^ OF THE M y; 
 
 1 p University of California 
 
 t:t^ I GIFT OF 
 
 ^ ^ GEORGE MOREY RICHARDSON 
 
 ^( I Received, August, 1898. ^ " ' , ^ '^' 
 
 ^^' ^^ Accession No, J _^^,^ J „, Class No. j^ 
 
 baSiSEiS 
 
 S^ 
 
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K>-.i 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 A FARCICAL ROMANCE. 
 
 BY F. ANSTEY 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 GEORGE MUNRO, PUBLISHER, 
 
 17 TO 27 Vandbwater Street. 
 
p. ANSTEY^S WORKS 
 
 CONTAINED IN THE SEASIDE LIBRARY (POCKET EDITION)! 
 
 VO. 
 
 PRICE. 
 
 69 Vice Vei-sfi 20 
 
 225 The Giant's Robe 20 
 
 503 The Tinted Venua A Farcical Romance . . 10 
 
 819 A Fallen Idol 20 
 
^IL^ 
 
 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE. 
 
 Ther hopped Hawkyn, 
 Ther daunsed Dawkyn, 
 Ther trumped Tomkyn . . . 
 
 The Tournament of Tottenham. 
 
 In Southampton Row, Bloomsbuiy, there is a small alley or pas- 
 sage leading into Queen Square, and rendered inaccessible to all 
 but foot passengers by some iron posts. The shops in this passage 
 are of a subdued exterior, and are overshadowed by a dingy old 
 edifice dedicated to St. George the Martyr, which seems to have 
 begun its existence as a rather liandsome chapel, and to have im- 
 proved itself, by a sort of natural selection, into a singularly ugly 
 church. 
 
 Into this alley, one Saturday afternoon late in October, came a 
 short stout young man, with sandy hair and a perpetual grin de- 
 noting anticipation rather than enjoyment. Opposite the churcli he 
 stopped at a hair-dresser's shop, wiiich bore the name of Tweddle. 
 The display in the window was chastely severe; the conventional 
 lialf-lady revolving slowly in fatuous self-satisfaction, and the gen- 
 tleman bearing a piebald beard with waxen resignation, were not to 
 be found in this shop-front, wiiich exhibited nothing but a small 
 pile of toilet remedies and a few lengths of hair of graduated tints. 
 It was doubtful, perhaps, whether such self-restraint on the part of 
 its proprietor was the result of a distaste for empty show, or a con- 
 viction that the neighborhood did not expect it. 
 
 Inside the shop there was nobody but a small boy, corking and 
 labeling bottles; but before he could answer any question as to the 
 whereabouts of his emploj'er, that artist made his appearance. 
 Leander Tweddle was about thirt5^ of middle height, with a luxuri- 
 ant head of brown hair, and carefully trimmed whiskers that curled 
 round toward his upper lip, where they spent themselves in a faint 
 mustache. His eyes were rather small, and his nose had a deciiled 
 upward tendency; but with his pink and white complexion and 
 compact well-made figure he was far from ill-looking, though he 
 thought himself even further. 
 
 "Well, Jauncy," he said, after the first greetings, "so you 
 haven't forgot our appointment?" 
 
 " Wliy, no," explained his friend; "but I never thought I should 
 get away in time to keep it. AVe'vc been in C(>urt all the morning 
 with motions and short causes, and the old Vice sat on till past 
 
4 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 three; and when we did get back to chambers Splitter kept me there 
 discussing an opinion of "his 1 couldn't quite agree with, and I was 
 ever so long before I got him to alter it my way," 
 
 For he was clerk to a barrister in good practice, and it was 
 Jauncy's pride to discover an occasional verbal slip in some of his 
 employer's more hastily written opinions on cases, and suggest im- 
 provements. 
 
 " Well, James," said the hair-dresser, " I don't know that I could 
 have got away myself any earlier. I've been so absorbed in the 
 laborrit'ry, what with three rejuvenators and an elixir all on the 
 simmer together, I almost gave way under the strain of it; but 
 they're set to cool now, and I'm ready to go as soon as you please." 
 
 " Now," said Jauncy, briskly, as they left the shop together, "if 
 we're to get up to Rosherwich Gardens to-night, we musn't dawdle." 
 
 " I just want to look in here a minute," said Tweddle, stopping 
 before the window of a working jeweler, who sat there in a narrow 
 partition facing the light, with a great horn lens protruding from 
 one of his eyes like a monstrous growth. " I left something there 
 to be altered, and I may as well see if it's done." 
 
 Apparently it was done, for he came out almost immediately, 
 thrusting a small cardboard box into his pocket, as he rejoined his 
 friend. "Now we'd better take a cab up to Fenchurch Street," 
 said Jauncy. "Can't keep those girls standing about on the plat- 
 form." 
 
 As they drove along, Tweddle observed, " I didn't understand 
 that our party was to include the fair sect, James?" 
 
 " Didn't you ? I thought my letter said so plain enough. I'm 
 an engaged man now, you know, Tweddle. It wouldn't do if I 
 went out to enjoy myself and left my young lady at home!" 
 
 " No," agreed Leander Tweddle with a moral twinge, " no, 
 James. I'd forgot you were engaged. What's the lady's name by 
 the bye?" 
 
 " Parkinson; Bella Parkinson," was the answer. 
 
 Leander had turned a deeper color. "Did you say," he asked, 
 looking out of the window on his side of the hansom, " that there 
 was another lady going down?" 
 
 "Only Bella's sister, Ada. She's a regular jolly girl, Ada is, 
 you'll— hullo!" 
 
 For Tweddle had suddenly thrust his stick up the trap and 
 stopped the cab. "I'm very sorry, James," he said, preparing to 
 get out, " but— but you'll have to excuse me being of your com- 
 pany." 
 
 " Do you mean that my Bella and her sister are not good enough 
 company for you?" demanded Jauncy. " You were a shop assist- 
 ant yourself, Tweddle, only a short while ago!" 
 
 " I know that, James, I know; and it isn't that — far from it. I'm 
 sure they are two as respectable girls, and quite the ladies in every 
 respect, as I'd wish to meet. Only the fact is — " 
 
 The driver was listening through the trap, and before Leander 
 would say more he told him to drive on till further orders, after 
 whicli he continued : 
 
 " The fact is— we haven't met for so long that I dare say you're 
 unaware of it — but I'm engaged, James, tool" 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 6 
 
 " Wish you joy with all my heart, Tweddle; but what then?" 
 
 "Why," exclaimed Leander, "my Matilda (that's her name) is 
 the dearest girl, James; but she's most uncommon parlickler, and I 
 don't think she'd like my going to a place of open-air entertainment 
 where there's dancing — and I'll get out here, please!" 
 
 "Gammon!" said Jauncy, " that isn't it, Tweddle; don't try and 
 humbug me. You were ready enough to go just now. You've a 
 better reason than that!" 
 
 " James, I'll tell you the truth, I have. In earlier days, James, I 
 used constantly to be meeting this Miss Parkinson and her sister in 
 serciety, and I dare say I made myself so pleasant and agreeable 
 (you know what a way that is of mine) that JMiss Ada (not your 
 lady, of course) may have thought I meant something special by it, 
 and there's no saying but what it might have come in time to our 
 keeping company, ©nly I happened ]ust then to see Matilda, and— 
 and 1 haven't been near the Parkinsons ever since. So you can see 
 for yourself that a meeting might be awkward for all parties con- 
 cerned, and I really must get out, Jamrs!" 
 
 Jauncy forced him back. " It's all nonsense, Tweddle," he said, 
 "you can't back out of it now. Don't make a fuss about nothing. 
 Ada don't look as if she'd been breaking her heart for you!" 
 
 " You never can tell with women," said the hair- dresser, senten- 
 tiously ; " and meeting me sudden, and learning it could never be — 
 no one can say how she mightn't take ii!" 
 
 "I call it 'too bad," exclaimed Jauncy. "Here have I been 
 counting on you to make the ladies enjoy themselves — for I haven't 
 your gift of entertaining conversation, and don't pretend to it— and 
 you go and leave me in the lurch, and spoil their evening for them!" 
 
 " if I thought I was doing that — " said Leander, hesitating. 
 
 " Y^ou are, you know you are!" persisted Jauncy, who was anx- 
 ious to avoid the reduction of his party to so inconvenient a num- 
 ber as three. 
 
 "And see here, Tweddle, you needn't say anything of your en- 
 gagement unless you like. I give you my word I won't, not even 
 to Bella, if you'll only come! As to Ada, she can take care of her- 
 self unless Pm very much mistaken in her. So come along, like a 
 good chap!" 
 
 " 1 give in, James; I give in," said Leander. "A promise is a 
 promise, and yet I feel somehow I am doing wrong to go, and as if 
 no good would come of it, I do, indeed!" 
 
 And so he did not stop the cab a second time, and allowed him- 
 self to be taken without further protest to Fenchurch Street Station, 
 on the platform of which they found the Misses Parkinson waiting 
 for them. 
 
 Miss Bella Parkinson, the elder of the two, who was employed in 
 a large toy and fancy goods establishment in the neighborhood of 
 Westbourne Grove, was tall and slim, with pale eyes and auburn 
 hair. She had some claims to good looks, in spite of a slightly 
 pasty complexion, and a large and decidedly unamiable mouth. 
 
 Her sister Ada was the more pleasing in appearance and manner, 
 a brunette with large brown eyes, an impertinent little nose, and a 
 brilliant healthy cofor. She was an assistant to a milliner and bon- 
 oet-maker in the Edgeware Koad, 
 
6 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 Both these young ladies, when in the fulfillment of their daily 
 duties, were models of deportment; in their hours of ease, the 
 elder's cold dignity was rather apt to turn to peevishness, while the 
 younger sister, relieved from the restraints of the show-room, be- 
 trayed a lively and even frivolous disposition. 
 
 It was this liveliness and frivolity that had fascinated the hair- 
 dresser in days that had gone by, but if he had felt any self-distrust 
 now in venturing within their influence, such apprehensions vanished 
 with the first sight of the charms which had been counteracted be- 
 fore they had time to prevail. 
 
 She was well enough, this Miss Ada Parkinson, he thought now; 
 a nice-looking girl in her way, and stylishly dressed. But his Ma- 
 tilda looked twice the lady she ever could, and a vision of his be- 
 trothed (at that time taking a week's rest in the country) rose before 
 him, as if to justify and confirm his preference. 
 
 The luckless James had to undergo some amount of scolding 
 from Miss Bella for his want of punctuality, a scolding which merely 
 supplied an object to his grin; and during her remarks Ada had 
 ample time to rally Leander^Tweddle upon his long neglect, and used 
 it to the best advantage. 
 
 Perhaps he would have been better pleased by a little less in- 
 sensibility, a touch of surprise and pleasure on her part at meeting 
 him again, as he allowed himself to show in a remark that his ab- 
 sence did not seem to have affected her to any great extent. 
 
 " I don't know what you expected, Mr. Tweddle," she replied. 
 " Ought I to have cried both my eyes out? You haven't cried out 
 either of yours, you know!" 
 
 "'Men must work, and women must weep,' as Shakespeare 
 says," he observed, with a vague idea that he was making rather an 
 apt quotation. But his companion pointed out that this only ap- 
 plied to cases where the women had something to v.-eep about. 
 
 The party had a compartment to themselves, and Leander, who 
 sat at one end opposite to Ada, found his spirits rising under the 
 influence of her lively sallies. 
 
 "That's the only thing Matilda wants," he thought, " a little 
 more liveliness and go about her. I like a little chaff myself, now 
 and then, I must say." 
 
 At the other end of the carriage, Bella had been suggesting that 
 the Gardens might be closed so late in the year, and regretting that 
 they had not chosen the new melodrama at the Adelphi instead; 
 which caused Jauncy to draw glowing pictures of the attractions of 
 Rosherwich Gardens. 
 
 "I was there a year ago last summer," he said, "and it was 
 first-rate: open-air dancing, summer theater, rope-walking, fire- 
 works, and supper out under the trees. You'll enjoy yourself, 
 Bella, right enough when you get there ! " 
 
 " If that isn't enough for you, Bella," cried her sister, "you 
 must be diflicult to please ! I'm sure I'm quite looking forward to 
 it, aren't you Mr. Tweddle?" 
 
 The poor man was cursed by the fatal desire of pleasing, and 
 unconsciously threw an altogether unnecessary degree of empresse- 
 ment into his voice as he replied, " In the company'l am at present, 
 
1?HE TINTED TEKUS. 7 
 
 I should look forward to it, if it was a wilderness with a funeral 
 in it," 
 
 "Oh, dear me, Mr. Tweddle, that is a pretty speech!" said 
 Ada, and she blushed in a manner which appalled the concience- 
 stricken hair-dresser. " There I go again," he thought remorsefully, 
 " putting things in the poor girl's head — it ain't right. I'm making 
 myself too pleasant!" 
 
 And then it struck him that it would be only prudent to make 
 his position clearly understood, and, carefully lowering his voice, 
 he began a speech with that excellent intention: " Miss Parkinson," 
 he said huskih^ "there's something I have to tell you about myself, 
 very particular. Since I last enjoyed the pleasure of meeting with 
 you my prospects have greatly altered, I am no longer — " 
 
 But she cut him short with a little gesture of entreaty: " Oh, 
 not here, please, Mr. Tweddle," she said; " tell me about it in the 
 gardens 1" 
 
 '' Very well," he said, relieved; " remind me when we get there 
 — in case I forget, you know." 
 
 "Remind you!" cried Ada; "the idea,'hlv. Tweddle! I cer- 
 tainly sha'n't do any such thing." 
 
 " She thinks 1 am going to propose to her." he thought, rue- 
 fully; " it will be a delicate business undeceiving her. I wish it 
 was over aud done with!" 
 
 It was quite dark by the time they had crossed the river by the 
 ferry, aud made their way up to the entrance to the pleasure gar- 
 dens, imposing enough, with its white colonnade, its sphinxes, and 
 lines of colored lamps. 
 
 But no one else had crossed with them; and, as they stood at 
 the turnstiles, all they could see of the grounds beyond seemed so 
 dark and silent that they began to have involuntary misgivings. "I 
 suppose," said Jauncy to the man at the ticket-hole, " the gardens 
 are open, eh?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," he said gruflSy, " they're open — they're open; though 
 there ain't much going on out of doors, being the last night of the 
 season." Bella again wished that they had selected the Adelphi 
 for their evening's pleasure, and remarked that Jauncy " might 
 have known." 
 
 " Well," said the latter to the party generally, " what do you say 
 — shall we go in, or get back by the first train home?" 
 
 " Don't be so ridiculous, James," said Bella, peevishly ; " what's 
 the good of going back, to be too late for everything? The mis- 
 chief's done now." 
 
 "Oh, let's go in!" advised Ada, "the amusements and things 
 will be just as nice in-doors — nicer on a chilly evening like this;" 
 and Leander seconded her heartily. 
 
 So they went in ; Jauncy leading the way with the still complain- 
 ing Bella, and Leander Tweddle bringing up the rear with Ada. 
 They picked their way as well as they could in the darkness 
 caused by the closely planted trees and shrubs, down a winding 
 path, where the sopped leaves gave a slippery foothold and the 
 branches flicked moisture insultingly in their faces as they pushed 
 them aside. 
 
 A dead silence reigned everywhere, broken only by the wind as 
 
8 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 it rustled amongst the bare twigs, or the whistling of a flaring gas- 
 torch protruding from some convenient tree. 
 
 Jauncy occasionally shouted back some desperate essay at jocular- 
 ity, at which Ada laughed with some perseverance, until even she 
 could no longer resist the influence of the surroundings. 
 
 On a hot summer's evening those grounds, brilliantly illuminated 
 and crowded by holiday-makers, have been the delight of thousands 
 of honest Londoners, and will be so again ; but it was undeniable 
 that on this particular occasion they were pervaded by a decent 
 melancholy. 
 
 Ada had slipped a hand, clad in crimson silk, through Leander's 
 arm, as they groped through the gloom together, and shrunk to his 
 side now and then in an alarm which was only half pretended. But 
 if her light pressure upon his arm made his heart beat at all faster, 
 it was only at the fancy that the thrusting hand was ids Matilda's, 
 or so at least did he account for it to himself afterward. 
 
 They followed on, down a broad promenade, where the ground 
 glistened with autumn damps, and the unlighted lamps looked wan 
 and spectral. There was a bear-pit hard by, over the railings of 
 which Ada leaned and shouted a defiant "Boo!" but the bears had 
 turned in for the night, and the stone re-echoed her voice with a 
 hollow ring. Indistinct bird forms were roosting in cages; but her 
 umbrella had no effect upon them. 
 
 Jauncy was waiting for them to come up, perhaps as a protection 
 against his fiancee's reproaches. " In another hour," he said, with 
 an implied apology, "you'll see how different this place looks; we 
 — we've come a little too early. Suppose we fill up the time by a 
 nice little dinner at the Restorong; eh, Ada? What do you think, 
 Tweddle?" 
 
 The suggestion was received favorably, and Jauncy, thankful to 
 retrieve his reputation as leader, took them toward the spot where 
 food was to be had. 
 
 Presently they saw lights twinkling through the trees, and came 
 to a place which Avas clearly the focus of festivity; there was the 
 open-air theater, its drop-scene lowered, its proscenium lost in the 
 gloom; thei-e was the circle for al- fresco dancing, but it was bare, 
 and the clustered lights were dead , there was the restaurant, dark 
 and silent like all else. 
 
 Jauncy stood there and rubbed his chin: " This is where 1 dined 
 when we were here last," he said, at length; " and a capital little 
 dinner they gave us too!" 
 
 "What 1 should like to know," said the elder Miss Parkinson, 
 " is, where we are to dine to night." 
 
 ** Yes," said Jauncy encouragingly, " don't you fret yourself, 
 Bella, Here's an old party sweeping up leaves, we'll ask him." 
 They did so, and were referred to a'large building, in the Gothic 
 style, with a Tudor doorway, known as the *' Baronial All," where 
 lights shone behind the painted windows. 
 
 Inside, a few of the lamps around the pillars were lighted, and 
 the body of the floor was roped in as if for dancing; but the hall 
 was empty, save for a bar-maid, assisted by a sharp little girl, be- 
 hind the long bar on one of its sides. 
 Jauncv led his delected little nartv ud to this, and affain put his 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 9 
 
 inquirj' with less hopefulness. When he found that the only avail- 
 able form of refreshment that evening was bitter ale and captain's 
 biscuits, mitigated by occasional caraway seeds, he became a truly 
 pitiable object. 
 
 " They — the}^ don't keep this place up on the same scale in the 
 autumn, you see," he explained weakly; "it's very different in sum- 
 mer, what they call ' an endless round of amusements.' " 
 
 " There's an endless round of amusement now," observed Ada-, 
 " but it's a naught!" 
 
 " Oh, there'll be something going on by and by, never fear," said 
 Jauncy, determined to be sanguine; "or else they wouldn't be 
 open." 
 
 " There'll be dancing here this evening," the bar-maid informed 
 him; " that is all we open for at this time of year, and this is the 
 last night of the season." 
 
 " oil!" said Jauncy, cheerfully, " you see we only came just in 
 time, Bella: and I suppose you'll have a good many down here to- 
 night, eh, miss?" 
 
 " How much did we take last Saturday, Jenny?" said the bar- 
 maid to the sharp little girl. 
 
 " Seven and fourpence 'ap'ny — most of it beer," said the child. 
 "Margaret, I may count the money again to-night, mayn't I?" 
 
 The bar-maid made some mentalcalculation, after which she 
 replied to Jauncy'g question: " We may have some fifteen couples 
 or so down to-night," she said; "but that won't be for half an 
 hour yet." 
 
 " The question is," said Jauncy, trying to bear up under this last 
 blow; "the question is, how are we to amuse ourselves till the 
 dancing begins?" 
 
 " I don'tknow what others are going to do," Bella announced; 
 "but I shall stay here, James, and keep warm — if lean!" and once 
 more she uttered her regret that they had not gone to the Adelphi. 
 
 Her sister declined to follow her example: "I mean to see all 
 there is to be seen," she declared, "since we are here; and per- 
 haps Mr. Tweedle will come and take care of me— will you, iVIr. 
 Tweedle?" 
 
 He was not sorry to comply, and they wandered out together 
 through the grounds, which offered considerable variety. There 
 were alleys hned with pale plaster statues, and a grove dedicated to 
 the master minds of the world, represented by huge busts, with 
 more or less appropriate quotations. There were alcoves, too, and 
 neatly ruined castles. 
 
 Ada talked almost the whole time in a sprightly manner, which 
 gave Leander no opportunity of introducing the subject of his en- 
 gagement, and this continued until they had reached a small battle- 
 mented platform on some rising ground. Below were the black 
 masses of trees, with a faint fringe of light here and there; beyond 
 lay the Thames, in which red and white reflections quivered, and 
 from whose distant bends and reaches came the dull roar of fog- 
 horns and the pantings of tugs. 
 
 Ada stood here in silence for some time; at last she said, "After 
 all, I'm not sorry we came — are you ? " 
 
 "If I don't take care what I say, I may be!" he thought, v.xW, 
 
10 THE TINTED VEi^^US. 
 
 answered guardedly, " On the contrary, I'm glad, for it gives me 
 the opportunity of telling you something I— I think you ought to 
 know." 
 
 " What was he going to say next?" she thought. Was a decla- 
 ration coming, and, if so, should she accept him? She was not 
 sure; he had behaved very badly in keeping so long away from her, 
 and a proposal would be a very suitable form of apology; but there 
 was the gentleman who traveled for a certain firm in the Edgeware 
 Road, he had been very "particular" in his attentions of late. 
 Well, she would see how siie felt when Leander had spoken; he 
 was beginning to speak now. 
 
 "I don't want to put it too abrupt," he said ; " I'll come to it 
 gradually. There's a young lady that I'm now looking forward to 
 spending the whole of my future life with." 
 
 "And what is she called?" asked Ada. (" He's rather a nice little 
 man, after all!" she was thinking.) 
 
 " Matilda," he said; and the answer came like a blow in the face. 
 For the moment she hated him as bitterly as if he had been all the 
 world to her; but she carried off her mortification by a rather hys- 
 terical laugh. 
 
 " Fancy you being engaged!" she said, by way of explanation of 
 her merriment; " and to any one with the name of Matilda^t's such 
 a stupid-sounding sort of name!" 
 
 " It ain't at all; it all depends how you say it: if you pronounce 
 it like I do, Matilda, it has rather a pretty sound. You try, now." 
 
 " Well, we won't quarrel about it, Mr. Twcddle; I'm glad it isn't 
 my name, that's all. And now tell me all about your young lady: 
 what's her other name, and is she very good-looking?" 
 
 " She's a Miss Matilda Collum," said lie; "she is considered 
 handsome by competent judges, and she keeps the books at a flor- 
 ist's in the vicinity of Bayswater." 
 
 " And, if it isn't a rude question, why didn't you bring her with 
 you this evening?" 
 
 " Because she's away for a short holiday, and isn't coming back 
 till the last thing to-morrow night." 
 
 " And I suppose you've been wishing I was Matilda all tiie time?" 
 she said audaciously; for Miss Ada Parkinson Avas not an over- 
 scrupulous young person and did not recognize in the fact of her 
 friend's engagement any reason why she should not attempt to re- 
 claim his vagrant admiration. 
 
 Leander 7ia(^ been guilty of this wish once or twice; but though 
 he was not absolutely filled with tact, he did refrain from admitting 
 the impeachment. 
 
 "Well, you see," he said, in not very happy evasion, "Matilda 
 doesn't care about this kind of thing; she's rather particular, Ma- 
 tilda is." 
 
 " And I'm not!" said Ada. " I see; thank you, Mr. Tweddle!" 
 
 "You do take one up so!" he complained. " I never intended 
 nothing of the sort — far from it." 
 
 "Well, then, I forgive you; we can't all be Matildas, I suppose. 
 .A.nd now suppose we go back; they will be beginning to dance by 
 :iow!" 
 
 " With pleasure," he said; " only you must excuse me dancing, 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 11 
 
 because, as an enijaged man, I have had to renounce (except with 
 one person) tlie cha^'ms of Terpsy-chore. I mean," he explained 
 condescendingly, "that I can't dance in public save with my in- 
 tended." 
 
 "Ah, well," said Ada, "perhaps Terpsy-chore will get over it; 
 still, 1 should like to see the Terpsy-choring, if you have no objec- 
 tion." 
 
 And they returned to the Baronial Hall, which by this time pre- 
 sented a more cheerful appearance: the lamps round the mirror- 
 lined pillars were all lit, and the musicians were just striking up the 
 opening bars of the Lancers; upon which several gentlemen among 
 the assembly, which now numbered about forty, ran out into the 
 open and took up positions, like color-sergeants at drill, to be 
 presently joined, in some bashfulness, by such ladies as desired 
 partners. 
 
 The Lancers were performed with extreme conscientiousness, and 
 when it was over, every gentleman with any sawirfaire to speak of 
 presented his partner with a glass of beer. 
 
 Then came a waltz, to which Ada beat time impatiently with her 
 foot, and bit her lip, as she had to look on by Leander's side. 
 " There's Bella and .James going round," she said; " I've never had 
 to sit out a waltz before." 
 
 He felt the implied reproach, and thought whether there could 
 be any harm after all in taking a turn or two; it would be only 
 polite. But before he could recant in words, a soldier came up, a 
 medium-sized warrior with a large nose and round little eyes, who 
 had been very funny during the Lancers in directing all the figures 
 bywords of military command. "Will you allow^ me the honor, 
 miss, of just one round?" he said to Ada, respectfully enough. 
 
 The etiquette of this ball-room was not of the strictest; but she 
 would not have consented but for the desire of showing Leander 
 that she was not dependent upon him for her amusement. As it 
 was, she accepted the corporal's arm a little defiantly. 
 
 Leander watched them round the hall with an odd sensation, 
 almost of jealousy— it was quite ridiculous, because he could have 
 danced with Ada himself had he cared to do so; and besides, it was 
 not she, but ]Matilda, whom he adored. 
 
 But, as he began to notice, Ada was looking remarkably pretty 
 that evening, and really was a partner who would bring any one 
 credit; and her corporal danced villainously, revolving with stiff 
 and wooden jerks, like a toy soldier. Now Leander flattered him- 
 self he colild waltz— having had considerable practice in by-gone 
 days in a select assembly, where the tickets were two shillings each, 
 and the gentlemen, as Uie notices said obscurely enough, "were 
 restricted to wearing gloves." 
 
 So he felt indignantly that Ada was not having justice done to 
 her. " I've a good mind to give her a turn," he thought, " and 
 show them all what waltzing is!" 
 
 Just then the pair happened to come to a halt close to him. 
 " Shockin' time they're playing this waltz in," he heard the soldier 
 exclaim with humorous vivacity (he was apparently the funny man 
 of the regiment, and had brought a silent but appreciative comrade 
 
12 THE TINTED TENUS. 
 
 with him as audience), "abominable! excruciatin* ! comic!! *or- 
 rible!!!" 
 
 Leander seized the opportunity. " Excuse me," he said politely, 
 " but if you don't like the music, perhaps you wouldn't mind giving 
 up this young lady to me." 
 
 "Oh, come, I say!" said the man of war, running his fingers 
 through his short curly hair, "my good feller, you'd better see what 
 the lady says to that!" (He evidently had no doubt himself.) 
 
 " I'na very well content as I am, thank you all the same, Mr. 
 Tweddle," said Ada, unkindly adding, in a lower tone, " If you're 
 so anxious to dance, dance with Terpsy-chore ! " 
 
 And again he was left to watch the whirling couples with 
 melancholy eyes. The corporal's brother-in-arms was wheeling 
 round with a plain young person, apparently in domestic service, 
 whose face was overspread by a large red smile of satiated ambi- 
 tion. James and Bella flitted by, dancing vigorously, and Bulla's 
 discontent seemed to have vanished for the lime. There were jig- 
 ging couples and prancing couples; couples that bounced round 
 like imprisoned bees, and couples that glided past in calm and con- 
 scious superiority. He alone stood apart, excluded from the happy 
 throng, and he began to have a pathetic sense of injury. 
 
 But the music stopped at last, and Ada, dismissing her partner, 
 came toward him. 
 
 " You don't seem to be enjoying yourself, Mr. Tweddle," she 
 said maliciously. 
 
 " Don't I?" he replied. " Well, so long as you are, it don't 
 matter. Miss Parkinson— it don't matter." 
 
 " But I'm not — at least, I didn't that dance," she said; "that 
 soldier man did talk such rubbish, and he trod on my feet twice. 
 I'm so hot! I wonder if it's cooler outside?" 
 
 " Will you come and see?" he suggested, and this time she did 
 not disdain his arm, and they strolled out together. 
 
 Following a path tliey had hitherto left unexplored, they came to 
 a little inclosure surrounded b}^ tall shrubs; in the center, upon a 
 low pedestal, stood a female statue, upon which a gas-lamp some 
 paces off cast a flickering gleam athwart the foliage. 
 
 The exceptional grace and beauty of the figure would have been 
 apparent to any lover of art. She stood there, her right arm raised, 
 partly in gracious invitation, partly in queenly command, her left 
 hand extended, palm downward, as if to be reverentially saluted. 
 The hair w^as parted in boldly indicated waves over the broad, low 
 brow, and confined by a fillet in a large, loose knot at the back. 
 She was clad in a long chiton, which lapped in soft zig zag folds 
 over the girdle and fell to the feet in straight parallel lines, and a 
 chlamys hanging from- her shoulders concealed the left arm to the 
 elbow, while it left the right arm free. 
 
 In the uncertain light one could easily fancy soft eyes swimming 
 in those wide blank sockets, and the ripe lips were curved by a 
 dreamy smile, at once tender and disdainful. 
 
 Leander Tweddle and Miss Ada Parkinson, however, stood before 
 the statue in an unmoved, not to say critical, mood. 
 
 •" Who's she supposed to be, I w^onder?" asked the young lady, 
 rather as if the sculptor were a harmless lunatic whose delusions 
 
THE TIKTED VENtJS. 13 
 
 took a marble sliape occasionally. This, by the way, k a qnestioa 
 •which may frequently be heard in picture galleries, and implies an 
 enlightened tolerance, 
 
 " I don't know," said Leander; " a foreign female, I fanc}'— that's 
 Russian on the pedestal." He inferred this from a resemblance to 
 the characters on certain packets of cigarettes. 
 
 " But there's some English underneath," said Ada; "I can just 
 make it out. Ap— Apro— Aprodyte. What a funny name!" 
 
 "You haven't prenounced it quite correckly," he said; "out 
 there they sound the ph like a f, and give all the syllables — Afrod- 
 dity." He felt a kind of intuition that this was nearer the correct 
 rendering. 
 
 " Well," observed Ada, " she's got a silly look, don't you think?" 
 
 Leander was less narrow, and gave it as his opinion that she had 
 been " done from a fine woman." Ada remarked that she herself 
 would never consent to be taken in so unbecoming a costume. 
 " One might as well have no figure at all in things hanging down 
 for all the world like a sack," she said. 
 
 Proceeding to details, she was struck by the smallness of the 
 hands; and it must be admitted that, although the statue as a 
 whole was slightly above the average female height, the arms from 
 the elbow downward, and particularly the hands, were by no means 
 in proportion, and almost justified Miss Parkinson's objection, that 
 " no woman could have hands so small as that." 
 
 " I know some one who has — quite as small," said he softly. 
 
 Ada instantly drew off one of the crimson gloves and held out her 
 hand beside the statue's. It was a well-shaped hand, as she very 
 well knew, but it was decidedly larger than the one with which she 
 compared it. "1 said so," she observed; "now are you satisfied, 
 Mr. Tweddle?" 
 
 But he had been thinking of a hand more slender and dainty 
 than hers, and allowed himself to admit as much. " I— I wasn't 
 meaning you at all," he said bluntly. 
 
 She laughed a little jarring laugh. "Oh, Matilda, of course! 
 Nobody is like Matilda now! But come, Mr. Tweddle, you're not 
 going to stand there and tell me that this w^onderful Matilda of 
 yours has hands no bigger than those?" 
 
 " She has been endowed with quite remarkable small hands," 
 said he; " you wouldn't believe it without seeing. It so happens," 
 he added suddenly, " that t can give you a very fair ideer of the 
 size they are, for I've got a ring of hers in my pocket at this mo- 
 ment. It came about this way: my aunt (the same that used to let 
 her second floor to James, and that Malilda lodges with at present), 
 my aunt, as soon as she heard of our being engaged, nothing would 
 do but 1 must give Matilda an old ring with a posy inside it, that 
 was in our family, and we soon found the ring was too large to keep 
 on, and I left it with old Vidler, near my phice of business, to be 
 made tighter, and called for it on my way here this very afternoon, 
 and fortunately enough it was ready." 
 
 He took out the ring from its bed of pink cotton wool, and of- 
 fered it to Miss Parkinson, 
 
 " You see if you can get it on," he said; " try the little finger!" 
 
 Sh« drew back, offended. "2 don't want to try it, thank you," 
 
14 THE TINTED VEN'trS. 
 
 she said (she felt as if she miirlit r-ing it into the bushes if she al- 
 lowed herself to touch it). " if 3^ou must try it on somebody, there's 
 the statue! You'll find no difficulty in getting it on any of her fin- 
 gers — or thumbs," she added, 
 
 " You shall see," said Leander; "my belief is, it's too small for 
 her, if anything." 
 
 He was'a true lover; anxious to vindicate his lady's perfections 
 before all the world, and perhaps to convince himself that his esti- 
 mate was not exaggerated. The proof was so easy, the statue's left 
 hand hung temptingly within his reach; he accepted the challenge, 
 and slipped the ring up the third finger, that was slightly raised as 
 if to receive it. Tlie hand struck no chill, so moist and mild "was 
 the evening, but felt warm and almost soft in his grasp. 
 
 "There," he said, triumphantly, "it might have been made for 
 her!" 
 
 "Well," said Ada, not too consistently, " I never said it mightn't ! " 
 
 "Excuse me," said he, "but you said it would be too large for 
 her; and, if you'll believe me, it's as much as 1 can do to get it off 
 her finger, it fits that close." 
 
 " Well, make haste and get it off, Mr. Tweddle, do," said Ada, 
 impatiently; " I've stayed out quite long enough." 
 
 " In one moment," he replied; " it's quite a job, I declare, quite 
 a job!" 
 
 " Oh, you men are so clumsy!" cried Ada, "let me try." 
 
 "No, no!" he said, rather irritably, " I can manage it," and he 
 continued to fumble. 
 
 At last he looked over his shoulder and said, " It's a singler suc- 
 cumstance, but I can't get the ring past the bend in the finger." 
 
 Ada was cruel enough to burst out laughing. " It's a judgment 
 upon you, Mr. Tweddle," she cried. 
 
 "You dared me to It," he retorted; "it isn't friendly of you, I 
 must say. Miss Parkinson, to set there enjoying of it — it's bad 
 taste ! " 
 
 " Well, then, I'm very sorry, Mr. Tweddle; I won't laugh any 
 more; but for goodness' sake take me back to the Hall now." 
 
 " It's coming!" he said; "I'm working it over the joint now — 
 it's coming quite easily." 
 
 "But I can't wait here while it comes," she said; " do 3'ou want 
 me to go back alone? You're not very polite to me this evening, I 
 must say." 
 
 " What am I to do?" he said, distractedly; "this ring is my en- 
 gagement-ring; it's valuable. I can't go away without it!" 
 
 " The statue won't run away — you can come back again by and 
 by. You don't expect me to spend the rest of the evening out here? 
 I never thought you could be rude to a lady, Mr. Tweddle." 
 
 " No more" I can." he said. " Your wishes. Miss Ada, are equiv- 
 ocal to commands; allow me the honor of reconducting you to the 
 Baronial Hall." 
 
 He offered his arm in his best manner; she took it, and together 
 they passed out of the inclosure, leaving the statue in undisturbed 
 possession of the ring. 
 
THE TINTED VENUi. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PLEASURE IN PURSUIT. 
 
 " And you, great sculptor, so you gave 
 A score of years to Art, her slave, 
 And that's your Venus, whence we turn 
 To yonder girl." 
 
 Another waltz had just besjun as they re-entered the Baronial 
 Hall, and Ada glanced up at her companion from her daring brown 
 eyes. *' What would you say if I told you you might have this 
 dance with me?" she inquired. 
 
 The hair-dresser hesitated for just one moment. He had meant 
 to leave her there and go back for his ring; but the waltz they were 
 playing was a very enticing one. Ada was looking uncommonly 
 pretty just then ; he could get the ring equally well a few minutes 
 later. " 1 should take it very kind of you," he said, gratefully, at 
 length. " Ask for it, then," said Ada; and he did ask for it. 
 
 He forgot Matilda and his engagement for the moment; he sac- 
 rificed all his scruples about dancing in public; but he somehov?" 
 failed to enjoy this pleasure, illicit though it was. 
 
 For one thing, he could not long keep Matilda out of his 
 thoughts. He was doing nothing positively wrong; still, it was un- 
 deniable that she would not approve of his being there at all, still 
 less if she knew that the gold ring given to him by his aunt for the 
 purposes of his betrothal had been left on the finger of a foreign 
 statue, and exposed to the mercy of any passer-by, while he waltzed 
 with a bonnet-maker's assistant. 
 
 And his conscience was awakened still further by the discovery 
 that Ada w^as a somewhat disappointing partner. "She's not so 
 light as she used to be," he thought, " and then she jumps. I'd for- 
 gotten she jumped." 
 
 Before the waltz was nearly over he led her back to a chair, 
 alleging as his excuse that he was afraid to abandon his ring any 
 longer, and hastened away to the spot where it was to be found. 
 
 He went along the same path, and soon came to an inclosure; 
 but no sooner had he entered it than he saw that lie must have mis- 
 taken his way; this was not the right place: there was no statue iii 
 the middle. 
 
 Pie was about to turn away, when he saw something that made 
 him start; it was a low pedestal in the center, with tlie same char- 
 acters upon it that he had read with Ada. It was the place, after 
 all ; yes, he could not be mistaken ; he knev/ it now. 
 
 Where was the statue which had so lately occupied that pedestal? 
 Had it fallen over amongst the bushes? He felt about for it in vain; 
 it must have been removed for some purpose while he had beea 
 dancing, but by whom, and why? 
 
 The best way to find out would be to ask some one in authority. 
 The manager was in the Baronial Hall, otllciating as jM. C; he 
 would go and inquire whether the removal had been by his orders. 
 
16 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 He was fortunate enou,2:h to catch him as he was comiBg out of 
 the Hall, and he seized him by the arm with nervous hasfe. " Mis- 
 ter," he began, " if youv'e found one of your plaster flexures with a 
 gold ring on, it's mine. I — I put it on in a joking kind of way, and 
 I had to leave it for a while ; and now, when I come back for it, 
 it's gone." 
 
 " I'm sorry to hear it, sir," returned the manager; "but really, 
 if you will leave gold rings on our statues, we can't be responsible, 
 you know," 
 
 " But you'll excuse me," pursued Leander; " I don't think you 
 quite understand me. It isn't only the ring that's gone — it's the 
 statue; and if you've had it put up anywhere else — " 
 
 "Nonsense," said the manager; "we don't move our statues 
 about like chessmen ; you've forgotten where you left it, that's all. 
 What was the statue like?" 
 
 Leander described it as well as he could, and the manager, with 
 p. somewhat altered manner, made him point out the spot where he 
 believed it to have stood, and they entered the grove together. 
 
 The man gave one rapid glance at the vacant pedestal, and then 
 gripped Leander by the shoulder, and looked at him long and hard 
 by the feeble light. " Answer me," he said roughly; " is this some 
 lark of yours?" 
 
 "I look larky, don't I?" said poor Tweddle, dolefully. "I 
 thought 5'^ou'd be sure to know where it was," 
 
 " I wish to Heaven I did I" cried the manager, passionately; "it's 
 those impudent blackguards. They've done it under my very 
 nose ! " 
 
 " If it's any of your men," suggested Leander, " can't you make 
 them put it back again? " 
 
 "It's not any of my men. I was warned, and, like a fool, I 
 W'ouldn't believe it could be done at a time like this; and now it's 
 too late, and what am I to say to the inspector? I wouldn't have 
 had this happen for a thousand pounds!" 
 
 " Well, it's kind of you to feel so put out about it," said Lean- 
 der. " You see, what makes the ring so valuable to me — " 
 
 The manager was pacing up and down impatiently, entirely ig- 
 noring his presence, " I say," Tweddle repeated, " the reason why 
 that ring's of particklar importance — " 
 
 "Oh, don't bother me/" said the other, shaking^ him off, "I 
 don't want to be uncivil, but I've got to think this out. Infernal 
 rascals!" he went on muttering. 
 
 " Have the goodness to hear what I've got to say though." per- 
 sisted Leander. " I'm mixed up in this, whether you like it or not; 
 you seem to know who's got this tigure, and I've a right to be told, 
 too. I won't go till I get that ring back; so aow you understand 
 me." 
 
 "Confound you and your ring!" said the manager. "What's 
 the good of coming bully-ragging me about your ring? 2 can't get 
 you your ring! You shouldn't have been fool enough to put it on 
 one of our statues. You make me talk to you like this, coming 
 bothering when I've enough on my mind as it is! Hang it! Can't 
 you see I'm as anxious to get that statue again as ever you can be? 
 If I don't get it, I may be a ruined man, for all I know; ain't that 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 17 
 
 enough for you? Look here, take my advice and leave me alone 
 before we have words over this. You'give me your name and ad- 
 dress, and you may rely on hearing from me as soon as anything 
 turns up. You can do no good to yourself or any one else by mak- 
 ing a row: so go away quiet like a sensible chap!" 
 
 Leander felt stunned by the blow; evidently there was nothing to 
 be done but follow the manager's advice. He went to the office 
 with him, and gave his name and address in full, and then turned 
 back alone to the dancing-hall. 
 
 He had lost his ring— no ordinary trinket which he could pur- 
 chase anywhere, but one for which he would have to account — and 
 to whom? To his aunt and Matilda. How could he tell when 
 there was even a chance of seeing it again? 
 
 If only he had not allowed himself that waltz; if only he had in- 
 sisted upon remaining by the statue until his ring was removed; if 
 only he had not been such an idiot as to put it on! None of these 
 acts were wrong exactly ; but between them they had brought him 
 to this. 
 
 And the chief person responsible was Miss Ada Parkinson, whom 
 he dared not reproach ; for he was naturally unwilling that this 
 last stage of the affair should become known. He would have to 
 dissemble, and he rejoined his party with what he intended for a 
 jaunty air. 
 
 " We've been waiting for you to go away," said Bella. " Where 
 have you been all this time?" 
 
 He saw with relief that Ada did not appear to have mentioned the 
 statue, and so he said he had been " strolling about." " And Ada 
 left to take care of herself!" said Bella, spitefully. "You are po- 
 ite, Mr. Tweddle, I must say!" 
 
 " 1 haven't complained, Bella, that I know of," said Ada. " And 
 Mr. Tw^eddle and 1 quite understand each other, don't we?" 
 
 "Oh!" said Bella, with an altered manner and a side-glance at 
 James, " I didn't know. I'm very glad to hear it, I'm sure." 
 
 And then they left the gardens, and. after a substantial meal at a 
 river-side hotel, started on the homeward journey, with the sense 
 that their expedition had not been precisely a success. 
 
 As before, they had a railway compartment to themselves. Bella 
 declined to talk, and lay back in her corner with closed eyes and an 
 expression of undeserved suffering, whilst the unfortunate Jauucy 
 sat silent and miserable opposite. 
 
 Leander would have liked to be silent too, and think out his 
 position; but Ada would not hear of this. Her jealous resentment 
 had appnrently vanished, and she was extremely lively and playful 
 in her sallies. 
 
 This reached a pitch when she bent forward, and. in a whisper 
 which she did not perhaps intend to be quite confuk'utial, said, 
 "Oh, Mr. Tweddle, you never told me what became of the ring 1 
 Is it off at last?" 
 
 "Off? yes!" he said, irritably, very nearly adding, "and the 
 statue too." 
 
 " Weren't you very glad?" she said. 
 
 "Uncommonly," he replic(i, grindy. 
 
 " Let me see it again, now you've got it back," she pleaded. 
 
18 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 " You'll excuse me," he said ; "but after what has taken place, I 
 can't show that ring to anybody." 
 
 "Then you're a cross thing," said Ada, pouting. 
 "What's the matter with you two over there?" asked Bella, 
 sleepily. 
 
 Ada's eyes sparkled with mischief. " Let me tell them; it is too 
 awfully funny. I must!" she whispered to Leander. "It's all 
 about a ring," she began, and enjoyed poor Tweddle's evident dis- 
 comfort. 
 
 " A ring?" cried Bella, waking up. " Don't keep all the fun to 
 yourselves; we've not had so much of it this evening." 
 
 " Miss A<]a," said Leander in great agitation, "J ask you, as a 
 lady, to treat what has happened this evening in the strictest confi- 
 dence for the present!" 
 
 " Secrets, Ada?" cried her sister; " upon my word!" 
 
 " Why, Where's the harm, Mr. Tweddle, now it's all settled?" 
 exclaimed Ada. " Bella, il is only this: he went and put a ring 
 (now do wait till I've done, Mr. Tweddle!) on a certain person's 
 finger out in those Rosherwich Gardens (you see, I've not said whose 
 finger)." 
 
 " Hello, Tweddle?" cried Jauncy, in some bewilderment. Lean- 
 der could only cast a look of miserable appeal at him. 
 
 "Shall I tell them any more, Mr. Tweddle?" said Ada, persist- 
 ently. 
 
 "I don't think there's any necessity," he pleaded. 
 
 " No more do I," put in Bella, archly. " 1 think we can guess 
 the rest." 
 
 Ada did not absolutely make any further disclosures that even- 
 ing; but for the rest of the journey she amused herself by keeping 
 the hair-dresser in perpetual torment by her pretended revelations, 
 until he was thoroughly disgusted. 
 
 No longer could he admire her liveliness; he could not even see 
 that she was good-looking now. " She's nothing but chaff, chaff, 
 chaff!" he thought. " Tiiank goodness, Matilda isn't given that 
 way; chaff before marriage means nagging after!" 
 
 They reached the terminus at last,"when he willingly said fare- 
 well to the other three. " Good-bye, Mr. Tweddle," said Bella, in 
 rather a more cordial tone; " I needn't hope you^a enjoyed your- 
 self!" 
 
 " You needn't !" he replied, almost savagely. 
 
 "Good-night," said Ada, and added in a whisper, "don't go 
 and dream of 3'our statue- woman." 
 
 " If I dream to-night at all," he said, between his teeth, " it will 
 be a nightmare!" 
 
 " I suppose Tweddle, old chaD," said Jauncy, as he shook hands, 
 " you know your own affairs best; but if you meant what you told 
 me coming down, you've been going it, haven't you?" 
 
 He left "Leander wondering impatiently what he meant. Did he 
 know the truth? Well, everybody might know it before long; there 
 would probably be a fuss about it all, and the best thing he could do 
 would be to tell Matilda at once, and throw himself upon her mercy. 
 After all, it was innocent enough— if she could only be brought to 
 believe it. 
 
THE TINTED VENTJS. 19 
 
 He did not look forward to telling her; and by the time he 
 reached tlie Bank and j;ot into an omnibus, he was in a highly 
 nervous state, as the following incident may serve to show. 
 
 He had taken one of those uncomfortable private omnibuses, 
 where the passengers are left in unlightened gloom. He sat by the 
 door, and occupied as he was by his own misfortunes, paid little 
 attention to his surroundings. 
 
 But by and by he became aware that the conductor, in collecting 
 the fares, was trying to attract the notice of some one who sat in 
 the further corner of the vehicle, " Where are you for, lady, 
 please?" he asked repeatedly, and at last, " Will somebody ask the 
 lady up the end where I am to set her down?" to all of which the 
 eccentric person addressed returned no reply whatever. 
 
 Leander's attention was thus directed to her; but although in 
 the obscurit}^ he could make out nothing but a dim form in gray, 
 his nerves were so unsettled that he felt a curiously uneasy fancy 
 that eyes were being tixed upon him in the darkness. 
 
 This continued until a moment when some electric lights sud- 
 denly flashed into the omnibus as it passed, and lit up the whole 
 interior with a ghastly glare, in which the gray female became dis- 
 tinctly visible. 
 
 He caught his breath and shrunk into the corner, for in that mo- 
 ment his excited imagination had traced a strange resemblance to 
 the figure he had left in Rosherwich Gardens. The inherent im- 
 probability of finding a classical statue seated in an omnibus did 
 not occur to him in the state his mind was in just then. He sat 
 there fascinated, until lights shone in once more, and he saw, or 
 thought he saw, the figure slowly raise her hand and beckon to 
 him. 
 
 That was enough; he started up with a smothered cry, thrust a 
 coin into the conductor's hand, and, without waiting for change, 
 flung himself from the omnibus in full motion. 
 
 When its varnished sides had ceased to gleam in the light of the 
 lamps, and its lumbering form had been swallowed up in the au- 
 tumn haze, he began to feel what a coward his imagination had 
 made of him. 
 
 " My nightmare's begun already," he thought; " still, she was so 
 surprisingly like, it did give me a turn. They oughtn't to let such 
 crazy females into public conveyances!" 
 
 Fortunately his panic had not seized him until he was within a 
 short distance from Bloomsbury, and it did not take him long to 
 reach Queen Square and his shop in the passage. He let himself in, 
 and went up to a little room on an upper floor, which he used as his 
 sitting-room. The person who " looked after him " did not sleep 
 on the premises; but she had laid a fire and left out his tea-things. 
 " I'll have some tea." he thought, as he lit the gas and saw them 
 there. " 1 feel as if I want cheering up, and it can't make me any 
 more shaky than I am." 
 
 And when his fire was crackling and blazing up. and his kettle 
 beginning to sing, he felt more cheerful already. What, after all, if 
 it did take some time to get his ring again? He must make some 
 excuse or other; and, should the worst come to the worst, " I sup- 
 pose," he thought, " I could get another made like it — though, when 
 
20 THE TINTED VENtJS. 
 
 I come to think of it, I'll be shot if I remember exactly what it was 
 like, or what the words iuside it were, to be sure about them; still, 
 ver}'^ likely old Vidler would recollect, and I dessay it won't turn 
 out to be necessa — What the devil's that?" 
 
 He had the house to himself after nightfall, and he remembered 
 that his private door could not be opened now without a special 
 key, and yet he could not help a fancy that some one was groping 
 his way up the staircase outside, 
 
 "It's only the boards creaking, or the pipes leaking through," he 
 thought. " I must have the place done up. But I'm as nervous as 
 a cat to-night." 
 
 The steps were nearer and nearer — they stopped at the door — 
 there was a loud commanding blow on the panels. 
 
 " Who's here at this time of night?" cried Leander, aloud. 
 " Come in, if you want to!" 
 
 But the door remained shut, and there came another rap, even 
 more imperious. 
 
 "I shall go mad if this goes on!" he muttered, and making a 
 desperate rush to the door, threw it wide open, and then staggered 
 back panic-stricken. 
 
 Upon the threshold stood a tall figure in classical drapery ; his 
 eyes might have deceived him in the omnibus ; but here, in the 
 crude gaslight, he could not be mistaken. It was the statue he had 
 last seen in Rosherwich Gardens — now, in some strange and won- 
 drous way, moving — alive 1 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED STRANGEB. 
 
 How could it be a dream? Yet there 
 She stood, the moveless image fair! 
 
 The Earthly Paradise. 
 
 With slow and stately tread the statue advanced toward the 
 center of the hair dresser's humble sitting room, and stood there 
 awhile, gazing about her with something of scornful wonder in her 
 calm, cold face. As she turned her head, the wide, deeply-cut 
 sockets seemed the home of shadowy eyes; her face, her bared 
 arms, and the long straight folds of her robe were all of the same 
 grayish-yellow hue; the "boards creaked under her sandaled feet, 
 and Leander felt that he had never heard of a more appallingly 
 massive ghost — if ghost indeed she were. 
 
 He had retired step by step before her to the hearth-rug, where 
 he now stood shivering, with the fire hot at his back, and his kettle 
 still singing on undismayed. He made no attempt to account for 
 her presence there on any rationalizing theory. A statue had sud- 
 denly come to life, and chosen to pay him a nocturnal visit; he 
 knew no more than that, except that he would have given worlds 
 for courage to show it the door. 
 
 The spectral eyes were bent upon him. as if in expectation that 
 he would begin the conversation, and at last, with a very unman- 
 ageable tongue, he managed to observe, " Did you want to see me 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 21 
 
 on— on business, mum?" But the statue only relaxed her lips in a 
 haughty smile. 
 
 "For goodness' sake, say something!" he cried wildly, "unless 
 you want me to jump out of winder! What is it you've come 
 about?" 
 
 It seemed to him that in some way a veil had lifted from the 
 stone face, leaving it illumined by a strange light, and from the 
 lips came a voice^^which addressed him in solemn, far-away tones 
 as of one talking in sleep. He could not have said with certainty 
 that the language was his own, though somehow he understood her 
 perfectly. 
 
 " You know me not?" she said, with a kind of sad indifference. 
 
 "Well," Leander admitted, as politely as his terror would allow, 
 "you certainly have the advantage of me for the moment, mum." 
 
 "I am Aphrodite the foam-born, the matchless seed of ^gis- 
 bearing Zeus. Many names have I among the sons of men, and 
 many temples, and I sway the hearts of all lovers; and gods — yea, 
 and mortals — have burned for me, a goddess, with an unconsuming 
 unquenchable fire!" 
 
 "Lor!" said Leander. If he had not been so much flurried, 
 he might have found a remark worthier of the occasion, but the an- 
 nouncement that she was a goddess took his breath away; he had 
 quite believed that goddesses were long since " gone out." 
 
 " You know wherefore I am come hither?" she said. 
 
 "Not at this minute I don't," he replied, " You'll excuse me, 
 but you can't be the statue out of those gardens? You really are so 
 surprisingly like, that I couldn't help asliing you." 
 
 " I am^ Aphrodite, and no statue. Long — how long I know not 
 — have I lain entranced in slumber in my sea-girt isle of Cyprus, and 
 now again has the living touch of a mortal hand upon one of my 
 sacred images called me from my rest and given me power to ani- 
 mate this marble shell. Some hand has placed this ring upon my 
 finger: tell me, was it yours?" 
 
 Leander was almost reassured; after all, he could forgive her for 
 terrifying him so much, since she had come on so good-natured an 
 errand. 
 
 "Quite correct, mum— miss!" (he wished he knew the proper 
 form for addressing a goddess). " That ring is my property. I'm 
 sure it's very civil and friendly of you to come all this way about 
 it," and he held out his hand for it eagerly. 
 
 " And think you it was for this that I have visited the face of 
 the earth and the haunts of men, and followed your footsteps hither 
 by roads strange and unknown to me? You are too modest, 
 youth." 
 
 " I don't know what there is modest in expecting you to behave 
 honest!" he said, rather wondering at his own audacity. 
 
 "How are you called?" she inquired suddeidy on this; and 
 after hearing the answer, remarked that the name was known to her 
 as that of a goodly and noble youtii who had perished for the sake 
 of Hero. 
 
 " The gentleman may have been a connection of mine, for all I 
 know," he said; "the Tweddles have always kep' themselves re- 
 spectable. But I'm not a hero myself, I'm a hair-dresser." 
 
^^ THE TI57TED VEN-tJS. 
 
 She repeated the word thoughtfully, though she did not seem to 
 quite compreheud it; and indeed it is lil?ely enough that, however 
 intelligible she was to Leander, the understanding was far from 
 being entirely reciprocal. 
 
 She extended her hand to him smiling not ungraciously. " Le- 
 ander," she said, " cease to tremble, for a great happiness is yours. 
 Bold have you been; yet am I not angered, fori come. Cast then 
 awP7 all fear, and know that Aphrodite disdains not to accept a 
 mortal's plighted troth ! " 
 
 Leander intrenched himself promptly behind the arm-chair. " I 
 don't know what you're talkfng about!" he said. "How can I 
 lielp fearing when you come down on me like this? Ask yourself." 
 " Can you not understand that your piayer is heard?" she de- 
 manded. 
 
 " What prayer?" cried Leander. 
 
 "Crass and gross-witted has the world grown!" said she; "a 
 Greek swain would have needed but few words to divine his bliss. 
 Know then that your suit is accepted ; never yet has Aphrodite 
 turned the humblest from her shrine. By this symbol," and she 
 lightl}^ touched the ring, " you have given yourself to me. I accept 
 the offering— you are mineV' 
 
 Leander was stupefied by such an unlooked-for misconception. 
 He could scarcely believe his ears; but he hastened to set himself 
 right at once. 
 
 " If you mean that you were under the impression that 1 meant 
 anything in particular by putting that ring on, it was all a mis- 
 take, mum," he said ; "I shouldn't have presumed to it !" 
 
 " Were you the lowliest of men, 1 care not," she replied: "to 
 5^ou I owe the power I now enjoy of life and vision, nor shall you 
 find me ungrateful. But forbear this false humility; I like it not. 
 Come, then, Leander, at the bidding of Cyprus; come, and fear 
 nothing?" 
 
 But he feared very much, for he had seen the operas of " Don 
 Giovanni " and " Zampa" and knew that any familiary with statu- 
 ary was likely to have unpleasant consequences. He merely 
 strengthened his defenses with a chair. 
 
 " You must excuse me, mum, you must, indeed," he faltered; " I 
 can't come." 
 
 " Why?" she asked. 
 
 " Because I've other engagements," he replied. 
 " I remember," she said, slowly, " in the grove, when light met 
 my eyes once more, there was a maid with you, one who laughed 
 and was merry. Answer — is she your love?" 
 
 " No, she isn't," he said, shortly. " What if she was?" 
 "If she were," observed the goddess, with the air of one who 
 mentioned an ordinary fact, " I should crush her!" 
 
 " Lord bless me!" cried Leander in his horror, " what for?" 
 " Would not she be in my path? and shall any mortal maid stand 
 between me and my desire?" 
 
 This was a discovery. She was a jealous and vengeful goddess; 
 she would require to be sedulously humored, or harrn would come. 
 "Well, well," he said, soothingly, "there's nothing of that sort 
 about her, I do assure you." 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 23 
 
 "Then I spare her," suid the goddess. "But how, then, if this 
 be truly so, do j^ou still shrink from the honor before you?" 
 
 Leander felt a natural unwillingness to explain that it was be- 
 cause he was engaged to a young lady who kept the accounts at a 
 florist's. 
 
 " Well, the fact is," he said, awkwardly, " there's difficulties in 
 the way." 
 
 " Difficulties? I can remove them all!" she said. 
 
 "Not these you can't, mum. It's like this: You and me, we 
 don't start, so to speak, from the same basin. I don't mean it as 
 any reproach to you, but you can't deny you're an Eathen, and, 
 worse than that, an Eathen goddess. Now all my family have been 
 brought up as chapel folk. Primitive Methodists, and I've been 
 trained to have a horror of superstition and idolatries, and see the 
 folly of it. So you can see for yourself that we shouldn't be likely 
 to get on together!" 
 
 " You talk words," she said, impatiently; " but empty are they, 
 and meaningless to my ears. One thing I learn from them — that 
 you seek to escape me ! " 
 
 " That's putting it too harsh, mum," he protested. " I'm sure I 
 feel the honor of "such a call; and, by the way, do you mind telling 
 me how you got my address— how you found me out, I mean?" 
 
 " No one remains long hid from the searching eye of the high 
 gods," she replied. 
 
 "So I should be inclined to say," agreed Leander. "But only 
 tell me this, wasn't it you in the omnibus? We call our public con- 
 veyances omnibuses, as perhaps you mayn't know." 
 
 " I, sea-born Aphrodite, i in a public conveyance, an omnibus? 
 There is an impiety in such a question!" 
 
 " Well, I only thought it might have been," he stammered, rather 
 relieved upon the whole that it was not the goddess who had seen 
 his precipitate bolt from the vehicle. Who the female in the corner 
 really was he never knew; though a man of science might account 
 for the resemblance she bore to the statue by ascribing it to one of 
 those preparatory impressions projected occasionally by a strong 
 personality upon a weak one. But Leander was content to leave 
 the matter unxplained. 
 
 " Let it suffice you," she said, " that I am here; and once more, 
 Leander, are you'prepared to till the troth you have plighted?" 
 
 " I— 1 can't say I am," he said. " Not that I don't feel thankful 
 for having had the refusal of so very 'igh-class an opportunity; but, 
 as I'm situated at present— what with the state of trade, and un- 
 belief so rampant, and all— I'm obliged to decline with respectful 
 thanks." 
 
 He trusted that after this she would see the propriety of going. 
 
 "Have a care," she said; "you are young and not uncomely, 
 and my heart pities yon. Do nothing rash. Pause, ere you rouse 
 the implacable ire of Aphrodite!" 
 
 " Thank you," said Leander; " if you'll allow me, I will. I don't 
 want any ill-feeling, I'm sure. It's my wish to live peaceable with 
 all men." 
 
 " I leave you, then. Use the time before you till 1 come again in 
 
24 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 thinking well whether he acts wisely who spurns the proffered hand 
 of Idalian Aphrodite. For the prcsent/farewell, Leander." 
 
 He was overjoyed at his coming deliverance. "Good-evening, 
 mum," he said, as he ran to the door and held it open; " if you'll 
 allow me, I'll light you down the staircase— it's rather dark, I'm 
 afraid." 
 
 " tool!" she said with scorn, and without stirring from her place; 
 and, as she spoke the word, the veil seemed to descend over her 
 face again, the light faded out, and, with a slight shudder, the 
 figure imperceptibly resumed its normal attitude, the drapery stifl- 
 ened into chiseled folds agam, and the statue was soulless as are 
 statues generally. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FKOM BAD TO WORSE. 
 
 And the shadow flits and fleets, 
 
 Ajid will not let me be, 
 
 And I loathe the squares and streets! 
 
 Maud. 
 
 For some time after the statue had ceased to give signs of life, 
 the hair-dresser remained gaping, incapable of thought or action. 
 At last he ventured to approach cautiously, and on touching the 
 figure found it perfectly cold and hard. The animating principle 
 had plainly departed and left the statue a stone. 
 
 " She's gone," he said, "and left her statue behind her! Well, 
 of all the ^o€8— She's come wi^Lhout her pedestal, too! To be 
 sure, it would have been in her way walking." 
 
 Seating himself in his shabby old .arm-chair, he tried to collect 
 his scattered wits. He scarcely realized, even yet, what had hap- 
 pened; but, unless he had dreamed it all, he hitd been honored by 
 the marked attentions of a marble statue, instigated b}'- a heathen 
 goddess, who insisted that his affections were pledged to her. 
 
 Perhaps there was a spice of flattery in such a situation— for it 
 can not fall to the lot of many hair-dressers to be thus distinguished 
 —but Leander was far too much alarmed to appreciate it. Tiiere 
 had been suggestions of menace in the statue's remarks, which 
 made him shudder when he recalled them, and he started violently 
 Dnce or twice whe"a some wavering of the light gave a play of life 
 :o the marble mask. " She's coming back," he thought. "Oh, I 
 :lo wish she wouldn't!" But Aphrodite continued immovable, and 
 It last he concluded that, as he put it, she "she had done for the 
 jvening." 
 
 His first reflection was — what had best be done? The wisest 
 3ourse seemed to be to send for the manager of the gardens, and 
 restore the statue while its animation was suspended. The people 
 it the gardens wou'd take care that it did not get loose again. 
 
 But there was the ring, he must get that off first; here was an 
 anhoped-for opportunity of accomplishing this in privacy, and at 
 his leisure. Again approaching the figure, he tried to draw off the 
 compromising circle, but it seemed tighter than ever, and he drew 
 Dut a pair of scissors and, after a little hesitation, respectfully in- 
 serted it under the hoop and set to work to prize it off, with the 
 result of snapping both the points, while leaving the ring entirely 
 
THE TINTED VENtJS. 25 
 
 unaffected. He glanced at the face; it wore the same dreamy 
 smile, with a touch of gentle contempt in it, " She don't seem to 
 mind," he said aloud; "to be sure, she ain't inside of it now, as far 
 as 1 make it out. I've got all night before me to get the confounded 
 thing off, and I'll go on till I've done it!" 
 
 But he labored on with the disabled scissors, and only succeeded 
 iu scratching the smooth marble a little; he stopped to pant. 
 " There's only one way," he told himself, desperately; " a little dia- 
 mond cement would make it all right again; and you expect cracks 
 in a statue." 
 
 Then, after a furtive glance around, he fetched the poker from 
 the tire-place. He felt horribly brutal, as if he were going to muti- 
 late and maltreat a creature that could feel ; but he nerved himself 
 to tap the back of Aphrodite's hand at the dimpled base of the third 
 finger. The shock ran up to his elbow, and gave him acute "pins 
 and needles," but the stone hand was still intact. He struck again 
 — this time with all his force — and the poker flew from his grasp, 
 and his arm dropped paralyzed by his side. 
 
 He could scarcely lift it again for some minutes, and the warning 
 made him refrain from any further violence. "It's no good," he 
 groaned; "if I go on, I don't know what mayn't happen to me. I 
 must wait till she comes to, and then ask her for the ring, very 
 polite and civil, and try if I can't get round her that way." 
 
 He was determined that he would never give her up to the gar- 
 dens while she wore his ring; but, in the meantime, he could 
 scarcely leave the statue standing in the middle of his sitting-room, 
 where it would most assuredly attract the char-woman's attention. 
 
 He had little cupboards on each side of his fire-place : one of these 
 had no shelves, and served for storing firewood and bottles of 
 various kinds; after removing the contents from this, he lifted the 
 statue, pushed it well in, and turned the key on it. 
 
 Then he went trembling to bed, and after an interval of muddled 
 anxious thinking fell into a heavy sleep, which lasted until far into 
 the morning. 
 
 He woke with the recollection that something unpleasant was 
 hanging over him, and by degrees he remembered what that some- 
 thing was; but it looked so extravagant in the morning light that 
 he had great hopes all would turn olit to be a mere dream. 
 
 It was a mild Sunday morning, and there were church bells ring- 
 ing all around him; it seemed impossible that he could really be 
 harboring an animated antique. But to remove all doubt, he stole 
 down, half dressed, to his small sitting-room, which he found look- 
 ing as usual— the fire burning dull and dusty in the sunlight, that 
 struck in through the open window, and his breakfast laid out on 
 the table. 
 
 Almost reassured, he went to the cupboard and unlocked the 
 door, Alas! it held its skeleton— the statue was there, preserving 
 the attitude of queenly command iu which he had seen it first. 
 Sharply he shut the door again, and turned the key with a heavy 
 heart. 
 
 He swallowed his breakfast with very little appetite, after which 
 he felt he could not remain in the house. "To sit here with thai 
 in the cupboard is more than I'm equal to all Sunday," he decided. 
 
26 THE TINTED VEKUS. 
 
 If Matilda had been at his aunt's with whom she lodged, he 
 would have gone to chapel with her; but Matilda did not return 
 from her holiday till late that niglit. He thought of going to his 
 friend and asking his advice on his case. James, as a barrister's 
 clerk, would presumably be able to give a sound legal opinion on 
 an emergency. 
 
 James, however, lived "out Camden Town way," and was cer- 
 tain on so fine a morning to be away on some Sunday expedition 
 with his betrothed: it was hopeless to go in search of him now. If 
 he went to see his aunt, who lived close by in Millman Street, she 
 might ask him about the ring, and there would be a fuss. He was 
 in no humor for attending any place of public worship, and so he 
 spent some hours in aimless wandering about the streets, which, as 
 foreigners are fond of reminding us, are not exhilarating even on 
 the brightest Sabbath, and did not raise his spirits then. 
 
 At last hunger drove him back to the passage in Southampton 
 Row, the more quickly as it began to occur to him that the statue 
 might possibly have revived, and be creating a disturbance in the 
 cupboard. 
 
 He had passed the narrow posts, and was just taking out his 
 latch-key, when some one behind touched his shoulder and made him 
 give a guilty jump. He dreaded to find the goddess at his elbow; 
 however, to his relief, he found a male stranger, plainly and respect- 
 ably dressed. 
 
 " You Mr. Tweddle the hair-dresser?" the stranger inquired. 
 
 Leander felt a wild impulse to deny it, and declare that he was 
 his own friend and had couk; to see himself on business, for he was 
 in no social mood just then; but he ended by admitting that he sup- 
 posed he was Mr. Tweddle. 
 
 "So did I. Well, I want a little private talk with you, Mr. 
 Tweddle. I've been hanging about for some time; but though I 
 knocked and rang, I couldn't make a soul hear." 
 
 "There isn't a soul inside," protested Tweddle, with unnecessary 
 warmth ; " not a solitary soiil ! You wanted to talk with me. Sup- 
 pose we take a turn round the Square?" 
 
 " No, no; I won't keep you out — I'll come in with you!" 
 
 Inwardly wondering what his visitor wanted, Leander led him in 
 and lit the gas in his hair-cutting saloon. "We shall be cozier 
 here," he said; for he dared not take the stranger up in the room 
 where the statue was concealed, for fear of accidents. 
 
 The man sat down in the operating chair and crossed his legs. 
 " I dare say you're wondering what I've come about like this on a 
 Sunday afternoon? " he began. 
 
 "Not at all," said Leander; "anything I can have the pleasure 
 of doing for you — " 
 
 ^ " It's only to answer a few questions. I understand you lost a 
 ring at the Rosherwich Gardens yesterday evening; that's so, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 He was a military-looking person, as Leander now perceived, 
 and he had a close trimmed iron-grey beard, a high color, quick 
 eyes, and a stiff hard-lipped mouth— not at all the kind of man to 
 trifle with. And yet Leander felt no inclination to tell him his 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 27 
 
 fitory; the stranger minght be a reporter, and his adventure would 
 "get into the papers" — perhaps reach Matilda's eyes. 
 
 "I — I dropped a ring last night, certingly," he said; "it may 
 have been in the gardens, for -what I know." 
 
 "Now, now," said the stranger, "don't you know it was in the 
 gardens? Tell me all about it." 
 
 " Begging your pardon," said Leander, " I should like to know 
 first what call you have to he told." 
 
 " You are quite right — perfectly right. I always deal straiglit- 
 forwardly when I can. I'll tell you who I am, I'm Inspector Bil- 
 bow, of the Criminal Investigation Department, Scothind Yard. 
 Kow, perhaps, you'll see I'm not a man to be kept in the dark. 
 And I want you to tell me when and where you last saw that ring 
 of yours; it's to your own interest, if you want to see it again." 
 
 But Leander Md seen it again, and it seemed certain that all 
 Scotland Yard could not assist him in getting it back; he must 
 manage it single-handed. 
 
 "It's very kind of you. Mr. Inspector, to try and find it for me," 
 he said ; " but the fact is, it — it ain't so valuable as I fancied. I 
 can't afford to have it traced — it's not worth it." 
 
 The inspector laughed. " I never said it was, that I know. The 
 job I'm in charge of is a bigger concern than your trumpery ring, 
 my friend." 
 
 "Then I don't see what I've got to do with it," said Leander. 
 
 The officer had taken his measure by this time; he must admit 
 his man into a show of confidence, and appeal to his vanity, if he 
 was to obtain any information he could rely upon. 
 
 "You're a shrewd chap, I see; 'nothing for nothing' 's your 
 motto, eh ? Well, if you help me in this, and put me on the track I 
 want, it'll be a fine thing for you. You'll be a principal witness at 
 the police-court ; name in the papers ; regular advertisement for 
 you ! " 
 
 This prospect, had he known it, but even inspectors can not know 
 everything, was the last which could appeal to Leander in his pe- 
 culiar position. "I don't care for notoriety," he said loftily; I 
 scorn it." 
 
 "Oho!" said the inspector, shifting his ground. "Well, you 
 don't want to impede the course of justice, do you? because tliat's 
 what you seem to me to be after, and you won't find it pay in the 
 long run. I'll get this out of you in a friendly way if I can ; if not, 
 some other way. Come, give me your account, fair and full, of how 
 you came to lose that ring; there's no help for it — you must!" 
 
 Leander saw this and yielded. After all, it did not much matter, 
 for of course he would not touch upon the strange sequel of his ill- 
 omened act; so he told the story faithfully and circumstantially, 
 while the inspector took it all down in his notebook, questioning 
 him closely respecting the exact lime of each occurrence. 
 
 At last he closed his note-book with a snap. " I'm not obliged to 
 tell you anything in return for all this," he said; "but I will, and 
 then you'll see the importance of holding your tongue till I give you 
 leave to talk about it." 
 
 " i sha'n't talk about it," said Leander. 
 
 " I don't advise you to. I suppose you've heard of that affair at 
 
28 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 Wricklesmarsh Court? What! not that business where a gang 
 broke into the sculpture gallery, one of the finest private collections 
 in England ? You surprise me ! " 
 
 " And what did they steal?" asked Leander. 
 
 " They stole the figure wliose finger you were ass enough (if you'll 
 allow me the little familiarity) to put your ring on. What do you 
 think of that?" 
 
 A wild rush of ideas coursed through the hair- dresser's head. 
 Was this policeman 'after' tjie goddess upstairs? Did he know 
 anything more? Would it be better to give up the statue at once 
 and get rid of it ? But then — his ring would be lost forever. 
 
 " It's surprising," he said at last; " but what did they want to go 
 and burgle a plaster figure for? " 
 
 " That's where it is, .you see; she ain't plaster — she's marble, 
 a genuine antic of Venus, and worth thousands. The beggars 
 ivho broke in knew that, and took nothing else. They'd made 
 all arrangements to get away with her abroad, and pass her oil on 
 some foreign collection before it got blown upon; and they'd have 
 3one it too if we hadn't been beforehand with them I So what do 
 they do then? They drive up with her to these gardens, ask to see 
 the manager, and say they're agents for some Fine Arts business, 
 ind have a sample with them, to be disposed of at a low price. The 
 manager, so he tells me, had a look at it, thought it a neat article 
 and suitable to the style of his gardens. He took it to be plain plas- 
 ter, as they said, and they put it up for him their own selves, near 
 the small gate up by the road; then they took the money, a pound 
 3r two they asked for it, and drove away, and he saw no more of 
 ;hem." 
 
 " And was that all they got for their pains? " said Leander. 
 
 The inspector smiled indulgently. "Don't you see your way 
 p^et?" he asked. " Can't you give a guess where that statue's got 
 ;o now, eh? " 
 
 " No," said Leander, with what seemed to the inspector a quite 
 uncalled-for excitement, " of course I can't! Wliat do you ask me 
 [or? How should 1 know? " 
 
 "Quite so," said the other, " jow want a mind trained to deal 
 svith these things. It may surprise you to hear it, but I know as 
 ivell how that statue disappeared, and what was done with her, as 
 i I'd been there!" 
 
 "Do you though?" thought Leander, who was beginning to 
 ioubt whether his visitor's penetration was anything so abnormal, 
 
 "What was done with her?" he asked. 
 
 " Why, it was a plant from the first. They knew all their regu- 
 lar holes were stopped, and they wanted a place to dump her down 
 m, where she wouldn't attract attention, till they could call for her 
 igain; so they got her taken in at the gardens, where they could 
 3ome in any time by the gate and fetch her off again, and veiy 
 aeatly it was done too!" 
 
 "But where do you make out they've taken her to now?" asked 
 Leander, who was naturally anxious to discover if the official had 
 any suspicion? of him. 
 
 "I've my own tlieory about that," was his answer. " I shall hunt 
 that Venus down, sir; I'll stake my reputation on it." 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 39 
 
 "Venus is her name, it seems," thought Leander. "She told 
 me it was Aphrodite. But perhap's the other's her Christian name. 
 It can't be the Venus I've seen the pictures of — she's dressed too 
 decent." 
 
 " Yes," repeated the inspector, " I shall hunt her down now. I 
 don't envy the poor devil who's giving her house-room; he'll have 
 reason to repent it!" 
 
 " How do you know any one's giving her house-room?" inquired 
 Leander, " and why should he repent it?" 
 
 " Ask your own common sense. They daren't take her back to 
 any of their own places; they know better. They haven't left the 
 country with her. What remains? They've bribed or got over 
 some mug of an outsider to be their accomplice, and a bad specula- 
 tion he'll find it too." 
 
 " What would be done with him?" asked the hair-dresser, with a 
 quite unpleasant internal sensation, 
 
 "That is a question I wouldn't pretent to decide; but I've no 
 hesitation in saying that the party on whose premises that statue is 
 discovered will wish he'd died before he ever set eyes on her." 
 
 " You're quite right there! " said Leander. " Well, sir, I'm afraid 
 I haven't been much assistance to you." 
 
 " Never mind that," said the inspector encouragingly. " You've 
 answered my questions; you've not hindered the law, and that's a 
 game some burn their fingers at." 
 
 Leander let him out, and returned to his saloon with his head in 
 a worse whirl than before. He did not think the detective suspected 
 him. He was clearly barking up the wrong tree at present; but so 
 acute a mind could not he long deceived, and if once Leander was 
 implicated his guilt would appear beyond denial. Would the police 
 believe that the statue had run after him? No one would believe 
 it ! To be found in possession of that fatal work of art would inevi- 
 tably ruin him. 
 
 He might carry her away to some lonely spot and leave her. but 
 where was the use? She would only come back again; or he might 
 be taken in the act. He dared not'destroy her; his right arm had 
 been painful all day after that last attempt. 
 
 If he gave her up to the authorities, he would have to explain 
 how he came to be in a position to do so, which, as he now saw, 
 would be a difficult undertaking; and even then lie would lose all 
 chance of recovering his ring in time to satisfy his aunt and Matilda. 
 There was no way out of it, unless he could induce Venus to give 
 tip the token and leave him alone. 
 
 " Cuss her!" he said angrily; "a pretty bog she's led me into, 
 »he and that minx, Ada Parkinson!" 
 
 He felt so thoroughly miserable that hunger had vanished, and 
 he dreaded the idea of an evening at home, though it was a blus- 
 terous night; with occasional vicious spirts of rain, and by no means 
 favorable to continued pacing of si reels and squares. 
 
 "I'm hanged if I don't think Til go to church!" he thought, 
 " and perhaps I shall feel more equal to supper afterward." 
 
 He went upstairs to get his best hal and overcoat, and was en- 
 gaged in brushing the former in his sitting-room, when from within 
 Ihe cupboard he heard a shower of loud raps. 
 
30 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 His knees trembled. " She's wuss than any ghost!" he thought; 
 but he took no notice and went on brushing his hat, while he en- 
 deavored to hum a hymn. 
 
 "Leander!" cried* the clear, hard voice he knew too well, "I 
 have returned. Release me!" 
 
 His first idea was to run out of the house and seek sanctuary in 
 some pew in the opposite church, " But there," he thought dis- 
 gustedly, " she'd only come in and sit next to me. No, I'll pluck 
 up a spirit and have it out with her!" and he threw open the door. 
 
 " How have you dared to imprison me in this narrow tomb?" 
 she demanded majestically, as she stepped forth. 
 
 Leander cringed. " It's a nice roomy cupboard," he said. " I 
 thought perhaps you wouldn't mind putting up with it, especially 
 as you invited yourself," he could not help adding. 
 
 "When I found myself awake and in utter darkness," she said, 
 " I thought you liad buried me beneath the soil." 
 
 " Buried you !" he exclaimed, with a sudden perception that he 
 might do worse. 
 
 "And in that thought I was preparing to invoke the forces that 
 lie below tlie soil to come to my aid, burst the masses that impeded 
 me, and overwhelm you and all this ugly swarming city in one vast 
 ruin ! " 
 
 '* I won't bury her," Leander decided. " I'm sorry you hadn't a 
 better opinion of me, mum," he said aloud. " You see, how you 
 came to be in there was this wav : when you went out, like the snuff 
 of a candle, so to speak, you left your statue standing in the middle 
 of the floor, and I had to put it somewhere where it wouldn't be 
 seen." 
 
 "You did well," she said indulgently, "to screen my image from 
 the vulgar sight; and if 3'ou had no statelier slirine wherein to in- 
 stall it, the fault lies not with you. You are pardoned." 
 
 "Thank you, mum," said Leander; "and now let me ask 
 you if you intend to animate that statue like this as a regular 
 thing?" 
 
 " So long as j^our obstinacy continues, or until it outlives my for- 
 bearance, I shall return at intervals," she said. " Why do you ask 
 this?" 
 
 " Well," said Leander, with a sinking heart, but hoping desper- 
 ately to move her by the terrors of the law, " it's my duty to tell you 
 that that image you're in is stolen property." 
 
 " Has it been stolen from one of my temples?" she asked. 
 
 " 1 daresay — I don't know; but there's the police moving Heaven 
 and earth to get you back again!" 
 
 " He is good and pious — the police — and if I knew him I would 
 reward him." 
 
 " There's a good many hims in the police— that's what we call 
 our guards for the street, who take up thieves and bad characters; 
 and, being stolen, they're all of 'em after you; and if they had a 
 notion where you were, thej^'d be down on you, and back you'd go 
 to wherever you'f'-e come from — some gallery, I believe, where you 
 wouldn't get awa,/ again in a hurry! Now I teli you what it is, if 
 you don't give me up that ring, and go away and leave me in quiet, 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 31 
 
 I'll tell the police who you are and where you are. I mean what I 
 say, by George I do!" 
 
 " We know not George, nor will it profit you to invoke him 
 now," said tlie goddess. " See, 1 will deign to reason with you as 
 with some froward child. Think 3''ou that, should the guards seize 
 my image, /should remain within, or that it is aught to me where 
 this marble presentment finds a resting-place while 1 am absent 
 therefrom? But for you, should you surrender it into their hands, 
 would tiiere be no punishment for your impiety in thus concealing a 
 divine eflSgy?" 
 
 " She ain't no fool " thought Leander; " she mayn't understand 
 our ways, but she's a match for me notwithstanding. I must try 
 another line." 
 
 "Lady Venus," he began, "if that's the proper way to call you, 
 I didn't mean any threats — far from it. I'll be as humble as you 
 please. You look a good-natured lady: you wouldn't want to make 
 a man uncomfortable, I'm sure. Do give me back that ring, for 
 mercy's sakel If I haven't got it to show in a day or two, I shall 
 be ruined!" 
 
 " Sliould any mortal require the ring of you, you have but to re- 
 ply, ' I have placed it upon the finger of Aphrodite, whose spouse I 
 ami' Thus will you have honor among mortals, being held blame- 
 less!" 
 
 " Blameless!" cried Leander, in pardonable exasperation, "that's 
 all you know about it ! And what am I to say to the lady it law- 
 fully belongs to?" 
 
 "'You have lied to me, then, and you are already affianced ! Tell 
 me the abode of this maiden of yours." 
 
 " What do you want it for?" he inquired, hoping faintly she might 
 intend to restore the ring. 
 
 " To seek it out, to go to her abode, to crush her! Is she not my 
 rival?" 
 
 " Crush my Matilda?" he cried in agony; " you'll never do such 
 a thing as that?" 
 
 " You have revealed her name ! I have but to ask in your streets, 
 ' Where abideth Matilda, the beloved of Leander, the dresser of 
 hair? Lead me to her dwelling.' And having arrived thereat, I 
 shall crush her, and thus she shall deservedly perish!" 
 
 He was horrified at the possible effects of his slip, which he 
 hastened to repair. "You won't find it so easy to come at her, 
 luckily," he said ; "there's hundreds of Matildas in London alone." 
 
 " Then," said the goddess, sweetly and calmly, "it is simple; I 
 shall crush them all." 
 
 " Oh, Lor!" whimpered Leander, "here's a bloodthirsty person! 
 Where's the sense of doing that?" 
 
 " Because, dissipated reveler that you are, you love them." 
 
 " Now when did I ever say I loved them? I don't even know 
 more than two or three, and those I look on as sisters— in fact" 
 (here he hit upon a lucky evasion) "they are sisters — it's only an- 
 other name for them. I've a brother and three Matildas, and here 
 are you talking of crushing my poor sisters as if they were so many 
 beadles — all for nothing." 
 
8^ THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 "Is this the truth? Palter not with me 1 You are pledged to no 
 mortal bride?" 
 
 "I'm a bachelor. And as for the ring, it belongs to my aunt, 
 who's over fifty." 
 
 " Then no one stands between us, and you are mine!" 
 
 " Don't talk so ridiculous. I tell you I ain't yours— it's a free 
 country, this is!" 
 
 " If I— an immortal— can stoop thus, it becomes you not to reject 
 the dazzling favor." 
 
 A last argument occurred to him. " But I reelly don't think, 
 mum," he said persuasivel3% " that you can be quite aware of the 
 extent of the stoop. The fact is, I am, as I've tried to make you 
 understand, a hair-dresscr: some miglit lower themselves so far as 
 to call me a barber. Now hair-dressing, whatever may be said for 
 it " (he could not readily bring himself to decry his profession), 
 "hair dressing is considribly below you in social rank. I wouldn't 
 deceive you by saying otherwise. I assure you tliat, if you had any 
 ideer what a barber was, you wouldn't be so pressing." 
 
 She seemed to be struck by this. " You say well!" she observed, 
 thoughtfully; " your occupal ion may be base and degrading, and 
 if so, it were well for me to know it. " 
 
 " If you were once to see me in my daily avocations," he urged, 
 "you'd see what a mistake you're making." 
 
 "Enough! I will see you — and at once. Barb, that I may 
 know the nature of your toil!" 
 
 " I can't do that now," he objected; " I haven't got a customer." 
 
 " Then fetch one, and barb with it immediately. You must have 
 your tools by you ; so delay not !" 
 
 "A customer ain't a tool!" he groaned, " it's a fellow-man; and 
 no one will come in to-night, because it's Sunday. (Don't ask me 
 what Sunday is, because you wouldn't understand if I tried to tell 
 you!) And I don't carry on my business up here, but below in the 
 saloon." 
 
 " I will go thither and behold you." 
 
 "No!" he exclaimed. " Do you want to ruin me?" 
 
 "I will make no sign; none shall recognize me for what I am. 
 But come I will!" 
 
 Leander pondered awhile. There was danger in introducing 
 the goddess into his saloon; he had no idea what she might do 
 there. But at the same time, if she were bent upon coming, she 
 would probably do so in any case; and besides, he felt tolerably 
 certain that what she would see would convince her of his utter un- 
 suitability as a consort. 
 
 Yes, it was surely wisest to assist necessity, and obtain the most 
 favorable conditions for the inevitable experiment. 
 
 " I might put you in a corner of the operating room, to be sure," 
 he said, thoughtfully; " no one would think but what you was part 
 of the fittings, unless you went moving about." 
 
 "Place me where I may behold you at your labor, and there I 
 will remain," she said. 
 
 " Well," he conceded, " I'll risk it. The best way would be for 
 you to walk down to the saloon, and leave yourself ready in a cor- 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 33 
 
 ner till you come to again. I can't carry a heavy marble imas^e all 
 that way!" 
 
 " So be it," said she, and followed him to the saloon with a proud 
 docility. 
 
 " It's nicely got up," he remarked, as theyreached it, " and you'll 
 find it roomier than the cupboard." 
 
 She deigned no answer as she remained motionless in the corner 
 he had indicated; and presently, as he held up the candle he was 
 carrying he found its rays were shining upon a senseless stone. 
 
 He went upstairs again, halt" fearful, half sanguine. "I don't 
 altogether like it," he was thinking. " But if I put a print wrapper 
 over her all day, no one will notice. And goddesses must have their 
 proper pride. If she once gets it into her marble head that I keep a 
 shop, I think that she'll turn up her nose at me. And then she'll 
 give back the ring and go away, and I sha'n't be afraid of the police; 
 and I needn't tell Tillie about it. It's worth risking." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN EXPERIMENT. 
 
 'Tis time: descend; be stone no more; approach; 
 Strike all that look upon '^^^th marvel. 
 
 Tlie Winter's Tale. 
 
 The next day brought Leander a letter which made his heart 
 beat with mingled emotions — it was from his Matilda. It had evi- 
 dently been written immediately before her return, and told him 
 that she would be at their old meeting-place (the statue of Fox, in 
 Bloomsbury Square) at eight o'clock that evening. 
 
 The wave of tenderness which swept over him at the anticipa- 
 tion of this was hurled back by an uncomfortable thought. What 
 if Matilda were to refer to the ring? But no; his MaBlda would 
 do nothing so indelicate. 
 
 All through the day he mechanically went through his hair- 
 dressing, singeing, and shampooing operations, divided between joy 
 at the prospect of seeing his adored Matilda again, and anxiety re- 
 specting the cold marble swathed in the print wrapper, which stood 
 in a corner of his hair-cutting saloon. 
 
 He glanced at it every time he went past to change a brush or 
 heat a razor; but there was no sign or movement under the folds, 
 and he gradually became reassured, especially as it excited no re- 
 mark. 
 
 But as evening drew on he felt that, for the success of his experi- 
 Bnent, it was necessary that the cover should be removed. It was 
 dangerous, supposing the inspector were to come in unexpectedly 
 and recognize the statue; but he could only trust to fortune for 
 that, and hoped too that even if the detective came he would be 
 able to keep him in the outer shop. 
 
 It was only for one evening, and it was well worth the risk. 
 
 A foreign gentleman had come in, and the hair-dresser found that 
 a fresh wrapper was required, which gave him tlic excuse he wanted 
 for unveiling the Aphrodite. He looked carefully at the face as ho 
 2 
 
34 THE TINTED VEKtS. 
 
 uncovered it, but could discover no speculation as yet in tlie calm, 
 full gaze of the goddess. 
 
 The foreign gentleman was inclined to be talkative under treat- 
 ment, and the conversation came round to public amusements. " In 
 mv country," the customer said, without mentioning or betraying 
 what his particular country was, "in my country we have what 
 you have not, places to sit out in the fresh air, and drink a glass of 
 beer, along with the entertainments. You have not that in Lon- 
 don?" 
 
 "Bless your soul, yes," said Leander, who was a true patriot, 
 " plenty of them!" 
 
 " Oh, I did not aware that— but who?" 
 
 ** Well," said the hair-dresser," there's the Eagle in the City Road, 
 for one; and there's the Surrey Gardens — and there's Kosherwich," 
 he added, after a pause. (The Fisheries Exhibition, it may be said, 
 was as yet unknown.) 
 
 "And you go there, often?" 
 
 " I've been to Rosherwich," 
 
 " Was it goot there — you laike it, eh?" 
 
 " Well," said Leander, " they tell me it's very gay in the season. 
 P'rhaps I went at the wrong time of year for it." 
 
 " What you call wrong time for it?" 
 
 "Slack, nothing going on," he explained, "like it was when I 
 went last Saturda}'." 
 
 " You went hist Saturday, And you stay a long time?" 
 
 " I didn't stay no longer than 1 could help," Leander said; " all 
 our party was glad to get away." 
 
 The foreigner had risen to go, when his eyes fell on the Venus in 
 the corner. 
 
 " You did not stay long, and 3'our party was glad to come away?" 
 he repeated, absently. "I am not surprise at that." He gave the 
 hair-dresser a long stare as he spoke. " No, I am not surprise. You 
 have a good taste, my friend; you laike the antique, do you not?" 
 he broke off suddenly. 
 
 "Ail! you're looking at the Yenus, sir," said Leander. "Yes, 
 I'm very partial to it." 
 
 " It is a taste that costs," his customer said. 
 
 He looked back over his shoulder as he left the shop, and once 
 more repeated softly, " Yes, it is a taste that costs." 
 
 " I suppose," Leander reflected as he went back, " it does strike 
 people as queer, my keeping that statue there; but it's only for one 
 evening." 
 
 The "foreigner had scarcely left, when an old gentleman, a regular 
 customer, looked in, on his way from the city, and at once noticed 
 the innovation. He was an old gentleman who had devoted much 
 time and study to Art, in the intervals of business, and had devel- 
 oped critical powers of the highest order. 
 
 He walked straight up to the Venus and stuck out his under lip. 
 "Where did you get that thing?" he inquired; " isn't this place of 
 yours small enough without lumbering it up with statuary out of 
 the Euston Road?" 
 
 " 1 didn't get it there," said Leander. " I— I thought it would 
 be 'andy to 'ang the 'ats oa ' 
 
THE TINTED YENUS. 35 
 
 " Dear, dear," said the old gentleman, " -why do you people dab- 
 ble in matters you don't understand? Come here, Tweddle, and let 
 me show you. Can't you see what a miserable sham the thing is — 
 a cheap, tawdry imitation of the splendid classic type? Why, by 
 merely exhibiting such a thing, you're vitiating public taste, sir, 
 corrupting it." 
 
 Leander did not quite follow this rebuke, which he thought was 
 probably based upon the goddess's antecedents. 
 
 " Was she reelly as bad as that, sir?" he said. " I was)i't aware 
 so, or I shouldn't give any offense to customers by letting her stay 
 here." 
 
 As he spoke he saw the indefinable indications in the statue's face 
 which denoted that it was instinct once more with life and intelli- 
 gence, and he was horrified at the thought that the latter part of the 
 conversation might have been overheard. 
 
 " But I've always understood," he said, hastily, " that the party 
 this represents was puffickly correct, however free some of the 
 others might have been; and 1 suppose that's the costume of the 
 period she's in, and very becoming it is, I'm sure, though gone out 
 since." 
 
 "Bah!" said the old gentleman, "it's poor art. I'll show you 
 where the thing is bad. I happen to understand something of these 
 things. Just observe how the top of the head is out of drawing; 
 look at the lowness of the forehead, and the distance between the 
 eyes; all the canons of proportion ignored, absolutely ignored!" 
 
 What further strictures this rash old gentleman was preparing to 
 pass upon the statue will never be known now, for Tweddle already 
 thought he could discern a growing resentment in her face, under 
 so much candor. He could not stand by and allow so excellent a 
 customer to be crushed on the floor of his saloon, and he knew the 
 Venus quite capable of this; was she not perpetually threatening 
 such a penalty, on much slighter provocation? 
 
 He rushed between the unconscious man and his fate. " I think 
 you said your hair cut?" he said, and laid violent hands upon the 
 critic, forced him protesting into a chair, throttled him with a towel, 
 and effectually diverted his attention by a series of personal remarks 
 upon the top of his head. 
 
 The victim, while he was being shampooed, showed at first an 
 alarming tendency to revert to the subject of the goddess's defects, 
 but Leander was able to keep him in check by^\'cll-timed jets of 
 scalding water and ice cold sprays, which he directed against his 
 customer's exposed crown, until every idea, except impotent rage, 
 was washed out of it, while a hard machine brush completed the 
 subjugation. 
 
 Finally the unfortunate old man staggered out of the shop, pre- 
 served by Leander's unremitting watchfulness from the wrath of 
 the goddess. Yet, such is the ingratitude of human nature, that he 
 left the place vowing to return no more. " I thought I'd got a cloicn 
 behind me, sir!" he used to say afterward, in describing it. 
 
 Before Leander could recover from the alarm he had been thrown 
 into another customer had entered; a pale young man, with a glossy 
 hat, a white satin necktie, and a rather decayed gardenia. He, too, 
 was one of Tweedle's regular clients. What his occupation might 
 
36 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 be was a mystery, for he aimed at being considered a man of 
 pleasure. 
 
 "I say, just sbave me, will you? " he said, and threw himself 
 languidly into a chair. "Fact is, Tweddle, I've been so doosid 
 chippy for the last two days, I daren't touch a razor." 
 " Indeed, sir!" said Leauder, with respectful sympath3^ 
 "You see," explained the youth, " I've been playing the goat— 
 the giddy goat. Know what that means? " 
 
 " 1 used to," said Leander; "I never touch alcoholic stimulants 
 now, myself." 
 
 " Wish I (iidn't. I say, Tweddle, have you been to the Cosmo- 
 politan lately?" 
 
 " I don't go to music-'allsnow," said Leander; " I've give up all 
 that, now I'm keeping compan}^" 
 
 " Well, you go and see the new ballet," the youth exhorted him 
 earnestly; not that he cared whether the hair dresser went or not, 
 but because he wanted to talk about the ballet to somebody. 
 
 "Ah!" observed Leander, " is that a good one they've got there 
 now, sir?" 
 
 " Rather think so. Ballet called 'Olympus.' There's a regular 
 ripping little thing who comes on as one of Venus's doves." And 
 the youth went on to intimate that the dove in question had shown 
 signs of being struck by his powers of fascination. " I saw directly 
 that I'd mashed her; she was gone, dead gone, sir; and — 1 say, 
 who's that in the corner over there, eh? " 
 
 He was staring intently into the pier glass in front of him, 
 "That," said Leander, t'ollowing his glance. "Oh! that's a 
 statue I've bought. She — she brightens up the place a bit, don't 
 she? " 
 
 "A statue, is it? Yes, of course; I knew it was a statue. Well, 
 about that dove. I went round after it was all over, but couldn't 
 see a sign of her; so — That's a queer sort of statue you've got 
 there!" he broke off, suddenly; and Leander distinctly saw the 
 goddess shake her arm in fierce menace. 
 
 "He's said something that's put her out," he concluded. "I 
 wish I knew what it was." 
 
 " It's a classical statue, sir," he said, with what composure he 
 might; " they're all made like that." 
 
 " Are they, by Jove? But, Tweddle, I say, it moves; it's shaking 
 its fist like old Harry!" 
 
 "Oh, I think you're mistaken, sir, really! I don't perceive it 
 myself." 
 
 "Don't perceive it? But, hang it, man, look— look in the glass! 
 There! don't you see it does? Dash it! can't you say it does?" 
 
 "Flaw in the mirror, sir; when you move your 'ed you do ketch 
 that effect. I've observed it myself frequent,* Chin cut, sir? My 
 fault— my fault entirely," he admitted handsomely. 
 
 The young man was shaved by this time, and had risen to re- 
 ceive his hat and cane, when he gave a violent start as he passed 
 the Aphrodite. "There!" he said, breathlessly; " look at that, 
 Tweddle; she's going to punch my head! I suppose you'll tell me 
 that's the glass?" 
 Leander trembled— this time for kis own reputation; for the 
 
THE TINTED VEKUS. 37 
 
 report that he kept a mysterious and pugnacious statue on the 
 premises would not increase his custom. He must silence it, if 
 possible. " I'm afraid it is, sir — in a way," he remarked compas- 
 siooately. 
 
 The young man turned paler still. "No!" he exclaimed; " 5'ou 
 don't think it is, though? Don't you see anything yourself? I don't 
 either, Tweddle; I was chaffing, that's all. I know I'm a wee bit 
 off color; but it's not so bad as that. Keep off! Tell her to drop 
 it, Tweddle!" 
 
 For, as he spoke, the goddess had made a stride toward him. 
 "Miserable one!" she cried; "you have mangled one of my birds. 
 Hence, or I crush thee!" 
 
 "Tw^eddle! Tweddle!" cried the youth, taking refuge in the 
 outer shop, "don't let her come after me! What's she talking 
 about, eh? You shouldn't have these things about; they're — they're 
 noi right!" 
 
 Leander shut the glass door and placed himself before it, while 
 he tried to assume a concerned interest. " You take my advice, 
 sir," he said ; "you go home and keep steady." 
 
 " Is it that?" murmured the customer. "Great Scott! I must 
 be bad!" and he went out into the street, shaking. 
 
 " I djn't believe I shall ever see him again, either," thought Le- 
 ander. " She'll drive 'em all a\vay if she goes on like this." But 
 here a sudden recollection struck him, and he slapped his thigh with, 
 glee. " Why, of course," he said, " that's it. I've downright dis- 
 gusted her; it was me she was most put out with, and after this 
 she'll leave Die alone. Hooray ! I'll shut up everything first and 
 get rid of the boy, and then go in and see her, and get away to 
 Matilda." 
 
 When the shop was secured for the night, he re entered the sa- 
 loon with a light step. " Well, mum," he began, "you've seen me 
 at work, and you've thought better of what you were proposing, 
 haven't you now?" 
 
 " Where is the wretched stripling who dared to slay my dove?" 
 she cried. " Bring him to me !" 
 
 "What are you a-talking about now?" cried the bewildered Le- 
 ander. " Who's been touching your birds? I wasn't aware you 
 kept birds." 
 
 " Many birds are sacred to me — the silver swan, the fearless spar- 
 row, and, chief of all, the coral-footed dove. And one of these 
 has that monster slain — his own mouth hath spoken it." 
 
 "Oh! is that all?" said Leander, " Wliy, he wasn't talking 
 about a real dove ; it w' as a ballet girl he meant. I can't explain 
 the difference; but W\Qy are different. And it's all talk, too. I 
 know him; he's harmless enough. And now, mum, to come to the 
 point, you've now had the opportunity of forming some ideer of my 
 calling. You've thought better of it. haven't you?" 
 
 " Better! ay, far better!" she cried, in a voice that thrilled with 
 pride. "Leander, too modestly you have rated yourself, for surely 
 you are great amongst the sons of men." 
 
 "Me!" he gasped, utterly overcome. "How do you make that 
 out?" 
 
 " Do you not compel them to furnish sport for you? Have I not 
 
38 THE TINTED YENUS. 
 
 seen them come in, talking boldly and loud, and yet seat themselves 
 submissively at a sign from you? And do you not swathe them la 
 the garb of humiliation, and daub their countenances with white- 
 ness, and threaten their bared throats with the gleaming knife, and 
 grind their heads under the resistless wheel? Then, having in dis- 
 dain granted them their worthless lives, you set tliem free; and they 
 propitJiate you with a gift, and depart trembling." 
 
 "Well, of all the topsy-turvy contrariness!" he protested. 
 "You've got it «^^ wrong; 1 declare you have! But I'll put you 
 right, if it's possible to do it." And he launched into a lengthy ex- 
 planation of the wonders she had seen, at the end of which he in- 
 quired, " Noio do you understand I'm nobody in particular?" 
 
 "It may be so," she admitted; "but what of that? Ere this 
 have I been wild with love for a herdsman on Phrygian hills. Ay, 
 Adonis have 1 kissed in the oakwood, and bewailed his loss. And 
 did not Selene descend to woo the neatherd Endymioii? AVhcre- 
 fore, then, should I scorn thee? and what are the differences and 
 degrees of mortals 'to such as I? Be bold; distrust your merits no 
 longer, since I, who amongst the goddesses obtained the prize of 
 beauty, have chosen you for my own." 
 
 " I don't care what prizes you won," he said, sulkily; " I'm not 
 jours, and I don't intend to be, either." lie was watching the 
 clock impatiently all the while, for it was growing very near nine. 
 
 " It is vain to struggle," she said, " since not the gods themselves 
 can resist Fate. We must yield, and contend not." 
 " You begin it then," he said; " give me my ring." 
 " The sole symbol of my power! the charm which has called me 
 from my long sleep ! Never ! " 
 
 " Then," said Leander, knowing full well that his threat was an 
 impossible one, " 1 shall place the matter in the hands of a respect- 
 able lawyer." 
 
 "1 understand you not; but it is no matter. In time I shall 
 prevail." 
 
 " Well, mum, you must come again another evening, if you've 
 no objection," said Leander, rudely, " because I've got to go out 
 just now." 
 
 " I will accompany you," she said. 
 
 Leander nearly danced with frenzy. Take the statue with him 
 to meet his dear Matilda! He dared not. " You're very kij>d," he 
 stammered, perspiring freely; "but I couldn't think of taking j-ou 
 out such a foggy evening." 
 
 " Have no cares for me," she answered; " we will go together. 
 You shall explain to me the ways of this changed world." 
 
 " Catch me ! " was Leander's elliptical comment to himself; but 
 he had to pretend a delighted acquiescence, " Well," he cried, "if 
 I hadn't been thinking liow lonely it would be going out alone! and 
 now I «hall have the honor of your company, mum. You wait a 
 bit here, while I run upstairs and fetch my 'at." 
 
 But the perfidious man only waited until he was on the other 
 side of the door which led from the saloon to his staircase to lock 
 it after him, and slip out by the private door into the street. 
 
 "Now, my lady," he thought, triumphantly, "j'ou're safe for 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 39 
 
 awhile, at all events. I've put up the shutters, and so you won't 
 get out that way. And now for Tilliel" 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TWO ARE COMPANY. 
 
 The shape 
 Which has made escape, 
 And before my countenance 
 Answers me glance for glance 
 
 Mesmerism. 
 
 Leandee. hastened eagerly to his trysting place. All these ob- 
 stacles and difficulties had rendered his Matilda tenfold dearer and 
 more precious to him; and, besides, it was more than a fortnight 
 since he had last seen her. But he was troubled and anxious still 
 at the recollection of the Greek statue shut up in his hair-cutting 
 saloon. What would Matilda say if she knew abo\it it; and, still 
 worse, what might it not do if it knew about her? Matilda might 
 decline to continue his acquaintance — for she was a very right- 
 minded girl — unless Venus, like the jealous and vindictive heathen 
 she had shown herself to be, were to crush her before she even had 
 the opportunity. 
 
 " It's a mess," he thought, disconsolately, "whatever way I look 
 at it. But after to-night 1 won't meet Matilda anymore while I've 
 got that statue staying with me, or no one could tell the conse- 
 quences." However, when he drew near the appointed spot, and 
 saw the slender form which awaited him there by the railings, he 
 forgot all but the present joy. Even the memory of the terrible 
 divinity could not live in the wholesome presence of the girl he had 
 the sense to truly and honestly love. 
 
 Matilda Colhmi was straight and slim, though not tall; she had 
 a neat little head of light brown hair, wdiich curled round her tem- 
 ples in soft little rings; her complexion was healthily pale, with the 
 sliizhtest tinge of delicate pink in it; she had a round but decided 
 chin, and her gray eyes were large and innocently severe except on 
 the rare occasions when she laughed, and then their expression was 
 almost child like in its gayety. 
 
 Generally, and especially in business hours, her pretty face was 
 calm and slightly haughty, and rash male customers who attempted 
 to make the choice of a " button-hole" an excuse for flirtation were 
 not encouraged to persevere. She was seldom demonstrative to Le- 
 ander — it was not her way — but she accepted his effusive affection 
 very contentedly, and, indeed, returned it more heartily than her 
 principles allowed her to admit; for she secretly admired his spirit 
 and fluency, and, as is often the case in her class of life, had no idea 
 that she was essentially her lover's superior. 
 
 After the first greetings they walked slowly round the square 
 together, his arm around her waist. Neither said very much for 
 some minutes, but Leander was wildly, foolishly happy, and there 
 was no severity in Matilda's ej^es when they siione in the lamplight. 
 
 "Well," he said at last, " and so I've actually got you safe back 
 
40 THE TINTED VEKUS. 
 
 again, my dear, darling Tilly! It seems like a long eternity since 
 last we met. I've been so beastly miserable, Matilda!" 
 
 " You do seem to have got thinner in the face, Leander, dear," 
 said Matilda, compassionately; " \vha,t have you been doing while 
 I've been away?" 
 
 " Only wishing my dearest girl back, that's all I've been doing." 
 
 "What! haven't you given yourself any enjoyment at all — not 
 gone out anywhere all the time?" 
 
 "Not once— leastwise, that is to say — " A guilty memory of 
 Rosherwich made him bungle here. 
 
 "Why, of course I didn't expect you to stop in-doors all the 
 time," said Matilda, noticing the amendment, "so long as you 
 never went where you wouldn't takeme," 
 
 Oh, conscience, conscience! But Rosherwich didn't count: it 
 was outside the radius; and besides he hadn't enjoyed himself. 
 
 " Well," he said. "1 did go out one evening, to hear a lecture on 
 Astronomy at the Town Hull, in the Gray's Inn Road; but then I 
 had the ticket given me by a customer, and I reelly was surprised 
 to find how regular the stars was in their habits, comets and all. 
 But my 'Tilda is the only star of the evening for me, to-night. I 
 don't want to talk about anything else." 
 
 The diversion was successful, and Matilda asked no more incon- 
 venient questions. Presently she happened to cough slightly, and 
 he touched accusingly the light summer cloak she was wearing. 
 
 "You're not dressed warm enough for a night like this," lie said, 
 with a lover's concern; "haven't you got anything thicker to put 
 on than that? " 
 
 "I haven't bought my winter things yet," said Matilda. "It 
 was so mild, that I thought I'd wait till I could afford it better. 
 But I've chosen the very thing I mean to buy. You know I\[rs. 
 Twilling's, at the top of the Row, the corner shop. Well, in the 
 window there is a perfectly lovely long cloak, all lined with squir- 
 rel's fur, and with those nice oxidized silver fastenings. A cloak 
 like that lasts ever so long, and will always look neat and quiet; and 
 anj;- one can wear it without being stared after; so I mean to buy it 
 as soon as it turns really cold." 
 
 "Ah!" said he, " I can't have you ketching cold you know; it 
 ain't summer any lunger, and I — I've been thinking we must give up 
 our evening strolls together for the present." 
 
 " When you've just been saying how miserable you've been with- 
 out them. Oh, Leander!" 
 
 " Without you," he amended, lamely. " I shall see you at aunt's, 
 of course; only we'd better suspend the walks while the nights are 
 so raw. And, oh, Tillie, ere long you will be mine, my little wife! 
 Only to think of j^ou keeping the books for me with your own 
 pretty little fingers, and sending out the bills (not that I give much 
 credit). Ah, what a blissful dream it sounds! Does it to you, Ma- 
 tilda?" 
 
 " I'm not sure that you keep your books the same way as we do," 
 she replied, demurely ; ' ' but I dare say " — (and this was a great con- 
 cession for Matilda)—" I dare say we shall suit one another." 
 
 " Suit one another!' he cried; " Ah! we shall be inseparable as 
 a brush and comb, Tillie, if you'll excuse so puffessional a stimu- 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 41 
 
 lus. And what a future lies before me ! If I can only succeed in 
 introducing some of my inventions to public notice, we may rise, 
 Tilly, 'like an exclamation,' as the poet says. I believe my new 
 nasal splint has only to be known to become universally worn; and 
 I've been thinking out a little machine lately for imparting a patri- 
 cian arch to the flattest foot, that ought to have an extensive run. I 
 almost wish you weren't so pretty, Tillie. I've studied you care- 
 ful, and I'm bound to say, as it is there really isn't room for any im- 
 provement I could suggest. Nature's beaten me there, and I'm not 
 too proud to own it." 
 
 " Would you rather there was room ?" inquired Matilda. 
 
 " From a puffessional point of view, it would have inspired me," 
 he said. "It would have suggested ideers, and I shouldn't have 
 loved you less, not if you hadn't had a tooth in your mouth nor a 
 hair on your head: you would still be my beautiful Tillie." 
 
 " I would rather be as I am, thank you," said Matilda, to whom 
 this fancy sketch did not appeal. " And now let's talk about some- 
 thing else. Do you know that mamma is coming up to town at the 
 end of the week on purpose to see you?" 
 
 "No," said Leander, "I — I didn't." 
 
 " Yes, she's taken the whole of your aunt's first floor for a week. 
 (You know she knew Miss Tweddle when she was younger, and 
 that was how I came to lodge there, and to meet you.) Do you 
 remember that Sunday afternoon jou came to tea, and your aunt 
 invited me in, because she thought I must be feeling so dull all 
 alone? " 
 
 " Ah, I should think I did ! Do you remember I helped to toast 
 the crumpets? What a halcyon evenmg that was, Matilda!" 
 
 "Was it?" she said. "I don't remember the weather exactl}'; 
 but it was nice in-doors." 
 
 " But, I say, Tillie, my own," he said, somewhat anxiously, " how 
 does your ma like your being engaged to me?" 
 
 " Well, I don't think she does like it quite," said Matilda. " She 
 says she will reserve her consent till she sees whether you are 
 worthy; but directly she sees you, Leander, her objections will 
 vanish." 
 
 " She has got objections, then? What to?" 
 
 " Mother always wanted me to keep my affections out of trade," 
 eaid Matilda. " You see, she never can forget what poor papa was." 
 
 " And what was your poor papa?" asked Leander. 
 
 " Didn't you know? He was a dentist, and that makes mamma 
 so very particular, you see. " 
 
 "But, hang it, Matilda! you're employed in a flower shop, you 
 know." 
 
 "Yes, but mamma never really approved of it; only she had to 
 give way because she couldn't afford to keep me at home, and I 
 scorned to go out as a governess. Never mind, Leander; when she 
 comes to know you and hear your conversation, she will relent; her 
 pride will melt.'*' 
 
 " But suppose it keeps solid; what will you do, Matilda?" 
 
 "I am independent, Leander; and though I would prefer to 
 marry with mamma's approval, I shouldn't feel bound to wait for 
 
42 THE TINTED YENUS. 
 
 it. So long as you are all I think you are, I shouldn't allow any 
 one to dictate to me." 
 
 "Bless you for those "words, my angelic girl!" he said, and 
 hugged her close to his breast. " Now I can beard your ma with 
 a light 'art. Oh, Matilda, you can form no ideer how I worship 
 you. Nothing shall ever come betwixt us two, shall it?" 
 
 " Nothing, as far as I am concerned, Leander," she replied. 
 *' What's the matter?" 
 
 He had given a furtive glance behind him after the last words, 
 and his embrace suddently relaxed, until his arm was withdrawn 
 altogether. 
 
 " Nothing is the matter, Matilda," he said. " Doesn't the moon 
 look red through the fog?" 
 
 " Is that why you took away your arm?" she inquired. 
 
 "Yes— that is, no. It occurred to me I was rendering you too 
 conspicuous; we don't want to go about advertising ourselves, you 
 know." 
 
 " But who is there here to notice?" asked Matilda. 
 
 "Nobody," he said; " oh, nobody! but we mustn't get into the 
 way of it;" and he cast another furtive, rearward look. In the full 
 flow of his raptures the miserable hairdresser had seen a sight which 
 had frozen his very marrow — a tall form, in flowing drapery, gliding 
 up behind with a tigress-like stealth. The statue had broken out, in 
 spite of all his precautions! Venus, jealous and exacting, was near 
 enough to overhear ever}'- word, and he could scarcely hope she had 
 escaped seeing the arm he had thrown around INIatilda's waist. 
 
 "You were going to tell me how you worishiped me," said 
 Matilda. 
 
 "I didn't say worship ""ht protested; "it — it's only images and 
 such that expect that. But I can tell you there's very few brothers 
 feel to you as I feel." 
 
 "Brothers, Leander!" exclaimed Matilda, and walked further 
 apart from him. 
 
 " Yes," he said; " after all, what tie's closer than a brother? A 
 uncle's all very well, and similarly a cousin; but they can't feel like 
 a brother does, for brothers they are not." 
 
 "I should have thought there were ties still closer," said Matilda; 
 " you seemed to think so too, once." 
 
 "Oh, ah! that!" he said. (Every frigid word gave him a pang 
 to utter; but it was all for Matilda's sake.) " There's time enough 
 to think of that, my girl; w^e mustn't be in a hurry." 
 
 " I'm not in a hurry," said Matilda. 
 
 "That's the proper way to look at it," said he; "and mean- 
 while I haven't got a sister I'm fonder of than I am of you." 
 
 " If you've nothing more to say than that, we had better part," 
 she remarked ; and he caught at the suggestion with obvious re- 
 lief. He had been in an agony of terror, lest, even in the gathering 
 fog, she should detect that they were watched; and then, too, it was 
 better to part with her under a temporary misconception than part 
 with her altogether. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I mustn't keep you out any longer with that 
 cold." 
 
 ** You are very ready to get rid of me," said poor Matilda. 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 43^ 
 
 *'The real truth is," he answered, simulating a yawn with a 
 heavy heart, " I am most uncommon sleepy to-uight, and all this 
 standing about is too much for me. So good-bye, and take care of 
 yourself!" 
 
 " I needn't say that to you," she said; " but I won't keep you up 
 a minute longer. I wonder you troubled to come out at all." 
 
 " Oh," he said, carefully keeping as much in front of the statue 
 as he could, " it's no trouble; but you'll excuse me seeing you to 
 the door this evening?" 
 
 "Oh, certainly," said Matilda, biting her lip. She touched his 
 hand with the ends of her fingers, and hurried away without turn- 
 ing her head. 
 
 When she was out of sight Leander faced around to the irrepress- 
 ible goddess; he was in a white rage; but terror and caution made 
 him suppress it to some extent, 
 
 " So here you are again !" he said. 
 
 " Why did you not wait for me?" she answered. " I remained 
 long for you; " you came not; and I followed." 
 
 " I see you did," said the aggrieved Leander; " I can't say I like 
 being spied upon. If you're a goddess, act as such!" 
 
 " What I you dare to upbraid me?" she cried; " beware, or I — " 
 
 "I know," said Leander," flinching from her. "Don't do that; 
 I only made a remark," 
 
 "1 have a right to follow you; I choose to do so," 
 
 "If you must, you must," he groaned; "but it does seem 
 hard that I mayn't slip out for a few minutes' talk with my only 
 sister." 
 
 " You said you were going to run for business, and you told me 
 you had three sisters." 
 
 " So I have; but only one youngest one," 
 
 " And why did they not all come to talk with you?" 
 
 "I suppose because the other two stayed at home," rejoined Le- 
 ander, sulkily. 
 
 " 1 know not why, but I doubt you; that one who came, she is 
 not like you!" 
 
 "No," said Leander, with a great show of candor, "that's what 
 every one saj^s; all our family are like that; we are like in a way, 
 because we're all of us so different. You can tell us anywhere just 
 by the difference. My father and mother were both very unlike: I 
 suppose we take after them," 
 
 The goddess seemed satisfied with this explanation, "And now 
 that I have regained you, let us return to your abode," she said; 
 and Leander walked back by her side, a prey to rage and humilia- 
 tion. " It is a miserable thing," he was thinking, " for a man in my 
 rank of life to have a female statue trotting after him like a great 
 dorg. I'm d— d if I put up with it? Suppose we happen on some- 
 body as knows me!" 
 
 Fortunately, at that time of night Bloomsbury Square is not 
 
 much frequented; the increasing fog prevented the apparition of a 
 
 female in classical garments from attracting tlu^ notice to which it 
 
 might otherwise liave been exposed, and they reached the shop 
 
 •without any disai2;reeable encounter. 
 
 "She sha'n'ts'top in the saloon," he determined- "I've had 
 
44 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 enough of that! If you've no objections," he said, with a mixture 
 of deference and dictation, " I shall be obliged if you'd settle your- 
 self in the little shrine in the upstairs room before proceeding to 
 evaporate out of your statue; it would be more agreeable to my 
 feelings." 
 
 "Ah!" she said, smiling, "you would have me nearer you? 
 Your stubborn heart is yielding; a little while, and you will own the 
 power of Aphrodite ! " 
 
 " Now, don't you go deceiving yourself with any such ideers," 
 said the hair-dresser irritably. " I sha'n't do no such thing, so you 
 needn't think it. And to come to the point, how long do you mean 
 to carry on tliis little game?" 
 
 " Game?" repeated the goddess absently. 
 
 " How long are you going to follow me about in this rediculous 
 way?" 
 
 " Till you submit, and profess your wilHngness to redeem your 
 promise." 
 
 " Oh, and you're coming every evening till then, are you?" 
 
 " At night-fall of each day I have power to revisit you." 
 
 " Well, come then!" he said with a fling of impatient anger. " I 
 tell you beforehand that you won't get anything by it. Not if you 
 was to come and bring a whole stone-mason's yard of sculptures 
 along with you, you wouldn't! You ought to know better than to 
 come pestering a respectable tradesman in this bold faced manner!" 
 
 She smiled with a languid, contemptuous tolerance, svliich mad- 
 dened Leander. 
 
 " Rave on," she said. " Truly, you are a sorry prize for such as 
 I to stoop to win; yet I will it,' nor shall you escape me. There 
 will come a day when, forsaken by all you hold dear on earth, de- 
 spised, ruined, distracted, you will pray eagerly for the haven of " 
 refuge to which I alone can guide you. Take heed, lest your con- 
 duct now be remembered then! I have spoken." 
 
 They were indeed her last words that evening, and they im- 
 pressed the hair-dresser, in spite of himself. Custom habituates the 
 mind to any marvel, and already he had overcome his first horror 
 at the periodical awakenings of the statue, and surprise was swal- 
 lowed up by exasperation; now, however, he quailed under her 
 dark threats. Could it ever really come to pass that he would sue 
 to this stone to hide him in the realms of the supernatural? 
 
 " I know this," he told himself, " if it once gets about that there's 
 a hair-dresser to be seen in Bloomsburj^ chivied about after dark by 
 a classical statue, I sha'n't dare to show my face. Yet I don't know 
 how I'm to prevent her coming out after me, at all events now and 
 then. If she was only a little more like other people, I shouldn't 
 mind so much; but it's more than I can bear to have to go about 
 with a tablow vivant or a pose plastique on my arm!" 
 
 All at once he started to his feet. "I've got it!" he cried, and 
 went do\Yn-stairs to his laboratory, to reappear with some camel- 
 hair brushes, grease-paints, and a selection from his less important 
 discoveries in the science of cosmetics; namely, an "eyebrow ac- 
 centuator," a vase of " Tweddle's Cream of Carnations" and 
 " Blondinette Bloom," a china box of " Conserve of Coral " for tire 
 lips, and one of his most exiDcnsive chevelures. 
 
THE TIXTEi) YEN'tS. 45 
 
 He was trembling as he arranged them upon his table; not that 
 he was aware of the enormity of the act he contemplated, but he 
 was afraid the goddess might revisit the marble while he was en- 
 gaged upon it. 
 
 He furnished the blank eye-sockets with a pair of eyes, which, if 
 not exactl}^ artistic, at least supplied a want; he penciled the eye- 
 brows, laid on several coats of the "Bloom," which he suffused 
 cunningly with a tinge of carnation, and stained the pouting lips 
 with his " Conserve of Coral." 
 
 So far, perhaps, he had not violated the canons of art, and may 
 even have restored to the image something of its pristine hues; but 
 his next addition was one the vandalism of which admits of no 
 possible defense, and when he deftly fitted the coiffure of light 
 closely-curled hair upon the noble classical head, even Leander felt 
 dimly that something was wrong! 
 
 " I don't know how it is," he pondered: "she looks more natu- 
 ral, but not half so respectable. However, when she's got some- 
 thing on to cover the marble, there won't be anything much to no- 
 tice about her. I'll buy a cloak for her the first thing to-morrow 
 morning. Matilda was saying something about a shop near 
 here where 1 could get that. And then, if this Venus must come 
 following me about, she'll look less outlandish at any rate, and 
 that's something!" 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 A FURTHER PREDICAMENT. 
 
 So long as the world contains us both, 
 
 Me the loving and you the loath. 
 
 While the one eludes, must the other pursue. 
 
 Browning. 
 
 Immediately after breakfast the next day, Leander went out 
 and paid a visit to Miss Twilling's, bringing away with him a 
 hooded cloak of the precise kind he remembered Matilda to have 
 described as unlikely to render its owner conspicuous. With this 
 garment he succeeded in disguising the statue to such a degree tliat 
 it was far less likely than before that the goddess's appearance in 
 public would excite any particular curiosity — a result which some- 
 what relieved his anxiety as to her future proceedings. 
 
 But all that day his thoughts were busy with Matilda; he must, 
 he feared, have deeply offended her by liis abrupt change on the 
 previous night; and now^ he could not expect to meet her again for 
 days, and would not know how to explain his conduct if he did 
 meet her. 
 
 If he could only dare to tell her everything! but from such a 
 course he shrunk. Matilda would not only be extremely indignant 
 (though, in very truth, he had done nothing ])ositively wrong as 
 yet), but, with her strict notions and well regulated principles, she 
 would assuredly recoil from a lover who had brought himself into 
 a predicament so hideous. He would tell her all when, or if, he 
 succeeded in extricating himself. 
 
 But he was to learn the nature of Matilda's sentiments sooner 
 
46 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 than he expected. It was growing dusk, and he was unpacking a 
 parcel of goods in his front shop — for his saloon happened to be 
 empty just then — when the outer door swung back, and a sliglit, 
 girlish figure entered, after a pause of indecision on the threshold. 
 It was Matilda. 
 
 Had she come to break it off — to reproach him? He was prepared 
 for no less; she had never paid him a visit like this alone before; 
 and some doubts of the propriety of the thing seemed to be troub- 
 ling her now, for she did not speak, 
 
 '' Matilda," he faltered, " don't tell me you have come in a spirit 
 of unpleasantness, for I can't bear it." 
 
 "Don't you deserve that I should?" she said, but not angrily. 
 " You know, you were very strange in behaving as you did last 
 night. I couldn't tell what to make of it." 
 
 "I know," he said, confusedly, "it was something come over 
 me, all of a sudden like. 1 can't understand what made me like 
 that; but, oh, Tiilie, my dearest love, my 'art was busting wilh 
 adoration all the time! The circumstances was highly peculiar; 
 but I don't know that I could explain them." 
 
 " You needn't, Leander; 1 have found you out." She said this 
 with a strange significance. 
 
 "What?" he "almost shrieked. "You don't mean it, JMatilda! 
 Tell me, quick! has the discovery changed your feelings toward 
 me? Has it?" 
 
 " Yes," she said, softly; " I — I think it has; but you ought not 
 to have done it, Leander." 
 
 " I know," he groaned, " I was a fool, Tiilie; a fool! But 1 may 
 get out of it yet,"^ he added. "I can get her to let me off. I must 
 —I will!" 
 
 Matilda opened her eyes. "But, Leander, dear, listen; don't be 
 so hasty. 1 never said I icanied her to let you off, did 1?" 
 
 He looked at her in a dazed manner. " 1 rather thought," he 
 said, slowly, " that it might have put you out a little. I see I was 
 mistook." 
 
 "You might have known that I should be more pleased than 
 angry, 1 should think," said Matilda. 
 
 " More pleased than — I might have known!" exclaimed the be- 
 wildered man. " Oh, you can't reelly be taking it as cool as this! 
 Will you kindly inform me what it is you're alludiu' to in this 
 way?" 
 
 " What is the use of pretending? You know I know. And it is 
 colder, much colder, this morning. I felt it directly I got up." 
 
 " Quite a change in the weather, I'm sure," he said, mechanic- 
 ally; " it feels like a frost coming on." ("Has Matilda looked in 
 to tell me the weather's changed?" he was wondering within him- 
 self. "Either I'm mad, or Matilda is.") 
 
 " You dear old goose!" said Matilda, with an unusual effusive- 
 ness; " you sha'n't tease me like this! Do you think I've no eyes 
 and no feelings? Any girl, I don't care how proud or offended, 
 would come round, on such proof of devotedness as I've had this 
 evening. When I saw it gone, I felt 1 must come straight in and 
 thank you, and tell you I shouldn't think any more of last night. I 
 couldn't stop myself." 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 47 
 
 "When you saw what gone?" cried the hairdresser rubbing up 
 his hair. 
 
 " The cloak," said Matilda; and then, as she saw his expression, 
 her own changed. " Leander Tweddle," she asked, in a dry, hard 
 voice, " have I been making a wretched fool of myself? Didn't 
 you buy that cloak?" 
 
 He understood at last. He had gone to Miss Twilling's chiefly 
 because he was iu a hurry aud it was close by, and he knew no- 
 where else where he could be sure of getting what he required. 
 Now, by some supreme stroke of the ill-luck which seemed to be 
 pursuing him of late, he had unwittingly purchased the identical 
 garment on which Matilda had fixed her affections! How was he 
 to notice that they took it out of the window for him? 
 
 All this flashed across him as he replied, " Yes, yes, Tillie, I did 
 buy a cloak there; but are you sure it was the same you told me 
 about?" 
 
 " Do you think a woman doesn't know the look of a thing like 
 that, when it's taken her fancy ?" said Matilda. " Why, I could tell 
 you every clasp and tassel on that cloak; it wasn't one you'd see 
 every day, and I knew it was gone the moment I passed the win- 
 dow. It quite upset me, for I'd set my heart on it so: and I ran 
 in to Miss Twilling and asked her what had become of it, and when 
 she said she sold it that morning, I thought I should have fainted. 
 You see, it never struck me that it could be you ; for how could I 
 dream that you'd be clever enough to go and choose the very one? 
 Leander, it was clever of you." 
 
 " Yes," he said, with a bitter rail against himself, "I'm a clever 
 chap, I am. But how did you find out?" 
 
 "Oh, I made Miss Twilling (I often get little things there), I 
 made her describe who she sold it to, and she said she thought it 
 was to a gentleman in the hair-cutting persuasion who lived near; 
 and then, of course, I guessed who bought it." 
 
 " Tillie," gasped Leander, "I — I didn't mean you to guess; the 
 purpose for which I require that cloak is my secret." 
 
 " Oh, you silly man, when I've guessed it! And I take it just as 
 kind of you as if it was to be all a surprise. I was wishing as I 
 came along I could afford to buy it at once, it struck so cold coming 
 out of our place; and you had actually bought it for me all the time! 
 Thank you ever so much, Leander dear!" 
 
 Pie had only to accept the position ; and he did, " I'm glad you're 
 pleased," he said; " I intended it as a surprise." 
 
 "And I am surprised," said Matilda; "because, do you know, 
 last night, when I went home, I was feeling very cross at you? I 
 kept tiiinking that perhaps you didn't care for me any more, and 
 were trying to break it off; and oh, all sorts of horrid things I kept 
 thinking! And aunt gave nie a message for you this morning, and 
 I was so out of temper I wouldn't leave it. And now to find you've 
 been so kind!" 
 
 She stretched out her hand to him across the counter, and betook 
 and held it tight; he had never seen her lo(jking sweeter, nor felt 
 that she was half so dear to him. After all, his blunder had brought 
 them together again, and he was grateful to it. 
 
 At last Matilda said, " You were quite right about this wrapper. 
 
48 THE Tils TED VEX US. 
 
 Leander; it's not half warm enough for a night like this. I'm 
 really afraid to go home in it." 
 
 He knew welfenough what she intended him to do; but just then 
 he dared not appear to understand. " It isn't far, only to Millman 
 Street," he said; "and you must walk fast, Tillie. I wish I could 
 leave the shop and come too." 
 
 " You want me to ask you downright," she said, pouting. " You 
 men can't even be kind prettily. Don't you want to see how I look 
 in your cloak, Leander?" 
 
 What could he say after that? He must run upstairs, deprive the 
 goddess of her mantle, and hand it over to Matilda, She had evi- 
 dently made up her mind to have that particular cloak, and he must 
 buy the statue another. It would be expensive; but there was no 
 help for it. 
 
 " Certainly," he said, "you shall have it now, dearest, if you'd 
 like to. I'll run up and fetch it down, if you'll wait." 
 
 He rushed upstairs, two steps at a time, and, flinging open the 
 door of a cupboard, began desperately to uncloak his Aphrodite. 
 She was lifeless still, which he considered fortunate. 
 
 But the goddess seemed to have a natural propensity to retain any 
 form of portable property. One of her arms was so placed that, 
 tug and stretch as he would, Leander could not get the cloak from 
 her shoulders, and his eilorts only broke one of the oxidized silver 
 fastenings, and tore part of the squirrel's-fur lining. 
 
 It was useless, and with a damp forehead he came down again to 
 his expectant fiancee. 
 
 " "VVhy, you haven't got it, after all!" she cried, her face falling. 
 
 " Tillie, my own dear gu-1," he said, " I'm uncommon sorry, upon 
 my soul I am, but you can't have that cloak this evening." 
 
 "But why, Leander, why?" 
 
 " Because one of the clasps is broke. It must be sent back to be 
 repaired." 
 
 " I don't mind that. Let me have it just as it is." 
 
 " And the lining's torn. No, Matilda, I sha'n't make you a pres- 
 ent of a damaged article. I shall send it back. They must change 
 it for me." T'Theu," he thought, "I can buy my Matilda an- 
 other.") 
 
 " I don't care for any other but that," she said; " and you can't 
 match it." 
 
 " Oh. Lor'!" he thought, " and she knows every inch of it. The 
 goddess must give it up; it'll be all the same to her. Very well, 
 then, dearest, you shall have that, but not till it's done up. I 
 must have my way in this; and as soon as ever I can I'll bring it 
 round." 
 
 " Leander, could you bring it me by Sunday," she said, eagerly, 
 " when you come?" 
 
 "Why Sunday?" he asked. 
 
 "Because— oh, that was the message your aunt asked me to 
 bring you; it was in a note, but I've lost it. She told me what was 
 inside, though, and it's this: Will you give her the pleasure of your 
 company at "her midday dinner at two o'clock, to be introduced to 
 mamma? And she said you were to be sure and not forget het 
 ring." 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 49 
 
 He tottered for a moment. The ring! Yes, there was that to be 
 got off, too, besides the cloak. 
 
 " Haven't you got the ring from Vidler's yet?" she said. " He's 
 had it such a time." 
 
 He had told her where he had left it for alterations. " Yes," he 
 said, " he has had it a time. It's disgraceful the way that old Vid- 
 ler potters and potters. I shall go round and 'urry him up. I won't 
 stand it any longer." 
 
 Here a customer came in, and Matilda slipped away with a hur- 
 ried good-bye. 
 
 "I've got till Sunday to get straight," the hair-dresser thought, as 
 he attended on the new comer, " the best part of the week; surely I 
 can talk that Venus over by that time." 
 
 When he was alone he went up to see her, without losing a mo- 
 ment. He must have left the door unlocked in his haste, for she was 
 standing before the low chimney-glass, regarding herself intently. 
 As he came in she turned. 
 
 "Who has done all this?" she demanded. "Tell me, was it 
 you?" 
 
 " I did taXie the liberty, mum," he faltered, guiltily. 
 
 "You have done well," she said, graciously. "With reverent 
 and loving care have you imparted hues as of life to these cheeks, 
 and decked my image in robes of costly skins." 
 
 " Don't name it, mum," he said. 
 
 " But what are these?" she continued, raising a hand to the light 
 ringlets on her brow. " I like them not — they are unseemly. The 
 waving lines parted by the bold chisel of a Grecian sculptor resemble 
 my ambrosial tresses more nearly than this abomination." 
 
 "You maj^ go all over London," said Leauder, "and you won't 
 find a coiffure, though 1 say it, to set closer and defy detection more 
 naturally than the one you've got on; selected from the best im- 
 ported foreign hair in the market, I do assure you." 
 
 " I accept the offering for the spirit in which it was presented, 
 though I approve it not otherwise." 
 
 " You'll find it wear very comfortable," said Leander; " but that 
 cloak, now I come to see it on, it reelly is most unworthy of you, a 
 very inferior piece of goods, and if you'll allow me I'll change it," 
 and he gently extended his hand to draw it off. 
 
 " Touch it not," said the goddess; " for, having once been placed 
 upon my effigy, it is consecrated to my service." 
 
 " For mercy's sake, let me get another one— one with more style 
 about it!" he entreated; " my credit Jiangs on it." 
 
 " I am content," she said, "more than content. No more words 
 — I retain it.- And you have pleased me by this conduct, my hair- 
 dresser. Unknownit may be, even to yourself, your heart is warm- 
 ing in tlie sunshine of my favor; you are coy and wayward, but you 
 are yielding. Though pent in this form, carved b}^ a mortal hand, 
 I sliall prevail in the end. I shall have you for my own." 
 
 He rumpled his hair wildly: " 'Oirid obstinate these goddesses 
 are," lie thought. " What am I to say to Matilda now ? If I could 
 only find a way of getting this statue shut up somewhere where she 
 couldn't come and bother me, I'd take my chance of the rest, I 
 
50 THE TINTED VEKUS. 
 
 can't go on with this sort of thing every evening. I'm sick and tired 
 of it." 
 
 Tiien something occurred to him. "Could I delude her into 
 it?" he aslied himself. " She's soft enough in some things, and, for 
 all she's a goddess, she don't seem up to our London waj-s yet. I'll 
 have a try, any way." 
 
 So he began: " Didn't I understand you to observe, mum, some 
 time back, that the pidgings and sparrers were your birds?" 
 
 " They are mine," she said, "or they were mine in days that are 
 past." 
 
 " Well," he said, " there's a place close by, with railings in front 
 of it, and steps and pillars as you go in, and if you like to go and 
 look in the yard there you'll find pidgings enough to set you up 
 again. I shouldn't wonder if they've been keeping them for you all 
 this time." 
 
 "They shall not lose by it," she said. "Go thither and bring 
 me my birds." 
 
 "I think," he said, " it would be better if you'd go yourself; 
 they don't know me at the British Museum. But if you was to go 
 to the beadle at the lodge and demand them, I've no doubt j-ou'd be 
 attended to; and you'll see some parties at the gates in long coats 
 and black cloth 'elmets, which if you ask them to ketch you a few 
 sparrers, they'll probably be most happy to oblige." 
 
 " My beloved birds," she said, " I have been absent from them so 
 long. Yes, I will go; tell me where?" 
 
 He got his hat, and went with her to a corner of Bloomsbury 
 Square, from which they could see the railings fronting the Museum 
 in the steel-tinted haze of electric light, 
 
 "That's the place," he said; "keeps its own moonshine, you 
 see. Go straight in and tell 'em you're come to fetch your doves." 
 
 " I will do so," she said, and strode off in imperious majesty. 
 
 He looked after her with an irrepressible chuckle. 
 
 " If she ain't locked up soon, I don't know myself," he said, and 
 went back to his establishment. 
 
 He had only just dismissed his apprentice and secured the shop 
 for the night, when he heard the well-known tread up his staircase. 
 " Back again! I don't have any luck," he muttered; and with rea- 
 son, for the statue, wearing an expression of cold displeasure, ad- 
 vanced into the room. He felt a certain sense of guilt when he saw 
 her. 
 
 "Got the birds?" he inquired, with a nervous familiarity, "or 
 couldn't you bring yourself to ask for them?" 
 
 "You have misled me," she said; "ni}^ birds are not there. 1 
 came to gates in front of a stately pile — doubtless erected to some 
 god; at the entrance stood a priest, burly and strong, with gold- 
 embroidered garments — " 
 
 (" The beadle, I suppose," commented Leander.) 
 
 " I passed him unseen, and roamed unhindered over the court- 
 yard. It was bare, save for one or two worshipers who crossed it. 
 Presently a winged thing fluttered down to my feet. But though a 
 dove indeed, it was no bird of mine — it knew me not. And it was 
 draggled, begrimed, uncleanly, as never were the doves of Aphro- 
 dite. And the sparrows (for these, too, did I see), they were worse. 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 51 
 
 I motioned them from me with loathing, I renounced them all. 
 Thus, Leauder, have I fared in following your counsels!" 
 
 " Well, it ain't my fault," he said; " it's the London soot makes 
 them like that. There's some at the Guildhall; perhaps they're 
 cleaner." 
 
 " No," she said, vehemently; " I will seek no further. This is a 
 city of darkness and tilth. I am in a land, an age, which know me 
 not- this much have 1 learned already. The world was fairer and 
 brighter of old ! " 
 
 " You see," said Leander, " if you only go about at night, you 
 ean't expect sunshine! But I'm told there's cleaner and brighter 
 places to be seen abroad; if you cared to go there !" he insinuated, 
 
 "To one place only, to my Cyprian caves, will I go," she de- 
 clared, "and with you!" 
 
 " We'll talk about that some other time," he answered, sooth- 
 ingly. " Lady Venus, look here, dou't you think you've kept that 
 ring long enough? I've asked you civill}^ enough, goodness knows, 
 to 'and it over, limes without number. I ask you once more to act 
 fair. You know it came to you quite accidental, and yet you want 
 to take advantage of it like this. It ain't right!" 
 
 She met this with her usual scornful smile, " Listen, Leander," 
 she said: " Once before — how long since I know not— a mortal, in 
 sport or accident, placed his ring as you have done upon the finger 
 of a statue erected to me, I claimed fulfillment of the pledge then, 
 as now; but a force I could not withstand was invoked against me, 
 and I was made to give up the ring, and with it the power and 
 rights I strove to exert. But I will not again be thwarted; no force, 
 no being shall snatch you from me; so be not deceived. Submit, 
 ere you excite my fierce displeasure; submit now, since in the end 
 submit you must!" 
 
 There was a dreadful force in the sonorous tones which made 
 him shiver; a rigid inflexible will lurked in this form, with all its 
 subtle curves and feminine grace. If goddesses really retained any 
 power in these days, there could be no doubt that she would use 
 hers to the full. 
 
 Yet he still struggled. " I can't make you give up the ring," he 
 said, "but no more you can't make me leave my~my establish- 
 ment, and go away underground with you. I'm an Englishman, I 
 am; and Englishmen are" free, mum;'p'r'aps you wasn't aware of 
 that? I've not a will of my own, and so you'll find it!" 
 
 " Poor worm," she said, pityingly (and the hairdresser hated to 
 be addre«;sed as a poor worm), " why oppose thy weak will to mine? 
 Whv enlist my pride against thyseff; for what hast thou of thine 
 own to render thy conquest desirable? Thou art bent upon de- 
 fiance, it seems. 1 leave thee to reflect if such a combat can be 
 equal. Farewell; and at my next coming let me find a cliange!" 
 
 And the spirit of the sroddoss fled, as before, to the mysterious 
 realms from whicii she had been so incautiously evoked, leaving 
 Leander almost frantic with rage, superstitious terror, and baffled 
 purposes. 
 
 ""I must get the ring off," he muttered, "and the cloak, some- 
 how. Oh! 'if I could only find out how— There was that other 
 chap— ^ got off, she said' as much. If I could get out how he 
 
62 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 managed it, why couldn't I do the same? But who's to tell me? 
 She won't — not if she knows it! I wonder if it's in any history? 
 Old Freemoult would know it if it was — he's such a scholar. Why, 
 he gave me a name for that 'airwash without having to think twice 
 over it! I'll try and pump old Freemoult. I'll do it to-morrow, loo. 
 I'll see if I'm to be domineered over by a image out of a tea-garden. 
 Eh? I — I don't care if she did hear mel" 
 
 _ So Leander went to his troubled pillow, full of this new resolu- 
 tion, which seemed to promise a way of escape. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP 6EA. 
 
 Some, when they take Revenge, are Desirous the party should know whence 
 it Cometh: This is the more Generous.— Bacon. 
 
 In the Tottenham Court Road was a certain Commercial Dining- 
 room where Leander occasional!}' took his evening meal, after the 
 conclusion of his day's work, and where Mr. Freemoult was ac- 
 customed to take his supper, on leaving the British Museum Li- 
 brary. 
 
 To this eating-house Leander repaired the very next evening, 
 urged by a consuming desire to learn the full particulars of the ad- 
 venture which liis prototype in misfortune had met with. 
 
 It was an unpretending little place, with the bill of fare wafered 
 to the door, and red curtains in the windows, setting off a display 
 of joints, cauliflowers and red herrings. lie passed tiirough into a 
 long, low room, with dark-brown grained walls, partitioned off in 
 the usual manner; and taking a seat in a box facing the door, he 
 ordered dinner from one of the shirt-sleeved attendants. 
 
 The first glance had told him that the man he wished to see was 
 not there, but he knew he must come in before long; and, in fact, 
 before Lcander's food could be brought, the old scholar made his 
 appearance. 
 
 He was hardly a man of attractive exterior, being of a yellow 
 complexion, with a stubby chin, and lank iron-gray locks. He wore 
 a tall and superannuated hat with a staring nap, and the pockets of 
 his baggy coat bulged with documents^ Altogether he did not 
 seem exactly the person to be an authority on the'subject of Venus. 
 
 But, as the hair-dresser was aware, he had the reputation of being 
 a mine of curious and out-ofthe-way information, though few 
 thought it worth their wiiile to work him. He gained a'living, 
 however, by hack work of various descriptions, and was in slightly 
 better circumstances than he allowed to appear. 
 
 As l>e passed slowly along the central passage, in his usual state 
 of abstraction, Leander touched him eagerl}^ on the sleeve, " Come 
 in 'ere, Mr. Freemoult, sir," he said; " there's room in this box." 
 
 " It's the barber, is it?" said the old man. " What do you want 
 me to eat with you for, eh?" 
 
 " W^hy, for the pleasure of your company, sir, of course," said 
 Leander, politely. 
 
 " Well," said the old gentleman, sitting down, while documents 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 63 
 
 bristled out of him in all directions, " there are not many who would 
 say that — not many now," 
 
 """ Don't you say sO, Mr. Freemoult, sir. I'm sure it's a benefit, if 
 only for your conversation. I often say, ' I never meet Mr. Free- 
 moult without I learn somethink;' I do indeed!" 
 
 " Then we must have met less often than I had imagined." 
 
 "Now, you are too m.odest, sir; you really are— a scholar like 
 you, too! Talking of scholarship, you'll be gratified to hear that 
 that title you were good enough to suggest for the * Regenerator ' is 
 having a quite surprising sale, I disposed of five bottles over the 
 counter only yesterday." ("These old scholars," was his wily re- 
 flection, "like being flattered up.") 
 
 " Does that mean you've another beastly bottle you want me to 
 stand godfather to?" growled the ungrateful old gentleman. 
 
 "Oh, no, indeed, sir! It's only — But p'r'aps you'll allow me 
 previously the honor of sending out for whatever beverage you was 
 thinking of washing down j'our boiled beef with, sir." 
 
 " Do you know who I am?" Mr. Freemoult bursts out. " I'm a 
 scholar, and gentleman enough still to drink at my own expense!" 
 
 "I intended no offense, I'm sure, sir; it was only meant in a 
 friendly way." 
 
 " That is the offense, sir; that is the offense! But, there, we'll 
 say no more about it; you can't help your profession, and I can't 
 help my prejudices. What was it you wanted to ask mo?" 
 
 " Well," said Leander, " I was desirous of getting some informa- 
 tion respecting — ahem — a party by the name of (if I've caught the 
 foreign pronunciation) Haphrodite, otherwise known as Venus. Do 
 you happen to have heard tell of her?" 
 
 " Have I had a classical education, sir, or haven't I? Heard of 
 her? of course I have! But why, in the name of Mythology, any 
 hairdresser living should trouble his head about Aphrodite, passes 
 my comprehension. Leave her alone, sir!" 
 
 "It's her who won't leave we alone," thought Leander; but he 
 did not say so. "I've a very particular reason for wishing to know ; 
 and I'm sure if you could tell me all you'd heard about her, I'd take 
 it very kind of you." 
 
 " Want to pick my brains; well, you wouldn't be the first. But 
 I am here, sir, to rest my brain and refresh my body, not to deliver 
 peripatetic lectures to hair-dressers on Grecian mythology." 
 
 " Well," said Leander, " I never meantyou to give your infoima- 
 tion peripatetic; I'm willing to go as far as half a crown." 
 
 " Conf — -But, there, what's the good of being angry with you? 
 Is this the sort of thing you want for your iialf crown? Aphrodite, 
 a later form of the Assyrian Astarte; the daughter, according to 
 some theogonies, of Zeus and Dione; others luive it that she was 
 the offspring of the foam of the sea,which gathered round the frag- 
 ments of the mutilated Uranos — " 
 
 " That don't seem so likely, do it, sir?" said Leander. 
 
 "If you are going to crop in with idiotic remarks, I shall confine 
 myself to my supper." 
 
 "Don't stop, Mr. Freemoult, sir; it's most instructive. I'm at- 
 tending." 
 
 But the old gentleman, after a manner he had, was sunk in a 
 
54 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 dreamy abstraction for the moment, in which he apparently lost 
 the thread, as he resumed, " Whereupon Zeus, to punish her, gave 
 her in wedlock to his deformed son, Hephaestus." 
 
 "She never mentioned him to 772€," thought Leander; "but I 
 suppose she's a widow goddess by this time; I'm sure 1 hope so." 
 
 " Whom," Mr. Fremoult was saying, " she deceived upon several 
 occasions, notably in the case of — "and here he launched into a 
 scandalous chronicle, which determined Leander more than ever 
 that Matilda must never know he had entertained a personage with 
 such a past. 
 
 " Angered by her indiscretions, Zeus inspired her with love for a 
 mortal man." 
 
 " Poor devil!" said Leander, involuntarily. " And what became 
 of him, sir?" 
 
 " There were several thus distinguished; amongst others Anchi- 
 ses, Adonis, and Cinyras. Of these, the first was struck by light- 
 ning; the second slain by a wild boar; and the third is reputed to 
 have perished in a contest with Apollo." 
 
 " They don't seem to liave had no luck, any of them," was Le- 
 ander's depressed conclusion. 
 
 "Aphrodite, or Venus, as you choose to call her, took a promi- 
 nent part in the Trojan w^ar, the origin of which ten years' struggle 
 maj' be traced to a certain g:olden apple." 
 
 " What an old rag-bag it is! " thought Leander. " I'm only wast- 
 ing money on liim. He's like a bran-pie at a fancy fair: what you 
 get out of him is always the thing you didn't want." 
 
 " No, no, Mr. Frcemoult," lie paid, with some impatience, " leave 
 out about the w ar and the apple. It — it isn't either of them as I 
 wanted to hear about." 
 
 " Then I have done," said the old man, curtly; " you've had con- 
 siderable more than half a crown's worth, as it is." 
 
 " Look here, Mr. Froemouit," said the reckless hair-drcsser, " if 
 you can't give me no better value, I don't mind laying out another 
 sixpence in questions." 
 
 " Put your questions, then, by all means, and I'll give you your 
 fair sixpenn'orth of answers. Now, then, I'm ready for you. 
 What's your difficulty? out with it." 
 
 " Why," said Leander, in no small confusion, " isn't there a story 
 somewhere of a statue to Venus as some young man (a long time 
 back it was, of course) was said to have put his ring on? and do 
 you know the rights of it? I — I can't remember how it ended 
 myself." 
 
 " Wait a bit, sir; I think I do remember something of the legend 
 you refev to. " You found it in the ' Earthly Paradise,' [ make no 
 doubt?" 
 
 " I found it in Roscrwich Gardens," Leander very nearly blurted 
 out; but he stopped himself, and said instead, " I don't think I've 
 ever been there, sir; not to remember it." 
 
 " Well, well! you're no lover of poetry, that's very evident; but 
 the story is there. Yes, yes; and Burton has a version of it too in 
 his ' Anatomy.' How does it go? Give my head a minute to clear 
 and I'll tell you. Ha! I have it! It was something like this: There 
 was a certain young gentleman of Rome who, on his wedding-day, 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 65 
 
 went out to play tennis; and in the tennis-court was a brass statue 
 of the goddess Venus — " 
 
 (" Mine ouglit to be brass, from her goings on," thought Leander.) 
 
 " And while he played he took off his tiuger-ring and put it upon 
 the statue's hand; a mighty foolish act, as you will agree." 
 
 "A.h!"said Leander, shaking his head, "you may say that! 
 What next, sir?" He became excited to find that he really was on 
 the right track at last. 
 
 "Why, when the game was over and he came to get his ring, he 
 found he couldn't get it off again. Ha! ha!" and the old man 
 chuckled softl3^ ancl then relapsed once more into silence. 
 
 " Yes, yes, Mr. Freemoult, sir! I'm a-listening; it's very funny; 
 only do go on!" 
 
 "Go on? Where was I? Hadn't I finished? Ah, to be sure! 
 Well, so Paris gave her the apple, you see." 
 
 " I didn't understand you to allude to no apple." said his puzzled 
 hearer; "arid it w^as at Rome, I thought, not Paris. Briug your 
 mind more to it, sir; we'd got to the ring not coming off the statue." 
 
 " I know, sir; 1 know. My mind's clear enough, let me tell you. 
 That very night (as I was about to say, if you'd had patience to 
 hear me) Venus stepped in and parted the unfortunate pair — " 
 
 " It was a apple just now, you aggravating old muddle 'ed!" said 
 Leander, internally. 
 
 "Venus informed the young man that he had betrothed himself 
 to her by that ring" ("Same game exactly," thought the pupil), 
 " and— and, in short, she led him such a life for some nights that 
 he could bear it no longer. So at length he repaired to a certain 
 mighty magician, called — let me see, what was his name again? It 
 wasn't Agrippa — w^as it Albertus? Odd, it has escaped me for the 
 moment," 
 
 "Never mind, sir; call him Jones." 
 
 " I will not call him Jones, sir! 1 had it on my tongue — there, 
 Palumhus! Palumbusit was. Well, Palumbus told him the goddess 
 would never cease to trouble him, unless he could get back the ring 
 — unless he could get back the ring." 
 
 Leander's heart began to beat high ; the solution of his difficulty 
 was at hand. It was something to know for certain that upon re- 
 covery of the ring the goddess's power would be at an end. It only 
 remained to find out how the other young man managed it. " Yes, 
 Mr. Freemoult?" he said, interrogativefy ; for the "old gentleman 
 had run down again. 
 
 "I was onl}' thinking it out. To resume then. No sooner had 
 the magician (whose name I said was Apollonius) come to the wed- 
 ding, than he prompt!}'- conjectured the bride to be a serpent; 
 whereupon she vanished incontinently, after the manner of serpents, 
 with the house and furniture." 
 
 " Haven't you missed out a lot, sir?" inquired Leander, deferen- 
 tially, "because it don't seem to me to hook on quite. What be- 
 came of Venus and the ring?" 
 
 " How the dickens am I to tell you, if you will interrupt? Ring! 
 What ring? Wliy, yes: the magician gave the young man a certain 
 letter, and told him to go to a particular cross-road outside the city, 
 at dead of night, and wait for Saturn to pass by in procession, with 
 
66 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 his fallen associates. This he did, and presented the magician's 
 letter; which Saturn, after having read, called Venus to him, who 
 was riding in front, and commanded her to deliver up the ring." 
 
 Here he stopped, as if be had nothing to add. 
 
 " And did slie, sir?" asked Leauder, breathlessly. 
 
 " Did she wliat? give up the ring! Of course she did — haven't I 
 been saying so? Why not?" 
 
 " Well," observed Leander, "so that's how he got out of it, was 
 it? Hah! he was a lucky chap. Those were the daj^s when ma- 
 gicians did a good trade, I suppose? Should you say there were 
 any such parties now, on the quiet like, eh, sir?" 
 
 "Bah! Magic is a lost art, degraded to dark seances and juve- 
 nile parlies— the last magician dead for more than two hundred 
 years. Don't expose your ignorance, sir, by any more such ques- 
 tions." 
 
 " No," said Leander; " I thought as much. And so, if any one 
 was to get into such a fix nowadays — of course that's only my talk, 
 but if they did — there ain't a practicing magician anj'where to help 
 him out of it. That's your opinion, ain't it, sir?" 
 
 "As the danger of such a contingency is not immediate," was 
 the reply, " the want of a remedy need not, in my humble opinion, 
 cause you any grave uneasiness." 
 
 " No," agreed Leander, dejectedly; " I don't care, of course. I 
 was only thinking that, in case— but tliere, it's no odds! Well, Mr. 
 Freemoult, you've told me what I was curious to know, and here's 
 your little honnyrarium, sir — two shillings and two sixpences, mak- 
 ing three shillings in all, pre-cisely." 
 
 "Keep your money, sir," said the old man, with contemptuous 
 good humor, "my working hours are done for the day, and you're 
 welcome enough to any instruction you're capable of receiving from 
 my remarks. It's not saying much, I dare say." 
 
 "Oh, you told it very clear, considering, sir, I'm sure! I don't 
 grudge it." 
 
 " Keep it, I tell you, and say no more about it." 
 
 So, expressing his thanks, Leander left the place; and, when he 
 was outside, felt more keenly than ever the blow his hopes had sus- 
 tained. 
 
 He knew the whole story of his predecessor in misfortune now, 
 and, as a precedent, it was worse than useless. 
 
 True, for an instant a wild idea had crossed his mind, of seeking 
 some lonely suburban cross-road at dead of night, just to see if any- 
 thing came of it. " The last time was several hundred 3'ears ago, it 
 seems," he told himself; " but there's no saying that Satan mightn't 
 come by for all that. Here's Venus persecuting as lively as ever, 
 and I never heard the devil was dead. I've a good mind to take the 
 tram to the Archway, and walk out till I find a likely-looking place." 
 
 But, on reflection, he gave this up. "If he did come by, I 
 couldn't bring him a line — not even from the conjurer in High 
 'Oborn — and Satan might make me put my hand to something 
 binding, and I shouldn'^ be no better off. No; I don't see no way 
 of getting back my ring and poor Tillie's cloak, nor yet getting rid 
 of that goddess, any more than before. There's one comfort, I 
 can't be any worse off than I am." 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 57 
 
 Oppressed by these gloomy reflections, he returned to his home, 
 expecting a renewal of his nightly persecution from the goddess; 
 but from some cause, into which he was too grateful to care lo in- 
 quire, the statue that evening showed no sign of life in his presence, 
 and after waiting with the cupboard open for some time in sus- 
 pense, he ventured to make himself some coffee. 
 
 He had scarcely tasted it, however, before he heard, from the 
 passage below, a low whistle, followed by the peculiar stave by 
 which a modern low-life Blondel endeavors to attract notice. The 
 Iiair-dresser paid no attention, being used, as a Londoner, to hearing 
 such signals, and not imagininii they could be intended for his ear. 
 
 But presently a handful of gravel rattled against his window, and 
 the whistle w^as repeated. He went to the window cautiousl}'-, and 
 looked out. Below were two individuals, rather carefully muffled; 
 their faces, which were -only indistinctly seen, were upturned to 
 him. 
 
 He retreated, trembling. He had had so much to think of lately, 
 that the legal danger he was running, by harbori)jg the detested 
 statue, was almost forgotten ; but now he remembered the inspect- 
 or's words, and his legs bent beneath him. Could these people be 
 detectives ? 
 
 " Is that Mr. Tweddle up there?" said a voice below, " because 
 if it is, he'd better come down, double quick, and let us in, that's 
 all!" 
 
 "'Ere, don't you skulk up there," added a coarser voice; "we 
 know y'er there; and if y'er don't come down to us, why, we'll 
 come up to you." 
 
 This brought Leander forward again. " Gentlemen," he said, 
 leaning out, and speaking in an agitated whisper, "for goodness' 
 sake, what do you want with me?" 
 
 " You let us in, and wx'll tell you." 
 
 "Will it do if I come down and speak to you outside?" said 
 Leander. 
 
 There was a consultation between the two at this, and at the 
 end of it, the first man said: " It's all the same to us where we have 
 our little confabulation. Come down, and look sharp about it!" 
 
 Leander came down, taking care to shut the street door behind 
 him. " You ain't the police?" he said, apprehensively 
 
 They each took an arm, and walked him roughly off between 
 them toward Queen Square. " We'll show you who we are," they 
 said. 
 
 " I — I d<-'mand your authority for this," gasped Leander. " What 
 am I charged with?" 
 
 They had brought him into the gloomiest part of the square, 
 where the houses, used as offices '.n the day-time, were now dark and 
 deserted. Here they jammed him up against the raiUngs, and stood 
 guard over him, while he was alarmed to perceive a suppressed fe- 
 rocity in the faces of both. 
 
 "What are you charged with? Grr! — For 'arf a pint I'd 
 knock your bloomin' 'ed in!" said the coarser gentleman of the two 
 — an evasive form of answer which did not seem to promise a 
 pleasant interview. 
 
 Leander w'as not naturally courageous, and what he had gone 
 
5S THE TINTED VENtJS. 
 
 through lately had shaken his nerves. He thought that, for police- 
 men, they showed too strong a personal feeling; but who else could 
 they be? He could not remember having sei.n either of them be- 
 fore. One was a tall, burly, heavy-jawed man; the other smaller 
 and slighter, and apparently the superior of the two in education 
 and position. 
 
 "You don't remember me, I see," said the latter, and then sud- 
 denly changing his tone to a foreign accent, he said: " Haf you 
 been since to drink a glass of beer at your open-air gardens at Kosh- 
 er wich?" 
 
 Leander knew him then. It was his foreign customer of Mon- 
 day evening; his face was clean-shaven now, and his expression 
 cJianged— not for the better. 
 
 " I think," he said, faintly, "I had the privilege of cutting your 
 'air the other evening." 
 
 " You did, my friend, and I admired your taste for the fine arts. 
 This gentleman and I have, on talking it over, been so struck by 
 what I saw that evening that we ventured to call and inquire into 
 it." 
 
 " Look 'ere, count," said his companion, " there ain't time for all 
 that perliteness. You leave him to me; TU talk to him! Now, 
 then, you white-livered little airy -sneak, do you know wlio we are?" 
 
 "No," said Leander; and, excuse me calling of your attention to 
 it, but you're pinching my arm!" 
 
 " I'll pinch it olf before I've done," said the burly man. " Well, 
 we're the men that have planned and strived and run all the risk, 
 that you and your gang might cut in and carry off our honest earn- 
 ings. You infernal little hair-cutting shrimp, you! To think of 
 being beaten by the likes of you! It's sickening, that's what it is, 
 sickening!" 
 
 " I don't understand you — as I live, gentlemen, I don't understand 
 you!" pleaded Leander. 
 
 " You understand us well enouch," said the ex-foreigner, with an 
 awful imprecation on all Leander's salient features; " but you shall 
 have it all in black and white. We're the party that invented and 
 carried out that little job at Wricklesmarsli Court." 
 
 "Burglars! do you mean you're burglars?" cried the terrified 
 Leander. 
 
 " We started as burglars, but we've finished by being made cat's- 
 paws of — by you, curse j^ou! You didn't think we should find you 
 out, did j'ou? But if you w^anted to keep us in the dark, you made 
 two awkward little slips; one was leaving your name and address at 
 the gardens as the party who was supposed to have last seen the 
 statue, and the other was keeping the said statue standing about in 
 your hair-cutting-room, to meet the eye of any gentleman calling 
 out of curiosity, and never expecting such a find as that." 
 
 ■* What's the good of jawing at him, count? that won't satisfy 
 me, it won't, 'Ere, I can't 'old myself off him any longer. 1 must 
 put a 'ed on him." 
 
 But the other interposed. " Patience, my good Braddle; no vio- 
 lence. Leave him to me; he's a devilish deep fellow, and deserves 
 all respect." (Here he shook Leander like a rat.) " You've stolen a 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 59 
 
 march on us, you condemned little hair-dressing ape, you 1 How 
 did you do it? Out with it! How the devil did you do it?" 
 
 '* For the love of heaven, gents," pleaded Leander, without re- 
 flecting that he might have found a stronger inducement, " don't 
 use violence ! How did I do what ? 
 
 "Count, I can't answer for mj'self," said the man addressed as 
 Braddle. " I shall send a bullet into him, if you don't let me work 
 it off with fists ; I know I shall ! " 
 
 "Keep quiet," said his superior, sternly. " Don't you see i'wi 
 quiet?" and he twisted his knuckles viciously into Leander's throat. 
 " If you call out, you're a corpse!" 
 
 "I wasn't thinking of calling out, indeed I wasn't; I'm quite 
 satisfied with being where I am," said Leander, "if you'd only 
 leave me a little more room to choke in, and tell me what I've done 
 to put you both in such tremenjous tempers." 
 
 -" Done? you cur, when you know well enough you've taken the 
 bread out of our mouths, the bread we'd earned ! D'ye suppose we 
 left that statue in the gardens for the like of you? Who put you up 
 to it? How many were there in it? What do you mean to do now 
 you've got it? Speak out, or I swear I'll cut your heart out, and 
 throw it over the railings for the tomcats; I will, you !" 
 
 The man called Braddle, as he uttered this threat, looked so very 
 anxious to execute it, that Leander gave himself up for lost. 
 
 " As true as I stand here, gentlemen, I didn't steal that statue." 
 
 " I doubt you're not the build for taking the lead in that sort of 
 thing," said the count, "but you were in it; you went down that 
 Saturday as a blind. Deny it if you dare." 
 
 " Leander did not dare. " I could not help myself, gentlemen," 
 he faltered. 
 
 " Who said you could? And you can't help yourself now, either; 
 so make a clean breast of it. Who are you standing in with? Is it 
 Potter's lot?" 
 
 If Leander had declared himself to be alone, things might have 
 gone harder with him, and they certainly would never have believed 
 him ; so he said it was Potter's lot. 
 
 " I told you Potter was after that marble, and you wouldn't have 
 it, count," growled Braddle. " Now you're satisfied." 
 
 The count comprised Potter and his lot in a new and original 
 malediction byway of answer, and then said to Leander, "Did 
 Potter tell you to let that Venus stand where all the world might 
 see it?" 
 
 " I had no discretion," said the hair-dresser. " I'm not responsi- 
 ble, indeed, gents." 
 
 " No discretion ! I should think you hadn't. Nor Potter either, 
 acting the dog in the manger like this. Where'll hefimX his market 
 for it, eh? What orders have you got? When are you going lo 
 get it across?" 
 
 "I've no notions. I haven't received no directions," said Le- 
 ander. 
 
 " A nice sort o' mug you are to be trusted with a job like this," 
 eaid Braddle. "I did think Potter was better up in his work, I 
 did. A pretty bungle he'll make of it!" 
 
 "It would serve him right, for interfering with fellow-profes- 
 
60 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 sionals in this infernal unprincipled manner; but lie sha'n't have the 
 chance, Braddle, he sha'n't have the chance ; we'll steal a march on 
 him this time." 
 
 " Is the coast clear j^et?" said Braddle. 
 
 " We must risk it. We sball find a route for it, never fear," 
 was the reply. " Now, you cursed hair-dresser, you listen to what 
 I'm going to tell you. Tliat Venus is our lawful properly, and, 
 by—, we mean to get her into our hands agnin; d'ye hear that?" 
 
 Leander heard, and with delight. So long as he could once get 
 free from the presence of the statue, and out of the cross-fire of 
 burglars and police, he was willing by tliis time to abandon the 
 cloak and ring. 
 
 "I can truly say, 1 hope you'll be successful, gents," be replied. 
 
 " We don't want your hopes, we want your help. You must 
 round on Potter." 
 
 " Must I, irents?" said Leander. " Well, to oblige you, whatever 
 it costs me, 1 icill round on Potter." 
 
 " Take care you stick to that," said Braddle. " The next pint, 
 count, is 'ow we're to get ])er." 
 
 "Come in and take her away now," said Leander, eagerly. 
 " She'll be quiet. I — I mean the hoiiseW be quiet now. You'll be 
 very welcome, I assure you. 1 won't interfere." 
 
 "You're a bright chap to go in for a purfcssion like ours," said 
 Mr. Braddle, with intense disgust. " How do yer suppose we're 
 to do it; take her to pieces, eh, and bring her along in our pockets? 
 Do you think we're flats enough to run the cliance of being seen in 
 the streets by a copper, lugging that 'ere statue along?" 
 
 ', We must have the light cart again and a sack," said the count. 
 " It's too late to-night." 
 
 " And it ain't safe in the day-time," said Braddle. " We're wanted 
 for that job at Camberwell, that puts it on to morrow evening. But 
 suppose Potter has fixed the same time?" 
 
 " Here, you know. Has Potter fixed the same time?" the count 
 demanded from Leander. 
 
 "No," said Leander; "Potter ain't said nothing to me about 
 moving her." 
 
 " Then you are man enough to undertake Potter, if he starts the 
 idea? Are yowl Come?" 
 
 "Yes, gents, I'll manage Potter. You break in any time after 
 midnight, and I engage you shall find the Venus on tlie premises." 
 
 " But we want more than that of you, you know. We musn't 
 lose any time over this job. You must be ready at the door to let 
 us in, and bear a hand with her down to the cart." 
 
 But this did not suit Leander's views at all. He was determined 
 to avoid all personal risks; and to be caught helping the burglars to 
 carry off the Aphrodite would be fatal. 
 
 He was recovering his presence of mind, As his tormentors 
 had sensibly relaxed, he was able to take steps for his own security. 
 
 " 1 beg pardon, gents," he said, "but I don't want to appear in 
 this myself. There's Potter, you s^e; he's a hawful man to go 
 against. You know what Potter is yourselves." (Potter was really 
 coming in quite usefully, he began to think.) 
 
 " Well^ I don't suppose Potter would make more bones about 
 
THE Tli^TED VENUS. 61 
 
 slitting your throat than we should if he knew you'd played him 
 false," said the count. "But we can't help that; in a place like 
 this it's too risky to break in when we can be let in." 
 
 "If you'll only excuse me taking an active part," said Leander, 
 "it's all I ask. This is my plan, gentlemen. You see that little 
 archway there, where my finger points; well, that leads by a small 
 alley to a 3'ard back of my saloon. You can leave your cart here 
 and come round as safe as you please. I'll have the window in my 
 saloon unfastened, and put the statue where you can get her easy; 
 but I don't want to be mixed up in it further than that." 
 
 " That seems fair enough," said the count, "provided you keep 
 to it." 
 
 "But suppose it's a plant?" growled Braddle. "Suppose he's 
 planning to lay a trap for us? Suppose we get in to find Potter 
 and his lot on the lookout for us, or break into a house that's full of 
 bloomin' coppers? " 
 
 " I did not think of that; but I believe our friend knows that if 
 he doesn't act square with me his life isn't worth a bent pin; and, 
 besides he can't warn the police without getting himself into more 
 or less hot water. So I think he'll see the wisdom of doing what 
 he's told." 
 
 "I do," said Leander, "1 do, gentlemen. I'd sooner die than 
 deceive you." 
 
 "Well," said the count, " you'd find it come to the same thing." 
 
 " No," added Braddle; " if you blow the gaff on us, my bloomin', 
 I'll saw that pudden head of yours right off your shoulders, and 
 swing for it, cheerful." 
 
 Leander shuddered. Amongst what desperate rutfians had his 
 unlucky stars led him? How would it all end, he wondered feeblj^ 
 how? 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," he said, with his teeth chattering, " if you 
 don't want me any more, I'll go in; and I'm to expect you to-mor- 
 row evening, I believe?" 
 
 "Expect us when you 'ear us," said Braddle; " and if you make 
 fools of us again — " and he described consequences which exceeded 
 in unpleasantness the worst that Leander could have imagined. 
 
 Tlie poor man tottered back to his room again in a most unen- 
 viable frame of mind ; not even the prospect of being delivered from 
 the goddess could reconcile him to the price he must pay for it. He 
 was going to take a plunge into downright crime now; and if his 
 friend the inspector came to hear of it.Vidn must follow. And, in 
 any case, the cloak and the ring would be gone beyond recovery, 
 while these cut-throat house-breakers would henceforth have a hold 
 over him. They might insist upon steeping him in blacker crime 
 still, and he knew he would never liave the courage to resist. 
 
 As he thought of the new difficult ics and dangers that compassed 
 him round about, he was frequently on the verge of tears, and his 
 couch that night was visited by dreadful dreams, in which besought 
 audience of the Evil One himself at cross-roads, was chased over half 
 London by police, and dragged over the other half by burglars, to 
 be finally flattened by the fall of Aphrodite, 
 
62 THE Tli^TED VENUS. 
 
 CHA.PTER IX. 
 
 AT last! 
 
 Does not the stone rebuke me 
 For being more stone than it? 
 
 Winter's Tale. 
 
 Yet did he loathe to see the image fair, 
 
 White and unchanged of face, unmoved of limb! 
 
 Earthly Paradise. 
 
 Leasideii's hand was very tremulous all the next da}', as several 
 indignant clients discovered, and he closed as early as he could, 
 feeling it impossible to attend to business under the circumstances. 
 
 About seven o'clock he went up to his sitting room; a diflicult 
 and ungrateful task was before him. To faciUtate her removal lie 
 must persuade the goddess to take up a position in the saloon for 
 the night; and, much as he had suffered from her, tjjcre was some- 
 thing traitorous in deceiving her and delivering her over to these 
 coarse burglars. 
 
 He waited until the statue showed signs of returning animation, 
 and then said, "Good-evening, mum," more obsequiously than 
 usual. 
 
 She never deigned to notice or return his salutations. "Hair- 
 dresser," she said, abruptly, " I am weary of this sordid place." 
 
 He was pleased, for it furthered his views. " It isn't so sordid in 
 the saloon, where j'ou stood the other evening, you know," he re- 
 plied. " Will you step down there?" 
 
 "Bah!" she' said, "it is all sordid. Lcander, a restlessness has 
 come upon me. I come back night after night out of the vague- 
 ness in which I have lain so long, and for what? To stand here in 
 this mean chamber and proffer my favor, only to tiud it repulsed, 
 disdained. I am tired of it — tired ! '' 
 
 " You can't be more tired of it than I am!" he said. 
 
 "1 ask myself," she went on, "why, having through your 
 means, ascended once more to the earth, which I left so fair, I seek 
 not those.things which once delighted me. This city of yours — 
 all that I have seen of it — revolts me; but it is vast, vaster than 
 those built \iy the mortals of old. Surely somewhere tiiere must be 
 brightness in it and beauty, and the color and harmony by wliich 
 men knew once to delight the gods themselves; it can not be that 
 the gods of old are all forgoUen; surely, somewhere tliere yet 
 lingers a little band of faithful ones, who have not turned from 
 Aphrodite." 
 
 " I can't say, I'm sure," said Leander, " I could inquire for you." 
 
 "I myself will seek for them," she said proudly. "I will go 
 forth this very night." 
 
 Leander choked. "To-night!" he cried. "You can't go to- 
 night.'* 
 
 " You forget yourself," she returned haughtily. 
 
 " If I let you go," he said, hesitating, " will you promise faith- 
 fully to be back in half an hour?" 
 
THE TIKTEi) VENUS. 6^ 
 
 " Do you not yet understand that you have to do with a goddess 
 — with Aphrodite lierselfV" she said. "Who are you, to presume 
 to fetter me bj' your restrictions? Truly, the indulgence I have 
 shown has turned your weak brain," 
 
 He put his back against tlie door; he was afraid of the goddess, 
 but he was still more afraid of the burglars' vengeance if they ar- 
 rived to find the prize missing! 
 
 " I'm sorry to disoblige a lady," he said, " but you don't go out 
 of this house to-night." 
 
 In another minute he was lying in the fender amongst the fire- 
 irons— alone! How it was done he was too stunned to remember; 
 but the goddess was gone. If she did not return by midnight, 
 what would become of him! If he had only been civil to her, 
 she might have stayed; but now she had abandoned him to certain 
 destruction! 
 
 A kind of fatalistic stupor seized him. He would not i-un away 
 — he would have to come home some time; nor would he call in 
 the police, for he had a very vivid recollection of Mr. Braddle's 
 threats in such a contingency. 
 
 He went, instead, into the dark saloon, and sat down in a chair 
 to wait. He wondered how he could explain the statue's absence. 
 If he told the burglars it had gone for a stroll, they would tear him 
 limb from limb. "" I was so confounded artful about Potter," he 
 thought bitterly, " that they'll never believe now I haven't warned 
 him!" 
 
 At every sound outside, he shook life a leaf; the quarters, as they 
 sounded from the church clock, sunk like cold weights into his 
 heart. "If only Yenus would come back first," he moaned; but 
 the statue never returned. 
 
 At last he heard steps — muflied ones — on the paved alley outside. 
 He had forgotten to leave the window unfastened after all, and he 
 was too paralyzed to do it now! 
 
 The steps were in the little yard, or rather a sort of back area, 
 underneath the window. " It may be only a constable," he tried to 
 say to himself; but there is no mistaking the constabulary tread, 
 which is not fairy like, or even gentle, like that he heard, 
 
 A low whistle destroyed his last hope. In a quite unpremedi- 
 tated manner, he put out the gas and rolled under a leather divan 
 which stood at the end of the room. He wished now, with all his 
 heart, that he had run away while he had the chance — but it was 
 too late. 
 
 " I hope they'll do it with a revolver, and not a knife," he thought. 
 "Oh. my poor IMatilda! you little know what I'm going through 
 just now, and what'll be going through me m another minute!" 
 
 A hoarse voice under the window called out, " Tweddle!" 
 
 He lay still. "None o' that, yer skulker; I know 5'er there!" 
 said the voice again. " Do yer want to give me the job o' coming 
 in after yer?" 
 
 After all, Leander reflected, there was the window and a thick 
 half-shutter between them. It migiit be best not to provoke Mr. 
 Braddle at the outset. He came half out of his hiding-place. " Is 
 that you, Mr. Braddle ?" he quavered. 
 
64 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 "Ah!" said the voice, aflBrmatively; "is this what you call 
 beinon ready for us? Why, the blooraiu' winder ain't even undone!" 
 
 " That's what I'm here for," said poor Leander. " Is the — the 
 other gentleman out tliere too?" 
 
 "You mind your business! You'll find something the count 
 give me to bring yer; I've put it on the window-sill out 'ere. And 
 3'ou obey borders next lime, will 3'er!" 
 
 The footsteps were heard n^reating. Mr. Braddle was appar- 
 ently going back to fetch his captain. Lcunder let down the shut- 
 ter, and opened the window ; he could not see, but he could feel a 
 thick, rough bundle lying on the window-sill. 
 
 He drew this in, slammed down the window, and ran up the 
 shutter in a second, before the two could have had time to discover 
 him. 
 
 " Now," he thought, " I will run for it," and he groped his way 
 out of the dark saloon to the front shop, where he paused, and, 
 taking a match from his pocket, struck a light; his parcel proved 
 to be rough sack-cloth, on the outside of which a paper was pinned. 
 
 Why did the count write, when he was coming in, directly? 
 Curiosity made him linger even then to ascertain this. The paper 
 contained a hasty scrawl in blue chalk: " Not to-night," he read; 
 " arrangements still incomplete. Expect us to-morrow night 
 without fail, and see that everything is prepared. Cloth sent with 
 
 this for packing goods. P laid up witli professional accident, 
 
 and safe for a week or two. You must have known this — why not 
 say so last night? No trilling, if you value life!" 
 
 It was a reprieve — at the last moment! He had a whole day 
 before him for flight, and he fully intended to flee this time; those 
 hours of suspense in the saloon ^ere too terrible to be gone through 
 twice. 
 
 But as he was turning out his cash-box, and about to go upstairs 
 and collect a few necessaries, he heard a well-known tread outside; 
 he ran to the door, which he unfastened with trembling hands, and 
 the statue, with the hood drawn closely round her strange painted 
 face, passed in without seeming to heed his presence. 
 
 She had come back to him. Why should he run away now, 
 when, if he waited one more night, he might be rescued from one of 
 his terrors by means of the other? 
 
 "Lady Venus!" he cried, hysterically; "oh! Lady Venus, 
 mum, I thought you was gone forever!" 
 
 "And you have grieved?" she said, almost tenderly. "You 
 welcome my return with joy! Know then, Leander, that I myself 
 feel pleasure in returning, even to such a roof as this; for little 
 gladness have I had from my wanderings. Upon no altar did I see 
 my name shine, nor the perfumed flames flicker; the Lydian meas- 
 ures were silent, and tlie praise of Cytherea. And everywhere I 
 went, I found the same senseless troubled haste, and pale mean faces 
 of men, and squalor, and tumult; grace and joyousness have fled 
 — even from your revelry! But I have seen your new gods, and un- 
 derstand: for, all grimy and misshapen and uncouth are they as 
 they stand in your open places and at the corners of your streets, 
 Zeus, what a place must Olympus now be! And can any men wor- 
 ship such monsters, and be gladsome?" 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 65 
 
 Leander did not perceive the very natural mistake into wiiich the 
 goddess had fallen ; but the fact was, that she had come upon some 
 of our justly renowned public statues. 
 
 "I'm sorry you haven't enjoyed yourself, mum," was all he 
 could find to say. 
 
 " Should I linger in such scenes were it not for you?" she cried 
 rejDroachfully. " How much longer will you repulse me?" 
 
 " That depends on you, mum," he ventured to observe. 
 
 "Ah! )'ou are cold I" she said reproachfully ; "yet surely I am 
 worthy of the adoration of the proudest mortal. Judge me not by 
 this marble exterior, cunningly wrought though it be. Charms are 
 mine, more dazzling than any your imagination can picture; and 
 could you surrender your being to my hands, I should be able to 
 show myself as I really am — supreme in loveliness and majesty!" 
 
 Unfortunately, the hair-dresser's imagination was not his strong- 
 est point. He could not dissociate the goddess from the marble 
 shape she had assumed, and that shape he was not'sufhciently edu- 
 cated to admire; he merely coughed now in a deferential manner. 
 
 "I perceive that I cannot move you," she said, "men have 
 grown strangely stubborn and impervious. I leave you, then, to 
 your obstinacy— only take heed, lest you provoke me at last to 
 wrath; for my patience is well-nigh at an end." 
 
 And she was gone, and the bedizened statue stood there, staring 
 hardly at him with the eyes his own hand had given her. 
 
 " This has been the most trying evening I've had yet," he thought. 
 " Thank my stars, if all goes well, I shall get rid of her by this time 
 to-morrow!" 
 
 The next day passed uneventfully enough, though the unfortu- 
 unate Leander's apprehensions increased with every hour; as before, 
 he closed early, got his apprentice safely off the premises, and sat 
 down to wait in his saloon. He knew that the statue (which he had 
 concealed during the day behind a convenient curtain) would prob- 
 ably recover consciousness for some part of the evening, as it had 
 rarely failed to do, and prudence urged him to keep an eye over the 
 proceedings of his tormentress. 
 
 To his horror, Aphrodite's first words, after awaking, expressed 
 her intention of repeating the search for homage and beauty, which 
 had been so unsuccessful the night before. 
 
 " Seek not to detain me, Leander," she said; " for, goddess as I 
 am, I am drooping under this persistent obstinacy. Somewhere be- 
 yond this murky labyrinth, it may be that 1 shall find a shrine 
 where I am yet honored. I will go forth, and never rest till I have 
 found it, and my troubled spirits are revived by the incense for 
 which 1 have languished so long. 1 am weary of abasing myself 
 to a contemptuous mortal, nor will I longer endure such indignity. 
 Stand back, and opan the gates forme! Why do you not obey?" 
 
 He knew now that to attempt force would be useless; and yet if 
 she left him this time, he must either abandon all that life held for 
 him, and fly to distant parts from the burglars' vengeance — or re- 
 main to meet a too probable doom! 
 
 He fell on his knees before her; " Oh, Lady Venus," he en- 
 treated, "don't leave me! 1 beg and implore y(Mi not to! If you 
 do, you will kill me! I give you my honest word you will!" 
 
66 THE TINTED YENUS. 
 
 The statue's face seemed irradiated by a sudden joy; she paused, 
 and glanced down with an approving smile upon the kneeling figure 
 at her feet. 
 
 " Why did you not kneel to me before?" she said. 
 
 " Because I never thought of it," said the hair-dresser honestl}'; 
 "but I'll stay on my knees for hours, if only you won't go!" 
 
 "But what lias made you thus eager, thus humble?" she said, 
 half in wonder and half in suspicion. " Can it be that the spark I 
 have sought to kindle in your breast is growing to a flame at last? 
 Leander, can this thing be?" 
 
 He saw that she was gratified, that she desired to be assured that 
 this was indeed so. 
 
 *'I shouldn't be surprised if something like that was going on 
 inside of me," lie said encouragingly. 
 
 "Answer me more frankly," she said. "Do you wish me to 
 remain with you, because you have learned to love my presence!" 
 
 It was a very embarrassing position for liim. All depended 
 upon his convincing the goddess of his dawning love, and yet, for 
 the life of him, he could not force out the requisite tenderness; his 
 imagination was unequal to the task. 
 
 Another and a more creditable feeling helped to lie his tongue— 
 a sense of shame at employing such a subterfuge in order to betray 
 the goddess into tl)e lawless hands of tiiese house-breakers. How- 
 ever, she must be induced to stay by some means. 
 
 " Well," he said sHeepishly, "you don't give me a chance to 
 love you, if you go wandering out every evening, do you?" 
 
 She gave a low cry of triumph. " It has come!" .she exclaimed. 
 " What are clouds of incense, flowers, and homage to this? Be of 
 good heart, I will stay, Leander. Fear not, but speak the passion 
 which consumes you!" 
 
 He became alarmed. He was anxious not to commit himself, 
 and yet employ the time until the burglary might be expected. 
 
 " Tlie fact is," he confessed, " it hasn't gone so far as that yet — 
 it's beginning; all it wants is time, you know — time, and being let 
 alone." 
 
 " All Time will be before us, when once your lips have pro- 
 nounced the words of surrender, and our spirits are transported to- 
 gether to the enchanted isle." 
 
 "You talk about me going over to this isle— this Cyprus/' he 
 «aid; " but it's a long journey, and I can't afford it. l\o\\ you come 
 and go, I don't know; but I've not been brought up to it myself. I 
 can't tlash across like a telegram!" 
 
 " Trust all to me," she said; " is not your love strong enough for 
 that?" 
 
 " Not quite yet," he answered; " it's coming on. Only, you see, 
 it's a serious step to take, and I naturally wish to feel my way. I 
 declare, the more I gaze upon the — the elegant form and tigger 
 which I see before me, tiie stronger and the more irresistible comes 
 over me a burning desire to think the whole thing carefully over. 
 And if you only allowed me a little longer to gaze (I've no time to 
 myself except in the evenings) I don't think it would be long before 
 this affair reached a 'appy termination— I don't indeed!" 
 
 " Gaze, then." she said", smiling; " gaze to your soul's content." 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 67 
 
 "I mean no offense," he represented, having felt his way to a 
 stroke of supreme cunning, " but when I feel there's a goddess in- 
 side of this statue, I don't know how it is exactly, but it puts me 
 off. I can't fix my thoughts; the — tiie passion don't ferment as it 
 ought. If, supposing now, you was to witlulraw yourself and leave 
 me the statue? I could gaze on it and think of thee, and Cyprus, 
 and all the rest of it, more comfortable, so to speak, than what I 
 can when you're animating of it, and making me that nervous, 
 words can't describe it!" 
 
 He hardly dared to hope that so lame and transparent a device 
 would succeed with her; but, as he had previously found, there 
 was a certain spice of credulity and simplicity in her nature, which 
 made it possible to impose upon her, occasionall3\ 
 
 " It may be so," she said; " 1 overawe thee, perchance?" 
 
 "Very much so," sa"d he promptly. "You don't intend it, I 
 know; but it's a fact," 
 
 " I will leave you to meditate upon the charms so faintly shad- 
 owed in this image, remembering that whatever of loveliness you 
 find herein will be multiplied ten-thousand-fold in the actual Aph- 
 rodite I Remain then, ponder and gaze — and love!" 
 
 He waited for a little while after the statue was silent, and then 
 took up the sacking left for him byBraddle; twice he attempted 
 to throw it over the marble, and twice he recoiled. " It's no use," 
 he said, " I can't do it; they must do it themselves!" 
 
 He carefully unfastened the window at the back of his saloon, 
 and, placing tlie statue in the center of the floor, turned out the gas, 
 and with a beating heart stole upstairs to his bedroom, where (with 
 his door bolted) he waited anxiously for the arrival of his dreaded 
 deliverers. 
 
 He scarcely knew how long he had been there, for a kind of 
 waking dream had come upon him, in which he was providing the 
 statue with light refreshment, in the shape of fancy pebbles and 
 liquid cement, when the long, low whistle, faintly heard from the 
 back of the house, brought him back to his full senses. 
 
 The burglars had come ! He unbolted the door and stole out to 
 the top of the crazy staircase, intending '.o rush back and bolt him- 
 self in if he heard steps ascending; and for some minutes he strain- 
 ed his ears, without being able to catch a sound. 
 
 At last he heard the muffled creak of the window, as it was 
 thrown up; they were coming in! Would they, or w'ould they not, 
 be inhuman enough to force him to assist them in the removal? 
 
 They were still in the saloon; he heard them trampling about, 
 moving the furniture with unnecessary violence, and addressing one 
 another in tones that were not caressing. Now the}' were carrying 
 the statue to the window; he heard their laboring breath and groans 
 of exertion under the burden. 
 
 Another pause. He stole lower down the staircase until he was 
 outside his sitting-room, and could hear better. There; that was 
 the thud as they leaped out on the flagged yard. A second and 
 heavier thud — the goddess! How would they get her ovur the 
 wall? Had they brought steps, ropes, or what? No matter; they 
 knew their own business, and were not likely to have forgotten 
 
68 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 anything. But how long they were about it ! Suppose a constable 
 were to come by and see the cart ! 
 
 There were sounds at last; they were scaling the wall — flounder- 
 ing, apparently; and no wonder, with such a weight to hoist after 
 them! More thuds; and then the steps of men staggering slowly, 
 painfully away. The steps echoed louder from under the archway, 
 and then died away in silence. 
 
 Could they be really gone? He dared not hope so, and remained 
 shivering in his sitting-room for some minutes: until gaining cour- 
 age, he determined to go down and shut the window, to avoid any 
 suspicion. Although now that the burglars were safely off with 
 their prize, even their capture could not implicate him. He rather 
 hoped they would be caught! 
 
 He took a lighted candle and descended. As -he entered the 
 saloon, a gust from the open window blew out the light. He stood 
 there in the dark and an icy draught; and, beginning to grope 
 about in the dark for the matches, he brushed against something 
 which was soft and had a clotii like texture, "it's Braddle!"he 
 thought, and his blood ran cold; "or else the count!" And he 
 called them both respectfully. There was no reply; no sound of 
 breathing, even. 
 
 Ha! here was a box of matches at last! He struck a light in 
 feverish haste, and lit the nearest gas-bracket. For an instant he 
 could see nothing, in the sudden glare; but the next moment he fell 
 back against the wall with a cry of honor and despair. 
 
 For there, in the center of iiie di>ordercd room, stood — not the 
 count; not Braddle— but the statue, Ihe mantle thrown back from 
 her arms; and those arms, and the folds of tlie marble drapery, 
 spotted here and there with stains of dark crimson! 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DAMOCLES DINES OUT. 
 
 To feed were best at home. 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 As soon as Leander had recovered from the first shock of horror 
 and disappointment, he set himself to efface the stains with which 
 the statue and the oil cloth were liberally bespattered; he was burn- 
 ing to find out what had liappened to make such desperadoes aban- 
 don their designs at the point of completion. 
 
 They both seemed to have bled freely. Had they quarreled, or 
 what? He went out into the yard with a hand-lamp, trembling lest 
 he should come upon one or more corpses; but the place was bare, 
 and he then remembered having heard them stumble and flounder 
 over the wall. 
 
 He came back in utter bewilderment; the statue, standing calm 
 and lifeless as he had himself placed it, could tell him nothing, and 
 he went back to his bedroom full of the vaguest fears. 
 
 The next day was a Saturday, and he passed it in the state of con- 
 tinual apprehension which was becoming his normal condition; lie 
 expected every moment to see or hear from the baffled ruffians, who 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 69 
 
 would, no doubt, consider him responsible for their failure; but no 
 word or siirn came from them, and the uncertainty drove him very 
 near distraction. 
 
 As the night approached, he almost welcomed it, as a time when 
 the goddess herself would enlighten part of his ignorance, and he 
 waited more impatiently than ever for her return. 
 
 fie was made to wait long that evening, until he almost began to 
 think the marble was deserted altogether; but at length, as he 
 watched, the statue gave a long shuddering sigh, and seemed to 
 gaze round the saloon with vacant eyes. 
 
 "Where am I," she murmured. "Ah! I remember; Leander, 
 while you slumbered, impious hands were laid upon this image!" 
 
 " Dear me, mum; you don't say so!" exclaimed Leander. 
 
 " It is the trutli! From afar I felt the indignity that was pur- 
 posed, and hastened to protect my image, to tind it in the coarse 
 grusp of godless outlaws. Leander, they were about to drag me 
 away by force— away from thee!" 
 
 " I am very sorry you should have been disturbed," said Leander; 
 and he certainly was. " So you came back and caught tlicm at it, 
 did you? And wh — what did you do to 'em. if I may inquire? " 
 
 "Iknow not," she said simply. "I caused them to be tilled 
 with mad fur}^ and they fell upon one another blindly, and fought 
 like wild beasts around my image until strength failed them, and 
 they sunk to the ground; and when they were able they tied from 
 my presence, and I saw them no more." 
 
 "You — you didn't kill them outright then? "said Leander, not 
 feeling quite sure whether he w ould be glad or not to hear that 
 they had forfeited their lives. 
 
 "They w^ere unworthy of such a death," she said, " so I let them 
 crawl away; henceforth they will respect our images." 
 
 " I should say they would most likely, madam," agreed Leander. 
 "1 do assure you, Im almost glad of it myself— I am; it served 
 them both right." 
 
 " Almost glad! And do you not rejoice from your heart that I 
 yet remain to you." 
 
 " Why," said Leander, " it is, in course, a most satisfactory and 
 agreeable termination, I'm sure." 
 
 " Who knows whether, if this my image had once been removed 
 from you, I could have found it in my pcnver to return?" she said; 
 " for,*^I ween, the power that is left me has limits. I might never 
 have appeared to you again. Think of it, Leander." 
 
 " I was thinking of it," he replied; " it quite upsets me to think 
 how near it was."" 
 
 " You are moved; you love me well, do you not, Leander?" 
 
 "Oh! I suppose I do," he said; " well enough." 
 
 "Well enough to abandon this gross existence, and fly with me 
 where none can separate us?" 
 
 " I never said nothing about that," he answered. 
 
 *'But yesternight and you confessed tliat you were yielding — 
 that ere long I should prevail." 
 
 "So lam," he said; "but it will take me some time to yield 
 thoroughly. You wouldn't believe how slow I yield; why, I 
 haven't hardly begun yet!" 
 
70 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 " And hou' long a time will pass before you are fully prepared?" 
 
 " I'm afraid 1 can't say, not exactly; it may be a month, or it 
 might only be a week; or, again, it may be a year. I'm so depend- 
 ent upon the weather. So. if you're in any kind of a hurry, I 
 couldn't advise you, as a honest man, to w;iil for me," 
 
 " I will not wait a year!" she s:ii(l fiercely; "you mock me with 
 such words. I tell you again tliat my foibearance will last but 
 little longer. More of this laggard love, and I will shame you be- 
 fore your fellow-men as an ingrate and a dasStardl I will; by my 
 zone, 1 will!" 
 
 " Now, ma'am, you're allowing yourself to get excited," said 
 Leander, soothingly. " I wouldn't talk about it no more tliis 
 evening; we shall do no good. I can't arrange to go with you just 
 yet, and there's an em\ of il." 
 
 "You will find that that is not the end of it, clod-witted slave 
 that you are!" 
 
 " Now, don't call names — it's beneath you." 
 
 " Ay, indeed! for are not you beneath me? But for very shame 
 I will not abandon what is justly mine; nor shall you, wily and 
 persuasive hair-dresser though you be, withstand my sovereign will 
 with impunity!" 
 
 •'So say you, mum!" said Leander, with a touch of his native 
 impertinence. 
 
 " As 1 say, I shall act; but no more of this, or you will anger 
 me, before the time. Let me depart!" 
 
 " I'm not hindering you," he said; but she did not remain long 
 enough to resent his words. He snt down with a groau. " What- 
 ever will become of me!" he soliloquized dismally. "She gets 
 more pressing every evening, and she's been taking to threatening 
 dreadful of late. If the count and that Braddle ever come back 
 now, it won't be to take her off my hands; it'll more likely be 
 to have my life for letting them into such a trap; they'll think it 
 was some trick of mine. I shouldn't wonder. And to morrow's 
 Sunday, and I've got to dine with aunt, and meet INIaiilda and her 
 ma. A pretty state of mmd I'm in for going out to dinner, after 
 the awful week I've had of it! But there'll be some comfort in 
 seeing my darling Tillie again: she ain't a statue, bless her!" 
 
 " As for you, mum," he said to the unconscious statue, as he rose 
 and painfully toiled upstairs with it, " I'm going to lock you up in 
 your old quarters, where yon can't get out and do mischief. I do 
 think I'm entitled to have my Sunday (juict." 
 
 He slept long and late that Sunday morning; for he had been too 
 preoccupied for the last few days to make any anangements for 
 attending chapel with his Matilda, and he was in sore need of re- 
 pose besides. So he rose just in time to swallow his coffee and 
 arra}' himself carefully for his aunt's early dinner, leaving his two 
 Sundav papers, the theatrical and the general organs, unread on the 
 table. ■ 
 
 It was a {ogs:j, dull day, and Millman Street, never a cheerful 
 thoroughfare, "looked gloomier than ever as he turned into it. But 
 one of Ihose dingy fronts held Matilda, a circumstance which irradi- 
 ated the entire district for him. 
 
 He had scarcely time to knock before the door was opened by 
 
THE TINTED TENUS. 71 
 
 ^Tatilfla in person. Slie looked more charmina: than ever, in a neat 
 (lark dress, with a little while collar and cuffs. Her hair was ar- 
 ranged in u new fashion, being banded b}- a neat braided tress across 
 the crown; and her gray eyes, usuall}^ serene and cold, were bright 
 and eager. 
 
 The hair-dresser felt his heart swell with love at the sight of lier. 
 Wi:at a lucky man he was, after all, to have such a girl as this to 
 care for him — if he could keep her — ah! if he could only keep her! 
 
 " 1 told your aunt 1 was going to open the door to you," she said. 
 " I wanted — oh, Leander, you've not brought it, after all!" 
 
 " Meaning what, Tillie, mv darling?" said Leander. 
 
 " Oh, you know — my cloak!" 
 
 He had had so much to think about that he had really forgotten 
 the cloak of late. 
 
 " Well, no, I've not brought that — not the cloak, Tillie," he said, 
 slowly. 
 
 " What a time they are about it! "complained Matilda. 
 
 *' You see," exclaimed the poor man, " when a cloak like that is 
 damaged, it has to be sent back to the manufacturers to be done, 
 and they've so many things on their hands. 1 couldn't promivse that 
 you'll have that cloak — well not this side of Christmas, at least." 
 
 "You must have been very rough with it, then, Leander," she re- 
 marked. 
 
 "I was," he said; "I don't know how^ I came to be so rough. 
 You see it was trying to tear it off — " But here he stopped. 
 
 " Trying to tear it off what?" 
 
 " Trying to tear it off nolhink, but trying to tear the wrapper off 
 it: it was so involved," he added, "with siring and paper and that; 
 and I'm a clumsy, unlucky sort of chap, sweet one; and I'm un- 
 common sorry about it, that I am!" 
 
 " Well, we won't say any more about it," said Matilda, softened 
 by his contrition: " and I'm keeping you out in the passage all this 
 lime. Come in and be introduced 1o mamma; she's in the front 
 parlor, waiting to make your acquaintance." 
 
 Mrs. Collum was a stout lady, with a thin voice. She struck a 
 nameless fear into Leander's soul, as he was led up to where she 
 sat. He thought that she contained all tlie promise of a very terri- 
 ble mother-in-law. 
 
 "This is Leander, mamma dear," said Matilda, shyly and yet 
 proudly. 
 
 Her mother inspected him for a moment, and then half-closed 
 her eyes. " My daughter tells me that you carr}^ on the occupation 
 of a hair dresser," she said. 
 
 " Quite coirect, madam," said Leander; " I do." 
 
 "Ah! well." she said, with an unconcealed sigh, " I could have 
 wished lo look higher than hair-dressing iov my Matilda; but there 
 are opportunities of doing good, even as a hair-dresser. I trust you 
 are sensible of that." 
 
 " I try to do as little 'arm as I can," lie said feebly. 
 
 " If you do not do good, you must do harm." she said, uncom- 
 promisingly. " You have it in your means to be an awakening in- 
 fluence, ^fo one knows the power that a single serious hair dresser 
 
72 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 might effect with worldly customers. Have you never thought of 
 that?" 
 
 "Well, I can't say I have exactly," he said; "and I don't see 
 how." 
 
 " There are cheap and appropriate illuminated texts," she said, 
 "to be had at so much a dozen; you could banjr them on your 
 walls. There are tracts you procure by the hundred; you could 
 put them in the lining of bats as you hang them up; you could 
 wrap them round your — your bottles and pomatum-pots. You 
 could drop a -^ord in season in your customer's ear as you bent 
 over him. And you tell me you don't see how: you wilt not see, 
 I fear, Mr. Tweddle." 
 
 "I'm afraid, mum," lie replied, "my customers would consider 
 I was taking liberties. " 
 
 " And wiiat of that, so long as you save them?" 
 
 "Well, you see, 1 shouldn't— I should lose 'em] And it's not 
 done in our profession ; and. to tell you the honest truth, I'm not 
 given that way myself— not to the extent of tracks and such like, 
 that is." 
 
 Matilda's mother groaned; it was hard to find a son in-law with 
 whom she had nothing in common, and who was a hair dresser into 
 the bargain. 
 
 " Well, well," .said she, "we must expect crosses in this life; 
 though for my own daughter to lay this one upon me is — is — but I 
 will not repine." 
 
 " I'm sorry you regard me in the light of a cross," said Leander; 
 "but, whether I'm a cross or a naught, I'm a respectable man; 
 and I love your daughter, mam, and I'm in a position to maintain 
 her," 
 
 Leander hated to have to appear under false pretenses, of which 
 he had had more than enongh of late. He was glad now to speak 
 out plainly, particularly as he had no reason to fear this old woman. 
 
 "Hush, Leander! Mamma didn't mean to be unkind; did you, 
 mamma? " said Matilda. 
 
 " I said what I felt," she said ; " we will not discuss it further. If, 
 in time, I see reason for bestowing my blessing upon a choice, which 
 at present — but, no matter. If I see reason in time, I will not with- 
 hold it. I can hardly be expected to approve at pnisent." 
 
 " You shall take your own time, mum, J won't hurry you," said 
 Leander. " Tillie is blessing enough for me — not but what t shall 
 be glad to be on a pleasant footing with you, I'm sure, if you can 
 bring yourself to it." 
 
 Before Mrs. Collura could reply. Miss Louisa Tweddle made an 
 opportune appearance, to the relief of Matilda, in whom her mother's 
 attitude was causing some uneasiness. 
 
 Miss Tweddle was a well-preserved little woman, with short 
 curly iron-gray hair and sharp features. In manner she was brisk, 
 not to say chirpy, but she secreted sentiment in large quantities. She 
 was very far from the traditional landlady, and where she lost lodg- 
 ers occasionally, she retained friends. She regarded Mrs. Collum 
 with something like reverence, as an acquaintance of her youth who 
 had always occupied a superior social position, and she was proud, 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 73 
 
 though somewhat guiltily so, that her favorite nephew should have 
 succeeded in captivating ihe (laughter of a dentist. 
 
 She kissed Leander on both cheeks. " He's done the best of all 
 my nephews, Mrs. Collum, ma'am," she explained, "and he's never 
 caused me a moment's anxiety since 1 tirst had the care of him, 
 when he was first apprenticed to Catchpole's in Holborn, and paid 
 me for his board." 
 
 "Well, well," said Mrs. Collum, " I hope he never may cause 
 anxiety to you or to any one." 
 
 " I'll answer for it, he won't," said his aunt. " I wish you could 
 see him dress a head of hair." 
 
 Mrs. Collum shut her eyes again. " If at his age he has not ac- 
 quired the necessary skill for his line in life," she observed, " it 
 would be a very melancholy thing to reflect upon." 
 
 "Yes, wouldn't it?" agreed Miss Tweddle; "you say very truly, 
 Mrs. Collum. But he's got ideas and notions beyond what you'd 
 expect in a hair-dresser — haven't you, Leaudy? Tell Miss Collum's 
 dear ma about the new machines you've invented for altering peo- 
 ple's hands and eyes and features." 
 
 " I don't care to be told," the lady struck in. " To my mind, it's 
 nothing less than sheer impiety to go improving the features we've 
 been endowed with. We ought to be content as we are, and be 
 thankful we've been sent into thy world with any features at all. 
 Those are my opinions!" 
 
 "Ah!" said the politic Leander, "but some people are saved 
 having resort to Art for improvement, and we oughtn't to blame 
 them as are less favored for trying to render themselves more agree- 
 able as spectacles, ought we?" 
 
 " And if every one thought with you," added his aunt, with dis- 
 tinctly inferior tact, "where would your poor dear 'usband have 
 been, Mrs. Collum, ma'am?" 
 
 " My dear husband w^as not on the same level — he was a medical 
 man; and, besides, though he replaced Nature in one of her depart- 
 ments, he had too much principle to imitate her. Had he been (or 
 had I allowed him to be) less conscientious, his practice would have 
 been largely extended; but I can truthiully declare that not a single 
 one of his false teeth was capable of deceiving for an instant. I 
 )iope," she added to Leander, " you, in your own different way are 
 as scrupulous." 
 
 " Why, the fact is," said Leander, w^hose professional suscepti- 
 bilities were now aroused, "1 am essentially an artist. When I look 
 around I see that Nature, out of its bounty, has supplied me with a 
 choice selection of patterns to follow, and I reproduce them as faith- 
 ful as lies within my abilities. You may call it a tine thing to take 
 a blank canvas, and represent the luxurious tresses and t!ie bloom- 
 ing hue of 'ealth upon it, and so do I; but 1 call it a slill higher and 
 nobler act to produce a sunilar effect upon the human cd!" 
 
 "Isn't that a pretty speech for a young man like him — only 
 twenty-seven— Mrs. Collum!" exclaimed his admiring aunt. 
 
 " You see. mamma dear," pleaded ^Matilda, who saw that her 
 parent remained unaffected, "it isn't as if Leander was in poor 
 papa's profession." 
 
 " 1 hope, Matilda," said the lady, sharply, " you are not going to 
 
74 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 pain me again by mentioning this young man and your departed 
 father in the same breath, beaiuse I can not bear it." 
 
 " The old lady," commented Leander here, " don't seem to take 
 to me!" 
 
 "I'm sure," said Miss Tweddle, "Leandy quite feels what an 
 honor ii is to him to look forward to such a connection as yours is. 
 When I first heard of it, I said at once, 'Leandy, you can't never 
 mean it; she won't look at you; it's no use you asking her,' I said. 
 And I quite scolded myself for ever bringing them together!" 
 
 Mrs. Colluni seemed inchned to follow suit, but she restrained 
 herself. "Ah! well," she observed, " my daughter has chosen to 
 take her own way, without consulting my prejudices: all 1 hope is, 
 that she may never repent it!" 
 
 " Very handsomely said, ma'am." chimed in Miss Tweddle; " and 
 if I know my nephew, repent it she never will!" 
 
 Leander was looking rather miserable; but Matilda put out her 
 hand to him behind his aunts back, and their eyes and hands met, 
 and he was liappy again. 
 
 " You must l)e' wanting your dinner, Mrs. Collum," his aunt pro- 
 ceeded; " and w« are only waiting for another lady and gentleman 
 to make up the party. I don't know what's made Ihem so i)ehind- 
 hand, I'm sure. He's a very pleasant young man, and punctual to 
 the second when he lodged with me. I ii:ipi»ened to run across him 
 up by Chancery Lane the other evening, and he* said to me, in liis 
 funny way, 'I've been and gone and done it, Miss Tweddle, since 
 I saw you. I'm a happy man; and I'm thinking of bringing m}-- 
 young lady soon to introduce to you.' So I asked them lo come 
 and take a bit of dinner with me to-day, and I told him two o'clock 
 sharp, I'm sure. Ah! there they are at last. Thai's Mr. Jauncy's 
 knock, among a thousand!" 
 
 Leander started. " Aunt!" he cried, *' you haven't asked Jauncy 
 here to-day?" 
 
 " Yes, I did, Leandy. I knew you used to be friends when you 
 were together here, and I thought how nice it would be for both 
 your young ladies to make each other's acquaintance; but I didn't 
 tell him anything. I meant it for a surprise!" 
 
 And she bustled out to receive her guests, leaving Leander 
 speechless. What if the new-comers were to make some incautious 
 reference to that pleasure party on Saturday week? Could he drop 
 them a warning hint? 
 
 " Don't you hke this Mr. Jauncy, Leander?" whispered Matilda, 
 who had observed his ghastly expresssion. 
 
 "I like him well enough," he returned, with an effort; "but Id 
 rather we had no third parties, I must say." 
 
 Here Mr. Jauncy came in alone. Miss Tweddle having retired to 
 assist the lady to take off her bonnet. 
 
 Leander went to meet him. "James," he said in an agitated 
 ■whisper, " have you brought Bella?" 
 
 Jauncy nodded. " We were talking of }'0U as we came along," 
 lie said in the same tone, "and I advise you to look out — she's got 
 her quills up, old chap." 
 
 " What about ?" murmured Leander. 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 75 
 
 Mr. .Tauncy's grin was wider and more appreciative tlian ever as 
 he replied, niysleriously, " Rosljerwicli!" 
 
 Leander would iiave' liked to ask in what respect Miss Parkinson 
 considered lierself injured by the expedition to Roslierwich- but, 
 before he could do so, his aunt returned with the young lady in 
 question. 
 
 Bella was gorgeously dressed, and made her entrance with the 
 stiffest possible dignity. " Miss Parkmson, my dear," said her host- 
 ess, " you mustn't be made a stranger of. That lady sitting there 
 on the sofa is Mrs. CoiJum, and this gentleman is a friend of your 
 gentleman's, and my nephew, Leandy." 
 
 " Oh, thank you," said Bella, "but I'v3 no occasion to be told 
 Mr. Tweddle's name; we have met before — haven't we, Mr. Twed- 
 die?" 
 
 He looked at her, and saw lier brows clouded, and her nose and 
 mouth with a pinched look about them. She was annoyed with 
 him evidently— but why? 
 
 " We have," was all he could reply. 
 
 " Why, how nice that is, to be sure!" exclaimed his aunt. " I 
 might have thought of it, too, Mr. Jauncy, and you being such 
 friends and all. And p'r'aps you know this lady, too — Miss Collum 
 — as Leandy is keeping company along with?" 
 
 Bella's expression changed to something blacker still. "No," 
 she said, tixing her eyes on the still unconscious Leander. " 1 made 
 sure that Mr. Tweddle was courting a young lady, but — but — well, 
 this is a surprise, Mr. Tweddle ! You never told us of this when 
 last we met. I shall have news for somebody!" 
 
 "Oh, but it's only been arranged within the last month or two!" 
 said Miss Tweddle! 
 
 " Considering we met so lately, he might have done us the com- 
 pliment of mentioning it, I must say!" said Bella. 
 
 "I — I thought you knew," stammered the hair dresser; "I 
 told—" 
 
 " No, you didn't, excuse me; oh, no, you didn't, or some things 
 would have happened differently! It was the place and all that 
 made you forget it, verj^ likely!" 
 
 " When did you meet one another, and where was it, Miss 
 Parkinson?" inquired Matilda, rather to include herself in the con- 
 versation than from any devouring curiosity. 
 
 Leander struck in hoarsely. " We met," he explained, "some 
 time since, quite casual." 
 
 Bella's eyes lit up with triumphant malice. "What!" she said, 
 " do you call yesterday week such a long while? What a compli- 
 ment that is, though! And so he's not even mentioned it to you, 
 Miss Collum? Dear me, I wonder what reasons he had for that, 
 now!" 
 
 "There's nothing to wonder at," said Leander; "my memory 
 does play me tricks of that sort." 
 
 " Ah !' if it was only you it played tricks on ! There's Miss Col- 
 lum dying to know what it's all about, 1 can see!" 
 
 " Indeed, Miss Parkinson, I'm nothing of the sort," retorted Ma- 
 tilda proudly. Privately her reflection was: "She's got a lovely 
 
76 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 gown on, but she's a common girl, for all that; and she's trying to 
 set me against Leander for some reason, and she sha'n't do it !" 
 
 " Well," said Bella, "you're a fortunate man, Mr. Tweddle, that 
 you are, in every way. I'm afraid I shouldn't be so easy wjth my 
 James." 
 
 "There's no need for being afraid about it," her James put in; 
 "you aren't!" 
 
 '" I hope 1 haven't as much cause, though," she retorted. 
 
 Leander listened to her malicious innuendo with a bewildered 
 agony. Why on earth was she making this dead set at him? She 
 was amiable enough on Saturday week. It never occurred to him 
 that his conduct to her sister could account for it, for had he not 
 told Ada straightforwardly how he was situated? 
 
 Fortunatel}^ dinner was announced to be ready just then, and 
 Bella was silenced for the moment in the general movement to the 
 next room. 
 
 Leander took in Matilda's mamma, who had been studiously ab- 
 stracting herself from all surrounding objects for the last few min- 
 utes. " That Bella is a downright basilisk," he thought dismally as 
 he led the way. " Lord, how I do wish dinner was done 1" 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 DENOUNCED. 
 
 " There's a new foot on the floor, my friend; 
 And a new face at the door, my friend; 
 A new face at the door." 
 
 Leander sat at the head of the table as carver, having Mrs. 
 Collum and Bella on his left, and James and Matilda opposite to 
 them. 
 
 James was the first to o])en conversation, b}' the remark to Mrs. 
 Collum, across the table, that they were " having another dull Sun- 
 day." 
 
 " Tliat," rejoined the uncompromising lady, "seems to me a 
 highly improper remark, sir." 
 
 "My friend Jauncy," explained Leander, in defense of his 
 abashed companion. " was not alluding to present company, I'm 
 sure. He meant the dullness outside — the fog, and so on." 
 
 "I knew it," she said; "and I repeat that it is improper and 
 irreverent to speak of a dull Sunday in that tone of complaint. 
 Haven't we all the week to be lively in?" 
 
 " And I'm sure, ma'am," said Jauncy, recovering himself, " you 
 make the most of your time. Talking of fog, Tweddle, did you see 
 those lines on it in to-day's ' Umpire'? Very smart, I call them; 
 regular witty." 
 
 "And do you both read a paper on Sunday mornings with 
 'smart' and 'witty' lines in it?" demanded Mrs. Collum. 
 
 " I — I hadn't time this morning," said the unregenerate Leander; 
 " but I do occasionally cast a eye over it before Iget up." 
 
 Mrs. Collum groaned and looked at her daughter reproachfully. 
 
 "I see by the 'Weekly News,' "said Jauncy, "you've iiad a 
 burglary in your neighborhood." 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 77 
 
 Lt'auder let the carving-knife slip. "A burglary? What! in my 
 neig'.iborhood? When?" 
 
 " V.^ell, p'r'aps not a burglary; but a capture of two that were 
 ' wante<^l ' for it. It's all in to-day's ' News.' " 
 
 " I — i haven't seen a paper for the last two days," said Leander, 
 his heart bleating with hope; " tell us about it," 
 
 " Why, k isn't much to tell; but it seems that last Friday night, 
 or early on Saturday morning, the constable on duty came upon two 
 suspicious-looking chaps, propped up insensible against the railingg 
 in Queen Square, covered with blood and unable to account for 
 themselves. Whether they'd been trying to break in somewhere 
 and been beaten (.ff, or had quarreled,"^or met with some accident, 
 doesn't seem to be known for certain. But. an}' way, they were ar- 
 rested for loitering at night with house-breaking things about them, 
 and, when the}' were got to the station, recognized as the men 
 • wanted' for shooting a policeman down at Walham Green some 
 time back, and if it is proved against them, they'll be hung, for 
 certain," 
 
 " What are they called? Did it say?" asked Leander, eagerly. 
 " I forget one — something like Bradawl, I believe; the other had 
 a lot of abases, but he was best known as the ' Count,' from having 
 lived a good deal abroad, and speaking broken English like a 
 native." 
 
 Leander's spirits rose, in spite of his present anxieties. He had 
 been going in fear and dread of the revenge of these rufhans, and 
 they were safely locked up; they could trouble him no more! 
 
 Small wonder, then, that his security in this respect made him 
 better able to cope with minor dangers; and Bella's animosity 
 seemed lulled, too — at least, she had not opened her mouth, except 
 for food, since she sat down. 
 
 In his expansion, he gave himself the airs of a host. " I hope," 
 he said, " I've served you all to your likings? Mirfs Parkinson, 
 you're not getting on; allow me to offer you a little more pork?" 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Tweddle," said the implacable Belhi, "but I 
 won't trouble you. I haven't an appetite to-day — like I had at those 
 gardens!" 
 
 There was a challenge in this answer— not only to him, but to 
 general curiosity — which, to her evident disappointment, was not 
 taken up. 
 
 Leander turned to Jauncy. " I — I suppose you had no trouble 
 in finding your way here?" he said. 
 
 "Ko," said Jauncy, "not more than usual; the streets were 
 pretty full, and that makes it harder to get along." 
 
 " We met such quantities of soldiers!" put in Bella. " Do you 
 remember those two soldiers at Roslierwich, ^Ir. Tweddle? IIow 
 funny they did look, dancing; didn't they? But I suppose I 
 mustn't say anything about the dancing here, must I?" 
 
 "Since," said the poor badgered man, "you put it to me. Miss 
 Parkinson, I must say that, considering the day, you know — " 
 
 "Yes," continued 'i\Irs. Collum. severely; "surely there are bet- 
 ter topics for the Sabbath than— than a dancing soldier!" 
 
 "Mr. Tweddle knows why 1 stopped myself," said Bella. "But 
 
78 THE TINTED VENUS. , 
 
 there, I won't tell of you — not now, at all events; so don't look lik/ 
 that at me!" 
 
 " There, Bella, that'll do," said her fiance, suddenly awakening 
 to the fact that she was trying to make herself disagreeable, and 
 perhaps feeling slightly ashamed of her. 
 
 "James! I know what to say and what to leave unsaid, without 
 tellings from yon; thanks all tlie same. You needn't fear my say- 
 ing a word about Mr. Tweddle and Ada — la, now, if I haven't gone 
 and said it! Wiiat a stupid I am to run on so!" 
 
 •' Drop it, Bella. Do you hear? that's enough," growled Jauncy. 
 
 Leander sat silent; he did not attempt again to turu the conversa- 
 tion; he knew better. Matilda seemed perfectly calm, and certainly 
 showed no surface curiosity; but he feared that her mother intended 
 to require explanations. 
 
 Miss Tweddle came in here with the original remark, that winter 
 had begun now in good earnest. 
 
 " Yes," said Bella; '* why, as we came along, there wasn't hardly 
 a leaf on the trees in the squares; and yet only yesterday week, at 
 the gardens, the trees hadn't begun to shed. Had they. Mr. Twed- 
 dle? Oh! but I forgot; you were so taken up with paying attention 
 to Ada — {Well. James! 1 suppose 1 can make a remark!)" 
 
 " I'll never take you out again if you don't hold that tongue," he 
 whispered savagely. 
 
 Mrs. Collum fixed her eyes on Leander, as he sat cowering on her 
 right. "Leander Tweddle," she said, in a hissing whisper, " what 
 is that young person talking about? "Who — who'is this ' Ada '? I 
 insist upon being told!" 
 
 " If you want to know, ask her," he retorted desperately. 
 
 All this by-play passed unnoticed by j\Iiss Tweddle, who was 
 probably too full of the cares of a liostess to pay attention to it; and 
 accordingly she judged the pause that followed the fitting opportu- 
 nity for a little speech. 
 
 "Mrs. Collum, ma'am," she began, "and my dearest Miss Ma- 
 tilda, the flower of all my lady lodgers; and you, Leandy ; and Mr. 
 Jauncy; and though last mentioned, not intentionall3'so I assure you. 
 Miss Parkinson, my dear, I couldn't tell you how honored I feel to 
 see you all sitting, so friendly and cheerful, round my humble tabic! 
 I hope this will be only the beginning of many more so; and I wish 
 you all your very good healths!" 
 
 " Which, if I may answer for self and present company," said 
 Mr. Jauncy, nobody else being able to utter a word, " we drink and 
 reciprocate." 
 
 Leander was saved for the moment, and the dinner passed with- 
 out further incident. But his aunt's vein of sentiment had been 
 opened, and could not be stanched all at once; for when the cloth 
 was removed, and the decanters and dishes of oranges placed upon 
 the table, she gave a little preparatory cough and began again. 
 
 *' I'm sure it isn't my wish to be ceremonial," she said ; "but 
 we're all among friends (for I should like to look upon you as a 
 friend, if you'll let me," she added rather dubiously, to Bella). 
 " And I don't really think there could be abetter occasion for a 
 sort of little ceremony that I've quite set my heart on. Leandy, you 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 79 
 
 know what I mean; and you've got it with you, I know, because 
 70U were told to bring it with you." 
 
 "Miss Tweddle," interrupted Matilda, hurriedly, "not now. I 
 — \ don't thinlc Vidler has sent it back yet. I told you, you 
 know — " 
 
 ""that's all you know about it, young lad5%" she said, archly; 
 '•' for i stopped in there yesterday and asked liim about it, to make 
 sure; ar.d he told me it was delivered over the very Saturday after- 
 noon beftre. So, Leandy, oblige me for once, and put it on the 
 dear gu'l's rnger before us all; you needn't be bashful with us, I'm 
 sure, either t.f you." 
 
 " What is ail this ?" asked INIrs. Collum. 
 
 -'Why, it's a ring, Mrs. Collum, ma'am, that belonged to my own 
 dear aunt, though she never wore it; and her grandfather had the 
 posy engraved on the inside of it. And 1 remember her telling me, 
 before she was taken, that she'd left it to me in her will, but I 
 wasn't to let it go out of the family. So T gave it to Leandy. to be 
 bis engagement ring; but it had to be altered, because it was ever 
 so much too large as it was," 
 
 •' I always thought," said Mrs. Collum, "that it was the gentle- 
 man's duty to provide the ring." 
 
 " So Leandy wanted to; but I said: ' You can pay for the alter- 
 ing; but I'm fanciful about this, and I want to see dearest Miss 
 Collum with my aunt's ring on.' " 
 
 "Oh, but, Miss Tweddle, can't you see?" said Matilda. "He's, 
 forgotten it; don't — don't tease him about it. It must be for some 
 other time, that's all!" 
 
 " Matilda, I'm surprised at you," said her mother. " To forget 
 such a thing as that would be unpardonable in any young man, 
 Leander Tweddle, you can not have forgotten it!" 
 
 "No," he said, "I've not forgotten it; but — but I haven't it 
 about me, and I don't know as I could lay my hand on it, just at 
 present; and that's the truth!" 
 
 ''Part of the truth," said Bella. " Oh. what deceitful things 
 you men are! Leave me alone, James; I will speak. I won't sit by 
 and hear poor dear Miss Collum deceived in this way. ]Miss Collum, 
 ask hmi if that is all he knows about it. Ask him, and see what he 
 says ! " 
 
 " I'm quite satisfied with what he has chosen to say already. Miss 
 Parkinson; thank you." said Matilda. 
 
 "Then permit me to say, Miss Collum, that I'm truly sorry for 
 you," said Bella, 
 
 " If you thudt so. Miss Parkinson, I suppose you must say so." 
 
 "I do say it," said Bella; " for it's a sorrowful sight to see meek- 
 ness all run to poorness of spirit. You have a right to an explana- 
 tion from Mr. Tweddle there; and you would insist on it, if you 
 wasn't afraid (and with good reason) of the answer you'd get!" 
 
 At the beginning of this short colloquy .Miss Tweddle. after grow- 
 ing very red and restless for some moments, had slipped out of the 
 room, and came in now, trembling and out of breath, with a bonnet 
 in her hand and a cloak over her arm. 
 
 " Miss Parkinson," she said, speaking very rapidly, " when I 
 asked you to come here with my good friend and former lodger, I 
 
80 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 little thouEjht that anything but friendship would come with it; an( 
 sorry I am that it has turned out otherwise. And my feelings 
 Mr. Jauncy are the same as ever; but — this is your bonnet, 
 Parkinson, and your cloak. And this is my house; and I shall 
 obliged if jou'll' kindly put on the ones, and walk out of the o/tier 
 at once!" ^ 
 
 Bella burst into tears, and demanded from Mr. Jauncy yliy he 
 had brought her there to be insulted. " You brought it alUn your- 
 self," he said, gloomil}^; "you should have behaved!" 
 
 "What have I done," cried Bella, "to be told to ^o, as if I 
 wasn't fit to stay?" 
 
 " I'll tell you what you've done," said Miss Twedd^e; " you were 
 asked here with Mr. Jauncy to meet my dear Leandy and his young 
 lady, and get all four of you to know one another, and lay founda- 
 tions for Friendship's tlowery bonds. And from the moment you 
 came in, though I paid no attention to it at first, you've done noth- 
 ing but insiiuiate and hint, and try all you could to set my dear Miss 
 Collum and her ma agnmst ni}' poor unoffending nephew! and I 
 won't sit by any longer and hear it. Pnt on 3'our bonnet and cloak, 
 Miss Parkinson, and^Mr. Jauncy (who knows I don't bear him any 
 ill-feeling, whatever happens) will go home with you." 
 
 " I've^said noil)ing," repeated Bella, " but what I had a right to 
 sa3% and what I'll stand to." 
 
 " If you don't put on those things," said Jauncy, "I shall go 
 away myself, and leave you to follow as best you can." 
 
 "I'm putting them on," said Bella; and her handswerc imstcady 
 with passion as she tied her bonnet strings. " Don't bull}^ me, 
 James, because I won't bear it ! Mr. Tweddle, if you're a man, 
 will you sit there and tell me you don't know that that ring is on a 
 certain person's linger — will you do that? " 
 
 The miserable man concluded that Ada had disregarded his en- 
 treaties, and told her sister all about the ring and the accursed 
 statue. He could not see why the story should have so inflamed Bella, 
 but her temper wasalwaj's uncertain. 
 
 Everybody was looking at him, and he was expected to say some- 
 thing. His main idea was, that he would see how much Bella 
 knew before committing himself. 
 
 " What have I ever done to offend you," he asked, "that you 
 turn on me in this downright vixenish manner? I scorn to reply 
 to your insinuations!" 
 
 " Do you want me to speak out plain? James, stand away*/ 
 you please! You may all think what you choose of me, i don't 
 care! Perhaps if you were to come in and find the man who, only 
 a week ago, had offered marriage to your j^oungest sister, figuring 
 away as engaged to quite another lad}^ you wouldn't be all milk and 
 honey, either! I'm doing right to expose him: the man who'd de- 
 ceive one would deceive many, and so you'll find, Miss Collum, little 
 as you think it !" 
 
 "That's enough," said INIiss Tweddle; "it's all a mistake, I'm 
 sure, and you'll be sorry some day for having made it. Now go. 
 Miss Parkinson, and make no more mischief.'" 
 
 A. light had burst in upon Leander's perturbed mind. Ada had 
 not broken faith with hini, after all. He remembered Bella's con- 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 81 
 
 duct during the return from Rosherwich, and understood al last to 
 what a mistake her present wrath was due. 
 
 Here, at all events, was an accusation he could repel with dignity, 
 with truth. Foolish and unlucky he had been, and how unluck}' 
 he still hoped Matilda might never learn; but false he was not, and 
 she should not be allowed to believe it. 
 
 " Miss Parkinson," he said, " I've been badgered long enough. 
 What is it you're trying to bring up against me about your sister 
 Ada! Speak it out, and I'm read}' to answer you!" 
 
 "Leander," said Matilda, "1 don't want to hear it from her. 
 Only you tell me that you've been true to me, and that is quite 
 enough." 
 
 " Matilda, you're a foolish girl, and don't know what you're talk- 
 ing about," said her mother. " It is not enough for me; so I beg, 
 young woman, if you've anything to accuse the man who's to be 
 my son-in-law of, you'll say it now, in my presence, and let him 
 contradict it afterward if he can." 
 
 " Will he contradict his knowing my sister Ada, who's one of 
 the ladies at Madame Chenille's, in the Edge ware Road, more than 
 a twelvemonth since, and paying her attentions?" asked Bella. 
 
 " I don't deny," said Leander, "meeting her several times, and 
 being considerably struck in a quiet way. But that was before I 
 met Matilda." 
 
 " You had met Matilda before last Saturday, I suppose?" sneered 
 Bella, spitefully; " when you laid your plans to join our party at 
 Rosherwich, and trouble my poor sister, who'd given up thinking 
 of you." 
 
 " There you go, Bella!" said her fiance. " What do you know 
 about his plans? He'd no idea as Ada and you was to be there, 
 and when I told him, as we were driving down, it was all I could 
 do to prevent him jumping out of the cab!" 
 
 "I'm highly flattered to hear it," said Bella; "but he didn't 
 seem to be so afraid of Ada when they did meet; and you best 
 know, ^Ir. Tweddle, the things you said to that poor trusting girl 
 all the time you were walking and dancing and talking foolishness 
 to her." 
 
 " I never said a word that couldn't have been spoke from the 
 lop of St. Paul's," protested Leander. " I did dance with her, I 
 own, not to seem uncivil; but we only waltzed round twice." 
 
 "Then why did you give her the ring — an engagement ring, 
 too ?" insisted Bella. 
 
 " Who saw me give her a ring ?" he demanded hotly; " do you 
 dare to say you did? Did she ever tell you I gave her any ring? 
 You know she didn't!" 
 
 " If I can't trust my own ears," said Bella, " I should like to 
 know what I can trust. I heard you myself, in that railway car- 
 riage, ask my sister Ada not to tell any one about some ring, and I 
 tried to get out of Ada afterward wliat the secret was; but she 
 wouldn't treat me as a sister, and be open with me. But any one 
 with eyes in their head could guess what was between you, and all 
 the time you were an engaged man ! " 
 
 "See there, now!" cned the injured hair dresser; "there's a 
 thing to go and make all this mischief about! Matilda, Mrs. Col- 
 
83 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 lum, aunt, I declare to you I told the— the other young woman 
 everythinc: about my having formed new ties and that: I was very 
 particular not to give rise to hopes which were only doomed to be 
 disappointed. As to what Miss Parkinson says she overheard, why 
 it's very likely 1 may have asked lier sister to say notliing about a 
 ring, and 1 won't deny it was tlie very same ring that I was to have 
 brought here to-day; for the fact was, I had the misfoitue to lose 
 it in thos3 very gardens, and naturally did not wish it talked about: 
 and that's the truth, as I stand here. As for giving it away, I 
 swear I never parted with it to no mortal woman! " 
 
 " After that, Bella," observed Air. Jauncy, "you'd better say 
 you're sorry you spoke, and come homawith me— that's what j'ou'd 
 better do I " 
 
 " I shall say nothing of the sort," she asserted; " I'm too much 
 of a lady to stay where my company is not desired, and I'm ready 
 to go a-s soon as you please. But if lie was to talk his head off. he 
 would never persuade me (whatever he may do other parties) that 
 he's not been playing double, and if Ada were here you would soon 
 see whether lie would have the face to deny it. t^o good-ni<:ht. 
 Miss Tweddle, and sooner or later you'll lind yourself undeceived 
 in your precious nephew, take my word for it. Good-night, Miss 
 Coilum, and I'm only sorry you haven't more spirit than to put up 
 with such treatment. James, are you going to keep me wailing any 
 longer?" 
 
 Mr. Jauncy, with confused apologies to the company generally, 
 hurried his betrothed off. in no very amiable mood; and showed his 
 sense of her iiidiscretions by indulgitig in some very plain speaking 
 on l\ieir homeward way. 
 
 As the street door shut behind them, Leander gave a deep sigh of 
 relief. 
 
 " Matilda, my own dearest girl," he said, " now that that cocka- 
 trice has departed, tell me, you don't doubt your Leander, do you?" 
 
 "No," said Matilda, judicially, "I don't doubt you, Leander; 
 only I do wish you'd been a little more open with me; you might 
 have told me you had gone to those gardens and lost the ring, in- 
 stead of leaving me to hear it from that girl.'* 
 
 " So I might, darling," he owned; " but I thought you'd disap- 
 prove." 
 
 "And if she's 7ni/ daughter," observed Mrs. Coilum. "she will 
 disapprove!" 
 
 But it was evident from ^Matilda's manner that the inference was 
 incorrect; the relief of finding Leander guiltless on the main count 
 had blinded her to all minor shortcommgs, and he had the happi- 
 ness of knowing himself fully and freely forgiven. 
 
 If this could only have been the end; but, while he was still 
 throbbing with bliss^ he heard a sound, at which his " bedded hair" 
 started up and stood on end— the ill-omened sound of a slow and 
 heavy footfall. 
 
 "Leandy," cried his aunt, "how strange you're looking!" 
 
 " There's some one in the passage," he said, hoarsely; " I'll go and 
 see her. Don't any of yon come out!" 
 
 "Why, it's only our Jane," said his aunt; "she always treads 
 lieavj'."* 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 83 
 
 The steps were heard jroing up the stairs; then they seemed to 
 pause half-way, and descend again. " I'll be bound she's forgot 
 something," said ]\Iiss Tweddle; " I never knew such a head as that 
 girl's;" and Leander began to be almost reassured. 
 
 The steps were heard in the adjoining room, which was shut off 
 by folding-doors from the one they were occupying. 
 
 "Leander," cried Matilda, " what can there be to look so fright- 
 ened of?" and as she spoke there came a sounding solemn blow upon 
 the folding-doors. 
 
 " I never saw^ the lady before in all my life!" moaned the guilty 
 man, before the doors had time to swing back; for he knew too well 
 who stood behind them. 
 
 And his forebodmg was justified to the full. The doors yielded 
 to the blow, and, opening wide, revealed the tall and commanding 
 figure of the goddess; her face, thanks to Leander's pigments, glow- 
 ing life-like under her hood, and the gold ring gleaming on her out- 
 stretched hand. 
 
 " Leander," said the goddess, in her low musical accents, " come 
 away ! " 
 
 " Upon my word!" cried Mrs. Collum, " iclio is this person?" 
 
 He could not speak. There seemed to be a hammer beating on 
 his brain, reducing it to a pulp. 
 
 "Perhaps," said Miss Tweddle, "perhaps, young lady, you'll 
 explain what you've come for?" 
 
 The statue slowly pointed to Leander. " 1 come for him," she 
 said, calmly; " he has vowed himself to me — he is mine!" 
 
 Matilda, after staring, incredulous, for some moments at the in- 
 truder, sunk with a wild scream upon the sofa, and hid her face. 
 
 Leander flew to her side. " Matilda, my own," he implored, 
 "don't be alarmed; she won't touch you — it's me she's come 
 after!" 
 
 Matilda rose and repulsed him with sudden energy. " How dare 
 you!" she cried, hysterically. " I see it all now: the ring, the — the 
 cloak, she has had them all the time! Fool that I was — silly, trust- 
 ing fool ! " 
 
 And she broke out into violent hysterics. "Go away at once, 
 hypocrite!" enjoined her mother, addressing the distracted hair- 
 dresser, as he stood, dumb and impotent, before her. " Do you 
 "want to kill my poor child? Take yourself off!" 
 
 "For goodness' sake, go, Leandy," added his aunt; "I can't 
 bear the sight of you!" 
 
 " Leander, I wait," said the statue. " Come!" 
 
 He stood there a moment longer, looking blankly at the two 
 elder women as they bustled about the prostrate girl, and then he 
 gave a bitter defi;mt laugh. 
 
 His fate was too strong for him. No one was in the mood to 
 listen to any explanation; it was all. over! " I'm coming," he said 
 to the goddess; " 1 may as well; I'm not w-antcd htTe!" 
 
 And, with a smothered curse, he dashed blindly from the room, 
 and out into the foggy street. 
 
8i THE TINTED VEKUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AN APPEAL. 
 
 If you did know to whom I gave the ring, 
 
 If you did know for whom I gave the ring, 
 
 And how unwillingly I left the ring. 
 
 Tou would abate the strength of your displeasure. 
 
 Merchant of Venice. 
 
 Leander strode down the street in a whirl of conflicting emo- 
 tions: at the very moment when he seemed to liave prevailed over 
 Miss Parkinson's machinations, his evil fate had stepped in and un- 
 done liim forever! Wliat would become of him without ^Matilda? 
 As he was thinking of liis gloom}' prospects, he noticed, for the fir.st 
 time, that the statue was keeping step by his side, and lie turned on 
 her with smothered rage. " Well," he began, " I hope you're satis- 
 fied?" 
 
 "Quite, Leander, quite satisfied; for have I not found you?" 
 
 "Oh, you've found me right enougli!" he replied, with a groan; 
 "trust you for that! What I should like to know is, how the 
 dickens j^ou did it?" 
 
 " Thus," she replied; " I awoke, and it was dark, and 5'ou were 
 not there, and I needed you; and I went forth and called you by 
 your name. And you, now that you have hearkened to my call, you 
 are happy, are you not?" 
 
 "Me?" said Leander, grimly. "Oh, I'm regular jolly, I am! 
 Haven't I reason?" 
 
 " Your sisters seemed alarmed at my coming," she said; "why?" 
 
 "Well," said Leander, "they aren't used to having marble god- 
 desses dropping in on them promiscuously." 
 
 "The youngest wept: was it because I took you from her side?" 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder," he returned, gruffly ; " don't bother me!" 
 
 When they were both safely within the little upper room again, 
 he opened the cupboard-door wide. " Now marm," he said, in a 
 voice which trembled with repressed rage. " you must be tired with 
 the exercise you've took this evening, and I'll trouble you to walk 
 in here," 
 
 " There are many things on which I would speak with you," she 
 said. 
 
 "You must keep them for next time," he answered, roughly. " If 
 you can see anything, you can see that just now I'm not in a temper 
 for to stand it, ^vhatever I may be another evening." 
 
 " Why do I suffer this language from 3"0u?" she demanded, in- 
 dignantly — " why?" 
 
 "If you don't go in, you'll hear language you'll like still less, 
 goddess or no goddess!" he said, foaming. " I mean it. I've been 
 worked up past all bearing, and I advise you to let me alone just 
 now, or you'll repent it!" 
 
 "Enough!" she said, haughtily, and stalked proudly into the 
 lonely niche, which he closed instantly: as he did so he noticed his 
 Sunday papers lying still folded on his table, and seized one eagerly. 
 
THE TINTED VE:N"US. 85 
 
 " It may have something in it about what Jauncy was telling me 
 of," he said; and his search was rewarded by the following para- 
 graph: 
 
 "Daring Capture of Burglars in Bloomsbury. — On the 
 night of Friday, the — th, Police-constable Yorke, B 954, while on 
 duty, in the course of one of his rounds, discovered two men, in a 
 fainting condition and covered with blood, wiiich was apparently 
 flowing from sundry wounds upon their persons, lying against the 
 railings of Queen Square. Being unable to give any coherent ac- 
 count of themselves, and house-breaking implements being found 
 in their possession, they were at once removed to the Bow Street 
 Station, where, the charge having been entered against them, they 
 were recognized by a member of the force as two notorious house- 
 breakers, who have long been ' wanted ' in connection with the 
 Walham Green burglary, in which, as will be remembered, an officer 
 lost his life." 
 
 The paragraph went on to give their names and sundry other 
 details, and concluded with a sentence which plunged Leander into 
 fresh torments: 
 
 " In spite of the usual caution, both prisoners insisted upon 
 volunteering a statement, the exact nature of which has iiOt yet 
 transpired, but which is believed to have reference to another 
 equally mysterious outrage — the theft of the famous Venus from 
 the Wricklesmarsh Collection— and is understood to divert suspicion 
 into a hitherto unsuspected channel." 
 
 What could this mean, if not that those villains, smarting under 
 their second failure, had denounced him in revenge? He tried to 
 persuade himself that the passage would bear any other construc- 
 tion, but not ver}^ successfully. "If they have brought me in," he 
 thought, and it was his only gleam of consolation, "I should have 
 heard of it before this." 
 
 And even this gleam vanished as a sharp knocking was heard 
 below^; and, descending to open the door, he found his visitor to be 
 Inspector Bilbow. 
 
 "Evening, Tweddle," said the inspector, quietly. "I've come 
 to have another little talk with you." 
 
 Leander thought he would play his part till it became quite hope 
 less. "Proud to see you, Mr. Inspector," he said. " Will you walk 
 into my saloon? and I'll light the gas for you." 
 
 "No, don't you trouble yourself," said the terrible man; "I'll 
 walk upstairs where you're sitting yourself, if you've no ob- 
 jections." 
 
 Leander dared not make any, and he ushered the detective up 
 stairs accordingly. 
 
 " Ha!" said^the latter, throwing a quick eye round the litthj 
 room. "Nice little crib you've got here: keep everything you want 
 on the premises, eh? Find those cupboards very convenient, I dare 
 say?" 
 
 " Very," said Leander (like the innocent Joseph Surface that- ho 
 
S6 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 was); "oh, very convenient, sir!" He tried to keep his eyes from 
 reslins: too consciously upon the fatal door that held his secret. 
 
 "Keep your coal and your wine and spirits there?" said the de- 
 tective. (Was he watching his countenance or not?) 
 
 " Y — yes," said Leander; " leastways, in one of them. Will you 
 take anything, sir?" 
 
 "Thank'ee, Tweddle; I don't mind if I do. And what do you 
 keep tn the otlier one, now?" 
 
 " The other?" said the poor man. " Oh, odd things!" (He cer- 
 tainly had one odd thing in it.) 
 
 After tiie officer had chosen and mixed his spirits and water, he 
 began: "Now, you know what's brought me here, don't you?" 
 
 ("If he was sure, he wouldn't try to pump me," argued Leander, 
 " I won't throw up just yet.") 
 
 "I suppose it's the ring," he replied, innocently. "You don't 
 mean to say you've got it back for me, Mr. Inspector? Well, I am 
 glad." 
 
 " I thought you set no particular value on the ring when I met 
 you last?" said the other. 
 
 " Why," said Leander, "I may have said so out of politeness, 
 not wanting to trouble you; but as you said it was the statue you 
 were after chiefly, why 1 don't mind admitting that 1 shall be thank- 
 ful indeed to get that ring back; and so you've brought it, have 
 you, sir?" 
 
 He said this so naturally, having called in all his powers of dis- 
 simulation to help him in his extremity, that the tletective was 
 favorably impressed; he had already felt a suspicion tiiat he liad 
 been sent here on a fool's errand, and no one could have looked less 
 like a daring criminal, and the trusted confederate of still more 
 daring ruffians, than did Leander at that moment. 
 
 " Heard anything of Potter lately?'' he asked, wishing to try the 
 effect of a sudden coup. 
 
 " I don't know the gentleman," said Leander, firmly; for, after 
 all, he did not. 
 
 " Now, take care; he's been seen to frequent this house! We 
 know more than you think, young man." 
 
 "Oh! if he bluffs, i can bluff too," passed through Leander's 
 mind. " Inspector Bilbow," he said, " I give you my sacred honor, 
 I've never set eyes on him; he can't have been here, not with my 
 knowledge. It's my belief you're trying to make out something 
 against me. If you're a friend, inspector, you'll tell me straight 
 oiit." 
 
 " That's not our way of doing business; and yet, hang it, I ought 
 to know" an honest man by this time!^ Tweddle, I'll drop the in- 
 vestigator, and speak as man to man. You've been reported tome 
 (never mind b}'^ whom) as the receiver of the stolen Venus — a pal of 
 this very Potter, that's what I've against you, my man !" 
 
 " I know who told 5'ou that," said Leander; " it was that count 
 and his precious friend Braddle!" 
 
 "Oh, you know them, do you? That's an odd guess for an inno- 
 cent man, Tweddle?" 
 
 " They found me out from inquiries at the gardens," said Le- 
 ander; "and as for guessing, it's in this very paper. So it's me 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 81 
 
 they've gone and implicated, have thoy? All right. I suppose 
 they're men whose word you'd go by, wouldn't you, sir — truthful, 
 reliable kind of parlies, eh?" 
 
 "None of that, Tweddle," said the inspector, rather uneasily. 
 " We officers are bound to follow up any clew, no niatler where it 
 comes from. 1 was informed that that Venus is concealed some- 
 where about these premises. It. may be, or it may not be; but it's 
 my duty to make the proper investii;ations: if you were a prince of 
 the blood, it would be all the same." 
 
 " Well, all I can say is. that I'm as inrtocent as my own toilet 
 preparations. Ask yourself if it is likely? What couUl 1 do with 
 a stolen statue — not to mention that I'm a respectable tradesman, 
 with a reputation to' maintain? Excuse me, but I'm afraid those 
 burglars have been 'aving a lark with you, sir." 
 
 He went just a little too far here; for the detective was visibly 
 irritated. " Don't chatter to me," lie said. "If 3ou're innocent 
 so much the better for you; if that statue is found here af;er this, it 
 will ruin you. If you know anything, be it ever so little, about it, 
 the best tiling you can do is to speak out while there's time." 
 
 "I can only say once more, Tm as innocent as the driveling 
 snow," repeated Leander. " Why can't you believe my word against 
 those blackguards?" 
 
 " Perhaps I do," said the other; " but I must make a formal look 
 round to ease my conscience." 
 
 Leander's composure nearly failed him. " By all means," he said 
 at length; " come and ease your conscience all over the house, sir, 
 do; I can show you over." 
 
 " Softly," said the detective; "I'll begin here, and work gradu- 
 ally up, and then down again." 
 
 "Here? "said Leander, aghast; "why, you've seen all there is 
 here ! '* 
 
 "Now, Tweddle, I shall conduct this in my own \^'ay, if yon 
 please. I've been following your eyes, Tweddle, and they've told 
 me tales. I'll trouble you to open that cupboard you keep looking 
 at so." 
 
 " This cupboard?" cried Leander, " why, you don't suppose I've 
 got the Venus in there, sir!" 
 
 " If it's anywhere, it's there! There's no taking me in, I tell 3-ou 
 — open it!" 
 
 "Oh! "said Leander, "it is hard to be the object of these cruel 
 suspicions. Mr. Inspector, listen tome: I can't open that cupbourd, 
 and I'll tell you why. You— you've been young yourself. Think 
 how you'd feel in my situation — and consider her ! As a gentleman 
 you won't press it, I'm sure!" 
 
 "If I'm making any mistake, I shall know how to apologize," 
 said the inspector. " If you don't open that cupboard, 1 shall." 
 
 "Never!" exclaimed Leander. "I'll die liisl!" and he threw 
 himself upon the liandle. 
 
 The other caught him by the shoulders, and sent him twirling 
 into the opposite corner; and then, taking a key from his own 
 pocket, he unlocked the door himself. 
 
 "I — 1 never encouraged her!" whimpered Leander, as he saw 
 that all was lost. 
 
88 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 The officer had stepped back in silence from the cupboard— then 
 lie faced Leander, with a changed expression. "I suppose you 
 think yourself devilish sharp?" he said savagely; and Leander dis- 
 covered that the cupboard was as bare as Mother Hubbard's! 
 
 He was not precisely surprised, except at first. " She's keeping 
 out of the way; she wouldn't be the goddess she is if she couldn't 
 do a trifling thing like that!" was afl he thought of the phenome- 
 non. He forced himself to laugh a little. " Excuse me," he said, 
 "but you did seem so set on detecting something wrong, that 1 
 couldn't help humoring you!" 
 
 Inspector Bilbow was considerably out of humor, and gave Lean- 
 der to understand that lie would lau^h in a certain o!;scure region, 
 known as " the other side of his face,"' by and by. " You take care, 
 that's my advice to you, young man. I've a deuced good mind to 
 arrest you on suspicion as it is!" he said holly. 
 
 " Lor', sir!" said Leander, "what for — for not having anything 
 in that cupboard?" 
 
 " It's my belief you know more than you choose to tell. Be that 
 as it may, I shall not take you into custody for the present; but you 
 pay attention to what I am going to tell you next. Don't you at- 
 tempt to leave this house, or to remove anything from it, till you see 
 ine again, and that'll be some time to-morrow evening. If you do 
 attempt it, you'll be apprehended at once, for you're being watched. 
 I tell you that for j^our own sake, Tweddle; for I've no wish to gc-t 
 you into trouble if you act fairly by me. But mind you stay where 
 you are for the next twentj'-foiir hours." 
 
 "And what's to happen then?" said Leander. 
 
 " I mean to have the whole house thoroughly searched, and you 
 must be ready to give us every assistance — tliat's what's to happen. 
 I might make a secret of it, but where's the use? If you're not a 
 J'ool, you'll see that it won't do to play any tricks. You'd far better 
 stand by me than Potter." 
 
 " 1 tell you I don't know Potter. Blow Potter!" said Leander, 
 warmly. 
 
 " We shall see," was all the detective deigned to reply; " and just 
 be ready for my men to-morrow evening, or take the consequences. 
 Those are my last words to you!" 
 
 And with this he took his leave. He was by no means the most 
 brilliant officer in the Department, and he felt uncomfortabl}' aware 
 that he did not see his way clear as yet; he could not even make up 
 his mind on so elementary a point as Leander's guilt or innocence. 
 
 But he meant to take the course he had announced, and liis 
 frankness in giving previous notice was not without calculation. He 
 argued thus: If Tweddle was free from all complicity, nothing was 
 lost by delaying the search for a day; if he were guilty he would 
 be more than mortal if he did not attempt, after such a warning, 
 either to hide his booty more securely, and probably leave traces 
 which would betray him, or else to escape, when his guilt would be 
 manifest. 
 
 Unfortunately, there were circumstances in the case which he 
 could not be expected to know, and which made his logic inappli- 
 cable. 
 
 After he had gone, Leander thrust his hands deep into his pock- 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 89 
 
 ets, and began to whistle forlornly. "A little while ago it was 
 hurghirs — n"ow it's police!" he reflected aloud. "I'm going it, I 
 am! And then there's Matilda and that there Venus — one pre- 
 dickynient on top of another!" (But here a sudden hope lightened 
 his burden.) " Suppose she's took herself off for good?" lie was 
 prevented from indulging this any further by a long, low laugh, 
 which came from the closed cupboard. 
 
 " No such luck — she's back again!" he groaned. " Oh, come out 
 if you want to — don't stay larfin' at me in there!" 
 
 The goddess stepped out, with a smile of subdued mirth upon her 
 lips. " Leander," she said, "did it surprise you just now that I 
 had vanished?" 
 
 " Oh," he said wearily, " I don't know — yes, I suppose so; you 
 found some way of getting through at the back, I dare say?" 
 
 " Do 3^ou think that even now I cannot break through the petty 
 restraints of matter?" 
 
 " Well, however it was managed, it was cleverly done, I must 
 say that. 1 didn't hardly expect it of you. But you must do the 
 same to morrow night, mind you!" 
 
 "Oh, must I?" she said. 
 
 " Yes, unless you want to ruin me altogether, you must. They're 
 going to searcli the premises /(?;' you V 
 
 " 1 have heard all," she said ; " but give yourself no anxiety; by 
 that time you and I will be beyond human reach!" 
 
 "Not me!" he corrected. " If you think I'm going to let myself 
 be wafted over to Cyprus (which is British soil now, let me tell 
 you), you're under a entire delusion. I've never been wafted any- 
 where yet, and I don't mean to try it!" 
 
 And her pent-up wrath broke forth and descended upon him with 
 crushing force. 
 
 "Meanest and most contemptible of mortal men, you shall rec- 
 ognize me as the goddess I am! I have borne with 3'ou too long; 
 it shall end this night. Shallow fool that you have been, to match 
 your puny intellect against a goddess famed for her wiles as for her 
 beauty! You have thought me simple and guileless; you have 
 never feared to treat me with flippant disrespect; you have even 
 dared to suppose that y5u could keep me — an immortal— pent 
 within these wretched walls! I humored you, I let you fool your- 
 self with the notion that your will was free — your soul your own. 
 Now til at is over! Look at the perils which encircle you. Every- 
 thing has been aiding to drive you into these arms. My hour of 
 triiunph is at hand— yield then! Cast yourself at ray feet, and 
 groTel for pardon— for mercy — or assuredly I will spare you not!" 
 
 Leander went down on ail fours on the hearth-rug. " Mercy!" 
 he cried, feebly. " I've meant no offense. Only tell me what you 
 want of me." 
 
 " Why should I tell you again? I demand the words from you 
 which place you within my power: speak them at once!" 
 
 (" Ah!" thouglit Leander, " I am not in her power as it is then.") 
 " If I was to tell you once more that I couldn't undertake to say 
 any such words?" lie asked aloud. 
 
 "Then," she said, "my patience would be at an end, and \ 
 would scatter your vile frame to the four winds of heaven!" 
 
90 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 "Lady Venus," said Leander, getting up with a white and des- 
 perate face, " don't drive me into a corner. I can't go off, not at a 
 moment's notice — in eitiier way! I — I must have a day— on 13^ a 
 day— to make my arrangements in. Give me a day, Lady Venus; 
 I ask it as a partickler favor!" 
 
 " Be if so," she said ; " one day I give you in wliich to take leave 
 of sucli as may be dear to you; but, after tliat, I will listen to no 
 further pleadings. You are mme, and, all unworthy as you are, I 
 shall hold you to your pledge!" 
 
 Leander was left wiih this terrible warning ringing in his ears; 
 the goddess would hold him to his involuntary pledge. Even he 
 could see that it was pride, and not affection, which rendered her 
 so determined; and he trembled at the thought of placing himself 
 irrevocably in her power. 
 
 But what was he to do? The alternative was too awful; and 
 then, in either case, he must lose Matilda. Here the recollection of 
 how he had left her came over him with a vivid force. What must 
 she be thinking of him at that moment? And who would ever tell 
 her the truth, when he had been spirited away forever? 
 
 " Oh, Matilda!" he cried, "if you only knew the hidgeous posi- 
 tion I'm in — if you could only advise me what to do — I could bear 
 it belter ! " 
 
 And then he resolved that he would ask that advice without de- 
 lay, and decide nothing until she replied. Tiierewas no reason for 
 any further concealment; she had seen the statue herself, and must 
 know the worst. What she could not know was hi.s perfect inno- 
 cence of any real unfaithfulness to her, and that he mu.st explain. 
 
 He sat up all night composing a letter that should touch her to 
 the heart, with the following result: 
 
 "My own dearest Girl, — If such you will still allow me to 
 qualify you, I write to you in a slate of mind that I really ardly 
 know what I am about, but I can not indure making no effort to 
 clear up the gaping abiss which the events of the past fatal after- 
 noon has raised betwixt us, 
 
 " In spite of all I could do, you have now seen, and been justl}' 
 alarmed at, the Person with whom 1 allowed myself to become in- 
 volved in such a unhappy and unprecedented manner, and having 
 done so, you can think for yourself whether that Art of Stone was 
 able for to supplant yours for a single moment, though the way in 
 which such a hidgeous Event transpired I can not trust my pen to 
 describe except in the remark that it was purely axidental. It all 
 appened on that ill-ominous Saturday when we went down to those 
 Gardens where my Doom was saving up to lay in wait for me, an(| 
 I scorn to deny that Bella's sister Ada was one of the party. But 
 as to anything serious in that quarter, oh Tilly the ole time I was 
 contrasting you wit h her and thinking how truly superior, and never 
 did I swerve not what could be termed a swerve for a instant. I 
 did dance avf a walz with her — but why? Because she asked me 
 to it and as a Gentleman I was bound to oblige! And that was 
 afterwards too, when I had put that ring on which is the sauce of 
 all my recent aggony. All the while I was dancing my thoughts 
 were elsewhere — on how I could get the ring back again, for so I 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 91 
 
 still hoped I could, though when I came lo have a try. oh my dear 
 girl no one couldn't persuade her she's that obstinate, and yet unless 
 I do it is all over with mo, and soon too! 
 
 " And now if it's the last time I shall ever write words with a 
 mortal pen, I must request your support in this dilemmer which is 
 sounding its dread orns at my very door! 
 
 " You know what she is and who she is, and you can not doubt 
 but what she's ngodess, loath as you must feel to admit such a thing, 
 and I ask you if it would be downright wicked in me to do what 
 she tells me I must do. Indeed I won't do it, being no less than 
 flying witii her to a distant climb, and you know how repugnant I 
 am to such a action — not if you advise me against it or even if you 
 was but to assure me your affections were unchanged in spite of all! 
 But you know we parted under pigulier circs, and I can not dis- 
 gise from myself that you may be thinking wuss of me than what 
 Matilda I can honestly say I deserve! 
 
 " Now I tell yod solimly that if this is the fact, and you've been 
 thinking of your proper pride and your womanly dignity and things 
 like that — there's no time for to do it in Matilda, if you don't want 
 to break with me for all Eternity! 
 
 " For she's pressing me to carry out the pledge, as she calls it, 
 and I must decide before this time to morrow, and I want to feel 
 you are not lost to me before I can support my trial, and what with 
 countless perplexities and burglars threatening, and giving false in- 
 formations, and police searchings, there's no saying what I may do 
 nor what I mayn't do if I'm left to myself, for indeed I am very un- 
 appy Matilda, and if ever a man was made a Victim through acting 
 without intentions, or if with, of the best — I am that Party! O Ma- 
 tilda don't, don't desert me, unless you have seased to care for me, 
 and in that contingency I can look upon my Fate whatever it be 
 with a apath}^ that will supply the courage wiiich will not even 
 winch at its aproach. but if I am still of value, come, and come 
 precious soon, or it will be loo late to the Assistance of 
 " Your truly penitent and unfortunate 
 
 "Le.\nder Tweddle. 
 
 "P.S. — You will see the condition of my feelings from my spell- 
 ing — I haven't the hart to spell." 
 
 Dawn was breaking as he put the final touches to this appeal, 
 and read it over with a gloomy approbation. He had always cher- 
 ished the conviction that he could " write a good letter when he 
 was put to it," and felt now that he had more than risen to the oc- 
 casion. 
 
 " William shall take it down to Bayswater the first thing to- 
 morrow — no, to-day. I mean," he said, rubbing his hot eyes; " I 
 fancy it will do my business!" 
 
 And it did. 
 
92 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LAST STRAW. 
 
 Thou in justice. 
 If from the height of majestj' we can 
 Look down upon thy lowness and embrace it, 
 Art bound with fervor to look up to me. 
 
 Massingeh: Roman Actor. 
 
 Haggard and distraiis^ht was Leandcr as he went about his 
 business that morninir, so mechanically that one customer, wlio had 
 requested to have his luxuriant locks " trimmed," found himself re- 
 duced to a state of penal bullet-headedness before he could protest, 
 and another sacrificed his whiskers and part of one ear to the hair- 
 dresser's uninspired scissors. For Leander's eyes were constantly 
 turned to the front part of his shop, wjiere his apprentice might 
 come in at any moment with the answer to his appeal. 
 
 At last the moment came when the bell fixed at the door sounded 
 sharply, and he saw the sleek head and chubby red face he liad been 
 so anxiously expectinir. He was busy with a customer; but that 
 could not detain nim then, and he rushed quickly into the outer 
 shop. " Well, William." lie said, breathlessly, " a nice time you've 
 been over that message! I gave you the money for your bus." 
 
 " Yessur, but it was this way: you said a green bus, and I took a 
 green bus with 'Bayswater' on it, and I didn't know nothinsx was 
 wrong, and when it stopped I sez to the conductor, 'This ain't 
 Kensington Gardings;' and he sez, 'No, it's Archer Street;' and I 
 sez—" 
 
 " Never mind that now; you got to the shop didn't you?" 
 
 " Yes, I got to the shop, sir, and I see the lady; but 1 sez to that 
 conductor, * You should ha' told me,' I sez — " 
 
 "Did she give you anything for me?" interrupted Leander, im- 
 patiently. 
 
 " Yessur," said the boy. 
 
 " Then where the dooce is it?" 
 
 '"Ere!" said William, and brought out an envelope, which his 
 master tore open with joy: it contained his own letter! 
 
 " William," he said unsteadily, " is this all?" 
 
 "Ain't it enough, sir?" said the young scoundrel, who had 
 guessed the state of affairs, and felt an impish satisfaction at his em- 
 ployer's rejection. 
 
 "None of that, William: d'ye hear me?" said Leander. " W^ill- 
 iam, I ain't been a bad master to you. Tell me, how did she take 
 it?" 
 
 "Well, she didn't seem to want to take it nohow at first," said 
 the boy; " I went up to the desk where she was a sit tin' and gave 
 it her, and by and by she opened it with the tips of her fingers, as 
 if it would bite, and read it all through very careful, and [ could see 
 her nose ^oing up gradual, and her color coming, and then she sez 
 to me, ' lou may go now, boy; there's no answer;' and I sez to her, 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 93 
 
 ' If you please, miss, master said as I was not to go away without a 
 answer;' so she sez, uncommon short and stiff, 'In that case he 
 shall have it!' like that, she sez, as proud as a queen, and she scrib- 
 bles a line or two on it, and throws it to me, and goes on casting up 
 figgers." 
 
 " A line or two! where?" cried Leander, and caught up the letter 
 again: yes, there on the last page was Matilda's delicate commercial 
 handwriting, and the poor man read the cruel words, "i have nothing 
 to advise; I give you up to your goddess /" 
 
 "Very well, William," he said, with a deadly calm, "that's all. 
 You young devil, what are you asniggering at?" he added, with a 
 «udden outburst. 
 
 " On'y something I 'card a boy say in the street, sir, going along, 
 sir; nothing to do with you, sir." 
 
 "Oh, youth, youth!" muttered the poor broken man; "boys 
 don't grow feelings, an}^ more than they grow whiskers!" 
 
 And he went back to his saloon, where he was instantly hailed 
 with reproaches from the abandoned customer. "Look here, sir! 
 what do you mean by this? I told you 1 wanted to be shaved, and 
 you've soaped the top of my head and left it to cool ! What " (and 
 he made use of expletives here\ " what are you about?" 
 
 Leander apologized on the ground of business of a pressing nat- 
 ure, but the customer was not pacified. "Business, su'! your 
 business is ^^re .• /w your business! and I come to be shaved," and 
 3'ou soap the top of my head, and leave me all alone to dry! It's 
 scandalous! it's — " 
 
 " Look here, sir," interrupted Leander, gloomily; "I've a good 
 deal of private trouble to put up with just now, without having ^/o?^ 
 going on at me; so I must ask you ni>t to arris me like this, or I 
 don't know what I might do, with a razor so 'andy !" 
 
 "That'll do!" said the customer, hastily; "T — I don't care 
 about being shaved this morning. Wipe my head, and let me go; 
 no, I'll wipe it myself, don't you trouble!" and he made for \he 
 door. " It's my belief," he said, pausing on the threshold for an 
 instant, '• that you're a dangerous lunatic, sir; you ought to be shut 
 up!" 
 
 "I dessny I shall have a mad-doctor down on me after tin's," 
 thought Leander, "but I sha'n't wait for him. No. it is all over 
 now: the (lie is fixed! Cruel Tillie! you have spoke the mandrake; 
 you have thrust me into the ston}' harms of that 'eathen goddess — 
 always supposing the police don't nip in fust and get the start of 
 her." 
 
 No more customers came that day, which was fortunate, perhaps, 
 for them. The afternoon passed, and dusk approached, but the 
 hair-dresser sat on, motionless, in his darkening saloon, without the 
 energy to light a single gas jet. 
 
 At last lie roused himself sufficiently to go to the head of the 
 stairs leading to his " labatry," and called for William, who. it ap- 
 peared, was composing an egg-wash, after one of his employer's 
 formula?, and came up, wondering to find the place in darkness. 
 
 " Come here, William," said Leander, solemnly. " I just want a 
 few words with you, and then you can go. I can do the shutting- 
 up myself. AYilliam, we can none of us foretell the future; and it 
 
94 THE TINTED VEXUS. 
 
 may so 'appen that you are lookino; on my face for the last time: if 
 it should so be, William, remember the ■words I am now about to 
 speak, and lay them to art! This world is full of pitfalls; and 
 some of us walk circumspect and keep out of 'em, and some of us, 
 William — some of us don't. If there's any places more abounding 
 in pitfalls than what others are, it is the noxious localities known 
 under the deceitful appellation of ' pleasure' gardens. And you 
 may take that as the voice of one calling to you from the bottom of^ 
 about as deep a 'ole as a mortal man ever plumped into. And if 
 ever you find a taste for statuary growing on 30U, William, keep it 
 down, wrastle with it, and don't encourage it. Farewell, William I 
 Be liere at the usual time to morrow, though whether 3'ou will find 
 me liere is more than I can say." 
 
 Tlie boy went away, much impressed by so elaborate and formal 
 a parting" which seemed to liim a sign that, in his parlance, "the 
 guv'nor was going to make a bolt of "if." Leander busied himself 
 in some melancholy ]>reparations for his impending departure, dis- 
 solution, or incarceration: he was not very clear which it might be. 
 
 He went down and put his " labatrj- " in order. There he had 
 worked with all the liery zeal of an inventor at the discoveries 
 which were to confer perpetual youth, in various-sized bottles, 
 upon a grateful world. He must leave them all, with his work 
 scarcel}' beirun! Another would step in and perfect what he had 
 left incomplete. 
 
 He came up again, with a heavy heart, and examined his till. 
 There was not much; enough, however, for William's wages and 
 nny small debts. He made a list of these, and left it there with the 
 coin. " They must settle it among tliemselves," he thought wearily; 
 " I can't be bothered witli business now." 
 
 He was thinking whether it was worth while to shut the shop up 
 or not, when a clear voice sounded from above: " Leander, where 
 art thou? Come hither!" And he started as if he had been shot. 
 " I'm coming, madam," he called up, obsequiousl3^ " I'll be "with 
 you in one minute!" 
 
 "Now for it." he thought, as he went up to his sitting-room. 
 " I wish I wasu t all of a twitter. I wish I knew what was coming 
 next!" 
 
 The room was dark, but when he got a light he saw the statue 
 standing in the center of the room, her hood thrown back and the 
 fur-lined mantle hanging loosely about her; the face looked stern 
 and terrible under its brilliant tint. • 
 
 " Have you made your choice?" she demanded. 
 
 " Choice!" he said. " I haven't any choice left me!" 
 
 " It is true," she said, triumphantly. " Your friends have deserted 
 you; mortals are banded together to seize and disgrace you; you 
 have no refuge but with me. But time is short. C(mie, then, place 
 yourself within the shelter of these arms, and while they infold you 
 tight in their marble embrace, repeat after me liie words which com- 
 plete my power." 
 
 " There's no partickler hurry," he objected. " I will directly. I 
 — I only want to know what will happen when I've done it. You 
 can't have any objection to a natural curiosity like that." 
 
 '• You will lose consciousness, to recover it in balmy Cyprus, with 
 
THE TINTED TENUS. 95 
 
 Aphrodite (no longer cold marble, but the actual goddess, warm 
 and living) b}^ your side! Ah ! impervious one, can you linger still? 
 Do you not tremble witii haste to feel ray breath fanning your cheek, 
 my soft arm around your neck? Are not your eyes already dazzled 
 by the gleam of my golden tresses?" 
 
 " Well, 1 can't say they are; not at present," said Leander. " And 
 you see, it's all very well; but, as I asked you once before, how are 
 you going to get me there? It's a long way, and I'm ten stone if I'm 
 an ounce." 
 
 " Heavy- witted youth, it is not your body that will taste perennial 
 bliss." 
 
 " And what's to become of that, then?" he asked, anxiously. 
 
 " That will be left here, clasped to this stone, itself as cold and 
 lifeless." 
 
 "Oh!" said Leander, " I didn't bargain for that, and I don't like 
 it." 
 
 " You will know nothing of it; you will be with me. in dreamy 
 grottoes strewn with fragrant rushes and the new-stript leaves of 
 the vine, where the warm air wooes to repose with its languorous 
 softness, and the water as it wells murmurs its liquid laughter. Ah! 
 no Greek would have hesitated thus." 
 
 "Well, I ain't a Greek; and, as a business man, you can't be 
 surprised if 1 want to make sure it's a genuine thing, and worth the 
 risk, before I commit myself. I think I understand that it's the 
 gold ring which is to bind us two together?" 
 
 "It is," she said; "by that pure and noble metal are we 
 united." 
 
 "Well," said Leander, " that being so, I should wish to have it 
 tested, else there might be a hitch somewhere or other," 
 
 " Tested ! " she cried ; " what is that?" 
 
 "Trying it, to see if it's real gold or not," he said. "W^e can 
 easily liave it done." 
 
 "it is needless." she replied, haughtily. "I will not suffer my 
 power to be thus doubted, nor that of the pure and precious metal 
 through which I have obtained it!" 
 
 Leander might have objected to this as an example of that ob- 
 scure feat, "begging the question;" for, whether the metal was 
 pure and precious was precisely the point he desired to ascertain. 
 And this desire was quite genuine: for, though he saw no other 
 course before him but that upon which the goddess insisted, he did 
 wish to take every reasonable precaution, 
 
 " For all I know," he reasoned in his own mind, " if tliere's any- 
 thing wrong with tliat ring, I may be left 'igh and dry, lialf-way to 
 Cyprus; or she may get tired of me, and turn me out of those grot- 
 toes of hers! If I must go with her, I should like to make thmga 
 as safe as I could." 
 
 "It won't take long," he pleaded; "and if I find the ring's real 
 gold, I promise 1 won't hold out any longer." 
 
 "There is no time," she sfiid, "to indulge this wljim. Would 
 you mock me, Leander? Ha! did 1 not say so? Listen!" 
 
 The private bell was ringing loudly. Leander rushed to the win- 
 dow, but saw no one. Then he heard the clang of the shop bell, as 
 
96 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 if the person or persons had discovered that an entrance was pos- 
 sible there. 
 
 "The guards!" said the statue. "Will you wait for them, 
 Leander?" 
 
 " No!" he cried. " Never mind what I said about the ring; I'll 
 risk that. Only— only, don't go away without me. Tell me what 
 to say, and I'll say it, and chance the consequences!" 
 
 " Say: 'Aphrodite, daughter of Olympian Zeus, I yield; I fultiU 
 thejiledge; I am thine!'" 
 
 " Well," he thought, "here goes. Oh, Matilda, you're responsi- 
 ble for this!" And he advanced toward the white extended arms 
 of the goddess. There were hasty steps outside; another moment 
 and the door would be burst open. 
 
 " 'Aphrodite, daughter of — '" he began, and recoiled suddenly; 
 for he heard his name called from without in a voice familiar and 
 once dear to him. 
 
 " Leander, where are you? It's all dark! Speak to me; tell me 
 you've done nothing rash! Oh, Leander, it's Matilda!" 
 
 That voice, which a short while back he would have given the 
 world to hear once more, appalled him now. For if she came in, 
 the goddess would discover who she was, and then — he shuddered 
 to think what might happen tlien! 
 
 Matilda's liand was actually on the door. "Stop where you 
 Kre!" he shouted, in despair; " for mercy's sake, don't come in!" 
 
 " Ah! you are there, and alive! "' she cried. " I am not loo late; 
 svnd I will come in!" 
 
 And in another instant she burst into the room, and stood there, 
 ber tear stained face convulsed with the horror of finding him in 
 such company. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE THIRTEENTH TRUMP. 
 
 Your adversary, having thus secured the lead with the last trump, you will 
 be powerless to prevent the bringing-in of the long suit.— Rough's Guide to 
 Whist. 
 
 What ! thinkest thou that utterly in vain 
 
 Jove is my sire, and in despite my will 
 
 That thou canst mock me with thj- beauty still. 
 
 Story of Cupid and Psyche. 
 
 Leander, when he wrote his distracted appeal to ^Matilda, took 
 it for granted that she had recognized the statue for something of a 
 s-upernatural order, and this, combined with his perplexed state of 
 mind, caused him to be less explicit than he might have been in re- 
 ferring to the goddess's ill-timed appearance. 
 
 But, unfortunate!}', as will probably have been already antici- 
 pated, the only result of this reticence was, that Matilda saw in his 
 letter an abject entreaty for her consent to his marriage with Ada 
 Parkinson, to avoid legal proceedings, and, under this misapprehen- 
 sion, she wrote the line that abandoned all claims upon him, and 
 then went on with her accounts, which were not so neatly kept that 
 (lay as usual. 
 
 What she felt most keenly in Leander's conduct was, that he 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 97 
 
 should have placed the ring, which to all intent was her own, upon 
 the finger of another. She could not bear to think of so unfeeling 
 an act, and yet she thought of it all through the long day, as she sat, 
 outwardly serene, at her high desk, whilst her attendants at her side 
 made up sprays for dances and wreaths for funerals from the same 
 flowers. 
 
 And at last she felt herself urged to a course which, in her ordi- 
 nary mind, she would have shrunk from as a lowering of her per- 
 sonal dignity: she would go and see her rival, and insist that this 
 particular humiliation should be spared her. The ring was not 
 Leander's to dispose of — at least, to dispose of thus; it was not 
 right that any but herself should wear it; and, though the token 
 could never now be devoted to its rightful use, she wanted to save 
 it from what, in her eyes, was a kind of profanation. 
 
 She would not own it to herself, but there was a motive stronger 
 than all this — the desire to relieve her breast of some of the indigna- 
 tion which was choking her, and of which her pride forbade any 
 betrayal to Leander himself. 
 
 This other woman had supplanted her; but she should be made 
 to feel the wrong she had done, and her triumph should be tem- 
 pered with shame, if she were capable of such a sensation. Matilda 
 knew very well that the ring w^as not hers, and she wanted it no 
 longer; but, then, it was Miss Tweddle's, and she would claim it 
 in her name. 
 
 She easily obtained permission to leave somewhat earlier that 
 evening, as she did not often ask such favors, and soon found her- 
 self at Madame Chenille's establishment, where she remembered to 
 have heard from Bella that her sister was employed. 
 « She asked for the forewoman, and begged to be allowed to speak 
 to Miss Parkinson in private for a verylew^ minutes; but the fore- 
 woman referred her to the proprietress, who made objections; such 
 a thing was never permitted during business hours, the shop would 
 close in an hour, till then Miss Parkinson was engaged in the show- 
 room, and so on. 
 
 But Matilda carried her point at last, and was shown to a room 
 in the basement, where the assistants took their meals, there to wait 
 until Miss Parkinson could be spared from her duties. 
 
 Matilda waited in the low, dingy room, where the tea-things were 
 still littering the table, and as she paced restlessly about, trying to 
 feel an interest in the long-discarded fashion-plates wliicli adorned 
 the walls, her ang^r began to cool, and give place to something very 
 like nervousnessr 
 
 She wislied she had not come. What, after all, was she to say 
 to this girl when they met? And what was Leander — base and 
 unworthy as he had 'shown himself — to her any longer? Why 
 should she care what he chose to do with the ring? And he 
 would be told of her visit, and think — No! that was intolerable: 
 she would not gratify his vanity and humble lierself in this way. 
 She would slip quietly out, and feavc her rival to enjoy her victory! 
 
 But just as she was going to carry out this intention, the door 
 opened, and a short, dark young woman appeared. " I'm told there 
 was a young person asking to speak to me," she said: " I'm Ada 
 Parkinson." 
 
 4 
 
98 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 At the name Matilda's heart swelled again with the sense of her 
 injuries; and yet she was unprepared for the face that met her eyes. 
 Surely her rival had both looked and spoken differently the night 
 before? And yet she had been so agitated that very likely her rec- 
 ollections were not to be depended upon. 
 
 "I — I did want to see you," she said, and her voice shook, as 
 much from timidity as righteous indignation, "When I tell you 
 who I am, periiaps you will guess why. I am Matilda CoUum." 
 
 Miss Parkinson showed no symptoms of remorse. 
 
 " What!" she cried, " the young lady that Mr. Tweddle is court- 
 ing? Fancy!" 
 
 " After what happened last night," said Matilda, trembling ex- 
 ceedingly, "you know that that is all over. 1 didn't come to talk 
 about that. If you knew — and I think you must have known — all 
 that Mr. Tweddle was to me, you have — you have not behaved very 
 well; but he is nothing to me any more, and it is not worth while 
 to be angry. Only, I don't think you ought to keep the ring — not 
 that ring!" 
 
 " Goodness gracious me!" cried Ada. " What in the world is all 
 this about? What ring oughtn't I to keep?" 
 
 "You know!" retorted Matilda. " How can you pretend like 
 that? The ring he gave you that night at Roshcrwich!" 
 
 " Tiie girl is mad!" exclaimed the other. " He never gave me a 
 ring in all his life! I wouldn't have taken it, if he'd asked me ever 
 so. Mr. Twedole, indeed!" 
 
 " Why do you say that?" said Matilda. " He has not got it liim- 
 self, and your sister said he gave it to you, and — and I saw it with 
 my own eyes on your hand ! " 
 
 "Oh, dear me!" said Ada, petulantly, holding out her hand, 
 "look there— is that it?— is this? Well, these "are all I have, 
 whether you believe me or not; one belonged to poor mother, and 
 the other was a present, only last Frida}', from the gentleman 
 that's their head traveler, next door, and is going to be my hus- 
 band. Is it likely I should be wearing any other now? — ask your- 
 self!" 
 
 " You wouldn't wish to deceive me I hope," said Matilda; " and 
 oh! IMiss Parkinson, you might be open with me, for I'm so very 
 miserable! I don't know what to think. Tell me just this: did you 
 — wasn't it you who came last night to Miss Tweddle's?" 
 
 " No!" returned Ada, impatiently — " no, as many times as 3'ou 
 please! And if Bella likes to say I did, she may^ and she always 
 was a mischief-making thing! How could I, when i didn't knoV 
 there was any Miss Tweddle to come to? And what do you sup- 
 pose I should go running about after j\Ir. Tweddle for? I wonder 
 you're not ashamed to say such things!" 
 
 " But," faltered Matilda, "you did go to those gardens with him, 
 didn't you? And — and I know he gave the ring to somebody!" 
 
 Ada began to laugh. " You're quite correct. Miss Collum," she 
 said, " so he did. Don't you want to know who he gave it to?" 
 
 " Yes," said Matilda, " and you will tell me. 1 have a right to 
 be told. I was engaged to him, and the ring was given to him for 
 me— not for any one else. You will tell me, Miss Parkinson, I am 
 sure you will?" 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 99 
 
 ''"Well," said Ada, still kugbing, " I'll tell you this much— she's 
 a foreign lady, ver}^ stiff and stuclv-up and cold. She's got it, if 
 any one has. I saw him put it on myself!" 
 
 " Tell me her name, if you know it." 
 
 " T see you won't be easy till you know all about it. Her name's 
 Afriddity or Fi oddity, or sometliing outlandish like that. She lives 
 at Rosherwich, a good deal in the open air, and — there, don't be 
 ridiculous — it's onlv a statue! There's a pretty thing to be jealous 
 of!" 
 
 " Only a statue!" echoed Matilda. "Oh! Heaven be with us both, 
 if — if that was it!" 
 
 Certain sentences in the letter she had returned came to her mind 
 ■with a new and dreadful significance. The appearance of the 
 visitor last night — Leander's terror — all seemed to point to some 
 unsuspected mystery. 
 
 " It can't be — no it can't! Miss Parkinson, you were there: tell 
 me all that happened, quick! You don't know what may depend 
 on it!" 
 
 "What! not satisfied even now?" cried Ada. "Well, Miss Col - 
 lum, talk about jealousy! But, there, I'll tell you all I know my- 
 self." 
 
 And she gave the whole account of the episode with the statue, 
 so far as she knew it, even to the conversation which led to the pro- 
 duction of the ring. 
 
 " You see," she concluded, " that it was all on your account that 
 he tried it on at all, and I'm sure he talked enough about you all 
 the evening. I really was a little surprised when I found you were 
 his Miss Collum. (You won't mind m}^ saying so?) If I was you, 
 I should go and tell him I forgave him now\ I do think he de- 
 serves it, poor little man!" 
 
 "Yes, yes!" cried Matilda; "I'll go — I'll go at once! Thank 
 you. Miss Parkinson, for telling me what you have!" And then, 
 as she remembered some dark hints in Leander's letter: "Oh, I 
 must make haste! He may be going to do something desperate — 
 he may have done it already!" 
 
 And, leaving Miss Parkinson to speculate as she pleased concern- 
 ing her eccentricity, she went out into the broad street again; and, 
 unaccustomed as she was to such expenditure, hailed a hansom; for 
 there was no time to be lost. 
 
 She had told the man to drive to the Southampton Row Passage 
 at first, but, as she drew nearer, she changed her purpose; she did 
 not like to go alone, for who knew what she might see there? It 
 was out of the question to expect her mother to accompany her, but 
 her friend and landlady w^ould not refuse to do so: and she drove 
 to Millman Street, and prevailed on MissTweddle to come with her 
 without a moment's delay. 
 
 The two women found the shop dark, but unshuttered; there 
 was a light in the upper room. "You stay down here, please," 
 said Matilda; " if — if anything is wrong, I will call you." And 
 Miss Tweddle, without very well understanding what it was all 
 about, and feeling fluttered and out of breath, was willing enough 
 to sit down in the saloon and recover herself. 
 
 And so it came to pass that Matilda burst into the room just qa 
 
100 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 the hair-dresser was preparing to pronounce the inevitable words 
 that would complete the goddess's power. He stood there, pale 
 and disheveled, with eyes that were wild and bordered with red. 
 Opposite to him was the being she had once mistaken for a fellow- 
 creature. 
 
 Too well she saw now that the tall and queenly form, with the 
 fixed eyes and cold tinted mask, was inspired by nothing human; 
 and her heart died within her as she gazed, spell- bound,' upon her 
 formidable rival. 
 
 " Leander," she murmured, supporting herself against the frame 
 of the door, " what are you going to do?" 
 
 " Keep back, jMatilda!" he cried, desperately ; " go away — it's too 
 late now!" 
 
 A moment before, and, deserted as he believed himself to be by 
 love and fortune alike, he had been almost resigned to the strange 
 and sliadowy future which lay before him; but now — now that lie 
 saw Matilda there in his room, no longer scornful or indifferent, but 
 pale and concerned, her pretty gray eyes dark and wide with anguish 
 and fear for him — he felt all he was giving up; he had a sudden 
 revulsion, a violent repugnance to his doom. 
 
 She loved him still! She had repented for some reason. Oh! 
 why had slie not done so before? What could he do now? For 
 her own sake he must steel himself to tell her to leave him to 
 his fate; for he knew well that if the goddess were to discover 
 Matilda's real relations to him it might cost his innocent darling 
 her life! 
 
 For the moment he rose above his ordinary level. He lost all 
 thought of self. Let Aphrodite take him if she would, but Matilda 
 musf be saved. "Go away!" he repeated; and his voice was 
 cracked and harsh, under the strain of doing such violence to his 
 feelings. " Can't you see you're — you're not wanted? Oh, do go 
 away — while you can ! " 
 
 Matilda closed the door behind her. "Do you think," she said, 
 catchins; her breath painfully, " that I shall go away and leave j'ou 
 with Tliat ! " 
 
 " Leander." said the statue, "command your sister to depart!" 
 
 "I'm not his " — Matilda was beginning impetuously, till the hair- 
 dresser stopped her. 
 
 ''You are I'' he cried. "You know you're my sister— you've 
 forgotten it, that's all. Don't say a syllable now, do you hear me? 
 She's going. Lady Venus, going directly!" 
 
 " Indeed I'm not," said Matilda, bravely. 
 
 " Leave us, maiden!" said the statue. "Your brother is yours 
 no longer, he is mine. Know you who it is that commands? 
 Tremble, then, nor oppose the will of Aphrodite of the radiant 
 eyes!" 
 
 '^" I never heard of you before," said Matilda, "but I'm not 
 afraid of you. And, whoever or whatever you are, you shall not 
 take my Leander away against his will. Do you hear? You 
 could never be allowed to do that!" 
 
 The statue smiled with pitying scorn. " His own act has given 
 me the power I hold," she said, " and assuredly he shall not escape 
 me!" 
 
THE TlisTED YENUS. 101 
 
 " Listen," pleaded Matilda; " perhaps you are not really -wicked, 
 it is only that you don't know ! The ring he put — without ever 
 thinking what he was doing — on your finger was meant for mine. 
 It was, really! He is my lover; give him back to me!" 
 
 "^Matilda!" shrieked the wretched man, "you don't know what 
 you're doing. Run away, quick! Do as I tell you!" 
 
 "So," says the goddess, turning upon him, "in this, too, you 
 have tried to deceive me ! You have loved — you still love — this 
 maiden!" 
 
 "Oh, not in that way!" he shouted, overcome by his terror for 
 Matilda. " There's some mistake. You mustn't pay any attention 
 to what she says; she's excited. All my sisters get like that when 
 they're excited — they'd say cmythingl" 
 
 " Silence!" commanded the statue. " Should not I have skill to 
 read the signs of love? This girl loves you with no sister's love. 
 Deny it not ! " 
 
 Leander felt that his position was becoming untenable ; he could 
 only save Matilda by a partial abandonment. " Well, suppose she 
 does," he said, "I'm not obliged to return it, am I?" 
 
 Matilda shrunk back. " Oh, Leander!" she cried, with a piteous 
 little moan. 
 
 " You've brought it on yourself!" he said; "you will come here 
 interfering!" 
 
 " Interfering!" she repeated wildly, " you call it that! How can 
 I help myself? Am I to stand by and see you giving yourself up 
 to, nobody can tell what? As long as I have strength to move and 
 breath to speak I shall stay here, and beg and pray of yon not to be 
 so foolish and wicked as to go away with her! How do you know 
 where she will take you to?" 
 
 " Cease this railing!" said the statue. "Leander loves you not! 
 Away, then, before I lay you dead at my feet!" 
 
 " Leander," cried the poor girl, "tell me: it isn't true what she 
 says? You didn't mean it l^you (^ love me! You don't really want 
 me to go away? 
 
 For her own sake he must be cruel; but he could scarcely speak 
 the words that were to drive her from his side forever. " This — 
 this lady," he said, " speaks quite correct. I — I'd very much rather 
 you went!" 
 
 She drew a deep sobbing breath. " I don't care for anything any 
 more!" she said, and faced the statue defiantly. "You say you 
 can strike me dead," she said: " I'm sure I hope you can! And the 
 sooner the better— for I will not leave this room!" 
 
 The dreamy smile still curved the statue's lips, in terrible contrast 
 to the inflexible purpose of her next words. 
 
 " You have called down your own destruction," she said, "and 
 death shall be yours!" 
 
 " Stop a bit," cried Leander, " mind what you're doing! Do you 
 think I'll go with you if you touch a single hair of my poor Tiliie's 
 head? Why, I'd sooner stay in prison all my life! See here," and 
 he put his arm round Matilda's slight form; " if you crush her, you 
 crush me — so now ! " 
 
 " And if so," said the goddess, with cruel contempt, " are you of 
 such value in my sight that I should stay my hand? You, whom 
 
103 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 I have sovip:ht but to manifest my power, for no softer feelings have 
 you ever inspired! And now, havino; withstood me for so long, 
 you turn, even at the moment of yielding, to yonder creature! And 
 it is enougli. I will contend no longer ifor so mean a prize? Slave 
 and fool that you have shown yourself, Aphrodite rejects you in 
 disdain!" 
 
 Leander made no secret of his satisfaction at this. "Now you 
 talk sense!" he cried; "I always told you we weren't suited. Til- 
 lie, do you hear? She gives me up! She gives me up!" 
 
 "Ay," she continued, "I need you not. Upon you and the 
 maiden by your side I invoke a speed}^ and terrible destrnclioa, 
 which, ere you can attempt to flee, shdl surel}' overtake you!" 
 
 Leander was so overcome by this highly imexpected sentence 
 that he lost all control over his limbs; he could only stand where 
 he was, supporting Matilda, and stare at the goddess in fascinated 
 dismay. 
 
 The goddess was raising both hands, palm upward, to the ceil- 
 ing, and presently she began to chant in a thrilling monotone: 
 "Ilcar, O Zeus, that sii.test on high, delighting in the thunder, 
 hear the prayer of thy daughter. Aphrodite the peerless, as she 
 calleth upon thee, nor suffer her to be set at naught with impuidty! 
 Rise now, I beseech thee, and hurl with thine unerring hand a 
 blazing bolt that shall consume these presumptuous insects to a 
 smoking cinder! Blast them. Sire, with the lire-wreaths of thy 
 lightning! blast, and spare not.!" 
 
 "Kiss me, Tillie, and shut your eyes," said Leander, "it's com- 
 ing!" 
 
 She was nestling close against him, and could not repress a faint 
 shivering moan. "1 don't mind, now we're together," she whis- 
 pered, " if only it won't hurt much!" 
 
 The prayer uttered with such deadly intensity had almost ceased 
 to vibrate in their ears, but still the answer tarried; it tarried so long 
 that Leander lost patience, and ventured to open his eyes a little 
 way. He saw the goddess standing there, with a strained expecta- 
 tion on her upturne(l face. 
 
 "I don't wish to hurry you, mum," he said, tremulously; " but 
 you ought to be above torturing us. ]\Iight I ask yon to request 
 your — your relation to look sharp with that thunder-boll?" 
 
 "Zeus!" cried the goddess, and her accent was more acute, 
 "thou hast heard — thou wilt not shame me thus! Must I go un- 
 avenged?" 
 
 Still nothing whatever ^happened, until at last even Matilda un- 
 closed her eyes. "Leander!" she cried, with a hysterical little 
 laugh, " 7 don't believe she can doit !" 
 
 " No more don't I!" said the hnir-dresser, withdrawing his arm, 
 and coming forward boldly. "Now look here. Lady Venus," he 
 remarked, "it's time there was an end of this, one way or the 
 other; we can't be kept up here all night, waiting till it suits your 
 Mr. Zooce to make cockshies of us. Either let him do it now, or 
 let it alone!" 
 
 Tlie statue's face seemed tn be illumined by a stronger light. 
 "Zeus, I thank thee!" she exclaimed, clasping her pale hands above 
 her head ; " 1 am answered i I am answered 1 " 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 103 
 
 And, as she spoke, a dull ominous rumble was heard in the dis- 
 tance. 
 
 •'Matilda, here!" cried the terrified hair-dresser, running back 
 to his betrothed; " keep close to me. It's all over this limel" 
 
 The rumble increased to a roll, which became a clanking rattle, 
 and then lessened again to a roll, di.ed away to the original rumble, 
 and was heard no more. 
 
 Leander breathed again. "To think of my being taken in like 
 that!" he cried. " \Vhy, it's only a van out in the street! It's no 
 good, mum; you can't work it; you'd better give it up!" 
 
 The goddess seemed to feel this herself, for she was wringing her 
 hands with a low wail of despair. " Is there none to hear?'* she 
 lamented. " Are they all gone— all? Then is Aphrodite fallen in- 
 deed; deserted of the gods, her kinsmen; forgotten of mortals; 
 braved and mocked by such as these! Woe! woe! for Olympus in 
 ruins, and Time the dethroner of deities!" 
 
 Leander would hardly have been himself if he had forborne to 
 take advantage of her discomfiture. " You see, mum," he said» 
 " you're not everybody. You mustn't expect to have everything 
 your own way down here. We're in the nineteenth century nowa- 
 days, mum, and there's another religion come in since you were the 
 fashion!" 
 
 '' Dont, Leander," said Matilda, in an undertone; "let her alone, 
 the poor thing!" She seemed to have quite forgotten that her 
 fallen enemy had been dooming her to destruction the moment 
 before; but there was something so tragic and moving in the sight 
 of such despair that no true woman could be indifferent to it. 
 
 Either the taunt or the compassion, however, roused the goddess 
 to a frenzy of passion. " Hold your peace !"^she said fiercely, and 
 strode down upon Leander until he beat an instinctive retreat. 
 " Fallen as I am, I will not brook your mean vauntings or insolent 
 pity! Sliorn 1 may be of my ancient power, but something of my 
 divinity cleaves to me still. Vengeance is not wlioU}^ denied tome! 
 Why should I not deal with you even as with those profane wretches 
 who laid impious hands upon this, my effigy? Why? why?" 
 
 Leander began to feel uncomfortable again. "If I've said any- 
 thino; j-ou object to," he said, hastily, " I'll apologize. I will— and so 
 wiirMaiilda— freely and full; in writing, if that will satisfy you!" 
 
 " Tremble not for your worthless bodies," she said; " iiad you 
 been slain, as I purposed, you would but have escaped me, after all! 
 Now, a vengeance keener and more enduring shall be mine! In 
 your gross blindness you have dared to turn from divine Aphrodite 
 to such a thing as this, and for your impiety you shall suffer! This 
 is your doom, and so much at least I can still accomplish: Long as 
 you both may live, strong as your love mny endure, never again shall 
 you see her alone, never more shall she be folded to your breast I 
 Forever I will I stand a barrier between you: so shall your days 
 consume away in the torturing desire for a felicity you may never 
 attain!" 
 
 "It seems to me, Tillie," said Leander, looking round at her with 
 hollow eyes, " that we may as well give up keeping company to- 
 gether, after that I ' 
 
104 THE TINTED VEKUS. 
 
 Matilda had been weeping quietly. "Oh, no, Leander, not that. 
 Don't let us give each other up; we may — we may get used to it!" 
 
 " That is not all," said the revengeful goddess. " I understand 
 but little of the ways of this degenerate age. But one thing I know : 
 this very night guards are on their way to search this abode for the 
 image in which I have chosen to reveal myself; and, should they 
 find that they are in search of you, you will be dragged to some 
 dungeon and suffer deserved ignominy. It pleased me yesternight 
 to shield you : to-night be very sure that this marble form shall not 
 escape their vigilance ! " 
 
 He felt at once that this, at least, was no idle threat. The police 
 might arrive at any instant ; she had only to vacate the marble at 
 the moment of their entry — and what could he do? How could he 
 explain its presence? The gates of Portland or Dartmoor were al- 
 ready yawning to receive him! Was it too late, even then, to re- 
 trieve the situation? " If it wasn't for Tillle, I could see my way 
 to something, even now," he thought. " I can but try!" 
 
 "Lady Venus," he began, clearing his throat, "it's not my desire 
 to be the architect of any mutual unpleasantness— anything but! 
 I don't see any use in denying tliat you've got the best of it. I'm 
 done — reg'lar bowled over; and if ever there was a poor devil of a 
 toad under a harrer, I've no hesitation in admitting that toad's me! 
 So the only point I should like to submit for your consideration is 
 this-: Have things gone too far? Are you quite sure you won't be 
 spiting yourself as well as me over this business? Can't we come 
 to an amicable arrangement? Think it over!" 
 
 " Leander, you can't mean it!" cried Matilda. 
 
 "You leave me alone," he said hoarsely; "I know what I'm 
 saying!" 
 
 AVhether the goddess had overstated her indifference, or whether 
 she may have seen a prospect of some still subtler revenge, she cer- 
 tainly did not receive this proposition of Leander's with the con- 
 tumely tliat might have been expected ; on the contrar}^ she smiled 
 with a triumphant satisfaction that betrayed a disposition to treat. 
 
 " Have my words been fulfilled, then?" she said. " Is your 
 insolent pride humbled at last? and do you sue to me for the very 
 favors you so long have spurned?" 
 
 "You can put it that way if you like," he said, doggedly. "If 
 you want me, you'd better say so while there's time, that's all!" 
 
 "Little have you merited such leniency," she said; " and yet, it 
 is to you I owe my return to life and consciousness. Shall I aban- 
 don what I have taken such pains to win? No! I accept your sub- 
 mission. Speak, then, the words of surrender, and let us depart 
 together!" 
 
 "Before I do that," he said, firmly, "there's one point I must 
 have settled to my satisfaction." 
 
 " You can bargain still!" she exclaimed, haughtily. "Are all 
 barbers like you? If your point concerns the safety of this maiden, 
 be at ease; she shall go unharmed, for she is my rival no longer!" 
 
 " Well, it wasn't that exactly," he explained; "but I'm doubtful 
 about that ring being the genuine article, and I want to make 
 sure." 
 
THE TINTED VEiTUS. 105 
 
 " But a short time since, and you were willing to trust all to 
 me!" 
 
 "I was; but, if I may take the liberty of observing so, things 
 were different then. You were wrong about that thunder-bolt — you 
 may be wrong about the ring ! " 
 
 " Fool!" she said, "how tnow you that the quality of the token 
 concerns my power? Were it even of unworthy metal, has it not 
 brought me hither?" 
 
 " Yes," she said, " but it mightn't be strong enough to pass me 
 the whole distance, and where should I be then? It don't look 
 more to me than 15 carat, and I daren't run any extra risk!" 
 
 " How, then, can your doubts be set at rest?'' she demanded. 
 
 "Easy," he replied: "there are men who understand these 
 things. All I ask of you is to step over with me, and see one of 
 them, and take his opinion; and if he says it's gold — why, then, I 
 shall know where 1 am!" 
 
 "Aphrodite submit her claims to the judgment of a mortal!" 
 she cried. " Never will I thus debase myself!" 
 
 " Very well," he said, "then we must stay where we are. All I 
 can say is, I've made you a fair offer." 
 
 She paused. "Why not?" she said, dreamily, as if thinking 
 aloud. " Have not I s«ed ere this for the decision of a shepherd 
 judge — even of Paris? 'Tis but one last indignity, and then— he is 
 mine indeed! Leander," she added, graciously, "it shall be as you 
 will. Lead the way; I follow!" 
 
 But Matilda, who had been listening to this compromise with in- 
 credulous horror, clung in desperation to her lover's arm, and sought 
 to impede his flight. " Leander!" she cried, " oh, Leander! surely 
 you won't be mad enough to go away with her ! You won't be so 
 wicked and sinful as that! Remember who she is: one of the false 
 gods of the poor benighted heathens — she owned it herself! She's 
 nothing less than a live idol! Think of all the times we've feeeu to 
 chapel together; think of your dear aunt, and how she'll feel your 
 being in such awful company ! Let the police come, and think what 
 they like: we'll tell them the truth, and make them believe it. Only 
 be brave, and stay here with me ; don't let her insuare 3^ou ! Have 
 some pity for me; for, if you leave me, I shall die!" 
 
 "Already the guards are at your gates," said the statue; 
 " choose quickly — while you may!" 
 
 He put ]\Latilda gently from him. " Tillie," he said, with a con- 
 vulsive effort to remain calm, " you gave me up of your own free 
 will — 5'ou know that— and now you've come round too late. The 
 other lady spoke first ! " 
 
 As she still clung to him, he tried to whisper some last words of 
 a consoling or reassuring nature, and she suddenly relaxed her grasp, 
 and allowed him to make his escape without further dissuasion — not 
 that his arguments had reconciled her to his departure, but because 
 she was mercifully unaware of it. 
 
106 THE TINTED YENUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE ODD TRICK. 
 
 O heart of stone, are you flesh, and caught 
 By that you swore to withstand? 
 
 Maud. 
 
 Outside on the stairs Leander suddenly remembered that his 
 purpose might be as far as ever from being accomplished. The 
 house was being watched: to be seen leaving it would procure his 
 instant arrest. 
 
 Hastily excusing himself to the goddess, he rushed down to his 
 laboratory, where he knew there was a magnificent beard and mus- 
 tache which he had been constructing for some amateur theatricals. 
 With these, and a soft felt hat, he completed a disguise in which he 
 flattered himself he was unrecognizable. 
 
 The goddess, however, pcnetl-ated it as soon as he rejoined her. 
 " Why have you thus transformed yourself?" she inquired coldly, 
 
 "Because." explained Leander, "seeing the police are all on the 
 lookout for me, I thought it couldn't do any harm!" 
 
 " It is useless!" she returned. 
 
 " To be sure," he agreed, blankly, " they'll expect me to go out 
 disguised. If only they aren't up to the way out by the back! 
 That's our only chance now." 
 
 " Leave all io me," she replied, calmly, " with Aphrodite you are 
 safe!" 
 
 And he never did quite understand how that strange elopement 
 was effected, or even remember whether they left the house from 
 the front or rear. The statue glided swiftly on, and, grasping a 
 corner of her robe, he followed, with only the vaguest sense of ob- 
 stacles overcome and passed as in a dream. 
 
 By the time he had completel^y regained his senses he was in a 
 crowded thoroughfare, which he recognized as the Gray's Inn Road. 
 
 A certain sclieme from which, desperate as it was, he hoped 
 much, might be executed as well here as elsewhere, and he looked 
 about him for the aid upon wiiich he counted. 
 
 "Where, then, lives the wise man whom you would consult?" 
 said Aphrodite. 
 
 Leander went on until he could see the colored lights of a chem- 
 ist's window, and then he said, " There— right opposite!" 
 
 He felt strangely nervous himself, but tUe goddess seemed even 
 more so. She hung back all at once, and clutched his arm in her 
 marble grasp. " Leander," she said, " I will not go! See those 
 liquid fires glowing in lurid hues, like the eyes of some dread mon- 
 ster! This test of yours is needless, and I fear it!" 
 
 "Lady Venus," he said earnestl3% " I do assure you they're only 
 big bottles, and quite harmless too, having water in them, not 
 physic: you've no call to be alarmed!" 
 
 She yielded, and they crossed the road. The shop was small and 
 unpretending. In the window the chief ornaments were speckled 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 107 
 
 plaster limbs clad in elastic socks, and photop:raphs of hideous com- 
 plaints before and after treatment witii a celebrated ointment; and 
 tliere were certain tropliies wliich indicated that the chemist num- 
 bered dentistry among his accomplishments. 
 
 Inside, the odor of drugs prevailed, in the absence of the subtle 
 perfume that is part of the fittings of a fashionable apothecary, and 
 on the very threshold tiie goddess paused irresolute. 
 
 " Tliere^is magic in the air," she exclaimed, " and fearful poisons: 
 this man is some enchanter!" 
 
 "Now I put it to you," Sciid Leander, with some impatience, 
 "does he look it?" 
 
 The chemist was a mild little man, with a high forehead, round 
 spectacles, a little red beak of a nose, and a weak gray beard. As 
 they entered, he was addressing a small and draggled child from 
 behind his counter. " Go back and tell your mother," he said, 
 "that she must come herself. I never sell paregoric to children." 
 
 There was so little of the wizard in his manner that the goddess, 
 who possibl}'- had some reason to mistrust a mortal magician, was 
 reassured. 
 
 As the child retired, the chemist turned to thera with a look of 
 bland and dignified inquiry (something, perhaps tUe consciousness 
 of having once passed an examination, sustains the meekest chemist 
 in an inward superiority). He did not speak. 
 
 Leander took it upon himself to explain, " This lady would be 
 glad to be told whether a ring she's got on is the real article or only 
 imitation," he said, " so she thought you could decide it for her." 
 
 " Not so," corrected the goddess, austerely; " for myself I care 
 not!" 
 
 " Have it your own way," said Leander; "J should like to be 
 told then. I suppose, mister, you've some way of testing these 
 things?" 
 
 " Oh yes!" said the chemist, " I can treat it for you with what 
 we call aquafortis, a combination of nitric and hydrochloric acid, 
 which w^ould tell us at once. I ought to mention, perhaps, that so 
 extremely powerful an agent may injure the appearance of the 
 metal if it is of inferior quality. Will the lady oblige me with the 
 ring?" 
 
 Aphrodite extended her hand with haughty indifference. The 
 chemist examined the ring as it circled her tinger, and Leander held 
 his breath in tortures of anxiety, A horrible fear came over him 
 that his deep laid scheme was about to end in failure! 
 
 But the chemist remarked at last: " Exactly; thank you, madam. 
 The gold is antique, certainly; but I sliou'ld be inclined to pro- 
 nounce it, at first sight, genuine. I will ascertnin how this is, if you 
 will take the trouble to remove the ring and pass it over." 
 
 " Why?" demanded Aphrodite, obstinately. 
 
 "I could not undertake to treat it while it remains upon your 
 hand," he protested ; "the acid might do some injury!" 
 
 "It matters not!" she said, calmly; and Leander recollected with 
 horror tliat, as any injury to lier'statue would have no physical 
 effect upon the goddess herself, she could not be much influenced 
 by the chemist's reason. 
 
108 THE TIN"TED VENUS. 
 
 " Do what the gentleman tells you," he said, in an eager whisper, 
 as he drew her aside. 
 
 "I know your wiles, O perfidious one !" she said; "having in- 
 duced me to remove this token, you would seize it yourself and take 
 to flight! I will not remove this ring!" 
 
 "There's a thing to say!" exclaimed Leander, " there's a sus- 
 picion to throw against a man ! If you think I'm likely to do that, 
 I'll go right over here, where I can't even see it, and I won't stir 
 out till it's all over. Will that satisfy you? You know why I'm so 
 anxious about that ring; and now, when the gentleman tells you 
 he's almost sure it's gold — " 
 
 " It z'sgold!" said the goddess. 
 
 " If you're so sure about it," he retaliated, " why are you afraid 
 to have it proved?" 
 
 " I am not afraid," she said; " but I require no proof!" 
 
 " I do," he retorted, " and what I told you before I stand to. If 
 that ring is proved — in the only way it can be proved, I mean, by 
 this gentleman testing it as he tells you he can — then there's no 
 more to be said, and I'll go away with you like a lamb. But with- 
 out that proof I won't stir a step, and so I tell you. It won't take a 
 moment. You can see for yourself that I couldn't possibly catch 
 up the ring from here ! " 
 
 " Swear to me," she said, " that you will remain where you now 
 stand; and remember," she added, with an accent of triumph, 
 " our compact is that, should yonder man pronounce that the ring 
 has passed through the test with honor, you will follow me whither- 
 soever I bid you!" 
 
 " You have onlv to lead the way," he said, " and I promise you 
 faithfully I'll follow." 
 
 Goddesses may be credited with some knowledge of the precious 
 metals, and Aphrodite had no doubt of the result of the chemist's 
 investigations; so it was with an air of serene anticipation that she 
 left Leander upon this, and advanced to the chemist's counter. 
 
 "Prove it now," she said, "quickly that I may go!" 
 
 The chemist, who had been waiting in considerable bewilder- 
 ment, prepared himself to receive the ring, and Leander, keeping 
 his distance, felt his heart beating fast as Aphrodite slowly drew the 
 token from her finger and placed it in the chemist's outstretched 
 hand. 
 
 Scarcely had she done so, as the chemist was retiring with the 
 ring to one of his lamps, when the goddess seemed suddenly aware 
 that she had committed a fatal error. 
 
 She made a stride forward to follow and recover it; but, as if 
 some unseen force was restraining her, she stopped short, and a 
 rush of whirling words, in some tongue unknown both to Leander 
 and the chemist, forced its way through lips that smiled still, though 
 they were freezing fast. 
 
 Then, with a strange, hoarse cry of baffled desire and revenge, 
 she succeeded, by a violent effort, in turning, and bore down with 
 tremendous force upon the cowering hair-dresser, who gave himself 
 up at once for lost. 
 
 But the marble was already incapable of obeying her will. With- 
 in a few paces from him the statue stopped for the last time, with 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 109 
 
 an abruptness that left it quivering and rocking; a grayish hue came 
 over the face, causing the borrowed tiuts to stand forth crude and 
 glaring; the arms waved wildly and impotently once or twice, and 
 then grew still forever, in the attitude conceived long since by the 
 Grecian sculptor! 
 
 Leander was free! His hazardous experiment had succeeded. 
 As it was the ring which had brought the passionate, imperious 
 goddess into her marble counterfeit, so — the ring ouce withdrawn — 
 her power was instantly at an end, and the spell which had enabled 
 her to assume a form of stone was broken. 
 
 He had hoped for this, had counted upon it, but even yet hardly 
 dared to believe in his deliverance. 
 
 He had not done with it yet, however; for he would have to get 
 the statue out of that shop, and abandon it in some manner which 
 would not compromise himself, and it is by no means an easy matter 
 to mislay a life-size and invaluable antique without attracting an in- 
 convenient amount of atttention. 
 
 The chemist, who had been staring meanwhile in blank astonish- 
 ment, now looked inquiringly at Leander, who looked helplessly at 
 him. 
 
 At last the latter, unable to be silent any longer, said, " The lady 
 seems unwell, sir!" 
 
 "Why," Leander admitted, "she does appear a little out of 
 sorts ! " 
 
 " Has she had these attacks before, do you happen to know?" 
 
 " She's more often like this than not," said Leander. 
 
 "Dear me, sir; but that's very serious! Is there nothing that 
 gives relief?— a little sal volatile, now? Does the lady carry smell- 
 ing salts? If not, I could — " And the chemist made an offer to 
 come from behind his counter to examine the strange patient. 
 
 " No," said Leander, hastily; " don't you trouble— you leave her 
 to me. I know how to manage her; when she's rigid like this, she 
 can't bear to be taken notice of." 
 
 He was wondering all the time how he was to get away with her, 
 until the chemist, who seemed at least as anxious for her departure, 
 suggested the answer: "1 should imagine the poor lady would be 
 best at home, Shall I send out for a cab?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes," said Leander, gratefully; "bring a hansom; she'll come 
 round better in the open air;" for he had his doubts whether the 
 statue could be stowed inside a four-wheeler. 
 
 "Ill go myself," said the obliging man; "my assistant's out. 
 Perhaps the lady will sit down till the cab comes?" 
 
 "Thanks," said Leander; "but when she's like this, she's been 
 recommended to stand." 
 
 The chemist ran out bareheaded, to return presently with the cab 
 and a small train of interested observers; he offered the statue his 
 arm to the cab-door, an attention which was naturally ignored. 
 
 " We shall have to carry her there," said Leander. 
 
 "Why, bless me, sir," said the chemist, as he helped to lift her, 
 " she— she's surprisingly heavy !" 
 
 " Yes," gasped Leander, over her unconscious shoulder; " when 
 she goes off in one of these sleeps, she does sleep very heavy;" an 
 
110 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 explacation which, if obscure, was accepted by the other as part of 
 the general strangeness of the case. 
 
 On the threshold tlie chemist stopped again. " I'd alnaost for- 
 gotten the ring," he said, 
 
 ''I'll take that!" said Leander, 
 
 "Excuse me," was the objection, "but I was to give it back to 
 the lady herself: had I not better put it on her finger, don't you 
 think?" 
 
 " Are you a married man?" asked Leander, grimly. 
 
 " Yes," said the chemist. 
 
 "Then, if you'll take my advice, I wouldn't if I was you — if 
 you're at all anxious to keep out of trouble. You'd better give the 
 ring to me, and I give you my word of honor as a gentleman that 
 I'll give it back to her, as soon as ever she's well enough to ask for 
 it!" 
 
 The other adopted the advice, and, amidst the sympathy of the 
 bystanders, they got the statue into the cab. 
 
 "Where to?" asked the man tiirough the trap. 
 
 "Charing Cross," said Leander, at random; he thought the 
 drive would give him time for reflection. 
 
 "The 'orspital, eh?" said the cabman, and drove off, leaving the 
 mild chemist to stare open-mouthed on the pavement for a moment, 
 and go back to his sliop with a growing sense that he had had a 
 very unusual experience. 
 
 Now that Leander was alone in the cab with the statue, whose 
 attitude required space, and cramped him uncomfortably, he won- 
 dered more and more what he was to do Avilh it. He could not 
 afford to drive about London forever with her; he dared not take 
 her home; and he was afraid of being seen with her! 
 
 All at once he seemed to see a way out of his difiiculty : his first 
 step was to do what he could, in the constantly varying light, to re- 
 duce the statue to its normal state; he removed the curls which had 
 disfigured her classical brow, and, with his pocket-handkerchief, 
 rubbed most of the color from her face; then the cloak had only to 
 be torn off, and all that could betray him was gone. 
 
 Nearing Charing Cross, Leander told the driver to take him down 
 Parliament Street,' and stop at the entrance to Scotland Yard ; there 
 the cabman, at Leander's request, descended, and stared to find him 
 huddled up imder the gleaming pale arms of a statue. 
 
 " Guv'nor," he remarked, "that warn't the fare I took up, I'll 
 take my dying oath ! " 
 
 "It's all right," said Leander. "Now, I tell you what I want 
 you to do; go straight in through the archway, find a policeman, 
 and say there's a gentleman in your cab that's found a valuable 
 article that's been missing, and wants assistance in bringing it in. 
 I'll take care of the cab, and here's double fare for your trouble!" 
 
 "And wuth it, too," was the cabman's comment, as he departed 
 on his mission. " I thought it was the devil I wasa-drivin', we was 
 that down on the orf side!" 
 
 It was no part of Leander's programme to wait for his return ; he 
 threw the cloak over his arm, pocketed his beard, and slipped out of 
 the cab and across the road to a spot whence he could watch un- 
 seen. And when he had seen the cabman come out with two con- 
 
THE TIKTED YENUS. Ill 
 
 Stables, be felt assured tbat bis burden was in safe bands at last, 
 and returned to Soutbampton Row as quickly as tbe next bansom 
 he bailed could take bim. 
 
 He entered bis bouse by tbe back entrance; it was unguarded-, 
 and allbougb be listened long at tbe foot of tbe stairs, be beard 
 nothing. Had tbe inspector not come yet, or was tbere a trap? As 
 be went on, be fancied tbere were sounds in bis sitting-room, and 
 went up to tbe door and listened nervously before entering in. 
 
 "Ob, ]Mi?s Collum, my poor dear!" a tremulous voice wbicb be 
 recognized as bis aunt's, was saying; " for mercy's sake don't lie 
 tbere like tbat! Sbe's dying! — audit's my fault for letting ber 
 come bere! — and wbat am I to say to ber ma?" 
 
 Leauder bad beard enougb ; be burst in, witb a wbite, borror- 
 stricken face. Yes, it was true! IMatilda was lying back in bis 
 crazy arm-chair, ber eyes fast closed, ber lips parted. 
 
 "Aunt," be said, witb difficulty, " sbe's not — not dead?" 
 
 "If she is not," returned bis aunt, "it's no tbankstoyou, Leandy 
 Tweddle! Go away — you can do no good to ber now!" 
 
 "Not till I've beard ber speak!" cried Tweddle. "Tillie, don't 
 you bear? — it's me!" 
 
 To bis immense relief, she opened ber eyes at tbe sound of his 
 voice, and turned away witb a feeble gesture of fear and avoidance. 
 " You have come back!" she moaned, " and witb ber! — oh, keep 
 her away! I can't bear it all over again! I can't!" 
 
 He threw himself down by her chair, and drew down the hands 
 in wbicb she had bidden ber face. "Matilda, m}" poor, hardly- 
 used darling!" be said, "I've come back alone! — I've got rid of 
 her, Tillie! — I'm free!— and there's no one to stand between us any 
 more ! " 
 
 She pushed back her disordered fair hair, and looked at bim 
 witb sweet, troubled eyes. "But you went away witb her — for- 
 ever?" she said; "you said you didn't love me any longer. I beard 
 you — it was just before — " and she shuddered at tlie recollection. 
 
 " I know," said Leander, soothingly. " I was obligated to speak 
 harsh, to deceive the — tbe other party, Tillie. I tried to tell you, 
 quiet-like, tbat you wasn't to mind; but you wouldn't take no no- 
 tice. But tbere, we won't talk about it any more— so long as you 
 forgive me; and you do, don't j'ou?" 
 
 Slie bid ber face against bis shoulder, in answer, from which he 
 drew a favorable conclusion ; but Miss Tweddle was not so easily 
 pacified. "And is this all tbe explanation you're going to give," 
 she demanded, " for treating this poor child the way you've done, 
 and neglecting her shamefully like this? If sbe's satisfied, Leandy, 
 I'm not." 
 
 " I can't help it, aunt," he said; " I've been true to Tillie all tbe 
 way through, in spite of all appearances to tbe contrarj' — as she 
 knows now. And tbe more I explained, tbe less you'd understand 
 about it; so we'll leave things where they are. But I've got back 
 the ring, and now you shall see me put it on her finger !" 
 
 * ** * * * ♦ 
 
 It seemed tbat Leander bad driven to Scotland Y^ard just in time 
 to save himself, for the inspector did not make his threatened search 
 $hat evening, 
 
112 THE TINTED YENUS. 
 
 Two or three days later, however, to Leander's secret alarm, he 
 entered the shop. After all, he felt, it was hopeless to think of de- 
 ceiving these sleuth-hounds of the Law: this detective had been 
 making inquiries, and identified him as the man who had shared 
 the hansom with that statue ! 
 
 His knees trembled as he stood behind his glass-topped counter. 
 "Come to make the search, sir?" he said, as cheerfully as he could; 
 "you'll find us ready for you." 
 
 " Well," said Inspector Bilbow, with a queer mixture of awk- 
 wardness and complacency, "no, not exactly. Tweddle, my good 
 fellow, circumstances have recentl}' assumed a shape that renders a 
 search unnecessary, as perhaps you are aware?" 
 
 He looked very hard af Tweddle as he spoke, and the hair- 
 dresser felt that this was a crucial moment — the detective was still 
 uncertain whether he had been mixed up in the affair or not. 
 Leander's faculty of ready wit served him better here than on past 
 occasions. 
 
 "Aware? No, sir," he said, with admirable simplicity. "Then 
 that's why you didn't come the other evening! 1 sat up for you, 
 sir; all night I sat up." 
 
 " The fact of the matter is, Tweddle," said Bilbow, who had be- 
 come suddenly affable and condescending, " I found myself re- 
 duced, so to speak, to make use of you as a false clew, if you catch 
 my meaning?" 
 
 "I can't say I do quite understand, sir." 
 
 " I mean — of course, I saw with half an eye, bless your soul— 
 that you'd had nothing to do with it. It wasn't likely that a poor 
 chap like you had any knowledge of a big plant of that descrip- 
 tion. No, no; don't you go away with that idea; I never associ- 
 ated you with it for asingle instant!" 
 
 " I'm truly glad to hear it, Mr. Inspector," said Leander. 
 
 "It was owing to the line I took up; there were the real 
 parties to put off their guard, and to do that, Tweddle— to do that, 
 it Avas necessary to appear to suspect you. D'ye see?" 
 
 "I think it was a little hard on me, sir," he said; for being 
 suspected like that hurts a man's feelings, sir. 1 did feel wounded 
 to have that cast up against me !" 
 
 " AVell, well," said The inspector, " we'll go into that later. But, 
 to go on with what I was saying: my tactics, Tweddle, have been 
 crowned with success — the famous Venus is now safe in my hands! 
 What do you say to that?" 
 
 "Say? \Yhy, what clever gentlemen you detective officers are, 
 to be sure ! " cried Leander. 
 
 " Well, to be candid, there's not many in the department that 
 would have managed the job as neatly; but then, it was a case I'd 
 gone into, and thoroughly got up ! " 
 
 "That I'm sure you must have done, sir," agreed Leander 
 " How ever did you come on it?" He felt a kind of curiosity to 
 hear the answer. 
 
 " Tweddle," was the solemn reply, "that is a thing you must be 
 content to leave in its native mystery " (which Leander undoubtedly 
 was). "We in the Criminal Investigation Department have our 
 secret channels and our underground sources for obtaining informa- 
 
THE TINTED VENUS. 113 
 
 tion, but to lay those channels and sources bare to the public would 
 serve no useful end, nor would it be an expedient act on my part. 
 All you have any claim to be told is, that, however costly and com- 
 plicated, however dangerous even, the means employed may have 
 been (that I say nothing about), the ultimate end has been obtained. 
 The Venus, sir, will be restored to her place in the Gallery at 
 "Wricklesmarsh Court without a scratch on her ! " 
 
 "You don't say so! Lor'!" cried Leander, hoping that his 
 countenance would keep his secret, "well, there now. And my 
 ring, sir, if you remember — isn't Hiat on her?" 
 
 " You mustn't expect us to do everything: your ring was, as I 
 had every reason to expect it would be, missing. But I shall be 
 talking the matter over with Sir Peter Purbecke, who's just come 
 back to Wricklesmarsh from the Continent, and, provided — ahem! 
 —you don't go talking about this affair, I should feel justified in 
 recommending him to make you some substantial acknowledgment 
 for any— well, little inconvenience you may have been put to on 
 account of your slight connection with the business, and the steps I 
 may have thought proper to take in consequence. And, from all I 
 hear of Sir Peter, I think he would be inclined to come down un- 
 commonly handsome." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Inspector," said Leander, "all I can say is this: if 
 Sir Peter was to know the life his statue has led me for the past few 
 days, I think he'd say I deserved it— I do, indeed!" 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The naiTOw passage off Southampton Row is at present without 
 a hair-dresser's establishment; Leander having resigned his shop, 
 long since, in favor of either a fruiterer or a stationer. 
 
 But, in one of the leading West End thoroughfares there is a 
 large and prosperous hair-cutting saloon, over which the name of 
 " Tweddle " glitters resplendent, and the books of which would 
 prove too much for Matilda, even if more domestic duties had not 
 begun to claim her attention. 
 
 Leander's troubles are at an end. Thanks to Sir Peter Purbecke's 
 munificence, he has made a fresh start ; and, so far, Fortune has 
 prospered him. The devices he has inventad for correcting Nature's 
 more palpable errors in taste are becoming widely known, while he 
 is famous, too, as the gifted author of a series of brilliant and popu- 
 lar hair washes. He is accustoming his clients to address him as 
 " Professor " — a title which he has actually had conferred upon him 
 from a quarter in which he is, perhaps, the most highly appreciated 
 — for prosperity has not exactly lessened his self-estl'cm. 
 
 Mr. Jauncy, too, is a married man, although he does not respond 
 so heartily to congratulations; there is no intimacy between the two 
 households, the heads of which recognize that, as Leander puts it, 
 " their wives harmonize better apart." 
 
 To the new collection of Casts from the Antique, at South Ken- 
 sington, there has recently been added one which appears in the 
 official catalogue under the folio v/ing tlescription ; 
 
114 THE TINTED VENUS. 
 
 "833. The CytJierean Venus. Marble statue. Found In a 
 grotto in the Island of Cerigo. Now in the collection of Sir Peter 
 Purbecke, at Wricklesmarsb Court, Blacklieath. 
 
 " This noble work has been indifferently assigned to various peri- 
 ods; the most general opinion, however, pronounces it to be a copy 
 of an earlier work of Alkamenes, or possibly Kephisodotos. 
 
 "The unusual small uess of the extremities seems to betra}'- the 
 hand of a restorer, and there are traces of color in the original mar- 
 ble, which are supposed to have been added at a somewhat later 
 period." 
 
 Should Professor Tweddle ever find himself in the Museum on 
 a Bank Holiday, and enter the new gallery, he could hnrdl}' avoid 
 seeing the magnificent cast numbered 333 in the catalogue, and re- 
 viving thereby sundry recollections he has almost succeeded in sup- 
 pressing. 
 
 But this is an experience he will probably save himself ; for he 
 is known to entertain, on principle, very strong prejudices against 
 sculpture, and more particularly the Antique. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 OT THB 
 
 TJNIVERSITY \ 
 
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