BY THE SAME AUTHOR 9 Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. BELLAMY THE MAGNIFICENT "Amazingly well written, and undeniably clever. . . . Distinctly a book to be read, for passing criticism can do no justice to the wit, humour, satire, and keen raillery in which it abounds." DAILY TELEGRAPH. " A brilliant and biting study of the life of pleasure and some of its modern exponents. . . . The book is unbrokenly clever, and few will be able to refrain from taking it at a draught." PALL MALL GAZETTE. "Its dialogue is entertaining and clever. It contains not a single dull page. " ATHENAEUM. " ' Bellamy the Magnificent' is well, magnificent. . . . The characters are excellently realised, some of the scenes are delicately comic, the epigrams are not forced, and the story as a whole is so interesting that its conclusion will provoke no small amount of discussion." OUTLOOK. " Beyond contradiction, a brilliantly clever book." SUNDAY SUN. " Extremely fascinating . . . a really excellent novel." COURT JOURNAL. " One of those extremely clever extravaganzas which, like shot silk, may be looked at in two ways. . . . Admirable ! As deadly in earnest as it is extravagantly amusing. " SCOTSMAN. "A highly successful exercise in flippancy, wittily and audaciously written, and worked out with an ingenious and original plot." MORNING LEADER. "For an evening's unimproving but absolutely entertaining reading it will be ' bad to beat.' "ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE. " One of the maddest and merriest farces we have read." MORNING POST. Crown 8vo, cloth, 35. 6d. ISRAEL RANK ' ' Written with a skill and ruthlessness that put it much above the level of an ordinary novel of crime and criminals. It is cleverly and subtly done. The description of the trial, as written by the murderer himself, compels one's admiration. Indeed, the whole book is written with a sense of character and psychology unusual in work of this kind." TRIBUNE. "While there are a sufficient number of horrible incidents to tickle the palate of those who like such fare, there is sufficient cleverness in their setting forth to free the book from a charge of raw sensationalism. It is a well- conceived study of cultured hedonism and remorseless selfishness. Israel Rank is perhaps an improbable but certainly an interesting personality." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. 1 ' The narrative is unfolded in the most naively cynical fashion imaginable, and in such a way that, indeed, at times it is difficult to determine whether the book is a tragedy disguised as a comedy or a comedy disguised as a tragedy. So fascinatingly is the story told that the proceedings of the hero-villain even call to mind the career of Barry Lyndon." DAILY NEWS. ' ' The story has a certain grim humour that will make your flesh creep. The hero, who is also the villain of the piece, is a young man of half Jewish descent. Between him and an earldom were six lives, and the young man, whose motto was to live among the rich, determined to remove those lives. This novel should not be issued to any one within a dozen steps of the peerage." DAILY CHRONICLE. LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, in ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET A FAIRY STORY OF TO-DAY BY ROY HORNIMAN AUTHOR OF "THE SIN OF ATLANTIS," "THE LIVING BUDDHA," THAT FAST MISS BLOUNT," "BELLAMY THE MAGNIFICENT, "ISRAEL RANK," ETC. SPECIAL EDITION For sale only in India and the British Colonies LONDON CHATTO fc? WINDUS 1907 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BKCCI ES. Copyright 1907 by Rov HORNIMAN All rights reset ved TO RICHARD LAMBART 2033469 : LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET CHAPTER 1 IDLENESS and vanity were the incentives that had driven Anthony Brooke into the theatrical profes- sion. Indeed, were it not for the idle and the vain the demand for actors would largely exceed the supply. The serious, who think they can act, reckon up the chances and wisely prefer a season ticket to the City. The idle and the vain see their chance and take it. Thus, between the two, acting as an art comes to the ground. If their vanity be flattered by success the idle become a little less idle, and condescend to learn a few words by heart, which they call studying their parts. They make an elaborate pretence of having considered the characterisation, because pretence can be made at all times, and requires little assiduity or concentration. Now and then some of them are galvanised into serious work, but such cases are rare. Anthony Brooke was more vain than idle, for he was quite willing to do something ; in fact, he B 2 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET was bound to do something. He possessed an inexhaustible vitality, and with such a tempera- ment he naturally could not be idle, although he disliked sustained work. He was prepared to show how the perfect life should be led. Even in his teens he had become aware that the art of living had practically died out. People flaunted, and ran hither and thither, screaming at the top of their voices, getting through life at an absurd pace ; but only a civilisation bred by German philosophy out of machinery could call it living. Anthony Brooke had neither relations nor interest on the stage, and because he had an imagination which was apt to take fire at the merest suggestion he believed the legends as to the huge salaries paid to young ladies and gentlemen for doing nothing behind the footlights. He found that if he wanted to earn money imme- diately he must be able to sing or to dance, and of course he could do neither. He was unfortu- nately gifted with just sufficient intellectual weight to feel ridiculous as a dancer, and of singing voice he had none. He had the additional disadvantage of being fair, and it is an admitted fact that fair young men do not suggest the embryo dramatic genius. It is a fixed idea with the theatrical manager that only tall, dark, thin, hungry-looking young men can act, and although Anthony Brooke was slim and graceful and quite extraordinarily good-looking, managers at once showed him that they would as soon think of crediting him with the authorship of Shakespeare's plays as with histrionic ability. It was true that he had often LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 3 looked hungry and thin, but he was not the type which might have stood interchangeably for Romeo and a dispenser of iced poisons to the confiding infants of the London streets. Besides, he had a superior air, and it was instinctively felt that the superiority was not altogether superficial. He had a way of becoming a personality in any company which he joined before he had been in it ten minutes, and the qualities which go to make a theatrical manager not being such as tend to breadth of mind he was seldom engaged twice in the same theatre. Once he had been entrusted with a part by a well-known comedian, whose recommendation to the public was an extraordinary personal proof of the Darwin theory, and who, when he was dressed in skirts, looked like the star performer on a barrel organ. This comedian had engaged him under the impression that he was incompetent. He himself was so undeniably ugly that he had the good sense to secure good-looking, stupid young men as foils. When he found that Anthony Brooke was likely to make something of his part he got rid of him ; that is to say, with that candour and honesty which distinguishes his kind he picked a quarrel with him, and told him that he was ruining the piece. Seeing very plainly that it was not intended that he should appear, Anthony, in professional terms, * threw up his part ; ' which consists in throwing it down, and told the little monster to play it himself. It was rather a pointless remark, but it quite infuriated the manikin. 4 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Get out of my theatre ! " he screamed, in shrill cockney. Anthony looked at him loftily. " It's not your theatre. It belongs to that wretched woman you've cheated out of her money." He pointed to an elderly spinster who had been tempted to invest the greater part of her slender capital in the production, under the promise that it would bring her before the London public which it certainly did. " Get out of my theatre ! " reiterated the enraged puppet. Anthony pulled on his gloves leisurely. " I'm going when I'm ready ; but before I go I should like to tell you that you possess a mountebank personality which commands a success as ephe- meral as I venture to say it is undeserved by any true artistic merit whatsoever." The little creature looked at him in amaze- ment, and said, in his high falsetto voice " What a funny boy ! " Anthony walked out, exhilarated by the con- sciousness that he had scored a triumph. He was accustomed to these triumphs, however. He had a tongue like a stiletto, and it is perfectly extraordinary how people object to being stilettoed. Since this auspicious occasion he had not been invited to take part in any theatrical production. Although he had a genius for lounging, it was not the kind of lounging which was likely to get him on in his profession. He was an elegant Bacchanalian, and hated vulgar drinking. The death of his father, who had been able to give him LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 5 a microscopic allowance, which at any rate made him independent enough to sustain his egotism against the world, brought him face to face with the fact that if you wish society to do anything for you, you must to some extent conciliate it. A mental independence involves martyrdom as much as moral unorthodoxy. Fortunate is that individual who finds himself placed by Providence in that walk of life to which his qualities are absolutely fitted. There are such people ; as, for instance, the happy navvy, the happy pork- butcher, or the happy peer, folk who would have been wretched in any other walk of life, whether more exalted or more lowly. How infinitely miserable the lot of, say, a duke who possesses those very qualities which would have made him an ideal railway porter and there are such. He probably does not know what is the matter with him, but he is unhappy because his proclivities and his career are at war. He is unconsciously hankering after sixpenny tips and Gladstone bags, instead of addressing the Upper House on intricate questions of land tenure. There are a great many people whom Providence seems to have created whilst in a state of indecision ; for instance, that Anthony Brooke was created with every gift except that of a large independent fortune was an obvious oversight. Everybody but the saints would like to have money ; but it is by no means necessary for everybody. To Anthony, life without money was a nightmare, and inasmuch as he had never had any his existence had been far from cheerful. The lack of wealth in his case was a palpable 6 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET injustice, as if he lacked a sense, or an organ. It seemed as though he had left the art of wage- earning far behind in some former existence, philosophically the richer for its lessons although its technique was forgotten. The world belongs to the dreamer ; that is to say, from the dreamer's point of view. It might be truer to say that the dreamer is in possession of every world but this. Anthony was quite incapable of earning his living by means of the first thing that came to hand, a faculty natural to the sordid, base materialism of the Jew. If a profession could have been pointed out, entirely original and curious, a calling in which no one had ever been known to earn his livelihood, he might have adopted it with enthusiasm. Thrown on his resources for his daily bread, it looked as if his stock-in-trade were meagre. He found himself sounding the very depths of poverty, and before he realised it his clothes had ceased to be presentable. They would have been considered excellent weekday garments in Brixton, or in a city office, but in the West End they did not look quite right, even in the twilight. He was brilliant and pleasant company enough to have been able to keep afloat on the desolate ocean of impecuniosity as the appanage of some wealthy friend but for one reason : he could not be dominated. He had no particular moral objection to a sycophant's career, and often told himself seriously that he must study the art of pleasing with a view to the state of his pocket. There were so many men willing to lend providing LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 7 they got a sufficient return of attention and flattery. Anthony had had friends of this class, vain, good- natured fellows, who were quite ready to put him up indefinitely, and to give him as much of their wealth as they did not miss. Sooner or later, however, he became explosively brilliant at their expense, and they could not be blamed if they chose another friend who did not even possess a stiletto, much less the inclination to use it. His condition made him morbid, although a certain lightness of touch never deserted him when O dealing with the world. He was an egotist with too much delicate insight to imagine for one moment that the world would love him the better for his misery. A melancholy vanity in its own woes is one of the chief defects of intelligent adoles- cence. Our lovers may be fascinated by us in a tragic moment of temperament, but in the golden season the world expects us to show the elasticity of youth . Attention might be paid to it in our public schools, and there is little doubt that much misery would be avoided. A class of Eton boys being taught to assume gaiety and effervescence on the news of the death of a near relation, or of their fathers having lost all their money would be real progress towards a Spartan education. Anthony had the true, unconquerable pride of the born vagabond, and that pride is a glorious, exhilarating quality which poor, hard-working, conscientious mortals can never even dimly under- stand. In the vagabond's mind it accounts for everything, and places him supremely above the obligations of ordinary mortals, for the word 8 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET vagabond in its true sense means wanderer ; and how small must the man of fixed habitation seem to him who has neither mental nor material resting-place limitations which make the sense of the vagabond ache. To be circumscribed by flesh is bad enough ; to invent further caskets is servile. The vagabond is not antagonistic to money or beautiful clothes ; he only objects to the slow, soul-destroying processes by which civilisation decrees that they shall be obtained. Pity, however disguised under the form of sym- pathy, seemed at all times to Anthony an imperti- nence. If people could not coin themselves into gold, they might at least be ashamed of the fact, and hold their peace. If Anthony felt that con- ditions were too much for him, and that he could not assume the necessary charm denoting high spirits, he kept out of the way ; and as this became more and more difficult every day he was seen less and less by his friends, who, with the best will in the world, could not always conceal the fact that the steady decay of fine linen was unpleasant. He woke every morning with hope, that ever deceitful vulgarian, ready at his bedside to bear him company, at least during the first few hours of the day ; but even she grew a little bored towards evening, and left him to fight his battle with despondency as best he could. CHAPTER II ONE weary evening in August Anthony essayed an overdose of laudanum ; but the chemist, in league no doubt with the world to prolong his woes, must have diluted the poison with some inoffensive, coloured liquid, for he awoke the next morning, as usual, to hear his landlady's voice at the door demanding a parley. He wondered at first if he were dead, and whether his punishment for suicide were not to be an eternity of importunate landladies ; but by degrees he became wide awake, and realised that beyond a little extra drowsiness he was not a whit the worse for the drug. His first sensation, when he was fully awake, was one of acute irritation that he had no means of making his unwilling hostess the slave of his desire, which was for breakfast. The last two mornings the meal had not been forthcoming, but now he almost thought he heard the sound of a tray. He threw into his voice a sleepy weariness which he thought should have been sufficient to soften the heart even of a Pimlico landlady. "What is it?" " I've brought your breakfast, Mr. Brooke. Have you got the money to pay for it, or shall I take it downstairs again ? " io LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET She had played this painful comedy before, but on previous occasions, although no payment had been forthcoming, she had brought the break- fast in and had plumped it down angrily on the dressing-table the only table. To-day, however, there was the sound of another voice cheering the landlady on to battle. As it was a female voice, Anthony concluded that the moral support of a neighbour had been invoked. He wondered whether they would resort to force. The idea of violence frorrftwo women filled him with terror. Indeed, Anthony had little stomach for violence at any time. There was a pause. Evidently the two ladies were waiting for the lodger to take his share in the discussion. As he made no reply, being occupied, indeed, in turning the key in the lock with as little noise as possible, his landlady's ally joined in the battle. "You're too soft-'earted, Mrs. Leech, and your own brother a perlice sergeant, too ! There's no need for you to put up with it. There's a law in the land to prevent lone women from being robbed as some people will find out." Mrs. Leech, thus supported, squealed through the keyhole " I shall take it down again if it ain't paid for ! " At this moment there was a wild, despairing scream from her supporter, followed by a series of bumps executed with extraordinary rapidity. Anthony could guess what had happened. Mrs. Leech had moved back towards the stairs to LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET n carry out her threat, and had thrown her friend off her balance. There was much dismal moaning and lamenta- tion, and it was some time before they returned to the charge. " I said, I shall take it down again, Mr. Brooke " " And I should if I was you," said the voice in the background, now much subdued. Anthony was hungry, desperately hungry, and pride is not the spouse of hunger. "Don't take it away, Mrs. Leech," he said, pleadingly ; " I need it." " I dessay you do but I've got my rent to pay." " Oh, that's silly." " Is it ! You're nothing to me, Mr. Brooke " Here the voice in the background broke in again, and this time with immeasurable scorn " Calls hisself a gentleman, does he ! " " I never said so." A sense of humour was Anthony's weak point in these difficulties. It did not conduce to conciliation. Mrs. Leech was not educated to such delicate badinage. " You'd be the only one as 'ud dare to tell such an untruth, if you did say it," was the retort. They then proceeded to converse about him at the top of their voices, in order that no word of their measureless contempt might be missed. "An' expecks everything done for 'im, my dear. I see through him almost from the first." 12 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " So you did so you did." " I never trusts them lodgers as begins by asking for a chop with their tea it always means as they haven't got enough to pay for a good meal outside. They'd live on their breakfastses and teas if you'd let 'em." " I'd scorn myself, if I was 'im." " An* a clean shirt three times a week if I'd let 'im." " You don't mean to say as you paid for his laundry ? " interrogated her ally. Mrs. Leech, feeling that such generosity put her on a pedestal as a charitable martyr, began to whimper. " There, my dear, don't give way." But the presence of a sympathiser was not to be wasted, and Mrs. Leech gave way thoroughly. "And don't demean yourself, standing here talking to 'im." Feeling that they had done quite enough to furnish interesting matter for discussion in the lower regions they descended. Anthony sat on the edge of his bed gazing blankly before him. No day need be entirely black which is built on the sure foundation of breakfast. To add to his depression it was rain- ing. This meant that it was impossible for him to make even a pretence of looking for an engagement, a pretence with which he was wont to comfort the mornings of his dreary days. Walking about in the rain was out of the ques- tion, so he would be compelled to make a dash for the nearest public institution. As he dressed LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 13 he debated gloomily the respective merits of the National Gallery or the British Museum. The Tate Gallery was adjacent, but he was quite ashamed to go into it ; he had been there so often of late that the attendants must be perfectly aware that he had nowhere else to go. It may have been his imagination, but the last time he had visited it the official who took the sticks and umbrellas had seemed to look at him reproach- fully, as if to infer that he was really becoming a little obvious and beginning to wear out his welcome. The great thing, however, was to get away from the annoyance of his landlady during the daytime and to return at night with as much hope as possible that the door would not be bolted against him. Suddenly he remem- bered that through force of habit he had put his boots outside. It was an absurd thing to have done, as many a rainy day had come and gone since his landlady had condescended to clean them. If she had taken them downstairs it would involve entering into negotiations for their return, negotiations that must inevitably lead to a further financial discussion. It had really been very thoughtless of him. He opened the door cau- tiously to see if by chance they were still in the same place. They were gone. He was considering the mode of address he should employ in treating for them when he heard them dropped quite gently and respectfully on the mat outside. After waiting a minute to allow for the retirement of the enemy he drew them in, and H LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET at the same time he heard the sound of an alter- cation below. Apparently Mrs. Leech and her ally had fallen out. " And I'll trouble you," Mrs. Leech was saying very loftily, " not to interfere between me and my lodgers." Well, I'm sure ! " " And I dessay you are sure and a great deal too sure, and I think it's much better that neigh- bours should mind their own business." " Well, I never ! To think " Words were apparently insufficient to convey her sense of Mrs. Leech's ingratitude ; and she went out, slamming the area door behind her in high dudgeon. Such a climax could not be otherwise than grateful to Anthony's sense of humour. He looked at his boots. He could have seen his face in them. " I'd sooner have had breakfast," he murmured which was, to say the least, unworthy of him. He tightened his waistband, and prepared for flight ; that is to say, the usual morning manoeuvre of trying to get out of the house before Mrs. Leech could intercept and harangue him. He opened the door of his room with gentle secrecy to find himself face to face with her. Perhaps her difference with her neighbour, or the fact of having been found on the mat, had softened her, for she said, quite civilly "I'll bring your breakfast, sir." Secretly Anthony was much mollified. After all, he reflected, it was unnatural for a woman to LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 15 go to extreme lengths of hostility with a person so charming as he was ; but he drew him- self up, and the corners of his mouth went down. " Thank you, I shall go out to breakfast," he said, conscious of the possession of three halfpence. " Then it's a pity you don't pay your bill," retorted Mrs. Leech, her anger kindled afresh at her advances having been rebuffed. Anthony had nothing left to pawn ; indeed, his last effort in that direction had led to consider- able humiliation. The previous evening he had managed to slip out of his lodgings unobserved, with a large brown-paper parcel containing the remnants of such clothes as he could spare. There was a pawnbroker close by who had obliged him more than once, but had driven a very hard bargain. The entrance to the shop was up a little alley, and, to his annoyance, there were half a dozen females of the lower class at the opening, holding a most interesting discussion on domestic matters. They regarded him with some amusement as with flushed cheeks he passed through them into the evil- smelling little shop. With a feeling of rage against the world generally he entered one of the compartments and handed his parcel across the counter. After a delay, which seemed to him like an intentional impertinence, but which could hardly be avoided if the pawnbroker were to attend to his other customers, the man undid the parcel and inspected Anthony's ultra-fashionable coats and waistcoats. 1 6 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Wot are these fancy dress ? " he asked, jocularly. Restraining the temptation to pour forth the vials of his wrath on the presumptuous tradesman, Anthony smiled a sickly smile. The pawnbroker proceeded to roll them up again and put them into the parcel. " No good to me," was the laconic remark. " Can't you lend me ten shillings ? " The man looked at him as if he had asked for a thousand pounds. "They're no good to me." " Five shillings ? " said Anthony, condescend- ing to plead. "No." "Half a crown ?" Without replying the man moved indifferently away to attend to another customer, giving the parcel, however, a final push towards Anthony to show him that he really meant what he said. Anthony realised that he would have to pass the gauntlet of the females outside with the rejected package in his hand. The thought was intolerable. "Do you mind my leaving them here for a little ? " he said. The man looked at him suspiciously. " I'd rather you didn't." Anthony picked up the despised garments and hurried out of the place. As he expected, there was a loud laugh at his expense from the be- aproned, and betousled females outside. Even now, more than twelve hours after, he could not LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 17 recall the incident without turning hot and cold all over. He went out into the quiet little Pimlico street. Luckily the rain had ceased and the sun had come out. He walked briskly for the first half mile. The early morning hour holds a promise all its own, a hopefulness dependent on nothing tangible. His last meal had been after- noon tea at the house of a friend the previous day, and that had followed a lunch of champagne and biscuits paid for by an acquaintance to whom Anthony would not for the world have confessed that he was in sore need of a good meal. Biscuits had for him a most humorous asso- ciation, for once, when calling on a manager at his private house, he had been left alone in the dining room, and had attempted to make good a day's starvation with the contents of a biscuit-box which stood on the sideboard, and the great man had entered and discovered him in the act. As Anthony neared the busier parts his pace slackened. He began to look about him and to take that interest in other people's business pecu- liar to those who have none of their own. The average passer-by would hardly have credited him with being the miserable pauper he was, for if his very smart friends could detect that his clothes spelt, to say the least of it, financial embarrass- ment, the uninitiated would have thought him quite sufficiently smart, and he possessed to per- fection the indescribable art of making the best of his well-cut rags. Suddenly his mood of easy gaiety changed. 1 8 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET His brows contracted. He began to revolve schemes. Something must be done. Luckily he had a dinner invitation for that evening ; not the sort of thing for which it was necessary to dress, but a gathering of three or four shabby elegants in a cheap restaurant in Soho. There was a poet coming ; they would probably drink absinthe, and that would be delightful. Absinthe always gave Anthony an unreal, brutal view of life. Once, he remembered, when under its influence, seeing a woman run over by a cab. The spectacle had left him quite unmoved. He could last out till the evening ; and, after all, this might be the day on which his real career was to commence. He had the consolation of knowing that each succeed- ing day held that possibility. Still, he must go on striving for Anthony was pleased to call the day's hopeless saunter, striving. It was impossible that matters could continue like this. He would turn into the Park and think it out ; it would be quite dry now. He passed in by one of the most unfrequented gates, and, avoiding the fashionable part, in case he should meet anybody whom he knew, made for one of the shady groves towards the north-west and laid himself down in the shade, cursing the supineness of theatrical managers in general, although a disinterested person might reasonably have asked whether the London managers were to know by intuition that he was taking his ease on this particular spot, and to come post-haste up Piccadilly and across the greensward of the Park bearing leading parts in their hands. He was impatient with himself for LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 19 the condition he was in ; it was absurd. He had more brains than most people ; in fact, he in- wardly believed that he had as many as anybody ; and yet he was unable to do such a simple thing as keep himself in food and clothing. It just showed what nonsense it was to say that there is always work for willing hands to do. He should like to know where this work was. He had will- ing hands. He would go into the City. This was a threat which Anthony always felt ought to make Fate pull itself together and do something for him. Gradually he worked himself up to a state of absolute indignation over his wrongs, till, quite exhausted, he sank into a pleasant slumber, the warm summer sun coming through the leaves above his head with just enough power to prove narcotic. He woke feeling hungrier than ever, and as he lay listlessly gazing about him he saw, a little way off, a remarkably new-looking confec- tioner's paper bag. Judging by its shape, Anthony could not help thinking that it must contain something. He went over and took it up. It was quite heavy. He opened it, and tears of joy almost sprang to his eyes when he saw that it contained four delicious fresh Bath buns. Some children, sent into the Park with their lunch, must have dropped them ; or had they been in- tended for the ducks ? No, on second thoughts, they were the sort of buns that children keep for themselves. He looked round, almost expecting to see the owners hurrying back to claim what was to him salvation. Seeing no one, and lest he might be interrupted in his meal, or led away to 20 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET the police station for robbing little children, he removed himself far from the scene of his dis- covery and ate every one of the buns. When he had finished them he threw the bag away in dis- gust. He was furious with himself. He had fed oft stray buns in the Park, and he would never be able to forget it. He felt very much stronger, however, and started to walk towards the Strand. Hope was again firmly enthroned on a basis of four Bath buns, and he felt that he could face a theatrical agent with some degree of confidence. CHAPTER III THE agents shared with the public institutions Anthony's attentions when he had nowhere else to go. He did not usually meet many people whom he knew, for he had seldom been in the provinces, and London actors and actresses do not as a rule require an agent to secure them their irregular engagements. Under the magical effect of his Bath buns, Anthony sprang up the stone staircase that led to the airy and spacious offices where Mr. White held his court. It might be supposed that a theatrical agent is in something of the same relation towards his client as is a lawyer, but the supposition would be grossly inaccurate. The relation of the two parties is one of the strange anomalies of the theatrical profession ; for though the agent condescends to take their money when he can get it the demeanour of his customers much more suggests that he is paying them a salary. To bow the knee to innumerable masters is one of the privileges enjoyed by those who belong to the most erratic and irresponsible pro- fession in the world. Mr. White had been an agent from his youth, and the greater part of his life had been spent in edging importunate mountebanks most of them 22 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET crazy with vanity out of his presence, with the result that even in social intercourse he presented so many promontories that he was at all times a difficult coast to navigate. His offices consisted of three or four rooms leading one into another, and the way in which he could pass through the most determined cluster of young ladies anxious to tell him of their latest success, without being detained one moment, was an absolute miracle. He was not visible when Anthony arrived, and he posed himself negligently in a doorway where he could command the agent's entrances and exits and at the same time get a breath of fresh air, untainted by cheap perfume or cheaper cosmetic. It was not a time of the year when the office was ever very full, but on the seats round the walls was ranged a fairly representative gather- ing. There was the middle-aged man, out-at- elbows, with a soft sombrero hat, questionable linen, and a bibulous-looking nose. Depression was his dominant note, a depression which seemed to be the result of a full knowledge that he was going under as fast as an uncontrollable love of strong drink could carry him. He was struggling for his life in a river of alcohol, and was probably just about to sink for the third time. In one corner there was a dapper little comedian, dressed in large checks, explaining to a tall, heavy-looking man, who obviously devoted himself to the busi- ness side of the profession, the disgraceful conduct of a manager who had had the audacity and ignorance to declare that he was by no means as LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 23 mirth provoking a creature as he had made him- self out to be. There was the usual stage child, prematurely aged, with a prettiness which was anything but that of youth, sitting beside an anaemic-looking mother ; and there were one or two young gentle- men, evidently decently born and genteelly nur- tured if an adverb amazingly descriptive and unjustly shouldered from its legitimate occupation may be used. An obvious stage villain, seated, as was only seemly, in majestic solitude in the darkest corner of the room, glowered on these young gentlemen with a look of bilious dislike. The poor lads had not sixpence between them, and had walked in from their distant suburban homes hoping to carry back with them some justification for having adopted a profession which so far had only made them look supremely ridiculous in the eyes of their friends and rela- tions. But everything is comparative, and the antique tragedian, because they looked gentlemen, regarded them as the trivial and gilded recruits who were ruining the profession and taking the bread not to speak of the drink out of the mouths of serious workers like himself. Anthony surveyed them with the almost un- conscious expression of superiority with which he was wont to look on ordinary mortals. One of the well-dressed young gentlemen knew him slightly, and gave him a genial smile, which was met with a slight and rather bored inclination of the head. The recipient of what Anthony con- sidered a most gracious acknowledgment inwardly 24 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET determined never to give him a second chance of snubbing him, and told his friend that because that chap in the doorway had carried on a banner in London he considered himself too good to speak to a touring actor. Whilst Anthony stood waiting he was nearly carried off his feet by the entrance of a girlish figure of some forty or fifty summers, dressed in the extreme of juvenility, who, casting a hurried glance round, caught sight of the mother and child, flew at them and, having embraced both most affectionately, settled herself between them and, producing a huge puff, powdered her face most audaciously, lingering over her nose as though it were some rare work of art which it most certainly was. The mother asked her whether she had just finished, which question of course did not apply to the powdering, but to the conclusion of a professional engagement. This was exactly what the gifted young lady had wanted, and she burst into a perfect torrent of reminiscences, during which Anthony caught such words as, "Juliet, and Lady Isabel such a suc- cess nothing like it known before it, my dear. Mr. Manning, the Romeo Played it before ? Thousands of times." She kept one eye on Anthony as if he were a gallery. After a time the dulness of the place got on his nerves, and he went on to the next agent's ; and so on, through half a dozen offices, and found himself as usual at about three o'clock in the afternoon with nothing to do, and very hungry. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 25 He called at the rooms of one or two men he knew in the hope that they might be at home in company with afternoon tea, but as they were not he wended his way wearily towards the Park, where he thought he would rest till the time came to go to dinner. The idea had crossed his mind of asking at one friend's rooms if he might go in and write a note, on the off chance of there being a biscuit-box handy ; but he controlled himself. After all, it was not desirable to get a reputation for biscuit stealing. He was becoming thoroughly depressed again. It was quite obvious that only the unexpected and the miraculous could carry him upward to those heights of prosperity which would satisfy him. In this mood he found him- self passing through Grosvenor Square. He remembered ever afterwards that he had at the time felt a curious consciousness of impending events of importance. Halfway across the square he saw ahead of him a victoria drawn up at the kerb. A tall, aristocratic-looking man, who was hatless, and had evidently just come out of the house, was talking to a lady seated in the carriage. While Anthony was still three or four yards away some one passed him who said to his companion " That is Lord Cammarleigh the Marquis of Cammarleigh." Anthony gazed ahead with added curiosity, for every one is interested in seeing what a marquis is like, whatever some people may pre- tend to the contrary. He knew the Marquis of Cammarleigh by reputation for who did not ? 26 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET He was one of the richest peers in England, a great art collector, and a well-known dilettante. For years he had hovered round the game of politics, but without making any particular mark. Why his name was so prominently before the public it would have been difficult to say, but somehow he had always been a favourite of the Society papers and illustrated weeklies. He was constantly turning up in photographic groups in the centre of a house-party, or slightly to the right or left of Royalty. He was reputed to be one of those people to whom it seems a sheer impossibility not to grow richer and richer. These things Anthony remembered as he drew near and watched the tall figure of the marquis, bending courteously towards the woman in the carriage. As he drew nearer, Anthony noticed the curious restlessness of his eyes. They glanced hither and thither as if he were hunted, and Anthony found himself murmuring " That is a man who is afraid. He is a man with a secret." As Anthony passed, he brushed against him. Lord Cammarleigh turned round with an exclama- tion almost of terror. At that moment the lady in the carriage held out her hand, and an instant later she had driven away. Anthony was not wanting in courage, but in after years he would wonder in amazement whence came the spirit of sublime audacity with which he was animated at that moment. Perhaps if he had LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 27 had time to think, to calculate the possible chances for and against him, the scheme which he carried through would have seemed that of a lunatic, but the idea, together with a complete course of action, rose in his mind like magic. He ran swiftly up the steps, and, just as his lordship was about to enter the house, tapped him on the shoulder. Lord Cammarleigh turned, and their eyes met. " I know your secret," said Anthony, simply. Lord Cammarleigh grew livid and staggered back against the door pillar. They stood thus for some seconds, Anthony looking at his victim with pitiless eyes, Cammar- leigh breathing heavily, returning his gaze with a mute appeal for mercy. " What do you want ? " he asked at length. " I know your secret," repeated Anthony, opening his gray eyes in surprise at the other's question. Then, as he received no answer, and realising that he had gone too far to recede, he said gently " Shall we go inside ? You look upset, and your servants may hear." Poor Lord Cammarleigh could not know how very near his tormentor was at that moment to turning tail and bolting across the Square. Without a word he led the way into the house and down the spacious hall to a room at its extreme end. Anthony followed, bearing him- self with perfect assurance. He had always felt that he should never know real domestic comfort till he was lodged in a palace and fed off gold plate. 28 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET The room they entered was obviously the asylum of a guilty conscience. There was hardly any light, and what there was came through sensuously painted glass, shaded by thick green blinds of woven rushes. The ceiling was hidden by a tented roof of dark blue silk. The colour scheme was dominated everywhere by dark blue and yellow, complementing each other in a hun- dred subtle distinctions of tone. Japanese masks grinned from purple shadows and Chinese hangings embroidered with that subdued brilliance which the West has striven in vain to imitate. The lounges and divans suggested a desire for forgetfulness. On a small table of cedar wood, inlaid with ivory, lay a tiny jewelled pipe beside a miniature coffer of jade with gilt clasps. It was indeed a room in which to drug a conscience, or to reflect its morbid sorrows, which answers the same purpose. Lord Cammarleigh stood aside as Anthony entered. He then closed the door of black ebony, superbly carved to represent the entrance to a gloomy wood. He thrust a heavy silver bolt back into its socket, and drew the portiere of clinging yellow silk. Then he turned to Anthony, who was too well bred to follow his first inclina- tion and sink on to the most comfortable divan in the room, notwithstanding that he was worn out. His sense of humour broke the ice, for at the sight of Lord Cammarleigh's white drawn face staring at him from the yellow background, he broke into a peal of merriment. "Come, let us be friends," he said, still LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 29 laughing. The absolute terror in Lord Cam- marleigh's eyes died away. Anthony's laugh was not only charming, but in this case it was reassuring. It was a curious fact, but from the moment that Anthony entered this historic town mansion he was filled with an easy confidence that every- thing successful and wonderful might be ex- pected to happen. The very atmosphere of the place seemed to intoxicate and exhilarate him, urging him on to perform the impossible. He felt like a brilliant soul which had been wandering in an uncongenial atmosphere of material struggle and had returned to its proper home of splendour and regality. " I haven't a card," he continued, " but I am Anthony Brooke, gentleman." He emphasised the last word as if he wished to make Lord Cam- marleigh thoroughly understand that it would be better not to receive the statement sceptically. His lordship, however, who seemed unable to meet Anthony's frank gaze, gave a short, mirthless laugh of unbelief. " Let me implore you not to do that sort of thing," said Anthony, suavely. "You will con- stantly find yourself upsetting my nerves, and I'm not nearly so nice when my feelings are ruffled." Anthony's spirits were rising. He was ex- periencing the exhilaration of an actor who after years of striving is given a star part in which he can revel. Lord Cammarleigh was growing paler and paler. He rose and crossed the room, and, 30 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET pouring some brandy from a flask of old Flemish design into a glass, drank it. His uninvited guest kept on the alert. He had enough psychological instinct to detect at once that the dominant note of Lord Cammarleigh's character was cowardice, and its subdominant note treachery. " How did you find out ? " asked Lord Cam- marleigh, in a low, unsteady voice. Anthony looked at him and smiled indulgently. " I don't think I'll tell you that. In fact, I don't think it would be quite policy on my part. It's quite sufficient that I did find out." Lord Cammarleigh gulped down another glass of brandy. " What do you want ? " he asked at last, feeling somewhat fortified. A dreamy look came into Anthony's eye a look which was almost pathetic. " I want so many things," he said. " It would be quite dreadful if somebody were to ask me to say at once all the things I wanted I should never be able to remember them." "Do you mind coming to the point ?" said Lord Cammarleigh, with quite a show of courage. " Well, to begin with, I want a drink, although I'm sorry for your sake that that will not be all I shall want." He rose and helped himself to brandy. " May I ask you to ring for some soda- water ? " Lord Cammarleigh made a faint movement which might have meant rebellion ; but he modified LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 31 it to a gesture, and indicated a syphon on a table near. " I saw that," said Anthony, coolly, " but it's seltzer, and I don't care for anything but soda. May I ? " He touched the bell. His lordship rose indignantly, thought better of it, and sat down. When the servant appeared he gave the order. "By the way," said Anthony, as the man was leaving the room, " would you mind asking for some cake ? " He had been about to say "biscuits," but he was a little tired of biscuits. <( I am very fond of cake, except those chocolate things with nothing in them but walnuts as large as paving stones. I like cakes with plenty of currants and lemon peel in them." The shadow of a smile flitted across his face at the grave way in which both Cammarleigh and the servant listened to his dissertation on cake. " Will you bring some plum cake, Waters ? " said Lord Cammarleigh, throwing into the request all the dissimulation of a great actor. " Yes, my lord." Waters left the room. " I believe you are mad," said Lord Cammar- leigh. " I may be mad," answered Anthony ; " but I'm not " " Hush ! " said Lord Cammarleigh, in a terrified voice. " I was about to say * bad,' finished Anthony, imperturbably. He wondered if it were his fancy, or whether the grin on the Japanese mask above Lord Cammarleigh's head had broadened in 32 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET full enjoyment of the joke. "If you understood the philosophy of cake, you would know that it is always possible to trust a man who likes plum cake."' Lord Cammarleigh shrugged his shoulders impatiently. "You mustn't be petulant," said Anthony. " A petulant marquis is absurd. Your demeanour should imply ermine, even if a conventional age dresses you in a frock coat." The servant returned with the plum cake, and Anthony cut himself a thick slice, which he began to munch contentedly. " Have you ever been hungry, Lord Cammar- leigh?" Cammarleigh made no answer. It was quite evident that he was still showing temper ; so Anthony rippled on "Perhaps I should have said ( starving.' I have starved, and I was very nearly starving when your servant brought me this plum cake, a good Samaritan in plush breeches." Anthony, who had eaten his first slice of cake in an incredibly short space of time, cut himself another. " Your room is singularly heavy in tone for a guilty conscience. I should have thought something very light, some- thing to remind you always of simplicity and early spring mornings but then I don't suppose I'm quite a judge ; I've not got a guilty con- science. Still, at the same time, I should have thought simple furniture would have been more antiseptic." Lord Cammarleigh shivered. He stretched LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 33 * out one long, nervous, white hand towards the bell. Anthony gave him full time to ring it if he were so minded ; but the hand fell limply by his side. " I thought not. You were going to ring and have me shown out, weren't you ? How silly ! " He rose and went to the glass to arrange his tie, and whilst doing so kept one eye on the marquis's reflection. He thought he saw the gleam of a revolver. He turned without the least excitement and with a winning smile. " Now you know perfectly well that you would have done that at first if you had dared. One doesn't do that sort of thing in our days. You had better give that revolver to me. The want of it will cure you of theatricals." " Don't drive me too far," said Lord Cammarleigh, with some attempt at looking dangerous. " I'm not going to drive you at all. You are a fairy god-mother ; and you are going to drive me all the way to fortune, and " Anthony corrected himself. " No, not that ; because, frankly speaking, I intend to do without you as soon as ever I can." He finished his third piece of cake, drank his brandy and soda, helped himself to another, and, taking a cigarette from a cedar-wood box near, lighted it. Then he settled himself in the lounge with the air of one who had no present intention of bringing his visit to an end. " I have an appointment at half-past five." D 34 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Then perhaps you had better send a telegram before we begin." " Look here ! " spluttered Cammarleigh. "Send the telegram," said Anthony, plain- tively. And the telegram was sent. Whilst Cammarleigh was writing it a small oil painting caught Anthony's eye. It was a copy of the Beatrice Cenci. As Lord Cammarleigh was handing the tele- gram to the servant, Anthony crossed to examine the picture more closely. " Strange," he said, turning round as the door closed, " but I have known men who did not admire that face. You do, of course ? " Lord Cammarleigh, appealed to in his weak point, answered " I think it is the most beautiful face in the whole world." " That is exactly what I think ; but, then, it cannot mean to you what it does to me. With men of your wealth the reign of terror must begin very early." Lord Cammarleigh looked at him question- ingly. " Oh, I don't mean that," said Anthony. " I mean another reign of terror the terror of fulfil- ment." He threw himself again on to the lounge. " Now let me put my case in a nutshell. I am, as 1 said before, Anthony Brooke, gentleman. I have neither fortune nor prospects, but many large fortunes are made by the discovery and patenting of secrets. I patent your secret by keeping it to LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 35 myself. I propose, till I have decided what I wish to be, and how and where I wish to live, to remain here as your private secretary. By the way, have you a private secretary ? " I have." Lord Cammarleigh spoke with emphasis, as it to imply that such being the case Anthony must put the idea out of his head ; but he answered instead " Quite so. Poor young man, he will have to go. Never mind, you can compensate him." Lord Cammarleigh pulled himself together by a supreme effort. He rose and crossed to the fireplace with a quite magnificent display of self- possession. " I must ask you to be careful," he said. " Name your price and go." Anthony laughed. " I haven't decided on that point yet, and I am certainly not going. And don't begin talking like a melodramatic heroine, because, you see, there is nothing of the villain about me." " Mr. Brooke " " You may call me Tony, if you like." " Thank you ; I'd rather call you nothing of the kind." " I don't see why not ; I think it's rather a nice name." " Your price." " If you talk to me in that way I shall at once expose you." It seemed to Lord Cammarleigh that there was a faint suggestion of the wild cat in the young man's appearance as he gathered himself together, 3 6 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET almost crouched on the lounge and looked at him with his eyes a little closer together. " Yes," continued Anthony, " the position of your private secretary will suit me admirably. You shall give me a suite of rooms, and I will draw my salary as I want it." They had arrived at the question of money, and Anthony watched Lord Cammarleigh keenly, and detected at once that he winced. " Oh, I shan't ruin you. I'm really much too clever for that." " A suite of rooms here ? Absurd ! " " You surely don't mean to infer that I should be out of place ? Because that would be absurd. I dare say there's just the least taint of the dis- reputable about me. People of the most irre- proachable style get that when they are very hard up something furtive in the eye a nervous movement of the shoulders. I don't know what it is exactly. Can you explain ? " Lord Cammarleigh could not, and said so. " I wonder whether it is that the cut of one's clothes is in such marked contrast to their shabbi- ness. Now, this was quite a nice suit when it was new. I had it made without any pockets or buttons. I have always wanted to do away with pockets and buttons as much as possible, and perhaps now that I am going to be a personage I shall have some influence." Lord Cammarleigh was trying to persuade himself that his uninvited guest was a lunatic, and that the proper thing to do was to have him turned out at once ; but if he really knew LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 37 and at the thought a cold sweat broke out on Lord Cammarleigh's forehead he was entirely in his power. The mere idea of Anthony's being in possession of his secret filled him with such horror that he found himself working hard to keep him in a good temper. "I should think a very nice suit might be made without buttons or pockets," he said soothingly. "Yes ; but don't say it as if you were talking to a child or a lunatic. I want you to think the matter out. But for the moment let us get back to the suite of rooms." Lord Cammarleigh, who was beginning to see that Anthony had no intention of denouncing him as long as he was given his own way to a certain extent, became quite argumentative, and exerted all his diplomacy to getting him out of the house, at any rate, till he had had time to think the matter over. But Anthony saw exactly what his main object was, and fenced with the greatest enjoyment. " Why don't you go and stay at the Metropole, and come and discuss it in the morning, Mr. Brooke ? " suggested Lord Cammarleigh, suavely. " Because if I went to any hotel at all I should go to Claridge's. You may not believe it, but I have a passion for restraint and the unostentatious." " You will find this house very uncomfortable. I only live in it myself because well, because of old associations," concluded Lord Cammarleigh, weakly. Anthony laughed. "You don't know how 38 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET funny the idea of your doing anything for the sake of sentiment is." He was noticing with amuse- ment the vein of conciliatory restraint that ran through all Cammarleigh's remarks. "You might take a flat. One can get very nice furnished flats." " Ah, but, you see, I want to be identified with you. It is that which is going to be the c Open Sesame * to all the pleasant places of this life. I love beautiful women, and you know so many." " I don't as a rule take my secretary every- where." " No ; but you are going to take me. That's just the point. By the way, where is he ? " " He has gone out of town his mother is ill." " So much the better I mean, so much the better that he is gone out of town. Send his luggage after him, together with a year's salary." " A year's salary ? Nonsense ! " " Oh yes, it must be a year's salary. I'm not mean, if you are. And I'm not going to do a fellow-derelict out of a comfortable home without full compensation." Lord Cammarleigh was silent for a moment, and then he turned round, and said firmly Look here " " I am looking," said Anthony. " I haven't taken my eyes off you since you made that silly scene with the revolver." Cammarleigh rose. " I have decided not to put up with this any longer." " If that is really the case I call it very courageous. How shall we go ? " LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 39 " What do you mean ? " " Well, I don't suppose you want to be taken up by an ordinary policeman, do you ? I think you ought at least to rise to the dignity of a man in plain clothes." Lord Cammarleigh turned green. " You know what you are ? " he hissed. Anthony looked at him pityingly. " I believe you are going to say ( blackmailer,' and I don't want you to say that ; I'd much rather go and look over the house." He moved towards the door. For one moment Cammarleigh considered the feasibility of leaping on his persecutor from behind and throttling him. He was almost in the act of doing so when he remembered that perhaps others might know of his whereabouts. He might be one of a gang. Anthony paused, with his hand on the door. " As far as your servants are concerned you had better tell them at once that I am your new secretary, and you might add that I am likely to have a great deal more authority than my pre- decessors. I don't suppose they'll make much comment ; you are the sort of man who is always having new secretaries." They went out of the room, and Cammarleigh, feeling that it was best to put a pleasant face on the matter, attempted with some difficulty to equal Anthony in light conversation. The house was not unlike many other town mansions of the nobility, frankly hideous outside, very magnificent inside. It was not only in rich- ness that the difference consisted ; there was an 40 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET absolute contrast of style. The splendid marble staircase, branching off to right and left ; the corridors with their arched ceilings, the exquisite bronzes and statuary, had hardly been suggested by the flat, unpretending exterior. The ugliness of the outside and the magnificence of the inside were characteristic of the tendency of wealth to keep everything for itself, coupled with a politic desire to conceal its splendour from the poor. On the landing at the top of the first flight of stairs a magnificent copy in marble of The Laocoon was flooded by the evening sun, which came through painted glass. In the centre of the hall was a fountain from Hadrian's villa with an Antinous brooding over the waters. Two extra- ordinarily fine Turners faced each other from the walls on each side of the Laocoon. They ascended to the first floor. " I suppose there are no bedrooms on this floor ? " " Hardly," said Cammarleigh. " There are nothing but reception rooms here." " I suppose so. I hope," he added, " that I am not making you feel like a landlady trying to secure a good lodger. You can't think what a change all this will be to me. I've been living in one room and a very small room at that." They went over the first floor, through one drawing-room after another. Anthony realised at once what a perfect background they must make for a gathering of distinguished men and beautiful women. The tall windows, with their LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 41 heavy curtains of old rose brocade, the exquisite inlaid floors, the walls, panelled with opulent silks, subdued in tone, responded admirably to the Louis Quinze furniture. Anthony had never been in such a room as this in his life, but he knew that he ought to have been, for he felt sensuously at home. " You know, Cammarleigh," he said pleasantly, " to find oneself in a room like this is to wake out of an ugly dream. I wish you could be poor for a year. It would do you so much good or harm 1 don't quite know which." They went on to the next floor. " I suppose you sleep here ? " Lord Cammarleigh was trying in vain to surmount a very natural sulkiness. He felt that it would be infinitely more dignified to reply to Anthony's light conversation with equal banter. He found it difficult, however. " These are my rooms," he said. " You don't propose to turn me out of them, do you ? " It was a clumsy pleasantry, and Anthony looked quite hurt. "Cammarleigh, don't. You hurt me you really do. Have I done anything which is wanting in taste ? " " I was only joking," answered Cammarleigh, penitently. " I know ; but I shouldn't try to joke just yet, if I were you. You know you don't feel like it. Take me seriously for a time, and you'll feel more like joking afterwards. I should like to see your rooms, though." 42 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET There were four of them : a bathroom, a bedroom, a dressing-room, and a room that a middle-class woman would have called a boudoir. " In case you don't feel like showing up, I suppose, even to the members of your house- hold ? " said Anthony, as he looked round the latter room approvingly. " I breakfast here. I hate meeting people in the early morning." " I'm glad of that. I hope you won't want me to answer your letters at sunrise, or anything of that kind." " You can't very well answer them before the postman comes." " No, of course not. I never thought of that. How clever of you ! " They ascended to the next story. " I think," said Anthony, " it will look more respectful if I sleep on the floor above you." He made for the rooms that were just over Lord Cammarleigh's. " Were these rooms your late secretary's ? " "He slept at the back," said Lord Cammar- leigh, tartly. " Did he ? Poor young man he would ! But I don't think I should like to sleep at the back." " It was good enough for him," answered Cammarleigh, "and he belonged to a younger branch of the family." " Cammarleigh, how vulgar of you ! I don't belong to any particular family, so I at least escape the humiliation of being a poor relation." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 43 " He slept at the back," answered Lord Cam- marleigh, sulkily. " Ah ; but he didn't know," began Anthony. " S-sh ! " said Cammarleigh, hastily. Any inclination on Anthony's part to expatiate on the dreaded subject was sufficient to make him turn ashen. " Do I sleep in the back or the front ? " asked Anthony, sweetly. " Sleep where you like," answered Cammar- leigh, shortly. Anthony inspected the rooms thoroughly. " I don't think it would look quite respectful," he said, " if I had as many rooms as you, so I'll have one less, and I'll do without a sitting-room. Oh, stay, though, I can call it a workroom, can't I ? And then it won't matter my having four rooms, after all." " I am sure you will find them very nice," said Cammarleigh, hastily. He was evidently anxious to get out of the room, and Anthony's unerring instinct detected why. " If you hadn't been in such a hurry, Cammar- leigh, I might not have noticed that the rooms want redecorating." "They were only done up two years ago," protested the marquis. " Yes, but they were done up for somebody who belonged to a younger branch of the family. Now they are going to be done up for me. Besides, the fashions in decoration move at such a rate. I don't think a preference for living amongst beautiful surroundings is a sign of 44 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET effeminacy, do you ? But of course you don't ; if you did your own rooms would not be in such perfect taste." " I think people should regard what is suitable to their station," said Cammarleigh, with a stiff upper lip and a last attempt to assert his expiring dignity and put Anthony in his place. " Station station ? " said Anthony, vaguely. " You're not thinking of flight, are you Victoria and Waterloo, and all that sort of thing ? " " You know I'm not," said Cammarleigh, pettishly. They went downstairs again, and Cammar- leigh, at Anthony's suggestion, sent for Mr. Gregsbury, the butler, and explained the new secretary's arrival and status. " Another of 'em ? I wonder how long Vll stop ! " was Mr. Gregsbury's reflection. As he was going, Anthony whispered some- thing to Cammarleigh. Cammarleigh had the genius of an aristocrat for making the best of an unpleasant situation, and he addressed Gregsbury as though what he was saying was quite of his own inspiration. " My doctor has advised me, Gregsbury, to concern myself as little as possible with my business affairs. Mr. Brooke will have absolute control over this house." Mr. Gregsbury paused and glanced at An- thony. The latter managed to throw into a sweet smile just enough of the fellow-conspirator to convey to Mr. Gregsbury that so long as he did not interfere with the new secretary, the new LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 45 secretary would not interfere with him. They understood one another, and Mr. Gregsbury withdrew. "And now," said Anthony, "what about money ? " Cammarleigh shivered. It was his weak point. The mere idea that he was to be finan- cially at the mercy of this youth, with an obvious capacity for extravagance, was terrifying. The owner of such a figure would place no limit to the clothes with which he would adorn it. He would probably want a motor-car of his own. Even if he were content with one belonging to his host it would be very inconvenient. The more he looked at Anthony the more nervous he became. He wondered if his knowledge were as complete as he pretended. Anthony saw that he was get- ting feverish, and, being of a sympathetic nature, was disinclined to harry him further for the moment. "Perhaps," he said kindly, "you have had enough for one day. Write me a cheque for two hundred and fifty, and " For one moment Cammarleigh thought that Anthony was going to offer to relieve him of his presence. "And I'll leave the question of finances till to-morrow." Cammarleigh could not help reflecting that if he wanted two hundred and fifty pounds to carry him over till the next morning his demands would amount to something like fifteen hundred a week. He broke out into a cold sweat. 46 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " By the way, what is your income, Cammar- leigh?" " Incomes are never what they profess to be on paper, you know." Anthony shook his forefinger reprovingly. " Come, come. Don't prevaricate. What is your income ? " " It's supposed to be eighty thousand a year, but what with one expense and another " " I shall deal with it," said Anthony, " as if it were eighty thousand." Lord Cammarleigh groaned. " You are not writing the cheque for two hundred and fifty," said Anthony, gently. " You don't know the terrible charges " " Why anticipate terrible charges ? If they take place it will be entirely your own fault." " I was going to say," continued Cammar- leigh, irritably, " that you don't know the terrible charges there are on my income." Oh ! " " There is my sister, Lady Editha. I have to pay her two thousand a year, and my aunt, the Duchess of Kilburn Kilburn is as rich as he can be ; but, all the same, she takes the money." " Why didn't they get a lump sum down ? " said Anthony. " I don't know, but they didn't. And then there's Cammarleigh Abbey to keep up. It's only fit to be a royal palace." " How nice ! " said Anthony. " I shall like that." " No, you won't," said Cammarleigh, " because LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 47 I hardly ever open it, and when I do I only open one wing of it." " Well, it's never too late to mend," said Anthony, cheerfully. " And there's " began Cammarleigh. " Cammarleigh, you are not writing that cheque." " Won't a hundred do ? " " No ; I'm afraid it won't." " You can't spend two hundred and fifty between now and to-morrow." " Can't I ? You don't know anything about me. By the way," he added, " the banks are shut ! " " Of course they are." " And I must order some clothes between now and dinner ! Who is your tailor ! " Cammarleigh mentioned a firm of European reputation. " Simply no good to me," said Anthony. " They are the sort of people who would consider it bad form to have one's clothes too well cut. After all, the decadents are the only people who know how to dress. Well, give me the cheque and a few fivers to go on with." Cammarleigh, with a sigh, crossed to his desk, and, unlocking a little drawer, took out a pocket- book. He turned his back on Anthony, so that what he was doing should not be seen, and after some fumbling handed him two five-pound notes. " I am afraid that is all I have about me," he said quite sweetly. 48 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Strictly speaking, I dare say that's true ; but you've got some more in that drawer." " Have I ? " asked Cammarleigh, weakly. <c Of course you have. Come, come, don't be childish. Just think, all these little pre- varications only lead to humiliation. Now, you've got to open that drawer again and disclose the fact that you're nothing more nor less than a storyteller." And it was exactly what Cammarleigh had to do. He managed to rake together thirty-five pounds. " That will enable me to get my dress clothes out of pawn. Have you ever pawned any- thing ? " " Of course not." "It's a splendid education in the value of things. You would be surprised how little you would fetch at a pawnbroker's. They lend you a third of what they consider to be the value, and usually that is about a tenth of what you had estimated the third to be. I have got some tickets here." He took out his letter-case and produced a score or so of little pieces of paste- board. " Quite a lot of them, aren't there ? " "It seems to me a very vulgar habit," said Cammarleigh. " Very few things are vulgar in themselves ; it is people who are vulgar. Now, you were vulgar in throwing my poverty in my face in that way. This is the ticket for my watch I had almost given up all hope of seeing it again. It runs out on Monday." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 49 "Runs down, you mean," said Cammarleigh. "No, I don't mean anything of the kind. When I say it runs out I mean that it becomes the property of the pawnbroker at least, it would have done if it hadn't been for your kindness." Cammarleigh literally snorted. Anthony went on affectionately looking over his tickets. " That's for my pearl tie-pin. I shall get that out, because a girl gave it to me. Of course, it's very unpretentious ; but I shall always value it, although I am going to have much better things. You've never known the agony of pawning things that a girl has given you, have you, Cammarleigh ? " "I dislike receiving presents," said Cam- marleigh, frigidly. "Ah, you are like the man with twenty thousand a year, who, when I asked him to lend me a fiver, replied that he never borrowed and never lent." " A very good rule." " Excellent, when you have twenty thousand a year. I shan't get many of my clothes out," he continued reflectively. "They would be quite old-fashioned now ; and men's fashions change more and more every year." " I have had the suit I have got on five years," said Cammarleigh, impressively. I know." ' " How do you mean you know ? " " Because that lapel is carried two inches too high ; there is too much stuff in the front of the 50 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET coat ; the waist is too low, and the frock is too short. I can't see the back, but I am sure it's all wrong. You see, it's a dangerous thing to be a marquis. I don't suppose anybody has ever told you the truth about your clothes before?" "If you are going to take up your abode in this house, I shall be glad if you will avoid personalities." " You may be sure I shall avoid anything which is likely to lead to the unpleasant. Life should be a fairy story. You dine at half-past eight, I believe ? " " I am dining out." " Oh no, but you can't. I should be dread- fully hurt if you dined out the evening of my arrival." " I am dining with the Prime Minister." " You will dine with me here, and I shall be back in good time." Anthony went out. Cammarleigh, left alone, pinched himself hard three times, hurting himself as much as his thoroughly selfish nature would allow, and then looked round the room vaguely. Had it been a dream ? No ; on the table stood the remains of a brandy and soda, and in a small, inlaid ashtray were the ends of several cigarettes. However, Anthony was gone ; that was certain, and he was determined that he should not re-enter the house. He rang the bell, and told the servant who answered it to send Gregsbury to him. Mr. Gregsbury, disturbed in his perusal of LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 51 the evening paper, arrived on the scene looking a little sulky. " You will " began Cammarleigh, firmly. Then he remembered the strength of Anthony's chin. If he really possessed the knowledge to which he pretended no, the thought was too terrible. At the mere idea he stood with his mouth open feeling as if all power of thinking had left him. Then he realised that Gregsbury was waiting, and that he must make up his mind. " You will," he said, in a weak, toneless voice, " make Mr. Brooke as comfortable as possible." CHAPTER IV ANTHONY entered a cab and drove to his lodgings. The landlady herself opened the door, and asked him quite sweetly if he would like some tea. He had no malice in his nature, and always liked to part friends with people if possible, so he partook of the contents of a large breakfast cup, a solution of tannin, slightly diluted by a gray-whitey fluid, by courtesy placed in a milk-jug. In a small china bowl by its side were some little blocks of a flinty substance, which, when dissolved in the tea, appeared to have a somewhat sweet flavour. This curious concoction, known amongst the lower classes as tea, was accepted by Anthony in the spirit in which it was offered. From the vantage of his rooms he sent special messengers in all directions for such articles as he deemed it worth while to rescue from captivity. Then he packed his bags, and having paid his bill and given the small son of the house a sovereign to buy acid drops with, sent his luggage off" to Grosvenor Square in charge of a messenger boy, while he himself entered another cab and drove towards Piccadilly. He spent a delightful hour buying those things without which he could not very well manage to get through the evening. Such dress ties as he had were months out of date. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 53 He was obliged to buy some evening shirts too. A ready-made shirt, even of the best, is never quite satisfactory, and though it should fit perfectly the wearer is always conscious that it was ready-made. It was delightfully exhilarating to know that it did not matter how long he kept his hansom, and as he went from one shop to the other making his pur- chases his spirits rose. It was all so deliciously unreal. He had absolutely no sense of danger ; he was possessed of a certainty that the adventure would succeed, just because it was like nothing else he had ever heard of before. So he bought beautiful ties of the best materials at a guinea each, and evening ties of just that finish and cut which could lift evening dress out of the commonplace. There was a sense of extreme luxury in driving about the same streets which he had so lately tramped under such a heavy load of depression. He reproached himself for those moments of darkness when he had admitted the suspicion that he might be destined to submersion. Of course he had never really believed it ; he had always known that his life-story was to be played on a large stage, that romance comes to the romantic as the sunlight to the flower. He was philosopher enough to know that we get what we attract, and that that is the great catastrophe. He quite realised that the great thing was not to test the situation by common sense, but to let it develop along its own abnormal lines, and that success in this direction would depend on the sustaining power of his vitality in an artificial atmosphere. 54 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET He was naturally inquisitive as to what it was that Cammarleigh had done. Not that he was going to waste his time in trying to find out ; that would be silly. From Cammarleigh's cha- racter it was not easy to gauge whether his guilt were great or small. His was the sort of tempera- ment which would crawl through years of remorse, gathering more and more terrors to itself as it went. Perhaps he was a monomaniac, and had never done anything at all ; and this idea seemed so deliciously humorous that Anthony burst out laughing as his hansom was jammed in a crush near Devonshire House. A painted, patrician dame of advanced middle age, enormously stout, and crowned with a ridiculous golden wig, was roused from her repose of repletion to sit up in her victoria and gaze at him with amazement. Anthony was not in the least confused, but returned her look with a sweet smile, till the interrupted stream of traffic flowed on again. As he neared Grosvenor Square he began to debate what line of action he should take if Cammarleigh should be foolish enough to have the door shut in his face. It was a remote con- tingency, for whatever Cammarleigh had done, it had become a sufficiently powerful factor in his conscience to atrophy his will power. As Anthony's hansom drove up, any slight trepidation he may have felt was entirely removed by the obsequious way in which the footman hurried out to take his packages. Anthony grasped at once that he swayed Lord Cammarleigh even more than he had imagined. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 55 " He is evidently only too anxious that the servants should be civil to me," he reflected. The household staff took to him at once, as he had intended they should. He knew to perfection how to combine a certain camaraderie without giving the least encouragement to familiarity. He started at an advantage, for it appeared that his nominal predecessor had not been a favourite, his one aim and object having been to pander to Lord Cammarleigh's passion for economy. As Anthony would not be obliged to consider pounds, shillings, and pence too closely he would shine by com- parison, although he was fully aware that there is no surer means of ruining a house full of inso- lent servants than by allowing unlimited waste. " Where is his lordship ? " he asked Gregsbury. " His lordship is, I fancy, dressing, sir." Anthony did not propose to give the position a false appearance by having a servant of his own ; at the same time, one or two diplomatically worded speeches to Mr. Gregsbury ensured to himself the exclusive service of an intelligent young footman. Anthony dressed leisurely and descended to a very comfortable room next to the dining-room, where it was the habit for small parties to assemble before going in to dinner. He found Lord Cammarleigh looking gloomily out of the window. He closed the door gently and went over and stood by him. Cammarleigh took not the least notice, but stared doggedly in front of him. " I've rather enjoyed myself," said Anthony, pleasantly ; and, as Cammarleigh remained silent, 56 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET he said, with a faint touch of irritation in his voice, " Why don't you laugh, Cammarleigh ? Do laugh ! " And then, as there was still silence, he continued : " It passes my comprehension how any human being can fail to see the humour of the situation. Come, do laugh ! " Cammarleigh gave a hard, mirthless chuckle. " It's damned funny, isn't it ! " he said. " Here have I offended the Prime Minister, and I'm sitting down to dinner with a man I don't know from Adam." " That's not true," said Anthony. " You do know me from Adam. There's an enormous difference between a fig leaf and a well-cut dress suit." Cammarleigh burst into hysterical laughter, loud and prolonged, and finally, exhausted, flung himself into an armchair. At any rate, he had seen the humour of it at last. But Anthony looked at him a little disapprovingly. " Don't overdo it." Suddenly Cammarleigh sprang to his feet. " Look here, Mr. Brooke, who the devil are you ? If we are seen together, how do I know that people won't recognise you as a thoroughly disreputable character ? " "You needn't be afraid," said Anthony. " When I tell you that I have been an actor you know the worst." Cammarleigh looked mollified, and they went to dinner. Cammarleigh had very soon, un- doubtedly, taken too much to drink. Anthony had never known what it was to be drunk, and LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 57 by the time the servants had withdrawn he had Cammarleigh well in hand, and had impressed him with the fact that he was an exceedingly pleasant companion. " I'm so glad the ice is broken at last," he said, leaning back and puffing the smoke of an exquisite cigar into the air. " You must try and forget our real relations, and simply look upon yourself as my benefactor. You have a terribly wrong view of life, Cammarleigh ; you are pre- pared to be a pessimist at the least provocation." "Life is a pretty gloomy affair, as a rule." " I really don't understand it. A man with your wealth is simply asked to live, to expand and you refuse to do so ! " " How do you know ? " interrupted Cammar- leigh, a little thickly. " Well, you are surely not going to hold that you've ever expanded ? No, and it isn't as though you had any deep philosophical pessimism gnaw- ing at your mind. It surely shows an innate ugliness in human nature to refuse to live in the sunlight when it has the chance. Of course, you're dyspeptic. One can see that at a glance. By the way, I want you to ask your sister, Lady Editha Travers, to meet me." Cammarleigh pulled himself together, and said stiffly, his dignity made somewhat ridiculous by the slight suggestion of intoxication "My sister and I do not speak. We have had no communication, except through our soli- citors, for some years." " Really, Cammarleigh, how you do distort 58 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET and deform life ! Fancy going out of your way to make a quarrel like that ! I am sure it must be your fault." "I didn't go out of my way at all," said Cammarleigh, a little surprised to find himself on his defence in such a matter before this youth from nowhere. " My sister behaved extremely badly." " You mean that she refused to be robbed." " How do you know that I mean, nothing of the kind." " How long has this quarrel been going on ? " asked Anthony, ignoring Cammarleigh's inter- ruption. "About five years," answered Cammarleigh, shortly. " And I don't want to be cross-examined about my family affairs." "Ah, I am afraid we can't have life as we want it. The point is, this quarrel must cease." " What do you mean ? " " You will give a dinner-party at which I shall meet your sister." " Certainly not." " Or a luncheon-party," said Anthony, con- tinuing his speech as if he had not been interrupted. " I shall do nothing of the kind." " Cammarleigh ! " said Anthony, wearily. " What is the good of talking like that, when you know perfectly well that you will do as I " he paused and finished considerately, and in a gentle voice " ask you." " What do you want to know my sister for ? " " That's my affair. She is your nearest female LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 59 relative, and it's important that she should recog- nise me for your own sake as well as mine." " Look here, you are playing a very dangerous game." " Do you think so ? I don't. However, there's no need to discuss it further." " I don't think so either," said Cammarleigh. Anthony laughed and lit another cigar. Cam- marleigh's pertinacity in pretending not to realise that he was going to do as he was told was quite grotesque. "Just think," said Anthony. " I shall be able to pay all my debts no, I don't think I shall do that ; I am quite convinced that there is some- thing immoral in paying all one's debts." " I always pay mine," said Cammarleigh. " I dare say you do. I can't say that I should take you as a moral example. But, as I was say- ing, it is immoral to pay one's debts. It is a thing which grows on one. I once knew a fellow quite young who was induced to begin paying off his debts, and he never stopped till he had finished." " I should have thought that was a good thing." " It thoroughly demoralised him, and he has lived a hole-and-corner existence ever since." " You are talking nonsense." " Solvency is a vice of middle age. I think," said Anthony, " it is a pity you have no sense of humour. If you had, we might meet on common ground. Supposing you start a course of reading. You might begin with Dickens. It is elementary." 60 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " I detest Dickens." " That is a bad sign. No cultivated intellect really dislikes Dickens. Shall we read Boccaccio together ? " Cammarleigh made no reply. " If you really want to snub me," said Anthony, " you should raise your eyebrows and say, * You are impertinent.' It is always effective. I think, perhaps," he continued, returning to the subject of Lady Editha, " you had better ask your sister to lunch, when you can tell her how sorry you are for everything you have done, and express a hope that you will be better friends in the future. Yes, a tete-a-tete lunch will be best." " I wouldn't be left alone with my sister for the world," snapped Cammarleigh. "We have absolutely nothing in common." " Well, of course, if you like, I'll come in to lunch late ; but I thought you would sooner have her to yourself after such a long estrangement. However, it's settled. I think I'll just take a stroll as far as the Serpentine before going to bed." But Cammarleigh insisted on accompanying him. He felt safer whilst he had his eye on him. CHAPTER V So much like a dream did the events of the day before seem to Anthony, that when he woke up the next morning he lay for quite a long time expecting to hear a knock at the door, and Mrs. Leech's voice demanding to know if he had the money to pay for his breakfast. What a pity that such a beautiful dream could not have lasted ! Another long, wretched day lay before him, and with a feeling of profound gloom he just opened his eyes for a moment, and wondered how it was possible for Mrs. Leech to have re- papered the room since the previous morning, reflecting how curious it was that he should not have noticed it when he reached home the night before. Strange that he could not remember where he had spent the evening. Then he opened his eyes with surprise. This was certainly not Mrs. Leech's room, neither were the sheets he was lying between Mrs. Leech's sheets. They brushed against his toes, conveying a pleasant impression of being the best that could be bought. The sensuous, warm light of a summer morning struggled through the sun-blinds, which veiled three large, important-looking windows, and fell across the thick, green carpet, the delicacy and 62 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET sheen of which almost suggested the mossy floor of some woodland dell. Anthony sat up and gazed around him. In a flash he remembered all the events of the day before. Viewed by the sober light of early morning, his position appeared most precarious. He looked at the few papers lying on the table by his bedside, and then sorted them hurriedly. Yes, there was undoubtedly the cheque for two hundred and fifty pounds made payable to Anthony Brooke, and signed by Cammarleigh. He almost thought that he could hear the tramp of officers of the law on the staircase out- side. At any rate, he felt that the best thing he could do was to get out of the house as quickly as possible with what ready money he had. Whether he should cash the cheque would be a question for future consideration. He looked at his watch the watch which he had taken out of pawn the day before. It was half-past eight. How soundly he must have slept ! The whole household would be awake by now. There was no time to be lost, and he was about to jump out of bed when the door opened, and the man he had singled out for his own personal service entered with a small tray. He set it down by the bedside, and, after asking Anthony quite respectfully how he had slept, took his clothes and went out. So far it was evident that Lord Cammarleigh had not sent for the police. His courage returned to him, and he gradually found himself sipping his tea and thinking the matter over, his LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 63 confidence quite restored. The impossible always seems more impossible in the very early morning. After all, there was no particular reason why Cammarleigh should have recovered his courage. He had shown himself to be of an abject nature indeed ; in fact, Anthony could foresee that such weakness might become a little monotonous. His crime must have been a very serious one to have reduced him to such a state of sub- servience. Anthony felt that he would have to make up his mind to one of two courses : either he must abandon the entire scheme and make a bolt for it, or he must carry it through with a high hand, and without any flinching. He had gathered the previous evening that Cammarleigh seldom rose before ten, and had never been visible to his secretary till half-past. Breakfast was not a meal that Anthony affected. He was of the type that views the morning with a weary eye. Cammarleigh's was eminently the house to suit him, for the servant suggested that he should have breakfast in the small sitting- room which opened out of his bedroom. He took his time, and smoked a cigarette and read a chapter or two of a French novel before sending down to ask if Lord Cammarleigh was ready to see him. He was quite prepared for the servant to return with the message that his lordship did not propose to receive him at all, in which case, of course, he would at once go to him and reduce him to a proper state of submission. It would be very much better that he should take entire control of the household. He could quite 64 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET see that, for all Cammarleigh's niggardly methods, the servants were robbing him right and left. He had no objection to Gregsbury making a comfort- able commission, but he must arrange that things should be done more expeditiously than they were at present. The cook would have to go, for although the dinner the night before had been quite eatable, it was not the work of genius it should have been. Anthony almost suspected that the cook was a woman ; not that it is impos- sible for a woman to cook as well as a man, but very few are able to do so. Anthony was looking ahead. He was determined that the house should be the pleasantest in London, that people should want to come to it, and that it should be known that those who did not please him would not be invited. The servant returned with a message that Lord Cammarleigh would see him. His lordship was in bed, but he would be glad if Mr. Brooke would go to his room. Lord Cammarleigh's bedroom was darkened by heavy sun-blinds. There was a huge bed in one corner of the room, and out of a foamy sea of sheets peered Cammarleigh's face, cadaverous and haunted. He looked like the nightmare of a decadent artist. He had evidently spent a sleep- less night with his secret. He fixed his eyes upon Anthony with a gaze of terrified inquiry as he entered the room. His lordship's valet closed the door and left them together. Cammarleigh waited with a curious look of apprehension for Anthony to speak. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 65 " I am afraid you have had a bad night," Anthony said, in a voice which his hearer found very restful. Cammarleigh sank back. This young man with the pleasant voice and ingratiating smile was certainly the most original villain imaginable. " Why, you haven't opened your letters yet," said Anthony. He seated himself by the table at the bedside. " I know what it is. Since you woke up you have been working yourself into a positive state of fever about me, wondering what it would be like to meet me after all that happened yesterday." " As you are here, I suppose I shall have to put up with you," said Cammarleigh, with a short, hard laugh. " Exactly. Then why worry ? Shall I open your letters ? I can just read you the signatures, and then you can judge whether you want to hear what the people have got to say." Cammarleigh was somewhat astonished to find that Anthony really contemplated performing the duties of a secretary. Whether it was merely that he did so in order to have a firmer grasp over his doings he could not say, but, at any rate, it would give the situation an air of respectability before the servants. Anthony opened one or two letters, and as Cammarleigh was unacquainted with the signatures he read them out. "Here are two people so ignorant of your character, Cammarleigh, that they have actually wasted time and, to them, valuable notepaper, not 66 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET to speak of a penny stamp, in writing you begging letters." Cammarleigh chuckled. The idea amused him. " I believe in the organisation of charity," he said. "You would," said Anthony, tartly. " Philanthropy in most cases means the manu- facture of paupers." " Oh yes, we all interpret the command to love our fellow-creatures in our own way. There is a rough justice in killing out the surplus popula- tion. The command is, { Little children, love one another.' I suppose your reply at the Judgment Day will be that in bringing home to the poor the inexorable logic of facts you were doing them the greatest kindness and the beauty of it is that such a creed eliminates sacrifice." Cammarleigh felt that it was a little trying to be lectured in this way by a blackmailer. Anthony tore up the letters and dropped them into the wastepaper basket. " Here is a letter from your sister, Lady Editha." " What does she say ? " " Do you really think I had better read it ? " asked Anthony, deprecatingly. " It doesn't matter I know perfectly what is in it. She threatens to involve me in another law case if I don't do exactly as she wants, I suppose ? " Anthony glanced over the letter. " Yes, that is what she says." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 67 " Tear it up." " No, I think we'll keep it, and then we can discuss it later on." " What do you mean ? " Cammarleigh sat up in bed angrily. " I will explain later." And Anthony went on opening the correspondence. " * Your affec- tionate nephew, Tolly.' I shouldn't have thought you had such a thing." " I have three nephews," said Cammarleigh, stiffly. " I was referring to the adjective." " What does he want ? " snapped Cammar- leigh. " I notice that he is at Eton," said Anthony, looking at the address. " As his father is always complaining of poverty, he ought to be at a Board School." " You surely don't want to educate the boy, do you ? " " I don't like that sort of joke," said Cam- marleigh ; " it's old-fashioned." " I am bound to admit that it has the atmo- sphere of a more trivial and delightful day than our own. Now, I will read you what Tolly has to say." " I don't want to hear." " I know nothing which more denotes a hard nature than the refusal to listen when children are talking." He began to read the letter. " { My dear Uncle, I am in the most dreadful trouble. I owe ten pounds to a boy in this house which I have lost at Bridge. It is all a dreadful muddle, 68 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET as we are not supposed to play cards at all. Would you mind lending it to me till I am 21 ? Please don't tell Mamma, as she says that if any of us ever asked you for anything she would die of shame. It is all a dreadful muddle.' ' " Send it to his mother, and write a note to his house-master and tell him he's keeping a gambling hell," said Cammarleigh. Anthony paused for a moment. He could hardly trust himself to speak. There should be limits even to Cammarleigh's brutality. "Personally," he said at last, "I consider it one of the most pathetic appeals I have ever listened to. We will send Tolly fifteen pounds." " You will do nothing of the sort." " With a letter," continued Anthony, " to say that he is never to be shy about writing to you in his troubles, and that you consider it very unkind of his Mamma to say such bitter things about you." " Do you know where that sort of thing leads to ? " said Cammarleigh, looking at Anthony furiously. " It will lead to my having the entire family on my hands." " And why shouldn't you ? You're the head of the house." " The only way the head of a house can keep itself above water, is by holding the family at arm's length." "At any rate, I shall send Tolly fifteen pounds." " I would very much sooner conduct my own correspondence. " LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 69 " I shouldn't think of allowing you to do anything so undignified. Besides, what would the household say ? I must have some plausible excuse for being here." " There will soon be no household to say anything, if you have your way." " Nonsense. You have yet to learn what an excellent business man I am." " I have already found that out to my cost." Cammarleigh had taken the remainder of the letters and was opening them feverishly. Anthony made no comment on their having been taken out of his hands, at which Cam- marleigh was inwardly surprised. He listened with the greatest attention to Cammarleigh's disjointed exclamations, expressive of the annoyance and disgust with which his correspondence seemed to fill him. He took up the letters as they were thrown down, suggesting answers which were almost invariably greeted as inspirations. He pencilled the pith of what he had to say on the margins, and by the time they were all read Cammarleigh found himself discuss- ing a great deal of his business most amicably. On the question of one or two bills which he considered exorbitant, he left the matter entirely in Anthony's hands. When his new secretary left the room, bearing his papers with him, he was compelled to confess that he was a decided improvement on his predecessor, who had never dared to have an opinion of his own, and who always left him feeling hopelessly confused. It 70 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET had been quite pleasing to hear Anthony state, with absolute assurance, the amount that he intended to have taken off the disputed bills. Anthony then went and seated himself in state in the room where he intended to transact his business, and sent for Mr. Gregsbury. When that exalted functionary appeared, after a some- what lengthy interval, Anthony desired him to bring to him as expeditiously as possible the house-keeping books. Mr. Gregsbury looked a little surprised, and murmured something about it being the custom for the secretary to see them once a month, pointing out that the end of the month was still some way off. " I dare say," said Anthony ; " but at the same time I think I should like to know exactly on what lines this house is run. You see, Lord Cammarleigh tells me that I am entirely respon- sible. Indeed, his lordship has put it so very definitely that I feel quite nervous." "You will find them very confusing, sir, taken in the middle of the month like this." " Oh, I don't know. I've got a wonderful head for figures." Mr. Gregsbury went off with rather a red face to bring the books. " Looks as though he might want to share the commissions," he muttered to himself as he descended to his sanctum. The third footman meeting him on the way was so terrified by the unusual sternness of his eye that he let fall a tray full of flower vases. Anthony, left alone, leant back luxuriously LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 71 and plunged his hands in his pockets, inhaling his cigarette with enjoyment. " I always knew," he murmured to himself, " that I was meant for power. I can feel things going in this house with absolute smoothness, when once I have my finger on all the stops. I expect Mr. Gregsbury has secured quite an amount of small house property in Fulham out of his depredations." When Gregsbury returned he bore with him a most imposing pile of tradesmen's books. "As I thought," reflected Anthony, "Mr. Gregsbury has been in the habit of receiving a perfect budget of commissions." Gregsbury put the books on the table and stood waiting. He would have liked to know why it was that he found it impossible to dislike the new secretary. " I see," said Anthony. He touched the pile of books lightly with the tips of his fingers. " This sort of thing means that Lord Cammarleigh has been paying double for everything. For the future we shall deal with one large firm who will receive a monthly order, supplemented by smaller weekly orders. It will be so much easier for you, Gregsbury," he said sweetly. " You won't have all these dreadful books to bother about." With immense effort Gregsbury restrained himself from giving notice on the spot. " Of course," continued Anthony, <f there will be some things that one will have to get from the smaller people." 72 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Mr. Gregsbury inclined his head. He could not trust himself to speak. " I have no doubt you will find it a relief to be freed from the worry of all these little people." Mr. Gregsbury bowed again. " And there will only be one telephone number to remember." Mr. Gregsbury gulped. " It does seem a a little hard, sir, on the smaller tradesmen." " It is, Gregsbury, very hard indeed ; but it is the great syndicate system, you know, which is crushing out all individualism. It is the old feudal system under another name. It's the first step in the reversion to a state of tyranny ; but you must remember, my dear Gregsbury, that in this country you must buy cheap. It is the supreme test of an Englishman's sanity, and not to buy cheap is the lowest form of irreligion. Never mind what you get, but buy cheap." Mr. Gregsbury, quite impressed at finding himself, as he imagined, taken seriously in an argument on political economy, bowed again. " We will pay all these people off at the end of the week." " Wouldn't it be as well to wait till the end of the month, sir ? " " What, and lose the profits we should make on a change of procedure ? Oh, Gregsbury, that would be very unbusinesslike ! " Mr. Gregsbury took his disgusted feelings downstairs. " A pity I didn't think of dealing with Black- ley's myself," he ruminated disconsolately. " I LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 73 dare say it would have paid me just as well in the end. We poor servants don't stand a chance when we knock up against education. There's something funny about this Mr. Brooke, though. Seems as if he had dropped into the house instead of walking into it. First he wasn't here, and then all of a sudden he was." Anthony knew perfectly well that Gregsbury only regarded him as a cleverer swindler than him- self, who was determined to secure the maximum of commission with the minimum of risk. He did not object to Mr. Gregsbury's point of view. He knew that if his conduct were put down to honest officiousness it would meet with no respect, whereas if it were looked upon in the light of more cultured fraud he would be considered a person with whom it would be dangerous to trifle. There is something in the breed of servants which makes them abject when properly mastered. They recognised in Anthony, elegant, apparently indolent, with a voice which was always musical even when it denoted most thoroughly that he intended to have his own way, a master whom it was impossible to get the better of. Cammar- leigh's petulance was the sort of thing which they had been trained to surmount. They allowed him to think that he was having his own way. To their immense surprise all wages were raised. As a matter of fact, this was the very acme of policy, for Anthony discovered that Cammarleigh was under the impression that so long as he was getting his servants a trifle below the market price he was economising. He was 74 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET determined that things should work smoothly, and had it been possible to instil such a thing as esprit de corps into the mind of the domestic servant he would have done so. Cammarleigh grumbled loudly at the salary which Anthony insisted on paying the new chef. " You have been eating dinners," answered Anthony, " with a distinctly South Kensington flavour the sort of thing people do not expect to find west of Knightsbridge and for a man who has political ambitions it is suicidal." " Who says that I have political ambitions ? " " Why, you know very well that it is one of the greatest griefs of your life that you have never been asked to join the Cabinet. Now, with a really good chef it might be possible." " I wish you wouldn't talk so extravagantly," said Cammarleigh. " It's a bad habit." " You think I talk extravagantly," said Anthony, " because for the first time you are being taught to give trifles their due weight. To measure the real importance of anything is most difficult. A murder may very often be quite unimportant. A missed opportunity for offering an Ambassador a really good cigar may affect the fate of nations. Oh, if people would only grasp," he continued, almost passionately, " what a won- derful paradox the psychology of the universe is ! It is a sad thing, Cammarleigh, that you are like the rest of the world you only deal in the two primitives, white and black." Cammarleigh had quite given up the attempt to suppress what he felt to be Anthony's LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 75 extraordinary intelligence by asserting himself as a person of extreme social consideration. Anthony had the most unexpected way of at once ignoring and recognising it. " Really," Cammarleigh had said, on one occasion, "you talk to me as if I were years younger than you." "Has it ever struck you to suppose," said Anthony, opening his eyes in surprise, " that you are as old as I am ? " " What do you mean ? " " Have you ever heard of reincarnation ? It's the sort of thing believed in by women with short hair and ready-made skirts, who will tell you, without a trace of humour, that they are Apollo or Adonis come to life again. Perhaps, how- ever," he continued, reflectively, " there may be something in it. It is possible that those beautiful beings were so surfeited with the sweet- ness of their own physical perfection that they decided to give up anything in the nature of beauty and become reincarnated as intellectual women." "But what has all that got to do with your ridiculous remark about being older than I am ? " asked Cammarleigh. " Why, don't you see, I started my incar- nations a great deal sooner than you did. The actual age of one's present body has got nothing to do with one's real age." Cammarleigh looked vacant. It sounded rather like a puzzle which represented the high- water mark of after-dinner wit of a certain bishop 76 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET who was a cousin of his, and which had some- thing to do with a herring and a half. He was prepared to believe that Anthony was a thousand. He had never met anybody with such an amazing instinct for the facts of life. He had more than once expressed astonishment that Anthony should not have made a fortune long ere they met. " That is very easily explained," Anthony had said. " I have never had the mind of a huckster. I have always wanted a lever. Great minds deal in great opportunities. It is absurd to suppose that Napoleon would necessarily have been great without the French Revolution. My genius consists " " That will do," said Cammarleigh, hurriedly. Anthony bowed courteously. He always apologised at once when he found himself refer- ring unnecessarily to the details of their rela- tionship. Cammarleigh ate the dinners which Anthony ordered, and was fain to admit that his digestion improved hourly. Perhaps one of their greatest differences was on the subject of Anthony's clothes. Cammar- leigh said that he over-dressed, and hinted that his Bohemian training was responsible. " If you mean," said Anthony, " that I wear clothes which attract attention you are right. The dictum that a gentleman is well dressed when you don't notice what he has on is absurd. You cannot write down all the great dandies such as Brummel, Beau Nash, Disraeli, and D'Orsay as not being gentlemen." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 77 " Times have changed. A gentleman is anxious to avoid observation nowadays." " Not if he is as beautiful as I am," said Anthony, audaciously. " My dear Cammarleigh, you may be perfectly certain that even in the days of the dandies the majority of men cried out against them because they knew that their own figures would not stand experiments." " That greatcoat you wore last night had a skirt, and the waist looked as though you were wearing corsets." " That is just it. I wasn't wearing corsets, but my imitators will have to." Cammarleigh rose to his feet angrily. " Your egotism is simply nauseous." Anthony flushed. " Don't associate me with horrid words. It's the one thing that annoys me." " I am compelled to listen to your singing of your own praises all day long." "You don't expect me to sing your praises, do you, Cammarleigh ? People who have a gift of song should sing of those things about which they feel most strongly." " Perhaps," said Cammarleigh, snappishly ; " you might sing in the minor now and then, so that you could put in something about your shortcomings." " One of these days I shall write my biography," said Anthony. " The real autobiography has yet to be written ; in fact, the autobiographical genius has yet to arrive." " I fancy that Jean Jacques was something of a genius." 78 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Either Jean Jacques concealed all that one wanted to know, or he was a very dull person. Benvenuto Cellini is much more interesting, because one knows when he is lying, and he is picturesque, which Jean Jacques Rousseau never was. Besides, there is no concealment when Cellini is talking about other people." Irritating as Anthony could be in private, Cammarleigh was compelled to admit that his manner towards him in public left nothing what- ever to be desired, and if his clothes were some- what outrageous for a private secretary, his tact and savoirfaire seemed to conciliate everybody. Although Anthony was too busy to be intro- spective or analytical, he sometimes wondered why it was that his conspicuous ability in dealing with people had not stood him in better stead in his profession, till he remembered the old saying that you must first learn to obey before you can com- mand. He had always firmly held that by con- tradicting all proverbs the problem of life was apt to grow clearer. There can be nothing more absurd than to assert that good masters will make good servants, any more than that good servants will make good masters. A sense of justice is useful to a master, but a servant might very possibly be happier without it. CHAPTER VI LADY EDITHA TRAVERS was never more sur- prised than when she received the following note from her brother. " MY DEAR EDITHA, " I am keenly desirous of ending our long estrangement. As the years roll on I do not get any younger " Anthony and Cammarleigh had had a violent wrangle over this statement "and I am beginning to feel somewhat lonely. Will you lunch with me quite quietly on Wednes- day ? I shall be by myself, although my secretary an exceedingly charming young man " Cam- marleigh had objected to this, so Anthony had added " and distinctly intellectual and good company, may join us afterwards. I should like you to know him. " Your affectionate brother, " PERCY." It must be admitted that it was a slight error in policy for Anthony's name to be mentioned at all in the letter, but even Anthony's finesse failed him sometimes. Lady Editha passed the note to her daughter 8o LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Sybil, a girl barely eighteen, not yet out, and of a quite fairy-like beauty. Sybil looked it through carefully, and a smile rippled over her delicately beautiful little face. " I wonder what he wants, mamma ? " " Exactly what I wondered, my dear. Your grandfather always used to say that Cammarleigh had the mind of a man who might have been expected to make a competence out of groceries." " He's my godfather," said Sybil, " and he's never given me anything." Lady Editha looked thoughtful. " I shouldn't wonder if that had something to do with his quarrelling with me. It never struck me before." " It has often struck me," said Sybil. " But then, you are so much more worldly- wise than I am, dear." This remark addressed by Lady Editha, forty years of age, and handsome in a commanding way, to the glittering morsel of human loveliness before her, sounded almost ridiculous, but it showed her appreciation of her daughter's character. Sybil Travers was one of those feminine natures which seem to have been born on the alert ; not that her manner suggested a distrustful or cynical mind, for she appeared all life and joyousness. A cousin of hers at Eton, in writing her a love-letter had begun it with the words, " You little Duck ! " and he had hit her off to perfection. It was the impression she invariably conveyed to the masculine mind. She had an extraordinary gift for carrying mirth wherever she went, and as a consequence of being an antidote to the most profound boredom she LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 81 was already enormously popular, although she had only been visible in the transition stage between schoolroom and ballroom. Somebody once described her as a pocket Venus, which was quite absurd, for it would not seem right to talk of Venus as sparkling, and Sybil Travers was nothing if not sparkling. " Perhaps, after all," said Lady Editha, " the cravings of natural affection " " Don't be silly, mamma. You know per- fectly well there's nothing natural about Uncle Percy. But still, he must save a great deal of money and I've never had a chance of showing him how fascinating I am." " You were a beautiful child, but he never took the least notice of you." " Have you any natural affection for Uncle Percy, mamma ? " " Well, after all, he's my brother." " You mean that if he hadn't been you might not have disliked him so much." " Perhaps. Your father hated him." " What on earth does he want us to meet his secretary for ? " " He used to have quite a mania for secretaries ; the way they came and went made one positively dizzy, but in those days he always kept them in the background." " Well, are we to go, mamma ? For of course I shall go with you." " I don't know, I'm sure." Sybil's smooth brow puckered with thought. " I think, mamma, I should have a clear G 82 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET understanding on that little matter of business first." " What a clever girl you are, Sybil ! I had forgotten all about it. You are quite right. I shouldn't wonder if Percy had some idea in his head of behaving even worse than he has done. Of course, the whole thing is quite clear ; that's what he means. I'll write at once. Come and tell me what to say." When the letter arrived Cammarleigh was triumphant. " There ! You see it's quite impossible." Anthony read the letter, and said gently, " You must have behaved pretty badly for your sister to have written you a letter like this. How- ever, it appears there is no other way you'll have to give in." "I shall do nothing of the kind." " Oh, but you'll have to, as your sister abso- lutely declines to come here unless you do." " She can stop away." " That is just what she can't do, because I want her to come." " Do you think I'm going to throw all that money away for a whim of yours ? " " It's not a whim. I have my future to think of." "Your future has nothing whatever to do with it." Anthony yawned. " Really, Cammarleigh, you are as obstinate as a child of two." " Look here," said Cammarleigh, rising to his feet. " For three weeks I have been your LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 83 slave ; you have poisoned every hour of my existence." " Come now," interrupted Anthony, " don't be silly. We have had some very good times together. You have never laughed so often and so much in your life." " That is because I try to forget." " Cammarleigh, don't be melodramatic." But Cammarleigh had grown reckless. " Here you are," he said, " living in my house, a perfect stranger to me, everybody at your beck and call, having drawn on me for thousands of pounds " " One can't live without money," interrupted Anthony, easily. " I know I've tried the ex- periment." " Most of which I believe you've put in the bank for upon my soul I seem to pay for every- thing. And you may be the son of a damned cook for all I know ! " "Oh, come, come, your instinct teaches you better than that," said Anthony, gently. " Go to the devil ! " screamed Cammarleigh. Anthony walked to the window and looked out. <c Singular the amount of leisure the police seem to have," he said, as he went on to the balcony. " Come back ! " Cammarleigh's voice was hoarse. " Are you going to do as your sister asks ? " Cammarleigh looked at him nervously. " What's that you've got in your hand ? " " This ? Oh, it's a whistle." 84 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET What is it for ? " " It's a police whistle." Cammarleigh blanched. " I don't under- stand." " You don't expect me to ruin my voice by shouting for the police, do you ? I've been making quite a study of police whistles lately. There's a man on point duty at the corner of the square who has been teaching me." Cammarleigh was completely cowed. " I'll show you," said Anthony, and put the whistle to his lips. "My God! Don't do that! They might rush in." " So they might," said Anthony. " I quite forgot that. I must be more careful, because if they came in I should have to give them a reason. Now, would you mind explaining exactly what it was you and your sister quarrelled about ? " Cammarleigh commenced a long, rambling statement. Anthony cut him short after the first few sentences. " Oh, I quite see. You tried to do her out of a thousand a year. Cammarleigh, when shall I teach you to run straight ? " " You are hardly the person to try," chuckled Cammarleigh, feeling that he had got one in at last. "You think that accounts for my failure ? Well, perhaps. If I were you I should write and ask your sister to appoint a day to meet you at your lawyer's." Cammarleigh moaned. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 85 " Don't go on in that silly way, Cammarleigh. You are behaving just as if you hadn't got eighty thousand a year." " If I were to do this sort of thing eighty times it's just what I shouldn't have." " Nobody wants you to do it eighty times. Even the Bible only stipulates for seventy times seven." " Don't be irreverent it's bad taste." "A point on which people with guilty con- sciences are very sensitive," answered Anthony. " They believe in the Lord of Evil even if they think it convenient to forget the other side of the question." Lady Editha replied in quite an affectionate strain, saying that nobody had deplored more than herself the unhappy difference of opinion in the family, but that before consenting to a meeting she must have it clearly laid down that all arrears should be paid up. No one would have suspected that this eminently practical stroke of business was suggested by her daughter. Cammarleigh on reading this letter threw it over to Anthony, and remarked, in a tone of studied carelessness, that that was the end of the matter, as it was evidently impossible to conciliate people who refused to listen to reason. " On the contrary," said Anthony, " I think your sister's is a very reasonable request. You would hardly like to feel that you had done her out of a lump sum of money." Cammarleigh began to rave and bluster. He knew his sister, and did his best to wriggle 86 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET out of inviting her to his house, but Anthony, who had by this time made himself acquainted with Cammarleigh's family history, knew that it was essential, if he hoped to make Cammarleigh a social lever, that he should be on terms of friendship with his relations as quickly as possible. Smiled on by Lady Editha, this would be easy to get on terms with the rest of Cammarleigh's relations. Cammarleigh was compelled, therefore, to make an appointment at his solicitor's, and Anthony posted the letter himself. " Think what an excellent impression you are making on your sister and your niece. I am quite sure that when they see you they will declare that you are much softened." " I hardly know my niece." " Well, your sister will say so. The imagina- tion is exceedingly prompt to respond to financial suggestion." CHAPTER VII LADY EDITHA and Sybil came to lunch. Cammarleigh, who quite dreaded the strain of being left alone with them, implored Anthony to make one of the party. " I said I would come in later," replied Anthony. "That would look silly. I would much prefer you to be with us from the beginning." "Well, as I am very anxious to oblige you whenever possible, I will do so." " Can't think what you want them here for." " Because I am determined to be on good terms with all your relations." "Once you get women in the house you never get them out again and that's more espe- cially the case with one's relations." " You had better say nice things about me to your sister ; it will save you a great deal of trouble afterwards." " Who am I to say you are ? " " Your secretary." " Yes, but even a secretary must come from somewhere." " It's not necessary ; but let me think. I 88 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET haven't any near relations at least, not relations that I should care to quote." " Who was your father ? " " Oh yes, I had a father, and I was very fond of him. He was a clergyman. Let me see ; he would be about your age. I suppose you are between forty-five and fifty, aren't you ? " " Never mind my age." " Well, you were at Oxford with my father. Yes, I think that's about the best thing you can say. It may be quite true. By the way, what did your sister say to you at the lawyer's ? " " Nothing. I didn't see her. I was too early, and she was too late, so I signed and came away." " I am glad to see," said Anthony, approvingly, "that you are getting into the way of making your explanations sufficiently elaborate ; it saves cross-examination." Cammarleigh, thanks to Anthony, could not complain that the luncheon-party suffered from any constraint. Without appearing to be pre- suming, he set the others at their ease. Lady Editha looked a little surprised when her brother called him "Tony," which Cammarleigh did in quite a successful way, just as if it were his own idea. " It'll look as if you have taken a great fancy to me," Anthony had said. " But I haven't," snapped his lordship. " Oh yes, you have." But whether he had or not, he addressed Anthony quite affectionately. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 89 Sybil looked at her uncle curiously. Some- how it didn't sound convincing. Cammarleigh was not the sort of man who would be likely to address a dependant by his diminutive. Lady Editha, who would have preserved her beauty better had she shown a wise discretion as to what she considered necessary for its sustenance, remarked on the excellence of the lunch. Anthony had taken the greatest pains over it, since he had heard Cammarleigh say, h propos of his sister, that he didn't mind a man who thought too much of his meals, but that in a woman it was unpleasant. Before Cammarleigh could take Lady Editha's compliment to himself, Anthony interposed. " I assure you, Lady Editha, this menu is an intellectual effort. Lord Cammarleigh says that I have a gastronomical genius." " Don't you think that sounds a little heavy ? " said Sybil. "On the contrary," explained Anthony, "it implies a fastidiousness which reduces feeding to its simplest. I quite sympathise with the cook who could never compose a new dish unless he was inspired by Chopin's nocturnes ; he under- stood the true relation of the arts." Anthony was wise enough to address himself almost entirely to Lady Editha, though Sybil had, directly she entered the room, stirred him almost fiercely. Previous to their arrival, he had deter- mined that Lady Editha and her daughter should go away with a mutual agreement that he was a very charming young man. Before he saw Sybil he had been perfectly confident of his power to 90 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET convince them of this ; but even such audacity as Anthony's loses a little of its confidence when it takes into account the risks of love. Anthony was a perfect slave to love at first sight. He knew at once that he loved Sybil with an almost terrible passion, and, inasmuch as all real roman- ticists are old in experience as lovers at twenty- three, Anthony realised immediately the dangers of such an emotion at this crisis. It might upset his nerve. A grand passion is terribly demo- ralising to a career ; men who marry for love can seldom be counted amongst the sane for a period of two years. Then they crawl back to their fellow-men tired and ashamed. Courage, moral or immoral, Anthony had never lacked, and the complete success he had achieved with Cam- marleigh had strengthened this quality. His swift-flying imagination already saw himself as the husband of Sybil Travers. " What a delicious couple we should be ! " he reflected. "There are so few picturesque marriages that we should be almost unique. Married people become well, married people, as soon as they are married, and I am sure that neither she nor I would ever be that." He felt not only that the lunch was good, but that he was at his best, and was saying just the sort of things which would please her, although ostensibly addressed to her mother. There is nothing so stimulating to the conversation of a born talker as the accompaniment of an under- current of pleasurable emotion and Anthony was singing inwardly of her beauty. He had the LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 91 greatest difficulty in keeping within those limits which even the most original private secretary- must observe, for to go beyond them might have jarred. Lady Editha did not understand a great deal that he said, but he spoke as one having the authority of humour and wisdom. By the time coffee was reached she had asked him to come and see her. "You play Bridge, of course ?" " It's impossible to avoid it." "Ah, that means that you play exceedingly well." " Bridge is a factor in the British constitution, isn't it ? " laughed Anthony. "There was a man in town last season who didn't play, and he used to make one quite melan- choly ; he seemed so much alone." Anthony had fully grasped Lady Editha's character. A fading beauty, she was mentally too negative to appreciate the fact of her decay, and was contentedly replacing admiration and flattery with cards and good living. She was one of those fortunate, or unfortunate, people, according to the point of view from which it is looked at, who appear to view the passing of their youth without a pang. " We generally play Bridge on wet afternoons. The telephone makes such a difference to life, doesn't it ? Without going to the trouble of inviting people and then finding that you want to go somewhere else, you ring up everybody you know till you've made a party." 92 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Mamma had quite an adventure with the telephone the other day," said Sybil, mis- chievously. " It shows immense taste on the part of the telephone," said Anthony, with a little wave of the hand, a peculiarity of his, with which he was in the habit of introducing remarks of not quite first-rate excellence. It was truly amazing how it helped them through. " It all arose from the stupidity of their arrangements," said Lady Editha, fretfully. "Whenever I rang them up, the girls at the other end were always talking to somebody called May, so I sent for an inspector and complained, and it turned out that May was short for Mayfair." Cammarleigh looked severe. " You always had a tendency to think yourself injured without cause, Editha," he said. This was very tactless, and Anthony began to see what a very unpleasant companion he must have been as a boy. Sybil looked mischievous, and cast her eyes demurely on her plate. Anthony privately deter- mined that if Cammarleigh did it again he would show him the whistle. Lady Editha pretended not to notice the allusion to their cause of quarrel, but began hurriedly to talk about a sale she and Sybil had recently attended. " Sybil hates sales." " Because," said her daughter, " mamma always gets one thing she wants to a hundred she doesn't want." " Oh, my dear Sybil, how can you talk such 93 nonsense ! My last Court dress was made up entirely of things bought at sales." " Yes, mamma, and we estimated that it cost you exactly half as much again as if you had gone to your own dressmaker. Besides, there's some- thing degrading about a sale." She rippled into a smile of enjoyment. "The last sale we went to mamma took off her hat to try on a great bargain, and the next thing we saw was somebody haggling over it with the shop-girl who was attempting to charge an exorbitant price for it." " And it was a hat I had had for years," inter- posed Lady Editha. "No," continued Sybil, "I don't like what my maid describes as ' ready-bought ' things." " It's lucky men can't get their clothes in that way," said Anthony. " A sale of tall hats would be a little colourless." Lord Cammarleigh gave a sniff. The ease with which Anthony descended to the inanities of Lady Editha's conversational level annoyed him, for he shrewdly suspected it to be pure cleverness. Now that he saw his sister and Anthony together he grasped the latter's intentions. Anthony had evidently absorbed the maxim that if a man wishes to get on he must have the women on his side. It is curious that the men who think least of women always make the most use of them. Not that Anthony thought little of women ; he esti- mated them largely, and had thought of them too much ; but there was just sufficient of the feminine in his nature to prevent their taking him at a disadvantage. 94 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Lady Editha told him at least three times during lunch that he was most amusing. "And life can be so dull, Mr. Brooke," she said pathetically. " Oh, there are always new adventures in life," said Anthony, " provided you do not lose courage. The great thing is to be brave." " That sounds very virtuous," said Lady Editha, approvingly. "As Lord Cammarleigh was saying to me only this morning," continued Anthony, " life is full of the unexpected." Cammarleigh, who of course had never said anything of the kind, however much he realised the truth of the remark, looked up with a forced smile. He had, during the last few minutes, been turning over in his mind the possibility of poison- ing Anthony undetected. Lady Editha was a little surprised at her brother's silence. She remembered him as talk- ing incessantly on a platform of irritating su- periority, and she subsequently told Anthony that he seemed much improved, indeed, chastened, as though he had experienced a great sorrow. It was no wonder that Cammarleigh was some- what silent. If he wished to cut a figure in con- versation it would be necessary for him to turn a mental somersault. It had been his habit to hold forth as a sententious moralist, but with Anthony's eye upon him, and his presumed knowledge of his secret, he found himself at a loss. Once or twice he had started off with a highly moral senti- ment, but the mocking deference with which LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 95 Anthony bent forward to listen brought him up abruptly, and Anthony had things entirely his own way. Again and again he would have liked to contradict his secretary flatly. "Percy, Mr. Brooke is a very sad young man ; he says that we take sin much too seriously." At such an opportunity, Cammarleigh would in the ordinary course of events have settled heavily on the spirits of the party, but now he found himself saying baldly " Oh, I don't think we can do that." " A serious view of sin," said Anthony, " is an unhealthy national sign ; it implies a morbid recognition of its supreme attraction. Look at the Scotch ; no one denies their immorality, and yet their reprehension of vice is most edifying." " Dear, dear ! " said Lady Editha. " I always thought it was admitted that we should be a terribly wicked race if it were not for the Scotch, and a terribly stupid race if it were not for the Irish." " And a terribly inartistic race if it were not for the Welsh ! " laughed Anthony. " I don't know about that," said Lady Editha. " I met an artist the other day who talked as if all painters came from Scotland." " Yes ; undoubtedly MacTurner and Mac- Gainsborough do them credit ! They're a re- markable race. They put just as much imagination into their pictures as will not make them unsale- able. But they are quite right to glorify their 96 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET own people. It is no uncommon thing to hear of a Scotchman of the first rank unveiling a memorial to the village poet in some far distant Scotch county, and treating him as if he were a national glory. An Englishman does not boast of his country. He is much too sure of it." "Yes," laughed Sybil. "And he looks as if he were sure of it, which is, I suppose, what irritates other nations so." When they had gone Cammarleigh said, with what he intended to be crushing sarcasm " I thought you were much too superior a young man to encourage women to talk non- sense." " How often have I not told you, Cammarleigh, that it is the evidence of mediocrity to ignore little things ! The cleverer a man becomes, the less nonsense he finds in the world." Then he added, after a pause, " Miss Travers is rare very rare indeed." CHAPTER VIII A DAY or two after the luncheon party, Lady Editha was astonished to receive a letter from Cammarleigh saying that he was desirous of giving a ball to mark his niece's entrance into society. So surprised was she that she spoke to Anthony quite seriously when he paid his first call, and asked whether he did not think that her brother's brain might be softening. " You know, Mr. Brooke, my brother was never known to be unselfish, and this is all so sudden that it has its alarming side. I don't mind saying so much to you about him because I feel that it is possible to talk to you in confidence." " Men do soften as they get older," said Anthony, " although whether the process origi- nates with their hearts or their heads is open to discussion. But still, forty-seven is hardly old, and it is the hardest time of a man's life." " I suppose it is," agreed Lady Editha, who, like most people, was prepared to accept as a maxim any phrase which sounded philosophical and well turned. " I don't suppose I shall ever grow hard- hearted," said Anthony ; " but if I don't become a cynic I may become a sentimentalist. The H 98 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET middle way involves a superb mental equili- brium." Lady Editha made no reply to this ; in fact, she wondered what in the world he was talking about. " I can't help feeling that Cammarleigh wants something," she said, after a moment's pause. She would have talked to Anthony, even if she had not been so sure of his discretion, on any subject which was personal. Anthony was too wise on the occasion of this visit to show the least disappointment at Sybil not being present. He realised that his romance would require great finesse and subtlety. Had he followed his inclination he would have called the day after Lady Editha and her daughter had lunched in Grosvenor Square. He was a little shocked to find what a general state of hurry Sybil Travers' beauty had thrown him into. He had been guilty of standing outside their house in Curzon Street at midnight and wonder- ing which of the bedroom lights was hers. " Some people would think this banal," he said to himself; " but I do it because I have a beautiful nature. If I ever said my prayers it would be to pray that I might always be open to the in- fluence of a beautiful face." Lady Editha soon settled on the topic of her daughter, as Anthony knew she would. He was perfectly content to sit there and listen, just throwing in a guiding remark when she showed any disposition to change the subject. " Sybil will have a very good time of it," said LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 99 her mother. "People speak of her as an acknowledged beauty already ; in fact, it is quite possible that she may be engaged before she comes out." Anthony hardly moved a muscle, although if Lady Editha had sprung from her chair and stabbed him with energy in several places she could not have hurt or surprised him more. " Really ? " he said. "The Duke of Frant," explained Lady Editha. " He has played Bridge here five Sunday afternoons running, and has returned to dinner and stayed the evening. It is very significant, especially as he always loses ; and the men of his family are notoriously mean about money." " That is indeed remarkable," said Anthony, " when one comes to think how many ways there are for a young man in his position to spend his time." Lady Editha saw his point, and laughed good- humouredly. " Ah, you men have a splendid time of it ! " "We shall pay for it in the next world," said Anthony. " The prospect does not seem to be very con- vincing ; at any rate, it is obviously not restrain- ing." " Do you think hell ever was a very real bogey except to children and old women ? If men won't give up good living because of gout, they are hardly likely to give up the flesh for fear of the devil." " There is less and less religion every day," ioo LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET said Lady Editha. "Of that there can be no doubt." " That means, I suppose, that we hear less and less of the devil." Sybil came in while he was talking to her mother, and gave them tea. Anthony was gratified at the unquestioning way in which they accepted him as a person of influence with Cammarleigh. There seemed to be no particular curiosity as to his antecedents, although Lady Editha asked him where he had met her brother. " My father was at Oxford with Lord Cam- marleigh, and they had a great regard for each other." The choice of the word " regard " pleased him ; it sounded so very old-fashioned and respectable. Lady Editha was compelled to leave them to go and write a letter, and for the first time he was alone with Sybil Travers. He could not help contrasting his condition the morning his landlady had refused him breakfast with his present one. How had it been possible for any human being fitted by nature to share the wine and oil to have been so grossly misplaced ? The luxuries of the present were his proper complement ; the charming room, with its canary silk panellings, woodland green carpet and old-world chintzes, the sense of luxury conveyed by the silver of the tea equipage, were the absolute necessities which he had been compelled to do without. If it be vulgar to love the expensive then Anthony was a LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 101 vulgarian, for taste without expense he believed to be a delusion of small incomes. The fairy princess exalted the atmosphere, and he felt him- self vibrating under the spell of a strong and passionate fascination. He made not the least attempt to conceal from her that he was hope- lessly in love. As a lover his level was classic, and he would have despised himself had he pre- tended not to care. The way to arouse love is to create an electrically romantic atmosphere which will at least transform the commonplace. He knew that glances of intense meaning, a voice subdued to the particular modulation which implies ado- ration, could never in his case be labelled the languishings of " that odious young man." Good looks and a sparkling intelligence were a fluid background. People without a true sense of the proportions of romance might have called his com- bative methods in the tourney of love affectation ; but they would only have exposed their own foolish- ness, and such folk were not worth considering. The arts of war in the campaigns of romance are often labelled thus by the dull. He knew perfectly well that no woman was ever angry with a man for being in love with her ; so from the first he showed himself for what he was, her true and devoted lover. He smiled to himself when he reflected that Cammarleigh had told him that he was incapable of sincerity, that he was simply in love with his own postures. Sybil Travers read the challenge and accepted it ; that is to say, she gave him to understand by the subtle process known to lovers, but utterly 102 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET incapable of transcription, that she was also pre- possessed ; that as he was only a man he might offer up his heart as a burning sacrifice on the altar of love, but that, as a woman, she was going to get the very highest price she could for her wares, although not averse to inhaling grate- fully the perfume that arose from the burning of Anthony's sacrifices. "You are ambitious," said Anthony. Sybil gave a silvery laugh. " How strange you should associate me with ambition ! I don't think I ever thought of anything so serious." Nevertheless, she felt that a youth who could detect her real shape beneath the conventional coating was to be reckoned with. "All the same, you are ambitious." " I don't quite know in what way women can be ambitious." "That in itself is a most ambitious remark, for it shows that you are profoundly dissatisfied with the limitations of your sex." " I don't think I am," she said. " I want to enjoy myself." " Yes, but I believe yours to be a mind which will make provision for something beyond mere enjoyment." " You are describing me as an altogether serious person, and I'm not sure that it is very flattering." " No, I don't suppose women like to be called serious. They realise that they are in danger of being found out." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 103 "Do you think, Mr. Brooke, that women have ever really been found out ? " Anthony looked at her in amazement. It was one of the most wonderful remarks he had ever heard from so young a girl. " I know exactly what you mean," he said. Both Sybil and her mother had felt from the first that Anthony was vagabond and adven- turer, and, like women, at once fell in love with the rake who wore what were no doubt the rags of a reputation so gracefully. His tacit admission that with them lay his making or un- doing pleased them, and, feeling that he was not likely to discredit any effort they made for his advancement, they were fully ranged on his side. " You believe in pleasure ? " asked Sybil. " Everybody believes in pleasure. Personally, I believe in all emotion. People are so foolish ; they see a body exhausted with emotion, and they talk as if the possessor of that body had made a failure of his life, just as they think a rosy-cheeked old gentleman of a hundred has been a physical success. After all, there must be something wrong with the imagination of centenarians." "What would you describe as a perfectly successful life ? " " A life which has loved and wept to the full of its capacity. It is destructive of the personal appearance, but personal appearance is only of relative importance after you are thirty, and for you and me thirty will never come." The door opened, and the Duke of Frant was announced. 104 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET The Duke of Frant, small and anaemic, but who compelled belief in his eminently distinguished appearance just because he was a duke, bowed to Anthony and gave him a weak smile. Anthony felt that Sybil had made up her mind to marry the Duke, just as he felt that she had not the least partiality for him. As a matter of fact, she had decided upon the Duke of Frant when she was still in the nursery. She had not lost sight of him during his Eton days, although she had found it infinitely pleasanter to flirt with his schoolfellows. The Duke, quite believing that he was sure to get her in the end, did not mind this very much. He had been brought up to believe that, short of a Royal Princess in which case he might have had to exert himself somewhat the selection of a wife was a pure matter of taste. Providing that he chose her outside a lunatic asylum, he did not expect more than mere maidenly coyness. Sybil had already been proposed to by a German Prince, whose assets were three sides of a ruined castle halfway up an almost inaccessible mountain. Hers was not a character, however, to snatch at the shadow for the substance, and she realised that to the English social palate nothing can be better than a duke. Besides, the Frant assets were very tangible, and their possessor was a very real power indeed. The Duke of Frant did not take tea. "Hardly anybody does take tea in this country," said Anthony. " In fact, there are very few palates which know what tea is." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 105 The Duke looked at Anthony with just the slightest raising of his eyebrows. Intelligent con- versation when it was unconnected with racing or politics seemed to him lacking in taste. There was always the chance that some of the company might find themselves out of their depth. He made no reply to Anthony's statement ; he was waiting for him to go. But Anthony was in no hurry. He knew perfectly well that the physical and mental comparison in Sybil's eyes must be all in his own favour, so he talked on in an entirely outrageous manner, till the Duke wondered if he were mad. Sybil, woman-like, encouraged Anthony to do his best. She was not sorry to have even an absolutely ineligible young man to play off against the Duke, and by the time Anthony rose to go, his grace was in a high state of irritation with him for taking the lead in the conversation, and bolting brilliantly across a country where he was utterly unable to follow him. He was much reassured on hearing that he was only Lord Cammarleigh's secretary. After all, he reflected, Anthony could not possibly be taken seriously, and a secretary might be allowed to talk well. CHAPTER IX ON returning to Grosvenor Square, Anthony found Cammarleigh sitting in the study where he had first interviewed him. To Anthony's fantastic imagination the smile on the faces of the Japanese masks seemed to deepen every day with the pro- gress of the comedy. " I am always glad to get back to our little home," he said to Cammarleigh, as he sank into a chair. This was just the sort of absurdity that irritated Cammarleigh beyond endurance. He made a movement of his shoulders, and professed to be profoundly interested in the Nineteenth Century. He would have liked to hint to Anthony that it would be better taste if he did not intrude into his private sanctum. Anthony was very delicately inhaling the per- fume of his buttonhole. " I think," he said, " that whether to wear buttonholes or not is a question which will never be decided." " Then why argue it ? " snapped Cammarleigh. " Ah, I knew you were waiting for my next remark. I won't argue the question of button- holes, because, after all, you are not young enough LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 107 to wear one. You haven't asked me where I have been." " I don't want to know." " Oh yes, you do. If you don't want to know where I am you very much wish to know where I am not. I have been calling on Lady Editha. How beautiful Sybil Travers is ! " Cammarleigh, always on the look-out for a slip on Anthony's part, said, with emphasis " Miss Travers is beautiful." " I call her Sybil," said Anthony, " because I love her." Cammarleigh folded his hands and looked at Anthony with tightened lips. " I knew you would overreach yourself," he said, with a triumphant ring in his voice ; and he laughed as if it were the finest joke in the world. " I don't quite see what you mean." "If you have fallen in love with my niece " " I have." " Then you are not the clever fellow I took you for." " You didn't take me ; I gave myself to you. But do explain to me why it should seem so ridiculous for me to love Sybil ? She is very beautiful. When you come to think of it, to love her is natural, and not to love her would be un- natural." " Yes ; but to take yourself seriously " " To take one's self seriously is to shut off all retreat. When I take myself seriously no one io8 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET shall know it. Your niece has made up her mind to marry the Duke of Frant." Cammarleigh was annoyed. He had been reserving this piece of information for Anthony's discomfiture. "That being the case, don't you think you had better keep your love to yourself?" " Now, do you think I look like the sort of person who is likely to keep his love for any one to himself? It's a very good thing for you, Cammarleigh, that I have fallen in love with your niece. It will make me kind to you for her sake." " Perhaps you would like to marry her ? " " Very much." " Do you think she would prefer being Mrs. Brooke to being Duchess of Frant ? " " At a first glance, no ; but, at the same time, stranger things have happened. Just think how wonderful the whole situation is ! One marvel more or less won't make much difference." "You are mad." " All exceptional people are more or less mad ; but I don't think I shall end in a lunatic asylum and even if I did it would solve the problem of one's daily bread." " And how do you propose to make my niece love you ? " " My dear Cammarleigh, why waste time ? Let us concern ourselves with difficulties." " What do you mean ? " " She does love me ; we love each other." " This is simply amusing," said Cammarleigh, addressing the ceiling. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 109 " I am glad you find it so. It may perhaps interest you to know that we fell in love with each other at first sight." "If you have taken advantage of your position here to go into my sister's house and make love to her daughter, I can only say that I shall not lift a finger to save you from humiliation." Anthony laughed aloud. It was always delightful to work Cammarleigh up into a state of pompous patronage. The sure collapse that followed such outbursts was infinitely diverting. " When the occasion of my humiliation comes, Cammarleigh, I give you free permission to abstain from raising a finger in my defence." "Your self-confidence is a thing not to be believed. Has she told you that she loves you ? " " Don't be coarse, Cammarleigh. All lovers worthy of the name feel those things for a long time before they ruin them with words." Cammarleigh made no answer ; so Anthony continued " I don't think you have any idea, Cammar- leigh, of the wonderful things which are going to happen before you and I part. I don't know that I have a very clear idea of what they are going to be myself, but I am sure they will be wonderful. You must have a big house-party at Cammarleigh Abbey in the autumn." "What for?" " Well, ostensibly for your friends ; in reality for me. And for goodness' sake don't say that you will do nothing of the kind. By the way, I have taken Lady Groombridge's box at the Opera for the remainder of the season." " What for ? " " Curiously enough, because I am fond of music." " You don't propose to sit in a box by your- self? If you wanted to go to the Opera you ought to have taken a stall." " I have ; just underneath the box. You see, it appears that Lady Groombridge, on account of a family bereavement, was anxious to get rid of her box, and so I took it in your name." " I hate music," said Cammarleigh. " I know you do ; but Lady Editha doesn't or if she doesn't care much about music she cares very much about the Opera." " She is quite rich enough " began Cam- marleigh. " She says she isn't." Cammarleigh rose in great agitation, pressing his hand to his forehead. " I shall go mad. I know I shall." " Oh, don't say that. Anything that I can do to prevent it " " Well, you can prevent it by taking yourself off." " So I will if you'll give me two things." " What are they ? " asked Cammarleigh, eagerly. " Five thousand a year, and Sybil as my wife." Absurd ! " " I quite agree with you," said Anthony. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET in " It sounds ridiculous ; but those are my terms." "It is inconceivable that I should be the victim of such blackmail." " Cammarleigh," said Anthony, sternly, " I have told you that I won't have that word used." He reflected for a few moments deeply, and then said : " Look here, I'll make you an offer. If by the end of the year Sybil has not promised to be my wife, I engage to leave you for a sum representing five hundred a year. If before then she has promised to be my wife you shall give me instead a sum representing eight thousand a year." It was a tribute to Anthony that Cammarleigh never for one moment questioned his honesty in the transaction. It was a relief to find that he was willing to bargain at all, even though his terms were quite impossible. He wondered whether this self-possessed young man might not be losing nerve. Evidently it was a case for tact, and Cammarleigh prided himself upon his diplomacy. " Your terms are absurd." " No terms are absurd if you are sure to get them." " Has it ever struck you," said Cammarleigh, " that one of these days you may drive me to suicide ? " "And do you think," retorted Anthony blandly, " that I am a person to ignore possibili- ties ? Every enterprise has its risks." " Now, what would you do," said Cammarleigh, ii2 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET quite elated at the idea of a situation which he had not the least intention of bringing about, " if you woke up one morning to find that I was dead ? " " I should go through your pockets," said Anthony, sweetly. " I should take all the loose cash and lay my hands on such articles of value as were not likely to be missed. Of course, it would be a dreadful come-down from Sybil and eight thousand a year ; but, as I said before, every enterprise has its risks." " And suppose I left a letter telling the whole truth ? I think you would look rather foolish." " You mustn't talk like that, Cammarleigh, or I shall have to get you a keeper, and lock you in your room at night, and open it the first thing in the morning to see what has happened. And talking of your bedroom, I have ordered you some dressing-gowns of dark-blue silk." " What on earth for ? " " Because I notice that you always wear red, and I can't imagine anything more exciting to an ill-balanced mind like yours than the sight of a red dressing-gown in the morning I couldn't bear it myself." Cammarleigh affected to be busy with the Nineteenth Century. It was his only alternative from flying into a passion, a mode of procedure which so far had never impressed Anthony in the least. He decided to be very clever and wait for Anthony to reduce his terms. "He has pro- bably asked four times as much as he expects to get, and he expects to get four times as much as 1 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 113 am ever likely to give him." And Cammarleigh, having to his own satisfaction reduced Anthony to one-sixteenth of his conditions, diplomati- cally waited for him to continue the conver- sation. Anthony was quite ready. " Well, what do you say ? " " What do you mean what do I say ? " answered Cammarleigh, reflecting that, as Anthony appeared to be eager, it was his place to be coy. " Don't be silly, Cammarleigh. Your mind is much too fixed on matters financial not to have grasped what I said." " You surely don't expect me to take that nonsense about my niece and the money seriously ? " " You must either take that seriously or take me for life." " Rubbish ! It's quite true that you have me at an advantage ; but please don't imagine that you can get anything you choose to ask for. I am much too sensible not to see that you are in a position to make terms, but it certainly doesn't do you any credit to be pre- posterous." "All of which merely means," said Anthony, " that you are trying to beat me down, and I haven't the least intention of being beaten down. Those are my terms ; and now I am going to dress." He went towards the door, but paused for a parting shot. " It's quite unnecessary for you to say yes. We will consider the matter i ii 4 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET settled. After all, I might lose, and you know that I shall stick to my side of the bargain." Cammarleigh was left staring at the ceiling with drooping jaw. The masks on the wall were almost convulsed with delight. CHAPTER X THE grateful Tolly, feeling that an uncle who could be drawn upon in times of financial stress was not to be neglected, took the earliest oppor- tunity of calling in Grosvenor Square to convey his thanks in person. He omitted to tell his father and mother of his intended visit. They had always spoken of his uncle as one of the meanest of men, and Tolly had heard his father say, over and over again, that he would sooner cut off his hand than ask Cammarleigh a favour. Tolly congratulated himself on having performed a brilliant stroke of business in discovering that his uncle was not the hard-hearted monster his parents would have had him believe. When the man announced that Mr. Lionel Bruton had called to see him, Cammarleigh's upper lip went down, and he told the servant to say that he was not at home ; and poor Tolly might have had his journey for nothing if it had not been for his good angel, Anthony. Anthony met him being shown out, and at once guessed who he was. " I am sure your uncle would be most dis- appointed to miss you. He was only saying the other day what a pity it was he did not see more of his nephews. Tell his lordship when ii6 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET he comes in that Mr. Bruton will be here to lunch." Gregsbury had by this time quite realised that whatever Anthony did would be right. He did not profess to explain the situation, but, like a well-bred servant, fell instinctively into the line of conduct which would most advantage him. Anthony knew that Cammarleigh disliked Tolly, because he was, after his father, his heir ; and that, however much he might have wished otherwise, he would be bound to have the greater part of his wealth. Tolly took to Anthony at once, perhaps because he was offered a cigarette and treated without the faintest degree of grown-up patron- age. He admired Anthony's clothes, and decided that he knew how to dress. Tolly was his father's son, and Lord Cecil Bruton was one of the best dressed men in town, and Master Bruton's Eton suit was cut to perfection. Tolly had noticed that the letter containing the gift of money had not been in his uncle's writing, and he was wondering if it had been Anthony's hand that had penned the note, and if he knew all about it. " If you don't mind sitting and talking to me," said Anthony, "while I finish one or two letters " Tolly did not mind at all, and smoked his cigarette and read The Times with a very grown-up air indeed. Being a young gentleman of an inquiring turn of mind, he took the opportunity of surreptitiously inspecting Anthony's hand- LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 117 writing. Yes, undoubtedly it was he who had penned the affectionate note. It was rather strange of his uncle to dictate sentimentalities to his secretary, but then, his father had always declared that Cammarleigh was mad. His notes finished, Anthony threw himself back and talked to Tolly in the most affable way, and that unsuspecting young gentleman had, by the time lunch was announced, let him into every imaginable family secret. " I don't think father quite understands Uncle Percy," he said. " He can't be so hard-hearted, and yet it's quite dreadful the way father abuses him at times." " What does your mother say ? " " Well, you see, mother feels that she ought to stick up for him because " Here Tolly paused and looked dubiously at Anthony. Anthony waited. A boy's conversational rele- vance is an uncertain thing ; a question in the wrong place might disturb the convenient flow of his confidences. " I don't know whether I ought to say what I was going to," said Tolly. "I only heard it by accident." " Have another cigarette," said Anthony, gra- ciously. " Thank you. They're awfully good." " Abdul's Bond Street. I'll give you a box if you like." Anthony spoke just as if he were talking to a crony of his own age, and Tolly, secretly flattered, accepted the proffered cigarettes. n8 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " As you were saying when I so rudely inter- rupted you ? " resumed Anthony, encouragingly. After such a tactful speech Tolly could not very well do otherwise than impart his information. " I only heard it by accident " " Yes ? " lured Anthony, gently. "Well, I think Uncle Percy would have liked to marry my mother." From confidences about Lord and Lady Cecil Bruton, Tolly roamed unsuspectingly into little family anecdotes about Lady Editha and her daughter. " They get everything they can, you know," he said, " and mamma says it's quite extraordinary the way Aunt Editha wins at Bridge." " Miss Travers is very beautiful," suggested Anthony. " Oh, I don't know. There's a fellow I know who's got a sister, and she's what I call beautiful. She'd make three of Sybil." " Miss Travers is small," agreed Anthony, dreamily. " Of course I like Sybil," said Tolly, hastily. "And when she came down for the Fourth no end of the fellows got quite cracked about her. My mother says she doesn't think she's got any heart." Anthony smiled. Sybil was just the kind of mysterious feminine who would be impenetrable to her own sex. " You mustn't mind," said Anthony, on their way downstairs, " if Lord Cammarleigh seems a little preoccupied. He has had a good deal to LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 119 worry him lately." And Anthony smiled with secret amusement at the absolute truth of his remark. Cammarleigh had evidently been told by Gregsbury that his nephew was lunching with him, for he gave a sickly smile of welcome, and a swift glance of resentment at Anthony. " It was so kind of you to send me that money, Uncle Percy," said Tolly, sweetly. " I really thought I must come and thank you. Mr. Brooke has been telling me how much you sym- pathised with me in my trouble." "I don't think boys ought to be extravagant," said Cammarleigh, with asperity. " 1 wasn't extravagant, uncle ; only the other boy played Bridge better than I did." "What?" " I know wasn't it mean ! " said Tolly, mis- taking the cause of his uncle's indignation. " And of course it was most important I should pay." " How is your father ? " said Cammarleigh, shortly. He was not the least interested in knowing how Tolly's father was, and had been about to give Master Tolly a good talking-to, but had become aware that Anthony's hand was toying with the whistle. As a matter of fact, the action was quite unconscious on Anthony's part, for he would never have thought of using this weapon except for its legitimate purpose, namely, of pre- venting Cammarleigh from getting rid of him. "Papa's quite well, and he sent you his love." 120 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET This invention did not do credit to Tolly's instinct. " Sent me his love ! " Cammarleigh was so obviously astounded, that Tolly got rather red and confused, whilst Anthony surveyed the scene with keenest enjoyment. " Well, I think he sent you his love, at any rate." " I don't believe it," snapped Cammarleigh. Tolly grew crimson, and Anthony frowned. " I don't mean that you didn't think so," said Cammarleigh, furious that he should be silently impelled by Anthony to apologise to his nephew, who he was perfectly certain was telling a lie. Anthony would have liked to rescue Tolly from his predicament by suggesting that Lord Cecil Bruton had, in sending the message, in- tended a sarcasm, but he was true to his policy of observing in public every decorum of his pre- tended position. Whether his uncle was pleased to see him or not, did not affect Tolly in the least. He was quite equal to entertaining himself, and, feeling instinctively that he could count on Anthony in an emergency, was at his ease. He said yes to champagne, and gave no sign whatever of its having upset his equilibrium. Anthony knew what a very valuable ally a boy of Tolly's age can be, and he was determined that he should be perfectly pleased with himself. Cammarleigh, who already saw his house in- vaded by nephews and nieces, grew more and LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 121 more snappish every moment ; but Tolly was a supremely self-possessed young gentleman, and finally devoted his conversation entirely to An- thony. Anthony, who was always ready to give Cammarleigh as much line as was consistent with his realising that he was in leash, asked Tolly if he had made his arrangements for the afternoon. For one moment Cammarleigh thought that Anthony was about to suggest that he should amuse his nephew for the rest of the day, and was very relieved when he offered to take him to the Hippodrome himself. Anthony was determined that, if it were pos- sible to conciliate all the members of Cammar- leigh's family, it should be done, even down to Tolly's baby sister, aged two. Fearing the in- flammable effect of Tolly's personality on his uncle's temper, he took him with him whilst he dressed, and nothing could have exceeded the young gentleman's interest in the clothes which were to be selected for the afternoon. He felt quite important when Anthony, in the most natural way in the world, asked his opinion as to the waistcoat he should wear, and was fain to conceal his sense of importance when his advice was accepted. As they descended the stairs, after more than one sidelong glance at Anthony's attire, he burst forth " I say, you do know how to dress." " Tolly, you are a delightful person, and you will get on in the world. You know, I really think schoolboys are improving. You haven't 122 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET mentioned cricket or football once which makes me suspect that you play one of the two, if not both, rather well." " I got my Eleven this term," said Tolly, modestly. As they drove along Piccadilly, Tolly's brows contracted in thought. " It's awfully good of you to take me to the Hippodrome." " Oh, don't mention it." " I hope it won't bore you," he continued, tentatively. There was something in the tone of the remark which gave Anthony a clue as to what lay at the back of his mind. "Well, if you would just as soon go some- where else," he replied tactfully. "I expect you'd like to go to the Frivolity, wouldn't you ? " As a matter of fact, Frivolity burlesques hardly interested Anthony, if sometimes the people in them did. He replied, however " I should like it of all things." He reflected that he ought to have guessed that Tolly's was a temperament which would early outgrow a circus. He could not sufficiently admire the sang frold with which Tolly seated himself in his stall, and, extracting a pair of opera glasses from their receptacle in front of him, proceeded deliberately to take stock of each attractive per- sonality on the stage in turn. " There she is," he murmured at length. "Who?" asked Anthony. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 123 " Kitty Primrose. Gordon in the Upper Fifth quite lost his head about her. Asked her down for the Fourth only his mother explained that he was engaged to her for the day. Poor Gordon looked an awful fool, and Miss Primrose only laughed because there were such heaps of people only too glad to talk to her. Last term her son came, so Gordon looked a bigger fool than ever. Her son's name is Dunton, so I sup- pose that's her married name." " I suppose so," assented Anthony, drily. For a young gentleman who considered him- self advanced Tolly derived an immense amount of amusement from the low comedian, and at tea at Fuller's consumed an amount of cake and sweets which did him credit. He informed his father and mother that Mr. Brooke was one of the very best. Lord Cecil and his wife, accepting Tolly's version of the visit, and being fully convinced that a miracle had happened, concluded that Cammar- leigh's heart had somewhat late in life blossomed with blooms of love and charity. " You might speak to him, Cecil, the next time you meet. Your estrangement has always made me feel most unhappy, and besides, there is always something a little vulgar about members of the same family not speaking." As a matter of fact, the quarrel had always been a little flattering to Lady Cecil's vanity, in that it pleased her to believe that it had been as much due to Cammarleigh's disappointment that she should have preferred his brother as it had been to the latter's truly parsimonious treatment of the family. i2 4 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " The vulgarity was not mine, my dear." " Oh, I don't mean to suggest that the vul- garity was anybody's perhaps I didn't mean vulgarity at all." Lady Cecil possessed a peculiar habit of making strong statements and then immediately whittling them down till they retained little or nothing of their original point. " If Cammarleigh had only allowed Editha to receive for him he might have accomplished very much more politically than he has done.-" " Cammarleigh never had an ounce of political ability, my dear. If he had been plain John Brown he would have been a lawyer's clerk. There's a good deal to be said for those Eastern fellows who choose their most able son as their successor," said Lord Cecil, resentfully. CHAPTER XI " I TELL you I will not give a ball." " My dear Cammarleigh, that's the fiftieth time you've made that remark, and we are already halfway through the list of guests at least, that is, halfway through your list of guests. Of course, as it is to be a ball in honour of Miss Travers' coming-out, Lady Editha must ask whom she likes." " There's one thing," chuckled Cammarleigh, " if you fill the house with my women folk they'll very soon put you in your place." He laid the most ill-bred emphasis on the personal pronoun. " I ask nothing better, providing they realise what my place is." Cammarleigh began to hum a tune. He was always resorting to little effects of this kind, which were intended to irritate Anthony. As a matter of fact, they did nothing of the sort, and Anthony invariably resumed the business in hand with imperturbable good humour. " There will be the dinner-party beforehand twelve will be enough." " May I ask if you propose to be one of the twelve ? " "Yes, I shall be there to support you. I intend to take in Lady Coleraine." 126 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET ''That is exactly where you give yourself away," said Cammarleigh, adopting an attitude with which he had attempted over and over again to meet Anthony's perfect assurance. " What do you mean ? " asked Anthony, sweetly. " Why," said Cammarleigh, as if he were quite anxious to help Anthony with his schemes, "if you would but keep yourself modestly in the background at least to begin with " "Cammarleigh, we're wasting time, and I'm dining out." Cammarleigh shrugged his shoulders with an air as if to say that Anthony's baseness and in- gratitude were beyond comment. " I have always admired Lady Coleraine," con- tinued Anthony, "even when I had no prospect of making her acquaintance, and only knew her through the medium of photographs in shop windows. She is still very beautiful. It's quite wonderful to think that she is nearly the same age as yourself. It is difficult nowadays for a woman to make her beauty historic that is to say, in the same way that Helen of Troy, and Berenice, down to the Pompadour and de Recamier, did. At the same time, I think Lady Coleraine belongs to the Royal line of Venus." " She was an exceedingly greedy child." " She will not object to my taking her in to dinner, you will see." " Your self-possession is sublime." " I know. Now, let me see. There will be you, myself, Lord Cecil, the Prime Minister, the LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 127 Austrian Ambassador I have chosen the Austrian Ambassador because he is the most exclusive. Now, how many is that five. Whom else do you suggest ? " " I should ask the Pope," said Cammarleigh, with a clumsy attempt at humour. " He can't come ; he is a prisoner in the Vatican," said Anthony, seriously. " Shall we have a Labour member ? " pursued Cammarleigh. Anthony was not to be drawn. " He would probably be most uncomfortable ; and besides, I don't believe in mixing the classes." "Really " " Cammarleigh, you are quite childish. Day after day, and time after time you continue to try and get one in, as the vulgar would say. Don't you think it is just a little foolish ? You know as well as I do that there are only two classes the gentleman absolute, and the rest and it is a platitude to say that to be a gentleman is a question of manners, not morals. And now, who is to be the sixth ? Shall we ask Tolly ? He might amuse the Prime Minister. Oh, I forgot the Duke of Frant, of course." Cammarleigh looked at him narrowly. " What are you up to now ? " " I don't understand you." " I have told you that the Duke of Frant will most likely marry Miss Travers." " Well ? Do you think that I am the sort of man to play a second-rate game ? I am quite capable of putting poison in the Duke of Frant's 128 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET wine, but I shouldn't think of giving him a badly cooked dinner beforehand. It is little meannesses that make second-rate criminals. Now, you and I, Cammarleigh, are first-rate criminals." Cammarleigh paled. He always did when Anthony touched on the subject which was their bond. Anthony knew this, and did not hesitate now and then to let his victim feel the point of his stiletto. "Although, I must say I pay you a great compliment, Cammarleigh, when I call you a first- rate criminal." Cammarleigh would have liked to pretend that he was capable of treating the situation with an airy indifference equal to Anthony's. With trembling fingers he lit a cigarette, and with affected carelessness puffed one or two rings of smoke into the air. " Your nerves are hardly those of a Robert Macaire." " For Heaven's sake be quiet ! " And the cigarette dropped from Cammarleigh's nerveless fingers. " I suppose you must have had nerve once, or you couldn't " " Damn you, will you be quiet 1 " " Sorry but you really are so very timid. I won't worry you any more with the list now. One thing, don't forget that pink is to be the prevailing colour in the flowers and decorations at the ball. Pink is Miss Travers' favourite colour." " What's that got to do with me ? " LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 129 " Oh, everything. You must tell your sister that you found that out it will look like a most delicate attention. Is there anything else you want me to do ? " " Where are you going ? " " I am going to dine and play Bridge at Lady Editha's. Of course I will put it off if you par- ticularly want me. At any rate, you will know where I am, and if you feel lonely you can ring me up on the telephone." Anthony gave Sybil Travers a very good hint that the arrangements of the ball, which was in her honour, were to be entirely as she wished. It was she who had suggested pink as the dominant note. There was to be a cotillon called " Spring," for which the most marvellous effects had been designed by Anthony. At a given signal the ballroom was to be transformed into a bower of apple blossoms, and apple blossoms would be rained upon the heads of the guests. A concealed orchestra of harps would play Mendelssohn's " Spring Song," after which a choir of boys' voices would sing an ode in honour of Sybil as the Queen of Spring. The association of her name with spring was a formal compliment reminiscent of the eighteenth century, for she hardly suggested the song of nature ; she was too intensely at one with the devices of modern civilisation. In one room there was to be a running brook in which everybody would fish for gifts. Cammarleigh declared that the whole thing was calculated to make his house ridiculous, and pointed out that so far, thank God, there was K 130 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET no American blood in his family to warrant such vulgarity ; indeed, he tried to dissuade Anthony by every argument at his command from indulging in these extravagances. But they pleased Sybil, and this was quite enough for Anthony. It did not take Miss Travers long to grasp the fact that whatever she wanted she would be allowed to have, and although she was consumed with anxiety to know how Anthony managed to turn her uncle round his finger, whilst waiting to find out she took every possible advantage of the fact. The society papers duly noted that the historic reception rooms at Cammarleigh House closed since the death of the late Marchioness, the present Marquis's mother were to be reopened, and that the glories which had made it so cele- brated during the early Victorian period were to be revived. Not a few hinted that Cammarleigh had matrimonial intentions, and to his great indignation insinuated as probable brides the daughters of houses which, though noble as far as wealth and title could make them, were of such mushroom growth and vulgarity that Cammar- leigh would sooner have died than have allied himself with them. As Anthony had surmised, the arrangements for the ball gave him endless opportunity for calling at Lady Editha's. So far he had been exceedingly careful not to put himself in any way in competition with the Duke of Frant. He realised that it would probably make him look ridiculous in the eyes of Miss Travers, and he LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 131 instinctively felt that, while it would cause her feline nature to regard him as a cat would a mouse, she would have the same amount of contempt for him as she would have had for any other love-sick youth unable to control the absurdity of his pretensions. That Anthony was in love with her she never doubted for one moment, and was therefore a little puzzled at the attitude which he had adopted ; it was apparently entirely free from sentiment. Those covert allusions and glances supposed to be inseparable from a hopeless passion were absent. In talking of the ball he said " It must be the most perfectly suggestive thing as far as electric light will permit us to make it. Who knows, perhaps you may meet your future husband for the first time, and he may be a prince ! " "I haven't the least wish to be a princess. Royalties always resent an intrusion into their ranks." "You will get everything you want in this world," answered Anthony. " That is supposed to be very bad for one, is it not ? " "People talk such a lot of nonsense about what is bad and what is good for one. It would simply mean that you would develop along different lines. If people endure suffering and poverty they develop along the lines of sacrifice ; that is what poverty and suffering are for, and it is just as well to learn one's lesson." "And if one gets everything one wants ? " 132 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Then you develop along the lines of sheer beauty. That requires a good deal more courage than the other experience. You must expand, and most people when they find themselves expanding into an atmosphere of sheer enjoyment either become gross or lose courage." " I don't know what you are talking about," said Sybil. " Neither do I," said Anthony ; " but it sounds quite true, doesn't it ! " He realised that, like most people with great ambitions and a determination to be supreme in their own sphere, Sybil had a sensuous side which would probably prove to be the breach in her fortifications. She had a certain amount of imagination, and he deemed that it would be enough to enable him to alter the aspect of things for her as it should suit him. Anthony puzzled her, and she was only the more mystified by an incident which happened just before the ball. It was impossible for him to conceal the fact that only a very short time previously he had been an actor. He had known too many of the gilded youth who find a strange glamour in the children of the footlights. He had been the member of a club where it was possible to spend the early hours of the morning in congenial female society without encountering the unrestrained licence of an ordinary night club. There were half a dozen young men whom it was more than probable he would run up against in his present surroundings, and the first one whom he came across was Bobby Marchdown. Bobby Marchdown was the junior LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 133 member of a family who usually went mad or died of dissipation before they were forty. For a matter of fifteen years he had attended every first night, and as many other nights as possible, of every musical comedy or light opera. It was amazing that, having started with what might be described as a constitution made up of remnants, he should not have given in during the first five years, but although in the early morning an insurance company would have refused him excepting at the figure of ninety-nine per cent., by midnight he had assumed a buoyancy of demeanour which was certainly remarkable. De- spite his great weakness for Bohemian society, he had by no means neglected the setting in which Providence had placed him. The attentions he showed to his enormous circle of relations had saved him from a certain decadence in social atmosphere and attitude which is convention's revenge on those who deliberately seek a lower environment than that in which they have been born. He was not rich enough to be a matri- monial temptation to the ladies of the stage whom he honoured with his attentions, and he was certainly too selfish and too little susceptible to absolute sentiment to offer to share his income of some fifteen hundred a year with a girl of his own class. He was an egoist who lived in the cir- cumscribed area of pleasure, but withal he had a certain sweetness of nature which gave him polish and courtliness, qualities which in a gentleman are very often developed by association with ladies whose training has not taught them to keep their 134 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET tempers in check. The vulgar man will meet these ladies on their own ground and squabble ; the gently bred realise that a smoothly conciliatory manner is the safest way of treating them. Bobby Marchdown was announced one after- noon whilst Anthony was playing Bridge with Lady Editha, Miss Travers, and the Duke of Frant. He shook hands with the others, and only on a second inspection recognised Anthony. Anthony realised at once that he had made a tactical error in not having explained that he had been on the stage. There are a great many people who still think actors and actresses, unless they happen to be exceedingly successful and exceed- ingly well born, not very desirable persons to introduce into the home. Lady Editha had never thought about the matter at all. She had met actors on occasions. She knew a leading actor and his wife slightly, who cultivated the aristocracy to such an extent that it was a wonder that they had any time to study their parts. Then again, Lord Forfar had gone on the stage. True, he had not so far forgotten what was due to his birth as to display any dramatic ability, and after having made an exhibition of himself in two very bad plays, he had taken to politics as a profession in which there was a larger scope for inferior theatrical talent. " How do you do ? " said Anthony, easily. "The last time I met you I was on the stage, wasn't I." Lady Editha looked up in astonishment. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 135 " Dear me, how very interesting ! And you never told us ! " Marchdown had always recognised that An- thony was a gentleman, but he had only met him as a particularly impecunious young actor, and somehow he could not say why the position in which he now found him gave him a vague sense that something required explaining. He was, however, the last person on earth to interfere with any man's game providing nothing seemed abso- lutely out of order. Anthony took care to let him know within a few minutes that he was Cammarleigh's secretary. He knew that if Bobby Marchdown had the news all their mutual friends would be in possession of it in a very short time which was what happened. " I know now where I saw you first," said Sybil Travers, in an undertone, as Anthony was going. " Indeed ! Where was that ? " " In The American Girl at the Frivolity." And then she added, " I don't understand you." "You will some day," he murmured. The assurance with which the remark was made puzzled her, and her wonder was not un- mingled with a curious electric joy with which every woman is filled at the first crack of her lover's whip. CHAPTER XII IF the success of the dinner-party and the ball could have mollified Cammarleigh, he would certainly have been conciliated. The Ambassador one of the three men in Europe who knew what a good dinner was, and who always had the absolute comparison to hand declared that it was a romance in A minor. Anthony took Lady Coleraine in. "We have not met before, Mr. Brooke, have we?" " Neither of us is a personality which the other could ever forget." Lady Coleraine, who had asked her question as a mere commonplace, looked at him with an access of interest. His answer sounded as if he were competent to amuse her, and a young man who is amusing is a rarity. As a rule, by the time men are amusing they are unpleasant to look at, and Lady Coleraine was fastidious. Men who talked well ate too well and drank too well. Lady Coleraine, as is the case with most beautiful women, liked good-looking men when they were tolerable. She was wondering who Anthony could be. There were plenty of Brookes, both with an " e " and without. It was obvious LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 137 that he could not be a nobody ; a nobody in such a small and distinguished gathering would have been the unexpected. Anthony was conscious of the indefinable barrier which a woman of breeding and distinction manages to preserve between herself and a man she is bound to accept without having seen his credentials. She can devote herself to him through a whole dinner, flatter him, make him feel that he is doing extremely well and showing himself at his best, and yet she will rise from the table, accept the glove which he picks up for her, and unmistakably convey the impression that they really don't know each other. Anthony was perfectly aware that Lady Coleraine was won- dering who he could be. As a matter of fact, she had, since he gave her his arm, tried to fit him into half a dozen different frames. He did not suggest a young, rising politician, for even with the most trivial and youthful member of the House of Commons there is generally a slightly repel- lent gravity of demeanour, something of the moral assertiveness which makes most clergymen uncon- genial. They are afraid of their own humour, and it is as well they should be, for an aspiring young politician with a sense of humour is almost as much handicapped as a pedestrian with a crippled toe. Neither did Anthony suggest diplomacy, and a certain airiness and irresponsibility which seemed to preclude this suggestion prevented her from being able to suit him to any of the pro- fessions to which she was accustomed. There was nothing of the sportsman, and he was certainly 138 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET not a soldier, for he was unique, and how- ever individual a soldier may be he is always a soldier first and an individual afterwards. Perhaps, with the acute instinct of a woman who was nothing if she was not alert, she was puzzled by an incipient defiance about the corners of Anthony's mouth. It is a question whether the attitude towards life of most men is not marked on their faces in some hieroglyphic or other which those who run may read. Ajithony knew that women do not like being mystified, so he said with an air " I am Lord Cammarleigh's secretary, and it has always been my ambition to take the most beautiful woman in London in to dinner. I suppose that sounds impertinent, but it's true." " I see," answered Lady Coleraine, " that you have a distinct sense of dramatic effect. Each of your remarks so far has been made with a view to impressing me, and you have suc- ceeded." " Thank you. I can hear the house thunder- ing with applause," said Anthony, the actor in him coming out. " What shall we talk about or shall we drift ? " " Perhaps you had better ask me the usual questions," said Lady Coleraine. "We can im- provise upon them." "You are right. Subject-matter is nothing. Who knows, we may develop something worth hearing on the subject of lady novelists ! " The Prime Minister heard the beginnings of a conversation with a flavour, and looked across LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 139 at Anthony and Lady Coleraine enviously. The ambassadress was not amusing, and since he had been in office he had met her everywhere. "What are the usual questions?" asked Anthony. " They concern literature, the drama, and politics. The last we can't discuss." "Obviously," murmured Anthony. "And the second we won't discuss," he continued. " Why not ? " "I don't like the theatre; it has ceased to amuse me." " Really, you are very young to be so embittered." " Oh, I'm not bitter, although I may be spiteful. Our actors are not impressive. Most of our leading actresses would make better low comedians, and most of our leading actors behave like leading ladies. Beauty which suggests an oleograph, and a voice like a brass band, seem to be the only necessary stock-in-trade for a star actress." " I often wonder whether artistically we have not gone round in a circle." "Don't," said Anthony, nervously. "We might get back to the mahogany period. Although, I don't know," he added reflectively. "The movement which was supposed to better it was worse bamboo, and peacock's feathers. Utility is the basis of true art." "Is that why everything which used to be in the kitchen is now brought into the drawing- room ? " asked Lady Coleraine. i 4 o LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " It has never struck me ; but I suppose we are, so to speak, in the middle of the kitchen period." " Perhaps it has something to do with the democratic tendencies of the age." "You don't think that the advent of the democracy will be antagonistic to culture ? " " Why should it be ? " asked the Prime Minister, who, ignoring the ambassadress, had been listening to Anthony's last remark. "With the regulation of industry there will be a larger leisured class, which means more culture." " Then," said Anthony, " we may look for a revival of poetry, for nearly all of the great poets have been leisured." The Prime Minister nodded appreciatively and turned again to the ambassadress, who was insisting on telling him of a new way to cook mushrooms. "The ball is in honour of Miss Travers' coming-out, is it not ? " asked Lady Coleraine. "Yes," said Anthony. "She would not dine, as she declared that it was indelicate for a young girl to dine on the evening of her first ball." Miss Travers had, of course, said nothing of the kind ; but Anthony was without conscience in the matter of phrase-making, and was always ready to use a friend or acquaintance as a puppet to speak his dialogue. " She is quite a beauty, is she not? " " Quite," said Anthony. "With brains?" LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 141 " All real beauties have brains although per- haps Miss Travers is too young to be described altogether as a beauty. Beauty is a question of brains : beauty is brains and temperament using a perfect medium." The remark could hardly fail to be exceedingly grateful to an acknowledged beauty like Lady Coleraine. Later, they were talking of romance, and Lady Coleraine declared that -everybody had secrets. Hearing the word secrets, Lord Cammarleigh looked across quickly. At any time if there were the least suggestion that Anthony was hovering round the forbidden ground, even in mischief, he would lose all his reasoning power, become abso- lutely dazed, and the wildest ideas would enter into his head. He was wondering whether Anthony could possibly have chosen this gathering to create a terrible scene. He grew white to the lips, and Anthony, catching sight of him, was for a moment at a loss to know what had happened. Then he suddenly realised that he and Lady Coleraine were talking of secrets, and a smile of pity played round his mouth. It would have been interesting to know what this awful secret was, the merest hint at which was sufficient to reduce Cammarleigh to the level of a gibbering idiot. Anthony felt that perhaps his power lay largely in his ignorance of it. The possession of the secret might unnerve him. He deftly steered the conversation to another topic. Only Lady Cecil had noticed Cammarleigh's change of colour, and she questioned Anthony about it afterwards. 1 42 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET She was quite a good-natured woman, but if, as the incident had caused her to suspect, Cammar- leigh had heart complaint, common sense suggested that it would be just as well he should not linger and suffer, and ir his complaint would only carry him off speedily she would be Marchioness of Cammarleigh, and a more generous domestic regime would be established. Anthony assured her that there was not the least necessity for alarm, and Lady Cecil tried to look relieved. Cammarleigh was not quite sure whether he was pleased or annoyed that the Prime Minister should turn to Anthony when the men were alone and talk to him with evident enjoyment. The Prime Minister believed in young men in politics, and a certain effectiveness in Anthony's personality, born partly of his desire to shine, and partly of his theatrical training, suggested possibilities. " The House is easier, and, at the same time, more difficult than it used to be ; easier to get into, as every democratic assembly must be, but more difficult to make a genuine reputation in when you are there." " That is an unexpected tribute to democracy, isn't it ? " asked Anthony. " Not altogether. It means that many waste their time in trying for the dramatic. Mobs will always have a weakness for the demagogue." CHAPTER XIII WHILST Sybil Travers was dressing for this her first ball she was thinking of Anthony, although she knew that the man she had chosen to be her husband, the Duke of Frant, would be there. She was far from being unimaginative, and Anthony impressed her much as the mysterious stranger might have impressed some young girl in her father's mediaeval castle when he suddenly withdrew his mask for a moment to show her the face of her family's best hated foe. She could not have given any reason for feeling that he was Romeo to her Juliet, but the instinct that it was so was strong within her. Sybil Travers, however, would probably at that time have thought Juliet an exceedingly foolish young woman to throw away her chances and create such an imbroglio for the sake of sentiment. From her nursery days her mind had been too constantly fixed on the idea of a great position for her to entertain for one moment the notion of sacrificing her aspirations to love in a cottage. She felt that Anthony saw this point, and she admired his evident comprehension of it. She was dressed in white, a sophisticated white, which would probably make a woman like Lady Coleraine smile with satiric appreciation ; but still, it was white. 144 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Would Anthony see the point of that white frock ? Her brow puckered a little as she found her thoughts invariably wandering back to him. She instinctively felt that there might possibly be a danger of his glamour sweeping her away, and for the first time she began to realise the headway which he had already made against her will power, and the degree of authority which he had acquired over the stops of her nature. Her brow puckered quite angrily. She was not the sort of woman to sink herself in the unimportance of a secretary adventurer. She reiterated this fact to herself as if she were already doubting her powers of re- sistance. She was a born schemer, and her brain immediately set to work to discover means whereby the Duke of Frant might be made to propose quickly. Once she was married she was not afraid that she would do anything to imperil her position, although at the back of her mind pictures of the future formed themselves vaguely. The joy of life might be intensified by a palpitating personality in the background. Anthony might have his place, and she might compensate herself for her marriage to a man she did not love. Sybil, mature though she was in outlook in many ways, was too young to picture to herself anything beyond a passionate flirtation. Women seldom admit, even to themselves, the possibility of absolute guilt. Sybil felt that it was very hard she should have met the man she loved before she was married. Like most young people, she was beginning to find out with a distinct feeling LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 145 of discomfort that it is the unexpected in life which counts, the person for whose appearance no provision has been made, the amazing and unlocked for occurrence which compels an entire reconsideration of life's plan. She had limited Anthony to one dance, and was a little surprised that he had not contested the point ; but although she felt that his reticence was dictated by tact and a genius for polity in matters of the heart, she was a little piqued that he should not have argued the question. A woman is always somewhat puzzled, and perhaps indignant, when she encounters a feminine weapon in a man's armoury. The withdrawal in order to make the impetus more sure, the restraint and immobility born of the knowledge that she only has to wait her time, are distinctively feminine methods of fence. But they were also very natural to Anthony. The weakness that was overcoming her was born partly of bewilderment that there was nothing to suggest that he would blunder into premature protestations, and perhaps more largely of curiosity. The sight of Lady Editha receiving his guests was too much for Cammarleigh, and he retired to his study which Anthony had had the tact not to turn into a cloak-room where he strode up and down, gnashing his teeth in impotent rage. Was it his fancy, or had the smile of amusement on the faces of the Japanese masks deepened of late ? More than once he moved towards the door, too well bred not to feel that it was hardly good manners to be out of the way while his L 146 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET guests were arriving, but each time was compelled to remain where he was from sheer inability to control his hysterical rage. Anthony missed him at once, and went in pursuit. One look at his tormentor's face terrified Cammarleigh into submission. There was some- thing particularly deadly about the quiet tone in which Anthony spoke. " There's a time for everything, Cammarleigh, and this is not the time for sulking. I should wish you during the course of the evening to take an opportunity of showing that you depend upon me. You might at a moment of general observa- tion call me and over whisper some instruction, more with the confidence of a father than with the manner you have no doubt been in the habit of assuming towards your secretaries." " I believe you are the fiend incarnate," almost sobbed Cammarleigh. " If I were," said Anthony, " I should not be working hard to establish myself respectably in the world." " I almost wish sometimes," snarled Cammar- leigh, " that I could drop down dead if it were only for the pleasure of seeing what a thundering fool you would look." " Yes, I admit that the idea chills me some- what." Anthony knew that having told Cammarleigh exactly what he expected him to do, a little victory of this sort, which restored his victim's self- conceit, was very necessary to the genial carrying LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 147 out of his instructions. He sighed with relief when Cammarleigh arrived in the hall just in time to join Lady Editha in receiving a royal personage. Sybil danced three times with the Duke of Frant, and more than one matron hinted con- gratulations to Lady Editha. Poor Lady Grimsby, with five handsome daughters, the youngest of whom had already been out two seasons, felt almost a pain at her heart as she smiled one or two commonplaces. She was a good-natured woman enough, but it was certainly very hard. Miss Travers was not an heiress, and yet by some occult means she had managed to capture the secret of making herself talked of as a prize in the marriage market long before she was seen in society. There must be some secret about it, and Lady Grimsby naturally yearned for the knowledge of it. Certainly none of her daughters showed the least signs of matri- monial genius. Anthony danced twice with Lady Coleraine, and Lady Coleraine, moving in the orbit of beauties, introduced him to the lovely Mrs. Westerby, who within the first five minutes asked him to call on her before lunch. " One is never alone after lunch," she said. Mrs. Westerby would have been considered vulgar by orthodox and not too highly placed respectability ; but by a curious paradox her very offences against the social atmosphere, which was hers by right and training, derived a certain 148 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET distinction from the environment in which she moved. She was the sort of woman who in reality slightly offended Anthony's fine sense of fitness, but he appreciated the fact that she was a personality and a power. She had a facility for attracting the right men round her ; that is to say, the men she wanted, the men who were of im- portance in the world. It would have been extremely difficult to say what was the exact attraction. There must have been sympathy somewhere. It is not sufficient for a woman to suggest that she might be dangerous if slighted. She must be a source of inspiration if she is to hold a court worth having, and somehow Mrs. Westerby was a source of inspiration. Perhaps it was her great reserve of common sense. She had an amazing instinct as to what a man should do at a crisis in his career in order to make it an advantageous point of new departure, and men especially if they are not asked for their heart have a singularly greedy way of appreciating a woman of this kind, the more especially if they can depend on her not making them ridiculous. Mrs. Westerby had been a widow for some four or five years, and was determined that if she married again which she was perfectly ready to do it should be a very brilliant match, otherwise she had come to the conclusion that it would not be worth her while to sacrifice her very comfort- able jointure and individual position. Perhaps part of her strength lay in the fact that she had an eye like a hawk for social anomalies. She had the instinct of an adventuress who has never been LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 149 put to the necessity of using her more sinister abilities. At eighteen she had made a love match, and at twenty she was a great beauty. At twenty- one she was a widow, and so far her position had been altogether too comfortable for her to embark on any intrigue. Still, a woman of her tempera- ment is always ambitious, and she was quite ready to make use of her talents to secure a second husband. The previous season the Duke of Frant had been constantly at her house. He had been in the habit of bringing her his troubles for dis- cussion, and she had been leading him insensibly to associate her with a mental and material com- fort which would, she was inwardly sure, have ended in matrimony, had not Sybil Travers and the physical fascination which she had for him barred the way. She had never seen Sybil till this evening, and she was not reassured by her appearance. "That is a woman who will be beautiful at eighty although she is so small," she reflected. " Lord Cammarleigh is giving the ball in honour of his niece, I believe," she remarked. "Yes, he is devoted to her," answered Anthony, unblushingly. " Do you know them well ? " asked Mrs. Westerby, looking at him questioningly. " I am Lord Cammarleigh's secretary," answered Anthony, for about the fourteenth time that evening. He had no particular wish that the world in general should take him for an ordinary secretary, and he just managed to import into the announcement something which awakened 150 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Mrs. Westerby's curiosity as to who he might be apart from his secretaryship. " One never heard of Lord Cammarleigh as likely to dispense hospitality from motives of sentiment." " No, they tell me he has changed of late," said Anthony. And then he added, laughing, " I am sure a kinder-hearted master no humble servant could wish to have." "You look humble." And Mrs. Westerby scrutinised him out of the corners of her eyes with half-closed lids. " I am glad of that," said Anthony. " It shows that I have not schooled myself in vain." " I am somewhat of a physiognomist, Mr. Brooke, and a more insolent mouth than yours I have never seen. You've got a dimple which hides its full impertinence." Anthony looked at her and laughed. " What consummate flattery ! " A middle-aged man came to claim Mrs. Westerby. As he moved away with her, he said "Do you know who that young fellow was to whom you were talking ? " " He tells me he is Lord Cammarleigh' s secretary." "You've not heard any other explanation ?" " No. Is there a mystery ? Do tell me ! " " I don't know ; one has to be so very careful nowadays." " My word of honour ! " LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 151 "Well, they say that but for the lack of a marriage certificate " " I quite understand. Where has Cammar- leigh kept him all these years ? " " According to all accounts, the young man only discovered the secret of his birth by accident. He walked straight into the house not so long ago and claimed his father. I believe the scene was most pathetic. They say that for the first time since his Eton days Cammarleigh wept." "Yes well?" "The ice of years melted from around his heart, and, too respectable to admit his youthful error, he installed the young man as his secretary with all the privileges of a son." " Your authority ? " "The details appear to have meandered by degrees from the servants' hall, and to have been formed into a connected story by Cammarleigh's friends." Anthony had been expecting this little scandal to mature for some time. He began to fear that, after all, the footman whom he had selected as his personal attendant had not read certain documents which had been left within his reach. A letter suggesting the above story, written to himself by an imaginary and devoted nurse in the country, but mentioning no names, had been carefully placed by him amid these papers. The footman could not help boasting of his know- ledge to another footman, who told Mr. Gregs- bury, who cross-examined the delinquent with severity, threatening him with instant dismissal 152 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET unless he furnished him with all details, and in- formed him of the exact whereabouts of the letter in question, in order, as he said, that he might warn Mr. Brooke against leaving his correspond- ence within the reach of those who were without a sense of honour. On the footman's evening out Mr. Gregsbury hastened to arm himself with absolute proof of the scandal. To his great dis- appointment, however, when the opportunity came the letter was gone, but this in no way prevented him from throwing out to his acquaintances vague hints of what he thought to be the truth such as, for instance, asking the butler next door if he saw any likeness between the young gentleman who was Lord Cammarleigh's secretary and his lordship. On his friend from next door ques- tioning him, Mr. Gregsbury assumed a look of offended dignity with the person who should pre- sume to think him capable of betraying important family secrets. The next time he opened the subject, however, he turned the other butler's suspicions into a certainty by saying " In olden times, Mr. Stummit, bastardy " Mr. Gregsbury was immensely proud of the his- torical flavour of this word " was considered no disgrace. The ancient kings of England, Mr. Stummit, conferred titles upon their bastards." " Well, Lord Cammarleigh can't do that nowadays." Mr. Gregsbury looked at him in silent con- tempt. "Who's talking of his lordship, Mr. Stummit ?" "I only thought "stammered Mr. Stummit. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 153 " It isn't that you think too much, Mr. Stum- mit ; it is that you think all wrong." And Mr. Gregsbury passed on. It was not much to go upon, but Mr. Stummit found it enough, and was puffed up because he flattered himself that, for all Mr. Gregsbury's cleverness, he had not been able to hoodwink him. The two footmen and the two butlers were quite sufficient to spread the news far and wide. It is a known fact that well-bred people do not gossip with their servants, and, considering this, it is quite remarkable how much scandal finds its way from the kitchen to the drawing- room ; usually, be it remarked, via the bedrooms. Soon Mr. Stummit' s lady, Mrs. Nuggall, the wife of the great South African millionaire, was in possession of the news, and found people whom she had never in her wildest moments expected to welcome beneath her roof calling upon her to hear the truth of the matter. Thus, by the evening of the ball, it was getting quite talked about. Anthony had not been unmindful, in spread- ing the report, that it would, so to speak, have the effect of permitting him to give a greater rein to his extravagance. If society in general believed him to have a claim upon Cammarleigh, there would be no great surprise if he appeared to have a good deal of money. The last people, of course, to hear anything about the matter were those most concerned, and Cammarleigh's relatives beheld with a certain vague wonder the growing civility with which 154 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Anthony was being treated. They realised, although Anthony had never even hinted as much, that he was responsible for Lord Cammarleigh's unexpected and amazing transformation. The idea that he might appear in the light of an un- acknowledged heir, which so far had not even remotely entered into their calculations, might, if he were not extremely tactful, unite them against him. Of one thing Anthony was certain, and that was that they would never doubt the truth of the story. It would make Cammarleigh's change of front reasonable and comprehensible. That he should, like a latter-day Scrooge, have been revolutionised by a dream seemed incredible. That he should conceive with devilish malignity the notion of giving his relatives the impression that he was about to blossom forth into benevo- lence and benefaction only with the ulterior pur- pose of springing upon them an heir to such of his wealth as he was able to leave, was an act worthy of the Cammarleigh whom they knew and hated. The explanation would be complete. Anthony claimed his dance with Sybil, and as they passed Lady Coleraine and Mrs. Westerby, the latter said " Do you think those two are alike ? " Lady Coleraine, who of course at once thought she saw a family resemblance, answered unhesi- tatingly " Yes cousins, are they not ? " " So rumour has it." "And when rumour whispers a thing like that one should make a point of believing her." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 155 " I wonder if the family know ? " " Perhaps Cammarleigh is enjoying the con- templation of their civilities to him." " He has always struck me as being deficient in a sense of humour." "It may be sheer malignity. There is an immense amount of wealth which he can leave him. My father had something to do with his estate, and it appears that even at that time he had six or seven hundred thousand pounds, be- sides this house, Cammarleigh Abbey, and Bruton Park." " Well, if the family are civil to the young man without a definite understanding that he is not to have more than a competence, they will be angelic." Sybil and Anthony were moving rhythmically down the room, as perfectly happy as two beings who are unacknowledged lovers, and are in each other's arms with a reservation, can be. A civi- lisation in which the waltz has held the supreme place for three generations has little to learn from antiquity in immodesty. Of course, as always, it is pure to the pure ; but it has an immense suggestion for the inflammable. Neither Anthony nor Sybil spoke throughout the dance, and Anthony could not have desired a more complete confession of her sentiment for him than this vibrating silence. When the music slackened and finally ceased they moved, slightly dazed, into the winter garden. On their way Lord Cammarleigh met them. It was an auspicious moment, for the Prime Minister, 156 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET cheered by his excellent dinner and the absolute company which Anthony had provided, had been throwing out vague hints to Cammarleigh of an office of importance which was about to become vacant. It was therefore with a perfectly assumed air of geniality that he stopped, and, resting his hand for a moment on Anthony's shoulder, said some kindly words in quite an affectionate manner. Poor Cammarleigh should have known that the Prime Minister always hinted at advancement after dinner if he thought it would please those in whose company he found himself. He had perfect confidence in his ability to steer himself out of the waters of mere promise. Anthony forebore to congratulate Cammar- leigh on his splendid acting. He made a point of taking him seriously whenever possible. The curious paradox of the situation was that he was aware that there were two entirely different attitudes in Cammarleigh's mind towards him. At times hate, vengeance, and spite gleamed from his victim's eyes and dominated him ; but Anthony verily believed that at moments when the full subservience of his position was not very keenly felt Cammarleigh was quite fond of him. It was certainly remarkable how well they suited each other. Putting aside his rage with Anthony, born of the latter being his taskmaster, Cammar- leigh found him in other respects very soothing, and he had to admit that he was most excellent company, and that his house had never before been so comfortable. He had begun dimly to appreciate the fact that Anthony's presence must LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 157 sooner or later become an offence to his relatives, and this was certainly a point in his secretary's favour. He was quite unconscious that this aspect had been gently insinuated to him by Anthony, and congratulated himself on his keen- ness of vision in having detected it. Further, although he had certainly no wish for Anthony to marry his niece, if his sister Editha could be annoyed by a flirtation between them he would not go out of his way to prevent it. CHAPTER XIV SYBIL and Anthony retired to a far corner of the winter garden and sat down, curiously silent. Anthony was gradually gaining ground with her. He was something which required explaining more and more every moment. Further, he suggested strength, and when a woman, besides a natural leaning towards a man's individuality, realises the presence of strength, and more than suspects a mystery, she is within his grasp. She was wondering how she should begin to question him about himself. If he would only confide in her the secret by which he managed her uncle it would be exceedingly convenient. Just because, however, there was more than the possibility of romance between them, and because, as yet, there had been no avowal, she felt a certain fear and shyness of him. " I think the ball is going to be a success, don't you ? " asked Anthony. " It is a success," she answered emphatically. " Do you know," he said, " I think there ought to be a law against deceptive simplicity." She looked at him demurely. " What do you mean ? " He turned his chair a little round so that he could look at her conveniently. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 159 " I believe that the feminine arts of the ages have been merely different stages in the evolution of that frock and by that frock I mean you." "You are making me out to be a mass of artifice." " Not a mass of artifice, but the fine flower of artifice as distinguished from artificiality. If you were not, you would not even understand what I am talking about." " Have you no artifice ? " " Oh dear, yes. Why do you ask ? " " Because you strike me as being mysterious." " And," he said, looking at her with a direct- ness which made her colour, " you would like me to explain myself ? " " Then you do need explanation ? " " I never said so." " I think you must have magical powers." " What makes you think that ? " " Because you manage Uncle Percy so per- fectly." " Do you think I have mesmerised him ? " " I sometimes wonder and so does mother." " Supposing I were to tell you very frankly that there is a mystery ? " " My instinct tells me that, but you won't tell me equally frankly what that mystery is." The Duke of Frant came to claim his partner, and Anthony smiled as she left him, raising his eyebrows and shrugging his shoulders as much as to say, " You see, there is no time to tell you now." Sybil regretted that she had not given him 160 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET more than one dance, although she reflected that it was impossible he should be going to tell her all that she desired to know with so little per- suasion. If he were, it was most probable that it would not be very much worth hearing. She looked at the Duke of Frant's profile as he bore her away, and was glad that her woman's instinct taught her that profiles are not everything, and that regular features do not necessarily mean regular living. Not that she hoped Frant was a model of the domestic virtues. The only com- pensation for marrying a man solely for his position is that he should speedily console himself elsewhere for the lack of wifely affection at home. From what she had been able to gather, the Duke of Frant would probably be quite easily driven from the domestic hearth. As they commenced to dance, she was calcu- lating the possibilities of falling in love with him after marriage, and the mere idea so roused her sense of humour that she got out of step. A few hours ago she had been only too anxious that he should propose, and now she almost shivered at the mere idea, not because she was afraid that she would refuse him, but because she was terrified at the knowledge that she would inevitably accept him. " Strange fellow Brooke." The Duke of Frant could not help questioning Anthony's pre- sence. He had talked him over with Bobby Marchdown, and the latter, although quite admit- ting that he was a gentleman, " and all that sort of thing," was also curious as to the explanation of his sudden transition from the position of a LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 161 penniless, rejected actor, with no social recom- mendations, to that of master of the ceremonies at Cammarleigh House. "I have been asking Bobby Marchdown all about him. He doesn't seem to know much." "Why should he ? " asked Sybil. " Oh, he knocks about the theatres a good deal." "The theatres seem to have knocked Mr. Marchdown about a good deal, if it comes to that." The Duke wondered whether she meant to be severe or humorous, and, coming to the conclusion that so pure-looking and young a creature must have intended the former, said "Oh, Bobby's all right you've only got to know him." This is an Englishman's way of defending a questionable friend, although at heart he is aware that knowing him is quite the last way to put him right. " Of course, I haven't had much experience," said Sybil, " but, as far as I can make out, men are made rather more endurable by being battered." Frant thought she might be right, and, know- ing that he had gone through a certain amount of battering himself, felt that he might take it as a compliment. "All the same, I can't help wondering why Cammarleigh engaged him as secretary." The Duke had not heard the rumour as regards Anthony's birth. " Perhaps he liked his handwriting," suggested Sybil. M 1 62 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " I never thought of that," said the Duke, quite seriously. " Or perhaps he understands English grammar, and in that case he really would be a possession, wouldn't he ? " The Duke of Frant began to hope that Sybil would not be too clever for him. The cotillon was an amazing success. There was a large party which thoroughly took to the idea of fishing. The Prime Minister sat patiently with a miniature rod, unmoved when a witty peer, belonging to the Opposition, accused him of fishing for votes. He managed to secure a packet done up in waterproof, which was found to con- tain butterscotch. Everybody was in the wildest spirits, and Anthony, without making himself too prominent, was largely responsible for the general good- humour. He saw Lady Editha and her daughter to their carriage, and, considering how splendidly everything had gone, was a little perplexed at the curious intonation in Lady Editha's voice as she said good night ; indeed, it almost startled him, and he stood watching the carriage as it rolled away, a noticeable figure on the red carpet between the rows of footmen, till a voice from the out- skirts of the little crowd said in musical Cockney "Pore young man 'e's down-'earted now she's gone 'ome." Anthony, forgetting where he was, and with the instincts of his Bohemian days asserting them- selves, answered sweetly LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 163 "Never downhearted while you're about, dear." He looked round, horrified. Luckily, only the servants and crowd had heard him, and they thought him a very condescending young aristocrat. He returned to the ballroom slightly per- turbed. Lady Editha had seemed quite civil, and yet, though a person of ordinary perception might not have noticed anything amiss, the change to Anthony was apparent. He wondered whether Lady Editha had begun to suspect that he was in love with her daughter, or, what would be more awkward, whether she suspected that her daughter might be capable of falling in love with him. " I suppose that is the sort of thing that people cannot hide," he reflected, " however secretive they are by nature." Had Anthony known what it was that had caused the change in Lady Editha's manner he would not have been so put out. Lady Editha had been told in very strict confidence by a distant relation of the family what people were saying about Anthony and Cammarleigh. She had left her brother's house with the full determination not to mention such a matter to her daughter. So many mothers make a firm resolve never to discuss any doubtful matters with their daughters, and end by discussing everything. Sybil gathered from Lady Editha's manner that she had some- thing on her mind, but displayed no anxiety to find out what it was, knowing perfectly well that before her mother went to bed she would have told her everything. They reached home, and 1 64 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Lady Editha had not spoken, but still Sybil dis- played no curiosity even when her mother, impressing a kiss upon her brow, said " Good night, my darling ; I hope you will sleep well." Sybil was quite aware that Lady Editha was congratulating herself on a great triumph of self- control. Her admonition to sleep well was delivered with the air of one who would say, " You, who are young and have no trouble, may probably sleep ; I shall not." Sybil knew that Lady Editha would not be able to hold out much longer. She was right, and just as her maid had finished brushing her hair, the door opened, and her mother re-entered. " I want to speak to you, Sybil." Elliot, having looked round to see that every- thing was in order for her mistress's progress to bed, left the room. At one time, Lady Editha had suggested that she and her daughter should share a maid, but Sybil had declared that she could not think, even for the sake of economy, of doing her mother such an injustice. There was nothing simple about Sybil's room. Pink brocades of a by no means inexpensive kind were exquisitely contrasted with a green-and-white background, and the Sheraton furniture was of O * the most elegant. Where most girls of her age would have had a simple white dressing-gown of some washing material, she was robed in billowy waves of pink silk. "My dear," said Lady Editha, "I have LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 165 decided after all to tell you although I am sure it is exceedingly difficult to mention such a sub- ject to one's daughter." If Lady Editha had had the finesse of Gregs- bury, her task might have been simplified by the ancient Kings of England. As it was, she began somewhat clumsily. Sybil, unlike Anthony, had not the least fear that her mother would suspect her of taking a sentimental interest in him. There was nothing in Sybil's character, as her mother knew it, to suggest that she would fall in love with an in- eligible. She was more than astonished, therefore, when her mother commenced by bringing his name into the conversation. " Sybil," she began impressively, " do you see any likeness between your Uncle Percy and Mr. Brooke ? " " None whatever," replied Sybil, decidedly. This was not at all the answer that Lady Editha wanted. The rumour required nurturing even by those who were most interested in its not being true. There was no pleasure in killing a scandal until, at any rate, it showed that it was a fine, healthy infant. " Oh, my dear, think again. Surely the nose " "They've both got rather straight noses." "Exactly," said Lady Editha. "And their mouths." " One can't see Uncle Percy's mouth he's got such a heavy moustache." Lady Editha, who had not seen her brother's 1 66 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET mouth for twenty years, said, with the greatest conviction " I remember Percy's mouth perfectly ; it is very like Mr. Brooke's." Sybil was not slow in apprehension, but she looked at her mother mystified. "Well?" said Lady Editha. " I don't know what you mean, mother." Lady Editha began to have an uncomfortable feeling that perhaps her daughter was reproving her for mentioning such a subject. "I admit that it is a delicate matter, my dear." " What, the subject of Mr. Brooke's and Uncle Percy's noses ? " " I said they were alike, Sybil." As Sybil still gazed at her in bewilderment Lady Editha continued to stalk her with innuendo. " It has always surprised us that your Uncle Percy has never married. And," pursued Lady Editha, still receiving no assistance from her daughter, " Mr. Brooke is very like him." " What have you got to do with Mr. Brooke's marrying, mother ? " "I never said anything about Mr. Brooke marrying, Sybil. What I am alluding to is a most unpleasant rumour. I hear it is suggested that your Uncle Percy and Mr. Brooke are father and son." Sybil sat and gazed at her mother in amaze- ment, and then broke into a peal of laughter. " My dear, I don't know what you are laughing at it may be true." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 167 " I know." " Sybil, how can you laugh at such a thing it's almost improper of you ! I have been wonder- ing all the way home who his mother could have been," added Lady Editha, with a sudden change of tone. " Well, she must have been rather nice looking." " I don't quite like the tone you take on the subject, my dear." Sybil began to laugh again. " How very funny of Uncle Percy ! " " Funny ? " said Lady Editha. " It's exceed- ingly wicked." " Mr. Brooke would be my cousin, wouldn't he, mother ? " " Certainly not he would be nothing of the kind." " But he must be, mother. Blood is thicker than water." " Of course, these things do happen," said Lady Editha. " There was a man who was after- wards in the House of Commons, and called him- self Bruton-Smith. His mother was Smith and his father was Bruton a great-uncle of yours, Sybil and they gave him a peerage, only it died with him, which was a very good thing for every- body." " Who told you this story about Mr. Brooke, mother ? " " Mrs. Gomersall." " Mother, you must admit that she's a terrible scandal-monger." 1 68 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Yes, but she always knows everything that is worth knowing." " What was her proof ? " " Oh, my dear Sybil, directly she mentioned it I saw the whole thing at a glance." And Lady Editha, evidently nervous about being examined as to what she had seen at a glance, rose. " Well, my dear, I must not keep you up a moment longer. We will go into the whole thing to-morrow morning." " What do you propose to do when you have gone into it ? " " Oh, the family must talk it over." " Well, if they do I hope they will leave me out of it." " It would hardly be proper to include you in such a discussion." Tired as she was, Sybil lay awake thinking the matter over. The idea of Anthony being her cousin, and that consequently in a certain way they belonged to each other, gave her a strange pleasure. At last, however, she fell asleep. Had she been an orthodox heroine she would have dreamt of Anthony, St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, and wedding favours ; instead of which, she dreamt of nothing at all, and it was not till she had drunk her morning cup of tea that she remembered to think about Anthony, or Frant, or anybody. Lady Editha concealed from her daughter that she intended to visit Lord and Lady Cecil in the course of the morning to discuss the matter. She had an extension of the telephone in her bedroom, and whilst still in bed she rang up her sister-in-law. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 169 During the usual delay that ensued she lay back on the pillow with the rapt smile which people are apt to assume when they are holding the receiver to their ear. " Yes what is it ? " said an irritable voice. " Are you there ? " " Of course I'm here. Who are you ? " " I am Editha." Lady Cecil tried to throw a little geniality into her voice. "Oh, my dear, I was asleep." " I'm so sorry," said Lady Editha, hypo- critically, knowing that she had counted on catching her sister-in-law in bed, and being quite indifferent as to having roused her out of a pleasant sleep. " But shall you be in this morning ? " " Yes, I think so. Tolly is taking me to the Academy at one o'clock. I always go during the luncheon hour, because there's nobody there." " Would you be in if I came round about half- past eleven ? " " Yes. Is it anything serious ? " " Yes it's about Percy." " Has the attack of hospitality been too much for him ? " "I can't discuss it on the telephone. Ask Cecil to be in too. Good-bye, dear here's my breakfast." Later, Lady Editha walked round to North Audley Street in the broad morning sunlight beneath the shelter of a crimson parasol. She met her brother in the hall. She was ten minutes before her time, and he had calculated his exit so as just 170 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET to miss her. He had concluded that as usual her important business was something quite trivial, and had no wish to be dragged into a family discussion with his wife and sister. "Don't go, Cecil," asked Lady Editha, earnestly. " It is really something that you ought to hear." With a sigh Lord Cecil delayed his pleasant morning stroll in the Row, and followed his sister into his wife's morning-room. This room, the pleasantest in the house, had three large windows opening into a conservatory. Just inside the door there was a deep chair in which Tolly, hidden from view, was reading a novel by Pierre Louys in the original, not understanding all of it, but grasping a great deal more than he ought to have done. Long experience had taught Tolly not to obtrude the fact of his presence unnecessarily, so he kept quiet when he heard his aunt say " Do you mind shutting the door, Cecil, for this is hardly a thing for people to hear, even although all London seems to know about it at least, I should think all London knows about it, for Mrs. Gomersall knows about it, and that always means the same thing sooner or later." " You said it was something to do with Percy," suggested Lady Cecil. "Well, so it is." " I hope there's no scandal," said Lord Cecil, nervously. "You never know what these prigs are up to." " It all depends," said Lady Editha, " upon LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 171 what you call a scandal. Things which were scandals twenty years ago don't seem to matter nowadays. As far as I can make out, nobody seems to mind what any one has done." " Yes, but what has Percy done ? " asked Lady Cecil. A sudden thought crossed Lord Cecil's mind, and he paled. " You don't mean to say he's married ? " " I said a scandal." "That would be a scandal," answered Lord Cecil, decisively, "a crying scandal. I shouldn't have had so many children if there had been the least likelihood of Percy ever marrying." This was a pet delusion of Lord Cecil's, and he aired it on every possible occasion. It created an atmosphere of duty around him. " No, he is not married," said Lady Editha. " If he were the matter might not be a scandal." " You don't mean to say he's got a family ? " asked Lord Cecil. " There again," said Lady Editha, " it all depends what you call a family." " I call children a family." " No, Percy hasn't got children." " Thank God ! " said Lord Cecil, much relieved. " Has he been cheating at cards ? You never can trust Percy where money is concerned." "No," said Lady Editha, "but you know Mr. Brooke?" " What Cammarleigh's secretary ? Very nice young fellow. I am told that he was responsible for the fact that we had such an excellent dinner last night." " People are saying," said Lady Editha, " that he is " " That he is what ? " asked Lord Cecil, looking at her sternly. "Don't look at me like that, Cecil," pleaded Lady Editha. " It wasn't I who invented the rumour." " Oh, what rumour, Editha ? Do tell us." " Why, the rumour that Mr. Brooke is Percy's son." " Rubbish ! " said Lord Cecil ; but nevertheless he looked very uncomfortable. "Well, it appears that everybody is talking about it." " I don't think that Percy is the sort of man to give a thing like that away after having kept it secret for years." "Well," said Lady Cecil, "from what I can gather he seems to occupy a very extraordinary position in Grosvenor Square. He manages everything." " Oh, I think," broke in Lady Editha, hastily, " that the reforms he has effected are perfectly marvellous." She and Sybil had had so very much the run of Cammarleigh's establishment since Anthony's advent that she had not the least wish to injure his position, even if he really were Cammarleigh's son. She reflected that such a rumour was of primary concern to Cecil, and as Cecil had always been so very dictatorial the prospect of a rival to LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 173 his own children for Cammarleigh's personal property might have a chastening effect. From treating the matter with absolute con- tempt Lord Cecil soon found himself discussing it with as much interest as his sister and wife. Lady Cecil discovered that Anthony was very like the picture in the gallery at Cammarleigh Abbey on the right hand side of the fireplace. " You mean the one on the left, Hilda," said Lady Editha. This led to some discussion, in which Lord Cecil joined, and it turned out finally that they all meant a different picture. " I think that Mr. Brooke is rather like Tolly," said Lady Editha. "Tolly is very handsome," said his mother, indulgently ; " but I always thought him like my father." " Nonsense, " said Lord Cecil ; " he's a good- looking boy, and a Bruton all over." Tolly was glad that he had remained to listen. He felt that when three grown-up people sat down and grew enthusiastic about his personal appearance he could go through life with a cer- tain feeling of confidence. As a matter of fact, although he was by no means a conceited boy, in the small sense of the word, he could not resist assuming a self-conscious smirk, which he would most probably, had a looking-glass been placed in front of him, have admitted to be highly ridiculous. The probabilities of Anthony being Cammar- leigh's son were gone into at length ; in fact, it 174 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET might have been thought that so far from being anxious to prove the contrary they were concerned in establishing the fact. There was great pleasure in tracking the suspicion to a certainty. " If you come to think of it," said Lady Cecil, " there is no reason why Percy should not have married." "And he is secretive by nature," put in Lord Cecil ; adding, with brotherly warmth, " Cammar- leigh always did aggravate me, even when we were children. We had a nurse who used con- stantly to say, * His lordship is an aggravator.' And so he is." Neither of the women was prepared to deny that Cammarleigh was both aggravating and secretive. " Well, suppose," said Lord Cecil, " that, for the sake of argument, this young man is a Bruton on the wrong side of the " " Cecil ! " remonstrated his wife. " Well, on the wrong side of the matrimonial preserve. What can be Cammarleigh's object in suddenly springing him upon us although it's quite wonderful how people will accept these things if they are done discreetly and by degrees. If he intends to make him his heir there is nothing more to be said, but I shall give him a very good piece of my mind." " I wonder who his mother was ? " Lady Cecil put the question tentatively, almost as if the crowning impropriety of the matter were that Anthony should have had a mother at all. "Yes, indeed," assented Lady Editha, who LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 175 had been dying to get on to this most important and fascinating side of the question. All three looked thoughtful. They were in reality going through the strenuous mental task of selecting a victim for immolation. Finally, with a sigh of disappointment which was almost comic, they all looked at one another with an expression as if to say, " I give it up." " I think she must have been a lady, because he looks a gentleman." " Oh, he's a gentleman right enough," said Lord Cecil. " Just the faintest suggestion of something flashy and yet flashy is hardly the word." " It struck me," said his wife, " as if it were were just a touch of something brazen." " Yes," assented Lord Cecil. " It's a sort of expression as if he knew that there was some- thing wrong, and was determined to face it out. Well, if Cammarleigh makes him his heir to as much as he is able to leave him it can't be helped. There will be enough to go round even then. I should have sixty thousand a year." " I wonder who his mother was," murmured Lady Editha, with a strong accent on the word " wonder." Again the two ladies set their minds to work, but without result. At this moment there was a slight noise in the conservatory. Tolly found himself being surveyed by his father with the greatest dis- pleasure. " What are you doing there, sir ? " And as 176 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Tolly made no reply he took him gently by the collar and helped him into the room. " What were you doing there, sir ? " Tolly was really afraid of his father, and, having hesitated for a moment he lost his head and stammered out " I was wondering who his mother was." " Leave the room, sir," said his father, sternly ; " I will speak to you afterwards." Tolly left the room and went for a long walk. " He must be taken away from Eton," said Lady Cecil, as the door closed upon him. " Nonsense," answered her husband. " Do you want the boy to grow up a fool ? " " He must have heard us discussing his looks," said Lady Editha. " How very un- pleasant ! It is so bad for a boy to know that people think him good-looking." " I hope to goodness Tolly won't go and mention the matter to Mr. Brooke. There may not be a word of truth in it, and we may all find ourselves let in for a libel action." " With Tolly in the witness-box against us,'* added Lady Editha. "Well, at any rate, in that case we should know whether the story was true or not," said Lord Cecil, with some logic. CHAPTER XV ANTHONY called on Mrs. Westerby before lunch as she had asked him to do. He found her seated at a large desk which more suggested the clerical work of a man than that of a woman. It was littered with papers of an imposing and official aspect. " I'm perfectly sick of the name of charity," she said, as she greeted him. "The committee and writing work that it entails is endless. You don't want any employment of that kind, do you ? " " I don't want it," said Anthony, " because Lord Cammarleigh's correspondence is quite sufficient to take up all my time ; but that sort of thing is sometimes useful." " You are frank." " Well, you see, I have nothing of the snob about me. Socially, I want as many friends as I can make, and when I say friends, of course I don't mean friends I mean that I want to know as many people as I can make use of." Mrs. Westerby looked at him curiously. She knew perfectly well that he was, so to speak, writing up his part to impress her ; he knew that she knew it, and, not to make it too complicated, Mrs. Westerby knew that Anthony knew that 1 78 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET she knew it. Neither of them was, however, the less impressed because each was conscious of the other's histrionics. Mrs. Westerby leaned her chin upon her hand and looked at Anthony, laughing. " You need not make the least further effort to interest me, because I am interested in you already." "It is no effort," said Anthony. "I am wondering what it is like," he added, looking at her, " to be a professional beauty." " The term is hardly accurate," said Mrs. Westerby. " It went out with peacock's feathers and the aesthetic craze." " Ah, what a period ! " said Anthony. " It seems to me that we have become more and more ugly every day. But you know what I meant by a professional beauty." " I understand," she answered ; " and it is exciting ; but if one values social pre-eminence as I do, it's a very poor makeshift." " What is the secret of social progress ? I ask quite humbly, as a student." " The secret of social progress is the secret of success in everything which has ever been faith. There are secondary secrets, of course. Those we learn as we go along, but they are occult secrets." " I see," said Anthony ; " you are like Morgan le Fay a lady versed in magic." " Social magic," corrected Mrs. Westerby. Then she leant forward and asked, "And what is it like to be an adventurer ? " LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 179 Anthony was not in the least taken off his guard, and laughed. " What is an adventurer ? " he asked. " One who is not concerned with the morality of methods. Disraeli was an adventurer although one ought perhaps not to say so, as he was successful." They talked for some time in this strain. Mrs. Westerby had a curious feeling that Anthony ought to be useful to her ; and Anthony was quite sure that Mrs. Westerby would be useful to him. At the same time, they were not very clear what they wanted of each other. The feel- ing that had prompted Mrs. Westerby to ask Anthony to call was of the same kind which had caused him to accept her invitation without delay. It was the instinct of the social parasite to cling to anything which came in the way and happened to give support. Anthony had gathered from more than one source that the Duke of Frant had, prior to trans- ferring his attentions to Miss Travers, been a great deal in the company of Mrs. Westerby ; but how furious she felt at his defection was known only to herself, just as only she knew the particular point to which she had brought that amiable young man on the road to proposing matrimony with herself. Anthony did not ap- preciate that she had been so near success. Mrs. Westerby was a little curious about his relations with Sybil. She had seen them together in the winter garden, and, having a genius for detecting such things, had wondered why Sybil i8o LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Travers should flirt with her uncle's secretary when she was supposed to be doing her best to secure the Duke of Frant. She would have been very glad for Anthony to enlighten her on this point. " The ball at Cammarleigh House was a great success, Mr. Brooke. Who arranged every- thing ? " " Miss Travers and I. It was in her honour, you know." "Lord Cammarleigh must be very fond of her." "Very." " But then, she is going to be a duchess, isn't she?" " I don't know. I'm only the secretary." " Only the secretary ? " queried Mrs. Westerby. "Yes." And Anthony looked at her with a laugh in his eyes, as if to say, " You are much too clever a woman to believe that." But Mrs. Westerby had a weakness for the dramatic in conversation. " You know who people say you are ? " " Why should they say that I am anything but Anthony Brooke ? " " Well, you see, a short time ago you were a very hard-up young actor. I remember you as the footman in that play in which the duchess ran away with the chauffeur if she had run away with the footman I could have under- stood it. I thought it was so nice of you, because you made not the least effort to speak like a footman." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 181 " It is always a sign of a bad actor to try to be like anybody but himself," said Anthony. " That sounds a paradox, but would seem to be true, judging by the successes." " But you have forgotten to tell me who I am," said Anthony, gently bringing her back to the point. " Well, people say and I am rather inclined to believe them that you are Lord Cammar- leigh's son." "Who says so?" "Well, I really don't know who said so at first, but everybody says so now." "Lord Cammarleigh has certainly been very kind to me," said Anthony, thoughtfully. Mrs. Westerby shrewdly reflected that he was not Lord Cammarleigh's son, but that he evidently had not the least objection to people thinking so. "You are not indignant? " she asked. " I don't know I must think about it." Mrs. Westerby laughed. " You are very deliberate, and yet I should say that you had a temper." " I've got a very bad temper. Till lately I have nearly always allowed it to get the better of me. Now I see that I must make a supreme effort and conquer it if I am to get what I want." "Ah, we all have our ambitions." " What is yours ? " " Mine is to be a duchess." And she gave Anthony a swift look as he held a match to her cigarette. " Why a duchess ? " 1 82 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Because, socially, it is the high-water mark. Of course it depends a good deal on the duchess." "Obviously," assented Anthony. "There are duchesses without any social position whatever. Who told you that I was Lord Cammarleigh's son?" " I make a point of always repeating a scandal," said Mrs. Westerby, " but of never giving the name of the author. Is Lord Cammarleigh going to entertain on a large scale ? " "I believe that there will be great doings at Cammarleigh Abbey." Anthony forbore to explain that these great doings had entirely originated in his own brain, and that locked up in his desk in Grosvenor Square there was a full programme of what he intended Cammarleigh to do in order to revive the former splendours of one of the most mag- nificent and historic places in England. Nothing like it would have been seen since the visit of Queen Elizabeth, not very many years after the comfortable Brothers had been driven from Cam- marleigh Abbey, and the first Earl had entered into his ill-gotten gain. Mrs. Westerby gathered from what Anthony said that she might be sure of an invitation, and inwardly wondered how it was in his power to give such an assurance, even in the most round- about way, if he were the poor, unimportant secretary that he asserted himself to be. Before Anthony left the house, Mrs. Westerby had conveyed to him the impression perhaps more fully than she had intended that she was LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 183 exceedingly piqued at the defection of her ducal admirer. As he walked back to Grosvenor Square, Anthony reflected deeply as to what use Mrs. Westerby might be to him. So far his most fantastic schemes had succeeded, and he had an inward conviction that, so long as he continued to soar high enough, his flight would be successful. He was daily expecting the announcement of Sybil's engagement to Frant. The prospect, how- ever, by no means dismayed him. He was living in a realm of romance as exotic as anything which had ever been penned by old or modern writer, and all things seemed possible. His business was to see that the engagement was broken off some time after it should have become public property. The world would at once assume that the Duke had thought better of it, and the question would arise as to why he had done so. This would leave Sybil under a cloud, and then would come his chance. His great danger lay in Cammar- leigh's natural cupidity, for when he found Anthony keeping his word, and making such a serious and deadly onslaught on his money chests, he might, with his back up against the wall, take all risks. Anthony gave a little shiver at the mere idea, although it was almost insufferably hot walk- ing across the Park. He sat down under a tree to think. There was one comfort, Cammarleigh valued his skin even more than his money, and Anthony was of opinion that till he attempted to take the said skin off his back, Cammarleigh would continue to give in. There was not the least 184 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET prospect that it would be necessary to proceed to such extremities, however. As he sat thinking, watching the people on the tops of omnibuses in Park Lane, looking above the railing as if they were sailing along on tea trays, he became con- scious that he was being observed by a more than middle-aged man seated a little way off. It was not a cheerful face, although the colour of the nose suggested that it was wont to be matched by an equally rubicund countenance. He was looking at Anthony in a doubtful sort of way, as if he hardly expected that he would recognise him, and Anthony would not have done so had he not turned away with a sort of half shrug which might have expressed the word " Snob ! " It then dawned on him that they had once been in the same com- pany together. He was too well acquainted with poverty not to see that the other's gloom arose from empty pockets. There is a lack of life, and a particular listlessness which, when they are born of want, are unmistakable to the connoisseur in these matters. Anthony was essentially good- hearted. He had the instincts of the old high- wayman who took what he wanted from the occupants of the lord's coach, but spared the impecunious traveller who was a-foot, even when he had something worth taking. Anthony's former colleague was now sitting with his back to him, as if to show very plainly that he had no wish to intrude his acquaintance where it was not wanted. Anthony rose and crossed to him. " Don't you remember me, Gow ? " The other looked up vaguely, and went LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 185 through the conventional stage formula for recog- nising lost friends and relations ; then, having paid his own pride sufficient respect, he grasped Anthony's outstretched hand and shook it warmly. He knew that he was a seedy, disreputable-look- ing object, and was touched by the young man's unpatronising friendliness. " Why, it's young Brooke, isn't it ? " " Yes, don't you remember, we were on tour together with The Girl from Nowhere, and a very jolly little tour it was." " Ah, laddie, anybody can see that you're getting on although you always were a swell. Have you got a shop ? " Anthony winced. The jargon of the second- rate theatrical struck him as sordid. " No, I've not got an engagement at present." " Come into money, laddie ? " " No, I'm working for my living." " Never ! " answered the other, recollecting that he was a comedian and therefore expected to be humorous. " Yes, I've been driven to that at last." " You seem to be making a good thing of it." "Well, you see, Gow, just as the juvenile man has to be well dressed, so a private secretary depends upon his appearance. How are you getting on ? " " Not much to boast of. Three weeks in the spring, and a couple of special fortnights." " I suppose you're having a bad time of it ? " The dejected low comedian hesitated for a moment, and then said intensely 1 86 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET "Rotten, laddie, rotten. This is my sitting- room," he added, waving his hand round the park. "And a very pleasant sitting-room, too, when it's fine and warm and when it isn't, there are the free libraries." " I always preferred the picture galleries," said Anthony, simply. " I dare say I dare say," said Gow, in a voice that had the slackness of an instrument which wanted stringing up. " Some people like art, others like literature." "It wasn't exactly that," said Anthony, "but the free libraries were always so stuffy." " They are rather," agreed Gow. " In cold weather that's rather comfortable than otherwise." Anthony knew perfectly well that the poor fellow was sadly in need of money, and from what he could remember of him, he was not a sponger. It was therefore difficult to know how to offer it, but Anthony was anxious to get back, so he came to the point at once. " You're hard-up, old chap, aren't you ? " Gow reddened. "Well, yes, laddie, I am although the word hard-up sounds a little pre- tentious when you haven't got a sixpence in the world." " Can I be of any use ? " Gow reflected, and then, taking into considera- tion Anthony's splendid appearance, said " Well, if you can go to half a quid " Anthony took out his cigarette-case, a slender, elegant thing in green leather, bearing his mono- gram in gold. He never went out without a LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 187 considerable sum of money packed in behind his cigarettes. It was quite possible that at any time on returning to Grosvenor Square he might find the doors closed against him, in which case it would be advisable to be well provided for. True, he now had a banking account, but even that did not give such a feeling of security as the notes in his cigarette-case. He took out two ten-pound notes, and handed them to Gow. The latter thought that Anthony was playing a joke, and for a moment suspected the genuineness of the notes. Anthony laughed. " It's all right. I've had rather a stroke of luck lately been winning money at Bridge, you know and I have a sort of superstition that if I do something of this sort it will continue." " I don't know your reason for doing it, laddie, but you've lifted me straight up to heaven. This will keep me for weeks, and I promise faithfully " " No, you don't. Don't return it. If you did, it would bring me bad luck. Good-bye I must go." " Good-bye, laddie, and God bless you." Anthony left the low comedian gazing ecstati- cally up through the branches above his head and sensuously taking time to decide what particular house of refreshment he should first visit, and which of his favourite dishes he should order ; indeed, the pangs of hunger were lessened by the knowledge that he could assuage them at any moment. When Anthony reached Grosvenor Square, he 1 88 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET was informed that Master Bruton had been wait- ing for him for some time. He found Tolly in his private room, stretched at full length on the most comfortable divan, with a cigarette between his teeth, reading a French novel which he had found on Anthony's table for Tolly was a fluent French scholar. Anthony gently took the book from him and laid it on a table. " I don't quite see what they're driving at," said Tolly, imperturbably. " I should hope not," said Anthony. Tolly rose and shook hands politely, for he was a gentleman, and the very fact that Anthony was good to him and allowed him a wide latitude was a reason for his not omitting the least degree of deference. " You don't mind my smoking, Mr. Brooke, do you ? " " No, not one cigarette. It has always struck me as being particularly absurd and hypocritical to object to boys smoking when a small amount of example would be the most effectual cure in the world." Tolly looked at him without understanding, and, with the instincts of his class, politely began to talk of something else. " I say, there's been an awful row at home." " Indeed ! What about ? " Tolly had firmly made up his mind that nothing on earth should induce him to repeat to Anthony what he had heard said about him. It would have seemed wiser, therefore, to keep out LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 189 of his way, but somehow the suggested mystery had invested Anthony with an added fascination, and he rather enjoyed hovering, as it were, over the danger of committing treason against his family. Tolly looked vague. " I don't think I ought to tell you," he said. " At least, I am quite sure that they wouldn't care about your knowing." " Who wouldn't care about my knowing ? " " Why, mother and father, and Aunt Editha." " Was Lady Editha there too ? " " Oh, rather ! She started the whole thing. She telephoned my mother early this morning, and came over to have it out. Women love having it out, you know. They never let rows fade away. I remember when I was little that after mother had been angry with me she always wanted to make a fresh fuss by forgiving me." And Tolly shot out his chin and frowned, looking like Ganymede in a fit of the blues. " You see," he went on, " I wasn't supposed to hear. I was sitting in the conservatory, and Aunt Editha came in in such a state of excitement " " What, into the conservatory ? " asked Anthony. " No, into the morning-room. Well, she was in such a state of excitement that I knew some- thing interesting was up, so I lay low." " You listened," said Anthony, with cheerful frankness. " Well, I suppose I did," admitted Tolly ; and then he added, " Well, it wasn't so much that I listened I overheard." 1 90 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " You're quite right," said Anthony, " I should call that lying low." " Oh, I know I oughtn't to have done it. 1 know that now. One learns by experience." And he looked a little rueful. " Still, I mustn't tell you what they said, must I ? " " How can I say ? " " By Jove ! " said Tolly, frantically dancing in and out of danger, " you would give anything to know." " No, I wouldn't," said Anthony ; " not any- thing. For instance, I wouldn't give the chance of marrying the girl I intend to marry." " Perhaps you do know," said Tolly. " Look here, will you give your word of honour never to say who told you ? " Tolly, it will be observed, was true to human nature, inasmuch as while protecting himself he was prepared to give a vigorous stir to the mis- chief which was brewing. Anthony felt that it would be beneath his dignity to give any such assurance, and, besides, it would never do for anybody to think that he had done so, so he answered diplomatically " My dear Tolly, 1 never repeat anything " ; and mentally added, " unless it becomes necessary for the advancement of my own interests to do so." Tolly looked thoughtful. He had expected that Anthony would so solemnly swear secrecy on the subject that he would be justified in telling him all about it. Inwardly, he knew quite well that he was going to tell him. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 191 " Do you mean to say you never repeat any- thing you hear ? " he asked. Such a possibility at Tolly's age seemed un- thinkable. " Never," said Anthony. " Then," said Tolly, briskly, " I don't see why I shouldn't tell you." Anthony proceeded with a note he was writing. He knew that Tolly was dying to enchain his attention, and that the more indifference he dis- played the more likely he was to bring that young gentleman to the point. " It's about whose son you are," said Tolly. Anthony guessed that it was highly probable that sooner or later Lady Cecil would find out that her son had betrayed the family suspicions, and that Tolly would be called upon to give an exact account of his behaviour under the circum- stances. He therefore looked up with a startled expression, which even Tolly thought curious, and said " Whose son I am ? What do you mean ? " For one moment Tolly wondered whether things would end in his receiving a very severe castigation. " Perhaps I had better not tell you any more," he said hastily. "You had better tell me the whole thing now." And he looked at Tolly in a way which mesmerised him. " Well, Aunt Editha says that people are saying " Tolly paused. For the first time his juvenile mind was 192 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET brought face to face with the fact that he was dealing with a matter of enormous importance. It was bound at his age to be more a matter of instinct than a knowledge of fact, but he immedi- ately tried to defend himself and his belongings by saying " It was Aunt Editha who started it." " But what did she start ? " "Why," blurted out Tolly, "she said that you were Uncle Percy's son." " Oh ? " said Anthony, in a quiet voice, which was successful in giving to Tolly the impression that he wished to convey, namely, that the rumour was true. " Of course, I don't see," continued Tolly, feeling that some deference should be paid to his own youthful modesty and supposed ignorance, " how that can be, considering that Uncle Percy has never been married." " Don't talk rubbish, my boy," said Anthony, curdy. Tolly was wondering whether Anthony ought to be called FitzBruton, or whether that was a privilege reserved for the natural sons of Royalty. If he had had some vague idea that Anthony would make a confidant of him, and that, having obtained the truth of the matter, he might return home and deliver it to his people under solemn promise not to say who told them, he was much mistaken. Not quite liking the curiously reflective look on Anthony's face, and mistaking it for suppressed anger, he said what he thought would be the LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 193 most sweetly comforting thing under the cir- cumstances " You see, if you were Uncle Percy's son, you would be my cousin at least, well, I don't know would you ? " "That all depends, Tolly," said Anthony, shaking his head and laughing enigmatically. A new aspect of the question suddenly burst upon Tolly. As things were, Tolly would one day be a marquis, but if Anthony's mother were married to Lord Cammarleigh, why, Anthony would be the marquis, and Tolly would be no- where. Everybody wants to be a marquis if he gets the chance, even a schoolboy except people who are something higher. All Radicals and Socialists who pretend that they have no such ambition are only accentuating their snobbish- ness. Tolly looked considerably depressed. He would willingly have given up his pretensions to innocence if he could have brought himself to the pitch of committing such an error of taste as to ask Anthony to produce his mother's marriage certificate. He would have disliked Anthony on the spot had he been able to, but somehow he couldn't dislike him. He was unable to say why, but his uncle's secretary, or his cousin, or what- ever he was, fulfilled his ideal. Perhaps the rakish side of Tolly's temperament recognised a fellow-spirit. He got no more satisfaction, how- ever, out of Anthony that afternoon, and so far from having triumphantly extracted information for which his parents were thirsting, he had the i 9 4 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET uncomfortable feeling that he had betrayed them to the enemy and had nothing to show for it. After Anthony had bade Tolly a cordial fare- well, he stood thinking deeply as he watched him crossing Grosvenor Square in his faultless Eton suit and tall hat. Then he shook his head de- liberately three times, finally murmuring to him- self " Very good very good indeed. But where on earth is the sense of honour boys are supposed to learn in our public schools ! " CHAPTER XVI " IT won't do to show that we have the least suspicion," Lord Cecil said to his wife. " I have no doubt that if we lie low we shall get at the truth. A young fellow like that is sure to give himself away sooner or later. Personally," he continued, flattering himself that he was displaying a cunning and address worthy of the entire Jesuit Brotherhood, " I shall be very civil to him." "Well, darling, you couldn't very well be anything else we've no proof, and, even if we had, it's not the poor young man's fault." " c The sins of the fathers,' " said Lord Cecil, sententiously. " Don't talk rubbish, Cecil ! Surely you are not so hard-hearted as to wish any child to be visited with the consequences of Cammarleigh's sins ? " " My dear, don't talk as though Percy were a criminal." " I've never abused him half as much as you have done." This was so perfectly true that Lord Cecil thought it better to hold his tongue. He was not, however, so determined to be civil to Anthony as Lady Editha and her daughter were. It had given the former a certain amount of D 196 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET satisfaction to convey the news to her brother that Anthony might possibly be Lord Cammarleigh's son, legitimate or illegitimate, but there she left it. It could not be a matter of profound interest to her. Sybil, on the other hand, feeling herself more and more possessed by Anthony's person- ality, had become profoundly inquisitive on the subject. It was undoubtedly a very good explana- tion of Anthony's position in Grosvenor Square. She felt that she had a certain right to the truth from his own lips. That there was a mystery about him she had felt sure from the very beginning. Other people must have felt it too, or they would not have been so anxious to explain him. Sybil was at least no exception to her sex in the matter of curiosity, if indeed curiosity can be said to be a special weak- ness of either sex. To be in love with a man about whom there is a mystery and not to have the key of that mystery is quite sufficient to arouse the purpose and concentration of any woman. Sybil was not singular in risking every- thing for the sake of knowing all about the man she was in love with. It is a curiosity compre- hensible and insatiable. So far, Anthony had not realised how strong a weapon he had in his hand. He began to grasp the fact vaguely from a con- versation with Sybil shortly after the dance at Cammarleigh House. He had called and found her alone. She refrained from mentioning that she had given directions that she was to be out to the Duke of Frant, nor that she had intended to be out to everybody, only changing her mind LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 197 when the servant came to inform her that Anthony was below. He found her in a cool little room at the back of the house, looking diaphanous and lovely, in a perfect bower of gorgeous flowers. "How nice," he said frankly, as he sank into a chair opposite to her, " you are alone." " Mother has gone to Ranelagh with the Rawson girls they are sort of relations, you know, and are always wanting to be chaperoned, although the youngest is twenty-eight." Sybil mentioned " twenty-eight " with all the superiority and glory of her eighteen summers. " We are alone that is the great point," said Anthony, " and that being the case we are perfectly happy." Sybil raised her eyebrows perceptibly, as if she intended to convey the slightest amount of surprise that he should have underlined the situation in this way. She was not quite sure that the remark was in keeping with the absolutely delicate touch with which he had hitherto treated their relations. Tea was brought in, and until they were alone again they talked commonplaces. With the arrival of tea, Sybil's Yorkshire terrier hastily descended from his mistress's lap and scrambled on to Anthony's knee. " You mustn't feed George." " I never feed George he feeds himself o ut of my hand." Having made her protest in favour of George's figure, Sybil said 198 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " I remained at home, because there was something I wanted to think out." " Did it require thinking out ? " " If you had been asked to marry," said Sybil, planting what she considered a bombshell into Anthony's camp, "wouldn't you give it some consideration ? " " It all depends who had asked me," replied Anthony. " Nobody has ever asked me to marry them, although, for the life of me, I have never been able to see why a woman who is in a position to keep a man comfortably I will not say respect- ably shouldn't have the privilege of proposing. Stay, there was a middle-aged lady who used to play Duchesses and things of that sort on the stage. Behind the footlights she was quite convincing, and a chronic affection of the tonsils made her delivery irresistibly comic. She tried to dazzle me by suggesting that her salary was enough for two." " Why didn't you accept ? " asked Sybil, mischievously. "Oh," said Anthony, imperturbably, "whilst I was thinking about it she had her tonsils cut out, and with the improvement in her voice her humour, and her money value with it, disappeared, so I had a lucky escape." " How very sad ! " said Sybil, with mock sympathy and a twinkle in her eye. " Most of our actors and actresses depend for their individuality on some vocal defect, and a fair number on physical deformity." Anthony still reserved the stiletto for his former profession. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 199 " You have not answered my question." " Well, I don't think if I had been asked to be a Duchess that I should give it much con- sideration I should say yes, and I am sure that you will, because you are grasping." " How dare you say such a thing ! " said Sybil, without, however, the least trace of offence in her voice. " Because we are both grasping." " Will you advise me ? " she asked. Anthony stroked George affectionately. " I don't think that is quite nice of you. Are we the people to give each other advice ? " " What do you mean ? " " If I were the Duke of Frant would you marry me ? Or, wait, I'll put it in another way." The delicate morsel of bread and butter which was on its way to Sybil's mouth was arrested in mid-air. " You must be mad." " Of course I am," he replied, "all lovers are mad. It seems to me absolutely absurd not to admit frankly that we love each other." Even Sybil, self-possessed as she was, was amazed at such assurance, and yet she felt that Anthony might be trusted not to betray her to herself. She was hardly able to answer him. So long as he was sitting where he was she felt safe. She would not have been a woman if in her heart of hearts she had not been to a certain extent carried away by his audacity. She took an unconscion- able time drinking her cup of tea, and was glad that Anthony kept his eyes fixed on George. 200 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " Of course," he continued, "you must marry the Duke, as there is not the least likelihood of your marrying me. Still, we are under no par- ticular obligation to marry the person we are in love with, are we ? " " I think," said Sybil, " it is exceedingly unkind of you to talk to me in this way. Things are easy and straighten themselves out if they are not talked about." " Don't tell me that there is any harm in speaking the truth," said Anthony. " I have found the experiment quite refreshing." He was wondering what would happen if he took Sybil in his arms and kissed her. He deter- mined, however, not to run any risks. " It will be rather nice to be a duchess at eighteen," said Sybil. " Yes ; you might be a widow at twenty-one." " And yet do you believe that all that sort of thing makes up for love ? You see, I'm very young, and can hardly be expected to know." "Well," said Anthony, "I've had a great deal of experience of love, but I haven't had any experience of that sort of thing, as you call it." Sybil at once became very interested in An- thony's heart-experiences. " It doesn't seem much of a compliment to be loved by you," she said. <c I don't know. To be loved by somebody who is young enough not to have lost fervour, and who is experienced enough to have a culti- vated taste,i would seem to show a more special homage." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 201 "That sounds very affected," said Sybil. " Sometimes, indeed, I think you really are affected." "At such times your powers of discernment are at their best," replied Anthony, unabashed. " I don't believe that you could be in love." And Miss Travers grew a little tearful. After all, the situation was extremely difficult. To be seated so near to a young man who had the strongest physical attraction for her, and to have the knowledge that he could never be any- thing to her at any rate, for some months was very trying. Anthony looked at her reproachfully, and not even Sybil could have accused him of being affected when, with all the guile gone out of his face, an intense expression of youthful ardour in his long, narrow eyes, he leant forward and mur- mured "Don't say that, because it is not true. If things were different you would see that it is not true." Sybil quite forgot, in the ecstasy of Anthony's avowal, that she was merely allowing a few hours of decent, maidenly hesitation to elapse before promising her hand to the Duke of Frant, and that Lady Editha had gone off to Ranelagh per- fectly happy in the assurance that her daughter was to be brilliantly provided for, and congratu- lating herself that Heaven did not always desert and neglect the helpless widow, compelled to make both ends meet on a paltry pittance of three thousand five hundred a year. Of course, Sybil's 202 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET trousseau would be a terrible tax, and she was already beginning to consider the possibility of persuading Cammarleigh to provide the means. It would be very unlike him, but there was dear Mr. Brooke or Cousin Anthony, as the case might be who seemed to be able to do anything with her brother. Perhaps his services might be available. At any rate, Sybil was no doubt at that moment penning quite the right letter to Front, whereas in reality Sybil was saying good-bye to Anthony, with, for the first and only time, as she assured him, her head upon his breast, whilst George, with his huge blue bow under his chin instead of at the back of his neck, was gazing at them in perplexity, and wondering why they should find such a proceeding more interesting than cake and bread and butter. Sybil had the greatest pity for herself. Frant was a poor creature when compared with Anthony, physically and mentally. The physical difference Sybil being a woman might have been over- come, but it was the suggestion of strength com- bined with mental agility which fascinated her in Anthony. Although she could not have put it so explicitly to herself, she loved him with some- thing of the same mesmerised passion that the htgbwajinaii'i mistress might ;u\e rVl:. He h.-d about him a distinct atmosphere of danger, and the way he rode the whirlwind charmed her to distraction. Anthony felt that sub-consciously Sybil under- stood him, and, what was more remarkable con- sidering her bringing-up, that she appreciated LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 203 him. In fact, they thoroughly appreciated each other. Had it been otherwise, they would, instead of with charming and unusual philosophy accept- ing the situation, have been calling each other selfish and heartless and exemplifying their own individual selflessness by each calling upon the other to give up all worldly advancement, and cheerfully face poverty and hardship for love's sake ; indeed, Anthony put it to Sybil very seri- ously whether they ought not to go through the usual formula, but at the mere idea they laughed unrestrainedly. There was one thing Sybil did not understand about Anthony ; indeed, not knowing what mar- vellous successes he had lately had in the world of unreality and romance, how could she ? What she did not grasp was Anthony's determination to fight for her till she was actually Duchess of Frant. The usual commonplace lover would crudely have informed her of this fact, thereby filling her with feminine pleasure in the know- ledge that she would have two lovers, at any rate as far as the altar-steps. Besides, she would be on the defensive ; and Anthony knew that a woman on the defensive holds the most strongly fortified position in art or nature. When they had finished saying good-bye they sat down, and Sybil poured out some more tea, whilst Anthony cut another piece of cake, whereat George gave a sigh of relief and stood on his hind legs. Sybil was very anxious to ask Anthony for some information on the subject of his birth, but 204 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET she found it even more difficult than Tolly had done. Tolly had only to surmount the presumed ignorance of childhood ; Sybil would have to wriggle unobserved through the complicated re- straints imposed on her by her sex. Anthony realised what her object was, per- haps even before she had begun, and played with her the more enjoyably that he was in love. A little cruelty seasons love wonderfully at any rate, to the epicure. " Do you know that people say very strange things about you ? " she asked. " I am sure they do," he answered. " I am a personality, and I require explanation." And he began to talk of something else. Again and again Sybil brought the conversa- tion back in the hope of inducing him to return to the subject, but he eluded her every time. Finally, when she was really reduced to a high state of nerves by the manner in which he balked her, she said irritably " I told you the other evening that there was a mystery about you, and I am sure there is." Anthony gave her the benefit of a glance from his wide-open eyes. " Yes, there is a mystery. I should say that it was the most extraordinary mystery that could be imagined." " Does anybody know it ? " " No," said Anthony, " nobody. Would you believe it if I told you that I found a magic wand lying in Grosvenor Square ? " " Yes, if you showed it to me." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 205 " I won't do that, but one of these days there will be somebody that I shall show it to." " And who will that be ? " "My wife." Anthony made the remark lightly as a sort of revenge in jest for the fact that she was about to marry another man, but as soon as he had made it some vague conviction that he had found the weapon he wanted entered his mind, why he could not say. Woman's strongest passion is curiosity. CHAPTER XVII " WHAT shall we do in August ? " asked Anthony one morning, as, seated by his victim's bedside, he performed his secretarial duties of opening Cammarleigh's correspondence. "What do you mean what shall we do in August ? I wish you wouldn't assume that we are going to do anything. As a matter of fact, I have had an engagement ever since the begin- ning of the year to join the Havants at Perth Palace." " The Duke of Havant is very interesting," said Anthony. " He has ideas. He studies Eastern religions as if the most important religion in the East were not woman. But I don't want to go to Scotland." Cammarleigh's spirit failed within him. " It is my intention to go," he said, with that shaky firmness that he always assumed when he was afraid that Anthony meant to upset some cherished plan. Anthony reflected deeply. " Very well, then," he said at last, " you shall." "Thank you," said Cammarleigh, with satiric gratitude. " I'll go on the Continent." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 207 " You can go to the devil." Ignoring this remark, and knowing perfectly well that Cammarleigh was very interested in his doings, Anthony continued " I shall probably go to Homburg. If people would go to Homburg in their youth instead of waiting till their old age, there would not be so many wrecks. You are quite sure you won't come to Homburg with me ? " " I am perfectly well, thank you." " I am not sure that at your age it isn't a mistake to go in for cures," said Anthony. " You would probably only find out that you are ill. One day's perfect health would frighten you into a lifelong convalescence." " That is the sort of foolish remark you are always making," said Cammarleigh, who would have given worlds to have been able to say any- thing half as good. " Yes," said Anthony, chiming in blithely before Cammarleigh could complete his reprimand. " I don't find any difficulty in saying that sort of thing ; it comes quite natural to me." " Does it ? " said Cammarleigh. " Well, it sounds singularly unnatural." Anthony ignored the remark. " It used to do me a lot of harm when I was on the stage. Theatrical managers are like schoolmasters ; they don't allow anybody else to be witty on their premises. But since I've been under your pro- tection people are beginning to repeat the things I say, with the result that if any stupid person says anything clever, I very possibly get the credit 208 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET of it, and that is how a reputation for wit, Cam- marleigh, is built up." " Most of our wits have been highly unde- sirable people," said Cammarleigh, with a length- ened upper lip. " It's difficult to be moral and entertaining. I expect that even Rochester was dull after the worthy bishop who converted him had finished his task. When shall you be at Cammarleigh Abbey?" Cammarleigh, seeing that Anthony meant business, said " I expect to be there at the end of August." "Can you spare me till then ? " " I'll try. There is not the least need for you to come to Cammarleigh Abbey." " My dear Cammarleigh, who on earth would see to the accommodation of all those guests ? " " Guests ? " screamed Cammarleigh. " Of course," said Anthony, looking at him in a puzzled way. " What do you mean ? You can't stop entertaining all of a sudden. Your heart is supposed to be overflowing with the milk of human kindness. Why, they're thinking of having a cartoon of you in Vanity Fair as the modern Scrooge, pawning your coronet for the purpose of charity." " I'll soon see about this," said Cammarleigh, thrusting an appallingly skinny leg out of bed. "I wish you'd put that leg back," said Anthony ; " it makes me sick." Under an impulse of vanity Cammarleigh hurriedly covered up his unappreciated limb. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 209 " I won't have it. It'll cost a small fortune to make the place fit to receive people in." "Yes, but merely a small fortune. You seem to forget, Cammarleigh, that I may only have a year in which to enjoy myself in this way, and that at the end of that time I may find my- self out of Paradise, with a paltry income of five hundred a year, and without the woman I love." " If " began Cammarleigh. "You know," said Anthony, quite gravely, " that I always keep my word." He forbore to mention the fact that, in case the worst should happen, his banker's balance was being very carefully nursed, and that he expected that at the end of the time limit it would have amounted to considerably more than five or six times the sum which Cammarleigh was to give him, and, moreover, he concluded that there would be a handsome commission from the firm who undertook the repairs and decorations at Cam- marleigh. The prospect of getting rid of Anthony finally never brought Cammarleigh quite that sense of relief which he felt it should have done. He had begun to realise vaguely that he had grown to like him, or perhaps, what was more true, that he exercised an extraordinary fascination over him. That Anthony would succeed in marrying Sybil within the year he did not for one moment believe, although the thought of the sum of money which he would have to disburse if such, by some extraordinary fatality, became the case, p 210 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET made him shiver. Suddenly an inspiration struck Cammarleigh. He looked very gracious, and said, with studied carelessness " Have you ever seen the Alps ? " " No," said Anthony, seeing his drift at once, " but I should like to."' " I dare say I could spare a fortnight," said Cammarleigh, " to go there with you." Anthony looked at him indulgently. " My dear Cammarleigh, just as if I should trust myself with you on the Alps ! I haven't the least intention of allowing you to risk your neck by pushing me down a crevasse. The idea is particularly uncomfortable. Let us dismiss the subject. Here is a letter from your sister. Will you read it ? " " I expect it is to tell me that Sybil is engaged to Frant," said Cammarleigh, crushingly. " You can read it." " I don't mind betting that that is the case," said Anthony, coolly. " Yes, here we are." And he read U< MY DEAR BROTHER, " c I write to tell you that the Duke of Frant has asked Sybil to be his wife, and that she has accepted him. I shall feel her loss terribly.' ' Both Anthony and Cammarleigh smiled broadly, not because they did not believe in the sincerity of Lady Editha's affection for her daughter, but because they shrewdly guessed that LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 211 Lady Editha would not so much lose a daughter as that Frant would gain a mother-in-law. " c I write to you as the head of the family first. I am afraid the wedding will be a great expense to me, but I must do the best I can. No one can do more.' " That means," said Anthony, " that she wants you to pay for the trousseau, and of course you could hardly do less ; and besides, you must give Miss Travers a diamond tiara and necklace. " ' We hope,' concluded Lady Editha, ' that the wedding will be in November. 1 ' Anthony looked a little thoughtful. It was certainly rather soon. It came upon him as some- what of a shock. However, he must do his best, and if he lost Sybil he did not altogether ignore the fact that, when it came to the point, Cammar- leigh might be unwilling to part with him. " It's a splendid match," said Cammarleigh. " Frant is enormously rich. He has pleased him- self there was no need for him to do otherwise." "Yes, he can afford to ignore the United States. I hope you will at once write and ask Lady Editha and Sybil I mean Miss Travers and the Duke to Cammarleigh Abbey in Sep- tember." " What ! Frant as well ? " questioned Cam- marleigh, curiously. " Of course. You couldn't very well leave him out under the circumstances." " I hope you are not plotting some dreadful scandal," said Cammarleigh, suspiciously. " I certainly hope that there will be no scandal. 212 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Scandal is the last thing which would serve my purpose." He thought deeply for a moment, toying with the braiding of his dark green smok- ing-suit. Then he rose and left the room without a word. This always made Cammarleigh feel nervous and uncomfortable. He would, if such remnant of pride as remained to him had per- mitted, have called after him in order to assure himself that Anthony was not angry. Anthony paid his respects to Lady Editha, and said such charming things about her daugh- ter's engagement that she was quite touched, and Lady Cecil, coming in while he was there, and both ladies having made up their minds that he was Cammarleigh's son, they very soon found themselves talking to him as if he were one of the family. When he had gone, they both pronounced him charming, till Lady Editha suggested that, after all, his mother might have been married to Cammarleigh. Lady Cecil, who could not bear such a thought more on account of her darling Tolly than for the sake of herself or her husband grew rather piqued, and finally departed in a decidedly bad temper with both her sister-in-law and Anthony. CHAPTER XVIII MUCH to Cammarleigh's indignation, Anthony insisted on their going down to Cammarleigh Abbey for a week-end towards the close of July. " If you don't come I shall have to go alone," said Anthony, " and then it will simply be a case of giving me carte blanche" Cammarleigh tried to wriggle out of the expedition, told Anthony that he was looking seedy, and that the sooner he was off to the Con- tinent the better. Anthony professed to be much touched by his consideration, but said he was unable to accept Cammarleigh's assurance that it would be time enough if they went there a few days before the house-party arrived. " You have a reputation to keep up, Cammar- leigh a reputation which you owe to me, it is true, but that makes me all the more determined that my trouble shall not be thrown away." Cammarleigh groaned inwardly, but assumed a pleasant smile. Experience had taught him that this was the most dignified way of submitting to the pressure of the iron hand beneath the velvet glove. Before they left town, Anthony made a discovery which somewhat perturbed him. It was that Cammarleigh was in the habit of carrying about with him a small packet of deadly poison. 2i 4 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Cammarleigh was unaware that Anthony was compelled in self-defence although much regret- ting the vulgarity of the act to go through all his pockets when he was asleep. Whether the poison was meant for himself or Anthony, the latter was unable to say, but the fact of having to keep a constant look-out was a strain which he resented. " Railway travelling is rather spoilt for me," said Anthony, lighting a cigar as they were locked into their reserved carriage at Euston. The fact of his having had a carriage reserved was just one of those things which Anthony knew perfectly well a man of his own age, who was hardened to wealth, would not have done. He was quite conscious of this fact, and in order to protect himself when a particular piece of extravagance came into notice he would let drop some remark which would leave the impression that it was Cammarleigh's doing, such as, " His lordship will give me no peace if this or that is not done." Or, " Lord Cammar- leigh insists, so what can I do ? " Cammarleigh was perfectly aware of these and many other little ruses by which the onus of any- thing which might be unpopular was shifted from Anthony's shoulders to his own. " Why should railway travelling be spoilt for you ? " It was one of those things which irritated Cammarleigh most, that he never could be in- different to what Anthony had to say. He was obliged to admit that he was constantly amusing, and besides, he was always hoping that Anthony might inadvertently let fall how much or how LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 215 little he knew of his secret. Such a simple explanation of the whole matter as that Anthony was in complete ignorance of it never entered his head. Anthony, on his side, preferred not to know what Cammarleigh's secret was ; or perhaps that is not a quite fair definition of his attitude. He had given the matter full consideration, and had come to the conclusion that it would be safer not to know. It might be something appalling which would unnerve him, although, taking into consideration Cammarleigh's craven character, it was far more likely not to be so serious as Anthony had at first been inclined to believe. Yes, taking all things into consideration, it would be as well to remain in ignorance. Cammarleigh might dis- cover, should he attempt to find out the truth, that he knew nothing at all. Undoubtedly, the safe attitude to take up was the one he had adopted, namely, to refuse to discuss the matter at all. In this way he ran no danger. "The reason," said Anthony, "why railway travelling is rather spoilt for me is because I have been an actor in second-rate touring companies. If for weeks on end you had been flying about the country in a third-class smoking compartment with a low comedian who suffered from chronic depression, a leading man who was an amateur pugilist, and several other scarecrows, a railway carriage would depress you as it does me." " You could have read a book," said Cammar- leigh. " You could have improved your mind." "That was impossible." " Why ? " 216 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET "Because I was too occupied in winning as much of their salaries as I could manage at poker." " It seems to have been a highly undesirable form of existence." " Oh, most," said Anthony. " You mean from the moral I mean from the material point of view. When we dribbled into a town, a thin stream of ultra-shabby Bohemianism, my melan- cholia became acute. We had a lady in the company once who played the heroines and who was so decrepid that she was always mistaken for the manager's grandmother, but at night she used to play Jeanie Deans, and really didn't look a day more than fifty-five." "These reminiscences are not very edifying," said Cammarleigh. Anthony sighed. " That is the worst of you, Cammarleigh. Your interests are so limited. Now, I am interested in everything ; and, do you know, that's what makes people charming or other- wise ? I have noticed, since I have mixed in the great world, that the big men are always interested in every phase of life, providing it is put before them in an interesting way. It argues a larger consciousness ; and, after all, the development of consciousness is the object of life, and that is why innocence is so immoral." Cammarleigh had always been rather surprised that Anthony, despite his usual attitude of spark- ling levity, was able to talk when he wished on a higher philosophic level than he himself was capable of, so he had adopted a trick, which, while saving him from the necessity of replying, was intended LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 217 to convey that he could no longer continue a con- versation conducted in such a childish vein. This consisted in leaning back and closing his eyes wearily. Any aggressive rudeness of this kind always brought out the guttersnipe in Anthony's nature, and as he had not the least objection to Cammarleigh seeing this side of his character, he generally took his fill of as much irritation as it was capable of inflicting. " Thinking makes your brain ache, doesn't it, poor old thing ! Never mind me go to sleep." And Anthony began to whistle an air out of a popular musical comedy a form of music for which in reality he had a profound dislike. When they reached Cammarleigh station, Anthony could not help smiling as he saw the servility with which the station-master, a fine, virile, north-country specimen, opened the door for Cammarleigh. The station was not far from the park lodge. Entering the gates, they drove for a time along a road vaulted by the interlacing branches of mag- nificent trees centuries old. This leafy vault was the more impressive inasmuch as the trees on either side sprang from a steep bank. After they had gone about a mile and a half, suddenly, in front of them, framed like a picture in the arch of foliage which terminated the road, lay the un- dulating green sward of the park ; and, set on a knoll which sloped down to the old fishponds, stood Cammarleigh Abbey in the mellow splendour of its lordly terraces, its time-stained, massive masonry, and battlemented roof. Close by stood 218 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET the old Abbey church, one of the most perfect specimens of Norman architecture in England. Anthony was intensely sensitive to the beauty of such a scene. The stateliness, the peace, the hoary building, sunning itself on this gorgeous July afternoon like a great, brown lizard, sent a thrill through him, and he turned to Cammarleigh, and said simply " Cammarleigh, how did such a home produce you?" The remark came as a distinct shock to Cam- marleigh. He had noticed the effect that the panorama of his ancestral home had made on Anthony, and he had concluded that it would raise him in his tormentor's eyes. To find that it only drew an unfavourable comparison was humiliating to a degree. The ancient approach to Cammarleigh had been from the opposite direction, and as they drew near Anthony saw that the village lay about a mile to the rear of the Abbey, straggling up a hillside. Finally they reached the splendid old gateway, and rolled beneath it. " It seems absurd to enter a place like this in a lounge suit, doesn't it, Cammarleigh ? " " I don't know that I have ever entered it in anything else." "We ought to have changed our clothes at the station, and ridden here on horseback in tie wigs, with pistols in our holsters." " I trust," said Cammarleigh, " that you won't take it into your head to do anything fantastic. Remember, I am Lord-Lieutenant of the county." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 219 "That's just the point you can give me every advantage." Two children standing just outside the Abbey courtyard cheered and waved their caps, while a couple of young labourers pulled their forelocks. Cammarleigh acknowledged the salutes, but with no great grace of manner or cordiality of expression. " Really, this is a very poor display two young men and a few children ! And you have always insinuated that you were so popular ! You must give a tea to the children, and a dinner to the tenants, with a cricket-match." " Look here," said Cammarleigh, " I warn you once and for all that if you make me ridiculous in the county I shall not care what happens." "It would be rather picturesque," said Anthony, unheeding, " to give a grand fete, and to show the storming of Cammarleigh Abbey by the Crom- wellian troops." Cammarleigh made no answer. Opposition invariably brought about the very catastrophe he wished to avoid. He felt that at the Abbey he would be more secure than he had been since Anthony first appeared in his life, for, at any rate, that abominable whistle would be quite ineffective. " I have often promised you," said Anthony, " that the day was coming, and was perhaps not so far distant, when you would be free of me, but, upon my soul, I shall find it very difficult to give up the Abbey. You must show me all over it." This Cammarleigh did the next morning. Anthony was most careful not to go through 220 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET any low arched doors, or down dark staircases in front of Cammarleigh, but always made him go first. He believed that he saw danger in his victim's eye at last, and concluded that he was drawing a new stock of courage from the fact that he was in a place where he was acknowledged lord and master. " I shouldn't wonder," he thought, " if he hadn't made up his mind to use that little packet of poison." And he laughed. The idea of Cam- marleigh undergoing all the moral pangs of tempta- tion to murder under the impression that he was possessed of a deadly poison was very amusing indeed. " I must give him his opportunity quite soon, although it is extremely doubtful whether he will have the courage to take it." That evening, after dinner, when they were sitting over their wine, Anthony made some excuse and went out of the room, leaving his glass of port half full. When he returned from the other side of the door, he knew from actual observation that Cammarleigh had taken his chance. He very slowly lit a cigar, surveying him under his almost closed lids. Cammarleigh took a cigarette, and Anthony swiftly struck a match and handed him a light. " Why, Cammarleigh, your hand is shaking ! " "Nonsense, why on earth should my hand shake ? " "I don't know, I'm sure, but it is shaking, and your face is quite green. You are not worrying, I hope ? You must really cheer up." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 221 "I'm all right, thank you," quavered Cam- marleigh. Anthony raised his glass to the light, Cam- marleigh watching the while, fascinated. " This port is very cloudy," said Anthony. He raised it to his lips and tasted it. Then he set it down on the table and looked severely at Cammarleigh, who was shaking as if he had an ague. " Cammarleigh, you have been trying to poison me." And Anthony raised his forefinger reprovingly. " Now, I won't have it once and for all, I won't have it." " What do you mean ? " said Cammarleigh, holding on to his chair in his agitation. " It's the sort of thing," said Anthony, " that you may easily fall into the habit of doing, and it's quite impossible to put up with it." He got up and rang the bell. " Mercy ! " wailed Cammarleigh, wringing his hands. " Bring me another glass, please," he said to the servant who answered the summons. When it had been brought, Cammarleigh sank whimpering into his chair. " How did you find out ? " he asked, in a hoarse whisper. " I didn't find out ; I guessed." If Cammarleigh had been in a less abject frame of mind he might have wondered how much more Anthony owed to pure guesswork ; but he was too completely cowed by the event. Anthony preferred that Cammarleigh should 222 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET think his detection entirely due to guesswork. The incident had one good effect ; it made Cam- marleigh quite abject during the remainder of their stay at the Abbey. He looked on without a protest while a large sum was spent on a suite of rooms decorated and furnished in the Queen Anne style. The period was to be maintained, but they were to be gorgeously renovated. The state bedrooms cost Anthony, and the London man who came down to consult, a whole day of anxious thought and discussion. These discussions were made the more difficult by reason of Anthony's digressions. He had so much to say about modern art in general, and wandered so far from the particular detail in hand, that it was at times extremely difficult to get back to the point of departure. He explained at length different ways in which the London firm might treble its busi- ness, and was anxious to show its representative that in commercialism imagination was the strongest factor. " Now, what do you think," he said, offering his hearer one of Cammarleigh's best cigars in order to soothe him into auricular acquiescence, " what do you think has made our merchant princes, our trust magnates, and our money deal- ing Leviathans ? " " I don't know, sir, I'm sure work, I suppose." " That is the fundamental error which keeps most men poor," said Anthony, triumphantly. " It's imagination. The fool writes sonnets. Of course," he added, parenthetically, "the great LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 223 poet is ruled out of the discussion." It was very condescending of Anthony to call it a discussion. " The wise man turns his imagination into golden ingots. Now, I began as an artist." " Indeed, sir ! " said the man, anxious to please. " I should like to see some of your pictures." " When I say an artist, I mean an actor ; but I very soon found a better market for my imagi- nation than the stage." Finally, an order was given to make Queen Elizabeth's sitting-room a piece of pink perfection. Statuary which had been placed at a disadvan- tage Anthony had moved and brought where effects of light and shade revealed its true beauty. All furniture and hangings which were in bad taste, and which he described as meaningless accumulation, he condemned to destruction, He had a grand bonfire in a field, the foundation of which was the bamboo and macrame period, and the main fuel early - Victorian atrocities, sur- mounted by wicker chairs, cheap and tasteless photograph frames, and a piano by an English maker. " But the associations ! " ventured Cammar- leigh, recovering some faint trace of spirit. Anthony, seated on a fence in white ducks, pink shirt, and a Panama, smoking a cigarette, answered coolly "Who ever heard of bamboo brackets and associations ! If one wishes really to preserve one's taste, one should keep clear of associating sentiment with furniture." 224 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Cammarleigh muttered an inward wish that Anthony were in the middle of the flames. Anthony sniffed the air critically. " It doesn't even smell nice, like an ordinary bonfire. I think that must be the macrame work," he said, as a particularly offensive odour floated to them on the wind. " Or is it the English piano ? Perhaps it is the smoky symbol of all the bad music that has been played on it. Let's get round to the other side. It's curious how dull those early- Victorian things are : they can't be brilliant even in a bonfire. I suppose they don't think it respectable." "You might at least have had a jumble-sale amongst the villagers for some charity," said Cammarleigh. " I can't understand," said Anthony, wither- ingly, " how people like you, brought up amongst ermine, coronets, and castles, can be so middle class. Do you mean to say that you would really debauch your villagers with that rubbish after you've seen the effect it has had on your own family ? You would exchange their beautiful tiled floors, wholesome deal tables and shining pots and pans, for your pseudo-artistic nonsense ? I can only return thanks that I am here to pre- vent it." The bonfire was seen for miles. Anthony said that he began to realise the spirit which animated the old inquisitors. They must in watch- ing their bonfires have felt the exaltation of a duty done, a sensation of being cruel only to be kind. Cammarleigh suffered acutely as he saw all LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 225 the worthless rubbish destroyed. He was the sort of man who would have kept a dilapidated writing-case all his life because he had had it as a boy ; not from any feeling of sentiment, but from a dislike to parting with anything. On Anthony's pointing out that certain of the family portraits were very badly painted, he asked him if he would like to add them to the bonfire. " That is a foolish question, Cammarleigh," he said. "A portrait always has a certain indi- viduality, and if you take it away it leaves a gap, whereas the rubbish we have just destroyed will never be missed. The artistic value of furniture may generally be measured by the amount of dusting it requires. Things which are worthless require an immense amount of dusting. Most people ought to keep a housemaid especially to dust their photograph frames." Everything having been arranged to Anthony's satisfaction, down to the accommodation for the chefs second assistant, they returned to town. " By Jove ! " said Anthony, " what a lot I am doing for you ! You will appear in people's memoirs as a great gentleman with a genius for hospitality." " And how will you appear ? " asked Cam- marleigh, satirically. " As a statesman," replied Anthony, coolly. " A statesman ? " echoed Cammarleigh. He really believed that Anthony's brain had given way under the stress of success. "You are going to help me to a political position." Q 226 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET How ? " " 1 am too tired to discuss the question to- night." Anthony yawned, and, wishing Cammarleigh a polite good night, went to bed. CHAPTER XIX BEFORE he left for the Continent Anthony had one long talk with Sybil. He submitted to her what he had arranged for her and her mother's rooms at Cammarleigh Abbey, and asked her if there was anything further that she could suggest. " Your uncle is really quite wonderful," he said, with a perfectly grave countenance. " When I told him that I had ordered a small Ibach grand for your sitting-room he was quite delighted." "A funny thing," said Sybil, looking at him with her eyes half-closed, " is that, though Uncle Percy does all these things, he appears to hate being reminded of them." " That is so often the case with really chari- table people, don't you think so ? " " I should like to know," said Sybil, " why you are able to make Uncle Percy do exactly as you like." " Who says that I can make him do exactly as I like ? " "Well, other people may be taken in, but I am not. Has the mystery about you anything to do with him ? " Anthony smiled. " That is part of the secret which only my wife will be told." "I don't see any particular reason for your 228 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET telling your wife," said Sybil, " but I think there is a very good reason why you should tell me." " You mean that because I love you I ought to do anything that you ask me. I don't see it." " And you said you were romantic ! " " I beg your pardon." " Oh, but you are always talking about romance." "Yes, but I've talked myself out of its reality. I live with the shadow." " I don't understand you." " Why should you ? We should be very happy without understanding each other. Besides, no two people ever understand each other until they are married. That is why there are so many unhappy marriages." Anthony spoke of marriage out of deference to Sybil's sex and youth. What he really meant was that no two people could understand each other till they had had the opportunity of investigating each other's sex psychology, and even then it might have the opposite effect and confuse the issues. " You won't tell me, then ? " " Why do you want to know ? At least don't answer, I'll tell you why you want to know. It's just for the mere vanity of feeling that you have an exceptional power over me ; and when I had allowed you to triumph you would despise me for having given myself away for nothing." " Well, I can't marry you, can I ? " " No. So don't you think the kindest thing would be to have mercy on me ? " This was a LORD CAiMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 229 very brilliant stroke on Anthony's part, for an appeal for mercy to a woman in matters of the heart is always certain to be of little avail ; and if Sybil were given the idea that he was but a poor moth fluttering round the flame, she would pro- bably play with him, or imagine she was doing so, till she found, too late, which was the moth and which the flame. Thinking, therefore, that Anthony was vulnerable to her attacks, she, from this moment, turned the whole battery of her fascinations upon him, being, with all her instinct, too young to realise that when her last shot had been fired the citadel would remain defenceless. " And you are going to tell your wife," she said, with a light laugh. Yes." " And whom do you think you will marry ? " " Somebody very rich, and somebody very beautiful." " Really ? As a rule, heiresses require value in exchange for their money especially when they are beautiful." Anthony laughed. " Don't you think the man you have fallen in love with would be a prize for any woman ? " It was a superb compliment, a blushing piece of adolescent flattery, charmingly awkward and unwieldy, but redolent of youth. Anthony laughed to himself as he made it. It was so perfectly calculated, and had Sybil not been a prematurely evolved creature of artifice she must have detected its incongruity coming from lips so manifestly practised. She actually 230 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET estimated the compliment at the mere face value of the words, a mistake which the too subtle frequently make in the most unexpected manner. " Will you introduce me to your wife ? " "Why not?" Sybil made a wry face. He was not at all in a nice mood, and she threatened that if he did not show a better disposition he should not be allowed to carry George. They had met by sheer accident on the north side of the Serpentine ; at least they both preserved the illusion that there was no pre- meditation. Whenever Sybil was long in the company of Anthony she felt the heart-ache, which had been born as a little infant-throb on the day of her engagement to Frant, growing perceptibly. However much she tried to stunt its growth by full draughts of the wine of pleasure it throve amazingly. The infant was now palpably out of short clothes, and would soon want short-coating when, past the more somnolent period of infancy, it would use its limbs and lift up its voice. It was not so easy to marry the man you did not love as she had imagined it would be. "I should think," said Sybil, "it would be very nice if you were never to marry if you were to be like one of those people one reads of in books who are always in love with one woman and treat her with distant respect all their lives." " And then ? " said Anthony. " What do you mean by f and then ' ? " " It is an inconclusive form of repartee used in the north of England when one business man LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 231 has proposed a transaction to another from which he will obviously derive all the benefit." " Sometimes I imagine," said Sybil, " what it would be like to be your wife, and then I can't help seeing all the advantages of the other side. I dreamt of myself at the next coronation the other night. I really looked quite beautiful." " Which would you sooner be," said Anthony, " the wife of the man you loved, if he were very young and very brilliant and everybody were talking of him as a coming statesman, or the wife of Frant ? " " I want to be a duchess," said Sybil, fretfully, while her heart-ache grew a whole inch in half a second. " I have always wanted to be a duchess." " One of the things that surprises me most," said Anthony, " is the snobbery of the nobility. The middle-classes may be snobbish, but their snobbishness isn't in it with the snobbishness of those who ought to know better. To hear a viscount talking about a duke is quite surprising. It's as bad as a subordinate on the subject of the Chief of a Government Department." " It carries with it so many advantages," per- sisted Sybil. " You don't believe in being happy then ? " " I am sure I don't know what I believe in, and what I don't believe in it never struck me to think it out. I only know what I want." " We both know what you want you want me ; and when you are married and you pass me by in gilded halls and marble palaces with a broken heart, you will not even have the consolation of 232 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET saying, like the lady in the song, * Oh, thou hast been the cause of this anguish, my mother.' ' " Well, my mother does wish me to be a duchess, too." " You are surely not going to make poor Lady Editha responsible for anything you say or do ? " "No," said Sybil, "I have always found mother the reverse of disobedient." " I think it only fair," said Anthony, decisively, " to warn you that I shall most certainly not leave you alone after you are married, and I cannot even promise to treat you with distant respect indeed, between lovers the term is paradoxical. It is not respectful to be distant to the woman you love. There is nothing like having an object in life, and our object must be to see that Frant doesn't find us out We have had the good Duchess and the bad Duchess, and now you shall simply be the delicious Duchess." " I meant to do my duty," said Sybil, " till I met you." " Oh, as far as that goes I won't let you make any mistakes. There is one thing, we shall pro- bably find it very much easier to be faithful than if we had married." "We mustn't talk like this," said Sybil, suddenly. "It has just struck me that it is very wicked. I shall go home and try to forget you." When he left her, Anthony sat down, with his cigarette held loosely between his lips, and thought deeply. Finally, he gave a little shrug of his shoulders which was almost a shiver at some grim thought of possible failure. CHAPTER XX ANTHONY had never enjoyed himself as much as he did during that month of August. He had freed himself from Cammarleigh ; he had put away his love. He went to Ostend for the rococo, Dinard for all that was Parisian and chic, and had intended to go to Homburg for the cure. Then, feeling somewhat of a wreck, he changed his mind as regards Homburg which, with all its attractions, would hardly have been the place in which to recuperate. He did not wish to return to Cammarleigh and produce an unfavour- able impression on Sybil, who was very sensitive to external influences. Anthony was absolutely free from prejudice, and he revived himself by a cure which he had been told was magical. He went to a sana- torium in Hampshire. It was presided over by a kindly old doctor who was considered a crank because he would persist in seeking for health instead of for disease. Anthony had seen an advertisement of it somewhere, and had grasped the virtue of the method at once. He bathed at dawn in clear, running streams ; he lay all day naked in the open air, and allowed the sun to search him through and through. At night, wrapped in a blanket, he slept out of doors 234 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET dreaming of Sybil, or ecstatically enjoying the sense of purification which comes of lone com- muning with the stars. He gave himself com- pletely up to the rapture of this embrace with Nature, for, as he very wisely said to the small community of earnest devotees who gathered round the breakfast-table " Who should really understand Nature so well as the sin-stained child of the * City of Dread- ful Night.' Or, to correct the quotation, the < City of Dreadful Nights.' ' Anthony said so many strange things that the motley little group of faddists were delighted that they in their turn had an opportunity of sitting in judgment on somebody for a want of mental equilibrium, and they decided with acclamation that Anthony was mad. " Mad ! " said the old gentleman who lived on one corn-cob a week. " Mad ! " agreed the Irish lady poetess in sandals, her angularity positively rattling with judicial excitement. One gentleman attired in cellular knicker- bockers and a shirt worn open to the waist, and with a rolling eye which suggested the need for a straitwaistcoat, was deeply concerned for An- thony's sanity. The cure, however, was, as he had been pro- mised, magical, and he returned brown as a nut and sweet and fresh as the morning, and with the haunting melodies of wood-fairy and river-sprite ringing in his ears. He deferentially arrived at Cammarleigh Abbey LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 235 a few days before his lordship. Perhaps in this there lay not deference but a desire to have a free hand in completing all his arrangements. He had kept a great many of these secret from Cam- marleigh. The ancient refectory, which had never been very much altered, was destined to witness a scene without parallel in the annals of the Abbey. Anthony was going to have it made into a theatre, and there was to be a gala perform- ance. It was largely with an eye to this that he had had the electric light installed during the time he had been away. He was not going to have any amateur performance of an archaic comedy, or an incompetent presentation of some drawing- room drama in vogue at the moment. The performance would be given entirely to gratify his own vanity and ambition. He was going to play Hamlet, largely supported by professionals, whilst the young folk of the county could be made very useful as supers. His own costume he had been measured for before he left town. Cammarleigh disliked the theatre ; he said it was unreal just as if anybody was prepared to con- tend that it was not. " Then you disapprove of art generally ? " said Anthony. Considering that Cammarleigh held what he thought to be a great reputation as a connoisseur, the remark certainly sounded almost insulting. " What I mean is," continued Anthony, " that you are Nonconformist at heart. You cannot conceive a love of art for art's sake ; in fact, you really think it all quite wicked and something 236 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET which will have to be atoned for on the Day of Judgment. Mind you, I don't say you are not right. I have often had such a feeling myself. Perhaps we are born into the world to overcome art. We shall find that the artists are the goats and the rest of mankind the sheep." " How much more of this sort of thing am I to endure ? " said Cammarleigh, addressing space. " No," continued Anthony, " you know a Claude from a copy, and you might possibly be a better artist if you did not ; but your real plea- sure in art consists in vanity in your supposed powers of discernment. Shall we leave it at that ? " " I don't disapprove of elevated art," said Cammarleigh, acidly. " Elevated art ! You will begin to talk of moral art next. I suppose you don't think there is any elevated dramatic art? " " I can conceive some performances of Shake- speare which might be elevating." " I wonder if you will think my ( Hamlet ' elevating ? " And Anthony gazed at Cammarleigh thought- fully, as was his wont when he was preparing to listen impassively to a storm which he did not intend should turn him from his purpose. For a moment Cammarleigh thought that Anthony was anxious to return to the stage, and that he was hinting at a compromise by which he would be relieved of his presence. He became quite genial, and said pleasantly LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 237 " I am sure your { Hamlet ' would not be uninteresting. You have always struck me as possessing an instinct for matters of psychology and culture if at your age you are necessarily deficient in reading." " I believe," answered Anthony, impertinently for praise from Cammarleigh did not arouse the best side of his nature " that in time you will achieve a very fair imitation of my conver- sational style. Your touch is somewhat heavy at present." " You have the ingratitude of a guttersnipe," snapped Cammarleigh. " How on earth do you know anything about guttersnipes ? But the point is that you are going to see my ' Hamlet ' in a fortnight's time." " Where in the village schoolroom ? " And Cammarleigh laughed unpleasantly, as he had a habit of doing when he conceived he had scored a point. " No, here, in the refectory. It has made a charming theatre, and the large gallery will give it quite the right effect. It is, curiously enough, more square than oblong " But Cammarleigh was out of the room and flying down the corridors. Anthony followed him leisurely. He heard a howl of pain in the distance. Cammarleigh had not realised that if the refectory had been made into a theatre it could not possibly be the big, empty place it usually was. He had banged himself, with all the impetus of a real loss of temper, against the 238 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET short, improvised staircase which led on to the stage from the back. Anthony made his way to the other end of the refectory. "Wait a moment, and I'll turn on all the lights. You can't possibly see the effect without." A temporary sun in the middle of the ceiling blazed up, illuminating every corner of the old- fashioned monastery dining-room. The curtain was raised, and showed great pieces of scenery leaning up against the wall. "I shall not put up any draperies. It's a perfect place for sound, and they might just spoil it." Cammarleigh said nothing. He stood in the centre of the undressed stage and gazed furiously at Anthony, who was speaking to him from the other end of the theatre. Finally he burst out " You have dared to do this ! " " That's splendid," said Anthony, clapping his hands. " It gives me just the effect I want. Your attitude has shown me the proportions. Say that again in just the same way." Cammarleigh came down from the stage hur- riedly. " I know enough about the stage, at any rate," he said, " to be quite sure that if you are going to play Hamlet with a lot of amateurs my guests will be considerably amused. They say there is no vanity like that of an actor." " That was written by a certain Minister for Education, who, feeling that his histrionic quali- ties as a comedian were of such a poor order as LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 239 could only expect to find appreciation in the House of Commons, grew bitter. As a matter of fact, I have not the least intention of playing with amateurs." "Then what do you intend to give a read- ing?" " My dear Cammarleigh, as if there were a single actor in England competent to give a read- ing ! It would involve learning the rudiments of the art, and the English actor is not sufficiently busy to do that." " Then what are you going to do ? " " I have engaged Mr. Dodo's Shakespearean Company. You needn't look alarmed. Nearly all the men, excepting one or two who do the acting, have been Oxford and Cambridge under- graduates or, at least, so the public think whilst all the women come from Bedford Park, and they are not supposed to act the leading lady won't let them. So, you see, the thing will be quite high class." "I don't see anything of the kind." " Cammarleigh," said Anthony, gently, " I say that it will be high class. I am only afraid that the dulness and respectability of my company will bore your guests. I shall have to warn the house-party to be on its best behaviour." " And the theatrical company " began Cammarleigh. " They must rouse themselves, and be gay and irresponsible for once. I shall have my picture painted as Hamlet by Major, R.A. He is the only man who always paints a picture as if it had 240 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET footlights. And then I shall take my farewell of the stage." " If you come on that stage as Hamlet," said Cammarleigh, firmly, " I shall hiss you." Anthony paled. He had been an actor, and the threat for the moment unnerved him. His extraordinary powers of invention, however, which seemed to be growing every day, came to the rescue. " I shall have you seated in an armchair con- nected electrically with the stage, and if you attempt to spoil my performance it will shut up. Besides, Cammarleigh, to hiss me would be the most dangerous thing you could do. I am an actor, and I should revenge myself effectively." He smiled when he reflected how very easily Cammarleigh could have ruined his performance without the least display. Anthony had tried the method once. It was to go to the theatre on a first night and yawn hard throughout the piece. It was more than probable that by the middle of the first act everybody would be yawning and would be terribly bored. Anthony had found it highly successful with an actor-manager against whom he had conceived a grudge, although he was compelled to admit that his plan had been materially assisted by the actor's performance. Cammarleigh felt for a moment like springing at Anthony's throat there and then, but instead went to bed. He lay awake for hours, racking his brain for some method of getting rid of his tormentor without danger to himself. Anthony must have LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 241 relations of some kind. Would it not be possible to induce them to lock him up as a lunatic ? The scheme seemed plausible enough, and he had worked it out completely to his satisfaction, and already beheld a vision of Anthony as a permanent inhabitant of Colney Hatch, ineffectually attempt- ing to explain the situation, when he suddenly be- thought him of the consequences should Anthony detect him in the act or conspiring against his liberty. " 1 think he must be the Devil incarnate," murmured Cammarleigh to himself, as he tossed restlessly from side to side. " I shall be the laughing-stock of the county. No, on second thoughts, that is a little unfair. He doesn't make absurd mistakes, and so long as people are enter- tained and enjoying themselves, they don't mind how it is managed." And with a sigh he dropped off to sleep. CHAPTER XXI "THEATRICALS? How delightful!" said Sybil, as she and her mother were driving to the Abbey on their way from the station. "What is it to be ? " " f Hamlet,' " said Anthony. " c Hamlet ? ' What an extraordinary idea ! " "I know it is," answered Anthony, coolly. " But Lord Cammarleigh fancies that I can play the part. He may be wrong, but he is quite obstinate about it. He has some idea of raising the tone of home theatricals." "Are you going to play it all ?" asked Lady Editha, blankly. Anthony quite saw the humour of entertaining a smart house-party with a performance of Hamlet. He did not for one moment suppose that they would enjoy it very much, but he knew that he could play the part ; and he knew that it would impress Sybil, and he was callous to every other consideration. " No, not quite all, Lady Editha. I shall cut a good many of the other parts down." " I shall play * Ophelia,' " announced Sybil. This was the moment that Anthony had feared. " I would much rather you didn't, Sybil," said Lady Editha, plaintively. " She goes mad, and LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 243 your poor Aunt Mary went mad and you are so very like her. No, dear, I couldn't bear it." Anthony was exceedingly grateful to Lady Editha for providing such an admirable excuse, which, founded on sentiment, was capable of infinite expansion. When the house-party learned that they were to see Anthony as " Hamlet," they only put it down as the price that they were expected to pay for entertainment. It was always the case ; you were invariably imposed on by your host. Some declared that Cammarleigh was spoiling the young man. When Anthony announced at dinner on the night of Sybil's arrival that he was going to play " Hamlet " in deference to Cammarleigh's earnest wish, he really thought he had gone too far. Cammarleigh yellowed, and a grin of fury which was quite ghastly crossed his face. By a supreme effort, however, he controlled himself, and Anthony quickly drew the attention of the company away from him to his end of the table. " Rather a big part to attempt, isn't it ? " said Lord Cecil Bruton. " Well, you see, I was an actor before I became your brother's secretary." " Really ? " said Lord Cecil, and, as laymen will do when talking of the stage, he began to babble the most amazing nonsense. " What was the name of that piece ? " he asked, giving a loud laugh at the mere thought of what he remembered. " By Jove, it really was a very funny piece ! There was a fellow had a lot of papers, and a 244 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET lot of other fellows wanted them, and they all struggled and fell about. It was exceedingly well written." After this lucid description of the play, the conversation turned on theatrical matters in general. The next day Mrs. Westerby arrived. She had travelled down with the Duke of Frant. Anthony had written suggesting that she should catch the eleven-forty-five from Euston, and when Mrs. Westerby found that the Duke of Frant was going by the same train, she began to think that it was quite possible that she and Anthony had grown to understand each other without having been put to the discomfort of an explana- tion. She had a genius for managing young men of Frant's type. Like the majority of the aris- tocracy and nobility, his instincts were primarily commercial, and as, during the days he had been a good deal at her house, she had obtained a very great insight into his business affairs, he soon found himself asking her advice and confiding in her in quite the old way. He felt that some ex- planation was due for having kept away from her, and a little uncomfortably he explained that he had not been to see her because "My dear Frant," said Mrs. Westerby, "I quite understand. You are going to be married. You must have a great many calls on your time ; but remember I am always there if you should want me." Frant thought this was very friendly of her indeed. He had been dazzled by Sybil, but he LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 245 had never felt when with her that ease and serenity of spirit which Mrs. Westerby's com- panionship filled him with. He had a feeling at the back of his mind that she was the woman for him. In the case of a temperament such as his, if temperament it could be called, a soothing in- fluence like Mrs. Westerby's was more comfortable than a disturbing and restless piece of butterfly brilliance like Sybil. He had a sense of painful inferiority in the presence of the latter, while Mrs. Westerby, who was notorious for her mentality, always made him feel perfectly satisfied with himself. He was quite sorry when the journey ended, and remembered with appreciation a remark she had made to the effect that because a man was married he was not necessarily debarred from making a friend of another woman, and turning to her for advice in matters in which she was a specialist. Anthony noticed the air of excellent comrade- ship with which they arrived at the Abbey. Quite unprejudiced by his own passion for Sybil, he knew perfectly well that neither she nor Frant would have any married life to speak of, whereas, married to Mrs. Westerby, Frant would be as happy as possible, united to a woman who would succeed in convincing him that he was a very important personality. According to an absurd custom, Frant took Sybil in to dinner, and they were closely watched by Anthony. He and Sybil were somewhat distant with each other at the moment. They had had a distinct quarrel on the subject of 246 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET "Ophelia." Anthony was by no means averse to quarrelling with her. He knew that Frant's lymphatic temperament would get on her nerves, and for her a lover who would strike fire was necessary. He had very definitely refused to allow her to play " Ophelia." He knew perfectly well that she would make a very bad actress, at any rate, to begin with, and he did not propose to have his performance spoilt. "It is absurd to try and persuade me that you are refusing because of what mother said. You simply think that I shall spoil the piece. Well, there have been heaven-born actresses before now." " Yes," said Anthony, "so we are told ; but, when you come to think of it, we have never seen one. The years go by, and a certain number of actresses are endurable because they have had little or no experience, but just think what they are like when they know their business, as they call it." " That's an argument in favour of my playing < Ophelia.' ' Anthony was annoyed. In his anxiety to give his opinion of actresses in general, he had rather shown his hand. " I don't see the use of having theatricals in a house if you have nothing but professionals to act. Where does the fun come in ? " " You must blame your uncle, not me." "That may take other people in, but you surely don't think that I believe it ? You know perfectly well that it is simply your own vanity." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 247 "That is very true," said Anthony, "and I don't mind admitting it in the least, as there is nobody here as witness." " I begin to think you are quite unprincipled." Anthony looked at her and smiled sweetly. Sybil was too clever to interpret this smile, although she was quite aware of its meaning. She felt that Anthony had intended it to convey that a girl who was selling herself for rank was hardly the one to object to a lack of principle. She knew perfectly well that Anthony had made up his mind that she should not play " Ophelia," and his determination, accompanied as it was by almost unvarying sweetness of manner, fascinated whilst angering her. When they were alone she was too completely conscious of being with her master to take as much pleasure in influencing his decisions as she would have done in the case of a man who meant less to her. She had already the fastidiously selective instinct of the woman of taste, the frank sex appreciation of the great ladies of the Renaissance, such as Beatrice of Milan, or her more brilliant sister, Isabella of Mantua. Anthony's curious psychological composition, in which she rightly detected a strength, supple and elastic, multi-coloured with the complicated meta- physical painting of our age, englamoured her more and more daily. He was like a Toledo blade, which, encountering some substance un- pierceable, flashed brilliantly in the very act of its curved compromise, springing forward with more deadly intention almost before its failure was apparent. As a matter of fact, since she had read 248 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET the part of " Ophelia " carefully, with a view to its performance, she had been more than anxious that he should adhere to his decision. She felt that such a poetical abstraction was not in her line. In the solitude of her own chamber, her sole garment a nightdress which was a mass of Valen- ciennes fluttered here and there with her favourite pale pink, she had wound the roses with which her room was, by Anthony's direction, always gardened in her hair, and had surveyed herself in the Psyche. She felt that although she looked more charming than ever " Ophelia " could have looked, she did not in any way suggest her. She had further essayed a mad scream, which had re- minded her strikingly of her Yorkshire terrier howling because he had inadvertently been shut out of the room. Cammarleigh was astonished to find that he quite enjoyed having the house full of guests. Anthony had a way of making him satisfied with himself as an organizer in respect to plans and details of the entertainment with which he had had nothing whatever to do. The country-side was much mystified as to what had brought about this transformation. Cammarleigh's reputation for neglecting every duty of his position was so notorious that the news that there was a large house-party, and that the entertainments were not to be limited to the great folk, but that no one, from the highest to the lowest, would be for- gotten, became the talk of that corner of the county which owned the Abbey as its most im- portant place. Gently and by degrees Anthony LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 249 broke to Cammarleigh the full scheme for the entertainment of his neighbours, both the exalted and the meek. The theatricals were to be a function in themselves, to which a great many of the townspeople were to be asked. Then there was to be a ball for the county, and a garden-party for all classes, down to the lower middle much the sort of thing that is given in a larger way by Royalties, and which betrays the astonishing want of pride in people who will wander about the grounds of a palace, to the intimate convivialities of which they have not the remotest chance of being invited. Finally, Anthony had arranged a dance for the servants and smaller tenants, or, at any rate, all such as did not think themselves socially above the servants' hall. This last enter- tainment would, no doubt, be more aptly described as " a hop." CHAPTER XXII CAMMARLEIGH noticed with some surprise that Anthony refrained from offering any suggestions in regard to the arrangements for shooting. At breakfast, on the First, Mr. Crutchley asked Anthony if he were going with them. " I don't shoot," he answered simply. He knew perfectly well that such an announcement lowered him morally in the eyes of the men of the party. Cammarleigh asked his reason. " I do not care about killing things unneces- sarily." With that curious lack of courtesy which the best bred Englishman displays when he feels that a slur has been cast on the sacred social duty of slaughter for pleasure's sake, Crutchley said " Ah, you would if you were a rattling good shot." " I am," said Anthony. " In the cause of humanity, and to show that I am not sheltering my incompetence under the cloak of a kind heart, I will emulate William Tell, and shoot an apple off Lord Cammarleigh's head at fifty yards." " You will do nothing of the kind," said Cammarleigh ; and nobody offered to take his place. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 251 " You hunt, I suppose ? " asked Frant. No." " Don't approve of it ? " And Mr. Crutchley spoke almost as if he were humouring a lunatic. " I think it is unspeakable." " You must admit that it gives a man nerve and manliness." " I suppose that's what the Romans said to those weaklings who objected to seeing young girls eaten by lions. It was no doubt very squeamish of them." " I have always felt," said Lady Editha, " that it was not quite nice of women to hunt. They should leave that sort of thing to men." Lady Cecil differed. She had hunted a great deal as a girl. " And there is simply nothing like it for the figure," she announced triumphantly. "There is at least something broadly Pagan about that," said Anthony ; "a libation of foxes' blood offered up at the shrine of Venus that she may have pity on the waist of an English- woman." " I suppose you are a tremendous enemy to war ? " "Not to the same extent. I don't so much object to shooting men when they've got as good a gun as my own in their hands." Crutchley attempted to revive the argument on the question of hunting more than once, but Anthony declined to give battle. He knew per- fectly well that two or three of his opponents feeling that there was not a word to be said for 252 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET hunting any living creature for pleasure would lose their tempers. " 1 wish to goodness you wouldn't say that sort of thing," said Cammarleigh, when they were alone. " What sort of thing ? " asked Anthony. " All that rubbish about hunting and shooting from you, too. Why, if people here only knew the truth " And Cammarleigh waved his hands and worked himself into a high state of moral indignation. "Yes?" said Anthony, calmly. "If they knew the truth, that is to say, the whole truth ? " With an exclamation of impatience Cammar- leigh left the room. "You are a wonderful young man," said Mrs. Westerby, meeting Anthony later in the haunted walk for Cammarleigh Abbey, like every other self-respecting country mansion, had its ghost. In the haunted walk, four hundred years before, a young monk had been found in the arms of a village maiden. From that night he had never been seen again, but his ghostly counterpart was supposed to haunt the place during the small hours. " You are a wonderful woman, Mrs. Westerby. You have already filled the ardent lover with misgivings." " Do you really think I have got as far as that ? " " I am sure of it." Anthony and Mrs. Westerby had grown to understand each other without anything so obvious LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 253 as an expressed agreement. Neither could say that the other had ever made suggestions or brought forward plans. They were simply tacitly agreed to use all their cleverness, and any means which came to hand, she to marry Frant, he to secure Sybil. " Time is pressing." " I know," said Anthony ; " but we are going to win, you will see. We have an example of how the thing can be done in the house." "Who is that?" " Lord and Lady Southwick. He was engaged to Katherine Hillborough, but Pamela Gray that was Lady Southwick's maiden name man- aged to break it off a week before the wedding." " I remember," assented Mrs. Westerby. " She was a protegee of the Duchess of Havant, one of those unexplained young girls who glide without credentials into the high places. If her former benefactress had not been the great lady she is, she would have quarrelled with her by now. Mrs. Gresham told me that she carried on disgracefully with Lord Bellamy just before he shot himself, and that afterwards she showed not the least trace of feeling." " How very delightful 1 I must cultivate her." " I think she makes a pose of not being inte- resting now. She is cold, and aims at being very exclusive." " I suppose that is why Cammarleigh insisted on her coming." The word " insisted " slipped out. He would rather it had not, as it went a considerable way to confessing that he had much to do with the inviting of the guests and the ordering of the entertainment. Mrs. Westerby did not matter as anybody else would have done. They were both born knights of the social road, and there was honour between them. " Cammarleigh adores respectability. He fancies that it conceals all his vices." For one moment Mrs. Westerby hoped that Anthony might become communicative on the subject of his reputed father, but to her dis- appointment he changed the conversation. " I dislike plots," he went on ; " but I am afraid that we shall have to use one just a very simple one." " I have no objection to plots," said Mrs. Westerby, " unless I am likely to be found out." " They always seem to me a little clumsy the resource of the second-rate conspirator but, then, as you say, we have so little time." " What is your plot ? " " Oh, it will be very much better if I keep it to myself till I want your assistance." Mrs. Westerby declared that she had not the least objection ; she would very much sooner be a tool in the hands of one she trusted than be a leader ; it saved so much trouble. Anthony enjoyed that chat in the haunted walk with her exceedingly. " I feel that we shall always be great friends," he said, " and when you are a duchess you will be able to do a very great deal to help me." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 255 "In what way ? " " You will see." And then he added, with a courtly bow, and a deliberation which suggested the more efflorescent manners of an earlier period : " You shall be near me in my niche in history." " That means that you are aiming at playing a great part, and that this is merely the beginning." " Yes. Do you think you will recognise the youth from nowhere in the statesman of the future ? " She put her hand on his arm with a gentle pressure of camaraderie. " I believe in you, and it is a privilege to have heard the overture to your life's opera," she said ; " and in the meantime I am very anxious to see your Hamlet. You don't think him mad, do you?" " Certainly not." " Then how do you play him ? " " I'm sure I don't know. It will be a beau- tiful performance, but I can't say that I exactly ever had any views on the subject. I simply understand him. If I could explain him I should certainly not understand him half as well." Just before lunch the company which was to aid and abet Anthony in his performance came over to rehearse. All the women of the house- party had driven some miles to meet the guns and have lunch with them, and they were no doubt at that moment being inwardly anathematised modern sport not conducing to chivalry for delaying the intoxicating pleasure of slaughtering defenceless animals. Anthony felt a rousing of 256 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET his Bohemian blood as he looked around at the quaint company he was entertaining at lunch ; for even if a theatrical company is entirely drawn from the educated classes and there have been such the- atrical combinations it always presents a motley appearance. It is probably because the actor's profession teaches him to develop all his physical eccentricities, with the result that, as a body, actors exhibit a physical differentiation which the unversed might imagine to be the outward sign of strongly marked intellectuality and character. There is one peculiarity about the actor, and that is that nothing overawes him. Perhaps it is that he views the grandest surroundings merely as a more elaborate stage setting. They lunched in the magnificent banqueting hall with the greatest condescension. They abated not one whit of their effervescent spirits, and drank as much champagne as they could get. Perhaps they looked upon it as a huge joke, which Anthony was perfectly content for them to do till the rehearsal commenced ; and then, as he was paying an absurdly high fee for their services, he kept them severely in hand. " He knows what he wants," murmured the First Gravedigger, who, not being required till the last act, and having thoroughly enjoyed the champagne, was seated at the extreme end of the hall alternately dozing and conducting a critical conversation with Osric, who, being the most intellectual member of the company, was con- demned to play the most superficial character. " The guv'nor must be getting a tremendous LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 257 price for this," he went on ; " and personally I don't mind it will be a pleasant little outing." The rehearsal being over, they had tea under a shady tree near the ruins of an old chapel a couple of hundred yards away from the house, and they left in time for their evening perform- ance at an adjacent town. The evening of the theatricals arrived, and there was a large audience. The only people whom Anthony had not invited were the villagers, despite the fact that there would have been plenty of room in the gallery. Cammarleigh suggested that it would be a very excellent thing to fill up with them. Anthony looked at him severely. " You say that on purpose, because you know perfectly well that whatever happens on a stage a villager always laughs. It's like playing to lunatics." " Who ever thinks of doing that ? " " Oh, heaps of people amateurs, mostly. I know a distinguished lady amateur who told me that her reception at Colney Hatch was a thing to be remembered, and that she aroused the wildest enthusiasm at Bedlam." " Have you ever played in a lunatic asylum ? " asked Cammarleigh, meaningly. " Once ; but there's rather a painful memory attached to it. By way of showing his sense of humour a member of the company went up to our low comedian as we were making a move to go, and, saying good-bye cheerfully, told him that he would be well cared for, and that the company 258 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET would always include him in the cast when they came again. The perpetrator of this piece of humour was one of those people who can only act when they are playing a practical joke, and our poor comedian went off his head and had to stay where he was for three months." " I don't call that funny," said Cammarleigh, icily. " Funny ? " said Anthony. " Who said it was funny ? " To clear himself of any charge of vanity, he had frankly told the company that it had been Cammarleigh's lifelong ambition to have a good performance of Hamlet in his own house, but as he stood waiting for his entrance he felt that he had somewhat strained the situation to gratify his vanity. Nobody could deny that he looked extremely well ; still, as he walked on the stage he did not feel particularly inspired. The moment, however, he had spoken the magical line which never seems to lose its music, " 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother," the desire which had been his all his life to express himself in the most varied part ever written leapt up within him, and feeling and thought rushed together with a power which made him a rare and vibrant instrument for the interpretation of the metaphysical emotions of the most multi-coloured of all dramatic creations. The audience, who had expected to be profoundly bored, found themselves under the spell of an extraordinary fascination. Cammarleigh was too much a man of culture not to be interested, and his feelings about LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 259 Anthony became tempestuous, for it was a fact that he never hated Anthony so much as when he was growing to like him more, and he never liked him so much as when his passion of hate was in full play. After the performance all the house-party and the theatrical company assembled for supper, the actors and actresses still in their war-paint. Cam- marleigh took in the Queen as being the lady of the highest rank present, whilst the King took in the Duchess of Havant, who, being a great court lady, curtseyed as she took his arm. Ophelia, being mad, was taken in by a relative of the Lord Chancellor's, who as everybody knows is the legal guardian of the insane. These conceits, which were entered into with the greatest spirit, could only have been possible where there was a power of originality like An- thony's. There was a distinct protest at the very excellent supper which the Ghost ate. Even Cammarleigh, glad that the performance was over, became remotely mirthful, and as none of the actors offered to recite there was nothing to spoil the evening's enjoyment. At least, this was hardly true, as the King, who conceived himself to be an excessively fine tragedian, in the course of explaining to the Duchess of Havant how Macbeth's line, " Hang out our banners on the outer wall," should be delivered, said it in all the different ways which he conceived to be wrong, with equal strength of lung and passion, and so interested the general company that everybody began to give his or her opinion and to instruct 260 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET their next-door neighbour to hang out their banners on the outer wall with varying emphasis. Neither, when the ladies had retired for the night, was his majesty at a loss, for his smoking-room stories made Mr. Crutchley laugh to such an extent that Anthony thought he would have a fit, and was finally compelled to escort the King to the royal bedchamber. Cammarleigh was, for him, in high good- humour. He had got on capitally with Ophe- lia, and had spent the latter part of supper-time in advising her how to compel her mother's land- lord to put a bathroom in the house at Bedford Park. Of course, Cammarleigh could not let the occasion pass without some remarks expressive of his disapproval of the Restoration dramatists. " Men of most reprehensible lives," he began, and then caught Anthony's eye. He was not yet quite accustomed to having amongst his audience one who was supposed to be acquainted with his inner life. After all, it is a little hard if you are never to give forth a moral sentiment because you happen to have a secret. " I can't understand what their lives have to do with their work except, perhaps, that the greatest sinners have written the most interesting things." " I cannot agree with that," said Cammarleigh. " As a rule, we can do without their work." " Really ? " said Anthony. " There are one or two things against David, but they were very glad to have his psalms in the Bible, and the LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 261 Shakespeare sonnets are somewhat of a stumbling- block." " I am aware," said Cammarleigh, " that modern views on art are somewhat unsound." " I don't believe in art without morals," said the King, readjusting his crown which, under the influence of champagne, was somewhat over his left eye. " I believe in the moral drama." " Perhaps I might do so also," said Anthony, " if I had ever seen such a thing, but in my opinion whenever it has attempted to be moral it has ceased to be drama." " True art is tested by sincerity," said the Queen, in a deep contralto. "That is why the efforts of children so often amaze us by their truth in spite of crude execution." Anthony looked at her with an amused smile. The quotation was, word for word, correct, but the Queen forbore to acknowledge her authority. "In England," he said, "the artist is never given credit for sincerity unless he be a prig. We consider it indecent to express ourselves properly ; thus we are more shocked than other nations at the nude because it is the complete expression of the physical." Then, feeling that a company of actors might think a dissertation on art a little dull, he changed the subject. "You played Hamlet very well," Cammar- leigh said to him when they were alone. " In my poor opinion " of course he meant in his price- less opinion, as people do when they allude to the poverty of their critical faculty "you are the best I have ever seen." 262 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET And Anthony, touched on his most vulnerable point, forbore to answer, " I know I am." Sybil was completely conquered, although it was a little difficult to realise why she should have been. She had always seemed too calculating to be much affected by anything so unreal as a theatrical performance. The truth of the matter was that she was just a little too clever ; or rather, she was too temperamental to be always sure of taking her brains to the best market. Although she had so far not the least intention of going back on her bargain she began to realise what it would mean to be married to Frant. Physically, he had never been pleasing to her, and her dis- taste for him, as Anthony's fascination grew, had developed into repulsion. Yet she was still deter- mined to go on. She put fetters upon her imagination ; or at least attempted to do so, and did her best to prevent herself from picturing the unpleasant moments which must be hers as the Duke's wife. The more she realised how alto- gether difficult the situation would be, the more she felt a certain kind of growing irritation with Anthony. Why was he so ineligible ? It was too ridiculous. With that extraordinary lack of proportion in their introspection which the young always import into their love-affairs, she declared that no such tragedy had ever befallen maiden before. Against her own will she encouraged the growth of her heart's malady. She was like a dogged garrison which rights inch by inch the disputed ground, although it knows that the greater part of the enemy's force is already within the citadel. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 263 Anthony was both intuitive and observing, but even he did not realise to what an extent the fortune of war was on his side. Of course he made love to Sybil daily, and, Frant being out shooting, he had the ground to himself. CHAPTER XXIII THE garden-party was a tremendous function, if only from the point of view of numbers. The good burgesses of Cammarleigh town were de- lighted to tread the same lawns and wander about the same garden paths as the County, not to speak of the pleasure of shaking hands with the hitherto unapproachable Marquis and his sister, Lady Editha. Bands played popular music, a thing which Anthony never could bear ; glee-singers warbled in a grove ; and, as it was a grown-up party, there was a Punch-and-Judy show. There were fully five hundred guests, and provisions for a thousand, inasmuch as no one would take less than two teas, and it was most probable that the large majority would take three. The heat was tropical, but very few people seemed to mind it. Cammarleigh would have liked to retire to his own apartments, but Anthony would not hear of it. " You must take the Mayoress of Cammar- leighburgh and get her some tea." And accordingly the Mayoress, in gray satin with steel trimmings, and her face a positive cascade from nervous excitement, was led by Cammarleigh across the lawn in full view of those professional folk of Cammarleighburgh, who, LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 265 except in her official position, would not have recognised the wife of the leading haberdasher of the town. The Mayor, with a chain about his neck, which made him look as if he were in charge of the wine-list, beheld the scene with pride, and tried to appear indifferent. The good lady was so overcome by the exalted station of her host, that although she was dying to make as she did make later on a good tea, she contented herself with two small mustard-and-cress sand- wiches, and a cup of tea with sugar in it a thing she never could take, but which she was much too nervous to refuse. To do Cammarleigh justice, when he was driven into a position of the kind he acquitted himself exceedingly well ; in fact, it was part of what Anthony called the aggra- vating hypocrisy of his nature. The Mayoress having been taken back to her seat and left ruminating as to whether she would get a chance of a better meal later on, Anthony proceeded to make himself exceedingly civil to his Worship and certain of the aldermen. He had discovered that these gentlemen practically ran the political organisation of the town. " The other party haven't a chance, sir," said the Mayor, who was chairman of the local Liberal Association, and who imagined that he was talking to the unacknowledged son of Lord Cammarleigh. Anthony knew perfectly well that, whereas, had the Mayor's scullery-maid produced a baby without a husband he would have bundled both her and her offspring into the workhouse, the reputed illegitimate son of the Marquis of Cammarleigh 266 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET had a glamour in his eye almost equal to the real article. So Anthony had been very careful that the rumour which had done him so much good in town should permeate what in former times had been a pocket-borough of the Lords Cam- marleigh. " It has been a great grief to us," said the Mayor, lowering his voice a little, " that his lord- ship should have left us for the opposite party ; but what could we do? No man would ever have respected us again if we had imitated him." At the same time, the Mayor gave Anthony the impression that he would much have liked to have done so if it could have been achieved with the least show of decency. His paternal heart was further delighted at this moment by seeing Master Tolly escorting his youngest daughter towards refreshment. This was in accordance with Anthony's expressed request to that young gentleman. " I think," said Anthony to the Mayor, " that his lordship is getting very tired of his present position in politics. He has lost sympathy with the Government." "Ah, I don't wonder a dreadful lot of scoundrels, the present Government, sir. Now, what a good thing it would be if we could only have some one connected with the family, or at least some one nominated by the family, to re- present us ! It has seemed like treachery sending a London lawyer to Parliament, whom, as you may say, none of us know from Adam." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 267 "You've heard the news?" said Anthony, dropping his voice and speaking confiden- tially. "Well, no, I haven't," replied the Mayor, dropping his voice and speaking equally confi- dentially, and trying to look as if, should Anthony have any particular State secret to impart, he might be trusted. " They say your member is going to be given a judgeship." " Good gracious me, you don't say so ! " " I have heard so on reliable authority." The Mayor might well be surprised, for the gentleman in question, being a red-hot partisan, was hardly an ideal nomination for the judicial Bench. "Now, isn't that like a lawyer," said the Mayor, turning red, " never to say a word to leave us in the lurch at the last moment ! It'll mean another election, and there isn't a soul that I know of rich enough to stand the racket." " I suppose the Central Organisation could find you a candidate." " That's just what our Association is so set against. Oh dear, we shall have trouble ! " " If Lord Cammarleigh were to find a candi- date I mean a candidate to whom money would be no object " " We should simply jump at him." And then he grew a little thoughtful. He began to have a gathering suspicion of what the young man was driving at. Anthony said no more. He merely pinched himself in order to 268 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET be convinced that Cammarleigh Abbey, Grosvenor Square, and the Mayor of Cammarleighburgh were not all a dream, and proceeded to mark out for especial attention those worthies of Cammarleigh- burgh with political influence in that party of whose organisation he wished to avail him- self. It was a curious thing, but Cammarleighburgh society, in talking over the garden-party, found itself as much interested in Anthony as anything else, and perhaps even more. The subject of his birth was discussed by the older married people, and obscurely hinted at before their grown-up sons and daughters. It was a sad story, it was rumoured, and accounted a good deal for Lord Cammarleigh's misanthropy ; but after many years' search he had found the child, and was endeavour- ing in some measure to make up for the error of his youth. Thus respectability, viewing the sin from which its very organisation was made to protect it surrounded by a halo of heraldic decora- tion, and walking dignifiedly and richly apparelled through the stately halls of Cammarleigh Abbey, found itself in a Christian and a forgiving mood, and murmured that, after all, it was not its place to put any obstacle in the way of the righting of a wrong, and that the secret of their overlord's maintained celibacy was explained. In fact, so enthusiastic were they in their moral generosity, that Anthony became as it were glorified and sanctified by the lack of a marriage certificate, and for having been, as everybody in Cammarleigh- burgh knew before the week was out, brought up LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 269 by a cruel and narrow-minded old aunt, who had spirited him away from his mother's death-bed in order to bring him up with a due sense of the shame of his position. All this meant, of course, that human nature has not altered, and that it seems to regard it as a condescension in kings and nobles to have natural children a form of condescension in which the said kings and nobles have always been very obliging. " I did what you asked me," said Tolly, later. "I took that Miss Baker to tea. 1 don't think I could do it again. She had on cotton gloves." "Don't be a snob, Tolly," said Anthony, gently. " Good gracious ! " said Tolly. " You don't imagine that it's because cotton gloves are cheaper, and rather common, that I object to them ? It's because they're ugly, and they wrinkle and don't fit. And she never looked at me the whole time, but kept on wiping her face with her handkerchief and keeping her eyes on the ground. I believe she'd have liked to cry. 1 was rather in a funk, because if she had cried people would have thought, I had been rude, or had said something that a boy oughn't to say to a girl." " No, Tolly, nobody would have thought that of you. At a first glance people might think it possible for you to be a little heartless and, by the way, Tolly, don't be heartless, cultivate heart, it's the most perfect sauce for all the emotions. Drench all your pleasures in heart, and you will enjoy life ever so much more. Men in your class 270 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET don't get too much opportunity of developing their hearts, and that is what is wrong with most of them." " I'll remember that," said Tolly. " I try to remember all the things you tell me, because they sound so useful. I suppose you would call what I did for that girl this afternoon cultivating heart. She wanted more strawberries, only she was too shy to say so, and refused them three times, so I went and got them of my own accord." "Yes, Tolly, that is heart. Women refuse all sorts of things that they really want, and you must insist on their having them. You might write out that story of the strawberries in copper- plate, and hang it up in your room." Tolly's chief attraction at the moment was Mrs. Westerby. She was essentially the striking woman who catches the imagination of a boy who already feels that women are going to make life very interesting. Mrs. Westerby was a woman who would never despise any admirer, even if he had been in his cradle, and Tolly gave promise of being in a very few years an exceedingly hand- some young man. That astute young gentleman confided to Anthony that he firmly believed that Frant was very fond of Mrs. Westerby, and that somehow it seemed to him a much more natural thing than his supposed affection for Sybil. Sybil and Tolly did not get on ; possibly because they were curiously alike. Physically, they were both surprisingly beautiful, and psycho- logically they had the same unexpected mixture of heart and selfishness. Sybil laboured under the LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 271 further disadvantage, as far as Tolly was concerned, of having played with him in the nursery. He had seen her with her nature on view, as it were, and it irritated him to behold with what speed she had managed to weave for herself an outward garment of social deceptions. CHAPTER XXIV THE next morning Anthony drove over to Cam- marleighburgh and called on the Mayor. They had a long consultation together, after which Anthony strolled down the High Street with his arm laid familiarly on the Mayor's, and lunched with him at the Liberal Club. Here Anthony met most of those to whom he had been so civil at the garden-party. Mr. Platt, the proprietor of the Cammarleigburgh Weekly Trades Register , a journal which was little more than an alphabetical sea of advertisements upon which floated here and there a few items of news, was completely subjugated by Anthony's general remark : " You newspaper proprietors wield an immense power." Mr. Platt tried to look as though he would not cheerfully have crowded out the most important piece of national intelligence in order to squeeze in another advertisement. He agreed that the responsibility was vast, but added, speaking for the newspaper proprietors of Great Britain, that he believed that they rose to the situation. Anthony was a born electioneerer. He could assume a certain cheapness of manner without which no public man in the United Kingdom can hope to strike the imagination of the electorate. He could give the most ordinary commonplace a LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 273 certain epigrammatic turn, and he had that assur- ance which the lower middle-class Englishman considers insolence in his shop boy, and mental authority if the young man happens to be his social superior. " Our commercial stability is dependent upon our political self-control," said Anthony, inclining his head slightly to the Mayor, as he raised to his lips the glass of excellent champagne which his worthy host had ordered. "Very true," said the Mayor, "very true." And the others who heard nodded their heads sagaciously. " I feel," said Anthony, looking round him at the quaint collection of faces, which, framed as they were, each with a more extraordinary and varied pattern of beard and whisker than the other, suggested nothing so much to his whimsical mind as a shooting-gallery, " that what we lack in politics is sound men." As he spoke he gave his coat a little twitch, a habit of his which emphasised, as it were, its perfect fit and style. " Everybody is trying to be effective instead of trying to be useful." Human nature being the same everywhere, the Cammarleighburgh worthies, although they did not quite follow him, smirked complacently and accepted his eulogium on their intellectual superiority. Perhaps, never having thought of themselves as effective, they were delighted to have their useful side emphasised. In the presence of such company Anthony would have delighted in giving free rein to his 274 LORD CAMMARLELGH'S SECRET gift of humour, but he knew that to allow the least doubt of his sincerity to enter the minds of these free and independent British electors would be fatal. To them their opponents were in all seriousness a band of organised ruffians with their hands on the throat of the national liberty, and their eyes on the money chests of their neighbours. Perhaps they were not far wrong in instinctively feeling that the political system could not be run unless each party was profoundly convinced of the awful and wilful wickedness of the other. Anthony rode back to the Abbey in high good humour with himself, and reflecting how absurdly handicapped the ordinary man of ambition is if he happens to be born in the wrong point of vantage. There was probably in Cammarleigh- burgh at the moment a man who had worked and saved and toiled all his life for this very chance which Anthony had only to put out the long arm of aristocratic domination to possess himself of. The next morning Cammarleigh alluded to the member for Cammarleighburgh having ac- cepted a judgeship, the announcement being in that morning's papers. He was about to expatiate on the subject before his guests, but Anthony found means to stop him. He had no wish for him to give himself away at that moment. It would only have made the political somersault which Anthony had determined he should turn more astonishing. The fact that his own family borough, which in former times used to return the nominee of the Lords Cammarleigh without LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 275 even pausing to inquire whether the candidate were in his right mind or not, had refused to follow him in his political vagaries, had been a terribly sore point. One of his great objections to the garden-party had been that he would be obliged to endure the presence of these treacherous people in his own grounds. Anthony, on his part, had seen the advantage of this. Certain folk in Cammarleighburgh might interpret it as a political olive branch, which was the very thing that he wanted. Before lunch Anthony mentioned to Cam- marleigh that he would like to have a talk with him. Cammarleigh by this time knew him well enough to be able to deduce from a certain sweet- ness of manner that he was meditating a master- stroke. As was always the case, Cammarleigh made up his mind that this should be the occa- sion of his putting his foot down. No matter what Anthony asked he would refuse. The situation only required the firmness with which he had been wont to tackle difficulties before he met Anthony, and the latter would crumple up and slink away. Cammarleigh must have had a good deal of the optimist in him, for he was perpetually picturing to himself the moment of his great triumph. Had it not been for these sops to his vanity he might possibly have collapsed altogether and been driven to some desperate course of action which would entirely have spoilt Anthony's plans. He used to revel in his imaginary victories, and he would even rehearse 2j6 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET the superb attitude with which, when he had said all that was in his mind, he would point to the door when the moment had come for Anthony's dismissal, and say, " Go ! " His only fear was that when that time came he should not remember anything like all the things he wished to say, and all those things which Anthony deserved to have said to him. Cammarleigh never ceased to believe that this moment would come, and at times he even persuaded himself that he was tolerating Anthony and that the latter's lease of power was entirely due to his own good nature. He fully made up his mind, or at least he thought he did, that this was to be the occasion upon which he would make a stand. He did not know what particular folly was brewing in Anthony's brain, but he would most certainly not give in to it. After lunch, Anthony asked him if he would take a stroll as he had something very particular to lay before him. Cammarleigh would have preferred that the library should have been the scene of the interview. He had not, so to speak, rehearsed Anthony's dismissal out-of-doors ; but putting on a felt hat, so old that it had no par- ticular shape, which he generally wore in the grounds, he followed Anthony with a ludicrous attempt to look as if he himself had commanded the interview. There had been rain in the night, and the brook at the bottom of the lawns was swollen to the dimensions of a small river. So as to be out of earshot, Anthony led Cammarleigh away from the house towards this spot, and, leaning against LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 277 the parapet of the ornamental bridge, he proceeded to unfold his scheme while he smoked a cigarette. Cammarleigh's blood chilled within him as he realised what he was expected to do, and what he fully realised Anthony would make him do. He tried to keep his head, and began by giving what he considered to be a dignified refusal, but he found that this evoked a manner on Anthony's part to which he was so far unaccustomed. It was not that Anthony was more violent than usual, but that there was a certain tightening of the lines about the mouth, with a drawing back of the lips, which gave just the slightest sugges- tion of a snarl which quite terrified him. There was something altogether so very deadly and menacing that he was more frightened than he had ever been. Instead of the firm attitude which he had made up his mind to take he found himself descending to argument, and even entreaty. Later on, if Anthony would only wait, it might be possible to find him a seat on the side which he, Cammarleigh, favoured. If he changed his politics again, he would be the laughing-stock of the country, and it was not likely that the electorate of Cammarleighburgh would take any nominee of his seriously. " Oh, they'll take me seriously," said Anthony. " You've only got to do as I tell you. You know perfectly well that I shouldn't go into a thing like this without thinking it out." O As Cammarleigh realised the deadliness of his intention he lost his head. " I'll do anything you like," he almost 278 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET whimpered, " only don't ask me to do this. It's cruel upon my soul it is." " Cammarleigh, for the first time in your life you have come face to face with a definite line of action, leading to a definite purpose. It will be a grand moral lesson for you, and may give you a taste for consistency. You mustn't think that I am not astonished at myself, because I am. I have a sort of feeling that if I don't complete my task, and, as a result, my future, while I am about it, I may break down the same sort of feeling that I have no doubt poets have when they are in the middle of a great work. Once let the thread of inspiration be snapped, and the rest of the task goes on crutches." O " If you only wouldn't say so much about it," moaned Cammarleigh. " But " and he sud- denly began to talk very hurriedly and somewhat incoherently " I won't do it, I won't there's an end of it. You are driving me off my head. I'll cheat you yet." "This is simply vulgar," said Anthony. " You will do as I tell you." There was something in his voice which goaded Cammarleigh to the highest pitch of desperation. Anthony himself felt that his intonation was just a little sharp, but he had no conception from what he had seen of Cammarleigh that temper could rouse him to do anything so foolish as to jump from the bridge into the fairly deep and now turbulent waters below. Neither would Cam- marleigh have done so if he had thought for two seconds longer, and halfway down to the water LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 279 he would have returned had it been possible. It was the act of a man who had been childishly determined on having his own way all his life. Anthony gave a deep curse at his own stupidity, and an additional oath which nobody unacquainted with the gutter could have used. He had by no means confidence in his prowess as a swimmer. He had no experience whatever in life saving, and there was not a soul near. Some distance off, on one of the terraces, Crutchleyand Lord Cecil were walking. Anthony raised the whistle to his lips and blew it shrilly, waving his arms wildly, in order to indicate that a catastrophe had occurred. Then, commending himself to the devil, he leapt into the water. Cammarleigh was by this time thoroughly terrified, but in reality he had the most absolute confidence in Anthony, and believed him capable of anything, even of saving his life. The result was that directly Anthony seized him, deeming himself to be as good as saved, he began to struggle and to declare that he would drown. "That you certainly will," gasped Anthony. " I'm a wretched swimmer, and you'd better keep still, because I'm by no means sure of saving myself." And, indeed, by the time Bruton and Crutchley had arrived, with Tolly dancing round them and shouting directions, and the house-party in full cry from the Abbey, matters had really become serious. Crutchley fixed his eyeglass firmly in his eye and prodded away at Cammarleigh and Anthony 280 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET with a boat-hook, apparently determined to keep them under water. Anthony permitted Cammar- leigh to be the recipient of the attentions of the sharp end of the boat-hook, and, clutching the upper part, allowed himself and his burden to be manoeuvred to land. By this time everybody was on the scene. Anthony was so furious that he very nearly fell upon Cammarleigh's prostrate form with the blunt end of the boat-hook. He was excessively uncomfortable. His clothes clung to him in the most disagreeable way, and his hair usually groomed close to his head hung about his eyes, so as to make him look like an American dude at a football match. The Duchess of Havant, who never allowed an occasion to pass without saying something meaningless, re- marked " Why, Mr. Brooke, what a lot of hair you've got ! " Anthony ran for the house, and Tolly, from sheer excitement, ran halfway with him, and then, remembering that his uncle was still unconscious, and that if he were drowned his father would be the heir, ran back in a state of the greatest excite- ment to see if he were dead. Cammarleigh was not long in recovering con- sciousness, but he had really had a shock, and he had to be put to bed. It took Anthony barely five minutes to change. Cammarleigh, on recovering his speech, might be incoherent, and there was no telling what he might say. As he was assisted into the hall LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 281 everybody was astonished to see Anthony descend- ing the stairs dressed as if he had been hours over his toilet and perfectly self-possessed. He took the care of their damp host entirely out of the hands of the other guests with a positively filial solicitude which was quite touching as viewed by those around. He declared that Cammarleigh above all things must be kept perfectly quiet, and he begged that no one would enter his room, at any rate, till the doctor had seen him. When Cammarleigh found himself in bed, and with no one else in the room but Anthony to attend on him, he trembled. He had never felt so helpless since the moment Anthony had clutched him on the shoulder at his own front door in Grosvenor Square. He lay silently watching the slim figure of his persecutor stand- ing between him and the light. Every now and then Anthony moved to the dressing-table to give his hair a brush. Such a wetting had not agreed with it at all. He was roused from his meditations by a deep sigh from the bed. He crossed over, and said, not unkindly " How do you feel now ? " "I feel better, thank you," said Cammarleigh, weakly. " I've saved your life, you know," said Anthony. " Yes." " Of course, it wouldn't have suited me at all for you to drown. It would have been a great score for you. As it is, you have only made things more difficult for yourself, and very much 282 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET easier for me." As the figure in the bed pre- served a gloomy silence, Anthony continued. " You see, you'll have to pretend to be grateful to me, and you'll find that very difficult. On the other hand, you see how much easier that makes it for me to accept things from you." Cam- marleigh still made no reply ; in fact, he felt that such courage as he had ever possessed lay at the bottom of the river. Anthony continued. He himself was feeling soothed and rested after the excitement. " You see," he said, settling himself comfortably in the broad, old-fashioned window- seat, " combined with the growing suspicion that I am your son " At last Cammarleigh, in a far-off" voice, replied. The statement was so astounding that he almost wondered whether it were not a phase of delirium. He raised himself on his elbow in order to assure himself of the reality of Anthony's presence. " My son ? Who says you are my son ? " " I believe a good many people say so." " Did you spread the rumour ? " " Thank you, no," said Anthony. And then, with real dignity, he added, " I would sooner be the son of my father than the son of any other man." No well-bred person could answer this, and Cammarleigh was again silent ; but the idea seethed within his brain, and finally he gave a small, decrepid cry of anguish, and, beating the pillow with a skinny fist, croaked " My son my son oh, it's too disgraceful ! It's enough to destroy one's faith in Providence." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 283 " Nothing amazes me more," said Anthony, " than the way people wax indignant over their petty grievances. How many times do you imagine have these peasants, crouching in their kennels at the gates of your splendour and affluence, cursed you in their hearts ? " And Anthony waved his hand in a highly dramatic way towards the window. " Why should they curse me ? " Cammarleigh prided himself on being a very excellent land- lord. " Why should they curse you ? The question is, why shouldn't they ? When one comes to think that by far the greater portion of their profits goes into your pockets, doesn't it strike you that their instincts whatever convention may have taught them to pretend to the contrary teach them to regard you as what you are, a vulgar pilferer ? " Perhaps this digression was rather unreason- able, and it most certainly had nothing to do with the subject. Anthony felt that he could not too soon adopt a political attitude. " What I wish to point out is that if you had had to suffer twenty times as much at my hands as you have done, you would still have a con- siderable balance on your side as regards the material things of this life. And now I think I'll leave you. You had better have a good sleep, and then you will be able to get up after the doctor has been." " I have not the least wish to see the doctor." "And there's not the least reason why you 284 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET should, but, at the same time, I think perhaps it will be better for you to do so." Then Anthony left him, closing the door quietly. Outside he met Lady Cecil, and wondered if she had been listening. " Is he quite recovered, Mr. Brooke ? " " Yes ; he is in a deep sleep." " Ah, then I won't disturb him. How splendid of you, Mr. Brooke ! We are all so grateful. Lady Editha has been in tears. Really, you are like a son to Cammarleigh." " I try to do my duty," said Anthony. At tea Mrs. Westerby whispered as he handed her cup " Of course the whole thing was stage- managed ? " Anthony smiled enigmatically. CHAPTER XXV THE rapprochement between Mrs. Westerby and Frant had arrived at the stage of surreptitious meetings. Frant actually found himself getting up early in the morning because he knew that Mrs. Westerby would be in the rose garden punctually at eight o'clock. This extraordinary effort on the part of both would have been quite impossible had the one not been so much in earnest, and the other so intensely curious about his own feelings. Neither of them considered early rising civilised. Mrs. Westerby felt that she did not look her best, and was obliged to tilt her large garden-hat at its most acute angle in order to secure the right amount of becoming shade. Frant had never considered that it was necessary for a man to study his personal appearance in order to conciliate a woman, and his rank had not tended to cure this defect. He was only con- cerned as to whether he felt less or more cheap than he was accustomed to do at that hour of the morning. As he approached her his figure looked positively decrepid in its loose flannels, and his eyes gazed wildly from his hatchet face. "What on earth are you doing up at this hour ?" Mrs. Westerby always commenced with this remark. 286 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " God only knows ! " was his grace's reply. He seated himself at her side. "I shall be simply dead by ten o'clock," he continued, closing his eyes in almost a doze. Mrs. Westerby likewise felt that the loss of a couple of hours' sleep at that time of the morn- ing would require a good deal of making up if indeed such a thing were possible but it was a tribute to the need they had of each other that they were soon, despite their jaded condition, conversing with animation. " Fancy old Cammarleigh getting a ducking like that ! " " It was very fortunate that Mr. Brooke was there to pull him out." " Can't see how he managed to fall in a place he had been accustomed to from a boy. Mysterious fellow, Brooke." " Interesting," said Mrs. Westerby. " Oh, I don't dislike him. Wonderful chap in many ways. Always says the right thing. Seems to run the show here, doesn't he ! " Then he paused, opened one eye, and said hesitatingly, " You know what they say ? " " What, about Mr. Brooke being " She paused abruptly, and Frant took up the current of insinuation. " Cammarleigh' s son ? " " I have heard something about it." " One never knows. There's no need to keep it so beastly quiet. It's quite respectable Cammarleigh's a bachelor." " I don't think they do keep it quiet." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 287 " By Jove ! " said Frant. " If he's Cammar- leigh's son, he would be Miss Travers' cousin." " Perhaps that's the bond of sympathy between them." There was a pause, and then Frant said rather stiffly " A bond of sympathy I don't under- stand." Mrs. Westerby became wide awake, and dis- played quite an after-dinner animation. " My dear Frant, you surely don't think I am trying to make mischief ! " " No, of course I don't ; but if you think that Miss Travers prefers this fellow Brooke " And then he cut himself short. It was hardly chivalrous or in good taste to discuss such a matter. At the same time, Mrs. Westerby had been quite right in assuming that the relations between Sybil and himself had become uncomfort- able. There had been something in Sybil's manner ever since his arrival at Cammarleigh which had got on his nerves. He could not define it, but it was a certain flippancy in dealing with him, which, when combined with her ex- tremely acute intelligence, was apt to produce irritability on her part and sulkiness on his. He felt that this flippancy was being used for some subtle purpose of her own, and he was beginning to suspect that it might be to keep sentiment at bay. Mrs. Westerby had carefully noted these signs and symptoms of the dissolution of an attachment which had never been dictated by anything deeper 288 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET than interest on the one side and superficial fascination on the other. " You are quite right, Frant," she said, inter- preting this pause. " It is hardly for us to discuss the matter and yet if you cannot discuss a matter like this with your friends with whom are you to discuss it ? " Frant murmured something about her being a thorough good sort ; indeed, at the moment he was wondering how he could ever have been foolish enough to forsake such a companionable, charming woman for a girl who, he flattered him- self, was probably too unsophisticated to appre- ciate him. Having reached the point of confessing to himself that Sybil did not appreciate him, it was not a great way from this condition to one of acute resentment, a resentment all the more intense because physical fascination was by no means dead. " I should be so sorry, Frant," continued Mrs. Westerby, " if anything should occur to interrupt our friendship." "Why should it? It won't be my fault." And there was that in the atmosphere which made Frant feel that it would perhaps be wiser not to get up early and meet Mrs. Westerby in the rose garden. Despite his irritation, it had not so far entered his mind to break off with Sybil ; indeed, he quite saw that within so short a time of their marriage such a thing would be absolutely impos- sible. He began to experience a certain sensation of fright at the idea of being at the tender mercies of Sybil, for whatever certainty Anthony felt as to LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 289 being her master, Frant felt nothing of the kind. He was afraid of her. He knew perfectly well that he was not a match for her, and yet if he had been asked for an opinion off-hand he would have said that Mrs. Westerby was the cleverer of the two, and Frant certainly thought himself a match for Mrs. Westerby. This was just where his masculine weakness showed itself. He was under the impression that because he got on with her he was a match for her. As a matter of fact, he was very much less of a match for Mrs. Westerby than he was for Sybil ; but, being a man, he stood no chance at all in a fight with the woman who really wanted him. She fought the engagement entirely with hidden batteries, and, the weapons being Cupid's, and finding their mark without betraying their presence, he had no notion to what an extent his defences were being damaged. Mrs. Westerby was frankly amused at the way she was fighting her battle on the mere strength of Anthony's promise to step in and give the finishing touch to the enemy. She felt that she would have been put down as a woman of very little discrimination had she been called upon to admit that she was staking her future on the word of a young man whom she, at any rate, knew to be an adventurer. She was sure that no one of the opposite sex would ever have done anything so foolish, and yet she was also sure that in her trust she showed the superiority of her woman's instinct. She would have laid ten to one on Anthony's being a winner. The air was electric with success. u 2 90 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET She was not in the least surprised when Anthony appeared a little distance off. She knew perfectly well that he had come to see how they were getting on, and she could tell by the laughter in his eyes as he greeted them that he was pleased with her progress. " What brings you out so early, Mr. Brooke ? " " Roses, Mrs. Westerby. If youth desires the roses which are its due, it should always be up betimes." " For whom are your roses ? " "For Miss Travers with the Duke's per- mission." Frant gave a curious jerk with his head which might have meant anything. Anthony carefully snipped a glorious La France rose that had been languishing towards him, apologising for her effrontery with pale pink blushes. " Do you think the House of Commons would take me seriously ? " And Anthony picked a thorn from the tip of one of his long, tapering fingers. "Sounds a bit irrelevant," said Frant. " Mr. Brooke is never really irrelevant," said Mrs. Westerby. " He always means something if you only wait long enough." And she smiled her thanks as Anthony handed her a cluster of white and red roses. " I've had an invitation from the Liberal Association to contest the division. Cammar- leighburgh, you know, always shows its inde- pendence by choosing its own candidate." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 291 Frant prided himself on being a bit of a politician. It was a very little bit of a politician, but there was an immense deal of pride about it. " But I thought that Cammarleigh was " he began. Mrs. Westerby looked at the Duke and then at Anthony as much as to say, " And that is what I thought." " You mean," said Anthony, " that you thought he was a Government man ? So he was, but Cammarleigh is not a cut-and-dried politician." Mrs. Westerby was bewildered. She wished that Anthony would confide in her a little more. She did not for one moment believe that his being asked to contest the division originated with Lord Cammarleigh, and it was very evident that Anthony did not particularly mind whether she believed it or not. She knew perfectly well that his appearance in the rose garden, and the almost careless way in which he had imparted the intelligence to them, had been very carefully calculated. "Are you going to accept ? " asked Frant. " I think so. A public life suits me ; and, after all, the House of Commons is the only field for a really ambitious man." " That settles it," thought Frant. " He must be Cammarleigh's son." Having dropped his explosive, Anthony moved away. When they were left alone the Duke looked at Mrs. Westerby and raised his eyebrows. 292 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " This will give the whole show away," he said. " I don't think he cares." " Why should he ? But what a weathercock Cammarleigh is ! He'll be the laughing-stock of both parties. I shouldn't care to go into the House as his/>r<?/<^" " They won't laugh at Mr. Brooke." The Duke looked at her suspiciously. " I say, you seem to think a lot of the fellow." " I do. He interests me very much indeed." " Humph ! " His Grace felt a distinct twinge of those nerves which communicate with the jealous centres of the brain. He glanced towards the windows where he knew Sybil's room to be, and, though he was not imaginative, he conjured up a picture of her as she was wont to appear the first thing in the morning, fresh and sweet, alert and lithe ; yet, somehow, the vision left him cold, and he turned with somewhat of a weight at his heart to the more mature beauty at his side. He hoped that he had not made an awful ass of himself. Although he could not have explained it, Mrs. Westerby's cause was largely assisted by the fact that he was suffering from injured vanity, as men are apt to do when they fall in love with a very young girl. It was quite certain that had Sybil not suffered such a severe heart-attack almost at the same moment that she became engaged she would have been clever enough to play the Duke until he was safely landed, but inasmuch as she was quite sure of him she made him bear not a little of her resentment against fate. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 293 " Cammarleigh left his traditional party because he said they were too advanced. I wonder what excuse he will give for going back to them, con- sidering that they are about three times more advanced than when he left them ? " " The political world has a short memory." CHAPTER XXVI HAVING given a servant the roses with instruc- tions that they were to be handed to Miss Travers' maid, Anthony proceeded to Cammar- leigh's room and placed the letter from the Association before him. " You must see, Cammarleigh, that I am not likely to draw back now. You know that you are dealing with a perfectly reckless man, and you are much too clever and astute not to accept the situation ; in fact, you would be surprised to know what a great admiration I have for your character in that direction." " Please don't think that flattery has any effect on me," said Cammarleigh, showing despite his protest that he was distinctly warmed by it. " I'm not given to flattering you, Cammar- leigh. It is a fact that a bold stroke like yesterday's was the only thing I really feared. It was my weak point, and, as I told you, you very nearly got home or went home, as the case may be. Now, everything is going to end quite happily. You are absurdly rich ; you are going to part with about half your savings ; I am going to marry your niece " Cammarleigh made a movement. " Oh no, I shan't marry her till I've got the LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 295 money, because, as your nephew, it would be impossible for me to use this whistle. So you see, once the money is paid and I am married, you will be perfectly safe ; and if I fail, you know quite well I shall keep my word and go out of your life." As usual, Cammarleigh did not feel the intense joy and relief which ought to have accompanied this promise. "After all, you know, Cammarleigh, it will look much better for you if at any rate you appear to choose the member for Cammarleighburgh, even if you don't do so actually. Old Baker says that the Association is quite enthusiastic at the idea of your returning to them, and is ready to give you a tremendous reception." Anthony knew exactly the point at which to leave Cammarleigh to think matters out. He only added as he left him, " I've sent a messenger over to ask Baker to call upon you this morning, and I carefully explained to him that I am entirely in your hands." As he was leaving the room Cammarleigh made the most generous speech of his life " Brooke " "Why not Tony ?" murmured Anthony. Cammarleigh did not respond to the invita- tion to be more familiar, and went on " I consider it only fair to tell you that you have the instincts of a gentleman so far as they are consistent with your being a " Anthony would not let him finish, but left the room, murmuring 296 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " I am very fond of you, Cammarleigh I am indeed." As he joined the breakfast party there descended a sudden silence. To his astonish- ment, Sybil was there. With the exception of Tolly, she was the youngest present, and therefore, with the exception of that young gentleman, was generally the last person down. Frant had just imparted to the general company Anthony's com- munication. It had been greeted with a positive Babel of comment, everybody talking at once. The freedom of the remarks was somewhat conditioned by the presence of so many members of the family. Lord Cecil led off, however, by saying "Apparently that young man intends to be Prime Minister all in five minutes." " What is the essential quality demanded in English politics ? " asked Lady Southwick. " Sincerity, I should have thought." Lady Southwick and Mrs. Westerby were the only people present of an intellectual stature capable of conducting a discussion on such a subject. "And yet," continued Mrs. Westerby, "it is the most difficult quality to ascribe to any one it is so extraordinarily elusive. People seem to have it, and then not to have it, in the most bewildering way." " Mr. Brooke strikes me as having genius." And Lady Southwick peeled a nectarine medi- tatively. This was probably why she had been so exceedingly civil to Anthony. She had a rare LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 297 instinct for men, which dated from the days when, as Pamela Gray, she had selected her husband and the means of obtaining him with almost scientific precision. She had been called an adventuress herself, and it was perfectly true that it was not very clear where the Duchess of Havant had found her. Her tolerance of Anthony was not, however, the result of any fellow-feeling. She fancied she detected, as Mrs. Westerby was sure she detected in him, the atmosphere of success, and, woman-like, she was quite prepared to help in the making of what was sure to succeed. " Genius is a large order," said Crutchley. Mrs. Westerby laughed, a full laugh, which showed that her sense of humour had been strongly appealed to. " And I am sure Mr. Brooke's order will be as large as his genius can make it." Sybil was silent, as a young girl should be when a young man is being discussed freely ; but, at the same time, she was a little surprised. Evidently other women had discovered a certain power in Anthony, and held him in high estima- tion. The discovery tamed her vanity. So far she had sub-consciously considered it a conde- scension to allow Anthony to make love to her, but nevertheless she was dominated by him, and perhaps on this account she had encouraged the theory of condescension the more tenaciously. "Well," said Lord Cecil, "I never liked Cammarleigh leaving the old party although they have gone rather off the rails of late. Of course," he added, feeling that as a member of 298 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET the family some apology was due for the eccentric political gyrations of its head, " Cammarleigh never could compromise, and compromise is absolutely necessary unless you are going to give the im- pression of a cat on hot bricks." "Politics is a game," said Mrs. Westerby, u and that country has the best political life where the game is played without cheating, and that is why I should think the active participation of women would be disastrous." Anthony entered at this moment, and the conversation languished till he had seated himself. " I am almost excited," he said. " I shall be in the House of Commons before I am twenty- five." " There's many a slip," murmured Lord Cecil, who never could make out why Anthony's assur- ance did not get on his nerves as it ought to have done. " Those people who look for failure find it. I am sure that you can create the atmosphere of success." " It all sounds very magical and unpractical," said Lady Editha. " The great careers are very magical. I wonder if the general public quite know how magical they are ? " Anthony caught Mrs. Westerby's eye, and the faintest smile of understanding passed between them. Then he glanced at Sybil to enjoy the pleasure of seeing his roses in her belt. He was thinking what a lucky thing it was that the road to her possession lay the same way as his political LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 299 ambitions. He did not deceive himself; he knew perfectly well that under no circumstances would he have been able to follow out any other scheme until he had secured her. Sybil ate her breakfast in silence. She was really growing unhappy, and was no longer capable of the pretence that she was playing a game with Anthony a very reprehensible game, but still a game. She had surrendered unconditionally to the instincts of her youth, and she found herself, without even seeing the absurdity of it as she would formerly have done, picturing a scheme of happiness based on love in a cottage. She went for a walk to think the matter out, hoping that Anthony would follow, which, however, he did not. He was not chary of allowing her as much of Frant's company as was going. He was sure that he was a dry brand which would have no attractions for Sybil's youthful palate, and he wanted her fully to realise the horrors that were before her. Lady Editha never in her wildest moments dreamed that Sybil would regret her choice. She fancied that she knew her daughter's character thoroughly, and that she was not in the least likely to be sufficiently swayed by sentiment to hesitate where a ducal coronet was concerned. Lady Editha had never had depth enough to warn her daughter that there can be no greater danger for a woman than to be perfectly assured that she has her affections in hand, and that to think so at eighteen is more likely than not to be disastrous. To theorise about life in youth is to 300 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET dig pitfalls. Still, it requires a prodigious effort of will to throw away such a golden prospect. Sybil had imagined that she could show herself the equal of a brilliant mountebank, that in this comedy of mock-love she could be as sparkling and as original as her partner, that she would play Columbine to his Harlequin, and that her feelings would be as unreal as the emotions of those fairy people ; but she did not want to pretend any longer, and was seized with a sudden terror lest Harlequin had never meant anything else. It was better that he should not have meant anything else, she told herself. Nothing could come of it, and yet this was not to be ad- mitted even in moments of complete solitude without a sudden rush of pain ; indeed, the little lady who had considered herself as unimpression- able as a finely cut diamond was caught in the very weaknesses of her own conceit and proved to be malleable flesh and blood. She was paying very dearly for that ecstatic scene in the little drawing-room in Curzon Street. She was really afraid that brooding over Anthony would spoil her looks. If he were such a genius as everybody said, why did he not do something wonderful, and come forward and claim her ? Perhaps he did not want to claim her. Of course, in her innermost self she knew that this was not true, but for the purpose of wrecking her nerves it was a sufficient possibility. She sat herself down on a low wall which commanded a view of that part of the county, and Frant formally joined her. He had been in LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 301 the habit, since his arrival at Cammarleigh, of taking her for a walk after breakfast. He felt that he was expected to ask her, and she felt that she was expected to accompany him. He was smoking a cigar. This offended her sense of fitness. Anthony did not smoke cigars after breakfast, and she realised that she would never as long as she lived dissociate the scent of Egyptian cigarettes from a certain tone of blue-green flannel which a smart tailor had cut most perfectly to Anthony's figure. Frant was wondering what had become of what from his anaemic point of view he had con- sidered the delirium of the early days of his en- gagement, whilst Sybil was thinking that he would be more difficult to endure than she had imagined. "There's a view rather like this at Frant. Don't you remember it ? " Sybil felt a sudden dislike for people who instituted scenic comparisons, and said that she did not. " I don't think you thought very much of Frant, did you ? " " It's very stately," said Sybil, politely. "Yes, it rather reminds one of a town hall, doesn't it ? My father always said that." The allusion to Frant rather set Sybil up. Although she had not shown much enthusiasm, to be mistress of such magnificence would be no small triumph. For the space of quite thirty seconds the thought of Frant Palace blotted out Anthony, but with incredible swiftness its lordly turrets and towers, its stately terraces, and colossal 302 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET and hideous architectural design, faded away, leav- ing her mental vision occupied instead by a figure with magnetic charm in blue-green flannel. Frant droned away, experiencing considerable difficulty in finding subjects for conversation. The fact that he should have considered it necessary to converse at all when he had nothing to say was proof positive that they did not get on together, for what two lovers ever felt the need of con- versation ? With love, words are apt to spoil everything. Frant was thinking that if she would only give him a chance he would convey as delicately as possible that he rather thought they had made a mistake. At so advanced a stage it was quite impossible for him to make the least retreat without being given the initiative. At this moment, four portly-looking gentle- men passed them, trying to look very much at their ease in one of the Cammarleigh carriages. Their appearance at that hour of the morning was altogether so strange that Frant remarked on it. "Perhaps they're something to do with the election," said Sybil. That she should have sur- mised so much showed the intense interest she was taking in everything that concerned Anthony. They sat watching the vehicle, which, with its top-hatted, black-coated occupants, irresistibly sug- gested a municipal funeral, till it passed beneath the gateway and disappeared. Cammarleigh had likewise seen the arrival of the Cammarleighburgh magnates. As Anthony had guessed, the mere fact of receiving the deputa- tion compensated him for the unpleasant political LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 303 pill that he was obliged to swallow, and it began to be borne in upon him that he was considered a political nobody. It was essential that he should do something in order to assert himself. It was quite true that the Government in whose interests he had ratted had behaved very badly to him. He had not even been offered Court appointment such as his rank might have entitled him to. It was therefore only a feeling that he was bound to look more or less ridiculous that made him object to Anthony's scheme, but he had one good point in his character which played into the latter's hands, and that was that when a thing had become inevitable he could accept it with a certain amount of dignity. He made one last stand when Anthony came to inform him that the deputation was awaiting him. "You must tell them that I know nothing about it," he said. "Lord Cammarleigh," said Anthony, solemnly, " is it likely that at such a moment as this I should hesitate to use strong measures ? The accident that put you in my power has led me to this point. It is a crisis, and I cannot afford to give way an inch." The last vestige of rebellion disappeared from Cammarleigh, but merely to save what he con- sidered his dignity, he said " Very well, then ; when you see the leading newspapers on the subject you will be sorry that you insisted. I shall look so ridiculous that people will be ashamed to vote for you." "It takes a lot to make a great landed 304 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET proprietor look ridiculous in his own county. I'll take the risk." " What on earth am I to say to them ? " " You must say that in presence of a great national danger " "There is no great danger there never has been a quieter time." " There is always a national danger from the point of view of the Opposition, and you must say that at this time of national danger you are indeed pleased to see old friends rallying within these walls historic with memories of reform, to take counsel as to how the old battle against oppression and privilege may best be waged. It sounds cheap, but they will take them as golden words of wisdom from a Marquis, and a nation which has believed in the Whigs will believe in anything." " They did nothing of the kind when I wanted them to follow me." " You must have shown a lack of tact some- where. You can also mention that the garden- party was a social stepping - stone to this reconciliation." " Really," said Cammarleigh, having got all the assistance he wanted, " one would think I hadn't known these people since I was a boy." Anthony opened the door which led from the inner library where their interview had taken place, and, making room for Cammarleigh to precede him, followed him into the outer library. The deputation were walking about with their hats in their hands, trying to show how perfectly at their ease they were by examining the backs of rare editions, while Mr. Baker, with his head on one side, and the manner of an art critic, was inspecting with a certain air of appreciation in- cidental to his sex, an exquisite reproduction in marble of the Venus of Milo. As Cammarleigh entered, their scattered ranks closed up, and they became again a deputation. Cammarleigh shook hands with Mr. Baker and the other three gentlemen. " Won't you sit down ? " There was a slight diversion whilst with ex- treme affability Anthony helped to place chairs in convenient positions. Cammarleigh enjoyed nothing so much as a situation of this kind, and, placing the tips of his fingers together, he surveyed the perspiring group in front of him with what he fondly imagined to be a smile of statesmanlike benevolence. Anthony spoke first, somewhat to Cammar- leigh's surprise. "Gentlemen, I should first like to say that I have in this matter merely been acting as Lord Cammarleigh's mouthpiece. The initiative was his. It was he who suggested that I should put myself in your hands, and I can only say that if the beginning of my political career should be as member for your ancient borough, my thanks will be equally due to the electors of Cammarleigh- burgh, whose interests I shall faithfully try to serve, and to his lordship, who, after having had a full opportunity of judging, has considered me worthy of his support." 306 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Cammarleigh felt that there was not on the shelves around him a volume sufficiently large or heavy to have been Anthony's due, but he was true to the Red Indian instincts of his rank, and smiled gently. The gentlemen in front nodded their heads rhythmically with each emphasising period of Anthony's speech. He then, with an apparent display of modesty, moved and placed himself so that he faced Cammarleigh, and was able, as it were, to head the admiring attention and ex- pectancy with which they awaited his speech. "I have long felt, gentlemen," began Cam- marleigh, " that the reasons for which I was compelled to sever my connection with your Association have ceased to carry weight. I have daily found myself more and more in sympathy with the later programme of the historic party with which I was formerly connected." Here there was a slight burst of applause. The mem- bers of the deputation felt in a chivalrous mood ; they had fought Cammarleigh, and had beaten him. " Mr. Brooke, the son of a very dear old friend of mine " here the deputation fixed its eye discreetly on the ceiling, and Cammarleigh gulped " is eminently suited for a political career. I can assure you, gentlemen, that he is a young man of the highest integrity." Anthony smiled sympathetically. He could thoroughly appreciate the pleasure this speech must have given Cammarleigh. " His rectitude," continued Cammarleigh, " is known to me." LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 307 "So like him," thought Anthony, "to spoil a good joke by repeating it." " His abilities are also known to me, and I presume, gentlemen, that your confidence in him is the result of such conversations as you have had together. I shall regret to lose Mr. Brooke " Here he bowed towards Anthony, and Anthony returned the inclination, whilst the deputation regarded them sympathetically. " But I should not think of standing in his way, and as he is in a position to enter Parliament, I can only say that such poor support as I am able to place at his command is his, a support, which, as you know, gentlemen, has not always been effective." This was a thrust at what Cammarleigh con- sidered to have been the disloyalty and treachery displayed by the Association at the last election. Cammarleigh leant back in his chair and again became a Red Indian, smiling placidly at the door of his wigwam, with murder at his heart. There was a pause, and the deputation looked towards Mr. Baker. Anthony placed himself behind Cammarleigh. " My lord, it would be beyond me to describe to your lordship the pleasurable feelings which were aroused in our breasts by the information that you had once again consented to lead us to victory. Only the strongest convictions on our part induced us respectfully to decline to follow you on a former occasion. We may have been right, we may have been wrong, but it fills us with the greatest pleasure, indeed, I may say enthusiasm " By way of showing its wild enthusiasm the deputation here murmured a weak approval. The approval was there, but the envi- ronment had a somewhat damping effect " to give our unqualified support to a nominee of your lordship's. Mr. Brooke has already privately given us full assurance of his devotion to the cause of reform and economy." The devotee of economy here bowed. " I have only formally to request him to address the Association, at the conclusion of which address we shall, I am sure, be able to invite him to contest the division." There should have been cheering in the back- ground in order to fill in the picture. Anthony responded with a few appropriate words, and then, it being too early for the party to be asked to stay to lunch, they all adjourned to the banqueting hall and took a glass of wine in honour of the event. Cammarleigh, in spite of himself, was forced to admire the intuitive tact with which Anthony managed these very self- important local dignitaries, and was inclined to agree with what he had said on a former occasion, and, at the time, much to Cammarleigh's annoy- ance. " Human nature can only be modified very slightly in either direction by ermine or rags, from guttersnipe to emperor you influence a man through his vanity. Always treat men whom you are anxious to use as if they are of a special importance to their surroundings." And this was what Anthony was doing ; going from one to the other, and, as it were, setting LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 309 them apart in their own estimation. The very- intonation of his voice as he mentioned the commonplace name of Baker, or the still more hideous appellation of Scroggs, was a lesson to an expert in diplomacy, and Cammarleigh felt that, after all, there was some satisfaction in knowing that Anthony was likely to be a credit to his own judgment. " Do you think I am wonderful ? " asked Anthony of Cammarleigh when they were alone. " Oh, you're clever enough." "And yet," said Anthony, who was always ready to grease the wheels of Cammarleigh's vanity, " I am coming to the conclusion that I'm not as clever as you are. Your self-control was marvellous. You said just enough, and not a word too much." " At any rate, I am very glad that I had an opportunity of mentioning that you were the son of an old friend of mine." And Cammarleigh was fully convinced that the deputation had believed him. CHAPTER XXVII " Do you feel impatient ? " Anthony joined Mrs. Westerby as she was strolling up and down in the cool of the cloisters. " Not impatient exactly, but sometimes I get an all-overish feeling, and I do so want to be a duchess before the Coronation." "You shall. With your auburn hair you shall look like a great lady of the Norman period." " I should be happier if I had more to do in the scheme if there were a little more plotting." " There is no need to work in that way. We are simply giving nature every chance, and are drifting towards our proper mates." " Well, then, I suppose all I can do is to cast spells and be patient." " Yes, but be very particular about the spells. After all, you know, men of the Frant type always return to the woman they are comfortable with. As a matter of fact, I suppose that applies to all men." "At any rate, that is the theory we women go on." " It is unwise to give away a secret, even in jest." " You certainly keep yours very well. Are LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 311 you quite sure that you will never be weak enough to divulge it ? " " Quite sure." Then, seeing Sybil in the distance, he threw aside all subtlety and hurried in pursuit. Sybil, who had been perfectly conscious of his vicinity, allowed him to overtake her, but gave a studied start to mark the unexpected nature of his appearance. " You are dull." " Do you mean to say that I am not enter- taining ? " " No, I mean that you are bored." " I can't quite admit that." " What would you like to do ? I won't allow you to be dull or bored, or sad for a single moment. Would you like to ride ? " It was an admirable suggestion, but the coquette in her caused her to hesitate for a moment ; and then, showing her growing weak- ness by a fear that he should back out of the invitation, she said hastily " I should like it above all things." The rest of the men were out shooting, and Lady Editha's conscience was not likely to labour the point in propriety ; indeed, she would more probably credit herself with an indiscreet action than Sybil. Tolly was luckily out of the way, or he would most assuredly have insisted on accompanying them. In twenty minutes Sybil was ready, and the horses had been brought round. They were 312 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Anthony's selection, and betrayed the theatrical taint in his blood. He was riding a black mare, whilst Sybil's mount was a milk-white Arab. Both animals were so perfect of their kind that they redeemed their flaunting singularity. Sybil laughed as she looked at them, and her eyes met Anthony's. " We shall look rather like a circus." " Why not ? We can imagine ourselves as unreal as those people who ride into a town at the head of a circus procession. You know Cammar- leigh chose Mahomet for you ? " Of course Sybil knew that this meant that the horse was Anthony's selection. " I will tell you a secret. He is to be yours as a wedding present." " Don't spoil my ride." Then she grew crimson. It was an unpremeditated confession, and she felt that it was just a little vulgar. Anthony sympathised with the mistake, which was quite unnecessary to show him where he stood. For one moment Sybil looked as though she contemplated flight, which showed how com- pletely love had taken her unawares. Then she accepted Anthony's hand and sprang into the saddle. They could easily have ridden for miles with- out leaving Cammarleigh's demesne, but somehow they both felt the need of being away from any- thing which could tie them to the reality of their lot. Almost immediately they passed through a gate, and, cantering down a short lane, reached the high road. Anthony's horsemanship had completely redeemed him as a sportsman in the eyes of the philistines staying at the Abbey. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 313 They were as beautiful as a young couple out of a penny novelette, and the sensation of riding away together, anywhere, nowhere, filled them with romantic exhilaration. " I hope you will win your election." " Shall you help me ? " " I don't know anything about politics." " So much the better you can't make any mistakes." " Do you know that everybody here has guessed that there is some mystery about you ? " At this moment answer was impossible, for Anthony opened a gate which led into a prodi- giously long field, and as the gate swung behind them he set his horse at a gallop, and the wine of the most glorious exercise in the world entered into their blood and they gave themselves up to its intoxication. When they drew rein they were at the foot of a high grass hill, of which, however, the slope was very gradual. " What is the favourite guess ? " asked An- thony, as they walked their horses easily up the hill. "Oh, I don't know that anybody has made a definite guess. Perhaps people feel that it wouldn't be quite nice of them. Still, I don't think they are right." She was too much in love not to be afraid of making him angry, but An- thony knew perfectly well what she meant, and answered lightly " You mean that you don't think the explana- tion accounts for the phenomenon ? " " I don't know what phenomenon means and 314 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET I shouldn't think it very nice of any girl of my age who did." " Well, you mean that you don't think that the explanation accounts for the strange things that are happening ? " "Yes." " And you are feverish with curiosity ? " " I should like to know the truth," said Sybil, with childish pleading in her voice. Anthony looked at her longingly, and a thrill ran through his nerves. His long, gray eyes grew almost moist as he murmured pathetically "You little dear!" " I should never tell anybody." " Then there wouldn't be the least enjoyment in your knowing. Tell me, have you made a guess ? " " I've made a hundred. If it's any satisfaction to you, I wake up early in the morning to think about it." " With no results ? " " Well, my explanations all break down. At first I thought that you were the real Lord Cammarleigh, and that Uncle Percy knew all about it." " If I were the real Lord Cammarleigh the whole world would know all about it. Shall we gallop?" They were now crossing a large stretch of common upland. Above them the September sun was already beginning to cool its fires. Be- neath them the broom made one yellow carpet. There was a touch of autumn in the air. Nature LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 315 around them was less green than she had been. She wore a jaded, sunburnt tone, as if she were somewhat weary of her summering and were thinking wistfully of the long, deep sleep of winter. Anthony had an almost mystic intuition about life, and he knew that these hours were golden, that they were the exquisite alchemy by which he should test Sybil in the years to come, and that the memory of them, with a nature like his, would keep her ever before him as a prize, something to be desired, even long after possession had whispered an excuse to satiety. It was all wonder- fully strange ; dreamland did not hold a more extraordinary fate than his had been, and yet his very genius bade him to beware, and to remember that chances such as his do not repeat themselves, and that though respectability is dull, and is much scorned by the superior folk who have it not, yet it is sure. Leaving the common-land, and still climbing, they reached the highest eminence in those parts. They turned their horses' heads to look over a gate from whence they could see the entire way by which they had ascended. Far away below, looking like a little gray toy, was the Abbey. A distant shot rang out in the clear, still air. "Look," said Sybil, pointing with her whip to the miles and miles of fairy-land below them ; " what a long way we have come, and how quickly ! " " Yes," answered Anthony, enigmatically ; " a long way and how quickly ! " 316 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET She looked at him sharply, and then said quietly " I know what you mean." That ride together had shown her how per- fectly they were mated, and when she thought of Frant she was dismayed. Anthony saw that the time had come to play trumps. He laid his hand on hers and said very seriously " On what conditions would you marry me ? " She looked at him startled, and then tried to laugh. " You forget " " I forget nothing," he said, growing more serious. " I see my life ahead, and I have sufficient of the feminine in me to play the respectable part if it comes my way. You see, I discuss all the philo- sophy of the situation, and accept you as an equal." She looked at him haughtily. " Oh, you know what I mean. I am older than you are ; and besides, I have had more schooling than you will ever have I allude, of course, to material adversity." She did not answer, so he said again " On what conditions will you marry me ? Will you take about seven thousand a year, a seat in the House of Commons, accompanied by well, you know how much cleverness and the man you love, in exchange for a few out-of-date strawberry leaves ? " Still she did not answer, and he murmured feelingly LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 317 Sybil ! " She whimpered. " It's not fair to bring me all the way up here, and then to tempt me like this ! " Their horses were close together. He put his arms round her with an enchantment which she felt to be decisive. " Don't be afraid," he said. " I will save you yet." And he laughed. His laugh piqued her. She wanted him to go on talking in that curious, unusual way which seemed somehow to build a wall between them and the rest of the world. " Besides," he said, " I offer you a kingdom for everybody reigns in their own kingdom of love. That sounds like cheap melodrama, doesn't it ? " " No why ? " said Sybil, hastily. As a woman, she did not think it cheap melo- drama at all. " Well, I've told you what my prospects are in the most respectable way." "You see, I'm too young to judge," said Sybil, recovering herself somewhat. Anthony appreciated the joke, and laughed. "There is one thing I forgot to mention, and that is when we are married I shall tell you my secret. Not when you've promised to marry me, you understand, but when we are married." They turned their horses homewards, chatter- ing and laughing like children, and only when they neared Cammarleigh did Sybil's spirits leave her as she thought of Frant. CHAPTER XXVIII OF course, Cammarleigh's part in the election was bound to cease with the interview in the library, for as a member of the Upper House he was debarred from taking any actual part in the elec- tion. Lord and Lady Cecil, Lady Editha and Sybil, helped largely. Anthony had had an in- terview with Lord Cecil, at the end of which they had perfectly understood each other. It was while they were smoking a cigar together in the haunted walk. "Lord Cammarleigh has been wonderfully good to me. He is very warm-hearted." Lord Cecil frankly laughed. " Is he ? " " Well, when I came into that money the other day " "I hadn't heard?" " It was from an old uncle of mine in Aus- tralia. When the news came, your brother at once suggested that I should seize the opportunity of the vacancy in Cammarleighburgh." Lord Cecil liked Anthony, although he was distrustful of his intentions. If he were his nephew, he thought him on the whole a credit. It was only natural that the bar sinister should produce a slightly bizarre effect. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 319 " I am sure you'll get on," he said en- couragingly. " Well, you see," said Anthony and this was his point in seeking the interview " I can never expect to have any more money than I have now, so I shall have plenty of leisure ; and office, if I ever get it, will be agreeable, financially and otherwise." He repeated these remarks more than once during the interview, and Lord Cecil grasped what he meant. " I see," he reflected. " He means to say that he and Cammarleigh have come to an arrange- ment, and that he is, so to speak, provided for. It's very decent of him." In order that there should be no further mis- understanding, Anthony mentioned casually that he had no sympathy with people who left the heir of a great name without money to keep it up, and that, as far as he was concerned, he was a richer man with his income than a duke would be with ten times the amount. "I can't understand why on earth Cammar- leigh doesn't own up," said Lord Cecil, in re- porting the interview to his wife later. "He's in every way a son to be proud of, and it isn't likely that a man of Cammarleigh's income can have arrived at his age without an ad- venture." " No men are horrid," said Lady Cecil. Lord Cecil treated the remark with the indif- ference with which men have treated it from time immemorial at any rate, after marriage. 320 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " He might at least confide in us. The boy is loyal to the place and the name. He had to watch his words in order to prevent himself from being carried away about the place. I was quite affected upon my soul I was." It was evident that Anthony's wits were not blunting. " We must see him through this election. If it'll suit you, we'll stay and work for him." " Supposing Cammarleigh leaves him all his private fortune ?" asked his wife. " Well, that's just it he isn't going to." " Who says so ? " Lord Cecil felt that he was probably a little optimistic. " Well, Anthony " He had been warmed by the interview with his imaginary nephew into using his Christian name. "Well, of course, I've only his word for it." " I should like to see it in black and white," said Lady Cecil. As the woman, she possessed the greater financial acuteness. " Well, at any rate, the more he's got, the less he'll want." " Members of Parliament are not paid yet, Cecil, and the income is hardly likely to be worth having when they are, except to those Labour people." " Yes, I don't suppose the country will have the justice to pay members according to their social position." "It would be only fair," assented his wife. LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 321 They had good reason to know what a great deal of money rich people need. Despite Lady Cecil's scepticism, she threw herself into the fray, and scoured the constituency with Lady Editha and Sybil. Frant was in town during this exciting period. He was to return to Cammarleigh for a short time prior to the wedding, which was to take place in November. Nothing showed Anthony's ability more than the election. For an actor he had quite a surprising amount of general information, and the fact that he could converse intelligently on general topics had always made him unpopular in the green-room. Still, he was perpetually being met with questions on sub- jects of which he was entirely ignorant. That he was profoundly at sea on most political problems gave him not the least misgiving as to his ulti- mately developing into a statesman of the first rank. Why should it have done ? At a crowded and noisy meeting his experiences in the melodra- matic houses of the East End proved to be of the greatest service. The fact that he had been an actor leaked out somehow, and on one occasion when he made a dramatic pause with folded arms he was told by a voice at the back of the hall that he was not playing Hamlet. " No, gentlemen," was his prompt reply ; "but I am down for a leading part." Which, recalled in the early hours of the next morn- ing, sounded a little tame, but was immensely effective at the time. He was pathetically im- plored to give a song and dance. Considering the stories that were abroad as to his parentage, y 322 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET there was extreme bad taste in the interrogatory : " Does your mother know you're out ? " and he could hardly duplicate the reply of the young aspirant to Parliamentary honours, who, on being asked the same question delivered the quick re- joinder, <l Yes, and to-morrow she'll know I'm in." He was luckily an Opposition candidate, and therefore he had only to attack and nothing to defend. The story of his saving Cammarleigh's life was of course used largely. Anthony, always with an eye to the gallery, racked his brain for a scheme by which he should perform some further deed of heroism and transform him- self into a local hero, but all the plans which he thought out involved too great an amount of risk to himself. His opponent was a candidate from the Central Organisation of his party, and there- fore started heavily handicapped. He entreated the electors to think imperially, but the patriotic palate was jaded with foreign stimulants, and craved for a cool and refreshing homebrew. He attempted to make considerable capital out of the fact that apparently Anthony's aspirations towards public life dated from the moment Cammarleigh was able to find him a seat. He was a young man positively gorged with Blue Books and statistics, and it certainly was rather galling to find himself opposed by that irresistible force, personality, which assefted itself at every turn, and seemed to give the most commonplace utterances or situ- ations an almost weird vitality. Strangely enough, Anthony's most pronounced success was with the agricultural labourer. His speech on Peasant Proprietorship sounded as logical as a simple addition sum, and seemed like a promise of the Garden of Eden. Everybody detected his likeness to Cammarleigh. None but a fool could have failed to see anything so obvious. There was quite a fair amount of bribery done where Anthony thought it safe. This was easy, considering that so many of the electors were tenants of Cammarleigh's. As the day of the polling approached, even Cammarleigh was carried away by the excitement. Anthony took very good care that the local Gazette should mention that it was obvious he had learned his politics from a first-rate authority, namely, Lord Cammarleigh. It is impossible to describe the effect of a piece of flattery like this on Cammarleigh, and Anthony followed it up by asking his advice on every possible occasion, and even at times following it. Before the day came the result was a fore- gone conclusion, and Anthony had had his final tussle with Cammarleigh. The family lawyer had drawn up the transfer of the money, but Anthony, true to his word, had handed the documents to Cammarleigh. " You shall give me these on my wedding morning." Cammarleigh was a little sorry for Anthony, especially as he was behaving so well. The idea of Sybil giving up a duke for an obscure member of Parliament was altogether too funny. Such things only happened in fairy tales. And so he told Anthony. 324 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET " But this is a fairy tale. Haven't you grasped that, Cammarleigh ? We must go straight on," he continued, " till the dream is accomplished. He who hesitates is lost, especially in dreamland. If I pause I shall find myself back in the little room in Pimlico." " You need never go back there," said Cam- marleigh, graciously. " I don't intend to," retorted Anthony, gaily. On the night of the election Anthony was escorted to the Abbey by a torchlight procession. " He's a picture, that he is," said the hostess of The Speckled Dragon as he passed. " Upon my word, it's quite a relief after all them stuffy old fogies in Parliament who do nothing but talk ! " " Just like you women," said her husband in reality equally under the spell of Anthony's glamour. " Always deceived by the outer man." " Well, it's the women that have won him the election." " It won't be long before he runs alone." Tolly, seated on the box, waved his hat grace- fully to little Miss Baker, standing on the balcony of her father's house. As he told Anthony, his flirtation with the little maid had been a small contribution to the campaign, but a contribution ungrudgingly given. As a matter of fact, it had been of considerable value ; for Mrs. Baker, being of a speculative and optimist turn of mind, had already seen the heir of Cammarleigh, true to his youthful attachment, leading her Clementina to the altar. Why not ? Stranger things have LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 325 happened, and Spain is a country in which castles of prodigious size and splendour are going rent free. Had the good lady only known the cool worldliness that lay beneath Tolly's Ganymede- like exterior her hair would have stood on end. Eton does not breed the primitive virtues. " When you are Lord Cammarleigh, Tolly," Anthony said, "I shall be a withered but picturesque Prime Minister ; but we shall always understand each other, and when I have completely ruined the Empire for we have so many empire-builders that it is as well to have an original ambition I will sit on the terraces of Cammarleigh and feed peacocks. That is the art which that creature with the beautiful name, Benjamin Disraeli, culti- vated to perfection. He fed peacocks and looked admiringly at their tails and that is the secret of success." " I will remember that," said Tolly, " and as I grow up try to find out what it means. I'm sure it must mean something by the way you say it." " Quite right, Tolly. Manner makes the wit." As Anthony watched the last red glow of the torches disappearing through the woods on their homeward journey, he murmured "And now for Sybil." Y 2 CHAPTER XXIX "WE must part," said Anthony. Sybil did not reply, and he led her towards the rose-garden. It was after dinner, and there was a beautiful moon. It was a perfect night for any one to lose their head on. The senses reeled at the liquid blue which floated everywhere and the wonderful perfumes which steamed up from the earth. Frant had arrived that afternoon, and all the way down from town he had been restless and agitated by the conflicting emotions roused by his desire for Mrs. Westerby, and his pledge to Sybil. The truth of the matter was that he was not altogether out of love with Sybil, but he was sufficiently occupied with Mrs. Westerby to be in a considerable state of uncertainty. Shortly before dinner Anthony had a mysterious and secret conversation with Mrs. Westerby. It is impossible to say what passed at that interview, but as she left him Mrs. Westerby said, with a certain triumphant exultation in her eyes " At last we act." "I am going to town to-morrow," Anthony said, as he and Sybil entered the rose-garden, "and we must part to-night, here amongst the LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 327 roses. We shall never meet again till after you are married which will be in about six weeks. You are quite decided on strawberry leaves, even although the early dew of feudalism has been drunk from them by the sun of modern democracy ? " " I should like to refuse them even now, but I can't I haven't the strength of mind." Anthony smiled curiously. He was not unsophisticated enough to have trusted to a woman's decision on such a matter. It was a case in which she must be decided for; and he led her to the sun-dial in the middle of the rose- garden, murmuring love passages rather as though he were on the stage and had an eye to his voice reaching the back of the gallery. " Don't speak so loudly," said Sybil, who had about as much real idea of giving up the Duke as she had of being married in her travelling-dress. Anthony led her to a particular spot which was, as it were, in the centre of the stage, and said " Sybil, I must say it I must say it before the moon in order that she may bear witness. I love you. Tell me that you love me. Say it, even if it sounds a little obvious." " You know I love you," said Sybil. Mrs. Westerby rose from her seat on the other side of the sun-dial steps and discreetly fled. The Duke, looking very pale and fish-like in the moonlight, but also very dignified, passed round to the other side and faced Sybil and 328 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Anthony. He looked at them for a moment without speaking, and then said quietly " I shall return to town to-morrow morning." He left them. There was a long pause, and the moonlight seemed to vibrate with excitement. " Sybil," said Anthony, in a low, tense voice, " you are saved." The poor child was thunderstruck. " It can't be real," she said. " It's some mistake." Anthony took her in his arms and comforted her. He pointed out how foolish it would be under the circumstances not to look on the bright side of the affair, and finally persuaded her that the best thing to do was to go to Lady Editha directly Frant had left the Abbey. Sybil fled to her room. Anthony murmured to Frant in the smoking- room that she had promised to marry him. " I thought it only fair to tell you," he said courteously. Lady Editha hardly knew what to say or do when the facts were put before her. What she feared most was the attitude of her family, and she was not a little astonished when Cammarleigh, with a gulp, said it was a very good thing. And Lord and Lady Cecil, after an interview between the former and his brother, in which Cammarleigh had been carefully coached by Anthony as to what he should say, promised to assist in smoothing the rough edges of the affair. " You see," said Anthony, the night before LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET 329 his wedding, as he sat and talked to Cammarleigh, " I told you it was a fairy story. There has never been anything like it, never." " Never," assented Cammarleigh. "After all, Cammarleigh, you are rather glad I am going to be your nephew. You know that I shall behave uncommonly well, that I shall always look after you, and that I shall never ask you for another penny." Cammarleigh looked genuinely pleased. They were in the room where they had had their first interview. "I feel mad with joy when I think that to-morrow she will be mine. I am drunk with love. She is like a pearl one white pearl set in brilliants. I believe, Cammarleigh, I was sent from Heaven to soften your heart. Everybody thinks that there is some mystery, and so every- body will come to the wedding." Cammarleigh was really perturbed at the idea of Anthony leaving his household. Now that they were to be related he was actually casting about in his mind how he could arrange for Anthony to manage his affairs without having him and Sybil too much on his hands. The wedding was an enormous success, judg- ing by the crowd. In order that there should be a unique gathering at his wedding, Anthony cir- culated a report that somebody who was connected with the mystery of his life was going to put in an appearance and make a scene. As soon as this became known there was a positive rush for tickets of invitation. On their way back from the church 330 LORD CAMMARLEIGH'S SECRET Anthony told Sybil the story of his influence over Cammarleigh, and Sybil was unable to repress an exclamation of genuine admiration when he had finished. Cammarleigh and Anthony had one last inter- view in the room in which hung the Japanese masks, and it was a fact, as Anthony pointed out, that they were shouting with laughter. Cammarleigh was happier than he had been for a long time. Anthony would not betray a relative by marriage. His secret was safe, safe. He grew almost hysterical with relief, and stood on the steps of the house in Grosvenor Square with tears in his eyes, smiling at the bride and bridegroom as they entered the carriage to drive to Charing Cross. Just as the horses were about to start, Anthony called out " Stop ! " and beckoned to Cammarleigh. Cammarleigh approached the door of the brougham, and Anthony, leaning forward, whispered in his ear " By the way, what is your secret ? " And the carriage dashed away. THE END PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 1' APR MAY f_ RECEIVE FEB 8 1994 JAN 3 Ah - JESSSSH REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 052 851 3