Incomparable Bellairs 
 
 NELSON'S 
 LIBRARY
 
 Mistress Kitty caught her in her warm arms.
 
 Incomparable ( 
 Bellairs 
 
 Agnes and Egerton 
 Castle 
 
 Thomas Nelson and 
 Sons, London, Edin- 
 burgh, and New York
 
 TO 
 
 AUSTIN DOBSON, 
 
 Who, by his delicate art, has made all that is shapely and charming in 
 
 the Eighteenth Century live again for us, as with a fragrance 
 
 of old Pot-Pourri and a rustle of brocades no loom 
 
 holds now the secret of ; as, with a lost grace, 
 
 to the dance of little high heels stilled 
 
 , long ago and the measures of 
 
 a forgotten music.
 
 Assume that -we are friends. Assume 
 
 A common taste for old costume, 
 
 Old pictures, books. Then dream us sitting 
 
 Us two in some soft-lighted room. 
 
 * * * * 
 Silent at first, in time we glow ; 
 Discuss "eclectics," high and low ; 
 Inspect engravings, 'twixt us passing 
 The fancies of DETROY, MOREAU. 
 
 * * * * 
 And so we fall to why and how 
 The fragile figures smile and bow ; 
 Divine, at length, the fable under . . . 
 Thus grew the " scenes" that follow now. 
 
 (From "PROVERBS IN PORCELAIN." 
 
 AUSTIN DOBSON.)
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE PROLOGUE v 
 
 I. THE HEART OF MANDEVILLE . . . 13 
 
 II. THE BRIDEGROOM REJECT . . . . .40 
 
 III. GRAY DOMINO . . . . . .81 
 
 IV. LITTLE RED HEELS 120 
 
 V. RACHAEL PEACE 162 
 
 VI. THE LITTLE LOVER 202 
 
 VII. THE BLACK LACE MASK .... 239
 
 THE PROLOGUE. 
 
 " ADVENTURES," it has been said, " come to the ad- 
 venturous." 'Tis a glib enough saw, but you may see 
 the truth of it any day, if you care to watch in the 
 Theatre of Life. And adventures come not only to 
 the darer of perils by flood and field, to the player 
 with fire and wielder of the sword's argument, but also 
 to the bold taker of shares in the perpetual lottery of 
 Love. In the pretty game of " Love and Hazard," as 
 well as in the sterner one of War, 'tis your fine decisive 
 spirit which rules circumstance and leads the gambler 
 unscathed amid pitfalls where the timid, or even the 
 merely prudent, are like to leave life or limb. 
 
 Love the chief adventure of life, some maintain 
 comes to the lovely, to the lovable, as sure as mountain 
 stream to lake. And, to such as are in love with love, 
 love adventures 
 
 " Come not single spies, but in battalions." 
 
 Nevertheless, let the heart be pure, let even the taste 
 be but fastidious, then will these same adventures link
 
 vl INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 you a chaplet of jewelled memories, to be retold, smiling, 
 in the more sedate hours of life. 
 
 Mistress Kitty Bellairs, " Incomparable Bellairs," as, 
 in an enthusiastic moment, she had been proclaimed by 
 Mr. Stafford that fine connoisseur, if ever there lived 
 one had, among her unnumbered lovable qualities, 
 paramount, a most fastidious daintiness. Hence, no 
 doubt, the delicate colour and the fragrance of that 
 chaplet of tender triumphs, of sweet crises and emotions, 
 of unexhausted romances which, already in this the 
 first rosy lustre of her young twenties, she could draw 
 through the fingers of memory. 
 
 " My dear " (she is recorded to have said to her weep- 
 ing friend, Lady Standish), " I have had thirty-seven 
 declared adorers these three years, and never one tired 
 of me yet ! Poor Bellairs ! " (as she pursued on that 
 occasion, with a light sigh), " he had two wives before 
 me, and he was sixty-nine when he died, but he told 
 me with his dying breath 'twas I gave him all the joy 
 he ever knew." 
 
 The boast would have been a pretty one on any fair 
 woman's lips, but 'twas the prettier on Kitty's that it 
 was true to the letter. 
 
 Wedded, in her innocent teens, to a wondrous wealthy 
 Nabob an excellent gentleman withal, who had re-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. vii 
 
 quested the little beauty, in a phrase that held humour 
 as well as pathos, " to condescend to be his widow " 
 Kitty had been released after not too many years of 
 faithful companionship and solicitous care spent at*the 
 waters of Bath and elsewhere released with two easy 
 tears and a clear conscience, experienced but not em- 
 bittered, and by no means inconsolable ; released, in 
 short, to all the delights of a charming world. 
 
 So much for " Poor Bellairs ! " 
 
 " These three years " referred to the period of brilliant 
 young widowhood during which Kitty had become the 
 acknowledged Queen of Bath during which, also, in- 
 numerable had been the attempts to provide her with 
 a happy consort. 
 
 But if Kitty the girl had submitted to a manage de 
 convenance, Kitty the woman, in the ripeness of her 
 beauty, had no mind to deal with Love otherwise than 
 as her slave. Thus, at the particular date at which we 
 take up these episodes, she had already collected a 
 variety of experiences of the heart, which, although in- 
 conclusive, had not been devoid of sweetness to her, 
 nor of pride. 
 
 It would be unseemly, perhaps, at such a stage of 
 her life, to draw a parallel between Mistress Bellairs 
 and the celebrated Mademoiselle de 1'Enclos, who was 
 awarded the final crown of feminine glory in a passionate
 
 Vlii INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 declaration d'amour and an offer of marriage on her 
 seventieth birthday. But, whatever the Fates might 
 have in reserve for the future Kitty, she had already 
 this* much in common with the much-beloved Ninon, that 
 she never lost the devotion of one of her many rejected 
 lovers. Some may have ascended only a step or two 
 of her throne ; some others (as in the case of my Lord 
 Verney and that of Mr. O'Hara, whose love-chase formed 
 the main theme of the Bath Comedy) may have all 
 but stepped into the throne itself. But every one, on 
 returning to level ground, sedulously resumed his post 
 of courtier, and still had it in his soul to sing to Kitty, 
 in Herrick's words to his Anthea, 
 
 " Bid me to live, and I will live 
 Thy protestant to be .... 
 
 Bid that heart stay, and it will stay 
 To honour thy decree." 
 
 The disposal of so precious a thing as Mistress Bel- 
 lairs's hand a prize certainly held as high in her own 
 estimation as in that of her " protestants " was natu- 
 rally a matter of much concern, of serious consideration. 
 
 It was not of Kitty that it could be said, 
 
 "The woman who deliberates is lost." 
 
 Her deliberation was exquisite. It was subtilized 
 by ambitions of happiness, of satisfaction beyond the 
 usual measure of womanhood. On the other hand, she
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. IX 
 
 had a secret unreadiness to think the world well lost 
 for love. In truth, along the easy road of a quite satis- 
 factory life, turning-points should be approached with 
 caution : the new path may, of course, lead to an en- 
 chanting prospect ; but again ... In short, the question 
 of a second marriage was fraught with anxieties. 
 
 Meanwhile 'twas clean against Nature that such 
 treasures (and, upon such a theme, it would little fit us 
 to mention mere wealth of gold otherwise than as a 
 further pleasing circumstance) that such treasures of 
 loveliness should remain long without a legitimate mas- 
 ter. Therefore, after she had shaken off her entangle- 
 ment with the far too solemn Lord Verney, and further, 
 had trampled with adorable little feet upon the far too 
 mercurial Mr. O'Hara's inextinguishable devotion all 
 in the diplomatic manner set forth in the Bath Comedy 
 the unsolved problem had become a main topic and 
 one of prodigious interest in the gayer world at the 
 Springs. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 The latest candidate is now Mr. Stafford. He has 
 his recommendations 'tis a favourite with man and 
 woman, an admitted wit ; a spark with a fine head and 
 a good leg ; a rake with a mighty delicate conception 
 that life is to be tasted and not greedily devoured 
 the Laughing Philosopher of Beaux. And it is at the 
 point of Kitty's formal engagement to this silvery
 
 X INCOMPARABLE DELLAIRS. 
 
 gentleman that we propose to take up with her fresh 
 journey towards matrimony. 
 
 In this Sentimental Progress which is all of the Bath 
 Road we shall meet with many of the actors of yester- 
 year's Bath Comedy. Among them Mr. O'Hara, im- 
 pecunious as ever, and, as ever, buoyed up with dis- 
 interested devotion. Miss Lydia, the widow's own 
 woman, still addicted to secret interference in her mis- 
 tress's affairs. Master Lawrence (whose little boy drew 
 such amazing clever portraits), genial host of the Bear 
 Inn. My Lord Verney only looms in the background, 
 a memory and a warning ; but his lordship, the Bishop 
 of Bath and Wells, has a weighty part towards the 
 journey's end. Crook-eyed Captain Spicer also, the led- 
 captain and fashionable bear-leader, darts in and out 
 among the company not to his own advancement, it 
 must be owned, but (in a way, as indirect as his vision) 
 to the promotion of the more important travellers' hap- 
 piness. And, as in all journeys, new personalities appear 
 at the various stages a lovely one among them, Rachel 
 Peace ; another, less easily described, Lord Mande- 
 ville ; and the youthful ingenuous figure of one Mr. 
 Jernigan of Costessy. 
 
 Shape our course for a chosen harbour as carefully as 
 we list, we are always at the mercy of the accident of 
 other lives than ours. Kitty, the imperious and much- 
 obeyed, confidently believed, of course, that she held
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. XI 
 
 the guiding thread of her own voyage in her own pretty 
 hands. But we, behind the scenes, looking around her. 
 life, find many causes (quite undreamed of by her pretty 
 head) which brought her, say, to this halt and to yonder 
 turning, and at last to that final haven, which, certes, 
 had been well out of her original reckoning. We find, 
 in short, the birth of all these winds of Fate, and 'tis 
 in a singularly unexpected quarter. 
 
 On a certain torrential night of September, my Lord 
 Mandeville, a nobleman of wide repute in town, sought 
 refuge, and the relaxation of an idle hour, in the green- 
 room of the " Little Theatre " (then leased by the cele- 
 brated Mr. Foote to some travelling company). Now, 
 nothing could be more purely personal than what hap- 
 pened that evening to his lordship, who at the time, 
 moreover, was as totally unknown to Mistress Bellairs 
 as she to him. And yet it remains certain that none 
 of the events which had such a marked influence upon 
 her matrimonial destiny would have come to pass if 
 (while unconscious Mistress Kitty was discussing wed- 
 ding fallals with her tirewoman in Queen Square, Bath) 
 my Lord Mandeville had not had, as we said, an empty 
 evening to fill, in the neighbourhood of the Haymarket, 
 London. 
 
 " Incomparable Bellairs " being our leading lady in
 
 Xll INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 the company, the chief role must ever fall to her ; yet 
 in this opening episode, the consequences of which will 
 later on so greatly concern her, she actually appears 
 neither in person nor in spirit. For this reason we will 
 relate it apart, under the name, if you will, of " The 
 Heart of Mandeville."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE HEART OF MANDEVILLE. 
 
 " TA ! your lordship," cried Miss Peggy Pommeroy, 
 turning her celebrated blue eyes roguishly upon 
 Lord Mandeville. 
 
 They sat together upon the striped sofa in the green- 
 room she, for his entertainment, passing comments on 
 each actor and actress who lingered in the vicinity of 
 the mirror, awaiting the call, or hurried through to the 
 curtain. His lordship listened, all insolent languor. At 
 rare intervals a little snort would escape him his near- 
 est approach to laughter. 
 
 And if he were moved to such expressions of amuse- 
 ment, it was not so much with Miss Pommeroy as at 
 her. * Yet it was all glory for Peggy to have him beside 
 her, the most notorious roue upon the town, and the 
 most fastidious. There were ladies, and great ladies too, 
 as she was aware, who would lightly have given all their
 
 14 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 admirers for Lord Mandeville's indolent notice. What 
 mattered it that she well knew, in her heart, how empty 
 was this conquest ; well knew that not a smile or a frown 
 in her whole repertory had really the power to charm 
 him ; that he but lolled at her side because, having 
 drifted into the green-room, this weeping autumn night, 
 he was simply too lazy to move again, and pulled her 
 curls with no more emotion than when playing with 
 the seals at his fob ? The others knew naught of all 
 this, and it was enough for Peg. Oh, how her great 
 eyes shone and ogled ; how arch was she and how coy ! 
 How her ripe lips smiled, and how loud (as each new- 
 comer entered the room) they rebuked some unexistent 
 ardour ! 
 
 Of all passions, vanity is perhaps that which, gratified, 
 affords the most complete and lasting satisfaction. Peg's 
 bosom swelled with triumph as she noted the impression 
 produced upon her colleagues how the Noble Father 
 frowned and strutted with fresh zest as he passed ; how 
 her dear rival, feigning to examine the position of a 
 patch, sought to catch his lordship's eye in the mirror, 
 and failed. 
 
 " La ! your lordship," cried Peggy, very loud and 
 shrill, " I vow I must not listen when you say 'such 
 things ! " 
 
 Lord Mandeville opened his heavy lids a little wider 
 for an instant, and almost hesitated on speech. It
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. IS 
 
 would have been hard indeed for Miss Pommeroy to 
 have listened, for he had not uttered anything more 
 audible than a grunt these five minutes. But Miss de 
 Vyne (the dear rival) could not be aware of this ; and 
 the glance of furious envy that she darted at her friend 
 as she flounced out of the room filled that young lady 
 with ecstasy. She had, moreover, succeeded beyond 
 her intention. For, just before Miss de Vyne's exit, 
 Mr. Montagu Mortemar had made his entrance ; and, for 
 the first time in his life, he seemed to become really 
 aware of Peggy Pommeroy's existence. 
 
 Now, of all men on earth, the First Comedy Lady 
 most admired the Tragic Leading Gentleman. Before 
 the native grandeur of his pale brow all the coronets 
 in the world were lustreless in her sight ; but to 
 show him with what high-placed friends she could 
 on occasions consort that was truly a moment worth 
 living for ! 
 
 Mr. Mortemar's part was done for the night : he had 
 just been conclusively stabbed, had gulped forth his 
 last blessing and his last curse, and his corpse had duly 
 been carried away by lamenting retainers. He was 
 now stalking down the length of the room, in his best 
 tragedy manner, when the arch cry struck his ear. He 
 started, turned; elevated one eyebrow to anguish, de- 
 pressed the other to menace. His hand was on his hip.
 
 1 6 INCOMPARABLE BELL AIRS. 
 
 If any one could have thought him more noble than he 
 thought himself, it was Peggy Pommeroy. Perceiving, 
 however, the identity of Miss Pommeroy's admirer, a 
 change came over him. With a sleeking of his whole 
 attitude, he bowed profoundly and approached. 
 
 " We are honoured to see your lordship among us ! 
 I trust, my lord, you will permit me to recall myself 
 to your lordship's recollection. I had the honour of 
 meeting your lordship at the Three Tuns." 
 
 " Had you ? " said his lordship. He tilted his head 
 farther back on the sofa cushions to gaze at Mr. Morte- 
 mar, and wished vaguely that " the mummer would 
 stop smiling." 
 
 The tragedian's fingers trembled round his snuff-box. 
 His lordship's affability was great : did it justify the 
 happy recipient in offering a pinch ? 
 
 " Your lordship has seen my ' Altamont ' to-night ? 
 Connoisseurs are kind enough to tell me that they 
 
 prefer it to Davy's. But, poor little Davy He 
 
 paused. Lord Mandeville was yawning outrageously. 
 
 " O Davy . . ." echoed Miss Pommeroy, with great 
 contempt, running a fervid glance over Altamont's fine 
 proportions. 
 
 The room had begun to fill about them ; the Tragedy 
 was over, the Farce would begin anon. The First Villain 
 in private life an irrepressibly jovial soul clapped his 
 late victim brutally on the back, crying,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. I/ 
 
 " What cheer, my buck ! Curse me if ever we did 
 the business finer than to-night ! " 
 
 A wan smile curled Mr. Mortemar's lips : " We . . . ! " 
 
 Mrs. Macnamara this evening "Zenobia, wife of the 
 Mountain Chief " in brocade and powder, progressed 
 towards the centre of the room, surrounded by " Moun- 
 tain Maidens " in tiffany and straw hats. She was 
 thinking ardently of supper, but, at sight of Peggy and 
 her lounging lord, halted with marked disapproval. 
 
 And still the company grew larger between the two 
 plays. Many accepted patrons strolled in from the 
 side-boxes Mr. Stafford, fine, bright and clean-cutting 
 as his own ready sword, doomed (as was already known 
 behind the scenes) to approaching matrimony, but tak- 
 ing the life of London Town with renewed gallantry for 
 his last fling. After him, Captain Spicer, that noted 
 guide of youth. No one could tolerate the creature, 
 yet he knew every one, he went everywhere. The 
 name of his whilom regiment was a mystery ; but there 
 was little mystery about his present occupation. He 
 had a military eye for a country recruit a celebrated 
 gift for drilling the bumpkin in the manoeuvres of the 
 world ; and if, at the end of a campaign, the gallant 
 instructor's pockets were heavy, and his recruit's corre- 
 spondingly light, why, it showed that the latter' s educa- 
 tion was complete. 
 
 To-night Captain Spicer's oblique vision shone with
 
 1 8 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 unusual triumph, and there was a glow on his bloodless 
 cheeks. He had in tow a stout young gentleman from 
 the city of Norwich, whose late father had been reputed 
 as of fabulous wealth. (They had each under their belts 
 perhaps more Burgundy than could be carried with 
 grace.) 
 
 " Ah, my lord," cried Stafford, " the evening to 
 you ! " His eye was roving round the room as he spoke. 
 " I vow, Miss Pommeroy, your blue eyes are more 
 prodigious large than ever ! " 
 
 " They need be," retorted the girl with her impudent 
 ogle, " to take in so many fine young bucks together ! " 
 Her rolling orbs lingered on Mortemar, but he was 
 adamant. Then she shot a sidelong leer towards his 
 lordship, to see if he were anyway stirred. But still his 
 lordship sat yawning, the image of weariness. 
 
 " Will Mr. Stafford have a pinch ? " quoth Mortemar, 
 with his best leg and his superlative flourish. He was 
 desperately proud of his snuff-box (which, he was fond 
 of hinting, was a tender memento from an enamoured 
 lady of quality). With the tail of his eye on Mandeville, 
 he began to work up to the anecdote : " Do I see you 
 notice this little trinket ? . . . A curious history, sir 
 
 " Gad, Mr. Mortemar, is that you ? No snuff, I thank 
 you, sir. 'Tis a fad of mine, but, to my thinking, there's 
 but one fashion of enjoying rapee." 
 
 " And what is that ? " eagerly asked the young
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 19 
 
 gentleman from Norwich. Stafford wheeled, and 
 measured the recruit with a haughty eye. 
 
 " From a little white wrist, my good fellow," he an- 
 swered at length, " or, better still, if fortune offers, 
 from a dimpled shoulder. He who has thus tasted his 
 pinch " He broke off. 
 
 " Put a pinch on my wrist," Miss Pommeroy was 
 crying with a giggle ; and, her eyes on Stafford, thrust 
 forth that plump member. 
 
 " Do, Mr. Mortemar," said Stafford, " and Captain 
 Spicer's new friend can practise. But recommend him 
 to shut his mouth." 
 
 Then he turned airily to Mrs. Macnamara. 
 
 " My dear madam," said he, " I vow I have been 
 thrilled ! Zenobia . . . Zenobia is a magnficent perr 
 
 formance. Zenobia, with her bevy of maidens " 
 
 He swept a smiling glance along the self-conscious 
 row : black eyes, gray eyes, sly eyes, innocent eyes gave 
 him back his handsome look with interest. And yet 
 his gaze wandered like that of one seeking. " 'Twas 
 a sight to make an old man young, and " 
 
 " And a young gentleman ? " put in Mrs. Macnamara 
 with a jolly fat laugh. On the boards she outdid 
 Mrs. Siddons ; but behind the scenes she was plain 
 Bridget Macnamara, with a good-natured heart, an easy 
 morality, and a zest for meals. 
 
 " A young gentleman, if you mean me, ma'am," said
 
 2O INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Tom Stafford, " wished he had twenty hearts . . . and 
 as many purses." 
 
 " Oh fie, sir, who talks of purses ! " 
 
 " Merely as a means of expressing the feeling of a 
 true heart, ma'am," said Stafford, with his most engag- 
 ing smile. " But, by the way, do I not miss one of the 
 bewitching mountain maidens ? " 
 
 " O Mr. Stafford, sir " She menaced with her 
 
 massive finger. 
 
 " The creature with the voice, Mrs. Macnamara." 
 
 " The creature with the voice ? Why he means 
 my new pupil, girls ! " said Mrs. Macnamara delighted. 
 The days were long gone by when the light in a young 
 man's eye could hold any personal meaning for her, 
 but she had not lost her sympathy with love. 
 
 A shrug and a look of scorn now passed among the 
 listening damsels as you may see the wind ruffle the 
 cornfields. This butterfly gentleman in silver brocade 
 had but a poor taste after all ! But Mrs. Macnamara 
 had caught Miss de Vyne by the arm, and whispered in 
 her ear, 
 
 " The child has never had one bit of fun since she 
 came to us. Go tell her that I want her. Mind, my 
 dear, / want her. Bid her here instantly." She nodded 
 and smiled, as the messenger whisked away. 
 
 " You'd never believe it, sir, that girl - Oh, you've 
 got an eye, Mr. Stafford you've noticed her ! Now
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 21 
 
 mark my words : that girl will be the greatest actress 
 on the stage one of these fine days, or my name is not 
 Bridget Macnamara." 
 
 " Why, the thing's a Quaker ! " cried the pertest of 
 the maidens, interrupting her conversation with the 
 young gentleman from Norwich to throw the denuncia- 
 tion over her shoulder. 
 
 " A Quaker ! " echoed Stafford, more interested than 
 ever. 
 
 " Who's a Quaker ? " hiccoughed the young gentle- 
 man from Norwich. " Quakers .. .ecod, we grow 'em 
 fine at Norwich ! " 
 
 " Do Quakers ever kiss ? " inquired Lord Mande- 
 ville, raising his lazy voice. 
 
 " Yes on the sly," said Peggy tartly. 
 
 " Neither in public nor on the sly, Miss Pommeroy," 
 put in the matron, with some severity (Peggy was not of 
 her favourites), " has my pupil ever known any such 
 familiarities. Poor child ! " concluded the lady, half to 
 herself, with a sudden relapse from dignity. 
 
 " Pasitively, quite a phenamenan ! " lisped Captain 
 Spicer. 
 
 " I declare," cried a gentleman in plum-colour 
 " a shocking state of affairs ! Where is the young lady, 
 that this omission may instantly be rectified ? " And 
 he laughed in delight at his own wit. 
 
 " It would take a better man than you, Sir Thomas,
 
 22 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 I'm thinking," said Mrs. Macnamara with her fat 
 laugh. 
 
 " By gum, is it a wager ? " cried Captain Spicer's 
 recruit. This youth was beginning to have vague 
 glimmers of a gentleman's duties in London Town. 
 " Ecod, if it's for kissing a Quaker, I'm on for it. ... 
 We know how to deal with 'em at Norwich ! " He 
 winked offensively ; then, of a sudden, kissed the 
 nearest maiden with a smack, and was instantly paid 
 back by a swinging box on the ear. 
 
 " Mr. Staffard, sir," cried Captain Spicer, " are you 
 for a wager ? " (When was Tom Stafford not for a 
 wager, even with so uncongenial a taker as Captain 
 Spicer ? He would almost as soon have refused a 
 duel !) " And you, my lard ? " 
 
 " If any one is wagering, I'll wager," said his lord- 
 ship. " Perhaps some one will kindly tell me what it 
 is about." 
 
 " 'Tis who shall kiss the Quaker," said Captain 
 Spicer waggishly. 
 
 " Gentlemen, gentlemen ! " clucked Mrs. Macnamara 
 in some fluster. 
 
 " Nay," said Mr. Stafford ; " the bet, as I take it, is won 
 by him whom the lady herself shall choose for favour." 
 
 " Why, certainly," said Spicer, with one severe orb 
 on his pupil. " I trast we're all gentlemen here. 
 Shall each stake ten guineas ? "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 23 
 
 " I'll have no tricks played with my young ladies," 
 said " Zenobia." 
 
 " Tricks ! " exclaimed Stafford. " My dearest madam, 
 it shall be a fair field and no favour ; the gentle Beauty 
 shall choose as freely as young Paris himself . . . amongst 
 us divinities, ha ! " His ironical eye swept from the 
 insignificance of Sir Thomas to Lord Mandeville's pallid, 
 indolent mask ; from Spicer's green visage to the red 
 vacuity of the young gentleman from Norwich. And 
 he had an agreeable consciousness of the charming 
 figure cut by one Tom Stafford among these assorted 
 rivals. " If kissing goes by favour . . ." thought he, and 
 smiled. 
 
 " Well, well," said the placable matron ; " indeed, I'm 
 never one to spoil sport ; and a kiss never hurt anybody, 
 to my thinking. But, hush, hush ! " she warned, finger 
 on lip. 
 
 A tall slender girl came quickly in, her draperies 
 fluttering. She had evidently been interrupted in her 
 disrobing, for her soft brown hair had been almost 
 brushed clear of powder, and was coiled in a careless 
 knot at the back of her head. The paint had been 
 washed from her cheek. A very windflower she looked, 
 white and fragile, and yet with a certain woodland 
 strength of her own, amid these high-coloured stage- 
 flowers. She seemed very tall, in the long lines of her 
 plain stuff dress ; and her throat merged like a flower-
 
 24 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 stem from the violet folds of the mantle she had thrown 
 across her shoulders. 
 
 Lord Mandeville prodded Miss Pommeroy, and then 
 pointed, with his large white forefinger. 
 
 " Who is that ? " he said suddenly. 
 
 " That ! " echoed Miss Peggy, with huge scorn. 
 " That ! " she cried with her coarse giggle. " Why, 
 that's the Quaker your lordship has Wagered to kiss ! " 
 
 The newcomer looked neither to the right nor to the 
 left ; she went straight to Mrs. Macnamara. 
 
 " You sent for me, madam," said she. 
 
 Mr. Stafford had been right : hers was a voice indeed 
 low-pitched and tender-noted, it seemed to murmur 
 to the heart, and yet reached in distinctness to the farther 
 recesses of the room. Such a voice alone, in an actress, 
 is genius. 
 
 " By gum ! " suddenly shouted the young gentleman 
 from Norwich. He was never overcome by shyness, 
 and now, with a stiff lining of Burgundy, felt himself 
 a match for any fine fellow of the company. He elbowed 
 his way between a beau in puce and the indignant Miss 
 de Vyne. " By gum ! " he cried, and slapped his thigh, 
 " if it's not Rachel Peace ! " 
 
 " Rachel Peace,'' said Lord Mandeville to himself, as 
 if the sound liked him. 
 
 " Captain Spicer," cried Stafford, with sharpness, 
 " keep your cub in order, I pray you ! "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 25 
 
 The blood had rushed in a lovely tide to the brow of 
 Rachel Peace ; but she kept her eyes steadily on Mrs. 
 Macnamara's face, and stood, wrapt in her gentle dignity 
 more closely still than in the folds of her violet cloak. 
 
 There was something of a scuffle between Captain 
 Spicer and his young friend, which resulted in the latter' s 
 momentary silence. But his mouth was already open 
 for the passage of his next explosive contribution to the 
 dialogue. 
 
 " Rachel, my dear," said the good-natured Mrs. Bridget, 
 " I'll not have you hiding away in this fashion when 
 there's laughter and compliments, and all the things 
 young people like waiting for you. Here is a friend of 
 mine wants to be introduced 
 
 " If anything could make me prouder," interrupted 
 Stafford in his pleasant high-bred tones, " than the title 
 of friend, which Mrs. Macnamara so obligingly bestows 
 upon me, it would be, madam " he bowed deep before 
 the girl " to have the honour of knowing one whose 
 voice too seldom lifted to-night has moved this heart 
 in such unwonted fashion." 
 
 He laid his hand upon his fine brocaded waistcoat. 
 The girl's glance deepened and kindled as she listened 
 to him. Her sensitive face quivered. She looked from 
 him to her protectress, and seemed to hesitate between a 
 guileless pleasure and a timid distrust. Lord Mandeville 
 suddenly rose from his seat beside the now sulky Peg,
 
 26 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 and stood gazing at Miss Peace as upon something un- 
 known, undreamed oi l his heavy-lidded eyes wide open 
 at last. 
 
 " Hark to him ! " Mrs. Macnamara laughed, pointing 
 at Stafford. " He'd talk the birds off the trees ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " cried that gentleman, " if I could but talk this 
 lady and yourself to my poor table to-night . . . ! " 
 
 " Table ? " quoth she, a glitter in her eye. 
 
 "A trifle of supper, with my unworthy self as host ? " 
 
 " Well," responded Mrs. Bridget comfortably, " I'm 
 not the one to say nay. Supper is always a good thing. 
 We'll come eh, Rachel ? " 
 
 All the light had fled from the girl's face. She shrank 
 back. " Indeed, sir ... I beg you, madam, let me 
 retire. I cannot sup with this gentleman." 
 
 " Hoity-toity ! " cried madam, as the vision of capon 
 and Sillery faded from her mental gaze. " Tis a vast 
 pity, my dear, that you will wear these airs ! Oh, forget 
 that you were once a Friend, Rachel Peace, and for 
 Lord's sake be friendly ! " 
 
 Once more the girl shifted her eyes from Mrs. Macna- 
 mara to Mr. Stafford, and then back again. Something, 
 perhaps, in the suppressed eagerness of the gentleman's 
 watchful look ; something, it might be, of self-betrayal 
 in the dame's greedy lips and her meaning glances seemed 
 to strike her with horror. She stepped back as if a 
 precipice opened at her feet.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2.J 
 
 " Indeed," she said quickly, " I must go home." 
 
 Her eyes were like a frightened child's. Lord Mande- 
 ville caught sight of them, and suddenly there was a 
 throbbing within his breast. Now, this was strange, for 
 it was as well known to himself as to every one else that 
 he possessed no heart. 
 
 Rachel turned, wrapping her mantle about her. Blindly 
 she was seeking an escape, when, at a whisper from 
 Captain Spicer, the young gentleman from Norwich 
 sprang forward playfully to bar her way. 
 
 " Dost thee not remember me, Friend ? " cried he, 
 and thrust his grinning face close to hers. 
 
 She looked from him in disgust, and her eye then fell 
 on Sir Thomas, who, at the other side of her, had ad- 
 vanced with skip and jump, and a series of inane bows. 
 He had but a vapid mind, this little baronet, a poor 
 taste in garments, and a feeble command of attitude ; 
 nevertheless, he had been born a gentleman. With an- 
 other bow, he fell away forthwith. 
 
 But an undaunted spark was he of Norwich. 
 
 " Ecod ! " he pursued, in light and elegant tones of 
 banter. " Is there so much hurry, my dear ? By gum, 
 but old Master Peace made a fine to do after you at 
 Norwich ! . . . What will thee give me," he cried, 
 charmed with his humour, " not to betray the 
 secret ? " 
 
 Rachel's face was white, but with a sudden gathering
 
 28 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 of strength and dignity she turned upon him in grave 
 composure. 
 
 " I am sorry," she said and her wonderful voice 
 vibrated through the room" but I have no speech to 
 hold with thee, Friend. There is no secret for thee to 
 keep, and therefore nought thou canst do for me. Nor 
 is there ought I can offer thee." 
 
 Her answer in that same Quaker phraseology with 
 which she had been thus insolently baited, her delicate, 
 serious air, held strange rebuke for one who could feel 
 it. Mr. Stafford lifted the single eye-glass that hung 
 from a ribbon round his neck to look at her with ever- 
 deepening interest. Lord Mandeville came a pace nearer. 
 The young gentleman from Norwich thought the little 
 silence that had fallen on the room could betoken nothing 
 but a flattering attention centred on his next move. He 
 caught Rachel by the elbow. 
 
 " What ! " he cried, " naught ? Naught for me ? 
 Shall I not have the Kiss of Peace ? " He paused to 
 look around for admiration. 
 
 " Captain Spicer," exclaimed Mr. Stafford, with an 
 air of nausea, " that animal of yours is not fit to be let 
 loose ! " 
 
 Rachel stood like a statue. Peg Pommeroy had 
 clapped her hands with a loud laugh, echoed by some 
 of the other girls from the different corners whither, 
 with their admirers, they had retreated. Stimulated by
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 29 
 
 the sound of this applause, Captain Spicer's pupil lurched 
 forward towards the Quaker's disdainful face. 
 
 " Unhand her, sir ! " deeply ordered Mrs. Macnamara. 
 
 Lord Mandeville had taken two long steps. Without 
 a word he extended his arm. His great white hand 
 closed upon the nape of the youth's neck ; it was a 
 fine grip. The youth's wig yawned over his cropped 
 head. " Ow ! " he cried, and this was all he had breath 
 to cry. He was swung violently backwards, shaken like 
 a rat in the jaws of a terrier, and then released with a 
 twist that sent him plunging into Captain Spicer's lean 
 waistcoat. 
 
 The gentlemen of the Little Theatre were prodigiously 
 impressed by my lord's neatness of action. The ladies 
 screeched or tittered, according to their disposition. 
 Lord Mandeville and Rachel Peace looked upon each 
 other's faces, and minded no other in the room. 
 
 " Madam," he said, bowing before her with a pro- 
 founder respect than he had ever shown a duchess, 
 
 " you wish to retire ; my coach is at the door " Her 
 
 grave and searching eye darkened with a deep reproach. 
 " Madam," he went on earnestly, as he read her thought, 
 " I shall be honoured if you condescend to make use of 
 it and my horses and servants. I purpose to return on 
 foot." 
 
 Mr. Stafford stood watching with that smile of his 
 that was at once so genial and so cynical. He saw her,
 
 3O INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 after this single hesitation, lay her slender hand in 
 acquiescence upon Lord Mandeville's wrist. " God help 
 the girl ! " thought he. " She's fled from the arms of 
 the bear cub into the lion's jaw. Gad ! I've never seen 
 Mandeville so taken. Tis a pale child, when all's said 
 and done . . . but, stab me, how she moves ! " His 
 experienced eye kindled as he marked the inimitable 
 grace with which this unknown actress paused to curtsy 
 before Mrs. Macnamara, and then passed on, still led 
 by Lord Mandeville, towards the door. 
 
 Here, however, they were arrested by a roar: the 
 young gentleman from Norwich had recovered from his 
 sudden giddiness and found his breath once more. 
 
 " Ecod ! " he was crying ; "I will have blood for 
 this ! " 
 
 His stout red face looked so exceeding comic without 
 the shade of his wig that Stafford was seized with 
 laughter. But Captain Spicer, whose usually astute 
 intellect had been to-night somewhat troubled by the 
 fumes of the bottle, now grasped the situation with a 
 return of sobered wits. A quarrel with Lord Mande- 
 ville ! His fool of a recruit could come but poorly out 
 of any such pass, and the gallant Captain's deeply 
 interested exchequer could allow of no such risk. 
 
 " Blood ? " he echoed shrilly. " No, sir, no blood here, 
 but marrowbones ! " He caught the youth sharply 
 by the shoulder. " Are you mad ? " he hissed in his
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 31 
 
 ear. " Don't you know who 'tis you're talking to ? 
 Tis the famous Lard Mandeville, you booby. You 
 must apalagize." 
 
 " Apologize ..." cried the unhappy young gentle- 
 man. " I ? Apologize . . . ? " 
 
 " He's had too mach wine, my lard. Why, what a 
 sight the fallow is ! Where's your wig, sir. You are 
 making a laughing-stack of yourself and of me ! " 
 
 Here the irate Captain plucked the wig from one of 
 the actors, who was convulsing Miss Peggy by some 
 merry antic with the same. He clapped it fiercely on 
 his pupil's poll with so much disregard to symmetry, 
 however, that the cue came to the front and effectively 
 choked further protest. 
 
 Rachel's lips broke into a delicious smile. Mandeville, 
 who could not move his eyes from her face, even for one 
 contemptuous glance towards his victim although he 
 had halted to hear what this latter might have to say 
 in the way of further challenge proceeded again un- 
 moved towards the door. He had once more ceremoni- 
 ously taken the Quaker's hand. As the panels closed 
 upon them, Stafford fell likewise into sudden gravity 
 upon the memory of Rachel's smile. " By Heaven," he 
 said to himself, " Mandeville is a connoisseur ; the 
 creature is exquisite ! " 
 
 " So, gentlemen," said he aloud, cheerfully, as he turned 
 once more to the company, " we have lost the wager."
 
 32 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " You, at least, made but a poor race for it, Mr. 
 Stafford," said hungry Mrs. Macnamara in dudgeon. 
 Then, " And you, girls," she cried with asperity, " shame 
 on you to be loitering like this ! Some of you will be 
 called in a minute. Miss Pommeroy, you're for the 
 curtain, if you please." 
 
 Captain Spicer and his recruit from Norwich were 
 wrangling in a corner. And presently the young gentle- 
 man was observed to shed tears : Spicer had actually 
 threatened to abandon him. 
 
 " What would become of you if I did not keep my 
 eyes on you ? " rated the Captain. 
 
 " Captain Spicer's eyes are more useful than most 
 people's," said Stafford soothingly ; " he can see both 
 sides of things at once. And 'tis a prodigious advan- 
 tage, sir." 
 
 ***** 
 
 The slope of the Haymarket was being scoured by 
 the rain of a September tempest. The gutters were 
 rushing streams, the black roofs dripping. Foul old 
 London was pure for an hour, the moist air vivifying. 
 Rachel, on Lord Mandeville's arm, halted involuntarily 
 under the porch. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, " how fresh, how clean, after that 
 scent, that heat of the green-room ! . . . Oh," she added, 
 breathing deep, " if it were not for my art ! " The 
 exclamation seemed to have escaped her. Quickly she
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 33 
 
 ecoDected herself, and turned to him. " Nay," she said 
 low, " it is raining still. I pray you, call me a sedan, 
 ind keep your coach, sir." 
 
 And for the first time that evening Lord Mandeville 
 n his turn smiled. 
 
 " A little rain will not hurt me," he said gently. 
 ' Nay, nay; 'tis I pray you. My running footman shall 
 ;scort you; you shall tell him yourself where you wish 
 :o be driven. I do prefer to walk." 
 
 If she had a lingering doubt of him it then vanished, 
 she stepped into his coach, the Quaker girl, as the Queen 
 nto her state carriage. And it pleased him to bend 
 uefore her, as before majesty itself. But he paused at 
 :he coach window, looking in upon her lingeringly, and 
 ;ould not bring himself to give the signal for driving 
 m. The light from the footman's link and the lamps 
 jf the portal fell full upon her face. He thought his 
 ;yes had never beheld anything so fair. 
 
 " How come you," he said after a while " how come 
 you, Rachel Peace, on the boards of a playhouse ? " 
 
 The soft eyes, fixed upon his, shone as through a mist 
 Df tears they would not shed. Her lips quivered. He 
 tightened his hand upon the edge of the coach window 
 to keep back the mad impulse of seizing her to his breast. 
 
 " Oh, I have done wrong, I know," she said. " I fear 
 t have broken my father's heart. But I cannot go back 
 I cannot ! " A sudden passion shook her ; she wrung
 
 34 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 her slender hands. " Sir," she cried, " I have no mother. 
 ... I cannot think that God meant that we should live 
 such lives God, who made all the things beautiful, and 
 gave us eyes to see, lips for laughter. Oh, you in the 
 world, who see in the odd ways of Quakers nothing but 
 food for jest . . . could you but know the long tragedy 
 of a Quaker home to the young soul, I believe it might 
 rather draw your tears ! " 
 
 Lord Mandeville, though he had a sense of humour 
 of his own, found nothing comic in that he, of all men, 
 should be selected for this confidence. And truly there 
 must have been, even in his silence, some strange quality 
 of sympathy ; for, after a pause, the girl, with the thrill 
 of unshed tears in her golden voice, went on, 
 
 " But I could have borne it. My father is a just 
 man ; and though mere justice is cold comfort, I could 
 have borne to bide with him, had he been content that 
 I should do so." 
 
 She shuddered and fell silent. 
 
 " He wanted to wed you, against your will," said 
 Mandeville, by some quick intuition of an indignant 
 mind leaping at her story. 
 
 " Oh," she answered quickly, " it was to a worthy 
 man a Friend of great standing among us, of many 
 virtues. My father meant well, doubtless. But I it 
 would have been a crime ! Sir, I was forced to break 
 the Commandment and disobey my father, for I carry
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 35 
 
 in my heart another Commandment, and it I could not 
 violate." 
 
 The passion had come back upon her. Her velvet 
 eye flashed, and the gathering tears suddenly fell and 
 rolled down her cheeks. Mandeville leaned in, arid 
 whispered, 
 
 " You could not wed where you did not love ? " 
 
 " Verily, I would rather die." 
 
 " And, verily, it is well said," he answered. And 
 there was no mockery, but a deep earnestness in his 
 echo of her asseveration. " And so," he added, after a 
 pause, " poor Quaker dove, your white wings have taken 
 you among all these painted birds, these jays and pea- 
 cocks these Pommeroys, these de Vynes and Morte- 
 mars." Once again there came a silence between them. 
 Then, glancing down, he said suddenly, and with a 
 change of tone, " 'Twas the easier flight, perhaps, and 
 doubtless " 
 
 " Nay, nay," she interposed ; " do not so mistake me. 
 I would hold it shame now, having taken my life into 
 my own hands, did I not employ it, for I believe Heaven 
 meant me so to do. Sir, I know I have my talent, and 
 I will not bury it; now that I am free, I would use it. 
 Mrs. Macnamara has been kind to me ... in her way. 
 ... I knew her daughter at home. I am already earning a 
 
 small salary, and she " Rachel hesitated a moment, 
 
 and an arch smile crept on her Up " she instructs me."
 
 36 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " She ! " said Mandeville, with his short loud laugh. 
 Once more he gazed deeply on the girl in his coach, 
 but this time it was with a new point of view. Every 
 inflection of her voice, from passion to pathos, from 
 earnestness to delicate mirth, lingered in his ear like to 
 the strains of music. He remembered her rare gesture, 
 the grace of her every movement. Beneath his gaze, 
 even now as she sat silent, watching him, the shadows 
 of her thoughts were passing upon her countenance as 
 the clouds over a clear lake. Ranting, strutting old 
 Macnamara, teach her ! " Tis you," he cried suddenly, 
 " shall teach the world ! " 
 
 As he spoke, he meant a lordly promise. The Earl of 
 Mandeville had powerful interest in most worlds. . . . 
 But she caught his words only as an encouragement to 
 the artist ; and such a beautiful gratitude leaped to her 
 face that he bit his tongue over the coarse proffer of 
 patronage which would have spoilt all. 
 
 " O sir, if you think something of my gifts, then 
 shall I hope. But, indeed, I had but a poor part to- 
 night - " 
 
 She had had a part, and he had not seen her ! He 
 had sat by Miss Peggy Pommeroy all that precious time, 
 wondering that life could hold so much tedium. Had 
 there ever been such waste of an evening ? 
 
 As he leaned into the coach the rain pattered on his 
 back, hissed into the torches of the linkmen, striped in
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 37 
 
 long slants and snake-lines the farther windows of the 
 coach. From gutter and cobble-stone, roof and pave- 
 ment, rang out the song of the rain. Ever and anon 
 would come a flying gust, and all the lights of torch and 
 lantern would bend, burn blue, and madly dance. Lord 
 Mandeville's horses stamped and shivered and shook the 
 harness. But his lordship himself had no thought but 
 to marvel on the snowdrop beauty of the face of Rachel 
 Peace when the lights and shadows played on it. All at 
 once his silence and his brooding eye seemed to frighten 
 her. She drew back, with a look that woke him, too, 
 from his dream. He instantly moved from the window. 
 
 " You would go home," he said formally. " Madam, 
 I wish you good-night." 
 
 At this, in her woman's way, her heart seemed to 
 smite her that, by unworthy apprehension, she had 
 wronged one so generously courteous. 
 
 " Nay," said she, eagerly arresting him, ." one word 
 more. Friend, may I not know by What name to re- 
 member thee ? " Then she blushed, and begged him 
 excuse her for that, in spite of all her self-schooling, the 
 old language still came easiest to her tongue. 
 
 He broke in abruptly, vowing it was the sweetest he 
 had ever heard ; then interrupted himself, afraid of his 
 own vehemence. Here was a flower that scarce could 
 withstand a touch. He caught back at his highest air of 
 ceremony.
 
 38 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Madam, I have to crave your pardon. I am remiss 
 indeed not to have introduced myself. My name is 
 Mandeville." He drew himself up and bowed ; then, 
 looking at her, saw, half piqued and half amused, that 
 the name of which England thought so much had no 
 meaning in her ear. " I am," he went on, with a sort 
 of awkwardness, yet proudly too, " Lionel Hill-Dare, 
 Earl of Mandeville." And he added, with emphasis, 
 " At your service." 
 
 " My lord, I did not need the sound of your name 
 nor the sight of the coronet on your coach to tell me 
 that you are great and noble. Amongst us Friends the 
 outward show is little, but the deeds of the generous 
 heart are much. . . . Good-night, my lord." 
 
 Her white fingers now clasped the window frame where 
 his own had rested. He extended his hand. 
 
 " Will you then not say, ' Good-night . . . Friend ' ? " 
 
 At this she smiled that smile of exquisite archness 
 that had already bereft him of his senses. 
 
 " Good-night, Friend, and thank thee ! " said she, and 
 laid her slim, cool hand in his. 
 
 He stooped and kissed it. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 As he stood, his back against the grimy pillars of the 
 Theatre porch, and watched his coach clattering up the 
 Haymarket, the red torch leaping as the footman ran 
 beside it, all through the downpour, his whole being was
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 39 
 
 aglow. Lord Mandeville the rou/ had found something 
 in himself he had not known he possessed ; and as his 
 coach rounded the corner, and was lost to his sight, this 
 thing that he had discovered, behold ! 'twas gone from 
 him. She was carrying it away with her. He had given 
 it nay, had flung it into her pretty hands, this hitherto 
 unknown possession of Lord Mandeville his heart. 
 ***** 
 
 When Mr. Stafford emerged from the Theatre, he 
 absolutely started to see the motionless figure leaning 
 against the pillar. For once his knowledge of the world 
 was at fault ; for once events had prepared for him a 
 genuine surprise. A sharp exclamation escaped him. 
 
 Lord Mandeville turned his dreaming eyes, saw the 
 amazed countenance, and read the thought behind it. 
 
 " Sir," said he, and took his hat from his head with 
 a certain grandeur of gesture that he could assume at 
 times, " I beg to inform you and kindly yourself pass 
 the news to your companions that I have not won the 
 wager." 
 
 He turned, replaced his hat, and pensively walked 
 away in the rain.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BRIDEGROOM REJECT. 
 
 WHEN Mistress Bellairs, the toast of Bath " for wit and 
 beauty," and one of the richest matches in the kingdom 
 besides, consented to marry Mr. Stafford, it was a nine 
 days' wonder. True, he was a prodigious buck, and her 
 name had been connected with that of many a less 
 eligible suitor. Nevertheless, " Why does she do it ? " 
 was the question on every lip. 
 
 And, indeed, it was the question that the pretty little 
 widow was asking herself as she sat wanning her slippered 
 foot before a cosy wood fire on the eve of her wedding 
 day. The reason she had given to the world at large, 
 " that it had become absolutely necessary for her to 
 have a protector," had taken in nobody least of all 
 herself. 
 
 Kitty Bellairs was right well capable of taking care 
 of herself, and, moreover, enjoyed the process. The 
 reason she had given to Miss Lydia, her tirewoman (a 
 personage, by the way, who highly disapproved of the 
 intended alliance), had been received by that respect-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 4! 
 
 fully irate damsel with a sniff that spoke volumes of 
 scepticism. 
 
 " The poor fellow, Lydia ! He is so desperately en- 
 amoured, I had not the heart to say him nay." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am. There's others besides yourself have 
 always told me he was a feeling gentleman." 
 
 Mistress Bellairs averted her head from the challeng- 
 ing flame of Lydia's eyes. She knew all about the little 
 French milliner in Quiet Street ; she did not choose to 
 have the story again. And now, surveying in a melan- 
 choly manner the toes of her small pointed shoes in the 
 flickering firelight, with the dusk of the October evening 
 pressing close round her, she could find no excuse for 
 her own folly. 
 
 Upon one side or the other she could scarce plead 
 entrainement. She had been flattered by Mr. Stafford's 
 persistent besieging, and yet piqued by feeling how little 
 real passion she had been able to inspire. The moment 
 when, in due form, he had laid his hand and heart at 
 her feet had been one of rosy triumph. From Lydia 
 upwards, how many a female well-wisher had dinned 
 into her ear that Stafford had no serious intentions ! 
 She had cut out the little milliner in Quiet Street. . And 
 yet, was it possible that Kitty Bellairs was giving up 
 liberty, money, and something finer and closer, for such 
 an advantage ? 
 
 Her friends had freely prophesied that it would be
 
 42 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 with this engagement of hers as with one or two others 
 those with my Lord Verney and Mr. Denis O'Hara 
 (Lord Kilcroney's only son), for instance ; and bets 
 circulated freely in Pump and Assembly rooms upon 
 Mr. Stafford's chances of being jilted like his predecessors. 
 But " Beau Stafford," despite the most genial laugh in 
 the whole of the west country, had (or so Mistress Kitty 
 fancied) a cold eye. She shuddered a little as she thought 
 upon it now. Yes, she was almost afraid of him ! 
 * * * * * 
 
 Some one came stumbling into the room, and fell on 
 the floor at her feet. Her hand was seized and mumbled 
 over with kisses, and the fire gleams danced on a red 
 curly head, insufficiently powdered. 
 
 Kitty smiled, and her black eye softened. This Denis 
 O'Hara, this impoverished madcap Irishman with him 
 she had once been as near marriage as now with Mr. 
 Stafford ! And if an ingrained prudence had made her, 
 at the eleventh hour, prorogue the ceremony sine die, 
 she had nevertheless beheld its approach with little of 
 that dismay which now filled her soul. 
 
 " Kitty, you've broked my heart on me ! Kitty, 
 Kitty, I never thought you'd let it go so far. Is there 
 no hope at all, asthore ? Is it bent you are on going 
 to the bitter end ? Sure, then, I don't care what becomes 
 of me, and the sheriff's officers that are after me this 
 minute may have me at long last, and devil mend them ! "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 43 
 
 Unfortunate Denis ! But for that last despairing ad- 
 mission, who knows into what rashness Kitty might not 
 have been tempted in this twilight mood ? But the 
 sheriff's officers cela donnait furieusement a penser ! 
 She let her little taper fingers rest for a second caressingly 
 within his. 
 
 " Don't be so foolish," she said. Though her voice was 
 tender, in her heart was the thought, " What a pity he 
 should be so impossible a scattercash, a money sieve ! " 
 
 " Foolish ! " exclaimed the lover with a break in his 
 voice. " Say mad, and you'll be nearer the mark." 
 Then he cast himself flat on the hearthrug, and shed 
 such heartbroken tears that Kitty's own eyes caught 
 the infection. And he, rising to his knees on a sudden, 
 saw the pearly drops upon her cheek. Very little pearls 
 they were quite seed pearls, if the truth must be told 
 but so precious in her lover's estimation that he had 
 to gather them with reverence and wonder upon his lips. 
 
 " Don't cry, Kitty dear ! " said he, forgetting his huge 
 sorrow at the sight of her butterfly grief. " Sure, I'm 
 not worth it ! I was not fit to be your husband, my 
 darling, though it's the love of the world I'd have given 
 you. Tom Stafford's a good fellow blast him ! and 
 it's careful he'll be with your money on you." 
 
 Kitty gave a tiny sob. It was very, very hard on 
 poor Denis : there was perhaps no one that was better 
 able to judge of the magnitude of his loss than she her-
 
 44 INCOMPARABLE EELLAIRS. 
 
 self. The sound of that sob drove a wave of blood to 
 O'Hara's giddy head. He clasped her fiercely to his 
 breast. 
 
 "Ah, but by the Lord, we were near it once ! Ah, 
 Kitty, why, in God's name " 
 
 He finished his sentence with his lips upon hers. 
 Kitty's heart beat quick as a fluttering bird ; an agita- 
 tion overpowering, yet not unpleasant, seized hold of 
 her. Even now, if only 
 
 But, as abruptly as he had seized her, the impulsive 
 Irishman loosened his grasp, sprang to his feet, and 
 dashed to the door. 
 
 " The night of your wedding will be Denis O'Hara's 
 last day upon earth." 
 
 " Fudge ! " cried Kitty, in a sudden fit of exasperation. 
 
 Denis flung himself out of the room. With the touch 
 of those fresh lips flaming into his soul, he did not dare 
 trust himself another instant in her presence believed, 
 indeed, that he had already sinned beyond forgiveness. 
 When will a man, even the most practised in the science 
 of love, ever really learn how to deal with a woman's 
 heart ? 
 
 " Fool ! " said Mistress Bellairs to herself as the sound 
 of his retreating steps died away in the passage. " I vow 
 I shall go on with it now . . . and 'tis his own fault ! " 
 # # * # 
 
 Mr. O'Hara rushed blindly into the vestibule and into
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 4$ 
 
 the arms of Miss Lydia, who had but just turned away 
 from closing the hall door. She caught him by the 
 wrists with small bony hands. 
 
 " For your life, sir," said she in an important whisper, 
 " you must not leave the house ! " Drunk with his 
 despair, he stared at her. " They've seen you go in," 
 she went on. " Front and back doors are watched." 
 
 " Oh, that ! " said Denis O'Hara, and tossed his head. 
 " Sure, what do I care ? Ah, my little Lydia, it's to be 
 married to-morrow she is, and I'll not survive it ! And 
 what odds is it to me once I'm dead and done with it, 
 if I'm in quod in the morning ? " 
 
 " She's not married yet," suggested the maid. 
 
 Again O'Hara stared at her ; then his whole counte- 
 nance became irradiated. 
 
 " Why, Lydia ! " 
 
 She put her finger to her lip, looked round cautiously, 
 and whispered in his ear, 
 
 " Come with me." 
 
 Like a lamb (as he said when subsequently describing 
 the scene) the Hon. Denis O'Hara suffered himself to be 
 led to Miss Lydia's own virginal bower. She locked the 
 door, and they were alone. A compromising situation ! 
 But (as Denis said) nothing could have been more virtu- 
 ous at that moment than the pair of them. 
 
 " Oh, alanna ! " said he, catching her trim waist, " if 
 you've put a spoke in the wheels of that most ill-con-
 
 46 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 sidered alliance, it's more than my life I'll owe you. 
 What have you got to tell me, darling ? " he went on 
 eagerly. " It's broken off already, maybe ? And the 
 little devil God bless her ! only playing with my poor 
 heart, as usual ? Or " for Lydia had shaken her head 
 " will she do it to-night, or will she fail him at the 
 church door ? " 
 
 " None of these things, as far as I know, are likely to 
 occur this time." 
 
 " What, then, in the name of wonder ? " 
 
 " I place my trust in Providence," said Miss Lydia, 
 piously casting up her eyes. 
 
 " Ah, it's a fool you're making of me ! " cried Mr. 
 O'Hara in an angry voice, as he turned away in dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 " I shouldn't like to speak ill of the dead," retorted 
 Lydia acidly ; " and, indeed, if all your man says is 
 true, your late respected mother was a very elegant 
 lady ; but if you've been made a fool, Mr. O'Hara, sir, 
 it is not I that am responsible ! " 
 
 The worst of Denis, as he was fond of admitting, was 
 that he could never resist a joke. Sore at heart as he 
 was, and impudent as were the girl's look and words, 
 he burst into appreciative laughter. Such humour, in- 
 deed, must be suitably rewarded. And if Mr. O'Hara's 
 guineas were scarce, he was always provided with a kiss 
 for a pretty woman.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 47 
 
 " Will you remember, sir, where you are ! " cried 
 Lydia, struggling like a kitten, all her claws out, yet 
 with no intention of scratching. 
 
 " And in what better place could I be ? " cried the 
 gallant gentleman. But the next minute, overcome once 
 more by his misery, he broke off abruptly, sank in a 
 chair, and looked round with haggard eye. 
 
 Miss Lydia lived near the rose. She had literally, 
 indeed, a good deal of the scent of the rose about her, 
 for she considered herself entitled to the common use 
 of her mistress's flacons. She had, moreover, assimilated 
 many of Kitty's little ways ; and her room was as dainty 
 as the lady's own, with many pretty belongings hallowed 
 by previous use. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara groaned softly. Miss Lydia whisked round 
 upon him, rubbing her lip with a business-like hand, 
 and showing a colour like a cherry in each, cheek. 
 
 " Now, look you, Mr. O'Hara, sir," said she, bustling, 
 " this is no time for philanderings . . . nor for groans 
 either. You don't wish my mistress to be married to- 
 morrow. Neither do I. I have my reasons. A man 
 that's as good as married already ! It shan't be, and 
 it can't. There's they that have the right to claim him 
 at the altar. Hush ! " 
 
 Kitty's voice was ringing from below in clear call for 
 Lydia. O'Hara clasped his hands in some anxiety of 
 mind, and cast a look at the window ; but the damsel,
 
 48 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 after a momentary pause, proceeded calmly in a rapid 
 undertone, 
 
 " And there's no time for questions either. Enough 
 that I'd as soon the sheriff's men did not get you to- 
 night. My lady might want you yet and I might want 
 you. There, there, be quiet, I tell you ! You'll not rue 
 t it, if you do as I bid you at once." 
 
 She began to move about the room, deliberately busy ; 
 opened a press here, a drawer there, took out sundry 
 garments ; considered, selected, put back, talking the 
 while with perfect imperturbability. 
 
 " The puce silk pelisse which my mistress bought when 
 she was after Lord Verney, and thought to look sober 
 for the dowager and my lady Maria neither of us 
 ever wore it. It is a little too good, perhaps ; but 
 there, it's such a quiet colour ! The bonnet we wore, 
 second mourning, for old Bellairs. It got rained on, 
 too. 'Twill suit beautifully. The kerchief. Eh ? " 
 She paused and ran her eye over the young man's 
 petrified figure. " A skirt ? " she said. " A skirt 
 what the mischief ! " 
 
 She seized an ancient damask petticoat and measured 
 it against him. He looked at his own long protruding 
 legs, and a slow grin spread itself upon his face. The 
 call-bell at the head of the bed rang with a peremp- 
 tory jerk. Lydia glanced at it sideways and pro- 
 ceeded,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELL AIRS. 49 
 
 " 'Tis the devil you're so tall ! Stay I have the 
 very thing." 
 
 She rushed to the press, plunged into its depths, and 
 emerged, shaking a voluminous garment of shot purple 
 and copper hue that made a great crackling. 
 
 " Cook's best," she stated briefly. " I promised to 
 put a bit of braid on it for her. Poor servants, sir we 
 have to do each other a good turn now and again. 'Tis 
 not that she's so much taller than myself, but she takes 
 it up in breadth." 
 
 The bell rang again a double peal this time. The 
 Abigail did not even turn her head. 
 
 " I'll request you to take off that coat. Yes, sir, and 
 your waistcoat too." 
 
 She slipped a wadded skirt from her chosen heap over 
 his head, and exclaimed at the size of his waist. Snips 
 and stitches had to come in aid. But no sooner had she 
 clothed him in " cook's best " than the lively damsel 
 anathematized his leanness. 
 
 " No more on you," she exclaimed, once more at work 
 for bare life, " than on one of your own Irish red herrings ! 
 
 How in the world ? Well, there, then we must just 
 
 stuff, I suppose ! There's all my mistress's stockings 
 that I was packing for her she'll not need them, I'll 
 take care of that ; but you'll have to give them back 
 to me. Drat that bell ! " 
 
 In a twinkling Mr. O'Hara found himself seated before
 
 5O INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 the dressing-table, Lydia's hands busy in the thick curls 
 of his hair. 
 
 " Cook favours a plain style," quoth Lydia. 
 
 " Mercy ! " cried Mr. O'Hara, suddenly waking up and 
 wincing ; " what a fright you're making of me, child." 
 
 "" Do you want your beauty to be recognized about 
 the streets ? " said Miss Lydia in her dry way. And as 
 she spoke she smeared a dab of pomade on either side of 
 the bandeaux, and surveyed her handiwork with much 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " Now," quoth she, " for your face. I hope I can paint 
 a face with any tirewoman in England. Some of the eye- 
 brow brown, mixed with the rouge, as near cook's own 
 tone as I can get it, and as little eyebrow as possible." 
 
 Her hands flew. O'Hara fell into a dream ; there 
 was something soothing in the manipulation. Then, 
 upon a sudden thought, 
 
 " Did you ever use these implements on your mistress's 
 face ? " he asked. 
 
 And as Lydia told him " yes," with a sharp, sidelong 
 glance she saw him kiss the old hare's-foot as it passed 
 his lips, and laughed half scornfully, half pityingly. 
 ***** 
 
 Mrs. Bellairs's negro boy had been knocking at Miss 
 Lydia's door for full five minutes, and shrilly clamouring, 
 before, with a flounce and a whisk, she admitted him. 
 
 " Haven't you been taught better," she cried, tweaking
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 51 
 
 his wool with practised fingers, " than to disturb ladies 
 in their conversation ? " 
 
 " Missus," began the boy, whimpering ; then broke off 
 to stare aghast at the tall, forbidding female who now 
 rose and advanced upon him. As he met the gaze of a 
 pair of mad, light eyes dancing in the candle-light out of 
 the raddled and haggard face, Pompey gave a howl and 
 fairly took to his heels. 
 
 "A body mayn't have her own aunt visit her, next," 
 growled Lydia after him, through the open door, tying 
 on her outer garments as she spoke with jerky energy. 
 " This way, Aunt Eliza, dear, and mind the step." 
 
 O'Hara, smothering laughter till he grew purple under 
 the paint, followed, in utter meekness, his bustling guide. 
 As they passed the parlour door, it was suddenly flung 
 open. 
 
 " Upon my word, miss," cried Kitty, " and this is 
 pretty behaviour ! Pray, where may you have been the 
 while I have been calling till I was hoarse, and ringing 
 till my arm ached ? " 
 
 " Ringing, ma'am ! " echoed the innocent Abigail. 
 " Did you indeed ? The bells in this house they're a 
 scandal ! My Aunt Eliza, ma'am, from Wales, of whom, 
 you'll remember, I've often told you my poor mother's 
 only sister." Lydia gave her favourite sniff, which this 
 time signified pathos. Rarely had she more thoroughly 
 enjoyed a situation. "She arrived to see me, unexpect-
 
 52 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 edly, this evening ; and if you'll allow me, I should 
 like, with your permission, to go out for half an hour." 
 
 The gleam in Lydia's eyes somewhat marred the 
 humility of this request. There was a certain point, 
 Mistress Kitty knew, beyond which she did not dare 
 go in her dealings with her confidential maid. She 
 tossed her head discontentedly : " Not more than half 
 an hour, then." 
 
 As she was turning away, her careless eye-glance fell 
 upon Lydia's aunt, became fixed and widened with amaze. 
 The huge figure in cook's best modestly drooped its head 
 till the plumes that had mourned for " old Bellairs " 
 fell forward unrecognized over the shaded countenance ; 
 and " Aunt Eliza " began a series of spasmodic dips, 
 faithfully copied from the countrywomen in the market- 
 place of Bath. 
 
 Mrs. Bellairs whisked back into the parlour and 
 slammed the door. How dared Lydia have such ex- 
 traordinary belongings ? 
 
 Lydia nipped her relative's arm with exceeding sharp- 
 ness as they emerged on Queen Square. 
 
 " Now, don't be more of a fool than you can help ; and 
 for Gracious sake " (her nails nearly met in his flesh) 
 " don't take strides like that. Don't turn your head. 
 There are your men under the trees opposite." 
 
 Fortunately the square was sparsely lit, and the wits 
 of the sheriff's officers none of the keenest. The bulky
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS: 53 
 
 female who minced along with nodding feathers was 
 only stared at in stupid amusement and allowed to go 
 by unmolested. 
 
 " Where are you bringing me to, darling ? " whispered 
 O'Hara hoarsely as they rounded the dangerous corner. 
 And his arm, irrepressible still, despite disguise, began 
 to creep round the sprightly figure. " I hope it's not 
 far ; for much as I love the petticoats, they don't take 
 kindly to me this way at all." 
 
 " I'm bringing you to a friend," answered the other 
 with stern repression. " It's not likely she'll want to 
 be bothered with you, for she's in trouble herself ; but " 
 she halted, while suspicion and vindictiveness glis- 
 tened in her eye " you'll have to give me your word, 
 sir, that there will be no philandering in that house 
 to-night. If not, I wash my hands of you. I'm not going 
 to have had all this bother for nothing." 
 
 "I'll give you my word; I'll be as good as gold," 
 solemnly declared O'Hara, awake once more to the 
 graver issues of the venture. Too well did he know 
 the power of the tirewoman in her mistress's councils. 
 
 " Then you'll keep to your room, and behave, till you 
 hear from me again. And here we are now." '-i' 
 
 It was the end of Quiet Street. O'Hara stared at the 
 round, jutting bow- window, lit up behind its lace cur- 
 tains, and barely restrained himself from whistling 
 aloud.
 
 54 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Tom Stafford's little French milliner ! " 
 
 The plot was thickening. 
 
 .***** 
 
 A small, slim thing, of squirrel-like nimbleness and 
 brightness of eye, this same Madame Eglantine. But 
 the bright glance to-night was dim, and the olive cheek 
 tear-roughened, as the lady came herself to the door 
 to answer the knock. 
 
 Leaving the aunt from Wales unceremoniously in the 
 narrow passage, Lydia darted upon her friend and drew 
 her into the shop ; whence the sound of a long whis- 
 pered colloquy, broken by little explosions, sometimes 
 of laughing, sometimes of crying, penetrated to the 
 listener's ear. At last Lydia returned, very tight and 
 determined. 
 
 " I shall be here about ten o'clock to-morrow," she 
 said as she passed O'Hara ; then added in a fierce whis- 
 per, " You may take off your disguise, so long as you 
 don't hang out of the window. And please to remember, 
 sir, to be careful with cook's best paduasoy and my 
 mantle, unless you wish me to repent of my good nature." 
 
 " Vill you come dis vay, please, me lady ? " said 
 Madame Eglantine, beckoning to him, while between 
 their swollen lids her black eyes shot out a gleam of such 
 mirth and mischief at him that he was hard set to keep 
 his promise of " behaviour." 
 
 Keep it, however, he did; met with an unmoved
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 55 
 
 gravity the sudden friendliness with which the pretty 
 Frenchwoman laughingly surveyed him so soon as they 
 were alone together in the neat garret allotted to him ; 
 met with the same stolid irresponsiveness her fresh 
 change of mood, when, wiping the corner of her pretty 
 eye with her lace apron, she hinted, with head engagingly 
 on one side, that Heaven knows she had no desire to be 
 making pleasantry, and that nobody's heart could be 
 more completely broken than her own. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara was not aware how greatly his solemn 
 demeanour added to the comicality of his appearance ; 
 nor did Madame Eglantine herself seem to realize it, for 
 there was very little amusement in the petulant look 
 she finally flung upon him, and in the dry manner in 
 which she remarked " that she would derange monsieur 
 no longer, and would send up his supper in due course." 
 
 " Pity ! " thought the gentleman to himself, as the 
 door closed upon the wave of a tempestuous petticoat. 
 " Sure, it wouldn't have done a ha'p'orth of harm to 
 any one, if me and that darling little soul had deludered 
 our troubles for a while by a smile and a tear together. 
 But, there, I've given me word. God help Lydia's 
 husband ! 1 fear she's the born old maid ! " 
 
 He took an impatient turn up and down the room, 
 then suddenly catching sight of his countenance in the 
 little square of glass hanging on the wall, seized a candle 
 and drew near to gaze.
 
 56 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Faith," he laughed, " I'm the holy show, and that's 
 the truth ! " 
 
 Suddenly the eyes gazing into the mirror became 
 fixed, the grinning countenance overspread with a deep 
 gravity. Full a minute or so Mr. O'Hara remained 
 motionless, contemplating some inward vision. He 
 passed a forefinger dubiously over his chin, then, lost 
 in reflection, he walked over to the little bed and sat 
 down on the edge of it. 
 
 A small, sharp charity-girl staggered in with a tray, 
 and stared with cunning eyes at the strange figure. 
 
 "Look here, child," said O'Hara suddenly; "I'll give 
 you a whole crown piece . . . next week, if you'll bring 
 me a jug of hot water to-morrow morning, and if you 
 can beg, borrow, or steal a razor for me at the same 
 time ; and, stop a packet of face-powder." 
 
 # # * * * 
 
 If it had been his own wedding-morn instead of that 
 of Mr. Stafford, the Hon. Denis O'Hara could not have 
 bestowed more care upon the shaving of his handsome 
 chin. It was a haggard face that looked into the glass, 
 still strangely crowned by feminine bandeaux of hair ; 
 for Mr. O'Hara, having his own reasons for desiring to 
 preserve Lydia's handiwork undamaged, had spent the 
 night, not in bed, but in uneasy dozing upon a high 
 chair. 
 
 This business accomplished, he next proceeded to set
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 57 
 
 to rights the embarrassing garments a somewhat un- 
 certain proceeding, attended by a good deal of fumbling 
 with unfamiliar hooks and eyes, and a good deal of 
 subdued cursing. When the stiff kerchief had been 
 refolded across his artificially buxom figure, Mr. O'Hara 
 stationed himself once again before the mirror. And 
 now all the experience culled behind the scenes ladies' 
 boudoir or the playhouse was brought to bear upon 
 the situation. 
 
 With the aid of the packet faithfully provided by the 
 serving-maid, and a great deal of friction, he succeeded 
 in producing a truly interesting pallor. An artistic 
 loosening of Lydia's coiffure, with a cloud of powder, 
 next created such an improvement that Mr. O'Hara, 
 surveying himself knowingly, was pleased to observe 
 that he would not have made such an ill-looking female 
 after all ! And, when his labours were crowned by the 
 nodding plumes and a gracefully-disposed lace veil, 
 
 " I defy any one," he cried joyfully, " to say I don't 
 look the image of respectability for once." 
 
 Then he pulled his flexible mouth into lines of woe. 
 " Afflicted respectability," he added, with approval. 
 All the chimes and church clocks of the old gray town 
 were ringing out eight in the morning when O'Hara, 
 with the most genteel gait imaginable, emerged from the 
 door of the little milliner, and directed his steps towards 
 a ladies' chocolate-house opposite the Abbey. There he
 
 58 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 spent his last white piece on a cup of coffee, and took 
 great satisfaction in the fact that his appearance evoked 
 but a passing curiosity. 
 
 " They think I am just a fine figure of a woman," he 
 told himself, with an inward chuckle. 
 
 # * * * * 
 
 Punctually upon the chime of a quarter to eleven, a 
 coach, drawn by a shining pair of horses, halted with 
 important clatter at the Orange Grove entrance of the 
 Abbey. My Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells stepped 
 out, followed by an attendant Canon ; was received in 
 due state by several minor dignitaries, and conducted 
 into the vestry. It was a bright gusty morning, and 
 his skirts fluttered against his handsome purple legs as 
 they moved in dignity from coach to porch. A noble- 
 looking prelate Kitty Bellairs could not have been 
 married in Bath by any lesser personage and, this 
 morning, filled with the condescending urbanity of one 
 ready to rejoice with those who rejoiced ! 
 
 No sooner had he crossed the threshold than the 
 Abbey bells set up a mad clangour of chimes. 
 
 " Quite a notable event this, Mr. Selwyn," said the 
 Bishop, affably addressing the Dean. 
 
 " Indeed so, my lord," quoth the Dean, a pretty 
 mouse-gray man, rubbing his hands till they almost 
 crackled. " The Abbey is full of our most elegant 
 visitors."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 59 
 
 " The lady ah is possessed of considerable ah 
 personal attractions." 
 
 " It is so reputed, my lord." 
 
 " And I believe," said the Bishop, " of no mean for- 
 tune." 
 
 " Vastly rich, they say, my lord." 
 
 " Then," said his lordship waggishly, " the bride- 
 groom is indeed (as our fashionable youths might say) 
 a lucky dog." 
 
 Before the Dean, the Canon, and the minor clerics had 
 at all mastered their appreciation of this episcopal sally, 
 there came a loud knocking at the door, and, upon the 
 verger proceeding to open it, a colloquy ensued outside " 
 which soon became of so earnest a nature as to attract 
 the Dean's attention. 
 
 " What is this, Jenkinson ? " 
 
 " Please, Mr. Dean, there's a lady demanding to see 
 his lordship in private. I've told her, sir, it's quite 
 impossible ; his lordship is robing." 
 
 " But I must see his lordship ; 'tis most urgent." 
 The strained, high-pitched voice smote the Dean with 
 further amazement. " I must see his lordship ! " 
 
 And the lady, pushing open the door with remarkable 
 ease against the efforts of the verger, made good her 
 footing inside the reverend circle. Dean and Canon 
 fell back in some dismay before the imposing female 
 figure that entered among them with this sweeping
 
 60 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 energy, but the prelate frowned and advanced sternly 
 to meet her. 
 
 " This intrusion, madam " 
 
 The lady rolled upon him, from over the folds of a 
 voluminous handkerchief, an eye laden with so much 
 tragedy that the Bishop was instantly impressed. 
 
 " Your lordship," said she, sinking her high note of 
 distress into one that matched the expression of her 
 gaze, " had I waited but five minutes later to seek you, 
 it would have been too late. A crime " 
 
 " How now ! " exclaimed his lordship, quick to seize 
 the inference; "do you mean, madam? tut, tut; 'tis 
 impossible. This marriage 
 
 " Alas ! " cried the newcomer with a stifled sob, and 
 buried her face more completely. 
 
 This was a case of genuine distress, or Dr. Thurlow 
 had little knowledge of an unhappy world. An agi- 
 tated hand plucked him by his lawn sleeve as he ad- 
 vanced still closer to the weeping unknown. 
 
 " Your Icrdship, the bride is arriving." 
 
 There was another jangle of joy-bells. The stranger 
 moaned. 
 
 " The bride must wait then, sir," said the Bishop, 
 and looked rebukingly round upon the curious faces 
 that pressed nearer. " Stand back, gentlemen," he 
 commanded. " I must speak a few words with this 
 lady in private."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 6l 
 
 " Upon my word," whispered the Canon to the Dean 
 as, slightly huffed, they withdrew, " this is an odd 
 business." 
 
 " It bodes ill," quoth the Dean, wagging his little 
 head till the powder flew, " for the ' lucky dog's ' mar- 
 riage to-day 1 " 
 
 " Pooh ! " said the Canon, as he propped his burly 
 form against the great carved oak press. " That crea- 
 ture, that grenadier of a woman an adventuress, I'll 
 warrant ! " 
 
 " An adventuress ! I am not so sure. Watch her 
 now, Mr. Selwyn. 'Tis some weighty story she pours 
 into his lordship's ear. And mark you his counte- 
 nance." 
 
 " She has a fine pair of eyes, and knows how to roll 
 them," whispered the Canon dryly. 
 
 Then they nudged each other ; but the meaning 
 smiles faded from their countenance as the mysterious 
 stranger's voice was raised in broken accents, and the 
 pathetic announcement, " Six living, your lordship, 
 and one underground ! " was delivered in tones audible 
 enough to reach all their ears. These tones were of 
 rich Irish quality. 
 
 The Bishop also raised his voice, shocked out of his 
 first impulse of discretion. 
 
 " Fie, fie ! This is a terrible scandal. It is a pity 
 that matters should have been allowed to go so far."
 
 62 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Sure I only crossed last night. And a terrible 
 tossing " 
 
 " Tut, tut ! To the point, madam ! If, indeed, a 
 previous marriage ceremony has really taken place 
 
 " In Ballybrophy Church, your lordship, nine years 
 ago next Patrick's Day, as sure as I am a living wo 
 
 The Bishop extended his pastoral hand with a 
 deprecating gesture, and turned to beckon to his sub- 
 ordinates. His countenance was seamed with lines of 
 care, yet bore an expression of not altogether ungrati- 
 fied importance. 
 
 " Mr. Dean," he said gravely, " I see no help for it : 
 we must request Mr. Stafford's presence here imme- 
 diately." 
 
 As he spoke, the joy-bells, which had been but faintly 
 jangling the last few minutes, suddenly fell into silence ; 
 and, after a dead little pause, the solemn chimes gave 
 forth the hour of eleven. 
 
 * * # * * 
 
 Mistress Bellairs had been waiting some time in vain 
 for the officiating clergy, before the eyes of all fashion- 
 able Bath, and by the side of a slightly anxious bride- 
 groom. She had arrived at the Abbey in none too 
 good a humour, and for every second of delay accumu- 
 lated fresh vials of resentment against the innocent 
 partner of her discomfiture. But when this latter was 
 fetched away from the altar steps by a solemn-faced
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 63 
 
 gentleman in a surplice, and the subdued amusement 
 of her guests broke into loud whispers and titters, her 
 fury grew almost unbearable. 
 
 Miss Lydia, screened behind a monument (sufficiently 
 near the altar to keep a keen eye upon the progress of 
 events), had not been so sensible of the flight of time ; 
 for she was engaged in animated discussion with her 
 companion a small woman, whose dark, tear-stained 
 face was almost hidden under a hood. 
 
 " I tell you," she was repeating impatiently for about 
 the twentieth time, " you've nothing to be afraid of. 
 Lord, Madame Eglantine, don't be such a fool ! Tis 
 all as easy as kissing. Oughtn't I to know my mis- 
 tress's mind ? Why, I tell you she's only longing for 
 the excuse for any excuse. If he'd given her a pre- 
 text no bigger than the black of my nail she'd jump 
 at it. She does not really want to be married no more 
 to him than to any one. And if you work your bit 
 of scandal " 
 
 " Ah, Miss Lydia," said the little Frenchwoman, 
 trembling from head to foot, " I shall be know, and I 
 shall be ruin ! " 
 
 " Ruined, you mean-spirited thing ! " cried Lydia in 
 angry despair. " Is that what you're thinking on at 
 the last moment ? And will you let your beau be 
 snapped away when you can keep him by stretching out 
 your hand ? Well, I declare, I'm prodigious sorry I
 
 64 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 ever took all this trouble about you. If you'd even had 
 the sense to keep an eye on Mr. O'Hara, as I told you 
 him as I meant to have ready to snatch her off in her 
 coach as soon as we had scored the first trick ! A 
 nice fool I was to trust either of you ! Ruined, you 
 little French zany ! Why, how could you be ruined ? 
 All you have to do is to keep your hood over your face 
 and whisper in the lady's ear ; she won't be so anxious 
 to show your little muzzle to the world." 
 
 " The bell have stop ! " interrupted the French- 
 woman suddenly. 
 
 Lydia craned a long neck round the monument. 
 Presently she turned back, bursting with excitement. 
 
 " I declare," she cried, " something's up ! They've 
 fetched Mr. Stafford away from the very altar. And 
 there's the bride all alone. Well ! " Then, as such 
 born generals generally are, she was seized with the 
 inspiration of the emergency. " Now is your moment ! " 
 she whispered, gripping Madame Eglantine fiercely. 
 " Go and tell your story in my mistress's ear ; and if 
 this wedding goes on, I'm a Dutchwoman ! Tell her 
 he's promised you marriage, mind. . . . We must stretch 
 a point sometimes." 
 
 * # * # * 
 
 When Denis O'Hara saw Mr. Stafford's puzzled face 
 following in the wake of the usher's portentously set 
 countenance, he had reached that stage of what he
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 65 
 
 would himself have described as " devilment," in which 
 a man becomes quite reckless of consequences. No 
 sooner had the bridegroom crossed the threshold of the 
 vestry than the Irishman flung himself headlong upon 
 the newcomer's beruffled bosom ; and the mad mirth 
 he had so long suppressed broke out in hysterical gasps 
 and sobs. 
 
 Clutched in a strangulating embrace, overwhelmed 
 by the suddenness of the attack and the physical weight 
 of the demonstrative lady, by the noise of her dis- 
 tress and the volume of her silks and laces, Mr. Stafford 
 for once lost his cool head, staggered, and turned pale. 
 Rolling a wild .eye round for explanation and help, he 
 met the Bishop's gaze fixed upon him with searching 
 reprobation. 
 
 " A most painful scene ! " said his lordship. " But, 
 thank Providence, a crime has been timely averted, and 
 the sweet confidence of so virtuous and trusting a lady 
 as Mistress Bellairs has not been abused beyond repair." 
 
 " Crime confidence ! " ejaculated the bridegroom. 
 "What in " 
 
 He made a struggle to relieve himself from the octopus- 
 like embrace ; but, owing to his reluctance to put forth 
 his strength against a woman, only succeeded in pro- 
 ducing a momentary relaxation, followed by a yet 
 more loving clasp. Denis felt that speech was impera- 
 tively demanded of the injured wife ; but, aware that 
 
 3
 
 66 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 his first words must inevitably betray him, he was 
 forced to restrict himself to moaning endearments. 
 
 The denouement could not have been delayed but for 
 an unforeseen development. Mr. Stafford was not one 
 likely to be long deserted by his wits ; the colour had 
 come back to his cheeks, and assurance to his voice, 
 when next he spoke, 
 
 " Will some one kindly tell me who this person is 
 supposed to be ? " 
 
 The bishop inflated his high nostril stiil higher with 
 a scornful snort. 
 
 " If you deny your wife's identity, sir " he began, 
 
 when Mr. Stafford interrupted him with a fierce laugh 
 of dawning comprehension. 
 
 " My wife ! " he cried. " Oho ! Aha ! " And with 
 little of their previous forbearance, his hands laid hold 
 of the muscular wrists that displayed such unfeminine 
 strength. " Let me see what sort of face this wife of 
 mine carries upon her remarkably fine figure ! " 
 
 There was a scuffle the struggle of two well- matched 
 men. O'Hara's one idea was to postpone the reveal- 
 ing vision of his countenance ; and while resisting, 
 therefore, with all his might, he kept boring his head 
 into Stafford's chest, much to the detriment of the 
 mourning bonnet. 
 
 " Mercy ! " exclaimed the Bishop ; "he will kill her ! 
 Gentlemen, secure the ruffian call the vergers ! "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 67 
 
 But the Canon, heedless of the episcopal command, 
 cried to the Dean in a fit of sporting enthusiasm, 
 
 " Gad, sir, I'll back the petticoats ; she'll have him 
 down to a certainty ! " 
 
 It was at this juncture that Fate intervened. 
 * * * * * 
 
 So many strange things seemed to happen this morn- 
 ing that Mistress Kitty's wedding guests beheld with 
 more amusement than surprise how, immediately after 
 the mysterious removal of the bridegroom, a small 
 cloaked woman, who kept her face concealed, crept to 
 the bride's side and began to whisper in her ear. 
 
 But after a brief colloquy, in which Mistress Bellairs 
 had vouchsafed every token of indignation and aston- 
 ishment, it was felt that matters had gone beyond a 
 jest when she suddenly sprang to her feet, clutched the 
 becloaked woman by the wrist, and marched with her 
 towards the vestry, a perfect tornado of white lace, 
 pearl-pink brocade, and waving white plumes. 
 
 Miss Lydia now likewise emerged from the back- 
 ground, and, with the audible cry, " What is this ? 
 my poor mistress ! Oh ! I must to her aid ! " (which, 
 having a taste for the drama, she contrived to deliver 
 in the best style of the " devoted attendant," rushed in 
 the bride's wake). 
 
 Those who had staked their money on Stafford's 
 chance began to look rueful, while there was proper-
 
 68 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 tionate triumph with those who had freely betted that 
 there would again be no marriage of Kitty Bellairs. 
 ***** 
 
 The wrath of Mistress Bellairs (which was genuine), 
 and her astonishment that there should be any one 
 else with a claim upon the man she had come forth 
 herself to marry (which was well-feigned), merged into 
 one overwhelming stupefaction when, bursting into the 
 vestry, she discovered Mr. Stafford struggling in the 
 embrace of yet another woman. 
 
 But little Madame Eglantine, who had made closer 
 acquaintance with the shot silk and the brown mantua, 
 instantly grasped the situation ; and on the spot she 
 determined to make the most of it for her own ends, 
 well realizing that, whatever the issue, her small per- 
 sonality must sink into safe insignificance. 
 
 " Ah, del ! " she cried, quite as dramatically as Miss 
 Lydia, " but this is not to believe one's eyes ! " 
 
 She sprang forward, flinging off her cloak. 
 
 " Let him go, madame, let him go ! " she commanded 
 shrilly, and herself laid hold of Stafford with clawing 
 hands. " He is neither of yours nor of Madame Bellairs : 
 he is mine by all the promises a man of honour can 
 make ! " 
 
 Assaulted from this unexpected quarter, Mr. Stafford 
 loosened his grasp of O'Hara with such abruptness that 
 the gentleman, unable to recover his balance, and ham-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 69 
 
 pered by his petticoats, stumbled and fell face forward 
 on the floor. Madame Eglantine profited by the open- 
 ing to fling herself in her turn upon the bridegroom's 
 bosom. 
 
 The Bishop, who, finding his orders unheeded, had 
 been actually hesitating on the brink of personal inter- 
 ference, was now seized with the full tide of that choler 
 which is not only constitutional with gentlemen of his 
 rufous complexion, but which was here imperatively 
 demanded of the outraged dignity of the Church. 
 
 His red eyebrows arched above the haughty, pro- 
 tuberant eye. His tense muscles quivered as he stood 
 looking from the trim little body clinging to Stafford's 
 repellent arms to the ungainly figure stretched upon the 
 floor. He cried in a voice of thunder, 
 
 " This is the most disgusting spectacle I I ' 
 
 Words failed him. " Mr. Selwyn, my coach ! " 
 
 As he turned, repudiating with a Jove-like sweep 
 the now superfluous lawn, his eye fell upon Kitty. 
 
 " My dear lady," said he, " my dear child ! " and 
 it was beautiful to see how the tenderness of the shep- 
 herd for his afflicted lamb struggled with his righteous 
 anger against the prowling wolf "I will not insult 
 you by asking you if you still desire " 
 
 Mrs. Bellairs whisked round upon him with some- 
 thing of the movement of a kitten, dashing on one side 
 the smelling salts which Lydia very anxious to get
 
 70 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 her mistress out of the way before she should discover 
 the identity of the aunt from Wales was officiously 
 offering. The bride's eyes literally shot sparks. 
 
 " I will not," pursued the Bishop, " insult you by 
 explaining to you that this marriage cannot now pro- 
 ceed. You have my fullest sympathy. May I offer you 
 a seat in rny coach ? You will thus avoid the further 
 unpleasantness ' ' 
 
 Kitty's cheeks were flaming under her rouge. 
 
 " Certainly not, my Lord Bishop ! " she exclaimed. 
 " I will have some explanation of this odious business 
 first, and am surprised you should not also consider it 
 your duty " 
 
 " My jurisdiction, madam," cried he, interrupting 
 her in his turn with equal acerbity, " does not extend, 
 I am thankful to say, over the conduct of all the 
 profligates" here he flung a withering glance upon the 
 unfortunate Stafford, who had but just succeeded in 
 freeing himself from Madame Eglantine, and was re- 
 garding her reproachfully " nor of all the unfortunate 
 females " here his lordship's eyes were averted in dis- 
 taste from the still prostrate O'Hara, who deemed that 
 utter collapse was now his only resource "who flock 
 to this city of Bath. But," proceeded Dr. Thurlow, 
 turning to the clerics, and speaking in a tone that made 
 of the observation a command, " I leave it to Mr. Dean 
 to see that the fullest investigation be carried through."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 71 
 
 And thereupon he moved to the door, and was lost 
 to sight, 
 
 " The fullest investigation ! " sniffed Mistress Bellairs, 
 no whit impressed. " I should think so indeed. Leave 
 me alone, Lydia; I will not come away. Mr. Stafford, 
 sir, I had heard rumours, but I refused to believe them. 
 That person, I presume, is your Madame Clandestine 
 Eglantine or whatever the name may be ... it 
 
 matters little to me. But who who " Oh, will 
 
 one of you reverend gentlemen," said the bride and 
 even in her anger she did not forget her pretty smile 
 " have the goodness to turn over the creature on the 
 floor ? " 
 
 No sooner had these awful words fallen upon the 
 ears of the prostrate Denis than, gathering his limbs 
 together, he sprang to his feet and made one wild leap 
 for an exit. The bonnet, in which the late Mr. Bellairs 
 had been mourned, fell upon one side, revealing a dis- 
 ordered red head. The brown silk mantua was dashed 
 from broad shoulders. 
 
 " O'Hara, as I live ! " cried Stafford. " I knew it ! " 
 And with a curse, the like of which the Abbey walls 
 could never have echoed before, he dashed in pursuit. 
 
 " Yoicks ! Gone away ! " cried the sporting Canon. 
 And, quite demoralized by the unexpected course of 
 events, he gathered up his robes and was for joining in 
 the run, when the little Dean arrested him with such a
 
 72 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 scandalized hand and such a heartfelt cry of horror 
 that he returned to a sense of the proprieties, and called 
 fie upon the sacrilege and the disgrace as wrathfully 
 as the Bishop himself might have done. 
 
 In the confusion Madame Eglantine discreetly vanished. 
 Suffocating, Mrs. Bellairs fell upon a chair ; but finding 
 at least one offender ready to her vengeance, she gave 
 up the idea of a swoon. 
 
 " So, that is your aunt from Wales ? " she began ; 
 and it was balm to see the impregnable Lydia for once 
 bite her nail and flounder in explanation, her conscious- 
 ness of guilt in one direction preventing her from ex- 
 culpating herself where she was really innocent. But 
 the next instant the urgency of the situation made 
 Mrs. Kitty realize that she must defer the congenial 
 task of morally flaying the offending tirewoman to a 
 more appropriate moment, and meanwhile gather all her 
 bright wits together to extricate herself with honour. 
 She must be the first to laugh at what was ridiculous, 
 and turn the discomfiture of the bride completely over 
 to the bridegroom. 
 
 Promptly she sent the verger round to the church 
 for Sir Jasper Standish, Colonel Villiers, my Lord Mark- 
 ham, Mr. Foulks, and two or three other Bath nota- 
 bilities, and was ready to receive them as they pre- 
 sented themselves variously condoling, curious, and 
 important in her gayest, most fascinating manner.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 73 
 
 Very soon they left her again to join the rest of the 
 guests. But so artfully pregnant had been the few 
 sentences she had addressed to them that it was imme- 
 diately made known to the eager congregation that not 
 only were they still expected to the feast at Nassau 
 House (which had been lent by the owner for this auspi- 
 cious occasion), although no wedding would take place 
 that morning, or, indeed, was ever likely to take place 
 between Mr. Stafford and Mrs. Bellairs, but that 
 Mistress Bellairs was in the highest spirits. And, in 
 whispers, it passed like wildfire from mouth to ear that, 
 beyond doubt, the wily little widow herself had not 
 been altogether guiltless of the hitch which had thus 
 disposed of Mr. Stafford's hopes. 
 
 " Tell them I expect their congratulations just the 
 same," had said Kitty with her archest dimple. 
 
 ***** 
 
 It was a sight to make the gods smile to see Mr. O'Hara, 
 followed by a hooting crowd, advance in kangaroo leaps 
 down Orange Grove towards the shelter of Nassau 
 House, tearing at bodice and skirt as he went with such 
 furious fingers that " cook's best paduasoy " and the 
 kerchief and Kitty's little rolled-up stockings soon 
 strewed the path of his flight. Mr. Stafford, in his un- 
 hindered swiftness, promptly caught him up. 
 
 " O'Hara, stop, you scoundrel ! " panted he, now at 
 white heat of passion, in the fugitive's ear.
 
 74 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 O'Hara halted on the instant and wheeled round 
 a stranger spectacle than ever, with long legs emerging 
 from Lydia's short quilted petticoat, with white smeared 
 face and feminine coiffure surmounting his own ruffled 
 shirt. In one second his quick eye ascertained that 
 Kitty was not in sight, and he brought it then gaily 
 back upon his pursuer. For the first time in his life, 
 perhaps, Mr. Stafford was shaken by anger. Choking, 
 he flung out both arms with so menacing a gesture 
 that O'Hara leaped aside with an answering glint in 
 his own green gaze which spelt danger. 
 
 " Easy now ! " cried he. " From a gentleman to a 
 gentleman ! " 
 
 " Gentleman ! " echoed the other with scathing 
 emphasis. 
 
 " Well, I am a lady no longer, anyhow," said Denis 
 leaping out of the petticoat. 
 
 There was a shout of mirth from the forerunners 
 of the crowd that had begun to assemble about them. 
 
 " By your leave, friends ... by your leave ! " cried 
 a husky voice. And a dingy-looking individual, break- 
 ing through the admiring circle at a hard trot, advanced 
 upon O'Hara with oustretched hand. He was followed 
 by a panting satellite. 
 
 " Thunder and Moses ! " ejaculated Mr. O'Hara, and 
 flung the petticoat with a dexterous movement over 
 the head of the first sheriff's officer, while with a thrust
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 75 
 
 of his now unhampered leg he neatly tripped up the 
 second. Then, calling over his shoulder, "We'll finish 
 our conversation in the house, Mr. Stafford," was off 
 at full speed again. 
 
 * * * # * 
 
 With the assistance of a pair of borrowed swords, 
 obligingly supplied by the major-domo (for Nash's 
 draconian edict against the wearing of steel within 
 the liberties of Bath was still in full force), Mr. O'Hara 
 and Mr. Stafford " finished their conversation " in the 
 farther corner of Nassau House gardens with so much 
 promptitude indeed that, by the time the last group 
 of guests had migrated from the Abbey to the panelled 
 dining-room, Mr. O'Hara's arm had already been bound 
 up neatly by Mr. Stafford himself, and the latter had 
 seen his first fury of anger melt away with the running 
 of his friend's hot blood. 
 
 Now, it might be that the little devils he had marked 
 In Kitty's eyes during that ten minutes' purgatorial 
 waiting in the Abbey had filled the bridegroom's soul 
 with doubt. It might be as some of his friends would 
 have it that Mr. Stafford's matrimonial intentions had 
 hardly been more steadfast than Mistress Bellairs's own, 
 and that he had been as discomfited as she herself to 
 see matters drift so far (having proposed to her chiefly 
 because it was the genteel thing for a buck of Bath 
 
 to be engaged to " Incomparable Bellairs "). Or it 
 
 v
 
 76 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 might be, again, that there is no man who, when it 
 comes to the point, does not feel the nuptial state as 
 one suggestive of a noose, and himself as something of a 
 victim. At any rate there can be no doubt that when 
 Beau Stafford presently sought the company it was with 
 a front of unfeigned placidity, not to say satisfaction a 
 satisfaction no whit dimmed by finding Mistress Bellairs 
 enthroned at the head of the table, more indisputably 
 " Queen of Bath " than ever not a man among her 
 guests who did not hang upon her least smile, not a 
 woman who did not fix her with eyes of envy. 
 
 He met the jocular greeting and the witty banter- 
 ing, more or less pointed, more or less broad, of his 
 friends with an unmovedly good-humoured eye ; and, 
 demanding the place which would have been his by 
 rights, took seat at Kitty's left with a magnificent 
 assurance. 
 
 The little lady, uncertain whether to keep up her 
 first role of resentment towards him, or openly to dis- 
 play the sense of relief which was not only fairly well- 
 founded but best calculated to save her dignity, was 
 surprised into quite naturally gracious smiles. 
 
 Thus they sat together, bride that would never be 
 wife of his, bridegroom that would never be her hus- 
 band. The situation was quaint enough to please a 
 woman who, above all things, was a foe to banality 
 who, in the heart of her, could never resist a gentle-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 77 
 
 manly audacity, and who admired the courage of one 
 capable of thus meeting such evil fortune. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara, in a pale blue wedding coat (provided 
 extempore by the genial master of Nassau House), his 
 right arm in a comfortable sling, hereupon rose from 
 his seat and lifted his glass -in his left hand. 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen," said he, the mad joyous- 
 ness of the moment leaping forth irrepressibly from 
 eyes and lips, "let us, in all haste, drink the health of 
 her who still God bless her! remains Kitty Bellairs, 
 to the hope of every bachelor heart among us ! And 
 (if there's a drop to spare) let us not forget our friend 
 yonder on her left, who, if he's not the happy man he 
 
 ought to be I mean he might have been- But 
 
 there's a crumb of comfort a crumb of comfort, I say, 
 in every bitter draught " 
 
 At this point the speaker, who, between a complexity 
 of emotions, the loss of some good blood and the gain 
 of some generous wine, had not quite his usual mastery 
 of eloquence, was not sorry to find his voice drowned 
 in general laughter. Then no sooner had -the hubbub 
 subsided a little than the bridegroom reject himself, 
 mimicking with some humour the consecrated manner 
 of the brand-new husband on such occasions, claimed 
 the attention of the table. 
 
 "Mr. O'Hara, sir," said he, "ladies and gentlemen, 
 it is with a prodigious sense of gratitude that I rise to
 
 78 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 return thanks for myself, and for my wife that was to 
 be, but is not " 
 
 " Nor ever will be. Amen ! " put in the irrepressible 
 O'Hara, and tilted another glass to his lips. 
 
 " For your very friendly acclamations," pursued 
 Stafford unmoved. " Had that knot been tied to-day, 
 which, ladies and gentlemen, as Mr. O'Hara so feel- 
 ingly observes, would have made me the happy man 
 that I am not, I might have hesitated to take so much 
 upon myself as to venture to answer for her. For I 
 have noticed, ladies, that an accomplished wife gener- 
 ally likes to speak both for herself and her husband . . . 
 which is a vastly proper state of affairs. Of course, 
 dear friends, you are all fully aware that I stand before 
 you a heart-broken man." 
 
 The delicately-ironic tone, the sweet, curling smile 
 with which he pronounced these words, summoned back 
 all the little devils to Kitty's eyes. Her vanity was 
 beginning to smart. Was it possible, could it be pos- 
 sible, that he was not utterly heart-broken ? 
 
 " Nevertheless," resumed Mr. Stafford, after an effective 
 pause, " as my valued friend has just remarked, ' there 
 is a crumb of comfort in every draught.' I am not, as a 
 rule, perhaps, fond of a crumb in my cup ; but I cannot 
 deny its consolatory presence to-day. Had I been made 
 the happy man I hoped to be, why, I should now have 
 nothing left to hope for."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 79 
 
 The clamour which had been gathering about him 
 became uproarious. He waited resignedly till he could 
 make himself heard again. 
 
 " As matters have fallen out," he concluded, " I can 
 still blissfully aspire with the best of you." 
 
 He turned with his courtly bow, took Kitty's little 
 hand and raised it to kiss. Then he sat down, smiling. 
 
 Kitty averted her head with crimsoning cheeks and 
 lips fiercely held from trembling under proud little teeth. 
 
 Undercover of the general laughter whispered he to 
 her, 
 
 " And are you very angry with me, my pretty wife 
 that is not to be ? " 
 
 She looked at him for a second or two, hesitating 
 hating him for not being in greater despair, yet admir- 
 ing him exceedingly. 
 
 " Confess," he went on in tender tones " confess, 
 Kitty, you have never liked me half so well ? " 
 
 " And confess, sir," said she, flashing, " that you are 
 vastly happier than if that ceremony had taken place." 
 
 Her mouth quivered, but the demons in her eyes 
 suddenly vanished as if they had been put to flight by 
 a pair of melting little cupids. 
 
 " Nay," said he, " but when you look at me so, I can 
 regret nothing." 
 
 " I vow," she cried with apparent irrelevancy after 
 a long pause, tossing her head, " I must settle poor
 
 8O INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 dear O'Hara's debts : 'twould be a thousand shames, 
 after this, were he allowed to spend the night in the 
 sponging-house ! " 
 
 " By your leave, madam," interrupted Stafford 
 quickly, " but I think I owe it to him to pay at least 
 the half." 
 
 He looked at the triumphant O'Hara with an un- 
 mistakable tenderness while she tossed her head and 
 sipped at her beaker. Then they looked at each other 
 and laughed. But Kitty's laughter quavered P little.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GRAY DOMINO. 
 
 "I AM pale to-night." Mrs. Bellairs, the hare's-foot 
 poised in one plump, dimpled hand, bent forward to 
 examine her pretty face in the mirror. " A shade more 
 on the left eh, Lydia ? " 
 
 " Never a touch more, ma' m," decided the maid, 
 and from her mistress's hand unceremoniously culled 
 the little foot that had once padded so blithely over 
 green turf. 
 
 " I vow," cried the lady, " I'm looking a perfect 
 fright ! " 
 
 " Well, ma'am," began Lydia sardonically, " I would 
 not let that disturb me, since you are to go masked." 
 
 Miss Lydia was in a less placid mood than usual, 
 and she was not one who could suppress altogether a 
 feeling of ill-temper. There were fresh matrimonial 
 projects floating in the air of which she disapproved. 
 Her position as confidential maid to a rich and fascinat- 
 ing young widow was a source of so much profit as 
 well as pleasure ; so many discreet guineas as well as
 
 82 
 
 discreet kisses came her way in that capacity that 
 she had little desire to change these conditions, even 
 for the sake of calling her mistress " My Lady Countess." 
 For such was the scheme that had come within the 
 range of practical contemplation since Mrs. Bellairs's 
 return from Bath to her town residence in Mayfair. 
 
 "Why, girl," said Kitty Bellairs, balked of the 
 compliment she had the right to expect, " we unmask 
 before supper. Surely any fool knows that ! " 
 
 Lydia tossed her head and set out the patchbox with 
 a bang. 
 
 Kitty sighed languorously, with a sudden change of 
 mood, and flung a bird-like glance at Lydia's irate 
 reflection in the psyche a pretty mirror this, gar- 
 landed with golden roses, held up by peeping cupids, 
 meet, indeed, to receive so coquettish an image as that 
 of " Incomparable Bellairs." 
 
 " Ah, child ! " said the lady, " happy you, who will 
 never know the troubles and anxieties with which a 
 lonely woman has to meet in the great fashionable 
 World ! " Lydia sniffed. " I want a protector sadly, 
 my good girl. (There's that quilted petticoat . . . and 
 the square of Mechlin with the hole in it, where young 
 my Lord Verney, oaf as he is, trod on my skirts in the 
 Pump Room. 'Tis a beautiful bit of lace ; you can 
 have it for yourself. 'Twill make you very fine among 
 the other tirewomen.) Ah ! 'tis a weighty decision.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 83 
 
 My heart is all of a flutter. . . . Give me a thimbleful 
 of ratafia." 
 
 Miss Lydia poured out the desired restorative in the 
 same disapproving silence. 
 
 " Take some yourself, child." 
 
 " No, thank you, ma'am." Ratafia had long ceased 
 to be a treat to Lydia : familiarity breeds contempt. 
 " It's apt to make the nose red, ma'am." 
 
 The lady put down her half -sipped glass, flung an 
 anxious glance upon her pearly nose tip in the mirror, 
 and then broke into justifiable rage, 
 
 " How dare you, miss ? Go to the devil, you un- 
 grateful, unpleasant girl ! " 
 
 " La ! ma'am, he would not have me as a present, 
 neither me nor you, for all he comes so often here." 
 
 " What in Heaven's name do you mean, Lydia ? " 
 
 " It don't seem as if Heaven could ever have had 
 anything to say to it, ma'am, one way or another." 
 
 " Gracious power, the creature will drive me mad ! 
 Who is it wants neither you or me ? And what is it 
 Heaven can have nothing to do with ? " 
 
 " Why, the devil, ma'am, or the nearest approach to 
 him that walks London this moment meaning my Lord 
 Mandeville. His heart's not really in it, nor ever will 
 be. And if Heaven has anything to say to him, why, 
 I am willing to " 
 
 " Lydia ! " cried Mistress Kitty in a fury. Then she
 
 84 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 seized the first missile to her hand, and flung it at the 
 girl's head. Lydia dodged with the adroitness acquired 
 by long habit, calmly picked up the silver curling tongs, 
 and began to ply them mechanically, as she surveyed 
 her mistress with disapproving eyes. 
 
 Kitty had turned back to her mirror, and now set 
 her small teeth in a smile of defiance. 
 
 " My Lord Mandeville not want Kitty Bellairs ! We 
 shall see ! " The little fierce smile broadened into 
 triumph. " We shall see ! " 
 
 Presently the eyes swam back into the languor that 
 had provoked Miss Lydia, and the widow pondered. 
 Lydia broke the silence by observing, in a detached 
 manner : " There are several gentlemen sitting waiting 
 in the blue room." 
 
 " Already ! " Mistress Bellairs snatched at her jewelled 
 watch and fell into a fresh flutter. 
 
 " Good gracious, woman, do you know the time, and 
 how long 'twill take me to drive from May fair to Elm 
 Park House with the roads a foot in mud ? Come 
 here, you gaby ! Put the Paris knot on the left ! . . . 
 That curl's too long ! The patches now quick ! Where 
 is the box ? Call yourself a tirewoman ! " 
 
 The prettiest fingers in Bath which some who passed 
 as judges now swore were the prettiest fingers in London 
 groped for the silver and tortoise-shell box. One 
 charming digit, with a black star on its tip, hovered
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 85 
 
 tentatively round the dainty face. It was a critical 
 moment : even Lydia held her breath. But the little 
 hand fell back into the silken lap, its mission unaccom- 
 plished. 
 
 " Is Mr. Stafford among these gentlemen ? " she asked 
 suddenly, turning her eyes, all weighted with anxiety, 
 towards Lydia. 
 
 " Mr. Stafford, Mr. O'Hara, Sir George Payne in 
 scarlet, ma'am and Mr. Mildmay in sky-blue," re- 
 sponded the latter glibly. 
 
 There was quite a jingle as Lydia frisked round ; four 
 guineas at that moment were keeping snug company in 
 her inner hanging pocket. 
 
 To the credit of these modish gentlemen (in whose 
 number she felt safety) there was also printed in Lydia's 
 memory tablets a very pretty compliment from Mr. 
 Stafford, who had the art of neatly placing these assets, 
 and a kiss or two from Mr. O'Hara (really, she had had 
 to box his ears). As for the other two gentlemen, they 
 were obviously new to it. But one principle she had 
 made clear to their inexperience, to wit, that he who 
 would sit in the lavender parlour (next to the young 
 widow Bellairs's dressing-room door) must know how 
 to pay for such privilege. 
 
 " Tom Stafford ! " ejaculated the widow. " He is 
 positively the only man who knows how to pitch a 
 patch. Admit him, instantly, instantly ! " She drew
 
 86 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 her silken wrapper over the falling laces upon her bosom ; 
 then on further thought : " And Mr. O'Hara, too," she 
 added; "the dear creature has taste." 
 
 " And Sir George ? " queried Lydia, her hand on the 
 door knob. 
 
 " Sir George ! Did you not 5 ay the zany was in 
 scarlet ? I marvel at you, Lydia and I in rose-pink ! " 
 
 " Mr. Mildmay ? " 
 
 " Let him languish ! " 
 
 Lydia went forth with alacrity. " Mrs. Bellairs will 
 see Mr. Stafford and Mr. O'Hara, if they will be kind 
 enough to step this way," said she with a cherry-mouth 
 to the waiting clients. How demure was Lydia ! " Yes, 
 Sir George, I did inform my mistress of your presence. 
 Yes, Mr. Mildmay, sir ; I'll mention it again by-and-by 
 at least, if I get the chance. I'll do my best, Sir 
 George. This way, please." 
 
 Mr. O'Hara and Mr. Stafford, faithful adorers, knew 
 the way well enough. Kitty's pink-hung, becupided, 
 becushioned sanctum, with its atmosphere of Parma- 
 powder and flowers the fragrance of a pretty woman's 
 dainty vanities was deliciously familiar to both. Mr. 
 Stafford inhaled it like a connoisseur. O'Hara drew 
 audibly a passionate breath of rapture. 
 
 "Glory be to God, Kitty!" he cried; " but it's the 
 beauty of the summer dawn you've got this winter 
 night ! "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 8/ 
 
 He seized his beloved's right hand, and there could 
 be no mistake about the fact that he saluted it. 
 
 " A rose ! " exclaimed Stafford, advancing with short, 
 dainty steps to bow over the lady's left wrist, negligently 
 extended in his direction, and touch it with a butterfly 
 kiss. " A rose ? a hundred roses, a heaven of roses ! " 
 
 Kitty shifted velvet eyes for a second from the con- 
 templation of her image in the mirror to that of her 
 handsome swains as they appeared over her shoulders. 
 A little shiver of pleasure passed over her person as 
 she dropped her glance back to her own reflection. She 
 coquetted with it for a second or two, drawing up a 
 pretty throat, tilting an impudent chin, sweeping long 
 black lashes downwards to peep through them as she 
 slowly moved her head from one side to the other. 
 
 " Oho, Tom, my boy ! " cried O'Hara, " and when 
 did you ever see a rose with such a pair of eyes ? " 
 
 " And when did a cold, empty sky wear such a smile ? " 
 retorted Stafford in a light tone that contrasted with 
 the Irishman's fervour. 
 
 " Come, come ! " cried Kitty briskly ; " do you think 
 I have time to-night for this sort of thing ? You've 
 been admitted on business, my friends. Now, Stafford, 
 what say you ? " lifting up the patch again " shall 
 it be under the left eye ? O'Hara, keep quiet, or out 
 you must go ! " 
 
 Mr. Stafford sat down on a gilt-leg stool, and worked
 
 88 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 it forward very respectfully to as close proximity as 
 circumstances would allow ; then, folding his arms, he 
 threw a deep air of gravity into his looks as he con- 
 templated the visage which the widow turned with 
 equal seriousness for his inspection. 
 
 There was a moment of throbbing silence, while 
 O'Hara gnashed his teeth. Presently the oracle de- 
 livered itself. 
 
 " Such eyes as yours, dear Kitty," he said in his 
 soft, well-bred voice, " need no finger-post to draw 
 attention to them. They are beacons that claim instant 
 admiration by their own flame." (" Ah, now ! listen 
 to him ! Talk of my metaphors ! " muttered O'Hara.) 
 " But the dimple that comes with your heavenly smile 
 and goes with your your gentle melancholy" (Lydia 
 sniffed) " that dimple, Kitty, which peeps and van- 
 ishes like a star in our night it would not be amiss 
 to make the world mindful of it. As who should look 
 and read : ad astro. ! " 
 
 Kitty turned eagerly back to the glass. " Perhaps 
 you are right," said she. 
 
 Stafford half rose from his seat. 
 
 " Stay ! too low ! too high ! O Kitty, have a care 
 nay, this frown will never do ; I must see a smile, or I 
 cannot guide. Stop, stop ! " He laid his hand over 
 hers. 
 
 A sudden vision in the glass of O'Hara's countenance
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 89 
 
 behind her, lowering under his powdered red hair, and 
 the desired smile flashed on the lady's lips. 
 
 " Now ! " cried Stafford. 
 
 He shot out a long finger, and gently but firmly pressed 
 its tip just by the side of the dimple. When he withdrew 
 it, Kitty smiled again. 
 
 " A stroke of genius," said she. 
 
 And Stafford, stepping back and contemplating her 
 with his head on one side, assented in satisfied tones, 
 " Yes. I have been Heaven-inspired." 
 
 Mr. O'Hara's comment, which placed Mr. Stafford's 
 proper habitation in quite another region, and further 
 expressed a desire to hasten his home-going, passed 
 unheeded by the two consultants. 
 
 " Now for the domino ! " cried Mistress Bellairs gaily, 
 preparing to rise. 
 
 " Nay, nay ! " exclaimed Stafford, arresting her. 
 " Two are the mode of the town, this year, Kitty." 
 
 " Two the mode ? " echoed she. 
 
 " Ay, surely. One patch on the face, dearest Bel- 
 lairs, and one on the throat for whomsoever has a 
 handsome shoulder. It has been the rage ever since 
 Miss Rachael Peace, of Sadler's Wells, appeared last 
 month in the Stratagem, and Lord Mandeville swore 
 out loud, in my Lady Trefusis's box, that she had the 
 fairest shoulders " 
 
 Kitty started as if the words had covered a little
 
 90 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 stab. Miss Lydia turned round with an interested 
 air. 
 
 " And has this Rachel Peace, in your opinion, my 
 good man, anything so wonderful about her ? A 
 pasty baggage, I thought her, and thin in the collar- 
 bone. . . . Where did she wear that patch ? " 
 
 " O Kitty," said Stafford, with his pleasant laugh, 
 "ask me not about Rachel Peace, for I vow, whatever 
 I have seen of other women, I forget to-night. I could 
 not tell you the exact spot where Miss Rachel Peace 
 wore the patch ; but, methinks, I could decide where 
 it best would become Mistress Kitty, so that he who 
 saw it will carry the memory of it to his grave." 
 
 " Well, be quick ! " snap*ped she. 
 
 He pushed back his chair a pace or two, and sur- 
 veyed her critically. 
 
 The unwonted excitement which possessed Mrs. Bellairs, 
 that usually self-satisfied little lady, this evening, had 
 brought fresh sparkles to her eye and a flush to her 
 cheek that shamed its rouge. Beneath the folded laces, 
 the fair bosom was heaving with shortened breath. 
 
 It may be that Mr. Stafford prolonged his contempla- 
 tion a few seconds longer than was required. It was a 
 talent of this mercurial gentleman to seem most respect- 
 ful where he was most audacious, so that things were 
 permitted to him with smiles that might have been 
 denied with frowns. He delivered judgment,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 91 
 
 " Here, where runs that little vein, azure rivulet through 
 a fair field of snow ; where the lovely shoulder falls into 
 this little valley, planned by Cupid himself under Venus's 
 own eyes ; where " 
 
 " That will serve, sir," said Kitty, whisking round 
 and, with the unerring swoop of genius, planting a 
 dainty black star in the faint curve of the white shoulder 
 thus poetically indicated. Then she turned again to 
 flash her triumph at Stafford. 
 
 He clapped his hands, half with that mockery that 
 never left him, half in genuine admiration. 
 
 " Perfect ! the last touch ! Ah, 'tis rightly named 
 L'Assassine!" 
 
 "L'Assassine!" She caught the word with a happy 
 laugh, and then, her eye once again on her mirror, re- 
 garded the effect of the patch musingly. 
 
 " Why, madam," said Stafford, with a sudden dry 
 gravity, " and pray what fresh assassination are you 
 plotting for to-night ? " 
 
 Mr. O'Hara had been no unmoved witness of these 
 delicate proceedings. Only a ripe experience of her 
 temper, when interfered with, had prevented him a 
 score of times from flinging himself between his privi- 
 leged rival and the complacent lady. His dumb show 
 of fury, the clenched hand thrust out and withdrawn, 
 the mute apostrophizing of Kitty, the mute cursing of 
 his friend, had, however, somewhat relieved his over-
 
 92 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 charged feelings, while affording much amusement to 
 Lydia. Now, however, he deemed the time come to 
 recall his personality to the widow's fickle mind. 
 
 " By me soul," he cried, running forward and flinging 
 himself on his knees, " if it's assassination she wants, 
 I'm ready for her. Sure she's done me to death a 
 thousand times, but here's a heart that will be ready 
 to die again as often as she pleases." 
 
 Kitty cast a glance of good-humoured scorn on the 
 gay, reckless face upturned to the light. In spite of its 
 gaiety and recklessness, there was passion in the green- 
 brown eye a mad passion which gratified her, little 
 as she now thought of gratifying it. Her glance shifted 
 quickly back to Stafford's countenance. 
 
 " I cannot say," this gentleman was stating, " like 
 our volatile friend, that I am prepared to die more than 
 once. But, as Mistress Bellairs has the keeping of my 
 heart, she knows that it is hers to break once and for 
 ever, should she so please." 
 
 Looking on him, Kitty considered. Was that cold 
 gray gaze of his capable of one spark of real emotion ? 
 Should she ever bring this slippery, polished courtier in 
 true earnest to her feet ? 
 
 It certainly was to her credit that Kitty's discarded 
 bridegrooms should immediately have resumed their 
 posts as adorers, without loss, it seemed, of faith, hope, 
 or charity in their capricious goddess. But with a
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIKS. 93 
 
 return to London life Kitty's horizons and ambitions 
 had been widening. She nibbled her little finger pen- 
 sively, then flung out both her hands. 
 
 " And are ye men of sport, and would you have me 
 strike again what's dead already, O'Hara ? or slay 
 what's tame, Stafford ? Oh fie ! " 
 
 "Denis, my lad, up with you ! " cried Stafford with 
 his jovial laugh, striking the kneeling O'Hara on the 
 shoulder. " Our Kitty has higher game for her pretty 
 bow and arrow than out-of-pocket you or humble un- 
 titled me." 
 
 The dimple peeped in Kitty's cheek ; she kicked off 
 a tiny Spanish slipper. 
 
 " My shoes, Lydia," she commanded, unconcerned. 
 
 The Honourable Denis made a wild plunge on all 
 fours to snatch the dainty objects from Lydia's hands 
 and have the placing of them upon the little foot in its 
 pink silk stocking, of which he had had a brief, en- 
 trancing vision. Buf Mistress Bellairs thwarted him 
 by a dexterous movement. And as she rose, duly shod, 
 clapping her heels with a conquering air, O'Hara, still 
 squatting on the floor, fell back upon the consolation of 
 rapturously kissing a discarded slipper. 
 
 Over a dress of tiffany embroidered with roses, of a 
 splendour that baffled description, the lady now slipped 
 on a dream of a domino, all rosy satin and fragrant 
 lace ; and while Lydia spread out the great hood before
 
 94 INCOMPARABLE BELL AIRS. 
 
 delicately drawing it over the high -massed powdered 
 curls, Mistress Bellairs was fain to shoot another glance 
 of sweet vanity at Mr. Stafford just to read in his 
 eyes how entrancing she looked. 
 
 But he shook his head at her. " I am sorry for you, 
 my dear ! " 
 
 " What is the meaning of that, sir ? " 
 
 " Only, my dearest life, to see so fair a huntress bent 
 on so bootless a chase ! " 
 
 Here Lydia's sniff was fraught with so much meaning 
 that, in a double fury, Mistress Kitty wrenched herself 
 loose from her woman's hands and stamped her foot at 
 ' Mr. Stafford. 
 
 " You are monstrous impertinent, sir and, besides, 
 monstrous ignorant of what you are talking about ! " 
 
 " Madam, his lordship is still the willing prize of 
 another bow. . . . Kitty, Kitty, you will point your little 
 arrows in vain, for once." 
 
 The more serious turn the conversation had taken 
 had arrested Mr. O'Hara's attention. He dropped the 
 slipper he had been melodramatically apostrophizing, 
 and began to listen with a serious countenance. 
 
 " I'll have you know, dear Kitty," pursued Mr. Staf- 
 ford in his gentle tone, " that this same Mandeville is 
 bound hand and foot, heart and purse, to one Rachel 
 Peace and a pretty piece likewise . . . pardon the 
 quip ! whilom Quaker, now fair renegade and actress
 
 95 
 
 at Sadler's Wells, where she is creating such a furore 
 that, by order of the Prince of Wales, a horse patrol 
 is now set nightly to protect the quality that throngs 
 the road between town and the Wells. He's mad in 
 love. Mad jealous too. He'll beat a man if he 
 applaud her not enough, and he'll beat a man if he 
 applaud her too well. Egad, I believe, did she but 
 know how to play her cards, she'd be his countess 
 
 yet i " 
 
 Kitty gave a start; her face contracted by a spasm 
 of fury. But, quickly restraining herself, she shrugged 
 her shoulders with a smile as of one who disdains to 
 argue, picked up her mask from the table, and feigned 
 a mighty interest in the glow of her eyes behind it in 
 the glass. 
 
 Lydia, who had listened with malicious approval to 
 Mr. Stafford's discourse, received his last remark with 
 a cough and an involuntary shake of the head. " Lud, 
 but these fine gentlemen be fools ! " she thought. " He 
 wants to put my mistress off, and sets her on with as 
 good as tally-ho ! " 
 
 But Mr. Stafford went on. He was, perhaps, not 
 such a fool as the worldly-wise Lydia believed ; he 
 perhaps found pleasure of a sort in this delicate baiting 
 of one who had baited him so long. 
 
 " And, sweet Kitty, I'll have you know that when 
 a man is as far gone in love as this same Mandeville,
 
 96 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 any other woman, be she as fair as Venus, is no more 
 to him than the veriest hag." 
 
 There are limits to the endurance even of a pretty 
 woman's pride. That Kitty Bellairs should live to be 
 told by a man that by any possibility she 
 
 " And I'll have you know, sir you who think your- 
 self so well posted in the news of the town that my 
 Lord Mandeville and Mistress Peace have not been on 
 speaking terms these ten days, and that his lordship 
 has been courting me steadily these six. I'll have you 
 know, sir, that his lordship is in sad need of fortune, 
 in sad need of settled life in fine, sir, of such a wife 
 as your humble servant ; and that this masked ball, 
 which you are pleased to-night to grace with your com- 
 pany, and where his Royal Highness is likewise to be 
 present, is given, sir, by his lordship's sister, Lady Flo, 
 in honour of Mistress Bellairs " the lady's flowery silks 
 and satins billowed round her as she swept an anni- 
 hilating curtsy " and I'll have you know, sir, that 
 this same masque, in my honour, is to no other end 
 than that his lordship may finally conclude matters 
 with a lady of his own world, worthier of his atten- 
 tions than this play-actress. My Lord Mandeville com- 
 missioned his sister to find him beauty, and money, 
 and wit, sir. I leave it to you to say if she has suc- 
 ceeded ! " 
 
 " 'Pon my soul ! " interrupted the Irish gentleman,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 97 
 
 with sudden explosion. " He'll be content with no less ! 
 It's the devil's own impudence he's got ! A carrot- 
 headed, empty-pursed rake of a fellow, with the tem- 
 per o Old Nick, if all accounts be true ! " 
 
 " If you say another word, O'Hara," said Kitty sum- 
 marily, over her shoulder, " Lydia will show you the 
 door." Silence fell on the instant, and Kitty flounced 
 her triumph upon the real offender. " Sq, sir," she 
 resumed, " you see." 
 
 " Beauty, money and wit," repeated he, in a kind 
 of muse. 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Stafford," affirmed Kitty, with a smile 
 and a wriggle ; " and my Lady Flora could think of no 
 one better." 
 
 " Indeed," said he, " I am not surprised." His 
 voice and look were so silky-soft that Mistress Bel- 
 lairs deemed him completely vanquished,, and woman- 
 like, proceeded to roll the prostrate foe in the dust. 
 
 " And so, my good friend, you need no longer fear 
 for me a bootless chase, for the quarry is to my hand 
 to lay low, if I please. And I myself have chosen the 
 form of entertainment for to-night, for it is my pleasure 
 to give his lordship further proof of my wit behind the 
 mask before permitting him to claim as his own well, 
 what you think, sir, will seem no better to him than 
 that of the veriest hag." 
 
 Now Mr. Stafford sighed and Mistress Kitty broke 
 
 4
 
 98 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 off. There was something disconcerting about his air. 
 She looked sharp inquiry at him. 
 
 " Let us go, my dearest madam," he said in a melan- 
 choly tone. 
 
 " You'll drive me mad," said she. 
 
 " What is it now ? My coach has been waiting this 
 hour to escort yours." Again she stamped her foot. 
 " You have my most earnest wishes," said he, turn- 
 ing up his eyes and sighing once more. 
 
 " Mr. Stafford," she stormed, " I'll have your mean- 
 ing, for this is more than I can endure." 
 
 " My Lord Mandeville will be waiting in vain for 
 beauty, wit, and money." She caught him by the 
 wrist and shook him. Then he fixed his eyes upon her, 
 for the first time that evening bereft of their dancing 
 mockery. " Kitty," said he, " you left one thing out 
 of your calculations." 
 
 " And pray what may that be ? " 
 
 " You've never really known anything of it yet, 
 though I vow you've seen it oft enough ; and 'tis some- 
 thing, my dear, that, when once you know it, you'll 
 let all the world go by, just for the sake of it. Lord 
 Mandeville knows it, and that is why, for all your wit 
 and all your beauty and all your money, you'll not 
 meet your match in him." 
 
 Kitty drew back, her lips curling in scorn. 
 
 " And this marvellous something ? "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 99 
 
 " 'Tis but Love, my dear lady." 
 
 She had known what he was going to say. And yet 
 it enraged her when he had said it. And so did the 
 groan with which O'Hara echoed the word. 
 
 " My pelisse, Lydia ! " she cried sharply. " My 
 fan, girl ! I verily believe I shall turn lunatic myself, 
 if I listen to these lunatics a moment longer. Call up 
 the footmen ! " 
 
 Yet, as Mr. Stafford was, facile princess, one of the 
 finest beaux in town, she was fain to accept his hand 
 as far as the coach, were it only for the effect upon the 
 gentlemen hopelessly waiting in the anteroom. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara caught the maid by the arm as she would 
 have followed her mistress. 
 
 " By Heaven, this is bad news for me ! And since 
 when, Lydia, has your divine mistress fixed her heart 
 upon that devil ? " 
 
 " Her heart ! " sneered Lydia, and tossed her head, 
 she being of Mr. Stafford's opinion on the matter. 
 
 " Lydia, me darling, if that Mandeville comes here 
 after her, think of me and poison his tea for him, and 
 I'll give you the finest diamond necklace in the world 
 if I have to go to the road for it." 
 
 He was desperately in earnest. There were beads 
 of anguish on his brow, and a gray pallor upon his 
 gallant comeliness. Yet, as he slid his arm imploringly 
 round the girl's waist, and felt how slim and trim it
 
 100 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 was, he could not help giving it a tender squeeze, for 
 its own sake. 
 
 " Get along with you ! " cried Lydia, with a vigorous 
 push, which landed him on the other side of the door. 
 
 Left alone, she stood in deep reflection. Then she 
 shook herself, and began folding and putting away her 
 mistress's garments with sharp movements which be- 
 trayed much inner irritation. All at once she paused. 
 
 A large pictorial card of invitation, elegantly engraved 
 by Mr. Bartolozzi, requesting Mrs. Bellairs's presence at 
 Lady Flora Dare-Stamer's mansion at Elm Park that 
 evening, caught her attention. 
 
 " La ! she's forgotten the ticket." 
 
 As she spoke the word, half aloud, a sudden gleam 
 leapt into her eye, succeeded by a slow, malicious smile. 
 
 Lydia nodded her head, as if in answer to some inner 
 suggestion ; and slipping the card into the bosom of 
 her gown, and snatching a cloak, straightway left the 
 house. 
 
 * * * * # 
 
 " Though your lordship does not dance, I trust he 
 sups," said the little pink domino. 
 
 Lord Mandeville, lying back so languidly on the 
 settee that his head reposed on the back of it and his 
 legs stretched to quite insolent length before him, turned 
 a lazy eye upon the small rosy mask who sat very up- 
 right by his side.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. IOI 
 
 These two had drawn apart into a deserted boudoir, 
 and, through wide-open double doors, looked forth on 
 the brilliant throng, ever shifting with ever changing 
 effect in the great ballroom beyond.. Out there all 
 was noise, with music and high voices and laughter ; 
 all was movement, white light, and flashing colour. 
 Here within, there was a padded stillness, an artful 
 pink-wax dimness a small silence, just for two. 
 
 Lord Mandeville yawned, without taking the trouble 
 to raise the large white hand that lay inert upon his 
 knees. (" Not even O'Hara," thought Mistress Kitty, 
 " has better teeth ; not even Stafford has a better leg ! ") 
 And that languid eye of his roamed from the tip of a 
 pink shoe, artfully peeping, to where the parting folds 
 of the pink domino first betrayed an entrancing vision 
 of the fall of an exquisite waist-line, and next the rise 
 of a still more exquisite bosom, a pearly peep of which 
 was triumphantly ridden by a tiny black star. 
 
 Resting his gaze at leisure on the round, saucy chin, 
 just clear of the hanging lace of the mask, his lordship 
 drawled at length, 
 
 " I don't mind supping, if you sit beside me, rosy 
 unknown." 
 
 Here he lifted one of his inert hands with so indiffer- 
 ent a gesture that Kitty was quite surprised to find it, 
 next, clasping her waist and pretty tightly too. Her 
 heart gave a leap. Did he guess . . . ? Bah! Men
 
 102 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 were all alike ! Disengaging herself, she remarked with 
 sudden asperity, 
 
 " Keep yourself under control, my lordj or we shall 
 quarrel." 
 
 He raised his sandy eyebrows a fraction higher than 
 nature had already drawn them, and slipped the re- 
 buked hand contentedly into the pocket of his em- 
 broidered waistcoat. 
 
 " I quarrel ? Tis vastly too much trouble. I'm the 
 most peaceable man alive." 
 
 " Oh, all the world knows," cried the pink domino 
 and through her mask her black eyes stabbed him like 
 fine stilettos " that your lordship is notoriously a lover 
 of peace." 
 
 For a second, between his drooping lids, there shot 
 at her, as it were, the gleam of a blade, before which 
 her own small weapons were but toys. Half-way up the 
 pallor of his cheek there crept a hesitating, sullen flush ; 
 but the next instant light and glow had faded again, 
 and his countenance was once more that empty mask 
 of manhood which so few had ever seen animated. His 
 waistcoat shook over a faint chuckle which found no 
 expression on his lips. 
 
 " When I find something better than peace, I may 
 love it dearer." 
 
 " Oh, vastly well ! " cried Kitty with an angry titter. 
 Not so easy to manage, this man, after all; he must
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 1 03 
 
 be stirred from his contemptuous ease at any cost ! 
 " And sure none of your lordship's well-wishers would 
 object, I'm told, were it only . . . peace and honour ! " 
 
 Lord Mandeville shifted himself in his seat, so as to 
 bring his full, indifferent eye straight upon the mask. 
 
 " Honour is a monstrous big word on little lips," 
 said he, without this time betraying the smallest emo- 
 tion. " But most of you fine ladies, I vow, know not 
 even how to spell it." 
 
 " Alas, my lord," cried the pink domino sharply, 
 " if all one hears be true, how many have you taught 
 to spell its opposite ! " 
 
 Lord Mandeville took his hand out of his pocket and 
 slapped it on his knee. 
 
 " My dear," said he, " if you'll take off that mask I'll 
 make your pretty lips spell some nice little words of 
 one syllable that, I trow, will not be new to them ! " 
 
 Mistress Bellairs looked at him a moment in deep 
 reflection before answering. Here, beside her, was the 
 most notorious row/ in the kingdom he who, if rumour 
 spoke truly, could make what he liked of half the fine 
 ladies in London, and disdained the trouble. Why had 
 she also set her heart on him ? What was there, then, 
 about him ? He was in difficulties, through his own 
 recklessness ; he was of no higher family than a dozen 
 others, and vastly less handsome than some. His eyes 
 were too prominent under too arched brows, his face
 
 IO4 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 too pale, his hair too sandy. Pride, pride, disdain, 
 ennui, sat on his languid eyelid, on his full underlip, 
 on his thrust-out cleft chin. What, then, was there 
 about him ? Something there must have been, in 
 sooth, for Kitty swore by all her little gods that she 
 would bring him to her feet. 
 
 " Pray, my lord, how do they spell manners in your 
 school ? " she asked. 
 
 " Much as they spell fiddle-de-dee in yours, my dear. 
 Tut ! off with your vizard, pink butterfly, and to our 
 bargain ! " 
 
 " Nay, sir ; I'll have you know it takes two to make 
 a bargain." 
 
 " In faith and I hope else it would be dull work. 
 You are elementary, madam. Why, 'tis one of the 
 first examples in grammar one learns to decline." 
 
 "Oh, to decline," quoth she pointedly. " I'll need 
 no teaching to do that here, my lord ! " 
 
 He again turned towards her. Tiny flecks of light 
 were dancing in the eyes he fixed upon her. Kitty saw 
 that she had begun not only to amuse but to tantalize. 
 Her heart swelled with anticipation of triumph. 
 
 Not only the easy kiss to be withheld until it was 
 asked for in other fashion than this, but the sight of 
 that little face of hers, which Kitty herself believed 
 was the most fascinating in all the town, to be denied 
 until that ripe moment when it should shine forth before
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 10$ 
 
 the assembled beauties of the great supper- table and 
 be acclaimed beyond compare that of his bride ! 
 * * * # * 
 
 A gray domino, dove-gray from head to foot, tall and 
 of very slight figure (so much only the close-falling 
 folds allowed the eye to apprise), had been leaning 
 against the archway, looking in upon them. Now she 
 glided across the room, and, to Kitty's extreme dis- 
 pleasure, sat down upon the other side of Lord Mande- 
 ville. The latter, however, did not seem to prize the 
 tete-a-tete so highly : he glanced round with a smile. 
 
 " A gray moth," said he, " and a pink butterfly. 
 Well, ladies, I have a large heart." 
 
 The gray domino sighed faintly, but with an echo as 
 of great sadness. 
 
 " Gray is a fair colour," said Lord Mandeville, sud- 
 denly and irrelevantly addressing his own diamond- 
 buckled shoe. " A man can live with grays where your 
 reds will sicken him in an hour." 
 
 His face softened as he spoke, in an almost incredible 
 manner, and his eye lost itself as if in the contempla- 
 tion of a tender vision. Kitty knew that he was think- 
 ing of his play-actress, and cursed the fine London lady 
 surely a fine London lady, if a guest at Elm Park this 
 night ! whose freak for a Quakerish colour had put 
 her own rosy brilliance at discount. 
 
 The gray domino sighed again.
 
 106 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Gray is the colour of fading light," said she. She 
 spoke in a voice obviously feigned, but even then it was 
 a soft one. " I ask myself what it is doing here." 
 
 " It's resting my eyes," said his lordship abruptly. 
 
 " Verily, a strange place for you too, sir, if rest be 
 what you are seeking." 
 
 Kitty's pulses began to beat very quickly. She had 
 pricked her ear at the sound of the " verily." 
 
 " May be that your lordship," said she, addressing 
 him, but answering his mysterious neighbour, " will find 
 more truth in light and colour after all than in these 
 demure grays. What is gray but tarnished white ? " 
 
 Gray Domino gave a little start and something like 
 the ghost of a cry. 
 
 Lord Mandeville rolled his eyes from the pink to the 
 gray. Then he put his own hand suddenly on the slender, 
 gray-gloved hand that was peeping out of the great 
 muffling sleeve, and turned his back upon Mistress Kitty. 
 
 " I came here to try and forget." 
 
 Kitty could hardly believe that this was the hard, 
 mocking voice she was familiar with. 
 
 " And can you forget ? " 
 
 "Aha!" thought the little, angry listener; "Gray 
 Domino omits to disguise her tones." 
 
 She could not distinguish his next words, which were 
 whispered into the newcomer's ear. But the answer 
 to them, though low spoken, with a little break as be-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. IO/ 
 
 tween tears and smiles, Kitty caught with a fierce pounce 
 as she lay in wait like a cat for a mouse. 
 
 Said Gray Domino, 
 
 " Ah, my lord, ah, Lionel, thee knows ! " 
 
 What Lord Mandeville knew Kitty did not pause to 
 ask, but she herself knew enough. She sprang to her 
 feet. 
 
 " Peace be with thee, friend Mandeville," she cried 
 with an angry titter, pausing a second to have the 
 satisfaction of seeing the gray domino again start and 
 wince to have the humiliation of meeting the careless 
 momentary glance that Lord Mandeville threw at her 
 before dismissing her existence from his mind. 
 
 Then she hurried forth, fluttering her feathers in a 
 vast state of fume and virtuous indignation, not un- 
 mingled with scorn for the worthlessness of the object. 
 It was monstrous, it was not to be borne, that honest 
 women should be brought in contact with such creatures ! 
 To push her audacity into pursuing him into his own 
 sister's house the hussy ! A Quaker, a renegade at 
 that, a fool into the bargain " Thee knows ! " and 
 to call herself an actress ! Kitty paused to consider for 
 a moment, with artistic regret, how she would hav*e 
 treated the situation. Then she pursued her angry 
 hunt for her hostess : such things were not to be per- 
 mitted to pass unpunished. The quality must be pro- 
 tected ; insolence must be exposed.
 
 108 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 She discovered Lady Flora easily enough : no domino 
 could disguise those rotund proportions, nor could the 
 jolly high laugh be kept by mask or hood within the 
 bounds of secrecy. 
 
 Kitty swiftly drew her aside and poured forth her 
 tale. At the news of so dangerous a presence in her 
 house and the consequent failure of their plans, the anger 
 of Lord Mandeville's sister was for the moment quite 
 satisfactory. 
 
 " Tut, tut ! A pretty story ! How dare the trollop ! 
 La ! dear, how you pinch ! Quite so. I agree with 
 you, but you need not shake me, child ; I'm not going 
 to stand it. But what is to do ? " 
 
 Kitty had her plan. It had sprung, like Minerva, 
 ready armed from her excited brain. Lady Flora listened 
 with but half attention; the supper-room was about to 
 be thrown open, the music had already ceased. The 
 best part of the entertainment, from her point of view, 
 was about to begin. After a second she chuckled: 
 Kitty's idea seemed to promise sport. 
 
 " Capital," she cried, " capital ! I leave it all to 
 you." Her mind flew off again to fat capon and Sillery. 
 '*But be brief. We are actually keeping his Royal 
 Highness waiting ! " 
 
 The authorization was all that Kitty Bellairs de- 
 manded. She was only anxious to be given a free hand. 
 For a second she stood in a corner of the ballroom, as if
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. IO9 
 
 in reflection, watching the scene as each silken beau sought 
 his favourite mask, and partners interchanged or clung 
 together, in anticipation of the procession to supper. 
 But all the while she never lost sight of the little pink 
 alcove room, as the cat watches the mouse-hole. She 
 knew that there was no other exit from it, and that her 
 prey could not escape. 
 
 " Supper, supper ! " cried Lady Flo jovially, her 
 plump, mittened hand resting on the boyish arm of the 
 royal guest. 
 
 " May I have the delight ? " said Mr. Stafford 
 in Kitty's ear. " I've been seeking you all the 
 evening." 
 
 To his surprise she accepted with alacrity, and there- 
 upon advanced with him into the room towards the 
 pompous figure of that elderly and renowned buck, Mr. 
 Colthurst of Glares, who was playing his usual role of 
 master of the ceremonies. At the same instant the tall 
 figures of Gray Domino and her cavalier appeared in 
 the archway. 
 
 Kitty's hour had struck. 
 
 " Pray, sir," said she to Mr. Colthurst, " have you not 
 forgot your duties ? Is it not to be ' Masks off ' ? " 
 
 He rolled a dubious and prominent eye. 
 
 " I thought at the supper table," said he. 
 
 " Pooh ! " cried Kitty, with a scornful titter behind her 
 vizard. " C'est la une mode bien passJe, cher monsieur!
 
 1 10 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Have you not heard that where Royalty is to sup no 
 one sits down in disguise ? " 
 
 Stafford stared in amaze at Rose Domino. What 
 was the new scheme ? Mr. Colthurst, on his side, hesi- 
 tated. But his glance appraised the film of priceless 
 lace, the flash of the great ruby at her throat ; while 
 his ear seized the assurance of her tone, the purity of 
 her French accent. Here was some very great lady; 
 and there was a new rule, and he had not known it ! 
 He flushed purple. 
 
 " Masks off ! " he exclaimed in commanding tones, 
 clapping his hands. "Every lady must this moment 
 unmask ! " 
 
 Gray Domino, half-way across the room, halted as if 
 the words had hit her. Lord Mandeville, with a whis- 
 pered encouragement, was for drawing her onwards. 
 Mr. Colthurst at this moment uplifted his hand ; a 
 respectful circle was formed round the door, into the 
 midst of which stepped the young Prince, and stood 
 smiling down the long saloon. Lady Flora's rubicund 
 visage, already unveiled, shone beside him ; and the 
 royal guest nodded with boyish pleasure and curiosity 
 as, one after the other, the vizards fell, the dominoes 
 were discarded, and many a fair, merry countenance was 
 revealed under the wax-lights. 
 
 Kitty had been among the first to obey the mandate 
 she had herself inspired the better to breathe her
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. Ill 
 
 triumph. She had succeeded ; the Quaker was trapped ! 
 She could almost hear how Lord Mandeville whispered 
 in the ear of his frightened partner, " Leave it to me. 
 I will manage." 
 
 " Shall you, my lord, shall you ? " cried the little 
 widow vindictively to herself. And, drawing Stafford 
 swiftly with her, she took up her post within easy distance 
 of the seat to which Lord Mandeville had retreated, in 
 the evident hope. of remaining unnoticed in the crowd. 
 It was then that Stafford began to guess something of 
 Kitty's manoeuvre. He recognized the " noble quarry," 
 and saw beside him the dove-gray mask, with whom 
 his lordship seemed indeed much occupied. 
 
 " Oho ! Sits the wind in that quarter ? Has some 
 new thing of wit, of wealth, and of beauty stolen a march 
 upon our delicious Kitty ? Why, then, as poor O'Hara 
 is so fond of saying, will there be wigs on the green ! " 
 
 Little, however, did the genial gentleman realize what 
 wigs ! 
 
 Kitty looked eagerly round the room. Thus far, so 
 many fair ones still preferred the delicate joys of dalli- 
 ance, so many lingered to whisper a last audacious or 
 coquettish word under safe cover, that Gray Domino 
 could evoke no comment. 
 
 Mistress Bellairs raised a shrill protest. She felt herself 
 the ineptitude of it. A few turned in surprise, a few in 
 admiration, to glance at the little face, which, quivering
 
 112 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 with passion, had never looked more brilliantly pretty. 
 But the young Bath widow was scarcely known yet in 
 town. And here a fading duchess shrugged her shoulder, 
 there a beau raised his glass to appraise en connoisseur. 
 No more did she avail. Still unnoticed, Gray Domino 
 sat in safety, and Lord Mandeville was whispering un- 
 punished in her ear. Quick as lightning Kitty turned 
 to Stafford. 
 
 " Up with you ! " she bade him, in a fierce undertone. 
 " It is the right of you men to claim ' Masks off ! " 
 
 He looked at her with a sort of benevolent amusement 
 as she trembled beside him ; then, whether to please her, 
 whether from a curiosity to see the end of the comedy, 
 prepared to humour her. 
 
 Beau Stafford was a power in the narrow world of 
 fashion. The mere fact of his advance into the room 
 secured silence. 
 
 " Fie ! fie ! " he cried. " Why will our fair ones be 
 so fair, yet so unfair ? Gentlemen, insist upon your 
 rights ; your hour has come ! Off with those ugly bar- 
 riers behind which we have been baited and mocked all 
 night " 
 
 He was interrupted by bursts of laughter. Masculine 
 hands were outstretched, little white ones repelled them. 
 It was a pretty uproar. His Royal Highness was vastly 
 entertained. Emboldened, Mr. Stafford raised his voice 
 higher,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 113 
 
 " Nay, then he that fails to get the vision of his lady's 
 face, let him pass as a discarded knight ! And the fair 
 one who still denies why, faith, let her pass as one who 
 had better hide ! " 
 
 He laughed out loud himself, the genial beau, as he 
 ran a swift eye over the length of the room. That last 
 neat thrust of his had reached home. Not a lady but 
 had swiftly whipped off the offending vizard. He was 
 retiring, well satisfied, to Kitty's side, when his arm was 
 nipped between little fingers of steel. 
 
 " Look to your right ! " ordered Mrs. Bellairs. 
 
 And truly, there sat Gray Domino, still masked. 
 Beside her, aroused for once in his life, with countenance 
 changing from livid pallor to crimson, Lord Mandeville, 
 with furious eyes, challenging. 
 
 These were days when if a gentleman did not hold 
 blood cheap he were not worthy the blood of a gentle- 
 man. It was these challenging eyes that Mr. Stafford 
 hastened to answer now, rather than Kitty's implied 
 command. 
 
 " So, ho, my lord, do you plead guilty, or does your 
 partner ? " 
 
 There was a flutter that cleared the space around 
 him. Kitty negligently flirted her fan. Things were on 
 the move at last. 
 
 " And if it pleases me that my partner should remain 
 masked, what then, Mr. Stafford ? "
 
 114 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Why, then, your lordship has doubtless good rea- 
 sons. But 'tis not for me to give the verdict, since his 
 lordship has a right to be judged by his peers." 
 
 So saying, he drew back. But matters were indeed 
 moving, as Kitty had pronounced. Curiosity was aroused 
 ay, and jealousy. The men were now all agog about 
 the mysterious stranger ; the ladies were dying to know 
 who could have made so swift a conquest where most 
 had tried and failed. The Prince was observed to ques- 
 tion Lady Flora, and the latter began to display some 
 flurry. She was anxious, indeed, as Kitty noted with 
 much wrath, to lead him forthwith to the supper-room. 
 But, his curiosity being piqued, he pleasantly but firmly 
 resisted. 
 
 There was clamour and counter-clamour. Gray Dom- 
 ino sat very still ; Lord Mandeville, crouching a little 
 forward, looked from one to < other, not unlike a wild 
 beast selecting his prey. Suddenly he sprang to his feet 
 and touched the hilt of his sword, snarling against the 
 laughing cries, " Unmask ! unmask ! " 
 
 " And I say she shall not ! " 
 
 There fell a dead silence. This sudden turn towards 
 tragedy was unexpected not at all in good taste. Lady 
 Flora looked extremely annoyed, while, with the ex- 
 quisite tact that always characterized him, his Royal 
 Highness pointedly drew attention to the charming 
 design of her Venetian chandeliers.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 11.5 
 
 The poor hostess laid her hand on his arm and again 
 murmured " Supper ; " but he, with an airy gesture of 
 admiration towards the ceiling (painted by Thornhill), 
 contrived to advance quite a couple of yards nearer the 
 interesting group. 
 
 As Lord Mandeville had touched his sword he had 
 looked again darkly at Mr. Stafford, and Mr. Stafford 
 had instantly taken one step forward and repeated the 
 gesture with cheerful alacrity. It was as discreet as an 
 interchange of masonic amenities. But behind her mask 
 Gray Domino's eyes shifted from one to the other. 
 
 " Come," said Lord Mandeville then, with sudden de- 
 cision, and laid his hand on her shoulder. 
 
 Gray Domino rose, but it was not to obey. For the 
 first time in the scene in which she was so deeply in- 
 terested, she lifted her voice ; a low, soft voice it was, 
 yet heard all through thf.^pm. 
 
 " Nay," said she, " God forbid that hand should 
 touch sword because of my folly. I will even uncover 
 my face." 
 
 Lord Mandeville started with a gesture of angry pro- 
 test. Then, with a swift change of mood, 
 
 " Do so, then ! " he cried loudly, and sent his eyes 
 roaming in defiance round the expectant circle, to end 
 at last upon his sister's heated countenance. Yet now 
 the defiance of those arrogant eyes of his was almost 
 joyous, almost that of triumph.
 
 Il6 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Under hands that trembled a little, Gray Domino's 
 mask fell, and the face of Rachel Peace was revealed to 
 the assembly. 
 
 There was a sudden indrawing of breath, a rustle and 
 creak of silk as if upon a gasp of surprise, then a deep 
 silence in which the very walls seemed to take eyes, and 
 then a low quick murmur. 
 
 The countenance of Rachel Peace, among all these 
 flushed and rouged faces, looked strangely pale. As 
 those who knew her remembered, her head usually 
 drooped a little from a long, slender neck ; but now, 
 held high, it took a poise of pride. Hers was the counte- 
 nance of one who thought, of one who suffered. There 
 were many more beautiful present, there were some of 
 the noblest in the land ; but beside this poor actress in 
 her hour of humiliation, how inane, how vapid did they 
 show the Fine Ladies beside the Woman! Rachel 
 Peace moved slow eyes from one to another, and there 
 was not a man that moment that did not envy Lord 
 Mandeville. There was also not a dame but would 
 have cheerfully signed the girl's death-warrant, save, 
 perhaps, Lady Flora, whose good-natured soul was 
 chiefly concerned at such a to-do in her house, at such 
 an interruption to good appetite. But, with the Prince's 
 now grave presence by her side, and goaded as she was 
 by looks, shrugs, whispers, she felt forced to take action. 
 She could be a very great lady when she chose.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 1 1/ 
 
 " Pray, madam," said she, advancing in dignity, 
 " to what do I owe the honour ? " 
 
 The slow eyes turned to her. Then Rachel Peace 
 spoke again. 
 
 " Alas, madam," she answered with simplicity, " there 
 is no excuse that I can offer for my intrusion. I can 
 only beg your ladyship to allow me to withdraw." 
 
 She moved forward and curtsied to the Prince with 
 the inimitable grace and measure of one to whom the 
 art of movement has become second nature. And on 
 the same instant an unexpected utterance pronounced 
 the verdict of the evening. 
 
 " I feel sure," said the young Prince, " that wherever 
 Miss Rachel Peace appears, she may reckon upon a 
 welcome." 
 
 Thereupon he clapped his hands twice, lightly, as'if 
 applauding her from the royal box in her own playhouse. 
 On the instant every gentleman in the company fol- 
 lowed the august example. And Rachel Peace made 
 her exit to the familiar sound of acclamations. 
 
 At the door she looked back over her shoulder and 
 found Lord Mandeville close to her. 
 
 " Nay," she said to him, " I pray you let me go forth 
 alone." 
 
 But before the flame in his eye her own sank. She 
 suffered him to lead her. 
 
 " I vow," said the Prince to Lady Flora as they moved
 
 LI 8 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 towards the supper-room, " I am indeed ready to do 
 justice to the famed cuisine of Elm Park House!" (So 
 was Lady Flo.) 
 
 Mr. Stafford drew a deep sigh and seemed to wake as 
 from a dream. 
 
 " By the Lord," said he to himself, " I cannot regret 
 what I have done. No, not though I'm like to have to 
 make an early morning of it at carte and tierce with 
 my lord. Gad, but she's a pearl ! And the dog is in 
 too much luck." 
 
 The next instant his eye lit upon Kitty almost in sur- 
 prise. He had actually forgotten her. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Stafford," said she, in a concentrated 
 undertone, " you've made a pretty mess of everything 
 to-night ! " 
 
 Kitty did not bear defeat graciously. But Kitty, 
 with large eyes softened by a mist of angry tears, red 
 lips trembling in babyish fashion, was no such un- 
 attractive spectacle. And Mr. Stafford smiled in- 
 voluntarily at her. 
 
 " Bah ! " she pursued ; " there's not a man that knows 
 how to behave to a lady ! How dared you clap your 
 hands at the creature ? Oh," said she, with a catch in 
 her breath, " if my poor O'Hara had been here ! " 
 ***** 
 
 Lord Mandeville paused. He and Rachel Peace stood 
 alone in the hall.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 119 
 
 " Sweetheart," he said, " I have asked no question 
 yet. But now I must know. How come you here ? " 
 
 She turned her face towards him and tried to look 
 up. But her eyes fell. 
 
 " You parted from me in anger. My heart was like 
 to break all those days. To-night it was after the play 
 I had no courage left. A woman came to me one I 
 did not know and she put a card into my hand, and 
 said to me, ' Go, if ' " 
 
 " If what ? " 
 
 " If I would not lose you. I saw it was inscribed 
 to the name of the lady O my lord ! to the name of 
 her whom people say you are to wed ! And so I was 
 seized with madness, I think and so I came ! " 
 
 Then, as once before this evening, she raised her head 
 in pride. 
 
 " Let them think what they will of me," she said, 
 " but thee knows, my lord, there is no reason why I 
 should not stand among your sister's guests ! " 
 
 " Do I not know it but too well ? " he made answer. 
 " Ah, Rachel, you are my despair and my glory ! "
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LITTLE RED HEELS. 
 
 MR. DENIS O'HARA was distracted between ecstasy and 
 despair. 
 
 It had so fallen out that the lady of his heart, the 
 object of years of hopeless devotion, Mistress Kitty Bel- 
 lairs, to wit daintiest -ittle widow that ever stepped 
 through an obsequious world on high red heels ! was 
 not to contract, after all, that magnificent alliance which 
 would have been the death-blow to his own aspirations. 
 
 Furthermore, the circumstances of the breach between 
 the wealthy widow and my lord Earl Mandeville had 
 been such as to place the lady in the odious and un- 
 paralleled position of aggrieved party. Not to mince 
 words, the lovely Kitty had been jilted she, the most 
 notorious little jilt herself ! In circumstances such as 
 these, the Irishman (an experienced lover) had said 
 to himself, " There's no knowing." Hence ecstasy ! 
 
 But, alas ! what Mr. O'Hara knew but too well 
 what, indeed, demanded no effort of intellect for its 
 realization was the vacuous state of his purse, and the
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 121 
 
 consequent impossibility of maintaining himself with 
 any sort of credit within the brilliant circle that sur- 
 rounded the rich widow. Hence despair ! 
 
 Matters came to a crisis. He lost the last of his 
 guineas at the bouillotte of my Lady Buckinghamshire's 
 mansion, in a gallant effort to retrieve his fortunes. 
 Mistress Kitty Bellairs's doors were yet closed to all the 
 world, and her friends were still asked to believe that the 
 little lady was a prey to the grippe. But this mood 
 could not last long. Denis became desperate. He 
 withdrew from company, spent the night over figures. 
 He was not at the best of times particularly good at 
 calculations, and the result of his strenuous vigil (a wet 
 towel tied over his red curls to ensure coolness of brain 
 action, a jug of delicately brewed rack-punch to stimulate 
 activity of thought) was a couple of innocent-looking 
 figures, followed by such a distracting row of noughts 
 as to make him empty the brew at a draught and fan 
 himself with his wet towel. 
 
 " The curse of the crows is on it ! " said the poor 
 young man, a sorry, haggard spectacle in the grim 
 winter dawn. " There's no making the two ends of the 
 candle meet at all, at all, over here. There's nothing 
 for it but I must all the way to Ireland and see if the 
 old gentleman has left me a few sticks of trees to cut 
 down, and what I can squeeze or coax out of the lawyer 
 boys."
 
 122 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Yes, he must go, and that forthwith. My Lord 
 Verney would gladly lend him a handful of guineas, 
 to go away withal ; his landlady would trust him till 
 his return. (Where was there a woman yet that would 
 not trust O'Hara, the handsome ne'er-do-weel ? Many 
 a one, in truth, would have been glad to trust him 
 further than he, with his single heart, was like to ask 
 of her.) 
 
 On the noon after this tremendous resolution Denis 
 was ready to start. Verney's gold jingled in his pocket. 
 He had kissed his landlady, left a despairing love-letter 
 at the inexorably-barred door of Kitty in dudgeon ; and 
 under the pale blue sky, misting into dun city vapours, he 
 mounted a mettlesome chestnut mare " Red Beauty" 
 yclept lent from the stables of Mr. Stafford, a wealthy 
 friend, and selected by him as " a good match for his 
 hair ! " (Mr. Stafford, like the rest of Mistress Bellairs's 
 little court, perhaps saw no disadvantage in the absence 
 for a while from the town of the winning Mr. O'Hara.) 
 Posting was expensive ; coaching in winter weather and 
 wintry roads was slow ay, and too dull. Mr. Staf- 
 ford's friendly loan was opportune. 
 
 With light valise strapped on the crupper, with holsters 
 well filled, with a handy hanger on his thigh, instead of 
 the natty smallsword at which he was such an expert, 
 Mr. O'Hara pricked his way down Knightsbridge to- 
 wards the old Bath Road, bent for Bristol, a solitary
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 123 
 
 horseman, yet with none too heavy a heart, in spite of 
 the uncertainty of his venture. 
 
 To have young blood in your veins and a singing 
 soul, to feel a piece of good horse-flesh between your 
 knees, to be independent and yet to be in love, to be 
 setting forth on a hazard of risky fortunes and yet to 
 have settled hopes does a man need more to be happy ? 
 
 A tolerably well-metalled turnpike road ringing to 
 quick hoofs; a fair country opening out ever new and 
 ever fairer ; a glorious frosty sky above, and tart, tingling 
 airs whipping the cheeks ; the prospect of a strange inn- 
 room and of unknown company for the night's halt ; 
 the arrival in the dark through the spice of lurking 
 danger ; the savour of unfamiliar country fare, and the 
 smack of the nutty home-brewed against the palate ; 
 the traveller's tale in the inglenook by the fire; the 
 drowsy comfort and the deep sleep ; the awakening of 
 a morning in a strange bed, and the looking out upon 
 an unknown landscape under a fairy veil of frost ; and 
 next day, the start again, a fresh man into a fresh world, 
 with the rested steed spurning the frozen ground with 
 drum of iron ! ... It is a question, after all, whether 
 the little frequent joys of life do not total a better sum 
 of satisfaction than the rare ecstasies which make so 
 great a demand upon our human limitations and leave 
 such void behind. 
 
 True, this traveller would heave a heavy sigh ever and
 
 124 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 anon at the thought of the space and time he was put- 
 ting, ever lengthening, between himself and his beloved. 
 But the next moment her name would be on his lips with 
 a smile. And, after all, true lover that he was, did he 
 not bear her with him a most delicate and roguish 
 dream- Kitty, and a far tenderer, if truth be told, than 
 the same lady in the dainty flesh ? For did she not, 
 in his fancy, trot about his room on little red heels, and 
 kiss him good-night with a lace kerchief tied over her 
 dark curls ? (as once he had seen her at her toilet. Oh, 
 lovely Kitty !) 
 
 And did she not ride behind him through the sparkle 
 and tingle of the morning, an invisible Kitty on an 
 invisible pillion, but with her sweet arms round his 
 neck to keep his heart warm ay, and now and then 
 whispered in his ear, to send the song of his soul carol- 
 ling loud to those silent hedges, so furred with little 
 icicles that not even a robin could pipe there ? 
 
 The first halt at Hounslow ; the next day " at the 
 sign of the Angel," Woolhampton, where, after a mighty 
 fine supper, Mr. O'Hara spent the night appropriately 
 in roaming fields heavenly with his own particular 
 conception of an angelic being in red-heeled slippers, 
 diamond-buckled ! And he started next day in the 
 highest feather under quite a warm middle-day sun, for 
 just as far as his own humour and the mettle of friend 
 Stafford's admirable chestnut mare would lead him.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 125 
 
 They were now drawing near the high, flat wastes 
 of Cold Ash gorse-fields, not many miles short of New- 
 bury, when a bleak wind began to rise, whistling shrew- 
 ishly in the rider's ears, and bringing such dull, chill 
 mists up against the sky that all its ruddy sunset promise 
 was lost in threats of snow. The soul of the impression- 
 able Irishman became instantly affected. 
 
 " And faith ! " said he, turning up the great collar of 
 his roquelaure to his ears, and feeling the wind pinch the 
 tip of his boots " faith ! and 'tis the devil of a lonely 
 journey to-day not the nose of a nag in sight ; not 
 the tail of a coach ; not even the rim of a highwayman's 
 barker ! " As this last thought hopped into Tiis mind 
 to the tune of his trot, a smile twisted his lips. " By 
 my soul, and that's an idea ! " said he. " I wonder, 
 now, I haven't taken to the business myself, instead of 
 starting this weary old way to Ireland ! " 
 
 Once, in a fit of desperation, he had indeed promised 
 Lydia (a person of prodigious importance to all lovers 
 of her mistress) to "go on the road," if necessary, and 
 get her a diamond necklace in recognition of court 
 service ! He juggled with the thought for a minute or 
 two, cheating himself out of his sudden sense of de- 
 pression and loneliness by a vivid series of fancy 
 pictures. 
 
 "There does not seem to be a gentleman left in the 
 profession, if all one hears of the road be true. . . .
 
 126 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Now, I flatter myself," thought he, " that I could show 
 them the way to do the thing ! " 
 
 Tickled by the humorous thought, he gave his hat a 
 truculent cock, loosened one of his pistols in its holster, 
 and looked round upon the leaden waste with the air 
 of the most gallant desperado. The road ran along a 
 high stretch of open grass-land, and then suddenly 
 dipped, so that the view in front of the traveller was 
 of flat spaces enclosed as in a cup of dull sky. Sud- 
 denly, in the midst of his mental antics, his eye was 
 attracted by the silhouette of a man's hat, minute but 
 distinct as if cut out of : court plaster, rising upon 
 this near horizon-line. Under hat-silhouette followed 
 promptly silhouette of flying cloak, then silhouette of 
 straining horse. 
 
 " Company, be jabers ! " cried Denis jovially. And, 
 as he and the newcomer drew nearer to each other, 
 he gathered up his reins to make the chestnut strike 
 out with elegance. 
 
 " He's come apace," thought the Irishman, " whoever 
 he be. That beast of his is dead-beat ; the legs are 
 trembling under him. And by me soul ! what sort 
 of company is it at all ? ... Bad, I'm thinking." 
 
 The stranger indeed bore no very prepossessing ap- 
 pearance ; and the occupation in which he was engaged 
 as, with reins loose upon its neck, his exhausted, sweat- 
 matted steed toiled up the incline, was not the most
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. I2/ 
 
 reassuring one in the world. With feverishly-hurried 
 hands he was, in fact, reloading a long horse-pistol. 
 About his garments there was a flaunting air of shabby 
 smartness ; upon his countenance (which was marked 
 for observation by a dismal length of copper-red nose), 
 a scowling anxiety that tried in vain to assume the easy 
 airs of dash and impudence. He lowered up from his 
 pistol to Denis as the latter, with an engaging smile, 
 drew rein within a few yards ; then he flung a swift 
 backward look over his shoulder. In both glances there 
 was a background spark of craven fear. 
 
 " Oho and oho ! " said Denis to himself with a leap 
 of the blood. Then his smiling lip curled. " And did 
 I not say that there was not a gentleman in it ? Oh, 
 shade of my gay Duval ! Alas, gallant Maclean ! what 
 sorry scion of your race is this ? " 
 
 " You ride lonely, sir," began he aloud, addressing the 
 stranger. 
 
 " For the matter of that, sir," answered the latter, 
 after a slight pause, balancing the now reloaded pistol 
 in his right hand and gathering the reins in his left as 
 he spoke " for the matter of that, sir, so do you." 
 
 " And you have ridden fast, I mark, sir," pursued 
 O'Hara genially. 
 
 " Pray, sir," snarled the other, " what is that to 
 you?" 
 . As he spoke his furtive eye shifted from O'Hara's
 
 128 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 smiling countenance to the points of the dancing mare, 
 and thereupon became filled with a sinister, greedy glow. 
 On his side, with bridle hand warily alert, and pur- 
 posely keeping Red Beauty on the move to frustrate 
 sudden attack, the Irishman pursued with unperturbed 
 amiability, 
 
 " Agreed ! A gentleman may have his reasons eh, 
 friend ? " 
 
 " Reasons ? Reasons ? Hell, sir ! I have no more 
 reasons than another man. I'll have you know, sir, 
 that I'm none of your fellows with reasons. I'll drive 
 any man's teeth down his throat who dares to say I 
 have reasons ! " 
 
 " Upon my life, a lad of richest humour ! " cried 
 O'Hara, addressing the wind. " Indeed, sir," added he, 
 then, in a more personal manner, " it is evident I did 
 you infinite wrong. Spare my teeth, for I have a pretty 
 smile (or, so the ladies say) ; and I will make the hand- 
 some admission that you have no reason on this road, 
 or off it either." 
 
 So very uneasy became the degenerate Duval under 
 Mr. O'Hara's playful banter that it was quite obvious 
 that he hesitated between instant flight or instant 
 attack. Choler, however, had the better of him. A 
 threatening gleam appeared in his eye ; his long pistol 
 inclined towards an attitude to match. Denis instantly 
 pushed the mare sidling a pace nearer. In proportion
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 129 
 
 to her advance the stranger drew his exhausted horse, 
 stumbling, obliquely away. 
 
 " That is, no doubt, a remarkable weapon of yours, 
 sir," quoth Lord Kilcroney's heir in that tone of deli- 
 cate, taunting, irony that was so wasted here. " Must 
 have been used at Blenheim. Old-fashioned, but useful, 
 no doubt. Fie on it, though, for its useless length of 
 nose ! A long nose, sir, is a mistake, if you can avoid 
 it in a pistol, I mean. What would you think now, 
 I wonder, of the build of this pretty one ? " And Mr. 
 O'Hara (who had been holding his adversary with a 
 fierce, dilating eye, almost as round as a pistol-rim in its 
 wide-opened lids) here, with a swift and elegant motion 
 of his long, gauntleted right hand, extracted the easy- 
 sitting pistol, and, in his turn, balanced it with as much 
 significance as the bully, but a vast more o'f elegance. 
 
 " Rigby's latest pattern, sir. The creature has a 
 pretty voice. Hark to it clear its throat ! " As he 
 spoke he set the cock, and the click rang sharp and musi- 
 cal. "I can recommend Rigby, of Dublin Town. With 
 a Rigby, sir, a gentleman can have reasons on the road." 
 
 " Can he ? can he, sir ? can he ? " exclaimed the 
 rider, with a sudden blustering outburst, as uncertain 
 in its aim as the wavering weapon in his hand " can 
 he ? And gentleman, forsooth ! I'll have you know by 
 by and, by hell ! that, gentleman or no gentleman, 
 no one has right or reason on this road when I ride. 
 
 5
 
 130 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 When I ride ; d'ye hear ? And that by ancient rules 
 of the High Toby ! " 
 
 " Rules of the High Toby ! " echoed O'Hara, vastly 
 entertained by the sound of the unknown cant. " High 
 Toby, sir ? Any connection with little Toby Phil- 
 pott ? " cried he. " Yet, if I take your meaning, a 
 somewhat more dangerous person. An acquaintance 
 like enough to lead on to the Jug ! Eh ? Rules of 
 High Toby, say you ? Will they not bring a man so 
 high that he may end by dancing on air ? " 
 
 " 'Sdeath ! " cried the Knight of the Road, and grew 
 gray all but his copper nose. Upon which, to nerve 
 himself, he called upon fury again. But all the time 
 his frightened hare of an eye fluttered from O'Hara's 
 pistol back to the road that dipped into the valley. 
 " The devil is in your flummery ! " he yelled. " No 
 gentleman, I say, shall ride on my road, as I'll very 
 soon show you." 
 
 He wrenched at his horse's reins; but the wretched 
 creature, in the vain effort to answer his master's call, 
 faltered, floundered, and nearly fell. In the midst of 
 his flying oaths O'Hara noted once again the covetous 
 gaze enveloping his own splendid mount. 
 
 " Aha ! " cried the alert gentleman to himself. " So 
 'tis the mare he's after ! " And instantly, by a twist 
 of the reins and a spur of the heel, Mr. O'Hara whisked 
 round upon his adversary, flanking out of the line of
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 13! 
 
 the pistol just as this latter was, at last, brought to a 
 decided point. 
 
 " So that's the game ? " he cried, with the exultation 
 that any prospect of conflict never failed to bring him. 
 " A match, brother Turpin, a match ! Barker for 
 barker, my Rigby against your Long-nose. I refer, 
 sir, to that interesting heirloom of good Queen Anne's 
 days, your pistol." 
 
 But the aggrieved highwayman, apparently, was not 
 used to take professional work in so light-hearted a 
 manner ; the intruder's airy agility of wit disconcerted 
 him even more than his steadiness of hand and the 
 nimbleness of his equitation. Again he hesitated, again 
 flung a darkling look upon the coveted steed. Then, to 
 O'Hara's mingled disappointment and amusement, mut- 
 tering between his teeth a handsomely - larded phrase 
 to the effect of his having no time to waste on fools, 
 fairly turned tail and set off along the gray road at the 
 best of his sorry nag's speed. And ever and anon the 
 backward look ! 
 
 It was this backward look that kept Denis from prick- 
 ing in pursuit. 
 
 " Why, the creature's no more liver on him than a 
 white rabbit ! " cried he dolefully as he watched him 
 out of sight. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Nevertheless, for all its disappointing issue, this little
 
 132 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 encounter had pleasantly enlivened Mr. O'Hara. He 
 started down the hill at a brisk trot. 
 
 " I smell snow," said he, and thought of the Pelican 
 a few miles ahead a hostelry he was well acquainted 
 with and of a ruddy fire and a streaming brew. 
 
 Upon the lower level he passed once more into the 
 land of hedges and fields ; rode unde the shade of 
 Dunstan Park woods, naked, yet sheltering. There, 
 upon the ground where the frost had not lain and the 
 stepping was softer, between ditches full of sodden, pun- 
 gent leaves, the mare broke into a joyous canter, to the 
 tune of a fresh dance of little red heels in the rider's 
 heart. 
 
 And thus cantering, they came at the turn of the 
 road upon a high, yellow chaise that travelled in the 
 direction of Newbury at a melancholy and uncertain 
 rate. O'Hara would have sped past without bestowing 
 more than a glance but for the sounds of wrangling 
 which rose loud into the wintry silence wrangling in 
 the midst of which something familiar, in a pipy voice 
 and an affected, mincing speech, seemed to strike his 
 ear. He wheeled Red Beauty suddenly round. A 
 surly-looking postboy, with eyes well-nigh as furtive 
 as those of his recent road acquaintance, pulled the 
 horses to a standstill. 
 
 " By our noble fathers' thirst, whom have we here ? " 
 cried O'Hara.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS'. 133 
 
 The clamour in the gig was succeeded by a hush. 
 Then : " O lord ! " rose a voice, quavering in terror, 
 " is this another of them ? " Upon which, the shrill 
 accents which O'Hara seemed to have recognized cut 
 in, acid : " Get out your pistals, paltroon. A carse 
 on my good nature that I should have ever have 
 cansarted with a City dag ! Rat you, you mast do 
 the fighting this time ! " 
 
 " Spoicer, as I live 1 'Tis Spoicer ! " exclaimed 
 Lord Kilcroney's heir, with a great burst of laughter. 
 Through the window a long, lean, deathlike face was 
 gingerly protruded. At sight of rider it broke into a 
 sickly smile. 
 
 " Tare and 'ouns, man ! " Mr. O'Hara called out ; 
 " what's up with you ? You look like a fresh-made 
 corpse ! Tisn't considerate to suggest a wake when 
 there's not a bottle within miles." 
 
 " I've been wounded. Mr. O'Hara," responded the 
 gentleman with dignity. " Stapped in broad daylight, 
 too, set apon, rabbed, wounded " 
 
 He raised his right arm, bound with a blood-stained 
 napkin, nursing it upon his left hand for O'Hara's 
 inspection. But if he expected sympathy, he was dis- 
 appointed. O'Hara gave a long whistle. This ex- 
 plained the reloading performance of Copper-nose ! A 
 calf-like bleat of terror from within the chaise brought 
 him back to the present circumstances.
 
 134 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Come, Spicer," quoth he, " let us see what you've 
 got in there. Something young and tender and green, 
 as usual, I'll warrant ! A gosling with some lard on 
 him, I'll stake my life, or you would not be his bear- 
 leader ! Come, young sir ! " knocking jovially with 
 the butt of his whip on the taut leather of the hood. 
 " Show yourself ! Your money is safe from me." 
 
 " Money ! " responded the bleat, pitifully, while its 
 owner displayed at the same time a pale, silly, flabby 
 visage of remarkable immaturity. 
 
 " Money, sir ! " echoed Spicer, again thrusting him- 
 self into prominence. " Did I not tell you, man, that 
 I have been rabbed rabbed of near everything, sir ? 
 We have been fallowed, 'tis my belief, all the way from 
 Hounslow. This fool would prate of our gold from inn 
 to inn " 
 
 " Now," thought O'Hara, " the story unfolds. Now 
 is made plain the reason of friend Copper-nose's found- 
 ered nag ! A stern chase is a long chase, as your pri- 
 vateersman has it." 
 
 Meanwhile, " Our money ! 'Twas my money ! " the 
 poor calf was whimpering. " Three hundred guineas 
 ... in a sealskin bag Aunt Matilda's legacy all 
 gone, all gone ! " 
 
 Now, the devil would have it that Mr. O'Hara must 
 always see the joke of the situation. No sooner had 
 this moving tale fallen upon his ear than he set up
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 135 
 
 such a laugh that the very crows at the top of Dunstan 
 trees took wing with scandalized cawings. 
 
 That Captain Spicer, the ingenious gentleman whose 
 main business in life was to teach the rich greenhorn 
 the ways (and byways) of the fashionable world a 
 business requiring much delicacy of handling, but, in a 
 general way, very lucrative indeed that Captain Spicer 
 should thus have the fruit of probably many day's 
 diplomacy whisked away from under his nose, without 
 (as the Irishman phrased it to himself) as much as a 
 bite, the story was rich ! 
 
 " Ton my soul, Spicer," quoth he, " I'm sorry for 
 you ! " 
 
 He glanced at the surly post-boy, then thought of 
 the long-nosed man and his frightened eye, and laughed 
 again this time scornfully. 
 
 " Scarce the crow of a mouse between the two of 
 them, and a confederate to drive the pair and send 
 notice ! Ha ! Copper-nose had a simple job here . . . 
 but he had a long race for his three hundred guineas. 
 No wonder he longed for my Red Beauty. Three hun- 
 dred guineas, and but a dead lame nag to scuttle away 
 with them not five miles in the poor beast left." 
 
 " Little thought I," cried the led captain, with fresh 
 acrimony, " when I cansented to give the creature 
 this Haggins, old Haggins the silversmith's nephew, 
 pah ! the benefit of my campany and countenance at
 
 136 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Bath, that I had to deal with a coward. Yes, Mr. Hag- 
 gins, a coward ; that is what I said." 
 
 " Zounds ! " cried the goaded Huggins. " You 
 screeched out that you were murdered, Captain Spicer, 
 sir ! And, if you please, the scoundrel's pistol was at 
 my head, sir ! " 
 
 " Whereupan, sir," said Spicer, sneering hideously, 
 " you handed him your sealskin bag, as palitely, sir, as 
 if you were handing a snaff-bax, sir, aver your father's 
 counter, sir. But it serves me right, for condescending 
 to the City " 
 
 " And why, Spicer, why ? What would you expect of 
 a City gentleman but counter courage ? " cried O'Hara 
 in the highest humour. " Mr. Huggins, 'tis evident, 
 has been brought up to regard life from the safe side." 
 
 He had perforce to supply himself the applause to his 
 own quip, for neither of the combatants saw the point. 
 
 " And for the matter of that, Captain Spicer," re- 
 torted the calf, between tears and fury, " if you'd shot 
 
 a little straighter yourself, sir, I should not be now 
 
 ' Tis all the gratitude I get, you see, O'Hara. 
 Wounded, grievously wounded, and talked to, by Gad, 
 talked to by this fallow ! A serious wound, O'Hara 
 nay, two wounds ; for, blast me if the rascal's ball 
 did not go in at one side of my arm and out at the 
 ather ! " 
 
 " Went out, did it, now ? And prodigiously obliging
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 137 
 
 of it ! " cried the cheerful rider. " 'Twill save the 
 surgeon's fee." 
 
 " Three hundred guineas ! " ejaculated Mr. Huggins 
 again, with a sudden yelp, as if the memory of his wrongs 
 had been driven into him with a brad-awl. 
 
 " Three hundred guineas I " A second or two Mr. 
 O'Hara sat stock still in his saddle, staring across the 
 chaise towards the fields beyond. A few feathery 
 white flakes came undulating downwards from the 
 leaden sky. Here in this valley road there was shelter 
 from the wind, and the flakes fell fantastic slow. His 
 brow was drawn with deep thought. Presently a slow 
 smile overspread his countenance. 
 
 Within the chaise the pair were once more at their 
 wrangling. Upon his patient horse the post-boy with the 
 uneasy eye sat motionless, the image of sullen waiting. 
 
 " Good Gad, man ! " the Captain was saying, " will 
 you never have dan ? And by the way," exclaimed 
 he with sudden snarl, " rat me if I know what we are 
 loitering here for. Carse that postboy ! Drive on, 
 rascal, will you ? " 
 
 Denis awoke from his abstraction with a start. 
 " Farewell, then, my lively lads," quoth he, " for here 
 our ways diverge." 
 
 And then it was instructive to hear the gallant cap- 
 tain bestow as many curses on the postboy for starting 
 as the instant before for standing still. " Split him !
 
 138 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Rat him and for ever blast him ! Did he nat see that 
 he was speaking to the gentleman ? " 
 
 " O Denis < " next quoth he in piteousness, " you are 
 not going to leave us ? " 
 
 " Why, tare and ages ! " cried the Irishman in con- 
 tempt (" and Denis me no Denises, if you please, Cap- 
 tain Spicer !), do you think you will be stopped for your 
 beauty next ? Why, there is your postboy will answer 
 to any gentleman of the road that you're not worth 
 the stopping eh, friend ? " He reached the lad a 
 smart tap on the shoulder with his riding- whip, whereat 
 that individual let fly between his horse's ears a growl- 
 ing asseveration as to his utter ignorance of what the 
 gentleman could mean, but refrained from allowing 
 the candour of his visage to be scanned. 
 
 " Four lonely miles," groaned Spicer, " and I a 
 wounded man ! " 
 
 " Why, what is that but two apiece not to speak 
 of the boy and the horses ? " cried O'Hara, with his 
 pitiless laugh. " Sorry, my noble captain, but I have 
 business in this neighbourhood." 
 
 He took off his hat with a splendid flourish, wheeled 
 the chestnut abruptly round and up a by-lane, and was 
 off at so brisk a pace that before the dismal travellers 
 in the chaise could utter another protest he was out of 
 their sight. 
 
 " Unless I am much mistaken/' reflected the ingenious
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 139 
 
 gentleman, " this path must lead round the park to 
 the turnpike again." 
 
 And, truly, out on the turnpike again he came, before 
 the fast-falling shades of the winter night had gathered 
 to much more perceptible density. 
 
 " And now, Red Beauty, my dainty one," cried he 
 to his mare, as he shook the reins, and the mettled 
 beast responded instantly by breaking into her long, 
 easy canter, "'tis a race for love, when all's said and 
 done. And as good a joke, aha! as ever was heard, 
 into the bargain ! Bravo, my lady ! Never a touch, 
 of the spur shall your side get from me. Why, be- 
 gorrah ! 'tis the born hunter you are. Give me the 
 red-haired ones ! No wonder Copper-nose wanted you." 
 ***** 
 
 Having breasted the long ascent from the valley in 
 easy sprints for, keen as he was upon his quarry, O'Hara 
 was too true a sportsman to press a willing steed they 
 reached again those bleak wastes appropriately dubbed 
 Cold Ash, and then, with the wind at their back, let 
 fly through the driving dusk at topmost speed. Here 
 blew a whistling wind that scarce permitted a snowflake 
 to fall, while the laden clouds hung ever closer and 
 more lowering above the darkening land. 
 
 It was that dim and deceitful hour " 'twixt dog 
 and wolf," as the French have it when shadows and 
 objects are intermingled and outlines lost. Still the
 
 140 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 road stretched straight, a paler gray amid the deeper. 
 And if, once or twice, the chestnut shied, it was but 
 when some distorted, wind-nipped, ragged tree seemed 
 to leap, black, at her, out of the world of shadows. 
 Denis found the situation fitting his humour ; he tasted 
 with delight the contrast between his whipped-up blood 
 and the death-cold approach of night between the 
 desolation of the scene and his own luminous fancies ; 
 the rapid motion, in itself an exhilaration ; and, over 
 all, the sense of personal danger, which was always the 
 finest spice of life to him. 
 
 " But another mile or so," he reckoned, " my beauty, 
 and you and I will have a few more words to say to this 
 High Toby gentleman and his sorry nag." 
 
 The chuckle was yet on his lips when the swinging 
 pace beneath him was violently checked ; and the 
 next instant the chestnut, snorting in fury and fear, 
 was rearing from the indignity of a brutal grasp on her 
 bridle. Denis had scarce time to realize that the way 
 was blocked by some just distinguishable bulky mass a 
 dead horse, it seemed to be, just across the road and 
 that a man had sprung at his mare's head, before a 
 husky shout commanded him to dismount. 
 
 " Begorrah ! " cried he, " and is it on the top of you 
 I am, before I'd time to overtake you ? " 
 
 No sooner had the mocking Irish voice fallen upon the 
 air than, with a cursing " Oh, it's you, is it ? " the man
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 141 
 
 gave another furious tug at the bridle, and at the same 
 moment fired. A hot streak of flame passed, singing, 
 close above O'Hara's ear. Instantly, with the joyous 
 alacrity of the born fighter, his every instinct leaped to 
 the emergency. By the broad yellow flash he had seen, 
 painted as it were upon the black canvas of the night, 
 a vision of an evil, haggard countenance, of a long, 
 red nose. 
 
 " Now we know where we are ! Steady ! " quoth 
 he, and bent over on the side of his assailant. " Aha, 
 friend I " he cried with loud exultation, and darted 
 out a quick long arm. Before the pistol had time to 
 fall from the pointing, he had seized it by its smoking 
 long barrel and wrenched it away. " Did I not tell thee 
 that long noses were a mistake ? " he cried, as he struck. 
 
 The heavy butt caught the highwayman between the 
 eyes. There was heard the thud of his fall upon the 
 road, and the kind of snuffling sob that accompanied it. 
 
 Red Beauty, now released, made a very pretty display 
 of outraged feeling, which O'Hara, understanding equine 
 nature, had, however, little trouble in calming. He was 
 soon able to dismount. 
 
 " Troth ! " said he, fondling her neck, " 'tis the way 
 of your sex to carry a man into danger, and 'tis the way 
 of ours to love you the more. It's yourself that the 
 rogue coveted, my Red Beauty," said he ; " but you 
 were never foaled to carry such scum as he."
 
 142 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 The intelligent creature thrust her head towards him 
 in the dark, and lipped his cheek with velvet touch. 
 
 " Yes, yes," answered he, " that was a lucky shy of 
 yours ! " He ran his hand across his ear, and, where 
 he was wont to meet the crisp bunch of curls & la briga- 
 ditre, met a deplorable flatness. " A close shave, \y\~ 
 thunder ! What will Kitty think of this ? Well, better 
 a curl than a life. . . . You saved .us both, I'm think- 
 ing," he went on, again flattering the mare's neck. 
 " Indeed, colleen, it's borne in upon me that we were 
 made for each other. And if that sealskin bag but has 
 half what Spoicer reckoned on, why, then, you and 
 I shall not part." 
 
 He slung the reins over his arms. Red Beauty was 
 now all tranquil condescension. If truth were told, 
 perhaps, she had the curiosity of her sex, and was quite 
 aware that something interesting was afoot. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara advanced cautiously towards the smaller 
 of the indistinct black heaps that still showed vaguely 
 upon the pale roadway in spite of the ever-deepening 
 night. He knelt down and passed his hand over the 
 prostrate figure. 
 
 Not dead ! Well, that was a relief. Denis was of 
 those who think little enough of life or death, for him- 
 self or for others ; but there was not in him the stuff 
 of the executioner. 
 
 " He'll live to be hanged yet," said he to himself.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 143 
 
 Certainly not dead. And, indeed, if sundry jerks and 
 heaving breaths beneath his touch, sundry grunts that 
 met his ears, be taken as indications, Copper-nose was 
 rapidly nearing consciousness again. "But ''twere 
 well 'twere done quickly,' as little Davy Garrick says 
 in the play," muttered Denis. And running the reins 
 up to his shoulder, he now brought both hands to his 
 task. " What's this now ? The fellow of the barker 
 that snapped at me in the belt ! There now, friend 
 that will give you more room to breathe ; and I'm 
 thinking, anyhow, it's as well in safe keeping," he mur- 
 mured, slipping the man's remaining pistol into his 
 own belt. " 'Pon my soul, little did I ever think 
 I'd come to take a purse, and off a highwayman, too ! 
 Aha ! What have we here ? The sealskin bag, as I 
 live ! Easy, now, brother ; don't be groaning that way. 
 It's not a ha'porth of harm I'm doing you, but relieving 
 your conscience. Faith, I've as good a right to it as 
 you, this night . . . and a deal better than Spicer any 
 night of the year ! " 
 
 His fingers were, indeed, in contact with a smooth, 
 furry surface, under which rose a succession of hard 
 little cylinders. This set his hand trembling. 
 
 " The little gold boys or may I never fight again ! " 
 The bag was strapped to the man's leather belt, and 
 to get at it required some manipulation. Master Copper- 
 nose, moreover, presently began to struggle ; and O'Hara,
 
 144 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 who up to this moment had been perhaps a little half- 
 hearted about the rifling business, now became exhilar- 
 ated to interest, and set to work con amore. Hampered 
 as he was by Red Beauty's reins, it was after a pretty 
 severe wrestling-match that he succeeded in drawing 
 his hanger, cutting the recalcitrant straps, and possess- 
 ing himself triumphantly of the weighty bag. The 
 highwayman gave a despairing howl as he suddenly 
 realized that the fruit of his long day's work was finally 
 reft from him. He made a wild clutch at his rival when 
 the latter rose to his feet ; but his fingers, in the dark, 
 struck against cold steel. 
 
 " Give it up, man ! " came those laughing tones that 
 from the very first had filled him with hatred and yet 
 superstitious fear. " Give it up, brother of the High 
 Toby, unless you've got another pair of heirlooms to 
 match your nose." 
 
 The man had staggered up. Nothing but shadows 
 were they now to eaeh other in the universal blackness, 
 but each could hear the other's breathing. O'Hara's 
 was caught with exultant laughter ; the highwayman's 
 was stertorous with impotent fury. To emphasize his 
 remarks, then, Denis playfully drew the captured pistol 
 from his belt and clinked the lock meaningly. And 
 upon this there was a crash as of some wild animal 
 plunging into cover, a stumbling rush of feet, sounds of 
 flight, quickly carried away oh the wings of the wind.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLA1RS. 145 
 
 As O'Hara stood listening, the blast fled by him over 
 the hill, and left a deep interlude of silence in which he 
 could catch no sound but Red Beauty's soft, inquisitive 
 breathing at his elbow. He sent a loud laugh after the 
 retreating knight, then he weighed the bag in his hands. 
 
 " Three hundred guineas, they said ! I'd have been 
 lucky if I'd got the half of it in the Old Country ! . . . 
 That's back to Kitty ! She will have had time to miss 
 me, not time to replace me. Glory be to God ! " cried 
 Denis O'Hara. 
 
 But now, being a man of money, a man of worth, Mr. 
 O'Hara became mighty cautious. The first thing to be 
 done was to distribute the rouleaux among his various 
 pockets, and cast the now limp recipient into the road- 
 side ditch. The next was to decide upon his own move- 
 ments. Restraining, though not without a sigh, his 
 natural inclination, which was Londonwards, he turned 
 Red Beauty's head towards Speenhamland, near New- 
 bury, the nearest halt, and was for mounting once more, 
 when he paused. 
 
 " There's the poor comrade yonder," quoth he, " whom 
 we must not leave in extremity, if he's not past help. 
 We owe him that, colleen." And leading the mare, he 
 retraced his steps once more. Red Beauty craned her 
 neck and drew deeper breaths of sympathy over the 
 body of her fallen brother. 
 
 " Ay," said O'Hara, after a second's examination,
 
 146 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " stone dead. His heart's broke, my colleen, and well 
 for it. And if I've left my mark on Copper-nose, 'tis no 
 more than he deserves." 
 
 But it was high time that Denis O'Hara should place 
 himself, his borrowed steed, and captured wealth under 
 shelter. The snowstorm was gathering, and the winds 
 on these high, bleak lands came charged with stinging 
 flakes. 
 
 " We'll take it steady, but easy and cautious, love," 
 said he, once more swinging himself into the saddle. 
 ***** 
 
 At the door of 
 
 " The famous inn in Speenhamland 
 
 That stands below the hill, 
 And rightly called the Pelican, 
 From its enormous bill " 
 
 (as a wit of the period sang of that excellent house of 
 entertainment), came a red-haired traveller upon a 
 red-coated mare, both somewhat the worse for a difficult 
 journey in the dark through a settled snowstorm. 
 
 Perished though he was, O'Hara, whose soft heart had 
 ached over the fate of the highwayman's steed, would 
 be content to-night to let no one see to his mare except 
 himself. Having, therefore, seen her rubbed down to 
 his own satisfaction, seen her at last stand in the best 
 stall up to her belly in golden straw, having coaxed her to 
 her feed with a warm mash, and satisfied himself that
 
 INCOMPARABLE EELLAIRS. 147 
 
 the capricious lady had really a good appetite in spite of 
 some coquetting, he passed into the hostelry. 
 
 Here he was not an unknown guest. The length of 
 the Pelican's bill was no deterrent to him. When he 
 had a guinea, he spent it with the delightful ease of 
 the impecunious, where another would haggle over a 
 shilling. Thus it was that, with the familiarity of the 
 intimate, cocking his hat so as to conceal the loss of the 
 curl, upon which he desired no question, he marched 
 straight from the stable into the kitchen, where he knew 
 he would find a roaring sea-coal fire for the comforting 
 of the chilled and sodden outer man, where he would 
 furthermore be able to choose on the spot the particular 
 refreshment that seemed best suited for the cheering of 
 the inner. 
 
 Now, the first object that met his airy -glance, as he 
 advanced into the rosy circle flung out by the glowing 
 hearth, was the dubious postboy of the yellow chaise, 
 shovelling rabbit-pie into his own anatomy with as much 
 gusto as might the most honest of Britons. The next 
 instant, he beheld, seated in an attitude of utmost de- 
 jection, supporting an elaborately curled wig upon a limp 
 fist, no less interesting a person than the whilom owner 
 of the guinea rolls. So unexpected was the encounter, 
 Newbury having been the declared destination of the 
 yellow chaise, that for the moment it had the remarkable 
 effect of depriving Mr. O'Hara of speech.
 
 148 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Suddenly, however, interrupting mine host upon the 
 eulogy of spiced veal-pie and woodcock on toast to follow, 
 he strode up to the table and tapped it with his riding- 
 whip in front of Spicer's disconsolate, plucked, and now 
 useless pigeon. 
 
 " Have we not met before, sir ? " 
 
 Mr. Huggins looked up with a dismal, unillumined eye, 
 and evidently failed to recognize the speaker. The 
 postboy became more absorbed than ever in his supper. 
 
 " Surely," went on Mr. O'Hara, " you are the traveller 
 whom I encountered this afternoon. Some little mis- 
 adventure, I understand, had just befallen you." 
 
 " Little misadventure ! Ay, sir, I had just been 
 robbed all I had ! " said the poor youth, with dull, 
 unconscious irony. 
 
 The landlord had followed O'Hara' s move with some 
 curiosity. 
 
 " I've offered the young man to make him a present of 
 supper and bed," he here observed in tones of important 
 philanthropy, " but he declines to partake." 
 
 Mr. O'Hara wheeled round upon him with some stern- 
 ness. A man is never more disposed to rebuke his 
 neighbour than when his own conscience is slightly un- 
 comfortable. 
 
 " And pray, Mr. Landlord, how comes it that you have 
 stationed this young gentleman in the kitchen with his 
 own postboy ? "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. *49 
 
 The landlord entered into a prodigious state of surprise 
 and discomfiture. He plumed himself indeed, with 
 some truth on having an instinct for a gentleman, and 
 knew that brocade and lace did not suffice to the making 
 of one. He stammered a hasty apology, turning from the 
 disconsolate youth in his rich City garb to the mud- 
 spattered, plain-coated Irishman, whose genial, clean-cut 
 face was just now as haughty as ever any English peer's 
 could be. He had not known. It was a strange story. 
 It was very clear the young gentleman (Mr. Huggins was 
 promoted !) could not pay shot. And Captain Spicer 
 (who had gone to bed in Portobello with every atten- 
 tion for his wound) Captain Spicer, whom probably 
 Mr. O'Hara knew, had warned the landlord that he dis- 
 claimed all pecuniary responsibility. 
 
 " Captain Spicer ! " ejaculated O'Hara', with such a 
 twist of contempt on his lips that mine host of the Pel- 
 ican perceived that he was here again on the wrong 
 track, and quickly abandoned it. "If he had known 
 that the Honourable Mr. O'Hara, son of that well-known 
 and admirable nobleman my Lord Kilcroney, took an 
 interest " 
 
 Again O'Hara cut him short. With an impatient 
 wave of his hand, " That'll do ! " cried he. " Had you 
 known Mr. Huggins's consequence, you'd have stripped 
 your breast bare for him would you not, you old 
 pelican, you ? "
 
 150 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Mr. Huggins, on his side, hearing of the consequence 
 of his interpolator, was no whit less obsequiously moved 
 than his grudging host. 
 
 " The Hon. Mr. O'Hara ! " quoth he, rising to his feet 
 and making a series of City legs. " I am honoured, sir, 
 vastly honoured." Then, with a return of his first bleat, 
 " Your friend, sir, Captain Spicer, has abandoned me." 
 
 Thereupon ensued a rambling statement, in which the 
 tedium of a silversmith's life, the relief of Aunt Matilda's 
 legacy, were intermingled with lamentations upon the 
 hard fate that had overtaken him the prospect of an 
 immediate return to desk and grind. 
 
 O'Hara stood gazing at him in his unwontedly cogi- 
 tative mood. " Sure," he was thinking, " it would be 
 doing an owl of that kidney no good turn to give him 
 back the money. What would the green-goose do with 
 it but make an ass of himself and him that already ? " 
 
 Aloud he bade the landlord serve up supper for two 
 in the parlour ; and then, informing Mr. Huggins that he 
 would expect him in a quarter of an hour, turned away 
 abruptly to avoid the gratitude that overcame the 
 young cit. 
 
 * * * # # 
 
 A genial meal loosens the tongues of even uncon- 
 genial companions ; and Mr. O'Hara was not of the 
 kind to make any guest of his feel the inferiority of 
 social station. Nevertheless, had the postboy been
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. !$! 
 
 but a more lively sort of rascal, the Irishman would 
 no doubt have preferred even his society to that of 
 the little, vulgar, pasty-faced clerk. 
 
 After a bumper or two, a kind of sparkle had come to 
 the latter's watery eye. And, freed from his first ham- 
 pering assumption of fine manners, he began to let his 
 tongue wag with all its native impudence and folly. 
 Between the picking of the last woodcock bone and the 
 cracking of the first walnut, Mr. O'Hara was made the 
 recipient of his innermost confidences. 
 
 " Young Calico's a rip, begorrah ! of the first water 
 first gutter water ; the cock of the tavern, the buck 
 of Cheapside wenches ! " Upon this summary of his 
 table companion, Mr. O'Hara a silk handkerchief tied 
 over his mutilated curl leant back in his chair and sur- 
 veyed him through half -closed lids with 'something of 
 pity mixed with his contempt. 
 
 " And by goles ! " Mr. Huggins was saying, as he 
 reached unceremoniously for the bottle, " I can give 
 you as good a song, though I say it, as any lad of ours 
 among the ' Harmonious Owls.' ' 
 
 " Harmonious Owls ? " inquired O'Hara, tickled as 
 was his wont by any picturesque combination of words. 
 
 "Ay, my boy Honourable sir, I mean 'tis our 
 club in Little Britain. A set of fellows oh ! they could 
 show you a bit of life ! We meet o' Saturday nights. 
 Ay, and there's the ' Bleeding Cross -Bones,' down
 
 152 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Knightrider Lane. That is a club ! There's play at 
 ' the Bones,' sir, I tell you," said Mr. Huggins, leaning 
 forward and speaking in a husky whisper. " I won nine 
 guineas there, one night at single sitting, sir." 
 
 " Thunder and turf ! say you so ? " 
 
 " I could give you a bit of a new song that took them 
 mightily among the Howls the Owls, I should say." 
 
 Mr. O'Hara sat quickly up in his chair and flung out a 
 forbidding hand, as Mr. Huggins uplifted a dismal voice 
 and carolled, 
 
 " Oh, where is the harm of a little kiss 
 
 One, one, only one ? 
 And what can the heart " 
 
 " Peace ! " cried the Irishman with loud authority, 
 slapping the table with his open hand. And as the other 
 stared, open-mouthed, round-eyed " 'Tis my infirmity, 
 sir," proceeded Denis more civilly. " Music, somehow, 
 turns my wine sour on me. It comes, Mr. Huggins, 
 doubtless, from an error in my upbringing : my head 
 was not made early enough. I'm obliged to concen- 
 trate, sir, to give my attention to the bottle." 
 
 While gravely dealing out this farrago, which had the 
 desired effect of completely nonplussing the young man, 
 Mr. O'Hara's wits were busy upon a little scheme sug- 
 gested by a chance boast of his companion. One might, 
 after all, get an hour or two of entertainment out of the 
 back-street buck, if 'twere true he was such a ruffler at
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAJRS. 153 
 
 the dice and the cards. " And if this jot-down-nought- 
 and-carry-one has, as he says, swept the mighty sum of 
 nine guineas from his fellow 'prentices, he's as good a 
 chance of winning his three hundred from me ! " 
 
 There was a quaintness about the idea that pleased 
 Mr. O'Hara prodigiously. And, indeed, he would not 
 have been O'Hara had not the temptation of putting all 
 his fortunes to the hazard again been irresistible. 
 
 " Upon my soul ! " he exclaimed suddenly, " but 
 you're a young gentleman of prodigious accomplish- 
 ment ! And what, Mr. Huggins, may I inquire, is your 
 favourite game ? " 
 
 " Why," cried the clerk, " I am reckoned, sir, dan- 
 gerous at piquet. And there are many, sir, who had 
 rather be my partner at whist. But when the humour is 
 on me to play high," said Master Huggins, lossing down 
 the end of his glass with a knowing turn of wrist, " then 
 nothing, to my mind, comes up to faro ; though basset, 
 indeed, and ombre, and lanterloo, and quinze, are reckoned 
 fair games, and also lansquenet, quadrille, and " 
 
 " Nay," said O'Hara, breaking the chain, " I am with 
 you. Faro is a pretty game between gentlemen. Faro's 
 the game ! What say you to a deal or two ? " 
 
 " By goles ! " cried the clerk, and a greedy joy spread 
 over his countenance, " but you're a gentleman after my 
 own heart ! " Then he suddenly clapped his hands 
 against his pockets, and his jaw dropped. " Ud's bones I
 
 154 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 I was forgetting ! Cleaned out ! Unless you will throw 
 with me for my buttons silver, on my honour, and a 
 pretty fancy 
 
 " Oh, pooh, Mr. Huggins ! " cried O'Hara " between 
 gentlemen ! Sir, your misadventure might have occurred 
 to any one to any one of your constitutional modesty. 
 You've learned that 'tis a mistake to be at all backward 
 in coming forward when the call is pistols, that's all ! I 
 shall be charmed to oblige you, sir, by the loan of a few 
 pieces. The note of hand of so well known a person as 
 yourself is as good as the Bank, I've no doubt. Shall 
 it be, to begin with, a trifle of ten ? " 
 
 " Oh, make it a guinea, sir," said the dashing cit hi 
 superior tones. 
 
 " Now, here's a lad of spirit ! " cried O'Hara, breaking 
 into loud laughter. " By my father's last bottle, sir, 
 I like your humour ! " 
 
 He swept a clear space on the table as he spoke, and 
 spread thereupon, in shining array, ten of Verney's 
 guineas. " I'm a bad arithmetician," he went on ; 
 " I've not had your education, and it comes easier to 
 me to reckon in gold coin. Will you hold the bank, or 
 shall I ? " 
 
 ***** 
 
 Gog and Magog ! How their bold 'prentice son kept 
 up the credit of City valour and pledged his own that 
 winter night at the Pelican, Speenham, on the Bath
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. I 55 
 
 Road ! At first, indeed, he won ; and all that were left 
 of my Lord Verney's thirty guineas found themselves 
 heaped up in a pile by the side of his glass. And Mr. 
 O'Hara, enjoying himself hugely, began to see the mo- 
 ment when he would have surreptitiously to break one 
 of those rouleaux that lay so snug in his pockets. 
 
 But it seemed fated that Aunt Matilda's legacy was 
 not to benefit her gay young dog of a nephew ; for, from 
 the moment when it was likely to come once more into 
 action, the luck turned. And first my Lord Verney's 
 guineas found their way back to Mr. O'Hara's side of 
 the table ; then a bundle of I.O.U.'s began to grow be- 
 neath that gentleman's elbow the earlier ones neatly 
 engrossed in Mr. Huggins's most clerkly hand, those suc- 
 ceeding growing wilder and wilder as that gentleman's 
 spirits approached desperation. They called for more 
 wine ; they called for fresh candles. Rouleau by rouleau 
 the travelled gold passed de jure into the pockets where 
 it already reposed de facto. 
 
 " Your luck's bitter bad, my young friend. Have you 
 ever tried, at the ' Bleeding Bones,' what the turning 
 of your coat will do for you ? Tis a practice you may 
 on occasion see at White's." 
 
 It took the muddled wits of the city-bred youth a 
 
 full minute to grasp the purport of this advice. When, 
 
 however, he had done so, he carried it out with such tipsy 
 
 precipitation, and the figure he cut when the change was
 
 156 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 at last effected and he sat down once more, clad in the 
 bright red lining, was so exquisitely comic, that Mr. 
 O'Hara fell into inextinguishable laughter. 
 
 " Glory be to God ! " said he. " If that does not pro- 
 pitiate the Fates Why, 'tis a little Lord Mayor 
 
 you're destined to be, and no mistake ! " 
 
 " Paroly ! I'll go paroly ! " cried the future Lord 
 Mayor in a thick voice, falling once more upon his cards 
 with a froglike plunge. 
 
 " Devil mend you ! " muttered O'Hara to himself. 
 " You'd go St. Paul's and the Bank of England on the 
 value of a lock of your hair ! Here has the green calf 
 lost his Aunt Matilda's legacy twice, and he'll double 
 or quits me with never a stiver of his own to stake ! 
 But, by the Lord, I'll do it, and win my chances with 
 Kitty for the third time ! ' There's luck in odd num- 
 bers,' says Rory O' Moore ! " And aloud : " Done with 
 you, my gay punter ! " 
 
 The cards were shuffled and again dealt upon the table. 
 . . . And Mr. Huggins gazed, horror-struck. 
 
 Then, in the silence, Mr. O'Hara poured himself the 
 last glass and tossed it down. For a " head that had 
 not been made early," his had a wonderful capacity for 
 remaining on the intelligent side of exhilaration through 
 a very mighty potation. But then (as he would ex- 
 plain to the neophyte) " you can get through a deal 
 of claret with the help of a bottle of port." And he
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 17 
 
 was always careful to top up with the more generous 
 fellow. 
 
 " God bless you, Kitty ! " said he, in his soul, with a 
 deep sigh of satisfaction, as the final mellow drop ran 
 down his throat. " I shall have a sight of your pretty 
 face the day after to-morrow." 
 
 " And now, sir," he asked, " how do we stand with 
 regard to each other ? " 
 
 Mr. Huggins started from his sodden trance of horror. 
 The words had fallen upon him like buckets of cold 
 water. The I.O.U.'s lay spread out in eloquent array. 
 There was a rapid, merciless little calculation. 
 
 " I take it, sir," said O'Hara, dropping his pencil, 
 " that you owe me some six hundred guineas. Or will 
 you kindly verify." 
 
 Verify ! The clerk flung out his arms upon the table, 
 dropped his head over them, and gave vent to a bellow 
 of utter misery. Six hundred guineas ! With the three 
 hundred of which he had been robbed, nine hundred ! 
 What a sum for a City youth, worth at highest calculation 
 some fifty shillings a week ! He had the vaguest notions 
 of the manner in which such a debt might be enforced 
 in the high circles to which his opponent belonged 
 whether by prison ; or, yet more awful contingency, by 
 pistols ! 
 
 Mr. O'Hara rose from his seat and walked over to the 
 fireplace. From that point of vantage, warming his
 
 158 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 coat-tails, he gazed philosophically, though not unbenevo- 
 lently, upon the prostrate and howling youth. 
 
 " Begorrah ! the poor little cur ! 'tis the voice of a 
 bullock he's got ! " 
 
 After a moment or two he approached the table once 
 more and tapped the young gambler sharply on the 
 shoulder. Then, without a word, gathering together the 
 valuable autographs, held them up solemnly before the 
 youth's staring eyes ; and then, still in silence, but with 
 a certain air of ceremony, crushed them into a tight ball, 
 which he finally flung into the fire. 
 
 The clerk sprang to his feet, uncertain, trembling, 
 scarcely daring to interpret the action to his own relief, 
 so unspeakable did that relief appear. Upon this Mr. 
 O'Hara spoke in the most mellifluous yet doctoral accents 
 that it is possible to conceive, 
 
 " Let this be a lesson to you, young man. For the 
 future, be content with the humble lot which Providence 
 has marked as your own. Devote yourself to the low 
 virtues of your state in life, and refrain from endeav- 
 ouring to improve yourself by imitating the high vices 
 of your betters. Another than myself, Mr. Huggins, 
 
 be assured of it, would not have " He paused 
 
 impressively and waved his hand towards the fire. 
 
 The little cit no very attractive spectacle in his 
 turned coat, with his pale, puffy, red-eyed face here 
 fairly broke down and burst into tears. But they were
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 159 
 
 tears of the grateful and the shamed. O'Hara stalked 
 over to the table with a magisterial gait which admirably 
 concealed a slight tendency to waver, collected his loose 
 gold into a pile, then, slipping the greater part into his 
 pocket, slammed down in front of the ever more bewil- 
 dered youth five ringing golden pieces. 
 
 " There, young man ! " quoth he, " take these, and 
 also take the coach to-morrow back to London. Eat 
 humble-pie when you get there. And for the future, sir, 
 beware of wine and the company of your superiors, of 
 fashionable captains, and the Bath Road. Reserve your- 
 self for the Harmonious Bones and the ale tankards. 
 Not a word, sir ! " 
 
 Upon which he pointed to the door with so decided a 
 gesture that, not unlike the cur to which he had been 
 compared, the would-be Macaroni crawled away with- 
 out either the wit or the courage to utter another word. 
 
 Had he been able to see through the solid wood, after 
 he had drawn it between himself and his singular enter- 
 tainer, Mr. Huggins would probably have been more 
 puzzled than ever. For Denis O'Hara, propped against 
 the table, was swinging from side to side, a prey to 
 paroxysms of laughter. O'Hara, moralist ! Delicious 
 pleasantry ! 
 
 * * # * * 
 
 It was, after all, not before the sunset of the second 
 day that Mr. O'Hara, on Red Beauty, rode into the
 
 l6o INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 rumour, the stir and smoke of town, from the still and 
 lonely, clean-breathing country road. 
 
 With his temporary sense of wealth there had come 
 over him a temporary sense of caution. The going was 
 bad after the snow ; it was not in him to push the dear, 
 faithful mare ; and he was determined, moreover, to risk 
 no encounter that might jeopardize his renewed hopes. 
 It was late, therefore, before (in a toilet of sufficient 
 elegance, his hair recoiffed h la Catogan to hide the loss 
 of his curl) he found himself once again in Mayfair 
 between the two link-extinguishers of Kitty Bellairs's 
 house in Charles Street. 
 
 A sedan was waiting outside, and there were lights 
 within. He was emboldened to knock, and, to his bliss, 
 was admitted, though upon conditions. " Mistress 
 Bellairs was this very moment about to leave for Lady 
 Wharton's rout," said the footman ; "he would inquire 
 whether she would receive." 
 
 " Nay," said Denis, his heart beating thick, and 
 slipped one of his hard-won guineas into the ready hand, 
 " do not announce me, friend ; I will see for myself." 
 
 He sprang up the stairs four at a time, and then paused 
 without the lavender parlour. And there he stood, the 
 silly fellow, breathing short, trembling, before he could 
 summon self-control enough to knock on the white-and- 
 gold panel. 
 
 " Gracious sakes ! " cried Kitty's treble within.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. l6l 
 
 " Tis I, darling Kitty, darling, 'tis I ! " cried the 
 most ridiculous, hoarse voice in all the world. 
 
 " Who ? " came the query, crystal-clear and silver- 
 sharp within. (Bellairs Incomparable was musical even 
 in querulousness, delicious in all her butterfly moods.) 
 
 " I really believe, ma'am," came Lydia's vibrant tone, 
 with a bold giggle, " that 'tis Mr. O'Hara back again, if 
 you please ! " 
 
 And, " O'Hara," echoed the lady within. And surely, 
 surely, there was a ring of joy in the cry ! 
 
 And O'Hara, opening the door, heard the song of her 
 silken skirt, the patter of her little red heels, as, surprised 
 into unwary graciousness, she actually ran to meet her 
 faithful adorer those saucy little red heels that had 
 been sweetly dancing through his thoughts these five 
 long days ! 
 
 " Mercy ! " cried the lady ; " what have you done with 
 your hair ? "
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RACHEL PEACE. 
 
 IT had been said of George Lionel Hill-Dare, Earl 
 Mandeville, that he had never loved nor spared a woman. 
 But that was before he met Rachel Peace the young 
 and lovely actress who, with her dove-like, Quaker ways, 
 and her passionate voice, had taken London's heart by 
 storm. 
 
 Her, Mandeville both loved and spared, until the hour 
 struck inevitable hour when he would spare no longer, 
 and the pretty walls of her false paradise were shattered 
 by the man who refused to remain content any longer 
 with what so sweetly contented the woman. He de- 
 manded rather than begged that she should give up 
 everything for him, offering her in exchange all a gentle- 
 man could offer all, except his name ! Then the pride 
 of Quaker purity (ingrained in every fibre of her being, 
 despite her flagrant renunciation of her ancestors' tenets) 
 flamed up in her against him with that new pride to 
 which her apprenticeship to art and work had given 
 rise. She would surrender neither honour nor calling.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 163 
 
 And it was in bitter anger they had quarrelled and 
 parted. 
 
 To Rachel the parting had been like the tearing asunder 
 of her heart-strings. And when she heard rumours of 
 the possible marriage of his lordship with the fabulously 
 rich and beautiful widow, Mrs. Bellairs, she could endure 
 it no longer, and took the first opportunity that offered 
 to call him back to her side. 
 
 Indeed, as we know, she herself went in search of him 
 a doing the remembrance of which would have made her 
 blush into her pillows at night till her dying day, had it 
 not been for succeeding events, consequences of her own 
 act, which changed the whole current of her existence and 
 brought poor Rachel quickly beyond the province of her 
 maidenly blushes. 
 
 For the slight offered to her on the night of Lady 
 Flora's masked ball, Mandeville had challenged Mr. 
 Stafford, and in the ensuing rencontre he had been danger- 
 ously wounded. Then, woman-like, Rachel did what she 
 had before refused with such scorn. She flew to his side, 
 casting away all thought of name or fame. And when, 
 after a rapid convalescence, he was ordered seclusion and 
 quiet, she accompanied him to one of his country man- 
 sions. For, then, things were so with her that to leave 
 him would have been worse than death. 
 
 * # * * * 
 
 It was full winter at Alston Wood. The world had set
 
 164 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 for storm, both within and without. Lord Mandeville 
 was not of those who make life or love easy ; and with 
 the killing of those two prides of hers which Rachel Peace 
 had sacrificed to him there had come upon her another 
 sort of pride shy, sensitive, ready to take alarm at a 
 look or a shadow. And thus she had withdrawn to her 
 rooms after a day of cross purposes, and left him alone 
 to spend his evening as best he might. 
 
 But alone Lord Mandeville did not intend to spend it. 
 
 Hitherto, out of consideration for her, he had asked 
 no guest inside his doors. But now, with characteristic 
 disregard of the evil weather, he had sent for his neigh- 
 bour, Sir Everard Cheveral of Bindon as good company, 
 for all his threescore years, as any man in England. The 
 roads were clearly bad going this night ; the guest was 
 evidently delayed, and the impatience of solitary waiting 
 was soon irksome to the young man. There was a lordly 
 anger upon him and a restless fire of mischief in his 
 blood, bora of his returning vigour and of the small 
 scope that the quiet country life had offered lately to 
 his teeming energy. 
 
 He sat in the library before the log-fire, a bumper of 
 Burgundy at his elbow, a volume of Wycherley's plays 
 at his feet, where it had slid from his knee. 
 
 He gazed upon the leaping flames and heard the wind 
 grumble round the house, scold and mutter in the chim- 
 ney ; and he frowned as he recalled the recent quarrel
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 165 
 
 with Rachel. Yet, even as he frowned he smiled. He 
 was wroth, in his masterful way, that she should have 
 defied and eluded him (with a dignity that left him 
 hopelessly in the wrong) ; and yet it was with a secret 
 pleasure that he dwelt upon the memory of the way in 
 which her slow-moving eyes had first burned with a 
 passionate fire and then brimmed with the tears that her 
 pride refused to release the way in which her tender 
 lip had curved scorn and quivered reproach. This sensi- 
 tive instrument was his, and he would play on it as he 
 liked draw from it harmony or discord, since all it 
 brought forth was music to him. 
 
 But meanwhile he was alone and impatient of loneli- 
 ness. He began to pace the room, unbarred a shutter 
 and looked into the night. All was black, save where the 
 snow, already heaped against the window-ledge, dead 
 white, caught the candle gleam. He threw a curse upon 
 the skies and one upon Cheveral's ancient bones, then 
 came back to add a log or two to the furious hearth. 
 
 Had it not been that the snowfall was so thick without 
 as to muffle sight and sound, even from a little distance, 
 his watching eyes and ears would have been even then 
 rejoiced by the plod and thud of straining horses, the 
 roll of coach-wheels, and the slow progress of a bobbing 
 lantern up the lime avenue. 
 
 But, presently, as he stood with his back to the fire, 
 toasting his handsome calves, the hail of a human voice
 
 166 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 rose distinct above the clamouring wind. Mandeville 
 started from his musing ; a mischievous smile twisted 
 his lips. 
 
 " Poor old Cheveral ! " he thought cynically ; " nothing 
 but a due appreciation of Alston's cellars, and a right 
 sense of the honour of an invitation from my noble self, 
 would have brought him from his own snug chimney- 
 corner to-night ! " 
 
 Then, as the call rose louder, closer, and more insistent, 
 his lordship, in a hospitable hurry, pealed his bell and 
 stood in the hall, bustling the eager servants, before even 
 the travellers without had reached the haven of the porch. 
 
 " Most excellent Cheveral ..." he was beginning 
 jovially, as the two folds of the great outer door wheeled 
 noiselessly back under the ministration of a pair of brisk 
 footmen ; but the words were cut short on his lips by 
 sheer amazement. Instead of the tall, thin shape he had 
 expected to see, there met his gaze something soft, round, 
 and fluffy, not unlike a human white bird puffed out with 
 cold and petulance, that was poised but a second on his 
 threshold and then fluttered in towards him, shaking 
 snowy plumes. 
 
 A few crisp snowflakes flew like dove feathers in the air. 
 Then this mass of white fur, marabout, lace, and wadded 
 silk, resolved itself into a much wrapped up little lady. 
 
 " By the Lord Harry ! " cried Mandeville, delighted. 
 " Madam your most devoted, most honoured "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 167 
 
 Again he broke off. From under thrust-back hood a 
 small, round face had peeped out upon him, bright and 
 rosy from the cold air, a pair of lustrous, dark eyes, a 
 dimpling smile. But even as he looked the pretty smile 
 directed towards him had become fixed in a dismay as 
 sudden as his own. 
 
 " Mistress Bellairs ! " he cried, with his dark frown. 
 
 " Lord Mandeville ! " she ejaculated in a tone of 
 primmest discontent. 
 
 The last person in very truth which either had desired 
 to see ! Mistress Bellairs had undoubtedly been placed 
 by the nobleman in the incredible and almost odious 
 position of being almost jilted she who had hitherto 
 reserved to herself an exclusive right in such transactions. 
 As for Lord Mandeville, that this particular lady of the 
 world towards whom, indeed, his conscience was not 
 altogether easy his sister's chosen friend, the very 
 impersonation, as it were, of the desirable social exist- 
 ence his friends desired for him that Mrs. Bellairs, in 
 short, should find him in rural retreat, en partie fine 
 with his poor Rachel ... it seemed a piece of spite 
 as evil as ever fate could show a gentleman ! And he 
 fiercely resented it. " Tis a trick of my dear family," 
 was his next thought. And that brow of his that could 
 lower to such purpose grew yet more thunder black. 
 
 But there was no mistaking the genuineness of Mis- 
 tress Kitty's own annoyance. She turned, a perfect
 
 1 68 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 whirlwind of fluff and fury, upon the two figures that 
 had followed in her wake. 
 
 The first was a bemuffled damsel with " confidential 
 woman" proclaimed in every step of her pert advance 
 and in every fold of her smart attire. Her pretty 
 little nose was pinched with the cold, her sharp eyes 
 roved with squirrel-like curiosity from side to side. She 
 laid on her mistress's cloak a possessive hand, that was, 
 however, sharply thrust on one side, while the lady 
 poured the vials of her wrath upon the third traveller. 
 This was a tall man, who stood stamping his great riding- 
 boots free of the snow, beating his numbed hands against 
 his sides, and cursing the cold in a brogue so genial 
 as to rob his language of all indecorum. 
 
 " Mr. O'Hara," said Mrs. Bellairs, " how could you, 
 how dared you, bring me to this house ? " 
 
 " Why, Kitty darling . . . ? " cried the startled 
 gentleman. 
 
 " Sir ! " 
 
 " Madam, I should say. Sure, the word keeps slipping 
 out, my jewel. Why, whose house is it at all ?" 
 
 " A house, sir," cried Kitty, stamping her foot in 
 her turn, " where I will not be insulted by stopping 
 another instant ! " 
 
 The great doors had been closed behind the speakers 
 during this brief dialogue, and an" agreeable warmth 
 was beginning to steal through their benumbed limbs.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 169 
 
 Nevertheless, Mr. O'Hara responded with the greatest 
 alacrity, 
 
 " Insulted, is it ? Why, then, that's easily remedied. 
 Open the door again, you fellows ; the lady's going 
 back into her coach ! " 
 
 Upon his gesture the lackeys once more flung the 
 doors wide, and a whistling blast rushed eddying into 
 the hall, bearing the ice of death upon its wings. Mr. 
 O'Hara extended his becuffed wrist with a fine air of 
 breeding. 
 
 " And if we are lost in the black snow together," 
 said he radiantly, " it's not I that will complain ! " 
 
 Mrs. Bellairs cast but one look at the gulf without, 
 where the bleak night was pointed with the cruel gleams 
 of the falling snow. Then she shuddered, 
 
 " Lydia ! " she moaned faintly, and demanded a 
 chair, for a swoon was her immediate intention. 
 
 Her cavalier tipped the faintest suspicion of a wink 
 to the host, who stood sardonically awaiting their 
 decision, and that fastidious nobleman's heart was in- 
 stantly won over to him for ever. His lordship waved 
 his hand. " Let coach and cattle be taken round to 
 the stable, the luggage brought in," he ordered. 
 
 The doors flew to once more. And Lord Mandeville, 
 eager to secure so entertaining a companion as this Mr. 
 O'Hara promised to be, without the concomitant awk- 
 wardness of his companion's society, addressed him-
 
 I/O INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 self with great presence of mind to Mrs. Bellairs, whose 
 damask cheek precluded any anxiety, even in the breast 
 of the devoted Irishman, as to the condition of her 
 heart's action. 
 
 " Madam," said he, " it is my grief that my presence 
 here should be regarded by you as an insult. Never- 
 theless, it is my joy, and a source of thankfulness, that 
 my house should afford you shelter from the storm. 
 Pray allow me to induce you to make use of the one, 
 while avoiding the other. A suite of rooms will be 
 prepared for you ; and, I assure you, you shall receive 
 every attention without being exposed to meet the object 
 of your displeasure. Let the housekeeper be called." 
 
 Mistress Kitty disengaged herself from her attend- 
 ant's perfunctory support, and, opening fabulous eye- 
 lashes, vouchsafed upon the speaker the glimmer of a 
 most insolent eye. 
 
 " The housekeeper " she murmured. " Heaven 
 
 grant a respectable person ! " And forthwith deemed it 
 safest to relapse into fresh symptoms of syncope. 
 
 Lord Mandeville gave a short laugh like a snort. 
 " Little cat ! " thought he. " Mercy ! but what an 
 escape I've had ! " 
 
 In a very little while the fair traveller, leaning upon 
 the arm of her attendant, was consigned over to the 
 charge of an apple-blossom-faced, white-curled old lady, 
 the innocent serenity of whose expression bore a finer
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. - I? I 
 
 witness to respectability than could the sourest prudery. 
 To look at Mrs. Comfort's countenance and yet refuse 
 belief in the candour of her soul was sheer impossibility. 
 Kitty Bellairs went, lamb-like, in her wake to " the 
 saffron chamber," cheered by her host's parting promise 
 of a cup of Mrs. Comfort's own apple-posset before that 
 supper which was to be served to her anon in state and 
 privacy. The last assurance, by the way, delivered 
 with the air of superfine civility, fell something less 
 than agreeably on the lady's ear. Such is the inconse- 
 quence of " little cats." 
 
 Left to themselves, the two gentlemen measured each 
 other with a mutually appraising eye ; then each, with 
 approval in his mien, bowed to the other. 
 
 " I have not heard the name of my hospitable enter- 
 tainer, but I could make a good guess, I'm thinking," 
 said Mr. O'Hara. " Lord Mandeville ? " 
 
 " No other, sir," said the peer. " I myself, I believe, 
 have the honour of seeing Mr. O'Hara. Any relation 
 to my Lord Viscount Kilcroney ? " 
 
 " His own son, no less ! " responded the other jovially. 
 " Sole heir of his house and name, to the family debts, 
 and the best cellar between Cork and Deny; and that 
 will be drunk to the last bottle before the old boy thinks 
 of leaving this world for a better one . . . more power 
 to him ! " 
 
 " I am delighted," said Mandeville. And, in sooth,
 
 1/2 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 he looked it. The restless devil within him was rapidly 
 becoming an unwontedly jovial one. He caught O'Hara 
 by the arm and marched him into the warm library, 
 with its fragrance of old books and burning wood. 
 
 " Faith, and I'm delighted too ! " said Denis, wheel- 
 ing round to the blaze. " Sure there's not another 
 man in the kingdom that has done me such a good 
 turn as yourself ! " 
 
 The earl raised his red eyebrows, unconsciously 
 haughty. How had he done Mr. O'Hara a turn of any 
 kind? 
 
 " Sure, by your inconceivable folly," said Denis. 
 " Hadn't you the offer of a king's morsel, my lord, 
 and haven't you left it to " 
 
 " I trust, my good sir, to one so appreciative as your- 
 self. But I needn't ask : 'tis as good as a honeymoon 
 journey. Lucky dog ! " said his lordship with a lurch 
 towards the Irishman, who stood dividing the heavy 
 tails of his great coat. 
 
 " Lucky ! You never made a greater mistake in your 
 life. It's as much as she'll do as to let me squeeze 
 the tip of her little finger. And sure I daren't do that 
 for fear of hurting the tender creature." O'Hara 
 paused and flung a wistful glance upon Lord Mande- 
 ville's countenance. " I'm thinking," he went on, " it's 
 but little acquaintance you had with Mrs. Bellairs, 
 after all."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 173 
 
 " Very little," the other hastened to assure him. 
 Tiger of jealousy as he could be himself, he was sharp 
 enough now in his turn to read the lover's thought. 
 
 O'Hara flung himself into a big arm-chair, and 
 stretched out each slim leg in its snow-sodden boot to 
 the hearth's blaze. Steam was beginning to rise about 
 him. 
 
 " If you think now she'd even let me sit beside her 
 in the coach ! " he resumed in a grumbling tone. "I've 
 been riding by the window, in the devil's own weather, 
 these two days. By the powers, but I thought this 
 blessed night every minute would be our next ! What 
 with my poor chestnut going lame on me, out of con- 
 trariness, and our being in the ditch twice (I scored 
 there, though, for hadn't I the pulling of my little darling 
 out of the snow ?) ; and what with her squealing at me 
 through the window, and asking me where we were, 
 and me not knowing a foot, barring that it was the 
 top of the winter with us and the middle of supper- 
 time, and the postboys bawling hell fire though even 
 that couldn't warm a bone of us ... I'll tell you, my 
 lord, when I saw those lamps of yours gleaming out 
 through the storm each side of your gates, it was as 
 good as an angel's beacon. Faith, and that was the 
 comical part of it, too for the gates were flung open 
 for us before I'd time to let a yell, as if we had been 
 expected."
 
 1/4 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " I am expecting a friend to-night," interpolated Lord 
 Mandeville. 
 
 " Well, I could conceive a worse death for a man,' 
 pursued Mr. O'Hara reflectively, " than to fall asleep 
 in the snow, with his arm around Kitty Bellairs 
 though she'd have scratched my eyes out first, most 
 likely, and as long as she'd a bit of breath left would 
 have vowed it was my fault entirely. Nothing would 
 serve her, you see, but to Bath she must return, after 
 after" O'Hara paused and sought for an elegant 
 expression " after your lordship's display of aberration, 
 as I said, and that last little affair of delicacy with 
 Tom Stafford. She couldn't find her pleasure in town 
 at all. And, of course, I had to go too ; for there are 
 too many gentlemen of the road on the way, favoured 
 by these dark nights, as any one would know." 
 
 He flung open his coat as he spoke, and carelessly 
 relieved himself of a brace of pistols, which he handled 
 one after the other in so knowing a manner that Lord 
 Mandeville, whose eyes rested upon him with amuse- 
 ment, broke out into his odd laugh. " I vow," he 
 cried, " any one might take you for ' the Captain ' him- 
 self, Mr. O'Hara." 
 
 A singular little stillness fell over the Irishman at 
 these words, and his dancing eye gazed suddenly into 
 vacancy. Then, after an appreciable pause, he echoed 
 Mandeville's laugh with a slow, spectral note.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 1 75 
 
 " By the Lord Harry ! " said the latter to himself, 
 " this is even better than I thought. When we get 
 some Burgundy into him, there will be rare fun. I 
 almost wish I had left old Cheveral in peace." Aloud 
 he cried to his guest that he must change his wet 
 garments, and then they would make a night of it. 
 * * * * * 
 
 But, as Lord Mandeville and Mr. O'Hara sat once 
 more before the kindly logs, with the generous bottle 
 between them, in utmost good fellowship, it was not 
 of lawless deeds on heath and crossways that the mer- 
 curial visitor's wine-loosened tongue was disposed to 
 wag, but rather upon the superlative attraction of his 
 chosen fair. At the first bumper he was gently dithy- 
 rambic ; at the second, enthusiastic ; at the third, 
 positively defiant. 
 
 "By my soul," he declared, " I'm amazed at you ! I 
 am, indeed, my lord. Why, now, d'ye mean to tell me you 
 ever met any one with a little pair of hands like hers ? " 
 
 " Too plump and dimpled to my taste," quoth the 
 Earl languidly, from the depths of his leather cushions. 
 He was imbibing quite as steadily as his companion, 
 but the current of his blood was of the kind that runs 
 deep without noise, and not to foam and bubble. 
 " Little bits of dough ! I like to feel the nerve in a 
 woman's hands." 
 , " Dough ! " ejaculated O'Hara. " Dough her hands ?
 
 176 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Ah, then I pity you ! It's because you never got the 
 sight of that little foot of hers. Oh," he went on, 
 rolling maudlin eyes to the ceiling, " in a pink silk 
 stocking you couldn't help thanking Heaven for it, 
 even if it trod on your heart." 
 
 Lord Mandeville slowly tilted his glass from side to 
 side to let the ruby catch the blaze and feast his eyes 
 before he feasted his palate. 
 
 " It was clad in cherry colour when I was gratified 
 with that spectacle," said he then, and proceeded, be- 
 tween reflective gulps : " Something of a want of taste 
 in those stockings, with their splashing clocks ! If I 
 remember rightly, that's what finally decided me. 
 Dumpy, my good sir, dumpy ! Now, I have in my 
 mind's eye a slender arch, all breeding, like the neck 
 of a racehorse." 
 
 " Dumpy, my lord . . . ! " 
 
 O'Hara set his glass with a smack on the table and 
 turned a fierce glance upon the speaker. To prate of a 
 want of taste, forsooth ! Why, blood had been shed 
 for less than so flagrant an instance of it as Lord Man- 
 deville had just displayed himself. But, fortunately, 
 recollecting that to this same defect in his host he 
 himself owned his present hopeful position in Kitty's 
 retinue, Mr. O'Hara found his ferocity suddenly merging 
 into tenderness. 
 
 " Sure, glory be to God ! " he cried, " He knew what
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 1 77 
 
 He was doing when He made you that way ! He had 
 me in His eye. Why, murther, man, talk of arches ! 
 I, for one, could never get beyond my Kitty's smile. 
 That's arch enough for you, and to spare. With those 
 doaty little teeth it's too regular they are and the 
 dimple to beat all ! Tare and ages ! It's all up with 
 me when she sets that dimple ! " 
 
 He grasped the decanter, poured out a fresh bumper, 
 held it solemnly aloft. 
 
 " To Kitty Bellairs ! " he cried. " The fairest lady 
 that ever stepped this earth ! The angel of my thoughts ! 
 To Kitty Bellairs the smallest hand and foot in the 
 land, the roundest waist, and the most distracting 
 dimple ! Won't you drink, my lord ? " 
 
 Lord Mandeville hoisted himself erect in the lazy 
 depth of his chair, filled himself likewise a fresh beaker 
 with white, languid hands ; then he, too, raised his glass 
 and looked long and steadfastly at the Irishman. The 
 red gleam was in his auburn eyes. He was in that 
 frame of mind when a man will not be content with the 
 usual routine of life, when the fire in his veins demands 
 some relief in extraordinary action. If to danger, so 
 much the better ! 
 
 As for O'Hara, with every nerve in him tingling in 
 the reaction after the cold, he was in that most delight- 
 ful condition possible to the Celtic race best described, 
 in his own words, as spoiling for a fight.
 
 1/8 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " A toast, so be it ! " said Lord Mandeville at last, 
 dropping back into that cold insolence of manner which 
 he had so far doffed in his intercourse with his un- 
 expected guest. " A toast, then ; I drink to her, before 
 whom all other women are dowds and sluts. To the 
 tall, white lily, to my girl, one kind shy look of whose 
 gentle eyes is worth all the favours of ready widows. 
 Won't you drink, Mr. O'Hara ? " 
 
 Both men rose to their feet, and each with a hand 
 on his glass stood glaring at the other, like a challenging 
 dog, dancing blue eyes fixed on lurid brown ones. 
 Upon this tense silence, this breathless pause of prepara- 
 tion, in which, between the gusts of wind without, the 
 very ticking of Mandeville's great watch and the soft 
 sighing collapse of the wood ash under the red logs 
 could be heard, the door was flung open and the footman 
 announced, 
 
 " Sir Everard Cheveral, my lord." 
 
 For yet an appreciable space of time neither man 
 would be the first to shift his defiant gaze a space of 
 time long enough for that connoisseur of life, Sir Everard, 
 to take in the situation. Then with his short note of 
 laughter, which seemed always so much more expressive 
 of mockery than of mirth, Lord Mandeville removed his 
 fingers from his glass stem and turned to greet his guest. 
 
 " By the Lord Harry I " cried he, " but this is vastly 
 good of you, Sir Everard I "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 1 79 
 
 Yet even while he shook hands he was rolling back 
 a red eye, like a sullen dog's, towards O'Hara. The 
 latter, with his thumbs now thrust in the pockets of his 
 embroidered waistcoat, stood all gay impatience for 
 the fun to begin again, his slim feet sketching a jig 
 step that may have been the last expression of the 
 war-dance of some savage ancestor. 
 
 " Pray, my dear lord," said Sir Everard, while his 
 thin chiselled lips curved into a slight smile, " have 
 I interrupted ? I understood by your note your lord- 
 ship was alone. And now it seems as if I came a bad 
 third." 
 
 " No, faith," called Denis O'Hara ; " you're like to be 
 made into a good second in a minute ! " 
 
 Again Lord Mandeville laughed. His unbidden visi- 
 tor's humour liked him vastly. 
 
 Under their high - set brows the newcomer's keen 
 light eyes looked curiously from one to the other. This 
 gentleman was an old beau of the most exquisite order, 
 subjecting his elegance to his years with unerring taste. 
 An antique cameo on his finger ; rare Mechlin falling 
 over the attenuated wrist ; a fragrance of scented 
 powder about the still plentiful, but silvering hair ; a 
 harmony of delicate sober colouring round the lean 
 figure, held erect now, with somewhat conscious effort 
 by him who had once been known as " young Adonis " 
 his personality was one which could not fail to create
 
 180 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 an immediate impression. United as it was to an im- 
 perturbable judiciousness and a sly wit, it gave him 
 authority as well as popularity in those high circles 
 which his fastidiousness allowed him alone to frequent. 
 
 "A second!" said he. "Fie, fie! I hope not I 
 trust not. My friend, Lord Mandeville is the last 
 man, I know, to have scandal under his roof-tree. Your 
 guest is pleased to be waggish, Mandeville. A relative, 
 perhaps ? Will you not present me ? " 
 
 " No relative," said the master of the house, who, 
 with all that singularity of demeanour which led him 
 to be regarded as an eccentric, had nevertheless a pretty 
 close regard for such ceremony as he deemed becoming 
 to his rank, and could be very grand seigneur when he 
 chose. " No relative, Sir Everard, but a traveller whom 
 the storm has thrown into the first harbour on his 
 road, and whom I feel most honoured in being privi- 
 leged to entertain Mr. O'Hara, eldest son of Lord 
 Kilcroney." 
 
 " Indeed, indeed!" quoth Sir Everard, each ejaculation 
 marked by a bow, and these most subtly measured to 
 the courtesy and rank of the recipient. " I have had 
 the favour of the acquaintance of my Lord Kilcroney 
 in his day." 
 
 " And a divil of a day it was, sir," said the irrepres- 
 sible Denis, pulling out the lining of his waistcoat pockets, 
 and then slapping them to emphasize their emptiness.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. l8l 
 
 "But there is certainly a resemblance between you 
 and my Lord Mandeville hence my mistake," said the 
 old Baronet, decorously ignoring the filial expression of 
 feeling. 
 
 " A kind of kinship in the colour of the hair," responded 
 O'Hara. " The same lovely auburn, sir, especially my 
 own. And I was just beginning to find out an inter- 
 esting similarity of the colours of our tempers when 
 your agreeable presence was announced." 
 
 Thus the Honourable Denis neatly endeavoured to 
 bring back things to their previous footing. But Lord 
 Mandeville flung back his head and laughed again. And 
 in this third outburst there was something so genial 
 and appreciative that the Irishman heard in it with 
 regret the death-knell of his pretty quarrel. " As pretty 
 a quarrel," he said mournfully to himself, " as ever 1 
 saw on the brew." 
 
 And sure enough his lordship's next words were 
 those of conciliation. 
 
 " The presence of my excellent friend, Sir Everard, 
 is always beneficial," quoth he, " but never was more 
 opportune than to-night. Come over to the fire, Chev- 
 eral, and discuss that Burgundy while we wait for 
 supper. Mr. O'Hara and I were about to drink a toast 
 or, rather, to be quite accurate, I was endeavouring to 
 persuade Mr. O'Hara to drink mine, while he very 
 properly thought I should drink his."
 
 1 82 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Indeed," said the old gentleman, sinking gratefully 
 into his chair and extending his fine old hand, with its 
 little tremble, for the beaker that Mandeville was hos- 
 pitably filling. He knew as much now of what had 
 taken place as if he had been present at the whole scene. 
 " But why not each drink to his own lady and let me 
 drink to both ? " 
 
 " Well, you see," said O'Hara insinuatingly, a linger- 
 ing hope beginning to sparkle in his eye, " we had just 
 a trifle of difference about which is best worth the 
 bumper." 
 
 " He likes the rose pompon, and I love the tall lily," 
 put in Mandeville ; and he flung a half -mocking look 
 on O'Hara, as who should say, " No use, my friend ; 
 it takes two to make a quarrel." " And so," he con- 
 tinued, " as Sir Everard wisely says, let us agree each 
 to flavour his cup with the flower he finds most fragrant ; 
 while he, old rout as he is, combines the bouquet ! " 
 
 " To Kitty, the queen of them all ! " cried O'Hara, 
 drowning his last flare of defiance in a draught so cool, 
 so rich, so subtly strong, that it had been worthy to 
 toast Aphrodite herself. 
 
 "To Rachel, the one woman for me," said Lord Man- 
 deville in a quiet voice, and drank likewise. 
 
 The older man watched a second with an amusement 
 half cynical, half melancholy. 
 
 " To the two most lovely ladies," he said then, and
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 183 
 
 uplifted his glass. After a few sips, however, he put 
 it down. 
 
 But the young men emptied their cups without a 
 pause, as if the draught had been love itself, and drew 
 a long breath. Then cried O'Hara boisterously, as the 
 liquor tingled through his veins, 
 
 " What, Sir Everard, shirking already and with such 
 a spur to the drink ! " 
 
 " Why, sir, no. Yet 'twere sin," said the epicure, 
 " to pull at such nectar as a horse at a trough. Gentle- 
 men, gentlemen, you should let it lie on the tongue, 
 and think as it slides down. Why, my good sirs, there's 
 sunshine in that juice the very sunshine and breeze 
 of France. Ay, ay, and the spirit of lost youth ! " 
 
 He gazed at the purple in his glass and let his fingers 
 play round the rim ; then he raised it aloft once more. 
 
 " Old age has few joys," said he, " and therefore is 
 a miser to them; I linger, my dear young friends, over 
 the pleasure that is already gone from you. And now I 
 can still drink to those two lovely ones whose faces and 
 forms this precious liquid helps me to picture, though 
 it is unlikely these ancient eyes shall ever behold them." 
 
 " Miser indeed," exclaimed Lord Mandeville, " and 
 poor philosophy, good sir ! For we can down with an- 
 other brimmer while you stint with the first." 
 
 And suiting the action to the word, he refilled O'Hara's 
 glass and his own.
 
 1 84 INCOMPARABLE UELLAIRS. 
 
 " Hooroosh ! " cried the Irishman, and the first cere- 
 mony was repeated, if possible, with increased zest. 
 
 It was fortunate that Earl Mandeville was noted for 
 his strong head in this hard-drinking age. As for 
 Lord Kilcroney's heir, his life was spent in such constant 
 state of exhilaration of one kind or another that, while 
 his friends declared he was rarely drunk, his enemies 
 vowed he never was sober. Nevertheless, it must be 
 owned that after this last libation neither of the gallant 
 lovers was quite in possession of his usual deliberate- 
 ness of judgment. 
 
 Upon Sir Everard's rather plaintive dedication, O'Hara 
 cried exuberantly, 
 
 " Sure, the darlings are in the house this minute, 
 and it would be a poor case if you don't get a sight of 
 them both to-morrow ! " And his imprudent remark 
 was instantly capped by Mandeville's cool suggestion, 
 
 " To-morrow ? Why not to-night ? " 
 
 At this, however, even O'Hara stared a second and 
 hesitated. He did not think anything would lure his 
 Kitty in dudgeon from her virtuous retreat. But the 
 red glow had returned to Mandeville's eye and was 
 burning steadily. 
 
 . " By the Lord Harry," he cried, " we are a pair of 
 dullards, recreant knights ! " 
 
 " Idjits," suggested O'Hara, suddenly catching fire 
 without, as yet, any clear notion of his host's trend.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAlRS. 185 
 
 " And Cheveral here old lady-killer as he is still 
 would have a right to walk in and cut us out," pursued 
 Mandeville. " What ! our two pretty birds each moping 
 in its cage upstairs, and we proposing to sup below 
 without them ! We'll have them down." 
 
 " The rose and the lily to grace the table," inter- 
 rupted Cheveral, whose clear, moderated tones were 
 in contrast to the feverish utterances of the other 
 two. " Unfortunately, if my experience goes for any- 
 thing, the bloom of these flowers sometimes suffers 
 from " 
 
 But Mandeville cut in, in hot pursuit of his mad 
 idea : " And Cheveral, first connoisseur in Europe, shall 
 play the Paris and bestow the apple." 
 
 "Faith, and I've no fear," ejaculated-O'Hara with 
 a grimace. "If only I can coax my little Venus to 
 come for judgment." 
 
 " Then," answered the Earl, " if she does not, you 
 will be voted vanquished, my friend, and have to drink 
 my toast. The lover whose lady refuses his summons 
 is shown a fool. There's the challenge, sir." 
 
 " It shall never be said that Denis O'Hara refused a 
 challenge, be it cup, kiss, or sword ! " 
 
 " A moment ago, young men," said Sir Everard, 
 lifting his ivory hand with a little rebuking gesture, 
 " I found myself envying your youth. But, 'pon my 
 soul, I begin to think old age has its compensations ;
 
 1 86 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 at least, it will feel less foolish when it wakes up in the 
 morning, I'll warrant." 
 
 " You'll be envying my youth again in a short while," 
 retorted Mandeville brutally, as he flung himself in the 
 chair before the escritoire and plunged a long- feathered 
 quill into the ink. 
 
 " A letter ! " cried O'Hara. " By jabers, a letter I 
 By the powers, that's a mighty fine idea ! " 
 
 He stood on the hearth-rug with his head on one 
 side, nibbling his little finger. All at once he smiled 
 blandly, struck his forehead, and cut one of his eccen- 
 tric capers. Then, stepping gaily on his toe, as if in the 
 opening measure of a minuet, he advanced towards his 
 host. 
 
 " After you, my lord," said he, " with that pen. . . . 
 Oh, take your time only be as quick as you can ! " 
 
 Lord Mandeville glanced up, with a twitch of lip 
 and eyebrow that gave him a curious resemblance to a 
 snarling hound. Then he dashed the pen down on the 
 velvet cloth and folded the sheet. His letter of sum- 
 mons to Rachel Peace seemed by no means so difficult 
 as O'Hara's proposed epistle to Mrs. Bellairs. Yet, if 
 O'Hara wrote slowly and often paused for reflection, 
 the delighted smiles that succeeded each other on his 
 ingenuous countenance bore witness to self-approval. 
 
 " Kitty, darling, that red-headed fox of a fellow, Mandeville, has got 
 some notion into his poll (and it's half Burgundy) to ask you down to
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 187 
 
 supper with us to-night. I know it's not you that would be accepting 
 such an invitation from the likes of him ; but this is to warn you, Kitty, 
 darling. If you love me, you'll say nay, of course. I would not have 
 you come down to be stared at, if it was for the King himself." 
 
 As Mr. O'Hara read over this lucubration, with an 
 even broader grin, Lord Mandeville, measuring the 
 hearth-rug from end to end with impatient step, briefly 
 inquired if he were ready, and hardly waited for the 
 answer to ring the bell. 
 
 " Have this letter conveyed to Mistress Peace," he 
 ordered. 
 
 " Convey this note to Mistress Bellairs, and you'll 
 mightily oblige me," said O'Hara insinuatingly, his 
 dulcet tone contrasting with Lord Mandeville's per- 
 emptoriness. " And, by the way," he added, " John, my 
 son, Thomas, James, or whatever your godparents 
 called you, you might inform Mistress Bellairs that his 
 lordship begs she will honour him at supper to-night. 
 Just a little formality," he added, turning to answer 
 Mandeville's inquiring stare. 
 
 The latter shrugged his shoulders ; he seemed sud- 
 denly to have lost his jovial humour. 
 
 Sir Everard Cheveral sighed a little, then philosophic- 
 ally finished his glass of Burgundy by slow sips. 
 
 Lord Mandeville was one of those masters who are 
 always well served, and who, if they are more feared 
 than loved by their servants, are more admired even
 
 1 88 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 for their eccentricities than others would be for their 
 virtues. The few orders he had given that evening 
 had been carried out with such zest that both his guests 
 halted with surprise and admiration before the sight 
 of the gaily illuminated dining-room, the flash of the 
 silver, the rarity of the greenhouse blooms. 
 
 " We will not sit," said Lord Mandeville, " till the 
 ladies appear." Then turning on the major-domo 
 " Inform the ladies," he ordered, " that we await them 
 here." 
 
 There followed an anxious pause. Half weary, half 
 entertained, Sir Everard Cheveral, who had long ceased 
 to be able to take much interest in affaires galantes of 
 his own, and was therefore dependent upon those of 
 others for most of the zest of life, leaned against the 
 mantelpiece and waited, placidly enough. Whichever 
 way expectation terminated, it was sure to prove dra- 
 matic to the observer. 
 
 But O'Hara, for all that he had been so smiling a 
 scribe, was nervous'. His frame of mind betrayed itself 
 in aimless jokes, restless, interrupted gestures. He 
 was now sitting, now standing, now feigning with 
 pointed fingers a fencing pass at the waistcoat of some 
 pictured Mandeville ancestor, now appraising a par- 
 ticularly wooden-eyed ancestress and shaking his head 
 in rueful criticism. Mandeville himself had taken his 
 post near the door, and, with head bent forward, hands
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 189 
 
 clasped behind his back, and legs wide apart, stood 
 listening, his brow growing ever blacker as the expected 
 sounds delayed their approach. 
 
 At last there was a stir among the attendants without, 
 and a rustle of trailing silks. Mandeville raised his 
 head sharply. The young men looked at each other, 
 once more exchanging glances of defiance. Then the 
 two folds of the door were flung open, and, as in a frame 
 bepowdered, bepatched, bejewelled, with little head 
 high held, conscious of its own incomparable daintiness ; 
 in her low-bosomed gown of pearl satin a ramages de 
 roses ; diamonds flashing on cobweb laces with each 
 breath of the triumphant yet fluttered breast; flashes 
 repeated by those teeth O'Hara had lauded and by those 
 eyes, languorous yet brilliant, that migh-t have filched 
 an emperor's crown stood Kitty ! As fair an appari- 
 tion, certes, as had ever graced the old manor-house ! 
 
 " Mistress Bellairs," said the butler solemnly into the 
 charged silence. 
 
 " Damn me ! " cried Sir Everard to himself, startled 
 from his nonchalance. " As Mandeville prophesied, 
 this is like to make a man regret his youth." 
 
 O'Hara clapped his hands together with a wild shout 
 of exultation. " Venus herself ! " Then, suddenly, he 
 lifted his finger as if in anger. "Ah, Kitty, Kitty, 
 this is a pretty trick ! " But he could not for the life 
 of him keep the wild delight from eye or toe.
 
 190 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Shooting one fierce look back at the two other men, 
 Lord Mandeville advanced, with his grand a*>, took 
 Kitty's little hand, and first bent over it with some 
 phrase of high-flown, if somewhat superficial, gratitude ; 
 then he formally presented Sir Everard Cheveral, who 
 had advanced to his elbow. After this ceremony, while 
 Kitty beamed on the new admirer (whose reputation 
 was not unknown to her), the host stood in the doorway, 
 watching the empty passage in that sort of patience 
 which is so much more dangerous than any outburst 
 of passion. 
 
 In spite of the flutter of triumph in which she had 
 made her entree, Kitty carried nevertheless a certain 
 delicate shyness about her to-night, which robbed her 
 position of anything over-bold, and rendered her quite 
 adorable in O'Hara's eyes. So that, forgetting his 
 victory, he stood contemplating her with fatuous eyes 
 while she responded with her prettiest grace to Sir 
 Everard's old-fashioned courting. 
 
 The butler, who had been uneasily watching his master, 
 now approached him with much discretion and some 
 mystery. 
 
 " May it please your lordship," he murmured, " Mis- 
 tress Peace begs to be excused." 
 
 Lord Mandeville went livid and then crimson, the 
 veins on his neck and brow starting like whipcords. 
 
 " My tablets ! " he said ; and when they were brought,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. IQI 
 
 wrote a line. " Give this with your own hands to Mis- 
 tress Peace." 
 
 The old servant, as he hurried away, shook his head 
 several times over the folded note. He knew his master 
 well, knew all the signs of coming storm in that stormy 
 personality. " Twill be as bad a one as ever we have 
 seen," thought he. And in some manly corner of his 
 soul untouched by servitude he pitied the poor soft- 
 voiced young lady. 
 
 " And now," cried Lord Mandeville, " we'll to the 
 table ! " 
 
 " Aha ! " cried O'Hara. 
 
 But the other went on with a look that cut short the 
 Irishman's cheer as effectually as if he had struck him 
 on the mouth. " I expect another fair, guest. But 
 ladies like to make the men wait and languish. And, by 
 the Lord Harry, we'll not accept the situation to-night ! 
 Mistress Bellairs, will you honour me by taking the seat 
 at my right hand ? " 
 
 " Faith," whispered O'Hara to Cheveral, as he neatly 
 skipped into the seat on the further side of Kitty, " his 
 lordship's smile is enough to turn everything sour in 
 the house this blessed moment ! But I'll have the toast 
 out of him all the same ! " 
 
 Sir Everard glanced across the table at his host's face, 
 deadly white once more, and shook his head much as 
 the old butler had done. There was a hint of something
 
 192 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 almost tragic in the air, which made him fear that the 
 evening might not end with the mere outpouring of 
 wine. He glanced compassionately at handsome, reck- 
 less O'Hara, and saw him in his mind's eye at the point 
 of Mandeville's furious blade ; and he almost put up a 
 warning hand as the Irishman now made a loud demand 
 upon the Earl's attention. 
 
 " Never put off your best intentions, my lord," O'Hara 
 cried. " There's that little ceremony we were discuss- 
 ing a while ago, just clamouring to be gone through 
 (and in as pretty a voice as ever sat by your side at this 
 table, or at any other), and I challenge you to prove 
 the contrary ! " 
 
 " Your metaphors are a trifle mixed," answered Lord 
 Mandeville, with a sneer. " But without troubling about 
 your rhetoric, sir, I would point out that, in England at 
 least, toasts are not drunk at table before bread is 
 broken." 
 
 Mistress Kitty shifted her bird-like glance from her 
 host to the vacant chair on his left. An intuition of 
 what had taken place had already begun to dawn in 
 her quick brain. And to her, who in all the world 
 dreaded nothing so much as dullness, who had seized 
 with avidity the first chance of escape from the solitude 
 of her chamber a solitude which her own temper had 
 imposed upon her came the conclusion that the night 
 would be entertaining.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 193 
 
 " ' Let him whose summons is not obeyed be shown 
 a -' hem, hem ! " persisted Mr. O'Hara in a high sing- 
 song, leaning back in his chair, with his eyes fixed on 
 the ceiling. 
 
 " The very devil's in the boy ! " said Sir Everard 
 testily to himself. 
 
 Lord Mandeville, who was bending forward, both hands 
 on the table, in no reassuring attitude, here suddenly 
 started and turned his gaze sharply towards the door. 
 
 Without pompous announcement of servant, without 
 self-assertive tap of heel or rustle of gown, Rachel Peace 
 entered upon them. 
 
 Lord Mandeville leaped to his feet, took a few hasty 
 steps towards her, and then abruptly halted. Sir 
 Everard, with the stiff and slow movement of old age, 
 rose likewise, fumbling for the ribbon of his glasses. 
 O'Hara sat as if transfixed, a succession of emotions 
 sweeping over his countenance amazement, admiration, 
 vexation, and then a deep compassion. 
 
 Mistress Bellairs remained likewise motionless, open- 
 ing wide eyes and pinching a small mouth, waiting for 
 her opportunity. She had been quite prepared for this 
 meeting, for the whereabouts of so celebrated a favourite 
 as Rachel Peace had naturally been the talk of the town. 
 
 " I have come as you bade me," said Rachel, in a low, 
 toneless voice. 
 
 And Lord Mandeville stood staring at her, and could 
 
 7
 
 194 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 find no word with which to receive her. In his first 
 letter he had thus commanded " Love, I have guests to 
 supper. Come down. Be beautiful. Wear your pearls 
 and the gray gown I like." So wrote he condescendingly, 
 expressing his lordly will. The next summons had run 
 in fewer words still " Rachel, I am waiting." 
 
 Now, obedient, she stood before him, the soft folds 
 of shimmering gray trailing about her, the ropes of pearls 
 round her white throat. But above this delicate splen- 
 dour her face was so marble-white, her sweet eyes so 
 dark with pain, her tender lips folded close upon such 
 sorrow ; and withal she stood in such beauty, such 
 dignity, that Mandeville's wild humour fell from him, 
 and he stood abashed. 
 
 " My lord," said Sir Everard gravely, " will you not 
 introduce me to the lady ? " 
 
 And at that O'Hara got up and drew near them also ; 
 and Kitty sat, her brilliant head alertly poised, knowing 
 that her moment was coming. For a perceptible instant 
 Lord Mandeville hesitated. Suddenly, as if a gulf had 
 opened before him, he saw into what a pitfall his arrogant 
 wildness had brought the woman he loved. 
 
 And that little pause was as a dagger struck into 
 Rachel's heart culminating misery of this hour of 
 misery, final awakening from her impossible dream of 
 happiness ! 
 
 " Of course, Sir Everard. . . . My dear," began Lord
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 1 95 
 
 Mandeville, pulling himself together, and endeavouring 
 to speak lightly, with white dry lips. 
 
 But she interrupted him, in the golden voice that in 
 her brief career had charmed fame to her, and that now 
 in its very steadiness and sweetness rang somehow with 
 a deeper pathos than if it had been broken with tears, 
 
 " Useless this, my lord. I am now of those with 
 whom ceremony is out of place, and you have made 
 me feel it to-night." She turned slowly to the strangers. 
 " Sirs, I am Rachel Peace, who, poor actress as she 
 was, when you may have heard of her first, had then 
 at least a right to all men's respect. To-night she 
 stands before you in satins and jewels, and sees" her 
 voice faltered, and the blood rushed to her face " has 
 been made to see at last what she has, become. . . . 
 Madam, I am aware that my presence in your company 
 must be regarded by you as an insult." 
 
 Now, these very words had been hovering on the 
 little widow's lips, and she had been merely waiting for 
 the right moment to place them herself. But no sooner 
 was she thus addressed by her enemy than she started 
 and looked at her with new eyes saw on a sudden how 
 young the creature was, how forlorn, how unprotected, 
 how sad and innocent her gaze and pathetic her voice. 
 Then all Kitty's womanly heart melted within her, and 
 the tears rose. Her face worked with the prettiest 
 grimace in the world.
 
 196 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 "Rachel Rachel, my girl ! " exclaimed Lord Mande- 
 ville. 
 
 O'Hara and Cheveral had fallen back. Worlds would 
 they have given to be able to efface themselves from the 
 scene. Deep especially was O'Hara's manly shame for 
 his own careless share in it. 
 
 " O my lord," said Rachel Peace, turning her slow 
 eyes on Mandeville, " and you had pledged me your 
 protection ! " 
 
 Between the fumes of the wine and the shock of 
 realizing suddenly all the baseness into which he had 
 drifted under its influence, the man reeled. He caught 
 for support at the table behind him. Then Rachel 
 Peace unclasped the pearls from her pretty white throat, 
 from her slender wrists, and laid them beside him as 
 he stood staring upon her. " Chains of my shame ! " 
 she said. And at that Mistress Kitty sprang from the 
 table, and ran and caught her in her warm arms, and 
 kissed her and cried over her as over a hurt child. 
 
 " Come away, poor, poor thing ! " said she" away 
 with me ! " And Rachel, all her high courage gone at 
 this unexpected touch of human kinship, was led away 
 in her rival's embrace, half fainting, unresisting, to the 
 door. 
 
 On the threshold Mistress Bellairs paused to cast, 
 first upon Lord Mandeville, and then upon O'Hara, 
 such a fulminating look of wrath and scorn that each
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 197 
 
 man, struck according to his different nature, dropped 
 his eyes before it. 
 
 " I hope you are proud of your night's work, gentle- 
 men ! " 
 
 " Now, by " cried Mandeville, as the door closed, 
 
 and made a spring. But Sir Everard laid a heavy hand 
 upon his arm. 
 
 " Let them be, my lord," he almost ordered. 
 
 The young man glared upon him, then suddenly 
 turned away to fling himself in the arm-chair by the fire- 
 side, with his back towards them, his face hidden in 
 his hands. Sir Everard Cheveral returned to his own 
 seat at the table ; but, with all the philosophy of his 
 ripe years, he could not find it in him to continue his 
 supper. And, pushing his plate from him, he merely 
 broke a crust between his fingers and finished his glass 
 of wine in meditative silence. 
 
 He had anticipated a tragedy the shedding, prob- 
 ably, of some of this riotous youthful blood as the 
 inevitable end of the evening's work. But the si- 
 lent tragedy of this broken woman's life he had not 
 anticipated. And it had moved him more than his 
 egotistical old age was prepared to endure. It was, 
 therefore, a most severe eye that he turned upon O'Hara, 
 when, after a lengthy pause, that mercurial gentleman 
 sidled back to his place. 
 
 Denis's face was quivering with complex emotion.
 
 igS INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 He was bursting with the necessity of unburdening 
 himself of some of it. 
 
 " 'Pon my soul," said he, in a whisper so exquisitely 
 irritating to Cheveral at such a moment that nothing 
 could have made him submit to it but the knowledge 
 that if he refused his ear, Mr. O'Hara would inevitably 
 seek that of Lord Mandeville " 'pon my soul, sir, Mande- 
 ville was not so far wrong ; she's a lovely creature, sir, 
 a lovely creature ! " 
 
 " Lord Mandeville was deeply wrong," answered Sir 
 Everard, drawing back a little to rest his glance in yet 
 fuller rebuke upon the speaker. 
 
 "Oh, as to that," said O'Hara ruefully, driving his 
 hand through his red, unpowdered hair, " we were both 
 wrong a pair of brutes, sir ! But, sure, it was not us 
 at all but a trick of the Burgundy. Tis a powerful 
 treacherous wine, that same, and you never know where 
 it will have you. But, whisper now," momentary re- 
 morse overcome by a fresh exuberance of lover's pride. 
 " Wasn't I right ? Did you ever see anything so lovely 
 as my darling little Kitty ? Don't I wish she were my 
 darling! Look here now; if she wasn't to have her 
 toast after all just between ourselves, sir, without 
 disturbing that poor fellow yonder it would break my 
 heart, it would be the last drop 
 
 The old gentleman's severity of aspect became molli- 
 fied. He was not proof against the charm of O'Hara's
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 199 
 
 handsome, gallant personality, his wheedling ways, his 
 transparent simplicity of heart. 
 
 " If, indeed, you will make it the last drop to-night, 
 sir," said he, with a smile at his own conceit, " I have 
 no objection to joining in your toast. I will drink to 
 Mrs. Bellairs, but not so much to the loveliness of her 
 person, which is very great, but to the loveliness of her 
 heart." 
 
 He spoke in a low voice, so as not to reach the ear of 
 the brooding man by the fire, but became even more 
 emphatic as he continued, 
 
 " I will own to you, sir, that when I saw Miss Rachel 
 Peace standing before us in her soft robes and milky 
 pearls, with all the sorrow of the world in her beautiful 
 eyes, I thought indeed that the lily far surpassed the 
 rose. But when Mistress Bellairs ran forward in her 
 
 womanly pity, I thought, sir, I thought " He did 
 
 not finish the phrase, but there came a mist over his 
 keen eye. And raising his glass, with that slight tremble 
 of the hand, he drank a silent toast. 
 
 * # * * 
 
 Mistress Kitty vowed next morning that nothing would 
 induce her to remain an hour longer under " that man's 
 roof." And after a stormy interview with Mr. O'Hara, 
 in which the latter was rated, threatened with ever- 
 lasting displeasure and thereupon forgiven, the little 
 lady and Lydia made unheard-of exertion, and were
 
 200 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 ready close upon noon, having only kept the coach an 
 hour waiting in the snow. 
 
 Her host stood in the hall as she passed through. His 
 brow was black, his mouth set like steel. He made her 
 a low bow, without attempting to address her ; which 
 politeness, with her little chin high in the air, she re- 
 turned with a sweeping curtsy. He watched the de- 
 parture with the same suspicious eye. 
 
 " Sure," whispered O'Hara, upon her other side, " he's 
 half mad. He's been the whole morning pleading at 
 that poor girl's door, but she'll give him no sign of life, 
 and I vow he's afraid that we'll be lifting her away 
 with us." 
 
 " So vastly probable," said Mistress Kitty, with some 
 asperity, as she stepped into her travelling chariot. 
 * * * * * 
 
 It was a still day after the night's storm, and a sky of 
 palest blue beautifully envaulted the white earth. With 
 hardly a sound over the thick-lying snow, they drove 
 down the great lime avenue in summer a humming 
 haunt of shade and sweetness, now, with its great black 
 trunks and giant nests of bare twigs, looking as bleak 
 and melancholy under the white layers as a loveless 
 old age. 
 
 Mistress Kitty, after snuffing out several cheerful re- 
 marks of her Abigail, sat in unwontedly reflective mood. 
 And, ever and anon, she peered through the window
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELL AIRS. 2OI 
 
 at O'Hara's gallant figure on the dancing bay (provided 
 for him out of his lordship's stables, to replace his own 
 lamed mare), a mount which he sat as might the un- 
 surpassable Mr. Angelo himself. 
 
 " After all, it is something to have the devotion of one 
 who carries so true a heart for the woman he loves," 
 was her caressing thought. 
 
 As they reached the lodge gates, a muffled figure 
 darted out from the porch into the road, and waved a 
 hand imploringly. O'Hara, recognizing the face under 
 the hood, called to the coachman to stop. Then he 
 drew back, and Rachel Peace ran to the coach's side 
 and tapped at the glass. Her fair face bore the mark 
 of a bitter night-watch and of many tears. 
 
 " For God's sake," she cried, as Mistress Bellairs 
 quickly lowered the window " for God's sake take me 
 with you away from here ! I have friends in Bath ; I 
 will not trouble you long. Oh, as you are a woman 
 and a true one, take me ! I have slipped out before the 
 dawn, and he believes me still in my room. If I see 
 him again I am lost more lost than ever," said Rachel 
 with a sob. 
 
 Miss I^dia sniffed with a mighty significance, at which 
 her mistress withered her with a glance. 
 
 " Come in, my dear, come in ! " cried Kitty Bellairs, 
 and held out her little warm hands to poor Rachel Peace.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE LITTLE LOVER. 
 
 " A COLD night, sir, and a dark." 
 
 " You say truly, landlord ! " 
 
 It was a young voice so much so, indeed, as to be 
 still occasionally wandering in the debatable land be- 
 tween boy's treble and man's bass and, as the traveller 
 stepped from the cold and black night into the light and 
 warmth of the inn, he displayed a face and form to match. 
 
 Master Lawrence, host of the Bear, Devizes (famed 
 for the genteelest rooms, the softest beds, and the best 
 " library " between London and Bath), ran his eye know- 
 ingly over his guest. Experience had taught him to 
 classify at a glance. Here was the young gentleman of 
 fortune upon his first independent travels type of way- 
 farer not the least welcome to the landlord's heart. 
 Very young this one innocent yet of the grand tour. 
 And wealthy ! Sables to his roquelaure that would make 
 a lady's eye glisten, watches, ruffle-brooches all new. 
 In mourning, too. No doubt recently become his own 
 master.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2O3 
 
 Mine host rubbed his hands. 
 
 " Bedroom, sir ? I can fortunately still give you our 
 best set, vacated only this morning by Sir Jasper Standish, 
 with room for your valet, next door (show Arethusa, 
 there, and a fire !), and supper in half an hour. I 
 trust your lordship has not been stopped this dark 
 night ? " 
 
 " Stopped ? " 
 
 " Ay, there are again some of the snaffling gentry 
 between here and Reading " 
 
 " Snaffling gentry . . . ? Oho ! " cried the young 
 gentleman, and tried to look knowing, but his eyes were 
 round and vague. 
 
 " But your lordship's come to the right house ; no 
 fear of information leaking from the Bear,. my lord." 
 
 " I am no lord," said the boy, whose peach-like cheek 
 had turned of a deeper hue each time the tentative 
 address had grated upon his ear. " Mr. Jernigan of 
 Costessy, if you must know." 
 
 The landlord bowed, a trifle deeper than he had bowed 
 before. 
 
 " Indeed, sir ! " quoth he, as if mightily impressed 
 for if he did not know the name, which is of the east 
 country, he knew the type of traveller, as we have said 
 before. 
 
 Mr. Jernigan here turned, with a charming bashful 
 consciousness of his own importance, to permit his valet
 
 204 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 to divest him of his mufflings. And the landlord chuckled 
 to himself to hear the man, most obviously an old family 
 retainer, whisper, " Are your feet damp, Master Julian ? " 
 and to mark the petulant annoyance with which the 
 latter whisked himself out of his coat and stood forth, 
 so slim, so comely, and so youthful so very youthful 
 in the dancing light of the great fire. 
 
 " Have you many people in the house, landlord ? " 
 inquired the traveller in a manner calculated to remove 
 any false impression of juvenility which might have been 
 suggested by old Jonas's absurd solicitude. 
 
 " Our common rooms are all full, being market day 
 to-morrow ; but for the upper parlours, sir, a few gentle- 
 men who, like yourself, have found the night too cold 
 to push on to Bath." He paused, jerked out his chin. 
 He was listening. " If I mistake not, here come other 
 claimants for the far-famed hospitality of the Bear." 
 
 Master Lawrence had a neat command of language. 
 Indeed, he was decidedly a man of parts, who had oddly 
 drifted into inn-keeping. If he found a special pleasure 
 in his present avocation it was (as he was fond of saying) 
 because it takes a gentleman to deal rightly with gentle- 
 folks ; and then he would more than hint at the elegant 
 vicissitudes of his past life. 
 
 To hear the clatter of hoofs, the breezy cry of " House ! " 
 the sounds of stable bustle rising in the night, to see 
 mine host hurry to the door with the same mixture of
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2O5 
 
 patronage and obsequiousness with which he had him- 
 self just been received, filled Mr. Jernigan's bosom with 
 a flutter of expectancy. He lingered by the hearth. 
 All things were pleasingly new to him. 
 
 Master Lawrence, poised for his bow, had already 
 begun to classify. " Chaise with coat of arms. Post 
 horses ; a vast amount of luggage. Lady of fashion 
 rich lady of fashion. Plague take me to have let the 
 best rooms to that greensprig ! . . . Three ladies ! Nay, 
 two and a maid. Capons and Sillery, blanc-mange and 
 cakes. Ay, whom have we here ? A horseman. Bless 
 my soul ! " cried .the innkeeper aloud, " if it is not Mr. 
 O'Hara ! " He pulled a grimace between hilarity and 
 anxiety. " This means a thinner cellar to-night. Would 
 I were as sure of a fatter purse ! " 
 
 But the good man's brow cleared as a sweet imperious 
 voice issued from the deeps of the chaise, and a little 
 round face, peering out, caught the light from the hos- 
 pitably extended doors. 
 
 " Mistress Bellairs ! " 
 
 Mistress Bellairs, rich, fastidious, and lavish, as he 
 knew ; who, wherever she went, was promptly sur- 
 rounded by a kind of little court. 
 
 " You are welcome at the Bear, madam. Allow 
 me to give you a hand. What a night for a lady like 
 you to be on the road ! " 
 
 As if in dramatic emphasis a wild gust of wind, wet-
 
 206 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 dabbled with sleet, took up the cue and drove Mistress 
 Kitty Bellairs in at the door like a ball of thistledown. 
 
 Then Julian Jernigan, watching all agog, saw how 
 this same mocking storm-wind fought with the second 
 traveller as she descended from the chaise ; how it 
 tore apart the wings of her cloak, swept fluttering gar- 
 ments close against the slender swaying limbs, engulphed 
 itself in the secrets of her very hood, to lay bare trium- 
 phantly a countenance, pale as a pearl, fair as a flower" 
 And Julian, looking, felt within himself a singular stir- 
 ring, for it was a countenance beyond the beauty of 
 his dearest dream. And upon the fair surface of his 
 virgin heart the impression was struck with a pang 
 that went beyond joy, fairly into pain. 
 
 His head swirled as giddily as the smoke in the eddy- 
 ing gusts. When he came to himself the travellers were 
 grouped within a yard of him all looking towards him. 
 A little lady with kitten face and eyes like brown pansies ; . 
 his own bewilderingly lovely lady, with a gaze that 
 looked beyond him and saw him not ; a merry gentle- 
 man, whose red curls shone crisp through faint powder- 
 ing, and whose merry orbs twinkled in a disconcerting 
 manner. And the landlord, although still addressing 
 himself to the newcomers, was obviously talking at him. 
 
 " If I had had any warning of Mistress Bellairs's 
 honoured arrival," he was saying emphatically, " I 
 should have reserved the best rooms for her. It is
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2O/ 
 
 not, I protest, five minutes since I promised them to 
 this gentleman." 
 
 " Sure, then," cried the man with the merry eyes, 
 " it's the grandest opportunity he's ever had in his life ! " 
 
 Still giddy from his sudden emotion, Mr. Jernigan 
 failed to perceive the drift of these observations. The 
 pansy-eyes first looked reproachful, then shot sparks of 
 anger. But sweetly indifferent were those other eyes 
 gray violets wet with autumn rain that looked past 
 him and through him into the fire behind. 
 
 " I could give the young gentleman a very good bed, 
 all to himself; his only other companion would be a 
 distinguished officer " 
 
 A light broke upon the boy. " My rooms ! " he cried. 
 " Oh, certainly ; I am only too glad. Pray, madam, 
 consider them absolutely at your disposal ! " 
 
 Mistress Bellairs had turned a very engaging smile 
 upon him ; but as he finished his sentence to her silent 
 companion, she tossed her head ever so slightly. " I 
 thank you, sir," said she. 
 
 " Didn't I tell you ? " exclaimed the gentleman whom 
 the landlord had greeted as Mr. O'Hara " the oppor- 
 tunity of a lifetime ! You're young yet, sir, but if you 
 live to be a hundred, you'll never regret that four-post 
 bed ! " 
 
 Although of an age which does not as a rule relish 
 being reminded of its immaturity, Julian Jernigan found
 
 208 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 something so genial in the speaker's broad smile that 
 his own lips promptly responded. Mistress Bellairs sud- 
 denly paused as she was about to move away. There 
 was no doubt about it ; here was an uncommonly comely 
 youth. She had no objection herself to the April of 
 manhood ; and when it smiled like that, when it had 
 such an ingenuously blushing cheek and stood withal 
 in so pretty a gentility, she considered it quite worth 
 cultivating were it only for a winter evening's enter- 
 tainment. 
 
 " Truly," said she, " this is vastly civil ! We are 
 under obligation to you, sir. Perhaps," she added, with 
 a half turn of her little capuchine towards her escort, 
 " perhaps the gentleman would give us the privilege of 
 his company at table to-night." 
 
 Oh, with what an infinity of pleasure ! Mr. Jernigan 
 stammered, blushed, could find no suitable words ; but 
 his guileless emotion was very eloquent. 
 
 " We shall be charmed," asserted the lady in a delicate 
 tone of patronage. " And Mistress Bellairs is your 
 hostess's name." 
 
 She sketched him the curtsy of a woman of quality, 
 expressive of the exact terms she wished to inaugurate. 
 Julian bowed. 
 
 " Mr. O'Hara, sir." She waved her hand. " Mr - ? " 
 
 She was poised on the edge of the query like a bird 
 on a twig. And as the young traveller once more gave
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 209 
 
 his name and state, he felt he must have exhausted his 
 stock of blushes, yet was not without a tingle of pride 
 in the goodly ring of the old patronymic. And Mistress 
 Bellairs was not without an air of approval herself and 
 the condescension of recollecting that she had acquaint- 
 ance with certain of his kin. Then : " Mr. O'Hara, son 
 of my Lord Kilcroney," said she, proceeding with her 
 introductions in good form " Mr. Jernigan of Costessy." 
 
 " Delighted to know you, my boy ! " said the merry 
 gentleman, with a rich and genial accent that was strange 
 to Julian's ears. 
 
 " We shall meet then, presently," said Mistress Bellairs. 
 But Mr. Jernigan, whose glance for ever roamed back to 
 the tall lady who stood, so seemingly apart, with sad 
 dreaming eyes fixed upon the fire, now looked again 
 towards her, in such evident surprise and expectation 
 that Mrs. Bellairs followed the direction of his gaze. For 
 a scarce perceptible instant, she hesitated then flushed. 
 
 " My friend," said she. " My friend, Miss Rachel." 
 
 The girl started and shifted her slow eyes from the 
 speaker to the young stranger, who bent before her with 
 an air of profound deference. As he rose from his bow, 
 their glances met, and he was struck to the heart again, 
 by her beauty as before, but also by something else 
 by those deeps of sorrow in the violets of her eyes. 
 # * x# * . # 
 
 "I insist on your coming down to supper," said Kitty.
 
 210 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 The tone of her voice conveyed anger, and so did the 
 stamp of her red heel ; but there was a glimmer as of 
 tears on the edge of her eyelashes. The great, long 
 room was sparsely lit, though Lydia had foraged the inn 
 for candles. There were gulfs of gloom behind the four- 
 post bed. True, the panelled walls and the carpetless 
 boards reflected the flame of the candles here and there 
 on their high polished surface, but they shone with no 
 more ' effect than little yellow crocuses scattered in a 
 desolate brown garden. 
 
 Kitty's travelling companion had laid aside her cloak 
 and hood, but shared in none of Mrs. Bellairs's toilet 
 activities. Sitting opposite the newly-kindled fire, she 
 was once more gazing before her with hands listlessly 
 folded on her lap. At the petulant address she rose. 
 
 " Indeed, I pray you to excuse me." 
 
 " I'll not excuse you. You've scarce taken bite or 
 sup to-day." 
 
 " I can be served here." 
 
 " Worse and worse. The thing's out of all reason." 
 
 " Alas, madam, there is but too good reason ! Your- 
 self yourself ' ' 
 
 " Myself, what, pray ? " 
 
 " You could not bring yourself to give my full name 
 to the young gentleman. Oh, you are right ; I have 
 cast discredit upon it. I would not cast discredit upon 
 you."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 211 
 
 Kitty flamed scarlet, and the tears brimming between 
 her eyelashes suddenly bubbled over. She made a rush 
 forward and caught the other in a tight clasp. 
 
 " It was not for that ! " she cried in tones that would 
 scream down an inner sense of guilt. Then, shaking 
 her friend and scolding passionately "How dare you 
 say so ! 'Twas for you, 'twas to spare you ! Why, 
 Rachel Peace, the celebrated actress if it got about the 
 house, they would stare us to death ! Why, child, who 
 knows or cares about your private misfortune ? I for 
 one think you're the purest soul I've ever met. Oh ! 
 you foolish thing, I say you shall not remain here mop- 
 ing ! I'll not eat a morsel if you don't come down. 
 Nay, Rachel, for love of me ! " 
 
 Now, when her benefactress said, " For 'love of me ! " 
 Rachel Peace bowed her head meekly, for what could 
 she do but submit ? 
 
 " Lydia," cried Mrs. Bellairs, turning suddenly upon 
 her tirewoman, who was whisking garments about and 
 inhaling the air with the most protesting sounds she 
 dared make : " sniff once more . . . and you quit my 
 
 service at Bath ! " 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 " And pray, yang man, are you aware that this is 
 my room ? Stap my vitals," cried Captain Spicer ; 
 " shall not a gentleman have his privacy ? " 
 
 Julian Jernigan lifted his dripping face from the
 
 212 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 basin where he had been sluicing away in cold water 
 the stain of travel, and turned it, rosy and shining, 
 upon the interpellator. Viewing the latter's spindle 
 frame and long bilious countenance with some disfavour, 
 he answered haughtily that the companionship was none 
 of his choice, but the landlord's. 
 
 " Too bad of the fallow ! " asseverated the Captain, 
 closing the door with military clatter. " The creature 
 wants a lesson. Rat him ! He must be taught how 
 to behave to a gen He broke off abruptly. 
 
 Swaggering up to the table, legs well apart, he had 
 caught sight of some of Mr. Jernigan's belongings care- 
 lessly thrown upon it a silver-hilted sword ; a heavy 
 chain with a bunch of seals and a brace of watches, one 
 of these encrusted with gold of three colours and little 
 gems ; a silken purse agreeably swollen at either end- 
 such a purse as Captain Spicer had rarely had the privi- 
 lege of holding in his hand, but of the kind which he 
 benevolently desired to find in the possession of those 
 young favourites of fortune to whom it was his life 
 vocation to attach himself. A glitter came into his pale 
 eyes. 
 
 There was, as we know, a certain obliquity of vision 
 connected with these orbs at the best of times. But 
 when their owner became excited the peculiarity in- 
 creased to an alarming extent. Just now, however, it 
 seemed to provide him with the advantage of fixing
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 213 
 
 the articles on the table and the young gentleman at 
 the wash-hand stand at one and the same time. 
 
 " Though, indeed," he went on, and had no shame 
 in this ungraduated change from blustering to fawning, 
 " when one is quartered with so gallant a campanion as 
 yourself, sir, by the Lard, a man would be charl to find 
 grounds for aught but congratulation." 
 
 And while, over the edge of the towel, Julian regarded 
 him with innocent amazement, the astute parasite pro- 
 ceeded, 
 
 " In the Sarvice, sir? No? Strange; you have the 
 military air. On your way back from the Grand Tour, 
 I presume. There is, I see, the fareign dash. No ? Ah ! 
 but you've had your racket in tawn." And this last 
 impeachment, blushing down to the fine- ruffled shirt, 
 parted upon a throat as white and round as a girl's, the 
 poor boy, who felt his lovely youth such a burden, had 
 not the courage to disclaim. 
 
 " Master Ju," said the old servant, popping in his 
 head unceremoniously at the door, "will I give you a 
 hand with your cue ? " And Mr. Jernigan of Costessy 
 felt it incumbent upon his dignity to dismiss the over- 
 officious valet with a proper and manlike brevity, " When 
 I require you, Jonas, I shall summon you." 
 
 ***** 
 
 If Mistress Bellairs had thought Julian Jernigan a 
 pretty youth as he stood, garbed for travelling, in the
 
 214 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 shadowy fireglow, she thought him ten times more so 
 as he entered her brilliantly-lit parlour. With an eye 
 that had something maternal hi its appraising, the young 
 widow noted how the colour came and went upon his 
 fair cheek ; how the quick breath fluttered his nostrils, 
 yet how high he held his crested head with its nimbus 
 of powdered hair ; how deliberately he moved, and yet 
 with how boyish a consciousness of everybody's gaze. 
 
 " Mr. Stafford Mr. Jernigan." It was quite a minute 
 before the buzzing blood in Julian's ears subsided suffi- 
 ciently to enable him to understand what Mrs. Bellairs 
 was saying, as, after mechanically bowing to an unknown 
 gentleman, he took seat between her and the lady whom 
 he knew as Miss Rachel. 
 
 " Mr. Stafford," quoth Kitty, " is an old friend. He 
 heard of my being on the road to Bath, and started 
 immediately to meet me. I feel prodigious flattered." 
 
 She extended a white hand towards the gentleman in 
 question. But, having to pass Mr. O'Hara to reach 
 him, the latter seized it and bestowed such tender kisses 
 upon it that positively Mr. Jernigan could not look on, 
 but had to keep his eyes bent on his plate. Through 
 the clamour of laughter and protest there stole upon his 
 consciousness a voice as sweet and low as the sigh of 
 an iEolian harp. 
 
 " Are you travelling alone ? " Rachel Peace was asking. 
 
 He turned to find her looking at him with such kind-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 21 5 
 
 ness in her eyes that his heart fluttered. He thought to 
 divine that to her this mockery of love and courtship, 
 in which Mrs. Bellairs seemed to have her being, was as 
 embarrassing as it was to him. Nay, she seemed to 
 shrink from even the proximity of her gallant and hand- 
 some neighbour, Mr. Stafford ; to have gathered her 
 skirts away, to have shifted her seat as far as possible 
 a circumstance which, while it made him wonder a 
 little, he rejoiced at ; for did it not bring her into sweet 
 proximity to himself ? the fall of her lace, the curve of 
 her gray sleeve now and again brushing his arm and 
 sending thrills of that new joyful pain to his heart. 
 
 " I have been visiting relatives in the south," confided 
 the youth, " and am now on my way to Bath, where I 
 am awaited by an uncle." 
 
 She glanced at the deep black of the sleeve ; then she 
 said, with a sigh running through the words, 
 
 " I, too, am alone." 
 
 He ventured to look full at the delicate face bending 
 towards him. 
 
 " Alone ? " he queried, ardent admiration, respectful 
 sympathy in his tone. " Alone ! " That she should be 
 alone, and wear that plaintive sorrow of it in her eye ! 
 
 " Yes," she told him, sinking her voice still lower, 
 " I am only travelling with this lady a little way. She 
 has been very good to me, but we tlo not belong to- 
 gether."
 
 2l6 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 He was not surprised at that. Mistress Bellairs was 
 very kind, no doubt, and vastly admired, evidently ; 
 but, compared to her . . . ! His emboldened eye moved 
 quickly from one to the other, betraying his thought. 
 She pressed her lips together, and then, drawing a quick 
 breath, laid her finger on his black cuff. 
 
 " I want to tell you something," she said almost in- 
 audibly. " My name is Rachel Peace." 
 
 His innocent blue gaze widened ; then he smiled like 
 a delighted child. 
 
 " What a lovely name, and how it suits you, madam ! 
 Rachel Peace ! " 
 
 To his immense discomfiture he spoke the words into 
 a sudden silence, and found that, the scene of coquetry 
 opposite having abruptly ceased, he was again the centre 
 of attention. But he did not notice that, beside him, 
 Rachel had cast down her eyes and grown white to the 
 lips. Perhaps Kitty, in spite of her laughter, was not 
 above a feminine pique to find that the pretty boy had 
 positively no eyes for another charming presence. Per- 
 haps she was displeased with her proteg/e for betraying 
 her own pious fraud. At any rate, she here remarked, 
 with some dryness, that doubtless Mr. Jernigan was 
 already familiar with the name. 
 
 The boy looked bewildered. " There is a most re- 
 spected family of 'Friends, at Norwich " he- began ; 
 
 when, feeling the girl start beside him, he stopped,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2 17 
 
 looked at her hesitatingly, and saw her crimson to the 
 temples. 
 
 Then Mr. Stafford leaned across the table and spoke. 
 
 ; ' The fact is," said he, " we have been unkind, Mr. 
 Jernigan, in not informing you of the privilege you enjoy 
 to-night. Miss Rachel Peace is one of England's most 
 gifted actresses, a lady universally admired and univer- 
 sally respected, and the Prince of Wales himself might 
 well envy you your place beside her." . 
 
 The full white lids of Rachel's eyes were cast down 
 till the long lashes seemed to sweep the cheek. One 
 would have scarce thought she heard, but for the waver- 
 ing colour and the sensitive trembling of her lips. Mr. 
 O'Hara was thumping the table in vehement approval. 
 
 " Didn't I tell you ! " said he. " Ah, 'iis not every- 
 body, my boy, that can say he sat between Bellairs, 
 who has broken every heart in England, and Peace, 
 who's trampled on all the rest. Keep the secret dark, 
 my dear friend, or we'll be having a mob in upon us ! " 
 
 Kitty bridled. Mr. O'Hara's comparative compliments 
 struck her as clumsy. As for Julian, he was frankly 
 bewildered : this dove-gray lady, with the sad and tender 
 eyes, this fulfilment of all his loveliest presentiments 
 an actress ! Then had he been through life misled ; 
 then was an actress's calling the most noble, the most 
 soul-inspiring, which a woman could follow ; then was 
 the playhouse the nursery of all beautiful dignity, all
 
 2l8 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 white-winged modesty ! But why, upon their praise of 
 her, should she droop her head and wear the pain of 
 the world in her sweet face ? 
 
 Into this silence, pregnant with doubt and trouble, 
 every one welcomed an external diversion a gentle 
 scratching which was now heard at the door. 
 
 " Come in," cried Kitty petulantly. And as the 
 scratching but continued louder, " Come in ! " cried 
 Stafford, with all the volume of his sonorous voice, 
 while, " More power to your claw ! " exclaimed Mr. 
 O'Hara, a kind of observation with which that gentle- 
 man made free, much to Julian Jernigan's mystification. 
 
 But if the scratching had been welcome, the scratcher 
 himself, as he inserted a long sallow countenance through 
 the gingerly-opened door, was not. 
 
 " Why, 'tis Captain Spicer," said Kitty in tones of 
 disgusted astonishment. 
 
 " Spoicer, is it ? " ejaculated the Honourable Denis, 
 and muttered something anent the devil's impudence 
 between his teeth. 
 
 " Mr. Spicer, sir," said Stafford, with the most deadly 
 politeness, " you are evidently mistaking : this is not the 
 public room ! " 
 
 But Captain Spicer had made good his footing, and 
 was now advancing upon the table with that winning 
 sidle characteristic of his most elegant moments.. 
 
 Once again all Julian's unschooled blood rushed to
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 219 
 
 his cheeks. He felt a sort of responsibility for the 
 appearance of his chance chamber- mate, whose conversa- 
 tion he was now ashamed of having found entertaining, 
 since this military gentleman was known only in ill- 
 regard by his table companions. 
 
 " Aha, my young friend ! " said the intruder, menac- 
 ing him with a waggish finger, " so here is the mysterious 
 lady for whom you denied me your campany at sapper 
 no less a parson than the lavely Kitty. . . . O'Hara, 
 my boy, the tap of the evening to you as you would 
 say yourself." (" The tap of my toe to ye," muttered 
 O'Hara.)" Staffard, old crony " 
 
 "This room is a private room, Captain Spicer," said 
 Stafford with his former cruel suavity; while Kitty, 
 after staring with perfectly expressionless eyes at the 
 Captain's wreathed countenance, suddenly began to 
 address O'Hara with that perfection of insolence only to 
 be encompassed by a woman of the highest fashion, 
 
 " The creature had the face to call upon me in town ! 
 Nay, I had to get Sir George Payne to turn him out of 
 my box at Covent Garden 
 
 Even Captain Spicer, although it was the trade of 
 his life to swallow rebuffs, as a dog swallows crusts in 
 the hope of better morsels, could scarce keep up his 
 smile of assurance before such a reception. His cheeks 
 grew mottled ; he breathed hard ; his eyes squinted 
 more fearfully than ever as they roamed from face to
 
 220 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 face. All at once they halted ; their obliquity drew 
 together, and there was a kind of flicker between their 
 white eyelashes. 
 
 " And pray, my fair Bellairs, how is it we still find 
 you fair Bellairs ? When last I was in tawn with my 
 Lard Ffarringdon, the warld was ringing with noble news 
 of approaching wedding-bells he, he ! Were there other 
 claimants for my Lord Mandeville's ring, eh, Staff ard ? " 
 
 Julian felt a sort of shudder run through the still 
 figjire at his side, then a faint movement, as if towards 
 flight. There was a pause, the tension of which oppressed 
 even him who knew nothing. 
 
 " He, he ! " cried Captain Spicer, now giving full vent 
 to a triumphant spitefulness. " Is it passible ? . . . Do 
 I behold the beauteous Thespian, Miss Peace ? Verily, 
 it is even so.- . . . O Peace, Peace, why didst thou leave 
 the tawn in desalation ? " 
 
 And Julian, who of her fellow-guests was the only one 
 that dared look at Rachel, saw her slowly rear her head 
 upon her long throat and fix a steady eye upon the 
 speaker. 
 
 " Spicer," said Mr. O'Hara, suddenly springing to his 
 feet, " I'll give you ten seconds to take your nose out 
 of the reach of my fingers ! " 
 
 " Open the door, O'Hara ! " Stafford was crying at 
 the same instant. " I was reckoned pretty good at 
 football in my day."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 221 
 
 The cheeks of the led captain worked as you may 
 see those of an angry toad. Once again he looked from 
 right to left, choosing the spot where to spit his venom. 
 Then, 
 
 "Ha!" cried he, forgetting the last remnant of his 
 professional prudence in a fresh spasm of malignity. 
 " Pradigious clever move of yours, Mrs. Kitty, to have 
 kidnapped the chief impediment ! He-he ! I begin to 
 understand, naw, how the vartuous Bellairs finds herself 
 in sach campany ! " 
 
 Then, twisting round and thrusting his lean chin over 
 Julian's shoulder, offensively close to Rachel's face, 
 
 " And pray, miss," said he, " how did you leave my 
 Lard Mandeville ? " 
 
 Upon this there was a rising in three quarters of the 
 table at once, and a sudden scuffle, in the midst of which 
 it was hard to discriminate. But Kitty Bellairs, watch- 
 ing with interest, thought to distinguish that he who, 
 dashing back his chair, slapped Captain Spicer across 
 the face with a napkin, was Mr. Jernigan of Costessy ; 
 while it was Mr. Stafford and Mr. O'Hara who between 
 them hustled the intruder through the door. 
 
 The fracas once fairly over, however, the little widow 
 felt it incumbent upon her to be seized with a delicate 
 fit of vapours. And this new excitement so fully occu- 
 pied the attention of herself and her two cavaliers that 
 it was not until Rachel, rising from her seat, clasped her
 
 222 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 hands and exclaimed in tones of anguish, " Merciful 
 heavens, where is Mr. Jernigan ? " that, looking round in 
 surprise, they perceived the young gentleman's absence. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Rachel, " he has gone forth to quarrel 
 a mere lad. For pity's sake, gentlemen, seek him ! 
 Prevent bloodshed. . . . Ah ! what have I done that 
 this curse of drawn swords should follow me wherever 
 I go?" 
 
 * * * # * 
 
 When Mr. Stafford and Mr. O'Hara, to calm the 
 Quaker's distress, and perhaps slightly infected themselves 
 by her alarm, went forth to seek young Mr. Jernigan, 
 they looked for him in vain through hall and parlour. 
 Then, proceeding to his chamber, they were met at the 
 door by old Jonas, who seemed in great anxiety of 
 mind. 
 
 " O sirs," he cried, " there's the devil's work going 
 on in here . . . and they've locked themselves in ! " 
 Then the man's face worked. " He's the last of the old 
 stock ! " said he. 
 
 " Pooh ! " cried Denis consolingly ; " what a pother 
 all this about nothing ! Spicer wags his tongue more 
 freely than his sword, I'll tell you that ! " 
 
 And, indeed, when they reached the locked door and 
 stood all three, on a sudden impulse, listening, it certainly 
 did seem as if the light-hearted gentleman's opinion were 
 the correct one. For Spicer's voice was grinding on
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 223 
 
 within, evidently on peaceful terms intent nay, he was 
 punctuating his discourse by cackling self-applause. 
 
 O'Hara bent his ear to catch the words, 
 
 " Stap me, you don't knaw your friends, sir," the 
 gallant Captain was saying. " Come, give me the key, 
 my good lad ; by the Lard, I've no quarrel with you." 
 
 " But I've a quarrel with you, sir." And old Jonas 
 started to hear his little master speak with that new 
 note of manliness ; " you have insulted, sir, a lady 
 whom I honour, whom I revere ..." 
 
 Here the lad's voice trembled, and Stafford and O'Hara 
 exchanged a smile which was unconsciously tender. It 
 was as if the ghost of their own dead boyhood rose 
 before them : they had passed that way themselves. 
 And oh, what a long road had they not travelled since ! 
 
 " Why, rat it all ! " cried the Captain then from 
 within, and it could be heard that his sweet humour 
 was growing a trifle sour. " You're yang, Mr. Jarnigan, 
 or, upan my saul, I should take it ill of you ! Why, 
 you yang pappy, I came down into that room merely 
 to show you what a crew it was you had taken ap with 
 Bellairs, whom all the men are running away fram, dem 
 it, and those two bullies, sir, whom she keeps to fight 
 the runaways ! Why, gad, if you'd not been so green 
 fram the country, my poor friend, you'd have heard of 
 that Staffard fallow's encounter with my Lard Mande- 
 ville. And talking of my lard and his jilting of poor
 
 224 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Kitty, he, he ! brings me to this Rachel Peace ; and a 
 pretty piece, he, he ! a baggage ! " 
 
 " What a pestilent tongue it has ! " said Stafford with- 
 out, and raised his hand to beat a- warning rat-tat on the 
 panels. But O'Hara was too well entertained. 
 
 " Wait a bit," he urged ; " 'tis as good as a play, and 
 the lad's giving it to him in fine style ! " 
 
 And, indeed, there was a shout from Julian J.ernigan. 
 
 " Silence ! Liar ! " 
 
 " Rachel Peace ! Rachel Peace, you booby ! Why, 
 all the warld knows she's my Lord Mandeville's 
 
 " Thunder an' 'ouns ! " exclaimed O'Hara, straighten- 
 ing himself with an irrepressible sparkle in his eyes, 
 " but that was a master slap ! " 
 
 There was a pause within, a breathless moment with 
 out. Then Captain Spicer's snarl, 
 
 " Yah since you will have it ! " followed by the hiss 
 of the steel sliding from the scabbard like an angry snake. 
 
 " When a creature's pushed to it, he's dangerous," 
 suddenly exclaimed O'Hara, and aimed for the door with 
 a sturdy lurch of his shoulder; but this time it was 
 Stafford who intervened. 
 
 " Too late now," he said ; " they're at it. If you jog 
 the drinkers' elbows, you may spill the wrong cup. The 
 lad needs all his wits about him. Spicer's a white-liver, 
 but he's an old hand." 
 
 " True," said O'Hara, and fell back.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 225 
 
 Jonas shifted piteous eyes from one to the other. 
 His lips moved as if repeating to himself, " The last of 
 the old stock ! " 
 
 It was not to be a long wait : even to those listeners 
 in suspense without it seemed an appallingly short one. 
 There was a stamp of feet, and they could distinguish 
 the boy's clean spring backwards and forwards, Spicer's 
 slouching shoe and Spicer's reiterated cry, " Saha! Sa-sa! 
 Have at you ! " after the fashion of the practised bully. 
 But from young Julian came never a word. 
 
 Then the Captain raised a yell of triumph, succeeded 
 by a deadly little silence, into which presently came the 
 sound of a heavy fall. 
 
 The servant moaned like an old dog, and Stafford 
 made a sign to O'Hara. Before their united rush the 
 door fell open, and they burst, one on the top of the 
 other, into the room. 
 
 Spicer, the grin petrified upon his swollen mouth, 
 turned round upon them, still brandishing a blood-stained 
 sword ; but as all three hurried up to the prostrate 
 figure on the floor, the gallant gentleman saw his oppor- 
 tunity, and made good his exit without further ado. 
 
 It seemed such a very small figure, that of the valiant 
 little lover, as it lay all huddled together, that O'Hara, 
 with a break in his voice, cried out to seize the scoundrel 
 who had murdered a child. But Stafford, looking up 
 from where he knelt and drawing out his hand all crim- 
 
 8
 
 226 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 soned with good Jernigan blood from the ruffled shirt that 
 had been donned this evening over so high a heart, bade 
 him let the carrion go but have a surgeon summoned. 
 The lad was not dead, but he feared the wound was deep 
 in the lung. 
 
 * * * * # 
 
 Two anxious women were waiting in the parlour for 
 the medical verdict when Stafford came in upon them, 
 grave, yet not with that final gravity that leaves no 
 room for hope. 
 
 " If he wins through the night, the surgeon thinks he 
 may yet live," said he. 
 
 Rachel folded her hands as if in prayer. But Kitty's 
 face fell ; one of those beings made for the sunny side 
 of life, she took trouble with petulance, struggling against 
 it as a bird beats its wings in a trap. 
 
 " Why did any of you let a little gentleman like him 
 cross swords with such a thing as Spicer ? Why couldn't 
 you fight yourselves, either of you two big men, instead 
 of the child ? Fie upon you ! Or why did he fight at 
 all, and what did he fight for ? " 
 
 The question was emphasized with that stamp of her 
 little foot so familiar to the devotees of Kitty. 
 
 Stafford hesitated ; he looked at Rachel. Then 
 Rachel raised her lovely heavy eyes. 
 
 " He fought for me, for my good name," said she. 
 " Is it not so ? "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 22/ 
 
 And, as Stafford's silence answered for him, she went 
 on, quite calmly, though her lips quivered in bitterness : 
 " I had done less harm had I remained where you found 
 me, madam. Oh, I am not the less grateful to you 
 that you tried to save me ! But for such as me, you 
 see, there is no saving. My sin will follow me." 
 
 " Miss Rachel," said Stafford, going up to her and 
 taking her hand he was a man who had the reputa- 
 tion of a very cold heart under his air of gayest good- 
 humour, but Rachel Peace ever after bore his memory 
 in gratitude for his kind touch, his kind look at this 
 moment of her misery-" Miss Rachel, he is asking for 
 you ; have you the courage ? " 
 
 At that she lifted her head. 
 
 " Oh, I should be coward, indeed, to think of my- 
 self ! " said she. 
 
 " A rare woman ! I always knew it," thought Stafford. 
 * * # # # 
 
 Rachel stood looking at Julian Jernigan's colourless 
 face ; then, as he opened his languid eyes, bent down 
 and took his hand. 
 
 " You are not to speak," she said ; " I am here to 
 nurse you, and you will soon get well ! " 
 
 Jonas, struggling with his tears at the foot of the bed, 
 turned his bewildered old gaze upon her as if on the 
 apparition of an angel. And Julian, murmuring some- 
 thing about peace, and her being all white like the lilies,
 
 228 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 and its being a happy way to die (which he thought was 
 quite a long speech), turned his head on his pillow and 
 went back to that place of vague dreams which was half 
 swoon, half sleep. 
 
 * # # * * 
 
 Vastly insulted at the mere suggestion that she should 
 betake herself to bed, while Rachel watched the wounded 
 champion, Mistress Kitty elected to spend the night (in 
 monstrous discomfort) on a chair before the fire in her 
 own apartment. 
 
 Towards that bleak and most weary hour, however, 
 just before the winter dawn, she allowed herself to be 
 beguiled downstairs into Master Lawrence's own cosy 
 " library," where he and Mr. O'Hara had passed a not 
 unpleasant time between varied discourse and a noble 
 bowl of spiced wine. (The landlord of the Bear had 
 far too exalted a conception of his calling to think of 
 slumber while guests of quality watched.) 
 
 " Just the least little thimbleful in the world, Kitty," 
 had whispered the insinuating Denis through the keyhole 
 of her door, " and a toast of your darling little feet at 
 the handsomest fire I've seen this winter ! " 
 
 And thus O'Hara's divinity, rather injured, very 
 pettish, somewhat pale, with a pretty mouth ever caught 
 upon a yawn, had consented to establish herself before 
 Master Lawrence's handsome fire, to stretch out her 
 darling little feet to the blaze, to sip the fragrance of
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 229. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara's offering although with many a little 
 choking grimace and protestation. Master Lawrence had 
 discreetly retired upon her arrival. 
 
 " By the powers ! " said O'Hara. " It's not that I'm 
 not sorry for the little fellow upstairs, but it's a poor 
 heart that never rejoices ! " 
 
 But, alas for the happy lover ! This is a poor world, 
 in which a rich heart's rejoicing is never of long dura- 
 tion. Mr. O'Hara was not destined to hold his gallant 
 opportunity more than a minute's span. 
 
 Into the silence of the night there came a knocking 
 at the street door, a barking of dogs, a running of feet, 
 an excited parley ; and, before either of the two en- 
 sconced in their snug retreat had time to interchange 
 surprise and conjecture, Master Lawrence hurried in. 
 
 The worthy innkeeper's face was flushed, his manner 
 important. He craved ten thousand pardons, but there 
 was a traveller without a gentleman a nobleman. 
 
 He was not permitted to finish his phrase, for here an 
 unceremonious hand thrust him aside, and the traveller 
 in question stood in the doorway ! 
 
 " So, Mistress Bellairs ! " cried Lord Mandeville. " So, 
 madam ! Thus we meet again ! " 
 
 The noble Earl's address, however, was scarcely as 
 impressive as he could have wished ; he had ridden long 
 and hard, and the night was one of exceptional rigour. 
 He could hardly speak for his chattering teeth ; his face
 
 230 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 was livid and purple in patches ; he staggered now upon 
 his numbed limbs ; and, a convulsive shiver seizing 
 him, he was only able further to articulate the name, 
 " Rachel Peace ! " 
 
 Now, O'Hara was a lover himself, and full of the 
 largest sympathy towards any suffering member of the 
 brotherhood. 
 
 " Whisht ! " said he soothingly, " not another word 
 out of you now, till we get the life into you again." He 
 caught up the steaming bowl of wine on the table, and 
 held it boldly to the wayfarer's frozen lips. 
 
 " Drink, my boy," said he. 
 
 Though Lord Mandeville, recognizing the excellence of 
 this advice, promptly disposed of the whole brew at a 
 draught, his ill-humour was thereby no whit abated. 
 Setting the empty vessel on the table with a clatter, he 
 looked once more from Kitty to O'Hara, and in his brood- 
 ing frown there was something of triumphant fury. 
 Kitty pinched her baby mouth and looked defiance 
 back with right good will. What ? Had she once 
 admired this man, had almost consented to bestow on 
 him in marriage her incomparable little self ? Heavens, 
 what an escape she had had . . . she who hated ugliness ! 
 
 " Perhaps," said Lord Mandeville, " you will kindly 
 tell me what you have done with Miss Rachel Peace, 
 whom you carried off from my house, for reasons best 
 known to yourself."
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 231 
 
 His face twisted into a sneer as he spoke ; there was 
 a red glare in his eyes. Then, " Where is Rachel ? " 
 he cried with a sudden breakdown of self-control, so that 
 the words rang in a hoarse shout. 
 
 " The poor fellow's as croaky as a crow," said O'Hara 
 
 to himself, all compassion. 
 
 
 
 " I will trouble you, my lord," said Mistress Kitty, ice 
 externally, internally all a little fire of joy at this oppor- 
 tunity for paying back old scores, " to stop screaming. 
 There's some one dying upstairs " 
 
 " Some one dying ! " repeated Lord Mandeville. His 
 tired face went ghastly, his jaw dropped, his eye pro- 
 truded, he made a vague movement with his hands. 
 
 " No, no," cried O'Hara in quick understanding, "she's 
 well, my lord alive and well. Kitty, yo'u've frightened 
 him out of his wits ! 'Tis but a poor lad that's been 
 crossing swords " 
 
 Lord Mandeville threw himself into a chair, leaned 
 his elbows on the table, and covered his face with his 
 hands. 
 
 " A poor lad ! A poor child ! " echoed Mistress Kitty, 
 taking up the tale, throwing each word at the silent 
 man with as deliberate an intention as if she were 
 aiming little arrows " a poor child, who has shed his 
 blood, my lord, given his life perhaps, to defend the fair 
 name of Rachel Peace that fair name which you have 
 now made such that every ruffian on the road thinks
 
 232 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 himself entitled to cast his handful of mud at it. Rachel 
 Peace, sir " 
 
 " Whom you robbed me of," said his lordship, opening 
 his fingers to throw out from between them a red look 
 upon her. 
 
 " Whom I took pity on," cried she, " whom I gave 
 shelter to, as I would have sheltered a wounded dove. 
 Poor dove ! " said Kitty, waxing dithyrambic, " with 
 white wings broken, all maimed and hurt ! Ah ! my 
 lord, you men have fine sport ! " 
 
 " Enough, madam ! " said Lord Mandeville, springing 
 up with so fierce an air that even she quailed before it. 
 " Where is Rachel ? I dare you to keep her from me. 
 She's in this house, I know. I'll find her if I have to 
 break into every room. Rachel ! Give me back my 
 girl. . . ." 
 
 And, seeing (Denis afterwards explained to the out- 
 raged Kitty) that, as his lordship was as blind drunk 
 and mad drunk with love as ever a man could be, there 
 seemed nothing for it but to humour him, Mr. O'Hara 
 volunteered to conduct him to the chamber where Mr. 
 Stafford was keeping a friendly night watch near the 
 sick-room, and thither to lure Rachel Peace for a few 
 moments from Mr. Jernigan's bedside. 
 
 As soon as Mistress Kitty had recovered from her 
 stupefaction at Mr. O'Hara's audacity, she decided to 
 follow the reprobates upstairs, solely moved (as she told
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 233 
 
 herself) by the benevolent desire of affording Rachel the 
 protection of one of her own sex at such a juncture, 
 and in no manner by curiosity or any desire to keep her 
 pretty fingers in the pie. 
 
 When she peeped into Mr. Stafford's chamber she found 
 it empty of all save of that gentleman's presence. With 
 his head tilted back on the top of the armchair, an open 
 book on his knees, a guttering candle beside him, he 
 was sound asleep ; little gentle snorts escaped rhythmi- 
 cally from his well-cut nostrils scarcely the situation 
 in which a man of elegance would wish to be found by 
 the lady of his heart ! Kitty closed the door again 
 and stood a second in reflection. With Mr. Stafford, it 
 will be remembered, also she had once been near very 
 near matrimony ! 
 
 Then, gathering her skirts together and tripping it as 
 softly as her high heels would allow, she turned the 
 corner of the passage towards the beckoning of a lamp. 
 Then she started back and held her breath : she had 
 only just escaped falling into Lord Mandeville's arms. 
 
 At the same moment a door a little lower down in 
 the long gallery was opened, and Rachel Peace came 
 forth. Unseen, Kitty watched. 
 
 Lord Mandeville, with a sound as if something clicked 
 in his throat, made a quick step towards the girl. 
 
 " Oh, hush ! " said Rachel, glancing over her shoulder, 
 as O'Hara now came forth in his turn and closed the
 
 234 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 sick-room door behind him. "Hush!" she said; "he 
 is awake. ' Her thoughts were all for the boy. 
 
 " Rachel ! " said Lord Mandeville in a queer, angry, 
 choked voice. 
 
 She drew close to him that she might bear him away 
 to silence, and he caught her into his arms. Then she 
 seemed to realize what his presence meant, and cried, 
 " Oh, why are you here ? " with a wail under her breath. 
 And Kitty heard with a strange mixture of feelings 
 the deep, tender note in Lord Mandeville's voice as he 
 answered, 
 
 " Because I cannot live without you, Rachel . . . 
 Rachel ! " 
 
 But Rachel had disengaged herself ; the man could no 
 more have held her, just then, than he could have held 
 running waters. 
 
 " I must go back to the boy," she said. This great, 
 passionate lover who had wrought such havoc in her 
 life, he was to step back now and yield place to the all- 
 paramount little lover who gave all and wanted nothing. 
 " I have just a faint hope." She moved a pace or two 
 and stood between the two men. 
 
 " Indeed, my lord," said O'Hara, " I think you must 
 be content to let her go back to him ; for, faith, I believe 
 her presence alone keeps Death at bay." 
 
 And Kitty, watching, guessed how Lord Mandeville's 
 heart was torn by jealous pangs. She had caused many
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 235 
 
 pjassions, or so she flattered herself, but she had never 
 seen anything like this ! 
 
 But Rachel still paused and hesitated ; then, with the 
 corners of her sweet mouth trembling downwards like 
 a chidden child's, she said gently, 
 
 " He fought for me, poor little lad. O gentlemen, 
 
 you both know why ! He must not " She paused, 
 
 her lips quivered pitifully, and the words seemed hard 
 to speak. " It would be very kind," she resumed, " if 
 every one would allow him to believe would let him 
 die, if he is to die, believing in me, or would wait till 
 he gets well before telling him the truth." 
 
 Her voice sank into a whisper. O'Hara turned abruptly 
 away. But Lord Mandeville fell upon his knees before 
 her in the passage and buried his face in her gray skirt. 
 ***** 
 
 " No, no," said Rachel Peace. She was sitting beside 
 Julian Jernigan's bed, and held his cold hand in both 
 hers. " No, you are not going to die. The surgeon is 
 quite content with you this morning. You are going 
 to live." She was smiling at him, and he smiled back 
 at her. 
 
 " I don't think I care," said he. He was unutterably 
 happy with both those lovely hands seeming to uphold 
 his heart. Then, with the quick senses of the wanderer 
 in the borderland, he became aware of other presences 
 in the room the merry gentleman with the twinkling
 
 236 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 eyes, and a stranger to whom Rachel Peace suddenly 
 looked up, as he closely saw and more closely felt, with 
 some strongly-stirring emotion. 
 
 Lord Mandeville gazed down at Rachel's champion ; 
 his mouth twisted into something between a smile and 
 a spasm of pain. He had actually been jealous in his 
 jealous heart, had grudged her with doubt and suspicion, 
 to this boy with the dank yellow curls and the white 
 child's face. And, as Rachel Peace still looked up, her 
 soft eyes full of wonder and fear and expectation, Lord 
 Mandeville, bending, took Mr. Julian Jernigan's hands 
 from her clasp. He had a very noble manner when he 
 chose ; and, perhaps, under all his wild passions he had 
 something of a noble soul. 
 
 " Mr. Jernigan," said he, " I will not say to you that 
 I am sorry to see you in such a plight, for indeed, sir, 
 I envy you ! I have heard of your defence of this gentle 
 lady. No man, sir, could shed his blood in a worthier 
 cause. I am proud to make your acquaintance, Mr. 
 Jernigan. And I thank you, in my own name and 
 that of my affianced wife." 
 
 How much Mr. Jernigan understood of this speech, 
 how much he only felt, it were hard to say. His breast 
 swelled with a great pride, with a great pain and a very 
 high and grand joy. And everything swam before him 
 until suddenly he was called back again to the inn-bed, 
 to his wound and to life generally, by Rachel's voice in
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 237 
 
 his ears and Rachel's tears upon his cheek ; ay, and by 
 something else the touch of Rachel's lip upon his 
 brow ! 
 
 And, " Oh, I thank you too ! " she was saying to him 
 " from my heart I thank you ! " 
 
 ***** 
 
 " If you cast me off," said Lord Mandeville, as they 
 two were alone at last and he held Rachel Peace to his 
 heart " if you cast me off, Rachel, then I am lost 
 indeed." 
 
 " I cast thee off ! " murmured Rachel. " Ah, Lionel 
 thee knows . . . ! " 
 
 He looked deep, deep into her eyes and read, beyond 
 their joy and hopefulness, the shadow of an inextinguish- 
 able sorrow. Her lips would never utter reproach. In 
 her meek and generous soul, indeed, no blame of him 
 could live ; but the keener did it stab him, this sorrow 
 in her eyes which he knew would, in some measure, be 
 ever there. With what a delicate pride would she not 
 have held her head for his coronet a little while ago ! 
 How bridal a heart she would have brought him a 
 little while ago ! His poor girl ! 
 
 " Kitty, darling," said O'Hara tentatively, " there's 
 love and marriage in the air this morning don't you 
 feel it ? " 
 
 ***** 
 
 But Mistress Bellairs was in an unapproachable and
 
 338 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 petulant mood. She whisked her hand away from his 
 grasp. 
 
 " Bah ! " said she; " there's not one of you creatures 
 that come dangling about me that knows even the mean- 
 ing of the word Love, sir. Love ! " said she. " Ah, I have 
 seen it at last ! "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BLACK LACE MASK. 
 
 RARELY had Master Thomas Lawrence, the landlord of 
 the Bear Inn, Devizes, had the privilege of enter- 
 taining so many guests of quality together for so long a 
 period. There was my lord, Earl Mandeville most 
 celebrated peer ! who actually honoured " the De- 
 vizes " by electing to contract there that marriage 
 which was the amazement of the year. There was Mis- 
 tress Kitty Bellairs, whose name was famous from one 
 end of the Bath Road to the other ; and with her, her 
 young friend, once celebrated as Rachel Peace, the play- 
 actress, now spoken of with bated breath as my lady, 
 Countess Mandeville. And further, in the Queen of 
 Bath's train were two of her courtiers Mr. Stafford, a 
 spark as fashionable in London as at the Springs ; and 
 the Hon. Denis O'Hara (son of Viscount Kilcroney), a 
 very genial gentleman likewise, but one whose distin- 
 guished name Master Lawrence rang oftener than his 
 gold. Then there was Mr. Julian Jernigan of Costessy, 
 a young squire of consequence in the east country (who
 
 240 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 had lain grievously wounded after his affair of delicacy 
 under the roof of the Bear itself) ; and the uncle of the 
 same, my Lord Howard, who, from Bath, where he had 
 been drinking the waters, had come in haste to nurse his 
 kinsman. 
 
 But the life of an inn might serve a parable for life 
 itself. Here for these ten days had this choice com- 
 pany met and feasted and made merry, suffered and 
 watched and prayed ; here had Death threatened and 
 Love vanquished ; here had been tears and laughter and 
 kisses. And now, nearly all had gone their divers roads, 
 and their place would be filled by others, and the old 
 story go on in the old way. 
 
 " Here to-day, gone to-morrow ! " moralized Master 
 Lawrence, as he sat in the silence of his " library," puffing 
 at a contemplative churchwarden. And truly Master 
 Lawrence himself felt the stillness oppressive. But up- 
 stairs, in Arethusa, the atmosphere could not have been 
 described as stagnant. 
 
 Mistress Kitty, ensconced in the window-seat, looking 
 out on the slush and drizzle of the market-place, was 
 biting the string of gold beads that hung round her neck, 
 and swinging the seat was rather high one dainty foot 
 impatiently among the billows of her silken skirts. 
 
 Denis O'Hara, faithful adorer, thought he had never 
 seen her look to more distracting advantage. She was 
 of the type which a pout becomes. Her eyes showed
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 24! 
 
 dark as night, yet bright with a thousand angry little 
 fires, under the white cloud of powdered curls. 
 
 " And so" said the lady, " Mr. Stafford could not bide 
 another day apart from his Madame Eglantine from 
 that little French magpie of a milliner even for the 
 sake of courtesy to a lady ! " 
 
 With some humility, as if he were part guilty (though 
 guilty, in sooth, of nothing but joy at a situation which 
 left him undisputed chance), Denis O'Hara loyally re- 
 sponded, 
 
 " Sure the poor fellow was called off on a matter of 
 law." 
 
 " Law ! " echoed Kitty with a scornful little shriek, 
 " 'tis the last thing that his affair is concerned with ; 
 though indeed " dropping her gold bea'ds and rearing 
 her figure to angry erectness " mark my words, he'll 
 end by marrying the creature, even as my Lord Mande- 
 ville, Rachel Peace, the play-actress." 
 
 " Faith, and I know some one whose pretty little 
 fingers helped to put on the ring," said the Irishman, 
 coming a few paces nearer and speaking in a tone of 
 delicate wheedling. 
 
 " And much gratitude I am like to get for it ! " This 
 with a toss of the powdered curls. " Little will my 
 Lady Mandeville , think of what she owes to humble 
 Mistress Bellairs when she takes the pas of her wherever 
 she goes ! "
 
 242 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Why," said Denis, " you'd be taking the pas of most 
 of them in Bath, yourself, Kitty darling, if you'd only 
 consent to become my viscountess." 
 
 " Your viscountess, sir ? " 
 
 " The poor old gentleman's very bad, over there in 
 County Deny. And, they write me, the cellar's getting 
 very low : the Burgundy's all done. It's my opinion, 
 and medical opinion too, that he'll go out with the 
 claret ! " 
 
 " La ! 'Tis vastly pathetic," quoth Kitty, and edged 
 a trifle farther away upon the window-seat to correspond 
 to Mr. O'Hara's ingratiating approach. 
 
 " Well, and it is that, Kitty," said the latter sturdily. 
 " Sure, he's the grand old fellow still, and there's not one 
 in the county can hold as many bottles as he can and 
 turn it all into the real old generous Irish blood. I 
 believe he'll have mortgaged the very oak for his coffin ! 
 But he shared it all, Kitty, he shared it all, and will, 
 till he lies alone." 
 
 " Prodigious pleasant for you ! " 
 
 " Ah, it's little I care for the paltry money. There's 
 that in the old name, Kitty, that riches could never buy. 
 And it'll come to me with the shine on it." 
 
 " I trust you will find the shine sufficient satisfaction, 
 sir, to make up for an empty pocket." 
 
 " Wouldn't I," cried the man, " if I could but share it 
 with you, pulse of my soul ! "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 243 
 
 He stretched out his arm to clasp her as he spoke, but 
 drew it back before the cold refusal of her eyes. 
 
 " La, sir, you do me proud, indeed ! Sharer of your 
 empty pocket ? " 
 
 " No, madam no, my darling ; sharer of the good 
 name and sole possessor of my great love ! " 
 
 " What is this, Mr. O'Hara ? " 
 
 " It's just this, Kitty : things cannot go on between 
 us as they've been going this last year. Here, to this 
 very inn, a year ago, I brought you as my promised wife, 
 and here you broke my heart on me by throwing me 
 over at the last moment. And here you told me you'd 
 mend it again for me. And what have you been doing 
 ever since, Kitty ? Playing cup and ball with it God 
 forgive me for saying so ! as cruelly as a cat with a mouse. 
 Good God, woman, it's flesh and blood you've got here : 
 this is a man, Kitty; and, by the Lord, he's endured 
 more than human nature can ! I am at the end of my 
 tether." 
 
 " Pray, sir," said Kitty, " not so loud ! I have a 
 delicate tympanum." She raised her hands to her ears. 
 " I am willing to take you at your word. You're a man, 
 if you please ; though, really, with so much braying, 
 and these complaints about your tether, one should have 
 been inclined to think " 
 
 " O Kitty ! " said he. 
 
 Her ears were not so much covered up but that she
 
 244 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 could hear very well. Her faithful lover's sudden in- 
 convenient outbreak of passion, his tragic tone of re- 
 proach, were just the last drops in Mistress Kitty's cup 
 of exasperation. She rose from her seat and flounced 
 into the centre of the room. 
 
 " I vow," she cried, " you are perfectly insupportable 
 to-day ! Am I not to have a minute's rest from this 
 eternal persecution ? La ! when I saw those creatures 
 depart this morning, I thought I'd be free of billing and 
 cooing for the rest of my stay." 
 
 " And I," said O'Hara, with the same unwonted 
 earnestness and agitation which were so provoking to 
 Mistress Bellairs, " when I saw the look on the faces of 
 those two, as they drove off together, man and wife ; 
 when I saw the light in that fellow Stafford's eye, as he 
 set the nose of his nag for Bath ; ay, Kitty, when I 
 saw that poor lad, Jernigan, go forth, solitary, if you 
 will, but, boy as he was, possessing himself and his dig- 
 nity, and felt my own self left behind, a mere wretched 
 hanger-on your dog, to be flung a bone to, patted on 
 the head, or kicked out of the way the wretched bird 
 at -the end of a string 
 
 " Mercy ! " interrupted the lady, with an acid titter 
 "quite a menagerie, in fact, to want to call itself a 
 man ! " 
 
 O'Hara fell silent, and measured her with a brood- 
 ing eye.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 245 
 
 " Well, sir ? " she snapped, when the pause became 
 oppressive. 
 
 " Well," answered he, " let us have an end of it, my 
 dear." 
 
 " Oh, by all means," quoth she, all perversity ; " 'tis 
 what I've been longing for this weary hour ! " 
 
 "It comes to this," he said. He drew close to her 
 and took one of her unwilling little hands in his. This 
 new, dominating manner was as unexpected as this new 
 tone. Actually yes, there could be no doubt of it he 
 was speaking in hardness, not to say in harshness. 
 
 " You must take me or leave me. It must be all or 
 nothing ! " 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! " she said, again trying to titter. " A 
 pistol to my forehead, sir ? Your money or your 
 life ! Or rather " taking herself up with an acute 
 crow of anger " 'tis your money and your life ! That's 
 what it amounts to. And what's the dreadful alter- 
 native ? " 
 
 He dropped her hand. Again there was silence ; she 
 did not allow it to stretch out very long. 
 
 " What are you waiting for ? " said she. " What 
 keeps you ? " 
 
 " Looking my last on you," said he. 
 
 She laughed with all her dimples and all her cruel little 
 white teeth, with all the mockery of her brown pansy 
 eyes. What absurd comedy was this ? How likely,
 
 246 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 indeed, that Denis should voluntarily place a span be- 
 tween himself and his beatific vision ! 
 
 But Mr. O'Hara made a grand bow and turned towards 
 the door. 
 
 " Pray, sir," cried Kitty after him, " will Lord Kil- 
 croney's generous blood enable you to depart from the 
 Bear without causing Master Lawrence too many tears ? 
 That empty pocket you are so unselfishly desirous of 
 sharing with me might " 
 
 Denis wheeled upon her ; and at sight of his face she 
 was positively afraid to say another word. He had 
 grown white to the lips, and his eyes showed queer and 
 dark. She had seen him wear that look once before 
 when she had hurt him to the marrow. A second she 
 hesitated, but again quickly drew back. After all, 
 nothing was ever likely to make any permanent differ- 
 ence to that devotion ; and it was so pleasant to her 
 upon its present footing that she had no desire to see it 
 altered. 
 
 But then to her amazement the door closed between 
 them. 
 
 " Bah ! What fanfaronade ! " quoth she, and went 
 back to the window-seat. 
 
 * * * # * 
 
 " Master Lawrence," said Mr. O'Hara, " kindly order 
 the saddle on Blue Devil. I am for the road." 
 
 Master Lawrence stared stupidly from O'Hara's un-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 247 
 
 wontedly grave countenance to the valise which Boots 
 was just depositing on a bench. 
 
 " For the road ? " he repeated. " But . . . Mistress 
 Bellairs ? " 
 
 " I ride alone." 
 
 " Alone ! " This was strange. 
 
 " I'm leaving the rest of my luggage in your charge 
 for the nonce. And I'm in a hurry, landlord. My 
 bill." 
 
 Mr. O'Hara calling for his bill ! This was strangest 
 of all. So unnatural, indeed, that the host began to 
 disclaim : Surely there was no hurry for that ! 
 
 " Every hurry, friend." And there was something so 
 decided in Mr. O'Hara's tone, so dignified in his air, 
 that Master Lawrence, without venturing upon another 
 word, hastened to give the order to one of his daughters, 
 whose fingers were as clever at totting up an elegant 
 reckoning as they were in drawing sweet sounds from 
 the spinet. 
 
 He presently laid the document before his guest, as 
 that gentleman sat astride a chair, moodily fixing the 
 great fire in the hall. The total made so goodly a show 
 to his proprietary eye that Master Lawrence antici- 
 pated, with some flurry of mind, the usual end of a 
 practical joke. Mr. O'Hara, however, after a startled 
 glance and a rapid mental calculation, produced his 
 purse with the same abnormal dignity and gloom, and
 
 248 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 counted out a tale which left him but two guineas to 
 rub against each other. 
 
 Touched in a landlord's tenderest feelings, moved to 
 pity over his erstwhile jovial client's unwonted melan- 
 choly, and also not without that sensation of discomfort 
 which an unwholesomely virtuous act awakes in its 
 object, Master Lawrence exclaimed, 
 
 " I am sorry, Mr. O'Hara, sir, to see you in such low 
 spirits ! " 
 
 O'Hara's only answer was a lugubrious sigh. 
 
 " Why, then," said the landlord, " here comes the 
 stirrup-cup ; it has been mixed by Mrs. Lawrence." 
 
 " Drink it yourself, to our next meeting our next 
 merry meeting, ha, ha ! " cried Denis. 
 
 His laugh echoed cavernously as he dashed out of 
 the hall. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 The little angry human bird, that was Mistress Kitty, 
 perched on the window-seat in the best parlour of the 
 Bear, swelling with displeasure against an unapprecia- 
 tive world, beheld, with an inner sinking of the heart 
 and a recrudescence of outer disdain, Mr. O'Hara's horse 
 led forth beneath her windows. 
 
 ' 'Pon honour, he believes that he can frighten me ! " 
 thought she, and vowed to blow him the most indifferent 
 farewell kiss when, reckoning upon his recall, he should 
 presently look up at her window.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 249 
 
 Mr. O'Hara's valise was strapped to the saddle. Kitty 
 flattered herself she laughed, and was quite unaware 
 that her pretty lips were quivering downwards over a 
 sob. 
 
 Out came Denis, booted to the knee, coated to the ears, 
 his hat pulled down over his brow a gloomy figure in 
 the gloomy weather. Up on the impatient horse he 
 sprang ; he gathered his reins ; Blue Devil struck out 
 his heels ; the hostlers fell back. Bare-headed into the 
 drizzle now ran Master Lawrence himself, bowing to the 
 earth : so bowed he only to the guests who had settled 
 their shot. Denis O'Hara and a paid bill ! And Mis- 
 tress Kitty had told herself that without her aid the 
 spendthrift youth could never escape from the clutches 
 of the Bear ! 
 
 She held her breath and bit her lip as she bent eagerly 
 forward. Surely he would look up, surely she would 
 yet catch his eye ! But Denis seemed to be unaware 
 of her window. Reining in the impetuous Blue Devil 
 with one hand, he held aloft with the finger and thumb 
 of the other a couple of shining guineas. With no more 
 palpitating anxiety than herself did the two hostlers gaze 
 upon them. 
 
 Then with a laugh that rang up to her, and a sort of 
 diabolic recklessness, Mr. O'Hara sent first one coin 
 then the other spinning high in the air to fall between 
 the two stable-boys. . . . And Kitty knew they were his
 
 2$0 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 last pieces ! Another moment, at a high splashing 
 trot, he was gone. Kitty burst into tears. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The rain had ceased ; but from half-melted snow and 
 soaking hedgerow rose steaming swathes of white mist, 
 behind which the December sun was sinking in sullen 
 red. Leafless shapes of trees like distorted arms up- 
 reared themselves, black here and there against this 
 menacing sky, above the shrouding vapours. No sound 
 there was save the drip, drip from the streaming bough 
 or the sudden gurgling collapse of ice across the melting 
 rut a sodden world, a world enveloped in melancholy, 
 meet prospect for a man to look upon who had settled 
 with himself to have done with life, to have done with 
 it with a vengeance on his neighbour and a challenge 
 to the devil. 
 
 Denis O'Hara sat upon his horse in the middle of the 
 cross-roads at Kennet Hill ; the ground beneath him rose 
 to a gentle eminence, and on every side the sad land 
 fell away, veiled as into some dream of limbo. A little 
 in rear on the right, at the topmost point of the downs 
 and visible from afar warning much needed, little 
 heeded rose, against the lurid afterglow of the sky, 
 the gibbet of Alingdown, as usual supplied with a toler- 
 ably recent burden, tarred and chained. The horseman 
 disdainfully kept his back to it. His coat was turned 
 inside out, and showed an evil-looking yellow cloth sur-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 251 
 
 face, unlike, indeed, to the garment of a gentleman of 
 such gay habit. Under his hat, the cock of which had 
 been altered, a stolen lace veil, folded into treble thick- 
 ness and pierced with two jagged holes, formed an im- 
 promptu mask. 
 
 It was through this ominous addition to his toilet that 
 Mr. O'Hara looked out upon the coming night ; and at 
 every breath he inhaled, with acrid self-torture, violet 
 memories of Kitty's scented presence. And, as he 
 waited, brooding upon fate, there rose in the dull still- 
 ness the piercing sweet note of a little insistent robin, 
 which seemed to mingle with the flower hauntings and 
 set a final seal, with their unconscious cruelty, their tales 
 of past spring joy, upon the lover's bitterness of heart. 
 
 From the far distance presently came an intermittent 
 rumble, hardly perceptible to the ear. Now the rumble, 
 growing continuous, waxed louder, and the sounds 
 separated into distinctiveness the clapper of hoofs in 
 the slush, the roll of wheels on an indifferently metalled 
 road, punctuated anon by crack of whip, and anon by 
 creak of harness, anon again by snorting breath of dis- 
 tressed horseflesh. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara's attention was aroused. He smiled 
 grimly ; drew Blue Devil, whose vain-glorious spirit 
 seemed now to have given place to a most intelligent 
 docility, into the shelter of the hedge ; pulled out his 
 pistol and examined it in the half light. Something of
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 the old gleam had leaped into his eye; a moment of 
 such reckless audacity could not but hold zest. 
 
 ***** 
 
 It was a heavy chaise. Its lanterns, already lit, bobbed 
 yellow from afar. At the foot of the hill the horses fell 
 to walking pace a fat pair, too well nurtured and too 
 little exercised to take kindly to journeying work. O'Hara 
 could hear them labour as they advanced, steam-encircled. 
 When the sluggish roadsters halted at the top of the 
 hill, and, snorting, craned their necks, this seemed to the 
 dilettante highwayman the correct dramatic cue for action 
 the right moment, in fact, to send Blue Devil leaping 
 out of ambush, and, wrenching him back on his haunches, 
 within a yard of the box, to pop out his barker and cry, 
 " Halt ! " in the best approved style of the High Toby ; 
 although the cattle being already at a standstill the 
 adjuration was purely symbolical. 
 
 The fat servant in black livery who sat beside the fat 
 coachman gave a lamentable howl, and hoisted up the 
 blunderbuss he held between his knees. 
 
 O'Hara wheeled Blue Devil upon his hind legs, de- 
 scribed a semicircle round the chaise to repeat the per- 
 formance for the benefit of the coachman. 
 
 Here the blunderbuss went off skywards ; and, re- 
 sponding to the intention, Mr. O'Hara (mercifully wide 
 of the human mark) fired his first pistol and extinguished 
 the off lamp. But if the shot had landed in his well-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 253 
 
 cushioned ribs, he of the blunderbuss could hardly have 
 raised a finer shriek ; though the agility with which he 
 flung himself off the box and started running back in the 
 direction of London spoke volumes for his soundness of 
 wind and limb. 
 
 The coachman sat as if paralyzed, and the fat horses 
 turned their heads to stare in mild surprise. 
 
 Between his knees O'Hara felt every fibre of Blue 
 Devil dance with excitement, and his own heart leaped 
 in wild exhilaration. His only regret was that things 
 should seem to come off so tamely. And this was in- 
 tensified when the carriage window was put down and 
 a voice inquired the meaning of the disturbance in tones 
 which, although ringing in manly sonority, expressed, 
 like the horses, nothing more than a gently scandalized 
 amazement. 
 
 O'Hara dismounted, slung the reins over his arm, 
 wrenched the remaining lamp from its socket, and held 
 it out to examine his capture. Then he broke into a 
 loud laugh. By the Powers ... no less a person than 
 his right reverend lordship the Bishop of Bath and 
 Wells! 
 
 Now this celebrated divine belonged distinctly to the 
 Church militant, and had, as we know, actually a reputa- 
 tion for muscular as well as spiritual power. Mr. O'Hara 
 put the lantern between his feet, not only for the better 
 enjoyment of the humorous situation, but to have some
 
 254 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 freedom of action in case further persuasion should be 
 required. 
 
 But the high Roman nose and the protuberant eye of 
 Dr. Thurlow shone in the flickering yellow light, it seemed, 
 without emotion of any kind. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara raised his hat with a flourish. 
 
 " Little thought I," he cried, speaking with as clipping 
 an accent as he could assume, " that it was your lord- 
 ship's coach I was calling halt to ! But I do not regret 
 it. I would carry out my professional duties as peace- 
 fully as you would yours, my lord, did circumstances 
 always permit it. It is never my fault if there is strife 
 upon the road ! But the laity, as you know, is often so 
 unreasonable. To the point : a shepherd of souls, sir, 
 such as you, holds the treasures of the Church but in 
 trust for the needy. I will relieve your lordship of any 
 anxiety as to the proper bestowal of his funds for a 
 while to come." 
 
 He made every effort as he spoke to keep his speech 
 within the limits of the finest English sarcasm, but was 
 conscious of the escape here and there of a rich Milesian 
 intonation. 
 
 " Truly, my man," said the Bishop, who had quietly 
 waited for the end of this discourse, " you seem to have 
 a specious tongue, but I think you are here advancing 
 a proposition which is at least open to discussion." 
 
 " Oh," cried O'Hara, with a giggle at his own wit,
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 255 
 
 " I make no statement that I cannot support by irre- 
 sistible argument." 
 
 He had left his second pistol undisturbed in the holster. 
 But, so saying, he presented the empty one in so pointed 
 a manner that the Bishop started back, and Blue Devil, 
 peering over O'Hara's shoulder, gave a nervous snort. 
 
 " Why," came the Bishop's voice from within the 
 coach, " my friend, almost thou persuadest me. But 
 I could, I fancy, better satisfy you of my conversion to 
 your thesis were you to lay aside for the moment that 
 overpowering display of logic which tends to confuse the 
 wits of the ordinary thinker, and to let us discuss the 
 matter on even ground." 
 
 O'Hara laughed afresh. He appreciated the readiness 
 with which Dr. Thurlow had kept up the jesting treat- 
 ment of the situation, but at the same time was not 
 without an airy contempt for his want of fight. 
 
 " Faith, and it's easy for a clergyman to have a char- 
 acter ! " he thought, as he dropped the nose of his useless 
 weapon from its guard over the coach window. 
 
 The Bishop's countenance appeared once more in the 
 aperture. He raised in the left hand a large velvet 
 purse, which gave out a charming clink. 
 
 " Remember, sir," he cried protestingly, " that this is 
 robbing the widow and the orphan." 
 
 " Nay, I'm near an orphan myself," cried Lord Kil- 
 croney's heir cheerily.
 
 256 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " Approach, then," said the Bishop, in so silky a voice 
 that O'Hara might well have paused before obeying. 
 But the reckless Irishman rushed upon his fate with the 
 blindness of those devoted to doom. 
 
 He never quite knew how it happened, and it was all 
 over ere he had time to think. No sooner had he drawn 
 within reach of the window than he found his wrist 
 seized and turned in a grip so paralyzing that the pistol 
 fell from his fingers. A contest ensued, mighty enough 
 to satisfy even his wild blood. The Bishop was in the 
 coach, and if he had undeniable advantage in the 
 first grip, O'Hara's legs were the stronger. But Blue 
 Devil, whether disgusted at the state of affairs or 
 seized with panic, turned the scale to his master's 
 detriment. 
 
 His pulls upon the rein became so frenzied that, in a 
 momentary relaxation of Dr. Thurlow's hold, Mr. O'Hara 
 was thrown flat on his back in the snow, and in a state of 
 bewilderment. Yet another second or two, and he found 
 himself in the predicament of being nailed in that help- 
 less posture with the Bishop's weighty knee upon his 
 chest, and with the further persuasion of a cold rim of 
 steel upon his forehead. 
 
 In the struggle the second carriage lamp had been 
 extinguished. The murk of night was all around them. 
 And poor Denis, hearing the clack of Blue Devil's rapidly
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 257 
 
 retreating heels growing ever fainter in the distance, 
 realized that he was indeed abandoned. 
 
 " Come down, William ! " called the Bishop to his 
 coachman. " Come down, and help me to secure the 
 ruffian." 
 
 The Bishop had been very angry all the time, as Denis 
 dreamily realized upon this sudden outburst, for it was 
 as if pent-up thunder broke over his head. 
 
 " I'm afraid to leave the horses, my lord," came the 
 quavering answer. " And 
 
 " Poltroon ! " rang his lordship's retort, with such 
 fulminating heat that O'Hara trembled lest it should 
 be communicated to the pistol at his temple. 
 
 Dr. Thurlow gave a snort like an angry bull, and once 
 more devoted his attention to the capture of his thews 
 and sinews. 
 
 " Up with you, Master Highwayman ! " he ordered, 
 relaxing the pressure of the well-proportioned episcopal 
 knee as he spoke, but maintaining the unpleasant prox- 
 imity of the pistol mouth, " and into the coach with 
 you ! " 
 
 Now, as O'Hara rose to his feet, stiff from his fall and 
 the penetrating damp, he felt too firmly convinced of the 
 Bishop's phenomenal muscularity to dream of attempt- 
 ing a fresh tussle with him. But Dr. Thurlow was a 
 man of precaution. A new grip of iron fell upon the 
 amateur highwayman's left elbow from behind ere he 
 
 9
 
 258 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 had quite recovered his balance, and the disconcerting 
 barrel rim was thrust afresh against his ear in the dark 
 with a crack that made his head ring. 
 
 " In default of the rope you deserve, sir," said the 
 Bishop, " I must even continue to use the moral suasion." 
 Upon this irony, O'Hara in a trice found himself inside 
 the chaise, the door clapped to. " Drive on, William ! " 
 
 And as William, nothing loath this time, whipped up 
 the mild horses, the Bishop's bulk was let down upon 
 the cushions in front of his prisoner. 
 
 " I should like to see your face, friend ; but since you 
 have disposed of both my lamps," quoth he, " I must 
 even wait till we reach Devizes." 
 
 * * * # * 
 
 Mistress Kitty Bellairs had abandoned the elegant 
 solitude of her parlour for the more cheerful, bustling 
 atmosphere of the inn hall. Ostensibly she was drawn 
 thither by the sweet sounds of Miss Lawrence's spinet 
 in the " library " beyond the bar, but really she had 
 tripped downstairs because, hearing beneath her win- 
 dows the arrival of a solitary horseman, she had thought 
 hoped it might be O'Hara. 
 
 Proportionate was her disappointment to recognize in 
 the new guest the long teeth, the oblique glance, and 
 lanky figure of her pet aversion, Captain Spicer. 
 
 The gallant gentleman who, no doubt, thought the inn 
 clear by this time of all the collateral actors in a certain
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 259 
 
 unpleasant adventure, and had come back, it seemed, 
 for the valise he had had in his precipitation to leave 
 behind him, appeared no more rejoiced at this meeting 
 with fair Bellairs than she herself. But, after an in- 
 voluntary start of dismay, he controlled an impulse of 
 retreat with some presence of mind, and advanced with 
 smirk and nourish of hat, exclaiming in his ultra-fashion- 
 able accents, 
 
 "Is it passible ! What ancammon stroke of lack to 
 find you still here, madam ! I had feared all the merry 
 company had flawn. Our foolish young friend is quite 
 recovered, I trust, from our little affair of honour." 
 
 Mistress Kitty had many grudges against Captain 
 Spicer, but his culminating offence was in not being 
 Mr. O'Hara to-night. 
 
 " I hardly think you would be allowed to go loose, 
 sir," said she over her shoulder, " if Mr. Jernigan had 
 not recovered." 
 
 v From the discreet smile on Master Lawrence's counte- 
 nance to the titter of the serving-maid behind the bar 
 and the suppressed guffaw of the hostler at the door, this 
 remark of the lady was so much appreciated as to raise 
 a yet greener tinge upon the Captain's already bilious 
 countenance. 
 
 No favourite at the Bear was the military gentle- 
 man. He was hesitating between fear and malevolence ; 
 and Mistress Kitty, with a shrug, had turned upon her
 
 260 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 heel to seek retirement once more, when a very un- 
 wonted medley of sounds directed every one's attention 
 to the street the rumbling of a coach, the clatter of 
 horses' hoofs at a broken gallop, and loud shouts of 
 " Murder ! " " Thieves ! " and " Fire ! " 
 
 The Bishop's coachman had no sooner found himself 
 within the safe circle of the town than his overcharged 
 feelings escaped control. Dr. Thurlow's objurgations 
 producing no result, that prelate, to his extreme annoy- 
 ance, found himself the centre of a rapidly-increasing 
 crowd as the chaise drew up before the inn door. There- 
 fore, to escape from the situation, he indomitably seized 
 his highwayman once more by wrist and elbow and 
 propelled him before him into the lobby of the Bear Inn. 
 
 This move was executed with such masterfulness and 
 rapidity that the door had closed before the spectators 
 realized how they had been defrauded before O'Hara 
 could collect sufficient energy of mind or body to offer 
 resistance. 
 
 Kitty's velvet eyes grew ever wider and rounder as 
 they gazed upon the scene. But when they fell upon 
 the lace-masked figure in its sinister yellow coat, mud- 
 plastered, a sudden gleam of terror awoke in their pansy 
 depths. It was fortunate, perhaps, that it should be 
 considered almost an indecency for a lady of quality to 
 appear before the world unrouged, otherwise her pretty 
 cheeks might have challenged attention.
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 26l 
 
 The Bishop removed one mighty hand from his pris- 
 oner's collar, and was about to tear away the black 
 face-cover, when O'Hara turned his head and whispered 
 in the episcopal ear, 
 
 " For God's sake, as you're a Christian, as you're a 
 gentleman, as you're a man, rny lord, do not let the 
 lady see my face." 
 
 The Bishop checked his movement, and looked from 
 the speaker to Mistress Bellairs. Kitty's eye was still 
 fixed upon the masked countenance in intense endeavour 
 to penetrate the disguise. Of course, it was the most 
 absurd thing in the world. Other people had red hair, 
 and there was nothing to prevent a highwayman having 
 long taper hands, which would show white through their 
 grime if he were fair of skin ! 
 
 Into the Bishop's hesitation O'Hara whispered 
 again, 
 
 " Sure it was an empty pistol I held at your lord- 
 ship's head ! " 
 
 Then a smile distended Doctor Thurlow's well-chiselled 
 lips. 
 
 " Upon that score we are quits, friend," he whispered 
 back, " for it was this same empty argument you found 
 so convincing yourself." 
 
 Then, as the rigid stillness that came over the high- 
 wayman's figure betrayed how the shot told, the captor 
 went on, still in his prisoner's ear : " It strikes me
 
 262 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 you are green at your trade, sir. Why, the barrel was 
 still smoking when you held it in at the window ! " 
 
 O'Hara remained speechless, and the Bishop, now in 
 high good-humour with himself, drew the weapon from 
 the deep pocket of his coat and flung it on the bar. 
 
 " Yes, Master Lawrence," cried he in a loud voice, 
 " my coach has been stopped, as you see. But, as you 
 see also, the setter of the snare has fallen into his own 
 trap. Nay, I have not yet had the time to ascertain 
 the identity of the ruffian. But that ceremony we will 
 postpone till a fitter moment. Ladies," said the Bishop, 
 with a small smile, " must be spared uncomely sights. 
 Keep an eye to the gentleman, you two men. Ah ! 
 Mistress Bellairs, I believe." He advanced with a very 
 fine grace. 
 
 " Dr. Thurlow," said the lady faintly, then rallied, 
 fluttered her plumes, and smiled. 
 
 O'Hara, drawing a deep breath of relief, realized that 
 he had become the centre of an awestruck circle. Little 
 as he now cared in his despair who recognized him, so 
 long as Kitty did not, he was far from surmising that 
 there was not one of the inn household that had not 
 already fathomed his secret. 
 
 A general, silent consternation had fallen upon the 
 gathered establishment. Boots had recognized his legs, 
 Master Lawrence his pistol. The chambermaid was 
 acquainted with the yellow lining of a coat she had her-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 263 
 
 self mended ; and, where it was flung open at the neck, 
 she could actually mark the empty space once adorned 
 by that pair of silver buttons which (with a smiling word 
 of greater value) he had presented to her for her pains. 
 Lydia, hanging over the banisters, had unerringly dis- 
 cerned the pattern of a mysteriously lost piece of her 
 mistress's black Spanish lace. The very hostlers could 
 have sworn to the clean cut of his knees. All knew, but 
 none spoke. During his ten days' stay he had somehow, 
 in various ways, found a soft corner in everybody's 
 heart. There was a general breath of relief as the Bishop 
 granted reprieve. With a curious unanimity of silence 
 they would have scorned to betray him even to each 
 other. 
 
 " I can scarcely credit it," cried Mistress Bellairs, 
 with a nervous laugh, " that your lordship should actu- 
 ally have been stopped on the road like the common 
 laity." 
 
 " The gentleman yonder," answered Dr. Thurlow, 
 with a noticeable emphasis on the noun. " endeavoured 
 to persuade me that he had as good a right to my purse 
 as I myself ; but I fancy " and the Bishop lightly ran 
 either hand over a muscular arm " that I had some- 
 what the better of the argument all round." 
 
 " Oh, we are aware, my lord," retorted Kitty with her 
 prettiest smile, " that it does not do for a man to pit 
 himself against you, either morally or bodily."
 
 264 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Again the Bishop smiled. Facts were indubitable, and 
 he certainly had an unwonted record for a divine. 
 
 " I vow," proceeded the lady coquettishly, " 'tis most 
 prodigious strange that I should be loitering in the public 
 hall thus ! But, indeed, 'tis your lordship must bear 
 the blame : I have not the heart of a mouse myself, 
 but I never could resist a tale of valour." 
 
 She clasped her hands and cast upon him a glance 
 of velvet softness from between half-closed lids. Her 
 cheeks were burning with a lovelier scarlet than hare's- 
 foot had ever spread. His lordship (not an unsusceptible 
 man) was distinctly stimulated. 
 
 She saw the impression produced Incomparable 
 Bellairs ! and hastened to follow up the advantage. 
 It was so imperative to draw the Bishop away, if any- 
 thing was to be done for that ruffian of a highwayman, 
 whose hair shone red through his damp powder, whose 
 hands were long and white like a gentleman's. 
 
 " My supper is about to be served. As I imagine you 
 have not yet ordered yours, may I not have the honour 
 of your lordship's company ? " 
 
 " Dear madam," responded the Bishop, with elegant 
 readiness, " but the time to see to my prisoner 
 . With what unction did the worthy divine roll the words 
 upon his tongue I 
 
 "Fie!" she interrupted; "do you put the highway- 
 man before the lady ? "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 265 
 
 " Nay, madam, but duty before pleasure ! " 
 
 " Nevertheless," answered Kitty pat, " the creature 
 can't spoil by keeping, and my partridges will." 
 
 The Bishop laughed gently. A little plump roast 
 partridge in company with a little plump lady of virtue, 
 wit, and quality agreeable perspective ! 
 
 " Why, then " said he. 
 
 " Your lordship's prisoner," here intervened the land- 
 lord, " will be as safe in my loft as in the jug itself, and 
 he can be charged in the morning." 
 
 " I shall hold you warranty, Mr. Lawrence," said the 
 prelate with warning sternness. 
 
 Master Lawrence rubbed his hands with a superior 
 smile. 
 
 " Wife ! " called he into the bar, " conduct his lord- 
 ship to his apartment." 
 
 The Bishop moved majestically away in the wake of 
 his buxom hostess. But yet Kitty lingered. 
 
 Captain Spicer, a forgotten personality in the chimney 
 corner, itching for the revelation of that identity which 
 even he suspected, could now no longer put off the 
 moment of gratified malice. He tiptoed his way round 
 towards the motionless figure, and, suddenly pushing in 
 between the guard of hostlers, extended his bony hand 
 towards a hanging tag of the veiling lace. 
 
 Mistress Bellairs, eyes and thoughts still fixed upon 
 the torturing enigma, caught her breath with what was
 
 266 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 almost a little cry. She saw the concealing folds jerked 
 upwards for a second, had a vision, swift as lightning, of 
 O'Hara's pale face, and in that instant their glances met. 
 The next the mask was pulled down again into its place ; 
 and, swift as thunderclap follows flash, retribution de- 
 scended upon the spy. Before he had had time to utter 
 a word, Captain Spicer, struck full upon his grinning 
 jaw, fell like a stone at O'Hara's feet, uttering dismal, 
 inarticulate sounds. 
 
 Dr. Thurlow, who had paused on the first landing to 
 glance over the banisters, smiled to himself, then shrugged 
 his shoulders in scorn. 
 
 " Tis the fate of Peeping Toms," quoth he. 
 
 Leaving the damaged gentleman to be carried away 
 between two vastly unsympathetic postboys, Master 
 Lawrence plucked the prisoner by the sleeve. And as 
 O'Hara suffered himself to be led away, in miserable 
 submission, to an improvised lock-up, he heard Kitty 
 cry in a tone of shrill mirth, 
 
 " Don't neglect my supper, landlord," and the sound 
 fell on his heart like a blow. 
 
 Master Lawrence went up the creaking stairs beside 
 the still masked figure without uttering a single word. 
 But he walked heavily, and shook his head from time 
 to time as he thought to himself, " My mind misgave me 
 when he refused the stirrup-cup ! " 
 
 Despite her anxiety for the condition of the par-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 267 
 
 tridges, it was after all Mistress Kitty who kept the 
 Bishop waiting. She was closeted with Miss Lydia in 
 such earnest conclave that Mistress Lawrence herself 
 was at last fain to summon her forth. But when the 
 little lady emerged it was with such sparkling eyes and 
 happy rose-red cheeks that Dr. Thurlow forgot on the 
 spot his rising sense of injury. 
 
 # * * * # 
 
 Mr. O'Hara had laid aside his mask at last ; he sat on 
 the edge of the pallet-bed, which the postboys never found 
 too hard for sound sleep, and reviewed the situation 
 with the calmness of despair. Of the royal supper which 
 Master Lawrence had sent up to him he had scarcely 
 tasted anything but that bottle from his favourite bin. 
 The very delicacy with which his tastes had been studied 
 reminded him unpleasantly of the condemned man's 
 statutory meal before execution. 
 
 The deference with which even the extempore guard 
 treated him seemed to savour of the last pity. Death 
 and he had hob-nobbed too often for him to mind much 
 the thought of the bony comrade's final embrace. But 
 now that he had brought the fate upon himself, the 
 thought of that dismal dance on air, of the chain gibbet 
 at the cross-roads, no longer seemed to him to be in the 
 light of a fitting revenge on the woman who had slighted 
 him, or of a gallant defiance to an unappreciative world. 
 
 " Well, God help me ! " said poor Denis. " It's not
 
 268 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 that life would be so sweet and a man can always make 
 a fight for it, and get shot on the quiet. But I'll not 
 bring trouble on these good creatures here. I'll wait 
 till they turn the magistrate's dogs on me." 
 
 A solitary tallow-candle threw more shadow than light 
 in the long bare attic. 
 
 Hostler Joe, who had been deputed to watch the cap- 
 tive, had tried to raise his spirits by varied accounts of 
 all the gentlemen of the road he had personally known, 
 by highly sympathetic details concerning their last 
 moments, but had at last given up the task ; and after 
 philosophically disposing himself of O'Hara's disdained 
 repast, he was snoring the snores of the just upon a 
 stack of straw under the dormer. 
 
 # * # * * 
 
 It must have been close upon midnight when there 
 came a sound which, although it had in it something 
 of a patter, something of a scratching, something also 
 of a scurry, was yet quite distinct from the rain, the 
 rats, and the mice. It was accompanied by the creak- 
 ing of boards, and approached steadily to halt at close 
 proximity. Then it was resumed, with fresh scratching 
 and a sharp scrunch. An unnoticed door at the end of 
 the loft was slowly opened before O'Hara's astonished 
 gaze, and a beckoning hand was passed through the 
 aperture. He rubbed his eyes. No, he was not dream- 
 ing. (The snores of the hostler now became quite appal-
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS, 269 
 
 ling in amplitude.) O'Hara rose and advanced. His 
 heavy boots and tired feet made a terrible noise; but, 
 heavens, how that hostler slept ! With that beckoning 
 hand before him, which became ever whiter and smaller 
 as he approached it, O'Hara pressed on the length of 
 the garret. When he reached the door the hand laid 
 hold of him suddenly with a nipping grasp, and he was 
 drawn outside in the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 Then, to his intense, if unreasoning, disappointment, 
 Mr. O'Hara recognized, by the light of a lantern placed 
 on the floor at her feet, the sharp features of Miss Lydia. 
 But the next instant his mercurial spirits leaped from 
 frosty depths to summer heights. What ! His little 
 Kitty did care after all whether he walked or hung ! 
 Then was life a precious and delightful . thing again a 
 thing to be fought for. 
 
 Miss Lydia was nothing if not prompt ; she left him 
 little time for reflection. Whipping up her light, she 
 nipped him once more shrewishly by the wrist, and 
 hurried him along passages and down stairs at a rate 
 that made his brain spin. They reached at length a 
 dull basement room, which, by the faint lantern shine, 
 from its arrays of brushes, pots, and travel-stained foot- 
 gear, he identified as " boots's " own dominions. Lydia 
 set her light on the table with a bang. 
 
 "Off with your coat, sir," she ordered. 
 
 " Why, me darling ? "
 
 2/O INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 " There's no time for conversation, sir ; you've man- 
 aged your affairs too cleverly for that. Off with that 
 coat ! It's not the first time I've had the dressing of 
 you. And it's another sort of dressing I'd give you 
 if I had my way I " She had the coat in her hands by 
 this time, and was rolling it up with a vindictive energy 
 that gave point to her words. " Now I'll trouble you 
 for your boots, Mr. O'Hara." 
 
 " My boots ! " 
 
 " Your boots. And quick about them ! " 
 
 She waited, acidly ; then, tucking the coat under one 
 arm, seized the desired objects in both hands and stag- 
 gered with them towards the door. There, to O'Hara's 
 intense mystification, her burden was received by some 
 unseen third party. 
 
 There followed a rapid interchange of whispers, in 
 which the words " Captain Spicer " could be discerned, 
 a suppressed guffaw ; and Miss Lydia, banging the door, 
 reappeared into the room. Mystification was replaced 
 by stupefaction in O'Hara's mind as he now beheld 
 in her hands, not the yellow-lined garment of his in- 
 famy, but a handsome, sober roquelaure which had 
 been packed away in the box left under Mr. Law- 
 rence's charge when he had started on his ill-fated 
 expedition. 
 
 " You'll find, I fancy, a pair of boots of your own 
 in that row," said the damsel briefly, " and you'd look
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 271 
 
 less of a zany if you'd put them on instead of standing 
 there in your stocking feet." 
 
 And, as nevertheless he still stood and stared, she her- 
 self (dropping apostrophes sharp as hail upon fools who 
 could not help themselves and idiots who deserved to be 
 left to their fates) ran to the indicated spot, picked out 
 a pair of ancient ^top-boots (once, indeed, Mr. O'Hara's), 
 and flung them towards him. In a minute more her 
 will was accomplished. And there was something so 
 restoring to his confidence and self-esteem in standing 
 again in the garb of a respected individual, that Denis 
 gave a subdued whoop, made a pirouette, and caught 
 Lydia by the waist. 
 
 The next instant a resounding slap descended upon 
 his cheek. The situation was delightfully familiar. It 
 really seemed as if the miserable Denis, sitting in the 
 garret and looking forward to the gallows, must have 
 been the mere creation of a nightmare. But Miss 
 Lydia's irate cry promptly dispelled the pleasing 
 fancy. 
 
 " I'll have you know, sir, I keep my lips for honest 
 men ! And if it weren't for my mistress " 
 
 Up went the barometer once more. If it were not 
 for her mistress ! 
 
 He would have been off into a dream. There is a 
 stage of lover's love that seems to be all dreamland. 
 But Lydia was a young person calculated to keep a
 
 2/2 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 man's wits awake. She could pinch and she could shake 
 as shrewdly as a north-east wind. 
 
 " Now mark you, sir," cried she, " there's rope still 
 a-dangling over your head. And if you don't want to 
 dance on nothing, come next assizes, you'll be pleased 
 to pay attention to what I'm saying." 
 
 " Sure, I'm listening with all my ears and eyes, darling! " 
 
 " Your horse has come back, sir. Some beasts has 
 a deal more sense than men. Now, when a horse comes 
 back to stable alone, it's like enough his rider's thrown. 
 And unless the rider's broke his skull (which is too good 
 for some people, which is born for other ends), if that 
 rider isn't the greatest gaby between this and Land's 
 End, it's like he'll follow his horse's example and walk 
 back to the nearest shelter." 
 
 Here she took him by the elbow, and, conducting him 
 to a flight of steps at the farther end of the room, in- 
 formed him that they led down into the cellar, where he 
 would find a door giving upon a back street. 
 
 " And if then," added she, " you can't find help for 
 yourself, you'll be past anybody else's." 
 
 He could hardly keep from dancing, whistling, whoop- 
 ing in his ever-increasing exhilaration. To be free, to 
 have a fresh adventure, delicious in audacity and humour, 
 before him ; to be risking his life still, and to know 
 that Kitty cared could even an Irishman invent a 
 better turn of fate ?
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 273 
 
 He snatched a kiss, and, as Lydia whisked away, she 
 dropped him a last superfluous piece of advice, which 
 showed that, after all, even she was rescuing the good- 
 for-nought con amore, 
 
 " If you could find a good deep puddle, I should advise 
 you to fall down in it, Mr. O'Hara." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 " Scald me ! " cried the hostler, with intense astonish- 
 ment on his grinning face. " Tis never you, sir ! Master 
 Lawrence ! Master ! House ! " raising a mighty bellow. 
 Then turning again to O'Hara " Blue Devil's come 
 home, sir. We was afraid some accident . . . ! " 
 
 The house door was flung wide open, and out popped 
 Master Lawrence's good gray head. 
 
 " 'Tis Mr. O'Hara," bellowed the hostler, in desperate 
 excitement. 
 
 Mr. O'Hara was seized and dragged into the hall by 
 both hands. Before he had time even to begin to nar- 
 rate the carefully-prepared account of his mishap in 
 the dark he was borne down by Master Lawrence's 
 effusive flood of greeting. 
 
 " Forgive me, sir, that I should so presume, but I 
 cannot refrain from shaking you by the hand ! We have 
 been in a prodigious state of anxiety about you, sir. 
 Wife ! " in stentorian shouts " wife, here is Mr. O'Hara 
 safe and sound. The women, sir, have been crying their 
 eyes out. When Blue Devil came home riderless, says
 
 2/4 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 Mistress Lawrence : ' He's dead, he's gone ! I always 
 said,' says she, ' he's too good to live ! ' We dared not 
 tell the lady," said the excellent man, sinking his voice, 
 and still bumping O'Hara's hand up and down. " All 
 day long she kept asking if Mr. O'Hara's not back yet. 
 And Mistress Lawrence says, 'Let her have the par- 
 tridges first.' Ahj here comes Mistress Lawrence herself. 
 Wife," cried the landlord boisterously, " Mr. O'Hara's 
 been telling me all about it. He was thrown in Coombe 
 Hollow. That horse of Lord Mandeville's, as Mr. O'Hara 
 says, was ever a tricky beast. And that there bit of 
 road by Coombe Hollow, wife, is a nasty one, as Mr. 
 O'Hara truly says. He's had a fall on his back, as you 
 see, Mistress Lawrence. But there, as he says, all's well 
 that ends well ! " 
 
 " Dear, dear ! " said Mistress Lawrence, laughing and 
 crying together. " This has been a night of adventure ! " 
 
 "Ay, ay!" cried the landlord, with a fixed eye and 
 a very loud laugh. " His lordship the Bishop (whom 
 you know we expected, sir), he was stopped, sir, on the 
 road, actually stopped ! But, aha ! we've got the ruffian 
 upstairs, safe enough ! " 
 
 " Aha-ha ! " echoed Mr. O'Hara, with a similarly 
 fixed eye. 
 
 " Is that Mr. O'Hara ? " cried a shrill pipe upon the 
 stair. And Miss Lydia, all lace apron and silk flounces, 
 rushed into the hall. " Do not tell me," she cried, " it
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2/5 
 
 is Mr. O'Hara ! Oh, is he hurt ? Has he broken his 
 head or his leg ? Oh I what I have gone through this 
 night, seeing him in my mind lying in his gore, while 
 my poor, unconscious mistress ate partridge with the 
 Bishop ! " 
 
 The three turned in speechless admiration to gaze upon 
 the Abigail, who, clasping her hands, let off a half-dozen 
 hysterical small shrieks, which formed the culminating 
 point of her own satisfaction. Then she protested, in 
 pathetic accents, that she could not delay an instant 
 before imparting to her mistress the exciting news of 
 the night's anxiety and its happy end ; and was up the 
 stairs again in a twinkle. 
 
 Seldom had that gifted damsel had opportunities that 
 afforded her finer scope. Enjoying herself to the ends 
 of her finger tips, she staggered into the parlour, where 
 Mistress Bellairs and her distinguished guest had arrived 
 at the agreeable stage of post-prandial sympathy, when 
 chairs are drawn a little closer to each other, the last 
 glass of wine is sipped, a nut nibbled to the accompani- 
 ment of mutually appreciated wit and unctuous little 
 laughs. Both looked up with amazement upon Lydia's 
 tempestuous entrance. At least Kitty's large and lovely 
 gaze expressed as intense surprise as the Bishop's full 
 and haughty eye. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried the handmaid, advancing with a series 
 of jerks, and still pressing that region of her trim bodice
 
 2/6 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 which she believed to be the residence of her virginal 
 heart "O ma'am ! can I speak at last, and is the anguish 
 of this night of terror over? Mr. O'Hara's not dead, 
 ma'am " 
 
 " What is this ? " cried Kitty, rising straight up from 
 her chair, both her little hands in the air:" what does 
 she say ? Mr. O'Hara dead ? " 
 
 " Heavens," cried Lydia, " my mistress is swooning ! " 
 and made a dash in time to catch the fair form in her 
 arms. Kitty turned her head so that her face was hid- 
 den upon her woman's neck, and became alarmingly 
 rigid all over. 
 
 Really, in these days of rouge, it was very difficult 
 for a lady of quality to manage her little affairs of the 
 affections with verisimilitude. 
 
 " La, your lordship, 'tis the only man my poor mistress 
 has ever cared for ! " exclaimed Miss Lydia. " What a 
 zany am I to have gone and frightened her ! " 
 
 The Bishop had risen to his feet upon a first impulse 
 of anxious concern. But here he suddenly sat down again, 
 and remarked dryly, 
 
 " But if the gentleman is not hurt 
 
 " Now," cried Lydia, " and I never thought of that ! 
 Will your lordship support my lady for an instant ? 
 And I will fetch Mr. O'Hara." 
 
 No gentleman, be he forty times a bishop, could 
 refuse the tender task. Before he had even time to
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2/7 
 
 consider, Dr. Thurlow found the lovely burden in his 
 embrace. 
 
 Kitty's rigidity relaxed. She sighed faintly and opened 
 her long lashes, very close to his face. What a round frail 
 thing it was ! What a wisp of fragrant lace and soft 
 silken stuff, and withal what a delicate solidity ! 
 
 " Oh dear ! " said Kitty. " Did they say Mr. O'Hara 
 was dead ? " Her lips trembled, and tears, genuine tears, 
 welled up to those fabulous lashes. 
 
 Dr. Thurlow deposited her in a chair a little hastily 
 in spite of his gentleness ; great steps were approaching 
 with headlong rapidity in the passage without. 
 
 He had just time to say with distinct emphasis, " Mr. 
 O'Hara is perfectly safe, my dear madam," when the 
 latter gentleman burst into the room. Kitty sprang to 
 her feet, and flew like a bird into his arms. If her viva- 
 city was somewhat singular in one just out of a swoon, 
 it was instinct, at all events, with much sincerity of 
 emotion. 
 
 Dr. Thurlow contemplated the pair a minute or two 
 with no unbenevolent eye ; then he cleared his throat, 
 and Denis and his Kitty, falling apart, turned flushed 
 and anxious faces upon him. 
 
 " Madam," said the divine, " I rejoice that your 
 anxiety should have so favourable a termination. Mr. 
 O'Hara, we have met before." 
 
 He paused a second ; and as the usually glib Irish-
 
 2/8 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 man seemed unready with a response, the prelate pro- 
 ceeded, with a twinkle in his eye, 
 
 " I will not tax your memory at this auspicious mo- 
 ment. If I remember right, we have met ... in Bath." 
 
 He paused again to bend over Kitty's hand. " I 
 thank you, dear Mistress Bellairs, for a most entertain- 
 ing evening. And pleasure having superseded business, 
 the sterner call now awaits me. I have yet to examine 
 my prisoner." 
 
 If Lydia ever deserved well of her employer, it was 
 at this crucial moment. 
 
 " I fear your lordship will get little out of him," she 
 intervened pertly. " They tell me downstairs that the 
 wretch's jaw must be either dislocated or broken, for 
 he cannot articulate a single word." 
 
 " Indeed," said his lordship. And his red eyebrows 
 travelled a perceptible inch higher. 
 
 " O Bishop, Bishop," cried Kitty in a high, excited 
 voice, menacing him with her finger, " your hand is 
 more mighty even than you wot of ! " 
 
 The Bishop's glance rested upon her once again with 
 a singular expression. Then, with his hand on the door 
 handle, he turned once more to the Irishman. 
 
 " Mr. O'Hara must really be quite puzzled," quoth he, 
 urbanely. 
 
 " Oh," cried the latter, with a return of his old auda- 
 cious spirit, " they were telling me something about it
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2/9 
 
 in the hall. I hope your lordship will not be hard on 
 the poor devil ! " 
 
 " I trust that I shall never be hard on anybody," said 
 the divine enigmatically. And then he added, with a note 
 of quizzical meaning, 
 
 " You must have had a very bad fall, Mr. O'Hara, to 
 put you into that condition." 
 
 And as O'Hara, in fresh perturbation, glanced down 
 at his mud-plastered garments, the Bishop made his 
 cowg/, and was gone. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 The postboy was still aggressively snoring when Master 
 Lawrence conducted his episcopal guest into the attic 
 chamber. And there, indeed, lay the prisoner, with the 
 identical lace mask gracefully disposed across his band- 
 aged countenance, wrapped in the identical turned coat. 
 But, strange ! . . . the figure within the yellow folds 
 seemed to have shrunk most remarkably since supper- 
 time to have assumed an unaccountable likeness to 
 a cross-eyed personage much disliked at the Bear ; 
 and the highwayman was now groaning in a manner 
 very unlike the stoic calm with which he had previously 
 submitted to the inevitable. Nay, it would even seem 
 as if, at sight of the Bishop, the wretched creature had 
 something of importance to communicate, for he made 
 efforts to rise upon the pallet, gesticulating and pro- 
 ducing strenuous but inarticulate sounds.
 
 280 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 The Bishop remained regarding him in silence for so 
 lengthy a period that Master Lawrence might have been 
 observed to change colour more than once, while he 
 stammered something incoherent about not keeping his 
 lordship in these drafty attics, and obtaining a warrant 
 the first thing in the morning. 
 
 But, Dr. Thurlow turning his full eye upon him, the 
 words instantly died upon the landlord's lips, and the 
 Bishop smiled in a most disconcerting manner. 
 
 " Nay," said his lordship then, " send rather for the 
 surgeon. The misguided creature is punished enough, 
 and I trust it will be a lesson to him. Let it be a lesson 
 to you, young man," said he sternly. 
 
 The ungrateful highwayman howled more dismally 
 than ever as the magnanimous words fell upon his 
 
 ears. 
 
 ***** 
 
 " The darling Bishop ! " cried Kitty when Miss Lydia 
 rushed in with the last astounding news. " I vow and 
 declare that I would marry him to-morrow without the 
 least hesitation, if " 
 
 " If what, my jewel ? " said O'Hara. He was holding 
 her very comfortably by the waist. And only a second 
 before, with a countenance of seraphic bliss, amounting 
 almost to imbecility, he had volunteered the statement 
 that he'd not complain if they did hang him " after 
 that." " If what, pulse of my soul ? "
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 2&I 
 
 " If I did not feel it my duty to sacrifice my life and 
 look after a perfect gaby who is incapable of taking care 
 of himself," cried the future Lady Kilcroney sharply, 
 and rapped him over the knuckles with her fan. 
 
 But she dimpled adorably as she spoke Incomparable 
 Bellairs ! 
 
 THE END.

 
 NELSON'S LIBRARY. 
 
 A Page of Comparisons. 
 
 COMPARE a volume of NELSON'S ;d. LIBRARY 
 with an average 6s. Novel. It is the latter that 
 suffers by the comparison. 
 
 COMPARE it with a Sixpenny Magazine. Which is the 
 better investment a paper-covered collection of mis- 
 cellaneous reading, one hundred pages or so, or a 
 handsome book of about five hundred pages, beauti- 
 fully and durably bound in cloth, containing a novel 
 of recognized merit by a first-rate living author ? 
 
 COMPARE NELSON'S list of titles and authors on 
 following pages with that of any other cheap series. 
 
 COMPARE it with any series of "Reprints of the Classics," 
 remembering that the books are by living authors, 
 who receive a handsome royalty on every copy sold. 
 
 COPYRIGHT NOVELS. LIBRARY STYLE. 
 SEVENPENCE NET.
 
 DESCRIPTIVE LIST 
 
 of the First Twelve Volumes. 
 
 (The first eight Ready!) 
 THE MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM ASHE. 
 
 By Mrs. Humphry Ward. 
 
 This book has been universally acknowledged to be one of the 
 most brilliant of modern social studies. The characters are in 
 the main drawn from real personages ; and apart from the dra- 
 matic interest of the story, much light is shed on certain aspects 
 of modern political life. 
 
 " Its place is with the books that do not die." N. Y. TIMES. 
 
 " The most attractive and brilliant of all Mrs, Humphry 
 Ward's novels." SPECTATOR. 
 
 THE INTRUSIONS OF PEGGY. 
 
 By Anthony Hope. 
 
 The most delightful of Anthony Hope's comedies. The irrespon- 
 sible Peggy is to many the most attractive heroine of modern 
 fiction, and in the account of her doings the author shows all the 
 grace and wit which distinguished the "Dolly Dialogues." 
 
 " Charming Peggy Ryle" PUNCH. 
 
 " We heartily congratulate Mr. Anthony Hope on the feat of 
 adding to the limited circle of characters in fiction one whom every 
 right-minded reader would be honoured to have as an acquaintance 
 andprotid to have as a friend." SPECTATOR. 
 2
 
 NELSON'S LIBRARY.. 
 
 BY THE CLEVER AUTHORESS OF "A LAME DOG'S DlARY." 
 
 THE FORTUNE OF CHRISTINA M'NAB. 
 
 Miss Macnaughtan. 
 
 This delightful story of how a Scottish girl suddenly inherited a 
 large fortune, and, armed with it, invaded and captured London 
 society, without losing any of her native prejudices, will be 
 warmly welcomed by a multitude of readers. 
 
 "A quite admirable story." SPECTATOR. 
 
 . " As humorous a book as any one could desire, and it would be 
 a pity for any lover of honest laughter to miss it." PALL 
 MALL GAZETTE. 
 
 "Amusing, wholesome, fresh, racy, and free from problems." 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG. 
 
 By Sir Gilbert Parker. 
 
 A brilliant story of the Napoleonic wars. The scene is laid 
 chiefly in the island of Jersey, and to a charming love tale there 
 is joined a multitude of stirring adventures. 
 
 " No one who takes a pleasure in literature bttt will read this 
 romance with keen enjoyment. " PALL MALL GAZETTE. 
 
 ROBERT ELSMERE. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. 
 
 In these days of the New Theology many will read with interest 
 the famous book which is the parent of all modern theological 
 speculations. 
 
 " Comparable in sheer intellectual power to the best work of 
 George Eliot. Unquestionably the most notable work of fiction 
 that has been produced for years." SCOTSMAN. 
 
 " A very remarkable book. Profoundly as we differ from Mrs. 
 Ward's criticism of Christianity, we recognize in her book one 
 of the most striking pictures of a sincere religious ideal that has 
 ever yet been presented to our generation under the disguise of a 
 modern novel. " SPECTATOR. 
 
 QUISANTE. By Anthony Hope. 
 
 This study of the adventurer in politics bears a certain resemblance 
 to the career of Lord Beaconsfield, and in the newly-awakened 
 interest which is created by the approaching publication of that 
 statesman's life, will no doubt attract many readers. It is a 
 brilliant study of one type 9f political success. 
 
 " As a work of art it is far and away the best thing Mr. Hope 
 has done." PUNCH. 
 
 3
 
 NELSON'S LIBRARY. 
 
 INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. 
 
 By Egerton Castle. 
 
 Mr. Castle is our sole living exponent in fiction of the modish 
 life of the eighteenth century. Every one who likes a stirring 
 tale with sparkling dialogue and the fine manners of another age 
 should read his novel. 
 
 "A piece of work which in its -way is as incomparable as its 
 heroine. " WORLD. 
 
 "A work of great distinction and charm" DAILY 
 CHRONICLE. 
 
 No. 5 JOHN STREET. By Richard Whiteing. 
 
 This book, which first brought Mr. Whiteing into fame, is the 
 most realistic and powerful of modern studies of slum life. Mr. 
 Whiteing's realism, however, never jars, for he is an optimist at 
 heart and always an artist. 
 
 " Intensely interesting" TIMES. 
 
 " Wonderfully well done" REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 
 
 " All t'he qualities which gave indefinable charm to ' The 
 Island* are here, the same felicity of phrase, the same lambent 
 humour playing over the most sordid and ugly episodes, the same 
 broad sympathy never degenerating into cheap sentiment, the 
 same clear insight into the very heart of things." DAILY 
 CHRONICLE. 
 
 To be rapidly followed by 
 
 DAVID GRIEVE. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. 
 
 This life-history of a self-educated man who passes through all 
 the difficulties and doubts which attend any one who rebels 
 against his environment must be of the highest interest to all who 
 believe that fiction should do more than amuse. 
 
 "/ masterly grasp of the various phases of spiritual thought 
 and conflict in the England of to-day 'David Grieve* stands alone 
 in modern fiction, and must be confessed as what it is a master- 
 piece." THE SPEAKER. 
 
 " Thoughts which stimulate and passages which burn, . . . 
 a fearless grappling with the things that are, treated as only a 
 woman high-minded and sincere can treat these things. " - 
 SATURDAY REVIEW. 
 
 THE KING'S MIRROR. By Anthony Hope. 
 
 This is in many ways Mr. Anthony Hope's most ambitious story, 
 a study of the mind of a king. His admirers will find in it a new 
 side of his genius. * 
 
 " A gay and enchanting story." DAILY MAIL. 
 
 "A work of art, andofgoodart"Tmv.s. 
 
 4
 
 NELSON'S LIBRARY. 
 
 JOHN CHARITY. By H. A. VachelL 
 
 A story of California in the old days of the Spanish dominion. 
 Two Hampshire gentlemen go there in search of fortune, and 
 find adventures. 
 
 SIR JOHN CONSTANTINE. By "Q." 
 
 "Q" is a direct inheritor of the Stevenson tradition, and this is 
 undoubtedly his finest work. It is a story of the eighteenth 
 century in Corsica, and no more gallant and adventurous romance 
 has been published in modern days. 
 
 " Really a splendid book, for the adventures are those of living 
 people, full of humanity and humour, and whilst we read it 
 we get lost in it, forgetting the outside world." DAILY 
 TELEGRAPH. 
 
 " ' Q's' 'finest achievement." SPECTATOR. 
 
 is not a book, not an author, in the above 
 _L list whose name is not familiar to 'all readers of 
 the BEST literature of the day. 
 
 These outstanding novels are printed and bound in a 
 style really worthy of them, suitable for any library, and 
 are sold at the unprecedented price of 
 
 SEVENPENCE net 
 
 a volume, cloth gilt Other volumes will follow at rapid 
 intervals, the high literary quality of which, and the excel- 
 lence of their production, may be judged of from the present 
 volume. 
 
 SUBSCRIBE to Nelson's Library like a Magazine, and you 
 will quickly form a delightful home library of your own at 
 inappreciable cost. 
 
 5
 
 NELSON'S 
 INDIA PAPER 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 (New Century Library). 
 
 Six Exquisite Volumes. Coloured Frontispieces. 
 Specially Clear Type. 
 
 IN this, Messrs. Nelson claim to have produced the ideal 
 edition of the works of the great dramatist 
 
 Of its distinctive features, the most noticeable is the com- 
 pactness secured by the use of India Paper a compactness 
 not gained at the cost of using small and eye-trying type. On 
 the contrary, the use of India Paper admits of the use of a bold- 
 faced and beautifully clear letter, of precisely the same character 
 and size as shown in this paragraph. Students of Shakespeare 
 who like to carry a copy about with them will specially value 
 and appreciate this feature. 
 
 The whole of the plays and poems are included in only six 
 volumes of ideally handy and convenient size, neither too large 
 for the pocket nor too small for the shelf. Each volume con- 
 tains an artistic coloured frontispiece and a decorative title-page. 
 The binding is specially neat and tasteful, and there is a choice 
 of three distinct styles of cloth and leather bindings, at from 
 2/- each volume net 
 
 The extreme neatness and tastefulness of this set makes it 
 one of the most exquisite and acceptable gifts that can be made. 
 It is the edition that a student or lover of Shakespeare would 
 choose for himself. 
 
 Prices, 2/-, 2/6, and 3/- each volume. Also in Sets in Cloth and 
 Leather Cabinets ; prices on application to the booksellers. 
 
 THOMAS NELSON AND SONS 
 
 London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York, 
 6
 
 UCSB
 
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