EARTH
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 HALF IN EARNEST 
 
 A Novel, Crown 8vo 
 
 (Second Edition)
 
 EARTH 
 
 BY MURIEL HIKE 
 
 (Mrs. Sidney Coxon) 
 
 LONDON : JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD 
 NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXII
 
 FOURTH EDITION 
 
 THE ANCHOR PBE88, LTD. TIPTBEE, ESSEX.
 
 TO 
 
 MY HUSBAND
 
 Ob, good gigantic smile o' the brown old earth, 
 This autumn morning ! How he sets his bones 
 To bask i' the sun, and thrusts out knees and feet 
 For the ripple to run over in its mirth ; 
 Listening the while, where on the heap of stones 
 The white breast of the sea- lark twitters sweet. 
 
 That is the doctrine, simple, ancient, true ; 
 Such is life's trial, as old earth smiles and knows, 
 If you loved only what were worth your love, 
 Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you : 
 Make the low nature better by your throes ! 
 Give earth yourself, go up for gain above. 
 
 ROBERT BROWSING.
 
 EARTH
 
 EARTH 
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 "A J"UMMY! . . . mummy!" 
 
 Diana's clear young voice echoed 
 through the house, rousing the echoes 
 that had si umbered peacefully for years 
 in the darkened corners of the hall. 
 
 The great temple-gong relic of a long-forgotten 
 campaign caught the note with a faint answering 
 throb, as the young girl stood there, listening in- 
 tently, at the foot of the gloomy staircase, where 
 a solid-looking Mercury in imitation bronze ter- 
 minated the mahogany rail, upholding an oil-lamp, 
 retired from active service since the advent of the 
 electric light. The solid moulding of the metal 
 figure seemed to accentuate the delicate pose of the 
 living one beside it, as Diana paused, head bent a 
 little forward on the slender neck, one arched foot 
 tapping the lowest step, her red lips parted in a 
 smile of expectation as she listened eagerly for a 
 movement anywhere that should answer her call. 
 Within the dining-room doorway, "Buchanan," the 
 cat, watched her slyly, his back curving in a sug- 
 gestion of friendliness, as he rubbed his head with 
 a sidling caress against the woodwork of the door. 
 
 Having achieved attention by a soft croon of greet- 
 ing, he immediately regretted it.
 
 2 EARTH 
 
 For Diana turned with a lithe movement at the 
 sound, swooped down upon him, and the next 
 moment they were flying upstairs together, his 
 paws clutching desperately at her rough serge coat, 
 his frightened yellow eyes condemning the perform- 
 ance from over the girl's shoulder. 
 
 But when she reached the landing his mistress 
 paused, a faint line of anxiety on her smooth fore- 
 head. She put the cat down on its feet with an 
 absent glance, and Buchanan, quivering with 
 wounded pride, administered the subtle rebuke of 
 an immediate descent to the ground floor, every 
 hair on his black and white body bristling with 
 dignity. Heedless of this, Diana moved on up the 
 passage, where a distant window failed to dispel 
 the gloom of the faded Landseer prints on the time- 
 discoloured walls. 
 
 " Mummy ! " she cried more gently, " are you 
 there ? " 
 
 Eeceiving no answer, she opened the door before 
 her with a swift glance round the morning-room 
 and advanced gaily, her manner still full of sup- 
 pressed excitement, her full heart bubbling over 
 with the news she was longing to impart. 
 
 " Mummy ! " 
 
 Lady Cottar lifted a deprecating hand, frail and 
 delicate as its owner, from the table where she sat, 
 surrounded by a formidable array of the housekeeper's 
 forces receipts, books and bills, that were crowned by 
 a leather-bound ledger that Diana had christened 
 privately as " the Judgment Day-book ! " 
 
 " Seven and four are eleven, and five, sixteen 
 fourpence and carry one. Ah ! " her voice rose 
 triumphantly as she checked the fishmonger's 
 mistake " I thought so turbot at two-and-sixpece 
 a pound it's ridiculous ! "
 
 Completing the third column, she laid down her 
 pen, and with a little sigh of resignation, turned to 
 the eager girl. 
 
 " I am very busy, Diana," she said, in her low, 
 toneless voice. " What do you want ? " 
 
 A ray of winter sunshine from without the heavily- 
 curtained windows fell on her hair, which was of 
 that undecided colour that time leaves untouched a 
 pale gold that never silvers, but grows lifeless as the 
 years pass on. 
 
 But the face beneath still revealed a china-like 
 delicacy of outline, and she dressed with the care 
 of a woman who, inwardly realising the approach of 
 the dreaded foe, refuses to recognise " middle-age " 
 and arms herself desperately to retain the outward 
 illusion of youth. 
 
 Beside her, the radiance of Diana seemed to glow 
 anew, her very vitality to catch fire from the 
 ashes of that beauty that had undeniably been her 
 mother's earlier portion ; and as she stooped to kiss 
 the elder woman, Lady Cottar, in the glass opposite, 
 caught not only the reflection of the embrace, but the 
 full force of the unflattering contrast. In the painful 
 thoughts that ensued she lost part of her daughter's 
 speech. 
 
 "... such a lovely piece of news ! " came 
 faintly to her ears ; " and, oh, mummy, do leave those 
 horrid accounts alone, and let me tell you all about 
 it. I nearly ran home ! " 
 
 Her words tripped over each other in her eager- 
 ness, and she went on, with a little gasp for breath 
 
 " Such luck meeting Adrienne like that! she 
 never walks in the park as a rule, so I was glad ! 
 She's coming round this afternoon to ask you." 
 
 She broke off suddenly, conscious of her mother's 
 frown, and following the direction of her gaze was
 
 4 EARTH 
 
 fully prepared for the sharp exclamation that 
 followed. 
 
 " Diana ! your boots ! " Lady Cottar's voice was 
 eloquent. 
 
 Diana shuffled uncomfortably. "I did, mummy, 
 indeed I did ! on the mat outside, twice." 
 
 But her mother's anger had needed but the smallest 
 spark to quicken into flame. 
 
 " Disgraceful ! " she cried ; " my poor carpets ! 
 How often have I not told you to wipe your shoes, 
 Diana ? But you never listen, you never think ! 
 Here I sit, slaving for you and your father, ruin- 
 iug my health " the accustomed phrases slipped 
 smoothly off her tongue " economising, struggling 
 to do my duty, day by day, ill or well, whilst you," 
 she paused eloquently, "who should be my right-hand, 
 you can think only of yourself, of your pleasures, your 
 outside friends your appearance " (venom lay in the 
 word), never of me!" 
 
 The tears rose to her pale-blue eyes as Diana, 
 after one brief survey of the slightly muddy shoes, 
 stiffened herself, wordless, to meet the lecture, 
 conscious of grave offence somewhere, but conscious 
 too with the acumen of her clear young brain, of a 
 subtle touch of injustice. 
 
 " Mummy " she began. But at this moment 
 
 the general entered the room. 
 
 "What is it ? What is it, my love? " 
 
 He recognised the ominous flutter of the lace-edged 
 handkerchief. From behind its folds his wife's voice, 
 muffled and querulous, penetrated faintly. 
 
 " It's Diana " the words came out in jerks 
 " her thought-less-ness her ut-ter thought . . . 
 less . . . ness . . ." and faded into a sob. 
 
 The general crossed the room with his heavy 
 step. Awkwardly he put his arm round his wife's
 
 EARTH 5 
 
 shoulder, and with his disengaged hand he patted 
 her arm, with little monotonous pats, as though he 
 were soothing a fretful infant. 
 
 "There . . . there . . . my love ;" his deep 
 voice was genuinely moved. " She doesn't mean 
 it. I'm sure the child doesn't ; do you, Diana ? " 
 
 He gave the set face of his daughter an anxious 
 glance, as she stood there, very slim and upright, 
 staring out of the window, her lower lip caught 
 tightly between the rows of her small white teeth. 
 
 " Oh, of course you take her part," said Lady 
 Cottar, tumultuously " of course ! I should have 
 expected it ! " 
 
 She released herself with an astonishingly agile 
 movement from her husband's encircling arm. 
 
 Diana's hazel eyes, black with suppressed feel- 
 ing, came back from the window and surveyed the 
 pair before her. 
 
 " It was because I didn't wipe my feet," she 
 volunteered stonily. 
 
 Lady Cottar threw up her beautifully ringed 
 hands to heaven, with a gesture inviting thunder- 
 bolts. 
 
 " And you stand there, John, and and allow this 
 impertinence ? " She sank forward again into the 
 lace-edged handkerchief. 
 
 The general, torn asunder, turned on his 
 daughter. 
 
 " Diana, leave the room ! " 
 
 The military ring of the command admitted no 
 loophole for argument, and the girl, after one keen 
 glance, in silence obeyed him. 
 
 Immediately the general relented. " She's a 
 good child," he told himself, and loyally added, 
 " though thoughtless, certainly thoughtless ! " 
 
 Meanwhile, having gained her point, Lady Cottar
 
 6 EARTH 
 
 was lying back, exhausted, in her chair, a hand 
 pressed to her heart, which was beating with in- 
 convenient haste. She answered her husband's 
 anxious inquiry with a feeble gesture towards a 
 bottle of medicine that stood conveniently near on 
 the writing-table. 
 
 " Please . . ." she commanded faintly. 
 
 Then, as he measured her out a dose, and some- 
 what clumsily held it to her trembling lips, she 
 scored her last sad point. 
 
 " She'll be the death of me one of these days," 
 she gasped ; " my heart . . . won't stand 
 . . . these scenes ! " 
 
 Physically unnerved, conscious too of the 
 strength of silence, she closed her eyes, and slipping 
 one of her hands into her husband's, gave herself 
 up to the soothing processes of red lavender and 
 virtue triumphant. 
 
 Meanwhile the innocent cause of all this disturb- 
 ance had reached her own room ; that sanctum she 
 had prepared with such delight but a few months 
 since on her return from her long schooling abroad. 
 
 Originally intended for a lumber-room, it had 
 nevertheless been lined, by some luxurious former 
 tenant, with sweet-smelling boards of pitch-pine, 
 and with its sloping roof and gable-windows lent 
 itself pleasantly to picturesque treatment. 
 
 Diana loved the place. From its stained floor, 
 innocent of carpet save for an old Turkish praying- 
 mat and a faded tiger-skin, wheedled from her 
 father's store of trophies, to the smooth-boarded 
 walls, where crayon studies, pinned indiscrimi- 
 nately, blended with amateurish water-colours and 
 one cherished painting in oils that betrayed a 
 master's touch ; all, all was hers her very own ! 
 
 The easel under the window, with its half-finished
 
 EARTH 7 
 
 sketch, a faint lingering smell of turpentine and a 
 deeply incrusted palette by the open box of paints, 
 pointed to the nature of the girl's secret ambitions. 
 This was her " studio " her cherished holy of 
 holies. 
 
 Apart from its crudely artistic atmosphere, the 
 first feature that would strike an observant on- 
 looker was the absence of all traces of femininity. 
 Here were no fragments of needlework, no cush- 
 ioned chairs, no half-read novels lying about in 
 suggestive proximity to ribbons, laces, and sweets ; 
 nothing to suggest the newly emancipated school- 
 girl enjoying her first fling of idleness. 
 
 The room was clean, wholesome but austere. 
 Over the narrow mantelshelf, where a cracked piece 
 of majolica proudly held its own, a pair of fencing- 
 foils were hung, and in the further window, which 
 jutted out into a bay under the eaves, dumb-bells, 
 Indian clubs, two tennis-rackets, and a well-filled 
 golf-bag crowded together sympathetically. 
 
 It was towards this angle that Diana swept on 
 her hurried entrance into the room. 
 
 Sbe paused for a moment to strip off the tight 
 coat that hindered her movements. Then, gather- 
 ing up the clubs, with a swift upward glance, she 
 retreated to where the higher ceiling gave her full 
 play for her favourite exercise. 
 
 Round and round she swung the shining clubs, 
 now widely, in a great circle over her glossy head, 
 now restrained to a mere movement of the supple 
 wrists ; but ever with the perfect rhythm of youth, 
 with that almost animal ease and precision that 
 vanishes in after years, when the muscles thicken 
 and the joints grow stiff. 
 
 Youth health well ! ... She had both 
 these. As her anger, slowly exhausting itself,
 
 8 EAETH 
 
 vanished in the joy of action, the thought struck 
 her suddenly, and she slowed down from the first 
 vigour of her swing into a testing of the more 
 complicated movements. 
 
 How different to the nerve-wrung woman down- 
 stairs ! A sudden vision of her mother, handker- 
 chief in hand, rose up before her, and the old 
 tenderness of childish days awoke, stifled by the 
 chill of petty injustice. 
 
 Then pity crept in, that healer of all generous 
 hearts. 
 
 " Poor mummy ! " The girl gave a little sigh ; 
 " it's her health it's not her, herself." 
 
 Her grammar grew indescribably confused as her 
 thoughts beat time with the circling clubs ; and 
 with the softening impulse came the need for clear 
 analysis of the scene, now that the first "red mists" 
 had cleared from her eyes. She had forced her 
 news at an inopportune moment. Unconsciously 
 she counted aloud, the physical movements blending 
 with her mental activity. 
 
 "One . . . two . . . three . . . change!" 
 round she swung, reversing the action, her weight 
 on her other foot. Her boots were a little muddy 
 it was a fact. "Four . . . five . . . six" 
 mechanically she counted. " Now both together ! " 
 Her supple body bent with the mad whirl, and little 
 pearly drops stood out on her forehead. " Accounts 
 . . . were . . . necessary e-vils. Halt ! " 
 
 For a moment she stood there, breathless, clubs 
 parallel above her, slim and virginal as the huntress 
 whose name she bore, every muscle in her body 
 tight with the sudden unfaltering check. 
 
 "At ease!" Down went the clubs on the floor, 
 and the strain was over. 
 
 " It's a great comfort exercise ! " said Diana.
 
 EARTH 9 
 
 General Sir John Cottar, K.C.B., sat down stiffly 
 to the luncheon-table as the last echoes of the gong 
 resounded through the house. Punctuality was his 
 weakness, and, knowing this, Diana was prompt to 
 appear, fresh and rosy after her late exertions. 
 
 Her father looked her over critically, and could 
 find no fault. He hated finery of any description, 
 and Diana's indifference to jewellery and preference 
 for simplicity in dress fitted in with his own military 
 precision. 
 
 To-day she wore a plain silk shirt, open at the 
 neck, with a low embroidered collar, that revealed 
 the girlish throat, and the soft folds were drawn 
 tightly down into the band of her serge skirt, where 
 her father's regimental buckle completed the severe 
 effect of a leathern belt. 
 
 Her face, flushed with exercise, glowed under the 
 shadow of her dark hair, which had that rare and 
 distinctive beauty, a natural wave, as far distinct 
 from "curliness" as the brook from the deeply flow- 
 ing river; and it parted softly over her strongly- 
 marked brows, from under whose shadows the dark- 
 lashed hazel eyes fearlessly gazed forth. 
 
 Slim, well-drilled, and erect, her youth hinted a 
 note of boyishness, but without conveying the 
 slightest suggestion of that abomination of the age 
 a masculine woman ! It was more the utter absence 
 of self-consciousness, the untroubled stillness of her 
 fragrant virginity as yet unawakened to sex. 
 
 A little look of relief swept over her face as she 
 saw her mother's vacant chair, and passing behind 
 Sir John, at peace with the world and herself, she 
 yielded to a sudden wave of tenderness, and, stooping, 
 lightly kissed the old man on his cheek. The 
 general grunted, more pleased than he would confess 
 at this spontaneous salute.
 
 10 EARTH 
 
 " It's all very well, getting over me like that ! " 
 He tried to look at her severely, as she took her 
 place at the table, " but I wish you wouldn't upset 
 your mother, Diana." He saw the girl's quick 
 change of expression, and went on hurriedly : 
 
 " She isn't at all strong, and " he caught Diana's 
 eloquent eyes " well, well," he fumed, " we\e 
 got to study her, both of us." Loyally he included 
 himself in the trouble, and a little smile flickered 
 at the corner of his daughter's sensitive mouth. 
 
 "All right, I'll try, daddy." 
 
 The old man nodded his head, well content at the 
 result of his little lecture. 
 
 " And now, do let me tell you my news," she 
 went on eagerly. "I met Adrienne in the park this 
 morning. She's off to Hyeres for three months, and 
 what d'you think?" She clasped her hands to- 
 gether, her eyes sparkling with the excitement of 
 the long-suppressed secret. "She wants to take me 
 with her ! " 
 
 " Never ! " said Sir John, mischievously. But 
 Diana swept on, heedless of sarcasm. 
 
 "Yes wouldn't it be lovely? Oh, I do hope 
 mother will let me go." 
 
 " Would you like it ? " asked her father. 
 
 "Rather!" 
 
 There was no mistaking the depths of her desire. 
 She leaned across the table towards him and pleaded 
 for his support. 
 
 " Do help me, daddy, and talk to mother " 
 
 but broke off suddenly, hearing the trail of a silk 
 skirt on the stairs. 
 
 " Sh ! here she comes." Her finger went to her 
 lips. "Not just now," she whispered diplomatically 
 " later on." 
 
 Lady Cottar, entering the room, took in the scene
 
 EAETH 11 
 
 at a glance. Under her pale-blue eyes the father 
 and daughter looked suddenly guilty, caught in the 
 very midst of a whispered confidence. 
 
 As she tidied her hair for lunch she had decided 
 to be magnanimous, to greet Diana as though 
 nothing had passed between them with perhaps a 
 shade of coolness due to her personal dignity, but 
 graciously as a queen to an erring subject. But 
 now, in her jealous heart, suspicion rose anew, and, 
 physically and mentally self-conscious, the mere 
 thought of collusion between the pair convinced her 
 that she had been the subject of their interrupted 
 conversation. 
 
 So she hardened her heart. 
 
 " I'm sorry to be late," she addressed the general 
 coldly, " but I couldn't come down before. I was 
 not well enough." 
 
 The butler passed round, handing the somewhat 
 scanty fare ; for Lady Cottar prided herself on her 
 unbending economy. 
 
 " Have a glass of wine," said Sir John, anxiously. 
 " Morgan, the sherry ! " 
 
 The old servant thus addressed gave his mistress 
 a sidelong glance. In the language below-stairs, it 
 was evidently " one of 'er bad days." 
 
 He filled the glass to the brim, and Lady Cottar 
 with a faint sigh lifted it steadily to her lips. 
 
 Diana's eyes were glued to her plate, and silence 
 reigned, pregnant of an approaching storm. 
 
 " 'ashed calves' 'ead, milady," said the butler, 
 deprecatingly. 
 
 It was a favourite dish of his, and the hope un- 
 bidden rose in his heart that his mistress' indisposi- 
 tion precluded the possibility of solid food. 
 
 "No thank you." Lady Cottar's voice held a 
 ring of martyrdom.
 
 12 EAKTH 
 
 " There's cold bif, milady, and " he gave a 
 hurried glance at the bare sideboard and repeated 
 persuasively "cold bif and salad." 
 
 As she hesitated under her husband's imploring 
 glance, there came the sound of the front door bell, 
 and a certain tension faded from her face at the 
 peculiar rap of the knocker. 
 
 "If that's Master Walter, Morgan, bring him 
 straight in." 
 
 For once, in her heart, Diana prayed for her 
 cousin to appear, and when the door opened and the 
 young man stood there, lightly apologising for the 
 intrusion, even the general greeted him with effusion. 
 
 "That you, Walter? Glad to see you, my boy. 
 Sit down and have lunch." 
 
 " Dear lad," said Lady Cottar softly, as he bent 
 over her gallantly, kissing the proffered cheek. 
 
 " And how's my little Tantante? " He straightened 
 his tall figure, and glanced across at Diana, whom he 
 admired but secretly feared. 
 
 Seen thus, his face showed a curious mixture of 
 weakness and intellect. The high, well-proportioned 
 forehead and aquiline nose gave an impression of 
 thought and stability which the eyes, set near to- 
 gether, small and furtive under their fair lashes, 
 contradicted ; and, again, in the lower portion of the 
 face the expression of the wide, somewhat sensual 
 mouth was negatived by the weakness of the chin 
 beneath. 
 
 He had a habit of jerking his head forward to mark 
 any emphasis in his speech, and Adrienne, long 
 since, had christened him "The Canary" from this 
 way he had of " pecking" so she averred. 
 
 The name, as soubriquets will, had clung, follow- 
 ing him from school and crammer steadily into the 
 Guards.
 
 EARTH 13 
 
 Now, as he scrutinised his aunt's pale face, he 
 " pecked " again propitiatingly. 
 
 " Well V " 
 
 " I'm feeling far from strong to-day," Lady Cottar 
 responded, with a chastened smile. 
 
 " Poor little Tan tan te ! " said young Maclaren. 
 
 He was fond of his mother's sister in his own surface 
 fashion, and realised with native shrewdness that to 
 play up to her weaknesses made her a very useful 
 ally. 
 
 " I've too many worries and troubles to get really 
 well," said that lady, in answer to his sympathetic 
 tone. 
 
 " C'est la vie ! " said the young man, philosophi- 
 cally, clearing to Morgan's deep disgust the silver 
 dish handed to him, and sublimely indifferent to the 
 murmured refrain 
 
 " And cold bif, sir and salad." 
 
 He was fond of airing his French chiefly acquired 
 on flying visits to Dinard and Dieppe. It was " a 
 pretty language to use to pretty women." But 
 looking up, he caught his cousin's quizzing eyes, 
 and added somewhat hurriedly 
 
 " To say nothing of this beastly climate ! " 
 
 He turned to Sir John. 
 
 " Four days now, sir, since we've seen the sun. 
 Not a single gleam ! What with being our turn at 
 the Tower at the other end of the world and the 
 gloom of it and a run of bad luck at bridge, I feel 
 almost suicidal myself." 
 
 " Poor Canary ! " said Diana, sweetly ; " not at all 
 the cage for a petted songster ! " 
 
 Walter " pecked," uncertain of his ground. 
 
 " If I had my way," he said with emphasis, " I'd 
 migrate every winter regularly." He watched the 
 butler out of the corner of his eye, as that worthy
 
 14 EARTH 
 
 showed symptoms of stinting the whiskey. " Thanks, 
 Morgan a little more," and continued wistfully : 
 " The south must be getting jolly nice just now. 
 By the way, I hear our fair Adrienne is joining in 
 the general exodus." 
 
 " She's off to Hyeres next week," said Diana, 
 quickly. " I met her in the park this morning, 
 and, Walter what d'you think? she wants to 
 take me with her ! " 
 
 " Jolly for you," said the Canary, carelessly ; 
 " you're going, of course ? " 
 
 But already the girl had regretted her impetuous 
 speech, her eyes fixed pleadingly upon her mother's 
 cold face. 
 
 " This is the first I ... have heard of it," said 
 Lady Cottar, distinctly. 
 
 The general fidgeted in his chair. 
 
 "Well, mummy, I tried to tell you," began 
 Diana " this morning, you know " 
 
 She broke off helplessly, and started again, with a 
 desperate glance at her father for support. 
 
 " You will let me go, won't you, mummy ? 
 Adrienne is coming this afternoon to see you. It 
 wouldn't be for long just a month or so and 
 oh ! " her voice rose in her excitement, " I should 
 love it," she cried. 
 
 Lady Cottar, with a faint shudder, put her hand 
 up to her head. 
 
 "Really, Diana that voice of yours! And I 
 couldn't possibly decide at once, without a moment's 
 reflection it's absurd. Besides, there's your father 
 to consult." 
 
 Diana fell headlong into the trap. 
 
 "Oh, daddy doesn't mind!" She nodded her 
 head at him lovingly. 
 
 Lady Cottar's thin lips tightened.
 
 EAKTH 15 
 
 " Of course, if you've already talked it over, 
 there's nothing more to be said." 
 
 The general cowered under his wife's reproachful 
 eyes. 
 
 " My love," he began nervously, " the child was 
 just speaking of it when you came in. There's 
 been no mystery, I assure you." 
 
 At that fatal suggestion, Lady Cottar drew her- 
 self very erect. 
 
 " Mystery ? " she repeated. The word lent itself 
 to sibilant scorn. " I fail to understand you, John. 
 Diana is quite at liberty to confide in her own father. 
 Only " her voice faltered tragically " it seems 
 ... a little . . . hard, that 1 am the last ... to 
 be consulted ... in my own house ! " 
 
 " Happle-tart and ginger-sweet, milady," inter- 
 posed the suffering Morgan. Lunch would never 
 be over at this rate, he decided. 
 
 " Neither ! " said Lady Cottar, fiercely. 
 
 Walter saw his chance of oil on the troubled waters. 
 
 " But you're eating nothing, dear ! " His voice 
 was soothing as he checked the indignant butler 
 with an imperative gesture. 
 
 (" Just as if the 'ouse belonged to 'im," said 
 Morgan, under his breath.) 
 
 "We must eat to live, you know. Just a teeny 
 little bit of apple-tart, now? " 
 
 With dismay he saw the flutter of the lace-edged 
 handkerchief. 
 
 " I couldn't ! " said Lady Cottar, tragically. 
 
 Diana laid down her spoon and fork, nerved to a 
 great renunciation. 
 
 " Then I won't go," she announced to the world 
 at large. Her chin wtas set in a quaint, childish 
 likeness of her father's. 
 
 Her mother turned upon her a pair of brimming
 
 16 EARTH 
 
 eyes, her lips trembling, her whole air one of 
 strangled authority. 
 
 " You will do ... what your parents decide is 
 best," she said severely. 
 
 And that was how Diana went.
 
 EARTH 17 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE windows were wide open, giving free 
 access to the fragrant air; that subtle 
 blend of mimosa, eucalyptus, and crushed 
 pine-needles that greets the weary tra- 
 veller with the first sweet kiss of the south. 
 
 Far away, over the Isles of Gold, the sun was set- 
 ting peacefully, and towards the darkening crest of 
 wooded Costabelle, two little pink clouds lingered, 
 side by side, like straying cupids lost in the pale blue 
 of the heavens. 
 
 Away to the west the grey hills swept upwards 
 towards Toulon, and above the bare backbone of 
 this last link of the Maritime Alps, a young moon, 
 crescent-shaped, was peeping, all agog for the great 
 red ball of the sun to vanish in the tranquil waters of 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 Adrienne de Verac drew in her breath with a deep 
 sigh of content. Life was sweet on these sunny 
 shores, the earth exceeding fair. Under her clasped, 
 nervous hands lay her husband's letter that the 
 evening post had brought, and the knowledge that 
 his return was only a question of days, together with 
 this material evidence of his thought for her, added 
 not a little to the warm perfection of the hour. 
 
 With all her passionate heart and soul she loved 
 the Comte de Verac ; and this was the crowning 
 

 
 18 EARTH 
 
 blessedness trusted him, knowing her love re- 
 turned. 
 
 A cool wind crept up over the land, stirring the 
 dusty leaves of the palm-trees, singing its evensong 
 in the lofty pines, and down in the gardens below 
 the frogs began to croak by the water-tanks. 
 
 As the purple shadows deepened, Adrienne shiv- 
 ered suddenly, conscious of the chill, that " danger du 
 crepuscule " that northerners too lightly disregard, 
 and closing the window, she gazed anxiously down 
 the winding drive that led from the highly-situated 
 hotel to the level of the town below. 
 
 No sign yet of Diana ! It was surely time for her 
 to return. She glanced back at the clock with a 
 frown on her pretty pale face, and her thoughts, busy 
 around the girl, turned instinctively to Major Bill. 
 
 Like most happily-married women, she was, at 
 heart, a match-maker ; and it was with inward 
 satisfaction that she had watched the friendship grow 
 between her little cousin and the good-looking 
 cheery soldier, so providentially cast across their 
 path. 
 
 Her mother had been Sir John Cottar's only 
 sister, and with her intimate knowledge of the family 
 Adrienne could easily realise Diana's somewhat diffi- 
 cult position at home. An early marriage seemed 
 to Madame de Verac the quickest road to happiness 
 for all concerned ; and deliberately she threw the 
 pair of young people together, careful to awaken 
 no suspicioo of her project in the mind of the girl, 
 whose very innocence, at times, proved an unexpected 
 stumbling-block to her plans. 
 
 For, with the French blood she had inherited 
 from her father and not a little influenced by three 
 years of married life with Guillaume in his native 
 land, Adrienne's convictions stirred her into secret
 
 EARTH 19 
 
 revolt against the theory that underlay Diana's 
 education, embodying an absolute ignorance of the 
 facts of life. 
 
 The child seemed so utterly uu conscious of her 
 sex ; well-nigh an impossibility in a Frenchwoman 
 of even fewer years. She laughed openly at love 
 or emotion of any kind, and prided herself on those 
 qualities and attainments which should belong by 
 right to a healthy schoolboy rather than to her own 
 feminine sphere. 
 
 Fond as she was of her cousin, on these points 
 they were utterly at disaccord. 
 
 It was during Diana's last year at the big Auteuil 
 school that the Comte and Comtesse de Verac had 
 come to Paris, and the schoolgirl had spent all her 
 Sundays and f fete-days at the cosy little flat in the 
 rue de la Pompe, petted by its pretty mistress and 
 teased by Guillaurne, who treated her as the happy 
 " gamine " she in truth was, and never wearied of 
 telling her seriously that she " should have been a 
 boy!" 
 
 The pleasantest days of her girlhood had been 
 spent in their company ; and the gaiety of French 
 life that penetrated even the high walls of the big 
 school, the fervour of the art classes she attended 
 outside, and even the brightness ot the climate itself, 
 were not the best preparation for the life that awaited 
 her at home. 
 
 Diana had looked forward as only a young girl 
 can to the mysterious excitement of being at 
 length " grown-up " ; and prolonged absence from 
 her parents had only increased her love and loyalty, 
 weaving around them a web of imaginary perfection. 
 
 To go home ! that was the acme of her desire ; 
 each weekly letter a step nearer to the promised 
 land, peopled by those most dear.
 
 20 EARTH 
 
 Meanwhile the holidays with the de Veracs, 
 including one glorious summer spent at their beau- 
 tiful Chateau de Sorbes, had unconsciously broadened 
 her outlook, and had given her a peep into an 
 enchanted garden where love and perfect sympathy 
 created an atmosphere of contentment, impossible 
 to define, but soothing even to a mere child like 
 Diana. 
 
 Had she been questioned on that intimate " vie de 
 Chateau " with Guillaume and Adrienne, the courtly 
 old father and his charming marquise, she would 
 have laughingly replied that " they all got on jolly 
 well " ; but in the depths of her sensitive soul she 
 felt that it was something more than that. 
 
 Later in life she realised with a sense of wonder 
 on what a broad basis of understanding and mutual 
 consideration the fabric of the young couple's 
 passionate love was built. And from this glowing, 
 witty, open-air summer in France, after one more 
 term at school of final educational drill, she returned, 
 full of health and eager anticipation, to the gloomy 
 London house. 
 
 Meanwhile her mother, unrestrained by the old 
 necessity of " setting an example to the child," had 
 undoubtedly degenerated. Her health, never very 
 good, had become the one absorbing interest of her 
 life. 
 
 Even the general, since his retirement, had 
 caught the infection of her fears, and under the 
 advice of a specialist, consulted suddenly in haste, 
 had trained himself to humour the patient on every 
 tiny point. 
 
 Nothing could have been more fatal in its results ! 
 Lady Cottar, from being a pleasant, well-read 
 woman of the world, freed from all necessity for 
 restraint, soon became a self-centred, fretful invalid,
 
 EARTH 21 
 
 resenting the slightest opposition to her will, and 
 tyrannising over her household under the shelter of 
 her perpetual ill-health. 
 
 Still pretty, in her faded way, her vanity perpetu- 
 ally fed by her old husband's very genuine admira- 
 tion, she reigned supreme in the big house, rarely 
 venturing forth into society, but content to receive 
 the homage of her own exclusive set of Anglo-Indian 
 friends, to whom Sir John Cottar's name still held 
 the glamour of past years. 
 
 Picture, then, the descent of Diana into the 
 charmed circle. As pagan in her youth and beauty 
 as her namesake of old, alive to her finger-tips with 
 the joy and wonder of life, she appeared vaguely 
 "foreign" to the narrow English minds by virtue of 
 her long schooling abroad, and her very entry pro- 
 voked unflattering comment in the close-shut house 
 of whispers. After her in due course the stream of 
 young life followed school friends from Auteuil, 
 self-conscious in their lengthened skirts ; youths 
 from 'Varsity and crammer, playing tennis and 
 golf ; and more horrific still an untidy class who 
 talked of " atmosphere," the girls shapeless and 
 absorbed, the men with unkempt hair and in- 
 differently clean cuffs. 
 
 It was more than a revolt it was a revolution ! 
 And even the general, who loved this bright, wonder- 
 ful, new daughter of his, rebelled when the art- 
 students appeared upon the scene. 
 
 " You must think of your mother, my dear." It 
 was his endless cry. "Her health is not what it 
 used to be." 
 
 Here was the death-blow to every innovation. 
 
 Then, to add to the general dislocation, jealousy 
 arose, and Lady Cottar, torn from the gentle mono- 
 tony of her days, saw in the father's indulgent eyes
 
 22 EARTH 
 
 a drain upon the full torrent of the husband's 
 devotion. Suspicion once aroused in that narrow 
 and spoilt nature, nothing could stem its course. 
 She spied upon them both, as in earlier days she 
 had spied upon her servants and her friends, detect- 
 ing disloyalty where none flourished, ready to take 
 affront at the barest hint of partisanship. 
 
 Lonely, in her self-inflicted torture, too proud to 
 admit the same, she turned to young Maclaren, her 
 sister's only child. 
 
 Proverbially impecunious, easy-going, and secretly 
 piqued by Diana's open indifference and love of 
 teasing, he rallied to his aunt's standard, seeing in 
 her a very useful ally ; and little by little the 
 house divided against itself, forming two factions 
 Lady Cottar and her nephew, against her own 
 husband and daughter. 
 
 The situation was utterly beyond Diana. What- 
 ever she did was wrong, whatever she said mis- 
 understood ! Only on the rare occasions when her 
 mother entertained was the family peace ensured, and 
 this at the price of the daughter's silent effacement. 
 
 At this juncture Adrienne providentially appeared 
 upon the scene, disconsolate at her husband's de- 
 parture for Tunis, where an interest in salt-mines 
 necessitated an occasional visit. 
 
 Into her cousin's sympathetic ear Diana poured 
 all her woes and disillusions, hiding nothing in the 
 frank confession of failure, but loyally striving to 
 realise some reason for her perpetual cloud of dis- 
 grace. Adrienne, chilled by the climate of her 
 mother's land, doubly conscious of its insular pre- 
 judices since her married life abroad, needed only 
 this last disillusion the portrayal of the vaunted 
 English " home-life " to urge her back across the 
 narrow channel.
 
 EARTH 23 
 
 Hyeres was tempting with its promise of sun- 
 shine ; and the knowledge that it was near Mar- 
 seilles, where Guillaume would eventually land, 
 completed her hastily-conceived scheme for depart- 
 ture. 
 
 But Diana must come too. 
 
 Already the elder woman saw a change in the 
 girl's bright face, a weariness she had never shown 
 in the strenuous days of school, and a sensitive 
 tightening of the childish mouth. For under all 
 her laughing indifference there beat a true and 
 loving heart. 
 
 And into Adrienne's mind there crept the thought 
 of matrimony an early marriage that should save 
 her little cousin long days of misunderstanding and 
 disenchantment. 
 
 So that when Major Rill greeted her in the 
 crowded restaurant car of the C6te d'Azur train, 
 and proclaimed himself not only a fellow-traveller 
 but bound for the same hotel, speedily evincing an 
 interest in her pretty charge, Madame de Verac 
 accepted his presence as a distinct encouragement 
 from a far-seeing Providence. 
 
 The mere fact of their common arrival added a 
 touch of intimacy to the trio, relieving Adrienne 
 from the petty onus of arrangement which she was 
 so accustomed to cast upon her husband's capable 
 shoulders. 
 
 The soldier having stepped so unconsciously into 
 her cherished scheme, Adrienne proceeded quietly 
 to efface herself, pleading one subtle excuse after 
 another to accomplish the inevitable tetes-a-tetes, 
 to which Diana, rejoicing in all her newly-regained 
 liberty, and the sunshine and gaiety she had so 
 sorely missed at home, responded with the im- 
 petuous bon camaraderie of a child.
 
 24 EARTH 
 
 This very afternoon they were bicycling together 
 to explore the lower level by the sea, whilst 
 Adrienne had declined their invitation to accom- 
 pany them on the plea of long-neglected correspon- 
 dence. 
 
 Now, for the first time, she felt a shade of 
 anxiety, as she stood at the window alone, gazing 
 down the darkening drive, divided between her 
 desire to afford the young people every chance, and 
 yet to do her duty as "chaperone to the young 
 person." 
 
 She heard the grating wheels of the station 
 omnibus lumbering up the stony zigzag road, and 
 realised with a frown that the evening train was in, 
 but almost immediately her anxious face cleared. 
 For behind the trunk-laden vehicle two forms ap- 
 peared, and round the next curve paused to wave 
 gaily to the patient figure at the window. 
 
 In vain Adrienne looked for their bicycles. They 
 seemed to have returned on foot, and she was still 
 puzzling over this phenomenon when the door 
 opened, and Diana, flushed and radiant, stood on 
 the threshold. 
 
 " Here we are ! awfully late, I'm afraid but it 
 really wasn't our fault," she began breathlessly. 
 " At least, it wasn't the Ripple's " (so she had 
 christened Rill !) " Fact was, I took a header, and 
 it bent the step, and we had to walk home such a 
 way. We've left the bikes at the shop." She 
 stooped over her cousin, kissing her affectionately. 
 " I do hope you weren't anxious, cherie ? " 
 
 "A header?" queried Adrienne with her faint 
 foreign accent ; " my dear, I hope you aren't hurt?" 
 
 Diana laughed gaily. " Not a bit ! but look here ! " 
 She pointed to a jagged rent in her skirt held 
 together by a gold safety-pin.
 
 EARTH 25 
 
 " That's the Ripple's," she explained, " I mustn't 
 orget to give it back," and went on with her story. 
 
 " We were coming along that road that cuts across 
 the salt-marshes and when we got to the narrow 
 bit with water on either side and you can't turn 
 and your only chance is to keep on down one of 
 the big cart-ruts, I suddenly saw a huge stone in 
 the way. The Ripple was just behind and I forgot 
 and pulled up dead to jump off, but his front wheel 
 caught mine and we all went over together." 
 
 She laughed again at the recollection, but Adrienne 
 frowned. This did not fit in at all with her rosy 
 dream of romance ! 
 
 "And Major Rill? " she inquired, her dark eyes 
 fixed on her cousin's expressive face. 
 
 " Poor old Ripple ! " came the cool, girlish voice. 
 " He was awfully upset he thought he'd killed 
 me!" 
 
 " I don't wonder," said Adrienne, gleaning the 
 slender consolation of the man's distress. " You 
 might both have gone over into the water." She 
 shuddered at the picture evoked. 
 
 " And been turned into a pillar of salt, like Lot's 
 wife," said the incorrigible Diana ; " only this was 
 for not looking ahead." 
 
 She glanced down at her muddy boots. 
 
 " Oh ! my poor carpets ! " Her voice was the 
 exact copy of Lady Cottar's, and Adrienne, after an 
 ineffectual struggle for composure, gave in and 
 laughed aloud. 
 
 " I don't wonder your mother finds you a hand- 
 ful," she added severely. Diana leaned forward, 
 a dimple in each rosy cheek. 
 
 " The Ripple's mud from head to foot," she 
 confided ; " I wiped him down with some grass, and 
 I believe " her voice shook " it made matters
 
 26 EAKTH 
 
 rather worse ! We came in by the back door and 
 he's gone straight to the bathroom ' trailing clouds 
 of glory ' all the way." 
 
 " Well, you've only just time to get ready for 
 dinner yourself." Madame de Ve'rac pointed to the 
 clock. " Put on that pretty blue frock of yours 
 I always love you in that." 
 
 Diana hesitated. 
 
 "Well if you really want me to." She reached 
 the door before she turned again in a final protest, 
 her face clouded over, her eyes anxious. 
 
 "Adrienne . . I'd rather wear my old white." 
 She drew her tattered skirt together with sudden 
 energy, " specially as it's late the other takes such 
 a lot of hooking up ! " 
 
 " As you like ! " said Madame de Verac shortly. 
 For once her pretty face was cross. 
 
 " Quelle enfant ! " she said dejectedly as the door 
 closed with a bang.
 
 EARTH 27 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ANTHOYN RILL stretched his long form 
 comfortably in the low wicker chair, his 
 hat titled over his eyes to shield them 
 from the noonday glare that beat back 
 from the white terrace under his feet. He 
 could feel the sun's strong rays penetrating his 
 flannel suit, and the knowledge that there was 
 nothing on earth to do but laze and laze and laze ! 
 basking in the heavenly warmth, and that far 
 away, in grey London, men muffled in overcoats 
 were hurrying over rain-soaked pavements, com- 
 pleted the drowsy satisfaction of his mood. 
 
 Upon the snowy surface of his immaculate white 
 boots a shadow had alighted, and from under the 
 brim of his panaina he watched with idle curiosity 
 the vagaries of a tiny beetle, which glowed, first 
 bottle-green, then a fine contrasting copper, in its 
 wayward peregrinations. 
 
 The air was so still he could catch at intervals 
 the deep boom of guns at sea ; for the French fleet 
 had steamed up early that morning from Toulon 
 and were practising firing beyond the point of the 
 distant lies d'Or. The vivid blue of sky and sea 
 were veiled in a golden haze, and in the garden 
 below the eucalyptus pods were cracking with a 
 faint, crisp sound, adding their fragrant dust to the 
 sweetness of the mimosa, heavy with bloom and the
 
 28 EARTH 
 
 penetrating odour of the orange-trees. Rill's strong 
 face was tanned to a clear brown. His hair was of 
 that uncertain colour that the French call a " blond 
 cendr6 " and the sunshine brought into life an 
 under-current of red reflection that this particular 
 shade catches in certain lights. 
 
 Since he had left the regiment, he had shaved off 
 his fair moustache, originally for some theatricals 
 in which he had taken part, and this intensified 
 the clean-cut outline of his lean and virile face, 
 giving him rather the keen look of the barrister 
 than the soldier. But he bore the mark of his 
 profession in his upright figure, the set of the well- 
 drilled shoulders and a certain unstudied precision 
 of dress that were unmistakable. 
 
 His mind, detached from the beetle, who after a 
 vast deal of scurrying to and fro had suddenly 
 spread a pair of unsuspected wings and vanished on 
 other ventures afloat, wheeled round from abstract 
 to purely personal matters. 
 
 Too lazy to open the letter which had just arrived 
 and lay with his paper and uncut " Tauchnitz " beside 
 him, he was nevertheless conscious that it touched 
 a definite turning-point in his plans. 
 
 Vaguely, this annoyed him. Lulled by the per- 
 fection of the day he did not choose to contemplate 
 a move. He was very happy as he was. Hyeres 
 was a pleasant place and fate had pitch-forked him 
 into congenial company. And yet he could not 
 decently overlook his original promise to join Jack 
 Darrell in his yacht. He was no great lover of the 
 sea and a sense of cramp stole over him as he 
 thought of the tiny cabin he had already once 
 occupied, and a certain beam in the low ceiling that 
 inevitably interfered with his comfort. 
 
 So that it was with a distinct feeling of relief that
 
 EARTH 29 
 
 he heard a light footstep on the terrace behind him 
 and the cheerful voice of Diana 
 
 " Hullo, Ripple ! well, you do look lazy. No, 
 don't move," as he made a half-hearted attempt to 
 rise, "I'm coming here." 
 
 She settled down into an adjacent chair, with a 
 crisp rustle of her cotton frock, and proceeded to 
 unfurl a business-like-looking holland umbrella lined 
 with green. 
 
 Against this dull background her pretty sun- 
 burnt face laughed down at him, under its waving 
 mass of hair that, like his own, gathered a richer 
 note from the magic light of the south, revealing 
 purple shadows here and there in its wonderful 
 glossy depths. 
 
 Rill's eyes lingered upon her with lazy enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 "Lessons over?" There was mischief in his 
 voice, for he knew it was her habit to read the 
 French paper after dejeuner to Adrienne, who 
 amused herself by correcting any lingering accent 
 that her English cousin retained. "I never saw 
 anyone look so abominably wide-awake ! " 
 
 Her hazel eyes danced, little golden gleams in 
 them, under her curling lashes. 
 
 " So would you on a day like this if you weren't 
 so old ! " 
 
 He stirred a little under the laughing retort, 
 pulling his chair sideways so that he could take in 
 the picture of her in her pink cotton frock, severe 
 as ever in its simple outline, girdled by the inevit- 
 able leather belt, and open at the throat where 
 the embroidered collar was fastened by a quaint 
 old cameo brooch. 
 
 " How nice and clean we are ! " 
 
 " Thank you '. " The girl's laugh rang out at the
 
 30 EABTH 
 
 doubtful compliment. " Adrienne said I looked like 
 a housemaid ! " She fingered the print frock, which, 
 short cut, revealed a well-turned ankle, and one slim 
 high-arched foot carelessly crossed over the other. 
 
 " I'm glad I look clean, anyway ! " 
 
 "Better than last night, what?" He could not 
 resist the pleasure of teasing her. " For a finished 
 rider like yourself to be overcome by the presence 
 of a mere stone in the road " 
 
 She broke in hastily. " Oh, I forgot here's your 
 pin. You should have seen poor Celestine's face 
 when I asked her to mend my skirt ' Mais . . . 
 enfin! Mademoiselle! ' " She mimicked the maid's 
 disgust. "And that's not all the damage look 
 here ! " 
 
 Leaning easily towards him, she extended her 
 round white arm, where the short sleeve of her dress 
 betrayed a damning proof of the accident. 
 
 Obeying a sudden impulse, he took her hand in 
 his own, and the teasing smile faded as he saw the 
 bruise, painfully discoloured, and the long scratch 
 hidden beneath the dimpled elbow. 
 
 " By Jove ! I'd no idea you were really hurt. I'm 
 most awfully sorry why didn't you tell me'?" 
 For a moment he retained the soft fingers in his 
 grasp and from under the brim of his hat his eyes 
 stole up to the laughing unconcern of the pretty face. 
 
 A slight feeling of pique shot through him. More 
 than once had he been puzzled by her absolute lack 
 of coquetry. Flirtation left her untroubled to a 
 degree beyond the limit of his experience. 
 
 He liked women and admitted it frankly. But, 
 as a rule, he confined his friendships to married 
 ones, fearing a matrimonial pitfall beneath the 
 smiles of the debutante. Not that he held any 
 modern theories of " free love " and the like, but in
 
 EARTH 31 
 
 common with many men he looked on marriage as 
 a final " settling-down," to be delayed as long as 
 conveniently possible. Like old age, it was bound 
 to arrive, unless one drifted into the deadly 
 monotony and loneliness of elderly club existence, 
 but " not just yet ! " that was his daily cry. There 
 was time and to spare, and meanwhile plenty of 
 pretty women to flirt with who expected nothing 
 more of a man. 
 
 His own friend Annesley had summed him up 
 frankly when, in discussing Anthony Kill, he had 
 called him " the philanderer." 
 
 " He's not exactly a flirt, and certainly not a rip, 
 but he's got a way with women. They like him 
 and damn it all ! why shouldn't he ? he's just a 
 happy philanderer." 
 
 Now, for once, he was at a loss. 
 
 "No experience with 'flappers' that's what it 
 is, " he told himself, but deep down in his heart 
 there lurked a sense of respect for this clear-eyed, 
 laughing child, heedless of moves in the "great 
 game " ; and as he dropped her cool fingers in re- 
 sponse to her slight, unconscious movement, he 
 felt a transient touch of shame that should have 
 warned him of danger had he troubled to analyse 
 the sensation. 
 
 "Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" He 
 repeated his question. 
 
 "I didn't feel it at the time," said Diana simply; 
 " it's only a bruise, that's all ! And it was fun, 
 wasn't it ? I wonder we didn't both roll over into 
 the salt-marsh." Her voice ran on impetuously. 
 
 "Oh, I forgot to tell you Carquieranne is off! 
 Isn't it a pity ? a lovely day like this, but Adrienne 
 has a headache again and is half afraid of the sun, 
 poor dear! So I've stopped the carriage and the
 
 32 EARTH 
 
 tea and we must have our picnic some other 
 afternoon." 
 
 Rill nodded his head, watching her thoughtfully 
 out of half -shut eyes. 
 
 "Why shouldn't we go on our bikes?" he sug- 
 gested. And as her face lit up at the idea, " It 
 isn't really far," he continued. " The fleet's come 
 up this morning from Toulon you'd like that, 
 wouldn't you? They're only just beyond the 
 bay.' 
 
 He drew himself erect, suddenly imbued with 
 energy. 
 
 " I'll go down into the town and get that step put 
 right. We needn't take tea " man-like he hated 
 all fuss of preparation " there's an inn where 
 we can get some coffee. I suppose your cousin 
 wouldn't mind being left ? " 
 
 Diana hesitated, torn asunder between thought 
 of the invalid and a great longing for adventure. 
 Little did she guess that from behind the closed 
 green shutters above Adrienne was watching them 
 happily, a little song of triumph breaking from her 
 lips, surprisingly cheerful for such a sufferer ! 
 
 " I am sure they make some plan," she was 
 saying to herself, " and the dear child, how happy 
 she looks ! " She turned her keen black eyes on 
 Rill, noting the strength of his supple form, his un- 
 mistakable air of " gentilhomme," which means so 
 much more than its English equivalent. 
 
 " Un beau garc.on and not so cold as he would 
 appear," she commented with Gallic insight, as 
 she rubbed her pink nails energetically with her 
 manicure pad; " enfin " she nodded her head 
 "9ava!" 
 
 She studied her own piquant face for a moment 
 in the sun-spotted mirror before her.
 
 EAKTH 33 
 
 " We are becoming fast a confirmed invalid," she 
 confided to her smiling reflection. 
 
 Then the red lips parted in a yawn as she 
 stretched her arms up sleepily over her head. "Ma 
 foi ! How I wish Guillaume were here ! " 
 
 " Well?" said the soldier, on the terrace below, a 
 little chilled by Diana's indecision. " What's the 
 matter now ? " 
 
 The girl turned perplexed eyes towards him and 
 they fell on the unopened letter by his side. 
 
 "Oh, the post's in," she answered disconnectedly. 
 " I wonder if there's anything for Adrienne. Shall I 
 go and see, and tell her the result? I could then find 
 out how she was and if she'd mind our leaving her." 
 
 She was already on her feet. 
 
 " Try and work it," said Kill, " it's such a lovely 
 day. Besides," his hand went out to his neglected 
 correspondence, " I mayn't be here much longer, 
 I'm afraid. This looks to me like my marching 
 orders." 
 
 Diana checked herself in her flight as though a 
 stone had struck her. 
 
 "You're going away?" 
 
 Impossible to mistake her attitude of dismay, and 
 for the first time during their fortnight of daily com- 
 panionship, he saw a quick flush of colour mount 
 beneath the clear skin. She opened her mouth to 
 speak, as quickly closed it again and was gone, her 
 pink gown fluttering down the glaring whiteness of 
 the terrace. 
 
 Kill watched her vanish thoughtfully. Then, 
 with a sudden squaring of his shoulders, he broke 
 open the envelope, directed in a straggling hand 
 that breathed of haste. 
 
 " He never could write, poor old Jack ! " he re- 
 marked to himself. " I expect this is to say I'm to 
 
 D
 
 34 EAKTH 
 
 join him at Nice or Genoa," and under his breath 
 he added sharply, " confound it ! " 
 
 But, as his eyes ran down the closely-covered 
 sheet, he gave vent to a low whistle of surprise, the 
 news so utterly unlike his prophecy that all other 
 thoughts faded from his mind. 
 
 Married ! Jack Darrell married and sending in 
 his papers ! What on earth did it mean ? Why, 
 the boy must be mad to dream of it. 
 
 Many a time had he sadly regretted his own 
 early retirement, that in a measure had been forced 
 upon him by the state of his health at the time. 
 But that Jack Darrell, with no cursed ill-luck in the 
 shape of an Afridi knife-thrust, should throw up the 
 service in the full glow of youth and vigour at the 
 mere bidding of a girl ! His disgust knew no bounds. 
 And a theatre-girl, too. For so, unjustly, as he 
 read, he designated the beautiful opera singer. 
 " Esterella Rossi " whoever had heard of her ? 
 Only a Lina Cavalieri would have been worthy of 
 the sacrifice ; but an unknown Italian star. . . 
 " Oh ! mad, mad, mad ! " He ground his heel into 
 the pavement, sick at heart over the folly of the 
 affair. 
 
 Then, after a minute, went through the letter 
 again, more steadily : the hurried apologies, the 
 shamefaced attitude of the younger soldier at 
 throwing over his friend. And the bewildering 
 explanation. 
 
 " Fact is, old fellow, I'm married, and off on my 
 honeymoon to-morrow. I don't know what you'll 
 say. In the yacht too that's the infernal cheek 
 of it ! " 
 
 Followed clumsily-worded sentiment, full never- 
 theless of unmistakable sincerity : 
 
 "I heard her sing one night in the half-empty
 
 EAKTH 35 
 
 1 Carlo Fenice ' it was the evening we put in at 
 Genoa and since then I've only had one thought. 
 Oh, I know you'll rot, but I'm too damned happy 
 to care. She's the most beautiful woman in all the 
 world, and what's more, she's mine." 
 
 " Hope she'll remain so ! " said Kill, with quite 
 unusual cynicism. "I never heard such a hare- 
 brained affair in all my life. And Jack a sound 
 chap like that avoided the sex, too. More than 
 one girl's had a shot at him since he came into his 
 money. Jack Darrell a married man ! Good Lord ! 
 it'll be my turn next ! " 
 
 He threw his head back with a laugh of utter 
 scepticism, whole-hearted and shrewd, all the hard 
 side of his nature uppermost. 
 
 And at that moment the window above him opened 
 and Diana's voice fell upon his ear. 
 
 " It's all right, Hippie ; Adrienne says I may go. 
 But we're to be in early." Her face glowed down 
 upon him mischievously between the green shutters. 
 " And no accidents this time." 
 
 The sun-blinds shut with a snap and the corners 
 of the angry man's tightly-closed mouth relaxed. 
 
 "No accidents," he repeated drily, "well I don't 
 think ! " 
 
 He thrust the letter ajvay in his pocket-book and 
 turned his thoughts to the damaged bicycle as he 
 rose to his feet, with a parting tribute to the folly 
 of his erstwhile junior officer : 
 
 " Poor old Jack ! "
 
 36 EARTH 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE private road from the Continental 
 Hotel ran down a steep hill, passing 
 under an archway, and emerged full on 
 the main thoroughfare of the little town. 
 
 Knowing her cousin's love of daring, Adrienne 
 had forbidden her to mount her bicycle until safely 
 across the danger zone of the electric trams. 
 
 So, obediently, Diana and her companion wheeled 
 their machines through the straggling gardens of 
 the hotel. As they passed the tiny villa on the out- 
 skirts of the grounds, they saw a woman's face 
 watching them curiously from the vine-wreathed 
 porch. 
 
 The soldier, after a brief answering glance, averted 
 his steel-gray eyes, conscious, however, of something 
 vaguely familiar in the tall figure that stood there. 
 
 Diana stared frankly back with the curiosity of 
 her age. She was immensely interested in all her 
 neighbours in the big hotel. 
 
 " That's Mrs. Maxeter," she informed him, as 
 they turned the corner by the gate ; " don't you 
 remember her and her long white gloves and her 
 ' party fan ' ? " 
 
 Her voice rose gaily, as she corrected herself. 
 
 " Oh, of course, you were out that night. She 
 came in to listen to the band and have coffee with 
 the fat woman with the little husband who sit at
 
 EAETH 37 
 
 the next table to us. You should have seen her, 
 she was gorgeous ! " 
 
 People dressed very quietly at the Continental, and 
 the advent of Mrs. Maxeter in a casino frock that 
 evening had created quite a stir in the half empty 
 lounge. 
 
 "Who is she? " asked Kill; "it's odd but I seem 
 to know her face." He searched his memory as 
 they passed under the arch, crossing the tram-lines 
 on foot and proceeded to mount their bicycles in 
 one of the narrow roads leading out of the 
 town. 
 
 "A Mrs. Maxeter that's all I know. At least" 
 she paused to adjust her skirt and continued, smil- 
 ing at the sudden recollection " I can tell you a 
 funny story about them that I heard from Margot 
 Bowring, that day I lunched with her at the Golf 
 Hotel. Mrs. Maxeter was there with her husband 
 such a funny, grubby-looking little man ! and I 
 asked who they were. They come from Suffolk, it 
 seems " 
 
 Rill's face cleared suddenly. 
 
 " I've got it," he cried, breaking in upon her 
 story. " The Foljambe's governess ! of course ! 
 I knew I'd seen her somewhere before. I beg your 
 pardon, do go on." 
 
 "A governess?" Diana's eyes began to dance; 
 " that's why she gives herself such airs ! Well, 
 anyhow, it seems they come here regularly and join 
 the golf. And last year he left his old red coat in 
 the club, a dreadful worn-out garment, fit for 
 nothing, and when they opened the place in October, 
 the caddy master found it still hanging there and 
 seeing it was too old and dirty for words, concluded 
 it wasn't wanted and threw it away." 
 
 She paused for a moment as they swung round
 
 38 EARTH 
 
 the sharp bend under the railway-bridge of the little 
 local line. 
 
 " But it seems he's very economical, this Mr. 
 Maxeter, and the first thing he did on arriving this 
 season was to ask for his red coat. And there was 
 a terrible fuss ! At last a caddy found it reposing 
 on the dust heap at the back of the golf-house 
 and . . ." 
 
 She turned her head towards her companion, her 
 face radiant with mischief. 
 
 " He's wearing it now ! " she cried. 
 
 The major laughed heartily. 
 
 " Poor little man ! You forget he's got to pay for 
 those long white gloves. I remember all about the 
 fair lady now. She used to teach the Foljambe 
 youngsters and flirt with the old colonel, or try to 
 rather hard work, I should say. But eventually 
 she found a better prey and captured the vicar him- 
 self Maxeter, that was the fellow's name, of course. 
 He must have given up the living ; I remember he 
 wasn't popular, too high church for that quiet 
 country place." 
 
 " Oh, but he isn't a parson any longer," said 
 Diana quickly. " Margot Bowring told me. He 
 went over to Rome some years ago, and of course, 
 being married, you see, there was no chance for him 
 in the opposite camp." 
 
 " What a blow for his wife," said Rill, thought- 
 fully. " She was a good-looking woman ; fine eyes 
 and an assured manner. Poor Mrs. Foljambe didn't 
 quite appreciate it sometimes ! " 
 
 He smiled at the recollection. " That's years ago 
 now." 
 
 " Oh, she must be quite old," said Diana with the 
 unconscious cruelty of youth. " I often see her 
 about with the fat woman who has the sitting-room
 
 EARTH 39 
 
 next door to ours. She amuses me too. Haven't 
 you seen her coming down to dinner always with 
 one hand on her little husband's shoulder ? (who, 
 I'm sure, is not up to the weight !) She looks like 
 'Mrs. Be-done-by-as-you-did ' in the 'Water-babies,' 
 dragging poor little Tom down to be birched ! 
 Celestine, who seems to know every thing, told me last 
 night that they're only just married ; isn't it killing ? " 
 
 "Very, I should think, by the look of him," said 
 Bill with a laugh. He went on, a shade hastily, 
 changing the subject 
 
 "Can you smell the violets?" as their way led 
 them between fields of blooming plants filling the 
 air around with the very essence of spring. 
 
 Diana, throwing her head back, sniffed delightedly. 
 " Isn't it good ? oh, I do love this place ! Fancy 
 being in England now, the damp and the greyness 
 and the indoor life." 
 
 She shivered at the bare thought, then reverting 
 to the forsaken topic : 
 
 "Well, I was telling you; what do you think their 
 name is ? ' Brown-Bunnett.' Isn't it delicious ? 
 I call them the brown bunnies. And she's fright- 
 fully jealous of him, that ugly sandy little man ! 
 This morning I was out on the balcony which 
 adjoins theirs, trying to see the fleet, and he came 
 out on his, and was so polite. He offered me his 
 field-glasses and I was just getting them focussed, 
 when I heard a voice from the room beyond 
 
 " ' Airchie . . . Airchie ! ' (she's vera Scotch, 
 ye ken !) ' It's too warm for ye out there, I'm 
 thinking.' 
 
 "If you'd seen that poor little man! he jumped 
 as if he'd been caught red-handed. 
 
 " ' I'm coming, my dear, this vera minute,' he 
 called out obediently.
 
 40 EAETH 
 
 " But of course I had the glasses and he didn't 
 like to go back without them and I held on like 
 grim death, pretending I hadn't heard the summons. 
 
 " ' How beautifully blue the sea is,' I said as he 
 fidgeted about, ' and what excellent glasses ! I can 
 see the little puff of smoke each time they fire and 
 . . . sometimes a splash.' 
 
 " ' Airchie ! ' came again, more severely from 
 behind the shutters." 
 
 Diana mimicked the impatient voice, to Rill's 
 delight, as the bicycles swung on steadily side by 
 side. 
 
 " And then the brown bunny appeared herself, in 
 a big white apron ; you never saw such a sight, and 
 that untidy hair of hers all over the place. So I 
 handed back the glasses to ' Airchie ' and said as 
 sweetly as ever I could 
 
 " ' Thank you so much it has been most in- 
 teresting. ' 
 
 " You should have seen her furious face ! she 
 simply glared at me. So I glared back at the 
 apron, as well I might ! She looked most ex- 
 traordinary, like an old nurse. Perhaps she was 
 going to give the little man his tub ! " 
 
 She jumped lightly off her bicycle as they came to 
 the steep hill by San Salvadour. 
 
 " Let's walk up, it's too hot for words." 
 
 Rill had laughed heartily over her story. 
 
 " You'll be getting yourself disliked one of these 
 days," he warned her ; " ' Airchie ' will lose his little 
 heart to you and then there'll be a horrible tragedy. 
 Supposing he did ? " 
 
 His voice grew suddenly curious, his eyes half- 
 mockingly fixed on her fair, flushed face which glowed 
 between the folds of her pink motor-veil like the 
 very heart of a rose.
 
 EABTH 41 
 
 " Did what ? " asked Diana, serenely. 
 
 "Fell in love with you. Seriously now?" said 
 the man. 
 
 " What nonsense ! " said Diana, undisturbed ; 
 "people don't fall in love like that." 
 
 " Don't they ? " Bill was highly diverted. 
 
 Diana turned an astonished face towards him. 
 'Why, you're as bad as the German girls at school ! " 
 
 Her breath came in little pants, as the dust 
 whirled up round them on the steep incline. 
 
 Bill reached across and took the handle-bar of her 
 machine in his other hand. 
 
 " Two are as easy to wheel as one," he remarked 
 cheerfully. " I'll push these and you talk. It's a 
 fair division of labour on a hill like this." 
 
 Then, as she showed signs of rebellion, he went 
 on quickly 
 
 " Why am I like a German girl ? I should like 
 the answer to the riddle." 
 
 Diana was no wit abashed. 
 
 " Oh, they always talked like that. It's all they 
 thought about, falling in love and cooking ! " Her 
 voice was eloquent of her disgust. " If it wasn't the 
 dancing-master it was the professor of elocution, 
 and once they were caught writing notes to the man 
 who brought the bread ! " 
 
 " Combining their two weaknesses," suggested 
 the soldier, " love and baking." 
 
 But Diana was too indignant to laugh. 
 
 " That settled it," she said hotly; " we got together 
 a committee and formed a club all the English 
 girls came in and a lot of the French. It became in 
 the end a sort of games society ; we fixed up matches 
 and competitions, but the main idea was that any 
 girl who talked nonsense was tabooed nonsense 
 about love, I mean all that sickly German stuff ! "
 
 42 EARTH 
 
 " You belonged, of course?" Rill looked at her 
 keenly, a little surprised at this unexpected aspect 
 of a school for girls. 
 
 " I was captain, the second year," said Diana 
 simply. 
 
 They reached the summit of the hill in a silence 
 that neither realised. 
 
 The man felt suddenly out of his depths, conscious 
 too, with a curious hint of pain, of the years that 
 rolled between them. 
 
 How young she was how very fresh and young ! 
 This was new country indeed for the philanderer's 
 daring footsteps ; full of unexplored turnings, un- 
 sounded rivers that stopped him dead at the entrance 
 to those orchards serenely blossoming afar. 
 
 Younger steps than his would surely find the way ; 
 that subtle bridge of sympathy, too frail for ex- 
 perienced feet. 
 
 He brushed the thought aside with a faint sensa- 
 tion of weariness as they free-wheeled down the 
 series of gentle declines that brought them at length 
 in sight of Carquieranne, and turning by the deserted 
 station rode slowly down the dusty village street. 
 
 The scattered cottages, each with their strip of 
 parched garden, where here and there a peach-tree 
 still prided itself in its pearly mass of blossom, 
 seemed void of life in the noonday heat, save for a 
 scuttling hen or dusty mongrel that slunk away at 
 the approach of their shining wheels ; and once as 
 they passed the village forge came a sudden ruddy 
 glow and the sharp sound of hammered iron broke 
 through the drowsy sheath of silence. 
 
 But for this the country lay fast asleep. 
 
 " Are you ready for tea ? " 
 
 Rill's voice scattered the train of thought set in 
 motion by reference to her old school-days and
 
 EARTH 43 
 
 Diana looked up with a little start at the sudden 
 question. 
 
 "Tea?" She came back to the present. "It's 
 rather early yet, isn't it'?" Her eyes caught a 
 glimpse of the open sea beyond. " Can't we leave 
 our bicycles somewhere and explore a little first ? " 
 
 Eill nodded his head, ready as ever to fall in with 
 her desire. 
 
 " We'll take them to the inn and tell them we'll 
 be back for some coffee later. It's just round the 
 corner of the street." 
 
 His own thoughts had flown back to Jack Darrell 
 and that amazing marriage. He felt tempted to 
 ask the young girl's opinion of the romance, but 
 reserved it for a more propitious occasion. 
 
 " Here we are Hotel de la Plage. How grand 
 it sounds ! And absolutely deserted, of course. I 
 shall call this No Man's land." 
 
 But at last they found an astonished waiter, con- 
 signed their machines to his charge, propping them 
 up in the shade of the sun-peeled verandah, and 
 set forth in the direction of the beach, towards the 
 distant jetty where the boats, moored together, 
 slumbered peacefully on the still and sleepy sea. 
 
 The " plage " ended abruptly in a ragged heap 
 of rocks that cut off all further view, black and 
 imposing against the deep blue of the sky. 
 
 " I'd like to get over that," said Diana, " and see 
 what lies beyond." 
 
 "You wouldn't rather have a boat and row round ?" 
 suggested Rill. 
 
 She hesitated, weighing the idea thoughtfully. 
 
 "Well unless you really prefer it I'd sooner 
 walk. It's not much of a climb and one gets so 
 cramped bicycling." 
 
 Rill smiled at her energy a little ruefully.
 
 44 EARTH 
 
 " All right we'll walk." For to-day at least her 
 will was his. 
 
 She smiled up at him gratefully, loosening her 
 motor-veil from under her chin, and they fell into 
 step together, Diana striding manfully beside the 
 long-legged man. The gentle breeze from the sea 
 played tricks with the cotton frock, swelling the 
 pink skirt into a crinoline, and the girl laughed 
 as she smoothed it down with her little brown 
 hands. 
 
 " How awful it must have been to live in the days 
 of ' hoops.' When I see the old pictures by Leech 
 I am thankful that I was born a generation later. 
 Fancy wearing ringlets and fainting at the sight of 
 a mouse! " 
 
 "That wouldn't have suited you" 
 
 Rill glanced at the slim figure beside him, instinct 
 with life and vigour, and the wild-rose face with its 
 straight fearless gaze. 
 
 ' My grandmother wore ringlets " her voice was 
 absent as her eyes drank in the picture of the shel- 
 tered bay with its huddled white houses where the 
 fisher-folk lived "fastened in with little combs at 
 the side." 
 
 " That was your father's mother? " He filled in 
 the pause that followed. 
 
 " No Grannie Bretherton. She used to live at 
 Brighton, out Kemp Town way. When mother 
 went back to India I stayed with her for a time. 
 But I always went to Grannie Cottar for the 
 summer." 
 
 She stopped suddenly, screwing up her dark-lashed 
 eyes to take in effects of light and shade in the scene 
 before her. 
 
 " Grannie Cottar kept bees," she went on 
 dreamily, her thoughts manifestly far away.
 
 EARTH 45 
 
 Rill stifled a sudden desire to laugh, realising the 
 seriousness of the young face. 
 
 " She was a dear" said Diana slowly. All her 
 heart was in her voice. " She's dead now." 
 
 They walked on in a silence full of sympathy, 
 skirted the jetty, and found themselves below the 
 mass of rocks. 
 
 " Why bees? " said Rill gently, fearing to snap the 
 unusual softness of her mood. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. It was a hobby of hers. 
 She thought them more intelligent than people." 
 
 A quaint reminiscent smile parted her lips. 
 
 " It's funny how little things stand out in one's 
 memory. I remember so well the day that I got 
 stung I'd always been warned not to go near 
 the hives . . ." 
 
 She paused to climb up the first of the big boulders 
 that mounted upwards like a miniature pyramid, dis- 
 daining Rill's outstretched hand with a determined 
 shake of her head. The soldier, smiling to himself, 
 let her have her way, and soon they had surmounted 
 the pile and scrambled down on to the beach beyond, 
 a tiny sheltered cove where the pebbles gave place 
 to sand, smooth and golden, under their feet. 
 
 " Oh isn't this nice ? " Diana drew in her breath 
 with a sigh of delight. " I knew there'd be something 
 good this side let's sit down and enjoy it." 
 
 She suited the action to the words, her back 
 against the rocks, her hands clasped around her 
 knees, with her face turned, full of wonder, towards 
 the glory of the shining sea. 
 
 " Just smell it ! . . ." she took a deep breath 
 of the fresh salted air " isn't it simply heavenly ? " 
 
 Rill nodded his head, sprawling at full length be- 
 side her on the firm sparkling sand. He picked up 
 a handful and let it run through his fingers.
 
 46 EARTH 
 
 "And the tragedy," he reminded her, "the day 
 you were stung?" 
 
 " Oh, that" she laughed, amused by his persis- 
 tence " it's not a story there's nothing in it. 
 Only I always remember the incident on account of 
 something my old grannie said. And I found it 
 again afterwards, written on the fly-leaf of one of 
 the books she left me." She paused with a shade 
 of hesitation in her voice. 
 
 " Let's hear," said Rill persuasively. He looked 
 up at her out of his lazy grey eyes, and after a second 
 she responded to the glance. 
 
 " Well " she gathered her thoughts together 
 " there was a boy who used to come over and play 
 from the nearest place to ours. It was right in the 
 depths of the country, you know, miles from a town, 
 and oddly enough he was another ' only child ' with 
 his parents away in India. So we fraternised. 
 Grannie was very good to him, and we were allowed 
 to play anywhere except near the hives. But one 
 day Jack and I thought we'd risk it, and we went 
 down to the forbidden corner of the orchard. It 
 was a sunny day, and the bees were very busy, and 
 we stood for a time watching them. I remember 
 there was a fat chap, all yellow with pollen, trying 
 to crawl in at the little door, and we got a walnut 
 leaf and blocked his way just for fun. But in the 
 end, as I was holding the leaf and he was fussing and 
 spuffling, another bee got under my hand and stung 
 me. 
 
 " Jack was awfully worried, and he went straight 
 to grannie and took all the blame. He was always 
 like that a thorough sportsman ! But grannie 
 simply sent for the blue-bag and didn't scold at all. 
 All she said was, ' This comes of interfering with 
 Dame Nature.' Jack said something about ' punish-
 
 EARTH 47 
 
 ment/ and grannie laughed. I can see her now 
 with her soft white hair and hazel eyes such young 
 eyes, always twinkling with fun . . ."A tremor 
 came into Diana's voice : there was no mistaking 
 the depths of her affection. " And then she quoted 
 the words I found in the old book. ' In Nature 
 there are neither rewards nor punishments, but only 
 consequences.' I've always remembered somehow." 
 
 All the mockery had died out oi the man's face, and 
 with it the suggestion of the hardness it wore at times. 
 
 " It's jolly true," he said slowly, " when you come 
 to figure it out." 
 
 He reached a long arm across for a tiny shell 
 that gleamed like a pink pearl on its bed of sand, 
 and alter a moment's observation, dropped it lightly 
 into the girl's lap. 
 
 "And who was Jack?" his mind swung back to 
 the letter from his friend " besides being Jack of 
 the Bee-stalk." 
 
 Diana laughed, her temporary gravity thrown to 
 the four winds of heaven. 
 
 " He'd be amused if he heard you call him that. 
 He's very much grown up now, and a ' soljer man ' 
 I believe I haven't seen him for years." 
 
 " A soldier ? " The coincidence was startling, and 
 Rill raised himself on his elbow and repeated the 
 question. 
 
 " You haven't told me his name ? " 
 
 Diana, surprised at his sudden curiosity, gazed 
 back at him teasingly. She picked up the pink shell 
 and weighed it in her hand. " Do you really want 
 to know ? " 
 
 " Please," said the Ripple, with mock humility. 
 
 " Well . . ." said Diana slowly then with a 
 little laugh at his look of eager suspense, " his 
 other name was Darrell," she answered.
 
 48 EAETH 
 
 CHAPTEK V 
 
 THE dim London day was drawing to a 
 close, and Lady Cottar in the warm morn- 
 ing-room the one really cheerful corner 
 of the great gloomy house lay back 
 wearily against the soft cushions of the sofa. 
 
 The rose-coloured silk that covered them threw 
 into gentle relief the pearly grey of her favourite 
 tea-gown and added a faint glow of colour to her 
 finely-cut features. At her feet nestled a tiny 
 "Pekingese" the sworn enemy of Buchanan, the 
 cat and his prominent eyes were fixed in a senti- 
 mental stare on the tea-table beside him, where, on 
 the massive silver tray, a cup of China tea, especially 
 prepared and poured off the leaves, was sending up 
 a fragrant reminder of the five o'clock hour. 
 
 Lady Cottar helped herself to a pellet of saccha- 
 rine her last doctor but one had strongly condemned 
 sugar and proceeded to butter a slice of dry toast, 
 placed by the attentive Morgan within easy reach of 
 her hand. 
 
 Diana's last letter, somewhat marred by the 
 treachery of foreign note-paper, lay open on her 
 knee, and the mother's mind had drifted back by a 
 slow train of thought to the years that were past, 
 when the straggling round-hand had brought not 
 only a throb of loving solicitude to her heart but 
 rosy dreams of the future, when her little daughter
 
 EABTH 49 
 
 should return from the long schooling abroad to 
 become her chief companion and consolation. 
 
 As usual, she repeated her thoughts aloud, whilst 
 the Pekingese lent an attentive ear, ever on the alert 
 for the magic word of " sugar." 
 
 " When I think of my life . . ." Lady Cottar 
 sighed, stirring the China tea, " and of all the 
 sacrifices I have made for my only child ... of 
 the education she has had . . . the luxury . . . 
 the forethought . . ." she paused sadly to sip the 
 cooling tea " I feel cut to the heart by her want of 
 appreciation." 
 
 "Wang Cho " writhed under her pathetic glance, 
 and made a futile effort to lick the outstretched 
 hand that lay, a picture in itself, with its fine Indian 
 rings enshrined in the delicate laces of her gown. 
 
 " I cannot understand the child," the weary 
 voice ran on, as its owner gently caressed the round 
 golden head of the little creature beside her. " She 
 seems so cold, so secretive, so unlike what I was as 
 a girl. She certainly does not resemble me, nor 
 her poor father either." Thus, for some unknown 
 reason, she invariably alluded to the general. 
 
 A sudden vision of Grannie Cottar, with the 
 strange contradiction of her white hair and youthful 
 hazel eyes, rose up before her, and she drew in her 
 breath sharply with a tightening of the lips. 
 
 "Yes that's where she gets it." Her face 
 darkened at the thought ; for there had been no 
 love lost between herself and her mother-in-law. 
 " She was always so ... eccentric ! " 
 
 And in the utterance of that cryptic and pregnant 
 word she threw all the accumulated prejudice of her 
 own narrow upbringing. 
 
 " So unlike my dear mother," she sighed, gazing 
 down absently at Wang Cho, who, sick with hope 
 
 E
 
 50 EAKTH 
 
 deferred, had resumed his hypnotic stare at the 
 silver sugar-bowl. 
 
 Indeed, Diana's grandmothers had presented a 
 striking contrast, vivid enough to compel even the 
 child's secret wonder. Lady Cottar's pale blue 
 eyes drifted across to a portrait in water-colour that 
 was suspended over the fireplace, in which an 
 elderly lady with immaculate faded ringlets and a 
 lavender silk gown whose ample folds threatened 
 to overflow the entire foreground was receiving 
 the studied caresses of a pair of sylph-like maidens, 
 in white hooped frocks, impossibly sloping shoulders 
 and contrasting curls of gold and brown, who were 
 leaning on either side of the central figure in a con- 
 fused coil of bare and slender arms somehow re- 
 miniscent of the classic embarrassments of the 
 Laocoon. 
 
 At the memories the picture evoked her mind 
 leaped the intervening years and she saw herself 
 back again in the big Kemp Town house, wearing 
 that very sash and bow and the tight " Jemima " 
 boots, discreetly veiled with their little frills of lace. 
 
 Those were the days of draped piano-legs, of 
 tatting, archery, and religious revivals ! Brighton 
 had been on the crest of fashion's wave : balls at 
 the Pavilion and private "routs," parties every- 
 where. And no gay gathering had been complete 
 without Mrs. Bretherton and her two beautiful 
 daughters. All the gossiping and the flirting, the 
 meetings on the Parade, and the long nightly con- 
 fidences in the pleasant bedroom that the sisters 
 shared, rose up before her in overwhelming recol- 
 lection. 
 
 Through it all, like the dog in the fair, the 
 widowed mother with her immaculate ringlets had 
 threaded her way, parading her daughters' charms,
 
 EAETH 51 
 
 secretly advising their behaviour, living her own 
 foolish young life over again in the excitement of 
 their fluttering progress. 
 
 When Medora, the younger of the pair, finally 
 attracted the attention of gallant young Captain 
 Cottar, it was on Mrs. Bretherton's ample bosom 
 that she laid her blushing face and confessed with 
 sobs of joy how "terribly she loved him! " And 
 when the handsome Bertha, not to be behind her 
 " darling little sister " in the full flood of mutual 
 confidence, had made a similar announcement of 
 "the things" that young Maclaren of the well- 
 established firm of Maclaren, Maclaren and Vox 
 had breathed into her pearly ear, they had all wept 
 together and enjoyed the crowning evening of their 
 lives. 
 
 Lady Cottar's own eyes grew moist at the happy 
 memory they were such a " united family " she 
 heaved a tremulous sigh. 
 
 And now Diana ! 
 
 The contrast was bewildering. Here were no 
 tears, no conquests no whispered secrets. She 
 might have been a boy ! 
 
 " She never confides in me," the mother fretfully 
 complained, heedless of the patent fact that Diana 
 had nothing to confide. 
 
 " She's so still," said Lady Cottar, " one never 
 knows what she thinks." 
 
 But when the girl had once shyly unveiled the 
 inmost shrine of her heart, showing her god of 
 painting enthroned on his high altar of art, together 
 with that ambition she hid from all the world be- 
 side, it was to meet with her mother's utter lack 
 of interest, to be told pleasantly but firmly that, 
 " now her school-days were over," she must think 
 of other things.
 
 52 EARTH 
 
 Her sense of humour, for once, would not answer 
 to the call. 
 
 "Just as if it had been sums!" Diana had sobbed 
 into Buchanan's comfortable coat. " What's the 
 good . . ." she choked back the rarely-permitted 
 tears, " of telling . . . mother . . . any- 
 thing ; " 
 
 And her sanctuary violated, she had closed the 
 door for good. Nevertheless, had Lady Cottar but 
 guessed it, Diana suffered likewise from loneliness, 
 the deep, unvoiced loneliness of youth, longing for 
 love and sympathy from her side of the wide gulf 
 between them as ardently as the disappointed 
 parent herself, fully conscious of her failure to please, 
 and, in her very anxiety to avoid all painful discus- 
 sion, drifting farther and farther away from that 
 home-life she had looked forward to with such an 
 eager longing. 
 
 Innately honest, she could not always agree. 
 And to disagree with her mother was to invoke the 
 storm. It was better to hold one's tongue and seek 
 for sympathy outside. Only Grannie Cottar would 
 have understood. In her moments of deep despair, 
 when she felt out of place, a jarring presence in the 
 quiet house, the memory of that clever old face, 
 with its thoughtful brow and merry human eyes, 
 would overwhelm Diana with the knowledge of her 
 loss. Conscious of a strong likeness between them, 
 she passed on to her father a full measure of the 
 love her grandmother had lavished upon her. But 
 in secret, almost furtively, knowing that to usurp 
 any of his attention was to awaken jealousy and 
 bring down on the general's head a portion of the 
 cloud that hung over her own. 
 
 Adrienne was her one strong rock of defence. 
 
 But Adrienne lived in France, that golden land
 
 EARTH 53 
 
 where the sun shone and people wore a smile in- 
 stead of a superior air of gloom and dared to laugh 
 aloud, kissing each other warmly on both cheeks 
 as if they really liked it! ate badly, perhaps, but 
 talked on every topic, breaking boldly away from the 
 morning paper and a study of the weather. 
 
 So different from the English from the set rules 
 that bordered a " lady's " conduct at home. " Why 
 can't they live and be alive ? " cried Diana from the 
 depths of her cramped young soul. Here, alas! was 
 no orthodox young person ! And 
 
 " Hush ! " came the mother's shocked accents. 
 "How often have I not told you, Diana, to moderate 
 your voice ? " 
 
 The girl, hot-blooded and unappeased, would fly 
 to her outdoor games anywhere to escape from 
 the stifling atmosphere of home, where even Morgan 
 wore a look of suppressed rebellion, and her father 
 glanced anxiously across the table before venturing 
 on a second helping of " hash." 
 
 " And mother isn't a bit happy, when all's said 
 and done ! " That was the climax that crowned 
 her despair. " Whatever we all do, she seems to 
 feel ill-used." 
 
 " Duty " and " Decorum " these were her mother's 
 gods; and under the grim folds of the united 
 banner, Lady Cottar was blind to her own un- 
 doubted egoism, serving her tyrants to the limit of 
 her endurance, lashing her household into an 
 obedience as unswerving as her own. 
 
 " Whatever 's unpleasant is ' Duty,' " Diana had 
 summed it up; " whatever's unnecessary, ' De- 
 corum." 1 
 
 Worn-out with her perpetual burden of super- 
 vision, never wholly at rest, totally unable to dis- 
 sociate herself from material matters, Lady Cottar's
 
 54 EAETH 
 
 life was one long " fret," not only fatal to her own 
 nerves but unhinging to those around her. 
 
 A "hobby" might have saved her a love of 
 gardening, a love of books. But the only thing 
 approaching to it was a study of her own health, 
 and even this latter was prone to be offered up at 
 the mandate of her imperious gods. 
 
 Diana, keenly sensitive to moral atmosphere, 
 despite her youth an idealist at heart, found herself 
 fatally involved in the struggle. 
 
 Her anxious offers of help met with an almost 
 scornful refusal on the score of her inexperience. 
 But behind that lay the fact that her mother 
 dreaded any infringement on her absolute monarchy. 
 
 What was to be done? If only Grannie Cottar 
 had been alive ! the cry rose daily from Diana's 
 soul to say the right thing, to plead with the 
 authority of her white hair and the deep love of her 
 strong and wise old heart. She had always "under- 
 stood." Through all the dividing years she had 
 never misjudged the child. May and December, it 
 was true. But there is often more sympathy be- 
 tween the pair than is felt by July for her nearer 
 rival September. 
 
 Once the old have retired from the crowded 
 stage of life, they watch with interest, untinged 
 with envy, the progress of the eager young players 
 who follow in their wake. 
 
 But Lady Cottar still curtsied with grace in the 
 centre of the scene ; and Diana, with her innocent 
 allurement of health and youth, for all her in- 
 experience held the danger of a sister " star." 
 Neither of them would have admitted it to a single 
 living soul, but both were conscious of the unspoken 
 rivalry. 
 
 In her honest heart Diana felt that her mother
 
 EARTH 55 
 
 had had her day had been beautiful, successful, 
 admired ; had lived her own young life under 
 Grannie Bretherton's fondly indulgent wing. 
 
 Why, then, should she grudge her daughter the 
 same golden inheritance the bright butterfly-days 
 she had passed through herself? 
 
 And across the gulf of years the mother, still 
 conscious of her charm and the added strength of 
 her position, shuddered at the thought of the 
 slightest abdication. 
 
 "What? with all my experience, my knowledge 
 of the world, to make room for a mere slip of a 
 child ? Never ! " Here was war to the knife. 
 
 Between them, fond and harassed, stood the 
 general, and behind, suave and conciliating, the 
 shadow of Walter Maclaren. 
 
 " 'E knows which side 'is bread is buttered," old 
 Morgan assured the cook ; " 'e don't give h' all for 
 nothink, trust 'im ! And h'as for the young leddy, 
 she 'as my symperthy 'tain't a 'ouse fer young 
 folk no 'ow ! " 
 
 " Reckon 'er '11 do well ter marry," responded 
 worthy Mrs. Simpson, mother of six. She folded 
 her fat hands complacently over her well-lined 
 apron. " An' the first one as arsks 'er, too. That's 
 'ow Miss Diana '11 be wed. P'raps 'tis the Lord's will." 
 
 She measured the sugar with a careful hand into 
 the kitchen basin conscious of the inexorable rule 
 of supply divorced from demand ! 
 
 Many a marriage had been made this way. Her 
 philosophical old mind caught dimly at a settled 
 plan of creation ; some unseen working of Nature 
 that drove the young from out the nest to mate and 
 reproduce and empty the nest again. 
 
 She gave a comfortable sigh as she settled the 
 scanty lumps.
 
 56 EAKTH 
 
 " 'Tis beet, I'll be bound too blue fer proper 
 sugar. Ain't that the missus all over ? paring and 
 scraping where there ain't no need, an' wearing 'er- 
 self to a thread which we've all on us got ter pay 
 for! An' the general bless 'is ole 'eart ! 'ud give 
 'er anythin'k ! But she don't see it not she ! " 
 
 She threw some coal on the fire with a clatter of 
 disgust, and peered into the deep oven mistrustfully 
 at a diminutive kitchen cake ; then drawing her 
 portly figure erect, summed up succinctly 
 
 " They ain't poor not by a long way 'specially 
 since the ole leddy died. " It's just fidgets and a 
 sort of 'ousekeeping pride. They've every think 
 for 'appiness as I can see. And yet some 'ow 
 they jest misses it ! " 
 
 Upstairs, in the warm and dainty room, Lady 
 Cottar, by long and circuitous routes, had arrived at 
 the same profound conclusion. She wiped a tear 
 away from the corner of her pale blue eyes, and 
 gathering up the Pekingese in her arms laid her thin 
 face against its silky coat. 
 
 " There's no happiness anywhere," she cried " no 
 love ... no confidence. Sometimes I wish 
 that I were dead ! " 
 
 Faintly she heard the sound below of the front 
 door closing, and pulled herself together with a 
 start ; then the echo of her husband's step, mount- 
 ing heavily upstairs. The door opened gently, and 
 the old face appeared the hazel eyes so like Diana's 
 own filled with an almost wistful expectancy. 
 
 "You there, my love?" He advanced noiselessly 
 into the pretty room, with its shaded lights and 
 comfortable couch, drawn up beside the blaze of 
 the log-fire. " How nice you look." He stooped 
 and kissed his wife fondly and patted the little dog. 
 " Now, I could just do with a cup of tea. That is,"
 
 EAKTH 57 
 
 he added the saving clause, " if you've any to 
 spare." 
 
 He pulled an arm-chair forward into the warmth 
 and held his rheumatic old hands towards the fire. 
 
 " And how d'you feel this afternoon ? " 
 
 " Tired," said Lady Cottar. She gave a discon- 
 tented little laugh. " But that's nothing new ! " 
 
 The general sighed, gulping his tepid tea with a 
 tightening at his heart. Full well he recognised 
 the mood. 
 
 " Ah well," he said, " the weather's very trying. 
 I wish you were down in the south." For his eyes 
 had fallen on the letter she still held. 
 
 " I see you've heard from the child ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Lady Cottar. She gathered the un- 
 tidy sheets together. " She seems to be having her 
 usual good time. Adrienne spoils her, I'm afraid ; 
 and there's a Major Rill she writes about who 
 appears to have joined the party. Do you know 
 the name ? " 
 
 " Bill ? " said the general, venturing on a piece of 
 toast. "Why, yes. He belongs to my club if that's 
 the same chap tall, clean-shaven a nice fellow 
 did well in some frontier trouble some years ago " 
 he tapped his forehead thoughtfully "retired 
 afterwards. Pity ! but I believe it was health." 
 
 " He seems well enough now," his wife said, with 
 a faint smile. Diana had faithfully recounted their 
 bicycling exploits, with a generous appreciation of 
 the word " kilometre." " She's full of Jack 
 Darrell's marriage too, that little boy who used to 
 play with her at Tenterleigh. It seems he's a 
 mutual friend, and belongs to Major Rill's old 
 regiment." 
 
 The general listened attentively, and seeing the 
 direction of Wang Cho's imploring gaze, rewarded
 
 58 EARTH 
 
 the little dog with his long-coveted lump of 
 sugar. 
 
 " I've heard my dear mother speak of the Darrells. 
 They were neighbours of hers. Oddly enough they 
 were discussing his marriage at the club to-day. It 
 seems a great mistake ! some unknown Italian 
 singer. The boy's not thirty yet ! " He caught his 
 wife's eye and smiled, remembering his own early 
 attachment. " A fatal age, eh ? Well . . ." Awk- 
 wardly he leaned towards her, and his knotted 
 fingers stole out and covered her slender hand. 
 " Thank God, I've never regretted the step." 
 
 A faint flush crept up into the delicate face so 
 near his own. 
 
 "Sure?" There was hunger in the words, a 
 pitiful half-smile on the thin tremulous lips. 
 
 For all answer the old man stooped his grey 
 head and kissed her, a world of silent loyalty in the 
 action. 
 
 " A hard time of it I had to persuade you," he 
 told her gallantly. " Lord ! what a pretty girl you 
 were. Far prettier than your sister, or than the 
 child will ever be," he concluded, with a quaint 
 note in his voice, almost one of triumph. 
 
 Unconsciously he had paid her the highest tribute 
 in his power, and Lady Cottar's eyes brightened 
 into a semblance of youth. 
 
 "Poor Diana," she said thoughtfully, "she's such 
 a child still ! and full of the most extraordinary 
 notions." She held the letter out to him in a 
 sudden burst of confidence. 
 
 " Read it," she said, " and tell me what you think 
 about this studio idea. I must confess I don't like 
 it myself." 
 
 With a rustle of lace skirts she slipped her feet 
 down on to the ground and invited her husband to
 
 EARTH 59 
 
 sit beside her on the sofa, looking over his shoulder 
 as he plodded his way through the thin sheets of 
 notepaper. 
 
 In the somewhat blotted effusion Diana unfolded 
 her latest scheme, begging on her return home to 
 be allowed to devote her mornings to art, and re- 
 peating the offer of a girl-friend to share the latter's 
 newly-acquired studio. 
 
 "It seems such a waste to do nothing," wrote 
 Diana, "and this is such a chance. I know you 
 like Milly Farrar and she's quite clever, and would 
 help me no end. Oh, please, mummy dear, say yes. 
 I should love it so." 
 
 With newly-acquired tact she refrained from all 
 reference to her father. 
 
 Lady Cottar pointed out the omission. " She 
 seems to think I am the only one to be consulted," 
 she observed. The general , scenting trouble, equalled 
 his daughter on the point of reticence. " It is so 
 extraordinary to me," continued his wife, with a 
 little sigh, "that the child cannot be contented with 
 her own home life ! I am sure I never wanted to 
 do these eccentric things why should Diana ? " 
 
 The general watched his wife with a puzzled 
 frown, debating the question. 
 
 " I suppose it's in the air, my love, a sort of rest- 
 lessness peculiar to the rising generation. After all, 
 it would give her something to do. I believe in 
 occupation for young people keeps 'em out of 
 mischief ! Besides, it means a quieter house for 
 you." He could have hugged himself for this final 
 stroke of diplomacy, and, following it up skilfully, 
 "But, of course, you're her mother, and know best 
 if it's wise and if you've any doubt on the sub- 
 ject I should distinctly say ' no.' " 
 
 Lady Cottar studied the letter anew, soothed by
 
 60 EAETH 
 
 the prospect of the silent house, and so absorbed 
 that she failed to detect Wang Cho on the verge of 
 theft. 
 
 " I suppose . . . " she said at last, " we must 
 move with the times." The general lifted the 
 Pekingese out of the range of temptation, realising 
 that Diana's cause was won. 
 
 " It's a discontented age," said Lady Cottar 
 severely.
 
 EARTH 61 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MEANWHILE at Hyeres the warm sunny 
 days were speeding all too fast, but 
 bringing in due course Guillaume de 
 Verac, and the foursome thus happily 
 resolved, the only cloud on Adrienne's horizon was 
 the knowledge of Major Rill's fast approaching 
 departure. 
 
 For the progress of the young couple she watched 
 with such loving interest etill fell far short of her 
 cherished ideals. 
 
 They were such excellent friends ! In vain she 
 waited for the chance of a lover's quarrel for a 
 word of pique that to her vigilant ear should betray 
 the awakening of a deeper emotion. They laughed 
 and talked and teased each other ; argued and 
 agreed ; bicycled for hours with utter indifference to 
 the sun ; and once but this is a secret ! "paddled " 
 together a whole glorious afternoon on the sands 
 of Carqueiranne. 
 
 Beyond this, nothing ! For flirtation is by 
 mutual, albeit unspoken, consent, requiring on each 
 side a leaven of response. And Rill, uncertain of 
 his ground, avoided all suspicion of being classed 
 with " those German girls." Adrienne, watching 
 him narrowly, failed to probe his smiling calm or 
 detect a serious motive beneath his frank interest in 
 her pretty charge.
 
 62 EAKTH 
 
 All this she poured into her husband's listening 
 ear, but to her added mortification failed to obtain 
 the encouragement she craved. 
 
 For de Verac ventured to disapprove. His French 
 orthodoxy, based on the perpetual surveillance of 
 " la jeune fille," rebelled flatly at this dangerous 
 isolation of the pair that was the aim and object of 
 his wife's daily mano3uvres. 
 
 " People will talk. It is not . . . enfin, con- 
 venable ! " Severely he held to his point. But 
 Adrienne only dimpled and retorted maliciously 
 that, " in England, men could be trusted ! " And 
 at last, studying the unconscious victims, he arrived 
 at the same conclusion not untinged with a shadow 
 of contempt for the colder northern race. 
 
 So, sunny hour by hour, they reached the final day 
 of Bill's already prolonged visit. 
 
 To celebrate the pathetic event he had taken a 
 box at the little Casino, where a French touring 
 company was pausing on its way to Nice, for a 
 fairly harmless vaudeville, and had invited the de 
 Ve'racs and Diana. 
 
 They had driven to la Crau during the afternoon 
 and on up the valley to an old fortified village in 
 the hills, returning just in time to dress for the 
 evening's dissipation. 
 
 " Make yourself pretty to-night, my dear," 
 Madame de Verac had pleaded with Diana, adding 
 with simple guile " out of compliment to Guil- 
 laume." So Diana, her cheeks flushed with the keen 
 air of the hills, was now standing before her glass, 
 her whole attention riveted on securing a silver 
 band around the rebellious masses of her hair. 
 
 The broad fillet outlined her shapely head, and as 
 she fastened it, where the dark waves parted crisply 
 above her smooth young brow, she added her one
 
 EARTH 63 
 
 treasure, a slender crescent of diamonds left her by 
 " Grannie Cottar," realising with a sudden touch of 
 vanity how the flash of the finely cut stones added 
 a deeper brilliancy to the hazel eyes beneath. 
 
 Her frock was of moonlight blue, and it sheathed 
 her slim form closely and was cut in a sharp square 
 at the neck, leaving the base of her rounded throat 
 exposed ; and beneath the sunburnt laughing face the 
 white delicacy of her skin seemed emphasised anew. 
 
 The dressmaker, heedless of remonstrance, had 
 cut the closely-draped skirt long, with a narrow 
 train of dull silver net, that was again repeated in 
 the transparent chemisette, and this added to her 
 height, taking away the last touch of childishness 
 that her short morning frocks retained. 
 
 Even Adrienne gave a little movement of surprise 
 as her cousin entered the room, conscious of a new 
 womanly charm in the slight figure before her. 
 
 " Will I do ? " Diana's face was anxious, and 
 over her shoulder she gave her train a hurried 
 glance of apprehension " I feel ' dressed up,' some- 
 how ! " 
 
 With her pointed silver shoe she scattered the 
 soft folds that clung about her feet. 
 
 "However I'm to walk . . ." She left the 
 sentence tragically incomplete. 
 
 But Adrienne laughed softly, pleased at the result 
 of her diplomacy. 
 
 " You look perfectly sweet." Her quick eye noted 
 a little curl that had escaped the silver band, and 
 deftly she pinned it into place ; then holding the 
 pretty figure at arm's length she gave vent to her 
 full admiration. 
 
 " It does suit you, this blue ! If I were a man, 
 now . . ." She paused, with a dainty shrug of 
 her plump shoulders that made her meaning clear.
 
 64 EAKTH 
 
 Diana laughed, inwardly pleased by the elder 
 woman's flattery. 
 
 " If you ' were a man, now,' ... I should 
 marry you!" she announced in her gay young 
 voice. 
 
 Adrienne, catching at a straw, decided to sink or 
 swim. 
 
 "Ah . . . my dear I would give much to 
 see you happily married ! " She went on swiftly, 
 drifting into French in her earnestness. "For that 
 is happiness, vois-tu ? the greatest happiness of all 
 a good man that one can trust and love ! it is the 
 secret of Life." 
 
 A light shadow fell across the girl's bright face, a 
 hint of reserve that yet held a note of wistfulness. 
 
 " We can't all of us find a ' Guillaume," " she 
 retorted " and besides I don't want to marry ! " 
 
 She turned to her cousin in a sudden, unusual 
 wave of confidence. 
 
 " It always frightens me, somehow, marriage it's 
 like taking a leap into the dark." 
 
 For a moment the elder woman was nonplussed. 
 
 " That is only because you are so young such a 
 child still ! " She gave a quick involuntary sigh, 
 with a queer sense of the gulf between them 
 succeeded by a feeling of irritation against the 
 scheme of ignorance, miscalled " innocence," that 
 had formed so important a part of the school 
 curriculum. 
 
 " Your turn will come " she hedged the dim- 
 cult question " and then, cherie . . ." She 
 broke off, looking deep into the clear hazel eyes, 
 so full of trust, so heedless of the dangers of the 
 world. 
 
 For the first time she realised the magnitude of 
 her scheme untold possibilities in the soul laid
 
 EARTH 65 
 
 bare before her, and a sudden fear shot into her 
 teuder heart, a fear that love might bring suffering 
 instead of consolation ! 
 
 Diana's thoughts ran on. 
 
 " I think the marriage service the most awful 
 thing that ever was written." Her voice was 
 sombre, holding a note of awe. " ' Until death us 
 do part ' ! " The quotation came strangely solemn 
 from those childish lips. " However can one know? 
 be sure of all that ? ' until death ' . . . Why, 
 taking the veil is nothing to it ! you've only to 
 answer for yourself then." She gave a slight shiver, 
 her eyes far away. 
 
 " Think how one changes one's mind, even in a 
 few years time how the things one liked as a child 
 ar nothing now and even the people one used to 
 admire ! How can one promise to remain the same 
 right up to the end of one's life ? " 
 
 The hazel eyes, dark with the intensity of her 
 mood, sought her cousin's thoughtful face. But 
 through Adrienne's quick brain was surging a flood 
 of stirred memories. The knowledge of her own 
 girlish doubts and fears, when first she had loved 
 Guillaume de Verac that hesitation that every 
 "thinking" woman, however fond, must feel when 
 she is brought face to face with the greatest 
 decision of her life. Would it indeed be " for 
 ever " ? Could the glamour last ? 
 
 And in Adrienne's own case her faith had been 
 justified ; the " leap into the dark " had landed her 
 safely into a haven of love and happiness, and a 
 great longing tilled her that this cousin she loved 
 should realise the joy that marriage alone could 
 bring. 
 
 " Wait," she said to the wondering girl, her voice 
 low and full of a strangely maternal note. "Wait 
 
 F
 
 66 EAKTH 
 
 ma bien-aime'e. One day you too will under- 
 stand. . . . One cannot explain love. One can 
 only feel and know." She took the little brown 
 hands unresistingly in her own, and drew the girl 
 still nearer to her. 
 
 " You must not have these fears, ch6rie for all 
 fear goes before true love, as evil before the light of 
 the sun. And there is nothing on earth or, I 
 truly believe, in heaven so deep as the joy and 
 the holiness of giving oneself to the man one loves. 
 To give . . . give . . . give into his 
 reverent hands soul and body, and heart and brain ! 
 That is the crown of womanhood the knowledge 
 that one can satisfy. Why he who takes . . . 
 Mon Dieu ! it is as nothing to the heart that 
 gives." She broke off, her eyes shining, her lips 
 tremulous with the passion that moved her ; all her 
 Gallic blood warm within her veins, freed from 
 thought of conventional hypocrisy. 
 
 Diana, oceans apart, British to her finger-tips, looked 
 gravely on with a sudden sense of isolation. Here 
 was love beyond her comprehension, a faith that 
 had proved itself, an enthusiasm breaking the 
 bounds of normal self-restraint. 
 
 Vaguely startled, utterly out of her depths, she 
 went back doggedly to her theory of childhood. 
 "All the same" she drew her hands away "I'd 
 rather not risk it," she decided. 
 
 But, as the words passed her lips, a sudden vision 
 rose before her, the virile mocking face of Anthony 
 Hill, with his grey world-wise eyes, and the sleepy 
 voice that failed to conceal the restless energy of 
 his nature. 
 
 Something stirred within her. Some fatal pre- 
 monition that should have warned her, for all her 
 inexperience, that she could not be exempt ; that
 
 EARTH 67 
 
 through the dim ages the handed-down inheritance 
 of her sex would surely find her out. From the 
 man's side Eve came ; to the man's side as surely 
 she would return ! Her own vitality was the proof, 
 her splendid wealth of life, her exuberant brain. 
 She could not stand aside, sexless, in Mother Nature's 
 scheme. But close on the faint awakening came 
 the shrinking rebound that is the strong weapon of 
 untried virginity together with that sudden sense of 
 shame such an inexplicable attribute of so-called 
 " innocence." 
 
 A swift flush of colour mounted to her face, and 
 almost angrily shaking off the yoke that threatened 
 to fall upon her, she drew herself erect, and, backed 
 by the long school-days of vaunted sex-oblivion 
 
 " Anyhow, it's all rot ! " said Diana Cottar 
 stoutly. 
 
 And at that most inopportune moment de V6rac 
 arrived upon the scene. 
 
 His mischievous dark eyes surveyed the pair of 
 pretty women, absorbing each detail of their 
 appearance with the appreciation that makes a 
 Frenchman's compliment so well worth having, 
 when sincere. 
 
 " My faith ! how fine we are." He turned from 
 his wife's dainty figure to closer scrutiny of Diana. 
 " No longer the ' school-boy,' hein ? " His red lips 
 parted in a smile under "his dark moustache, and 
 he bowed low before the cousin he loved to tease. 
 
 " Mes compliments mademoiselle." He offered 
 her his arm with an exaggerated deference as the 
 gong echoed from without the sitting-room door. 
 "Dinner dinner at last and I, who die of hunger ! 
 en avant, mes enfants ! " 
 
 As they proceeded down the long corridor they 
 saw Rill approaching the stairs from the opposite
 
 68 EAKTH 
 
 gallery, and behind him an untidy pair, the fat 
 wife with one hand planted on her little husband's 
 shoulder the Brown-Bunnetts were seeking their 
 evening meal. 
 
 Rill stood aside politely to let the couple pass, a 
 slight involuntary smile on his face as he caught 
 Diana's mischievous glance. 
 
 " Look at the bunnies," she whispered, as they 
 joined him ; " isn't it touching? Puir wee Airchie ! 
 I wonder why ' Airchie's ' always have carrotty 
 hair ? " 
 
 For she was quite her irresponsible self again, 
 vaguely grateful for any frivolity to wipe out the 
 memory of her unusual touch of emotion. She 
 glanced over the edge of the banisters. 
 
 " There's Mrs. Maxeter and her long white 
 gloves, and . . ." her eyes grew round with 
 amazement "why, it's Sadie Wynton with her!" 
 
 A shadow fell across the soldier's face. He gave 
 a sharp glance at the tall, well-dressed girl who 
 stood gazing towards the descending quartette, 
 beside the lady of the villa. 
 
 The next moment he bowed. 
 
 Diana watched, a shade surprised, conscious of a 
 little thrill of annoyance that she found hard to 
 explain. 
 
 As they reached the level of the hall, Rill 
 hesitated. 
 
 " Excuse me a moment I shall have to speak." 
 He moved away to the group beside the palms, and 
 as she passed on with her cousin, Diana could hear 
 Miss Wynton's laughing exclamation 
 
 " Why, it's ' Rilly ' ! How are you ? This is a 
 glad surprise ! " 
 
 Quite suddenly Diana found herself vowing the 
 abolition of nicknames "the Ripple" included.
 
 EARTH 69 
 
 " Who is it ? " Adrienne whispered as de Verac 
 ordered the wine. 
 
 "One of the Wynton girls," said Diana carelessly. 
 " I don't know her myself. She's a friend of 
 Walter's." Her voice suggested cool dislike. 
 
 Then she gave a little laugh, moved to it by a 
 passing recollection. 
 
 " You remember Algy Spearing how he lisps 
 and can't pronounce the letter ' s ' ? Well, he met 
 her one night at a dance somewhere and raved abou 
 her for a week. ' She's shweet ' he told us 
 ' perfectly shweet ; and her name's Shadie Wynton.' " 
 She mimicked his thick utterance with her usual 
 cleverness, and went on, smiling at her cousin, " So, 
 ever since, we call her ' Shady Wynton.' It makes 
 Walter so mad ! " 
 
 Adrienne laughed with a touch of malice. 
 
 The girl's bold glance had oftended her own 
 fastidious taste, and she had no desire for fair 
 intruders at this stage of the game. 
 
 " I suppose she's staying with Mrs. Maxeter." 
 
 She paused as that lady entered the room, and 
 Kill, detaching himself from his new friends, re- 
 joined the trio. 
 
 He made the inevitable remark. 
 
 "A small world fancy meeting Sadie Wynton 
 here ! She's visiting your friend with the gloves." 
 
 He smiled across at Diana and changed the sub- 
 ject as the newcomers, joining the Brown-Bunnetts, 
 settled themselves at an adjacent table. 
 
 " I had a letter from Jack Darrell this morning. 
 They're still in the seventh heaven. Also one from 
 another pal who's just got engaged. Marriage is in 
 the air." He laughed with a shade of cynicism. 
 " It'll be my turn next ! " 
 
 From where he sat, across the scanty red locks
 
 70 EAKTH 
 
 of ' Airchie ' he could catch a glimpse of Miss 
 Wynton's piquant profile, and every now and then 
 as she turned his way she shot him a provocative 
 glance out of her experienced brown eyes. 
 
 " They're a handsome family those Wyntons," 
 he observed, sotto voce, to Madame de Verac, who 
 received the confidence coldly. " They've all the 
 same beautiful skin and that reddish curly hair." 
 
 " Red ? " said Diana suddenly. She screwed 
 round in her chair for a clearer view. " So it is ! 
 why, it was as brown as mine last year." The 
 moment the words had passed her lips she longed 
 to recall them, and added, somewhat lamely, 
 " Walter admires them all so much." 
 
 Rill looked at her, with a twinkle in his eyes. 
 " But you don't?" he dared. 
 
 The girl, suddenly nettled, returned his gaze 
 unmoved. 
 
 " They're very good-looking " her voice was 
 slightly contemptuous "but, since you ask me, I 
 certainly don't care for their style. It's all a matter 
 of taste." 
 
 " Too tall for me," said de Verac gaily, conscious 
 of the strained atmosphere ; " it's the fault of most 
 of your English beauties. I like them how do 
 you say it ? just so high as one's heart ! " 
 
 He threw the compliment gallantly across to his 
 wife, and conversation proceeded anew on indifferent 
 topics safe-guarded by himself. But to Adrienne 
 the evening was already spoilt this last evening 
 from which she had hoped so much. She racked 
 her busy brain for an excuse to leave the pair to- 
 gether, far from Sadie Wynton's worldly eye; to 
 fight out their little quarrel by themselves, which 
 might who knows? end in a deeper and more 
 lasting understanding.
 
 EARTH 71 
 
 They moved out into the hall for coffee, the first 
 table to empty itself, and presently the porter 
 announced the cab. 
 
 Adrienne went upstairs for her cloak, and seeing 
 that Diana had already provided herself with a wrap, 
 she called to her husband from over the banisters, 
 summoning him on some slight pretext. 
 
 But even this small attempt to isolate the pair 
 was foiled by an exclamation from Diana. 
 
 " Oh my gloves ! I've left them upstairs." She 
 rose to follow her cousin. 
 
 " I'll go," said Bill politely " tell me where they 
 are." 
 
 For once Diana made no demur. 
 
 "Thank you; they're on the sitting-room table." 
 
 She trailed the pale blue dress superbly past the 
 group that was emerging from the dining-room, her 
 head high, her eyes very remote, apparently un- 
 conscious of the raking glance of Mrs. Maxeter and 
 her party, and settled herself, her back towards 
 them, in a rocking-chair by the high cluster of 
 palms. 
 
 Bill ran lightly up the stairs, a little smile on his 
 strongly-marked face. 
 
 He was in one of his worst moods, and fully 
 conscious of the fact. 
 
 For several days past a feeling of exasperation 
 had possessed him. Albeit Adrienne's platitude 
 anent the trustworthiness of Englishmen and the 
 smiling calm of the outward man, his was not the 
 temperament to remain utterly unmoved by the 
 almost hourly proximity of a young and pretty 
 woman. 
 
 Had Diana shown the slightest aptitude for 
 flirtation it might have soothed his fretted nerves, 
 but so obviously platonic a friendship was a new
 
 72 EARTH 
 
 experience to the " philanderer," and he felt piqued 
 and off his line of country. 
 
 Not that he flirted with every woman he met, but 
 Diana attracted him more than he chose to confess. 
 
 To-night the presence of Sadie Wynton, that 
 "experienced and expensive girl of the day," served 
 to accentuate his exasperation with the open con- 
 trast of her readiness to flirt with the good-looking 
 soldier, and aroused in him a distinct feeling of anger 
 at Diana's seeming indifference. 
 
 He would have liked to have forced the young 
 rebel to her knees ! Obstinate as herself in his own 
 way, he chafed against the mere suggestion of defeat. 
 
 Well it was over. To-morrow he would proceed 
 to Monte, and, in the excitement of the tables and 
 the many friends he was sure to meet, forget the 
 quaint idyll of Hyeres days. 
 
 So he consoled himself as he reached the de Veracs' 
 sitting-room, and, finding the door wide open, walked 
 in without pausing to knock. The gloves, as Diana 
 had said, lay on the table before him, and he was 
 gathering them up when a movement in the bedroom 
 beyond made him raise his head, and without the 
 slightest intention his eyes fell on the wide mirror 
 over the fireplace that faced the farther doorway. 
 
 With an uncomfortable feeling of intrusion he 
 retreated from the room, drawing a quick sigh of 
 relief to find himself again in the corridor without. 
 
 But the little scene thus unintentionally witnessed 
 still burned in his brain the young wife with her 
 husband's arms around her, her pretty head thrown 
 back against his shoulder as, with a lingering caress, 
 he kissed her warm throat, his lips stealing down to 
 where the soft laces veiled the full curve of her bosom. 
 
 It was the last spark needed to add to the restless- 
 ness of Rill's present mood, and the unbidden thought
 
 EARTH 73 
 
 surged up into his mind of how triumphantly sweet 
 it would be to hold Diana thus, for one wild satisfy- 
 ing moment, tightly within his arms. 
 
 A very ordinary man, with strong vitality and no 
 particular ideals, the strain had told upon him this 
 long month of lazy sunshine in the young girl's 
 company. Already his temper suffered from it and 
 induced a feeling of resentment at the innocent 
 fascination of Diana and his own folly in venturing 
 hitherto undipped wings so near the vestal flame ! 
 
 He walked down the stairs moodily, and without 
 a word handed across the gloves. 
 
 " Thank you so much, Major Rill." He started at 
 the unusually formal name. " Is Adrienne ready ? " 
 
 Diana rose to her feet, her face warming a little 
 under his steady stare, conscious of a change she 
 could not define, a kind of animosity in the look. 
 But Rill chose to ignore her question. 
 
 " That dress suits you." His voice was almost 
 abrupt. " You look so tall to-night, and with that 
 crescent in your hair, appropriately Grecian 'Diana, 
 huntress ! ' He came a step nearer. " Where are 
 your bow and quiver and surely there should be 
 sandals ? " 
 
 His eyes swept down to the little feet in their 
 silver shoes. The girl recovered herself, reassured 
 by the laugh that accompanied the words. 
 
 " I wish my dress were as short as hers ! at least, 
 not quite!" Her thoughts ran back to a famous 
 statue, and she looked up at the tall man before her, 
 her hazel eyes dancing under their long lashes. " It 
 must have been a jolly life," she commented " in 
 those old Greek days ! " 
 
 " All life's jolly if you know how to take it. 
 Only " he looked down upon her, suddenly moody, 
 with a twisted smile, "half the world's asleep, and
 
 74 EAETH 
 
 the other section spends its days crying, ' You 
 mustn't do this ! ' and ' You mustn't do that ! ' until 
 death, annoyed at their want of spirit, surprises 
 them." 
 
 Diana's mind swerved suddenly to her mother, 
 bound hand and foot by convention, and she nodded 
 her head wisely, miles away from the true feeling 
 that underlay his philosophy. 
 
 " I never listen to people now." A dimple came 
 into her cheek. " I just do what I want, without 
 asking." 
 
 "And, by Jove, you're right I feel inclined to 
 follow your lead." 
 
 His voice held an odd ring of excitement, and 
 Diana looked back at him curiously, conscious of 
 tension somewhere that she could not fathom, and it 
 was with a sense akin to relief that she saw her 
 cousin approaching. 
 
 " Come along, children, when you've finished 
 quarrelling " Adrienne's gay voice brought the man 
 back to actualities " we shall be ever so late." 
 
 " We weren't quarrelling," said Bill slowly, " we 
 were discussing a question of ethics." 
 
 He helped Diana on with her wrap, lingering a 
 little over the pleasant task. 
 
 De Verac bustled up. " If you want to see ze first 
 act?" he suggested. " It's ' Mademoiselle Josette, 
 ma ferarne,' ze play ees it not, Rill ?" 
 
 The soldier had recovered himself. " I believe 
 so and not at all fit for the ' young person.' ' 
 
 He darted a glance at Diana, and was rewarded by 
 her indignant silence as they passed out into the clear 
 evening air. Behind them, in the deserted hall, Mrs. 
 Maxeter and Sadie Wynton, disappointed at the loss 
 of their new-found cavalier, heads close together, 
 discussed the exodus with unrestrained spite.
 
 EAETH 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 FATE gathered up the threads of Madame de 
 Verac's scheme, weaving them so subtly on 
 her loom of whims that the pretty plotter 
 herself fell headlong into the net. 
 
 Overcome by the heat of the stuffy little Casino, 
 before the climax of the comedy was reached 
 Adrienne found herself struggling against a growing 
 faintness that threatened to gain the mastery. 
 Diana watched her cousin with concern as the 
 piquant face grew paler still, and at last, unable 
 any longer to conceal her discomfort, the latter 
 decided to return home, on the strict understanding 
 that the party should not be broken up. Guillaume 
 would see her to the hotel and then return in time 
 to witness the third act, and although Diana pleaded 
 generously her willingness to accompany them, she 
 was left behind in the care of Major Bill. 
 
 The fresh air on the journey home proved a 
 speedy restorative, and by the time they had reached 
 the winding drive Adrienue's thoughts had turned 
 into the old channel, and she realised with inward 
 amusement her part as pawn in the great game ! 
 Swiftly followed the desire to prolong the unforeseen 
 tete-a-tete. 
 
 It would not be difficult to persuade her husband 
 that his first duty was to herself. They had both
 
 76 EAETH 
 
 put in an appearance at the theatre, and under the 
 circumstances no one could blame them for leaving 
 the young couple to their own devices. 
 
 In the semi-obscurity of the cab she smiled to 
 herself at the thought, and with simple guile resumed 
 her now accustomed role of pretty invalid ! 
 
 Meanwhile, innocent of these Machiavellian pro- 
 ceedings, Bill and Diana in the deserted box were 
 criticising the vagaries of " Mademoiselle Josette," 
 impersonated by a plump lady of uncertain age, 
 whose skittish ways they found highly diverting 
 and au ample compensation for the mediocre com- 
 pany and feeble acting. 
 
 It was only when the heroine had waved a last 
 coquettish farewell, and retired on the gaunt 
 " Premier's " arm, that they realised with surprise 
 that Guillaume had failed to rejoin them. The 
 audience drifted steadily away, and as no signs were 
 forthcoming of the defaulter, Eill decided it was 
 useless to remain. 
 
 So, with a last tribute to the memory of the lead- 
 ing lady, Diana threw her Indian shawl dramatically 
 around her, and, head high, with mincing steps, 
 preceded the soldier up the narrow gangway. 
 
 The fatal gift of mimicry, productive of few 
 friends and many enemies, was undoubtedly her 
 portion, and as she passed out of the deserted hall, 
 in a sudden burst of mischief she turned to the man 
 behind her, changing her assumed role, and flung 
 him iii a shrill arch voice Sadie Wynton's words 
 
 " Why, it's Billy ! This is a glad surprise ! " 
 
 So true to life was the imitation that the soldier 
 laughed aloud, and at that precise moment became 
 aware of the presence of the Brown-Bunnetts, who 
 must have witnessed the little scene. 
 
 Annoyed at the contretemps he hurried Diana
 
 EAKTH 77 
 
 forward before she had time to commit herself to 
 further mischief. 
 
 But as they reached the door her mood changed 
 abruptly, sobered by the beauty of the night, and 
 she was herself again the child with the artist's 
 soul. 
 
 For over the long avenue of palms, the moon 
 shone serenely, flooding the scene with a magic 
 radiance, silvering the very dust and investing the 
 tawdry cupolas of the Casino with an oriental 
 glamour, a faint unreal echo of the East. 
 
 Diana drew a deep breath of delight. 
 
 "Beautiful, isn't it?" said Rill softly, reading her 
 thought. He glanced up and down the empty road. 
 " But where's the cab? " 
 
 They had been among the last to leave the build- 
 ing, and the few vehicles standing there had already 
 rolled away. Their own cabman, under the impres- 
 sion that he was no longer required, after depositing 
 the de Veracs at their hotel, had gone peacefully 
 home, and Guillaume, anxious about his wife, had 
 overlooked the possibility. 
 
 In the distance the Brown-Bunnetts, sedately 
 arm-in-arm, were trailing back on foot. 
 
 "We shall have to walk," said Bill; "there's 
 nothing else for it." 
 
 He glanced at Diana a shade anxiously, but 
 roused from her absorption she turned to him with 
 a smiling face. 
 
 "Walk? how lovely ! I'd far rather on a night 
 like this." 
 
 Resolutely she gathered her skirts around her, 
 the silver slippers shining under the moon, which 
 lingered on her dark hair and played bo-peep with 
 the crescent's hidden fire. 
 
 " You look like Cinderella returning from the
 
 78 EAETH 
 
 ball," said her companion approvingly, " and, I 
 declare, there's a pumpkin for you, all ready to be 
 conjured into a fairy coach-and-four." 
 
 He pointed, laughing, to a huge gourd that hung 
 as a sign over one of the shuttered shops as they 
 turned up into the deserted main street. 
 
 It swayed in the night breeze at the corner of a 
 narrow byway that led up steeply into the old 
 quarter of the town. 
 
 Diana's glance, following his, swerved off up the 
 street beyond. 
 
 " Do look at that ! " She stopped suddenly, check- 
 ing Eill with a quick touch on his arm. " Did you 
 ever see such a picture ? " 
 
 For the long perspective of irregular old houses 
 was spanned midway by an ancient arch, which, by 
 a curious trick of nature, standing out boldly against 
 the evening sky, framed a distant view of the old 
 church of St. Paul, far away on the summit of the 
 hill. 
 
 The dark foreground of silent street, with its inky 
 shadows that lay like velvet on the uneven cobble- 
 stones, threw into startling value the Lilliputian 
 detail of the peep beyond, bathed in the clear moon- 
 light, like a hole drilled through the night into the 
 heart of another world. 
 
 " No need for a pumpkin after all," said the 
 soldier. " There lies fairyland, straight before us." 
 
 "Isn't it wonderful?" Diana sighed. "I'm glad 
 we've seen that." 
 
 Unconsciously she included Eill in her own 
 appreciation of the scene, and he drew a little 
 nearer, emboldened by the unusual softness of her 
 mood. 
 
 " So am I." 
 
 His voice was low, his eyes on her rapt face, as
 
 EARTH 79 
 
 she stood there, her head thrown back, all the wist- 
 ful longing of the artist in the half-closed hazel eyes. 
 
 " I should like to go through that arch . . ." 
 she went on dreamily, "into the other side of the 
 Beyond. Wouldn't it be lovely on the hills to-night 
 with the moonlight over the sea and the old town 
 below, and those straight stony paths that the 
 Romans made? " 
 
 Conscious of his gaze, she turned to him and 
 smiled, pleased by his silence and the sympathy she 
 divined. 
 
 " You can still see the marks of their chariot 
 wheels," she told him sagely. 
 
 Faint disbelief was visible on her companion's 
 face, and she held to her point with fervour. 
 
 " You can ! it's a fact. There are deep ruts in 
 the rocks, and the width between is the same as the 
 tracks at Pompeii." 
 
 He laughed down into her earnest face, amused at 
 her little show of wisdom. 
 
 " Let's go up aod see," he suggested lightly. 
 But something deeper than the desire to tease 
 underlay the words. 
 
 " Really ? you mean it ? " Diana, in all in- 
 nocence, jumped at the hint of adventure. Then 
 she hesitated, mindful of the lateness of the hour. 
 " Supposing Guillaume came this way ? we should 
 miss him for a certainty." 
 
 Rill, a prey to sudden temptation, overruled her 
 objection. 
 
 "If he were coming at all we should have met 
 him by now. Depend upon it, he was too lazy to 
 turn out again one could see the play bored him. 
 The real question is if it's too far for you? and 
 what about Cinderella's slippers ? " 
 
 "Warranted to stand hard wear and tear, both of
 
 80 EARTH 
 
 us ! " laughed Diana. She looked longingly up the 
 narrow street, then back at Kill, who was wavering 
 in the grip of a passing scruple. " Come along" 
 her voice was eloquent, and she gathered her skirts 
 round her with a determined gesture "it can't take 
 more than a quarter of an hour, if we step out, and 
 we can go in by the upper door if it's open." 
 
 "If?" said Rill provokingly. He knew it was 
 generally closed at night, but it led direct from 
 the upper story of the hotel on to the level of the 
 old Roman road. 
 
 " Do," said Diana. She leaned a little towards 
 him, her red lips parted in her eagerness, her whole 
 attitude a prayer. " It's your last chance," she 
 urged, conscious of his near departure. 
 
 The words went home with a significance deeper 
 than she was aware, and scattered the man's remain- 
 ing doubts. 
 
 "All right." He gave a short laugh. "I'm 
 game if you are ! " 
 
 " But we must walk out," said Diana soberly. 
 
 Rill, throwing dull care aside, broke into song 
 
 " ' Madam, will you walk ? 
 Madam, will you talk ? 
 Madam will you walk and talk with me? ' " 
 
 The echoes of the cobble-stones and jutting eaves 
 picked up the burden of the quaint old song, and 
 flung it back to them as they fell into step together. 
 " ' I will give you a coach and seven.' " 
 
 The deep baritone voice broke off abruptly 
 ' That's better than a pumpkin, isn't it, Diana ? ' 
 
 She looked up, a little startled by the use of her 
 Christian name, but he sang on, with a mischievous 
 glance in her direction 
 
 " ' I will give you the keys of Heaven . . . 
 Madam, will you walk ? 
 Madam, will you talk ? 
 Madam will you walk and talk with me
 
 EARTH 81 
 
 A head came out of an upper floor window, ejected 
 a string of epithets in an unknown tongue the 
 patois of the Italian road-menders, which is part 
 Basque, part Italian, wholly incomprehensible to 
 English ears and, apparently relieved, retired from 
 sight. 
 
 " You're waking the whole street," said the girl 
 reprovingly. 
 
 He fell into silence, broken by the echo of their 
 steps, the firm elastic tread of the man and the 
 sharp tap-tap of the little silver heels ; and Diana's 
 thoughts ran on. 
 
 She had called him "The Ripple "; it was but fair 
 he should claim a similar privilege. 
 
 "Diana? . . ." 
 
 "Well?" She looked up into his bronzed face, 
 meeting the grey eyes, no longer sleepy but full of 
 a dancing fire, the pupils enlarged until their effect 
 was almost black. 
 
 " Oh, nothing ! . . . just . . . Diana." He 
 smiled. " The name suits you, somehow." 
 
 For once the girl could find no reply. 
 
 They turned to the right into a labyrinth of twist- 
 ing alleys, where the houses met overhead, blotting 
 out the starry sky, and the walls, mouldy and 
 ruinous, gave out a damp and pungent smell. Once 
 Diana started aside with a little cry of alarm as 
 something stirred in a gloomy doorway and a face 
 peered out, preternaturally solemn, white-eyed, with 
 pointed horns above it. 
 
 " Only a nanny-goat," said Rill quickly. " Did 
 you think it was the devil himself ? . . ." 
 
 The girl laughed, secretly ashamed of her move- 
 ment of panic. 
 
 " . . . Come to look on at the latest temptation 
 of Saint Anthony?" continued the other. He smiled 
 
 Q
 
 82 EABTH 
 
 to himself in the darkness. " That's my name, you 
 know ' Tony,' for short but onlv to a chosen 
 few." 
 
 His spirits were rising with every step as the 
 night shut them in, tinged with an excitement he 
 made no effort to check. 
 
 "Will you call me ' Tony ' in future, Diana?" 
 The words were almost a command. 
 
 " I thought you were ' The Ripple.' ' A touch of 
 shyness showed in the reply. 
 
 "Well, so 1 am! and ' Rilly,' and . . . lots of 
 other things. But not to you you're different." 
 
 A pause, heavy in the stillness around. 
 
 " Say ' Tony.' " 
 
 Instinctively Diana's lips tightened, vaguely dis- 
 turbed by the man's exuberant mood. 
 
 " ' Madam, she will walk, but madam will not 
 talk ' apparently," said Bill, to the world at large. 
 
 "It's too steep." And indeed there was truth in 
 the excuse, as they toiled ever upwards over the 
 slippery pavement. 
 
 " I believe we're coming out ! " She pressed for- 
 ward with an exclamation of joy, and they emerged 
 into the moonlight, free of the gloomy town, with 
 the great bulk of the Eglise Saint Paul towering 
 beside them. 
 
 " It can't be far now," said Diana, unaccountably 
 relieved. As she spoke she stumbled over a loose 
 stone, and Rill caught her, steadying her on her 
 feet. 
 
 " Let me give you a hand." He slipped it under 
 her arm, heedless of hrr quick movement aside, 
 holding it in his firm grasp. "You'll be spraining 
 your ankle next in those ridiculous shoes ! I 
 oughtn't to have let you come." For his slumbering 
 conscience had pricked him.
 
 EARTH 83 
 
 But the impulse passed away as the narrowness 
 of the winding path drove them shoulder to shoulder, 
 and through the thin sleeve he could feel the warmth 
 of the round young arm. 
 
 "We oughtn't to be playing truant like this, d'you 
 know, Diana ? " 
 
 Despite its mocking note his voice shook, and at 
 the base of his throat he could feel a tiny pulse 
 throbbing, like the beat of a far-off drum. 
 
 " I expect we shall get scolded," said Diana 
 philosophically. Her thoughts turned with a tinge 
 of remorse to Adrienne. 
 
 "Ah . . . well ! "Rill cleared his voice " I'll 
 see you through. Don't be afraid." 
 
 " I'm not " she resented the inference with a 
 touch of her old spirit " and it is great fun, isn't 
 it V " Something pleading came in to her voice, 
 betraying her secret doubt. 
 
 " Great fun ! " said Rill, his eyes upon her face, 
 rosy with the quick exercise. 
 
 As they moved upward over the uneven ground 
 the path divided before them round a mass of rocks 
 piled on each other like the play of a merry giant, 
 and they paused to consider their route. 
 
 " It's to the right," decided Diana at last ; " the 
 other leads round to the church." 
 
 " Left, I think," said Rill. He made a movement 
 in that direction, but Diana, conscious of his detain- 
 ing grasp on her arm, suddenly waxed obstinate. 
 
 "I'm sure you're wrong." She drew herself 
 away with a determined effort for freedom, both 
 mental and physical, and held to her point. " I 
 shall try this road you do as you like ! I expect 
 they both lead to the top, but this one's the steepest" 
 she turned a wilful laughing face towards him 
 " so I shall be there first. Good-bye ! "
 
 84 EAKTH 
 
 With a flutter of blue skirts the silver shoes moved 
 on. 
 
 " All right," said Bill shortly, sensitive of a check. 
 Not for a moment did he really intend to leave her, 
 but something drove him to this testing of their 
 equally strong wills and to see if she would dare the 
 lonely pathway without him. "Have your own 
 way," he called after her ; " I'm going mine " 
 formulating unconsciously the modern theory of 
 matrimonial happiness ! 
 
 Diana, always open to a suggestion of being 
 " dared," quickened her pace at the words. 
 
 A little farther on, round the shadow of the 
 rocks, the hillside rose abruptly and the track ended 
 in a series of roughly-cut steps. Up these she 
 mounted, resisting the desire to look behind her ; but 
 once she thought she heard the sound of following 
 feet, and a smile parted her lips as she clambered 
 on breathlessly with a rueful glance at the fragile 
 slippers threatened by the sharp stones ; and at last, 
 panting but triumphant, she found herself on a rocky 
 platform at the summit of the hill, in the full splen- 
 dour of the open countryside. 
 
 As she turned, in a moment Rill was forgotten 
 the long climb, the final argument, all swept away 
 by the view that lay before her. 
 
 Up on the heights the silence was intense. 
 Hushed in the sleep of mighty Mother Earth, the 
 deep-embosomed hills with their feathery crown of 
 olive trees and cork, seemed to throb with the rise 
 and fall of her breath, and down in the purple valley 
 below the old town nestled happily, with its irregular 
 huddled roofs and the solemn outline of the church, 
 keeping guard over her slumbering fold under the 
 watchful eyes of the deep blue heavens. 
 
 Far away the white curve of the sea quivered
 
 EARTH 85 
 
 faintly as the waves curled and broke on the drowsy 
 shore, where in all her silent majesty the Mediter- 
 ranean lay and rocked the cradle of the night. 
 
 Across the deep blue water, faintly flecked with 
 foam, the moon had thrown a magic causeway of 
 light, a shining path to the very gates of heaven, 
 where, throned among his merry courtiers, the stars, 
 the man in the moon looked down with his eternal, 
 mocking smile. 
 
 "Diana!" 
 
 She hardly heeded the call, standing fearlessly 
 on the high rock where her wilful steps had led 
 her. 
 
 Below, in the Roman road, Rill watched her 
 mischievously, conscious of his own superior choice 
 of paths. 
 
 " Diana! " 
 
 He came to the base of the pinnacle where she 
 stood outlined above him against the starry sky, rais- 
 ing his voice with an insistent note that reached 
 her ears, and she looked down with a little start, 
 resenting the interruption. 
 
 " Oh ! " she said, " it's you." 
 
 Rill laughed shortly, piqued by her absorption. 
 
 " Whom did you think it was? and what about 
 your 'right path' now? " Then as she volunteered 
 no response, gazing at the scene before her : " Are 
 you going to stay there all night?" he demanded, 
 with a rising touch of irritation. 
 
 " No," said Diana slowly. She pulled herself 
 together with a regretful sigh, and looking down at 
 her tormenter: "What about the marks of the 
 chariot wheels ? " she retorted ; " why, you're stand- 
 ing right in one ! " 
 
 Rill glanced carelessly at his feet. 
 
 " I give in," he said with mock humility ; " mean-
 
 86 EARTH 
 
 while I should like to know how you propose to get 
 down from your exalted position." 
 
 Diana, advancing to the edge of the rocky plat- 
 form, measured the drop with cautious eyes. 
 
 "If it wasn't for these horrid long skirts . . ." 
 she hesitated, gathering up the soft train with an 
 open glance of disgust. " It's not far, really." 
 
 "Jump," said Rill ; "I'll catch you ! " 
 
 She looked down at him, as he stood there, hands 
 outstretched, a smile upon his keen and handsome 
 face, and her indecision grew. 
 
 Some subtle instinct, hardly fear, but full of an 
 indefinable shrinking, warned her, bringing a wave 
 of colour to her cheek, and there came a pause, filled 
 by the sighing of the breeze across the hills and the 
 dull chime of a clock far away ringing slowly the 
 full twelve notes. 
 
 Diana shivered, conscious of the curious stillness 
 that follows the midnight hour, with its hint of utter 
 finality, its latent promise of death. 
 
 " You're afraid ! " Rill's voice was tense. 
 
 Instinctively he sought the spur that should touch 
 her childish pride, and at the mocking words the 
 girl's rising anger, fanned by this new, unaccountable 
 sense of danger, broke into flame. 
 
 " Stand clear ! " her indignant voice warned him. 
 " I'm coming ! " and she jumped recklessly, with a 
 flutter of the blue draperies, and a flash of silver shoes, 
 like a wraith out of the very heart of the moonlight 
 above. 
 
 Jumped to find herself caught in a pair of power- 
 ful arms, held tightly, exultantly for a shattering, 
 breathless moment in Rill's strong embrace. 
 
 "Now I've got you!" he cried. The words 
 slipped out unconsciously, driven from the depths of 
 his being.
 
 EARTH 87 
 
 A loosened straud of her hair, caught by the wind, 
 stung him across the eyes, blinding him, but still he 
 did not loosen his grasp. Had she remained inert all 
 might yet have been well, but in her inexperience 
 she started to struggle violently, her hands against 
 his shoulders, body and soul protesting against im- 
 prisonment. And this snapped the last link of his 
 self-control. 
 
 A moment later she was free, her eyes wide with 
 anger and shame, her back pressed against the wall 
 of rock, arms thrust forward as if to ward off further 
 attack then, with a little inarticulate cry, they fell 
 to her side. She put up her hand to her mouth with 
 a childish gesture of disgust, as though to wipe away 
 all memory of that passionate kiss. 
 
 And at the sight, the very simplicity of the action, 
 the furies that follow the brute's step laid hold on 
 Bill. He was wordless in the grip of his swift 
 remorse. 
 
 But Diana had found her voice. 
 
 " How dare you ! " she cried, and the words shook 
 with anger, " you . . . cad ! " 
 
 The epithet stung him like the point of a sword, 
 and instinctively he pulled himself together, striving 
 to defend himself. 
 
 " I'm sorry I simply . . . couldn't help it." 
 
 Their eyes met, hers full of open enmity and 
 disgust, his strained, all the triumph gone from them, 
 pleading for forgiveness. 
 
 " I shall . . . never . . . speak to you 
 again." 
 
 She stepped deliberately past him, her feet turned 
 homeward ; but the cold young voice roused an 
 answering wave of defiance. 
 
 "Diana you wwsZlisten ! . . ." 
 
 He took a hurried step after her, and as she
 
 88 EAKTH 
 
 quickened her pace, disdaining all response, he laid 
 a detaining hand upon her arm. 
 
 She whipped round, shaking it off as though a 
 viper had stung her. And the sight of this, more 
 than anything else, drove Bill swiftly to his fate. 
 
 "It's all very well" his voice was hot "but 
 you knew . . . you knew all the time." 
 
 " Knew what? " Despite her disgust a tinge of 
 curiosity crept into her angry face. 
 
 " Knew that I loved you." The words were 
 out. 
 
 Diana stood as if suddenly turned to stone. 
 
 Into her bewildered brain rose the memory of 
 Adrienne and their talk together, with a new 
 enhanced significance. Had her cousin guessed 
 the truth ? Could things happen in this sudden, 
 desperate way ? 
 
 She hardly heeded what followed as, seeing his 
 advantage, he pressed the point, urging the girl 
 before him to a similar confession ; and, utterly 
 losing his head, spurred on by physical excitement, 
 under the spell of her beauty and the moonlit hour, 
 he swept into a definite proposal of marriage. 
 
 But as she realised the seriousness of his words 
 a feeling of panic invaded the young girl. She put 
 out her hands blindly as though to thrust the 
 thought aside. 
 
 " Don't! " she cried, " don't ! " A sob rose in her 
 throat. " Oh, why do you say these things ? we 
 were so happy before." 
 
 Miles apart from her mood he made a movement 
 to take her hands in his, but she went on breath- 
 lessly, full of her one idea to check him at any 
 price, to go back to the old safe footing before it 
 should be too late. 
 
 " I'll forgive you . , . that " she shied at
 
 EAETH 89 
 
 direct illusion to the outrage of his embrace " if 
 only you'll say no more ; let's just go on being 
 friends and forget everything else " 
 
 But her hands were fast in his and he was draw- 
 ing her towards him, heedless of her words. 
 
 "No ... no ... no!" She shrank 
 back, unmistakably sincere. " I won't ... I 
 don't want to be married ! " cried Diana. 
 
 Anger and tears were in her voice and a ring of 
 truth that sobered the man as nothing else could. 
 
 He looked at her, almost blankly, realising the 
 refusal, but hardly believing his ears. 
 
 " Don't be cross, Ripple I do ... like 
 you," Diana gulped, with difficulty restraining 
 her tears. " I like you . . . most awfully it's 
 not that." Something in his hurt face touched her 
 and she gave the hands still holding her own a 
 timid pressure, pleading like a child " and, of 
 course, I'll forgive you all you've said . . ." 
 (the unconscious humour missed them both, slain 
 by the deadly seriousness of the fresh young 
 voice.) " Only let's be friends again . . . and 
 forget " 
 
 But here grief conquered, and drawing herself 
 with a shamed movement away, she turned facing 
 the dark rocks and buried her head in her hands. 
 
 For a moment Rill stood in silence, watching the 
 slight form shaken by sobs. The thoughts were 
 racing each other through his mind, and as his 
 blood cooled, relief, steadily gaining ground, was 
 uppermost, tinged with a slight rancour at such an 
 extraordinary turn of events. 
 
 Oddly enough, it was his first orthodox "pro- 
 posal," and he put it at its full value. 
 
 Well, he had played his part, the part of an 
 honourable man. There was nothing to be ashamed
 
 90 EARTH 
 
 of, and the insidious thought crept in nothing 
 further to regret ! 
 
 He did not attempt to define her attitude nor 
 search for a deeper meaning beneath her simple 
 words. With a certain innate chivalry he blamed 
 himself for startling her. She was only a child, 
 and he had been carried away a dear and provok- 
 ing child, sweet as a spring blossom and pure as 
 the stars above. 
 
 A sudden wave of tenderness utterly devoid of 
 passion invaded him at the sight of her tears. He 
 put an arm round the quivering shoulders with a 
 touch tbat was almost fraternal. She was the 
 little comrade again to be petted and to be soothed. 
 
 " It's all right, Diana" he whispered the words 
 into the wind-swept masses of her hair "don't cry, 
 child it shall be as you like." 
 
 She raised her head and looked at him with wet 
 hazel eyes, still full of doubt and that strange 
 shame that is such a curious adjunct of utter inno- 
 cence ; and slowly, very slowly, a smile trembled to 
 her lips. 
 
 "We're going to be friends," said Rill, "very 
 good friends indeed." 
 
 As she looked at him, at the face that was to 
 haunt her day and night, for the first time the girl 
 wavered in her resolve. Never, perhaps, had the 
 man seemed so dear, so utterly to be believed in, so 
 worthy of love. 
 
 It was the psychological moment, and it passed 
 unrealised no longer even desired by Rill himself. 
 
 " You don't . . . mind ? " He stooped his 
 head to catch the whispered words as some impulse 
 within her gave her courage to venture the point. 
 
 Rill smiled, understanding nothing. 
 
 " Well not much."
 
 EAJRTH 91 
 
 Something in her attitude, something forlorn and 
 crushed, went to his heart, and bending down he 
 kissed her, gently, and with all reverence, on her 
 cheek. 
 
 "I'm awfully sorry" he meant more than the 
 girl could realise. " I didn't mean to hurt you, 
 Diana." 
 
 This time, without a movement, she submitted 
 to his will, under a spell she could not fathom, but 
 conscious that it was the kiss of peace. 
 
 So the compact of friendship she had so ardently 
 desired was signed and sealed. 
 
 Nevertheless, through the long hours of the night 
 Diana lay awake, staring out through the darkness, 
 following a thread of thought that had no definite 
 end. 
 
 Dumbly she realised that something was amiss, 
 some virtue gone forth from her, and life was not 
 the same. 
 
 So unknowingly she bade farewell to the last of 
 her childhood's days.
 
 92 EARTH 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 CAPTAIN DARRELL suffered from no 
 illusions concerning the effect of his mar- 
 riage upon his friends. He read between 
 the lines of the congratulatory letters and 
 smiled to himself, preferring Rill's openly indignant 
 epistle to the more suave effusions. 
 
 " It's no good saying anything," so the candid 
 one delivered himself "it's done now, and I sup- 
 pose you think it's worth it ! But the folly of 
 leaving the service with your prospects makes me 
 sick . . ." For his junior had been the young- 
 est captain of his year, and Rill remembered the 
 bitterness of his own early retirement on the heels 
 of his brevet-majority, that not even the conscious- 
 ness of this recognition of "valour in the field" 
 could mitigate. 
 
 Darrell guessed at the affection underlying the 
 words and laid the letter aside, tearing up an 
 accumulating heap of correspondence couched in 
 vague terms and " hoping ... he would be 
 happy." 
 
 He felt so little doubt upon the point, he could 
 afford to smile, as the sunny days slipped by and 
 his young wife's hold upon him strengthened 
 instead of diminishing ; and he would willingly 
 have prolonged the uninterrupted honeymoon 
 through the summer months.
 
 EAKTH 93 
 
 But Esterella had other views. Not for this had 
 she married, to potter about the smaller ports of 
 the Mediterranean and hastily depart at the sight 
 of a friendly face. She was Neapolitan born, that 
 race that is but partly Italian, the result of long 
 centuries of violent invasion by Moor and Greek 
 and Saracen and all the scum of the pirate seas. 
 
 Under her smiling, drowsily-beautiful exterior she 
 hid the shrewdness of the Levant inherited from 
 her only surviving parent, Giacomo Rossi, who 
 keeps that little shop just off the Chiaia where they 
 will mend tortoise-shell for you, splicing it ex- 
 quisitely so that no flaw is visible, and prolong the 
 existence of broken china by a cement which (so the 
 old man avers) is his secret alone. 
 
 But if you are a friend and tread softly you 
 may tap at the curtained door behind the littered 
 counter so, with two raps, one long, one short and 
 Beppo, the nephew, will admit you into the dingy 
 den, redolent of "Toscani," red wine and Parmesan, 
 where Giacomo, piecing together infinitesimal frag- 
 ments of broken porcelain, will instruct you " as a 
 father " on questions of finance ; with interest, bien 
 entendu ! 
 
 For the tortoise-shell mender had yet another 
 trade that of usurer to the quarter. 
 
 But to Darrell, contented with the well-known 
 statement that a Southerner fattens on a handful 
 of macaroni, the purport of the shop seemed in 
 itself sufficient to account for the household's 
 simple needs, and his father-in-law was to him a 
 picturesque figure (happily tied to Naples for life !) 
 who, realising in his only child a voice that might, 
 in more senses than one, prove " golden," had 
 stinted himself to provide her with an exceptional 
 education, not omitting that essential feature to
 
 94 EABTH 
 
 Darrell a fair knowledge of the English tongue. 
 Therefore much to be praised and, unknown to 
 Esterella, remunerated. For, like all his race, he 
 scattered gold where a foreigner would deal in tact 
 with that subtle laziness that the world calls 
 " charity," paying for exemption from a tale of 
 woe ! 
 
 Needless to say, Esterella saw no reason to en- 
 lighten her husband on her parent's financial en- 
 terprises during the short week the yacht lay oft 
 vine-wreathed Castellamare. For Darrell mis- 
 trusted the wide Neapolitan harbour with its rank 
 odours and perpetual movement, preferring the open 
 beauty of the bay, stretching like a polished sap- 
 phire to the golden point of distant Possilipo. 
 
 Now, as the spring progressed and the south dis- 
 gorged its Anglo-Saxon prey, Esterella was moved 
 to confess to a weariness of the sea. 
 
 She had come away in haste, without trousseau, 
 that time-honoured right of the bride, and it was 
 only fair, so Jack was forced to admit, that Paris 
 should repair the omission. 
 
 They left the yacht at Marseilles and joined in 
 the exodus north ; rioted for awhile in the gay 
 capital and turned quite naturally, under his wife's 
 gentle persuasion, to London for the season. 
 
 Here they met with the first check in their smil- 
 ing progress. The big white houses, newly painted 
 and spring-cleaned, showed a strange reluctance to 
 throw open their wide doors, as they had done the 
 year before for Darrell the bachelor, eligible and 
 unencumbered, to the man who had made a social 
 mistake, marrying out of his rank. " What a 
 pity ! " said the world, sitting tight. London, shrewd 
 as the usurer's daughter, waited to see who should 
 make the first move. Everywhere they were met
 
 EARTH 95 
 
 with veiled curiosity, but little friendliness, People 
 seemed strangely busy, so Esterella thought, " hoped 
 to call," and there it remained. 
 
 And this was not at all according to her taste. 
 In her own vivid but surface fashion she had been 
 genuinely attracted by the good-looking young 
 Englishman with his trim white yacht and respect- 
 ful crew, his whole air of good breeding and British 
 prosperity. Passion had followed in due course, but 
 through it all ran the secret thread of ambition, 
 that desire to rise in the world, so strong a feature 
 of the Latin character. She had deserted the stage 
 in the hope of a wider audience ; a prolonged 
 "solitude a deux" held no part in her scheme of 
 existence. 
 
 But of this, Jack Darrell, very much in love, 
 guessed nothing. He snapped his fingers, metaphori- 
 cally, in London's face. Tired of this side of life, 
 the round of social pleasure, and the exigencies of 
 its unending engagements, the sooner that Esterella 
 realised its futility, the better. 
 
 Man-like, he judged her by his present stand- 
 point, forgetful of the full cup he had quaffed him- 
 self before satiety crept in. His present tastes in- 
 clined to a country life, down in that old corner of 
 Dorsetshire where he had first seen the light ; with 
 dogs and horses and a healthy outdoor existence, 
 and his beautiful young wife to share the quiet 
 evenings. 
 
 Not so Esterella, child of a gay city, already 
 accustomed to the admiration of men. Singing 
 for a season in the packed " Carlo Fenice," she had 
 fully realised the sweets of conquest. 
 
 So that the morning they met Major Bill, at the 
 corner of Bond Street, after a shopping expedition 
 that had already begun to pall as a central amuse-
 
 96 EAETH 
 
 ment, and were received by that worthy with 
 hearty pleasure and promptly invited to dinner that 
 evening, Esterella's joy knew no bounds. 
 
 " But he is char-r-ining, your friend ! " she said 
 to her husband as she gave a last glance at Kill's 
 retreating figure, with its broad shoulders and sleek, 
 well-carried head. " He laughs, too, like my own 
 country, with all his teeth ! " 
 
 Her own flashed forth in a brilliant smile as 
 Darrell followed suit, amused at the apt description 
 and the enthusiasm on the beautiful dark face. 
 
 " He's a very good fellow," he admitted, pleased 
 despite himself at the prospect of a cheery evening 
 at the Carlton, " and one of my best pals. I'm glad 
 you like him." 
 
 He took off his hat in reply to a dowager's frigid 
 bow. From the depths of the passing barouche 
 she glanced coldly at his wife, with that hint of 
 animosity in the look that the Italian was begin- 
 ning to recognise. 
 
 " He does not stare as if I am ... a strange 
 animal at your Zoo." Her voice was merry, but a 
 little flush betrayed her secret annoyance. 
 
 Darrell looked at her sharply. " Who does 
 that ? " His blue eyes were steely as he put the 
 question. 
 
 Esterella, pausing before Percy Edward's alluring 
 window, gave a little shrug of her shoulders. 
 
 " But . . . most of your lady friends," she 
 answered, undisturbed. 
 
 Darrell, suddenly awakened to the situation, 
 temporised. 
 
 " It's the English way, my dear. They don't 
 mean to be rude. It's just that we're more . . . 
 formal over here." 
 
 "And yet they do not call." The singer's voice
 
 EARTH 97 
 
 was like honey, but mischief gleamed between the 
 dark-fringed lashes that guarded those eloquent eyes. 
 
 Something obstinate and pained in the man's 
 attitude touched her, and she slid a little hand 
 caressingly within his arm. 
 
 " Cheerup ! " She ran the words together quaintly, 
 proud of her borrowed slang; "one day I will sing 
 to them " she made an extravagant gesture, purely 
 Italian " and behold them all these stiff-backed 
 at my feet." A prophecy that was to coine strangely 
 true ! 
 
 Darrell smiled. There was no resisting her 
 buoyant mood. But the dart, launched at random, 
 sank deep, piercing the stronghold of his pride. 
 She could not have hit upon a happier plan to rouse 
 her husband from his placid acceptation of society's 
 neglect. 
 
 He pondered upon it thoughtfully as they made 
 their way back to the hotel in a silence which she 
 was shrewd enough to respect. She was his wife, 
 and bore, despite her stage connection, an honourable 
 reputation, and by Jove ! recognised she should 
 be. There was his Aunt Elizabeth to launch her, 
 if necessary, wife of the fat little German minister 
 whose name carried weight on either side of the cold 
 North Sea. And the admiral . . . and Edmund 
 Darrell the counsel ... he ran over all his neg- 
 lected connections with a set chin that hardened, as 
 he mused, into the lines of battle. It was all very 
 well to guard his beautiful young wife from the 
 feverish life of society, but to find her slighted by 
 it that was another matter ! Esterella, her hand 
 still within his arm, smiled to herself wisely, 
 realising the inward conflict of the man. 
 
 Meanwhile, Major Bill, having secured a table at 
 the busy restaurant, was racking his brains for 
 
 H
 
 98 EAETH 
 
 another guest to complete the little party. Anxious 
 that the evening should be a success, he foresaw a 
 difficulty in securing at such short notice an un- 
 attached lady, who should come up to Darrell's 
 standard and be pleased to meet his wife. 
 
 After two polite refusals, as he stood in the stuffy 
 telephone box, he rang up the Wyntons' number. 
 Here was a large family of girls of the free-lance 
 persuasion, scorning chaperonage and only too will- 
 ing to be fed and amused at any man's expense. 
 
 Sadie answered the call. 
 
 " Yes home again. How are you, Hilly ? " 
 
 She had much enjoyed the visit to the south. 
 
 " Jack Darrell and his wife ? What f un ! " She 
 longed to meet them what was the lady like ? 
 
 A pause, filled by Bill, tactfully. 
 
 All the better she " loved a pretty woman." 
 
 The soldier smiled to himself with a sudden 
 memory of Diana. 
 
 " At eight sharp that would be delightful." She 
 thanked him sweetly. " In the palm-room," and 
 her "best frock!" A laugh tinkled shrilly across 
 the wire. 
 
 Bill put up the receiver with a sigh of relief. 
 
 As he strolled along to his club for lunch, his 
 mind reverted to Sadie's allusion to the south, and 
 out of the crowded memories of the past few weeks 
 Diana's face emerged, smiling but pale, as he had 
 last seen her, waving farewell from the steps of the 
 comfortable hotel. 
 
 He had passed through an unpleasant half-hour 
 with the de Veracs, taking all blame to himself for 
 their midnight escapade, and he judged a certain 
 listlessness on his little friend's side next day to be 
 due to a "curtain lecture," on the "folly" of the 
 proceeding.
 
 EARTH 99 
 
 De Verac had been furious and Adrienne sorely 
 puzzled, for Diana, impervious to hints and caresses, 
 had kept her own counsel even at the risk of her 
 cousin's deep displeasure. 
 
 It was " curry day " at the club a favourite dish 
 of Rill's, provocative of sentiment which is mis- 
 takenly supposed to arise solely from the heart. 
 He made up his mind to call at the Cottars' that 
 very afternoon. He had put it off from day to day 
 since his return home, absorbed by the innumerable 
 occupations that seize greedily on the traveller with 
 the first full breath of London life. 
 
 He knew Sir John slightly, a club acquaintance- 
 ship and had heard of Lady Cottar as an invalid, 
 picturing her elderly and somewhat infirm, and was 
 therefore pleasantly surprised when Morgan, reply- 
 ing to his query in the affirmative, ushered him 
 into an early-Victorian drawing-room and he found 
 himself shaking hands with a woman in the prime 
 of life, slight, graceful and good-looking. 
 
 She put him at his ease at once. 
 
 " I have heard so much about you from my little 
 daughter, Major Rill, that I feel you are hardly a 
 stranger." 
 
 " My little daughter," standing by the open win- 
 dow, turned abruptly and came forward, obedient 
 to her mother's glance, secretly annoyed at the 
 flattering trend of the speech. 
 
 "How do you do? " 
 
 She evinced neither pleasure nor surprise, and the 
 man felt rather taken aback by the coolness of the 
 reception. 
 
 He made a laughing inquiry after the de Veracs. 
 
 They were quite well and in France. Diana's 
 voice was abrupt. He could not guess the strong 
 control she was laying on herself under the fear that
 
 100 EABTH 
 
 beset her that secret fear that her mother might 
 divine might even imagine a romance between 
 them ! For where there is no true confidence the 
 idea of a forced secret is gall and wormwood to the 
 sensitive. 
 
 After a moment's hesitation she went back to her 
 seat in the window. 
 
 Meanwhile, Lady Cottar, an adept at small talk, 
 rippled serenely on ; found mutual friends in India 
 and elsewhere, and fell to regretting her bad health 
 that deprived her of so much pleasure, and had 
 prevented her this with emphasis from accom- 
 panying her daughter south. 
 
 Delicately she probed Bill on the Hyeres visit. 
 The de Veracs were "dear people," but "so 
 irresponsible ! " She was quite glad to have her 
 little daughter home again, under her mother's 
 wing. 
 
 Bill was touched by the maternal solicitude, and 
 wondered a little why the girl in all their many 
 talks together had made so few allusions to the 
 charming mistress of the house, referring to her 
 father in all things pertaining to her home. 
 
 " Madame de Verac has become quite French 
 since her marriage," Lady Cottar sighed; "one 
 would hardly imagine her to be my husband's 
 niece." 
 
 Bill responded gaily, launching out into details 
 of the merry quartette. They had had a delightful 
 time in fact, Monte Carlo had seemed quite tame 
 after it ! 
 
 But Diana, her back to the light, made no sign of 
 attention, and he tried in vain to evoke an answering 
 gleam in the steady hazel eyes. Then he waxed 
 mischievous. 
 
 " although your daughter did her best to drown
 
 EARTH 101 
 
 me," he laughed the danger out of the words, "one 
 evening, in a salt marsh, miles from anywhere; 
 my nerves are quite shaky still ! " 
 
 Lady Cottar had heard the adventure and en- 
 larged upon it playfully. Diana squirmed in the 
 low window-seat ; he would think she prattled of 
 him from morn to night! 
 
 She could see the intimacy growing, her mother's 
 charm paving the way, Bill's obvious admiration 
 for this pretty, graceful woman, with her worldly 
 experience, her sure knowledge of men. 
 
 Never had Diana felt so hopelessly young, so 
 "out of it," and unnecessary! For Lady Cottar 
 made no effort to draw the girl into the conversation. 
 She gathered up Buchanan on to her lap, and 
 whispered into his ear, stroking his glossy coat to 
 keep him quiet, glad of the task for her restless 
 little brown hands. 
 
 Her mother's, white and beautiful, moved with 
 their fine rings gracefully over the tea-table, her 
 delicate, animated face turned to her guest, every 
 movement full of a sure composure that the girl 
 would have given worlds to possess. 
 
 Eill advanced with a tea-cup. 
 
 " What a beautiful cat ! what's it called ? " 
 
 " Buchanan." The word was forced from her 
 lips. A sort of obstinacy seemed to possess her 
 and he looked at her keenly, puzzled by her want 
 of response. This was a new Diana, utterly 
 different to the merry playmate of Hyeres days. 
 
 " What a superior name ! " 
 
 " That's my nephew's absurd idea." The soft 
 voice came from the tea-table and drew Rill back, 
 his polite task over, to her mother's side. 
 
 " Because he's ' black and white,' you see the 
 cat, I mean ! "
 
 102 EARTH 
 
 Rill laughed heartily. And at the well-remem- 
 bered sound, something quivered in the girl's 
 tightly-locked heart. 
 
 He had a man's laugh, deep and throaty, full of 
 an imperious love of life. How she had missed it 
 in the days that had followed his departure, that and 
 the sleepy grey eyes, the set of his smooth head on 
 his well-drilled' shoulders. 
 
 For absence had taught Diana the need of him, 
 had completed the lesson thoughtlessly begun that 
 moonlit evening up on the hills, when passion had 
 travestied in the silver cloak of love. 
 
 Slowly and surely, the knowledge was gaining 
 upon her that life would never be quite the same ; 
 that the old heedless, happy days of childhood were 
 over. Even her painting held a gap, a need for 
 sympathy she had not felt before. 
 
 From the depths of her heart she had longed to 
 see Rill again. And now that her wish had been 
 granted, instead of joy came disillusion, and that 
 haunting fear that she might betray herself, might 
 let him see she " cared." And those merciless 
 mother's eyes! In her new sensitiveness she felt 
 as though a conspiracy were being laid against her. 
 She knew Lady Cottar's love of mystery, of detect- 
 ing trouble where none lay. Nothing was sacred 
 before her probing glance, from the housemaid's 
 torn love-letter to Sir John's private cash-book. 
 
 Rill had said they were to be friends, " real good 
 friends." The memory had become the full measure 
 of her hopes. But was it possible, back in grey 
 England? Did he even continue to desire it? She 
 wondered, watching the pair before her. And as 
 she arrived at this stage in her reasoning, the man 
 rose to go. 
 
 " You must come again," Lady Cottar smiled up
 
 EARTH 103 
 
 into the keen bronzed face, "and meet my husband. 
 I am so sorry he is not in to-day." 
 
 With an effort Diana put down the cat. 
 
 " Good-bye." 
 
 Their hands met, clasped loosely, and parted, 
 strangers to each other. 
 
 "It's a pity," said Bill to himself, as Morgan 
 showed him out, with a sly look at this much- 
 discussed new " friend of Miss Diana's." " These 
 friendships begun abroad have a way of falling flat ; 
 I suppose one misses the environment." 
 
 He mused upon it, not without chagrin, conscious 
 too of disillusion, of a certain " gaucherie " he had 
 never before noticed in the girl. 
 
 " She's very young ; " he gave a little smile, re- 
 membering his moonlight folly, and then, oddly; 
 something approaching a sigh. 
 
 " But the mother's a charming woman," he 
 decided.
 
 104 EAKTH 
 
 CHAPTEK IX 
 
 MES. GERVASE MAULE was one of 
 those social trials, necessary perhaps 
 to civilisation, known colloquially, as a 
 "managing " woman. 
 
 For there will always be people in this world who 
 have neither the wit nor the will to manage for 
 themselves. And to this scatter-brained and help- 
 less community the tall fair lady, with her bustling 
 air of importance and patent desire for a finger in 
 the pie, was welcomed as a heaven-sent relaxation 
 from responsibility. 
 
 Wherever a weak-kneed curate floundered in the 
 bog of a charity bazaar, wherever a drawing-room 
 performance was earnestly desired by a " profes- 
 sional," whose chief plea to distinction was the 
 necessity for food, there Mrs. Maule swam in her 
 favourite element, organising, begging, borrowing ; 
 producing a la Cinquevalle, hidden stores of pin- 
 cushions, or the loan of a grand piano. 
 
 To the irreverent she was known as the " South 
 Kensington Gazette " : the locality to which her 
 large and solidly-furnished house belonged, well 
 situated, far from the damming line of the Earl's 
 Court Koad. 
 
 Now, to each of the fashionable districts of 
 London is given an individual soul. Children of 
 one parent, they show a family likeness in their flat
 
 EARTH 105 
 
 white walls and carefully-screened windows, their 
 solemn painted doors and caged basements. But 
 their characters differ as in the human race. 
 
 Mayfair, gay and cosmopolitan, boasts a moving 
 population, who come for a season and depart, leav- 
 ing disconsolate shutters to face the winter fogs. 
 Belgravia, with its wealthy respectability that 
 shudders as it approaches Pimlico (one of the black 
 sheep inseparable from so large a family), has a 
 more settled community, an air of inherited property 
 that insists on the quid pro quo of its heavy rates 
 and taxes. 
 
 But South Kensington is well nigh parochial. 
 One realises that the houses, large and small, are 
 graced with the title ''home," and it insists on an 
 almost village-like social atmosphere that breeds 
 distrust of neighbours and petty feuds arriving from 
 such small issues as an unintended snub, or the 
 common appropriation of a busy dressmaker. 
 
 Hence many stirring paragraphs for a South 
 Kensington Gazette. 
 
 Major Rill had known Mrs. Gervase Maule for 
 years. She entertained largely and was amply 
 supported by an equally " managing " cook. This 
 was dangled before his eyes by his friend Eustace 
 Myers on the evening he was lured thither to an 
 uninteresting " At Home." 
 
 " Do come, there's a dear fellow ! She's always 
 worrying me to ' bring a man from the club,' just 
 as if they sat there to be harassed with in- 
 vitations ! " 
 
 Rill, liking Myers, went, and became, by clever 
 tactics on the lady's part, a half-hearted habitue of 
 the house. 
 
 Since then Myers had disappeared, the one scandal 
 rigorously suppressed by the " South Kensington
 
 106 EARTH 
 
 Gazette." For the former, after five long years of 
 management by the capable Mrs. Maule, had 
 suddenly taken his life into his own hands, and, 
 incidentally, the life of another, a married woman's. 
 
 It was Mrs. Gervase Maule's great managerial 
 fiasco. It was more than that, though few people 
 guessed. For, mixed up in the flight across the 
 sea, together with another man's wife, his own 
 suddenly-acquired freedom and a blasted reputation, 
 Eustace Myers carried with him all that remained 
 of Mrs. Maule's somewhat stony heart. Not that 
 she had stooped to the slightest indiscretion ! She 
 had no passion in her, from the crown of her care- 
 fully-waved head to the well- shod feet, that were 
 nevertheless somewhat flat. Still, to every human 
 soul is added its own capacity for suffering, and the 
 impeccable Gervase, with his timid manner and 
 somewhat scanty hair, could not fill that aching 
 corner left desolate by the flight of the handsome 
 Myers. 
 
 Mrs. Maule always wondered if Anthony Rill 
 knew. She feared those keen grey eyes, remember- 
 ing that weak strata in their mutual friend's com- 
 position, that left him prone to outbursts of 
 confidence. 
 
 Therefore she greeted the soldier with additional 
 suavity when they met, and troubled him with 
 fewer prospectuses, programmes and offers of tickets 
 for the various social and charitable enterprises 
 which her activity on others' behalf forced her 
 perpetually to inaugurate. 
 
 To-night he had dined at her house, and they had 
 proceeded afterwards to Mrs. Wilbert G. Traill's 
 musical " At Home." 
 
 The American hostess was an agreeable product 
 of the times. Genuinely hospitable and fond of
 
 EARTH 107 
 
 social amusement, she played for her full share of 
 the latter with the steady wit and imperturbable 
 good temper with which she attempted bridge. 
 
 The season had hardly begun, but already she had 
 announced an early dance at the Ritz and mean- 
 while issued invitations for the present evening, 
 foreseeing shrewdly a goodly gathering of young 
 people, difficult to attract, who in the present day 
 refuse to be bored, but will make themselves 
 genuinely pleasant with the chance of a coming ball. 
 " Music " was printed in the far corner of the card, 
 and underneath the one magic name, " Tetrazzini." 
 
 For Mrs. Wilbert G. Traill was fast learning her 
 world. People liked to talk nothing more boring 
 than an insistent noise of music. But just four 
 songs by the greatest singer of the day that was 
 an inspiration worthy of a daughter of New York ! 
 
 Now, as Rill and Mrs. Gervase Maule found seats 
 at the end of the huge double room, the servants 
 were quietly closing the windows that looked out 
 on Eaton Square, fearful of any sound that might 
 interrupt the golden flow of melody. For the prima 
 donna would shortly appear for the second operatic 
 selection of the evening. 
 
 " It seemed so narrow-minded," Mrs. Maule 
 wound up a recent historiette of a much-maligned 
 lady's fate, anxious in an assembly where she 
 recognised few friends to keep the good-looking 
 soldier by her side ; " but then, of course, I always 
 pride myself on the breadth of my outlook." 
 - She lifted her shrewd eyes, set so close together 
 as to contradict the statement, to Rill's face, noting 
 his sudden pre-occupation. For his attention was 
 centred on a couple who had just entered the 
 room for whom, in fact, he had been waiting for 
 the past half-hour. He had introduced Esterella
 
 108 EARTH 
 
 to Mrs. Traill at the Carlton, the night of the 
 impromptu dinner, and had heard her accept that 
 lady's prompt invitation to the party. 
 
 Many glances followed his, for the Italian was 
 surprisingly lovely that evening, and Darrell, con- 
 scious of the little stir his wife's presence excited, 
 carried himself proudly, inwardly pleased at the 
 unspoken admiration. 
 
 " You must let me prove it," said Rill with a 
 smile, conscious of the silence that had followed the 
 speech. " Your broad-mindedness, I mean; for here 
 come some friends of mine who, for some unaccount- 
 able reason, feel ... a little bit isolated " 
 
 he paused, rinding it difficult to explain. 
 
 Mrs. Maule put up her glasses, staring at the 
 new-comers. 
 
 "Surely . . ." she began, "surely you don't mean 
 Captain Darrell and his . . . wife?" The slight 
 hesitation was worthy of South Kensingtonia. 
 " She was on the stage, wasn't she? " 
 
 But the soldier, with a murmured excuse, had 
 already moved from her side. 
 
 She watched him shaking hands with the hand- 
 some pair now in the centre of the room. 
 
 She could hear Esterella's musical laugh from 
 where she sat, and note how the hard glare of the 
 electric lustre above betrayed no line in that ex- 
 quisite creamy face, no flaw in the supple southern 
 form, moulded by the Parisian gown. 
 
 She was youth and beauty incarnate ; indolent, 
 subtle, dangerous. 
 
 So Mrs. Gervase Maule decided, drawing her 
 chair a little forward for a better view, and in so 
 doing caught the shabby train of the lady seated 
 beyond her. 
 
 She apologised coldly with a quick and slightly
 
 EARTH 109 
 
 contemptuous glance at the badly-dressed victim, 
 whose clothes had the air of being thrown upon 
 her, and presented a curious contrast to a fine row 
 of black pearls that were twisted loosely twice 
 around the long, bony throat. 
 
 She looked the proverbial poor chaperone, beside 
 her other neighbour, a handsome girl of eighteen 
 summers, with a somewhat teutonic stolidity. Mrs. 
 Maule dismissed them from her mind and returned 
 to her interest in the little group, which had now 
 been augmented by a pair of men, obviously soldiers, 
 whom Jack was introducing to his wife. 
 
 Suddenly she saw Rill glance in her direction and 
 her curiosity turned swiftly to dismay. They were 
 coming towards her. He had meant it, then this 
 test of her broad-mindedness. She quivered with 
 indignation, and realising flight impossible, assumed 
 her stoniest expression. 
 
 Rill's eyes twinkled as he made the introduction. 
 
 Mrs. Maule bowed, but Esterella, conscious of 
 the English custom, offered a well-gloved hand. 
 
 "I am so pleased to meet you," she said with 
 her foreign accent, smiling down into the cold face 
 and monopolising what should have been the 
 other woman's speech, " and we are to hear the 
 Signora Tetrazzini I am so excited, you have no 
 idea ! " 
 
 " It must all be so very new to you," suggested 
 Mrs. Maule. Darrell gave a quick glance, mistrust- 
 ing the equivocal speech. 
 
 " Not the music," Esterella laughed ; " I am 
 ' artiste ' myself, you see. I sing." Two little 
 words that showed the invincible composure of the 
 professional. 
 
 " Ah . . . you were on the stage? " 
 
 Mrs. Maule raised her pale eyes to the glowing
 
 110 EARTH 
 
 ones above her, malignity peeping through the thin 
 veil of politeness. 
 
 "The opera stage," Esterella corrected gently. 
 She glanced at the empty chair, but Mrs. Gervase 
 Maule ignored the hint. 
 
 " You must miss it," she suggested pleasantly, 
 " the excitement of the footlights and . . . and 
 all your many friends." 
 
 " Yes," said Esterella, simply, "I do. But then " 
 She looked up at her husband with a gay nod, and 
 Bill, watching them, laughed. 
 
 "Other compensations, eh?" and was rewarded 
 by a smile, a quick flash of little white teeth be- 
 tween the curved red lips. 
 
 " And I can still sing," continued the Italian. 
 
 " Indeed ? " Mrs. Maule looked coldly surprised. 
 
 " Not for . . ." Esterella paused, flustered a 
 little by this steady catechism. "Not profession- 
 ally," she explained. " Jack does not like. But 
 to myself and to him and to all my fren's." 
 
 She made one of her extravagant gestures, but 
 checked it midway at something she realised in 
 Mrs. Maule's face. 
 
 " How very pleasant for them." 
 
 The insinuation was complete. It was a circle 
 which the speaker had no intention of entering. 
 
 The colour flamed up into Esterella's face as much 
 at the patronising tone as at the words themselves, 
 and Rill, conscious of the slight, swore beneath his 
 breath. 
 
 He blamed himself bitterly for being the un- 
 conscious medium of the snub. 
 
 But at this juncture another voice fell on their 
 ears, a thin, elderly voice, playful and refined. 
 
 " And when am I to be allowed to know my new 
 niece ? "
 
 EARTH 111 
 
 The shabby old lady, hidden by DarreH's broad 
 back, had risen from her chair. 
 
 "Aunt Elizabeth!" He spun round on his feet. 
 "Well, I never!" 
 
 " You bad boy," said the little old lady severely ; 
 " why haven't you been to see me?" 
 
 She looked up at the flushed face of the Italian, 
 then back at her nephew, a twinkle in the deep-set 
 eyes. 
 
 " Come now, Jack, your manners ! introduce 
 me." 
 
 " Baroness von Schlappenhohe." His voice was 
 formality itself "my wife." 
 
 Unmistakable pride lay in the closing words and, 
 conscious of a sudden shyness on her part, he 
 slipped a hand, as he spoke, through Esterella's 
 arm. 
 
 " And very pleased to meet you, my dear," said 
 the old lady kindly. She saw the tears rise sud- 
 denly in the hurt brown eyes, and Mrs. Gervase 
 Maule scored yet another enemy as " Aunt Eliza- 
 beth " went on, with the sure light touch of her 
 cosmopolitan training 
 
 "That worthless nephew of mine always gets 
 round me, and, if I'm not mistaken, his wife will do 
 the same." She held the Italian's hand firmly in 
 her own. " Let's sit down I never can stand 
 here's a chair for you." 
 
 Not without malice she drew Esterella towards 
 the empty one that separated her own from Mrs. 
 Maule's. 
 
 " And this is my daughter Ermentrude. Surely, 
 Jack, you've not forgotten the little girl with the 
 pigtails who took you to concerts in the old Leipsic 
 days?" 
 
 " Never ! " Darrell laughed, delighted at the
 
 112 EARTH 
 
 happy turn of affairs. "You have grown, Truda I 
 could hardly reach up to pull them for you now ! " 
 as the heavy but handsome face relapsed into a smile 
 of greeting. 
 
 But Mrs. Gervase Maule had heard enough. She 
 realised her mistake and sought dignity in retreat. 
 This the Baroness von Schlappenhohe, privileged 
 at both of the leading courts, and Darrell's beloved 
 aunt ! 
 
 She rose to her feet, turning to Eill with a little 
 air of command. 
 
 " As Tetrazzini does not seem to be coming, I 
 wonder if you would take me down for another cup 
 of coffee? This room is so hot." 
 
 Without waiting for his reply, she held out her 
 hand courteously to her neighbour. 
 
 " Au revoir, Mrs. Darrell ; I shall hope to call. 
 You are at the 'Grosvenor Court' I believe?" 
 
 But Esterella had recovered herself, her spirits 
 rising under " Aunt Elizabeth's " approval. 
 
 " At present," she conceded ; " but our move- 
 ments are a leetle uncertain." 
 
 Rill's eyes sought the Italian's for a moment and 
 held them with a swift flush of mischievous under- 
 standing. Then he convoyed Mrs. Maule obediently 
 downstairs. 
 
 "I knew you would like her," his voice was cheer- 
 fully composed. " It's so rare to meet a beautiful 
 woman who is also perfectly natural. Like the 
 Dodo, I was beginning to think the species was 
 extinct." 
 
 He offered the enraged lady sugar and cream, 
 delighted to observe that the hand holding the cup 
 was not quite steady 
 
 " She seems astonishingly well educated," said the 
 South Kensington Gazette, " but then, foreigners
 
 EAKTH 113 
 
 are always so adaptive, even if they have not the 
 . . . composure of the English." 
 
 "No she's saved that," responded Bill pleasantly. 
 His eyes had an absent expression, for upstairs 
 Tetrazzini had begun to sing. 
 
 " No good returning now," said Mrs. Maule 
 quickly ; " we shan't get a chair." 
 
 Bill, masking his disappointment, waited patiently, 
 as his companion sipped the hot coffee, visibly glad 
 of the excuse. She had dined him, he reminded 
 himself, conscious of a certain obligation, together 
 with an uncomfortable hint of being " managed." 
 
 But the music called to him insistently. He 
 loved it with all his heart. It probed to those hid- 
 den depths of feeling he refused to recognise, and 
 opened up possibilities of higher things the man 
 he might have been, the man he still could be ! 
 
 Music was to him a religion and had lured him 
 through many a church doorway, the spark of faith 
 within him kindled by the deep voice of the organ 
 or the soaring notes of a boy's sweet soprano there 
 to leave his " widow's mite " of inarticulate praise 
 and thanksgiving to his Creator. 
 
 Now as the clear melody above penetrated the 
 hot air of the crowded supper-room, people paused in 
 their chatter with a sharp involuntary " Sh . . . ! " 
 as though a passing angel had touched these 
 pleasure-lovers with the edge of his golden wing. 
 
 " Tetrazzini." The name passed like a waft of 
 incense over the heat and noise. 
 
 Suddenly the clear notes faltered, died away. A 
 dull silence followed, some belated applause and 
 renewed movement on the parquet floor above. 
 
 People wondered. 
 
 " It can't be the end . . . something must 
 have happened."
 
 114 EARTH 
 
 Down caine a gossip, hot-foot with news. 
 
 Madame Tetrazzini was ill had been obliged to 
 retire; a passing indisposition, so they said, but 
 obviously there was no more music for to-night. 
 The Pink Etruscan Band on the landing broke into 
 the latest cake-walk, and frivolity, re-emerging, shone 
 all the more brilliantly from the temporary eclipse. 
 
 Upstairs, people grumbled with that sense of 
 being cheated that is such a curious undercurrent 
 to modern hospitality, based doubtless on the cost 
 of a coupe, or the wear and tear of late hours on 
 health itself. 
 
 Mrs. Wilbert G. Traill, despair at her heart, 
 replied feverishly to the perpetual enquiries. 
 
 What could she do to counteract this unforeseen 
 fiasco ? She gazed wildly at the sea of blank faces. 
 
 "Poor woman, I'm sorry for her," said Baroness 
 von Schlappenhohe. She turned to the placid 
 Ermentrude, square and rigid in her satin gown. 
 " After all, it's getting late ; we'd better slip away 
 quietly, without saying 'good-night'." 
 
 But the notion was not original. The whole 
 atmosphere seemed suddenly charged with the spirit 
 of departure as people remembered further engage- 
 ments shelved for " Tetrazzini." 
 
 Mrs. Traill was swept towards them, shaking 
 hands, apologising, her good-humoured face in vain 
 trying to conceal her chagrin. 
 
 " Shall I, Jack ? " Esterella impulsively rose to her 
 feet. " Just this once ? Say that I may, please ! " 
 
 Moved by the passionate entreaty in her voice 
 and sorry in his honest heart for his hostess' 
 dilemma, Darrell nodded his head. 
 
 " Mrs. Traill," she moved forward with a gesture 
 unconsciously dramatic, and the clear call penetrated 
 to that bewildered woman's brain. " Will you
 
 EAKTH 115 
 
 permit me to sing for you ? It would give me 
 pleasure." 
 
 The American jumped at the ofter with a gratitude 
 that was touching. 
 
 " My dear ! " 
 
 Conscious there was no time to lose she seized 
 her by the hand, hurrying her to the deserted plat- 
 form, talking volubly as she went. 
 
 " How very good of you . . . how kind ! " 
 
 She passed her little husband and threw a quick 
 order to that meek, distracted individual : " Wilbert ! 
 just hustle yourself and stop the accompanist right 
 away ; Mrs. Darrell is going to sing for us." 
 
 People turned wonderingly, watching the beautiful 
 Italian, who had by this time reached the piano 
 and was gathering together a scattered score, left 
 there in the general dislocation. 
 
 " What shall you sing ? " said Mrs. Traill, with a 
 deep sigh of relief as the sallow face of the pianist 
 reappeared. 
 
 " I'd better go on with this, I think," said Ester- 
 ella coolly. She was in her own province again, 
 thrilled with the sense of power so long denied her. 
 
 The American gasped. " To go on with this," after 
 the first singer in Europe ! What a sensation ! She 
 nodded her head, incapable of response. 
 
 Esterella was pointing out a passage to the 
 accompanist, already subjugated by her beauty and 
 extraordinary phlegm. 
 
 " Have no fear, madame. I understand I will 
 follow . . . everywhere." 
 
 Close to the platform Darrell stood, a chair dragged 
 up in haste for the interested Aunt Elizabeth ; 
 beside her Ermentrude, for once faintly aroused, 
 and in the rear, Bill and Mrs. Gervase Maule, 
 with her glasses glued to her eyes, a slightly con-
 
 116 EARTH 
 
 temptuous smile hovering over her tightly-closed 
 lips. 
 
 A certain distinguished guest, for whom red carpet 
 had been laid, had courteously waited, interested by 
 the unexpected denouement, and like sheep behind 
 a leader, people were thronging back into the half- 
 empty room, staring, laughing, chattering. 
 
 DarreH's eyes, full of a strange pride mingled with 
 jealousy, were fixed anxiously on the beautiful figure 
 advancing to the centre of the stage. 
 
 " I r-r-regret . . ." professional etiquette moved 
 her to explain, " I have no music with me. I am 
 forced, unworthily, to take up Madame Tetrazzini's 
 so sadly unfinished selection. I do make my apology 
 to her and to you." 
 
 She smiled, conscious that her quaint speech had 
 knit her audience together. 
 
 There was a little pause, and someone nervously 
 clapped ; then over her shoulder she signed to the 
 accompanist. 
 
 At the first pure, steady notes " Aunt Elizabeth " 
 drew a quick breath of relief, nodding her old head 
 eagerly, and settled back in her chair. 
 
 Not vainly had she spent a third of her life in the 
 music-loving centres of her husband's native land. 
 
 " The true ' bel canto ' ; style . . . precision." 
 So she summed it up, well content that Jack's wife 
 should prove herself a success. 
 
 Out into the wide room swept the golden torrent 
 of sound, the voice that Nature alone can give and 
 human patience perfect, as Esterella lost all sense 
 of physical consciousness the living instrument of 
 her art, a medium for the highest expression of the 
 soul that cannot die. 
 
 Bill, hearing her, felt himself borne upward by a 
 myriad unseen wings, floating towards an incomplete
 
 EARTH 117 
 
 circle of radiance that was joining . . . joining 
 . . . for ever joining into a ring of dazzling light. 
 The room swam before his eyes, as his senses floated 
 out to the borderland of some vast, overwhelming 
 enlightenment. 
 
 Suddenly came a wrench of dislocation; blank 
 silence ; then the final disillusion the insult (so it 
 seemed to him) of insistent clapping hands. 
 
 With a sense of bitter loss he came back to 
 actuality. Baroness von Schlappenhohe had risen 
 to her feet, pleading loudly for more. Esterella, 
 revelling in half-forgotten sensations, conscious of 
 being in perfect voice, smilingly responded to her 
 hostess' eloquent appeal. She dismissed the accom- 
 panist with a graceful word of thanks, and drawing 
 off her long gloves, sat down in his place at the 
 piano. She turned half round on the stool, facing 
 her audience, and struck a careless chord, meditating 
 on a choice of encores. Then she caught Darrell's eye 
 and gave him a little nod, so natural and unaffected 
 that people smiled as at the charm of a happy 
 child. 
 
 This time she sang in French, leaning a little 
 forward, the dark eyes far away, waiting, so it 
 seemed to Bill, for an echo that was sure to come. 
 
 " Vraiment la reine, aupres d'elle, 6tait laide 
 Quand, vers le soir, 
 Elle passait sur le pout de Toledo 
 En corset noir, 
 
 Un chapelet du temps de Charlemagne 
 Ornait son cou . . ." 
 
 The gay lilt of the music changed abruptly and 
 passion swept in, bitterly hopeless, mourning in a 
 minor key 
 
 " Le vent qui vient a travers la montagn 
 Me rendra fou I "
 
 118 EARTH 
 
 Then back to the old refrain, with a reckless 
 gaiety and entrain : 
 
 " Dansez ! chantea, villageois ! La nuit tombe 
 Sabine, ce jour, 
 
 A tout donn6 sa beautd de Colombo 
 Et son amour. 
 
 Pour un anneau du Comte de Saldagne 
 Pour un bijou 
 
 Le vent qui vient a travers la montagne 
 
 M'a rendu fou ! " 
 
 So powerful was her art, so intense the tragedy in 
 the veiled voice, that a little shiver passed over the 
 room, as though a breath from the snow-laden 
 passes had swept across it. 
 
 Then the applause broke forth deafening, tumul- 
 tuous! And Esterella smiled, realising the shrill 
 note of enthusiasm that is incense to the artist's 
 soul. 
 
 Far away, over the sea of faces, her eyes caught 
 Bill's, full of a passionate wonder and praise, and 
 a little thrill passed over her, the knowledge of 
 a link between them singling them out with a 
 touch of brotherhood in the cult they both loved, 
 and strengthened by the still closer sympathy of 
 temperament. 
 
 With a start she came back to herself, bowing 
 her acknowledgments, and stepped down tranquilly 
 from the platform, where those same people whose 
 cold stare had so wounded her pride now pressed 
 around her, eager for introduction. 
 
 So, as she had prophesied, she sang to them, and 
 brought " those stiff-backed " to her feet.
 
 EARTH 119 
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 t ( IV >f ILLY, here's muffins ! " 
 
 Diana waved the paper bag trium- 
 phantly at the door of the studio, 
 " and a visitor to tea." 
 
 41 Which will you have ? " came in Rill's laughing 
 voice from behind her. 
 
 44 Neither ! " said the red-haired girl with discon- 
 certing promptitude. She wriggled off the high 
 stool under the window, where she had been work- 
 ing on a copper etching-plate and advanced to meet 
 the pair, wiping her hands somewhat suggestively 
 on the holland overall. " I've a horror of indiges- 
 tion," she explained as they shook hands. 
 
 4 ' Frank," said the soldier, " but hardly flattering. 
 That's the worst of having known Milly from her 
 cradle-days." He turned to Diana, his grey eyes 
 mischievous. " She used to sit on my knee once 
 . . . and liked it," he added with emphasis. 
 
 44 Never ! " his victim retorted ; 44 it was just 
 lumped in with nursery puddings, chicken-pox and 
 other evils of childhood." 
 
 Her pale face broke into unexpected dimples, 
 suddenly pretty under its mop of crinkled hair. 
 
 "Besides, you only did it to please mamma or 
 was it grannie ? I can't remember." 
 
 " Oh, come now ! " Rill protested, <4 if you make 
 such a point of my age, I shall take advantage of it."
 
 120 EARTH 
 
 Diana laughed, delighted at the sparring of these 
 two, excited at the unforeseen encounter and the 
 soldier's flattering curiosity over the new studio. 
 
 " If you think it's safe to leave you " she looked 
 from one to the other " I'm going to fill the kettle." 
 
 " Can't I do it for you ? " 
 
 But she shook her head at the man's suggestion 
 and, nothing loth, he dropped lazily into the shabby 
 wicker chair, a relic bought over from a former 
 tenant, suggestive of rest as new furniture rarely is. 
 
 " How cool you are," he observed approvingly, and 
 added a saving clause, " meaning the temperature." 
 
 For the season had opened with a thundery heat 
 ominous of the comet and that swift, appalling blow 
 that was to plunge England into grief and gloom 
 without parallel. But as yet, unconscious of the 
 heavy cloud, London prepared for gay doings, people 
 crowding up from the country, the shops full of 
 busy women delighted at the promise of sunny 
 weather and delicate finery. 
 
 Diana re-appeared with the brimming kettle, 
 filled at the tap common to the little cluster of 
 studios, hidden away in unexpected peacefulness 
 at the back of a busy thoroughfare, a veritable 
 oasis in the dusty desert of town. She wore the 
 identical pink cotton frock that had graced their 
 picnic at Carquieranne, when they had discovered 
 their mutual friendship with Jack o' the Bee-stalk. 
 Simultaneously their minds reverted to it with that 
 subtle thread of sympathy that still unconsciously 
 knit them the psychic bond that holds more 
 married people together than ever the drone of the 
 priest or the law's harsh voice. 
 
 " I've just been lunching with the Darrells. We 
 talked of you." 
 
 He twisted his chair round to face Diana, busy
 
 EARTH 121 
 
 over the tea. At the other end of the room Milly 
 Farrar was producing cups and saucers out of a 
 battered cupboard, blowing the dust off cheerfully, 
 with an open disregard for the uses of a beautiful 
 set of dusters, the gift of Lady Cottar towards the 
 new establishment. 
 
 " She wants to go down the river on Sunday," 
 continued Rill ; " that is, if the weather lasts, and 
 we wondered if you'd care to make a fourth ? " 
 
 " Rather ! " Diana beamed back at him with 
 the old bon-camaraderie. " I think she's a dear, 
 don't you?" and ran on without waiting for his 
 reply. " I'd love to go that is " her face clouded 
 suddenly " if mother will let me." 
 
 " Oh, of course she will," said Rill easily ; " why 
 shouldn't she?" 
 
 A glance passed between the girls, and it was 
 Milly who answered the question. 
 
 " She might like to be asked herself, don't you 
 know ? " 
 
 Before such candour Rill hesitated. 
 
 " I always imagined her to be somewhat of an 
 invalid." 
 
 Diana's back was turned to him, and to his sur- 
 prise and amusement the red-haired girl indulged 
 in a most expressive wink. 
 
 " You'd better invite her as well," she insisted ; 
 " she'll enjoy the chance of refusing and feel ' no 
 negleckit.' ' 
 
 Diana wheeled round, her face rather red, and 
 frowned at her friend. 
 
 " Tea's ready," she announced shortly. 
 
 But Rill obstinately adhered to the subject. 
 " Well, look here," he said, " I want you to come. 
 Suppose I called on your mother myself and fixed 
 it up how would that be ? "
 
 122 EAKTH 
 
 " Splendiferous ! " said Milly the irrepressible. 
 " You can be ' awfu' sweet ' and admire Wang Cho 
 and talk saccharine and sentiment." But Diana 
 smiled gratefully, a burden off her mind, as she 
 admitted the excellence of the plan. She longed 
 to join in the merry quartette, but her loyalty forbade 
 direct allusion to Lady Cottar's idiosyncracy. She 
 knew only too well that an invitation that did not 
 include her mother would raise a storm of protest 
 against the " independence of the modern girl," and 
 inevitably spell refusal for herself. 
 
 But Milly's sidelight on the home environment 
 did not escape the astute Kill, and he wondered 
 if this accounted for Diana's cool reception of him 
 at her parent's house. 
 
 " Talking of Wang Cho," said Diana, as they 
 settled down by the open window to enjoy their 
 tea ; " I've had such an adventure on his behalf." 
 
 She laughed as Kill gingerly helped himself to 
 milk from the little dairy can. 
 
 " Sorry we've got no jug ; that will come later. 
 If you'd been brought up as tidily as I have, you'd 
 understand the luxury of letting things slide ! " 
 
 "I have had to rough it occasionally," Rill ad- 
 mitted, " but never quite as severely as this." He 
 took a huge mouthful of muffin and owned up to a 
 certain compensation. " Now for the story I'm 
 all attention." 
 
 " One-third attention, two-thirds muffin," cor- 
 rected Milly. " You'd better help yourself to sugar 
 here's the bag, dive in and for mercy's sake 
 don't tell tales out of school, or our parents will 
 give us sugar-tongs at Christmas ! " She laughed 
 gaily. " This isn't ' the refined home circle,' under- 
 stand we're students, accumulating a 'patine' of 
 London smuts."
 
 EAETH 123 
 
 A certain pride ran through the speech. It was 
 their first nibble at the joys of emancipation that 
 golden fruit dangled for years out of the school- 
 girl's reach ! 
 
 Rill found the atmosphere strangely refreshing 
 with its clean savour of youth and health and the 
 picture before him of Diana, dainty and sweet 
 despite her boyish pose, in default of a third chair, 
 perched on the edge of the long table, with an un- 
 concerned display of neat brown ankles and well- 
 shod feet. For about all her person was a finished 
 detail that, added to the simplicity of her clothes, 
 appealed to the masculine eye, a fact ignored by 
 many women, to whom " smartness " means a 
 superfluity of ornament. 
 
 " To return to Wang Cho," said Diana. " It was 
 yesterday afternoon. Mother had gone to Aunt 
 Bertha's for the day and had left the dog in my 
 charge. So, as I had some work to do, I brought 
 him along here. He was trotting about outside, 
 very happy, chasing the sparrows, and I was finish- 
 ing a sketch, sitting in the window, when suddenly 
 I heard him bark, and looking out I saw, from that 
 big studio over there, that someone was trying to 
 attract him. A hand came forth from that narrow 
 window " she pointed as she spoke across the way 
 " and a lump of sugar was thrown out, and then 
 the . . . philanthropist hidden by that red 
 blind, began to whistle softly, calling the dog. 
 
 " He's a frightful sweet-tooth, is Wang Cho like 
 another friend of ours " she glanced up mischiev- 
 ously at Rill, detected in a second onslaught on the 
 paper bag " so I wasn't surprised, having gobbled 
 it up, when he went prospecting for more. But 
 when the door was opened and he vanished inside 
 and it was promptly closed again I began to feel
 
 124 EARTH 
 
 annoyed. It looked seriously like kidnapping ! 
 Milly wasn't here and there was no one about, 
 and after five minutes or so and no Wang Cho, I 
 waxed exceeding wroth. 
 
 She paused to fill up the brown tea-pot. 
 
 " What would you have done, Ripple ? " 
 
 The old familiar name awoke pleasant memories, 
 and he answered the question with his sunniest 
 smile that look that cries " You dear ! " more 
 eloquently than speech. 
 
 " Gone and battered the door in, of course." 
 
 The hazel eyes danced. 
 
 " Exactly what I did ! Only it didn't take much 
 battering, as it happened to be on the latch. I rang 
 and knocked loudly and, as no one answered, I just 
 walked in." 
 
 " Good for you ! " said the soldier. 
 
 "I found myself in a sort of hall, very dark and 
 gloomy, but hung with lovely old tapestries, and I 
 was just beginning to wonder what my next move 
 would be, when through an open door beyond I 
 heard a voice. 
 
 " ' Sit still, you little beast ! Ah ! you would, 
 would you? Sacre nom d'un chien ! That's appro- 
 priate. . . . And so's this. . . .' 
 
 "Then the sound of a slap, followed by a howl, 
 which so enraged me that I walked straight into 
 the room." 
 
 " Prepared for murder ? " suggested Rill. 
 
 " Prepared for anything," said Diana, " except 
 perhaps what I actually saw." 
 
 She paused mischievously, realising the interest 
 in Milly 's face. 
 
 " Go on," said the latter impatiently. " What 
 happened ? " 
 
 " There was a big studio, and a man with his back
 
 EARTH 125 
 
 turned to me painting a full-length portrait of a 
 lady in evening dress. Beyond, on the model's chair 
 a high and beautifully carved Venetian affair 
 lay the unfortunate Wang Cho, fastened tightly 
 with a piece of string from his collar to each gilded 
 arm, looking the very picture of misery. 
 
 "He barked when he saw me, and the artist 
 wheeled round and stared open-mouthed a great 
 broad-shouldered man, with the bluest eyes you 
 ever saw, and a pointed chestnut beard. 
 
 " 'What the dickens d'you want? ' he remarked 
 politely. 
 
 " But I walked up to the platform and began to 
 untie the dog. The fact was, I was too angry to 
 speak, and it seemed to me too that the first thing 
 to do was to liberate Wang Cho. 
 
 " Unfortunately, in his joy he started wriggling, 
 which made it a harder task, and seeing this the 
 painter threw down his palette and came striding 
 after me. 
 
 " ' Leave that dog alone, d'you hear? ' 
 
 " He fairly shouted the words, and put out a 
 hand to grasp him by the collar. I was delighted 
 to see Wang Cho snap, and, finding my voice 
 
 " ' How dare you steal my dog ? ' I shouted back. 
 And there we stood, glaring at each other across the 
 Venetian chair, whilst Wang Cho wriggled and 
 barked his delight. 
 
 "It must have been too funny for words, but I was 
 far too furious to think ; and quite suddenly the 
 man realised the humour of the situation, and went 
 off into a roar of laughter. Such a laugh ! you never 
 heard anything like it, so hearty and infectious that 
 after a struggle to resist, I gave way and joined in 
 too, Wang Cho (who thought us mad) gazing from 
 one to the other with his great goggle eyes."
 
 126 EARTH 
 
 Diana's mouth twitched at the recollection. 
 
 "Well, when he'd recovered sufficiently to speak, 
 he gasped out, his blue eyes full of tears 
 
 " ' It's your dog, is it ? A thousand apologies. I 
 took him for a direct answer to prayer.' 
 
 " ' Assisted by a lump of sugar ? ' I couldn't help 
 saying. And off he went again, his shaggy head 
 thrown back, with all the strength of his deep chest, 
 in sheer open delight of laughter. 
 
 " ' You witnessed the whole performance? Well, I 
 give in ; ' he wiped his eyes serenely with a painting- 
 rag. ' It was a desperate case of kidnapping, looting 
 whatever you like to call it ! Don't blame me. It's 
 the fault of my Viking blood, a hark back to the 
 good old days when dogs were ' thrown in ' along 
 with horses and women galore ! Big wolf-hounds, 
 I expect, not a squirming bunch of monstrosities 
 like that.' 
 
 " ' Don't abuse Wang Cho ; his ancestors were 
 worshipped for centuries before yours were ever 
 dreamed of.' I couldn't help adding ' You're 
 quite a parvenu beside him.' ' 
 
 Diana looked half-guiltily at her audience. 
 
 " It was rather cheek, I know, but he was one of 
 those nice sort of men you can't help being rude 
 to." 
 
 Milly groaned. "Do get on with the story. Who 
 was he ? " 
 
 " Wait a bit, I'm coming to that." Diana refused 
 to be rushed. 
 
 " When he had admitted the excellence of Wang 
 Cho he began to explain his conduct. 
 
 " 'The fact is,' he confessed, 'I'm in an awful hole 
 over this portrait here.' He led me back to the easel 
 where I had seen him first, and continued 
 
 " ' I'm working against time to finish it for
 
 EAKTH 127 
 
 the Brussels Exhibition. I left the dog to the end 
 merely sketched in, and I'm blest if the little brute 
 hasn't gone and died ! ' 
 
 "He pointed to a half-finished study of a Pekingese 
 that the subject of the picture was fondling on 
 her lap. One delicate hand lay on its golden 
 coat, so exquisite, so full of life and feeling, that 
 I couldn't resist a movement of wonder and ad- 
 miration. 
 
 "At this he gave me a sharp glance, that travelled 
 down to my big apron smeared with paint, and 
 nodded his head, realising that I was an apprentice 
 in his art. 
 
 " ' You'll understand,' he went on ; ' I see you're 
 one of us. It's a confounded nuisance. The 
 picture's due this week, and here am I, sans dog, 
 sans hope, with the comforting suggestion from 
 the lady that I should " do the darling from 
 memory " ! Well, this morning, utterly in despair, 
 I looked out of the window, prayed hard, and be- 
 hold ! there saunters into view the dead spit of the 
 dear departed. A lump of sugar, my mellifluous 
 whistle, and the deed was done. 
 
 " ' I'd just got to work when in you trip, with 
 magnificent aplomb and a marked capacity tor un- 
 tying knots. Do you wonder my temper could not 
 stand the strain ? 
 
 " ' And now that you understand, be merciful and 
 leave me the pretty conceit that your pet was sent 
 down by the angels in any case lent by one as a 
 model ! Just for an hour longer. You can stay 
 and watch me paint, and I'll give you some tips 
 as we go along. And then you can see for yourself 
 he's not ill-treated. I only slapped him once by 
 Bacchus I swear it ! He was gnawing the arm of 
 the chair, the sacrilegious dog ! It came out of the
 
 128 EARTH 
 
 Doge's palace, and has supported the fat of tyrants. 
 I'm really most contrite ' his face was indescribably 
 dr61e ' but the insult to my chair. . . I'm sure 
 you'll understand. From Doge to Dog. It sounds 
 like somebody's harrowing memoirs, the Palace to 
 the Kennel, bowdlerised by John Ericsen, R.A.' " 
 
 "Diana!" Milly rose to her feet, her pale face 
 glowing with excitement. 
 
 " Not Ericsen the Ericsen ? " 
 
 Diana smiled mischievously, proud of the well- 
 kept secret. 
 
 " The portrait painter?" Rill's voice was eloquent. 
 
 " The same," said Diana demurely ; " and he's 
 going to give me tips ! " 
 
 " Ye gods ! " Milly Farrar subsided in the low 
 arm-chair, her hands locked round her knees, rocking 
 herself ecstatically. 
 
 " What an adventure ! I wondered, directly I 
 heard it was the big studio but it seemed impos- 
 sible." 
 
 " He's a dear," Diana announced ; " we're going 
 to be great friends." 
 
 At the well-remembered phrase Rill started. 
 
 He felt vaguely annoyed at her using those very 
 words. 
 
 " Well I congratulate you, especially as he's a 
 most difficult person to know. There's a story told 
 of a certain great lady who called to see him one day 
 and was told that he was engaged. However, she 
 insisted on being admitted and found him busily 
 painting, a nude model on the platform, in his shirt- 
 sleeves, with an old briar in his mouth. When she 
 expostulated he is reported to have said 
 
 " ' Madame, you used your prerogative I am using 
 mine.' Fortunately, a sense of humour saved her, 
 and, incidentally, him ! "
 
 EARTH 129 
 
 Rill laughed, a little hardly. " Don't forget 
 Sunday in this new and distracting friendship." He 
 made a movement to rise. " I suppose it's an in- 
 verted case of ' Love me, love my dog' eh ? " 
 
 Rather to his surprise Diana coloured hotly. 
 
 " A man with a beard ! " Her voice was indig- 
 nant " and old enough to be my father." 
 
 Milly looked across at the pair mischievously, her 
 green eyes mocking Rill. 
 
 " louche 1 ! " She addressed the ceiling. " What 
 a respectable thing is age." 
 
 " I think it's a pity you ever grew up," said Rill 
 severely ; " once upon a time you were quite a nice 
 child." 
 
 " Merci, gran'pere." She stood up, facing him. 
 "If your decrepitude will allow you, you can come 
 and help wash up." 
 
 But Rill, backed by Diana's indignant protesta- 
 tions, declined the doubtful honour. 
 
 " I really ought to be going," he remarked. 
 
 " I'm off," said Milly quickly ; " don't leave the 
 child alone. Think of Ericsen, R. A., with the ' bluest 
 eyes in the world' and Wang Cho for chaperone." 
 She pinned her hat on with utter disregard for 
 effect. "I've got to go I promised to be home to 
 tea to entertain my maternal aunt." She made an 
 expressive grimace. " It's past five now, but the 
 delight of your society and Diana's thrilling mono- 
 logue have made me forget my duty. Good-bye." 
 She shook hands solemnly. " Be good to the babe 
 and remember her tender years." 
 
 " And my own grey hairs," suggested Rill with a 
 laugh. " Thank Heaven they're not red ! " 
 
 Milly turned in the doorway for a last retort. 
 
 " You're lucky to have any left," she remarked 
 severely, and so departed homeward, pleased with 
 
 K
 
 130 EARTH 
 
 her simple guile. For the green eyes had seen deep 
 down into Diana's heart and her girlish philosophy 
 moved her to leave the pair alone. 
 
 " As regards the aunt," she remarked to herself 
 as she came out into the busy road beyond, " let us 
 hope that Billy will not remember that mamma 
 was an only child ! " 
 
 Meanwhile Diana was shewing her visitor proudly 
 round the studio, unearthing each treasure with 
 visible delight. The sketch " So-and-so " had ac- 
 tually signed in the happy Paris days, the studies 
 pinned to the faded walls, the guitar de Verac had 
 unearthed from a lumber-room at Sorbes, and finally, 
 with a fine and nervous pleasure, her own portfolio 
 of what she called " attempts." 
 
 Rill, prepared for anything pretty, artistic, but 
 betraying the amateur, was honestly taken aback. 
 Faults there were and plenty the landscapes 
 lacking proportion, the atmosphere unreal, but the 
 portraits crayon heads from life, half-finished 
 caricatures, sharp pencilled recollections of faces 
 she had seen snowed a fineness of perception, a 
 hidden character that took him by surprise. 
 
 With the same easy power with which she mim- 
 icked the people she met here she caught instinc- 
 tively not only the likeness but the salient charac- 
 teristic of the individual ; the hidden pathos that 
 lay behind a smile ; the greed of the peasant heart 
 piercing the veil of humility ; the everlasting " why " 
 in a child's trustful eyes ; the querulous loneliness 
 of age and the sullen mutiny of the poor ! 
 
 To every face its history to every body its soul. 
 For a tiny spark had survived the material struggle 
 of birth, when Diana's hazel eyes first opened to the 
 light, !;iiniiu^ for her the everlasting right of fellow- 
 ship with Genius.
 
 EAETH 131 
 
 Again she appealed to Rill's respect, long dormant 
 regarding the sex, waking that instinct of chivalry 
 that once was an Englishman's pride. For this 
 half-formed woman with her childish ways held a 
 spirit that " understood " the royal prerogative 
 withheld from the common crowd. 
 
 And herein lay her strength, and at the same time 
 her despair. For to feel too deeply is to be at the 
 mercy of one's environment, and to suffer for others 
 as thicker-skinned mortals suffer for themselves 
 alone. Hence deeper joy and deeper sorrow ; the 
 crown of happiness, perhaps, but with it the crown 
 of thorns. 
 
 As she turned the sketches over, one by one, with 
 here a word of excuse, there a swift, shy glance for 
 his approval, they came to a pastel portrait more 
 finished than the rest that of a young girl with a 
 kitten in her arms. 
 
 The beautiful clear eyes laughed above the dark 
 head of her pet, so full of youth and innocence that 
 Rill gazed at it with open admiration. But Diana 
 made an uneasy movement to take it from his 
 hand, and as she did so the man's eyes fell on the 
 words that in a fine and pointed hand were written 
 underneath. 
 
 " Here lies Doris Vane 
 Born November the seventh, 1886 
 Sacrificed June the tenth, 1905." 
 
 borne subtle instinct checked his first impulse of 
 curiosity and he contented himself with another 
 long look at the radiant face above. 
 
 " I seem to know her it's odd, isn't it ? " 
 
 Diana took the sketch quietly away. 
 
 " I daresay you do." 
 
 Her voice held a note of reserve. She hesitated for 
 a second, then spoke out boldly.
 
 132 EAKTH 
 
 " It's Lady Oswestry, when she was a girl. She 
 was a cousin of Milly's and a dear friend of mine." 
 
 Rill gave an exclamation of surprise. 
 
 " That . . . Lady Oswestry ? That beautiful 
 child ! " 
 
 For the divorce had been a particularly unpleasant 
 one, and recent enough for the echo in India to 
 remain vividly in his mind. 
 
 Diana's hazel eyes were dark with anger. 
 
 ' ' She was the dearest girl that ever walked this earth . ' ' 
 
 Loyalty rang in her voice, predominant over the 
 nervousness underlying the speech. 
 
 "And yet . . . she married Peter Oswestry." 
 Bill mused upon it, his eyes on the purity of the 
 cleverly-drawn face " a regular wrong 'un," as 
 everybody knew. 
 
 " Excepting Doris," Diana answered hotly. " I 
 don't know much about it all I was at school at the 
 time but Milly does. She wrote that," she pointed 
 to the last line of the strange inscription; "that 
 was the year of her marriage, and she was so 
 unhappy ! I don't think she ever cared for him 
 poor little Doris ! but her people wanted it ; and they 
 were very poor, you know, and the money and title 
 and all that." She gave a significant gesture, com- 
 pleting her sentence. 
 
 " I shall never believe things against her, whatever 
 people say! She was absolutely wretched. Why, do 
 you know," she turned to Bill, her face serious, her 
 candid eyes pleading in her friend's defence, " she 
 ran away from him, on her honeymoon, all the way 
 home from Venice, back to Milly here ? He'd been 
 so unkind to her." 
 
 " Good Lord ! " Bill, with his knowledge of the 
 world, could not meet the pained hazel eyes. "What 
 happened then? "
 
 EAETH 133 
 
 " Oh, he came and fetched her back. There was 
 an awful scene, so Milly says. She hates him, of 
 course. I simply can't understand anyone being 
 unkind to Doris ! She was so sweet, and trusted 
 everybody the sort of character you can't help 
 loving. But, of course, once married she had to stay 
 with him." 
 
 Rill smiled at her simple logic. 
 
 " Until she went off with Jerry Dimsdale ! " 
 
 He regretted the words directly they had passed 
 his lips, but it was evident that Diana knew the 
 crowning catastrophe of Doris' unhappy life. For 
 she put the sketch in among the others with a 
 sudden movement, her face averted. 
 
 " I know," her voice was sombre. " It's awful, isn't 
 it ? But I can't help thinking, somehow, it wasn't 
 quite her fault, that there's something . . . we 
 can't understand." 
 
 Her steady loyalty went to the tender spot in Bill's 
 heart, and he laid a hand impulsively over Diana's 
 own. 
 
 " I expect there is, my dear I expect there is." 
 
 She looked up quickly, grateful for his sympathy, 
 and went on with her naive explanation 
 
 " Milly says it's the fault of the way we're all 
 brought up to look on marriage as a sort of end 
 instead of a beginning of serious life." It was 
 evident she was quoting her friendVown words, and 
 Rill, interested, nodded his head. 
 
 Diana, desperately earnest, continued 
 
 " She's quite mad on the subject, you know. She 
 says we're all expected to marry, and none of us 
 educated for it just pitched into it like a puppy into 
 deep water to see if it can swim. And some of us 
 can, and some of us can't like Doris . . ." she 
 sighed. " It does seem odd, as Milly says ; it's the
 
 134 EAKTH 
 
 main profession for women, and yet the one thing we 
 know nothing about." 
 
 A gleam of mischief came into her eyes. 
 
 " Milly's so funnjr, you should just hear her ! She 
 wants to start a campaign not ' Suffrage,' you 
 know ! " she laughed outright " but a sort of 
 training for girls how to manage a house and a 
 husband and children, and all that . . . She says 
 being happily married is nothing, any pretty fool 
 gets the chance ! but to keep on being happily 
 married is the difficulty." 
 
 " And what do you propose ? " Rill was infinitely 
 diverted. " I should like to hear your views as well 
 as Milly's." 
 
 Diana rose swiftly to her feet, and with great care 
 put the portfolio together. 
 
 " Oh, as for myself," her voice was light, but she 
 kept her back turned to the man, " I have no 
 views." 
 
 She reached up easily to the dusty shelf, where a 
 bust of Minerva gazed down with the dead wisdom 
 of its hollow eyes slim arms over her glossy 
 head, steadying the big book. He could see the 
 outline of her young body against the light, the pure 
 curve of throat and girlish breast, supple and exquisite 
 as her Greek prototype, with a hint of immaturity 
 that promise of fuller beauty that is the secret charm 
 of the springtide of womanhood. 
 
 " Having abjured all personal notion of matri- 
 mony ? " Something deeper than curiosity stirred 
 in his voice. 
 
 " Yes," said Diana, steadily.
 
 EAKTH 135 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SUNDAY opened with a fine haze that veiled 
 the blue sky and promised heat. And indeed 
 the coming of the comet seemed to have 
 changed the usually chilly month into a fair 
 semblance of July. 
 
 Rill had successfully worked the oracle, leaving 
 Lady Cottar at the end of his fleeting visit under 
 the comforting impression that, failing the joy of her 
 own society, through the tragedy of her fragile 
 health, politeness pointed to Diana as the inevitable 
 substitute. 
 
 So her mother had bidden her good-bye with 
 unusual graciousness ; her father, with a twinkle in 
 his eyes at the mention of Rill, and a laughing in- 
 junction " not to get drowned " ! All this had added 
 to Diana's enjoyment, so often damped at the outset 
 by the grudging consent with which her mother 
 permitted her small dissipations. 
 
 At Esterella's request to go " right out into the 
 country " they had taken the train to Goring, far 
 beyond the London-haunted reaches, with their 
 scented theatrical crowd and the opulent suggestion 
 of Jerusalem that hangs like a phantom of the city, 
 scattering money and thick utterance from Rich- 
 mond to Reading's outskirts of villadom. 
 
 Diana was in one of her most radiant moods, 
 instinctively in touch with the beauty of the day.
 
 136 EAKTH 
 
 The fresh green of the trees fringing the mossy 
 banks, the dancing sunlight on the water, and the 
 olive shadows that lay beneath the feathery willows; 
 the blue, blue sky above them ..." one of my own 
 dear skies," the Italian had merrily declared ; the 
 freedom from the conventional atmosphere of town, 
 and, above all, the presence of the man she loved, 
 brought all the gaiety of her youth to the surface, 
 and she chattered and chaffed and laughed until the 
 others caught the infection of her mood, and no 
 gayer party had ever lunched in the low-roofed 
 parlour of the old Swan Inn. 
 
 They drank their coffee on the lawn by the 
 water's edge, and after some discussion decided on a 
 punt and " downstream " as their destination. 
 
 So Darrell guided them skilfully past the thrilling 
 danger-board that marks the presence of the weir, 
 and round the sharp curve to the entrance of the 
 lock. His wife and Diana sat side by side facing 
 him, and Bill lounged on the cushions opposite, his 
 well-shaped head, in spite of laughing warnings, 
 bared to the dazzling sun. It was Esterella's first 
 experience of the river, and the novelty of the pro- 
 ceeding, added to the excitement of the mysterious 
 processes of the lock, had enhanced her beauty by 
 an unusual animation. She was indeed good to look 
 upon that sunny afternoon. The fair green of the 
 countryside seemed but to emphasise the rich colour- 
 ing of her skin, her full red lips parted with wonder 
 like a child, the faint golden glow of her perfect 
 throat that fine stately column of the singer the 
 lustrous eyes that gazed wonderingly forth from 
 under the heavy lids all was perfect in its warm 
 humanity ! So Kill thought, watching her sleepily 
 from where he lay, appreciating the whole charming 
 picture of finely-developed womanhood. She wore
 
 EAETH 137 
 
 a linen frock that moulded her full figure and was 
 pink a delicate, flesh-coloured shade, and, upon her 
 dark hair, a hat of the same colour, wreathed with 
 deep blue forget-me-nots, tied, shepherdess fashion, 
 with wide ribbons under her pointed chin. 
 
 " You look like a strawberry-ice," said Bill, lazily, 
 " or a Watteau ' bergre ' I'm not sure which ! " 
 
 " I wish I felt like one," said Darrell, towering 
 above him, punt-pole in hand. " My faith ! it's hot 
 to-day." 
 
 Bill yawned comfortably. 
 
 " How nice energy is in others." 
 
 " I'll be your turn soon, old man." Jack paused 
 to turn back a cuff. " You needn't flatter yourself 
 I'm going to do all the work. Just take that link out, 
 will you? my hands are wet." He leaned forward, 
 holding his arm down to his friend. 
 
 " Do let me try to punt," pleaded Diana, fascinated 
 by the easy clear strokes with which the boat moved 
 forward ; " it looks so nice. I promise I won't fall 
 over." 
 
 " Come along then." 
 
 Darrell steadied the boat, and as she rose, Bill, 
 nothing loth, slipped into her vacant place. His 
 quick eye had caught Esterella's faint gesture of 
 invitation, as she carelessly drew together the folds 
 of the pink dress, clearing a space beside her. 
 
 " Now, look here, Di you've got to stand firm 
 and throw it out like this. . . ." 
 
 For the pair had fallen back quite naturally into 
 the friendship of childhood days. 
 
 " Let's look at your heels V H'm ! you girls are 
 all alike ! You want rubber soles for a game like 
 this." 
 
 " They aren't high," said Diana, indignantly. " I 
 never wear high heels !"
 
 138 EARTH 
 
 " Bow-wow-wow ! " Darrell mocked her gaily. 
 "What price Wang Cho? " 
 
 Then began the usual amusing lesson. 
 
 The punt under her first stroke commenced to 
 revolve slowly, then, as she strove to check it with 
 a second hurried effort, it plunged madly across 
 into the nearest bank, to be thrust out again with 
 much laughter and Esterella's pink parasol. 
 
 A very demon of mischief seemed to possess its 
 wooden soul. It capered here and there, revolved 
 giddily, and bucketed first into one bank, then into 
 the other. 
 
 " It's getting dangerous ! " protested Bill, as a wet 
 branch of willow trailed across his head ; and he 
 ducked under the pink parasol, and found it a very 
 pleasant retreat. 
 
 " I'll protect you," said Esterella, softly, tilting 
 the sunshade forward ; " do not be afraid." She 
 smiled mischievously into the handsome face so 
 near her own. 
 
 " You won't admit there's danger ? " 
 
 His grey eyes emphasised the double intention of 
 the speech. 
 
 "You should be brave . . . like me," said 
 Darrell's wife demurely. 
 
 "And face the danger?" said Bill, suiting the 
 action to the words. 
 
 A little thrill of excitement swept over her at his 
 glance. Despite her late success and swiftly-grow- 
 ing popularity, which had seemed at one time the 
 height of her ambition, the fervid admiration of her 
 theatre-days was past, and had left a blank. 
 
 But a warning toot from a launch made them 
 both sit up. 
 
 Look out ! " said the soldier, sharply ; and " Dio 
 mio ! we shall be drowned ! " cried the excitable
 
 EAETH 139 
 
 Italian, as he made a dive for the boat-hook, and 
 tried in vain to get a hold on the nearest bank. 
 
 The launch swerved past in safety. Five sedate 
 people in cane arm-chairs, taking their pleasure as 
 people should, gave the punt a glance of mingled 
 horror and contempt ; a toy dog yapped, and through 
 her tortoise-shell " inquisitors " the foremost lady 
 stared hard at Darrell, clinging desperately with both 
 arms round an overhanging bough, and still con- 
 vulsed with laughter. Diana's hat had come off in 
 the struggle, and her glossy hair shone in great 
 curling waves over her merry, flushed face ; the 
 dripping sleeves clung tightly to her arms, where 
 the water had run down from the vindictive pole, 
 and a great smear of mud was visible on her white 
 serge skirt. 
 
 The punt rocked wildly on the swell of the fast 
 launch, and Esterella, with a movement of terror, 
 grasped the arm of the man beside her. 
 
 " That was your friend, Mrs. Gervase Maule," 
 gasped Darrell, tears of mirth in his bright blue 
 eyes. " Did you see her face, Rill, her look of 
 horror and disgust? She'll never speak to you 
 again ! Socially, you're lost ! " 
 
 He collapsed into the bottom of the boat, which 
 drifted slowly out into mid-stream. 
 
 "It'll make a good paragraph," said Diana, gravely, 
 aware of the lady's nickname ; " we shall all of us 
 get sadly ' mauled,' 1 fear ! " 
 
 " Let's moor the punt up somewhere," suggested 
 Rill, when the laughter had subsided. He was 
 tired of prodding muddy banks, and wanted to talk 
 in peace. " There's a backwater just ahead ; we'll 
 run up there." 
 
 He reached for a paddle, and began to work 
 lazily from where he lay. Silence settled down on
 
 140 EAETH 
 
 the little party, the inevitable reaction after mirth, 
 and the drowsy heat seemed to lie on the river 
 like a vast enfolding shawl. Under the bows they 
 could hear the gentle ripple of the stream protesting 
 against invasion with a cool, insistent " Glop ! . . . 
 glop ! . . . glop ! " as they moved on up the 
 narrow channel between the island and the 
 bank. 
 
 A kingfisher with outstretched beak crossed 
 swiftly across their path, a flash of blue and copper 
 in the sunlight, and among the scented reeds a 
 moor-hen was scuttling with a shrill feminine cry 
 of warning to her chicks the mother-note common 
 to all nature. Heavy in the air was the odour of 
 meadow-sweet, and from far away the bells of 
 Basildon church were ringing, ding-dong, with the 
 last note flat, but breathing the unmistakable 
 Sunday calm of the peaceful countryside. Rill ran 
 the punt up into a shady corner under the trees, and 
 having appealed in vain to his host, jumped ashore 
 himself, and swung the chain round a sapling's stem. 
 Darrell lay flat on his back in the bottom of the 
 boat, gazing sleepily up at the sky through the 
 intricate network of the willows. 
 
 " Let the lazy beggar work," he said confidentially 
 to Diana, perched on the heaped -up cushions beyond 
 him, " do him a power of good ! D'you want your 
 sketch-book ? " as he saw her vainly hunting for 
 something. " It's in the pocket of my coat beside 
 you. Now, are you happy? " 
 
 " Very," said the girl. 
 
 She settled down to draw the narrowing back- 
 water, with its sombre horizon of trees and muddy 
 broken banks, where the cows came down to drink 
 from the butter-cup-strewn meadows above; but 
 the spell of the lazy hour was not to be denied, and
 
 EAKTH 141 
 
 after a few minutes she relinquished the attempt, 
 baffled by the want of colour to give it life. 
 
 Darrell's eyes were closed. Nature had triumphed 
 openly over mere politeness, and he slept like a 
 placid child. 
 
 A sudden sense of loneliness seized Diana, a presage 
 she hardly knew of what, some indefinite shadow 
 of evil that threatened them. A grey cloud lined 
 with copper was stealing up from the west, and the 
 glare on the water seemed intensified by that 
 peculiar stillness that heralds a coming storm. 
 
 From the other end of the punt came a laugh, 
 low and conscious, and the sound of murmuring 
 voices. Rill was enjoying himself, pursuing his 
 way undisturbed through the labyrinth of flirtation, 
 and Darrell's wife, after one glance at her husband's 
 prostrate form, was leading the chase, as she well 
 knew how. 
 
 Diana did not count with either. She gauged 
 their feelings to a nicety, sensitive of a hurt she 
 had no right to resent. 
 
 The beautiful southern face was obscured by the 
 lowered parasol, but she could see the man's smooth 
 head, the clear-cut profile outlined against the dark 
 background of foliage, and almost unconsciously 
 she started to sketch in the lines that were already 
 deeply engraved on her memory. 
 
 Then, as, lost in her subject, she worked on 
 steadily, a strange thing happened. 
 
 For her art betrayed her, finding the weak joint 
 in the armour of faith with which she was wont to 
 protect the man before her. 
 
 Her genius for probing beneath the surface, the 
 almost literary talent she possessed for dissecting 
 character brooked no denial, and as she paused to 
 contemplate her handiwork, her brows knit, pencil
 
 142 EARTH 
 
 poised in air, it dawned upon her suddenly that 
 here in the sketch before her was Bill himself the 
 real man, stripped of all glamour and social veneer, 
 strangely different from the figure-head she had set 
 up as hero of her girlhood's romance. 
 
 She stared at it in amazement, realising the 
 selfishness of the face, a hint of cruelty in the 
 strongly-marked mouth, a weariness in the eyes, 
 where the innumerable tiny wrinkles, that formed 
 the shadows beneath, each testified to a turned- 
 down page in the book of pleasure and pain. Faint 
 lines of irritability, satiety's outpost, negatived the 
 lazy charm of his smile, and the merciless light 
 showed the thinning hair on bis temples, where 
 here and there shone an early silver thread. 
 
 An abyss of years rolled between them ; of ex- 
 periences, impossible for her to gauge either the 
 value or the destructive power, and it seemed to 
 Diana suddenly that here was a stranger, a man 
 she did not know an alien soul impossible to read ! 
 
 The intensity of her absorption must have sent 
 out invisible feelers towards the subject of it, for 
 Bill stirred under her gaze, and turned with a quick 
 glance in her direction. 
 
 "Sketching?" He lowered his voice, doubly 
 anxious not to disturb his sleeping host. " Let's 
 see," and stretched a long arm across. 
 
 For a second Diana withheld it. Then, moved 
 by an impulse she did not pause to analyse, she 
 gave the block of paper into his hand. 
 
 Esterella leaned across him, eager to see the result. 
 
 "But . . . it is you. One sees that at a glance 
 and excellent ! " 
 
 A gleam of mischief came into her eyes, but Bill's 
 face was inscrutable. He was by no means vain, 
 but few men care to recognise a caricature of them-
 
 EARTH 143 
 
 selves. And to a certain extent the sketch was 
 this, emphasising the worse side of his appearance. 
 
 It was diabolically clever. He admitted it with 
 a smile that was somewhat hard, angry in his heart 
 that Diana Diana, of all people ! should see him 
 in this light. 
 
 The girl watched him in silence, conscious of a 
 mistake ; a little stirred, despite the fact, by the 
 hidden animosity she divined. For they had this 
 strong taste in common a healthy love of battle. 
 And though peace is the watchword of the day, it 
 is in times of war that a nation proves to what 
 heights of courage and fortitude the individual, 
 shorn of mere personal solicitude, can rise. 
 
 To a student in humanity the scene was complete. 
 For this evenly-paired quartette, hidden away in 
 the peaceful backwater, held all the elements of a 
 possible tragedy. 
 
 Rill with his dual nature, that finer side of him 
 that betrayed the hidden idealist for ever at war 
 with the animal and material trend of his being, 
 between the two women who were to prove his 
 mentors, good and bad ; and the sleeping husband, 
 confident, loving, too staunch himself to bear a 
 thought of suspicion, heedless of the germ of 
 treachery that Esterella's passionate and unbalanced 
 temperament might foster in the heart of his friend. 
 
 Diana, sensitive to a fault, fatally ignorant of life, 
 emerging like a bright butterfly from the chrysalis 
 of the narrow home, no match for the subtle Italian, 
 with her armour of knowledge and her centuries- 
 deep inherited passion for intrigue. 
 
 " It's very good tout-d-fait moi ! " Rill broke 
 the silence that had fallen on the boat. " What a 
 clever child it is ! " 
 
 He looked mockingly across, and noting the quick
 
 144 EAETH 
 
 flush in Diana's cheeks, the challenging light in her 
 hazel eyes, again that desire for conquest stung him 
 as it had when, unconsciously, she had teased him 
 beyond his patience upon the Hyeres hills. He 
 longed to break her to his will a sort of obstinacy, 
 half-passion, half-temper, possessed him, baffled by 
 her inscrutable attitude of confident innocence. 
 
 " I think it's like you," said Diana coolly, " like 
 you are sometimes." 
 
 "Now, for instance? " 
 
 Rill's eyes challenged her, but the girl did not 
 flinch, upheld by the knowledge that her pencil had 
 not lied tempted too by the spirit in her to provoke 
 the storm. She gave one swift glance at the Italian, 
 smiling lazily beside him stretched luxuriously on 
 the soft cushions with an almost feline grace. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 Unfalteringly the answer came as she bent 
 forward to take the sketch ; glanced at it for a 
 moment, then, with a little laugh, tore it into tiny 
 pieces and scattered it on the stream. 
 
 " Ah ! . . . what a pity ! " Esterella protested. 
 " It was ver-ry good." Under her heavy lids she 
 glanced at Rill, instinctively realising his sombre 
 resentment. " The nose and forehead straight 
 one would say Greek. . . ." Her voice was 
 almost caressing as she spoke. " You have not the 
 English look at all." 
 
 The remark, intended for flattery, produced the 
 opposite result. 
 
 " No? " Rill's tone was that of dry amusement. 
 He caught Diana's eyes, and, leaning forward, de- 
 liberately stirred the sleeping man. " Wake up, 
 Jack, you lazy dog ! we can't stay here all day. 
 Madam came out to see the river, not this little 
 puddle."
 
 EAKTH 145 
 
 A memory slid from its hiding-place in Diana's 
 brain- 
 
 " Madam will you go ? 
 Madam, will you row ? " 
 
 She sang the words with a mischievous smile, 
 unaccountably relieved by his action, and Rill caught 
 it up 
 
 " Madam, will you go and row with me ? " 
 
 His voice broke the stillness of the glade and 
 effectually roused Darrell. 
 
 "Hullo! I believe I was asleep." He sat up, 
 blinking his eyes. 
 
 " Believe ! You're a nice host you've been 
 snoring for a solid hour," retorted Kill. 
 
 Darrell laughed, turning to Diana. 
 
 " Was it a cow or Rill singing that disturbed 
 my most excellent dreams?" 
 
 " A cow," said Diana solemnly. 
 
 Everyone laughed, but Esterella had been fascin- 
 ated by the quaint refrain, and begged for more. 
 
 "Do sing it," she pleaded ; and as he shook his 
 head " Jack," she urged her husband, " make him 
 sing ! he won't do it . . . for me." 
 
 Thus pressed, Rill good-humouredly gave in. 
 "Only I warn you, it'll rain. I'm like a German 
 band, fatal to fine weather." 
 
 Diana, bending over the side of the boat, was 
 playing with a twig, probing the shallow water, 
 apparently absorbed in the mystery of the weedy 
 river-bed. 
 
 As Rill started to sing, a little nervously, before 
 her downcast eyes wound the slow panorama of 
 their moonlit walk together. The narrow street 
 bridged by the crumbling arch, with the far-off 
 picture of the old church on the hill that peep
 
 146 EAETH 
 
 into the forbidden land where her wilful steps had 
 strayed. 
 
 " Madam, will you walk ? 
 Madam, will you talk ? 
 Madam, will you walk and talk with me ? " 
 
 Darrell, with the best intentions and a voice hope- 
 lessly flat, joined tumultuously in the chorus. 
 Esterella beat time with a nervous foot, her sen- 
 sitive ear shrinking from her husband's well-meant 
 efforts. 
 
 At the end she clapped her hands, congratulating 
 the singer. 
 
 "Bravo, bravissimo ! it is of a quaintness." 
 
 She hummed the words under her breath 
 
 " ' I will give you the keys of heaven, 
 To close the gates when the clock strikes seven.' 
 
 What does it mean ? the ' keys of heaven '?" 
 
 And as no one volunteered an explanation, ran 
 on, thinking aloud 
 
 " A ' key ' that is what one turns in a door, is it 
 not? to unlock . . . Now, what could unlock 
 heaven? " 
 
 Darrell, catching her perplexed glance, smiled, 
 his honest face suddenly tender, his blue eyes full 
 of meaning. 
 
 Esterella, conscious of admiration, gave a soft, 
 satisfied laugh. 
 
 " E 1'amore ! " 
 
 A note of triumph rang in her beautiful voice. 
 She gave a little wise nod of her glossy head 
 "E 1'amore." The full liquid word that breathes 
 the very spirit of love was drowned in a sudden 
 sharp patter on the leaves above and a far-off 
 ominous roll of thunder. 
 
 " And here," said Bill, " as I prophesied, comes 
 the rain ! "
 
 EARTH 147 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 DIANA sat in the Doge's chair. The light 
 from the high window fell softly about 
 her, and a glint of sunshine, penetrating 
 the morning haze, was spreading fan- 
 shaped, full of dancing motes of gold, athwart the 
 wide studio, and lingered on the gilded cap that 
 crowned the high-backed seat, investing it with the 
 dead and gone glamour of Venetian power and 
 tyranny. 
 
 On her lap, Wang Cho, as strangely inappropriate 
 as a Chinese god, was posing negligently, unaware 
 of the honour paid him by the painter, and the 
 chance of his wrinkled features being handed down 
 to posterity. 
 
 It was the last sitting, and the little creature, 
 reconciled to the proceeding by his young mistress' 
 presence and the promise of his passion for sugar 
 being gratified, lay as immovable as his prototype, 
 curled round with the same unstudied grace on the 
 cover of a high satsuma vase beyond him on the 
 littered shelf. 
 
 Ericsen, in his shirt-sleeves, puffing contentedly 
 at his pipe, was putting the finishing touches to the 
 portrait, talking as he worked in his usual rambling 
 fashion in short staccato sentences between the firm 
 strokes of his brush. 
 
 " Seems to me," he had just observed, standing
 
 148 EAETH 
 
 back to view his subject with the bright blue eyes 
 half-closed, " the modern idea of romance won't 
 bear looking into." 
 
 He pronounced the word with the accent inverted 
 a peculiarity of his which Diana had already 
 remarked. 
 
 " I'm not given to novels as a rule, but this winter, 
 when I was indulging in influenza, a pal sent me 
 round a batch of books to keep me quiet." 
 
 He sucked at his pipe thoughtfully, and delivered 
 the verdict 
 
 " Never read such fluff in my life ! " 
 
 Diana laughed at his solemn expression. The 
 friendship in a short week had gathered strength 
 out of all proportion to the time, based on the 
 strong link of a common honesty and simplicity of 
 outlook. She liked this big untidy man, with his 
 idealism, his extraordinary talent, and the quaint 
 contrast of his instinctively tender heart and ex- 
 plosive temper. 
 
 " I wonder what the books were ? Tell me about 
 them." 
 
 She stroked Wang Cho's soft coat and waited for 
 the painter's reply. 
 
 '' Feeble copies from the French, for the most 
 part without their vigour and bold detail, starred 
 like a brandy-bottle where the author's courage 
 failed ! And the rest, soft stuff about women trying 
 ' to find their souls,' that's the latest fad for all 
 the world as if they'd mislaid a shilling " 
 
 He broke off, staring intently at the Pekingese. 
 
 " How do they set about it ? " Diana foresaw 
 mischief in the glint of the blue eyes. 
 
 "Oh! . . . it seems a perilous sort of pursuit, 
 involving murder and suicide and childbirth, and 
 suchlike dramatic incidents." He paused, with a
 
 EARTH 149 
 
 sudden snort of contempt. "If people would let 
 their souls alone and understand their bodies, they'd 
 have more of a chance! A few good practical hints 
 on clean living and healthy exercise and what the 
 body consists of, and the soul would take care of 
 itself." 
 
 He took his pipe from between his lips, and 
 tapped out the ashes against the corner of the easel 
 with a gesture full of impatience. 
 
 " Now, you, for instance. I'll bet you don't know 
 an ounce of anatomy ! how that wonderful body of 
 yours is made, with its perfect mechanism, its 
 beauty and simplicity. There's romance, if you 
 like ! whole pages of it in the human form. Made 
 ' in the likeness of God,' and, mostly, ashamed of it ! 
 
 " It knocks all the gilt off ' finding your soul.' 
 Find your body, say I, and understand it, and 
 you're nearer the heart of humanity than ever you 
 were before." 
 
 Diana was thinking hard, her hazel eyes serious, 
 conscious of a new point of view. 
 
 " It's odd," resumed Ericsen, " this prejudice 
 against one's inside. Never mentioned when you 
 come to think of it, except when one talks of 
 disease." 
 
 His voice was full of healthy disgust. 
 
 " Now, why on earth it's polite to discuss 
 appendicitis in the public way we do, and shrink 
 from mere mention, say, of that useful organ, the 
 stomach, is a point I can't fathom." 
 
 He squeezed out fresh paint from a tube with 
 extravagant vigour. 
 
 " Maternity now, that's vetoed, though infidelity's 
 quite the mode " 
 
 He checked himself suddenly, conscious of Diana's 
 tender years, and added somewhat lamely
 
 150 EARTH 
 
 " I've no patience with society." 
 
 " Nor anything else ! " said Diana, with a chuckle ; 
 " but it is funny I've noticed it myself what we 
 may say and what we mayn't. Milly and you 
 would get on. She's great at ' facing facts,' as she 
 calls it, and down on all the humbug that people 
 talk. One of her fads is that girls should be brought 
 up just like boys, and not shielded and sheltered as 
 if they would always be kept in cotton-wool." 
 
 "I'm with you there," Ericsen nodded his shaggy 
 head. " There are only two kinds of girls nowa- 
 days that ever I come across the ' young person ' of 
 Library Association fame, utterly ignorant and 
 pampered, who, when she marries, expects the moon 
 and bores her husband to tears ; and the so-called 
 ' fast ' ones, who often make the best wives from a 
 surer knowledge of mankind. But what we want 
 is the happy medium innocent, if you like, but not 
 ignorant taught to know the material facts of life, 
 prepared to take the rough with the smooth, and to 
 treat a man as he is, not the perfect husband they've 
 been taught to expect. 
 
 "Disillusion is bound to follow marriage ; no man, 
 or woman either, can live up to the high standard 
 of courtship days, but with a fair knowledge of 
 humanity as a link between them, of its necessary 
 weaknesses and temptations, sympathies broaden, 
 and many a woman's heart would be saved the 
 bitterness that too often sends her elsewhere for 
 consolation." 
 
 He filled his pipe thoughtfully, his face sombre, 
 and continued 
 
 "No . . . utter ignorance is too much of a handi- 
 cap. It all hinges on the present-day attitude, the 
 endless competition, the growing struggle for ex- 
 istence not, mind you, the existence of our fore-
 
 EARTH 151 
 
 fathers. The young people want to commence where 
 their parents left off. Simplicity is a thing to be 
 sneered at poverty, a stain. And girls are taught 
 they must marry, and ' marry well.' That's the 
 pinch ! It's not the outcome of romance, but a pro- 
 fession they adopt as a necessity. The mothers are 
 wise enough to see they've more chance of marrying 
 off their daughters blindfold than with their eyes 
 open. Hence this studied education of ' innocence.' 
 
 " Talk about the ' emancipation of woman ' ! Its 
 only possibility is in a State endowment for the sex, 
 or a definite allowance from the parents themselves 
 that will set them free to choose between married 
 and single life. Many brave hearts attempt it, but 
 are daily overcome by the struggle for which I 
 contend they are physically unfit of earning their 
 daily bread. In France girls hold the strong 
 weapon of their ' dot ' ; but here, in this enlightened 
 land, the daughters are sacrificed to give their 
 brothers the orthodox ' start in life. ' With the 
 same financial help themselves I think the English 
 girls could ably hold their own, but in nine cases out 
 of ten they are forced into marriage not for love, 
 mark you but as a means of support and to avoid 
 the stigma attached to the title of ' old maid. ' Of 
 course, I don't include the rare instances of girls 
 with private means " 
 
 "Like me," said Diana, happily; " thanks be to 
 Grannie Cottar, I've just enough to indulge in my 
 little studio and other minor luxuries." 
 
 " And marry the man you want, when the time 
 comes." 
 
 Ericsen spoke impulsively, still engrossed in his 
 theme, but a cloud gathered on the girl's smiling face. 
 
 " I don't ivant to marry." Her voice held a 
 dogged note, with a sudden hint of reserve.
 
 152 EABTH 
 
 " Too much of a gamble, eh ? " 
 
 The shrewd blue eyes, quizzical but kindly, met 
 her own, and softened at something they realised in 
 the girl's serious expression. And at the sight, 
 Ericsen laid down his palette and squared his 
 shoulders resolutely. 
 
 " Now, look here, Diana," the name slipped un- 
 consciously from his lips, " don't you go tilting 
 against any conventional windmills," his voice was 
 almost rough. " You're too good a sort to come a 
 cropper over a theory." 
 
 He began to pace the room, his red beard 
 thrust forward, hands loosely clasped behind him. 
 
 " You marry marry the man you love but 
 don't expect perfection. You won't get it." 
 
 He stumbled over a stray tube of paint and kicked 
 it almost savagely out of his path. 
 
 " Expect humanity, full of faults and contradic- 
 tions, witb the saving grace of love. There's 
 nothing in life like passion nothing ! And when 
 it's burnt out, there's enough fire in you grit and 
 balance too to rekindle the ashes into a nice com- 
 panionable glow of affection. Don't forget that it's 
 the next best thing ! 
 
 " For passion can't last it won't last it's all on 
 the knees of the gods. But, for the sake of heaven, 
 take it when it conies. And with you, Diana if I 
 know anything about women, and I've loved a 
 many ! it'll mean marriage with a strong man. 
 But, mark you, strong as his love is, in proportion 
 strong will be his sins. You don't like the word ? " 
 For Diana had flinched. 
 
 " Then go and marry a curate, and bear him 
 fifteen children God help you!" His voice rose 
 in sudden an^er. " That's what you girls won't 
 understand. You want a Galahad and a Don Juan
 
 EARTH 153 
 
 combined, and they aren't made, my dear, they 
 aren't made. And if you can't forgive, don't marry, 
 don't look at a man. You're laying up hell for 
 yourself fiery with recrimination and jealousy." 
 
 He paused beside the Doge's chair, facing the girl 
 deliberately. 
 
 " If you want a real man, you'll get a man with 
 his vices as well as his virtues it's the penalty 
 of strength. But you'd never be satisfied with 
 a weakling. Why . . . you're half a boy your- 
 self!" 
 
 His face broadened suddenly into a smile, comical 
 but tender, the eyes as blue and candid as a June 
 sky under their shaggy brows. 
 
 " It's no good, Diana you've got to face the 
 music. But don't let happiness slip away. God 
 knows it may come but once ! " 
 
 Something in his voice went to Diana's heart, and 
 she held out her hand to him in a quick impulse of 
 sympathy, divining the secret that had fallen un- 
 consciously from his lips. Unrealised by herself, 
 she was developing fast, the childish mists of un- 
 reality dispersing one by one as her faith in the 
 man she loved was shaken by his faults by his 
 light attitude towards life the unfathomable past 
 she divined. 
 
 And alone in her bewilderment unable to confide 
 at home she realised in Ericsen a friend who had 
 himself suffered, but "won through," saved by the 
 dominant note of his artist's religion an unfailing 
 love of humanity. 
 
 Ericsen, touched by her silent confidence, held 
 the little hand in his strong grasp. 
 
 " Failing love," he said gruffly, " there's always 
 work good work I'm coming over to see yours 
 to-morrow may I?"
 
 154 EARTH 
 
 The blood rushed up under her clear skin. 
 
 " Will you really ? " Her shy pleasure was 
 impossible to mistake. 
 
 Ericsen nodded his head. "I'd like to," he 
 answered simply " about five ? When I've got 
 this portrait off. " 
 
 " And have tea with us ? " Diana beamed. 
 " That will be lovely. And now I must be going." 
 She got down stiffly, tired with the long sitting. 
 "I'm so glad Wang Cho was good," for the painter 
 had stooped to pat the Pekingese ; " he doesn't 
 realise what an honour you've done him." 
 
 She gave a quick glance at the clock. 
 
 " Past one ! I'd no idea of the time, and I've 
 heaps to do and a dance to-night." 
 
 As she reached the door she paused, then with 
 an effort that showed itself by the jerkiness of her 
 words, prompted by a very real gratitude 
 
 "Thank you so much. I'll remember . . . 
 what you've said." 
 
 Ericsen, realising the shyness she struggled to 
 overcome, covered the speech with tact. 
 
 " You do," he answered cheerfully ; " it's not 
 often I pose as a male Minerva, giving advice gratis. 
 But Dianas from time immemorial have been open 
 to mistakes . . . ." He chuckled over his little 
 joke. " Always felt sorry for Actaeon ; but I expect 
 it was only a case of the wrong chap, after all ! " 
 
 He watched her cross the road with her light, 
 free step, her short skirts swinging, her head high 
 to face this unaccountable world, and was rewarded 
 by a last wave of the hand as she vanished out of 
 sight. 
 
 Then, with a sigh, he turned back into the empty 
 room, relit his pipe, and picking up a worn copy of de 
 Musset, turned the pages thoughtfully until he
 
 EARTH 155 
 
 came to one that was heavily marked by use. 
 In the margin was a note, written in the same 
 delicate woman's hand that had traced the in- 
 scription on the lettered title-page 
 
 " A toi, mon ami. A de F." 
 
 His talk with Diana still uppermost in his mind, 
 the verses before him seemed to hold a deeper 
 significance, and though he knew them well-nigh by 
 heart, again he read de Musset's passionate tribute 
 to the woman who had passed like a lightning flash 
 with the erratic " fougue " of her genius across 
 his life that Huntress of Love, George Sand. 
 
 " Je ne veux rien savoir. ni si les champs fleurissent 
 Ni ce qu'il adviendra du simulacre humain, 
 Ni si ces vastes cieux eclaireront demain 
 Ce qu'ils ensevelissent. 
 
 " Je me dis seulement : a cette heure, en ce lieu 
 Un jour, je fus aime, j'aimais, elle etait belle ; 
 J'enfouis ce tresor dans mon ame immortelle 
 Et je 1'emporte a Dieu." 
 
 Meanwhile Diana, the little dog tucked under 
 her arm, breathless but happy, had arrived at the 
 gloomy house in the square just as the last echoes 
 of the gong were dying away. 
 
 She found her mother already at table, Sir John's 
 chair occupied by Walter, who had dropped in to 
 lunch. 
 
 Lady Cottar greeted her severely. 
 
 " Late again, Diana. I suppose it has not even 
 occurred to you that this is my day At Home ? " 
 
 " I'm sorry, mummy, but I did the flowers ever 
 so early, before I left ; didn't you see? " The little 
 hurt cloud that ever descended on the hazel eyes at 
 home was slowly gathering. 
 
 "Indeed I did," Lady Cottar's voice was tense.
 
 156 EAETH 
 
 "In your usual careless fashion! If it had not been 
 for me the piano would have been ruined. But it 
 is no good telling you anything. . ." 
 
 She turned to Walter for sympathy. 
 
 " Diana's artistic tastes shrink from the use of a 
 duster," she added drily. 
 
 Walter pecked, conscious of the danger-signal in 
 his cousin's flushed cheeks. 
 
 " Talking of At Homes," he said hastily, " I had 
 a card last week from that Mrs. Gervase Maule for 
 a party to-morrow, I think. She's a friend of 
 yours, isn't she, Tantante ? 
 
 Lady Cottar assented. 
 
 " Her sister was out with us in Jubbulpore very 
 nice people ; you must go if you can." She smiled 
 fondly at her nephew, whom she genuinely admired, 
 pleased in the depths of her heart to have one 
 of her own kin so eminently presentable. "We 
 shall be there about five." 
 
 A little exclamation of horrified surprise broke 
 from Diana's lips. 
 
 " Oh, mummy, not to-morrow ? You never told 
 me." 
 
 " Something else on ? " 
 
 Walter put in his oar, but an ominous glint came 
 into his aunt's pale eyes. 
 
 " I've asked Mr. Ericsen to tea, at the studio," 
 Diana explained. 
 
 Lady Cottar mounted her hobby-horse. "You 
 had no business to do so without consulting me. 
 Really, the girls of the present day, with their 
 independent ways ... I don't know what's 
 coming to the world ! " She threw up her hand 
 dramatically. " Besides, I don't approve of your 
 having men to tea; I told you so be Tore, when Major 
 Bill went to see you. If you want to entertain,
 
 EAETH 157 
 
 you have your home and your mother, though you 
 seem to forget the fact." 
 
 Anger quivered in her voice with an hysterical 
 note as she continued 
 
 "I refuse to allow it. You will write at once 
 and put this painter off. You have your duty to 
 me to consider as well as this ridiculous artistic 
 craze ! And what good does it do ? To what use 
 do you put this wonderful talent of yours? It 
 is pure selfishness, an excuse to escape from all 
 control." 
 
 Diana's face set at the sneering words. 
 
 " In my young days," continued Lady Cottar, 
 " we considered it a privilege to go out with our 
 mothers. Your Aunt Bertha painted, but she never 
 allowed it to interfere with her home life, her duty 
 to her parents. And she really was talented! 
 Charming little things she copied, generally flowers, 
 fans and d'oyleys and tena-cotta plaques that made 
 useful presents for her friends. . . ." 
 
 She paused, catching her breath, and Diana 
 hopelessly interposed. 
 
 "But, mummy, you don't understand. It's 
 Ericseu, John Ericsen, the famous portrait painter. 
 I can't put him off! It's so awfully good of him, and 
 he's promised to look at my work." 
 
 She looked imploringly at the cold face. 
 
 "I'll come on afterwards, and meet you at Mrs. 
 Maule's anything you like, anything sooner than 
 that ! " 
 
 "I shall not allow it. I shall put my foot down." 
 She suited the action to the words. "So long as 
 you stay at home you will have to obey, Diana. If 
 you cannot be ruled by love " the tears rose to 
 her eyes "you must at least bend to authority. . . 
 You are a naughty child ! . . . a bad daughter
 
 158 EAETH 
 
 to me. . ." The lace handkerchief fluttered forth 
 to Walter's deep dismay. 
 
 Heroically he flung himself into the breach, 
 conscious perhaps of the five-pound-note his morn- 
 ing visit had earned him. 
 
 " I'll go with you," he said, " I'll come and fetch 
 you any time you like." 
 
 Lady Cottar, wiping her eyes, gave vent to a 
 loud sob. 
 
 Diana wrestled with herself and conquered. 
 
 "Very well;" she stared past Walter, ignoring 
 his friendly wink, out of the window into the sun- 
 shine beyond, her heart heavy as lead. " I'll put 
 Mr. Ericsen off." 
 
 Victory was sweet to the elder woman, but rarely 
 accompanied by the generous impulse of a larger- 
 hearted conqueror. Now, as ever, she drove the 
 fact home. 
 
 "You will havetol" 
 
 Diana's hazel eyes went black, the danger-signal 
 of temper gaining slowly the upper hand. 
 
 " Once you are married, Diana " she put the 
 handkerchief away " you can do as you like. But 
 until then . . ." Lady Cottar paused for in- 
 spiration, and fell back on the well-worn phrase, the 
 pivot on which the home circle revolved, " I shall 
 be mistress in my own house," she concluded 
 arrogantly. 
 
 " Talking of marriage," Walter broke the storm- 
 laden silence, " I met Jack Darrell last night 
 and the fair Esterella, with Bill, of course, in 
 attendance." 
 
 Diana looked up quickly, caught by the laughing 
 intention of the words. 
 
 "Why 'of course'?" she inquired, her loyalty 
 to both friends up in arms.
 
 EARTH 159 
 
 " Oh, she seems the latest attraction. Rill's a 
 rare flirt, you know ! " 
 
 To do him justice, he did not realise that the 
 words might wound the girl, but looking up into his 
 weak, handsome face, the receding chin accentuated 
 by his patronising smile, his cousin felt a wild desire 
 to box his ears. 
 
 A flicker of spite came into her mother's eyes. 
 She freely indulged herself in the feminine consola- 
 tion of pin-point stabs, and realised an opportunity 
 for this pleasing sport. 
 
 " Take care, Walter," her voice was playful ; 
 " Major Rill's a great friend of Diana's." 
 
 Walter laughed, looking inquiringly towards her. 
 
 " Really? " and suddenly " pecked," with a good- 
 humoured disinclination to push the matter further. 
 " I daresay it's all gossip," he added carelessly. 
 " Sadie Wynton told me they're always together." 
 
 " Sadie Wynton being so perfect herself ! " 
 Diana's bottled wrath exploded. " How's it going, 
 Walter ? " Thrust for thrust. 
 
 The Canary coloured hotly. 
 
 " I don't know what you mean ; if you're trying 
 to pull my leg over Sadie you're on the wrong tack. 
 But if you mean the Darrell manage " his aunt's 
 suggestion had not escaped him "I should say Rill 
 was enjoying himself. She's a beautiful woman, 
 and sings, I'm told, like an angel, and DarreU's one 
 of those sleepy, happy-go-lucky souls who can't see 
 an inch before their eyes." 
 
 But Lady Cottar interposed. 
 
 "Sh ! . . ." she held up her delicate hand, "I 
 won't have scandal, Walter, although I must say 
 I don't care for Mrs. Darrell myself. She's a little 
 too . . . ' artistic ' for my old-fashioned taste. 
 But then I'm quite aware that I'm sadly behind the
 
 160 EARTH 
 
 times." She darted a look at her daughter, and 
 added the moral severely, " When I see what the 
 present generation is coming to, I congratulate 
 myself that it is so ! " 
 
 She rose gracefully from the table, her eyes upon 
 the clock. 
 
 " Diana ! it is time you went to dress. And don't 
 forget . . ." She stopped the girl with an im- 
 perious gesture as the latter reached the door, 
 "Don't forget to write to that Mr. Ericsen." 
 
 Diana went up the staircase two steps at a time. 
 Her hands were tightly clenched, and she repeated 
 the words angrily to herself. " That Mr. Ericsen! 
 And she isn't fit to black his boots! with his genius 
 and his big heart. . . ." 
 
 For the moment she hated her mother, her spirit 
 stung beyond endurance. 
 
 " I shall marry, one of these days just to be 
 free ! " 
 
 She addressed the Landseer prints, and the 
 desperation in her voice suggested that the prospect 
 was tantamount to suicide.
 
 EARTH 161 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 RILL, faithful to promise, arrived punctually 
 at the Tarbutt's dance. They were cousins 
 of his, and since the eldest son had departed 
 for India, relied upon him to give them a 
 helping hand with their occasional parties. 
 
 A few guests had already drifted in, but Rill did 
 not wish to be snapped up by the early contingent, 
 usually so uninteresting, and had half-filled his card 
 tbe day before, three dances notably laid apart for 
 Diana. 
 
 Everyone was discussing the illness of the King, 
 which had taken a serious turn, and was causing 
 widespread sorrow and alarm, and having delivered 
 the latest bulletin from the club, Rill seized the 
 pretext of a final look at the sitting-out arrange- 
 ments, and slipped away downstairs to a quiet corner 
 he had himself prepared. 
 
 Here, secure from interruption, he lighted a 
 cigarette, and gave himself up anew to the problem 
 that so engrossed his mind. 
 
 Not for the first time in his life he found himself 
 in the cleft stick of honour and inclination pleasure 
 pointing one way, duty another. The flirtation 
 lightly begun with Darrell's beautiful wife had 
 moved forward at an alarming pace, until there was 
 no further excuse for ignoring the danger-board 
 that now faced the pair. So far they had skated 
 
 If
 
 162 EAETH 
 
 on thin ice only, heedless of the depths that lay be- 
 neath their feet, but a chance occurrence of the night 
 before had opened Bill's eyes to the fact that, wher- 
 ever he chose to lead, Esterella would blindly follow. 
 
 He was not ignorant of the continental stand- 
 point, their lighter laws of love and wider indulgence 
 to the sex ; true child of the south, her scruples, 
 he guessed, would be few. But his own ? There 
 was the pinch ! For Darrell was his friend, and the 
 thought of treachery, of definite dishonour, poisoned 
 the golden cup that passion held to his lips. 
 
 And Esterella was not only his friend's wife. 
 She was his regimental sister, sacred by all the 
 unspoken laws that knit the service together. 
 
 " His own regiment." The phrase embodied 
 the heart of the whole matter, and every noble 
 instinct cried out in him to desist, to flee temptation 
 Before it should be too late. 
 
 Away from her side he could see it clearly to the 
 verge of resentment at the hold she had gained upon 
 him ; but in her presence he was hypnotised, con- 
 scious only of her wonderful animal magnetism, her 
 beauty, and the magic of her voice. 
 
 He knew that his only safety lay in flight. To 
 be with her meant, one day, to lose his head. She 
 appealed to his lowest instincts, and cynically he 
 acknowledged it to be passion utter passion, un- 
 worthy of the name of love. And ever behind her 
 steps the shadow of Darrell moved like Banquo's 
 ghost the spectre at the feast : Darrell, his friend, 
 his trusty lieutenant in days gone by, the man 
 whom his thoughts already dishonoured. 
 
 Rill writhed in his chair, cursing fate, only too 
 conscious of the depths of his desire, his vanity 
 shrinking from that narrow path of retreat which 
 honour so sternly pointed out.
 
 EARTH 163 
 
 But, all unknown to him, the habit of discipline was 
 working in his defence. Despite the lazy London 
 life, the days of drilling, the rigours of a long cam- 
 paign had left their ineffaceable mark. Unflinching 
 obedience, responsibility, hardening the outer man 
 during his early years, still lingered in their results 
 through the days of self-indulgence. And, listening 
 to the far-off voices, a vision floated up before his 
 half-closed eyes, taking shape and colour in the 
 blue-brown wreaths of smoke. He saw himself 
 again on that lonely frontier post, Darrell beside 
 him, two men knit together by the sense of coming 
 danger and the desperate need to protect a handful of 
 men (such as England loves to risk) against an un- 
 known strength of enemy, ruthless, shadowy, silent 
 as the snow-capped hills themselves. 
 
 Rill and Darrell. Together the two names 
 figured, side by side in the sealed despatch that 
 followed duly the events of that momentous night, 
 securing for the former his brevet-majority, for the 
 letter special mention that largely increased his 
 chances of promotion. 
 
 Then the aftermath Darrell, tender as a woman, 
 nursing him through the fever-haunted nights. . . . 
 
 Rill stood up suddenly, pitching the end of his 
 cigarette into the fern-clad grate. 
 
 By God ! he would have none of it ! . . . He 
 swore it aloud, every muscle tense with the ultimate 
 decision conscious too of an infinite relief that for 
 the moment overpowered regret. 
 
 What course he would pursue what excuse 
 offer for the volte-face that cast a slur on his man- 
 hood he refused to contemplate, and with a strong 
 effort he wrenched himself free from his thoughts, 
 conscious of his long absence from the ballroom 
 and the immediate duties of the present.
 
 166 EABTH 
 
 chagrined " and Denison's coming later. He 
 asked me to book a couple for him. Look here ! " 
 he took the programme from her ; " what's all 
 this ? And who on earth's ' E ' ? You can't give a 
 chap all those dances, and supper ! It's not fair." 
 His voice was aggrieved. 
 
 " That's ' B ' ! " said Diana, mischievously, point- 
 ing towards the elder man. 
 
 Bill laughed aloud as she added in a stage-whisper, 
 obviously intended for his ear, " And I don't even 
 know how he dances yet ! " 
 
 The band started afresh with the favourite waltz 
 of the season. 
 
 "Don't you?" said Bill; "then . . . look 
 here ! " Coolly he put an arm round her, and 
 before she could protest swung her out into the 
 empty room. 
 
 They had it all to themselves, for the interval had 
 been unusually short, but the soldier had long out- 
 grown the age of self-consciousness. 
 
 "You'll have to give me up," Diana found her 
 voice, " when my real partner appears." 
 
 " Shall I ? " said Bill. He drew the slight form 
 closer, moved by a sudden exhilaration, born partly 
 of his conscious superiority over all these boys. 
 For he danced divinely, led by his ear for music, 
 with a sure and supple step that made for con- 
 fidence in his partner. And Diana was worthy of 
 it; her feet seemed hardly to skim the ground; 
 she swayed to his will as though she divined each 
 impulse that impelled him, smoothly, tirelessly, with 
 the ease of her perfect vitality. They were one 
 spirit, one body, one mind, united by the spell of 
 rhythmic movement. 
 
 In silence they danced, forgetful of all else, but 
 once Bill stooped his head, and whispered into
 
 EARTH 167 
 
 the little ear, half-bidden by her glossy hair 
 " Happy, Diana ? " aud their eyes met. 
 
 With a start he read in hers what his experience 
 could not fail to recognise the utter gift of being, 
 the confidence beyond words that underlies sur- 
 render in a woman's glance. 
 
 " Very." Her voice was low, full of a curious 
 thrill that moved the man to triumph as they swung 
 on together through the thickening crowd of dancers. 
 
 But his mind worked rapidly. 
 
 So the child had become woman ; the germ of 
 " liking "love ! 
 
 A feeling of fate crept over Rill, together with 
 that curious and inexplicable sensation of having 
 lived through the scene before. Surely, in some 
 previous life he had held the girl in his arms, 
 moving over a polished floor to this identical waltz! 
 
 He looked down at the dark head on a level with 
 his eyes for Rill was a tall man. He could see 
 the pure curve of her cheek, the sweep of dark 
 lashes, the rise aud fall of the delicate bosom, charm- 
 ing in its white and slender grace, its hint of im- 
 maturity. And a deep feeling of tenderness rose in 
 his heart, together with a sort of reverence, akin, had 
 he but known it, to the highest form of love, that 
 forbade him from presuming upon the secret the 
 hazel eyes had revealed. So that when they paused 
 for a moment's breathing space, it was to ask her 
 gravely 
 
 " Are you really worrying about that other man ?" 
 
 Back came Diana from the land of dreams. 
 
 " Yes ... I must." Her voice was forlorn. 
 " And here he comes." For a sleek-headed youth 
 was advancing dramatically, his eyes wide with a 
 look of pained surprise. " Besides, I never ' cut ' 
 dances it doesn't seem fair play."
 
 168 EAKTH 
 
 Kill smiled. He liked her childish honesty. 
 
 " Quite right even at the ninth hour ! But 
 don't forget that the rule applies to me." He 
 lingered for a moment, and added softly " You 
 dance . . . like no one else," and with this 
 quietly effaced himself. 
 
 But as he moved away, he caught the youth's 
 characteristic modern greeting, in a tone that would 
 have provoked a duel in days gone by 
 
 " Look here, I say, this is mine. I've hunted 
 the whole house jolly good cheek, Diana . . ." 
 and with covert amusement watched his late partner 
 being solidly jolted round. in that worn-out parody 
 known as the " Hop " waltz. 
 
 Nevertheless, through the dances that intervened, 
 with debutantes heavy and light ; the stereotyped 
 remarks about the floor, the flowers, the band ; the 
 look in Diana's eyes haunted Anthony Bill. Once 
 he came upon her in the hall, being fanned by a 
 vigorous partner, and a fragment of their speech 
 reached him where he stood, ministering to the 
 material needs of a girl whose appetite for ices 
 seemed insatiable. 
 
 " You must come and have tea with us, Chips," 
 she was saying cheerfully, "in the studio; it's 
 great fun with Milly and me. And bring Toots 
 Denison along and his banjo." 
 
 "A regular 'sing-song,'' said the individual 
 styled as " Chips." " Right-0, Diana. I'm an awful 
 ' nut ' at the ' bones,' you know did ' corner-man ' 
 at our Christy Minstrel Show last May-week. 
 Topping sport ! You ought to come up to Cam- 
 bridge this year ; can't you work it ? I'd show you 
 round ! " 
 
 And then, two dances later, from a sheltered 
 corner, the sound of her clear laugh and a frank
 
 EAKTH 169 
 
 compliment breathing the sincerity of youth. 
 " I say, that gown's stunning ; look here, Diana, 
 . . ." and the boy's voice, full of admiration, dis- 
 creetly lowered. 
 
 Evidently she was popular, this little friend of his 
 too popular he began to think, with an unexpected 
 prick of jealousy. In his indisputed monopoly of 
 the girl in far-away Hyeres, he had remained uncon- 
 scious of Adrienne's care that this should be the 
 case. Now a sense of competition spurred him on, 
 and when the card announcing No. 11 was posted 
 on the stand, Rill was there already, inwardly 
 amused at his own unusual eagerness. 
 
 " Do you want to dance ? " he asked her, as she 
 came in, laughing, on her late partner's arm, " or 
 are you getting tired '? " 
 
 "Tired?" her voice was indignant. "I'm never 
 tired of dancing." 
 
 " Come along, then, before the room gets full." 
 
 Again they tasted the magic of music and move- 
 ment blended ; but before the waltz was over, Bill 
 halted, and opening a little door at the farther end 
 of the room, led his partner through, closing it 
 behind him. 
 
 " Behold the back-stairs," he waved his hand in 
 the semi-obscurity, " in all their native beauty. I'll 
 go first and lead the way to Aladdin's Wonderful 
 Cave." 
 
 " The wine-cellar, I suppose." Diana mocked 
 him. She drew her dress tightly round her. " I 
 don't think much of your road to fairyland it's un- 
 commonly dusty." 
 
 " Just you wait I didn't have all the trouble of 
 arranging the sitting-out places for nothing, I can 
 assure you. Now, down this passage " as they 
 left the stairs behind them " through the pantry,"
 
 170 EAETH 
 
 commanded Rill, " et nous voila ! Now, isn't this 
 snug ? " 
 
 They found themselves in a little room beyond 
 the butler's province, intended, doubtless, for his bed- 
 room, but unused by the Tarbutts', who kept an 
 " outside man." 
 
 Rill had arranged it with taste : a Turkish mat 
 screens that hid the discoloured walls, two arm- 
 chairs full of soft cushions, and a table with a little 
 electric lamp that shone down softly on a bowl of 
 roses, filling the air with their delicate scent. 
 
 " It is nice ! " Diana settled herself in one of the 
 comfortable chairs, while Rill scientifically piled up 
 the cushions behind her. 
 
 " Now a footstool for the silver shoes." She 
 leaned back happily ; it was good to be waited on 
 by the man she loved. " An 1 just one thing more." 
 He vanished into the pantry and returned, two 
 glasses in one hand and a bottle of champagne in 
 the other, which he deposited triumphantly on the 
 table. " There . . . say ' Thank you,' Tony.' " 
 
 He began to cut the wire. 
 
 The girl hesitated. To her intense annoyance 
 she felt her cheeks flushing, and with an effort to 
 laugh away her embarrassment 
 
 " Thank you . . . Ripple," she answered. 
 
 Rill gave her a swift glance, but refrained from 
 comment, filling up the glasses to the brim. 
 
 "Now then, Diana, drink and be merry." He 
 handed the wine across. " A tes beaux yeux," and 
 emptied the glass. 
 
 "To . . . you ! " said Diana. The hazel 
 eyes, full of that deep soft light that she could not 
 hide, were raised half-shyly to his own, and Rill, 
 gazing into them, realised again the treasure of 
 loyalty and love laid bare before him,
 
 EARTH 171 
 
 " Say, ' Tony.' ' His voice pleaded, but she put 
 the glass down half-empty ou the table beside her. 
 
 " I mustn't have any more " she forced a half- 
 hearted laugh " it will go to my head ; " ignoring 
 his request with a nervousness she could hardly 
 have explained. 
 
 But Rill was as obstinate as herself. He handed 
 the glass back, filling up his own. 
 
 " Don't be absurd, child ; this stuff won't hurt 
 you. Why won't you call me ' Tony ' ? " His 
 voice was aggrieved. 
 
 Diana sipped the wine, glad of any excuse to 
 avoid a direct answer. She had an extraordinary 
 secret dread of uttering the name, a feeling it would 
 betray her, would whirl down the barrier she had 
 strenuously built between them a barrier of 
 laughter and indifference. But Rill's presence, 
 the scent of the flowers, and the unusual exhilaration 
 of the wine, acted on her highly-strung nerves to 
 the limit of her endurance. Half-hypnotised by 
 the knowledge of his steady gaze, drawn by a 
 physical attraction utterly new to her experience, 
 she turned her head slowly, and he saw as he met 
 her glance that her eyes were full of tears. 
 
 " Diana ! . . . why, my dear . . ." His 
 voice broke; he was moved to unknown depths 
 by the sight of her innocent distress. And at the 
 cry the gulf of misunderstanding was bridged, his 
 hands went out towards her, he bent forward 
 impetuously. 
 
 " Tony." The whisper had barely passed her 
 lips, and she was in his arms. 
 
 " My little girl ! " All his eloquence left him, 
 the facile speech of his long experienced years ; he 
 could only hold her to him, infinitely troubled, 
 infinitely touched. But Diana had no need for
 
 172 EARTH 
 
 words. She floated in the pure ether of happiness, 
 lost to all else but this wonderful revelation, the 
 sense of his arms about her, his cheek pressed 
 against her own, conscious without analysis of an 
 undercurrent of respect that had checked the man 
 as he kissed her from daring to touch her lips. 
 
 This then was love at last, " without fear " the 
 love that Adrienne preached and Ericsen warned 
 her hotly not to disregard. 
 
 "Oh, Tony . . . it's true, then ?" 
 
 She drew herself away, then as his clasp involun- 
 tarily tightened, in the full joy of surrender she 
 slipped her bare arms round his neck and gave a 
 sudden happy laugh. 
 
 At the sight of her utter confidence, all that was 
 best in Kill rose to the surface. 
 
 Gently he released her, gravely looked down in 
 the beautiful, smiling face. 
 
 " Diana," he said huskily, " you must try and 
 understand. I'm not what you think me, not a 
 bit." He set his teeth. "I'm not good enough for 
 you that's straight. But I think," an extraordi- 
 nary look of tenderness came into his keen face, 
 " I think I can make you happy will that do ?" 
 
 Suddenly sobered by his mood, the girl gazed 
 back at him, and a memory of Ericsen's talk rose 
 up in her mind. 
 
 'Do ? " her mouth quivered. " I don't expect 
 perfection," she quoted solemnly. 
 
 " Then you'll marry me ? and soon ? " 
 
 Hardly the lover's impatience that the girl before 
 him judged it, the added clause betrayed the 
 soldier's desire to settle a definite plan of action. 
 But at the w r ords an odd look came into Diana's 
 face. Kill, with his quick intuition, divined the last 
 stand the ultimate conflict between her vaunted
 
 EARTH 173 
 
 theories put at length to the test, and this new 
 overpowering force that threatened their extinction. 
 
 A smile flickered to his lips as he waited for her 
 reply. 
 
 " You're never going to refuse me again, Diana? " 
 
 He made a movement towards her. 
 
 But she drew back, head erect, straight and slim 
 before him, brows knit in the intensity of her 
 thoughts. 
 
 And a sudden apprehension seized upon Rill, 
 knowing the strength of her curious character. 
 
 "Diana . . . ?" 
 
 He took her squarely by the shoulders, turning 
 her to the light, his voice severe, his attitude that 
 of the master. 
 
 But at his touch her last scruple fled, swept 
 away by physical contact with the man. Her little 
 hands stole up over his own, her slim form swayed 
 towards him. 
 
 " I can't ... I must," she stammered dis- 
 connectedly. Then from the depths of her being 
 the full confession broke 
 
 "I love you so . . . Tony . . . Tony . . ." 
 
 But he stifled the last word on her lips.
 
 172 EAKTH 
 
 words. She floated in the pure ether of happiness, 
 lost to all else but this wonderful revelation, the 
 sense of his arms about her, his cheek pressed 
 against her own, conscious without analysis of an 
 undercurrent of respect that had checked the man 
 as he kissed her from daring to touch her lips. 
 
 This then was love at last, " without fear " the 
 love that Adrienne preached and Ericsen warned 
 her hotly not to disregard. 
 
 "Oh, Tony . . . it's true, then ?" 
 
 She drew herself away, then as his clasp involun- 
 tarily tightened, in the full joy of surrender she 
 slipped her bare arms round his neck and gave a 
 sudden happy laugh. 
 
 At the sight of her utter confidence, all that was 
 best in Bill rose to the surface. 
 
 Gently he released her, gravely looked down in 
 the beautiful, smiling face. 
 
 " Diana," he said huskily, " you must try and 
 understand. I'm not what you think me, not a 
 bit." He set his teeth. " I'm not good enough for 
 you that's straight. But I think," an extraordi- 
 nary look of tenderness came into his keen face, 
 " I think I can make you happy will that do ?" 
 
 Suddenly sobered by his mood, the girl gazed 
 back at him, and a memory of Ericsen's talk rose 
 up in her mind. 
 
 'Do ? " her mouth quivered. " I don't expect 
 perfection," she quoted solemnly. 
 
 " Then you'll marry me ? and soon ? " 
 
 Hardly the lover's impatience that the girl before 
 him judged it, the added clause betrayed the 
 soldier's desire to settle a definite plan of action. 
 But at the words an odd look came into Diana's 
 face. Rill, with his quick intuition, divined the last 
 stand the ultimate conflict between her vaunted
 
 EARTH 173 
 
 theories put at length to the test, and this new 
 overpowering force that threatened their extinction. 
 
 A smile flickered to his lips as he waited for her 
 reply. 
 
 " You're never going to refuse me again, Diana? " 
 
 He made a movement towards her. 
 
 But she drew back, head erect, straight and slim 
 before him, brows knit in the intensity of her 
 thoughts. 
 
 And a sudden apprehension seized upon Bill, 
 knowing the strength of her curious character. 
 
 "Diana . . . ?" 
 
 He took her squarely by the shoulders, turning 
 her to the light, his voice severe, his attitude that 
 of the master. 
 
 But at his touch her last scruple fled, swept 
 away by physical contact with the man. Her little 
 hands stole up over his own, her slim form swayed 
 towards him. 
 
 "I can't ... I must," she stammered dis- 
 connectedly. Then from the depths of her being 
 the full confession broke 
 
 "I love you so . . . Tony . . . Tony . . ." 
 
 But he stifled the last word on her lips.
 
 174 EABTH 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 RILL saw Diana home. They did not 
 remain to the very end of the dance, and 
 Walter, deep in the toils of Sadie Wynton, 
 was only too glad to be left to his own 
 devices. 
 
 The charm of the young girl and the knowledge 
 of the love he inspired still kept the soldier in the 
 exalted mood which follows in the wake of a battle 
 fought and won. But when he left her at the 
 Cottars' door in charge of the excellent Morgan, 
 who, sleepy as he was, could not resist a smile of 
 satisfaction when he recognised her escort, Rill 
 had no mind for sleep, but paced along the deserted 
 streets, thinking deeply on the course he intended 
 to pursue. 
 
 The one flaw to his mind in the whole charm- 
 ing accident of their engagement was Diana's 
 ardent desire that, for the present, the matter 
 should be kept a secret between them. 
 
 She dreaded her mother's curious eyes, coldly 
 turned on the picture of their happiness ; foreseeing 
 endless scenes and objections, and, above all, the 
 social uses to which her engagement might be put. 
 
 To her sensitive soul the revelation of Bill's 
 continued love (for Diana firmly believed in a 
 genuine devotion dating from the Hyeres declara- 
 tion) was almost a holy thing, partaking of a
 
 EAETH 175 
 
 sacrament. Her faith in the man, all the more 
 profound for the intermediate doubts that had 
 assailed her, dismissed for ever her delusions 
 regarding Esterella. She blamed herself severely 
 for divining a flirtation where none lay, and shrank 
 from all the social fuss that surrounds a definite 
 engagement, heedless of the safety which a woman 
 of more experience would have realised lay in 
 publicity alone. 
 
 Vainly Kill pointed out the advantages; the 
 invitations that would include them both ; the 
 smiling indulgence the world accords to a newly- 
 betrothed pair. Diana would have none of it ! She 
 hugged her secret closer, dreading not only home 
 interference and possible displeasure, but to be 
 engulfed later in that sickly wave of sentimentality 
 which was the intimate creed of her mother's family. 
 
 Medora's daughter was the child of another age ; 
 less frothy on the surface, emotion well anchored by 
 reserve. She would like to have told her father, 
 Ericsen, and Adrienne. Kill smiled at her choice 
 of confidantes, but listened gravely to her argu- 
 ments. With all his heart he desired to see her 
 happy, and there seemed no possible reason for 
 opposing her first request. He consoled himself 
 with the thought that the secret would soon leak 
 out. Lady Cottar was not the woman to remain 
 blind to the object of repeated visits on his part. 
 
 " Always provided she does not imagine that I 
 am in love with her !" he said to himself, with a 
 sudden memory of the mother's graciousness. 
 
 So Diana's will prevailed at least for a time. 
 Not the faintest shadow lay on her happiness as 
 she bade her lover " Good-night," and followed 
 Morgan, candle in hand, with noiseless steps up to 
 her room.
 
 176 EARTH 
 
 " Good-night, miss." The old man looked at her 
 fondly out of his faded eyes. 
 
 " A nice dance, miss ? " he permitted himself to 
 inquire. 
 
 " Heavenly ! " Diana's voice thrilled. " I'm so 
 happy, Morgan." And indeed she looked it. 
 
 " That's as it should be, miss," said the old 
 servant shrewdly, " we be only young once " he 
 sighed " and age is a weary business." 
 
 He passed downstairs to his basement quarters, 
 his feet shaky, but a smile wrinkling his face. 
 
 " It's 'im," he said succinctly. " I allers thought 
 it a fine, upstanding gentleman, and free-'anded, 
 which they ain't always." For Bill knew the value 
 of tips to old retainers. 
 
 Meanwhile Diana undressed slowly, laying aside 
 the pretty finery, which, by association, seemed full 
 of an infinite friendliness. -The silver slippers that 
 had trod the floor with him, the long white gloves 
 that his hands had pressed, the shining frock he 
 had praised . . . and crushed ! She gave a happy 
 little laugh, living again the golden evening through. 
 
 At last she blew out the light, welcoming the 
 kindly darkness full of sweet visions to the glad, 
 but adding the final touch of misery to the heart 
 in pain ; and soothed by the luxury of soft bed to 
 tired limbs, was sinking gently into the mists of 
 sleep, when a quiet tap at the door brought her 
 back with a start into consciousness and the know- 
 ledge of her father's whispered voice. 
 
 "It's only me, Diana;" a glimmer of light ap- 
 peared. " Don't be frightened, child." 
 
 Then the dear old face, the bent figure, once so 
 erect, in its dark dressing-gown, an outstretched 
 candlestick grasped in the gnarled, rheumatic fingers. 
 
 " Daddy ! " Diana sat up in bed. " What's the
 
 EAETH 177 
 
 matter?" She stared at him, blinking her sleep- 
 laden eyes. 
 
 " Sh . . . ! " He closed the door carefully 
 behind him. " Your mother's asleep we mustn't 
 wake her." In the midst of his evident trouble, 
 the ruling passion of his life peeped forth. " It's 
 all right, dear, there's nothing wrong . . . here. 
 
 But I felt I must come and tell you " He 
 
 broke off disconnectedly. 
 
 " What is it, daddy ? " 
 
 She took the candle from him, conscious of his 
 shaking hand, and with a quick movement threw 
 back the heavy strands of hair, that, falling over 
 her brow, obscured her vision. 
 
 " Tell me." 
 
 She laid a hand on his arm, her face troubled 
 and anxious, as the old man sat heavily down on 
 the edge of the narrow bed. 
 
 " It's the King, Diana." His voice quivered, and 
 he put out a hand blindly, feeling for her own. 
 " He's . . . gone ! " Unashamed, a sob broke 
 from him, wrung from his loyal heart. 
 
 " Dead ! the King ? . . .oh, daddy ! " 
 
 She flung both arms around him, drawing the 
 old head down on to her young shoulder, her love 
 already endowing her with the woman's inalienable 
 right of consolation. 
 
 "It can't be true . . ." She stroked the silvery 
 hair. " I don't believe it's true ! " 
 
 For it seemed as if a pillar of the earth had 
 snapped this sharp and awful blow at the very 
 heart of a nation. 
 
 " Listen ! " 
 
 From far away a bell began to toll, the first of 
 myriad iron tongues, clanging out the message of 
 death and disaster.
 
 178 EARTH 
 
 Sir John drew himself up, passing a hand across 
 his eyes. 
 
 " It's true, Diana. To think of it ! . . . 
 He steadied his voice and went on jerkily " Serra- 
 vale . . . rang me up. From the club. I 
 couldn't sleep, and I'd gone down into the library 
 for a book. I didn't hear you come in, child 
 you must have been very quiet but I saw your 
 light go out as I passed your door and I thought 
 I'd come to you. And then I thought I wouldn't, 
 and at last 
 
 " I'm so glad you did." Diana's voice was tender. 
 "Poor daddy! and oh! . . . the poor Queen ! . . ." 
 Pity welled up in her heart, with a new-born 
 realisation of what parting must mean to those who 
 love. 
 
 Through the silence of the night without came a 
 sound of passing steps ; not the belated tread of the 
 pleasure-seeker, but the grave, weary note of the 
 people slowly dispersing homeward from their long 
 vigil in the park : that silent crowd that spoke 
 more eloquently than words to the love that 
 England bore for the greatest monarch of the age, 
 and, deeper still, for the man. 
 
 " To think he's gone . . ." The hazel eyes so like 
 her own met bis daughter's mute response. " All 
 that power and foresight that wonderful tact . . . 
 humanity . . . gone." His voice rose, suddenly 
 indignant ; " and working up to the end ; he hadn't 
 a chance ! . . . God knows if ever a man died 
 for his country, it was the King ! " 
 
 He got up heavily, realising Diana's white, 
 shocked face. 
 
 " Go to sleep, child. I oughtn't to have disturbed 
 you." 
 
 " Nonsense, daddy ; I'm glad you did. But it's
 
 EABTH 179 
 
 awful, isn't it? I never thought it would come to 
 this, did you? " 
 
 " I feared it feared it ; that illness at Biarritz 
 . . . I heard he was very bad . . ." He 
 nodded his grey head, and, stooping down, absently 
 kissed his child, his thoughts far away with the 
 still form that had made so brave a fight. " I'm 
 getting old," he said slowly ; " we were the same 
 age, born in the same month, the King and I. And 
 he's gone first." 
 
 He took up the candle, and at the door paused, 
 his hand on the knob, and with a sincerity unmis- 
 takable in his voice, gave utterance to the thought 
 that summed up the unswerving loyalty of the 
 veteran, soldier, and subject of the King 
 
 "Ah! . . . my poor country. Would to God 
 He'd taken me instead ! " 
 
 Caught in the ever-widening circle of people 
 affected by the universal mourning, like a light leaf 
 in the social eddy, Esterella was swept outwards, 
 away from the heart of her desire. 
 
 The King's death, theoretically, meant nothing to 
 her, except an unwonted solemnity on her husband's 
 part, but practically it was the destruction of a 
 well-planned scheme of ambition. For, in the 
 days following the funeral, as if by magic, London 
 emptied itself. 
 
 The charity concerts, where she had graciously 
 eorsented to sing, the thousand-and-one invitations 
 w hich her rising popularity, her beauty, and " Aunt 
 Elizabeth's " prestige had secured, were cancelled 
 on the spot. 
 
 Where sentiment failed, economy slipped in ; 
 everyone seized the excuse for a moment of retrench- 
 ment.
 
 180 EAKTH 
 
 Races were postponed ; Ranelagh and Hurling- 
 ham, with their scattered groups of black-robed, 
 mainly foreign visitors, looked for all the world like 
 funeral parties, and the closed theatres and restaur- 
 ants added to the general gloom. 
 
 One strong and touching note was the universality 
 of mourning. Even the very poor rose to this mark 
 of respect to the outer limits of their strained re- 
 sources. With a courtesy and kindly thought 
 peculiarly charming in the daughters of a Republic, 
 our cousins from over the water discarded gay 
 Paris gowns, and in sombre attire showed practical 
 sympathy for a loss outside their own range of 
 experience. 
 
 But to Esterella the world seemed wholly mad. 
 After the first fleeting excitement of procuring 
 suitable clothes, she found herself one of an indis- 
 tinguishable crowd. Black, wbich in many cases 
 accentuated the beauty of the fair English type, 
 rendered her sallow, almost plain, robbing her hair 
 of its sombre charm, dulling the deep lustre of her 
 eyes. 
 
 Still she clung to London and the deserted streets, 
 loth to leave the centre of all her hopes, awaiting 
 that faint revival of gaiety which proved, when it 
 came, to be only a momentary flicker. The season 
 was over, fittingly extinguished with the eclipse of 
 the royal sun. 
 
 In her enforced solitude her mind turned to Rill. 
 Where was he ? Why did he not call V What 
 absorbed his attention ? Foiled in her social 
 pleasures, she placed an added value on the chance 
 of any excitement. 
 
 She flew to the telephone, but his club knew him 
 not. She wrote him a playful letter, upbraiding 
 merrily, with an undercurrent of feeling.
 
 EABTH 181 
 
 He answered politely, pretexing a sudden rush of 
 affairs "hoping, one day, to call " a phrase which 
 she knew by heart ! 
 
 Exasperation seized her, tears, ennui, with a 
 haunting suspicion of rivalry. 
 
 She was a woman whom indifference held more 
 surely than devotion, and had Rill's attitude been 
 calculated to enhance his value in her eyes he could 
 not have bit upon a happier scheme. 
 
 Actually he was avoiding her until the engage- 
 ment, by fair means or foul, became public property, 
 when he would have the best of all excuses for his 
 want of attention to herself. 
 
 Then, one day, she met him, laughing gaily, in a 
 deserted alley of the park, with his betrothed. And 
 at something in Diana's face, a hint of shyness in 
 the man's own greeting, a fierce anger rose within 
 her, and she found her suspicions justified. 
 
 She walked on blindly, absorbed in her jealous 
 thoughts, but at the turning into the Row was 
 stopped by an effusive recognition from a pair 
 approaching her. 
 
 " Good-morning, Mrs. Darrell ; isn't it a heavenly- 
 day ? " 
 
 It was Sadie Wynton, prettier and more provoca- 
 tive than ever in the simplicity of her soft black 
 gown. She introduced the lady with her. 
 
 " Mrs. Maxeter," and they all shook hands. 
 
 " Come and sit down, you look so tired." Sadie's 
 persuasive voice, with that touch of authority that, 
 together with her worldly manner, gave her what 
 Milly Ferrar called an " ultra-married look," broke 
 through the cloud of anger obscuring the Italian's 
 brain. 
 
 " Thank you, I shall be pleased." 
 
 She sank back with a little sigh on the centre
 
 182 EAETH 
 
 chair, and gave herself up to the consolation of 
 the moment. 
 
 A tall man passed the trio of pretty women, and 
 raised his hat alertly, hesitated for a moment, then, 
 realising no signs of encouragement, strolled on. 
 
 Mrs. Maxeter was studying the Italian thought- 
 fully. People to her were either " useful " or not, a 
 simple form of classification, but one on which 
 acumen depended. 
 
 She had come to town ostensibly for the funeral, 
 but now that it was over, lingered on with the 
 Wyntons in their flat, reaping the quid pro quo for 
 her hospitality to Sadie at Hyeres. 
 
 Meanwhile, Esterella had launched out into her 
 meeting with the pair still occupying her mind, 
 conscious that Sadie knew the soldier, who, in fact, 
 had been the means of introducing the two women 
 at his initial dinner to the bride. 
 
 Mrs. Maxeter caught the names and joined in the 
 conversation. 
 
 " Major Kill and the fair Diana ? Is that on still ? 
 How amusing ! They were always together last 
 winter at Hyeres ... I really wonder that 
 Lady Cottar allows it." 
 
 " At Hyeres ? " The slumbering anger in Ester- 
 ella's eyes awoke. " I'd no idea it was an old 
 flirtation." 
 
 Mrs. Maxeter rose to the bait. 
 
 " Oh dear, yes it was the talk of the hotel. Of 
 course, he's not a marrying man, otherwise . . ." 
 She shrugged her fine shoulders expressively. " I 
 always suspected the girl of being quietly fast. And 
 really, when Mrs. Brown-Bunnett told me of the 
 finish to the affair " 
 
 She broke off, conscious of Sadie's exclamation, 
 delighted to impart her grain of gossip.
 
 EAETH 183 
 
 " Oh, of course you don't know, Sadie it was 
 after you left that I heard of it. You remember 
 the evening the de Veracs went off to the theatre 
 with the interesting couple " 
 
 She paused to bow, somewhat coldly, to an 
 obviously shabby acquaintance. 
 
 " Well, it seems they came hoiue early, leaving 
 Major Kill and Miss Cottar at the Casino. When 
 the play was over the Brown-Bunnetts met them 
 coming out and then lost sight of them ; where 
 they went, nobody knows, but it was long after 
 midnight when they turned up at the Continental. 
 Mrs. Brown-Bunnett couldn't sleep poor dear, she 
 suffers so from asthma and had gone into her sitting- 
 room for a final whiskey and soda. . ." (Sadie 
 smiled at the faint malice in the words. The 
 Brown-Bunnetts' weakness was also common talk.) 
 " And then," Mrs. Maxeter lowered her voice, 
 conscious of the attention of a passing nursemaid, 
 " she heard footsteps and peeped out. It was Bill 
 and the fair lady. It seems the de Veracs were still 
 up in the room next to hers, and there was a great 
 commotion the Comte de Ve"rac justly annoyed 
 and his wife was crying, and Kill protesting they 
 had lost their way somewhere up on the hills. Did 
 you ever hear such a ridiculous story ? Anyhow, he 
 departed next day, in a fine hurry, leaving Miss 
 Cottar looking like a ghost it was quite a stirring 
 romance ! " 
 
 Sadie Wynton laughed, happily unconscious of 
 Esterella's silence. 
 
 " What fun ! I shall have to give Walter a hint. 
 He must keep his eye on his little cousin's be- 
 haviour. She rather poses as being a free lance, I 
 believe has a studio somewhere and no end of a good 
 time all, of course, under the broad banner of Art.'
 
 184 EARTH 
 
 " Perhaps . . . they will marry ? " said Esterella 
 lightly. She was tracing a pattern on the gravel 
 with the point of her black parasol, steadied by 
 the knowledge of a peril she had hitherto vaguely 
 guessed. 
 
 "Marry? Rill? Oh ! he's not that sort." Un- 
 doubtedly Sadie knew. " I'm afraid she's wasting 
 her time if she fondly imagines that. Still, I'm 
 rather sorry she's got hold of him again. He's 
 quite amusing and used to give charming little 
 parties bachelor teas at his flat. It's just opposite 
 my club, you know, not in front, but at the side ; 
 you can see it from the bridge-room windows. I've 
 been there several times with Mrs. Gervase Maule, 
 in the days when Eustace Myers gracefully hovered. 
 I wish he'd give some more. Really, this dull 
 season, one is thankful for anything." 
 
 Her voice was somewhat distrait. Down the 
 long line of seats she could see the tall man saunter- 
 ing back, and with a smiling excuse she rose, hold- 
 ing out her well-gloved hand to Mrs. Darrell. 
 
 " I must fly ; there's Clayton Giles coming and I 
 promised to lunch with him at the Creche at two." 
 She consulted a little jewelled watch upon her wrist. 
 " Good-bye, dear Mrs. Darrell ; see you to-night, 
 Ada," and nodding to Mrs. Maxeter, moved off, her 
 sheath-like dress betraying each line of her graceful 
 figure. 
 
 "How pretty she is ! " Esterella purred ; " a typical 
 English girl, is it not ? " 
 
 '' Well, perhaps," said Mrs. Maxeter enigmatically. 
 
 She resented being left in the lurch. It was so like 
 Sadie to have kept her appointment a dead secret 
 to the end, and the visitor thought with disgust of 
 the inevitable cold mutton at the dreary and distant 
 flat.
 
 EARTH 185 
 
 Some intuition prompted the younger woman to 
 add " And now you must come back and lunch 
 with me, if you will. I am all alone to-day ; my 
 husband has gone to golf and I am a hay-widow." 
 
 She laughed, pleased with her word of slang, and 
 Mrs. Maxeter was careful not to correct her. 
 
 " Thank you, I shall be delighted ; that is, if I may 
 telephone to Mrs. Wynton first." She clung to her 
 dignity, anxious not to appear too eager to accept. 
 
 "You can do it from my hotel, if that will be 
 time enough." 
 
 Esterella rose and they made their way together 
 across the tan-covered road and out through Albert 
 Gate, in search of a passing taxi. 
 
 Once comfortably ensconced, Mrs. Darrell returned 
 to her subject. 
 
 " Lady Cottar is away, so I hear at Bath with 
 Sir John." 
 
 " Taking the waters ? " suggested Mrs. Maxeter, 
 somewhat absently, conscious that Sadie and Clayton 
 (riles were in the hansom behind them. 
 
 ''A . . . cure?" supplemented her hostess, 
 with her slight foreign accent. " I did not know 
 one could take a cure in England." 
 
 " Oh dear, yes there's Harrogate, you know, and 
 Woodhall Spa, and Bath. Sir John goes there for 
 rheumatism, I fancy. It's a sleepy old place, but 
 quite interesting, full of Roman remains." 
 
 " Roman? " A sudden feeling of nostalgia seized 
 Esterella with the picture her brain conjured up at 
 the magic of the word. 
 
 But Mrs. Maxeter went on placidly with a long- 
 winded description of the famous pump-room, which 
 was mercifully checked by their descent at the 
 " Grosvenor Court." 
 
 Here the Darrell s had taken one of the many tiny
 
 186 EAETH 
 
 flats, glad of the quieter life after the bustle of larger 
 hotels. 
 
 Esterella led her visitor up to the pretty bed- 
 room, and at sight of the unmistakable luxury of 
 her surroundings, the tortoise-shell and gold table- 
 fittings, the filmy lace dressing-gown and row of 
 dainty boots and shoes that stretched across the 
 alcove, all the hidden bitterness in the elder woman's 
 heart rose to the surface in a sudden uncontrollable 
 wave of envy. 
 
 Her own life, promising much, had proved such 
 a conspicuous failure. Instead of the busy parochial 
 leader she had aspired to be, assured of that peculiarly 
 individual position granted in England to the ladies 
 of the church, her husband's religious volte-face 
 had shortly deprived them of the comfortable 
 stipend and every hope of luxury, robbing him of 
 his profession, ostracising him from his kind and, by 
 virtue of his marriage, debarring him from entering 
 the ranks of the Roman Catholic priesthood. 
 
 Add misfortune to a cold and calculating nature 
 and you produce spite. Mrs. Maxeter, at the sight 
 of the opera singer's success, longed for a goad 
 wherewith to prick her pride. And as they passed 
 into the sitting-room a memory flashed up into her 
 busy brain, while with a set smile on her face she 
 glanced around her at the flowers in profusion, 
 littered photographs and pretty trifles, and the still 
 more potent suggestion of the great bare piano. 
 
 " Talking of Bath," she said sweetly, " do you 
 ever see anything of Mrs. Lestrange ? She used to 
 be a great friend of mine " and added disjointedly, 
 " poor girl ... a sad life." 
 
 " Mrs. Lestrange ? " Esterella caught up the 
 name. " I think Jack spoke of her once a cousin, 
 is she not ? "
 
 EARTH 187 
 
 " Really ? " In the obscurity of the narrow 
 passage Mrs. Maxeter smiled as her hostess guided 
 her towards the lift that would take theoa up to the 
 dining-room above. 
 
 " I knew they were engaged, of course," she went 
 on lightly. " We were at school together, and after- 
 wards saw a good deal of one another, but I didn't 
 understand she was a connection of Captain 
 Darrell's." 
 
 Esterella gave a little start. This was news 
 indeed. For her husband had omitted all reference 
 to the girl-and-boy romance, dating from Sandhurst 
 days, which seemed so insignificant beside the one 
 passion of his life. It had been but a " calf-love " 
 affair, hardly warranting the name of engagement, 
 with the local doctor's daughter, five years his senior, 
 and indignantly repudiated at Tenterleigh by the 
 aunt with whom he spent his annual long leave. 
 
 But Esterella was in the mood in which such 
 trifles rankle. Of late her husband had asserted 
 himself more strongly, insisting on a depth of 
 mourning for the King that Esterella had striven 
 to disregard. 
 
 Always tender and good-humoured towards his 
 wife, he had nevertheless insisted on her obedience, 
 and there had been a slight friction between them 
 hardly a quarrel, but the first hint of trouble. 
 
 Mrs. Maxeter seated herself comfortably at the 
 little table in the long glass-roofed dining-room. 
 " Poor Lena Lestrange . . ." She gazed at her 
 soup with a meditative compassion. " She married 
 a curate later and settled at Bath a very sad affair. 
 He was consumptive, you see, and of course they 
 had a large family a real struggle for existence. 
 And she was never strong " she raised her eyes to 
 her hostess and added, with a smile, "but so pretty,
 
 188 EAETH 
 
 that sort of fragile beauty that goes with pale gold 
 hair." A pause. " What excellent soup ! " She 
 glanced around the room. "You seem to be very 
 comfortable here." 
 
 Mrs. Darrell assented. " Although I cannot say 
 I like the English food so heavy those dreadful 
 large joints! " 
 
 She shrugged her pretty shoulders and went 
 back to the dangerous topic. 
 
 "And she still lives at Bath, this Mrs. Lestrange, 
 with the many children and sick husband? He 
 takes the 'cure,' perhaps?" 
 
 " The cure of souls ! " Mrs. Maxeter laughed. 
 " I'm afraid they've no money for any other kind. 
 Although your husband has been so kind. . . ." 
 She paused and added gaily, " I hope I'm not be- 
 traying a secret, but Lena has often told me of his 
 generosity. Fancy, one year he took them south 
 on his yacht, Lena and her husband ! It was just 
 after he came into his money, and Cyril that's Mr. 
 Lestrange was very ill, and the doctor ordered 
 change and a dry climate ; so easy to order, so hard 
 for poor folk to obey ! Just as she was in despair 
 up turned your husband, like a ministering angel, 
 with his yacht." 
 
 She helped herself to vegetables, and added 
 pleasantly 
 
 "It's not often one comes across a man who 
 never forgets old friends. I really believe it saved 
 Cyril's life ; and as for Lena, I saw her return, and 
 she looked a different creature almost a girl again. 
 Sunshine and happiness are wonderful restoratives." 
 And Mrs. Maxeter sighed. 
 
 But Esterella had heard enough. The southern 
 curse of jealousy, swift to kindle, needed but a spark, 
 and already her vivid imagination was adding fuel
 
 EABTH 189 
 
 to the flame, divining a hidden motive for her 
 husband's want of tractability, as she chose to 
 regard his conduct of late. 
 
 Only that morning, on turning over his letters, 
 she had seen the Bath postmark on one of them, 
 and this trifling incident, in face of Mrs. Maxeter's 
 disclosures, suggested infinite possibilities. 
 
 Not for worlds, however, would she allow her 
 visitor to guess how deeply the gossip rankled in 
 her soul, and adroitly turning the subject, she swept 
 into a musical discussion which carried them safely 
 over lunch. 
 
 Only after Mrs. Maxeter had gone, leaving her 
 to her angry thoughts in the flower-decked, pretty 
 room, did she give way to the passionate annoyance 
 that possessed her, and with clenched hands, dcy- 
 eyed and resentful, she summed up the situation in 
 one pregnant phrase of infinite disillusion 
 
 " First, Rill . . . and now Jack himself!"
 
 190 EARTH 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 MEANWHILE Diana's happiness was 
 complete. Inspired by love, all the 
 hours she spent apart from Rill were 
 devoted to her painting, and the passion 
 that possessed her seemed to blossom forth in her 
 work itself, under the skilful teaching of John 
 Ericsen. 
 
 For the promised " tips," that golden reward for 
 Wang Cho's careless sittings, had resolved them- 
 selves into a definite hour of daily instruction in the 
 painter's studio, rendered possible by the new liberty 
 she enjoyed since her parents had gone to Bath. 
 
 From ten to eleven she sat at the feet of Gamaliel, 
 absorbing unconsciously a fund of varied wisdom 
 besides the study of her art. For Ericsen would 
 ramble on in disjointed, whimsical fashion, ex- 
 pounding his theories of brotherly love and sim- 
 plicity : the cult of all things beautiful, the war he 
 waged against humbug and convention, and the 
 broad compassion that embodied his bohemian 
 creed. 
 
 Only in later days did the girl realise by what 
 sure and skilful paths he brought her to a saner 
 knowledge ol' life. 
 
 Utterly absorbed in her lover, she hardly valued 
 the friendship thus voluntarily laid at her feet. As 
 the hands of the clock approached the looked-for 
 hour, when Rill would saunter into the little nest
 
 EARTH 191 
 
 of studios, a restlessness would seize the girl, and if 
 by chance Ericsen detained her beyond the stroke 
 of eleven, the colour would quicken in her cheek 
 and the hazel eyes steel longingly to the window, 
 where the first glimpse could be caught of the tall, 
 erect figure. 
 
 Long since had the painter guessed his pupil's 
 secret and marked that subtle blossoming of the 
 bright young face, the rapt attention which she 
 accorded to his treatises on love, and the new 
 reverence that had replaced her ancient scorn of 
 marriage. 
 
 Half-glad, half-sad, he kept the knowledge to 
 himself, hoping and praying to his pagan gods that 
 Diana might live content. But he steadily avoided 
 Kill. He did not wish to meet this sleek-headed, 
 well-dressed Philistine, who bore the reputation of 
 marked social success, unbending conventionality, 
 and according to his views a narrow and selfish 
 outlook. 
 
 Misjudging the soldier, he disapproved the secrecy 
 surrounding the affair. Here was a man who had 
 won Diana's love Diana, that chaste goddess, be- 
 loved of old Greece moreover, Diana the artist, the 
 woman with a soul. 
 
 What more could the heart desire ? Kill should 
 have cried it on the house-tops for the envious 
 world to hear, instead of this strange concealment 
 and lack of exultation. 
 
 For Ericsen the impressionable that blue-eyed 
 red-haired Viking with the strength of his northern 
 birth and the fire he had caught from the south 
 could not remain utterly unmoved by the girl's 
 delicate charm. 
 
 He might well assure himself that he had buried 
 passion deep in the cypress-t, haded grave on that
 
 192 EARTH 
 
 far Italian hill ; but he could not still each impulse 
 of the generous blood within his virile frame, nor 
 banish forever love from a nature that placed it 
 instinctively high among the gods. 
 
 But never for a moment did he betray the fact. 
 He was the master, guiding the pupil's hand, the 
 friend and would-be counsellor, picking up crumbs 
 of affection that fell from the rich man's feast. 
 
 Meanwhile he tried to teach Diana life, to harden 
 her tender feet for the stony ways of the world, and 
 to instil a knowledge of mankind that should break 
 her fall in the dreaded hours of disillusion. But 
 the girl, wrapped round with the cloak of faith, in 
 the full glamour of this first exquisite love, smiled 
 in her sleeve with a hidden touch of compassion for 
 the cynicism she had lately divined in her artist- 
 friend. 
 
 So, unwittingly, they played at cross-purposes, 
 each wary and pitiful for the other's obvious weak- 
 ness, up to the morning when Rill failed to appear, 
 and Diana, too restless to return to work, stood at 
 the studio window, waiting, wondering. 
 
 Milly, she knew, would not come round until the 
 afternoon. By Rill's advice she had been initiated 
 into the amazing secret ; not by any means the first 
 intimation, for her mischievous green eyes had long 
 since probed the situation. She appreciated their 
 confidence notwithstanding, and showed it by her 
 practical abandonment of the studio on those hours 
 when she gathered they were wont to meet. 
 
 The day was very hot not sunny, but that close 
 oppression when the wood-pavements smell and 
 London loudly protests against the crowds that ex- 
 haust the scanty air. 
 
 It was the first time that Rill had been so late, 
 and the simple reason that he had overslept himself
 
 EAKTH 193 
 
 never presented itself to Diana's worried mind. 
 She felt sure something had happened the close 
 thundery day breathed a spirit of calamity; and it 
 was with a genuine sigh of thanksgiving that she 
 saw the tall figure cross the open space, and ran out, 
 full of joy, to meet him. 
 
 Conscious of the studios around she held out a 
 hand shyly, but her voice betrayed the fact that she 
 had been worrying. 
 
 " Nothing wrong ? " Her eyes anxiously scanned 
 his bronzed face. 
 
 "Wrong?" said Rill dully. "No. Why? Am 
 Hate?" 
 
 He entered the studio and threw himself down in 
 the wicker chair with an irritable sigh. 
 
 " Pheugh ! it's hot ! " passing a hand wearily 
 over his smooth head. " You haven't a telephone 
 anywhere about, have you? " 
 
 " I'm afraid not why ? " Diana's eyes were 
 grave. The coldness of his greeting had chilled the 
 first swift joy of his presence. 
 
 " Only, in case I can't come some day, I might 
 ring you up." 
 
 He stifled a yawn. He had turned in late the 
 night before, and slept indifferently until morning, 
 when he had fallen into an unrefreshing doze that 
 had carried him long past the breakfast hour. 
 
 For the first time the necessity of appearing at 
 the studio had seemed an infringement of his liberty, 
 and he was in the mood to grumble at any and every 
 thing, liver having gained the mastery over manners. 
 
 But Diana was hurt as much by his tone of 
 voice as by the speech itself. 
 
 " There's no need to do that," she answered coolly. 
 " If you don't turn up I shall understand, and go out 
 alone or back to work again." 
 
 o
 
 194 EARTH 
 
 For her eyes had fallen on the studio door 
 opposite, from which Ericsen was setting forth, un- 
 tidy as ever, in loose flannel suit and disreputable 
 straw hat, a pipe in his mouth, and under his arm a 
 newspaper parcel strongly suggesting boots. 
 
 At the sight of him an involuntary smile broke on 
 the girl's face, but Bill, following her gaze, frowned 
 with a touch of temper. 
 
 " What a ruffian the fellow looks ! Is that your 
 pet painter? " 
 
 Diana coloured hotly at the mocking voice, 
 quickly on the defensive when the question con- 
 cerned a friend. 
 
 " It's John Ericsen, the B.A." her intention 
 was obvious " and ' clothes don't make the man ' ! 
 Not that he cares, but in any case he's too well 
 known for it to matter." 
 
 She spoke impulsively, following the artist with 
 her eyes, as, disdaining the use of the gate, he swung 
 himself over neatly, one hand on the topmost rail, an 
 epigrammatic action that suggested his rule of life. 
 
 " Ah well ! we can't all of us be geniuses." Eill 
 conceded the point. " You speak so warmly, I 
 suppose I ought to be jealous." He smiled with 
 the conscious superiority of the man in possession. 
 " Have you told him of our engagement, Di ? " 
 
 He put up an arm carelessly and tried to draw 
 her near him where she stood, leaning against the 
 angle of the wall. But she stepped aside, swinging 
 herself up on to the table edge. 
 
 " No," she said, " of course not. No one knows 
 but Milly." She broke off a sprig of lilac from the 
 vase beside her and tucked it into her belt. The 
 flowers were a present from Bill that had reached 
 her overnight, and she gave him a little glance full 
 of affectionate meaning.
 
 EARTH 195 
 
 But the man frowned. He refused to be mollified. 
 
 " It's all very . . . childish ! " He spoke deliber- 
 ately. " To be perfectly honest, Di, I'm tired of 
 this secrecy. What good does it do ? Your people 
 will have to know, sooner or later. Might as well 
 get it over at once." 
 
 He dug his hands into his pockets, crossing his 
 legs, with a set expression on his face that betokened 
 obstinacy. Even as he did so, his fingers encoun- 
 tered a letter, the last effusion from Darrell's wife, 
 that had met him that morning at the club and 
 had been inspired had he but guessed it by Mrs. 
 Maxeter's gossip. 
 
 " What have we done to offend you ? You never 
 call or write ! I am grieved to lose a friend in this 
 cold and friendless land and you, of all men ! " The 
 pointed Italian hand was blurred significantly. 
 
 All this had added to his inward exasperation, and 
 on the way to the studio, down the long, hot roads, 
 he had determined to " have it out " definitely with 
 Diana. He would be kind, but firm. Already he 
 was adopting the husband's attitude, forgetful of 
 the studied " by your leave " that distinguishes the 
 lover. For, although he was genuinely fond of the 
 girl destined to be his wife, and desired to make her 
 happy, he lacked the quality of affection which, 
 when joined to genuine passion, shows its depths 
 by unselfishness by that worship that includes a 
 spirit of reverence. 
 
 For a moment Diana did not answer the words. 
 Then she slid down off the table and stood before 
 him, gazing with a puzzled expression into his 
 moody face, one hand on his shoulder, resisting a 
 sudden insane desire to smooth the well-shaped 
 head ; that longing for the comfort of " touch " 
 that is the very essence of young love.
 
 196 EARTH 
 
 " Why should we alter everything suddenly, like 
 this ? I don't understand, Tony." 
 
 He lowered his eyes before her steady glance, his 
 anger rising with the sense of discomfiture, as she 
 continued 
 
 " Only the other day you were quite happy to go 
 on as we were. I thought it was decided we should 
 keep our engagement a secret until the season 
 was over to avoid all fuss " she waved her hand 
 impatiently " and then if things went right, you 
 could come to Tenterleigh for the summer." 
 
 She ran on, eager to convince him. 
 
 " Mother's at Bath now, and daddy too. If you 
 went down there and saw them, there'd be a fearful 
 rumpus, and Cousin Sophie would get into hot 
 water." She smiled, picturing Miss Dacon's horri- 
 fied face the elderly relative invited to chaperone 
 her during her parents' absence. " Fancy Cousin 
 Sophie the centre of a romance ! Why, she'd drop 
 every other stitch in that eternal knitting she does, 
 and all the little Hottentots be robbed of woolly 
 vests. It's not to be dreamed of ! " 
 
 She broke into a gay langh, unaware of the 
 seriousness of the case. But Rill's mouth was hard, 
 thinking of Esterella. 
 
 " It's all very well for you, but it puts me in a 
 deuced awkward position." He checked himself, 
 realising a pitfall, and seized on the first excuse. 
 
 " It's not an honourable game for a man to play. 
 I ought to go to your father, there's no doubt about 
 it." 
 
 He got up suddenly and began to pace the room, 
 conscious that his temper was gaining the upper 
 hand, almost persuading himself that his last argu- 
 ment was sincere. 
 
 A.S he passed the easel, the draught of his swift
 
 EARTH 197 
 
 movement caught a water-colour sketch, still wet, 
 that lay upon it, and sent it fluttering to the ground. 
 
 Wrapped in his angry thoughts he strode on 
 deliberately, and Diana, with an exclamation of 
 annoyance, gathered it tenderly off the floor, and 
 seeing that her lover neither heeded nor cared, 
 sat down at the table, taking up a brush, and began 
 to remove the specks of dust that clung to the wet 
 surface. 
 
 Rill took this as a direct disregard of his dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 " Diana ! " he called sharply. 
 
 " Well ? " She barely turned her head. " I'm 
 busy, can't you see? " For he had yet to learn that 
 her nature was one to lead and not to drive. She 
 schooled her voice to be indifferent, inwardly deeply 
 offended by his churlish manner. 
 
 Something cruel crept into Rill's keen face. " If 
 your work is . . .of more importance than I 
 am . . ." He drawled the words sneeringly, 
 angry with her and the whole world of women. 
 
 Diana whirled round, cheeks ablaze. 
 
 "I should think that the least you could do would 
 be to say you're sorry ! " She pointed to the smudged 
 landscape with a hand that shook. For there is 
 nothing so contagious as temper, and she was hot- 
 blooded in her impetuous youth. 
 
 "Indeed?" He came a step nearer and suddenly 
 the storm broke. 
 
 " I'm tired of this child's play ! " He put his hand 
 out as though to seize the sketch, and at the gesture 
 and the roughness of his voice, Diana leapt to her 
 feet, guarding her treasure with arms outstretched. 
 
 " How dare you ! I'm tired of you ! " 
 
 Her fearless hazel eyes, the pupils enlarged until 
 the irises seemed black, met his own unflinchingly.
 
 198 EAKTH 
 
 And as she stood there, challenging the man, with 
 the added beauty of flushed cheeks and head tossed 
 back, a faint grudging admiration swept across him 
 and the knowledge of what he risked. For in some 
 natures anger is twin-brother to desire. 
 
 " You little devil ! " With a swift movement he 
 caught her in his arms, crushing her roughly as she 
 struggled, kissing her tight-closed, mutinous mouth. 
 " You'll have to pay for this ! " 
 
 "Let me go," she panted, vehemently forcing 
 him back with all the strength she possessed, every 
 muscle strained to free herself from his embrace : 
 then, as she found herself powerless in his grasp, 
 tears of anger rose to her eyes. 
 
 "I hate you," she cried, "hate you ! " and wrench- 
 ing an arm free, aimed wildly a blow at Bill's 
 flushed face, which he lightly dodged, with a sudden 
 masterful laugh. 
 
 But the sight of her temper had satisfied his own. 
 He held her firmly, delighting in the fight and the 
 material advantage of strength as opposed to spirit, 
 with the touch of cruelty that is hidden within every 
 man. 
 
 " Little spit-fire ! " a tenderer note crept into his 
 deep voice. " What a wife I've let myself in for ! " 
 He gazed down into the angry face. " So you don't 
 love me, Diana, after all ? " 
 
 A little thrill ran through her, breaking her 
 power of resistance. Vexed, bewildered, she bit 
 her lip, and her eyes fell before the light that had 
 sprung up in his own. She could not know that 
 the reaction was purely physical, that the stronger 
 sex had prevailed by the inexorable law of nature 
 that upholds the ascendency of the male. 
 
 Vainly she tried to rally her forces and struggle 
 against this atrophy of her will.
 
 EARTH 199 
 
 " It wasn't fair play . . . Tony," but her 
 voice softened on the name; "it wasn't . . . 
 somehow . . . you . . ." 
 
 " I'm a brute." He let her go, suddenly re- 
 morseful. " You're quite right, my dear." 
 
 He stared past her out of the open window. 
 
 "But I'm awfully bothered, old girl that's the 
 truth of the whole matter." 
 
 At the thought of trouble, resentment fled, and 
 all the natural generosity of the girl rose to the 
 surface. 
 
 "Oh, Tony! why didn't you tell me? I'd no 
 idea. What is it ? " She laid a little hand plead- 
 ingly on his arm. 
 
 The unconscious humour of the situation ap- 
 pealed grimly to Rill. He could not well explain 
 to his bride-to-be the perplexities that his weakness 
 for another woman engendered. 
 
 " It's all right, nothing very much only I've 
 been worried ; and then this hot weather I'm 
 afraid you'll find I'm rather irritable at times. 
 India plays the very devil with a man's liver, you 
 know. I'm sorry I was cross ; you forgive me eh, 
 Diana ? " 
 
 He picked up his hat and stick, anxious now to 
 be off, and with a touch of his old gaiety promised 
 to be " punctual and good " next day, kissed his 
 fiancee again and departed, leaving her to her 
 thoughts. 
 
 " I'll send you round some chocolates from 
 Harfods* as I pass," he called back from the gate, 
 " to show I'm really penitent," with a gay wave 
 of his hat. 
 
 Ericsen, returning, caught the words. 
 
 " Fool ! " he said, into his red beard ; " doesn't 
 he know Diana better than that ? "
 
 200 EAETH 
 
 He let himself into his studio with a snarl of con- 
 tempt. " Tied up with pink ribbons and a paper 
 rose ! She's not to be bribed that way, my friend 
 not by a long chalk ! " He banged his boots down 
 heavily on the table the cobbler's shop had been 
 shut and the day undeniably hot. " Fool triple, 
 gilt-edged, hair-oiled fool !" and felt relieved. 
 
 But Diana, over the way, was worrying. 
 
 She was hurt by the want of confidence she 
 divined, her lover's evasive answers, and the know- 
 ledge of how little she understood the man the 
 real Rill under his d^bonnaire London ways. 
 
 Love seemed already shallow, the tie of engage- 
 ment an excuse for a lessening of courtesy. 
 
 Above all, her own inexplicable weakness stung 
 her pride, together with the memory of her out- 
 burst of temper, childish and ineffectual, lowering 
 her in his eyes and in her own. 
 
 The smeared water-colour lay on the table before 
 her emblem of her own clouded happiness but 
 work seemed a mockery in her present state of 
 mind and she put it away with a new-born care- 
 lessness and started out for home. 
 
 But Monday, proverbially black, had another 
 trial in store, for when Morgan let her in, it was 
 with a message to go to Miss Dacon at once, and 
 she found that lady in a fine flutter, superintending 
 the packing of Diana's little trunk. 
 
 "Your mother wants you, my dear the wire 
 came after you'd gone. You've only just time to 
 lunch and I can't find your new slippers any- 
 where." She lifted a crimson face from over the 
 box, but seeing the girl's blank expression, added, 
 with a sudden sense of pity " She might have 
 given us both a little more warning, and I'm sure I 
 don't know what she expects me to do ! "
 
 EARTH 201 
 
 For her visit had promised both rest and 
 economy, and she was old enough to resent a sudden 
 change of plans. 
 
 " Of course you must stay on," Diana responded 
 quickly ; " of course, Cousin Sophie I shall be 
 back as soon as ever I can." She stooped to rescue 
 the ball of red wool that Buchanan had slyly 
 annexed from the Hottentot's charity work. She 
 was glad of the opportunity to hide her tell-tale 
 cheeks as she went on with her speech. " And if 
 any letters come, you will send them on ? without 
 any delay, I mean ; won't you, Cousin Sophie ? " 
 
 Miss Dacon smiled shrewdly, relieved at the 
 thought of remaining, and not altogether innocent 
 of Diana's little romance. For of late Rill had 
 been a constant visitor at the house. 
 
 " Certainly, my dear I'll see to it myself, and 
 write you a line enclosing anything that arrives." 
 An old-fashioned delicacy prompted the amend- 
 ment, but in her heart she added with a touch of 
 reminiscent spite, " And well sealed too I know 
 Medora's ways ! "
 
 202 EARTH 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 BUT the chocolates that had aroused Ericsen's 
 contempt were destined to play an impor- 
 tant part in the day's doings. For as he 
 turned out of the Sweet Department at 
 Harrods', Rill ran into the arms of Jack Darrell. 
 
 " Hullo ! Well, you're a nice chap ! " So he was 
 greeted. " Where have you been hiding all this 
 time?" 
 
 Rill laughed, inwardly annoyed at the meeting. 
 " Don't ask indiscreet questions ! I've been down 
 the river for one thing, and," he hesitated, " I've 
 had a lot to do, one way and another." 
 
 The blue eyes twinkled as Jack surveyed him. 
 
 " Nothing like a busy life but you shouldn't 
 neglect old friends. What are you doing now ? 
 Come back and lunch with us ? though you'll 
 have to make peace with my wife. She's furious ; 
 says you've never replied to some invitation of hers." 
 
 Rill smiled involuntarily, inventing fresh excuses 
 as his friend steered him back to the Sweet Depart- 
 ment, where he had a commission to execute for 
 Esterella. 
 
 "I'll take her some chocolates as a peace-offering," 
 suggested Rill. For he had quickly made up his 
 mind that here was a good opportunity to get his 
 visit over, safe-guarded by the husband's presence 
 from sentimental pitfalls.
 
 EARTH 203 
 
 He ordered a fresh box of candies to be sent to 
 Diana, and a few minutes later they were whirling 
 along in a taxi towards Darrell's hotel. 
 
 "And how is madame?" he inquired politely. 
 Darrell's smiling face clouded over, for of late his 
 wife's attitude had puzzled him. 
 
 "Pretty fit," he replied, "though I don't think 
 London suits her. Of course it's a wretched season 
 and disappointing, as she was looking forward to 
 no end of gaiety. But as it is, I want to get her 
 away. I've heard of a place that's going near Bath; 
 right up on the hills, with a fine view down the 
 valley and a chance of good shooting. So I'm off 
 to-morrow to have a look at it. But don't say any- 
 thing to Esterella. I want it to come as a surprise." 
 He paused to re-direct the chauffeur, who was going 
 astray, then, settling back in his corner, continued 
 " It's a weary business, house hunting. So diffi- 
 cult to find a place that's not too big and yet has 
 decent grounds. They're most of them dismal, 
 rambling old houses buried in high trees and sug- 
 gestive of damp and ghosts, or else brand-new mon- 
 strosities a stone's throw from the main road. But 
 I'm sick of hotel life and want to settle somewhere. 
 The beauty of this particular place is we can rent it 
 for six months furnished with the option of taking 
 over the lease at the end and of doing it up our- 
 selves." 
 
 " That sounds all right," Rill commented, " and 
 I quite agree with you, that the country's the place 
 to live in, especially now, when motors abound 
 and people can get about. It's an easy run to 
 Bath, and you can always fly up to town for 
 a night or two when you feel in the mood and 
 probably enjoy it twice as much as the people who 
 live there."
 
 204 EARTH 
 
 " You tell my wife that." Darrell was delighted. 
 " She shies at the thought of a country life. But 
 then she hasn't tried it yet." He jumped out and 
 paid the driver, and they mounted the steps together. 
 " If I take this house you'll have to come down and 
 stay whenever you can ; there'll always be a corner 
 for you when you've nothing better to do." 
 
 Rill found it hard to face his sunny smile. He 
 felt a sudden humiliation, the knowledge of good 
 friendship spoilt, and the barrier that his own folly 
 had raised between them. 
 
 "It's awfully good of you," he began, but here 
 the lift stopped with a jerk, and he was thankful for 
 the interruption as he followed his host down the 
 narrow corridor. 
 
 " I'll just go on and tell my wife, if you'll wait 
 here a second," said Darrell at the outer door of 
 the flat, and Rill could hear the conversation that 
 followed within. 
 
 " I've brought you a visitor, Carissima." 
 
 Then a languid voice with a faint note of protest. 
 " Who is it ? " And a name evidently suggested at 
 random. 
 
 " Wrong guess again ! It's Rill." 
 
 A quick "Really ! " and a murmur he could not 
 catch. Then his friend's firm step returning. 
 
 "Come along in, old man. Sorry to keep you. 
 My wife won't be long, she's just returned from the 
 Park and is changing. Have a sherry and bitters?" 
 
 Rill glanced round the pretty, familiar room, filled 
 to overflowing with trophies of the Mediterranean 
 cruise ; Italian faience, fans from Spain, all the 
 hundred and one objects that had caught Esterella's 
 fancy on their wanderings and been lavished upon 
 her by her husband; and behind the big bowl of 
 roses in a silver frame he recognised a photo of
 
 EARTH 205 
 
 himself, taken years before, in uniform, that Ester- 
 ella had unearthed from among Jack's papers. 
 Still more suggestive in the corner, a regimental 
 group, the two friends side by side. 
 
 Darrell, following his gaze, interpreted Rill's 
 silence in his own happy fashion. 
 
 " Good old days, weren't they ? I sometimes 
 
 regret they're over. Still " he left the sentence 
 
 incomplete and carefully dropped the bitters into 
 the glass he held. 
 
 Rill nodded his bead, a prey to conflicting 
 thoughts, and Darrell ran on, following up his train 
 of reasoning 
 
 " What a rage you were in! I've got that letter 
 still, the honest one of the pack." 
 
 He laughed shortly, passing the glass across, and 
 added, "Perhaps you understand better now," and, 
 as if ashamed of his sudden touch of sentiment, 
 raised his own aloft. 
 
 " Here's luck ! " and drank, looking towards his 
 friend. 
 
 " To you both," said Rill solemnly, the toast 
 genuinely sincere, and deep down in his heart he 
 added another name, with a curious sense that 
 Diana stood there, at his elbow, the soft glad light 
 in her eyes. 
 
 Then, as he tossed it off, the door at the farther 
 end of the room opened and Esterella appeared. 
 She was dressed all in mauve, her beautiful figure 
 accentuated by the closely-clinging lines that were 
 the fashion of the moment, a great cluster of violets 
 at her breast, and from her little ears, half-hidden 
 by the dark, luxuriant hair, antique earrings, studded 
 with amethysts swung against the bare round throat. 
 But brighter than the stones themselves the heavily- 
 lashed eyes, wide with excitement, flashed a greeting
 
 206 EARTH 
 
 across to Rill; again the music of her voice as 
 their hands met, and despite his sternest resolutions 
 the old trouble stirred. 
 
 But Darrell's face went hard as he realised that 
 his wife had wilfully broken through his prescribed 
 rule of mourning. 
 
 " Out of black ? " The question involuntarily 
 escaped his lips. She shrugged her shoulders and 
 answered a shade pettishly 
 
 " Oh everyone is now, except, perhaps, the 
 Court," and the slight sneer sounded of the woman 
 who was debarred the right of presentation. For 
 with her farther knowledge of London the fact had 
 begun to rankle. 
 
 "And I'm not 'Court.' ' She smiled up at Rill, 
 standing tall and handsome before her. 
 
 " Only courted." He laughed back ; for habit is 
 hard to break. 
 
 " Perhaps." Her eyes were enigmatical. 
 
 "Well, it's lunch time," Jack chimed in, un- 
 willing to lecture his wife before their guest, but 
 still sore over her indifference to his wishes. " Shall 
 we go up?" 
 
 But she had begun to untie the ribbon round the 
 box of sweets that Rill, somewhat stiltedly, had 
 handed to her, and gave an exclamation of childish 
 delight as the lid fell back. 
 
 " Chocolates that I ador-r-re ! " Her r's rolled 
 with the peculiar roundness of her native accent. 
 " How kind, and I, who thought that I was quite 
 forgotten." 
 
 "I've been so frightfully busy," Rill explained, 
 " and out of town, too. I ought to have answered 
 your letter before, but decided to come round for 
 forgiveness in person. And then by a stroke of 
 luck I ran across Jack this morning." He felt the
 
 EARTH 207 
 
 apology was lame, and wound up with a nervous 
 laugh, " Et . . . me voici ! " 
 
 44 Ben' trovato," said Darrell, proud of his Anglo- 
 Italian phrases, which he liked to air at times. 
 
 44 Which ? " said his wife quickly ; " Major Bill ? 
 or the excuse ? " 
 
 The touch of malice amused the older man. 
 
 44 Both," he ventured, and stepped hack for 
 Esterella to pass. 
 
 In the narrow doorway her soft dress brushed 
 against him, and the faint perfume of its folds re- 
 vived old memories as scent alone can its subtle 
 claim for merit among the other senses. 
 
 Esterella, watching him under half-closed lids, 
 smiled to herself, realising fully that she was mis- 
 tress of the situation. 
 
 Already her vanity had accepted his explanation, 
 but she meant to punish the man for his long 
 absence from her and the formal letters in answer 
 to her own. 
 
 She was in her favourite element, during a lunch 
 that seemed to Rill interminable, teasing, hinting, 
 fencing with all the love of intrigue true to her 
 nature. 
 
 Rill squirmed under her clever thrusts, with 
 Darrell sublimely unconscious beside him, pleased 
 to see his wife once more so gay, even at the ex- 
 pense of his friend. 
 
 But when the conversation, led by the Italian, 
 veered round to Diana Cottar, at the first word of 
 malice Rill's face grew dark and Jack himself rose 
 in quick defence. 
 
 44 You mustn't run down Di, my dear. She's an 
 old love of mine." 
 
 44 1 thought you had no old loves? " She glanced 
 curiously at her husband, for she had not forgotten
 
 208 EAETH 
 
 what she called the " Bath romance," and Mrs. 
 Maxeter's clever suggestions of a past intimacy. 
 
 " Oh, I won't say that," Darrell laughed whole 
 heartedly ; " it's too uninteresting to be quite with- 
 out a past." 
 
 " Or even a present ? " The dark lashes hid the 
 meaning in her eyes. 
 
 " Surely presents belong to the past, eh, Kill ? 
 You can't do these things cheaply nowadays." 
 
 He chuckled over his little joke, and, as if stirred 
 by an afterthought, launched an unexpected bomb 
 into the domestic camp. 
 
 " Which reminds me, my dear, what would you 
 like from Bath ? I've got to run down there to- 
 morrow, and will look in at Mallett's and buy you a 
 new toy." He turned to his guest, anxious not to 
 make too much of his journey on account of the secret 
 he had already confided to the latter. " D'you know 
 the place at all? If so, you're bound to know 
 Mallett's, the old curiosity shop in Milsom Street. 
 They've got some lovely things." 
 
 He ordered coffee downstairs, and they rose from 
 the table, to Kill's infinite relief. The thoughts 
 were racing each other through Esterella's brain, 
 all her base suspicions aroused at the magic name 
 of Bath. The careless way her husband had 
 dropped the news at this, the eleventh hour, pointed 
 to a depth of deceit she would hardly have credited. 
 For there are few people so ready to scent evil 
 as evil-doers themselves, a fact which should be 
 borne in mind by many a would-be saint. 
 
 The revulsion of feeling under which she laboured 
 drove her by contrast into a higher appreciation of 
 Kill, and she dropped her teasing tone, adopting a 
 certain sweetness of speech and glance infinitely 
 more perilous to the man. But despite her efforts,
 
 EABTH 209 
 
 conversation flagged, and after the coffee was over 
 she moved across to the open piano, a proceeding 
 that was hailed by Rill with delight. He jumped 
 at the chance of music to fill the inevitable half- 
 hour before he could in decency depart ; for, resolutely 
 as he strove to keep the memory of Diana before 
 him, he could not altogether escape the spell that 
 the other woman cast upon him. 
 
 Beauty appealed to him too keenly to permit his 
 ignoring the picture that Esterella made: the ex- 
 quisite olive face, upturned towards him, as he stood 
 beside the piano turning over the scattered sheets 
 of music, whilst her slender hands, with a lazy 
 grace, stole smoothly over the keys. 
 
 By the window Darrell filled his pipe, looking 
 moodily down on the stream of traffic surging 
 through Oxford Street. Truth to tell, the perpetual 
 music was getting upon his nerves. For proud as 
 he was of his wife's beautiful voice he dearly loved 
 a chat, and of late these were becoming rare. 
 
 " What are you going to sing ? " Kill's voice 
 broke the silence, but Esterella only smiled, drift- 
 ing into a bass accompaniment of minor chords, 
 dull and monotonous, like the beat of far-off 
 drums. 
 
 Then she began to chant on a low crooning note 
 an Indian bridal song, languidly sweet, breathing 
 the air of the Orient its perfume and spices and 
 veiled intrigue, shut in with the sapphire sky of 
 night under the great gold stars. The perpetual 
 reiteration of the unchanging chords was broken 
 now by the far-off chime of temple bells, adding the 
 mystic touch of religion inseparable from the East ; 
 and rising high above the note of worship through 
 the night a clear call rang, passionate, irresistible, 
 bidding all youth go forth and gather the lotus- 
 
 P
 
 210 EABTH 
 
 flower of love or ever the petals blossomed too full 
 and fell. 
 
 Bill, to whom music was magic, keenly alive to 
 the charm of past Indian days, set his teeth* as he 
 listened, fighting a good fight. He felt almost a 
 hatred for this woman who divined so subtly the 
 secret of stirring his emotions, and appealed to the 
 weak side of his nature as powerfully as Diana to 
 the strong. 
 
 And, as if in answer to his inward prayer, the 
 charm was suddenly snapped. 
 
 As her voice fell to the original low refrain, from 
 the street without rose the rackety din of a passing 
 motor-bus, vibrating harshly through the room, and 
 Esterella paused, furious at the noisy intrusion of 
 the West on her oriental dream. 
 
 "Jack, shut that window, please," she ordered 
 in a peremptory voice, no longer the wife but the 
 ruffled prima donna. But her husband hesitated. 
 
 " It's so hot in here, my dear ! It's only open a 
 crack, and the room's suffocating." 
 
 She made an angry movement to rise, with a 
 swift glance of appeal to Bill. 
 
 " I'll do it," he answered hurriedly ; " don't move," 
 then checked himself, conscious he could not inter- 
 fere. " Supposing we open the door ? " 
 
 He looked across at Darrell, who closed the 
 window noisily and walked across to the fire- 
 place, where a huge vase of lilies was adding to the 
 oppression of the room. 
 
 " And turn these flowers out ! " Darrell seized the 
 offending object, but his wife, irritated, made a 
 gesture to stop him. 
 
 " What nonsense, Jack I won't have my lilies 
 touched ! " 
 
 With an effort the man controlled himself, obey-
 
 EARTH 211 
 
 ing the sharply-expressed desire. He was honestly 
 worried by his wife's changed manner, conscious 
 that the old happy intimacy was threatened, that 
 his presence of late seemed to prey upon her nerves. 
 
 Buoyed up by a secret hope that urged him to be 
 gentle, he nevertheless waited patiently in the close- 
 shut room until the last note of the beautiful voice 
 had died away, and Rill, who had recovered his 
 phlegm, was offering congratulations. 
 
 " Sorry to interrupt," said Darrell lightly, " but 
 I've got some things to see to." In reality the 
 longing for fresh air had prompted the excuse. 
 " Don't let me take you away, old man," as Rill 
 prepared for departure ; " I'll be back soon. You 
 make yourself at home. There are the cigarettes, and 
 you know the way to the private bar." He tapped 
 the cupboard that held the whisky with a laughing 
 gesture. " I know you'll excuse me, and Esterella 
 will look after you." He glanced across at his wife, 
 hoping in vain for a smile. 
 
 "Jack always goes when I sing." There was 
 malice in her voice. " It's a signal for his de- 
 parture." 
 
 Rill tried to laugh it off. 
 
 "He's very well trained, I see." He had been 
 searching for an excuse himself, but his hostess's 
 last remark had made it well-nigh impossible for 
 him to join in the exodus. 
 
 Darrell nervously blundered into the breach, hurt 
 by his wife's insinuation. 
 
 " My dear girl," he protested, " you know I love 
 to hear you sing . . . sometimes but to-day 
 I'm rather busy. There's something I must see to 
 before I go down to Bath." 
 
 " Sometimes ! " That fatal word. It had the effect 
 of a lash on the sensitive vanity of the singer. One
 
 212 EARTH 
 
 glance at his wife's face showed Darrell the folly 
 of further apology, and he hurriedly beat a retreat, 
 leaving Rill fully and uncomfortably conscious of 
 the charged atmosphere, and deeply irritated at 
 the turn of events which had precipitated this 
 undesired tete-a-tte. 
 
 Outwardly calm, he selected a song at random 
 and thrust it before his hostess. 
 
 " Do sing this," he urged ; " it's an old favourite 
 of mine." Then realised, too late, the title, "Te 
 souviens-tu ? " 
 
 But Esterella paid no heed to his request. Her 
 long-lashed eyes were fixed absently on the door, 
 as though she waited, listening for a signal from 
 afar. Her fingers caressed the notes in a series of 
 soft chords, but her mind was far away, brooding, 
 her attitude slightly strained. Rill was instinctively 
 reminded of the scene at Mrs. Traill's, when first 
 he had heard her sing, and he watched her anxiously, 
 striving to divine her thoughts. 
 
 The leaves of the music fluttered on the piano, 
 threatening to fall, and he bent over her, smoothing 
 them out, wondering at her silence and what it hid, 
 when suddenly outside a door slammed heavily, 
 announcing her husband's departure. 
 
 At the sound a smile lighted up her face, and she 
 raised her eyes, luminous with unshed tears, the 
 tears of wounded vanity. 
 
 Before the man could realise her intention, with- 
 out a moment's warning, as he still struggled with 
 the refractory music, she turned towards him, swift 
 and supple in her southern grace, and wound her 
 arms up round his neck with a gesture of insolent 
 confidence, drawing his face down to meet the cry 
 that broke from her eager lips 
 
 "At last! . . .Oh, Tonio Tonio mio! "
 
 EAKTH 213 
 
 CHAPTEK XVII 
 
 DIANA walked briskly up Milsom Street, 
 Wang Cho trotting beside her. The 
 little dog liked Bath, and preferred the 
 sleepy old town to the endless noise and 
 traffic of London. The Cottars had taken rooms in 
 one of the upper terraces, and there was a garden 
 where Wang Cho chased the birds and rendered 
 life a hollow mockery for the household cat a 
 proceeding strictly forbidden at home in connection 
 with Buchanan. For the past week he had been 
 left a good deal to himself, and had added to his 
 other joys a series of bone-hunting raids on the 
 scullery, even reconciling himself to the company 
 of an aged spaniel of low origin who inhabited the 
 kennel in the basement yard. 
 
 Sir John's illness had been the reason for his 
 emancipation, a touch of bronchitis that had sent 
 the old man to his bed and Lady Cottar to the 
 telegraph office with a message for Diana, feeling 
 herself unequal to the strain of nursing the invalid 
 alone. Accustomed to rise late and to go to bed at 
 ten, her mother left the night work to Diana's share, 
 and the duty of keeping up the fire (for the weather 
 had turned damp and chilly, a foretaste of the 
 dreary summer to come), and of ministering to the 
 patient's needs after the household had retired to 
 bed, devolved on the young girl.
 
 214 EARTH 
 
 As Sir John grew rapidly better and her anxiety 
 diminished, Diana, backed by her perfect health, 
 found enjoyment in her task. With the great 
 love that had blossomed into life of late was in- 
 corporated a growing tenderness for those around 
 her and a deeper pity for the suffering of 
 others. 
 
 It was so rarely, too, that father and child were left 
 in peace together, and she could tranquilly enjoy 
 the old man's conversation, his fund of humour 
 and experience and the breadth of outlook that had 
 made him so often silent, faute de mieux, in his 
 wife's autocratic presence. They never discussed 
 the situation, both loyal to the core, and the only 
 backsliding they permitted was on the subject of 
 books. 
 
 Lady Cottar had no use for literature. " There 
 is plenty to do in life," she would say determinedly, 
 " without confusing one's brain by a morbid in- 
 dulgence in novels. Most unhealthy, I call it. And 
 how people can find the time, with all their manifold 
 duties, to do more than skim through the news of 
 the day, I fail to understand ! The morning Paper 
 is quite enough for me." 
 
 She pronounced the word with a capital P, con- 
 ceiving it part of the daily round, and, as such, worthy 
 of respect. For after the hour sacred to the cook 
 came the hour devoted to " the Paper." Between 
 her economical struggle with the price of food, and 
 her desire to keep abreast with the times, she was 
 thankful when the hour of mental and physical 
 relaxation followed devoted to her massage ! 
 
 Then came a rigid toilette and an unswerving 
 search round the house for the servants' delinquencies, 
 and having triumphantly unearthed a thimbleful of 
 dust, or the presence of a finger-mark upon the paint
 
 EARTH 215 
 
 she would descend, worn-out by wordy conflict, to 
 meet her family at lunch. 
 
 Indeed, as she remarked, there was " no time for 
 reading." 
 
 But Sir John loved his books. He was becoming 
 very deaf, that terrible affliction that is treated so 
 indifferently by those who know not the cruel barrier 
 it erects. Conversation, unless the speaker had an 
 unusually clear voice, was daily becoming more of a 
 strain to the courteous old man, who preferred to 
 retire from active participation sooner than obtrude 
 his infirmity on others. Thus isolated, he found a 
 real consolation in his books. Here was a bypath 
 where he could saunter peacefully, lost to the deafen- 
 ing noise and speed on the high road of life. 
 
 Widely catholic in his tastes, he would turn from 
 a statesman's biography to a simple story of love, 
 one of those novels so utterly condemned by his wife ; 
 and it was Diana's secret joy to smuggle in the latter 
 for a stolen feast of fiction, and to see the twinkle 
 in the old man's eye as she unearthed her latest 
 treasure-trove from the depths of a paper bag that 
 assuredly spelt "buns," and slipped it for greater 
 safety under the heaped-up pillows ! 
 
 To-day, as she walked up Milsom Street with her 
 light free step, she was hugging under her arm a 
 parcel of paper-covered books that she had bought as 
 a parting present, anxious to leave the literary larder 
 full of provender. 
 
 For Diana's last day in Bath had dawned, and the 
 invalid had become so far convalescent that Lady 
 Cottar saw no further reason for the extra expense 
 entailed by her daughter's presence. > 
 
 The girl's thoughts turned to her lover with a 
 happy consciousness of the few hours to pass before 
 they should meet again. For two days there had
 
 216 EAKTH 
 
 not been a letter. Cousin Sophie had realised no 
 occasion to write her little budget of news, and the 
 red sealing-wax with which she foiled " Medora's 
 curiosity " lay in peace on the ormolu bureau, to- 
 gether with the skeins of wool and rolls of greyish 
 flannel that, like the Chinaman's pigtail, were to 
 swing the good soul into Paradise hereafter. 
 
 But Diana was not anxious. Her faith in the man 
 was unbounded, and she had decided mischievously 
 to keep her lover in ignorance of the day of her 
 return. She would spring it upon him as a glad 
 surprise, and had already rehearsed a descent on the 
 nearest telephone and the effect of a careless " Hallo, 
 Ripple ! " greeting Rill unaware. 
 
 She quickened her step at the mere thought, and 
 a fugitive gleam of sunshine, glancing athwart the 
 broad street, fell on her radiant face, so full of the 
 keen joy of life that a passing man turned and stared, 
 but with no intention of rudeness, and smiled as he 
 realised her total unconsciousness. 
 
 " I feel I should like to purr," Diana confided to 
 Wang Oho, as they passed before Fortts' window, 
 where an enormous wedding-cake was displayed. 
 " Life's very good, isn't it ? " 
 
 She tucked the little dog under her arm, preparing 
 to enter the shop, nibbing her fresh cheek against his 
 silky head as his great eyes, full of greed and 
 adoration, vacillated between his young mistress and 
 the window that framed this High Temple erected to 
 his god of Sugar. 
 
 " We must go in and buy those biscuits," she 
 continued, glancing at the shopping list she held. 
 1 ; And there's a big furry pussy-cat inside, so I shan't 
 let you go, my dear. Those eyes of yours are a sore 
 temptation to anything with claws ! " 
 
 She swung the door back and entered the shop.
 
 EARTH 217 
 
 Within, at a marble-topped table, Jack Darrell, in 
 breeches and gaiters, beamed at her over a huge 
 erection of sandwiches. 
 
 "Hallo, Di! where have you sprung from?" His 
 honest face showed the pleasure the unexpected 
 meeting caused him as they shook hands heartily 
 and he pushed a chair forward, adding, " Sit down 
 and tell me all the news." 
 
 " I'm staying here with my people," she ex- 
 plained, settling Wang Cho comfortably on her lap. 
 " Father's been ill with bronchitis, poor dear, but 
 he's better now, and I'm going back to town this 
 very afternoon. What are you doing here ? " 
 
 " Having a rotten time until to-day, that is ! I 
 came down about a house, a jolly old place on the hills 
 over there." He made a vague gesture with his hand. 
 " I only meant to stay the night, but there's been 
 a regular muddle the agent's fault. Some other 
 people were after it and managed to get the first 
 refusal. And they're still ' havering.' So here I am, 
 hanging about or rather I was until yesterday, and 
 then I remembered some old friends of mine in the 
 country and went over to see them, and they insisted 
 on my moving, lock, stock, and barrel, to the vicarage. 
 He's a parson, frightfully delicate, poor chap, and I've 
 known his wife since she was a kid. I wonder . . ." 
 He looked at Diana tentatively. " Did you ever meet 
 Lena Lestrange in the old days at Tenterleigh ? " 
 
 " No, I don't think so." Diana shook her head. 
 " So you really think of settling here ? " 
 
 " If I can get this house. It's a ripping nice 
 little place, and the shooting Al." He helped him- 
 self to a sandwich. "But don't tell Esterella. She 
 knows nothing at present, and I want it to be a 
 surprise." 
 
 " It sounds lovely. I do hope you'll be successful."
 
 218 EABTH 
 
 Darrell, between big mouthfuls, suddenly re- 
 membered his manners. 
 
 " I say, won't you have anything? What a Goth 
 I am ! Have a sandwich, or a Bath-bun ? " They 
 both laughed. 
 
 " Not even that. I shall be lunching directly, 
 to catch the afternoon train. I hope it's the Flying 
 Dutchman such a jolly name I'd like to travel 
 by it." 
 
 " Sounds like an aviation week in Holland," 
 Darrell suggested. " Won't they think it pre- 
 historic in the days to come for a train to be called 
 like that ? The Flying Dutchman ! " He paused, 
 and added seriously, "I only hope it won't be the 
 Flying German, in full panoply of war, backed up 
 by an ultra-modern fleet three times the strength of 
 ours." 
 
 For " Naval Estimates " happened to be the 
 bugbear of the moment. 
 
 " Talking of ships reminds me." He dived into 
 a deep pocket and produced a box, neatly tied and 
 sealed, which he ruthlessly proceeded to open. 
 " I've just bought a toy for my wife, at Mallett's, 
 over the way. Like to see it ? " He hesitated as a 
 thought struck him. " I was going to post it, but 
 perhaps if you're going back to-day . . ." He 
 glanced up at her doubtfully. 
 
 Diana jumped at his meaning. 
 
 " Of course I'll take it ; I'd love to." 
 
 She gave an exclamation of delight as out of the 
 mass of cotton wool he gingerly produced an ex- 
 quisite little gilded ship, the detail picked out in 
 deep-hued enamels with all the cunning of early 
 Italian handicraft. 
 
 " It's the ' Bucentoro,' an exact model, so Mallett 
 swears, of the Doge's barge of state. They used to
 
 EAKTH 219 
 
 throw a ring overboard, a sort of gorgeous ceremony, 
 on one day in the year, to marry Venice to the 
 Adriatic sea. Rum notion, wasn't it? A nice little 
 model anyhow, don't you think?" 
 
 " It's perfectly lovely." She took the little curio 
 reverently into her hands. " How pleased your 
 wife will be ! " 
 
 " I don't mind telling you it cost a little 
 fortune" he laughed contentedly "but it was the 
 only thing that suggested Italy, and I thought she'd 
 like it." He began to wrap it up. " I haven't heard 
 from Esterella for two days. I'm afraid she's awfully 
 dull, poor girl ! She hates being alone. But you 
 see the difficulty. I want to get this matter settled, 
 and the agent's a half-hearted sort of chap. I must 
 be on the spot. Even if these people refuse it, 
 there's a lot of red-tapism still. So you might 
 take the toy and cheer her up, there's a good, kind 
 Di." 
 
 " Of course I will. I'll go round to-night." 
 
 The clock sounded the hour, and Diana sprang to 
 her feet. " I must fly ! I'd no idea it was so late. 
 Catch hold of Wang Cho whilst I buy some 
 biscuits." 
 
 She hurried through her commission and returned 
 to find Darrell still at his sandwiches. 
 
 " Are you going to devour all those ? " she laugh- 
 ingly inquired. 
 
 "Probably," he answered, with his sunny smile. 
 " I've a long ride before me. The Lestranges live 
 a good way out. I'm taking him back some turtle- 
 soup. He's awfully bad, poor chap. Consumptive, 
 you know." His face was grave. " I must see 
 what can be done." 
 
 " You'll cheer him up," said Diana sympathetic- 
 ally ; " good-bye and good luck to you," and, with
 
 220 EAKTH 
 
 a warm shake of the hands, parted from her friend 
 of childhood days. 
 
 " He's a good sort," she told Wang Cho. " And 
 Esterella ? " She quickened her steps up the steep 
 hill, conscious of a faint prejudice at the name. But, 
 honestly aware of the spark of jealousy underlying 
 it, continued to herself, " She's all right too, I 
 think. Anyhow, they're devoted to each other, and 
 that's the great thing." 
 
 Her thoughts ran back into the old channel, and 
 the hazel eyes, lost to the world around, wandered 
 away into the land of dreams, love building golden 
 castles against a sky eternally blue. 
 
 Still smiling happily, she rang the bell of the tall 
 house where they lodged, and, calling Wang Cho to 
 heel, entered, as the little servant timidly opened 
 the door. 
 
 " Is that you, Diana ? " her mother's voice 
 greeted her. " What a time you've been ! I hope 
 you've brought everything back with you." 
 
 Diana hurried into the sitting-room, where her 
 father, propped up in an easy-chair, was con- 
 templating a cup of bovril with distaste, whilst 
 Lady Cottar, a flush on her thin face, was putting 
 the final touches to one of her daily occupations, 
 that of "tidying up the room." With deep dis- 
 comfiture the general had witnessed a vigorous 
 onslaught on his writing-table, his carefully-arranged 
 papers swept aside into one drawer, cigars into 
 another, and the horrible fate of his pet pen that, 
 entangled in the folds of the duster, had bitten the 
 dust, point downwards, on the floor. 
 
 Still more harrowing disaster, a novel with lurid 
 cover had been unearthed from under the sacred 
 screen of " the Paper," and together, with a last 
 week's " Globe," cherished for days on account of a
 
 EARTH 221 
 
 well-written article on military tactics, had been 
 ruthlessly consigned to the bulging waste-paper 
 basket. 
 
 "I never saw such a room," Lady Cottar con- 
 tinued dramatically "a regular dust-heap!" She 
 paused for breath, worn-out with her exertion. 
 
 Diana looked at her anxiously, avoiding her 
 father's eye. 
 
 " Do sit down, mummy. You look so dreadfully 
 tired." 
 
 " I'm accustomed to be tired," said Lady Cottar 
 severely. She added her favourite homily: "But 
 so long as there is any life in me, I hope I shall 
 continue to do my duty." 
 
 The general sighed. 
 
 " It's all beautifully tidy now, my dear do take 
 a little rest." His head ached with the perpetual 
 movement of his wife's form, duster in hand, round 
 the narrow room. He gulped down his tepid 
 bovril. 
 
 "There," he said soothingly, "that will do me a 
 world of good," arid gave the cup over to Diana. 
 Lady Cottar was examining the parcels on the table, 
 checking them with the list she held. 
 
 "And what is this? " She held up the package 
 intended for Esterella. 
 
 " Oh, that's not mine," said Diana quickly. 
 " That's something Jack Darrell asked me to take 
 back home to his wife." 
 
 " Darrell ? " The general looked surprised. 
 
 " Yes, I ran across him in the town ; it seems 
 he's down here, house-hunting." 
 
 Lady Cottar swiftly interposed. 
 
 " Noiv I understand why your shopping kept you 
 so late." She glanced up at the clock and added 
 coldly, "You'd better finish your packing, Diana;
 
 222 EAKTH 
 
 lunch will be ready soon." She intercepted a regret- 
 ful glance between father and daughter, deprived of 
 a last half-hour together. " It's quite time your 
 father had a little rest." 
 
 A twinkle caine into the girl's eyes as she quietly 
 obeyed. In the privacy of the hall she indulged in a 
 whimsical smile. " Quite time, indeed," she repeated 
 the words aloud ; " poor old daddy." 
 
 But half-way up the stairs her mother called her 
 back. 
 
 " I forgot to tell you, Diana I've had a letter 
 from Cousin Sophie. She's in bed with a very bad 
 cold and dare not meet you to-day. I can't think 
 how she gets these colds," her voice was aggrieved. 
 " Anyhow, it will be quite light when you arrive, 
 and Paddington is a nice station." 
 
 The girl leaned down over the banisters, and 
 obeying a sudden impulse, stooped and kissed the 
 tired face below. 
 
 " That's all right, mummy" for she had caught 
 a note of solicitude in the older woman's voice " I 
 can take good care of myself." 
 
 At the unexpected caress, the mother's face 
 relaxed, and into the blue eyes came a look of 
 yearning a pathetic desire for the love that, by 
 her own harshness and irritability, she hourly thrust 
 from her. 
 
 For down in the depths of her heart, after her 
 own strange fashion, she loved this only child, who 
 should have been doubly dear from the fact of her 
 late entry into her parents' married life. 
 
 As is often the case, however, Lady Cottar had 
 become reconciled to the childless prospect, and the 
 advent of a baby into the well-organised routine of 
 her days, curtailing many social pleasures in the gay 
 Indian life and necessitating the voyage home as
 
 EARTH 223 
 
 Diana grew older, proved more of a tie and a drain 
 on the parents' resources than the blessing it is 
 popularly supposed to be. 
 
 Nevertheless, in moments like these the mother- 
 feeling emerged, and she would have liked to have 
 bad her big daughter once more the little child of 
 olden days, dependent upon her, clinging to her neck 
 with tiny, loving arms, her very own, flesh of her 
 flesh. 
 
 But some instinct warned Diana that her mother 
 was on the verge of an emotional outburst. 
 
 With all her heart she dreaded " a scene," not 
 only for the self-abasement it caused her personally, 
 but for the wear and tear of her mother's fragile 
 nerves, and now, as ever, she found refuge in flight. 
 
 " I must go and pack " she suited the action to 
 the words " but don't worry about me, mummy ; I 
 shall be all right. I'll send you a wire to say if I 
 get kidnapped ! " 
 
 The laughing words floated down into the hall, 
 where Lady Cottar lingered, a prey to a tumult of 
 thought. 
 
 She had the curious sensation of having been 
 cheated out of a moment o( spiritual expansion, too 
 self-absorbed to divine the affection that could hide 
 itself under the lightness of the speech. 
 
 Her face, momentarily tender, hardened as she 
 rejoined her husband, and to herself she said, " It's 
 no good expecting anything of Diana. The child 
 has no heart."
 
 224 EAKTH 
 
 CHAPTEK XVIII 
 
 DIANA reached Paddington in due course 
 and instructed her cabman to stop at 
 the nearest telephone office on the way 
 home. She rang up Bill's number and 
 was answered by his man, who informed her that 
 his master was out ; then, recognising the voice, 
 supplemented it with the farther news that he had 
 gone down to Hurlingham with friends but would 
 probably return to town for dinner. 
 
 Diana was disappointed. She had hoped to catch 
 Bill at the dressing hour, but made up her mind to 
 try another call later on in the evening. 
 
 She paid a fleeting visit to Cousin Sophie, who 
 very woe-begone but nervous of infection, drove her 
 resolutely from the sick-room, and she went down to 
 a solitary dinner, conscious of that blank sensation 
 that follows a return to a deserted house and missing 
 even the attentive Morgan, who had been given his 
 holiday during the absence of the family. 
 
 A letter lay on the hall table and she took it up 
 eagerly, but the writing was in Walter's hand, a 
 brief note enclosing two seats for a match at Lord's 
 and regretting he could not dine with Diana that 
 evening (as Cousin Sophie had thoughtfully sug- 
 gested) as he was already engaged to the Wyntons', 
 and was afterwards playing bridge with the fair 
 Sadie and Mrs. Maxeter at the latter's club. Diana
 
 EAKTH 225 
 
 frowned as she read. She liked her cousin suffi- 
 ciently to feel sorry at his undoubted infatuation for 
 a girl whom she deemed to be utterly without heart 
 and shrewdly guessed to be using Walter for her 
 own purposes, with no possible thought of marriage. 
 
 The housemaid waited badly and the meal seemed 
 interminable. Lady Cottar had entrusted her 
 daughter with a message for the cook, to be delivered 
 the same evening, and by the time she had got rid of 
 the garrulous old servant and had written a short 
 letter with the result of the domestic colloquy, she 
 realised that it was somewhat late to fulfil her 
 promise to Jack Darrell. 
 
 Nevertheless, feeling she had pledged herself to 
 deliver the box into Esterella's hands that night she 
 started out resolutely, somewhat consoled by the 
 thought of being able to telephone to her lover from 
 the Grosvenor Court Hotel. 
 
 The night air was refreshing, and overhead the 
 stars shone brightly down on the deserted square. 
 Diana decided to walk for a little way and pick up 
 the first passing cab. Here, however, her plans were 
 foiled by the fact that no cab passed save those 
 already tenanted and an invalided taxi, puffing dis- 
 consolately along for a few inches and then stopping 
 to vent its peevish temper in a series of loud 
 snorts. 
 
 At last in utter despair she emerged on a main 
 road and, mounting an Oxford Street omnibus, soon 
 arrived at her longed-for destination. 
 
 The hall of the quiet hotel was deserted at this 
 hour, and sooner than wait for the lift she mounted 
 the stairs to the second floor and walked down the 
 narrow corridor that led to the Darrells' flat. 
 
 Finding no one about, she tapped at the outer 
 door ; then, as this elicited no reply, repeated the 
 
 Q
 
 226 EAKTH 
 
 summons and finally, losing patience, turned the 
 handle and peeped into the little hall. 
 
 Still no sign of life, but the lights were full on 
 in the sitting-room beyond and through another 
 door she could see that the whole flat was gaily 
 illuminated. 
 
 "Mrs. Darrell! " She called the name softly, but 
 no voice answered, and holding her breath, her ears 
 alert for the slightest movement, she became con- 
 vinced at last that no one was there. 
 
 An odd feeling of uneasiness swept over the 
 listening girl and the thought sprang up unbidden 
 in her mind that Mrs. Darrell might be ill, hidden 
 away in the bedroom beyond. 
 
 She passed timidly into the drawing-room and 
 repeated her clear call. 
 
 " Mrs. Darrell ! May I come in ? It's Diana 
 Diana Cottar and I've brought you something from 
 your husband." 
 
 Only the echo of her words returned ; no one 
 stirred in the brightly-lighted place. 
 
 That strange premonition of disaster, peculiar to 
 highly-strung temperaments, warned her anew of 
 trouble, and summoning all her courage, after a 
 tentative tapping on the half-closed door, she pulled 
 it boldly open and walked in. 
 
 The bedroom was empty ; empty, too, the dress- 
 ing-room beyond. At the sight she felt a sudden 
 sensation of relief, her idea of illness definitely 
 banished, and this was immediately succeeded by 
 one of surprise. 
 
 For scattered about the pretty room, in all the 
 confusion of a hurried packing, clothes were littered 
 indiscriminately, and by the half-filled trunk lay a 
 tray of delicate finery, as though its owner had 
 suddenly tired of the task midway in its performance.
 
 EAETH 227 
 
 The whole room suggested haste and flight, the 
 lights left burning, wardrobe open, and the table 
 despoiled of all its dainty fittings. 
 
 Something crunched under Diana's feet, and look- 
 ing down, she saw a photo-frame, the glass splintered 
 in every direction, on a portion of which she had 
 inadvertently stepped. 
 
 Amidst the starred edges, DarreH's face looked 
 up at her, the photo bent and disfigured as though 
 a heel had deliberately ground it under foot in a 
 moment of passionate resentment. Beside it an 
 open telegram fluttered, and innocent of all desire 
 to pry, but moved by her growing anxiety, Diana 
 gathered it up, hoping it might prove a key to the 
 mystery. 
 
 But the words in themselves failed to enlighten 
 her. She could not guess that the few lines in 
 which Jack, supplementing his letter that day, in- 
 formed his wife of his change of address, had indeed 
 supplied the last touch needed to fan the Italian's 
 wrath, proving to her incontestably that the base 
 suspicions, roused by Mrs. Maxeter's heartless 
 gossip and fostered by the prolonged absence of her 
 husband, were now based on indisputable fact. 
 
 For Esterella's temper was of the deadly kind 
 that steadily heaps up fuel on the smouldering ashes 
 beneath, needing but a touch to flame forth with 
 true Southern violence into a fiery outburst that no 
 power on earth can check until it burns itself out ; 
 reason, argument, even the clear, cold facts swept 
 aside unheeded by a passion that is almost 
 maniacal. 
 
 But to Diana the problem was still unsolved. 
 She felt in some way responsible to Jack for 
 Esterella's well-being. Tired with her journey and 
 strangely worried, she tried in vain to formulate
 
 228 EAKTH 
 
 some theory for the latter's absence and the scene 
 before her eyes. 
 
 Could Esterella have received bad news ? a sudden 
 summons from abroad '? Diana jumped at the 
 notion. But then Jack would have surely known, 
 returning immediately at the first hint of trouble. 
 It was not like his wife to make a definite move 
 without his able assistance. 
 
 She gathered her wits together and realising the 
 lateness of the hour, which added to the serious 
 aspect of the case, she proceeded to enter the 
 remaining room of the little flat. 
 
 Some scruple had restrained her from questioning 
 the servants of the hotel, a fact she was supremely 
 grateful for when in Jack's dressing-room she came 
 upon the final horrifying enlightenment. 
 
 For, pinned to the shaving-glass, in full publicity, 
 with an insolent disregard of all social decency 
 which mutely testified to the frenzy of anger that 
 possessed her, lay Esterella's parting message to 
 the man who had sacrificed everything for her sake, 
 risking the loss of trusty friends, relinquishing his 
 dearly-loved profession and all thought of worldly 
 prestige, offering his very soul to the woman he 
 made his wife. 
 
 Diana gasped as she read the words, utterly unable 
 to believe her eyes. 
 
 " Since you stay with your mistress," so ran the 
 pointed Italian hand, shaken with hysterical anger, 
 " I go to my lover." That was all. 
 
 The girl felt physically sick. She sat down 
 suddenly on the nearest chair with an odd sen- 
 sation of faintness. For the moment she could 
 hardly believe her eyes, the blow too utterly 
 unexpected, the inference beyond the range of her 
 experience.
 
 EARTH 229 
 
 She had lived so serenely apart from evil, sheltered 
 by her ignorance of the shady side of life, and here 
 it was brought to her very feet this unimaginable 
 insult to common morality, hitherto only possible, 
 so it seemed to her, in the pages of doubtful fiction 
 or among a class with which she would never by 
 the widest chance associate herself. 
 
 Esterella . . .a "lover"? 
 
 And Jack ? . . . She sprang to her feet, clench- 
 ing her hands as she thought of the candid face, the 
 honest blue eyes of her childhood's friend. 
 
 "What a lie!" The words broke from her lips 
 indignantly and the sound of her voice startled her, 
 echoing through the empty flat and rousing her to the 
 peril of the moment, the need to keep her discovery 
 a secret, to save the death-blow to Jack's pride of 
 the gossip of hotel servants and the world at large. 
 
 She took the paper down, read it steadily once 
 more, summoning all her courage to meet the 
 situation, folded it, and with an involuntary shudder 
 of disgust, slipped it within the pocket of her coat. 
 
 Then she switched off the light and turned back 
 into the bedroom. Here a new thought struck her, 
 and in a few minutes the room had regained its 
 normal aspect, the scattered garments thrust away 
 in wardrobe and drawers, and the trunk shut down 
 and pushed back against the wall. 
 
 The room seemed instinctively to lose that guilty 
 look with which her new knowledge invested it. 
 Satisfied with her work, she picked up the broken 
 photo-frame and passed on into the sitting-room. 
 Her quick brain had grasped the necessity of keep- 
 ing up appearances, whatever might be the result of 
 this horrible tragedy. For, looking down at the 
 portrait she still held in her hands, a real tragedy 
 she felt it to be, the wanton blow of a light and
 
 230 EAKTH 
 
 worthless woman at the heart of an honourable 
 man, a blow from which he might never, spiritually, 
 recover. 
 
 If only something could be done ! The girl stood 
 there thinking deeply, wondering who would break 
 the news to Jack, shrinking from the painful task 
 herself, yet wondering if duty demanded the price. 
 
 She would have gone to her father had he been 
 at home. Walter ? She dismissed the notion im- 
 patiently and then, like a flash of light from afar, 
 came the name of her lover, Anthony Bill. 
 
 Of course ! She smiled involuntarily, realising 
 that here was the very man. He was Darrell's 
 oldest friend, and well versed in worldly wisdom, 
 and a feeling akin to pride followed with the 
 thought that she had the right, unknown to society, 
 of claiming his help and advice. 
 
 The clock chimed musically eleven a tiny 
 jewelled affair that Jack had given his bride in the 
 first week of their new life together, and Diana 
 started as she realised the lateness of the hour. 
 
 It did not even occur to her in her grave pre- 
 occupation that the step she contemplated might 
 be fraught with danger to herself. 
 
 She turned out the lights and gently opened the 
 door. The corridor was void of life, and slipping 
 stealthily along it, she gained the stairs and ran 
 down them into the hall. 
 
 Here she found the porter, taking a breath of 
 night air at the door. He glanced at her with a 
 look of surprise, then, recognising her face, wished 
 her a respectful good-night. 
 
 " I called to see Mrs. Darrell," said Diana boldly, 
 " but find she has not yet returned. Will you get 
 me a taxi, please?" 
 
 Her voice was most matter-of-fact, and as she got
 
 EABTH 231 
 
 into the cab, giving her home address, she added 
 casually, in answer to his inquiry, " There's no 
 message. I hoped to have caught her before she 
 went out." 
 
 She smiled at her stroke of diplomacy, and as 
 soon as they turned the corner she leaned out of 
 the window and altered the direction of their 
 route. 
 
 In a few minutes the taxi drew up at the door of 
 Kill's rooms, a block of chambers in a side street 
 facing a well-known ladies' club. 
 
 Little did the girl think as she jumped out and 
 paid the man that at one of the upper windows of 
 the latter building Sadie Wynton and Walter, en- 
 joying a brief interval of rest from bridge, watched 
 with interest the sudden apparition on the well- 
 known doorstep. 
 
 The outer door of the chambers was closed at this 
 time of night and Diana hunted for the bell, turn- 
 ing as she did so, her face plainly outlined in the 
 light of the street lamp. 
 
 At the clear-cut profile, thus revealed, Walter 
 gave a sharp exclamation of surprise, immediately 
 checked, but, alas ! too late, for Sadie, leaning out of 
 the open window, had arrived at the same bewilder- 
 ing conclusion. 
 
 " It's Diana Cottar ! " In her excitement she 
 had forgotten the relationship and added mock- 
 ingly, "at Rill's rooms. . ." There was no 
 mistaking the malicious inference of the words. 
 
 Walter, furious at the contretemps, lied. 
 
 " It can't be ; she's down with her people at 
 Bath." 
 
 But Sadie only smiled, inwardly delighted at the 
 turn of affairs. She would have liked to have 
 known the Cottars and had attempted an intro-
 
 232 EAKTH 
 
 duction through Walter, which, owing to Diana, had 
 been politely frustrated. Here was a fine oppor- 
 tunity for revenge. 
 
 " It's a remarkable likeness," she suggested. 
 " Look ! she's going in." 
 
 For the visitor, after a brief colloquy with Rill's 
 man, had made a movement forward. At this 
 moment a hansom came rattling down the street, 
 and the girl in the doorway turned sharply and 
 peered into the passing cab, the light full on her 
 face, casting a halo of light round the glossy 
 hair revealed by the small toque she wore when 
 travelling. 
 
 It was impossible to ignore her personality, and 
 Walter groaned in spirit, realising some incompre- 
 hensible folly on the part of his pretty cousin. 
 
 The next moment the vision had gone, the door 
 blotting it out. 
 
 " Well, I'm blessed ! " Walter's voice was 
 eloquent. 
 
 " Poor old Walter I'm so sorry." Sadie in the 
 shadow of the window-seat laid a hand gently on 
 his arm, stifling the exultation she felt in the sudden 
 necessity for diplomacy. 
 
 But the youth's face was grave. For once he 
 did not respond to the girl's advances. 
 
 " Look here, Sadie, this must go no farther, you 
 know ! Of course, Diana's all right. You know 
 that," he "pecked" emphatically; "it's some 
 childish escapade " He broke off, acutely un- 
 comfortable, finding it impossible to frame an 
 excuse. 
 
 "Of course," said Sadie sweetly, a gleam of malice 
 in the world- wise eyes. Here was a stone to throw, 
 with a vengeance, at the girl who had snubbed her. 
 
 " Promise me you'll not repeat what we've seen."
 
 EARTH 233 
 
 The eyes under their pale lashes were fixed on his 
 companion's pretty piquant face and his hand 
 tightened spasmodically on her own. 
 
 "My dear boy!" Her voice was inexpressibly 
 shocked. " What do you think ! " She drew her 
 fingers away with a quick, hurt movement. " Surely 
 there was no need to ask me that? Your own 
 cousin . . ."a note of tenderness crept in and 
 the colour flamed up suddenly under the youth's 
 fair skin. 
 
 " Darling ! forgive me I'm so sorry ; only, of 
 course, it's very worrying, all this. I do wish Diana 
 was like other girls." He sighed impatiently, 
 drawing still nearer to the one beside him. 
 
 " You're not offended ? " he whispered in her ear. 
 She bent a shade forward, screened by the heavy 
 curtain, so that her cheek just grazed his lips. 
 
 " Not . . . now." Her voice was inaudible, 
 but the man in her toils understood. 
 
 " Come along, you two," it was Mrs. Maxeter's 
 gay voice, " when you've finished flirting ; we've 
 time for another rubber." For her luck was in and 
 with young Maclaren for partner she had success- 
 fully eased the pockets of the elderly colonel beside 
 her, an arrangement which was somewhat one- 
 sided, as Walter had already pledged himself to 
 cover any losses which Sadie might encounter 
 during the evening's play. 
 
 Meanwhile, over the way, the girl they both in 
 their hearts condemned was following Bill's man 
 up the winding stairs, her brows knit at the sudden 
 check in her adopted plan. 
 
 For her lover had not returned, and it had needed 
 all her courage to ask permission to wait for a few 
 minutes on the chance of his speedy arrival. 
 
 Dalby, the servant, was as worried as herself.
 
 234 EARTH 
 
 He could hardly refuse the astonishing request and, 
 owing to an intimate knowledge of Rill's private 
 affairs, gained from surreptitious peeps at letters 
 and scraps of conversation overheard outside the 
 telephone-box, he was fully aware of the secret 
 engagement. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances he would not have 
 had the slightest hesitation; but this evening of 
 all others ! His brain whirled as he tried to evolve 
 some brilliant excuse for denying the girl admis- 
 sion. Luckily, there were two sitting-rooms in 
 his master's flat, and he proceeded to usher Diana 
 as noiselessly as possible into the little den adjoin- 
 ing the dining-room, where Rill was wont to smoke 
 and kept a stacked-up heap of ancient weapons, a 
 hobby he had outlived. 
 
 Having offered her the evening paper he with- 
 drew and descended the staircase quickly, to be on 
 the threshold when his master should return. 
 
 "Pray heaven they don't meet ! " he invoked the 
 household gods. " I don't know what 'e'll say it's 
 notice, for sure ! " 
 
 In the smoky little room Diana waited im- 
 patiently. Already she regretted the step she had 
 so impulsively taken, slowly realising the imprud- 
 ence of a visit at this unheard-of hour. She began 
 to worry about Cousin Sophie and the servants at 
 home they would think her lost ! Her head ached, 
 and the first excitement over, the inevitable re- 
 action set in and she was just meditating an 
 ignominious departure when a sound broke on her 
 ear, low but unmistakable that of a woman crying. 
 
 She sprang to her feet, amazed and alert, shak- 
 ing off the depression that lay upon her in this new, 
 bewildering development. 
 
 The sharp staccato sobs came from the room
 
 EAETH 235 
 
 beyond and were followed by a refrain of choked 
 words, moaning, unintelligible, breathing the utter 
 exhaustion caused by grief. 
 
 For a moment Diana hesitated. Then the desire 
 to help drove all else from her mind and she opened 
 the door gently and peeped in. 
 
 On the sofa on the farther side of the room a 
 woman was flung in an attitude of utter despair, 
 her head buried in her hands, her shoulders heaving 
 with convulsive sobs. But at the sound of the 
 opening door, she raised her head with a start, and 
 an eager cry broke from her lips 
 
 " Tonio ! " 
 
 Then, as she realised her mistake, seeing Diana 
 Cottar rooted to the ground in open amazement 
 and horror, the beautiful face ravaged by tears 
 stiffened into a frightened mask, and with a gesture 
 of utter despair and shame she sank back on 
 the sofa, her eyes closed in a swift and merciful 
 unconsciousness. 
 
 It was Darrell's erring wife.
 
 236 EAETH 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 IT would seem as though Nature provided a 
 special reserve of recuperative power to those 
 of her children whom the world calls " sensi- 
 tive," foreseeing in her infinite wisdom that 
 in moments of peril a vivid imagination might over- 
 leap the thin line of reason without this means of 
 balance. 
 
 The unintelligent are stupefied by a sudden shock, 
 a merciful anaesthetic denied to the rapid thinker, 
 who, in a flash, pictures the full horror of the situa- 
 tion but conceives an immediate desire for action, 
 finding therein a stimulant to carry the victim safely 
 over the danger moment. 
 
 So now, as the full and sickening realisation of 
 her lover's perfidy overwhelmed her, Diana rose to 
 .the supreme height of her courage, acutely aware 
 of the death-blow to all her dreams, but conscious 
 that there was work to be done and that the fate of 
 several lives depended on her power of dealing with 
 the crisis. 
 
 It was here that the spark of genius within her 
 manifested itself by an intuitive grasp of the salient 
 features of the case. 
 
 As she set about almost mechanically to revive 
 the unconscious woman before her, she summed it 
 up in definite fashion. 
 
 Esterella must be got away at once, before the
 
 EAETH 237 
 
 owner of the flat should return. She must sleep at 
 the Grosvenor Court Hotel that night. 
 
 The safeguarding of Darrell's name and, vastly 
 more vital to Diana, Rill's own honour, demanded 
 it. She did not pause to consider how far the latter 
 was involved, nor the amazing fact of her lover's 
 absence from the scene. With the crude outlook 
 of untried innocence she judged him utterly guilty, 
 her inexperience failing to enlighten her on the 
 subject of the woman's share in the matter. 
 
 Her one thought was to get Darrell's wife away 
 before the appearance of Rill, and she loosened the 
 former's collar and began to chafe the inert hands 
 with a vague memory of Mrs. Simpson's ministra- 
 tions to an hysterical housemaid. 
 
 To her relief, this somewhat ineffectual treatment 
 was speedily rewarded. 
 
 With a fluttering sigh the patient stirred, opened 
 wide the dark, tear-stained eyes and after a moment 
 of bewilderment recognised the hazel ones fixed so 
 sternly on her own. As recollection returned the 
 lips quivered pitifully, and with a sudden strength 
 that surprised the girl before her, the elder woman 
 drew herself up into a sitting position, casting a 
 look of horror at the room around her, and found her 
 voice in a sudden rising wail of entreaty. 
 
 " Take me away ! For the love of the saints, 
 take me away ! " 
 
 Diana gasped at so unexpected a request. She 
 had nerved herself for a stormy scene, and the 
 possibility of refusal on Esterella's part when she 
 should suggest departure, but that the culprit her- 
 self should passionately demand it seemed beyond 
 her wildest hopes. 
 
 She could not realise that the long and weary 
 wait in the deserted flat under the inquisitive eye
 
 238 EAKTH 
 
 of Rill's valet had acted as a cold douche on Ester- 
 ella's mad project and that she herself had arrived at 
 the psychological moment when a tardy repentance 
 so often the twin brother of physical discomfort 
 had risen up in the suite of baffled desire. In 
 her bewilderment Diana hardly felt the burning 
 hands laid on her own as Esterella leaned forward, 
 the beautiful face, ravaged by emotion, upturned 
 like a repentant Magdalen. 
 
 " I waited . . . and I waited Dio mio ! " 
 The faltering voice was broken by a sob, " and he 
 came not . . . Mother of God ... Oh ! 
 wretched that I am . . . false . . . false . . 
 all false . . ." The words swept on, choked 
 and fitful, but the listening girl caught a fierce 
 denunciation of the husband mixed up with bitter 
 disillusion over the absent lover. 
 
 She saw clearly that hysteria was gaining the 
 upper hand and spoke coldly, almost commandingly, 
 as she drew her fingers away with an involuntary 
 movement of distaste. 
 
 " Mrs. Darrell, you must pull yourself together ; 
 I will certainly take you home. Please put on 
 your hat." 
 
 She gathered up the great plumed leghorn that 
 Esterella had considered a becoming adjunct to her 
 dramatic flight, and assisted the latter to secure it 
 on her untidy hair. Then realising the whole dis- 
 ordered appearance of her companion, she unwound 
 a motor-veil she had used for travelling herself, and 
 with fingers that shook, despite her studied calm, 
 proceeded to effectually shroud the tear-stained face 
 of the singer. 
 
 Esterella sat there, helpless as a child, so utterly 
 worn out with passion and its reaction as to be 
 incapable of any definite move. Only once did she
 
 EARTH 239 
 
 show a flicker of the old resentment, when, in 
 gathering up her cloak, Diana disclosed an unopened 
 telegram lying upon the table. 
 
 With a quick movement of anger the Italian fell 
 upon it, tore it across and threw the fragments on 
 the floor. Some intuition warned Diana that here 
 was the message acquainting Rill with her suddenly 
 conceived plan of flight and which, owing to his 
 long day at Hurlingham, had failed to reach the 
 man. With the extraordinary clearness of vision 
 which possessed her that evening, she pieced the 
 puzzle together, needing but the fragment which 
 revealed Mrs. Maxeter's specious gossip to complete 
 the whole. 
 
 But after this faint show of temper the Italian 
 had relapsed into a moody silence, watching Diana 
 helplessly as she buttoned up the long velvet coat 
 and searched under the sofa for a missing glove. 
 Then just as the girl gave a sigh of relief, realising 
 that they had arrived at the point of departure, 
 she broke out anew, struck by a sudden appalling 
 memory. 
 
 " I cannot go ... I dare not go ... I 
 forgot ! " So shrill and hopeless was the cry, that 
 Diana's heart softened, despite the bitterness that 
 possessed it. 
 
 "What is it? Tell me what have you for- 
 gotten ? " 
 
 At the new, gentle quality of her companion's 
 voice, the tears began to stream down under the 
 heavy veil, and Esterella covered her face with her 
 hands, once more a prey to remorse. 
 
 " The letter ! " the stifled words barely escaped 
 her lips and Diana had to bend her head to catch 
 the failing speech. 
 
 All she heard was " fastened to the glass,"
 
 240 EABTH 
 
 " Jack . . ." and a reference to the hotel 
 servants. 
 
 Caught in the meshes of her own heartless in- 
 trigue the wretched woman saw herself shut out 
 from the only road of escape, definitely debarred a 
 fugitive chance of salvation. 
 
 " Poor girl ! " The pitiful words rose involun- 
 tarily from Diana's generous heart, and forgetful of 
 all else, moved by that divine desire to help, the 
 earliest prerogative of Mother Eve, and one that 
 will yet save womankind from the specious hum- 
 bug of to-day's sex war, Diana laid a tender arm 
 around the quivering shoulders. 
 
 " Don't cry, my dear, it's all right ; look ! I've 
 got it here." She pulled the slip of paper hurriedly 
 from the pocket of her coat, holding it up to the other's 
 amazed eyes, for the moment checking her tears. 
 
 At the immense relief, too worn-out to question 
 the miracle of its presence in Diana's hands, Este- 
 rella gave a little inarticulate cry of wonder and 
 thanksgiving ; then, turning impulsively, flung her 
 arms up round the neck of the girl beside her, hold- 
 ing her in a convulsive clasp of gratitude not un- 
 mingled with a new-born shame. 
 
 And to her everlasting credit, Diana answered to 
 the call, the motherhood that is dormant in the 
 heart of every woman aroused, and bending her 
 proud young head, kissed the tear-stained face so 
 near her own. 
 
 Then, quickly disengaging herself from the cling- 
 ing arms, she rose to her feet. 
 
 " Come," she said, with an anxious glance at the 
 clock, " we must be going." 
 
 Blindly Esterella obeyed, and together they 
 passed down the gloomy stairs and out, unheeded, 
 into the night beyond.
 
 EARTH 241 
 
 Danby, tired of waiting and feeling the need of 
 a tonic to brace him for the inevitable scene with 
 Rill, had deserted his post for a flying visit to a 
 neighbouring public-house that threatened momen- 
 tarily to close. The Ladies' Club had extinguished 
 its lights, and Mrs. Maxeter, whose luck showed 
 signs of turning, had started homeward with Sadie 
 Wynton and her old colonel still rich enough to 
 pay for the cab 1 London had that dead and 
 muffled aspect that so bewilders foreigners, accus- 
 tomed to their continental capitals, glowing more 
 feverishly as the darkness deepens, in the effort to 
 join night to day in an uninterrupted circle of 
 gaiety and light. 
 
 Fortune favoured the two women in the shape of 
 a loitering four-wheeler, and Esterella, relieved to 
 find herself homeward-bound, passed creditably 
 through the ordeal of re-entering the hotel under 
 the sleepy blink of the night-porter's eye. In a 
 very short time they were back in the Darrells' 
 flat in the midst of that quiet luxury that to the 
 worn-out singer spelt with renewed force " home " ; 
 and as she gazed around the accustomed scene, the 
 practical side of her folly seemed intensified and 
 she realised anew the abyss of shame and discom- 
 fort from which Diana's courage and cleverness 
 had saved her. 
 
 Then the shattered photo-frame caught her 
 wandering attention. She moved forward to look 
 down into Jack Darrell's smiling face, and divining 
 her thoughts (for in the cab home Esterella had 
 confided the base suspicions that had proved the 
 last impetus in her headlong course), Diana spoke 
 her mind out impulsively. 
 
 " One of the best men that ever lived." She 
 stared past her companion at the portrait that 
 
 R
 
 242 EARTH 
 
 evoked memories of her childhood, those happy 
 days of centuries ago, and added, with a sharp sting 
 of envy, comparing Kill, " He worships the very 
 ground you tread on." 
 
 "Ahi! . . ." The Italian sighed with a 
 plaintive, "Chilosa?" but already half-convinced 
 by the earnest young voice. 
 
 " Look here." Diana spoke abruptly, moved by a 
 sudden memory, and drawing from her pocket the 
 precious parcel which had been the pivot on which 
 the whole adventure had turned, continued loyally, 
 " Only to-day I met your husband in Bath, and he 
 gave me this to bring you." 
 
 A faint note of indignation stirred as she went on 
 steadily 
 
 " I don't suppose you're ever out of his thoughts." 
 
 She watched the other mechanically unwrap the 
 box, a faint flush in her pale cheeks at this unex- 
 pected proof of affection, and timidly, fearful of giving 
 offence, yet conscious that here was the moment for 
 the supreme appeal, Diana leaned forward across the 
 table. 
 
 " He believes in you . . . utterly," and their 
 eyes met. " You've got to live up to that . . . 
 now." 
 
 Something in the tired young face went to the 
 singer's heart, that corner where a spark of faith 
 and truth still lingered. She nodded her head, 
 incapable of words ; then, with that peculiar sim- 
 plicity in matters of religion that is such a con- 
 tradiction to the bombastic vanity of the south, she 
 slipped down on to her knees with a hurried sign of 
 the cross. 
 
 " I will. ... I will. Hear me ... 
 Mary, Mother. . . ." 
 
 Diana turned away, suddenly shy at the sight, all
 
 EARTH 243 
 
 her English reserve rising within her as the 
 pattered Latin words broke the silence of the room, 
 with a feeling akin to horror at this extraordinary 
 parade of religious sentiment after the doings of 
 the night. 
 
 She could not understand that for once the woman 
 before her was absolutely sincere, turning to the 
 " Mater dolorosa" of her creed as simply as a child 
 to its mother's breast, petitioning the vast hosts of 
 the saints for intercession, and lost in the sensuous 
 mysticism that her temperament required. 
 
 But when it ended, as it was bound to do, in a 
 flood of easy tears, Diana roused herself from her 
 troubled lethargy, conscious that she must interfere, 
 and that the woman before her was physically unfit 
 for more emotion. 
 
 Accustomed to her mother's nervous breakdowns, 
 she set quietly to work to make Esterella comfort- 
 able for the night ; raided what Jack laughingly 
 called the " private bar," and helped her companion 
 to undress. 
 
 Only when she found herself in the dainty lace- 
 covered bed did Esterella betray the secret dread 
 that now possessed her. 
 
 For Diana was preparing for departure, her face, 
 white and drawn, mirrored in the glass before her. 
 
 "Diana . . ." The beautiful voice came softly 
 from among the pillows. " I will be good to Jack 
 I will indeed. And you . . . how shall I 
 thank " 
 
 She broke into a stream of Italian, finding it 
 impossible to express her gratitude in the cold 
 northern tongue. Then, as the girl bent over her, 
 a hand outstretched to say good-bye, she drew 
 herself up into a sitting position, her eyes strained 
 with the new anxiety that possessed her.
 
 244 EARTH 
 
 " What is it? " Diana's voice was gentle, seeing 
 the mute question on the other's face. 
 
 " Promise," begged Darrell's wife, " promise you 
 will not tell ! not anyone . . . not a living soul, 
 about . . . to-night." 
 
 Weary and sick at heart, the girl nodded her head, 
 fully aware that silence was the one shield, not only 
 for the guilty woman herself, but to safeguard the 
 honour of Rill, that strong motive that had under- 
 lain each action of hers throughout, and had, in fact, 
 been the source of all her courage that night. 
 
 But she was at the snapping-point of her strength. 
 The clear vision of an hour since had clouded before 
 physical fatigue and the advance guard of that 
 terrible depression she could no longer resist. 
 Esterella reached out a trembling hand, and with the 
 dramatic touch inseparable from her nature, laid it 
 on a crucifix that hung with a rosary beside the bed. 
 
 " Swear it !" her voice was shrill " swear it upon 
 the cross ! " and she held out the ivory relic, so ever- 
 lastingly symbolic of human suffering and doubt, 
 looking up with wet eyes into the girl's sad face. 
 
 Diana shivered suddenly, a prey to racked nerves. 
 
 " I swear." 
 
 She mastered a sudden overwhelming desire to 
 cry, and with the pregnant words unknowingly 
 sealed her fate.
 
 EARTH 245 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 WALTER MACLAREN retraced his steps 
 across the square, a prey to angry 
 thoughts that were not a little aug- 
 mented by an inward craving for lunch. 
 He had been prepared to give Diana every chance, 
 magnanimously assuring himself that her extra- 
 ordinary conduct of the night before had been but a 
 childish freak, and not unwilling to seize the oppor- 
 tunity of delivering a brotherly homily on the folly 
 of Bohemian ways, and the necessity of invariably 
 conforming to the rules of society. 
 
 He did not set himself up for a saint, but he was 
 orthodox on the " sub rosa " creed, and properly 
 shocked, after the fashion of his nation, at any in- 
 fringement of the statute of secrecy. There were 
 "things a fellow could do" and "things a fellow 
 couldn't " ; bat out and beyond all that was the 
 necessity of keeping up a strict appearance of 
 virtue. The mere thought of " naked truth " sent 
 him shuddering for a ready-made cloak of conven- 
 tion. 
 
 But his admirably-prepared lecture had been 
 ruined at the start by Diana's amazing refusal to 
 discuss the matter. She had pointed out with un- 
 flattering lucidity that she was in no way responsible 
 to Walter for her conduct ; had neither denied nor 
 admitted his accusation, but with an aplomb which
 
 246 EARTH 
 
 in reality arose from despair, but to the other's low 
 intelligence looked uncommonly like guilt had 
 dismissed her cousin at the sound of the luncheon- 
 gong, unsatisfied morally and physically. 
 
 A less innocent woman would have jumped at 
 the chance he offered, and pandering to his vanity, 
 purchased silence at the price. Not so Diana, sick 
 at heart but honest as the day. 
 
 Cousin Sophie was still confined to bed, mercifully 
 unaware of anything unusual in the quiet house, for 
 Diana's late return had happily synchronised with 
 the crisis of an area flirtation on the housemaid's 
 part, and she had been able to let herself in un- 
 noticed, bolt and bar the heavy door, and, turning 
 out the lights, creep silently to bed, leaving the 
 amorous Susan in painful doubt not only regarding 
 the hour of her young mistress' reappearance, but 
 as to her exact knowledge of the presence of a man 
 upon the premises. 
 
 So that Walter's visit the morning after, and his 
 evident mastery of the situation, had been a crush- 
 ing blow to Diana, already worn out by a sleepless 
 night of misery ; and she took no pains to conceal 
 her old dislike of her cousin, nor her contempt for 
 Sadie Wynton, whose name he unfortunately in- 
 troduced into the affair. The thought that Sadie 
 of all women ! should hold Diana's reputation with- 
 in her malicious grasp was gall and wormwood to 
 the girl, and in her hopeless resentment she did not 
 spare young Maclaren's best beloved from the lash 
 of her angry tongue. Walter had lost his temper, 
 stating plainly what the world would say if the 
 story got about, and for the first time the full 
 realisation of what she had risked struck the girl, 
 and was rendered still more painful by the side- 
 lights thrown unsparingly by Walter on Eill and
 
 EARTH 247 
 
 his reputation with her sex a last proof to Diana 
 of the worthlessness of the man she had learned to 
 love. 
 
 Now as the baffled mentor proceeded to his club 
 he turned the matter over moodily in his mind. 
 He had that intense distaste that all men feel for 
 the chance of scandal round their womenfolk. And 
 the thought that Diana Cottar, his cousin to use 
 his own loose vernacular " was running off the 
 rails " filled him with a personal discomfort quite 
 remote from any real sorrow on her behalf. 
 
 His own cousin ! his first cousin, for the matter 
 of that one fourth part Bretherton, of the im- 
 maculate ringlets fame it was enough to make a 
 fellow sick ! Supposing Laing heard of it ? or the 
 colonel himself ? And, anyhow, there was Sadie to 
 deal with. He writhed at the thought of a slur on 
 the family name. 
 
 Wouldn't the general be furious ? This offered a 
 remote touch of consolation. Stingy old beggar, 
 serve him right ! He nourished the memory of an 
 inability on the latter's part to meet a temporary 
 loan. And Rill ? Here annoyance was blent with 
 a faint admiration the tribute of youth to the 
 glamour surrounding " the man of the world." 
 
 And pondering upon it as he turned into 
 Piccadilly, with a straightening of his shoulders 
 and a surreptitious touch to his "latest" tie, it 
 was inevitable that he should run straight into 
 the arms of that sinner, emerging gaily from 
 Solomon's, a bunch of roses in his hand. 
 
 He greeted Walter with a careless nod, then, 
 checking himself, stopped and asked for news of the 
 Cottars. 
 
 "Diana's back;" her cousin smiled maliciously, 
 his near-set eyes on the other man's handsome face.
 
 248 EARTH 
 
 " I've just come from there. Hoped to see her last 
 night, but she was out." 
 
 Bill stifled a yawn, serene in his worldly armour, 
 and having acknowledged the news, continued 
 
 "You didn't go down to the polo yesterday, at 
 Hurlingham, I mean? Very pretty work. I stayed 
 on to dinner with Gervase Maule and his wife, but 
 the place was almost deserted you'd never think it 
 the season." 
 
 He took off his hat with a glance at a passing 
 victoria, and conscious of Walter's acquaintance 
 with the "South Kensington Gazette" and the 
 strength of this providential alibi, nodded again 
 and was off, leaving Maclaren more hopelessly 
 bewildered than before. 
 
 "Well, I'm . . . damned! It's either a pukka 
 lie, or else . . . ' He began to wonder if Diana 
 had a double. 
 
 But Rill's face was grave, and he quickened his 
 steps, conscious of danger in the air around him. 
 
 The touch of malice in the young man's voice 
 had startled him, suggesting disastrous com- 
 plications in a case already too obscure. Surely 
 Diana could not have taken her cousin into her 
 confidence? Rill knew how little real affection 
 existed between the pair, and he finally dismissed 
 the idea with a twisted smile at himself and the 
 old proverb anent the guilty conscience. 
 
 Nevertheless, he felt distinctly ill at ease as he 
 passed down sun-dried Piccadilly, bending his foot- 
 steps towards the Cottars' house. 
 
 The soldier had passed through a night he would 
 not lightly forget. Returning bored and sleepy 
 from Hurlingham, his valet's stumbling explana- 
 tions, with the knowledge that the two women 
 had met face to face in his rooms, and Danby's
 
 EARTH 249 
 
 utter ignorance of the manner of their departure, 
 presented a problem impossible to solve. 
 
 The mere fact of Esterella's presence he dismissed 
 with an angry shrug. She had already been there 
 to tea, and although the lateness of the hour made 
 it a sheer act of folly, he knew her unbalanced and 
 excitable temperament, and put it down wearily to a 
 sudden Bohemian freak and her apparent inability 
 to grasp the conventions of English life. 
 
 But Diana? whom he believed at Bath. Here 
 was a mystery, difficult to explain and the horrible 
 fact of her rinding the Italian apparently in pos- 
 session ! What construction could she put upon the 
 affair? And, more important still, what had passed 
 between the two women up to the moment of their 
 unwitnessed departure? 
 
 He dreaded Esterella's disclosures, that even 
 Diana's innocence could not be proof against, 
 knowing himself to be guilty of deceiving them 
 both if of no graver offence ! 
 
 It was bad enough in all truth for DarreH's wife 
 to outrage convention in that blatant way (for it 
 did not occur to Rill that Esterella had seriously 
 contemplated an elopement, and the torn telegram 
 announcing her intention lay, with that other 
 damning proof her letter to Jack in the pocket 
 of Diana's coat), but that the young girl should 
 visit his rooms at this unheard-of hour, alone and 
 unannounced, was still more difficult to realise. 
 Danby had added the last harrowing touch by 
 recounting the sound of sobs overheard in the 
 passage without, and of voices raised in anger or in 
 grief, proving incontestably that his efforts to 
 keep the two visitors apart had been singularly 
 unsuccessful. 
 
 All Rill's present solicitude centred round Diana.
 
 250 EABTH 
 
 For Esterella would always stir passion in mankind, 
 but rarely chivalry, that quality indissolubly linked 
 with inward respect ; and the man felt physically 
 sick at the thought of the young girl's happy inno- 
 cence exposed to the danger of enlightenment at 
 the hands of the unscrupulous Italian. He knew by 
 experience her utter lack of reticence, and that, once 
 launched on the stream of violent emotion, her 
 temperament would stop at nothing in its course, 
 sweeping conventional decency aside in her absorb- 
 ing vanity and egoism. 
 
 What had she confided to Diana? How much 
 had Diana learned ? And why, in the name of 
 Heaven, had Diana appeared upon the scene at all ? 
 
 As he turned up into the familiar square he 
 blamed himself bitterly for his cowardice in shrink- 
 ing from a definite break with Darrell's wife. 
 
 But it is no easy matter for a man to draw back 
 from a woman's love, and only brutal candour on 
 the subject would have convinced Esterella, at the 
 cost of her deep humiliation and the knowledge that 
 she had thrown herself into the arms of a man who 
 no longer desired her. 
 
 Bill took it for granted that Diana, under the 
 sting of disillusion, would reveal the secret engage- 
 ment between them, and, picturing the Italian's 
 fury, he saw himself with a sinking heart in the 
 proverbial attitude of the possessor of two stools, 
 irrevocably and permanently " left upon the ground ! " 
 
 Armed with his present of flowers for the soldier 
 had the old-fashioned notion that women are ever 
 open to gentle bribery he rang the Cottars' bell, 
 conscious that the luncheon-hour invariably found 
 Diana at home. The day was warm, and the pane 
 of glass behind the ironwork of the door was swung 
 back to admit a current of air, and he could see
 
 EAKTH 251 
 
 right down into the hall to where the big gong 
 stood outside the dining-room. 
 
 At the sound of the bell a housemaid crossed the 
 narrow stream of sunshine and disappeared, a silver 
 dish in her hand, and through the drowsy silence he 
 could hear her question her young mistress, and the 
 answer in the well-known voice, cool and clear 
 
 " Not at home." 
 
 The edict startled him all the more as the in- 
 terested Susan had supplemented her query with 
 the statement 
 
 " I think, miss, it's Major Rill." 
 
 He drew himself up, straightening his broad 
 shoulders as the door was opened, expressed his 
 polite disappointment, and handed in the flowers 
 with an impassive face ; then, a prey to moody 
 thought, returned to his club for lunch, the second 
 victim to hunger and vexation to be turned that 
 morning from the Cottars' inhospitable threshold. 
 
 Within the gloomy dining-room Diana stared at 
 the flowers. In her nervous mood they seemed to 
 her as the last insult to her intelligence ; and, rising 
 from the table, she resisted a strong desire to throw 
 them into the grate, and commenced anew that letter 
 to the man which had already taxed her ingenuity 
 
 "DEAR MAJOR RILL." 
 
 (Her hand shook, and she took another sheet of 
 paper and painfully traced the formal words.) 
 
 " Please understand that our engagement is at an 
 end. I do not think there is any need for further 
 explanation. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " DIANA BATHURST COTTAR." 
 
 She signed her name in full with a touch of
 
 252 EAETH 
 
 childish dignity. Kill, reading it later, felt an odd 
 lump rise in his throat, realising the motive that 
 impelled her. It hurt him more than the words 
 themselves, that serious signature, replacing the 
 gay scrawled " Di," and ringing the knell of their 
 olden intimacy. 
 
 But he was not the man calmly to face defeat. 
 See Diana he would by fair means or foul ! In the 
 depths of his heart he respected her for refusing 
 him the house, but his obstinacy and determination 
 were only augmented by it. 
 
 He lunched alone, absorbed in thought. There 
 was yet another interview to attempt where he 
 might learn the truth, and bracing himself for a 
 most unpleasant scene, he took a taxi to the 
 Grosvenor Court Hotel. 
 
 There the porter, after a wait that seemed inter- 
 minable, informed him that Mrs. Darrell was ill 
 and quite unable to receive. 
 
 Check the second ! Rill swore under his breath 
 But as the hour for tea drew near, back he went 
 deliberately to the Cottars' house, his jaw set in a 
 square image of obstinacy. 
 
 Susan beamed upon him. This was the sort of 
 suitor she liked, and her voice was full of respectful 
 sympathy as she broke the distressing news : Miss 
 Cottar was out. 
 
 " But I think, sir," she stole a glance at the 
 serious, handsome face, " she's gone round to the 
 studio to tea with Miss Farrar." 
 
 Rill smiled at the subtle suggestion. He had a 
 happy manner with servants or rather, no manner 
 at all, but was naturally at ease with them ; a fact 
 that had made his men willing to die for him, 
 nobly proved in the last action in which he was 
 engaged.
 
 EAETH 253 
 
 Susan fluttered under the keen grey eyes. She 
 added Diana's accustomed route, with the amend- 
 ment that " that way he couldn't very well miss 
 meeting her." 
 
 Eill thanked her with a pleasant " Good-day," 
 and turned away, refraining from a tip. For there 
 is often more delicacy in accepting kindness as a 
 gift than in immediately discharging the debt. 
 
 But, ignoring the housemaid's hint, he went back 
 to his rooms. It occurred to him that Diana might 
 have written, and his patience was rewarded by the 
 advent of the four-o'clock post and Danby, crushed 
 and nervous, bearing the auspicious letter. 
 
 Meanwhile Diana, feeling the need of fresh air, 
 and anxious to escape from Cousin Sophie and her 
 ripple of small-talk up in the closed room, redolent 
 of eucalyptus and " charity flannel," had started 
 out across the park for the distant studio. 
 
 Miss Dacon's cold still occupied most of her 
 attention, but the girl felt as if her secret were 
 written upon her face, that nevertheless, in its 
 rounded health and youth, showed little of what 
 she suffered. 
 
 But Ericsen with his shrewd blue eyes, accustomed 
 to probe beneath the surface, and conscious of every 
 curve and dimple and clear-cut line that built up 
 the whole charming picture, started involuntarily 
 when he met the girl at the entrance to the cluster 
 of studios. 
 
 "Hullo! Diana, you back again ?" His greeting, 
 warm and eager, roused her from her painful 
 thoughts. " Well, I'm glad." And her hand, 
 meeting his, lingered, soothed by the firm clasp of 
 those clever, nervous fingers. 
 
 " Yes ; I got home last night." The colour 
 mounted in her cheeks, and she went on hurriedly
 
 254 EARTH 
 
 avoiding his steady gaze" Father's better, I'm glad 
 to say. He's been ill, you know, with bronchitis, at 
 Bath." Her speech ran jerkily, unlike her usual 
 spontaneous flow of chatter. 
 
 Ericsen turned and walked beside her, sympathis- 
 ing with her parent's illness and giving her time to 
 collect her thoughts. 
 
 " D'you think you could spare me a cup of tea ? " 
 His voice was plaintive. " I'm as dry as . . ." 
 he paused for inspiration, "The Licensing Bill," 
 he concluded. 
 
 Despite herself, Diana laughed. 
 
 " Milly's out," Ericsen continued; "I looked in at 
 the window, hoping for news of you, but the studio 
 yawned like the darkest grave for the lack of a 
 red head. A pity it's just missed it ... that 
 copper glow." He rambled on in his vague happy 
 fashion, as he stood aside for her to pass through 
 the narrow door with its blistered paint, that, 
 warped with the sun, required careful treatment. 
 
 Once inside, he sniffed the air disgustedly. 
 
 " Odd smell, isn't it ? Turpentine and patchouli." 
 
 For Milly's one feminine weakness was a partiality 
 for scent an insult to the sensitive nostrils of the 
 artist. 
 
 But Diana loyally denied it. 
 
 " Patchouli? " she scoffed ; " more likely hair-oil 
 of your own." She stared at his shaggy head, well- 
 shaped, but innocent of parting. And off he went 
 in his old tremendous laugh that shook the very 
 rafters, the blue eyes joining in with their radiant 
 gleam of mirth, the pointed red beard thrust forward, 
 suggesting a pagan mask of comedy that mocked 
 the modern world of saddened creeds and con- 
 ventions. 
 
 But Diana, her nerves quivering, shrank from the
 
 EARTH 255 
 
 well-remembered sound, realising suddenly the 
 change in herself since last she had heard its chal- 
 lenge, that infectious call for a merry laugh in 
 return. 
 
 She turned away sharply with a murmured 
 excuse about the tea, and all the light died out of 
 the artist's face. 
 
 Something was wrong ; the girl was not the same. 
 He opened his mouth to speak, then checked him- 
 self, as through the haze outside he saw a figure 
 approaching, and Bill lifted the latch of the little 
 green gate. 
 
 Instinctively he felt she must be warned, and 
 assuming his lightest voice, his back turned to the 
 girl busy over the tea-things 
 
 " Here's your soldier-friend," he announced, 
 "all spick and span as a daisy, not a man. I 
 beg your pardon I oughtn't to have said that. It 
 was the natural poetry of my nature welling up. 
 He'd make a fine model a ' dying gladiator ' or 
 ' Paul, kicking against the pricks.' I'd like him to 
 sit for me." 
 
 But the cup slipped from her nervous grasp and 
 fell with a crash upon the floor. 
 
 She made no effort to pick it up, but stood there 
 stunned by the knowledge that there was no escape, 
 with the curious lethargy of a trapped creature. 
 
 Ericsen, turning abruptly at the noise, was startled 
 by the expression of suffering on her face. 
 
 He moved quickly across the room, the blue eyes 
 tender with compassion. 
 
 " You don't want to see him ? " He guessed her 
 thought. " Then, by Bacchus ! you shan't." 
 
 He towered beside her, lean and wiry, his quickly- 
 aroused temper already thirsting for a " scrap." 
 
 Bat Diana pulled herself together.
 
 256 EAETH 
 
 " I must." Her face was pale, but the look of 
 panic had passed. 
 
 The painter nodded his shaggy head, needing no 
 explanation. 
 
 " All right " his tone was perfectly matter-of- 
 fact" I'll go." 
 
 He picked up the battered straw hat and held 
 out his hand towards her. 
 
 " You might look in on your way home ; I've a 
 picture to show you. I'm not going out any more, 
 so you're sure to find me in. So long ! " And, 
 having given her this gentle hint that the watchdog 
 would be on guard, departed, forgetful of tea and all 
 else before the tragedy he sensed. 
 
 "There goes a good friend," said Diana solemnly; 
 " and now "
 
 EARTH 257 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE studio door was at the side, and Ericsen, 
 with a last keen glance through the open 
 window at the fast-approaching figure, 
 slipped out quickly, but avoiding the patch 
 of worn grass in front, turned sharply to the right 
 and, with an odd sense of shame at this hole-in 
 the-corner conduct, waited patiently, wedged into 
 the space between the rear wall and another block 
 of premises, until Rill should have entered the 
 building. 
 
 It was so unlike his nature to dodge and creep 
 about, that he could not resist a smile at his own 
 expense, but he felt instinctively it was not the 
 moment for another man to appear upon the scene, 
 and he wished to give the pair the full benefit of 
 privacy. As soon as the door was shut it would be 
 easy for him to slip across to his own quarters 
 unperceived, but he shrank, fastidiously, from meet- 
 ing Rill on the very threshold of the girl's studio. 
 
 The plan born on the impulse of the moment 
 was doomed to failure. 
 
 Rill knocked twice, and receiving no answer, 
 boldly opened the door. Too boldly indeed, for it 
 had a habit of sticking against the uneven floor, and 
 under the soldier's determined onslaught it fell back 
 on its hinges with an ominous scraping sound, and 
 remained widely ajar, rickety but immovable. 
 
 s
 
 258 EAETH 
 
 In vain Rill tugged and swore under his breath, 
 conscious that Diana stood before him at the open 
 window, her back deliberately turned in his direc- 
 tion, the sunshine playing on her hair. 
 
 It was not the moment for hesitation, and his 
 nerves strung to the utmost, with a sharp glance at 
 the empty silence without, he left the door to its 
 own devices and moved forward into the room, little 
 thinking that beyond the angle of the wall, Ericsen, 
 cramped and furious, was cursing softly to himself, 
 seeing his road of escape cut off. 
 
 But there was worse to follow. For just above 
 the artist's head a narrow window had been intro- 
 duced, mainly for ventilating purposes, and was now 
 swung open to its full extent, adding to his other 
 torments that of unavoidably hearing all that 
 passed within. 
 
 He dared not risk a sudden bolt across the open 
 door, and furious with himself and doubly so with 
 Rill, he stuck his fingers resolutely in his ears, his 
 elbows pinned to his side in the narrow retreat, 
 determined to spare himself this, the crowning 
 humiliation of spying upon them. 
 
 But no mere mortal could stand for long the 
 strain of such a position. His arms ached and his 
 head began to swim, and at length, realising the 
 hopeless nature of the task, he began to reason it 
 out and take comfort in the fact that neither Diana 
 nor the man could dream of his hidden presence, and 
 that he had thank God ! a still tongue in his head. 
 
 And at this conclusion his arms fell tingling to 
 his sides, and with a sudden sense of noise the 
 reaction from enforced deafness he heard Rill say, 
 in tones of stubborn entreaty 
 
 " It's not fair play, Diana. You can't condemn 
 a man unheard."
 
 EARTH 259 
 
 Despite his anxiety, Ericsen smiled, knowing that 
 the'soldier had hit on the oue argument that the girl, 
 with her sporting instincts, was bound to recognise. 
 
 And after a moment's pause, his theory proved 
 correct. 
 
 " Very well," her clear voice was clouded with a 
 flat and hopeless note. " Say what you have to 
 say." She added, with true feminine logic, " Not 
 that it makes any difference." 
 
 Rill cleared his throat. 
 
 " I want to ask you a question first. You must 
 remember I am entirely in the dark. Why did you 
 come to see me last night, at that unheard-of hour ? " 
 
 At the unexpected remark, the unwilling listener 
 started, utterly astounded, and the girl herself turned 
 quickly, stung by the suggestion of the words. 
 
 But Rill knew what he was about. This was not 
 by any means his first court-martial, though never 
 before had he occupied the position of prisoner in 
 the dock, and he felt, even at the cost of wounding 
 the girl he loved, he must wrest from her the key of 
 the mystery and know exactly where he stood. 
 
 " Because . . ." Diana's face was the colour 
 of flame, and she stammered as she spoke, re- 
 membering Walter's views on the subject, " being 
 engaged ... I thought . . . surely . . . 
 I had the right to come to you in such grave, grave 
 trouble. Father was away " she caught her breath 
 " and there was no one else. I know it was late," 
 her shamed voice went to Ericsen's heart, " but I 
 couldn't help that it was past ten o'clock when I 
 got to the hotel, and there wasn't a cab anywhere. 
 I had to walk . . . But I'd/ promised Jack I'd 
 see his wife that night." 
 
 A ray of light illuminated the darkness of the 
 soldier's brain.
 
 260 EARTH 
 
 "I see you went round to the Darrells' flat 
 and found them out. But what on earth was the 
 trouble the trouble you came to see me about? " 
 
 Then, as she answered nothing, gazing at him in 
 speechless pain and amazement, hurt by the agony 
 of reproach he divined, he went on coldly 
 
 " Did you expect to find Mrs. Darrell at my 
 flat?" 
 
 " Never ! " 
 
 All the vehement anger and shame, the wounded 
 loyalty of her soul, was in the utterance. 
 
 " Neither did I," said Bill. 
 
 The ring of truth in the harshly- spoken words 
 was unmistakable, and Ericsen felt a sudden 
 newborn sympathy for the man fighting his way 
 through this tangle of evidence. But Diana, know- 
 ing the deadly string of facts she held, met the 
 statement with a passionate mistrust. 
 
 "I don't believe you! " She flung the gauntlet 
 down, her voice full of a deadly scorn that roused 
 Bill's temper, but she checked him with a gesture. 
 " Please read this " there came a pause " and 
 this . . ." 
 
 Ericsen could only guess that a letter had passed 
 between them; but as he pieced together the torn 
 halves of the telegram, Bill, a prey to angry curiosity, 
 deciphered the words aloud 
 
 "Can bear this life no longer. Am coming to 
 you to-night Esterella." 
 
 An exclamation broke from his lips, startled and 
 incredulous. 
 
 " Where did you find this ? " Unconsciously, 
 under the spur of danger, his voice took on a ring 
 of command. 
 
 " On the table in your room." She flung the 
 answer back, a crimson patch on either cheek. " I
 
 EAKTH 261 
 
 did not open it, but once it was done " loyally she 
 refrained from mentioning the culprit's name " I 
 thought it better not to leave it about for your 
 servant to read." 
 
 In the midst of his rage, Kill marvelled at her 
 unquenchable spirit, but he could not restrain his 
 bitter tongue. 
 
 "Thank you," his voice was dry; "and this?" 
 
 He turned over the other document, wondering 
 what further blow was in store. 
 
 " Pinned to Jack Darrell's glass." 
 
 She could not meet his eyes, but turned away as 
 he read the incriminating words aloud. 
 
 " Phew ! " He took a deep breath, realising the 
 evidence to be overwhelming. " Also removed by 
 you out of consideration for the servants? " 
 
 Back came Diana's answer like an arrow from 
 the bow 
 
 " No ; out of consideration for an honest man." 
 
 '' Myself ? " The devil prompted the word. 
 
 " Hardly ! " Oh, the scorn of it ! "I mean Jack 
 Darrell." 
 
 Her temper had risen to her assistance, for the 
 moment drowning pain all the fighting instincts 
 of her race roused within her by the cynical attitude 
 of Kill. 
 
 " And having found it there, and removed it, may 
 I ask what you did next ? " 
 
 She went on simply with her story, her head 
 high, her eyes steadily fixed on the man's sullen 
 face. 
 
 " I tidied up the room the trunk and general 
 muddle, I mean and turned the lights out and 
 left, hoping nobody would know things were 
 wrong." 
 
 " Why?" Kill watched her curiously.
 
 262 EAKTH 
 
 " I was so sorry for Jack. That's why I came to 
 you. He had to be told by someone and I knew 
 that you were . . . had been " she stumbled 
 for the first time, nervously " his best friend," 
 she concluded. 
 
 There came a heavy pause. Ericsen in his 
 hiding-place groaned inaudibly. If she had aimed 
 at revenge she could not have found a more deadly 
 weapon of speech. 
 
 " My God ! " The words were wrung from Rill, 
 pierced through all the armour of his cynical 
 defence. 
 
 "And you came to me . . . and found her 
 there in my rooms? " He turned away, unable to 
 meet the honest hazel eyes. 
 
 Diana nodded her head, for the moment incap- 
 able of words. 
 
 " Damn her ! " He set his teeth in a vain effort 
 to master his fury and resentment. " Go on." 
 
 He dared not look at the girl. But had he done 
 so he would have seen a change upon her face. 
 His evident bewilderment and the pain he could 
 no longer disguise had sent a tiny ray of hope into 
 her quick brain. Was it possible there could be 
 some mistake? Surely if he had been a guilty 
 partner in the intrigue the news would not have 
 staggered him in the way it did. And if he loved 
 Esterella, where was his solicitude ? his chivalrous 
 defence? If the truth must be told her boyish 
 spirit had leaped at the sound of that hearty 
 " Damn ! " embodying disgust where she had feared 
 desire. And she was too ignorant of life to know 
 that there is no hate deeper than the one that rises, 
 phoenix-like, from the ashes of a worn-out love. 
 
 But Ericsen, who trusted only to the evidence of 
 his ears, waited anxiously for the sound of her voice
 
 EARTH '263 
 
 in answer to Rill's repeated command, and when it 
 came with a softer note, a less deliberate calm, he 
 wondered not a little at the change. 
 
 " I heard someone sobbing in the room beyond. 
 And at last I opened the door. When . . . she 
 . . . saw me she fainted. I brought her round 
 and she cried a lot " (Oh, the childish innocence 
 of the recital!) ; "and then I took her home back 
 to the flat and helped her into bed . . . and 
 and I think . . . that's all." 
 
 Quite suddenly her strength gave out and she 
 covered her face with her hands. 
 
 Rill took a step forward, then checked himself, 
 biting his lips until the blood came through. 
 
 "And you did all this . . . alone, to save 
 another woman?" Almost unconsciously the words 
 escaped him, awe and incredulity struggling in his 
 voice. 
 
 " No." The muffled answer, impelled by des- 
 perate honesty, was marked by a heavy sob. 
 
 Ericsen beat his fists against the hard wall. 
 
 "The fool," he choked; "the purblind British 
 fool ! " 
 
 " For Jack ? " Overwhelmed by the courage and 
 common sense that had saved the situation, he yet 
 felt a sudden sharp jealousy at the thought. 
 
 But Diana turned, lifting a tear-stained face, all 
 her soul shining through the anguished hazel eyes. 
 
 " Oh, Tony, Tony . . . can't you under- 
 stand ? What did anything matter but you you 
 . . . your honour . . . ? " 
 
 She broke into a flood of passionate tears, stung 
 to the heart by his want of comprehension, rocking 
 upon her feet where she stood facing the man who 
 loved her and yet dared not come to her assistance. 
 
 "Diana! " The cry broke from him, harsh with
 
 264 EARTH 
 
 the intensity of his suffering and the knowledge of 
 his own unworthiness. 
 
 For truth had torn the veil from his eyes at last, 
 and he saw to the depths of the heart laid bare 
 before him and realised, too late, what he had won, 
 and lost ! the inestimable treasure of a good 
 woman's love ; that love that could sink all 
 material considerations for the safe-guarding of 
 spiritual ones, and finding the lover utterly untrue 
 should yet summon all its strength to bear on the 
 salvation of his honour. 
 
 " Oh, my dear . . . my dear ! " his voice 
 broke and he went on huskily, " I didn't know, be- 
 lieve me, I didn't know all this . . . I've been to 
 blame, damnably, but I tried to get away . 
 to run straight at the end." 
 
 He found it impossible to explain, to lay the 
 whole mad enterprise on the erring woman's 
 shoulders, stung by the fact of past conduct and 
 the knowledge of his own weakness and what might 
 indeed have happened had Diana not ventured 
 upon the scene. 
 
 With the lightning insight that comes at such 
 poignant minutes in life he saw, too, down to the 
 depths of the abyss from which the girl had saved 
 him and pictured himself irrevocably bound to a 
 light and worthless woman, ostracised by society, a 
 stain upon the record of his regiment and banished 
 to the doubtful fever-spots of Europe, sinking lower 
 and lower into the trough of the dishonoured. 
 
 And out of the immeasurable deep, where gratitude 
 and reverence stirred within him, love rose at last 
 not that easy mixture of affection and desire which 
 he had deemed sufficient as a basis for married life, 
 but the pure gift from above, new-born and frail as 
 yet, feeling its fragile wings but incontestably bear-
 
 EARTH 265 
 
 ing them, no longer a creature of earth a love that 
 was to become the absorbing strength of his life. 
 
 " Can't you forgive, Diana ? Isn't there . . . 
 one more chance ? ' 
 
 Ericsen, sensitive to the core, felt a lump rise in 
 his throat at the broken entreaty of the voice ; and 
 the tiny ray of hope in the girl's brain quickened, 
 as she looked back into the grey eyes that were all 
 the world to her. 
 
 " You didn't know ? You mean you didn't ex- 
 pect . . . her . . . last night ? " 
 
 She felt desperately she must have the point 
 made clear. 
 
 " I swear it," said Bill gravely. He held out his 
 hands towards her. "Diana . . . child " 
 
 " But the letter ? ... the letter to Jack ? It 
 wasn't true . . . what she said ? " 
 
 Rill coloured up to the parting of his hair. He 
 could not lie to Diana, neither was it possible to 
 explain. 
 
 "Not . . . exactly." His voice was strained. 
 Ericsen, realising his difficulty, writhed in his 
 narrow trap, cursing the scheme of innocence, the 
 keynote of Diana's education and which, at the 
 supreme moment of her life, forbade confidence 
 between herself and the man she loved. 
 
 For with a hurt cry the girl turned, shocked by 
 what she deemed an equivocal reply. 
 
 "No, no . . . no!" She thrust him from 
 her, as he bent over the low wicker-chair, where she 
 had taken refuge, feeling indeed that she could 
 stand no longer on her feet. "Leave me . . . 
 for mercy's sake. If you have any pity, go ! " 
 
 Her face was deathly pale and the room swam 
 before her eyes. 
 
 But, cruel in his own defence, Rill stood there
 
 266 EAKTH 
 
 looking down upon her, seeking in vain a road of 
 escape from this painful impasse. He had the 
 horrible remorse of a man who has struck a child. 
 She looked so young and fragile, with the dark 
 shadows under her half-closed eyes, and the glossy 
 hair forming a background for the sad white face. 
 
 "Then . . . it's really good-bye! You won't 
 forgive me, Diana ? " 
 
 He had to stoop his head to catch the words to 
 where, crushed and weary, she crouched in the deep 
 arm-chair, her face buried in her hands, like a 
 wounded creature that fears the glare of day. 
 
 " I can't," said Diana, faintly, honest to the end.
 
 EAETH 267 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 FOILED of its accustomed round of gaiety by 
 the edict of mourning, society fell back on 
 charitable enterprise as an excuse for 
 display. 
 
 A big bazaar was announced at the Eitz, where 
 the stall-holders, laying aside their sable attire, 
 emerged, all the brighter for their long melancholy, 
 in picturesque costumes purporting to represent 
 the different centuries and their feminine fashions. 
 A great feature of the afternoon, the excellently- 
 staged tableaux had drawn together all the survivors 
 of the fashionable world, and among the crowd of 
 pretty girls forming a background to the married 
 women who had assumed the leading parts, Diana 
 Cottar, by virtue of an old promise, found herself 
 enrolled. 
 
 Ericsen had designed her dress, a pale leaf-green 
 in colour, draped, Grecian style over a lower one 
 of cinnamon. And with her bare white arms and 
 slender sandalled feet, her dark head bound by a 
 wreath of oak-leaves, where acorns cunningly peeped 
 forth, she looked to the artist like a spirit of the 
 woods some Dryad stealing from a sacred grove to 
 listen for the music of the great god Pan, and bear- 
 ing ever in her eyes that hint of pain, the bewilder- 
 ment of a wild creature brought face to face with a 
 sudden knowledge of death. 
 
 -
 
 268 EARTH 
 
 Only Ericsen, tender and compassionate, held the 
 secret of the trouble she tried so hard to hide, but 
 never by the slightest sign did he betray himself. 
 Skilfully, obstinately, he had forced her into work, 
 that " good work " that he had himself suggested 
 long since, and by experience proved to be "the 
 next best thing to love." 
 
 And Diana threw herself into it feverishly, pro- 
 fiting by her parents' absence to spend long hours 
 at the studio over the way, where the painter still 
 lingered, contrary to custom, deaf to the call of the 
 sea and the open country beyond, but true to his 
 creed of brotherhood that forbade his deserting a 
 soul in sore distress. 
 
 And ever and anon he preached in jerky, im- 
 pressive fragments his doctrine of forgiveness, those 
 broader sympathies that lead to understanding, and 
 can overleap evil to reach the gates of truth. For 
 he had made up his mind that Diana should marry 
 Rill. Through all the worldly veneer he had 
 probed down to the depths beneath the soldier's 
 pride. Here was a man with all his faults ! but a 
 man notwithstanding. And since she loved him 
 and he loved her, no petty consideration should 
 keep the pair apart. The lover had sinned, doubt- 
 less (the injustice to Diana hurt the artist more 
 than any lapse from virtue !), but who could gauge 
 the strength of another soul's temptation? Or 
 judge without a surer knowledge of circumstance? 
 Many a time Diana wondered atEricsen's intuition. 
 She would have liked to tell him the whole sad 
 story, so sure was she of his sympathy, but her 
 promise to Esterella forbade the confidence that 
 would have eased her heart and the puzzled brain for 
 ever working at the problem and finding no solution. 
 
 Were men all oad ? she brought it down
 
 EARTH 269 
 
 to this all faithless and indifferent ? Or was 
 Anthony Rill a monster among his kind ? 
 
 Had he ever loved her? Or loved Darrell's wife? 
 She faced a species of mental bigamy with a grow- 
 ing horror and incredulity. 
 
 Why were girls brought up to believe in men? to 
 look forward to betrothal and marriage as a golden 
 dream, evolved from faith and happiness and mutual 
 understanding ? 
 
 " Until death do us part ! " Yet one brief month 
 of engagement had brought Diana this ! 
 
 The nightmare of it obsessed her, this second 
 great failure of her life. For her first was un- 
 doubtedly her position at home. In some un- 
 accountable way she had lost her mother's love; 
 and now, swiftly, Rill's. There must be some- 
 thing wrong; some great want in herself. Mor- 
 bidly she began a system of self-analysis, criticis- 
 ing her speech, her thoughts, and even her 
 appearance. 
 
 From this slough of despond Ericsen pulled her 
 roughly. "I won't have a lazy pupil," he would 
 cry. And once, when he found her idly dreaming 
 over an unfinished task, to her intense indignation 
 and his own subsequent repentance he took her 
 bodily and shook her ! 
 
 With a touch of Jesuitry entirely foreign to his 
 nature he told himself that the end justified the 
 means. Oddly enough, it put her on her mettle, 
 and the friendship strengthened with the inevitable 
 reconciliation. 
 
 But for a whole day Diana stayed in her studio, 
 and Ericsen, moody and remorseful, glowered into 
 the dusty space dividing them. 
 
 As the sun went down upon his wrath he decided 
 to risk rebuff and conscious that Milly had pre-
 
 270 EAETH 
 
 viously departed, thrust his shaggy head in at the 
 open window of the girl's studio. 
 
 Diana, surprised at the sudden apparition, had no 
 time to conceal her work, and the quick eyes of the 
 painter fell upon the sketch at which she had been 
 busy since their stormy parting overnight. 
 
 At the sight he could not resist a chuckle, that 
 after a moment, in which the girl, self-convicted, 
 stood red and confused before him, turned into a 
 criticism of pure enthusiasm. 
 
 For he beheld a caricature of himself, so perfect 
 in its composition, so true to life the head thrown 
 back in a great gust of laughter, the satyr-like chin 
 with its pointed rusty beard thrust out at the well- 
 known angle, the blue eyes dancing, and even the 
 detail of a missing tooth adhered to that it seemed 
 to the man that a mirror stood before him, portray- 
 ing the living image of himself. 
 
 "By Bacchus it's fine! May I come in?" 
 Already he had forgotten that any trouble lay be- 
 tween them, and as he stooped over her, lost in 
 genuine admiration, Diana felt ashamed that for a 
 moment she could have misjudged her friend. 
 
 " You don't mind ? " Her voice was shy, pleased 
 by his word of praise. " Of course, it's an awful 
 caricature." 
 
 " H'm ! " Ericsen smiled. " I should call it a 
 portrait. You don't flatter your sitters, though. 
 At this rate, you won't make money, my dear." 
 His eyes travelled slowly over the detail, noting it. 
 " Even to the missing jewel ! " 
 
 His voice was so dr61e that Diana laughed, re- 
 membering the old joke. 
 
 For, years ago, in a fight, he had lost one of his 
 front teeth a fact that had little concerned him in 
 his indifference to appearance ; but owing to pres-
 
 EABTH 271 
 
 sure on the part of a fair friend he had given in at 
 last, and placed himself in the hands of the local 
 dentist. 
 
 Diana, hunting for chalk, had found the trophy 
 in a Toby jug, among some plaster casts ; for once 
 having stilled the lady's tongue no power on earth 
 would induce Ericsen to fill the accustomed gap. 
 
 His excuses were simple and to the point. 
 
 " It quarrels with my pipe and besides, I never 
 wear jewellery." 
 
 And the happily unconscious dentist in the sleepy 
 west-country town still mentions with pride as a 
 patient the " great John Ericsen." 
 
 " I'll sit to you to-morrow ; that's wrong . . . 
 and that . . ." he pointed an unerring finger 
 at its faults, "and then we'll send it to a beauty 
 show and walk in for the prize." 
 
 Diana laughed gaily and their eyes met, fenced 
 for a moment with each other, conscious of un- 
 uttered words but full of the old bon-camaraderie. 
 
 " And I think we're quits now." He held out 
 his well-shaped hand, with a laughing nod towards 
 the caricature " See you to-morrow at ten. Oh, 
 about that design for the 'Garden of Sleep' picture? 
 It's too ornate ; you mustn't forget the poppies 
 I want the rest neutral as simple in line, too, as 
 possible . . ." 
 
 For, glad of an opportunity to foster the dormant 
 vanity of the girl, Ericsen had overcome his invin- 
 cible contempt for society and had reappeared, to the 
 vast surprise of many, on the committee-list of the 
 fashionable bazaar. 
 
 Leaving the more arduous duties of stage-man- 
 agement to a well-known actor, he appropriated the 
 colour scheme of the tableaux, keeping Diana well 
 employed sketching designs searching for materials,
 
 272 EARTH 
 
 and, best of all, visiting in his sympathetic company 
 galleries and private collections, barred from the 
 general public, but yielding to the magic of the 
 master's name. 
 
 She was to appear in three of the eight tableaux. 
 Diana did not guess how much she owed the fact 
 to Ericsen's diplomacy nor with what pains he 
 manosuvred to secure his little friend the full meed 
 of public admiration. 
 
 " That's what she wants now just bolstering up 
 and told she's good to look upon." He guessed her 
 sense of failure, the deadly blow that had stunned 
 all vanity. 
 
 And now as the auspicious moment dawned and 
 the packed room, full of a gay and interested crowd, 
 waited for the first of the promised pictures, he 
 had slipped away, round to the back of the hall 
 where, free from observation, he could criticise the 
 result of his labour of love. 
 
 He wedged himself into an empty seat between a 
 fashionable lady's-maid and a struggling dressmaker 
 already taking notes of the costumes of the great. 
 
 The curtain rose smoothly with a little stir in the 
 crowded room. 
 
 It was a " Masque of Spring " staged with a 
 luxury that promised little for that minor outlook, 
 a surplus of funds for the charity. In the hot air 
 a cool breath seemed to waft from the marble court 
 with its tiny fountain where the water rose and fell, 
 and, sweeping across the wealth of blossom, scented, 
 delicious, steal into the faces of the delighted 
 audience. 
 
 The handsome woman who had appropriated the 
 r61e of presiding goddess (suggesting "Summer" 
 to the kind, and " Autumn " to the critical) lay in 
 diaphanous draperies on the rose-strewn couch,
 
 EAETH '273 
 
 raised high in the centre of the scene against a sea 
 and sky of /Egean blue. 
 
 At her feet, kneeling, a pretty fair-haired girl 
 (far more suggestive of " Spring " !) was offering a 
 tribute of flowers, white-robed and graceful, her 
 blue eyes wavering between a half-hearted allegi- 
 ance to mature loveliness before her and the gay 
 luring glance of a shepherd boy, piping merrily, 
 with goatskin thrown over one stalwart shoulder a 
 picturesque figure in the background. 
 
 At the base of the marble steps, slender and sweet, 
 Diana waited her turn, her whole soul bent on 
 perfect immobility, lips parted in a smile born of 
 Ericsen's last command, and in her arms a bough 
 of green the first tender leaves of the young beech- 
 tree, blended with a fragrant branch of laburnum, 
 heavy with bloom. 
 
 Against the kneeling figure in white and the rose- 
 coloured draperies of the older woman, she seemed a 
 creature apart : something so fresh and virginal in 
 her garment of green, the dark head, crowned with 
 its chaplet of oak, held high with the old fearless- 
 ness, that Ericsen sighed, stirred anew by the spell 
 of her youthful charm. Here was the Diana of his 
 artist dreams, classic, eternal chastely free from 
 all modern taint of artificiality. 
 
 He turned his head away with an odd feeling of 
 regret. She was not for him save in the spirit of 
 brotherhood. And his eyes fell on a man standing 
 in the shadows by the further door. 
 
 Something tense in his attitude, the gaze riveted 
 on the figure of the girl, the clean-shaven mouth 
 firmly set as though the silent figure were under 
 strong restraint, moved Ericsen's interest, and with 
 a start he recognised Anthony Kill. 
 
 Down came the curtain amidst a murmur of 
 
 T
 
 274 EABTH 
 
 regret, and the applause broke out and died away in 
 chatter. 
 
 Absorbed in his discovery, Ericsen leaned back 
 in his chair, following put a subtle train of thought. 
 On his right the fashionable lady's-maid was im- 
 parting information to her neighbour, with the 
 superiority of the Mayfair habituee to a new re- 
 cruit from the country, ignorant of the performers' 
 names. 
 
 "Indeed," bleated the latter, "that's very in- 
 teresting ! engaged to the young gentleman in the 
 furry coat with the Pimch-and-Judy whistle . . . 
 and a title, too you don't say so ! " The maid 
 from the provinces was vastly fluttered. " And the 
 young lady in green ? " 
 
 " She's the daughter of a General Sir Somebody 
 I forget the exact name. They don't go out 
 much," she sniffed ; " but they're ' quite nice,' I 
 believe. Lady Cottar, that's it comes to milady's 
 parties. Not the very best, perhaps, but the big 
 crushes. And her daughter too . . ."she paused, 
 " up to now." She added the amendment with a 
 curious smile. 
 
 " She's very pretty," the other ventured, but, 
 receiving no encouragement, covered the remark 
 with, " though I don't admire them dark." 
 
 She put up a shabbily-gloved hand to her own 
 fair locks, and tightened an aggressive fringe-net. 
 Her neighbour, whose beady eyes missed nothing, 
 gave a tine display of grey suede gloves, somewhat 
 too small, but just possible owing to a mathematical 
 inaccuracy in the fastening arrangements ; and con- 
 scious of great condescension, continued 
 
 " ' Pretty is as pretty does ' is my motto. I can't 
 say I admire Miss C. And there's queer stories 
 about."
 
 EARTH 275 
 
 " Well, I never ! " The country mouse pricked her 
 ears, eager to absorb the famous wickedness of 
 town. " Looking, too, as if butter wouldn't melt in 
 her mouth ! " 
 
 "Perhaps it's all gossip one never knows." The 
 elder Abigail smoothed her black-edged handkerchief 
 with annoying hesitation. 
 
 " In mourning? " inquired the other sympatheti- 
 cally, too nervous to ask outright for more of the 
 story. 
 
 "For the King," said her companion. 
 
 She drew up a sigh from the capacious depths 
 of her tight silk bodice. 
 
 "A sad business," she resumed. "Milady felt 
 it cruel, with two daughters to present, and their 
 trains all made and the courts cancelled." 
 
 " Dear, dear, what a dreadful expense ! " A pause. 
 "And about the young lady the one in green?" 
 For valour had gotten the better part of discretion ! 
 
 "Oh . . . that? Just a mere cancan, as the 
 French say." But she yielded to her new friend's 
 beseeching glance. 
 
 " Mr. Bingham heard the ladies talking over their 
 coffee the other evening it were, after a dinner- 
 party up in milady's boudoir. He's our second 
 footman, and generally most reliable, so I think 
 it must be true. But still," she shrugged her 
 plump shoulders, " I'm one of the old-fashioned 
 kind as never stoops to gossip, and it may be wrong, 
 or again it may be right." 
 
 The country mouse's eyes were popping out of 
 her head, a proceeding that seemed facilitated 
 by the tightness of her hair, and the raconteur 
 relented. 
 
 " Well, it seems she was seen, actually seen, you 
 know . . ." (the bell for the curtain rang), "at mid-
 
 276 EAETH 
 
 night, a-coming-out-of-'er-lover's-rooms." She ran 
 the words together violently, as the new tableau 
 lay revealed before them. 
 
 " Sh ! Here's another," she bent forward, peering 
 at the performers. " That's Lady Mary Dirke, 
 the Cabinet Minister's wife, in pink she always 
 wears that shade with the wonderful rope of 
 pearls." 
 
 " And the dark gentleman, with ain't that 
 funny ? a white lock on one side of his head ? " 
 
 "That's Sir Derrick Kilmarny. It's an old 
 story. He's always about with her, and the 
 husband don't seem to mind. They do say 
 he's going to marry the cousin the youngest 
 Miss Chesney, her with the red hair but Mr. 
 Bingham who's by way of being a wit says 
 that's Lady Mary's notion to keep him in the 
 family ! " 
 
 The country mouse tittered. 
 
 "It all sounds . . . very snug." (Delightful, 
 this peep-show into the vices of the great.) " And 
 what is the name of the gentleman as is mixed 
 up with the other young lady ? " 
 
 "Ah! . . . there you have me !" She spread 
 the suede hands out indulgently. " It was a Major 
 Something-or-other, but I can't recall it just 
 now." 
 
 The younger woman sighed. She had promised 
 herself the luxury of imparting her bit of gossip 
 to her own lady that evening in that mellow moment 
 due to the hypnotism of hair-brushing. For many 
 a slander grows from a tiny seed of suspicion planted 
 in the hotbed of the servants' hall, nursed and 
 matured by that strange world below-stairs that 
 worships and sneers simultaneously, copying and 
 yet despising the follies of those above.
 
 EARTH 277 
 
 Luckily for Ericsen's piece of mind, he had slipped 
 away before the culminating enlightenment of the 
 story, when the whispered names of the actors might 
 have set him upon his guard. 
 
 The modern scene, in which Dirke's handsome 
 wife pre-eminently figured, was to be followed by 
 the " Garden of Sleep," over which the artist had 
 spent so much time and trouble, and he wished 
 to be near at hand to give the last directions and 
 make sure no detail had been omitted. 
 
 As he pushed his way through the crowd of men, 
 who, failing suitable seats, stood blocked together in 
 the aisle, he again became aware of the proximity of 
 Bill, talking quietly to a tall grey-haired man in his 
 angle of the door. 
 
 " I must be off directly. I only looked in for 
 a minute on my way to the station." 
 
 The grey-haired man nodded. 
 
 " Going out of town ? You're wise it's getting 
 insupportable." 
 
 " Out of town? Well, yes ! " Rill laughed, raising 
 his voice, as the curtain fell, above the noise of 
 applause. 
 
 " I'm off to the West Coast, almost at once. 
 There's an expedition afloat, Congo way the 
 Geographical Society are running it and the chance 
 of big game and a sort of longing to get out of all 
 this . . ."he waved his hand with an impatient 
 gesture to include the scented, frivolous crowd 
 " made it too tempting to refuse." His eyes 
 wandered down his programme, searching for 
 Diana's name, and he added, " Know that part of 
 the world'? " 
 
 " No only the Cape. Pretty unhealthy, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 " Not with proper precautions so I'm told.
 
 278 EARTH 
 
 Anyhow, one must risk something anywhere and 
 the sport's top-hole." 
 
 The grey-haired man measured him approvingly. 
 
 ' Do you good." He grunted. " Wish I were 
 going too." A note of envy sounded in his husky 
 voice. 
 
 Rill smiled, knowing the suggestion impossible. 
 
 " There's still room for another, but you'll have 
 to hurry up. I'm going down to Gatacre's to-night 
 to meet the rest of the expedition." 
 
 " And what about my wife? " 
 
 Their eyes met, and into Rill's tired face crept a 
 faint new spark of understanding. For they were 
 old friends, and he knew that the man before him 
 was one of the lucky few to whom marriage had 
 brought companionship that rarer thing than 
 passion. 
 
 Ericsen, as he hurried on, deaf to siren voices 
 that murmured his name, had heard enough to 
 realise Rill's intention. 
 
 "Going away?" He checked a first feeling of 
 disappointment. " On a man's job, too perhaps 
 it's for the best . . . give her time to think." 
 He twisted round behind the scenes, and added, 
 with his inevitable touch of humour that balance 
 to emotion that saved him from sentimentality 
 " Must be a pleasant relief to a fellow crossed in 
 love to empty an elephant gun into a charging 
 rhinocerous ! I believe I could hit that myself." 
 For shooting was not his forte. 
 
 He had a natural distaste for the taking of life 
 and the inevitable hunting down of a creature in 
 most cases smaller than himself. 
 
 To deal out death in a wanton spirit was to 
 defile the shrine of beauty ; and although he was 
 only too willing to pit himself against a fellow-man,
 
 EARTH 279 
 
 the thought of a blood-stained pheasant, but a few 
 minutes since proud in its exquisite plumage and 
 instinct with the grace of life, a part and parcel of 
 that nature he adored, was to fill him with a sense 
 of horror akin to crime. 
 
 Big game could hardly come under this category. 
 The chances were more equal, and he approved of 
 Rill's decision, and felt a touch of distinct relief 
 that DarreU's wife would be debarred the possi- 
 bility of any further intrigue. 
 
 Far preferable his consoling himself with a tiger ! 
 So the artist summed it up as he met Diana issuing 
 from her dressing-room, prepared for the new scene. 
 He kept his information, however, strictly to him- 
 self. This was not the time nor the place for the 
 girl's enlightenment. 
 
 She greeted him anxiously, her face flushed with 
 excitement. 
 
 "Will I do ? " and not waiting for his reply, ran 
 on : " They're putting those banks of flowers too 
 near the front. Do stop them at once ; we shall 
 never all squeeze in. I shall have to fly as soon as 
 my next turn's over ; mother's coming home to-day 
 from Bath did I tell you ? Walter's gone to meet 
 her at the station, but I want to be back. I only 
 heard this morning." 
 
 " Then you won't stay here for tea ? " 
 
 Ericsen looked disappointed, for they had promised 
 themselves the pleasant aftermath of talk which so 
 adds to a day's entertainment. 
 
 " I can't. I'm so sorry but you see how it is. 
 And daddy's not returning ; he's gone down into 
 Somersetshire, to fish with an old friend, so she'll 
 be all alone." 
 
 " Good girl," Ericsen chuckled ; " why, I don't 
 believe you ever break a commandment." But
 
 280 EARTH 
 
 Diana was not attending. She was feeling some- 
 what aggrieved. Despite the success of the moment, 
 a faint anxiety possessed her. 
 
 Her easy popularity seemed suddenly on the 
 wane. It was almost as though people avoided 
 her, and the coldness of Lady Mary's barely per- 
 ceptible bow could not be disregarded, even in this 
 moment of excited competition, when each fair 
 performer had thoughts for herself alone. 
 
 The call-bell rang, and gathering up the sheaf 
 of brilliant flowers, she tried to throw off her touch 
 of doubt and depression, conscious of being the 
 central figure in the coming scene. But she could 
 not utterly dispel the shadow that had fallen upon 
 her. 
 
 And the vision that Anthony Rill was haunted 
 by, over miles of changing seas, was the memory 
 of an upturned face, troubled and sweet, seeking 
 with a note of pain in the beautiful clear eyes for 
 the heart of a mystery, ever elusive, for a happiness 
 that held no hope of fulfilment, even in that garden 
 of poppies and of dreams.
 
 EARTH 281 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 LADY COTTAR was very tired. She had a 
 peculiar horror of travelling; a feeling 
 of imprisonment in the narrow carriage, 
 and her nerves fretted against the know- 
 ledge that she was being carried along by a move- 
 ment she was powerless to check. 
 
 Out of it all she evolved an unpleasant night- 
 mare, and not even her sense of duty, that made 
 the journey a necessary one, could stave off the 
 splitting headache that invariably was the result. 
 
 She was thankful to see Walter's tall figure on 
 the platform at Paddington, and to give herself over 
 into his charge whilst he issued orders in his high 
 voice to a dull-eyed porter, and announced cheerily 
 that he " had a taxi waitin'." Mindful of his young 
 dignity, she reserved all show of affection until 
 they were comfortably on their homeward way ; 
 then, lifting her lace veil, scrutinised lovingly this 
 nephew of hers, who, spotless and conventional, 
 came up to the best of the Bretherton ideals. 
 
 "You're looking well, I'm glad to see ; " she laid 
 her slender hand affectionately on his. " It's very 
 nice of you to come and meet your old aunt." 
 
 Walter " pecked " gaily. 
 
 "Old? You speak like decrepitude on crutches ! 
 May your shadow never grow less ! or more that's 
 the difficulty nowadays, I believe." And he looked
 
 282 EAKTH 
 
 back with real admiration at the elegant woman 
 beside him, who had, in truth, that distinguished 
 grace that negatived all suggestion of age. Realis- 
 ing that beneath her pride she craved for demons- 
 trative affection a fact that Diana had never yet 
 appreciated he leaned towards her, kissing the 
 pale cheek with a warmth that brought a delicate 
 flush of pleasure to her face. 
 
 " Dear boy . . ." 
 
 She sank back happily into the corner of the 
 carriage, and proceeded to tell him her little budget 
 of news. 
 
 " Your uncle left by the early train. He's gone 
 to fish with the Strangeways, down in Somersetshire, 
 and I only hope he won't catch his death of cold 
 men are so imprudent." Lady Cottar sighed. 
 " It would have been much better for him to return 
 with me, but he's growing very stubborn in his old 
 age. What between his deafness and his increasing 
 reluctance to listen to sound advice, I find my 
 burden of responsibility anything but a light one." 
 
 Walter nodded. Truth to tell, his thoughts were 
 already wandering back to that extraordinary good 
 luck of his, and the secret he was longing to impart 
 to his aunt. Only nervousness checked his doing 
 so at once. He was not quite sure what Lady 
 Cottar thought of Sadie Wynton, and his face 
 darkened as he remembered Diana's prejudices. 
 
 Meanwhile his companion had been pursuing a 
 line of meditation of her own, the subject-matter 
 matrimony, and now continued gently in her tired, 
 high voice. 
 
 " The Darrells saw me off, despite the rain. 
 Now, there's a happy couple, if you like ! quite 
 charming to see in these . . . disunited times." 
 
 " The Darrells? " Walter woke from his dream.
 
 EARTH 288 
 
 " Yes. They were staying at our hotel. We 
 moved down there for the last week, you know, as 
 the food got so wearisome in those rooms. And 
 Mrs. Darrell arrived from town on the same day, 
 to join her husband. They've taken a house near 
 Bath, such a pretty place, right up on the hills. 
 We drove over on Sunday to look at it, and it really 
 was quite touching to see the young couple's 
 pleasure : his anxiety that she should like it, and 
 the pretty way she entered into all his plans, and 
 seemed quite willing to bury herself down in the 
 country with her young husband a real romance." 
 
 Walter glanced up in some surprise at his aunt's 
 evident interest in the pair. 
 
 " You like Mrs. Darrell ? " 
 
 Lady Cottar temporised, conscious of the young 
 man's curiosity. 
 
 " I think she's greatly improved. Of course, one 
 can see she is not . . . exactly ... in his class, 
 ana a. can't say I care for foreigners but I think 
 she honestly tries to live up to his standard and to 
 do her duty, which always appeals to my respect. 
 There is no doubt about her devotion one would 
 take them for a honeymoon couple ! and I really 
 felt tempted to give her a hint not to spoil her 
 husband in the way she does. But you never know 
 nowadays how young people will take advice. She 
 looks ill, poor woman. . . ." Lady Cottar paused, 
 and added enigmatically, " But perhaps it is all for 
 the best." Then, with a little air of dismissing the 
 subject, continued, " How very wet the streets 
 are ! You must have had a great deal of rain ? " 
 
 Walter smiled. He knew his aunt's methods, and 
 that this was the nearest approach she would make 
 to a subject on the borderland of her conception of 
 decorum. The news of the Darrell menage much
 
 284 EAKTH 
 
 amused him, and he wondered if Rill had received 
 his conj6 from the beautiful Italian, indignant at the 
 rumours afloat regarding the soldier and Diana. 
 
 For despite all his care the story had got about 
 to such an extent, and with such varied embroidery 
 of detail, that Sadie herself had been alarmed, and 
 searching desperately for someone to screen herself 
 behind had offered up Mrs. Maxeter on the altar of 
 friendship. 
 
 Inviting Walter to tea, the girl had confessed, 
 with tears of mortification in her pretty eyes, that 
 in an unguarded moment she had let the secret fall 
 in the elder woman's hearing, and that the latter, 
 deliberately breaking her word, had repeated it out- 
 side the walls of the little flat. The result had been 
 a quarrel, short but vindictive, and the pair were 
 now as desperate foes as they had once been friends. 
 Sadie feared with clasped hands and an adorable 
 upward glance towards the listening youth she 
 very much feared that the lady of the villa was 
 paying off old scores that dated from Hyeres 
 days, and sowing the scandal broadcast over 
 town. 
 
 Here a few tears fell enough to brighten with- 
 out reddening the pathetic eyes and completed the 
 naive confession. And seeing her thus, his proud 
 and radiant Sadie, pleading for mercy at his very 
 feet, Walter had dared the step that for a long time 
 he had contemplated in his heart. 
 
 Sadie had listened to his avowal with downcast 
 eyes that hid the shrewd workings of the brain 
 behind. Here was a veritable tower of strength in 
 the hour of need. To be engaged to Walter was to 
 be freed from all possibility of suspicion. The 
 scandal could not come home to roost. Moreover, 
 it need not lead to marriage.
 
 EARTH 285 
 
 If anything better turned up? Well, there 
 were ways and means ! And an engagement with 
 the young guardsman, nephew to Sir John Cottar 
 and only son of Mr. Maclaren the well-known 
 lawyer, was quite a passable victory over other 
 girls, to say nothing of the fun it would be to 
 force Diana's hand and enter the charmed circle 
 hitherto debarred her. Her mind was speedily 
 made up, and Walter descended the long flight 
 of stairs that led to the fourth floor flat a fatuous 
 and deliriously-triumphant " engaged man." 
 
 For Sadie had had a fright. She had told her 
 story for once in the wrong quarter, and the re- 
 cipient had gently pointed out how simple are the 
 ways of the law the difference between gossip 
 and libel and the punishment for the latter all 
 in such a happy detached fashion, that Sadie had 
 shivered in her shoes, and had fallen back on Mrs. 
 Maxeter as her original informant. 
 
 The only scrap of truth in her new story was her 
 break with the married woman, but from a totally 
 different cause namely, Mrs. Maxeter's appropria- 
 tion of Clayton Giles. 
 
 He was one of those happy-go-lucky married men 
 to be found at every party, who are popularly be- 
 lieved to have a delicate wife, or a wife who drinks, 
 or a wife with an endless family an ambiguous ex- 
 planation that allows the man a vast field for social 
 usefulness. 
 
 It also permits undisturbed flirtation, shorn of the 
 danger (to himself) of " definite intentions," and 
 induces him to give gay little bachelor parties and 
 extract small doses of sympathy from indulgent 
 elderly hostesses. 
 
 As a matter of fact Mrs. Clayton Giles was any- 
 thing but a myth. She lived in the north of
 
 286 EARTH 
 
 England, hunted and shot, and rarely came to town, 
 preferring her own immediate " set " (which in- 
 cluded the pick of the county) to the rapid and 
 mixed assortment that her husband found to his 
 taste. 
 
 Childless, and with ample means, she allowed her 
 bachelor husband enough money to permit a life in 
 town, and, too deeply disillusioned by matrimony to 
 contemplate another attempt, preferred this decent 
 and inobtrusive separation to an easily-obtainable 
 divorce. 
 
 Sadie Wynton had found him useful beyond 
 words : producing passes for Hurlinghani, Prince's, 
 and Lord's with the delightful readiness of an 
 automatic machine. He had a mania for collecting 
 such social ammunition, and " ask old Giles, he's 
 sure to have one," had become a formula. 
 
 Now, at this precise moment he was sitting at the 
 Eitz with Mrs. Maxeter by his side, pleasantly en- 
 gaged in critcising the tableaux, and agreeing with 
 the latter lady that " it did seem curious, among 
 such a host of pretty girls, no corner had been found 
 for Sadie Wynton." 
 
 But both of them were thoroughly aware that 
 the subject of their conjecture, by her own conduct, 
 had put herself for ever outside the inner circle of 
 London society. She might dance and skate and 
 flirt where money secured admittance, but the door 
 labelled " by invitation " was securely closed against 
 her. 
 
 For she was notorious for her flirtations with 
 married men, a proceeding that ruins a girl's prestige 
 more surely than any other. Legitimate conquests 
 for purposes of matrimony are a matter of amuse- 
 ment and speculation ; but when a girl stoops to 
 notoriety with a man already bound, such ugly
 
 EARTH 287 
 
 points as questions of money arise, and the whole 
 flock of women, by a common instinct of protection, 
 draw together, fluttering, to chase the cuckoo away 
 from the threatened domestic hedge. 
 
 In vain had Sadie tried to curry favour with the 
 wives. They mistrusted her honied speech, and 
 passed on polite, but cold, to discuss the price of 
 her gown and wonder who had paid for that be- 
 witching hat ! 
 
 In truth the girl was much maligned. Poverty 
 and vanity had been her downfall the perpetual 
 struggle to keep up appearances on a mere pittance, 
 and the knowledge of her own good looks and their 
 value in this commercial world, where a man likes 
 to be seen with a pretty woman as an enhanced 
 glory to his own personality. 
 
 " Let them pay for it then ! " said Sadie Wynton, 
 hardly. 
 
 But the young men of the day were too spoiled 
 themselves to dream of anything beyond a possible 
 cab-fare, many of them in turn subsidised by a 
 passe married woman. So to the fold of the married 
 men she went, not really bad in intention, but 
 taking the short-cut to pleasure, heedless of other's 
 pain. 
 
 She went in smiling, fairly innocent and greedy 
 for admiration ; and emerged the Sadie Wynton of 
 to-day, whom women steadily avoided and men, 
 with a laugh, called " jolly good company." 
 
 Walter was one of the few who still held illusions 
 about her, and even he had realised enough to 
 wonder how his aunt would take the news of their 
 engagement. 
 
 And Diana ? His face hardened at the thought 
 of her disgust. 
 
 " If she dares to say a word," he figured it out
 
 288 EARTH 
 
 angrily, " I'll give her away herself ! After all 
 . . . it's time her mother knew." 
 
 Meanwhile, as the taxi neared the square, Lady 
 Cottar was murmuring on contentedly, blissfully 
 unaware of her nephew's straying thoughts. 
 
 " Most inconsiderate of Susan, I must say " her 
 listener pulled himself together with an emphatic 
 peck of sympathy. " She came to me a most inferior 
 servant, and I have taught her everything she knows. 
 And then to give notice, during my absence, in order 
 to get married ! " Lady Cottar's voice breathed dis- 
 gust. " I don't know what the present generation 
 is coming to ! Of course, it hastened my return. 
 Something is sure to go wrong when I leave Diana 
 in charge." 
 
 She straightened her veil and descended gracefully 
 from the cab, as Morgan, on the alert, threw the 
 door open to receive her. 
 
 " Not a penny more, it's the correct fare . . ." 
 Walter heard her say as she vanished within, leave 
 ing him to dispose of a panting " runner." 
 
 Miss Dacon rustled down the stairs, resplendent 
 in a bell-shaped bengaline dress, her best lace 
 lapels firmly pinned to her ample bosom, and an 
 anxious smile of welcome on her wrinkled, kindly 
 face. 
 
 " Well, Medora, my dear," she accepted the other's 
 perfunctory salute. " I hope you're not too tired ? 
 and such a day! But the kettle's boiling." She 
 became slightly incoherent before her cousin's calm, 
 and cast an anxious glance at the banisters, where 
 the dust " would settle." 
 
 "I'm sure you're ready for your tea." She fell 
 back on her own panacea for all woes, and led the 
 way up to the pretty morning-room, where, in 
 deference to an English summer, a fire was burning
 
 EAETH 289 
 
 cheerfully. "And Diana put the flowers. She 
 was so upset, poor child, at not being home to meet 
 you . . . but this bazaar . . . you know 
 . . ." Her asthmatic breath gave out. 
 
 " I did not intend coming home until next Monday." 
 The mistress of the house glanced critically around 
 her ; " but when I heard the bad news, I felt it my 
 duty to return." 
 
 " The . , . bad news ? " Miss Dacon's short- 
 sighted eyes, already magnified by her spectacles, 
 assumed alarming proportions. " You don't say 
 so?" she quavered. 
 
 " About Susan." 
 
 Lady Cottar leaned back, with a little sigh, in 
 the accustomed arm-chair. 
 
 " That palm's dying," she said suddenly. " Want 
 of attention." 
 
 Little beads of perspiration broke out on Cousin 
 Sophie's prominent forehead under the scanty decora- 
 tion of her short grey fringe. 
 
 " It's a worm" her voice was deeply apologetic 
 " at the roots. I was only saying to Diana yester- 
 day, supposing we had it re-potted." 
 
 But Lady Cottar was firm. 
 
 " Nonsense ! it's want of water ; you can't deceive 
 me, Sophie the plant's been neglected. Ah ! here 
 comes tea." 
 
 Morgan ventured a deferential inquiry. 
 
 " As well as can be expected, thank you, Morgan, 
 but somewhat worn-out with perpetual nursing. Sir 
 John ? oh ! quite recovered, I'm thankful to say. 
 What is this ? " 
 
 " Scones, milady." 
 
 He lifted the silver dish, showing the pleasant 
 result of unwonted care on Mrs. Simpson's part, and 
 gave his mistress a nervous sidelong glance. Lady 
 
 u
 
 290 EAETH 
 
 Cottar's finely-arched eyebrows went up a shade 
 higher. 
 
 "And sandwiches and . . . two sorts of cake ! 
 Really, my dear Sophie, what a banquet ! " 
 
 Happily for herself, Miss Dacon interpreted the 
 speech in her own amiable fashion. She beamed 
 at her cousin over the top of her spectacles with 
 her watery, near-sighted eyes. 
 
 " Glad you think so, my dear ; it's Diana who 
 ordered it. We hoped to give you a welcome. I'm 
 sure the servants have all been trying their best." 
 
 Morgan, with the contempt of the old retainer for 
 the " family's poor relatives," smiled behind his 
 hand as he held the door open for Walter, released 
 at last from wordy argument with the runner. 
 
 "Here we are, Tantante . . . Hullo . . . 
 Cousin Sophie ! " 
 
 His face fell at the sight of the third member of 
 the party, whose existence he had overlooked. He 
 had reserved his great news for the intimacy of 
 the tea-hour, deeply anxious to secure his aunt's 
 sympathy, and foreseeing in her a mighty partisan 
 should his people be annoyed. 
 
 Bother the old woman ! He drew his chair up 
 to the table and fell upon the scones. 
 
 Miss Dacon, searching her brain for a remark, 
 unluckily found the wrong one. 
 
 " You're quite a stranger, Walter." 
 
 She picked a crumb of cake off one of the lace 
 lapels, and was spared the young man's answering 
 glance. 
 
 " I hope that I've been missed." 
 
 Something in his voice caused Lady Cottar to 
 look keenly from one to the other. 
 
 On went Miss Dacon serenely. 
 
 " Let me see . . . The last time you were here
 
 EAKTH 291 
 
 was . . ." She paused to consider " the 
 morning after the evening Diana returned." She 
 beamed triumphantly over the black-rimmed 
 spectacles. 
 
 " The auspicious evening; I believe you're right." 
 
 A slight sneer hovered round the youth's weak 
 mouth. 
 
 " Why ' auspicious ' ? " said Lady Cottar, sharply. 
 
 Walter "pecked." "Isn't a return always aus- 
 picious ? " 
 
 He held out his cup with a request for more tea, 
 and smiled back at his aunt. Into Miss Dacon's 
 brain the half-formed thought rose mistily that 
 some returns were a trifle too much so. Medora in- 
 spired her with a nervousness dating from childish 
 days, when the "beautiful manners" of her cousin 
 had served as a byword to accentuate her own 
 clumsiness. She had the painful intuition that now, 
 as ever, her company was undesired, and a little 
 sadly, remembering the long day of preparation 
 for the mistress' home-coming, rose from her seat, 
 smoothing down the full folds of the "best " dress 
 best for so many years, alas ! 
 
 " If you will give me your keys, I will help Susan 
 unpack. I am sure you will be glad to get into 
 something comfortable." 
 
 Her cousin languidly complied. 
 
 " Thank you, Sophie. Please tell her to put out 
 m y g re y tea-gown, and to light a little fire. I 
 suppose" she looked up into the anxious old face 
 " I suppose the bed is well aired ? " 
 
 Miss Dacon drew herself up with a touch of 
 wounded dignity. " Really, Medora ! " hunted for 
 a suitable reproof, and finding none, turned simply 
 and walked out of the room. 
 
 " How very touchy she is ! " Lady Cottar's voice
 
 292 EAETH 
 
 was peevish. " It's a very ordinary question to ask, 
 I should think, and with my health I have to be 
 careful. It's evidently time that the mistress 
 returned," she added darkly. 
 
 But this was not at all the mood that Walter 
 desired. 
 
 " I'm very glad to see you back." 
 
 He rose to his feet and walked across to a chair, 
 facing his aunt in the glow of the bright fire. 
 
 " I've been wanting to see you most awfully." 
 He fidgeted, picking up the poker, and making 
 little dabs at the nearest lump of coal. 
 
 "I think this room is quite warm enough," Lady 
 Cottar suggested. 
 
 " Sorry." He put the poker back, stretching his 
 long legs out before him, his hands thrust deep in 
 his pockets, and a short silence ensued. 
 
 " Look here, Tantante, I want to tell you some- 
 thing." 
 
 At the sound of his nervous voice, Lady Cottar 
 rudely awakened from dreams of stringent domestic 
 reform, started with a little sensation of irritability. 
 
 " Yes, my dear ? " her voice was plaintive. " I'm 
 afraid I'm rather tired a very stupid old Tantante 
 just now." 
 
 The clock struck five, with a hurried silvery note. 
 
 " I'm surprised Diana is not back. I understood 
 the tableaux began at three." 
 
 Walter gulped down his annoyance, conscious at 
 any moment his cousin might appear upon the 
 scene. 
 
 " Fact is, auntie, it's not generally known, you 
 know, but, of course, I'd like you to know it in 
 fact, you'll be the first . . . I've . . . er . . ." 
 He swallowed hard, avoiding her curious eyes. 
 " I've gone and got engaged."
 
 EARTH 293 
 
 The words were out. 
 
 " Engaged ! at your age . . ." He had all her 
 attention now. " My dear boy, to whom? " 
 
 " I don't think you know her. But . . . I'm 
 sure you'll like her when you do. She's awfully 
 pretty . . . tall and graceful. She reminds me 
 just a bit of you " (he hugged himself for the happy 
 thought) " and her name's Wynton it's a Miss 
 Sadie Wynton." 
 
 But Lady Cottar had heard enough. Her hands 
 went up in a gesture full of horror. 
 
 " Sadie Wynton ! that girl ! Oh, my dear boy, 
 what will your people say ? " 
 
 " I don't see it's my people's business at all." He 
 was honestly taken aback by his aunt's reception of 
 the news. " It's my business, I should think." He 
 " pecked " violently, his face red and startled. " Why 
 do you talk like that ? She's a charming girl . . ." 
 
 "I've never met her," Lady Cottar was think- 
 ing hard, " but I've heard ... all sorts of 
 things." 
 
 " From Diana, I suppose." 
 
 His anger was rising fast, together with the 
 knowledge that he had made a great mistake in 
 blurting out his news at an inauspicious moment. 
 
 " Well . . . yes. And from other sources, 
 too." 
 
 " Just as if Diana were so perfect herself ! " 
 
 The sensuous lips curled back with a snarl, and 
 his light eyes were full of spite. 
 
 " She can't afford to talk, to run down Sadie 
 Wynton." 
 
 " Walter ! " Lady Cottar leaned forward, horrified 
 at the obvious intention of the speech. " What do 
 you mean? I cannot allow you to speak of your 
 cousin in that way."
 
 294 EAKTH 
 
 But Walter, obstinately silent, stared into the 
 fire. 
 
 In the pause the mother could have heard her 
 heart beating painfully under the shocked curiosity 
 that possessed her. 
 
 "You must explain, Walter. I insist upon 
 knowing what you mean." 
 
 " She's no business to run down Sadie Wynton," 
 the man's voice was sullen, "just because she's a 
 pretty girl and popular . . . and all that." 
 
 "I don't think your cousin does." Lady Cottar 
 was on her dignity. " I think she has a far better 
 reason for her dislike." 
 
 Walter stood up suddenly, finding a man's neces- 
 sity, that rarely occurs to the feminine mind, of 
 meeting trouble securely upon his feet ; a primitive 
 survival of the age when words melted into blows 
 at the first hint of argument. 
 
 " I suppose she says . . . she's fast." 
 
 An involved sentence, but Lady Cottar under- 
 stood, and at the bitter intonation in her nephew's 
 voice she felt a sudden throb of pity for that mis- 
 guided youth. 
 
 " I'm very much afraid, my dear lad, that that is 
 the trouble." 
 
 But Walter ignored her proffered hand. He 
 shook with suppressed anger and excitement, and 
 throwing his last scruple to the winds, launched the 
 thunderbolt. 
 
 " A nice thing for a girl to say who's been 
 caught herself going into a fellow's rooms at mid- 
 night ! " 
 
 His aunt gasped, a sudden rush of colour coming 
 to her face as her hand went up to her side, where 
 a sharp throb of pain warned her of the magnitude 
 of the shock.
 
 EABTH 295 
 
 " Who ? . . . " She just managed to get the 
 word out. " Not . . ." Her voice failed. 
 
 But Walter was merciless, supplementing the 
 name. 
 
 " Diana, of course." 
 
 He turned away, unable to meet the pained horror 
 of the pale-blue eyes. 
 
 " I daresay there's nothing in it " half-sulkily he 
 admitted the point. " Some rotten idea of hers, 
 artistic, unconventional." He kicked a footstool out 
 of his path with savage emphasis on the words. 
 " But it's a fact, all the same. Bill's rooms, at mid- 
 night ! So she can't afford to talk of Sadie's little 
 flirtations that's what I mean." His voice rose 
 aggressively. " And I think it's beastly the way you 
 women run down a girl, just because she's pretty 
 and admired, and has a lot of fellows hanging around 
 her ; and I think I'm a deuced lucky chap to have 
 got her. And I mean to marry her, too. I don't 
 care a damn what anyone says ! " 
 
 He paused, breathless, defiant, full of the con- 
 sciousness of what a fine fellow he was champion 
 of a misjudged lady, ready to fight the world. 
 
 "Walter," the quiet voice recalled him, "come 
 here." 
 
 He turned from his blind stare through the 
 window and came back towards the fire, still with a 
 slight swagger, that died away at the sight of his 
 aunt's pale face. He had expected tears, a tiresome 
 scene ending in sympathy and reconciliation, but 
 this ominous calm baffled him, rousing a slight 
 feeling of uneasiness. 
 
 You never could tell, where women were con- 
 cerned, how they'd behave! He wished suddenly 
 that he'd held his tongue. 
 
 " Where did you hear this story ? "
 
 296 EAETH 
 
 " I didn't hear it." Walter was nettled. " I saw 
 it with my own eyes." 
 
 " Please explain." Lady Cottar's rings were 
 cutting into her hands, but her face and manner 
 were perfectly composed, and her tone was the 
 one that many a housemaid had heard, to her 
 cost. 
 
 Walter complied jerkily, relating the bridge- 
 party incident and the situation of the club which 
 commanded such an excellent view of the chambers 
 where Bill lived. 
 
 So intent were the pair upon the recital that 
 neither of them had noticed the opening door, and 
 for a full moment Diana stood there, surveying the 
 scene, her face flushed with her late excitement a 
 colour that quickly faded as she took in the import 
 of her cousin's speech. 
 
 "Mummy!" The cry of pain broke from her, 
 mingled with indignation at Walter's treachery. 
 
 Lady Cottar turned slowly, reluctantly, as if devoid 
 of the power of movement, and the young man, 
 with a guilty start, sprang to his feet. 
 
 But Diana only had eyes for her mother's face. 
 Never before had she so longed for a parent's love 
 and sympathy, and the hope had crept into her 
 heart that if she tried her best, guarded each speech 
 and action, and started home life anew, something 
 might come of it, some better understanding re- 
 awakening love. Now, on the very threshold of the 
 dream she saw herself denied it, more outcast than 
 of old, stained with another's sin, hopelessly, irretriev- 
 ably humiliated. Only by breaking her promise to 
 Esterella could she clear herself, and in so doing 
 drag down the man she loved and ruin the happiness 
 of her childhood's friend. 
 
 For a moment the temptation was overwhelming.
 
 EAETH 297 
 
 All her clean young soul shrank from the thought 
 of her parent's condemnation. 
 
 " Diana is this true ? " Lady Cottar's face, 
 losing its studied calm, waited quivering for the 
 girl's reply. 
 
 Through Diana's set teeth it came, but she never 
 lowered her head 
 
 " Yes ; I was there. I can't explain." 
 
 For a long slice of eternity or so it seemed the 
 two women gazed into each other's eyes. 
 
 Then into the mother's came a strange light a 
 look of almost passionate relief. 
 
 All the suffering, the hopeless obstinacy in Diana's 
 face could not blur to the woman who had borne 
 her the perfect purity beneath. And that vast and 
 stifled accumulation of mother's love rose up in the 
 spoiled but still womanly nature, overflowing the 
 narrow barrier of prejudice and pride. 
 
 For here was no longer Diana, the brilliant 
 daughter, clever, beautiful, independent, but the 
 little child of olden days, who had fallen and hurt 
 herself, and run sobbing to her mother's side for 
 pity and consolation. 
 
 With a sudden, inarticulate cry, Lady Cottar 
 opened wide her arms. 
 
 " Diana . . . my child ! hush, hush, my pretty 
 one ! . . . ' And they were locked together, 
 heart to heart ; Diana on her knees, her head on 
 the soft bosom, her tears salt beneath the tender, 
 quivering lips. 
 
 For the knowledge that her mother understood, 
 believed her innocent against all this wealth of 
 evidence, had overwhelmed the girl, and she could 
 only cling the closer to the loving breast and murmur 
 brokenly 
 
 "Oh, mummy! . . . mummy! . . . mummy!"
 
 298 EAETH 
 
 Walter, utterly forgotten, stood for a moment, 
 frowning ; then, with a sudden sense of shame 
 made silently for the door. 
 
 But Lady Cottar never made a sign. His day 
 was over, the usurper in turn dethroned, undone 
 by those very weapons that he himself had used. 
 
 He did not turn his head, but went out hopelessly, 
 knowing that Diana had entered into her kingdom.
 
 EAKTH 299 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 SPRING had come round again; the sweet 
 early spring of the Italian lakes, that seems 
 to float up from the still blue water like 
 Botticelli's " Venus," slender and love- 
 possessed, blown in her pearly shell to shore by the 
 first warm breath across the snow-clad peaks. 
 
 And at the tread of her slim young feet the old 
 earth stirs anew, with a quivering of baby leaves, a 
 peeping forth of starry faces, and faintly the song of 
 life begins ; myriads of tiny voices chirping in hedge 
 and thicket till the whole scented air throbs with 
 love, with wooing and mating, wild flights of joy 
 and busy nestings, and sex triumphs openly ; from 
 the cicala chirping his love-note in cavalier coat of 
 green to the great brown hawks above, cleaving the 
 sunshine with their strong young wings, paired and 
 alert, fierce hearts beating together in the joy of 
 their first wild kill. 
 
 Down on the lake below the boats go forth anew, 
 swayed to the voice of the oarsman, and gay with 
 their striped awnings, that, shaded and discreet, 
 call to human lovers to set forth over the magic 
 waters where many a Roman villa and dead love 
 lies hid, and join in the reincarnation, in the spring- 
 song, hands clasped, eyes lost in one another, past 
 the steep wooded banks and out into the fairyland 
 of young romance. 
 
 But to Diana the message of spring was full of
 
 300 EAETH 
 
 a subtle pain. She could not give herself up to the 
 glory of the hour, nor feel herself in touch with 
 Como's magic spell. 
 
 For the earth that gave so bountifully had also 
 taken away, and Lady Cottar, freed at last from the 
 round of daily duty, lay in a far-off English grave 
 to await that hour when her faith should be 
 justified. 
 
 She had died as she had lived, slave to a set idea. 
 But inasmuch as her servitude, living, had been 
 mainly a selfish one, her death went far to testify to 
 the honesty of her convictions, and had in it some- 
 thing noble, a last courageous rally to the standard, 
 not for herself alone, but to protect her child. 
 
 Mercifully for Diana's peace of mind, the rap- 
 prochement between the two women had survived 
 the hour of emotion ; and that notwithstanding the 
 fact that although she judged her innocent on the 
 graver charge, Lady Cottar could not acquit her 
 daughter of a gross breach of decorum. 
 
 To go to a young man's rooms at night, under 
 any provocation whatever, was a social sin, a con- 
 tempt of common orthodoxy impossible for Mrs. 
 Bretherton's daughter to overlook. And although 
 her whole soul was up in arms at the thought of 
 outside condemnation, she realised that, in a similar 
 case, she would herself draw back from a girl who 
 had earned a right to the scandal. 
 
 Bitterly the mother blamed herself for relaxing 
 the duties of chaperonage and for yielding to the 
 independent spirit of the day, allowing Diana her 
 studio, her solitary walks, and those youthful parties 
 where married folk were excluded. 
 
 The mystery underlying the adventure she did 
 not attempt to penetrate, believing that her daughter, 
 imbued with " these dangerous modern views," had
 
 EARTH 301 
 
 been moved by no graver motive in seeking out the 
 man than a smiling disregard for Philistine con- 
 ventionality. It was an escapade in keeping with 
 her boyish ways, and lost in contemplation of the 
 appalling result, as yet summed up in Lady Mary's 
 contemptuous nod and Walter's scathing criticism, 
 she did not confuse her plan of action by a side-issue 
 of romance. 
 
 Diana must be chaperoned, immediately, un- 
 interruptedly. Despite her fragile health, Lady 
 Cottar ranged it among her imperative duties. 
 There was something almost heroic in the elderly 
 woman's resolution. It cost her no little effort to 
 emerge from the pleasant invalidism of her days 
 booted and spurred for a new assault upon the 
 world. 
 
 Sir John, in the leafy Somersetshire lanes, read 
 with horror his wife's latest budget of news ; how 
 they had been to the opera, she and Diana together, 
 to the Horse Show, and Patti's latest "farewell/ 
 and even contemplated a descent on Henley for the 
 regatta. 
 
 " She'll kill herself," the old man cried ; " her 
 nerves won't stand the racket. I'll write to the 
 child at once and see what can be done." 
 
 Which he proceeded to do, at length and forcibly, 
 adding another anxiety to Diana's daily share. 
 
 People wondered not a little at the sudden re- 
 appearance, inured to the idea of the general's wife 
 as a graceful invalid. The spiteful indulged them- 
 selves in jokes at the pair's expense, considering 
 this strenuous chaperonage as " a little late in the 
 day ! " but the gossip was modified. Had Diana 
 pleased herself, she would have avoided society, 
 only too glad to slip away and nurse her pain apart. 
 Undoubtedly her mother was wiser. Together they
 
 302 EARTH 
 
 put a bold front upon the matter, and the en- 
 gagement of Walter to Sadie Wynton, which that 
 fatuous youth proclaimed, and Lady Cottar's open 
 displeasure at the news, pointed a very good reason 
 for the story as bit by bit it was traced back to its 
 fountain-head. 
 
 Sir John had not been told. It was typical of 
 Lady Cottar that she should keep her knowledge a 
 secret, and that she who had so often suspicioned 
 collusion between father and child should have no 
 hesitation whatever when the case applied to herself. 
 
 Moreover, she had that curious contempt for her 
 husband's opinion that seems to result in a house- 
 hold where one of the ruling heads is subservient to 
 the other. Insomuch that he had always indulged 
 his handsome, delicate wife, unselfishly giving way 
 to her every whim and caprice, she had grown to 
 consider him a creature easily swayed, and as such 
 not to be depended upon in matters of judgment. 
 
 Deep down in her heart she hugged the know- 
 ledge of a confidence that was shared by her 
 daughter and herself alone. To her it was a species 
 of atonement. It was most unlikely that the gossip 
 would reach Sir John. It would be a bold woman 
 indeed who would breathe a word to the loyal old 
 man that touched his child's good name, and a man 
 would instinctively shrink from such an unnecessary 
 blow. The only difficulty to face was his dismay 
 on his return at the unwonted stir ; the comings 
 and goings in the quiet old house, the amazing bills, 
 and this extraordinary wave of frivolity engulfing 
 wife and daughter. But Lady Cottar, whose health 
 had been a comfortable pretext for staying at home, 
 now fell back upon it as an excuse for dissipation. 
 
 The doctor had ordered " movement," a little 
 gaiety to counteract depression.
 
 EARTH 303 
 
 Her inability to persuade the latter that the 
 mandate indeed was his provoked a change of 
 medicos. But Sir John was unconvinced. 
 
 He watched with deep dismay the thin face grow 
 thinner still, and the quick flush of exhaustion that 
 betrayed the strain laid on her devitalised con- 
 stitution. But, true to her self-set task she fought 
 bravely on through the end of the dying season, 
 always with the grim sign " Duty " before her, and 
 the torn banner of " Decorum " floating behind. 
 She was undoubtedly helped by the charm that so 
 often emanates from a woman who has been 
 " cherished," in the full meaning of that obsolete 
 matrimonial term. Accustomed to flattery and 
 solicitude, she seemed to attract it as a magnet 
 draws steel, and her popularity grew apace, and with 
 it, insensibly, Diana's. 
 
 For her mother's championship was pretty to see. 
 No longer jealous and mistrustful, she leaned on her 
 daughter's youthful strength, and tacitly accepting 
 middle-age, seemed younger by contrast, her love 
 no longer darkened by the shadow of competition. 
 And her affection was patent to all eyes. People 
 smiled, but felt insensibly warmed by it. For 
 deep down in its heart this old world loves 
 sentiment. 
 
 If only mothers would realise the harm they 
 deliberately do when publicly they discuss their 
 children's faults and sigh over the " disappointment " 
 their daughters have caused them, adding yet 
 another disillusion to a weary and pitiless age ! 
 
 Thus, by devious ways, the laurel leaves of success 
 were laid at Medora's feet. 
 
 But with the consciousness of victory came the 
 inevitable collapse. And even then the gods were 
 merciful. For she passed away in her sleep, quietly.
 
 304 EARTH 
 
 decorously, a smile still hovering round her tired 
 lips as though she had heard the far-off cry of a 
 higher duty still, of a love more perfect in its unity 
 than human life could hold. 
 
 But to Diana the loss was immeasurable. In 
 vain she had tried to make her mother rest, to 
 leave London and the dull airless days for the peace 
 of the countryside. Deeply grateful for the motive 
 underlying the effort, she realised with a sense of 
 guilt the wear and tear to her mother's fragile 
 health and her own impotence to check the ever- 
 widening circle of consequences caused by a stone 
 thrown in childish ignorance. 
 
 All she could offer was an unswerving obedience. 
 The studio rarely saw her despite Ericsen's anger 
 and entreaty. Eventually Milly, innocent of the 
 cause, explained Lady Cottar's bewildering be- 
 haviour, and the painter, shrewdly guessing the 
 motive and appreciating the mother's superior 
 claim, packed up his belongings and departed for 
 one of his favourite haunts. 
 
 The Congo had swallowed up Rill, and the only 
 other actors of this intimate comedy, the Darrells, 
 had settled down happily into a country life, with a 
 new hope before them that, added to the danger 
 she had so narrowly escaped, had sobered completely 
 the excitable Italian. 
 
 Lady Cottar's sudden death served to dissipate the 
 last cloud that hung over her daughter's reputation. 
 From far and wide came expressions of regret and 
 of genuine sympathy, aggravated by the news that 
 speedily followed of Sir John's serious illness. 
 
 All through the summer months Diana watched 
 anxiously. For the old man never recovered from 
 the shock of his wife's death. It seemed as if the 
 mainspring of his life were broken.
 
 EAKTH 305 
 
 Bent and incredibly thin, youth had left forever 
 the dimmed hazel eyes, and he clung to his child 
 with a helplessness and querulous wonder at the 
 perversity of Time that could snap the younger 
 bough, leaving the gnarled branch still hanging on 
 the tree. 
 
 At the doctor's urgent wish they had gone south 
 for the winter months; then, as the heat grew 
 heavy, moved north to Como and Cadenabbio, new 
 country for them both, mercifully stripped of all 
 fond memories. 
 
 The old man rarely rose before the luncheon hour, 
 and Diana, up betimes, dedicated her mornings to 
 sketching, for which indeed the whole lake-side 
 seemed planned by its Creator. 
 
 But to-day, with the call of spring in her ears, a 
 fit of restlessness had seized her, and her thoughts 
 of work were disturbed by a letter from Milly 
 Farrar and the mystery of her postscript. 
 
 " I saw a certain friend of yours last week. 
 Guess who ? He asked for your address, and was 
 off abroad. On the spur of the moment I gave it, 
 and hope that you will not blame me." 
 
 Over and over again she read it, retracing her 
 steps through picturesque Tremezzo, with its quaint 
 arcaded street and dazzling vistas of sky and lake, 
 more vivid for the shadows of the arches, walking 
 hard the while with a sudden need for exercise, to 
 exhaust the fever of life that possessed her. 
 
 In these days she thanked Heaven when she was 
 tired, when the weariness of her limbs provoked the 
 heavy dreamless sleep that carried her safely 
 through the dark hours of the night. Her step was 
 lighter than a year ago, and the little brown hands 
 that held the fluttering letter showed the blue veins 
 too plainly for exuberant health. 
 
 x
 
 306 EABTH 
 
 But a deeper beauty lay in the thoughtful face : 
 the magic touch that those sad sisters, knowledge 
 and suffering, bring. The curved lips closed more 
 firmly than of old, and the hazel eyes under their 
 steady brows glowed with a clear fire born of the 
 desperate fight she waged within herself. 
 
 For disgust had not killed passion. 
 
 Though he had dragged through the mire all her 
 sacred things, betrayed her faith, sought to betray 
 another, she still, wondering at herself, loved Bill. 
 Nothing could break the in visible tie that bound them. 
 
 And the thought haunted her that forgiveness 
 the forgiveness he had craved, that to her spelt 
 nought but weakness might yet be the salvation 
 of the man. All her pride revolted at the thought. 
 That she should step down into the mud, owning 
 the impossibility of all her ideals, confessing herself 
 beaten, and admitting this hopeless weakness, this 
 love that still possessed her, despite the baseness of 
 his conduct ! 
 
 It was not to be dreamed of this violation of all 
 her cherished principles. A streak of her mother's 
 character showed itself in this self-immolation 
 before the altar of puritanisrn. Her childish creed 
 of life, fostered by the narrowness of her education 
 and the utter ignorance with which she had been 
 thrust forth to face the world, had crashed down into 
 the depths with the awfulness of Lucifer out of 
 heaven. 
 
 She had passed through girlhood so heedless of 
 evil, so serenely assured it would never come her 
 way, and now it was the very man for whom she 
 had overcome her ancient dread of marriage, putting 
 aside her armour of shy reserve, who, fully conscious 
 of this, had yet laid a foul hand on her robe of 
 innocence.
 
 EARTH 307 
 
 Milly's letter had reopened the wound, forcing 
 her again to consider the possibility of meeting 
 Bill. For the message pointed conclusively to this 
 immediate danger. 
 
 She paused for a moment in her steady course to 
 make way for a flock of goats driven by a ragged 
 herdsman, their bells clanging musically as, with 
 outstretched shaggy heads, they snatched at the thin 
 tufts of grass sprouting at the base of the crumbling 
 wall that divided the narrow path from the sloping 
 vineyards above ; and she watched a peasant woman 
 emerge from a cottage beyond, a half-naked child 
 clinging to her skirts, as she held out a bowl with a 
 pattering request for milk. 
 
 The sun beat down on the homely scene, and a 
 lizard, with bright, curious eyes, slipped round a tuft 
 of maidenhair and, hypnotised by the presence of 
 the girl, seemed suddenly turned to stone on its 
 corner of warm wall. In the golden silence she 
 could hear the grasshoppers chirping merrily, and 
 far away across the hazy lake a little steamer, like 
 a busy water-beetle, was wriggling slowly up to the 
 pier of Bellaggio. 
 
 And suddenly a great longing possessed her the 
 physical craving for a touch of Rill's hand, for the 
 keen glance of the laughing grey eyes overwhelm- 
 ing the girl with the knowledge of the peril in 
 which she stood, how weak her hold on herself and 
 how deep love lay. Somewhere down below a 
 woman laughed and a man's deep voice joined in. 
 Only Diana was alone, uncared for, unmated, in 
 this exuberant wealth of spring. 
 
 She moved on with such haste that the lizard, 
 darting away, a flash of green on the worn grey 
 stone, encountered his deadly foe and battle 
 ensued, short and violent, leaving the aggressive
 
 308 EAKTH 
 
 brown combatant torn and bleeding in the sun- 
 shine. 
 
 Hound the narrow turning, a faint puff of wind 
 stirring a rose-bush far above her head sent a 
 fluttering shower of petals across her path, and the 
 scent of the flowers brought back that grey day in 
 the square and Bill's last present to the girl who 
 was to have been his wife. 
 
 And into her brain ran a memory, a thread of 
 verse gathered at random from Bricsen's varied 
 store, breathing the broken heart of youth and the 
 disillusion of mortal love : 
 
 " I shall never be friends again with roses : 
 I shall loathe sweet tunes, where a note grown strong 
 Relents and recoils and climbs and closes 
 On a wave of the sea turned back by song. 
 There are sounds where the soul's delight takes fire 
 Face to face with its own desire. . . ." 
 
 Quite suddenly Diana's hands went up to her 
 eyes, blotting out the glory of this garden of the 
 south, and she stamped her foot on the worn 
 cobble-stones. 
 
 " I won't I won't ... I won't ! " she cried 
 passionately.
 
 EARTH 309 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 WHEN she came to the entrance of the 
 Villa Carlotta, Diana saw that the 
 gates were standing open. It was 
 visiting day, and, glad of any excuse to 
 escape her present painful thoughts, she decided to 
 fill in the remaining hour before dejeuner by an 
 inspection of the famous statuary. 
 
 She found herself following in the wake of a 
 German honeymoon couple, stolidly arm in arm, 
 a drab and bespectacled pair, obviously proud of 
 advertising their newly-married state ; the husband 
 in tight new yellow boots, his Baedeker clasped in 
 his hands, the bride, with awe-struck shiny face 
 under her felt hat, eager to be educated on every 
 point. 
 
 Diana slipped past this travesty of love's young 
 dream, and in a few minutes was ushered by a 
 bland custodian into the gallery roped off for the 
 general public. 
 
 She gave a sigh of relief at finding herself alone, 
 and passing into the farther room came face to face 
 with the famous Eros and Psyche. 
 
 The cold northern light striking on the white 
 walls and marble floor seemed to accentuate the 
 extraordinary purity of the grouped figures : the 
 bare childish arms of Psyche, with her exquisite 
 cameo-like face upturned, and the stooping form of
 
 310 EAKTH 
 
 the boy, one slender knee bent in adoration, so 
 chaste, so utterly devoid of earthly passion that 
 Diana caught her breath with a little gasp of 
 wonder and admiration. 
 
 This was the love she had dreamed, this white 
 exchange of souls, winged and spiritual, suggesting 
 the divine. 
 
 Unconsciously she clasped her hands, lost to the 
 world about her, as she gazed with all her eyes at 
 the embodiment of her broken ideals, attracted and 
 yet strangely troubled by Canova's wonderful con- 
 ception, so that she did not hear the approaching 
 footsteps of a man nor the quick exclamation with 
 which Ericsen recognised the dark head before 
 him. 
 
 For a moment he stood in silence, watching the 
 girl, and by that strange divination that was so 
 strong a part of his character, his mind leaped forth 
 to meet her very thought. 
 
 " Possible only to the Immortals ! " His voice 
 with a note of tender mockery reached her ear. 
 
 "Oh! . . ." she wheeled round " you !" 
 
 Impulsively both hands went out towards him, 
 and loneliness vanished at the sight of his candid 
 eyes under their shaggy brows and that clear glance 
 that negatived the satyr-like suggestion of the 
 pointed beard, lean face, and sensuous mouth. 
 
 " Yes, me," he smiled down upon her. " On my 
 way to Milan and . . . elsewhere." 
 
 He shrank from explaining his annual pilgrimage 
 to that lonely grave on the Tuscany hillside, riveting 
 his thoughts on the face before him, noting the tired 
 shadows beneath the eyes, the drooping corners of 
 the closed red lips, too red by far for the faint 
 colour of the oval face, and he felt a wild desire to 
 pick her up in his wiry arms and pet her back into
 
 EAKTH 311 
 
 the happy child he had known but a short year 
 since. 
 
 " Beautiful but impossible" his eyes, seeing her 
 restless beneath his gaze, went back to the marble 
 lovers " since man is man, and woman . . . 
 only woman ! " 
 
 It never occurred to him to explain his presence 
 there. Simply he fell in with the preoccupation of 
 the moment. 
 
 " And to my mind, not to be desired." A strong 
 note vibrated in his voice, and he tucked his arm 
 comfortably through the girl's. 
 
 "Ever read Browning, Diana?" He was giving 
 her time to pull herself together, realising that the 
 tears were not far away from those hazel eyes. 
 " There's a line in 'James Lee's wife ' that caps my 
 meaning neatly : 
 
 11 ' If you loved only what were worth your love, 
 Love were clear gain and wholly well for you. 
 Make the low nature better by your throes, 
 Give earth yourself go up for gain above.' " 
 
 He drew her almost insensibly away from the 
 still figures, and went on in his old rambling fashion 
 that fell soothingly on the girl's ear. 
 
 " And we're all low, Diana, every man-Jack of us 
 that's worth his salt, and most women know it 
 and many don't care ! But there are just a few to 
 whom ' giving earth ' is the bitterest pill of all. 
 And if there's a heaven, which I'm inclined to 
 doubt," his face twisted whimsically, " they're the 
 ones who'll pull us into it, willy-nilly, by the skin of 
 our teeth." 
 
 He felt her quiver, and went on hurriedly. 
 
 " It's a finer job than Greek Psyche's : her faith 
 failed her at the first test you remember the story?
 
 312 EAKTH 
 
 But a woman who loves must have a faith ye 
 Gods ! to move mountains." 
 
 Something vigorous, breathing the sturdy life of 
 the man beside her, swept over the girl, stirring her 
 crushed courage, and she smiled. 
 
 " It's good to hear you talk again." 
 
 But he broke in, full of his fixed idea. 
 
 " It's no good kicking against the pricks, Diana. 
 Even Saint Paul, that eloquent old celibate, found 
 that though nature, I suspect, warned him off the 
 thorny paths of love ! " He chuckled into his red 
 beard, and continued forcibly. " Mow your hedge 
 down and start afresh, or, better still, clip it, and 
 see after the pruning-knife has topped the highest 
 shoots how it will burst forth into fresh young 
 green with the coming of the spring." 
 
 He paused to take a breath that indeed was surely 
 needed, and observed the German honeymooners 
 descending upon them. 
 
 " Come out of this place ; it's too rarified for me ! 
 I'm getting a chill, moral and phy sical . . ."His head 
 went back with the old tremendous laugh that rang 
 to the high ceiling where Thorwaldson's frieze looked 
 down in grim displeasure. " Come out into the sun, 
 my dear and Nature and what God really planned 
 and I'll show you a sight like the very heart of love." 
 
 He led her with quick steps through a farther 
 door that opened into the garden beyond, ignoring 
 the printed form that mendaciously declared it "'No 
 exit." 
 
 " Close your eyes and trust to me." 
 
 Amused at his eagerness the girl obeyed him 
 blindly. Her hand lay firmly in his clasp as he 
 hurried her along, and the sweet air played on her 
 tired face as the warmth of the sunshine wrapped 
 them around,
 
 EABTH 313 
 
 " Now, Diana behold ! " 
 
 For a moment she could hardly see, stunned by 
 the blaze of colour. For, before her eyes, far away 
 to the summit of the hill, a sea of crimson broke, 
 blood-red, toning to purple and fading again to the 
 softest madder pink wave after wave of flowering 
 rhododendrons, tossed by the rippling breeze, wooed 
 by the honey-bee, waving proudly aloft the flame- 
 banner of spring. 
 
 " How exquisite ! " She drew a deep breath as 
 though she would drink in the scene before her. 
 " How perfectly wonderful ! I wonder . . . could 
 one get drunk on colour? " 
 
 The painter smiled, appreciating the remark, and 
 together they stood there absorbing the beauty of 
 this wealth of blossom. Great clumps of azaleas, 
 fragile and golden, broke here and there the imperial 
 purple and red. Faintly one gathered the sense of 
 green below, so thickly were the broad leaves screened 
 by petals, and on the farthest ridge rose the high 
 cypresses, black-stemmed and solemn, guarding 
 grimly the treasury of colour from the blinding 
 contrast of the sky. 
 
 " That," said Ericsen, " is passion Nature's 
 protest against the cold claim of perfect purity. I 
 would sooner see that . . . and die " his voice 
 rose with an intense longing as his eyes drank in 
 the picture before him " than live long years in 
 that cloistered room we have left. For there's 
 nothing like passion, Diana, nothing like it." 
 
 He drew her down gently on to a stone seat, oddly 
 carved with griffins for supports, that faced the 
 upward slope of garden, and continued : 
 
 " Sex is out of date, we're all so moral now, where 
 we aren't degenerate ! " 
 
 Nothing would check him, astride his hobby-horse,
 
 314 EAKTH 
 
 and a smile flickered up into the girl's sad face as he 
 twisted round on the narrow bench facing her, his 
 blue eyes fiery with sudden wrath. 
 
 " We can't stand facts ; we won't give life a 
 chance; it's smothered in humbug knee-deep." 
 He struck his bony leg with a clenched fist. " We 
 marry for money and call our intrigues ' sport ' ! 
 sneer at maternity and look down our nose at love. 
 We bear children by accident and pitch the boys 
 into public schools, hotbeds of degeneracy, to give 
 them ' social tone,' and train our girls to hockey or 
 a rabid taste for dress. 
 
 " But in the beginning . . . God made a garden" 
 he waved a lean hand outward with a gesture of 
 eloquence " and then he made Man. And after the 
 man, Woman and a Tree of Knowledge and Sin. 
 You can't get away from that ! And Sin brought 
 Suffering ; and Passion grew from both, leavened by 
 Love divine. And out of that the Child. Man, in 
 the likeness of God, himself achieved Creation, and 
 the woman, a higher thing still Maternity. For 
 without Maternity where would you find the 
 Madonna, Mother of Christ? " 
 
 His voice died away, full of a curious awe, his 
 blue eyes searching beyond the mass of blossom 
 out through the dark-stemmed trees to the clear 
 heaven beyond that vision that every artist craves : 
 the inspiration of old that supreme test of genius 
 vouchsafed but to the few picture of pictures, the 
 Saviour of Mankind in a sad-faced woman's arms. 
 
 Diana, her hands clasped round her knees, leaned 
 forward, thinking deeply, and a silence fell between 
 them, fraught with sympathy. 
 
 Somewhere in the distance a campanile chimed, 
 and Ericsen turned his head, studying his companion. 
 Then, with one of his lithe movements that in the
 
 EABTH 315 
 
 ripple of his lean frame made him akin with Nature's 
 creatures of wood and dale, he sprang to his feet. 
 
 For a moment he bent over the girl, and his lips 
 just touched the smooth young brow so lightly, that 
 the caress hardly disturbed her thoughts. Then he 
 drew himself very erect. 
 
 " God help you ! " he cried gently. " Give earth, 
 Diana, give earth ! And when you hold the child 
 of the man you love in your arms, pray Heaven you'll 
 say, ' Old Ericsen was right.' ' 
 
 He broke off, unashamed, passing a hand roughly 
 across his eyes. Then, without another word, 
 turned and left her. 
 
 She could hear him trampling down the crisp under- 
 growth as he forged his way blindly through the 
 bordering wood and up the hill, making a path for 
 himself, true to his instincts, heedless of conventional 
 bounds. 
 
 Once she saw his tall figure outlined against the 
 sky beside the belt of trees. She could picture the 
 blue eyes lost in space, red beard thrust forward 
 and fingers lightly locked behind his back. Then 
 he was gone, leaving behind him still the sense of 
 his presence, his human sympathy and the ring of 
 his passionate voice. 
 
 " Give earth, Diana, give earth." The words 
 haunted her.
 
 316 EAETH 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 4 4 ^f F you really want to know what I think " 
 Milly's freckled face, flushed with indigna- 
 tion under her mop of curly hair, was 
 turned towards Rill, standing grave and 
 handsome before her " I think your coming here 
 at all is a piece of beastly cheek. So now you've 
 got it." She threw out a pair of paint-smeared 
 hands with a gesture of utter intolerance. 
 
 " Thank you," said Rill. He sat down in the 
 familiar wicker-chair with a deliberate intention of 
 remaining, despite the girl's remark. 
 
 " Look here, Milly . . ." He cleared his 
 voice, his eyes fixed obstinately on the wet patch 
 of grass outside the studio window. "I want 
 Diana's address." 
 
 Into the girl's mind flashed a memory of Ericsen, 
 who a few days before had called on the same errand. 
 
 " Then you won't get it from me." Her green 
 eyes flashed vindictively. " You seem to think you 
 can have all your own way with women, just 
 philander around and break people's hearts and 
 think yourself a ... a ..." Inspiration 
 failed her. 
 
 Rill turned his head slowly, and something in his 
 face checked the girl. 
 
 "D'you really want to know what I think of 
 myself?"
 
 EAKTH 317 
 
 " No," said Milly unexpectedly ; " I don't." She 
 gave an impatient sigh and suddenly changed the 
 subject. " When did you come back ? " 
 
 " Yesterday." 
 
 Milly's face softened. "I suppose you'd like 
 some tea ? " 
 
 Bill smiled involuntarily at the grudging con- 
 cession. 
 
 " Immensely." He gave a sudden shiver, and 
 held out a pair of thin hands towards the little 
 stove. " By Jove, it's cold in England, though." 
 
 "You don't look well. Was the expedition a 
 success? " 
 
 " Not as regards myself." He gave a twisted 
 smile. " Perhaps it would cheer you to hear that 
 they gave me the order of the boot." 
 
 Milly put the kettle on with a bang of genuine 
 surprise. 
 
 "Whatever for?" 
 
 " Health." Kill was grimly laconic. " Had three 
 goes of fever, and that sickened them, so they packed 
 me back to the coast with the empty boxes and a 
 row of blue beads to curry favour on the way." 
 
 " Oh, I say, . . ."a note of pity crept into her 
 voice, " what bad luck ! " 
 
 " To every dog his day," said her visitor lightly. 
 " But it evidently wasn't mine. Though, now I 
 come to think of it, there were plenty of dog-days 
 too. Phew ! the heat in that infernal jungle it's 
 like going into a warm wet grave, a sort of live heat 
 that's yet clammy and grows round you strangling 
 you ! " 
 
 He shuddered at the recollection of the home- 
 ward march, fever-stricken, his head buzzing with 
 quinine and the sight of the impassive black faces 
 speculating daily on his death. It had been a
 
 318 EARTH 
 
 hideous nightmare, mercifully shortened by nights 
 of semi-consciousness in which, like a vision of 
 mercy from afar, he had dreamed that Diana stood 
 there laying cool fingers on his throbbing head. 
 
 " So it's rather nice to be back." He took the 
 cup of tea she offered him and drained it thank- 
 fully. "I saw Lady Cottar's death" he edged 
 round to the forbidden subject " in an old paper, 
 one day at Sierra Leone. It was very sudden, 
 wasn't it ? " 
 
 " Very." Milly fidgeted. 
 
 " Heart failure ? " Bill glanced across at her. 
 
 " H'm yes so the doctors say. Overdoing it, I 
 should think. She was always out, you know, 
 flying round with Diana." She tried to change 
 the subject. " I suppose you've heard that Walter's 
 engaged to Sadie Wynton ? " 
 
 " Not really ? " Rill was surprised. 
 
 " Like to like," snapped Milly. " A nice life 
 they'll have together that's if it ever comes off." 
 
 " Why shouldn't it ? " the soldier asked care- 
 lessly. 
 
 " Well, there is no money, you see, unless the 
 parents help. And I don't fancy the Maclarens are 
 pleased at the match. Sadie has nothing, of course, 
 except debts plenty of those." She peered down 
 into the paper bag anxiously. " There's just another 
 lump ; here you are," and went on in the same 
 breath : " I tell mamma I believe it's her fault 
 entirely. If she hadn't frightened the girl it never 
 would have happened." 
 
 Rill was interested. " It would take a good deal, 
 I should think, to frighten Sadie Wynton. What 
 did she do?" 
 
 Milly laughed at the dryness of his voice. 
 
 " Suggested libel, that was all." Her face went
 
 EAKTH 319 
 
 suddenly grave. " Mamma's fond of Diana, you 
 know, and she couldn't stand Sadie's story against 
 her without getting one hit back. And the next 
 thing we heard was the news of Walter's engage- 
 ment." 
 
 "Bat what was the story? " 
 
 His anxious voice awoke Milly, too late, to the 
 dangerous ground on which she had ventured. 
 
 "Oh . . . just . . . gossip, you know." 
 Her face went red and she could not meet his eye. 
 
 Bill leaned forward in his chair, his mouth 
 hardening. 
 
 " Gossip about Diana ? What sort ? " 
 
 Suddenly indignant at this show of ignorance the 
 girl shot him one indignant glance. 
 
 " You know as well as I do. What's the good of 
 pretending ! " 
 
 But Bill met the green eyes with a glint of his 
 own like steel. 
 
 " I must ask you to explain." 
 
 At the masterful command her anger bubbled 
 over. 
 
 " Very well, I will. But you'll please to re- 
 member Diana's my best friend, and considering 
 you've pretty well broken her heart beside ruining 
 her reputation, I think your happy innocence is a 
 little misplaced . . ." 
 
 But she was not allowed to continue, for the 
 soldier was on his feet, a look of such genuine horror 
 on his face that the girl was taken back. 
 
 " Was it possible ? " she asked herself, " that he 
 really did not know." 
 
 " Milly ! " his voice was hoarse, " what are you 
 talking about ? what's all this about Diana's 
 reputation ? " 
 
 " D'you m-mean to tell me . . ." Milly stain-
 
 320 EARTH 
 
 mered and started afresh. " I thought everyone 
 had heard the story Sadie Wynton's story about 
 Diana . . ." 
 
 In his exasperation Bill seized her by the 
 shoulders. 
 
 " What on earth can Sadie Wynton have to say 
 against Diana ? " 
 
 Milly wriggled under the grip of the nervous 
 hands. 
 
 "Let me go, Billy; you're hurting me!" And 
 reading no sign of mercy on the man's stern face, 
 blurted it out. " She Sadie, of course saw Diana 
 going into your rooms at midnight from the club 
 windows opposite." 
 
 His hands fell away, powerless, to his side, and 
 she wound up her speech crossly. 
 
 " Walter was with her, playing bridge, and that 
 beast Mrs. Maxeter." 
 
 But Bill made no response. He seemed to sway 
 upon his feet ; then, with an odd groping movement 
 of his hands, found his way back into the chair 
 behind him. His face was so white that Milly was 
 alarmed, suddenly aware of how weak the fever had 
 left him. 
 
 " I say, you aren't ill, are you ? Like some 
 water? " She eyed him anxiously. 
 
 But the man had pulled himself together, throw- 
 ing off by sheer will-power the faintness threaten- 
 ing him. 
 
 " She could have cleared herself." The words 
 slipped out unconsciously. 
 
 " Could she ? " Milly's face lit up. " I always 
 said so." Her voice was triumphant. " But she 
 wouldn't. She wouldn't even admit she was en- 
 gaged to you." 
 
 Bill groaned audibly.
 
 EARTH 321 
 
 " No, I can understand that." 
 
 " I guessed there was something behind it all 
 something we didn't understand that she did it, 
 perhaps, to shield someone else ? " 
 
 The green eyes, shrewdly watching the man, 
 saw the confirmation of her theory on his tortured 
 face. 
 
 "That's just like Diana." She drew a deep 
 breath, full of admiration for all she divined. 
 " She'd never give anyone away, not if she died for 
 it ! She's a real sport." 
 
 Rill nodded his head, shorn for the moment of 
 words. 
 
 " And you mean to tell me this story got 
 about?" 
 
 His husky, anxious voice roused her from her 
 absorption, and she looked up, suddenly sorry for 
 the speaker, and convinced of his ignorance 
 
 " People talked, of course. And then Lady 
 Cottar came back and Walter went and told her." 
 
 " The cur ! " 
 
 Into Rill's mind flashed a memory of their 
 meeting in Piccadilly and the younger man's in- 
 quisitive attitude. But Hilly was rambling on, 
 eager to clear the ground. 
 
 " To everyone's surprise her mother turned up 
 trumps ! took to going about again, and Diana was 
 always with her. Then, when Walter's engage- 
 ment leaked out, I fancy people put two and two 
 together, and tracing it back to its source, concluded 
 the story was largely due to spite. She never had 
 Walter inside the house again I'll say that for 
 Lady Cottar. And of course when she died, every- 
 one was sorry for Diana." She paused for a moment 
 and added sombrely, "But she bad a rough time of 
 it between them all. I've seen her sit in that chair
 
 3-22 EARTH 
 
 and cry as if her heart would break, and that isn't 
 Diana a bit, you know she's not given to 
 tears!" 
 
 " If only I'd known ! " 
 
 Bill ground his teeth, realising but too bitterly 
 what the girl had suffered and the heroism of that 
 silence she had voluntarily upheld. 
 
 " Why did you go away like that ? " Milly asked 
 him bluntly. " It made matters worse, you know, 
 not better." 
 
 Bill wheeled round in his chair and steadily 
 faced his unconscious tormentor. 
 
 "Because Diana refused to marry me and, by 
 God ! she was in the right." 
 
 At the utter humiliation of the cry Milly felt a 
 lump rise up in her throat. 
 
 " I see." She put out a hand impulsively to- 
 wards him. " Look here, Billy, I'm beastly sick 
 about all this, and sorry for you both. But I'd like 
 to ask you something, if you don't think it cheek 
 . . ." She grew more slangy than ever in her 
 nervous desire to help. 
 
 " Ask anything you like except . . . the 
 other woman's name." 
 
 A wave of colour came over the girl's pale face. 
 " Oh ! " She bit her lips, digesting the pregnant 
 speech, then went on doggedly, one aim in view. 
 " It's just this. Are you fond of Diana still ? Fond 
 enough ... to marry her, I mean ? " 
 
 Bill's eyes answered for him. He swallowed 
 hard, opened his mouth to speak, and closed it, 
 powerless to express himself. 
 
 " Hurrah ! " said Milly, and in the exuberance of 
 her joy she flung her arms round his neck and 
 kissed the astonished man. 
 
 "There'll be another scandal now!" she ex-
 
 EARTH 323 
 
 claimed shamelessly. Then she sat down and 
 fiercely wiped her eyes. "But I don't care it's 
 going to come out all right. And your Aunt Milly 
 will throw rice and sing ' Hallelujah ! ' ' She rocked 
 backwards and forwards in an ecstasy of relief. 
 " Oh, I'm so glad ! " 
 
 Bill smiled wanly at the friend he had held in 
 long past days so often on his knee, playing, as a 
 young boy will, happily with this " jolly kid " with 
 her mop of sandy curls. 
 
 " It's all very well, my dear, but I don't stand the 
 ghost of a chance. I can't explain to you, but it's 
 beyond all hope of righting itself." 
 
 " You . . . ass / " The red-haired girl rose 
 to her feet, standing before him with her freckled 
 face full of exultation. "You just go in and win. 
 I know Diana. She'd forgive the devil himself 
 once she saw he was down ! What's more, I happen 
 to know it's treachery, but in a good cause ! she 
 worships the very ground you tread on." A dimple 
 came into her rounded cheek. There's no account- 
 ing for tastes," she added, with a return to her old 
 manner. 
 
 Rill, immersed in thought, left the remark un- 
 challenged. All his vision of reconciliation that 
 far-off dream that had stood by him through the 
 fever haunted nights, with the picture of Diana, as 
 he had seen her last, white-robed and slender, the 
 sheaf of poppies in her arms had broken down 
 before the crushing news of this new barrier be- 
 tween them, a barrier of fresh suffering for which 
 he himself was responsible. 
 
 And yet so strong is hope within the human 
 breast that Milly's words braced him to one more 
 effort, one desperate last endeavour to win back 
 happiness.
 
 324 EARTH 
 
 " All right " his voice was strong " give me 
 Diana's address." 
 
 " You're never going to write ? " Milly was turn- 
 ing over a mass of letters, hunting for the name of 
 her friend's hotel. 
 
 " No, I'm going there to-morrow." 
 
 " Good." She approved his energy. " Bother 
 the thing! wherever has it gone?" Her face 
 fell suddenly. " I believe I gave it to Ericsen." 
 
 Bill frowned. 
 
 "That painter chap?" 
 
 Milly shot him a side glance full of mischievous 
 glee. 
 
 " Well, you can't expect Diana to be utterly 
 negleckit just because you convey yourself to 
 distant cannibal lands." 
 
 She gave up the search, knitting her brows 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " It's Cadennabbia on Lake Como, you know. 
 You get there by Berne or Bale I don't remember 
 which. And, anyhow, it can't be a big place and 
 Sir John's sure to be known." 
 
 " Has Ericsen gone there too ? " 
 
 " Like an arrow from the bow." Milly's laugh 
 broke out, rippling through the little studio. 
 
 " All in the interests of Art, of course. No I'm 
 not dropping my h's! Personally" she glanced 
 at his moody face " I think he's better for her 
 than you. He's so awfully kind, with a temper 
 like a squib pff ! and it's all over ! not the 
 lingering sort that makes a man unpleasant over 
 his breakfast egg. But his collars would be morti- 
 fying to say nothing of his boots ! I don't 
 think " she watched Rill fidget, preparing for 
 departure "I don't think Diana cares for his 
 boots " she gave the good-looking man before
 
 EARTH 325 
 
 her a swift, comprehensive glance, noting the neat 
 perfection of his quiet appearance. " They won't 
 stand the test of the judgment of Paris. You'll 
 get the apple, Billy, never fear ; or, as our cousins 
 over the water say the ' perfect peach.' " 
 
 Their hands met and her own shrank from the 
 soldier's hearty grasp. 
 
 " You're ... a brick, Milly." He fell back 
 on his own boyish vernacular. " I shan't forget it, 
 either." 
 
 Milly nursed her crushed fingers with a comical 
 grimace as Rill wrestled with the refractory door. 
 She called out after him as he turned for a last 
 farewell, his hat raised, the smooth, well-shaped 
 head bared to the drizzling rain. 
 
 " For mercy's sake, don't ask me to be bride's- 
 maid." And then, once more, as he reached the 
 little gate, her hands to her mouth, her mischievous 
 pale face radiant : " My love to Diana ! " she shouted 
 gaily, and turning back into the empty studio, 
 " Bless her ! " she added under her breath. 
 
 Whether he went by Berne or Bale is immaterial 
 to the story. Suffice it to relate that two days 
 later a weary but ever-fastidious Rill astonished the 
 proprietor of a Como hotel by demanding a mid- 
 day bath, anxious to remove all traces of his long 
 and dusty journey. 
 
 Having published his nationality in this historic 
 fashion, he descended leisurely to lunch, conscious 
 that some hours must elapse before the afternoon 
 boat started for Cadennabbia that garden of his 
 fondest hopes and fears. 
 
 In the deserted salle-a-manger a party of 
 German tourists were taking an early meal, and 
 the only other occupant of the long sunny room 
 was a solitary man bending over his plate and
 
 326 EAKTH 
 
 apparently engrossed in a series of wild juggling 
 tricks with a dish of macaroni. 
 
 Rill had called for the advertised " bifstek," and, 
 with inward misgivings, for a bottle of French beer, 
 and refreshed by his tub, leaned back in his chair 
 awaiting the solid repast, marvelling not a little 
 at the ingenious alacrity with which his neighbour 
 was absorbing the tangle of tomato-coloured 
 "spaghetti." 
 
 The lean face of the man in profile, with his high 
 cheek-bones and pointed reddish beard, seemed 
 strangely familiar, and as the last long thread of 
 macaroni disappeared, and with a sigh of satisfaction 
 the latter poured himself out a final glass of Chianti 
 from the wicker-covered flask, he turned his head 
 slightly in the new-comer's direction. Their eyes 
 met and recognition was mutual. 
 
 For a moment Bill stared into Ericsen's face, a 
 prey to a sudden wild and unreasoning jealousy. 
 So the painter chap had outstripped him after all 
 damn his impudence ! There was that aggressive 
 collar, and under the table he caught a glimpse of 
 the patched and shapeless boots. 
 
 But here the waiter interposed, placing triumph- 
 antly a greyish object swathed in watercress before 
 the irate soldier. 
 
 Rill, with a puzzled frown, attacked it, fully 
 prepared for the worst. He was one of those 
 Englishmen to whom " England is good enough," 
 and who peer at anything "foreign" with a sus- 
 picious eye, refusing to admit an alien chance of 
 perfection. 
 
 Now, as ever, his worst fears were justified, and 
 shrinking from the horrible spectacle his knife 
 revealed he called back the man with an emphatic 
 gesture.
 
 EAKTH 327 
 
 " This beef-steak's raw ! I can't eat it like 
 this." 
 
 The waiter, a stolid German with a leaning to 
 impudence, listened to the complaint with a half- 
 smile on his face, which hid hatred of the other's 
 obvious race and profession. 
 
 He himself had " served " and, enrolled in one of 
 the many mystic societies of his kind, was thirsting 
 for the day that was surely bound to come when 
 the German Ocean on either side should lap on 
 German shore. 
 
 " But monsieur ordered bifstek ? " 
 
 He made a show of non-comprehension, spread- 
 ing fat hands sideways, conscious of the amused 
 glances of the party in the window, who had all 
 turned to watch the little comedy. Kill, tired 
 with his journey, and irritable, opened up the 
 offending steak with a quick movement of disgust. 
 
 " Begardez! " he said briefly in his best Britannic 
 French. " Pas cuit, pas du tout ! " 
 
 The waiter smiled blandly. 
 
 " Monsieur does not desire bifstek ? " 
 
 A guttural comment of appreciation escaped the 
 round table, and the smallest child with flaxen pig- 
 tails choked over her wine. 
 
 Ericsen bristled under the sound, his fighting 
 instincts aroused. 
 
 And quite suddenly, as Bill hesitated, from his 
 neighbour came an avalanche of German, seasoned 
 with stinging epithets and an utter disregard for the 
 ears of polite society. 
 
 The waiter cowered under the volume of im- 
 precation and the fat Frau in the window turned 
 horrified eyes to heaven, praying that sudden 
 deafness might descend on the pig-tailed heads. 
 
 On went the flow of words, and the maitre d'hfltel
 
 328 EABTH 
 
 bustled up from the distant desk, but Ericsen, 
 once in his stride, was not to be checked, and Kill 
 could only point dumbly to the cause of offence and 
 wait until the painter had exhausted the waiter's 
 ancestry. 
 
 By this time the dish had been whisked away, 
 presumably for burial, and the two Englishmen 
 were left side by side, the one still breathless and 
 indignant and the other beginning to realise the 
 humour of the situation. 
 
 "I'm very much obliged to you." Rill's eyes 
 were twinkling as he turned to his neighbour. " I 
 envy you your command of language. Couldn't 
 make the fellow understand myself." 
 
 " He didn't want to the German dog! " 
 
 Ericsen gave one last splutter of wrath, con- 
 scious of the explosive glances of the family in the 
 window, and cooled down. 
 
 " I hope you'll forgive my interfering." He 
 paused. " Haven't we met before ? I never forget 
 a face. My name's Ericsen, John Ericsen." For 
 he had made up his mind to draw Diana's lover 
 into conversation. 
 
 " Of course ! " Bill appreciated the other's can- 
 dour, despite the hovering touch of resentment 
 that possessed him. And I've often seen you, from 
 . . . Miss Farrar's studio. She's a very old 
 friend of mine. I've known her since a child ; 
 talented too, don't you think? But perhaps it's not 
 fair to ask." 
 
 " Her work doesn t interest me much," said 
 Ericsen simply, " but the other, Miss Cottar, is by 
 way of being a pupil of mine, a pupil I'm proud of 
 too ; she ought to make her name." 
 
 He attacked his dessert heartily, piling a great 
 spoonful of curds on to the little red strawberries
 
 EARTH 329 
 
 of the woods, sweetest of their kind, with which his 
 plate was heaped. 
 
 "Yes, she's got genius," he went on thoughtfully ; 
 " there's something more than talent. By the way," 
 he kept his eyes lowered on his plate, " she's here 
 you know, staying on the lake." 
 
 Eill gave him a quick glance. 
 
 " So Milly Farrar told me." His voice was 
 supremely indifferent. " Cadennabbia, isn't it?" 
 
 "Yes, at the Belle Vue, with her father." 
 He looked up suddenly, as if struck by an idea. 
 " I suppose you won't be seeing them ? Because 
 if so, it would ease my mind . . ." and diving 
 down into the pocket of his coat he produced a little 
 pair of gloves, dog-skin and shabby, which he pro- 
 ceeded to look at ruefully. 
 
 " I've been guilty of a theft," he confessed, a 
 twinkle in the clear blue eyes, " and was just 
 wondering how to return these to Miss Cottar. 
 She confided them to my care yesterday when we 
 went for a row on the lake, with the result that I 
 walked off with them." 
 
 Bill eyed them greedily. 
 
 " I shall be delighted," he observed. " I thought 
 of stopping a night at Cadennabbia on my way to 
 Varenna and golf." 
 
 The polite fiction tickled Ericsen, and for a 
 moment he was threatened with that tremendous 
 laugh. 
 
 With twitching lips he picked up the little gloves, 
 eloquently suggestive of the slim brown hands of 
 the wearer, and explained the meaning of his 
 smile. 
 
 " The first pair of gloves I've owned for years ! 
 It's quite hard to give them up." 
 
 He leaned across, delivering his treasure to Bill,
 
 330 EAKTH 
 
 and something in the significance of the action 
 sobered him, bringing a sting of parting with it. 
 
 He had the odd sensation of handing the young 
 girl over into the keeping of another man. 
 
 Kill placed them carefully within the inner 
 pocket of his coat and, despite all his phlegm, a 
 faint colour stole up under his bronzed skin. 
 Ericsen approved the action. 
 
 " Next to his heart that's how it should be ! " he 
 told himself; "but, Lord! I wish he wasn't so 
 ashamed of it all." 
 
 He pushed his plate back and rose from the table. 
 " He can't very well kiss them before the German 
 waiter." Justice drove him to the amendment as 
 that worthy bustled up bearing a dark-brown steak 
 under the watchful eye of the dignified mattre 
 d'hotel. 
 
 "I'm off to Milan," he said aloud, "just time to 
 catch the train. I suppose you'll go by the after- 
 noon boat? It's a pretty trip, but I daresay you 
 know it." 
 
 He spoke with intention, a scheme forming in 
 his mind that should bring the lovers together that 
 very day, with the benefit of solitude and the 
 romantic setting dear to his artist heart. 
 
 " Well, yes, I thought of it." 
 
 Bill looked up at the well-knit frame that 
 suggested, in its lean energy, unbounded strength ; 
 and then, with a touch of curiosity, at the clever, 
 unusual face. 
 
 Something wistful in the blue eyes puzzled him. 
 He could not tell that this strange being whose 
 unconventionality and disregard for appearance 
 aroused a contemptuous pity in himself was capable 
 of a renunciation that the trim soldier before him 
 would have flinched from and fled, a deed noble and
 
 EAKTH 331 
 
 courageous, true to the creed of brotherhood, the 
 altruism he professed. 
 
 " I was going to suggest," the painter's voice was 
 gruff, " that if you had the time, it might be worth 
 your while to get out at a place called Lenno." He 
 looked Rill suddenly straight between the eyes. 
 " There's a pilgrimage church right up on the hill 
 that's well worth seeing Our Lady of Help." His 
 mouth twisted at the name in a curious smile, 
 mocking and yet supremely tender. " You could 
 send your baggage on direct by the boat, climb up 
 there and walk across later to Cadennabbia. It's a 
 pity to miss the chance, as you say you're going on 
 to Varenna. I was hoping to do it myself, with 
 Miss Cottar this afternoon. But I had to go, 
 leaving her to a solitary climb." 
 
 He held out his hand with a hurried glance at 
 the clock. 
 
 "Wish you luck, and oh! by the way, don't for- 
 get the gloves." Something in the warm grip of 
 the soldier's hand told him . that the other had 
 understood. 
 
 "Thanks," said Rill, "thank you." That obsti- 
 nate British tongue of his could find no other 
 word. 
 
 He looked so guilty and confused, like a school- 
 boy detected in some trivial offence, that Ericsen's 
 sense of humour ran riot agaiust his will. 
 
 Back went his head and the mighty laugh 
 escaped, filling the empty room. Even the dignified 
 maitre d'hotel chuckled at his desk at the sight of 
 the thin man rocking in his mirth, red beard thrust 
 forward, blue eyes dancing, the mask of comedy 
 complete. 
 
 But quite suddenly Ericsen pulled himself in 
 hand, his face sober/ his thoughts far away. He
 
 332 EAETH 
 
 bent down over the wondering and slightly offended 
 Bill. 
 
 "It's a stiff climb," he said, "a hard climb to Our 
 Lady of Help. But by heaven and by earth, it's 
 worth it, man ! " 
 
 Then, head high, shoulders very straight, he 
 turned abruptly and passed out into the glare of the 
 noonday sun.
 
 EARTH 333 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 DIANA saw her father off for his afternoon 
 drive, with " Cousin Sophie " in attend- 
 ance, the little old maid resplendent in 
 a mushroom hat that bristled with black 
 barley, from under which her wrinkled face peered 
 forth, shortsighted and eager, like an intelligent 
 human hedgehog. For never in all her wildest 
 dreams and romance is by no means confined to 
 the young had Miss Dacon contemplated the 
 chance of travelling. That and "carriage exer- 
 cise" had been rigorously forbidden by her slender 
 means. And yet this miracle had come to pass ! 
 For mindful of her quiet devotion to his wife in 
 the days of weakness preceding her death, Sir 
 John had clung to this last link with one of the 
 Bretherton blood. 
 
 Her perpetual wonder, occasionally tempered by 
 dismay at " foreign ways," and her inborn mistrust 
 of anything un-English, were a constant source of 
 joy to the girl and often served to temporarily 
 divert the sad old man. 
 
 Now, with a vigorous cracking of whips and wild 
 cries from the driver, viewed with a covert anxiety 
 from behind Miss Dacon's glasses, the carriage swung 
 briskly down the long white road, the pair of little 
 horses moving with that short scrambling trot that 
 seemed to belong by right to mountainous districts.
 
 334 EAKTH 
 
 For a time Diana stood there, her hand shading 
 her eyes until, round the bend of the road, the dust 
 swallowed them up ; then her gaze transferred 
 itself to the sea beyond, where she could catch a 
 glimpse of the steamer from Menaggio which 
 should take her on to her chosen destination. A 
 peasant woman passed, a great bundle of firewood 
 on her head, and gazed with shrewd sympathy at the 
 girl in her black dress, that struck a discordant 
 note of mourning in the exuberant sunshine, and 
 a group of Indian jugglers, picturesque in bright 
 turbans appeared as if by magic in the garden 
 before the hotel, and, squatting down in the dust, 
 began a monotonous performance with the help of 
 a mongoose and a weary-looking snake. 
 
 Diana turned and watched them, but the sight of 
 the cobra's head slowly moving to the beating 
 of the little drum produced that sudden feeling 
 of intense disgust so often found in the children of 
 Anglo-Indian parents. She tried in vain to dis- 
 tinguish long-forgotten words in the quick patter 
 of Hindustani, but the effort failed, and shaking off 
 the laziness of the sunny hour, she turned her back 
 on this oriental scene, to which the palms and 
 hot glare lent a subtle air of reality, and passed 
 down to the pier to await the approaching steamer. 
 
 Her thoughts turned to Ericsen and the preced- 
 ing afternoon, when her father had been persuaded 
 to join the young people in one of the comfortable 
 boats of the lake, gay with its bright awning and 
 sheltered from the sun. 
 
 The painter had been in the happiest of moods, 
 and between the long strokes of the oars had chat- 
 tered unceasingly,interesting the old soldier by records 
 of the strenuous fights that had raged round the sheet 
 of water on this frontier post of Italy and France.
 
 EARTH 335 
 
 They had skirted Tremezzo and Lenno, and 
 struck across for the point, passing the beautiful 
 Villa Arconati, with its tiny harbour guarded by 
 the four saints the site, it is believed, of Pliny's 
 adored Villa of Comedy and on round the bend to 
 the little island of Comacina. 
 
 Here they had landed for a picnic tea, Miss 
 Dacon presiding with fussy enjoyment, whilst 
 Ericsen, full length on the grass, hands clasped 
 behind his head, watched the fleecy clouds drifting 
 against the sapphire sky and babbled on serenely 
 of the land he loved. 
 
 The spot was peculiarly sacred to him that 
 home of refuge during the Lombard invasion, where 
 the " Master Builders " had sheltered, unheeded and 
 forgotten, far from the clash of arms, to emerge 
 later, under the victorious Franks, and revive Archi- 
 tecture in a country rased and disfigured by the 
 German barbarians. 
 
 It was from Comacina, this ancient sanctuary 
 of Art, that Diana had first caught sight of the 
 winding path on the mainland that led up to the 
 pilgrimage church on the hill, and now, as she 
 stepped on to the steamer, she tried to recall all 
 that Ericsen had told her in connection with the 
 place, conscious since his visit, of a new interest in 
 her surroundings, of a wealth of legend hidden in 
 the sleepy vine-wreathed shores. 
 
 The mysticism of the story surrounding " Our 
 Lady of Help " had touched an answering chord in 
 her nature, and her vivid imagination played round 
 this fourteenth-century miracle handed down intact 
 to modern times and still fervently credited by the 
 simple peasantry. 
 
 As she sat in the bows of the slowly moving 
 boat, gazing across the blue expanse of water, she
 
 336 EAETH 
 
 could picture to herself the little goat-herd, bare- 
 foot and solitary, cut off from all her kind by the 
 terrible affliction of the dumb, driving her flock 
 before her, until on the edge of the hill she came to 
 the grotto where the wonderful image was found 
 that misshapen statuette that brought from the 
 wondering child her first coherent cry, " The 
 Madonna ! the Madonna herself ! " And the cer- 
 tainty that followed among the rejoicing villagers 
 that the image was endowed with the power of 
 healing, and had descended there direct from heaven. 
 How they had borne it to the church at Isola, and 
 with high pomp and ceremony had placed it above 
 the main altar, only to find it back next morning in 
 the grotto on the hill ; and, accepting the miracle 
 as a proof of Our Lady's desire, had builded about 
 her the quaint old church that still marks the shrine. 
 
 Thus the statue in grey stone became the mother 
 of the lake. A sure defence in storm and sickness 
 and tribulation, curing, rescuing, ever open to the 
 prayers of her simple folk, living up to the old-time 
 name, " Our Lady of Help." 
 
 Diana, thrown at a most impressionable age into 
 a Koman Catholic country, had none of the narrow 
 distaste for an alien religion so often to be found in 
 the young. 
 
 An idealist herself, she reverenced the spirit of 
 worship wherever it lingered, and could pray 
 serenely in any house built by the hand of man for 
 the God of his own sincere conviction and ultimate 
 hope of salvation. 
 
 But the simple faith of the countryside of a 
 country, moreover, that was indissolubly linked by 
 time with more ancient religions still appealed to 
 her with a force that daily grew in strength as she 
 realised how the everyday life of the people was
 
 EARTH 337 
 
 threaded with belief; the inherent trust handed 
 down from mother to child as yet untouched in this 
 quiet spot by the sword of secular power. 
 
 And she felt m her loneliness a curious leaning 
 for a religion that pre-eminently appeals to woman- 
 hood, to lay her troubles at the feet of the Madonna 
 a woman herself who had suffered and had died. 
 
 As she stepped off the steamer and walked 
 along the border of the lake into the village of 
 Lenno, as if to accentuate the spiritual trend of her 
 thoughts, she met an aged cure", hurrying along 
 with two acolytes a vivid patch of scarlet and 
 white against the cobble stones, bearing the sacra- 
 ment to a dying parishioner, his lined old face 
 testifying to his anxiety to arrive in time to 
 administer the ultimate consolation. The picture 
 haunted her, with its mystery of life and death 
 that the sunshine seemed to mock, as she left the 
 narrow streets behind and emerged on to the full 
 beauty of the countryside ; fields yellow with cow- 
 slip and buttercup and starred with cuckoo-pint, 
 that carried the girl back to the home meadows, 
 and her childhood days at happy Tenterleigh. 
 
 She had heard that morning from Esterella. 
 Her gratitude had taken the extraordinary form 
 or, so it seemed to Diana of calling the little 
 daughter she had triumphantly born to Darrell, 
 after the name of the girl who had saved her from 
 wrecking her life. The curious want of delicacy 
 in the idea did not even suggest itself to the 
 delighted mother, but Diana shivered suddenly in 
 the sunshine at the train of thought it evoked. 
 
 She paused for a moment, tempted by a patch 
 of orchids, madder-pink with gay, spotted leaves, 
 but decided it would be cruel to carry them through 
 the heat, and quickening her step, passed on until 
 
 z
 
 338 EABTH 
 
 the narrow path opened out into a space that was 
 paved with stone, polished by the feet of pilgrims, 
 before the first of the fifteen shrines that marked 
 the steep ascent caskets of prayer, sacred to the 
 Madonna del Soccorso. 
 
 She knelt down on the worn step and gazed 
 eagerly through the grating into the strange little 
 octagonal chamber before her. 
 
 Roughly modelled in terra-cotta, against a painted 
 background, the scene was laid of the Annunciation, 
 life-sized figures grouped together, crudely empha- 
 sising the story to the peasant mind. Thrust 
 through the rusty bars, a few withered flowers tied 
 to a piece of holy palm testified to an offering from 
 some passing child. 
 
 From thence the road, broad and paved, rose 
 steeply with an occasional narrow step to meet the 
 required gradient, first upwards to the right, then 
 round a sharp curve to the left, and the zigzag way 
 was dotted in due course by the grey shrines, lost 
 in a fold of the hill or peeping out from behind a 
 knot of silvery olive-trees. 
 
 The sun beat down on the hot pavement as Diana 
 toiled 011, ever mounting, with feet that slipped as 
 she went, thankful for the aid of her stout walking- 
 stick. She remembered how Ericsen had said that 
 on the great day, the " festa " of the lake, when the 
 pilgrims from all the country around joined in a 
 mighty procession, young and old, rich and poor, 
 that many went on their knees, dragging them- 
 selves painfully upwards as a mark of reverence 
 and gratitude to the Madonna of their hopes. 
 
 " But it's hard enough to walk," she decided with 
 a smile, as she stopped to peer into the second 
 chapel, where a highly-coloured representation of 
 the Nativity met her eye, the oxen and manger faith-
 
 EARTH 339 
 
 fully reproduced, and among the straw the little 
 pink-faced Babe, a gilt halo bound about its head. 
 
 Crude and unpleasing as it was to her artistic 
 sense, she realised, nevertheless, how this living 
 New Testament must appeal to a people who shrink 
 from the toil of reading, bringing home the scripture 
 story with a hint of miracle about it the old 
 realism of the era of passion-plays. 
 
 " I don't wonder they're so proud of it." She 
 marched on sturdily. " After all, I suppose it's 
 only a matter of education, and if I had been born 
 in one of the cottages hereabouts, I should think 
 precisely the same and base my highest ambition 
 on the chance of being selected to touch up the 
 backgrounds, or re-gild the enormous star that 
 hangs from the ceiling ! " 
 
 And she smiled to herself, wishing that Ericsen 
 had stayed and taken the walk beside her. She 
 had fully realised that the mysterious visitor- of 
 whom Milly wrote must have been the painter, 
 and had tried to overcome the stab of disappoint- 
 ment the conclusion brought. 
 
 But strive as she might she could not keep her 
 thoughts off Rill ; and this afternoon in particular, 
 with that curious sense of the man's near approach 
 the sixth sense still veiled in mystery she 
 seemed to feel his presence and to realise that 
 before long they would surely meet. And then 
 what would happen ? 
 
 Could she forgive? Was it right to forgive? 
 Could happiness ever follow ? 
 
 Ericsen's preaching lacked conviction, without 
 his stirring voice and the hot-blooded personality 
 of the preacher. And the old problem tortured her, 
 still unsolved the problem of her own responsi- 
 bility. Should she forgive? Was it indeed her
 
 340 EARTH 
 
 duty, or a weak surrender to the force of her own 
 desires ? 
 
 This was the pilgrim's load she carried tbis bitter 
 burden of doubt, with a half- formed, wholly-romantic 
 notion of laying it at the feet of Our Lady of Help. 
 
 Would inspiration follow the little grey statue 
 vouchsafe a sign to this child of an alien faith. 
 Half-tenderly, half-nervously, she asked herself the 
 question, as at last, the final stage complete, she 
 parsed in under the grey portals of the church on 
 the hill. 
 
 After the glare of the sunshine the cold and 
 gloom within sent a shiver through her ; and as 
 she paused uncertainly by the door, peering through 
 the semi-obscurity, a whispered voice reached her 
 ear. 
 
 Looking down in startled surprise beside the 
 
 freat stone font, she saw a little old woman in a 
 lue apron and snowy cap that bordered her 
 wrinkled face, offering her a choice of candles from 
 her store. Gravely, still moved by the one idea, 
 Diana chose the tallest, pressing a five-franc piece 
 into the gnarled palm, and hurriedly evading the 
 pattered blessing it evoked, moved forward, the 
 taper in her hand. 
 
 As her eyes grew accustomed to the gloom she 
 marked the entrance to the inner chapel, and making 
 her way noiselessly between the long rows of chairs, 
 with a nervous fear of breaking the silence that 
 hung over the empty place, she passed through the 
 narrow door into the presence of the shrine, curiously 
 expectant, she hardly knew of what, her vivid 
 imagination playing on her nerves as she knelt on 
 the nearest prie-dieu and gave herself up to the 
 spirit of prayer.
 
 EARTH 341 
 
 Slowly Diana raised her head and gazed around 
 at the narrow, low-roofed scene. She had that 
 acute disappointment that a dreamer feels, when 
 the cold light of day disturbs the visions of the 
 night. 
 
 She was struck afresh by the tawdriness of her 
 surroundings that jarring note so often found in 
 the wayside church abroad the paper flowers on 
 the altar, the cheap starched lace, and a little heap 
 of dust left carelessly by a broken chair. The poverty- 
 stricken details photographed themselves instantly 
 on the receptive portion of her mind as she leaned 
 forward, the unlighted candle still in her hand, her 
 hazel eyes wistful with the shock of the reaction. 
 
 The chapel seemed the shell of a worn-out religion 
 a faith that had spent itself, seeking in vain a 
 sign. 
 
 A little sob rose in her throat. So it was all a 
 myth, a trick her sensitive soul had played her. 
 There was to be no help. 
 
 More desperately lonely than ever she rose to 
 her feet, and with an effort at self-control began 
 to move round the littered walls, noting listlessly 
 the extraordinary collection of trophies that over- 
 flowed the place. 
 
 And suddenly, in the depths of her disenchant- 
 ment, the veil lifted, the tawdriness vanished with 
 a flash, and the eyes of her soul opened, realising 
 the meaning of the picture. As she was wont to 
 probe in her painting below the surface, so now she 
 pierced to the heart of the scene before her. 
 
 It was a Temple of Worship in which she stood, 
 glorified by gratitude and eloquent of answered 
 prayer. The tarnished metal hearts, the dusty 
 bead-wrought wreaths and the clumsily-worded 
 tablets, all told a human story, mites of thanks-
 
 342 EARTH 
 
 giving laid at the Maker's feet. Here a pair of 
 crutches, no longer required, testified to a cripple's 
 ardent joy ; a waxen hand suggested a limb re- 
 stored to health ; and on the walls themselves rough 
 drawings proclaimed Divine intervention a man 
 saved from drowning clutching the rescuing boat, 
 a tiny child lifted out of the flames of a burning 
 house. 
 
 Everywhere salvation and gratitude intercession 
 that had pierced the veil of heaven ! 
 
 And in the far corner, small and uncomely, the 
 Madonna del Soccorso, with her centuries old smile, 
 worn hands extended, gazed down on the wonder- 
 ing girl. 
 
 To help, to save, to comfort the woman's in- 
 herited right from the earliest days of time ; 
 involving self-sacrifice, bitter disillusion, but out- 
 lasting centuries of cruelty and sin. 
 
 Our Lady of Help. The inspiration was com- 
 plete, the way made clear at last. 
 
 And as she stood there, a strangely pathetic 
 figure, black-robed and young, so utterly alone, 
 Diana made her supreme renunciation, offering up 
 her pride. 
 
 Clearly she gazed back into the Madonna's eyes, 
 seeing no longer the faint, distorted vision, but a 
 serene faith shaping itself the hope of a man's 
 salvation. 
 
 She would forgive Bill, knowing all ! Not blindly, 
 childishly, with tight-shut eyes, refusing to re- 
 cognise sin, but as a woman, with knowledge of 
 temptation, with that broad sympathy that Ericsen 
 had urged, and together they would go forth to 
 start life anew, conscious of weakness, but conscious 
 too of the saving grace of love. 
 
 How long she stood there wrapped in profoundest
 
 EAETH 343 
 
 thought, in the vision of future days that her busy 
 brain called forth, she never even realised. But at 
 last a sound roused her, breaking loudly through 
 the silence, the heavy roll of thunder echoing in 
 the hills. Again it came, peeling through the high 
 vault of the empty church. Then the quick patter 
 of rain, the note of the wind rising, and a flash, blue 
 and vivid, that lit up the shrine of the grey Madonna. 
 
 Diana pulled herself together with a start of 
 dismay, aware of the growing obscurity as the 
 storm came rolling nearer; one of those sudden 
 violent storms that descend upon the lake, swelling 
 the mountain streams into rushing torrents and 
 lashing the cold blue water into waves, deadly to 
 fisher-folk whose light and unkeeled barques are 
 powerless to weather the treacherous gale. 
 
 As she reached the porch a peasant woman, her 
 shawl drawn tightly over her head, her wet skirts 
 clinging to her, slipped past into shelter, and, sinking 
 quickly on to her knees, with a rattle of wooden 
 beads began to pray aloud in a breathless monotone. 
 
 Through the open door Diana gazed in dismay at 
 the sudden change before her. Great grey clouds 
 blotted out the sunshine she bad left on her entry 
 into the church, and the paved downward way 
 streamed with water, the rain as it beat down form- 
 ing little rivulets between the uneven stones. 
 
 The olive trees creaked and groaned before the 
 storm that showed no sign of abatement, and the 
 mountains were blotted out in the thick white 
 mist. 
 
 The girl glanced at her watch, noting with relief 
 that her father would have returned by now from 
 his drive, ready for his cherished cup of tea that 
 English habit all the more dear in foreign lands. 
 But her face clouded over again at the idea of his
 
 344 EARTH 
 
 probable anxiety for herself and her protracted 
 absence. 
 
 Of late he had grown nervous at the thought of 
 her long solitary walks, and to-day Diana had said 
 nothing of her proposed excursion, hoping to be back 
 almost as soon as the pair in the carriage a fact 
 she was to remember later to her cost ! 
 
 But after a time the storm passed away as quickly 
 as it had come, following the range of hills that 
 border the long lake. From under the edge of the 
 parting clouds the sun peeped forth, and towards the 
 east a rainbow spanned the hills, a bridge of dissolv- 
 ing colours, exquisite and frail, reared 011 the columns 
 of the lofty peaks. 
 
 The girl's eyes lingered on it as she walked down 
 the hill, avoiding the little streams racing merrily 
 onward to join the brook that bordered the path, 
 now a leaping mass of water swirling down to the 
 river that fed the silk-mills below. The freshness 
 of the air after the rain was delicious and the moist 
 smell of the earth was blent with that of the wild 
 thyme, rosemary, and clumps of wet-faced meadow- 
 sweet. 
 
 Diana threw her head back and drank it in, her 
 cheeks rosy with the pace at which she moved, 
 springing down the narrow steps and taking great 
 strides forward, until about midway she came to 
 the steepest piece of all, sheer as a sloping rock and 
 slippery as glass in its half-dried state. Once she 
 saved herself narrowly from a fall and laughed aloud, 
 that clear, meny note that would have warmed 
 Ericsen's heart, bringing back memories of the 
 Diana he first had known, boyish and sweet, un- 
 dimmed by sorrow's cloud. 
 
 For indeed she felt as though a burden had been 
 removed. Her resolution taken, there should be no
 
 EARTH 345 
 
 looking back. She had decided ; the fight was 
 over. And in the reaction from the long hours of 
 doubt and silent conflict she felt a lightening of 
 spirit that communicated itself to her very feet. 
 
 She began to sing to herself, fragments of song, 
 cheering the lonely way with her clear young voice, 
 and with a tender smile she drifted back into the 
 old refrain, the song that memory bound so closely 
 about Bill 
 
 " I will give you the keys of Heaveu 
 To lock the gates when the clock strikes seven. 
 Madam, will you walk ? 
 Madam, will you talk . . ." 
 
 and broke off suddenly as she saw upon the path, 
 under her very feet, a great stag-horn beetle, 
 dignified and obese, taking his evening stroll abroad 
 regardless of danger. 
 
 With a supreme effort she threw herself back, 
 leaning her whole weight on her stick, and as it 
 slipped away, went down, her leg twisted under 
 her, with a sharp involuntary cry of pain. 
 
 For a moment she lay there, a crumpled heap on 
 the hard cobble-stones ; then with a wry smile she 
 tried to rise from the ground. 
 
 But an excruciating stab went through her and 
 she sank back again dismayed, aware of graver 
 trouble than a mere sprained foot. In vain she 
 gazed about her for a sign of life. The deserted 
 road wound in zigzags down the hill, pink with 
 the sunset's glow, and sanctified to pilgrimage alone, 
 far from the haunts of men and the distant cottages 
 that framed the shore. 
 
 Sick and faint with the agony of the jarred limb, 
 she managed to drag herself across the road and 
 down a few yards to the shelter of a shrine that
 
 346 EARTH 
 
 bounded the sharp bend of the path and commanded 
 a view of the next descent. 
 
 Slowly the red ball of the sun went down behind 
 the hills and a cold wind stole up from the lake, 
 making her shiver where she lay, her shoulders 
 against the hard step, watching the empty road. 
 
 She wondered dimly if she would lie there for 
 ever. Her head throbbed and the pain in her ankle 
 seemed steadily to increase. She was seized with 
 an utter horror of loneliness, a dread of she knew 
 not what, some intangible trouble that would come 
 creeping out of the dreary fields. 
 
 There had been a gruesome mystery in the English 
 papers of late the body of a young girl of gentle 
 birth found on the Highland moors, dead, with a 
 broken ankle, presumably starved, far from the 
 reach of help. Now she recalled this with a shudder 
 of despair. It seemed too cruel to contemplate a 
 lonely death, racked with pain, but a short hour 
 since so full of life and hope and new-born resolutions. 
 
 Once or twice she raised her voice, crying aloud 
 for assistance, but no sound answered, only the 
 ripple of the little stream and far away the whistle 
 of a steamer, homeward bound up the lake. The 
 last gleam of rose faded from the sky and that 
 curious livid glow that heralds the twilight hour 
 lit up the paved way, a streak of silver threading 
 in and out of the slumbering fields. 
 
 One by one the stars peered forth and a full moon, 
 cold and unfriendly, rose up above the hills. A 
 night bird called with a hoarse croak and a bat 
 whirled down, still blinded by the light, and blundered 
 on with its faint, high squeak, and in the meadows 
 damp with the heavy dew a chorus of frogs arose 
 with an eerie insistence that seemed to add to the 
 loneliness of the hour.
 
 EAETH 347 
 
 Tears of weakness and pain were trickling down 
 her face. She had given up hope at last, foretasting 
 the horrible slow night, the cold grey dawn, and 
 realising only too acutely that no one knew where 
 she lay save Ericsen alone. And he was speeding 
 south, ignorant of her danger. 
 
 She seemed to lose all count of time, to lie in a 
 world of pain, apart, removed from all humanity. 
 
 And then suddenly out of the lonely spaces of the 
 night a figure turned the bend of the road below, 
 the figure of a man, mounting swiftly with long, 
 even strides, head bent a little forward as though 
 lost in thought. 
 
 At the sight the girl's courage returned. Here 
 was help, tangible and at hand. 
 
 A patch of olive-trees for a moment blurred the 
 vision ; then the man re-appeared, swinging round 
 the further curve, broad shoulders above the 
 intervening bank. 
 
 In a spasm of joy, Diana drew herself up on her 
 elbow, shaken with excitement, calling aloud for 
 help. 
 
 For a moment the figure paused; then with a 
 spurt, started up the slope, and through the silence 
 around a voice, hoarse with anxiety and long-pent-up 
 desire, swept to the ears of the listening girl miracle 
 of miracles ! in one short word breathing the very 
 essence of Bill's hope 
 
 " Diana ! "
 
 348 EAETH 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 STEADILY, with cautious feet, Rill bore his 
 precious burden down the hill, conscious of 
 every tiny jar that sent a thrill of pain 
 through the slender figure in his arms. 
 
 He knew for the first time what it was physically 
 to suffer for another, the sick feeling of impotence 
 before a loved one's pain. 
 
 Twice he paused to rest on the long downward 
 road, still weak from his fever abroad, deeply 
 ashamed that it should be so and unaware that this 
 very lack of strength made him still dearer to the 
 heart that throbbed so near his own. 
 
 Once as his foot slipped and he groaned audibly 
 at her start of pain, he felt the little hand, hot with 
 fever, steal up round his neck, and Diana's voice, low 
 and faint, breathing in his ear. 
 
 " I'm going to forgive, Tony; I promised I would." 
 
 "Promised whom?" He bent his head, a spirit 
 of wonder moving him to the question, and he thought 
 she must be wandering, when the answer came back 
 softly from lips, tight with the effort of self-control. 
 
 " Our Lady of Help," she said. 
 
 The night closed in around them, blotting out the 
 world, no longer lonely to Diana, but a fair setting to 
 a dream of love. From Bellaggio's point a search- 
 light flashed, sweeping the broad water with a fan-
 
 EARTH 349 
 
 shaped radiance, lingered for a moment on a belated 
 fishmg-boat, and vanished northward with its warn- 
 ing to contrabandists lurking along the fn-ntier 
 shore. 
 
 Bound by the Villa Arconati and its pile of rocks 
 tongues of flame spurted : the glare of pinewood 
 torches and strange figures of men stood revealed, 
 motionless, arm uplifted, ready to spear the swiftly- 
 moving fish that swirled up, dazzled, to their doom. 
 Somewhere far away a guit ir throbbed rhythmically 
 and a deep voice, mellow and untrained, rose and fell 
 and was swallowed up in the silence again. 
 
 All the long afternoon as they steamed up from 
 Como and sheltered from the storm with a blissful 
 disregard for time, moored to a friendly pier, Bill 
 had prepared himself for this longed-for meeting, 
 foreseeing the invincible arguments of youth, arm- 
 ing herself for a last stand, so it seemed to him 
 a final desperate bid for the happiness he craved. 
 
 And now at a touch the phantom defences fell. 
 Diana lay in his arms, so still, so helpless, that the 
 miracle held him speechless, and he asked himself 
 with a throb of pain if it were illness alone that 
 prompted the surrender. He dreaded a swift 
 awakening once the fever was spent and the 
 Diana of old rebellious, broken but proud. 
 
 Taking advantage of a low wall skirting the path 
 that led into the town, he paused for a moment, 
 resting his weight upon it, to gather his energies 
 for the final descent down to the water's edge. 
 
 Diana stirred, opening her hazel eyes. So clear 
 was the look she gave him, so trustful and so sweet 
 that Bill's doubts faded before it, wonder replacing 
 fear. 
 
 " Is it all true, Diana ? do you really forgive me, 
 child?" His voice shook with the nervous strain
 
 350 EARTH 
 
 he felt as he bent his head to catch the words that 
 trembled on her lips. 
 
 But Diana checked herself. Woman-like she 
 craved the assurance of his love before she would 
 venture farther. 
 
 " Do you care so much, Tony ? So very, very 
 much?" 
 
 " Care ? " He laid his cheek against the glossy 
 hair that the evening breeze had loosened against 
 his supporting shoulder, fearing to break the spell 
 by further demonstration. " Care ? " He repeated 
 the word strongly. " Why, Diana, you're all the 
 world to me." 
 
 The ring of truth, unmistakable, sent a glow of 
 colour into her white face, as he went on brokenly, 
 staring straight ahead. 
 
 " I know I'm not worth it, child you're far too 
 good for a man like me. But give me one more 
 chance just one ? " Unconsciously he tightened 
 his arms around her " Just one more try, Diana? " 
 
 At the humble entreaty in his voice, the simplicity 
 of the speech, Diana turned, forgetting pain, lost 
 to all else but the longing to comfort Bill. Her hands 
 went up to his face, and drawing it down towards 
 her, childishly, seriously, she kissed him on his cheek. 
 
 " Let's try . . . together," she said. A sudden 
 sharp throb at the movement made her wince, and 
 she lay back, exhausted, in his arms. 
 
 But Bill, carried away by the hope that her words 
 had raised, realised nothing but a swift rush of 
 passion overwhelming him. 
 
 "Oh, Diana, Diana!" He broke into incoherent 
 speech, love and gratitude, all the pent-up emotion 
 of the moment striving for utterance in promises 
 for the days to come, and finally in halting explana- 
 tions of the past.
 
 EABTH 351 
 
 But the girl checked him with a gesture of command. 
 
 " I don't want to hear that's over, dead and 
 buried." She shivered suddenly, drawing closer to 
 him. " But the future's ours, Tony, to do with as 
 we choose. And I think I can help if you'll let 
 me. I think ... I understand." 
 
 She slid a little hand into his own, but a newborn 
 scruple seized the man, his exultation sinking as 
 swiftly as it had come. 
 
 "And what of yourself , Diana ? It's a precious 
 poor exchange." His voice went suddenly hard. 
 " Your youth and health, genius and high ideals for 
 a battered man of the world." He laughed with 
 a note of scorn. "For the philanderer, in fact 
 middle aged, tired of life, with not even a clean 
 record to lay before you ! " 
 
 " Oh, hush, hush ! " Her eyes were shining now. 
 " You don't understand, Tony you don't under- 
 stand a bit. It's just because you are you, with all 
 your faults, my dear ..." A sob rose in her 
 throat and she went on breathlessly. " It's like a 
 beautiful garden that's somehow choked by weeds : 
 you were meant for finer things than you pretend. 
 That's the Tony I see not the society man. And 
 he's the one I want the man I mean to have ! " 
 her voice rang with a deep note, sweet and pas- 
 sionate " and the man who will make me proud, 
 and give me the keys of heaven." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Bill. He drew in his breath deeply, 
 and before his mental vision the picture of another 
 moonlit night arose in far away Hyeres, with the 
 old church on the hill, where first they had peeped 
 together into the heart of fairyland. 
 
 "Do you remember, Diana?" He read the 
 answer in her eyes. " But I love you better now 
 a thousandfold, my dear."
 
 352 EARTH 
 
 She nestled back against his shoulder, feeling 
 the battle won, tired hut supremely happy, gazing 
 up at the clear-cut face < utlin* d against the st;irs. 
 
 And quaintly, softly, sl.e be^au to sing, her eyes 
 lost in his 
 
 " ' Thou shalt give me the keys of thy heart 
 And nought but death us twain shall part. 
 Madam, will you walk ? 
 Madam, will you talk ? ' " 
 
 She broke off, leaving the verse unfinished, and 
 suddenly, with a quick movement, threw her arms 
 open as if she would gather the country that she 
 loved and all the j_lory of the southern night, with 
 the man she had chosen, into one close embrace. 
 
 " Kiss me, Tony ! " Her voice thrilled him. 
 
 So Diana " gave earth."
 
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