Marmaduk( Marmaduke By Flora Annie Steel Author of "On the Face of the Waters," "A Sovereign Remedy,' • ■ King-Errant," etc. * a New York Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers 1917 Printed in Great Britain BOOK I 433574 CHAPTER I " HELLO, Davie ! Is that you, Davie Sim ?" cried a joyous young voice; then it changed suddenly, with a verve which showed pure delight in the unfamiliar yet familiar dialect, from correct English to the broadest Aberdeen- shire accent. " Eh, mon, ye're joost the same ow'd tod o a pease-bogle wi' yer bonnet ajee, an* a crookit mou' ; yen hauf given tae psaulm singin* and tither tae pipe-blaw- ing !" The voice paused a bit breathlessly as if it had exhausted itself over the unwonted exercise, then went on in slightly less aggressive Doric. "Well, Fm blythe to see you lookin' sae weel. An* is that tall lass Marrion ?" An easy gallantry came to his tones as the speaker, a fine young fellow of obviously military bearing, turned to a girl who stood very still by the window. " By gad," the young man went on with the same easy condescension, " you have grown into a pretty girl ! Give us a kiss, my dear ; you know you used to be fond of ' Mr. Duke ' in the " Then suddenly silence fell between the two young people. Something in the tall still figure by the window seemed to abash the tall figure making its way easily towards it, and left them looking at each other critically. They were as fine a couple physically as God ever made to come together as man and woman. They were almost alike in stature and strength — she slightly the smaller — and both seemed equal in abounding health, though he 3 4 MA RM A DUKE was florid and she somewhat pale with the pallor of the thick creamy skin that goes with red-bronze hair. She spoke at last, the thin curves of her mouth clipping her words sharply. " There's mony to tell me yon and crave kisses since you an* me was harflins together, Mr. Duke," she said coolly. " I beg yer pardon, Captain Marmaduke !" The Honourable Captain Marmaduke Muir, second son of the sixteenth Baron Drummuir of Drummuir, home on leave after an absence of ten years on foreign service, looked at the grand-daughter of his father's head piper and general majordomo as if considering anger. He was too good looking to be accustomed to such rebuffs from pretty girls, especially when they were manifestly beneath him in station. Then suddenly he laughed. The years had fled, and he was a boy again in fast fel- lowship with a small hoyden of a girl ; a girl four years his junior, but infinitely his superior in common sense; a girl who had kept him out of many a scrape and who hadn't scrupled on occasion to box his ears, young master though he was. With a sudden flash of memory the occasion came back to him, and he saw himself, a strong lad of fourteen, wading a swollen stream with the ten- year-old girlie on his back, a string of handsome trouties he had been catching hanging like a tail from his hands clasped behind his burden. He heard the agonised cry in mid-stream, " They're slippin', Maister Duke, they're slippin' ! Let me down till I hoosen them up !" He heard the stiff reply : " Let 'em slip ; I'll no let ye down tae soak ye through!" And then the woeful battle of wills that ensued, while the trouties slipped from the string one by one. A battle which ended in a sobbing MARMADUKE 5 girlie ankle deep in water, an empty string, and a defiant lad with young crimson ears. He felt his mature ones tingle with amusement at the recollection, and at the recognition that the girlie was as ready of resentment as ever. " Ods bobs, Marmie !" he cried, his face full of mischief. "It seems you've no forgotten the whaur-aboots of my lugs," and his hands went up to his face as if to protect them. The girl crimsoned. "I begged your pardon then, Captain Marmaduke, and I beg it again if I've offended " she began de- fiantly. He interrupted her with an absolutely charming smile, a deference that was unanswerable. " And I beg yours for remembering what I should have forgotten. So we are quits and can surely shake hands on it like the good friends we always were, and " — here his voice took on additional charm — "always will be. Of that I am sure." His bold blue eyes were on hers frankly, and she gave him back his look steadily. So they stood, shapely hand in shapely hand, for a second. Then his left fingers caught at hers and felt the first one inquisitively. " Hullo, seamstress, that's new ?" he queried, evidently pleased with his own cleverness in detection. Marrion Paul drew her hand away sharply. "I've been at the dressmaking in Edinbro* these six years since grandfather married," she replied coldly. Marmaduke looked at Davie Sim incredulously. 11 What, Davie ! You old reprobate, who the deuce did you get to marry you ?" 6 MARMADUKE There was no answer. Possibly Davie did not hear, for he was rootling round the kitchen fire with the poker — a most unnecessary task that sweltering June day. Perhaps, also, it was flame-reflection which made his face show red under the wide Tarn o* Shanter bonnet he in- variably wore in his own house ; why it would be difficult to say, except that outside the precincts of home he was for ever doffing it before somebody or another. For Davie Sims had been born hereditary servitor to the Drummuir family, and had every intention of dying in the same position. " He married Penelope from the castle," came Marrion's voice relentlessly, "and his lordship gave her away." " The devil he did," remarked the young man help- lessly to both pieces of information, after a moment's pause due evidently to mingled outrage and amusement. " Well," he added, in male defiance of the woman's point of view, " I expect she makes him an excellent wife." " Most excellent !" assented Marrion, with a curl of her lip. "So, as she happens to be gone on a visit, I have come back to stay a while — a little while — with grand- father." Her diction, bar the one slight slip, was as free from provincialism as his own, and Marmaduke Muir looked at her appreciatively. She was different from the hoyden he had left. Perhaps in Edinburgh she had gone in for classes. And she was better looking too, though much too tall for a woman. Then her mouth, though passable in its thin decided curves, was far too wide for beauty. Still, she was altogether sufficiently pleasant to look upon for Marmaduke to feel it necessary for him to charm. Not that either by nature or art he was a lady-killer. MARMADUKE 7 To do him justice, he would have felt just the same had the attraction been male or neuter. Simply he always desired to please what was pleasant to himself, and his tastes were catholic. So he said almost sentimentally : " Well, I am very glad you're here. We shall be able to spend our birthdays together as we used to in the old times. Eighteenth of June ! Waterloo day ! Good heavens, I can scarcely believe that I shall be thirty to- morrow, and you ?" He positively blushed, for in the year 1 848 it was almost indecent for an unmarried woman to be six-and-twenty. Marrion, however, had no such qualms. " Twenty-six," she said calmly ; perhaps she knew she did not look it. " Anyhow," he went on hastily, as if to escape from an unwelcome fact, "I have brought you a present from foreign parts." He had not even thought of one ; in fact, he had only given his old playmate a passing remem- brance, wondering whom she had married ; but he knew his boxes contained enough trifles for the home folk to enable him to spare one, and he could no more help trying to charm than he could help breathing. "And now," he added, " I must be off. Tell me, Davie, like a good soul, where I am likely to find his lordship this time of day. I'm cursed early," he continued a bit ruefully, u but that's the worst of me. Fm always in such a devil of a hurry." " You came across the ferry ?" asked Marrion sym- pathetically. He turned to her at once. " Yes. It was the first coach. I wouldn't wait for the 8 MARMADUKE later one. And then when I got to the Cross Keys and saw the old place over the water, I wouldn't wait to go round by the bridges. So Andrew— you remember Andrew Fraser, of course?— 'pon my soul, he's been a first-class orderly ever since he joined, and I don't know what I should have done without him ; nursed me like a mother when I'd fever and all that sort of thing— a real honest good chap. Well, he got out the valise and car- ried it down the ferry road. I didn't know, you see, that the ferry was disused ; but we luckily found someone's boat — and here I am — too soon ! " " I'm thinkin'," said Davie Sim, with caution, " that his lordship at this hour will, mayhap, be inspec'in' the pig- styes." "Pigstyes!" echoed Marmaduke theatrically. "Say not so ! Dash it all, I can't do prodigal in a pigstye ! I demand a byre and a fatted calf. Well, I suppose I had better ring at the front door and ask the butler if my Lord Drummuir is at home like any orra' stranger. So — ta, ta, for the present !" He waved an easy hand to Marrion as he passed out. She hesitated a second, then followed him into the sunlit courtyard and called — "Captain Duke!" He turned, looking so handsome and debonnaire that her purpose almost wavered. Why should she pour gall and wormwood into his cup of life before circumstances made the bitter inevitable ? Still, since it had to come, and that shortly, it was as well he should be prepared for it. So much depended on the relations between him and his father that it was better he should not be taken un- awares. MARMADUKE 9 " If you are wanting to see his lordship the now," she said, her phrasing astray once more under pressure of other thoughts, "you wad find him in the south avenue. He was there when I came frae the town the now, cutting away at yen of the big beech trees." " Cutting at a big beech tree ! What the deuce do you mean ?" queried Marmaduke incredulously. She replied calmly, conclusively. a Just that he must hae gotten a letter from your brother the Master. It aye angers him so that he orders out the men with the hatchets. It's as well you should know." He stood staring at her. It was no news to him, of course, even though mails had been infrequent during those ten years, that there was an open breach between his father and the heir, nor was he unaware of his father's savage temper; that, and the impossibility of getting a decent allowance to enable him to live in England being responsible for those same ten years of foreign service. But distance softens shadows ; besides, the very idea that a man could go and cut down historical trees just to spite another man was foreign to Marmaduke's nature. " Oh, curse the whole lot !" he broke out at last. " Upon my soul I'll go back to the East — it isn't half a bad place — or wouldn't be if one only had a little tin — besides, I must get the money for my majority." His words, following his impulsive thoughts, made Marrion smile indulgently. " I wouldn't if I was you, Mr. — I mean Captain Duke," she remarked, with a twinkle in her eye. " Mayhap, my lord will bury the hatchet now you're home, if ye don't anger him." She looked pretty with that half-mischievous smile, and the sight cheered Marmaduke instantly. 10 MARMADUKE " What a wise lassie you always were, Marmie," he said, with wilful charm, "and what a lot of scrapes you've gotten me out of, and what a lot you'd get me out of, if you were only bound up with me like the Shorter Cate- chism was by mistake with Tristram Shandy — d'you remember? Good lord, I've forgotten my duty to my neighbour ! However, here goes, and I'll do my best not to anger the baron ! You see, I must get the money for my majority," he added, half to himself, as he spun round on his heel rather dramatically. In fact, there was no denying it, the Honourable Marmaduke Muir was a trifle flamboyant as he swag- gered across the courtyard which led from the old keep of Drummuir Castle to the southern and modern portion of the building. Marrion Paul watched the figure with a cer- tain distaste. Perhaps, she thought, it was only the ultra- fashionable dress, the all too palpable fit-out of a smart military tailor, eager for a bill, that clashed with the grim old walls. Inside he had seemed much the same as she remembered him. Kindly, affectionate, not over wise, but charming, absolutely charming. And, after all, who was she to judge a gentleman born ? That question was a hard one to answer. Her mother had undoubtedly been Maggie Sim, old Sim's daughter, who had been maid to the first Lady Drummuir. But her father had been Paul, the foreign valet, whom Lord Drummuir's younger brother had brought over with him when he was invalided from the diplomatic service. A very decent, respectable sort of chap, as old Sim admitted even while he objected strongly to his daughter's marriage. Not without rea- son it turned out, since Paul, after tending his sick master with unremitting care and resource until his death, dis- MARMADUKE 11 appeared the day of the funeral, leaving his young wife expecting her first child. And he had never been heard of since. That Mrs. Paul should pine away and die early was, the folk about said, only to be expected, for Paul, despite his foreign birth, had been a man to be regretted — a man who had a way with him which his daughter had inherited. She, however, would never hear a word in his favour, and nothing made her more angry than to find in herself little traits of character unaccount- able to her sturdy Scots upbringing. So she told herself that she was no judge of what a gentleman's dress or deportment should be, and turned at the sound of a footstep coming through the archway of the keep behind her to greet the newcomer with a more effusive welcome than she would otherwise have given the young man who came towards her carrying a valise on his shoulder. He set down his burden and grasped her outstretched hand in a sort of transport. "Ah, Marrion — Marrion, my lass!" he cried. "God, but it's gude to see you once mair !" The words summed him up from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes. You might have spent long hours in analysing Andrew Fraser's mind and body at that particular moment, and you would have got no nearer the mark, since for the time being existence was sheer glad- ness because of the sight of a woman. " And I've brocht him safe home as ye bade me when I joined. Ye'll have seen him yerself. He's fine, isn't he?" There was a world of pride in his tone ; the pride of the soldier-servant who is responsible for the smartness of his master's outturn. 12 MARMADUKE " Aye !" assented Marrion, grimly recognising that the figure before her was more to her mind in some ways than the other which had gone swaggering through the quad- rangle. This one was broader in the chest, simpler in its ugly angular face and small pathetic-looking blue eyes, and simple — oh, so irritatingly simple ! — in the devotion writ large in its every look, its every intonation. "Well, I'm glad you're both home safe," she said, putting the barrier of refined speech between them. Then a resentment, of which she was innately ashamed even while she yielded to it, made her add : " And I suppose you've brought home a wife on the strength of the regi- ment ?" Andrew Fraser stared for a second, then shouldered his valise again deftly — "Ye ken fine, Marrion Paul," he said sternly, as he went on, "that there never was but ae woman in the wurrld for me, an* never will be." And so he left her feeling small and mean. She watched him across the courtyard following on his master's steps. A fine figure of a man. No swagger there, nothing to clash with the grey old walls. But that made no difference, no difference at all. That was the worst of it. CHAPTER II MARMADUKE MuiR had meanwhile found his familiar way through the low arch which, piercing the extreme corner of the eastern side of the quadrangle, formed the connecting link between the older part of Drummuir Castle and the new. For the rest, this eastern wall showed blank save for a loophole or two. It was, in effect, simply the back wall of what in Scotland is called the square ; that is, the continuation of stables, cow-houses and woodsheds which appertain to a country mansion in the north. It had evidently been built as a wind-screen to the western wing, which, overlooking the river, had been the residential portion of the house before the southern wing had been added to close in the quadrangle. Altogether it was a fine old place, magnificently situated in the slight hollow which dipped between the high old red sandstone cliffs of the Aberdeenshire coast, and the lower yet still high old red sandstone cliffs which for a mile or two formed the eastward bank of the river Drum. Standing still on the grass-plot in the centre of the court- yard a quick ear could detect two water sounds — the rhythmic roll of the waves of the North Sea on the one hand, and the incessant rush of the running river on the other. Marmaduke did not pause to listen. He only felt a thrill of pride in the beauty of the stern old place before he passed through the arch into totally different sur- 13 14 MARMADUKE roundings. Here were wide well-kept lawns, beds of rhododendrons, then somewhat of a novelty, and in those northern climes ablaze with blossom this middle June. Further afield lay a typical East Aberdeenshire land- scape of rolling arable land set with square plantations of wood and dotted at sparse intervals with solid grey granite farm-houses. Behind him, despite its wide portico and Grecian balustrade, the new wing of the old castle looked stern and stubborn as the rest. He stood for a moment on the curving flight of mas- sive steps and drew in a long breath of satisfaction ; for right in front of him stretched something that once seen could never be forgotten. People came from far for a sight of the great beech avenue of Drummuir. And what they went out for to see was worth the seeing. A cathedral aisle, not made by hand, solemn, serene. Soft sunlight filtering through a vaulted roof of leaves, wide spandrils of brown branches sweeping to wide arch from the pillars of the mighty tree trunks — a tessellated pavement of shade and shine. He had seen the sight a thousand times, yet it brought now, as it had always brought, a vague wonder as to the long years since those giant beeches had sent their first feeler into Mother Earth's bosom. But, as ever, after the manner of such idle human wonders when confronted with the permanence of what men class as lower life, it passed, contentedly unsatisfied, to a flood of remem- brance. How frightened he had been as a little chap when his nurse had dragged him home to bed — dark, lonely bed ! — through those solemn shadows in the gloaming. He had changed, but the avenue had not. It was just the same. No, hardly ! There was more MARMADUKE 15 shafted sunlight in the distance surely ? And that rasp- ing sound in the air — what was it ? Surely a cross-cut saw at work ! Then Marmie had as usual told the truth. His father must be cutting down one of the historic beech trees, and there was no need to ring and ask for Lord Drummuir — no need at all ! He was to be found as usual ungovernable, insensate, in- tolerant. A whole youth of rebellion stormed through Marmaduke Muir's mind as, at quick march, he fumed down to where the shameful deed was being done. From far he could see it was in full swing. The team of horses ready to give the final pull, the stays to other trees, the whole paraphernalia of destruction including the cluster of workmen busy round the doomed tree. And see ! Safe to windward — aye, you bet, safe, jolly safe ! — the knot of spectators gathered round a bath- chair. That held his father, of course. And the others ? They would not be the old sycophants possibly, but they would be of the same kidney. A woman, too ! Not his half-sisters — they, poor souls, would be weeping in the dower house over the injury to their brother the heir and to the heirloom beech ! And it would not be Penelope — she had been handed over to Davie Sim. By Jupiter, it was too bad ! He quickened his pace, fretted by the rush of bitter resentment ; then paused suddenly — Hist ! The melodious whistle of a blackbird overhead ceased, and a little rustling sound asserted itself above the constant burring of the saw. The squirrels were leaping from branch to branch. " Look to yersels — look to yersels ! She's yieldin' ! Stan' clear for your hfe. Stan' clear ! She yieldin' !" The cry rose none too soon. There was an instant's 16 MARMADUKE hurry, then an instant's intense silence, on which came a sharp crack like a pistol-shot, as the tine old tree, less tough than men had reckoned it, tilted slowly as if un- certain which way to seek its grave. So while men held their breath it stood arrested, defiant; then with a roar and a rush, a swish of sweeping branches, a surging of green leaves, it sank like the tumultuous onrush of some mighty wave, to fall a confused tumbling heap of shade and shine upon the kindly earth exactly where the wit of man had destined it to lie. A noisy clapping of hands and a high-pitched feminine laugh rose from about the bath-chair; but, ere the ap- plause ceased, a young accusing figure positively flaming with wrath had sprung forward, leaped upon the sawn root of the fallen tree, and so framed as with a halo by the new-cut bole — which measured over seven feet in diameter — bawled out in a voice quivering with sheer passion : " You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir ! Go home to bed, you miserable old gouty cripple; you've done enough mischief for one day !" Marmaduke was given to being dramatic, but he had' never been more effective than at that moment. He stood his ground like a young avenging angel, secretly elated at having done the business thoroughly well and defied his father, despite Marrion Paul's advice. He almost smiled at the thought of her dismay. Meanwhile, the face of the old man in the bath-chair had grown positively purple with anger, and the colour did not improve the heavy contours of chin, double chin, treble chin, which melted over the high white stock. Yet, barring this exuberant fleshiness, the face was not a bad face. It had MARMADUKE 17 indeed its measure of good looks, being not unlike Mar- maduke's own. The bald head, if a trifle small, was well shaped, the blue eyes clear, if a trifle cold, and the lips, cruel enough in their heavy curves, had evidently done a deal of laughing in their day to judge by the lines about them. Altogether a strong, sensible face; but arrogant, intolerant to a degree, especially now when its owner was listening to the defiance of his son — a son dependent on him for every farthing beyond his miserable pay as a captain in His Majesty's forces — a son who For a moment Baron Drummuir looked as if he must have a fit ; then he laughed — a great rude, rough guffaw. " Ton my soul," he chuckled, " it's as good as a play ! So it's you, is it, you young fool ? How the deuce did you get here at this time of day ? We didn't expect you for another two hours, so I decided business first " — he waved carelessly to the fallen tree — " and pleasure — that's you, jackanapes — afterwards. Eh, what ! Hey !" This calm reception of his insults completely took the starch out of them and poor Marmaduke, who, standing on his pedestal, could think of nothing further to say save to mumble something about the short cut by the old ferry road. The baron, as he loved to be called, chuckled again. " Good boy — anxious as all that to see his poor old dad. And came in the nick of time to see me kill my fatted calf" — he waved to the fallen tree again. "I've killed it nicely, haven't I ? And " — here a flicker of pure hatred passed across the fleshy face — " the devil take the man who made me do it !" His father's expression re-aroused Marmaduke's anger. " You curse yourself by saying that, sir," he burst out ; 2 18 MARMADUKE " for God knows you always do what you want — nobody makes you." Once again the old man took the starch out of the young one. "Smart!" he said coolly. "Demned smart, my dear boy ! I wonder you don't get on better in life than you do, judging by your constant but fruitless appeals to my cash-box. But get down off your high horse, there's a good lad — you look like some damned play-acting fool up there — and give your old dad a paw; the left one, young ass, the left ! Can't you see my right is all ban- daged up with the most infernal fit of my old enemy I've had since last Christmas? All that Perigord-pie old Hare sent me. I'll baste his fat liver for him when he comes to-morrow. Lordy lord ! Puts me in mind, Mar- maduke, of the old days when your mother — she was the best of the three — used to say to you, a little lad, ' The right hand, my dearie. The right hand, my lovie.' And you never could remember. You were a bit of a dullard, but fine and strong and handsome. Not like that cursed skunk, Master Pitt — but there, don't let's mar the har- mony of the occasion, eh, Jack ?" He turned to a small man with somewhat of a weasel face who stood beside him listening devoutly, as were all the group. "You remember Jack Jardine, don't you, Duke ?" " Slightly," smiled the young man, grasping the other's hand and shaking it violently. " One of the few pleasant reminiscences, sir, I have of Drummuir Castle." He echoed his father's reckless disregard of other folks' feelings with superb indifference and gave back the old man's critical look coolly. The latter laughed. MARMADUKE 19 " Just what I was at his age — eh, what ? Lordy lord, Jack, how we smashed all the lamp-posts in Dodston and told the provost to send the policeman with the bill ! Ha, ha ! and old cat Carnegie sitting in the hearse with her skirts up to her knees going to the Hunt ball when we'd commandeered every other conveyance in the town. Ha, ha ! how the pretty little lassies showed their san- dalled ankles, bless 'em, trying to keep their dresses clear of coffins. But I am forgetting. Sandalled ankles reminds me — eh, Fantine ? Come here, my dear. I must present you to my second son, Captain — he wants to be a major, I'm told — Marmaduke Muir. Marmaduke, make your due respects to Mdlle. Fantine Le Grand, your future stepmother !" The dainty little figure, which till then had been stand- ing with one tiny, much-beringed hand resting on the back of the bath-chair, its inquisitive, almost colourless grey eyes taking in the minutest detail of the scene, took a step forward and prepared to make a full-flounced curtsey. But Marmaduke was too quick, too prompt in his perceptions. He grasped the situation and the little lady in a second. The general pinkness of complexion and furbelows, the jimpness of the long trim waist, the uncompromising bands of black velvet, the showers of fair ringlets. His hat was off with a flourish, he also took a step forward to meet the curtsey, but, bending with a " grand air " that did him infinite credit, gave the powdered face a resounding kiss. The recipient let loose a decorous shriek outwardly; within it was easy to see amused acquiescence. Once again old Lord Drummuir looked as though he would have a fit. 20 MARMADUKE " You dashed young scoundrel," he spluttered. Marmaduke held his head very high. " Excuse me, sir," he said, " if I've done wrong ; but you said she — I beg pardon, Mdlle. Fantine Le Grand" — his eyes flashed into hers boldly and met a smile — "was to be my stepmamma, so I thought " "Oh, the devil take your thoughts," growled his father, but his lips twitched suspiciously. Then suddenly he burst out once again into one of his rude, rough guffaws. "Regular chip of the old block, hey, Jack? Well, Fan, I dare say you don't mind. Haven't too long, you know, of such gay young sparks, for as soon as I'm about again he shall dance at your wedding. Now, for heaven's sake, don't let's stop chattering here ! I've got to see my daughters and I want to talk to my son. No, no, you jackanapes, keep away just now ! My gout's cursed, the road is cursed, and my temper will be cursed too; so I should likely disinherit you before we got on to the lawn. Fan shall stop by me. I won't have you gallivanting with my son, d'ye hear ? He's a good- looking chap, confound him, but you've got to pay for the title, my lady ! Have a care, blockhead ! Didn't you see that stone ? Don't let it hurt your pretty little feet, Fan." Marmaduke, dropping behind with Jack Jardine, gave a fierce sigh as he watched the little cavalcade move off amid this running fire of curses and kindliness. " Is it all just as it used to be, Jack ?" he asked help- lessly. The little man cleared his throat. " A little worse perhaps. Your father is a very remark- able man, Marmaduke — a very remarkable man !" CHAPTER III ANYONE who had seen Lord Drummuir ten minutes after Jack Jardine's remark must have echoed it, for a more complete volte face of manner, speech, and apparently temperament than that which overtook the baron in the dower house could not be imagined. Still in his bath- chair, which Marmaduke had dutifully pushed in through the French windows on to the green-grounded, cabbage- rosed drawing-room carpet, he beamed round on his daughters and their chaperon with a paternal affection which was almost pathetic. The Honourable Miss Muirs were three in number and they had all greeted their younger half-brother with reserved kisses. But then everything they did was reserved. Miss Mary, the eldest, was reserved even about her tendency to grow stout, which, all things considered, was the strongest interest in her life. Miss Elizabeth, the second, a very elegant look- ing woman, was equally reserved about her undoubted intellect, while Miss Margaret, a great tall, strapping figure with all her father's force of character and all his soundness of constitution, held both in check, except when she managed a lonely walk with her dogs in the woods. Then her voice would ring out deep and true, and at the crack of her whip every puppy within miles would come in contentedly to heel. Her father liked her the least, probably because of the contrast between her and his ricketty male heir, so in the 21 22 MARMADUKE shabby Victorian drawing-room she generally sat mum- chance, showing up badly against her sisters' exquisite manners. For no one knew better than Lord Drummuir what a gentlewoman should be, and therefore he had been extremely particular about his daughters' educa- tion. To what end, heaven alone knew, since they lived on, year after year, in the dower house, occasionally visiting in stately fashion the late minister's wife (though this distraction was no longer theirs owing to the State appointment of a bachelor to the living), and, very occa- sionally, seeing some of their father's older and more respectable friends. In regard to this, however, and to kindred matters no grand Turk could have been more autocratic than was Lord Drummuir. So he sat and discoursed on Shakespeare and the musical glasses, on his delight at seeing his dearest boy again, leading the latter on to detail some of the more instructive portions of his foreign life, until the full half-hour which he daily bestowed on his daughters was up. Then with the utmost punctuality he took out his watch, said he feared he must be off, and congratulated himself and the three young ladies on a charming conversation. " You are too good, papa," replied the young ladies, as they deposited a decorous kiss on his bald head. So they stood and watched the bath-chair roll along the lawn till it reached the turn by the rhododendrons which hid it from view, and then they waved their handker- chiefs. And the baron waved his in return, thereinafter using it to mop his forehead relievedly, while he ejacu- lated, " Thank God, that's over !" Whereat Marmaduke smiling, the old man went on serenely. MARMADUKE 23 " Never forget, my boy, how to treat women of good character. The other comes naturally, but I'm damned if I ever forgot my manners with a really good woman. And you will find it pays, Duke, it pays. So now have not you got some bit of spice, or an on dit to amuse the old man with? Curse me, but I lead a miserable life here, tied down by this infernal complaint; but I am paying now for the follies and indiscretions of youth. Confound you, Marmaduke, you might think of your poor old father's joints and not rush your fences in that way!" " I beg your pardon, sir," replied Marmaduke, meekly glad of the turn he had given the conversation by deploy- ing the bath-chair into the gravel walk ; for, in good truth, he had no great relish for spicy stories. Not that he was a prig, but that he had been born a sportsman, to whom indoor life was dull and irksome. So he welcomed another interruption in the shape of a young man who came hastily down the path to meet them. "Why, I believe it's Peter!" he cried joyously, and the next minute was shaking hands with his young half- brother, the fruit of Lord Drummuir's third but not last marriage ; for his wives never lived long, except the first, who had lingered for years, only giving him useless daughters. " Why, Peter, how you've grown !" remarked Marmaduke unnecessarily, seeing he had been away ten years. " So've you — you're a giant beside the rest of us, except Meg ! Pitt and I " The lad pulled himself up sharp. " Well, I say, sir, we must have a rousin' night to celebrate Duke's return !" Marmaduke, looking at tfte slender, fair-haired youth 24 MARMADUKE with a weak mouth and an excited manner, thought he had probably roused too much. Instinctively, therefore, since he had often been drunk himself — it was the fashion of the time — he changed the subject again to one that had come uppermost in the old familiar surroundings. " I say, how about the grouse ? Is it to be a good year ?" His eyes as he spoke almost yearned over a swelling purpled horizon curve which told where the best moors in that part of Aberdeenshire were to be found. Five minutes after the old lord, still in his bath-chair, was discoursing in the most animated and amiable fashion about sport past and present and to come, while his two sons, one of them sprawling on the lawn, joined in amicably. So amicably that Mdlle. Fantine Le Grand, watching them from her boudoir windows, turned to a man who was lounging in a chair reading the papers, and said — " This sort of thing won't do, Compton. That young man is too charming " The man to whom she spoke did not look up. He went on reading, as he said — * You don't often find them too charming, Fan !" u Don't be a fool, Tom," she replied curtly, coming to sit beside him. " You know quite well what I mean. Young men of that sort always are in debt; besides, I've heard the old man say something about money for a majority. Now the estate's entailed, so payments of that sort must come out of what I mean to be mine — and I won't have it !"