II 1 ^ LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO i [See p. 166 I STRUCK SO VIOLENTLY AT THE DISGUSTING FACES NEAREST TO ME" A DOFFED CORONET A TRUE STORY BY THE AUTHOR OF THE MARTYRDOM OF AN EMPRESS" ILLUSTRATED HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1902 Copyright, 1902, by HARPER & BROTHI / according to your thrifty custom, you sold the news thus obtained to the Khedive, pluming yourself on your extraordinary ability in getting it, but studiously avoid- ing to tell him whom you were betraying to do so. For even his callousness would have hesitated to tap the information which an honest, loyal, and useful 229 A DOFFED CORONET man was taking so much pains to get for him, and to interfere with the excellent work he was doing. When you do such things you should not give written orders ; they remain against you; and they are at present in my hands, together with the full, signed, and duly attested confession of your unclean agent." "Stop, for mercy's sake! I have heard enough!" he almost shrieked, shaking from head to foot so violently that his golden aiguillettes rustled like leaves in a high wind. " Oh no, you have not. I will tell you a great deal more before I stop. You are pleased to despise the Khedive because you can lead him into mad follies, and because you imagine that you can go on blackmailing him for- ever. But Tewfik is not altogether the ignoble dupe you think him. He is a dupe better men than he have been so but he would not countenance such deeds as you have done in his name. Now if I went to him and showed him Luigi Effendi's confession, and your written instructions to b'etray my husband's trust ; if, moreover, I placed in his possession the gems which you stole from the necklace confided to your care, and if I also brought him undeniable proofs of the fraud which you perpetrated on Countess de M o, you would no longer find him the malle- able fool you deem him, and you would learn a lesson which you would not be likely to have the chance of forgetting. I have only named three out of the many sins you have committed against him, but rest assured that I have several other cards in hand which I can play equally well and equally effectively. And now it rests with you whether you want to save your neck by doing as I bid you, or whether I am to go to the Khe- dive and disclose to him the true character of his faith- ful aide-de-camp." 230 A DOFFED CORONET " What is it you want of me?" he groaned. I drew from my pocket and passed to him a few lines which I had written that morning and brought with me. They ran thus: "I, Mahmoud Bey, aide-de-camp of His Highness Tewfik Khe- dive, do acknowledge that I changed the gems adorning the so- called Collier de la Favorite, which had been intrusted to my care, for worthless paste, and that I sold the genuine stones and appropriated the money thus fraudulently obtained." " Sign it," I said, curtly. " Never!" he cried, pushing it away. " Do you think that I am going to sign my own death-warrant?" "Don't be a fool, Mahmoud Bey! You are clever enough to understand that you are in my power, and that you will have to do exactly what I tell you. More- over, you must see for yourself that if I wanted to ruin you I would not need that paper to do so. I mere- ly wish to have it as an additional weapon against you, guaranteeing your future neutrality in my hus- band's affairs, so you had better sign it, and close this unpleasant incident once and for all. Indeed, I can assure you that you will sign it, or that you will regret it very greatly." " I will not sign it," he reiterated, stubbornly. There was a moment's silence. Mahmoud's eyes wandered restlessly round the large room like those of an animal at bay, for he was beginning to perceive that he would have to obey me or suffer far worse things. Suddenly he changed his tactics, and throwing himself at my feet he implored me, with tears and moans quite nauseating to witness to spare him. "This is becoming wearisome, my good man," I said, drawing the edge of my skirt, which he had clutched convulsively, from his grasp. " I have told 231 A DOFFED CORONET you what I shall do if you do not sign this paper ; the choice is yours to make. Of course, if you desire that I should tell you any more episodes of your past similar to those already mentioned I can easily do so ; it might, perchance, hasten your decision." When he had vainly used all the resources of entreaty and cajolery, he rose at last from his knees, as abject- looking a human being as I had ever seen, and, leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms and begged me to give him five minutes to reflect. It was granted, and I waited with quiet patience, watching keenly the various expressions following one another on his dis- torted countenance. At last a singularly crafty look came into his dark eyes, and, holding out his hand for the paper, he went to the Khedive's writing-table, signed it, and brought it to me in silence. He was vanquished, cowed, and terrified, but I saw at one glance that he fondly fancied he could yet undo me, and so remained on the defensive. "Thank you," I said, coldly; "and now, if you are ever tempted again to speak ill of my husband, you will please remember that my silence is only conditional on your own good behavior." To my intense astonishment the supple Turk, instead of heaping reproaches upon me, took his highly scented handkerchief from his sleeve, deliberately and delicate- ly mopped his damp brow, and then, with a cringing smile, said, plaintively: "You have trapped me very cleverly, but we need not be enemies. I confess myself beaten. I have been a weak, sinful man, ever unable to withstand temptation. How can a woman like you understand? Will you be merciful now will you forgive me, and let me try to redeem your good opinion?" I gazed at him searchingly. His attitude was diffi- 232 A DOFFED CORONET cult to explain, and I had, somehow or other, the idea that I was running [some very decided and immediate danger, and that it would behoove me to keep my eyes remarkably wide open. I shrugged my shoulders and rose to go. "You will not leave like that?" he said, eagerly. " You are not well ; this scene has been too much for you. Let me at least fetch you a glass of water, or a cup of coffee/' A light dawned upon me. "Oh, oh," thought I, " so that is your little game, you simpleton," and, turn- ing back, I deliberately sat down again and accepted his offer. With suspicious alacrity he left the room, and I fell to gently tapping the side of my boot with my riding-crop, smiling a little at what I expected quite confidently would follow. The silence was complete, save for the quarrelsome voices of the South American and Australian feathered tribe outside the door, and I unconsciously watched for the fall of the aide-de-camp's returning step. Ten minutes at least elapsed before he once more entered, followed by a Berberine servant who bore a small, golden tray supporting two little, jewelled cups of fragrant coffee and a goolah of clear spring-water. Mahmoud himself drew forward a heavy ebony table, and, dismissing the servant, placed one of the cups a blue-and-gold one before me with inviting promptness. "This will do you good," he murmured, seating himself opposite me, and drawing the other cup which was of a deep-rose color to his side of the tray. " I am sure it will," I responded, innocently. " Now you can give me a cigarette," and as he turned to pick up his magnificent cigarette-case, which, at the beginning of our encounter, had dropped on the floor, I deftly seized the opportunity to change cups with him. 233 A DOFFED CORONET " What delicious coffee you have over here/' I said, conversationally. " I always wonder why your method of preparing it is not more generally adopted in Europe. " "Yes," he replied, "it is very nice. I dote on our Turkish coffee," and, suiting the action to the words, he raised the pretty little trinket to his lips. Before he had had time to touch it, however, I said, fixing my eyes derisively upon his: "I would not drink that if I were you. That is the one you meant for me!" With a crash the little cup dropped to the floor, and he jumped to his feet, overthrowing his chair, and made a dash at me. "Not so fast, my friend," I uttered, calmly. "You did not imagine that I came here unarmed, did you?" A stray sunbeam gliding beneath one of the blinds fell squarely on the glittering barrel of a small " bull- dog " revolver within a foot of his face, and he recoiled with a blasphemous execration. Truly, the man was a hopeless rascal, but not an interesting or a pictur- esque one, for he was very vulgar, and his methods were lamentably commonplace. The heavy, black villain of a suburban melodrama that was about his measure and, really, my gorge rose at his being so unworthy of my steel. "Come along," I said, contemptuously, "and be good enough to precede me to the door. You are not the sort of person whom one likes to feel behind one's back." This last and supreme failure had broken what was left of his nerve, and he obeyed meekly, casting ner- vous glances over his shoulder at me, probably afraid that I would accelerate his progress across the great room with the aid of the weapon I still held grimly in dangerous proximity to his worthless carcass, or else 234 A DOFFED CORONET put an end to it in a summary fashion. Thoughts travel swiftly under such circumstances, and I reflected as we passed en mondme, as it were, through the ante- chamber, where the voluble parrots were cursing each other in bird-language, that for a woman who had an almost neurotic dread of the ridiculous, I was of late singularly unlucky. Of a truth, the little procession we formed suggested a small child driving a very large pig to market, and I came within an ace of laughing outright which would have been really very inde- corous. Nevertheless, after that long and eventful seance in the viceregal study, the brilliant sunshine was welcome to me, and I paused for a moment beside a broad par- terre of velvety gloxinias laid out on both sides of the private door from which we had emerged, to draw a deep breath of relief. Mahmoud stood beside me with drooping shoulders, limp as a rag, and vainly striving to recover something of his usual dashing and con- quering demeanor. " Pray call my horse," I said, shortly, and, I regret to add, rather snappishly, for now that the affair was over I felt singularly irritable, and, truth to tell, experienced a somewhat chilly sensation. Indeed, it be- gan to appear to me rather late, as usual that I had run some risks after all, since no one at home knew where I had gone, and only a few native servants were witnesses of my entrance into the palace. Instead of doing as he was bidden, my companion brusquely wheeled round, exclaiming: "Why did you not shoot me? Your eyes looked as if you would have liked to." "My eyes told the truth," I replied, "but the fact is that you are not worth swinging for ; and, moreover, if I am to tell you the exact state of my mind, I 235 A DOFFED CORONET may as well confess that in spite of your infamous and ignoble behavior I cannot help making some al- lowance for you, because once, a long time ago, I saw you show kindness to a child who had been run over by a carriage. You may not remember the circumstance, but I never forgot it I am not one who easily forgets anything. The little thing was not much hurt, strange to say, but was, of course, terrified to the last degree. You got off your charger and picked the miserable little wretch out of the dirt without a thought of its grimy condition or of the exquisiteness of your uniform, and nestled it in your arms as a mother might have done. You never looked better, in my opinion, than when you strode through the crowd which had gathered around you, with your azure tunic wet with tears and blood, your white gloves caked with dust, and your tarboush pushed shamefacedly over your eyes. That is why, my good man, I am fool enough to pity you even more than I despise you." "I don't understand you at all, I really do not," he muttered, in a puzzled and bewildered way, which made me smile in spite of myself, and signalling to the groom who was walking Heliogabalus up and down a neigh- boring path, I replied, sincerely: "Rest easy, you are not the only one. Sometimes I even do not understand myself." He turned away with a slight shudder. He was still very pale, and had lost all the impudent insouci- ance of his earlier manner, for he was cruelly humbled, but this novel attitude became him better, as I almost told him. "The horse's shoes have been carefully examined, my lady," said the groom, who had now brought Helio- gabalus to a stand-still before me. " They were all in perfect condition." 236 A DOFFED CORONET "Really/' I said, absent-mindedly, and slipping a douceur into his willing palm, "I am not surprised to hear it." And without another word to Mahmoud I lengthened my stirrup-leather, swung myself into the saddle, and trotted briskly away towards the broad, blue Nile that beautiful river which, amid the level monotony of Egypt, kept at that time still intact its savage grandeur, its legendary power, its potent Ori- ental charm; a tameless, barbaric thing, which was later to be brutally corseted with stone and steel by the engineers of a so-called progressive civilization. I had not ridden far when I overtook Captain F e, who, clad from head to foot in white twill, and with a most fetching solar-topee set rakishly on his yellow curls, was returning from an inspection of the polo grounds. " Deuced glad to meet you," quoth the " handsomest man in the English army," with the insipid drawl which he was pleased to consider both smart and emi- nently becoming to his rather effeminate style of beauty. "Beastly lonely out here in the morning, 'pon my word. May I ride home with you?" "Yes, I suppose so," I replied, ungraciously, but without arousing the slightest feeling of resentment in the breast of this amiable disciple of Mars, whose pink- and-white skin was of quite extraordinary thickness. " Deuced nice habit that/' he continued, unabashed. "Lovely cool shade of gray; wish our uniforms were made of that stuff. Is it silk?" " No, it is plain linen ; not worthy of you, as you see. Why don't you write to the War Office petitioning for flax-gray silk fatigue uniforms, with a little sky-blue or pale-pink embroidery in relief, and a nice, long, sweep- ing feather in your forage-cap? You would be the most lady-like soldier in Her Majesty's service." 237 A DOFFED CORONET "Ah, now you're chaffing; that isn't fair. You're always chaffing me. It isn't my fault if I am not coarse- grained and indifferent to what is becoming. Why should a man neglect his personal appearance any more than a girl does? Tell me that." " Don't ask me to answer conundrums ; it is too warm a day for that kind of pastime, and besides I have got a headache." "That's bad. Try violet water and extract of ver- bena when you get home, three parts of each, as a com- press. I always use it; it is wonderful, and so fra- grant!" I shrugged my shoulders and lapsed into a silence meditative, profound, and dealing solely with human imbecility. "I say," continued the undaunted Captain, "the Ccuntess is leaving Cairo in a week for Helouan; she is not going to Europe this year; wants to enjoy her flirtation to the top of her bent, I suppose, while her husband is in Carlsbad for the sake of his liver." "What are you talking about?" I asked, greatly mystified. "Madame S. . .a has a flirtation? You must be raving!" "Not a bit of it; it's the sad truth. The old lady has awakened to the manly charm and supreme re- finement of no less a person than your friend Mahmoud Bey, and they are cooing and billing all day long in the most approved fashion." I checked my horse so violently that he reared up on end with a snort of disgust. " What ails that brute?" cried F e, who was but an ordinary horseman and not particularly stout of heart. "You seem to have a preference for ill-tempered cattle." "The ill-temper was distinctly mine," I replied, im- 238 A DOFFED CORONET patiently ; " but pray proceed with your story ; it bids fair to be a piquant one." The ingenuous blue eyes of my fair escort glittered with pleasure at my unwonted appreciation, and he resumed the thread of his discourse at the point where Heliogabalus had interrupted it. " Well, you see I went to tea at Ma Chaumidre yes- terday, and found madame all alone in her boudoir. When I came in she frowned most damnably, and kept looking at the door over my head after I had sat down near her on a low chair, as if I was intercepting her view of something interesting. She hardly spoke, and fidgeted about on the sofa, jingling her bracelets and playing with her chatelaine in a manner that made me nervous, so I said : ' Whom are you expecting is it the Count? Because if it is I'm going away. I don't like to play gooseberry to married couples." "Quod Deus conjunxit non separet," I muttered, under my breath. "What's that, Russian?" demanded the Captain. "No, Chinese. But do proceed; you entertain me immensely." "Lord, what a linguist you are! But it does sound like Russian, now, doesn't it?" " Oh, I dare say it does. Remarkably bright of you to detect the similarity. What did the Countess say then?" " Well, she told me that I was quite correct, and that she was eagerly expecting the Count, so I took her hint and rose to go without waiting for tea. She did not press me to stay, and I hurried out in a bit of a huff, but in the entrance hall I collided with Mahmoud Bey. ' Hallo ! ' I said, ' don't go in ; she's in a deuce of a tem- per, and waiting for her husband!' 'The devil you say!' retorted that dark horse, plunging into the bou- 239 A DOFFED CORONET doir. Well, thinks I, if she can stand him as a third, why should I not be there, too ; and as I wanted my tea I went back swiftly, pushed the portiere aside, and caught Mahmoud kneeling on a cushion at her feet and devouring her with his eyes, as if she were something good to eat!" "My dear Captain/' I said, as soon as I could control my mirth, "I congratulate you; your reappearance must have been effective!" "It was that," he answered, quite seriously. "She turned as red as a cabbage a red cabbage, you under- stand and he jumped up, glaring at me furiously. 'Playing solitaire?' I said, sweetly." "You said that?" I exclaimed, incredulously. That youth was, perchance, not so silly as he looked, after all. "Yes, I did; and they looked vexed, and explained that they were rehearsing a charade that was to be given for her birthday-party at least, she did, for he was looking as glum as an owl. You don't think they were hoaxing me, do you?" " Certainly not," I managed to say, gravely, with a rapid retraction of my recent hopeful views concerning that interesting young warrior's sharpness. "I sat down between them and sipped my tea," he continued, " and they began to talk especially she about all sorts of people, tearing them to pieces, as usual." "Whom did they mention particularly?" I could not help asking. " That's just where I am puzzled. I could not follow what they said, because you know how she nicknames everybody ; but they were deucedly hard on ' the Icicle/ whoever that may be ; they said she was the very devil, and that it would be a mercy when she was gotten rid 240 A DOFFED CORONET of. ' Can't you put in a word against her, and him as well, in high quarters?' asked madame, and Mahmoud told her that he had already done it, and would never rest till they were both over the seas and far away. They bored me so that I finally took myself off, and in the evening I heard the men joking at the club about her and Mahmoud, and saying that the husband's long reign was at last over." "Look here, young man," I said, suddenly turning in my saddle in order to face him squarely. " I want you to understand something : if Countess Vera appears to have what you call a flirtation, she has a first-class motive for doing so. She may be unscrupulous, but she is not legdre, and the only man she ever loved is her present husband. Believe me, she does not care a fig for Mahmoud Bey, who is a coxcomb and an ass. She is using him, however, for some deep game or other. I know her well, and although she does not like me, that is no reason why I should let her be accused of what she is certainly not guilty of." "Well, I'm damned!" exclaimed the lad. "I had no idea you cottoned up to her!" "I do not 'cotton up' to her as you so elegantly put it," I answered, irascibly. "Indeed, I dislike her absolutely, and distrust her still more, but it always exasperates me to hear slander, even when innocently repeated so there!" and I absent-mindedly flicked a fly from Heliogabalus's left ear with my open hand, bend- ing forward to do so at an angle of forty-five degrees. "How can you stoop like that with a tight corset?" inquired the carpet-knight, guilelessly. Still intent on the unpleasant news I had just heard, I replied almost mechanically, and without dreaming of taking offence at this unimportant boy's singular remark. 16 241 A DOFFED CORONET "I never wear them on horseback." "Whew! your habit must be deucedly well-made, then!" I looked at him with astonishment. "It would be more polite to say that I am," I said, gravely. "Haw-haw! very good! You are quite right," he chuckled, delightedly. "There's nobody like you for chaffing a fellow." Fortunately we had now reached Kazr-el-Nil, and my stiis bounding forward, I bade a hasty adieu to the brilliant Captain and trotted home under the now al- most perpendicular rays of the incandescent sun, which made the streets blush a golden red and the atmos- phere dance dizzily before my tired eyes. " A dangerous combination, that of Mahmoud and Madame S . . . a! I am glad that I made him sign that paper," I thought, as I turned into the broad avenue leading to my own gates, with a little sigh of fatigue and of dawning anxiety. That night I went to a dinner given by Sir James D . . . . r, chief of General Sir Frederick S n's staff, in the Esbekieh Gardens. The table had been set under a large, clematis-grown arbor, and the un- usual coolness of the night, the bright and pleasant people present, and the excellence of the cuisine made a perfect tout-ensemble which put everybody in the best of humors from the first. I sat between my host and that gallant and unfortunate soldier, Colonel B . . . r Pasha, who, some years before, had been compelled to leave the English army in consequence of his connec- tion with a cause celebre, which to this day is remem- bered and alluded to with commiseration. The rare chivalry which he displayed throughout that cruel trial towards the woman who so relentlessly pursued him with her hatred, the extreme severity of the punish- 242 A DOFFED CORONET ment meted out to him, his courage in adversity, his previous fine record, and his heroic bravery while fight- ing subsequently beneath the Egyptian banner, had created a very profound and wide-spread sympathy in his behalf, which was nowhere more pronounced than in England and in the British army, and extended from the lowest to the highest in the land, stopping, however, just short of the Throne. The sweet-faced, patient, loyal wife, who had stood by him, believed in him, and given him heart to en- dure the tortures he went through, was also present, and as I watched her wan smile and soft, wistful eyes always seeking his with deep and unaltered tenderness and admiration across the lilies and gardenias of the table corbeilles, I came nigh to reconsidering my ver- dict upon a sex that sometimes can produce so flawless a being. " When is your husband coming back?" asked B . . . r Pasha. "I would like to thank him for what he has attempted to do for me. I will never forget his kind- ness." He spoke in a low, subdued, pathetic voice, which came oddly from the tall, martial-looking, broad-shoul- dered man, and I was about to make some remark turning the conversation a painful one for him, I knew into other channels, when he continued, under cover of the increasing buzz of voices rising around Sir James's hospitable board : " Tell him, however, that he must not take any further trouble about the matter. The Queen will never con- sent, and I have become reconciled to to past sorrows and disappointments. For my wife and children I would have been glad if justice could have been done me; but, after all, the worst is over, and I do not complain." 243 A DOFFED CORONET I did not answer, save by a nod of acquiescence, for the moment was scarcely well chosen for such a sub- ject, or to let one's self be carried away by feelings too strong and sincere, too grave and poignant, to find place amid a gathering of thorough-paced worldings such as surrounded us. Fred, at a suggestion from Lord Wolseley one of the fairest-minded of men, and who has most untruth- fully been described as harsh and selfish had drafted for the Khedive, and induced him to write, a private letter to the Queen, asking as a particular favor the rehabilitation of Colonel B . . . r Pasha and his rein- statement in the British army in consideration of his great services to Egypt, and of the wellnigh unpar- alleled bravery which he had displayed at Tokar and other battles against the Dervishes on the Red Sea coast. A brother-at-arms of B . . . r had, only a few days before, enthusiastically described to me his gallantry amid the din and turmoil of several of those terrible desert encounters, where the Egyptian troops contended with choking sands and parching thirst, as well as a fierce and savage enemy, and drew a noble picture, in- deed, of the tall officer, bare-headed and bare-chested, dashing on his charger at the head of his men, and with voice and example lifting them by a splendid ef- fort to victory. " They'll follow him anywhere/' said he. " He is a born leader of men and a d d fine fellow!" I thought sadly of all this while he spoke to me, and also of the ill-luck which steadily pursued this un- fortunate man, for three months had already elapsed since the despatch of the letter and it still remained unanswered. Alas! it was destined never to receive an acknowledgment, and to be the only instance of a 244 A DOFFED CORONET letter written by Tewfik to the Queen remaining without a response. For the rest of the dinner B . . . r Pasha and myself did not seem to have much to say to each other, and we both turned to our respective neighbors in order to re- gain an equanimity that had already failed us. A dinner-party is always an odd and difficult game, even to those who have played it for a number of years, and it requires special gifts to face its complexities with an unflagging and assured vivacity, whatever one's state of mind may be; but nevertheless, by the time dessert made its appearance I felt happier than I had done all day, my ideas grew brighter, and I managed to join several times in the general gay and light-hearted chatter of my fellow-guests. The Esbekieh Gardens looked extremely poetical, and the atmosphere of the lovely night was pregnant with a strange tenderness and softness purely Oriental. The silver disc of the moon was extraordinarily bright, and on the faint breeze, ruffling only the smallest leaves of the trees, hovered the penetrating scent of tropical blossoms, while glow-lamps outlined the winding paths radiating from the central music pavilion, around which the spearlike rays of a score of crimson lights touched the dark foliage of some camellias and mag- nolias artistically grouped beneath them, and the sound of an Arab orchestra came to our ears, like the living spirit of the place, in ceaseless, weird pulsations, clear and clean-cut on the surface of the night, although softened and mellowed by distance. Again my thoughts began to wander, for it seemed to me, to use maritime parlance, that there were break- ers ahead, and that our life in Egypt, already passably difficult as it was, would now be made almost impossi- ble by all that had lately occurred. The Mahmoud in- 245 A DOFFED CORONET cident, complicated by Madame S . . . a's animosity, threatened to bring on absolute warfare, although of a kind which would not be fairly fought on her side, and could not be openly met on mine. I felt myself un- qualified for a game of this sort, for my standard of "fair-play" was uncompromisingly high, and I could not help dreading a little what was bound to follow. Countess Vera was overbearing, sarcastic, and unkind, and her dislike to me had lately made such giant strides for reasons unknown that I could not but see a cloud looming large and disquieting upon my horizon, her extreme cleverness and keen intellect mak- ing her a dangerous adversary to encounter, whether openly or otherwise. That she was using Mahmoud as a mere tool I was absolutely certain, for, with all her faults, she was no flirt, and her devotion to her hus- band was too well known a fact to be doubted for an instant; so once again it behooved me to keep my eyes pretty wide open. "Are you going to the viceregal concert to-morrow?" asked young Lord H . . . s, a stalwart boy of about twenty-five, with fine, hazel eyes, light -brown hair growing low on the forehead, and a general flavor of Bond Street and the Guards' Club about his ultra-fash- ionable attire. This boy had also a well-modulated voice, a somewhat listless manner, and a great deal of painfully and laboriously acquired cynicism, with which he liked to crush his every youthful feeling and impulse in a most amusing manner, for nature over- lapped art at every turn, greatly to his own confusion and his hearer's delight. " Don't you think," he con- tinued, as we rose from the table and filed into a second arbor, where coffee and liqueurs were awaiting us, " it is a beastly shame to go in for social gatherings when the thermometer plainly indicates that siestas and 246 dolce-far-nientes are the only recommendable forms of pleasure?" And before I had time to answer he quickly added, in an entirely different tone and with a joyful glance of anticipation, " I am dying to see the summer palace illuminated, and I do hope that we shall dance a lot after the concert!" I laughed, and he blushed a .vivid crimson, worthy of his tender age. "Yes, I am going, of course," I replied. "Fred will be back just in time, I dare say, and I assure you that you will enjoy the evening much better than you im- agine. It will, I trust, be as cool as to-night, and those gardens, when lighted a giorno, are a sight not to be forgotten; moreover, the music is always good, and few as are the women who still linger in Cairo, they happen to be all rather pretty and bright specimens of the Eternel feminin!" We had formed sympathetic groups by this time, and Lord H . . . s and I had been joined by Major A .... h, a Victoria Cross man of extreme solemnity, who had a knack of suddenly sinking in melancholy reveries, from which he emerged with a piteous look of embarrassment and apology. This did not, however, prevent him from being a very shrewd and keen observer when he cared to take the trouble. A little smile of cool amusement now hovered on the Major's lips and his inscrutable eyes were fixed on the broad allee meander- ing between hedges of rhododendrons past the arched entrance of our temporary open-air salon, as if he were completely oblivious of the people round him, although murmured scraps of conversation, amused exclamations, and low laughter formed a sort of con- tinuous subdued accompaniment to our own quiet lit- tle talk. "What are you looking at?" asked Lord H . . . s touching the Major's sleeve to attract his wandering 247 A DOFFED CORONET attention. The latter started, and replied in what I called his absent-minded voice: "Oh, I was watching that awful Russian woman, Madame S . . . a, who for the past ten minutes has been pacing up and down with her escort in front of this shady retreat, as if she were a vedette on scouting duty. " I turned quickly round, and saw Madame S . . . a in a black lace gown and a large, black lace hat covered with red roses, walking towards our arbor, engaged in earnest conversation with Mahmoud, and followed by her husband and by a tall man with a long beard and feverish eyes an English free-lance journalist of sadly evil repute, by name H . . . . M e who carried the Countess's huge feather fan. " I cannot understand," I said, settling myself again in my chair, " how she can endure the presence of that awful newspaper man. He is execrably bred, minus the incumbrance of a mind, and given to a kind of immoral literature exempt of the redeeming qualities of wit and purpose a sort of literary scavenger, as one might say! And as to his wife, no wonder Ma- dame S . . . a has nicknamed her ' Le Mouton qui rdve.' She is dangerously stupid!" Lord H . . . s gave vent to a prolonged, boyish guffaw, which he checked as suddenly as it came, while the Major relapsed into one of his gloomiest reveries, strok- ing his small mustache, and looking so poetically wretched that he might have posed for a statue of De- feat or Despair. A fierce resentment swept over me, for if Madame S . . . a was going to have such allies as these, the war would become a mere guerre d 'ambuscade , fought on one side by brigands. I turned once more and watched my incomprehensible enemy as she saun- tered past, earnestly whispering with Mahmoud Bey, 248 A DOFFED CORONET and finally disappeared round the bend of the rhodo- dendron thicket. From the Sharia-Kamel-Pasha now came the trampling of many feet an Arab bridal pro- cession on its way to the Mooskie, preceded by tara- bouckas and plaintive little drums of singularly muf- fled sonority. Lord H . . . s jumped up, forgetting for the millionth time that he was a cynical, blase, prematurely old man of the world, and with a hasty apology ran out of the arbor towards the garden-gates, crying, gleefully: "I must catch a glimpse of those beggars; they are so exquisitely picturesque!" A faint smell of incense and of orange-flowers floated towards us, and Major A .... h sniffed the air with a play of features which made him look as though he was on the verge of tears. I rose, and, picking up my fan and light wrap, bade Sir James adieu, declining to delay my departure despite his polite entreaties, for I longed to be alone, and accepting the silently gal- lant Major's arm, I walked to where my victoria stood waiting opposite the new hotel and drove off. Suddenly, as the horses turned into the quiet streets of the Ismailia quarter, an irresistible desire to stand face to face with Madame S . . . a, and to see for myself whether my suspicions were right, overcame me ; and I bade my coachman drive to M a Chaumiere. Outward- ly, the mistress of this luxurious " cottage " and myself were on perfectly friendly terms, and as Cairene customs made a call at ten o'clock at night quite allowable, I had no reason to delay my visit and my investigation. In spite of a pronounced dislike for melodramatic situations, my great penchant for taking the bull by the horns ruled in the present instance, so I was decid- edly pleased to find that Countess Vera had just come home and was sitting in the garden with some friends, 249 A DOFFED CORONET and in a moment more I stood on the turf-carpeted ter- race at the back of the house, where a long arcade, cov- ered with climbing banskia and purple bougainvillier vines, served as a summer salon. The clear, bright light of the moon shone through the flower - laden branches upon the four people whom I had seen stroll- ing half an hour earlier in the public gardens, and upon Nubar Pasha, who was smoking a cigarette out of one of his customary long-stemmed amber holders, which he invariably stuffed with cotton, "to prevent the evil effects of nicotine," as he was fond of declaring. We all seemed ready grouped for a scene from the boards of the Gymnase, and I almost wondered why slow and appropriate music did not make itself discreetly heard behind the neighboring shrubs. "How absurd this all is!" I thought, with a wraith of my former keen enjoyment of ridiculous incidents, while shaking hands, well aware that four out of the five present hated me as sincerely as if I had been closely related to them. They nevertheless greeted me with the most effusive and distinguished consideration! "This is indeed a charming surprise!" exclaimed my hostess, rising and coming to meet me with out- stretched hands and a frank, kindly smile. " We were talking about you only a little while ago." "I hope you were dealing leniently with me," I re- joined, with a short laugh. "When witty people dis- cuss their friends the latter are rather likely to be served up a la sauce piquante." "That makes me very unwilling to be ever remem- bered by you in my absence," laughed the Count, of- fering me a cigarette, together with a little alcohol flame darting from a mazarine-blue-enamelled snake -head, like a poisonous tongue. "Thanks for the implied compliment," I replied, 250 A DOFFED CORONET laughing; "but my present state of mind is rather of an extinguished kind. In such hot weather one's field of witticism surpasses in poverty even the bare- ness of Arabia Petraea." Nubar gave vent to one of his fat, gurgling chuckles, and muttered, beneath his gray mustache: "Dear, dear, this is when Greek meets Greek, and diamond cuts diamond!" and leaning luxuriously back in the depths of his long cane-chair cushioned, according to the tenets of Ma Chaumiere, with sixteenth - century cloth of silver he prepared to enjoy himself hugely, as I could plainly discern by the mischievous twinkle of his eye. "My dear," said Madame S . . . a, with an assump- tion of affectionate familiarity so palpably overdrawn that I silently wondered how so clever a woman could commit such an error, "I am going to bring a com- patriot of ours to see you I always look upon you as entirely Russian, you know. I do not think you ever met him, but he will charm you, I feel certain, for he is exceedingly horsy and doggy, and, withal, wonderful- ly chic and dashing ; in short, Monsieur de L ff , late of the Muscovite Embassy at Constantinople. He is arriving here to-morrow on his way to the Gold Coast, where he has been appointed as Consul - General, I think, or something of the sort." " Andre" Nikolaitch L ff?" I asked, surprised. "I thought that he had been invited to leave the ser- vice in so pressing a way as to preclude his showing any possible reluctance to do so?" "You are mistaken. I have not heard anything about this; and you must remember that he comes from a remarkably good family." "Y-e-es, he has come a long way from it," I inter- rupted, somewhat impatiently. "I had the question- 251 A DOFFED CORONET able honor to meet him at an English country house two or three years ago. He struck up a great friend- ship there with a wealthy but not very intelligent fel- low-guest, the owner of a good deal of loose cash, which he attempted so very shamelessly to divert into his own pocket that he attracted the attention of Lord S y, our mutual host an observing man and was quietly but swiftly turned adrift to seek another deal of the cards. " Madame S . . . a was about to protest, the light of battle kindling in her small, almond-shaped, Tartar eyes, when Nubar interposed. "I am afraid," he said, in his slow, incisive way, "that your well-known kindness and your indulgent and charitable interpretation of character, Madame S . . . a, blinds you to the true nature of your protege! I happen to know him well very well myself, and I can assure you that his past is of the shadiest, and his future singularly speculative; moreover, he is af- filiated with the Third Section in Petersburg, and more or less with the Rue de Jerusalem in Paris, Bow Street in London, and Mulberry Street in New York all this, of course, very much sub-rosa, and in consideration of hard-cash returns. He is a person to be studiously avoided." "Fie I a diplomat! Surely that is impossible!" cried Madame S . . . a, with pious indignation. " What can my cousin Boris have been about, to give him letters of introduction to me and to speak so highly of him?" " Your cousin Boris was certainly ill-advised, and as to L ff being a diplomat, that is quite untrue, for he did leave the service some years ago under a very dark cloud indeed, and since then he has essayed every species of successful and unsuccessful adventure, has gathered a considerable share of plunder, and has 252 A DOFFED CORONET had some very narrow escapes from being sent to end his days in Siberia. In fact, it is the difficulty which he experienced in avoiding the grasp of the law that made him ultimately associate himself with the police. I am surprised that you, who know everything and everybody, should not have remembered that!" When Nubar ceased speaking I glanced at Madame S . . . a, who managed to infuse into her attitude as much genuine astonishment as ever was felt by a poor, con- fiding, deluded being when making a quite unexpected and unpleasant discovery. Her jewelled hands hung by her side ; her whole face was expressive of tumultu- ous feelings, almost amounting to terror. And terrified she possibly was, for in her anxiety to go too fast in her plan of revenge upon me for what crime I will prob- ably never know she had unmasked her batteries most imprudently, and that before a man of Nubar's keenness and shrewdness, who, moreover, was my personal and devoted friend. I leaned forward in my seat, and for a moment or two smoked in silence, with my eyes full upon her. I knew now what I had come to find out. She had fancied that with L fi's help she could discover exactly what were the real business relations of Fred with the Khedive and England, and 'establish a plan of campaign which would dislodge us from Egypt. That there was yet more than that simmering in her active brain I felt sure of, and I was confirmed in this belief by the rapid glance of warning which she exchanged with Mahmoud and her new ally, the English news- paper man, who, rather white -faced and nervous, showed discouragement in every line of their persons. Obviously the conspirators could do nothing for some time now without laying themselves open to grave suspicion, and I inwardly blessed my visit, which had, 253 A DOFFED CORONET by pure luck, mixed their cards in so timely a fashion. Indeed, so far as the immediate present was concerned, I felt that I need give very little further thought to their unsavory machinations. After listening for a quar- ter of an hour or so to the Countess Vera's lamenta- tions and pathetic denunciations of a world where her good -nature and simple-mindedness were constantly leading her into trouble, I rose, took my leave, and shook the dust of my slippers upon four of the neatest scoundrels which it has ever been my evil fortune to meet, taking with me, however, Nubar, who on the way home gave me some excellent advice and a few very useful hints about sundry things. Fred came back on the morrow in good time to ac- company me to the last Court concert of the season, but not early enough for me to have a chance of telling him about all that had occurred during his short ab- sence, and, save for a few words about the Khedive's visit, I confined myself to mere generalities. Of my encounter with Mahmoud I had made up my mind to speak not at all, for why should I make him retrospec- tively anxious? I had warned him two or three times about the treacherous aide-de-camp, and if his per- sistent optimism prevented him from according to what I said the importance and weight it deserved, I was not inclined to harp any more on that chord. In the light of subsequent events I saw later that it would have been better for me to have done so, but at the time of his re- turn I thought that I had good reason to look upon Mahmoud thenceforth as a negligible quantity, and so I unfortunately kept silent. As the last touches were being put to my pearl-sown dress of white lace, looped up with white lilac and dia- mond fleur-de-lys, he entered my dressing-room, as was his wont on such occasions, and, seating himself 254 A DOFFED CORONET on an ottoman, watched the women fastening jewels all over me for this was a gala night, when a grande toilette was a matter of sheer etiquette. " Oh I thou art fairer than the evening air Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars!" he murmured, smiling, and, picking up from the carpet, where it had fallen, a small branch of white lilac, he slipped it in his coat above the brochette of decorations hanging from the button - hole. " L'ordre du Mari Amoureux," he continued, half joking and half serious. "Dear me, Pussy, are you intent upon fresh con- quests? You are gotten up regardless of expense! A perfect Queen of Sheba!" "Does that mean that your wisdom is no greater than King Solomon's?" I replied, taking my fan and bouquet from a table and preparing to leave the room. "To tell you the truth, I am for once anxious to look my best, hence the blinding display of diamonds you observe. This may prove to be a field-night." The drive to the palace was a delightful one, for the sky was radiant, and the white lustre of the full moon shone over the land, making everything as light as day, and transforming the viceregal abode, with its gorgeous gardens, its silvery fountains, its marble loggias, and its lacelike arcades, into something supernaturally lovely. The Khedive's entertainments with such a back- ground were really worth attending, and even to the most blas6 eyes presented features of quite special in- terest ; so, in spite of the comparative emptiness of Cairo at this time of year, the avenue was crowded with car- riages as we drove up, and the buzz of many voices sounding beneath the lofty, gilded ceilings of the vast reception-rooms greeted us on our entrance, 255 A DOFFED CORONET Tewfik was in one of his happiest moods, and re- ceived his guests with an urbanity and a courtliness which he knew very well how to assume, and which became him excellently. Shortly after ten o'clock he led the way, with Lady B . . . . g, wife of the British Envoy, on his arm, to the concert-room, where the best singers of the opera troupe and several special lumi- naries of the musical world on their way back from a tour in India enchanted us with sweet melody. Every one who had been invited had come, and the long galleries, lined with tall Venetian mirrors and decorated with masses of verdure and white and pink roses relieved here and there by feathery clumps of golden mimosa, were ideally occupied, peopled enough but not crowded, and kept deliciously cool by enormous blocks of ice emerging from cup-shaped receptacles of green-bronze smothered in bronze-green ferns, through the delicate fronds of which the frozen glitter of these great crystalline masses shone dazzlingly, giving one an invaluable impression of chilliness. In the second row of chairs sat Madame S . . . a, clad in several shades of red and generously decolletee, with an interminable flight of jewelled moths disport- ing themselves upon her statuesque figure, her long, silken train, and her dark hair, where they sparkled magnificently. She was wreathed in smiles, and gen- tly beat time with another of her gigantic fans made this time of cardinal feathers against her admirably gloved hands, a picture of absolute and clear-conscienced enjoyment. She nodded to me in the friendliest manner possible, and several times during the concert looked my way, when some especially fine harmony was in progress, as if to associate me affectionately with her enthusiastic appreciation thereof. On her right hand was a small 256 A DOFFED CORONET and grizzled Ambassador, with deep-set, quizzical eyes and a nut-cracker profile, and on her left a melancholy- looking young man a celebrated African traveller by trade who perpetually inclined his head on one side like a thoughtful bird. A prolonged and sonorous rustling at length an- nounced that the performance was over, and we moved back to the other apartments. From the band in the gallery came the intoxicating lilt of excellently exe- cuted dance-music, and soon, in spite of the heat, the sibilant rustle of silken skirts and the slight friction of delicate slippers on the highly polished floors made itself heard. I had decided not to dance, but Prince Hussein, the Khedive's brother, rushed up to me and asked me for a waltz, which I granted him at once, for he was one of the best dancers I ever met. Tall, slight, wiry, and very good-looking, Prince Hussein was certainly the most European - looking Oriental it is possible to imagine, and his blue eyes and long, tawny mustache, coupled with notable taste in dress, and charm of manner, made him resemble an Austrian or Russian grand seigneur far more than a Turko-Egyptian Prince. There was a boyish spring and grace about his step quite irresistible, and we spun round with a delicious unanimity of motion which only such a partner can procure one. We danced in a wide circle, Prince Hus- sein steering as no one else could steer, and did not stop until the last strains of that old-fashioned but wonderfully rhythmed waltz, Les Dragons de la Reine, died away on the heavily scented air. "Come out into the gardens," he said, a little breath- lessly, as we passed out of the human hedge standing before the doors to watch the dancers, and into the gardens we went, first stopping for a moment in the '7 257 A DOFFED CORONET the Khedive, who, as Prince Hussein had surmised, was lying in wait for us. " Souffler n'est pas jouer !" murmured that incor- rigible tease, bowing low, first to me, then to his august brother. " I relinquish my fair partner to Your Royal Highness. May peace be with you both," and, trans- ferring my hand from his own to the Khedive's arm, this unfortunate but merry Prince left us. I felt as if I had eaten my white bread first, and now resigned myself with an eager and even delighted cmile women were deceivers ever to accept a course of heavy cake, and was a little surprised when Tewfik, discarding for once his slow and hesitating manner of speech, said, gayly : " I have been waiting long for the pleasure and honor of a few minutes with you, and when we have sat out a quadrille or two alas ! I do not, like my little brother, indulge in terpsichorean delights we will, if you wish it, go and spend a few minutes with somebody who is even now looking at us from up yonder," and he vaguely indicated a sort of wide balcony overhanging the gallery and quite inclosed in exquis- itely fine moucharabieh work. I knew what he meant, and measured the desire he had to show me favor by this veiled allusion to his Consort, which was in direct contradiction to Oriental etiquette, and conferred upon me the unprecedented distinction of being treated as tant de la famille. I bowed my head in silent and grateful acquiescence, and we walked the whole length of the enfilade of salons, chatting about indifferent topics, until we reached the last, a charming room hung and upholstered with Louis XVI. brocade of dead-turquoise and silver in a delicate pattern of hedge-roses and true-lovers' knots, where we sat down side by side en freres ! There was nobody there besides ourselves, but 260 A DOFFED CORONET through the broad, open doors we could see the people moving about in a maze of brilliant coloring very pleasing to the eye. Tewfik had possessed himself of my fan and was softly furling and unfurling it, his dark eyes bent on the tracery of the lace with which it was covered, as if his life depended upon count- ing the very meshes of the filmy fabric. At last he spoke. "There is something I want to tell you," he said, with an unusual firmness and resonance of voice. " You have been very good and very loyal to me, very patient and helpful. Is there anything that I can do to show you my gratitude? Please do not think I am go- ing to blunder, too, and offer you a jewel or a deco- ration in souvenir of what you have done I, at least, know you too well for that. But is there not something else which would give you even a moment's pleasure?" I was touched. Never had I thought that the Khe- dive was capable of showing such considerate kindness, or of displaying such fine comprehension. Had I done him an injustice, after all?" " Monseigneur," I replied, in a slightly lowered voice, "I am deeply grateful for this generous speech, and there is nothing that can be more pleasing and wel- come to me than to have been privileged to hear it. Nous sommes quittes, Monseigneur." "We can never be that," he murmured. "Your ac- count against me is too heavy to be ever balanced by mere words. Tell me, is there nothing I can do for the benefit of others, and that you can suggest? Surely that is what would please you best. I know you well, you see." Truly, Tewfik was revealing himself in an entirely new light, and a swift wave of something very like re- morse for my perchance too harsh judgment of him 261 A DOFFED CORONET swept over me. Well counselled, he might perchance have become a totally different man, and so to my re- morse was added the pang of leaving him unwarned in the hands of Mahmoud Bey and of similar scoun- drels. " Alas, Monseigneur/' I answered, " even thus I can- not accept any boon, not only because I have done nothing, or next to nothing, to deserve a reward, but also because I am afraid that I have sometimes done Your Highness an injustice. Long as I have known you, Monseigneur, yet have I failed to read you entire- ly right, and I beg your pardon for a partial blindness which I can never forgive myself." "Oh," he said, with a rather pathetic little smile, " do not say that ; however evil you may have thought me, you have not been far wrong. I am at the present moment enduring an hour of self -censure and find myself in an humbled mood rare, indeed, with me. I am, in consequence, inclined to display such poor qualities as I may possess; but I know myself it will not last; I am too easily led astray for that." That settled it. I could,, in justice, not remain silent any longer. To be sure, I had given Mahmoud a quasi promise not to ruin him, but peradventure, by making use of that rare mood of Tewfik's, I could set him on his guard without being untrue to my tacit understand- ing with the wretched aide-de-camp. At any rate, there was no hesitation possible. "Monseigneur," I said, with sudden decision, "I am also just now in a mood rare with me. I am un- decided how to do my duty towards yourself without breaking a half-promise which, although given to a most contemptible scoundrel, nevertheless seems bind- ing to me, after a fashion." The Khedive started and looked at me in surprise. 262 A DOFFED CORONET "Whatever do you mean?" he asked, peering into my eyes with a sudden reawakening of his suspicious nature. There was a little fearsome weakness in the slight trembling of his lips. "Simply this/' I continued, without a tremor, for surely he cruelly needed a helping hand. "Your Highness is too confiding, too ready to underestimate the greed and villany of those whose interest it is to feather their nests promptly and at any cost, and who take advantage of every passing incident to attain this end." A strange expression of eager, almost hungry, curi- osity came into his face, as if an oft-considered and oppressive question had been recalled to his mind, and he saw at last a way of discovering the answer. He seemed to feel all at once as might some very simple, uncomprehending person on waking up on a battle- field, or in a place of wickedness hitherto quite un- known to him. From the Galerie des Ftes came the music of the "sleigh-bells polka" tinkling persistently in my ears, and obscuring mockingly my thoughts and my power of clear diction. I paused and hesi- tated. The shifty look of uneasiness almost of fear in Tevvfik's eyes grew more definite, his thick, black brows were drawn in a perplexed frown, and I felt my glowing impulse to save him from the traps set about his feet turn cold within me ; yet I strove to think that he was susceptible of being drawn out of himself and forced into better and nobler ways, and struggled against impatience, discouragement, and a sense of helplessness and vague anger , but still I could not pre- vent my voice from sounding cold and repellent in my own ears as I resumed my hopeless task. "There are in your entourage, Sir, many envious and consequently dangerous persons I do not pre- 263 A DOFFED CORONET sume that this is news to you, or that I am dis- playing great acumen in stating so patent a fact persons who abuse your confidence, and wholly be- tray the trust placed in them. Now, ever since my husband has filled the post which he secretly holds in your service, Monseigneur, I have had great facilities for keen observation at my disposal, and I have not wasted them. The knowledge thus acquired I would like to place at your disposal, but I cannot turn informer. It simply goes against the grain with me." Tewfik looked up at me out of the corner of his soft, Oriental eyes, which suddenly twinkled cunningly, as if he at last began to understand and was willing to drive a hard bargain. "Is there anybody in particular," he said, in a sharp, dry voice, "whom you wish to warn me against?" "There is somebody very much in particular," I replied, with blunt directness ; " but I do not intend to tell you who it is. " "Why not?" "Because it would not be quite fair play, and also because I can serve you just as well, I begin to think, without mentioning names at present, at least." "How can you do that?" "Simply by entreating you, Monseigneur, to trust nobody with any secrets or or valuables, without having tested their loyalty and their honesty to the very core. Nobody, mind you, Monseigneur!" " You know, then, positively, that my trust has been betrayed?" "I do." "Lately?" "Yes, comparatively so." " Has this betrayal this dishonesty been very prej- udicial to me?" 264 A DOFFED CORONET "That depends. I believed so at first, but lately I have thought of something which will remedy what I know to have happened." "Cannot you tell me how?" "Not yet; not before I have carried my project to completion, and perhaps not at all, if I can manage to accomplish as much as I hope to do." " But what am / to do how am I to know what to do?" he said, fretfully and with asperity. "Monseigneur," I said, coldly, "you have known me for a long time now. I cannot tell whether the opportunities Your Highness has had of understand- ing my character have been employed to the utmost; but one thing, at least, I think you should have learned, and that is that if I undertake to do a thing I generally do my best to bring it to a satisfactory con- clusion. I volunteered to place you beyond the possi- bility if you would deign to accept my advice of being again subjected to gross dishonesty and dis- loyalty, and it looks, therefore, as if I clearly foresaw the possibility of so doing. Permit me to add, however, that if I am to succeed, I shall have to demand from you, Sir, a promise of absolute secrecy with regard to what has passed between us to-night." Tewfik dropped his fretful discontent immediately and looked up at me like a chidden child. " I beg your pardon ; please do not be offended ; and rest assured that I trust you implicitly, and that I will do just as you advise," he said, somewhat crestfallenly. " Tell me what it is you wish me to do. " "Really, Monseigneur," I replied, with an inclina- tion to laughter, instantly repressed, " I must apologize for having spoken as I did just now; it was quite un- justifiable. But I have lately had cause for a good deal of worry, and I am afraid that my temper has suffered 265 A DOFFED CORONET sume that this is news to you, or that I am dis- playing great acumen in stating so patent a fact persons who abuse your confidence, and wholly be- tray the trust placed in them. Now, ever since my husband has filled the post which he secretly holds in your service, Monseigneur, I have had great facilities for keen observation at my disposal, and I have not wasted them. The knowledge thus acquired I would like to place at your disposal, but I cannot turn informer. It simply goes against the grain with me." Tewfik looked up at me out of the corner of his soft, Oriental eyes, which suddenly twinkled cunningly, as if he at last began to understand and was willing to drive a hard bargain. "Is there anybody in particular," he said, in a sharp, dry voice, "whom you wish to warn me against?" "There is somebody very much in particular," I replied, with blunt directness ; " but I do not intend to tell you who it is." "Why not?" "Because it would not be quite fair play, and also because I can serve you just as well, I begin to think, without mentioning names at present, at least." "How can you do that?" "Simply by entreating you, Monseigneur, to trust nobody with any secrets or or valuables, without having tested their loyalty and their honesty to the very core. Nobody, mind you, Monseigneur!" " You know, then, positively, that my trust has been betrayed?" "I do." "Lately?" "Yes, comparatively so." " Has this betrayal this dishonesty been very prej- udicial to me?" 264 A DOFFED CORONET "That depends. I believed so at first, but lately I have thought of something which will remedy what I know to have happened." "Cannot you tell me how?" "Not yet; not before I have carried my project to completion, and perhaps not at all, if I can manage to accomplish as much as I hope to do." " But what am / to do how am I to know what to do?" he said, fretfully and with asperity. "Monseigneur," I said, coldly, "you have known me for a long time now. I cannot tell whether the opportunities Your Highness has had of understand- ing my character have been employed to the utmost; but one thing, at least, I think you should have learned, and that is that if I undertake to do a thing I generally do my best to bring it to a satisfactory con- clusion. I volunteered to place you beyond the possi- bility if you would deign to accept my advice of being again subjected to gross dishonesty and dis- loyalty, and it looks, therefore, as if I clearly foresaw the possibility of so doing. Permit me to add, however, that if I am to succeed, I shall have to demand from you, Sir, a promise of absolute secrecy with regard to what has passed between us to-night." Tewfik dropped his fretful discontent immediately and looked up at me like a chidden child. " I beg your pardon ; please do not be offended ; and rest assured that I trust you implicitly, and that I will do just as you advise," he said, somewhat crestfallenly. " Tell me what it is you wish me to do." "Really, Monseigneur," I replied, with an inclina- tion to laughter, instantly repressed, " I must apologize for having spoken as I did just now; it was quite un- justifiable. But I have lately had cause for a good deal of worry, and I am afraid that my temper has suffered 265 A DOFFED CORONET thereby. I therefore hope that you will forgive a breach of etiquette for which the condescension shown to me by Your Highness is alone responsible." " There can be no question of condescension from me to you ; it is quite the other way round, as you must know." I inclined my head with I flatter myself a very proper and well-considered mixture of appreciation for so overwhelming a compliment and of polite acqui- escence therein, and then continued : " To-morrow I will do myself the honor of communi- cating to you, Monseigneur, what it seems best to me for Your Highness to do. In the meanwhile let me ex- press my deep gratitude for the gratifying confidence placed in me. It shall be my earnest endeavor to de- serve it always." When we recrossed the salons we met Madame S . . . a leaning on H o's arm, and as she passed us, with a low courtesy for the Khedive and a most acrid look for myself, I distinctly heard her murmur in Rus- sian to her escort, "Ah, this is something new!" I caught her meaning admirably, and regretted that she should have had the opportunity of adding this new arrow to her quiverful of malicious and poisonous in- tentions with regard to me ; but as, after all, I could do nothing to prevent her from taking evil views of every- thing I did, I dismissed the matter resolutely from my mind. After having accompanied Tewfik to the screened balcony where the Khedivia was ensconced and spent a most enjoyable half-hour with her, I returned to the ballroom, danced a quadrille with Prince Hussein, a waltz with Lord H . . . s, and then sending for Fred, who had been playing whist for the past two hours in a distant salon, we drove home under the paling sky in the cool shiver of the rising dawn. 266 A DOFFED CORONET When the carriage stopped before our own perron I descended and paused, looking at the rose garden. I shall not go to bed, I thought, as the first rays of sunrise touched the nodding flowers with pale gold. I shall bathe and breakfast, and then ride over to my kind old friend at Rhoda. The time has come when I need his advice. Then, noticing that Fred was yawning dismally, I said, with a laugh: "Go to bed, you poor, tired-out creature, and dream of anything but Oriental intrigues. You are worn out." He half turned, with the evident intention of asking me what I meant, but weariness conquered and he dis- appeared inside the house, attempting ineffectually to smother another yawn, which reminded me of " Yan- kee Doodle's" famous " yowl of the deserted jackal." As for me, I gathered my white velvet cloak more closely about my shoulders, and, crossing the terrace, sought my dressing-room. Two hours later I was on my way to Rhoda, and on my return home, after a long interview with the sagacious and keen-witted hermit of that lovely The- baide, I sent confidentially to the Khedive a short letter, in which I told him that, although for the pres- ent it was impossible for me to explain myself more fully in regard to the subject which we had discussed on the previous night, yet the occasion for me to do so might arise at any moment, and that in the mean- while, in case of my temporary absence or of my death, my good friend and counsellor, the Due d'A . . . . t had all the facts concerning the affair in hand, as well as absolute proofs of my allegations. If anything super- vened which rendered it peremptory for him (the Khe- dive) to be made acquainted with the names of the person or persons who had rendered themselves guilty of disloyalty and dishonesty towards himself, M. 267 A DOFFED CORONET d'A . . . . t would reveal them to him. I concluded by entreating him to resort to this only under stress of necessity, and, well aware that there was so little love lost between himself and the Duke that he would not approach him excepting at the last extremity, I pre- pared to endure the manifold tortures of a second Egyp- tian summer with the help of a blameless conscience! As the hot season arrived I began to feel the effects of the many fatigues and anxieties through which I had passed during the last two years, and a sense of languor and discouragement which I had never ex- perienced before made it necessary for me to summon all my reserve strength to my assistance. The political situation was graver than ever. Fred was forced to work early and late, and in my eagerness to help him I cast all hygienic prudence to the winds. Weeks of scorching heat, interspersed by frightful khamsins and ghastly sand-storms, came and went; twice we followed the Khedive to Rhamleh and Alexandria, and twice we came back to poor, sun-baked Cairo, deserted by all save the diplomats and officers of the army of occupation, who, as I was the only European woman in the place, congregated at my house every night in their tens and twenties and paid me loyal homage! At last the weather grew a little cooler, but only for a short time, and, far from reviving me, this respite seemed to do me more harm than good, and I heard with dismay that I was expected to crown all my mis- eries by giving a gala dinner to a score of Egyptian high officials, and another score of British, French, German, Russian, and Italian diplomats, so that they might have an opportunity to discuss several grave and delicate topics on neutral ground. With a sinking heart I threw myself once more into the fray, and reached the day of this unwelcome banquet with 268 A DOFFED CORONET scarcely strength enough to realize how very weak I had become. The heat that lay over Cairo increased instead of lessening as night came on. Sahla was in despair, for he was afraid that the beauty of the house, filled with flowers and gay with all sorts of cunningly de- vised decorations, due to his innate artistic taste, would be spoiled by this intolerable temperature. He and Paul stood in the dining-room, asking each other for the hundredth time, at least, whether my guests would venture out, or whether, for the first time in these faith- ful servitors' memory, a soiree at my house would be a fiasco. Before undertaking the business of dressing I made my usual tour of inspection. The whole place looked ghostly to me for some unexplainable reason, in spite of the wealth of copper - colored azaleas and sulphur- hued roses which filled every available nook and cor- ner, and as I walked through the comparatively speaking cool and scented corridors I shuddered a little. Everything was exquisitely arranged ; the sweet breath of flowers filled the whole house, and I had no reason for dissatisfaction ; yet I had never in all my life been so blue as on that evening. Wearily I sought my dressing - room and put my- self in the hands of my women, but my temples throbbed so violently that I soon bade them stop their exasperating efforts to make me look anything but a washed-out doll, and stepped out upon the balcony to see if the air even suffocating as it was would re- vive me. All outside, however, swam around me like a mist of shadowy forms and floating clouds ; the great trees in the gardens seemed to retreat ; I saw their im- mobile branches as from a long distance; small sounds seemed to have strangely increased in volume; and 269 A DOFFED CORONET the whispers of the maids behind me hammered mur- derously on my brain. I leaned my head on my hands, and for once dis- tinctly felt that I had reached the limit of my faculties, and that I was on the point of breaking down altogether. I was so uncertain of myself as I stood there leaning dizzily against the jamb of the French window that I actually debated for a moment whether to go on dressing or to go to bed and let my distinguished guests take care of themselves ! Was I, then, after all, going to give way? A feeling of disgust at my weakness ran through me. I literally flung myself back into my dressing-room, and with clinched teeth allowed my toilet to be completed, the excitement engendered by the intense effort to conquer myself driving me on, and making me temporarily disregard headache and misery. My first and last look at the glass showed me a peaked, pinched, paper-white face, lighted by my eyes rendered abnormally big by fever. "This will never do," I muttered to myself, and then, turning to Jo- hanna, I said, brusquely, " Bring me a glass of water and my little travelling medicine-case," and when she had obeyed I swallowed a large dose of strychnia, which in a short while brought back some of my usual strength. I was dressed in white, as usual, and wore a quantity of emeralds, set to represent diamond - encircled tre- foils, the small tiara standing up high in my hair, and a gigantic lizard, made entirely of emeralds (save his eyes, which were two huge, canary-hued diamonds), upholding a long trail of laburnum falling from the left shoulder to the right side of the Venetian lace train. The cold touch of the gems aroused me from the cloudy dreams that seemed so strangely to beset me, and I 270 A DOFFED CORONET musingly stroked the glittering scales of the lizard one of my favorite jewels. How well I remembered the day when my Empress had given it to me, concealed in a great cluster of edel- weiss gathered by herself in the mountains above Ischl, in the good old times when we used to share our griefs and joys like sisters! She knew that I loved jewels, not only on account of their lustre and beauty, but because, following the old occultist idea, I imputed to them a sort of dim personality, a latent life which in- fluenced one's destiny, so that they were, in a way, little companions on the road of life, conscious of the wearer's feelings, and capable of attaching themselves to her in more ways than one. This belief supersti- tious, if you will refused to be shaken off, and though I never would acknowledge it, I cared for my mag- nificent collection of gems more than it is possible to care for merely inanimate objects. Indeed, though it may seem intensely ridiculous to say so, I could not imagine life without jewels, and thought that such a one would be, in a way, an empty and lonely existence. After all, why should the idea be an absurd one? Why should we, who comprehend so little of the lives of our nearest and dearest, find it impossible to conceive of a life other than that of the animal or vegetable? Between such an existence and that of the plant there would be surely no greater or more wonderful differ- ence than separates the plant from man. We, in our pride of being created a little lower than the angels, deny consciousness and feeling to the world of trees and flowers, because it does not possess our nervous system, and beyond that world the existence of life itself, on account of the lack of what we are pleased to term vital phenomena. If, however, one has sufficient imagination and intellectuality to do justice to the 271 A DOFFED CORONET vegetable, is it hard to think a pearl, an emerald, or a sapphire susceptible of suffering not acute, indeed, as ours, but nevertheless suffering from neglect, obscur- ity, or lack of appreciation and care? Fred used always to say, laughingly, that my taste for big jewels was barbaric, and that I owed it to the Muscovite half of my nature failing in this, for once, to recognize my true motive. "The future of the whole world is with Russia/' I used to reply, perversely if truthfully. "Russians may be barbarous, cruel, fierce, fickle, and artificial all at once I mean patrician Russians, of course; but it is just because they are made up of conflicting elements which have not as yet become homogeneous that from them will come the dominant race of the future." I had, however, but little desire that evening to in- dulge in philosophical or in political apergus, all my energy being bent on holding myself upright, and in not betraying the fact that I was on the verge of col- lapse. I knew that in a few more moments forty guests would drive through my gates, and that it was my bounden duty to receive them smilingly and to do all within my power to make the evening a success, and as I slowly walked down the length of the hall to join Fred in the central salon I concentrated my attention upon that one point and upon no other. As the tall Louis Quatorze clock in the dining-room boomed forth the hour of nine we seated ourselves around the table, upon which " Rose-Turque " and am- ber shaded candles burned amid strongly scented flow- ers. The heat was oppressive, and not even the punkah gave any relief from the awful sensation caused by the damp burning of the sweltering night. H o was the only one of my guests who really talked. He gave 272 A DOFFED CORONET his rich imagination full play, making it sparkle about his subject with a sort of deliberate exuberance, as if he wished to whirl us all with him into a pleasanter and cooler world. I listened to him with rapt attention, trying to forget the odd feeling of dizziness and faint- ness which at times almost overcame me. With my left hand I clasped the handle of my fan ; the other lay clinched upon the table - cloth as I leaned forward towards him; there was no relaxation of my aching muscles, no throwing off of tension, and it seemed to me as if my parched lips would never join again. At last I succeeded in partly shaking off the strange sensation of helplessness which numbed me. I took a peach from a dish before me and began slowly to peel it ; once or twice my fruit-knife struck the plate with a tiny ringing sound of the gold upon the crystal, and I started as if a pistol had been let off in my ear. Oppo- site me, on a console, there was a Japanese bronze mon- ster with green jade eyes, and, glancing up, I fancied that in the dim light it was cautiously regarding me as if it would penetrate my soul. Indeed, I could not for a moment help fancying that it was alive, and was gaining a curious ascendency over me, and suddenly I leaned back in my chair and burst out laughing. "What's the joke?" said Fred, a little anxiously, I thought. " My own folly/' I replied. " I found myself think- ing that this little devil yonder " and I pointed at the delicately and cunningly wrought figure " was beck- oning to me," and I went on laughing in a way that was not natural, while that little demon with the face of death seemed to whisper funny words to me across the table and over the heads of my guests. I tried to understand whence emanated the spell that was en- veloping me more and more, but failed lamentably, '* 273 A DOFFED CORONET and sought in vain to call to my assistance a little of that commonplace common-sense upon which I gen- erally prided myself. Soon, from the strangeness of it all, arose an overmastering sense of terror, and, hurriedly giving the signal to leave the table, I took R . . . z Pasha's arm and walked with unequal, nervous steps to the drawing-room, where I sank exhausted on a deep arm-chair between two open windows. In spite of all effort I was beset by an impression that was novel to me and horrible an impression that I was defend- ing myself against the fierce fury, the measureless hatred and cruelty of something shapeless and intangi- ble, which I could not repulse. I felt as if the great, spacious, luxurious room were a cage, and I were shut up in it with that disembodied being, who, if it had its will, would never allow me to escape alive. Was I going insane? I looked out into the velvety darkness of the night, my whole strength put out to vanquish the ghastly sensation of insecurity, the helplessly reeling brain, the increasing trembling of every limb. "Are you ill? You look dreadfully." The words fell on my ear and roused me to instant and overpowering passion. I turned fiercely towards Fred, who was bending over the back of my chair, and had whispered this very natural and certainly most ex- cusable question hurriedly to me, and said, furiously, although in a voice as low as his own : "111! What nonsense! I never was better in my life. Do go away and attend to your guests. You annoy me!" A pained and surprised expression came into his eyes, for it was not my habit to be either harsh or im- patient with him, and I could see, in spite of my rap- idly increasing haziness and irresponsibility, that he was deeply hurt. I did not, however, apologize, but 274 A DOFFED CORONET without a single pang of regret for my unusual lack of even common courtesy watched him turn abruptly away and pass into the first salon, where the greatest number of those present were still lingering. " Let us go out upon the terrace ; it is too warm here/' I said to the Prime-Minister, who did not seem to have noticed my queer condition, for he instantly rose and followed me with some trivial remark about the weather. The comparative freshness of the air revived me as soon as I had left the brilliantly lighted drawing-room, and, leaning upon the marble balustrade, I looked down into the dusky gardens, from which rose a violent perfume of jasmine. With elaborate attention I listened to what my com- panion said about the imprudence I was committing in remaining a second summer in Cairo, and managed to answer him suitably, but I was unpleasantly con- scious of the extraordinary fashion in which I was clip- ping some of my words and running the rest into one another, and I determined to remain silent, if I could, un- til this new and bewildering symptom had passed away. Fortunately the old man had launched himself into a long dissertation concerning the alteration which the cutting of the Suez Canal had caused in the climate of northern Egypt, and this giving me a chance to remain mute, I softly and quietly busied myself with the complete destruction of my fan, splintering the carved mother-of-pearl sticks, and tearing to shreds the long, graceful ostrich-feathers, which I dropped into the flower-beds below with the joy of a child float- ing paper butterflies in the breeze ; and when the wreck of that pretty toy was complete I bent low over the terrace wall, feeling as if I were suspended in mid-air above some dark and narrow pit, pressing a hated thing down to perdition. 275 A DOFFED CORONET Suddenly I felt as if I was falling to the very bot- tom of that unfathomable abyss ; a sensation of mortal sickness gained upon me, making me think that blood was surging in my eyes, and that my heart was be- coming cold and faint; great blotches of darkness leaped before me, forming demoniacal patterns which rushed together like those in a kaleidoscope, separated again, and then scattered in all directions at once. I said something what, I never could remember caught my breath, choked, fought for air, strove to cry out, to rush forward, but my voice was strangled in my throat ; then I fell in a heap at the feet of the Prime-Minister, striking my head against the marble balustrade. I do not think, however, that I was even momen- tarily in a faint, for I had a clear inward sense of my condition, although I no longer noticed what was go- ing on about me, nor felt the touch of those who came to my assistance. I looked back over my past, as a drowning man does when he first sinks below the sur- face of the water, and I felt as if I had undertaken a journey to a fearful distance, and was hurrying with incredible swiftness upon the road I had once slowly travelled. Like a meteor my mind shot onward along the vanished days, observing, as I went, their wisdom and their folly, and at last I caught myself murmuring in Bas-Breton little snatches of childish songs, the final words of which were frequently missing, which greatly vexed me. Hours, days, weeks ah, God! months passed, as I found out afterwards, in this guise, punctuated by the monotonous refrains of the melodies which had rocked me to sleep twenty years before : " Teuss, Teuss Arpouliek Galaichen Teuss Arpouliek duj" 276 A DOFFED CORONET I distinctly saw Teuss Arpoultik the three-headed devil, with many gleaming teeth and eyes the evil spirit of the Bretons; I distinctly heard the Kariqfret Ancou death's wheelbarrow rattle dismally at every turn of its ghostly wheel, and driven by Teuss himself, with a whip made of serpents, to urge the minor devils of his suite on and on and on, amid the shrieks of hur- ricane and tempest and the rush of mountainous waves. That final concert of tumbling, hissing waters never failed to change my entire train of thought. I longed for the cool, salty air of Brittany, for the delicious sense of freedom I had always enjoyed on my beloved cliffs, and I imagined sometimes that I was back there once more, dancing lightly on the edge of the abyss, where the sea leaped against the invincible rocky bastions, feeling the boisterous wind on my face, hearing the surge, and the mournful noise of the shingle sliding up and down the narrow, rock-strewn beach far below me " Jusqu'au revoir la belle, Bient6t nous reviendrons. Toutouie la-la Toutouie la-la I Dans le goemon hurle la vague ! Toutouie la-la !" Why had I come out of my true life, my own land, to perish miserably of thirst and of heat in this place of endless sand and scorching sun-glare, where I was now struggling for breath? I tossed restlessly, throwing out my arms and fight- ing constantly to get away from that overpowering atmosphere which surrounded me always. I had nev- er before known "what hell is, in waiting to abide I" Sometimes I would yearn cruelly also for the tranquil Al- pine loveliness of Upper Austria, the scent of mountain strawberries and forest blossoms, the fragrance of the great pine woods, the silver, glacier-fed streams tum- 277 A DOFFED CORONET bling over moss-grown bowlders. The snowy sum- mits of the Dachstein and Thorstein gleamed whitely afar off, and my heart went out to the light - hearted, brave people living beneath those mighty buttresses of ice in the haunts of the chamois and the golden eagle. Once I partly came to myself, opened wide my eyes, which I had stubbornly kept closed since many days and nights, in order, no doubt, to better follow the tan- talizing visions which were at once a joy and a despair, and looked about me. I gazed at the ceiling and the walls of my room, where golden dragons disported themselves among fantastic blooms on a background of azure silk, then at the carefully shaded lamp stand- ing on a pedestal at the foot of my bed, then again at the mosquito-curtain of light-blue gauze veined with silver, which, for the first time in my knowledge of it, was looped back with ribbons against the supports of the canopy above my head. Two ideas alternated in my mind, two visions stood fluctuating before me ; in one I stood a strong, healthy, happy figure ; in the other I was but a haggard, ghost- like, emaciated being, tottering feebly on palsied feet. I sighed a little and fell to examining my thin, trans- parent, waxen hands with quite disproportionate sor- row. How would I ever again control horses with these little, weak fingers, looking as delicate as the claws of an unfledged bird? I kept them open, resting, palm upturned, upon the azure coverlet, a queer sensation of disgust and despair coming over me. The feverish thirst and fainting weariness I was enduring were as nothing compared with the thought that I would now be forever helpless and a burden to others. No! no! it was best to die, I thought, with a groan. I felt all this in my body as well as in my mind, an in- exorable grief which surely nothing could assuage. 278 A DOFFED CORONET Cold perspiration broke out upon me; anguish ran searchingly through my entire being like some ruth- less investigator, scattering, destroying, mingling, and separating all my sensations. My teeth were set; I breathed with a hissing swiftness, and stretched my- self as if in obedience to the summons of the rack. As I did so I turned my head slightly and saw Fred lying in an arm-chair close to the head of my bed, fast asleep ; his face was white and drawn, and he was much thinner than I had ever seen him. Beads of perspiration were dropping from his forehead, and in his hand he held limply the palm-leaf fan with which he had evidently been fanning me. I tried to stretch out my arm to touch him, but I could not do so, and tears of vexation at my utter helplessness sprung to my eyes. I kept very quiet, the complete silence of the room weighing like lead upon me, and I fancied that even the ticking of a clock would have been a relief. Once more I glanced at the walls; the dragons were no longer quiet and decorous ; they had grown angry like myself, and were clawing at each other furiously. "I must send them all away; they make my head ache/' I muttered, and tried to rise. "Hush! Hush! Hush!" I called out to the tangle of beasts writhing all around me. I thought I heard some one crying out; an extraordinary vagueness came over me; an odd sensation of swimming lightness invaded my brain. I was still partially conscious, but was, nevertheless, eagerly travelling on some incoherent errand, singing idly the while, and groping my way towards I knew not what! Little by little the dim glimmer vouch- safed me of the world of fact and matter faded away, until at last I sank completely back into the dreamy, confused unreality of the past weeks. CHAPTER VII " Och, Patsy," said Mary, " It's cruel, unfair ye Are actin', an' heartless, to go to New York I It's a bad counthry. There's Such woild bulls, Injuns, bears, An' naygurs ! Acushla, stay wid me in Cork I" " Och, Mary," said Pat, " If it's cryin' ye 're at, Me heart, loike me pockuts, ye turn inside out! Sure I'll just cut me way, thin, Through the bastes an' the haythin, Till I come where the gold is a-layin about." M. M. "SlNG that again from the beginning/' I pleaded, and Jerry began to sing, or, rather, to recite in mono- tone, in his deep, mellow voice, the pathetic little Bre- ton ballad, accompanying himself en sourdine on a banjo as he did so: " Comme il courait, il tomba, Et Ion, Ion, laire, Et Ion, Ion, la, Comme il courait, il tomba, Et par terre le coeur roula! " Et 1'cceur disait en tombant, Et Ion, Ion, laire, Et Ion, Ion, la, Et 1'coeur disait en pleurant T'es-tu fait mal, mon enfant?" 280 A DOFFED CORONET I was lying in a hammock on the lawn, beneath a tent of embroidered Egyptian cloth; the heat of sum- mer was over, and the rhododendrons were just be- ginning to bloom anew. Beside me sat Fred, holding one of my hands, and Jerry, who had returned from Abyssinia suddenly during the most critical period of my illness, and had remained to help nurse me back to life. Wistfully I listened to the little song which brought back to me the picture of home, of the waves lifting their crests and breaking against the basalt cliffs, and of the seamews skimming above the rippling, glancing waters of the bay. I pressed my hands closer together and said, tentatively : " Am I not well enough yet to go away?" My two companions were silent, looking at me with doubtful eyes. There was a tinkling of tiny bells in the garden and my pet gazelle bounded towards me, shaking her silver collar mischievously, and tossing her dainty head to attract attention. "Oh, you beauty!" I said, laughing; "you do not know what suffering or pain or disappointment mean ; that is why you are so pretty and sweet and altogether lovable!" " Can one not be sweet and pretty and lovable other- wise?" asked Jerry. "I thought that we had all seen this difficult feat accomplished successfully here of late. " " This is a tender point with me just now," I replied, running my fingers through the short curls, now, alas 1 replacing the heavy braids which had fallen under the doctor's scissors. "Illness is a harsh taskmaster, and although " ' Le pauvre en sa cabane oti le chaume le couvre Est sujet a ses lois, Et la garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre N'en defend point nos Roisl' 281 A DOFFED CORONET yet it is a penalty hard indeed to bear, because one has during its course to reveal, nolens volens, the exact dose of selfishness which one possesses. My confessor tells me unwearyingly that such an ex- perience is intended to wean us from the joys of earth ; but I for one cannot agree with him, because I never have desired so greatly to be able to wander amid green forests or along the cliffs of mine own land, to ride and drive and sail, and, in one word, enjoy what to me, at least, makes up the chief pleasures of life, as since I have been imprisoned by the very evil which that holy man considers 'a most salutary lesson of detach- ment.'" Fred got up and walked towards the house, calling back with a forced gayety which I had for some time noticed was growing habitual to him: "I am going to order your beef-tea. It is time for you to take it, you dissatisfied and complaining woman! You were an angel while you were ill ; don't try to make up for it now!" and his mirthless laugh rang on the golden afternoon air like a sort of warning which made me wince. "Jerry, what is the matter with him?" I asked, anx- iously. "He is not himself at all, and it cannot be mere fatigue and worry which have changed him so!" "Poor old chap, you do not realize how fearful he was of losing you as who shouldn't be, if you permit me to say so and then remember that for week after week he hardly left your bedside, day or night; in- deed, when I arrived I had almost to use force to oblige him to take some rest!" "Yes, I know. Is he not a wonderful nurse? But still at his age one is not permanently saddened by such an experience, especially as he has had the in my opinion somewhat questionable bliss of seeing 282 A DOFFED CORONET me recover from this delightful attack of typhoid. No, no ; mark my words, there is something preying on his mind, but what, I do not know how to discover." " My dear girl, are you sure that you are not a little fanciful about this? I grant you that he does not look either as well or as happy as last year, but this surely can readily be accounted for, as I said just now, by what he has been through during the past four months." I threw myself impatiently back on my cushions, swinging the hammock quite perilously as I did so. "Why, Jerry," I exclaimed, "you must be as blind as a bat; he is so altered that sometimes I hardly know him ! He does not look older, he does not look actually unhappy, but his whole personality suggests resist- ance and concealment, a weight too heavy for one's shoulders, as it were, and stubbornness, too his eyes have a furtive, obstinate look. I know that behind all this lies some evil or other." "But if you really believe all this, question him, draw him out; he cannot withstand your influence. You realize that, don't you?" I laughed aloud. "My influence!" I said, bitterly. " I am a nice one, am I not, to charm any one, particu- larly my own husband, into doing what he distinctly does not want to do? Have you looked at me lately, Jerry?" I continued, quite unabashed by an emphatic shrug of his shoulders more eloquent than polite. "Physically and' mentally I am an excellent picture of a wreck, with a sixteenth-century dimness over it which I recommend to your kind attention! No, you are not to pay me any compliments, my dear ; it would only vex me, although I am sure that you are quite sincere when you make them." " I will not make you any compliments ; but I must confess that you are talking arrant rot." 283 A DOFFED CORONET "Nonsense! I cannot help seeing things as they are ; it is a little way I have. Life is a succession of losses. I am ready to accept this melancholy truism; but my recent ones, including those of energy, strength, wit, brilliancy, "looks, health, and last but not least, my hair, begin to count as something irreparable quelle degringolade, hein ?" "If I did not know you so well I would think that you are joking, for, if you will allow me to say so, I do not recognize you at all in this discouraged, disheart- ened, and diffident mood!" "I assure you that I was never more completely in earnest. I trust that you do not think me capable of fishing for compliments, after all!" "My dearest little girl, you are absurd. Compliment or no compliment, I will tell you the truth, whether you like it or not. Your charm and magnetism are wholly unimpaired. Indeed, you have added to them the ad- ditional fascination of temporary helplessness, which, in one as self-reliant, independent, and courageous as yourself, is excessively winning ; and as to your trying to make any one think that your pallor, your thin- ness (which makes your eyes as big as saucers), and your cropped curls, rob you of your looks, that is pre- posterous." There was a touch of grave sadness mixed with this tone of gentle persiflage which forbade my pursuing that subject, and I thought to myself, with some real annoyance, as I saw him lapse into one of the abstracted moods in which he had indulged before his abrupt de- parture for Abyssinia: "Love's words are weak, but not love's silences!" The great wonder-flower of romantic tenderness was still blossoming in his faithful, loyal heart, and the 284 A DOFFED CORONET old vague, sorrowful feeling concerning him which had come upon me on the night of his last departure made itself once more felt. His was much too fine and grand a nature to waste his life in a vain and fruit- less sentiment of that kind. I was sorry now, too, for having spoken as openly and recklessly to him as I had just done, and could have bitten my tongue off for having been so unusually tactless. Softly Jerry twanged the strings of his banjo, look- ing fixedly at a budding magnolia, as if bent upon count- ing with absolute exactness every promise of bloom nestling among its lustrous leaves. At last he said, in a conversationally indifferent way, but without re- moving his gaze from the magnolia: " I think that you should not allow yourself to be troubled by gloomy forebodings at present; it will only retard your recovery and your departure." He paused, then continued, coldly and baldly, as if mere- ly stating a bit of current news : " And as to the other matter, you may reassure yourself completely. Your reign is not over; as a matter of fact, you are somewhat more rather than less of a charmeuse than you have ever been. No man living will agree with your pres- ent unflattering opinion of yourself." "Oh, well, never mind," I replied, airily; "it is, after all, not of the smallest consequence; what, however, is of paramount importance, is for me to find out what ails Fred. Tell me, Jerry, has Mahmoud Bey been here often during my illness?" "That bounder?" he replied, his mouth and eyes both expressing measureless contempt. " Yes, that bounder ! To you I may confess that he has been for a long time past a considerable thorn in my side. You must see that it would do no good to tell anybody else. There was an unpleasant incident last 285 A DOFFED CORONET spring, and I traced what might have developed into a first-class villany and felony as well to him; but Fred is rather amused by the fellow, and pooh-poohed my views of the matter. It would take too long to tell you about it now, but I will do so later on, when there is less fear of our being disturbed. Moreover, there is another man whose influence I dread for Fred, and that is that diplomatic - financier, or financial diplomatist, whichever you like to call it Sir B s D n. He hates Fred, although he flatters him most delicately and cleverly whenever he gets the chance." "You are entirely right in mistrusting that one. He is a dangerous scamp, very shrewd, very clever, and as unscrupulous as they make them, and, more- over, his ways of making a fortune are a trifle more than questionable, as you know. He would have us believe that his dealings with the stock exchange are a harmless little pastime a little innocent fad whereas there is no possible doubt that more than once he spec- ulated on state secrets that had been intrusted to the honor he hasn't got." " Yes, I know he is an ugly customer, and he will never forgive Fred for having been once the innocent con- veyer of a royal reproof and a royal snub to him and to his precious wife. It was unfortunate for my poor lad that such snubs are generally administered by proxy! That man is so mean that a hundred souls like his would rattle in a mustard-seed, and I fear that some day or other he will play Fred some nasty trick." "Does he call here often?" "No, indeed! He knows that I dislike him, that I am not taken in by his assumed gentlemanliness, and I have shown him plainly that his financial jargon bores me. It is dotted with 'bulls/ 'bears, 'ursine operations/ 'realizations/ 'tightness/ and a 286 A DOFFED CORONET hundred other ridiculous terms which I neither relish nor understand." i " Well, you are not afraid that Fred should be drawn into gambling on ' 'Change/ are you? He has a nice income of his own, and you, in spite of all you sacrificed when you married him, are still richer than is good for you to be, so where would the incentive come in?" " That's just it. Fred is a queer fellow at times. To begin with, he is annoyed that I should be better off than he is. You see, there are many who hinted pretty plainly that he had made a beau reve in more senses than one when he married me, and it is pardonable, perhaps, under the circumstances, that he should re- gret not to be the wealthier of the two. Who knows, therefore, whether he might not be tempted by a clever enemy of his and mine to try and increase his capital by means which people less queer than myself con- sider perfectly fair namely, by gambling in stocks? It is improbable, but, after all, possible. I heard him say once that he had bought a lot of mining shares. I paid no attention to it at the time, for it was just before I was taken ill, and my head was in a wretched muddle, but during the last few days it has been re- called to my mind by finding a broker's letter address- ed to him in the mail-bag. I asked him when handing it to him what he had to do with such people, but he turned the conversation to other topics, and I was feel- ing too tired and rocky to carry the war into his camp." "Hum ... !" muttered Jerry, with a slight frown. " This certainly seems to need looking into, but I dread for you any form of excitement or worry while you are still too weak to walk across a room, or even to stand on your poor little feet. Confound everybody and everything! This mania for gambling in mining shares is such a convenient way of ruining one's self. 287 A DOFFED CORONET Why, the greatest cretin can lose or make a fortune in a week at that game. He buys at, let us say, a sov- ereign a share, and in a few days he may sell again for three or four times the amount. When one esti- mates this in thousands the result is rather formid- able. " I sighed and turned my attention to the beef-tea which Sahla brought at that moment, and to some thin bread-and-butter handed to me, bit by bit, by Jerry, who evidently did not consider me strong enough to hold up a whole slice at once. I knew very little, technically speaking, about finance, but I had an instinctive horror of financiers whether big or small, and when Jerry had carried me back to my rooms, across the already dusky gardens, I read long and studiously the stock-exchange reports of the best-informed sheets, frowning and fidgeting over the hideous and incomprehensible words with which they bristled, in my anxiety to find out how the mining shares I had mentioned to my faithful knight- errant were rated. It would have been boastful forme to pretend that my health and strength were improving; indeed, Jer- ry had been quite right in saying that fretting would retard my recovery, and so there was nothing for it but to severely repress any inclination to dwell upon the future which seemed just then, to say the least, preg- nant with difficulties and to devote my whole atten- tion to following the behests of my physicians with military precision, swallow tonics, restoratives, nour- ishing food for which I felt ten times my old horror and turn myself into a mere thoughtless, feelingless piece of machinery. Many weary days went by thus, and very gradually I became once more able, with dogged determination, to 288 A DOFFED CORONET walk slowly and hesitatingly about the house, or along half the length of the terrace, with somebody in close attendance to steady my insecure footsteps. That ghastly illness was, indeed, followed by a yet ghastlier convalescence, and I noticed that my kind nurses and my medical men more than once despaired of pulling me through it. At last I was pronounced well enough to undertake in a fortnight or so if great care and prudence were exercised the trip back to Europe, and my spirits began to rise rapidly again. Strange to say, Fred, who had been so magnificently faithful in his con- stant care of me as long as I was in danger, since I had been pronounced to be "doing better" had withdrawn almost entirely from the little " corps of devoted order- lies," as I called the group formed by himself, Jerry, and two other admirable friends of whom one was my godfather, F . . . . x-T n and the other my old "chum," Prince H n, who had tended me for nearly six months with a devotion difficult to describe. * 1 puzzled more and more over this strange defection and made myself very miserable about it, but yet I tried to adhere to my resolve about not fretting, and avoided talking to Fred about all this until I felt strong enough to do so without any exhibition of feminine weakness, of which I dreaded more than any- thing else to render myself guilty. I felt strangely hurt by this entirely unexpected atti- tude on Fred's part, for he seemed anxious to avoid me, and especially any possibility of my questioning him, had I been minded to do so all of which was a decided breach of contract, for it had been well under- stood between us from the first that we would share joys and sorrows alike, as good comrades fighting life's 9 289 A DOFFED CORONET battles shoulder to shoulder should do ; so pride made me leave him entirely free to act as he thought fit, and an awkward and painful restraint on both sides was the inevitable result of this undesirable state of affairs. Two weeks before the date fixed for our departure I was lying on the lounge in my dressing-room one morn- ing, with Ali-Baba standing watch over me, and oc- casionally licking the tips of my fingers to indicate that he was wide awake and ready to go and fetch one or all of the servants if need arose, like the sagacious and clever dog he was, when suddenly I heard a car- riage stop, and immediately afterwards Fred's step, first on the veranda and then in the central hall. Under the new regime I thought that he would prob- ably go on to the chancellerie, or his own rooms, and not come near me until Jerry and my other " orderlies " came in to lunch, and my heart hardened against him. I felt so very weak yet, and so very lonely! Greatly to my surprise, however, he turned into the corridor leading to my side of the house and knocked at my door. "Come in!" I said, without looking up from the pages of my book or silencing Ali-Baba, who was yapping a joyful welcome to the master he now so sel- dom saw. Something in the manner of his entrance made me raise my eyes against my will, and with an exclamation of alarm I started to my feet, for his face was pale and set, and his whole bearing eloquently ex- pressive of bad news. "What has happened?" 1 asked, feeling suddenly cold all over. He groaned, and, casting himself down upon a chair, let his head fall upon his hands. Swiftly I went up to him, and, touching him gently on the shoulder, begged him to tell me what was the 290 A DOFFED CORONET matter, but for a few seconds which seemed remark- ably long to me I could not get him to answer a word. At last, when my alarm had become almost unbear- able, he raised towards me a face ages older than that to which I was accustomed, and said, in a curiously broken voice: "Matter! I am ruined! I have lost every penny I possessed in the world!" "Oh, Lord, how you frightened me!" I exclaimed, sitting down rather abruptly on the arm of a sofa opposite to him. "Is that all?" "All! What more do you want?" " Nothing, nothing ; this will suffice me for the pres- ent," I said, with a little laugh not very merry, nor very genuine, but still a very presentable little laugh ; and then I continued in the same semi-bantering tone, because I divined that pity and sympathy would bring about numerous undesirable catastrophes. "Assuredly it is a misfortune, but I do not see that you need be so tragic about it. We are not as yet, so far as I am aware, in danger of starving, or even of having to work very hard for our daily bread, so cheer up, dear old boy, and tell me all about it." I pretended not to see the incredulous amazement with which he regarded me, and, stretching my hand towards a neighboring table, took a cigarette how glad I was to have resumed the use of the soothing herb three days before ! and began to smoke with true Oriental impassiveness. "For God's sake, Muzzi, do you realize what I just told you?" he cried, rising and beginning to walk ner- vously to and fro. " Why, yes, of course I do ; but I cannot for the life of me understand why the loss of your money granted that you have really lost it all should make you look 291 A DOFFED CORONET and act as you do now. Plaie d' argent n'est pas mor- telle and we have plenty more, you knowl" "Ah, yes yours!" "Precisely." " Well, do you imagine that I can calmly and cheer- fully contemplate living henceforth entirely on your money?" "Tut-tut, don't be foolish! Perhaps, after all, your situation is not as desperate as you think ; and to begin with, do sit down and tell me, if it be possible, how this all came about." He sat down again, and wiped his face with his handkerchief. "I have been a fool!" he said, furiously. "An ab- surdly confiding idiot. I see it now when it is too I nodded encouragingly, but as he relapsed into silence, staring in front of him, like a man who has fallen down a precipice and cannot make up his mind whether he be dead or alive, I threw away my half smoked cigarette and again took the floor. "I dare say that you have allowed yourself to be advised in your financial ventures since now you have joined the phalanx of money makers and losers by people who were only too glad to give you wrong tips. For instance, Sir B ...... s D ...... n, for I would swear that he had a hand in this silly business." "Who told you this?" "Nobody; but it is easy enough to guess." He groaned anew, and smothered an oath between his clinched teeth. "Look here, Fred," I continued, an idea flashing upon me, " do you owe anybody anything, or can you completely cover the loss?" "N no, I do not owe anybody a penny, but " 292 A DOFFED CORONET " What I mean is, do you need money to save the the situation your name, you know, from being un- pleasantly mentioned anywhere? I am not versed in finance, but I have heard of people being what is it you call it? posted on 'Change, or something like that. Is that your case? Answer me!" "My poor girl, my poor little girl," he murmured, with a sudden flash of piteous tenderness, "that you should have to suffer this, too!" " Ah, so that is what makes you feel so badly ! Well now, tell me this instant how much you need to cleai yourself, and when you want it." And then, with eyes cast down, he told me with man] pauses and much hesitation the full extent of the ca- lamity. He had, it appeared, allowed himself to be drawn into speculating, with the idea of augmenting his capital sufficiently to clear himself forever of the imputation of having married me partly for my money a piece of gossip about which he was absurdly sen- sitive, although, for the matter of that, rumors of quite a contrary nature were also afloat. Through a strange concourse of unlucky circumstances, and especially be- cause he was entirely ignorant of affairs of this kind, he had suddenly found himself involved to a much greater extent than he had imagined. Horrified, he had tried to recoup himself by risking yet larger sums, and some mining shares upon which he had built fantastic hopes having without the slight- est warning fallen to zero, owing to an inundation of the mines, he now remained insolvent for an exceed- ingly large sum. Naturally, also, as I had surmised, Sir B s D n had been his chief finan- cial adviser. For a few minutes I occupied myself with sowing, in the furrows of remembrance, the seeds of an anger 293 A DOFFED CORONET to call it by a mild name which would, I hoped, pro- duce in good time a neat little harvest of unpleasant- ness for that worthy, and I thought bitterly of the re- mark that I had once heard that discreet rogue make to the effect that financiers well versed like himself in the business of the stock exchange despised the " scran- nel" operations of amateurs. Did he call such differ- ences on settling day the result of " scrannel " opera- tions, I wondered? Anyhow, the "deal" was closed to use the trade parlance the famous mining shares were unnegotiable, and Fred, thanks to him, practically a bankrupt. Assuredly his kind adviser had reason to be satisfied. I lighted another cigarette, pour me donner conte- nance, and after a rapid mental calculation said to that poor, broken, amateur financier whose name I bore : "Do not be down-hearted, husband mine, you will have the money in hand to settle your differences Lor', what exquisite language this is ! to-morrow when the banks open, for I will cable my Viennese bank- ers to wire me the necessary sum at once, which will give you plenty of time," and, stooping down, I kissed him. "You want to pay this?" he cried. "You want to cripple your fortune to throw the greater portion of it into this pit of mud I have dug before your feet?" "Oh, look here, Fred, please don't talk nonsense! What can be more natural than that I should help you out of this difficulty ? Who has a better right to do so, I 'd like to know? You really cannot very well treat me as a stranger, seeing that you married me. I have always considered myself as your best friend and comrade, apart from anything else, and I may at least be allowed a friend's privilege. Just you sit still while I write my despatch, and do not worry ! I am, perchance, a trifle wealthier than you know, and the payment of this sum 294 A DOFFED CORONET will not by any means cripple me or my fortunes. So there!" The'se pages have already recorded too many melo- dramatic incidents for me to dwell on the hours that followed. Fred behaved like a trump, poor old boy! and I was so relieved to find that money alone had been at the bottom of his recent changeful and incompre- hensible moods that I now felt almost light-hearted. Of course, the payment of this debt, which I considered to be a debt of honor, would take a far greater slice out of my capital than I cared to have him know then, for at the time of my marriage to him I had had to surrender a large part of my personal income, or, rather, to put it baldly, the two hundred thousand francs annual al- lowance made to me by my aunt, the Duchess de S , who held a life interest in the money left to me by her husband, and who had broken absolutely with me when I had refused to take her advice as to my sec- ond matrimonial venture; but, notwithstanding this, even after paying Fred's debt I would still control an in- come which would make it possible for us to continue life almost on the same luxurious footing as heretofore. One resolve I took, however, and an unshakable one it was, too. I determined to pay back in full what I per. sonally owed of chagrin and misery to Sir B s D n, and to any other person who had helped him in that sorry job, for I fancied, somehow, that there must be somebody else. Fred did not appear at lunch, and as Jerry was obliged to spend a portion of the afternoon at the British Lega- tion, I found myself alone for several hours in the garden under the shelter of the little tent, with a book on my lap which I did not read. No breeze lifted the fan-shaped leaves of the palms, and the monoto- nous drone of some insects darting about among the 295 A DOFFED CORONET roses was the only sound to be heard. With the elas- ticity inherent to my nature, the moment I had real- ized the new state of our fortunes my mental fibres had automatically adjusted themselves to it, and I found no very great trouble in mentally rearranging our lives to meet the requirements of the situation. Material changes would be few, but the material portion of one's existence not being the one which is of paramount im- portance, there were other alterations to attend to that engrossed my attention more imperiously. The sun was already off the lawns, and a refresh- ing breeze was just springing up to dissipate the heat garnered during the day under the thick verdure, and swept gently along the rose-colored Numidian marble terrace, lightly stirring leaf and flower, when the crisp noise of crushed gravel made me look up, and there before me stood Mahmoud Bey in his glittering uniform, as spick and span as ever, and with a strangely am- biguous smile playing under his heavy mustache. A visit from him was about the last thing I had ex- pected, but I found with that pleasure which a con- valescent experiences in regaining former powers no difficulty in assuming a perfectly natural manner, although my heart hammered uncomfortably against my ribs, and a little twitching of the nerves made it plain to me that I was eager for the fray, especially as I perceived immediately that he also was in the grip of some violent emotion, although he concealed it ad- mirably under a great show of interest in my health. "How charming it is to find you up and about/' said he, drawing a camp-stool forward and seating himself close to me. "What will you have?" I asked. "Tea, coffee, brandy-and-soda? Coffee, perhaps! I think that I remember your telling me once that you like it b la 296 A DOFFED CORONET Turque. We prepare it here just as you do, only we do not make it quite ... as ... strong!" These words, pronounced in a light, bantering tone, evidently made the aide-de-camp aware that the cur- tain had risen on the drama, for he drew himself up at once as if placing himself on the defensive. "I will take nothing just now," he replied, with a certain effort, as if this simple statement was being wrung from him. " I have not come to pay you a social call, my lady, but to entreat you to listen to me for a few minutes patiently, for I have to tell you some- thing something of the utmost gravity and impor- tance!" he concluded, moistening his dry lips with the tip of his tongue. "Something of importance to you?" I inquired, and again the commonplace words seemed to fall momen- tously. "Something of importance to us both," he replied, rattling the gold cords of his sword-knot nervously, and looking persistently away from me. "That must certainly be interesting," I said, and leaning back I drew down a slender pepper -tree branch which overhung the open flap of the tent, gath- ered the tiny berries like red buckshot in the hol- low of my hand, and began to throw them one by one at the gnarled trunk of a misshapen and hunch-backed palm-tree which reminded me somehow of Mahmoud. "Oh yes, I think I may perhaps succeed in in- teresting you ! " he remarked, with a covert insolence which he had never allowed himself as yet to display towards me. I cast the rest of the pepper-berries at one throw against the tree, and sat up straight. " It will be the very first time that you do so, then!" I replied, " so pray come to the point. But I must remind 297 A DOFFED CORONET you before you begin that a more deferential tone is de rigueur in my presence and now proceed," I concluded, with a vague sweep of my left hand, indicating that I was relinquishing the platform to him. "You are mistaken, madame," he began, "if you think that I have come here and carefully avoided being announced by evading your boob in anything but a conciliatory spirit. Indeed, I have come to offer you my help at a moment when you need friends and not foes!" "You astonish me! May I inquire to what moment you are alluding? Personally, I am not conscious of needing either the help of the one or the interference of the other. Besides which, I do not think that, strictly speaking, you can call yourself my friend, or for the matter of that my foe, because you know a foe is generally supposed to inspire fear, or at least appre- hension, which you most emphatically fail to do." " You are right, my lady, right as ever," he exclaimed, with sudden passion. " I have never been your friend, for friendship between us was always impossible. There can live in my soul but deepest hatred, or ... or fiercest love, where you are concerned. Let me speak; let me tell you at last why I have persecuted you, why I have tried to place you in a position where you would be humbled and at my mercy, why now I am here to offer you my help, my life, my very heart's blood. ..." He had leaned nearer and nearer towards me until his hot breath touched my cheek. Was the man in earnest, or merely a better comedian than I had given him credit for? With a rapid twist of the wrist I un- furled a large sandal-wood fan which had been lying on my lap and flashed it between us, just touching the tip of his nose with it, and causing him to disappear in sudden eclipse behind its odorous fret-work. 298 A DOFFED CORONET "Exit Romeo!" I said, with a low laugh, and then drawing back and closing this novel weapon of del fence with a crackling sound, I declaimed: "Enter the heavy villain, poignard in hand!" I regret to say that at that instant Mahmoud swore an oath savoring more of Billingsgate or Ratcliff- Highway than of the mysterious and poetical Orient. For that estimable Turk was an excellent linguist. "Fie, Excellency!" I said, still laughing; "where are your manners?" "Manners! Damn manners! You are enough to drive a man crazy; but you will not laugh so gayly when you know all!" "Brrr-rr-rrr! You positively frighten me! You do not really think, however, that anything can be worse than the abortive declaration I have just been sub- jected to? Pardon my frankness, but melodrama al- ways bores me, and I wish that you would confine yourself to your habitual r61es minor parts, that is, for the leading one does not particularly suit your brand of talent." "You may joke, my lady, but when you find that you have destroyed the only chance your husband has of saving himself from ruin you may possibly regret it." " Ah, nous y voilh done ! " I said, clapping my hands softly. "The plot is revealed generous lover versus vanquished and ruined husband; heroic wife sacri- ficing her honor to save that of her lord! Superb! Simply superb! Good ending for a fifth act. Con- gratulations, Mahmoud Bey." A spasm of fury convulsed his features, and he fairly stamped his foot. "Do you know that dishonor stares you and your precious husband in the face? Do you know that he has lost all his money and owes an enormous sum be- 299 A DOFFED CORONET sides, which he has no means of paying?" he cried, in a strained, high-pitched voice. "I came here," he went on, " to offer you my help, if you will only grant me a a a little pity, a little tenderness in return. For you I am ready to give all I have. I am richer than people think, and I can save you yet. Your fate is in my hands, your husband's name, his future everything!" "I understand that a heart lies at my feet," I replied, with another amused laugh; "but even supposing that to be true, there is another point from which to consider the situation. One does not carefully treasure the signed confession of a person whom one regards with a a a little pity and tenderness. Incident- ally, therefore, you would expect to regain that in- teresting document, wouldn't you? Do you think you can get it?" He was about to speak, evidently in vehement de- nial, but I gave him no opportunity. "Allow me to translate your proposals from stage language to that of fact as quickly as possible, so that I may be rid of you," I continued. " You offer me money stolen money, since it is yours to save the man you yourself have helped to ruin. You are a bosom friend of Sir B s D n, and you have been, I would swear, his ally throughout this financial cam- paign, which, though so disastrous for Fred, I have discovered has been for D n, and doubtless for you, also, quite indecently remunerative. Ah, you don't like my way of putting it!" for Mahmoud's ex- pression of exasperation had changed to one of extreme discomfort, and he was shifting uneasily in his seat. "Now I have a bit of advice to give you," I went on, smiling sweetly at him. "And that is, don't, my dear Bey, give so much attention to gossip. Gossip 300 A DOFFED CORONET probably told you that at the time of my second mar- riage I was obliged to sacrifice my entire property. I am sorry to tell you that the report is untrue. As it hap- pens, I am sufficiently wealthy to pay all my husband's debts 'without turning a hair/ as your friends in trade would put it. So the bottom has dropped out of your little scheme, and you have proved yourself an ass as well as a scoundrel. Either reputation is enough for one man to bear, my dear Bey, and it is quite deplorable that you should so readily assume both." My adversary by this time presented a most ludi- crous picture of grotesquely mingled emotions fear, as- tonishment, disgust, and disappointment. I laughed aloud; not that the humor of the situation was very apparent to me I was too angry for that but I was forced either to accept that aspect of it, or transgress an inflexible principle of mine that one must not lose one's temper with an inferior. But oh ! to have been a man for five minutes, to have ceased playing Lord High Executioner to this human mollusc, to have eased my strained nerves by slapping the fellow's face and dismissing him with a sound and hearty kick! Mahmoud, true to his contemptible code, now tried flattery. "Ah, what a woman you are!" he exclaimed, with abject admiration. "What emotion touches you? Neither love, nor fear, nor rage " "Nor what Judge B r calls 'soft sawder,' you might add," I interrupted, scornfully. "I don't wonder you are surprised at me. All you know of Europeans has been learned from the hundreds of social wrecks who take refuge over here when their own coun- tries are too hot to hold them, pirates of society who have dragged their names through mud and slime, and who hope to blind their audience here with the 301 A DOFFED CORONET debris of their battered escutcheons. What emotions do you expect to inspire save disgust? You, who are quite too insignificant, too contemptible to be even in- teresting. Listen, you are even respited! In a few days I am going to Europe not so fast, my friend, pray do not look so relieved until you have heard me out!" For Mahmoud's drooping attitude had disap- peared on the instant, and he was all attention and alert interest. After a moment's pause I resumed: "Do you know the Due d'A t?" "The Due d'A .... t, on Rhoda?" he replied, be- wildered. "No, I do not know him, but I know his secretary. Why do you ask?" " So you know his secretary ; and when scamp num- ber one meets scamp number two but it does not mat- ter. I will tell you, however, what does. The gems you removed from the Collier de la Favorite are in the Duke's possession ; for he bought them from the mer- chant to whom you sold them." "Impossible!" " Oh no, quite possible ; I have seen them, and both he and I know that they are the identical ones." "Will he speak?" " No, he won't. He is yet another honorable person- age quite beyond your understanding who would dislike very much to turn informer. So he will not speak excepting you yourself force him to do so by persevering in the ways you have trodden until now, or if you continue to attack my husband by word of mouth or otherwise ; or else, again, if the Khedive dis- covers your removal of gems from that or possibly any other jewel belonging to him. By-the-bye, have you still got access to his valuables?" "No," he replied, submissively; "there have been 302 A DOFFED CORONET great changes at the palace this summer. His High- ness has grown strangely suspicious, and no one but himself or Prince Hussein has access to his valuables and private papers." I smiled, well pleased at finding that Tewfik had indeed taken my hint, and continued : "The Duke is my friend, and I have placed in his hands a sealed envelope containing copies of all the written proofs I have of your guilt, and also a state- ment of my entire dealings with you. Thus you see that my absence even for several months does not in- dicate that you will not be closely watched, so & bon entendeur salut ! And now do me the favor to leave me at once. I do not think that I can put up with you another minute," and, rising abruptly, I blew the gold whistle hanging to my chatelaine three times shrilly, for I distinctly felt that if the fellow stood there any longer looking at me I would do him an injury. He presumably read something of the kind in my eyes, for what little color he had left fled from his face, and with- out awaiting the advent of the servant I had summoned he bowed profoundly and departed, while I, sinking back into my chair again, laughed silently. But alas for whatever intentions, good or bad, I may have had regarding him. Fate intervened. Of my last two weeks in Egypt I will not speak. They were not pleasant ones, for besides the temporary gloom which Fred's financial mishap had cast over him and which, of course, reacted upon me it is always a tedious job to leave, for an indefinite period, a house filled from top to bottom with bric-a-brac and costly furniture, especially when one is not in good health, and when consequently the superintending of servants and packers is an almost overwhelming fatigue. At last we were off, however, accompanied as far as Alex- 3<>3 A DOFFED CORONET andria by several faithful friends, among them poor Jerry, whose devotion and goodness had been past be- lief, and who now looked so broken up that it pained me cruelly to say good-bye to him. We embarked on one of the Messageries Maritimes steamers, for this time we were going leisurely and by easy stages to Brittany, where we intended to stay for a few weeks at my own place on the great cliffs overlooking La Mer Sauvage. My mother, whose feeling of resentment on account of my second marriage had gradually become somewhat modified, and who would have been ready to welcome a reconciliation, had sent us a formal invitation to visit her at my dear old home, where she lived six months out of the year ; but what I needed was peace, silence, and repose, all of which could not very well be obtained in the house where she reigned, and which was always full of guests bent on making of life a continual pageant. I therefore thanked her, and accepted conditionally to come to her at a later date when sufficiently recovered, but not while I was still so much of an invalid as to be a trouble-f@te. As soon as the carriage reached the narrow roads leading through the cork-oak forest to my dear old ivy- grown castle my heart gave a great leap. I felt that here I would soon be well and happy again. Above our heads the evergreen branches met, letting the pale- golden Breton sun filter soft, warm rays upon the moss and heather, the broom and gorse, with which the ground was covered as with a royal mantle. Snowy clematis and pink convolvulus clothed the rough trunks of the century-old trees, and bird-songs were heard everywhere, while quite close at hand, just be- yond the luxuriant belt of verdure bordering the road, the sound of the sea against its lofty granite 3<>4 A DOFFED CORONET bastions seemed the leitmotif of nature's sweet har- mony. Now and again we drove past a cluster of little cot- tages, built of rough stone and roofed with thatch, wherein blue irises and pink foxglove had taken root and blossomed as in a garden. The inhabitants of these poetical chaumi&res honest ones those, and not gilded imitations like Madame S . . . a's came out to wel- come us, clad in their picturesque costumes of heavy cloth embroidered in multi-colored silks and silver thread, and surmounted either by the large, white- winged coiffe which recalls the mediaeval "hennin," and gives to the straight profiles and large, flax-blue eyes of our peasant women an ideal and chaste purity, or by the three-cornered felt hats, profusely decorated with bright chenille cords and silver buckles, worn by the men on fete days. At last this was home my only true and real home ! How good it felt to be there again, surrounded by the deep-hearted love of my people, for although five years had elapsed since my last visit to the old manoir of K t, one does not forget in Brittany, and the time might have been ten times longer. The castle, a massive but elegantly shaped building, as lonely in its situation as though perched at the very confines of the world, is profusely mullioned, machic- olated, and turreted, and stands in a vast park fron- tiered on one side by the basaltic cliffs I love so well, and on the other by splendid oak forests, and as we entered the cour d'honneur I stretched out my thin hands to it all as to a dear, kind, comforting friend, and breathed in deeply the sweet, pungent smell of the familiar flowers, ripening fruit, and plants basking in the sun, mixed with the glad fragrance of brine and sea-weed, and of the violet-scented salt-marshes which 305 A DOFFED CORONET lay three miles farther up the coast in a break of the cliffs. In my love for Brittanj^ I reached a moral height which I never touched otherwise, and in which every doubt, every sorrow, every regret was swept away as with one strong, health-giving, heavenly breath. Home at last! But for how long? " II est parti vent arriere, II reviendra en louvoyant !" The ancient sailor-song spoke truly, for I had gone thence gay, happy, strong, healthy, full of life, and I came back weak, ill, and down-hearted; that is what the old song meant to say in maritime parlance. I had come back, indeed, to be healed, strengthened, cheered, and made happy again. How I did sleep in my huge room of panelled oak and Flemish tapestries, that smelled of lavender and pressed rose-leaves. And when I awoke in the morning in the grand old bed, with its bleu de France brocade hangings and its carved and coroneted canopy, how joyful I was to hear the fresh, crisp sound of the waves, and the thrushes singing in the blossoming elder- boughs beneath my windows ! All the j^oung life in me seemed to grow anew, and to become once more glad and free from care. Many quiet and happy days followed for me, during which I recovered all my vitality, and soon I was once more able to spend hours in the saddle, galloping over the silvery sands at low tide, or through the narrow bridle-path of the forest, and to sail my boat amid the great, black rocks of the bay Ar-Men-Du, as they call them in Bas-Breton the navigation of my tiny vessel demanding my careful attention, but yet not to the point of preventing me from enjoying to the uttermost the smooth, easy, gliding motion over the grayish-green 306 A DOFFED CORONET water, where flocks of gulls and sea-swallows dipped their silky wings within a stone's throw of me. Fred, too, was benefited by this purely contempla- tive existence, far away from everybody and everything save the household, the dear oM priest who had been my beloved tutor and was now the chaplain of the manoir and the peasants and fisher-folk who had known me since babyhood and loved me as had I been their own. He was always a charming companion, gay, light-hearted, and full of fun, and although he had not my passionate love for the country in general and Brittany in particular, yet he spent a very happy time on horseback or on the sea, or else in the vast li- brary, oak-panelled like every other room throughout the castle, and containing, besides hundreds of vol- umes not much more recent that Diderot some rare black-letter records, parchments, ancient manuscripts, and a collection of illuminated missals and "hour- books" of singular beauty, for he was ever a bit of a bookworm. But, alas, in November, Fred having been summoned to London, I resigned myself to once more leave the dear old place, closing the series of my delights by a long ride along the shore to where the most wonderful steeple in Brittany or in the world, perhaps raises its weather-worn cross towards the hazy sky on the very edge of a rocky precipice a marvellous, lacelike tower of gray, lichen-grown stone, shooting higher and higher up in the air, and light and carved & jour enough to give one vertigo when climbing the spiral stairs leading to the summit. Through the interstices of the granite lace-work one sees the tossing sea, the heather-clad plain, the distant tops of the cork-oaks, as if one were soaring ; and frightened rooks a swarm of bugel - noz I rise from their perches amid the huge 307 A DOFFED CORONET bronze bells, screeching and circling wildly round with a noisy flapping of their sombre wings, which makes one a little dizzy at such an altitude. Six hundred years of storm and rain has this marvellous steeple withstood, its grimacing gargoyles overhanging the restless ocean with a sneer of defiance on their ugly faces, and seeming to ask mockingly of one another why they are still there staring the sun and the moon in the face, or watching the hurricanes blow the water into froth at the foot of their immutable gray tower, when all else bearing human shape came and went, was born and died, to be thrust away under the brown earth or to sleep an eternal sleep on a bed of delicately tinted weed fifty fathoms beneath the surface of that endlessly tossing sea. I dismounted at the entrance of the cloisters, and, leaving my horse with the groom, walked slowly to the very edge of the cliff and gazed at the pale-blue mirror before me, which melted away on the horizon-line into the similar azurine pallor of the sky, for, strange to record, the bay was lulled into an unusual drowsy repose on that occasion by the splendor of the autumnal day. When I turned round I saw an old, old crone, bent and gnarled like an evil fairy, with a hooked profile resem- bling that of an owl, and little, red-rimmed, gray eyes, blinking hen-fashion, telling her beads on the steps of the gaunt calvary to the left of the church. I stepped over the short, salty grass, dotted with sea-pinks and sea-thistles, and bade her good-morning. " Jesus, ma Doue I Jesus, ma Dou$ 1" she croaked. "Our lady come back to her own!" and noticing my surprise at being recognized, so far from my own place, she broke out in a torrent of Bas-Breton, for they do not speak Galleuc (French) in those parts. "Ah, you look like him!" she wailed. "Like the 308 A DOFFED CORONET saint we have lost our dear, dear lord, a giant in strength and in goodness, handsome as none else ever was, and with a heart of gold and a soul of crystal, riding his great, black horse wherever there was a fine deed to do. 'Jesus, ma Done!' our lost lord, our lost lord!" Tears sprang to my eyes, and I sat down beside her on the moss-grown steps of the cross it was so long since any one had talked to me of my father 1 An in- tense longing to stay forevermore in the place that had known him and reverenced his memory like that of a saint where his preux Chevalier d' antan was remem- bered, as it was meet that he should be filled my whole being. I listened to the old woman's crooning voice retailing to me the brave deeds and the thousand kind- nesses he had done, and I gazed, almost with despair, at the plain all golden with gorse, excepting where it blushed rosy-red with feathery heather, at the rock- girthed sea intoning its deep-throated monotonous chant, and at last at the antique church, itself a prayer in stone, linking our paltry times to the glorious ages that have passed away: " Mon clocher est 1'plus beau d'la terre, Mon pays 1'plus beau d'alentour; Rendez-moi, ma bruyere, Et mon clocher a jourl" I rose, and, followed by the old creature hobbling along on her two sticks, entered the church. All around the thick, gray walls, saints clad in the cos- tumes of distant centuries looked down upon us from their carven niches in the dark, tranquil, incense-laden atmosphere. Beneath the pavement, made of enormous blocks of granite, knights and ladies, dead so long ago that the crested shields and crowns marking their rest- 309 A DOFFED CORONET ing-places are worn flat by the feet of the many genera- tions that followed them, slept their last sleep, while through the open, iron-bound portals a fresh sea-breeze entered freely, stirring the flowers and the marvellous antique lace cloth upon the high altar. We were all alone in the dusky edifice, and I glanced almost with envy at the bent, frail figure of the aged peasant woman kneeling at my side and praying fervently with a rapt, mystical expression on her toothless, withered counte- nance, which almost beautified it. Then I left her to her silent contemplation of the great saints of Brittany St. Gildas, St. Thegounec, St. Tuginal, St. Tugdual, St. Bertrand and to her long invocations, half Latin, half Bas - Breton, accompanied en sourdine by the " hou, houau-hou-hou " of the wind whistling through the stone lace-work of the slender steeple piercing into the calm, blue sky. My road home followed for a while the salt-marshes, upon which pink mould and emerald-green mossy slime floated wherever the refuse water was allowed to accumulate in the deep 6tiers, then it skirted a bowlder- strewn beach from which the sea had just retired, leav- ing uncovered immense fields of brown ribbon-weed, scalloped and shirred like satin baldaquins, and of delicate pale-green, rose, and amethyst tinted grasses hanging like gigantic tresses from the rocks. Night was coming on, and the four great stones, just beyond low-water mark, which are supposed to be dedicated to Bugel-du (the little black man), leader of the legion of kourrigans (gnomes) who dwell in the caves near by, assumed in the failing light a singularly weird aspect. I loved those stones, and stopped my horse to look my fill at this savage portion of the rugged coast. " Et les Celtes regrettaient quatre pierres brutes sous un ciel pluvieux, au fond d'un golfe rempli d'llots I" 310 A DOFFED CORONET Alas, I was a Celt, too! ********* ********* ********* Galgenhumor, a German word for which there is no equivalent or adequate translation in any of the seven or eight languages I have the misfortune to speak or in all the others I do not speak, for the matter of that, so far as I know is yet one of the most expressive which the human tongue can pronounce, for it means in its conciseness a great many things difficult to render even in a whole sentence. Galgenhumor the brave, almost defiant show of spirit displayed by the poor wretch on his way to the gallows ; the last manifestation of a dying pride, a sinking courage, or merely, perad- venture, the supreme effort of quivering nerves laid bare and raw to conceal from the general public the misery of a struggling soul ; and perhaps, again, only the gay, bantering tone, the merry smile, the ever-pres- ent joke used by the well-bred and sensitive worldling as a brilliant if flimsy armor behind which a weary, momentarily imbittered heart can fight its own battles, desiring no help nor succor, and keeping secret the fact that some spot in its innermost and remotest corner is lightly or sorely wounded. Whatever Galgenhitmor may be, sufficient is it to say that I had a very respectable dose of it when on a late autumn morning we said good-bye to the old memoir, leaving it in its solitary grandeur closed and lifeless once more, save for Monsieur V Abbe's now Monsieur le Cure's private apartment, and the quar- ters near the gardens where the reduced staff of ser vants lived all the year round one of the fairest spots on earth, deserted 1 We embarked at St. Malo for Eng- 3" A DOFFED CORONET land, and during the whole passage I felt that my only safety lay in laughing, joking, and making fun of everything at least accomplishing by so doing the praiseworthy object of cheering Fred, who as he neared his native land was inclined to grow, as usual, gloomier and gloomier! It seemed to me, nevertheless, that we were tearing ahead in a cruel, jeering haste, hard to bear, indeed, and I was glad when the sea got rough all in a moment, a stiff breeze rose, and the little steamer began to pitch and plunge and rear like a vi- cious horse, in the teeth of an uncommonly fresh nor'- easter. This sort of thing was far more in keeping with my real mood than even the convenient Galgen- humor, for it drove every one below and left me in un- disputed possession of the deck as far as passengers were concerned to think, and think, and think, and turn my eyes in undisturbed solitude towards the fast- fading coast of Brittany. Ah, surely there was something prophetic in the bit- terness of that parting! The trip was not a very long one, and sooner than I should have wished we were again within the realms of that polished and refined civilization which rejoices in muddy skies, greasy pavements, horrible noises, squalor, tinsel - luxury, rain, and dirt. A pleasant little incident occurred, however, at the railway sta- tion. We had hardly taken our places in the car- riage reserved for us and sent our servants to theirs, where they were at leisure to meditate, after the grum- bling manner of their kind, over the pleasures of equi- noctial storms and sea-sickness, when a boy of ten or twelve years old, blond of locks and bright-blue-eyed, went past, carrying an armful of illustrated papers and magazines, and crying his wares in so angelic, pure, silver-toned a voice that I started to my feet in 312 A DOFFED CORONET sheer rapture and beckoned peremptorily to him to come back. "Illustrated London News," sang the little fellow, something like this : / J 1 t F f 0^=*=^ II - lus - trat - ed Lon - don Ne - e - ews "Illustrated Lon . . . ' Here he placed his little, ragged shoe on the carriage-step, and, looking up at me with a cherub's smile, held out one or two of the papers. "Give them all!" I said, quickly. "How much for the whole batch?" The smile broadened; amazed and incredulous de- light shone on the chubby pink-and-white British face, and when the papers and magazines had been trans- ferred from the boy's arms to the seat beside me, and he had been hastily indemnified for their loss and re- warded for his exquisite voice and handsome little face with much gold, Fred burst out laughing as we glided out of the terminus. "Incorrigible!" he said, when his merriment had somewhat subsided. "You are incorrigible; nothing will ever alter you." A true prophet, that husband of mine, for of a truth nothing ever did more's the pity. On we rushed through fertile, cramped, verdure-clad England, its lovely villages looking like a succession of highly ornamental, luxurious toys set daintily in a frame of emerald grass and brilliant autumnal flowers for the joy of the onlooker ; but unhappily, as we neared London, a dismal, cold, disheartening rain set in, blot- ting out the charming landscape, which was such an edifying contrast to my own rugged, romantic, scantily 313 A DOFFED CORONET peopled Brittany that I could have cried for sheer homesickness ! "This is getting quite unbearable!" I exclaimed, with a desperate mental clutch at that invaluable Gal- genhitmor, which was threatening to desert me for good and all. "What say you, gallant Knight of the Gloomy Countenance shall we sing a Te Deum in honor of Great Britain to enliven this weary progress, or shall we immortalize ourselves by pulling the danger- signal-bell and stopping the train in order to complain of this inhospitable weather? But no! on second thought, let us prepare a pleasing surprise for the guard by climbing into the hand-luggage net overhead there and playing hide-and-seek with him when he appears at the next station." I blush to record that the boyish mischievousness inherent in my lord and master now broke forth with a vigor which bore testimony to the originality of my proposal, and impelled by that God-sent Galgenhumor, now once more in the ascendant, I did not scruple to carry it into immediate execution. We swung our- selves into the comparatively broad, brass-bound nets, where, thanks to youthful slenderness, we managed not only to ensconce ourselves, but by careful balancing actually to maintain our positions despite the violent oscillations of the train. I am bound to confess that a faint sensation of nausea was superinduced by this daring experiment, but what is such a trifling discom- fort compared with the truly witty and highly spiced pleasantry we contemplated? As we clutched at the precarious support of the curved brass rods we looked at each other and indulged in uncomplimentary re- marks across the carriage about our respective ap- pearances in this our supremely funny imitation of the world-famed Han-Lon-Lees." A DOFFED CORONET At last the train slackened its noisy, and, from that lofty perch, decidedly unpleasant speed, and we ceased laughing and became as quiet as frightened mice, con- gratulating ourselves upon the fact that the failing light of the stormy afternoon would greatly reduce our chances of discovery. Two minutes more and the ex- press was brought to a stand-still, the inharmonious voice of the guard coming nearer and nearer, and his demand for "tickets, please" for this was the last stop before the London terminus being borne to our ears with terrifying and inexorable distinctness. The door of the carriage was opened, letting in a bluster of wind and rain, and then a sonorous oath, followed by this remarkably appropriate sentence, made itself heard : "Where the h 1 have those swells gone to?" No- body answering this very puzzling question, the non- plussed functionary stood for a moment, painfully be- wildered, on the drenched foot-board, then he muttered something incoherent about " train just starting . . . make inquiries . . . search other carriages . . . report to authorities . . . ," consigned us once more to the hot- test regions he could think of in a hurry, banged the door, and was gone! I wiped the tears out of my eyes which suppressed laughter had brought there, bade Fred moderate his own transports of mirth, and then, dizzy and a little sore about the ribs, we clambered down, repaired the disorder of our attire, and sat down opposite each other in preternaturally solemn attitudes to await the ddnouement. When, a few moments later, the train drew up at Waterloo station, the guard appeared ac- companied by half a dozen railroad officials and three constables and wrenched open the door with excited haste. They peered in, craning their necks over one another's shoulders, and stared at us amazed! A DOFFED CORONET "What is the matter?" Fred asked, with quiet and somewhat haughty surprise. "Looking for an es- caped criminal?" The scene that ensued need not be dwelt upon, be- cause, like all very good things, it did not last long, and, moreover, because it would place the gullibility of the British official in too unfavorable a light, but the energetic "Well, I'll be damned!" of the unhappy guard, when charged by his superiors with having been indulging in strong waters, and his bewilderment when he received a compensatory guinea from Fred, together with a benignant smile and a caution to give up drink, were well worth the trouble we had taken. Here I must open a small explanatory parenthesis. When I married Fred I gave him to understand that I would dutifully follow him wherever the exigencies of his career might send him, were it to Patagonia or the North Pole, but not to the United States. My actual knowledge of that country, it should be said, was of a very general nature, being confined, indeed, to bare geog- raphy and a desultory collection of ill-assorted facts. Moreover, the prejudices which I entertained in common with many Europeans, had been intensified no less by encounters with strange and awful Cook's tourists hail- ing from the States than by the dismal reports of furious diplomats, who, in those days, were sent to Washington in punishment of their sins. From these premisses my annoyance may be comprehended when, almost immediately on reaching London, Fred was requested to visit several cities of the American Union. When, however, I had consulted my physicians, I was inclined to forego whatever opposition I had meditated, for they declared with touching and really rare professional unanimity that there could be no question of my going back to Egypt for a very long 316 A DOFFED CORONET time, or, indeed, of my sojourning in any tropical country the mischief done to my constitution by the burning African climate being far greater than we had imagined. They recommended a sea voyage and a more or less long stay in a region colder than either Brittany or England, so I pocketed my prej- udices like a meritorious and unselfish wife, and, on condition that we should under no circumstances stay more than six weeks in Yankeeland, prepared, not very cheerfully, it is true, to cross the North At- lantic at the beginning of December. We were not obliged to hurry particularly, and so Pater, with an eye to the doctor's instructions, advised us instead of travel- ling, on an ocean greyhound to take passage on a con- siderably smaller and slower merchant vessel starting from London and belonging to a line owned by a friend of his. I was pleased at the idea, not only on account of the comparatively long time we would spend on the water, but also because, as that particular vessel was not going to carry any passengers at that crossing save the president of the company, who was going to New York on business it would amount almost to a yachting trip. So, one misty morning when cloudy was the weather we said once again good-bye to old England, dropped down the river, and turned south- westward to face the furies of the great herring-pond in midwinter, and a cruel winter at that ! At the last moment we were joined most unexpected- ly by my brother Bertrand and his valet. We found out too late that the lad, who was then on sick-leave from the navy having, strangely enough, also under- gone a severe attack of typhoid while on the Cochin China station had, after a difference of opinion with his mother, taken the law into his own hands, and, content- ing himself with making his decision known to her in 317 A DOFFED CORONET writing, had come post-haste after us. My duty as elder sister was plainly to blame him severely for this coup de tte, but I was so delighted to see the boy again after years of almost total separation, that my admonitions were of a singularly mild description, and I accepted the fait-accompli with surprising equanimity. There existed between Bertrand and myself a deep and ten- der affection, and as it would have been useless to try to send him back, we came to the conclusion that a short absence of the young sailor could not be con- sidered as a great calamity, and let matters go at that. Late on the afternoon of our departure, Fred having retired to his state-room for, in spite of having been twice around the world, he resembled Admiral Nelson in that he always suffered from sea-sickness during the first part of the voyage Bertrand and I, true to our Bre- ton sea-instinct, went out to get a taste of the weather, much to the surprise of the captain, a tall, bull-necked, beetroot-red-faced fellow, and of his officers standing on the bridge. It was intensely cold, with a feeling of snow in the air ; the setting sun was indicated by a paler stripe on the western edge of a sky of solid gray, and the wind roared fiercely by, making conversation almost impos- sible. Flying jets of spray clung to masts, funnel, and rigging, clothing them with a thin, silvery coating of ice, and glassing the sloping deck until it began to re- semble the side of a glacier. I found, however, no great difficulty in maintaining my balance, thanks to a very early training in much smaller vessels, which had made me familiar with Atlantic storms ; and as to Bertrand, he, naturally, was in his element. We clung to the rail abreast the wheel, and drank in the keen freshness of the air with delight. It was like wine to us us poor children of the North, who had A DOFFED CORONET been so lately pent in the scorched and breathless South- land and we hailed the tigerish leap of each foam- crested sea, every shriek of the boisterous northwester, almost as we would have a glimpse of home itself. Ah, but it was good ! Our quarters were extremely comfortable, for not only had we two state-rooms apiece, but the lady's salon served me as a sort of boudoir. Our servants were also admirably lodged, and the table much better than could have been expected, especially as the aforesaid president a mild-mannered, rather dense-looking, slow- speaking man had brought along two barrels of oys- ters, a large quantity of fruit, and many other delica- cies, which were enjoyed chiefly by Bertrand and myself, the purveyor thereof being mostly confined to his own cabin. For the matter of that, the weather continued so bad that besides us two only my faithful Paul, who was the happy possessor of a good pair of sea legs, and Jim, my brother's valet, were constantly up and about ; indeed, my two maids had to be placed in the charge of the doctor, so pitiable was their plight. Jim had served in the British navy, and with his muscular, sinewy frame, shrewd, bronzed face, and clever way of using his hands, looked a hundred times more professional than the captain himself. He had seen a good deal -of men and manners, and was up to every seafaring dodge, a bright, well -trained fellow, who possessed the invaluable quality of being always about when needed and out of the way when not. Glad enough we were to have him with us, for the crew and even the officers on that wretched boat were not a reassuring company. The former was an "all -nation" gang, venting its feelings in six differ- ent languages with a virulence and emphasis which gave one food for doubt as to the discipline maintained 319 A DOFFED CORONET on board, and the captain in addressing them individ- ually or collectively, made no secret of the contempt in which he held each and every one, while both officers and men drank with an unrestrained freedom edifying indeed to behold. On the seventh morning after losing sight of land, I came on deck before Bertrand had hoisted his lazy young bones out of his bunk, and was just about to make my way aft when the following apostrophe made me pause at the top of the companion-way in order to give myself a fair chance of studying the methods adopted to cheer and encourage his men by our genial commander. " Have you been suckled on hen's milk, you coward- ly, banshee - haunted carcasses?" he roared. "What d' you mean by fouling my decks with your whinings and croakings, you white-livered hounds? You are a disgrace to the sea-going profession; go for'ard, and don't you dare to show your filthy mugs up here until you're told to do so!" Here the captain, turning abruptly from his audience, which the chart -house concealed from view, caught sight of me and came moodily in my direction, dis- missing them with a wave of his hand, as if he were shooing away chickens. "Sorry, your ladyship," he said, passing his fore- finger round the inside of his coat-collar, as if his sud- denly repressed rage were choking him; "but those brutes are the shakiest lot I ever commanded; they're ready to run like so many sheep at the first sign of dan- ger, and couldn't be trusted to sail paper boats by them- selves. They can take their oath, however, that I'll dirty every one of their tickets when I get ashore." "What are they afraid of?" I asked of him. " Oh, they've got hold of some mad sort of yarn 'bout 320 A DOFFED CORONET this packet being unlucky, that's all. There's no accounting for sailors' superstitions." "Poor devils! Ignorance and superstition are not crimes, captain* Lord, what a life for them to live through!" The officer looked at me with a mixture of displeasure and amazement in his small, ferret-like eyes. "Don't you go wasting your pity, my lady. Hard- ships is just meat and drink to them; those kind of beasts are used to it, and soft sawder would be the ruina- tion of them. First-class sailormen don't ship on a tub like this; the generality are asses, but not to that ex- tent; they try for the best berths first, but when tars lack watchfulness, sobriety, and fitness, they drift to such craft as this, and cannot be expected to be picked men. That's how we come to have a cheerful crowd of idiots like those. This is a common, low-down vessel and a common, low-down crew, that's what it is, and if I hadn't a wife and five young ones in England, I wouldn't hold such a command at any price." This was pleasant! I glanced over the side upon the leaden-hued waters, and then at the sky full of livid gray, vapory clouds, standing out against a denser background of purplish-black. We were rolling most villanously to a steepish beam sea, and the crests of the clamoring waves hissed and gurgled like opening sluices. Less than half a mile away a dingy tramp steamer was driving heavily along, sending her clumsy bows into it till the sea broke in creamy yeast against her cat-heads, and rose in columns of foam half up her jibs. "We're going to have dirty weather with a ven- geance," remarked the captain, rolling his eyes specu- latively around. "I wouldn't mention it to you if I didn't know that your ladyship is not afraid of a bit of si 321 A DOFFED CORONET a squall, but still you'd be better below, my lady/' and touching his cap he hurried away. I smiled. Assuredly it would have been difficult to keep secret the approach of the storm even from the veriest land-lubber, but as a real bona-fide hurricane in mid- Atlantic was a spectacle I had always been de- sirous to see, I would not have gone below for any consideration. I reflected, however, that my present attire was not adequate to the situation for I had merely thrown over my rough, blue serge gown a fur- lined, hooded cloak and I was just preparing to go in search of something more suitable when Jim ap- peared at my side, carrying on his arm my oil-skins, sou'wester, and caban a . long, heavy, hooded coat which always formed part of my wardrobe when yacht- ing in northern latitudes. " Please, my lady, I thought that your ladyship would probably wish to remain on deck as long as possible to see the show, and so I made free to get these togs from Herr Paul," he said, in his quiet, inobtrusive way. " And your ladyship can step into the chart-house and put them on without troubling to crawl down the com- panionway, as it isn't a pleasant job just now," he con- cluded, with a wise nod of the head. " Is there anything you do not think of?" I replied. " You are a veritable treasure, Jim. " The man smiled all over his square-jawed, determined face, and pre- ceded me to the chart-house, where I effected a change of coats, after replacing my long skirt for a short one, and my little snow-boots for a pair of tall sea ones, donned my oil-skins, and tied my sou'wester securely on my head over the snug hood of that convenient caban. When I reappeared on deck Jim was wait- ing for me, holding a couple of rope-lengths on his arm. 322 A DOFFED CORONET "Want to lash me and yourself to the mast, Jim?" I asked, gravely. " It may come to that, my lady, it may come to that!" he answered, cheerfully, as if the prospect of very ugly weather was a matter of rejoicing to him. At that moment and as if to confirm his prognostica- tions, the ship took a heavy sea in over the foc'sle-head, solid masses of water smiting the men on deck with the force of sledge-hammers as they clawed their way about to the accompaniment of a most infernal clanging of iron and whistling of cordages. Thanks to Jim's fore- thought and perfect familiarity with such oceanic sur- prises I was quite safe, and comparatively well protect- ed, but the din about us was too great for me to tell him so aloud. At that moment, above the roar of the water cascading down to the lower deck, rose the sharp com- mand of the captain, embellished, as usual, by language which, under such circumstances, seemed a mere wan- ton waste of breath. " Watch on duty, go to your posts, you damned hell- hounds, and you, quartermaster of the watch, tumble up here in double-quick time!" Then, in a yet louder tone, he yelled, his piercing voice rending the shriek of the wind like a steel blade, " Keep your heads, you swine, or by G d I'll make you sorry for the day you were born!" "That man sets my teeth on edge!" I cried to Jim; but I do not know whether my words reached him, for the storm was upon us in good earnest, and truly its clamor was appalling. I do not know whether the men kept their heads according to orders, but they certainly did not keep their feet, for they began to be bowled over like nine-pins, and I reflected that their premonitions of evil might very well come true after all for most of them, since right across the steamer's path blew such a 323 A DOFFED CORONET hurricane as a ship has seldom lived through, hurling the waves into a wild vortex, tearing their foaming crests ferociously backward, piling them up in pyram- idal heaps and tumbling them in all directions. Truly a welter of conflicting elements dreadful to behold. Tossed like any bubble we rode hard to sea, risking at any moment to be hurled entirely out of our course by the force of the wind. In the midst of it all Bertrand, in his gleaming oil-skins, appeared suddenly at my side. With a quick shake of his head towards the chart- house, he asked me whether I did not wish to seek shel- ter, but on my giving him an emphatic denial in the same mute fashion speech being now quite out of the question he also produced a rope's end, lashed him- self, Jim, and me together with a sailor's quick dex- terity; and we were thus enabled to remain for a little longer where we were. The great, sinister voice of the storm roared around us, the sky was blacker than ever, and the sound of the tumult grew moment by moment more stupen- dous, like some furious, exasperated howl of deep, re- lentless wrath. The ship at times, as if also seized with an overmastering e added, turning to his friend, "that a * 353 A DOFFED CORONET so many American belles who have married abroad have become the mothers of twins? I could cite at least a dozen international marriages which have been blessed with double surprises of this kind! It's odd, isn't it? Mother S was raving to me just now about her twin grandchildren." Again the curtain rose, and we had to forego any of the further interesting details which Fred, whom I had never seen so loquacious, was evidently going to im- part to us, and I amused myself with gazing at a couple who had just entered a box only a short dis- tance from ours. The man was clean-shaven, with good features, while his companion had not much to recommend her, save a rather imperious fashion of holding her head and as many jewels as a Hindoo idol festooned about her person. When we were at liberty to resume our rather un- charitable conversation, I asked of Mr. V .... z who they were. "Oh, they are people who have come to the front since your husband was here last. Do you remember, old man," he continued, touching him lightly on the shoulder, "how unmercifully he and his brothers used to be snubbed, not on their own account, to be sure, but because of the intense unpopularity of their father and grandfather?" "Yes," replied Fred ; "I'll never forget the day when on coming up from Washington to New York in Colonel T S 's private car, which he had placed at my disposal, these young V s, whose car occupied the end of the train, sent to ask permission to pass through mine in order to join some friends forward. I thought that you fellows were pretty harsh when you implored me to refuse so small a favor which you called a piece of presumption 354 A DOFFED CORONET and how put out you were because I let them through, after all." " Well, times have changed, for they are now in the high tide of fashion, thanks largely to the younger brother's shrewd Southern wife, who is past-mistress in the science of social strategy. She was clever enough to secure the assistance of that other Southern girl who married the impoverished Lord M e, and what between the desire of the smart set here to view the treasures accumulated in the new V mansion and the gratification of becoming the friend of Lady M e, the future Duchess of M r, everybody responded to the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. V to the magnificent fancy-dress ball with which they inaugurated their social career." In the adjoining box was a man whose clean-cut, refined face and trim figure attracted my attention, and Fred whispered to me that it was A .... n I .... n, a leading banker of Swiss origin, and bear- ing a name celebrated as that of the iconoclast who, by his researches, destroyed everybody's illusions as to William Tell. His wife, who was with him, proclaimed by her dress and manner that she was French. Just then the door of our box opened, and who should enter but C.ount A . . o, whom we had last seen at Brus- sels, and who seemed quite as surprised to meet us in New York as we were to find him there. He was ac- companied by another old acquaintance, Baron von S , the Austrian Minister to Washington, a delightful old man, who had a queer trick of jerking his head forward every two or three minutes as if his collar were hurting the back of his neck! He owed his position in the diplomatic service to the fact that when attached to the Austrian Consulate in London, when yet a mere lad, he had, at the risk of his whole 355 A DOFFED CORONET future, given shelter and hospitality to Julius Andrassy, then a political fugitive under sentence otdeath. When, after the Austro-Hungarian amnesty, Andrassy be- came Prime-Minister and Chancellor of the Dual Em- pire, he did not forget the young consular clerk who had befriended him, and, indeed, remembered him to such purpose that S became, in turn, Consul- General in London, Minister to Siam, Japan, Cairo, and eventually Washington. Naturally, both he and the Count kissed my hand, which seemed to cause some surprise in the neighboring boxes. A . . o in- formed me that he had just been transferred to Wash- ington with the rank of German Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary, which, however, did not seem to par- ticularly overjoy him. I refrained scrupulously, of course, from asking him about Madame I'Ambassadrice, for, alas, his run- away marriage with the lovely but somewhat flighty Viennese actress J . . . . h, within a few hours of the time appointed for her wedding to the celebrated actor Sonnenthal, was eventually the cause of great vexa- tion and trouble to him. As he belonged to a devout Catholic family, he had much trouble in getting rid of his wife after the first glamour had passed away, and was only restored to the diplomatic service from which he had been removed in consequence of his marriage when he had secured a divorce. I may add that, later on, J . . . . h came to America professionally, and al- lowed herself to be billed on the programmes, not by her own name, but as Countess A . . o, which created quite a stir in diplomatic circles. I was rather amused at his coming into our box, for he was a celebrated mauvaise langue, and his comments, both on the people present and mutual acquaintances in Europe, did not lack piquancy. 356 A DOFFED CORONET Indeed, I enjoyed that first evening in New York very much, and was especially struck by the remark- able display of jewels in the boxes. Mrs. A . . . ., senior, who wore black and silver brocade of a large and conspicuous pattern, had a regular breastplate of diamonds, and sewn on a black velvet knotted in her hair some enormous solitaires, which sparkled like so many stars beneath the brilliant light of the chan- delier. The shapes of the tiaras sported by several of the ladies present were, however, somewhat astonish- ing in an assemblage of untitled people, for I noticed some shaped like imperial crowns, others exhibited ducal strawberry-leaves, while again one very stout dame, clad in blush-rose-pink satin, actually wore on her elaborately curled tresses a sort of triple pontifical tiara, composed of gorgeously gemmed circlets. An- other, with superb pearls about her neck, had done her best to cultivate a vague resemblance between herself and a certain much-admired royal lady, for her hair was arranged in scrupulous imitation of the bonnet of little curls which we are accustomed to connect with that personage. Beside her was a very handsome girl, gowned in vivid azure, and with a wealth of sapphires as big as hazel-nuts radiating blue and purple rays in every direction. How many millions of dollars were represented by those feminine ornaments it would be difficult to guess, and Count A . . o asked, plaintively, what was the use of abstaining from the annoyance and etiquette of a Court, if one's womenkind, with a lamentable disregard for democratic simplicity, insisted on garbing themselves as for a Bal-bei-Hof on a mere, plain, every-day occasion like the present one? We all laughed at this sally, and, the time having come for us to return home, sought our respective carriages. When we arrived at the hotel, where a nice little sup- 357 A DOFFED CORONET per was awaiting us in our private dining-room, in spite of the fact that we had brought Mr. V .... z with us, Bertrand, with one of his sudden bursts of irrepress- ible gayety, seized his opera-hat, and, using it as a tambourine, began whirling round the room singing the following extraordinary ditty, which amazed Fred and myself, and sent the friend into roars of laughter : " Society, Mickey, the travellers say, Is a game inthrancin' the monkeys play. The haut-ton, up in a palm-tree high, Swing by their tails an' shpit in the eye Of the vile plebeians an' nouvo ritches As wears a different cut of britches, An' thry to climb wid mean dishpite That glitterin' an' malodorous height. But there's some don't care for the game at all. An' them's the properest lads of all." "Where on earth did you get that?" exclaimed Fred. "You certainly seem to have assimilated the atmos- phere of the country with startling rapidity/' "Do tell us where you got it/' I said; but the lad, with the utmost gravity, took his place at the table, and nothing would induce him to reveal the source from which he had drawn this remarkable quip, even when we were alone together and I attacked him again on the subject. I therefore always retained some sus- picion that he had composed it himself on the spur of the moment. On the next night we dined with the C ... s F .... s of trans - Atlantic cable fame, in a charming, old- fashioned house somewhere near Gramercy Park. The drawing-room was a double one, separated by white columns "colonial," they said they were and there were quantities of pretty and costly things strewn all around on handsome, ponderous, antique 358 A DOFFED CORONET cabinets and bahuts. There were few guests besides ourselves, but the dinner-table was covered with a mass of Russian violets and exquisite yellow roses, the cooking was perfect, and the service intrusted to an English butler and footmen, who made us forget that this was not in the very heart of Mayfair. From that moment on we were literally whirled through a veritable maze of entertainments, and both Bertrand and I gauged the veracity of Fred's remark about American hospitality. Thus we spent Christ- mas and the New Year in the gayest of fashions, but I must confess that I missed the quaint old ceremonies observed on those fete-days in Brittany, Austria, and England. Here all was too new, too full of glitter, too superficial for such observances, and even the Pon- tifical Mass which I attended in St. Patrick's Cathe- dral lacked the mellowness of surrounding and much of the deep reverence to which I had been accustomed all my life. Perhaps, too, I was a little difficult to satisfy that morning, having danced myself violently into the New Year the night before at the A ... r's, but no the deep and mystical piety of my Bretons was absent from the pomp and ceremony of that religious perform- ance. I could not disguise this fact from myself, try as I would! It had been arranged that we should start for Chicago early in January, and, in spite of my love for new sights and travels, I did not contemplate the trip with much joy, thanks to the unkind descriptions that, with touch- ing unanimity, New Yorkers had given me of this place, nor was the Chicago of those years a particularly at- tractive town, as I soon found out, though I am told it has since changed completely, and now rivals New York! The weather, moreover, was certainly not en- 359 A DOFFED CORONET couraging for a winter journey, but as it was not en- tirely from choice that we were going, and as I was not minded to allow poor Fred to go alone, I resigned myself to accompanying him with the best grace I could muster. When, however, the cold still increased, had it not been that all arrangements had already been made for our departure and that the special car placed at our disposal by the president of the railroad was await- ing us at the station, we would certainly have postponed this long and fatiguing trip until the season had be- come somewhat more propitious. On a freezing Thursday night Fred and I started, with Paul and Johanna in attendance, leaving Ber- trand, who was to wait at the Windsor for the mail and follow us later. Wrapped in furs to the eyes, we " boarded " the train as they say in America and were immediately overwhelmed by that ghastly, suffocating steam-heat which all over the States is the bane of travellers from November until May. With an exclamation of dismay I threw off my long coat and hood, and implored Fred to have the car aired before settling ourselves for the night. In consequence, the colored attendant was summoned, and his astonish- ment at such a request was really amusing to witness. He suggested, nevertheless, that while the windows were open we should temporarily retire to the neigh- boring Pullman, and we followed his advice at once. There were very few people there, all being men save one over-dressed person in a much braided and broid- ered gray dress, fur-trimmed and befrogged until the original material barely appeared, and wearing around her throat a gorgeous ornament made of huge dia- monds, matching in size the enormous solitaires hang- ing from her large, flat ears. 360 A DOFFED CORONET I turned my eyes quickly away from this extraor- dinary - looking object, who was talking in a loud, nasal, excited voice to a small, thin, mean little man, shabbily dressed, and with a hideous old crush hat set far at the back of his head. He had a very large nose, a very large mouth, revealing long, discolored teeth, and, even when speaking, continually champed his jaws in a fashion which to my now more experienced eye revealed the lamentable fact that he was chewing, and soon, to my intense amusement, he dexterously propelled a jet of tobacco-juice into one of those recep- tacles which I had on my arrival mistaken for flower vases ! "Good shot, that!" I said to Fred, in French, gazing with approval at the distance which separated the worthy chewer from his target. Really, I could not help laugh- ing ! Fred, who often takes it into his head to adopt a r61e very unsuited to him i.e., that of a strict formalist glared at me, indicating by a deprecating shrug of his shoulders and a distressed upheaval of his eye- brows to the top of his forehead that my conduct was disgraceful, so I concealed myself and my untimely laughter behind a newspaper. I had been busy with the columns of that publication for some minutes, and inwardly reviling the thick, oppressive atmosphere which here also reigned supreme, when the little, weazened man, rising from his swivel chair, bore down upon us, and with a happy mixture of Yankee twang and German accent, said, touch- ing Fred on the shoulder: "Hadn't your lady better come and sit with mine? It would be sorter less lonesome for her, as there's nothing but gentlemen in this car." "A rash assertion," thought I, running my eyes over the men present, who all of them betrayed only too 361 A DOFFED CORONET clearly the fact that they were scarcely entitled to this appellation. Fred looked up in some consternation. "Oh, thank you ever so much," he replied, quickly; "you're very good, but my wife and I are only here for a few moments while the next car is being aired. It would hardly be worth while to change places." " So ! Then you are the English gent who is going to Chicago in the president's special, hey?" "I suppose so," said Fred, quite bewildered. "Ain't you sure?" asked the German-Yankee, with a dry chuckle and a tightening of his polychrome teeth upon his cherished quid. "Because if you are that same gent I guess you have got a letter of introduc- tion to me in your pocket. I am John X the 'Dead Meat King,' as they call me, and you must have heard of me." Good Lord ! The " Dead Meat King " ! He looked it, and I thanked Heaven inwardly for the sheltering leaves of the newspaper which hid me just then from view. Fred had risen and was towering by some twenty or thirty inches above His Beefy Majesty. "Let me introduce you to my wife," he said, with a refined courtesy that fitted the situation as an apron would a cow. " All right. I'll be even with you when we're alone, my lad," I soliloquized, reluctantly dropping the paper on my lap. "Glad to meet you; shake, there!" ejaculated the little man, with a grin that nearly capsized my gravity again, for the dark cavern of his mouth was revealed and suddenly gave his countenance a startling re- semblance to the old - fashioned door - knockers which in small German towns still serve the double purpose of letter -slit and a means of arousing the people of 362 A DOFFED CORONET the house. I extended my hand, which was imme- diately ingulfed by one four sizes too large for its pos- sessor and the nails of which were in deep mourning for soap. " Ho! Mamie! Come over here, old lady, and get ac- quainted with the madame." Then, while the female mastodon just mentioned was extricating herself from a mass of rugs, shawls, an enormous box of bon-bons, and a couple of gold-handled umbrellas, which she had been nursing on her lap, her good husband took from his pocket a common, flat, yellow glass bottle, un- screwed the metal lid, rilled it with a brand of whiskey strong enough to speak for itself, which pervaded the car with nauseous fumes, and, offering it to Fred, said, jovially, "Let's seal the friendship!" This pleased me so immensely that I was glad to rise abruptly from my seat in order to receive the " Dead Meat Queen," employing the two or three seconds she occupied in waddling across the aisle by burying my nose within the great bunch of violets I held in my hand. "Well, my dear," she said, after we had once more settled down, "and how do you like our country? It must surprise you if you come from the other side, where everything is so small and uncomfortable. Don't it, now?" "It does!" I said, gravely. " Now I thought so ! My man and I went to London and Paree on our way to Germany some years ago, but I can't say as I was much impressed by both them places, for when once you git used to Chicawgo it's difficult to put up with anything else. And as for Germany," continued the loquacious lady, taking a deep breath, "don't talk to me of it! A dirty, nasty, ill-favored country, which it's a wonder to me that such fine men 363 as my husband can ever have come out of it. Been to Germany?" she concluded. "Yes, many times." "And you like it?" "N-n-o, not very much." "Ah! I thought so. You look too much the lady to put up with them fat Dutchmen!" At that moment I happened to glance over my shoulder, and saw poor Fred, who had been talking in a lively and eminently praiseworthy fashion to his august interlocutor, and holding in his hand the improvised goblet of whiskey, seize a moment when the latter was furiously blowing his nose with a red bandana, to throw the stuff under his seat, and that with so innocent and guileless a smile that I choked to prevent myself from laughing. "What's tickling you?" said Mrs. X , peering at me with her prominent, chocolate-colored eyes. " Lord, my dear, but you have a cheerful temple- ment, that's plain to be seen, and I do hope that our fine climate and the decent, healthy food that you'll get here will put color in them pale cheeks of yours, for that's all that's lacking to make you real good-looking !" and without waiting for a suitable recognition of this handsome compliment, the kind-hearted lady continued, emphasizing every word she spoke with a smart little tap of her exceedingly beringed, short, red fingers on my knee: "Tell you what you should do! You should let your man go alone to the hotel, and come and stay with me yourself. I'd feed you up and make you look real stout before I'd done with you." " Thank you ever so much ; it's very kind of you ; but I could not dream of thus inconveniencing you," I replied, wondering within myself what she intend- ed to do with Fred, for it did not at first dawn upon 364 A DOFFED CORONET me that the word "man" indicated him and not Paul. " Tut, tut, my dear ; no inconvenience. I've got as fine a house on Michigan Avenue as you've seen in your life, and there's only the two of us and a son, and a niece that I've adopted, to live in it, not counting the help, of course, which is generally a pesky lot and cruel hard to manage. I've taken quite a fancy to you and I'm sorry to see you look so poorly. Have you been ill?" " Yes, but that was quite a little while ago several months. I had typhoid fever in Egypt." " Egypt 1 Did you say Egypt?" squealed the " King " in my ear, so loudly that I jumped and dropped my violets on the floor. "Yes, I said Egypt." "Hum, that's in Africky, ain't it? I hain't quite forgotten my gee-ography yet. And what were you doing there?" " Oh, nothing in particular. Listening to the croco- diles' sobs and looking at the mummies ; not much else." " Ah, I thought so ! Loafing ! That's what all you Yurrupeans do as soon as you've got a penny of your own, and that's why you come over here in droves to be fed by us Amurricans when you've run through your dollars." There was of course no controverting such a truism, and I gazed at this wise man with an expectant and encouraging look. He nodded, and then, placing one of his hairy, square-fingered paws on my arm, said, interrogatively : "Got any of them things about you? I'd like to see some of them." "What things?" I asked, in surprise. "Why, them mummies and crocodiles." 365 A DOFFED CORONET "About me? Do you mean in my pocket?" "Yes, or in your satchel." I looked keenly at him to ascertain whether he was joking or whether his comprehension of these words was somewhat at fault, but noticing his expectant and attentive expression, I apologized for my neglect in not providing myself with such objects of general interest before leaving the land of the Pharaohs. Fort- unately, at that moment a sleek and prosperous-look- ing man, with glossy side-whiskers and a velvet cap, burst suddenly into a roar of laughter, and, jump- ing out of his chair as if he had been shot out of a catapult, rushed from the car, nearly upsetting Paul, who, preternaturally solemn and dignified as usual, was approaching to announce that our quarters were set to rights and habitable. This little incident cut short our interesting conversation, and with a "Yes, Paul, we're coming," I rose at once. "That a friend of yours?" said Mrs. X , gazing approvingly upon the tall, soldierly figure of my confidential servant, irreproachably clad, gloved and groomed, and who certainly looked more like a retired diplomat than one of the fraternity which she had comprehensively and inappropriately called "help." "No; that's my servant." "Your servant! You mean to tell me that you brought a servant over to Amurrica with you?" "Pardon me, I brought three, and my brother, who has remained in New York, one. My maid is at pres- ent in the next car waiting to help me undress." "Well, I never! No wonder you are called a spend- thrift race! The idea! Say, John, d'ye hear that? Them people brought four servants to 'tend to them all the way from Yurrup!" The " Dead Meat King " shrugged his narrow, stoop- 366 A DOFFED CORONET ing shoulders with ineffable contempt. " I'd like to see myself travelling with a fine gentleman like that for my valley. I'd feel like kickin' the stuff n' out of him all day long. Good-for-nothin', lazy lot, all of them." "Excuse me," I said, beginning to lose patience a little; "the man has been nearly ten years in my employ, and is one of the best and most trustworthy persons imaginable. But I will now say good-night, as it is getting late." " Oh, don't go away mad ! Have some whiskey, just a teeny drop to warm your vittles before bed. It won't hurt you. Mamie takes a lick of it herself sometimes. It's much better than all your Frenchified wines for the digestion, for it's good, honest, genuyne licker, at least, and cost me fifty cents a pint at the refreshment- room in N' York, so I know it must be pretty good." "My wife drinks nothing but water," interposed Fred, judging that I must be by this time past speech. " Well, at meal-times that's right ; so do I, or else milk ; but 'tween times a little, delicate thing like her wants something comforting, like Old Rye, or else some good meat-juice. I'll make you taste some made by myself from the cattle raised on my ranches in Texas. It's strong enough to wake a corpse. You'll see! Just wait till I get you down in the stock-yards!" With this promising prospect we sought the blessed seclusion of the president's car, and hardly had the door closed behind us when I gave free vent to the ex- uberant mirth repressed during the last hour. "Oh, Fred!" I said, as soon as I could speak; "this is delicious! What sort of people are they? How I wish Bertrand was here, he would enjoy it so! Isn't that man a Jew? And as to her good Lord!" Fred, who was winding up his watch, looked gravely, almost reprovingly, at me. "Dash it all," he said, 367 A DOFFED CORONET " you have no business to be so critical ; they are well- meaning people enough, and I was all the time in dread lest they should notice that you were laughing at them." I looked at him in amazement. " I'm sorry you did not drink that whiskey now, and that it didn't choke you, you sanctimonious hypocrite! Now go to bed, and send Johanna to me ; I'm tired. Heaven be praised that we have this car, and are not obliged to anchor alongside that pair. I am sure they both snore like church-organs." With which peroration I turned my back upon my lord and gazed out upon the dreary, snow-clad plain that we were traversing. "Look here, Pussy, don't be huffy," he said, apolo- getically; "they are vulgar people, certainly, but you must make allowances. He is a German peasant with probably a touch of Semitic blood, and a brain turned by American theories and ideas which he cannot assimilate, and too many millions as well. As for his wife, she's a motherly old thing with no harm in her. I have letters of introduction to him, and since he has been warned of our coming, there is no use in putting their backs up, for, after all, it may interest you to visit his slaughter-houses and factories you, who are always so fond of couleur locale!" "Amenl" I replied. "Truly, you are an amiable and worthy preacher. This is a talent I did not know you possessed, and one which I advise you seriously to cultivate. But now, if you will be so kind as to send me my maid, as I have already asked you to do, I will be greatly obliged, for this conversation with your new friends has exhausted me." He laughed, went forthwith to summon Johanna, and soon after I was sleeping the sleep of the just, rocked by the oscillations of the train, which was bearing me farther and farther from mine own land. 368 A DOFFED CORONET Of the rest of the trip there is little to say, save that it was very wearisome, and that Their Majesties, the " Dead Meat King and Queen," let no occasion pass to improve the acquaintance thus fortuitously begun. In- deed, bolts and bars could not keep them out of my way, for hardly had I finished dressing next morning when the lady pushed herself in and actually embraced me tenderly, which set my teeth on edge, for under no cir- cumstances am I of a caressing turn of mind, and this extraordinary familiarity almost took my breath away. There she sat, watching with curious eyes Johanna put away my night-robe and the various toilet para- phernalia scattered around, and the only remark worthy of record was her question as to the use of so elabo- rate a night-dress, as no one but one's husband saw it, and why I went to the trouble of wearing such beautiful silken underclothing beneath a plain wool- len travelling-gown. She also went into raptures over my dressing-case, and finally got so much on my nerves that I felt like shrieking with sheer exas- peration. At last we reached Chicago, and drove at once to the hotel, where Paul had secured, by telegraph, a very showy and sumptuous apartment for us. On the morrow, just as I was about to sit down to break- fast, Mrs. X 's card was brought to me with a message to the effect that that lady was at the door with her sleigh to take me for a drive about town. Greatly annoyed, I sent word that as I had only just sat down to breakfast I would not care to keep her wait- ing so long. But another message returned to the effect that she would be glad to wait in the parlors until I had finished; so that, much to Fred's mischievous amusement, I had no alternative but to acquiesce, swallow my breakfast hastily, and join her down- 34 369 A DOFFED CORONET stairs. She was dressed with the utmost magnificence in a gown of purple velvet and a long and evidently very costly seal-skin wrap, the whole topped off with a bonnet which seemed chiefly composed of red dahlias and golden wheat-ears. Silently and very unwillingly I followed her out to a gorgeous sleigh, drawn by two prancing black horses, and driven by a coachman who looked like a hay-stack, so profuse and shaggy were the furs which enwrapped him. "Pat," said his mistress, "this is a compatriot of yours, and you'll be glad to pass her the time of day." Then, turning to me, "This is Patrick Muldoon, who is from your side of the world." I have often since then thanked a merciful Providence that I did not lose my presence of mind. I stepped briskly forward and, holding out my hand with eager and what I thought pleasingly democratic spontaneity, said, gravely: " I am very glad to see you, Mr. Muldoon ; it is al- ways so nice to meet a compatriot." With difficulty " Mr." Muldoon turned his head inside the storm-collar of his fur cape, and, much to my sur- prise, displayed a good, honest Irish face, full of con- sternation and almost of reproach, as if he, at least, saw the incongruity of the situation. This grieved me, and, extending my hand farther towards him, I said, smiling: "Won't you shake hands? I assure you it really gives me great pleasure to meet you. You need not doubt it." He dropped his whip, and in a bashful, almost shame- faced way that went to my heart, held out his own enormous palm, which looked positively gigantic in its fur-lined glove, and squeezed my fingers so violently that I winced. Then, to relieve the situation of its embarrassment, I walked forward and stroked the A DOFFED CORONET glossy neck of the magnificent horse nearest me, say- ing, with quiet appreciation : "These are fine horses, Pat; one can see that you take wonderful care of them." The man gave me a nine-inch smile, and was about, as I could see by the twinkle of his small, blue eyes, to offer some information about the team, when " Her Majesty the Queen" peremptorily ordered me to "stop fooling," as I would be frozen to death if I waited much longer on the sidewalk. I climbed obediently into the sleigh, and we were whirled off at once along Michigan Avenue and the shore of the frozen lake, across which a wind of such grewsome iciness blew that even in a Siberian mid- winter I had not endured anything like it. Speech was impossible, and I was glad enough of the light, white, knitted shawl which my hostess flung over my head face and all like a ydshm&k, after an ap- proved Chicago fashion, for all the women we met, whether walking or driving, were similarly accoutred. After a seemingly interminable drive we stopped be- fore a large, pretentious mansion and fairly ran up the steps into a spacious hall of wonderful and awe- inspiring nakedness, for it contained nothing but a com- mon china-ware umbrella-stand and an oaken bench. From this we passed into a drawing - room which at first seemed made entirely of pure gold, the ceiling, walls, and furniture being so elaborately and thickly gilded that my eyes ached. The sofas and couches were covered with crimson velvet, and the rug and curtains were of the brightest of brilliant greens! "Ain't that a lovely room?" quoth Her Majesty, seating herself on a glittering ottoman, and indicating with a wide sweep of her plump arm the dazzling splen- dors of her abode. 37i A DOFFED CORONET "It is, indeed," I replied, with mild stupefaction. "To tell you the truth, I have never seen one like it." "Of course not, of course not! How could you? I bet you there isn't a parlor like this in any of the royal palaces of Yurrup." "Indeed, there is not," I replied, truthfully, gazing about with curiosity. "Now, if you're interested in pictures, just clap an eye on those opposite. My man bought them in New York only last year, and I make free to say they can- not be equalled for beauty." I rose dutifully, and turned my attention to a score or so of that particular brand of horror which is to be met with in most of the small hotels in Switzerland, and which I have always dubbed " oleomargarines " in other words, the most bare-faced chromos imaginable. The frames, however, were so visibly costly that my enthusiastic exclamation of " Oh, superb ! " was partly truthful. "Excuse me a moment," said the mistress of this priceless collection. " While you are looking around a bit I will go and call my niece, who would be awfully riled if I didn't let her see you." Patiently I waited, curious to know what new shock was in store for me, until the door opened and Mrs. X re-entered, shouting, as she came, " My niece is out, but I've brought another compatriot of yours with me." This time I was ready for her, and evinced no astonishment when a portly, white-aproned dame entered and stepped up, smiling amiably. "This/' said Mrs. X , "is Mrs. Williams, who does the cooking for us. She's from England, like yourself, and she's a reg'lar artist at puddings and all such like." "How do you do, Mrs. Williams?" I said, affably, 372 A DOFFED CORONET and, making room on the sofa beside me, I added, "Won't you sit down here and talk to me a little?" This excellent woman evidently did not possess the natural tact which distinguished "Mr." Muldoon, for with a great rustle of starched petticoats she seated her- self, and deigned to favor me with a quantity of polite small talk, which much delighted me. " I've served, in my time/' said she, " in the first families of England, and I don't like this country much, but the wages, of course, is so much better than over there that I'll stay a few years longer, ye understand, mem or perhaps I should say 'my lady,' by the looks of you," and then, screen- ing her wide mouth elaborately with her hand, she continued, in a loud whisper: " In course I know as 'tain't my place to sit here by the likes of you, but in this 'ouse the customs is dif- ferent, and if I gave up one of my privileges I wouldn't get the same treatment afterwards." I laughed, and sincerely hoped that her mistress, who was fussing at the other end of the room with some greasy little packages which she had brought from the sleigh, had not heard what she said. Soon that lady approached and asked what I would like to have. "Nothing, thank you," I replied. "I've only just breakfasted. I could not swallow a morsel of any- thing." " Now, that's wrong ; a slice of plum-cake and a nice mug of newly drawn ale, or else a good cup of coffee and cream and some hot griddle-cakes, would do you good, I know." I shuddered at the bare idea of this delicate fare. "Anyhow, we'll go and see the dining-room," con- cluded Mrs. X , leading the way down a nar- row passage and a narrower staircase to the lower regions, into a low-ceiled apartment papered in sun- 373 A DOFFED CORONET flower yellow, with a big, garish, brown-and-blue pat- tern of the leech-and-centipede order crawling all over it, and furnished with light oak, which struck a chill to one's very soul in such weather. "This art paper/' exclaimed my hostess, with par- donable pride, " was a present of my man for my last birthday. He surprised me with it when I came back from a visit to Mommer out in Michigan. That man's got a taste such as few people has, and he's promised to give me curtains to match the walls when he next goes East." I silently wondered what the anticipated draperies would be like, and drew my furs about me, for the tem- perature of that "art" dining-room must have been something below zero. "It's a bit chilly down here," said Mrs. X , possibly divining my thoughts, " as we don't light up the stove except at meal times," and she airily in- dicated an extraordinary machine of iron and brass, with a transparent mica front, which filled the space between the windows. "You can't imagine," she continued, with grim enjoyment, "what an economy them kerosene-stoves is, and except for a little smell occasionally they're regular treasures. Me and my man don't believe in wasting money, piles being hard to make, and when he's got too much of it, he buys me diamonds, which is portable, and always a safe invest- ment. Come to think of it, I'll show you my joolry when we get up-stairs." "You are, indeed, a fortunate woman, Mrs. X ," I said, sweetly. "Yes, that I am," she responded, smiling all over her jolly countenance; and so, after I had, with justifi- able punctiliousness, gone to the kitchen to take leave of Mrs. Williams, I was shown the contents of a jewel- 374 A DOFFED CORONET box full of diamonds, which, if perhaps not of the very first water, were, at any rate, of a size to compare fa- vorably with carriage-lamps or carafe-stoppers. Other gems there were none, for, as their owner judiciously remarked, "Colored stones make no show, and look like nothing but bits of glass." And as to pearls, she had no use for them, a statement with which I cord- ially agreed. I had the utmost difficulty in escaping from the hos- pitable hands of the lady, who was determined that I should lunch among the centipedes and leeches, and I could have almost shouted for joy when I took an af- fectionate leave of "Mr." Muldoon at the door of the hotel, manifesting my satisfaction by a substantial douceur. Fred was not there when I arrived, but soon came in with the unwelcome statement that we were dining that night with a distinguished member of the legal profession, who, with his spinster sister, had called to invite us. I will always remember that dinner, and this, my first glimpse of a prim, old-fashioned, grimly regulated American household. I had, of course, donned a low- cut dress, which, on this occasion, was of pale-pink velvet, bordered with ermine and lightly embroidered with seed-pearls, and was a little confused when con- fronted by a tall, gray-haired woman, clad in black silk high to the throat, and adorned with six different necklaces one of jet, one of lapis-lazuli, two of gar- nets, and the rest of bright malachite, which fell grace- lessly over a singularly flat chest. A construction of black lace and violets crowned her scanty tresses, and there were black lace mittens on her thin hands. Her brother had a fraternal resemblance to a bread- knife, being very long, very narrow, and very sharp, with a steely gleam in his close-set eyes, and a keen 375 A DOFFED CORONET way of cutting through any subject under discussion, which left no possibility for argument. The banqueting-hall was in the basement, three or four feet below the level of the street, and was paved with black-and-white marble, with a little island of Turkish rug under the table ; deep-red curtains, bordered with black velvet bands, shrouding all the windows; and two sideboards, facing each other, loaded with remarkably handsome and ponderous antique Dutch plate. The table itself was set on spotless damask, with white china innocent of decoration, a limited array of thickish glasses, and a low brass jardiniere filled with artificial roses and tulips which could never have deceived anybody. At a sign from the animated bread-knife we stood behind our chairs, while he delivered himself of an in- terminable and dry-as-dust grace, which, beginning with "firstly, my Christian brethren/' and running on through secondly, thirdly, and fourthly, was terminated by a lugubrious " amen," drawn from the deepest cav- erns of his being, and I rustled into my place with a sigh of relief, thinking of the party of the first part and the party of the second part. While standing on that thinly covered marble floor, my feet, protected only by gossamer silk hose and pink satin slippers, had turned into icicles, and I would have given anything to stamp them a bit to restore the circulation. I looked hopelessly at the iced clams before me, and with yet greater discouragement upon the anaemic consomm6, whereon floated little, pale-faced noodles and tiny scraps of toast. This was followed by a large slice of salmon with brown sauce, a fat and aldermanic turkey, with the usual rich, red cranberry trimmings, and boiled vegetables, replaced, in turn, by little round bullets of some fishy substance served with 376 A DOFFED CORONET a tomato - and - cucumber salad, the climax being reached when pumpkin - pies the size of small saucers and lemon -ices in green glass cups were set be- fore us. "This is a national dish," remarked the lady of the house, caressing with her dessert-knife the little pie before her. " I thought you would like to taste it, for I do not think that in Europe you grow pumpkins worthy of the name." " Pardon me, we do ; citrouilles we call them, but we use them generally for soups." "Oh, indeed!" with an aggrieved and saddened smile. "I have been several times to Europe. My brother and I went to London, Paris, Vienna, and even to St. Petersburg; that is how I come to have these necklaces," and she jangled them carelessly. "I got the jet in France which is, I believe, celebrated for it the garnets in Austria, where they are quite plentiful, and the malachite and lapis-lazuli in Russia; they make nice souvenirs of our journey." "What a charmingly original idea!" I exclaimed, having long since desired to make some pleasant re- mark. " I trust that when next you go over to the other side you will not forget to let us know, so that we may have the opportunity of returning your charming hos- pitality." "You are very kind," she replied, rising and pre- ceding me to the "foyer-hall," as she called it, and with reason, as I shall show later. I was cold to the marrow of my bones, and hungry, too, for I had hardly touched the hot viands dished on cold plates, which instantly congealed their various sauces, and I would have welcomed a cup of hot, black coffee, but had to be content with tepid, green tea, and the rather dictatorial information that coffee was horribly destructive to the 377 A DOFFED CORONET nerves, and should never be indulged in by people careful of their health. "My brother/' continued this precise lady, "has very strict ideas of his own about diet and hygiene. Now you will have noticed, no doubt, that our house is not over-heated, like most American establishments." Alas, I had noticed it, for my arms and neck were painfully ' ' goose-fleshy . ' ' "He sleeps with wide-open windows all the year round, even on the coldest nights, and the four fires which you see here are merely a concession on his part to his plan of architecture. He designed this house himself." I thought to myself that the concession was very half-hearted, for though the idea of an octagonal, white wood column, rising in the middle of this foyer-hall, and scooped out on four sides into tiny excavations wherein smouldered a few handfuls of coal, was distinctly novel, yet it did not greatly improve the glacial atmosphere of this apartment, which was entirely panelled in glis- tening white and draped with narrow, sage-green cur- tains and portieres. There were, however, on the walls some splendid and very interesting trophies: Indian arms, feathered head-dresses, elaborately em- broidered robes, and some heads of elk, moose, and mountain-goats, which testified to the sporting ten- dencies of the legal gentleman still sitting down-stairs with Fred over a bottle of old port. The festivities of the evening terminated by the ap- pearance upon the scene of small cups of cocoa, flanked by dry biscuits and salted almonds, which my host declared to be the best of night-caps; fortunately, it was a stirrup-cup as well, and we departed with mutual expressions of esteem, richer by a pair of sore throats, a tomahawk fit souvenir of this iron-clad evening 378 A DOFFED CORONET and by a neatly bound volume of that delightful book Mr. Isaacs which, as our legal friend truthfully de- clared, " was a wonderful work from the pen of one of the glories of the recent school of American literature." The next day was set apart for our visit to the stock- yards, and, bright and early, we traversed a wilderness of gaunt wooden buildings scattered amid empty lots and uniformly covered with grayish snow and icicles, and finally reached an immense factory which, even in this purifying winter season, was heralded by an agglomeration of stenches quite impossible to describe. We were received by John X and his son, a dark-complexioned, dark-eyed, and dark-haired youth, whose skin seemed to exude oil, and whose spare, nar- row-chested figure had the cringing suppleness of the Chosen People so unmistakably that I chuckled inwardly at the way in which I had detected in the father the hereditary characteristics which, even after generations of intermixture with Gentiles, yet remain ineradicable throughout the ages. "Come along! Come along!" cried the Honorable John, snatching my hand and tucking it under his arm. "Time's money here, and I'll just run you through the whole thing. But pick up them skirts of yours, for this place ain't no drawing-room, nor no heliotrope neither, and you should have had the sense to put on a good, serviceable dress and heavy boots, instead of all that highfalutin finery," he concluded, contemptuously, pointing to my perfectly plain mouse- colored cloth gown, the only sin of which was to reveal, when raised from the vile mud of the path in which we stood, the " frou-frou " of silk petticoats. At the double-quick we raced into a gigantic shed, where creaking machinery, wheels, and belts groaned and shrieked in concert, and which was, moreover, A DOFFED CORONET filled with the stench and squeals of an army of pigs, the lowing of cattle, and the terrified bleat of other animals which I presumed were sheep, although I was not sure. Some of the unfortunate porkers were just being urged down a narrow gang-plank towards a barbarous- looking iron Tour de Nesle, in which they disappeared, grunting. "See them pigs?" chuckled John X "You mind how they go in? Waal, they come out on t'other side all cut up and scraped and clean as whistles." It was impossible to say whether the man was joking or serious, but I flatly refused to put his words to the proof, and allowing him to pounce upon Fred and con- duct him to that abominable place of carnage, I bestow- ed the light of my countenance upon John Junior, who, muttering something about steers and pens, strutted at my side into the yards proper. We walked upon some rotten planks between two long files of small, square enclosures, each containing a wretched, demoralized steer lying, standing, or even crouching in the mud, and with such woful expressions in their poor, fright- ened eyes that I could have boxed the ears of the young man at my side when he yelled, in a hoarse falsetto, to some men armed with short, stocky carbines to "come up and show the lady how the brutes were knocked over." Unwilling a second time to show the white feather, I stood my ground and witnessed the assassination of several of the meek-eyed animals, who, with piteous groans, fell forward, one after another, in such a man- ner as made it impossible for me to contemplate eating meat in the future. As I was turning away from this ghastly sight, I 380 A DOFFED CORONET noticed coming towards us a cow-boy with whom I had often conversed during our eventful trans-Atlantic passage. Tall and extremely well made, with frank, blue eyes, well-cut features, and a cap of crisp, golden curls, he made a picturesque figure in his plains- man's costume as he approached me, sombrero in hand. "Why, how come you here, Mr. P n?" I ex- claimed, holding out my hand, which was grasped eagerly. " I belong to one of Mr. X 's ranches, and I'm here on business," he replied, with his peculiarly winning smile. "You know 'Gentleman Sam'?" squealed the heir of the stock-yards, with a condescending nod towards his father's stalwart young employd. " Certainly, I know him. We came over on the same boat." The young man stared incredulously. "On that kind of a boat?" he repeated. "Yes," I said, shortly, not deeming it necessary to enter into explanations. He shrugged his shoulders imperceptibly, and with a change of tone which possibly denoted a slight low- ering of the opinion he had hitherto held of me, he in- dicated with a motion of his arm a broad plank en- closure which stood squarely across our path. "Like to see it all?" he said, listlessly. "Yes," I replied again. He preceded me over the rotten planks covering the mud and ice, and I followed closely, the cow-boy be- hind me. Twenty yards farther John Junior looked at me over his shoulder and said, with a little, irritating laugh, " I don't think you can cross this without being carried/' and he pointed to a place where, for ten feet or A DOFFED CORONET so, the boards were lacking, and where the half-frozen earth had been trampled into a pulp. " I do not suppose that you propose to carry me/' I remarked, glancing at him with a smile. Before he had time to reply, "Gentleman Sam" strode past me, holding in his hand the broad, crimson woollen sash which he had worn folded round and round his waist, and with a quick motion spread it across the foul quag- mire. "This is better than nothing," he said, quietly, completely unconscious of the dark frown which sud- denly knit the brows of his employer's son. "It will do splendidly," I replied, walking lightly over this improvised bridge, which, as the mud was almost solid, completely protected me from its contact, and, after inspecting the farther enclosure, which con- fined a squealing whirlpool of pigs, I recrossed the gap in the boarding in the same fashion, and, still followed by "Gentleman Sam," we rejoined Fred and the " Dead Meat King" at the corner of the main building. "And now lunch," said that worthy, with one of his most pernicious grins. " We all feel pretty hungry, I guess." This was far from being the case with me, for since I had entered these shambles a feeling of posi- tive nausea had been creeping over me, and I would have been glad to return to the carriage and drive away; but this was not to be, for the great John had once more seized my arm, and was hustling me away with the biggest strides his short bow -legs could encompass towards a low, brick building from which emanated odors of hot charcuterie. Before I knew what was happening we entered the dark, smoky place, which was crowded with men, apparently part butchers and part clerks, but who all alike diffused a strong savor of wet dog from their unclean clothing. 382 A DOFFED CORONET At the far end of the room was a long, zinc-covered bar, behind which rose tiers of crockery and glasses, while upon it revolting-looking messes smoked in great dishes, together with tall coffee-pots, mugs, and pyra- mids of sliced bread on wooden platters. Two or three attendants, dressed in dingy jackets and aprons, which had once been white, and with ex- traordinarily sleek, carefully parted hair, were hurry- ing to and fro, distributing food and drink to the mul- titude. "Here we are, like the politicians, in the hands of our friends," exclaimed our amiable guide, lifting me suddenly by the elbows, with a strength one would not have expected from his small frame, and depositing me like a child on a tall stool before the bar. Before I had recovered from my amazement he had shoved in front of me a deep tin platter that I would have thought hardly good enough to feed a puppy from, containing what seemed a sort of pie of brown beans surmounted by a square lump of fat pork. He then tossed me a tin fork and a black-handled knife which had seen much service. "What '11 you drink?" he yelled in my ear, above the din of many raucous voices clamoring for similar dain- ties. "You can have coffee good coffee, I tell you or milk, or anything else you feel like. If you don't see what you want, ask for it." I glanced appealingly at Fred, who stood near, sep- arated from me only by John Junior and a fat, greasy individual with a shaggy, fur cap driven down over his eyes and a sort of blue-jean night-robe reaching to his feet, but he was making a loyal and courageous attack on his own tin platter, and did not catch my eye, so that I hardly knew what to do, for the reek, the heat, and the astoundingly familiar handling of 383 A DOFFED CORONET my host, which was something I had never before ex- perienced, made me feel exceedingly queer. "I know what you need/' said the latter. "Just wait a minute, and I'll get you a piping-hot cup of beef- iuice fresh from the vats. That '11 put heart into you," and with a lively play of his elbows he dived into the crowd and disappeared, much to my relief. Again I tried to catch Fred's eye, but new hordes of workmen having invaded my corner of the room all communi- cations were cut off, and I had almost decided to slide off my lofty perch and make a bolt for the door when a large and toil-hardened but neatly kept hand gently touched my arm, and the voice of "Gentleman Sam" whispered in my ear. " You don't fancy this place, my lady. Would you like to get away?" " Indeed, I would," I exclaimed, clutching at the big, strong fingers in genuine distress. "All right. Excuse me, then." Putting his arm around me, he lifted me to the floor, and added, in a louder tone : " Here, mates, make room for this lady ; it's too hot for her in here." Oh, how good the clear, freezing air felt outside! My gigantic escort looked sadly at me, as if the whole incident had been his fault, and muttered something which was lost in the height above my head, but it sounded like, "Damned old fool!" no doubt a refer- ence to his employer, which would have greatly aston- ished that worthy had he heard it. "How are you now, my lady?" he said, anxiously. "Oh, all right," I said, laughing. "I am sorry I made such a fool of myself. I am not generally so faint-hearted, but the smells, first of the slaughter- houses, then of the pens, and finally those of that cafe" yonder, made me feel a little sick. I 384 A DOFFED CORONET am very sensitive to smells," I concluded, apologet- ically. "We-ell, I only wonder you held out so long. This part of the town is pretty ripe, for it's got the com- bined stench of many thousand head of cattle, dead and alive." At that moment John Senior, with his son and my lord and master, shot out of the eating-house, and hur- ried towards us with loud exclamations and questions as to my disappearance. To my intense amusement, John Junior was carrying a steaming cup, while his father bore a small loaf and brandished one of the worn, disreputable, black knives in his hand. "That's a lovely trick you've played us! You're a nice party, you are! Why couldn't you stay and eat your dinner like a Christian, instead of lightin' out with 'Gentleman Sam/ who oughter be mindin' his own business somewhere else?" I had borne already a good deal of unpleasant famil- iarity from His Majesty the " King," but this was going a trifle too far, and though I tried to appreciate the rough hospitality that made him race after me with his cup of beef-juice, I was no longer in the mood to let him address me in that tone, and was on the point of an- swering him pretty sharply, when an imploring look from Fred arrested me, and I contented myself with saying that I had been subject to fainting fits since my illness, and that the heat in the cafe had been so great that I could not have answered for the consequences had I remained much longer. With great difficulty I prevented him from virtually pouring the contents of the cup down my throat, and it was only by patiently listening to a perfect torrent of encomiums upon that life-giving liquid that I succeeded in pacifying him. At last we moved towards the carriage, but before *s 385 A DOFFED CORONET that I turned to "Gentleman Sam/' who, quite regard- less of his employer's rude hint as to his room being preferred to his company, still towered protectingly be- side me, and, holding out my hand, said, ignoring the stares of the two Johns: " I am ever so much obliged, Mr. P n. If you happen to have a moment to spare before returning to the ranch, come and see us; my husband and myself will be delighted if you do." The cow-boy made me a bow worthy of a throne- room, and, having grasped warmly the hand which Fred extended with a few words confirming the invita- tion, strode rapidly away. "I wonder," snarled "King" John, scowling at me, "that you care to notice that stuck-up jackass!" and he pointed at "Gentleman Sam's" retreating figure. Now I do not remember whether I mentioned that Samuel P n, alias " Gentleman Sam," was, in my hiimble opinion, very far from being a conceited ass, for, on the contrary, I had long ere this detected in him the gentleman by nature, if not by education, which is the better of the two. On board the steamer, among that rowdy crew, I had never seen him intoxi- cated nor in any way ill-behaved, and that he knew always how to keep his place was sufficiently proved by the fact that he had never tried to impose his company upon us, although both Bertrand and myself had often sought him out to ask for some of his wonderful West- ern yarns, which he had a talent for telling in a sim- ple, and, in its way, poetical fashion, very attractive indeed. He was invariably modest, unobtrusive, and obliging, although his undeniable good looks might well have made a smaller-minded man more presuming in the presence of a woman. Above all, he had to 386 A DOFFED CORONET perfection that chivalrous, if rough-hewn, courtesy which is so charmingly displayed by so many of the plainsmen, and, indeed, very often, by comparatively uneducated American men towards all women, old or young, thus offering a pleasing contrast to the modern London "swell," who of late years has adopted an air of insufferable camaraderie towards the opposite sex, and so far from lifting his hat in bowing, contents him- self with barely touching the brim. So, looking Mr. X full in the face, I said, coldly : " I think you are entirely mistaken in your esti- mate of Mr. P n. It would, indeed, be fortunate if his manners and attitude were more frequently met with among those who claim to be his superiors." The taunt glided from the pachydermatous hide of the "King" like water from a duck's back, but his more intelligent son flushed a little, and gave me a sidelong glance of spite that nearly made me laugh. We drove the interesting pair back to the hotel, and gave them a sumptuous lunch in our apartments, for the enjoyment of which their large ingestion of pork and beans had evidently not disqualified them. Towards the close of the feast the " King " drew from his pocket a couple of diminutive, brilliantly labelled tin cans, holding about two ounces apiece, and to which small can-openers were attached with a wire. Rising from his place, he crossed over to the fire, near which I had just sat down, tapped me lightly on the shoulder, and exclaimed : "Now this is what I want to show and explain to you. See here. These is samples of the best concen- trated extract of beef that's made in Chicawgo, or, for the matter of that, anywhere else in the world. I un- derstand you've got pretty high - toned acquaintances in Yurrup. Ain't that so?" "Pretty high-toned?" I replied, resignedly. 387 A DOFFED CORONET "I mean kings and emperors and dukes, and the like of that. Not that I think much of them personally, but as customers they might do well enough, because there's no stuff on top of this green foot- tool that can beat John X 's beef -extract as a nourishment for campaigning soldiers. What sort of kings and queens do you know intimately, I mean?" "Several," I said, now ready for anything. John X balanced himself on his heels, with his thumbs in the arm-holes of his waistcoat, keeping hold, however, of the little tin cans, as if he wanted to hatch them out by vital heat, and gave a low, tobacco- tainted whistle. "Whew! Say, she ain't guying me?" he queried, over his shoulder to Fred, who did not hear him, for, on hospitable thoughts intent, he had gone with John Junior to the other end of the room towards a table where the cigars and liqueurs had been placed. "No, no; I'm not guying you," I said, laughing. "You needn't appeal to him. What else do you want to know?" "Well, just this. Are you well enough acquainted to go and visit 'em? Yes or no?" "Of course I am!" " That's the cheese. I'm going to give you a whole case of little cans like those, each with a little patent opener attached, like that, and when you go back to Yurrup and call on their royal nibses, you just tuck one or two into your pocket, and when you've brought the talk round to Amurrica, as you no doubt will, being fresh from the States, you'll just whip one out and open it I'm going to show you how and you'll make 'em smell and taste it, for it's that de- licious it ain't unpleasant to eat right out of the can." 388 A DOFFED CORONET "What on earth do you want me to do that for?" said I, laughing heartily. "S-s-s-sh! Don't you be foolish. This is no laugh- ing matter. Mamie's shown you her jools, hain't she? Now, women-folks never has too many of them things, and if you do what I tell you, this old gent" and he playfully tapped his chest "is going to give you a commission on every can you sell, which '11 make it easy for you to visit the big jool stores of the Palace Royal in Paree with extra full pockets." "I am afraid," I said, with a commendable show of regret, "that this plan, though admirable in theory, would not work as well as you anticipate." "And why not, pray tell? Are all them crowned heads born fools, or would they take offence at your putting them up to a good thing?" I was nonplussed. How was I to make that ex- traordinary man understand the enormity of his re- quest? Suddenly a happy thought struck me. "I take it," I said, in a thoroughly business-like manner, "that you want me to obtain army contracts for you." "Now you're shoutin'," he said, enthusiastically. " Pardon me, I have not raised my voice," I replied, somewhat confused. " Oh, I mean you've hit the nigger-baby, you know you're on the track, that is." " Oh, very well ! If that is what you want, you should approach my husband, not me. He knows a great many ministers of war, and it is they who manage such matters, and not the sovereigns themselves," I concluded, dogmatically, delighted to shift the burden of so weighty an affair onto Fred's shoulders! " All right. I'll tackle him right away. Only what them sovereigns is paid money by the people for, if it 389 A DOFFED CORONET ain't even to look after the proper feeding of their sol- diers, beats me hollow!" " Dear me, Mr. X , why are you so aston- ished? Are you not a European? Your wife said you were German." "I? Lord preserve us! I came over here as a little shaver about twelve years old, and I'd never have set foot in the old country again if it hadn't been to collect my grandfather's legacy. 'Twasn't much of a legacy, but everything counts, and I wasn't going to let it fall into the hands of a lot of hungry Dutchmen, who were just achin' for it. I ain't above turning an honest penny if I can, and it ain't because I've got millions of my own that I can afford to sneeze at several cool hun- dreds! No, ma'am; my parents was foreigners, but I'm a free Amurrican citizen; I ain't the slave of no effete Yurropean despotism." I nodded. Outside the snow was falling heavily, covering the edges of the balcony with a regal fur bor- der, and, shuddering a little, I thought of the big din- ner-party we were to attend that evening. Somehow or other the snow seemed colder here than even in Russia, and that eternal wind, blowing over the white stretches of the lake, was certainly more thoroughly iced than anything of the sort \ had as yet encoun- tered. John X had joined Fred, and was pouring into his ear his sanguine projects for the furtherance of his interests at the Courts of Europe, and John Ju- nior crossed the room towards me in his curious, shambling way. " O patre pulchro fill pulchrior " I thought, wearily, as he leaned his thin, curved shoulder against the mantel-piece, with conversational intent plainly depicted on his sour little countenance. "You made me very jealous this morning," he 390 smirked, twirling his apology for a mustache with the afr of an all-conquering hero. " God forgive me \" I mused ; " this little beast is going to try and flirt with me!" This was so funny that my dawning ill-humor immediately evaporated, and I turned to him with a smiling face and an inward spasm of merriment. "Indeed!" I said. " Yes ; although I could not make up my mind about a girl of your evident refinement really admiring mere brute strength." "And why not?" I asked. "Mere brute strength has its charm from an artistic point of view." " Oh, you're only laughing at me, I see ; perhaps you don't know that I'm a college man " this in a nettled tone. "What did you say you were?" "I mean that I was brought up at a university." " Well, one must be brought up somewhere, must one not?" I rejoined. "Certainly; but I didn't want you to think that I was a mere high-school graduate. You see, my father is a plain sort of a man, who never had the advantages of education; but it is different with me, and I'm only in business with him because the old man, who is as stubborn as a mule, insisted upon it, and threatened to disown me if I refused. Now I would have preferred to adopt some profession, like the law, for instance, or else to travel about for pleasure awhile." "It is very good of you to tell me all that," I replied, politely ; " but I do not think that you should speak of your father as you do. He must be a man of consid- erable energy and talent to have built up, single-handed, such a business as his another admirable example of brute force, by the way." 39i A DOFFED CORONET The young hopeful shrugged his shoulders disdain- fully. "Pshaw!" he said; "don't you make any mis- take. I can guess what you think of a man like him, and of the old lady, too, although you concealed your feelings mighty well this morning, and even at lunch, when he paraded his primitive table-manners under your very nose. I'm no fool." "No, you are, 1 am afraid, something infinitely worse! Your father may be, let us say, a rough dia- mond ; but you you . . . well, I'd sooner not tell you what I think, and so with your kind permission I will now join that very ill-educated person, your father, who at least is a man, and not a pitiful little make- believe like yourself." "Oh, I say, that is going it rather strong, isn't it?" he gasped, between anger and dismay ; but the swish of my skirt as I rose and swiftly crossed the room pre- vented me from hearing more, and I threw so much warmth into my conversation with the old " King " for he at least was genuine, and, as such, a mightily pleasing contrast to his discomfited heir-apparent that Fred looked at me with undisguised astonishment, for I even made a rash promise to visit Her Majesty the " Queen " next day. Kindly old lady, her fat, jolly personality, her small, oil -stove economies, and her gorgeous red -and -gold drawing-room were seen in pleasing perspective when one had in the foreground that sallow, misbegotten little horror, with his long, fur coat and diamond solitaire shirt-studs, swaggering in the mud of his father's stock-yards, or posing as a drawing-room hero and a thorough-paced Don Juan ! For the next few days we had many invitations to the houses of some charming and refined people, who gave us handsome dinners and luncheons, and also one dance which was a distinct success. I 392 A DOFFED CORONET might, indeed, have had a very pleasant time if for the second time in my life bona-fide Heimiveh had not clutched me by the throat! I struggled against it with all my might and main, and successfully con- cealed my feelings from Fred, but, do what I would, I could not help seeing that big Western city, though wrapped in its glittering winter finery of ice and snow, through a black pall which shut out every possibility of enjoyment. At last came an evening when Fred and I returned from a soir6e given in our honor at the house of a great mine-owner. During the long drive to the hotel I had not spoken a word, and when I entered our apartments I tore off my ermine-lined sortie-de-bal, and, throwing it on the sofa, determined to tell Fred then and there how wretched I felt; but at that moment the door I had just closed suddenly opened, and Bertrand, whom I thought still miles and miles away, stepped in quietly. At the sight of him something seemed to brutally break the iron resolve which had endured until then, and with a for once in a way thoroughly and lament- ably feminine cry of distress, I flung my arms about his neck and burst into a passion of tears. "For mercy's sake, my girl, my little girlie! You crying! It must be something pretty bad. What ails her, Fred? I haven't seen her do a thing like that since she was twelve years old," he exclaimed, strok- ing my bowed head tenderly. Fred, greatly alarmed, was already imploring me to tell him what had happened, but I am ashamed to say that, now that my habitual self-restraint had given way, I found it almost impossible not to continue making a fool of myself, and it was only after a few minutes' violent struggle that it became possible to apologize for this absolutely ridiculous outbreak. 393 A DOFFED CORONET "That's all very well/' said Fred, decisively, "but we leave to-morrow night! I'm certainly not going to have you made miserable if I can help it. I am sorry, old man," he continued to Bertrand, who, thoroughly perturbed, was still gently stroking my hair, "but if you are desirous of lingering in this city you will have to do so without us." "Not I!" said the boy. "I am going back with you, you may be sure. I'll just run down to-morrow to old What's-his-name's stock-yards and get a sniff at them which ought to be enough if all Margot wrote me is correct and then I shall cheerfully shake the dust of my sandals upon this blessed place. Going to bed?" he added, as I turned away and picked up my cloak. "Jim's outside, longing to pay his respects. The beggar is more attached to you even than to me, and spent all his time urging me to leave the delights of New York for the stormy West. Your second maid is, of course, perfectly safe at the Windsor, where she is lionized by several other kindred spirits, who, hav- ing discovered that she is in the employ of a genuine, hall-marked, simon-pure aristocrat, are giving her the time of her life ! And now promise us not to fret and to be a good girl!" he added, opening the door for me. I was so abominably mortified that I spent half the night pacing the floor of my room, smoking innumer- able cigarettes, and cursing the momentary weak- ness which had so incomprehensibly overwhelmed me. What could there be in Chicago that so depressed me? I leave this riddle to be guessed by cleverer people than myself. In the morning I made a round of farewell visits, and coming back to a late lunch, found with Bertrand in the sitting-room no other personage than "Gentle- 394 A DOFFED CORONET man Sam/' who jumped to his feet as I entered and turned as red as a poppy. "Well, I am glad to see you/' I exclaimed, coming forward with outstretched hand. "I thought that you had left the city without remembering us." "What did I tell you?" laughed Bertrand, clapping the big cow-boy heartily on the shoulder, and then, turning to me, he added, "This young gentleman at first absolutely refused to come and lunch, because he pretended that his costume was unfit for a lady's drawing-room ! ' ' "What nonsense!" I said, laughing. "It is the most picturesque thing in the w r orld, especially when com- pared with the funereal frock-coats one generally en- counters at such functions, and here comes Fred wear- ing one of them ! How do you do, Fred ? Please ring the bell for lunch. We are all hungry this cold morn- ing." The cow-boy laughed. "I wish you wouldn't 'Mr. P n' me," he said, with another bright blush. " I am plain ' Sam ' to everybody, and it makes me feel foolish to be addressed otherwise. It is a very good thing," he added, reflectively, "that I don't see very much of you people, for you'd end by making me dissatisfied with my lot." "Don't say that," said Bertrand. "I think, on the contrary, that life out on the plains must be ideal for a healthy, manly chap like you. I'd not ask anything better myself than to join you, and give up, once and for all, all this inane society racket, to which we are bound like convicts to their chains." "It's a pretty hard life, in spite of it all," replied the young fellow, with a smile. " I'm no milksop, but I can tell you the pace which we have to keep up doesn't make a picnic of it. It looks well from the outside, I 395 A DOFFED CORONET dare say, and what one reads of it in books and news- papers is no doubt very fine, but when you sift it right down to the bed-rock it's quite another thing." "I wouldn't mind trying it," said Bertrand, excitedly. " I've seen some hard service myself at sea, and I didn't dislike it." "H-m," replied the cow-boy, "I don't know about that. Don't think me rude or presuming, but the life of an officer in the navy, with his private servant at beck and call, his swell state-room, his three square meals a day, and the good-will of his superiors, can, even in bad weather, be no patch on what even a ranch-owner in the West has to put up with." "Never mind, I'd jolly well like to try it," muttered Bertrand, with the dogged obstinacy which makes Bretons, of all classes and types, such mules to deal with. I caught Fred's eye, realizing that, being given the rebellious nature of the boy and his love of adventure, this topic was about as dangerous as nitro-glycerine in a powder-mill, and well aware that no finessing would serve to turn the conversation, since Bertrand was evidently eagerly interested in it, I suddenly stretched out my hand to reach a dish of olives, and overturned the claret-jug at my elbow so that its contents splashed right into my brother's lap, covering his light-gray morning-suit with a ruddy deluge. "I beg your pardon," I exclaimed, in apparent dis- tress. "That's too bad, you poor old boy!" "Comes from wearing so much lace about your sleeves," gravely remarked Fred, with a faint twinkle in his eye, while Bertrand, laughing good-naturedly, disappeared into the next room, calling loudly for Jim. As soon as the door had closed behind him, I turned 396 A DOFFED CORONET to my guest, who had been looking amusedly on, and, putting my hand on his rough sleeve, I said, quickly : " My dear Mr. P n, I want you to do me a favor, and that is not to see my brother again after you leave here to-day. He is what we call in French un peu maboul, which means, in plain English, or rather American, a little cracked, on the subject of adventures. He is also an only son, and the last of his name, which means a good deal in Europe. I would, therefore, never forgive myself if, through our fault, he should take it into his head to experiment out West as to the extent of his endurance." "I guessed as much," said "Gentleman Sam," quietly, "and that's why I spoke as I did about our life, which, truth to tell, is not a bed of roses." "Yes," I retorted, "but you don't know the boy. The blacker you paint the prospect, the wilder he will be to have a try, while, if you remain non-committal, he will immediately realize that I have spoken to you on the subject, and that is why I beg you to refrain from mentioning it to him. He will be back in a mo- ment, so please give me your address ; so that, in case of necessity, I may communicate with you." The young fellow scribbled his name and that of his ranch on the back of the menu-card before him and handed it to me, saying, hurriedly, for Bertrand could be heard returning, "Trust me, I'll do my best to put him off the scent " ; and when my brother re- entered the room he found us discussing the various adventures which we had gone through during our stormy trans-Atlantic passage with a placidity which those occurrences hardly seemed to warrant. Paul, who had been standing behind my chair when I displayed such intelligent clumsiness as to the claret-jug, had swiftly and silently repaired the dam- 397 A DOFFED CORONET age, and therefore Bertrand could resume his lunch as if nothing had happened. Seconded by Fred, I kept up a feu roulant of jokes and anecdotes which landed us smoothly in the coffee-and-cigarette stage, without a single reference to cattle-ranches, Western blizzards, or the fascinating adventures of the plains. I could not but marvel at the extraordinary savoir- faire of that strange fellow, "Gentleman Sam, "for his modest, quiet, well-bred attitude, and especially his clever handling of a situation which must have been entirely new to him, could not have been surpassed by the most thorough-paced of diplomats. Such surprises, however, are common in America, where sometimes a burly 'longshoreman, a bricklayer, or a car-conductor will display an innate tact and a natural breeding which one would seek for in vain throughout Europe among the lower middle classes or bourgeois element. I am not prepared to explain this, of course, for it is unexplainable, but I am quite ready to stand by what I say, and to declare that dur- ing my long sojourn in America I have been shown more real courtesy and politesse du coeur by what is generally termed the "lower orders" than by any- body save people of my own class, anywhere else in the world. Indeed, as far as I have been able to judge, the only objectionable classes in America are the nouveaux riches and the wealthy seekers of newspaper notoriety, who, like their European kindred, are purse-proud, over- bearing, and bumptious. Taking as models the con- tinental so-called "smart set," they remind one irre- sistibly of the frog who tried to blow himself up to the size of an ox. Neither the process nor the model is attractive, and the result is beyond all description ^displeasing, for these paltry imitators have not even 398 A DOFFED CORONET the superficial knowledge of the world and the glib facility acquired by generations of "smart" people, but allow their own vulgar natures to protrude through the disguise at every seam, and tempt one to the rather crude retort which one day, when thoroughly exasperated, I made to a well-known millionaire, who was tapping his chest and boasting of being "self- made " : " What you say might be good as an excuse, but it does not entitle you to much admiration." In America, where distinctions of rank and title are lacking, it is even more true than in Europe that the best people are the quiet and unassuming. Between your nouveaux riches, trying to get " in the swim," and the noisy, newspaper-notoriety-hunting " upper-crust/' who are attempting to keep them out, or dickering as to the terms upon which they can be admitted, is a class of people who pursue the even tenor of their way without regard to the great dailies, some wealthy, some not, some out of mere self-respect and natural percep- tion of the fitness of things, others with an additional confidence bred of the long possession of name and status. But to return to our muttons or rather to our cattle- man. Half an hour after lunch "Gentleman Sam," picking up his wide - brimmed, silver - strapped som- brero, rose to take his leave. "I have to thank you," he said, "for the pleasantest hours I have ever spent, and also for the kindness which made you treat me as one of yourselves." Then, blushing violently, as was his wont, he, much to my astonishment, raised my hand to his lips, adding, a little shamefacedly, "It takes thoroughbreds to do what you have done. I know thoroughbreds when I meet them." 399 A DOFFED CORONET "Wait a minute, old fellow, I am going with you," exclaimed Bertrand. "I'd like to have a little talk before I say good-bye." "Don't do that, sir! Young John, the boss's nice little son, has appointed to meet me at the next bar- room, and he is a pretty poisonous lad, let me tell you. I think he only means to watch me, for he has been awfully cut up by the way you people treated me, and if we were to walk out of here together it would be as much as my job is worth. As it is," he concluded, with a somewhat bitter smile, "I wish I could find something else to do, for I don't fancy their way with me particularly." Fortunately, Bertrand was lighting a cigarette, or else he could not have failed to notice the look of par- faite entente which "Gentleman Sam" exchanged with me. "If I can possibly manage it, and I think I'll be able to, I will come to the depot to bid you good-bye again to-night; and, of course, I am entirely at your service for anything you want to know from now on till doomsday." "All right, give me your address; I'll write to you." "My address? Ah, yes!" and with the utmost cool- ness this singular cattleman dictated an entirely dif- ferent one from that he had inscribed on the back of the menu-card. Then he shook hands again all round, and was gone. "Good boy, that, very," said Fred, appreciatively. "I like his looks and ways." "I should rather think so! He is the incarnation of clean-bred strength, morally and physically," I replied, " and one can pass no higher eulogium upon any man." That night we left Chicago behind us, and it was with a sigh of relief that I saw the big city disappear in a drifting cloud of snow. 400 A DOFFED CORONET For a few weeks more we were continually on the wing, visiting various cities, and combining the affairs which had compelled us to cross the water with a con- siderable amount of pleasure, finally arriving once more in New York a week before the date now three times postponed set for our return to Europe. With our tickets already purchased this time on a popular Cunarder we made an interminable round of farewell visits. Indeed, we felt sorry to leave all the good friends we had made, for it would have been impossible to have been received more kindly or made, in every sense of the word, more welcome than we had been ; and New York, in its early spring freshness, was doing its best to give us a last impression, far more pleasing than any previously received. On the day before our proposed departure a cable- gram was brought to me, which read as follows: " Do not start. Await next mail. Important news. Further instructions." Fred was out, and so I sought out Bertrand, whom I found dancing about his room, dumb-bells in hand, as was his custom of a morning, and singing: " D y a rien d'faraud Comme un matelot Qu'a Iav6 sa peau Dans cinq ou six eaux." "Look here, old man/' I said, in some perturbation, handing him the despatch, "what can this mean?" "Oh, some fool trick or other," he said, carelessly, in his recently acquired American slang. " Fool trick 1" I repeated. " A nice way of putting it, and very reassuring, too. I wonder what Fred will say!" CHAPTER IX At birth ye meet yer Fortune, An' findin' her the same Fer many years, ye think her A motherly old dame; But once ye get at odds with her Ye'll find, my lad, I fear, The lady's still got teeth enough To come and chew yer ear. Ye're on good terms with Fortune, Ye dally with her wheel, An' laugh to think that ever it Could scrunch ye till ye squeal, Or that yer smilin' goddess Could pet yer till ye're blind, And then sneak round and lift yer With a healthy kick behind. M. M. MY disappointment at having to delay our departure again was deep. We had all had a much better and pleasanter time than we had anticipated, as I have al- ready remarked, and had received such hospitality and kindness that it would have been difficult, indeed, to find fault with either the country or its inhabitants; but still my eyes were aching for a sight of home, and I fretted a good deal at the new postponement to which we were forced to submit. "Dashed nasty trick to play us!" said Bertrand, when he came to fetch me for a drive in the park that afternoon. "What do they mean by it? I won- der what misfortune is in the wind now!" 402 A DOFFED CORONET "My dear boy, don't talk like that; you make me feel queer! It's silly to paint the devil on the wall!" I said, sharply. " By Gad, I wish I were a week older ; I don't know why, but I have a nasty feeling about the whole thing ! I wonder if there is not another cable explaining mat- ters a little more clearly," the lad continued, jumping up and walking about excitedly ; then, opening a door, he bawled, " Jim, Ji-i-i-m, Ji-i-i-ml" at the top of his voice. In a moment Jim made his appearance, wearing a rather severe and injured expression. " Did you call, my lord?" "No; I was only talking in my sleep! But since you are here accidentally, go down and see if there is not a cablegram in the office for her ladyship." "Oh, Bertrand!" I exclaimed, as soon as poor Jim had gone; "how can you be so foolish? You know very well that we are to 'await letters.' Those are the instructions." "Gam! I wish I knew what it's all about I would give-" The sentence was never finished, for Jim at that moment re-entered and reported, with an aggrieved air, that there was nothing even faintly resembling a cablegram for me in the office. "Don't get discouraged, Jim!" his young master exclaimed. " Don't lose heart ! Go down every hour, and, like Bruce's spider, try, try again!" "How many times did Bruce's spider 'try, try again'?" I inquired, gravely, while Jim, evidently convinced of Bertrand's temporary insanity, took him- self off with celerity and despatch. "I don't remember, for certain; three or four thou- sand times, I believe ; anyhow, it's always wiser to be on the safe side, so I mean to keep Jim at it, day and 403 A DOFFED CORONET night, until those cursed letters arrive. Hooroop! it's four o'clock, and the carriage has been waiting an hour in the east wind ! Hurry up, my good girl, or the horses will die of chilblains, and we'll have to pay for them!" " Really, Bertrand, your choice of expletives is quite remarkable. May I inquire what ' garn ' and ' hooroop ' mean?" " Can't tell you ; it's a family secret ; but if you have heard my suggestion about hurrying, can you tell me how the idea strikes you?" "On the whole," I replied, after a minute's reflection, "your idea strikes me as rather sound." " Shall you then do me the favor of acting according- ly?" "It seems the only thing to do/' I answered, with business-like promptitude, " although it's rather a nui- sance 1" And dropping him a low courtesy I went in search of my furs, followed by a roar of laughter from that light-hearted pessimist. Somehow or other, nevertheless, his words rankled in my mind, and I became anxious and unsettled, al- though I took myself severely to task for it, and did not allow either him or Fred to perceive my unusual mood. The days dragged on in a very trying fashion ; a haunting presage of disaster sat heavy on me, and whenever I was alone I brooded sombrely upon the future for the very first time in my life. These vague forebodings grew quite intolerable, and in order to con- ceal them I adopted so gay and merry an attitude that both Fred and Bertrand caught the infection of my exuberant mirth and laughed from morning till night At last, one day that when the European mail was expected I returned from a walk in the park, and met Jim at the door of the lift, carrying in his hand a batch 404 A DOFFED CORONET of letters .and newspapers. My heart stood suddenly still, and taking them from him I paused a moment half fearing to enter the sitting-room, where the boys were awaiting me with afternoon tea. Then, stepping forward, I thrust the door open with my foot, exclaim- ing, cheerfully : "Here, at last, is the answer to the riddle I" They both started to their feet. Selecting one of the envelopes, I threw the rest on the table with a smile, and inserted a finger under the flap. While the closely written sheets were before my eyes there was a peculiar and oppressive silence in the room, broken only by the "pfft-pfft" of the crackling logs on the hearth and the low, monotonous hum of the tea-urn. Slowly and carefully I read, undergoing a shock disabling for a fleeting moment, but bracing beyond words immediately afterwards, for here, at last, was something tangible, and all the brooding and the dull, vague, aching apprehension of the previous days passed from me as suddenly and completely as if dispersed at a blow. Thank God, I knew myself now to be strung up again to my ordinary pitch, and by a flash of intuition, unerring and instantaneous, saw precise- ly what tone I should adopt, and how I should an- nounce my news. I folded up the letter. "Fred," I said, with a good -humor too grim for smiles, "it's your turn to 'stand by,' old boy. Listen carefully, please. My banker has committed suicide, after making away with every shilling of all the funds in his possession, including mine. I am for the present just as penniless as yourself, save for some practically unproductive lands which, as you know, I cannot alien- ate, but the situation is not surely without humor, if you will only take the trouble to look at it in the proper light" 405 A DOFFED CORONET Fred stared ; his face was the color of ashes. I knew that a bad moment had come, and set my teeth. For several minutes there was a silence that was almost palpable; then Bertrand gave a low whistle. "Look here, my dear boys," I said, methodically replacing the fateful missive in its envelope, "I don't see that there is any use in worrying just now. Such strong meat demands time for digestion, and, more- over, recriminations or complaints will not mend mat- ters. Consider how fortunate it is that this blow should have fallen upon us while we are on this side of the water. Had it happened in Europe, or Egypt, every- body would have been bound to hear about it, and we would have been subjected to the pity of our friends, and exasperated by the malicious and covert rejoic- ing of our enemies. But here we need not speak of this contretemps, and if the worst comes to the worst, and we find this letter is correct in every detail, it is the easiest thing in the world to drop out of sight and work for our living without anybody being the wiser." "You are extremely philosophic. Imagine talking of the loss of practically all that you possess as a contre- temps!" said Fred, with a groan. "I am sorry if you don't agree with me. It is the first time such a thing has happened," I replied, as if the matter in hand were but of slight importance. "Then we must agree to disagree in this instance." "Oh, come," interposed Bertrand, "you are not going to quarrel, are you? And as to you, Margot, I am as proud of you as proud can be. You are a brick, with the heart of a lion and the face of a flower." I could not help bursting out laughing. The com- pliment was so original and so characteristic. Even Fred melted a little, and I gained my point, which was 406 A DOFFED- CORONET to make him promise not to refer to the subject any more that night. For the moment there was nothing better to do than adhere to our immediate engagements, so we went to a dinner given in our honor by Mr. and Mrs. W. W f A . . . r, where we met some very charm- ing people, and had a far less miserable evening than might have been expected under the circumstances. The next day we sent several cables to Europe in order to find out whether our case was as bad as the let- ter which had so completely overthrown all our plans indicated. Alas ! The answers confirmed the worst, and there remained nothing for us to do but face the music. We determined to tell all our friends and acquaint- ances that we were leaving America via Boston, so as to avoid any proposal of escorting us to the steamer. This left us a week to pack up and find quarters where we could lie low, for no other solution to the problem had presented itself than to remain for the present in the United States. It goes without say- ing that nothing could have induced us to carry our woes to anybody on either side of the Atlantic, and with touching ignorance we fondly supposed that to earn one's living was the easiest thing imaginable. In the afternoon I went alone for a walk in Central Park, leaving the boys free to go to one or all of the many clubs of which they had been made honorary members during our stay. The sky was overcast, the young green of the lawns was dimmed with dust, and from time to time a puff of wind stirred the new- leaved branches of the trees. It was not a day to cheer one much, but still the exercise was bracing, after a fashion, and did me good. For an hour and a half I paced up and down a deserted path, meeting nothing but an occasional whirl of last year's leaves waltzing 407 A DOFFED CORONET past. Truly, my thoughts were not less scattered and confused than they! One of the salient facts of my misfortune that occur- red and recurred to me with mocking persistence was that Sir B sD n and Mahmoud Bey were now beyond my reach. Hitherto it had been a satis- faction to think that the measure they had meted not to me, but to mine I could measure to them again, grain for grain, and now that it was no longer in my power to do so, I felt distinctly robbed of something. Disapprove, all good Christians, an ye will! I cannot say that I was either sad or unhappy, but I felt a sort of mental fatigue, as if my brain had been violently bruised. I dreaded horribly having to tell my servants that it had become imperative for me to part with them, as all three had now been with me for nearly ten years, and I knew judging by myself what a wrench this would prove to be for them. "Why is the world such a topsy-turvy place?" I asked of a passing crow, and for an answer received a dismal croak, as the bird flew heedlessly on, balancing on its sombre pinions. I wished I could have soared, too, beyond that dull, gray sky, instead of crawling on earth like a snail. " Viva la Chiocciola Viva la Bestial Che unisce il merito Alia modestial"* I caught myself humming with contrition, for I could not help thinking that should I fail to weather the storm as it should be weathered, even that hum- ble little snail would be far superior to me. Before * Long live the snail, long live the beast, which combines merit with modesty. 408 A DOFFED CORONET reaching the hotel I had determined not to talk to the servants until the very last, and thus relieved myself for the time being of at least one painful thought. On the next day I sallied forth bright and early to seek, with Bertrand's help, a shelter of some kind or other, for I could not bring myself yet to look upon a cheap dwelling as a home. I am sorry that space and time fail me to give at least a short description of our weary peregrinations through New York, for they were certainly carried on in the spirit of unconventionality and guilelessness which just then was inspiring our smallest actions! But I cannot resist the temptation of devoting a few short lines to our first ridiculous experience in habita- tion hunting. Taking a hansom, we started on our quest with hopeful hearts. It was blowing a regular gale, and the wind whistled through the streets and across the avenues with a very unseasonable, shrieking sound, whirling the dust high up in the air and driving the foot-passengers along the sidewalks to the flapping accompaniment of distraught millinery and collapsing umbrellas. Distant thunder growled at intervals, and great, bulging clouds of dark, purplish gray advanced rapidly from the east, cleft now and again by vivid flashes of lightning. On Madison Avenue, the storm having abated, we stopped our hansom and resolved to walk, looking, as we went, for possible placards in the windows announ- cing that there were apartments to let. But we saw nothing of the kind, and it suddenly occurred to us that, en attendant mieux, we could not do better than to retain rooms at some good boarding-house or other, if such a thing existed! I had an instinctive dread of such establishments, but I thought that, after all, beg- 409 A DOFFED CORONET gars could not be choosers, and accosting a postman who, laden with mail, was descending the steps of a big, brown-stone house, I asked him to tell me where the best place of that kind could be found. He looked at me with undisguised surprise, and, it seemed to me, with a vague suggestion of contempt; but as there was certainly nothing offensive in my request, I was about to repeat it, when he said, with a shrug of his broad shoulders : "Here, on the next corner, you will find the very best one in New York City, and good luck to you, my fine madame!" Fortunately, Bertrand, who had lagged a few steps behind to look down a side street in the hope of dis- covering some indication of " desirable rooms," did not hear this absurd and insolent remark, which he would have resented, very much to the detriment of the per- petrator thereof ; so, contenting myself with communi- cating, minus its frills, the information which I had obtained, we directed our steps to the fine corner house indicated. We walked briskly up the steps and rang the bell. The door was almost immediately opened by a tall footman wearing a gorgeous livery. "Do you happen to know whether I can get rooms here?" I said, doubtingly, for the large hall, decorated with immense palms and gaudily furnished in red damask and much gilding, hardly looked what I had fancied the entrance of a boarding-house to be. "Yes, miss, I think you can; but you had best see the madame." "All right," I replied. "Will you ask her to receive me?" "Certainly, miss," he said, bowing and ushering us into a huge drawing-room hung with turquoise-blue plush and so overloaded with dazzling ornaments, pictures, statuary, and bric-a-brac of questionable 410 A DOFFED CORONET taste that I almost called him back, having taken an instant dislike to it. The windows were draped with triple curtains of tulle, lace, and finally of heavy brocade ; the vast carpet covering the floor was vulgar in design, but evidently exceedingly costly, and on the walls there were an alarming number of pictures, which, to say the very least, belonged to a school not distinguished for pruderie. "What a singular room!" I remarked, taking a few steps to examine a group in bronze representing a satyr surrounded by gambolling nymphs. " H-m-m-m-m yes rather ; I do not think much of it," replied Bertrand ; " perhaps we had better go away." "It's too late now," I whispered, hurriedly, for the rustle of a trailing skirt warned me that the "madame," whoever she might be, was approaching. In came a tall, stately woman, with a beautiful figure, a cameo- like face, large, mild, blue eyes, and silvery hair rolled artistically back from her smooth forehead. Her attire was entirely black, but of astonishing magnificence, and in her ears sparkled two immense solitaires of the finest water. She inclined her head in right queenly fashion, and waving us towards a sofa, sank grace- fully upon a sort of throne upholstered in blue-and- gold brocade. "I understand that you would like to look at my rooms," she drawled, twirling her numerous rings upon her white fingers, as she spoke, with studied negligence. "That is what I came here for," I retorted, a little impatiently, for these airs and graces were, in my opin- ion, quite unseemly in a person of her humble calling. "If you like we will walk up-stairs at once," she said, rising with an impressive swish of her long, jet- broidered train. 411 A DOFFED CORONET Up a broad, low-stepped staircase we marched, to the accompaniment of the distant strains of a piano, played by a distinctly untutored hand, and were sol- emnly preceded by "madame" into a bedroom of the most luxurious, not to say extravagant, description. There were mirrors everywhere between the windows, over the fireplace, on the ceiling, and, dear me ! even at the back of the bed, which looked as if it were made of solid gold. Both draperies and carpet were ineffably pink, and through an open door a bath-room of white marble, with yet more mirrors, invited the onlooker to take an immediate plunge. "This is one of my nicest suites," said the lady of this wonderful establishment, with a complacent, cir- cular look, " and as summer is coming on I can let you have it cheaply, as such rooms go. Of course, you know that champagne is five dollars a bottle?" "Champagne!" I gasped, completely taken back by this incomprehensible statement. At that moment I felt that Bertrand was trying to at- tract my attention by pulling the ends of my sash, but thinking that he merely wished to caution me against possible extortion, I heeded him not, and said, quietly : " I never drink champagne, so the price does not mat- ter to me, but I would like to know how many rooms you have, for three is the least number I shall require." "Why three?" demanded the queenly one. "One for myself, one for my husband, and one for my brother, here," I replied, carelessly, indicating Bertrand, who, much to my surprise, was as red as a poppy and fidgeted from one foot to the other in the most unaccountable way. "Your husband! your brother!" The until then carefully modulated voice almost rose to a shriek. "Where do you think you are?" 412 A DOFFED CORONET " In a boarding-house, of course a very superb one," I added, with conciliatory emphasis. Here Bertrand, with a hasty and nearly inarticulate apology, fairly dragged me from the beautiful room, leaving the owner thereof apparently sunk in stupor, for she gazed after us without lifting a finger to detain us. her hands sunk to her side, and her haughty head inclined towards her portly bosom. As I descended, following Bertrand passively in my surprise at this sudden turn of events, several pretty heads, surmounted by remarkably coquettish coiffures, appeared at half- open doors and scrutinized us curiously. At last we reached the sidewalk. "Oh, Lord!" exclaimed poor Bertrand, mopping the sweat from his brow. "I pray God that nobody has seen us go in or out!" . The last days at the Windsor were busy ones, leaving really no scope for moping or repining, for we had dis- covered that rara avis, an apartment almost comfort- ably furnished for one hundred and twenty-five dollars a month (which to our innocence seemed the acme >f economy), and were having it set in order. As luck would have it, the weather was so unseasonably hot that all the fashionable people were hurrying to the coun- try or the sea-side for relief, so that the danger of en- countering friends or acquaintances was steadily de- creasing. I was sincerely amused by the polite regrets expressed on all sides because we would not delay our departure in order to accept invitations to Newport. A fine figure we would have cut there now, forsooth! Such a picture completely dislocated my ideas. At last our trunks were packed and ready to be sent 413 A DOFFED CORONET to the Grand Central Station "en route for Boston" really, to be left there till called for. Our adieus were said, our last largesses distributed ! " Vogue la ga- lere I" We were going full steam ahead towards the uncertain future which lay so hazily before us, and we said, like the Breton fisher-folk : " Que Dieu nous garde, car la mer est grande et noire barque est petite." I suppose the blow was a hard one, but as yet, at any rate, we did not seem to realize it, nor how singularly unsuited we were for an existence of privations and poverty. On the last night at the hotel I glanced around the room and laughed! Hot-house lilies and delicate orchids blossomed on every table, and in front of a mirror the many pieces of my toilet-set made a litter of gold, with gemmed monograms and coronets catching the rays of the silk-shaded lamps; while in the mirror itself I saw my white-clad reflection, dia- monds and pearls coiled about my neck, nestling in my hair, and glittering on my fingers and arms, with here and there, as a relief to their white sparkle, the tinted gleam of a ruby or sapphire. I had done very well since my arrival in America, with only three servants in my train, and I felt certain that to do altogether without them would be no great hardship. To be sure, I had never drawn on my own stockings, nor put up my own hair, but it would not be so difficult to try, and also to succeed. And what pretty little dresses one could order in the name of economy dainty French muslins in pinks and whites and pale lilacs cheap they must be, although my past experi- ence of brown holland and white duck when handled by my couturier, or by Morgan in the case of yachting- suits, had caused me sometimes to reflect, en passant, upon the astonishing costliness of linen and cotton 414 A DOFFED CORONET materials ! Again I laughed gleefully. What fun the whole thing was just then, thanks to its novelty, and also to my pathetic and total inexperience of such mat- ters! I did not feel at all heroic, but amiably philo- sophical, and the sordid vulgarity of res angusta domi was to me so completely a closed book that I contem- plated my descent from a throne of elegance, position, and excessive luxury as a graceful sort of performance not at all devoid of humorous and interesting features. The thought of continuing my dolce-far-niente life at the expense of my relatives was far more ghastly to me than a near prospect of pulse and water as a steady diet for the rest of my existence, and I never for an in- stant entertained, thank God ! the idea of passing under the family yoke or of acknowledging myself beaten; moreover, I knew enough of the world to realize the strength and truth of the lines which say : " Si vous 6tes dans la d6tresse, Oh, mes amis, cachez le bien! Car 1'homme est bon, et s'interesse A ceux qui n'ont besoin de rien!" Well, to-morrow I would have left all behind that had made life for me hitherto, and more than ever I tried to bear in mind that fundamental maxim of my phi- losophy which somebody has since so well expressed in the quaint verse: " The inner side of every cloud Is bright and shining ; Therefore I turn my clouds about, And always wear them inside out, To show the lining." The homeward-bound steamer, which was supposed by all our American acquaintances to take us back, A DOFFED CORONET in a few hours more would have set sail for old Eng- land, carrying among its second-class passengers the devoted servants whom I had had so much trouble to get rid of. Alas! that dreaded scene had been worse than my darkest anticipations, the faithful creatures imploring me with tears to keep them on without pay which, of course, was not to be thought of ; and demur- ring, until I took a high hand, even to accept their pas- sage home, and the three months' extra wages which would keep them in comfort until they found other sit- uations. Jim was even more hard to manage. He flatly refused either to leave America as long as his beloved young master was there, or to be a charge upon our slender finances, but secured a job in the Pullman car service, and declared that he was awaiting the time when Monsieur le Marquis should be able to employ him again. Indeed, the royal-hearted fellow was anxious to draw his little savings from a London bank in order to place them at our disposal, and was with difficulty dissuaded from so doing. To tell the truth, our flat, un petit appartement meu- btt how amusing that sounded! was much above our new station in life. However, as we had re- marked while discussing its advantages, it was cosey and clean, having just been freshly decorated, and, after all, one must have pleasant quarters, even if it is necessary to pinch and scrape in other matters. That flat really our first venture in what may be called house-keeping was on the second floor of a big, red-brick building. The windows of the "parlor" a species of chamber of which I had never heard before opened on Forty-third Street ; but those of the boxlike bedrooms gave on a narrow area, which, I am forced to confess, was a dreary enough prospect, while the kitchen and dining-room overlooked a small, paved Alfi A DOFFED CORONET yard, bounded on all sides by the grim backs of other tall apartment-houses, pierced by innumerable green- shuttered casements. In all there were six rooms, including two rather large cupboards for the storage of servants, a diminu- tive kitchen, and a small bath-room, the pink-kalso- mined walls of which gave one the distinct impression of having descended suddenly into the interior of a salmon. The whole place positively reeked of respect- ability, which was, of course, "a great advantage," as the janitor remarked when he first showed us around, and as proof of which he declared that there were no less than two druggists, one dentist, a picture-dealer, and a grocer owning a corner store living in the building! He pronounced this encomium with crushing hauteur, and though my risible nerves were exquisitely tickled by a thought of the possibility of a belligerent contest between the two druggists, I managed to look suit- ably overwhelmed by the social eminence of my sur- roundings. Early in the morning we arrived with bag and bag- gage at our new " home," the three of us brimming full of mischief and hilarity and ready to take everything par le bon cdte. Our joy reached its climax when our friend the janitor, casting a severe eye upon the pile of trunks which our Jehu had deposited on the sidewalk and in the narrow entrance hall, placed a grimy finger on the platinum monogram and coronet which we had stupidly suffered to remain on every one of them, and asked : " What's them things spoilin' the looks of that nice tan leather for?" His criticisms were disarmed, however, by my shy tender of a ten-dollar gold piece for now that we were to be economical, I felt forced, much against my will, to be sparing in the matter of tips and the offending *7 417 A DOFFED CORONET trunks were speedily placed where we, laughing heart- ily at the incident, at once proceeded to unpack them. Surveying the " parlor," I decided that I did not like that name, and immediately rechristened it The Para- dise, for its walls and ceilings were azure-hued and there were blue curtains and blue coverings to the fur- niture. Along three of the walls were book-shelves which delighted me, for, when once filled, the idea which possessed me that it must resemble the waiting-room of the dentist below would be dispelled. Some jars of common but prettily tinted pottery suggested flowers and plants. These I must have, for to live without them seemed quite impossible, so I despatched Bertrand post-haste to the nearest florist, whence he soon re- turned accompanied by three messenger-boys, laden with lovely blossoming shrubs and a huge basket of freshly cut roses. I joyfully clapped my hands. "Now, my dears," I exclaimed, "just give me ten minutes, and I will have transformed this little hutch into a bower of loveliness." Gravely Bertrand was replacing some dollar bills in his pocket-book. "I hope," he said, apologetically, "you don't think I've spent too much money on those gay vegetables. They seem to run pretty high here." "How much?" said I, with one foot firmly planted on the table, from which coign of vantage I was fill- ing a jardiniere on the mantel-piece with smilax and jacqueminots. "Fifty-two dollars and sixty-five cents," he replied, dubiously. "That's not much; they're very pretty. Of course, in Paris I believe they would not cost that, but when in Rome one must do as the Romans do and not com- plain/' said I. 418 A DOFFED CORONET Fred, who was struggling with the recalcitrant lock of a huge, violet-wood box containing some of my evening and Court dresses, having finally succeeded in opening it, called upon me to tell him where I wanted to bestow all this finery. "Why, in a closet, you silly boy!" "What am I to do with the trains?" he ob- jected. "The trains! What do you mean?" I rejoined, pet- ulantly. " I mean that there isn't a shelf anywhere here wide enough to hold one of them, even if you roll them up very tightly." "Roll up very tightly hand-painted satins and em- broidered velvets? Fred, I am ashamed of you! Leave them in the trunks, the senseless, useless things, and I'll ask our obliging janitor to put them somewhere in the garret for me." Fred looked perplexed. "Yes, perhaps he will; but don't bother the man too much until you have given him something more." " I'll ask him to show me where, and take them up myself later on," said Bertrand, squaring his broad shoulders with conscious pride; "but just now I'm beastly hungry. I say, Muzzi, can't we go out and have some lunch? This is awfully exhausting work, and my stomach is in my heels." " You poor boy, of course you must be hungry, and so must Fred. How selfish of me not to think of it! To-morrow I'll try my hand at cooking something for you two gourmets. I am sure I can do it, for I've often watched my chefs at work. They handled food so pret- tily. To-day we must go out to lunch. But now look here, Fred; no extravagance, if you please, and no fashionable restaurants! A steak, or chop, or some, 419 A DOFFED CORONET thing of that kind, that's all we need. The reign of economy has begun!" " Hurrah for the reign of economy, and of good, juicy steak!" sang out Bertrand, rubbing the dust from his patent leathers with a silk handkerchief. "But let's hurry about it. I am literally starving." " I won't be a minute. I'll just exchange this walk- ing-gown, which is all crumpled, for another one, and be with you directly," said I. Suiting the action to the words, I retired into my tiny bedroom, and with remarkable clumsiness and hurry divested myself of my pastel-blue silk- cloth frock. In spite of my haste I soon heard Fred and Bertrand dancing a war-dance before the door, and entreating me, with blood-curdling whoops, to put an end to their tortures. "Oh, don't bother me," I cried back. "There are sixty-three little silver olives closing this hussar jacket of mine, and you don't know how difficult it is to fasten them one's self." "Don't talk of olives; you make my mouth water!" shouted Bertrand, through the key-hole. My hair was rumpled, thanks to my unskilful way of pulling skirts over my head, and would not be coaxed into anything like order. I stamped my foot viciously, with a passing thought of Johanna's deft fingers, but at last I got my unruly tresses tucked away under one of Virot's prettiest mousquetaire hats, matching in color the myrtle-green costume I had quickly snatched from a hamper on the floor, and, drawing on my suede gloves, rejoined my companions. "Oh, come, you can't go out with varnished shoes! They don't suit that dress. Bronze ones are what you need. Those spoil the scheme of color," exclaimed Bertrand, surveying me with his usual fastidiousness. 420 A DOFFED CORONET " Bother the shoes 1" protested Fred. " Let's go. It's already two o'clock/' And so we sallied forth, walking swiftly towards Eighth Avenue and economy. We bravely entered a "chop-house," and seated ourselves at a little polished table adorned with a cruet-stand, flanked by a dish of pickles and another of water-cress. The long, nar- row room was crowded, and, much to my annoyance, everybody present turned and stared at us with un- disguised astonishment, and I heard a whispered "Actor -folks on a spree," which covered me with confusion. I looked imploringly at Bertrand, who had turned as red as a turkey-cock, while Fred muttered, wrathfully : "It's those idiotic diamonds in your ears, as big as hazel-nuts." My temper was getting the worst of me, for I was tired, and hungry as well. " What about your gray frock - coats, and pearl scarf-pins, and boutonnieres of orchids?" I replied, frowning defiantly. "Why, there's a woman over there devouring you with her eyes. It's positively disgusting." This was a clincher. They dared not try to cast any more blame upon me, and with tremendous gusto we fell upon the steak and potatoes, brought by a friendly waiter wearing a dazzlingly white apron. "Adversity improves your appetite," whispered Fred to me across the table. "Yesterday I couldn't tempt you with quail or ortolan. Shall I order another steak?" "No, no; one is quite enough," I pleaded, refraining from pushing my plate forward for more. "You and Bertrand finish this; I've had enough," I continued, mendaciously. 421 A DOFFED CORONET "So have we," said they together, loading their plates with water-cress and the remainder of the pota- toes, which the friendly waiter informed us were "in their jackets!" "How decent of them!" said I. "It reminds me of the old maid at that other flat which we inspected last week who had put pantalettes on the legs of her piano." "The one with the parrot, who declared that you must engage yourself to keep no dogs, cats, or babies while on her premises?" asked Fred. "The very same," I replied. "She had nice little cork-screw curls bobbing up and down, and every time she said 'dear me/ in her queer falsetto voice, the par- rot behind her cleared his throat aggressively, and also said 'dear me/ only three tones lower. Bertrand and I almost exploded with laughter under both their Roman noses." The meal, such as it was, being now at an end, Fred called the waiter. " Steak, sixty cents ; potatoes, ten cents ; two beers, twenty cents; pot of tea, twenty-five cents one dol- lar fifteen, please," replied that worthy. "How much for the water-cress and bread?" asked Fred. "Nothing, sir; that's thrown in." "Thrown in, is it? how nice!" and much elated at such unparalleled munificence, Fred handed the as- tonished man three crisp dollar bills, requesting him to keep the change. We then slunk away, bowed out by the proprietor himself, who, to my surprise, was in his shirt- sleeves, but whose politeness was unimpeachable. The afternoon wore on, and so small was our apart- ment that by six o'clock everything was ready and 422 A DOFFED CORONET garnished, except the beds, that I was direfully puz- zled how to make up. Bertrand intended to accompany Fred down town to keep a business appointment, so I gave him an order for some little rolls, some p&te de foie gras, caviare, fruit, and other tid-bits with which to prepare a supper when they returned, and was then left, for the first time in my life, entirely alone at home. As soon as they had departed I made the grand tour of my tiny domain, and finally stopped before the front window, whence I looked out a little wearily. The lights in the street below came forth one by one, and the minutes passed into half-hours, while I listened vaguely to the sounds of the great city and the human bee-hive of which I now inhabited a corner. On the sidewalk I could plainly hear the janitor and some of his cronies laughing and talking, and when a group of boys sauntered by, one of them playing a sour-toned accordion, I could not repress a slight shudder. Of course my thoughts wandered to what I had left be- hind. Brittany and its wave -beaten shores, so dear to me, the luminous magnificence of Egypt, the brill- iancy and charm of Vienna and St. Petersburg, the gayeties of Paris, the beauty of English parks, or the hurry and scurry of London seasons. Then, in fancy, I returned to fair Corfu, to my beloved Empress and the happy days spent with her, to my dear horses, my dogs, my hundred and one pleasures and amusements! That reverie was a long one, and absorbed me so com- pletely that I gave a start of astonishment when at last, turning round, I was confronted by the narrow walls of the mean little room in which I stood. Crossing over to my bed-chamber, I undressed and donned a tea-gown. It was a pretty thing showers of Mechlin lace over pale-pink velvet and a short, mirth- less laugh escaped me as I slipped into it, but I pinned up 423 A DOFFED CORONET the long train and marched resolutely into the kitchen, where everything was in wild confusion. For an hour or so I busied myself with plates, dishes, and sauce- pans, preserving my ridiculous flounces and frou- frous from stains and dust by the help of a huge bath- towel tied around my waist with a business-like bit of string. A little before eleven o'clock I had evoked something like order from the general chaos, and ex- temporized from the provisions sent by Bertrand a snug little supper to cheer their hearts and stomachs on their return. Really, the little dining-room, with its snowy drapery, its sage-green rug and curtains, and plain oak furniture, looked very pleasing by gas- light. With a sigh of relief I re-entered The Paradise, and divesting myself of my improvised apron, turned up the light of a green-shaded reading-lamp, and took down, hap-hazard, a volume from one of the shelves. Carrying it to the lounge by the open window, I stretch- ed myself out at full length on the cushions, with a sigh of utter weariness. It was oppressively hot, although the spring was still young, and both the night and the city looked to me more stagnant, sordid, and overwhelmed in gloom than ever before. A strange restlessness had suddenly taken possession of me, and it seemed as if I were being pricked with numberless sharp-pointed electric needles. I sat up impatiently. The people in the street moved like sleepy cripples in this weary trance of heat. It was, indeed, a night without night's tenderness or starry charm, and I was not, by far, as happy as I had been earlier in the day, when the presence of Fred and Bertrand, and also the prospect of possessing this quaint and novel little habitation of ours, had cast a rosy, hopeful glow over everything. My sanguine mood had passed slowly away, and as, with bowed 424 A DOFFED CORONET head, I gazed into the pulsating darkness without, it seemed to me as if my very heart and soul grovelled in the dust, breathing in its choking and acrid breath. The heat garnered during the day in the narrow streets had increased, so as to be almost intolerable. The sky overhead was of a lack-lustre blackness, and now and again a lazy puff of wind blew about the dirty rubbish that had accumulated among the greasy paving-stones, causing bits of papers and straw to dance dizzily along the sidewalks. Suddenly I remembered that I had forgotten to pre- pare the salad which Bertrand had sent with the other supplies, and, springing up remorsefully, I went back to the kitchen, where I stood hesitating for a moment. On the square deal table stood a bowl of fresh lettuce- leaves and some coral-hued tomatoes in a glass dish. I pulled open the door of the dresser and fumbled vague- ly among its contents. " This will never do," I thought, realizing the languor of depression that was steadily growing upon me, and trying to pull myself together. With studied care I selected a knife, fork, and spoon, and collecting mus- tard, salt, oil, vinegar, and pepper on a tray, carried them to the table. Then occurred an accident that threw me into quite disproportionate consternation. I dropped the bowl in which I was preparing the dressing, and it broke into three neat pieces on the bare, wood floor, but I took myself morally by the collar, so to speak, and, kneeling down, quickiy repaired the mis- chief, after which I once more applied myself to my task. Eleven o'clock was striking from a neighboring church - tower, breaking the silence of the little, dark kitchen. Great beads of perspiration ran from my fore- head to my cheeks. " It doesn't matter," I murmured to myself, brushing 425 A DOFFED CORONET the drops away with the back of my hand. "I dare say it will be cooler soon." At that moment a faint, silvery gleam began to show through the window, which was only partly covered by a thin cotton blind the moon was at last breaking through the inky dark- ness without. One long, spearlike ray reached across the dingy table to me, like the hand of a friend, and at once I felt my vigor and courage return. When I had placed the salad in the dining-room, beside the jardiniere of crimson and yellow roses deco- rating the centre of the table, I walked back to The Paradise, and, taking from an open trunk a large feather fan, I once more lay down on the lounge, at- tempting by its means to obtain a little coolness, and gradually I dropped into a broken slumber, from which a tinkle of the bell roused me. I saw immediately, when Fred and Bertrand entered, that something had gone wrong, but forbearing to question them, led the way to the dining-room, and made them sit down to the little meal that was in readi- ness. They fell to with reassuring appetite, and soon I had the satisfaction of seeing more cheerful looks ap- pear upon their tired faces. While we smoked our cigarettes and sipped tea made with a little travelling samovar, I heard the tale of Fred's first disappointment. He had found, right at the outset, poor fellow! how difficult it would prove for him to find the lucrative position which he had fondly imagined would be easily obtained by an English university man and diplomat en disp&nibilite. "Better luck next time," I said, lightly. "You are abominably tired to-night, and cannot look upon matters with proper fairness. Let's all go to bed and sleep the sleep of the just. La nuit porte conseH." Next morning I was up bright and early, burning 426 A DOFFED CORONET with eager anticipation of my first marketing. Leav- ing the boys to perform their dandified toilets, I sallied forth and turned my steps towards Eighth Avenue, thinking that, as it was uglier, it was presumably cheaper than Sixth. I wore the simplest gown I had, but still the delicate texture of the avoine-mttre pine- apple batiste, profusely worked with floss silks of the same tint and finely pleated over re'se'da-hued foulard, with a hat en suite, covered with linden blossoms, did not seem exactly appropriate to the occasion. I had, of course, no idea how to go about my under- taking; but one thing seemed clear that people going to market must have a basket for their purchases, so, looking anxiously up and down the dingy thorough- fare, I noticed what I have since learned is called a hardware shop, and, entering, I selected from an un- gainly mass of wicker-work depending from the ceil- ing a substantially square affair with a heavy lid. "Where shall I send it, lady?" asked the shopman, wiping the sweat from his brow with the edge of a dirty apron. "I'll take it myself; I want it for marketing," I ex- plained, surprised, and thinking that such courtesy called forth by the purchase of an article that seemed amazingly cheap at seventy-five cents for I did not know but what it might be worth five dollars spoke well for American tradesmen. He stared at me for a moment with his mouth open, and then a grin that I considered offensively derisive spread over his face, so, taking up my property, I stepped out. A sun like molten metal swept the cross-streets with a promise of another day of ghastly heat, which made one's eyes smart with anticipation, and with a sidelong glance of disgust at a couple of meagre cats pawing a heap of kitchen refuse near some area steps, I walked away. 427 A DOFFED CORONET Soon a large butcher-shop hove in sight. The odor of raw flesh has always made me feel sick, but I plucked up courage and marched resolutely in. " What can I do for you, madame?" said a red-faced individual, whose neck rose in a roll behind his ears, and whose corpulence was wrapped, like a parcel, in blue, checked cotton. "I would like a joint of lamb," I replied, with assur- ance. "Yes'm, cert'nly; which part, mum shoulder, leg, or saddle, mum?" "Can you buy leg without shoulder, or shoulder without leg?" I asked, confusedly. The fat-necked one stared. "Why, yes'm; the shoulder doesn't come with the leg. There's only two legs to a lamb." "Only two legs to a lamb!" I repeated, wondering if the American mutton travelled on two feet exclusively ; but, afraid to exhibit ignorance, I hastily demanded a leg. After a great clatter of knife and whetstone, he began a surgical operation on a helpless carcass suspended, neck downward, from a murderous hook. Reminded of my war experience in hospital tents, I was think- ing the process would have been less revolting if per- formed on a human subject, when, flinging the result on the scales, he announced, oracularly: "Seven and three-quarters." This did not seem much for a lamb with only two legs, but I paid, and removing the lid from my basket, held it out invitingly. He laughed outright, very rudely, as I thought, and my apprecia- tion of the American tradesman, raised so high at the beginning of the hardware - shop experience, de- clined rapidly. I was not going to be put out of coun- tenance by such a lout, however, and bestowing on him 428 A DOFFED CORONET a look of freezing disdain, I requested him curtly to put the meat in the basket. He shrugged his fat shoul- ders, expectorated philosophically and accurately into a box of waste, and, wrapping the joint in brown paper, carried out my directions with a surly slam. I was very angry as I once more emerged into the glare of the avenue, and it was with a quick and rather staccato step that I headed for a grocery, before which sickly cabbages, discouraged salads, and withered radishes stood cheek by jowl with funny little square baskets filled with unhealthy-looking strawberries and other dust-powdered fruit. The heat had become some- thing awful, and the white tulle of my veil felt damp and uncomfortable, and caught limply, again and again, in the fastening of my solitaire pearl ear-rings; moreover, the weight of the big basket made my rings cut into my fingers under the gloves. The grocer was tall and lanky, with a peaked face framed in long, sandy "weepers" and an expansive smile, disclosing a few very yellow teeth. He wore an odd linen coat reaching down to his heels, which filled me with amazement, for it seemed strange to wear an overcoat in-doors ! On his asking what he could do for me, I was puzzled ; but eager to seem perfectly at home with grocers and their wares, I glibly started a list of articles. "Five pounds of pepper, if you please." "Is it to fix your furs with, mum?" he asked. "Fix my what?" I asked, helplessly. "Your furs, mum, for the summer; but no matter," he continued, scribbling my order down with great rapidity. "Oh ah some jam, and, let me see, some sugar and salt, and, yes, some butter and potatoes," I con- tinued, floundering desperately along. "And put it 429 A DOFFED CORONET all in the basket, please," I added, depositing that use- ful article on the counter. For a moment he looked at me from head to foot with such undisguised amaze- ment that I felt quite uncomfortable and embarrassed. "Now look here, mum/' he began, firmly, " no doubt you're a stranger in these parts, as is plain to be seen. Here we don't allow ladies to carry loads like this. I'll send it round to your house if you'll give me your ad- dress." "I couldn't dream of troubling you/' I stammered, recollecting unpleasantly my intended economy in tips. "Trouble! Why, mum, that's what we're here for! But you didn't tell me what quantities you wanted." "Oh, well, I'm sure I don't know! Send what you please," I rejoined, hastily. "Here's my address," and I scribbled it on my card. "Please send the bill with it, for I'm in a hurry." "No need for a bill to-day, mum, if you'll give us your custom. We keep an elegant line of creamery butter, new-laid eggs, fresh vegetables " here I groaned in spirit, thinking of the well-worn exhibit outside "fine dry groceries, English bacon, imported wines and liquors, foreign and domestic jams, and the finest brands of cigars and cigarettes." Heavens, the man must have divined my weakness for Turkish tobacco ! I was about to take up my basket, when he laid a detaining hand upon it. "Now, mum," he declared, "and what did I tell you? You ain't going to carry this, either. My boy will bring it with the rest." Quite overwhelmed, I relinquished my hold upon the handle and fled, leaving him, no doubt, under the im- pression that I was mentally deranged. A little discouraged, I determined to cut short my 430 A DOFFED CORONET marketing operations, but before going home I wished very much to get some lobsters, as both Fred and Ber- trand were very fond of them. Vainly I trudged up and down the avenue in search of a fish-monger, and then, with a sudden inspiration, I approached a huge, blue-coated policeman, who, with his hands behind his back, was staring into a window full of whiskey and liqueur bottles of all kinds. "Excuse me, Bobby," I said, with an engaging smile, "but where can I find a lobster?" "A lobster?" he echoed, turning very red and look- ing upon me with an eye of suspicion. "Yes; will you show me a place where I can get lobsters and prawns and such things?" said I, dimly discerning that I had offended him. "Oh!" said he, looking, for some reason or other, much relieved, "you mean a fish-market?" "Yes, I suppose so," I replied. "Come along, then; there's one right at the other end of my beat. And you can walk with me," he added, patronizingly. Nothing loath, I fell into step as best I could, and, wishing to make his task as little unpleasant as pos- sible, I entered into conversation. A moment later a couple of ragamuffins, passing by, exhibited unmistak- able signs of interest and amusement. " Hello 1" yelled one. " Git onto old Gilesy's mash !" I failed to comprehend this remark, but, noticing an increased attention drawn upon myself from several knots of by-standers, and also a self-conscious squaring of the shoulders and twirling of the mustache on the part of my escort, I suspected that it was more com- plimentary to him than to myself. Fortunately, at that moment we came abreast of a show-window filled with fish of every description languidly reposing on 431 A DOFFED CORONET a bed of sea -weed and flanked by artistically erected bastions of oysters and various crustaceans. "That's the ticket/' quoth my guide, counsellor, and friend, "and I guess I'll wait outside for you, because" he was kind enough to conclude " it '11 be real pleas- ant to have a nice little body like you to talk to on the way back." Properly gratified, as was only natural, I nodded my appreciation, and, with much more sagacity than I had displayed heretofore, bought two vicious - looking lobsters. Their threatening nippers having been se- cured with twine, they were deftly tied in paper by the vendor, and, carrying these at arm's -length to avoid the water drip, I rejoined "Gilesy," expressing my satisfaction at having, thanks to him, completed my errand. "Gimme them fish/' he said, smiling, "they're ruin- ing your gloves. Mine are cotton, you see, and it don't matter. Sure it won't hurt them or me to carry them as far as I go." "That's very good of you," I said, gratefully, sur- rendering the uncomfortable parcel. "Do you know, I've always liked the police wherever I have been. My father-in-law, in London, goes by the name of the po- liceman's friend, and last year the Metropolitan force presented him with a silver dinner-service." "And what may the old gent's name be?" asked Brass Buttons. I mentioned it, whereupon he grew suddenly very respectful. Oddly enough, he was a Londoner born, and recognized it at once. Straightening himself up in a soldierly way, he exclaimed, saluting in most approved style : "You'll excuse my familiarity, my lady, but who'd have thought to find one of the quality from the old 432 A DOFFED CORONET country doing marketing on Eighth Avenue? How- soever, now that I know you, my lady, if it happens that you live in the neighborhood, I hope as I can do you a service now and again ; it would be a real pleas- ure, you can believe me. My name is Giles, and this is my number," and he pointed to his badge. "So, whenever you want me, just send for me, and I'll be proud to serve you." A few moments more brought us to the corner of my street, and I thanked my new acquaintance most cord- ially, not only for his ready help, but for his interest in my future welfare. Slipping a two-dollar bill into his hand which I must do him the justice to say he at first demurred at accepting I resumed my lobsters and ran home, for the watch that hung at my chate- laine showed I had been away two hours. I found Fred and Bertrand pacing excitedly up and down be- fore the apartment-house, and so worried by my pro- longed absence that they rather unjustly overwhelmed me with reproaches, which, seeing how genuinely dis- tressed they were, I accepted in a meek and humble spirit to which they were not accustomed. When we once more found ourselves in our rooms, they showed me many little improvements which they had already contrived. The trunks that were not of immediate necessity had been conveyed to what Bertrand ex- plained was called the storage - room, somewhere in the roof, and this greatly added to our comfort in such restricted quarters. My first experience in cooking dinner for we en- tirely forgot lunch was exceedingly humorous. Ber- trand, protecting his irreproachable clothes with a blue silk undershirt tied about his waist by the sleeves, volunteered as marmiton, and presented a most ludi- crous appearance seated on the kitchen-table and hold- rf 433 A DOFFED CORONET ing in his lap a tin pan of potatoes, which he divested of their "jackets" to quote our friend of the chop- house. I must not forget to mention that while I was away my grocery order had arrived. Full advantage had naturally been taken of my despairing carte-blanche, for not only was the floor of the "store-room" a fair- sized closet but those of the kitchen and dining-room, piled up with bags and baskets. My consternation may be imagined ; but as it would have been undesir- able and unpleasant to make an expose of my slip-shod business methods, I .explained airily that I thought it was wiser to lay in a good stock at once, and received with becoming modesty the praise my sagacity elicited. Not in vain had I trusted that masculine ideas of house- keeping would prevent the boys from comprehending the futility of provisioning ourselves against the " wreck- ful siege of battering days" with dozens of jam and pickles, bag after bag of salt and sugar, and box after box of raisins and spice! At five o'clock I put upon the table a meal which I would not venture to honor with the name of dinner, but which, partaking of the nature of a picnic, gave us much more pleasure than any banquet would have done. I prided rr^self on having successfully over- come all culinary difficulties ; and although the famous leg of lamb was a little underdone, the potatoes slightly burned, and the soup altogether lacking, yet the youth- ful appetites of my boys made them overlook all de- ficiencies, and we finished the feast with delicious cof- fee and some Turkish cigarettes in the most approved fashion, all turning in afterwards to the dish-washing. This last was the most disagreeable experience yet en- countered. Fred at first insisted that I should wear gloves, and I got into such a mess that I ended by turn- ing him out of the kitchen and setting him to clean 434 A DOFFED CORONET my rings of the grease with which they had thus be- come clotted. An experience even more momentous than the initial attempt at cooking was my first ride on the elevated railroad. I was to meet Fred at the general post-office, and, very proud of going down-town alone, like any ordinary mortal, I climbed the stairs at Forty-second Street, and bought a ticket with secret self-congratu- lations upon my matter-of-fact manner, then, drop- ping it in the box with studied carelessness, asked if I were on the down-town side. "No, miss, this is the up-town track," replied the chopper, in stentorian tones. " Cross the street for the down-town trains." I humbly descended, feeling the wind taken very- much out of my sails, and crossing Forty-second Street ran up again, purchased another ticket, and remarked, confidently, to the ticket-chopper: "This is the down-town side." "Not at all," was the gruff reply. "I told you to cross the street for the down-town train. Don't you understand?" I recognized him then with a thrill of bewilderment, and, covered with confusion, hastily retraced my steps, reascended, bought another ticket, and emerged into the presence of that same ubiquitous ticket - chopper. I began to think the man had wings, or trap-doors to pop up through like a jack-in-the-box. "Say," he exclaimed, wrathfully, perhaps thinking himself the victim of some incomprehensible joke, "are you daft?" and seizing me unceremoniously by the arm he whirled me round, and, pointing across the tracks to the opposite station, he blustered : "The other side of the avenue, don't you hear?" "Why didn't you say so before?" I cried, indignant- 435 A DOFFED CORONET ly. "You told me to cross the street; you didn't say avenue. How did you expect me to understand?" "It takes a good deal to make some people under- stand/' he returned, scornfully. "But here, now, I'll pass you on," and, making a speaking-trumpet of his hands, he bawled across the metals to his colleague : "Pass this one through. She's put three tickets in the box already. She's a crank." I wondered why I was referred to as a piece of machin- ery, but I was beginning to understand that English is not necessarily American, and in my relief at the elucidation of the mystery of the tracks, I forebore to ask him to explain. When I told Fred about it at the post-office, he gave vent to a series of guffaws which made everybody turn around to stare at him, and later on he repeated it to Bertrand as the best joke he had ever heard. Days went by and I gradually became accustomed to my new duties. At the end of a month, indeed, I considered myself to be a thorough-paced house-keeper, although, as I look back upon those days from the present glory of my hard-bought knowledge, I cannot but marvel at what it would be weak to term my im- becility. Of course it seemed but natural to me that the boys should be fed on the fat of the land, and being unable to find on Eighth Avenue the delicacies which seemed to me necessary for them, I extended my pur- chases to Sixth, and occasionally even to Fifth Ave- nue. The result to my purse was disastrous, for a serious inroad had already been made upon it by a bill of $165 sent at the end of the first week by the thrifty grocer, who, infuriated at seeing no more orders forth- coming, poured out in this manner the phials of his wrath on my hapless head. The janitor and his wife were now my sworn friends, 436 A DOFFED CORONET and I was creditably informed that they were prone to describe me as "quite the lady," which ought to have made up for most of my annoyances, as it is agree- able to be popular wherever one finds one's self. These poor people, who were very kind and helpful, had a fine, bouncing baby of which they were inordinately proud, and I had become quite fond of the blue-eyed, curly-headed mite. One evening, as I was returning home from a long walk in the park, I was dismayed to hear that the poor little fellow had been seized with croup. Naturally, I went at once to the basement, where, in a damp, dark room, below the level of the street, I found an almost distracted father and a mother in hysterics. Taking the law into my own hands, I established myself in the character of nurse, interviewed the doctor, sent for a croup-kettle, and this sort of thing being more in my province and more familiar to me than cooking and making beds worked with a will to save the little flickering life. This was, however, not to be granted me, and three days after falling ill, the once so jolly baby lay in a little white coffin, wrapped in a long lace scarf of mine which had last done duty at a Drawing-room, and which made an ideal shroud for that poor little broken bud. The funeral still further depleted my exchequer; but the loads of snowy blos- soms and the white hearse electrified the street, and the gratitude of the parents would have been cheap at ten times the amount. The condition of the bereaved young mother soon became so alarming that the husband decided to send for a little nephew, who had just lost his own mother, thinking thus to occupy her thoughts beneficially. He had not, however, reckoned with the distressing homesickness of the small orphan, and on the very first night of its arrival was at a loss what to do, be- 437 A DOFFED CORONET tween his sobbing wife, and a poor little three-year-old who obstinately stood in a corner with a continuous wail of "Mamma!" on his tremulous lips and a tragic look in his big, black eyes. Bertrand, who had gone down to inquire why there was no hot water in the bath-room, took the wretched little chap in his arms and carried him up to me. I will draw a veil over the experience of the next three days, chiefly spent by all three of us carrying "Rory" a fit name, by- the-way up and down the floor, as this was the only way of making him stop his everlasting complaint. And to this very day I cannot think without a shud- der of the unceasing "I want Muzzer," which was droned in our ears for at least twenty hours out of the twenty-four. The child refused to sleep except in the lap of one of us, and if we did not want him to wake up with a shriek we were forced to keep up a sing-song monotone by way of lullaby, which was, perhaps, as trying to the singer as to the listeners. At last Ber- trand hit on a marvellous plan, and snatching up the child ran down-stairs, called a hansom, and took him for a long drive in Central Park. Whether it was the novelty of the thing, or the comparatively fresh air for, Lord knows, that summer was truly infernal but the poor little tyrant was conquered from that moment, and gave no further trouble to us or to his relatives in the basement, which was indeed a mercy. Meanwhile our circumstances were not particularly favorable. Poor Fred vainly patrolled the business portions of the city in quest of an acceptable position, but everywhere his name and social rank were a draw- back instead of a help, the argument evidently being that a person of his importance seeking honest work must have some dark shadow over his past, or some darker motive in prospect. Had we remained at the 438 Windsor Hotel imposing upon the credulity of the pub- lic at large, sponging upon our friends, and running up huge jewellers', milliners', and tailors' bills, as so many stranded Europeans have done, we would have succeeded of that there can be no doubt in gaining both profit and honor. But the idea of paddling our own little humble canoe and of owing nothing to any one was evidently preposterous, and deserved the con- tempt with which it was treated. The plain "Mr." and "Mrs." which we had substituted at once for any loftier appellation did not even help us in this land of democ- racy, and, in a word, the whole enterprise speedily became most disheartening. What money we still possessed when the crash came was rapidly dwindling, and although I said nothing about it to either of my partners in misery, yet I foresaw the day when there would be absolutely nothing left. To make matters yet more precarious and painful, my mother deluged Bertrand with bitter reproaches, arriving by every mail in highly scented envelopes, the persistent fragrance of which haunted me day and night. She in turn commanded, supplicated, threat- ened, and stormed, and it seemed clear from her state- ments that as long as the boy remained with us he would incur the displeasure of his entire family. But stubborn as are all Bretons, he refused to be coerced. I dearly loved to keep him with me, yet was I not minded to ingulf him with our wrecked prospects and to drag him down with us any further. My position in regard to the matter, already sufficiently difficult, was made still more so by the fact that the influence of New York was not a good one for a boy who, born and bred among the highest aristocracy of Europe, could not assimilate his present surroundings, jealously as I tried to keep him away from questionable associates. Extremely lov- 439 A DOFFED CORONET able, remarkably handsome, and generous to a fault, poor Bertrand was galled by the sordid narrowness of our present means, for until he became of age, which was not to be for three years, he was dependent upon his mother, who had cut off all supplies in order to force him to defer to her wishes; and often I looked at the horrors the future might hold for the lad, and silently asked of these shadowy abominations, " What are you going to do to him?" This new sorrow preyed on my mind and on Fred's also. Like those that had preceded it, it was, alas! not of an ennobling kind. It fitted no wings to the soul, as suffering often does, and my efforts to guard my dear brother seemed just then of no avail. I was still too young to realize that one cannot lay violent hands on the soul of another and thus lift it into safety. I was not feeling very well just then, and my nerves, which had until now seemed non-existent, began to play me stupid tricks. When I was alone, in the even- ing especially, the walls of the room seemed to close around me with ponderous relentlessness, while a nauseating feeling of vertigo sometimes overcame me. In all my life I had not known such a state of affairs, excepting before my attack of typhoid, and I was cruel- ly ashamed of it. At last I made up my mind to have a serious conversation with my brother, and summon- ing all my courage to my assistance, profited by a mo- ment when Fred was absent, and sought the boy. I found him in the dining-room smoking a cigarette and looking excessively moody. "You have come to scold me, I suppose," he said, without lifting his eyes. I looked at him in silence for a moment, and then sat down beside him. "Well?" he said, at length, somewhat aggressively. 440 A DOFFED CORONET "Well/' I repeated, "I want to warn you, Bertrand, that we are very near the end of our tether. There is no earthly use in bothering Fred about this, but the fact is that, if he does not soon find work, we will starve, to put it baldly!" The boy looked up at me with cool indifference, evi- dently incredulous, and suspecting me of an ulterior motive. "Is that all you have to say?" he rejoined. "Be- cause if so I will go out." " Not j^et, please ; I have something more to tell you," I replied. " You clearly think I am telling you this in order to make you yield the point and return to Brittany. This is not the case. I need not tell you that nothing could make me happier than to keep you here with me, for the depth of my affection is nothing new to you. But what am I to do? You accompanied us for a short trip, undertaken under the most agreeable and au- spicious of circumstances, but now you are staying on after this alteration in our affairs and position. How can I involve you in our privations and difficulties, especially since it is distinctly against your mother's wishes that you should remain here; and let me add," I said, meaningly, " that the atmosphere of this country under the present conditions is not beneficial to you." He rose, flushing scarlet. " There is nothing in my conduct to cause you anxiety," he said, stiffly. "Sit down, Bertrand," I rejoined, quite as stiffly. "Suppose I refuse to hear any more?" "What is the necessity of supposing absurdities? But, as I was saying, the time has arrived when you can hesitate no longer, and when you must come to a decision regarding your future. You say that to live under the same roof as our mother is distasteful to you, and I understand, to a certain extent, your position in 441 A DOFFED CORONET the matter. But, on my part, I am not going to coun- tenance your sacrificing the position to which you have been born on my account." " Do you mean that I am to leave you in the lurch, and return to ease and luxury, while you are here in this abominable situation?" "Exactly; you have quite grasped my meaning, although I cannot approve your wording of it." Again he rose from the chair in which he had re- seated himself at my bidding. "That is all, I suppose, and now I will go out/' he said, with his usual mulish obstinacy. I was fast losing patience. "Before you go. you will perhaps be good enough to tell me what you intend to do." "What would you have me do?" he demanded. " You know quite well what I wish. I have already told you that I understand, after a fashion, your desire to be away from our mother. As you have now com- pletely recovered your health, however, and as it can- not be supposed that your sick-leave will be indefinitely prolonged, I want you to resume your position in the navy and complete your service. It would be better for you, even though, as a widow's only son, you are exempt. By the time you have done so matters will have adjusted themselves." He remained silent for a few moments, and then, as I continued to look inquiringly at him, replied, sullenly : "I will do nothing; at least, for the present." With a violent effort I controlled my rising temper. "Look here, Bertrand," I said, turning my eyes away, " you are not acting fairly towards me. I meant to give you a mere affectionate word of warning, and it is you who are forcing me to put it all in capital let- ters. Surely, we need not rub each other the wrong 442 A DOFFED CORONET way like this, and it is a great pity that you should re- fuse to understand me, for nobody will ever love you as I do, little one." Here my voice broke slightly, and I hastily lit a cigar- ette to hide the unwelcome softening of my mood. The change of tone did not escape him, and he immediately followed up his advantage. In quite an altered manner he walked around the table, and, with that winsome- ness which he can always assume at will, and in which he is past-master, said : " I wish you would not bother, dear old girl. So do I love you better than all the world put together, and, really, I had not the slightest idea that you were wor- rying so much about me." "Oh, my dear, my dear!" I said, sorrowfully, "how can I help worrying when I see you, through my fault, declasse, and thrown with people whom you would other- wise never have learned to know. People whose tone, manners, and morals, so far as I can judge, from what you yourself tell me, are wholly and utterly contempti- ble. At your age, and with your tastes, this sort of life is impossible. Do you think that I am going to calmly sit down and let you go to the dogs by the shortest cut? Fred and I, like the celebrated goat of legend, must browse where we are tied, but you, thank God ! hold your future in the hollow of your hand, to make or to mar as you list. Do not let me be the cause of your sacrificing it in more ways than one. I have not exaggerated when I told you just now that we are on the limit which sepa- rates privation from downright want. Perhaps I have not been wise in my management of our resources. Let my inexperience be the excuse if there be any. Some- thing must be done at once. This morning I went to a leading stationery - shop and obtained, under pre- text of helping a little protege of mine, an order for 443 A DOFFED CORONET several dozen painted menu cards to be completed as soon as possible. They will pay my convenient protege 1 to wit, myself two dollars a dozen, and they tell me that this is " an excessive remuneration/' only given be- cause the sample I showed them is so much better than the usual run of such work. Now, supposing Fred continues to be unsuccessful in his search, how can we live on such a pittance?" "My poor Margot, is it really as bad as that? Can nothing else be done?" "Yes, something else can be done; but, truly, I do not know how to break it to Fred." "What is it?" " Well, it is to sell, or take to some mont-de-pit$ or other, a few of my jewels or my dressing-case." "Oh, rot!" exclaimed the boy, furiously, throwing his hammered-gold cigarette-case on the table. " I am not going to let you do anything so foolish. I'll sell my things, or pawn them, or whatever it's called, before I'll allow that!" "But this is what I cannot permit. You must re- member that you are not of age, and that if you were to dispose of your valuables in order to assist us, you would be putting the last thorn in my crown of sor- rows." He winced, and then, kicking away his chair, began to pace the floor, whistling softly between his closed teeth. I felt my resolution failing. Much as I despised myself for such weakness, once he had shown me his affection and tenderness I could no longer urge him to a course contrary to his wishes, praiseworthy though it might be, and grasping thankfully at the side issue, I suddenly sprang to my feet, exclaiming : " I'd like to know what's the matter with me! Am I turning 444 A DOFFED CORONET into a coward? What has become of my backbone, and of my much- vaunted pluck? You just watch me, Bertrand ! I will present to Fred the necessity of get- ting rid of some of my things in such a way that he will think it a good joke; and as to you, my dearest, just forgive my ill-temper and my croakings." Gravely and quietly he drew me down on the sofa, and, kneeling in front of me, threw his arms about my neck. He did not speak, but he breathed rather hurriedly, and for a few moments we remained per- fectly still, thinking, no doubt, at a tremendous rate. Greatly fearing lest his attitude should end by break- ing my self-control, for I abominate emotional scenes, I rose to my feet with almost brutal abruptness. "We are a couple of idiots," I remarked, irritably. At this he laughed somewhat shamefacedly, and, after a few minutes of awkward silence, said : "It's just like you, Margot. My behavior has been abominable, yet, instead of reproaching me, you give me the best and kindest of advice, and wind up by apol- ogizing, presumably for hurting my worthless feelings. Dear old girl, I'm awfully sorry. I swear I won't do anything to hurt you again. As for my mother, I'll tell you what I'll do. All she seems to want, the sweet old lady, is to get me away from you, so I'll go West as a cow-boy, and, once there, we'll see whether she'll give me money to buy a ranch. It would be a great life for me all out-doors, you know and a splendid experience. Why, it's been my ambition ever since I met those jolly chaps on the voyage here. And you needn't worry about me, old girl, I'll keep straight." Just then we heard a latch-key turning in the door, and Fred came in, looking hot and tired. There was no need to ask him whether, at last, something had " turned up," and so I contented myself with bringing 445 A DOFFED CTORONET him a cup of coffee, with a small glass of chartreuse. As soon as he seemed a little refreshed and cheered I said, impressively : " Do you think that you two giants could, if I made it worth your while, carry a heavy load a little distance for me?" Fred looked up, smiling. "What are you up to now, little woman? Do you want to open a laundry? And must we bring home the wash?" " Oh no ; your task is to be much more distinguished, for in my high and mighty wisdom I have decided that we are dreadfully imprudent to keep in this insecure and promiscuous place the valuables pertaining to our past rank and status/' "What do you mean?" " Simply this : when we are all three out at the same time, which occurs frequently, as you know, such use- less and cumbersome objects as my dressing-case, for instance, with its highly ornamental but equally futile one hundred and seventeen pieces, are at the mercy of the first enterprising person owning a jimmy. Now I don't intend to store this thing, and spend untold wealth in so doing. So observe the brilliancy of my plan. You boys will kindly find out for me a safe and honorable mont-de-piete, or preteur-sur-gage is it not what you call a pawn-shop in your God-forsaken language? and thus it is I who will receive money, in place of being obliged to disburse it/' "Surely, Pussy, it hasn't come to that? We can't be as hard up as that yet!" " How ridiculous of you to think so, Fred ; but I might have thought as much of you! Do you imagine that if we were really on our last financial legs I could laugh and joke as I am doing? Don't I tell you that I cannot rest easy as long as these costly things are littering 446 I WATCHED THEM WALKING BRISKLY ALONG THE SIDE- WALK, SWINGING BETWEEN THEM, BY ITS MAS8IVE HANDLES, THE HEAVY BOX " A DOFFED CORONET the place, and can you blame me if in our position, which is not, as you think, desperate, but merely one which suggests prudence, I prefer to have a portion of their value in hand, rather than to pay some one to keep them for me?" Serenity was returning to Fred's careworn face, and he finally fell in with my project in a fashion which delighted me, for the ruse had succeeded beyond my wildest hopes. " There's no time like the present/' I continued ; "and so, my good, dear, and estimable partners in this exist- ence of strife, do me the favor to get ready, while I en- tomb bottles, brushes, combs, boxes, and what not, in their customary sarcophagus. And then merrily do you go, my lads for merriness you'll need in this hot weather carrying a ton or so of gold and gems." Without giving them time or leisure to make any objections, I swiftly retired to the sanctity of my bed- room, and tenderly fitted all the pretty baubles which had made my toilet-table a thing of beauty into their purple - velvet niches, closing with a sharp click the lock of the large silver-and-tortoise-shell casket contain- ing them a chef-d'oeuvre of Froment Meurice and lastly, not without a good deal of muscular exertion, encasing the whole ponderous affair in its steel-lined, tawny - leather case. When I re-entered the dining- room, Fred, looking up from the newspaper he had been perusing, said, anxiously : "What is the matter, Pussy? You don't look well." "Why, I am as right as a trivet," I replied, quite re- solved to stick at no mendacity. " Don't become im- aginative, Fred; I never was better in my life. I eat like a horse, sleep like a dormouse, and have no time for sickness or worry. That's one of the greatest advantages of our present enviable plight. But don't 447 A DOFFED CORONET let us waste any more time. Come to my room and shoulder your burden no light one, I assure you!" A few minutes later I watched them walking briskly along the sidewalk, swinging between them, by its massive handles, the heavy box. This spoke well for their condition, and I smiled as I saw them disappear around the corner. Then, taking up from the denuded table the jewels that I had removed from the secret drawer of the doomed dressing-case, I said, with the tiniest of sighs, "Loss number one!" When they returned, just in time for dinner, I had pains to conceal my disappointment. The dressing- case had originally cost thirty thousand francs, but on deposition at a loan-office it had added to our failing ex- chequer only five hundred dollars ! This was owing, we were told, to the fact that the monograms and coronets diminished the chance of its finding a ready sale. How- ever, the wolf could be kept from the door, and Fred in blissful ignorance of the state of our affairs, for some time yet. So on the whole, I went to bed much more contented in mind. CHAPTER X Beside the Nile his antique flow I recked not of the winter snow That distant seemed, and far more nigh The river blue and golden sky In those strange days of long ago. Now where the gulls wail to and fro Across the drear ice-flood below, Think you my thoughts regretful lie Beside the Nile? To the gray lift I answer " No!" Is naught but warmth and color? Oh! That in my inmost heart have I Richer than all the gold could buy, That glittered in the tropic glow Beside the Nile I M. M. THE five hundred dollars which we now possessed did not, however, prevent me from setting to work on my menu-painting venture. It was a distinct success as far as the menus themselves were concerned, for with praiseworthy enthusiasm I let loose my fantasy upon these little squares of pasteboard which had hitherto been to me merely the unconsidered adjuncts of dinner-parties, to be flung carelessly aside, or, more rarely, preserved as mementoes, but which now I gar- landed with woodland blossoms, tropical flowers, tiny sea - pictures, birds, butterflies, or impressive land- scapes two inches long, probably for those very tables at which I had so recently dined ! Work as hard or as * 449 A DOFFED CORONET well as I could, however, the pay I received was so small that my infinitesimal earnings were no great help, except in so far as they permitted me to preserve my own self-respect by paying for what little items I might personally require. Within a week I determined that this sort of thing would not do, and so I sallied forth one morning and offered my humble abilities in the decorative line to a wholesale house dealing in bric-a-brac of a cheap and unsophisticated sort, and was soon busy painting white wooden blotter-pads, paper-knives, thin silk sofa- cushions, sachets, celluloid photograph -frames, and other graceless objects of the same order in a hurried, breathless way, forced upon me by the small figure paid for each. Early and late I toiled, bending over these absurd art treasures until a green-sailed boat on a purple sea, or a black cabbage-rose daintily clutched in a wooden nut-cracker, seemed natural and perfectly admirable objects to me, for familiarity breeds con- tempt, and as the wings of my fancy had been clipped by my new task-masters, who God forgive them! provided me with models, I lived in the unreal world where such monstrosities are manufactured by the gross for the higher enlightenment of slim -pursed Christmas and birthday gift purchasers. Poor Fred continued to pursue an ever more and more elusive situation, and Bertrand was still with us, although I momentarily expected him to put into ex- ecution his cow-boy project, and had reached the point where this would have almost seemed desirable, since life in New York, under such circumstances as ours, was about the most unfortunate thing that could have befallen him. The consequence of all this was that I was almost always alone, and that, save for the time I spent in house- 450 A DOFFED CORONET work, which now included the washing of all the un- starched linen (which I surreptitiously dried in the kitchen for fear of discovery by the janitor or tenants of this "high-toned apartment"), I never stirred from my painting-table. One afternoon a violent headache made it impossible for me to continue to bend over a strange and awful combination of azure lilacs and green poppies, meant to adorn a most elaborate citron-hued night-robe case, and, with the first moment of genuine impatience I had allowed myself to display, I flung my cheap little brushes on the table, changed my working-dress for a walking attire a triumph of Laferriere's and marched briskly off to Central Park. The morning having been stormy, there were com- paratively few people in the broad, shady ollees, and, drawn by my unconquerable love for horses, I directed my steps towards the nearest tan-bark path. Just as I was about to enter a narrow road which, at this point, ran parallel to the riding-track for some distance, my attention was arrested by a solitary figure that of a young girl mounted on a big brute of a sorrel horse which had "riding academy" stamped all over his gaunt anatomy. The poor little rider had entirely lost control of her ungainly mount, that, profiting by the inexperienced hand on the bridle, was tossing his big, bony head, trying to wrench himself free, and pas- saging, dishing, and kicking up in an exceedingly nasty fashion. The girl had already lost her stirrup, and was clinging convulsively with one hand to the pommel of her bulky, inelegant saddle. I glanced up and down, and seeing nobody far or near who might be mistaken for an escort, I promptly descended to the tan-bark, and before the horse had time to notice me, had taken firm hold of the bridle. A DOFFED CORONET Then, profiting by the animal's astonishment at this unexpected assault, I bade the girl let herself slide to the ground. Fortunately she obeyed immediately, and as soon as she was out of the saddle I gave the ugly beast a fierce jerk of the bit, which left him in no doubt as to the change of hand. It is not necessary to be of tall stature to do this, for there is a knack of doing all things ; and, moreover, a horse generally understands at once the sort of person with whom he has to deal. It did not, therefore, astonish me to see this unlovely specimen adopt at once an humbler demeanor, and although he snorted defiantly, and gave me a wicked leer out of the corner of a very resentful eye, he did not offer to do battle, and stood perfectly still beside me. "Are you alone?" I asked, of the little, trembling figure standing forlornly, with blanched face, a few paces away. "Yes that is, no. My instructor is somewhere behind. The wind blew his hat off and he got down to recover it. I can't imagine where he is." My opinion of a riding-master who did not know enough to wear a hat-guard, especially when, as in this case, he was in charge of a thoroughly unexperienced pupil and of a hard-mouthed skate like the one I held, was not long in forming, and, leading the beast to one side of the path to wait further developments, I fell to stroking his nose with a murmured, " Pretty pet, you! Nice old boy! Oh, you beauty!" which caused his late rider to burst into screams of girlish laughter. At that moment, heralded by the thud of frantic hoofs, there appeared upon the scene an individual, fat, red-faced, greatly excited, clad in a most amazing 452 A DOFFED CORONET combination of tight-fitting, putty-colored breeches, short, dark jacket, a yard or so of iron-clad collar, and horror of horrors! a pair of jack-boots which bore a ludicrous resemblance to those of Don Caesar de Bazan. He rode or, rather, attempted to ride a replica of the handsome nag described above, and held in his hand his lately recovered tile. With much effort, a wild flapping of elbows, and an apoplectic flushing of his already peony-hued face, he drew up alongside, crying, at the top of his voice : " Vat iss de matter mit you? Did you fall? And who is dot lady? Did she pick you up?" I had by this time recovered from my stupefaction at the sight of so remarkable a horseman, and my in- dignation getting the better of my amusement, I said, sternly : "Small thanks to you that I didn't have to pick her up! What do you mean by risking the girl's life in such a fashion?" "Egsguse me, I don'd see dot dot is any piznis of yours." "All the more reason for me to do what I did," I replied, " since you, whose business it evidently was, neglected it." Then, changing suddenly to emphatic German, I gave that man a lecture that made his thick Dutch blood retire precipitately from his congested countenance and left him gasping with astonishment. I had not noticed that during our polyglot squab- ble an elderly man, mounted on a splendid cob and followed at regulation distance by a liveried groom, had stopped behind me, and was taking in the whole scene as if he liked it; but turning to address the girl, who was courageously preparing to reascend her mountainous steed with the help of the now grovelling German, I saw a pair of kindly, merry blue eyes fixed 453 A DOFFED CORONET upon me with such complete appreciation of the hu- morous side of the situation that I could not help laugh- ing, and, when pupil and "instructor" had departed, I was much surprised by the nice old gentleman's dis- mounting and approaching me, hat in hand. "I hope you won't be offended," he said, "if I thank you, in the name of the profession, for the excellent tongue-lashing you have just administered to that riding-master. I know him. There are many like him in New York, who constitute a danger to the popu- lation at large and the pupils intrusted to them in par- ticular. May I inquire whether you are yourself a professional?" "No, a mere amateur," I replied, laughing, "but one who is very fond of horse-flesh, especially when it is not represented by such sorry specimens as the two that have just left us. That's a remarkably fine cob of yours," I concluded, glancing enviously at the beau- tiful bay rubbing its velvety nose against its master's shoulder in that tenderly confiding fashion which its kind only display towards those who love them. "Rigoletto? Yes; he's something to be proud of. Goes like clock-work, and is the best park hack Fve owned for a coon's age." Then he added, with a hu- morous, inquiring look, "He's for sale, you know." "That's a pity," I said, "for he suits you to a T. I would not sell him if I were you. You will find diffi- culty in getting another cob built like that one, that will carry your weight as easily as he does." "H-m! For an amateur, you're a pretty good judge of horses, aren't you?" he responded, with a chuckle; then he continued: "Look here, ma'am; I wish you would come back with me for a few hundred yards. I have a little establishment here near the Park, which, I natter myself, is kept in apple-pie order, and where I 454 A DOFFED CORONET have just now a few nags well worth looking at. Strict- ly speaking, I'm neither a dealer nor have I a riding academy, but I keep myself busy buying and selling good horses, and I'm beginning to be pretty well known here, though New York is not by any means a sporting centre; but still I have a few clients who, when they want a good thing, come to me. Won't you give the place a look? I'd be proud if you would." Then, suddenly remembering an omission, he fum- bled hastily in his pocket, extracted a card-case adorn- ed with an enormous gold horseshoe, and handed me a card on which was engraved " D. M. A n," followed by his business address. Now it would be quite idle for me to try and conceal the fact that a rush of unholy joy rilled my soul to over- flowing. I had made a loyal effort to be a good, hum- drum, pains-taking hausfrau, and had resolutely put aside every thought of the sport that has ever been my greatest pleasure; but, after all, we are not obliged to discount such little surprises as Fate, perchance kinder than we deserve, has in store for us, and as this one had come to me without any effort of my own, I considered myself perfectly justifiable in yielding to the temptation. Moreover, the gray hairs and eminently respectable appearance of my interlocutor were too convincing to admit of doubting his words. So I ac- cepted his offer as simply as it had been made. A pleased expression overspread the ruddy face of my new acquaintance, who alas, poor fellow ! prob- ably looked upon me as a prospective wealthy purchas- er, thanks to the irreproachably cut tweed suit I wore, the big pearl solitaires in my ears, and the little dia- mond horseshoe in my white sporting tie. "Here, Frank, take Rigoletto home!" he called to the groom, and as soon as the latter and the covetable 455 A DOFFED CORONET cob had trotted away, Mr. A n and myself set off in the direction of the Park gates, chatting in the most friendly fashion about the latest improvements in stable sanitation, ventilation, bits, saddles, snaffles, training, racing, and other equally interesting topics. I was much pleased with his stables, but as the hour was late I could not stay long, much to my re- gret, and after receiving a pressing invitation to come and try some of the horses, or all of them, at my very earliest convenience, I shook hands heartily with Mr. A n and walked home, determined to say nothing about this to my boys, for the present at least, knowing well that my little escapade would probably not meet with their approval, as they were both re- markably punctilious about my becoming acquainted with any one whom they themselves did not know, and, moreover, I found a singular pleasure in this harmless little secret remaining unguessed, for already a sense of new possibilities concerning my personal struggle for life was dawning upon my mind. That night I stayed up till the small hours in order to finish not only the azure lilacs and green poppies already on the ways, but several other bits of similar ghastliness composing the last batch of "art- work" I had undertaken to do, and next morning, a little before ten o'clock, I walked into Mr. A n's office wear- ing my riding-habit under a long covert cloth driving- coat, in the pocket of which were concealed a spur and a new and improved snaffle of which I had spoken to him on the previous afternoon, and which I had bought in London a few days before my departure for America. A n greeted with evident delight my ready- f or- work attire. " That's right," he cried, with a beam- ing smile. "You wait a moment and I'll have a few 456 choice ones led into the ring for your inspection. I'm clean crazy to see you in the saddle, for you're just cut out to show off a horse. ' ' This being the one compliment which found favor in my eyes, I followed him, well pleased, into the stables, which, though not extensive, contained a goodly number of well-groomed, sleek, handsome horses, attesting the judgment and ability of their owner, and unstintingly expressed my admiration. "Wait till you see them moving," he exclaimed, and, shouting to a stableman, who stood at the door of a perfectly appointed saddle-room with a polishing- steel in his hand, to bring The Babe and Lunatic into the ring, and be quick about it, he preceded me into a tolerably large enclosure, well lighted and tan-barked, where a helper was plying a rake with great industry. Pretty soon the horses made their appear- ance, and I had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the animal very appropriately called Lunatic, who started in to give us a sample of his temper by doing his level best to tear himself loose from his at- tendant. "There's the lad for you, if you're anything of a rider," laughed A n. "Not one of your easy- going, milk-and-water gentlemen mischievous as a monkey, quick as a wink, and full of ambition, but tvith his heart in the right place, let me tell you. Would you like to try him?" The last words were pronounced with a little doubtful, sidelong glance, which put me immediately on my mettle. "Yes, I would, if you'll trust him to me," I replied, with a smile, looking delightedly at the colt, which, though inclined to be a trifle leggy, with a little too much daylight under him, was, however, blessed with a great perfection of form and a coat of satin-like glossi- ness, shining like burnished metal in the sunlight 457 A DOFFED CORONET falling from lofty windows twenty feet above the ground. "What's amiss?" suddenly asked A n, no- ticing, with quick intuition, that I was not altogether pleased with what I saw. "Oh, I was only wondering why on earth you dis- figure that beautiful animal by allowing such a long tail. Why don't you dock it?" " Can't. It's the fashion here for horses to carry long fly-dusters, worse luck!" "If I were you I would teach them better, for this is thoroughly unsportsman-like." I had meanwhile drawn nearer to Lunatic and began to pat his glossy neck, without seemingly taking any notice of the de- cidedly suspicious fashion in which he was regarding me, and, determined that my first should be a master- stroke, I made use of a little trick taught me by an old Cossack many years before, and which is nothing but elementary "voltige." I put my hand lightly on the pommel, and, taking the animal completely by sur- prise, vaulted into the saddle. The colt gave a wild leap forward, as nimbly as a stag, and pricking up his delicate, tapering ears, gath- ered his legs well under him and sailed away around the ring in amazing style. "By G d, that was well done!" roared A n, standing stock-still and watching me delightedly. I laughed a little, and proceeded to put Lunatic through his paces. There was really no harm in him, and after a few minutes we came to a very decent understanding, and when I brought him back to where his owner and the groom were waiting, I felt that in a very short time I could transform this ticklish horse into a lady's hunter, provided that lady could ride a little. "Does he jump?" I asked, eagerly. 458 A DOFFED CORONET "Oh, after a fashion, when he feels like it," confessed his owner, a little dubiously. " Would you like to try him over a hurdle or two?" "Yes." The grin on A n's face broadened. " Bring the hurdles," he said to the groom, and turning to me, he added : " You've got spirit enough, and that's a fact. I think you must have tried to fool me when you said that you were not a professional. Yours is not amateur riding, by a long chalk." I laughed. "I've been in the saddle since I was three years old," I acknowledged, "and I may as well tell you that horses have always been my chief inter- est in life, and that until lately I owned a pretty good stable of my own." "Not in this country?" "No, not in this country, certainly. I've been horse- less for a few months, and that's why I am out of prac- tice a little bit." " I don't see any sign of that. But here are the hur- dles, and I'm curious to see how that youngster is go- ing to negotiate them with a lady on his back." I needed no second invitation, put the colt at a fast gallop, and brought him without any great difficulty to the first leap ; but quick as lightning the treacher- ous brute stopped and made a t&e & queue with a sud- denness which would have unseated me if I had not been prepared for something of the kind. Now I do not believe in punishing horses until it becomes impossible to do otherwise, so I trotted him back to the starting- point, and once more brought him up to the insignifi- cant obstacle, but he turned again like a snake and tore around the whole extent of the ring as if possessed. "This will never do, my fine fellow!" I muttered, closing my teeth, and with methodical vigor I gave 459 A DOFFED CORONET him a sharp taste of my hunting-crop. There ensued a short struggle, but I got the mastery, and Lunatic, after this, not only approached the objectionable hur- dles one after another quite willingly, but rose each time like a bird and landed on the other side with the lightness of wind-blown thistle-down. A n's delight knew no bounds. " That bucketing will do him all the good in the world," he cried. " There's no use talking, you know what you're about. Great Scott! you could ride the head off the devil 1 I'll tell you what," he went on, as I brought the horse, all in a lather, to a stand-still before him, " after this you have the run of these stables, and can have any of my horses to ride in the Park, the ring, or the open country whenever you like. My word, but you're a wonder!" "You are very good!" I replied, jumping to the ground and throwing the reins to the waiting groom ; "but, of course, I'd never dream of accepting such an offer. I don't suppose you keep a stable for my per- sonal gratification." "Look here, ma'am," he said, looking me full in the face, "don't think me impertinent. I don't know your circumstances, you see, and you don't look as if they were very much straitened ; but is it certain sure that you would not accept an offer from me a handsome one, that is to break in and sell lady's hacks? There's money in such a deal and lots of it, too for both of us." I was sorely tempted to say "yes" at once, for it was just the sort of thing I would have loved to do, but, somehow or other, I felt pretty certain that Fred would object. And yet this would give me work not only con- genial but lucrative, and might finally end in my hav- ing training and boarding stables of my own. Lord! 460 A DOFFED CORONET what a joy that would be ! Strangely enough, poor Fred considered it a terrible humiliation that I should have to work at all, which was really ridiculous, for where could be the shame of our having come a financial cropper and of my trying to help him keep a roof over our heads? I did not see things in that light at all, and had always greatly admired the moral courage dis- played by the Muscovite Prince and Princess Michael H . . . . ff , who, similarly situated, had come to America to work for their own support until such time as the decease of relatives holding a life interest in certain estates should repair their fortunes. They were great nobles, and had occupied one of the most brilliant and enviable positions at the Court of St. Petersburg, but nevertheless they bravely and cheerfully doffed their coronets, and while the Prince secured a berth, first as brakeman and then as fireman on the New York Central Railroad, his beautiful Princess took in fine wash- ing to help him keep the wolf from the door. After a long time the then Czar, having heard of this remark- able piece of renunciation and courage, sent for them, and appointed Prince H . . . . ff Minister of Roads and Communications, with a large salary. A few years later the Prince and Princess revisited this country, for pleasure this time, and with a view of once more look- ing upon the spot where, in spite of reverses and pri- vations, they had been very happy. This is by no means the only instance of aristocrats coming to New York, not with the intention of bartering an ancient name and title for the dollars of some Ameri- can heiress, but because they are eager to earn, unob- trusively, an honest living in a plucky and honorable fashion men and women who have been overtaken by financial difficulties, and who, destined to inherit vast wealth at some later period, find it impossible to go the 461 A DOFFED CORONET pace to which they have been used while waiting for an alteration in their circumstances. All of them lay aside, on landing, all pretension to rank, drop temporarily whatever titles they may possess, and determine to rely solely upon their own exertions to make their way in a land where they fondly imagine that all men start with the same chance of success. It is sad to relate that many of these high-minded nobles meet with failure, thanks to their being unaccus- tomed to the conditions of American life, and ignorant of any trade save those of arms and diplomacy, neither of which constitutes a very useful equipment under such circumstances. Alas ! many fall by the wayside, as did, for instance, the great-grandson of the famous German Field-Marshal von B r, who succumbed to the effects of privation and want in the paupers' ward of a New York hospital, and the brother of the Right Honorable Sir Henry D d W . . . . e, once British Ambassador to the Court of Spain, who died while serving as a porter in a wholesale grocery store in Jacksonville. That unfortunate young man, who had graduated with honors from Oxford, when he came financially to grief, emigrated to America, where he was in turn a dry-goods clerk, a bill-collector, and a bartender, before taking the final position above mentioned. It was also while working as night -porter in the mailing department of a New York newspaper-office that Lord D d, weakened by consumption con- tracted in the exposure incident to his humble calling, fell sick and died practically of starvation, owing to the fact that he was without friends, and having quar- relled with his grandfather, the Earl of P . . . h who was nearly a hundred years old and without other 462 A DOFFED CORONET male issue was too proud to notify his relatives of his condition. During my own sojourn in New York as a toiler I once met face to face, in a little German restaurant where we had casually dropped in to lunch, no less a personage than Prince Benjamin R . . . n, the younger brother of the chief of the great Austrian and French family of that name. He had been one of my dancers at Vienna, and our mutual astonishment, when, wear- ing the white jacket and apron of a waiter, he brought me the tea and sandwiches that I had ordered, may be better imagined than described. He looked as if he could have bitten a tenpenny nail in two, for this tall, round-faced fellow, whom we had christened "Baby" at Court, had more or less deserved his downfall, his debts and follies having been such that he had been disowned by his uncle, the head of his house. I have omitted to say that when we were in Chicago we discovered that the head-waiter at the Grand Pa- cific Hotel was a Count von G n, at one time an officer of the regiment of hussars which the Emperor of Germany had commanded in person before his ac- cession to the throne. On leaving the army the Count had gone out West with the idea of running a cattle- ranch, and, having lost all his money in the attempt, was forced to seek other means of livelihood. Nor is this all ; but it would take too much space to de- scribe a hundredth part of the histories of the wrecks and ruins that have been scattered throughout the United States, and so I will content myself with but a few more instances, one of which concerned a cousin of Fred's, the German Count F . . . k von F n, who labored as the driver of a Belt Line car for many months, and another, Count V .... r C e, the son of one of Emperor Francis Joseph's favorite aides -de- 463 A DOFFED CORONET camp, who actually begged his bread for a time on the streets of New York, having become disabled by a fracture of the right arm while working as a com- missionaire. A few years later the Count, who had meanwhile inherited some money and returned to his own land, was sent to Washington as Austro - Hun- garian Charge" d'Affaires, and his feelings during his time of office must have been singular, when he remembered how recently he had been a footsore and weary member of the great American Wandering Will- iam fraternity. Few persons have any idea of the amount of Old World romance that is hidden away in the East Side of New York, and in the poorer districts of Brook- lyn and Harlem. Indeed, it would require the pen of a Dickens to describe the final acts of many an aristo- cratic tragedy which is carefully concealed in the meaner streets of democracy's greatest city, for it is precisely those whose career and antecedents are of the most intensely dramatic character, whose rank is of the lofti- est and whose path was the most brilliant, who are at the greatest pains to conceal their identity and the temporary or final eclipse of their fortunes from the prying gaze of the curious. Witness the case of that young nobleman, a grand- son of a celebrated statesman, who fell sick and died in the hospital unidentified, for he had pawned his very clothes in order to obtain food. When his relatives be- came alarmed at his prolonged silence, and attempted to discover his whereabouts with the help of the consular service and various detective agencies, he was finally discovered as an empty skull and a few bare bones on the dissecting-slates of a medical college. This digression has carried me far from my subject, although it was suggested thereby, for I thought then, 464 A DOFFED CORONET as I think to-day, that it is when aristocrats scorn the benefits which might accrue to them from the posses- sion of an empty title, and voluntarily renounce such privileges to work for their own bread, that they show themselves thoroughbreds, and not when they become toadies and fortune-hunters the last and most pitiable stage of degradation. I felt quite certain, moreover, that I had it in me to succeed as a horse-trainer, all the more that in a new country a feminine trainer would be a novelty and an attraction. In those days Americans, in spite of their undeniable fondness for horses, understood but little about their management and general handling, women especially being then a veritable eyesore in the saddle. Those I saw in the Park, with very few exceptions, indulged in fluttering ribbons, ludicrous head-gear, saddle-pads of garish patterns, and elaborate whale- bone whips with silken lashes and extraordinary jew- elled knobs which reminded one of old-fashioned circus equestriennes. Their riding, too, was mostly execra- ble, belonging neither to the correct and conven- tional haute-ecole nor the free-and-easy cross-country style, but a ridiculous mixture of both, intermingled with clumsy timidity and a considerable amount of pose and "side." Indeed, they were justly described by my friend A n as "calamities on castors," a bit of colloquialism which enchanted me. The amazing success achieved in horse-breeding and training by a very dear friend of mine, Princess " Au- guste" M t, flashed across my mind as I walked home through the dingy New York streets, cogitating over A n's offer. There appeared once more before my eyes the bleak Polish country-side across which I had so often guided a four-in-hand or a pair of restive trotters over narrow, jo 465 ill-kept roads, deeply furrowed in mud or hardened by early frost. 1 seemed to feel again the searching No- vember winds, whistling through shaggy pine-branches and rattling the denuded twigs of the birches meeting high above my head in confused tangles, with their harsh outlines continuously traversed by great flights of ravens winging their hurried flight towards the dis- tant ranges of the Carpathian Mountains under dun- colored skies. Once more I saw the long, straggling stone buildings fronting on an immense yard, which was entered by a heavy granite archway, surmounted by a carven coat of arms and a princely coronet. I saw the long rows of open stable doors, the large forge in full swing, and the yards and huge hay-stacks in the middle distance, bespeaking scrupulous care and a practical comprehension of stud-farming. And what about the Princess herself? She was tall and slender, with a delicately cut, slightly aquiline face, almost inno- cent of wrinkles although she was then over fifty years of age a healthy-looking skin tanned to a clear amber, a square, determined chin and white, even teeth. Clad in shooting-jacket and serviceable riding-breeches, ad- mirably fitting riding-boots, and a broad-brimmed, soft felt hat a costume she had adopted as being more con- venient than even the shortest of skirts for the prosecu- tion of her beloved hobby she was always in or about the yards, personally overlooking every detail of her vast establishment. What a witty and amusing woman she was, and, when once launched upon her favorite topics, how en- tertaining! She professed the most withering con- tempt for the ordinary type of sportswomen, declaring that they knew, generally speaking, as much about the points of a horse as they did about the composi- tion of the fixed stars, and never hesitated to declare 466 A DOFFED CORONET that that particular portion of the fair sex which is in- clined to be horsy par genre and without a real love of the thing, is, as a rule, more disreputable and ob- noxious than any shady Jockey, bookie, or even welsher belonging to the outside edge of the ring. Princess "Auguste" was the fourth daughter of Count Julius Max M t, who, at the imminent peril of his life, had rescued the widowed Princess Charles-Emmanuel of Savoy from the flames that de- voured the Austrian Embassy at Paris on the night of the gala ball given by the then Ambassador, Prince Schwartzenberg, in honor of Napoleon I.'s wedding with Archduchess Marie Louise. The Count was at that time only nineteen years of age, and so handsome that the young royal widow fell desperately in love with him, and proved her gratitude by marrying him and securing his elevation to the rank of Prince. In spite of his youth he was a devoted step-father to her little children, one of whom, by-the- way, was afterwards King Charles Albert of Sardinia, and another the mother of Archduke Rainer of Austria. From him my friend Princess "Auguste" had evi- dently inherited her dauntless courage, to which she added a certain amount of eccentricity, for this enor- mously wealthy noblewoman, good-looking and ex- tremely gifted, held herself persistently aloof from her peers and devoted her entire life to horses. She lived like an anchorite, not from any motive of avarice, but because her personal tastes were surprisingly simple. Charitable to a fault, the welfare of her tenants and peasantry was of paramount importance to her, and a large part of her income was expended in the promo- tion of their health and comfort. Her success with horses was phenomenal, and I do not think there was anything on four feet which 467 A DOFFED CORONET she could not ride and master, her methods being, however, singularly gentle and coaxing for such a strong-minded woman. Why should I not also achieve a similar success, al- though being without capital? There could be no great possibility of comparison between her past achievements and my future ones, yet a spirit of emulation rose in me ; but I was far too wise to broach the subject to my lord and master, or even to Bertrand, for the present. Affairs were adopting a rather grim aspect for us. Foolishly enough, I had sent back by diplomatic valise my more valuable jewels to the care of trustworthy hands, and little by little the lesser luminaries of my jewel-box followed in the track of the dressing-case. Once more the wolf was at the door, though I muzzled him most carefully when the boys were present. De- spair was beginning to gnaw at my heart, for it took all my sagacity to continue paying the rent and to furnish plain, simple meals for Fred and Bertrand, from which, long ere this, all recherche morsels had dis- appeared. Fred, who did not realize any more than Bertrand the recent urgency of the situation for of late I had taken the disposal of my valuables into my own hands used to say that I had become altogether too grave and de- termined. "A regular Duke of Wellington in petti- coats/' he would say, laughing; and little did he know that this unwonted sternness was my only safeguard against a general and most inglorious breakdown. Whenever I could I made a point of spending a couple of hours or so at A n's, working in the ring with a will, or taking "young 'uns" out, followed by a groom gotten up in first-class Hyde Park Corner style. My exquisitely fitting Busvine habit and my Lincoln and Bennet stovepipe hat created quite a sensation, 468 A DOFFED CORONET and, thanks to them, and perhaps, also, a little to my handling of the horses, I was the direct cause of the " governor's " making several advantageous sales. And that is where I showed myself a fool, for, al- though the sides of my purse touched, I refused to ac- cept the commissions which were, after all, most hon- orably due to me, because I could not stomach the idea of receiving money for a service which was at the same time so great a pleasure. I witnessed many funny incidents at A n's, one of which, in particular, I shall not soon forget, for I laughed as I had not laughed for months, and felt almost as though I were again well fed and hap- py. One morning A n told me that the wife of an enormously wealthy and successful brewer, who was trying to take society by storm, would arrive in a few moments to select a Park hack. She had, it seems, been told that horsiness was a sine qua non of elegance and social excellence, and, resolving to become at once a perfect horsewoman, was fresh from a course of twenty -four riding - lessons at an academy in the neighborhood of the Park. "She wants to see some horses ridden by a lady," explained A n, with visible embarrassment, busying himself with his cigar-case as he spoke in a fashion that made me smile. "Well, what's the matter with my showing her those you have on hand?" I exclaimed. "Don't I ride well enough?" "That isn't it, that isn't it," muttered he; "but a Woman like you, who looks one's hat off, is not the kind one likes to ask to trot out cattle for a person of my new customer's sort. I should have to be nine varieties of a born fool not to know pretty well by this time what you are or thereabouts; and that breweress, 469 A DOFFED CORONET in spite of her avoirdupois, is what might be called one of Heaven's light- weights I" " Oh, don't talk nonsense, Mr. A n. I am only too glad to oblige you if I can, and if the breweress proves disagreeable I will give her a file to gnaw, as you say over here. Meanwhile, if you will permit me, I will just exercise Skylark while waiting for this dis- tinguished patron of yours." The black colt mentioned was much on the pattern of the now long - since - sold Lunatic. He was ner- vous and inclined to cut up rough, and engrossed my attention so completely that I forgot all about the brewing equestrienne that was to be, and was com- pletely taken by surprise when Pat, the head groom, ran round to where I was endeavoring to make that devilish "young un" understand the A B C of his equine education, and told me that "the governor" sent his compliments, and would I come to the upper end of the ring for a moment? I turned Skylark round and trotted him towards a group on the wooden steps leading down to the ring, which included a fat, red-faced woman, a thin, shy-looking girl, a gorgeously liveried footman bear- ing himself like a South American parrot, and poor A n himself, who seemed greatly distressed. The fat dame looked superciliously at me through a long-handled, jewelled lorgnette, saying, in a loud whisper, "Professional, of course?" The wretched "governor's" comely features assumed the hue of a freshly boiled lobster, and he hastened to my side, hat in hand. "I hate to ask you," he said, "but would you very much mind riding Little Boy Blue for a few minutes, just to show this party what he can do?" "I don't mind at all; I think it amusing," I replied, 470 A DOFFED CORONET heroically repressing the laughter which rose in me at the thought of the figure that pudding-shaped woman would cut on the dainty thoroughbred's back, should she be so imprudent as to venture herself there, and, beckoning Pat to follow me, I galloped off to the stables. When I came back, madame and her retinue were standing by the mounting-block, but I took no ap- parent notice of her, and, entering into the spirit of the thing, made use of one of the tricks of the trade by letting Pat display the graces of an elderly chestnut mare, which he had hastily bestridden, while I ap- peared entirely absorbed in the delicate management of Little Boy Blue, who, in conscious pride of his own beauty, tossed his delicate head from side to side, and used his perfect legs like a ballet-dancer. After a few turns around the ring, I called A n to my side and asked him what I was to do next. "Confound the woman," he said, wrathfully, "she wants to see you on the chestnut mare, but I'm going to tell her you're not here to satisfy her whims. She is a gump. She looks as if she had a digestion equal to disposing of poached bath-towels, and she certainly has cheek to match." " Don't tell her ; please don't ! Anything to oblige a lady, my dear sir. I will change saddles with Pat, and sell her Molly, if I can, for it cuts me to the heart to think of her owning Little Boy Blue. " " You get too much attached to horses. It's a great drawback in trade. Business first, you know." "Yes, I suppose so," I said, wearily, sliding to the ground and holding the beautiful colt while his girths were being unbuckled by his special attendant. For the next half -hour I showed off the mare, and with exemplary patience that is, for me endured the ab- surd remarks and questions of the female leviathan 47i A DOFFED CORONET who coveted her. At last, in answer to a more than permissibly idiotic demand, I said, without moving a muscle : "I assure you, madame, that Molly will give you every satisfaction. She's warranted to carry a lady, draw a bicycle, or go on roller-skates, if need be. She's the very thing for you." Much to my astonishment the would-be sports- woman, far from taking offence at my words which I regretted before they were well out of my mouth accepted them as part of her many novel experiences, and merely exclaimed : " Dear me, how wicked to give a Christian name to a brute beast! Couldn't it be changed if I decide to buy?" " Certainly, madame, certainly!" broke in A n, with a mercantile smile, which made me positively angry. "You can call her anything you please, al- though it is not customary to alter the names of pedi- gree horses." Molly a pedigree horse ! I could hardly restrain my unholy joy at the tallness of the fib. Lord, how he was going to stick her! "I'd like to try her, then/' was the sudden and most unexpected rejoinder. "Try her, by all means," I said, shaking with sup- pressed laughter. "But hadn't you better first go home and put on a riding-habit?" This suggestion was made in the very innocence of my soul, and I nearly fell from the mare's broad, ser- viceable back when the lady answered, indignantly : "Well, and ain't this habit good enough, then? What would you have me wear?" "Oh, nothing, nothing more elaborate, I'm sure! Pardon me, I am a little near-sighted and thought you were dressed for the carriage." 472 A DOFFED CORONET Truly the mistake was excusable, for who would have dreamed of connecting the befogged and em- broidered maroon cloth gown, falling in generous folds from the immense hips to the -ponderous flat feet, with the requirements of the saddle. My amusement was intensified by a muttered remark from Pat which I caught. "May you be twenty years in heaven before the devil knows you are dead," he said, looking at me, this curious valediction nearly upsetting my hard-won equa- nimity, which was further endangered by the ex- traordinary fashion in which " " hoisted herself from the mounting-block into the saddle. She was so coquettish about it, too, indulging in small bursts of girl- ish laughter as if she were being tickled, and looking archly at A n, with evidently a pleasant con- sciousness of her personal charms, and of the impres- sion which they must surely produce upon any male onlooker. In harsh, commanding tones, however, she bade the cockatoo hand her her whip a most dangerous weapon in such hands and, in yet more contemptuous tones, ordered her meek companion to mind "darling Fido," a horrible little hairy terrier that I had not noticed be- fore, but which the poor dependant dutifully picked up and fell to petting with a cringing subservience piti- ful to behold. "Bless my soul, she'll kill herself!" growled A n, after one glance at the leviathan pick- ing up her reins with a jerk that made Molly snort and pull at her bit. I thought as much myself, and as, fortunately, a groom had just brought into the ring another horse with a side-saddle in case Molly failed to suit, I hurriedly mounted, and, catching up with the adipose rider, took charge of affairs. 473 A' DtfFFED CORONET "Allow me," I said, bending sideways towards her and readjusting the reins, while talking soothingly to the alarmed mare. "Don't I hold 'em right? That's how they showed me to. But perhaps you're more difficult to please than men-teachers," panted madame, upon whom the riding-ring jog-trot was already telling. I had made up my mind to be amiable, or to die in the effort, and so, instead of leaving her impertinent remark unanswered, I went to the trouble of giving her a regular riding-lesson, judiciously sprinkled with little words of praise, which it cost me something to utter, and at the end of half an hour I had the gratifi- cation of hearing her accept A n's steep price for Molly without a murmur. Turning to me, as soon as the transaction was brought to a satisfactory end, she delivered herself of this remarkable statement : " I like your \vay of teaching, young woman. I think you had better arrange to give me lessons three times a week, and I don't mind paying you a trifle more than I did at the academy, money being no object to me when I'm pleased. Here's for to-day, anyhow," and she thrust into my hand a crisp five-dollar bill. I thought A n would have had a fit. He fairly stamped his foot. "Good Heavens, madame, this lady is not a professional or a teacher. I've told you so already. She is a lady as much as yourself!" "Thank you, Mr. A n," I said, with a bow and smile testifying my gratitude. The dealer floundered helplessly, and, to cover the embarrassment of the moment, I turned to Pat, who, grinning all over his good-humored Irish face, was taking in the situation, and handed him the five dol- lars a sum which I had not been able to keep in its 474 A DOFFED CORONET entirety for a good many weeks saying, mischiev- ously : " Madame wishes you to accept this to bind the sale, Pat." "The idea!" snarled the leviathan. "That's real wicked waste," and she flounced off, accompanied by A n, to whom she gave directions about send- ing poor old Molly around to her stables, as if the beast had been a bag of bonbons or a dozen of gloves. The results of my interesting myself in A n's affairs were so satisfactory to himself that one fine day he once more made me an offer to enter into a sort of partnership with him, and at such advantageous terms that I promised him to think the matter over. I had never let him know anything at all about myself, ex- cept that I was married and living with my husband in the neighborhood, and that I had not as yet men- tioned to the latter my little equine escapades, for fear of arousing his ever-alert fears on my account. The time had now come, however, when, if I had any seri- ous intentions of accepting A n's proposal, it would become necessary to divulge the matter and to tell Fred and Bertrand what I had been doing. I nevertheless continued to decorate ridiculous objects of virtu, and even attained a proficiency in this line which made me hope that I would be finally able to make, if not a living, at least quite a little income in this way if I persevered ; but as a matter of fact my heart was set upon horses, and I could not for the life of me give up the idea of earning my bread by my skill with them. Matters were at this pass when suddenly Bertrand announced to me that he had managed to obtain a letter of credit, thanks to his possessing a sum of money which he had inherited shortly before from a distant relative, and which he had, by letter, induced 475 A DOFFED CORONET his guardian to allow him to make use of for the pur- chase of a partnership in a ranch on the confines of Colorado. The only stipulation and that made by his mother, who evidently feared that the boy would offer to help us was that the letter should only be presentable at a bank in Denver. She attributed his prolonged absence from home entirely to our in- fluence, and was so bitterly incensed that once again the breach between her and myself, which had been almost bridged over, was more than ever impassable. I had tried to induce her to allow me to collect a por- tion of the rents accruing from some valuable farms left in trust to her for me, with the understanding, however, that it was optional for her to allow me the usufruct thereof. She had availed herself of this option to cut off those revenues when I married Fred, although until then I had always drawn them. It was these lands to which I have once alluded as " unproductive," meaning thereby that it was very doubtful whether she would ever consent to let me draw a single cent therefrom. And, indeed, she flatly refused to "let me have more money to waste," as she kindly put it. My old manoir of K t, with its broad lands and salt-marshes, just about paid for itself, the estate being a large and costly one to keep up, and I there- fore was not a whit the richer because I owned it. All my remaining jewels were now pledged, and I saw every day more clearly that the idea of continuing in our present little home was an impossibility, but since Bertrand was on the point of departure, I infinitely preferred to let him go away under the impression that our situation was far from a desperate one, rather than place him in a position where he might suggest means to help us which we never would have dreamed of accepting. 476 A DOFFED CORONET Another drawback of which I did not want to speak, any more than I did of the others, was that my health began at that time to be far from good, which surprised me greatly, for, apart from my terrible attack of typhoid in Cairo, I had always been as sound as a bell, and could not account for the feeling of languor and mis- ery which made life a burden to me. Bertrand's leave of absence from the navy having been indefinitely prolonged by the help of powerful influences and doctors' certificates, the lad finally left us, and bitter was my distress when, on one oppres- sive, sultry summer evening, he bade me good-bye, and, accompanied by Fred and the faithful Jim, who had joyfully responded to his summons, started on his long journey. I can distinctly remember that as I watched them disappearing at the corner of the street, a piano-organ began to play a melody from " II Trova- tore," which has always been particularly hateful to me from sad associations, and this unfortunate occurrence drove me nearly wild. I left the window, and, throwing myself face downward on the sofa, lay perfectly still in a state of such intense wretchedness that the disorder of my mind seemed as that of an untidy room, where restless and impatient hands have been at work casting the debris in odd corners and cursorily sweeping the middle of the floor so as to make it look decent, but where a sudden gust of wind whirls everything about in distracting confusion. Two or three days later I gently told Fred that it was no longer possible for us to retain our present, comparatively speaking, comfortable and pretty little flat, and with heavy hearts we set about looking for something cheaper and simpler. This we found in Thirty-third Street, two rooms and a bath, and a tiny, tiny little kitchen in the base- 477 A DOFFED CORONET ment, abutting on that of the landlady, a sour-faced Irishwoman, whose voice alone was enough to make one take flight, so rasping and unpleasant was it. The furniture was very scanty and very clean, but the view from the windows was positively suicidal, especially during the scorching summer days, with the noise of heavy wagons and cars rattling continually in one's ears, accompanied by the hoarse, coarse voices and heavy laughter of the inhabitants of that dingy quarter of the town. It was a dismal place, indeed, with its malodorous suggestion of dark slums, where Hell's Kitchen hid its squalor some dozen blocks or so away, and before I descended so many steps farther down the scale, I made up my mind to profit by what remained to me of the outward appearance, at least, of semi-prosperity to send for an old physician established in our vicinity, and of whom I had heard favorable re- ports, in order to find out, if possible, what was ailing me. He came and went, leaving me absolutely bewil- dered and incredulous about his astounding diagnosis. How very happy such tidings would have made me a year before, granted that he spoke the truth, but how terrifying they were now so much so, indeed, that I carefully abstained from telling Fred either of the doc- tor's visit or of its unexpected result. There was an end, for the present at any rate, of all my fine dreams with regard to the training of horses, and sorrowfully I went and told A n that as I was leaving home for the rest of the summer I would have temporarily to interrupt my delightful rides. He was sincerely grieved, and made me promise to come back as soon as possible, for, as he said, "the place would not be the same without me." Of the weeks that followed the least said the better, 478 A DOFFED CORONET for they were nothing short of a perpetual nightmare, upon which I dwell even now as little as possible in my thoughts. The weather was trying beyond descrip- tion, being composed of a succession of broiling days and nights, with ghastly thunder-storms, and scorch- ing winds almost worse than an Egyptian Khamsin. By dint of redoubling my efforts in the decorative line, and by the sale of a few precious little knick-knacks which I still possessed, I managed to prevent Fred from noticing that the question of actual food had be- come one of momentary uncertainty. Fortunately the poor fellow was out the greater part of the day still bent on obtaining this elusive situation which we had never ceased hoping would finally save us from total want, and thus I had but one meal to pro- vide for namely, dinner, the early morning toast and tea being hardly worthy of the name of a meal. Those dinners! How intensely funny they were! " Funny " may seem a euphemism, but still my sense of humor never quite left me, as luck would have it, and I often could not help laughing when I glorified an Irish stew, or a couple of chops flanked by two po- tatoes, into a sort of banquet by setting on the white oil-cloth, among forks and knives no longer silver, but plain wood and iron, like those of the Chicago stock- yards eating -room a small bowl of green leaves and homely flowers purchased for a few cents from itinerant vendors, and of which I took extraordi- nary care in order to make them last as long as pos- sible. Fred behaved splendidly. The pampered clubman, who had so short a time before found fault with the exquisite cuisine of a chef to whom I paid the salary of a general officer, now ate contentedly, and even lav- ished praise upon dishes which Eugene Sue in his 479 A DOFFED CORONET My stores de Paris so graphically describes as "desmets de porti&re," washed down by tepid water, for ice was, of course, out of the question, and terminated by one, or at the utmost two, cigarettes of a very inferior quality. It was then that we both knew what hunger means, and when clad in our expensive clothes and presenting the outward appearance of extremely wealthy and pros- perous members of an ultra - fashionable set, we often hurried past the doors of some inviting restaurant, because the aromas thereof were somewhat aggravat- ing to our empty stomachs. Such experiences are liable to make one singularly pitiful towards any poor wretch imploring one's charity in the street, even if one be certain that the alms de- manded in the whining sing-song of the professional beggar will go direct to a drinking-shop, for it is far better to give, even twenty times, to the undeserving than to run the risk of once refusing a really hungry man. The day before my birthday, strangely enough, our landlord, a good-natured, rather inebriate Hibernian, employed somewhere upon the city water-works, took a holiday at the seashore, and brought back such a quantity of fish as trophies of his skill as an angler that he burst upon me with an offering of some big, fat flounders and several large crabs. Lord, what a feast that was ! I went to the expense of buying some crisp salad and a little fruit, also half a pound of coffee and a large bunch of snowy marguerites, half of which I gave to the wife of the successful fisherman and part provider of the banquet, who, remarkable to state, had in a far corner of her morose and grumbling nature an intense love for flowers. When Fred came home he gave a gasp of astonish- ment at the gorgeousness of the festive board. Truly, 480 A DOFFED CORONET I had surpassed myself, and had even gone so far as to decorate every dish and plate, of which there were at least six being given the magnitude of my prepara- tions with those ingeniously devised little Japanese tissue - paper napkins which that year druggists so liberally presented to their customers I had of late become quite a patron of the druggist at the next corner, by reason of the frequent headaches which added their quantum of annoyance to my varie- gated arid multitudinous vexations, and with praise- worthy taste I invariably selected pink-and- white ones, which, of course, produced a very grand effect on the white oil-cloth. "Let my lord suffer his hand-maiden to relieve him of his hat," I said, courtesying. "The banquet pre- pared for my lord is now in readiness and awaiting his good pleasure." "May I inquire," replied he, peering curiously at the unwonted magnificence of the table appointments, "to what I am indebted for this nattering reception? Do my eyes betray the trust I place in them, or is yon- der dish really a dressed crab?" " It is, kind and beloved sir, it is, and if you but knew how long a crab takes dressing longer even than you do, in fact and realized that the dish upon which you deign to gaze contains six able-bodied specimens of that ilk, you would yield to the pardonable temptation of sampling them at once in recognition of the dresser's efforts." Fred leaned forward and took another good look at the appetizing concoction within the dish. " Have you robbed a bank in my absence? Tell me the worst at once!" "Cheer up, friend; my hands are as clean as my conscience, which is something to be proud of after my s* 481 A DOFFED CORONET attentions to the crabs. You can eat and make merry ; the wife of your bosom is as yet blameless." "For all its small mercies let a wise Providence be praised," he murmured, piously, taking his place op- posite to me, and drawing the dressed crabs lovingly and tenderly towards his side of the table. "A great Court physician once assured me that my heart is superbly sound. I can now readily believe that his wisdom led him not astray, else this surprise might have ended fatally for me, and caused you to become a lone-lorn widow in the very prime of your youth and beauty." " In order to avoid giving you further shocks, it will be safer for me to tell you that two large and juicy floun- ders are even now reposing on the kitchen stove, and will appear as a second course when you have exhaust- ed the joys of the toothsome dainty which now absorbs your attention. These will be followed by some fragrant coffee at twenty-eight cents a pound, prepared in ap- proved Turkish fashion!" " Really, I am not strong enough to bear up against such proofs of devotion in spite of the well-averred and countersigned healthiness of my heart. Spare me any further details, my good woman, and assuage my curiosity by answering my first question, What is the occasion I am thus bidden to celebrate?" "My twenty-fourth birthday, Monseigneur. Noth- ing short of this auspicious anniversary would have led me to cook two of the four luscious fish which this morning adorned my larder. 'Waste not, want not/ is my motto; but I am of opinion that this comforting proverb holds good only on ordinary days." A pained expression, quickly repressed, swept over Fred's mobile features; then, also realizing that ban- ter was the safest sauce for those fish, he gravely 482 A DOFFED CORONET and impressively rose, detached a full-blown marguerite from the central bouquet, and, dropping on one knee beside me, said, unctuously: "Let this blossom the sweetest of all flowers testify to the loyalty and fealty of your most passion- ate admirer, fair la dye, and be the harbinger of an era of plethoric prosperity, when crabs and flounders will frolic in countless hordes about us. and a golden Pacto- lus flow freely into our temporarily depleted coffers." I fastened the marguerite in my dress, and, kissing my hand to him, ran down-stairs to fetch " the second course/' which was as greatly appreciated as the first, I need not add. "Promise me, O gallant Knight, promise me some- thing!" I said, fervently, as I deposited the deliciously cooked flounders upon the table. "All right," said Fred, eying them en connaisseur. "Hurrah! Promise me that you will eat them both!" Fred drew himself up rather stiffly. "If you consider that fair," he remarked, "I can only say that the sense of honor which adversity has left you is disgracefully small!" "I know! It is terrible!" I acquiesced. "But let my excuse for this degrading demand upon your generosity be that I have eaten too much crab to allow another morsel, be it ever so tempting, to pass my lips I" And thus the banquet was eaten I It seemed as if the good wishes uttered by Fred on that memorable day had somehow or other broken our long run of bad luck, for the very next day he obtained a position at the munificent salary of thirty dollars a week, which made us feel as if we were once more mill- ionaires, and when in addition to this I received a very large order for the painting in gouache colors of some really handsome sachets and satin bonbon boxes for 483 A DOFFED CORONET a leading firm of confectioners certain to bring me a comparatively large profit we came to the conclusion that we could once more aspire to the dignity of an apartment. We therefore left, with bag and baggage, our wretch- ed quarters, and for the second time established our selves in Forty-third Street, two doors from where we had lived before. Truly, this fortunate alteration in our circumstances happened just in time, for I could no longer doubt the correctness of my old doctor's diag- nosis, and could now indulge in this joyful hope with- out any too great misgivings. This being the case, I confided to Fred the new dig- nity in store for him, and. this improvident man's de- light had something pathetically humorous about it, for had the interesting stranger expected been destined to inherit the fairest crown and imperial estate in the world, the prospective father could not have looked upon this advent more enthusiastically. I set to work with a will, painting all day, and work- ing half the night at certain fluffy and diaphanous garments of diminutive size, the material for which was furnished by the lavish destruction of my ridicu- lously elaborate wardrobe, petticoats flounced with broad Valenciennes, Mechlin, and Alenjon laces being transformed into regal little robes, and an exquisite pale-pink-and-silver Court-train lined with white satin providing magnificent and very original draperies for the plainest of wicker-work cradles and dressing-bas- kets. This was evidently a leaf taken out of Madame S . . . a's book, for whenever I glanced at these speci- mens of my handiwork I could not help thinking of that lady's studiously simple rattan-chairs cushioned with priceless sixteenth-century cloth-of-silver. The Saturday when Fred was to bring his first salary 484 A DOFFED CORONET home we decided to make memorable by a tasteful little dinner, and when walking home late in the afternoon from my quest for sundry dainties,, I was attracted by some Japanese chrysanthemums of singular beauty, each blossom as big as a small saucer, and of a vir- ginal whiteness as woolly as a new-born lamb. "Those are just the thing," thought I, and, embold- ened by the pleasant feeling that much gold was to be ours before night, I entered the shop wherein countless blossoms basked in the rays of the electric-light, and with a recklessness savoring of former days deter- mined to invest in a dollar's worth or so of the blooms. Chrysanthemums in Europe are an inexpensive vegetable, and my extravagance could not be very great, I thought, so I requested the diamond-solitaired clerk to give me a modest dozen. With glistening eyes I watched him remove the enormously long -stemmed beauties from a lordly cloisonne vase where they re- posed, wrap them up with a flourish in rustling sheets of waxed paper, smiling the while in a fashion which alone was an inducement to patronize the establishment. "How much?" said I, carelessly, and in the easy tone of a person accustomed to buy flowers two or three times a day in or out of season. " Twenty-five dollars ; these are rare specimens, and quite newly imported." I felt the blood receding violently from my face, and my heart thump wildly against my ribs with " 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer" of the celebrated English sports- man. Of course it was quite out of the question for me to leave the luckless flowers on the counter and run away, as I would have given much to be able to do, but the trouble was that all my purse contained was three rather frayed dollar bills and a couple of dimes. What was to be done? 485 A DOFFED CORONET For once, however, luck came my way. The es- timable clerk, bending gracefully over the counter and taking me in at one glance, from the aigrette of my stylish little bonnet to the tip of my patent-leather shoe, remarked : " You're not thinking of carrying those home, ma'am, are you? If you will give me your address we will send them right around." With a shuddering sigh of relief I handed him my card, smiling superciliously. "Yes, send them, please; I won't want them before dinner," and with what remained of courage in my trembling frame I swept grandly out of that accursed place. What was Fred going to say? Poor old fellow! Nearly a week's hard and dispiriting work, resulting in the, to him, very questionable pleasure of gazing upon huge, woolly, white, recently imported Japanese chrysanthemums, for which I now reflected that I had no more fit receptacle than the wash-boiler. Dear, dear! Could it be possible that after all my hardly bought experience I could be such a fool! Tears of mortification rushed to my eyes, and I hurried along the wind-blown street, anathematizing myself softly under my breath. Suddenly a thought made me stop dead with a re- vulsion of feelings which nearly overcame me. When first Dr. C 1 had disclosed to me his suspicions as to the nature of my ailments, I had hidden three ten- dollar gold pieces in the lining of my now empty jewel- case, and no privations, however hard or bitter, had made me yield to the temptation of bringing them to the light of day, for I reflected that I had entered upon a period when improvidence would have to be called by another and harsher name. These three gold pieces 486 A DOFFED CORONET were now my salvation, and though I felt an almost superstitious horror in diverting them from the use for which they had been originally intended, yet as soon as I reached home I swiftly took them out, and sitting down without even removing my hat and gloves, anx- iously awaited the advent of the florist's messenger. My one dread was that poor Fred might come home before I had dismissed the unwelcome individual and discover what a good-for-nothing, wasteful person he had married. The minutes passed slowly. Every one seemed an hour, but at last the bell rang and I flew to the door. Behind it stood a pale-faced youth bearing a gigantic box. "Idiot!" I muttered between my teeth, in uncomplimentary reference to myself. "What did you say, ma'am?" "Oh, nothing at all!" I replied, depositing the three eagles in his grimy palm. " I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't make but four dol- lars change. I'll have to run back to the store." " Keep it for yourself ; that was a heavy box," I said, impelled by an old, ineradicable habit, but almost im- mediately remembering regretfully what a fine, juicy leg of lamb that dollar would have bought. "Thank you, lady; very much obliged, I'm sure," quoth the youth with a far-spreading smile, and as he walked down-stairs I heard him gayly whistling " Cap- tain Jinks of the Horse Marines." I longed greedily for his heart's blood, but what is the use of vain wishes? And I could not now allow the grass or the chrysanthemums, either to grow under my feet. One thing was certain Fred must not be allowed to see those long stems ! He had no love for flowers, but had bought many, having always been of a very gal- lant turn of mind. Horrible thought! He had been in America before, and perchance knew the value of 487 A DOFFED CORONET newly imported specimens, so with fierce energy I tore open the box and broke off the glorious blossoms six inches from their nodding heads, concealing all traces of my crime in the coal-hole. Then, flying back to my room, I made a dive into the wardrobe, and got out a delicious frock of lemon- tinted silk gauze and silver tissue, open en coeur in front and with elbow - sleeves terminated by sabots of needle-point. I had worn it but once, and that at a dinner given by Grand Duke V r " Volodia," as he is familiarly called a dinner given in my honor during my last short sojourn in London before coming to America ; and as I shook out its glimmering folds a few violets which had been in my belt on that night fell at my feet. I picked them up, looked at them in- tently for a moment, and then carefully placed them between the leaves of my writing-pad. "Tempi passati!" I murmured, and, turning once more to the wardrobe, I hurriedly brought forth the stockings, slippers, and petticoats which went with the dress. "Blow the expense!" I muttered, vulgarly but em- phatically. "I will attire myself with magnificence quite regardless!" which I proceeded to do. When my task was accomplished I ran to the dining-room, and pulling two of the execrable chrysanthemums out of the vegetable-dish in which I had placed them in lieu of a jardiniere, I set one rakishly on the spot where once a tiara used to sparkle, the other at the south- west point of my corsage, and before rushing to the kitchen, where a fat pullet roasting before the fire was demanding my immediate attention in sputter language, I climbed upon a chair, gazed in the mantel looking- glass, and delivered myself of that great and expres- sive German word, "Coloss-a-a-1!" 488 A DOFFED CORONET A few days later the following advertisement caught my eye in the columns of the daily paper : WANTED. Designers for silk manufactory. Large sums paid for original designs. Apply to, etc. This, perhaps, thought I, will afford me the chance to recover my twenty-six dollars, and I at once set out for the place indicated, where I was received by a small, thin man, with a pronounced Jewish caste of counte- nance, who deigned to acquaint me with the require- ments of his firm, although he declared that he could not for a moment entertain the idea that a lady of my tran- scendently prosperous and elegant appearance could be really in search of such work. There I showed the white feather, and, apprehensive lest, if I acknowledged this to be the case, he would refuse to countenance my application, I fell back upon the device of the poor old Duchess de P y one that I had already used once and confessed that a young protege 1 of mine, recently from Europe, was the artist aspiring to the vacant post of designer in ordi- nary to his Hebraic Highness. Strengthened by a gracious assurance that he would himself inspect and treat leniently the work of my young friend, I left him with joy in my heart, and on the way home purchased several sheets of tinted paper, whereon to try my hand at this new branch of industrial art. We had heard of Bertrand, who, according to his statements, was doing extremely well. He had gone into partnership with a young Mexican, whose ranch was situated on the confines of New Mexico, and his letters were teeming with technical expressions such as "round-ups," "stampedes," "mavericks," "lari- ats," "corrals," "haciendas," e tutti quanti. If he was to be believed, prosperity could go no farther than that 489 A DOFFED CORONET achieved by him, and so full of life and youthful strength were his missives that a great load was lifted from my mind, and I looked forward eagerly each week to his breezy reports, cleverly illustrated with pen-and-ink sketches representing himself as a wild and woolly Westerner armed to the teeth and galloping furiously, in the most approved fashion, on a fiery mustang at the rear of a countless herd of flying, long-horned steers, and followed by his trusty Jim, similarly accoutred. That autumn was a lovely one, the woods along the Hudson adopting that gorgeous coloring which is found nowhere but in the New World, and which clothes the whole country-side with imperial scarlet and daz- zling gold. Fred and I, following the time-honored cus- tom of the working-classes "on a Sunday afternoon," made little excursions to the environs of New York, treating ourselves in the evening to plain but abundant little suppers see boarding-house prospectuses and coming home tired but contented to our humble home in the topmost corner of the populous bee-hive where we had found lodgment. These joys were, however, of but short duration, for the winter set in with alarming promptitude and severity, and was heralded in November by a regular blizzard of snow and ice. I was doing well with my silk designing, and had even been the recipient of ele- gant encomiums from my Jewish friend, accompanied by a substantial check which warmed the cockles of my heart. Indeed, a certain composition of mine, made up largely of tiny pink shells and showers of apple-blos- som petals, found so much favor in the manufacturer's eyes that for that single pattern he actually paid me twenty-five dollars, thus almost completely wiping out the debt that I had contracted towards the interesting stranger. 490 A DOFFED CORONET My health was once more excellent, and I now look- ed hopefully and cheerfully towards the early spring, since our sky was gradually losing so many of its clouds. Our Christmas festivities were characteristic, for I surprised Fred with a diminutive Christmas-tree gayly decorated with pink-and- white candles and many little tufts of silver tinsel, also six lady - apples, six tangerine oranges, and six sticks of candy! ,My pres- ent to him was a smoking-jacket, which I had manu- factured from another of my Court-trains, this one of deep-crimson brocade with gold fleur-de-lis and lined with an unquestionably brilliant piece of orange velvet which had once done duty as an opera-cloak. I am sorry I cannot praise the fit of the garment, my talents as a tailor having been insufficiently devel- oped, but still, provided it was left wide open and negli- gently thrown back as if in the heat of argument, it was not altogether unwearable, and, moreover, caused us so much amusement that it well repaid the sacrifice of two articles of apparel which had not originally cost much more than a couple of thousand dollars apiece. Fred insisted upon it that I should also have made him a smoking-cap, adorned with a golden tassel, in order to complete the magnificence of his appearance, but I pointed out to him the extravagance of his desires, and turned my attention to a ridiculous pair of worsted pink-and-white knitted boots about the length of my finger and which he had facetiously hung to the top- most branch of the tree. This, somehow or other, check- ed our uproarious merriment and made us look at each other with the wise nods of augurs. Early in January I received a visit from the old ^Escu- lapius, to whom I pinned my faith. "I came to warn you," said he, "that if the happy event should occur at night, I will not preside, but will 49i send you my son, who has just graduated from a hospi- tal after finishing his course at the medical college, and is now joining me in my practice. He is a nice young chap of twenty-four, and I am sure you will like him." I was looking at him open-mouthed, a foolish feeling of dread and despair making my hands and feet as cold as ice. When I found my voice I said, somewhat pleadingly : " Why, surely, Dr. C 1, you cannot mean this! I am accustomed to you now, and, more- over, you do not seriously contemplate the possibility of making me serve as a d6but to your son's profes- sional career!" " Pooh, pooh! my dear madame ; the youngsters now- adays know more than we old fellows ever did! You will be in perfectly safe hands, so don't be fanciful and childish. I am far too old to undertake such errands on cold winter nights, and I have already told my son to call upon you so that you may become acquainted." I rose to my feet. " Is this your last word, Doctor?" I said, very quietly, although I was boiling with indig- nation. " Why, certainly ; and you are a foolish young wom- an to object to such a natural arrangement." "Foolish or not," I interrupted, "I will be obliged to you if you will kindly let me know the amount of my indebtedness at once. It is not my intention to place myself under the care of a young whipper-snapper, whether he be your son or not, and I wonder what your distinguished confreres here, who are, as is well known, the first gynaecologists in the world, would think of your treatment of a patient who trusted in you!" Medicus turned towards me an inflamed countenance, which, with his hoary hair, now more than ever re- sembled a large strawberry rolled in sugar, and, vainly attempting to look dignified, said, truculently : 492 A DOFFED CORONET " All right, madame ; I dare say you will have plenty of cause for regretting your decision in this matter. I will send you my bill this very day, and I have now the honor to wish you good-afternoon." I bowed him out, closing the door after him with some violence, and when I was once more alone, in- dulged in a few ominous reflections upon the complete helplessness of my position, for I knew hardly any- body, and was not acquainted even with the names of any recommendable physicians, save those which are household words throughout America, and even Eu- rope, and who would be proportionately high-priced. Some time before I had become casually acquainted with an old lady who lived on the second floor of our apartment-house. She was a frail and refined-looking woman, always dressed in severe black, and one day as I was coming home I had met her at the foot of the stairs, carrying a visibly heavy travelling-bag. Quickly and without waiting to think, I had stepped up and taken the weighty object from her hand, carry- ing it to her door for her, and she had displayed such disproportionate gratitude for this trifling service that, nolens volens, I had been obliged to accept her invita- tion to take a cup of tea with her in her rooms. Her surroundings were those of a gentlewoman, and in the conversation which ensued she proved herself a well-informed and polished person. From that mo- ment on we had exchanged an occasional visit, and, strangely enough, shortly after the doctor's abrupt exit the nice old lady called, bringing me a lovely bunch of violets, just received from her son, a planter in Florida. I was so irritated at what had just occurred that I told her all about it, and also for the first time since I had known her betrayed, perchance in the bitterness 493 of my heart, a little more of my real circumstances than in cooler moments I could have been induced to. "I am sincerely sorry for you, my dear," she said, sympathetically stroking my hand. " I know what it is to be alone when one is ill, for not so very long ago I went through a dangerous operation, and, indeed, owe my life to the fact that the surgeon who attended me is what one might call a regular wizard, and, moreover, the kindest-hearted and most sympathetic member of a profession which can boast of many fine men. I would like you to know him. He is Dr. W. G. W . . . e, and though still a young man, as celebrated surgeons go, he is perhaps the ablest and most successful operator in this country." "Which means that he is quite beyond my reach," I said, lightly, and, eager to dismiss the subject which I had so imprudently broached, I abruptly turned the conversation into other channels, determined to keep my own counsel in the future, and not even to tell Fred about this new contretemps, which, however, weighed terribly upon me. As I had, however, nearly two months more before me, I resolutely put aside disquieting thoughts and awaited better things, in the spirit of Mr. Micawber. Nor, marvellous to relate, was I disappointed, for about a week after Dr. C Ts defection I was sitting somewhat disconsolately alone at half-past nine in the evening in my diminutive "drawing-room," hard at work upon an intricate design of sea-weed and idealized star-fish and echidnae, when, to my sur- prise, the door-bell rang. I had not the faintest idea who my late visitor could be, and was, indeed, inclined not to open the door at all, thinking it might be a mis- take, but, finally rising and unfastening the chain, con- fronted a tall, extremely well-dressed man, with a knot 494 A DOFFED CORONET of violets in the lapel of his fur-lined coat and an all- prevailing flavor of recherchG and bonne compagnie, which was its own passport. "Mrs. ?" he inquired, glancing at the white tea- gown which proclaimed me the mistress of the house, and, on my replying in the affirmative, he added, "I am Dr. W . . . e ; may I have a few words with you?" My astonishment had reached positive stupefaction, and as I preceded him into the pleasant little room, lighted by fire and lamp, and which I always kept in perfect, order despite its being my studio as well, I was wellnigh speechless. I silently pointed to an arm-chair, and, seating myself in the place I had oc- cupied before this unexpected interruption, I looked at my visitor. There is no denying that he was a very handsome man, on the right side of forty, but with prema- turely silvered hair and mustache, large, bright, blue eyes of extreme kindliness, a fresh, healthful com- plexion, and the finely shaped hands of the born sur- geon. He returned my gaze with interest, and gave a little, half-embarrassed, half-merry laugh. "Let me begin by saying that I know all about you," he said, with a gleam of mischief in those penetrating blue orbs of his. "All about me?" I said, laughing also. "It must be very dreadful." } " Well, as much as our mutual friend Mrs. R t knows, which perhaps is not a great deal, but quite enough, as it stands, to make me desirous of redeeming the honor of my profession in your eyes. You have been very badly treated, and were Dr. C 1 not such an antiquated old fossil I would make it un- pleasant for him. As things are, however, I must con- 495 tent myself with begging you to let me do myself the pleasure of taking up his sadly neglected duties." For a long time past I had not encountered much of the empressement which once I had considered as my due, and this spontaneous and inexplicable kind- liness made a very inconvenient lump rise into my throat. "My dear doctor," I said at last, "I cannot tell you how touched I am by your offer, but just because you are treating me with such unparalleled friendliness it is my duty to tell you that I cannot accept it." "Why not?" he said, bending forward and scrutiniz- ing me sharply. " I will have to pocket my pride to tell you the rea- son," I replied, giving, absent-mindedly, a stroke or two to my unfinished painting. "That is not necessary," he returned, quickly. "I can guess your reason, and let me tell you it is a per- fectly worthless one, and not to be considered for an instant." "Pardon me," I interposed, throwing down my brushes and turning my eyes again upon him, " I have not yet reached the point where I can calmly accept charity!" I concluded, gulping down the lump with a violent effort. "Now, look here, my dear lady," he said, suddenly, taking hold of both my hands, as a very young father might have done, "we are not going to argue that point; there is no need to talk of charity, for I will expect you to pay me when your circumstances are once more what they used to be, so don't fret about that. You are here in a foreign land, without kith or kin, as I understand ; moreover, you have been left in the lurch in a most unprofessional and disgust- ing manner by an old scamp who should have known 496 A DOFFED CORONET better. Surely you do not wish me to disfigure my own career by leaving you at the mercy of the first comer? To begin with, I am not going to listen to any objec- tions, so you might as well resign yourself to be my patient. Come, now, give me the history of this case, and, for mercy's sake, let me return to my usual pro- fessional attitude." Oscillating between two inclinations, laughter and tears, I complied with his request, for what else could I do? He had a quiet, authoritative manner which brooked no resistance, and a direct simplicity of demean- or that made me at once consider him a friend in need and a friend indeed. He chatted with me for over an hour, and, discovering that I was an enthusiast about modern surgery, told me of his patients, his wonderful operations, and interested me so much that when he at last rose to take his leave I was on the point of begging him to stay a little longer in spite of the lateness of the hour. "You must come and see my wife," he said, while I stood by him in the hall as he was putting on his coat, "and my children, too. I have two little girls and two little boys, the last only a month old a boun- cing boy he is, too that will give you courage for what is coming, although you don't seem to be the sort of woman who needs encouragement. I have a brother, too, another young whipper-snapper who has just graduated from a hospital. But don't be afraid, I won't send him; I want this job myself," he continued, with another of his infectious laughs. "You need not fear," I remarked, dryly, "I will not deprive you of my very valuable patronage. But you must let me tell you now what I think of what you have just done." "Spare my blushes," he cried, wrenching the door s 497 A DOFFED CORONET open. " You'll thank me later, when you, too, have a bouncing boy to make your life unbearable." "Mind you, it must be a boy," I called after him. "Don't you play me any tricks. No girl for me." He ran down-stairs, laughing heartily, and, from the bottom of the first flight, he responded: "Of course it will be a boy. I always oblige my patients and obey their slightest whims." Slowly I closed the door and took several turns around the room, whistling softly an execrable habit of mine, of which I had vainly tried to get rid, now that I was in circumstances when such infringements of generally accepted rules were no longer chic or de mise. "God bless that man!" I said at last. "A strange individual, surely, who treats people as well when they are at the bottom of the ladder as if they were yet at the top of it. This is a good omen, and something to tell Fred. I wish I deserved it all more, grumbling, dissatisfied fool that I am!" During the next few weeks I was forced gradually to relinquish much of my household duties, so much so that Fred insisted upon my engaging the services of a slavey. I dreaded this extremely, not only on account of the expense, but because I had heard much that was dispiriting about American "help," and could not bear the thought of introducing so disturbing an element into our peaceful and well-regulated little home ; but as on two different occasions Fred had found me lying on the floor in a dead faint when coming home, and as, moreover, the lifting of coal-scuttles, the manage- ment of a broom, and the washing of even the plain- est of house-linen had become quite out of the ques- tion, I consented to bespeak the assistance of a little German girl, crooked of shape and red of eyes, and so reassuringly ill-favored that the question of "fol- 498 A DOFFED CORONET lowers" a momentous one for my inexperience seemed a singularly remote possibility. I had, of course, never had to deal with that class of servant, and stood absolutely in awe of the painfully familiar, unconsciously impertinent girl who bounced about the kitchen, addressed me as "marm," and seemed to look upon me as an inferior far more than as a mis- tress. _, Her willingness to get through her work quickly and thoroughly was testified especially by her wholesale breaking of crockery, her violent turning of mattresses upon the neighboring daintily arranged toilet-tables, and her throwing about of saucepans with a clatter which was enough to drive one wild. The gentle art of dishing-up or of setting an attrac- tive table was as foreign to her as if she had been a Feejee-Islander, and I soon got so tired of her that it was all I could do to endure her presence. I was very busy arranging my small domain, for I took some pride in having everything ship-shape be- fore the great event. In order to economize space, I packed up all my finery, dinner and Court dresses, elaborate walking and driving costumes, hats, bon- nets, and chaussures, leaving out only a couple of tea-gowns, a long, fur-lined cloak, and, in short, only what I could wear under present circumstances, and on the advice of the janitor, who was a somewhat of- cious person, sent all my trunks to what he grandilo- quently termed the storage-rooms at the top of the house. As I packed up all these exquisite things, it suddenly occurred to me that I had been very silly not to sell the greater part of them, for they could not have failed to bring a considerable sum ; but thus to dispose of clothes was so novel an idea that it had never presented itself to my mind. I determined, however, if my finan- 499 A DOFFED CORONET cial situation did not considerably improve, that I would do something of the kind later on. It had grown horribly cold, and was almost contin- uously snowing or sleeting. I was therefore forced to give up the long walks which more recently I had taken with Fred late at night as the ground was too slippery to admit of such pedestrian feats. Dr. W . . . e came once a week to see me, and I had grown to trust him blindly, and, since I was under his care, to look forward with perfect equanimity to whatever would take place. A rather ridiculous incident marked these last days of February, for while perusing the advertisements of the daily paper in search of new openings for my tal- ents, I had come upon an advertisement promising to furnish information and materials which would en- able any one who could paint on textiles to earn from thirty to fifty dollars a week, and had dubiously, but hopefully, written to the people and city mentioned, sending a dollar, as requested. In due course of time I received, in return, a plethoric envelope containing two little squares of cotton velvet, one bright red, the other peacock - blue, stamped with conventional sun- flowers, and accompanied by an infinitesimal tube of Chinese white, a tiny brush, and a slip of paper printed in large, red letters as follows: TRY YOUR HAND AT PAINTING ON VELVET. WHEN ONCE YOU HAVE MASTERED THIS ART YOU WILL COMMAND A LARGE SALARY AND WE WILL OURSELVES FURNISH YOU WITH ALL THE WORK YOU CAN DO. Could anything be more funny for those who could afford to lose the dollar? I could not; but I laughed, nevertheless, till I almost cried, and hung the two 500 A DOFFED CORONET squares of cheap velvet on the wall as a warning, should I ever be tempted again to get myself cheated in a sim- ilar manner. Just at that time I received a most unpleasant shock in a letter from Bertrand, which arrived one snowy morning, when the sky was lowering and the wind howled dismally around my lofty eyrie. To make a long story short, I may as well say at once that the boy had come a cropper with his horse, had suffered a fracture of the leg, and had been confined for several weeks to his room, a fact of which his unscrupulous partner had taken advantage to sell all that was sal- able, including the ranch itself, and skip out, leaving poor Bertrand nothing but his clothes and a brace of revolvers to bless himself with. Of course, in a civilized region, such a sale would not have held good, but in those days the New Mexico border was anything but civilized, and Faustrecht held supreme sway, so much so, indeed, that hardly had the boy sufficiently recovered from his injuries to stand on his feet when he was summarily kicked out, and found himself alone in the Western world with a singularly vicious bronco, which his ex-partner had also gener- ously left him, with a view of affording him a means of exit from the plains, and presumably poor old Jim, whom, however, singularly enough, he did not men- tion. Furious, but quite undaunted, Bertrand set out on his travels, but this time without the means of making his progress either a rapid or a pleasant one. He gave me an address where he expected to arrive some time or other, and, although he did not say so, it was plain to me that a little money found there upon his arrival would not be amiss, and so, knowing what assistance might now be expected from his mother, I gathered 501 together what resources I had, and sent him some- thing to help him along; for the thought of that dis- abled and disappointed lad, making his way through the great wilderness of the Southwest, was a torment- ing one to me, and one that I could have very well done without. I easily guessed having gone through the mill my- self what reproaches would be addressed him from the other side of the water, and to a proud and over- bearing spirit like his it could not fail to be a most humiliating experience. Yet another vexation loomed large upon my horizon, and that was the choice which had been made for me of a monthly nurse. I was thoroughly inexperienced in such matters, for in those days, throughout Catholic Europe, Sisters of Mercy were intrusted with all hos- pital and most private practice, and in cases like mine the sage femme, or midwife, invariably seconded the physician in charge. Now, a sage femme, whether in town or country, is generally a middle-aged matron, without any pretence to either much technical educa- tion or social status, and the person who had been chosen by Dr. C 1, and who came to call upon me gowned in an ultra - exaggeration of fashion with a much-beplumed Rembrandt hat and a collection of irri- tatingly jingling bangles, was of a totally different sort, and had displeased me very much. Her broad face, deeply pitted with small -pox, was in itself suf- ficiently unattractive, though that was scarcely her fault, but her self-assertive assumption of social equality and superior knowledge of the world had most dis- agreeably impressed me. However, as I am not fussy by nature, and am always ready to accept an accom- plished fact with as few objections as possible, and, moreover, being totally ignorant of that class of women, 502 A DOFFED CORONET I had acquiesced readily enough after being told by her medical patron that she was a graduate of a large New York hospital, and thoroughly trustworthy and obliging. I now know better, and, after several severe sieges of illness, must admit that, with the exception of a certain charming Miss M . . . . w, my opinion of the American trained nurse is but small. The other- wise remarkably capable American medical fraternity have, apparently, not sufficiently considered the harm that may be done by introducing into their patients' families intriguing and adventurous persons who combine an inconceivable neglect of their charges with a strict personal attention to cordials and sick- room delicacies, and whose profession, if openly prac- tised, would be relegated to the sidewalk. But as the moment approached when the nurse was to take up her residence with me, I grew to dislike the idea of her presence more and more, until the prospect be- came a perfect nightmare; and when she finally ar- rived, I felt that under no circumstances could I ever surmount my dislike for this shrill - voiced, ill- mannered woman who, alas! evinced, par dessus le marche, a good deal of fondness for coarse banter and strong waters. These last few days were not very pleasant, for I received further disquieting news from Bertrand, and Fred, with a white, frightened face, continually looked at me as if I were about to depart on a far longer journey than I had yet undertaken. To cap the climax, a thaw set in, and dismal rains and damp winds made the always dreary outlook from the windows one of the most depressing I had ever gazed upon. " I think you had better send for Dr. W . . . e," I said, late one afternoon, to the nurse, who, sitting by the window, was retrimming her amazing picture- 503 A DOFFED CORONET hat with huge magenta roses, the very look of which made me feel sick and faint! "What's the matter?" she said, in her brusque, un- pleasant way. " Don't be fanciful. You're all right!" From where I lay on the sofa I looked at her a little amused. "I am not much given to fancies," I said, smiling. "Send for Dr. W ... el" " Humph ! I don't take much stock in him," she grum- bled. "He's too high-toned for my taste; you'd have been a long sight better off with a general practitioner. No need of a specialist in a case like this." I shrugged my shoulders. Such heresies demanded no refutation. "Those bigbugs," she continued, irritably, "are a nuisance; too finicky by half. Did you hear him the other day? ' Nurse, you will please see about the sheets being properly aired and dried before an open fire, and you must have everything to hand arranged in proper order, everything brand - new, mind you, and washed in your presence separately from the rest of the linen.' He makes me tired!" I sat up, and, letting my feet slide to the floor, said, coldly : " Be good enough to reserve your opinion until it is asked for. Such sayings are entirely unprofessional, as you might know, since you call yourself a trained nurse. I do not think that if the physicians who rec- ommend you were aware of the fashion in which you speak you would be likely to get many more engage- ments. And now send for Dr. W . . . e!" She bounced out of her chair with a violence which sent her appalling rose-garlanded hat rolling under the table. "Just as you please," she snapped. "Of course you 504 A DOFFED CORONET think that you understand the situation better than I do." "There is one thing I understand/' I replied, curtly, "and that is, that if you do not keep a civil tongue in your head I shall report you to the doctor, and request your immediate dismissal." In an instant her expression changed and became fawning and cringing. "You mustn't mind what I said," she pleaded. "I meant no harm. I have a bad twinge of neuralgia this morning, and that always makes me cranky. Lie down again, please do, and I'll go and telephone right away." This was just as I thought! The woman was a bully, of that there could be no doubt, and to be at her mercy was not a cheerful prospect. In a few minutes she returned. "The doctor is sick in bed," she said, with a glee which would have suited the announcement that she had just inherited millions. "He wrenched his back lifting a patient in the hospital this morning, and can't move." "What's that?" I cried, hardly believing my ears. "He can't come, that's what it is, and his brother, with whom I spoke, suggested that you should send for Dr. C 1, as he at least knows something about the case." "Nonsense!" I exclaimed. Then a rushing sound surged in my ears, the dim light of the windows be- came suddenly eclipsed in blackness, and I felt myself falling to inconceivable depths. Somehow or other, I thought that I was in a railroad accident, and that a heap of wreckage was crushing the life out of me. After a seemingly long time, during which I fancied I was being carried to a hospital on a stretcher, and an in- definite period of succeeding calm, I opened my eyes. 505 A DOFFED CORONET Surely it must all be true, for I found myself in bed, but, curiously enough, in my own room, dimly lighted by shaded lamps, and somebody was feeling my pulse. I turned my head. It was Dr. C 1. With a little gasp, I closed my eyes again. So it had come to that, after all! "She's coming to, doctor/' I heard the nurse exclaim. "Oh, she doesn't hear what we say," he muttered. " This is going to be a bad case, nurse, a very bad case. I wish to God W . . . e were here instead of me." "Pshaw, you're every bit as good as he. I don't take no stock whatsoever in him, as I was telling the patient this afternoon, except when it comes to cutting and slashing." I was now in full possession of my senses, but pur- posely kept my eyes tightly closed. "She won't give you much trouble," continued the nurse. "She's got grit, for one thing." The doctor had dropped my hand, and I could hear him closing his watch, and shifting his position un- easily. I set my teeth, and determined that, come what might, I would not give them the satisfaction of know- ing w r hat an additional horror their presence was to me. Hours passed. I heard the doctor state that he would stay all night, and bid the nurse prepare a bed for him somewhere. Then Fred came home and sat by me, holding my hand, but still I would neither speak nor open my eyes, concentrating all my strength upon the repression of even so much as a moan, while the little travelling-clock on my toilet-table ticked ner- vously and rapidly, as if eager to rush over those mis- erable hours. At last, when everything had become absolutely silent, I ventured to glance around. A gray dawn was smudging the curtains with gloomy patches of light. 506 A DOFFED CORONET Stretched on a sofa, the nurse was sleeping profoundly, while on an arm-chair beside me, as once before at Cairo, sat Fred, looking ghastly. Dreading that he should speak and arouse the nurse, "Hush, hush!" I whispered. "Are you better?" he asked, softly. "Don't worry. I'll be all right. Try and find out if Dr. W . . . e is better. I don't want that other man. Send to find out." "I will as soon as the sun's up." " Then, please, go to bed meanwhile, Fred. There's no use in your making yourself ill. I can manage very well by myself." Better, in fact, I thought, for I dreaded the scrutiny of those watchful eyes, lest they should discover the true state of affairs. "I'll do nothing of the kind," he replied, in the same low whisper. " Well, then, do go and lie down in the next room, at least for a little while, for I'm going to sleep." He looked doubtfully at me. "Would it make you feel easier? Of course, I shouldn't sleep. I'd be right within call." " Certainly it would make me feel easier. It worries me horribly to have you sitting up for nothing." He knew me too well to resist any longer, and, tiptoeing across the floor, he disappeared beyond the portieres of his own room. I waited until I felt quite certain that, exhausted as he was, he had dropped into a slumber. Indeed, I could hear his regular breathing from where I lay. Then, very slowly, I got up, threw a warm dressing-gown over my shoulders, and holding on to the furniture, and then to the wall of the hallway, crept, step by step, into the dining-room and closed the door behind me. At last I was alone, and with a weary little sigh I 507 A DOFFED CORONET sat down on the broad window-seat and looked up at the now glowing sky, where great masses of fleecy white clouds were thrown into bold relief by the dark vapors behind them. "I think I'll light a cigarette," I thought, and getting slowly up again, I got matches and the box from a side-table. But the attempt was a failure, and as soon as I had lighted it, I threw it away, and taking up a book from the table, tried to read. It happened to be Monte Cristo, and in the gradu- ally increasing light, I did my best to awaken my old interest in that marvellous story, but, like the cigarette, it was soon cast aside. It was by now becoming a bit lonely in the little dining-room, and I wondered vague- ly whether I would have to go back to bed, arouse the nurse and doctor, and eat humble-pie after all I The telephone was in the little hall separating the kitchen from the dining-room, and I gazed longingly at it, wondering whether it was too early to inquire personally after Dr. W . . . e. But pride came to my assistance. "It won't do for a charity patient," I thought, bitterly, " to summon princes of science, as if they were at her beck and call." Idly and listlessly I watched the small hand of the clock creep around to the figure six, and just as the hour began to strike, the telephone-bell tinkled. I rose as if struck by a galvanic shock and seized the receiver. After the usual preliminaries an unknown voice said: " Dr. W . . . e wants to know how the patient is get- ting along." "Just the same," I replied, steadying my voice. "Any complications?" "Yes, I think so." "Who are you? Send the nurse to the telephone." "The nurse is asleep." 508 "Isn't Dr. C 1 there? Ask him to step to the 'phone." "He's asleep, too." "Good God, what a state of affairs! Are they mad? Where is the patient? Is nobody with her?" "I'm the patient," I said, with a little attempt at a laugh. "For Heaven's sake! Have you taken charge of your own case?" "I suppose so. I can do as well as the others, at any rate." Here the instrument transmitted a string of exple- tives followed by a hurried : " I beg your pardon. I'm Dr. W . . . e's assistant, and I will at once report to him what you have just told me." "Tell him," I said, "that I'm ever so much obliged to him for his kind interest, and that I'd give any- thing in the world to have him here." "I will. Good-bye." I was not sorry to hang up the receiver and resume my place on the window-seat, for cold perspiration was streaming down my back. "This Prince of science is a real good Prince," I muttered, and, somewhat comforted, I applied myself to tying the ribbon of my dressing-gown in a beautiful bow! Half an hour or so later, for I had by then almost lost the notion of time, there was a gentle peal at the door-bell. I hurried as well as I could into the front hall and admitted a tall, slender, young man, who, in spite of his dark eyes, dark hair, and small, dark mustache, had a certain air de famille with Dr. W . . . e, which made me say : "Are you Dr. Bob?" " Yes, I am ; a whipper-snapper, as you see, but quite old enough to raise the roof here. It's a nice thing to 509 A DOFFED CORONET leave you alone like that. Why, you poor little woman, you look like death." He had rapidly thrown his overcoat and hat on a chair. " Which way to your room?" he said. "Second door to the left," I replied, faintly. He stooped, lifted me in his arms, and muttering some- thing between his teeth which was not complimentary to the doctor and nurse slumbering sweetly near by, he marched off with a stamping of heels which would have awakened the dead. Then carefully placing me on the bed, and throwing a rug over me, he strode over to the sofa, and roughly catching the nurse by the shoulder he shook her violently. During the altercation which followed, and in which Fred almost immediately joined, I lost comprehension of what was going on, and it was many hours later when I regained sufficient consciousness and grasp of the situation to hear the gruff voice of Dr. C 1 ex- claiming : "I'm sick as a dog. I'm too old for this kind of cir- cus. Anyhow, there's no hope either for the mother or the child. There's only one man in New York who would have a chance of saving one of them, and that's W . . . e. He must be all right by now. Seventy hours that's time enough to nurse a wrenched back. Bring him here by force, if you have to carry him." "You damned old rascal," cried Fred, hoarsely. "Get out! It's better for her to die in peace than with your assistance. I'll go to Dr. W . . . e and get him here if he's alive." A feeling of disgust at being the centre of this tur- moil and such a source of sorrow to poor Fred made me turn my head away with a half-smothered excla- mation. In a flash he was bending over me. " I'm going to 510 A DOFFED CORONET fetch Dr. W . . . e," he said, with an odd little break in his voice. "Don't fret. I'll bring him." "All right; what time is it?" "Eight o'clock." "In the evening?" "Yes." "Hm!" I muttered. "What day in the week?" "Friday." "I thought so!" Probably he did not hear this last remark, or he would have remonstrated with that old superstition, and soon I heard him run out of the room and slam the front door behind him. I wondered whether Dr. C 1 was still there, but did not wish to inquire. At any rate, the nurse was alone in the room, for I could see her through my half-closed lashes calmly perusing the newspaper under the small circle of light thrown by a pink-shaded lamp. As silently as possible, I stretched out my hand and turned the face of the little clock, which had been placed on the table beside me, so that I could watch it. Half an hour an hour passed. Surely the distance from Forty - third to Fortieth Street near Fifth Avenue must be longer than I had imagined. At last, when I thought I could bear up no longer, I heard the latch-key turn in the lock, and Fred entered, followed by Dr. W . . . e, who was wrapped from head to foot in a long, fur-lined ulster, the storm-collar of which almost hid his face. "You can thank him," said Fred, "for we had to nearly boil him in a red-hot bath before he could stand on his feet, and it was all he could do to walk down to the carriage." I said nothing, for there was nothing to say ; but when, having removed his coat, with Fred's help, he came to the bed, I held out both my hands to him, and I think 5" A DOFFED CORONET that he understood without being told. The nurse had precipitately risen to her feet and stood at atten- tion, and the doctor, whose pale and drawn face testi- fied to suffering, glowered at her. " Hurry up there! " he said. " This has lasted long enough. Go and fetch my bag from the carriage, where I forgot it." "Ill send the girl," she said, bridling. "Go yourself 1" he thundered. Frightened and cowed, the woman rushed out, and, "Good-for-nothing jade!" the doctor muttered after her. "As to you," he said, turning to me with the kindest smile I ever saw, "you'll soon be all right. Don't worry." " I'm not worrying now," I said, faintly. "Where's Dr. C 1?" he said. "Confound the man. I want him for the chloroform." "Oh, he's gone, I think," I replied. "Gone! Impossiblel" "He said he was sick." "I'll make him sicker before I get through with him. I wish I'd brought Bob; but there's no time to lose, and that fool of a nurse can't be trusted. Do you know anything about chloroform?" he continued, turning to Fred. "No; but I can do what you tell me." "All right; we'll try it that way. Where is that brute of a woman?" She was just coming in, and must have heard him, for her face was a picture. "When did the patient eat last?" he asked, curtly. "Not since yesterday morning." "What, has she taken nothing?" "N-n-no, except a cup of beef-tea last night, and some lemonade to-day." 5" A DOFFED CORONET " Well, you are a fine nurse ! Put some brandy and a glass here on this table. Do just as I tell you, or this will be the last case you will ever attend/' "I'm not used to being talked to like that, doctor/' she had the audacity to reply. "Hold your tongue," he said, and in such a tone that she collapsed. If there had been a laugh left in me, I should certainly have laughed, but as it was, I had reached the limit of endurance, and was glad enough when the sweet, insidious smell of chloroform dulled every sensation but one of curious lightness and comfort. I was sailing through an intensely blue sky, among a throng of dazzling stars, on each of which stood a little red gnome, laughing at me. Then sud- denly I sank, sank, sank, clutching desperately at a sheaf of blinding moon-rays, and awoke. My lips were burning, and I tried to raise my hand to find out what was the matter, but could not do so, and gazed helplessly around. Fred and the nurse were bending over me. "The chloroform has burned her a little," called the woman. "Cold-cream," replied the muffled voice of the doctor, who was bending over the sofa. "What's the matter?" I asked, dragging out the words painfully. "Nothing/' gulped Fred. "It's a boy, isn't it?" "Yes," said the doctor; "a fine, big boy." "Let me see him." "Not yet. In a moment. Be a good girl. I'll be with you right away." The perspiration which was dropping in my eyes felt cold and clammy, and again I tried to raise my hand to my face, but had to let it drop helplessly by 5i3 A DOFFED CORONET my side. The room was very silent, save for a little splashing of water which came from the corner where the doctor stood, and a faint aroma of brandy reached me with growing persistency. "Can I see him now?" I said, feebly. I heard a quick in-drawing of the doctor's breath. "Not quite yet," he muttered. "Is he dead?" "Yes." With sudden strength I raised myself on my elbow, and said through clinched teeth, " Bring him to me." CHAPTER XI Under gray skies, my lady dear, Veiled is the beauty of the year, The birds are flown; the trees, in pain, Writhe 'neath the arrows of the rain, Or the mist gathers, far and near. So that for golden days and clear, And sweet surcease of darkness drear. We long ah, surely, not in vain! Under gray skies. Heart of my heart, what need we fear? Hand touching hand doth make good cheer And merry season. Though again With flowers the summer load his wain, For us shall brighter blossom here, Under gray skies. M. M. IN July I received a letter from Dr. W . . . e, who with his family was spending the summer at the sea- side. "Get your husband to take a couple of weeks' holiday, and come, both of you, and spend them with us. You need a thorough change of scene, for I did not like your looks when I saw you last. My wife bids me say that your rooms are ready for you. We are living very quietly, we have a cow, and the horses are here, and altogether we are having a very pleasant time. Don't trouble to write. Wire the hour of arrival, and I will meet you at the station. You mustn't disappoint us, for we'll take no denial. Don't 515 A DOFFED CORONET forget that you owe it to yourself, and what the future is going to bring, to take good care of your health." "Just like him," I said to Fred. "That man is a wonder. It isn't enough that he should have looked after me as if I were made of glass for weeks and weeks, and should have come here every day to superintend everything personally. Now he seems to have taken it into his head to provide for our holiday. Really, I don't think we should accept. This is a little too much." " On the contrary, I would accept if I were you. Such kindness would be ill -requited by a refusal. Good Lord! I wish I could do something to show him how grateful I am!" "So do I, God knows." That evening I wrote back, thanking that friend among friends in a few short words, and accepting his invitation for the following Saturday, and then I set at once about my modest preparations. They had to be extremely modest, for all my clothes, in fact every- thing I possessed and had placed in the trunks, stored in the baggage-room, had been stolen. Silks, satins, velvets, laces, priceless furs and dainty underwear, tea- gowns, hats, bonnets, and shoes everything was gone ! When, as soon as I had begun to recover, I sent Fred to get me some clothes, the poor boy had come down with a disconsolate face, holding in one hand a pink silk stocking embroidered with tiny forget-me-nots, and in the other, a white satin silver-heeled slipper, and, throw- ing them in my lap, had told me that this was all that was left out of my fourteen huge trunkf uls of finery. He had found the locks all burst open, but the door of the room securely fastened, and on summoning the janitor had received, pour tout potage, a curt statement to the effect that he, the janitor, was not responsible; 516 A DOFFED CORONET that there had been, during the past months, many changes of servants and also of tenants in the house, and that, of course, it would be absolutely impossible to trace anything. We both were too sad and too discouraged at that time to take any steps in the matter, and, moreover, I would not have dreamed of wearing again any of those objects after they had been fumbled over in ' ' fences " and second-hand shops, even if they could have been found. So there the matter stood. And thus was my wardrobe considerably simplified, consisting now of two elaborate but well-worn tea-gowns, one black and one white, a couple of peignoirs, two pretty yachting-suits, which by a miracle had not been stored in the trunks but at the top of a closet, and an elaborate gray silk dust-coat. I looked rather disconsolately at this noble array, for the \V . . . es received a good deal, and even when one's heart is pretty heavy and one's spirit pretty well bro- ken, one does not like, under such circumstances, to look quite like a beggar. I had become acquainted with Mrs. W . . . e, whom I had found to be a quiet, sweet, lovable woman, a model mother, and as kind-hearted as her husband, so, as far as they were concerned, it mattered but little whether I appeared at their table in a two-thousand-dollar gown or a plain muslin, but I did not want them to be ashamed of me, and so I marched resolutely into the kitchen and asked the buxom Irish lady who had replaced my impossible Dutch slavey whether she knew any- thing about plain sewing. "Yes, mem," she replied. "I makes all me own clothes. What are ye afther wantin' me to do?" " Well, you see, Annie, we are going to spend a little time with Doctor and Mrs. W . . . e, and, as my gowns have all been stolen, I have been thinking that perhaps A DOFFED CORONET you and I could try and make a couple of plain little summer dresses." "Shure and we can, mem! Jest ye trot out an' buy the matherials, and me and you'll set up to-night an' start right in." "You're a good girl, Annie," I replied, making up my mind that I would give her the silk shawl bought in the Cairene bazaar, which she so much admired on account of its border of silver-and-gold flowerets, for money was scarce and tips an impossibility just then. My long illness had left us pretty well stranded, and although I had resumed my decorative painting as soon as I could sit up, poor Fred's thirty-five dollars for he had been raised to that munificent sum made a very poor show when rent, the girl's wages, and food had to come out of it. Fortunately I had just been paid for the sofa cushions, blotting-pads, and shoe -horns which composed my last month's order, and this enabled me to purchase enough black and white batiste to make four perfectly plain frocks, two of each kind, also a sailor-hat, some gloves, and two bathing-suits, one for Fred and one for me. We worked early and late until all was ready, and finally departed for our summer outing. Those two weeks were delightful. The affectionate welcome, the companionship of people to whom we had naturally become greatly attached, the freedom from all care and worry, the delicious, cool, salt breezes and splendid surf-bathing, were indeed a treat, and both Fred and myself enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Our stay was marked by a comical incident, which I cannot forbear to mention, for it was rather typical of the makeshifts to which I had sometimes to resort in those days. There had been quite a few little dinners and informal luncheons during the first part of our stay, 518 but towards its end there came an urgent invitation for the W . . . e family, including ourselves, to dine at a fashionable hotel in fact, one of the most-sought-after resorts of that coast with an old couple who were not only among the doctor's best clients, but who, having taken a tremendous fancy to us, would accept no denial from Fred and myself. The occasion was to be quite a gala one, for there were a number of people invited, and so I found myself absolutely at a loss to know what to wear. I saw that it would pain both of our kind hosts very much if we did not go. I therefore pondered and pondered and ponder- ed, and finally was struck by an idea which proved a brilliant one. I had bought in Egypt three or four wide, long scarfs of white crepe de chine, and had brought them with me from New York, thinking that they might please the W . . . es' little girls, as each of them was large enough to make a dress for a child, but fortunate- ly for myself I had not as yet presented them. I had also a white silk flounced petticoat which had escaped the general massacre. On the night of the dinner I donned this petticoat, and draped and wound the supple, shining scarfs round and round myself in classic folds, fastening them in place with pins. The corsage thus formed was a chef-d'oeuvre, leaving the neck and arms bare, and terminating on one side in two long, gracefully drooping ends. A couple of clus- ters of white roses from the garden completed my adorn- ment, and I was ready. After dinner our hostess, who, being a childless mill- ionairess, thought a good deal about dress, and spent fortunes upon it, took me on one side and asked me in confidence the name of the French artist who had con- ceived and executed " this exquisite gown." " For," she said, confidently, "it is French handiwork, isn't it?" A DOFFED CORONET "It is," I replied, laughing, "I made it myself!" Then I pointed out to her the pins with which the whole thing was put together, so much to her amusement that she immediately returned to the drawing-room and told everybody about it. We returned to town much invigorated and cheered by these few days of respite in our toilsome life, and took up our labors with a new courage. I heard very seldom from Bertrand now, but he was a continual source of anxiety to me, for, with true Breton stub- bornness, he flatly refused to return to Europe until he had exhausted all possibilities of making a success of his sojourn in the West, and, in spite of the fact that his mother still refused supplies, he remained un- daunted. I sent him what I could whenever I knew where he was, and wondered by what miracle he would be brought to his senses, for here was a boy with the loveliest home on earth open to him, a fine future in the service of his country, if he chose to pur- sue it, and a life of cultured leisure before him, prefer- ring to all this the numberless hardships of a vaquero of the plains, simply because he would not confess himself beaten. Early one morning, in the following November, I was still asleep when Annie, the Hibernian cook and generally useful lady already mentioned, knocked at my door and reported that a most dangerous-looking desperado was peremptorily demanding admittance, and that she had chained and barred him out with the utmost difficulty. "What on earth do you mean, Annie?" I said, rub- bing my eyes. "Faith, mem, an' I don't know what the town's coming to, when the perlice lets such impident rascals come into honest folk's houses." 520 CONFOUND IT, SHE'S MY SISTER,' SAID BERTRAND, WRATHFULLY !" A DOFFED CORONET "But what does he want?" I asked, quite bewildered. "Thanks be to the Howly Mother, I'm no greenhorn any more, or I might ha' been took in by his blandan- dherin', for he had the owdaciousness to say he was own brother to ye, and when I laughed in the face of him he slammed a big paper of roses he had in his fist down on the flure, an' says again, mad-like, ' Confound it, she's my sister/ says he." That was enough for me. No one but Bertrand could have attempted such an entree, and, throwing a bath-robe over my shoulders, I rushed to the door, leav- ing my factotum to follow, petrified with a surprise which was intensified to the point of stupor when she saw the wild desperado hugging me like a bear, and nearly crying over me. When Fred, who had been awakened, en sursaut, by the commotion, had joined us, simply but effectively clad in his azure pyjamas, and when our incoherent exclama- tions of "My poor old boy!" and " You dear little girl!" " Glad to see you, old chap. " " How are you, old man?" "Fred, it's good to be home!" had somewhat subsided, I stepped back a little, took a good look at this last scion of an ancient and noble House, and suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter, for really, except on the stage, I had never seen such a typical cutthroat. His hair, long and lanky, framed his thin, haggard face, and fell in bushy masses from under his weather- beaten, silver-bound sombrero ; a buckskin shirt, shrunk by rain and storm, was tucked into regulation, fringed, cow-boy trousers, bespattered with mud, and spurs of enormous size jangled at his heels, while around his middle a broad cinch-belt supported a couple of knives and an empty revolver-pocket, the New York police having most unkindly relieved him of his "gun," de- spite his protestations! The picturesqueness of his 521 A DOFFED CORONET attire was further enhanced by a red cotton handker- chief loosely knotted about his throat, and a short, raw- hide lariat drooping gracefully at his side. Laughing, too, he stepped back into the hall, and, lift- ing from the ground a big bunch of roses, handed them to me, saying : " This represents the last of my cash and, Lord! I'm hungry! Give me something to eat." This sentence froze the laughter on my lips, and, turn- ing fiercely on the gaping Annie, I bade her bring to the dining-room everything the larder contained, and be quick about it. "To think that I thought thim people was respect- able! A nice villyan to be lettin' into the house to be murtherin' of us all in our beds!" she muttered, as she appeared in the kitchen. " Shrewd person, that ! ' ' ejaculated Bertrand. " Have you had her long?" "Yes, quite a while; but I won't have her much longer if she continues like that the idiot!" I replied. " Now, don't be unjust," said Fred. " How could she imagine that a proud coronet lies concealed under this remarkable and time-honored sombrero?" When Bertrand had sampled cold meat, sardines, pickles, eggs, cheese, marmalade, coffee, beer, and ten or twelve other eatables and drinkables for this was Saturday and a holiday was in prospect, so our pantry was unusually well stocked he sank back in his chair with a sigh of content. " Ouff !" he said, loosening his belt. " I am beginning to feel better. I'd like to know how many times I've tightened this blessed leather to make my hunger small." So he, too, had been hungry! I took in both my own his work-hardened and roughened hand, and de- clined to part with it again until he had told us some of his adventures. 522 A DOFFED CORONET "Oh, I wasn't going to give in till I really couldn't help it," he continued. "I've tried a little of every- thing. My last job was barkeeping in a God-forsaken mining-camp. I've also been a chucker-out in a sim- ilar establishment yet farther West. I had charge of a coffee - store in a prohibition town to make up for that, and for two weeks I washed bottles in a bum hotel in Denver. Then I drove a baker's cart in Lead- ville, and used to feed my face with bread on the quiet. Between times, and when I wanted to move from place to place, after my poor old bronco had died of a broken heart, I occupied my leisure hours in steal- ing rides on freight-trains, and if my hide had been a little tougher I'd have reached New York ong before this ; but I got weary of the application of the train- men's boots, and gave it up. So I took a leaf out of the actor's book, and hoofed it along the ties, except once, when I abducted a hand-car, and worked it at a furious rate for a good many miles, yelling at the top of my voice, and shooting off my gun at regular inter- vals to baffle pursuit and cover my trail." Fred rose solemnly, and, holding out his hand, said, impressively: "My Lord Marquis, you are a remark- able man, and an honor to your family. There is an invincible devilment in both your sister and yourself which commands my respect and awe." "Well," he replied, gravely pump-handling with his enthusiastic brother-in-law, " I've caved in at last. Our imperial lady mother has unconditionally surrendered two or three times, but that alone wouldn't have de- cided me, for I wasn't going to live on her, not if I knew it! But since my estimable god-father has kicked the bucket, and has left me enough to make me quite in- dependent until I become of age and get into my money which will be soon now, thank God! I'm off by the 523 A DOFFED CORONET next steamer, and I'd like jolly well to take you along." "My dearest boy/' I said, rising and beginning to clear the table, "I will never set foot in Europe again until I can do so in exactly the same fashion as I left it. I'd sooner starve some more than be patronized and kindly assisted by anybody, so that settles it." "Assisted! Well, there's little fear of that! 'Ma- dame M8re ' is so much afraid that you will accept help, even from me, that, instead of cabling me money for my ticket home, she induced my late godfather's banker to send me here, poste restante, an order for a civilized outfit on a big tailoring firm and a ticket to Havre, where her agent is to meet me. So I'll have to borrow a few dollars from you, if I wish to resume the privi- leges of my rank and tip the stewards on board. I've got my pockets full of pawn-tickets from places all over the West, where I had to hang up pistols, guns, watch, shirt-studs, pins, etc., and God knows how I'll ever redeem them, from that distance!" "I suggest that we make a souvenir-album of such documents," I remarked. "It might take the place of the one containing the royal autographs that was stolen from me here two years ago." "What has become of Jim?" asked Fred, sud- denly. "You never mentioned him since you left the ranch." ' Bertrand rose abruptly, threw his half-burned cigar- ette in the fire, and took two or three turns around the room before he answered. Finally, with his back towards us, and gazing intently out of the window, he answered, shortly: "Jim died of pneumonia last November, and I had sooner not speak about it, for, God knows, he was the best friend a man ever had. With him went my luck, for, had he been alive, that 524 A DOFFED CORONET scoundrelly partner of mine would never have dared to rob me." I was thunderstruck, and especially ashamed to think that our own troubles had made me forgetful until that very moment of the faithful servant who had followed his master with such old-time loyalty. " Ce que c'est que de nous/' I thought, dropping the subject, for I saw that this was a tender spot with Bertrand that had best remain untouched. A week later, attired in the height of fashion and carrying an irreproachable and well-filled valise, Ber- trand left the little flat which he had entered as a ragged and fear-inspiring desperado. We drove down with him to the steamer, and I thought my heart would have broken when, to the sound of a dismal melody exe- cuted by the ship's orchestra, the great vessel glided from the pier, homeward bound, and I caught a distant glimpse of the last of my blood and kin waving to us a final adieu. Sadly Fred and I returned to what we now called "home," and where Bertrand's carefully preserved roses were still adorning my painting-table. Another chapter of our life was closed ! We had, as on several previous occasions, strained every nerve to make this long-lost brother believe that we were far better off than was really the case, and our little exchequer was sadly depleted by what we had given him for the casual ex- penses of his return trip. I could not help thinking bitterly of the luxurious home in which this arrange- ment that deprived us of our truly hard-earned money had been made, in full knowledge of our circumstances, and the unlikelihood of our allowing the dear boy to leave us empty-handed. Another winter came and went, terminated by the most fearful blizzard which New York has ever known, 5*5 A DOFFED CORONET and, while the streets were still blocked with mountain- ous drifts, the telephone and telegraph wires hanging in broken tangles to the buried sidewalks, and ail means of transportation at a stand-still, once again Dr. W . . . e was summoned hurriedly to my bedside, where he was to have yet another of those grim battles with death, from which he has so often come forth a victor. That battle, than which he has had few harder, was fought and won, and after many hours he joyfully laid in my arms the long-expected treasure, the thought of which had made so many bitter moments endurable. And a treasure he was and still is, God bless him ! A strong, beautiful, dark-eyed boy, far excelling our fondest hopes. A new life began for us, the joys of which fully repaid us for the miseries that had gone before, though there were many hard experiences yet to come. It was, perhaps, the hardest of all when, in the heat of the succeeding summer, little Alain fell dangerously ill. Dr. W . . . e was in Europe, and his brother, who attended the child, ordered that he be taken out of the hot, burning city without a moment's delay. With blank horror I counted the few dollars which composed our fortune, and had to confess to myself that if I could not beg, borrow, or steal, the child would die. The time had indeed come for me to pocket my pride, and I cabled to my mother, asking her to wire me five hundred dollars of the money that was really mine, making it plain, despite the charges for extra words, that it was a matter of life and death. With agony in my heart I awaited the reply. It was short and concise, and consisted of but one word : "No." With the pink paper crushed in my hand I gazed for a moment at the little, waxen face in the cradle, and then, trusting him for the first time to the servant, I 526 A DOFFED CORONET rushed out of the house, flew breathlessly to the private office of the manufacturer who had employed me so long as a designer of textile patterns, caught the terri- fied little Hebrew by his coat-collar, and, unconsciously shaking him as I spoke, practically demanded his money or his life, forgetting that it was not I, but a protege 1 of mine, who was doing his work. When I left him I was ashamed of myself and of my scathing dislike and contempt for his entire race which had indeed received its punishment. That ill-favored, mean-looking little person had acted like a gentleman, and paid me in advance for six months' work, with a simplicity and generosity which made it hard, indeed, for me to make my way up-town calmly and decorously. Broken pride is perchance the most painful of all fract- ures, and I was glad that the bustle and preparation of our departure for a neighboring sea-side resort kept me from realizing how completely smashed mine was. When we returned to town in the autumn, I called upon my old friend, A n, who greeted me with an enthusiasm which made it comparatively easy for me to undertake the breaking in of some ladies' hacks and hunters during the winter months at a handsome remuneration. I contemptuously crushed under my heel the vigorous little shoots struggling into life from that wrecked pride of mine, and was recompensed when, long before the end of the six months since my new occupation had left me no time for silk designing I was able to refund the money advanced to me by my friend the silk manufacturer. I even committed the extravagance of bringing to him the crisp, new greenbacks enclosed in a pocket- book, on one side of which were his initials, and on the other my crest, exquisitely executed in gold by Tif- fany's best designer, 527 A DOFFED CORONET "I have come to bid you good-bye/' I said, placing the little, pink-ribboned package on his desk. " I must now give up working for you, since in the spring I shall leave New York for the country, where we will henceforth live all the year round. This will enable me to put into execution a long-cherished plan for earning my living. You have been a good friend to me, and I wish I could make you realize how grateful I am and will continue to be." He had untied the little package, and was gazing with amazement at its contents. "Who are you, really?" he asked, timidly. "No longer anybody," I said, with a smile. "If you ever think of me, all you need do is to remember me as a mother whose child you saved. That will make a pleasant pillow for you to lie on. Good-bye, and God bless you!" In the following May we removed to a pretty house on the Sound, with sufficiently large grounds, and a nice stable attached. Once settled there, we were so comfortable that I began to imagine that we had weath- ered the worst of the storm, but, alas! in a little while another blow descended upon me with such unexpected violence that it made me stagger and all but fall. Hard work, sorrows, and disappointments had at last told upon Fred, and one evening he came home des- perately ill. For twenty-one days and nights I kept my vigil at his side, forcing myself to stay awake by living on black coffee. I had need to do so, for the word "contagion" having been pronounced by some ill-informed person, the servants, of whom I now had three in the house, not to mention the stablemen, left me in a body, and I found myself with a delirious patient, a fretful baby who in those first days of dis- tress sickened with a sharp attack of tonsillitis and all 528 A DOFFED CORONET the work of the house besides, in which my only helper was a little colored groom of sixteen, without whose devotion and eagerness to help I would really have given up all hope of- ever pulling through. It goes without saying that the expenses of this long and terrible illness far exceeded what I could manage to make, overworked as I was already, and one fine day I looked sadly and helplessly at my last twenty-five cents ! That afternoon a fellow- worker of Fred's, whom I knew casually, stopped on his way from a day's outing in the neighborhood to inquire after "his good friend." Driven to desperation, I asked him whether he could obtain for me a month's salary in advance from their mutual chief. "Easy as rolling off a log, my dear madame," he said, cheerfully. "I will bring it myself to-morrow." I was overwhelmed with gratitude. Truly this loose limbed, awkward, sandy-haired Scotchman was a trump, and I thought that it is in such moments of Sturm und Drang that one finds out how much more real goodness there is in the world than one is generally in- clined to believe, and so, with reviving hope and con- fidence, I awaited what the morrow would bring. It brought my Scotch friend bustling into my pres- ence with an empressement which touched me to the heart. Diving into his inside pocket, he brought forth ten new ten-dollar bills, and, laying them on the table before me, said, grandiloquently: " I didn't bother the office. It was much easier for me to lend you that myself." "Oh, I can't think of accepting your money," I said, cruelly disappointed. "You are very kind, but you shouldn't have done this," and I pushed away the eagerly expected supply. "My dear madame," he replied, laughing, "I quite 34 529 A DOFFED CORONET understand that you don't want to accept this without making some return. In a month you will hand me back one hundred and fifty dollars, or, if that be too soon for you, let's make it two hundred dollars at two months. That '11 square us, I guess." I rose and looked quietly at him. "There are, I believe, usurers to be found in New York, and I perceive that it will be a great deal better to address myself to them, especially as it will not in- clude my having to receive them as friends. If you are in a hurry to return to New York, as I do not doubt you are, I will order the dog-cart to drive you to the station." For a moment he stood looking at me, then his eyes dropped and his face turned scarlet. " I only meant to accommodate you," he said, with a vague wave of his hand. "Business is business." "Quite so," I remarked; "but I never like to mix business with pleasure. You must remember that from the first I refused to borrow otherwise than from my husband's employer, who has always behaved de- cently to him, and that is why there is nothing left for me to do but to thank you for so far exceeding my modest demand. Would you like the dog-cart?" "No, thank you," he muttered, "I'll go by the car. And oh, how is your husband to-day?" "Much worse," I said, slowly, "so you see it is perhaps better that I should have been prevented from contracting a debt towards his office." Then, turning my back upon him, I left him stand- ing there and returned to the sick-room. On the morrow A n telegraphed to me to find out whether a handsome colt I had been training was for immediate sale, and, on my replying in the affirma- tive, came down himself to fetch the animal, bringing 530 A DOFFED CORONET with him a sum of money which made it possible for me to pursue my desperate voyage under half-steam. It was three months before Fred was able to resume work, and by that time I was fairly done for. I shall never forget the first unbroken sleep in three weeks until then I had slept only by cat-naps in a chair which I took on the night when the doctor pronounced him out of danger, for the ludicrousness of my camp- ing-outfit was the first humorous touch in that inter- minable stretch of misery. Lying at full length on the carpet at the foot of his bed, with a fat Burke' 's Peerage under my head as a pillow, and a bath-robe thrown over me, I was reminded of the joke which Ber- trand used to make when, in the old days at the flat, we used to make shift to put up one of our rare friends for the night, and he used to hospitably suggest that we lay him on two chairs and cover him up with a walk- ing-stick! I dreaded the possibility of my not awaken- ing if I were needed either by my patient or my baby, so I had taken these precautions not to be too comfort- able; but, alas! even such measures were in vain, for no sooner had I closed my eyes than I fell into the deep, dreamless sleep of total exhaustion, and was only awak- ened many hours later by the piteous cries of poor little Alain, who had crawled out of his crib, and was holding me tightly by the neck, desperately sobbing, "Mum- mie dead! Mummie dead!" Thinned down to a shadow, and inexpressibly weary, I struggled through Fred's long convalescence, har- assed beyond expression by that terrible question of servants, which is the bane of all American households. Indeed, I must be pardoned for having sometimes felt as if it were hardly worth while to stagger on any longer, for both the W . . . es were abroad, and the summer season had driven the few friends we had to A DOFFED CORONET seas or mountains, American or Continental. Our dear Archbishop was in Rome, and had it not been for the bi-monthly letters of that one ever - faithful, peerless friend, that sister -soul who, although I had invariably concealed from her the straits we were in, wrote with a tenderness and love that neither distance nor time ever dulled, and who at no time made me feel the gulf which separates a throne from the place which now was mine, truly I would have been sorely tempted to give up the fight. During the following year a regular horde of domes- tics swept destructively through our home, and I was granted the privilege of sampling specimens of every nationality which the great sewer of European emigra- tion discharges upon American shores. All were, with- out exception, incarnations of incompetence, careless- ness, and impudence, differing only in the proportions of these ingredients to one another, and when the last- named became of an active rather than a passive quality, so to speak, each creature's stay abruptly terminated. There was, for example, a vivacious French cook most melodiously inclined, who insisted on accompanying her merry snatches of Parisian cafe-chantant ditties by a lively pounding of her " Louiss-Squintz " heels as the village shoemaker called them on the kitchen floor, which pleasant sounds were borne to me by every hot- air register, thanks to the fact that the furnace-room abutted on her domain. There was a very youthful butler, who, eager to display his manliness, used to groan forth in a grewsome bass the plaintive strains of "Silver Threads among the Gold" with terrible per- sistence while he busied himself in the pantry, inhar- monious information as to "Darling's growing old" floating up the stairs and making me grit my teeth in impotent despair; and yet another adolescent male 532 " SA MAJESTE BEBE " A DOFFED CORONET domestic, hailing from Cork, who was given to whistle away the entire day with a diabolical and nerve-rack- ing shrillness. When I, first gently, then authorita- tively, and then with violence, urged him to desist, he lachrymosely declared that it was not his fault, since the sound of which I complained was nothing more nor less than the wind escaping through an aperture occasioned by the loss of his front teeth. But the lad being otherwise of the Barkis tribe and very willing, I submitted in sheer self-defence to purchase for him a set of artificial teeth, and thenceforth he no longer whistled, but, alas! he took to lifting up his voice in song, which was worse. When, however, he took to playing pranks, I began to doubt whether I really needed his services. He started in by painting the entire length of the white-oak banis- ters with a mixture of alcohol and shoe-polish, because, in his opinion, it did not sufficiently harmonize with tike heliotrope paper on the walls, thus proving the win of my Ai dinner-dress, evoked from the very last relics of a glorious past. After several other freaks of fancy one morning, when, more than usually depressed, I was sitting alone at breakfast with my back towards the open window, he ended by introducing from outside the ripe remains of a kitten suspended by the tail from a fishing-pole, which he jerked up and down under my nose in a manner which led me for a moment to be- lieve that the blow had at last fallen and my mind had given way. When I recognized my error I cast him forth more in anger than sorrow, and his place knew him no more. In a moment of foolish extravagance I had engaged an elderly English nurse of great piety for Alain, who, having now reached the age where his chief occupation was to tumble down and injure himself, needed per- 533 A DOFFED CORONET petual watching. Bitter was my regret at having done so, for, alas 1 she, too, was musically inclined, her melo- mania taking the form, as she shrewdly put it, of "training her little charge towards God" by emitting, in the flattest of flat voices, such sacred melodies as "Onward, Christian Soldiers," and "Awake, My Soul," from morning till night, whether in the nursery, on the beach, or in the garden. Poor little Alain, whose musical ear was in danger of being totally vitiated, deemed it, of course, necessary to chime in, and the louder his aged companion raised her pious notes to Heaven, the more did the little chap pipe forth his baby imitation, ending, usually, with a dismal howl when sternly reproved by her, for distorting the sacred words with his infant tongue. She had, in her youthful days, served in a like ca- pacity in some aristocratic houses of Great Britain and Ireland, and in her present humbler position gloried in reminiscences of this brilliant past. HoJV often have Fred and I looked helplessly at each other across the table, when " Old Lizzie," standing behind Alain's high-chair, would begin : "Baby, don't eat with your fingers. When I was living with Lord John Beresford I never allowed " Or else, " Baby boy, now don't put your fist in your mouth. Lady Gwendolyn Ermyntrude Vere de Vere never allowed her children," etc., etc., until the "late Lord John Beresford, poor, dear man, and her gracious Ladyship " became haunting personalities to us. One day Fred facetiously interrupted her. "What did Lord de Liverus allow you to do with his children when you were living with him?" Horror-stricken, and touched in the most pious corner of her soul, Lizzie rose in her wrath and unsparingly rebuked Fred for his unseemly levity. 534 A DOFFED CORONET Oh, dear! what did I not go through! I had a Ger- man cook who got shockingly drunk and once at- tempted my life with a frying-pan. With the utmost difficulty for she was head and shoulders taller than I I prevented her from accomplishing her nefarious intent by seizing her and throwing her bodily into the laundry, where she remained in durance vile until the return of her master. A buxom Swede surreptitiously gathered about her kitchen-hearth seven able-bodied men one dark win- ter night, and when I discovered their presence, with touching simplicity presented them to me as her cous- ins "yoost froom de oold coontry!" A worthy Scotch gardener, in whom I had placed my trust, imbibed the w r aters of his native land, ran amuck in the kitchen and still-rooms late one Satur- day afternoon, and, having put his fellow-servants to flight, afforded me the undisputed honor of evicting him, riding-crop in hand. But enough of this enumeration of a foreigner's trials in the domain of Uncle Sam, although I am sorely tempt- ed to relate in detail the story of the colored cook who, to the pardonable indignation of my similarly colored but- ler, was set upon by a discarded suitor in my kitchen, carved liberally with a razor, and tramped almost into smithereens. Aroused by this trifling difference of opin- ion, I was met in the lower hall by a flying volley of soda-water bottles, flat-irons, and lumps of coal that pur- sued the assassin from the house, and, not understand- ing why I was the apparent target of this miscellaneous ammunition, I returned it in kind with a bronze candle- stick I was carrying, missing the butler, and smashing a plate-glass window that cost me ten dollars to replace. I am sorry, also, that I lack space to give an ac- count of a domestic mutiny occasioned by my engaging 535 A DOFFED CORONET the services of a queer, old-looking boy of fifteen years of age. He had not been twenty-four hours in the house before all the servants rose in revolt and declined to live under the same roof with a " play-actor/' for the new acquisition had slipped his incognito, and appeared as " James O'Brien, the Champion Boy Low Comedian," with a collection of printed hand-bills and posters to substantiate his claim to fame. I bowed to the will of the majority and dismissed him, but first asked him why he had forsaken the lucrative ways of the stage for my comparatively unremunerative service. He re- plied that a dramatic career, with all its temptations, was taking him straight to hell, and that he wished to stop somewhere half-way on the downward track before it should be too late. I wearily concurred in his conception of my residence as a half-way house to Hades, and bade him farewell. Let my reader, however, be consoled by the cheering thought that subsequently for five whole years I enjoyed heavenly peace, thanks to the advent, one by one, of four exceptions to the rule, two white and two colored, who by their devoted and cheerful service made me wellnigh forget the ill deeds of their predecessors. Let him also remember that this account represents the amusing features of a long course of continual wor- riment and petty domestic annoyance which formed part of my day's work for many years. I am tired of cataloguing in these last pages of a long record, sorrows and troubles of all hues and de- scriptions. Let it be, therefore, quite en passant that I mention, for the sake of veracity, the thirteen weeks which, shortly after Fred's recovery, I spent in the deathly grip of meningitis, the agonized days I passed watching over Alain in his struggle with diphtheria, the two years of hard work, and the weeks of pain A DOFFED CORONET which elapsed before the day of the last great test ar- rived, and Dr. W . . . e informed me that it was necessary I should undergo a surgical operation of major grade. I had long since done -with shilly-shallying and become so used to straight facts straightly presented that I had come to like them after a fashion, and on the bright May day when I journeyed to New York to hear my doom, or whatever else it might prove to be, within the four walls of the great surgeon's office at the pretty little private hospital which he had recently built within two doors of our old flat, my one thought, I may say in justice to myself, was for Fred, who sat at my side in the train, and for the little sailor lad now raised to the dignity of an English tar's uniform, who leaned against his knee trying to assimilate in his six- year-old brain matters so grim that they were puzzling wiser heads than his own. For myself, I was a little tired of the fight, and rather more occupied with the difficult feat of concealing from them the wonderful thinness to which I was reduced, by coquettishly wrapping about myself the flounces of an ultra-chic little Parisian lace cape than in puzzling over a future which I had long guessed might be of singularly short duration. The beating of my heart may have been a little more rapid than was its wont when I stood opposite my faithful doctor after a quarter of an hour's sojourn in his surgery, but, after all, it was still a pretty stout heart from old Armorica. " Got collet deusan Armoriq,"* as they put it out there, and my voice was perfectly steady when I looked up in the blue eyes that had just then a little more than their customary kindness, and said, quietly: *In Breton, this means either " It was a hard man of Armorica," or " It was a stout heart of Armorica." 537 A DOFFED CORONET "I'd like to know just exactly where I stand, and rely upon you to tell me the truth, pure and simple, without any fear of the result." For a moment, a very short one, the steady gaze wavered and grew troubled. Then, laying his hand lightly on my shoulder, he said, slowly and with ever so slight a tremor: "I respect you too much not to tell you the truth. You have one chance, and that is, an operation within four weeks from now." Above the immaculately precise little curtains shroud- ing the lower portions of the surgery windows a dan- cing beam of sunlight fell like a flame upon a tall bunch of gladioli which adorned the professional desk. "What lovely flowers those are!" I said. "I have always had a particular fancy for them. May I take one?" The doctor abruptly turned his back upon me. It was a splendid plan to concentrate my attention upon a pleasant object for a few seconds, and, interpreting his silence as consent, I took a step towards the flowers, broke off one of the glowing spikes, and fastened the satiny blossoms with elaborate care in my dress. When this was satisfactorily accomplished I turned once more to the arbiter of my fate. " I take it for granted that, as usual, you will stand by me." "Yes." "When did you say the event was to take place?" He glanced hurriedly at a sheaf of notes hanging on a silver hook near the window, made a rapid cal- culation, and said, simply: "On Sunday, the 20th, at ten in the morning. You had better come here 538 A DOFFED CORONET for the operation. I will give you the best room in the house." The blossoms at my breast not being quite yet to my liking, I shifted them a little and pinned them more securely. "Don't think me ungrateful," I said, com- ing nearer to him and putting my hand on his arm, " but I would sooner, if it isn't asking too much, have it done at home. Afterwards, you know, it may be more comforting for Fred and Alain." "Very well; perhaps you are right." I turned to go. " I don't thank you, because you will understand that thanks would have to be, under such circumstances, very well presented, which would surpass my present abilities." He shrugged his shoulders, and bent over an open case of instruments, which he contemplated with ab- sorbing attention. " Especially, " I continued, " as I have one more favor to ask of you, which is, not to tell Fred, however search- ingly he may question you, the gravity of the situa- tion. He would feel it well, hard, and there is no earthly use of making him anticipate the worst. Make light of it as much as you conscientiously can. It will be a great help to me. " "By Gad, you are well, you are " "Oh, never mind that," I interrupted. "What tonic did you mention? It's best just for a few moments longer to attend to minor details," and, without waiting for an answer, I opened the door and walked into the central hall, where Fred sat, rigidly, beside Alain, who was playing with the huge Persian cat, the pet of the house. I walked quickly to the group and said, with a little laugh, of which I was afterwards somewhat proud : 539 A DOFFED CORONET "Good news can wait, so let us bid au revoir to this busy man here, whose time I have already quite sufficiently encroached upon." Fred looked up, with dawning relief. " Is that true?" he said, addressing the doctor. "Well," replied my fellow-conspirator, "of course it's too bad that this should have come to pass, but, with such vitality and pluck as this little girl possesses, there is no cause for apprehension in the ordinary run of things. She will tell you herself all about it, for the surgical profession has lost a great deal by her being a woman, and she can explain quite as well as I what is amiss, and what we have decided." I held out my hand, which was grasped with such unexpected force that my fingers ached for an hour after, and so we walked out into the sunshine and animation of the great city which had seen so many tides in the affairs of my life. Alas, all our Machiavellian precautions went for nothing, for a few days later Fred, meeting by chance one of Dr. W . . . e's assistants, was told brutally the secret we had so jealously guarded, and when he came back that night one glance at his face showed me that that little game was up, and that the following weeks would be something in the nature of a death- watch. The Archbishop helped me wonderfully through what remained for me to undergo. Indefatigably, heeding neither wind nor weather, he came out from the city time and time again, bringing to bear upon our stricken little home the consolations of his office with such delicacy of touch and such high-bred compre- hension of the difficulties hedging him in on all sides that it must be hoped that his recompense is now in proportion to his deeds. 540 " MY AMERICAN HOME" A DOFFED CORONET I did not see Dr. W . . . e again until the sombre, tempestuous morning when he and five more of his calling drove through pelting rain to the rocky point whereon our house stood and against which great waves were furiously dashing. His quick, energetic step sounded on the stairs with something reassuring in its elasticity, and in a moment he was in the room where, standing at the window, I watched the white breakers chasing each other up the beach. Neither of us spoke until the click of steel and the rolling into place of furniture, together with subdued footfalls in the next room, made it imperative for him to break the silence of the one in which we were. Far be it from me to pose as a heroine, for I am nothing of the kind; but, strange to say, in a twinkling all my gloomy thoughts took flight like a flock of ill-omened birds, and, turning eagerly to my companion, I said, almost cheerfully: "Let me look. Let me see what they are doing. It will distract my mind, and you know well it isn't that of which I am afraid." "Do as you please," he replied, with a little shrug. "I'm never very professional with you." I picked up the long skirt of my peignoir, and, fol- lowed by him, walked into the middle of the busy circle in the large, airy room where the denouement of this little, private drama was to take place. Their stupefac- tion made me smile, for I had quite disassociated myself from the whole thing, and yet I could not help saying, " What a lot of big men it takes to cut up one small woman!" There was a general gasp, and the senior member of that surgical council advanced almost threateningly towards us. " For Heaven's sake, Dr. W . . . e, take her away!" he said, waving me off excitedly. A DOFFED CORONET "Why? She says it diverts her thoughts! You don't know the breed, my good fellow. She is not an ordinary patient. " Unkraut verdirbt nicht, says the German, with his usual sagacity and directness, and I must therefore take it that I belong to the weed family, for I did not die, as could reasonably have been expected that I should ; in fact, the doctor, who remained in charge of me for two weeks afterwards, declared, " Should your husband ever wish to get rid of you he would have to use a battle-axe." Indeed, I recovered with marvellous rapidity, and even reached the point where I began to be quite proud of the charmed life I had borne. I had taken, however, such a dislike for our home by the Sound, since the many troubles we had had there, that we soon after- wards gave it up. After sojourning in New York for a time, we finally decided to rent on a term of years a quaint and rambling stone house covered with ivy and creepers, which for over a century has crowned a knoll commanding a lovely prospect of undulating plains and densely wooded hills. A number of small legacies had meanwhile fallen to my share, which, although too insignificant to rein- state us in our former European position, yet were of sufficient importance to give us comparative ease and affluence. Large paddocks and verdant meadows, which formed part of the estate, seemed, moreover, providentially adapted to the prosecution of my still cherished pur- pose, and there, one glorious October day, we settled 542 A DOFFED CORONET down in this last and dearest of our American homes an ideal one, indeed. Every animal in my stables, byres, or kennels nay, the very pigeons circling above the verdure-garlanded roofs, my vegetable-garden, my orchard, even the little brook gurgling and bubbling at the end of the past- ures beneath tall pollard-willows and wild-cherry trees, were sources of continual and absorbing interest to me. I was proud, too, of my flowers, blossoming all sum- mer long in the numerous parterres intersecting the lawns, and filling with fragrance throughout the win- ter the conservatory upon which the library windows opened. Our little bark had passed, unharmed, through many breakers, and I now confidently trusted that we had guided it to a safe and stormless anchorage. Then, as the grim, gray dawning touched The sneering seas with white, A voice came back from the reeling prow, " Be of good cheer, O helmsman ; now I see the harbor light 1" L'ENVOI MY task is brought to a close here! Its lights and shadows fill my horizon with sweet and bitter remem- brances almost equally dear to me. Perchance, by recording in the preceding pages so many sombre and intimate personal incidents, I have laid myself open to hostile criticism, and yet, could my reader realize how difficult it is to check one's self when once started upon the steep slope of reminiscence, he would pause in his judgment and deal leniently with me. I will leave behind in this country which has been hospitable and kindly to me many pleasant and happy hours, and will with deep regret lose sight of the friends to whom I must say "Good-bye." Yet on my way I take the three great factors of my happiness Fred, the ever loyal and loving companion of my life ; Alain, my pride and my joy ; and Rex, this other son of ours whom we have adopted and taken to our hearts, and whose whole-souled devotion has been of so rare a kind that it seems hopeless and vain to try and describe it. My longing for Europe, for the old, gay, careless days, has lost much of its keenness, although Brittany is now and as ever, unchangeably, my bourne. Death has mown freely through the ranks of those dear to me, and I will never quite recover from that greatest and most irreparable loss of all which, with the crushing brutality of a thunder-bolt, befell me that of my Em- press. My thoughts of her, Rex has expressed as I 544 A DOFFED CORONET could not have expressed them myself, in some exqui- site lines, written on the last anniversary of her tragic death. With these I end my story, after the manner of those old monkish writers who were wont to close their manuscript with a prayer for the blessing of the Saints, offering to the one to whom I owe so much of the little good there is in me, an INVOCATION Oh when, on nights most calm and beautiful, Shine forth the silent stars all graciously, Wilt thou bring peace, as doth their lustre, laying Pale hands of quiet on the heaving sea? Revisit thy beloved, all the pain Of sundering years, of loss itself, withdrawn; Light with thine eyes old faithfulness again, And touch new splendor in the brightness gone! Or if, from far beyond that happy bourne Thou com'st not, send sweet influences, that may, Like those dim heralds of the lingering morn, Whisper my darkness of a distant day. Grant me that strength which most of all I prize, To draw my pathway to the utmost verge, Straight, calm, and moveless as the moon-glade lies, Throned on the wild manes of the tossing surge. So shall I rest, and stay the impatient feet That yearn unceasingly towards thee now. Sweet Spirit, guard me! for I fain would greet As royally the Messenger as thou. THE END A 001428200 1111111 illinium iimi miiiimi Hi mm ii tmm\ IIIMI r^^ .