Ml BR c-> S! T» O f >■ fr» ^UIBRARYg? «^UIBRARY0/. ^SfOJITYJ-JO 5 ^ ^ ^cVOSANCELfjv ^0KALIF(%. ^ i % ^Aavaan-# ^0F-CALIF(%, ^awmih^ ^UIBRARY^ ,^EUNIVERS/a OS Cxz GO vvlOSANGELfj> 0^ ^OJIIVJHO^ clOSANCELfj> l^ ^AaVHaiH^ ^JTO-SOl^ %H3AINIHttV 3> ^lOSMGEUfo ^■IIBRARY^ ^UIBRARYQ^ %a3AINn-3WV >> ^KMITCHO^" ^fOJITCHO 5 ^ .inc.Aurnrv rvc.r/mcnn. nc.rAiicnn. it mi i- ^lOSANCElfj^ %I3AIN(HI\V *\ 3 — i ft d U-l <*J I/O O c TO/* *, 3-JO^ =0 ^lllBRARYQr ^OJIIVJ-JO^ ^OFCAIIFO^ ?? ■>t?Aa> »a Iff; FALSE CARDS. ^KJUJ- rr I *£ /^ FALSE CARDS. BY HAWLEY SMART, AUTHOR CF "BROKEN BONDS," "A RACE FOR A WIFE," "TWO KISSES," "BOUND TO WIN," "SUNSHINE AND SNOW," &C, &C. "Until you have radically cured yourself of this error, and redeemed you character for straightforwardness by a long course of intelligible play, I shall distrust you." — A Treatise on Slwrt Whist, NEW EDITION. LONDON: WARD, LOCK, & CO., WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. NEW YORK: BOND STREET. FALSE CARDS. CHAPTER I. THE ALDRINGHAM BENCH. pT is market-day in Aldringham. That thriving town, centre of a great agricultural district, is all alive. The well-to-do farmers of the neigh- bourhood pour in to see what may be stirring —to gossip, to cater, to hear whether wool may be still rising, or what change may have taken place in the price of corn. Genial and hearty are their greetings. Much badinage passes amongst them with regard to the week's doings in the hunting-field. Small holland bags are dragged from capacious pockets, and there is pouring of wheat from palm to palm, munching and muttering of "good!" "bold!" "bright!" &c, and "What may you be asking a quarter ? " Here a burly farmer inquires peevishly whether " out like the price of sheep was ever heard on ?" — there another shakes his head, and mutters mysteriously, " Pigs are rum 'uns ; they're down to nowt. You might as 'lieve give 'em away." At the fishmonger's the burly breeder of shorthorns and the country rector run across each other in pursuit of a bit of cod or a pair of soles for next day's dinner. The 2 False Cards. gunsmith is driving a brisk trade, and it would seem that cartridges are quite as much in demand as corn ; ior be it known that Aldringham is the centre of a very sporting district, and most of these jolly agriculturists are equally at home in the saddle or with the trigger — can negotiate an awkward double, or render good account of a wood- cock, with equal facility. The barbers' shops are having a busy time of it ; the bucolical chins of the small landholders poise themselves in mid-air, and offer the week's growth to the blade of the shearer, who lathers, mows, and mops with wondrous celerity and assiduity. The numerous booths about the spacious market-place are thronged with customers, while the vendors of quack medicines and the cheap-Jacks are respectively surrounded by attentive groups. One of these latter, indeed, has attracted a largish audience. It is a sharp November morning, and he proffers great-coats and other warm clothing to the public. He is a very gem of his kind, and keeps up an unceasing flow of patter, and a continual change of garment. " All right, you don't go for ease afore ornament, you don't — a nobleman like you must put in for appearances- something spicy and fashionable, that's your line. I have got 'em here all sorts and sizes — coats for coster- mongers and paletots for members of Parliament. Here you are," he continued, turning himself round, that his audience might have a back view of him — " look at it on all sides, warmth, respectability, and comfort — that's wot it is — and all for twelve-and-six ! It's clean giving it away, I am ! Don't nobody speak ? — there, take it for eleven shillings — what, you won't ? Ah ! it's fashion you want — better be dead than out of the fashion, says you, and right you are ! Now, then," he continued, throwing off the coat which had been the subject of his late laudation, and slipping into a more slangy garment of the same kind, " this is the article to fetch you ; there can't be no mistake about you now, you know. Look at me ! — you'd be puzzled to make out whether I was a nobleman on his way to the races, or the county member going to a ploughing-match. Ease and elegance — that's wot it is. Who said seventeen-and-six ? Take it at The Aldringham Bench. 3 fifteen, and I'll throw you an eye-glass in. Well, it's no use — I knows when I'm bound to sell. You were made for the coat, and the coat for you, sir. There, take it away at fourteen bob ; it'll be profit enough only to see you walk about in it." And as he concluded, the speaker whipped off the subject of his encomium, and threw it to a soft-looking, flashily-dressed man, who formed one of his audience. There was much grinnincr amongst the crowd, more especially when, after duly trying the coat on, the victim succumbed, and paid for it. Men of the vendor's profes- sion have eyes like hawks, and are quick at the reading of faces. They know if they can once induce any one of their hearers to try on one of the garments they display, that the selling bim one is very nearly certain and con- sequently often try a coup of this description. But now the attention of the throng is arrested by a small procession of the county police, who are escorting some two or three delinquents to hear their doom before the bench of magistrates at this time assembled. The magistrate's office in Aldringham is quite one of the popular entertainments on a market-day. The country people, more especially the women, take their seats there, and watch the proceedings with grave, stolid faces, and an interest almost incredible. They regard it as a species of dramatic entertainment, with the additional advantage that it is perfectly gratuitous. And they have some reason for doing so. Touches of pathos and scenes of humour are at times evolved from the somewhat hum- drum work of a magistrate's office, and by persistent attendance an occasional comedy or melodrama is arrived at. There is considerable excitement to-day, as it is whispered about that a sharper, who has practised only too successfully on the credulity of the town and neigh- bourhood, is about to be arraigned, and confronted with his victims. Popular opinion is divided as to how things will go with bim. While some contend that he has been so crafty in his duplicity that the law will prove powerless to touch him, others indignantly demand whether it was likely that the police would have inter- 4 False Cards. fered unless they had got a clear case ? But that it will be a cause of much interest is allowed on all hands. The body of the magistrate's office fills quickly. There is quite a buzz of conversation. Much laughter and giggling are called forth as it is whispered around how divers personages, well known to the crowd, have been taken in by the prisoner, and by what ingenious methods. Suddenly the inspector of police calls sternly for silence in the court, and the magistrates make their appearance, through the door of their private room. A grim, grizzled, severe-looking man takes the chair, and throws a keen, harsh look over the thronged benches as he does so. It is Sir John Collingham, Chairman of the Aldringham Bench ; a good man of business, but with little mercy for human infirmities in his hard, stern nature. One who holds that the peccant weaknesses of mankind are best held in check by sharp castigation at the outset ; that heavy stripes meted out for first offend- ing is the best remedy with which to counteract a ten- dency to wander a-down the flowery by-paths of vice. A just man, who will sift the evidence of crime with patience and impartiality ; but who, once convinced that the accusation is true, is swift and vengeful in his judgment. He carries much the same principles into his dealings in private life, and hates and persecutes those with whom he has quarrelled with an unforgiving fervour most edifying to witness. Next to him, on his right, is a tall, stout, pompous gentleman, who surveys the Court beningly through his double gold eye-glass. His patronizing smile seems calculated to assure lookers-on ; it seems to say, " Pray be easy in your minds. I have taken the business in hand. Is not that enough ?" And in his own heart Mr. Holbourne, the Aldringham banker, is most thoroughly convinced that it is. Mr. Holbourne is imbued with the belief that the whole prosperity of Aldringham is due to, and derived from, his residing and taking interest in the place. His name figures upon all committees for the promotion of either business or amusement. Mr. Hol- bourne attends them everyone with praiseworthy diligence — hems, haws, applauds gently, and surveys the members The Aldringham Bench. C beningly through the double gold eye-glass. Although he has never been known either as the originator or active conductor of reforms sanitory, schemes commercial, designs theatrical, or designs terpsichorean, yet Mr. Hol- bourne is quite convinced that none of these things would ever have been achieved in Aldringham but for himself. The town, he considers, owes him a great debt of gratitude, and England generally may be thankful to possess so energetic a citizen — a prosperous, well-to-do man, thoroughly wrapped up in the sense of his own importance, and who has never yet met with a reverse sufficient to shake the pedestal of self-esteem from which he looks blandly down upon his less-gifted and less- fortunate fellow-creatures. Two other magistrates com- plete the Bench upon this occasion, of whom it will suffice to say that one is of a vacillating turn of mind, and is painfully swayed by conflicting evidence ; while the fourth is a benevolent old clergyman, who seldom, from deafness, thoroughly comprehends the witnesses, and in his anxiety not to commit himself, generally leans to the merciful view of not committing the prisoner. Silence having been again proclaimed, a fair-haired, quietly-dressed man is placed in the dock, and looks in nowise abashed by his situation. If truth must be told, it is not quite the first time that Mr. Leonidas Lightfoot has occupied that position in a Court of Justice. He has a pale face, with a comical snub-nose, and a pair of twinkling gray eyes. He makes a graceful obeisance to the Bench, and then lounges easily over the rail in front of him. He listens attentively while the magistrate's clerk reads out the indictment — " How that he, Leonidas Lightfoot, has obtained various sums of money from the tradespeople of Aldringham, and the neighbouring inhabitants thereof, under fraudulent pretences," and declares himself " Not Guilty," when called upon to plead, with an air of easy assurance. " What is your occupation and place of residence ? " inquired Sir John Collingham of the prisoner, as the clerk finished. " A philanthropist," replied Mr. Lightfoot, quietly. "My object is the relief of the struggling and slightly- 6 False Cards. educated working-classes. My residence, where I may find employment to my hand. The profession, as your worships of course see, necessitates much wandering from place to place." " Are you accredited to any mission or society for that purpose ? " asked the chairman, sternly. " No ; I prosecute my work single-handed. To put ambitious youth in the way of a remunerative and honest livelihood, is the sole purpose of my existence." " Upon my life," retorted Sir John, sharply, " it strikes me you are one of the most impudent fellows ever brought before me." " To be persecuted and misunderstood, sir, has been ever the lot of advanced reformers," murmured the prisoner, sadly. "I tell you what," whispered the chairman to Mr. Holbourne, " the police have either made a mistake, or we have got hold of a very clever impostor. I should think the latter." " Quite so — quite so. I was just about to observe the same thing, Sir John." And Mr. Holbourne glanced indignantly through his eye-glasses, as much as to say that any attempt to take him in was a very hopeless affair indeed. " He said he was a victim of persecution, did he not?" inquired the deaf clergyman. " I am afraid the police have fallen into a grievous misconception," muttered the vacillating magistrate. " Call the first witness," said Sir John. A slouching young man was thereupon placed in the witness-box, and sworn. In answer to the questions put to him, it was elicited that he was a grocer's assistant in Aldringham ; that attracted by an advertisement in the Middlethorpe Gazette, he had answered it, and had enclosed five shillings worth of stamps, according to the terms of such advertisement ; that the advertiser stated that, in consideration of such sum, he would put him (the witness), if possessed of a capital of five pounds, in a business at which from thirty shillings to two pounds a week was easily made, and that he had not done so. The Aldringham Bench. 7 "You have heard what the witness has sworn," said the chairman. " Do you want to ask him any questions ? " " Only two, gentlemen," replied Mr. Lightfoot ; " but, before I do so, I request that the advertisement alluded to may be read in court." " Quite inadmissible — quite inadmissible ; unparalleled presumption ! " murmured Mr. Holbourne. " I opine he has a perfect right to have it done now, if he demands it," replied the Baronet, with a smile. " I have a copy of the paper here ; but the advertisement must be put in evidence some time, you know. The case, of course, may hinge pretty much upon the wording of it." " Certainly, Sir John, certainly. If you choose to waive the irregularity of the proceeding, I withdraw my objection." And Mr. Holbourne threw himself back in his chair, with the air of a man who had yielded an assured point of law out of deference to his colleagues. The clerk was accordingly desired to read the adver- tisement, which ran as follows : — "To the Ambitious and Indigent. To the Educated and Needy of both sexes. — The Advertiser has for years noticed that people of some slight education and small capital fail to raise their position in the world from two causes. Firstly, from not knowing in what direction to exercise their faculties ; secondly, from ignorance of the numberless opportunities that exist in this great commercial country of profitably starting themselves in business for a few pounds. The Advertiser has made it his special study to investigate those tangled paths to fortune that lie open to the small but enterprising capitalist. Numberless testimonials from individuals now wealthy, will attest that they owed their first success in life to the Advertiser's advice. To the sons and daughters of Aldringham and its vicinity, the Advertiser has only now to say that he can place any one of them in the way of a light, genteel business, that realises from thirty shillings to two pounds a-week, and requires a capital of only five pounds to commence with. The trade is new, and will, of course, be speedily overcrowded, there- fore early application is advisable. Enclose five shillings worth of stamps, as registry fee, and in proof of the genuineness of the applica- tion. Address, L. L. , Post-ofSce, Aldringham." " You, of course, admit this advertisement to be yours ? inquired Sir John. " Pardon me, I have been told that admission is always dangerous in a Court of Law," replied Mr. Ligh ot. 8 False Cards. " We will say, if you please, that I received a letter from the witness, in consequence of that advertisement. I wish to ask him whether he expected more than to be told how, upon an outlay of five pounds, he could earn from thirty shillings to two pounds a- week ? " " You hear the prisoner's question," said Sir John. u Be good enough to answer it." " Well, he's so far right — that's what I did expect ; but then," continued the witness, with a puzzled ex- pression, " I can't somehow manage what he told me to do." " I suppose you have not the five pounds ? " inquired Mr. Holbourne. " Oh ! yes, I've the five pounds right enough ; but then there's getting a place to put up the machine in. He said it was all simple enough, and it isn't — that's what I mean, and he's got my five shillings." " Excuse me, gentlemen," said Mr. Lightfoot, suavely, " but if you would allow me to ask the witness my second question, I think you will see at once that his own want of energy is the sole cause of his discontent." The chairman nodded assent. " Please read to the Court the letter you received in reply to your application ; or if you haven't it with you, state its contents." " Oh ! here's the letter, and anyone's welcome to it," said the witness, fumbling in his pockets. " There, perhaps you'd kindly read it, sir," he continued, pushing the paper across to the clerk of the court. " I'm not very good at pen work myself." The clerk took it, and read as follows : — " The variation of the weight of the body has been of late a subject of great interest to the advanced patho- logists who hold that the germ of many of the distempers so inimical to life may be detected in the deviations of human gravity. To meet the requirements of the age, and enable mankind to, in some measure, keep an eye upon the decrease or increase of flesh, which may be the indication of severe disorder in the system, there has come rapidly into vogue the Weighing-Machine. These health-regulating engines may be procured for from five The Aldringham Bench. 9 to ten pounds, and from statistics carefully collected from inquiry at all the principal railway stations where they are in work, yield to their proprietors a return of from six to seven shillings a day. Need I say more ? — buy a weighing-machine, and take the first step on the road to fortune." The court was convulsed. The bench, even to the deaf clergyman, could not restrain their laughter ; the latter laughed, after a very prevalent cause of human hilarity, to wit, because all around him laughed. Mr. Lightfoot and the witness alone appeared unmoved. And yet this can be hardly said of the latter, for although he showed no sign of mirth, he was evidently perturbed and haunted with a dim consciousness that he was in some sort an object of ridicule to his fellows. " Gentlemen," said Mr. Lightfoot, when the laughter had subsided, " I contend that every statement in that letter is a fact ; there is a weighing-machine at the station here — you can send to see if it is not so." " That's where it is," interrupted the victim ; " that's how's he's cheated me, your honours. There is a weighing- machine, and they wont have another." Here the inspector of police interposed, and informed the magistrates that the prisoner's statement was sub- stantially true as regarded the profits of the business, and that the railway company had received no less than forty-three applications for leave to set up weighing- machines at Aldringham in the course of the last week ; all the results of the prisoner's circular, for which the applicants had paid their five shillings apiece. " May I point out, gentlemen, that people are equally desirous of being weighed in other places as in Aldring- ham," remarked Mr. Lightfoot, as the inspector finished his story. " I gave my clients an idea quite worth what they paid for it. I cannot pretend to find them energy to put it into practice." " I suppose," said the chairman, turning to the clerk, " all the evidence is of a similar character." " Yes, Sir John, there are plenty more witnesses, but their evidence is merely a repetition of what yon have heard." io Fatse Cards. "I think," said the chairman to his brother magis- trates, " we had better consult about this case before we go any further with it. And the bench accordingly with- drew into their private room. " A most remarkable case of fraud," said Mr. Holbourne, as the door closed. " No doubt about that," said Sir John ; " but I don't think we can do anything with him. He has just managed to keep clear of the law. He's a most impu- dent scamp ; but, nevertheless, he has acted in accordance with the terms of his advertisement." " Precisely— just so," observed Mr. Holbourne. "It was the very remark I was about to make, Sir John. Yes ! we can do nothing with him." Of course the deaf gentleman was in favour of an acquittal, and the vacillating one not likely to be in opposition to his three colleagues, so that their consulta- tion was speedily over, and they returned into court. Silence was again proclaimed, and then the chairman spoke. " We have heard the evidence against you, Leonidas Lightfoot, together with your ingenious comments upon it. My brother magistrates and myself regret to say, that although we have not the slightest doubt of your being one of those vultures of society who live upon the credulity of their fellow-men, that we have no option but to discharge you. A long course of similar imposi- tion has probably rendered you an adept in keeping just within the pale of the law." " Persecution, gentlemen, has ever been the lot of " " Silence ! " said Sir John sharply. " No more of your cant, sir. That you gain your living by fraudulent representations we have no moral doubt. We can only trust that your narrow escape to-day may deter you from such practices in this neighbourhood for the future. You are discharged." The prisoner left the dock, but was apparently in no hurry to leave the court. He remained listening most attentively to the proceedings until the adjournment, when he lounged leisurely away at the heels of the police. The Aldringharh Bench, II Mr. Lightfoot was a man of much forethought, and he had known the crowd attempt to rectify the miscarriage of justice before now, especially in delicate cases like h*s own. " Very curious case indeed," said Mr. Holbourne, as he narrated the circumstances to a friend later in the day, "but I saw at once we couldn't touch him — clever scoundrel — and Collingham quite agreed with me. Man of great intelligence, Sir John." CHAPTER II. MARION LANGWORTHY. HE banker occupied a large old-fashioned house that opened on to one of the quieter streets of Aldringham. One of those queer roomy old houses that one meets with occasionally in the country towns of England. The dining-room, though rather low in pitch, was large and panelled with oak. You descended two steps to it, which of course led strangers at times to make a much more hurried than graceful entrance. In short, you were always going up or down two or three steps, and even those affiliated to the mansion would have hardly ventured about it in the dark. It was full of quaint corners and odd passages — an old house, in short, that had been much built on to, without reference to architects. The successive pro- prietors of days gone by had apparently thrown out a room here and a couple there, with the assistance of an Aldringham bricklayer, as exigency and fancy dictated. The result of course being a rambling house, that pos- sessed far more space than it was possible to utilize, and a speciality for drafts that it was impossible to control. At the back ran a large old-fashioned garden — one of those gardens rarely seen now-a-days — a creation of an age that dreamt not of <( bedding out plants," composed of untrimmed evergreens, wandering paths, rustic summer-houses, very unlike the neat heather-roofed Marion Langworthy, 13 erections of the present, and garnished with ail sorts of flowers, that one seldom comes across in these times. Stocks, cabbage roses, sweet peas, larkspur, pinks, honey- suckle, &c, grew there in wild profusion. One felt that earwigs, caterpillar?, and other creeping things must also be wandering about those realms in equal profusion, and that to sit down in one of those rather mildewed arbours would certainly involve the horrible sensation of something crawling down the back of one's neck. Underneath the windows of the drawing-room, things certainly wore a different aspect. There the taste of Mr. Holbourne's niece and daughter had been exercised. A trim croquet-lawn ran almost up to the walls, and was surrounded by gaily-dressed beds, the decking of which had been undertaken on the most approved principles of modern horticulture. But the time of croquet and flowers has departed — however gay that parterre may once have been, it looks but desolate now, with its banked-up beds. The hoops have been withdrawn from the sward, which is now disfigured with worm casts ; the leaves come fluttering down, and there is no denying that the view from Mr. Holbourne's drawing-room is depressing this November day. And so, to judge by her countenance, thinks appa- rently a young lady who, with her hands laced behind her, is looking moodily out at the prospect. She is not exactly pretty, and yet Marion Langworthy never lacks partners nor admirers when she mixes in society. We see her, perhaps, at her very worst, as she stares vacantly into the garden. Hair of that dead ashen blonde, light blue eyes, thin lips, a resolute, somewhat square chin, and very slightly marked eyebrows, hardly give one the idea of beauty — still less so when one sees the face in perfect repose, as one does at this moment ; there is a hardness about the lines, if one may so express it, that is rather repellent. One could fancy this woman cruel and merci- less on occasion. Of medium height and very neat figure, there is a careless grace in her present attitude, albeit the pose is one by no means calculated to display a woman to advantage. She taps with her foot im- patiently on the floor, exposing a wry well-turned ankle 14 False Cards. as she does so. Miss Langworthy is quite aware that her extremities are her strong point, although it is more from habit than design that she allows a glimpse of her little foot on this occasion. " I wonder whether Reginald means coming down for this ball next week ? What should you think, Grace ? " observes Miss Langworthy at last, without turning her head. "Really, my dear Marion, if you don't know, how should I ? Are you not the keeper of his heart, and sharer of his sorrows and aspirations ? Brothers don't trouble sisters much with their confidence under such circumstances." The speaker, a tall, handsome girl, was buried in the depths of a huge old-fashioned arm-chair, and broke off from the book she was absorbed in to answer her cousin's question. " And Reginald don't trouble himself any more, as far as I am concerned, either," retorted Miss Langworthy, with some asperity, as she turned sharply round. "I don't expect him to be writing me quires of maudlin sentiment — that is not my disposition any more than it is his ; I don't want him to tell me he loves me by every post; he has told me so once, and asked me to marry him, which should content any reasonable woman — but I do expect him to answer my letters." Grace Holbourne stared. Her brother's engagement to Marion had long been a mystery to her. A more prosaic pair of lovers surely never existed, Grace thought. They were both young ; her cousin was only twenty-two, her brother but a year older ; and yet, from the calmness of their greeting, and their perfectly undemonstrative behaviour to each other, no one could have imagined that any feeling warmer than pure cousinship existed between them. Mr. Holbourne, indeed, was perfectly ignorant of their engagement, although it was now four years since they had plighted their troth. " Well, it's rude of him, to say the least of it," said Grace, laughing ; but Regi always was a woefully bad correspondent." " He will have to find a more satisfactory excuse than Marion Langtvorthy. 15 that," replied Miss Langworthy, " or else his next visit to Aldringham will prove far from pleasant to him." It did occur to Grace that under those circumstances it would be at her brother's discretion as to how long he should stay, and still more so when he should return. But Miss Langworthy had much confidence in her own attractions, and considerable faith in the sway she held over her lover, and Grace's view of the case never pre- sented itself to her mind. Although the foregoing conversation would lead to the belief that Marion was a girl who could not exercise much influence over men, such was far from being the case. If she was not pretty, she was, at all events, nice- looking. When her face was lit up and animated, she had more than once been pronounced fair to gaze upon. She had plenty to say for herself, was always dressed in extremely good taste, danced well, and was gifted with great self-possession. She had wonderful tact in drawing people out, in making them show the very best of them- selves. She was a most thorough coquette, and a perfect mistress of all the rules of the science. No girl made more of such weapons as lay within her reach than did Marion Langworthy. No girl, perhaps, was ever more cold-blooded in the use of them. Her feelings were thoroughly well-tutored, and though, even as an en- gaged young lady, she manifested not the slightest objection to embark in any amount of flirtation, yet her fianci might have rested perfectly easy upon that score. Her engagement with Reginald Holbourne had hap- pened in this wise. Four years previously Miss Lang- worthy had come upon a visit to her uncle at Aldringham. Reginald was home from Oxford, and only too delighted to become the esquire of his lively cousin. His devotion amused her, and she led him on with sweetest smiles, and other agaceries, until he got really infatuated about her. Miss Langworthy at that time lacked the experience she at present possessed. She was, moreover, carried away in some measure by the passion she had simulated. Although not really in love with her cousin, yet this flirtation had become so sweet to her that when, one night, the tide of feeling overflowed its banks, and Regi- 1 6 False Cards. nald cold his love with boyish eagerness, and asked her to be his, Miss Langworthy lost her head and assented. Reflection came upon the morrow, and then Marion admitted to herself that this was by no means the match she aspired to. But the taking back her plighted troth of the night before was hardly feasible, and, moreover, she could not quite make up her mind to dispel so soon the sunny dream that she was wrapped in. Her feelings were to some extent interested. In fact, she was about as nearly in love as women of Marion's type ever fall. She insisted that their engagement should be kept a secret for the present, most thoroughly enjoyed the remainder of her visit, and left Aldringham Reginald Holbourne's promised bride. At this time Miss Langworthy was the only child of a merchant reputed wealthy. Her father kept a very good house, and entertained largely, in the town of Hull. Marion was looked upon as a catch, a girl who at her father's death would inherit many thousands, and she was not at all the young lady to overlook this fact in her matrimonial calculations. Miss Langworthy aspired to position. She wished to marry into the county families. As for her engagement to her cousin, that was, of course, all nonsense. It was rather nice getting those passionate, boyish letters at present, but, of course, all that would have to be put a stop to whenever anything eligible should turn up. " In the meantime it is very pleasant, and good for him too, poor boy," thought Miss Lang- worthy. " It keeps him out of mischief! " And with this salve to her conscience, Marion still adhered to her troth. But an epidemic swept the town of Hull, and amongst those stricken were Marion's parents. She nursed them with exemplary patience and assiduity, but their kismet was written, and neither their daughter's care nor atten- tion could turn the destroyer from his course. Never had Marion shown higher qualities than she did at this crisis of her life. She was a devoted nurse. Help, of course, she was obliged to call in; but as far as her strength lay, she permitted no one to usurp her place. Cool, calm, and with steady nerves, the doctors freely admitted her value in the sick-room. When urged to Marion Langworthy. J* spare herself in some measure, she answered, "I ?m strong — I husband my strength carefully, because i know I shall want it all. But while it lasts my duty is to my parents." When all was over, she, as might have been expected, to some extent broke down herself. She was ill for some weeks, and then her uncle Holbourne took her back to Aldringham for change of air. On looking into the affairs of the deceased Mr. Lang- worthy, it was found that his estate would not very much more than cover his liabilities. That Marion, far from being an heiress, was the inheritor of not quite two thousand pounds. To a girl with Marion's am- bition, this change in her worldly position was a bitter disappointment. But one thing appeared clear to her mind — to wit, that there must be no doubt about her engagement with her cousin now. She had been at Aldringham some three weeks, and was sitting very pale and sad in her black draperies one afternoon, when, without any warning, her lover stood suddenly before her. Her nerves had been rather shaken by her illness, and the sad events that had preceeded it. She could not refrain from a slight cry, and hysterical symptoms of agitation, at his abrupt appearance. No finesse she could have used would have answered her purpose so well. Nature interposed, and played her rule for her. In an instant Reginald Melbourne's arm was round her, and his kisses fell warm upon her cheek. " My darling Marion," he said, " I have been so grieved at all your trouble, so wretched because I was unable to console you in 3^our affliction. It has been bitter anguish to me, dearest, that I might not share this sorrow with you. But you insisted that our engagement should be kept a secret, and so I could not assert my claim to be with you in your agony." Little given was Marion Langworthy to tears or un- controlled emotion, -but she was sobbing on her lover's breast in veritable earnest now. At last she raised her head, and looking up at him through her tears, said softly, "And I was right, Reginald; nobody knows anything about it now but our two selves. We shall have no 1 8 False bards. awkward explanations to give to any one. We must learn to forget the past, dearest, and look upon it as a pleasant dream of what might have been." "Good Heavens! Marion, what can you mean?" "Mean," she returned sadly, with her clasped hands resting on his shoulder — " that I restore you your troth — that all must be over between us — that henceforth we must be cousins to each other, and nothing more." " And why ? What have I done ? If you no longer loved me, you would hardly speak to me as you do now ! " exclaimed her lover, passionately. " Sit down here, Reginald, and listen to me. I may be younger than you according to actual years, but a girl of nineteen is much older than a man of twenty. When I promised myself to you, I believed I should be rich — that I should not come to }'ou empty-handed. All that is changed — I have next to nothing now — I am an abso- lute pauper." " My dearest," replied Reginald, in deep, earnest tones, " you don't suppose I thought of your money when I asked you to marry me, do you ? " " No ; it would be a sad moment for me indeed had I cause to think I had given my heart to one who had wooed me on that account. I think," she said, tearfully, " I know you better than that. Hush ! — don't interrupt me," and Marion put her hand on his impatient lips. " But," she continued, " you have your way to make in the world. Do you think that I would be the drag upon you that I must now necessarily become ? All must be over between us. You will soon, in the work that your career entails on you, forget this episode of your life. For me — well, it will not come quite so easy. We poor women, you see, have nothing to take us out of our- selves, as you have ; but I also in time shall perhaps teach myself to forget what has passed." To Reginald Holbourne, still passionately in love, what doubt could there be that his betrothed was noblest among women ? He protested against her decision ; he vowed that, if he had no longer the hope of calling her his to look forward to, that it mattered little what be- came of him — that the beacon of his life was extinguished Marion Langworthy. 19 —that he had henceforth no object to work for ; and at last Marion yielded to his entreaties, smiled up in his face, and told him that he was a foolish boy ; but that, if he really cared enough about her to take a pennyless bride, she had no longer strength of mind to say him nay. " It's wrong, Reginald, I know, but I am weak and shaken by my illness, or I think I should have had the courage to decide differently ; but I have lost so much lately " — and here Marion's voice faltered — "that I haven't courage to throw away the sole thing left me — your affection. You will never upbraid me for this decision, will you ? Think again, and if you have a doubt " But here Reginald stopped all further argument by folding her in his arms, and, as he expressed it, kissing away her scepticism. " Now let me go, Regi. You have made me very happy, and I want to be alone, and think. Our engage- ment had best continue a secret for the present, recollect. It looks afar off, but we are young, and I believe in you," — with which Miss Langworthy slipped from her lover's embrace, and left the room. It is now some three years ago since this scene was enacted in the banker's drawing-room at Aldringham — since Reginald Holbourne rushed from the house in tumultuous ecstasy, to sober himself with a long stretch over the surrounding down country — since Miss Lang- worthy, after gazing for some time into the fire in the quiet seclusion of her own chamber, murmured — " Yes, I have rivetted his fetters, at all events. He must wear my chains now, till it should either suit me to release him, or till we are bound to each other for life." Mr. Holbourne was a widower — his daughter a girl at school when Marion took up her abode under his roof. At first her gentleness and anxiety to keep herself in the background were quite distressing to her uncle. She positively declined to become the mistress of the house, and the servants were full of encomiums and pity for the poor broken-spirited young lady, who had undergone so much trouble and misfortune ; but before six months were over, the domestics became conscious of the work- 20 False Cards, ing of an occult influence in the house that rather puzzled them ; and it was not long before, at a prolonged session in the servants' hall, it was generally voted that the quiet, broken-spirited young lady was the primary cause thereof. "Yes, Mrs. Meadows," said the butler one evening, "I have been here six years, and I received warning tG-'iay. Master says he's generally dissatisfied, and found bsjjt with half a score of things he never took notice of before. I say nothing, ma'am, but your turn will come next ; and mark me, Miss Langworthy's at the bottom of it." " I don't know what to think," replied the house- keeper. "She rarely finds fault with anything, and never, to do her justice, without cause, and she's as quiet and mild-spoken a young lady as needs be ; but there's no denying master's changed since she came." " Of course he is ! She can twist him round her little finger; and ^f she don't say nothing to us she does to him. I've watched her of late, and just got to know a certain look of hers when things don't go to her liking. When I see that, I know it'll be unpleasant for some one before twenty-four hours are over." The butler was perfectly right. Before another three months had elapsed Mrs. Meadows had also received her conge, and by the end of the year Marion was thoroughly established as mistress of her uncle's house. She speedily acquired great influence over him. The banker's grand- iose manner imposed not a whit upon his sharp-witted niece ; she thoroughly read the weak, vain character that lay underneath the pompous, patronizing manner. The keynote to the man's character was his inordinate vanity, and Marion played upon it as easily and brilliantly as an experienced musician does upon the instrument that he most favours. CHAPTER III. FAST FRIENDS. DULL November day in London — one of those days that have a suspicion of rain about them — a dubious, misty day. Much uncertainty evident in the mind of the public as to whether an umbrella should be unfurled or not, and the advocates of either policy bearing about equal proportions. Ladies trot about rather high-kilted ; men who have passed the age of appearances turn up their trousers and stride through, the mud ; fatuous youth, clinging to patent- leathers till the first snow, gazes helplessly and imbecilely at the sea of mud that lies between the kerb-stones, and recoils appalled from the crossings, which present an ap- pearance but a few shades better. More advanced swell- dom betakes itself to cabs, and utterly declines to place a boot upon the greasy pavement. A kind of day that an umbrella-maker might exult in, always excepting that cynical member of the guild mentioned in Lacon, who, even in such prosperous times, was haunted with the idea " that there was nothing doing in parasols." Miss Langworthy at Aldringham, gazing gloomily out at the weather, and speculating upon the advent of her fiancd for the ball, has her prototype in London. Staring vacantly out of a first floor in Baker Street, puffing savagely at a short pipe, his hands buried in his pockets, stands Reginald Holbournc, a tall, good-looking. 22 False Varcfs, fair-haired young man, whose countenance at the present moment betokens vacillation and uncertainty. " What beastly weather ! " he mutters. " It's all bosh ! — I can't go down to Aldringham. The ball, too, is a regular humdrum affair, and Marion will get on well enough without me. We have been engaged so long now," he muses, with a bitter smile, " that we are quite like an old married couple, regarding the easy way in which we take things. We've done with our raptures and embraces some time back, and our kiss is no more emotional than if we were brother and sister." Baker Street is not a fashionable neighbourhood, but it is highly respectable, and much affected by people with limited means. It has its advantages. You are close to the Regent's Park, if you desire fresh air ; undue exhilaration of spirits can always be kept in subjection by a visit to Madame Tussaud's ; a turn round the Baker Street Bazaar is calculated to produce serious reflection, and also, when finances are straitened, to give an idea of the possession of wealth, as one contemplates the numberless articles that one might become the pos- sessor of for a shilling. You feel more respect for the shillings in your pocket as you leave it and meditate upon how many things were within your compass had you chosen to have been extravagant. Besides, it is close to the underground railway, and when your busi- ness takes you daily to the City, that is a consideration. Now, Reginald Holbourne was at present in a large finan- cial house in the neighbourhood of Cannon Street, and this last advantage had principally decided him upon taking up his abode in this locality. Still gazing out of the window, still undecided about whether he shall go to Aldringham or not, still mutter- ing disparaging remarks on the weather and emitting heavy clouds of smoke from under his moustache, he is suddenly roused from his musing by the quick rattle of a hansom, which pulls up with a jerk at his door. Throw- ing up the window, he cranes out to see who the new- comer may be, but is only in time to see a man dash across the pavement : a proceeding followed by a heavy peal on the bell. A few seconds' delay, a quick step " n Fast Fr fends. 23 the stairs, a sharp authoritative knock, and his door is thrown open, and a slight, dark man, some two or three years older than himself, enters tumultuously. " Halloa ! Regi," exclaims the new-comer ; " all in the downs ? How are you ? I havent't seen you this long while — but we've no time to spare. Throw some things into a portmanteau, and come away to Aldringham. Aldringham — bless it ! — is about to be festive ! Aldring- gham, relieved from its normal dullness, I pine to see. Aldringham is going to dance ; and heaven forfend that I should not endeavour to support Aldringham in such wild revelry ! " " You go to Aldringham ? " exclaimed Holbourne, with open-eyed astonishment. "Why not ? My respected progenitor, as all Aldring- ham are doubtless aware, has duly cursed and discarded me ; but ' a man's a man for a' that.' I don't suppose it will be much shock to Sir John — slight disappoint- ment, perhaps — to see that I have still decent clothes to my back. But, although I have no wish to intrude upon my affectionate father, a public assembly is public ground, and if he can't breathe the same air as his son for two or three hours, he can order his carriage — I shall dance my gayest, whatever betide. But there's no time to be lost — look alive, and bundle up your traps ! " Reckless Charlie Collingham had turned the scale, and within an hour the two friends were speeding through the darkness on their way to Aldringham. What had been the cause of such a bitter quarrel between Sir John and his younger son, had been a subject that, five years ago, had perplexed the Aldring- ham neighbourhood terribly. Wild, Charlie Collingham had always been, and little amenable to authority from his youth upwards ; but there had never been rumour of misdemeanour so heinous as to warrant the extreme step his father had at last taken regarding him. He had cast him off utterly, and forbidden him his house. The two kept their own counsel, and the neighbourhood was no wiser than it was upon the first discovery of the rupture. How Charlie Collingham lived was a mystery to most of his former acquaintances) but then there was no gain 2\ false Cards. saying that something or somebody had waxed propitious, and provided him with ways and means. You saw him about town constantly, always well-dressed, and with an easy smile on his countenance. Now strolling in the park, now assisting at a "first night" — now at Lady Dumdrum's crush. You ran against him in club smoking- rooms, at the Royal Academy, at Greenwich dinners of the theatrical type. He had been seen at a Communist meeting on Clerkenwell Green on the Sunday, and noticed on a drag at Hampton on the Cup-day in the same week. Everybody seemed to know him ; and he seemed, moreover, to be on familiar terms with a large circle of mysterious acquaintances, whose pursuits or status were not understanded of society. Conversation which had been brisk enough at starting, had died out between them, and the two young men smoked on in silence. Suddenly Collingham asked, abruptly : " Do you ever see anything of my brother down there ? " " Well, not a great deal. We see him occasionally ; but I don't think he affects Aldringham much." " He'll be there to-night, I suppose ? " " Yes, I should think so. You and he don't hit it off very well — do you ? " " Pooh ! my dear fellow, a younger son never quite gets on with the heir to the property ; but Robert and I don't pull amiss. We haven't met for over three years, and we never write, so that we must be on tolerable terms." " One way of looking at it," laughed Holbourne ; " but you might make the same observations relative to your father." " Hold your tongue, Reginald," said the other curtly, " and don't talk about what you don't understand. That has passed between me and my father that is not likely to be soon expunged from our memories. I can only say, if it all had to be done again, I should act in the same way." How far Charlie Collingham is justified in this asser- tion, we shall see further on, when the history of that quarrel comes to be related. As a rule, we are more apt Fast Friends. 25 to take