Swe 
 
 BU 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 OF 
 
 GIFT 
 
4 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
HE IS WAITING FOR ME. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 BY MRS. BURTON HARRISON 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE ANGLOMANIACS," " CROW S NEST AND 
 BELHAVEN TALES," ETC. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 C. D. GIBSON 
 
 NEW YORK: THE CENTURY CO, 
 
 1893 
 
Copyright, 1892, 1893, by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 All riylits reserved. 
 
 GIFT 
 
 THE DEVINNE CRESS. 
 
955 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "HE is WAITING FOR ME" FRONTISPIECE 
 
 " WE ARE BEHIND TIME, MRS. VANE-BENSON AND I " 13 
 
 " MRS. VERNON HAD CROSSED THE RUBICON " 35 
 
 " AWFULLY KIND OF You TO COME TO OUR LITTLE 
 
 SHANTY IN THE WILDERNESS " 61 
 
 THE MEETING IN MRS. VAN SHIFTER S EMPIRE 
 
 ROOM 77 
 
 "WHEN LUELLA LOST HER GRIP " 95 
 
 "ARE N T You PLEASED WITH ME?" 129 
 " OH ! I AM GLAD THAT TEMPEST IN A TEA-POT is 
 
 OVER " 139 
 
 it 
 
 YES; IT is Too BAD" 153 
 
 11 You MUST TELL YOUR FRIEND NOT TO BE FRIGHT 
 ENED BY THE HOUSE" 193 
 
 "LORD AND LADY WILLIAM HAMPSHIRE" 207 
 
 M621510 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 BURST of fortissimo music from 
 the organ, which had been daw 
 dling over themes from Wagner s 
 operas, caused every head in the 
 seated congregation to turn briskly 
 around. Some people stood up, 
 swaying to catch a first glimpse of the bride. Out 
 siders, tucked away in undesirable back-pews, went 
 so far as to scramble upon the cushioned seats. 
 
 It was, however, a false alarm. The middle aisle, 
 center of interest, developed nothing more striking 
 than a trim little usher, in pearl gloves with a button 
 hole of white carnations, convoying to her place of 
 honor beyond the ribbon a colossal lady with auburn 
 front, red in the face, and out of breath. 
 
 Conversation in pews reserved for the elect of good 
 society. 
 
 She : " Hum ! Bridegroom s maiden aunt, sup 
 pressed generally how Freddy rushes her along! 
 Sent twelve silver soup-plates and a huge tureen, 
 when everybody knows soup is served from behind 
 
 1 
 
2 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 the screen, and it would take all one servant s time to 
 keep em clean but she thinks she s paid her way 
 well to the front, poor soul ! " 
 
 He: "Here s the groom s mother deuced fine 
 woman yet is Mrs. Vernon. Who d believe she d a 
 son of five-and-twenty 1 Hates to admit it publicly, 
 but is putting on the best face she can." 
 
 She: "Not her best face her second best. I ve 
 seen her improve on that. But then, this half day 
 light, half electricity is abominably trying. And she 
 really does look very well, viewed from the rear." 
 
 He: "Clever, too the way she s run the family 
 up when one thinks what the husband was." 
 
 She : " Does one ever think of him ? By the way, 
 what was he soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, what ? " 
 
 He: "Tinker, most likely, considering the family 
 brass. I saw him once coarse-grained creature, 
 epidermis like an elephant, diamond in his shirt-front, 
 and all that. Speculated after the war in Virginia 
 City mines, and made a big fortune then dropped 
 dead of apoplexy, and left it for her to spend. She- 
 sent her boy to a good school ; gave with a free hand 
 to all the charities; boy made friends everywhere; 
 went through Harvard like a streak; has traveled, 
 yachted, hunted, been in the best sets ever since ; is 
 about to marry into one of the proudest of the ex 
 clusive families of New York and there you are." 
 
 She : " Oh ! But he s really such a beauty, don t 
 you know ? Half the women in town have been pull 
 ing caps for Jerry Vernon. And, after all, what are 
 the Hallidays but has-beens?" 
 
 He : " Take care. There s one of their high-born 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 3 
 
 ramifications glaring at you from the next pew old 
 lady with eye-glasses and a sniff. Came up from 
 Second Avenue in a horse-car looks like the unicorn 
 on the British coat of arms." 
 
 She : " Gracious ! It s the bride s cousin or some 
 thing ; let s change the subject. Oh ! did you hear 
 poor Mrs. Jimmie Crosland could n t go to the opera 
 last night because that wretched, jealous husband 
 shut her nose in a wardrobe door?" 
 
 He : " Really ? Was n t theirs the last wedding we 
 came to in this church ? " 
 
 She: " Of course. Don t you remember ? Regular 
 peep-show ; six chorus girls from the opera, in white 
 veils, to sing "The voice that breathed o er Eden. 
 They say she even hired the pages to hold up her 
 train put em in Charles II. wigs, and passed em off 
 for little brothers." 
 
 He: " Exactly. One gets these theatrical affairs 
 so confoundedly mixed up. See, the groom s mother 
 is still upon her knees. A woman could n t pray so 
 conspicuously unless in back seams from Worth." 
 
 She : " For shame ! How malicious you men are ! 
 I should have said it s because she s keeping Mrs. 
 Vane-Benson standing in the aisle for every one to 
 see. You know they have been at some trouble to 
 corral relatives to match the bride s, and Mrs. Vane- 
 Benson s their trump card. How bored the poor 
 rector looks waiting in his bower of palms." 
 
 He : " Queer how people marry, and bury, and flirt, 
 under palm-trees, nowadays ! I m getting awfully 
 tired of being tickled by the spiky things every time 
 I sit out a dance, or go to call upon a girl. Hullo ! 
 
4 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 There s Mrs. what does she call herself since she 
 got her divorce ? " 
 
 She (animated) : "Is she ? No, really ? I would n t 
 have missed seeing Hildegarde de Lancey for the 
 world. It s the first time she s been out. Is n t she 
 perfectly lovely in that gray bengaline and chinchilla, 
 with the bunch of violets at her breast? I always 
 did say Hildegarde de Lancey she is now 5 so nice to 
 have got rid of her odious, ugly Smithson is the best- 
 dressed woman in this town. Why, what a belle she 
 is ! I believe all the ushers would like to escort her 
 in a body up the aisle. Of course Freddy de Witt 
 saved her a front place. He knows what people want 
 to see." 
 
 He: "She s a charmer, certainly. If I were the 
 Mrs. Gerald Vernon that is soon to be, I d be rather 
 glad Mrs. de Lancey is proposing to live abroad." 
 
 She: "Oh, nonsense. You men always think the 
 worst. Jerry was touched, no doubt, but Hildegarde 
 meant nothing. You can t conceive of a greater brute 
 than Smithson, and Hilda was always such a darling 
 thing. Every one says she is in luck to get rid of 
 him so soon. How well she looks no wonder every 
 body stares. Oh, I m so glad we re to have Hilda 
 back ! " 
 
 Elsewhere in the church. 
 
 A mother in Israel to her young daughters: "So 
 that s the famous divorcee, Mrs. What s-her-name 
 Smithson, the papers have been so full of lately? 
 Don t look at her, Doris and Gladys ; I insist that you 
 don t look that way. Have you observed the figure 
 of Dorcas in poor Mrs. Golding s memorial window? 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 5 
 
 The drawing of the right arm is excellent I wonder 
 if that person does anything to her hair to give it that 
 baby gold. I w^ould n t trust her any farther than I 
 could see. Dear me ! the best people bowing, and 
 smirking, and trying to catch her eye. Ahem ! Mrs. 
 de Lancey s toque sits quite close to the head, girls ; I 
 think it much more becoming than those great cart 
 wheel hats you insisted upon having sent home." 
 
 Doris and Gladys : " We know, mama ; we ve been 
 watching her ever since she came into the church. 
 What fun it must be to make as much stir as the 
 bride ! " 
 
 Two girls in tailor gowns, with fur boas and muffs. 
 They have come in an omnibus to the nearest corner, 
 and were splashed with mud in getting out. 
 
 " Dear me ! we are lucky, but I had to push awfully 
 to squeeze in. If I had n t known Tom Brounlee, I d 
 have never had this seat. He asked me if we are 
 going on to the house, and I coughed and smiled, and 
 he took it to mean yes. My, Jennie, look at the new 
 suits ! I can tell you the names of most everybody 
 here. I do know the bride, anyhow, for we re 011 a 
 working-girl s amusement board, together. I must 
 say she s as nice a girl as I ever wish to meet. Can t 
 say as much for her sister, Miss Betty such a lank, 
 sour-looking thing, and a tongue sharp as a razor. 
 Nobody can stand her in our club. I wish the organ 
 would n t play so loud you can t hear yourself talk. 
 Gracious, child ! lean over, and let me take that lump 
 of mud off your face. I m thinking I can alter my 
 blue Henrietta cloth by putting coat-tails bound with 
 velvet on the basque, like the one that s just gone by. 
 1* 
 
6 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 Have a chocolate, do j got em fresh to-day, as I passed 
 by Tyler s, on my way to match my blue. Oh ! I do 
 love weddings. I go to every single one I can." 
 
 Lady from the Faubourg St. Stuyvesant, seated 
 well forward in the church. 
 
 "Poor Margaret Halliday! there she comes with 
 Betty and Trix and Jack. I wonder if her grand 
 father is n t turning in his grave at this minute, over 
 the marriage of a Halliday with one of these upstart 
 Vernons. Humph! Margaret looks haggard, Betty 
 as yellow as a pumpkin, Trix rather overblown, and 
 Jack growing up one of the beefy kind. I m glad it 
 is n t my daughter who s to be sacrificed, that s all." 
 
 Lady, who has secured end of pew on aisle, whisper 
 ing to her husband next to her. 
 
 " George, that s Mrs. Clarkson that edged by you 
 just now. If you d known it, you d surely have been 
 more polite. Who in the dickens is Mrs. Clarkson, 
 anyway ? When we met them at dinner at the Tomp- 
 kins , and you took her in, and were so charmingly 
 agreeable ! I declare, if I d had the least idea you 
 were going to be glum and cross at a wedding, I d 
 never have persuaded you to come. * Enough for you 
 to have had to shell out the sixth pair of piano-candle 
 sticks this year, without boring yourself with the wed 
 ding too ! George ! You know you were always fond 
 of Nellie Halliday. Please try, only try I don t say 
 you will succeed to be a little lit like other people. 
 I have given up hoping for more when you go out 
 with me." (Mrs. Clarkson just then engaging George 
 in conversation, he becomes easy and smiling on the 
 spot.) 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 7 
 
 Two Hibernian ladies, in silk gowns and imitation 
 cashmere shawls, are ushered into the seats reserved 
 for the domestics of both families. 
 
 "Arrah now, it s a sad day, Misthress Branigan, 
 an you that s cuk in it only this twelvemonth can t 
 tell the faylins o me, that raised me little Nellie from 
 a four-year-old ; the light o the house goes out wid her, 
 the darlint. Go, Norah, says she, pushin me wid her 
 two honds like swan s-down, be off wid ye to the 
 church, an sthop yer cryin , to watch yer gyirl come 
 oop the aisle in all her finery. An is it happy ye 
 are, Miss Nell f says I. Norah, says she, wid a little 
 swate smile in the eyes of her, l if it s the last word I 
 have to spake to me old nurse before I m med Mis 
 thress Vernon, I m that happy I m afraid. " 
 
 Duet in the vestry. Jerry Vernon and his best man, 
 Dick Henderson. 
 
 The bridegroom : " Oh, but I say, old man, some 
 thing s happened at the house, or in the street, or 
 hang it, you need n t grin. Look at the soles of these 
 boots, will you? If that infernal fellow of mine 
 has n t been and put a brand-new pair on me, after 
 all j and all the ushers and bridesmaids will be grin 
 ning when we kneel down. Don t you think the 
 rector could be induced to bless us standing up f I d 
 double the fee, or anything. Dick, if an accident 
 has happened to that girl this is a judgment on me 
 for jeering at those who went before I never heard 
 such a bally old idiot as that organist he makes me 
 fairly crazy with his jigging tunes you re sure 
 you ve got the ring? ridiculous little object to cause 
 all this fuss, is n t it? Nell wears a six glove, and 
 
8 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 look at the height of her I never could have married 
 a little woman by Jove, Dick, I wish we two did n t 
 have to amble in there before everybody and simper 
 at the crowd. What f Coming f Back me up, Dick, 
 and I 11 go at it like a man. Nell s worth it, every 
 time." 
 
 Among the ushers huddled in the vestibule. The 
 weary Mr. Frederic de Witt, mopping his beaded 
 brow : 
 
 " Dumping the bridesmaids outside, are they ? Well, 
 I m glad. Great Cassar ! but I m tired. The cheek 
 of women at weddings, and the push ! No ; I decline 
 to see any reporter. I refuse to divulge where they 
 are going for the wedding journey, the names of those 
 here present, or the price Jerry paid for our scarf-pins. 
 You gave Jerry notice in the vestry, did you ? Hope 
 you did n t forget to remind him that the unfortunate 
 man, having partaken of a light breakfast of eggs, 
 bread, and coffee, usually walks with a firm step to 
 the place of execution. Hi, there, gentlemen ! Fall 
 into line to precede the bridesmaids, if you please." 
 
 Among the bridesmaids. 
 
 " If we look as well as the couple that walk before 
 us, I m all right. These directoire hats and coats are 
 certainly too sweet. Oh ! are n t you scared to death ? 
 But it s better than being Nell." 
 
 The bride (divinely tall and most divinely fair a 
 rose flush in her cheeks, her dark lashes downward 
 bent, her dark hair knotted low on her neck, the old 
 lace of her mother s bridal veil like frost-work upon 
 her trailing robes of white, no ornament but a string 
 of pearls around her throat, one of her hands lightly 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 9 
 
 laid on the arm of the respectable old cousin who has 
 been haled from his respectable old club to do parental 
 duty for the day), to herself : 
 
 " I saw him. He is waiting for me. All these peo 
 ple are here to see me become Jerry s wife. But it 
 makes no difference. If we were in a desert it would 
 be just the same. The thought of him fills my whole 
 heart. I wonder if it s selfish and wicked to care for 
 nothing, now, but the joy and the glory of being 
 Jerry s wife." 
 
 "Until death us do part." The troth plight was 
 interchanged ; Jerry s hand, colder than her own, put 
 the ring upon her finger; and the rector, who had 
 baptized Eleanor, pronounced them man and wife. 
 
 During the ceremony the lower part of the church, 
 having sated its curiosity, was in full buzz of chat 
 about the plainness of the bride s gown, the absence 
 of diamonds reputed to have been given by the groom, 
 and the question whether guests should go on to the 
 reception at once, or amuse themselves with other 
 occupations of the hour. 
 
 While the clergyman was in the act of pronouncing 
 the benediction, and the organist was panting to let 
 himself loose on the wedding-march from " Lohen 
 grin," people were buttoning their wraps, and gliding 
 out of the church, to be sure of their carriages before 
 the crush. Hardly had Eleanor passed under the 
 awning to her carriage and to the reality of life 
 before public interest in the bride had in a great 
 measure exhaled. 
 
 But they rallied around her presently in the house 
 occupied by Mrs. Halliday and her daughters, looking 
 
10 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 into a quiet down-town square. The wide double 
 drawing-rooms of the old family mansion had put 
 aside their shadows for the day. Under an arch of 
 greenery and lilies Eleanor received her friends, Ger 
 ald at her side, looking quite pitiably conscious and 
 ill at ease. 
 
 The bridesmaids, headed by Trix, Nell s eighteen- 
 year-old sister, to whom this event was a species of 
 debut into society, stood in a semicircle, wearing the 
 expression of amateur actors who have just acquitted 
 themselves of a performance in which they happily 
 believe the rest of the world to have been as much 
 interested as were they. The crowd, jostling forward 
 to pay salutation to bride and groom, continued after 
 ward to jostle on general principles. Exchanging in 
 quiries to which no one listened for the answer, and 
 comments as to the nicety of having one of the old- 
 school houses open again for entertainment, they then 
 pushed on to the dining-room to partake, less enthu 
 siastically, of an old-school collation marked by the 
 absence of terrapin and truffles, and by the limited 
 amount of the champagne. From the walls of this 
 refectory looked down a row of oil-paintings in faded 
 frames of gilt ; a spirited young man with a Henry 
 Clay stock and standing collar, flanking a high-colored 
 lady in a bonnet with a bird-o -paradise, and a scarf 
 over her bare shoulders ; sundry Continental soldiers, 
 New England Brahmins, and a stiif -busked dame or 
 two of remoter date, with attendant cavaliers in peri 
 wigs and ruffles. Over the sideboard hung a sour- 
 visaged personage of Revolutionary date, the great 
 grandfather of the bride, familiarly spoken of among 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 11 
 
 his descendants as " The Signer." He was a strong 
 tower of American aristocracy, and Mrs. Halliday 
 always felt that in his protecting presence at her par 
 ties she could venture to order in another bottle or so 
 of soda-water to dilute her champagne punch. Every 
 where in the house thus brought to contemporaneous 
 notice there were marks of gentility that lacked repair. 
 The hangings and furniture, placed there before the 
 century s new birth into righteousness of taste, were 
 massive but shabby. The carpets, worn into thread 
 bare spots ill-concealed by modern rugs the walls, 
 faded beyond hiding with palms and rubber-trees 
 sent in (on close contract) by the florist called aloud 
 for restoration. Although it was the fashion to say, 
 when glancing casually about these rooms, " How de 
 lightful ! How solid ! What relief after the varnish 
 and glitter of up-town ! " no one was observed to 
 linger there over long, or to return unless especially 
 bidden to a function of exigent conventionality. This 
 afternoon, in custody of a band of hirelings, who be 
 fore cockcrow of another dawn would vanish, bearing 
 with them every spoon, fork, plate, and glass now in 
 service for the guests, the premises did not suggest 
 even their usual homely comfort. 
 
 But to-day, for the first time in many days, Mrs. 
 Halliday s handsome features wore a look of com 
 placent satisfaction. Betty, the eldest daughter, aged 
 six-and-twenty, plain, angular, and pessimistic, stood 
 by her mother at the door of the drawing-room, out 
 side of which was posted Andrews, the lean, old-time 
 butler, to announce the guests. Jack, the collegian, 
 tall and pink-cheeked, with a down on the upper lip 
 
12 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 that his sister Trix thought wonderful, a little too 
 conscious of a new frock-coat with its buttonhole of 
 gardenias, wandered about incessantly, resenting the 
 notice of his mother s old friends who told him how 
 much he had grown, and repudiating suggested resem 
 blance to this or that portrait upon the walls. In the 
 rear of the two ladies was a man, no longer in his first 
 youth, of distinguished though inconspicuous presence 
 a man with sleepy gray eyes and a languid manner, 
 before whom Betty was always at her best. 
 
 " My dear Anthony/ 7 his hostess had said to him, 
 "you are at home here; you know everybody; for 
 Heaven s sake, stay and help me out with Nell s l in- 
 laws. " 
 
 " My dear cousin, I am yours as always," he had 
 responded, with a smile, not however mirthful. 
 
 " The list is fortunately short," whispered Betty in 
 mocking tones. "Here, mother, comes your very 
 largest pill Nell s new mama." 
 
 " Yes, everything has gone off well. I am pleased 
 that you admire the lace. No, my daughter is not 
 tired; we have not allowed her to do much." Mrs. 
 Halliday was conscious of her thin, cold voice, and 
 felt that it was a poor return for Eleanor s new house, 
 horses, brougham, victoria, not to mention the neck 
 lace and solar system in diamonds, already at the 
 Safety Deposit Company s, in waiting till the bride s 
 return from her wedding journey, the last Gerald s 
 gift, paid for by Mrs. Vernon s check. But Mrs. Ver- 
 non was quite beyond the point of sensitiveness on 
 the trifling score of measured civilities. Ensconced 
 as a relative within these shabby walls, she felt that 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 15 
 
 her price was far above rubies or diamonds either! 
 If Jerry had to put upon her the indignity of being a 
 prospective grandmother, he had at least done it in 
 good form. 
 
 "We are behind time, Mrs. Vane-Benson and I," 
 she said, as the lady named made her bow, and retired 
 to mingle with the throng " but Mrs. Vane-Benson 
 judged it would be more the thing for us to let the 
 young people such children ! but I, myself, was 
 married at sixteen get a little settled down before 
 I fluster them with my congratulations; and I told 
 her I guessed she was right." 
 
 Mrs. Halliday winced at the voice and speech. She 
 hardly dared trust herself to look full in the face 
 this modish person in silver-gray with silver broider 
 ies, with the silver bonnet perched on her dark, glossy 
 locks, with the brilliant color softened by rice-powder, 
 the dazzling teeth, the frequent laugh, the effusive 
 cordiality, the aroma of prosperity. She became con 
 scious of lines in her own face, and of a break under 
 her chin, that ought to have been, but were not, in 
 Mrs. Vernoii s. She looked down at her old black 
 velvet supplied with a new frontispiece of jetted lace, 
 and marked the contrast between its indescribable 
 wispiness and the crisp perfection of Mrs. Vernoii s 
 attire. Altogether, she was in some haste to rid her 
 self of dear Eleanor s mama. 
 
 " You will be wanting to speak to Nell and Gerald/ 
 she said. " Mr. Theobald will give you his arm across 
 the rooms Anthony my cousin Mr. Theobald, Mrs. 
 Vernon." 
 
 The hazel eyes took on a new luster of delight. To 
 
16 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 be translated into the heart of that inner circle that 
 till now she had only "brushed with extremest 
 flounce " was to cross the room leaning 011 the arm of 
 "my why not our ? cousin Mr. Theobald." 
 
 To Theobald, for reasons of his own, the whole 
 affair was a somewhat grim comedy; and, abandon 
 ing himself to the situation, he duly brought the 
 widow to a halt before the bridal pair. 
 
 "My dearest Jerry my sweetest Nell," the lady 
 said, embracing both with such exuberance that Ger 
 ald fidgeted. 
 
 " We shall see more of each other now," Eleanor said, 
 very low. " Gerald has told me of all your generosity ; 
 he thinks there was never a mother so kind as his." 
 
 " Gerald knows I shall be terribly alone," began the 
 older woman, tears ready to twinkle in her eyes. 
 
 a Madre, you must n t, please," the young fellow 
 whispered, in a tumult of alarm. With Freddy de 
 Witt, Henderson, and the others looking on, he felt 
 that an expansion of maternal tenderness would be 
 his death-blow. 
 
 "Mrs. Vernon will perhaps allow me to take her 
 into the dining-room," interposed Mr. Theobald, from 
 the bride s elbow, where he had been standing without 
 speech. 
 
 " So polite of you, dear Mr. Theobald," exclaimed 
 flattered Madame Mere, linking her arm again in his. 
 
 The danger was averted. Nell, who, better than any 
 other, knew Theobald s fastidious taste, flashed on him 
 a quick glance of gratitude. She reproached herself, 
 when he had gone, that she had not said something in 
 the way of personal thanks for his gift of the etch- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 17 
 
 ings, so long coveted, which had arrived that morning 
 framed for her boudoir in the new home. And now 
 her attention was claimed by a radiant personage who 
 was for the first time a gnest beneath their roof. 
 
 " It was more than I hoped, to make your acquaint 
 ance in this way," said Hildegarde de Lancey. " Mr. 
 Vernon and I have always been such chums." 
 
 Eleanor blushed, remembering the little passage- 
 at-arms with her mother regarding this lady s name 
 upon Jerry s list. She sent a swift inquiring look 
 the gaze of a "young-eyed cherub" fortified with 
 innocence into the pair of blue orbs that met hers 
 with a deprecating, almost pathetic appeal. Certainly, 
 such an ingenuous beauty could not be to blame for 
 her undue share of human griefs. 
 
 "We are glad to welcome you," the bride said 
 graciously. 
 
 "Every one is so good to me," murmured Hilde 
 garde, with exquisite pathos. 
 
 "And Gerald says you have been so good to him," 
 went on Eleanor, while Jerry s attention was absorbed 
 by some one else. 
 
 "It is his grateful nature, as you will find. But I 
 am keeping back your friends, so au revoir," and the 
 vision disappeared. 
 
 " Jerry, she s exquisite," said Eleanor. 
 
 "Who is? there are so many shes. Nell, here s 
 my Aunt Tryphena, who sent us by Jove, what did 
 she send ? Never mind ; thank the old girl profusely, 
 and choke her off good luck a man don t have to 
 gush over apostle-spoons and salt-cellars every day of 
 the year." 
 
18 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " NELL, it must be so nice to be you/ cried Trix, 
 presently, when, in their bedroom, she hovered around 
 her sister, helping old Norah to put on the bride s 
 frock for traveling. " This sable cape Aunt Penfold 
 sent is simply gorgeous. Betty says she d have given 
 mink, if you had married a poor man. And Jerry s 
 so good-looking, and such a dear hurry, Nell, every 
 body s in the hall, and Jerry and Jack are fussing, 
 declaring you 11 miss the train oh ! I ve been hav 
 ing a peep out of the window at your new brougham, 
 lined with dark myrtle-green satin such as we ve 
 always dreamed of such horses, such rugs, and such 
 a big, big footman to tuck you in and touch his hat 
 no more cabs by the hour for you, you lucky girl." 
 
 " Run, now, you silly Trix, and tell Jerry I 11 be 
 there, and ask mama to come ; and you, Norah dear, 
 take that long face away and don t let me see it till 
 you ve learned to smile. Mama, are we alone ? May 
 I lock the door? Good-by, darling, darling; and 
 would you mind sitting down upon this little chair, 
 and letting me say my prayer at your knee, just to 
 ask God to make me fit for such perfect happiness ? " 
 
II 
 
 Y dear Miss Halliday," wrote Mrs. 
 Vernon to the sister of her new 
 daughter-in-law, a few days after 
 the young couple had left town on 
 their wedding journey, "Will you 
 and your sister Beatrix give me the 
 great pleasure of your company at an early dinner, 
 very informally, at seven o clock on Wednesday next, 
 to go afterward to the opera! I am asking your 
 cousins Mr. Thomas Halliday and Mr. Theobald ; and, 
 with the exception of one other man, we shall be quite 
 a family party. I am longing for an opportunity to 
 talk over with you the first news from our darling 
 wanderers. Believe me, yours faithfully, M. VERNON. 
 Thursday." 
 
 " M. Vernon, Thursday humph! Signs herself 
 like a duchess ; her name 7 s Martha Luella Ann," ob 
 served Betty, throwing the note upon the table in the 
 up-stairs sitting-room where the ladies Halliday were 
 wont to read, sew, write notes, discuss their friends, 
 and dictate to the day-dressmaker. "Family party, 
 indeed ! I knew we d be plunged into a bosom 
 friendship. I don t believe Anthony Theobald would 
 be caught at a Vernon dinner." 
 
 19 
 
20 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " Oh, yes, lie would," cried Trix, coming in equipped 
 for a walk with her fox-terrier around the square. " I 
 saw him after the play last night, looking wretched, 
 really and he asked me if we are going, and said 
 he will be there." 
 
 " Then I suppose you approve of our making friends 
 with Mammon?" said Betty to her mother. "Don t 
 you think it s enough for Nell to have set up her 
 golden calf ? Why can t we grovel in honest pauper 
 ism, and maintain our self-respect ? " 
 
 " My dear Betty ! " said Mrs. Halliday, compressing 
 her lips resignedly. She had long ago given up enter 
 ing the lists of discussion with her eldest daughter. 
 
 " I want to go," said Trix, stoutly. "I in dying to 
 see one of Mrs. Vernon s dinners, and to go to the 
 opera under the shadow of her new tiara. The news 
 papers say it s a second-hand crown of real royalty, 
 bought at a Paris sale." 
 
 " Well, her man is waiting, so make up your minds," 
 resumed Betty, sitting down at the davenport, and 
 dipping her pen in ink. "If the senders of invita 
 tions could hear the bickering they cause in families, 
 I don t think society would go on with such a rush. 
 So you insist on our accepting, mother ? " 
 
 " Not at all," answered Mrs. Halliday, plucking up 
 spirit. " Trix may, for we must keep in with Nell s 
 new people ; but you will, as usual, do exactly as you 
 please." 
 
 "It may end who knows? in Jerry s Aunt Try- 
 phena chaperoning us to a Patriarchs ," murmured 
 Betty, dashing off, as she had intended to do since 
 hearing that Theobald was to be of the party, a smooth 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 21 
 
 acceptance of Mrs. Vernon s courtesy. " I like l our 
 darling wanderers/ as if they were lost dogs ! " 
 
 To end the conversation, Mrs. Halliday took up a 
 newspaper addressed to her through the mail, and 
 tore from it the cover. Trix, departing with the note 
 and the terrier, did not see the white look that came 
 upon her mother s face, or hear the stifled exclamation 
 of dismay uttered by the poor lady as she dropped the 
 journal in her lap. 
 
 "What in the world ails you, mother?" began 
 Betty. 
 
 " Oh ! this is infamous," cried her mother. " Take 
 it away. I refuse to read another word mixing up 
 my daughter s name with the scandal about that de 
 Lancey woman s divorce. Betty, if Nell were to see 
 this, it would break her heart. Oh ! if her father had 
 been alive, they would never have dared of course 
 it is all a wretched lie about Jerry and Mrs. Smithson. 
 Jerry asked for her invitation, and Jerry is a gentle 
 man, at least. Betty, I ve no patience with you, stand 
 ing there like a stock." 
 
 For Betty, quite mistress of herself, had picked up, 
 smoothed out, and was reading the offending article 
 with a scornful little smile. It was one of those upas- 
 like exotics of modern society journalism, a two-col 
 umn account of the Vernon-Halliday nuptials, with 
 side-issues of biography of all concerned, set forth 
 with plentiful cheap wit, audacious statement, and 
 deadly innuendo. After disposing in short order of 
 the bridegroom s pretensions to social importance, and 
 affecting to voice the surprise of good society that 
 the bride s family should have so frankly displayed 
 2* 
 
22 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 its inability to resist a golden bait, it went on to give 
 at length the history of Mr. Gerald Vernon s late well- 
 known infatuation for "our most recent and distin 
 guished divorcee." 
 
 " That s a fin-de-siecle phrase/ quoth Betty, coolly, 
 laying down the journal without an added tinge upon 
 her cheek. " My dear little mammy, don t take the 
 thing so hard. Everybody will read it, of course, and 
 enjoy it thoroughly." 
 
 " Betty, how can you ? I shall have to leave town, 
 certainly. I remember when I danced with the Prince 
 of Wales at the Academy ball, and my dress was de 
 scribed next day in the papers, your dear father was 
 so vexed, he wanted to go and overhaul the editor. 
 Our family could never bear to see women in print 
 oh ! we shall not be able to face the light of day. It 
 is bad enough to drag in this wretched Mrs. Smithson, 
 but imagine the outrage of saying Nell s f-father-in- 
 law married her m-mother-in-law from the wash-tub ! 
 Did you ever hear of such an abominable charge ? " 
 
 "No o," answered Betty. "I always thought it 
 was from a beauty-show. The wash-tub, now, seems 
 to me quite an advance in the social scale. Mother 
 dear, bear up. By the time you meet the people you 
 know again, they will have forgotten all about it. 
 This kind of pillory in print is too common in our 
 society to hurt anybody long. In next week s issue 
 of this charming sheet you may no doubt have the 
 pleasure of seeing some hit at the people who this 
 week laugh at you. Here, see me poke the wretched 
 thing into the hottest part of the fire ; and you take 
 Trix, and go out for a week to Lakewood." 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 23 
 
 "But Nell, my darling, sensitive Nell, suppose 
 she reads this cruel paragraph." 
 
 " I m not in the least afraid of Nell seeing anything 
 but the light that lies in Jerry s eyes, for I will give 
 her till the end of the honeymoon before taking up 
 human interests again. If Jerry sees it, he will prob 
 ably whistle and say a good many bad words. If Mrs. 
 Vernon sees it, it will do her good. That kind of 
 woman needs a little rap over the knuckles from time 
 to time, to keep her in her place." 
 
 " Betty ! " said Mrs. Halliday. She often felt that 
 there was a sort of monotony in these monosyllabic 
 rejoinders to her daughter s trenchant sentences. 
 
 MRS. VERNON S dinner was distinctly a success. To 
 meet Betty and Trix she had convened old Mr. Tom 
 Halliday, the cousin without reproach, who, it will be 
 remembered, had given Eleanor away at the altar; 
 Mr. Theobald, and an extremely nice young South 
 erner, whose father had been killed in the war, and 
 whose family was supposed to go back in an un 
 broken line to William the Conqueror, like all other 
 Virginians, present or to come. To this Mr. Brocken- 
 borough Vyvan, a broad-shouldered, soft- voiced youth, 
 Trix was assigned, and while secretly wondering where 
 Mrs. Vernon had got him, the little minx was taking 
 his measure and deciding that he pleased her, which, 
 happily, is all a healthy girl in her first season gener 
 ally cares to ascertain. Betty, going in with Theobald, 
 was eminently suited and almost amiable. Old Tom, 
 seated at Mrs. Vernon s right, fell into a doze after 
 the first entree, but waked up every time the servant 
 
24 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 appeared at his elbow with a new dish, and, for the 
 rest, let the widow talk in a constant stream which 
 led her to declare to his young cousins afterward that 
 he was really one of the most agreeable " dinner men " 
 in town. 
 
 The dining-room, hung with tapestries and opening 
 into a great conservatory, the perfection of plate, por 
 celain, wines, and service were noteworthy, even in 
 extravagant New York. Betty, recalling, as under 
 such circumstances guests inevitably will, the story 
 of Mrs. Vernon s origin, and her recent struggles for 
 social recognition, marveled at the ease, even ele 
 gance, with which she now presided. She could not, 
 at a bird s-eye view, behold much difference between 
 this and a similar dinner before the opera a few 
 nights ago, in the penetralia of good society. She 
 remembered having heard some one say that "poor 
 Mrs. Vernon had had absolutely no chance while her 
 husband lived a crass vulgarian, sure to put his foot 
 into everything ; a typical American, like a commer 
 cial advertisement at the back of a magazine." The 
 time lost in mourning him had been spent by the 
 widow abroad, and in bringing up his son. And it 
 was not till Gerald left college, and got in with the 
 mothers and sisters of his fashionable friends, that 
 the Vernons actually came up for notice. Even then, 
 he was invited, she ignored. The great fine house, 
 into which she did not choose to bid the half-way 
 people who would have been glad to go, was like a 
 prison, in dreariness. Jerry s men came and went to 
 and from his suite of rooms on the third floor, but 
 never put in an appearance in his mother s drawing- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 25 
 
 room. This, at least, was what Betty Halliday had 
 heard. She saw that on the wave of Jerry s marriage 
 into one of the " really good old " families Mrs. Yernon 
 had resolved to ride into the haven of her hopes. And 
 Betty could not but admit that she was doing this 
 thing with a good deal of cleverness. 
 
 " What an exchange from our shabby house to such 
 splendor ! " remarked Betty, in a low tone. " I m 
 rather glad Nell is to have a more modest establish 
 ment of her own. One can never keep up a friend 
 ship with riches that slap you in the face." 
 
 "She is the one woman I ever saw who would 
 always, rich or poor, be herself/ Theobald said, and 
 then, relapsing into his usual impassive manner, 
 turned the talk into another channel. " Speaking of 
 homes, the site of this is where the old Sydney War- 
 dour house used to stand ; and twenty years ago it was 
 a center of hospitality in New York, and accounted 
 the height of fashion. How homely their entertain 
 ments would seem beside such as these, and how 
 cramped their quarters ! " 
 
 " What has become of the Sydney Wardours ? " said 
 Betty. " One rarely hears their name." 
 
 " What has become of all our once prominent fam 
 ilies of moderate wealth who are submerged in the 
 flood-tide of plutocracy? Either broken to pieces in 
 the attempt to keep up, or the heads of the families 
 dead, and the younger ones reduced to insignificance." 
 
 " The way we live now certainly does n t incline one 
 to indifference to wealth," she said. " The young men 
 I know are most of them on the qui rive to help along 
 their fortunes by a rich marriage ; and as to the girls, 
 
26 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 it is no longer a support they expect from their hus 
 bands, but unlimited opportunity." 
 
 " Then it is well a woman like Hildegarde de Lancey 
 comes a cropper now and then, to point a moral for 
 the rest." 
 
 " I don t see what you call coming a cropper," re 
 torted Betty, scornfully. " She is more in demand 
 than any one I know in the smart set, I mean. Old- 
 fashioned people like my mother hold up their hands, 
 but society our society, the society caresses her, 
 and condones what they are pleased to call her mis 
 fortunes. She is immensely in the swim. She was 
 the bright star of a dinner the other night at the 
 Bullions 7 , where six out of the twelve guests are living 
 apart from their legal partners, owing to infelicities 
 too numerous to cite." 
 
 " By Jove, we are catching up with Chicago," said 
 Theobald. "Did you see the squib in one of the 
 papers recently, where an English traveler asks Mrs. 
 Lakeside if she has been presented yet at court ? My 
 gracious ! yes, indeed/ she answers ; l every judge in 
 the city knows me ; 1 7 ve been divorced three times. 7 " 
 
 "Tony, tell me something," Betty pursued more 
 gravely. " You must know how people talk. Is there 
 any reason why Nell should no; I can t ask you 
 here. But I think we can count upon you to keep us 
 warned. One don t want to be made a fool of before 
 the world ; and you know you always were so fond of 
 Nell." 
 
 Theobald drank off at a draught his newly filled 
 tazza of champagne before he answered, with a laugh : 
 
 " I think Mrs. de Lancey will find it to her advan- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 27 
 
 tage to keep quiet for a while. Let us talk of some 
 thing pleasanter Trix, for instance. That tete-a-tete 
 with the athletic youngster yonder does n t promise 
 well for the chances of Mr. Timothy Van Loon." 
 
 " Oh, Trix is hopelessly unworldly. The Van Loon 
 connection does n t tempt her in the least. Timothy, 
 as to whom, since they got him away from the ballet- 
 girl he wanted to marry in Paris a year ago, his fam 
 ily have decided that he can t do better than take up 
 with one of ours, is densely unconscious of the fact 
 that Trix considers him a booby and a bore. However, 
 we don t know what a year s apprenticeship to society 
 may do for our debutante. She may wake up to her 
 advantages in time." 
 
 "WHAT a very long name you have!"- Trix had 
 progressed so far as to be saying to her neighbor, 
 Mr. Brockenborough Vyvan, whose dinner-card her 
 eye had lighted upon. 
 
 " Yes ; our hostess has given me the full benefit of 
 it. It was worse than that once. Reginald Alfred I 
 was christened, after two uncles ; but the fellows at 
 college called me Brock, and when I came to New 
 York to go into the offices of Clyde, Lawrence & 
 Clyde, they are building Mrs. Vernon s new house at 
 Lenox, you know, I cut loose from all the rest. I 
 was sent by the firm once to wait upon a millionaire 
 client, a rough old hay-seed, whom I found studying 
 my card. Look a-here, young feller, he remarked, 
 by way of greeting, if you re goiii to make your 
 livin out of us everage American citizens, take -my 
 advice and drop them tenderfoot frills off 11 your 
 
28 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 name. It 11 be worth many a dollar in your pocket, 
 if you do. 7 And I did." 
 
 The girl s merry laugh rang out. 
 
 " Which was your university ? " she asked, helping 
 herself to something that tottered in a silver dish. 
 
 " Yale, of course/ 7 he answered, with proud promp 
 titude. 
 
 "Why, it can t be you are of course you are 
 Vyvan, 7 8-, the half-back that made the famous run 
 at the Polo grounds, and won our game against 
 Princeton ! 77 
 
 " Did you happen to be there ? 77 
 
 " I should say so ! Jack and I were on top of a 
 coach waving blue silk handkerchiefs ; and I fairly 
 shouted myself hoarse for you. To tell you the 
 honest truth, when I saw you in that awfully dirty 
 canvas jacket and trousers, chewing gum, just before 
 you kicked the final goal, I thought 1 7 d rather know 
 you than anybody in the world. 77 
 
 Vyvan tingled with satisfaction, to the ears. 
 
 " And who is Jack, if I may ask ? 77 
 
 " In the Yale catalogue, John Livingston Halliday, 
 of the Freshman class my brother, and the best 
 friend 1 7 ve got. 77 
 
 " Yes, I know. He 7 s the fellow who brought to 
 college from St. Peter s a reputation for rowing, and 
 is talked of as likely to get a seat in the bow of this 
 year s boat." 
 
 "I should say there is no doubt of that," said 
 Beatrix, tossing her head complacently. "Jack cap 
 tained the winning Matlock six last year. I wish you 
 could see his arm muscle. It is very nice that he is 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 29 
 
 pleased with Yale. He really likes it tremendously, 
 I think." 
 
 "Does he?" said the amused alumnus. 
 
 " Oh, yes. He is pledged to < Hay Boolay. " 
 
 " Ah ? That was my l spot/ too. 77 
 
 "Was it? I m so glad. And I m hoping and 
 praying Jack will get into Sk What Senior Society 
 were you in, Mr. Vyvan. ? Oh ! What have I said ? 
 I beg your pardon/ and, coloring with mortification 
 at her heedless allusion to esoteric mysteries never to 
 be uttered, she remained silent ; nor was serenity re 
 stored until Vyvan led the talk into a discussion of 
 the students ball known as the Junior Promenade. 
 
 " She is as fresh as a daisy in the grass/ reflected 
 Brock. " I did n t believe it possible of a girl in soci 
 ety here. Queer thing she should have seen me make 
 that run. But what have I to do with girls ? It 11 
 be a long day before I can cast a second look at any 
 of the little dears/ ended this philosopher of twenty- 
 four. 
 
 "Such delightful spirits has I suppose I may say 
 our little cousin Trix," murmured Mrs. Vernon, turn 
 ing to Theobald. " I was remarking only yesterday 
 to Mrs. Vane-Benson that all of the Halliday girls are 
 so very different, and each so charming, so individual. 
 People will ask me if Trix is going to marry Mr. 
 Timothy Van Loon. I hardly think that fair to one 
 of the family, do you ? " 
 
 Mr. Theobald adjusted his monocle in his right eye, 
 and looked at his hostess narrowly. He was a delib 
 erate man, and her quick attack found him without a 
 suitable reply. In his soul he was saying, " She is an 
 
30 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 amazing woman j and, upon my word, I believe she 11 
 win." 
 
 As for Coitsin Tom, the old gentleman was already 
 captive to the widow s wines and the excellence of her 
 cookery. He did not know that her chef, who was 
 a sympathetic soul as well as a master of the art of 
 fencing, had composed the menu of this little enter 
 tainment under the title of a " Petit assaut d armes." 
 M. Alcide, with the rest of Mrs. Yemen s numerous 
 retinue, perfectly understood the conditions of the 
 case. 
 
 When they came out from dinner, the men to pass 
 into a Pompeian smoking-room, their hostess brought 
 her party to a halt in a little ante-chamber purposely 
 left in shadow theretofore. There was a general ex 
 clamation of surprise. Facing each other on the wall- 
 spaces, hung full-length portraits of Gerald and his 
 mother, the frames sunk in maroon draperies that, 
 lighted with electricity above, gave the startling effect 
 of living presences in the group. 
 
 "Of course you recognize the artist?" said Mrs. 
 Vernon, modestly. " They have but just come home 
 from his atelier, and I could not deny myself the 
 pleasure of seeing how they strike my guests." 
 
 "Strike me? They make me shiver," whispered 
 Betty to Theobald. "If that man had painted Dr. 
 Jekyll, people would have been sure to see in it the 
 monster Hyde. They say he employs a little some 
 body with horns to come up through a trap-door and 
 paint his eyes for him. The frankness of these is 
 positively brutal." 
 
 The portrait of Mrs. Vernon represented that lady 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 31 
 
 standing in a gown of pinkish mauve satin, superbly 
 rendered and full of glancing lights, against a back 
 ground of azaleas of a purplish pink a resplendent 
 burst of color, and of an originality in technic that 
 bespoke a master hand. But no one, brought face to 
 face with it for the first time, could fail to perceive 
 the fatal note of bourgeoisie it betrayed the audacious 
 revelation of untamed savagery beneath this wealth 
 of flaunting beauty. 
 
 Gerald s portrait, on the other hand, was his living, 
 breathing self, handsome and high-bred, with the dash 
 of an hidalgo of old Spain. But Gerald s mother was 
 not prepared for the effect it was to have on Trix. 
 
 " Oh ! no, no ! " cried the girl, putting her hands 
 before her eyes. " That is not Jerry. It is somebody 
 who has a cold heart, who is violent and self-willed, 
 and would sacrifice any one he loves. I am sorry I 
 looked at it, to have such a fancy get into my head." 
 
 "It is the old story," began Theobald, in the em 
 barrassed silence produced by Trix s plain speaking. 
 "Half the people one knows are at war with their 
 portraits sent home from famous studios. In an age 
 that has seen obloquy cast on an example of Meis- 
 sonier " 
 
 But Mrs. Vernon was not at once to be appeased 
 by polite generalities. She was evidently ruffled, and 
 in need of tangible consolation to recover her usual 
 balance. 
 
 Fortunately, this was not long in coming to her. 
 When they reached the opera-house, and settled with 
 the fashionable swan-like pose into their chairs, Betty 
 Halliday, who was in a line with Mrs. Vernon Trix, 
 
32 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 rosy and brilliant, between the two found herself in 
 the box adjoining that of the social autocrat, Mrs. 
 Van Shuter, known to the scoffers in the parquet as 
 one of the " chatterboxes " in the parterre. Poor Mrs. 
 Vernon, whose money had not yet purchased for her 
 the right to disturb her neighbors with vapid con 
 versation, had hitherto been obliged to remain in de 
 pressing silence through long evenings of metaphys 
 ics set to music. In despair she had secured a score, 
 and tried to pose as a virtuosa in Wagner s music ; 
 but the effort proved too fatiguing, and she gave it 
 up. Thus, she had returned to the privilege of study 
 ing every crease and surge of the fat Van Shuter back 
 as it appeared overlapping a tightly laced corsage ; 
 the clasps of the various Van Shuter necklaces ; the 
 thin, flaxen Van Shuter hair, strained up over a pink 
 ish cranium, and surmounted by plumes and jewels. 
 All these were familiar spectacles, but she could not 
 truthfully aver that she had seen the near front of the 
 lady who sat through the opera-season like Buddha, 
 vast, placid, twinkling with gems, satisfied to exist 
 and to let herself be worshiped. During the weeks 
 past, Mrs. Vernon had vicariously enjoyed reports, 
 vouchsafed by Mrs. Van Shuter to her visitors, of 
 Mrs. Van Shuter s attack of grippe, of Mr. Van 
 Shuter s attack of grippe, and of the inroads of grippe 
 on the constitution of Mrs. Van Shuter s confidential 
 maid. 
 
 " l Dawson, said I," had floated in from the great 
 lady s box, " if, when you first begin to sneeze, you 
 will clap a porous plaster on 3 7 our chest, grease your 
 nose with mutton tallow, and take ten grains of qui- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 33 
 
 nine, you will certainly feel better the next day. 7 But 
 Dawson was obstinate, and the result was what you 
 know." 
 
 This much, even, had Mrs. Vernon been allowed to 
 overhear but alas ! not as one privileged to sorrow 
 with the sufferer. It would have been so sweet to 
 breathe sympathy for Dawson into the ear of Daw- 
 son s mistress ! 
 
 To-night, things were different. When Mrs. Vernon, 
 wearing the renowned tiara, faultlessly gowned in 
 modest pearl-color, appeared before the eyes of the 
 multitude, leading old New York in chains, many ob 
 servers took note of it, and resolved to leave on the 
 morrow their tardy cards at Mrs. Vernon s door. Mrs. 
 Floyd-Curtis, herself a lady recently promoted, men 
 tally booked the widow for a dinner three weeks off. 
 And, better than all, the ample bulk of the Idol turned 
 slowly upon its satin-cushioned pivot, and Mrs. Van 
 Shuter actually nodded and smiled toward Mrs. Ver 
 non s box. 
 
 " You have not dined with me this year," she said to 
 old Tom Halliday. To Theobald, over Betty s shoulder, 
 " When are you coining to finish our nice talk about 
 German baths? You are looking badly, and I wish 
 you would try my little Doctor Bangs. He has done 
 Mr. Van Shuter good, and he is doing Dawson good." 
 Then to Betty, graciously, " You have heard from your 
 sister ? Florida, I am told. It was in Florida I caught 
 the cold that lasted till after Easter of last year in 
 our own car, really. Who is the young man with 
 Trix? Somebody brought him to my party before 
 the last yes, Vyvan, I remember; I shall have him 
 3 
 
34 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 written in The Book, and you may present Mrs. 
 Veriion to me, if yon like, my dear." 
 
 A few off-hand words from Betty, and the deed 
 was done. Mrs. Van Shuter lifted her heavy eyelids, 
 ducked her double chin ; Mrs. Vernon s color rose, and 
 her tiara tipped forward. Mrs. Vernon had crossed 
 the Rubicon. Dick Henderson and Freddy de Witt 
 rehearsed it afterward at the club, and a number of 
 lorgnons took in the fact. But Mrs. Van Shuter s 
 condescension did not stop at this. 
 
 " Your mother got the notice of the meeting at my 
 house on Friday of next week ? " she asked of Betty. 
 " Tell her I count on her. There are so many coming 
 who won t signify. It is to be a talk from that Mrs. 
 Duncombe, the new woman who has had such success 
 with the lower classes." 
 
 "What does she do to the lower classes?" Betty 
 inquired. 
 
 "Oh! er everything; it is a scheme for making 
 working- women understand their legal rights against 
 their husbands." 
 
 "I should think her chief trouble would be from 
 the married couples between whom she interferes." 
 
 "Eh? oh ! She says with a Fund an immense deal 
 may be done. I made her understand that I can t be 
 looked to to give money, with all I have to do. But 
 I said they may meet first in my Empire room, and I 
 let Miss Thompson write the notices." 
 
 " I suppose we shall know, when we get there, what 
 it is all about," said Betty, fearlessly. 
 
 " Yes, certainly. There are to be flowers distributed 
 among the poor, in pots with little pamphlets revised 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 37 
 
 by lawyers. Perhaps Mrs. ah Vernon would like 
 to come. If she would like to come, I don t mind tell 
 ing Miss Thompson to write a card for her." 
 
 She might j I don t know," said Betty. " She s 
 awfully rich, and very generous. But I very much 
 doubt her going unless you first call on her." 
 
 A surprised look made itself manifest upon the 
 Idol s large pink face. But, then, everybody in town 
 knows it was pains thrown away to be affronted by 
 Betty Halliday. 
 
 " But you know, my dear, I never go in anywhere. 
 And my first footman, James, engaged with me never 
 to leave the box to ring a bell, except in an emer 
 gency." 
 
 "Tell James this is a very great emergency. I 
 think, if you re economically inclined, you 11 find it 
 pay," said Betty Halliday, by whom it was pains 
 thrown away to feel affronted. 
 
Ill 
 
 ELL," said Gerald, who was sitting 
 by his wife on the veranda of a 
 Florida hotel, "I never told yon 
 that, as we drove away from the 
 house the day of the wedding to 
 cateh the Southern train yon know 
 it had begun to rain I saw Tony Theobald striding 
 around the corner without an umbrella, and his face 
 as black as thunder. Queer Dick, is Theobald. Don t 
 suppose he d been having a row with anybody, do 
 you?" 
 
 " Oh, impossible," said Nell. 
 
 She had her lap full of spring flowers, had been 
 awakened by a mocking-bird trilling on the bough of 
 an orange- tree that swept her window, was breathing 
 softest air, looking under a blue Italian sky across the 
 sparkling wavelets of a lovely lake. Gerald was at 
 her side, heaven in her heart. She dismissed the 
 subject of Theobald as she had all other clouds that 
 drifted across the azure of her empyrean. 
 
 " Suppose we go out on the water," Gerald proposed 
 after a lazy silence. 
 
 "Delicious. It is what I like best. Shall you 
 row?" 
 
 "No; let s have one of those black fellows, one 
 38 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 39 
 
 who sings, and loaf along till we feel like landing. 
 What are you going in for ? " 
 
 "To get parasol and gloves, of course. Anything 
 you want ? " 
 
 " Seems to me we might as well have left that pair 
 of menials at home, for all the waiting on we get/ 
 said Gerald. " My man, when he s not smoking my 
 cigarettes, is asleep and your Swede sits reading Sea 
 side Libraries when she is n t at her meals." 
 
 " Do you know, Gerald, there s something a little 
 queer about that girl. She told me last night, when 
 she was brushing out my hair, that she thinks Florida 
 is stupid ; that is to say, not stupid, but that there 
 is a great deal of sand here, and the negroes and alli 
 gators are very much alike. Fancy finding Florida 
 stupid ! " 
 
 " Well, if the woman has nothing to do, and nobody 
 to make love to her, perhaps the situation is different 
 hi her eyes. I m afraid Hughes is a confirmed old 
 bachelor ; besides, he had a breach-of -promise suit in 
 England once, and won t look at a woman since." 
 
 " Jerry, that reminds me, before I go there s time 
 enough, is n t there ? " 
 
 " Bless yon, yes. There s as much time as there is 
 sand, in Florida." 
 
 "Now that you have spoken about your valet I 
 don t like to seem suspicious, but, really, there was 
 rather a strange thing happened yesterday. You 
 know, when the breeze fell, and you were kept out 
 fishing with those men so much longer than you ex 
 pected, I got a little nervous and fussy, and I went 
 into your room and began turning over the things on 
 
40 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 your dressing-table. I found there the necktie I like 
 so much, the dark blue with the white speckles that 
 you >d taken off when you changed to flannels, and, 
 just to comfort myself a little, I I " 
 
 " Well you you " 
 
 " I kissed it ; and, happening to look in the glass, I 
 saw behind me Hughes, who had come into the room 
 in that noiseless way of his " 
 
 "That 7 s his specialty; commands extra wages 
 always. And Hughes did what?" 
 
 " Oh, he did nothing j but I caught an expression 
 in his eye that I thought strange and sinister. When 
 I turned around, rather sharply for me, he begged par 
 don, and did I know that the sail-boat was in sight ? 
 Of course this was a trifling circumstance, but I could 
 not mistake that very peculiar look " 
 
 "Nell, I Ve a secret to tell you. You are a little 
 gull. Hughes is the salt of the earth, as valets go ; 
 supports an old mother in England, and all that ; and 
 now you re going to be furious I Ve seen that 
 expression on his face a thousand times, it s when 
 he s trying to hold in a laugh ! " 
 
 " Jerry, I did n t think you could be so mean. If 
 we re to be spied upon, I wish we d left Hughes and 
 Elsa in New York. Ever since old Norah had rheu 
 matism I Ve waited on myself ; and 1 m always think 
 ing how I should love to lay out your things for you." 
 
 " If you say so, I 11 send em both out in a leaky 
 boat, and swamp them in the lake j though it would 
 be easier to ship them home by train. Only, if we do, 
 we 11 be guyed awfully. As you are passing the desk, 
 ask if the post is in." 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 41 
 
 " O Jerry, we don t want any letters, and I have n t 
 looked at a paper since the day after the wedding, 
 when I saw those two nightmares purporting to be us, 
 between a member of the rogues gallery and some 
 body who makes three-dollar shoes." 
 
 " Well, they have done with us now. We are back 
 numbers, and not wanted at any price. We may as 
 well enjoy the woes of our successors. When I went 
 to school in England a little American chap turned 
 up who wrote to his governor in London : Dear 
 Father : If you don t take me away, I 11 run away. 
 Every fellow in the school has kicked me since I 
 came ! At the end of a week he wrote again : i Dear 
 Father: I like it better than I did. A new fellow 
 came to-day, and we ve all kicked him ! 
 
 It was three weeks after the legitimate ending of 
 the honeymoon, and they had been knocking around 
 Florida, shunning the haunts of men and the beaten 
 tracks of travel. For a time it had seemed as if they 
 would need an eternity of isolation in which merely to 
 discuss their reminiscences of meeting and falling in 
 love. They took into the woods books and magazines, 
 and read them upside down ; invented childish devices 
 to test and fathom their love for each other ; spent 
 hours in profound analyses and glorifications of each 
 other, as to character and qualities. Gerald was aston 
 ished and, to his credit be it said, delighted with the 
 crystal purity and grand directness of his wife s na 
 ture. He had never imagined a woman like her, and 
 told himself that he would forever worship this Brun- 
 hilda as she deserved. And every day Eleanor s heart, 
 shy and a little slow to expand in the new relation, 
 
42 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 grew to a broader understanding of and a greater 
 reverence for the marriage bond. She thought of her 
 mother s loss of a noble husband with new tears and 
 with self-reproach that she had not bestowed on it 
 enough of tender sympathy. Poor darling mama! 
 To have had and lost, to have borne such anguish 
 and survived it ! 
 
 Eleanor s mind roved continually over the field of 
 her acquaintance, trying to understand the apparent 
 indifference to each other of most husbands and wives, 
 the sharp words, the strained civilities, the perpetual 
 friction upon minor points. She recalled how she 
 had heard women fashion their own matrimonial dif 
 ferences into witty stories for the amusement of their 
 listeners. How could it be that this had seemed to 
 her merely a matter of poor taste; had repelled her 
 only because of her constitutional reserve and horror 
 of public comment ? Now, it was as if a guardian of 
 the holy of holies had seen some rude hand laid upon 
 his treasure ; she felt profaned, outraged, by the 
 memory of things heard which she for the first time 
 understood. 
 
 Jerry, who, we may be sure, received his full share 
 of the outpourings of her heart upon these themes, 
 was startled at her vehemence. The daily efflores 
 cence of her beauty in her great love laid hold on and 
 bewitched him utterly. Compared with the other 
 women he had known, she was unique. Over and 
 over again, when tempted to give some light answer 
 to what he inwardly styled " her impossible theories," 
 he was silenced by her lofty soul looking from its 
 windows into his. He had a vague sense that he was 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 43 
 
 ashamed to lay bare before such a gaze what his real 
 man contained of unbelief and materialism on these 
 points. And every now and again there crept into 
 his mind a feeble wish that his wife would be a little 
 less intense. 
 
 But she did not come back to him, after never so 
 brief an absence, that his admiration was not stirred ; 
 and when she now returned, holding a sheaf of letters, 
 and standing beside him to distribute them, the light 
 touch of her garments thrilled him tenderly as he sat 
 looking up into the morning freshness of her face. 
 
 " One from mama, one from Trix all these for you, 
 but only one that looks a bit interesting a Florida 
 postmark, a swell envelope, and crest. Why, Jerry, 
 who has found us out?" 
 
 "It 7 s a bore this getting letters, as you say," he 
 answered, thrusting his batch into his breast-pocket, 
 without noticing her question. " Shall I take yours 
 too ? Of course you Ve no pocket in that stunning 
 tailor-made thing ; but I forgive you, for it fits like a 
 glove. Come, now, the day is well along." 
 
 Hughes rallied to the effort of spreading a rug in 
 the bottom of the boat, and saw them off most affably 
 Nell, in her "tailor-made thing" of old-rose cloth 
 picked out with silver, making, under her big hat, a 
 picture her lazy lord was satisfied to scan to the exclu 
 sion of Floridian scenery. A handsome negro, like 
 the Farnese Hercules in bronze, who reminded them 
 also of Tamagno in "Otello," his pink cotton shirt 
 open to show his massive chest, his eyeballs and ivo 
 ries flashing good-fellowship handled the oars. Over 
 a sheet of rippled blue, broken here and there by the 
 
44 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 snout of a traveling gator, and ringed with tropic 
 foliage springing from golden sands, they dawdled 
 idly, until the increasing vigor of the orb of day caused 
 Jerry to break into irreverent quotation : 
 
 The sun s perpendicular heat 
 Illumines the depths of the sea, 
 And the fishes "beginning to 
 
 " Not another word/ 7 said Nell. " You rob the hour 
 of its sentiment. Let us go ashore at yonder point. 
 I know a wood that is like the one wherein the poet 
 dreamed of fair women ; 
 
 " There is no motion in the dumb dead air, 
 Nor any song of bird or sound of rill." 
 
 Their way led through the aisle of an orange-grove, 
 its darkly shining leafage starred with white blossoms, 
 and dotted with golden globes. Here and there a rain 
 of Cherokee rose petals fell upon their path. An in 
 toxicating fragrance filled the air to oppression, and 
 clung to their hair and clothes. It was a relief to 
 pass out into the dim wood beyond, and to rest on the 
 grassless border of a still pool, as green as jade stone, 
 an almost perfect circle, and exquisitely clear. Here, 
 seated upon the rug, Jerry smoking a cigarette at her 
 feet, Eleanor read her home letters, tasting them lei 
 surely, and putting them back into their envelopes 
 with a loving touch. 
 
 " Those dear people ! How good and sweet they 
 are, and yet, somehow, their letters seem to draw me 
 back into that busy selfish world we have been trying 
 to forget. Jerry, it is your turn now. Open your 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 45 
 
 budget, and while you are busy, I 11 finish this story 
 I began nearly six weeks ago." 
 
 " I call it playing it pretty low down on an author 
 to take him along for honeymoon literature," Jerry 
 said, making no motion to obey. 
 
 " Read, Jerry dear read your letters. Perhaps 
 there is something in them to entertain me with." 
 
 Gerald laughed a little constrainedly. 
 
 " The serpent has entered Eden. Confess, Nell, that 
 you are dying of curiosity about the one with a Flor 
 ida postmark, in a man s hand that you don t recog 
 nize, bearing a crest you never saw." 
 
 "Coming so soon after that mysterious telegram 
 that Hughes brought you yesterday, that seemed to 
 worry you, and that you tore into little bits and 
 dropped into the lake have n t I good right to be 
 suspicious ? " 
 
 " Why, did n t I tell you?" he said, sitting upright 
 and speaking rapidly, while devoting himself to pick 
 ing bits of moss and earth from his trousers. " That 
 telegram was from an old friend of mine who s down 
 here in his yacht man I saw last, strangely enough, 
 when we parted at Tangier, where we d come in with 
 a camel-train from Fez. You must do Tangier with 
 me next year, Nell, after we Ve finished Spain. Won 
 derful country Morocco is, though you d no doubt 
 like Spain better " 
 
 "And what is the old friend s name, Jerry, for I sup 
 pose he has one, although you neglect to mention it f " 
 
 "Best fellow in the world not a lady s man ex 
 actly, and I m not quite sure how you and he will hit 
 it off," he answered airily. "But he s the kind of 
 
46 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 fellow I should n t like to offend was married a year 
 or so ago to the surprise of all his friends, and they re 
 down here at a bungalow he owns. The fact is, his 
 wife well, I m not sure you and she would hit it 
 off," Jerry repeated flatly, and conscious of the same. 
 
 " Oh, you foolish boy, as if I don t see you are try 
 ing to hide something. Why on earth don t you tell 
 me who it is ? " 
 
 " This is his letter in my pocket. The letter said 
 the telegram would follow, no, I mean the telegram 
 said the letter would follow, so I was expecting it, 
 you see. His wife has egged him on, no doubt ; they re 
 dead set on getting us to visit them, and, hang me, if 
 I see how I can get out of it, considering I m under 
 tremendous obligations to Shafto in the past " 
 
 " Shafto ? " said Eleanor, also sitting upright, a flush 
 coming into her face. "Not the man who married 
 that dreadful Mrs. King?" 
 
 " Well, if it comes to that," answered Gerald, a little 
 resentful of her tone, " she was, when he married her, 
 in exactly the same position as Mrs. Clare and Mrs. 
 Lovell and Mrs. Luddington ; all separated from their 
 husbands and married again with the sanction of holy 
 church. I don t claim that Mrs. Shafto is a nice woman 
 exactly, but the world has no right to accept the others 
 and taboo her." 
 
 " That Mrs. King ! " repeated Eleanor, with a cold 
 horror in her voice. " Why, when the papers were 
 filled every day with her divorce suit, my mother 
 burned them all, rather than let her children or ser 
 vants come upon them. The worst of it was, Mrs. 
 King is a sort of relative or protegee of our old Aunt 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 47 
 
 Penf old, who refused to believe anything against her 
 but my mother got up once and left a room when 
 Mrs. King came into it. Mama says she is an outrage 
 on society." 
 
 Poor Nell, who had unconsciously committed the 
 commonest error in tact of youthful wives, was quite 
 taken aback by the vexed note, despite its attempt at 
 pleasantry, of Gerald s answer : 
 
 " I should think a woman of the world would want 
 to receive her ideas of such things from her husband, 
 rather than hold on to the antiquated notions admin 
 istered to her with schoolroom pap." 
 
 "Oh, but, Jerry dear," she persisted archly, "is n t it 
 borne in on you by this time that I mean never to be 
 a woman of the world ? n 
 
 But Jerry refused to smile. It was not only that 
 he felt strongly the usual objection of his sex to oppo 
 sition in any form from hers; but the annoyance 
 of Shafto s telegram had culminated in the receipt 
 of this letter, about which he had foreseen that un 
 pleasant complications were likely to ensue. 
 
 " All the same, Nell, your mother belongs to another 
 world than yours and mine, now ; and sooner or later 
 you 11 come to recognize the fact. As long as I m 
 with you, and sanction it, it can do no harm for you 
 to mix a little with the friskies ; and in a case like this 
 it s a good work disguised, you know." 
 
 He had suppressed his first flash of resentment, and 
 Eleanor longed with all her heart to win back his 
 smiles by acquiescence. But the stern stuff that had 
 come down to her from a long line of Puritan ances 
 tors would admit of no tampering with conscience. 
 
48 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " Jerry darling," she said pleadingly, "you know 
 I don t need to repeat it that it would be a joy to 
 me to please you in this thing ; but, indeed, it would 
 do no good ; every instinct within me rebels against 
 such society. It don t amuse me ; and 1 7 m no actor 
 to cover what I feel. It is n t that I pretend to sit in 
 judgment on them or any one. But, if you love me, 
 don t spoil our life by bringing me into relations with 
 that kind of people." 
 
 " l That kind of people ! " said her husband, angrily. 
 " I wonder if it occurs to you that my habits are made, 
 my friends chosen that I can t throw over old chums 
 because they re not up to the Halliday standard." 
 
 " Why, Jerry ! " the girl said, in pained accents. So 
 suddenly had their difference arisen, she could hardly 
 believe her ears. 
 
 Gerald s eyes, fixed upon hers in displeasure, filled 
 her with dismay. And, withal, she had the feeling 
 one experiences in watching a pettish child in the 
 process of " working himself up." The whole matter 
 seemed too far beneath their love thus to imperil it. 
 Denied the privilege of a weaker woman of melting 
 easily and, at this stage of married life, effectively 
 into tears, she sat in silence, while he strolled to 
 some distance from the spot. 
 
IV 
 
 all appearance, Eleanor had hardly 
 moved since Gerald left her, when 
 he hurried back. 
 
 "I think you had better come 
 now," he said in a constrained voice. 
 " The wind is getting up, and it is 
 no fun pulling across these lakes in the teeth of a 
 blow." 
 
 They found the negro curled fast asleep in the boat 
 hauled up on the beach, and, when aroused, he looked 
 critically at the sky and water. 
 
 "I dunno, boss, how I kem to oversleep," he said. 
 "Reckon 7 t was dancin wid dem hotel gals at de 
 breakdown till sun-up dis mornin . I se jes got to 
 row f er all I se wuth to git you an de lady roun dat 
 p int." 
 
 a We 7 re all right," Jerry answered, with new anima 
 tion in his tone. Stripping off his flannel coat, loosen 
 ing his shirt at the neck, and tossing aside his cap, he 
 placed Nell in the stern of the boat, which the negro 
 had run swiftly down the diamond sand into the 
 water, and, when they took their places, possessed 
 himself of a pair of oars, and the seat nearer his wife. 
 Without further warning the lake now whipped 
 4 49 
 
50 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 itself into an angry sea. The cumbrous boat, labor 
 ing against a wind so chilled and fierce that it might 
 have caressed an iceberg on the way, cut the waves 
 briskly. Jerry, no longer the faineant of the morning, 
 alert, vigilant, prodigal of his great strength, his bare 
 head rough, his brown cheeks reddened, his eye gleam 
 ing, moved his shoulders and steel-strung arms with 
 the swing of a perfect machine. The negro, to whose 
 experience hitherto it had not fallen to entertain the 
 ex-stroke of a varsity crew unawares, gaped in open- 
 mouthed admiration, trying to conform his slouching 
 methods to Jerry s science. Eleanor, powdered with 
 spray, disheveled by wind, huddled under her rug 
 almost as excited as was the bow-oar. Sorrow ban 
 ished, her heart swelled with pride in her gallant, 
 beautiful young mate. No thought of danger assailed 
 her with Jerry to the fore. She rejoiced in the mad 
 bout against wind and waves. When, finally, they 
 pulled in to the hotel-landing, and Jerry hoisted her 
 upon the wharf from the little bobbing craft, she was 
 too happy to notice at once the anxious faces gathered 
 there, peering at a sail-boat far out upon the lake. 
 
 "It s a boy, the son of the widow stopping at the 
 hotel. She s out driving, and knows nothing. All 
 the other rowboats are away with a big party to 
 Heron Bluffs. He s a green hand, an 11 swamp, sure 
 as a gun." 
 
 These bits of information, afforded by one and an 
 other of the group of watchers, had but reached Elea 
 nor s understanding, when she saw Gerald with a quick 
 glance at the situation make ready to reembark. 
 
 "Who 11 come out with me " Jerry had begun, 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 51 
 
 and the big boatman had answered, "I se yo man, 
 boss. 1 se good f er it, if you is/ when a flying form 
 came down the path from the hotel. It was the boy s 
 mother, her face gray with terror, her lips hardly able 
 to frame a question. With instinctive tenderness, 
 Eleanor put an arm around the poor creature s waist, 
 and allowed the agonized face to hide itself upon her 
 breast as the boat pushed off. 
 
 She got no good-by from her husband. He was 
 rowing for dear life, and yet it seemed intolerably 
 slow progress to the lookers-on, who alternately 
 watched his boat and the little reeling speck of white 
 out on the yeasty water, under which they could 
 plainly see a slight figure crouched against the mast. 
 
 IT was over at last, the ordeal of waiting. Eleanor, 
 who had closed her eyes and tightened her clasp 
 around the stranger in her arms, heard shout after 
 shout from the watchers announce that the lad was 
 saved. 
 
 " Here you are, youngster," Jerry said, later, thrust 
 ing the dripping boy into his mother s embrace. 
 " None the worse for your little adventure, if I have n t 
 made your head ache tugging at that tousled yellow 
 mop. For Heaven s sake, Nell, come along," he added, 
 sotto voce, shaking himself like a water-dog to get rid 
 at once of the wet, the pagans of lookers-on, and the 
 hysterical blessings of the mother. "All this fuss 
 about a pull such as I have often taken on rough 
 water and in greater danger; it was nothing. But 
 we timed it well, I must say, for the kid s boat cap 
 sized just as we reached the spot." 
 
52 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 Nevertheless, when they were alone in their own 
 room, Eleanor, who had kept down her feelings, cast 
 herself with sudden fervor upon her husband s neck. 
 
 " Hullo ! " said Jerry, good-humoredly. 
 
 " Oh, my own glorious darling ! " she cried. " How 
 could there have been a shadow between our hearts ? 
 Jerry, I don t believe I ever knew what love is, till 
 now ! 
 
DON T mind telling you, Nell," Ger 
 ald said the day following his ad 
 venture in the boat, "that Shafto, 
 who is the most generous fellow liv 
 ing, came to my aid once when I was 
 in the biggest kind of a scrape in 
 Paris hauled me out of it, set me on my feet, saved 
 me from having to appeal to my mother, who was 
 already cutting up pretty rough about my extrava 
 gance, et cetera. Would n t take thanks, much less 
 money though I ve squared that since bound me 
 over never to mention his name in the aifair. And 
 how was I to say a downright no to anything lie asked 
 me" 
 
 "Don t speak of it, dearest," she cried, growing pale 
 at the memory of their brief estrangement. "It s 
 I who was silly not to divine. What does anything 
 matter if we love and understand each other ? There, 
 give me his note again. On Thursday, by the 11.30 
 train to Badajoz, he says, to stay till Monday after 
 noon. Jerry, it s all settled, of course, dear. As you 
 say, we must make the best of it ; but don t you think 
 she they w r ould be satisfied if we left them on 
 Saturday f 
 
 4* 53 
 
54 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " Easy enough to manage that when we get there," 
 answered Jerry, in high good humor. "You brave 
 creature, you look like the leader of a forlorn hope." 
 
 " Oh, if you only knew," she said, leaning down to 
 rest her cheek on his, in the great need of love that 
 was to this woman, as to all women, the impulse over 
 powering judgment, "how wickedly happy I am in 
 doing what pleases you ! " 
 
 " You re a greenhorn to show your cards thus early 
 in the game/ he answered, feeling convinced, however, 
 that she was really a sage. "And about this visit to 
 the Shaftos bothering you, it really need n t be such a 
 bugbear if you go in for it pluckily. It may end in 
 quite a lark for you ; who knows ! " 
 
 Eleanor, in spite of her heroism, shivered a little 
 here. 
 
 " Oh, no, no ; 1 m rather a coward, Jerry, for all I 
 look so brave. For Major Shafto s sake, he must 
 be a noble if mistaken man, let us try to be resigned. 
 It will be a bore to you, Jerry ; I m sorry to think of 
 that. They have friends stopping there, he says a 
 small house-party. Now, who can her friends be ? " 
 
 " Your mother s Aunt Penfold, perhaps," suggested 
 Jerry, with malice prepense. 
 
 " You wretched boy, how dare you ! Aunt Penfold 
 is her godmother, I think, and there has always been 
 a dread in the family lest the old lady, who is what 
 Betty calls pig-headed, should leave all her money to 
 Sophy King Shafto, I mean. I saw her at Aunt 
 Penf old s in my school-girl days a showy creature 
 with black hair and snapping black eyes. I w T as wild 
 with ambition to dress like her, I remember." 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 55 
 
 " Her liair s red now, or blonded, as I believe you 
 women say, and she } s a bouncer in size and style. 
 I believe in my soul that Shafto married her because 
 he thought he d stand by her before the world. He s 
 an awful flat where women are concerned ; but he s 
 only to see you, to know you re of a different sort, 
 and he won t push the thing again. And she why, 
 you 11 no more mix than oil and water; she 11 be 
 wanting to get rid of you instead of holding on. 
 Don t bother your head about that, my pretty Puri 
 tan." 
 
 " But I can t help wondering why, when she knows 
 what mama has always thought of her, she should 
 want to get me to be her guest. O Jerry, you men 
 are bigger and broader than we ! Here am I, doubt 
 ing and suspecting, and you, having made up your 
 mind to do a generous thing, never change or falter, 
 but go straight ahead, almost as if you like the idea 
 of going to that racketing woman s house." 
 
 tl I forgot to say," he answered, waiving discussion 
 on the last suggested point, "you may as well prepare 
 yourself. I 11 bet ten to one Kitty Foote will be one 
 of their party." 
 
 " Kitty Foote ? " echoed Eleanor, faintly. 
 
 " She was traveling bridesmaid, or what do you call 
 it, on their late trip to Alaska, and she and Sophy 
 Shafto are as thick as thieves just now. Of course 
 that horsey, doggy kind of girl is n t to your taste, 
 but, at least, she s accepted everywhere. The Van 
 Loons had her at Newport stopping with them last 
 year, and she goes into the best houses. I think that 
 kind of boy in petticoats is a first-class bore, myself j 
 
56 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 and most men agree with me. They call her good 
 old Kitty/ at the clubs. She is n t clever, she s as ugly 
 as a mud-fence, and her people are of no consequence ; 
 but she 7 s invited more than any girl I know, simply 
 because she s a social stop-gap, and always can be 
 had." 
 
 " Is n t she the intimate friend of your friend Hilde- 
 garde de Lancey ? " asked Eleanor. 
 
 " 1 7 ve met her there," Jerry answered. " Look be 
 low, at this funny old darky, Nell, trying to get his 
 mule past the gate-post with a load of garden stuff. 
 He is remonstrating with the beast as if it were a 
 brother or a son." 
 
 The side window of their sitting-room looked down 
 upon a service road, leading between dwarf-oranges 
 and palmettos to the rear of the hotel. There was no 
 one in sight, and the voice of the gentle old negro, his 
 skin, hair, beard, and clothing alike as gray as the 
 hanging-moss of his native woods, was heard, uncon 
 scious of observation, in soft rebuke. 
 
 "Hi, muel! What you doin dar, muel? I done 
 told you bout dat ar pos day befo yistiddy." 
 
 "O Jerry dear, to think of leaving this Arcadian 
 place ! " said Nell, as the listeners laughed together. 
 "I shall always remember it as heaven on earth." 
 
 "If monotony s your standard " began he. 
 
 " Hush ! I forbid you," she said, putting her hand 
 over his mouth. 
 
 " For a man who is not running a railway, or boom 
 ing land, or growing oranges, or spooning " he 
 succeeded in getting out. 
 
 "Jerry!" 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 57 
 
 " The uses of rural Florida may be but " 
 
 " Oh, please don t, dearest ! What you are going 
 to say will give me a real pang. I don t know how it 
 is, but I am getting to be afraid to let you know how 
 much I think of things," she concluded irrelevantly. 
 
 " I know enough to be convinced that you are what 
 my mother s chef said of a salad of lettuce sprinkled 
 with fresh violets and old Bordeaux he sent up re 
 cently vraiment lyrique. There, let s kiss and be 
 friends, and forgive me for teasing you." 
 
 She stood a while with his arm around her waist, 
 looking out in the fullness of contentment at the 
 dancing waters of the lake under the white and green 
 and gold of an arch of orange-boughs. 
 
 " Only two days more of this, and then to the busy 
 world again," she murmured. "Who would believe 
 there is an actual New York ? How still it is to-day ! 
 One could almost hear a pin drop." 
 
 " No such good luck as to hear a pin drop," Jerry 
 laughed, taking out his watch, and discovering with 
 animation that he had just time to walk to the railway 
 station for the daily excitement of seeing the northern 
 train halt on its southward w r ay. 
 
 THERE was nothing lyrical in the next appearance 
 before the callous outside world of Mr. and Mrs. Ger 
 ald Vernon. They went down to Badajoz on the 11.30 
 train on Thursday, like any other pair of smart tour 
 ists, in a compartment to themselves, with the valet 
 and maid in seats just outside of it, those two long- 
 suffering underlings having the appearance of sub 
 dued rejoicing at a move in no matter what direction. 
 
58 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 The usual paraphernalia of silver-mounted traveling- 
 bags, rugs as soft as down, umbrellas, sticks, and 
 parasols strapped together into an obese roll, top 
 coats, and English waterproofs, littered their sofa and 
 filled their racks. The great bunch of violets that 
 Gerald had ordered to follow his wife during every 
 day of her absence from New York scattered its sweet 
 ness from the breast of Eleanor s jacket. The young 
 couple bore every mark of prosperous conventionality. 
 Nell, who in her secret soul would have preferred, at 
 that moment, to be sitting alone with Gerald on a 
 desert island, as Paul and Virginia are pictorially 
 seen, under the shelter of a single palm-leaf, could not 
 understand the rather exhilarated manner with which 
 her husband went off for a visit to the smoking-car, 
 "just to see if any one he knew was on the train." It 
 did not occur to her that Jerry, manlike, now that he 
 knew their dawdling time was over, rejoiced in their 
 swift rush onward, keenly relished contact with his 
 kind, and found new satisfaction in railway sights and 
 sounds. During their short expedition, he was liberal 
 to the porter to the extent of filling that sated soul 
 with gratitude, burdened Hughes and Elsa with " all 
 the latest novels and magazines," and, for one brief 
 moment, even felt a pang of regret that he could not 
 bring himself to make a purchase from the peddler of 
 travelers caps. 
 
 Badajoz, where the train, speeding on, left them 
 under the Queen Anne roof of a pretty little station, 
 was one of the speculative products of modern Flor 
 ida, a brand-new town, built on the edge of a little 
 sapphire lake where herons stalked, surrounded by 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 59 
 
 woods full of red-bud, with yellow jasmine garlanding 
 the trees, and all manner of sweet wild flowers sharing 
 an undergrowth with moccasins and black-snakes and 
 other reminders of a subtropical region. Streets and 
 town-lots, big with intention, were staked off on all 
 sides, but of actual village there was little, and what 
 there was bore the appearance of having been taken 
 out of packing-boxes, newly painted and varnished, 
 and set up over-night. Hidden by the station, Major 
 Shafto s dog-cart was in waiting, the Major himself 
 occupied with soothing a pair of fretting bays. He 
 was a bluif, bearded man, of a matter-of-fact demean 
 or, and as Eleanor accepted the seat beside him, Jerry 
 perching behind, and the servants following in a trap 
 with the grooms and luggage, she could hardly believe 
 that this commonplace personage was the hero of a 
 marriage as recklessly chivalric as that of any figure 
 in romance. While the horses, released from durance 
 and suspicion of the engine, shot forward on a sandy 
 road through the gloom of a pine-wood, she ventured 
 a glance sidewise at her charioteer, half expecting, as 
 Jerry afterward declared, " some development of the 
 bucaneer variety." It was almost a disappointment 
 that, what between her husband and the horses, their 
 host found time to bestow on her only a few of those 
 meager conventional civilities that make a woman 
 feel her presence thrown away. It was when they 
 turned in at an avenue hedged with oleander and 
 twinkling laurel that the first surprise was accorded 
 her. 
 
 " As I wrote you, there are people stopping here," 
 Major Shafto said indifferently. " Friends of my 
 
60 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 wife s, you know. Man you 7 ve met perhaps, Vernon, 
 
 Lord knows what women like in him, that Eng 
 lish fellow, Carteret Leeds ; then, Miss Foote and her 
 brother, and Mrs. de Laneey, that Mrs. Shafto wired 
 to come down from the Ponce de Leon; and so, 
 Beauty; quiet, Booty, you brute I believe young 
 Van Loon is due to-night." 
 
 "Timothy?" began Jerry, with a whistle, but the 
 horses, shying at a watering-pot supplementing a 
 wheelbarrow near the drive, obviated the necessity of 
 a reply. He was on the ground to help his wife when 
 they pulled up at the door. 
 
 An ideal retreat for Loves and Graces was the Bun 
 galow, massed in verdurous shrubbery, its slanting 
 roof and verandas overrun with Cherokee roses, be 
 tween tall palmetto-trees, under a sky of intense blue 
 
 sufficiently far from the madding crowd of Florida 
 tourists, and yet near enough for convenience; like 
 the " desert" of Lady Juliana, the spoiled London 
 beauty in Miss Ferrier s delightful old novel, " a beau 
 tiful place, all roses and myrtles, not absolutely out 
 of the world, where one can give fetes champetres and 
 dejeuners to one s friends." 
 
 It was a marvel to see how the ambulating proprie 
 tors, who had come south in their yacht not a fort 
 night before, had contrived to give the Bungalow an 
 air of luxurious finish, as if they had lived there since 
 the planting of the first vine. The broad veranda, 
 spread with rugs, had the customary array of little 
 tables containing brass pots of growing plants, re 
 views, magazines, and paper-knives, drawn up at the 
 elbows of wicker chairs, under hanging lamps set 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 63 
 
 with bosses of colored glass, and much ironmongery 
 in spirals and curlicues. There was a hammock of 
 yellow-and- white netting, dangling with tassels like 
 the mount of a Spanish muleteer ; and this was filled 
 with cushions of silk in rainbow hues. There were 
 screens and sofas, porcelain garden-seats, a medley of 
 the picturesque effects with which we are all familiar 
 nowadays. From somewhere at the rear of the house 
 arose the sound of voices over a game of tennis, and, 
 issuing from a hall crowded with Japanese curios, 
 appeared a smug butler attended by a fresh-faced 
 young underling in maroon livery with a striped 
 waistcoat, both of whom might have just emerged 
 from a class-meeting, so guileless did they appear. 
 Eleanor, whose heart had begun to beat at the near 
 ness of the dreaded encounter, was relieved by these 
 every-day apparitions ; nor was she further alarmed 
 upon the arrival from the tennis-ground of their 
 hostess, holding over her bare head a large white lace 
 parasol, and letting float behind her a graceful trail 
 of crinkled stuff cleverly adjusted to conceal the 
 tendency to flesh that afforded her continual concern. 
 Mrs. Shafto came toward them swiftly, a little ner 
 vously, but carrying it off with a fine show of hearty 
 welcome, and talking to preclude the possibility of 
 answer. 
 
 " Awfully kind of you to come to our little shanty 
 in the wilderness," she said to Eleanor when the first 
 bustle of arrival lulled. " I told Shafto I thought you 
 might like to bring Mr. Vernon to visit so old a friend. 
 I won t claim acquaintance for myself, though I saw 
 you as a school-girl at your Aunt Penfold s long ago." 
 
64 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " I remember perfectly/ Eleanor answered, blushing, 
 and looking about her. "What a pretty place you 
 have ! This is not my idea of the wilderness at all." 
 
 "The modern conception of roughing it/ chimed 
 in Jerry, who had kept close to his wife s elbow. 
 
 " Oh, it was easy enough. We sent a lot of people 
 down before us, and they did it all/ said Mrs. Shafto, 
 superbly. " Come in and see our l living-room/ as we 
 call it. I made Lebel get this glazed chintz with the 
 big gillyflowers from Paris, and he sent a Frenchman 
 to drape the walls and curtains. The rest is, as you 
 see, principally Florentine mirrors and brocade photo 
 graph-frames, and a lot of easy-chairs and couches. 
 What shall they fetch you shandygaff, or lemon- 
 squash, or a B. & S., till luncheon-time f When you re 
 ready, we can go out on the tennis-court a bit." 
 
 " Shafto tells me you ve got a houseful," Jerry said, 
 over his shoulder, as he bent down to look at a glass 
 case of miniatures. 
 
 "Yes ; we brought all but Hilda in the yacht. She 
 was at the Ponce de Leon nursing a wretched cold, 
 and we wired at once for her, poor dear, and she came 
 over with Miss Shaw." 
 
 " Miss Shaw ? " asked Jerry, as they set out to stroll 
 around the house and through the grounds. 
 
 " Yes ; her companion, the sheep-faced old thing 
 who used to knit in corners don t you remember? 
 Began as governess to the little girls, who are with 
 Hilda s mother, now. Well, she s here, and Kitty and 
 Leeds do nothing but run rigs on her, and she never 
 finds it out. Did Shafto tell you we re to have Timo 
 thy to-night ?" 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 65 
 
 " I heard he is in these parts under the delusion he 
 is trying for tarpon." 
 
 " That s a new name for it/ 7 said Mrs. Shafto, shoot 
 ing at him a gleam from her eye. " You have been 
 out of the world not to know that since your young 
 sister-in-law turned the cold shoulder upon the heir of 
 the Van Loons, he has developed another flame." 
 
 " Confound him for a jackanapes ! " said Jerry, 
 flushing a little. " The fellow s always getting into 
 messes with feminines. I wonder his dear mama don t 
 send a nursery-maid along to keep him from making 
 acquaintance with strange little girls." 
 
 They had fallen behind Major Shafto and Eleanor, 
 and she dropped her voice. 
 
 "Oh, but you are the one to make allowances in 
 this case. A year ago you might have even sympa 
 thized she has quite turned his brain." 
 
 " His ivliat f " growled Jerry, blackly. 
 
 " Oh, well, what passes for that organ in his anat 
 omy. He is fairly infatuated, and would marry her 
 to-morrow if " 
 
 "If what?" 
 
 "If he were not chiefly dependent on his affection 
 ate parents, who are nothing if not respectable, and 
 could n t stand a blot in the Van Loon escutcheon. 
 That s not such an out-of-the-way, unheard-of condi 
 tion of affairs, eh f It seems to me I was the confi 
 dante, a year ago, of a greatly superior young man, in 
 very much the same predicament." 
 
 " For Heaven s sake, take care," he said hurriedly. 
 
 "Don t be afraid. I am discretion itself. Even 
 Shafto don t know how near you came to but the 
 5 
 
66 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 best of the joke about Timothy is that Hilda has 
 ceased to laugh at him. That is always dangerous, 
 I Ve found. You know he inherited from an old aunt 
 a year or two ago, and there s enough cash for them 
 to wait on till the family comes around " 
 
 "Look here," he said bruskly, as they turned the 
 corner of the house where Shafto had stopped to point 
 out to Eleanor his pet grove of oranges. " I thought 
 I knew you pretty well, but I 11 be hanged if I under 
 stand what you brought us here for." 
 
 " It was Major Shafto, who quite longed to see his 
 dear old friend," she answered demurely. " How could 
 I suppose you d be getting excited over Hilda s af 
 fairs of the heart, now you are a married man ? Pray 
 calm down. I know those sudden tempests of yours, 
 and how hard you used to find it to hold them in 
 when you and I and Hilda were at Sioux Falls last 
 year. But I could n t have expected to see one noiv, 
 could I?" 
 
 " I wish I had n t let you worm my folly out of me 
 that time," he said bitterly. " Though you pretended 
 to stand my friend in the matter, it is certain you 
 never did me any good." 
 
 " Oh, come, come ! " she said chidingly. " It is your 
 mother who should be charged with all the blame of 
 interference and disaster. But what does it matter 
 now? This is a poor time to quarrel. You must 
 behave yourself, and help me to make it pleasant for 
 we must all be on our good behavior your beau 
 tiful young wife." 
 
 " One word only," he said. " I would have written 
 this beforehand, but I thought I could trust it to your 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 67 
 
 good nature. Eleanor knows nothing of that affair. 
 You will let sleeping dogs lie?" 
 
 " Of course. What possible motive could I have to 
 do otherwise ? We are talking of Major Shafto s dogs, 
 Mrs. Vernon," she said smoothly, as the others came 
 up with them. "You must make him take you to his 
 kennels. Our man has had such wonderful luck this 
 year with dachshunds Yes; that tree covered with 
 yellow jasmine is pretty, is n t it ? Here we are. You 
 know every one, I believe? I really think myself 
 very clever to get up such a meeting of old friends." 
 
 Gerald had run upon the Shaftos the year before, 
 when they had gone West to be rid of the odium of 
 newspaper comment upon their marriage, and, pre 
 sented by the Major to his wdfe, had been speedily 
 established as a confidential friend of the menage. In 
 his then frame of mind it had been an immense com 
 fort to tell somebody and especially a nice, jolly, 
 kind-hearted woman who had herself felt the world s 
 rubs, and could sympathize about his mad passion 
 for that loveliest and most ill-used of creatures, Hilde- 
 garde Smithson, then a resident of Dakota, awaiting 
 her freedom from a hateful bond. Finding such con 
 genial society, Mrs. Shafto persuaded her Major to 
 stay his steps in Sioux Falls for a while, and the four 
 had spent their days together in riding and driving 
 and such other amusements as the place afforded. 
 Under these circumstances, it was not long before 
 Mrs. Shafto became possessed of the secret aspiration 
 of Jerry s heart to marry Hildegarde as soon as the 
 law should set its fairest victim free. Now, as the 
 canons of modern story-writing allow no suggestion 
 
68 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 of a mystery in the story s plot, we may make haste 
 to say that this discovery did not please Mrs. Shafto 
 in the least. She was jealous and mischievous, and, 
 like the Grim Reaper, wanted all men for her harvest. 
 Her first move was to let her Hercules-in-toils, the big 
 Major, who was ignorant of women s wiles, go off on 
 a hunting expedition, taking Jerry with him, in search 
 of deer and bear, which at most times will comfort 
 man for the absence of his feminine enslaver. When 
 they returned, and Gerald flew to the presence of Mrs. 
 Smithson, he was encountered on the way by an im 
 perative telegram from his mother in New York, bid 
 ding him come home in the interests of important 
 business. And when he had at once packed his port 
 manteau, and started for home, Mrs. Shafto, in the 
 most complacent manner in the world, rubbed her 
 hands as if to be rid of a tiresome episode, and in 
 formed the Major that it was time to set forth upon 
 their still farther western journey. Before leaving, 
 she breathed a tender adieu to her charming Hilde- 
 garde, who, whatever she felt, was in no position to 
 give token of discomfiture. 
 
 When the triumphantly liberated Mrs. de Lancey, 
 late Smithson, again encountered Gerald Vernon, in 
 Lenox, six months later, he was in the train of a girl 
 who, everybody said, would marry him if he really 
 meant business. Gerald had meant business, had 
 married Eleanor Halliday, and had compromised with 
 his conscience about forsaking Hildegarde by induc 
 ing his mother-in-law to send her an invitation to the 
 wedding. 
 
 Now, when they met at the Bungalow, he sat quite 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 69 
 
 content on a little iron bench beside her, talking com 
 monplaces, and watching Kitty Foote jump about, 
 performing prodigies of tennis in a match of singles 
 with Mr. Carteret Leeds. Spite of his little spasm of 
 resentment of the enamored Timothy, Gerald looked 
 from Hilda over at his blooming, innocent Nell, and 
 asked himself if it were just a year ago that he had 
 gone off from Sioux Falls ready to blow his brains 
 out for the sake of this woman, whose face looked a 
 little worn in the full light of day. He was even 
 critical about the lines of Hildegarde s figure, hitherto 
 esteemed peerless, and decided that it did not compare 
 with that of his young Diana, tall and slim and long- 
 waisted, her head so grandly set upon her long, full 
 throat. And when he asked Mrs. de Lancey as to 
 the health of her two little darlings, "so pretty and 
 quaint with their hair like spun silk," he felt a sense 
 of devout gratitude that he was not at the moment 
 sharing, as it were, the paternal rights over these 
 blessings with the very objectionable Smithson, who 
 was still living in the family mansion, and conducting 
 business in his usual place in New York, and was lia 
 ble to be met in the usual haunts and thoroughfares. 
 He recalled with forgiveness the tremendous outburst 
 of temper with which his mother had favored him 
 when he acknowledged to her charge his intention to 
 wed Mrs. Smithson. He had long ceased to smart 
 over the convincing argument a threat of utter 
 disinheritance by which his mother had conquered 
 him. And he never once suspected whose had been 
 the hand that had set the machinery in motion to 
 alter the current of his life. Altogether, he was 
 
70 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 proud to have stood the test of meeting Hilda so suc 
 cessfully. 
 
 By dinner-time Nell had begun to feel more at ease 
 in what her mother would have called this dubious 
 house. So long as nothing appeared to shock the eye 
 and sense, there was even something rather fascinat 
 ing in her feeling of independence as a young wife, 
 with no one to account to but a facile, smiling hus 
 band, who made light of so many of her inherited 
 prejudices. Mrs. Shafto, brusk and jovial, amused 
 her. She liked the Major, and Mrs. de Lancey was 
 one of those women whom all women admire and pet. 
 Even the tomboy Kitty Foote showed to better advan 
 tage in a bungalow than at the gatherings of conven 
 tionality in town. But Eleanor could not be lenient 
 to Mr. Carteret Leeds. 
 
 He was an Englishman who had been wafted on 
 his way into American society by favoring gales. Five 
 or six leading families, like Homer s cities for Homer 
 dead, disputed for him the first winter he appeared ; 
 but when interrogated, no member of any family 
 could say who had discovered or introduced him. For 
 a while inquiry had been appeased by a rumor that he 
 was a younger son of Lord Kirkstall, come to New 
 York to go into trade ; but to a visiting American 
 his lordship had indignantly disclaimed any offshoot 
 whatever in America, adding incidentally, that he 
 did n t think one of his sons would fancy living in 
 the States, where it must be so uncommonly nasty to 
 be served only by blacks, you know. The disclaimer 
 being duly reported, upon the visiting American s re 
 turn, found Mr. Carteret Leeds in full swing at New- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 71 
 
 port, where he was of too decided a social value to be 
 lightly cast away. He was an authority on polo and 
 cricket, on horse-play in English country houses, and 
 in the hunting-field, and no one liked to think of the 
 void his absence would create so it was decided to 
 ask no more questions, but to accept this nice, mys 
 terious man without home or friends or country. Still, 
 ignorant people would occasionally err, and Leeds was 
 once put upon a committee of arrangement to draw 
 up a schedule of unprecedented gaieties in honor of 
 an English prince who never came ; this honor, how 
 ever, he declined without explanation of any kind 
 which, in the opinion of some conservatives, was the 
 best evidence of sense Mr. Leeds had yet afforded. 
 
 Mrs. Halliday s home in New York had been one of 
 those that had not opened its portals to Mr. Leeds, 
 and Eleanor disliked extremely being thrown in the 
 intimacy of a house-party with a person who was 
 more than suspected of using his social opportunities 
 to furnish personalities at so much per column to jour 
 nals of the baser sort. So she greeted him with bare 
 civility, and, in response to a venture upon his part 
 congratulating her upon "leavin 7 the fossils," and 
 "comin in with the knowin set," straightened her 
 back and stared at him with such cold surprise that 
 for once Leeds was subdued, and reckless Mrs. Gerald 
 had an enemy the more written upon her list. 
 
 Little Foote, Kitty s brother, a shadowy present 
 ment of his own idea of a "swagger" Englishman, 
 was more amusing than injurious to society. His 
 innocent pleasure was to be forever changing clothes 
 that he had lately bought in London. He was volu- 
 
72 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 ble in Lisping about the movements of the fashionable 
 world, in a curious dialect compounded of American- 
 ese and Mayfair English. And he looked up to Mr. 
 Carteret Leeds as to a Mentor whom it were pride to 
 heed. 
 
 Dinner brought with it Mr. Timothy Van Loon, of 
 whom it cannot be said that his distinguished position 
 in the American aristocracy was manifest in his ap 
 pearance. He was tall and thin, with pale hair and 
 pinkish eyelids, and a feathery, pale mustache. At 
 his coming, the matrons and maids of society were so 
 wont to melt into exceeding friendliness, so accus 
 tomed was he to see men of mature age, of distin 
 guished achievement, of personal attraction, forsaken 
 at his approach, that in his own infallibility to please 
 he had come to put a trust no circumstance could 
 shake. As to him was allotted the hostess to take in, 
 and Eleanor sat upon the Major s right, Gerald and 
 Mrs. de Lancey were partners during the dinner hour, 
 and it was plain to behold the discomfort poor Timo 
 thy endured. He grew sullen, drank freely, left his 
 hostess to sustain a monologue ; and Eleanor, seeing 
 her husband for the first time bestowing on another 
 woman the attention that had been hers exclusively, 
 sighed while chiding herself for a weakness she con 
 temned. She resolved to make up for this her uncon 
 scious cerebration by an especial overture of friendli 
 ness to Mrs. de Lancey when the women should meet 
 after dinner in the drawing-room. 
 
 The evening, like the day, passed without incident. 
 The absent spirit of Mrs. Halliday might have been 
 placated by its restraint. "It was so deadly dull," 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 73 
 
 Mrs. Shafto told Leeds in the smoking-room after 
 ward, "we thought of asking some one to recite." 
 When the ladies assembled in the hall to take their 
 bedroom candlesticks, Gerald spoke for a moment tb 
 his wife. 
 
 " I shall be late, probably," he said u we ve a game 
 of cards on, and yon mnst n t keep awake." 
 
 While Mrs. Vernon s maid was still brushing her 
 brown hair, and Eleanor, her eyes fixed upon the 
 floor, was deciding that she should certainly hold to 
 her first plan of leaving the Bungalow on Saturday, 
 female forms clad in trailing tea-gowns were stealing 
 past her door, and flitting down the stairs. A little 
 later, when Elsa had been dismissed, Eleanor heard 
 strange sounds from the bowling-alley near the house 
 music, dancing, and shrieks of hilarious laughter 
 that were not all from the ruder sex. Feeling uncom 
 fortable, the young wife stole out into the corridor with 
 a vague hope of summoning her husband to her side. 
 There, hovering over the banister, in a frilled short- 
 gown and petticoat, she encountered the spectral figure 
 of Miss Shaw, who was bathed in tears. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, this is too much ! " moaned the an 
 cient maiden, wringing her hands. " It s bad enough 
 to see ladies smoking cigarettes and playing cards till 
 all hours every night ; but here they have got up a sort 
 of fancy ball in the bowling-alley, and I m ashamed 
 to tell you that Mr. Leeds has gone and got on my 
 my night- things over his dress-suit, and has been 
 dancing a skirt-dance with Miss Foote in her brother s 
 clothes." 
 
 "I must see my husband," said Eleanor, hotly. 
 
7-i SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " This must be stopped Jerry will stop it at once; 
 there is nothing so despicable to him ! " 
 
 But, alas ! at this moment, full in their sight, Jerry, 
 wearing a fool s costume and bells, with a lighted 
 cigar between his teeth, pranced through the hall 
 below, followed by the untiring Kitty Foote attired as 
 Columbine, and Mr. Timothy Van Loon as Harlequin, 
 all three evidently on their way to appear in a new 
 variety of entertainment before the audience awaiting 
 them in the impromptu theater. 
 
 Poor Eleanor, too proud to mingle her tears with 
 those of the disconsolate Miss Shaw, ran back to her 
 room, and cried herself to sleep. 
 
VI 
 
 T was clear to the widow Vernon s 
 critics that a sweet little cherub of 
 some kind was sitting up aloft keep 
 ing watch over her social progress 
 she was so plainly and provok- 
 ingly on the rise. Mrs. Peter Van 
 Shuter, having convinced her James that the occasion 
 justified the effort, that stately one, his scorn ill con 
 cealed by the collar of a large fur cape, alighting at a 
 convenient hour from the box of the well-known blue 
 chariot bearing the Van Shuter crest, delivered into 
 the hands of Mrs. Vernon s menial at her front door a 
 couple of visiting-cards. One of these bits of paste 
 board revealed " Mrs. Van Shuter " simply ; her resi 
 dence was supposed to be known to all the initiated 
 for the vulgar herd it had no possible concern. The 
 smaller card, representing the Idol s humdrum little 
 spouse, had to the larger the same relation in size and 
 modest bearing sustained by Mr. Van Shuter to his 
 lady in the flesh. 
 
 When James had performed his duty, and received 
 an apologetic "To the park" from his mistress s lips, 
 the carriage drove away, but not before Mrs. Veriion, 
 whose victoria awaited her descent, her footman, 
 
 75 
 
76 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 the double of Mrs. Van Shuter s, remaining in a statu 
 esque pose upon the curbstone, happening to glance 
 through the silk curtains of her morning-room, had 
 the advantage of seeing Mrs. Van Shuter s knees. She 
 recognized the carriage and liveries, and felt, in the 
 impatient drawing up of the rug over an ample lap, 
 that if knees could speak, those said, "Now I have 
 done it, let me go." Mrs. Vernon, however, went on 
 buttoning her gloves quietly, and, when the cards were 
 handed in, glanced at them with admirable self-control. 
 But as she leaned back in the victoria, and allowed her 
 self, also, to be driven to the park, a smile relaxed her 
 visage into satisfaction no longer to be restrained. 
 
 Lent was under way, and among the penitential 
 exercises in order for the fashionable world was the 
 meeting at Mrs. Van Shuter s, to be conducted by the 
 most recent society fad, a Mrs. Calliope Duncombe, 
 who had suddenly appeared as a herald of a woman s 
 movement in behalf of fellow- women whence, no 
 body knew. 
 
 As everybody is aware, a women s meeting of this 
 class means the collection of a fund, and as collecting 
 a fund entails more or less ordering around of other 
 people, distribution of patronage, and seeing one s 
 name in print, it is always popular. Add to this that 
 the affair was to be nurtured and coaxed into promi 
 nence in the cream-and-gold Empire salon of Mrs. 
 Peter Van Shuter, and there was small doubt of its 
 vogue. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon, thanks to Mrs. Van Shuter s two bits 
 of pasteboard, now saw no reason why she might not 
 go to this convocation with self-respect. But she 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 79 
 
 resolved so to dress and demean herself, and so to 
 time her arrival, that the fact of her presence should 
 bring all it was worth. 
 
 At eleven A. M. on the appointed day, the handsome 
 room, with its walls hung in pumpkin-colored damask 
 between panels of ivory and gilt, its crystal chande 
 liers and cabinets of curios, was filled with ladies 
 seated upon spindling gilt chairs. Assembled there 
 with an honest intention of making money for a fund, 
 most of them had entered no farther into an under 
 standing of the affair than that Mrs. Van Shuter s 
 Miss Thompson had addressed the invitations for 
 them to meet in Mrs. Van Shuter s famous Empire 
 room. Pending the opening of the proceedings, a 
 chatter went on, gaining strength till it reached the 
 ear-piercing climax known among congregations of 
 our American fair. Voices strained to shrillness met 
 and clashed in the air. They talked of bodily com 
 plaints, table-waters, faith-cure; the excellence of 
 rival schools as illustrated by their respective prog 
 eny ; one s anxiety in bringing out a girl ; the rude 
 ness of young men one takes the trouble to invite; 
 the butler s asthma and the chef s impertinence ; their 
 recent travels, to which nobody would listen because 
 every one had traveled recently ; the latest scandal 
 one of the current week, since all earlier were for 
 gotten ; spring plans, summer plans ; the name and 
 author of the naughty novel nobody must read ; and 
 the fact that the last diamond necklace of one of their 
 leaders had cost fifty thousand dollars more than that 
 belonging to her sister-in-law, who had gone into mor 
 tified retreat. 
 
80 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 Mrs. Van Shuter, august and sleepy, sat by a table 
 at the far end of the room around her two or three 
 of those ladies, important as ball-and-dinner-givers, 
 who are rightly reckoned our true nobility. In the 
 lap of this grandeur, a meek-looking woman in a 
 Quakerish bonnet and plain brown gown remained 
 with down-dropped eyes, awaiting her signal to arise. 
 
 " Dear me ! It is half -past ! Are n t they ready to 
 begin ? " said Mrs. Bullion to Mrs. Van Shuter. 
 
 "I hope so," said Mrs. Van Shuter, yawning. "If 
 they don t, it will make us late for lunch, and I can t 
 be made late for lunch." 
 
 "Then you must call the meeting to order," said 
 Mrs. Bullion, briskly. She was president of a Baby 
 Hospital, and knew her business well. 
 
 Thus prodded, Mrs. Van Shuter wearily took up 
 a paper-knife inlaid with turquoise and coral, and 
 knocked with it on a table of buhl and malachite. 
 She had only one fear that it might be voted to 
 raise the fund by subscription, and that she would 
 have to head the list. In the hush that ensued, sev 
 eral unconscious women on the outskirts went on 
 talking to one another as before. 
 
 " If my husband had that cough, I d put him in 
 flannel from top to toe," remarked one lady at the 
 highest pitch of her voice ; then, covered with confu 
 sion, she sank into obscurity. 
 
 Next, Mrs. Calliope Buncombe, having been preluded 
 and introduced, stood upon her feet, with a deprecat 
 ing smile, while her patronesses wrangled over some 
 point of parliamentary law. At this precise moment 
 Mrs. Vernon, last to arrive, was ushered by a footman 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 81 
 
 between the folds of a yellow satin door-curtain at the 
 lower end of the room, and remained standing long 
 enough for every one present to be aware of her iden 
 tity. Then with a little bend of the head in the direc 
 tion of the hostess, and nods here and there about the 
 crowd, she sank leisurely into a chair, let fall away 
 from her a cloak rigid with Russian sables, crossed 
 her gloved hands lightly upon her lap, and prepared 
 to listen. 
 
 It was undoubtedly a well-managed entrance, that 
 struck conviction home to many souls. But the keen 
 eyes of Betty Halliday, perhaps the most interested 
 person in the throng, saw a change coming over Mrs. 
 Vernon s face as her gaze rested upon the speaker of 
 the day. She flushed, withdrew a little into the shade 
 of the curtain, fidgeted, lost her imperial calm. Curi 
 ous Betty looked from her again to the lecturer, but 
 in the mild visage under the poke-bonnet discovered 
 nothing. In a musical voice, with a pleading manner, 
 Mrs. Duncombe began her smooth appeal. 
 
 With her argument, this narrative has no desire to 
 deal. From her opening statement, that history every 
 where has shown that, in proportion as women have 
 had the right to protect themselves, they have freed 
 themselves from inglorious burdens, to the closing 
 reminder, that it is woman s place to bear good tidings 
 of release to her suffering sisters, Betty, and unbe 
 lievers like her, felt a strange desire to laugh. They 
 could not, however, deny to Mrs. Duncombe the pos 
 session of that magnetic eloquence of manner that 
 often clothes weak speech with power to move an 
 audience. Many of her hearers wiped their eyes, 
 6 
 
82 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 some took notes upon tablets hanging at their chate 
 laines. Every woman who took notes did so with an 
 intention of bringing Mrs. Duncombe s schemes for 
 resistance to arbitrary man to bear upon her own 
 domestic lawgiver, and was afraid she would not re 
 member to quote them exactly right. For there was 
 this inevitable feature of some women s acceptance 
 of new doctrine each one instinctively tested every 
 plea, argument, or illustration advanced by the speak 
 er, upon her own relations to the husband of her 
 choice. 
 
 Betty, who had no husband to experiment on, sat 
 bolt upright, and looked about her cynically, listening 
 to the chat that arose as Mrs. Duncombe took her 
 seat. 
 
 " How sweet ! " " How true ! " How terrible ! 
 u How touching ! " " What an engaging personal 
 ity ! " " What a privilege dear Mrs. Van Shuter has 
 accorded us ! " " Those poke-bonnets are rather be 
 coming, don t you think ? " " We shall certainly have 
 to get up something wonderful." " I m awfully sorry 
 to leave, but I Ve got to take little Gladys to the 
 dentist," and "Are you going on to Mrs. Atterbury s 
 lunch?" 
 
 Rat-tat-tat went the rococo paper-knife. Mrs. Bul 
 lion arose to say that in view of the stirring need in 
 the homes of our laboring sisters Mrs. Duncombe s 
 able presentation of the facts had manifested, it was 
 clearly the duty of the ladies here met to organ 
 ize themselves into a body to be known by a name 
 yet to be selected, for the creation and maintenance 
 of a fund in aid of Mrs. Duncombe s work. Here, 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 83 
 
 being plucked by the gathers of her gown by Mrs. 
 Van Shuter, who inquired in a loud whisper how long 
 it was going to take, Mrs. Bullion forgot her point, 
 looked vexed, repeated herself in a vague way, and 
 sat down, while Mrs. Boulter, her most intimate ene 
 my, cut in, and proposed to vote Mrs. Van Shuter 
 into the chair which Mrs. Bullion had made sure her 
 self to occupy. 
 
 Mrs. Boulter, a beginner in society, who had com 
 piled a birthday book and written pretty Christmas 
 carols, having been next offered and accepted as sec 
 retary, Mrs. Bullion, the wife of a famous banker, was 
 in everybody s mind as a fitting treasurer; but on 
 the principle, perhaps, that kings have desired to 
 excel as locksmiths or players upon the flute, Mrs. 
 Bullion had set her aifections upon the other post, 
 and was highly miffed at losing it. She made one or 
 two public observations to Mrs. Boulter of an acri 
 monious type, to which Mrs. Boulter replied airily, 
 and then Mrs. Bullion, with a red face, gathered her 
 street garment about her, and, pleading an immediate 
 engagement, left the room and the committee. 
 
 This interruption necessitating whispered consulta 
 tion of those in chief authority, the general committee 
 took occasion to start an animated discussion as to 
 the best means of raising the money said to be re 
 quired. 
 
 "If I were n t so awfully afraid of the sound of 
 my own voice," said a matron with a family of bru 
 nette girls, " I should like to suggest a powder ball at 
 the Madison Square Assembly Rooms, with men and 
 women in purest white, and the tickets ten dollars 
 
84: SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 each. I saw one in London last year, and the effect 
 was positively dream-like. 7 
 
 " A white ball is all very well for women with dark 
 eyes and eyebrows/ retorted her interlocutor, a sandy 
 blonde, "but most people look like frights, and you 
 never get the powder out of your hair. Say what 
 you will, nothing pays like amateur theatricals " 
 
 A faint chill fell upon her audience. 
 
 " They have never yet paid me" said a voice. " I 
 don t know which is worse to have to sell tickets for 
 them, or to have to go." 
 
 "I am sure," retorted the sandy lady, "those in 
 New York have developed the most charming talent. 
 Now, I don t like to mention it, but my daughter has 
 written a three-act play, and would do the leading 
 part. Though, of course, we don t wish to have her 
 appear in public, she is considered by many to recite 
 <Les Deux Pigeons exactly like Bernhardt, and for 
 such a charity " 
 
 "There is a most deserving person I know who 
 supports her husband and five children by whistling 
 beautifully" began a benevolent old lady, who could 
 get no hearing, and dropped out. 
 
 " How would a Greek play in the original take in 
 New York ? " ventured a lady from Boston. 
 
 "I d rather sell for a nigger minstrel show or an 
 amateur circus," answered an experienced vender of 
 tickets, whose authority was law. 
 
 " Have we an infant pianist among us ? " 
 
 " No phenomena, please." 
 
 "A bazar?" 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 85 
 
 "Never." 
 
 "A Russian tea?" 
 
 " The same old fail- disguised." 
 
 " Carmencita in a studio ? " 
 
 "Bernhardt in i Jean-Marie/ in one of the big draw 
 ing-rooms ? " 
 
 " Sarah would know better than to go on the Punch- 
 and-Judy stage at any price 
 
 Rat-tat-tat went the paper-knife. Mrs. Boulter, 
 speaking for Mrs. Van Slmter, whose bronchitis would 
 not allow her to use her voice, gracefully suggested 
 as treasurer a lady whose support would be of the 
 utmost value to the board, and proposed Mrs. Vernon. 
 That surprised outsider found herself elected before 
 she could say if she had been inclined to say any 
 thing so coarse Jack Robinson. 
 
 The color came into Mrs. Vernon s face. She lost 
 her studied suavity of manner, but her protest was 
 overcome. She was placed in a chair near Mrs. Van 
 Shuter, whose fondest wish was now to hurry this 
 thing through. And then the general committee, 
 from whom Mrs. Van Shuter s countenance made no 
 attempt to conceal the fact that she was torpid with 
 fatigue and wdth hunger for her midday chop, was 
 dismissed, to meet again that day week, at the same 
 hour and 
 
 " Place, shall I say, dear Mrs. Van Shuter ? " said the 
 Idol s mouthpiece, in an undertone. 
 
 " Oh, I think not," said the chairwoman, disappoint 
 ingly. " Mrs. Van Loon would have taken them, if 
 she d been here. Mrs. Bullion would have been the 
 6* 
 
86 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 one, but she s gone home. I m sure I don t know 
 whom to ask, and I don t think the doctor would like 
 me to have to think of anything." 
 
 11 My rooms are so ridiculously small/ said Mrs. 
 Boulter, looking at Mrs. Vernon. 
 
 Here was Mrs. Yemen s opportunity. Why did she 
 not avail herself of it ? Betty Halliday, observing this, 
 was fairly puzzled at her reticence. 
 
 " Yes, certainly ; Mrs. Yernon is the one/ said Mrs. 
 Yan Shuter, grasping at relief. " You d better tell 
 them now ; it will save Miss Thompson writing little 
 notes." 
 
 " I shall be most happy," said Mrs. Yernon, stiffly, 
 and, Mrs. Boulter proclaiming the fact, the meeting 
 broke up in a sea of small talk. 
 
 While people were moving (in Mrs. Yan Shuter s 
 eyes far too slowly) to the door, Mrs. Yernon, whose 
 feelings may have been said to have passed the point 
 of words, felt her hand taken in the slim brown kid 
 fingers of Mrs. Calliope Duncombe. 
 
 "So you won t speak to me, Luella?" said that 
 saintly personage. " I did n t think you would go 
 back on so very old a friend. It gave me such plea 
 sure to be of use to you to-day." 
 
 " It would n t take two words from you, Jane Ketch- 
 am," flashed forth a low answer, "to make me come 
 out before all these women, and tell em what you 
 are." 
 
 " No ; that you would never do, Luella. How could 
 you explain about Judd s Hotel, you know." 
 
 "At least, I m an honest woman Oh! I wonder 
 you have the face " 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 87 
 
 " Come, Luella, be nice. Did I, or did n t I, do you 
 a good turn when I suggested having you made the 
 treasurer of this fashionable fund ? " 
 
 " I don t believe it ; if you did, it was to spite me in 
 the end. But there, it is n t the first time what 11 
 you take to drop this and clear out ? " 
 
 11 It is n t money I need, but a backing, dear/ said 
 the apostle of married women s rights. "And, for the 
 sake of old times, you are going to keep dark about 
 me, are n t you ? " 
 
 " And you expect me to help you in your frauds 
 I 11 declare that takes the lead," said the widow, a 
 dangerous look coming into her eyes. 
 
 " Sh-sh ! " whispered Mrs. Buncombe. " Let us fin 
 ish this talk another time. Let me come to your fine 
 house to-morrow, and give me lunch, and we 11 find 
 some way to settle the matter to suit you, never fear." 
 
 "May I go home with you, Mrs. Vernon?" said 
 Betty Halliday, coming up and ignoring the meek 
 bow of the philanthropist. " I ve a letter from Nell, 
 and other things about which I want to talk." 
 
 " Do come," answered the widow, gratefully, while 
 Mrs. Buncombe glided away into the center of a 
 group of women, eager to lavish praises upon her and 
 to receive counsel at her lips. 
 
 " That woman ! " mused Betty, as they drove off in 
 the brougham. " Where have I seen her face ? I ve 
 a vague idea connecting her with the keeper of a 
 bureau for placing teachers, which broke up under a 
 cloud a year or two ago. But I in not sure, and I am 
 sure Duncombe was not the name. Well, I suppose 
 Mrs. Van Shuter knows where she got her ; but to 
 
88 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 speak frankly, I would n t trust her with the spoons. 
 What I wanted to ask you is if you think Nell and 
 Jerry have suddenly gone mad. My last letter was 
 from the hotel, and here, in this morning s papers, is a 
 1 special despatch from Florida, stating that Mr. and 
 Mrs. Gerald Vernon are enjoying the hospitalities of 
 Major and Mrs. Shafto at the Bungalow near Bada- 
 joz " 
 
 "It can t be," said the widow, overpowered. She 
 felt to-day as if she were stepping into space. 
 
 " That s not all," said Betty. "Among other guests 
 are Miss Kitty Foote, Mr. Carteret Leeds, Mr. Timo 
 thy Van Loon, and the celebrated Mrs. Hildegarde 
 de Lancey. There s a choice houseful ! I thought, 
 as I dare not tell my mother, you would n t mind 
 telegraphing to Jerry to come home and all will be 
 forgiven. What a l school for wives he has taken 
 his to ! " 
 
 ON the day following, a visitor whom Mrs. Yernon s 
 servants had directions to admit touched the button 
 of the electric bell under the stately portal of the 
 corner house where Mrs. Van Shuter had consented to 
 make a call and where black care had found an 
 entrance, notwithstanding. 
 
 Mrs. Calliope Duncombe, delivering up her umbrella 
 and removing her modest overshoes in the presence 
 of Mrs. Vernon s flunkeys, in a wide hall where an 
 tique tapestries made a gloom at midday, amid rare 
 carvings and costly ceramics, had a humorous sense 
 of the extremes possible to American fortune within 
 the compass of a quarter of a century. In her mind s 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 89 
 
 eye, she saw a raw frontier town, of which the chief 
 center was the tavern kept by Major Judd, known 
 familiarly as "Buck." She saw the lean "Major" 
 presiding over the bar, or ushering his patrons into 
 the long, bare room where two untidy tables were 
 kept forever covered with spotted cloths, and set with 
 casters, pitchers, thick goblets, and dingy knives and 
 forks, with the red or green glasses full of tooth 
 picks which formed their ornaments. She saw, issu 
 ing from the pantry door and whisking smartly about 
 these tables, to do the service of the boarders amid 
 an incense of kitchen smoke, two girls one spare 
 and sickly, the other blooming above her sordid sur 
 roundings in the effulgence of health and beauty and 
 animal spirits. She saw the pale girl look with envy 
 after the rosy one, who shot like a meteor among the 
 guests, bandying jests, repelling impudence, carrying 
 all before her. 
 
 " If you will please step up into the morning-room, 
 madam, Mrs. Vernon will see you there," said a portly, 
 low-voiced functionary, who wore clothes such as old 
 "Buck" Judd had been married and buried in but 
 with a difference. 
 
 The mistress of the house was sitting before a wood 
 fire in the depths of a low arm-chair, the morning s 
 papers and a handful of notes and cards torn from 
 their envelopes on the table at her side. Morning 
 sunlight came warmly through embroidered stuffs of 
 golden hue, falling over divans and couches, cabinets 
 and tables, each of its kind the best, and chosen by an 
 artist to be grouped in this favored interior. The 
 walls and many shelves and brackets were encumbered 
 
90 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 with Mrs. Vernon s well-known collection of " boudoir 
 porcelain," sold in Paris the year before with the effects 
 of a lyric queen, to whom they had been given by their 
 inheritor, a Russian prince. Mrs. Buncombe did not 
 know the value in dollars of this eggshell loveliness 
 glittering softly on every side of her, but it brought 
 to mind a droll suggestion of the stone-china cups and 
 plates and saucers and "sauce-plates" and bird-bath 
 dishes she and Luella used to mop, and drain, and 
 wipe, and put away, till they hated the very sight oi: 
 them. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon wore nothing that was not sent out 
 to her from her man milliner in Paris, who had con 
 vinced her that in order fairly to illustrate his ge 
 nius she must commit no infidelities to his celebrated 
 atelier. Her morning-robe was of an oriental red 
 stuff shaded like the plumage of a bird, bordered 
 with black fur, and over it a sort of surtout of Car 
 melite black serge, girdled with ropes of gold a 
 freak of luxury attempting but not quite resigned to 
 go into eclipse. The effect upon her mature beauty 
 was to soften and yet enhance it, and fully justified 
 the whim of the gown s creator. This, again, Calliope 
 Jane s keen gaze made note of, in contrast with the 
 Sunday best of Miss Martha Luella Judd. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon had not slept well, and had broken her 
 fast since the night before with only a cup of coffee 
 and a few black Hamburg grapes at nine A. M. ; so 
 that she felt absolutely unable to enter, until after 
 luncheon, into a conversation that threatened to be 
 trying at the best. Embarrassed by Mrs. Buncombe s 
 satirical study of herself and surroundings, she took 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 91 
 
 a stitch or two in a table-scarf she was embroidering 1 , 
 dropped it on the floor, drew toward her a Venetian 
 jug of white hyacinths and rearranged the flowers, 
 and finally got up and walked to the window, w T here 
 she remained, turning her back upon her guest. 
 
 " That s it. Keep movin . Seems more like you, 
 Luella, to be stirriii around a bit," said Calliope Jane, 
 in an admiring voice. 
 
 u Luncheon is served, if you please, madam, said 
 the butler, making a cavalier-seul movement within the 
 doorway. 
 
 The two ladies sat down in the vast refectory at a 
 table of black oak, square and massive, displaying 
 upon a centerpiece of fair linen edged with convent 
 lace a pierced silver dish containing growing ferns, 
 together with sundry odd devices in silver to hold fruit 
 and sweets, and flagons for claret set in silver open 
 work. 
 
 " My ! " said Mrs. Duncombe, in the artless accent of 
 her youth. " You keep a considerable sight o plated 
 ware, don t you, Luella ? And these thin glasses round 
 my plate I be most afraid to touch em, for fear 
 they 11 fly right out o my hand." 
 
 " Consomme ? " said the butler, in her ear. 
 
 " What s this in the little cups tea ? No, sir, I m 
 bliged to you ; I make it a rule never to fill my stum- 
 mick up with liquids when I start in to eat. That ; s a 
 real pritty tidy you Ve got in the middle of the table, 
 Luella, an sensible, for I s pose you ca late to save 
 your table-cloth clean for dinner, and washin s power 
 ful dear in New York City." 
 
 There were three men in attendance, and a ghost of 
 
92 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 a grin hovered over the face of the youngest, at that 
 moment laboriously engaged in carrying a fork from 
 a side-table to a tray. Mrs. Vernon saw it, and her 
 soul waxed hot. She began to talk rapidly, continu 
 ously her visitor, the while, gazing upon her with 
 that enjoying exasperating smile. 
 
 La me suz, Luella," she chimed in, at the first con 
 venient pause. " T hear your talk does carry me back 
 to Jtidd s. How well I remember your pa sayin once, 
 That gal o mine, gentlemen, can talk the socks off n 
 anybody I ever see. " 
 
 Mrs. Vernon started, dropped her napkin, and re 
 claimed it with a shaking hand. It was not the matter 
 only, but the manner of the speech. Not the least of 
 Mrs. Buncombe s accomplishments was her inimitable 
 faculty of reproducing tones. 
 
 " Often and often," pursued the visitor, pensively, " I 
 think I can see the old man sittin in his shirt-sleeves, 
 under the drinkin - water bucket, with his feet on the 
 railiii of the hotel-poach, and gittin up every now and 
 then to go back into the bar. Don t you remember, 
 when he d had about enough, an was f eelin real good, 
 how he d always shut one eye an say : ^ I in a plain 
 Blue Grass man, boys ; ain t got no book-larnin , an 
 git my relijun onst a year reg lar but I was bawn an 
 raised in the finest country on God s yeth, an don t 
 you forgit it, nuther ?" 
 
 Mrs. Vernon was spared witnessing the effect of this 
 impersonation, by the disappearance behind the screen 
 of two of her servants, while the butler kept discreetly 
 at her back. She emptied her water-glass, and be 
 stowed a pleading look upon her relentless guest. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 93 
 
 "The stage loses an accomplished actress in you, 
 Jane/ she said. " I wonder you don t try giving char 
 acter sketches in people s drawing-rooms. It would 
 surely be a success, and perhaps a safer method 
 of securing what you want." 
 
 " What ! you advise it ! " said Calliope, beaming. 
 " I am certain you d recognize my models, if no one 
 else found me out. But don t trouble your head about 
 me, dear. I m doing splendidly, thanks to the kind 
 ladies of New York society, who are always in want 
 of an outlet for their zeal." 
 
 The dreadful meal proceeded to its close, and Mrs. 
 Duncombe having afforded, as it were, a sample of 
 her skill, relaxed her efforts in that particular line 
 of torment. When the two women were again alone, 
 Mrs. Vemon, with a sudden departure from her at 
 tempted indifference, confronted her opponent boldly. 
 
 "Was your life in the House of Correction, while 
 you were serving a two-years sentence for getting 
 money under false pretences, so much to your taste 
 that you want to go back to it, Jane ? " 
 
 " I am the widow of a Union soldier who died for 
 his country at Antietam," said Calliope, dropping her 
 eyes. "And if I seek to eke out my modest pension 
 of eight dollars a month from the Government by the 
 use of the talents with which God has gifted me " 
 
 " Rubbish ! " interrupted the other. " Come, now, 
 there s no use wasting my time. I know you, root 
 and branch, Jane Ketcham ; and when I saw you, yes 
 terday, sitting up among all those women you had 
 taken in, looking like the cat that had been at the 
 cream, I made my mind up, straight." 
 
94 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " To do what, Luella ? " asked Calliope, still meekly. 
 
 " To force you to back out of this business without 
 open scandal, as you suspected when you saw me, or 
 you would n t have tried getting me upon the board 
 to be a party to your fraud." 
 
 "Now you are getting angry, dear, and in your 
 tantrums you always lose your grip. Just keep calm, 
 and consider what exposing me will do for you. It 11 
 be a thousand times worse for the public to have a 
 full account now of your life as a table-girl at Judd s, 
 where old Vernon picked you up and married you, 
 than it would have been before your son made his 
 aristocratic match. Now, just as you are getting into 
 the Four Hundred, fancy it ! And I think you may 
 trust me, love, to do the thing thoroughly when I set 
 out to have my revenge." 
 
 "And I have given not paid you hundreds of 
 dollars would have done anything to keep you a 
 decent woman," cried the widow, whose passion, long 
 repressed, had by this time burst its bounds. She 
 broke into a storm of weeping, at which Calliope 
 looked serenely on. When Luella " lost her grip," it 
 had always been the advance signal of Calliope s suc 
 cess. In this paroxysm, the untamed creature hinted 
 at in the smiling portrait below-stairs revealed herself 
 without restraint. 
 
 " There there, Luella," said the visitor, at last. 
 " You 11 cry yourself down sick, you know you will. 
 Take the thing quietly, as I do. Lord knows, you Ve 
 got lots to comfort you." 
 
 " Will no money pay you to give this up, and leave 
 New York?" 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 97 
 
 " Judging from appearances, I shall soon command 
 what will supply my necessities for the present. But 
 can t you understand you, Luella, who have made 
 such a struggle to know the right sort I It is social 
 place, the regard of the community, I need most, now. 
 Six months ago, I was, under the lowly name of 
 Madame Isaacson, an astrologist in Boston, telling 
 fortunes at twenty-five cents each; and, my dear, I 
 nearly starved. Now well, you saw for yourself 
 how the great ladies of Gotham swarmed around me. 
 Do you suppose I mean to renounce all this until 
 when I am obliged?" 
 
 " You are a shameless wretch," said the widow, be 
 tween her teeth. "I should like to call a policeman 
 and have you put out of my house." 
 
 " But you won t, love. I know you. You have n t 
 moral courage enough for that. Ah, it was always 
 such a relief, Luella, to talk freely before you." 
 
 " What do you mean to do ? " 
 
 " What do you mean to do ? If you can t be satisfied 
 to keep quiet, and patronize me with the rest of your 
 swell friends, I should almost suggest your leaving 
 town, instead of me." 
 
 Poor Mrs. Vernon, to whom this episode was but 
 the culmination of many trials from the same source, 
 looked at her old acquaintance in dismay. Leave 
 town ! Now, at the moment of Gerald s return with 
 the young wife who was to be her most powerful 
 lever in forcing her way upward ! When her enter 
 tainments for the bridal pair, that were intended to 
 conquer all lingering opposition to her advance, were 
 planned and waiting ! Now, when her lip was on 
 7 
 
98 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 the cup ! The climax of her tragic comedy was 
 reached. 
 
 "Me leave town?" she said, suddenly dropping 
 into the dialect of a distant but not forgotten past. 
 " Well, of all the impudence ! I 11 tell you what, Jane 
 Ketcham, I have had my fill of this. Walk out of my 
 house this minute, and never set foot in it again." 
 
 " I am going, dear," murmured the invincible Jane ; 
 " though, seeing you have n t been troubled with me 
 in two years, you might have had a little more patience 
 now. But before I go, Luella, let me warn you that 
 the best way out of your present complications is to 
 let me see have a sudden indisposition before the 
 next meeting of the board, and resign because your 
 physician has advised a change of air." 
 
 " This, then, is your little game ? This is what you 
 wanted from the first ? " 
 
 "If we can t work together, we are best apart, cer 
 tainly," said Jane, drawing her veil over her poke- 
 bonnet, and buttoning the brown gloves. "Might I 
 ask that butler of yours where he put my silk umbrella 
 a testimonial of esteem from an Ibsen class I had 
 at a summer resort a little while ago? I think your 
 butler has a soul for the drama, Luella, for his face 
 was eloquent with appreciation while I impersonated 
 your poor dear papa. Good -by, again, and don t 
 trouble to see me to the door. I shall not be surprised 
 to hear of your leaving town before I Ve a chance to 
 visit you again." 
 
VII 
 
 N time/ said Gerald, consulting his 
 watch, as the Washington express 
 slackened speed in the station at 
 Jersey City. " Come, Nell has that 
 woman got your bag and wraps? 
 Hughes will go on ahead to find the 
 carriage on the other side I 11 swear it s a jolly 
 thing to fill one s lungs again with our own North 
 Eiver air." 
 
 Eleanor, quietly, and with a lagging step, kept at 
 her husband s side as they followed the throng on the 
 platform, through the ferry-house to the boat, thence 
 to the forward deck, where she leaned against the rail 
 and gazed over at the roofs and spires of her birth 
 place, quitted some short two months before. Jerry, 
 growing more exhilarated as the salt breeze swept 
 from him the remnants of stale railway smoke, hardly 
 glanced at her. His thoughts had sprung forward 
 with a bound to his old familiar life and association 
 with other men, interrupted by an episode that, how 
 ever charming, was now parcel of the past. A hun 
 dred images of his active, popular, buoyant young 
 manhood swarmed around him, and tickled his imagi 
 nation with the joy of return into their broad arena. 
 
 99 
 
100 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 When he caught sight, standing against the opposite 
 railing, and eying him without appearing to wish to 
 do so, of a man whom he had known at a club to which 
 both belonged, having but a tepid liking for him 
 hitherto, his heart expanded into radiant friendship 
 for the more recent dweller in the scenes to which he 
 was going back. 
 
 "Why, that >s Telfair," he said to Eleanor, with 
 animation. "He s been to Washington about the 
 Stryker case, of course. If you don t mind my leav 
 ing you a minute, you are all right here, I 11 be 
 back at once. I d like to find out from Telfair how 
 that Stryker business is likely to come out." 
 
 Eleanor smiled, nodding assent. When he left her, 
 she turned her back on the crowd and leaned over the 
 rail, staring down into the green combs of the waves, 
 trying to keep hot tears out of her eyes. During the 
 latter part of their journey, the unconscious Gerald 
 had shown her plainly the sort of relief he felt in get 
 ting back. As if to make up for it, he had redoubled 
 endearments, and was again the bright, fascinating 
 fellow who had wooed her, the fond young husband 
 of the earliest married days. He had done his best to 
 atone for the frequent shows of petulance, of boyish 
 tyranny, that had come thick and fast since the unfor 
 tunate day of their arrival at the Bungalow. 
 
 That visit! Eleanor s cheeks crimsoned again at 
 thought of it. She would have liked to blot out for 
 ever the memory of her hysterical pleading with her 
 husband to take her away on the morrow after the 
 scene of the midnight ballet ; of his vexed, then angry, 
 remonstrance against her prudishness ; of her dismay 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 101 
 
 when she found that, in the fast society the home-bred, 
 pure-minded girl found so offensive to her instincts, 
 he was not only at home but admirably entertained. 
 
 Eleanor vanquished, but not convinced, they had 
 stayed on at the Bungalow until after the first limit 
 fixed. The four days of it had been forty in her sight. 
 A letter from Gerald s mother, urging him to return 
 home, had added to his impatience of feminine re 
 straint. He accused Eleanor of being in league with 
 his mother to keep him in leading-strings, and put the 
 offending missive in the fire. And Mrs. Shafto had 
 somehow become aware of all these petty infelicities, 
 and had ventured to counsel and sympathize with 
 Nell, while giving Gerald opportunities to calm his 
 excitement in the soothing society of his fair friend 
 Hildegarde. 
 
 Hildegarde ! Eleanor hated herself for dwelling 
 ever so lightly on an uncomfortable feeling that had 
 sprung up in her mind at Badajoz. She had put it 
 aside, and trampled on the base temptation to mis 
 judge her husband. Did not Gerald come back to her 
 from Hildegarde s companionship, swearing that poor 
 dear creature was very pitiful, ringing the changes on 
 her wrongs, but that he had learned to prefer a woman 
 with a future to a woman with a past, and was con 
 tent to leave the task of consolation to Mr. Timothy 
 Van Loon ? Was not Hildegarde herself all that was 
 tender, sympathetic, admiring, to Eleanor ? For Mrs. 
 Shafto Nell had conceived a dislike that did not lessen 
 upon acquaintance. But Mrs. de Lancey, in her re 
 fined gentleness, her winning deprecation of unkind 
 judgment what was she but a flower beaten from 
 7* 
 
102 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 its stalk by a tempest ? One must be warped by un 
 worthy prejudice indeed to have such fancies as oc 
 casionally crept into Eleanor s brain concerning her. 
 Ah, well whatever Jerry s offenses were, they had 
 always been met in loving condonation by his wife. 
 To her, every hair of his head was now dear with a 
 tenderness unimagined in her girlhood. They were 
 on their way to the new home, where the world was 
 to be shut out, and they two were to reign supreme. 
 Everything that fortune could do to lend external 
 brightness to their lives had been done ; why, then, 
 did Eleanor sigh again at the close of her reverie? 
 Jerry returned to her as the boat drew in to the slip. 
 
 " Telfair s a capital fellow," he said in great good 
 humor. "He s been telling me all that s gone on 
 about town and at the clubs. Seems to me we Ve 
 been away a thousand years. There s Hughes gone 
 ahead, and your new footman waiting near the gang 
 plank, Mrs. Vernon. Blest if I remember the fellow s 
 name, do you ? Nell, I m afraid we 11 be a regular 
 pair of Veneerings that couple in Dickens, don t 
 you know? in our new house, with the new ser 
 vants and horses, and all that. I wonder which of 
 the family will be there. I don t believe my mother 11 
 come, but I hardly think yours will be able to keep 
 away why, what a long face you have ! Not a bit 
 what it ought to be." 
 
 Nell forced a smile in answer to his rattling chal 
 lenge. She was thinking : " Oh, I hope mama won t 
 see me till I Ve had a chance to get over this little 
 doleful fit, for which there is no reason. She d be 
 so quick to read my face; and Betty s eyes are so 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 103 
 
 sharp, and dear Trix loves me so, I could n t bear for 
 them to imagine I m not the happiest woman in the 
 world." 
 
 Even when leaning back on the cushioned lining of 
 her brougham, that "dark myrtle-green satin" Trix 
 and she had so often pictured as the limit of their 
 luxurious desires, Eleanor s mind had not regained 
 its normal calm. She felt ashamed of herself that 
 the home-coming, so happy in anticipation, should be 
 thus clouded j and with a strong effort lent herself to 
 Jerry s joyous mood. 
 
 To him, the squalor of the down-town region 
 through which his high-stepping cobs minced dain 
 tily, as if despising it, was full of renewed interest. 
 
 With the zest of the returning cockney, he inhaled 
 the faded air of the dull thoroughfares pregnant with 
 the smell of over-ripe foreign fruits, clothing of hur 
 rying crowds, contents of shops open to the sidewalk, 
 black slime of uncleaned streets. He looked up at the 
 skeleton trestlework along which the elevated trains 
 went incessantly whizzing overhead, with satisfaction, 
 as a symbol of the busy metropolitan life. The roar 
 overhead, the rumble of trucks upon the granite, the 
 ceaseless swarming of eager pedestrians, the tinkle of 
 street-car bells, the cries of children playing on the 
 sidewalk amid all this hurly-burly, the shouts over 
 repeated blockings of the way by a mass of vehicles, 
 all blending to swell the chant of a great city in 
 business hours, to Jerry were welcome music. 
 
 " What a change from our sylvan solitudes ! " 
 Eleanor said, with another sigh. 
 
 " Change ! I should think so," he answered cheer- 
 
104 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 ily. " Why, you silly girl, you did n t expect to go 
 on philandering for a year and a day, did you? 
 We re part of the community now j come back to 
 take our place in actual life, out of our lovers para 
 dise, that had to end." 
 
 That had to end ! Poor foolish Nell, her young 
 heart straining to hold on to its ideals, felt her eyes 
 fill with tears. There are times when listening to 
 common sense is like lying down upon paving-stones. 
 
 Soon they had left the haunts of work-a-day, and 
 come out into Fifth Avenue at an hour when the lei 
 sure world was in full enjoyment of a brilliant after 
 noon in spring. From victorias and open landaus 
 rolling toward them head after head inclined in gra 
 cious salutation. Men, determinately appareled after 
 Piccadilly modes, wearing well-made cheviot body- 
 coats, well-kempt silk hats, well-chosen flowers in 
 their buttonholes, carrying sticks, and walking in the 
 long, easy stride of the patrician idlers of Park Row, 
 bowed to them from the sidewalks, whence also came 
 airy greetings from a larger number of the other 
 sex who have no need to seek Mayfair models to 
 turn themselves out in the prettiest dress-parade in 
 Christendom. 
 
 On such an afternoon the thoroughfare of New 
 York s fashion is at its best. The huge buildings of 
 cream-colored and of buff brick, with their delicate 
 traceries and finials of carvings, which have been 
 erected by modern art to take away our reproach of 
 monotonous brownstone, seem to catch and throw off 
 the sunlight. Many houses in the older and lower 
 part have their strips of green turf dight with pan- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 105 
 
 sies and English daisies. Flowers are everywhere: 
 in the bonnets, in posies worn upon the breast, be 
 hind windows where Easter lilies rear their pure 
 crests, in balconies and boxes, in street-barrows, in 
 the baskets of humbler venders. Roses, azaleas, hya 
 cinths, geraniums, ferns, appear to be loitering on call. 
 From Washington Square to Madison Square, where 
 leaves have just ventured from winter bondage, and 
 in the green precincts of which the busy New York 
 day stands still to breathe awhile, as on both sides of 
 the long avenue to the Plaza, nearly two miles and a 
 half in all, there is a never-ending procession of pe 
 destrians, who in temper illustrate frankly the Amer 
 ican virtues of good humor and self-respect, as they 
 push ahead, amused at the passing show of the vehi 
 cles of luxury and pleasure that throng between. 
 
 In a side-street west of Fifth Avenue Mr. and Mrs. 
 Gerald Vernon s home revealed itself by a blush of 
 newly painted brick, a series of crisp muslin curtains 
 veiling the four rows of windows, a variety of new 
 brass- and iron- work and plate-glass about the swing 
 ing doors of the vestibule, and balcony-boxes newly 
 filled with daisies and myosotis. 
 
 When they stopped by the curbstone, Gerald, con 
 scious of a shamefaced desire to avoid the notice of 
 possible observers in Numbers 14 and 18, glanced 
 about him nervously before inviting his bride to 
 alight. But in the cold-blooded current of town life, 
 where the casualties of birth, death, and marriage pass 
 often unheard of by an adjoining neighbor, their 
 home-coming was unnoticed save by an Italian gen 
 tleman grinding with maddening deliberation from a 
 
106 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 barrel-organ, " Down went McGinty to the bottom of 
 the sea, Dressed in his best snit of clothes/ whose 
 smile, as he doffed his hat, was conventionally blank. 
 
 " But for the precedent," said Gerald, " I d give that 
 fellow twenty-five cents for treating ns like regular 
 old married hacks. No ! basta, signor, allez-vous-en 
 get out, for Heaven s sake ! Now, Nell, if you don t 
 say this is better than a Florida hotel ! " 
 
 With a word of shy greeting to her new domestic 
 staff, Eleanor went from room to room, suspecting 
 Trix in ambush, her heart warm with the thought 
 that mama might be hidden behind some portiere. 
 Evidences of their loving work were everywhere : in 
 the ordering of furniture as Nell liked it, in the judi 
 cious distribution of bridal gifts. Up-stairs, in a 
 sunny room where Nell s books and Gerald s met 
 upon low shelves, a divan was revealed whereon 
 Jerry s lazy length might sprawl ; Nell s wicker chair 
 stood on a bearskin by the tea-table, before a couple 
 of logs burning softly in the fireplace of ivory tiles, 
 and here the married pair brought their explorations 
 to a halt. 
 
 " They must have just left the house," Eleanor said, 
 with a burst of girlish tenderness. " Oh ! Jerry dar 
 ling, how much better home people s love is than any 
 thing the world can give you if it tries ! " 
 
 " Hullo ! They ve got all my old college pictures 
 in here," Jerry rejoined, well pleased. " What s that 
 scratching under the sofa, Nell ? By George, I believe 
 it s Nip." 
 
 And Nip it was, Trix s second self, her inseparable 
 fox-terrier, who, with a muffled bark, darted out from 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 107 
 
 beneath a couch, sliding partly on his head, in his 
 effort to be rid of a note tied to his collar with a 
 large orange bow. 
 
 "It s from Trix, of course. Be still, Nip dear, till 
 I get it off," cried Eleanor, as Nip bounded into her 
 lap in rapturous welcome and desire to be rid of his 
 encumbrance. 
 
 Read the young couple, cheek to cheek : 
 
 My dearest Nell and Jerry : What it will cost me to sneak 
 out the basement way as you go up the front steps you can 
 never know, but mama and Betty have left me here till the lasl 
 minute, making me promise not to show an eyelash when you 
 come. You are to have your first dinner to yourselves ; and 
 there are sweetbreads, and birds, and little things that you 
 can t have every day, I know, and that Nip and I just love. We 
 have been in the kitchen interviewing the cook, and there s 
 nothing we ve not found out. Mind, don t be at the table a 
 minute after eight, for we are all coming then, and I ve so 
 much to say, I can t hold it in oh ! I m just dying to stay and 
 talk. Nip knows this is your house, for he has gone under the 
 sofa and is about to take a nap, as I told him, and he would 
 never do that in any stranger s. So welcome, welcome, wel 
 come home, from your ever loving 
 
 TRIX. 
 
 P. S. We ve got places for all the wedding presents but 
 Mrs. Cranston s bothering clock, and that s in the third story 
 back. Cousin Sarah s vase is on the lowest shelf of the Indian 
 cabinet, where nobody can see it. Old Norah would break her 
 heart if you did n t use her crazy-quilt, so I ve put it on your 
 lounge, and I know you 11 let it stay. 
 
 N. B. La cuisiniere est pen aimable envers mon cher Nip, 
 et je la deteste ; mais n importe, la vieillc clwse ne peut pas lire 
 ceci ! 
 
 Where now were Eleanor s fears, tremors, sad re 
 membrances ? Vanished, swept away by a heartening 
 
108 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 breeze. When eight o clock brought with it her dear 
 ones, the first evening at home closed in nnbroken 
 peace, even though Jerry, who had promised to finish 
 it with his mother, bade her not trouble to sit up for 
 him, as he might look in later at the club. 
 
 "I hope Mrs. Vernon is not feeling seriously ill," 
 said Mrs. Halliday, who had made up her mind to 
 inaugurate the new era with all that was needful in 
 the way of Christian suavity. 
 
 "I don t know I imagine not," Jerry answered 
 shortly. He had not recovered from the letter of re 
 buke for taking his wife to Badajoz, and in his heart 
 thought his mother was sulking at home to punish 
 him. 
 
VIII 
 
 HE second meeting of the " Wo 
 man s Society for the Legal Relief 
 of Oppressed Wives/ 7 after various 
 delays, took place, not at the house 
 of Mrs. Vernon, whose physician had 
 declared that lady totally unable to 
 bear the strain of further participancy in work for 
 the public good, but at the mansion of no less a dig 
 nitary than Mrs. Van Loon, born in the American 
 purple, married in early youth to a great fortune, and 
 backed by an actual pedigree as respectable and solid 
 as any in the land. How this came about may be 
 briefly explained. 
 
 Mrs. Van Loon, who, at the time of the first meet 
 ing, had been on her way across the continent from 
 Santa Barbara (whither she had taken Mr. Van Loon 
 for the benefit of his ailing throat), arrived in town 
 to hear how clever Mrs. Boulter had succeeded in 
 wresting the reins of power from Mrs. Bullion, and 
 was in a fair way to control the most fashionable 
 charity of the year. This to Mrs. Van Loon was 
 wormwood. More than once she had had occasion to 
 bow her neck and come in to Mrs. Boulter s schemes. 
 Mrs. Boulter, clever as she was, had no birth, and 
 
 109 
 
110 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 little or no money j and Mrs. Van Loon viewed with 
 displeasure the encroachment of mere brains and 
 glibness upon a territory hitherto almost exclusively 
 her own. When it was a question of laying down 
 the social law, Mrs. Van Loon felt herself to be de 
 puted by Heaven to do it. And if you once let these 
 writing people get ahead in society, in Heaven s name, 
 where will they stop ? 
 
 A call upon Mrs. Van Shuter found that exhausted 
 leader willing to waive all rights of government in 
 favor of her younger and more active ally. Mrs. 
 Vernon s polite note to inform Mrs. Van Shuter, and 
 the ladies of the board, of her great regret that the 
 orders of her physician made it imperative for her 
 to withdraw from connection with the work, gave 
 Mrs. Van Loon the immediate opportunity she de 
 sired. Mrs. Van Shuter, who agreed to attend the 
 meetings if she were released from further effort, 
 made her last contribution to the fund by ordering 
 the hapless Miss Thompson to write an entirely new 
 set of little notes. And clever Mrs. Boulter found 
 herself bidden into an enemy s camp, where judicious 
 wire-pulling put Mrs. Van Loon in the chair, vice Mrs. 
 Van Shuter, resigned, and where Mrs. Bullion, now 
 mysteriously appeased, was induced to reconsider and 
 to accept the office of treasurer. 
 
 In the hands of Mrs. Van Loon the committee was 
 as wax. The chairwoman let the dark-eyed lady sug 
 gest her balpoudre; the sandy-haired lady was allowed 
 to air her histrionic daughter j all other schemes, from 
 the Russian tea to the amateur nigger minstrels, were 
 vouchsafed a gracious hearing; and then the obedi- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 111 
 
 ent assemblage was somehow made to understand 
 that it was pledged to support an Early-Republican 
 ball, to be opened by a Centennial Minuet. 
 
 " It is so simple/ said the presiding officer. " Every 
 one should wear ancestral clothes belonging to the 
 period, with miniatures, and seals, and er all that 
 kind of thing and the hair powdered, as Mrs. 
 Creighton so happily suggests. Those who dance in 
 the opening minuet should, of course, represent fam 
 ilies known in political or social life in the days of 
 Washington s residence in New York as President. 
 By hunting up all the old books at the Historical and 
 Society and Astor libraries, many valuable hints may 
 be obtained as to emblems and mottos and decora 
 tions of that date. And I have an idea that our best 
 people might be induced to form a loan collection of 
 the portraits of their American ancestors to hang 
 around the walls of the ball-room, if the insurance 
 were properly looked after, and there were detectives 
 kept day and night, of course. What could be easier ? " 
 
 Easy as it was, an unaccountable dejection settled 
 over certain portions of the company. At once a buzz 
 of discussion ensued; and the wheels of progress 
 stopped. The burning question that arose in every 
 woman s mind as to the award of places in the minuet 
 of honor banished all thought of the "Legal Relief 
 of Oppressed Wives " ; the object of the meeting was 
 forgotten. Mrs. Boulter, after letting fly two or three 
 arrows of satire that pierced Mrs. Van Loon s armor 
 visibly, offered her resignation to the board. Mrs. 
 Gramercy St. John, who was deemed sure of a lead 
 ing role in the affair, confided to her neighbor that 
 
112 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 she could not bring herself to serve, because Mrs. 
 Fulton Manhattan (whose great-grandfather had sold 
 figs while hers stood on the balcony beside President 
 Washington at Federal Hall) had been proposed as 
 her vis-a-vis. Mrs. Fulton Manhattan, hearing this 
 whisper, also resigned from the board of managers. 
 Old Mrs. Bowling Green, whose spinster daughter 
 Selina had been overlooked in the first hastily made 
 list of dancers, rose up, and in a quavering voice 
 begged leave to offer a few remarks. She would de 
 tain the ladies only long enough to say that although 
 her ancestor was a favorite staff-officer of Washing 
 ton, and the cups from which his Excellency drank 
 tea with her grandmama were daily dusted upon her 
 cupboard-shelves, she should consider it quite too 
 ridiculous to have one of her family appear in such 
 a mixed affair after which she left the room. Mrs. 
 Central Parker, who had been absorbed in the mental 
 wording of a cablegram to Worth for a delicious 
 First-Empire toilet, sprang upon her feet at this, and, 
 resenting a fancied direction of Mrs. Green s remarks 
 to her, proffered her resignation, and retired, resolv 
 ing to induce her husband to cable, instead, for a 
 duke s house for the London season. 
 
 Amid this confusion, and under a stress of feeling 
 that bid fair to depopulate the committee, Mrs. Cal 
 liope Duncombe sat by, serene and unruffled, her eyes 
 cast down, her meek hands folded in her lap. Some 
 thing in her expression seemed to annoy Mrs. Van 
 Shuter, who was in the condition of the camel that 
 resented the last straw. 
 
 " I think it would be as well to tell that person, 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 113 
 
 Mrs. What s-er-name, " said the Idol, very crossly 
 and audibly, to Mrs. Van Loon, " that it s of no 
 earthly use for her to come to the meetings of our 
 committee." 
 
 " Certainly," said Mrs. Van Loon "I had thought 
 of that, myself. It s bad enough to be in such a tur 
 moil, without having anybody sitting by and looking 
 like a saint. Tell her when we Ve anything to give, 
 we 11 let her know. 7 
 
 " But I never tell people things, myself," answered 
 the great lady, a-flutter; "it is so apt to bring on 
 palpitation, to have to think about the words." 
 
 "Then the secretary must notify her. What with 
 the clatter and quarreling, I in almost distracted 
 now," said the chairwoman of the board. 
 
 BETTY HALLIDAY, again in attendance upon an 
 occasion she vowed was as good as a circus with three 
 rings, gave a full report of the proceedings to Nell at 
 luncheon, where Nell s mother-in-law had dropped in 
 on her way for her drive. Betty, struck with the care 
 worn look on Mrs. Vernon s face, thought she observed 
 her eye gleam with something like triumph at the 
 account of the snub to Mrs. Duncombe. But the 
 widow, observing merely that it was really too bad 
 she should have to miss the Early-Republican ball, as 
 she had more than half decided to go to the other 
 side, bestowed a kiss upon Nell s cheek, and took an 
 imposing leave. 
 
 ELEANOR, who objected to the idea of set after 
 noons at home, on which her pretty house would be 
 
 8 
 
114 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 overrun by the crowd that comes to congratulate and 
 goes to criticize, had at once established a tea-table at 
 five o clock, where friends dropping in were tempted 
 to linger with the lengthening days. 
 
 She was not a woman like the heroines of French 
 novels, to make intimate corners into which it is 
 death for more than one man to venture at a time. 
 There was in her drawing-room an absence of divans, 
 beneath tent-shaped draperies pitched under palm- 
 trees where camels and caravans alone are wanting. 
 Visitors, presenting themselves in visiting-hours, had 
 no opportunity to discern their hostess in the rose 
 ate glow of lamps veiled by wonderful frilled shades, 
 lolling on piles of cushions in a Delsartian pose, 
 tete-a-tete with some youngster who assumes to be 
 disagreeably surprised at an interruption. Her own 
 old friends, men and girls, and Jerry s coterie of 
 gilded youths, who had been a little everywhere, 
 knew a little of everything, dealt with all topics 
 lightly, often amusingly, pronounced Nell s "five 
 o clock" a find. 
 
 " l What makes the lambs love Mary so ? " said 
 Dick Henderson, on one of these afternoons. " Do 
 you give it up, Mrs. Jerry? Well, its hostess apart, 
 yours is a restful house. The amount of manual 
 labor a man has, nowadays, in calling upon most 
 women ! The logs that won t burn, the chimneys 
 that smoke, the candle-shades that catch fire, the 
 spirit-lamps and dogs that have to be put out " 
 
 " Don t, please," said Trix, coming in, in her walk 
 ing-dress, just then. " You make me ashamed of my 
 dear Friar Tuck, who, when he goes with me visiting, 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 115 
 
 will neither stay outside nor stay in. Nell, if I m 
 later than usual, put it down to Tuck, for he had to 
 be exercised. Ever since the awful day he well, not 
 exactly growled, but rumbled at Jerr/s Aunt Try- 
 phena, who despises dogs, I Ve never dared bring him 
 here, without coming in first to reconnoiter. He 7 s 
 walking around the block, waiting for me, now, the 
 dear." 
 
 What, alone?" said Eleanor. 
 
 "No; there s somebody else," the girl answered, 
 blushing and vanishing amid a general laugh, to re 
 appear, accompanied not only by a noble St. Bernard 
 dog, who at once laid his " Shaksperean dewlaps " on 
 Mrs. Gerald s knees, and stood still to be caressed, 
 but a slim, broad-shouldered young man wearing an 
 altogether bright and wholesome countenance, who 
 was introduced to her sister as Mr. Vyvan. 
 
IX 
 
 HIS little group brought with it into 
 Eleanor s drawing-room a sense of 
 open-air freshness and young vital 
 ity. The blitheness in Vy van s face 
 set Eleanor to thinking ; and, plac 
 ing him in a chair beside her, she 
 studied him narrowly, a scrutiny his frank manhood 
 enabled the youth to bear becomingly. Trix, mean 
 while, came in for her share of rallying attention. 
 
 " It s love me, love my dog, with you, is n t it, Miss 
 Beatrix?" said De Witt, in a low tone, as he handed 
 her the cream. 
 
 "Not always," the girl answered, curling her lip; 
 "you are at perfect liberty to love my dog, Mr. 
 de Witt." 
 
 " Hard hit, Freddy," said Henderson. " Come here, 
 Friar Tuck, you are a credit to your bringing up. 
 Short s your friend, not Codlin. Would it insult you 
 to be offered one of Mrs. Jerry s tea-cakes ? " 
 
 But the Friar, proof against blandishments, had 
 now transferred his huge muzzle from Nell s knee to 
 Vy van s, where he remained, consulting the young 
 man s face with the dumb lovingness a big dog can 
 make so eloquent. 
 
 116 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 117 
 
 " Did n t he take a prize at the last bench-show ? " 
 went on Henderson with persistent civility to Trix. 
 
 "No-o," said Tuck s mistress, shaking her head as 
 she surveyed her treasure mournfully. " I can t think 
 why, but I 7 m afraid there was something underhand, 
 because one of the judges told me Tuck was too per 
 fectly lovely to live." 
 
 " I admire that fellow s diplomacy," put in De Witt. 
 "Did he tell you also that you should have a dog- 
 show exclusively for Friar Tuck, where all the others 
 would be cats, and he d be sure to win a prize 
 
 Trix was saved the trouble of a repartee by Friar 
 Tuck himself, who, turning at this moment his delib 
 erate gaze on the last speaker, vented his feelings by 
 a long and heartfelt yawn. 
 
 " You have been very lucky to win the Friar s con 
 fidence," Eleanor said to young Vyvan. "He is, in 
 general, very repellant of advances by strangers." 
 
 " Oh, I was brought up with dogs for playfellows. 
 In the South, where our doors are always open, they 
 walk through our homes like members of the family. 
 I pity these poor creatures cribbed up in town. 
 I suppose it s the fellow-feeling that makes me 
 kind." 
 
 " Then you miss your Southern life ? But of course 
 you do. My sister Trix and I, and our brother Jack, 
 have been going always in summer to a rather hot, 
 dull little place my mother has on the Hudson River, 
 and we preferred that to anything New York could 
 furnish. Those splendid big Maryland estates of 
 yours must give you even more of a feeling of room 
 to breathe and grow in." 
 8* 
 
118 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " Big enough they are/ said Brock, laughing ; " but 
 the splendor is all in space and forests." 
 
 " Tell me about your home." 
 
 "I sha n t bore you? It s an old place called 
 Mount St. Dunstan, that has been built on a long 
 time, and has always belonged to my mother s family. 
 After my father was killed in the last year of the war, 
 I was born, and she went back there to live with my 
 grandfather, who is now a very old man, devoted to 
 flowers and dogs. Every fine day you may see him 
 working in his garden or greenhouses, with a golden 
 collie at his heels. My mother keeps the house, with 
 a poor lot of servants, the best they can get down 
 there now, and everything indoors is rather worn 
 and shabby, I suppose ; but I know I would n t have 
 it changed " 
 
 His ingenuous face, one of those in which expres 
 sion is " on tiptoe for a flight," softened, then clouded 
 as he stopped. 
 
 " You are the only son ? " Eleanor asked softly. 
 
 " The only child, worse luck. It is hard for her to 
 do without me, though of course there are always 
 cousins stopping in the house, and work enough in 
 the affairs of the plantation. And she is getting used 
 to it, now, what with the four years at the university 
 and those in New York." 
 
 " We must try to make you feel at home with us," 
 she said, with a smile that reminded him of Trix. 
 
 "Oh, I am happy. I like the vista that seems to 
 have no end that opens before a young man of pur 
 pose here. When I first came, I had such a different 
 notion of standards and values coming out of that 
 dreamy old-world atmosphere of sentimental aris- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 119 
 
 tocracy into this broad daylight of commercial enter 
 prise. Now I have found my place, I am encouraged 
 about the future in a way I could not have been, had 
 I remained at home. But, Mrs. Vernon, you must 
 think me abominably vain. 7 
 
 "Some day I must hear more. You must come 
 and dine with us," she began, when her attention was 
 claimed elsewhere. 
 
 " Come, Mrs. Jerry, decide for us/ 7 said Henderson. 
 "Is it the men s fault or the girls , that we average 
 fellows in society have to wait till our hair gets thin 
 before we take wives ? " 
 
 "Like old Beau Meredith/- added De Witt; "live 
 to be the happiness of successive generations of debu 
 tantes, and return to second childhood in the process. 
 But it s poor economy to wait till your hair grows 
 thin before you marry. One of the prettiest women 
 I know told me she never sees the bald spot on her 
 husband s head that it does n t make her want to 
 gape. Of course it s the women s fault. They won t 
 look at us unless w r e can give them well, say, 
 looking about him approvingly, "the likes of this." 
 
 " That s it/ said Henderson, ruefully. " Fancy ask 
 ing any girl of our set to live with you and be your 
 love in a flat with five speaking-trumpets surmount 
 ing five visiting-cards in the vestibule, and a smell of 
 codfish in the halls. I Ve often thought I might 
 manage to feed my wife, if she would make her trous 
 seau last ; but how I could pay three dollars an even 
 ing for cabs to convey her to other people s dinners, 
 I don t see. On the whole, I think I had rather be 
 taken in and done for by my father-in-law." 
 
 "Widows, now/ said De^Witt, "offer a delightful 
 
120 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 solution of the difficulty, if they are rich and young ; 
 but the stock is limited." 
 
 " For shame ! " said Eleanor. " I refuse to arbitrate. 
 Thank goodness, there are love-matches, even in our 
 set. " 
 
 " Denzil s, for instance," said Henderson. " When 
 he left college, an honor-man, and the world before 
 him where to choose, the best-looking, the cleverest 
 fellow of his day, an athlete, and a hero, he went 
 in for architecture, and might have been anything. 
 Well, two years later, he took out to dinner a girl 
 with a Burne-Jones profile and without a cent, raved 
 the next day to us about her brow that should have 
 worn a perpetual fillet, and in three months married 
 her. Look at them now. They have been married 
 eight years. She is a dowdy goddess, a millstone 
 around Denzil s neck. He has lost pluck and temper, 
 has become a cynic, pitches into all things American, 
 is begrudging of other men s good things, and con 
 tinually hampered by the necessity of paying house 
 hold bills. Now tell me, whose happiness does Denzil 
 make? Who makes his? What has he secured by 
 marrying for love ? " 
 
 " That Mrs. Denzil ! " commented Trix, scornfully. 
 " She is the kind of limp woman who sits and com 
 plains of her husband, and raves about Browning and 
 Tolstoi, while her children are running in the streets. 
 It is her fault, if anybody s ; and I think you are all 
 horrid and cold-blooded in the way you talk." 
 
 " Have you ever estimated the price of the butcher s 
 meat consumed by Nip and Tuck, Miss Beatrix?" said 
 her tormentor, Fred de Witt. "And do you think 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 121 
 
 you d be willing to put down your dogs, as some 
 women put down their carriages, for your husband s 
 sake?" 
 
 " There is something else I should like to put down 
 first/ 7 said Trix, crushingly. 
 
 To this chatter Brock Vyvan listened with mingled 
 feelings. He knew these men to belong to a class of 
 comparative leisure, to be well-dressed, able to indulge 
 themselves in many things which he could but dream 
 of one day possessing. He saw them drifting out of 
 youth without a thought of assuming the matrimonial 
 yoke, and he could not but admit a certain reason in 
 their arguments against so doing. Even with the 
 ring of Trix s honest voice in protest in his ear, he 
 looked around him, and then in fancy back to the 
 faded rooms of the Mount St. Dunstan homestead 
 w T hich was to be his inheritance. In contrast with 
 this afflueiit prosperity deemed indispensable to the 
 higher civilization of to-day, he set the barren acres, 
 the cramped fortunes, the lack of ready money of his 
 home-people. He thought of how many years of toil 
 must pass to bring him to the independence needed 
 to rid the old place of debt, to furnish comforts to 
 his mother s declining years; and steeled his heart 
 against the siren whisperings that had, of late, begun 
 to echo there with a music that never ceased. 
 
 Eleanor, refusing to u give in her testimony," felt 
 that on her side much might be said. " It is a craven 
 sort of thing," she thought, " to sit here and let these 
 young men think we are all material worldlings be 
 cause we ve been born in a certain social class. But 
 I can t speak the truth is, I m afraid to say too 
 
122 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 much. And they might not believe me if I told the 
 very truth that if Jerry had brought me nothing 
 but himself I d have been as content. And if this is 
 foolish, I don t want to be wise." 
 
 The talk was here interrupted by Hughes, the ex- 
 valet, who for an increase of stipend had consented 
 to take upon his accomplished hands the duty of but 
 ler in the new establishment. He was preceding two 
 gentlemen, about whom Trix, recognizing them, ut 
 tered her significant word, " Bother ! " as Hughes an 
 nounced Mr. Van Loon and Mr. Leeds. 
 
 The blood came into Eleanor s cheeks. The im 
 mense impertinence of the individual last named, in 
 intruding himself under the wing of an old acquaint 
 ance into her house, filled her with indignation that 
 found no vent. It is in comedies of the stage, not of 
 real life, that the heroine has the exact words ready 
 with which to repel audacity. And a woman in her 
 own house rarely allows herself the pleasure of a 
 downright invitation to go out of it to any one short 
 of an intending burglar. Even a book-agent s way 
 to the front door is soothed by apologetic courtesy. 
 
 " Saw Vernon at the club," said Timothy, address 
 ing his hostess, but his vagrant eye captured anew by 
 the spring-like charms of Trix, who had given him a 
 slight and frosty nod. " Said you d be here at tea- 
 time. Got in from Florida on my boat, this morning. 
 Havin a new yacht built, and, by Jove, I d thought 
 o namin it the Beatrix; but your sister s so uncom 
 mon huffy, nowadays won t look at a man, like the 
 other girls you see around. Have you heard my 
 latest good thing anywhere? No? Really! New 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 123 
 
 beauty at the Ponce de Leon since you left, named 
 Milliken, from the West somewhere, stands six foot 
 in her stockings, if an inch. Can t think what 7 s hap 
 pened to the girls now, to make em all so tall. Fel 
 lows wanted me to lead a cotillion with the Milliken ; 
 but I just looked at her, and gave it up. l Could n t 
 do it unless I danced on stilts/ I said, and I never 
 learned that way. By Jove, I Ve heard of nothin 
 else since, everywhere I ve been. People are buzzin 
 it all over the country, I believe. l Could n t do it 
 unless I danced on stilts was what I saidj and I 
 never learned that way. 7 I believe somebody has 
 sent the thing to i Puck ; but you may say you had 
 it right from me." 
 
 Trix laughed. Encouraged by what he took to be 
 approval, Mr. Van Loon forsook Eleanor, and con 
 veyed himself and hat and stick over to a piano- 
 bench near where the girl was seated, his place by 
 Mrs. Gerald being at once assumed by Mr. Carteret 
 Leeds. 
 
 " Van Loon told you we d-er-met Vernon at the 
 club, 7 said that unabashed gentleman. " From what 
 he said, I-er-thought you d be glad of the last news 
 from our friends in Florida. Your husband told us 
 he d be at home, himself, this afternoon ; but I sup 
 pose he changed his mind, as I saw him walkin 
 with-er-a fair lady down the avenue a half-hour 
 since." 
 
 " Mr. Vernon is in the habit of going to his mother 
 at this time," said Eleanor, angry with herself for an 
 swering at all. 
 
 " Oh, no ; not Mrs. Vernon," he said, with an in- 
 
124 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 tonation maliciously jocose " not Mrs. Vernon, cer 
 tainly. I say, it would be a good joke on Jerry to let 
 the cat out now." 
 
 " You have taken many liberties," Eleanor said very 
 low, and with awful distinctness, " but you have never 
 gone so far before as to presume to discuss my hus 
 band s affairs with me. May I ask that you will keep 
 this fact in mind ? " 
 
 " Oh, but I say, you know," he urged, still jocular, 
 "most women would be glad of a chance to bring a 
 man to book when it s about an old flame, espe 
 cially. Come, now, I 11 lay ten to one you re dyiii 
 to get down off your high horse and own up you re 
 curious. But I won t peach. Only you d better ask 
 Jerry why lie advised Van Loon to come to see you noiv." 
 
 They were sitting a little apart, behind the table in 
 the back-room, and, with an exclamation of disgust, 
 Eleanor arose hurriedly, intending to join the rest 
 and to cut short the hateful conference. This move 
 ment Friar Tuck, who had been peacefully dozing at 
 her feet, misinterpreted to mean a declaration of war 
 upon her enemy, and, starting up with a growl of 
 deep-seated determination, his teeth gleaming, his 
 body tense, a terrible object in his wrath, he 
 launched his great bulk forward in a spring at the 
 offender. Quick as he was, Brock Vyvan, who, the 
 other men having taken leave, had been rather tamely 
 turning over a book of photographs of cathedrals, 
 while Trix was appropriated by Van Loon, was 
 quicker. Before Tuck could reach his victim, a firm 
 hand was on his collar, and Trix, flying to the rescue, 
 helped to reduce the huge creature to good behavior. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 125 
 
 Dead- white, and with chattering teeth, Mr. Carteret 
 Leeds for once parted with his offensive ease, and 
 went off babbling his adiens in an abject sort of way. 
 
 " I never saw Tuck do such a thing before," said 
 Trix, as Van Loon prepared to follow his friend. 
 " He s as mild as milk in general. Lucky it was that 
 horrid Mr. Leeds." 
 
 "Tuck never before had such provocation," said 
 Eleanor in an undertone to her sister, her heart beat 
 ing fiercely at the remembered insolence. 
 
 " You are goiii to Mrs. Bullion s dinner, ain t you ? " 
 asked lingering Timothy, whose chains this meeting 
 had newly welded. " I know you are, for she told 
 me so, before she could get me to say I d come ; and 
 you 11 give me the cotillion, won t you, at the next 
 Assembly ? " 
 
 " I don t know if I m engaged j I 11 see," said Trix, 
 darting a look at Vyvan, who remained inanimate. 
 Some fine lady of his acquaintance had sent him a 
 card for the festivity in question, and, an hour before, 
 he had talked eagerly with the girl about going 
 thither for the pleasure of dancing with her. But 
 the glimpse just afforded him into the workings of 
 fashionable life had apparently chilled his enthusiasm 
 for its functions. 
 
 " I should keep both you and Mr. Vyvan if we were 
 dining at home," said Eleanor, when Trix also rose 
 to go. 
 
 " Mama is alone to-night, and I could n t stop," 
 Trix answered ; " but Mr. Vyvan need not take the 
 long walk home with Tuck and me." 
 
 Again she ventured a shy side-glance. This time 
 
126 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 a dark red tinge came upon his cheeks and brow. 
 He made no answer,, but when they were outside kept 
 with her in the street. 
 
 "I said you need not trouble to walk back with 
 me/ 7 she repeated, a little more distinctly. 
 
 " I heard you, of course, and I have no wish to in 
 trude my company ; but if you think I am going to 
 lose you from my sight till you are within your own 
 front door, you are mistaken. That is n t the way we 
 treat ladies in our part of the world." 
 
 " If you don t, you all ~but engage them to dance the 
 cotillion with you, and then leave them in the lurch, 
 to be snapped up by any goose." 
 
 " Do you think he is a goose ? " he cried, with a joy 
 ous tremor in his voice. " Then I will dance with or 
 without you for a week." 
 
 " This is tew ridic lous, " Trix said, trying to turn 
 off her consciousness of pleasure with a jest. " That s 
 what the backwoodsman remarked when he came 
 home after an Indian raid, and found his home 
 burnt, and his wife and children lying scalped upon 
 the ground." 
 
 " Oh, you may laugh at me," he said, now close be 
 side her, the big dog " padding" on the chain ahead, 
 "but I Ve been told I know what s expected. Half 
 the girls I meet out ask me if I think you 11 marry 
 Mr. Timothy Van Loon. It s part of the stock con 
 versation of polite society." 
 
 "Let us talk about foot-ball," said Trix, mischiev 
 ously. 
 
 ELEANOR, in the hands of her maid, making ready 
 for a dinner, one of the series in honor of their nup- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 127 
 
 tials to which the young couple had not ceased to be 
 bidden, was vexed at her own longing to hear Jerry s 
 foot upon the stairs. He was unusually late, and now 
 there would be no opportunity till they should be in 
 the carriage to pour forth her fall soul about the 
 attempted poison of Mr. Carteret Leeds discourse. 
 She had already made up her mind that malice was 
 at the bottom of it, and she longed, in Jerry s arms, 
 to rid herself of the recollection of a momentary pang 
 of doubt of him. But there was ever a lurking won 
 der as to who could be the woman the world of gossip 
 had a right to call Jerry s " old flame." Why had she 
 heard of this person, now, for the first time? Then 
 Eleanor laughed at herself for supposing her beauti 
 ful Jerry could have gone so far through his young 
 manhood without some aspersion of the sort. In 
 another wife, she would have been first to judge such 
 weakness beneath contempt. 
 
 All the same, when she saw the gown Elsa had laid 
 out for her, a "creation" in reds and watermelon 
 pinks that Gerald had decried, with some petulance 
 she ordered it away. In its place she put on a robe 
 of black gauze, that should bring out the dazzling 
 freshness of her skin, and serve as a background for 
 the luster of Jerry s diamonds scattered upon her 
 bodice and in her hair. Until now the girl had 
 decked herself, as flowers unfold their petals to the 
 sun, in fragrant unconsciousness of the law that bids 
 them open. Tasting the fruit of knowledge, she had 
 already learned what men of Gerald s stamp make 
 of vital importance in woman s eyes, and then deride 
 them for considering. Gazing at her image in the 
 mirror, and admitting with a blush the success of her 
 
128 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 innocent design, the young wife s eye fell on the face 
 of a tiny clock standing among the litter of silver and 
 ivory upon her toilet. 
 
 " How late it is ! " she exclaimed. " You are quite 
 sure, Elsa, Mr. Vernon has not come into his room ? " 
 
 The discreet Elsa, tripping away, returned without 
 bearing comfort; and just as Eleanor began to feel 
 anxiety succeeding blankness, Jerry s key was heard 
 in the door below. 
 
 "All right; I >m late, but I 11 make all the haste I 
 can/ he said, looking in on her for a moment. " Why, 
 what a swell you are, with your whole jewel-box 
 emptied over your head and sticking where it fell." 
 
 "Is there too much of it are n t you pleased with 
 me ? " she said, rather cut by his comment. 
 
 She had risen, and stood before him in her bloom 
 ing youth, amid the sparkle of her gems, offering her 
 self to his criticism with a movement half coquettish, 
 all womanly. Jerry leaned over, and regardless of 
 Elsa s completed masterpiece, clasped her in his arms, 
 kissing her lips and cheeks. 
 
 "Oh, please go," she said; "you will never have 
 time to change. The carriage is there now ; it is dis 
 graceful to be so late." 
 
 But when, shrouded by her maid in a long wrap 
 whose high collar of fur caressed the coils of her nut- 
 brown hair, and armed with her scepter of curling 
 ostrich plumes, she sat beside Jerry in the brougham, 
 and they were driven, at speed, through the lighted 
 streets, Nell nestled toward him lovingly. 
 
 "How unnecessarily fast Beacon drives, Jerry. 
 I ? m sure we have time enough. If Mrs. Van Loon 
 
"ARE NT YOU PLEASED WITH ME? 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 131 
 
 is to be there, we are sure to have to wait the usual 
 half-hour for her. I have so much to tell you. 
 I don t see why women so often say they dread the 
 driving out to dinner, because their husbands are al 
 ways cross 5 you are always sweet to me then, Jerry, 
 and we are so deliciously alone." 
 
 " I might as well attempt to get my arm around a 
 Polar bear, as you in that fluffy overcoat," he said 
 good-humoredly. " But I always like to do what s 
 expected of me so here goes. Now begin, and put 
 in as much talk as a woman can crowd into three 
 quarters of a mile, and I 11 promise not to inter 
 rupt." 
 
 Eleanor s first impulse had been to pour into her 
 husband s ear the annoyance contributed to her day s 
 experience by Mr. Carteret Leeds. But she could not 
 bring herself to mar the happiness of this brief time 
 with him snatched from the outer world. She talked 
 on in her rapid girlish way about the incidents of the 
 day, the contents of her letters, the callers at her tea- 
 table. 
 
 "Henderson and De Witt hoped you would be up 
 before they left. They were as amusing as ever, and 
 then Trix came with Tuck and young Vyvan oh, 
 Jerry, that s a delightful boy. I wish, I wish Trix 
 and he could but there 7 s no use thinking of it, I 
 suppose." 
 
 " If Trix knows what is good for her, she will whis 
 tle back Van Loon," said Jerry. 
 
 "Jerry! You are not in earnest. My buoyant, 
 sparkling Trix tied to that man oh, impossible!" 
 
 "Your mother don t think it impossible, and the 
 
132 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 rest of the world will call Trix a downright fool if 
 she gets another chance at him and lets him go." 
 
 "Mama poor mama you know she thinks only 
 of what is best for us/ began Eleanor, and stopped 
 in embarrassment. 
 
 " When a woman s got a family with as little 
 money to support them as your mother has, she s 
 obliged to take views ahead. People who have lived 
 to her time of life see that, if a fellow s decent, mar 
 riages come out about the same in the long run. 
 There s nothing, as men look at it, against Timothy ; 
 and if Trix don t snap him up, another woman will." 
 
 " Jerry, I can t believe you would hold such senti 
 ments," Eleanor said, drawing away from him a little. 
 
 "Because we are spoons on each other, it don t 
 follow that every one else need be," he said, with a 
 careless laugh. " But here s news for you, Nell : my 
 mother, who kept me so late talking about her plans, 
 is to sail in the Teutonic on Wednesday next. I got 
 a deck stateroom for her and her maid, and cabled 
 Mrs. Vane-Benson to establish her at Claridge s. She 
 and the doctor have patched up between them that 
 she can t stand the climate of New York in spring. 
 The truth is, Nell, she s got the constitution of a 
 horse, and I suspect there s some tiff under it. I be 
 lieve she sent for her physician like a woman I heard 
 of, lately, who said, l Doctor, I want to go abroad. 
 Tell me what s the matter with me. " 
 
 "Then you were with your mother, after all?" 
 Eleanor said, forgetting in her satisfaction to make 
 filial comment on Mrs. Vernon s plans. 
 
 "With her. What do you mean?" he said, with- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 133 
 
 drawing his arm. " Did n t I tell you I ve been run 
 ning about all day, settling her affairs ? " 
 
 The brougham drew up before an awning, and they 
 walked along a wide crimson carpet up the steps and 
 into the anteroom, where the maids took Eleanor s 
 wraps, she being conscious of increased enjoyment of 
 the hour. Late as she and Jerry were, the company 
 of eighteen or twenty people waiting in the drawing- 
 room were to be yet called upon to curb their pangs 
 of hunger for Mr. and Mrs. Van Loon. 
 
 "It is abominable, that woman," a man said, who 
 was talking with Eleanor during this trying interval. 
 " She s absolutely no consideration for people s diges 
 tions. This is the fifth dinner this season where she s 
 kept me waiting for my food. I m faint now, and if 
 I did n t know what this chef can do, 1 7 d go ask the 
 butler for a sandwich, and accept the consequence. 
 Here they are now, for a wonder but," his jaw dropped 
 as he looked around him, " by Jove, I m an odd num 
 ber, and there s another yet to come ! " 
 
 As he spoke, a glimpse of somebody hastening in at 
 the door in white and pearls caught Eleanor s eye, as 
 "Mrs. de Lancey" was announced. Then the host 
 assuming possession of the bride to lead a glittering 
 line of couples out to the dining-room, Nell was seated 
 and unbuttoning her gloves before discovering that at 
 the other end of a table set with orchids in silver vases, 
 on the right hand of Jerry, who had taken his hostess 
 out, Hildegarde was placed. 
 
 " There is a beauty worth waiting for," said their 
 host to Mrs. Van Loon and Eleanor, directing their 
 attention to the last-comer. 
 9* 
 
134 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " I don t know/ said Mrs. Van Loon, who resented 
 encroachment upon her privilege. " The best thing 
 about her is that one don t have to ask Smithson, now 
 they are divorced. And if I were you/ she added to 
 Eleanor, while stabbing at an oyster with her fork as 
 comfortably as if it were the reputation of a friend, 
 " I d haul my husband over the coals for her delay. 
 Half -past six it was, by the carriage-clock, as I drove 
 by the Plantagenet, where she lives, and saw Mr. 
 Vernon going in with her ! Did I tell you I ve got 
 you down for my Centennial Minuet ? It is going on 
 finely, in spite of the women s fights." 
 
X 
 
 N the weeks that followed her first 
 perception of Gerald s intention to 
 falsify his actions to her, Eleanor 
 tried to persuade herself that the 
 fault was on her side in demand 
 ing that he should sacrifice for her 
 those pleasures of outside companionship she was 
 so eager to give up for him. With the rest of the 
 unsought knowledge the young woman was daily 
 absorbing, came a relentless conviction of the inher 
 ent difference in their natures that made it impossible 
 for him to be happy without perpetual movement, 
 variety, change of occupation. If he had been thrown 
 upon his own exertions for their livelihood, he would 
 have been better balanced in this community, where 
 work is the rule, and an idler is by public opinion 
 forced to herd with a little band of his kind, more or 
 less held in reproach for the gifts of fortune. Jerry 
 would have made a capital man of business. His 
 natural industry, daring spirit, gaiety, quickness of 
 intuition, surface good temper, eminently fitted him 
 to deal with American leaders of affairs. For politics 
 he had little taste, but the whip-and-spur atmosphere 
 
 135 
 
136 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 of modern commerce or finance would have suited 
 him thoroughly. Soon after leaving the university, 
 Jerry had showed symptoms of weariness of the vacu 
 ity of his life in New York, and, to his mother s dis 
 may, had made a movement to join the ranks of those 
 men noted curiously by aliens to the metropolis 
 men who, possessing long purses, addict themselves 
 to money-making through heredity, and toil all day 
 in office or counting-room, returning tired at night to 
 houses that are palaces, and to wives better equipped 
 in luxury than are most princesses. Mrs. Vernon, in 
 dread of a return to hated " trade," protested vigor 
 ously. And Jerry, who, but for a few thousands a 
 year left him by his father, was dependent upon her 
 for means, was overcome, and contented himself with 
 making time pass merrily, as did the others of his 
 class. 
 
 After Eleanor found out that the world the 
 sharp-tongued world that must have food for talk, 
 and thought it no ill nature to discuss the relations 
 of this conspicuous pair was openly commenting on 
 her Gerald s early return to his allegiance to Hilde- 
 garde, who was neither invited nor petted the less, the 
 young wife ventured upon the common resource of a 
 proud, wounded creature under such circumstances, 
 and went out of her way to include Mrs. de Lancey 
 in their domestic intimacy. Jerry s passionate pro 
 tests that Eleanor alone had power to sway his love 
 (uttered in their reconciliation after bursts of im 
 patient anger that terrified his wife), that for Mrs. 
 de Lancey he felt only the sympathy all men must 
 feel for a dear sweet woman whose sorrows had made 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 137 
 
 her sacred, that Hildegarde thought Eleanor the most 
 charming, noble, generous being in the world, and 
 valued her friendship beyond all earthly boons 
 these assurances the wife often hugged to her heart 
 to soothe its aching. 
 
 Sometimes, when puzzling over the contradictions 
 of her married lot, Nell felt inclined to ask some one 
 of wider experience if there had been anything her 
 ignorance had left undone in her relation to her hus 
 band. She could not speak to her mother, or even 
 to Betty, for that would be to reveal Jerry s deficien 
 cies, and them she would have shielded from her own 
 people until death. It would have been a relief to 
 talk to Jerry s mother, who, whatever her faults of 
 judgment, loved him fervently. But Mrs. Vernoii, in 
 the aroma of plutocracy upon its travels, had steamed 
 away in the Teutonic weeks before, and was heard of 
 as in the act of establishing herself in Prince s Gate 
 as a householder among the aristocracy of London; 
 and Eleanor had not been long in realizing that inter 
 course between the son and mother seemed to result 
 rather in pain to both than pleasure to either, and 
 that separation between them was the price of peace. 
 
 No ; the wings of appeal to the sympathy of fellow- 
 beings must lie folded in a case like this. All that 
 Eleanor prayed for was that her own love for Jerry 
 might not be strained. In silence, in the night, 
 abroad in gay gatherings where a chance word sum 
 moned it, this feeling was ever vigilant. 
 
 Aunt Tryphena allowed and Tryphena was a vir 
 gin of uncompromising hostility to modern fashionable 
 life that Jerry had drawn a prize in Eleanor. The 
 
138 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 colossal lady, who, always at odds with, her sister-in- 
 law, lived alone in a great, tasteless house, was ac 
 counted queer and stingy, and would take offense 
 when one least expected it, displayed in her way quite 
 a liking for Mrs. Gerald. 
 
 "But for that weak-minded, stand-off mother, and 
 the insufferably sharp Betty, and little giggling Trix 
 dragging about that monster of a dog," Miss Try- 
 phena Vernon would aver she considered that "Jerry 
 had done better than Luella Ann had any reason to 
 expect." Nell, delighted at an opportunity to expend 
 a little tenderness upon anything that came to her 
 from Gerald, was kind and forbearing with the cross 
 old woman, but Miss Tryphena was too wont to burst 
 into invective against Gerald s surroundings and pur 
 suits to make her society a thing to be desired. 
 
 There was one of Eleanor s friends of girlhood who 
 seemed intuitively to fathom the young wife s embar 
 rassments. Mr. Theobald, who came to her house in 
 frequently, found her one afternoon, after a little dif 
 ference with Jerry over the luncheon-table, sitting 
 alone with a book in her hand, but her thoughts evi 
 dently scattered. He could not deny to himself that 
 her face was more lovely than on the day when, as a 
 bride, she embodied the one passion of his life-time. 
 He wondered, with a sort of fury against Fate, if it 
 could be that those eyes of hers were made so bewil- 
 deringly soft by unshed tears. But he sat down, hat 
 in hand, in commonplace fashion, in a three-cornered 
 carved chair, talked of the book she was reading, of 
 pictures in the Spring exhibitions, of a sale of curios, 
 advised her to keep up her French by subscribing for 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 141 
 
 the " Revue Bleue," and complimented her successful 
 costume in the late Centennial Minuet. 
 
 " Oh ! I am glad that tempest in a tea-pot is over," 
 said Eleanor, smiling. " They say our ball has set 
 the women and half the men in society at war. For 
 tunately, my share was limited to allowing Elsa to 
 put on me a l grandmother s gown made new for the 
 occasion, and standing up in it like a fraud to dance 
 where Mrs. Van Loon told me to go. You 11 believe 
 me when I tell you how tired I am of parties, how 
 I m wearying for the summer and life out-doors. I 
 always told you that I am a gipsy at heart in the 
 days when you lent me your copies of Lavengro and 
 the Bible in Spain/ don t you remember ? " 
 
 Did he remember? The staid, conventional man 
 sitting opposite her felt his heart thump at an unjus 
 tifiable rate of speed. Theobald made haste to lead 
 the conversation back to its safer channels. 
 
 " If you were sovereign, Trix was a formidable rival 
 at the ball," he said. " I could not imagine the little 
 witch would come out such a stunning beauty as she 
 was that night. Everybody has been talking of it." 
 
 "Trix is a darling," Eleanor said, affectionately 
 proud. " But, Tony, she s begun to mystify even me, 
 of late. It looks I don t like to think so, but it looks 
 as if she means to feed the flame of Timothy with 
 fuel. When I question her, she evades me, laughing 
 and jesting. Oh ! I shall owe a grudge, indeed, to the 
 world we live in, if it colors Trix to make her tolerate 
 that man." 
 
 " They are making bets at the clubs she 11 take 
 him," Theobald said grimly. 
 
142 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " Trix and I have seen less of each other recently/ 
 said Eleanor. " I m afraid I have been more absorbed 
 than I meant to be in my own affairs, and Betty, 
 Tony, you know Betty as well as I do; you have 
 always had such an influence in ( quieting her down, 
 as mama says Betty s such an oyster about herself, 
 do you think she can t be well?" 
 
 " I think you were always one to distress yourself 
 with imaginings about those you love. I remember, 
 when you were a little girl, going once to your 
 mother s house to find you walking up and down the 
 floor hushing a doll to sleep that you said had scarlet- 
 fever, and your eyes filling with real tears as you im 
 plored me to make no noise." 
 
 "I suppose I am foolish," Eleanor answered, her 
 eyes deepening with the remembrance. How dim 
 and far away that play-time seemed ! How clear the 
 present ! How vast, how surcharged with realities ! 
 
 Betty, arriving on the moment, answered their spec 
 ulations by an appearance of plentiful good spirits. 
 
 "I am just from a final meeting of the ball com 
 mittee," she said gaily. " Such high jinks ! Every 
 one was flurried, and we voted every way the cat 
 jumped. The chairman and the treasurer don t speak, 
 and the secretary cried with vexation when she an 
 nounced a letter from the Bureau of Authorized Char 
 ity warning us against Mrs. Calliope Buncombe as 
 an egregious impostor. Mrs. Duncombe was missing, 
 there was a general row, and what conclusion we ar 
 rived at I have not yet found out. But I think we 
 are certainly pledged to keep the matter out of the 
 newspapers." 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 143 
 
 "And the Fund for Oppressed Wives ?" asked 
 Eleanor. 
 
 "What Mrs. Duncombe has got if she has any 
 will no doubt be made up quietly out of the pockets 
 of the heads of the committees j and it seems to me 
 we voted the rest, after expenses shall have been paid, 
 to the Baby Hospital. But one comfort is, there won t 
 be very much to give. Oh, it was beautiful ! " said 
 naughty Betty Halliday. 
 
 " It s lucky summer is at hand to afford you inde 
 fatigable workers a rest," said Theobald. 
 
 " I don t know what you call rest. Talk, in the in 
 tervals of business, to-day, was just like one of those 
 newspaper columns called Summer Plans of the Four 
 Hundred. I was worn out with listening to the trials 
 of people with cottages to rent, and of people who have 
 rented cottages. One really has enough, in the course 
 of time, of the holes in other people s saucepans. And 
 I m free to say, I don t care a rap whether Mrs. Bul 
 lion is going to try Bar Harbor, or whether Hilda 
 de Lancey has taken that tiny box of the Willie With- 
 erells at Newport. Nell, you are actually pale ; it is 
 this warmish weather, and that bunch of heliotrope 
 too near. Tony, put it away, and open another win 
 dow, please." 
 
 " Thank you," said Eleanor, attempting to smile. 
 " I told Tony just now, I am wearying for the open." 
 
 " Has Jerry told you when you are to sail ? " 
 
 " No it is not settled ; he has not decided," Eleanor 
 answered, her mouth quivering a little. 
 
 "Not Newport, I hope? I thought there was no 
 doubt of your summer of roaming in Switzerland. It 
 
144 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 is just what you need ; you have talked of it so long/ 
 said Betty in a vexed tone. " Tony, do help me to 
 make this pair of weathercocks decide on their plans." 
 
 " You show the influence of your meeting of l Op 
 pressed Wives/" said Theobald, rousing a little, to 
 shake off a sort of apathy. " Perhaps, if there s time, 
 you 11 both come with me now to the gallery where 
 they ve that picture I was just telling Nell about, 
 the swan-song of a young artist who died on the 
 threshold of his fame, and you must, of course, see 
 the l Carmencita/ an astonishing piece of execution. 
 Some one calls Sargent the Paganini of modern 
 painters. Come, Nell ; a walk will do you good." 
 
 It was like old times, this hurrying on her bonnet, 
 and setting out between Betty and Theobald to look 
 at pictures; and Eleanor enjoyed it. They strolled 
 down the avenue leisurely, the soft air of May inclin 
 ing them to indolence, and the brightly tinted groups 
 of saunterers offering amusement to the eye. Within 
 the gallery, they paused for a while before the daz 
 zling " Carmencita," and then went back to a frame 
 shrouded in black, with a tablet to show the name of 
 the artist and dates of his birth and recent death. 
 
 "Surf and Fog" was the title. Billows crowned 
 with foam rolling in at the feet of the looker-on, the 
 sun, a disk of orange, striving to burn its way through 
 a veil of sea-fog. Only that ; but the power and color 
 and life in it had fixed a masterpiece upon the canvas. 
 
 Betty, captured by a bright-eyed little man with hair 
 like a pony s mane, to whose lightest utterance about 
 art she listened with respect, went off to make the 
 round of the gallery. Nell and Theobald, busy in con- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 145 
 
 versation which had drifted back into their old Tin- 
 trammeled familiarity, wandered on till they paused 
 before a breezy bit of landscape called " Grouse-Cover/ 7 
 and there remained, waiting for Betty to find them 
 out. 
 
 Neither noticed that they were the objects of scru 
 tiny from two people who stood back of them, then 
 abruptly crossed in front of Eleanor, and went to the 
 other room. 
 
 "Do you bow to that woman, Nell?" asked Theo 
 bald, surprised. 
 
 "I my husband has known Major Shafto for a 
 long time. They were old comrades traveling in the 
 East," she answered, coloring deeply. The sight of 
 Mrs. Shafto s face brought to her so much she fain 
 would have forgotten. 
 
 "And that cad, Leeds. When did you give him 
 the right to speak to you ? Have you done anything 
 to affront him ? I should like to kick the little beggar 
 for the way he glowered at you out of those mean 
 eyes of his." 
 
 " Oh, Tony, I will tell you. He thinks I set Friar 
 Tuck on him." And, half-laughing, she gave him a 
 recital of the episode with Trix s big St. Bernard. 
 
 " It served him exactly right, and Tuck should be 
 awarded a new collar for his good judgment. But it 
 made Leeds ridiculous, and humbled his enormous 
 vanity, so I am not surprised at his vengeful look. 
 Keep out of his way, Nell that fellow would stoop 
 to anything ; and I may as well put you on your guard 
 about Mrs. Shafto. I Ve known her always, and in 
 addition to her other shining qualities she is brim- 
 10 
 
146 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 ful of spites against women. I happen to know that 
 she hates your good mother as the devil hates holy 
 water." 
 
 " My instincts have been all against her/ Eleanor 
 said, with a sigh. " I wish we had not met those two, 
 to spoil such a pleasant old-timey afternoon as you 
 have given me." 
 
 "I have made the circuit," Betty said, rejoining 
 them. "For the last ten minutes Carver has been 
 pointing out to me the beauties of an impressionist 
 landscape where they have upset a mustard pot on 
 the lower part of the canvas, and laid on pink plaster 
 with a trowel up above ; and I have sworn it is in 
 spired, and he s gone home to write it up for his 
 paper. But, on the whole, I must agree with you, 
 Tony; this is a brilliant and creditable show." 
 
 Betty was cheerful and kindly ; her dark face full 
 of animation ; her pince-nez did not conceal a sparkle 
 in her eye. Eleanor s fears for her health and spirits 
 must have been figments of a fancy disordered by 
 over-search for hidden motives ! 
 
 AWAY from the stir and bustle of the town, its 
 activity made languorous by one of those bursts of 
 heat that so often come to New York in spring, a 
 young man was speeding as fast as the "Washington 
 express could carry him and that went no more 
 rapidly ahead than his eager fancy, released to revel 
 in the thought of a glimpse at home and mother. 
 Brock Vyvan, going off for a two-days holiday, put 
 away moping thoughts as every station brought him 
 nearer to the one he desired to see a stopping-place 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 147 
 
 whence a way-train presently would jog him leisurely 
 into a country as green as Eden, and as quiet, too. 
 
 The little old station, of which one half was a 
 country " store " j the few, shabby, mud-splashed, slow- 
 speaking loungers who stepped up to greet the sole 
 descending passenger ; the store-keeper, who was also 
 station-master, and who saluted Brock sociably, shift 
 ing his quid; the two or three negroes who hung 
 about at train-time, looking the epitome of the old 
 South s decay, as much as the passing traveler gen 
 erally sees of the South in transitu, to prejudge all 
 accordingly, Brock viewed with forbearing eyes. 
 Passing out to the rear platform, he saw the old 
 buggy coated with red mud, containing a patriarchal 
 negro attired in a Confederate army-coat, from which 
 the brass buttons had been removed, and wearing an 
 ancient Panama hat who smiled a toothless welcome, 
 as he controlled the quivering pair, Flash and Star 
 light, that Brock s own hand had broken to harness. 
 The young man stopped to caress his beauties, and 
 to fancy them in Park array, drawing some shining 
 vehicle with rubber tires over perfect roads. If they 
 lacked proper grooming to bring their coats to satin, 
 it was because old Enos had been at work in the field 
 since " sun-up." 
 
 Putting his portmanteau into the trap, the young 
 man sprang up beside Enos, and took the reins. Obe 
 dient to his voice, the horses went forward with a 
 bound, coming down, despite themselves, ere long, to 
 a snail s speed through mire sometimes hub-deep in 
 holes. 
 
 " You 11 have to be a mite keerf ul here, honey," the 
 
148 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 old negro said, as they plunged down a steep incline 
 to a valley where a yellow current rioted, sweeping 
 their way from sight. "Tears like I disremember 
 ever seein Goose Crik git up so high. It was for fear 
 of her gittin wet, I done suaded Miss not to come to 
 de deepo to meet you. You knows de best crossing 
 Marse Broekenbro close long o dem stakes. Hoi 
 in Starlight, suh j dat filly s kind o feared o water to 
 dis day." 
 
 " Look out for my bag/ 7 called Brock, and in a min 
 ute they were in the midst of the fierce little river, 
 battling smartly against its rush, the water rising in 
 mid-stream to the horses necks, and washing to the 
 seat, where the two men had gathered themselves up 
 into a bunch. 
 
 " Dat ar little fresh save me a-cleanin off de bug 
 gy," grinned Enos, when they emerged dripping on 
 the farther side. 
 
 Brock s spirits rose. He knew every nook and din 
 gle of the flower-besprinkled woods, every landmark 
 of the rich farming country forsaken by modern en 
 terprise. Beguiling the way with the old negro s talk 
 about plantation and quarter incidents, he, in turn, 
 brought many a stare of wonderment to Enos s eyes 
 by chance disclosures of the scale of New York s mag 
 nificence in things of every day. It was when they 
 finally pulled up at a venerable gate, which Enos 
 scrambled down to open, that the patriarch lost a 
 little of his sprightliness. 
 
 " You mout take de lower road to de Gret Hus, suh," 
 he said. " It s easier on de hosses." 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 149 
 
 " It s a good mile longer, you old humbug," an 
 swered Brock, looking over-head and before him into 
 the green arcade, filtered with sunshine, and senti 
 neled with boles of ancient trees. These woods were 
 to be his own, and of their witchery nothing he had 
 ever seen elsewhere had robbed them. He had his 
 way, and followed the customary road leading to the 
 house, until ringing sounds of the axes of busy wood 
 cutters made him rein in the horses shortly. 
 
 "What s that, old man!" he asked, a frown com 
 ing upon his face. 
 
 "Oh, Marse Brockenbro , suh," Enos said mourn 
 fully, "it was cause o dis I was wantin you to go de 
 udder way, an let Miss hab de breakin o de news. 
 Old Marse has done tuk a contrac to supply de new 
 railroad wid ties, suh, what s goin to run nigh heah. 
 Farmin s powerful po down dis a- way, an we ain 
 been flourishin we needs de money mightily, Marse 
 Brockenbro ." 
 
 " That 11 do. Don t say any more about it," Brock 
 answered, biting his lip. He drove through the hol 
 low in which the men were at work, and vouchsafed 
 not a glance at the clearings where unwonted sunlight 
 peered into nature s hiding-place for a lush growth of 
 ferns and mosses. The piles of wood, already cut and 
 stacked, seemed to him so many funeral pyres for the 
 sacrifice of things beloved and reverenced. When 
 they had gained the higher land beyond, and were 
 trotting briskly along under a forest archway, his 
 quick eyes saw at the end of it, waiting by the road 
 side beneath a huge old cherry-tree, lately a pyramid 
 10* 
 
150 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 of bloom, a tall figure clothed in black, at her side a 
 couple of hounds, and a hearth-bred lamb that fol 
 lowed like a dog. 
 
 Brock uttered a boyish shout as his mother waved 
 her hand. She was in his arms, and the trap sent 
 forward, a moment later. There was no frown left 
 upon his brow as they strolled toward the house, her 
 thinner blood pulsing a glad answer to the rich cur 
 rent in his young veins. In the perfectness of love 
 betw r een these two was to be found the religion of 
 Vyvan s life. 
 
 THE old dwelling of Mount St. Dunstan stood near 
 the summit of a hill crowned with an orchard, its 
 famous gardens sheltered from the wind. Farther 
 down the slope were the quaint colonial stables where 
 tradition said many grandees of early American so 
 ciety had sent their steeds (which must have been 
 giraffes) to be tied under racks suspended high upon 
 the walls, while their masters enjoyed the good cheer 
 of the mansion-house. Here Enos, who was already 
 engaged in unharnessing Flash and Starlight, looked 
 from Brock to his mistress with an imploring gaze, 
 as the young man paused at the stable door. 
 
 " One minute, mother, till I ve had a peep at Houp- 
 la," he said. 
 
 " Brockenborough my dear boy," she answered, 
 holding his hand within her own, " I hoped you would 
 wait till to-morrow. "We have sold the colt to Rhyn- 
 ders for a gentleman in Washington, at a price we 
 could not afford to refuse." 
 
 Brock s lips were compressed, but he said nothing. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 151 
 
 He could not bear to visit the empty stall, and, squeez 
 ing his mother s hand, he walked on with her past the 
 house to the terrace above, and stopped by a moss- 
 grown sun-dial to look back. 
 
 Built of substantial brick trimmed with white stone, 
 the two advancing wings to the house formed a cen 
 tral court where the turf grew fine and soft over 
 vaulted cellars beneath. Tall old trees stroked the 
 hipped roof with their branches, and ivy, long un- 
 pruned, curtained the walls. Pigeons wheeling and 
 circling in the air, a collection of dogs of assorted 
 breeds and values, the distant view of wagons follow 
 ing a farm-road from the fields, the sound of negroes 
 singing or whistling all served to relieve the almost 
 somber influence of the scene. 
 
 " We shall find him in the garden," said Mrs. Vy van s 
 low voice, breaking Brock s reverie. "You will be 
 glad to see your dear grandfather so wonderfully 
 well. The spring, when he can live out of doors, 
 seems to bring him a new lease of life." 
 
 They passed through a turnstile set in a hedge of 
 box, and lo ! they were in a fairy-land of bloom. Fled 
 away were the young man s thoughts of sorrow. The 
 declining sunlight here lay cradled on verdant spaces 
 of turf, alternating with flower-beds of ancient pat 
 tern aglow with fragrant color. Leaning over a plot 
 of late-blooming tulips, the aged master of Mount 
 St. Dunstan was descried, his familiar, the golden 
 collie, swopt by his faded coat-tails. 
 
 " Brockenbro , my dear boy, you are welcome home," 
 the old man said in a reedy voice, his blue eyes filled 
 with merry twinkles. " Just look at my tulips, will 
 
152 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 you? It s the first year I ve made em jostle the 
 roses. Ah, building houses to last for all time is very 
 well for you, sir, but give me the planting of flowers 
 that come fresh every season, and that have a thou 
 sand freaks of beauty you can never count upon." 
 
 It was no wonder the county was proud of old 
 Mr. Octavius Brockenborough, his grandson fondly 
 thought, while surveying the lines of the cameo-face, 
 the long silver locks that fell upon his slightly stooped 
 shoulders, the genial kindness of his smile. Eighty- 
 four, and the survivor of a once numerous and influ 
 ential family, his sons had dropped away before him, 
 and of his daughters, married and scattered, only Mrs. 
 Vyvan, the youngest of his children, had presented 
 him with a descendant. "A fine type a fine speci 
 men of our best old stock," his neighbors would say 
 on the rare occasions when the old gentleman showed 
 himself in public, at church, or court-house. "No 
 business sense," they would add reluctantly. " Never 
 had any idea of holding on to his money, or of run 
 ning his farms to pay. And, to sum all up, he s been 
 giving, and putting his name to notes, and letting 
 dead-beats prey on him, all his life. And that s what s 
 become of the fine Brockenborough property, once as 
 good as any in the State." 
 
 There was no pinch of fortune visible in the old 
 man s face to-day, as he led Brock hither and thither 
 among his darlings, showing their various perfections 
 and shielding their defects. The young fellow could 
 not help thinking how somebody he knew would like 
 to patter about these blossomy walks, and listen to 
 their kind old master s talk, How it would make her 
 
"YES; IT is TOO BAD. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 155 
 
 laugh one of those hearty, ringing peals to see all 
 of the dogs, save Colin Clout, the privileged, stand in 
 a ring around the turnstile, eying the insider with 
 abject envy! 
 
 When Mrs. Vyvan, with her store-room keys and 
 her pet lamb, had betaken herself away on supper 
 thoughts intent, the old man led his grandson in-doors 
 to the best parlor, where, throwing back the shutters, 
 he admitted the full light. 
 
 "You ; 11 be sorry to see dampness has played the 
 mischief with the Vandyck," he said, pointing to a 
 portrait in a tarnished frame hanging above the chim- 
 neypiece a cavalier in court-dress, whose lip and 
 cheek were overspread by a stain like a lichen upon a 
 stone. 
 
 " Yes 5 it is too bad," went on old Octavius, answer 
 ing his grandson s comment. "But I believe your 
 mother has been writing to an artist in New York, 
 who will come down to set it straight when we can 
 raise the money to send for him. What 11 ye think, 
 Brockie, my boy, of a Senator s wife in Washington, 
 who d heard of our pictures, sending me an offer for 
 the Vandyck ? Well, well, they and the land and the 
 books are about all we ve got left. Those two por 
 traits Woolaston painted of my father and mother 
 no great value as works of art, perhaps, but I m fond 
 of them. And my Aunt Dolly, in hunting costume, 
 yonder, over the door, was married in the very spot 
 where you re standing. Dead and gone all ! Such a 
 fine frolic as we had I was a boy of nineteen, and, 
 during the week of merry-making over her wedding, 
 danced out a pair of pumps. The house full, and the 
 
156 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 neighbors houses full, plenty of wine in our cellars, 
 and the stalls of the stables filled heigh-ho ! Did I 
 tell ye, boy, when the locust-tree blew down a month 
 ago, we found upon one branch nests of half a dozen 
 different kinds of birds ? Recently your mother was 
 troubled by bees in her pantry- window, and we could 
 find no trace of em. At last old Tom took off a plank 
 or two of the clapboarding putside, and, by George ! 
 sir, he got five pounds o delicious honey up under 
 the eaves. And I ve laid hands on the Camerarius 
 Plautus you wanted, it was tucked away on the shelf 
 with the l Sporting Magazines/ where you left it your 
 self, you rascal meant to send it by express, but it 
 passed out o my mind, there s so much to do, and so 
 much going on " 
 
 With the old man s voice in his ears, Brock stepped 
 out of the moldering room full of phantoms of long- 
 gone solvency. In the corridor beyond they found an 
 aged negress, tidily dressed, and bobbing droll courte 
 sies to the gentlemen. 
 
 " Dilsey, what you want, girl ? " said old Octavius. 
 " Why, Brockie, it s you Aunt Dilsey has come in to 
 see, of course." 
 
 " Sarvant, marsters, hopin you s well. I s uncom 
 mon po ly, thank de Lawd. I des drapped in to pay 
 my respecks to Marse Brockenbro , en brung him two 
 guinea-eggs for his brekfus. Ain t you got no news 
 to tell de plantation folks, Marse Brockie, bout some 
 mighty rich lady what we s spectin you to git mar 
 ried to, so s to fotch de old Moun St. Duns n times 
 back ag in ? " 
 
 "No news, Aunt Dilsey," Brock answered, trying 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 157 
 
 to smile ; but the question hit him hard. When, be 
 fore bedtime, at an hour they had always chosen for 
 mutual confidence, the mother and son were alone 
 together, he sternly put away the desire to tell her of 
 his bewitchment. He even repressed the intended 
 request to his grandfather for a box of the "rarest, 
 fairest " of Mount St. Dunstan roses, to take back to 
 " a friend who had been kind " to him in New York. 
 
XI 
 
 Y dear Trix," said Miss Halliday to 
 her younger sister, one June morn 
 ing when they were sitting together 
 in their second-story room looking 
 into the Square, Trix, with her 
 "Promessi Sposi" and dictionary, 
 Betty, who had been writing the usual notes, emerging 
 from a darkling reverie, " you may as well pay atten 
 tion, for I m about to be hateful." 
 
 " Don t bring me back to things of every day, please. 
 Here am I doing my best to forget my gnawing anxi 
 ety as to Jack s getting into the boat. I think it s 
 positive cruelty to animals to keep the men and 
 their sisters waiting on the anxious bench this way, 
 and never to know till the last minute whether he is 
 going to row in the race or not." 
 
 "I have a vague idea the universe will keep on 
 about the same if Jack does n t row this year. There 
 are matters more important nearer home, my dear. I 
 wonder if you know how abominably poor we are." 
 
 " I Ve heard it ever since I could think," said Trix, 
 carelessly. " Everybody in New York who is n t rich 
 is abominably poor." 
 
 158 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 159 
 
 " It has come to a crisis, now." 
 
 " I thought so, when the stair-carpet is so worn it 
 is n t worth sending to be cleaned again ; and our 
 dinners, it s a mercy, with my appetite, that we re 
 invited out so much, and I really don t know how 
 I m clothed. I m quite aware that in spite of our 
 dear little mummy s plotting and piecing to turn me 
 out a credit to the family, I never am equipped from 
 head to foot like other girls. When I get a good 
 jacket, there s no skirt to wear with it, and my winter 
 hats have to go with spring costumes. Just think of 
 Nell, Betty what richness ! Mama was very liberal 
 with her trousseau, and Jerry has made her buy such 
 a lot more. Nell wanted to give me her new marron 
 cloth that just came home ; but I would n t hear of it 
 would you?" 
 
 " No, certainly. Let us be independent of wealthy 
 brothers-in-law, or perish. But do you know what 
 the mother has gone to her lawyer s again this morn 
 ing for ? " 
 
 " Something about that mortgage, that s like Poe s 
 raven 011 our door, I suppose. It s been there for 
 ever, but we still keep along." 
 
 " She s been eating up her capital for five years 
 past, and thought she could hold out, poor dear, until 
 you I m hopeless, and don t count." 
 
 "Until I what have I got to do with eating capi 
 tal?" 
 
 " Till you follow Nell s example, and supply yourself 
 with a somebody to give you such an establishment as 
 mother thinks a Halliday girl should have." 
 
 "I don t know why a Halliday girl should n t be 
 
160 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 easy her own way," said Trix, still lightly, but sitting 
 more erect and looking more womanlike. 
 
 "That s mother s weakness, and she s had it so 
 long we can t alter matters now," went on Betty, per 
 sistently. " She she asked me to have this talk with 
 you. She thinks we have kept you long enough in 
 ignorance of the real state of affairs. There s been 
 an offer to buy the house." 
 
 " This house my father s house ! " said Trix. 
 
 "It is too big for ordinary people, and would cost 
 immensely to do over in modern fashion. But the 
 
 Club has had an eye on it for a long time, it 
 
 seems, and mother got their offer yesterday." 
 
 " She will never accept it ! " protested Trix. 
 
 " The money would free her from a load of care, 
 and pay Jack s way through college, and oh, a hun 
 dred things." 
 
 " It would break Jack s heart to sell this house. We 
 have always planned how he is to live here with his 
 wife, at least I have, and I could see Jack was 
 pleased." 
 
 " Jack, like the rest of us, will have to submit to 
 common sense. Of course the matter won t be decided 
 immediately, but mother thought you ought to know ; 
 and, Trix, I believe she wants, too, to warn you a little 
 
 against we see what outsiders do not, of course 
 
 how much is depending upon you." 
 
 The smooth-spoken Betty was actually hesitating, 
 nonplussed for proper words. Trix, with the impulse 
 of a colt in a paddock, wanted to shy off and gallop 
 away to the other end of it. 
 
 "I don t know yes, I won t tell a lie, I do know 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 161 
 
 what you mean/ she said suddenly, turning scarlet. 
 " But you may just tell mama she s no cause to warn 
 me, I have n t been running 1 the risks she fears, it 
 is n t likely I 11 go after a man who don t want me. 
 And if he did, does n t every soul I know tell me that 
 to marry a young professional man in New York is 
 putting a clog on him that holds him back? Who 
 wants to hold anybody back?" our Trix ended, dan 
 gerously near to tears. 
 
 " It was n t only that," Betty said, for her, wretch 
 edly embarrassed. "People have been talking to her 
 a good deal about the encouragement you re supposed 
 to be giving Timothy Van Loon 
 
 " O girls, how good to find you in here and alone ! " 
 cried Eleanor, who, interrupting Betty, saved her from 
 a stormy answer. While they gave her glad welcome, 
 Nell s sisters read in her face traces of recent disquie 
 tude. It had not taken long for the young wife s 
 family to find out that her life was not all on velvet, 
 and they had wisely agreed to invite no confidences. 
 And so Mrs. Gerald s entrance, preceded by old An 
 drews, who had never walked before Nell Halliday up 
 to the second floor, had about it just the right amount 
 of flutter and importance the movements of the bril 
 liantly successful member of the family should have. 
 Betty got up to meet her, and Trix gave her the best 
 arm-chair, sitting down on a stool at her feet prepared 
 to admire indiscriminately all that Eleanor said, or 
 did, or wore. And old Norah, arriving in a clean cap 
 and apron, hovered in the background, casting fond 
 looks upon her former nursling. 
 
 " You dear thing, how good of you to come ! " said 
 11 
 
162 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 Trix, hugging her sister s knees. "You re just in 
 time to prevent Betty and me from squabbling." 
 
 But she took care not to tell the subject of their 
 difference, nor was Mrs. Gerald Vernon admitted into 
 the family discussion about what Betty called their 
 " crisis." It was tacitly understood among them that 
 no possible representation should be made to Eleanor 
 that might seem to appeal for aid from Eleanor s 
 husband. Until and after the arrival of their mother, 
 pale and jaded, from her expedition down-town, the 
 talk was as cheerful as the sisters three could make it. 
 Trix could not but note how, in gazing at her com 
 fortable, smartly dressed daughter, whose carriage 
 and footman stopped the way, Mrs. Halliday s face 
 relaxed from its lines of settled care. 
 
 Before Nell arose to go, it was clear she had some 
 thing particular to say. Her sisters, who knew every 
 expression of her candid face, watched a blush come 
 into it as she divulged the object of her call. 
 
 " Jerry has made a plan. He says all the boating- 
 men think there is no doubt Jack will be on the Yale 
 crew. And in any case it will be a treat to Trix " 
 
 " Don t say to go up to New London for the race, 
 or I shall lose my senses with delight ! " ejaculated 
 Trix. 
 
 "Yes; he thinks we shall all enjoy it mama and 
 Betty too." 
 
 " Count me out," said Mrs. Halliday, promptly. " I 
 could n t bear to see my poor dear boy strain himself 
 in any such dreadful way. And if he don t get l on, 
 he 11 be so blue I had rather not be with him." 
 
 "I had/ said Trix. "Jack will need me, in any 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 163 
 
 event. And if Jerry knew how I Ve been turning 
 over in my mind every respectable way of getting to 
 New London for that day oh, he s a perfect dear to 
 have thought of it ! " 
 
 " He had already talked of it to me/ went on Elea 
 nor, visibly embarrassed, " and I was planning a sur 
 prise for Trix. And then, it appears, Jerry found out 
 that Mr. Van Loon considered us engaged to go up 
 for the Yale-Harvard race in his new yacht, the Incog 
 nita." 
 
 "So we are to meet you there?" exclaimed Trix, 
 beaming. " That s not quite so good as going with 
 you, dear, but still 
 
 "No; Mr. Van Loon asks Jerry to ask mama, 
 he wants you both to come on the yacht, and if 
 mama won t go, he thought you would be satisfied to 
 be chaperoned by me 
 
 " I like being chaperoned by you/ said Betty, to 
 bridge over the awkward silence and the effect of 
 Trix s altered face. " You will find me such a giddy 
 little thing ! " 
 
 "I am awfully sorry," Eleanor went on. "I said 
 everything I could to Jerry ; but he feels bound, you 
 know men are so punctilious about engagements with 
 each other are they not, mama? He says he really 
 could n t consent to throw over Mr. Van Loon ; and 
 the trip is a short one we need n t be on the yacht 
 more than three days. Mama, tell Betty and Trix 
 whether you want them to go or not, and we 11 all 
 abide by you." 
 
 Poor Mrs. Halliday s eye at that moment lighted 
 upon a pigeonhole in her desk that she knew to be 
 
164 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 full of unpaid bills. The talk with her lawyer had 
 sent her home with a driven feeling. The big house 
 they lived in could not be maintained upon air. If 
 they sold it, the mortgage would absorb all but enough 
 of the purchase-money to give her a pittance of addi 
 tional income. By the necessity for keeping appear 
 ances up to the mark of gentility in New York of the 
 present day, she had to acknowledge herself badly 
 beaten. And, now, by shifting her gaze she could 
 again see the reassuring spectacle of Eleanor s carriage 
 and Eleanor s servants in the street. Only that morn 
 ing she had made some excuse to old Andrews in tell 
 ing him that he must leave her service. 
 
 " I think when Jerry and Eleanor are so much put 
 out about it, you had better make no difficulties, girls," 
 she said vaguely, her tongue dry in her mouth. 
 
 " You will go ? It is settled," said Eleanor, rather 
 hurrying the thing. " I shall tell Jerry. It will please 
 him so much, you can t think. I shall take care that 
 the whole affair is made pleasant; I believe I can 
 promise that " 
 
 " Are we to be the only women on board for the 
 race ? " asked Betty, Trix remaining obstinately glum. 
 
 "Oh, I think so, certainly," said Eleanor. "It is 
 my party, Jerry says. There will be another man or 
 two, of course. But, dear me ! it is nearly a quarter 
 past, and I m due at Fiftieth street at half past one. 
 Good-by, and come to me soon to lunch or dinner. 
 Good-by, mammy darling. I have had such a mean 
 little glimpse of you. Oh, I must n t forget to tell you 
 it is settled we re to sail about the middle of July." 
 
 With Eleanor, Trix also vanished from the room. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 165 
 
 " Jerry meant Nell to bring us into this/ said Betty 
 to her mother. " That is the reason I made no spoken 
 objection. I should n t be surprised if our consent 
 were the price she pays for getting him to say they 
 will positively sail." 
 
 "Jerry is an only son, and accustomed to domineer 
 a little over women. I can t understand why he has 
 wavered about their plans. Nell will be happier trav 
 eling with him, and it has always been intended they 
 should spend this summer in England and Switzer 
 land, and the autumn in the East," said Mrs. Halliday, 
 dwelling comfortably upon schemes for her favorite 
 child that involved such liberal expense. 
 
 "I won t tell mama," thought Betty, "that every 
 body says Jerry s completely in the toils of Hilde- 
 garde again, and that is the reason he wants to make 
 Timothy secure with Trix." 
 
 " It s all one to me, mother," she said, with a whim 
 sical attempt at gaiety. "But this much you must 
 understand. I Ve had my talk with Trix, and I felt 
 like a sneak-thief all the time. If it were anybody 
 but that Timothy Van Loon 
 
 " Who a month or so ago was ready to marry an 
 other woman if she would throw her handkerchief to 
 him, and was driven off the field by Jerry s occupation 
 of it," was what passed through her mind to be sup 
 pressed. 
 
 " Every one says Mr. Van Loon is a devoted son," 
 ventured poor Mrs. Halliday, forlornly. "And our 
 families have long been allied since his great-grand- 
 aunt married your father s great-uncle s brother-in- 
 law. It has always been considered a safe family," 
 11* 
 
166 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 she added j and Betty, wrung with sudden pity, bent 
 down and kissed her mother s brow. 
 
 "As if any one were satisfied with married life 
 or gets exactly what she wants ! " she meditated, fur 
 ther, in her room. " If I had even a medium-sized 
 purse, I d begin to think a spinster s lot the only 
 happy one. 7 " 
 
 ONE beautiful moonlight night in the end of June 
 saw Mr. Van Loon s much paragraphed new yacht, 
 the Incognita, steal away from her moorings near the 
 foot of - - street on the East River, and glide in a 
 ghostly manner out into the Sound. On her deck 
 was a small, not particularly well assorted party of 
 guests, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Vernon, 
 Betty and Beatrix Halliday, a couple of club-men, 
 hangers-on of Timothy, a new Swedish attache in pro 
 cess of illumination about the States, and the owner 
 of the boat. Down in the women s cabins, with their 
 wondrous modern upholstery and brass beds, Elsa was 
 engaged in laying out her ladies belongings for the 
 night, as if it were some country-house at which they 
 had arrived for a three-days visit. 
 
 Van Loon, in naval blue, and with gold-laced cap, 
 treading his own deck by moonlight, Betty decided to 
 be Van Loon at his best. He did not obtrude his at 
 tentions upon Trix, and yet somehow she, and every 
 one else, was made to feel that this floating fairy 
 palace under the snowy sails was waiting that lucky 
 young woman s nod to dip its colors into her keeping. 
 " Oh, if it were always moonlight on a yacht, and Tim 
 othy were always thus subdued ! " Betty wanted to 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 167 
 
 whisper in her sister s ear, yet dared not. The next 
 day found them at anchor off the far-famed hostelry 
 known as the Pequot House, near the staid old town 
 of New London, where on the morrow the annual race 
 between Yale and Harvard was to be won and lost. 
 Electing to go ashore, the ladies found themselves at 
 once in the merry turmoil of Regatta week. The halls 
 and verandas of the hotel were thronged with bril 
 liantly dressed women mothers, sisters, sweethearts, 
 and general admirers of the rival crews. Collegians 
 from both universities swarmed in attendance on their 
 fair, but the handsome young Harvard men seemed to 
 predominate in numbers. 
 
 Trix, upon landing, began to look about her for 
 somebody to whom she might confide her growing 
 emotions about the question of the hour. To be so 
 near her brother Jack,- now, without dispute, exalted 
 to be an actual member of the great Yale crew, and 
 about, for the honor of his university, to row at Num 
 ber 2, and to hold no intercourse with him, not even 
 to hear how he was passing these last trying days in 
 that mysterious stronghold up yonder at Gale s Ferry, 
 tantalized her cruelly. It was absolutely of no use, 
 the girl had made up her mind, to expect the right 
 sort of sympathy aboard the yacht. Jerry and Van 
 Loon were Harvard graduates ; Nell basely took sides 
 with her husband ; Betty made fun of everything ; the 
 other men aboard had no bias either way. Among 
 the numbers of people encountered at the Pequot, it 
 was her ill fortune to know only those who claimed 
 Van Loon and Nell and Jerry as sympathizers with 
 the crimson. 
 
168 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 It was, therefore, with a throb of keen joy that she 
 beheld Mr. Brock Vyvan, with a knot of dark-blue 
 ribbon in the buttonhole of his neat tweed coat, and a 
 band of dark-blue ribbon around his straw hat, walk 
 ing up and down the veranda in attendance upon a 
 mother and daughter, the latter vivacious and pretty 
 enough to give Trix a sober second thought. Her first 
 impulse was to thrust herself upon young Vyvan s 
 attention, to lean forward, to fix him with a bow and 
 smile that should be followed up at his earliest con 
 venience by his adjournment to her side. The next 
 moment Trix drew back, and hid herself behind her 
 sister Nell, in a blaze of color at her own indiscretion. 
 Mr. Vyvan had indeed seen her, had bowed with the 
 rather pronounced courtesy of the Southerner but 
 he had not smiled. Trix fancied he did not want to 
 avail himself of her implied permission. What oh, 
 dreadful thought! if he wanted to rebuke her for 
 wardness ? 
 
 The gala-day was darkened after that. The Van 
 Loon party, observed of all, passed up and down the 
 promenade j the ladies had taken their cups of tea, and 
 were about to return aboard, when Trix fell in with 
 a young woman she had known casually in town, and 
 had ignored hitherto a plain girl, with no especial 
 points to praise or to decry. At this juncture, if she 
 had had, in girls language, " every hair of her head 
 strung with diamonds," Trix could not have valued 
 the plain girl more. For she wore a tarpaulin hat 
 with a broad blue band, and five minutes conversa 
 tion developed the fact that she owned a cousin on 
 the crew. Eager as Trix was to ask was she to an- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 169- 
 
 swer. The very latest news from Gale s Ferry was 
 hers, thanks to an undergraduate brother, who had 
 brought word that their men were as " fit as fiddles " 
 and " regularly smooth." 
 
 " Thank Heaven ! " Trix said, kissing the plain girl 
 fervently. In the relief of the moment she almost 
 forgot Mr. Brock Vyvan. " You see, I don t know a 
 single Yale person here to ask/ she explained. 
 
 u There are plenty, and the very nicest," answered 
 the plain girl, bridling. To which Trix answered: 
 " Oh, of course ! I shall know thousands of them to 
 morrow," and kissed her new-old friend again. 
 
 When they walked down to ^the wharf to get into 
 the yacht s boat, she ahead with Timothy, Beatrix 
 again saw Mr. Brock Vyvan a back view only. He 
 had parted company with the pretty girl and her 
 mama, and was striding away as if shod with seven- 
 league boots. She did not see him turn, after their 
 own little party was embarked, and gaze over at the 
 Incognita, lying at anchor and flying under her official 
 colors a crimson flag. 
 
 " Blank him ! I should like to strangle him," mur 
 mured this peaceful young Vyvan. 
 
 Gerald, after dining on the yacht, went ashore for 
 the dance, as did the other men, the women preferring 
 to save themselves for the excitement of the morrow. 
 But they were not without a visitor. A small boat, 
 coming alongside, sent up a dapper youth, who pre 
 sented himself, following his card, as a reporter for a 
 New York daily newspaper. 
 
 " I will not intrude on you, ladies, for more than a 
 moment," he said in a businesslike manner. " I merely 
 
170 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 wanted to ask if Mrs. Gerald Vernon, as an exponent 
 of the Four Hundred of New York, would object to 
 giving The Planet 7 her opinion of the Bob Cook 
 stroke." 
 
 "My opinion?" gasped Eleanor, fairly astonished. 
 " Why, I have n t any. And if I had, what possible 
 value or interest could it have to the editor or readers 
 of The Planet 7 ?" 
 
 " It is a special thing, gotten-up for the issue of our 
 paper that announces the result of the race, 77 he said, 
 unabashed. " We think ladies should have a voice in 
 every question, nowadays, and I have quite a list of 
 society leaders known to be visiting New London to 
 interview. 77 
 
 " You must excuse me, 77 said Eleanor, and, bowing 
 and smiling, the dapper man, who had no time to 
 lose, took himself away to glean in more remunerative 
 fields. 
 
 AND now the day has dawned that is to crown and 
 quench so many hopes on the New World Thames. 
 Bright and early the yacht, flying every pennant and 
 oriflamme on board, waits orders to push ahead to 
 follow the race, to be rowed at eleven, down-stream. 
 A smart little breeze is blowing, and the choppy sea 
 causes the yacht s boat, returning from the hotel, to 
 dance up and down merrily, to the excitement of her 
 cargo of womenkind. 
 
 For, to the strong disgust of Eleanor and Betty, 
 Trix just now is above details, Gerald has announced 
 to them that Mr. Van Loon, having met Major and 
 Mrs. Shafto and their party at the Pequot dance, could 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 171 
 
 not get out of inviting them to pass the day on the 
 Incognita to see the race. Who makes up the party, 
 Eleanor does not ask, or Jerry say. All too soon there 
 arrive Miss Kitty Foote, the vague young Foote her 
 brother, Mr. Carteret Leeds, and Mrs. de Lancey ! 
 
 "And I shall expect you to be civil to these women," 
 ends Jerry, remonstrating against his wife s too plain 
 distaste. "I don t want your offish ways with them, 
 any more than Betty s infernal spitefulness." 
 
 " But, Jerry, you gave us no idea 
 
 " Who had an idea? " he answered, his face flushing. 
 " Nell, if I were you, I should try to bear in mind that, 
 however much he loves his wife, no man can stand 
 petty jealousies and heavenly superiority. No man, I 
 say." 
 
 "I make neither charge nor assumption," Nell re 
 plied, fronting him haughtily. 
 
 " Oh ! I know what a jealous woman is. Suppose I 
 were such a goose about Theobald ? " 
 
 " Theobald f " she repeated faintly. 
 
 " Yes. Do you imagine people have n t tried to put 
 it into my head that he s still in love with you ? Now, 
 I ve no time to say more, for here they are j but mind 
 what I have said." 
 
 " O Gerald ! " her pale lips syllabled. The next mo 
 ment this bit of tragedy of every day is crushed out 
 of sight ; the young couple are advancing from where 
 they had walked aside for a brief conjugal talk, and are 
 greeting the newcomers as if nothing had occurred. 
 
 OVER the course steams the little white launch Yale, 
 bearing the referee with the unwelcome tidings that 
 
172 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 because the water is so rough the race has been post 
 poned till six p. M., and is to be rowed up-stream in 
 stead of down. While the party on the Incognita, and 
 other pleasure crafts lying around them in the stream 
 below the Shore Line Bridge, solace themselves with 
 luncheon and the popping of champagne-corks, steam 
 boats, tugs, sloops, every variety of water- vehicle, go 
 hither and thither in vexed confusion. 
 
 Trix, who has nerved herself with real heroism to 
 bear the delay, makes an excuse to leave the cabin, 
 and goes again on deck. With her blue silk shirt 
 belted around her slim, maidenly waist, her close-fit 
 ting blue serge skirt, her white straw sailor-hat with 
 the blue band and bit of white tulle tied across her 
 bright eyes and blooming cheeks, she presents a cap 
 tivating image of fidelity to Yale. In vain had Tim 
 othy tempted her with a bunch of Jacqueminot roses 
 supplied by his steward from the unromantic ice-box. 
 She had almost stamped her foot at him as she waved 
 the insidious crimson beauties off. Oh, for one who 
 has the impulse and the thought to give her a little 
 posy of Yale bleuets to wear on her loyal breast ! But 
 there is none, not one in that band of jesting folk 
 around the long cabin-table a-glitter with glass and 
 silver, to understand the yearning of her heart ! As 
 she walks out toward the railing, and strains her eyes 
 in the direction of the crew s quarters, and longs to 
 have speech with Jack, dear, eager Jack, who must be 
 suffering so cruelly with the delay, a step is heard be 
 hind her, and she turns to confront little Mr. Foote, 
 exquisite in a costume invented for the day. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 173 
 
 u I m going ashaw for an hour/ he said. U A little 
 business at the Crockaw House." 
 
 A drowning man in his extremity is said to clutch 
 at a straw, and into Trix s wilful head pops the idea 
 of utilizing Mr. Foote. 
 
 " Would it trouble you very much to drop me at a 
 friend s house in the town?" she asked, oh, so sweet 
 ly! "and to pick me up on your way back to the 
 yacht?" 
 
 " Delighted, I m shaw," said the flattered youth, 
 never doubting that her plan was prearranged. 
 
 Trix pencils a note to her sisters, and without de 
 lay descends into the boat in waiting to take off 
 Mr. Foote. She has a delicious sense of escape from 
 bondage, a childish tremor lest she be overtaken and 
 called back. It is her purpose to repair to the home of 
 a certain kindly matron, an old friend of her mother s, 
 who is sure to have a houseful of wearers of the blue, 
 and in a half -hour s chat relieve herself of some of the 
 pent-up emotion of the day. Nell and Betty certainly 
 can t take her to task for the civility of a call on Mrs. 
 Mordant, who had invited her for the whole Regatta 
 week. 
 
XII 
 
 OING ashore, Trix and her trim little 
 escort crossed the railway-track, and 
 were at once in a cloud of blue jack 
 ets, coaches, and old Yale oarsmen 
 who had come down to town to get 
 the latest quotation of the betting, 
 and, by a dip into that excitement, strive to escape the 
 awful hush that hung over the quarters of the crew. 
 In the confusion, Trix saw Vyvan chatting with a Go 
 liath in flannels on the sidewalk just ahead, and the 
 hats of both men flew off as she came abreast of them. 
 Something in the atmosphere of common sympathy 
 made her ignore her fears of the day before. She 
 cast upon Vyvan a smile so kind, so frank, so fearless, 
 that the young man s resolution melted in thinnest air. 
 "Miss Halliday," he said, joining her, "may I tell 
 you that I Ve just heard from the highest authority 
 that your brother and our other men are bearing up 
 finely, and we need n t be afraid of the strain upon 
 their nerves?" 
 
 The delight in her face gave him no hint to be off, 
 and during their walk up the main street of the dis 
 tractedly gay town little Mr. Foote was left to solace 
 himself by gazing at the display of racing haberdash- 
 
 174 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 175 
 
 ery in the shop-windows on each side of the way. It 
 was slow progress amid the joyous, expectant throngs, 
 every step impeded by gangs of college oarsmen and 
 their followers. The heroes of the crews who had 
 already that week strutted their brief hour upon the 
 stage, of the universities of Pennsylvania, Cornell, 
 and Columbia, victors and vanquished, were side by 
 side. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors met 
 for once 011 an even plane of sympathy, together with 
 many a grizzled graduate who had left his business 
 and the cares of middle life in town, and from his 
 class-reunion in Cambridge or New Haven harked 
 back to New London to the glories of his youth, as 
 gaily as the youngest. The women folk appertaining 
 to all these enthusiasts laughed, chatted, and scram 
 bled in the universal crush. Most of them had been 
 skirmishing for luncheon in a town taken by surprise, 
 but there were few complaints of discomfort or scanty 
 rations. 
 
 "Oh! is n t it grand?" Trix said. "And to think 
 how I was wasting time in that horrid yacht in just 
 being swell ! " 
 
 They had come to the Crocker House, the headquar 
 ters of betting on the race. Here she saw Mr. Foote 
 cast an anxious glance after a band of callow young 
 sters like himself pressing in to give and take odds, 
 on lines strictly partizan, under the persuasions of 
 gamblers of more experience. In imagination little 
 Foote was already stretching out his hand to receive 
 from the depositing office of the hotel an envelop fat 
 with winnings, after a victory by Harvard. 
 
 " If you are in a hurry, Mr. Foote," said the insidi- 
 
176 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 ous Beatrix, " I would n t keep you from your busi 
 ness, for the world. I think Mr. Vyvan won t mind 
 taking me the rest of the way to Mrs. Mordant s ; and 
 you might call there for me when you are ready to go 
 back." 
 
 Foote was off in a flash. 
 
 "I hope he has laid in his full stock of . summer 
 trousers/ Vyvan observed. " Else 1 7 m afraid there 
 will be not much left to pay his tailor s bill, to-night." 
 
 " Then you think we 11 win ? " Trix cried, thrilling. 
 
 "What sort of Yale man would I be if I did not?" 
 he answered. 
 
 " Oh ! Oh ! How I love to hear you talk ! " she 
 said, with reckless enthusiasm. " When I think that 
 I m doomed to watch the race through a telescope 
 from the deck of that old yacht, where about every 
 soul will be for the other side, and that Jack, my own 
 boy, who s shared every thought I Ve had for years, 
 will be straining his heart out to win for Yale, how 
 can I bear it? that s what I ? d like to know." 
 
 "You sha n t, if I can help it," he said rapidly. 
 " See here, Miss Halliday. I don t know what New 
 York girls think about such things, but with us they 
 are done every day. Come off with me, and see the 
 race from the observation-train. I have one ticket, 
 and I 11 get another and you can send a message 
 back to your sisters, if you like." 
 
 Trix s heart swelled with pure pleasure. She looked 
 up to his face, and the bright tears in her eyes were 
 contradicted by the smile on her rosy lips. 
 
 " I d go with you just as I d go with Jack," she said. 
 
 He left her with Mrs. Mordant, while he went to 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 177 
 
 send her billet to the yacht, and a more formidable 
 matter to change his single place in the observation- 
 train for two in one of its canopied cars, arranged, 
 with ascending tiers of seats, to run by the river-side 
 and follow the fortunes of the day. Falling in with 
 a speculator who held elastic views of his possibilities 
 in the matter of pay, Vyvan at last secured his prize, 
 hastening away with a pocket as light as his heart 
 which did not prevent him from further investing, at 
 an exorbitant rate of charge, in a bunch of the blue 
 blossoms Trix loved, just arrived from New York in 
 the oil-skin box of a florist. 
 
 " She d tread on these if the old grandfather had 
 her at Mount St. Dunstan," he pleased himself by fan 
 cying. " Well, I 11 have to borrow, or foot it, to get 
 back to New York to-night, and I 11 be hanged if I 
 care which. * 
 
 Long before the hour for the race, every seat in the 
 observation-train was packed. Each car was a par 
 terre of youth and beauty and bursting championship, 
 crimson and blue sharing the space equally. Trix 
 and her comrade, ignoring interruptions, talked to 
 each other exclusively. By the best luck in the world, 
 Mrs. Mordant and her party had also places in the car 
 with Trix, and, with this triumphant assurance of 
 security against criticism of the girl s stroke for inde 
 pendence, the young people abandoned themselves to 
 enjoyment without alloy. But when, from the deafen 
 ing tumult of the railway platform, the train finally 
 moved off amid a blare of tin horns and rousing 
 cheers, and they realized that the fateful hour was 
 near, she grew a trifle pale. 
 12 
 
178 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 "Courage," said Brock. "For Jack and Yale, re 
 member." 
 
 " For Yale and Jack," said the girl, a big hysteric 
 lump coming into her throat. 
 
 AND how fares it meanwhile with the brother Jack, 
 for whom at least one heart in the vast multitude is 
 beating as it never beat before? Let us leave the 
 outsider s share of experience, which any one may 
 have for the seeking the sight of the river and its 
 banks black with people ; the thousands of craft an 
 chored or swarming to the course 5 the blaze of color ; 
 the sound of incessant cheering j the strain of expect 
 ancy. Until the frantic moment of the start, let us 
 have a glimpse at the crew itself. It may be that to 
 look at a university boat-race from within the shell 
 will give us a better understanding of what the achieve 
 ment means to those who put their manhood into it. 
 
 During the last day or two before the contest, Jack 
 has felt himself gradually inflating with strange ex 
 citement. He is no novice, and has rowed several 
 good races at school, but they seem to him now to 
 rate no higher than the mimic affairs in which he and 
 Trix, in childhood, had watched their rival shingles 
 vanish down the stream. 
 
 To be, in Freshman year, a member of the univer 
 sity crew, entitled to flaunt upon the breast of his shirt 
 the coveted Y before envying classmates, has steeled 
 the boy against hardship. He has borne cheerily the 
 fortnight s ordeal in the white farm-house on the bluff 
 above the Thames ; the hard work in scorching suns, 
 and long pulls on time, at dusk, over the storied battle- 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 179 
 
 ground of the eights, and even the exasperating sar 
 casms of the great coach. 
 
 While older oarsmen have been grumbling at the 
 monotonous diet of half -raw beef and eggs, varying 
 roast chicken and oatmeal porridge, that has worn 
 them down into so many healthy skeletons; while 
 amcebean strains have arisen, hymning the rival 
 charms of certain good black brier pipes, widowed 
 since Christmas Jack has exulted in pure animal 
 spirits. He has nearly burst with pride on taking his 
 place in the line of blue-aiid-black blazers, headed by 
 the river-god himself, who march solemnly up to the 
 quaint little house with broad eaves that flies the great 
 crimson standard, to exchange solemn hand-shakes 
 with the Harvard crew and its supporters. 
 
 Many of the red men Jack knows, and likes heart 
 ily. Several of them have been his predecessors in the 
 boats at St. Peter s, but there is a strange constraint 
 in their meeting here. He notes, with jealous zeal, 
 what a fine-looking, fair-skinned set of thoroughbred 
 stalwarts they are, oddly differing in exterior from the 
 Yale greyhounds, and, in his heart, owns them worthy 
 foemen. The two crews outdo each other in polite 
 ceremonial. They ignore the recent spying with tele 
 scopes upon each other s movements in practice half- 
 miles close in to the bank and the gloom spread by 
 reports brought back from his ambush in a single 
 shell by a substitute clad becomingly in cotton tights 
 with a stop-watch swung around his neck. 
 
 But now has come the day of reckoning. Jack has 
 dreamed through the fever of the morning s wait, lying 
 flat on his back in a darkened room, burning with 
 
180 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 thirst, and trying to heed a rough command to stir 
 neither hand nor foot, his brain a kaleidoscope the 
 while. They have been put on the water for half an 
 hour, to make a final test of stretchers and new oars 
 the rigging a mathematical ex-captain and a skilful 
 boat-builder have spent days in bringing to perfec 
 tion ; and after it have been sent inside, and bidden 
 to rest. A hush as of a sick-chamber has hung over 
 the place, until broken by the ruthless chatter of a 
 party of girls, conducted by a non-boating graduate, 
 to see the quarters of the crew. The men, prone in 
 side, have listened sardonically to the little cries and 
 chatter of these young women crowding in a tent 
 upon the lawn, asking endless questions of the crew s 
 interpreter, the flaxen-haired, gruff-voiced coxswain, 
 who in his small person carries the dignity of the 
 eight. Jack is just dropping off into a nap, when the 
 quick summons of the coach is heard at the bottom of 
 the stairs. 
 
 " Come, get up, you fellows ! We re off in ten 
 minutes. I ve a word to say to you." 
 
 The lad s heart gives a bound, then seems to stand 
 quite still. He is half dazed when they all meet below 
 for a last injunction from the familiar voice. 
 
 " Of course I think you II win ! You don t suppose 
 I d have wasted my time here with you if I did n t. 
 They 11 probably lead you the first half-mile ; they 
 always do, those red chaps ; but " here an expressive 
 epithet "you must go by them after that ! Stroke, 
 start her at thirty-six, and keep it up till you re ahead 
 if you die for it. You youngsters," casting about 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 181 
 
 for a tremendous peroration, " well, remember I m 
 looking at you ! " 
 
 " Of course I think you 11 win ! " Like wine to 
 the weary are these words from him who has always 
 chided heretofore. 
 
 Embarked at last from the little floating stage near 
 the start, one after another takes his place at the quiet 
 word of the captain. In dead silence, every man shuts 
 his teeth, and falls to thinking. Jack envies the phleg 
 matic country-bred fellow rowing at bow, who after 
 ward avowed that he thought of nothing at all, and 
 who is the best-conditioned of the lot. 
 
 With eyes strictly in the boat, unconscious of the 
 thousands who gaze eagerly upon them, they paddle 
 about for a few minutes, becoming gradually aware of 
 their surroundings. Jack sees the flotilla of dainty, 
 graceful yachts, and gives a thought to Trix, whom 
 he believes to be aboard one of them. The long multi 
 colored observation-train lying off at a distance like 
 a gaudy serpent he never thinks of as harboring his 
 sister. He sees an enormous Sound steamer careen 
 to one side with the weight of crowding passengers 
 the throngs of smaller fry, row-boats and launches, 
 dogging their way. 
 
 And then a warning whistle from the referee s boat, 
 as the busy little craft scurries to clear the course. 
 Jack feels himself obeying the coxswain s order to 
 straighten the boat out at the line. 
 
 Scarce a boat s-length to the starboard of them sit 
 their rivals, engaged in stripping the jerseys from 
 great muscles and mighty beef. At this spectacle the 
 12* 
 
182 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 young oarsman has a moment s sickly misgiving as to 
 results. But he looks ahead of him, down the line of 
 sunburned shoulders and lean, lithe bodies, and re 
 members that here are stanch veterans of hard-fought 
 fights at school and college heroes whose voices have 
 rung out over the mud of foot-ball fields, and on the 
 fatal third mile of many a tough four-mile pull in 
 rough water. And he is comforted. 
 
 Another whistle from the launch. Jack s brain is 
 void. 
 
 " Oars buried," almost whispers the cox. 
 
 Jack strains forward, and knows that the launch is 
 bearing close to them with a strange face in the bow. 
 There is a deathly hush. 
 
 " Gentlemen, are you ready ? " asks the referee. 
 
 A pause that seems minutes. 
 
 " Go ! " And they are off. 
 
 In the blank fear that he will do something wrong, 
 our youngster watches like a lynx the shoulders, 
 swinging back with mighty power at every stroke, of 
 the man ahead of him that ere while listless creature 
 who has been complaining of hard work, and watch 
 him now! 
 
 Mingling with the voice of the cox in his ears Jack 
 hears the swash of the other crew alongside, a bit 
 ahead, and the rage of battle comes into his soul. 
 
 Why don t they quicken the stroke?" he thinks, 
 in his intemperate youth. " Oh ! why don t we shake 
 em off ? Can we never pass those red chaps ? " 
 
 There is Number 2 in the other boat. Jack yearns 
 to see him in the rear, and wants to do more than his 
 own share to bring this about. For the rest, he feels 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 183 
 
 blind and deaf, his brain opening and shutting in 
 agony, his oar red-hot in his grasp. The stroke does 
 quicken a point here, and the cox calls for an effort to 
 goby. 
 
 The boat bounds under them, and the crew know 
 the wild joy a sailor feels in danger from a squall, or 
 a horseman on the rise of a high jump. They are 
 rowing finely, their action magnificent, the stroke full, 
 clear, and vigorous, a credit to the coach "like a 
 piece of well-oiled machinery, 7 the reporters will write 
 to-night. 
 
 Jack feels his muscles at work once more. Sud 
 denly, above the shouting of the captains, and the 
 swash of oars, he hears arise a cry the war-cry of 
 old Ironsides at Number 5. All the Yale boatmen 
 know that cry. It is like the view-halloo of Drysdale 
 in "Tom Brown," the dear old story-book that first 
 made Jack a captive to the oar. 
 
 Now is the sweat of battle sweet in the mouth, and 
 the ding-dong, hammer-and-tongs work has begun. 
 Inch by inch they are gaining, and out of the corner 
 of the eye the lad again sees Number 2 in the other 
 boat. This time he is opposite old Ironsides ! 
 
 The mile is past, and with the stroke s steady 
 " Catch ! " " Catch ! " Jack knows, if nothing happens, 
 they have won. He feels a pang of sympathy for that 
 gallant other Number 2. Cheers ring out from the 
 distant observation-train, cheers of " Yale ! " " Yale ! " 
 and Jack again thinks of his proud little sister Trix. 
 
 " BpXxex! xo xod^" comes in heavy unison from a 
 steamboat. It is the chorus of Aristophanes s frogs 
 adapted into a college war-song. 
 
184 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 They have passed the navy-yard. His mouth is as 
 dry as a kiln, but he is not exhausted. Hard rows 
 and hot home minutes by the old Long Wharf in New 
 Haven have seasoned him against that. He begins to 
 think of the record. Can they touch it ? The third- 
 mile flag flashes by. The Harvard crew is a full two 
 lengths in the rear, now, and the coxswain s note is a 
 crow of victory. A cry is raised for a spurt at the 
 finish. They are close in shore, out of the current. 
 Wild shouts of joy come from Yale lungs on the train, 
 its blue cars now plainly distinguishable, close at hand. 
 And in the soothing dusk, shadows lengthening over 
 the Groton shore, the Yale boat shoots across the line 
 victorious ! 
 
 NEVER will Jack forget the mad rush of under 
 graduates tearing down from the still-moving train to 
 heap congratulations on the eight, who sit as steady 
 as posts, grinning comfortably, an oar s-length from 
 the shore. 
 
 The Harvard boat is in, three lengths behind. One 
 of their men has dropped over his oar, but is quickly 
 brought to by a dash of water in the face. Their shell 
 has been paddled out and across the river to the still 
 quarters, where they will nurse their gloom, and dream 
 of revenge next year. 
 
 There is no worthy partizan who cannot feel with a 
 beaten crew, least of all the open-hearted fellows who 
 have borne the burden, not of a day, but of six-months 
 labor and privation to show that they are men. The 
 bulldog tenacity of that hard stern-chase has wrung 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 185 
 
 admiration for Harvard from the victors. " Ter qua- 
 terque ave, vincti," hear them cry. 
 
 Trix could not see for happy tears ; but Brock, hold 
 ing her hot little hand tight-clasped in his, told her 
 that all was well. He could distinguish Number 2 
 sitting straight, and no doubt as proud as Punch. The 
 Yale boat will go back to its quarters, and the men 
 repair to New Haven for such a night of such hero- 
 worship as it will stir their blood to remember while 
 blood runs in their veins. There is no chance for her 
 to speak with her brother, and she must try to be sat 
 isfied with present company. At which Trix gave the 
 speaker a look that freely told what he wanted most 
 to know. 
 
 The friendly shadows of eventide might have been 
 invoked to conceal the expression of the two young 
 people toward each other, except that nothing seemed 
 to call for apology just then. On the blue cars, people 
 old and young had been committing the most frantic 
 eccentricities, to be laughed at in cold blood after 
 ward. Trix and Vyvan had merely, as the race pro 
 gressed, drawn closer together, their pulses as one, 
 their breath mingling. When, for a brief space, the 
 bluff obscured the crews from view, Trix had made up 
 her mind that if, when they saw the course again, 
 Yale were behind, she would die upon the spot. It 
 was then that Vyvan had his opportunity to lean 
 down and whisper something in her ear something 
 rash, unpremeditated, squeezed from him by the for 
 lorn look of her face. 
 
 And then it was that Trix fearless Trix, happy 
 
186 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 Trix threw away forever her chance to become joint- 
 owner of the yacht Incognita, with all that it implied. 
 
 THE extraordinary conduct of Beatrix in running 
 away from her natural protectors on the yacht was 
 not the chief of Betty s troubles that eventful after 
 noon. She was even secretly glad that her younger 
 sister had been spirited away. They had lingered 
 long over the luncheon j many bottles of champagne 
 had been called to a last account ; fun, " as they found 
 it " in Mrs. Shaf to s set, had waxed noisy. Betty, who 
 saw that Eleanor was wretchedly depressed, had to 
 fathom for herself the workings of affairs. There had 
 been, whoever was to blame, apparently nothing to 
 find fault with in Hilda de Lancey s attitude, although 
 Betty had no patience with Hildegarde s baby-ways, 
 her low, appealing voice, her swimming violet eyes. 
 One thing was clear Jerry had to-day thrown off 
 restraint, and was defying comment in his open flirta 
 tion with the enchantress. 
 
 As to that Sophy King or Shafto, Betty decided she 
 was a snake in the grass, of the venomous variety. If 
 Betty read human nature aright, she had worked upon 
 Jerry s vanity to fan his old fancy for Hildegarde 
 up to the present fashionable flaunting of a surface- 
 infidelity to legal ties. Betty had many a time heard 
 such affairs discussed as a matter of every-day in her 
 society. Honest men and women laughed and joked 
 over the like among their friends. To hold back from 
 such jesting was to admit one s self provincial, crude 
 and Betty had not held back. She had enjoyed her 
 own sallies on these subjects, and the way they were 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 187 
 
 repeated and passed from mouth to mouth. But the 
 dart had never before gone home to the bull s-eye of 
 her innermost affections. She had watched Eleanor 
 during this day of trial with increasing pain. It was 
 evident that some especially deep wound had been 
 sustained by the young wife, who bore herself withal 
 so pluckily. 
 
 When the women left the table to the men, the 
 two sisters went at once on deck, where the fresh air, 
 and the lively spectacle of preparation for the race, 
 brought a more cheerful look into Eleanor s wistful 
 eyes. They talked of Beatrix, of Jack and his chances, 
 with more of affectionate interest than jealous Trix 
 had been willing to credit them with ; and just as 
 Betty was turning over in her mind how she might 
 probe her sister s unspoken grief, Hilda de Lancey 
 passed out the door of the cabin opposite to where 
 they sat, and, accompanied by Jerry, walked forward 
 to the far end of the boat, where together they leaned 
 over the rail. 
 
 Nell saw, but did not look after, her husband. Bet 
 ty, with a flash of feeling she could not govern, darted 
 upon Gerald an indignant glance, which she knew 
 from the expression of his flushed face and mutinous 
 eyes would have absolutely no effect. 
 
 "Well, this is " began Betty, at white heat. 
 
 " Don t, dear ; I would rather not," interrupted Elea 
 nor, her lip trembling a very little, but without giving 
 other sign. 
 
 At this moment Mrs. Shaf to came on deck, and, sur 
 veying the situation, drew a chair beside the sisters, 
 and sat down with a fine air of bonhomie. 
 
188 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " Such a game of cross-purposes below/ she said, 
 laughing boisterously. " Timothy, who has found out 
 your naughty little sister s prank, is in a big fit of the 
 sulks, and Hilda, to placate him, had just asked, in 
 her prettiest way, to be shown all over the yacht, 
 when, black as night with jealousy, as much as to say, 
 1 Who s poaching on my preserves ? up steps Jerry, 
 and carries off the prize " 
 
 " You are speaking of my husband ? " Eleanor asked 
 freezingly. 
 
 " Bless me, whose else ? But allow me to tell you, 
 you don t play your cards well to-day, my dear. After 
 your clever beginning with Theobald we looked for 
 better things." 
 
 At this, Betty started violently. What Eleanor 
 would have said was choked in her throat by the 
 arrival upon the scene of Major Shafto, Van Loon, 
 and another man or two, who, while puffing at their 
 cigars, formed in a ring around the little group, ready 
 to be amused at any cost. It was Mrs. Shafto s mis 
 fortune sometimes to miss her shot. To-day she had 
 calculated well, and felt pretty sure of victory. 
 
 "We are discussing that little tendresse over yon 
 der," she said easily, indicating to the newcomers, with 
 an offhand gesture, the figures in the bow. "And I m 
 giving Mrs. Vernon points. The fact is, American 
 women are slow in following up their advantages, and 
 after the compliment < Slings and Arrows paid her last 
 week about the Theobald affair 
 
 " By Jove, Sophy, this won t do," said the .deep bass 
 voice of Major Shafto, who had been slowly taking in 
 the scene. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 189 
 
 "What won t do? Flirting with other people s 
 property? You 11 have to make over society, old 
 man, before you leave that out. Mrs. Vernon surely is 
 aware that all the world has been praising her sharp 
 practice in starting an opposition to Jerry s little 
 game, though it was hardly to be expected in a disci 
 ple of the prudish Hallidays." 
 
 " I say ! They re in for it," whispered one of the 
 men to Van Loon. " It s a Ladies Battle/ and we 
 must stay and see it out." 
 
 For Betty, watching the malicious glitter come into 
 Mrs. Shafto s eye, entered the arena at a bound. 
 
 " Don t stop your wife, Major Shafto," she said, with 
 perfect self-command. " It s so kind of her to show 
 others the way she has won renown." 
 
 " That s a nasty one ! " added the previous critic, 
 enjoyingly, in the ear of Timothy, who was growing 
 rather scared. 
 
 "All of us, probably, except my sister, have read 
 the paragraph Mrs. Shafto so delicately speaks of. 
 And I don t believe there are many here who do not 
 suspect its origin. But as regards the truth of it, I 
 must really interpose. It is rather forcing my cards 
 to make me announce my engagement in this way 
 but I am only a woman, after all I have promised 
 to marry Mr. Theobald." 
 
 "Really? That does complicate the situation," said 
 her opponent, with a daring laugh, and their hearers 
 afterward declared that in spite of her evident dis 
 comfiture Sophy Shafto got the best of it. 
 
 " My dearest Betty, how glad I am ! " Eleanor said, 
 when the sisters were alone. 
 
190 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 "I had no idea of telling yet it is too new only 
 a week old. I can hardly believe it myself/ Betty 
 answered. " But the sight of that outrageous woman 
 gloating over her mischief, and knowing that hateful 
 little Leeds was within ear-shot, were too much for 
 me. I did what I knew Tony would have wished." 
 
 "He is all that is kind and true/ 7 sighed Eleanor. 
 " Oh, you will be happy, dear." 
 
 Unconsciously she emphasized the you, and Betty, 
 bending over, kissed her affectionately. It had not 
 entered into the mind of either to connect the date of 
 Theobald s offer of his hand to Betty with that of the 
 attack in print upon Eleanor s good name. 
 
XIII 
 
 T has previously been told that the 
 elder Mrs. Vernon s one authenti 
 cated link with established society 
 was a certain Mrs. Vane-Benson, a 
 far-away consin of her late husband. 
 This lady, also a widow, was well- 
 looking and ambitious, and in her youth had married 
 an Englishman of good family, whose death left her 
 with a limited income, and with a daughter wedded 
 for her pretty face by a rising barrister in London, 
 who had frankly informed his wife that he could not 
 abide his American mother-in-law. 
 
 When, therefore, Mrs. Vane-Benson visited London 
 to be with those whom she styled her " dear ones," 
 she was driven to the disagreeable necessity of taking 
 lodgings near the daughter s house, and living in a 
 " betwixt and between" way not at all to her taste. 
 She knew "plenty of nice English people," but they 
 could not be supposed to cherish active interest in an 
 American who had no money to throw around. Her 
 daughter s friends belonged to a young and gay set, 
 and altogether Mrs. Vane-Benson felt the time in 
 London hang heavy on her hands. 
 
 Oftentimes it had occurred to her to import the 
 191 
 
192 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 family of some rich new American, and, for a con 
 sideration, to chaperon it through the London season ; 
 but she was ease-loving, and this meant awful work. 
 The sudden wish of her cousin s widow to find com 
 panionship abroad had come to Mrs. Vane-Benson in 
 the nick of time. It gave her courage, after engaging 
 the rooms desired at Claridge s, to take a neat little 
 victoria and drive around to see various friends, to 
 all of whom, over their tea-tables, she announced the 
 prospective arrival of a "ridiculously rich" relative 
 from the States. 
 
 It is most convenient that English people have no 
 curiosity about the social status at home of their 
 transatlantic visitors. It makes the rough places 
 plain for so many worthy persons, and illustrates, on 
 English soil, the ideal American democracy. Mrs. 
 Vernon, for instance, who in crossing the Atlantic 
 had been rather cowed by the stand-off grandeur of 
 one or two New York families of fashion who shared 
 with her the privilege of deck state-rooms and special 
 stewards, and ate and drank nothing that was not 
 served from their luxurious private stores, found the 
 same people in London mere diminished shades, herd 
 ing at hotels, obliged to be content with paying their 
 way everywhere, and exhilarated by chance acquaint 
 ance with a baronet. She, on the other hand, who 
 had so long languished without recognition in her 
 adopted home, was, by a series of fortunate incidents, 
 whirled with unexpected speed into the bosom of 
 Mayfair society. 
 
 The impelling cause of this was Mrs. Vane-Benson s 
 countess, a stout, high-colored dowager who was 
 
1 ; 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 195 
 
 fond of novelties, and had recently taken America 
 under her wing, who lived, when in town, in a nar 
 row, dingy brick house in Curzon street, and spent 
 her winters inexpensively abroad ; the chief of those 
 ladies to whom Mrs. Vane-Benson had gone at tea- 
 time with her news. 
 
 It was Lady Shorthorn (or, to speak by the peerage, 
 "Shorthorn, Dowager Countess of [Peer s widow] 
 Katherine Clementina Letitia Janet, dau. of," etc. ; 
 "mar. 1859 the 6th Earl of Shorthorn, who died 
 1870," etc.) who proposed to Mrs. Vane-Benson to 
 remove her friend from the princely atmosphere of 
 Claridge s into a private dwelling. It was her own 
 son Lord Shorthorn s house in Prince s Gate, provi 
 dentially to let for the season, or for two seasons, or 
 for many seasons, if the price paid were sufficiently 
 American. Mrs. Vane-Benson told Mrs. Vernon that 
 poor Lord Shorthorn s wife had eloped under sad 
 circumstances with one of his intimate friends, which 
 would never have happened had her husband been 
 able to keep up the house in Prince s Gate, since poor 
 Lady Shorthorn could not abide the country in May 
 and June. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon, acceding to all demands upon her 
 purse, accordingly took possession of the Shorthorn 
 residence, with its worn carpets, dull bedrooms, and 
 drawing-rooms a wilderness of shabby chintz, sprinkled 
 with ormolu candelabra, Dresden shepherdesses, and 
 tarnished mirror-frames. 
 
 "You must tell your friend not to be frightened 
 by the house," said the countess, unconscious of two 
 meanings to her phrase. " I dare say it will seem for- 
 
196 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 midable to her at first. And the servants may worry 
 her to have to have so many, you know. I m told 
 that in America you keep only two help, don t you 
 call em? when you don t live altogether in hotels." 
 
 " Mrs. Vernon has been keeping more than two," 
 said Mrs. Vane-Benson, meekly. "I suppose Lord 
 Shorthorn won t mind her getting new chintz for the 
 drawing-room ? " 
 
 " If it s understood she >s to leave it, no," said the 
 dowager. 
 
 The new chintz, fresh paint and papers, balconies 
 full of flowers looking out on the lovely square behind 
 the house, Mrs. Vernon s talent for re-disposing fur 
 niture, and the objects of art that began soon to find 
 their way to Prince s Gate, wrought in the interior a 
 change to inspire Lady Shorthorn with sincere regard 
 for the new tenant of Lord Shorthorn s house. 
 
 "Now she is settled, she must know somebody," 
 remarked the dowager, who persisted in treating Mrs. 
 Vane-Benson s compatriots as if they were all very 
 young people of limited intelligence. " I have asked 
 my son, when he has time, to call, and perhaps he 
 may; but he is not enough." 
 
 " Lord Shorthorn must be so much at Ensilage with 
 the dear children," said Mrs. Vane-Benson, although 
 she saw the name of the nobleman in question re 
 peatedly in the current gaieties of the "Morning 
 Post." 
 
 "Oh, the children, of course. Three of them, or 
 four, yes, there are certainly four, are a mistake 
 for a man not yet thirty ; but Shorthorn don t dislike 
 being sometimes at Ensilage, though I always found 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 197 
 
 the castle damp. The question is, How are we to get 
 people to go to see your friend ? n 
 
 "I had thought," said Mrs. Vane-Benson, hesitating, 
 "of a ball." 
 
 " Hum ! not bad," meditated the countess. " I 
 think I could get people enough to come to a 
 really good ball. But I should have to make her 
 promise not to interfere." 
 
 " How not to interfere ? " 
 
 Lady Shorthorn stared. 
 
 " To let me order things, and ask every soul who 
 is to be there. I can t get into such a fuss as the 
 duchess had with your Mrs. Central Parker last year. 
 Why, the poor duchess had actually done everything, 
 asked everybody, and expected it to be a really good 
 ball. And then, what must your Mrs. Central Parker 
 do, but take fright lest the duchess s people should n t 
 come, and at the last moment invite a lot of her own 
 friends ! Of course the Americans all came. To be 
 sure, the women were monstrous cock-a-hoop but 
 the duchess was so vexed, and has been telling every 
 body since that if it was a bad bah* she washed her 
 hands of it." 
 
 "Mrs. Vernon knows only a few of her country 
 people in London the Blanks and the Dashes," said 
 Mrs. Vane-Benson, mentioning families of whom she 
 felt secure. 
 
 " Oh, I have met your Mr. Blank, and he seemed to 
 me a very nice sort of person, really," said the dowager. 
 " I have met so few American men. Excepting that 
 nice Mr. Black, who s just like an Englishman, and 
 Mr. Blank, I don t think I know any. And, of course, 
 13* 
 
198 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 there must be many more. To go back to the ball, 
 tell your friend that I 11 do it, really, and she need 
 not concern herself except to pay for it. Knowing 
 the house as I do, it will be easier. Perhaps she will 
 want to give the ball elsewhere ; but I would n t care 
 for that. She will enjoy seeing the ball the way I 
 shall give it at Shorthorn s house. I m told all your 
 best American parties are given at restaurants. It 
 must be quite shocking, with strangers coming in and 
 ordering their own food at the other little tables. I 
 can t understand it in the least " 
 
 "Oh, but you must let me explain to you " cried 
 Mrs. Vane-Benson, stung beyond the point of silence. 
 
 " Or else you hire the whole floors of hotels, and 
 take down the beds," pursued the countess, " and the 
 guests go up in the elevators. You see I know even 
 your way of talking in America." 
 
 " The best way for you to know America is to visit 
 it yourself some day," said Mrs. Vane-Benson, politely. 
 
 " Me ? God forbid ! " said the dowager. " We must 
 have all one kind of flowers in the big saloon ; fox 
 gloves, perhaps, or orchids does your friend know 
 orchids? And there must be plenty of champagne. 
 Your friend must be made to understand beforehand 
 about champagne." 
 
 "We drink champagne by the gallon in America," 
 retorted Mrs. Vane-Benson in desperation. 
 
 " Oh, I think not," said Lady Shorthorn without a 
 change of expression on her large, fair face. "It 
 would make you so very sick. Lord Midlands him 
 self told me when he dined at your er ah chief 
 palace, you know the White House, yes, a few 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 199 
 
 years ago, they gave him Apollinaris only, and 
 handed boiled milk with the coffee, in large cups, 
 during dinner. You see I Ve made quite a study 
 of America." 
 
 " I suppose when you get everything arranged for 
 the ball," resumed Mrs. Vane-Benson, struggling no 
 more, "it will be well to let the newspapers have a 
 list of the expected guests." 
 
 " Perhaps; it don t signify who reads newspa 
 pers?" said her ladyship, comfortably. "There are 
 so many things in them one really can t believe. 
 Imagine one of them saying, the other day, that your 
 Mr. What s-his-iiame had taken Guelph House for the 
 season, and if he liked it, after staying here awhile, 
 he would probably buy England. Now, fancy buy 
 ing England how could he, possibly? Tell your 
 friend all I have said, my dear, and make her be 
 most careful about receiving Americans till then, for 
 there s no knowing whether it might not spoil her 
 ball." 
 
 THE ball, good or bad, was about to be an accom 
 plished fact. Mrs. Vernon had been turning over her 
 piles of acceptances, asking herself, with a delicious 
 thrill, if it could be she she whom the Van Shuters 
 had so tardily recognized and the Van Loons had 
 never invited who was about to receive as her guests 
 half the Lords Adolphus and Ladies Ermyntrude in 
 the peerage. 
 
 The Shorthorn residence, from the hands of deco 
 rators astonished by liberal orders, had come forth 
 a fairy-land of lights and garlands, draperies and 
 
200 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 plants. Late in the evening Mrs. Vernon, more ex 
 cited than she had ever known herself to be, wearing 
 a tea-gown of lace and satin, descended to the ground 
 floor to bestow a survey upon her tables for supper, 
 and the accompanying buffet. 
 
 At the moment of crossing the lower hall she had 
 become aware of one of her footmen engaged at the 
 front door in parleying with some would-be visitor, to 
 whom he mechanically repeated the formula of " Not 
 at ome. ; As she was returning to go again up-stairs, 
 Mrs. Vernon caught a glimpse of what seemed a famil 
 iar face in the gap made by the partly opened door. 
 
 " Hif you please, m," said the footman, raising his 
 voice to address his mistress with such emphasis that 
 the powder flew from his ambrosial locks, " ere s a 
 pusson as won t by no means be hinduced to leave 
 with-hout speaking a word with you." 
 
 He was a young footman, or what happened might 
 not have been. The intruder, taking advantage of 
 him to push by, entered the brilliantly lighted hall. 
 Mrs. Vernon gazed at her it was a woman with 
 absolute dismay. It was Calliope Jane Ketcham, once 
 her companion " table girl " at Judd s ! 
 
 "Mrs. Vernon, I believe? 7 said the new arrival. 
 " Pardon me, madam, for seeming to intrude on you j 
 but I am the London correspondent of the New York 
 1 Planet/ and I have been instructed by cable to give 
 half a column to your entertainment. If you would 
 be so kind as to allow me to glance at the decorations, 
 and at your list of acceptances " 
 
 "You I please walk up-stairs," stammered the 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 201 
 
 unfortunate hostess, entirely at a loss for words or 
 actions. 
 
 She led the way to the suite of glittering rooms 
 above, fragrant with the breath of thousands of cut 
 blossoms, and from which the last of the decorators 
 vanished as they came in, bestowing upon Mrs. Ver- 
 non a bow as if to royalty. 
 
 " I guess I did n t do you much harm running you 
 out o New York, Luella," said Calliope s best-known 
 tones. " Pears like you d kinder think I was a 
 blessing in disguise." 
 
 "You torment! What do you want now?" al 
 most hissed the lady of the house. 
 
 "Charming acacia in that recess, I see," said the 
 reporter, jotting down notes as a stray servant passed 
 them by. " Now that I have a fair idea of the decora 
 tions, you will kindly allow me a glance at the gown 
 you are going to wear ? If you please, I will follow 
 you." 
 
 In Mrs. Vernon s bedroom, the maids being absent, 
 Mrs. Vernon s wrath broke forth. 
 
 " Go away ! I won t stand it ! " she said rapidly. 
 
 " Presently ; all in good time, Luella. I am really 
 a London correspondent, and this half-column means 
 bread you would n t take out of my mouth." 
 
 "What has become of your gains from your last 
 swindle in New York ? " 
 
 " The last ? Since circumstances forced me to with 
 draw from the Oppressed Wives movement, I have 
 been for a short time the widowed i companion of a 
 lady whom you know. You can t think how I love 
 
202 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 my weeds, Luella. They become me better than any 
 other dress, and people are always moved by hearing 
 of my poor dead husband. True, the lady I lived with 
 last was not so moved as she might have been by that 
 variety of sorrow. But her place suited me, and I 
 should have remained in comfort for the summer, 
 but at the end of a month I had to leave." 
 
 " Suddenly?" said Mrs. Vernon, with a curling lip. 
 
 " Suddenly," said Calliope, dropping her eyes, and 
 smiling. " But you don t ask me the name of my last 
 employer, dear. And yet, by a strange fatality, in 
 her house I found myself again involved in affairs 
 that had to do with you." 
 
 "With me? You re mistaken there," said Mrs. 
 Vernon, with a hard laugh, all her society grace and 
 conventional mannerisms dropping from her like a 
 garment. 
 
 " With your son, then, whose habits and character I 
 had full opportunity to observe, for he was with her 
 every day." 
 
 "It is a slander. He swore to me " 
 
 " Then you do know whom I mean. You are n t 
 surprised to hear that I went as guardian to the man 
 ners and morals of the lovely Hildegarde ? No, my 
 dear, don t interrupt me. As the boys at Judd s used 
 to say, < I m the Wild Wolf from Bitter Creek, and 
 it s my night to howl. I found that young woman 
 has as neat a talent for double-dealing as I Ve ever 
 chanced to see. No more heart than you d hold on 
 a pin-point, and a love of flirting for flirting s sake, 
 as other women love their drams of morphine and 
 chloral. Your youngster is a fool to think she 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 203 
 
 wants him except as a stop-gap till she can establish 
 herself by another marriage. If she could get that 
 rich fish Van Loon, she d soon give your Jerry the 
 mitten. Meanwhile she likes playing with him, and 
 dragging him on, and then shutting the door in his 
 face. She s no more pity for his wife than a cat has 
 for a mouse. It s been rare fun to her ordering him 
 hither and thither, saying he must go to Newport 
 because she means to take a house there, or to dear 
 knows where, because she has a fancy for trying it. 
 And, with all this, I don t suppose you doubt she 
 owes you a grudge for not letting her become your 
 daughter-in-law last year ! And that Shafto woman 
 is a match for her. When they 7 re not quarreling 
 the two work together, and they re together in mis 
 chief now." 
 
 " Do you expect only to make me angry by telling 
 me of this!" 
 
 " Not at all," said Calliope, coolly, drawing an enve 
 lop from her pocket. " I pride myself on my system. 
 I Ve got a letter here that would open Jerry s eyes to 
 Mrs. Hildegarde, and I want to sell it high" 
 
 AN hour later, Mrs. Vernon, girthed and buskined 
 for the fray, stood at her post beside ample Lady 
 Shorthorn, receiving such a crush of titled and distin 
 guished personages as left no doubt in Lady Short 
 horn s mind of her own cleverness in avoiding the 
 disaster brought on the duchess by Mrs. Central 
 Parker. There was not, all told, more than a handful 
 of Americans in the rooms, and not a family among 
 them that did not boast of the redeeming pretty wo- 
 
204 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 man. Late in the evening Lord Shorthorn strolled 
 in, and was made known to his remunerative tenant. 
 Next day Mrs. Vernon awoke to find herself the 
 fashion. True, a hornet s nest of gossip about her 
 was let loose from the ignored Americans in London j 
 but it was well on in the season, and by another year 
 she would have lived such trifles down. 
 
XIY 
 
 HE principal person, strange to say, 
 to take umbrage at Mrs. Vernon s 
 rapid rise was her original backer, 
 Lady Shorthorn. One afternoon in 
 July, when town was thinning fast, 
 the dowager s one-horse brougham 
 stopped before the house in Prince s Gate, and the 
 dowager, going in, was encountered on the threshold 
 by her son, who bowed to her, smiling, and hurried 
 on to a hansom for which one of Mrs. Vernon s foot 
 men had been whistling from the step. 
 
 Lord Shorthorn was a handsome young man, with 
 a blond mustache, and legs so long that when he sat 
 down they seemed to stretch interminably across the 
 room. He was well dressed, from his shining hat and 
 perfectly rolled umbrella, to the polished shoes upon 
 his uncommonly large feet. Lady Shorthorn did not 
 smile on him. She went at once up-stairs to the 
 drawing-room, where Mrs. Vernon sat, and refused 
 tea from that lady s hands, as well as bread and but 
 ter in thin slices from a large silver plate. 
 
 "I thought you would be leavin town," she said. 
 " Every one is leavin town." 
 
 205 
 
206 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 " I have the kindest invitations to Lord John s, and 
 the Duke s, and those dear Cholmondeleys," said Mrs. 
 Vernon, easily ; " and I dare say I shall manage to do 
 them all. But that is for August." 
 
 "You might go to well Eastbourne for a 
 while. 7 
 
 " Oh, I hate Eastbourne," said Mrs. Vernon, who, 
 two months ago, would not have ventured to hate any 
 place named by the dowager. " I have knocked about 
 so much, I really like it better here." 
 
 " I saw my son goin out of here. I am surprised 
 he is not at Ensilage." 
 
 " Yes ; every one says it is a most beautiful place." 
 
 "Beautiful in situation, yes; but damp, as I told 
 you once before. I don t think any one living at 
 Ensilage could long keep their health. And those 
 three children no, four, there are four have their 
 mother s temper and I am obliged to say Shorthorn s 
 own temper is I told him so when they gave him his 
 divorce Shorthorn s own temper is dreadfully tryin , 
 as any one who lives with him must find." 
 
 " Are you going to the Princess Argentine s garden- 
 party at Lean Lodge ? " said Mrs. Vernon, pleasantly. 
 
 "No; I m not asked are you? Well, nothin 
 surprises one to-day. I suppose Shorthorn will be 
 goin , too. I should think he d be careful about 
 doin as much as I hear he does. I believe it s not 
 generally known Shorthorn has a er a valve in 
 his heart. Sir James warned him about it when he 
 was quite a lad at Oxford." 
 
 "It is very sad," murmured Mrs. Vernon, looking 
 at her with sympathetic eyes. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 209 
 
 " He has undoubtedly a valve ; aud he has lived so 
 fast, and got himself into such a ridiculous lot of 
 debts, I don t know what 7 s to become of him. The 
 only hope we have is the marriage with his cousin 
 Kelso s girl." 
 
 " Lady Sybilla is a charming person," Mrs. Vernon 
 answered. 
 
 "It is so suitable; just what both families want. 
 You will be interested, because you have a married 
 son." 
 
 " Yes, I have a married son." 
 
 "Who must be nearly Shorthorn s age, is n t he? 
 You know how you 7 d have felt, if people had said he 
 was goin 7 to throw himself away upon er ah a 
 nobody old enough to be his mother," said the coun 
 tess, getting on her feet, losing her temper, and blurt 
 ing out her words. 
 
 " Lord and Lady William Hampshire. The onor- 
 able Harthur Fitz- Greene, Sir Lionel Delacour," 
 chanted a man-servant, withdrawing the portiere. 
 
 " You will show Lady Shorthorn to the door," said 
 Mrs. Vernon to this functionary, after greeting her 
 new guests ; and down-stairs puffed the large countess, 
 in helpless, speechless wrath. She stepped into her 
 brougham and drove away, feeling that she had not 
 helped Lady Sybilla s chances, and registering a vow 
 to have done with all Americans. Meeting Mrs. 
 Vane-Benson in the park, she began by cutting that 
 unoffending lady dead. 
 
 SOON after the onslaught of the irate countess, Mrs. 
 Vernon was called, on her own account, to experience 
 14 
 
210 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 certain pangs of anxiety regarding a son of whom 
 other women took kind heed. 
 
 A few days later, when she was making ready to 
 receive Gerald and Eleanor, who were due to arrive 
 in Prince s Gate for a visit on their way to the Conti 
 nent, came a startling note written by Jerry on the 
 steamer and posted at Queenstown, telling her that 
 he had crossed the ocean alone, leaving his wife with 
 her mother in America an arrangement of which he 
 saw no definite prospect of change, and in consequence 
 of which it would hardly be pleasant to meet his mother 
 until feeling on the subject had had time to die down. 
 He gave the address of a hotel in Paris where a letter 
 from her might reach him, but warned her that no 
 attempt at mediation would have a hearing from him, 
 and that he meant to " travel till further notice." 
 
 Now, indeed, the world seemed for a while dark be 
 fore the mother. But with characteristic energy she 
 decided her plan of action, and, crossing by the night 
 boat, was in Paris the next day, and early in attend 
 ance at the address given by her son. 
 
 Jerry, who at the most had expected from her an 
 angry telegram or letter to which he would turn a 
 deaf ear, as he had done many times before, was taken 
 disagreeably by surprise. He received his mother 
 sullenly, and she at once saw that he was under the 
 influence of a mixture of emotions among which 
 wounded pride was uppermost. 
 
 " Answer me one question, Gerald Vernon, or you 
 are no son of mine/ 7 the widow said fiercely. "Has 
 any other w r oman got to do with this mad performance 
 of yours f " 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 211 
 
 " I don t know what business you have to ask/ her 
 son said, " and I wish to heaven you d let me alone 
 and go away. I got a chill, or something, on that 
 infernal ship, and I have n t slept all night, and my 
 back and head are as heavy as lead." 
 
 " You do look ill," his mother said, struck, as he had 
 meant her to be, with sudden solicitude. "But, Jerry, 
 I can t rest till I know all. I m not going to appeal 
 to you for myself, or for that poor girl you ve left in 
 America, who s worth twenty such women as you ve 
 let make a fool of you. I will change my question. 
 Where is Hildegarde de Lancey, who was a passenger 
 on the ship with you, as I saw by the published list ? " 
 
 "At a hotel, or on a train or how should I 
 know?" cried he, stung into open answer. "It s all 
 somebody s mischief. I ve not seen her since we 
 landed. She went up from Liverpool with a lot of 
 people to London on an earlier train, and left me no 
 address." 
 
 " She s flying for higher game, Jerry, my lad," said 
 the widow, a satiric smile breaking upon her counte 
 nance. " She knows now you get every cent you have 
 from me ; and she s a deep one." 
 
 " Don t abuse her. I won t stand it," he cried vio 
 lently, a dull red flush settling around his heavy eyes. 
 " She s the best friend I have, and the noblest woman 
 I know the only woman who understands me, and 
 gives me the sympathy I need." 
 
 " If that is your case, my dear boy," said the widow, 
 seating herself deliberately beside the lounge on which 
 he had cast himself, and taking out an envelop, " per 
 haps you will run your eye over this letter, written 
 
212 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 recently by Hildegarde to her sister-spirit, Mrs. Shaf to, 
 and giving her frank opinion of a certain dangler at 
 her apron-string. Don t ask me where I got it. It s 
 hers, and that 7 s enough." 
 
 THAT night Mrs. Vernon with her son re-crossed the 
 Channel. They reached Prince s Gate for breakfast. 
 But no consideration of the matin meal was of in 
 terest to Jerry, or would be so for many a morning 
 to come. By the time he stepped out of the hansom, 
 following his mother, the footman who came to take 
 out the bags had to give him an arm across the pave 
 ment to the door, and within five hours Gerald was in 
 bed, with a doctor and a trained nurse in attendance, 
 in the first stage of a serious attack of typhoid fever. 
 
XV 
 
 EN days before these things took 
 place on the other side of the great 
 Atlantic ferry, Eleanor Vernon in 
 New York was joyously concluding 
 her final preparations to go abroad 
 with her husband. Their passage 
 having been engaged in a ship leaving the next day, 
 her heart was full of happiness at thought of what 
 awaited her. 
 
 After a farewell visit to her mother s place on the 
 Hudson, where the Hallidays were enjoying country 
 life with their laurel-crowned hero Jack, she had come 
 with her maid to town, to join Jerry at their own 
 house. 
 
 Nell could not believe it was she whose spirit 
 bounded with such delight at the prospect of putting 
 the sea between herself and the old home. She was 
 past reasoning. For so long she had dwelt upon this 
 thought if she could get Jerry away ; off to herself, 
 the happy time of their honeymoon would surely again 
 return. Now it was soon to come ; Jerry had ceased 
 to vacillate, their plans were made, she was to taste 
 of a deep, brimming cup of joy, Jerry s shortcomings 
 14* 213 
 
214 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 were washed away in a flood of new tenderness. No 
 need to go back to their sad days like the one upon 
 the yacht. Since Betty s engagement with Theobald 
 had been announced, Jerry had asked his wife s pardon 
 for what she considered his greatest offense against 
 her asked in such manly fashion that her heart 
 melted with pleasure in yielding it. Mrs. de Lancey 
 and the Shaf tos had gone on a cruise along the eastern 
 coast in Van Loon s yacht, and the young couple had 
 been perforce thrown upon each other for entertain 
 ment. During the visit to Eleanor s mother, they 
 had lived together for a brief restful time, and then 
 Gerald had been summoned back to town by Mrs. 
 Vernon s man of business, to consult about some of 
 her affairs. 
 
 It had been arranged between husband and wife, 
 their establishment being mounted for the summer in 
 picnic fashion, that he should take her for dinner to 
 Delmonico s. As the hot summer s dusk fell over the 
 dull streets, and Jerry did not appear, Eleanor began 
 to feel the pangs of her healthy appetite deadened by 
 growing anxiety. When Elsa brought up and pressed 
 upon her a tray of food, she made pretense of eating, 
 but, as the girl left the morning-room where she sat, 
 returned quickly to the window, and strained her eyes 
 into the gathering night. The gas-lamp near their 
 house, flaming out, seemed to mock her with dancing 
 in her tears. 
 
 Eight o clock, nine o clock, and a ring at the front 
 door. Eleanor, springing to the head of the staircase, 
 saw below a messenger boy s cap and uniform. The 
 note Elsa handed her was in an unfamiliar hand, and 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 215 
 
 once or twice she turned it over without opening, 
 after the foolish fashion many people have of specu 
 lating about what can so quickly be ascertained. 
 
 Eleanor had had no previous experience with anony 
 mous letters, and this, her first, was a bitter one. She 
 could not comprehend why there should be no signa 
 ture, and looked again ere she read the hateful lines 
 that forced their way into her bewildered understand 
 ing. An older, wiser woman would have destroyed 
 the note without reading, upon the first indication of 
 its contents ; but knowledge so to deal with the most 
 cruel implements of modern social warfare comes only 
 with experience. She was still clutching the paper, 
 staring at what it told her, when her husband came 
 into the room. 
 
 " Nell dear, you must have thought I was a wretch 
 not to telegraph you I could n t come," he said, leaning 
 down to kiss her. " But I was kept by a disagreeable 
 thing: a man an old college-mate of mine got 
 himself into a mess with drink and foolishness, and 
 sent for me ; and I had to haul him on his feet, and 
 pack him out of town to his wife in the South. 1 7 m 
 just back from Jersey City, where I saw him to the 
 train why, what on earth is the matter, Eleanor?" 
 
 "It is not the first, but the most plausible, story 
 you have made cover deceit to me," she said fiercely, 
 facing him, and crumpling the paper in her hand. 
 She lighted it above the lamp, and threw it into the 
 fireplace, watching it blacken to tinder. "Oh, if I 
 could only burn up as easily the shame my life with 
 you has brought me ! " 
 
 "Eleanor, are you insane? What is that letter? 
 
210 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 What has put you into this state ? Come, calm your 
 self. Are n t you well ? Do you need a doctor ? " 
 
 " There is no doctor who could help me/ 7 she said 
 drearily. "And I m not one to hide and equivocate 
 like you. I 11 tell you what the letter said not all 
 you may guess the rest. It said that woman the 
 woman you still loved when you married me is 
 going in the ship with us to-morrow, and that I am 
 the laughing-stock of all who know us." 
 
 Jerry was silent for a minute. He had fancied 
 Eleanor always the loving, pardoning creature she 
 had hitherto shown herself. He had absolutely no 
 conception of the hard scorn and anger now in her 
 face and voice. It drove out of him the soothing 
 words and kinder impulses he had brought up-town 
 to her, together with the truth upon his lips about 
 the cause of his detention. 
 
 " Oh ! why is there no angel to stand by with a 
 naming sword, and warn young girls what married 
 life is really f " she cried. " No one tells no, not one 
 living soul what we have to meet. The parents that 
 give us away, the clergyman that binds us, the books 
 we read, all lead us to the altar and leave us to our 
 fate ! Who could dream of what I Ve suffered in half 
 a year? And what help have I? None God help 
 me none ! " 
 
 The burst of vehement indignation had dropped 
 suddenly into pathos, but Gerald was not moved. 
 
 "If you expect by this to make me fall down on 
 my knees, and own I m a wretch, you re out of your 
 reckoning," he said frigidly. " There s not one person 
 out of ten you could get to say you re anything but 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 217 
 
 a jealous, hysterical girl. And what yon hint about 
 another woman I don t mean to notice further than 
 to say it s the first time I Ve heard of expecting any 
 one to overhaul a big ship s list, and say who shall or 
 shall not sail in her." 
 
 " She is going, then, with us ? " said Eleanor. 
 
 " With us ? Certainly not. I am not so sure about 
 our going at all, if this is the kind of traveling com 
 panion I m likely to have. Mrs. de Lancey has de 
 cided to take her daughters and their governess to 
 Switzerland for the summer; and we, as you know, 
 intend to go direct to my mother s house in London." 
 
 "I will not go," she cried, with a swelling heart. 
 
 "Try to understand what you are doing," Gerald 
 answered, after a pause wretched to both of them. 
 " It may come to you too late to be sorry you made 
 this stand against your husband." 
 
 Eleanor interlaced her hands, and her breath came 
 panting. She looked at him with a wild appealing 
 glance. He stood before her, determined, stolid, treat 
 ing the whole affair like the outburst of a silly child. 
 There was no sign of softening in his face. 
 
 "I refuse to go with you and lier" she said again, 
 doggedly. 
 
 " Then you may go home to your mother, and ask 
 her to teach you reason," he answered and left her 
 to herself. 
 
 SHE lay sobbing alone, all night, and early in the 
 morning heard Gerald go out of the house. The 
 hours wore on; men came and took away his lug 
 gage, already packed ; and Eleanor, dreary and bewil- 
 
218 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 dered, felt as if each piece were a coffin carried down. 
 By noon, shortly before the hour fixed for the ship to 
 leave, she had made some excuse to her servants about 
 a delay in their journey, and, calling a cab, drove in 
 desperation to the steamer s wharf. 
 
 Even in the full air from the water she seemed to 
 stifle as they drew nearer to the pier. Leaving the 
 cab, she went, thickly veiled, along the passenger- way 
 to the gang-plank, and stood for a moment behind a 
 crowd of onlookers, gazing up at the thronged decks 
 of the steamer. She had a wild idea that Jerry might 
 even then see and know and want her ; might beckon 
 to her, and she would follow him to the death. But 
 she did not catch a glimpse of her husband until after 
 the warning gong had cleared the deck of visitors, 
 and the little groups of passengers were beginning to 
 congregate behind the rail to wave good-by to their 
 friends on shore. At last, emerging from the throng, 
 she saw him, alone, looking down as if searching in 
 the crowd. 
 
 A keen delight filled Eleanor, and instinctively she 
 darted forward with the impulse to fly up the gang 
 way and fasten upon his arm, never to leave her dar 
 ling more. Just then a carriage drove swiftly up, in 
 tercepting her, and a party of belated passengers were 
 hurried by the steamer s men on deck. They were a 
 governess, two dainty, pretty children, and a beautiful 
 blonde woman, her arms full of flowers. 
 
 A moment, and the gang-plank was withdrawn. 
 The last mail-sack was hoisted on board, the last long 
 shoreman scrambled down his ladder bridge, the great 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 219 
 
 steamer cast off from the wharf, and bore majestically 
 down-stream. 
 
 As Eleanor went back to her cab, a gentleman 
 looked after her, paused, looked again, and then hur 
 ried to her side. 
 
 " My dear Nell, what does this mean ? " said Theo 
 bald. " Surely you were to have gone to-day. I came 
 down at the last minute to see a friend off, and sought 
 for but failed to find you in that extraordinarily gen 
 teel mob on board. Where is Vernon, and why have 
 you changed your plans ? " 
 
 " Will you drive up- town with me, Tony ? " she said, 
 under her mask of heavy gauze. 
 
 Seeing that something was amiss, he acquiesced 
 without further query. When they were seated, and 
 driving off, her head dropped on her breast, and she 
 broke into gasping sobs. 
 
 " Oh ! to whom can I turn, if not to you?" she said 
 despairingly. " Tony, my heart is broken. He told 
 me to go back to my mother, and oh, my God! 
 what shall I do ? He has forsaken me." 
 
 " The brute ! " Theobald said between his teeth. 
 He could hardly speak for the sudden violence of 
 emotion she excited. It was not only the sight of the 
 shipwrecked young life driven by storms back into 
 port that moved him. In this moment of tenderness, 
 the restraint of years was dashed away like a cobweb 
 at a touch. He forgot himself, the time and place, 
 his pledge to Betty; and the man s heart inside of 
 him burst into fierce speech. 
 
 " Ah, let him go ! " he said, hoarse and tremulous. 
 
220 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 "You can be free. Yon can be happy. And I m 
 here to help you I who d give my life to save you 
 tears like these." 
 
 Eleanor started and shrank as if she had been 
 stung. 
 
 " This from you ! " she cried wildly. " Oh, it is 
 more than I can bear ! " 
 
 Then Theobald s brief madness passed from him, 
 and he was filled with bitter self-reproach. 
 
 " Don t draw back from me, Eleanor/ 7 he said, striv 
 ing to steady his tones. "Don t be afraid to trust 
 me. Do I need to tell you that you are sacred to me ? 
 Let me take you to your mother ; and I will go, and 
 you need never look at me again. Oh, how you pain 
 me with those eyes like some innocent creature s that 
 I Ve shot to the heart ! Speak to me, Nell, little cou 
 sin ; tell me I am forgiven." 
 
 Behind this man s one offense there was a lifetime 
 of unselfish tenderness ; but, womanlike, she withheld 
 from him whom she could never have loved the par 
 don always poured in full measure at Jerry s feet. 
 Drawing the veil again over her face, she leaned back 
 in her corner in silent anguish until her own door 
 was reached. 
 
 When Theobald, who dared not offer to go in, 
 awaited her instructions upon the threshold, she put 
 her fingers into his faintly, coldly, and bade him good- 
 by in accents barely audible. 
 
 "Then I may do nothing save you nothing?" he 
 pleaded, cut to the quick. " You dismiss me without 
 pardon, or hope that I may come to you again ? " 
 
 "Not now," she answered, in a voice he would not 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 221 
 
 have recognized as Nell s ; " but it is not that I don t 
 believe in you. Go, please." And she passed away 
 from him. 
 
 THE day wore to its interminable close, and Eleanor 
 had beaten about in a dreadful circle of indecision as 
 to what course to pursue. One thought was dominant 
 she must try to hide from those who loved her the 
 wrong done her by him she loved. Among all the 
 people who had been her friends and intimates since 
 childhood there was no one to whom she could bare 
 this bleeding wound. Theobald, almost her brother, 
 would have been the first to occur to her, and he 
 Eleanor s face flushed hotly with the remembrance of 
 that shock. 
 
 What was right? What was best and truest to 
 Jerry and to her higher self to do ? It might be that 
 she could find still in town the rector who had offici 
 ated at their marriage, and who had held her in his 
 arms at the baptismal font; and stealing from the 
 house, she walked, veiled as before, through the cool 
 of evening to his home. 
 
 " Would the rector see a lady for a moment only ? " 
 was the message she sent in, waiting with an odd 
 sense of the change from her position of command 
 and influence wrought in her own mind by the cause 
 of her present visit. 
 
 She sat, trembling, and was presently relieved, in a 
 degree, by the appearance in the room of the rector s 
 wife. 
 
 " If you will tell me your errand, I will speak to my 
 husband " she began, peering curiously at the stran- 
 
222 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 ger, and when Eleanor, lifting her veil, came forward, 
 uttered an exclamation of jocular surprise. 
 
 " Nell Vernon ! Why, child, who could suppose it 
 was you ? If you knew the watch I have to keep on 
 ladies who visit the doctor ! They take up so much 
 time, and worry the life out of him with their fads 
 and fancies. Men are men, and the clergy are human, 
 though the laymen never make allowances. The way 
 the women hang upon my good man s words no 
 wonder he s a little short when we contradict him at 
 home sometimes. And they tell him everything, from 
 quarrels with cooks to spats with husbands. The 
 truth is, child, he is dressing to go out to dinner, and 
 if I will do as well some of your l Girls Lodging 
 House business, no doubt." 
 
 "What I had to say need not disturb him now," 
 said poor Eleanor, quietly moving toward the door. 
 
 "Then you 11 call again, or write? I heard you 
 were going to the other side. And how s that hand 
 some husband of yours, my dear ? My girls are just 
 wild over him, but I believe all women are. Take my 
 advice, and don t let him flirt too much." 
 
 " I ASKED for bread, and ye gave me a stone," the 
 girl murmured involuntarily, as she found her way 
 again into the street, and the crushed spirit that had 
 yearned to be made whole by the healing touch of 
 God s pity expressed through his minister was sent 
 out unhelped to wander stumbling in the night of its 
 despair. She looked down the vista of a side street, 
 and knew that it ended in the river. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 223 
 
 " When a tie like ours is wrenched apart, and there 
 is no help, death were sweet and merciful/ she 
 thought, staying her steps for a confused moment 
 upon the curbstone of the crossing. 
 
 Then two girls, accompanied by a young man, 
 walked by her, laughing lightly. The voice and man 
 ner of one of them put her in mind of her sister Bea 
 trix, and instantly the claims and duties of her life of 
 every day rushed back to take possession of the dis 
 tracted citadel from which grief had temporarily dis 
 lodged them. With the thought of Trix came that of 
 the girl s happy young love, just now on probation 
 with the authority at home, and Eleanor was cheered 
 by it as if a warm hand had taken her frozen fingers 
 into its clasp. It roused in her human interest, and 
 melted the hard resentment against Fate that had 
 begun to glaze over her sympathies, and that made 
 her forget the world contained others than Jerry and 
 Hildegarde. 
 
 Unconsciously she quickened her steps in the direc 
 tion of her home, but, at the corner nearest it, stopped 
 again, overcome by the thought that her servants, 
 already in possession of an evening paper, might see, 
 perhaps, some announcement that Jerry had gone 
 without her, and thus her miserable pretense of a 
 delay would be exposed. How could she face Elsa s 
 smooth civility, veiling the servant s galling know 
 ledge of a domestic skeleton? Oh, for brief respite 
 from the humiliation of public comment or sympathy ! 
 
 To-morrow there was no help for it she would 
 be forced to go back battered and bleeding to her 
 
224 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 mother s home, carrying her shame to "be shared by 
 those tender hearts! But now, ah, now only to 
 escape another night in her desolated home ! 
 
 The image of Gerald s aunt, the avoided and isolated 
 Miss Tryphena, presented itself in sudden invitation. 
 Eleanor, hastily, lest she should repent, retraced her 
 steps to the avenue, and got into an omnibus bound 
 up-town. 
 
 The long, jolting expedition gave her time to re 
 flect on the temerity of expecting sympathy from the 
 source she sought. Of the passengers who climbed 
 in and dropped out of the vehicle along its route none 
 were known to her ; for the society element of town 
 was off on its annual hejira, and people who remained 
 within its limits were of the fraternity of workers. 
 She found herself studying the faces of these stran 
 gers, eagerly wondering if their hearts carried a dead 
 weight like her own, envying the couples who were 
 bound together to their homes, envying the gossips 
 who sat, knee to knee, gaily discussing important 
 trivialities. And when a young woman, laden with 
 parcels, gave her hand to her husband, who helped 
 her to descend, beaming on him with a transparently 
 loving smile, Eleanor turned away fretfully, and won 
 dered if she should never reach her goal. 
 
 Aunt Tryphena s house, one of sad brownstone ex 
 terior, in a long, forbidding block of buildings from 
 which it varied not a whit, was inhabited, and her 
 butler, in coming to open the door, stopped on his 
 way to light the gas in the hall from a fixture like a 
 shepherd s crook. This homely sign gave Nell cour 
 age to send up her name to the mistress of the castle, 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 225 
 
 who, if an ogress, lived in the conventional way of 
 other householders j and at once Miss Trypheiia de 
 scended to her long drawing-room swathed in gray 
 linen coverings, and illumined by a single jet of gas. 
 
 " I was bitten by a mosquito here la,st night," she 
 said severely. " Edmunds knows I told him to keep 
 this room quite dark. There is light enough from 
 the electric globe across the way." And, to Nell s sat 
 isfaction, the oif ending luminary was at once put out. 
 "Now, you will tell me, if you please, what brings 
 you here when the soup is just ready to be sent up. 
 Unless Jerry s in jail for debt, or Luella s married, I 
 can t imagine what you can have to say to me." 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Tryphena, be kind to me," cried the girl, 
 seizing one of the old lady s large, rough hands in 
 both of hers, and bursting into bitter sobs that could 
 no longer be controlled. 
 
 " Do ? " said the spinster, when, the belated soup 
 discussed, and dinner over, the two resumed their talk. 
 "There, child, you look like a human being, not a 
 ghost, now you are fed, and have had a glass of wine. 
 Why, there is but one thing to do. I will go down 
 town first thing to-morrow morning, and engage a 
 room in the quickest steamer we can get for Satur 
 day. I will take you straight to London, and leave 
 you at Luella s house before even your mother has 
 had time to find out the condition of affairs. And I 
 will then catch the first boat by the Dover- Calais 
 route, and go to a place in Switzerland I left three 
 years ago. It is a place that suited me exactly, but I 
 could n t stand a pair of esthetic idiots from England 
 15 
 
226 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 who were stopping there, who used to complain of the 
 sunsets because they were too crude. Now, write a 
 line by Edmunds to your maid, and have some things 
 sent here for the night, as it will be lonely for you in 
 that house, and cheer up, child, for Heaven s sake, for 
 I could never abide to have anybody complaining but 
 myself. 7 
 
 " But, Aunt Tryphena," said Eleanor, a crimson tide 
 overwhelming the pallor of her face, " even if Jerry is 
 there, I ought not to should I ? thrust myself upon 
 him. Oh, did n t I tell you how he cast me off, and 
 killed my love ? " 
 
 " For better, for worse, child j you must remember 
 that for both of you," said the old woman, with a 
 break in her gruff voice. " Whatever comes, you will 
 have been true. And your love s not dead; don t 
 think it. Keep it alive, breathe new breath in it, 
 it will make this struggle strengthen you. And, as 
 certainly as I live, if anything will bring him back to 
 you love will." 
 
 "Back from another oh, no, no!" cried Eleanor, 
 tortured by the thought. 
 
 "My dear, it is for you to choose. But I think 
 you 11 find your jealous miseries have exaggerated 
 things. The chief offender is that De Lancey person, 
 backed up by your best society. Jerry s had the 
 bad luck, from all I hear, to fall into the hands of 
 a woman who has the consciousness of disappointed 
 schemes to help on her love of coquetry. It s not a 
 common experience you ve had to bear so early in 
 married life even among what I call the most friv 
 olous and brainless set of people on this continent. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 227 
 
 But that creature will continue to go at large, and 
 ruin other homes, no doubt. Our boy s weak, but 
 he s not all bad. If his father had n t had the mis 
 fortune to die and leave all that money in the hands 
 of a silly woman, Jerry Veriion would have been, as 
 men go, a fair sort of man ; I don t suppose you 
 know, or he cares, but the fact is I loved Jerry dearly 
 when he was a boy. I thought he would grow up to 
 be but that s neither here nor there. In my opin 
 ion, it is for you to straighten out this snarl. If you 
 think enough of an old maid, tough as a nut, who s 
 nobody s friend, to take advice from her don t let 
 the gulf widen, don t let your husband go without 
 stretching out your hand to bring him back. Come 
 with me, Eleanor, and leave your pride behind." 
 
 There was silence for a moment in the shadowy 
 room, and the sound of a woman s short, quick, gasp 
 ing sob ; then Eleanor 
 
 Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass d in music out 
 of sight. 
 
 " I will go," she breathed, and with a sudden move 
 ment cast herself upon Aunt Tryphena s neck, and let 
 the delicious cordial of new hope warm the sad cur 
 rent of her widowed heart. 
 
 Two years have passed since the green shades of 
 the widow Vernon s marble palace in the higher re 
 gions of Fifth Avenue first proclaimed that lady out 
 of town. The wide portal is boarded over, and the 
 premises are in charge of an Irishman and his wife, 
 whose frowsy children gambol behind the basement 
 
228 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 windows, and skate on rollers over the asphalt of the 
 adjacent street. Above the area level all is silent, 
 gloomy and as yet there is no hint that the mistress 
 of the palace will resume possession. 
 
 From within doors the best of the bric-a-brac and 
 pictures and books, with the portraits of Gerald and 
 his mother, since admired at the Royal Academy, were 
 long ago taken to be boxed and expressed to the dom 
 icile in London, where the dowager Lady Shorthorn 
 has not yet called upon her son s recently made wife. 
 The American Lady Shorthorn can, however, afford 
 to be indifferent to this blow of Fate, as she is already 
 a social power in her adopted home, and as her young 
 husband, upon whom she has settled a liberal income, 
 in addition to paying his debts, makes an attentive 
 and good-humored spouse. She is also on excellent 
 terms with her son Gerald and his wife, who, of course, 
 spent all of that summer at her house while he was 
 convalescing from the long attack of typhoid through 
 which Eleanor, arriving just in time from America, 
 nursed him so devotedly. And the new countess 
 ("Martha Louisa Anne, daughter of Colonel William 
 Judd, United States Army, U.S.A." you will find 
 her recorded in Burke and Debrett and Dod) has had 
 lately the satisfaction of refusing a card (requested 
 through a friend, for her world-famous ball) to a Mrs. 
 Van Loon of New York, who has been stopping at 
 Claridge s. 
 
 Mrs. Calliope Jane Ketcham is at present in one of 
 her periodical states of eclipse. When and where she 
 may next appear it is impossible to predict, but my 
 Lady Shorthorn will, no doubt, be among the first to 
 ascertain. 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 229 
 
 Miss Tryphena Vernon, not in the least like the 
 crusty benefactor of the novelist who, under the im 
 pulse of a good action in the last chapter, reforms and 
 remains angelic ever after, would probably take the 
 head off any inquirer as to her relations with her niece 
 and nephew. But Nell knows that they are affection 
 ate, and both she and Jerry submit to be hectored by 
 the old lady in grateful memory of her influence at 
 the crisis of their married life. 
 
 Nell s home people suffered, as may be imagined, 
 from the strange reports that were set afloat at the 
 time when Gerald left his wife to follow him across 
 the ocean. But although slander did its best, nothing 
 was fixed upon any participant in the affair, beyond 
 the fact of " some foolish quarrel between the young 
 couple about Hilda de Lancey, who it was well known 
 was chaperoned on that voyage over by the Blanks 
 and the Dashes/ and, it was equally well known, 
 meant nothing serious by her little flirtation with 
 Jerry Vernon, now said to be "the shadow" of his 
 wife. 
 
 And so even Mrs. Halliday, her other daughters, and 
 her son knew little of the darkest chapter of the young 
 wife s experience. In the autumn after these events 
 Nell s mother and sisters joined her in Paris for a fort 
 night before the Vernons set out for their winter s 
 journey in the East, and, during that time, satisfied 
 themselves that the first year of her married life bid 
 fair to round itself peacefully to a close. 
 
 The wide old Halliday house in New York, facing 
 the railed square on the eastern side of town, and 
 noticed by passers for its growth of wistaria looped 
 between the chimney-tops in great ropes tasseled in 
 
230 SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 
 
 spring with purple under a mist of greenery, is for 
 ever deserted by its former occupants. For months 
 workmen had it in their hands, coming and going 
 between piles of brick and mortar encumbering the 
 street. Its front has been transformed with plate- 
 glass windows and gilded balconies. Within marble 
 halls, a buttony page keeps watch where once old An 
 drews came creaking to open the front door. A pros 
 perous club has taken possession, and the Hallidays 
 will be known in it no more. 
 
 Beatrix, who was, after all, the chief sentimentalist 
 about this change, is supplied with a fount of private 
 happiness that enables her to rise above minor con 
 siderations of every material kind. In her eyes, as 
 in those of his mother, to whom and his grandfather 
 Trix will one day go for a visit when the roses are in 
 bloom, Brock Vyvan is a "man of to-morrow/ as to 
 whose future there can be no doubt. Betty s marriage 
 with Mr. Theobald occurred upon her return from 
 Europe. And Jack, for whom the four years of college 
 life leave the imagination no room to vary occupa 
 tions, is still at Yale, holding the blue banner man 
 fully as he ascends. 
 
 A piece of news that afforded almost a fortnight s 
 gossip for the fashionable world was the marriage of 
 the heir of the Van Loons with Mrs. Hildegarde de 
 Lancey, " privately," at Nice. Betty Theobald says 
 the fur has not ceased to fly in the Van Loon family, 
 but then, as Mrs. Van Shuter would observe, every 
 body knows how Betty Theobald will talk. 
 
 The other home in New York in which we have 
 been called on to take passing interest Eleanor s 
 
SWEET BELLS OUT OF TUNE 231 
 
 first nest, fitted up for her occupancy with such lavish 
 love remained for a time vacant after Mr. and Mrs. 
 Vernoii set out for their two-years wandering. In 
 January an agent had orders from Lady Shorthorn to 
 find for it an occupant, and succeeded in placing there 
 the Hempstead Hunters, who take a different house 
 every year, but are in demand as tenants because they 
 are conscientiously childless, and dine out six nights 
 in the week. 
 
 And so fortunately, if temporarily our young 
 couple have dropped out of the society that claims 
 them for its own, and that came so near breaking the 
 bond it once assembled to applaud. In the compan 
 ionship of their nomadic existence, each has learned 
 dependence on the other; and the irresistible habit 
 of married life has had time to weld their chains. 
 Already they have learned to look back upon that 
 early ordeal, bitter though it was, as an episode that 
 may be forgotten in the memory of happier days. 
 
LOAN PERIOD I 
 HOME USE 
 
 4 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 pi IP AVSTAMPEDBEIOW 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 3/80 BERKELEY, CA 94720 
 
 x 
 
* V 
 
TOP