THE WILD WIDOW
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 By 
 GERTIE DE S. WENTWORTH-JAMES 
 
 NEW YORK 
 EMPIRE BOOK COMPANY 
 
 Publishers
 
 Copyright, i9o8, by Authors and Newspapers Association 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ONE fresh April afternoon two women entered Hum- 
 peldeye's in search of tea. 
 
 One of them was clothed in costly attire and looked 
 shabby; the other was dressed in one-and-eleven-three 
 materials and looked smart quite smart. 
 
 " Th there doesn't appear to be a table let's go 
 on to Daridges'," murmured the unsmart woman 
 vaguely and helplessly. 
 
 But her companion paid no heed to this suggestion. 
 She just stepped forward, trailed her one-and-eleven- 
 three draperies over the thick spongy carpet and 
 looked every occupant of every table full in the face. 
 
 Midway up the second room she halted in front of 
 two persons of the type inoffensive and sex feminine. 
 
 They had evidently come up from the suburbs and 
 intended to absorb every possibility which a two-shilling 
 tea might hold. 
 
 But Katherine Orlitson intended differently. 
 
 She glanced deferentially at their half-empty cups, 
 still more deferentially at their warm faces, and then 
 turned to her companion. 
 
 2138711 *
 
 6 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " These ladies will have finished in a minute, I can 
 see," she said, " so let's wait here. We're not unduly 
 blocking the gangway oh, please, please don't hurry 
 and it's always worth while oh, have you really fin- 
 ished? Are you quite sure? I hope we didn't hurry 
 you ? thanks so much ! " 
 
 The flushed ladies who had been reckoning that, 
 with the addition of hot water, the small teapot could 
 be relied upon to yield at least four more cups of tea 
 murmured that they had finished long ago, and after 
 casting one yearning glance at the remaining cakes, 
 which might have been demolished to the last crumb 
 without extra charge, scuttled nervously away. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson sat down sinuously and stuck out her 
 definite chin. 
 
 " You're a bewildering person, Katherine, with a mar- 
 vellous faculty for getting what you want," ejaculated 
 the expensively clothed friend (Lady Chesham by 
 name " Mrs. Brown," " Robinson," or " Price " by 
 nature). 
 
 Katherine pushed back her long veil and laughed 
 just as loudly as it gave her pleasure to laugh for 
 although her simple brown frock was of a cheap variety 
 she never lowered her tones to a Cathedral whisper when 
 chatting in public restaurants. 
 
 " Getting what I want ! " she repeated in a curiously 
 deep, full voice which, before her marriage, had been 
 marvellously successful in penetrating to the very back 
 rows of provincial galleries. " If you only knew, Eve- 
 lyn, how I've never got what I want, and how every
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 7 
 
 minute I'm farther away from getting what I want, and 
 how soon I I oh, yes, tea tea for two! Cakes? 
 I suppose so one mustn't come here without eating 
 cakes, must one? and dry biscuits very strong tea 
 for me, please and er what was I saying? " 
 
 " You were saying how you never got what you 
 want." Lady Chesham smiled. 
 
 " Neither do I, except in small silly things which don't 
 matter. I only ran up to town to-day to see if I could 
 find some job absolutely a job, Evelyn that would 
 get me out of my present slough! But no one seems 
 keen on me and my marked abilities ! " 
 
 " My dear, I'm very sorry to hear this. I didn't 
 know anything you see, I've seen so little of you since 
 your marriage," replied Lady Chesham limply. 
 
 " Of course you haven't. I began to keep out of 
 everybody's way directly my few wedding gowns wore 
 out and directly I found I'd married unsatisfactorily ! " 
 
 " My dear! " There was the British-matron note in 
 Evelyn Chesham's voice that note which is in itself 
 a sermon, preaching loyalty to the man who is taken 
 for better for worse, muteness concerning his faults, 
 fearless upholding of his hidden virtues, and a good 
 many other uncomfortable, unpractiseable theories. 
 
 " Well, I have married unsatisfactorily, Evelyn, so 
 do bring those nice eyebrows down to their normal level, 
 and stop thinking you ought to feel shocked. Roger 
 is nice distinctly nice his anecdotes are most amus- 
 ing, his theories most just and sound, his affection quite 
 pretty, and his gentleness delightful. I am fond of
 
 8 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 him extremely fond but all the same he has made 
 me what I am a failure! " 
 
 " A failure do put some hot water in the pot, Kath- 
 erine; the tea will be undrinkable! How can you be a 
 failure wh when at twenty-eight you don't show the 
 faintest indication of increasing hips or expanding 
 waist? That figure alone ought to make you a happy 
 woman ! A failure ! " 
 
 " Yes, Eve, I am a failure because I read this sen- 
 timent somewhere every woman who marries unsatis- 
 factorily is a failure. She may make a big niche for 
 herself in drama, literature, music ; may be a social suc- 
 cess ; may look well and dress well ; but if the legally- 
 attached man doesn't arouse the financial envy of other 
 women, she is a failure ! Roger, who won't earn money 
 and won't shave, couldn't arouse the envy of other 
 women! Why, he is so indolent and unstrenuous that 
 he has even grown a beard and whiskers ! " 
 
 Lady Chesham looked bewildered, and before the sen- 
 tence was half completed had ceased attempting to 
 follow its bye-wanderings. But the main facts she un- 
 derstood. 
 
 Katherine Orlitson formerly Katherine Benstead, a 
 parentless, red-haired pupil teacher who had run away 
 from Madame Grenean's select academy in order to join 
 a provincial touring company was hard up, dissatis- 
 fied with her husband and perhaps here was a faint 
 chance she might want to borrow money ! 
 
 Lady Chesham's purse-strings suddenly tied them- 
 selves up in ten Gordian knots.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 9 
 
 " Is your husband good-looking? I've never seen 
 him, you know," she remarked by way of dragging the 
 conversation away from financial quicksands. 
 
 " Of course you haven't. No one's ever seen Roger. 
 I didn't have the opportunity of displaying him when 
 his clothes were new, and now his coats have become re- 
 duced in number and his trousers are fringed at the hem, 
 I keep him out of sight. Yes, he's not bad looking in 
 
 a pard-like sort of way. Nice hands, and " Here 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson paused to shoot an innocent glance of 
 noncomprehension at some seatless new-comer who was 
 furtively eyeing the table that had been occupied for 
 more than a considerable period. She then turned an 
 insolent thin shoulder in his direction and left the sen- 
 tence unfinished. 
 
 " You're not living in town now ? " was Lady Ches- 
 ham's next query. She hoped they weren't. 
 
 " Heavens ! No ! Not in any town ! We're re- 
 trenching in a three-roomed furnished cottage built on 
 a marsh in the wilds of a gott-verlassen hole called Seed- 
 lingditch. We have to fetch letters from the Post Of- 
 fice if we want to get them more than once a day, live 
 on tinned salmon, and find amusement in wondering 
 what a human being would be like if he or she ever 
 chanced to be dropped down by a balloon. We pay 
 seven-and-sixpence a week for these luxuries and bathe 
 in a rain tank in the back yard. I clean the mansion and 
 cook, while Roger lies in bed, reads back numbers, and 
 smokes. We've been there a week, and haven't yet seen 
 any living creature except an idiot pedlar, ten rats, two 
 frogs, a deaf postman, and the tadpoles in the rain
 
 10 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 tank. Select and not overcrowded! Now shall we 
 go?" 
 
 Lady Chesham assented that they would go after de- 
 cisively producing one florin to show that no other 
 would be forthcoming from her Gordian-knotted purse. 
 
 " Don't be silly. I'll pay. I suggested this place, 
 though I never knew twelve months would have devel- 
 oped it into a carpeted ABC! In Paris it manages 
 to keep all right, but ugh! what can you expect 
 when tubes go direct from Hammersmith to Down 
 Street?" 
 
 And Lady Chesham's demur was so well bred as to be 
 almost soundless. 
 
 If dear hard up Katherine insisted upon paying, 
 she must do so, that's all ! 
 
 "What time does your train start? You are going 
 back to-night, aren't you ? " she enquired as they stepped 
 out into the London season's sunshine, which is so un- 
 kind to one-and-eleven-three materials. 
 
 " Oh, yes. I'm going back to the moated mud heap ! 
 The train starts at six forty-five." 
 
 " You've got over an hour and a half yet. Come back 
 to the hotel with me we've got a residential suite at 
 the St. Monarch's, you know and let's go on talk- 
 ing." Lady Chesham reckoned that with tea just con- 
 cluded and the train starting at quarter to seven this 
 suggestion involved no hospitable liability as regards 
 meals. 
 
 " I will gladly. I like talking to anyone who isn't 
 a rat, frog, tadpole, idiot pedlar, deaf postman, or pipe-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 11 
 
 smoking husband and to have a clever, congenial, un- 
 derstanding companion is a joy!" Katherine knew 
 quite well that Evelyn Chesham didn't possess any of 
 these three last-named attributes, but titled friends are 
 always likely to come in usefully hence the wisdom of 
 three lies. 
 
 Twenty minutes later they reached a luxurious hotel 
 private drawing-room, whose hotelishness was not dis- 
 turbed by a single intimate photograph, pet shabby 
 cushion, or much-read favourite book, and for some 
 time the conversation turned on the doings of long-ago 
 school-day friends. 
 
 " And how is that rubber-faced girl Mary Lau- 
 rence whose manners were haughty on account of a 
 prospective fortune to be secured on the prospective 
 death of an actual grandfather ? " 
 
 " Oh, I saw her a few days ago. The grandfather 
 is dead and has left the fortune to a hospital ! " 
 
 " Poor Mary ! " There was true sympathy in Kath- 
 erine's thrilling voice. " What a horrible sell ! Hasn't 
 she got anything ? " 
 
 "The details of a roulette system, and 3000 to 
 work it with. But she's opened a milliner's in Bond 
 Street with the 3000 " 
 
 "And the roulette system?" 
 
 " Oh, she doesn't bother about that. She showed it 
 to me it is absurdly simple, and if one didn't know 
 such things always failed, really seems the sort of trick 
 to make a fortune. The grandfather had been thirty 
 years inventing it and testing it, but died before lie
 
 12 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 found nerve to work it with his own money. Mary, 
 very wisely, leaves it alone. She turns out quite unusual 
 toques ! " 
 
 Katherine nodded. She wasn't thinking of toques. 
 
 " It really seems the sort of trick to make a for- 
 tune." 
 
 A fortune! If she could only raise some money, go 
 to Mont 
 
 " Evelyn, do show me the system. I'm awfully keen 
 on those er clever sort of things ! " she said lazily. 
 
 Lady Chesham felt flattered. She liked showing 
 things, and instantly produced a pencil and several 
 sheets of thick notepaper. It was the hotel notepaper 
 provided with inclusive charges. 
 
 " This is it," she said, quickly marking out thirty-six 
 squares to represent a roulette table. " It seems ridic- 
 ulously simple, but Mary says it's a matter of know- 
 ing how many spins to miss, and how many to catch 
 or something like that. The grandfather's theory was 
 that thirty-six ruled the whole spirit of the game, and 
 that all reckoning was to be done in halves or quarters 
 of that number. For instance, to catch or miss the 
 right turns, he said, it was necessary to oh, I really 
 forget, but Mary left the written directions somewhere 
 here. I'll show them to you, and you may be able to 
 understand better than by my feeble demonstra- 
 tions." 
 
 Here Lady Chesham threw aside her irregular 
 squares, and produced from the writing-table drawer 
 a small roll of papers.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 13 
 
 " This is the full explanation. Mary told me to 
 let anyone see it who she wasn't complimentary 
 might be fool enough to try it, and give her a percent- 
 age of winnings." 
 
 Katherine took the papers in her thin, very white 
 hands, and for ten minutes examined them in silence. 
 
 When she looked up a faint flush was visible, steal- 
 ing through the coating of poudre veloutee which 
 covered her thin face, while a tint of dark grey gave 
 temporary depths to her restless light eyes. 
 
 " May I take these away with me, Evelyn ? " she 
 asked, restrained excitement causing a strange slurring 
 indistinctness of her words. " I'm quite honest you 
 know that poor people usually are. I'll return them 
 to-morrow, and if ever I can raise any coin to try the 
 system, Mary shall have her percentage. Of course it 
 isn't a certain system we all know such a thing doesn't 
 exist but we played a lot of roulette at Monte when we 
 were on our honeymoon, and also bought a little wheel 
 for twenty-one shillings, so I know the board by heart ; 
 and this seems to me a skilful and scientific way of se- 
 curing the probability of good luck. If worked in big 
 sums, a substantial fortune might be made in ten spins 
 and with ten maximum stakes. M-may I take the 
 papers? " 
 
 " Take them by all means, but return them soon," 
 replied Lady Chesham. 
 
 " I will thank you." 
 
 During the rest of the interview Katherine Orlitson 
 had very little to say that was worth hearing, and at
 
 14. THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 six-forty-five she caught the fast train back to Seed- 
 lingditch that " moated mud heap " where social 
 brilliance found no scope, and where real retrenchment 
 was a possible thing. 
 
 But Mrs. Orlitson disliked retrenchment she didn't 
 wish to continue it.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 " Whirr-r-r-r, wh-wh-whick-wh-wh-CLICK! " 
 
 The big iron pill the orthodox marble had been lost, 
 so a pill served fell into No. 16 the fourth number 
 of the milieu douzaine and for the hundredth time 
 Katherine Orlitson had proved her ability to sat- 
 isfactorily miss losing spins by following the law-of- 
 average scheme worked out by Mary Laurence's dead 
 grandfather. 
 
 Not more than twenty-one hours had passed since 
 Katherine kissed Lady Chesham's most convenient- cheek 
 and left the St. Monarch's Hotel, but already during 
 a great part of the night and most of the morning 
 she had made a comfortable competence in uncooked 
 haricot beans ! The supply of counters and shells had 
 very soon given out. 
 
 There seemed no doubt that to anyone with several 
 hundreds and a clear intelligence at his or her dis- 
 posal, the strong probability of making a fortune of 
 sorts was secure. 
 
 Katherine tilted back the hard wooden chair on which 
 she was seated and stretched. 
 
 The action was not ladylike, but natural, seeing she 
 had been bending over the small guinea roulette wheel 
 for a great many successive hours. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson remained inert for some moments fol- 
 
 15
 
 16 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 lowing the stretch, then, after looking round the very 
 small, very squalid parlour, and noting that neither was 
 the table cleared nor were the dinner things washed up, 
 resolutely put Midas, Croesus, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. 
 Carnegie out of her mind to obey the calls of domestic 
 necessity. 
 
 The roulette wheel and iron pill were pushed into a 
 wooden cupboard to share the seclusion enjoyed by half 
 a jar of marmalade, a paper packet of cheese, three 
 empty and one quarter full whisky bottles, seven con- 
 tentless " Goldchunk " tobacco tins, and a selection of 
 sample cases and boxes and tubes. 
 
 One of the sample cases rolled out, and Mrs. Orlit- 
 son gave it a savage kick, because Mr. Orlitson's method 
 of keeping himself supplied with expensive soaps, 
 liqueur brandy, embrocations, chocolate, liver tonics, 
 rose-brilliantine, etc., etc., without the inconvenience of 
 subsequent expenditure, grated upon a certain sense of 
 honour which, unseen and unsuspected, lurked within 
 her breast. 
 
 In fact she had at times even gone so far as to se- 
 cretly purchase small quantities of the satisfactory 
 samples, in order to soothe her conscience-by-marriage. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson's sense of honour may have been dis- 
 torted and of a somewhat Jesuitical variety, but it was 
 nevertheless an existent quality. 
 
 After the roulette wheel had been consigned to the 
 limbo of the cupboard, Katherine proceeded to clear the 
 table, making a great many more journeys to and from 
 the little back scullery than was at all necessary.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 17 
 
 She cleared the table like an undomesticated woman 
 and washed up after the manner of one loathing her 
 task. 
 
 Not one dish was scraped or denuded of its lingering 
 contents before being plunged into a tin bowl of 1 
 water, with the result that chipped crockery, crar 
 glass, and dented plate were all cleansed (?) in ai 
 savoury potage of tinned lobster leavings, pickle 
 ings, and heavy jam tart leavings. 
 
 The method was not satisfactory, but in due course 
 Katherine's washing up was accomplished and the pil- 
 low-slip which had been pressed into service when all 
 kitchen cloths were wet hung on the back of a chair 
 to dry. 
 
 Then there was the parlour to be tidied in fact re- 
 sweeping was necessary, owing to Mr. Orlitson's easy 
 methods of shaking out his tobacco pouch over the 
 floor and gesticulating with crumbly pieces of bread 
 the scuttle to be replenished, the scullery to be scrubbed, 
 and the kettle filled for tea. 
 
 In a pitiful, finicking way Katherine went about these 
 uninspiring tasks, holding up her skirts at the newest 
 hip angle and tripping out to the coal cellar with all the 
 daintiness of a successful demimondaine crossing Picca- 
 dilly Circus. 
 
 At last everything was finished and 
 
 "Damn!" * 
 
 There is no use denying the word, or even putting a 
 consonant followed by a dash, for nothing but the un- 
 clipped expletive left Mrs. Orlitson's lips as she dropped
 
 18 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 a shovelful of soft coal over the newly scrubbed scullery 
 floor. 
 
 She looked at the coal, she repeated the remark, then 
 sat down on a small inverted packing case and burst 
 into tears. 
 
 " I can't go on at this ! " she cried insensibly, speak- 
 ing aloud as though the chipped plates resting on the 
 dresser formed an appreciative gallery audience. " I 
 wasn't meant for it some women aren't, and I'm one of 
 them! I must get money I must I must not 
 a little money, but lots! and lots! I'm a failure a 
 failure on the stage a failure in marriage, and a fail- 
 ure in c-c-c-carrying coal ! " 
 
 The outburst was brief owing to Mrs. Orlitson's 
 sense of humour which was evidenced by the shape of 
 her inartistic nose. 
 
 She picked up the shovel, laughed hilariously, re- 
 cleaned the scullery, then, after mixing and drinking 
 a gentlemanly whisky and soda, went upstairs to the 
 small bedroom on the first and last floor. 
 
 Roger was out as testified by his indoor once-grey 
 flannel trousers and once-blue blazer lying on the floor 
 beside a pair of list slippers, and near to a grimy soft 
 collar and greasy green tie. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson cleared this customary debris and 
 " dressed " to go out for even at Seedlingditch, where 
 only the idiot pedlar or deaf postman were likely to be 
 encountered, she never allowed her striking henna-tinted 
 hair to be less ondule than was strictly becoming, or her 
 very beautiful waist to relax a single inch.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 19 
 
 But to be candid, Katherine Orlitson's waist never 
 wished to relax, and even though she might wear cheap 
 corsets with every bone and side steel broken, the beauti- 
 ful waist always retained that natural frontal dip 
 which saves every physical situation. 
 
 So long as a woman's waist is willing to go down in 
 the front she may still retain hopes of being able to do 
 something she oughtn't to do, and of getting black- 
 balled from her club. 
 
 To-day Mrs. Orlitson put on a short grey tweed 
 skirt, one of those convenient shirt-blouses that are mer- 
 cifully concealing to bad figures and humbly subservi- 
 ent to good ones, a short coat, a straw hat which set 
 exactly as it ought to set on the top of a great red 
 plait, and a narrow, shiny scarlet belt. 
 
 Her long, thin throat was swathed and well arranged, 
 and her pointed hips were satisfactory in their fleshless 
 protuberance. 
 
 The flip of an old powder-puff about her nose and 
 chin, one curl pulled out by a hat pin, a touch of crim- 
 son lip salve, and Mrs. Roger Orlitson was ready for 
 her walk. 
 
 She stepped out of the mouldy little cottage into 
 buoyant late winter air made warm by young spring 
 sunshine. 
 
 Should she go to meet Roger? No, probably he 
 would return before she was ready to come home, and 
 quite possibly he had gone the other way besides, what 
 could they have to say to each other out of doors that 
 they hadn't said indoors during the dreary, intermin-
 
 20 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 able week which had passed since they rented the Seed- 
 lingditch cottage in order to retrench. 
 
 Katherine looked at the road leading to the village, 
 decided she wouldn't take it, and proceeded to cross 
 a stile with all the fuss of a woman meant to live in 
 towns. 
 
 But the air was effervescent, the fields were green 
 if unpicturesquely level the sky was blue with the pale 
 turquoise of very young, almost unborn spring and 
 life could hold many possibilities for a thin woman of 
 twenty-eight. 
 
 Yes, many possibilities, almost limitless ones, if only 
 the soul-stultifying ban of enforced retrenchment could 
 be removed. 
 
 Katherine walked over the emerald grass and tried 
 to pretend she was rich a mental game which had been 
 called very much into requisition since the retrenching 
 stay at Seedlingditch began. 
 
 The game was played without much variation 
 usually an oblong envelope containing a solicitor's an- 
 nouncement that some forgotten relative or acquaint- 
 ance had died leaving Katherine Orlitson nee Ben- 
 stead, daughter of the late Percy and Melita Benstead 
 a fortune varying from many, to very many, thou- 
 sands. 
 
 To-day the thousands were only moderate in quan- 
 tity, because directly they came into the legatee's pos- 
 session she would, by means of old Jonathan Laurence's 
 roulette scheme, be able to increase them to quite an 
 elastic extent.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 21 
 
 Katharine's light grey eyes grew darker, as they al- 
 ways did when she played the mental-fortune game with 
 any degree of enthusiasm. 
 
 She would first settle all details of her inheritance, 
 then, after buying a selection of well-cut gowns and 
 well-planned hats, would take a first-class through ticket 
 to Nice. 
 
 Yes, she would go to Monte, she would take one reg- 
 ular seat at one regular table, and and 
 
 " Ah!-h-h-h! " 
 
 The exclamation came like a hot breath between her 
 closed, white, uneven teeth, while the thin hands, which 
 carried two odd gloves and a six-penny cane, tightened 
 their grip. 
 
 It would be so wonderful if somehow this could hap- 
 pen. If, after years of struggle and longing, culmi- 
 nating in an unsuccessful marriage with a likeable man 
 who never cultivated his earning capacity, she could 
 spend money lavishly. 
 
 Not an occasional jaunt, not an infrequent extrava- 
 gance, but just a systematic having all those things 
 which the monde de luxe, seen in its most modest as- 
 pects, enjoys. 
 
 Many rings on her fingers, ruby pendants for red 
 gowns, a turquoise and diamond set of ornaments for 
 blue gowns, and a liberal selection of diamonds hats 
 of every sort and shape frocks for most occasions, and 
 quickly discarded shoes to match, and not to match 
 an electric brougham a trio or quartette of silent ser- 
 vants a gravely furnished flat in a right locality
 
 22 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 nothing extensive nothing excessive, but just affluence 
 enough to make existence a gloriously valuable asset. 
 
 A fierce primitive excitement surged through Kath- 
 erine's whole body, and her limbs quivered with actual 
 physical exaltation, for she had played the game of 
 mental make-believe so well that the many rings seemed 
 positively to be weighting her fingers and cutting into 
 the flesh as she tightened her grip upon the sixpenny 
 stick. 
 
 But yet this was not avarice, not the cruel hungry 
 passion of a miser merely the luxurious woman's nat- 
 ural longing for luxury. 
 
 Katherine once more breathed deeply through her 
 clenched teeth, after which the gay mental picture be- 
 gan slowly to fade away, like the lingering departure of 
 a rainbow when the sun wins an entire supremacy over 
 shower. 
 
 The diamonds were gone, the electric brougham had 
 glided away, the flat was dissolving, and instead why a 
 man's leg in a dark blue trouser and the curve of a 
 brown-bearded cheek showing beneath a tilted-forward 
 straw hat! 
 
 Katherine Orlitson jerked herself back to realities. 
 
 Roger had gone out in his blue suit and straw hat. 
 Roger's cheek was brown and bearded, and even though 
 Roger did spend most of the day in bed, it would not 
 come at all amiss for him to lie down amidst short, sweet, 
 cool, green grass and repair any havoc which the ex- 
 haustion of a two-mile walk might have wrought. 
 
 At first Katherine decided not to wake her husband,
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 23 
 
 but then, actuated by a mild desire for human com- 
 panionship and human converse Roger was always 
 companionable and conversational made up her mind 
 to spoil Roger's slumbrous serenity. 
 
 She walked a few steps forward, touched a large, gen- 
 tlemanly hand which was cold like flesh just plunged 
 into iced water jerked aside the straw hat, then uttered 
 a restrained, yet vibrant, scream, unconsciously melo- 
 dramatic in its timbre. 
 
 The gallery had always applauded that scream in 
 days gone by.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 DK. MORGAN T. B. SPHAIT sat before his consulting- 
 room fire drinking a cup of tea and reading the current 
 issue of the Seedlingditch Herald. 
 
 He was a large, pink, splendid, handsome man, this 
 doctor, who had the monopoly of every sick or semi- 
 sick person living within a ten-mile radius of Seedling- 
 ditch, with a beautiful heartiness of voice and manner 
 which effectually deceived guileless patients as to the 
 excellent qualities of his disposition. 
 
 By way of advertisement he made it a rule to attend 
 a few of the very poorest cottages without charge, and 
 his blazing red motor might occasionally be seen wait- 
 ing for hours at a stretch opposite some miserable hovel, 
 inside which an utterly unneeded morsel of humanity 
 was being brought forth to take part in the universal 
 scheme of indirect slaughter and robbery which goes 
 by the name of existence. 
 
 This did not often happen, and the uncharged pa- 
 tients were few and far between, but both advertisements 
 were produced with sufficient frequency to cause Dr. 
 Sphait to be regarded as " the poor man's friend," as 
 well as a soundly clever practitioner. 
 
 Once or twice timid would-be usurpers, with feebly 
 glowing small red lamps and second-hand bicycles, had 
 made efforts at self-establishment ; but even though with 
 
 34
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 25 
 
 noble generosity Dr. Sphait sent them an intermittent 
 patient or two generally some of the non-paying bri- 
 gade they were forced to slink away leaving no traces 
 behind except a few bottles which had never needed fill- 
 ing with medicine. 
 
 The big red man and the big red motor-car carried 
 all before them, for though Seedlingditch was in it- 
 self a sparsely populated little town or village the 
 motor and the telephone had made Dr. Sphait able to do 
 serious harm to various placid practitioners residing 
 at Cumley, Bridgebart, Munchwater, and other reach- 
 able localities. 
 
 It is true that one of the unsuccessful competitors, 
 who had been forced to take down his red lamp before 
 three months had elapsed, was once heard to assert that 
 " Dr. Morgan Sphait, his motor, and his reputation 
 were merely subsisting on * puff, 1 and that one day the 
 bubble would burst.' 9 
 
 But as no one quite knew what the " bubble " was 
 supposed to contain, and were somewhat vague as to the 
 exact meaning of the word " puff " when used in this 
 application, Dr. Sphait's popularity remained unabated. 
 
 One excellent widow lady whose daughter suffered 
 from varicose veins in the leg had been known to sug- 
 gest that it would be " more er comfortable if Dr. 
 Sphait were a married man," but when the varicose- 
 veined daughter secured the affections of an earnest 
 curate, the widow ceased lamenting on her medical ad- 
 viser's celibacy. 
 
 And now no one in the least troubled because Morgan
 
 26 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Sphait*s house was managed by an elderly working 
 housekeeper instead of a young idling wife. 
 
 He was so cheery, kind, sympathetic, and profession- 
 ally sexless that the most sensitive spinster felt no tre- 
 mors at calling him to her bedside. 
 
 " 'E's one of them gentlemen as seem born married ! " 
 remarked the grocer's wife when he had brought her 
 ninth into its inheritance of sugar and candles. And 
 that summing-up defined the outward aspect of Dr. 
 Morgan Sphait. 
 
 " Bagslowe, I should like another round of buttered 
 toast," he was just remarking after summoning the 
 excellent working housekeeper, when a loud peal at the 
 patient's bell made him realise that the second buttered 
 round must be deferred until some rural pulse had been 
 felt, and a bottle filled with twelve doses of absolutely 
 harmless tinted fluid. 
 
 Bagslowe hurried away to open the door it was the 
 thirteen-year-old page's afternoon off duty and re- 
 turned a moment later with a scared expression on her 
 respectable face. 
 
 "Who is it, Bagslowe?" asked Dr. Sphait cheerily. 
 He even kept up the cheeriness in the domestic seclusion 
 of his own home. 
 
 " It's a lady, sir a stranger and she's carrying on 
 awful, without seeming as if she was carrying on, 
 like!" 
 
 " A lady do you mean a lady ? " Bagslowe had 
 once been upper housemaid to a recognised county fam- 
 ily, so could be relied upon for nice distinctions.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 27 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir at least ladies as they are now, sir 
 nothing like Seedlingditch, sir." 
 
 " Aha ! " Dr. Sphait pulled down an inch more cuff. 
 " And is she " 
 
 " Oh, pray, pray, don't keep me waiting let me come 
 in ! let me come in ! " cried a low, thrilling, frenzied voice 
 from the hall. 
 
 Dr. Sphait opened the door, and as Bagslowe dis- 
 creetly slipped away, the " lady " dashed into the room 
 regardless of any good manners she may have ever had 
 the excellent fortune to possess. 
 
 She wore a grey tweed skirt, a now crushed and soiled 
 white shirt blouse, a shiny vermilion waistbelt, and a 
 straw hat which was half falling off her head, while 
 masses of beautiful red hair escaped from their moor- 
 ings, and in many places burst through the confinement 
 of a torn fringe-net. 
 
 " Good-day, and what may I " began Dr. Sphait 
 
 with his more refined cheeriness which was reserved for 
 better-class patients, should any happen to stray that 
 way. 
 
 But the " lady," allowing emotion to overstep good 
 manners, interrupted. 
 
 " You must come with me at once my husband I 
 believe I am sure he is dead dead! " she cried wildly, 
 while her light grey eyes gazed unseeingly at her com- 
 panion's splendid Norse-king-with-a-touch-of -John-Bui) 
 personality. 
 
 " My dear lady " 
 
 " Our name is Orlitson. We took Spar Cottage, fur-
 
 28 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 nished, and came there a week ago. You must come 
 with me now now ! " 
 
 " But, Mrs. Orlitson, pray explain, no matter how 
 briefly, the er circumstances " 
 
 " My husband went out for a walk directly after 
 dinner. I went out an hour later, and, crossing the 
 fields, saw him lying down upon the grass. I touched 
 him. I I knew at once " 
 
 Here the slurred deep utterance ceased, and shud- 
 dering, Katherine Orlitson covered her face with two 
 thin white hands. 
 
 " Perhaps you are quite mistaken in your grave con- 
 jectures, Mrs. Orlitson," answered Dr. Sphait, moder- 
 ating his cheeriness to the level of a more hopeful re- 
 assurance as he stretched out one large finger and rang 
 the bell. " A sudden and quite brief seizure will often 
 
 mislead the Order the car instantly " as Bags- 
 
 lowe appeared in answer to this summons " and put 
 brandy and smelling salts in the basket." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Er yes, it is quite common " 
 
 " No, there is no deception. I felt his hand. Ah, 
 I shall never forget! Oh, let us go norm it's no use 
 waiting for the car. I ran all the way ! " 
 
 " All the more reason, my dear lady, why you should 
 not run all the way back, and as the car will be ready in 
 three minutes we shall arrive in less than half the time," 
 replied Dr. Sphait, speaking in those tones of cheap 
 spurious firmness very much in vogue amongst medi- 
 cal advisers to the lower middle classes.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 29 
 
 Spurious firmness is one valuable professional asset 
 and bluff cheeriness another, for both, in some vague 
 manner, cause the patient to feel that he or she is pos- 
 sessed of a temperament. And the lower middle classes 
 of to-day are beginning to faintly comprehend the so- 
 cial cachet which is conferred by a temperament. 
 
 The brisk sternness apparently proved of service in 
 Mrs. Orlitson's case, for it became evident that she was 
 making a giant effort to keep her emotions under con- 
 trol. 
 
 Both hands were tightly gripped round the sixpenny 
 wooden stick, her pointed chin was thrust forward and 
 her reddened lips compressed tightly together, while 
 strained, staring, light grey eyes fixed themselves on a 
 vacancy that seemed miles and miles away. 
 
 Every now and then a very faint moan escaped her 
 lips, but it was only when a sudden sound of snorting 
 and puffing announced the car's arrival that she dashed 
 to her feet and uttered one cry of relief. 
 
 " Thank Heaven ! Now we shall know we shall 
 know! " she muttered, rushing out of the room and out 
 of the house while Dr. Sphait followed, buttoning his 
 huge overcoat over a huge chest and a stethoscope. 
 
 " Where is the field? " he asked, still keeping up the 
 soothing sternness. 
 
 Katherine explained. Dr. Sphait nodded to the 
 chauffeur, and the great red car darted forward. 
 
 " Are you and your husband living alone at Spar 
 Cottage, Mrs. Orlitson? " 
 
 " Yes, quite alone."
 
 30 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " You haven't any servant or charwoman about ? " 
 
 " No. We came here to retrench. I have been doing 
 everything only we two in the cottage. And now 
 now I shall be al al " 
 
 " Now this won't do, Mrs. Orlitson. Please remem- 
 ber, for the sake of everybody concerned, it is necessary 
 
 for you to keep your feelings under control, and 
 
 Ah, this is the field, isn't it? We must get out and walk 
 across." 
 
 Katherine nodded dumbly, and once more strained 
 forward her chin and fixed her light wild eyes on space. 
 
 Mechanically she permitted Dr. Sphait to assist her 
 to alight, then in silence the small thin woman and the 
 heavy stout man trod the emerald grass, but newly re- 
 leased from its thraldom of frost tiD suddenly Kath- 
 erine halted and pointed to the right. 
 
 " O ver th ere ! " she whispered. 
 
 Dr. Sphait nodded and administered one encouraging 
 pat on her shoulder. 
 
 " You sit down and wait here, Mrs. Orlitson. I'll 
 come and tell you directly I know." 
 
 Katherine slid down on the moist grass right down 
 and buried her face on her arms. 
 
 She didn't want to see, know, or hear anything till 
 she was forced to see, know, and hear everything! 
 
 The moments passed and the cold wind blew above 
 her head. She could picture what was happening 
 the collar being loosened the waistcoat unbuttoned 
 the shirt pushed aside and the stethoscope being gently 
 dabbed down on place after place.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 31 
 
 And the eyelids. He would raise the eyelids she 
 had read that this was part of the ghastly procedure 
 and learn the secrets revealed beneath. He would 
 
 Once again a large hand was laid upon her shoulder 
 not a pat of encouragement this time. 
 
 Katherine's red head was lifted. 
 
 "Yes well? tell me." 
 
 " I grieve to say, Mrs. er " 
 
 " Orlitson. I told you our name was Orlitson." 
 
 " I grieve to say, Mrs. er Orlitson, that your sad 
 conjecture was correct. Your husband is dead!" 
 
 Katherine rose stiffly to her feet and swayed slightly. 
 
 "Dead! Roger dead! he ah !-h-h-h ! " 
 
 The cry was long and shrill the natural, unre- 
 strained outcome of a shock and terror that were uncon- 
 trollable. 
 
 Dr. Sphait gripped her by the wrist. 
 
 " Mrs. Orlitson, you must not give way like this. 
 You must compose yourself," he said authoritatively. 
 
 But as he spoke he noticed it was a grotesque mo- 
 ment to notice such things the unusual softness of her 
 skin, the straight slimness of her swathed throat, the 
 perfection of her waist, and the profusion of her red 
 hair. 
 
 The widow's features were imperfect, but she was an 
 attractive-looking woman. 
 
 " I will try I will try," she moaned. " But but 
 it is I can't realise it seems incredible he started 
 out for his walk so perfectly well and strong, complain- 
 ing of nothing but a slight headache "
 
 32 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " A slight headache ! Ah ! That was a symptom, 
 so far as can be seen by a brief examination, your hus- 
 band has died from a sudden rush of blood to the head, 
 immediately followed by syncope. Has he recently suf- 
 fered from any shock ? " 
 
 " Nothing nothing. We have been in financial dif- 
 ficulties, but he never allowed anything to prey on his 
 mind and oh, let me go back. I can't wait here. Let 
 me go to the cottage and prepare for for his home- 
 coming." Dr. Sphait glanced down swiftly and keenly. 
 This last remark savoured of the drama or a Methodist 
 hymn. 
 
 " Yes, you go and we my chauffeur and I 
 will " 
 
 " Yes yes. I can't stay. I can't " 
 
 And without one look at the lifeless body which was 
 flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone, Katherine Orlit- 
 son darted across the gay green grass. 
 
 Unencumbered by an ounce of superfluous flesh, or 
 the pressure of corsets forced to enclose more than 
 their circumference would admit, she ran with incredible 
 swiftness, reaching the cottage before Dr. Sphait and 
 his chauffeur had lifted their inert burden into the car. 
 
 The low wooden front door was open. She entered, 
 and, after closing it, turned the lock.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 . " ORLITSON. On April 24th, at Spar Cottage, Seed- 
 lingditch (suddenly), Roger Orlitson, aged 30. Deeply 
 mourned." 
 
 " Oh, Charles, how terrible ! " cried Lady Chesham, 
 who had just read this announcement. 
 
 " Whatsh terrible ? " enquired Sir Charles, a tall, lean 
 man who has secured his personality by means of a semi- 
 inarticulate utterance combined with a perseveringly ac- 
 quired vein of cynicism and his comfortable affluence, 
 by means of his wife's banking account. 
 
 Lady Chesham handed him across the paper. 
 
 " Ur ! A man must die some day. Thirty ishn't a 
 bad age ! " 
 
 "Poor Katherine!" 
 
 " Lucky Katherine, pVaps ! Better ask her up to 
 sthay, hadn't you? Expect she wantshs a feminine 
 shoulder to cry on ! " 
 
 Lady Chesham didn't answer quite at once. She 
 would be very glad to have poor Katherine for a week, 
 even though the St. Monarch's charges were high. But 
 if poor Katherine was quite destitute, the week might 
 stretch and 
 
 " Inshured, washn't he? " 
 
 Lady Chesham jerked, and an expression of satis- 
 faction instantly settled on her face. 
 
 33
 
 34, THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Of course she remembered Katherine had told her 
 that when she and her husband were on their honey- 
 moon an eccentric semi-millionaire whom Roger had 
 adriotly saved from falling down an elevator shaft 
 insisted on insuring the bridegroom's life for the useful 
 sum of 2,000, paying the premium four years in ad- 
 vance. 
 
 Roger had ventured to point out that, by this gen- 
 erous arrangement, he would never gain any advantage 
 from Mr. Van Bolorst's noble recognition of his slight 
 service; whereat Mr. Van Bolorst had presented him 
 with a two-guinea turquoise pin, and insisted on his de- 
 cision that it was " the womenfolk who mattered." 
 
 Thus the hard-up Mrs. Orlitson would undoubtedly 
 come into 2,000. 
 
 "Of course he was insured. I really had forgotten 
 it. You have an excellent memory, Charles! Yes, I'll 
 most undoubtedly ask the poor girl up here for a week 
 directly the funeral is over," was Lady Chesham's re- 
 ply to her husband's last remark. 
 
 Sir Charles' mouth moved sideways beneath the shelter 
 of a couple of dozen hay-coloured hairs, while his wife 
 instantly sat down in front of the writing-table and 
 penned a suitable missive. 
 
 " My poor, dearest Katherine, We have just seen 
 the sad announcement. Do write and tell all particulars, 
 dearie. My heart grieves for you. Now, directly the 
 funeral is over, Charles and I insist that you come here
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 85 
 
 and put in a week with us. Do tell me your plans, and 
 let me know if I can help in any way. 
 " With deep sympathy, 
 
 *' Ever your true friend, 
 
 " EVELYN CHESHAM." 
 
 "That'll do, won't it?" said the "true friend," 
 handing the letter over to her husband. 
 
 " Yesh, thatsh's all right. Shouldn't you have stuck 
 in a bit of scriptural consolation or something? " 
 
 " Oh, no, not for Katherine she isn't that sort ! " 
 
 Sir Charles chuckled. He never thought she was. 
 
 For over a week Lady Chesham's letter of sympathy 
 received no reply, but on the tenth day after its depart- 
 ure a black-bordered envelope found its way to sitting- 
 room No. 12 at the St. Monarch's Hotel. 
 
 "From poor Katherine at last!" she ejaculated. 
 
 " Ur ! " responded Sir Charles. " Whatsh poor Kath- 
 erine say? " 
 
 Lady Chesham tore open the heavily-bordered en- 
 velope and proceeded to read aloud its contents. 
 
 " My dearest Evelyn, You must have thought ter- 
 rible things of me for not having answered your dear 
 womanly note before, but somehow I felt it was impos- 
 sible to write till everything was over. 
 
 "Everything is over now, and I am absolutely alone 
 in the world ! 
 
 " As you saw by the paper, the death occurred on 
 the 24th. I found the poor boy lying on the grass
 
 36 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 dead! Fancy, Evelyn, dead just when snowdrops and 
 crocuses are being born ! Isn't it too sad, too piti- 
 ful? 
 
 " The doctor who attended pronounced death to be 
 due to a sudden rush of blood to the head, followed by 
 syncope. So absolutely sudden so absolutely unex- 
 pected ! so absolutely awful ! 
 
 " The funeral took place on the 27th at Seedlingditch 
 churchyard, and I have given up this place : I couldn't 
 stay in it now even the thought of it terrifies me. And 
 there was the inquest! 
 
 " Evelyn, I don't think I ever knew how much I loved 
 my husband till now when we are parted ! 
 
 " As you know, I am not a sentimental woman, but 
 there is a terrible, terrible ache at my heart. 
 
 " You are dear and sweet enough to ask me to come 
 to you for a week. 
 
 " Nothing would do me so much good, and if you will 
 have me, I'll arrive on Tuesday and remain till the fol- 
 lowing Tuesday, when but I'll tell you all my plans 
 when we meet. 
 
 "With all love, 
 "Your affectionate and grateful 
 
 " KATHERINE. 
 
 " P.S. Poor darling Roger's life was insured for 
 2,000 you remember I told you about Mr. Van 
 Bolorst in Cairo? so financially I am all right at pres- 
 ent." 
 
 " Er ur she doesh seem cut up, doeshn't she ? "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 37 
 
 was Sir Charles' first mumble. " But the ur 
 postscript's very satisfactory postscripts often 
 are!" 
 
 Lady Chesham paid no heed to whatever insistent 
 satire might have been intended by this final observa- 
 tion, for the reason that, having bought her husband 
 by a liberal retaining fee, there was no need for her to 
 either smile at his jests or discuss his theories. Besides, 
 she was busy wording a sixpenny wire telling dearest 
 Katherine that she was expected for certain on Tues- 
 day. 
 
 And for certain on Tuesday " dearest Katherine " 
 appeared. 
 
 Lady Chesham had not been advised as to the exact 
 time of her arrival, therefore, when at five o'clock a 
 rigid waiter announced " Mrs. Orlitson," the hostess 
 found herself unready with the verbal greetings of 
 mingled tenderness and condolence which she had so 
 carefully prepared. 
 
 However, there was no need to say anything, because 
 when Katherine entered, it was with the air of a woman 
 who has bravely battled down all public evidences of 
 her grief and who doesn't mean to be a nuisance to other 
 people. 
 
 And never had Mrs. Orlitson, as a wife, been so ef- 
 fective as now, when draped in the trappings of dull 
 black bereavement. 
 
 The long gown fitted gloriously, and the perfection 
 of her waist was unusually emphasised. Above her thin 
 swathed throat was a white, clear-skinned face crowned
 
 38 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 by puffs of henna-tinted hair and a widow's bonnet an 
 almost indecently becoming widow's bonnet her light 
 grey eyes were half closed, as though to momentarily 
 shut out memory's sad pictures, and her thin powdered 
 chin was thrust upwards. 
 
 She glided forward and found the haven of Lady 
 Chesham's arms. 
 
 Two kisses one long breath that went into several 
 syllables a swift loosening of the swathing neck ar- 
 rangements and then Mrs. Orlitson had evidently got 
 her emotions pluckily under control. 
 
 " Dearest Evelyn, you can't think how glad I am to 
 come," she said, speaking in the low, slurring voice that 
 was more thrillful than ever. " D-d-don't say anything 
 kind to me will you, dear? And don't let Sir Charles 
 say anything kind. I h-have suffered the shock has 
 been paralysing death, Evelyn, death! I have never 
 seen it before ! Ah !-h-h ! Let me take up new threads 
 do not let us allude to anything. You understand? 
 You are the one comprehending woman who can under- 
 stand!" 
 
 " Of course I am, dearie," replied Lady Chesham, 
 feeling gratified without knowing it. " You must let 
 us pet you and take care of you for a week. And now 
 tea!" 
 
 The three final words showed tact, and Katherine evi- 
 denced her gratitude by a smile that was brave, as she 
 sank into a very low chair one of those chairs which 
 seem specially built as a mockery to stout women who 
 are obliged to wear elongated armour in the way of
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 39 
 
 corsets with the long black skirts swirling out from 
 her knees like a fan. 
 
 Lady Chesham poured out the creamed tea, then led 
 up to her companion's future plans. 
 
 " You er are staying in town for a time ? " she 
 enquired when Katherine had refused a hot scone. It 
 was only tea she seemed to want tea tea! 
 
 " Only this week that I am your guest," she answered, 
 leaning back and crossing her stylish feet. 
 
 "Oh! er ?" 
 
 " When I leave here I go direct to Monte Carlo ! " 
 
 " Katherineeee! " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson laid down her empty cup, and thrust- 
 ing out her chin, spoke a long sentence with de Stael- 
 like volubility. 
 
 " Don't try to stop me you mustn't try, because it 
 will be absolutely useless, Evelyn. I must have some- 
 thing to distract my mind, and to play this scheme of 
 Mary Laurence's grandfather will help. Yes, I know 
 you'll tell me I shall lose every penny of this insurance 
 money. So I shall, very likely but it's to be either lost 
 or or quadrupled. I must be either poor or rich, 
 Evelyn, and the tables will help me to manage either 
 one or the other. If I'm poor, I suppose I shall be 
 downright bad and if I'm rich I mean to be down- 
 right good so I must give myself a chance of 
 downright goodness. My temperament is one which 
 hates anything middle. The middle classes circum- 
 stances midway between poverty and comfort morals 
 midway between virtue and vice are abhorrent to me.
 
 40 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 I could starve or go to the bad much more gracefully 
 than I could send back a joint because it was tenpence 
 too much in price. This insurance money must make 
 me either a beggar or a substantially rich woman, so 
 don't say anything about the chances on the side of 
 the bank, or the average of three suicides a day, or the 
 cemetery among the olive groves of Caucade, will you? 
 Be your own tactful understanding self and realise that 
 a little sympathy is more likely to work human salvation 
 than a whole catalogue of classified warnings! But I 
 know you will I know you will ! " 
 
 And as Katherine knew she would, of course Evelyn 
 Chesham felt she must! 
 
 " I I do sympathise, dearie. I er oh, I do," she 
 replied lamely. She mustn't warn, mustn't argue, so 
 lame sincerity was the only course open. 
 
 " Thank you, dearest how sweet you are ! I knew 
 you would! Now, will you add companionship to sin- 
 cerity will you come with me? " 
 
 " Oh, my dear, I couldn't now with social engage- 
 ments getting quite thick and besides, I don't think 
 Charles would let me go without him." 
 
 In common with many other women who have pur- 
 chased a husband serial, and all other rights ! Evelyn 
 Chesham made a pose of wifely obedience, while Charles 
 had been taught to understand that a little public ty- 
 ranny, gentlemanly jealousy, and controlling sternness 
 were among the duties required of him for such mani- 
 festations did much to erase the impression that Evelyn
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 41 
 
 Leedbitter hadn't been able to get a husband without 
 buying one. 
 
 " Oh, no, I daresay he wouldn't," replied Katherine 
 good-naturedly accepting the situation instead of de- 
 manding that Sir Charles' authority should be displayed. 
 "Well, if you won't come with me I go alone alone, 
 Evelyn, to make myself into a rich woman or " 
 
 The missing word was dramatic. It would have ap- 
 pealed to that portion of the gallery which, by superior 
 intelligence, had secured the first rows.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 KATHERINE OKLITSON was in Nice. 
 
 Half an hour ago she had arrived, and now she was 
 unpacking her small trunk, which filled up half the 
 space of a small bedroom in a small pension. 
 
 For, to the odorous horrors of a Riviera pension, Mrs. 
 Orlitson had condemned herself. 
 
 Hotels were expensive, and until she could be very 
 rich of course there were other contingencies she 
 would continue to be very poor. 
 
 But Katherine heeded the discomfort of a palette bed 
 and carpetless floor no more than she heeded the royal 
 blue sea and those other everlasting glories belonging to 
 the South, of which the subscribing novel-reader has 
 grown so weary. 
 
 We all know the Riviera fairly well if we've been 
 there, and with vivid accuracy if we haven't. 
 
 We know all about those palms how tired we are of 
 those palms we are fed up with magnolias, oleanders, 
 and flower-scented air, we are quite fluent about " the 
 finest band in the world," and as for the view from the 
 Casino Terrace well, of course we are much more fa- 
 miliar with that than with some secluded corners of our 
 own local park ! 
 
 During the journey Katherine had demolished an 
 extraordinarily small quantity of food, with the result 
 that now she knew an unwanted meal was desperately 
 
 42
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 43 
 
 necessary for if the brain is to be kept clear, strength 
 must be maintained. 
 
 Occasionally she wondered how long that brain would 
 hold out. She had gone through so much she was go- 
 ing through so much more and every now and then 
 her head seemed to be spinning round with the velocity 
 of a wheel, while for some seconds her mind remained 
 a complete blank. 
 
 Then a violent jerk and a gulped-down whisky and 
 soda would bring her back to the consciousness that she 
 was a lonely young woman wearing widow's weeds, who 
 had come for a jiu-jitsu fight with luck. 
 
 At least it wasn't luck the probability of success 
 was too strong for the word " luck " to be quite ap- 
 plicable. 
 
 Katherine flipped the old powder puff across her in- 
 sistent nose and chin before descending to the salle a 
 manger. 
 
 She saw a piece of much-thumbed roll, and a pun sug- 
 gested itself it was sal a manger! 
 
 Katherine laughed to herself and felt better. She 
 tried to go on manufacturing more puns so that other 
 thoughts should leave her brain at rest for a time and 
 
 " Salt, madame ? " 
 
 Katherine started and turned towards her neighbour, 
 who was obviously English. That " madame " had in- 
 disputably betrayed his nationality. 
 
 " Merci, monsieur, j'en ai ici! " 
 
 The poor man looked disappointed. Then Katherine 
 laughed, finished the joke, and became verbally British.
 
 44 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 She had swallowed a few mouthfuls of something un- 
 pleasant and her head had temporarily ceased its revo- 
 lutions. 
 
 " I was feeling very continental just now something 
 in the potage brought it on, I suppose ! " she said with 
 that easy flippancy which comes naturally to some 
 women, but must be instantly suppressed with others. 
 The wrong woman flippant is a hideous tragedy. 
 
 The man smiled the kind, tired smile of one who has 
 failed consistently, but who always lives in hopes that 
 someone else may succeed. 
 
 " You have come to play ? " he enquired, putting the 
 usual question. 
 
 " Yes, I've come to secure motors and Paquin gowns 
 and villas and bank balances ! " 
 
 "Ah yes!" 
 
 "Please don't ejaculations like that depress me! 
 Have you come to play? " 
 
 The man nodded his unsleek head. 
 
 " Yes, I've come to see if ten pounds will get me 
 enough to buy a fortune with! Fancy doing that at 
 forty ! Sad, isn't it? " 
 
 " But how do you mean buy a fortune ? Make it, 
 I suppose? " 
 
 " No, I mean buy it. ' Grey Rubbers ' ! " 
 
 " What are grey rubbers ? " enquired Katherine be- 
 fore forcing a mouthful of some fresh unpleasantness 
 down her throat. 
 
 " Shares shares in the Andalusian Grey Rubber 
 Company. Nobody knows much about them they're
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 45 
 
 one pound now they'll be twenty pound in a month ! 
 Three thousand of those would mean 60,000. Sounds 
 amusing, doesn't it? Nobody believes it, but I know. 
 I'd stake my last pound on it, if I had a first ! " 
 
 Katherine smiled automatically. She was thinking. 
 Should she abandon play and buy " Grey Rubbers " 
 with the 2,000 insurance money? Or would it not be 
 better to make the 2,000 into 8,000 by means of 
 Grandfather Laurence's system, then keep the original 
 2,000 and invest the 4,000 in "Grey Rubbers" 
 or, take the 
 
 Katherine seized her glass of lemonwater and drank 
 every drain of the unpalatable fluid. Her head was 
 feeling too heavy again as if the hair were separate, 
 and was rushing round as the earth rushes round the 
 sun! 
 
 But the cold lemonwater put the hair on again. She 
 felt better. 
 
 Grey Rubbers! She would remember that, and she 
 would remember the shabby English table neighbour 
 who had given her the tip, if if 
 
 But of course even Grandfather Laurence's scheme 
 was a matter of " if " ! 
 
 Outside, the persistently written-up palms and sun- 
 shine and tideless Mediterranean were all the English 
 tourist rightfully expects them to be; and inside, ef- 
 fective word-pictures were justified. 
 
 The heat, and hags, and millionaires; the demimotv- 
 daines and gambling duchesses ; the strident croupiers 
 making real the " Faites vos jeux, monsieur" and " Rien
 
 46 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 ne va plus " which is to be heard with such persistent 
 jocularity at suburban roulette parties where the 
 plunging players pronounce " impasse " in a manner 
 entirely Croydon ! the " clutching claws," the Russian 
 princesses, the dark jewelled lady who is quite as likely 
 to be Otero as anybody else, the "eager, hungry faces " 
 they were all there. 
 
 But the red-haired widow, with the perfect waist, 
 was just a faintly novel element. 
 
 And she was winning always watching the wheel, 
 waiting, reckoning, staking maximums, and winning. 
 
 Once or twice one of the six unprotected numbers 
 would turn up but not often. The widow seemed to 
 have caught the spirit of the wheel. It was as if the 
 click of the little balls not an iron pill here ! warned 
 and whispered to her alone. 
 
 Nothing disturbed her attention which, as any ex- 
 perienced roulette player knows, is the greatest insur- 
 ance against loss the gambler holds. 
 
 The magnetism of the wheel seemed to reach the 
 woman, and the magnetism of the woman to reach the 
 wheel. 
 
 Whispered comments concerning her good fortune, 
 the scuffle between a demi-mondaine and a church- 
 warden's wife as to the possession of a heap of two-franc 
 pieces, the clatter of over-turned coins and plaques fall- 
 ing on polished pitch pine floor none of these for one 
 second diverted her set, unswervable attention. 
 
 Sometimes it seemed that she herself was a wheel, 
 that her head was spinning round with the ball, that she
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 47 
 
 was part of the game all forms of temporary insanity 
 caused by desperate anxiety and desperate excitement. 
 
 But for all that, her bursting brain remained clear 
 almost painfully clear, like the outlines of the Esterels 
 before a Southern storm concerning the routine of 
 Grandfather Laurence's scheme. It was more a scheme 
 than an actual system. 
 
 Neuf! Rouge, impair et manque!" Right again 
 the widow had staked maximums on the second six num- 
 bers of the premiere douzaine and half maximums on the 
 milieu and dernier e douzaine. 
 
 The two half maximums lost, and the whole maximum 
 received five times its stake making the clear gain of 
 6,000 francs. 
 
 " Vingt! noir, pair et passe! " Again ! The widow 
 had only left unprotected numbers one to six. 
 
 " Sept rouge, impair et manque" Still one to six 
 unprotected. 
 
 Katherine waited, missed a spin, then transferred her 
 six uncovered numbers to 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 
 
 Whir-r-r-r click! 
 
 " Trois, rouge, impair et manque! " Just in the nick 
 of time she had changed ! The spirit of the wheel hadn't 
 failed to keep in touch with her intuitions. 
 
 Six more times " la veuve rouge " as a Belgian rogue 
 named her in whispers to a French courtesan staked 
 and won. Then, without another glance at the tables, 
 she rose from her seat and glided out of the room. 
 
 She couldn't play any more her nerve had given way 
 her head her head spinning spinning
 
 48 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Mrs. Orlitson ! " 
 
 A voice reached her ears above the carrying strains 
 of the Casino band. 
 
 It was the dinner-table neighbour the "Grey Rub- 
 bers " man he had an honest face. 
 
 " I've won, I've won," panted Katherine. " Come 
 with me count how much. I I can't count ! " 
 
 Esmond Pryce, besides looking an honest man, hap- 
 pened to be one. 
 
 " Come outside come now," he answered. 
 
 Katherine followed. The Southern night was light 
 she never realised if it was moon or electricity 
 there was a secluded seat backed by the perpetual 
 palms. 
 
 Crish crish crish crish continued the incessant 
 rustle of 100 and 1,000 franc notes it seemed to 
 Katherine the noise would never cease the clink clink 
 clink clink. 
 
 Eternal gold no limit no end. 
 
 At last the sounds ceased, and the honest dinner- 
 table neighbour was cramming notes and coins into a 
 black satin bag. 
 
 " How much have I won ? " 
 
 "122,000 francs nearly 5,000 in English money 
 and if you buy ' Grey Rubbers ' " 
 
 " I'll buy them but I must get to England. I am 
 going to be ill to be very ill but I mustn't be ill till 
 I reach England. You'll help me? It shall be a lib- 
 eral arrangement " Her light grey eyes and voice 
 
 were both wild and blurred.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 49 
 
 " Yes, I'll help you gladly," answered the honest din- 
 ner-table neighbour. 
 
 " Thank you," muttered ' la veuve rouge.' 
 
 And they hurried forward through the South-scented 
 night. 
 
 England England a country that should blaze 
 with hope fulfilled !
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 SOMEWHEEE in Sussex it doesn't exactly matter 
 where, except that it was near enough to the sea for a 
 grey-blue line to be visible above the swelling breasts 
 of the downs there stood a chicken farm. 
 
 It wasn't a large chicken farm, although three hun- 
 dred or so fowls of every age and breed seemed to give 
 the place a sufficiently feathery aspect, but as vegetables 
 were produced, and several absorbent pigs lodged in 
 several odorous styles, Upper Deerbuck Farm could 
 claim for itself a certain amount of agricultural import- 
 ance. 
 
 One afternoon in late August, when the sun had 
 reached its zenith and was preparing to decline 
 in a haze of amber glory, the chickens became clam- 
 orous. 
 
 They knew their supper was late. Certain internal 
 promptings told them that the great pail of yellow maize 
 was nearly ten minutes behind time in making its ap- 
 pearance, and that the dry tin tanks ought to be filled 
 with water. 
 
 " Clu-uck, clu-uck ! " called the white Leghorns in 
 protesting chorus, which was echoed by outraged Buff 
 Orpingtons. 
 
 A red Sussex rooster, evidently considering that by 
 
 so
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 51 
 
 right of sex he was entitled to display more than mild 
 annoyance at this postponement of a meal, flew onto the 
 roof of an outhouse and proclaimed his indignation 
 with greedy masculine vehemence. 
 
 A bristling Houdan cockerel agreed with him. The 
 solo became a duet the chorus of hens interpolated, 
 till 
 
 " Whew-w-w! " 
 
 It was a whistle, clear, strong and musical a 
 whistle that could not proceed from the lips of a man 
 and as this, their supper gong, sounded, fowls and ducks 
 rushed from every imaginable creek and crevice. 
 
 They flew down from trees, they abandoned unhatched 
 progeny that would in a hour's time be sold at three 
 halfpence apiece, they vacated a commodious dung 
 heap, they scuttled through the long grasses of an ad- 
 joining meadow one pas fee Minorca making use of 
 her bandy legs and ragged wings at the same time. 
 
 Feathered life and friendly strife seemed everywhere, 
 till it was finally concentrated on one spot the 
 exact spot where a tall girl stood holding a pail of 
 maize. 
 
 " My apologies for this unpunctuality," she said, 
 addressing the red Sussex rooster, whose beak had been 
 already dipped ten consecutive times over the rim of the 
 pail. 
 
 The bird accepted her apology and some more maize 
 after which Honora Vayne plunged one long white 
 hand into the amber seed and showered all the gobbling, 
 greedy birds with a deluge of supper.
 
 52 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Yes, Honora Vayne's hand was long and white just 
 exactly what a hand belonging to the proprietress of s. 
 Sussex chicken farm ought not to have been. 
 
 By right of literary precedent that hand should have 
 been plump, a very little coarse and freckled just as 
 her hair, should have been gilded with " glints of the 
 sun," her face pink and white undoubtedly comparable 
 to apple blossom her eyes en piece with the heavens, 
 and her figure plump and bonny. 
 
 But in her personal appearance Honora Vayne was 
 very much of a failure, so far as the picturesque unities 
 of a chicken farm were observed. 
 
 Her hair was black, abundant, and drifted into stray- 
 ing Empire curls without any effort; her complexion 
 wasn't by any means a triumph, except on the occasion 
 of a rare blush it was glorious then her mouth was 
 red, and parted as though unexpressed primeval long- 
 ings were trembling on both lips; and her eyes well 
 they were wonderful, and utterly out of place on a Sus- 
 sex chicken farm. Their colour? Hard to say. Every 
 colour except brown or blue very frequently they were 
 black. 
 
 Honora Vayne was young, as youth is mercifully 
 reckoned in these days of forty-year-old "boy poli- 
 ticians " that is to say her twenty-third birthday 
 wasn't passed and without any effort or intention she 
 always gave the impression of being a woman who 
 waited. 
 
 Her eyes held the expression of one watching down 
 a long white road, waiting for the sound of coming
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 53 
 
 horses' hoofs for the crush of an embrace for the 
 fulfilment of existence ! 
 
 But, so far, she held no knowledge of what, or for 
 whom, she was waiting. 
 
 That might come later. 
 
 When the last grain of maize was apportioned, Ho- 
 nora called out in a voice that, like her appearance, was 
 unexpected. 
 
 " Charlie, bring the water ! " 
 
 Charlie a ten-year-old youth belonging to the root- 
 veg table order of human beings "-turned the corner 
 of the white farmhouse staggering beneath the weight 
 of a huge can. 
 
 Honora helped him carry the can, and between them 
 they filled the dozen or so small tanks and tins placed 
 in various positions which the fowls found most con- 
 venient. 
 
 Three hundred beaks touched the crystal coldness 
 of the water, and as the red Sussex rooster threw back 
 his head and uttered a gurgle of real relish, Honora 
 laughed. 
 
 He reminded her of a priest who had once taken her 
 in to dinner at a house where the Pommery was superb. 
 
 From the very first she had regarded that rooster 
 as a man of the world. His management of the harem 
 was essentially diplomatic. 
 
 When Charlie had dragged back the huge can Honora 
 entered the long, low white house and fetched a basket. 
 Egg-collecting time was here. 
 
 From nest to nest she went, gently lifting the white,
 
 54 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 cream, salmon, pink, and delicately-brown globes from 
 beds of fragrant hay. 
 
 Most of the hens had done their duty to the ornitho- 
 logical Empire, but one small wooden box was empty. 
 
 Honora turned reproachfully to a plump Silver 
 Wyandotte who, looking like a chinchilla muff, was 
 pecking at a piece of potato peeling with an air of cer- 
 tain embarrassment. 
 
 "You've been lazy, haven't you, Ophelia? So little 
 is expected of you you might at least have done this 
 for me. It isn't much to ask! Remember, you and I 
 do not belong to the leisured classes we each have our 
 living to earn. Don't be lazy again, Ophelia ! " 
 
 The chinchilla muff waddled off in a depressed man- 
 ner. There was undoubted justice in her owner's re- 
 proach. 
 
 Honora entered another shed where a large glossy 
 black Leghorn hen was sitting humped up in her nest, 
 sullen with a desire for wrongly-seasoned motherhood, 
 which she knew from harrowing daily experience would 
 not be permitted. 
 
 Honora hesitated a second, then breathing a faint 
 sigh of regret, slid one hand under the warm black 
 breast of the fowl, who bristled all her feathers and 
 uttered the usual cackling remonstrance. 
 
 The egg was there. And instead of being allowed to 
 remain and to arouse a black Leghorn's most womanly 
 instincts, it would be sold for three-halfpence! 
 
 Honora bent tenderly over the fowl, till black curls 
 and black feathers almost intermingled.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 55 
 
 " I'm sorry, Juliet, very sorry," she murmured. " I 
 would let you have your happiness, dear, only Tryke 
 says no good comes o' blackberry chicks. Wait until 
 the spring, Juliet it won't be long and then your sons 
 and daughters shall grow up round you and stay with 
 you until " 
 
 Honora left the sentence unfinished. She couldn't 
 tell Juliet that her future progeny should remain until 
 trussing time arrived ! for the death of each bird caused 
 positive physical anguish to this proprietress of Upper 
 Deerbuck Chicken Farm. 
 
 Only born, hatched, fed, reared, fattened to die! 
 
 Every morning, when at misty daybreak Tryke 
 turned out into the sweet-smelling world to end the 
 complete summer joy of half a dozen heedless, happy 
 creatures, Honora buried her head beneath the bed- 
 clothes and prayed prayed for the souls of her regu- 
 lar customers' dinners ! 
 
 It had to be done, it must be done. 
 
 She had bought the farm in order to make a living. 
 Tryke, Mary Tryke, and Charlie Tryke would probably 
 resign their posts if the normal routine of things were 
 not carried out; but yet not one preening, strutting, 
 waddling Leghorn became a mute, inert feathered mass 
 without Honora Vayne's pillow being wet with tears. 
 
 But this evening there was no sadness. Life was, 
 for the time being, uninterrupted by the doom of man's 
 appetite. 
 
 When Honora had been the round of the nests and 
 collected one egg from the spout of a rain-pipe this
 
 56 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 was Portia's invariable lying-in abode another from 
 the vegetable marrow beds, and others from the shelter 
 of an old coal-scuttle, from a deserted beehive, from 
 the exact centre of a bare, empty pigstye, and various 
 similar spots which eccentrically-minded hens selected 
 for the scenes of their domestic rites, she entered the 
 house. 
 
 "Mary!" 
 
 A buxom woman appeared, took the eggs which it 
 was now her duty to sort and pack before Charlie went 
 on his evening rounds of delivery and then Honora 
 turned into the parlour where tea was laid for one 
 tea, cream, giant plums, primose-tinted cake a succu- 
 lent, appetising meal but always for one! 
 
 Honora threw herself on the shabby sofa covered in 
 American cloth, and closed her eyes. 
 
 She was feeling almost dangerously lonely to-day 
 that sort of loneliness which engenders morbid thoughts 
 and is morally unhealthy. 
 
 For one whole year she had been mistress of Upper 
 Deerbuck Chicken Farm, during which time she hadn't 
 exchanged five hundred words with anyone who wasn't 
 a labourer, a thirsty cyclist, or a purveyor of dairy pro- 
 duce, and now suddenly to-day she felt it was im- 
 possible to continue without companionship. 
 
 She had thought her own thoughts so often till they 
 seemed getting threadbare and senseless ; she had read 
 books, and books, and books, but perpetual reading 
 without interchange of views and argument becomes 
 mentally stultifying.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 57 
 
 Humanity may have a profound contempt for hu- 
 manity, but the mutual need is there nevertheless. 
 
 Honora rose and suddenly became alert as she had 
 been indolent a moment ago. 
 
 Where was the daily paper? that daily' paper with 
 its marvellous advertisement pages which have set 
 in train the fulfilment of a hundred thousand des- 
 tinies. 
 
 Honora found it on the floor where she had left it 
 and spread out its sheets on the end of the table where 
 tea was not laid. 
 
 Quite possibly there might be some advertisement 
 which she could answer some individual might seek 
 a temporary rural resting place? 
 
 Honora ran a long white finger such an unsuitable 
 finger for a Sussex Chicken Farmeress down the 
 columns, and halted when she came to the section headed, 
 " Seaside and Country Board and Residence." 
 
 " A German gentlemen, wife, and seven children de- 
 sire a quiet holiday retreat." No, Honora's desire for 
 companionship wasn't unlimited. " A young married 
 couple wish to spend September in a restful country 
 home." No not a young married couple absorbed with 
 themselves, possibly their own happiness, possibly their 
 own love! They would only increase Honora's loneli- 
 ness ! " A widow young, recently recovered from se- 
 vere illness desires to spend the months of her retire- 
 ment in a picturesque country farm. Genuine country, 
 chickens, and peace essential. Sunsets. Pigs preferred. 
 Apply, XX, Box 1801, etc."
 
 58 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Honora smiled, clapped her hands, and looked 
 nineteen. 
 
 Nothing would be better if she could get the widow, 
 and if the widow fitted in with her advertisement. There 
 was such a touch of whimsicality and humour about 
 the " peace, sunsets, and pigs." 
 
 Already Honora felt in sympathy with " XX," and 
 the advertisement should be answered at once. 
 
 Honora uncapped her stylo pen and wrote : 
 
 " Sussex. 
 
 " Dear Madam." (This commencement was unin- 
 spiringly orthodox, but it couldn't be helped.) " I am 
 absolutely sure that I can fill every requirement stated 
 in your advertisement. I am the owner of this Chicken 
 Farm (chickens guaranteed, you see!) and should be 
 glad to receive a paying guest. The country here is 
 quite real, there are sunsets every evening more or less 
 and six styes, containing ten perfectly genuine pigs. 
 I should think 2 2s. or 3 8s. a week should be suitable 
 in the way of terms. 
 
 " Trusting to receive a reply, 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 "HONORA VAYNE (Miss). 
 " P.S. Our nearest station is Transley." 
 
 Of course the letter wasn't businesslike, but then 
 neither was the advertisement, and Honora insensibly
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 59 
 
 felt that a woman who could make a printed demand 
 for " genuine country, sunsets, peace, and pigs " would 
 appreciate an equally spontaneous reply. 
 
 Anyhow, what had been written should be sent, and 
 by the second post to-morrow " XX " should learn all 
 the attractions of Upper Deerbuck Farm. 
 
 Two days passed without reply, but on the morning 
 of the third a telegraph boy on a scarlet bicycle wheeled 
 along the rutted road leading to the house. 
 
 He dismounted and called out " Vayne " through 
 the open door. 
 
 A tall young woman, dressed in blue zephyr, emerged 
 from the parlour, took and opened the orange envelope. 
 
 " Any answer, miss? " 
 
 " No no answer go round to the side and ask for 
 a glass of milk." 
 
 " Thank you, miss ! " 
 
 "Arriving this afternoon, 3.60, Transley Station. 
 Send cart to meet me not fly. Appreciate assurances 
 re sunseti and pigs. Terms 2 12s. 6d. KATHERINE 
 OELITSON." 
 
 Such was the response to Honora's unconventional 
 letter, and thus two strange women were to be drawn 
 into each other's lives.
 
 CHAPTER VH 
 
 HONORA had been immensely busy ever since the re- 
 ceipt of Katherine Orlitson's wire, but now everything 
 was ready, and in half an hour the paying guest would 
 arrive. 
 
 The long bedroom above the parlour had been pre- 
 pared for Mrs. Orlitson, and there was a tiny sitting- 
 room on the same floor which could be placed at her 
 disposal for though Honora had taken this step with 
 a view to securing human companionship, she fully in- 
 tended that this " young widow " should be able to 
 revel in the tearful joys of solitude whenever she so 
 desired. 
 
 As directed, Honora had sent a cart the jolting, 
 springless conveyance in which Tryke fetched loads of 
 hay to the station, and in appreciation of Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's evident desire for a completely rural scheme of 
 existence, she had forbidden Tryke to change his earth- 
 stained corduroy trousers and linen coat for a more 
 " Sunday " attire. 
 
 The new arrival was to be met by a genuine son of 
 the soil, was to sit on a wooden bench, and to be jolted 
 home in the most rickety cart to be found within twenty 
 miles of Transley. 
 
 Just as they were starting Honora had, by way of 
 inspiration, uprooted a mangel-wurzel and thrown it 
 
 60
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 61 
 
 carelessly in one corner of the cart. She felt somehow 
 this would be a sympathetic touch! 
 
 When the last rattle of the departing cart had died 
 away, Honora hurried up to her own bedroom and in- 
 spected herself in the large old-fashioned dressing- 
 table glass. 
 
 She was wearing a rather washed-out blue zephyr 
 frock made with full sleeves gathered into wristbands, 
 a plain tucked skirt, and loose blouse bodice. 
 
 Should this be changed for more orthodox afternoon 
 attire ? for the flowered silk up in the wardrobe which, 
 though a year behind the fashions looked decorous 
 and becoming? 
 
 Honora's hesitation was only momentary. She quickly 
 realised that a woman who wanted genuine country, sun- 
 sets, and pigs, would deeply resent any attire more 
 decorative than that she was now wearing. In fact 
 a stain of crushed flowers or crushed grass decorating 
 the skirt might be very advisable. 
 
 And should Mrs. Orlitson be received in the parlour, 
 or would an effective tableau, composed of chickens, 
 a yard dog, a pail of maize, and a cotton-f rocked girl, 
 form a satisfactory first impression? 
 
 Honora decided it would and hurried downstairs, out 
 of the low, dark hall into the afternoon sunshine. 
 
 It was now a quarter-past four, and the train had 
 got into Transley at 3.50, therefore Mrs. Orlitson was 
 due to arrive any moment. 
 
 Honora listened. 
 
 Yes the sound of heavy cartwheels.
 
 62 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Honora dashed into the storing shed, filled a pall 
 with wheat and maize, and whistled. 
 
 " Whew-w-w! " 
 
 In battalions they came, grateful that to-day their 
 supper wasn't late. 
 
 The picture was complete a low white cottage-house, 
 red and thatched-roofed sheds, a girl in a rumpley cot- 
 ton frock, three hundred fowls, and a pink and gold 
 sky, hazy like youth's dreams; to the right, beds of 
 buxom cabbages, of onions, unready marrows, huge 
 pickling cabbages (reminding one of great purple roses 
 for a giant's buttonhole) ; to the left, a meadow, tree- 
 shaded in places beyond, wheatfields beyond those, 
 green bosoms of the hills and beyond, the steel-blue 
 line of distant sea. 
 
 The cart jolted down the rutted entrance road, and 
 Katherine Orlitson saw it all, while across a vista of 
 fluttering feathers, Honora saw a black-gowned figure 
 standing up in the cart, the glow of red hair, and the 
 outline of a perfect waist silhouetted against the sky. 
 
 The cart stopped. For a second neither picture was 
 disturbed, as though both women were anxious to con- 
 tinue the poignant first impression which each was 
 making on the other, then 
 
 " Cock-a-doodle-do-o-o-o-o-O ! " 
 
 The red Sussex rooster had been the first to welcome 
 Katherine Orlitson to Upper Deerbuck Farm. 
 
 " Really ! Then cook-a-doodle-do-o-o-o-o-O ! " cried 
 Mrs. Orlitson. And from that instant she was at home 
 with Honora Vayne.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 63 
 
 They both laughed laughs of light-hearted, expect- 
 ant amusement that were excellent to hear and Kath- 
 erine jumped to the ground without tearing a single 
 frill of the black silk petticoat so lavishly displayed when 
 she held up her faultlessly cut skirt. Tryke realised 
 his wife's eyes were upon him, and looked obtrusively the 
 other way. 
 
 " How lovely, how perfect, how purifying every- 
 thing is here ! " exclaimed Katherine with all a town 
 woman's incurable gush gush, however, which was in- 
 finitely more sincere than uncomprehending middle-class 
 people might imagine. " I feel sort of purified and 
 resurrected the sensation began to steal over me as 
 we jerked along in that divine cart with the beetroot 
 or artichoke lying in the corner, but now it's complete. 
 Miss Vayne you are Miss Vayne, of course? I'm so 
 glad! Upper Deerbuck Farm is going to rejuvenate 
 me and prevent me from ever feeling thirty ! " 
 
 Honora listened with a sense of fascinated enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 For a year now she had only heard the slow, heavy 
 speech of provincial rustics, and this London woman's 
 rush of ready, silly, amusing, exaggerated, flippant 
 words was refreshing and exhilarating as the dipso- 
 maniac's first drink after being discharged as cured 
 from an inebriate's home. 
 
 She knew now what had been weighing her down, op- 
 pressing her more and more each day it was the need 
 of flippancy and gay exaggeration, which Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's had already begun to fill.
 
 64 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " I am so very glad to see you, and I'm glad you 
 noticed the beetroot in the cart it happened to be a 
 mangel-wurzel, by-the-by, and I put it there on purpose 
 but I'm so glad you noticed it ! " she said. 
 
 Katherine Orlitson stuck out her thin chin and bub- 
 bled with laughter. 
 
 This responsive reply taking up her own tack, 
 spoken in her own vein was delightful. 
 
 " Of course I knew it was a mangel-wurzel, and those 
 are hens, and the person with the fashionable headgear 
 is a cock, and that's a a dog, and the square, white, 
 waddling things are ducks! I know all about it, Miss 
 Vayne, so don't laugh at any supposed cockney ignor- 
 ance I may possess ! " 
 
 Honora smiled delightfully and then suggested 
 tea. 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Orlitson," she said with a touch of busi- 
 ness in her voice that had been acquired by a year's bar- 
 gaining with customers who were always ready to take 
 advantage of " 'Er up at DeerbucJc," " I have ar- 
 ranged a private sitting-room for you so that you can 
 have your meals " 
 
 But with a shrill cry and dramatic gesture Katherine 
 interrupted. 
 
 " Don't, please, don't. Won't you eat with your 
 P. G. ? Please do; my table habits are beautiful. I 
 shan't annoy you in the least for Heaven's sake don'c 
 banish me now. I absolutely feel and see we shall have 
 such a lot to talk about to each other that it'll be a race 
 vKo gets in most words ! " 
 
 .rfonora flushed with pleasure, and it was one of those
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 65 
 
 brief moments when her complexion was a bewildering 
 success. 
 
 " It's so nice of you. I was afraid perhaps you'd 
 want solitude," she murmured as they entered the cool, 
 shady house. 
 
 " So I should if if well, if you'd been what I felt 
 sure you couldn't be by your letter! But as it is no 
 solitude for me, my dear!" concluded Mrs. Orlitson 
 with a freedom and ease that had been formerly acquired 
 in Mr. L. Lewis Verschoyle's A Company. 
 
 The function of tea lasted half an hour, and by the 
 time it was concluded Katherine Orlitson and Honora 
 Vayne were intimates. 
 
 They partially understood each other, and were al- 
 ready mutually longing to exchange views on those 
 various emotional subjects which form the themes of 
 most absorbing feminine confidences for a certain 
 electric type of womanhood is as rapid in forming its 
 friendship as commencing its amours. 
 
 And the electric woman is not one whit less enduring 
 than she who fights shy of Christian names at the end 
 of five years. Rapidity is her keynote, and rapidity 
 very rarely leads astray, for her intuitions are so ac- 
 curate and her views so definite that any permanent 
 change of sentiment need never be expected. 
 
 " Now, I never sent any references, so you'd like 
 to hear all about me, wouldn't you?" said Katherine 
 when she had been conducted to her fresh-smelling, 
 chintz-hung bedroom. 
 
 " I should be awfully interested to hear whatever 
 you feel inclined to tell," answered Honora.
 
 66 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 "Then I'll tell my history straight off in tabloid 
 form. My age is twenty-nine next year it will be 
 twenty-eight. I was born of quite pleasing parents 
 a red-haired Colonel, who married the youngest daugh- 
 ter of somebody who was cousin to a baronet. They 
 were immensely poor, and before dying planted me as 
 pupil teacher in a sort of soul-prison known as an 
 academy for young ladies. At twenty I ran away to 
 go on the stage. For five years I toured, then I ran 
 away from that to marry an Englishman named Roger 
 Orlitson, whom I had met abroad. We had a delight- 
 ful roaming honeymoon lasting over three years, at the 
 end of which time all our money was spent, and, as my 
 poor husband never made a hobby of work or earning 
 an income, we were forced to retrench. Lord! how I 
 hate retrenching ! " Here the thin shoulders shuddered 
 beneath their black draperies of grief. " With us it 
 meant Seedlingditch the very final spot that could 
 ever have been created ! A three-roomed cottage, abso- 
 lute isolation, and me Me as maid-of-all-work wash- 
 ing dishes ! It was terrible, my dear ! But the sad re- 
 lease soon came. Before we had been at Seedlingditch 
 a fortnight my husband died suddenly and th that 
 ended the retrenchment ! " 
 
 Honora looked at the speaker with a query in her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Ah ! yes the money ! You're wondering why I'm 
 not practically f oodless and clotheless, aren't you ? Well, 
 I should have been, only long ago when we were honey- 
 mooning at Cairo an eccentric millionaire person of
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 67 
 
 the h-less variety nearly fell down an elevator shaft. 
 Roger my husband averted the ugly tragedy, and by 
 way of reward the millionaire insured his (Roger's) 
 life for me for 2,000, and paid four years' premium 
 in advance. Poor sort of game for Roger, wasn't it? 
 But old Van Bolorst was a chivalrous person who per- 
 sistently asserted that * it was the womenfolk what mat- 
 tered.' Therefore when last April th the terrible thing 
 happened, I was left with 2,000. If it hadn't been 
 for that ugh! Possibilities aren't pretty to think 
 about!" 
 
 " But surely, Mrs. Orlitson, you won't just live on 
 your capital till it's gone ? " cried Honora, whose ac- 
 quired practical common sense couldn't help asserting 
 itself. 
 
 *' I don't know what I shall do yet. But I'll tell you 
 what I did. I went to Monte Carlo played a sort of 
 little elusive, fascinating, unsound roulette system and 
 added 5,000 to the 2,000, then travelled night and 
 day to reach England in time to comfortably enjoy 
 brain fever in my own native land. I was ill from April 
 till well, I'm still a wreck, and I want to stay here 
 till next April till my first year of mourning is over 
 if you'll have me. For I must get strong, splendidly 
 strong to recommence life just in the way I've always 
 wanted to live it! That 5,000, Miss Vayne, is going 
 to do wonderful things it gets more valuable every 
 day and one day soon but I'll tell you all about that 
 when it happens! That's my story given with the ill- 
 bred candour and lack of concealment that used to so
 
 68 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 terribly annoy my poor husband. I can't help being 
 candid wish to goodness I could." 
 
 " Oh, don't wish that," replied Honora with sudden 
 earnestness. " It's a luxury to be candid to be able 
 to be candid and then you have no relations ? " She 
 broke off abruptly in a manner suggestive of sudden 
 stoppering of an open bottle. 
 
 " Yes somewhere I have a brother a large brother 
 who went abroad when I was still at the school. We've 
 corresponded very intermittently, and really I don't 
 know anything about him except that he meant to make 
 money. Perhaps he's done so by now I don't know ! 
 I sent him a paper containing the notice of poor Roger's 
 death, but never received any reply. I expect he im- 
 agined I should be hard up it's wonderful what bad 
 correspondents people become when they imagine you're 
 going to be hard up ! " 
 
 " In my opinion hardupness is a crime that should be 
 concealed until the very last moment. The world will 
 forgive anything but that, and it's best to keep on good 
 terms with the world as long as possible," responded 
 Honora, who was moving backward towards the door 
 with a view to leaving the " P. G." in undisturbed pos- 
 session of her own room. 
 
 " You don't know anything about hardupness, with 
 you fat fowls and potatoes and dear cottage and obvious 
 prosperity. I should think you couldn't understand 
 anything except happiness ! " exclaimed Mrs. Orlitson 
 heedlessly and impulsively. But despite the impulsive
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 69 
 
 heedlessness, her light grey eyes flashed one vry pene- 
 trating glance in the direction of Honora's face. 
 
 The owner of three hundred fowls turned away and 
 laughed but not before one of those brilliant, beautiful 
 flushes had been momentarily visible. 
 
 " Happiness isn't altogether an easy lesson to learn," 
 was her enigmatical response. And the next moment 
 Katherine Orlitson was alone. 
 
 She slipped off her black bodice and skirt to sit in 
 the cool luxury of thin petticoats and expensive corsets, 
 one white, thin shoulder sticking up petulantly above the 
 confinement of an embroidered strap. 
 
 " That didn't draw," she muttered, rubbing her smooth 
 white cheek against the smooth white shoulder. " But 
 there is something to draw ! I'd bet ' Grey Rubbers,' 
 when they reach their maximum, that there's something 
 to draw ! Honora Vayne mayn't be much over twent} r , 
 and she may live amidst the innocence of fowls and cab- 
 bages, but she's got a story and a past, or else I'm not 
 the resourceful person I imagine myself to be! I'm 
 going to be pals with her complete, absolute pals 
 but I'll draw that past! After all my candour, it's an 
 affront for her to keep an untold story buttoned up her 
 sleeve ! " 
 
 And Mrs. Orlitson laughed. She was evidently 
 amused at something.
 
 CHAPTER VIH 
 
 THREE weeks later Katherine Orlitson and Honora 
 Vayne had enjoyed two quarrels and made them up 
 a^ain, and had also discussed men, love, and all tribu- 
 tary details of these two great main cementers of femi- 
 nine intimacy. 
 
 Their friendship, affection, and unity were therefore 
 complete. 
 
 " I'm going to walk into Transley for hairpins," an- 
 nounced Katherine one afternoon. 
 
 Honora looked up from a ledger and ceased reckon- 
 ing by means of five fingers being prodded on to a soft 
 bosom. She was trying to add up somewhat unsatis- 
 factory columns of outlay and returns. 
 
 " I can't come," she answered. 
 
 " I never made the slightest suggestion that you 
 should, my dear. I don't think I want you. I may be 
 going to meet my fate in the shape of some Sussex 
 Reuben with a taste for red-haired widows ! Good-bye. 
 I shall be back for tea unless the Sussex Reuben is too 
 ardent, so do let's have egg plums ! " 
 
 When Mrs. Orlitson's short black skirt the more de- 
 corous and trailing garments of bereavement were aban- 
 doned had swirled out of the room, Honora laid down 
 a pen in order to devote a few moments' attention to her 
 thoughts. 
 
 70
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 71 
 
 Certainly Katherine couldn't have loved the dead hus- 
 band whose insurance money had saved the situa- 
 tion! 
 
 He had died at the end of April it was now the end 
 of August. 
 
 Four months is a short time for resignation and 
 brave cheerfulness to grow the pace which Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's had grown. 
 
 " If I had ever married a man I loved, and he had 
 been dead only four months, I don't think I should be 
 witty on the subject of * Sussex Reubens'!" she mur- 
 mured with a quick, amused smile. 
 
 But then, how could Honora know? How can a vir- 
 gin ever understand the entirely revolutionised condition 
 of a matron's heart? 
 
 The woman who has married a man and experienced 
 the inartistic intimacies of wedded life is a different 
 being to the girl who doesn't even know that shirts but- 
 ton over from left to right. 
 
 In one way the wife's outlook is more enlarged, in 
 another more cramped for after all, what is so glorious 
 as ignorance and inexperience? 
 
 Not to know not to have learnt to see miles of un- 
 trodden ways stretching ahead why, it leaves a woman 
 queen of ecstatic possibilities with a limitless playground 
 for her imagination. 
 
 For another half -hour Honora added up, then, when 
 the sun intruded with too fierce insistency round the side 
 of the dark green blind, she shut the ledger and went 
 out of doors.
 
 72 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " I'm only going into the woods, Mary, if Blenton 
 should come about those packing-cases," she called 
 out. 
 
 Mrs. Tryke responded in a voice that had been less 
 cheery since the advent of the " P.G." the soil-tiller's 
 excellent wife felt morally smirched by even distant con- 
 tact with the flippancies of a " shameless 'uzzy giggling 
 all t' day when 'er poor 'usband 'ardly cold in 'is grave, 
 so to speak ! " Then Honora left the house, ascended a 
 grassy, hay-strewn slope, and entered the cool shadows 
 of thickly-grown woods. 
 
 It suddenly seemed that the outside sunlight was gar- 
 ish, and that only among these silent shades could rest 
 and purity be found. 
 
 Honora trod reverently like one stepping the carpeted 
 aisles of a cathedral for familiarity with the woods 
 never brought about heedless acceptance of their hush 
 and silence. 
 
 To laugh, even in the woods, seemed unfitting, unless 
 it might be the low laughter of a woman made glad by 
 the kisses of her lover. 
 
 " The kisses of her lover! " 
 
 Honora sat down, then slid down full length on the 
 fallen leaves. 
 
 Before Katherine came she used to think, in the 
 solitary woman's unhealthy way, a great deal about 
 love, but the perpetual ripple of Mrs. Orlitson's per- 
 petual laughter had put those natural, morbid, beautiful 
 thoughts in the background. 
 
 Katherine was always saying something spuriously
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 73 
 
 clever, and Honora was always answering something 
 spuriously clever back again, so that left very little 
 time for romantic reflection. 
 
 But to-day she was alone, the woods were sympa- 
 thetic in their mysterious hush, and love ran riot, abso- 
 lutely riot, in her mind. 
 
 Honora's eyes closed as is the way with tempera- 
 mental women when their temperaments are in a par- 
 ticularly assertive mood and her red lips moved as 
 though they were responding to the pressure of a man's 
 mouth. 
 
 To be kissed in the hush of the woods how wonderful 
 it would be! 
 
 How every nerve in her body could respond to the 
 pressure of the Right Man's embrace! How she could 
 lay her arms about the Right Man's neck, and cool her 
 hot cheeks against the white smoothness of his collar ! 
 How she could let herself be drawn closer and closer, 
 till the shadow of herself and the Right Man would be 
 but one shadow ! 
 
 For months Honora's heart had held vague love- 
 longings, but to-day those vague longings suddenly 
 became a definite pain. 
 
 It was pain that her lips were unkissed, pain that 
 that 
 
 A sob sounded in her throat, and without opening 
 her eyes she raised one hand to her lips and passionately 
 kissed the soft white flesh. 
 
 " My darling ! My darling ! " she cried, making her 
 voice deep like the voice of a man. It was such foolish,
 
 74 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 hysterical make-believe, but there was comfort in the 
 pretence. " Honora, I love you, I " 
 
 The words ceased, the kisses ceased. Honora was 
 conscious of something, of some alien element which 
 had 
 
 She opened her extraordinarily beautiful eyes, and 
 saw a man a man who was watching her with a curi- 
 ously analytical expression on his face! 
 
 Honora did nothing there was nothing she could 
 do and the man was still looking. 
 
 Their eyes met. His were either grey or blue, and 
 Honora realised that he was a large man, actually 
 rather fair, while giving the impression of being 
 dark. 
 
 His mouth was shaved clean, and in his definite chin 
 was the hint of a cleft. 
 
 His skin was bronzed. His clothes were nondescript 
 and dark blue. His hat was straw. His boots were 
 tan. He carried a thick sixpenny stick. 
 
 For a moment that exchange of glances was expres- 
 sionless, then, as gradually a smile of faintly quizzical 
 amusement caused the flash of one gold-stopped tooth 
 to be revealed, Honora fully comprehended what had 
 happened. 
 
 She had been seen caught by a strange man of 
 apparently her own class, when occupied with the ex- 
 traordinary diversion of kissing her own hand and 
 calling herself " Darling! " 
 
 Without any doubt he had heard, and without any 
 doubt he had seen.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 75 
 
 What might he not do? What might he not say to 
 her? 
 
 Honora didn't wait to test these possibilities, but 
 dashing up from her indecorous, prostrate position 
 turned to the left and ran, ran through the trees till at 
 least the eighth of a mile must have separated her and 
 the large man in the dark blue suit. 
 
 But even though they were far apart it seemed 
 as if trees carried the echo of a low, amused 
 laugh. 
 
 Honora did not sit down again. She changed the 
 run to a walk, and continued to thread her way 
 through the trees. 
 
 Who was this man? Probably a golfer, who had 
 strolled over from Transley, where the links were 
 famous to explore the outlying country. 
 
 Heaven be praised! They would never be likely to 
 meet again. Honora felt that if she were ever called 
 upon to face the large man in the dark blue suit there 
 would be no possibility of her surviving the ordeal. 
 
 And his eyes were so insolent, yet Honora 
 
 flushed in the shadow of the woods, for her mind had 
 once more inconsequently reverted to thoughts of the 
 Right Man whose collar she had longed to kiss. 
 
 This stranger, this big person wouldn't so far as 
 outward personality was concerned be at all impos- 
 sible in the role of Right Man. 
 
 He was so large and strong that the crush of his 
 embrace might inflict a suggestion of pain and love 
 without pain is like lamb without mint sauce.
 
 76 
 
 The lamb might be mutton, and the love might be 
 friendship. 
 
 Still Honora hurried on until beneath the shade of 
 a hillock she suddenly came upon a man and a girl 
 who were embracing with that curious disregard of 
 possible observation peculiar to the lower middle 
 classes. 
 
 The man's arms both of them were around the 
 girl's waist; the girl's arms both of them were 
 around the man's neck; her ill-cut skirt was drawn to 
 one side, showing a liberal expanse of ill-cut leg, and 
 their mouths were glued together in a kiss that was 
 in their case an indecency. 
 
 But in other circumstances a shady, fairy-haunted 
 wood full of silence and with other people a differ- 
 ent man and a different woman such a kiss might have 
 been regarded as a purely passionate poem and this 
 was what Honora realised as she turned and retraced 
 her steps. 
 
 Her face was hot, her limbs felt hot, her whole body 
 felt hot with that peculiar glow which is the direct re- 
 sult of a temperament. 
 
 That man and that girl! How close together they 
 were! How close how close! 
 
 Honora moistened her own red lips, which were defi- 
 nitely parted now, and hurried back. 
 
 There must be no more dalliance, as there were the 
 eggs to be collected, and Katherine would be waiting 
 for tea. 
 
 In less than half an hour she reached the little shady
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 77 
 
 rutted road which Katherine Orlitson had designated 
 " Our carriage drive," and as she approached, a crowd 
 of hungry feathered things strutted forward to wel- 
 come her at least to welcome the probable approach 
 of a meal ! 
 
 " Be patient, be patient ! " cried Honora, addressing 
 the unquellable red rooster. " Humanity's perpetual 
 lesson in patience and fowls " 
 
 But the homily was left unfinished, because at that 
 instant Katherine Orlitson appeared at the open door, 
 and then ran forward with the small-stepped run of 
 town women. 
 
 Her red hair was very slightly disordered, and on 
 her white angular cheeks was a faint flush. 
 
 " I'm so excited, so immensely excited ! " she cried ; 
 " and I expect you to be the same ! I can show you 
 I'm genuine now. I believe you always have a sort 
 of vague doubts about me, even though I'm so beauti- 
 fully candid while you keep most uninspiringly close 
 and secretive. Come along. Confound your silly, lag- 
 ging little feet!" 
 
 Down the rutted road, through her own parlour Ho- 
 nora was rushed. 
 
 She felt out of breath bewildered blinded by the 
 shadows. 
 
 "Now, I told you I had a brother, didn't I?" 
 Katherine rattled on, slurring her words and speaking 
 with more dramatic throatiness than usual. " I said 
 he was a large brother, and a brother who had gone 
 abroad ! Well, he's come home ! He received my news-
 
 78 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 paper with the account of poor Roger's death; he 
 took a steamer, reached England, went to Seedling- 
 ditch, got my present address from Dr. Sphait, and 
 now he's come after me to Upper Deerbuck Farm! 
 Bernard, Bernard come in! Miss Vayne doesn't al- 
 low strangers to stand outside the window without 
 special permission." A large shadow darkened the 
 French window. " Come in Honora, Miss Vayne, this 
 is ' Berr ' my large brother, Bernard Benstead ! 
 Please excuse him for not being more like me ! " 
 
 The shadow became a substance a man was bowing 
 a conventional bow it was the man who had seen, 
 heard, and smiled in the wood !
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 HONORA'S composure appeared complete. She re- 
 turned the bow distantly but she felt that her 
 cheeks were white with shame. And the thudding of 
 her heart was agony. 
 
 " Isn't it fun, Honora, his turning up like this? It 
 amuses me immensely and it pleases me ! " cried 
 Katherine. 
 
 The large man smiled, and once more Honora saw 
 the flash of a gold-filled tooth. 
 
 "He is big, isn't he?" Mrs. Orlitson rattled on. 
 " Rather sinful-looking in a sandy sort of way, but 
 not at all bad. You'll be quite a harmless sort of 
 'P.G.', won't you, Berr?" 
 
 "'P.G.'? What degree is signified by P.G.,' my 
 dear Katherine? " enquired Bernard Benstead, speak- 
 ing at last in a voice which slightly slurred, and 
 rumbled like that of his sister's. 
 
 " Not * Pious Grandfather ' or even er er 
 * Pneumatic Gargoyle,' but ' Paying Guest,' you side-y 
 person. Oh, yes, I know that pretended ignorance, 
 which is nothing but sort of side like mouldy judges 
 put on! Yes, you'll be Miss Vayne's T.G.* you'll 
 have him, won't you, Honora? " 
 
 " Since you see fit to consult me upon the matter, 
 I'm afraid I must decline to to let any more rooms," 
 replied Honora coldly. 
 
 79
 
 80 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Katherine gazed with absolute astonishment shining 
 from her light grey eyes. 
 
 " Ho no ra! What is the matter? Why are you 
 freezing me into an unfortunate Neapolitan No, 
 British ice ? What have I done ? " 
 
 " Nothing, dear, nothing, only I I don't see my 
 way to receive any more visitors. I am sorry ! " 
 And with a stately inclination of her dark head, Honora 
 left the room. 
 
 Katherine turned to her brother. 
 
 " I'm petrified, positively petrified ! " She exclaimed. 
 " Honora's a sweet, dear, delightful thing, Berr ! I 
 adore her she's made me under twenty again. I've 
 never liked a woman really before. I love her even 
 though I'm sure she's got a past. I can't imagine 
 what's the matter ! " 
 
 " I think I can tell you," replied Bernard easily. 
 "On my way here I met this emotional young lady in 
 the wood, and seeing a good-looking girl she's ex- 
 ceptionally good-looking in her own way, isn't she? 
 stretched out in the pose of a declassee wood nymph. 
 I permitted myself the impertinence of a stare 
 and a smile two smiles possibly it may have been 
 three smiles. I was very impertinent I'm extremely 
 sorry ! " 
 
 " How tiresome of you, Berr but of course it was 
 natural. Nothing could have been more natural, and 
 I'm sure if I'd posed a la dryade and a young man had 
 passed without staring and smiling, I should have con- 
 sidered it an affront. But Honora is different. In
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 81 
 
 some things she's so self-contained and dignified. She'd 
 probably sacrifice her soul, virtue, and lots of other 
 useful things for the sake of a man who took her fancy, 
 but she'd resent a smile and a stare like mad." 
 
 " I understand. Lots of girls are like that in 
 books aren't they? Confounded nuisance !" However, 
 do what you can, Kit, to put matters right. I want 
 to stay here the place is ripping most conducive to 
 moral reformation. Say yes, say I'm near-sighted 
 to the verge of blindness mind you achieve that He 
 for me? Say I've got a way of staring without seeing 
 anything. Say I I thought she was a child, and 
 grinned paternally say it well, insistently, patheti- 
 cally, convincingly." 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson nodded her red head. 
 
 " No need to coach me, dear boy ! Was there ever 
 a Benstead who lied without being pathetic and con- 
 vincing? You wait here. I'll come back when I've 
 either failed or succeeded!" 
 
 When Katherine reached Honora's bedroom she 
 knocked timidly at the door. 
 
 A pause then 
 
 "Come in." 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson made a splendid R. U. E. entrance 
 with both thin arms outstretched and a cooing cry 
 upon her lips. A Southport gallery audience had 
 once nearly encored this entrance. 
 
 " Honora darling, Berr's just told me what he be- 
 lieves is the matter ! " Honora's cheeks flamed. So, 
 besides laughing at her folly, he had also betrayed it!
 
 82 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 betrayed to another woman! " He says he saw some- 
 body in the woods, but is so awfully near-sighted 
 poor old dear, he's had three operations already sort 
 of intermittent cataract can see perfectly well one 
 hour and is more than three parts blind the next ! 
 yes, so awfully near-sighted that he thought it was 
 some child, and thinking it was a kid he naturally 
 smiled out of sheer good-nature. Berr's awfully good- 
 natured and simple-minded without remotely guess- 
 ing that he was staring at he does have to stare and 
 peer so, poor boy ! at an awfully pretty woman ! He 
 begs me to put it right for him he wants to stay 
 awfully. I want him to. Honora, darling, pal, do, do 
 let my large, inoffending brother come as a * P. G. ! " 
 
 The flames had left Honora's face. 
 
 So he really hadn't seen that supremely nonsensical 
 impulse he didn't know that she had kissed her own 
 hand just because there wasn't anyone else to kiss it 
 and quite likely he hadn't heard either. Now Honora 
 recalled her own voice, she felt sure it hadn't been 
 raised when addressing herself as " My darling" In 
 fact she had imitated a man's gruff, non-penetrating 
 tones ! 
 
 " You will let poor Berr be a * P.G.% won't you, 
 Honora, darling? " 
 
 " Now that you've explained, Katherine, I I think 
 it'll be all right for Mr. Benstead to stay if he 
 doesn't find the other room too small ! " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson clapped her hands rapturously, then 
 squeezed Honora's waist.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 83 
 
 " You angel ! You seraph ! And, Ora, dear, you'd 
 better charge Berr 3 3s. a week." 
 
 For the first time Honora Vayne winced at financial 
 details. Ever since buying the Upper Deerbuck 
 Chicken Farm it had been a perpetual round of taking 
 money in exchange for goods, and even Katherine's 
 weekly bill hadn't proved disturbing. 
 
 But now, all of a sudden and for absolutely no rea- 
 son, Honora shrank from discussing the practical 
 aspect of the situation. 
 
 " Not on any account such a large sum as that," she 
 said decisively. " I'd I'd rather we let that slide 
 your own arrangement with me is so liberal th that 
 it would be a pleasure for your brother to stay " 
 
 Two thin fingers were snapped just under Honora's 
 nose. 
 
 " Not much ! " retorted Mrs. Orlitson. " I believe 
 Berr's come back quite well off his stick's so cheap 
 and he's got a gun metal watch that looks like it, 
 doesn't it ? but we'll settle that later. All I care about 
 is that Berr may stay ! " 
 
 " Yes he may stay ! " answered Honora softly. 
 And there was a catch in her breath she had just re- 
 membered about the Right Man how he might pos- 
 sibly 
 
 Yes, Bernard Benstead might stay.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 " GOOD LOED ! I believe they're going to fall in 
 love!" 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson made this remark to herself as she 
 looked from behind the curtains of her bedroom win- 
 dow at her brother and Honora, who were standing in 
 the seed-strewn yard below. 
 
 Honora was wearing a white dress Katherine noted 
 that her attire had become more effective and less 
 insistently rustic during the last ten days and on her 
 cheeks was that flush which transformed her into a 
 vividly beautiful woman while Bernard kept his eyes 
 fixed on her face. 
 
 " It would be nice. I should like Honora for a 
 sister-in-law. But I'll have to get that past out of 
 her first. Not that a past matters of course but I 
 want to know. Perhaps there's nothing but it's 
 funny she won't be candid like I am about myself ! " 
 And Mrs. Orlitson laughed she often laughed with- 
 out the least reason. 
 
 Meanwhile Bernard was asking a great many ques- 
 tions about the farm. He had asked most of them 
 before, but that was no reason why they shouldn't be 
 asked again. 
 
 " Can't be very profitable to kill a hen that lays 
 six or seven eggs a week, is it? " he enquired, follow- 
 ing Honora in the direction of the styes, where a lady 
 
 84
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 85 
 
 pig, who shortly expected to be the happy mother of 
 twelve, was awaiting her customary afternoon tea of 
 mangel-wurzel. 
 
 " Hens never are killed, unless it's old ones who're 
 past laying and are sold as boiling fowls but I I 
 never do that," answered Honora gravely. 
 
 " What, is it only the chaps " 
 
 " Yes, only the roosters who are killed. In poultry- 
 land, Mr. Benstead, and nowhere else, is femininity 
 placed at its just valuation. The useless male thing 
 dies, the profitable female, who justifies her existence, 
 lives on in luxury ! " 
 
 " I see. Not a single suffragist hen among all the 
 crowd then, I suppose ? But after all " Bernard 
 grew reflective and fixed his eyes on the grey sea-line 
 " the profitable female fowl wouldn't be quite so profit- 
 able if deprived of male co-operation, would she? I'm 
 not quite sure that the theory doesn't hold all 
 through ! " 
 
 Honora laughed. The subject was scarcely one for 
 exhaustive discussion, particularly with a man whose 
 eyes were sometimes disconcerting and whose mouth 
 very definitely emphasised the fact of his sex ; so she 
 made a pretence of dashing forward to separate a 
 couple of bantams who occasionally evidenced antago- 
 nistic propensities. 
 
 But the pretence wasn't a success, for the regrettable 
 reason that Honora slipped over a dropped apple par- 
 ing and would have fallen if Bernard's large arm 
 hadn't immediately come to the rescue.
 
 86 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " You clumsy little girl ! " Like a caress the words 
 left his lips and his arm was still about her shoulders. 
 
 Honora stood perfectly still for a moment, and 
 knew that the pressure of his arm filled some unclassi- 
 fied gap in her emotions. 
 
 She would like him to draw her closer, closer still 
 to hold her to touch her to but instead she broke 
 away from a support that was almost an embrace ! 
 
 " I am clumsy. I really must get a pair of Mrs. 
 Tryke's * Plimsolls.' I never knew why indiarubber 
 soled shoes are called * Plimsolls ' they defy apple 
 parings or even banana skins, I think " 
 
 Honora was talking rapidly like Katherine talked 
 and with only a very vague notion of what she was 
 saying. For some inexplicable reason she suddenly re- 
 membered that kissing couple who, ten days ago, had 
 been sheltered behind a hillock, and the remembrance 
 seemed to burn through her whole body. 
 
 Then she looked up, met Bernard Benstead's eyes, 
 and saw the set of his mouth. Both were touched with 
 passion, while the bronze of his face and throat had 
 reddened. 
 
 " Bessie, Bessie ! " Honora called boisterously to the 
 big grey sow, whose little eyes were already beautiful 
 with approaching motherhood or meals and, hurry- 
 ing away from her companion, reached the stye. 
 
 Bessie ate the juicy root vegetables with relish and 
 placed her fat back in a position convenient for being 
 scratched. 
 
 Honora leant over and scratched vigorously with
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 87 
 
 a stick never before had Bessie felt so gratified 
 then, having forcibly dispersed her embarrassment, 
 she looked round intending to pronounce some playful 
 flippancy that would wipe out the memory of that 
 half embrace. 
 
 But the flippancy was unneeded Bernard had 
 gone! 
 
 Honora breathed a deep breath, half of relief, half 
 of disappointment. 
 
 She wanted him she wanted him she didn't want 
 him! She didn't want him! She mustn't want him! 
 She daren't want him yet she did, she did, she did, 
 she did! 
 
 " Bessie, I love him, I'm in love with him. I'm just 
 waiting for the day when he will kiss me in the woods ! 
 It must be in the woods Bessie ! Bessie ! " 
 
 " Ur ! Ur ! Ur ! " replied Bessie. That pink hog in 
 the field was a very fine fellow. Perhaps she under- 
 stood. 
 
 Having discharged this load of truths from her 
 heart, Honora who felt weak with emotional exhaus- 
 tion walked slowly back towards the house, against 
 which leaned the scarlet bicycle of a telegraph boy. 
 
 A telegram! Who could it be from? Who could 
 it be for? 
 
 A black-gowned figure had appeared at the door- 
 way. She was flying, flying, with hands outstretched, 
 as though one wing was an orange envelope, and an- 
 other a pink slip of paper. Her red hair glowed fire- 
 like in the sunshine her white face was whiter than it
 
 88 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 had ever been before, and her light grey eyes were 
 almost shut. 
 
 " It's happened ! It's happened ! " she cried, speak- 
 ing low and fast. " After twenty-nine years I've got 
 what I want. Oh, Honora, I wanted it so, and I've 
 got it. ' Grey Rubbers,' my dear Grey Rubbers 
 bought at 1 a share and sold to-day at 40 a share 
 5,000 worth I bought, Honora, and now 
 now ! " 
 
 The telegram fluttered to the ground, and Roger 
 Orlitson's widow slipped down fainting across the 
 bewildering message.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 KATHERINE ORLITSON was lying across the bed. 
 
 Exactly twenty-four hours had passed since the re- 
 ceipt of her stockbroker's bewildering telegram, and 
 she was still repeating the glorified news to herself. 
 
 In April she had been washing greasy dishes and 
 filling battered coal-scuttles, debts had been pressing 
 on every side debts there seemed no hope of paying 
 and now now she was a definitely wealthy woman ! 
 
 The almost soundless " whir-r-r-r " of an electric 
 brougham seemed to reach her ears. She could see 
 her own red head rising out of costly furs as on silent 
 wheels she was taken through the Park, or to pay calls 
 on other women who were wealthy. She could see 
 diamonds shooting out lights from her white thin 
 throat and hair and arms; she could realise exquisite 
 gowns, she could feel the throb of vie de luxe in every 
 vein and in every pulse. 
 
 September! It was now the beginning of Septem- 
 ber, and still her strength was not fully restored after 
 that illness which followed the nerve-racking time pre- 
 ceding it. 
 
 Sudden death, its attendant gruesome rites and for- 
 mulae, London, Monte Carlo, the strain of acute, un- 
 ceasing mental concentration, the triumph of success, 
 had all considerably undermined her vital powers, so 
 
 89
 
 90 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 another seven or eight months of seclusion which must 
 pass before convention could allow any obvious lessen- 
 ing of widowed grief spent here with Honora would 
 be ideal. 
 
 And apres 
 
 Apres, LIFE spelt with those huge capitals which 
 only the rich have any right to use. 
 
 Life isn't life to a woman unless she is either rich or 
 has never realised the possibilities of wealth. 
 
 But just to have tasted stolen, intermittent sips 
 from the Cup of Pleasure, and then to spend all the 
 rest of the time in watching other people quaff 
 God, help the canker that grows in the heart ! 
 
 Other people's carriages, other people's diamonds, 
 other people's motors, other people's opera boxes sim- 
 ply form everlasting scourges which cause agony, 
 ranging from chronic to acute, according to the time 
 of the year. 
 
 From May to August, when London window-boxes 
 are abloom and when accounts of the season's festivi- 
 ties fill nearly every column of nearly every paper, is 
 the acute period. Then a ride on a motor 'bus or a 
 walk down Piccadilly is like a whip-lash to the woman 
 with 300 a year! 
 
 But there would be no more whip-lashes or scourg- 
 ings for Katharine Orlitson. 
 
 The gravely furnished Hyde Park flat perhaps a 
 maisonette with a billiard-room on the lower floor 
 would be possible; a few silent servants, a luxurious 
 club, one or two things on wheels, gowns for every
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 91 
 
 occasion, and when she made a circle of desirable 
 acquaintances through the introductions of Evelyn 
 Chesham occasions for every gown! 
 
 Ah! it would be good! 
 
 Katherine threw open the kimono wrapper she was 
 wearing and stretched lazily. She was supposed to be 
 going for a walk with Honora and Berr, but she didn't 
 want to. 
 
 There were thoughts to be thought and a letter to 
 be written. 
 
 That letter must be written to-day. 
 
 " Honora ! Hon-or-a ! " 
 
 She called shrilly, and a moment later the door 
 opened to admit Honora, who was wearing a cream 
 cambric gown with one blood-red dahlia stuck in the 
 waistband. 
 
 "How more than pretty you look!" ejaculated 
 Katherine ruminatingly. " You're nearly lovely some- 
 times, aren't you ? " 
 
 " If you've called me here to be insulted by 
 ' nearlys ' I'll go ! " replied Honora blithely. She felt 
 happy to-day extraordinarily, dangerously happy, 
 and without any special reason. 
 
 " No, I called you to say that I can't go out I feel 
 slack you and Berr will have to go by yourselves. 
 You can, can't you ? " 
 
 " Oh ! yes I suppose we can, but but I thought 
 you had arranged to come." 
 
 " Of course I arranged, ma mie, but you must learn 
 that to a woman of my temperament the attraction of
 
 92 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 making arrangements lies in the joy of breaking them. 
 You aren't a bit like that, are you ? " 
 
 " No, I'm a humdrum, methodical person one of 
 those natural old maids hedged in by routine and cau- 
 tion." Honora spoke vehemently and with a certain 
 underlying passion. 
 
 " Yes you look like that ! " 
 
 Katherine's intonation was humorous, but Honora 
 did not smile. 
 
 " Ah ! but it's true, Katherine, it's true. Some- 
 times I absolutely respect women who are brave enough 
 to be entirely wicked. I never could. I might dally 
 with sin, hedge around it, beckon it, but I should 
 always be a coward! You, I know, are immensely 
 brave. If you meant to do a thing you'd go right 
 through with it." 
 
 " Yes I should go right through with it ! " 
 repeated Katherine, for once speaking slowly and 
 monotonously. 
 
 " It's splendid, but I never could ! " 
 
 A pause. 
 
 "Honora!" 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 "Why are you here? What is your life? What is 
 your love story ? " 
 
 There was a pause while Honora tensely gripped 
 at the rail of the bed and kept her lips tightly closed. 
 
 But when she answered her voice was calm and level. 
 
 " I am here so that the very small capital which 
 came to me when I was twenty-one should be made to
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 93 
 
 yield an income that is to say, I bought this place 
 in the way of an investment. My life has been more 
 or less uneventful. My mother died when I was 
 twelve, and then I travelled abroad with my father 
 till he died in Scotland a little over two years ago 
 after which I came to England and negotiated for the 
 farm. And my love-story well, so far there has been 
 no love-story in all my life. I have answered your 
 questions truthfully, Katherine. I hope details are sat- 
 isfactory." 
 
 Katherine stretched out her hand there was real 
 affection as well as dramatic action in the gesture. 
 
 " Don't be haughty, dearie," she cried. " I only 
 asked out of loving interest not inquisitiveness and 
 as I've told you all reprehensible details about myself, 
 I thought a little friendly confidence in return was my 
 due. And you must confess, Ora, there is something 
 mildly mysterious about a young and not particularly 
 bad-looking girl ahem ! who lives alone, unwedded, 
 unloved and unloving on a chicken farm ! A peck from 
 the beak of an affectionate rooster may be all right in 
 its way, but it's not so satisfying as a lover's kiss. 
 You seem at present a sort of unawakened person, like 
 some mythology lady a lover would make you 
 divine ! " 
 
 Honora relaxed her grip upon the bedrails and 
 laughed. 
 
 " My divinity is a very far-away state of affairs, 
 I'm afraid," she said lightly. " And now about the 
 walk? You aren't coming then?"
 
 94 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " No, I want to lie and think how I'll spend 
 my money in London next spring. Run away and 
 play, dear play with my little brother Berr. I know 
 a very good game that would just suit you two! Ha- 
 ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! It's called Honora, the game of 
 lo " 
 
 But Honora had left the room before Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's sentence was finished. She didn't hear what that 
 good game was called. 
 
 In the hall she met Bernard, looking particularly 
 large in white cloth trousers and a loose golfing coat. 
 He had watched her as she descended the stairs, and 
 was still gazing reflectively at her gracious figure. 
 
 " Katherine doesn't want to go out," announced 
 Honora carelessly, " so we can postpone the walk until 
 to-morrow." 
 
 " Of course we can. Come along. Are you ready ?" 
 
 " I said we could postpone the walk " 
 
 " Certainly, so we will. The walk which you, Kath- 
 erine, and myself were going to take to-day can be 
 postponed but you and I will go for (mother one 
 now on our own account. Come along ! " 
 
 " Perhaps I don't intend to come along, Mr. Ben- 
 stead." 
 
 " Perhaps not come along ! " 
 
 Honora hesitated. Why should she obey this man? 
 Why should she let him take it for granted that 
 
 " I'll wait for you outside ; don't be long, because 
 September sunlight isn't everlasting." 
 
 She felt impotent. He had strolled out of the low
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 95 
 
 front door and was gently stroking the speckled 
 feathers of a Grey Wyandotte with his sixpenny stick. 
 
 She would let him go on strolling by himself she 
 wouldn't think of going when she didn't intend to go. 
 
 But even as Honora insisted and argued to herself, 
 the voice of Desire shouted aloud in her ear. 
 
 " Go with him, go with him ! " cried Desire. " Life 
 has not so many perfect hours that we can afford to 
 miss those which are thrown in our way. You love 
 him! Why not let him love you just for half a day 
 and now every one of his nerves is aquiver with love. 
 Go to him, for he will leave you with memories which 
 no past or no future can spoil. Go! " 
 
 And without waiting another second, Honora went. 
 
 Bernard slightly raised his hat as she approached 
 a half-grudging concession to convention that seemed 
 out of place among haystacks and granaries and fell 
 in with her pace. 
 
 He made no remark upon the mute obedience to his 
 will, but accepted her presence as his due. He had 
 said " Come along," and of course she came. He was 
 a man who wanted her to come she was a woman who 
 wanted to come. 
 
 "Where shall we go?" asked Honora, as they left 
 the rutted " carriage drive." 
 
 " To the woods." 
 
 His answer was briefly decisive, and Honora's heart 
 seemed to turn a species of somersault within her 
 breast for she knew what that would mean if they 
 went alone together into the hush of the woods.
 
 96 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 "Wh why not make for the sea to-day, and get 
 some ozone? " she suggested nervously. 
 
 " Because I want to be in the woods with 
 you" 
 
 And five minutes later they passed into the gold- 
 flecked gloom of the trees. 
 
 Honora felt she must say something anything! 
 This silence was indecent as though she were wait- 
 ing 
 
 "How are your eyes? Have they been better since 
 you came here? " she enquired. 
 
 "My eyes!" There was astonishment in the ejacu- 
 lation. 
 
 " Yes, Katherine told me you were very near- 
 sighted intermittent cataract or something of the 
 sort." 
 
 Bernard threw back his head and laughed. There 
 was a flash of that gold-filled tooth. 
 
 " Of course she told you I insisted upon her doing 
 so the lie was mine, not hers ! " 
 
 "You mean that you are not near-sighted that 
 you saw ? " 
 
 The vivid flush which made Honora beautiful left 
 her face. 
 
 Yes, I saw! " 
 
 " And you told Katherine? " 
 
 " I did not tell Katherine." There was no doubting 
 this statement: Bernard was speaking the truth now. 
 " I merely told her I had seen you, admired you, stared 
 and smiled; and then I instructed her as to how she
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 97 
 
 was to make peace for me. It was an excusable lie, for 
 I couldn't have left you." 
 
 Honora left the significance of these last words un- 
 heeded she only knew that he had witnessed her folly, 
 " sensual folly," perhaps, as a coarse-minded male crea- 
 ture might call that absurd outburst of feminine lone- 
 liness. 
 
 " Yes, I saw you kiss your pretty white hand 
 how white it is, Honora! and at that very moment I 
 wanted to put my lips where yours had been. I heard 
 you call your little solitary self * My darling ' and, 
 unknown to you, I repeated the words. I absolutely 
 understand the romance and loneliness of your heart ! " 
 
 " You understand ! " 
 
 Gravely his eyes met hers through the shadows. 
 
 " I absolutely understood, Honora ! " 
 
 A passionate gratitude surged in Honora's heart. 
 He had not told Katherine, and he understood! 
 
 Tears filled her eyes she turned away. 
 
 "Honora!" 
 
 " Yes ? I I am so silly I want to go home now 
 I shall have got over my silliness by the time you get 
 back but I feel so so " 
 
 "Honora!" 
 
 "Honora!" 
 
 " Honora come back ! " 
 
 She hesitated then came back right into his arms ! 
 
 To-be-kissed-inrthe-hush-of-the-woods!
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 BUT Bernard did not kiss her at once. He just held 
 her close, looking deeply into her shamed eyes. 
 
 " You are lovely you are lovely," he murmured, 
 scarcely loud enough for her to hear. 
 
 Then gradually Honora felt his unswerving gaze 
 was drawing the shame out of her eyes and out of her 
 heart. 
 
 She looked at him now, steadily, as he looked at her 
 and the cool words seemed filled with fire. 
 
 Almost voluntarily she moved the fraction of an 
 inch closer towards him then came the kiss. 
 
 Unconsciously Honora closed her eyes she was in 
 dreamland, in dreamland, with a man's mouth upon her 
 own. 
 
 "Look at me!" 
 
 For a second the kiss was broken by a command. 
 
 She must look at him ! 
 
 Her eyes opened and found two grey-blue fireballs 
 almost on a level with her own. 
 
 It was a kiss of the lips, and a kiss of the eyes, which 
 must end God! where could be the ending of such a 
 kiss? 
 
 Surely -down in Hades with Paolo and Francesca! 
 or might it be that Dante's Beatrice would in the end 
 call it back to Heaven? 
 
 98
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 99 
 
 When at last Bernard's lips left her own, Honora 
 felt that all of her life must have been lived. There 
 could be nothing else to experience, to realise, to feel. 
 
 " Sit down," whispered Bernard, almost as though 
 he feared tree-birds might hear. Honora slid down 
 upon the fallen leaves. For the time being now her 
 will was only his will. " Lie down right down as I 
 first saw you ! " 
 
 She wanted to refuse, but it was not possible. 
 
 Her dark head fell backward she was looking 
 straight up at the green canopy through which filtered 
 streaks of gold sunlight and flecks of blue sky. 
 
 Bernard knelt by her side and kissed the hand she 
 had kissed. 
 
 " My darling ! My darling ! " he cried. 
 
 And Honora understood he was making up to her 
 for all the loneliness which had been ! 
 
 She smiled up at him and innocence came back to her 
 face, while his unmoral mouth grew almost good with 
 tenderness. 
 
 " I love you so much, Honora I love you, dear," 
 he said gently, sinking down on the fallen leaves by her 
 side and slipping one arm between her head and the 
 ground. 
 
 " Do you ? Perhaps you only think you do," she 
 replied. The woman-coquette within her was waking 
 now that passion was temporarily lulled to rest. 
 
 "How can it be possible that I don't know? How 
 can it be possible that you don't know ? " 
 
 "Why should I know?"
 
 100 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Have I not kissed you, and don't they say that a 
 woman never remains in doubt as to the intensity of 
 a man's feelings when once he has kissed her ? " 
 
 Honora shook her head, and then rested one cheek 
 against the sleeve of his coat, as though the contact 
 was grateful. 
 
 " A kiss means nothing ! " she answered sadly. 
 " Isn't it supposed that a kiss on the brow means rev- 
 erence, on the cheek tenderness, and on the lips love? 
 How could that be when practically every stolen kiss 
 is laid upon the lips? Does the suburban partner 
 enlivened by cheap champagne ever kiss the girl 
 whom he takes into the conservatory anywhere except 
 on the lips? Yet who would call that love? Do not 
 men kiss women who who are not good whom they 
 may never see again upon the lips? They can't love 
 them! " 
 
 " Some men may not those who possess any imagi- 
 nation. A decent white man may may take a loose 
 woman at the valuation which she places upon herself 
 this is, unfortunately, a decree of nature but only 
 an inartistic beast will kiss her." 
 
 Honora nodded. It was curious that she felt no 
 sense of embarrassment in thus discussing quite " im- 
 proper " oh, that awful word! subjects with Ber- 
 nard Benstead. 
 
 He was absolutely a man, a lustful, sensual man, 
 perhaps, but one entirely without a suggestion of 
 coarseness in his moral make-up and so long as even
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 101 
 
 hidden coarseness is absent, there can be no " impro- 
 priety." 
 
 Men and women were not meant to skirt around nat- 
 ural subjects as though life-long penance could be 
 incurred by the mention of some erring mother who 
 might not happen to be a wife ! 
 
 Half the world's immorality comes from its pre- 
 tences and concealments, and generally those who con- 
 ceal and pretend the most are the most inherently 
 immoral. 
 
 " I have always thought ever since I thought about 
 such things at all that love, real love, ought to have 
 some rites exclusively its own," continued Honora. 
 " If only kisses could be sacred to real love, how beauti- 
 ful they would be ! " 
 
 Bernard bent over and touched her mouth. 
 
 " Try to think they are for us! " he murmured. 
 
 She looked up into his eyes they were holding her 
 own again. 
 
 "Tell me, darling, how can a woman know if a man 
 loves her? How can I make you know that I love you 
 intensely and absolutely ? " 
 
 " I I have always thought that only time proves 
 love in fact, it must be so." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Marriage and unions which are not marriage evi- 
 dence that. There is nothing but ardour, tenderness, 
 happiness in the beginning, but after five years every- 
 thing has gone ! That was never love."
 
 102 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Then must people must tee live to be dodder- 
 ing and silver-haired before love is an accepted fact? 
 Must all youth's rapture be enjoyed with caution and 
 suspicion, each one wondering of the other, * /* this 
 real or make-believe '? " 
 
 " No, no, of course not that but but Oh ! I 
 
 don't know what I think! I've been all alone here so 
 long that perhaps I've evolved all sorts of theories 
 which are not sound; perhaps I don't under- 
 stand " 
 
 " Never mind theories, little girl ; never mind about 
 understanding anything just put both arms around 
 my neck and accept facts ! " 
 
 She obeyed. It was happiness to put both arms 
 round his neck, even as that common girl behind the 
 hillock had put both arms round her lover's neck. 
 
 " Is it all right now ? Do you believe that I love you ? " 
 
 "Yes, Berr, I'll I'll believe it!" 
 
 " Do you feel it? " 
 
 " Yes, I feel it ! " She was cooling her cheek against 
 his collar now, just as she had dreamed of cooling her 
 cheek against the Right Man's collar ! 
 
 " And do you love me ? " 
 
 '* I do love you oh, yes ! " 
 
 " Then there is only our wedding-day to settle ! " 
 
 Honora's arms relaxed and fell to her sides. There 
 was dazed horror in her eyes. She lifted her head 
 from the loose flannel coat sleeve and half sat up. 
 
 " Don't don't let's spoil the situation by by flip- 
 pancies," she said in a strained, unnatural voice.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 103 
 
 "What do you mean by flippancies, my little girl? " 
 There was no acute surprise in Bernard's manner. It 
 almost seemed as though he were half prepared for her 
 reception of his definite proposal. 
 
 " I I mean when two people are happy in an idyllic 
 fl-flirtation it seems such a pity " 
 
 Honora halted and Bernard made no attempt to 
 finish the sentence for her. His face was quite expres- 
 sionless nearly polite. 
 
 Honora rose to her feet and brushed away the 
 bruised dahlia petals which had stained her cream 
 gown with crimson. 
 
 " We I must be getting home," she said, turning 
 irresolutely away. 
 
 Bernard watched her walk a few steps; then he 
 lunged forward and closed his arms about her. But 
 this time the pressure was an imprisonment, not an em- 
 brace. 
 
 " I must understand this situation understand it 
 thoroughly," he said. " All the rites of a passionate 
 betrothal have been performed by us. I have told you 
 of my endless, passionate love; you have confessed to 
 a return of that love there have been wonderful 
 kisses kisses that would make a mark in the life of a 
 professional roue yet when I speak of our wedding- 
 day, you tell me not to spoil the situation by flippan- 
 cies, and you speak of an idyllic flirtation. What does 
 this mean, Honora? That you refuse to become my 
 wife?" 
 
 " Yes, that is what it means ! "
 
 104 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 She spoke almost sullenly, and her face was momen- 
 tarily bereft of its charms. 
 
 " I see. Yet you do love me? you were not lying?" 
 
 " No, I was not lying." 
 
 Bernard smiled. So long as a woman loved, sur- 
 render of some sort was inevitable. 
 
 " And you will not marry me ? " 
 
 "I have told you so!" and she jerked petulantly 
 at his restraining arm. 
 
 " Then how are things to be with us ? Do you wish 
 me to go away immediately ? " 
 
 Agony entered her eyes, and he saw it with triumph 
 at his semi-brutal man's heart. 
 
 " Oh, no ! there is no need for you to go yet. 
 Katherine wants you with her, and and " 
 
 "And you?" " 
 
 " No I don't want you to go ! " 
 
 " Then what are we to be to each other? " 
 
 Honora looked at him imploringly. There was a 
 hunted expression in her eyes, and appeal for mercy 
 but the man who loved was merciless. 
 
 " What are we to be to each other acquaintance* 
 or lovers ? " 
 
 * Let us just drift !" 
 
 Bernard laughed not quite a nice laugh. 
 
 "Women are very great on drifting," he replied, 
 " but it doesn't quite suit a man who feels as I feel ! 
 Shall we be lovers?" 
 
 " Yes lovers lovers! " The word was vague, 
 divine. She lingered over the saying of it. So much
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 105 
 
 was meant by " lovers " so much that is comfortable, 
 satisfactory rapture for the naturally moral young 
 woman, and torture for the naturally immoral young 
 man. 
 
 " You understand what I mean by lovers, Honora? " 
 
 She looked up at him ; then a hot flush spread over 
 all her face. 
 
 " Remember," he went on, speaking rapidly and 
 slurringly like Katherine spoke, " it is not my wish 
 that there should be any unrecognised lie between us. 
 I want you for my wife, but if you refuse, some other 
 plan must be arranged. When a human man a very 
 human man, I may remark and a human woman a 
 singularly inhuman woman ! love each other, and feel 
 that separation is not pleasant to contemplate, noth- 
 ing but what I suggest is possible. Honora, Honora, 
 my darling, my lovely love, tell me tell me " 
 
 " Oh! " Just that one feminine moan of mental 
 agony was wrung from her lips. 
 
 " I don't know what to do I don't know what to 
 do ! " she cried wildly. " Give me time let me think 
 let " 
 
 " Honora-a-a ! Berr-r-r-r ! ! " 
 
 It was Katherine's voice ! Heaven be thanked, it 
 was Katherine's voice! 
 
 Honora broke from her relentless imprisonment and 
 ran through the trees. 
 
 Katherine short-skirted, perfect-waisted, and very 
 smart was standing there with an imp's smile on her 
 lip-salved mouth,
 
 106 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " I got tired of thinking about my money, so came 
 to see if you found Berr too utterly boring for 
 words ! " she said. 
 
 Then she looked at Honora's face and grinned as 
 she knelt down to tie a shoe lace that wasn't undone. 
 
 Less cute people mightn't have guessed, but Mrs. 
 Orlitson knew!
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 AFTER a moment Bernard joined them, his whole de- 
 meanour showing a most reprehensible lack of embar- 
 rassment. 
 
 " Miss Vayne got terribly tired of me," he said with 
 an easy smile. " So tired that she's been talking 
 theories to me. I enjoyed it, but I always know that 
 when a woman talks theories to a man it's because his 
 personality don't inspire her to be more intimately 
 friendly!" 
 
 Katherine glanced at Honora, who was examining 
 the future possibilities of a blackberry bush ; then she 
 glanced at her brother and deliberately lowered her 
 left lid over her left eye. 
 
 Bernard appreciated the wink and roared with 
 laughter. 
 
 " You and I come of a damned artful stock, Kit," 
 he remarked as Honora became more engrossed with a 
 still more distant blackberry bush. " We could take 
 in everybody else, but I'm dashed if we could take each 
 other in. You always know what I'm up to, and I 
 always know what you're up to ! " 
 
 " Of course you do, mon frere," replied Katherine 
 amusedly. " If your poor, scraggy, red-haired wid- 
 owed sister tried to take you in she couldn't manage it 
 for almond toffee ! Regrettable, but true ! " And with 
 this Mrs. Orlitson turned her back before once more 
 
 107
 
 108 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 lowering that left lid over that left eye and stretching 
 her lip-salved mouth into another brief grin. 
 
 These facial contortions were private, and solely 
 performed for her own satisfaction. 
 
 A second later she turned round. 
 
 " Honora ! Honora ! Never mind the blackberries ! 
 They'll * black ' just as quickly if you leave them 
 alone ! Berr says you've been talking theories to him, 
 so do come home and give the poor soul some supper 
 by way of recompense ! " 
 
 Honora hesitated one instant, as though she were 
 gathering together some unseen forces of moral en- 
 ergy, then walked slowly towards them, her face bereft 
 of its beautifying flush. 
 
 She looked nearly unattractive. 
 
 " So sorry I've been prosy," she said wearily, " but 
 when I find a person who'll let me talk without spoil- 
 ing my flow of eloquence by punctuating remarks, I'm 
 afraid that person has a poor time of it. Mr. Ben- 
 stead and I have been talking about love ! " 
 
 Katherine looked at her with the true appreciating 
 admiration which one woman dissembler feels for an- 
 other woman dissembler, while Bernard flushed. 
 
 He had meant to adopt the audacity pose, but ac- 
 tually this young, tall dark girl whose lips had almost 
 eagerly returned the pressure of his was calmly bring- 
 ing his own tactics into his own camp. 
 
 Like a man, he resented her pluck. 
 
 " Yes," continued Honora calmly, as they ceased 
 lagging and began to walk. " I was telling Mr. Ben-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 109 
 
 stead that, in my opinion, love isn't love till it has been 
 proved by time. Nearly all young married couples 
 think they are in love, and more than half the middle- 
 aged ones know they aren't but I won't inflict your 
 unfortunate brother all over again. He has heard 
 quite enough of my erotic theories give us some of 
 yours, Katherine." 
 
 " I don't think love plays any very important part 
 in most schemes of existence," Mrs. Orlitson answered 
 more seriously than it was her custom to speak. " At 
 least, not with women who have been bothered by finan- 
 cial anxieties. There's nothing like tight money cor- 
 ners for cramping a large heart. How can a woman 
 lie with romantic abandon on a man's breast when she's 
 looking at his frayed collar and wondering where he'll 
 get funds to buy new ones with? No, I do think a 
 woman wants a man's companionship, his humour, the 
 mental friction of his mind, his ' palliness,' but I don't 
 think love is such a desperately necessary adjunct as 
 people like to imagine ! " 
 
 " Poor little Kit ! " murmured Bernard compassion- 
 ately, thrusting one big hand through his sister's arm, 
 wondering as he did so what had been the details of 
 Katherine's married life. " Was Roger a good sort? " 
 he added inconsequently but the instant that question 
 was put he realised the betise of asking a widow of 
 four months' standing, and in the presence of a third 
 person, if her husband had been a good sort. 
 
 But Katherine was beautifully unembarrassed. 
 
 " Yes, he was, really he was ! " she answered affec-
 
 110 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 tionately. " Poor dear, he was very selfish, very lazy, 
 and very extravagant, but the nicest, sweetest, 
 gentlest, dearest thing possible to imagine. The idea 
 of any husband different to Roger wouldn't fit with 
 my views, although when we when he was alive I used 
 to nag and worry the poor boy from morning to night. 
 I was a nagging woman, Berr ! " 
 
 " Were you, Kit? then perhaps the poor chap is 
 better out of it, after all ! " responded Bernard, in 
 tones which betrayed deep, staunch sympathy for the 
 unknown dead brother-in-law. 
 
 " Do you miss your husband very much ? " broke 
 in Honora. She had often wondered about this, and 
 the present occasion seemed to make it permissible to 
 ask. 
 
 Katherine turned towards her as though really 
 pleased to discuss the subject. 
 
 " Your nice companionableness keeps me from miss- 
 ing anything or anybody to an acute degree," she 
 answered ; " but yet I must confess to wanting Roger 
 much more than I ever imagined I should want him. 
 When we were first parted immediately after his 
 death I felt almost it sounds a vile thing to say 
 sort of relieved ! Things had been so difficult, you 
 know, for us both ! But now there are times when I'd 
 give anything to find one of his uncorked brilliantine 
 bottles Roger never put in corks ! exuding over the 
 floor, or to discover that he'd taken my new crepe de 
 Chine scarf to polish his tan boots with! He was a 
 nice thing in his own way poor dear ! "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 111 
 
 " Good-looking chap, was he? " enquired Bernard, 
 realising that it was not in the least tactless to ques- 
 tion his sister on subjects appertaining to her widow- 
 hood. Until this moment he had felt all a large man's 
 natural reticence in touching upon delicate emotional 
 details, but now that the ice had become broken in this 
 unexpected fashion, he was glad to ask what he wanted 
 to know. 
 
 " Yes, not a bit bad without his beard. When we 
 first met he was very hairy had been so ever since 
 hairiness became possible then much later on I got 
 him to shave it off. But eventually he got too lazy to 
 shave, too hard-up to buy soap-sticks, and too well 
 known in the sample world to secure any for the price 
 of a penny stamp, so the beard came back again in full 
 force poor dear! But I don't like them, do you, 
 Honora?" 
 
 " / hate bearded men! " 
 
 Honora's vehemence was so startling and so intense 
 that both Bernard and Katherine glanced at her in 
 astonishment. 
 
 " My dear old girl, anyone would think you'd been 
 forced to kiss a beard, and hadn't liked it ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Orlitson. 
 
 Honora smiled automatically. 
 
 " I am very positive where my likes and dislikes are 
 concerned I'm sorry, for it's vulgar to be positive, 
 and oh! excuse me " She broke off, as on turn- 
 ing down the rutted entrance road the figure of a burly 
 labourer became visible. " There's Welter, from
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Transley, waiting to see me about the mushrooms. I 
 must speak to him ! " And without further explana- 
 tion the girl who had been kissed in the hush of the 
 woods darted off to discuss autumn possibilities for 
 the storage of mushrooms. 
 
 " Bernard ! " 
 
 "Kits?" 
 
 " The story of Honora Vayne's past turns on a 
 beard!" 
 
 " Don't make a fool of yourself, my dear girl ! " 
 
 After these four brief remarks Katherine spoke 
 again. 
 
 " Sorry to hurt your feelings, dear boy, but no 
 woman ever grows red and white about a beard unless, 
 in the past, she has been brought into disagreeable 
 contact with one. That's it! depend upon it. 
 Honora Vayne's past is a beard." 
 
 " Why do you so doggedly insist that this unfortu- 
 nate young woman is burdened with a past? There's 
 really no need to be so confoundedly sure upon the 
 subject! " 
 
 " Don't be an ass goat dolt, Berr ! Of course 
 she's got a past! What's she here for, alone, manless, 
 and lovely " 
 
 " My dear girl, you are alone, manless, and well, 
 you aren't lovely, but your figure's good yet no one 
 insists you've got a past. Suppose people began sug- 
 gesting you had murdered your husband, or something 
 of the sort, just because you hadn't happened to have 
 spouted out your whole history? You're just as
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 113 
 
 likely more so, perhaps to have a past as Ho- 
 nora ! " 
 
 Two light grey eyes flashed a swift, searching glance 
 into this large man's bronzed face, but an instant later 
 they closed, as usual, into a couple of dark-fringed 
 slits. 
 
 Bernard's face had evidenced nothing beyond annoy- 
 ance. 
 
 " It's no good getting shirty, my large brother, 
 just because you've fallen in love with my attractive- 
 farmeress-landlady. I'm quite as keen on Honora in 
 a different way ! as you are, but that doesn't blind 
 me to facts. When are you going to be married ? " 
 
 " Not at all ! " 
 
 " Haven't you asked her? she looked as if you 
 had." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I asked her." 
 
 " And she refused ? " 
 
 " Yes, she refused." 
 
 "Yet the girl's uncomfortably much in love with 
 you! Proof positive! A past!" And with this Mrs. 
 Orlitson broke into a run, leaving her brother some- 
 what of the opinion that a world without women would 
 be a better place! 
 
 During supper these three people, who were all more 
 or less poignantly affected by each other's presence, 
 discussed agriculture, gored skirts, hurdle-racing, 
 American cocktails, and other matters not vitally im- 
 portant so far as they were concerned ; and it was only 
 when Katherine left the room in order to take her iron
 
 114 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 tonic that Honora and Bernard found themselves 
 alone. 
 
 The oil lamp standing in the centre of the table burnt 
 low, and Honora stood at the window watching the 
 feverish hurrying of a white harvest moon. 
 
 She knew that he and she were alone, but made no 
 sign till an arm stole around her shoulders and a man's 
 mouth touched her throat. 
 
 She leaned back against him, glad for their love-story 
 to be continued, as she had been glad for it to be 
 interrupted. 
 
 " Are we lovers, Honora ; are we lovers ? " he whis- 
 pered. 
 
 She comprehended his meaning now, and her limbs 
 grew hot. She recalled the common girl who sat be- 
 neath the shelter of the hillock. 
 
 " Honora you must tell me ! " 
 
 A scarlet longing seized her, and the old-maidish 
 caution in her nature, of which she had spoken to 
 Katherine, became absorbed in one great desire. 
 
 She loved this man ; she had been hideously, danger- 
 ously lonely 
 
 " Yes we are lovers ! " she whispered. 
 
 His head dropped lower, and in the moonlight his 
 eyes found hers. 
 
 " My darling, my darling ! " he said ; and from the 
 white warmth of her throat his lips moved up to the 
 red warmth of her mouth. " To-night," he whispered, 
 " to-night! " 
 
 The next instant Katherine returned, her quaint
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 115 
 
 white face puckered up in recollection of the black 
 bitter fluid which had just passed her lips. 
 
 " Ugh ! I've taken enough iron in my lif e to make 
 all the fenders in all the happy homes of England! 
 I'm sure I must be a descendant of the Iron Duke! 
 Her Grace, the Iron Duchess! That's me! Now, are 
 we cut-throat bridging to-night? " 
 
 Honora eagerly answered that they were, and Ber- 
 nard got out the cards. 
 
 Rubber after rubber they played, till at last when 
 Katherine had lost four shillings and sevenpence, she 
 threw down the cards and yawned a more or less polite 
 yawn. 
 
 " Can't play any longer ! my bed's calling to me ! " 
 she exclaimed. 
 
 " Oh, let's let's have one more ! " urged Honora, 
 feverishly commencing to reshuffle the cards. 
 
 " My dear kid, you are usually the slacker why 
 such keenness to-night? " demanded Katherine. 
 
 " B because I really do want to play better, and 
 nothing but practice will teach me !" 
 
 " You play perfectly the way you lead up to your 
 opponents' strength is masterly ! " replied Bernard 
 rudely that particular brand of rudeness which a man 
 only gives to the woman he loves much more than he 
 has ever loved any other woman. 
 
 Honora laughed without knowing exactly what she 
 was laughing at. She had scarcely heard what he said, 
 and only knew she ought to smile because Katherine 
 was smiling.
 
 116 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " No, my dear, I'm not going to lose any more of 
 my hardly-earned fortune to-night ! " said Mrs. Or- 
 litson, decisively, as she rose and stood, thin, smart, and 
 black-gowned before them. " You can play double 
 dummy if you like " 
 
 " No, no, we don't like," interrupted Honora. 
 " Double dummy is too too candid a game ! Highly 
 conscientious and beautifully without deception but 
 slow ! " 
 
 " Like me ! Beautiful without deception but slow ! 
 An exact description of K. O., who, from henceforth, 
 shall regard herself as a Double Dummy. Good-night, 
 dear kids ! " Katherine affectionately tugged at Ho- 
 nora's ear. " Nighty-nighty, Berr or are you coming 
 up to sit on the doormat and talk while I brush my 
 vermilion locks ? " 
 
 " I'll see you as far as the doormat anyway," an- 
 swered Bernard lazily. " Good-night, Miss Vayne, 
 and thanks for the game. You'd make a first-class 
 player if only you weren't so cautious with your declara- 
 tions ! Good-night ! " 
 
 " Good-night ! " echoed Honora mechanically. She 
 spoke only with her lips. The language of her eyes 
 was obscured. 
 
 When they had left the room and ascended the stairs, 
 Honora closed and locked the long French windows, 
 put away the cards, and blew out the lamp. 
 
 Then she waited in absolute silence, lightly pressing 
 one hand against the pulses of her throat, which seemed
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 117 
 
 drumming right into her head and obscuring other 
 sounds. 
 
 She wanted to listen. 
 
 They were talking still she could hear Katherine's 
 endless ripple of unpunctuated laughing chatter, oc- 
 casionally broken by a low careless, masculine laugh. 
 How could he laugh when when he had said " To- 
 noight! " 
 
 " To-night to-noight! " Honora found herself re- 
 peating the word again and again, till the Fullgarney 
 accent fascinated her. 
 
 " To-noight! " She might be rehearsing for an 
 amateur performance of " The Gay Lord Quex." 
 
 " To-noight! " 
 
 Now it was to-night and and 
 
 Ah, the unpunctuated laughter had ceased the click 
 of a door Katherine's door clicked the squeak of a 
 door Bernard's door squeaked the bang of a door 
 Bernard's door banged. 
 
 Silence silence silence !
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 YES, the silence was continuous! 
 
 Heaven be thanked! "To-noight" meant nothing- 
 yet yet 
 
 Tightly Honora gathered her cream skirts, raising 
 them above her ankles and drawing them in a bunch 
 to the front, so that not a swish or rustle would be 
 audible as she ascended the stairs. Then the low- 
 heeled bronze shoes were discarded, and out of the 
 moonlit room she stepped into the dark passage. 
 
 Bernard's door was shut she would be able to 
 reach her own room without a sound, able to lock 
 the door, and to escape the rapture of " to-noight! " 
 
 Up the solidly-built, creakless stairs, on to the first 
 landing up one more little flight to her own rooms, 
 
 " Ah-h-h! " 
 
 The exclamation was hardly more than a breath, but 
 for a second Honora must have lost consciousness as, 
 from out the darkness of a recess, two arms were 
 stretched two arms which held her close. 
 
 " We are lovers, dearest, lovers ! " Bernard whispered 
 in her ear. "We shall never be anything else you 
 
 belong to me you are mine " They were getting 
 
 nearer to her door nearer. " And you shall be my 
 
 118
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 119 
 
 wife you mil be my wife when we are lovers you 
 won't shy at marriage ties and conventions any longer 
 then, because you will understand that it must be for 
 ever for always! Sweetest heart " They were on 
 
 the threshold now in another second "My little 
 
 girl! call me to you, Honora just say * Come,' dear 
 go in, darling, and call me a man wants to be 
 called " 
 
 She slipped from his embrace, half swayed across 
 the threshold, held out her arms for one second, then 
 shut the door and turned the key! 
 
 The action was characteristic of the woman, and she 
 knew it but it had to be! 
 
 Honora had said that she could never be entirely any- 
 thing, and that self -analysis was in a measure correct. 
 
 She hadn't strength to be entirely rigorously moral, 
 nor the strength to be entirely bravely immoral. 
 
 She. had the strength to love, but failed when it came 
 to making a supreme sacrifice for that love's sake. 
 
 She didn't possess sufficient Spartan grit to stifle 
 woman's natural longings, to the extent of renouncing 
 kisses which could only lead the kissers down one in- 
 evitable road; yet when it came to treading that high- 
 way of sultry shadows and deep pitfalls, she turned 
 renegade and broke her faith. 
 
 No good, excellent person could say that Honora 
 Vayne was not acting precisely as a well-brought-up 
 young woman should act when she shut and locked her 
 bedroom door ; yet there are individuals shocking, un- 
 visitable people these! who might aver that Bernard
 
 120 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Benstead's beloved was actually more contemptible in 
 her virtuous caution than she would have been if 
 well, if she had not shut the door. 
 
 In perfect silence Honora crouched down upon the 
 floor. 
 
 Would he knock? 
 
 Indefinitely she thrust out h r hand towards the key 
 then drew it back again. 
 
 If he did knock 
 
 Ah! sounds! slow, easy, quiet sounds! The foot- 
 steps of large feet along the passage down, down, 
 down the little flight of stairs a squeak Bernard's 
 door squeaked a bang Bernard's door banged 
 
 The incident was over ! 
 
 Dazed and trembling Honora slowly rose from her 
 crouching position and turned on the gas, which is a 
 hideous light to illumine moments of emotions. 
 
 Honora caught sight of her face in the glass it 
 w&s livid, and her eyes looked too large. 
 
 " I am glad, I am glad I had the strength," she 
 murmured. " I must have been half mad to almost 
 promise, yet yet " 
 
 Once more the dreary loneliness "of the past year 
 seemed to fill the whole room, and involuntarily Ho- 
 nora glanced towards the locked door. 
 
 " Must it be always like this ? " she whispered, slowly 
 unfastening hooks and removing pins till the cream 
 cambric frock fell to the ground, leaving exposed the 
 mournful figure of a young woman wearing a white 
 petticoat, and pink corsets left open two inches at the
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 121 
 
 waist. " Must I leave love alone for ever and ever 
 unless I am brave enough not not to lock my door? 
 What am I to do? what shall I do with my poor spoilt 
 life and myself? " 
 
 Half an hour later Honora was lying in the cool, 
 coarse-sheeted bed, trying to solve problems which re- 
 volved round the future. 
 
 She had meant to behave so entirely differently to the 
 way she was behaving. When she first buried herself in 
 the safe seculsion of a Sussex chicken farm it had been 
 her intention to leave love and romance entirely un- 
 sought, but if those two main elements of feminine exist- 
 ence should ferret out and find her hiding-place why, 
 then she would be pluckily unscrupulous, after the man- 
 ner of all famous history-women who have reduced 
 passion to a fine art and illicit love to a science. 
 
 Life was meant for love, and just because be- 
 cause 
 
 For a second Honora threw a portion of the sheet 
 across her face, and remembered that there would be a 
 to-morrow! 
 
 Though " to-noight " had been spoilt by old-maidish 
 caution and conventional alarms that true white word 
 " Virtue " made no pretence of obtruding itself into 
 these mental arguments there would still be to-mor- 
 row to-morrow, which could make up for what " to- 
 noight " had lost ! 
 
 During all those hours which the big hall clock struck 
 between midnight and mid-dawn Honora lay forming to- 
 morrow's plans.
 
 122 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Sometimes she sat up in bed and listened when it 
 seemed that faint, stealthy sounds were audible, but at 
 last, when the " Sussex rooster " called out " Good- 
 morning" to the world, to-morrow was forgotten and 
 innocence came back with sleep. 
 
 Soundly, heavily, doggedly Honora slept, unheeding 
 the intrusion of yellow sunlight which found unscrupu- 
 lous ways of entry round the sides of the blind, till at 
 last insistent drumming on the wooden panels of the 
 door hurried her, per express route, from that safe 
 land of dreams. 
 
 She sat up in bed and brushed the dark falling hair 
 from about her face. 
 
 Was this " to-noight " or or to-morrow ? 
 
 " Will you be getting up to breakfast, please, miss ? 
 It's nearly ten o'clock," sounded Mary Tryke's slightly 
 severe voice. 
 
 Then Honora remembered it was to-morrow! 
 
 She leapt out of bed and opened that locked door. 
 
 " Yes yes bring my bath water, please I'll be 
 down in half an hour. I've had a bad night and over- 
 slept myself," she replied, with a hint of apology in 
 her voice which would not have been there in different 
 circumstances. 
 
 It is a certain fact that when men or women become 
 apologetic to their inferiors they had nearly done some- 
 thing they oughtn't to have done ! 
 
 Mrs. Tryke made no response. For one thing she 
 couldn't have been sympathetic even if she wished, and 
 for another she didn't wish; so without a word she
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 123 
 
 shuffled down the little flight of stairs connecting Ho- 
 nora's bedroom with the main passage. 
 
 Honora stood for a moment listening ; then, becoming 
 conscious of the cold oilcloth's uncomfortable proximity 
 to her bare feet, returned to bed. 
 
 She felt loth to leave the safe shelter of her own room, 
 yet eager to get up. 
 
 How would she and Bernard meet each other and 
 greet each other? 
 
 How would she ask him to have a second cup of coffee, 
 or recommend the trial of a great red Victoria plum? 
 
 Yet it would be stimulating wildly, deliciously 
 stimulating not to meet each other's eyes, save for a 
 stolen second when Honora was picking an egg in her 
 specially absorbing and fanciful manner. 
 
 And they would avoid each other all day until about 
 evening time a tete-a-tete meeting would be inevitable. 
 
 And then and then well, Honora didn't want to 
 spoil indefinite possibilities by making them inartistic- 
 ally definite. 
 
 Perhaps she would risk everything and promise to be- 
 come his wife or perhaps she would risk a different 
 everything, and not make any promise. 
 
 Her extraordinarily beautiful eyes looked restless, 
 eager, and half glad ; her cheeks were soft with that 
 vivid flush which always made her quite lovely, and be- 
 neath feather-stitched tucks and Honiton insertion 
 her gracious bosom rose and fell with expectant 
 rapidity. 
 
 She would wear a loose white wrapper this morning
 
 124 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 one of those she had brought to the farm but never un- 
 packed. There was a thick yet softly-falling one of 
 butter muslin, and the flapping sleeves were tied with 
 blue ribbon. 
 
 It was an infinitely becoming garment, and she would 
 unpack it directly Mrs. Tryke had brought the bath 
 water. 
 
 Honora smiled joyously. She felt joyous now, for 
 no matter what had happened or what might happen 
 again, they would meet in less than half an hour and 
 newly confessed love holds no real alarms when there 
 will be a meeting in half an hour. 
 
 And during breakfast how she would pique him and 
 amaze him by her display of absolutely unpenetrable 
 calm, cheerfulness, and composure! 
 
 He should find her a complete adept at love's public 
 deceptions, while he himself grew gradually silent and ill 
 at ease. 
 
 Then when they were alone she would still keep up 
 the same pose till an exasperated exclamation left his 
 lips and her hands were roughly seized and held. 
 
 It would be the fascinating drama of a day, but later, 
 when the sun began to sink, she would confess to having 
 remembered last night which would then be " to- 
 noight! " and she would then slip into his arms to drift 
 drift not to any dangerous whirlpools, but just 
 well, perhaps he would now be content to go on drift- 
 ing 
 
 Anyhow, in half an hour they would meet they would 
 meet and
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 125 
 
 " Tap-tap ! " 
 
 Honora answered j oyously , and the door opened but 
 not to admit Mrs. Tryke and the bath water. 
 
 It was Katherine who entered the room, Katherine, 
 who looked decidedly cross and very nearly ugly, and 
 who carried a letter in her hand. 
 
 " He's an idiot! " she ejaculated snappily. 
 
 " Who? " asked Honora. 
 
 " Berr ! " 
 
 " Berr your brother? " 
 
 " Yes, my confounded fool of a brother read that ! " 
 
 A paper was thrust into Honora's hand, and slowly 
 she read the pencilled scrawl written by a hand whose 
 touch had the power to accelerate every beat of her 
 cautious woman's heart. 
 
 " My dear Kits, I'm off ! Didn't tell you yesterday 
 because I hate good-byes even pro tern. ones. But I 
 must go, so by the time you read this your excellent 
 brother will have caught the 8.50 A. M. train to town, 
 which is by way of being a preliminary to crossing the 
 pond again. There's business I must see to over there, 
 but daresay I shall turn up again before you've run 
 through all your money. Can't give you any address, 
 but letters sent to * The Conway Club ' are always liable 
 to reach me eventually. I enclose cheque. Please settle 
 up with Miss Vayne ; thank her for kindnesses shown to 
 an unworthy ' P G ' (don't insert an * i '), and say that 
 my criticism on her bridge play was faulty. The mis- 
 take she makes is in too rash declarations, which the 
 weakness of her hand often prevents her from bringing
 
 126 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 off. My best wishes to her, and chin-chin to your smart, 
 cute little self. Till we meet, 
 
 " Your affectionate brother, 
 
 " BEBE." 
 
 " Haven't you finished reading it yet? " 
 Katherine put the question ; then she looked round. 
 Honora had finished reading. 
 
 She was lying with her face buried in the pillow, and 
 her shoulders tremulous with sobs.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 IT was springtime, and the gravely furnished maison- 
 ette was an accomplished fact. 
 
 The rent was 600 per annum ; the locality was Hyde 
 Park OA Holstein Mansions, Hyde Park the dining- 
 room large enough to dine forty gourmand* was 
 schemed in black, dull oak and purple, the drawing- 
 rooms three, opening one out of the other were 
 reputable arrangements of dull green-blue, the billiard- 
 room was a billiard-room, the bedrooms were all white, 
 and the owner's absolutely private sanctum was a tri- 
 umph of bad taste. 
 
 Every apartment, except the private sanctum, had 
 been entirely arranged by Teddington & Co., and they 
 had conscientiously carried out Mrs. Orlitson's instruc- 
 tions that, though money need not be spared, immaculate 
 taste and refinement were not to be sacrificed for the 
 sake of evidencing expenditure. 
 
 Art treasures might be purchased with a moderately 
 free hand, but there must be no vulgar display of 
 thousand-guinea vases or huge expanses of costly carv- 
 ing. 
 
 " If I'm left to myself I shall make my flat look like 
 an Earl's Court Exhibition," Katherine had frankly 
 avowed when giving the order, " therefore every room, 
 except my own boudoir, shall be left entirely in your 
 hands ! " 
 
 127
 
 128 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 And Messrs. Teddington had not betrayed their trust. 
 They had kept down any tendency toward dramatic 
 upholstery, they had avoided the introduction of too 
 much Louis, and they had even negotiated for the pur- 
 chase of a choice selection of suitably be-stocked and 
 short-waisted ancestors. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson was very pleased with these ancestors 
 which had escaped Christies and been purchased direct 
 from a bankrupt French nobleman and prepared the 
 patter which was to go with each picture. 
 
 The simpering lady with the blue snood and rather 
 impossible bust was to be great-great-great Aunt 
 Lucille de Mornigay, who, in 1799, had been practically 
 banished by Napoleon because she refused the guidance 
 of Rostand to ascend that little dark staircase leading 
 from an obscure side entrance of the imperial palace to 
 the Emperor's private half-storey room. (Katherine 
 had decided that the introduction of a little moral French 
 blood might excuse any overdone flippancies which she 
 might not always be able to avert.) 
 
 A stern gentleman in a somewhat sombre uniform was 
 to be one Culff John Orlitson, who in 1804 had com- 
 mitted suicide on account of his unrequited passion for 
 Nelson's Emma. 
 
 And a couple of vacuous-looking youths patting one 
 quaintly formed hound were to be respectively Hugh and 
 Godfrey Ork^tson belonging to the days before those 
 double " ee's " had given place to the more euphonious 
 " i ! " who had assisted the young Pretender in his final 
 flight back across the Channel.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 129 
 
 Poor Katherine had been immensely busy for two 
 whole days in looking up likely dates and fitting them in 
 with the costumes of these purchased ancestors. 
 
 But now, after a rather exhausting time poring over a 
 couple of hired histories, everything seemed in order. 
 
 " Aunt Lucille " as well as a small prim child wear- 
 ing very long frills drooping over either leg was to 
 belong to her late mother's family, from whence the dash 
 of French blood would come. A fierce ruffed gentleman, 
 who might have passed for Shakespeare if his melancholy 
 had been more pronounced, was Robert Humphrey Ben- 
 stead a relative of Katherine's father, who, according 
 to family history very private family history was 
 supposed to have interfered with the virginity of Queen 
 Elizabeth's maids of honour. 
 
 These people she appropriated for her own maternal 
 and paternal descendants, but the other she'd given to 
 her late husband's family. 
 
 As Katherine said : " Poor Roger mustn't be left out 
 when ancestors are being handed round ! " 
 
 Thus now Mrs. Orlitson was ready to begin life all 
 over again, to commence that vie de luxe which patience, 
 circumstance, and luck had secured for the young 
 woman who, exactly a year ago, was bewailing the unin- 
 spiring inconveniences of retrenchment. 
 
 For exactly two days she had been installed at OA 
 Holstein Mansions, and now for the first time in her 
 aspiring life her own visitor was going to be ushered in 
 by her own manservant. 
 
 Lady Chesham was expected to call, and Katherine
 
 130 
 
 knew that much of her future social security would de- 
 pend upon the attitude which she took with her old school 
 friend, and the attitude her old school friend took with 
 her. 
 
 Lady Chesham could float her very nicely if she chose 
 but the question was would she choose? 
 
 Katherine was inclined to think she would if only she 
 could be made to think that Katherine didn't want her 
 to ; and the way to 
 
 " Lady Chesham! " announced the grave footman, 
 who was in admirable harmony with the grave flat. 
 
 Katherine rose, stuck out her thin chin, closed her 
 light grey eyes, pursed up her lip-salved mouth, and 
 rustled forward. 
 
 " Dear Evelyn, this is nice to see you ! Fancy, nearly 
 a year since we met! My dear, how you've lost in 
 weight ! You're all right, aren't you ? Do come and sit 
 down. I long to hear all your news ! " she cried in her 
 very lowest, most rumbling, and most thrilling voice. 
 
 Lady Chesham looked round, sat down in a perfect 
 Queen Anne chair, and instantly decided that her friend 
 was quite a safe person to be the possessor of a newly- 
 made fortune. 
 
 She had quite expected to find a scheme of Moorish 
 gorgeousness or some obtrusive oriental decorations 
 pervading the flat, but instead everything was the final 
 declaration in perfect taste without ostentation. 
 
 Possibly, had Lady Chesham penetrated the boudoir, 
 with its weirdly-shaped cane and wicker chairs, its bead 
 curtains, its oriental vases, its over-pictured walls, its
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 131 
 
 high-art china cats and griffins, its Japanese stalks, its 
 bewildering cushions and draperies, she might have 
 altered her opinion and swiftly formed resolutions ; but 
 as neither Lady Chesham nor anyone else who mattered 
 would ever penetrate this sanctum upholstered to please 
 Katherine Orlitson's innate love of ostentation, the smart 
 widow's social career would remain unspoilt by the bane- 
 ful influence of unrefined surroundings. 
 
 Katherine knew that she longed to be ostentatious, 
 but, unlike most people hampered by this failing, she 
 fully realised her own weakness, and was therefore able 
 to quell it into submission before anyone else guessed at 
 its existence. 
 
 Katherine was quite aware that the spending of a 
 newly-made fortune is a delicate business, and was clever 
 enough to lay down rules for herself in the very begin- 
 ning. 
 
 " You've got a charming place here, dearie ! " ex- 
 claimed Lady Chesham, when her trained eye had noted 
 the restraint displayed in the selection of wall decora- 
 tions. (There was plenty of space between a dignified 
 Poussin, a sun-glowing Lorraine, and a group of reticent 
 Orchardsons.) 
 
 " I think it's nice yes but I'm very tired of choos- 
 ing and planning and ordering. When one's furnishing 
 en pttce it is such a temptation to put everything into 
 the hands of one firm and to do nothing oneself except 
 pay or owe the bills. But a temptation like that 
 must be quelled. I chose, and ordered, and fitted, and 
 harmonised everything myself, and in consequence, my
 
 132 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 dear, I'm a wreck a positive wreck! Then there was 
 some of our own old stored-up family rubbish to be 
 fished out and made clean but unpunctuated newness is 
 too soul-shattering, isn't it? I've got poor great-great- 
 great-great-great Aunt Lucille out of retirement, you 
 see." Mrs. Orlitson airily waved towards the gold-and- 
 pearl-framed miniature of the simpering lady with the 
 impossible bust. " I always feel I get my strain of devil- 
 ment, combined with virtue, from her ! It is nice, after 
 a prolonged period of hard-upishness, to get back 
 again, as it were! Now, my dear, don't let me cackle 
 any more about myself do tell me your news ! " 
 
 Evelyn Chesham gazed at her in real honest admira- 
 tion. Katherine Orlitson was doing the thing splendidly 
 right through and through. 
 
 The Bensteads didn't by any means come of a bad 
 stock, but Lady Chesham knew perfectly well that these 
 " ancestors " of Katherine's were progenitors of some- 
 body else. 
 
 She was fully aware that virtuous great-great-great- 
 great-great Aunt Lucille was the great-great-great- 
 great-great aunt of some unfortunate family to whom 
 Mrs. Orlitson's cheques were useful. 
 
 But nobody else would be aware of that, and there 
 was no doubt that Katherine would be well worth taking 
 under her wing. 
 
 If she didn't discover her somebody else would; for 
 the Holstein Mansions widow, with her red hair, perfect 
 waist, perfect flat, striking personality and helpful for- 
 tune, would inevitably prove a " draw."
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 133 
 
 " I haven't any news to tell," replied Evelyn, respond- 
 ing to the conclusion of her friend's last sentence. " Of 
 course nothing much has begun yet, although there are 
 signs of an early season." 
 
 " Yes, so Lady Bentive was saying she tells me the 
 new Serpentine Club is going to open next week instead 
 of next month as arranged." 
 
 Lady Chesham was silent. She didn't know Katherine 
 was acquainted with Lady Bentive. How should she 
 know that only during the purchase of a fifty-guinea 
 Persian kitten, Mrs. Orlitson had skilfully mentioned 
 the opening of this new and somewhat exclusive woman's 
 club! 
 
 '* You'll join? " she queried after a moment's thought. 
 
 " Oh, I said I wouldn't don't think I shall. * It seems 
 too early for th that sort of thing," answered 
 Katherine carelessly. 
 
 " Of course it isn't too early let me put you up ! " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson puckered up her forehead. 
 
 " You know, Evelyn, I'd much rather be put up by you 
 than any gushing new friends, but " 
 
 This settled it. No " gushing new friends " should be 
 the first to get hold of the wealthy widow. Certainly 
 they shouldn't! 
 
 " I shall put you up, my dearest girl, and Mirian 
 Donne shall second you. Come to lunch and meet her 
 to-morrow. She's delightful, only Charles hates her 
 husband but you know what Charles is if a man ad- 
 dresses more than ten consecutive words to me ! Yes, I 
 insist upon your joining, and through me! "
 
 134 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Katherlne shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " Oh, well, if I give offence I can't help it. Old 
 friends matter new ones don't ! Put me up if you like, 
 Eve and thanks awfully but be ready to swear 
 that six months ago I had arranged to be introduced 
 by you. And how is Sir Charles? Othello-like as 
 ever? " 
 
 Lady Chesham answered that he was, but she answered 
 vaguely, for her thoughts were working swiftly. 
 
 The ancestors had not deceived her, but the " gushing 
 new friends " had, and she meant to be the first to float 
 Mrs. Orlitson now that it was quite evident other people 
 wished to do so. 
 
 " You know, Evelyn, you will always come first be- 
 fore anyone" said Katherine later in the afternoon, when 
 she had instructed Orby to say " out " to anyone who 
 might call she knew quite as well as Orby that no one 
 would be likely to call ! " because not only are you my 
 old friend who knew me in the days of my threadbare- 
 ness, but also my present affluence is indirectly owing to 
 you. If you hadn't shown me Mary Laurence's grand- 
 father's system I should never have tried Monte Carlo, 
 and if Monte hadn't been kind I should never have been 
 able to risk Grey Rubbers ; It's all you ! You've bene- 
 fited me, you've benefited Mary Laurence insomuch that 
 she's got a handsome percentage of my winnings, and 
 you've benefited the nice honest man who recommended 
 me * Grey Rubbers,' because he gets a big share of 
 my profits. Indirectly, Evelyn, it's all you I am so 
 grateful ! "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 135 
 
 This was exactly the right tack to take, and Mrs. 
 Orlitson knew it. 
 
 Let Evelyn Chesham be made to regard herself as 
 Katherine's benefactor, and there was nothing she 
 wouldn't do to keep up the illusion ; for Lady Chesham 
 was one of those useful individuals who insensibly take 
 themselves at whatever valuation other people place 
 upon them. 
 
 She was Katherine's " benefactor," and ** gushing 
 new friends " were presumably very much on the scenes ! 
 This settled everything. 
 
 " My dear," said Lady Chesham when, after the 
 maisonette had been displayed all except the boudoir 
 she proceeded to take her leave. " May I give you a 
 piece of advice ? " 
 
 " Do, dearest, do! " But Katherine's light grey eyes 
 began to glitter ominously. She wasn't quite the type 
 of person who altogether appreciated advice. 
 
 " Well, I very strongly advise you to have a com- 
 panion of some sort a woman self-effacing enough not 
 to bother you, yet someone always on the scenes. You 
 see, Katherine, you are young " 
 
 " Oh, don't, Eve ! Twenty-eight's an awful age 
 for a widow ! " 
 
 " You are youag, very attractive, and somewhat 
 
 on the flighty side, so until you elect to marry again 
 I advise a nominal watch-dog ! " 
 
 Katkerine shuddered. 
 
 " You seem quite determined to get me fixed up again, 
 Eve ! "
 
 136 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Oh, of course, you must marry and marry well. 
 7 shall see to that myself ! " 
 
 " Thank you, dearest, you are sweet ! " 
 
 Lady Chesham looked up quickly, but fortunately 
 Katherine's left eyelid was once more in its normal 
 position before her glance reached that locality. 
 
 " Then you'll think over what I suggest about the 
 companion, won't you, dear? " 
 
 " I will, Evelyn I'll not only think, but act ; and 
 probably in less than a week's time you'll find my reputa- 
 tion zealously guarded by two knitting needles and a 
 salaried glare. Good-bye, dearest yes, I'll remember 
 lunch to-morrow! 1.30, isn't it? ... Right! So 
 really sweet to have seen you ! Ta-ta ! Don't get any 
 thinner or you'll slip away altogether, and Sir Charles 
 won't have anything left to adore ! Good-bye ! " 
 
 Directly Mrs. Orlitson was safely and securely alone 
 she bunched her trained skirt up round her hips and 
 danced at full tilt a breakdown which used to find 
 special favour with Birmingham pantomime audiences. 
 
 From beneath the frills of a very bewildering black 
 satin petticoat two black satin-shod feet energetically 
 let off a satisfactory amount of their owner's vitality, 
 till with a final kick which momentarily landed Mrs. 
 Orlitson's toe on a level with the ethereal Corot land- 
 scape, the Holstein Mansions widow allowed her exuber- 
 ance to subside into an artistically uncomfortable chair. 
 
 " Hurray ! Hurrah ! ! Hurroo ! ! ! " she ejaculated in 
 tones that were safely subdued. " Let me once get in 
 the Serpentine Club and take up with the best members,
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 137 
 
 and I'm floated ! One thing leads to another so quickly 
 when a woman dresses well and has got warbling oof- 
 birds ! If I hadn't lied about Evelyn's loss of weight 
 poor soul, she lias spread in twelve months! touched 
 upon the purchased husband's jealousy, insinuated about 
 gushing new friends, and mentioned Lady Bentive, 
 everything might have been all 'no go ' ; but now it'll 
 all be righter than rain ! I shall soon get things in 
 order now, and be able to present a dramatic triumph 
 of love and mystery entitled * The Widow Remated ' or 
 * The Red-haired Rogue's Lover '/ Good heavens, I'm 
 a wonderful woman ! I always used to tell Roger I 
 was and it's true ! An absolutely wonderful woman ! " 
 
 When Mrs. Orlitson had recovered from this per- 
 fectly excusable burst of self -admiration, she proceeded 
 to consider Lady Chesham's suggestion of a widow's 
 watch-dog and shuddered. 
 
 Katherine wasn't at heart a woman's woman, although, 
 for purposes of policy and fashion, she was quite ready 
 to appear as such a necessary pose in these days of 
 national sex-antagonism and hen bridge-parties. 
 
 There were so few women who took a private boudoir 
 " Damn " for what it was worth, and so few could 
 quarrel comfortably. 
 
 No companion of her own sex had ever been entirely 
 satisfactory, except Honora, who 
 
 " Ah ! yes Honora! " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson ejaculated these three words, stuck 
 out her chin, and sat forward in her chair. 
 
 Honora ! If only she could be induced to leave the
 
 138 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 chicken farm, who could make a more ideal companion? 
 It was the end of February when Katherine left 
 Upper Deerbuck Farm to spend a couple of months by 
 the sea while Teddington & Co., Ltd., were arranging 
 the flat and supplying heirlooms, and now it was the 
 middle of April. 
 
 Over seven weeks since she had left a tall pale girl, 
 whose dark eyes held everything but happiness, standing 
 in a low doorway waving good-byes. 
 
 Honora wasn't happy; she had never been happy 
 since Berr's abrupt departure at the end of September. 
 So why why shouldn't she come and guard Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's reputation in return for a liberal salary and lots 
 of frocks? 
 
 Katherine thought over the matter for exactly half 
 an hour and five minutes, at the end of which time her 
 definite decision was formed. 
 
 She would asked Honora to come. 
 
 She wanted Honora to come. 
 
 And, hitherto, most things which Mrs. Orlitson 
 wanted had eventually taken place !
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 IT was cold, very cold for April, and the chickens 
 were still treated to a hot breakfast of mashed potatoes, 
 bread, and other delicacies which Honora cooked in a 
 small cellar under the granary. 
 
 She plunged a long toasting fork into the copper of 
 boiling water. 
 
 Yes, the potatoes were quite soft they could be 
 taken out now, and mashed. 
 
 Honora commenced her steamy task not by any 
 means an unpleasant cold-weather occupation, and one 
 which last year she had performed with somewhat en- 
 thusiastic enjoyment. 
 
 But now she wasn't enthusiastic about anything. 
 She was glad when profits increased, but experienced no 
 acute pleasure. 
 
 Since last September, and more especially since 
 Katherine's departure, she felt like a woman who didn't 
 mind being middle-aged. 
 
 If she were thirty-three or forty-three instead of 
 twenty-three, it wouldn't really matter in the least, for 
 she had no further use for her youth ! 
 
 Conscientiously, Honora mashed the potatoes and 
 bread, then stepped out into the cold spring sunshine, 
 where feathered things of all ages and sizes awaited her 
 arrival. 
 
 139
 
 140 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 The black Leghorn hen who, in September, had not 
 been allowed to become the parent of " blackberry 
 chicks," now fluttered proudly round a brood of fluffy 
 offspring, while the red Sussex rooster was still very 
 much cock of the promenade. 
 
 With strict impartiality Honora apportioned the 
 steaming breakfast, till, just as the rooster was forcibly 
 taking potato out of his favourite wife's beak, the post- 
 man appeared at the bend of the rutted drive. 
 
 Honora ceased adjudicating in this marital dispute, 
 and ran to meet the shambling figure. 
 
 Dan's slothful shamble maddened her. It was always 
 possible that he might bring something something 
 which would revive the gladness of her youth there- 
 fore his dilatory methods proved insupportable. 
 
 " Something for me, Dan ? " she cried, trying to 
 keep hope out of her voice. 
 
 " Aye, that it be two degrees first thing," he 
 responded. 
 
 Dan's deafness was trying, but less so than his fum- 
 bling methods of searching a large canvas bag. 
 
 At last the letter was produced it was a picture 
 postcard addressed to " Mr. Tryke," and displaying a 
 chaste view of some unimportant cathedral! 
 
 Honora felt dangerous. Just lately it seemed that 
 Mary Tryke and her husband had developed an amaz- 
 ing taste for the export and import of picture post- 
 cards. The export didn't matter, but the import was 
 maddening, and Honora felt there ought to be a law 
 precluding the receipt of correspondence by employes.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 14-1 
 
 " Nothing else, Dan ? 
 " Aye only this ! " 
 
 And " only this " proved to be a black-bordered en- 
 velope addressed in Katherine Orlitson's inconsequent 
 handwriting Katherine Orlitson who, apart from any 
 other attractions she might possess, was the sister of 
 Bernard Benstead! 
 
 Conscientiously, and with a feeling of unjust re- 
 sentment, Honora put Tryke's missive on the ledge of 
 the kitchen window-sill ; then, entering the parlour, she 
 tore open the black-bordered envelope and proceeded to 
 read its contents. 
 
 "AO Holstein Mansions. 
 
 " Most dearest Honora, I'm here, and feel im- 
 mensely pleased with myself and surroundings. In 
 fact, I've really got everything I want except one thing 
 and that is YOU! Now, my dark-eyed feeder of 
 fowls, attend to me and heed my suggestions and 
 prayers without prejudice. 
 
 "(1) I am lonely in my new life, and need a pal. 
 
 "(2) I miss you intensely, because you are the only 
 feminine person I have ever found congenial. 
 
 "(3) Will you come and live with me or anyhow 
 pay me a very prolonged visit? 
 
 "(4) If you consent, matters can be arranged in this 
 way: Tryke and his wife can be left in complete con- 
 trol of the farm, sending you a weekly statement of 
 receipts and expenditure. I undertake to pay the 
 Trykes' extra wages. I undertake to keep you pro- 
 vided with pretty clothes and 200 a year pocket money.
 
 142 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 "(5) I yearn and pray you to come at once. 
 
 " Now, dearest of fowl-feeders, do, do, DO consent ! 
 If you have any affection for a lonely, red-haired, thin, 
 candid widow of 27! steadily retrograding, please 
 note ! you'll wire instantly saying * Expect me in three 
 days.' If you don't like it you shall return to your 
 roosters at once I promise this but do come! Ho- 
 nora, save me melancholia and loneliness! come 
 come! 
 
 " Awaiting your wire with tumultuous heart-thuds, 
 
 " Your lonely and affectionate widow chum, 
 
 " KATHEBINE." 
 
 Honora crushed the letter tightly in one hand, while 
 the flush which made her beautiful flooded her cheeks. 
 It was months now since she had been beautiful. 
 
 She wanted to go intensely. 
 
 Risk or no risk, she must face the world again be- 
 sides there could be no real risk nothing could happen 
 nothing could really be demanded of her. 
 
 The chicken farm had seemed a safe harbour, a safe 
 hiding place ; but, after all, viewing the matter in a 
 calm, common-sense manner, why should she hide? 
 
 Honora looked out of the window, and instead of 
 preening hens, inconsequent chicks, bursting trees, and 
 the distant line of ocean made restless by spring winds, 
 she seemed to see Piccadilly Circus, the Park, and even 
 the supreme ugliness of Oxford Street! 
 
 For nearly two years she had not thought of these 
 things, but now Katherine's letter aroused all the Lon-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 143 
 
 don-longings which slumber in every attractive woman's 
 heart. 
 
 Pretty frocks! 
 
 Honora felt as though her legs and hips were already 
 clasped in the embrace of silk-lined skirts, and it seemed 
 as though a Bond Street toque must be perched on her 
 head. 
 
 Whirr-r-r! The rumble of London streets! Swtsh- 
 swish-swish! The trail of silk-lined skirts. 
 
 They were calling, calling those London voices 
 she could hear them above the arrogance of the red 
 Sussex rooster, who was now standing on a heap of 
 steaming straw, telling his wives all about the glory of 
 male supremacy, which the poor feathered dears blindly 
 believed. 
 
 And Katherine! Honora felt it would be joyous to 
 once more hear Katherine's unpunctuated, inconsequent 
 nonsense. 
 
 Katherine's flippancy had been so stimulating every 
 remark was like a dose of verbal sal volatile and then 
 Katherine was was yes, she was Bernard Benstead's 
 sister. 
 
 And that was the main point of all! 
 
 Bernard had written in the eight-months-ago pen- 
 cilled note that he would turn up before Katherine's 
 money was all spent, and if he turned up, where would 
 it be except at his sister's flat? 
 
 Sometimes Honora tried to deceive herself, to pretend 
 that she had forgotten those kisses in the hush of 
 the woods, as modern women do forget most pass-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 ing interludes which leave no important traces be- 
 hind. 
 
 But the self-deception and pretence were sorry, futile 
 efforts, and Katherine's letter had shattered them all 
 as eggshell china is shattered in a thousand irrepar- 
 able pieces. 
 
 She never could forget those kisses in the hush of the 
 wood. At twenty-three years old they had taught her 
 to grow up ! 
 
 Since then her life had been like the bass of a duet 
 subservient, monotonous, waiting to make harmonies 
 round a melody. 
 
 Honora put Katherine's letter in her pocket, and 
 leaving the house hurried toward the styes, where she 
 knew Tryke would be found attending to the domestic 
 needs of Bessie and her kin. 
 
 " Good-morning, Tryke," she called out with the 
 spring-time in her voice. 
 
 " G'morning, miss. (Hoo-up, old lady ! Now, none 
 of your tares!)" 
 
 "Tryke!" 
 
 " S'miss? (Nah! none o* that, my booty.) " 
 
 " If I went away for a long holiday say for four 
 or six months could you and Mary take entire control 
 of the farm? " 
 
 " That mostly what we do now, miss, so ter speak." 
 
 Honora smiled. She felt no resentment at this slight 
 cast upon her own importance only relief. 
 
 "Well, if you were paid extra wages and received 
 a percentage of profits, would you undertake to
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 145 
 
 carry on the farm as successfully as it's carried on 
 now?" 
 
 Tryke's sense of humour was even less than that usu- 
 ally possessed by the browned and horny-handed British 
 agriculturist, but even into his stolid eyes darted a 
 flash of something which might have done duty for 
 amusement. 
 
 " If me and th' missis did our own way without no 
 interference, so ter speak, there wouldn't be no cause 
 for complaint," was his tactful reply. 
 
 Honora understood, and laughed. It seemed easy to 
 laugh to-day. 
 
 " Then that settles it, Tryke. To-day is Monday 
 on Thursday I'll go away for a long holiday, and leave 
 everything in your hands. I daresay you'll find it diffi- 
 cult to get on without me at first, but you'll soon shake 
 down ! " 
 
 There was a mischievous school-girl malice in this 
 last remark, and Honora purposely darted off before 
 Tryke should be faced with the difficulty of finding a 
 reply. 
 
 "Harry! Harry!" 
 
 A youth and a sack appeared at the loft doorway. 
 
 " I want you to leave what you are doing and go to 
 the post office." 
 
 "Ayh?" 
 
 "Get down at once and come to the hall I'll have 
 the telegram written by the time you are ready." 
 
 "Ayh!" 
 
 Back to the house, into the parlour, up to the ink-
 
 146 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 bespattered writing-table a pencil a sheet of paper 
 sixpence ! 
 
 " To Orlitson, OA Holstein Mansions, London. 
 Coming gladly. Expect me Thursday. Writing. 
 HONORA." 
 
 She didn't know quite why she was writing, b&r a* 
 no telegraphic message is complete without this un- 
 necessary assurance, and as Honora meant to use fr<ery 
 fraction of her sixpenny worth, " writing " might just 
 as well go in ! 
 
 The " potato boy " such was the messenger's official 
 designation set out on his mission the spring sun 
 increased to mid-day warmth the hens clucked among 
 themselves as though they were discussing the situation 
 and whispering to each other that they knew exactly 
 why She was going to London they'd seen a bit, those 
 hens had, and the chinchilla muff Wyandotte had been 
 known to stray as far as the woods! the pigs 
 passed a grunting verdict on the subject and Tryke 
 was already forming a system which did considerable 
 credit to his rural intellect by means of which accounts 
 could be " cooked to a turn." 
 
 Then came Mr. Oriitson's orange-sheatfosd reply: 
 
 " To Vfcyne, Upper Deerbuck Farm, Transley Road, 
 Sussex. Wingless Angel and Sublime Feeder of Fowls ! 
 Welcome! A red-haired widow's grovelling thanks at 
 your feet! All hail Thursday! Halleluiah! 
 
 " KATHERINE THE GRATEFUL."
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 147 
 
 Honora read this effervescing one-and-three-penny 
 worth of unpunctuated nonsense, and felt that she could 
 almost hear a low-toned, rapid, rumbling voice and see 
 a thin, perfectly-waisted black figure. 
 
 Katherine was delicious ! She loved Katherine ! She 
 longed to see Katherine! and, quite incidentally she 
 loved Katherine's brother ! 
 
 Monday ended, Tuesday came to a close, Wednesday 
 ran its course, then Thursday dawned with a hint of very 
 distant summer on the vividly clear horizon. 
 
 Honora was up with the earliest rising lark in Sussex, 
 and before breakfast she was wandering through the 
 woods, where love had found her out and taught her 
 to grow up. 
 
 She looked at the exact spot where she and Bernard 
 had stood wrapped in the magnetism of each other's 
 embrace, and from the moist brown earth a ghost seemed 
 to rise. 
 
 It was the ghost of a large man wearing a blue suit 
 and carrying a sixpenny stick a large man whose un- 
 moral mouth was touched by the hint of a smile, and 
 who held out his arms. 
 
 " It'll be all right this time, Bernard," cried Honora, 
 speaking aloud and startling nest-building birds in the 
 boughs. " You'll come to me in London, won't you? 
 You'll come, Bernard, you'll come? " 
 
 And through the woods came the whistle of east-born 
 breezes a whistle which sounded like the wraith of a 
 " YES." 
 
 Three hours later the one ramshackle fly from Trans-
 
 148 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 ley Station stood at the door. One large trunk was 
 reposing imperiously beside the driver, and another oc- 
 cupied the back seat of the fly. 
 
 A tall girl dressed in grey tweed and with touches of 
 violets in her hat took the opposite place. 
 
 " Good-bye, Tryke good-bye, Mary good-bye, 
 Harry! Mind you look after yourselves! Be sure to 
 tickle Bessie and talk to her twice a day I've never 
 seen a pig so dependent on human companionship 
 and let me have letters three times a week! Good-bye, 
 my chicks good-bye, Julia good-bye, Portia good- 
 bye, Bluebeard good-bye bye " 
 
 The fly jolted down the rutted drive the red Sussex 
 rooster crowed " God-speed " from the top of the wall 
 the sun shone gaily, and the sea-sky line merged from 
 grey to blue ! 
 
 Honora looked back until the very last tears shed 
 a mist across her extraordinarily beautiful eyes the 
 fly turned the corner 
 
 Upper Deerbuck Farm had become a memory, and 
 spring-time's hope was in the air.
 
 CHAPTER XVH 
 
 " CHINA tea and rusks." 
 
 Lady Chesham gave the order ; one of the Serpentine 
 Club's good-mannered waiters took it the club had 
 been opened less than a month, so good manners still 
 prevailed among the attendants then she opened an 
 illustrated paper and read an enthralling reply to a cor- 
 respondent whose pseudonym of " Embonpoint " at once 
 created links of sympathy. 
 
 Lady Chesham little knew that a high-collared, cigar- 
 ette-smoking sub-sub-sub-editor, who played ten shilling 
 points on a salary of 5s. per week, was responsible 
 both for " Embonpoint's " query and reply ; therefore 
 she read and believed with all the eagerness of one who 
 suffers from the tragedy of increasing waist measure- 
 ment. 
 
 " Of course you mustn't despair, Embonpoint why 
 should you when Madame Aurelia's flesh-absorbing 
 cream can be bought for five shillings and ninepence a 
 jar? Do not on any account compress your figure, al- 
 though first rate corsets which restrain without con- 
 fining like those made by Patrice et Cie, of 010, 
 Hanover Street, for the absurdly low sum of 4 4s. 
 are of service in keeping back spreading tendencies. 
 Take a glass of Reinsbad Water two shillings and 
 one penny per bottle of all reputable chemists before 
 breakfast, and immediately commence a course of Mrs. 
 
 149
 
 150 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 de la Carr's Siberian Gymnastics 8. 8s. the course, at 
 15, Park Gardens, Lancaster Gate. These will almost 
 instantly reduce "'esh, and if adopted in conjunction 
 with Dr. Payhaiter*s Electric Prodding Massage ar- 
 rangements have been made that this extraordinarily 
 valuable remedy can be taken together with the Siberian 
 Gymnastics, by payment of an extra 6 6s. you will 
 find " 
 
 " Not playing in the billiard tournament, Lady 
 Chesham? " 
 
 Lady Chesham laid aside the fears and hopes of " Em- 
 bonpoint " to smile encouragingly at the speaker one 
 Mrs. Burham, who secretly eked out her pension by 
 means of Society columns signed " Sotto Voce" and 
 who could often be relied upon to return hospitality 
 that was worth while by a par, and to reward informa- 
 tion that was worth while, by introductions that were 
 worth while. 
 
 Mrs. Burham lived mainly on the worth-while system, 
 and found it pay. 
 
 She was hipless, angular, upright, gowned by dress 
 agencies, booted by misfits, complexioned by presenta- 
 tion cosmetics, jewelled by the Scandinavian Diamond 
 Company one " par " a ring, two " pars " a bracelet, 
 and a half a column a necklet and furred through 
 exchange-and-mart advertisements. 
 
 Mrs. Burham practically supported herself and three 
 marriageable daughters who didn't marry, on " pars " 
 so much so, that a novelist, who was unsuccessful on 
 account of his talents, gave birth to an apt riddle.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 151 
 
 " Why are the Misses Burham like the children f a 
 skilful courtesan ? " 
 
 "Because they are supported by different pa(r)s!" 
 
 The riddle reached Mrs. Burham's Scandinavian dia- 
 mond-studded ears, and in " Cousin Lilette's " next 
 week's " Town Tale-Tellings " the novelist's last book 
 was alluded to as " a dull volume full of dull pages, 
 commendable on account of its high moral tone and al- 
 most Calvinistic strain of purity, but dismal and yawn- 
 inducing from beginning to end." 
 
 It was never wise to annoy Mrs. Burham. 
 
 " No, I didn't enter for this one because my exacting 
 husband grumbles at everything which keeps me too 
 much occupied. Miss Mostyn-Crag and my little 
 friend, Mrs. Orlitson, are in for the finals, aren't 
 they?" 
 
 "Yes, I think they are. Smart little woman that 
 Mrs. Orlitson but why does she use the name of 
 'Dylke'?" 
 
 " Dylke ! Katherine never no, no, china tea and 
 rusks! " as the good-mannered waiter brought coffee 
 and toasted scones. He had been accustomed to service 
 in ladies' clubs ! " Katherine never uses the name of 
 'Dylke'!" 
 
 " My dear Lady Chesham " Mrs. Burham was very 
 brisk and definite " excuse me, but she doe! " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean that last week-end I went down to stay at 
 the Porkensteins' place in Buryshire, and on Sunday 
 morning strolled over to the only inn the village pos-
 
 152 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 sesses to Inspect an oak settee that I heard was for sale. 
 I offered a quarter the price they were asking for the 
 settee, then amused myself by looking at the visitors' 
 books visitors' books are always interesting, I think, 
 don't you? There had been no fresh entries for a week 
 except one * Mr. and Mrs. Dylke Landly Cross! ' 
 I wondered if these might happen to be connected with 
 the trust fund case Dylkes, you know, and enquired of 
 the waiter just as two people strolled across the lawn. 
 * That's Mr. and Mrs. Dylke, madame they're leaving 
 to-night,' he answered. I glanced with mild interest at 
 the people, and saw your attractive red-haired friend, 
 or somebody exactly like her accompanied by rather a 
 decent-looking man ! " 
 
 Lady Chesham smiled with amusement that was not 
 feigned. 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Burnham, you really ought to wear 
 glasses! Certainly you've mistaken someone else for 
 Mrs. Orlitson! Good gracious! I don't believe Kath- 
 erine knows a single man who hasn't been introduced to 
 her by us, and er really, Mrs. Burnham, that is 
 rather a dangerous sort of thing to say of a fellow 
 club-member, isn't it ? " 
 
 " Not at all, when I distinctly said ' Mrs. Dylke ' 
 might have been someone exactly like Mrs. Orlitson 
 but it really was a most extraordinary resemblance! 
 quite a case of ' doubles ' ! Has your friend been a 
 widow long? " 
 
 " Over a year ! " 
 
 " Really ! Left fairly well off? "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 153 
 
 " Katharine Orlitson is quite a rich woman, and is 
 already beginning to be a distinct success." 
 
 "Is she? is she? Well, she's got a perfect figure, 
 and now I come to think of it, this * Mrs. Dylke ' 
 hadn't, and possibly her hair was more carroty than 
 Mrs. Orlitson's. But it really was an amusing likeness. 
 I must tell Mrs. Orlitson when I get to know her better 
 I should like to know her better ! Such an attractive 
 voice ! Bring her in next Sunday to see me, if you can 
 you know my Sunday scrambles weak tea and celeb- 
 rities from four to seven! Do come good-bye I'm 
 due at the Gunages' good-bye ! " 
 
 When Mrs. Burham had trailed a demode, soiled, and 
 second-hand Doucet skirt through the swing door, Lady 
 Chesham got up quickly and decided she wouldn't wait 
 any longer for the china tea and rusks. (The good- 
 mannered waiter hadn't yet rectified his primary error 
 in connection with coffee and scones, though probably 
 it would only be a very few moments before he obligingly 
 appeared with chocolate and pastries). 
 
 Katherine would give her tea, and she wanted to see 
 Katherine. 
 
 When Lady Chesham reached Holstein Mansions it 
 was to learn that both Mrs. Orlitson and Miss Vayne 
 had come in ten minutes ago, and before tea had passed 
 from the outer drawing-room into the inner one 
 Katherine was putting effective kisses on both her 
 cheeks. 
 
 " You nice thing ! " she cried, pushing Evelyn 
 Chesham on to exactly the chair she knew to be most
 
 154 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 detirable for a wearer of Madame Effine's speciatite 
 long-fronted corsets. " It seems ages since I saw you ! 
 quite a whole horrid day and I was just writing to 
 ask you and Sir Charles to come and dine on Tuesday. 
 Just you two, the Percivals, the Gunways, and a couple 
 of odd men things to balance Honora and me. You will 
 come, won't you? " 
 
 " We shall be delighted, dear, and " 
 
 " That's right ! I'll ask the others now that I know 
 my benefactress is free. Honora and I always call you 
 the 'G.B.' Generous Benefactress, you know! Have 
 you been Park-ing to-day ? " 
 
 " No, I've just come from the club, and Katherine, 
 what were you doing last Sunday? '* 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson jerked the question was bewilderingly 
 sudden and apparently inconsequent then she screwed 
 up her white, featureless face. 
 
 "Last Sunday? Last Sunday? Last Sunday?" 
 she repeated rapidly. " Surely it was on Sunday that 
 Honora and I went down to pay a surprise visit to her 
 chicken farm and to see that things were all right, and 
 oh ! ah ! " as the door opened and Miss Vayne en- 
 tered the room ; " here she is herself to verify the truth 
 of my statement. Honora " turning round so that 
 only Honora could see her face " it was on Sunday 
 that we were at your chick-chick nursery, wasn't it ? " 
 
 Honora paused the fractional part of a second, read 
 Katherine's face, and inferred a lie while soothing her 
 conscience by the assurance that she was speaking the 
 truth.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 155 
 
 " Sunday ! Yes of course we wr at th farm on 
 Sunday," she answered. 
 
 And so they had been at the farm on a great many 
 Sundays, and because on this particular Sunday Honora 
 had gone down there by herself, real, solid, legitimate 
 facts were not altered ! 
 
 No, it was really quite all right she had taken a cue 
 without actually staining her soul. 
 
 " Yes, I thought so ; only my memory's so bad I can 
 never remember what happens from one day to another ! 
 And now, chere-esi of Evelyns, why such almost alarmed 
 interest in my movements last Sunday ? " 
 
 Lady Chesham looked apologetic and uncomfortable. 
 
 "It's too absurd, dear, only Mrs. Burham you know, 
 she belongs to the Serpentine the ' par ' fiend, they 
 call her insists that she saw you at some little inn at 
 Buryshire ; that you were with a man, and staying there 
 under the name of 4 Mrs. Dylke ' ! " 
 
 Katherine went into delighted convulsions of laughter. 
 
 " No such luck ! " she cried, with a complete return 
 of the unchecked dare-devilishness which had been 
 slightly moderated since her installation at Holstein 
 Mansions. " It's quite humiliating to think that though 
 I've been on the market again for over a year not a 
 single bid has been made ! * Mrs. Dylke! ' How scream- 
 ing! I really feel rather flattered, though I suppose I 
 ought to be turning my attention to libel actions. Do 
 introduce me to Mrs. Brumm or Burham I must 
 show her I'm myself and not the naughty naughty 
 week-end lady ! Ha-ha-ha ! "
 
 156 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Lady Chesham joined in the laughter, Honora me- 
 chanically echoed the ripples, and a few moments later 
 conversation had wandered far afield from the red- 
 haired Mrs. Dylke at the Buryshire inn. 
 
 Half an hour afterwards Lady Chesham took her de- 
 parture, leaving Honora and Katherine alone. 
 
 Katherine pummelled one or two cushions, and rather 
 aimlessly altered the position of a chair; then she 
 turned to Honora, who was glancing through the slip- 
 pery pages of a current magazine de luxe. 
 
 " You were a brick to help me with my little white 
 prevarication," she rattled out, speaking lower, faster, 
 and more indistinctly than usual. " Directly Eve de- 
 manded what I'd been doing last Sunday, I, with my 
 quick wit you don't know what express-rate wits I've 
 got, Ora! realised that she thought I'd been doing 
 something I oughtn't to do; and not being able to 
 remember that I'd spent a dull day by myself and gone 
 to bed early longing for your return next day, I just 
 lied, because lies sounded more circumstantial than the 
 truth ! In point of fact, I couldn't remember the truth, 
 but you helped me out beautifully! You're a prop, 
 Honora, and there's nothing so useful as for two women 
 to prop up the other. Neither one is likely to come 
 a cropper if the other one's staunch, and and I'm 
 just as staunch as you are, old girl if ever you want it! 
 Now I premise that it's clothing time if we want to grub 
 at 7.30 and catch the overture, so scuttle along, my 
 staunch prop, and make yourself divine in crepe de 
 Chine! "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 157 
 
 When Honora reached her own bedroom she sat down 
 on a white enamelled chair and asked herself some 
 questions. 
 
 (1) Was there any special significance in Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's voice when she promised staunchness should 
 Honora ever want it? 
 
 (2) Did she vaguely guess or vaguely suspect? 
 
 (3) Why was Katherine so desperately anxious to 
 prove an alibi? 
 
 (4) Who was this red-haired week-end lady seen by 
 Mrs. Burham? 
 
 (5) Why did Katherine tell Honora that she'd spent 
 last Sunday " mooning about bewailing her absence, and 
 going to bed early," when through a chance remark 
 dropped by the lady's maid Honora discovered that 
 Mrs. Orlitson had been away from early Sunday morn- 
 ing till early Monday morning? 
 
 (6) Where did Mrs. Orlitson spend that day and 
 night ? 
 
 (7) What did it all mean? 
 
 But as no satisfactory reply to any of these queries 
 was forthcoming, Honora left off making demands upon 
 her reasoning powers and began to dress. 
 
 After all, Katherine's secrets if she had any were 
 no more business of hers than her sec ' 
 
 Manette, the maid, entered at this juncture, and 
 Miss Vayne's toilet began. 
 
 Heliotrope and violets suited her remarkably well.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 MRS. ORIJTSON slowly revolved in front of the white- 
 framed Psyche glass, and decided she looked like a 
 stylish medium-sized snake with a Derfect waist and a 
 white face. 
 
 Cocuillet So3urs had made a startling success of black 
 satin covered with black spangle-embroidered chiffon, 
 and the cut of the decolletage invested bony shoulders 
 with a distinctive charm. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson's shoulders were undiscussably bony, 
 but as they led to the promise of a bust that came in 
 exactly the right place to suit present fashions, and 
 were white as gardenias, only a George IV. or a Reubens 
 would have wished to alter the existing state of things 
 and bones. 
 
 Likewise, the black velvet fillet terminating in a black 
 bird of paradise, which swept backwards over the red of 
 her hair to the white of her thin back, made Katherine 
 all that a woman of thirty twenty-seven and a half 
 need be. 
 
 " Would one touch of rouge improve me, d'you think, 
 Manette ? " she asked of the maid, whose French accent 
 was commendably industrious. 
 
 " Most times, madame, not, for madame's specialite 
 is that of une paleur clairel But to-night just one 
 
 soupfon yes ! 
 
 158
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 159 
 
 The soup f on was applied - Mgh up near the cheek 
 bones two more soupfons on either ear, and the small- 
 est soupfon on the chin. Then Katherine Orlitson went 
 downstairs, feeling that if her features had been differ- 
 ent she would have been a beautiful woman. 
 
 But her features weren't different which was a good 
 thing. It would have entirely spoilt her to be a beautiful 
 woman. 
 
 In the farthest drawing-room Honora was seated. 
 
 That strange waiting look which the advent of Ber- 
 nard Benstead had dispelled was slowly returning to her 
 eyes, and with the vivid flush absent from her cheeks she 
 wasn't looking her best. 
 
 As Katherine entered she rose the heavy cream satin 
 skirt hung with divine dignity from her uncompressed 
 waist and uttered an entirely feminine gasp of admira- 
 tion. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson appreciated the gasp, and pirouetted. 
 
 "All right? Eh? What? So? Not? Yes? "she 
 enquired. 
 
 " More than all right diabolically attractive ! Even 
 Sir Charles' watery, stationary eye must rove to-night ! 
 It's almost inhospitable for a hostess to look so so 
 extinguishing!" replied Honora with spontaneous 
 sincerity. 
 
 Katherine swirled, performed a double leg-twist cul- 
 minating in a high kick, then came to anchor and in- 
 spected her companion. 
 
 " You look nice of course," she said reflectively. 
 " Your eyes, and long legs, and hair must prevent you
 
 160 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 from looking anything else and of course your neck 
 and arms are indecorously beautiful. But I wish you'd 
 you'd look as if as if you cared more how you 
 looked! A woman's chief charm lies in caring how she 
 looks. Don't you care ? " 
 
 For a moment Honora forgot that she was not quite 
 alone with her heartache. 
 
 " I don't think so it isn't worth while," she answered 
 in a voice that sounded flat and middle-aged. 
 
 Katherine looked at her, and came closer. 
 
 " It'll be worth while soon, dear it's bound to be ! " 
 she answered gently. 
 
 And a second later Honora's cheek was kissed by warm 
 lip-salved lips. 
 
 She smiled, held Katherine's hand very tightly for one 
 moment then commented on the success of Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's coiffure. 
 
 Katherine responded flippantly as usual, but made up 
 her mind that if it was in any way possible for Bernard 
 to be brought back, he must be brought. 
 
 She didn't like Honora to think things " weren't worth 
 while," and she didn't like to hear that middle-aged 
 note in her voice. 
 
 " Who am I to go in with? " asked Honora, forcing 
 herself to feel very much interested. 
 
 " One of the make-weight unmarried men Arnold 
 Smith, I think," replied Katherine carelessly. 
 
 " Arnold Smith ? I haven't met or heard you speak 
 of him. Who is he? " 
 
 "Oh! he's just a person. Not bad anecdotal,
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 161 
 
 clean-shaven, goes through all the courses. He's a 
 man poor Roger and I met on our honeymoon Roger 
 got very chummy with him and I came across him 
 at the Carlton or somewhere the other day, and as he's 
 presentable and not overdone by every other hostess, 
 I asked him to make up for to-night. I don't think 
 you'll mind him, and " 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs. Percival! " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson stuck out her thin chin and rustled 
 forward as though greeting this robust magistrate 
 and his placid wife was the one supreme joy of her 
 whole existence. 
 
 " Miss Vayne and I have been military tournament- 
 ing this afternoon," she said when the handshakes 
 were concluded. " It was awfully exciting, really, but 
 I'm sure they settle beforehand which sides shall come 
 off best in the tugs and encounters and things. I saw 
 one huge, black-moustached Lancer snigger with 
 amusement when he won the oh ! Honora, do tell Mrs. 
 Percival about our sniggering Lancer and " 
 
 " Sir Charles and Lady Chesham! " 
 
 " I've a good mind to send you home again, Eve ! 
 (How are you, Sir Charles I'll try to forgive her for 
 your sake. You actually passed me passed me at 
 Prince's this afternoon ! I coughed and spluttered, 
 but you wouldn't look at my box, and when I went down 
 to skate you'd disappeared. I do hate being passed 
 I sort of resent my own lack of magnetism. You do 
 plenty of passing, don't you, Mr. Percival Mrs. Per- 
 cival Lady Chesham passing sentences upon poor
 
 162 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 people who only sin through force of circumstances 
 and " 
 
 " Sir Godfrey Speer! " 
 
 " Ah ! Sir Godfrey " as a smiling, pink-blue-and- 
 flaxen youth pressed her hand and looked dinner-party 
 love into her eyes " we're just talking about sinning 
 through force of circumstance. Is that the way with 
 you, sir, or are your crimes nicely planned before- 
 hand? " 
 
 " I never sin, Mrs. Orlitson. I'm like that opera 
 chap what's his name, with the long curls? who's 
 never learnt to sin ! " replied the pink baronet, whose 
 perfect feet were placed in a most well arranged atti- 
 tude. 
 
 "Haven't you? How tiring! Honora, do persuade 
 Sir Godfrey not to be so fatiguingly perfect ! " 
 
 *' Colonel and Miss Gunway! " 
 
 A clinging gowned sister was followed by a mous- 
 tached and white-waistcoated brother then Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's little dmer a dix was complete, except for one 
 make-weight man. 
 
 For ten minutes everybody continued to babble su- 
 perfluities with the utmost ease and apparent pleasure, 
 but after that there was less spontaneity. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson chatted faster than usual, and might 
 have been seen to glance anxiously at the clock while 
 the " soupfons " on each of her cheeks grew too vivid. 
 
 At last there was a lull one of those lulls which 
 mean internal calls for food and politely suppressed 
 bad temper.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 163 
 
 Katherine felt the situation and plunged boldly 
 into it. 
 
 " Of course our fifth man is late ! " she cried, as 
 though the unappeased hunger of her guests and the 
 steady ruin of salmon a la Regence were the most 
 pleasing of social circumstances. "My poor husband 
 used to say ' Arnold Smith would be late at his own 
 funeral ' he was a chum of poor Roger's when we 
 were honeymooning. Unpunctuality is one of the 
 crimes I don't understand. Honora and I are never 
 late for anything but that may be because we have 
 our very private clocks and watches sixty minutes 
 fast, and always keep on pretending to ourselves that 
 it really is the time we think it is ! " 
 
 " What a cunning plan ! " cooed Miss Gunway, who 
 had already wearied Sir Godfrey out by a minute de- 
 scription of a water-colour sketch hung on the third 
 row and twentieth from the nearest door in room 
 eight of a new one-man gallery, just opened in Bond 
 Street. 
 
 " Yes, it's not uncute, is it ? " (Heavens! that 
 salmon! Would the ghost of a flake remain?) " Ho- 
 nora says it makes life longer and keeps us an hour 
 
 younger than we think we are " (Oh! Sir Charles' 
 
 side teeth begin to look like the incisors of a starving 
 wolf!) " I can't quite follow the idea myself, 
 but " 
 
 " Mr. Arnold Smith! " 
 
 There was no need for poor Katherine's inconse- 
 quent chatter to continue, no need for eight hungry
 
 164 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 human beings to make effort at polite reply the tenth 
 make-weight man had arrived! 
 
 " Really, Mrs. Orlitson, Fm desperately sorry," he 
 murmured, almost forgetting to shake hands in his 
 contrite embarrassment. 
 
 " I'm not going to say you've no reason not to be 
 sorry, Mr. Smith, because such a statement wouldn't 
 be sincere," replied Katherine, with a hint of real 
 snappishness in her voice. " But I'll try to forgive, 
 and Miss Vayne will award you necessary censure dur- 
 ing dinner. (Mr. Smith Miss Vayne.) Now, Mr. 
 Percival, if you'll escort Lady Chesham er er 
 (Colonel Gunway Mrs. Percival) er (Sir God- 
 frey Miss Gunway) (Yes, please, Mr. Smith Miss 
 Vayne is quite ready to commence her lectures!) and 
 please, Sir Charles, take pity upon me." 
 
 " It's always my luck that if there is to be a block 
 or a breakdown, these eventualities will always occur 
 just when I've allowed five minutes for a ten minutes' 
 drive ! " was Arnold Smith's first remark after he and 
 Honora had taken their places at the oval table, which 
 to-night was decorated with an effective display 
 of spring verdure grasses, mosses, and budding 
 branches, but not a single flower. 
 
 " That's very unfortunate, but you'd find it a good 
 plan to allow fifteen minutes for a ten minutes' drive, 
 instead of five ! " answered Honora demurely. She 
 rather liked this pleasant-voiced man who was now 
 helping himself to the largest and plumpest of the 
 proffered hors d'ceuvre sardines.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 165 
 
 Arnold Smith laughed quietly, and landed the sar- 
 dine. 
 
 " I always do allow it," he said, " but somehow I 
 never seem to take advantage of my own generosity. 
 I believe I must have been born late, and feel sure I 
 shall be horribly behind time in dying ! " Then having 
 placed a dash of cayenne on the sardine, the late Roger 
 Orlitson's chum began his dinner. 
 
 Honora glanced sideways at him, and saw that his 
 clean-shaven face was more round than oval, that his 
 chin was full, curved, and soft the chin of a man 
 whose policy it would be to let matters take their course 
 that his mouth retained the character of his whole 
 face, and that his centre-parted hair was a shade 
 longer than it ought to have been, except in the case 
 of a recognised follower of art. 
 
 One loop of his tie showed vague symptoms of es- 
 caping the pass, his centre stud wasn't entirely through 
 the slit, and the top button of his waistcoat was almost 
 undone. 
 
 A heedless, careless man, but a nice man! 
 
 " You are the proud owner of several hundred 
 happy fowls, are you not, Miss Vayne? " was the next 
 observation, made before potage a la reine claimed his 
 attention. 
 
 " Yes ! But how do you know ? " exclaimed Honora 
 in surprise. 
 
 " For the simple reason that when I ran up against 
 Mrs. Orlitson at Claridge's the other day she told 
 me that the solitude of her flat was temporarily
 
 166 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 shared by a charming friend named Miss Honora 
 Vayne, who owned a charming chicken farm in 
 Sussex." 
 
 " I see. Well, omitting the adjectives, that in- 
 formation is quite correct I am Honora Vayne, and 
 I am the possessor of a somewhat badly-managed 
 chicken farm. Are you fond of rural life, Mr. 
 Smith? " 
 
 " I can't say I'm keen. I always keep to cities, if 
 I can, where electric light and hot water are laid on. 
 For some time now I've been a sort of loose end career- 
 ing about the globe, but I've never gone outside the 
 radius of where electric light and hot water are laid 
 on." 
 
 " Some people are never meant to rough it. I al- 
 ways tell Mrs. Orlitson that she can " 
 
 " Yes, what do you tell Mrs. Orlitson ? " came a low 
 thrilling voice from the curve of the oval table. Kath- 
 erine had been babbling very satisfactorily to the mono- 
 syllabically cynical Sir Charles, but when her light grey 
 eyes narrowed into slits, those slits were very frequently 
 turned in the direction of Honora and the guest who 
 had nearly spoilt the salmon. 
 
 " I was saying to Mr. Smith how I always tell you 
 that though you may force yourself to be pictur- 
 esquely rural you were never meant to rough it," re- 
 plied Honora. 
 
 " Ah ! but I have roughed it," responded Katherine, 
 bending forward with one of those implike smiles touch- 
 ing her lip-salved mouth. " I remember spending one
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 167 
 
 terrible week at a place called Seedlingditch. It was 
 before poor Roger died, and we were retrenching in a 
 rustic cottage and believe me, Mr. Smith, I actually 
 washed plates and scrubbed floors! Can you imagine 
 my doing that? " 
 
 " I might imagine your making the effort, Mrs. 
 Orlitson, but I can't imagine your remaining amiable 
 throughout the ordeal," replied Honora's neighbour 
 with a lazy laugh. 
 
 "Ah! well, I did I positively assert I was a 
 
 paragon of industry and amiability." 
 
 " Were you, really ? " 
 
 The words were innocuous, but the tone in which they 
 tfere uttered was full of courteous rudeness. 
 
 Katherine bubbled with laughter. 
 
 " Yes, I was really, and oh ! do tell us that story 
 about the lady who could seem amiable in seven different 
 languages yet was really using polite imprecations all 
 the time! I remember you told poor Roger and me 
 at Cairo it was awfully good ! " 
 
 Mr. Smith's face grew plump with gratification, and 
 as a lull followed Mrs. Orlitson's suggestion, he begun 
 to tell an excellent story with excellent point and ges- 
 ture. 
 
 Everybody listened, and from that moment the make- 
 weight man was a success. 
 
 He was an admirable raconteur, and Katherine 
 vaguely let it be known that he was an excellent singer, 
 an excellent bridge-player, an excellent golfer, an ex- 
 cellent, shot, and an excellent amateur actor, till both
 
 168 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Lady Chesham and Mrs. Percival decided that his name 
 should be on their next list of invitations. 
 
 Honora felt faintly puzzled. She couldn't quite make 
 out why Katherine was, in this very subtle and skilful 
 manner, advertising Mr. Arnold Smith. 
 
 Probably no one else was observing the advertising 
 process, but Honora, who knew most of Mrs. Orlitson's 
 methods, felt no doubt upon the subject. 
 
 Mr. Smith was being puffed. 
 
 In due course the meal an absolutely successful 
 " little dinner " came to its conclusion, and with the 
 snaring of Lady Chesham's eye by Mrs. Orlitson's eye 
 the women rose and commenced their trail of egress. 
 
 Mr. Smith, being nearest the door, gripped and held 
 the handle. 
 
 Lady Chesham Mrs. Percival Miss Gunway 
 Honora Katherine. 
 
 But Honora's lace scarf caught in a carved oak 
 knob, thus causing her to turn round when nobody ex- 
 pected her to do anything but follow the feminine file. 
 
 She turned turned in time to see Mrs. Orlitson's 
 left lid droop stealthily over her left grey eye, and she 
 gave one swift glance up into Mr. Arnold Smith's im- 
 passive face ! 
 
 Without doubt Katherine must have been quite inti- 
 mately friendly with her late husband's chum!
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 DR. SPHAIT felt the pulse of a rural patient, prodded 
 his side, raised his eyelids and inspected his tongue, 
 and taking more pains over the treatment of this sim- 
 ple rustic ailment than he would have done in the days 
 before Dr. Amberton set up and remained in Seedling- 
 ditch. 
 
 Yes, it was a fact that at last another red lamp had 
 been able to retain its vivid glow, and another brass 
 plate continued in a condition of brilliant, prosperous 
 polish. 
 
 Without a doubt Dr. Sphait's popularity was on the 
 wane. 
 
 Nothing concrete had occurred to bring about this 
 regrettable state of affairs, but it was just that an- 
 other man had at last snared the public confidence, and 
 though many old patients retained their former al- 
 legiance, most new-comers seemed to call in Dr. Am- 
 berton instead of Dr. Sphait. 
 
 Probably it was merely one of those inevitable revo- 
 lutions of fortune's roulette wheel which ordains that 
 after a long prosperous run on the red, a punter must 
 suffer an adverse run on the black. 
 
 Some people look-ahead, cautious people are able 
 to store enough during the " run on the red " for the 
 " run on the black " not to matter. 
 
 169
 
 170 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 But such wasn't the case with Dr. Morgan T. B. 
 Sphait. 
 
 The big scarlet motor had cost a lot of money to 
 keep up, and though patients had been plentiful, Dr. 
 Sphait was only a poor man's doctor, and the poor 
 man's doctor doesn't find it easy to hoard. 
 
 Besides, lately the general practitioner had been 
 obsessed by one idea. He wanted to be a specialist 
 a nerve and rheumatism specialist for, according to 
 his theory, neural and rheumatic disorders were abso- 
 lutely synonymous. 
 
 There was a certain treatment he had been years 
 trying to find it out, and now every detail was per- 
 fected but not one which could be practised on poor 
 patients. 
 
 It was a treatment requiring a Harley Street house, 
 a footman, and a wealthy clientele. 
 
 But the step from the obscurity of a small country 
 surgery to the dignified roominess of a Harley Street 
 consulting-room is a long one, and Morgan Sphait 
 possessed neither means nor influence necessary for its 
 accomplishment. 
 
 When the rural patient was dismissed with a bottle 
 of tonic and a few cheery remarks Dr. Sphait still 
 bravely maintained his cheeriness the large, ruddy, 
 British looking man uttered a profound " draughty " 
 sigh which stirred the window curtains, and threw him- 
 self on the shabby American-cloth covered sofa. 
 
 He was tired, mentally and physically, and for the 
 time being felt more inclined to rest his big body, big
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 171 
 
 limbs, and big brain than to pay hospitable atten- 
 tions to his guest a young newly qualified M. D., 
 who had come to pay a brief visit with a view to possi- 
 ble partnership, and was now lolling discontentedly in 
 the dining-room and thinking about the London trains. 
 
 For some moments Dr. Sphait lay perfectly still, 
 with his very bright, quickly moving blue eyes half 
 shut. 
 
 He was thinking hard his thoughts wondering if 
 it would be possible to raise money or find a philan- 
 thropist capable of setting him up in Harley Street. 
 
 He must get out of Seedlingditch. 
 
 A sort of hot fury suddenly raged within him, and 
 for a moment he felt he could never be placid or cheery 
 again. 
 
 Rural tongues, rural chests, rural pulses, rural 
 coughs, rural babies, rural stomachs, rural corpses! 
 There had been nothing to break the monotony, not 
 even one stimulating incident except except 
 
 A smile slowly found place beneath Dr. Sphait's 
 moustache. He was just remembering that one inci- 
 dent which a little over a year ago had given food for 
 speculative reflection. 
 
 What a smart woman she was ! that white-faced 
 Mrs. Orlitson, who, after her husband's funeral, had 
 passed away from Seedlingditch and its surroundings! 
 
 " There was a mystery about that business," mused 
 the M. D., who had just reached that age when people 
 begin to find diversion in reminiscence. " I often think 
 if I hadn't chanced to look through that blind there
 
 172 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 couldn't have been any real reason though ! no mo- 
 tive but it was odd! A smart woman! by Jove! 
 what a waist ! " 
 
 Dr. Sphait half laughed, made a sensuous, sibilant 
 sound with his lips, and stretched out one large fair- 
 haired hand to grasp the weekly roll of papers sent by 
 a grateful maiden-lady patient whose poodle he had 
 contrary to all laws of professional etiquette once 
 consented to attend. 
 
 If Miss Cantoose would only express her undying 
 gratitude by means other than Lyra's Journal, Hel- 
 dorfs Home Dressmaker, Maid's Friend, and Woman's 
 Sphere, the poodle's plaster would have been more 
 worth while, and ah! but actually to-day's bundle in- 
 cluded the Loose Spear! 
 
 Dr. Sphait swept Lyra, Heldon, &c., with all their 
 enclosures such chaste blouse, combination, pinafore, 
 and petticoat patterns! to the ground and languidly 
 opened the penny pages of Loose Spear. 
 
 He wasn't much interested in sickly " pars " of re- 
 written copy concerning individuals who, by reason of 
 their money, vice, clothes, talents, ancestors, hobbies, 
 divorces, parties, diamonds, etc., had attained the dis- 
 tinction of being " People " anyhow from a harassed 
 editor's point of view. But he would just glance 
 through it might be diverting to glance through. 
 
 Dr. Sphait skipped gentle anecdotes concerning 
 royalty, skimmed details to do with duchesses, and was 
 just turning on to the " Topical Tailoring " column 
 when a name caught and held his hurrying blue eye.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 173 
 
 " MRS. ORLITSON 
 
 " Orlitson " was the name engraved on a very simple 
 head-stone in Seedlingditch churchyard it wasn't a 
 common name how strange, when he had just been 
 remembering 
 
 Dr. Sphait shifted his attitude from one of indolence 
 to alertness, and began to read: 
 
 " The weekly ' at homes ' given by Mrs. Roger Orlit- 
 son at her luxurious flat in Holstein Mansions are 
 becoming conspicuously successful functions, where 
 pretty women, smart men, celebrities, and first-rate 
 musicians are always to be found. Mrs. Orlitson, who 
 has only dawned on the social horizon this season, can 
 trace her own ancestors far back into French and Eng- 
 lish history, and her late husband's family was no less 
 distinguished. Little more than a year ago Mrs. Orlit- 
 son was left a widow under sudden and distressing cir- 
 cumstances, with no means except a comparatively 
 small sum paid by the firm with which her husband's 
 life had been insured and to-day she is a substantially 
 wealthy woman! A successful roulette system skil- 
 fully played at Monte Carlo more than doubled Mrs. 
 Orlitson's capital, after which liberal investments in 
 those magic ' Grey Rubbers ' which have made more 
 than a few fortunes within the last ten months com- 
 pleted this charming lady's good luck. Mrs. Orlitson 
 is very slight, with a perfect figure, pale spirituelle 
 face, and quantities of exquisite hair of the exact shade 
 immortalised by Burne-Jones. She is a prominent 
 member of the new Serpentine Club, and is beginning
 
 174 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 to take her place among the best-dressed women in 
 London." 
 
 Dr. Sphait laid aside the paper and stood up. 
 
 His ruddy face was quite apoplectically red, and he 
 tugged at his collar as though the linen edge had be- 
 come too high and too tight. 
 
 That house in Harley Street and the wealthy clien- 
 tele seemed to have suddenly grown into tangible pos- 
 sibilities. 
 
 The man possessing some possible secret connected 
 with a penniless, unknown woman doesn't hold an asset 
 that is in the least marketable ; but when the woman 
 suddenly becomes rich and influential well, that's 
 among the other matters! 
 
 Dr. Sphait crossed the hall and entered the dining- 
 room, where the newly-made M.D. was disconsolately 
 smoking a foul pipe. 
 
 " Ah ! Chamberton, just the man I wanted ! " cried 
 the general practitioner who yearned to become a spe- 
 cialist. " Would you take entire control here for a 
 week or so? " he continued. " I want to run up to town, 
 and and if matters arrange themselves satisfac- 
 torily, there is a chance I may remain in London. If 
 so, no doubt we could come to some arrangements? 
 Eh?" 
 
 " Certainly we could delighted ! " responded the 
 M. D. 
 
 " Thanks, old chap." 
 
 " You er you've had some good luck, I hope, 
 Sphait?"
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 175 
 
 " Well er I can't be sure yet awhile but there 
 seems a chance, a possible chance ! " 
 
 " I'm jolly glad to hear it! " 
 
 " Thanks, old fellow ! " 
 
 And Dr. Sphait bellowed cheerily. It was quite a 
 long time since he had bellowed, but now Hope seemed 
 standing in the distance beckoning with a thin white 
 finger, the sound came easily again. 
 
 " Wonder if any man's fortune has ever yet been 
 made by looking round the side of a blind and seeing 
 what he wasn't meant to see ! " mused the Seedlingditch 
 practitioner who had brought home Roger Orlitson's 
 dead body in his great red motor-car. 
 
 He chuckled to himself then began mentally plan- 
 ning all fittings and furnishings for the Harley Street 
 consulting- room.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 MBS. ORLITSON and Miss Vayne were attending a 
 charity concert given in the picture gallery of a big 
 house, and several nods, smiles, and fan-salutes from 
 people of importance evidenced the fact that the widow 
 with the perfect waist was getting on very nicely in- 
 deed, not only with men Mrs. Orlitson troubled very 
 little about the door-opening sex, except from a social 
 point of view but also with women which, in some 
 circumstances, is far more important. 
 
 When Mrs. Orlitson first began to be seen about, a 
 very general impression prevailed that a widow, a 
 young widow, a red-haired widow, a loquacious widow, 
 and an unknown widow mightn't be quite " quite " ; 
 but Katherine's niceness to women the right women 
 and indifference towards men soon caused her to be 
 regarded as a really " ducky thing " whom it was de- 
 cidedly worth while to know. 
 
 To-day Mrs. Orlitson was wearing her customary 
 perfect black, with a huge cloche hat about which a 
 black lace veil fell and draped in a truly desirable man- 
 ner. Her red hair was at its best, and she looked much 
 more than a little distinguished. 
 
 Honora wore grey, gave the impression of being 
 legitimately beautiful, and had already suppressed four 
 yawns during the roulades of a large new French 
 prima donna. 
 
 176
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 177 
 
 Half a syllable forced to do duty for twelve bars 
 of music left her emotionally untouched. 
 
 She looked round realised that women with hand- 
 made complexions should avoid the new season's new 
 colour of framboise ecrasee, wondered why a French 
 prima donna should look like a British typist in Sun- 
 day clothes and finally noted that Katherine's 
 black eight-guinea ostrich boa was lying on the next 
 seat. 
 
 Was the boa placed on that seat by accident, or 
 was 
 
 The rest of Honora's mental question was answered 
 before she asked because, just as the French prima 
 donna had finished the last " le " of hirondelle on some 
 note quite outside the radius, Arnold Smith lounged 
 up the red-baized gangway and dropped into the va- 
 cant seat. 
 
 Honora then understood the boa's placement, for 
 during the three weeks which had passed since Mrs. 
 Orlitson's little dix diner, her late husband's chum was 
 often dropping into vacant seats. 
 
 Honora returned his friendly bow bowed across 
 Katherine's lap, and tried not to hear fragments of the 
 widow'?- greeting; but as Mrs. Orlitson disliked whis- 
 pering in public places this effort was not wholly suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 be in time always late everything 
 
 particularly wanted you cure you kept 
 
 seat " 
 
 There was no doubt that the dead husband's chum
 
 178 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 was being nagged by the dead husband's widow which 
 was distinctly odd! 
 
 A prodigy violin child was now beginning to play an 
 intricate something by a composer whose name ended 
 with " ski," and during a cadenza of somewhat smeary 
 harmonies Honora vaguely reviewed the situation, 
 which was not one she could wholly or even partially 
 understand. 
 
 Arnold Smith was gradually becoming Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's unenthusiastic attache, in spite of the facts that 
 Katherine frequently treated him with an impatience 
 bordering on incivility, and that to-day's sotto voce 
 reprimand was not by any means the first which the 
 chum had suffered from the widow's agile tongue. 
 
 Yet in spite of this Katherine seemed to like the 
 witty, easy-going attache, whose genial temper never 
 showed remote signs of being ruffled more than any of 
 the other buzzing flies who hovered round, obviously 
 desirous of sharing her matrimonial and financial 
 jampot. 
 
 She skilfully foisted him on all her new friends and 
 acquaintances, till it came about that Katherine and 
 Honora rarely attended any function not graced by 
 the presence of Mr. Smith. 
 
 Honora couldn't understand it in the very least, till 
 suddenly an idea born of a friendly smile from Ar- 
 nold, which Katherine leaned back not to intercept 
 suggested itself. 
 
 Was it possible that Katherine was laying deep 
 plans? Was she sorry for Honora because Bernard
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 179 
 
 had gone away, and was she deftly putting forward 
 Arnold Smith by way of a possible consolation? Was 
 this why Arnold Smith dined with frequent a-trois in- 
 timacy at Holstein Mansions? why seats were kept 
 for him? why Katherine appeared desirous of licking 
 him into shape as regards unpunctuality and general 
 dilatoriness of method? 
 
 If Mrs. Orlitson did match-make, her methods would 
 without doubt be of the most subtle and skilful variety. 
 She would never make the egregious mistake of throw- 
 ing one person at another person's head, and it would 
 be quite possible for the two victims to find themselves 
 cremated by Hymen's torch before they even guessed 
 that Mrs. Orlitson was engineering the whole busi- 
 ness. 
 
 The prodigy was now performing a very unneces- 
 sary pizzicato passage, and with every quick curt note 
 it seemed to Honora as though a quick curt stab was 
 being thrust into her heart for no agony could be 
 more poignant than the idea that Bernard Ben- 
 stead's sister was trying to foist her on to another 
 man. 
 
 When the concert was over and Mrs. Orlitson had 
 made two or three engagements en route from the pic- 
 ture gallery to the side entrance near the stables 
 which was the only spot of egress and ingress which 
 Lord Redhaven thought worth while to put at the dis- 
 posal of charity she suggested that Mr. Smith should 
 go home with them instead of standing them unsatis- 
 factory tea and cakes at two shillings per head.
 
 180 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Mr. Smith agreed without any display of apprecia- 
 tion he never appeared to appreciate Mrs. Orlitson's 
 favours, which was possibly the reason they were so 
 persistently bestowed and a few minutes later they 
 were gliding Parkwards on silent wheels. 
 
 " You look awfully glum, Honora dear, but it suits 
 you, doesn't it, Mr. Smith? Only really good-looking 
 people can be glum effectively. What upset you? 
 the prima donna's celestial efforts, or the prodigy's 
 squeaks, or Lady Grenmayo's hat? or was it Mrs. 
 Corr-Linto's theft? Just fancy, Mr. Smith " here 
 Mrs. Orlitson turned her volubility on to the back 
 seat " Mrs. Corr-Linto is the hon. treasurer person, 
 so I sent her my cheque made out to herself for 
 two seats at the last moment, saying I'd come early and 
 ask for my tickets at the improvised bureau place. 
 We came early, but there was no asking for tickets, 
 because Mrs. Corr-Linto, beaming, purring, and coo- 
 ing, met us in the hall, waved aside the question of 
 tickets in a manner suggesting that we were too su- 
 preme for such conventionalities personally conducted 
 us to a couple of seats chatted a moment, then beamed, 
 purred, and cooed off again. Obvious ! See the point ? 
 Why, of course, in returning her unsold tickets Mrs 
 Corr-Linto gives up mine instead of my cheque, and 
 that cheque, made out to Mrs. Corr-Linto, purchases 
 two guinea's worth of gloves or veils! One of the 
 cutest dodges I've seen ! Daddy B. V. would just revel 
 in it, wouldn't he? Mr. Smith, do make some comment 
 or remark ! "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 181 
 
 Mr. Smith stroked his upper lip, as though he missed 
 a moustache which had once been there. 
 
 " You make so many, Mrs. Orlitson, that there's 
 very little time for other orators to get their innings," 
 he replied genially. 
 
 Katherine screwed up most of her features, then 
 turned to Honora. 
 
 " Insolent person, isn't he? " she slurred out. 
 
 " I don't think so," was Honora's equable response. 
 She knew Katherine's condemnation belonged to the 
 same order as that of a fond father who alludes to his 
 daughter as " an extravagant little devil " it was the 
 condemnation of cordiality; and with this new notion, 
 which was now filling her mind, she had no intention 
 of aiding and abetting any cordiality. 
 
 Arnold laughed. 
 
 " Miss Vayne is severe she won't even acknowledge 
 that I'm insolent," he said, with the dinner-party note 
 of cynicism in his voice. 
 
 Honora flushed. She felt she was being made fun 
 of in the most friendly way imaginable. 
 
 " Luxurious method of getting about this, isn't it ? " 
 was Arnold Smith's next remark, as the mute-wheeled 
 car shot in and out of Piccadilly traffic with the beauti- 
 ful grace of a sinuous dancer. 
 
 " Yes, isn't it ? " answered Katherine, while a very in- 
 tense expression shot into her light grey ineffective 
 eyes. " When I used to take a * penn'orth ' of motor 
 'bus, I'd try to lean back and pretend I was spinning 
 along in a little car like this. My heavens, how hard
 
 182 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 I used to pretend, and want, and yearn, and long! I 
 don't think any woman ever yearned for life's luxuries 
 so much before ! " 
 
 For a moment this red-haired widow with the perfect 
 waist seemed to have forgotten that she was addressing 
 an audience of two people who should presumably have 
 no place among the strange vicissitudes of her strange 
 career. It was as though amidst the frivolities and 
 flippancies of this comparatively new vie de luxe she 
 suddenly came face to face with the past and all its 
 strenuous mistakes and yearnings as though a sort 
 of superstitious influence demanded that she must ver- 
 bally acknowledge her luck. 
 
 " Yes, I wanted it horribly," she went on, " and there 
 were times at Seedlingditch " here she half uncon- 
 sciously addressed the man on the back seat " when 
 I wished so hard, that no power seemed left for any- 
 thing except wishing! But I've got what I wanted, 
 and if ever it were taken away God only knows what 
 would be the result, and " 
 
 " But as it's never likely to be taken away, Mrs. 
 Orlitson, I should think it would be better not to con- 
 template eventualities silence and repression are al- 
 ways safe ! " broke in Arnold Smith's quite easy, quite 
 languid voice. 
 
 Katherine looked dazed for a second like a person 
 suddenly waking from the effects of gas after the ex- 
 traction of a tooth her eyes met the gentlemanly, 
 genial eyes of the late Roger Orlitson's chum a mo- 
 mentary wave of colour stole beneath the clear skin of
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 183 
 
 her white face then, for once, she actually refrained 
 from talking during the space of two whole moments 
 and when those moments were ended the mute brougham 
 came to a mute halt in front of Holstein Mansions. 
 
 But this time Mrs. Orlitson was quite normal 
 again. 
 
 " We'll have tea in the * bood ' ! " she cried, leading 
 the way into that rampantly inartistic apartment into 
 which not one single intinie had ever been permitted 
 to penetrate. 
 
 But Mr. Arnold Smith formed an exception to this 
 rule in fact, one very huge violently upholstered cane 
 lounge chair was already his established resting place, 
 and now, from her new point of view, Honora saw in 
 these privileges merely concessions made for her sake. 
 
 " I'm going to unhat, so you two can babble banal- 
 ities while I'm away ! " said Katherine when they 
 reached the only room in the flat which was truly and 
 vulgarly comfortable. " If the tea comes, Hon, do 
 plop in a lump of sugar to draw the blackness out 
 my nerves demand black tea. Ta-ta ! " 
 
 But this concluding salutation was unnecessary, be- 
 cause no sooner had Mrs. Orlitson reached her de- 
 corously furnished bedroom than Honora knocked at 
 and opened the door. 
 
 "What! Deserted the poor Smith person!" was 
 Katherine's ejaculation. 
 
 Honora shut the door, crossed the room, and gripped 
 a chair back. 
 
 " Katherine, I I want to ask you something," she
 
 184 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 began, with a whole gamut of feminine emotions in her 
 voice. 
 
 " All right, my beloved, but don't speak in those 
 legitimate drama tones! What is it? " 
 
 "Wh why er what is this about Mr. Smith? " 
 
 Katherine's silver comb inset with turquoises fell 
 with a clatter on to the silver pin tray, while her light 
 grey eyes looked startled and full of a sudden fear. 
 
 " What about him ? How ? " she queried sharply, 
 and without a slur or rumble in her tones. It was the 
 sharpness, clearness, and tenseness of alarm. 
 
 " You you are encouraging him here for my sake 
 you you want to to make him marry me, and I 
 I prefer to go back to Sussex at once ! " and as Honora 
 made her accusation she looked particularly young and 
 particularly forlorn. 
 
 Katherine stared at her for some consecutive mo- 
 ments; then, as the startled fear filtered away from 
 her grey eyes, she broke into prolonged peals of abso- 
 lutely uncheckable laughter. 
 
 " My dear beloved young dark-eyed donkey, you've 
 got a mare's nest big enough to hold hundreds of foals 
 into your head ! " she cried. " It's really funny, truly, 
 deliciously, joyously funny! Oh! oh! you entertaining 
 little imbecile ! You don't know how imbecile you are ! " 
 
 Honora looked less and less forlorn during this sen- 
 tence, and when Mrs. Orlitson once more broke into 
 peals of laughter, an answering smile crept to the cor- 
 ners of her own mouth. 
 
 " I've made a mistake then ? you really aren't try-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 185 
 
 ing to get me off to foist me on to Mr. Smith ? " she 
 murmured. 
 
 Katherine's peals merged into ripples, and the rip- 
 ples only interspersed her remarks. 
 
 " No, I really am not," she answered, " and I truly 
 assure you, my very dear foolish one, that I should not 
 be in the least elated if you were foisted on to Arnold 
 Smith. In fact, to tell you the exact truth, I should be 
 distinctly annoyed! Now don't ask any questions, but 
 run away and be brotherly to Arnold Smith, and keep 
 your heart nice and empty for the time when Berr 
 comes back for he will come back, as surely as 
 my age isn't what I say it is! Now kiss me and 
 bolt!" 
 
 And Honora, whose heart had greatly depreciated in 
 weight since the beginning of the conversation, did 
 both, and on returning to " the bood," found Mr. Arr 
 nold Smith still in the lounge chair the back of which 
 was turned toward the door with his feet hoisted on 
 an inlaid ebony stool and a pipe in his mouth! 
 
 He heard the door open without turning round. 
 
 " I'm making myself beautifully chez moi, you see, 
 Kits " he began, when Honora made a very hon- 
 ourable rustle to reveal her personality. " Pardon, 
 Miss Vayne thought it was Mrs. Orlitson," he broke 
 off, rising to his feet and immediately becoming normal 
 and conventional. " Perhaps it's a good let-off for me 
 that it wasn't Mrs. Orlitson, because though we all got 
 to the ' Kits,' ' Roger,' and ' Arnold ' state of intimacy 
 when poor Orlitson was alive, it's quite possible his
 
 186 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 widow wouldn't permit such familiarities, and oh! er 
 my pipe I'm awfully, frantically sorry " 
 
 " Please don't put it out for me," interposed Honora 
 good humouredly. " I only glanced at it because I 
 was wondering if Katherine " 
 
 "Yes, what's that about Katherine?" broke in a 
 low, slurring voice from the doorway. Mrs. Orlitson 
 had got rid of the large hat and the large veil, and now 
 came towards them with her thin chin stuck forward 
 and her hair puffed out in all its red magnificence. 
 
 Honora explained. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I don't mind pipes in here in fact, to be 
 really truthful for once, I revel in them! But they 
 must be foul, pungent things that make people with 
 Early Victorian throats choke and gurgle! I adore 
 foul pipes, so as Honora doesn't mind, Mr. Smith, and 
 as you were a chum of poor Roger's, you may always 
 bring out your clays and shag when you are admitted 
 into the seclusion of this apartment! The only thing 
 I request is that you won't let the pipe hang down one 
 side of your mouth and make you look like a rub- 
 ber-faced man out of a cracker! Ha! ha-ha-ha-ha- 
 ha " 
 
 And with an indefinite number of little gurgles Mrs. 
 Orlitson threw herself on a much bepillowed and be- 
 cushioned lounge, after pushing Honora into a big 
 rush chair fashioned like a shell. 
 
 Presently tea came in, and Honora couldn't help ob- 
 serving with what Sultan-like indolence Arnold Smith 
 retained his domestic lolling attitude while Katherine
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 187 
 
 made the requisite sandwich of milk and cream with tea 
 in the middle. 
 
 But Mrs. Orlitson appeared to demand nothing of 
 her late husband's chum, and actually waited on him 
 with that fussily maternal solicitude which is displayed 
 by comparatively passionless women towards stray 
 cats, bed-ridden cooks, paralysed husbands, and other 
 dependent creatures who never argue, never pry, never 
 warn, and never nag. 
 
 During tea Arnold Smith lay back in the huge chair, 
 and as his plump, soft white hands hovered over the 
 sandwiches and cakes to finally select the largest and 
 most succulent morsels, a flowing stream of intensely 
 humorous and witty anecdotes left his lips. 
 
 Most good stories were related as being absolute 
 facts, thus giving evidence of the man's supreme fic- 
 tional ability. 
 
 Katherine kept up one long serialised gurgle of 
 amusement, while for the time Honora forgot her own 
 low spirits. 
 
 The late Roger Orlitson's chum was really a most 
 entertaining person ! 
 
 " You're like a man in a fairy tale I used to read in 
 my premiere jeunesse," said Katherine when Arnold 
 ceased speaking in order to drink strong tea and cream 
 with feminine relish. " His name was Timothy, and he 
 told such enthralling stories that the court engaged 
 him to amuse their king when he was dying of melan- 
 cholia and he talked, and talked, and talked, till the 
 king got well and bestowed on him the grand order of
 
 188 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 the Speaking Eagle, and proclaimed that from hence- 
 forth he was to be known as ' Talking Tim.' You are 
 just like him, so I shall drop * Mr. Smith ' and call you 
 ' Tim V " 
 
 " Right ! Then may I drop * Mrs. Orlitson ' and re- 
 turn to * Kits '? Roger gave me permission, you re- 
 member? " 
 
 "Yes, yes of course I remember, and I wouldn't 
 for the world withdraw any of my poor boy's conces- 
 sions, so so from this time forward it's ' Tim ' and 
 * Kits ' ! Much more convenient, eh, my big-eyed 
 Honora? " 
 
 " Ever so much," responded Honora, who was be- 
 ginning to wonder a good many things among them 
 how, if such a contingency arose, Katherine would like 
 to change the effective name of " Orlitson " for the in- 
 effective name of " Smith" 
 
 " Miss Vayne's approbation settles the matter then," 
 said " Tim," as he rose heavily from the big chair, 
 uttering a ponderous sigh, as though the exertion of 
 getting up had somewhat overtaxed his strength. 
 
 " Must you be going ? " asked Katherine. 
 
 " Yes, I've got an appointment with a man at the 
 club for 5.30." 
 
 "Have you? Poor man! D'you know the time 
 now?" 
 
 " I could find out if I looked at my watch oh ! no I 
 couldn't. I broke the mainspring last night " 
 
 " Well, look at my clock, and you'll see it's already 
 seven minutes to six! " At this point acidity entered
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 180 
 
 Katharine's voice, and the maternal look in her light 
 grey eyes had departed. 
 
 " By Jove ! So it is ! What a confounded nuisance 
 Lawson is, always making appointments at awkward 
 times ! Oh, well, if I take a taximeter I shan't be more 
 than half an hour late. Au revoir, Miss Vayne; au 
 revoir, Kits see you to-night somewhere, I suppose 
 good-bye ! " and without hurrying any more than if 
 he had been thirty minutes early for an appointment 
 instead of thirty minutes late, Arnold Smith sauntered 
 out of the glaring boudoir, and a few moments after- 
 wards out of the gravely furnished flat. 
 
 " The man's a fool ! " was Katherine's verdict. 
 
 " I can't agree with you," responded Honora, as the 
 door opened and Mrs. Orlitson's rigid footman entered 
 the room. 
 
 " A gentleman wishes to see you, madame," he an- 
 nounced. 
 
 "Does he? Where is he?" 
 
 " In the drawing-room, madame." 
 
 "Oh! And his name?" 
 
 Hendry thrust forward a salver on the salver was 
 a visiting card, and on the visiting card was engrossed 
 a name and an address : 
 
 DR. MORGAN B. SPHAIT 
 
 CONKER HOUSE, 
 SEEDLINGDITCH
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 IT is not easy for a pale woman to turn pale ; there- 
 fore she usually takes refuge in turning yellowy-green 
 under the stress of any particular emotion and such 
 was the high-art shade which spread over Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's face as she took the visiting card from the silver 
 salver. 
 
 Three full seconds passed ; then she spoke clearly and 
 not quickly. 
 
 " Tell Dr. Sphait I will be with him in a moment." 
 
 The footman retired, and Katherine still remained 
 looking at the visiting card, till, on glancing up, she 
 found enquiry in Honora's eyes. 
 
 " Oh, dear, it quite * gave me a turn,' as the servants 
 say ! " she cried, when the normal pallor had returned 
 to her face and the slurring indistinctness to her voice. 
 " Just fancy, the big fat pink doctor wh who saw my 
 poor Roger afterwards, you know! It's a bad shock 
 to be suddenly brought face to face with tragic chunks 
 of one's past, isn't it? I wonder what he's come for 
 what he wants ! I must go and see, and hustle him 
 off as soon as possible, then scramble into clothes." 
 
 " Don't let him distress you," said Honora, as they 
 left the room together. She instinctively felt that her 
 red-haired friend was in the midst of emotional moments. 
 
 Katherine squeezed her arm; then when Honora had 
 passed down the passage leading to her own room, Mrs. 
 
 190
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 191 
 
 Orlitson gave her thin shoulders a curious, resolute 
 jerk, bit her salved lips to intensify their redness, stuck 
 out her thin chin, and walked forward with special 
 movements tending to increase the rustling propensi- 
 ties of silk underskirts. 
 
 She opened the drawing-room door, entered, and then 
 held out her hand with welcoming cordiality. 
 
 Just for a second Dr. Sphait seemed ill at ease as 
 though oppressed by the country cut of his garments, 
 the refinement of Mrs. Orlitson's furniture, and the ex- 
 pensiveness of Mrs. Orlitson's clothes. 
 
 But immediately afterwards the man's large personal- 
 ity and self-assurance got the better of this oppression. 
 
 " How nice of you to look me up after all this time! " 
 began Katherine, smiling her quick, insincere smile right 
 up into his face. 
 
 Dr. Sphait retained her hand a second, and let his 
 eyes stray to the perfection of her waist, which was 
 twice as perfect now that eight-guinea corsets replaced 
 the former seven shillings and eleven-pence halfpenny 
 variety. 
 
 " I was up in town, saw your name and address in 
 one of the society papers, and ventured to call and see 
 how you were," replied the general practitioner in his 
 cheeriest of cheery bedside voices. 
 
 " That was really nice of you ! Sit down, Dr. Sphait, 
 and tell me all your news." 
 
 Dr. Sphait selected a large armless chair, and sat 
 down. 
 
 " I've very little news to tell, Mrs. Orlitson ; so little
 
 192 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 happens in Seedlingditch, as perhaps you will re- 
 member." 
 
 " I hardly do remember, because, excepting Seedling- 
 ditch's doctor, I've almost forgotten everything about 
 Seedlingditch ! " 
 
 " You want to forget, perhaps, Mrs. Orlitson ? " 
 Dr. Sphait was examining a tray of dull Russian enamel 
 as he put the query. 
 
 " Yes, it is always better to forget the shocks and 
 sadness of life, isn't it? And about yourself. Are you 
 still curing everyone for hundreds of miles all round 
 the country ? " 
 
 " No, I regret to say that someone else is curing them 
 now at least, of course, I insist they are being killed, 
 not cured! Ha! ha!" 
 
 " Of course they're being killed ! But I'm sorry to 
 hear that, though I don't suppose it matters much to 
 you " 
 
 " Ah ! but it does ! that's where you are wrong, Mrs. 
 Orlitson, and that's why I am so anxious to leave 
 Seedlingditch." 
 
 " Leave Seedlingditch ! " It wasn't often that 
 Katherine was guilty of banal parrot-like repetiton, but 
 just then there seemed nothing else to say. 
 
 " Yes, I want to set up as a Harley Street specialist 
 a neural and rheumatic specialist ! " 
 
 "Do you really? Well, that's a splendid notion, 
 and I wish you bewildering success! I'll have nerves 
 and enlarged joints every day of the week! Ha! ha! 
 ha-ha-ha-ha "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 193 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! That's kind of you, Mrs. Orlitson, for 
 though I hope there won't be any need for you to pay 
 me professional visits, I am glad to hear your patron- 
 age will be extended to a poor struggler. I am depend- 
 ing on your help, Mrs. Orlitson ! " 
 
 The last seven words were uttered slowly and without 
 emphasis or expression, but as he spoke Dr. Sphait fixed 
 two not large but very clear and very frank blue eyes 
 on the red-haired widow's face. 
 
 " I'm afraid you'll find me a very poor reed, but any 
 little thing I can do " 
 
 " You can do a great deal, Mrs. Orlitson. I require 
 capital to start this enterprise, I require influence and 
 recommendation to keep me floated when once it is 
 started, and it is to you to the rich lady who, by her 
 brilliant powers of resource, has made a comparatively 
 small insurance compensation into a large fortune 
 that I venture to apply. You vill help me, Mrs. Orlit- 
 son, I know." 
 
 " Why? " 
 
 That one word fell sharply, clearly, and in its utter- 
 ance was a note of challenge. 
 
 Dr. Sphait coughed, glanced half commiseratingly at 
 the red-haired woman with the perfect waist, then 
 answered in sauve, woolly tones that were rarely heard 
 in Seedlingditch. 
 
 " Because of your kind heart, Mrs. Orlitson do let 
 it rest at your kind heart ! " he answered. 
 
 " I do not wish it to rest at my kind heart my heart 
 isn't kind ! "
 
 194 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Isn't it ? then I must venture to trade on other 
 emotions. Do you remember, Mrs. Orlitson, that on the 
 night after I had brought home your husband's body 
 in the afternoon it was agreed that I should send you 
 a composing draught ? " 
 
 " I think I remember y es." 
 
 " You were alone in the house, you may recollect, 
 quite alone in the house with the dead body of your 
 husband a most terrible ordeal for a delicately strung 
 woman ! " 
 
 "Yes well?" 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Orlitson, instead of sending that 
 draught I came back with it myself, but before I 
 knocked at the door I was seized by an impulse of 
 curiosity." 
 
 " How wh " 
 
 "I went up to the little parlour window, which you 
 may remember was situated at the side of the cottage, 
 and looked ahem ! I looked, Mrs. Orlitson, through a 
 slit in the blind, a slit through which it was possible 
 to see the whole room and everyone in it! " 
 
 There was a silence quite an appreciable silence, 
 after which the red-haired widow rose. 
 
 " Come into my little boudoir, Dr. Sphait we can 
 talk there more quietly and without fear of interrup- 
 tion," she said. 
 
 And Morgan B. Sphait, with a smile on his face 
 rather a fatuous smile followed her across the hall. 
 
 Meanwhile, Honora, in her own room at the further
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 195 
 
 end of the curved corridor, was doing her own hair 
 while she thought her own thoughts. 
 
 They were complicated thoughts sometimes turning 
 in this direction, sometimes in that, without ever reach- 
 ing any definite resting-place. 
 
 Every day the conviction grew upon her that candid 
 Katherine Orlitson, who made so many ingenuous boasts 
 concerning her own frankness, was developed in mystery 
 as well as flowing veils. 
 
 But the secret, whatever it might be, was entirely per- 
 sonal and unshared by Bernard. Honora felt abso- 
 lutely sure that Bernard knew nothing except what he 
 had been told by his candid sister, and she felt equally 
 sure that Arnold Smith was very certainly mixed up with 
 Katherine Orlitson's past. 
 
 But how was he mixed up? He had certainly met 
 and become intimate with the Orlitsons during their 
 honeymoon, but that would hardly account for some 
 things ! 
 
 Katherine had vaguely alluded to their re-meeting at 
 the Carlton, and Arnold had vaguely alluded to their 
 remeeting at the Savoy ; but, whichever statement might 
 have been accurate this casual re-meeting hardly ac- 
 counted for such quickly revived intimacy. 
 
 In her own mind Honora felt sure that the red-haired 
 widow and her dead husband's chum had seen each other 
 since the bygone honeymoon trip, and before the pre- 
 sumed accidental meeting at a fashionable restaurant. 
 
 But if they had seen each other, where was it, and 
 when was it?
 
 196 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 At this moment Honora suddenly remembered Mrs. 
 Burham, who had been sent away by one of her papers 
 to write up a new Cairo Hotel, and who, on arriving at 
 " The Regal," had immediately developed symptoms of 
 scarlet fever, and was still hors de combat in an isolated 
 flat over a stable, while the three marriageable daughters 
 who didn't marry, carried on the " par " business as 
 satisfactorily as possible during their indefatigable 
 mother's peeling process. 
 
 Yes, Honora remembered Mrs. Burham, and Mrs. 
 Burham's nearly libellous statement to the effect that at 
 a secluded country hotel she had seen 
 
 At this juncture Honora pulled her thoughts to- 
 gether with a jerk, and stamped one foot with the 
 sharpness of self-annoyance. 
 
 " What right have I to probe and pry into another 
 woman's secrets ? " she asked of her own reflection in 
 the glass. " Should I like my miserable story dragged 
 out of its hiding place and commented upon and won- 
 dered about? If Katherine Orlitson is a woman with a 
 story, so am I! We are two women with two stories, 
 and it's only fair to one to leave the other alone. I 
 won't wonder any more I'll just accept her as she ac- 
 cepts me ! " And having made this resolution she 
 dressed the Empire curls of her effective hair and 
 slipped into a black dinner frock a dinner frock free 
 from all those extra adjuncts and adornments which 
 betray the amount of interest a woman feels in life. 
 
 Five minutes later Honora was dressed and passing 
 from her room just as Mrs. Orlitson, followed by a large
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 197 
 
 man, left the boudoir and stood in the square lounge hall 
 talking about London air compared with country air, 
 till she caught sight of Honora. 
 
 " Hon ! Come here ! " she cried. 
 
 Honora advanced slowly, looking nearly beautiful in 
 her undecorated black gown. 
 
 " I want to introduce Dr. Morgan D. no, ' B.,' isn't 
 it? Sphait to you the cleverest doctor in Big Britain, 
 who is very wisely going to abandon general practi- 
 tionering in order to set up as a Harley Street special- 
 ist for rheumatism and nerves ! He's so clever that I 
 quite begin to yearn to suffer and be cured ! " 
 
 Honora bowed, Dr. Sphait bowed, and the red-haired 
 widow, whose light eyes were glittering, continued a 
 running fire of smiles.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 AFTER inspecting the chicken farm during one of 
 her bi-weekly visits, Honora realised that even though 
 Mary Tryke and her husband were getting through 
 quite the regulation amount of cheating and sharp prac- 
 tice, financial conditions were improved. 
 
 Profits were increasing and expenditure decreasing, 
 a satisfactory state of things which would undoubtedly 
 be reversed directly the proprietress came back to take 
 up the reins of management. 
 
 " Everything seems to be going very well, Tryke," 
 commented Honora, as armies of young giddy chicks 
 fluttered and strutted on every side. 
 
 " Aye, miss, better than they done for over a twelve- 
 month," was Tryke's tactless response. 
 
 Honora smiled with the genuine amusement of a 
 woman who has never learned the " progressive " and 
 lucrative art of conceit. 
 
 " And you attribute that to my absence, Tryke ? " 
 she queried. 
 
 "Well, miss, there's something in the old saying 
 about too many cooks a-spoiling the broth, though of 
 course it wouldn't be for me to say " 
 
 " No, no, of course it wouldn't. Well, I shan't be 
 back just yet, so the farm has got a few more weeks 
 of prosperity before it. Good-bye, Mary; good-bye, 
 Tryke, and remember to keep on sending the eggs every 
 
 198
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 199 
 
 day to Mrs. Orlitson good-bye!" And as Honora 
 stepped into the square, lumbering station fly, which had 
 been ordered to fetch her in time for the 5.20 train, the 
 red Sussex rooster flew on to a high wall and crowed his 
 usual crow. 
 
 " Cock-a-doodle-do! " Was this a discourteous 
 
 method of speeding a parting proprietress or 
 
 " Cock-a-doodle-doo-oo-oo-oO ! " or was it an omen 
 of some coming triumph some imminent piece of good 
 luck? 
 
 Honora raised her voice and responded, the rooster 
 flapped his wings, and to the encouraging sound of 
 " CocJc-a-doodle-doo," the square vehicle turned the 
 corner and left the farm behind. 
 
 Having ordered the fly in time to catch the 4.10 
 train, Honora was enabled to catch the 5.20 without any 
 undue rush and hustling, and as they steamed out of 
 Transley station a certain indefinable breeze of elation 
 ruffled the stagnant surface of her emotions. 
 
 Deerbuck Chicken Farm and its outlying woods to- 
 day dressed in new thin mantles of arsenic green had 
 brought back such a poignant rush of memories that it 
 almost seemed to Honora as if Bernard Benstead's 
 kisses must still be lingering hot and impassioned upon 
 her lips. 
 
 More than half a year had elapsed since their brief 
 loving and swift parting, and sometimes Honora had 
 gladly believed that the picture of a large man was 
 really growing dim and faint in the gallery of her 
 mental memories.
 
 200 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 There were days when she could hardly recall the 
 uninteresting semi-fairness and semi-darkness of his 
 hair, and when the careless roughness of his voice no 
 longer sounded in her ears. 
 
 And those were comfortable, satisfactory days, when 
 she would smile coquetry into a dinner neighbour's eyes 
 or leave some favoured partner with a tremendous be- 
 lief in his own attractions. 
 
 But on this late afternoon there was no restful slur- 
 rings over and forgetfulness. 
 
 Memory had come with one of those foaming, roar- 
 ing, cataract-like rushes which always do return, and 
 return, and return when love has been the real thing. 
 
 No man or woman who has been through the real 
 thing can ever finally escape. They are only out on 
 ticket-of-leave, liable to be recalled into passion's 
 thraldom at any time or place. 
 
 Immaculate husbands, attractive wives, social suc- 
 cesses, financial successes, artistic successes, creditable 
 children can satisfactorily induce the belief that " it's 
 all forgotten now " but the sight of one wood filled 
 with close-growing trees, the perfume of one deeply red 
 rose with curving velvet leaves the sound of one com- 
 monplace three-four time melody, instantly sweeps 
 away that comfortable fallacy of forgetfulness. 
 
 They said that Love would die when Hope was gone, 
 And Love mourn'd long and sorrowed after Hope; 
 At last she sought out Memory, and they trod 
 The same old paths where Love had walked with Hope, 
 And Memory fed the soul of Love with tears.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 201 
 
 Honora's vivid lips moved, and she pressed her body 
 closer to the cushioned arm of the carriage, as though 
 half unconsciously pretending that the railway com- 
 pany's solid piece of upholstery was the breast of her 
 absent lover. 
 
 Never had Bernard seemed so near as he was to-day, 
 not even when his arms were actually holding her in a 
 passionate man's passionate clasp for sometimes in 
 love memory can be more real than reality ! 
 
 When Honora alighted at the terminus and took a 
 cab straight to Holstein Mansions, her cheeks were 
 glowing with that vivid flush which had the power of 
 making her beautiful, and not even the subdued bed- 
 room, with its decorous furniture, could shut off the 
 picture of riotous, gay green woods where love had come 
 to life among the trees. 
 
 Manette Mrs. Orlitson's admirable maid, who con- 
 tinued most perseveringly with her French accent was 
 standing before the wardrobe taking out a cream velvet 
 Empire gown weighted round the trained skirt with 
 heavy embroideries. 
 
 " Not that, Manette I'll wear black we're dining 
 alone," said Honora, who unconsciously resented actual- 
 ities which forced her back from ephemeral realms of 
 memory. 
 
 " Pardon, mademoiselle, but madame desire me to 
 offer her much love, and to say some important frumps 
 arrive to dinner, and would you, to please her, wear ze 
 velvet ? " replied Manette, whose eyes were clear, inno- 
 cent, and pellucid, and those of a lying child.
 
 202 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Oh, of course yes if Mrs. Orlitson wishes it," 
 answered Honora impatiently. 
 
 " And madame also ask if to help her by kindness it 
 would be possible for you to enter the drawing-room 
 some twenty minute early as she have head of the ache 
 and desire to repose up to the final moment." 
 
 "I am sorry Mrs. Orlitson's head aches yes, I will 
 get ready at once." 
 
 Manette still looked pellucidly innocent, and after 
 Honora's travelling costume was removed, commenced 
 to dress the dark Empire curls with special elabora- 
 tion. 
 
 By 7.30 Miss Vayne was attired in a costume which 
 was quite regrettably becoming, since " frumps " would 
 be the only witnesses of her attractions, and the vivid 
 flush of beauty which memory and environment had laid 
 upon her cheeks still remained. 
 
 She strolled slowly and turned the curve of the cor- 
 ridor with that unconscious arrogance of movement 
 which is often the outcome of expensive and becoming 
 clothes. Women mayn't mean to think about their 
 clothes, but they do, every one of them, and at every 
 crisis in life. 
 
 Hendry, who was crossing the hall, opened the draw- 
 ing-room door for her to enter she entered the door 
 was reclosed she stepped with the same arrogant grace 
 across the thick unobservable carpet she glanced 
 towards the second drawing-room she stood quite, 
 quite still she refrained from uttering one word she 
 was drawn forward into an engulfing embrace and the
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 203 
 
 dreariness of life had once more ended in a large man's 
 arms! 
 
 The red Sussex rooster had crowed in triumph for a 
 coming happiness, and the elation of memory had, 
 instead, been but the magnetic sparks cast forward by 
 coming events ! 
 
 " I was horribly angry with you, but I had to come 
 back ! " said Bernard, almost carelessly, when a kiss 
 that was not in the least careless came to its long drawn- 
 out end. 
 
 Honora stepped back and looked at him. 
 
 Hitherto they had been two people clad respectively 
 in serge suits, cotton frocks, and straw hats, but now 
 they felt the need of getting to know each other all 
 over again. 
 
 Evening dress suits some men and it suited Bernard 
 Benstead, by emphasising his largeness and brown fair 
 cleanliness. His indented chin protruded effectively 
 above a stiff collar and white tie. 
 
 And Honora was likewise a partially new acquaint- 
 ance, with the rich cream-tinted bareness of her bosom, 
 the proudness of her untrammelled throat, and the 
 aspect of civilised convention which new white twenty- 
 five-button-length kid gloves can always be relied upon 
 to impart. 
 
 " Well, what do we think of each other? " enquired 
 Bernard, after a few seconds of mutual scrutiny. 
 
 " I think you quite up to the average of ordinary 
 well-groomed men," replied Honora. 
 
 " And I think you a commendable example of the
 
 204 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 properly-clothed, properly-mannered, civilised young 
 Englishwomen ! " retorted Berr with boyish rudeness 
 in his voice. 
 
 Then they laughed again, and somehow drifted 
 towards a recess and back into each other's arms. 
 
 " You behaved like an absolute caddess and an abso- 
 lute coward on the occasion of our last unconventional 
 interview, and I don't know why the well, ' devil ' will 
 do as we're alone I've come back to you ! " said Ber- 
 nard, touching her warm shoulder with his smooth chin. 
 
 Honora didn't answer. A luxurious, hot shame was 
 causing her body and limbs and pulses to throb. 
 
 " D'you know why I've come back ? " 
 
 A mute moment ensued; then came the surrender of 
 all Honora Vayne's caution. 
 
 " Life, however short, is made shorter by waste of 
 time." 
 
 Honora remembered those words at school she had 
 once been ordered to write them out a hundred times 
 by way of punishment for some incompleted task, and 
 now they came back with a dangerous significance which 
 the excellent head-mistress had never intended. 
 
 Her life shouldn't be shortened by any more waste 
 of time she had wasted enough already when 
 
 Liebe ward der Welt von Gott verlieben 
 Um zu Gott die Seele zu erzieben. 
 
 She would learn Riickert's congenial lesson she 
 would begin training her soul at once she would make 
 the very most of life and the very most of love, risking
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 205 
 
 every consequence and stifling every cry of an incon- 
 veniently moral conscience. 
 
 " Do you know why I've come back to you I hardly 
 do myself!" The question was repeated just at the 
 psychological moment, when she was ready to answer. 
 
 " Yes, Bernard, I know it was only because I 
 couldn't get on without you any longer ! " 
 
 "Oh! my dear! Oh! my dear! Oh! my darling!" 
 Bernard didn't like to let go of his British reserve, 
 but at that moment he was forced to give it leave of 
 absence. 
 
 He called her all the endearing names that might 
 be included in a plumber's love-letter to a housemaid, he 
 kissed her strongly, but fondly and innocently, he only 
 held her hand sometimes, only looked at her at others, 
 and finally smoothed her hair in the most tender but 
 devastating manner imaginable. (No matter what may 
 be the intricacies of modern puffed, French-combed, 
 ruffled coiffures, the man really in love will continue to 
 smooth just as his early eighteenth-century grandfather 
 found it quite convenient to smooth his early eighteenth- 
 century grandmother's plastered locks. Pure, honour- 
 able affection must find vent in smoothing, no matter 
 what obstacles in the way of fringe nets, pads, combs, 
 etc., may be encountered !) 
 
 "And as you really couldn't do without me, we're 
 going to be always together," he went on. " In point 
 of fact, I believe it's quite immoral for us to be apart, 
 because if each is incomplete without the other, it's sort 
 of foisting incomplete halves on society ! We'll be a
 
 206 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 perfect whole, my Honora you and I myself and 
 my wife. 19 
 
 " I I told you I did not intend to marry," she 
 answered weakly. 
 
 " Yes, I know you told me a great many very foolish, 
 very hysterical, very new-woman sort of things. I lis- 
 tened then and went away now I'll still listen, but 
 only when we are married. A man is bound to let his 
 wife talk nonsense, and I daresay I shall quite enjoy it 
 then, my darling, my darling, my ah ! Kits " as Mrs. 
 Orlitson entered the room " I've got my own way 
 Honora is going to get over her anti-matrimonial scru- 
 ples and marry me ! " 
 
 Katherine made one rush at Honora, and left kisses 
 on a cheek still vivid with the pressure of her brother's 
 lips. 
 
 " I knew it, because ever since you wrote you were 
 coming back I've been willing that it should come off 
 sort of mental insistence, you know. All day long I've 
 been saying * Hon shall have Berr Hon shall have 
 Berr ' over and over again, till the magnetism of my 
 thought made her say ' Yes.' So you can just make me 
 a nice present, mon frdre, because my hard-willings got 
 you your wife ! Hurray ! hurrah ! hoor " 
 
 " Mr. Arnold Smith! " broke in Hendry's admirable 
 voice. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson swirled round and greeted the last mem- 
 ber of their parti caree. 
 
 " Actually not late ! " she cried. " At least, of 
 course, you think you're late, because I told you half
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 207 
 
 an hour too early! Now, when you've finished shaking 
 Honora's hand, let me introduce a new person to you. 
 This is Berr my brother, Bernard Benstead, whom I've 
 just willed Honora into promising to marry Mr. 
 Arnold Smith poor Roger's chum, who was so jolly 
 when we all met abroad commonly known in Holstein 
 Mansions as ' Tim the Talker.' ' 
 
 The two men shook hands, and at once showed signs 
 of liking each other. 
 
 " I told Honora I was expecting some influential 
 frumps, and made her put on one of her best frocks 
 if I hadn't, Berr, you'd have come back to find her 
 quite mediocre and dowdy in black! Now let's adjourn 
 and eat ! Come along no arm-giving come along, 
 Honora, come along, Berr, come along, Tim ! " 
 
 And as Mrs. Orlitson said " Come along, Tim," she 
 smiled up into the eyes of her late husband's chum with 
 the very friendliest expression in her own and the 
 evening which followed was a distinct success.
 
 CHAPTER XXm 
 
 " NINETY eighty-two," called out the weary voice 
 of the Serpentine Club's billiard marker, as Mrs. Orlit- 
 son chalked her cue with the most cautious accuracy. 
 
 It would be interesting to hear an explanation as to 
 why women billiard players chalk their cues on every 
 desirable and undesirable occasion a person with a 
 taste for statistics had made an indisputable discovery 
 that the amount of chalk supplied to a woman's club 
 boasting of four billiard tables is exactly one-third in 
 advance of the quantity supplied to a man's club with 
 the same number. 
 
 So far no solution to this problem is forthcoming, 
 but a theory that the act of cue-chalking is an excellent 
 medium for displaying diamond rings seems as though 
 it may have some bearing on the subject. 
 
 When Mrs. Orlitson had thoroughly blued the tip 
 of her cue the Serpentine billiard players always used 
 blue chalk, except one member, who had been seen to 
 produce a pale pink variety she made a thin white 
 bridge, half-closed her light grey eyes, stuck out her 
 chin, and aimed to pot the red, with the result that 
 a very creditable all-round cannon was achieved. 
 
 Bravely regardless of her fluke, she rechalked the 
 cue and scooped the red into a top pocket. 
 
 The opponent began to get restless and complained 
 
 208
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 209 
 
 of a headache one of those tiring, neuralgic headaches 
 which interfere with the eyesight. She absolutely 
 couldn't see a thing that afternoon which is often the 
 way of feminine players who stick at eighty ! 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson reviewed the angles and drew mental 
 lines between the balls and the pockets, after which she 
 somehow succeeded in getting in off the red, with her 
 opponent's ball left temptingly over a pocket. 
 
 " I must try for the cannon I hope you won't go 
 down ! " murmured Katherine, as she made a really 
 painstaking effort and finished the game by potting 
 the white. 
 
 " One hundred eighty-two," cried the weary marker, 
 putting up rests and spiders and half-butts, without 
 the use of which implements the Serpentine champions 
 very rarely achieved a break of five. 
 
 " I am sorry," gurgled Mrs. Orlitson to the defeated 
 opponent, who was feeling for her purse. " When one 
 tries for those long cannons the wrong thing so often 
 comes off! Enjoyed the game ever so much you must 
 have your revenge to-morrow good-bye ! " 
 
 Out of the swinging doors, across the big hall, and 
 into the drawing-room Mrs. Orlitson trailed her thin, 
 soft, rustling black skirts, pausing a second before 
 steering towards a small tea-drinking group in the cor- 
 ner a group composed of Honora, Bernard, and Lady 
 Chesham. 
 
 " I've won ! " she announced in tones of candid pleas- 
 ure. " I'm so glad, because I do love beating people 
 I hate, and I do hate Baroness Monche more than any
 
 210 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 person I know. Why and wherefore she's called ' Baron- 
 ess ' it's difficult to determine, but that doesn't matter. 
 Have you actually got tea without waiting half an 
 hour? " 
 
 " Yes, only twenty-five minutes," replied Bernard, 
 who was there because Honora was there. 
 
 " Have you just come, Evelyn? " enquired Katherine, 
 after ordering a whisky and soda. 
 
 " Yes, I looked in to ring Charles up he's so silly 
 always insisting that I shall ring him up every after- 
 noon, so that he shall know I'm not engaged in any 
 serious mischief," responded Lady Chesham with a small 
 twittering laugh that hardly accorded with her waist 
 measurement. 
 
 Katherine purred sympathetically as she sat down. 
 
 " Sir Charles is a nice, resolute ogre, a gentlemanly, 
 white-skinned Othello ! " she said, casting one swift 
 glance and eye-droop towards Honora. " But you're 
 very wise to indulge him, Eve, because a man tortured 
 by jealousy is a very pitiable creature. Are you going 
 to be jealous and ogre-like, Berr, when you and Honora 
 are married? " 
 
 Bernard's mouth widened by a quarter of an inch. 
 
 " I shall have my own methods," he answered grimly. 
 
 "And what are those? Ill-usage, starvation, im- 
 prisonment? " 
 
 " No neglect." 
 
 Katherine uttered a shrill little squeak. 
 
 " Oh ! the tragic vanity of the male human thing who 
 believes neglect to be the supremest punishment we can
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 inflict ! Why, neglect is the most convenient thing in 
 the world!" 
 
 ** Oh, no, it isn't," replied Bernard, with calm assert- 
 iveness. " No woman likes being neglected, even by a 
 man she loathes, for neglect is a testament to waning 
 attractions, and women insist on being attractive even 
 if they aren't." 
 
 " What you say is absolutely true," broke in Honora, 
 " because every single feminine emotion is based on van- 
 ity. One's loves, hates, hopes, fears, virtues, and vices 
 all spring from vanity ! " 
 
 " Precisely." 
 
 "Do you mean, then, my dear Miss Vayne, that 
 vanity has caused you to become engaged to Mr. Ben- 
 stead? " It was Lady Chesham who asked this question, 
 revealing a glimpse of her middle-class soul by the 
 British matron primness of her voice. 
 
 " Mainly, I think, I suppose I was pleased at his 
 wanting to marry me instead of wanting to marry other 
 women, so I said * Yes.' ' 
 
 " Yes, and I only proposed for the sake of putting 
 her on good terms with herself ! " 
 
 " Don't listen to them, Eve they're pulling our 
 legs, or noses, or something. They think they're be- 
 ing very original, but they don't get beyond puerility. 
 A everybody's sante! " And with this hybrid toast 
 Mrs. Orlitson got rid of the whisky and soda which 
 had just been brought after twelve minutes' delay 
 while Bernard and Honora made the situation perfect 
 for themselves by looking into each other's eyes.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " It was love, wasn't it ? " he whispered, passing the 
 cold, butterless "hot buttered toast." 
 
 "Yes, it was love," she answered, taking mouldy 
 cake instead. 
 
 " Six new members elected this week," remarked 
 Lady Chesham, peering into the teapot. 
 
 " Isn't one of them a lady with artistic yearnings 
 of sorts a Mrs. Dobel a pallid person without a 
 chest?" 
 
 " Yes, she is literary. I've heard that half her hus- 
 band's income goes in paying people to write, and 
 publish, and buy, and read, and review, and dramatise 
 her books." 
 
 "Poor thing!" 
 
 " Only last month he no, is it really you ? Welcome 
 back ! " And as Lady Chesham broke into italics 
 Katherine saw a new shadow across the tea table, 
 and felt the presence of a new substance behind her 
 chair. 
 
 " Yes, I've come back had a really dreadful martyr- 
 dom, but I'm quite safe and disinfected now," answered 
 the thin jerky voice of a busy woman. 
 
 Bernard had by this time risen and put his chair at 
 the new-comer's disposal. 
 
 " Yes, do sit down and talk to us you'll get an- 
 other chair, won't you, Mr. Benstead? and ah! of 
 course you don't know my friend Mrs. Orlitson, do you ? 
 you went away almost directly after she was made a 
 member. Mrs. Orlitson (Mrs. Burham) Miss Vayne 
 Mr. Benstead."
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 213 
 
 Mrs. Burham gave her head three friendly jerks, and 
 sat down on a high chair next to Katherine. 
 
 For the fraction of an instant Mrs. Orlitson remained 
 inert like a slackened diabolo string awaiting its mo- 
 ment then she turned towards the society paragraph- 
 ist and stuck out her chin. 
 
 " Mrs. Burham, I'm awfully pleased to meet you 
 firstly, because I want to know you, and secondly, be- 
 cause I do want to vindicate my poor character. Lady 
 Chesham told me that you saw my unfortunate double 
 pitiable soul! under most suspicious circumstances 
 at at Brighton or somewhere ! " 
 
 Mrs. Burham laughed, just enough, but not too 
 much! 
 
 " It wasn't Brighton it was Langley Cross," she 
 answered, darting both eyes round the big room as she 
 spoke. 
 
 "Langley Cross? Where is that? at least / ought 
 to know, oughtn't I ? Ha ! ha-ha-ha ! " 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! It's in Buryshire." 
 
 " /* it ? Well then I'm afraid, Mrs. Burham, the 
 world must hold another red-haired woman with an 
 unhealthy complexion and scraggy collar bones ! such 
 a pity ! I did hope I was the only one ! because I've 
 never heard of Langley Cross, and I've never been to 
 Buryshire in my life ! I wish we could find this Mrs. 
 Silk, wasn't it? " 
 
 "Dylke!" 
 
 " Oh, yes, * Dylke ' in order to clear my British- 
 widow virtue ! Ha ! ha-ha-ha-ha-ha ! "
 
 Mrs. Burham echoed the laughter in half-harted 
 jerks. 
 
 "And the male accompaniment? do tell me exactly 
 what he was like? " 
 
 Mrs. Burham, who by this time had thoroughly noted 
 the costly perfection of Katherine's gown and the ex- 
 pensiveness of her rings, moved nearer. (This lady 
 who clothed three marriageable daughters who didn't 
 marry, on " pars," always moved nearer to the wearers 
 of really expensive rings.) 
 
 "Well, it isn't easy to say exactly," she answered 
 cheerfully. 
 
 " Was he anything like Sir Charles Chesham ? " 
 
 " Not in the least." 
 
 " Anything like that miracle-worker, Dr. Sphait, who 
 has just begun to specialise in Harley Street? a per- 
 fect disciple of nerves and rheumatism seems to have 
 cured half London already made a new woman of 
 me!" 
 
 " I've never seen Dr. Sphait. You see, I only arrived 
 back in England yesterday " 
 
 " Yes, of course after that dreadful scarlet fever ! 
 Has it left you rheumatic, by-the-by? I believe scarlet 
 fever often does, doesn't it ? " 
 
 "Yes, I'm sorry to say it does, because " 
 
 " because you've got it! Mrs. Burham, Dr. 
 
 Sphait shall cure you! He absolutely shall! I'll tell 
 him if he cures you without charge you'll puff him in 
 your nice, clever glazed papers, and let me see, what 
 were we saying? oh, yes, about "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 215 
 
 " Good heaven*! " 
 
 Evelyn Chesham, Honora, and Bernard were all busy 
 discussing a new play at a new playhouse, so only 
 Katherine heard Mrs. Burham's ejaculation. 
 
 " What an extraordinary thing ! You know, Mrs. 
 Orlitson, you were asking me to describe that man 
 Dylke who was at Langley Cross Inn with your dou- 
 ble " 
 
 "Yes? yes?" 
 
 " Well, I can show him to you ! He is there here 
 I recognise him at once look! coming this way " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson looked, and a second later Arnold 
 Smith was shaking her hand and heedlessly calling her 
 " Kits," while once again the widow's effective pallor 
 became tinged with green and yellow. 
 
 Mrs. Burham sat absolutely upright in an upright 
 chair, and looked vacant. 
 
 "Would Mr. Smith like fresh tea? Well, he had 
 rather a penchant for tea that was newly made! 
 no, not toast scone for perference. No, he hadn't been 
 to the Albanian fete had promised to go, but for- 
 got " 
 
 " Mrs. Burham ! " 
 
 "Yes, Mrs. Orlitson?" 
 
 Katherine stealthily sidled her chair further away 
 from the tea-drinking circle, and Mrs. Burham a 
 woman whose income was largely earned by intuitions 
 followed suit. 
 
 "Why why don't you start a paper of your own, 
 Mrs. Burham? Everybody says how awfully clever
 
 216 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 you are at this hobby of yours journalism. Surely 
 there's room for another society paper? not a very 
 elaborate one that would want too much capital, of 
 course, but just something smart and chic! " 
 
 " Oh, yes, there's room plenty of room and with 
 my exceptional advantages I'd guarantee to make it 
 pay" 
 
 "Then why don't you do it?" 
 
 " Because I haven't sufficient capital, Mrs. Orlitson." 
 
 "Yes, yes; but if someone else found that if / 
 found it? " 
 
 There was a pause. Mrs. Orlitson's light grey eyes 
 met Mrs. Burham's steel blue eyes. 
 
 " Yes, suppose / found it, Mrs. Burham, and that 
 though I remained actual proprietor, you drew a nice 
 fat sum every week? so long as we remained friends 
 and alliesy of course! It sounds a jolly idea, doesn't 
 it?" 
 
 " It sounds a most fascinating idea, my dear Mrs. 
 Orlitson, and if the Worldly Woman that's the title 
 I've always fancied is started in the way you suggest, 
 we must regard ourselves as staunch comrades and al- 
 lies for all time to come! " 
 
 Katherine smiled delightfully, and held out her hand. 
 
 Mrs. Burham shook the hand. 
 
 " Agreed ! " was their almost simultaneous utterance. 
 
 And the secret of Langley Cross was safe but it 
 meant a lot of money if the paper was to be glazed.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 BERNARD who was staying at a small hotel in Bond 
 Street reached Holstein Mansions one morning to find 
 his sister sitting in " the bood " with a hard drawn 
 expression on her face a hint of the same expression 
 that was there when she had washed the plates and dishes 
 at the Seedlingditch cottage. 
 
 " Bernard," she said suddenly, " are you fond of 
 me?" 
 
 Bernard sat down. 
 
 " I rather fancy I am anyhow, I like your pluck," 
 he answered good-humouredly. 
 
 " What pluck ? " Kits voice was sharp. 
 
 " Oh ! the way you lie about your ancestors and 
 poor old Roger's ancestors, and the way you defy 
 public opinion enough to give the impression that your 
 own secure pinnacle of respectability makes it quite 
 safe for you to be unconventional yet always keep 
 clear of boundary lines." 
 
 " My admirable Berr, you are as analytical as a 
 woman! I thought Tim was the only man who ever 
 analysed." 
 
 " Oh, no, I can run Smith very close when occasion 
 requires. What a slack devil he is, to be sure ! " 
 
 Katherine who only yesterday had been verbally 
 brutal to the said " slack devil " because of his f orget- 
 
 817
 
 218 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 fulness in tht respect of delivering messages looked 
 annoyed. 
 
 " I don't see he's any slacker than you are, my dear 
 boy besides he's got a temperament," she answered 
 sharply. 
 
 "Has he? Well, he shouldn't have men haven't 
 any right to temperaments they don't fit in with sport. 
 But he's a decent sort, and possesses a perfect fund of 
 unexpected energy. We played three rounds at Barn- 
 ham yesterday, and though every caddie was engaged 
 and it's a beastly rough course, Smith carried his clubs 
 and won like a brick. His tiredness is of the variety 
 that goes off when he wants to amuse himself ! " 
 
 " That is spiteful but you needn't be spiteful about 
 Tim, because he doesn't admire Honora in the least." 
 
 "Doesn't he? Wise Tim! And d'you think he ad- 
 mires you, Kits ? " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson grew faintly flesh-coloured. 
 
 " I'm quite sure he doesn't," she replied with em- 
 phasis, " but because of his having known poor Roger 
 and all that sort of thing, we get on well together." 
 
 " I see." 
 
 A pause. 
 
 "Berr!" 
 
 "Kits!" 
 
 " Are you well off? You've never really told me." 
 
 " Yes, I'm well off. Why ? " 
 
 "Quite well off, I mean." 
 
 " Yes, I'm don't gas this about I hate talk and 
 touts I'm just about a millionaire!"
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 219 
 
 " Oh ! my dear, big, clever, beautiful brother ! " 
 (Mrs. Orlitson had now leapt on to the arm of the dear, 
 big, clever, beautiful brother's chair, and was crushing 
 his collar by the violent pressure of two thin white 
 arms.) 
 
 " If I'd only known that before ! A real millionaire ! 
 An honest or dishonest millionaire? " 
 
 " Quite a fairly honest millionaire." 
 
 " Any secret slaves or things ? " 
 
 "Not a slave!" 
 
 " Tinned decompressed foods ? " 
 
 " Not a tin ! " 
 
 " Stolen diamonds ? " 
 
 " Not a diamond ! " 
 
 "Pork?" 
 
 "Not a pig!" 
 
 " Speculations ? " 
 
 "Partly!" 
 
 "And what else? What is the beginning?" 
 
 "Rubber!" 
 
 " How nice and refined ! Oh, won't Honora and I 
 revel in mackintoshes, and hot water-bottles, and port- 
 able baths, and goloshes! Did you dig and find it 
 yourself ? " 
 
 " No, I more grew than dug at least, I bought at 
 a low price what other people had grown, and then 
 developed the plantation ! " 
 
 " How clever ! You dear paternal thing ! And does 
 Honora know ? " 
 
 " No, I don't think so. She has never sounded me
 
 220 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 as to my prospects. I suppose she sees I can afford 
 clean collars and cabs." 
 
 " It's really very delightful to have a millionaire 
 brother! I thought you must be extremely coiny when 
 I saw how cheap your watch and stick were ! It's only 
 twenty-five-shilling-a-week clerks who have good 
 watches and sticks. I am pleased, Berr ! " 
 
 " Thanks, Kits. But you're such an affluent young 
 person yourself that my dollars won't much affect the 
 family prosperity." 
 
 " Oh! but that's just what they will what they can! 
 You want to make me a real handsome present, don't 
 you, brother Berr something that I can't afford to 
 give myself? " 
 
 " Course I do, Carrots." 
 
 "Then will you run a paper called the Worldly 
 Woman for me a good paper with a liberally-paid 
 woman-editor who guarantees to make the thing a pay- 
 ing concern ? I've always longed to be the ruling spirit 
 of a kind of society paper in which all one's best friends 
 can be libelled under assumed names. Will you do it, 
 Berr, will you ? " 
 
 " Yes, my dear, if you want it, I will. It seems to 
 
 me a d d silly way of squandering cash, but if 
 
 it pleases you, I'm willing, provided the Wordly 
 Woman doesn't quite beggar Honora and myself. 
 Worldly women aren't often very lenient to men's 
 pockets." 
 
 " But our Worldly Woman shall be, I promise you. 
 You're a dear thing, and now you can go if you want
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 221 
 
 to very much I can sort of feel your muscles breaking 
 loose to run after Honora. If we came of a kissing 
 stock I'd kiss you, but as we don't I'll slap your big, 
 broad, chubby shoulders and let you go. Thanks, old 
 boy, awfully." 
 
 " Not a bit, old girl glad to be useful " and with 
 a cheerful, unmelodious whistle on his lips, Bernard 
 swung out of the bead-curtained doorway and made 
 his way to a very small room which had been recently 
 fixed up as a temporary " bood " for Honora because, 
 according to Mrs. Orlitson, if two women living un- 
 der the same roof desired to retain their friendly and 
 affectionate relations, it was absolutely essential that 
 they should have separate havens. Katherine averred 
 that she and Honora would have come to active blows 
 three weeks ago but for those two separate " boods," 
 where each could sit and think how irritated she felt 
 with the other. 
 
 Bernard knocked at the door, and Honora said 
 " Come in," and the next moment a love-scene had 
 begun. 
 
 But Honora's and Bernard's love-scenes were not 
 quite like other people's love-scenes. They were more 
 restrained, more passionate, more unexpected, and 
 sometimes a whole hour would pass without touch of lips 
 or touch of hands. 
 
 " Good-morning, Misg Vayne," was Bernard's 
 greeting. 
 
 " Good-morning, Mr. Benstead," replied Honora, 
 without looking up from a long letter which she was
 
 222 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 writing to Tryke concerning the purchase of a dozen 
 Ancona hens. 
 
 Bernard smoothed the curve of her neck in passing 
 there was all a man's primeval patronage in the touch 
 then sat down on a low couch pushed up beside the writ- 
 ing-table, while Honora's pen continued its fast travel- 
 ling over the pages. 
 
 "I came round to see you, you know," remarked 
 Bernard, after half a page had been covered. 
 
 " Of course you did," responded Honora, who was 
 wearing cream serge with very blue violets at her 
 breast. 
 
 The pen continued its wayfaring, till suddenly of 
 course Honora had been waiting for this the writer 
 was forcibly induced to occupy a vacant portion of the 
 low couch. 
 
 Bernard pressed her back against a cushion and 
 looked at her as he had looked when she had lain on a 
 carpet of bronzing leaves then he bent right over and 
 kissed her cheek, which is about the most unsatisfactory 
 of lover's caresses. 
 
 Honora smiled right up at him out of her bewilder- 
 ing eyes which of late had grown full of a dozen 
 new expressions and after that look the love-scene 
 really began. 
 
 " I wonder if I shall get really and heartily sick of 
 kissing you," mused Bernard when they were both half 
 breathless with passion. 
 
 " It's possible but it's no good looking ahead," 
 answered Honora dreamily.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 223 
 
 " On the contrary, it's a great deal of good to look 
 ahead, when ahead I see you, my dear darling." 
 
 " Oh ! but you mustn't you mustn't one never 
 knows about the future, never wants to know about it 
 please, Bernard, please don't look ahead ! " And in 
 Honora's voice there was real fear. 
 
 Bernard laughed in the superior way of a man who 
 feels lenient amusement at feminine upheavals the sort 
 of laugh suggesting that all women's emotions, from 
 vexation concerning an ill-fitting gown to pangs of 
 death-agony, have to do with hysteria. 
 
 " Do you know that in less than two months I shall 
 be able to bully and domineer over you all day and all 
 night if I like? " he said, giving her the faintest sus- 
 picion of a shake. 
 
 Honora's vivid flush momentarily deepened. In 
 some ways she felt less completely at ease with her lover 
 than formerly. 
 
 " Yes, and I shall be able to make you kiss me before 
 breakfast you always hate early-morning affection, 
 don't you, darling? " he added. 
 
 " Yes, I can never be reckoned upon for amiability 
 till lunch," responded Honora, trying to speak lightly. 
 
 " I used to be the same the notion of kissing a 
 woman before 5 p. M. was positively revolting to me, 
 but now I find acute pleasure in kissing you before ten. 
 That shows we were meant to marry no man was 
 ever intended to marry any woman except the one whom 
 it was rapture to kiss before 10 A. M. like this and 
 this! "
 
 224 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 A replete interval elapsed before Honora asked a 
 very ingenue question but she didn't ask it in an 
 ingenue way. There was something like desperation in 
 her voice. 
 
 "You are quite sure you love me very much, 
 Bernard? " 
 
 His answer was beautiful just the answer a woman 
 must have wanted for he threw back his large head 
 and laughed. 
 
 Sure! was he sure? The doubt implied even by the 
 question was worth long strong laughs. 
 
 Honora demanded no further response, and for a 
 moment rested mute in the close holding of his arms. 
 
 Then she spoke again. 
 
 " I I was thinking about you last night, Ber- 
 nard " 
 
 " Of course that's your only legitimate occupation." 
 
 " No, no ; listen yes, I was thinking about you and 
 your views on things. You you are a man who troubles 
 very little about what might be called conventional 
 morality, aren't you, Berr. " There was a curious lilt 
 of pleading in her tones. 
 
 " I don't know I used to be " 
 
 "Used to be!" 
 
 " Yes, I think my gay-dog, daring notions have a 
 bit gone to the wall since knowing, and being mildly 
 fond of, you ! " 
 
 He was rubbing the back of Honora's white and 
 rather beautiful hand up and down his cheek as he 
 spoke.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 225 
 
 " Do do you mean that you have got more more 
 conventional in your ideas ? " 
 
 " I suppose I do, darling. At one time it wouldn't 
 have troubled me in the least to be cut off Mrs. Grundy's 
 visiting list, but now, somehow good Lord, I believe 
 I'm growing proper! Grim, isn't it? I positively like 
 the idea of wearing a frock coat and being married in 
 church; I have a yearning towards silk hats; I relish 
 the notion of your paying calls in new gloves and dis- 
 tributing exactly the legitimate quantity of my cards 
 and your own; and I shouldn't wonder if I ended by 
 cutting Lawrence Grant because of his sub rosa Ful- 
 ham flat and its tenant, and by framing our marriage 
 certificate. Yes, I'm sure I shall frame your marriage 
 lines and place them in a conspicuous position on the 
 dining-room walls! Terrible state of things, isn't it? 
 And all your fault, my dear ! " 
 
 Honora laughed quite hilariously, and during the 
 rest of the morning talked more volubly than she had 
 ever talked before a new phase which Bernard found 
 very enthralling. 
 
 But of course men wno are quite in love and not 
 married to the centres of their devotion find most new 
 phases enthralling. 
 
 At last the love-scene, followed by a stroll through 
 the park and lunch, was over, and Bernard had mur- 
 mured au revoirs which would be required to last for 
 over twenty-four hours in consequence of a business ap- 
 pointment in Liverpool that would keep him out of town 
 till the following evening.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Honora took her lover's last kiss, passed the " bood " 
 where Katherine was smoking and drinking liqueur 
 brandy mixed with Cura9oa, and went up to her own 
 bedroom. 
 
 Immediately the door was closed the smiles and vivid 
 flush which made her beautiful gave way to pallor and 
 an expression of blank, relentless woman's despair 
 for the despair of a woman, a young life-loving woman, 
 is more acute than any other. 
 
 " End by cutting Lawrence Grant because 
 of Ms sub rosa Fulham flat and framing 
 our marriage certificate! " 
 
 Honora repeated each word slowly and distinctly, as 
 though she were paraphrasing the sentence. 
 
 " Our marriage certificate ! Our marriage certifi- 
 cate ! OUR MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE ! " 
 
 And Bernard was getting proper!
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 MRS. ORLITSON drained her cross-bred liqueur and lit 
 another cigarette in the boisterous manner peculiar to 
 fumeuses who have graduated from " the boards." 
 
 An ex-touring actress may doff gentle blasphemies, 
 may lose her relish for port, may refrain from ad- 
 dressing new acquaintances as " dearie " and " old 
 boy," and may even relinquish her taste for three-inch 
 French heels and white furs, but nothing can teach her 
 to smoke like a lady. 
 
 The ease with which a " cig." lolls out of one corner 
 of her mouth, or is retained between her lips to jog 
 up and down while she talks, betrays much to a beacon 
 eye. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson puffed a great many puffs, then leaned 
 back with a sigh which revealed a mental condition bor~ 
 dering on satisfaction. 
 
 Bernard had just taken a considerable load off his 
 sister's mind by confessing his momentary affluence and 
 by promising to finance the Worldly Woman; for 
 though roulette and " Grey Rubbers " had caused Mrs. 
 Orlitson's golden dreams to be fulfilled, they did not pro- 
 vide unlimited capital for the setting up of a Harley 
 Street physician, and for the capitalising of a glazed 
 paper. 
 
 However, if Berr fixed up the paper Katherine could
 
 228 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 float the specialist particularly as Dr. Morgan had 
 begun to make and take quite a reassuring amount of 
 money. 
 
 Everybody seemed to suddenly know of this nerve 
 and rheumatism specialist, whose name was perpetually 
 cropping up in the " pars " of six-penny weekly jour- 
 nals, who had cured Mrs. Orlitson of a hitherto uncon- 
 fessed nerve-trouble from which she had suffered in secret 
 for years, and she had already been the subject of 
 several illustrated interviews. 
 
 Yes, Katherine congratulated herself that the Seed- 
 lingditch doctor who had looked through the blind 
 wouldn't continue to be much of an incubus. 
 
 She had floated him expensively, boomed him royally, 
 and luck which, so far, had behaved very decently to 
 this red-haired widow with a perfect waist still seemed 
 sticking close to her side by holding out strong help- 
 ing-hands to the new speciah'st in Harley Street for 
 when the Seedlingditch practitioner was fully floated 
 and independent, Mrs. Orlitson would be free from one 
 firmly forged chain which linked the present to the past. 
 
 Katherine continued to puff, and was just about to 
 mix another double liqueur when Hendry knocked 
 permission must always be gained before entering the 
 vulgarly upholstered " bood." 
 
 " Come in." 
 
 Hendry approached. 
 
 " Dr. Sphait wishes to know if you could see him 
 for a few moments, madame." 
 
 " Does he ? Oh, very well show him in here."
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 229 
 
 "Very good, raadame," and a moment later Dr. 
 Sphait was shown in. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson greeted him even after Hendry had 
 retired with quite a middle-class display of ceremony, 
 the sort of ceremony intended to draw very definite lines 
 of division, and to show that tete-a-tete interviews must 
 not be regarded as mediums for intimate discussion. 
 
 Even in private, blackmailed and blackmailer must 
 not acknowledge their relations. 
 
 " Are you busy as usual, Dr. Sphait ? " enquired 
 Katherine with a primness of manner that was almost 
 humorous. 
 
 " I am, Mrs. Orlitson." 
 
 The big specialist's voice was cheery as ever, but 
 it was a superior order of cheeriness. The former and 
 less subtle variety had been lain aside with country-cut 
 clothes. 
 
 Katherine threw away her cigarette and gradually 
 changed her lounging attitude to one which would have 
 befitted a suburban housewife receiving the vicar's first 
 call. Morgan D. Sphait should be admitted to no sort 
 of intimacy, and Katherine knew that to establish safe 
 dealings with this large, not well-bred man, barriers 
 must never be momentarily relaxed. 
 
 *' Will you have a liqueur? " 
 
 " Thank you I will." 
 
 "Mixed?" 
 
 The ex-general practitioner evidently didn't know 
 what she meant. 
 
 " No er no soda, thanks."
 
 230 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Katherine was commendable and betrayed no hint 
 of amusement as she poured out a Cura9oa. 
 
 Dr. Sphait did not consume the liqueur quite sound- 
 lessly. 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Orlitson," he began when the little 
 glass was entirely empty, " I've come to ask your help 
 in a rather delicate matter." Here he drew up his chair 
 with a professional briskness which seemed to suggest 
 the coming prolonged investigation of a patient's 
 throat. 
 
 " What is that, Dr. Sphait? " 
 
 " Well, I believe that a notion which possibly may be 
 deemed old-fashioned obtains in London as much, or 
 even more, than it did at Seedlingditch." 
 
 "What is that notion?" 
 
 " That a medical man should be a married man." 
 
 " I see." (Could the voluble Mrs. Orlitson be re- 
 sponsible for these brief inexpressive rejoinders?) 
 
 " Therefore I believe it would be politic for me to 
 marry." 
 
 " Very probably." 
 
 " And what do you advise, Mrs. Orlitson ? " 
 
 " I advise you to follow your own inclinations." 
 
 "You do?" 
 
 He looked at her attractive red hair, at her at- 
 tractive white face, and at her wonderfully perfect 
 waist, and as he looked his bright blue eyes grew 
 brighter. 
 
 " You advise me to follow my own inclinations, Mrs. 
 Orlitson?"
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 231 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Then your advice shall be taken " And before 
 
 Katherine could get any grasp upon the situation, Dr. 
 Sphait had leant forward, taken her two thin shoul- 
 ders in the grip of his large hands, and was covering her 
 white face with kisses that were half primitive, half 
 brutal, and wholly unsatisfactory. 
 
 This was a very poignant moment, and Katherine 
 knew it. If this huge, pink, cheery man felt his power 
 not one second of her future would be safe. It was 
 the sort of moment when a lion-tamer subdues the beast 
 for all time to come or loses his own life. 
 
 Katherine would either get this large, pink human 
 beast under subjection, or she would lose all that rep- 
 resented life to her. 
 
 She summoned together her force?. 
 
 " You cad, you underbred, incurable cad," she cried, 
 pressing the knuckles of one thin white hand against 
 each of his healthy cheeks till it was physically impos- 
 sible for the caress to continue. Then directly she was 
 free she rose and faced him. " You insolent, absolute 
 outsider." 
 
 JDr. Sphait tried to look nonchalant. 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Orlitson, you quite misunderstood ; 
 nothing was further from my mind than insolence. Per- 
 haps my appreciation of your charms may have caused 
 me to put the cart before the horse if so homely a 
 simile may be applied. I ought to have made my pro- 
 posal first, and waited for the rapture of an embrace 
 to follow in due course."
 
 232 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 "What proposal?" Eyes and voice were both like 
 steel. 
 
 "A proposal of marriage. I was going to ask if 
 you will be my wife." 
 
 " Then let the matter stay where it is." 
 
 " You mean you would refuse me, Mrs. Orlitson ? " 
 
 " Utterly and irrevocably ! " 
 
 " And suppose I pressed the matter very close 
 very close indeed? " 
 
 " You mean, Dr. Sphait, if, because you believe your- 
 self to be in possession of some secret which would ruin 
 my whole life, you made further efforts at blackmail, 
 what would I do ? That is what you mean." The huge 
 man began to look less huge, and the medium-height 
 woman's inches seemed to increase. 
 
 " I I " 
 
 "Yes, that is what you mean, and in reply I'll just 
 tell you for the last time how matters stand. You 
 looked through the blind, you made a certain discovery, 
 but you have not the vaguest notion as to how much, 
 or how little, that discovery is significant." The blue 
 eyes were sparkling less now, and just once or twice the 
 crinkled lids fluttered. Katherine knew that a random 
 risky shaft had gone home. "In point of fact, it is 
 very little significant, much, much less so than you 
 would at all imagine by the fact that I am booming 
 you and setting you up in a Harley Street practice 
 for the purpose of securing your silence. But, Dr. 
 Sphait, I will now tell you that I am not prepared to 
 pay any further price for that silence. Your idea
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 233 
 
 now is that, in addition to a house and practice, you 
 will be able to annex a rich wife. Your idea is wrong, 
 for sooner than concede another inch to your demand I 
 am prepared for you to make public all you think you 
 know." 
 
 " But I I " 
 
 *' I'm sorry to talk so ceaselessly, but it's my way 
 when once I begin nothing stops me. Yes, Dr. Sphait, 
 because on looking through a blind you saw me sitting 
 on a sofa with my head leaning against a man's 
 shoulder, when I was supposed to be absolutely alone in 
 the house with my husband's dead body, you think your 
 demands may be unlimited. But all that I intend to do 
 I have done. I certainly prefer that people should not 
 know I received a visit from a lover on the night of my 
 husband's death, but if you wish to tell them you must 
 do so ! I don't think you'll be believed, and even if you 
 were, people don't trouble too much about the bygones 
 of a woman who is rich enough to be useful ! " Roger 
 Orlitson's widow shot a gimlet glance. Yes, all was 
 well! Dust was being thrown right into very bright 
 blue eyes. " I have made my own little position, and it 
 wouldn't be easy for a new-comer like yourself to do 
 me any harm." 
 
 " I have no wish " 
 
 " One moment more, Dr. Sphait I'm wound up and 
 shan't run down till I've said all I want to say. Now 
 there is just this little detail to mention. Once or twice 
 lately when I have not found it convenient to grant 
 you an interview, you have sent me very skilful little
 
 234 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 notes, one suggesting that for my sake it would be 
 wise if a motor could be added to your possessions, and 
 others putting matters even more clearly and forcibly. 
 Those notes, Dr. Sphait, I keep locked and guarded as 
 sacred treasures, because one day they would enable 
 me to bring a beautiful action for blackmail against 
 the writer and blackmail damages aren't quite jolly, 
 are they ? " The lion-tamer's whip might slacken now, 
 for this great crafty beast was nearly cowed ! " So 
 this is how we stand. To guard my silly, rather scan- 
 dalous little secret from a small section of society, I 
 have provided you with a ground floor suite in Har- 
 ley Street, I have boomed you privately and through 
 the press, and I have even pretended to be cured from 
 an imaginary ailment. For another six months I am 
 prepared to continue purchasing your silence, but af- 
 ter that time, Dr. Sphait, you must run alone, and if 
 you care to tell the world that Mrs. Orlitson was carry- 
 ing on an intrigue during her husband's lifetime, and 
 that on the night of his death you saw the tail end of 
 a love-scene through the blind, you must do so! Do 
 so, by all means, while I occupy myself by bringing an 
 action for blackmail ! That is exactly how we stand ! " 
 
 Breathlessly she had spoken, and breathlessly she 
 stopped speaking. 
 
 Had she won? Was he gulled? 
 
 Dr. Morgan B. Sphait hitched down his snowy cuff 
 and hitched up his glossy frock coat. 
 
 " Of course, Mrs. Orlitson, th-that is how we stand, 
 and very satisfactorily for me! Pray don't let us dis-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 235 
 
 cuss such ugly subjects as as blackmail such a word 
 can't enter our business relations! It it is only that 
 for another six months you will help and patronise a 
 struggling specialist, and after that time he will be 
 quite off your hands quite! I I am extremely sorry 
 that you should have misunderstood me in any way, and 
 I I apologise for my little outburst of emotional ad- 
 miration. Good-bye, Mrs. Orlitson I have an appoint- 
 ment at four good-bye ! " 
 
 Katherine smiled graciously, and held out a thin 
 hand. 
 
 " Good-bye, Dr. Sphait, and don't worry I'm 
 
 only dangerous when I'm roused, and I'm sure you'll 
 be a wise man and not rouse me again. We understand 
 each other nicely now see you to-night at the Grand- 
 ages', I expect ! " 
 
 And, cowed, the large pink beast, who would never 
 again show his great carnivorous teeth or unsheath his 
 hard curved claws, left the room, while the iron-willed, 
 red-haired tamer stood with a triumphant smile on her 
 lip-salved mouth and the metaphorical whip of victory 
 in her hand. 
 
 The beast was tamed. 
 
 Katherine waited till heavy footsteps, a click, and a 
 gentle vibration through the flat evidenced Dr. Sphait's 
 departure. 
 
 Then she laughed as only Katherine Orlitson could 
 laugh low, throatily, with one burst of merriment, be- 
 ing only the continuation of the last re-stimulated by a 
 fresh breath.
 
 236 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Poor big fool ! " she cried, slurring every word. 
 
 " He may specialise on bodies, but, good Lord, he 
 can't specialise on minds. How beautifully you took 
 it in, my large country oaf! How gloriously Kather- 
 ine's experiment succeeded. Bravo, Carrots ! Katherine, 
 you're a cute, venturesome devil, my girl ! You didn't 
 know but that the large pink thing suspected the truth 
 yet you bluffed it out, you coined the fiction of an 
 intrigue, you hid facts by thrusting weapons of "fiction 
 into his hands. And all this time the pink oaf hadn't 
 known concretely what he suspected himself, while poor 
 Katherine had been paying to guard a secret that was 
 absolutely safe! A lover! An intrigue! As if Kath- 
 erine would waste her time and energies on either! 
 Bravo Kits! Bravo, Carrots! Your're safe, old lady, 
 from the pink oaf's attacks, and Mrs. Burham is quite 
 wise enough to be lulled into forgetfulness by the 
 Worldly Woman. Lucky Kits! Cunning Kits! the 
 most decorous red-haired widow in one corner of 
 society ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 MRS. ORLITSON had enjoyed her solitary verbal out- 
 burst, and was just deliberating as to how the interval 
 between then and dinner should be spent, when Hendry 
 entered to ask if Manette might speak to madame 
 for a moment. 
 
 Katherine gave the permission, and the presumably 
 French maid came in. 
 
 " Please, madame, I to ask come if I am desired to 
 do the packing for Mademoiselle Vayne? " she enquired. 
 
 "Packing! What do you mean?" snapped Mrs. 
 Orlitson. 
 
 " I mean that now mademoiselle put the clothes into 
 her trunk as for departure " 
 
 " Nonsense, Manette, you are dreaming Miss 
 Vayne can't be packing ! " 
 
 Manette only shrugged her shoulders with a well 
 acquired jerk as Mrs. Orlitson swished her black rust- 
 ling skirts out of the room, down past the curve of the 
 corridor, and up to Honora's door. 
 
 She knocked. 
 
 "Yes? Who is it?" 
 
 " It is me 7, I mean " 
 
 " Oh a " 
 
 "Let me in, Hon!" 
 
 A pause a click then the door was opened and 
 
 237
 
 238 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Katherine found herself face to face with an Honora 
 who was not in the least beautiful. 
 
 Her skin looked dull and livid, her mouth was strained 
 and set unattractively, her enchanting Empire curls 
 were crushed, and even her bewildering eyes seemed un- 
 effective. 
 
 " Manette came to me with some nonsense about your 
 packing, and asked if she could help you ! What does 
 she mean, dear? " was Mrs. Orlitson's direct attack as 
 she pushed her way into the room, which seemed strewn 
 with chaos and clothes. 
 
 " She probably means what is true that I am pack- 
 ing to go away at once," answered Honora, not in the 
 least dramatically. 
 
 " Have you gone mad, my dear? " 
 
 " No, I don't think so I almost wish I had it 
 would be so much, much easier I shouldn't be respon- 
 sible for the wrong things I wanted to do if I were 
 mad." 
 
 " I see very logical. And what are the wrong 
 things you want to do?" 
 
 " I want to marry Bernard and commit perjury 
 oh ! Katherine, be sorry for me I I don't know what 
 to do!" 
 
 And hopelessly Honora sank down upon an ottoman 
 piled high with garments waiting to be packed. 
 
 Katherine took her right hand, held it very closely, 
 sat down by her side, and at last knew she was justified 
 in believing the proprietress of Upper Deerbuck 
 Chicken Farm to be a girl with a story.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 239 
 
 " Perhaps, poor old dear, if you tell me what's wrong 
 I may be able to suggest what's best to do," she said 
 in a brisk, matter-of-fact way that acted like an astrin- 
 gent upon Honora's weakened emotions. 
 
 " Yes, I must tell you, but I can't tell tell Bernard." 
 
 " Of course you can't, dearie. When it comes to tell- 
 ing things, men are quite outside the scheme. To begin 
 with, why are you packing, and why are you wanting 
 to leave me? " 
 
 " Because I must be gone before Bernard returns 
 to-morrow. We must never see each other again 
 never ! " 
 
 " But, you silly old goose, you're going to marry 
 each other. Poor Berr had hard enough work to wring 
 a promise from you, so surely you aren't going to be a 
 little sneak and play him false ? " 
 
 " I can't marry Bernard, Katherine I can't because 
 /'TO already married! " 
 
 " My stars ! Good Lord ! " 
 
 Doubtless Mrs. Orlitson would have known how to be 
 a great deal more emphatic, but these two commonplace 
 exclamations did all that was required of them just 
 for the moment. 
 
 She had always believed in the existence of " a story," 
 but she hadn't imagined anything so convulsing as the 
 existence of a husband. 
 
 " I can't believe you are a married woman your 
 eyes are too too innocent! " she suddenly blurted out. 
 
 Honora's beautiful flush appeared for one transitory 
 moment.
 
 240 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Th-there is no reason why my eyes should not look 
 innocent my marriage was is only a legal tie ! " 
 she answered nervously. 
 
 "What! Nothing " 
 
 " Nothing ever ! " 
 
 " Then why ? What was the point of the whole 
 business ? When was it ? What does it all mean ? " 
 
 " It means that when my father died and left me a 
 very few hundreds, we were living in Scotland. We 
 had been there about five months, but had only become 
 really intimate with one man. I turned to this one 
 man in my trouble and incompetency he helped me, 
 arranged everything, and finally said it would make 
 matters so much easier if I would be his wife, and that 
 he had been in love with me for five months. At that 
 time I had never cared for anybody, so I consented, 
 feeling it would be better to have someone whose duty 
 it was to look after me. I was so very lonely, and 
 loneliness is dreadful, Katherine dreadful ! " 
 
 " Poor old dear ! I know ! Oh, God ! don't I know ! " 
 and the hands of two undemonstrative women clung 
 closer together. 
 
 " Well, we were married one morning by licence, and 
 directly the ceremony was over my my husband re- 
 ceived a cablegram. Urgent business called him to 
 Germany it was necessary for him to start that very 
 hour, and it would be a week before he came home. 
 Twenty minutes later he caught a train, while I went 
 back to the hotel to await his return." 
 
 "And he never did return, did he? Beast!"
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Oh, yes, I believe he returned, but not till after I 
 had gone to England ! " 
 
 "But why did you go? What had happened?" 
 
 " I went because two hours after his departure a 
 man came to see me a man of the very lower middle 
 classes the father of young daughters and young 
 sons. He had heard some rumours of the marriage, 
 and came to warn me to tell me terrible things, to put 
 tragic, gruesome proofs in my hands concerning the 
 man I had married. To avoid publicity he had never 
 prosecuted the beast but now he left it for me to do 
 as I wished. The poor shamed man went away, and 
 twelve hours later. I had started for England, leaving 
 behind me a note saying that if ever he attempted to 
 seek me out the whole truth about everything should 
 be made known, and he should suffer the relentless pun- 
 ishment which is meted out to beasts! " 
 
 "Poor, dear, dear old girlie! and what did you do 
 then?" 
 
 " I went back to being Honora Vayne, bought the 
 chicken farm and lived there as you found me, and now 
 I've I've been nearly committing bigamy ! " 
 
 Katherine screwed up her white face and looked puz- 
 zled, while her thin fingers unconsciously began to 
 massage Honora's hand. 
 
 After a few minutes she spoke almost sheepishly. 
 
 " I don't believe it matters I would risk it if I were 
 you. It isn't as if Berr were a sort of twentieth century 
 god of rigid morality. I don't believe he'd mind 
 really."
 
 242 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " That's what I thought, Katherine indeed that's 
 what I thought, and that's why I promised in the end. 
 But to-day I've found out things are different. Ber- 
 nard has been telling me that he is growing to love the 
 proprieties, th-that he will want to frame our 
 marriage certificate! He would care now, Katherine 
 he would and I can't do it " 
 
 " Berr's a d d fool ! " 
 
 This did Mrs. Orlitson a lot of good, and while Hon- 
 ora's dark crushed curls were buried in a chaos of 
 clothes poor girl with the story ! her sobs were very 
 young in their intensity ! the red-haired widow thought 
 with extreme rapidity thoughts that were slurred and 
 hurried like her words. 
 
 A recollection suddenly came to her. 
 
 "He had a beard, hadn't he?" 
 
 Honora broke through her sobs to be surprised. 
 
 " Yes how did you know ? " 
 
 " Always felt sure your story was mixed up with a 
 beard you mentioned beards once, and by the way you 
 spoke of the beastly thing I knew you'd been kissed by 
 one and found it horrid ! Poor dear ! " 
 
 Honora sobbed again. 
 
 "What was he like, darling, this bearded beast? " 
 
 Honora rose from the ottoman. 
 
 " I've got his portrait, taken with father on the 
 lawn. I didn't throw it away because father was there 
 too. W-would you like to see it? " she said drearily. 
 
 " Of course I should! " Katherine spoke with dou- 
 ble italics, and already stuck out her thin chin in antici-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 243 
 
 pation of gratified curiosity. She felt very curious 
 about this " beast." 
 
 Honora dragged a shabby desk out of a wardrobe, 
 and unlocked it, and took out a photograph that was 
 twice cabinet size. 
 
 " This is my husband this is Stanford Golt ! " she 
 said with a shudder. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson took the picture, looked at it, then 
 without any premonitory warnings, slipped quite quietly 
 and quite gracefully on the thick, comforting carpet! 
 
 She was after the manner of most heroines in most 
 " popular " stories in a dead faint ! her second faint ! 
 
 It was unexpected.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 BUT Mrs. Orlitson wasn't a woman inclined to waste 
 many of life's valuable moments in unconsciousness. 
 
 From her marigold hair to her impudent feet she was 
 crammed with vitality, so before she had been one whole 
 minute in the " dead faint," that vitality got the upper 
 hand again. 
 
 " Don't be scared, dear," she said just a little 
 weakly this time. " I don't often indulge in gr-graceful, 
 effective faints, but, oh, Honora! that likeness " 
 
 "What? his? Stanford's? what is " 
 
 " No, no, not that I mean the older man sitting in 
 the chair " 
 
 " What, father? " 
 
 "Yes oh, my dear, if you knew how exactly his 
 face is like the face of of somebody who played a 
 painfully poignant part in my life! Don't ask me 
 about it now, dear I'll tell you some other time." 
 Possibly Mrs. Orlitson's fictional and imaginative pow- 
 ers were not in their best working order just at the 
 moment ! " Of course I can see now the chin is different, 
 and th-there is no scar but the likeness was startling 
 at first! Now, I'm quite fit and frisky again, so do let 
 me examine that other one of that villain whose exist- 
 ence will probably make Berr put a bullet through his 
 brain! We Bensteads are rather prone to find refuge 
 
 244
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 245 
 
 in bullets when the outlook is too impossible. What a, 
 a well, it's not altogether a bad-looking face, is 
 it?" 
 
 Honora shivered. 
 
 " Don't ! Now it it seems to me almost pestilen- 
 tial! " she murmured. 
 
 " Of course, you nice, pure-minded darling, that's 
 just what it should seem! I quite understand. It is 
 a ghastly, miserable business, but there is only one 
 thing certain you and Berr mustn't part ! " 
 
 " Katherine ! " And with this exclamation Honora 
 dropped to the floor a bottle of smelling salts which a 
 few moments previously had been resting on Mrs. Orlit- 
 son's vivid upper lip. 
 
 " Yes, dearie, I am Katherine right enough, and 
 Bernard Benstead's sister, and I know Bernard's tem- 
 perament, and I realise what would happen if Bernard's 
 life was wrecked, and I am going to stop those hap- 
 penings. I'm not going to have my brother commit 
 suicide just because of one girl's half-affected, super- 
 stitious, conventional idea of morality." 
 
 " Katherine, you don't know what you are saying ! " 
 This was an utterly feeble remark, but Honora felt 
 weak, feeble, will-less, and vacillating. 
 
 " Many thanks, my dear, but I've not forgotten my 
 lines. No prompt required ! I know well what I am 
 saying, and, Honora Vayne, I know that you are you 
 are a coward, a heartless, contemptible, despicable 
 coward ! " 
 
 Honora's face became dyed red, then blanched white.
 
 246 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 A coward! Yes, she always had been a coward! It 
 was part of her nature. 
 
 She was a coward when her father died, and when, 
 instead of bravely taking her life into her own hands, 
 she let it slip into the hands of Stanford Golt. She 
 was a coward when, instead of confronting a nauseous 
 man with his nauseous story, she took refuge in flight. 
 She was a coward over eight months ago when she had 
 said " Good-night " to Bernard and shut the door. 
 She was a coward when, goaded on by the yearning, 
 unfed passion of her heart, she finally promised to be his 
 wife instead of making a full, sad confession, and she 
 was a coward now when she failed in strength to carry 
 out a resolve! 
 
 " And it isn't your goodness that makes you want to 
 run away," continued Katherine's breathless, slurring 
 voice, " it's only that you're afraid of what the con- 
 sequences would be if Berr ever should learn the truth. 
 You pretend to yourself, my dear girl, that it's the 
 promptings of morality and conscience which cause 
 you to be now occupied in packing your box. But 
 that pretence won't go down morality has got abso- 
 lutely nothing to do with it. It's only fear and cow- 
 ardice ! " 
 
 " Katherine, you are unjust, and cruelly unjust. I 
 did mean to be what you call brave, and risk possible 
 imprisonment for bigamy and everything else, until 
 Bernard spoke to-day. I truly believed him to be a 
 man without any cramped, conventional code of hon- 
 our one of those independent men who look almost
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 247 
 
 reverently on the sins of women who sin for love but 
 this morning I knew that these ideas were all wrong. 
 Bernard, of course, might find some woman who pleased 
 him, and make her his mistress ; but the woman he loves 
 and he does, he does love me ! must be his wife ! No, 
 no, I must not do it for for every reason it would 
 be terrible ! " 
 
 " Terrible ! " Katherine's throaty voice was insolently 
 contemptuous. " I suppose you mean it would be ter- 
 rible if some crinkled up red thing with irrepressible 
 lungs grew up to find itself without a paternal sur- 
 name! What rubbish! Probably the red thing never 
 would find out millions of 'em never do and even if 
 it did, it could keep its mamma's romantic little secret, 
 to itself. My dear, it's no good your getting freezy, 
 and freezing, and writhing, and restless, just because 
 I face you with your own quite human thoughts. To 
 my mind, illegitimate children are often a jolly sight 
 more attractive than wedlock's unoriginal product. 
 Naturally they're more spontaneous and more electric. 
 They owe their very existence to spontaneity and elec- 
 tricity. They have to be. Nobody wants them, but 
 they are like beautiful young Judas trees, so strong 
 with nature's lovely vitality and passion, and freshness, 
 and impulse, that they'll actually force their way 
 through fences and walls if they mean to grow. Wed- 
 lock's kids are there because they were meant and ex- 
 pected to be there. Sort of fundamental physical laws 
 demand their arrival, but nine times out of ten they 
 are conceived and born without enthusiasm, spontaneity,
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 impulse, ardour, or anything else. I'm sure half the 
 rat-like-mouthed best-Sunday-frocked, uncharitable, 
 cheese-parey, church-decorating women who infest the 
 middle classes are only the result of an unenthusiastic 
 wedlock! And the vile, smug, frock-coated, psalm- 
 singing " 
 
 " Katherine, Katherine, this hasn't anything to do 
 with it," interrupted Honora piteously. 
 
 " Yes it has everything ; you can't deny you were 
 thinking of possible red-crinkled-up things, can you? 
 Of course, you can't! Well, don't worry about those 
 any more, or if you do, look among the lines of our 
 brilliant society and stage beauties, and see if those 
 whose aristocratic or even royal papas do not share 
 surnames with their mammas, aren't a hundred per cent, 
 more beautiful, witty, accomplished, and gracious than 
 the daughters of commandment-keeping mammas! Of 
 course they are, so don't upset yourself about the red- 
 crinkled-up things any more, and be a decent, plucky 
 girl. Make poor old Berr happy, as you promised, and 
 don't force him to put a bullet through his really satis- 
 factory Benstead brain! Do evil, Honora if making 
 a man happy can be reckoned as evil that good may 
 come of it ! " 
 
 By this time Honora was crying hopelessly and 
 drearily, just letting the tears drip off her beautiful 
 lashes on to the bosom of her gown, without making 
 any attempt to check the cascade. 
 
 Every moment she felt Katherine Orlitson's strength 
 more and more dominating her weakness, and the con-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 249 
 
 tinuous, slurry, throaty flow of words seemed to act 
 like a narcotic upon her own failing powers of deci- 
 sion. 
 
 A blouse she had been folding and refolding for the 
 last ten minutes fell limply to the ground a first actual 
 sign of surrender. 
 
 And Mrs. Orlitson's verbal geyser wasn't by any 
 means yet exhausted a fresh immersion of boiling, 
 seething, bubbling words streamed from between her 
 reddened lips. 
 
 It was as though the whole powers of her thin strong 
 body and her clear, resourceful mind were to be expended 
 in the endeavour to make Honora Golt commit 
 bigamy ! 
 
 " Your marriage was arranged to come off in a month 
 it must be in a fortnight instead and, as you know, 
 Berr has been begging for things to be hustled, so 
 there will be no difficulty. It shall be a quiet wedding, 
 and afterwards, my dear, life will go on rose-coloured 
 wheels, and you'll see the world through oiled glasses 
 the other way, I mean you know ! Nobody knows of 
 your former marriage, this Golt beast wouldn't dare to 
 betray anything because publicity and penal servitude 
 wouldn't make his future career strikingly luxurious or 
 successful, so you and Berr will be absolutely safe in 
 your conjugal bliss! You must swear, Honora, you 
 must swear now by something which is sacred to you, 
 that plans shall remain unaltered, except that you and 
 Berr marry a fortnight earlier than arranged." 
 
 " Katherine, I ca "
 
 250 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Katherine seized her wrists and gripped her with 
 extraordinary strength. 
 
 " Go down on your knees swear it I can't have my 
 dear old Berr brother shoot himself because of you or 
 any other girl with fine eyes ! Swear it, Honora ! " 
 
 The will and the wrists both relaxed their remaining 
 counter-efforts. 
 
 Honora's knees were pressing into the soft, spongy, 
 expensive carpet, and Honora's resistance was now 
 like a newly planted tree that had been subjected to 
 the outrage of a hurricane. 
 
 " Swear it, my dear old girl. Say after me ' / 
 swear not to be a coward ' " 
 
 "Oh! Katherine " 
 
 " Go on, dearie ' / swear not to be a coward ' 
 
 " I swear not to be a coward (Oh, 
 
 Katherine !) " 
 
 " And I swear to go through the form of marriage 
 with Bernard Benstead in a fortnight's time. (Go on, 
 darling!)" 
 
 " And I I swear (Oh, Kath )" 
 
 "Go on, Honora!" 
 
 " 1 swear to go through the form of marriage 
 
 with Bernard Benstead in a fortnight's time " 
 
 " So help me ' 
 
 " So help me God! " And involuntarily the last 
 
 great word fell unprompted from her lips. 
 
 Katherine bent swiftly and kissed her, then before 
 Honora had risen from her knees this red-haired widow 
 whose will-power had never yet betrayed its trust,
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 251 
 
 swished her black, beautiful skirts from the room, down 
 the corridor, and into the restful seclusion of the vul- 
 garly furnished " bood." 
 
 But to-day there was no seclusion, for the " bood " 
 was already occupied by a long, languid figure, sensu- 
 ously reclining in a huge wicker chair that was like half 
 a bath. 
 
 It was Arnold Smith, who smiled without changing 
 his attitude or putting down his paper as Mrs. Orlit- 
 son entered. 
 
 " Oh, I'm glad you're here I wanted somebody 
 I've been through a desperate time positive nerve- 
 racker," panted Katherine, whose face suddenly looked 
 so white and thin that sidelights seemed to reveal the 
 uncovered skull beneath the powdered skin. 
 
 ' What's up, little woman? " 
 
 Katherine dashed the paper from his hand and 
 dashed herself across his indolent knees. 
 
 " You shall think about me you must comfort 
 me you must pet me I've done so much I'm so 
 
 tired " she wailed, dropping her effective red head 
 
 right into the hollow of his shoulder. 
 
 " Poor little girl ! Dear, plucky little pal ! " 
 
 And for once Arnold Smith exerted himself suffi- 
 ciently to hold a thin woman with a perfect waist 
 closely and comfortingly in his arms, while with de- 
 lightful tenderness he kissed the paleness of her cheeks 
 and the redness of her mouth ! 
 
 " Dear little pal ! Nice little plucked 'un ! " 
 
 Katherine lay back very contentedly.
 
 252 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " You aren't a bad old boy, and I'm not sure that 
 you are as good as a sixteen-grain phenactin powder ! " 
 she murmured. 
 
 The late Roger Orlitson's chum laughed quietly, and 
 continued caressing the widow's thin cheek. 
 
 "We're all doing it, aren't we?" she whispered a 
 moment later. 
 
 " Doing what, little pal? " 
 
 " Why doing evil that good may come of it. It's 
 the best way the only way ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXVIH 
 
 MBS. ORLITSON'S " set " was not in the least surprised 
 to hear that the wedding of Mrs. Orlitson's brother 
 would take place a fortnight earlier than was originally 
 intended because as Mrs. Orlitson said there was 
 just a chance that "poor globe-trotting Berr " might 
 be summoned abroad any minute to give a brief per- 
 sonal inspection to one of those enterprises which had 
 achieved the desirable result of making him a millionaire. 
 
 And the " set " felt as little interest as it felt sur- 
 prise, because neither Mrs. Orlitson's brother nor Mrs. 
 Orlitson's friend had done anything to cause comment. 
 
 Certainly Miss Vayne was a striking-looking girl 
 a beautiful girl when she troubled to smile or blush 
 and certainly Bernard Benstead could be a desperately 
 attractive man. But as Miss Vayne had never tried to 
 be beautiful or blushing for anyone but Mr. Benstead, 
 and as Mr. Benstead had never tried to be attractive 
 for anyone but Miss Vayne, the " set " scarcely found 
 them worth while. 
 
 Men who had been snubbed voted Honora rt provin- 
 cial and poultry," and women who had been overlooked 
 decided that Bernard was " stodgy." From the very 
 first day that Mrs. Orlitson's brother appeared upon 
 the scenes, his subjection to Mrs. Orlitson's friend had 
 been as much a fait accompli as her glad acceptance of 
 
 253
 
 254 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 this subjection and when two people are like that it's 
 unreasonable to expect any set to feel interested in 
 their doings! 
 
 In fact, when a radiant mid-season sun rose one 
 morning to make London glad for Honora's marriage 
 day, scarcely anyone remembered that at eleven o'clock 
 two people would be legally transformed into one per- 
 son by licence at a registrar's office. 
 
 Katherine was up early, and Arnold Smith who was 
 to be the second witness arrived less than twenty min- 
 utes later, while Honora sat in her bedroom waiting 
 to hear the summons that the electric brougham was at 
 the door. 
 
 She was dressed in white exquisite restrained white, 
 suitably bridal when the fact of her being a bride ob- 
 truded itself, yet nothing in the costume of silk muslin 
 and lace would have been out of place on a hot day up 
 the river and on her knee rested an open prayer-book. 
 
 Honora had never been one of those girls whose 
 spare-time moments are devoted to ferreting out the 
 naughtiness of Leviticus, and poring over certain 
 poignant and indelicate paragraphs of the marriage 
 service. 
 
 In fact she had never entirely read the nuptial for- 
 mulae until after the surrender of caution and con- 
 science to one man's engulfing passion. 
 
 But she had read it then, and she was reading it now 
 again, thankful, as the verbose repetitions stood out 
 in clear type before her eyes, that she had persuaded 
 Bernard to dispense with the church ceremony.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 255 
 
 " It's a case of forcibly subduing all my newly ac- 
 quired citizenlike instincts," he had said with the touch 
 of a smile on his unmoral mouth, " but if I commit the 
 error of marrying a * new ' young woman who resents 
 making vows to ' honour and obey ' anything so trivial 
 as a man, I must put up with the consequences of her 
 newness ! And after all it doesn't much matter, so long 
 
 as as " and the sentence had been finished on her 
 
 lips. 
 
 Yes, Honora was very glad that she would surrender 
 her virtue, that she would break God-made laws without 
 demanding God's blessing on the crime. 
 
 And of course it was a crime bigamy couldn't pos- 
 sibly be called by any more courteous name! but yet 
 since that turbulent scene when Katherine, after the 
 manner of Katherine, got her own way, Honora's con- 
 science or cowardice seemed lulled to sleep. 
 
 She once more saw things as Katherine saw them. 
 She realised that in giving Bernard her truly virgin 
 self, and in according him the sole monopoly of her 
 fidelity and love, she was acting virtuously according 
 to nature's fundamental laws and as Katherine 
 skilfully pointed out the laws of nature were made 
 before the laws of man. 
 
 And on this, her second wedding morning, Honora 
 felt less cowardly than she had ever felt in all her life. 
 
 She was ready to go through with it, ready to brave 
 risks and dangers, to deceive society, to deceive the 
 man she loved, to deliberately become his mistress 
 for, as a legal marriage was not possible, this was
 
 256 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 the actual relation in which Honora Golt would stand 
 towards Bernard Benstead. 
 
 People would call her " Mrs. Benstead " when she 
 was in reality "Mrs. Golt," and when any day walk- 
 ing in any street she was quite likely to encounter the 
 man who was really her husband. 
 
 Naturally these thoughts again and again passed 
 through Honora's mind, but even when possibilities pre- 
 sented themselves in their blackest aspect, she never 
 for one moment felt any desire to break her oath. 
 
 Katherine Orlitson's stupendous will-power still 
 worked results, like some powerful drug which lingers 
 in the system long after its administration has ceased. 
 
 Katherine had urged her to do this evil if it was 
 an evil that good might come of it. And good should 
 come it should, because after all what is love but 
 good? 
 
 And while Honora sat alone turning over the pages 
 of a reprehensibly new prayer-book, Katherine paced 
 up and down the " bood," every now and then address- 
 ing Arnold Smith, who was standing before an orient- 
 ally framed glass readjusting his tie. 
 
 " I shan't be able to breathe freely till those two are 
 tied up ! " she cried, pressing the sides of her perfect 
 waist as if for once her corsets were stiff and cramped 
 instead of, as was really the case, allowing more than 
 ample room for that thin sinuous body to bend and 
 twist and do everything that a graceful woman's body 
 should do. " It's a weird, extraordinary, paralysing, 
 incredible situation, isn't it? "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 257 
 
 " Somewhat quaint, I must admit." 
 
 Katherine turned and snapped like a spoilt Italian 
 greyhound might snap. 
 
 " Oh ! do give way to italics and emphasise some- 
 times! It is so hopelessly middle class never to be em- 
 phatic when the occasion demands as if you were 
 afraid of letting loose in case your grammar would go 
 wrong or something! Isn't the present situation abso- 
 lutely stultifying? " 
 
 " Ab so lute ly wn par rd lei led! " re- 
 plied Arnold with very obliging emphasis. 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson was appeased by this undeniable stress 
 laid on five separate syllables. 
 
 " Yes, I do think that if any unfortunate woman 
 was floating about between the devil and the deep sea, 
 I am that woman," she went on. " If I confess I go 
 to the devil, and if I don't confess it looks as if two 
 other unfortunate people might tumble with me into the 
 deep sea ! D'you think I've done the best that could be 
 done?" 
 
 " Quite the best, my dear, and when they're once 
 spliced there's nothing to fidget about any more, is 
 there? " responded Arnold Smith in the gently bored 
 tones of a person who doesn't want to hear more than 
 a certain amount of the world's worries. 
 
 " No, I suppose there isn't though it does seem 
 sort of hard luck all round. One thing I will say for 
 myself, and that is if Honora had persisted in refusing 
 to marry Berr I'd have run all risks and told her right 
 away. I couldn't have been such a sweeplike sort of
 
 258 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 person as to spoil two lives just because yes, Hendry, 
 what is it? " as the decorous footman entered the room 
 after giving the regulation knock at the " bood " 
 door. 
 
 " The electric brougham is ready, madame." 
 
 "Is it? That's all right!" Mrs. Orlitson stuck 
 out her thin chin and glided out of the room. 
 
 " Honora ! Hon-o-ra ! " she called. 
 
 Hardly any pause, then the gracious figure of a 
 young white-clad woman came slowly down the cor- 
 ridor. 
 
 Honora moved calmly, smiled calmly, and on her 
 face was the vivid flush which made her beautiful. 
 
 Katherine met her half-way, and slipped a hand 
 through her arm. 
 
 " Dear, dear old girl ! " she whispered. 
 
 Honora still smiled, pressed the thin ringed hand, 
 and together they passed out and into the brougham, 
 at the door of which Arnold Smith was waiting. 
 
 " I've lost my gloves, but you'll excuse it, won't 
 you ? " he said genially. " I always do lose gloves, like 
 the man " 
 
 Then followed an anecdote that would have just fit- 
 ted in between savouries and dessert, and which on this 
 occasion most admirably served to relieve the tension of 
 the moment. 
 
 Katherine simply bubbled and gurgled at every 
 point, and if by accident she laughed in the wrong 
 place, the raconteur generously overlooked any such 
 errors of risibility and went on with the anecdote,
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 259 
 
 which eventually merged into another that lasted until 
 the registry office was reached. Arnold's tact could be 
 very triumphant at times. 
 
 On the doorstep Bernard was standing, big, bronzed, 
 and lounge-suited, then as he came towards them and 
 looked at Honora, Katherine suddenly realised all that 
 could be in a woman's life if she was wholly and abso- 
 lutely adored. 
 
 Her thin swathed throat worked convulsively for a 
 second before she moved closer to Arnold and followed 
 the lovers into the sordid, shabby, dusty little apart- 
 ment which served as an office. The quartette were 
 greeted by a snuffy man with an unnecessarily large 
 nose and a soothing, consoling mourning manner. 
 
 Metaphorically the sort of man who always wore 
 black gloves. 
 
 Behind a large table strewn with papers sat another 
 man, whose nose was less large, and whose manner 
 bristled with tired official importance. 
 
 He spoke to Bernard in a low voice, Bernard an- 
 swered sheepishly then Honora, Katherine, and Ar- 
 nold were summoned to the table. 
 
 The large-nosed man once more approached to 
 mumble some particulars concerning Bernard's age, 
 parents, etc., out of a book, to which reiterated infor- 
 mation the bridegroom mumbled acquiescence. 
 
 The same formula was repeated in Honora's 
 case. 
 
 After this the officially important man cleared his 
 throat, opened another book, and stood up.
 
 260 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Bernard Benstead er er 'reason un un 
 
 Honora Vayne er un er wife 
 
 " he enquired in confidentially indistinct tones. 
 
 " Um er um ," seemed to come from the lower 
 
 depths of Bernard's large chest. 
 
 " Honora Vayne " he stumbled somewhat over the 
 " Honora," and finally pronounced it Hon or a, 
 with an aspirated H " er um er reason 
 
 ard Benstead er um m m 
 
 Honora's response was equally intelligible, and 
 when she and Bernard severally repeated a couple of 
 sentences after the official man, Katherine's mouth 
 stretched into a grin. 
 
 She longed to give the well-remembered gallery yell 
 of " Speak up! " 
 
 Bernard then muttered another official assurance 
 and jerked a ring on to Honora's finger, after which 
 the official man banged together the book he was hold- 
 ing and opened another, while the large-nosed man 
 assiduously dipped pens into a dirty inkpot. 
 
 Honora signed her name clearly, Bernard scrawled 
 a hieroglyphic, Katherine appended some blots and 
 dashes, and Arnold affixed a flourishless signature. 
 
 This concluded the ceremony which made Honora 
 Golt ready to begin life as a bigamist ! 
 
 " But are you sure they're married? " enquired Mrs. 
 Orlitson of the large-nosed man, while Bernard placed 
 various moneys in the official man's hand. 
 
 " Quite sure, ma'am," he replied soothingly.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 261 
 
 " Do you mean just because they've all been mum- 
 bling a few sentences nobody could hear that nothing 
 but divorce could make them two free independent 
 people again! Is it really binding and legal? " 
 
 " No marriage celebrated hat West min is ter 
 Habbey could be more legal, ma'am " and the large- 
 nosed man exhibited slight symptoms of huffiness. As 
 a loyal registrar's clerk he always felt antagonistic 
 towards abbeys, cathedrals, benedictions, best men, and 
 orange blossoms. 
 
 " Well, I don't know," continued Katherine when a 
 clink from the region of Bernard's palm had restored 
 the large-nosed man to good humour. " My poor 
 Roger and I wouldn't have been at all satisfied with 
 this. We had quite a nice wedding at a church, even 
 though I had been playing second lead the night be- 
 fore. My late husband was a very romantic man, you 
 know," she continued, turning to Arnold, who looked 
 gravely and suitably interested, " with a strong strain 
 of religion running through his romance. Such a 
 noble fellow, Tim, possessed of every virtue a man 
 could possess! So reliable, so energetic, so economi- 
 cal, so enterprising, so unselfish ! Ah-h-h ! " 
 
 Arnold Smith echoed the sigh out of sympathy. 
 
 *' It's always those splendid fellows who are taken 
 and we slackers who are left ! " was his gently tactful 
 response. 
 
 By this time they were all re-entering the electric 
 brougham, and twenty minutes later reached Holstein 
 Mansions, where the bride and bridegroom had ar-
 
 262 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 ranged to partake of a swift lunch before catching the 
 2.40 train for Transley. 
 
 " It does seem piffle to spend your honeymoon among 
 a lot of fowls ! " remarked Katherine as they sat down 
 to galantines and Pommery. 
 
 " Not at all it's an excellent wheeze to sponge on 
 your wife's hospitality right away. By staying at 
 Deerbuck I get saved the expense of hotel bills," re- 
 plied Bernard, who, after the manner of Englishmen 
 when they feel touched and sentimental, was presenting 
 an almost brutally practical aspect, and when he ad- 
 dressed Honora not one note of tenderness softened 
 his voice. 
 
 But Honora understood she was quivering and 
 throbbing in every pulse, and she understood. 
 
 At half -past one the bride changed into a cream 
 serge travelling costume, and at half -past two she and 
 the bridegroom were sitting in a first-class carriage 
 turning over the leaves of various illustrated papers. 
 
 The magnetism of restraint was holding them both, 
 and the fact of sitting comparatively far apart when 
 they might be crushed in each other's arms was in- 
 tensely piquant. 
 
 " Another air-ship keeping persistently clear of the 
 sky ! " commented Honora, indicating a reproduced 
 photograph of several men, several ropes, and a big 
 cigar-like monster lying where the laws of gravitation 
 intended it to lie. 
 
 " Yes !" responded Bernard lazily, as he turned to 
 the racing news.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 263 
 
 But they were neither of them feeling remotely in- 
 terested in illustrations or winners. 
 
 Each was only thinking of the other, being passion- 
 ately conscious of the other's presence, anticipating 
 kisses to come, mentally living future hours full of 
 rapture. 
 
 " I see two of old Hookenstein's mares won again 
 on Saturday. He's got the very devil's or Jew's ! 
 own luck ! " was Bernard's next observation. 
 
 Honora laughed jerkily. 
 
 " Jews aren't so bad ; they've got some very good 
 points," she answered. 
 
 " I've never seen any even their beastly noses are 
 without points ! " replied Bernard, with Christian hos- 
 tility. 
 
 This was all very banal, but it served to keep the 
 moments poignant and aloof. 
 
 Both continued reading steadily, and when a couple 
 of hours later the train halted at Transley station the 
 first marriage kiss was still ungiven. 
 
 But ah! the rapture of procrastination, the passion 
 of putting off! 
 
 The square lumbering fly was waiting to meet them 
 at the station, and as they drove through the summer 
 country air neither Bernard nor Honora made any fur- 
 ther pretence of being interested in air-ships or mares. 
 
 The fervid hush and the fervid sounds of summer 
 were everywhere, and those two were just waiting to be 
 happy as the birds were happy as God meant man and 
 woman to be happy.
 
 264 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Just "once their hands met and clasped, but they 
 parted quickly. Wonderful moments mustn't be antici- 
 pated. 
 
 Presently they turned down the rutted entrance- 
 road which Honora had left streaked with miniature 
 ditches made by the weight of cartwheels, but which 
 now was dry and powdered with fine white dust. 
 
 It was summer it was summer, and " love-time is 
 the summer time ! " 
 
 The greeting of Mary Tryke and her husband was 
 respectfully cordial, for the worthy couple approved 
 of matrimony, just as strenuously as they unknowingly 
 disapproved of love. 
 
 The lower classes of a certain type understand mar- 
 riage with its imperial, domestic, and moral motives, 
 but they can't understand love. They don't want to. 
 They wouldn't know what to do with it if they did 
 understand. 
 
 " I've got the large room ready, ma'am, because 
 I " began Mrs. Tryke. 
 
 " Yes, yes, I'm sure, Mary, your arrangements are 
 splendid they always were how nice everything 
 looks Juliet, and Portia, and Maudie, just as fat as 
 ever, I see! fifty more than when I left, aren't 
 there? " interrupted Honora, speaking with a rapidity 
 that could have outraced the swift volubility of Mrs. 
 Orlitson herself. 
 
 Bernard was looking at the horizon. He didn't 
 seem quite sure where sea began and where sky ended. 
 
 "Perhaps you'd like tea, ma'am?" enquired Mary
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 265 
 
 Tryke, a shade less cordially. She didn't care for hav- 
 ing her sentences interrupted. 
 
 " I think so yes er don't you ? " answered 
 Honora, addressing Bernard without using his name. 
 An extraordinary shyness was possessing her she felt 
 as if they had suddenly become strangers. 
 
 " Yes it wouldn't be bad ! " he replied carelessly. 
 
 " I'll go up and wash my hands ; then I'll come down 
 at once." 
 
 "Right!" 
 
 The excellent Mary shook her head as she walked 
 into the kitchen where Tryke was making up the fire. 
 
 "Things is wrong there!" she announced, jerking 
 her head upwards. 
 
 " Thought there wasn't much sweet-'earting about," 
 replied her man. 
 
 " Sweet-'earting ! Not much of that ! They've both 
 made a mistake, and now it's too late they've found it 
 out ! " was Mary's verdict. 
 
 " Aye ! Well, they've got ter make th' best of it, 
 poor souls! Them as God is joined tergether, it's no 
 man's job ter put asunder!" and Tryke sighed a 
 bucolic sigh which perhaps wasn't quite complimentary 
 to the excellent Mary. 
 
 When Honora reached the large chintz-draped room 
 she threw aside her hat and splashed her face with cold 
 water. 
 
 As a rule she used water that was warm and pos- 
 sibly perfumed with a few drops of some aromatic vine- 
 gar, but to-day nothing but a cold, brisk splash would
 
 266 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 do something hearty, something healthy to chill the 
 strange fires that seemed burning her skin and burning 
 her senses. 
 
 When her face was dried and lightly dusted with 
 powder, Honora picked out every crushed Empire curl 
 with a long hat-pin. 
 
 What else could she do? Should she unpack? 
 She didn't want to go down she dreaded going 
 down 
 
 Tap-tap! 
 
 " Tea's quite ready, ma'am, and Mr. Benstead's 
 a-waiting," sounded Mary's half-commiserating, half- 
 severe voice. 
 
 Honora opened the door and ran downstairs without 
 any further delay. 
 
 She was glad of the summons, because, without it, 
 she would possibly never have gone down! 
 
 Bernard was already putting milk and sugar in the 
 cups, and when Honora had filled up the tea he cut a 
 piece of cake and strolled to the window. 
 
 Mary Tryke was scandalised. She did think a bride- 
 groom might give his bride a few minutes' grace, and 
 she did think they would have sat down rather close 
 together perhaps at table. 
 
 Taking tea and cake to the window indeed ! 
 
 Poor things! Well, what they'd done they couldn't 
 undo, and there was nothing for them but to make the 
 best of it! 
 
 Mrs. Tryke really felt very sorry and quite shocked. 
 
 And while she was feeling sorry tea and cake were
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 267 
 
 hardly tasted just because two people were nearly 
 choked with emotional love! 
 
 Uncomprehending Mary Tryke ! 
 
 " Let's go for a stroll," suggested Bernard sud- 
 denly. 
 
 Honora rose at once, and without putting on a hat, 
 passed through the French window. She knew, she 
 knew so well, what he was going to say ! 
 
 " Let's go to the woods ! " 
 
 In silence they made their way through crowds of 
 gluttonous fowls and chickens assembled to revolt be- 
 cause the pail of maize was ten minutes late in making 
 its appearance along the rutted road up a grassy 
 slope across a square half tree-shaded field and into 
 " the hush of the woods " ! 
 
 When their love was first born among these same 
 trees it had been an autumn hush but to-day it was 
 the hush of fervid, young, passionate, eager summer. 
 
 They trod the silent moss, and penetrated farther 
 into the sun-flecked shadows, till an enchanted gloom 
 surrounded them on every side. 
 
 " Honora! " 
 
 It was just one whisper dropped from an unmoral 
 mouth, but it told everything, meant everything, asked 
 everything. 
 
 Restraint, the mutual game of make-believe calm- 
 ness, unspoken anticipation, had done all that could 
 be done to stimulate the magnificent ferocity of human 
 passion. 
 
 Honora and Bernard faced each other the lips of
 
 268 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 both were white the eyes of both were glassy and 
 dilated 
 
 " Honora ! You must come to me now it's in 
 the hush of the woods ! " 
 
 And she went to him she felt his mouth piercing 
 her parted lips 
 
 She was not his wife not his wife but it didn't 
 matter nothing mattered now, nor ever would matter 
 again 
 
 " Bernard! " 
 
 It was a cry, almost an involuntary, unconscious 
 appeal but a kiss stifled it, and afterwards there was 
 silence in the hush of the woods.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 LADY CHESHAM who was staying in with a cold 
 and her husband were talking at least Evelyn was 
 talking and Charles was listening, after the approved 
 manner of well-trained purchased husbands. 
 
 " Yes, now that Honor a Vayne at least Honora 
 Benstead has gone, Katherine really ought to have 
 someone to live there ! " was Lady Chesham's conclu- 
 sion to a long sentence. 
 
 " I thinksh she doesh ! Mr. Arnold Shmith sheems 
 to live there," replied Sir Charles, whose utterance 
 appeared to become more inarticulate as the season 
 advanced and greater demands were made upon his 
 conversational powers. 
 
 " Don't say things like that, Charles, and don't infer 
 inference is such intensely bad form. Of course no 
 one would really think any harm of dear Katherine, 
 but as she was introduced under my wing, so to speak, 
 I naturally feel in a measure responsible for her repu- 
 tation." 
 
 " Heavy reshponsibility a widowsh reputation ! " 
 
 Sir Charles would have received a second reproof had 
 not a sneeze from his wife intervened a stifled, lady- 
 like sneeze which reminded him to draw a silk shawl 
 round her shoulders, somewhat in the mechanical way 
 which a trained poodle carries in his mouth a news- 
 paper that he doesn't in the least want to carry. 
 
 269
 
 270 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 The kept husband is apt to become a very mechanical 
 commodity. 
 
 " Howsh the Worldly Woman getting on ? " was Sir 
 Charles' next effort at conversation. 
 
 " An astounding success it's wonderful how it 
 seemed to leap into favour with the first number, and 
 Mrs. Burham says that little poem I wrote on dahlias 
 made even more of a hit than she guessed at first. It 
 seems strange that I should have lived er a certain 
 number of years without guessing that I had a gift 
 for writing verse, doesn't it? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know, a lot of hidden giftsh knocking 
 about, my dearesht," responded Sir Charles, just as 
 their private footman the Cheshams didn't like being 
 waited on by hotel servants entered tb announce 
 " Mrs. Burham! " 
 
 Lady Chesham greeted her visitor with the excessive 
 cordiality of a person who has been rather fed-up with 
 her own society all day. 
 
 " I'm really glad to see you ! " she exclaimed, clasp 
 ing Mrs. Burham's medium-sized hand, which the 
 Toronto Glove Company clothed in return for bi- 
 weekly " pars " in the Worldly Woman. 
 
 " Ah, you won't be so glad when you hear I've come 
 to wring another poem from you! We must have one 
 we positively must have one in the first issue of next 
 month," replied Mrs. Burham, who knew that a brief 
 verse couldn't hurt any circulation, while unlimited 
 orders to be sent and given to every person Lady Ches-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 271 
 
 ham had ever seen or known, in any and every part 
 of the world, would be a nice little help. 
 
 " My dear, I really don't think I've time " 
 
 " Lady Chesham, you must make time ! I know that 
 an over-devoted and over-exigent husband takes up a 
 tremendous lot of time yes, Sir Charles, I won't let 
 you off but just for half an hour or so you must neg- 
 lect the unworldly man " Sir Charles' smile was sickly 
 " for the Worldly Woman. We need that poem ! " 
 
 " Well, if you need it I suppose you must have it, 
 Mrs. Burham. Now how would a little thing do about 
 second love comparing it to the second crop of July 
 roses, or something of the sort? " 
 
 " Charming idea ! Admirable ! And singularly ap- 
 propriate just now!" 
 
 "Appropriate? Why?" 
 
 But Mrs. Burham laid one of the " par "-paid 
 gloves upon her lips. 
 
 " I won't say no, really I won't. I'm sure she'll 
 want to tell you herself 1 only know because I just 
 happened to go round there directly it was settled," 
 she replied with ostentatious discretion. 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Burham, you've raised my curi- 
 osity, and you must set it at rest again or else no 
 poem for your next number ! " 
 
 This threat worked the desired result, and Mrs. 
 Burham told her news. 
 
 " Our charming little friend, Mrs. Orlitson, has just 
 become engaged to that very nice, very entertaining
 
 272 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Mr. Arnold Smith, and the wedding is to take place 
 before Goodwood ! " 
 
 " I'm delighted to hear it delighted ! Dear Kath- 
 erine! and Arnold Smith is really charming! I've 
 often thought I could be half in love with him myself ! 
 (Now don't frown, you silly old Othello!) And when 
 was it arranged, do you say? " 
 
 " Only this afternoon. I went round to discuss a 
 new special column with Mrs. Orlitson, and found the 
 happy man in the enviable position of Mrs. Orlitson's 
 accepted lover ! " 
 
 " Very nice and they always got on so well to- 
 gether. Of course they knew each other before Mr. 
 Smith was seen about in town, didn't they ? " 
 
 " Very slightly. Just met a few times when Mrs. 
 Orlitson and her husband were on their honeymoon, 
 that's all. I know for a fact, because some friends of 
 mine used to know Arnold Smith very well." And Mrs. 
 Burham's tone was decisive and all-clinching. 
 
 Katherine had made her editress of the Worldly 
 Woman, and Mrs. Burham's lips were eternally sealed 
 in a loyal cause. 
 
 In fact, to all intents and purposes, she had forgot- 
 ten that Langley Cross boasted of an inn where week- 
 end couples could disport themselves under assumed 
 names and in sylvan bliss. 
 
 " Well, I am glad, truly glad ! " reiterated Lady 
 Chesham. " Dear Katherine has chosen a really nice 
 man much nicer than that florid Dr. Sphait, whom I 
 was afraid had aspirations in that direction."
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 273 
 
 Mrs. Burham smiled steelily. 
 
 " We like Dr. Sphait, and there is no doubt that his 
 future will be particularly brilliant. The Duchess of 
 Hexborough's extraordinary cure has positively made 
 him. We like him very much. He and Enid are great 
 companions," was her reply and as Enid was one of 
 the three marriageable daughters who didn't marry, 
 this concluding sentence was significant. 
 
 Lady Chesham was thoughtful for a moment. She 
 didn't like being hospitable, particularly at an expen- 
 sive hotel, but then again she was more than a little 
 tired of being alone with a husband and a cold in the 
 head. 
 
 "Are you engaged this evening, Mrs. Burham 
 you and your daughter Enid? " she enquired, after 
 mentally totaling up the probable cost of dining five 
 people without any special courses, and with the St. 
 Monarch's cheapest champagne all throughout the 
 meal that is to say, appearing at the entree and exit- 
 ing at the earliest possible opportunity. The St. Mon- 
 arch's waiters knew Lady Chesham's methods. 
 
 " Well, of course we're always engaged one always 
 is but on this particular occasion we needn't be, if 
 anything more attractive turns up. Why, Lady Ches- 
 ham?" 
 
 " Because I thought of giving a little impromptu 
 betrothal dinner, fixed up on the telephone. Just you 
 and Enid, dear Katherine and Arnold Smith, Dr. 
 Sphait, ourselves, and another odd man to balance." 
 
 " That would be delightful, dear Lady Chesham
 
 274 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 we could easily drop the other affair, because Enid and 
 I never trouble ourselves about politeness when inclina- 
 tion is in the way." The " other affair " was dining off 
 three courses at home, before attending a feeble debate 
 at a literary woman's club ! 
 
 "Very well, then, let's try to arrange it, Charles." 
 Sir Charles contrived to look partially intelligent and 
 alert. " Go down to the 'phone, will you, dear, and 
 ring up Katherine. Tell her I am overjoyed at her 
 news, and that I insist upon her dining here at eight 
 with Mr. Smith to celebrate the event. Mind you. 
 mention what a bad cold I've got. Then 'phone up Dr. 
 Sphait and ask him, and also any other nice suitable 
 man to make us eight in number not Colonel Carey ! " 
 Colonel Carey was a War Office dignitary whose thirst 
 remained persistently unimpaired and unassuaged from 
 hors d'asuvres to dessert. 
 
 " Rightsh ! " responded the purchased husband, as 
 he obediently left the room and made his way to the 
 hall telephone. 
 
 " I hope Arnold Smith is well off," said Lady Ches- 
 ham when Charles had closed the door behind him. 
 " Of course dear Katherine has plenty for both, but 
 the idea of a man living on his wife's money is always 
 very dreadful to me though when I have to go and 
 worry poor Charles to settle big bills that can't be 
 covered by my allowance, I sometimes think it must be 
 a rather convenient state of things ! Ha ! ha ! " 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! " echoed Mrs. Burham, feeling cynical 
 amusement where a more human person would have
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 275 
 
 felt pity. It was just a little sad to note Evelyn Ches- 
 ham's life-long game of pretence. 
 
 "And er oh, yes is Arnold Smith well off? " 
 
 " Very, I think. Mrs. Orlitson told me that he 
 wanted to buy a country place, and take a big town 
 house, but that she " 
 
 At this juncture Sir Charles returned. 
 
 " I'm heavy with meshshages lemme get 'em off my 
 chesht," he said, dropping limply on to a chair. " Let 
 me shee now (1) Mrs. Orlitson sends * tons of love, 
 and sesh you're a scrumptious petling, and that she and 
 Tim will revel in coming to receive your blessing and 
 eat your food. 9 . . . Dr. Sphait at first thought he 
 couldn't come, but evenshually decided that a few rheu- 
 matic princes and a handful of nervy dukes could be 
 put on one side so he'sh coming ! . . . And for the other 
 man I've got C. S. Lorriner he's on a diet cure, and 
 only eats dry toast washed down with hot water, but I 
 told him it was hish society and not hish appetite we 
 wanted." 
 
 Lady Chesham threw a glance of very real approval 
 at her husband. 
 
 This was well-doing indeed. C. S. Lorriner was the 
 ideal guest for an hotel dinner-party with charges at 
 so much per head and the customary criminal profit 
 made on wine. 
 
 C. S. Lorriner should have the very best dry toast 
 and the very finest hot water that special managerial 
 attention could procure!
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 THE remainder of that afternoon Lady Chesham 
 spent in the Turkish bath, after which a prolonged 
 cooling process and continued inhalations of the Patent 
 Concentrated Southern Air Breathing Ball made it pos- 
 sible for her attired in a high-neck velvet gown and 
 affectively swathed with an Indian shawl to receive her 
 guests in the inner lounge. 
 
 Mrs. Burham strangely garbed in a crushed, 
 soiled, spangled Dress Agency bargain and the eldest 
 marriageable daughter who, so far, hadn't married 
 arrived first, and looked hungry. 
 
 Enid Burham cultivated the Cleo de Merode type 
 which, when badly done, always looks hungry. 
 
 They talked royalties for a few moments till almost 
 simultaneously Dr. Sphait and C. S. Lorriner appeared 
 upon the scenes. 
 
 " So glad you could put off exigent patients and 
 come to our little betrothal celebration, Dr. Sphait," 
 said Lady Chesham, with a funny touch of grande 
 dame patronage in her voice. 
 
 " Yes, I was able to make work subservient to pleas- 
 ure just for once," replied Dr. Sphait, in tones of 
 Harley Street cheeriness which were quite different to 
 Seedlingditch cheeriness. " But er betrothal feast ? 
 This sounds very romantic, Lady Chesham! Who are 
 the er verlobt? " 
 
 " My dear friend, Mrs. Orlitson, and Mr. Arnold 
 Smith just engaged to-day! Isn't it interesting?" 
 
 276
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 277 
 
 " Delightfully interesting ! Dear me ! A charming 
 couple ! Well, that really is interesting ! " and for 
 a moment it was the overdone bad form Seedlingditch 
 cheeriness again! Morgan B. Sphait was just a little 
 unprepared. 
 
 " I'm sorry to hear about your unsociable diet restric- 
 tions," was Lady Chesham's next remark made to C. S. 
 Lorriner, while, by a query, Mrs. Burham snared Dr. 
 Sphait to Enid's side. 
 
 " Yes, but I've got a reprieve to-day," replied the 
 gentlemanly man with a speckled nose. 
 
 " A a reprieve ? " 
 
 " Yes, I 'phoned to my medico and asked for a holi- 
 day. Told him I wanted a few hours' sociable gluttony 
 ha! ha! and in reply the excellent person told me 
 to eat as much as I like, drink as much as I like, and 
 be as merry as I like for six hours ! So, hot water and 
 dry toast can make their exit from my menu ' just 
 for to-night, only to-night,' as the out-of-date song 
 says! Ha! ha!" 
 
 Lady Chesham jerked out a bravely cordial rejoin- 
 der, and had just given Sir Charles an optical tele- 
 graphic message to the effect that a whisper must be 
 dropped into the head waiter's heeding ear, when most 
 people who had been dotted about the lounge looking 
 bored became surreptitiously alert. 
 
 A woman a woman followed by a man was rust- 
 ling across the huge hall with an air of glorious in- 
 solence which unconsciously insisted that this particular 
 hotel, in fact every hotel in London possibly all Lon- 
 don itself belonged to her and her alone.
 
 278 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 She wore black wonderful, mysterious, iridescent 
 black, suggesting founts of hidden silver, hidden 
 mother-of-pearl, hidden moonlight with skirts cling- 
 ing to the knees and from them flowing and swirling in 
 yards of sable shimmering billows at the back, sides, 
 and in the front. 
 
 Her thin dead-white bosom and back were bare, with 
 only black velvet straps upon the shoulders, but the 
 thin arms were hidden by full, generous sleeves and 
 black gloves. Her red hair blazed and was puffed out 
 in marvellous profusion, while the customary black bird 
 of paradise feathers which she wore better than any 
 woman in London swept backward and touched one 
 white shoulder-blade. 
 
 Her mouth was vivid with lip-salve her light grey 
 eyes glittered her white face was soft with poudre 
 veloutee her unclassified features didn't matter for 
 once she was beautiful ! 
 
 " My dearest Evelyn, how absolutely sweet of you to 
 ask us, and have us, and feed us ! " she cried, taking 
 both Lady Chesham's hands. " Of course we are late, 
 but now for the future " here she indicated Arnold by 
 an insolent movement of one uncovered shoulder " you 
 must reckon that I shall always be late. Here is Tim, 
 and he ventures to kiss your hand in spirit! . . . More 
 how-d'you-do's to you, Sir Charles, though we said 
 lots of pretty things to each other over the 'phone, 
 didn't we ah ! Mrs. Burham, once again ! how do, 
 Enid? you look like a divine up-to-date Madonna I 
 do love those innocent little hair-droops ! . . . Greetings,
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 279 
 
 Mr. Lorriner greetings, Dr. Sphait, and millions of 
 congrats on some more miracles I hear you've been 
 performing ! " 
 
 Katherine rattled on, laughed perpetually, and be- 
 fore the other seven more or lass dull people had been 
 paired off, and seated, and provided with soup, an elec- 
 tric current of easy, intimate sociability was making a 
 circuit round the table. 
 
 Everybody felt witty, felt the consciousness of being 
 individually successful, of being original, of being 
 smart when nobody unless it was the bridegroom elect 
 was anything except commonplacely mediocre. 
 
 But the magnetism of Roger Orlitson's widow, who 
 would soon be the wife of Roger Orlitson's chum, gen- 
 erated its own thrills in seven other bosoms and seven 
 other brains. She made them all, for the time being, 
 part of herself, and the sharers of her own indomitable 
 vitality. 
 
 "Salt, Mrs. Orlitson ? it'll be awfully difficult to 
 learn to call you * Mrs. Smith '/ " remarked Sir Charles 
 because he couldn't think of anything else to say. 
 
 " Ah, but you'll never have to will he, Tim ? " re- 
 plied Katherine, looking over to Lady Chesham's 
 escort. The table, by being small and oval, made cross- 
 conversation easy. 
 
 "Won't have to what?" enquired Arnold lazily. 
 He was taking olives out of a dish, one after another. 
 He liked olives. The dish would soon be empty. 
 
 " Won't have to call me * Mrs. Smith ' no, I'm go- 
 ing to be Katherine Orlitson Katherine Smith-0r r it
 
 280 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 son, for all time to come! for one reason because 
 * Smith ' is too uninspiring to follow Katherine " 
 
 " Bad tashte on Shmith's part ! I'd follow in any 
 dishtance ! " 
 
 " Good, Sir Charles ! and thank you ! Yes, that's 
 
 one reason, and another is th-that " for a second 
 
 the slurring, rumbling voice was hushed with a hint 
 of reverence " poor Roger always used to say if ever 
 I I were left alone, he hoped but you understand 
 his ideas were always original, and as Tim doesn't mind 
 being ' Smith-Orlitson by * letters patent,' or ' ENT: 
 STAT : HALL : or whatever it is, that'll be all right 
 won't it, Tim? " 
 
 " Quite all right cr dearest. A rose any other 
 name sweet smelling I'm the rose ! " replied Tim. 
 " In fact, I once knew a man who " 
 
 And for the next ten minutes Tim shone. 
 
 " But, Mrs. Orlitson, what will you do with that 
 dear, divine flat?" asked Enid Burham, when, later 
 on, the conversation once more veered round to the 
 main topic of the evening. 
 
 " Live in it ! " was Katherine's prompt reply fol- 
 lowed, of course, by a little ripple of unpunctuated 
 laughs. " Yes, sounds funny to sort of take your hu- 
 band in to lodge, doesn't it? but I simply can't give up 
 the flat after taking such lots of trouble to choose every- 
 thing in it, and fixing, and planning, and selecting all 
 th oddments to suit my own taste. So Tim's going to 
 buy tke whole thing as it stands, and I'm going to 
 make a big profit out of the deal though the poor
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 281 
 
 thing is trained to think that he's purchasing at an 
 alarming sacrifice! Not a bad idea, is it, to sell one's 
 own flat and furniture to one's own husband, and then 
 to make him give back all the money to put in one's 
 own bank ! Ha ! ha ! " 
 
 Everybody applauded the plan except Lady Ches- 
 ham. She was silent from sheer force of supreme ab- 
 sorbing admiration. 
 
 She had been maintaining a husband for some years, 
 but she had never been able to bluff the world so boldly 
 and brilliantly as this! 
 
 There was no emergency for which this red-haired 
 widow with the perfect waist was not prepared. 
 
 When the St. Monarch's second-priced table d'hote 
 dinner had come to an end, and Lady Chesham had 
 risen for departure, Dr. Sphait cleared his throat. 
 
 " May I venture to propose the health of the future 
 Mrs. Orlitson-Smith, with the wish and belief that her 
 coming life-course may be steered through happy, safe, 
 and prosperous waters ! " he said. 
 
 Glasses were raised. 
 
 " Hear, hear ! " sounded the thin voice of Mrs. Bur- 
 ham. " In all loyalty, doctor, I second the toast ! " 
 
 " Hear, hear! " was the all-round response hushed 
 to meet the requirements of an hotel public dining- 
 room. And as Roger Orlitson's widow smiled first at the 
 'oecdlingditch doctor, then at the one-day visitor to 
 Langley Cross, she knew that the Harley Street suite 
 and the glazed periodical had nobly done their work. 
 
 Everything was safe.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 GOODWOOD would commence on Tuesday, and Kath- 
 erine Orlitson's wedding had been to-day. 
 
 In to-morrow's papers the name of " Orlitson " 
 would again figure in the same columns but a dif- 
 ferent section ! that it figured in nearly sixteen months 
 ago. 
 
 Sixteen months ago the name of " Roger Orlitson " 
 had been among the deaths, and to-morrow among the 
 marriages would be : 
 
 " SMITH-ORLITSON ORLITSON. On July 24, 
 at St. George's, Hanover Square, Arnold Smith-Or- 
 litson, only son of the late Eliah Smith, of Sydney, 
 Australia, to Katherine Susan Orlitson, widow of the 
 late Roger Orlitson." 
 
 Already Mrs. Burham and her less socially aspiring 
 sisters in journalism were forcing gush out of oft- 
 perjured stylographic pens. 
 
 The bride had " looked charming in the palest shade 
 of jeune colombe grey, with the effectively original ad- 
 dition of a grey tulle bridal veil to match, and held in 
 place by diamond stars one of the bridegroom's nu- 
 merous and costly gifts." 
 
 Mrs. Bernard Benstead was being pronounced " ra- 
 diant m white crepe de Chine, with plumed hat en suite," 
 and among the other presents, Lady Chesham's gift of 
 
 282
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 283 
 
 a tortoiseshell celluloid and feathered theatre fan 
 was duly being chronicled, while the information was 
 likewise given that " before starting for a prolonged 
 Continental tour, with Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Benstead, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Smith-Orlitson would remain a 
 week in Folkestone." 
 
 " Well, I'm glad that's over, but I can't quite make 
 out why Kits has done it ! " remarked Bernard, as he 
 and Honora were being rushed back to Transley by a 
 noisy express train. 
 
 " Perhaps she's in love with Arnold. The idea is 
 primitive, I know, but there may be something in it," 
 replied Honora. 
 
 " People do that sort of thing sometimes of 
 course ! " 
 
 Then they both laughed and kissed each other from 
 the sheer happiness of loving each other and being 
 together for that delicious, tantalising restraint which 
 had preceded marriage was over now, and kisses came as 
 naturally as words. 
 
 Bernard drew his wife into the big hollow of his 
 shoulder, and went on discussing the situation. 
 
 " Yes, as you say, Mrs. Benstead " it was still very 
 rapturous to realise that name was hers " people do 
 fall in love sometimes but that isn't what Kits has 
 done. She isn't in love with Tim." 
 
 " No, I don't think she is in love, though I think she 
 loves or nearly loves him, which is a very different 
 matter." 
 
 " Umph ! P'r'aps ! " Bernard wasn't an expert at
 
 284 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 subtleties. " I don't believe he even nearly loves her, 
 though." 
 
 " Oh, yes, Berr, he does at least, as far as it is pos- 
 sible for him to love anyone. There are some who can't 
 love, no matter how nicely and affectionately they try ! " 
 
 " And some women too, I suppose? " 
 
 " No, not women all women can love. There was 
 never yet a woman born who didn't have it in her power 
 to love something perhaps a man, perhaps a child, 
 perhaps an animal far more dearly than she loves her- 
 self. But men, some men, haven't the capacity for de- 
 votion, just as some people haven't an ear for music. 
 And I believe Tim is one of them. It would be just as 
 impossible for him to really love as as for you to 
 sing ' Rule Britannia ' in tune ! " 
 
 Here Honora paused to receive due punishment for 
 this last deliberate impertinence. Then the conversa- 
 tion continued. 
 
 "Well, if Tim could really love, and Kits is only 
 amiably fond of him, I'm dashed if I can see why they've 
 tacked themselves on to each other's lives." 
 
 " Oh, I don't know every man needs some woman in 
 his life, and every woman is better off when she's walk- 
 ing in a man's shadow." 
 
 " Yes, but not a man who prefers his sport, his food, 
 and himself generally to his wife ! " 
 
 " I wouldn't be sure one can never tell the tastes 
 of other people. It's my belief that Katherine actually 
 wouldn't like loving and being loved as as we under- 
 stand it, Berr ! "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 285 
 
 He bent and kissed her fervently on the lips, not at 
 all a marital kiss. 
 
 " I I don't think anyone could understand it as we 
 understand, darling," he answered after a moment; 
 " but all the same, I wish poor little Kits' second ven- 
 ture was a bit nearer being the real thing. I wonder 
 if she was desperately keen on Roger! poor chap! I 
 often wish I'd seen him! Perhaps she was so awfully 
 fond of him that actually the notion of loving any 
 other man would be distasteful." 
 
 Honora didn't say anything, and she managed not 
 to smile but it was not easy for anyone who remem- 
 bered Mrs. Orlitson within four months of her be- 
 reavement! Mrs. Orlitson, who had brought life, and 
 fun, and gaiety, and flippancy to the chicken farm when 
 her widowhood was still in its earliest infancy ! 
 
 No, Honora did not think that Katherine had been 
 " desperately keen " on her first husband ! 
 
 " I wonder how we shall enjoy the partie caree tour," 
 was Bernard's next observation, after several more 
 miles had been left behind. 
 
 " Immensely of course." 
 
 " Yes, of course ; but I shall be sorry to leave the 
 farm, the farm where I found my wife among the fowls 
 that wife who wanted the very devil of a lot of trap- 
 ping, and leaving, and persuading, before she'd marry 
 me ! You were very much off me at first, weren't you, 
 sweetheart ? " 
 
 Honora looked up at him, then suddenly threw both 
 arms round his neck and buried her face in his throat.
 
 286 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Off him ! " when she had been his from that very 
 first moment when his quizzical eyes met hers among 
 the shadows of the wood ! when her resistance had been 
 agony and when now even though there were hideous 
 truths lurking at every corner of life's rose-strewn 
 highway existence spent with him meant the consum- 
 mation of all her heart had ever needed. 
 
 The train accelerated speed, causing an increased 
 vibration which suddenly flung Honora yet closer 
 against her husband's breast. Again his unmoral 
 mouth found her vivid separated lips in a kiss of un- 
 fulfilled desire for though she was his wife, his every- 
 thing that a woman can be to a man, Bernard always 
 felt as though their love story had hardly yet 
 begun. 
 
 Every kiss was a kiss of courtship, every morning 
 the commencement of a honeymoon, and every night 
 the consummation of a wedding day. 
 
 There was no satiety, and, curiously, little intimacy, 
 for although their love relations were electric with ar- 
 dour, both Bernard and Honora were sufficiently artists 
 in passion to realise the disastrous effects of complete 
 marital intimacy. 
 
 Just as the first journey after their marriage had 
 ended without a kiss, so forty-eight hours would often 
 pass almost without touch of lips or hands. 
 
 There was a continual garnering of emotions, with 
 harvests of rapture in between. 
 
 And to-day it was harvest time. During the brief 
 stay at Katherine's flat, and during the rush of wedding
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 287 
 
 preparations, Bernard and his wife had seen little or 
 nothing of each other. 
 
 But passion's seeds had been sowing afresh, and now 
 it was time to reap. 
 
 The train rocked and swayed, they swayed with it, 
 lips and bodies being pressed closer together with every 
 vibration, till at last, when speed slackened before en- 
 tering Transley station, both felt that the ending of 
 this short journey was one of life's best hours gone. 
 
 But it was peaceful and perfect to be back at the 
 scene of their first love-meeting, and when they entered 
 the cool, shady dining-room, where Mary Tryke's yel- 
 low cakes and yellow apricot jam were set out ready for 
 tea, Bernard suddenly raised his wife's hand to his lips 
 and kissed it with a mouth which, at that moment, looked 
 absolutely moral. 
 
 This half -ceremonious caress was an act of homage 
 the homage which most men carry at their hearts 
 to be laid at the shrine of a love that is lawful, a woman 
 who is pure, and a child that is their own. 
 
 That evening after supper Bernard and Honora 
 played draw bridge at tenpence a hundred, went to bed 
 early, rose early the next morning, walked over the 
 downs before breakfast, collected eggs after breakfast, 
 lunched in the paddock, dozed beneath the shadow of 
 a hayrick after lunch, paid several formal calls to 
 Bessie's stye Honora, in a burst of happy absurdity, 
 insisted on leaving cards, which Bessie demolished with 
 the slow greed of an epicure and altogether spent 
 twenty hours of complete domestic contentment.
 
 288 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " It's quite extraordinary how happy we are, isn't 
 it?" remarked Bernard, as they left the porcine quar- 
 ters and walked slowly towards the house. He spoke in 
 an unbiassed, practical tone of voice amusingly free 
 from enthusiasm. 
 
 " It is, but I suppose we shall get over it in time," 
 replied Honora reflectively. 
 
 " Oh, I suppose so ! " 
 
 A silence a furtive laugh the swift, surreptitious 
 linking and unlinking of two hands that happened to 
 be near each other and idle then one of those dreamy 
 silences which fill up a lot of gaps that would be spoilt 
 by words. 
 
 It was a beautiful, mellow silence, and when a woman's 
 raucous, spiteful voice broke through the magic mute- 
 ness, Honora flinched as though she had suffered some 
 physical hurt. 
 
 On the other side of a hedge Mary Tryke was speak- 
 ing in the loud, bullying tones of lower class feminine 
 anger. 
 
 " 'Ow dare you come 'ere and play with my Charlie, 
 you shameful 'ussy. Your mother ought to 'ave enough 
 decency to keep you a'-tome though 'tisn't to be ex- 
 pected she'd know what decency is ! Get along with you, 
 and don't let me catch you skulking round 'ere again ! " 
 
 "But, mother, we 'aven't finished playing snakes," 
 whimpered the root vegetable-like son of the Trykes. 
 
 " I don't care you must find a reppy-table com- 
 panion ter play with, and not a humph ! well, it's not 
 for me to use the word, but "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 289 
 
 At this juncture the excellent matron's harangue 
 came to a premature halt, owing to the appearance of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Benstead on the scene for Bernard and 
 Honora had skirted the hedge to confront Mary Trjke, 
 who was red and active with anger, Charlie Tryke, who 
 was freckled and resentful, and a little girl who was 
 crying softly and very piteously. 
 
 She was a particularly pretty little girl, with some- 
 thing besides the pink beauty of rustic childhood in her 
 face, and her blue tear-filled eyes already seemed as if 
 they were reflecting tumultuous human emotions. 
 
 " Who is this little girl, and what has she done ? " 
 demanded Honora, laying one hand on the child's pina- 
 fored shoulder. The little girl looked up at her and 
 moved nearer. 
 
 " It's Biddy (Jennifer, ma'am," answered Mary sul- 
 lenly. 
 
 " And what has she done that you should speak so 
 so inhumanly and abominably ? " The beautifying 
 flush had deepened on Honora's face, and her wonderful 
 eyes were dilated, while Bernard remained in the back- 
 ground. 
 
 These were his wife's premises, his wife's employes, 
 and his interference would be an impertinence. But 
 he was there if she wanted him he would always be 
 everywhere and anywhere if she wanted him. 
 
 " Excuse me, ma'am, if you knew the circumstances 
 you would " 
 
 " What are the circumstances ? " 
 
 " I'd I'd rather not say, ma'am " Here
 
 290 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Mrs. Tryke paused and glanced significantly at Ber- 
 nard. 
 
 Honora was now holding the little girl by the hand. 
 
 " I order you to say," she answered. " No child is 
 spoken to like that on my premises without an explana- 
 tion being given. What has this little girl done ? " 
 
 " It isn't 'er so much, ma'am, as 'er mother ! " 
 
 " And what has her mother done ? " 
 
 " Well, ma'am, if you witt make me say such things 
 in front of a gentleman, Biddy's father wasn't never 
 married to her mother!" 
 
 Honora grew very white. A terrible, awful passion 
 was surging within her. For a moment it seemed as 
 if she could not speak but at last the words came 
 tense, restrained, low-spoken words. 
 
 " Do you mean, is it possible that you were daring 
 to send this inoffending little girl away from my farm 
 just because her parents were not married? Is it pos- 
 sible that lower class bigotry and criminal narrow- 
 mindedness can have reached such an appalling and 
 horrible pitch? " 
 
 "Well, ma'am, it's for you to do what you like on 
 your farm, but it's not for me to 'ave my child asso- 
 ciating with low-born bast " 
 
 But by an upraised hand Honora stopped the word. 
 
 " Yes, it is for me to do what I like on my farm, and 
 what I now do is to give you and your husband notice ! 
 Understand that you all leave Deerbuck a month from 
 to-day. Bernard, please will you carry Biddy in to 
 tea? I know you'd like a ride, wouldn't you, Biddy? "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 291 
 
 Biddy's dancing eyes from which the tears had dis- 
 appeared left no room for doubt upon the subject, 
 and as Bernard obediently hoisted the small, nameless 
 person on to his large shoulder, he felt towards his wife 
 as he had never felt before. 
 
 Until then he believed he had gone through all the 
 gamut of emotions so far as Honora was concerned, 
 but after witnessing the girl's splendid, great-hearted 
 passion, he knew there was something else. 
 
 And never before had Biddy understood the royal 
 munificence conveyed by that one word " tea." 
 
 She had a little cloth and little tray all to herself, 
 and the disagreeable woman was ordered to bring hot 
 cakes, and preserves, and fruits, and honey, while the 
 beautiful dark-eyed lady spread, and cut, and pared, 
 and tried to make her eat more than Biddy's little 
 stomach could hold with anything like comfort. 
 
 It was a regal time, and when at last Biddy was sent 
 home with genial David Gedge in the hay cart, she felt 
 very pleased that the disagreeable woman had stopped 
 her playing snakes with the ugly little boy. 
 
 Honora stood at the window and waved till the hay 
 cart was out of sight, then she turned round and sobbed 
 tempestuously on the large shoulder of Bernard's coat. 
 
 He didn't say anything, but there is no doubt that 
 tender pats and pressures, and little sudden squeezes, 
 are at times more emollient than words. 
 
 They proved so in this instance, and after a much 
 shorter interval than might have been expected, Honora 
 contrived to make a connected remark.
 
 " Isn't it an an infamous world, Berr ? " she 
 jerked out tremulously. 
 
 " Yes, darling, I suppose it is." There was the man's 
 cautious, more reasonable leniency in his tones. 
 
 " Oh, don't ' suppose ' ; you must be so sure after 
 to-day's experience! Poor innocent, unoffending little 
 Biddy!" 
 
 " Poor kid ; But she and her erring mamma have 
 been well avenged." The man's levity in his voice hurt 
 her just a little. " You've discharged two excellent 
 servants for their sakes what are you going to do 
 without 'em, darling? " 
 
 Honora looked at him half shyly it was a pretty 
 look. 
 
 '* If you think you can afford to keep, feed and clothe 
 me altogether, I propose to give up the farm," she 
 said. 
 
 The millionaire it was always so difficult to remem- 
 ber that Bernard Benstead was a millionaire gave her 
 left ear a small pinch. 
 
 " I b'lieve I could run to it," he answered, still con- 
 tinuing the soothing pats and strokes. 
 
 " Then at that rate I I shall give the farm to little 
 Biddy!" 
 
 " My dear ! " 
 
 " Yes, yes, Berr, I shall. The mother can manage 
 it for her, with help I shall see about a reliable man 
 and then the poor little soul will be a person of 
 property in her tiny way. Something must be done 
 to make up to her for to-day and all the to-morrows ! "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 293 
 
 Bernard laughed very much, and kissed his wife very 
 often. 
 
 " Of all the emotional, silly, sweet, absurd, darling, 
 exaggerated young women I've ever met, my * good 
 lady ' is the most so ! Fancy giving away some hun- 
 dreds of excellent fowls, half a score of desirable pigs, 
 and a most commodious house to a small kid, just be- 
 cause its parents are a couple of blackguards ! " 
 
 " Blackguards, Berr? Wh what do you mean?" 
 
 Honora had drawn back from the most intimate close- 
 ness of the embrace, and her voice sounded chill. 
 
 " I mean, darling, that two people who wilfully, and 
 for their own satisfaction, hurl some unfortunate hu- 
 man creature into the world weighted by the band of ille- 
 gitimacy, ought to be sent to penal servitude. Let peo- 
 ple do what they like with their own morals, of course, 
 but when it's come to a child ugh! it's brutal !" 
 
 " Have you always thought this this sort of thing, 
 Bernard?" 
 
 " Always. Mary Tryke's attitude is only the world's 
 attitude. I've seen it and realised it so often, and by 
 heavens, if I thought that the crime of leaving an ille- 
 gitimate son or daughter could be put down to my ac- 
 count, I'd good Lord! I'd feel very much inclined to 
 put an end to the poor devil or myself ! The father's 
 bad enough in such cases, but in a way I think the 
 mother's worse, because one expects pity and compas- 
 sion from a woman and a woman who brings a name- 
 less child into the world has neither. Don't you agree 
 with me, Mrs. Big-Eyes? "
 
 294 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Honora looked at him in a dazed, unseeing way, and 
 answered mechanically. 
 
 " I do oh, yes I agree with you ! " Then she lay 
 back against his shoulder once more, and pressed her 
 hand to her forehead theatrically. 
 
 " Darling, does the poor little black-curled head 
 ache?" cried Bernard, bending over her. The mar- 
 riage was too young yet for him to disregard such 
 pathetic signs as a hand pressed to a brow. 
 
 " Terribly, Berr it is a sudden attack of neural- 
 gia I think Mrs. Tryke must have brought it 
 on." 
 
 " Poor little girl lean back and rest ! " 
 
 Honora's head dropped back against his shoulder, 
 and in a furtive, quick way she stroked just where the 
 hair grew thickest above his collar, while her lash- 
 shadowed eyes continually sought the bronze of his ear 
 and of his cheek. 
 
 Now she must touch him and look at him as much as 
 possible she must have her fill of close contact, because 
 soon it would all be over. 
 
 To-night and past memories would have to serve 
 for all days to come, so she must make the most of it 
 the most of it the most of it ! 
 
 Honora pressed closer to his side, and as the even- 
 ing shadows fell she feigned sleep as an excuse for ly- 
 ing undisturbed upon his breast. The last time the 
 last time! 
 
 Presently a clock struck nine resonant strokes 
 and Honora felt a movement of the big shoulder against
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 295 
 
 which she was lying. Of course he was cramped and 
 stiff. 
 
 She rose slowly and stretched, feigning recent sleep. 
 
 " Head better, sweetheart ? " 
 
 " No, dear, it's it's worse ! Berr dear if you 
 don't mind, I think I'll bathe my neck at the back, you 
 know with hot water, and go to bed at once. Nothing 
 but a long, sound sleep puts me right when I get these 
 attacks." 
 
 She had risen by this time, and was steadying herself 
 against the back of his chair. He put both hands 
 against the sides of her waist. 
 
 " Can't I do anything, my poor little girlie ? " 
 
 " Nothing, Berr, nothing except, oh, do, do, say 
 once more you love me say you really, really love me ! " 
 
 He pressed her down on to his knees. 
 
 " I don't love you I adore you ! You've remoulded 
 me, you've turned me into a prig, you've transformed 
 me, you've done more to me than any woman has ever 
 yet done to a man. O God, Honora, you've taught me 
 what it is to live ! " 
 
 She clung to him, she more than responded to his 
 kisses, and when his lips left hers she sought his mouth 
 again. 
 
 It was a woman's wild, frantic good-bye to happiness. 
 Honora would go back to where she was before that 
 day in the hush of the woods go back, yet without the 
 one consolation of being able to look expectantly down 
 that long, white road of What-might-be. 
 
 She had looked down the long, white road, and when
 
 296 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 a knight had ridden towards her the strained expectancy 
 left her eyes. 
 
 But now she must leave the knight, and never, never 
 again would there be anything to expect. 
 
 At last Honora rose and moved away. 
 
 " Good-night, Berr good-night ! " 
 
 " Good-night, darling let me know if I can do any- 
 thing. I shall reckon to find you unwakeably asleep 
 when I come up. Good-night, my Honora ! " 
 
 " My Honora! " 
 
 She would like to think that these had been his last 
 words ! 
 
 Directly Honora reached their bedroom she carried 
 a few of Bernard's immediate necessities across to the 
 room which he used to occupy in the " P.G." days ; 
 then she scribbled a little pencilled note: 
 
 " Please, dear love, would you mind sleeping in your 
 own room to-night? I believe a sound would wake me, 
 and I must sleep off this frantic headache. Good-night. 
 
 Your HONORA." 
 
 "Mary!" 
 
 The outraged and dignified Mrs. Tryke was crossing 
 the passage, so there was no need for Honora to ring a 
 bell. 
 
 "Yes, ma'am?" The response was justly and suit- 
 ably haughty. 
 
 " Please give this note to Mr. Benstead at once, and 
 ask Tryke to have the cart ready by seven to-morrow 
 morning. I I may want to send some things over to 
 Transley station ! "
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 297 
 
 A moment later Honora was in her own room, with 
 the key turned in the lock. 
 
 So it was over it was over it was over ! and Ben- 
 stead had brought about the end. 
 
 Not another hour must they be together, not one 
 poignant moment which might bring about 
 
 Honora covered her face. 
 
 What was it he had said? " that if he thought the 
 crime of leaving an illegitimate son or daughter could 
 be put down to his account, he'd feel inclined to 
 shoot the poor devil, or himself and that though in 
 such cases the father was bad, the mother was worse, 
 because pity and compassion are to be expected from a 
 woman, and the woman who brings a nameless child 
 into the world has neither." 
 
 Yes, that was it, and if they stayed together and 
 their love gave them a child, Bernard would feel in- 
 clined to shoot himself, while she would be a woman 
 " without pity or compassion " ! 
 
 Of course that would be it, because if she the wife 
 of Stanford Golt bore a child to Bernard Benstead, 
 that child would be illegitimate ! 
 
 But it was all Katherine's doing yes, it was all 
 Katherine's doing because she had reasoned and ar- 
 gued, and wrung from Honora a vow that she had 
 never wanted to give at least she had wanted to give 
 it yes, she had, she had and even now perhaps she 
 did not regret, for it is better to live before you die 
 than to die without ever having lived. 
 
 And Honora had lived for six perfect weeks in Ber-
 
 298 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 nard's arms ; for the future she would always be able to 
 look back and know what life meant and as thickening, 
 wrinkling, stiffening middle-age creeps on, there is al- 
 ways consolation in being able to look back. 
 
 Regret gradually lessens, and the perfect past be- 
 comes like a rare and cherished picture hidden behind 
 thick velvet curtains and protected by a locked door. 
 
 The daylight world knows nothing of that picture, 
 but when all is silent and lonely, and the good husband 
 has gone to his bridge-club, and the cackling women 
 friends have driven off to parties, an eager hand un- 
 locks that door, pulls back the velvet curtains, and the 
 cherished picture is gazed upon with brightening eyes. 
 
 Once upon a time that picture used to be seen through 
 a mist of scalding tears, but as days pass, bringing the 
 eternal future near and nearer, tears are dried and the 
 cherished picture becomes a beacon of hope for who 
 shall say that the eternal future and the eternal past 
 may not become one endless epoch? 
 
 Yes, Honora had lived, loved, and been loved she 
 must be content she had " Vecu son etermte."
 
 CHAPTER XXXH 
 
 ON the second morning after her second wedding 
 Mrs. Smith-Orlitson sat alone in the dining-room of an 
 exclusive Folkestone hotel. 
 
 She was eating an omelet, and the hour was 10.40 
 A. M. 
 
 Some papers, magazines, and opened letters were by 
 her side, and after a hovering waiter had whisked away 
 the empty omelet plate, Katherine re-read one of the 
 letters, laughed, and left the dining-room. 
 
 The elevator was in readiness, so she stepped into it, 
 alighted at the first floor, and entered bedroom No. 16. 
 
 This was her bedroom, and on the other side of a 
 closed communicating door was the sleeping apartment 
 of her most recent spouse. 
 
 Katherine looked at a silver travelling clock on the 
 mantelpiece, jerked one thin shoulder with a gesture of 
 contemptuous impatience, and opened the communicat- 
 ing door. 
 
 " Do you mean to get up? " 
 
 Undisturbed silence. 
 
 " Do you mean to get up? " 
 
 More silence. 
 
 Katherine stamped her American shoe, crossed to the 
 bed, and ungently pummelled a large mound which rose 
 beneath the centre of the quilt. 
 
 The mound stirred, the mound moaned, then gradu- 
 
 299
 
 300 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 ally a sheet which had been pulled up over the pillow 
 to keep out the light was lowered to reveal the 
 towzeled head and unshaved face of Mrs. Smith-Orlit- 
 son's second husband. 
 
 " Wajjer time? " he mumbled sleepily. 
 
 Katherine's reply was to manipulate a fully-charged 
 bay-rum spray. 
 
 Tim woke up and cursed amiably he always man- 
 aged to do everything amiably. 
 
 " Don't play the fool, Kits I feel so sla-a-a-a-a-a- 
 ack " here ended the first yawn " this mor-or-or-or- 
 or-or-or " here ended the second yawn " ning." 
 
 Mrs. Smith-Orlitson sat on the end of the bed. 
 
 " Is there ever an occasion when you don't feel 
 slack? " she enquired acidly. 
 
 "Lots of 'em I never feel slack at meal times, or 
 when there's a good-looking girl to be chased." 
 
 " Don't be a fool ! Are you going to get up ? " 
 
 " Yes, I s'pose so but this early rising craze is a 
 confounded nuisance. What's the time? " 
 
 " Nearly eleven." 
 
 " Well, it's perfectly absurd if no one calls me how 
 can I be expected to get up ? " 
 
 "You were called at 8, at 8.30, at 9, at 9.30, at 
 t " 
 
 " Don't argue, my dear nothing like argument for 
 taking the youth out of a woman's face. Any belles- 
 lettres? " 
 
 " Yes, some lettres, but I don't think they are spe- 
 cially belles. One from Evelyn Chesham."
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 301 
 
 "Old cat!" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 Tim punched the pillow to make a more convenient 
 indentation for his head, then answered : 
 
 " Because she said she hoped I'd do my best to make 
 you happy, as a compensation for your first unsuccess- 
 ful marriage. She informed me that Mr. Roger Orlit- 
 son was a sort of frightful example to husbands, that 
 your life had been a kind of domestic hell, that his 
 death so far as she could learn was his only con- 
 siderate action, and that you had been a brave and 
 gentle wife to one of the world's most complete scamps ! 
 That's what your corpulent friend said to me, dear ! " 
 
 " How lovely ! How lovely! " Mrs. Orlitson was 
 simply choking and squirming with laughter. " Oh, 
 Tim, that's choice choicer than anything I've heard 
 for a long time ! " she gasped, while a little ripple of 
 broken laughs still continued. 
 
 " It may be very choice, but I think you'd show better 
 taste not to slang your first and most accommodating 
 spouse ! " 
 
 " I never did slang him I only hinted, sighed, and 
 looked patient at him ! " 
 
 " You red-haired devil ! " 
 
 " You unshaven loafer ! " after which exchange of 
 compliments Mrs. Smith-Orlitson threw a rolled-up 
 magazine at Mr. Smith-Orlitson's head, who returned 
 the assault by means of a languidly hurled pillow. 
 
 Katherine stood up. 
 
 " You aren't coming out, then? "
 
 302 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " I told you I was " 
 
 " Yes, I know you did, but it's past eleven, and I 
 want to get a few fragments of oxygen before every- 
 body else's beastly lungs have consumed it all, so I shall 
 go without you, mon brave. Ring the bell for lunch 
 when you want it, won't you? and tea and dinner! 
 Au revoir, as they say in the Clapham areas au revoir 
 and dormez bien! " 
 
 Tim made some remark to the effect that Katherine's 
 German accent was remarkable for its purity, but as 
 Mrs. Orlitson had banged the communicating door these 
 pleasantries missed their mark. 
 
 Katherine looked at herself in a long glass. 
 
 Yes, the pale mauve linen frock was unique and effec- 
 tive, but the waist could be pinned down still farther in 
 the front. 
 
 She pinned it. The perfect waist was more perfect 
 than ever, and beneath the short, impudently-cut skirt 
 a very exclusively shod pair of feet might be seen in 
 fact, they couldn't help being seen, and no one would 
 want to help seeing them. 
 
 A hat? yes, a down-bending burnt straw hat with a 
 daring pair of black and white Mercury wings planted 
 just in the centre and bending backwards. 
 
 A veil? of course, a very ample veil, with a strip of 
 black satin ribbon round the edge. 
 
 Gloves ? white. Parasol ? mauve. 
 
 A flip of powder under the veil and the re-wedded 
 widow was ready for her walk. 
 
 She passed out of the decorous coolness of the hotel
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 303 
 
 into the flamboyant seaside sunshine, and strolled slowly 
 along the Lees. 
 
 A great many people looked at her several women, 
 and most men but Katherine treated all glances with 
 unheeding hauteur, and concentrated her attention on 
 the fresh air. 
 
 It was immensely good to be out here, and Katherine 
 Smith-Orlitson was immensely content. 
 
 The recently acquired bridegroom now lying in bed 
 probably by this time he had dropped off into another 
 beautifully refreshing doze suited her better than any 
 other ; " Grey Rubbers " were still increasing in value, 
 " dear big Berr and Ora " were safely married and 
 happy, so her conscience needn't prick on their ac- 
 count; next season she would be presented on her 
 marriage Katherine repeated the words " on her mar- 
 riage," and giggled till a passing blood in grey flan- 
 nels wondered if he was being tempted Dr. Sphait 
 was safe; Mrs. Burham was safe; and The Secret 
 was safe. 
 
 There was no doubt Katherine had been through 
 squally times, but now it would be all plain sailing in a 
 liner de luxe. 
 
 Katherine passed through a gap in the wire rails, 
 and sat down on a seat fixed stimulatingly near the 
 edge of the cliff. 
 
 The sea was very joyous, even though cheap-trip 
 steamers did mar its white-waved prettiness. Katherine 
 felt momentarily sentimental about the sea till an ad- 
 jacent band broke into a waltz.
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 Katherine listened. It was the " Merry Widow " 
 waltz and she giggled again. 
 
 She wished Tim and someone were with her, be- 
 cause a contented frame of mind demands companion- 
 ship, just as a discontented one requires solitude. 
 
 " Katherine ! Oh, it is you here you are ! " 
 
 Mrs. Orlitson turned her red head in astonishment 
 as these words reached her ear and a hand was laid upon 
 her shoulder. 
 
 " Honora! *' she exclaimed with staccato breathless- 
 ness. " Honora, why are you here yet, and, my dearest 
 girl, why why are you looking nearly ugly ? " 
 
 Honora, whose beautifying flush was absent, and 
 whose bewildering eyes seemed unbecomingly out of 
 proportion, bent over the back of the seat. 
 
 " I must see you. I want to tell you things but I 
 can't talk here. Let's go down among those trees," she 
 answered, indicating one of the little fir coppices which 
 decorate the cliffs and prove of such service to Folke- 
 stone amorists. 
 
 Katherine rose at once, and refrained from asking 
 any questions till they had descended an uncomfortably 
 large quantity of steps and were sheltered among the 
 fir trees. 
 
 They both sat down on a wooden bench, on which 
 was carved a romantic diversity of linked initials, and 
 then Honora doggedly fixed her eyes on a white peep 
 of the lower Sandgate Road, which was visible through 
 the trees. 
 
 It was evident that she did not mean to look at Kath-
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 305 
 
 erine did not mean to meet those light grey eyes which 
 were so full of magnetism and will-power. 
 
 She began speaking at once, and in the definite tones 
 of a woman whose mind is absolutely made up and proof 
 against all argument. 
 
 " I have left Bernard." 
 
 "Ah! Does he like it?" 
 
 " He doesn't know yet. I started before he was up, 
 and left a little note saying I had gone up to town on 
 business. You will explain everything when I'm I'm 
 quite out of the way." 
 
 "Oh, shall I? And what is the everything?" 
 
 " The everything is my story. When I have gone 
 you must tell Bernard that I am not his wife, but you 
 must tell him, too, how most of it is your fault how 
 I wanted to be straight, but that you talked, and talked, 
 and talked down my conscience and made me take a 
 vow which I knew was criminal to take." 
 
 " Oh, yes. I'll tell him all that. I'll be most self- 
 abasing. But what I should like to know is, why you 
 have suddenly come to this hysterical decision. It's no 
 more criminal to make Berr happy to-day than it was 
 six months ago, is it?" 
 
 "Yes, it would be much more criminal now that I 
 know his views on on " the flush came back, but it 
 was too vivid for beauty " on illegitimate children." 
 And then briefly Honora repeated the incidents and 
 conversations which had taken place the night before, 
 while every second Mrs. Smith-Orlitson's face grew 
 whiter, less young, and less attractive.
 
 306 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 "And because of this, you go?" she said after ,\ 
 pause. 
 
 " Yes, I go. If we had children, they would be ille- 
 gitimate and Bernard would ' 
 
 " Honora, don't be such a fool, such a damned fool. 
 What's the good of making a scandal just because " 
 
 " Katherine that is absolutely enough ! " Honora 
 had risen suddenly, and was standing now in an attitude 
 which was too sincerely impressive to be modern. She 
 might easily have been some avenging dryad except 
 for the strappings on her white serge skirt and the pink 
 Paris roses in her hat. " Nothing, nothing you say will 
 alter me now. You may taunt me about being a coward, 
 but this time my cowardice is bravery for I am braver 
 in leaving my beloved than I should be in risking all 
 which the future might bring forth ! I will be brave this 
 once, Katherine. I will not continue this game of mock 
 wifehood of real bigamy! Bernard shall not suffer 
 the remorse of a nameless child through me! God is 
 going to help me this time, so this time I shan't fail! 
 But you must tell Bernard and tell him as well as 
 you can " 
 
 Honora had been speaking loudly in tones that 
 were noisy and emphatic enough to be vulgar, and she 
 paused as an entourage, consisting of a well-frocked 
 mother, a well-cloaked nurse, and various well-starched 
 infants trailed through the coppice. 
 
 Katherine waited till the last starched child had 
 passed out into the hot sunshine, then she, too, rose 
 from the bench; but for once spontaneity and agility
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 307 
 
 were absent from her movements, and the white-pow- 
 dered face looked grey. 
 
 " You so determinedly mean this, and nothing will 
 alter you ? " she asked, speaking quite slowly and with- 
 out any characteristic indistinctness. 
 
 " Nothing ! Nothing nothing ! " 
 
 " Then come back to the hotel with me, but don't 
 speak one word on the way and remember that if I 
 did evil it was that good might come of it ! Come ! " 
 
 And through the fir trees Roger Orlitson's widow led 
 the way.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIH 
 
 WHEN they reached the hotel Katherine, followed by 
 Honora, immediately entered the lift, and was taken 
 to bedroom No. 16, on the first floor. 
 
 Katherine looked through the communicating door 
 to find that her husband had actually gone downstairs, 
 after which she turned both keys in both locks, and 
 dragged a flat cabin trunk from under the bed. 
 
 Honora watched her in bewilderment. 
 
 Why was she getting out the trunk? why was she 
 producing a bunch of keys? why was she fitting ont 
 into the small patent lock? what was she searching 
 for inside the trunk, and what connection could any- 
 thing which might be inside have with this momentous 
 crisis in her own affairs? 
 
 " Ah! " 
 
 This ejaculation, which was half a cry, left Kather- 
 ine's set teeth and mouth as she produced a small, 
 shabby, mock-leather writing-case. 
 
 She rose from her knees and stood facing Honora 
 with the case tightly clasped in her thin ringed fingers. 
 
 " It has always been my motto to do evil certain 
 kinds of evil that good may come of it," she said, 
 speaking rapidly and indistinctly once more ! " Now, 
 for the first time, I am going to do good that good may 
 come of it. I am going to confess to confess my life's 
 
 308
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 309 
 
 dangerous criminal secret for the sake of my brother 
 and for the sake of my friend for you are my friend. 
 Oh, Honora, for God's sake say you are my friend! " 
 
 It was almost piteous to hear self-reliant, audacious, 
 arrogant Katherine Orlitson begging for a woman's 
 friendship. 
 
 " You know I am, my dear my dear Katherine." 
 And as Honora answered she bent forward and kissed 
 a white, cold, powdered cheek. 
 
 The kiss was for Bernard's sister, but it was also for 
 a woman chum and companion who had filled so many 
 needs in her empty life. 
 
 Katherine clung to her, almost weakly for a moment 
 then the indomitable pluck of her character reas- 
 serted itself, and she was ready for her ordeal ready 
 to do the best thing she had ever done in all her life. 
 
 She opened the little shabby writing-case, took from 
 it si man's handkerchief, a man's visiting card, and an 
 envelope addressed to a man. These she laid in Honora's 
 hand. 
 
 " But what are these " began Honora. Then 
 
 suddenly she paused, and a vast terror came into her 
 eyes. 
 
 The man's handkerchief was marked " Stanford 
 Golt," the visiting card bore the name of " Stanford 
 Golt," the envelope was addressed to '* Stanford Golt " 
 the beast whom Honora had married over two years 
 ago! 
 
 " What does it mean? How did these come into your 
 possession ? " she cried at last.
 
 310 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " They came into my possession because I found 
 them in Stanford Golfs pocket ! " replied Katherine 
 with a return of her usual half-insolent matter-of- 
 courseness. 
 
 " Katherine, I don't understand do tell me as 
 quickly and clearly as you can you you can't think 
 how how I want to know ! " 
 
 Honora's hands were very tightly clenched together, 
 and she was making an agonising effort not to betray 
 the maddening keenness of her anxiety because, re- 
 gretful as the fact may be, human beings are contrary 
 creatures, and almost unconsciously one person will hold 
 news in abeyance if another person shows too ardent a 
 desire for details. Honora knew this, and she knew 
 Katherine. 
 
 The restraint worked, and the dramatic situation fell 
 slightly flat. 
 
 Katherine Smith-Orlitson began her story. 
 
 " Less than eighteen months ago I was suffering 
 acutely from want of funds," she said, setting her voice 
 into an easy, monotonous key. " Roger and I had en- 
 joyed a splendid time we had gone on spending capital 
 with the sublime carelessness of complete fools, and 
 while travelling abroad we had made well-off acquaint- 
 ances, who were going to keep us when we returned to 
 town, we did everything we wanted, saw everything we 
 wanted, until quite suddenly the fact faced us that we 
 were beautifully and artistically poor. I couldn't get 
 back on the stage right away, and Roger was afflicted 
 with a constitutional dislike to working in order to
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 311 
 
 earn money so there was nothing for it but to re- 
 trench violently till something turned up. Oh, Honora, 
 I can't conceive anything more awful, more deadening, 
 more soul-murdering, more dulling, than retrenchment. 
 Good heavens ! A fortnight's retrenchment will kill 
 more of a woman's youth than five years going the 
 pace ! " 
 
 Katherine paused a second, as though fighting with 
 hideous spectres of recollection then she continued: 
 
 " We took a furnished cottage at Seedlingditch, a 
 desolate, gasless, waterless hovel ugh ! even now I can 
 remember fetching dripping cans of water from an out- 
 side tank a sort of catacomb for women's souls you 
 know! Roger's clothes were shiny and seamy, my 
 frocks were shabby and bygone; rich acquaintances, 
 made abroad, wrote and invited us for week-ends, obvi- 
 ously expecting return hospitality and all this while 
 I was washing up greasy dishes and wishing myself 
 dead! Yes, I'd rather have been a red-haired corpse 
 any moment than have gone on retrenching! I would, 
 Honora, I would I would! " 
 
 " Yes perhaps I can understand go on, dear ! " 
 Heavens ! why could not she get to the point without all 
 this emotional preamble! 
 
 " Then one afternoon I found my way out. Roger 
 had gone for a walk, and after finishing such congenial 
 tasks a* filling scuttles and scouring sinks, I left the 
 cottage and crossed the fields. The weather was breezy 
 and beautiful, and I was thinking of London, London 
 frocks, London life, when I suddenly saw the brown-
 
 312 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 bearded cheek, the blue serge trouser leg, and the tan 
 boot of a man who was lying on the grass. Of course 
 it must be Roger laziness had caused him to grow a 
 beard, he wore serge trousers and tan boots, and he was 
 always prepared to undergo the rest cure without any 
 special provocation. I bent over to wake him up, and 
 
 found " Katherine couldn't help just one dramatic 
 
 pause. She could never entirely leave off playing to the 
 gallery. 
 
 "Yes yes " 
 
 '* And found that neither was the man asleep nor was 
 he my husband. He was a stranger who bore a 
 somewhat general likeness to Roger, and he was 
 dead! " 
 
 " Go on go on go on, Katherine ! " Mad, wild 
 eagerness could no longer be controlled. 
 
 " I'm not a nervy woman, so instead of fainting or 
 screaming I turned out the poor creature's pockets in 
 order to find out where he lived and with whom to com- 
 municate. But there was nothing much to find a little 
 money, a watch, a knife, some stamps, and a handker- 
 chief, a visiting card, and an addressed envelope the 
 one you are now holding in your hand! " 
 
 There was nothing Honora could say! God, there 
 was nothing, for no human words could frame such a 
 thanksgiving as was in her heart ! 
 
 She was Bernard's -wife! Bernard's wife! Ber- 
 nard's wife! She was free to lie in his arms to bring 
 forth beautiful sons and daughters with a right to 
 their father's name !
 
 313 
 
 God the angels the saints the heavens all, all 
 be thanked ! 
 
 " Honora, listen, dearie you'll hear the rest of my 
 story? Don't forget me," 
 
 Honora held out both hands to Katherine, and with 
 warm, quivering, interlinked fingers the rest of the 
 story was told and heard. 
 
 " When I found these three things, Ora, a devil 
 whispered suggestions to me. We had only been a week 
 at Seedlingditch as he spent most of his time in bed, 
 not even the postman or the idiot pedlar had seen Roger 
 no one knew us Roger's life had been insured for 
 2,000 2,000 would save the present situation, and 
 there was Grandfather Laurence's roulette scheme this 
 dead man was sufficiently like Roger to satisfy an insur- 
 ance company. Honora, I put those sole proofs of 
 identification in my pocket, and I decided to run a 
 gigantic risk. If it were possible, I would pretend that 
 this dead man was my own husband! Of course the 
 risk was gigantic because it was more than probable 
 that Stanford Golfs relatives would offer rewards and 
 employ detectives to find their missing kinsman. But 
 running risks is a better game than retrenching, so 1 
 decided to play it ! " 
 
 Honora drew a deep breath one of quite immoral 
 admiration. This red-haired woman was wonderful 
 wonderful ! 
 
 " I rushed to the nearest doctor Dr. Morgan B. 
 Sphait, my dear and told him my husband was lying 
 dead in a field ! Oh, Honora, I acted gorgeously my
 
 314 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 dazed grief was a dramatic triumph ! It was the first 
 time I had ever played lead! But, by Jove, I did it 
 well! He came with me and endorsed the sad truth! 
 My emotions were so upheaved I must go home to give 
 instructions about the body I went I found Roger 
 had returned from his walk and without a word of ex- 
 planation I bundled him into a wood shed and kept him 
 out of the way till Stanford Golt was laid upon the 
 bed in a little back room, and until Dr. Sphait had gone 
 back to fetch some soothing medicine for my nerves ! 
 Then I hoofed Roger out of the shed, gave him some 
 food in the dining-room, and told him the game that 
 was to be played how he must go abroad at once and 
 remain away some months, while I permitted him a 
 percentage of the insurance money and profits. But 
 while we were talking it appears the enterprising Mor- 
 gan returned and looked through the blind to see me 
 leaning my head against the shoulder of a presumably 
 strange man when my own husband was presumably 
 lying dead upstairs." 
 
 " Katherine ! Surely that made you afraid to go on 
 with the risk ? " 
 
 " My dear Kid, I didn't know it at the time. It was 
 only afterwards, when Morgan Sphait discovered the 
 widow had become a rich woman, that he troubled to 
 turn his knowledge into a marketable asset. He did 
 know, later, though and that's why I've been paying 
 for his Harley Street suite and booming him like mad. 
 But I've got him safe now, and I've got Mrs. Burham 
 safe too."
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 315 
 
 " Mrs. Burham ! What has she to do with the mat- 
 ter?" interposed Honora, whose personal exhilaration 
 was almost forgotten in wonder at this red-haired wom- 
 an's marvellous revelations. She was experiencing the 
 fevered eagerness of a person hurried by skimming the 
 pages of an exciting book, so that the astonishing end 
 may be more quickly reached. 
 
 " Mrs. Burham saw me at Langley Cross when Roger 
 came back, and he and I were legally and morally week- 
 ending under the name of Mr. and Mrs. Dylke ! It was 
 necessary for us to meet so that future plans could be 
 arranged, and I did think the Langley Cross Inn would 
 have been safe. But it wasn't, because fate sent Mrs. 
 Burham there on that very identical day, so naturally 
 she thought that the red-haired member of the Serpen- 
 tine Club was a widow up to larks whereas she was in 
 reality a decorous wife spending a decorous day to ar- 
 range business with her decorous husband! However, 
 Mrs. B. is silent now the Worldly Woman has shut 
 her box-like mouth though if either she or Sphait did 
 split about my presumed lover I don't think anyone 
 would believe them, so it wouldn't matter. It isn't as 
 if they had any inkling of the truth, Oro the truth 
 which could send your red-haired pal to gaol for 
 fraud " 
 
 " Don't Katherine don't, dear ! " And Honora 
 winced because because this was Bernard's sister! 
 
 Ah, yes Bernard! An idea an ugly unpalatable 
 idea suggested itself. 
 
 "Katherine!"
 
 316 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Big-eyes ? " Mrs. Smith-Orlitson's 
 aplomb was now full} 7 restored, and a keen sense of 
 self-appreciation had returned during the recital of her 
 story. 
 
 " Does does Bernard know ? " 
 
 " My God, no, of course he doesn't ! I'd put myself 
 in the Lethal Chamber if Berr knew the shame would 
 kill me if he didn't ! Berr hasn't always made a hobby 
 of being what one might call a good man, but any steal- 
 ing, any thieving ! Good heavens, the very idea of 
 
 Berr knowing makes iced water run up and down my 
 spine ! " 
 
 Honora heaved a sigh of relief that was almost a 
 hurricane. 
 
 Nothing mattered so long as her big husband yes, 
 husband husband didn't know and approve of this 
 ingenious fraud. 
 
 "Well, now you know, my dear, what do you think 
 of your red-haired sister-in-law? What do you think 
 of her, Mrs. Benstead? " 
 
 Honora smiled affectionately and looked her full in 
 the eyes. 
 
 " I shall think nothing but nice things of her directly 
 
 the insurance company er For how much was 
 
 your husband insured? " 
 
 " 2,000." 
 
 "Well, directly the insurance company receive an 
 anonymous sum of 3,000 conscience money ! two 
 thousand to pay the debt, and one thousand interest and 
 compensation ! "
 
 DTHE WILD WIDOW 317 
 
 > 
 
 Katherine's light grey eyes grew dark with conster- 
 nation. 
 
 " Honora, I can't I can't 
 
 "Yes, Katherine, dearest, you can and you wiU. I 
 have no doubt about it, I know you will. The money 
 will be sent within a week ! " And Honora's air of calm 
 assurance was very clever. 
 
 " We won't discuss that just now," gasped Katherine 
 at last. 
 
 " No, there's no need to discuss it, I know, dear and 
 oh, Katherine! " 
 
 Honora sank down on a low chair. 
 
 She looked suddenly scared. 
 
 "What is thq matter?" asked Mrs. Smith-Orlitson 
 not quite amiably. That three thousand notion was 
 absurd absurd ! 
 
 " Why, of course your husband he is still alive ! 
 What about Tim? " 
 
 "Looks like bigamy, doesn't it, Mrs. Berr?" 
 
 " Of course, if if " 
 
 " But it isn't, because, as I happen to have married 
 my first husband over again well, it's only extra legal 
 and moral, isn't it? * Tim ' is just Roger without the 
 beard ! Good idea, wasn't it ? No one ever saw Roger, 
 so no one can know, and being clean shaven makes such 
 a lot of dif ! We shall soon let the Smith slide alto- 
 gether, so, though he can't be * Roger ' except in hours 
 of deadly privacy, he'll be * Orlitson ' till the end. Now 
 you know all about me. I always told you that I was 
 candid, didn't I? Ha! ha! ha! And if ever you split
 
 318 THE WILD WIDOW 
 
 to get me sent to gaol, your husband's family reputation 
 will suffer ! So I've got you there, Mrs. Long Lashes ! 
 Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha ! Come along to lunch, then get back 
 to Berr just as slippy as an express will puff you to 
 Sussex! Rog er Tim's making breakfast do for his 
 lunch so come along come along to food ! " 
 
 Before the violet summer dusk closed in Honora 
 reached her chicken farm, and half an hour later Ber- 
 nard had heard the full and complete story of her first 
 verbal marriage without any details glossed over, ex- 
 cept those which merged into the by-ways of Katherine's 
 ingenious past. 
 
 " But you don't mind, do you do you ? " cried Ho- 
 nora, slipping into his arms. 
 
 Bernard was silent a moment, then he answered. 
 
 " Certainly, I don't mind in the least that is, as 
 matters "were and as matters are! Mr. Golt was quite 
 welcome to your scurried legal vows. But if he or any 
 other man had ever held you as I'm holding you now 
 like this like this I I think I must have killed 
 him!" 
 
 " Of course you must dear. But as no man ever has, 
 it's all right, isn't it? " 
 
 "Yes, it's all right, Honora it's all right, my love 
 my wife my girl ! " 
 
 Copy of advertisement appearing a week later in the 
 Agony Column of the Daily Wire:
 
 THE WILD WIDOW 319 
 
 " The Excelsior Insurance Company begs to acknowl- 
 edge anonymous ' conscience money ' value 3,000." 
 
 A copy of " par " in the Worldly Woman printed ten 
 months later : 
 
 " Mrs. Smith-Orlitson, who was presented on her mar- 
 riage by Lady Hespeth, wore * violette de parme ' satin 
 duchesse embroidered in silver with train of mirror vel- 
 vet lined with silver tissue^ etc." 
 
 Copy of announcement in the Times one year later: 
 " To Honora and Bernard Benstead a son." 
 
 THE END
 
 A 000133604 9