 their wives, sisters, and daughters, the loyal adhe- 
 rents to the exiled family, the jewellers, dressmakers, 
 duns, parasites, and bores. 
 
 What would the days be ? Long drives, irregular, 
 interminable meals, harangues, hysterics, fits of melan- 
 choly, explosions of temper, exhausting parties — these, 
 alternating with attacks of church-going, convent- 
 visiting, and the like, would fill the useless hours. 
 And in the evenings ! There would be the worst 
 kind of sentimental music — silly sacred songs, facile 
 
 23
 
 338 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 and overstrained melodies on the violin, arpeggios of 
 too familiar chords on the harp, calls from depressed 
 and tiresome officials. But, on the other hand, she 
 would be able to hear, perhaps, authentic new^s of Paul. 
 
 " Oh yes," said Marie cheerfully, " let us go 
 together to Biarritz ! " 
 
 "The Empress will be there," added the Queen, 
 " and the Empress is my one friend ! " She no longer 
 cared so very much for Mme. de Montgenays. 
 
 The Prince was sitting up in a chair by the window 
 when Felshammer, after leaving the royal ladies, 
 joined him. The change wrought in the faces of both 
 men was in one case a purification, and in the other a 
 scarring disfigurement. The lines in Felshammer's 
 countenance had deepened, his features had grown 
 heavier, his complexion was darker ; he looked old 
 and hunted and careworn. Paul put out his hand with 
 his usual frank gesture of trust and affection ; the 
 other accepted it, but dropped it almost immediately. 
 
 " I wonder whether we can be here without inter- 
 ruption for a short time," said he, standing with his back 
 to the light. 
 
 " I will give orders," said Paul, touching a bell at 
 his side as he spoke. After the servant had entered, 
 received his instructions, and retired, Felshammer 
 came close to the Prince's chair. 
 
 " I want to make a statement," he said firmly. 
 " I have never told you, and probably you have 
 never guessed, that Miss Gloucester made a profound
 
 FELSHAMMER SPEAKS 339 
 
 impression upon me the first time I met her. The 
 peculiar power which she exercised, and exercises un- 
 consciously, over me simply illustrates one of those 
 secret influences we call fate." 
 
 The Prince sighed and kept his glance fixed atten- 
 tively upon Felshammer, who continued speaking. 
 
 " I became jealous of you. I blamed you. I 
 thought you were trifling with a woman who deserved 
 very different appreciation. Mr. Gloucester, mean- 
 while, after your departure from England, got into 
 money difficulties. I was able to relieve his embarrass- 
 ment. I lent him a sum of money which he repaid 
 in circumstances which forced me to suspect that he 
 had discharged his debt to me by placing himself 
 under some heavy obligation to you. I don't know 
 now whether I was right in this surmise." 
 
 " You were altogether wrong," said Paul. " I 
 have never helped Mr. Gloucester in the slightest 
 degree, and I had never given Miss Gloucester so much 
 as a little present till the other day when she accepted 
 our engagement ring." 
 
 Felshammer grew livid and remained silent for a few 
 seconds. 
 
 " I presumed to offer marriage to Miss Gloucester," 
 he said bitterly, " and I need not tell you with what 
 result. When she left London, in order to avoid me, 
 as I thought and possibly also to escape from you, 1 
 followed her to Kew. I repeated my offer. From 
 various remarks she made I felt certain that there was
 
 34© LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 some understanding between you. I regret to own I 
 thought you were deceiving her. I went home, but 
 later I returned and watched her house. I did not see 
 you go in. I saw you come out." 
 
 Paul sprang to his feet, and the two men surveyed 
 each other. 
 
 " I saw you come out," said Felshammer. " I 
 followed you a short way down the road and I shot you. 
 When you fell I hoped you were dead, and I thought 
 you were dead. Otherwise I would have fired again." 
 
 "I have often said," replied the Prince, after a long 
 pause, " that you were quite capable of killing me, 
 but not of deceiving me. My instinct, it seems, 
 was perfectly sound. Do you intend to make a 
 second attempt ? " 
 
 " No," said Felshammer ; " no — that is all in the 
 past. I put myself in your hands. If you wish me 
 to repeat this confession at headquarters, well and 
 good." 
 
 Paul shook his head. 
 
 " This is a very strange business, Karl," said he. 
 " I forgive you, and the matter is buried — so far as I 
 am concerned. But we must never meet again. 
 That is the one request I make." 
 
 Felshammer bowed, turned on his heel in the 
 military fashion, and walked straight out of the 
 room. He was conscious only of a suffocating hatred 
 for the man who had spared him.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX., AND LAST 
 
 THREE POINTS OF VIEW 
 
 It was Mr. Bickersteth's wish that an entertainment 
 should be given at Carlington House in honour of 
 Prince Paul's fortunate recovery and betrothal. 
 Rachel, therefore, overcame her constitutional repug- 
 nance to the part of playing hostess to a multitude, 
 and gave a party v\^hich was called small because it 
 occurred at short notice. There was a dinner first for 
 sixty distinguished persons, followed by a concert at 
 which Paderev/ski played, and Mme. Bernhardt re- 
 cited, and Mme. Melba sang. The company had 
 been selected chiefly from among Prince Paul's own 
 acquaintances in London. Rachel's own small circle 
 of friends made up a delighted chorus of spectators 
 for the stream of exhausted, dishevelled, well-meaning, 
 and nervous aristocrats who talked loudly during the 
 music and ate whenever it ceased. Clementine and 
 the Prince, who were too happy to be critical, vv^ere 
 amused by the assembly, and charmed by the 
 trouble which had evidently been taken to give the 
 
 341
 
 342 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 function that shallow brilliancy which is associated 
 always with any exhibition of great wealth. Nadeshda 
 Sachs, who had been chagrined at first to find that her 
 own house was not considered important enough for 
 such a festival, lost her ill-humour on becoming, as 
 usual, the most admired, the most vivacious, and the 
 most successful woman present. No one paid much 
 attention to Rachel, who stood superbly at the head of 
 the staircase, looking ill, and smiling with absent- 
 minded courtesy at each arrival. She had watched 
 for Felshammer the whole 'evening, and, although 
 he came last of all, she seemed to lose some of her 
 weariness at his approach. Mme. Bernhardt was 
 declaiming at the moment a poem of Victor Hugo's, 
 and the conversation in the rooms was perhaps 
 less animated than it might have been had her voice 
 possessed the power of a musical instrument. Bicker- 
 steth was doing his best to suggest silence out of 
 respect to the great actress, and Oscar Sachs was 
 laughing at the banker's effort to enforce good 
 manners on his noble guests. They gabbled, stared, 
 giggled, whispered, yawned, spoke loudly, and gesticu- 
 lated with a freedom which was more genial than 
 elegant. Felshammer smiled bitterly and said to 
 Rachel, as he looked through the doorway at Paul 
 and Clementine, radiant in the distance — 
 
 " Are they going to end, after so much, in this mob ? 
 Will she come down to the feverish vulgarity of a life 
 spent in public ? The soul-hunters have caught
 
 THREE POINTS OF VIEW 343 
 
 them after all. They may marry for love, but they 
 will soon forget that in the scramble for money and 
 pleasure." 
 
 " You must not exaggerate," answered Rachel. 
 "Remember the many things you have often said to 
 me about the dangers of misanthropy. You have 
 taught me a great deal." 
 
 He was still glancing toward Clementine, and he 
 seemed lost in his own emotion. " In time," he said 
 presently, "I may be able to forget all this." 
 
 " You are quite right," she answered, trying to speak 
 with calmness, although her heart sank with a new 
 weight. " You are quite right, of course. You must 
 forget all of us. What have you decided to do ? " 
 
 " There is work for me in Urseville-Beylestein." 
 
 " Oscar Sachs tells me they may elect you 
 some day President of the new republic out there. 
 Wouldn't that be a strange development ? " 
 
 "To be a President at sixty ? It is too dull a pros- 
 pect to be unlikely." 
 
 " You will become a President, and the Prince will 
 turn financier, working with Cobden Duryee in 
 America ! What would be more extraordinary ? " 
 
 " And, as you are in a prophetic mood, will the two 
 be happy ? " 
 
 " Yes," she replied. " They love each other. He 
 will give her trouble, no doubt, but he will never love 
 any one else so much." 
 
 " And that is to satisfy her ? " he said.
 
 344 LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS 
 
 " She isn't inquisitive. A woman without curiosity- 
 is already among the happiest of her sex." 
 
 At that instant Nadeshda came out of the music- 
 room with Leonore Townshend. The girl smiled 
 rather slyly, and Felshammer turned to glance again 
 at her pretty face. 
 
 " She is attractive," he said — " why didn't I love 
 her instead of the other ? " 
 
 The recitation had come to an end, and a murmur- 
 ing restlessness at once affected the company. 
 
 " I must go now," said Felshammer hurriedly, 
 " before they can see me. I shall leave England 
 early to-morrow morning. Think of me sometimes. 
 Goodbye ! " 
 
 She gave him a cold hand, murmured " Goodbye," 
 and turned to answer a question about the weather 
 which some conscientious gentleman thought his 
 mere duty to offer any hostess, whether he knew her 
 well or not. When she moved again in Felshammer's 
 direction he was at the foot of the staircase. Would 
 he look back ? She waited ; she hoped; she held her 
 breath. But he went straight out. For a long time 
 she remained in a reverie from which she was roused 
 at last by Prince Paul, who picked up the fan she had 
 dropped. 
 
 " I shall never forget this evening," he said. 
 "Clementine and I were just thinking that we could 
 not have a happier memory to take away with us 
 to the New World. I have never before met
 
 THREE POINTS OF VIEW 345 
 
 so many kind people, nor heard such perfect 
 
 music." 
 
 Rachel's eyes rested on the joyous faces of the two 
 young creatures transfigured by love, hope, and extreme 
 contentment. She held out both her hands because 
 she could not speak. 
 
 " Every one is too kind," replied Paul ; " I'm begin- 
 ning to understand what life can be ! " 
 
 June 1899 — June 1902. 
 
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