3 4 8 
 
 \ 

 
 
 
 
 \ -
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN
 
 A Soldier and a Gentleman 
 
 
 BY 
 
 
 J. MACLAREN COBBAN 
 
 AUTHOR or 
 "The Horned Cat," " King of Andaman," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 STREET & SMITH 
 
 238 WILLIAM STREET 
 
 e 
 
 \\
 
 Copyright, 1891, 
 By UNITED STATES BOOK CO. 
 
 Copyright, 1901, 
 By STREET & SMITH
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 / 
 
 AN EVENING OF ADVENTURE. 
 
 IT was an unusually hot week of the uncertain month 
 of July. The heavens were as brass, and the elements 
 seemed melting with fervent heat. There was not a 
 breath of air^to suggest coolness. The leaves of the 
 trees in the parks looked scorched, the grass was 
 parched and brown, and the ornamental waters ap- 
 peared stagnant and unwholesome. Throughout all 
 London the bricks were baking, and the people swel- 
 tering in the direct and reflected sunshine ; but no- 
 where was the heat more fetid and stifling than about 
 Soho. The atmosphere was charged not only with 
 the exhalations of a poor and densely-packed popu- 
 lation, but also with the odours of neglected refuse, 
 vegetable and other, in the courts and the streets. 
 
 2134888
 
 6 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 In the early evening, women with babies and women 
 without, neither very much tied nor very much but- 
 toned, sat on door-steps, or leaned against door-posts 
 with their arms lazily crossed ; while half-clad chil- 
 dren played and shouted and perspired in the gutters 
 or ran in and out of the shady courts ; and hulking 
 or evil-looking men, with pipes in their mouths and 
 their hands in their pockets, hung about corners and 
 the swinging doors of public-houses. In Dean Street 
 the only active persons to be seen were two or three 
 costermongers with barrows of fish or fruit, who, 
 with their arms and their throats bare, urged their 
 laggard donkeys as feelingly and yelled as lustily as 
 usual ; and a melting postman in unofficial straw hat 
 who urged his weary rat-tat round. 
 
 There was another, a tall, well-built young man, 
 who emerged from one of the houses, a miracle of 
 coolness. He was dressed in a tweed suit and a 
 round hat, and he carried a pair of gloves and a little 
 cane which was much too short to walk with. He 
 was turning down the street with a swinging stride 
 when he observed the postman. He returned to the 
 door from which he had come, and waited till the 
 postman approached. "Anything," he asked, "for 
 George Ferrers ? "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 7 
 
 The postman carelessly glanced at the address of 
 two or three of his letters, said ' ' No, " and passed on. 
 
 George Ferrers jerked out a nod of acknowledg- 
 ment of his courtesy, tucked his little cane under his 
 arm, set his hat a little more jauntily over his eye, 
 strode away, his step ringing clear on the pavement 
 He was evidently not in the calmest of tempers. 
 Once or twice he muttered " Damn ! " to himself and 
 beat his thigh with his cane. He swung right on his 
 way, elbowing aside without compunction the hulk- 
 ing loafers, who turned with a furious "Wot the 
 
 b !" which became a cheerful "All right, guv'- 
 
 nor," when they saw the tall, muscular figure. The 
 children stopped their play to look up at him, and the 
 women glanced at him with approval and seductive- 
 ness. 
 
 " Fine man, ain't he ? " " Looks like a officer" 
 "There's a gen'leman for yer ! " were some of the 
 least questionable of the comments made on his ap- 
 pearance comments which his quick ear caught, and 
 which somewhat soothed his temper ; for to the 
 average healthy man there is nothing more agree- 
 able than the admiration of womankind. He twirled 
 his fair curling moustache with an air, fastened, in 
 spite of the heat, one button of his coat, the better to
 
 8 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN, 
 
 show off the lines of his figure, squared his shoulders 
 and swelled his chest, and marched with something 
 of that bow of the leg which marks the matured Life- 
 guardsman. Through the squalid swarming streets 
 of Soho and St Giles he thus made his way, and 
 arrived in St Martin's Lane, crossing which he found 
 himself at the corner of Long Acre. There he paused, 
 and debated with himself a moment, slowly twisting 
 the ends of his moustache. He was hungry. Should 
 he content himself with bread-and-cheese and a glass 
 of ale in a tavern ? Or, should he deny himself the ale, 
 and have something more staying and nutritious in 
 the a-la-mode beef-shop at his elbow ? Though he had 
 what he called "a thirst" upon him, he decided for 
 the diet without drink, and turning on his heel, he 
 entered the shop a-la-mode. 
 
 It is scarcely fair to expose all the bare shifts to 
 which patient merit may be reduced, and how it has 
 often parsimoniously to consider the purchasing 
 power of a penny. Let it suffice to say that George 
 Ferrers made a tolerable meal, to which a piquant 
 relish was imparted by the kind looks of the plump, 
 though somewhat untidy, serving-girl behind the 
 counter. The box in which he sat to consume his 
 viands was inadequate. The seat was narrow, and
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 9 
 
 his knees touched the bench on the other side of the 
 little table. A little man might have enjoyed in it 
 complete privacy except from the overseeing eye of 
 the counter-girl ; but George Ferrers could conceal no 
 more than his plate and a few buttons of his waist- 
 coat. He sat so high that he could see into all the 
 other boxes, and he felt that his dominant height had 
 a depressing effect on the dirty carters themselves 
 bulky men and the nondescript loafers who were 
 feeding in them. He hurried, therefore, through his 
 meal, paid for it not forgetting to tip the plump 
 serving-girl, who responded with a surprised, "Thank 
 you, sir " and returned into the street. 
 
 He chinked his change in his hand, and dropped 
 it into his pocket with as much of a pang of anxiety 
 as his cheerful spirit would permit him to feel. The 
 few pieces of silver and copper making one-and- 
 ninepence in all were the amount of his pecuniary 
 resources, and he had no immediate prospect of 
 more. Yet he must have a smoke. He had had his 
 appetite for food but half allayed ; for it took a good 
 deal to keep his continent of body in condition ; but 
 he knew he would feel satisfied if he had a pipeful 
 of tobacco. Turning down St. Martin's Lane, there- 
 fore, he entered a tobacconist's and purchased a half-
 
 10 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 ounce of his favourite mixture. Then filling and 
 lighting his pipe, he strolled serenely and gallantly 
 down to Trafalgar Square. He leaned over the par- 
 apet, knitted his brows, smoked hard, and asked 
 himself what he should do. 
 
 He was where he had often been of an evening 
 before. He leaned on the parapet and looked away 
 down over the silent fountains into Whitehall, to 
 that front of the Horse Guards where, in other days, 
 he had often appeared in all the glittering panoply 
 of war, on his black horse, in steel cuirass and 
 gorgeous helmet. England had been to him a pretty 
 hard step-mother. She had taken twelve good years 
 of his life ; had marched and counter-marched him ; 
 had sent him to the Soudan whence he had returned 
 but a year ago, a gaunt and sun-burnt member of 
 the famous Camel Corps and had then turned him 
 adrift and shown no further interest in him. He did 
 not complain : he was too well drilled a soldier and 
 of too cheerful a nature to do that ; but as he let his 
 eye rove round, still asking himself in the backward 
 of his thought what he was going to do, he resented 
 the fat and prosperous appearance of the crowd 
 surging and perspiring east and west, and north and 
 south, in loose coats and white waistcoats. He
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. \\ 
 
 wondered how they would look if they were collected 
 into a regiment and marched into the desert, where 
 there was only a modicum of the tinned "junk" of 
 Australia or Chicago to eat, and not a drop of water 
 to drink ; and if, when choking and cracking with 
 thirst, a horde of fuzzy-headed, gigantic black devils 
 came howling down upon them, thrusting at them 
 with shovel-headed spears, and hacking mightily at 
 them with huge crusader swords. Of what use 
 would they be in a trial of pluck, strength, and en- 
 durance ? And yet he reckoned there WHS not one 
 but had gold and silver in his pocket, while he had 
 only one-and-sevenpence, and did not know where 
 to get another shilling. Of course he had a father, a 
 farmer in a dale of Cumberland ; but he was not going 
 to beg money of the old man no, not if he were 
 starving. Trafalgar Square, he had heard, is the 
 centre of London, and London is the centre of the 
 world ; therefore, he stood in the very heart, or bull's 
 eye, of the life, wealth, and business of the world. 
 He was well placed, then, and ought to get on. Yet 
 why had he received no answer to any one of his 
 own advertisements, or of his replies to the advertise- 
 ments of others ? He could not guess, unless it were 
 that for a big fellow with curling moustaches and
 
 12 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 long legs, who had served twelve years in the Life 
 Guards, there was no place in civilian life. 
 
 So he asked himself again what he was going to 
 do. He was resolved he would not go to his lodging 
 that night the dingy, frowsy garret in Soho with- 
 out having settled something one way or another 
 about his future. He had heard it said, "Adventures 
 are to the adventurous ; " and since an adventure had 
 not sought him out, he thought he had better seek 
 put an adventure. Which way should he go ? 
 North, south, east, or west? He stopped regard- 
 less of the curious side-looks of the passers-by set 
 his little cane erect on the pavement and let it go. 
 It fell at once to the west ; and to the west into 
 Clubland he at once set off. His pipe was empty 
 and his mouth was dry: he let his tongue "click" 
 against his palate, to assure himself how much he 
 was in need of a drink. He thought he might in- 
 dulge himself to the extent of a half-pint, since he 
 must presently he laughed run against a frail old 
 gentleman who needed a prop for his declining years, 
 or a lonely dowager who longed to adopt a son : and 
 he knew himself as strong as a tree and as active 
 and willing as a horse. 
 
 The sun had set with the cloudless glow of a
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 13 
 
 furnace behind the further end of Pall Mall, and the 
 stifling, breathless shades of night seemed to rise from 
 the ground as much as they sank from the sky, as 
 he left Trafalgar Square. 
 
 "Here goes!" said he; and he Burned up the 
 narrow street on his right to " wet his whistle" be- 
 fore committing himself to the search for adventure 
 in the west. He turned into the bar of the first public- 
 house and asked for a half-pint of "old and bitter" 
 the Guardsman's favourite drink. 
 
 "Old and bitter, sir?" said the smart barmaid, 
 looking not unkindly on his stalwart figure and hand- 
 some, good-natured face as she drew the liquor. She 
 seemed not disinclined from conversation ; but she 
 was anticipated by a well-dressed, black-muzzled 
 man, with his tall hat tilted back, who sat on a stool, 
 smoked a cigar, and drank spirits-and-water. ' ' Have 
 a cigar, mister ? " asked the man, displaying an open 
 cigar-case. 
 
 " Thanks no," said Ferrers. " I prefer a pipe ; " 
 and he produced and filled it He had that instinct 
 of English reserve which repels the familiar advance 
 of a stranger. 
 
 " Excuse me," said the man ; "but you've been a 
 soldier haven't you? I've been a soldier myself."
 
 I 4 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "In the Horse Marines, wasn't it? " said Ferrers 
 with a laugh. 
 
 "No, sir; in the American army." 
 
 " I thought," said Ferrers, " you didn't look like a 
 soldier. May I ask you a question ? " 
 
 "You may, sir." 
 
 " Aren't you an Irishman ? " 
 
 " I am ; and proud of the fact, sir, of belonging to 
 that down-trodden nation. Why do you ask ? " 
 
 "Oh, just because I thought only a downtrodden 
 Irishman would go and serve under a foreign flag 
 and then brag about it to an English soldier." 
 
 "I served in America, sir, not as a private, but as 
 an officer. In your blessed English army, would I 
 have had a chance of being an officer ? " 
 
 "I hope not," said Ferrers with a laugh. 
 
 "No," continued the Irishman, pulling his hat on 
 and getting warmer. " I'd have had a lot of insolent 
 bloated aristocrats over me. " 
 
 "Perhaps," said Ferrers, "you know more aristo- 
 crats than I do. But I've known some, and I'd prefer 
 them to the only officer I ever met of the American 
 army. My captain was a Viscount, and my major 
 was a Duke, and they were the best fellows I ever 
 knew. Of course they lost their temper sometimes,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 15 
 
 and sometimes swore a bit ; but every man that is 
 a man does that. But I've fought shoulder to shoulder 
 with them in square in the Soudan ; we've drunk the 
 same dirty water from the same confounded water- 
 bottle ; and we've sung the same songs riding through 
 the desert. And if I were on my last legs, I'd ask 
 them to help me before I'd ask anybody else ; and 
 they'd do it too. What do you think of that? " 
 
 " What do I think of that, sir ? " said the Irishman, 
 rising from his stool, swallowing the last drops of 
 his liquor, and moving to the door. "I think that 
 very likely you blacked their boots." Saying that, 
 he was gone, and Ferrers' toe was too late to help 
 him out 
 
 "You had him there," laughed the barmaid ; " and 
 he's bolted." 
 
 "He has," said Ferrers. "But I may meet him 
 another day." 
 
 He finished his drink and departed, thinking over 
 what he had said. His defence of his officers was 
 quite unpremeditated. They had not been in his 
 thoughts, and it had not occurred to him to appeal 
 to them to find a way for him out of his present dead- 
 lock. But now that the suggestion had arisen quite of 
 itself, as one might say, he asked himself, " Why not ? "
 
 1 6 4 SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 So he marched on westward, till he found clubs to 
 right of him, clubs to left of him, each one volleying 
 forth from open windows above and below the liquor- 
 ish and appetising odours of good cookery. Lord 
 Debrett, he knew, was to be heard of at the Junior 
 Carlton ; and he walked slowly past its ample and 
 imposing doorway. But a glance at the hall porter, 
 who was taking the air on the top step, and who 
 looked as important as a Secretary of State, and far 
 more alarming than his late captain, and a glimpse 
 of the gorgeous marble interior, so daunted him that 
 he lost heart. 
 
 He passed on and up St James's Street, and so into 
 Piccadilly, and on again westward. He was offered 
 sundry adventures of a doubtful kind, but he marched 
 steadily on. The roadway was thronged with omni- 
 buses, and red-eyed hansoms and carriages bearing 
 people from home and dinner to theatre, opera, or 
 party ; and the pavements were peopled with well- 
 dressed persons of both sexes ; but nowhere did he 
 perceive a hint of the frail old gentleman or the lonely 
 dowager who, he had hoped, were longing to adopt 
 him. 
 
 When he was near his old barracks of Knights- 
 bridge, he thought he was about as far west as civili-
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. \j 
 
 sation and opportunity could extend, and as Fate 
 could expect him to go. However, he consulted 
 chance again, as he had done before. He set his 
 cane upright on the pavement and let it fall. It fell 
 without an instant's hesitation to the east 
 
 "Very well," said he to himself. "Back I go." 
 So he returned the way he had come, his hope of 
 adventure sinking lower and lower the nearer he ap- 
 proached to Trafalgar Square. At last he was back 
 in his former place, leaning over the parapet. It 
 was now quite dark, as dark, that is, as it ever is on 
 a hot, clear-skied summer night The space below 
 him around the fountains was inhabited by dark fig- 
 ures, moving, as it seemed, aimlessly about ; while 
 the benches were almost completely filled " with 
 the unemployed, " he thought 
 
 "I'm one of the unemployed," he said to himself. 
 "I'll have a seat." He descended the steps, made 
 room for himself on a bench, and lighted his pipe. 
 He sat thus for a little while musing. He saw in 
 imagination his old home in the Cumberland hills 
 under the summer night the rich fields sloping down 
 from the dear, ivy-clad house, and the sheltering wood 
 behind. In fancy he heard the bark of the watchdog 
 bark answering unto bark all down and round the
 
 1 8 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 dale and the low of the kine returned to pasture from 
 the evening milking ; he smelt, too, the sweet cool 
 odour of the new-mown hay, the rich evanescent 
 scent of the roses in the farm-garden, and of the honey- 
 suckle in the hedges round ; and a lump rose in his 
 throat, and he wondered whether, after all, he had 
 not better return, like the prodigal, to his father and 
 take what place could be found for him. Suddenly 
 he became aware of loud and angry voices not far 
 off ; and looking up, he saw near one of the fountain- 
 basins a dark knot of people which was drawing to 
 itself more and more dark units from all sides. He 
 rose and went over. As he approached, a shrill fe- 
 male voice rose in the air " Police ! " and continued 
 in a key but little below the shrillest : " I'll see if 
 you'll molest a woman going quietly about her busi- 
 ness you bad man ! you black, nefarious creature 
 you ! " 
 
 Elbowing his way into the centre of the crowd, he 
 saw that the " bad man " on whom the woman's rage 
 was concentred was the black-muzzled Irishman. 
 He was declaring to the amused or indifferent by- 
 standers that the woman had done this and that, and 
 had said this and that to him. 
 
 "Why don't you let the woman alone ? " demanded
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 19 
 
 Ferrers. " Is it Irish or American manners to make 
 a row with a woman in a public place ? " 
 
 "Mind your own business," said the furious Irish- 
 man, ' ' you English lamp-post ! " 
 
 Ferrers said not a word ; but stepping up to him, 
 he gripped him by the waist, raised him and shook 
 him as a mastiff might shake a yapping cur, and 
 dropped him into the water of the fountain-basin. 
 The crowd, which had held its breath a moment, 
 now roared with laughter : the ducking was a joke i* 
 could appreciate.
 
 20 ^ SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 COMRADES. 
 
 " BY Jove ! " Ferrers heard a voice exclaim be- 
 hind him, " I've known only one man that could lift 
 another man like that ! " 
 
 He thought he knew the voice. He turned, and 
 saw a gentleman in evening dress about as tall as 
 himself pushing towards him. It was Lord Debrett, 
 who came and looked him in the face and grasped 
 his hand. 
 
 " What ? By Jove I it is you really, Ferrers. 
 What are you doing here ? Come along. The 
 police are sure to turn up now when it is all over, 
 and they may want to collar you." 
 
 The Irish-American had scrambled out of his 
 unexpected bath, and dripping with wet and fury 
 he cried: "I'll remember you for this 1 I'll spot 
 you ! " 
 
 " You'd better scuttle home," said Lord Debrett, 
 " and change your clothes, or you'll catch cold. 
 And having thus said, he took Ferrers' arm and led
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. ai 
 
 him outside the crowd, where he was joined by an- 
 other gentleman in evening dress. "I was right," 
 said Lord Debrett. "Let me introduce to you, Sir 
 William, my old comrade, Ferrers of the Blues Ser- 
 geant Ferrers that was. ' 
 
 Sir William bowed somewhat stiffly ; and Ferrers, 
 being taken thus at unawares, returned the bow 
 rather awkwardly. He felt he did not like Sir 
 William, for no other reason, perhaps, than that he 
 had made him to appear awkward. Sir William was 
 middle-aged, thin-whiskered, lean, and of the middle 
 height. 
 
 " Come and let us have a talk," said Lord Debrett. 
 
 Ferrers said nothing ; the presence of Sir William 
 kept him from being quite easy and frank with his 
 late captain. 
 
 " Were you going anywhere in particular ? " asked 
 Lord Debrett 
 
 ' ' No, my lord, " said Ferrers ; " I was just hanging 
 about." 
 
 "Well, Sir William and I were just walking down 
 to the Gaiety for an hour ; we have to go somewhere 
 else afterwards. Suppose, Dawlish, you go on to 
 the theatre and come back and find me in the smok- 
 ing-room of the Club ? "
 
 tt A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " That will suit me very well," said Sir William. 
 
 "And me, too," thought Ferrers; and he bowed 
 adieu to Sir William Dawlish with the greatest good- 
 will, supposing he saw the last of him. But he had 
 not done that by any means ; and thereby hangs 
 our tale. 
 
 The comrades-in-arms walked off together along 
 Pall Mall. 
 
 ' ' Who was the man you ducked, Ferrers ? " asked 
 Lord Debrett. 
 
 "I don't know, my lord," answered Ferrers. "I 
 met him first an hour or more ago in a public-house, 
 where he was calling English officers names ; and I 
 came across him again now rowing with a woman, 
 so I settled both counts by sousing him." 
 
 Lord Debrett laughed. "But look here, Ferrers. 
 Don't call me ' my lord ' or ' captain ' when we 
 meet like this, any more than I call you ' sergeant ' 
 We've been comrades ; and if it hadn't been for you, 
 my bones would be bleaching with the rest at Abu 
 Klea ; so just call me Debrett, as I call you 
 Ferrers." 
 
 "Very well," said Ferrers, feeling not unnaturally 
 somewhat lifted up. 
 
 "Now, tell me what you've been doing since I
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 33 
 
 saw you a year ago. I thought you had made up 
 your mind to stay in the country with your 
 father. " 
 
 "So I had" 
 
 " And why didn't you go ? " asked Debrett. 
 
 ' ' I did go. And I stayed with him all through 
 the winter and spring. But I got tired of the country ; 
 I wanted to be back in London ; and so I came away 
 about six weeks ago before all my money was 
 spent" 
 
 "And how have you been getting on since?" 
 
 "Well, times are not too lively." 
 
 "But you've got something to do, I suppose? " 
 
 "No; nothing." 
 
 "Nothing! That's bad. You've tried, I sup- 
 pose ? " 
 
 "Tried! I should think so !" 
 
 "But you're clever. You can write well and tot 
 up accounts." 
 
 "There are lots can do that better than me. I 
 haven't tried for that." 
 
 "What have you tried for? " 
 
 "I've tried for drawing " 
 
 " I know you can draw and paint first-class." 
 
 "Well, I've offered myself as a War Artist, anff
 
 24 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 shown some of my things. They liked them ; but 
 there ain't a war on, nor expected worse luck ! So 
 they just took my name in case anything should 
 turn up ; though they seemed to think I was too 
 big, too noticeable, and would take too much to 
 keep." 
 
 "Little nippers of men, I suppose," said Debrett, 
 " would do better for that." 
 
 "I've offered myself," continued Ferrers, warming 
 to his narrative, "to teach the use of the sabre in a 
 fencing-gallery ; but it appears nobody wants to learn 
 cavalry practice, and rapier practice I don't know." 
 
 ' ' Humph ! " grunted Debrett meditatively. 
 
 " I've offeifed myself as a riding-master ; but they 
 wondered if they had any horse strong enough to 
 carry me. And I've answered advertisements for 
 lots of other things, but without getting any reply. 
 The fact is I seem to be too big for anything, except 
 a door ornament with buttons for a swell shop or 
 restaurant." 
 
 "The doose you are!" exclaimed Lord Debrett, 
 meditatively twisting his moustache. "I daresay 
 now if I broke loose and spent till I could get no 
 more to spend, and if I had to take up some occupa- 
 tion, they'd think me too big, by Jove I "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 25 
 
 "Oh," said Ferrers, "you're a lord. For that, 
 the bigger the better. " 
 
 "Is that it? So being called a lord has its ad- 
 vantages. " 
 
 "I should think so rather," said Ferrers with a 
 laugh. 
 
 "But go on," said Debrett. "Tell me about 
 yourself. You mean to go on trying to get some- 
 thing, I suppose ? " 
 
 "I mean to go on trying; though, to tell the 
 truth, I don't know what to try for next" 
 
 "Do you think I can do anything for you? If 
 you find yourself short, you know, Ferrers " 
 
 "Oh, I'm all right," said Ferrers quickly. 
 
 Debrett was suspicious. "Come now, Ferrers," 
 said he ; "on your oath how much money have 
 you got ? " 
 
 "Well, Debrett, to tell you the truth, I've only 
 got one-and-fivepence left. " 
 
 " Good heavens ! One-and-fivepence I And," he 
 declared with a touch of contrition in his voice, "I'm 
 smoking, I believe, a one-and-sixpenny Partaga ! 
 But you haven't been on starvation rations, surely ! 
 Now I look close at you, you're rather thin and pale. " 
 
 " Well, for a fortnight or so I've just managed to
 
 26 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 throw dust in the eyes of my appetite, so to speak. 
 But it takes an enormous deal to choke off this 
 appetite of mine." 
 
 "Come along; come and have something," said 
 Lord Debrett, hurrying him into the Junior Carl ton, 
 through the great swinging doors, up the broad steps, 
 and into the depths beyond. 
 
 Ferrers cast a glance in passing at the watchful 
 Secretary of State in the porter's box, and wondered 
 that an hour before he should have been so afraid of 
 him. He was led into a private dining-room and set 
 down at a table. He was asked what he would like, 
 and with little hesitation he declared for cold beef, 
 bread and bitter ale. He asked Debrett if he was not, 
 going to eat also. Debrett said he could not, having 
 little more than finished dinner. 
 
 "But," said he, "I'll keep you company with a 
 drink." 
 
 Then he refused to say another word till his friend 
 had eaten his meal. He sat in an easy-chair, pulled 
 his moustache, and ruminated. Presently, when Fer- 
 rers' efforts had slackened a little, he turned to him as 
 if he had come to a weighty conclusion. "Do you 
 know, Ferrers," said he, "I think you've not come 
 enough the old soldier, as you used to siy ; you've
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 27 
 
 been too-straightforward and frank with those civil- 
 ians. " 
 
 "What do you mean, Debrett?" asked Ferrers. 
 
 " Well, you haven't bounced. You've just led them 
 to think you were a poor devil of a simple soldier, 
 strong, deserving and willing. That was a mistake." 
 
 ' ' How do you mean ? " 
 
 " Don't you see ? There was a want of generalship 
 about it. You remember how Drury Lowe took 
 Cairo ? With a bit of bounce ! " 
 
 "Yes, by Jingo !" said Ferrers with enthusiasm. 
 "Pluck first and bounce afterwards." 
 
 ' ' Well, there you are, " said Debrett. ' ' You've got 
 pluck, but no bounce. Now look here. Though 
 you're not a gentleman, Ferrers you know what I 
 mean, that you haven't birth, or estates, or that sort 
 of thing you'd very well pass for a gentleman 
 with most people : you look like a gentleman, and 
 you have the manners of a gentleman. " 
 
 ' ' I've lived with your lordship so long, " said Ferrers. 
 
 " Don't say that again, Ferrers. It's only when you 
 open your mouth and say something of that sort that 
 you show, to anybody that knows, that you're not 
 the proper thing. Don't say much to these civilians, 
 and whatever you do don't be humble. Go about
 
 28 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN, 
 
 well dressed you know how call yourself captain 
 or colonel ; keep a stiff back, and, if you think it will 
 work, be quietly insolent : those civilian beggars, I 
 believe, will like you all the better for it. " 
 
 "I believe you're right," said Ferrers, with his 
 brows puckered in attention. 
 
 "Of course I'm right. I've seen it many a time. 
 Now you take my tip and you'll get on." 
 
 Lord Debrett uttered himself solemnly, as if what 
 he said was the result of the garnered observation of 
 a lifetime ; and very likely it was. 
 
 ' ' I believe you're right, " repeated Ferrers. ' ' Why, 
 I've seen jokers myself, since I've been about now, 
 come that game. They've stepped in and looked 
 round as if all the place belonged to 'em, and they've 
 ordered a cup of coffee and a slice as if they could 
 buy up all the stores if they liked, and they've got 
 served better and quicker than anybody else." 
 
 "That's rough sort of practice, though," said De- 
 brett, sagely shaking his head. "That's overdoing 
 it. Don't overdo it, Ferrers. " 
 
 "I quite understand," said Ferrers; "oh, yes. 
 There's a way of doing it, of course. " 
 
 "Well, you take the right way and you'll get 
 on."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 29 
 
 The simple comrades then adjourned to the smok- 
 ing-room, where presently Sir William Dawlish en- 
 tered and found them. Ferrers was not embarrassed, 
 as he had been before, by Sir William's presence ; for 
 one thing, the baronet appeared less reserved and 
 more friendly ; and, for another, Ferrers was lustily 
 primed with food and drink, and emboldened with 
 the advice given him by Lord Debrett 
 
 "Dawlish," said Debrett, leaning well back in his 
 lounge-chair and stretching his long legs all three be- 
 ing provided with the accompaniments of a smoking- 
 room lounge " my friend Ferrers wants something 
 to do : he's doosid hard-up. Can you recommend 
 him anything ? " 
 
 "Well," said Sir William, with a smile that seemed 
 to Ferrers more like a grin : it showed all his teeth 
 "well," said he, "if Mr. Ferrers will excuse my 
 saying it he had the look when I first saw him of a 
 hard-up man. I've had a large experience, continued 
 he with another grin, "of hard-up people : I'm com- 
 monly one of them myself." 
 
 "But can you recommend him to anything?" 
 asked Lord Debrett ' ' He's a good fellow ; he can 
 always hold his tongue and keep his head." 
 
 "An excellent character to have," said Sir William,
 
 30 ^ SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN, 
 
 nodding and grinning ; " and I have no doubt he de- 
 serves it." 
 
 "He is too confoundedly civil," thought Ferrers. 
 ' ' What does he mean by it ? " 
 
 "Of course he does," said Lord Debrett "I 
 wasn't paying a compliment ; I was merely recom- 
 mending a good man." 
 
 "But what," asked Sir William, "is Mr. Ferrers' 
 line ? " 
 
 "I am a yeoman's son," said Ferrers, speaking for 
 himself, with a frank touch of pride, "and I know 
 something of farming ; and I've served my twelve 
 years in the Blues, from private to sergeant " 
 
 "And he knows all that can be learned in the 
 Guards," broke in Debrett, " and a good deal more 
 besides. " 
 
 " And how's the education, may I ask ? " said Sir 
 William. 
 
 ' ' Oh, that's all right, " said Debrett again before 
 Ferrers could reply ; " besides drawing, calisthenics, 
 and the use of the globes, and all that sort of thing. 
 But have you something in your eye, Dawlish, that 
 might occupy any of Ferrers' talents ? " 
 
 "I have a notion of something that would need a 
 good many talents one in particular."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 31 
 
 "Ah, now," said Debrett, "there's something at 
 last ; " while Ferrers feared it might be something he 
 had already tried. 
 
 Sir William looked at him with a smile, and said : 
 " Mr. Ferrers, I suppose, is an old enough soldier to 
 carry out instructions without demanding an expla- 
 nation ? " 
 
 "I should think so," answered DebretL "Eh, 
 Ferrers ? " 
 
 "Certainly I am," said Ferrers. 
 
 " But what's on, Dawlish ? " asked Debrett "Not 
 a burglary or an abduction, eh ? " 
 
 "You're not so good a soldier as Mr. Ferrers," said 
 Sir William, grinning again : " you want an expla- 
 nation. " 
 
 "But I'm not going to take service," answered the 
 other. 
 
 "Well," said Sir William, when he had considered 
 a moment, "it's neither a burglary nor an abduc- 
 tion ; it's neither more nor less than a game I want 
 to play with some wealthy and hard-fisted connec- 
 tions of mine in the City. I had a brother," he con- 
 tinued, leaning forward, to Lord Debrett, while his 
 eye constantly turned to Ferrers, "who made a pile 
 of money as a banker. All his property was left in
 
 32 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 charge of his two partners stupid, precise, old City 
 men and it's with them I have a little game on ; 
 and I have been thinking that Mr. Ferrers might help 
 me in it. I don't mind telling you in confidence 
 that there is a lady concerned : a soldier is always 
 ready to help a lady. " 
 
 "What do you say, Ferrers? " asked Debrett. 
 
 "Oh," said Ferrers, " I'm quite ready to have any 
 game that's not against the law, with jokers of that 
 sort" 
 
 " I'll take care of the law," said Sir William with a 
 grin. "Now," said he, considering his finger-nails 
 a moment, " for your help in this business I can 
 afford to give you a hundred pounds and your 
 expenses. You're not above taking money for a 
 service rendered, I suppose, Mr. Ferrers ? " 
 
 "Unfortunately, I cannot afford to be," said 
 Ferrers. 
 
 "That's all right. Will my suggestion, then, suit 
 you ? " 
 
 "Perfectly," said Ferrers. "But I hope, Sir Wil- 
 liam, you won't think it too early if I ask you now 
 what you want me to do." 
 
 " It's quite necessary," said Sir William politely, 
 "and by no means premature. I want you to call
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN^. 33 
 
 yourself 'William Dawlish,' and, to use what I be- 
 lieve is a vulgar phrase, to behave as such. That's 
 all." 
 
 "William Dawlish?" said Ferrers. "I am sup- 
 posed to be your son. Is that it ? " 
 
 "We are not responsible for what people may 
 suppose. But I perceive, Mr. Ferrers, in your ques- 
 tion a tendency to overdo it." 
 
 "What I said," remarked Debrett parenthetically. 
 "Don't overdo it, Ferrers." 
 
 "No; don't," said Sir William. "It will be as 
 well not to say you are my son, because you are 
 not" 
 
 "So far as you know, Dawlish," suggested Lord 
 Debrett 
 
 "So far," assented Sir William, "as I know." 
 
 "I begin to understand," said Ferrers. "I must 
 play the game of 'William Dawlish' with plain 
 cards." 
 
 "With plain cards as much as possible," assented 
 Sir William. "If anyone, for instance, should ask 
 you point-blank, 'Are you Sir William Dawlish's 
 son ? ' you'll play low and say, ' What has that to 
 do with you ? ' or something of that sort. There are 
 always people asking for information : your business 
 
 3
 
 3 4 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 is not to give it 'em. And always remember that 
 whatever you do or say I've got to back you up in it 
 if it come to that ; so I must rely on you not to com- 
 promise me." 
 
 " Let me ask you, Sir William," said Ferrers, " this 
 one thing more : there is nothing illegal, nothing 
 wrong, no real damage to anyone, I mean, in this 
 game ? " 
 
 "Nothing whatever," said Sir William. "You 
 will have to act a fib for my sake, and especially for 
 the sake of a certain lady. I have no precise in- 
 structions at present; only prepare to be William 
 Dawlish." 
 
 "I think, Sir William, I begin to see the thing," 
 said Ferrers. He was still perplexed ; but he was 
 afraid to appear stupid by asking questions. 
 
 "Now," said Sir William, producing a cheque-book 
 and a Livermore pen, "I'll give you a cheque for 
 fifty pounds on account of expenses. You must dress 
 properly, you know" (with a glance at Ferrers' rough 
 tweed suit, which made him blush), " and you must 
 get a proper address and visiting-cards with 'Mr. 
 William Dawlish' on them." 
 
 " By Jove," exclaimed Lord Debrett, "this is going 
 to be sport 1 "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 35 
 
 "But remember," said Sir William with warning 
 pen, "it is strictly between us three." 
 
 " Oh, mum's the word," said Lord Debrett 
 
 "There will be no difficulty, I suppose," said Sir 
 William to Ferrers, "about leaving your present 
 lodgings ? " 
 
 "None at all," said Ferrers. 
 
 " Well," said Sir William, " drive up to my rooms, 
 No. Jermyn Street, in a hansom at twelve o'clock 
 to-morrow morning." 
 
 "Oh, I shall come to breakfast, Dawlish ! " ex- 
 claimed Lord Debrett. 
 
 "Do," said Sir William. "And," continued he 
 to Ferrers, "have a good, big, stout portmanteau 
 with you not too new and not too light. Now, 
 Debrett," said he with another of his grins, glancing 
 at the mantel-clock, " I think it's quite time we went." 
 
 They rose. "Ah, by the way," said he, "that 
 cheque is drawn on my late brother's bank. It is 
 possible they may detain you to make inquiries ; " 
 and he grinned again. " But don't be disturbed : I'll 
 make it all right." 
 
 "In that case," said Ferrers, "had I not better 
 have a a little loose cash, to make sure of keeping 
 my morning appointment with you, Sir William ? "
 
 36 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "That's well bethought," said Sir William; and 
 he took from his pocket-book a five-pound note and 
 handed it to Ferrers. 
 
 Then they went out. 
 
 " What's the game, I wonder ? " said Lord Debrett 
 in Ferrers' ear as he bade him "good-night"
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. yj 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DREW, DAWLISH, AND DRUMLY. 
 
 FERRERS walked away in a whirl of pleasant feel- 
 ing. He put his hand iuto his pocket : it was long 
 since and it had not been often he had felt the crisp 
 touch of a bank-note. As he strode along, scarce 
 knowing where he went, he thought he would like 
 to smoke. He was tired of the old clay he carried 
 in his pocket. He had money : he would buy a new 
 pipe. He threw his clay away and adventured into a 
 tobacconist's. It was only when he was in that he 
 remembered it would be next to impossible for him 
 to change a five-pound note that night in the region 
 he frequented. He bought a pipe, however, nomi- 
 nally abriar, which was within the range of his remain- 
 ing cash, and continued on his way. He wandered 
 on ; in his exaltation, not quite perceiving where he 
 was. It was still tolerably early, and many shops 
 were still open. In passing a cheesemonger and 
 butterman's he remembered that he had no butter for
 
 38 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 breakfast. He had his foot within the shop before 
 he discovered that he had only twopence in his 
 pocket He thought, " I can get two ounces " a 
 quantity he had often heard asked for in his Soho 
 region. 
 
 "Two ounces of your best fresh," said he, walk- 
 ing up to the counter. 
 
 "We don't make two ounces," said the young 
 man, looking at him suspiciously. 
 
 "Don't you?" said Ferrers, and with a blush he 
 was ready to turn away when he remembered Lord 
 Debrett's advice : "You must come the old soldier ; 
 you must bounce." 
 
 "Then," said he recovering himself, "weigh me a 
 quarter of a pound." 
 
 The shopman weighed that quantity, placed it on 
 paper, and was about to wrap it up, when Ferrers 
 proffered a request. "Will you be so good as to 
 lend me a knife ? " quoth he. 
 
 "Certainly," said the shopman, handing him a 
 formidable carver. 
 
 "Allow me," said Ferrers, and drew the butter 
 towards him. In a second he had cut the quarter in 
 two with the knife, put the one part back on the scale 
 and wrapped the other in the paper.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN, 39 
 
 "Just to show you how to make two ounces," he 
 added, putting down his money and striding leisure- 
 ly out under the astonished stare of the shopman. 
 
 The complete success of his fevice surprised and 
 amused him. 
 
 "That," he thought, "is evidently the way to do 
 it Don't make a fuss, but don't be put down. 
 I see." 
 
 So he marched away to Soho in a meditative mood. 
 He had not yet had time to take in completely that 
 which had happened to him. He was to call himself 
 "William Dawlish " and to appear as a gentleman. 
 What could that mean ? That he was going to be 
 adopted by Sir William ? Scarcely. The grinning 
 baronet was not the man to have generous impulses 
 of that sort He was unconsciously, he supposed 
 to perform some service of an important kind, or 
 else the baronet would not have offered him so much 
 money and would not have been so secret. There 
 was a lady concerned, He wondered what that 
 might mean. Was she young or old or middle- 
 aged? Was she maid, wife, or widow? He per- 
 ceived, however, that if he indulged in such specula- 
 tions on every hand he would probably spoil his 
 business. He resolved that he would Beep his mind
 
 U> A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 for the present at least off these things, and set 
 himself to execute to the best of his ability the pur- 
 pose for which he had been engaged. 
 
 "Call yourself William Dawlish, and behave as 
 'sech.' That's all." Yes ; that was all. He had 
 pot but a line or two by way of a sketch, and he 
 had to fill in a complete picture. Well, the best and 
 the most he could arrange now was to keep his head 
 cool and his wits awake and to tackle difficulties as 
 they arose. So he went to bed and to sleep. 
 
 When he woke in the morning he reflected : 
 "Yes; I'm William Dawlish, and I must behave as 
 'sech.'" 
 
 William Dawlish, it was clear, must be quickly cut 
 off from the associations of George Ferrers. So, 
 when he had eaten his breakfast, he called his land- 
 lady and told her that he must go away at once. She 
 was sorry : he had been such a " nice quiet gentle- 
 man." He owed the old woman nothing his room 
 being paid for but he felt something was due to her 
 for her expressions of politeness. He asked her to get 
 him his five-pound note changed, the more readily 
 that in his experience such a document could not be 
 cashed either at shop or public-house without the 
 portentous formality of putting your name and ad-
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 41 
 
 dress on the back. She brought him the change, and 
 he begged her to accept a shilling. 
 
 "Oh, thank you, sir," said she, with a little duck 
 of her person, which was rather like the memory of 
 a curtsey than a curtsey itself. 
 
 With such deference paid him, Ferrers felt as if he 
 were already William Dawlish, though still in the 
 dingy garret in Soho. He said, " Not at all," and 
 began packing away his belongings in his carpet- 
 bag. That occupation accomplished, he said "Good- 
 bye" to his landlady and descended the stairs. As 
 he was departing from the doorstep, he gave a quick 
 glance back at the house, asking himself of a sudden 
 whether that was the end of his poverty, or whether 
 he might have to return to the frowsy garret he had 
 left, or at least to another like it. Of course, he would 
 prefer not to return ; but if it were decreed that he 
 should well, he was not going to worry. Fortune's 
 buffets and caresses he could bear with the same 
 equal mind. 
 
 He had resolved what he would do first He must 
 array himself like a gentleman, and he had in his 
 mind's eye how his friend Lord Debrett dressed. Sir 
 William expected him to appear at twelve o'clock 
 with a goodly portmanteau, in which he meant, no
 
 42 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 doubt, that there should be a goodly store of proper 
 clothing. He could not get an outfit and a portman- 
 teau with five pounds ; but he knew of a well-filled 
 shop in a quiet street where misfits from fashionable 
 tailors were sold at a reasonable price, and where, 
 he believed, he might buy at once a proper suit to 
 stand up in and also a sufficient portmanteau. Now, 
 what kind of suit should be his first ? Sir William 
 had abstained from explanations and directions ; but 
 was it not plain he desired him to appear as if fresh 
 from a journey ? On entering, therefore, the shop of 
 misfits, he demanded a travelling suit of serge or 
 tweed. He tried several, for, being a tall fellow, he 
 was not easy to fit. At length he decided on a fine 
 serge, which he asked to be allowed to put on. Be- 
 fore, however, withdrawing to the back-room pointed 
 out to him as the place where he might effect a change, 
 he turned to the shopman. " I want a portmanteau," 
 said he : "large and good, but not too new. You 
 have such things, haven't you ? " 
 
 "Oh, yessir," said the man. "Now, here's a fine 
 solid-leather article ; we bought it of a gentleman 
 going to India. That ought to suit you to a ' T. '" 
 
 "Yes," said Ferrers. "But here's another that 
 will do for me, I think. " He had determined on it
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 43 
 
 because it bore two large initials, "W. B." the 
 latter of which he saw at once could be readily 
 changed into a "D." 
 
 " Yessir," said the man, "that's a very serviceable 
 article ; but it's not so good as this. " 
 
 "It will suit me very well," replied Ferrers, "if 
 you will get that ' B ' changed into ' D. ' Rub that 
 middle bit out and round off the back. Can you do 
 that at once ? " 
 
 "Oh, yessir." 
 
 Ferrers withdrew to the little back-room to change 
 his clothes. That done, he put his head out and 
 demanded a new hat a brown one, round and of 
 hard felt 
 
 "Is that portmanteau ready?" he asked. 
 
 It was almost. When it was, he requested it to 
 be set down in the little room. 
 
 " I want to put in these things I've taken off," said 
 he. 
 
 He not only folded in the things he had taken off, 
 but also crammed in his carpet-bag and all its con- 
 tents, thinking that simplified matters a little. Then it 
 occurred to him that, since he was supposed to have 
 made a journey, he ought to be provided with some 
 sort of overcoat He had not, however, sufficient
 
 44 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 money left for that ; so he had reluctantly to forego 
 so complete a presentation of his part as he thought 
 he ought to make. 
 
 "I ought really," he also thought to himself, "to 
 take a cab from some station, and there should be 
 labels on my portmanteau ; but I suppose these 
 things can't matter." 
 
 A hansom was called for him, his portmanteau was 
 hoisted up, and he got in saying to the driver : "Drew, 
 Dawlish and Drumly's Bank in Lombard Street." 
 
 When the bank was reached, he told cabby to 
 wait, and descended to undergo his first ordeal. He 
 remembered that Sir William had said with a grin 
 that he might be "detained" at the bank ; and with, 
 it must be confessed, a curious heave of feeling that 
 passed from his ample chest down to somewhere 
 about the second button of his waistcoat, he wondered 
 what was going to happen. He was not afraid; 
 but he thought, "What if the whole thing should 
 end here? What if somebody should say, "You're 
 an impostor ! " and send for the police ? And with 
 a glance back at the cab, he wished he had taken it 
 from some station ; for would it not betray him if 
 cabby were questioned and answered truly where he 
 had driven from ?
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN: 45 
 
 He entered the bank as carelessly as he could, and 
 walked up to a part of the counter whence he saw 
 the word "Cashier" staring roundly. He took out 
 his purse to produce the cheque, and was at once 
 smitten with chagrin to think that his little purse 
 looked shabby, and that the cheque should have been 
 taken from a well-filled pocket-book with gilt initials 
 or monogram on the back. He was relieved to note 
 that nobody seemed to remark from what he took 
 the cheque, that no one took any notice of him till he 
 leaned on the counter and drummed with his fingers. 
 Then a bald-headed man a disconcerting man, who 
 looked at him as if he had known his father and 
 grandfather and remembered all the peccadillos of 
 his youth looked round from a desk where he sat 
 over an enormous book, and held out his hand with- 
 out a word. Ferrers gave him the cheque. He 
 looked at it on the front, glanced at its blank back, 
 and then got down from his stool and looked straight 
 at Ferrers. " Mr. Dawlish ? " said he in a sepulchral 
 voice of inquiry. 
 
 Ferrers inclined his head a little, scarce knowing 
 what to do. 
 
 "Will you wait a moment, please, Mr. Dawlish?" 
 said the man, and disappeared.
 
 46 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 What next ? thought Ferrers, with another flutter 
 beneath his waistcoat. He looked about him, curled 
 his fine moustaches, and tried to look unconscious of 
 evil. Presently he became aware that some one was 
 looking at him very hard through a glass partition a 
 little way off. What now? He was surprised by 
 the appearance, through a door in the glass partition, 
 of a good-humoured, dapper, little old gentleman, 
 who came straight up to him with a winning smile 
 and the inquiry he had already heard from the bald- 
 headed man " Mr. Dawlish ? " 
 
 Again Ferrers bowed in reply this time a little 
 more resolutely. 
 
 "Dear me ! " said the little gentleman, looking his 
 stalwart person up and down. ' ' And how are you ? " 
 he asked heartily, extending his hand, which Ferrers 
 took and gripped. " Dear me ! " he exclaimed again, 
 glancing at his soft white hand, when released from 
 Ferrer's vice. "Will you step into this room?" , 
 
 "Will you walk into my parlour?" thought Ferrers 
 with a new sinking of heart 
 
 "I wish I knew," he said to himself, "whether 
 there's a real William Dawlish and what he is and 
 what he's like I " 
 
 He entered the back parlour with the dapper little
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 47 
 
 gentleman, and found himself face to face with 
 another person, who looked so ugly and surly, so 
 silent, so watchful, and so overgrown with hair, that 
 it was difficult to decide at a glance whether he was 
 an old man or a grey gorilla. 
 
 " He must be the spider ! " thought Ferrers. "Now 
 for it ! But he'll find me a big fly to tackle ! " 
 
 "My partner, Mr. Drumly," said the dapper little 
 gentleman with a flourish of his white hand. "And 
 I'm Mr. Drew, at your service. Be seated." 
 
 Mr. Drumly said nothing, but looked a great deal 
 from under his shaggy brows. Ferrers sat in an 
 attitude of expectation, determined not to commit 
 himself. 
 
 " I hope, Mr. Dawlish/'said Mr. Drew, a little un- 
 easily, "that we're not detaining you ? " 
 
 "*'My cab's waiting," said Ferrers; "but that's of 
 no consequence." 
 
 "The fact is," said Mr. Drew, in a little burst of 
 confidence, "that Sir William has overdrawn a leetle 
 bit, and the cashier brought your cheque to us." 
 
 " I'm sorry," said Ferrers, "that it's not all right" 
 
 "Not at all," said Mr. Drew; "we'll make it all 
 right. Glad on the whole that it has happened, 
 since it has introduced us to you."
 
 48 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 1 ' Is Sir William very well ? " asked Mr. Drumly, 
 speaking for the first time, and in a voice that 
 sounded to Ferrers like the buzz of a blue-bottle in 
 the toils of a spider. 
 
 "As far as I know," answered Ferrers. 
 
 " You are looking well," came from Mr. Drumly, 
 and there was a lifting of the heavy gorilla brows 
 that seemed to suggest that a smile was hid some- 
 where under the abundant hair. 
 
 "Thank you," said Ferrers ; "I am well." 
 
 "Mr. Drumly, you know," said Mr. Drew, with 
 an indulgent smile towards his partner, "goes in for 
 Health ; he believes in it ; it's a creed, a hobby, 
 with him. " 
 
 "Health," said Mr. Drumly, and the buzzing of 
 his voice was then very loud indeed, "is everything. 
 It is better than Wealth ; it is better than Rank. 
 With Health a man may do anything ; and with fine 
 Health " 
 
 "And Honesty," suggested Drew (while Ferrers 
 wondered if there was any suspicion of his honesty). 
 
 "And Honesty, "continued Drumly, accepting the 
 suggestion with a little gruffness, " a man is the 
 most god-like creature under the sun." 
 
 "He is; he is," said Mr. Drew, looking at Ferrers
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 49 
 
 with approval, and running his eye up and down his 
 stalwart person. 
 
 Ferrers stretched out his long legs, leaned back in 
 his chair, and expanded his chest, to give the full 
 effect of himself. 
 
 " Yes ; a healthy man that has a fine, well-grown 
 figure and an honest heart," repeated Mr. Drumly, 
 "is the Royalty of Manhood/' 
 
 "Like Saul, you know," said Mr. Drew. 
 
 Ferrers forgot who Saul was, but he wondered if 
 he had an honest heart ; he scarcely felt as if he had, 
 in the presence of these flattering old gentlemen. 
 
 "I suppose so," said he, by way of saying some- 
 thing. 
 
 "You appear," said Mr. Drew, smiling, "to take 
 your fine health now as a matter of course." 
 
 Ferrers took alarm ; had he been playing his part 
 improperly ? 
 
 "Well," said he, "you see I've had good health 
 so long that I I forget " 
 
 "That's only as it should be," said Mr. Drew. 
 " But you were very queer before you went away, 
 were you not ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Ferrers, "I suppose I was; I daresay 
 
 I was." 
 
 4
 
 jo * SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "But don't you remember?" insisted Mr. Drew. 
 
 " It is likely he doesn't/' said Mr. Drumly. " Why 
 should he ? You forget, Mr. Drew. " 
 
 "Ah, yes ; to be sure," said Mr. Drew. 
 
 What could it be Mr. Drew forgot ? 
 
 "And then," said Mr. Drumly again, "he's been 
 travelling a long while." 
 
 "Yes, of course," assented Mr. Drew. "Let's 
 see, Mr. Dawlish ; how long have you been away 
 altogether ? " 
 
 " How long ? " repeated Ferrers. Yes ; how long 
 had he been away ? That was a poser ! " Let me 
 see," he murmured, curling his moustaches in a 
 whirl of perplexity. 
 
 "A matter of two years, I should think?" sug- 
 gested Mr. Drew. 
 
 "Yes," said Ferrers, eagerly seizing the sugges- 
 tion ; "that's about it." 
 
 "And you went straight off to the East, didn't 
 you ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Ferrers, pulling his self-possession to- 
 gether ; "to the Mediterranean and the East" 
 
 " Did you happen," asked Mr. Drew, "to see any- 
 thing of the Egyptian trouble ? " 
 
 Now Ferrers felt he must make a direct statement :
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 51 
 
 he must risk it, and let Sir William know what he 
 had said. "Oh, yes," said he. "I was in most of 
 it up the Nile and across the desert with the Desert 
 Column." 
 
 "Were you, indeed?" exclaimed Mr. Drew. 
 " But I thought you had left the army long ago ? " 
 
 "Ah, yes," said Ferrers; "but they let me serve 
 as a volunteer, you know." There seemed to him 
 nothing for it but a plain falsehood ; and being in for 
 it, he continued : " I was by the side of Lord Debrett 
 all the time." 
 
 They were interested : and they put to him several 
 questions which he was, of course, able from his 
 actual experience to answer sufficiently and categori- 
 cally. They were clearly pleased with him, and his 
 self-confidence was completely restored. 
 
 " I fear," said Mr. Drew at length, "that we have 
 trespassed terribly on your time. But you will excuse 
 us. We have been very glad to make your acquaint- 
 ance, and we hope we shall meet again soon." 
 
 "I hope we shall," said Ferrers heartily : he liked 
 the old men, for he was leaving their presence pleased 
 with himself. 
 
 The cash of his cheque had already been placed 
 ready for him, and he took it and departed. He was
 
 52 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 about to step into the waiting cab, when Mr. Drew 
 appeared at his side and hastily laid his hand on his 
 arm. He was invaded by the sudden thought that 
 he was found out. 
 
 " Excuse me," said Mr. Drew ; "but will you give 
 me your address? We may want to communicate 
 with you." 
 
 "To be sure," said Ferrers. He put his hand to 
 this pocket and that. " I have not a card about me ; 
 but Number , Jermyn Street, will find me for some 
 time." 
 
 "Ah," said Mr. Drew; "the same address as Sir 
 Williams', of course ? " 
 
 "Yes; the same." 
 
 They repeated their adieus, and Ferrers entered the 
 cab. Seeing that it was already more than half- 
 past eleven, he ordered cabby to drive to Jermyn 
 Street. 
 
 He was surprised almost amazed with his suc- 
 cess. He had not imagined he could have so easily 
 got himself taken for granted as William Dawlish, 
 and by business men, too, who saw all kinds of 
 people and who must be prone to suspicion. He was 
 inclined to be vain. He admired above all things 
 a gentleman like Lord Debrett, and it very naturally
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 53 
 
 puffed him up to be taken by strangers for that kind 
 of person. 
 
 When he arrived at the house in Jermyn Street, he 
 was shown at once into Sir William's sitting-room on 
 the first floor ; for it appeared that the baronet had 
 only lodgings there. 
 
 "Well," cried Lord Debrett, who was smoking at 
 the window, ' ' how have you got on, Ferrers ? Have 
 you nobbled the old boys ? " 
 
 " I think I have," said Ferrers ; and he proceeded 
 to relate, with a subdued glee, how he had been re- 
 ceived and entertained with conversation in the bank 
 parlour. 
 
 "And didn't they offer you never a drop of their 
 fine City drinks ? " asked Lord Debrett 
 
 "Never a drop," said Ferrers. 
 
 "Give him a drink now, Debrett, "said Sir William 
 with a grin. " He seems to me to deserve it" 
 
 "And remember, if you please, Debrett," said 
 Ferrers, ' ' that I was a volunteer in the Soudan. " 
 
 There was a knock at the door, and a man-servant 
 entered with a note on a tray ; it had just come, he 
 said, by hand. Sir William passed it on to Ferrers 
 with a snigger. 
 
 " For you, I believe," said he;
 
 54 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 It was addressed to "Wm. Dawlish, Esquire;" 
 and it proved to be a card of invitation to a dance 
 that very night at the house of Mr. Drew, in Park 
 Lane. Ferrers handed it back to Sir William. 
 
 "That's quick work," said the baronet "I sup- 
 pose Drew telegraphed home at once to send the 
 invitation. You must have fetched him," he re- 
 marked, with a certain look of admiration at the 
 Life-guardsman's good-humoured face. " You must 
 go. Can you dance ? " 
 
 " Tolerably," said Ferrers. 
 
 " Ah, well, then," said Sir William " we'll man- 
 age."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 55 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DOLLY. 
 
 THE genial Mr. Drew, the wealthy banker, entertained 
 very splendidly. The ballroom of the evening was 
 a lofty marquee on the lawn of the little garden of 
 his house. It was hung with blush-rose silk, and 
 floored compactly with polished oak, and thereafter 
 adorned with ample cool green shrubs, between which 
 were set silk and velvet lounges ; and it was illumined 
 with electric lamps enclosed in Chinese lanterns, 
 which subdued the light to a pleasant tone, so that 
 the palest and most weary guests looked fresh and 
 blooming. 
 
 Ferrers stood with Lord Debrett by one of the exits 
 into the garden. They had arrived early, Ferrers 
 pleading for that arrangement so that he might "find 
 his feet," as he said, before the crowd of people came. 
 Sir William was coming, but he was not yet come. 
 
 "I'm rather afraid of this, you know," said Ferrers. 
 " I wish I hadn't come. I don't feel at home in these
 
 56 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 togs. I feel as if I looked like a waiter or a fool. If 
 I were a little chap, I wouldn't mind ; I wouldn't be 
 noticed. " 
 
 "Oh, there's nothing to be scared about," said Lord 
 Debrett. " You'll be all right." 
 
 "Now tell me truly," said Ferrers " don't I look 
 an awkward beggar ? " 
 
 " You look first chop," said Lord Debrett promptly. 
 "Come and have a glass of champagne; that'll 
 steady your nerves." 
 
 They went to the buffet in the supper-room. 
 
 "You've got to dance, you know," said Lord 
 Debrett 
 
 "Sir William," said Ferrers, "seemed to think that 
 after all I'd better not. He particularly wants me 
 not to dance with Miss Dawlish." 
 
 "Miss Dawlish? What Miss Dawlish ? Not his 
 old sister ? " 
 
 "I suppose not," said Ferrers ; "but I don't know. 
 He's a close old joker. " 
 
 " He is," said Debrett "I don't know what his 
 game is at all. But if there's another Miss Dawlish 
 a young un it may be about her. Don't you re- 
 member he said it concerned a lady? I never heard 
 he had a daughter, though."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 57 
 
 "Maybe his banker brother left a daughter," sug- 
 gested Ferrers. 
 
 " That must be it ! " exclaimed Lord Debrett "But 
 at any rate you dance. You'd like a spin with a nice 
 girl, wouldn't you ? " 
 
 " I would," said Ferrers at once ; his self-confidence 
 was rapidly returning under the stimulus of the gen- 
 erous, foaming liquor he drank. 
 
 ' ' Very well, " said Lord Debrett " Let's go down. " 
 
 As they left the room, Ferrers saw two tall, distin- 
 guished gentlemen of about the same height and the 
 same handsomeness of figure both set off by their 
 well-fitting evening dress come straight towards 
 them. He had taken a step to stand aside in order 
 to let them pass, when he stood stock-still. " By 
 Jingo ! " he exclaimed. It was himself and Lord 
 Debrett reflected in a tall glass near the door ! He 
 curled his moustaches and passed on, well satisfied 
 with his appearance. 
 
 He had barely returned into the ballroom where 
 there was now a considerable throng when he was 
 met by Mrs. Drew, a comfortable City lady with a 
 Roman nose, to whom he had been introduced on 
 his arrival. 
 
 '* I've been looking for you, you naughty man,"
 
 58 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 said she. ' ' I want to introduce you to your cousin 
 Dolly." 
 
 He was led without any objection on his part 
 towards a young lady who stood fanning herself and 
 talking with a gentleman. She turned as they ap- 
 proached and awaited their coming with an evidently 
 lively interest. She was not tall she would stand 
 no higher than Ferrers' chest but she was plump, 
 comely, and bright-eyed. Mrs. Drew introduced 
 them. 
 
 "Now I'll leave you," said she. "It must be a 
 great many years since you two have met, and you 
 must have a great deal to say to each other and 
 you must dance." 
 
 Ferrers had nothing whatever to say, and Dolly 
 did not help him, for she was shy. But he had 
 sufficient presence of mind to be aware that under 
 these circumstances the best thing was to ask her to 
 dance. 
 
 "They have just begun a waltz," said he. "You 
 are not engaged for it ? " 
 
 "No," said she. 
 
 " May I? " he asked. 
 
 She took his arm ; they stepped out ; and away 
 they went. Ferrers thought her most sweet and
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 59 
 
 adorable. As they swung round easily in time 
 with the music, in the close contact of the waltz, 
 Ferrers' awkwardness vanished, and he began to 
 talk. 
 
 "It must be a great many years since we met," 
 said he, making a brave dash at a leading ques- 
 tion. 
 
 "Oh, yes," said she. " I don't think we've met 
 since I was a little girl and you were a big boy just 
 done with school. You hadn't much of a moustache 
 then," she continued, glancing up at him. 
 
 "No," said he ; " but I daresay I shaved hard to 
 get one." 
 
 " And you must have stretched hard, too, to grow 
 tall," said she, with a merry little laugh. "I never 
 expected to find you so big." 
 
 "Oh," said he. "I hope I'm not too big. Shall 
 I try to grow smaller ? I've been afraid for a long 
 time there was too much of me. " 
 
 " Don't be foolish," said she. " Of course you're 
 not too big. " 
 
 "Ifj/<? don't think me too big, I don't care," said 
 he, and he tingled throughout his frame with the 
 thought of having uttered something delicious and 
 daring.
 
 60 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 She blushed a little, and was silent ; and he was 
 silent too. 
 
 Presently the waltz came to an end, Ferrers feeling 
 he had not had nearly enough of it, and forgetting, 
 in Dolly's charming company, Sir William's request 
 that he would not dance with Miss Dawlish. 
 
 "Don't you think," he asked, "that we might have 
 another dance together ? " 
 
 "I don't know," said she, as he led her to a seat 
 "Not the next one, at any rate. That might seem 
 too noticeable, even though we are cousins." 
 
 "Oh, yes," said he ; " the next one, please." 
 
 "Why?" she asked; and there was the flush of 
 health on her cheek and the sparkle of challenge in 
 her eye. 
 
 "Why ? " said he. " Don't you guess that I should 
 like to be with you as long as possible ? " 
 
 She said nothing, but she blushed divinely ; and 
 soon another dance a waltz again was struck 
 up. 
 
 "I'm glad it's a waltz," said he, as they swung 
 away in the sensuous, intoxicating motion : "it lets 
 you talk without bothering your head about all kinds 
 of figures and turns and twists. " 
 
 "I suppose," said she, with apparent irrelevance,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 6 1 
 
 "when boys grow up to be men they always 
 improve ? " 
 
 " They ought to," said he. " But why do you say 
 that ? " 
 
 "Because I think you are so much nicer than you 
 used to be. " 
 
 "Am I?" said he, with a certain sense of triumph 
 over his other, his former self, the real William 
 Dawlish. 
 
 " You don't remember, I daresay," said she, "what 
 a spoiled, sulky boy you were ; how, whenever I 
 was down at Dawlish Place, you used to tease me 
 and my dog, and not let me look at the treasures of 
 pipes and things you kept in a box " 
 
 "What?" said Ferrers, unconsciously identifying 
 himself with the person spoken of. "Did I smoke 
 then ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes. Don't you remember that? You even 
 smoked nasty tobacco with the horrid stable-boy and 
 the gardener's boy. " 
 
 "What a disagreeable fellow ! " exclaimed Ferrers 
 with feeling. 
 
 "Well," said she, with a woman's tender talent for 
 excuse of those she is interested in, ' ' seventeen is a 
 disagreeable age. It is eight years since then "
 
 6 2 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "I'm twenty-five, am I ? " thought he, with a trouble- 
 some consciousness that he was five years more 
 than that. 
 
 "And you have seen and done a great many things, 
 and suffered many things, too haven't you ? " 
 
 "Yes ; I suppose I have." 
 
 "I daresay," said she, with a half-shy, half- 
 defiant glance up at him, "I was not nice then, 
 either. " 
 
 "I am sure," said he, "you were always 
 nice. " 
 
 "I don't believe you remember," said she, with a 
 laugh, " whether I was or not ! " 
 
 He was prevented from replying by the sudden 
 qualm of concern which seized him on noting, as 
 they whirled round, that Sir William had arrived and 
 was regarding him with no very pleasant aspect, 
 while he bent over a shrivelled duenna with a curious 
 glittering head-dress ! 
 
 "Who is that," he asked of Dolly, " that Sir William 
 is talking to ? I can't see very well. " 
 
 "Why, don't you know? That's Aunt Dawlish. 
 Have you forgotten her ? " 
 
 " Bless me ! " he exclaimed "Is that Aunt Dawl- 
 ish? "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 63 
 
 "And why," she asked, "do you call your father 
 'Sir William?'" 
 
 "He is Sir William?" 
 
 " Of course ; but it sounds odd for you to call him 
 that" 
 
 "I suppose it does. I've got into the way of it 
 without thinking. " 
 
 He was glad that at that moment she proposed to 
 slip from the whirl of waltzers to cool herself in the 
 outer air of the garden. He marked, ere they went, 
 where Sir William stood talking about him, he was 
 convinced, by the look he had noted and then, 
 when they were out, he led her towards the spot which 
 he had marked with his eye. He found a garden 
 chair for her, while himself leaned against one of the 
 slim poles of the marquee. His experience of camp- 
 life had taught him how to overhear a conversation 
 within a tent With his pocket-knife he made 
 a slit in the canvas wall and leaned his ear into 
 it. His chance cut was a good one. He found 
 he was immediately against Sir William's shoul- 
 der. 
 
 " The young man," said Sir William, " will give no 
 trouble ; he's as docile as a dog though I did tell 
 him not to dance with Dolly. When this is settled,
 
 64 ^ SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 I'll give him his conge, and he'll never know what 
 he was used for. " 
 
 "I hope he's as simple as you think him, "said the 
 lady. " He doesn't look to me as if he were." 
 
 ("And he isn't, ma'am ! " thought Ferrers.) 
 
 "But at any rate," continued the lady, " I can have 
 nothing to say to him." 
 
 "But you must," declared Sir William with en- 
 ergy. " Listen to me." 
 
 And Ferrers heard no more. 
 
 " I hear you have only just arrived from abroad," 
 said Dolly ; "but I suppose you know we are going 
 down to Dawlish Place next week ! " 
 
 "Yes," said he : I've heard of it." ("But only 
 this minute," he thought.) 
 
 "You'll be there, won't you ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I expect I shall be there." 
 
 Whether, because she thought him becoming dull 
 and unresponsive, or because it was time the music 
 and the dance ceasing at that moment Dolly said 
 she wished to go in. Ferrers gave her his arm. 
 
 "Take me to Aunt Dawlish," said she. 
 
 But as they approached Aunt Dawlish, that lady 
 rose with a great commotion of the glittering and 
 dangling ornaments of her head-dress and fluttered
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 65 
 
 away. Dolly incontinently left Ferrers' arm and hur- 
 ried after her, saying: "What's the matter, aunt?" 
 Ferrers turned and looked at Sir William, who was 
 lowering and showing his teeth. 
 
 "I asked you," said Sir William, "not to dance 
 with Miss Dawlish." 
 
 "I couldn't help it," said Ferrers. "Mrs. Drew 
 introduced us." 
 
 Sir William nodded once or twice half-absently, 
 and then moved away after the ladies without 
 another word. Ferrers was hurt and angry. He 
 turned and marched out into the garden. He sat 
 down in the chair Dolly had occupied and chewed 
 his moustache. Presently his attention was seized 
 by some desultory talk he overheard. Two or three 
 young men stood a little way off smoking cigarettes. 
 
 "They tell me," said one, " that was young Dawl- 
 ish that whacking six-footer dancing with his 
 cousin Dolly." 
 
 "Nonsense," said another "not Sir Billy's rip of 
 a son ! He used to look like a long monkey up a 
 stick ! " 
 
 " Fact, though," said the first "He's been away 
 somewhere for years exploring Central Asia or 
 
 Central Africa or Central America " 
 
 5
 
 66 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Central something, I'll be bound," laughed the 
 other. "And he's lost all his monkeyness. " 
 
 ' ' It'll take me a long time to get used to the idea 
 that that big chap is the Will Dawlish I once knew, " 
 said the other. "I always thought he'd gone 
 cracked wrong in his upper story, you know." 
 
 " Tom," said a third, " you always get hold of the 
 wrong end of a thing. Even at school, you were 
 always getting your book upside down and taking 
 hold of your private frying-pan by anything but the 
 handle. He went wrong, but not in the head. 
 What's the confounded rhyme? You know 'In 
 consequence of which he was ruined iotally, and 
 married a lady in the corps de ballet. ' " 
 
 "Oh, that's it, is it?" thought Ferrers. " If there's 
 a real William Dawlish in existence, he is married 
 already, it appears." 
 
 And he rose and slipped away. He entered the 
 marquee, but he did not linger there. He passed 
 through it into the supper-room and went to the 
 buffet. While standing there, he turned and saw a 
 black-muzzled man, not in evening dress the very 
 man he had dropped the evening before into the 
 basin in Trafalgar Square curiously regarding him ! 
 He wondered, with a sudden quickening of alarm,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 67 
 
 if he were now to be found out. Had he, when he 
 talked to the man, betrayed that he had been a pri- 
 vate soldier ? He could not remember, though he 
 did not think he had. In any case, he thought it 
 prudent to withdraw. And so, without stopping to 
 consider whether it was "good form" or not, he got 
 his hat and coat and left the house.
 
 68 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BEFORE THE ACTION. 
 
 FERRERS as he walked away felt angry and humil- 
 iated. He was not usually a vainly longing person. 
 He had been well content to serve in his humble 
 rank as a soldier, and to have Lord Debrett for a 
 friend without wishing to be taken as Lord Debrett's 
 equal. He would have been satisfied to go on like 
 that ; but to be set up as a gentleman by one hand 
 and taken down by another was " not good enough/' 
 as he said to himself. To be introduced to a very 
 nice girl to a young lady, indeed and then to be 
 rudely pushed away from her, was especially a thing 
 that no right-minded man could endure. He felt 
 very much inclined to "kick over the traces" (to 
 use his own words), to pull Sir William's nose and 
 call him an insolent jackanapes, and then throw up 
 the whole business. He was as well disciplined 
 and docile a soldier as could be, except where his 
 heart was concerned, and about that he had never 
 been asked to accept dictation or discipline.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 69 
 
 So he marched along fuming, marched till his 
 anger had become fainter ; and then he went to the 
 house in Jermyn Street next door to Sir William's 
 own lodging where the baronet had secured him a 
 bedroom. 
 
 Next morning, his resentment was gone. He was 
 himself again the cheerful, alert, and self-reliant 
 soldier. Whilst shaving and dressing he turned 
 over in his mind all his talk with Miss Dawlish, and 
 the conversations relating to himself which he had 
 overheard the evening before that of Sir William 
 and his sister, and that of the "Johnnies." He 
 experienced a certain fierceness of resentment at the 
 thought that personally he must hold aloof from 
 any tender fancies about the charming Dolly. If 
 the "Johnnies " were to be believed, he was playing 
 the part of a man who some years ago had been 
 cracked in reputation if not in head. And if Sir 
 William and his sister were to be believed, the 
 baronet was playing a very risky game, in which 
 he, Ferrers, was intended to be an ignorant tool, to 
 be thrown aside as soon as done with. Naturally, 
 Ferrers did not quite approve of that. He owed Sir 
 William neither love nor so far as he could see 
 gratitude ; and he was therefore determined to find
 
 yo A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 out the secret of his game, and have, if possible, the 
 "pull "of Sir William, when that grinning gentle- 
 man should show a desire to cast him off. 
 
 "What," he asked himself, " does he really want 
 with me?" He arrested the razor on his cheek to 
 consider a suspicion that rose before him. " I believe," 
 he declared to himself, " the real W. D. is dead, and 
 he wants to work me off as his son, to get somehow 
 at that money his banker-brother left ! '' 
 
 The more he examined that suspicion, the more he 
 got convinced of its truth, and as is the way of 
 men resolved to find evidence in support of it ; so 
 he made up his mind to wait, and watch, and see, to 
 be no party to doing wrong to anyone if he should 
 discover that was being attempted and at the same 
 time, as became an old campaigner, not to suffer 
 grievous damage himself. 
 
 He went to breakfast with Sir William, and the 
 baronet was fairly affable, but quite close about his 
 business. 
 
 "Here, "said he, with a grin, " is another invita- 
 tion for you from Drumly for to-morrow afternoon 
 a conversazione or some nonsense of that sort. 
 You'd better go ; you'll get on all right, as you did 
 last night. The only thing I have to ask of you is
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 71 
 
 not to hold conversation with Miss Dawlish if she's 
 there." 
 
 "Very well," said Ferrers. 
 
 Ferrers went to the conversazione. What it was 
 about, he neither knew nor cared ; but he saw strange 
 glass cases in the drawing-room, containing spe- 
 cimens or representations of grains, pulse, and fruits, 
 and he saw a little book called How to live on Six- 
 pence a Day, and he thought, "I know ; I've done it ; 
 but I'd rather not." Dolly was there, but so was Aunt 
 Dawlish. He thought Dolly regarded him wistfully 
 from afar off, and he worked slowly round the room 
 to be near her. He passed close to her and glanced 
 a* her. 
 
 "How d'ye do, cousin?" she said. But she did 
 not move ; she scarcely looked as if she had spoken. 
 
 " I am told," said he, much in the same manner, 
 " that I must not hold conversation with you. Why? 
 I don't know." 
 
 " Isn't it absurd ? " said she, still without turning. 
 " Aunt Dawlish has told me I mustn't talk to you. 
 What for? I wonder. Have you offended her? She 
 used to be always praising you to me." 
 
 "Aunt Dawlish," said Ferrers aside, "is an old 
 catamaran ! "
 
 ya A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Yes, "said Dolly, angrily turning her eyes, but 
 nought else. " Isn't she an old frump ? Old maids 
 are always like that, I suppose. I hate them ! " 
 
 "Good-bye," said Ferrers. 
 
 "Good-bye, cousin," said Dolly rather plaintively. 
 
 Aunt Dawlish had always been praising him until 
 now praising, that is, the other, the mysterious, the 
 unknown, the "cracked" in reputation or in head 
 the probably dead Will Dawlish ! That was another 
 fact to be taken note of and pondered. 
 
 While he turned over and pondered these things, 
 and paced solemnly about the room, he remarked 
 the black-muzzled Irish-American, whom he had 
 soused in the fountain, and whom he had seen at 
 Mr. Drew's the evening before. He moved about 
 as if burdened with the cares of office. It was clear, 
 then, that he was in the service of either Drew or 
 Drumly, or that he served the two masters, either of 
 which conclusions was disconcerting ; for it seemed 
 likely that he would encounter the man frequently. 
 Indeed, he was presently both disconcerted and 
 surprised to see the man approach him and to hear 
 him say: "Mr. Dawlish ? "with a look, Ferrers 
 thought, of suspicion and incredulity. 
 
 " Yes," said Ferrers.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN, 73 
 
 "Mr. Drumly," said the man, "has sent me to 
 find you. He wants to speak to you." 
 
 "What now? " thought Ferrers, as he worked his 
 way after the man. 
 
 "Ah, here you are," said Drumly when they met 
 at the end of the room. ' ' I'm very glad to see you." 
 
 Drumly grasped Ferrers' hand with such cordiality, 
 and looked up at him with so simple an admiration, 
 that the young man was touched with shame to think 
 he was doing anything to deceive so frank and kindly 
 a soul. 
 
 "Let us have a turn round, "said Drumly, taking 
 Ferrers' arm : " I can't move about much by myself." 
 
 Ferrers had not seen Drumly on his feet before ; 
 and on looking down now, he perceived that one leg 
 was shorter than the other, and that it ended in a 
 stilted boot, with a sole six inches thick. Then the 
 strong young man understood the pathos of the old 
 man's admiration of Health, and he experienced an 
 impulse of passionate desire to aid him with his 
 health and strength ; though it at once occurred to 
 him it was absurd of a plain penniless soldier to 
 think of being anything to a wealthy banker. He 
 could at least, he thought, be honest and frank with 
 the old man, and he came very near at that moment
 
 74 * SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 to saying: "I understand you ; I understand your 
 admiration of me ; but I don't deserve it ! I am not 
 the person you think I am ! I am a fraud an im- 
 postor ! " Yet, he reflected, why should he make a 
 fuss ? He had up till now done no harm to the old 
 man, and he hoped he would do none ; and to blurt 
 out a confession could only mean disgrace and ruin 
 to himself. These impulses and hesitations passed 
 over him without leaving a shade on his face, which 
 steadily beamed down on the old man with a tender 
 and protective regard. 
 
 "I want to have a look at the cases with you," 
 said Drumly, smiling up at him ; while Ferrers 
 wondered that so ugly a gorilla face could look so 
 pleasant. "I call this a Health Conversazione, you 
 know. That's why I asked you ; you ought to be 
 set up on a pedestal as the full expression of the 
 whole thing." 
 
 "And are these things," asked Ferrers, beginning 
 to look at the contents of the cases, "supposed to 
 be the food I've been brought up on ? " 
 
 "Not exactly not exactly," said Drumly; "or, 
 at least, not directly. You've been fed on beef and 
 bread and such-like, and bread is from wheat, and 
 beef is grass wonderfully worked up. "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 75 
 
 "And turnips and hay and chopped straw oh, 
 yes," said Ferrers. 
 
 "You know something of fanning, then?" said 
 Drumly, looking at him with fresh interest 
 
 "A good deal," said Ferrers, forgetting for the 
 moment his role of Will Dawlish. " I could take over 
 the management of a farm to-morrow and work it, I 
 think, at a profit." 
 
 "Bless me ! " exclaimed Drumly, stopping to look at 
 him. " You're quite accomplished ! But how on 
 earth did you learn farming to that extent? " 
 
 " Oh, I picked it up here and there." 
 
 " Well, really, " said Drumly, " if you're so good at 
 it, you'd better get Sir William to let you manage the 
 estate, now that you've come home : it needs you, I 
 believe." 
 
 That was all the allusion he made to family mat- 
 ters ; but they continued to talk of grain and pulse 
 (Drumly was anxious to know if Egyptian lentils 
 could be grown in England) ; and the more they 
 talked the more they were manifestly drawn to each 
 other by the warmth of a mutual regard. 
 
 Dolly and Ferrers did not meet again that day ; but 
 they met the next and the next Ferrers, however, 
 could make no approach to Dolly, for Sir William's
 
 76 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 or Miss Dawlish's watchful eye was ever on him. 
 Why did Sir William think it of so much conse- 
 quence that he should not speak to her ? 
 
 Of course, those who have known much of the 
 ways of young men and young women will at once 
 perceive that of all methods that was about the best 
 to make these two young people wish to be near 
 each other. Ferrers, who could not be blind to the 
 fact that Dolly approved of him, was chafing to be 
 near her ; and Dolly's wistful glances and melancholy 
 face told plainly that she was longing to have her 
 cousin by her side. Ferrers never troubled to con- 
 sider whether honour or anything of that sort forbade 
 him to think of Dolly ; what man when really involved 
 has ever taken such matters into his consideration ? 
 
 Now, if it had been a case in which he was merely 
 a spectator, Sir William would have seen what was 
 likely to occur as quickly as any one ; but since it 
 was a case in which he was prejudiced and wrapped 
 up, he did not see it ; and therefore it happened that 
 things fell out as they did. 
 
 The day soon came of which Dolly had fore- 
 warned Ferrers, when all the people concerned in 
 this mysterious business were to assemble at Dawlish 
 Place, Sir William's "seat" in Surrey. 
 
 "Ferrers," said Sir William one morning, "it is
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 77 
 
 just about the end of the season ; perhaps you don't 
 know that ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Ferrers ; " I know that." 
 
 "Very well. Before people have the excuse that 
 they are off to-morrow or the day after to the Con- 
 tinent or to Scotland, I'm going to have a little 
 party down for a week to Dawlish Place. I'm asking 
 Drew and Drumly down, and you must come. I tell 
 you now in confidence that the business I engaged 
 you for is coming to a head. You've done very well 
 so far. We've skirmished up hill now," said he with 
 a grin. "Now, we're going to carry the enemy's 
 position by assault." 
 
 "The enemy, I suppose," said Ferrers, "being 
 Mr. Drew and Mr. Drumly?" 
 
 "The enemy on the whole being Drew and 
 Drumly. " 
 
 "Very well," said Ferrers. "I'm ready to march. 
 When do we go, may I ask ? " 
 
 "This afternoon ; by the 4.30 from Waterloo." 
 
 Ferrers rather "funked " I use the word he would 
 have used himself the visit to Dawlish Place. It 
 was one thing to see " swell " people for an hour or 
 two now and then ; it was quite another to spend a 
 week constantly in their company. He doubted if
 
 78 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 he could fulfil the requirements of his position. After 
 breakfast he went to seek Lord Debrett, to get from 
 him comfort and advice. 
 
 "Ah, Dawlish," said he, "how are you getting 
 on?" 
 
 " Oh, all right," said Ferrers. When the man who 
 had shown him in had withdrawn, he continued : "It 
 makes me jump to hear myself called by that 
 name." 
 
 "I couldn't help it before my man," said Debrett. 
 
 "I wish I were well out of this business," said 
 Ferrers. 
 
 "Hallo ! What's up?" 
 
 " I don't like Sir William, and I like Mr. Drumly ; 
 and if there's any harm meant against Drumly, I'll 
 have to go against Sir William, though I'm in his 
 pay." 
 
 "But why," asked Debrett. "do you think he 
 means harm to old Drumly ? I expect Dawlish wants 
 to get at his late brother's property for Miss Dawlish, 
 very likely : you remember he said it was all for the 
 sake of a lady. Perhaps she is being kept out of her 
 rights." 
 
 "Drumly's not the man," said Ferrers, "to keep 
 anybody out of his rights. The fact is I don't trust
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 79 
 
 Sir William. I'm in a funk about the whole busi- 
 ness. " 
 
 "That's bad. It's not like you to funk any- 
 thing. " 
 
 ' ' I'm always in a funk before an action. " 
 
 " Is there an action coming, then ? " 
 
 ' ' Don't you know ? Drew, Drumly, and lots of 
 other people, I suppose, are going down to Dawlish 
 Place to-day ; and I'm going, and Sir William says 
 that will bring his business to a head." 
 
 " The deuce it will ! " 
 
 " You're going down, I suppose ? " asked Ferrers. 
 
 "Well, I've been asked," said Debrett ; "but I 
 thought I wouldn't bother." 
 
 " Oh, don't say that ! " exclaimed Ferrers. " I've 
 been depending on you to back me up. It may be 
 my last action, Debrett, and I hope you'll stand by 
 me." 
 
 " All right, old chap," said Lord Debrett ; " since 
 you put it like that, I will. I'll come down to- 
 morrow. " 
 
 " Come down to-day," urged Ferrers. " We take 
 the 4.30 from Waterloo." 
 
 " Very well ; to-day be it. Though I must break 
 an engagement. I won't promise to take that train ;
 
 8o A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 but I'll come down to-night in time for dinner, if 
 possible. " 
 
 " Thanks, very much," said Ferrers. " There's 
 another thing. D' you think I must buy some special 
 sort of togs to take down with me shooting togs, for 
 instance ? " 
 
 "There'll be no shooting," said Debrett. "But 
 I'll bring down things with me ; and my things always 
 suit you, you know." 
 
 So it came to pass that Ferrers went to Waterloo 
 with Sir William, fortified with the hope of meeting 
 Lord Debrett there ; or, if not that, of seeing him 
 appear at Dawlish Place by the following train.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. g t 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AT DAWLISH PLACE. 
 
 DAWLISH PLACE was a fine old mansion, of a kind that 
 abounds in the southern counties. It was straggling 
 and low, having only two stories, and it was almost 
 completely covered with ivy. Where the walls were 
 visible it could be seen that they were built of, or at 
 least faced with, flints ; and it had quaint high chim- 
 neys, which the clustering ivy made to appear like 
 towers ; and irregular gables, which made cosy 
 nooks, filled with warm sunshine, bright creeping 
 flowers, and fluttering birds. It was set fair and free 
 on the southern slope of the Surrey downs, with, 
 before it, a sighing plantation of larches to shield it 
 from the south-west weather sweeping up from the 
 Channel ; and behind it, in the high distance, a wood 
 of roaring and towering pines, which broke and baffled 
 the northerly and easterly blasts of winter and spring. 
 Between the house and the larch plantation, sloped 
 
 and undulated, first a luxurious garden of roses and 
 
 6
 
 82 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 other bright and scented flowers, and then an expanse 
 of the greenest turf, with here and there a shady tree. 
 Altogether, it looked as sweet, peaceful, and homely 
 a "seat" as England could show. Ferrers, being 
 country-bred and also something of an artist, had a 
 good eye for rural effects. 
 
 " What a jolly place ! " he exclaimed as he ap- 
 proached it with Sir William. "I should like to 
 paint it." 
 
 "Can you paint?" asked Sir William, looking at 
 him with fresh interest. 
 
 "Paint? Oh, yes; lean paint" 
 
 " Have you any of your things with you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I have some sketches mostly war sketches 
 I made in Egypt. I haven't done much with land- 
 scape. " 
 
 " That's capital," said Sir William. " Bring 'em out 
 to-night will you ? to show our visitors. It's sure 
 to fetch 'em a good deal. A capital idea ! " he 
 exclaimed again. 
 
 "There's one thing, by the way," said Ferrers, 
 "that I must ask you about. Am I still to avoid all 
 conversation with Miss Dawlish ? " 
 
 ' ' Well," said Sir William ; " no, not quite. I don't 
 see how you can keep it up. You needn't avoid her,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 83 
 
 but you needn't seek her out : you know what I mean." 
 
 "I think I do." 
 
 " Don't misunderstand me, Ferrers," said Sir 
 William, in a burst of affability. " It's entirely on 
 account of the a business I have in view. " 
 
 "So I suppose," said Ferrers. 
 
 The ordeal which Ferrers especially dreaded sit- 
 ting down to dinner with a " lot" of people came 
 at length, and there had yet appeared no Debrett to 
 sustain him in it. It proved, however like most 
 other troubles that we fear worse in anticipation 
 than in experience, though there occurred before it 
 one thing that shook his confidence. 
 
 Ferrers had dressed, and reluctantly found his way 
 to the drawing-room. When he entered, he saw that 
 all he expected to meet were there, except Lord De- 
 brett : Aunt Dawlish and Dolly, Mr. and Mrs. Drew, 
 and his friend Drumly. The " lots of other people " 
 he had feared meeting, if they were coming, were not 
 yet come. 
 
 "Ah, here you are," said Sir William, avoiding the 
 use of any name. " Mr. Drew and Mr. Drumly have 
 been asking me about your doings in Egypt, and I've 
 been telling them about your sketches. Would you 
 mind getting them ? "
 
 84 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Not at all," said Ferrers, and withdrew. 
 
 It was not till he stood in his room with the 
 sketches in his hand that his eye reminded him that 
 they were all signed "G. F." What was to be 
 done? He could not obliterate the initials. He 
 must invent some reason for them. He would 
 
 say Yes ; he was resolved what he would 
 
 say ; and down he went with the portfolio under 
 his arm. 
 
 They were much admired by both ladies and 
 gentlemen: they were "fine," "spirited," "capi- 
 tal," and all the rest 
 
 "Is that you," whispered Dolly, "on that great 
 long-legged, long-necked camel ? " 
 
 "Yes; that's me," said Ferrers. 
 
 But Mr. Drew was taken up with a spirited repre- 
 sentation of a section of the fight at Abu Kru. 
 
 "Bless me!" said he. "I bought a sketch 
 exactly like this the other day at M 'Lean's ! And 
 with the same initials too ! ' G. F.' Now, that is 
 droll ! Isn't it ? " 
 
 They all looked at Ferrers curious, but mani- 
 festly unsuspicious ; while Sir William chewed his 
 moustache. 
 
 "Oh, "laughed Ferrers, maintaining his compo-
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN 85 
 
 sure with great resolution, " that's very likely. 
 Several men wanted copies of the thing, and having 
 plenty of time after we got back to Korti, I did 
 them. It's one of them you must have got Lady 
 Blencarrow got another, that is now engraved in 
 her husband's book about the expedition." 
 
 "And I paid for it as an original!" exclaimed 
 Drew somewhat ruefully ; upon which all laughed 
 none more heartily than his gorilla-like partner 
 Drumly. 
 
 "But why have you signed them all 'G. F.,' Mr. 
 Dawlish ? " asked Mrs. Drew. 
 
 "Well," said Ferrers, as if embarrassed, "they 
 are the initials of a nickname my comrades gave 
 me, which I don't think I should utter in in a 
 drawing-room. " 
 
 "Oh," said Drew and Drumly together; while 
 Sir William laughed and clapped him on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 In spite of the success with which he had 
 answered awkward questions, Ferrers was a little 
 anxious : he himself had left at M 'Lean's the sketch 
 Drew had bought, and others also. What if Drew 
 should go and scold M 'Lean, and M 'Lean should 
 describe the person who had left them ? However,
 
 86 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 he thought, "Sufficient for the day is the evil 
 thereof." 
 
 But his success in that unlooked-for difficulty 
 helped to make him tolerably at ease over dinner. 
 Moreover, Dolly sat opposite him next Mr. Drumly ; 
 she looked across at Ferrers very pathetically and 
 tenderly, he thought, and as a consequence his 
 heart was suffused with warmth and his head was 
 charged as with the fumes of wine. He drank 
 some wine, of course ; but it was not it that went 
 to his head. Drew insisted on talking of Egypt, 
 and Drumly of Health, and Ferrers replied to both 
 sufficiently. He eloquently enlarged on the chances 
 of Egypt under English rule ; of its productiveness ; 
 of the patient toil of its fellaheen. He spoke, he 
 declared, as one who knew something of soils, and 
 the soil of Egypt was as fit now to bear corn and 
 rice to feed all England as he had been told by 
 men who had read a great deal of that kind of thing 
 it had fed Rome in its ancient days. 
 
 "And you think we ought to hold it?" asked 
 Drew, as if hanging on his answer. 
 
 "Certainly," said Ferrers; and Drew leaned back 
 in his chair satisfied. 
 
 "By the way, Sir William," said Drumly, " I had
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 87 
 
 no idea your son had such a knowledge of agricul- 
 ture as he seems to have : soils and crops, grains and 
 roots, he appears to know all about. I was saying 
 to him the other day that he ought to persuade you 
 to let him manage the estate. You don't make so 
 much out of it as might be made do you ? " 
 
 "No ; I'm afraid I don't," said Sir William, with a 
 vicious snap. "But before he takes over the whole 
 estate, perhaps he might try his hand at the manage- 
 ment of the Home Farm. " 
 
 "A good idea," said Drumly seriously. 
 
 "You don't take him, Drumly," laughed Drew. 
 "Sir William means, of course, domestic matters. 
 ' Home Farm ! ' Don't you see ? " 
 
 "See what?" asked Drumly. 
 
 "See that Sir William means tfiat trie young- man 
 had better set up house first. " And he laughed again. 
 
 As for Sir William, he sat silent ; he nodded, and 
 "smiled, and smiled, and " 
 
 Ferrers on his part sat with a fixed smile for a 
 second or two in dense incomprehension, and when 
 that passed, in a rush of shame and resentment The 
 sly, roundabout allusion of Drew was to his possible 
 marriage his, as William Dawlish ! With whom ? 
 With whom but his vis-b-vis I with Dolly ? Was not
 
 88 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 that plainly declared by the laughter and pointed 
 looks of Drew and Mrs. Drew ; by the downcast, 
 blushing face of Dolly herself; and even by the 
 meaning smiles and glances exchanged by the ser- 
 vants in waiting ? Was that, then, he asked himself 
 in quick thought, the kernel of Sir William's plot ? 
 the consummation towards which he was urging his 
 carefully laid plans ? But he could not really mean 
 him him, George Ferrers ! to marry Dolly ! Spec- 
 ulation, however, on all these points set his brain in 
 a whirl, and he recovered with a voice in his ear. 
 
 "Potatoes, sir?" 
 
 A servant was at his elbow with a dish of vege- 
 tables. He helped himself and continued his dinner. 
 In spite of the doubts and questions that were surg- 
 ing in upon his attention, he must go on playing his 
 part of a person who was not himself, who was pro- 
 bably very unlike himself in nature if not in person. 
 
 Having had his mind thus brusquely turned to 
 consider his situation, he regarded it with more con- 
 cern and uncertainty than had yet troubled him. He 
 was like a soldier who, going fairly and cheerily 
 along, comes to himself to find that he is in the 
 stronghold of the enemy, and, like the soldier, he 
 began to look warily about him. The glances and
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 89 
 
 smiles of the servants a moment before made him 
 note them : what did they think of him ? whom did 
 they take him for? for their young master? and if 
 they did, how long it must be since they had seen 
 him, or else how like each other he and the true Will 
 Dawlish must be, or must have been ! That last 
 reflection made his flesh creep. Did he really and 
 truly bear a close resemblance to a dead man ? And 
 was it because of that resemblance that Sir William 
 had thought he might readily appear in the dead 
 man's place ? Imagine his consternation when, as 
 he was thinking thus, Dolly bent a little towards him, 
 and with a glance at the wall behind him, said : "I 
 have not seen you look so like your portrait before. " 
 
 He turned, and saw an oil-painting of a beardless 
 youth of eighteen or so, slim and presumably tall, 
 with a pensive, frightened, and somewhat worn look. 
 The startling thing, however, was that in the set of 
 the hair and in the general cast of the features 
 except, perhaps, in the thinner and finer modelling 
 of the nose the portrait of the youth might be taken 
 for a portrait of him, George Ferrers, when young ! 
 
 ' ' Yes, " said Sir William, with Delphic duplicity, 
 " he did look very like that then."
 
 90 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MISSED ASSIGNATION. 
 
 WHEN the ladies withdrew, Ferrers held the door 
 open, and Dolly passing out last whispered to him : 
 " Don't be long ; I want to talk to you. " 
 
 He had barely sat down again when Mr. Drew 
 posed him with a question. " Do you mind telling 
 us now what was that nickname with the initials 
 "G. F."? I've been trying to guess, and well, I 
 don't think I can, unless it's " 
 
 "Stop a moment," said Mr. Drumly, interrupting 
 him with a laugh ; "I want to have a guess too. 
 Suppose we write our guesses down and hand them 
 to Mr. Dawlish ? " 
 
 That was agreed to, and done. 
 
 "No," said Ferrers, when he had looked at them ; 
 " both wrong. But I tell you what," and he laughed. 
 "You'll be here for a week is not that so? and 
 you can have a good spell at guessing. Whichever 
 guesses right shall have all my sketches."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 91 
 
 The proposal was hailed with laughter and wel- 
 come. 
 
 " Won't you have a cut in, Sir William ? " said Mr. 
 Drew. 
 
 "No," said Sir. William promptly; "I think not 
 It wouldn't be fair, because I believe I know the nick- 
 name. Shall we join the ladies ? " 
 
 When they went to the drawing-room, Ferrers 
 looked out eagerly for the expected opportunity of a 
 talk with Dolly ; but Miss Dawlish kept such dragon- 
 guard over her that he could say nothing of any 
 private significance. 
 
 "I didn't know, cousin," said Dolly, "that you 
 could draw and paint so beautifully. I wish you 
 would teach me." 
 
 ' ' I will gladly, " said Ferrers. 
 
 "Let us look at your sketches again ; " and she 
 rose quickly and crossed to the table where they 
 lay. 
 
 But Aunt Dawlish was equal to her move. "Yes," 
 said she, "they are lovely aren't they! And so 
 spirited." And she took Dolly's arm with great show 
 of affection and accompanied her to the table. Other 
 attempts of Dolly to detach herself from her aunt 
 fared no better.
 
 92 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 Presently, Sir William suggested that the gentle- 
 men should go to the billiard-room, while the ladies 
 talked of going to bed. Ferrers was doubtful what 
 to do : if Debrett had been present, he might have 
 helped him. He concluded, however, that Sir Wil- 
 liam must expect him to appear in the billiard-room, 
 so he rose and was following the other men. He 
 passed close to Dolly to give her a private look of 
 sympathy, when Dolly slipped a scrap of paper into 
 his hand. As soon as he was out of the room he 
 looked at it " Meet me," it read, " in half an hour 
 in the Picture Gallery." 
 
 The Picture Gallery! He had not the slightest 
 idea where the Picture Gallery was ! 
 
 In the billiard-room, he tried to lead Sir William 
 into talk about his pictures, thinking that he might 
 then offer to show his guests the Gallery. But Sir 
 William did not respond, and Ferrers did not press 
 the matter; for he bethought him that if they did go 
 to the Gallery, they might stay long enough to catch 
 Dolly in the fact of keeping a clandestine appoint- 
 ment. The half-hour was fast running out. In des- 
 peration he whispered a falsehood to Sir William. 
 
 " Where is the Picture Gallery? " he asked. " Mrs. 
 Drew has asked me to show it to her."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 93 
 
 " Not to-night, surely? " whispered Sir William in 
 surprise. 
 
 ' ' No ; to-morrow. " 
 
 "Ah, well," answered Sir William, "I'll show you 
 first thing in the morning. It's at the other end of 
 the house the part that has been built out " 
 
 Ferrers lingered till there were but five minutes of 
 the half hour to run ; then he said he thought he 
 must go to bed, and left the billiard-room. 
 
 To have an appointment with the only woman in 
 the world and not to be able to keep it ! To have so 
 much to say, so much to know, so much to confess, 
 so much to ask, and withal to be dumb with doubt 
 and apprehension to long to see Dolly, and yet to 
 be afraid to meet her alone ! and no chance of being 
 resolved one way or another ! He must find the 
 Gallery ! It was " at the other end of the house ; " 
 but what that might exactly mean, and whether the 
 Gallery was upstairs or down he could not guess. 
 He tried to be cool and collected. He understood 
 that it was of no use for him to run off headlong down 
 this passage or up those stairs. He could not ask 
 anyone openly to show him to "the Picture Gallery ; " 
 but he thought that if a servant should come along 
 with a candle he would ask him or her to light him
 
 94 A SOLDIEK AND A GENTLEMAN: 
 
 to the door. Perhaps, if he should chance on the 
 way to it, he might encounter Dolly herself either 
 going or coming. 
 
 So he adventured in the direction in which he 
 thought he ought to go. He passed down a corridor 
 which was dimly lighted by a small lamp at either 
 end. As he advanced he saw the glimmer of a light 
 appearing as if from above about half-way down the 
 passage. He went on very carefully with his eye 
 on it till he perceived that there was a recess, and in 
 the recess a small winding staircase, which someone 
 was slowly descending with a candle. He waited 
 an instant, till he saw that the bearer of the candle 
 was a woman, and that woman Aunt Dawlish ! 
 Where was she going ? He waited a moment longer, 
 till the glimmer of her candle was almost in his eyes ; 
 then, observing a door close by him, he swiftly and 
 noiselessly turned the handle and slipped into the 
 dark, closing the door again without latching it. He 
 was about to strike a match to discover where he 
 was, when a thin slice of light slipped past the door 
 into the room. The door slowly opened, the light 
 widened, and he had barely time to see he was in a 
 dingily furnished room, whose walls were covered 
 with books, and to whip himself behind a curtain,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 95 
 
 when Miss Dawlish entered with her candle. She 
 closed the door, and leisurely she went and took a 
 book from the shelves, and then sat down at the 
 table ; so that it seemed as if she meant to wait there 
 for some time. 
 
 Ferrers was trapped. There was no keeping an 
 appointment in the Picture Gallery that night, and 
 there was no escape from that room so long as Miss 
 Dawlish chose to remain ! He found, however, 
 that he was standing against a French window, 
 which opened to the ground. He gently turned the 
 key and the latch, opened the moving half, and 
 stepped out into the summer night. He had barely 
 slipped out when he heard Miss Dawlish come to 
 the window, whether because she had heard the 
 sound he made, or because she feared the fastenings 
 were undone. He darted aside against the ivy, and 
 Miss Dawlish not only latched and locked the win- 
 dow with great expedition, and with sharp complaints 
 about the "rank carelessness" of servants, but also 
 shuttered it ; and Ferrers realised that he was shut 
 out I
 
 96 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 POINTS OF VIEW. 
 
 FERRERS stood among the roses and looked about 
 and above him. The faint stairs twinkled in the 
 stilly night, the trees sighed sleepily, and vague, 
 secret-seeming shadows lurked around. The cool 
 air was laden with fragrance, and his soul was 
 bedewed with the languorous richness of the odours 
 of rose and honeysuckle, even as his head was 
 moistened and refreshed by the summer dew. It 
 was such a night as brings men face to face with the 
 seriousness and seductiveness of Nature, as attunes 
 their souls to large and noble thoughts, and at the 
 same time tempts them to indulge in the sensuous 
 fancies of love. 
 
 Ferrers was a man rather of action than of con- 
 templation ; his training as a soldier had induced on 
 him something of the spirit of the not too scrupulous 
 adventurer, and his experience of barrack-life had 
 somewhat coarsened the fibre of his affections. Yet,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 97 
 
 withal, the true, deep-seated Ferrers was a person of 
 serious mind, honest heart, and romantic passion. 
 Standing therein the vast stillness and melting beauty 
 of the night, he became for the first time really aware 
 of himself, and alarmed at the contrary impulses and 
 desires that were pulling him this way and that. 
 Without troubling to inquire how this strange effect 
 was produced, he resolved to "have it out with" 
 himself. 
 
 He supposed he could get admitted to the house an 
 hour thence as easily as at that precise moment ; he 
 did not particularly care whether he were let in at all ; 
 in any case, he would have a quiet walk. He was 
 in evening dress, and he had no hat ; but these facts 
 did not trouble him : he was used to being exposed 
 and to going bareheaded. So he put his hands in 
 his pockets, and, with his eye fixed on the distance, 
 sauntered away through the garden and across the 
 park. 
 
 He set himself steadily to examine the conditions 
 of his situation : how had he got into the coil in 
 which he was involved ? When in an extremely 
 needy hour Sir William Dawlish had proposed to 
 pay him a hundred pounds to merely call himself 
 "William Dawlish" and behave as such, he had 
 
 7
 
 98 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 promptly closed with the offer, thinking of it simply 
 as a daring "lark," and seeing nothing of the painful 
 issues and possibilities of his assumption. Now, in 
 little more than a week, how was he situated ? He 
 found that he had not been able to behave as if he 
 had been a block of wood or an automatic machine, 
 or even an actor ; he found that, in his own proper 
 person as George Ferrers, he had been caught into 
 the kindliest and friendliest feeling for one of " the 
 jokers " whom he had engaged to get the better of 
 in some way in his character as William Dawlish. 
 He suspected that a match was planned between him, 
 as William Dawlish, and the young lady whom George 
 Ferrers found the most adorable woman in the world ; 
 and last and worst of all, he believed that young lady 
 loved him as William Dawlish. Would it be im- 
 possible for her to love him as George Ferrers ? Ah, 
 if she only could ! But the wish, the longing, was 
 manifestly absurd. He could not, and he would not, 
 hide from himself the fact bitter as gall though it 
 was to swallow ! that, though he was in all suffi- 
 cient respects as strong, healthy, honourable, and 
 complete a man as any in the land, he was shut out 
 from all hope of marrying a lady of Dorothy Dawl- 
 ish's position. He was but a poor soldier, with
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 99 
 
 nothing to do absolutely on the level of the un- 
 employed workman and if he ever married at all, 
 he must marry a housemaid, a shop-girl, or, at best, 
 a lady's-maid. He did not know why Sir William 
 planned to work this deceit off upon his niece, or 
 how he meant to consummate it he hoped, indeed, 
 no real harm was intended her but he could no 
 longer continue his share in it It was unfair and 
 cruel to Dolly the dearest and loveliest of girls ! It 
 might be painful and humiliating for her to know the 
 truth ; but to continue the deceit was shameful and 
 unendurable. He would go to Sir William, tell him 
 he found it impossible to fulfil his engagement, and 
 ask to be let off his bargain : he would forego all 
 promised advantage, and return penniless to London, 
 a sadder but a wiser man. 
 
 By the time he had got as far with himself as that, 
 he discovered that his hair was wet, his shirt-front 
 sodden, and his feet drenched with dew : he be- 
 lieved he had frequently been walking on the turf, 
 and he saw that he was coming out on the carriage- 
 drive just by the lodge. The door of the lodge was 
 open, and in the light which flowed from it Ferrers 
 saw a man standing in his shirt-sleeves smoking a 
 churchwarden pipe. When he came over against
 
 100 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 him, he perceived he was an oldish man, and guessed 
 he was the lodge-keeper. The man hailed him and 
 stepped out towards him. 
 
 "Ah, theer ye are, Mas'r Willium ! Ah've been 
 wonderin' if ye was to drop down an' see me. Ah 
 on'y heerd a hour or two agoo as how ye was at 'ome 
 again. Heigh ! But ye've been years an' years in 
 foreign parts, an' it's a thick lump o' time since ah've 
 seen ye ! Ee, but hain't ye growed bigger an'broad- 
 er ? Sewer-/y / But ye're a fine man now ! ' 
 
 "Humph ! " said Ferrers, not knowing well what 
 to say and not troubling much. "You know me, 
 then ? " 
 
 "Know ye! Ah should think so! Thik-theer 
 dare-devil way o' yourn tells me ! ' Who but Mas'r 
 Willium,' says ah to myself, 'can be gallivantin' 
 out wi' ne'er a 'at on his 'ead ? ' No more gallivan- 
 tin's now, though ! He, he, he ! " And the old man 
 laughed a creaking, mirthless laugh. "Ah've 
 heerd ye're goin' to be what we terms a family 
 man. " 
 
 " Something of that sort, I suppose," said Ferrers. 
 "But I must say 'Good-night;' I find I'm very 
 wet with the dew." 
 
 " Heigh ! But your voice is got stronger than it
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. ioi 
 
 used to be too ! Dear, dear ! An' to think that ah 
 might niver ha' seen ye thik-heer blessed night, if th' 
 old woman hadn't got as crass as two sticks ! about 
 nothin' at all, of course ! So, ah comes to th' door 
 for a smoke, an' ah sees ye ! " 
 
 "Well, good-night," said Ferrers. 
 
 " Good-night, Mas'rWillium Hullo ! Who's thik- 
 heer ? " 
 
 A man a tall man had walked up to the gate 
 from the road and had pulled the clanging bell. 
 The lodge-keeper went to the gate, while Ferrers 
 stood still to see if the tall man could be Lord De- 
 brett. The gate, after a word of parley, was opened, 
 and the man entered. It was Debrett 
 
 "What? Is that you er Dawlish?" he asked 
 as he approached. " What are you doing down 
 here like that ? " 
 
 " Gallivantin' my lard," laughed the old man. 
 " He, he, he ! He was always a gallivanter ! 
 Good-night, Mas'r Willium ; good-night, my 
 lard ! " 
 
 " He seems to know you," said Debrett, as they 
 walked away together. 
 
 " Yes," said Ferrers; "better than I know myself. 
 But how is it you have just appeared ? "
 
 102 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " I could not get away early ; but I remembered 
 my promise to you to be here to-day. So I tele- 
 graphed to your father " 
 
 " My father?" 
 
 " Your what do you call it? putative father, Sir 
 William. " 
 
 " Hang it, Debrett," said Ferrers gloomily ; "don't 
 joke about that." 
 
 Debrett looked closely at him, and continued : "I 
 telegraphed that I would come by the last train and 
 walk over with a handbag from the station. My 
 man will come down with my things first train in 
 the morning." 
 
 "I see," said Ferrers. 
 
 "It seems to me," said Debrett, "you must be still 
 in a funk. How are things going ? Anything hap- 
 pened ? Surely nothing much in the way of action 
 can have been done on the first night of meet- 
 ing." 
 
 "No ; nothing much has happened, except that I 
 have had to tell another lie or two. Look here, De- 
 brett ; I'm going to clear out of the whole business." 
 
 "Hallo!" said Debrett. "What's that for? 
 Spoil the sport just when it's going to come off 1 " 
 
 " I don't find it sport any longer," said Ferrers.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 103 
 
 "What? Has Dawlish been cutting up rough? 
 He's capable of that, I daresay ; but hadn't you 
 better just have a straight talk with him ? " 
 
 " I mean to have a talk with him," said Ferrers, 
 "but not for that reason : I've nothing in particular 
 to complain of in his behaviour." 
 
 " What the dickens is the matter, then?" 
 
 " It's just this, Debrett : I'm beastly uncomfort- 
 able about the whole affair. The longer I go on 
 with it, the more mess I'm getting into." 
 
 ' ' Oh ! Bothered about Drumly again ? " 
 
 " That's part of the mess ; but the worst is some, 
 thing I found out to-night. We were talking at din- 
 ner, all very friendly. Sir William said something 
 about home-farming, and that joker Drew took it 
 that he was speaking about setting up house. I didn't 
 see the thing quite at first. Everybody was smiling 
 or looking comic about it ; I even caught the serv- 
 ants tipping the wink to each other. ' Hallo ! ' 
 says I to myself, ' there's something in this ! ' 
 And then you know how you see a thing all in a 
 flash, and wonder that you were such an ass as not 
 to see it before. ' By Jingo 1 ' thinks I, ' they 
 mean me and Miss Dawlish to set up house ! " 
 
 " You and Miss Dawlish ? " said Debrett.
 
 I0 4 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " You know what I mean : me, as Will Dawlish, 
 to marry Dolly Dawlish." 
 
 " Oh, is that the game ? " exclaimed Debrett. 
 " Dolly, I suppose, has lots of money, then ? " 
 
 " I don't know anything about that ; but money 
 or no money, it's an abominable shame to treat a 
 girl in that way, and I'm not going to do it. " 
 
 " But," said Debrett, " it struck me when you first 
 told me about Dolly that you were lost in admiration 
 of her in fact, that you were quite gone." 
 
 "So I was," said Ferrers bitterly ; " the more fool 
 I. I didn't see or think where I might be going, till 
 I heard this to-night. But, by Jingo ! I know now, 
 and I'm going to stop it ! " 
 
 " I don't quite see," murmured Debrett. 
 
 " Don't you see," explained Ferrers, somewhat in- 
 coherently, " that it's one thing to hang about with 
 a kind, lovely girl like Dolly, talking to her and look- 
 ing at her, and feeling that she likes to be with you ? 
 It comforts you and sets you up without your quite 
 knowing why. But it's another thing altogether 
 when you see all that brought slap down to the 
 practical business of marriage marriage with the 
 person that you're not, but that you pretend to be ! 
 Then you've got to stand up and tell yourself the
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 105 
 
 truth, and say to yourself : ' Come now, you've 
 just been bluffing yourself all this time. You've been 
 admiring the girl ; and you've got fond of her 
 doosed fond, I may say and there may be no 
 great harm in that ; but when you're properly fond 
 of a girl, and you think she is of you, then why 
 you want her for your own self. But here there 
 can't be any marriage ; first because the girl likes 
 you, not for your being yourself, but for your being 
 to her somebody else ; and second, because, even if 
 she liked you for yourself, she couldn't marry you. 
 You know, for all your being a big long-legged brute, 
 and the son of a fine honest old father that always 
 paid his way, you're no better than a beggar 1 ' 
 Ton my soul, Debrett ! isn't that the plain downright 
 truth ? And isn't the proper thing to do the only 
 fair thing to the girl to stop the whole game, and 
 let Sir William explain it as he likes ? Let him 
 call me a villain, an impostor, if he likes ! By Jove ! 
 I think I deserve it ! " 
 
 " But stop a minute," said Debrett " Perhaps 
 you're mistaken about the marriage." 
 
 "I'm not mistaken, Debrett," said Ferrers posi- 
 tively. " I can't quite explain to you all the little 
 things that make me certain about it ; but certain I
 
 106 A SOLDIEK AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 am that Sir William's game is a match between 
 William and Dolly Dawlish." 
 
 " It comes to this, then," said Debrett with a laugh, 
 "that you, in a sort of way don't you know ? are 
 your own rival ! Look here ; why don't you go in 
 and beat the other fellow ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 "Go in and win Miss Dolly Dawlish for your very 
 own self for the man called George Ferrers." 
 
 ' What do you take me for, Debrett ? Hang it ! I 
 may not be, as you told me yourself, the kind of 
 thing you call a gentleman ; but I'll try to pass for it, 
 and I'll not be a cad ; and I'd rather go into penal 
 servitude than deceive that girl any more. " 
 
 "No need to deceive her, my boy. Tell her 
 straight who you are, and ask her if she'll marry you. " 
 
 "I couldn't do it, Debrett." 
 
 "But look here." 
 
 "No ; I couldn't do it. I couldn't lower myself to 
 that : to ask her, a lady, used to the life she leads, 
 educated, and very likely rich, to marry me ! me 
 who can hardly talk to her, and who hasn't a shilling, 
 nor much chance of earning one honestly ! ask her, 
 delicate and fine and sweet as a flower, to live with 
 a rough beggar like me, and in the way I'll have to
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 107 
 
 live ! No, by Jingo ! I'm not going to get myself 
 laughed at and insulted by proposing such a thing ! " 
 
 "But, my dear chap, there would be no need to 
 live like that She'd have plenty of money." 
 
 "And do you think I'd live on her money? " 
 
 "But poor women marry rich men every day and 
 live on their money." 
 
 "That's all right," said Ferrers : " they're women, 
 and it's what is expected of them. You don't seem," 
 he continued after a pause, "to have much good 
 advice to give. " 
 
 "No, old chap," said Debrett ; "I don't. But 
 just listen to me one moment. I know more of this 
 kind of life and this kind of people ladies and all 
 than you do. And what I say at this particular 
 moment is this : before you throw up the whole game, 
 set Sir William Dawlish against you, lose your 
 money, and spoil your chance of getting anything to 
 do after this, try to make sure that the young lady 
 would thank you for throwing it up and being so 
 lofty." 
 
 "What? Do you think she'd rather I went on 
 like this?" 
 
 " She might. All I say is, ' Try to find out.' " 
 
 "I don't believe it," said Ferrers fiercely.
 
 108 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "At anyrate, think it over again. Sleep on it: 
 you can't make a fuss till to-morrow. " 
 
 And that word of calm worldly advice allayed the 
 impetuous heat of Ferrers' righteous resolution ; and 
 he said to himself that it might be better to sleep 
 on it. 
 
 As it happened, he could have had no interview 
 with Sir William that night, even had his determina- 
 tion been hot upon the point ; for when they rang 
 the bell at the hall-door, they were admitted by a 
 sleepy footman, who staring at Ferrers informed 
 them that they were "hall gone to their rooms." So 
 Ferrers, with a last look-out into the summer night, 
 which was becoming all vague white mist below 
 out of which stood the tops of the trees, and dim, 
 twinkling stars above brushed the dew from his 
 hair by rumpling it with his hand, and took off his 
 coat and shook it before the wondering footman. 
 Then he followed the domestic upstairs with Debrett 
 
 At the door of his room Debrett gripped his hand. 
 "Sleep on it," he repeated. 
 
 "Will you be about early?" asked Ferrers. 
 
 "As early as you like."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 109 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 SIR WILLIAM'S FRANKNESS. 
 
 FERRERS was astir betimes. He drew up his blind, 
 flung open his window, and took a great draught of 
 the clear morning air. The sun shone gloriously, 
 dissipating the vapours of the night and the sleepy 
 fragrance of the flowers ; a lark carolled overhead in 
 the fresh gaiety of rejoicing ; and Ferrers felt that it 
 would be a delightful world if he only had a clear 
 and easy conscience. When he had dressed, he went 
 to find Debrett. He thought he might not yet be up, 
 so he knocked at his door, and receiving no answer, 
 he turned the handle and entered. Debrett was still 
 asleep in bed. Ferrers shook him by the shoulder, 
 and at once he was awake and alert, as became a 
 soldier. ' ' Hallo ! " said he, ' ' what's the matter ? " 
 
 "You promised," said Ferrers, "to be up early." 
 
 "What's the time ?" 
 
 "A little after six." 
 
 "What's the use," grumbled Debrett, "of getting
 
 1 10 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 up when there's nothing to do ? There's nothing to 
 shoot." 
 
 "There's rabbits, I daresay," said Ferrers. 
 
 " Rabbits ! " 
 
 " Well, we can have a walk and a talk, and a look 
 at the crops." 
 
 " Look at the crops and shoot rabbits ! " ex- 
 claimed Debrett. " There speaks the farmer 1 I 
 wish you wouldn't, Ferrers. Is the door closed?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Ferrers. " And 1 am a farmer 
 or at least a farmer's son, and not a lordly sports- 
 man." 
 
 " Oh, you feel like that again, old chap. All right. 
 I'll get up and have a look at the crops with you." 
 
 Ferrers went down into the garden and hung about 
 until Debrett appeared, when they strode away be- 
 yond the bounds of the park stretching their long 
 legs in unison and entered upon devious paths by 
 coppice and corn-field. 
 
 " May Mr. William Dawlish smoke a pipe in the 
 country ? " asked Ferrers. 
 
 " Certainly," answered Debrett. "Why not ? " 
 
 " That's just what I thought : 'Why not ? ' " said 
 Ferrers. "Still, I thought I'd like to know from an 
 authority if it was the correct thing. "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 1 1 1 
 
 " So you've made up your mind to go on with the 
 game ? " 
 
 " No ; I have not, Debrett. I'm going to put the 
 matter to Sir William as soon as possible." 
 
 "Well," said Debrett, " remember what I said to 
 you last night : before you throw it all up, be sure 
 that the young lady will approve." 
 
 " Yes," said Ferrers. " And I must have a word 
 with her about another thing. I forgot to tell you 
 last night that when she saw we could get no talk 
 together in the drawing-room, she asked me on a slip 
 of paper to meet her in the Picture Gallery. " 
 
 1 ' She did did she ? Well ? " 
 
 "I didn't meet her." 
 
 "Why? How was that?" 
 
 'I couldn't find the Picture Gallery. I was in 
 search of it, when I had to retreat before Aunt Dawl- 
 ish into a dark room, where she without knowing 
 it pursued me, and drove me out bareheaded into 
 the garden." 
 
 "Oh, that was it!" laughed Debrett. "But how 
 are you going to explain all that to Miss Dolly ? " 
 
 " I don't know. I don't see how I can explain it 
 without telling her the truth. And then I'm in this 
 double fix : I ought to tell Sir William first that I
 
 112 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 must tell her, and that will make an explanation 
 necessary to him of the necessity of telling her. " 
 
 "And so you would have to betray the lady's con- 
 fidence ? That won't do." 
 
 "No; I see that won't do at all. But what will 
 do?" 
 
 "Let things be as they are ; and tell Miss Dolly 
 that you could not keep the assignation because you 
 had to flee before Aunt Dawlish. Then she'll laugh 
 at a big soldier like you running away from Aunt 
 Dawlish, and it'll be all right." 
 
 "Yes; that might do. And then, I know, she'd 
 look so charming, I'd want to take her in my arms. 
 No ; I must first have my talk with Sir William : I 
 can't go on like this." 
 
 " What an obstinate fellow you are!" exclaimed 
 
 Debrett 
 
 "Debrett," said Ferrers, and he stopped and laid 
 his hand on his friend's shoulder, " you don't under- 
 stand me in this. I feel about it more, far more, 
 than you think. I'm hit hit very hard here. I 
 could die for that girl ! and I'm deceiving her ! My 
 boy, you can only tell what the grinding feeling of 
 that is like when you're really, right-down, in love. 
 If I go on as I have been going, seeing her, sitting
 
 f 
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 113 
 
 with her, and talking to her, I shall have to do some- 
 thing mean : I shall have to run away with her ! 
 That would be madness, you see, and I want to get 
 out of it. " 
 
 Debrett looked on him, and saw that he must be 
 grievously smitten ; his hopes, his fears, and his 
 desires were so extreme and contradictory. 
 
 "All right, my boy," said Debrett quietly. "I 
 understand, and I sympathise ; and I'll stand by you 
 as your friend. Shall I break the matter to Sir 
 William ? " 
 
 "No; thank you, Debrett, " said Ferrers ; "I think 
 I'd better go through with it myself." 
 
 ' ' The sooner the better then. Shall we go back ? 
 You may have a better chance of getting him alone 
 before breakfast than after. " 
 
 So they returned towards the house. And the sun rose 
 higher and hotter in the heavens, and the larks rose 
 with a less joyous song to a less height, and returned 
 to earth more quickly. They had got nearer Dawl- 
 ish Place by only a field or two, when, on the 
 margin of a coppice a little way off, they descried 
 three men. 
 
 "There 75 Dawlish, I believe," said Debrett; 
 
 "but who are the others? They can't be the 
 
 8
 
 114 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 bankers : Drew and Drumly don't stand so high as 
 that, do they ? " 
 
 "No," answered Ferrers ; "they're not Drew and 
 Drumly. Besides, Drumly's lame." 
 
 That he said on seeing the two strangers part from 
 Sir William and walk hurriedly off. They were both 
 tall, but the one seemed powerfully built, and the 
 other slimly and delicately. They moved away 
 arm-in-arm ; but it appeared to Ferrers that the 
 stronger was hastening the steps of the weaker. 
 They skirted the coppice and then disappeared round 
 its end. 
 
 "I wonder who they are? " said Debrett. "They 
 don't look like farmers ; they didn't behave like ser- 
 vants. But here's Dawlish." 
 
 The baronet appeared to have just discovered 
 them. He lightly waved his hand, and sauntered 
 to meet them. 
 
 "Been looking at your covers, Dawlish ?" asked 
 Debrett " How are the birds ? " 
 
 "Oh, they seem in good condition. But how is 
 it you are out so early? I'd have thought that, 
 coming in so late as you did, you'd have wanted to 
 lie in bed in the morning. " 
 
 "I did want to lie in bed ; but this man would
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. \ \ 5 
 
 have me out. He has got a bad liver or some- 
 thing. " 
 
 " He doesn't look like a man," said Sir William, 
 with one of his polite grins, "that knows he has a 
 liver. " 
 
 "Perhaps it's a bad conscience, then," said 
 Debrett. ' ' I know he has got something the matter 
 with him." 
 
 "Oh ! " said Sir William, with a quick look of sus- 
 picion. 
 
 "And I want a word with you about it," said 
 Ferrers. 
 
 "With me?" exclaimed Sir William. "But I'm 
 neither a doctor nor a parson." 
 
 " But it concerns you," said Ferrers. 
 
 "Oh ! Well, say on." 
 
 "Shall I leave you ?" asked Debrett 
 
 "If Sir William Dawlish doesn't mind," said 
 Ferrers, "I'd prefer you to stay: you've known of 
 this business since the beginning." 
 
 "Stay by all means," said Sir William, looking 
 more keenly suspicious ; while Ferrers paled some- 
 what, and was sensible of such an agitation beneath 
 his waistcoat as he had experienced when he had 
 first faced "the jokers " Drew and Drumly.
 
 Il6 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "The fact is," began Ferrers, "I'm getting more 
 and more uncomfortable in this business, and I want 
 to put it to you whether you can't let me off my 
 bargain. " 
 
 "That's awkward," said Sir William. Then, with 
 a sharp look: "You seemed comfortable enough 
 last night : what's the reason of the change ? " 
 
 " I've been turning over things in my mind, and 
 I find I can't go on." 
 
 " But why ? I think you owe me a reason I do, 
 Ferrers. Having gone so far, I think you should 
 frankly explain to me why you can't go on to the end. 
 What are you afraid of?" 
 
 "Well, then, frankly I am as much afraid of 
 myself as of anybody or anything." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " asked Sir William. 
 
 "Somehow or another, I've got to care more for 
 Miss Dolly Dawlish than I ought to do." 
 
 "You shouldn't have done that," said Sir William 
 with a snap. 
 
 "How could I help it? You slip into things of 
 that sort before you know." 
 
 "Oh ! He, he ! " laughed Sir William ; and there 
 was a quality of cynical derision in his laugh which 
 irritated the other.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 117 
 
 "It is very absurd in me, I know. But a man 
 can't help his feelings, though he can help how he 
 behaves. That's why I confess it to you, and ask 
 you to let me go. " 
 
 'Have you told the young lady that you are in 
 love with her ? " 
 
 "Most certainly not. That would have been be- 
 having improperly to her and to you. You don't 
 seem to understand what I said." 
 
 "Oh, quite. Well, so long as you say nothing 
 about it, there's no harm done." 
 
 "But, good heavens, Sir William ! have I no feel- 
 ing ? If I go on seeing the young lady and talking 
 to her, I may lose control of myself ! " 
 
 "But you mustn't," said Sir William with a grin. 
 " If you have controlled yourself so long, you can 
 surely control yourself for a day or two longer; 
 that's all I ask of you. I put it to you on the point 
 of honour. I went into this business in full depend- 
 ence on your good sense and cleverness ; I have 
 performed my part ; is it fair in you to abandon 
 yours ? You see we stand or fall together in this. 
 If you give up your part, the whole thing is burst up ; 
 and it will be more than a fiasco ; it will be a dis- 
 grace both to you and to me."
 
 Il8 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 Ferrers pulled his moustache in silence. 
 
 "If you go away now," said Sir William, "how 
 am I to explain your disappearance ? " 
 
 "You will excuse my saying," resumed Ferrers, 
 "that there is something else troubles me besides 
 my own feelings. I may be wrong, but I have a 
 suspicion that you are using me for a purpose I don't 
 like being used for. " 
 
 "What do you mean? Speak out." 
 
 "Well, I don't like," declared Ferrers, "to be in 
 the position of a sort of promised husband to Miss 
 Da wlish. " 
 
 "Oh, that's what you don't like," laughed Sir 
 William. " But what makes you think you are in 
 that position ? " 
 
 "Will you answer me truly, Sir William?" said 
 Ferrers, in a tone which might be taken for demand 
 or entreaty according to the temper of the listener. 
 " Is there a marriage arranged, or going to be 
 arranged, between William Dawlish and Miss Dolly 
 Dawlish ? " 
 
 "Now you're asking questions," said Sir William. 
 "You are contravening the compact I made with 
 you as a good soldier to carry out instructions with- 
 out demanding explanations. I think, Debrett,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. ng 
 
 that is something like the form of words I used ? " 
 
 " It is, Dawlish," answered Debrett. 
 
 Ferrers said nothing ; but he tugged at his mous- 
 tache, and his look became more grim and obstinate. 
 Sir William noted the look, and diplomatically set 
 himself to mollify and disperse it. 
 
 "I'll not be hard on you, however," he said. " I'll 
 admit that your guess is correct in part, only in 
 part But there is no possible William Dawlish but 
 yourself. It is a sad a humiliating thing for a 
 father to confess, and I must say I had hoped to 
 avoid the confession that my son is to all intents and 
 purposes non-existent ; to the world and all its duties 
 and affairs he is practically dead." 
 
 That seemed so obviously sincere and heartfelt a 
 confession, and tallied so well with what Ferrers had 
 overheard at the outset of the business, that he ac- 
 cepted it without hesitation, and indeed felt rather 
 sorry he had extorted it 
 
 "There is," continued Sir William, "in the expec- 
 tation of the trustees, you understand, the prospect 
 of a match between Miss Dolly Dawlish and 
 Mr. William Dawlish. Now you know. What 
 then?" 
 
 "Then, Sir William," answered Ferrers, "I can't
 
 120 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 carry out my share of the plot : I can't go on deceiv- 
 ing the young lady." 
 
 "Deceiving?" exclaimed Sir William. "What 
 would you say if the young lady were herself a party 
 
 to the plot? " 
 
 t 
 
 "By Jove ! " exclaimed Debrett. 
 
 " I don't believe it ! " said Ferrers flatly : the 
 mere suggestion contradicted his belief in the young 
 lady's frankness. 
 
 "You are somewhat unreasonable," said Sir Wil- 
 liam with a shrug ; " but a little temper is excusable 
 in you at present. Now I'll be kind to you, and, 
 just as one man to another, I'll explain the whole 
 matter. I'm hard up, and have been for long ; a 
 mortgage will foreclose soon, and if it do, I'm 
 ruined. You perceive I am quite frank with you. 
 All that my niece knows : I have told it her ; and 
 she is only too glad out of her prospective abundance 
 to help her uncle." 
 
 "She is a trump ! " exclaimed Debrett. 
 
 " She is a Dawlish," said Sir William sententiously. 
 "My brother left her his heir, with a certain rever- 
 sion to me, you understand ; but I cannot in my 
 need touch the reversion, nor even raise money on 
 it, and my niece can only touch her own money on
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 121 
 
 the eve of her marriage. You understand that? " 
 
 " Perfectly," said Debrett. 
 
 "But even then she cannot touch it unless her 
 trustees, Drew and Drumly, approve of the match. 
 Now they know that my brother wished that my 
 son, if possible, should marry his daughter. There- 
 fore, we have devised this marriage this marriage 
 which cannot come off, because when the time 
 comes William Dawlish will be gone. " 
 
 Ferrers said nothing ; but his thought was troubled 
 by two points that gleamed upon him from Sir 
 William's revelation : Dolly, then, knew he was not 
 William Dawlish, and she was consciously playing, 
 for her uncle's sake, a game with him. These points 
 were so disheartening to him, simple and modest as 
 he was, that he at once called himself a fool for his 
 presumptuous beliefs and doubts, and resolved to 
 have done with the business, escape, and forget all 
 about it 
 
 "Now I have frankly told you the state of things," 
 said Sir William, ' ' what do you say ? It must at 
 the longest be all over in a day or two, and you 
 may judge for yourself whether or not Miss Dawlish 
 is conscious of the state of things. " 
 
 "I'll go on then, and see it out," said Ferrers
 
 122 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 quietly. He was not quite sure he was doing right 
 in assenting ; for he was bewildered as well as dis- 
 heartened by the new and plausible view of things 
 presented by Sir William, and, moreover, he heard 
 in his ear the suggestion which Lord Debrett had 
 made but a few minutes before : "Try to make sure 
 that the young lady would thank you for throwing 
 it up." 
 
 "Very well," said Sir William, as if it did not 
 much matter whether he did or not. 
 
 "That's all right," said Debrett about five minutes 
 after the matter had been thought concluded. "I 
 thought it would be. " 
 
 They were approaching the house they had indeed 
 crossed the park and were entering on the garden 
 proper when they saw the very two men from whom 
 Sir William had parted by the coppice hurriedly 
 cross the end of the garden and disappear somewhere 
 in the neighbourhood of the stables. Ferrers, having 
 his attention so much occupied with other things, 
 would have made but light note of it, had he not 
 remarked the look of resentment, almost of fury, with 
 which Sir William regarded them. That look fixed 
 the incident in his memory. There was another 
 thing smote him disagreeably ere they reached the
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 123 
 
 hall door : an open vehicle drove up bearing luggage 
 and two men, one of whom was probably Debrett's 
 servant, while the other was certainly the servant of 
 Mr. Drumly the black-muzzled Irish-American. 
 
 But all common disagreeable things were forgotten 
 in the deep unaccountable misery he felt, when, on 
 chancing to raise his eyes just when under the wall 
 of the house and against the richest rose-bushes, he 
 espied Dolly Dawlish looking down on him from an 
 open casement. When she knew herself seen, she 
 withdrew, and hid behind a flaunting curtain ; but 
 Ferrers still felt that her eyes were on him.
 
 134 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 "THE BEST LAID SCHEMES o* MICE AND MEN- 
 
 FERRERS' feeling, however, speedily underwent an- 
 other fluctuation. All the party met at breakfast ; 
 but Dolly had neither word nor look for Ferrers : her 
 regard was wholly given to Lord Debrett. Ferrers 
 was hurt, and a little jealous, not understanding that 
 a woman has eyes and sense in the back of her head, 
 and, while appearing engrossed with one, is truly 
 observing and comprehending the whole behaviour 
 of another. He conversed with Drew and Drumly ; 
 but he scarce knew what he said, for his eyes and his 
 thoughts were given to Dolly. 
 
 When breakfast was over he felt he could endure it 
 no longer : he must know how he stood. He followed 
 Dolly from the room and caught up with her as she 
 was crossing the hall. 
 
 "Miss Dawlish,"he said. 
 
 She turned and looked at him as if she scarcely 
 knew him, and he felt chilled and daunted.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 125 
 
 "Won't you come out into the garden for a little?" 
 said he. 
 
 " I was just going," she coldly answered. 
 
 He got her hat and his own from the hat-stand, 
 and together they went out. 
 
 " I was in the garden soon after six this morning," 
 said he casually. 
 
 ' ' Why did you get up so early ? " she asked, as 
 with indifference, while she paused to pluck a rose, 
 which she found she could not accomplish without 
 the aid of his knife. " Had you a bad conscience ? " 
 
 " Yes, "he answered ; "a very bad conscience." 
 
 "Why?" she asked, still without looking at 
 him. 
 
 "For one reason, "said he, "because I failed to 
 keep an appointment last night with" "the dearest 
 girl in the world," he was going to say "a young 
 lady, "he really said. 
 
 "And why did you do it?" she demanded, at 
 length looking at him. " Are you not ashamed of 
 yourself?" 
 
 "No; not ashamed," said he; "sorry sorry be- 
 cause I couldn't help it." 
 
 "Couldn't help it?" she echoed, turning with a 
 look of frank astonishment " I really believe it was
 
 126 A SOLDIEK AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 that you didn't care a bit to come. You thought it 
 was bold in me to ask you, and you wanted to make 
 me feel it was. You have been very unkind ! " 
 
 "You misunderstand me altogether," said he, 
 almost beside himself with her evident distress. ' ' I 
 am not unkind : you do not know how kind I could 
 be if I might. And no one could think anything 
 you did was bold ; only frank and beautiful. " 
 
 " Why, then," she asked more quietly, "did you not 
 come ? " 
 
 "Because," he repeated, "I couldn't. I was on 
 my way to the Picture Gallery, when Aunt Dawlish 
 came along. I did not wish her to see me, so I 
 slipped into a dark room till she should pass. She 
 didn't pass ; she came in and sat down to read. I 
 was behind a window curtain, and I got through the 
 window into the garden. Then I saw that by the 
 time I had made a fuss to get in at the hall-door it 
 would be too late to find you." 
 
 "I waited a long while," said she, "till I was 
 ashamed. And then a horrid idiotic laugh rang 
 through the Gallery, and I was afraid, and ran 
 away. " 
 
 ' A laugh ? " exclaimed Ferrers. " Was there any 
 one there ? "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 137 
 
 "No; and I never heard that the Gallery was 
 haunted. Did you?" 
 
 " No," he answered. " But how sorry, how very 
 sorry I am that I was the cause of your trouble and 
 fright. " 
 
 Indeed, as he looked at her and wondered if that 
 beautiful and delicate creature really cared for him, 
 knowing he was not her cousin, and was not ashamed 
 thus simply to confess it, he was wildly elated, and 
 the next moment, as he thought of his own unworthi- 
 ness, he felt humbled and chastened. And still, as 
 he looked at her, a doubt invaded him, too, of Sir 
 William's truthfulness, and a suspicion that it was 
 impossible Dolly should guess he was other than 
 William Dawlish. If she did, could she be so frank 
 and unconstrained with him ? 
 
 Meanwhile, Sir William had appeared. He saun- 
 tered down towards them, dipping his nose here and 
 there to sniff at a flower, and when he was up with 
 them he slipped his hand into Ferrers' arm. "One 
 moment," said he, and drew him aside. "You asked 
 me last night," he went on in a low voice, "where 
 the Picture Gallery is : you wanted, I think you said, 
 to show Mrs. Drew the pictures ? " 
 
 "I did say so," answered Ferrers.
 
 128 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Well, if you come with me now, I'll show you." 
 Ferrers turned and begged Dolly to excuse his leav- 
 ing her. 
 
 -^ 
 
 "Where are you going?" she asked quite simply. 
 
 And quite simply he answered, "To the Picture 
 Gallery ; " while Sir William first frowned, and then 
 smiled somewhat wryly. 
 
 "Do you think," said Sir William to Ferrers, in a 
 low voice, when they had set off together, "that it 
 is necessary or wise to be so much alone with Miss 
 Dawlish ? " 
 
 "Am I really with her too much ? " asked Ferrers. 
 
 "Well, on your own confession of this morning," 
 said Sir William, "her exclusive company is danger- 
 ous ; and there is such a thing as leading one's self 
 into temptation." 
 
 "I suppose there is," said Ferrers. "I'll try to 
 avoid it." 
 
 "Don't avoid her too much," said the other, " and 
 don't seek her out too pointedly : try to find a happy 
 mean." 
 
 " I'll try," said Ferrers. 
 
 And then silence fell between them, and Ferrers 
 seemed interested only in noting the doors and the 
 turnings on the way to the Picture Gallery. It was
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 129 
 
 a long low room, with dark oak floor, and with a 
 low-browed, curtained door at either end. It was 
 lighted in orthodox fashion by slanting windows in 
 the roof, which were shaded by blinds that had 
 doubtless once been white, but that were now stained 
 and dingy. The pictures were mostly faded por- 
 traits, with devices in arms and armour between, and 
 Ferrers regarded them with indifference as Sir William 
 led him round and pointed out this and that person 
 and expatiated on their private and public history. 
 They had not been long thus occupied when the 
 door opened, and in came Dolly with Mrs. Drew. 
 
 "Mrs. Drew," said Dolly, addressing Ferrers, 
 "heard you were here, and she thought she would 
 like to go round the Gallery with you. She expects 
 you, since you are an artist, to show her which are 
 the best pictures." 
 
 "I don't know much about portrait-painting, 
 though," said he, " nor care much." 
 
 "That doesn't matter," said Dolly, and straight- 
 way began to act as cicerone herself. "I want to 
 show you, Mrs. Drew, one particular portrait, that I 
 admire very much this one down here. She led 
 the stout and smiling Mrs. Drew down the room by 
 the hand, and drew her up in front of the portrait of
 
 !j A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 a cavalier of King Charles's days. "Isn't it beauti- 
 ful ? " she demanded. 
 
 "Very," said Mrs. Drew, marching nearer for a 
 close perusal. "The lace about the neck and wrists 
 is wonderful ! " 
 
 " Oh, that's not what I mean," said Dolly. "And 
 to get the effect you must keep farther back. " 
 
 "A curious and valuable frame, too, I should 
 think," said Mrs. Drew, as she was withdrawn to a 
 proper position. 
 
 "Look at it from here," said Dolly: "the face, 
 the expression, and the attitude. Whom do they 
 remind you of? " 
 
 "Law ! Bless me ! Yes ! " exclaimed Mrs. Drew, 
 considering face, expression, and attitude through her 
 glasses. " Who is it?" 
 
 "Don't you see ? " said Dolly with a touch of im- 
 patience. Then in a lower tone: "One of us 
 here." 
 
 "You don't mean yourself, my dear? 5 ' timidly 
 queried Mrs. Drew. " But I'm not good at guessing 
 riddles. " 
 
 Dolly gave Mrs. Drew up, and at once surrendered 
 her secret. "Cousin Dawlish," said she. 
 
 "To be sure ! " exclaimed Mrs. Drew aloud. "It
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 131 
 
 is indeed remarkably like Mr. Dawlish. Don't you 
 think so, Sir William ? " 
 
 "Er yes," said Sir William, considering the por- 
 trait again. "I have observed it. There is a con- 
 siderable likeness, especially in that cavalier way of 
 wearing the moustache." 
 
 "And the lofty look," said Mrs. Drew. 
 
 "The nose in the portrait, though," pursued Sir 
 William, "is higher and finer." 
 
 ' ' I wonder if there really is a likeness ? " said Fer- 
 rers, scarce knowing what to say in his embarrass- 
 ment, or where to look in his bewilderment. 
 
 "He was a great soldier," said Dolly; while Sir 
 William turned to look at her. He manifestly 
 thought there might be something to beware of in 
 Dolly. 
 
 " It is very strange," said Ferrers to himself. " If 
 Dolly really.and truly knows that I am not 'Cousin 
 Dawlish/ how can she keep up the pretence that I 
 am so easily and naturally ? And especially, why 
 does she keep it up with me ? " 
 
 Yes ; why did she not let him know that she un- 
 derstood the position ? Was it because she, like him- 
 self, had her feelings so far engaged that she shrank 
 from precipitating an explanation which might end
 
 132- A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 their intercourse entirely, or at least strip it of its curi- 
 ous charm of half-disguise ? He hugged that possi- 
 bility warm to his heart; but yet yet while he 
 feared an explanation, he felt it must come, and he 
 must urge it, urge it at the first opportunity. 
 
 As they left the Gallery, Dolly reminded Ferrers of 
 his promise to teach her something of the art of paint- 
 ing, and Sir William jocularly proposed that they 
 should all go sketching with pencils, crayons, paints, 
 or what not ("Make quite a sketching match of it," 
 said he), and in the evening put the sketches to the 
 vote of the company as to which was best of any 
 given scene. When they left the Gallery he carried 
 his proposal round. It was well received ; for there 
 was little to occupy the guests there was no shoot- 
 ing or fishing, and it was too hot to ride and this was 
 thought a fresh and amusing pastime. While the 
 members of the party were seeking out sketching 
 materials, most being content with pencils and sheets 
 of paper, a large waggonette was being got ready to 
 carry them to a favourite sketching-ground. 
 
 " Isn't this abominable ? " said Dolly aside to Fen 
 rers when they met with their serious and workman-! 
 like canvases and paint-boxes. 
 
 " It is," said Ferrers.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 133 
 
 Lord Debrett, who had a soldier's rude eye for a 
 practical joke, appeared furnished with a smooth 
 piece of board and a large carpenter's pencil. "I 
 think," said he, "this is about my size ;" and even 
 Dolly was compelled to laugh. 
 
 So they set out, carrying luncheon with them ; and 
 all Dolly included, in spite of her preliminary dis- 
 gust had a merry day till the sun began to decline, 
 and they returned to Dawlish Place in ample time to 
 dress for an early dinner. 
 
 In similar wise did the next day pass with a pic- 
 nicking expedition in the morning and lawn-tennis 
 in the early evening and the next. On the day 
 thereafter Drew had to pay a flying visit to London ; 
 the bank, he declared, could not continue its opera- 
 tions wanting both its managers for a whole week ; 
 but he was scarcely missed, and Sir William still 
 exerted himself to manoeuvre the party and its amuse- 
 ments and occupations. Ferrers let himself be moved 
 this way and that with the others : but he felt some- 
 how that Sir William's management was at work 
 to keep him apart from Dolly, and he thought he 
 understood the reason. 
 
 "This is Thursday," said she on that day, aside to 
 him, " and we all go back on Saturday."
 
 1 34 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " Yes," said Ferrers. " I hope we shall be alone 
 this afternoon : I must have a word with you please." 
 
 But that hope, too, was frustrated : Drumly insisted 
 on carrying him off to see a new reaping-machine at 
 work some miles off. In the drawing-room, after 
 dinner, there was as little opportunity of private con- 
 ference between him and Dolly as ever, and she after 
 a while in despair departed to her room. Then, as 
 was usual at that time of night, the men went to the 
 billiard-room, and Ferrers went among them. It was 
 duller even there than usual, for Debrett had gone to 
 town. So, as on the first night, he soon left the 
 billiard-room, being sad and restless, and with his 
 hands in his pockets, marched off with the intention 
 of going to bed. But in the corridor he remembered 
 his first night's adventure, and he thought, " Why not 
 go to the Picture Gallery on the off-chance of meeting 
 Dolly ? " He set off down the corridor ; but he was 
 turned back, as on the first night, by the vision of a 
 candle borne aloft by a woman, and that woman 
 Aunt Dawlish 1 As on the first night, he retreated 
 before her, and, as then, withdrew into the dark room 
 close at hand, with the thought of going right out, as 
 before, into the garden. When he got behind the 
 curtain, however, he found that the shutters of the
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 135 
 
 window were closed ! He was fairly trapped now ! 
 He must wait till Aunt Dawlish chose to release him ! 
 
 But, on peeping through the curtain, he became 
 interested in Aunt Dawlish's behaviour. She had left 
 the door open, and had seated herself at the table 
 with her candle and without a book. She sat with 
 her hands in her lap, and she frequently sighed and 
 shook her head. What grief oppressed her, he won- 
 dered, while he almost feared to breathe and longed 
 to cough. The minutes passed in slow silence, and 
 still she sat waiting, with her eyes on the open door. 
 Perhaps a quarter of an hour had passed though to 
 Ferrers it appeared at least an hour when a step 
 sounded in the corridor, and Miss Dawlish sat up. 
 The step sounded nearer and nearer, and at length 
 Sir William's figure was seen in the doorway. 
 
 "What, in Heaven's name !" he said, "are you 
 sitting there for, Louisa ? " 
 
 "I want to talk to you, William," she answered, 
 unclasping her hands. "Come in and sit down." 
 
 Sir William came in and shut the door, but he did 
 not sit down. 
 
 "This dreadful, risky business you're engaged on, 
 William," said Aunt Dawlish "is there no other 
 way ? "
 
 I 36 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Can you suggest another way?" 
 
 "No, William, I can't " said she. 
 
 "Then you'd better let my way have its chance;" 
 and he turned to go. " Especially, " he added, ' ' since 
 it is almost come to its end." 
 
 "But, William, just listen. I cannot, cannot see how 
 this man's appearing in Will's place is going to help 
 your purpose. How is it going to end?" 
 
 " You are very dull and frightened, Louisa," said 
 Sir William, sitting down. "I have never denied 
 there are risks about it ; but what are they to the risks 
 on the other side ? This is the 26th ; and if I cannot 
 pay off the mortgage, or give good guarantee of pay- 
 ment by-and-by, Boughton will foreclose on the3ist." 
 
 "So soon as that ? " she exclaimed. 
 
 "So soon as that," saidhe. "And Dawlish Place 
 and Dawlish estate will be lost ; and I shall be ruined 
 so completely that I shall not even be able to pay you 
 your allowance, Louisa ! " 
 
 "Oh, dear me ! Is it so bad as that ? " And Aunt 
 Dawlish wrung her hands. 
 
 "I cannot pay off the mortgage, as you know ; and 
 the only chance I see of a good guarantee is that this 
 marriage between Will and Dolly shall be agreed upon 
 at once, and proper settlements drawn up."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN, 137 
 
 (Ferrers in his retirement felt a swift pang of loss 
 and resentment ) 
 
 "I know that, William." 
 
 "And you know, too, Louisa," continued Sir Wil- 
 liam, growing fiercer and louder as he proceeded, 
 "that those two old fools, Dolly's trustees, would 
 never agree to her marriage with Will as they knew 
 him some years ago, or even as he is now." 
 
 "'Even as he is now!' Just so, William. And 
 do you mean to keep up this young man's im- 
 posture till Will is well enough to take his own 
 place ? " 
 
 (Ferrers winced at the word " imposture.") 
 
 "No, I don't; though the doctors say Will should 
 be well enough to appear all right within a month. 
 I mean to keep this man only till the marriage is 
 agreed upon between me and these confounded 
 trustees, and till a settlement is drawn up. And that 
 must come off to-morrow, or on Saturday : that's 
 what Drew has gone to town about to-day. You 
 see how the old fools especially that baboon 
 Drumly are infatuated about the big, healthy brute, 
 and they'll agree quite promptly. The blind old 
 idiots ! As if a Dawlish ever looked, or ever could 
 look, like that ! "
 
 138 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN; 
 
 "The young man is very handsome and clever, 
 William," said Miss Dawlish. 
 
 "Ah," snapped Sir William (and Ferrers imagined 
 the grin on his face), "you're like the rest of the 
 women ! A good-looking face and a big strong 
 body and you fall down and worship the man." 
 
 "Just so, William, " retorted his sister. "That's 
 the danger." 
 
 "What's the danger?" 
 
 "You seem not to have considered what Dolly 
 might think in all this. I'm afraid that Dolly is 
 seriously smitten with the man." 
 
 "Oh, pooh ! Stuff and nonsense ! Dolly is taken 
 with him because she believes him her cousin. 
 But she has the pride of the Dawlishes about her. 
 Once she knows that he is only a rough common 
 trooper, rubbed up a little with knowing people 
 better than himself, she'll be disgusted with herself 
 for having thought anything of him." 
 
 "I wish she may. But she's a romantic girl, and 
 to know he's a poor man may only make her more 
 interested in him. I wish you understood women 
 better, William." 
 
 "I wish I did," said Sir William. "But Dolly 
 you're mistaken in Dolly. She's a sensible girl /
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 139 
 
 she has her father's business faculty, and she 
 knows what's due to her. Besides, she has our 
 interest at heart, and she's attracted to this man, as 
 I have said, because she thinks him her cousin, and 
 she was fond of her cousin when they were together 
 as boy and girl." 
 
 "And I kept her fond of him, William, by talking 
 always about him. That's why I'm afraid now of 
 this man's influence." 
 
 "That'll be all right, Louisa. I'll tell her the 
 whole thing, when the business has been settled 
 with these trustees. I'll appeal to her proper feel- 
 ings to save the house and our name. She'll meet 
 Will again when he is quite himself, and we'll get 
 the marriage over before she has time to think, and 
 without these cursed trustees seeing Will at all, 
 except perhaps on the wedding morning in a dark 
 church. " 
 
 "I wish it may turn out as easily as you say," 
 sighed Miss Dawlish. 
 
 "Well, now let's go to bed," said Sir William. 
 
 So Miss Dawlish rose with her candle and went 
 out, and Sir William followed her.
 
 140 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 "GANG AFT AGLEY." 
 
 FERRERS came from his hiding-place as soon as their 
 footsteps had died away, and without quite knowing 
 how he did it, felt his way out of the room, along the 
 corridor to the foot of the chief staircase, and so to his 
 bedroom. He scarcely knew himself in his turmoil 
 of feeling. He felt humiliated more than he could 
 have conceived, choked with resentment and rage 
 against Sir William, and withal disposed to allow 
 that he endured no more than he deserved. His 
 treatment at Dawlish Place had fed his pride and am- 
 bition such pride and such ambition as dwell in 
 every healthy mind and had deceived him into 
 thinking that after all he might be a person of conse- 
 quence ; now the terms in which Sir William spoke 
 of him showed him what he really was : a common, 
 stupid hireling ! a catspaw for the needy and nefa- 
 rious baronet ! Moreover, the baronet had simply
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN: 141 
 
 and cruelly lied to him, and he had been fool 
 enough to accept his lies as confidence given in hon- 
 our by one man to another ! fool and blind enough 
 to believe that Dolly, the frank and unsuspecting, 
 was in her uncle's plot to secure the hold of her prop- 
 erty from her trustees ! But, he thought obstinately 
 the fighting spirit was rising in him Sir William 
 Dawlish was not yet rid of him. What were the as- 
 sured facts with which he now must deal ? First, 
 there was a real William Dawlish to whom it was in- 
 tended that Dolly should be married to save the bar- 
 onet's family from ruin ; second, the marriage could 
 not be compassed openly, because, for certain rea- 
 sons reasons of health, apparently it was feared 
 that Dolly's guardians or trustees would not accept 
 the real William Dawlish as her husband ; and third, 
 it was hoped that, in the last event, the marriage 
 would be effected, and the whole mean scheme 
 crowned with victory by an appeal to Dolly's sense of 
 the family honour. Against these things was set the 
 single possibility that Dolly's love for him, though 
 it had been given as to William Dawlish, might have 
 grown to such strength that she could not withdraw 
 it when she knew him to be George Ferrers. To 
 punish and defeat Sir William he was ready to put
 
 I 4 2 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 that possibility to the test. Yet, on the other hand, 
 his own admiration and love for Dolly were too high 
 and pure and unselfish to permit him to use the ad- 
 vantage which he had acquired by a trick by a 
 trick, too, not of his own devising. Would he not 
 feel himself a common, mean cur if he went to Dolly, 
 and said in effect: "You thought me your cousin 
 and a gentleman, a man of your own rank and 
 station, and you gave me the love which you would 
 never have thought of bestowing on a common pen- 
 niless soldier, however handsome and honest he 
 might be ; but I have won that love, and I claim it " ? 
 
 No, no ; he could not say that. He did not believe 
 that Dolly would have loved him if she had only 
 known him as George Ferrers he had not so great 
 a conceit of himself ; and, that being so, he Would 
 not take advantage of his own deceit and of her 
 weakness. Besides, who was he to interfere in the 
 private concerns of the Dawlish family ? He had 
 engaged for a sum of money to perform a certain 
 part, and he ought to be content if, when the business 
 was done, he received that sum. How he hated 
 himself for not having put an end to the business 
 when first he suspected its quality. 
 
 But he put these thoughts away ; whistled softly
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 143 
 
 to himself as he finished undressing ; blew his candle 
 out ; and got into bed. And soon he slept the sleep 
 of the seasoned soldier. He could not have slept 
 long though how long or how short a time he could 
 not guess when he suddenly woke with a rude sense 
 of choking. He put up his hand, and caught a lean 
 and nervous thumb and fingers from his throat ! 
 Then he opened his eyes, looked up, and saw by the 
 vague light filtered through his window-blind a figure 
 in white stooping over him. He was at first inclined 
 to suppose himself suffering from nightmare ; but 
 the next moment he understood that was impossible, 
 for his hand grasped a substantial wrist. He neither 
 struggled nor cried out ; and the creature clawed 
 with its free hand at his hair. 
 
 "Come, stop that ! " said Ferrers. 
 
 But the creature continued with frantic energy, 
 tearing at him with the one hand and trying to free 
 the other. Ferrers was a dalesman and a wrestler, 
 and with a rapid and adroit movement he had the 
 creature's arms pinned at its sides while he held its 
 body as in a vice between his knees. 
 
 "Now," said he, "tell me who you are and what 
 the deuce you want here ! " 
 
 But the creature only struggled and panted.
 
 144 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Tell me," repeated Ferrers, shaking him, " or I'll 
 squeeze the life out of you ! " 
 
 "I'm William Da wlish," said the creature, "and 
 I've more right here than you. " 
 
 " Oh," said Ferrers, " you're William Dawlish ! I 
 must here have a look at you." The devil-may-care 
 spirit of the old soldier was roused. "Now," said 
 he, "you see you can't do anything with me. Will 
 you sit quietly in a chair, or must I tie you ? " 
 
 "I'll sit," said Mr. Dawlish. 
 
 "On your word of honour ? " 
 
 "On my word of honour." 
 
 Ferrers then let him go, jumped from bed, and lit 
 the candle by his bedside. He set a chair for his 
 strange visitor, while himself put some clothing on, 
 and sat on the bed. He looked with great curiosity 
 at the person he was supposed to be at his other 
 self, who drew his night-shirt about him and sat 
 down in the proffered chair. He was about as tall 
 as himself ; he was indeed something like what him- 
 self might have been, had he started with a feeble 
 constitution and been grown in a poor soil. He had 
 hair like that of Ferrers, but finer and thinner, with 
 a longer nose, a weaker mouth, and a far less gener- 
 ous moustache. But the most notable difference
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 145 
 
 was in the meagreness of the body Ferrers recalled 
 the phrase of one of the ' ' Johnnies " " like a monkey 
 up a stick " which had the shoulders of a bottle and 
 the chest of a pigeon. There was something, too, of 
 a wild and bloodshot look in the eye, which made 
 Ferrers suspect he was not quite sane. Having thus 
 considered him a moment or two, Ferrers pitied 
 him. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Dawlish," said he, "do you mind tell- 
 ing me why you have visited me in the middle of the 
 night in this polite and and friendly way?" 
 
 Mr. Dawlish's only answer for a moment or two 
 was a wild and irrepressible burst of laughter, which 
 sounded half hysterical. He swayed to and fro and 
 laughed ; he leaned his face in his hands and laughed ; 
 and then he threw himself back in his chair exhausted 
 with tears of laughter streaming from his eyes. He 
 had no sooner looked at Ferrers' composed and some- 
 what wondering face than his laughter burst forth 
 again. 
 
 "Ah-h! Ha, ha, ha, ha!" 
 
 "Look here!" said Ferrers sharply. "You'll 
 wake all the house." He looked him steadily in 
 the eyes, and that seemed to have a controlling and 
 
 composing effect upon him. 
 
 10
 
 146 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Oh, I say!" cried Mr. Dawlish. "You are a 
 caution 1" 'Visit me in a polite and friendly way,' 
 says you!" And he laughed again. "You're a 
 strong beggar, though. I wish I was as strong as 
 you. I'm not bad for strength, you know, and fig- 
 ure ; but I'm not so good as you. Look ; my calfs 
 not half bad. They used to say it was the nicest- 
 shaped leg they knew." 
 
 " Who used to say that? " asked Ferrers. 
 
 "Oh, some friends of mine. I've a good biceps, 
 too," continued Mr. Dawlish, undoing his sleeve and 
 baring his arm. 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Ferrers; "it's pretty fair." 
 
 "I say," observed Mr. Dawlish, as if he had 
 suddenly remembered something of consequence, 
 "you've just come from town haven't you? with 
 the other people. " Ferrers nodded. "What's doing 
 at the theatre ? What girls are at the Gaiety now ? 
 Anything much ? " 
 
 "Oh," said Ferrers, becoming rather weary of the 
 young man, " they're all right, I believe." 
 
 "Tootsie's gone, of course. Did you know 
 Tootsie ? " 
 
 "No, I didn't. But look here, Mr. Dawlish," said 
 Ferrers, "you didn't come into my room in the dark
 
 A S OLDIE K AND A GENTLEMAN. 147 
 
 and take me by the throat merely to have an agree- 
 able chat ? " 
 
 "I say," laughed Mr. Dawlish again, "you are a 
 caution. I like you, you know. I apologise I do 
 for being ungentlemanly to you at first ; for I know 
 you're a gentleman. He told me different." 
 
 "Who told you different?" asked Ferrers. 
 
 "Oh, never mind who told me. But I thought, 
 you know " and he glanced round and lowered his 
 voice, as if he feared there might be another within 
 earshot " that I had hold of one of those old banker 
 chaps that keep my governor so short that he can't 
 give me any money. I haven't had a spree for I 
 don't know the time ! " 
 
 "That's bad," said Ferrers. "And are you kept 
 stuck down here all the while ? " 
 
 " Oh, no. I've been staying with Dr. Blobbs. I'm 
 better now ; but I've been awfully seedy. They 
 say I've had something wrong with my head, and, 
 
 you know " He leaned forward and whispered 
 
 another sentence in Ferrers' ear. 
 
 " You don't say so ! " said Ferrers, looking at him 
 with half-averted eyes. ' ' Well, I advise you to get 
 back to bed as quick as you can. " 
 
 " Hush ! " said he. " I've given my man the slip.
 
 148 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 He mustn't know, or there'll be a frightful shindy. 
 I'll get back all right." He rose and held out his 
 hand. 
 
 "I'll see you safe to your room," said Ferrers. 
 "You know the way, I suppose?" 
 
 "Of course I know the way. What do you take 
 me for?" 
 
 They left Ferrers' room, and traversed a long pas- 
 sage, which turned this way and that. They then 
 passed through a door into a long ample room lighted 
 from the roof, which Ferrers recognised as the Pic- 
 ture Gallery. 
 
 "All my forefathers and foremothers hanging round 
 here, " said Mr. Dawlish. 
 
 " Yes," said Ferrers ; "I know." 
 
 "Sometimes," said Mr. Dawlish, "I come in and 
 look at them, and cock snooks at them. A lot of 
 auctioneer's rubbish ! When I come into them, I'll 
 sell 'em off, like what's-his-name in the play." 
 
 "That would be fun," said Ferrers. 
 
 So they passed on, and out through the little door 
 at the other end, and up a narrow staircase. 
 
 " Hush ! " said Mr. Dawlish, and stole into a low 
 room whose door was ajar, and in which a night- 
 light was burning. "My man's asleep," whispered
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 149 
 
 he, and pointed to a narrow truckle-bed in the corner. 
 " He had a drink with a chum." 
 
 He said "good-night," and passed into the room 
 beyond, and Ferrers turned at once to the sleeper in 
 the corner and shook his shoulder. In stooping over 
 the man, his eye caught sight of a slippered foot, a 
 man's foot, peeping from under the bed. He knelt 
 and seized the foot, and with a powerful tug drew 
 out the body to which it was attached, while the 
 sleeping man started up and rubbed his eyes. The 
 man drawn from under the bed started to his feet 
 with an oath, and revealed himself as the black- 
 muzzled Irish-American ? Ferrers at once suspected 
 that he was the "chum" with whom Mr. Dawlish's 
 keeper had had a drink, and who probably had 
 urged the young man to prowl into the stranger's 
 bedroom. 
 
 "What are you doing here?" demanded Ferrers, 
 in a quick low voice (the whole scene passed in tones 
 little above a whisper). 
 
 "Sure," said the man on the bed, "he's a friend 
 av moine." 
 
 "And between you," said Ferrers, " you have let 
 your patient out. He has been wandering about the 
 house and into guests' rooms."
 
 150 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " The divvle he has ! " exclaimed the man, and 
 jumped from bed. " Where is he ? " 
 
 But Mr. Dawlish himself had appeared by that 
 time, looking in mortal fear of his Irish keeper. 
 "Come now, Murphy, hold on!" he cried. "It 
 was your friend that took me out and showed me 
 into this gentleman's room. He told me he was one 
 of the bankers. " 
 
 "What have you got to say to that?" asked 
 Ferrers, turning again to the scowling Irish-Ameri- 
 can. 
 
 " Nothing," said the man ; " and it'll be the worse 
 for you if you say anything." 
 
 "What is that?" said Ferrers, taking him by the 
 car. 
 
 "Come," said the man, trying to strike down his 
 hand; "none of your games with me. I know all 
 about you, and there's more will know about you 
 before I've done. So take care. " 
 
 That he should hold high debate with himself about 
 making all the truth known, and that at the same time 
 this mean, spying cur should with a word or two be 
 able to betray him, enraged Ferrers. 
 
 "Very well, my friend," said he, pulling the man's 
 car while Mr. Dawlish stood aloof, rubbed his
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 151 
 
 hands, and exclaimed, "Here's a spree!" "you 
 know me. I've punished you for rudeness before, 
 and I'll punish you for impertinence whenever I 
 know of it. If ever I hear you speak of me, or hear 
 that you have spoken of me, to any one, I'll find you 
 out and give you such a thrashing and such a duck- 
 ing as you never had before. You understand?" 
 
 He gave the ear he held an admonitory pinch, 
 which provoked the man to strike out with hands 
 and feet. Upon that, with little ado he took the 
 man by the hands and feet, gathering them in one 
 great grasp as if he had been a bound sheep, 
 shook him, and said, "Be quiet!" Then, seeing 
 the door of a clothes-closet stand open, he flung 
 him in, turned the key, and put it in his pocket, 
 while the artless Mr. Dawlish exclaimed, " By 
 Gum ! Ain't you a strong beggar ! " 
 
 "Don't lave him there, sorr, if you plaise !" said 
 the attendant Murphy. " He deserves it all ; but 
 it ud ruin me wid Sir William if he knowed he'd 
 been here ! " 
 
 "All right," said Ferrers, handing him the key, 
 and thinking that after all none of these things 
 mattered very much now ; "let him out by-and-by, 
 and tell Sir William what you like."
 
 I 5 2 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " I'll tell Sir William nothing, sorr, wid your 
 lave," said Murphy, while Mr. Dawlish ejaculated, 
 "What a lark!" 
 
 So Ferrers returned down the little twisting stair- 
 case into the Picture Gallery, in passing through 
 which there broke on his ear from the room he had 
 left "a horrid idiotic laugh," and he understood the 
 cause of Dolly's fright on the night she waited for 
 him. It struck him as a coincidence to note as 
 curious that while Dolly had been expecting the pre- 
 tended William Dawlish, the real should have un- 
 wittingly made his voice heard by her. Poor, dear 
 Dolly! What was now to happen to her? Was 
 she to be permitted to move on blindly, deceived or 
 persuaded by her uncle, into marriage with that 
 unwholesome and imbecile cousin ? A thousand 
 times " No ! " The very thought of it was revolting 
 and maddening, and Ferrers at once and for all 
 resolved to purge his soul of offence in the matter. 
 
 When he got back to his room, he sat a while on 
 the edge of the bed, stared at his candle, and rubbed 
 his cold shirt sleeves. He thought of all that had 
 passed in the very short space of time since he had 
 made Sir William Dawlish's acquaintance. Into 
 what a vortex of deceit had he been caught 1 And
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 153 
 
 yet, to begin with, yea, throughout, he had meant 
 no harm. Tempted by money, which at the time 
 had meant to him food and lodging, he had thought- 
 lessly embarked on this adventure, which was now 
 threatening to engulf himself and his prospects, and 
 to make shipwreck of the happiness of the best and 
 dearest girl in the world the only woman whom he 
 had ever completely and unreservedly admired and 
 worshipped, who had ever made him feel what the 
 romance of love might mean. For himself, such a 
 fate scarcely mattered ; he was a penniless soldier, 
 a man of no account ; but as to her ! not a hair of 
 her dear head should be ruffled if he could help it ! 
 And yet his punishment was that things could not 
 possibly be set right without ruffling and perhaps 
 paining her. BuV he would not spare himself; he 
 would urge no extenuating plea in setting the truth 
 before her on the morrow. She might despise him, 
 hate him ! it might indeed be better that she should 
 but in any case the rude, ugly truth must be laid 
 bare ! 
 
 Having thus finally determined to make an end, 
 he was in a strangely quiet condition of feeling, 
 which rather surprised him : he could not remember 
 ever having felt anything like it except on the eve
 
 j 5 4 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 of a battle. And in that feeling he undressed, 
 blew out his candle, and got into bed. But in the 
 dark he was wider awake than before, and went 
 over and over the ground he had already traversed, 
 with intervals of sleep and of dream, until the day- 
 light began to show on his window, and the birds 
 awoke to chatter and chirp, and to chaffer and 
 haggle over straws and worms.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 155 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 THEY TWO. 
 
 FERRERS was out of bed very early ; for he had slept 
 little and had little mind for sleep. He drew up 
 his blind, opened his window, and looked out over 
 the lovely sunlit landscape. Its beauty went to his 
 heart, but only to darken by contrast his secret 
 wretchedness. But his way was clear, and he would 
 take it without turning to the right hand or to the 
 left. Meantime, he resolved to dress and go out 
 
 It struck five by the clock in the stable tower as 
 he left the house and walked away through the 
 grounds. He did not linger in the garden, but struck 
 across the park, where the cattle raised their heads 
 from their early grazing to stare at him. He dis- 
 covered soon that he was not the only early riser. 
 As he climbed over a hillock in his course he noticed 
 some little way off two men disappear into a clump 
 of holly -trees and brushwood, at the end of the larch
 
 156 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 plantation. Something in the set and gait of one of 
 the figures made him think of his midnight visitor. 
 He did not particularly wish to meet and converse 
 with him again ; but he was curious to see what he 
 was out for. The clump into which Dawlish and 
 his companion probably his " man " had vanished 
 was continued in the plantation across Ferrers' line 
 of route, and to its nearest point Ferrers made at a 
 sharp pace. 
 
 When he reached it he saw a little way off a hollow 
 glade some what like a spoon at the end of its handle 
 and in the glade the two men with their coats off 
 and with their shirt sleeves rolled up. With interest 
 quickened into alarm he slipped nearer, and saw 
 that the men were preparing to box with gloves, and 
 was satisfied. He lingered, however, to witness a 
 round or two, and to hear the one (young Dawlish) 
 say, "That's enough fora morning breather," and 
 the other reply, " No, no, sorr ; that isn't enough. 
 Up wid your mauleys ; " and then he withdrew, and 
 returned towards the house. 
 
 He was within the enclosure of the garden proper 
 when he saw another early riser still, who made him 
 hesitate, and feel as if he would like to hide or run 
 away. It was Dolly in a morning robe of white, 
 and with a red parasol to shade her from the sun.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 157 
 
 The burden of the confession he had to make was as 
 lead in his heart and on his feet ; but he was drawn 
 on in spite of himself, for he knew she had seen him, 
 and when her bright look was bent on him, to her 
 he must always turn. He did not know what he 
 meant to do or to say ; he only felt that he must pre- 
 sent himself to her, lay himself and his deceits bare 
 to her, and let her judge him. 
 
 He was approaching her, and she was waiting for 
 him with a smile, when down one of the gravel walks 
 trotted Aunt Dawlish in a great straw hat. "Dolly 
 dear," she called, "you must be getting your feet 
 wet on the dewy grass. " 
 
 " I'm not, aunt," said Dolly. " What a fidget you 
 are ! But, to please you, I'll stand on the gravel." 
 
 "You'd better come in, my dear," said Aunt Dawl- 
 ish, now close to her ; it's much too early for you 
 to be out. You'll quite soil your complexion with 
 these absurd country ideas. Besides," she continued, 
 taking her arm and whispering in her ear 
 
 Whatever it was that Aunt Dawlish said in her 
 ear, it made her blush divinely. 
 
 "Adieu, cousin," said she, "for the present ; " and 
 she departed into the house. 
 
 He hung about the garden till he was weary ; he
 
 158 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 saw Drew come out this day with Drumly after an 
 early breakfast, and depart again in a waggonette to 
 take the train to town ; he kept out of the way, for 
 he did not wish to talk with the bankers then, and 
 by-and-by he heard the breakfast-bell ring, and went 
 in. He was unavoidably somewhat cold and distant 
 in his " Good morning" to Sir William ; nor was he 
 very good company at table. Now and again he 
 found Dolly's eyes wistfully fixed on him, and his 
 heart was wrung with grief and dismay at what was 
 about to happen. Yet he was resolved to take the 
 first opportunity to bring things to an issue. 
 
 It did not seem as ii there would be much difficulty 
 in arranging a private interview between himself and 
 Dolly ; for there was no excursion, Debrett being gone 
 for the day, and Drew and Drumly on a visit to town 
 on the business of the projected marriage doubt- 
 less. Yet it was long before he could encounter her 
 alone, Aunt Dawlish kept such dragon-guard over 
 her. At length in desperation he resolved to do as 
 she had once done herself when she desired an inter- 
 view. 
 
 "I want," he wrote on a slip of paper, " to talk 
 with you alone very particularly. The Picture Gal- 
 lery won't do. Meet me in an hour in the hoiliow in
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 159 
 
 the larch plantation." He rolled the paper up into a 
 tiny cylinder, and watching his opportunity as he 
 sauntered by, he dropped it into Dolly's lap as she 
 sat reading on a shady bench in the company of Aunt 
 Dawlish and Mrs. Drew. That done, he moved away, 
 and by a roundabout route made for the plantation. 
 At the end of about hah an hour he was in the hollow 
 glade where he had seen young Dawlish and his 
 " man '"' sparring in the early morning. He had quite 
 half an hour t'o wait, and, to consume the time and 
 allay his restlessness and the foolish flutters that in- 
 vaded even his great chest, he set himself to cut and 
 shape a holly-stick. 
 
 At last he heard the rustle of a footstep, and his 
 neart leaped within him, less alas ! with joy, than 
 with grief and pain. She came his own, his sweet ! 
 to whom he could never tell how sweet and dear 
 she was. He went with slow steps to meet her, try- 
 ing the strength of his stick as he went, trying it so 
 that he snapped it. But it did not break clean ; it 
 was green and tough, and the lacerated fibres still 
 held together. 
 
 " I wonder," he thought, " if that is how this part- 
 ing is going to be ! " 
 
 When they met, she looked open-eyed and dis-
 
 j6o A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 turbed. " What is the matter ? " she asked. " I see 
 there is something. There seems to be something 
 the matter with every one to-day. I saw a strange 
 man cross the end of the garden this morning. I 
 told Aunt Dawlish, and said what he was like, and 
 she looked fit to drop with fright, and begged me not 
 to speak about it. The curious thing is that I feel as 
 if I ought to know him. " 
 
 "What was he like?" asked Ferrers with a sure 
 expectation of the answer. 
 
 " He was as tall as you, but narrow all about here" 
 indicating her own chest "and pinched, as if he 
 had grown up in a tight place : and he looked at me, 
 and smiled, and bowed like an idiot, till a man that 
 was with him took him by the arm, and led him 
 away. I wish I could think who he is. " 
 
 "Miss Dawlish," said Ferrers, nerving himself to 
 open the great exposure, "that is the very thing I 
 asked you here to tell you about. That man you 
 saw is your cousin, William Dawlish : I am not." 
 
 She gazed at him a moment with wide-open, 
 startled eyes. Then she shrank back a step, and put 
 up her hands to her face, as if she would hide herself. 
 Her feeling was clear. She was ashamed through 
 all her nature that she had been frank, and even bold
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 161 
 
 as the world counts boldness with a man who 
 proved to be an utter stranger ! 
 
 ' ' Oh 1 " she cried. ' ' What dreadful thing is this ? " 
 
 "lam afraid," said Ferrers, "I have done you 
 great wrong ; but you may be sure I never meant it " 
 
 " Who are you, then ? " she asked. 
 
 " My name," said he, " is George Ferrers." 
 
 ' ' But what are you ? " 
 
 "I am nothing," said he, with proud resolve to 
 strip himself bare of quality. "I have been a sol- 
 dier." 
 
 "And you are an artist, I suppose," said she, with 
 who knows what quick, instinctive desire to see him 
 retain some quality or function with which she had 
 believed him invested. 
 
 "I am something of an artist," said he. 
 
 " And is that why there are the initials ' G. F.' on 
 your pictures ? " 
 
 "Yes; that's why." 
 
 ' ' But why oh, why have you come about me 
 and told lies, and pretended you were my cousin ? 
 You had some reason for doing it, I suppose ? Why 
 have you behaved to me as you have, and made me 
 behave to you ? " 
 
 " I have not told lies," Ferrers had a mind to say ; 
 ii
 
 1 62 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 but he perceived that would be but paltering with 
 words, since he could not deny he had been acting 
 lies to her. 
 
 "I was introduced to your uncle, Sir William," 
 said he, " and he asked me to take the name of Wil- 
 liam Dawlish. " 
 
 "My uncle knows of this, then ? " she asked. 
 
 ' ' Yes, " said he. "I would have told you before 
 the day after we came here but he said you 
 knew." 
 
 " He said I knew ? And you believed him ? " 
 
 "I was fool enough to take his word as a gentle- 
 man, and I didn't know what to think." 
 
 "And my aunt? does she know, too? " 
 
 "Yes; she does, too." 
 
 ' ' Oh ! Dreadful ! And what has it been done for ? 
 Surely, not for a joke ? " 
 
 " I began it," said Ferrers, " as a joke ; but I have 
 found that it is very serious ; and that is why partly 
 why I have determined to tell you the truth as I 
 have discovered it. Your uncle wants you to marry 
 his son, your cousin, and he was afraid your trustees 
 would not agree to the marriage, if they knew and 
 saw his son." 
 
 "Why?"
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 163 
 
 "Because he is not man enough to marry," said 
 Ferrers desperately; " because he is weak in body 
 and in mind because he is an imbecile." 
 
 "And my uncle asked you," said she with scorn, 
 " to appear as the necessary person, because you 
 are not an imbecile ? He put you forward in the 
 part, and you played it. You came and smiled and 
 danced with me, and talked confidential lies to me 
 in the most cousinly way ! I must congratulate you 
 on the finish you gave to your part. Perhaps you 
 had played it often before ? " 
 
 "Never! never!" said Ferrers, with the air of a 
 patient, strongman protesting against the wantonness 
 of blows showered on him. 
 
 "And how were you to be rewarded, may I ask, 
 for the playing of your part ? your part of stalking- 
 horse to my uncle's son ? " 
 
 "I was to receive a sum of money," answered 
 Ferrers. 
 
 "Money?" she exclaimed. "You engaged to 
 smile and dance with me, and to talk to me, and 
 walk with me, and sketch with me for money ? Oh, 
 how miserable, how mean, how shameful ! " 
 
 " Hear me," pleaded Ferrers. " You don't under- 
 stand. When I met Sir William, and he proposed
 
 1 64 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 this to me, I was very poor I had scarcely any 
 money at all scarcely any. You might not believe 
 me if I told you how little. I was glad to get the 
 chance of occupation and money, and I promised to 
 do what was asked of me, without knowing or guess- 
 ing what I would be asked to do. If 1 had imagined 
 I was going to bring trouble or grief to you, I would 
 have died rather ! " 
 
 "And why do you think you have brought trouble 
 and grief, as you say, to me ? I have no doubt that 
 to-morrow or the next day I shall look back on it as 
 a very curious and original joke." 
 
 He said no word, though his heart was bursting ; 
 but he could not refrain from turning on her eyes as 
 simply appealing as those of a dumb animal. 
 
 "Oh, man, man!" she cried, "have you not a 
 word to say for yourself? not a word ? " She put 
 her hands to her face, and sank on the ground in a 
 fit of weeping, while Ferrers, longing to go to her 
 aid and yet not daring, stood with clenched hands 
 and heaving chest. 
 
 "No ; I've not a word ! " he murmured blindly to 
 himself. "Not a word shall I say ! not a word ! 
 It serves me right I It serves me right ! " 
 
 "And why," she asked, after a pause, "have you
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 165 
 
 kept this so long ? or, rather, having kept it so long, 
 why have you not kept it longer ? " 
 
 "Because," said he, "as I have told you, Sir Wil- 
 liam deceived me, and because I have just discovered 
 the truth. I knew last night for the first time that 
 there really is a cousin whom you are intended to 
 marry ; and last night I saw him saw that he is 
 a creature no woman, least of all you, ought to 
 marry. " 
 
 "And why not? It is surely not for you to say 
 whom I am, or am not, to marry ! " 
 
 "No," said Ferrers ; " it is not for me to say ; but 
 I hope you will not marry him. It would be better 
 for you to be dead than married to him ! " 
 
 ' ' You are a very presuming person to say that to 
 me ! A complete stranger to express such an opinion 
 of my own cousin ! one of my own family ! I 
 remember my cousin very well ; and I liked h ; m. 
 He may not be so big and strong a creature as you 
 are, but I'm glad, yes, glad he is not And if my 
 uncle wishes it, and he wishes it, I shall marry him, 
 whatever any one may say. " 
 
 "Call me what names you like ; I deserve the un- 
 kindest and cruellest things you can say to me ; but 
 do not let yourself be deceived and hurried into a
 
 T 66 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 marriage with that man ! And you may be deceived 
 and hurried before you are aware." 
 
 "I am quite able to take care of myself; I am 
 mistress of my own actions ; and I beg you will not 
 give me any more of your advice." 
 
 " If you will not save yourself by my advice, then 
 I must save you in spite of yourself. I do not wish 
 to interfere any more in your family matters, and 
 make a fuss ; but if you persist in going through 
 with this mad business, I must ! " 
 
 "Go away ! I will not hear you any more. I 
 will not talk to you any more. Go away ! And I 
 hope I shall never see your face again. Go 
 away ! " 
 
 He stood a moment with hands outspread, with 
 bursting heart and swaying form. Then, "Yes," 
 he murmured "yes ; I'll go away I'll go away ! " 
 So he turned and walked out of the hollow, while she 
 watched him, with her hands tight clasped upon her 
 panting bosom. But he did not look back ; did not 
 show a hint of hesitation to obey her command to go 
 away, and let his face be seen no more. He walked 
 on, steadily on, down the narrow vista of larches, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 He felt beaten sore by the hands that he loved, all
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 167 
 
 the sorer that those hands seemed pitiless. All his 
 world was tumbled about his ears life and love, 
 hopes and fears, desires and ambitions and he 
 stumbled blindly on out of the cool shade of the wood 
 into the blazing sunlight of the park. Why had she 
 been so hard with him so terribly hard ? Yet he 
 loved her ! loved her all the more distractingly for the 
 pain she had given him ! And how she had smitten 
 and scourged him with her words ! She had shown 
 a strength of feeling, an intensity of passion of which 
 he had not thought her possessed. It was all over 
 now all over between them ! (she had begged that 
 she might not see his face again !), but still he ad- 
 mired her all the more for that last meeting. There 
 was, however, a wild sense of rage and revolt gather- 
 ing in his heart, which found no vent, and which 
 was the more dangerous and reckless because of the 
 shielding tenderness with which he must still regard 
 Dolly. 
 
 Crossing the park, he spied Sir William, and at 
 once his feeling of rebellion and rage rose to find its 
 issue. He turned out of his course and strode 
 towards him. Sir William waited for him. 
 
 ",Well?"he cried genially from a little way off. 
 But when he saw Ferrers' pale, set face, he was on
 
 1 68 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 his guard. "Halloa!" he said "Is something 
 gone wrong ? " 
 
 " Everything's gone wrong ! " said Ferrers. " But 
 I shall not waste words on you. You have used me 
 for your own mean purposes, and I hate you. You 
 have lied to me, as one man should not lie to 
 another without suffering for it in his carcase. I do 
 not want to hear another word from your mouth ; I 
 have heard too many. I overheard all your talk 
 last night with your sister ; I had a pleasant visit 
 from your son in the night ; and now I just come 
 from telling your niece all I know." 
 
 "The devil ! " exclaimed Sir William. 
 
 "Yes," said Ferrers ; "I wish I could be as strong 
 and merciless as the devil with you ! " 
 
 "Ha!" sneered Sir William. "Now, I suppose, 
 that your business is done in your own way you 
 want your money." 
 
 "I want none of your dirty money," said Ferrers, 
 laying a firm grip on the baronet's shoulder a grip 
 which he wriggled to be rid of, but which held him 
 effectually, "nor any more of your insolence. You'd 
 better go and attend to your niece up there ; and 
 mark this : if with your deceit or persuasion, or any- 
 how, you get her married to that idiot son of yours.
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 169 
 
 I'll wring your wicked, lying old neck. You under- 
 stand ? " And he gripped the shoulder painfully ; 
 but Sir William did not wince, nor put off his careless 
 manner. 
 
 "That would be murder," said he, with one of his 
 old grins. 
 
 "It may be," said Ferrers, "for all I care; and it 
 will be, if you neglect what I have said." So saying, 
 he let Sir William go, and strode on towards the 
 house.
 
 170 
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WHAT CAME OF THE SIGNING OF THE SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 mad, of course," thought Sir William, as he 
 stood and looked after Ferrers. "But men don't 
 do these things. He can't think of staying in the 
 house an hour after this. I've seen the last of him, 
 then ; and now I've only got to manage Dolly. 
 Perhaps it is as well that he is gone." So he struck 
 across the park to wards the plantation to find Dolly. 
 He had just entered the shade of the trees when he 
 saw her walking towards him. He hurried to meet 
 her. 
 
 "My dear Dolly," said he, "what has this man 
 been upsetting you with ? " 
 
 " Upsetting me, uncle?" said Dolly, looking cer- 
 tainly composed, if not apathetic. "I'm not upset 
 But you say, ' this man. ' You admit, then, that he 
 is not my cousin ? " 
 
 "Your cousin? No; except in so far as all the
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 171 
 
 descendants of Adam and Eve are cousins. That 
 was but a practical joke for a certain purpose, which 
 I want now to explain to you, my dear. Come," 
 said he, "and let us walk up and down in this cool 
 place, and I'll tell you all about it" Retried to take 
 her hand to put in his arm ; but she withdrew it, and 
 stood looking at him. 
 
 " Why, " she asked, "did you wish to play your 
 practical joke on me?" 
 
 "On you, my child?" exclaimed Sir William in 
 some astonishment "I've not played it on you; 
 I've played it or have meant to play it on your 
 trustees, on Drew and Drumly." 
 
 "How can you say that," she demanded, "when 
 you set him to behave to me as if he were my cousin, 
 and got me to treat him as if he were ? It was unkind 
 and shameful of you, uncle shameful ! " 
 
 Sir William bit his nail, and considered his niece 
 with a worried and critical look. " Was it, my dear ? " 
 said he. "I am very sorry very, indeed. But you 
 must know that, if that has been the result, it has 
 been entirely owing to a miscalculation : you must 
 know I never could mean any indignity or or shame 
 to you, my child. Sheer miscalculation, believe me. 
 And I'm not surprised that I should miscalculate,
 
 l-jt A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 when I had so much to think of. The matter is indeed 
 more serious and even desperate than I have led you 
 to suppose." He turned aside, as if to wipe a tear 
 from his eye, and out of the corner noted with glad- 
 ness that the girl's generous heart was moved to 
 something of compunction, if not of pity. 
 
 "What is serious and desperate ? " she asked. 
 
 " You are ji good girl, and a clever girl, Dolly," 
 said he. "Let us walk gently along here, and I'll 
 tell you in a few words the whole business. I have 
 always meant to set it before you ; but the necessity 
 for doing it has come rather sooner than I expected. 
 You know your father, my brother, was always proud 
 of the family name, and of this old family place. 
 You are not listening, Dolly. " 
 
 "Yes, uncle," said Dolly, bringing back her eyes 
 from a distant gaze, ' ' I am. " 
 
 "Well," continued Sir William, " one of his reasons 
 for going into the banking business was, at first, to 
 make money to help to set the house up again ; for 
 we have long been poor. But after a while we quar- 
 relled, he and I ; perhaps it was my fault ; I daresay 
 it was. I was in debt here, and he wouldn't help me 
 with his money. " 
 
 "Wouldn't help you with money?" exclaimed
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 173 
 
 Dolly. "That seems very unlike my father: he 
 always gave me more than I wanted." 
 
 "Ah, that was different, my dear. He gave me 
 none ; and the consequence was that I had to mort- 
 gage the estate for a certain sum (mortgage, my dear, 
 means that the right to possess the estate has been 
 given over in pledge or security for the sum of money 
 I borrowed ; so that if at a certain time the money 
 is not paid back, the person that lent the money 
 comes and takes the house and estate), and that has 
 gone on till the estate is mortgaged ' up to the hilt,' 
 as people say, and if I cannot pay it off by the Jist, 
 house and estate and all are lost" 
 
 "And other people will own this place this wood, 
 and the park, and the farms and come to live in the 
 dear old house ? Oh, how dreadful ! And father 
 knew that that might happen ? " 
 
 "Er no," said Sir William; "I never told him 
 of the mortgages. " 
 
 "But you'll pay the people, won't you, and not 
 let the place go ? " 
 
 ' ' I can't, my dear I can't ! And that's why I am 
 telling you all this. Your father would not help me 
 with money ; but he was still proud of the family 
 name, and wished to keep it up. Now, I had only
 
 174 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 a son, and he had only a daughter your own 
 self; and his plan was that you and my boy 
 should marry : you would bring the money and 
 he the estate ; and so the family would be set up 
 again. " 
 
 "Yes, uncle, I know all that," said Dolly. 
 
 "And you were brought up to look forward to that. 
 Are you listening, my child ? " 
 
 "Yes, uncle. But I don't see what that has to do 
 with your curious joke of introducing to me as my 
 cousin a man who is not my cousin." 
 
 "I'm coming to that, my dear. Your father had 
 one reservation an important one about your mar- 
 riage. He believed that marriage between cousins 
 is unfortunate unless they are quite healthy people : 
 because of their relationship, you understand, my 
 child. Now, he got it into his head that my boy, 
 your cousin Will, was not so heartily strong as he 
 would like him to be, though he thought he might be all 
 right as he got older. So before he died, he instructed 
 your guardians, Drew and Drumly, not to sanction the 
 marriage unless they were satisfied of the good health 
 of your cousin. For a long while, as you know, 
 your cousin has been away to grow strong ; but he 
 is not yet all that he ought to be."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 175 
 
 ' ' I know, " Dolly astonished her uncle by declaring. 
 " I saw him this morning." 
 
 "You saw him this morning?" 
 
 " I did not know at the time that it was he ; but I 
 know now. I only saw him at a distance." 
 
 "Well as you probably saw, my dear," said Sir 
 William "he is very nearly as well as anybody 
 need be, though I should not like to show him to 
 your guardians for a month or more. Now you 
 understand why, in my desperation, I let the man 
 Ferrers introduce himself to them as William Dawl- 
 ish." 
 
 "No," said Dolly ; " I don't understand." 
 
 "Look here, my dear,'' said Sir William. I'm in 
 this desperate and deplorable fix : the estate, the 
 house, and everything must go, on the 3ist, if the 
 mortgage be not paid ; my only chance of paying it 
 off is by your marriage with your cousin being not 
 celebrated but sanctioned ; and that sanction your 
 cousin is not ready to win from your guardians. I 
 find, then, a man who is like enough to your cousin 
 to pass for him among people who have not seen him 
 for years, and who is strong and healthy enough to 
 win the sanction by merely showing himself." 
 
 "Still, I don't understand," persisted Dolly.
 
 176 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN, 
 
 " How does the sanction give you money to pay the 
 mortgage ? " 
 
 "Surely you know, my dear," said Sir William, 
 "that as soon as your guardians sign the sanction of 
 your marriage, you have command of all your 
 father's money to do what you like with ; while you 
 are recommended to apply a certain part of it to buy 
 back the parts of the Dawlish estate that long ago 
 were lost." 
 
 ' ' / shall have command of all my father's money ? " 
 exclaimed Dolly. 
 
 "You, my dear, and you alone. And, "continued 
 Sir William, "I know that you are as fond of the 
 Dawlish estate, and as proud of the Dawlish name, 
 as your father was, or as I am." 
 
 "Is the Dawlish name," asked Dolly simply, 
 "something to be very proud of?" 
 
 " Surely, my child. And you would not let it, or 
 the Dawlish estate, be lost, would you ? " 
 
 "I should not like to see other people strangers 
 living here. " 
 
 "Well, then, my child : it all depends on you. 
 Your guardians are bringing down the papers this 
 afternoon, and will sign the sanction, and hand over 
 to you the control of the money. "
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 177 
 
 " That means, uncle," said Dolly, stopping and 
 looking in Sir William's face, "that you have ar- 
 ranged that my marriage with my cousin shall be 
 settled this afternoon ; and that then, as soon as I 
 have in that way got the right to my father's money. 
 I shall pay off your mortgage. You have arranged 
 all that without asking me." 
 
 Sir William looked uncomfortable and somewhat 
 foolish ; decidedly the girl had more business faculty 
 than he had imagined. 
 
 "I did not wish to trouble you about it. Besides, 
 my plan would not have worked smoothly with you 
 before your guardians if you had known it, and then 
 I thought that as soon as you knew it, and the des- 
 perate necessity for it, you would be sure to fall in 
 with my arrangements." 
 
 "That was rather rash of you, uncle," said she, 
 "to suppose that I should have agreed with you that 
 there was a desperate necessity for my being played 
 with and put to shame by a strange man." 
 
 Then Sir William was seriously alarmed, and he 
 endeavoured somewhat awkwardly to appease her. 
 " 'Put to shame,' my dear! Surely not," said he. 
 " At any rate there can be no more of it, for the man 
 has had his reward, and is gone." 
 
 12
 
 178 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Had his reward?" exclaimed Dolly, flaming 
 with resentment. " Do you mean the money you 
 promised him ? " 
 
 "Er yes," said Sir William. 
 
 "And did he really take it ? " demanded Dolly with 
 flashing eyes. 
 
 " He did. Why not? " said the baronet. " He is 
 only a common low fellow, and " 
 
 "He is not a low fellow ! " exclaimed Dolly, turn- 
 ing on her uncle. "And if he were, it does not say 
 much for my cousin, since you set the one to repre- 
 sent the other." 
 
 To that Sir William had nothing to say. Dolly 
 walked on, and he kept beside her, perplexed beyond 
 measure. Did she or did she not care at all for the 
 "low fellow?" In either case, it would be better 
 he should avoid the subject. For him the great mat- 
 ter was to win her to his purpose, and he saw no way 
 of doing that but by appealing again to her gener- 
 osity, and (perhaps) to her regard for the family 
 honour. 
 
 "Well, Dolly, my child," said he, "you see I am 
 at your mercy I, the house, the estate and all. What 
 are you going to do with us ? " 
 
 "Why," said she, "do you not let the sanction
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 179 
 
 alone at present, and tell Mr. Drew or Mr. Drumly 
 the truth about your mortgage, and ask them for the 
 money ? " 
 
 ' ' Ask them for the money ? " Sir William laughed. 
 "Do you imagine, my child, that I have not 
 thought of all these things ? They would not lend 
 me, much less give me, a penny. There is, believe 
 me, no way but the way I have taken ; and if you 
 do not join me in it, now at the last, then I am ruined, 
 and the Dawlish name and the Dawlish estate are 
 both lost ! " 
 
 "If I had the money, you know I would give it 
 you at once. But I cannot I will not to-day 
 promise to marry any one ! I will not be hurried 
 into marriage, or into a promise of marriage. I have 
 not even been asked yet ! " 
 
 "That is not Will's fault, poor boy," said Will's 
 father. " He is pining to see you and to talk to you. 
 And then there is no attempt or desire to hurry you, 
 my child ; the marriage need not come off for a long 
 while ; indeed, if you find, when you really know 
 each other, that you bitterly object to it, it need not 
 come off at all. The immediate necessity is this 
 sanction, which is just as much as saying in a for- 
 mal way that you may marry. God knows, it is not
 
 l8o A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN 
 
 for myself I humble myself and appeal to you. It 
 will be no benefit to me to get the mortgage paid off; 
 I am a pretty old man, and I cannot last very much 
 longer " 
 
 "Don't say that, please," said Dolly, impulsively 
 laying her hand on his arm, while Sir William wiped 
 an imperceptible tear from his eye. 
 
 "All I want is to leave the Dawlish name and the 
 Dawlish place to those who come after me to you, 
 my dear, and your cousin, I hope." 
 
 "What do you want me to do, then?" she asked, 
 clasping her hands in resignation. 
 
 "Only this, my dear only this," said Sir William; 
 "say nothing about your discovery that that man is 
 not your cousin, and appear when I call for you to 
 see the sanction signed, and to put your own name 
 to a paper of settlement which will give you the con- 
 trol of your father's money." 
 
 "Very well," said she in cold resignation. 
 
 "My dear," exclaimed Sir William, grasping her 
 hand in thankfulness, and offering to kiss her, "you 
 are an angel ! " 
 
 "No, I'm not," said Dolly. "And I'd rather 
 please not be kissed now. I'd like to walk up and 
 down here a little in the shade, if you don't mind 
 leaving me alone."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 181 
 
 "Certainly, my girl," said her uncle; "but don't 
 be late for lunch." 
 
 So they parted ; and when Sir William had disap- 
 peared, Dolly went back to the little hollow and sat 
 down. She was miserable exceedingly, and her 
 heart burned with shame and resentment. For a 
 brief while after Ferrers had left her she felt that she 
 had been wantonly hard and cruel to him ; but now 
 that Sir William told her that he ha d taken money 
 money ! for the unworthy, the shameful part he had 
 played, she could not endure the thought of him. 
 How utterly mean and despicable it was in him to do 
 that, especially after all he had said to her. Probably 
 he was now on his way back to London, with his 
 pocket full of gold, laughing to himself at the absurd 
 girl he had had a scene with. With flaming cheeks 
 and flashing eyes, she smote her hands together, 
 stamped her foot on the ground, and left the hollow 
 and the plantation, and returned to the house. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Ferrers was not gone. After 
 his violent ebullition of temper with Sir William, he 
 came to himself a little, and considered that on the 
 whole it was foolish to utter such threats as he had 
 hurled at the baronet : it would be wiser and more to 
 the purpose to devise some way of circumventing
 
 1 82 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 his designs. The immediate necessity for him was 
 to prevent, if possible, any pact of marriage between 
 Dolly and the lunatic and cretinous William Dawlish. 
 Drew and Drumly had gone to town on some such 
 business, he believed, and some time that day, he 
 suspected, there would be something like a formal 
 signing of contracts. He did not see how anything 
 could be done in proper form without the presence of 
 one William Dawlish or another, yet he thought it 
 well to wait and watch. He resolved, therefore, that 
 he would not go away until he knew that Sir Wil- 
 liam's trick was abortive, or until he had seen Drumly 
 and set before him the whole matter. 
 
 When he reached the house, he went straight to 
 his room and stayed there. From his window he 
 saw Sir William return from the plantation, and by- 
 and-by Dolly, and he argued that it looked well for 
 his own purpose that they came separate, and not as 
 those who were agreed. He did not, of course, go 
 down to lunch ; he lay on his bed to pass the time, 
 thinking of all that had come and gone since he had 
 entered on this adventure. He had no sense of hun- 
 ger, but his brain was on fire, and he was consumed 
 with thirst. He drank all the water in his carafe, 
 and was beginning to drink from his ewer, when a
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 183 
 
 tap came to his door. He said, "Come in ; " when 
 there entered the man Murphy, whom he had seen 
 the night before in charge of Mr. Dawlish. He bore 
 in his hand a tall tumbler containing a foaming 
 drink. 
 
 " Ye'll excuse me, sorr," said the man; "but I 
 knowed ye was here, and ye won't mind me, for I 
 know all about it, and this is a sorra black house to 
 be in. Ye've ate no victuals, that I know, and the 
 thirst must be upon ye, and this is just the thing for 
 ye. Divvle a thing is there in it but a dhrop av the 
 craytur, and limmon juice and sody-water. It's just 
 what they're for callin' a limmon squash, if ye'll 
 excuse me." 
 
 "Thank you," said Ferrers; "I'm very much 
 obliged." 
 
 He drank it greedily, without stopping to consider 
 the good faith of the Irishman. 
 
 "I mustn't stop wid ye," said the man, taking the 
 empty tumbler ; "the barranite might find me out, 
 bad luck to 'im ! Ye'll excuse me, sorr." And so 
 saying he departed. 
 
 Ferrers was refreshed and stimulated by the drink, 
 insomuch that he walked up and down his room to 
 allay his restless desire to be out and acting ; but
 
 1 84 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 presently he became unconquerably drowsy ; so he 
 lay down upon his bed and fell asleep. 
 
 How long he slept he could not tell ; but when he 
 came thickly and vaguely to himself, and looked 
 about him, he saw by the long shadows that the after- 
 noon must be far advanced towards evening. He 
 sprang from bed, and accused himself of dereliction 
 of duty. Probably, Drew and Drumly had arrived 
 from town, and perhaps the fatal moment for Dolly 
 had already passed ! He strode to the door. It was 
 locked on the outside ! Then he guessed that it was 
 intended he should be kept there, and that probably 
 for that end the drink had been sent to him. He was 
 infuriated. He rushed to the window it was but 
 one floor removed from the ground, but the height 
 was considerable he clambered out without hesita- 
 tion, and, clinging first to the window-frame and 
 then to the window-sill and a contiguous limb of ivy, 
 which was torn from its embrace of the wall by his 
 weight, he swung himself down. He alighted on a 
 flower-bed and fell to a sitting posture, and before he 
 could recover himself two pairs of stout arms were 
 upon him. But he was too old a soldier to be com- 
 pletely caught by an enemy at unawares. Quick as 
 thought, he guessed the situation : the papers were
 
 A SOLDIEK AND A GENTLEMAN. 185 
 
 being signed somewhere at hand, and Sir William had 
 tried to ensure his absence, first, by the prepared 
 drink ; second, by locking him into his room ; and 
 third, by telling off two men to lay hold of and secure 
 him should he have the hardihood to escape by the 
 window. That explanation flashed in order upon him 
 as soon as he felt himself laid hold of. He kept him- 
 self together till the men, thinking they had him, bore 
 carelessly off their grip, when, shooting out one foot 
 and getting the other well planted, he swung out his 
 arms with tremendous force, flung his assailants off, 
 and sprang erect Then he turned to see who they 
 were, and recognised them as the man Murphy and 
 the Irish-American. If they were on the watch for 
 him there, he thought, the great crisis must be passing 
 in some room accessible from the garden, and what 
 room could that be but the library, in which he had 
 already had two adventures ? He rushed to its French 
 window, which, he observed, stood open. He was 
 on its threshold when he saw, in one glimpse, Drew 
 and Drumly seated at the table with papers, Sir Wil- 
 liam leaning over opposite, and Dolly stooping in act 
 to write. 
 
 " Stop ! " he shouted, when his assailants again 
 flung themselves upon him. He was in a fury of rage.
 
 I 86 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 He gripped them by the throat, one with either hanh, 
 as a man of common height and strength might grip 
 two Dutch dolls, banged their heads twice together, 
 and flung them away. Then he strode into the room, 
 and encountered a strange look of mingled shyness 
 and wonder from Dolly. That look inexplicably 
 thrilled him with a reckless pride in his strength, so 
 that for the moment he felt a strong desire to return 
 into the garden and pound the two men together till 
 they were limp and worthless. But he did not 
 
 " What what what is the meaning of this ? " said 
 Mr. Drew, in a soothing tone. " You've been upset, 
 eh ? with the hot sun to-day. Sir William told us 
 you were lying down to get rid of the feeling." 
 
 "Sir William," said Ferrers, " is a liar. I never 
 had a touch of sun in my life. But I am a liar, too ; 
 I have been acting a lie 1 " 
 
 "Bless me! " exclaimed Drew, pale with wonder, 
 while Drumly sat silent and grimly sorrowful ; and 
 Sir William with a look and gesture aside endeavoured 
 to signify that no notice should be taken of these 
 wild words. 
 
 " I am quite aware of the meaning of what I say," 
 continued Ferrers, "and I beg you" looking at 
 Drew and Drumly " to listen to me. You are sitting
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 187 
 
 here, I believe, to arrange or to settle a marriage 
 between Miss Dawlish and William Dawlish : that 
 is no business of mine except in so far as I have 
 come before you as William Dawlish. My name is 
 not Dawlish, and I am no relation of the Dawlishes." 
 
 "You did not, then," said Drumly, "sign this 
 paper a few minutes ago ? " 
 
 He showed Ferrers a signature "William Dawl- 
 ish " at the end of a sheet of writing. 
 
 " No," answered Ferrers ; " I did not write that" 
 
 "What is your name, then ? " asked Drew. 
 
 "George Ferrers." 
 
 " Humph ! 'G. F.,' " said Drew. "Go on, sir." 
 
 "I have little more to say," continued Ferrers. 
 "At Sir William Dawlish's request, I introduced 
 myself to you as William Dawlish ; and all the rest 
 has followed from that. And, though the marriage 
 is no concern of mine, you must allow me to say 
 this, that you will regret it, and Miss Dawlish will 
 regret it, if you let anything be arranged until you 
 have seen and spoken to the real William Dawlish, 
 whom I saw and spoke to last night for the first 
 time." 
 
 "Where did you see him and speak to him?" 
 demanded Drew.
 
 1 88 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " In this house," answered Ferrers. 
 
 " In this house ! " exclaimed Drew, and glared at 
 Sir William, who stood a monument of rage and 
 despair. 
 
 "I am sorry," said Ferrers, "I ever had to do 
 with the shameful business. I will make no excuses 
 for myself," he continued, with a glance at Dolly, 
 who sat with heaving bosom and averted eyes ; "and 
 if you wish to punish me, I am ready to submit." 
 
 Drew looked at Drumly, and Drumly looked at 
 Drew and shook his head. 
 
 "No, sir," said Drew; "there is no need fora 
 scandal. The best thing you can do is to go away 
 and let us hear of you no more." 
 
 "Very well," said Ferrers ; "I shall go at once. I 
 only ask permission to go first to the room I have 
 been occupying to put on my own clothes ; I do not 
 wish to keep anything that has been bought with Sir 
 William Dawlish's money, or that might remind me 
 of this." 
 
 Drew and Drumly looked at Sir William, who gave 
 no sign ; so Drew nodded to Ferrers in token of 
 assent. Ferrers was crossing the room to go out by 
 the door when Dolly spoke. 
 
 " I should like," said she, looking at her guardians,
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 189 
 
 'to ask Mr. Ferrers one question Did he to-day 
 receive money from my uncle ? " 
 
 "Money!" exclaimed Ferrers. "I would not 
 accept a shilling from Sir William Dawlish ! " 
 
 Upon that reply, the guardians looked at their 
 ward. 
 
 " That is all," said she. 
 
 So Ferrers went out, his heart bursting with this 
 fresh indignity, which he thought Miss Dawlish had 
 put upon him, and at the end of a few minutes 
 during which those in the library kept their positions 
 in silence he appeared crossing the gravel sweep, in 
 an old tweed suit and with a small paper parcel under 
 his arm. They watched him walk away down the 
 drive towards the gate, till he was hidden by the 
 trees.
 
 190 * SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 "SiR WILLIAM," said Drumly, "would you be so 
 good as leave us with our ward for a little ? " 
 
 "Certainly," said Sir William, " and after that I 
 should like to explain this matter to you." And hav- 
 ing so said, he went out. 
 
 When he had gone, Drumly sat up, and from under 
 his heavy brows considered with a grave, kindly 
 thoughtfulness the apathetic attitude and look of 
 Miss Dawlish. Then he turned to his partner. 
 " Drew," said he, " that's a very fine young fellow : 
 I hope no harm is going to come to him." 
 
 Dolly glanced quickly up, with sharp anxiety and 
 dread on her face. " Oh," said she, " I hope not ! " 
 
 Drumly said nothing for a moment ; but his partner 
 was amazed to see that eye of Drumly which was 
 next to him half close and open again : he would 
 have said Drumly had winked, had he ever known
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 191 
 
 him wink before, or had his solemn face permitted 
 him to believe that he had winked then. 
 
 "Well, my dear," said Drumly, leaning his elbows 
 on the table and playing with one of the quills before 
 him, " would you mind telling us whether you had 
 any conversation to-day with Mr. Ferrers about these 
 matters? You needn't be afraid of us, my dear, or 
 shy with us : we are your father's friends, who are 
 anxious to see you happy old fellows who know the 
 world (Drew here is an old married man, as you 
 know, and I'm an incorrigible old bachelor), and 
 who may be able to give you advice. Did he tell 
 you at all how this had come about ? " 
 
 "Yes ; he did," answered Dolly. 
 
 "Would you mind telling us the facts of the case 
 as he put them ? " 
 
 So Dolly related " the facts of the case," as barely 
 as she could, laying unconscious stress upon the, to 
 her, shameful fact that he had undertaken the ad- 
 venture for money. 
 
 "Will you forgive me, my dear," said Drumly, "if 
 I ask whether you spoke to him warmly about that ? " 
 
 "I did," confessed Dolly, and blushed violently. 
 " Indeed, I think now I said many harder things 
 than h deserved."
 
 193 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 At that moment there came an interruption, The 
 pony-chaise swept up, and Lord Debrett jumped out ; 
 he had just returned from town. Seeing the library 
 window open and people sitting within, he entered. 
 He stood and looked round upon the three, and on 
 the papers on the table. 
 
 ' ' Not intruding, I hope ? " said he. ' ' But I fancied 
 
 I passed at the end of the avenue Mr. er " he 
 
 hesitated. 
 
 "Mr. Ferrers ?" suggested Drumly. 
 
 "Ferrers?" said Debrett. "Well, yes; Ferrers. 
 There's been an eclaircissement, then, I suppose ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Drew, "and Mr. Ferrers is gone." 
 
 "Gone ! " exclaimed Debrett "Then, by Jove ! 
 I go too ! Don't take that away," he shouted to the 
 man in charge of the chaise. "I'll want it. Excuse 
 me," said he, turning alternately to Drew and Drumly, 
 "but you shouldn't have turned him out in such a 
 hurry. You should have heard the whole story. 
 He's a capital fellow the best fellow in the world ; 
 and this lark was not his doing. It was Sir William's 
 idea, and I led Ferrers into it, and I persuaded him 
 the other day to keep it up, when he began to think 
 it looked fishy." 
 
 "And how fishy it is," said Drumly, "I don't
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 193 
 
 think a gentleman like you, my lord, can have 
 guessed. If you will give Mr. Drew a moment, I'm 
 sure he will be glad to give you the real facts of the 
 lark." 
 
 Drumly made a sign to Drew that he wished to be 
 alone with Dolly, and Drew rose and went out by 
 the open window to explain the case to Lord 
 Debrett. 
 
 "Dolly, my dear," said Drumly as soon as they 
 were alone, "I want to tell you something about 
 myself, if you will let me " Dolly merely signified 
 her assent and attention by fixing her eyes on him. 
 " When I first came to London," said he, " many 
 years ago, I was very poor, so poor at one time that 
 I did not know where to get food not even a crust 
 of bread. " 
 
 " How dreadful ! " exclaimed Dolly, all sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 "One night," continued Drumly, "I went out of 
 the little lodging I had. I was faint with hunger. I 
 had had no food at all that day, and scarcely any the 
 day before. I was passing a restaurant where many 
 people were going in to dinner. As I was near the 
 door, almost mad with the desire for food, a cab 
 dashed up and a gentleman jumped out. In pulling
 
 194 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 out his money to pay the cabman he dropped a shil- 
 ling which rolled over the pavement close to me ; I 
 put my foot on it The gentleman quarrelled with 
 the cabman about his fare, and made a to-do about 
 the money he had dropped, so that a good many 
 people gathered. Hidden by them I picked up the 
 shilling, and went and spent part of it on a supper of 
 bread and cheese. Now that seems to you perhaps 
 a mean, dishonest thing to have done ? " 
 
 Dolly said nothing, but her eyes were fixed on him. 
 
 "But, my dear," continued Drumly, "you have 
 never missed a meal, unless you may have been 
 unwell, and you have never wanted for a shilling. 
 You have no idea how hunger may make you des- 
 perate, how it may make you hate those who are 
 well fed, and how it may tempt you to do things 
 you would otherwise shrink with shame from. Mr. 
 Ferrers told you he was poor, did he not? when Sir 
 William made him the tempting offer." 
 
 "He said he was poor poorer than I would 
 believe," answered Dolly. 
 
 "Yes," said Drumly; "I thought so. He was 
 probably starving, though he was too proud to tell 
 you so ; did not perhaps know where he was to get 
 his next meal."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 195 
 
 "Dreadful dreadful!" exclaimed Dolly, wring- 
 ing her hands. ' ' And I said cruel things to him ! 
 cruel, cruel, cruel ! Perhaps he's going back to 
 London to starve now ! I'm sure he has no money ! " 
 She rose to her feet, but in a moment sat down again, 
 and burst into tears, saying: "What shall I do? 
 What shall I do ? " * 
 
 "Here is the pony-chaise outside. Suppose," 
 suggested Drumly, "we drive after him you and I 
 and ask him to forgive us for being so hard with 
 him. It may cheer him up, and perhaps he will not 
 be too proud to take money from me." 
 
 "Oh, yes," she cried. " Let us go at once." 
 
 Drumly limped to the window and said to LonJ 
 Debrett that, if he would not object, he wished to 
 have the pony-chaise for a while. 
 
 " If you have really a regard for Mr. Ferrers," he 
 added, "you will wait here till I come back. You 
 can help me to make things look better. " 
 
 To his partner he gave the short but sufficient 
 explanation that he was going to take Dolly for a 
 short drive to soothe her nerves. 
 
 "Now," said Drumly, when he had returned into 
 the room, " I'll get your things I know where they 
 hang; don't you trouble." Then, while he limped
 
 196 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 out into the hall to get her cloak and hat, and his 
 own coat and wide-awake, he said to himself : "She 
 is a high-spirited girl, and I must go gently and 
 gradually with her." 
 
 Presently they were driving smartly away towards 
 the gate, Drew looking after them, and wondering 
 what had come to his old taciturn partner. At the 
 gate they drew up, and Drumly asked the lodge- 
 keeper which way the "gentleman" had gone who 
 had passed out about half an hour before. He was 
 shown the way, and then he drove on. 
 
 " He must have set out on the tramp to London/' 
 said Drumly. "We can't possibly miss him alon 
 this road, unless he should have reached the com- 
 mon before we overtake him." 
 
 "Oh, drive on, then, please, as fast as you can ' 
 said Dolly. 
 
 Then, as they sped lightly over the smooth road, 
 Drumly began to let such things as these fall on her 
 ear sayings by which she could be neither alarmed 
 nor offended, because they were uttered in a kind 
 of soliloquy : "It is possible to be too proud as 
 well as to be too humble ; and there is a humility 
 that looks like pride as well as a pride that apes 
 humility. The best thing in the few affairs of real
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 197 
 
 moment in life is to be rid of affectations, if possible, 
 and to let nature speak ; for, certainly, more cold- 
 ness, more unhappiness, and more heart-burning are 
 caused by mere misunderstandings than by any- 
 thing else in the world. Rank and wealth are not 
 to be despised in the curious compromise of a world 
 in which we live; but, if you want to know full, 
 enduring happiness, you must set your heart on the 
 simple eternal things of life love and sympathy, 
 health and honour." 
 
 Thus they drove on, and thus these sayings and 
 simple sentiments fell gently on Dolly's soul, gently 
 as the dew, concerning which, when once it has 
 settled, it is difficult to say whether it has fallen 
 or risen. 
 
 Meanwhile, Ferrers was striding on towards the 
 great maelstrom of the despairing and the dis- 
 appointed the huge London whose canopy of 
 smoke he could discern miles away as he mounted 
 the Downs. His heart was filled with wrath and 
 bitterness, but, at least, his conscience was now 
 clear. He had made what amends he could for 
 the evil he had wrought. He saw nothing hope- 
 ful before him, but he knew he must keep a firm 
 nether lip, and work at something for a living
 
 198 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 what, he knew not yet. But he had health and 
 strength : the springy turf of the common on which 
 he had entered was as grateful to the foot as ever, 
 and the evening breeze which blew over the fir-trees 
 and the bracken was fresh to the cheek and sweet 
 to the smell. 
 
 He was somewhat discomposed in these thoughts 
 by the sound of --/heels behind him. As the sound 
 came nearer it jarred him more. So he turned far- 
 ther aside from the road, leaving the even turf and 
 plunging in among the bracken. Would it not be 
 pleasant, he thought, to make his bed there for the 
 night, and go on refreshed in the early dawn ? when 
 his ear told him that the vehicle had stopped. He 
 turned and saw that a man and a woman had got 
 out. He was astounded to hear his name called : 
 "Ferrers ! " 
 
 Then he saw the man move towards him, and the 
 man limped ! Could it be Drumly ? What did he 
 want with him ? To arrest him ? He walked to 
 meet the man. 
 
 "What do you want with me?" he asked gruffly 
 when they met. " Are you going to carry me back, 
 to take me to prison ? Well, I don't care ! " 
 
 " You're a foolish young man," said Drumly. " I
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 199 
 
 want to be your friend. And here's a young lady 
 come to have a word with you." 
 
 "What? Miss Dawlish ? " 
 
 He went to her, hardening his heart as much as 
 possible with thought of all the angry and cruel 
 things she had said to him. He stood in her pres- 
 ence with his hands crossed before him, like a sol- 
 dier standing at ease. He did not speak. 
 
 "I have come after you," she said, frankly look- 
 ing in his eyes, " to speak to you. I have been very 
 wicked to you. I said ugly, cruel things to you, 
 and thought mean thoughts of you. I am bitterly 
 bitterly sorry ! Please, forgive me ! " 
 
 She let her head droop, and offered her hand. 
 Ferrers seized it in a passion of gratitude, and sank 
 on his knees kissing it, while great, painful sobs 
 heaved his chest, and scalding hot tears were wrung 
 from his eyes. The burning tears fell on Dolly's 
 hand. 
 
 "Oh, my love ! my poor love ! " she cried wildly, 
 now weeping herself. She bent over him, and 
 stroked his head with fluttering hand, scarce know- 
 ing what she did, and still cried, scarce knowing 
 what she said, " My dear ! my dear ! " 
 
 Ferrers rose, still holding her hand. They looked
 
 300 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 into each other's eyes, and said no word more ; but 
 Ferrers took her other hand also, and drew her to 
 him, and with a sigh she leaned her head upon his 
 breast. Then she appeared to come to herself. She 
 drew back covered with burning blushes, which she 
 tried to hide with her hands. 
 
 " Come, my dear," said Drumly, gently taking her 
 arm, "there's nothing to be ashamed of : you have 
 let nature speak. I think we had better take Mr. 
 Ferrers back with us as far as that little inn we 
 passed and leave him there for the night. " 
 
 So all three got into the chaise, and in a happy 
 suffusion of silence, drove back to the little inn, which 
 stood about a stone's-throw from the margin of the 
 common. 
 
 "Now," said Drumly, when they had been shown 
 into a little sitting-room, "I guessed it before, and 
 I don't need to be told now, that you two people are 
 fond of each other. For myself, I approve, and I'll 
 stand your friend throughout; but I'm not every- 
 body ; there's my partner and fellow-trustee, Drew, 
 to be considered. I'll tackle him for you, and I hope 
 I'll make it all right. But just tell me, Ferrers, will 
 you? one or two facts about yourself. I know a 
 good deal already, but I want to know more
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. aoi 
 
 facts about your life and parentage that will suit 
 Drew. Let me see. You've been a soldier, haven't 
 you ? " 
 
 "Twelve years in the Blues," said Ferrers ; " and 
 when I left I was sergeant. " 
 
 " And I'm sure, "said Dolly with a simple touch of 
 pride, "a sergeant can be as strong and brave as 
 a general. " 
 
 "And what were your people, may I ask?" said 
 Drumly. "Farming, I think?" 
 
 "Yes," said Ferrers, with a touch of pride on his 
 own part. " My people have been yeomen in Cum- 
 berland for ages." 
 
 "Humph!" said Drumly. "That ought to be 
 good enough for Drew. And Lord Debrett is an old 
 friend of yours, isn't he ? " 
 
 "He is." 
 
 "That's a touch," said Drumly, "that'll tell with 
 Drew ; he has a weakness for that kind of thing. 
 Well, now, Dolly, my dear, we must go, and we'll 
 come here and see Mr. Ferrers to-morrow morning, 
 when I hope to have news for him." 
 
 He considerately went out first, to let the lovers 
 say their adieus alone. They took each the hands of 
 the other, and looked again into each other's eyes, as
 
 202 * SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 if anew to wonder at the unfamiliar depth of love and 
 understanding they revealed. 
 
 "Was I very very angry with you ?" she asked, 
 hanging her head. 
 
 "You were," said he, "and I was very miserable; 
 but that is past." 
 
 " I think," said she, "I was angrier because you 
 were so humble. Why were you so humble ? " 
 
 " How could I," said he, " be anything but hum- 
 ble before you ? " 
 
 "Come, Dolly, my dear," sounded the voice ot 
 Drumly ; and with a clinging grasp of the hand no 
 more the lovers parted. 
 
 When they were gone, the little inn could not con- 
 tain George Ferrers. From Hell he had been raised 
 to Heaven from the lowest depth of darkness and 
 despair to the giddiest height of light, and life, and 
 hope. He went out and walked on the common. 
 As it grew dark, he returned and ate an enormous 
 supper of bread and cheese and ale it was the first 
 food he had tasted since morning and that done, he 
 went out again into the open air. He wandered 
 back the way he had come, climbed the park wall, 
 and approached the house, nearer and nearer, till he 
 was against ik, fence that separated the park from
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 103 
 
 the garden proper. Long he stayed there, waiting 
 waiting for a light to appear in the window that he 
 knew as hers. There was a light in the library ; who, 
 he wondered, was sitting there ? Aunt Dawlish with 
 her book and her candle? Or Drew and Drumly 
 discussing his prospects ? At length the long-looked 
 for light appeared, and he saw the shadow of a 
 woman's figure on the blind, the blind was raised, 
 the window was opened, and some one leaned out 
 
 "My light! my life! my love!" he murmured, 
 and turned away to get back betimes to his inn. 
 
 Meanwhile, Ferrers' destiny hung in the balance 
 in the library of Dawlish Place, and there is small 
 doubt but that the scale in which were his qualities 
 and pretensions would have kicked the beam had it 
 not been for Lord Debrett Mr. Drumly stood his 
 friend, as he had promised, but his friendship would 
 have availed little against the steadfast opposition of 
 Mr. Drew. Drew was the senior partner and trustee, 
 and he made the most of his position. Moreover 
 he was a hard-headed man of business and of the 
 world, who, notwithstanding his manner of genial 
 good-fellowship, had no great softness of heart ; and, 
 being a married man of many years' standing, he 
 had a suspicion of sentimental love affairs. In win-
 
 204 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 ning this difficult and obstinate person to a favourable 
 view of his comrade, Lord Debrett showed a shrewd- 
 ness and a worldly wisdom which excited Mr. 
 Drumly's admiration. 
 
 "No," said Drew; "I can't see how we can 
 conscientiously entertain the idea at all. Indeed, 
 frankly, I may say it appears to me an impudent and 
 preposterous pretension. You are aware, of course, 
 Lord Debrett, that Miss Dawlish is her father's sole 
 heir, and that that, in short, she ought to look very 
 high indeed for a husband." 
 
 "No doubt, Mr. Drew," said Debrett "But if 
 Miss Dawlish as Mr. Drumly assures you wishes 
 to look no higher than my friend ? " 
 
 "Oh, she's an inexperienced girl, and she'll grow 
 out of that." 
 
 "She has her father's temper, remember," said 
 Drumly, "and he was high-spirited and self-willed, 
 as you know, Drew. Besides, you mustn't forget 
 that though he desired a certain marriage for her, 
 he insisted to us that there must be nothing like 
 coercion. " 
 
 "Coercion? Who wants coercion, Drumly? I 
 only want the girl to wait till she really knows her 
 own mind."
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 20 5 
 
 "Certainly, Mr. Drew," said Debrett; '"Wait 'is 
 the word ; there's no immediate hurry. I only ask 
 you to give my friend a chance a sufficient chance. 
 And let me say this ; look as high as you like, you 
 won't find a better fellow, all round, than Ferrers. 
 You will admit, Mr. Drew, that I know something of 
 Society ? " 
 
 "Certainly," said Mr. Drew. 
 
 "Well, I prefer Ferrers for a friend to any man I 
 know. I have known him for twelve years I have 
 seen him under all sorts of circumstances, in bar- 
 racks, on the march, and in battle in the Soudan, 
 and at home with my own people (he has often 
 stayed with me). He is a staunch comrade and a 
 staunch comrade can't miss being a good husband 
 he's got all his wits about him " 
 
 "And he has the finest health," put in Drumly. 
 
 "Yes," said Debrett; "sound as a bell, and as 
 hard as nails." 
 
 "Oh," said Drew, "I've nothing to say against 
 him as a man. " 
 
 "There is nothing against him," said Debrett, 
 ' ' but this affair, and that, as you've heard, he was 
 led into. It was a pity ; it was wrong ; but he has 
 come out of it a# well as any man could. "
 
 ao6 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 "Yes," admitted Drew, " all things considered, I 
 think he has. But you see the thing is he has neither 
 property nor prospect, and, of course well, he is 
 not what we call a gentleman." 
 
 "That depends," said Debrett, "on what you 
 mean by a gentleman. If you should happen to 
 mean a man that would never do anything mean and 
 that always keeps his head, and that can reckon back 
 his people as having been of the same sort for 
 hundreds of years, then George Ferrers is a better 
 gentleman than I am. And as to property well, 
 he's not rich, and his people are not rich ; but they 
 have owned and cultivated the same land since the 
 old days of righting between England and Scotland." 
 
 "Then," said Drew, with a final burst of petulance, 
 "why doesn't he go home and inherit his father's 
 farm, and not come here asking for heiresses ? " 
 
 "No, no," said Drumly, " do him justice, Drew ; 
 he has not asked for anything ; it's we are asking on 
 his behalf." 
 
 "Then about prospects," said Debrett, keeping to 
 the subject "there, Mr Drew, you might help him." 
 
 " Me ? " exclaimed Drew. 
 
 "You might offer him," said Debrett, "a place in 
 your bank : he can tot up figures like one o'clock. "
 
 A SOLDIER AMD A GENTLEMAN. 207 
 
 Drew stared from Debrett to Drumly, and Drumly 
 laughed " Ho, ho ! " in the depth of his beard. 
 
 "I'll be responsible for him," said Debrett, "to 
 any amount." 
 
 "My dear Lord Debrett," said Drumly, "you don't 
 quite understand my partner's astonishment. Bank- 
 ing, is something like soldiering : you must be put to 
 it, or take to it, pretty young to make anything of it. 
 No ; I think the prospect for your friend is to look 
 after an estate, because he understands farming." 
 
 "Yes," said Debrett, " I suppose that's better." 
 
 "I daresay," said Drew lightly, as if it were no 
 concern of his, "he might get a situation of that 
 sort. " 
 
 "I hope he will," said Drumly: "and I have a 
 definite proposal to make, Drew, to that end. We 
 can't let Sir William's mortgage be foreclosed : we 
 agree on that. We must take it up. But we can't 
 leave Sir William in charge of the estate. Suppose 
 we put Mr. Ferrers in charge, and see if he can make 
 it pay ? " 
 
 That looked merely like business ; and Drew, after 
 pulling his whisker a moment, said: "I have no 
 objection. Very well now ; I agree to our taking up 
 the mortgage, pensioning Sir William off for the sake
 
 208 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 of his brother, and putting Mr. Ferrers in charge of 
 the estate, on condition that I hear no more of his 
 marrying Miss Dawlish. " 
 
 "You shall hear no more at present," said Drumly ; 
 "there is plenty for him to do before he thinks of 
 marrying. " 
 
 " Let me only ask this of you, Mr. Drew," said the 
 wily Debrett : ' ' permit me and my friend Ferrers to 
 visit your house." Debrett, of course, reckoned that 
 if his friend were admitted to Drew's house, he could 
 hardly be forbidden to speak to Miss Dawlish, who 
 lived there. 
 
 "Always be delighted to see you, my lord," said 
 Drew, "and I can't in common courtesy refuse to see 
 your friend." 
 
 It was impossible to insist further ; and Lord 
 Debrett was withdrawing somewhat disappointed 
 with the result of his efforts on Ferrers' behalf, when 
 Mr. Drumly took his arm and drew him aside, and 
 said: "Don't be impatient; we'll conquer Drew. 
 He thinks he's as sharp as steel, but he isn't ; he 
 thinks he can see round a corner, but he can't. 
 I believe in your friend ; he'll come out all right ; 
 and I'm going to make him my heir to-morrow." 
 
 It is not surprising that next morning before break-
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 309 
 
 fast (the party was to break up immediately after). 
 Drumly should have got out the pony-chaise, and, 
 accompanied by Dolly and Debrett of course, quite 
 without pre-arrangement should have driven down 
 the avenue and out by the great gate towards the 
 little inn on the edge of the common. Nor is it sur- 
 prising that before they had been well on the road 
 they should have encountered Ferrers, who looked 
 very shame-faced. Like an honest man, he attempted 
 no limping excuse of his being found where he was ; 
 and Drumly, leaving Debrett and Dolly to drive on 
 a little together, walked along the grassy margin OK 
 the road with his arm in that of Ferrers, and told him 
 all the news of the night before. The proposal that 
 he should take charge of the estate Ferrers unhesitat- 
 ingly accepted, inwardly resolving that at any cost 
 he would be found equal to the confidence placed in 
 him. 
 
 " It is awfully good of you," said he to Mr. Drumly, 
 "to take so much trouble for a man about whom 
 you know next to nothing. " 
 
 "You see," said Drumly, with a grim smile, "I 
 have the misfortune to like the man and believe in 
 him, and so has Lord Debretl You have really to 
 
 thank him more than me for winning Drew over to 
 
 14
 
 210 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 this arrangement. And this done, it depends on 
 yourself, my son perhaps a little on your good friend 
 Debrett how all the rest follows." 
 
 They then met Lord Debrett and Dolly driving 
 back. There were no lingering adieus ; for they 
 were all likely to meet in London next day or the 
 day after. Ferrers' heart was full : what had he 
 done to deserve all this kindness ? 
 
 "I have to thank you," said he, gripping Lord 
 Debrett's hand. 
 
 " Oh, it's all right old cnap," said Debrett "Sec 
 you in town to-morrow." 
 
 "Good-bye," said Dolly and he together; their 
 hands and their eyes met, and that was all. 
 
 So they parted for a little while. They drove 
 back to Dawlish Place, and he stood looking after 
 them till the turn of the road hid them from sight, 
 and then he returned to the little inn, whence in an 
 hour or two he departed for London. 
 
 There are but these facts further to record : Ferrers 
 won more and more the favour of the business-like 
 Drew ; within a year he had brought the administra- 
 tion of the estate and the Home Farm to a surpris- 
 ing pitch of order and economy : in little more than 
 the year he was overwhelmed by the receipt from
 
 A SOLDIER AND A GENTLEMAN. t til 
 
 Drumly of the title-deeds of the estate Drumly had 
 bought the estate, and the one condition he attached 
 to his gift to Ferrers was that the young man should 
 take the name of Dawlish, so that his late partner's 
 desire might be fulfilled that the Dawlish name 
 and the Dawlish land should keep together ; and 
 within eighteen months it was announced in the 
 newspapers that " George Ferrers Dawlish, of 
 Dawlish Place," had married "Dorothy (Dolly) 
 Dawlish, only child of the late Robert Dawlish, 
 Esquire, of the City of London. " 
 
 THE END.
 
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 Philippine Islands. Cloth Binding. 5oc. 
 
 The above is really a companion volume to the author's book on 
 Cuba and Porto Rico, and like it tells you just what you want to know 
 about our new possessions. 
 
 A Life of The Pope Leo XHL i2mq, 197 pages. 
 Neatly printed ; handsomely bound in white and 
 gold, gold top. 5oc. 
 
 This is a work that will prove valuable and interesting to all 
 thinking people, whatever may be their religious convictions. It is 
 written from a non-sectarian standpoint, and those who are familiiar 
 with Mr. Hall's entertaining and instructive treatment of the histo- 
 rical subjects with which he has formerly dealt will welcome this his 
 latest production. Pope Leo XIII. has undeniably been a potent factor 
 in the formation of the history of the world in the latter part of the 
 nineteenth century, and his personality and history are rightly sub- 
 jects in which the world at large are interested. 
 
 R IRVING HANCOCK. 
 
 "What One Man Saw. Being the personal impressions 
 of a war correspondent in Cuba. I2mo, 177 pages, 
 with six full-page illustrations from photographs 
 taken by the author. Cloth binding. 5oc. 
 
 "What One Man Saw" is a connected narrative of the personal 
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 the embarkation of General Shafter's command from Key West, lasted 
 during the dire but glorious days before the capture of Santiago, and 
 closed with the home-coming in the pest-hold of the hospital ship 
 41 Seneca." The style of this personal record is straightforward, blunt 
 and exceedingly interesting. The book constitutes a most useful and 
 comprehensive budget of history of the most dramatic days of the 
 Spanish-American war. 
 
 HENRY HARLAND. 
 
 As it Was Written A Jewish Musician's Story. 1 2mo, 
 252 pages. Cloth binding. 75C. 
 
 "As It Was Written" is the confession of a man who, under peculiar 
 circumstances, murders the woman he loves and then gives himself 
 up to Ihe punishment that the terrible crime demands. 
 
 Grandison Mathet An account of the fortunes of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thomas Gardner. I2mo, 338 pages. Cloth 
 binding. 75C. 
 
 The opening chapter gives a sunny picture of Tom's vacation in 
 Paris, after finishing his college course, and his courtship of " Mrs. 
 Tom." 
 
 His honeymoon' is without a cloud. He returns to New York, takes 
 an elegant suite of apartments and proceeds to enjoy life. One day 
 be learns through a newspaper that his agent has committed suicide 
 (7)
 
 Street & Smitb'g Catalogue of JBooftg 
 
 HENRY HARLAND Continued. 
 
 after making away with his entire fortune. Tom is a beggar, and 
 enjoys the novel experience of looking for a situation. This part of 
 the story, including the search for a cheap boarding house, is capitally 
 told. After many experiences Tom writes a successful novel and 
 makes some money. The story is a simple eyery-day one throughout 
 and is charmingly told. It is full of graphic pictures of New York life. 
 
 A Latin-Quarter Courtship, and other stories. I2mo, 
 269 pages. Cloth binding. 750. 
 
 The first story covers 190 pages, and is a charmingly told tale of 
 life and love in Paris, in which the actors are an American woman 
 doctor, her friend a young French girl, and an American author. The 
 two latter, of course, fall in love with each other. 
 
 Mrs. Peixada. I2mo, 317 pages. Cloth binding. 750. 
 
 The hero, a young lawyer whose first case is the tracking of Mrs. 
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 of shooting her husband. The plot is as peculiar as that of '* As It 
 Was Written." The denouement is a thorough surprise. 
 
 Mademoiselle Miss, and other stories. I2mo, 192 
 pages. Cloth binding. 750. 
 
 The title-story of the present volume, as well as those which follow 
 it, shows the same clear insight into character, the same strength and 
 delicacy of description, and the same faculty of individualizing the 
 personages of the narrative, as are manifest in Mr. Harland's previous 
 work. 
 
 Mea Ctilpa A Woman's Last Word. i2mo, 347 
 pages. Cloth binding. 750. 
 
 To save her father, a woman marries a European prince. It is a 
 loveless marriage and the life is a bitter one. A former lover appears ; 
 there is a duel ; the prince dies. Then, instead of marriage bells, there 
 is the sadness of farewell. The lover feels himself a murderer and 
 takes his own life in an agony of despair. 
 
 The Yoke of the Thorah. I2mo, 320 pages. Cloth 
 binding. 750. 
 
 Two lovers were to be married in the spring. That one was a Jew 
 and the other a Christian didn't seem to matter. But the God of 
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 between hope and doubt. The story is taken up with the attempts of 
 the lovers to come together and the plans of the elders to keep them 
 separate. 
 
 ERNEST WILLIAM HORNUNG. 
 
 Tiny Luttrell. I2mo, 364 pages. Printed from new 
 plates, large type, with a good strong cloth binding; 
 cover design in two colors. 500. 
 
 (8)
 
 Street & Smttb'g Catalogue of JBoofes 
 
 REV. PROF. J. H. INGRAHAM. 
 
 The Prince of the House of David ; or, Three Years in 
 the Holy City. Relating as an eye-witness all the 
 scenes and wonderful incidents in the life of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. i2mo, 278 pages, with one frontis- 
 piece illustration. Cloth binding. 500. 
 
 RUDYARD KIPLING. 
 
 The Vampire and Other Poems. 12010, 200 pages. 
 Cloth binding. 5oc. 
 
 K. ; pling has been often termed the international poet; and certainly 
 no living writer is more deserving of hemispheric fame. Kipling does 
 not rhyme of loves and doves. His poetry is of the strong, vivid kind, 
 whether he sings the song of steam or weirdly pipes the story of a 
 hanging in camp. 
 
 The verses of "The Vampire" were suggested by the renowned 
 painting by Philip Burne-Jones, first exhibited in London in 1897. A 
 reproduction of this painting is published in the book. The volume is 
 handsomely bound in cloth, and the latest picture of Mr. Kipling is 
 reproduced on the cover, stamped in gold and black by a new process. 
 
 THE REAL KRUGER and the Transvaal. I2mo, 218 
 pages. Cloth binding. 5oc. 
 
 By an Englishman, a Boer and an American. A most timely work, 
 gi vi ng a view of the situation from all sides of the case. No exhaustive 
 essays, but just the plain statement of facts that everybody wants to 
 know. 
 
 MARGARET LEE. 
 
 Divorce; or, Faithful and Unfaithful. 12 mo, 410 
 pages. Cloth binding. 5oc. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone said, in his review of this book in the Nineteenth 
 Century: "It is with great gallantry as well as with great ability 
 that Margaret Lee has ventured to combat, in the ranks on what 
 must be taken nowadays as the unpopular side, and has indicated her 
 belief in a certain old-fashioned doctrine, that the path of suffering 
 may not be the path of duty only, but likewise the path of glory and 
 of triumph for our race." 
 
 The Brooklyn Times, in commenting upon this review, added : " Mr. 
 Gladstone has, we think, done a good service in calling attention to 
 this story, which is not only above the average as a work of fiction, 
 but enters with uncommon vigor and success into its treatment of a 
 highly significant yet forbidding theme." 
 
 KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. 
 Appledore Farm. i2mo, 361 pages. Cloth binding. 
 
 500. 
 
 Appledore Farm is situated in the south-western part of England. 
 Its owner squanders his substance on the race track and in speculation 
 generally. His daughter finds her inheritance gone, and after making 
 the old discovery that the gay, handsome and outwardly devoted 
 suitor is at heart selfish and designing, accepts a good man's love, 
 eases her father's burdens, and in time becomes a satisfied woman. 
 
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