t 
 
 'LA BELLA' 
 
 AlfJ) OTHERS
 
 BY THE SAME TTRITEE. 
 
 SCHOOLS AND MASTERS OF FENCE 
 FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 I/liml rated. GEORGE BELL & SONS. Reprinted 
 for Bohn's Artist's Library. 
 
 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 A Novel. 
 RICHARD BENTLEY & SONS.
 
 Bnb otbers 
 
 Being Certain Stories EecoUected by 
 
 EOERTON CASTLE 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED 
 
 LONDON, PARIS <L MELBOURNE 
 1892 
 
 [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
 
 Two of these stories appear for the first 
 time in printer's ink. Others have seen the 
 light at different periods, in annuals and maga- 
 zines ; and the author's thanks are due, and 
 here expressed, to the editors of Cornhill and 
 of Temple Bar for their courteous permission 
 to reprint the same.
 
 TO WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK. 
 
 AT a time when it was the strange fashion for pub- 
 lishers of books to warn the makers thereof that the 
 " short-story volume" never could find real favour with 
 English readers, you, my dear Walter, with critical 
 authority, always extolled the peculiar virtue of small 
 frames for word-pictures. 
 
 For such reason alone it were fit that this, my first 
 collection of short tales, should be inscribed to you. 
 But there is another. 
 
 In my younger days of literary bashfulness, you 
 were the first expert to give me that word of quiet 
 approval which was " sufficient and necessary " to keep 
 me going on a new and pleasing pursuit. 
 
 That I should have followed up a fresh vein of en- 
 joyment the very subtle one of giving finite (dare I 
 say shapely ?) form to scenes and scenery that would 
 otherwise have remained and faded in the misty 
 demesne of memory or firelight musings I owe 
 really to your constant kindness of word and deed. 
 
 In this little museum of bygone fancies, now re- 
 collected as an afterthought, you will no doubt 
 recognise several as having struck a sympathetic chord 
 in you ; you may perhaps also recall the various moods 
 in which they were set forth, for our now mature 
 friendship dates almost from the first day when I be- 
 thought myself to forward a manuscript to a printer. 
 
 2056289
 
 vi TO WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK. 
 
 Some, it has occurred to me, may complain of 
 hearing a too frequent cliquetis d'armes through 
 these pages ; but this, I should say, will be no fault in 
 your ears. You know, as I do, that the sword is as 
 great a builder, as a solver, of difficult situations, and 
 how endless are the stirring tales that might have 
 their opening or closing scenes on fencing ground. 
 
 In the portraying of Steven Munro's duchess, 
 exists, if not apparent (for we would fain believe that 
 Brander Matthews' criterion of successful collaboration 
 will apply here), the qualifying touch of a pen you 
 know also. To borrow Robert Louis Stevenson's 
 quaintly ingenious expression, it is that of my little 
 "critic on the hearth." And if you read of Master 
 Huldebrand's dream, you will taste of a quaint, 
 pathetic fancy, fixed, by the same hand, in the old- 
 world atmosphere, amid the rococo surroundings of a 
 little drowsy German " Residenz," and you will then, 
 I imagine, readily understand why I did not resist 
 the temptation to bring with it my volume to a 
 
 graceful close. 
 
 KG 
 
 Hill Street, 
 Berkeley Square.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 (Hank of 
 
 PAGE 
 
 jl. "LA BELLA": AN INCIDENT OF THE FENCING FLOOR . 11 
 II. THE " KENOMMIST" 53 
 
 I. THE BARON'S QUARRY ....... 107 
 
 II. THE "SON OF CHAOS" ... 136 
 
 ^Temptations. 
 
 I. A NEW SENSATION 
 II. CHALONER'S BEST MAX 
 III. A PARAGRAPH ix THE " GLOBE " 
 
 MASTER HULUEBRAND ....... , 289
 
 Clank of Steel.
 
 "LA BELLA." 
 
 AN INCIDENT OF THE FENCING FLOOR. 
 I. 
 
 I HAVE always looked upon the teaching of the noble 
 science of fence as a profession which the most fasti- 
 dious might, under stress of necessity, take up without 
 fear of " derogating " ; precedent, indeed were such 
 justification required would not be found lacking; 
 names of high standing shine in goodly consteUations 
 through its venerable annals. The Pallavicini of 
 Palermo ; those magnificent Castilians, Narvaez and 
 Mendoza; Saint Didier, the royally-favoured gentil- 
 homme Proveii9al ; Saint Ange, admired of the Ver- 
 sailles Court ; all men of undoubted blood thought it 
 no disgrace to turn their skill at the use of the loyal 
 steel to profitable account. The Chevalier de Freville 
 on the Neva, the diplomatically enigmatical d/Eon in 
 his Soho rooms, strove openly, in later days, to swell a 
 flat purse and maintain an ancient name, by impart- 
 ing to others their special knowledge of the gentle 
 subtleties of carte and tierce. Our own great apostle 
 of more sturdy swordsmanship, Sir W. Hope of Bal- 
 comie, might well, one would think, have welcomed 
 such a reverse of fortune as, half a century after his 
 time, caused that acknowledged model of gentlemanly 
 refinement, Malevolti Tremamondo, to take rank as 
 the peerless master of fence known to the world by 
 the name of " Angelo. ' 
 
 Ever of a habit of mind that clings to old
 
 \-2 "LA BELLA." 
 
 traditions, it was with something of pleasurable 
 excitement that now, alas ! more years ago than I 
 quite care to specify I discovered in a certain 
 Tuscan city, which had already delighted me by the 
 placid, old-world atmosphere it had preserved in the 
 middle of this flurried century, a modern instance of 
 the blue-blooded " Maestro." 
 
 A journey to Italy was in those days considered 
 indispensable to an artist's education. Homeward 
 bound, after the conventional year, hi glorious autumn 
 weather, I was caught and retained by the charm of 
 the ancient town in question, and being young then 
 (as . I have hinted), impressionable, and my own 
 master, resolved forthwith to fix there my penates 
 for the coming whiter. 
 
 Delicious, sunny, lazy place it was no doubt is 
 still, but I have never seen it since sitting con- 
 tentedly on the banks of a yellow river which, at sun- 
 set, ran with purple and gold ; encompassed by 
 crumbling ramparts of fascinating obsolete trace, with 
 bastions heart-shaped between their retired flanks, 
 and an occasional overhanging " pepper-box " turret ; 
 full of sombre winding streets, as well as of sunlit 
 quays and piazzas ; and possessing (for the initiated), 
 within elm and vine-planted courtyards, wine-cellars, 
 lofty, pillared, and cross-lighted a species of back- 
 ground especially suited to the "Cavalier" genre I 
 then affected where a well-favoured maid, in pic- 
 turesque multi-coloured attire, could give artistic 
 flavour to the meagre wine she poured from some 
 huge-bellied, straw-covered fiaschone. 
 
 I secured before long, through the help of a 
 travelling acquaintance, an old artist, by name
 
 U LA JIELLA:' 13 
 
 Calarone, a set of rooms studio and bedchamber 
 ideal from my point of view at the top of a once 
 magnificent, now weirdly dilapidated, palace in the 
 heart of the town. And as fencing was one of my 
 crazes, there only needed the discovery that my land- 
 lords devoted themselves to leading the Tuscan youth 
 through the mysteries of the white weapon in the 
 very room beneath that where I proposed to woo the 
 muse of limners (if there be not such an one, there 
 should!) to complete my satisfaction in my new 
 quarters. Thus I came to be the tenant and pupil in 
 arms of Ettore and Carlo dei Lugani, counts of a most 
 ancient patent, with a prodigious pedigree said to be 
 quite unimpeachable but apparently without any 
 other worldly inheritance than the decrepit Palazzo 
 in question and now renowned masters of fence in 
 the same old historic city that had known the splen- 
 dours of their predecessors. 
 
 From the very first I felt a special interest in the 
 goodly pair, and the character of their life struck me 
 as being at once the oddest, quaintest, and withal 
 the most touching, I have ever known. 
 
 The morning after my installation, as I ran down 
 the vast, echoing stairs from my lofty perch under 
 the eaves of the wide roof, I halted one moment at 
 the open door of the fencing-room to seek a glimpse 
 of the young man whose acquaintance I had made 
 the previous afternoon over a foil bout, and whose 
 handsome, melancholy countenance, in curious con- 
 trast with a most unaffected and attractive cheerful- 
 ness of manner, had haunted me through the watches 
 of the night. 
 
 A monotonous sweeping sound which had been
 
 14 "LA BELLA." 
 
 noticeable ceased as I looked in. There was my noble 
 professor of yesterday, no longer attired in neat, close- 
 fitting white canvas, and picturesque black belt ,and 
 gauntlets, no longer grasping with practised grace the 
 pliant foil, but, aproned and bare-armed (what a 
 muscular arm it was!), melding with equal mastery 
 and blitheness a very business-like broom. 
 
 I was about to retire, fearful of having committed 
 an indiscretion, when he hailed me in his gay voice : 
 
 " Good-day, my dear scholar. A lovely morning ! 
 On your way to breakfast, I suppose ? I recommend 
 Cafe Pisano. We have had our morning crust, and 
 been busy these three hours" by a slight glance 
 over his shoulder indicating a heap of freshly mended 
 and furbished fencing implements, which testified in- 
 deed to recent work with hammer, file, and sand-cloth. 
 
 Infected by his simple friendliness, I was about to 
 respond with cordiality, when the sound of footsteps 
 from the inner room attracted my attention. I looked 
 round to see, with something of a start, what appeared 
 to be the very double of the man before me, but clad, 
 with almost foppish nicety, in all the ceremony of the 
 Italian fashion of those days black coat, light 
 trousers and gloves, highly polished boots; all of a 
 curiously exact fit. The sweeper, following the 
 direction of my eyes, exclaimed with a flashing smile : 
 
 " Tis thou, Frattuccio ! " and his accent was as 
 tender as a caress. Then, with a Grandisonian wave 
 of the arm free of the broom : 
 
 " May I be allowed," he said turning to me, " to 
 introduce Count Ettore Lugani my elder brother? 
 Frattuccio, this is the English gentleman, our new 
 pupil and lodger."
 
 "LA BELLA." 15 
 
 Bowing gravely over the silk hat, to the shiny 
 perfection of which he was slowly giving a final gloss, 
 the new-comer turned upon me a pair of eyes as 
 luminous and beautiful as his brother's, and as full of 
 unconscious melancholy. 
 
 " I am looking forward," he said, with the pretty, old- 
 fashioned courtesy that had captivated my fastidious 
 fancy in the younger, " to the pleasure, which it seems 
 was my brother's yesterday, of some converse with you 
 over foils and sabres. Shall it be this evening ? " 
 
 He bowed again, exchanged another look of 
 comfortable affection with his brother, and with 
 springy step sallied forth to his daily work. 
 
 Charmed by their original type, that of the Cis- 
 alpine Gaul, striking in its refined, blonde, grey-eyed 
 beauty amid the swarthy Etruscan faces around, I 
 lost no time in transmitting to canvas several sketches 
 of my landlords' heads. This, and nearer acquaint- 
 ance, showed me more difference between them than 
 I had at first conceived. They were not, after all, 
 more like than many a brother-pair, and I soon ceased 
 to take Ettore's paler, sharper, bolder features, for 
 Carlo's dreamy and still almost boyishly smooth face. 
 But, from a distance, it was impossible to tell one 
 from the other: their slender figures, the graceful 
 vigour of which gave such complete satisfaction to 
 my artist's senses, were cast in the selfsame mould ; 
 as to height and breadth they tallied to a fraction. 
 And thereby hangs a detail. 
 
 Once fairly established as a denizen of the town, 
 I naturally came to frequent the same little social 
 nucleus, and haunt the same meeting-places as my 
 hosts. I often met one or the other of the young
 
 16 "LA BELLA." 
 
 Luganis out of doors, bent on a professional or 
 friendly visit, or strolling, cigarette in mouth, down 
 the Corso of an evening; or yet, under pretext of 
 some very modest refreshment, putting in an appear- 
 ance at the Military Cafe, where his reception by the 
 pelissed officers of the Dragoons or Bersaglieri was as 
 a rule equivalent to a small ovation. 
 
 Nevertheless, though scarce a day would pass but 
 I saw either Carlo or Ettore about the town, it gra- 
 dually dawned upon me that they were never seen 
 together, save in their own house. 
 
 By-and-by this peculiarity, which seemed ac- 
 cepted b} 7 all their friends among whom the 
 brothers seemed to be strictly interchangeable 
 began to puzzle me considerably, as strange in the 
 face of the perfect harmony subsisting between them. 
 One day, up in my studio, I tentatively ventured a^ 
 comment upon it to the veteran Calarone. 
 
 The latter stared at me: then his white beard 
 began to wag with his jovial subterranean laugh. 
 
 " Do you really not know the reason ? Why, 'tis 
 as the secret of the comedy here. It stands thus, my 
 young friend I may as well tell you, lest you put 
 them to the blush by some blundering question. But 
 one set of those exquisite clothes, which you have no 
 doubt admired upon their athletic backs, but one tall 
 hat, one fur-lined cloak, nay, for aught I can say, one 
 pair of superfine boots, can all the vigour of their 
 good right arms raise throughout a long year of 
 assaults and lessons. Lucky for the boys they are of 
 a size ! And so the Luganis contrive to keep up that 
 appearance they consider requisite, by a little mutual 
 accommodation. Do you feel inclined to drop your
 
 " LA BELLA." 17 
 
 friends now that you know that they have only one 
 coat between them ? Your English notions of respect- 
 ability ? " 
 
 " I " I broke in, stammering in my eagerness, " I 
 would but that I had it in my power to show what I 
 think I, who have more money than I know how to 
 spend 
 
 " Only do not offer them any of this superfluous 
 gold," rejoined the old man drily. " The sole way to 
 reach these proud boys is to take their lessons. They 
 owe no man a farthing, and will be beholden to none 
 though at times, I have no doubt of it, they have to 
 go through the day's work upon little better than a 
 crust of bread." 
 
 And, as I exclaimed in horror, the old artist, 
 withdrawing his dreamy gaze from the distant vista 
 of Apennine crags misty blue, with crests of living 
 gold, of which my studio boasted a glorious prospect 
 looked quickly at me. 
 
 " Do you esteem them so worthy of pity ? " he 
 said. "They would not thank you for the thought. 
 They are accustomed to be honoured for their bravely 
 borne poverty, their hard-won independence not 
 condoled with. It is wonderful, though," he con- 
 tinued musingly, " what a taste for sword-play seems 
 to have arisen in this old town of ours since that 
 rascally lawsuit 'tis five years gone now which 
 robbed them of their farms and fields and vineyards. 
 They lay yonder," pointing to the eastern hills, the 
 snowy peaks of which were already hanging out 
 crimson signals to the early sunset. "I myself am 
 fain to submit at times to the tortures to which they 
 put my dry old sinews and rusty hinges."
 
 18 "LA BELLA." 
 
 It may readily be imagined that my enthusiasm 
 for the patrician bread-winners showed no sign of 
 decline after these revelations. I sought by every 
 means to improve our friendship, and presently it 
 came to be an established thing that twice or three 
 times a month a merry little party should meet in 
 my studio, after hours, when not only had I the 
 pleasure of the Luganis' presence, but likewise the 
 hidden satisfaction of watching their guileless enjoy- 
 ment of my carefully prepared suppers, and hearing 
 their innocent comments thereon. 
 
 " Per Bacco ! you Englishmen know how to feed. 
 We should soon grow too fat for work at this rate, eh, 
 Frattuccio ? " 
 
 And it would sting me with a keener pang than 
 might a token of deeper troubles, to notice how, on the 
 days which followed these invigorating little feasts, 
 the brothers surpassed themselves on their fencing- 
 floor, their dash and nimbleness drawing unwonted 
 3ries of admiration from the most critical onlookers. 
 
 " Oho ! Count Ettore is positively tremendous 
 to-day what a grip what a wrist ! Saw you that 
 lightning cut ? Friend Carlo, thou hast surely made 
 a compact with the devil thou art superhuman 
 Hep-la ! Bravo ! " 
 
 Or again, knowing their pitiful yet almost ludi- 
 crous reasons, to overhear between them such debates 
 as this: 
 
 " Carino, I wish to go out at noon : will this suit 
 thee?" 
 
 " Canst thou not stop in to-day ? I, myself, had 
 thought of going to make a call." 
 
 And I marvelled at the sweetness with which they
 
 "LA BELLA." 19 
 
 would yield one to the other and further each other's 
 desires ; the unaffected enjoyment they would take 
 in any small pleasure that came in their path ; the 
 unvarying serenity of their content through the 
 penury and laboriousness of their daily lives; mar- 
 velled to see how they would quaff with fullest zest 
 of my choice flagons, yet could rise smiling from 
 their own water- washed meal ; how, of an evening, 
 they would troll a merry song and strum a cavatina 
 on my piano with hands of white refinement which 
 the morning's menial work never seemed to harden or 
 discolour. 
 
 It was towards the middle of the winter that, 
 having these two youths so constantly in my thoughts 
 and before my eyes, I not unnaturally came to nurse 
 the idea of embodying them in the great work which, 
 with the usual sanguine hope of the budding artist, 
 I intended should become the foundation of niy renoAvn. 
 
 I soon^decided to perpetuate them in one of those 
 attitudes, typical of cultured vigour, wherein their 
 wiry frames had so often delighted my eyes in the 
 school. 
 
 I have said I affected "cavalier" subjects. The 
 masters, in suitable attire Ettore with a peaked 
 beard for the sake of disguise and differentiation 
 were to be shown engaged in furious combat beneath 
 a window, wherefrom still dangled a tell-tale silk 
 ladder ; while, leaning over a balcony, in excess of 
 anguish and with hair dishevelled, I intended to 
 portray, in wondrous beauty, the inevitable she of the 
 situation, her face illumined by the cold light of dawn. 
 
 The Luganis good-humouredly fell in with my 
 plans, and I had already sketched a satisfactory
 
 20 "LA BELLA." 
 
 arrangement of limbs and blades upon my canvas 
 before I could find a feminine model at all approach- 
 ing my glowing ideal for the third figure. But one 
 evening, at a certain rich merchant's house where 
 the young aristocrats all fencing masters though 
 they were would not have condescended to appear, 
 I marked a face and form, the opulent beauty of 
 which not only came up to, but actually eclipsed 
 the ambition of the protean images floating in my 
 mind. I lost no time in having myself introduced to 
 their owner, my facile, amorous fancy ensnared at 
 first sight, and my artistic enthusiasm fairly aflame. 
 
 She was a young widow who, after promptly 
 burying a rich old husband, and but just emerged 
 from the tediousness of the necessary mourning, 
 was newly settled in the town, and, as rumour 
 satirically whispered, nothing loth to look about 
 her for a handsome young one. She was quite deter- 
 mined, at any rate, to make the most of her youth 
 and emancipation. I could not have fallen more 
 fortunately for my suddenly conceived plans. 
 
 It does not belong to my story to narrate the 
 progress of my intimacy with the Signora Catalani. 
 Suffice it to say, that my warm advances were 
 received with gracious placidity by the lady, and, 
 on the occasion of my fourth visit, an audacious 
 request that she should come and sit for the terrified 
 female in my picture was acceded to with actual 
 alacrity. This confidence in my discretion, which I 
 may casually remark seemed to be shared by our 
 mutual friends, was due, no doubt, to the curious 
 notion prevalent in foreign, especially in southern 
 countries, that " there is no harm in an Englishman ;"
 
 11 LA BELLA." 21 
 
 a notion, by the way, which to a more mature and 
 cultured understanding is nothing if not compli- 
 mentary, but which occasionally proves somewhat 
 galling to youthful self-esteem. 
 
 Be it as it may, however, on the memorable sun- 
 lit forenoon when I first received the beauteous ox-eyed 
 dame into my studio, I was little disposed to grumble. 
 Though, indeed, had I had to do with a less exquisite 
 piece of fleshly perfection I use the somewhat gross 
 definition advisedly I might have found cause to 
 regret the choice of model I had made. But what 
 man of twenty-four could find it in him to cavil at 
 giggles or silly remarks when they dropped from 
 lips of so gorgeous a crimson, of so bewitching a 
 curve ; to complain of childish restlessness, even 
 of an apparently complete inability to understand 
 the simplest directions, when these inconveniences 
 involved the arrangement and re-arrangement of 
 rounded arms and taper hands, the placing of a 
 well-shod foot hers was, upon my word, the nattiest 
 I ever knew in the land nay, once or twice, neces- 
 sitated the laying of a finger upon a satin chin, or on 
 a peach-textured cheek, the carmine and olive of which 
 lay in such exquisite contrast beneath an indescribable 
 amber glow, rarely seen outside a canvas of Murillo or 
 Titian. And when I had, after all, nearly lost patience 
 in endeavouring to convey to the something within that 
 classically small head which answered for brains, 
 that it was for no other reason than a purely artistic 
 one that I wished her to let down her massive plaits, 
 the vision of those glorious dense yet brilliant waves 
 that fell to her knee in well-nigh fabulous luxuriance 
 was one which fairly took my breath away. At
 
 22 "LA BELLA." 
 
 length I established her in an attitude which, while 
 suited to my notion, was yet sufficiently comfortable 
 to legitimise a hope that it might endure for a few 
 minutes. And, having occupied her with a box of 
 chocolates, my hand trembling with eagerness, T fell 
 to tracing the warm, firm outline upon a blank 
 canvas prior to introducing it into the larger expanse 
 already adorned by my contending champions. 
 
 As the lines grew under my touch, seeming to my 
 exalted fancy to take colour and substance already, 
 there forced itself on my absorbed attention the 
 sound of a knock at my door, which next opened 
 to admit the pale oval faces, the crisp blonde heads 
 of the Luganis, looking hi upon me with twin smiles, 
 one over the other's shoulder. 
 
 " We have a spare half-hour, and we remembered 
 our promise, you see," said Ettore. And Carlo 
 added : 
 
 " Now, amico, you can get on with those four legs 
 of ours which you are so anxious to immortalise." 
 
 Even as, rather embarrassed, I rose to make 
 known the presence of my fair visitor, I saw the two 
 sets of grey eyes, shifting the unconscious sadness 
 of their gaze about my room, suddenly flash with 
 the same eager surprise, rapidly followed by the same 
 fixity of marvelling admiration. Then from her rest 
 detached herself the Catalani, her countenance suffused 
 with conscious carmine, the flowing white draperies I 
 had arranged about her falling away from the crease- 
 less fit of her black silk dress as she hurriedly wound 
 the wavy tresses into one great shining rope around 
 her head. 
 
 The brothers bowed with their profound and
 
 " LA BELLA." 23 
 
 ceremonious courtesy as I performed the necessary 
 introduction. The widow measured them with the 
 velvet of her glance, and simpered acknowledgment ; 
 and presently, after a few minutes' general conver- 
 sation, I found myself, a little to my amusement, a 
 good deal to my chagrin, gently shifted to a quite 
 secondary position on my own ground, while my 
 handsome landlords, one on either side of my fair 
 model, showed her the curios of my studio, explained, 
 in rippling, limpid cascades of words such as can only 
 escape from Italian lips, the plan of my picture, the 
 nature of the paraphernalia I had collected for the 
 purpose, and finally escorted her down-stairs, and 
 placed her in her cosy open carriage. I stood under 
 the porch unheeded ; Ettore folded a silk rug across 
 her knees ; while Carlo, retaining, as if unconsciously, 
 the grasp of her soft hand, transinitted her directions 
 to the coachman. 
 
 We all three returned to the studio in silence ; I, 
 to tell the truth, too sulky to feel disposed to talk ; 
 and the brothers, as they threw themselves obligingly 
 into whatever position I indicated, unusually medi- 
 tative, and I thought though that may have been 
 m} 7 fancy avoiding each other's glance. 
 
 The next meeting took place again in my studio, 
 this time by pre-arrangement ; indeed, it was at one 
 of those informal early supper-parties I have already 
 adverted to. I had got over my ill-humour; my 
 admiration for the fascinating widow being, after all, 
 of a more {esthetic than passionate nature, and not 
 to be compared to the affection which I had come to 
 entertain for my young masters, or to the absorbing 
 importance of my picture. As far as I recollect, I was
 
 24 "LA BELLA." 
 
 actually 'disposed to be rather jocular about the ap- 
 parently irresistible attraction of my various models 
 for one another. She, as I have said, was not over- 
 wise, and, after a glass or two of a certain treacherous 
 sparkling wine affected too, no doubt, by the ardour 
 she descried in those two pairs of deep grey eyes 
 she grew very merry, and towards the end of the 
 meal mockingly addressed Ettore : 
 
 " Why, Count, you have grown altogether pensive ! 
 What shaU we do to cheer you ? Shall I drink to 
 your amours ? That is what you are thinking of so 
 deeply, of course ? " with a glance of coquetry so 
 open that it would have seemed brazen in one less 
 beautiful. " Here is to -you may you have success ! " 
 
 " And will you then not drink to mine ? " put in 
 Carlo, with a forced laugh. 
 
 " With all my heart," she cried, and extended her 
 glass for me to refill. " I will make no jealousies be- 
 tween brothers. Here is good fortune to you too ! " 
 
 Before she had emptied her beaker, I saw a 
 flaming look pass between the Luganis, and a sudden 
 misgiving thrust itself into my heart. 
 
 After that, on the days when my sitter came 
 and she was generous to prodigality of her visits now 
 the brothers were generally both at home, and one 
 or the other would be, as if accidentally, coming down- 
 stairs even as she came up, or yet on the doorstep 
 as she went out ; or they would seek my studio either 
 alone or together. They took the most engrossing 
 interest in my picture, but, strangely enough, in- 
 variably happened to call to see what progress I had 
 made on those occasions when my model was with 
 me. And if, by rare chance neither of them had
 
 "LA BELLA." 25 
 
 been visible during the whole of the proceedings, the 
 painter was pretty sure to be reminded of the omis- 
 sion by the marked pettishness of his model, and 
 suffered not a little at such times from the ingenious 
 badness of her posing. 
 
 Now, with this change in my friends' methodical 
 habits had likewise come a significant alteration in 
 their humour. I heard no more the sound of Ettore's 
 light baritone as he busied himself in the early morn- 
 ing to set his fencing gear to rights, or of Carlo's 
 bird-like whistling, or the ring of their voices in 
 jocose or affectionate interpellation to each other 
 across the echoing rooms. Carlo's smooth face be- 
 came more melancholy day f by day, and Ettore's 
 mature beauty took a cast of ever deeper sternness. 
 
 Once I met the younger on the Corso doing escort 
 service by the radiant widow. Calling at her house 
 the next afternoon, I crossed the elder coining down 
 the stairs. On each occasion, when I returned home 
 the other brother's voice resounded in the fencing- 
 room to the accompaniment of clinking blades and 
 the thud of lungeing feet earning the common bread ! 
 
 Whispers were going through the little town. 
 "Lugani is now the cavalier-in- waiting on the rich 
 widow," was bruited on the piazza ; and, as hitherto, 
 the favourite pair had been interchangeable in their 
 popularity, when it came to a matter of gallantry the 
 position was one which would soon give rise to 
 scandal. 
 
 One morning, as I came down for one of those private 
 lessons (an extra course of which I had taken, though 
 it did interfere with my time, for the sole reason that 
 they gave me the right to pay their price into the
 
 26 "LA BELLA:' 
 
 brothers' penurious exchequer) I halted outside the 
 door on hearing the well-known voices for the first 
 time raised in ringing bitterness. 
 
 "No," said one, "7 shall go out to-day. I sub- 
 mitted two days " 
 
 " And what if I say no ? " interrupted the other 
 haughtily. " Am I the elder or not ? Who is master 
 here if I decide ? " 
 
 Then came a cry of helpless anger from Carlo : 
 " Ah, cursed poverty ; " and the boards resounded to 
 the stamp of his broad-soled fencing shoe. I turned 
 and fled softly up-stairs, in too deep distress over the 
 fatal discord that had risen between the brothers to 
 be struck by the ludicrous side of a dispute as to 
 who should wear the family suit of clothes. 
 
 Matters stood thus between them when I received 
 a letter summoning me in hot haste back to England. 
 Never came summons at more ill-timed moment. 
 My whole heart was wrapt up in my new friends. I 
 was, as all who loved them truly, in serious anxiety 
 about them, and could not bear to leave them at such 
 a critical moment ; besides this, my picture waxed in 
 fairer promise every day. These were cogent reasons, 
 indeed, to bind me to my old Palazzo. Yet go I must ; 
 my presence at home was imperatively required. 
 With a very gloomy face I broke the news of my 
 departure to Ettore that afternoon, and was not at all 
 taken in as to the principal reason of the dismay 
 which spread over his countenance. When I was 
 gone, no more would the Catalani's arched foot come 
 tripping it up the Palazzo stairs, no more would her 
 lustrous eyes illumine the bare studio, her young 
 presence warm the mournful ah* of the ancient house.
 
 "LA BELLA." 27 
 
 Said I, consolingly, " I shall return as quickly as 
 possible ; in a month, three weeks who knows ? a 
 fortnight. Meanwhile, the sooner I go, the sooner I 
 shall be back. Perhaps I had better start to-morrow." 
 
 " To-morrow ! " echoed Ettore, with dropping jaw. 
 " Oh no, dear friend, surely that is very precipitate 
 your great picture will suffer from this hurry, and 
 then aye ! " catching at a bright idea, with a childish 
 change of expression, "you had forgotten it. Our 
 solemn public assault, next Thursday evening we 
 cannot let you go before the assault, you know ; you 
 promised to assist us." 
 
 I held forgotten it, and seized upon the pretext 
 quite as greedily as he ; no doubt, too, my picture 
 would be the better for a few more days' hard work. 
 There were four before Thursday. A good deal could 
 happen in four days : perhaps I might see my dear 
 friends in better mood before I left ; be of use myself 
 who knows ? 
 
 I calculated the outside limits of the delay I 
 might allow myself, and finally despatched a letter 
 announcing my departure on the Friday. 
 
 But the allotted time went by only to bring a 
 darker look upon the brothers' faces, a deeper gloom 
 to the old palace. The witching widow came daily. 
 She, too, had manifested disapproval, not to say in- 
 dignation, at my change of plans ; and, to increase her 
 displeasure, neither Ettore nor Carlo now presented 
 themselves as usual to mark progress in rny studio, 
 or on the stairs to snatch a few words with her as 
 she passed up and down. 
 
 This strange behaviour struck me, though in a 
 different manner, quite as unpleasantly as it did her.
 
 28 "LA BELLA." 
 
 There had always been a certain reserve about the 
 brothers, a peculiar, dignified self-isolation which, for 
 all our intimacy, kept me from venturing to touch 
 upon personal topics ; in their present high-strung 
 state it would have required a bolder man than I 
 to question them on the delicate subject of their 
 mutual relations. I was, therefore, left to form my 
 own conclusions, and then* new departure, in face of 
 Ettore's open attempt to delay my journey, seemed to 
 me to bode UL 
 
 On the fourth day both posing and painting be- 
 came the merest farce. As my own eyes were chiefly 
 intent on the door, my ears strained to catch the 
 sound of steps that never came, I could not in de- 
 cency rebuke my model for her ceaseless and pettish 
 restlessness. At length, breaking a pause of sullen 
 silence, she rose and crossed from her established 
 seat to fix a discontented and absent eye upon my 
 canvas. 
 
 " It is good you will not want me any more," she 
 said, 3'awning, "for really you become duller every 
 day up here." 
 
 I murmured a conventional protest, but, un- 
 heeding, she proceeded : 
 
 " What has become of my champions ? why have 
 they ceased to come ? " 
 
 " I think you can best answer that question your- 
 self," I said, wheeling round, not sorry to vent a little 
 of the irritation accumulated within me against her. 
 " What have you done to those unhappy boys who 
 were so united, so cheerful ? " 
 
 " I ! " she cried, flushing. " What drivel is this ? Is 
 it my fault that they should behave thus foolishly ? "
 
 "LA BELLA." 29 
 
 "It is not their fault if they have both fallen 
 madly in love with you," I said severely. 
 
 Though I never was further removed from wish- 
 ing to gratify her than at that moment, her rapacious 
 vanity interpreted my words in a complimentary 
 sense, and an involuntary smile crept on her face, 
 softening her angry eyes. 
 
 " Do you not see," I went on, warming to iny sub- 
 ject, " do you not see that things cannot continue as 
 they stand now ? It is not your wish, surely, to have 
 these tine fellows ready to cut each other's throats for 
 your sake ! Will you never put them out of their 
 misery, one way or another ? " 
 
 She came over to me, and darted an eager look at 
 my face. 
 
 " I wish I could ! " she said crudely. 
 
 " You wish you could ? You are talking non- 
 sense," exclaimed I ; " you cannot marry both : you 
 must make a choice you must have some preference ; 
 they are both at your mercy. For God's sake do not 
 trifle with the poor fellows ! " 
 
 " But what can I do ? " Tears flashed into her 
 eyes, she stamped her foot with sudden passion. 
 " Could you say Avhich you like best, Ettore or Carlo, 
 Carlo or Ettore ? Are they not both handsome as 
 young gods, both charming, both lovable ? If neither 
 will speak, if neither will retire in favour of the other, 
 how can / choose between them ? You talk to me of 
 preference : my preference shall be for him who first 
 comes forward." 
 
 Then, with an abrupt change of mood, and smiling 
 gaily upon me through her wet lashes : 
 
 " Shall I not make a pretty contessa \ " she asked.
 
 30 "LA BELLA." 
 
 Groaning in spirit at the frivolity of the creature 
 who held the fate of my friends in her foolish hands, 
 I sternly waived the irrelevancy. 
 
 " How could either have spoken," I demanded, 
 " since you have so deliberately favoured both alike ? 
 It is your own doing if the brothers are now placed in 
 so hideous a dilemma ; and matters have gone so far 
 I can see no way out of it." 
 
 Her face grew dark again. With the unreasoning 
 anger of a thwarted child : 
 
 "Luckily," answered she, pointedly insolent, 
 " nothing hangs by your opinion." 
 
 " Unless, indeed," I proceeded, outwardly unruffled, 
 although within, it must be owned, the description 
 would not apply, " you had the generosity to go away 
 since they cannot" 
 
 After staring at me for a moment in speechless sur- 
 prise, the beauteous Isabella gave a hard, short laugh. 
 
 " Booby ! " quoth she, with emphatic scorn. " No, 
 that is a little too transparent, even for you ! No 
 doubt you think you could manage to come after me, 
 since they cannot, as you say. Tatatata!" bearing 
 down my furious disclaimer with renewed light- 
 heartedness, and cheerfully reaching for bonnet and 
 mantle. " A pretty dodge, caro, very, but I shall 
 think of something better myself. Your arm, Signer 
 Jealous, to help me down your precipitous stairs." 
 
 I lent her the support demanded with what I fear 
 was an ill grace. And, conversing at the top of her 
 naturally high-pitched voice with very obvious intent, 
 she progressed slowly down the first two flights. On 
 the landing of the floor occupied by the brothers she 
 paused, tittering. Then admonishing me to silence
 
 "LA BELLA." 31 
 
 with an exaggerated gesture, she tripped up to the 
 door of the fencing-room, listened for the span of half 
 a second, and observing that there was no sound 
 within, that the masters must be out, forthwith 
 commanded me to show her over the mysterious 
 premises, which the presence of pupils, she said, had 
 hitherto prevented her from inspecting. 
 
 Knowing by this time its uselessness, I forbore 
 remonstrance. Indeed, considering that she had 
 already turned the handle, I should have been left 
 addressing space. But I did not share the surprise 
 well acted or genuine with which she halted on the 
 threshold to greet the vision of two figures, one black 
 the other white from head to foot, which silently 
 emerged from different corners of the long room upon 
 her entrance. 
 
 So this was the stage now reached by my poor 
 friends in the course of their disease ! With hearts 
 raging at the constraint which kept them from their 
 desire, they who had been so linked by generous 
 affection spent the bitter hours watching like angry 
 beasts to keep each other from the prey which could 
 not belong to both. I shuddered at the thought- 
 How long can it last ? I asked myself with an inward 
 moan, and what can the solution be ? And I found 
 myself regretting, with that cowardly shrinking from 
 the sight of pain that most of us know in our egotism, 
 those few days' delay I had given myself to follow 
 their melancholy fortunes. 
 
 As she entered, they advanced hastily. But on 
 their faces there was none of the lover's joy at 
 the unexpected appearance of his mistress ; nothing 
 but dogged, bitter determination.
 
 32 "LA BELLA." 
 
 She stretched out both hands with her cursed 
 impartial coquetry, and as each took and kissed the 
 proffered fingers, their eyes turned again to meet hi 
 that look which, by this time, alas ! was nothing new 
 to me ; a look of defiance, eager and unflinching as 
 their own sword-blades in opposition. 
 
 She was very playful, and lavished bantering 
 reproaches on what she termed their late lack of 
 gallantry, and poutingly protested that, in truth, they 
 did not deserve the honour of her presence at their 
 function on the morrow. The brothers' gravity re- 
 mained unshaken : nor could their fair visitant's most 
 bewitching smile evoke more than the palest response. 
 
 In these various humours we made a tour round 
 the room, during which, no doubt to give colour to 
 her intempestive appearance, she expressed voluble 
 interest in her novel surroundings : the long array of 
 practice and other weapons glinting at intervals on 
 the walls through the melancholy twilight ; the gallery 
 of cartouches and escutcheons painted, as I knew, 
 and with great heraldic taste, by the younger in honour 
 of sundry of his pupils the trophies of old arms, the 
 blackened paraphernalia of bygone state, stern family 
 portraits saved from the wreck of the house's fortunes 
 and now gathered in this sole remaining reception- 
 room to lend their countenance to the strange pro- 
 fession of the last of the Luganis, all these things 
 called forth well-meant if indiscriminate terms of 
 admiration. I, nevertheless, thought to divine in the 
 misleading profundity of her wandering gaze, dreams 
 of gilded Viennese furniture, of gaudy brand-new 
 upholstering for the not far distant future. 
 
 But the chill influence of the young men's
 
 "LA BELLA." 33 
 
 unnatural relations, which had fallen on me, as it now 
 always did, from the instant I entered their presence, 
 at length began to affect her. She grew pensive. 
 The ring of her voice, which had, almost unaccom- 
 panied, awakened the echoes of the vast room, 
 presently ceased. There came an oppressive pause. 
 
 Then, with a reproachful rustling of silk through 
 the silence, she moved towards the door. 
 
 " I must go," she said, sighing deeply, yet as I 
 fancied unconsciously. " Addio. Or shall I say, a 
 rivederci ? Come, you see I am a good child, and 
 bear no malice. Till to-morrow ? " 
 
 The young men made a simultaneous, impulsive 
 movement forward, then halted abruptly, checked by 
 some invincible mutual reaction, and stood on either 
 side of the door bowing in silent, stiff farewell. Petu- 
 lantly, with a shrug of her shoulders, she passed out, 
 ignoring, as she pattered with rapping heels down the 
 great stone steps, the arm I hastened to proffer. 
 
 Not until she was seated in her carriage did she 
 deign to turn her clouded face on me. 
 
 " You are right," said she, and nodded, protruding 
 her underlip with determined emphasis ; " this cannot 
 go on. I will devise something." A promise which, 
 despite my advice of that very day, caused me much 
 subtle uneasiness, for I had good reason to doubt the 
 trustworthiness of either the head or the heart of her. 
 ! . "No doubt," I thought,. as I clambered back to 
 my solitary quarters, "she means to .precipitate -the 
 crisis on the next meeting." And my fears and mis- 
 giving's growing ever sorrier as the hours went by, I 
 looked forward to the forthcoming function with heavy 
 spirits, and was again moved to disregard, for the 
 c
 
 34 "LA BELLA." 
 
 nearer anxiety, a second summons from home which 
 arrived that night and urged ine not to lose a day in 
 starting. 
 
 II 
 
 WHEN, towards eight o'clock the next evening, I 
 descended to the piano nobile, the scene in the 
 fencing-room struck me as so animated and cheer- 
 ful the brothers, as they busied themselves receiving 
 and seating their guests, looked so handsome, were 
 to all appearance so self-possessed that my first 
 impulse was to laugh at my tragic forebodings. It 
 pleased me, for the sake of our friends' popularity, 
 to see the throng that had assembled at their bidding. 
 The place was brilliant with uniforms, and there was 
 a graceful sprinkling of fair faces; for, as Calarone 
 had had occasion to tell me, the annual function at the 
 Palazzo Lugani had come to be looked upon, in town 
 and province, as a fashionable gathering. 
 
 Conspicuous among the spectators I soon espied 
 my model established in a corner seat of the front 
 row. I had to " open the assault " a fate little 
 coveted as a rule, but which I had volunteered to 
 undertake as suited to my humble position of un- 
 known amateur, and which Carlo endeavoured to 
 soften by appearing as my opponent. 
 
 When my part of the performance was over, and 
 I had been theoretically cut into small bits with 
 irresistible, albeit courteous, dexterity, I sought out 
 the Catalani's side, and thereto attached myself with 
 the vague wish to be, at any rate, on the spot what- 
 ever was destined to happen.
 
 "LA BELLA." 35 
 
 She was not pleased to be gracious or communi- 
 cative, turning her fine shoulders persistently upon 
 rue during the better part of the performance, so 
 that I enjoyed a good view of the nape of her neck, 
 cream-like between the dead black of her high silk 
 gown and the living gloss of her hair, with ample 
 opportunity to marvel afresh at the exquisite texture of 
 her skin, and to realise how little I had been able to do 
 justice to it in my unfinished masterpiece up-stairs. 
 
 In truth she seemed "strangely preoccupied. When 
 not engaged in watching our hosts in their peregri- 
 nations round the room or their triumphs on the 
 pedalina, she would consult her programme with 
 an earnest biting of her lips and a drawing together 
 of her fine sable brows, which pointed to some 
 absorbing train of thought. 
 
 Bout followed bout in rapid succession. Around 
 us there was a roar of conversation, varied at times 
 by moments of intense silence or bursts of applause. 
 The brothers, whether engaged in entertaining their 
 guests or in displaying their skill, were admirable 
 as usual in their bearing. Sword in hand, they 
 surpassed themselves. I have seen, I believe, well- 
 nigh every swordsman of European note, but I never 
 knew one who could emerge literally untouched, 
 even by an inferior, from a lengthy assault, as they 
 did that night, pitted though they were against 
 representatives of many schools in high renown. 
 One would have thought they wielded a magic 
 blade ; and indeed, to judge from the cries of admi- 
 ration and astonishment evoked on every side by 
 their skill, it was considered by competent witnesses 
 as something little short of uncanny, 
 c 2
 
 36 "LA BELLA." 
 
 But to me, who had grown to know them so well, 
 the secret of their unconquerable success soon became 
 apparent. Beneath all the quiet courtliness of their 
 manner I discovered an undercurrent of burning 
 nervousness, a keen tension which found luxurious 
 relief in the rhythmic fury of fence. I saw that 
 the flush on their thinned faces, which had at first 
 given them an illusory air of health and cheerfulness, 
 was hectic, and that, though their eyes were bright 
 enough under the excitement of the moment's task, 
 they had that sunken, haunted look, born of pro- 
 longed sleeplessness ; that look which but too often 
 presages a not far distant break-down of mind or 
 body happy if it be but the latter! And when, 
 on two occasions, at the end of especially brilliant 
 bouts, even the vanquished opponent, bathed in 
 perspiration, rose superior to his humiliation and 
 was fain to express in flattering terms his wonder 
 at the patrician's irresistible furia, I knew that the 
 hand which was held out to him was dry and 
 feverish, that the gracious smile and graceful words 
 of deprecation were forced and mechanical. 
 
 The evening wore on. Neither of the Luganis 
 approached us; but there was an indefinable feeling 
 upon me that both watched our corner narrowly 
 and though I never saw them exchange a single 
 word or sign each other. 
 
 The Catalan! grew restless, uneasy, fretful. Her 
 rich cheek flushed and paled alternately ; she threw 
 herself about on her seat and tapped her dainty 
 foot in irritated measure, while between her plump 
 hands her programme became every moment more 
 dilapidated. At length, during an interval before the
 
 "LA BELLA." 7 
 
 last part of the performance, she rose suddenly 
 and commanded my escort to the refreshment-table 
 a privilege, be it noted, I had begged for a few 
 minutes before, but which, while openly waiting 
 for one of our hosts, she had tartly denied me. 
 
 When I had provided her with a glass of red 
 syrup and some fruit, she all at once broke through 
 her mutism and plied me with questions, which, 
 mistrusting the motive that prompted them, I an- 
 swered with a certain circumspection. 
 
 Had the brothers fenced well? This astounding 
 query I could only meet with another : 
 
 Had she not seen for herself ? 
 
 Oh ! (impatiently) how could she tell ? She knew 
 nothing about such matters somewhat disdainfully 
 ejecting the pips of a pomegranate from between her 
 lips as she spoke. Of course she had heard the 
 tremendous ado over them ; but that was their way 
 in Italy. She wanted to know what I thought. 
 
 I told her, shortly, that there could be but one 
 opinion : no one would come near the Luganis 
 to-night literally no one could touch them. 
 
 Had they been so marvellous as all that ? 
 
 Marvellous was the word. There never was 
 anything like it. 
 
 This seemed to throw her back, for a minute 
 or two, into her reflective mood. Then she cast 
 a sharp glance at me and another abrupt inquiry ; 
 
 " And of the two, who fences best ? " 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders according to the local 
 fashion. 
 
 " Ah ! that is indeed a question impossible to 
 answer. They are absolutely equal,"
 
 38 "LA BELLA:' 
 
 " But when they come together and I see they 
 are going to, presently how will it be then ? who 
 will have the victory, do you think ? " smoothing 
 her maltreated programme as she spoke, with a touch 
 that trembled ever so slightly. 
 
 " Have I not told you they are equal ? " I cried, 
 provoked at not being able to guess what she was 
 driving at, though it was so evident she had some 
 settled purpose in her head. " How can any one tell 
 who will have the best of it ? There is not a pin to 
 choose between them. They have always worked and 
 practised together. Two could not be more fairly 
 matched, were each pitted against himself, than they 
 will be. Hits will be few, that is quite certain. But 
 their assault is only an affair of show, and it does not 
 matter in the slightest who scores the most, or even 
 gets hi bella. Every one knows that it must be 
 decided by chance." 
 
 She bent forward in a sort of eager way to catch 
 the words as they dropped from my lips. She sighed 
 first, and then smiled as I finished. 
 
 "La bella" she repeated musingly; "yes, I heard 
 them asking for it. What does it mean ? " 
 
 But even as I entered upon a lucid explanation of 
 this simple term of fencing jargon, I saw by her 
 roaming eyes that her thoughts were elsewhere en- 
 gaged. 
 
 I stopped, not a little put out ; no man likes to find 
 the ears into which he is pouring valuable discourse 
 more especially if the said ears be as delicate and 
 pretty as a pink finger-shell suddenly grown deaf to 
 him. 
 
 She, however, paid no more attention to my silence
 
 "LA BELLA." 39 
 
 than to my speech ; her whole face, suddenly illu- 
 mined by a radiant smile, flushed rosily, tenderly, 
 beautifully; her roving glance became riveted I 
 knew, even before turning round to find Ettore behind 
 me, that she had at last caught the eye of one of her 
 lovers. 
 
 That look of hers was a revelation to me. She was 
 innocent of the heartless coquetry I accused her of 
 she loved the brothers indeed, but the wretched 
 creature loved them both, and could not choose 
 between them, by reason of that very love it was 
 worse than I had thought horrible unnatural 
 hopeless ; but I pitied her. 
 
 Ettore paused when his furtive glance met the 
 passionate brightness of her eyes ; she beckoned to 
 him with her fan, and he came forward as if irresist- 
 ibly impelled. At the same instant I noticed Carlo 
 with a bow detach himself hastily from the group he 
 was conversing with in a distant part of the room, 
 and make his way through the crowd towards us. 
 
 The widow gave a tremulous laugh, and, after 
 sAveetly acknowledging the elder's greeting, turned to 
 his brother with the same caressing smile. 
 
 " That is right," she said, in a low voice, " I wanted 
 to see you both; but it seems you were too much 
 engaged to care for my congratulations." 
 
 They looked down sombrely, and sighed. Then 
 Ettore began some excuse which rang as hollow as 
 his voice. She interrupted him hastily : 
 
 " Good good ! I forgive you. I know." 
 
 The last words came forth upon a faint sigh which 
 sounded like an echo of theirs. And for a moment, 
 amid the strident hum and ceaseless movement of an
 
 40 "LA BELLA." 
 
 excited, good-humoured Italian crowd, the little group 
 seemed strangely isolated in their silence. I saw the 
 Signora Catalani's rounded bosom rise and fall with 
 her hurried breath. And as she stood there, hesitating 
 and glowing between the two who loved her, I saw 
 the young men's downcast eyes suddenly raised upon 
 her, and shoot forth a dual burning look which be- 
 trayed to me that their endurance had well-nigh 
 reached its limits. 
 
 Wishing to put an end to a situation which would 
 have been absurd had it not been rife with such 
 tragic possibilities, I stepped forward, and was offering 
 to reconduct the widow to her seat with an airy, 
 commonplace remark suitable to the occasion, when a 
 simultaneous glare from the masters made me draw 
 back in dismay. Nor was the lady behindhand in 
 expressing her disapproval of my officiousness. 
 
 "Thank you," she said, with a scathing glance, 
 " one of these gentlemen will look after me. I need 
 not detain you." 
 
 Then turning to her hosts and addressing them 
 collectively, she plunged, with the air of one suddenly 
 making up her mind, into a rambling sentence : she 
 had been so ravished by their fencing : only she was 
 so stupid she wished she knew all about it properly ; 
 perhaps they would help her a little, make things 
 clearer for her; she desired to be able to admire them 
 as a true connoisseur, they must understand (with a 
 flushed smile). For instance, would they tell her 
 what la bellu was ? She had heard some one call out 
 the words each time just before the end of the bouts ; 
 what did it mean ? 
 
 A little apart from the trio I stood and listened
 
 "LA BELLA." 41 
 
 eagerly. What did she mean? I wondered, as she 
 again put this trivial question, but this time with a 
 straining eye, as if her future were hanging upon the 
 answer, 
 
 Both men lifted their voice in reply, then both 
 stopped; after a stern pause, during which I saw 
 Carlo clench his fist, Ettore took up the broken 
 thread alone. 
 
 " It means the last hit that which decides the 
 contest," he said gravely. 
 
 " A strange expression," she rnused. " It has some 
 meaning, I suppose. La bella ! it sounds as if there 
 were some romantic idea attached to it." 
 
 " None that I know of," said the young man, with 
 a transient look of surprise on his haggard face. 
 " They call it so, I believe, because, being the last hit, 
 it should be made as perfect, as beautiful as possible." 
 
 The Catalani gave a laugh which fell quaveringly. 
 
 " Is it so, in truth ? Do you know," she said, " I 
 can hardly tell why, but I keep thinking of our 
 picture up-stairs, where you seem to be fighting so 
 fiercely for the belle on the balcony, and I fancied "- 
 she spoke haltingly, as if picking her Avords " I 
 fancied there might be some story, some association 
 of that kind connected with it. But, then, you say it 
 is the last hit that decides things in your sword bouts, 
 whereas, in earnest, it would be the first ; is it not 
 so?" 
 
 The brothers listened now with a curious intent- 
 ness. They did not speak, nor move the converging 
 fire of their eyes from her. She opened her pro- 
 gramme again, and consulted it once more, or feigned 
 so to do.
 
 42 "LA BELLA." 
 
 " I have been told," she proceeded, in measured 
 tones, like one reciting a speech by rote, " that your 
 skill at arms, gentlemen like the rest of your 
 qualities is so evenly matched that there is no 
 choosing between you : so that whichever wins in 
 this great bout which is to end your fete to-night, 
 wins solely by fortune's favour. It will be very 
 interesting your fight together." 
 
 Here she faltered in her set speech, and dropped 
 her long lids over the warm appealing gaze. And all 
 at once I knew what her plan was, and felt surprised, 
 indeed pleased, to find it so ingenious. 
 
 She went on with an effort : 
 
 " But would it not be more interesting to both of 
 you and to to those who watch you, if you were to 
 tight for some prize ; if, as in the picture up-stairs, 
 
 la belkt meant indeed ?" She stopped again, 
 
 this time dead short, but with a glance at her hosts 
 that was dazzling in its brightness, even to a wretched 
 outsider like me ; she saw there was no need to com- 
 plete the sentence. 
 
 They threw up their heads with a proud, quick 
 movement, and turning, looked at each other. And 
 for the first time for many a weary day I saw their 
 eyes meet with absolute acquiescence. After a mo- 
 ment of this silent intercourse, the elder nodded 
 slowly to the younger, as if in ratification. Then 
 presently they both wheeled round, bowed to their 
 lady with what struck me as a strange solemnity, and 
 moved away without a word. 
 
 She looked after them with a radiant countenance, 
 and as I came up even deigned, in her good-humour, 
 to bestow a smile upon me.
 
 "LA BELLA." 43 
 
 " So you are there still, friend," she said, " eaves- 
 dropping, I suppose ? Well, what do you think of 
 my woman's wits now ? Have I not found a way out 
 of the difficulty after all, without having to follow 
 your brutal suggestions? There! I can afford to be 
 generous you may take me back to my seat ; I hear 
 the president rattling his pommel on the floor ; the 
 lists are open once more ; only three more bouts, and 
 my champions appear on the scene. By my faith, 
 romance has not yet died out of the world, let people 
 say what they like ! Now, whatever happens, they 
 will abide by it, and neither can complain. You saw 
 how content they both looked. Say, was it not well 
 thought ? Have I not been clever ? " 
 
 So she rattled on, but I could not rise to the level 
 of her gaiety. I awaited the strange contest with an 
 eager yet (I could not say why) an anxious heart. 
 As for her, she had not a doubt ; no sadness or com- 
 passion for the one of her lovers who was bound to 
 lose her; not even a natural misgiving as to the 
 wisdom of thus staking her whole future upon a 
 freak of fate. It was my turn to be irresponsive as 
 she allowed her recovered spirits to flow forth in a 
 ceaseless, laughing stream of words. But a few 
 moments ago I had thought to have a glimpse in her 
 of a depth of womanly passion that amazed me ; now 
 she seemed as selfishly, irreflectively sportive as a 
 child. 
 
 At length the period of suspense which seemed to 
 weigh on me so much more than on her drew to its 
 close. The president, the Colonel of Bersaglieri in 
 garrison, a handsome old soldier with sweeping 
 white moustache and breast covered with medals,
 
 U "LA BELLA." 
 
 whom I had noticed in conclave with Ettore a few 
 minutes before, stepped forward and claimed silence. 
 
 " Our gentle hosts," he announced, " Counts Ettore 
 and Carlo dei Lugani, being somewhat fatigued by 
 the numerous and arduous assaults they have fur- 
 nished against the many swordsmen of note who have 
 honoured them by their attendance this evening, beg 
 to be allowed to limit the coming bout to the delivery 
 of one successful hit. The Counts also desire, for the 
 sake of variety, to slightly alter the programme, and 
 fence this final bout with spadroons instead of 
 rapiers." 
 
 A storm of applause followed, as the brothers (who 
 had, as far as I could make out, not interchanged a 
 word since the recommencement of the display) 
 stepped briskly on to the prescribed space and bowed 
 right and left, and then, but with downcast eyes, 
 saluted each other. 
 
 Let alone the deserved popularity of the cham- 
 pions, between men so well acquainted with each 
 other's play, so precise in their style, from nature and 
 
 fvere practice, so curiously matched in skill and 
 rength, the bout, even if short, promised rich 
 interest to both experts and ignorant. To me who 
 knew the stake played for, who knew that the despair 
 of one of my friends and the joy of the other depended 
 on the merest chance, it was painful in its excitement. 
 As to the woman whose fate was hanging in the 
 balance, though at last mercifully silent, I thought, as 
 she leant forward, panting and with glittering eye, that 
 she seemed to draw more joy than anxiety from the 
 spectacle. 
 
 With a clean firm click the shining sabres met
 
 "LA BELLA." 45 
 
 and parted, and now, after a rapid perfunctory give- 
 and-take, began the strangest fight. By one accord 
 the masters seemed to abandon all true sabre play, to 
 discard cuts, and aim at scoring by the thrust alone. 
 
 Then evolved itself a lengthy " sword-phrase ; " 
 redoubled attacks and terrific returns, all with the 
 point, and without an attempt at a pause on either 
 side. Every second the exchange of thrusts became 
 fiercer and swifter, till it was as fevered as mere foil 
 play, despite the fact that the sabre of Italian schools 
 is perilously thin and slender. Through the mastery 
 and precision of each pass I could feel a frenzy, 
 giving life to the very blades as it sought for the 
 victory of that first hit. Under their masks the 
 combatants' eyes, as of menacing wolves, shone with 
 purple light, and the bared set teeth gleamed between 
 drawn-back lips. 
 
 " This would be dangerous work," said I to iny 
 unheeding companion, trying to reassure myself by 
 the sound of the words, " in less practised hands. 
 But they know what they are about." 
 
 But while I spoke, Carlo's point rounded, it is 
 true, but hardly blunter than a table knife was 
 only turned aside from his brother's throat, bared 
 between mask and collar, by an incredibly swift 
 parry, and I noticed then for the first time, and 
 with a flash of indescribable dismay, that the brothers 
 wore light fencing masks/ and had not changed 
 their thin open-collared linen jackets, which, how- 
 ever sufficient protection against a pliant buttoned 
 foil, were as good as useless against the sabre above 
 all, when wielded in such deadly fashion. I started 
 up, a terrible suspicion creeping like an icy snake
 
 46 "LA BELLA." 
 
 round my heart. I tried to call out ; in vain niy 
 throat refused to bring forth a sound. But the next 
 instant my insight was shared, my nameless thought 
 was echoed; through the anxious silence which 
 had settled heavily over the room, and allowed 
 every dry clink of steel, every panting hiss of the 
 brothers' labouring breath, to be heard with painful 
 distinctness, there rang a wild shriek. She, the 
 unwitting mover of this ghastly duel in disguise, 
 had sprung to her feet open-mouthed, stricken by 
 the awful realisation that now paralysed me. 
 
 " Stop stop them for God's sake, stop them ! " 
 
 The anguished cry broke the spell which seemed to 
 have held the president in the same thrall as the other 
 spectators. He leaped forward to beat up the fratri- 
 cidal blades. Too late ! Ettore Lugani had secured 
 the first hit. Even as the woman's wail still echoed 
 in the air, meeting a furious lunge with a volte aside 
 and a rigid time-thrust, he had driven his slender 
 blade deep under his opponent's mask. 
 
 Carlo stood a second, quivering, while a bright red 
 jet ran along the virgin steel; then, as his brother 
 withdrew the bloody sword, fell forward on his face 
 and rolled over on his side. 
 
 The victor stepped back ; the weapon escaped 
 from his hand and struck, clattering with lugubrious 
 echo, upon the stone floor; with a stiff, mechanical 
 gesture, he removed his mask and stood glaring at 
 his handiwork with eyes that seemed to start from 
 their orbits. 
 
 Then was the silence filled by a clamour of horror, 
 the screams of women, the deep-mouthed excla- 
 mations of men. Scarcely knowing how it came
 
 "LA BELLA." 47 
 
 about, I found myself cleaving the excited, swaying 
 crowd, and kneeling beside the wounded man. 
 
 I raised him in my arms, tore his mask away, 
 and inanely strove to hold back the generous young 
 blood, which, at each waning pulse, spurted forth, 
 soft and warm, between my lingers. I have said 
 wounded ! Alas ! his eyes were fast glazing. He 
 made some faint signs, moving his hand restlessly as 
 if in search of something, and languidly turning his 
 dying gaze from side to side. 
 
 Calarone, who seemed to be the only one, save 
 myself, in the affrighted assembly, who retained any 
 species of self-control, and who was kneeling upon 
 the other side helping me to support the lagging 
 weight, suddenly rose, and seizing the petrified figure 
 of Ettore by the shoulders, almost threw him on his 
 knees upon the place he had himself occupied. 
 
 Instantaneously, as if by instinct, Carlo became 
 aware of his brother's proximity ; the uneasy look left 
 his face; blindly he sought for the other's hand 
 and raised it to his lips, sighing out with a supreme 
 effort which brought a last terrible gush of blood 
 from his wound : 
 
 " Fratuccio, forgive me forgive ! " 
 
 And presently I saw that he had passed. 
 
 I have no set sequence of recollections anent the 
 remainder of that night ; but amid the blurred con- 
 fusion of my mind certain points stand out with 
 ineffaceable clearness. 
 
 I remember how from the throng the widow 
 ran forth and halted a little way off, bending forward 
 with hands clasped, and lips distorted with a rictus 
 of horror, looking from her dead to her living lover
 
 48 "LA BELLA." 
 
 in speechless agony; how Ettore, assisted to his 
 feet again, stood helplessly where he was placed, 
 passing his hand, red from the dead man's kiss, over his 
 forehead, where it left a hideous smear ; his eyes fixed 
 in the same appalling stare, resting unseeing upon her. 
 
 Then she tottered towards him and broke into 
 loud lamentations. 
 
 "O God, what have you done? Sweet Saviour, 
 mercy ! I never meant that ! Oh, Ettore, Ettore, un- 
 happy ! how could you have thought I meant that ? " 
 
 Never shall I forget the look upon Ettore's face as 
 for the space of one short minute into his strained 
 eyeballs a dim and awful consciousness crept back ; 
 with what inexpressible loathing, what horror, he 
 recoiled from her touch ! 
 
 She wrung her hands, lifting her voice still 
 higher; and then some one laid a heavy palni upon 
 her mouth and stifled the mad indiscretion of her 
 clamouring remorse. 
 
 It was old Calarone. 
 
 "You rave," he said, roughly dragging her to- 
 wards the door. " The emotion has turned your 
 brain ! It was an accident. Hush ! it was an 
 accident, I tell you ! Come away ! " 
 
 Soon after that a surgeon, who could but confirm 
 what we already knew too well, appeared on the 
 scene ; and then the police. 
 
 * To this day the unanimous shout which greeted 
 them rings in my ears, the shout which was the 
 echo of Calarone's fierce cry the moment before : 
 
 " It was an accident a fencing-room accident ; 
 we all saw it. We will attest; it was an accident 
 an accident ! "
 
 "LA BELLA:' 49 
 
 I can see Ettore standing unheeding, rigid seem- 
 ingly, since that transient show of passion, as deaf, 
 blind, and unfeeling well-nigh as the fair boy that 
 lay in his blood at our feet in the midst of all the 
 confusion and his own imminent peril. 
 
 And then I remember Calarone clearing the 
 room, and how, by-and-by, all were gone save him 
 and the president, who was crying like a child, and 
 the two terrible motionless figures, the one smiling 
 as if asleep, the other with a look upon his face 
 that turns me sick to think of. And next I was 
 ejected, too. I felt, as, determinedly browbeating 
 my incoherent protest, he thrust me forth, that 
 the old artist's heart was bitter against me for my 
 innocent share in that evening's work. 
 
 I went up to my room. I was to leave at dawn ; 
 I had to pack the rest of my things, which occupied 
 me for a while mechanically, for there could be no 
 question now of my ever returning to the shadow 
 of this ill-fated house. But I could not make up 
 my mind to go into the studio, I remember, for fear of 
 the sight of that picture wherein the brothers were 
 fighting, even as I had just seen them fight in such 
 dire earnest, for the sake of the soulless, empty beauty 
 I had been so proud to portray. 
 
 What has become of that picture ? Are the 
 brothers still fighting on ? Is that woman still 
 leaning over the balcony in mock alarm ? Is it 
 still in the old studio, and will it remain there till 
 it crumbles into dust, a memento of two of the 
 most noble and most lovable beings I ever knew, 
 and of the most foolish woman ? 
 
 As night wore on, I could bear the suspense 
 
 D
 
 50 "LA BELLA." 
 
 no longer ; I crept down the stairs ; from the instant 
 I opened my door the sound of a distant tramping 
 foot fell upon my ear. It grew more distinct as 
 I descended : when I reached the landing of the 
 first floor I found that the door of the fencing-room 
 was ajar, and that the noise of the restless foot 
 proceeded from within. 
 
 Holding my breath, on tiptoe I drew near. 
 
 In the centre of the vast black room now stood 
 a little truckle bed hung with white, and on it lay 
 the inert remains of him who, so short a time ago, 
 had been full of seemingly unconquerable energy. 
 A few candles round the couch, and the white 
 draperies, made a sort of little oasis of light amid 
 the surrounding gloom. At the head of the bed 
 sat Calarone, his great white beard flowing on his 
 breast, motionless as a carven figure, save for the 
 moving gleam of his eyes. And up and down the long 
 floor, with ceaseless beat, went Ettore, tramp, tramp, 
 tramp. God alone knows what despair was brooding 
 behind the livid mask of his face. 
 
 Once he stopped and looked at the peaceful 
 form upon the bed, with a frightful staring gaze, 
 like a man under the thrall of some appalling dream, 
 and then he struck his forehead with a fierce hand, 
 and cried in a toneless voice : 
 
 " The mark of Cain the mark of Cain ! " 
 
 The flickering light shone upon his bent head. 
 It was still red with his brother's blood. 
 
 I turned away and stole back to my room ; and 
 following me was the sound of that weary tramp 
 again. And as I sat at my open door hour after 
 hour, all through the dead still night, it went on
 
 "LA BELLA." 51 
 
 echoing up through the bare stone passages, muffled, 
 relentless, awful. 
 
 At rare intervals would come a pause, and then 
 I knew Ettore was standing beside the corpse as I 
 had seen him stand, and there would fall through 
 the black silence the murmur of his agonised refrain. 
 And after that the tramp once more. 
 
 At length the dawn broke. The facchini I had 
 ordered struggled sleepily up-stairs for my luggage 
 and heavily down again ; the carriage which 
 was to take me away drew up clattering in the 
 deserted street. I took a lingering look round the 
 room, now filled with such heartrending associations, 
 and descended for the last time the great, cold stairs. 
 
 Outside the fencing-room I stopped, my heart 
 yearning to take a final farewell of my friends. 
 
 The door was shut. All seemed quiet. Softly 
 I turned the handle, and looked in. 
 
 Ettore was on his knees, by the smiling clay. 
 His shoulders were heaving in an agony of sobs ; 
 Calarone, his face turned towards the chill, grey 
 light which stole in through the high windows, 
 had his hands folded as if in prayer. 
 
 Neither saw me. I closed the door and ran 
 down-stairs to my carriage; and as I went I think 
 I, too, was muttering a prayer, to thank God that 
 Ettore had found tears at last. 
 
 ****** 
 
 As soon as I had arrived in England, I wrote 
 to Calarone imploring him to send me some tidings 
 of the unfortunate survivor of the brave pair who 
 had, in brief madness, wrought each other's undoing. 
 He did not reply. I wrote again, and yet again. 
 r> 2
 
 52 "LA BELLA." 
 
 At length came a short and characteristic letter, 
 through every line of which I discerned the same 
 ill-concealed hostility he had shown me on the night 
 of Carlo's death. 
 
 "You are curious for news," he wrote; "I do 
 not think I have any to give that can be espe- 
 cially gratifying to you ; however, I will do my 
 best to answer your questions. Ladies first for ever. 
 The Catalani, that beautiful and amiable person, 
 the privilege of whose acquaintance you generously 
 shared with so many of your friends, left our town 
 the same day as you did. A double loss for us. 
 I have cared little, I confess, to follow her further 
 movements, but I have heard that rumour is at 
 present coupling her name with that of some Floren- 
 tine cavaliere celebrated in connection with a special 
 make of silk blanket. The Palazzo Lugani is sold. 
 Count Carlo Lugani, who lost his life by that de- 
 plorable accident we all were unfortunate enough 
 to witness, lies in the family vault, the only remnant 
 of all their once vast possession which that ancient 
 race could now call its own. Count Ettore is dead 
 too dead at least to the world and to all who knew 
 him. The Carthusian monastery, upon the slopes 
 of the Apennines, which you used to be fond of ad- 
 miring from your studio window, is the tomb of 
 the last of the Ltiganis until the time comes for 
 him to join his brother."
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 The following incidents in the life of a certain 
 Saxon student, at the time when all parts of Ger- 
 many were either the conquered province or the un- 
 willing ally of France, I remember hearing long, 
 long ago from my father's own lips. He was even 
 then an old man, whilst I was still very young, not 
 more than twenty years of age, perhaps. 
 
 To-day the same number of autumns rests upon 
 my head as bowed my dear predecessors when he 
 told me the tale. As I smoke his old pipe and, 
 musing, warm my rheumatic limbs at the selfsame 
 corner of the hearth where I used, in. the days of my 
 strength and lustiness, to see him pensively ensconced, 
 his very words come back to me with singular vivid- 
 ness. And when I set them down as near as I may 
 to his narration yet in the English tongue / would 
 fain try and make them convey something of the im- 
 pression they produced then upon me, as though his 
 voice went forth again (bridging an abyss of eighty 
 years), to relate, now in the last decade, an episode 
 that, in the first of this century, had a wholesale in- 
 fluence on our family fortunes. 
 
 Ox the bare, sunlit hill-top, Kaspar, the Studiosus 
 in Literis Humanioribus on his migration tour 
 very leisurely if not actually erratic from Jena to
 
 54 THE "RBNOWH8T* 
 
 Heidelberg, paused to rejoice in the wide expanse of 
 view, doffing his cap to yield his brown locks to the 
 fanning breeze, and dreamily to refill the bowl of his 
 great china pipe. Before reaching this long-desired 
 goal of his morning's march, a slow ascension through 
 solemn woods (pine woods, with their mysterious 
 vistas of endless galleries, leading on all sides to un- 
 defined green gloom ; with their strange, at times 
 haunting, even awful sounds, as of myriad sighs rising 
 or falling together under every pulse of wind) had 
 disposed Kaspar, first to cryptic speculation, and 
 thence to a state of mind cognate, but better suited 
 to his bright young years to a yearning, in fact, for 
 the poetic fixing of evanescent impressions. 
 
 Having filled his pipe-bowl and greeted smiling 
 nature with a long, grateful gaze, he sat down on a 
 broad stone, apologising, in brotherly terms, for 
 the disturbance, to a green lizard that, spread in 
 curves of beauty on the hot grey lichen, had been 
 voluptuously drinking-in the sun's rays by every 
 pore. But, instead of turning the last of his tavern 
 bills, which he now drew from his pouch, into a spill for 
 tobacco-kindling purposes, he absently smoothed it 
 out, and with the half of an odd end of pencil, pro- 
 duced from the same receptacle, proceeded slowly to 
 set forth in verses of fanciful metre something of the 
 glad wide scene around him ; the broad waves of tree- 
 clad hills dying away into the purple bloom of dis- 
 tance ; the swift-gliding shadows over this great sea of 
 foliage; the stillness of the noontide hour rendered 
 tangible at moments by the very far-off echo of some 
 woodman's axe or the occasional call of a lonely deer 
 in the valley ; and overhead the great white cloud,
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 55 
 
 dazzling in its purity, that was now majestically 
 rising behind one of the graen waves, ascending, ever 
 greater yet ever pure, in slowly unfurling volutes 
 against the living blue. 
 
 Yet, presently, as the glorious heat grew upon 
 him, the physical delight of scenery lost of its first 
 keenness, and the power of translation began to fail ; 
 Kaspar folded his immortalised bill, prosily struck 
 flint against steel, ignited his pipe, and after exhaling 
 a few white puffs into the mountain air, fell to musing 
 on the more material prospects of his journey. 
 
 He must be some fifty miles from the Saxon High 
 School, and as far again, perhaps, from the great 
 Badish seat of learning ; so much or so little he knew, 
 and cared less, this summer weather. But now the 
 inner man began to clamour for the comforts of in- 
 habited regions. 
 
 He rose and scanned the horizon towards the 
 south-west, where lay his general direction. Against 
 the fast expanding white cloud, his eye, under the 
 screening hand, espied in the long distance, like a 
 stationary butterfly, the flaunt of a flag, and he was 
 pleased to imagine it as displayed from the main 
 tower of some Hof, hidden by the verdant screen. 
 
 " Where the standard streams," sagely ratiocinated 
 Kaspar, " the house is alive. Near such an one lies 
 commonly at least a hamlet, in other words a civilised 
 settlement, wherein, no doubt, a slice of rosy ham on 
 subfusk bread, a radish and a tankard of foaming 
 beer, can be laid in the cool arbour of a hospitable 
 inn for the refection of weary travellers." 
 
 And, stimulated by the prospect, he struck for 
 his new goal, and, descending the other side of the
 
 56 THE "KENOMMIST." 
 
 hill, plunged once more under the shadow of the 
 forest, at the smartest gait of his tall boots. 
 
 The end of the hour brought him once more in 
 the open, in a broad valley which led the waters of a 
 small tributary, joy ously roaming and foaming over the 
 boulders, towards one of our majestic German streams. 
 
 And there, on the far bank, half commanding the 
 crest, half clinging to the steep sides of a noble vine- 
 yard hill, stood indeed a castle, with high-reared 
 standard heralding its presence far and wide. 
 
 "An old Ritterburg," mused Kaspar, stopping to 
 rest with hands crossed on his staff, " once the filthy 
 nest of titled forest robbers, now, however, watching 
 no longer for the ransom of travelling merchants, but 
 with tower, loopholes, and mantlets masked by over- 
 grown creepers, with fosse and barbican turned to 
 pleasure-ground, with portcullis ever struck and 
 bridge ever lowered, presiding peaceably over the 
 growth and welfare of precious vines. Good ! 
 Gracious Gods ! but Sol Apollo is achieving rare deeds 
 on yonder hot crag. I must to-day break with the 
 economy of the itinerant student and barter a silver 
 piece against a draught of native wine. Yet, alack ! " 
 he pursued, looking up stream, " the village with the 
 cool green room lies, as in duty bound, beyond the 
 lord's ground. How to cross this Jordan to the land 
 of the marvellous grapes ? " 
 
 A water-mill afar lazily turned its great wheel. 
 Somewhat nearer, a man in a boat was raising a 
 net full of silver-glancing fish. 
 
 Kaspar hailed him with lusty throat, and in silent 
 but friendly obedience the fisher drew his little craft 
 nearer, received, and, with a few strokes of his paddle,
 
 THE "RENOVMIST." 57 
 
 ferried the wayfarer across the stream, as silent as 
 Charon the while, though Kaspar was conscious of 
 being surveyed with astonishment and pleasure. As 
 he sprang out of the boat with cheery words of 
 thanks, the boatman spoke : 
 
 "The path on the left, Sir Student," said he, 
 smilingly dropping the proffered groat into his red 
 waistcoat. " The side postern is open." 
 
 Kaspar stood awhile wondering ; the nearest way 
 to the village was obviously the riverside path, to the 
 right. Then he turned for explanation. 
 
 " Yes," cried the man, already in mid-stream, and 
 back at his work, " there," and waved his arm to 
 the left. 
 
 " He Avill have it," said the student ; " be it so," 
 and, shrugging his shoulders, began to ascend the 
 steep way in the direction recommended. 
 
 The path, scorched and arduous on the flanks, 
 sank on the crest of the hill between umbrageous 
 tangles of greenwood. Soon the grey walls, with their 
 old-time, forbidding look, loomed loftily in front, and 
 he halted in some perplexity to consider his next step. 
 
 At that moment a young woman, in the short 
 skirts of the peasant class, appeared at the turning of 
 the path. 
 
 As she advanced and marked the traveller, there 
 seemed to come a flutter of curiosity and excitement 
 into the very ribbons, broad and black, of her head- 
 dress. 
 
 She fixed upon him her bold blue eyes, and with 
 a roguish smile : 
 
 " Well, you have let yourself be hoped for long 
 enough," quoth she.
 
 58 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 Her manner, coquettishly familiar, was even more 
 enigmatic than the words. 
 
 "One moment, fair child," said the young man, 
 excited and inquisitive, striving to bar her way with a 
 view to further parley. 
 
 But, with the frisk of a red petticoat and of two 
 long yellow tresses, she escaped, and crying : 
 
 "Straight on, Sir Student. The door is open," 
 disappeared round a corner of the winding hedge, 
 and he could hear her clear young laugh ring again 
 as she ran down the path. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " said Kaspar, complacently stroking 
 his downy moustache, " this waxes strange ay, and 
 enticing. I iviU enter the open door." 
 
 The open door was in the curtain of the walls, 
 between two round flanking towers which, in gaps 
 between their crumbling grey stones, now gave 
 paternal support to tendrils of wild rose, clematis, and 
 honeysuckle. 
 
 Through this postern Kaspar noted a shady, 
 silent, sleepy courtyard. He entered deliberately, 
 though with unconsciously subdued footsteps. The 
 place seemed deserted but for a young dog that rose 
 from his sleep in a corner, and, after a few interrogative 
 barks, came forward with . many demonstrations of 
 friendship. 
 
 Attracted by the noise, an old man now showed 
 himself in a doorway opposite the entrance, and after 
 examining the new-comer under his palm for a 
 moment, gave suddenly a little laugh of exultant 
 welcome, and made a low bow. 
 
 "Gracious Master! God has sent you," said he, 
 and with senile hurry disappeared, to reappear an
 
 THE " RENOMMIST." 59 
 
 instant later on the threshold, crying out with an 
 adjuring gesture: 
 
 " I will seek the Lord. Sweet Master, to the 
 dining-hall. But prudence is the word gently ! " 
 and with a soft wink, which trembled over a tear, 
 he vanished once again. 
 
 Kaspar stood dumbfounded. 
 
 " ' Sweet Master ! '" he repeated, " ' Prudence ! ' 
 Were the sweet master prudent indeed, he would forth- 
 with turn his back upon this nest of lunatics. " Yet," 
 he added, mentally comparing the cool, inviting door- 
 way that the old man had indicated with the parched 
 and dusty road that led abroad, " if they be mad, 
 their method at least is friendly. Should I not be 
 a churl to spurn such hospitable intent ? " 
 
 He looked around once more. The dog had re- 
 turned to his couch. Through some open windows 
 came into the stillness of the court the murmur of 
 many voices. Tickled with the humour of the 
 situation, and warming to the adventure, he cast 
 deliberation from him, crossed the portal, and as- 
 cended the broad stone steps ; very bare they were, 
 very substantial, very cool. 
 
 On the first floor a long gallery, equally plain 
 and severe, stretched itself before him, at the end of 
 which was a broad oak-panelled door. 
 
 Towards this Kas|>ar advanced with elaborately 
 cavalier ease, and knocked. Receiving no answer, 
 he tried the lock, and then, unbidden, entered. He 
 found himself in a large hall, with groined vaultings, 
 lighted from one end only by tall, deep-recessed, 
 lancet windows, warm with proud heraldic tinctures. 
 A floor of blackened oak enhanced the bare whiteness
 
 60 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 of the stone walls. Down the length of the chamber 
 ran a long massive table, at one end of which plate 
 and napery were laid. 
 
 Drawing nearer, he saw that, although two 
 persons had evidently eaten there, a third place, un- 
 disturbed, seemed still to await a guest. He took a 
 turn round the sonorous hall, and waited; examined 
 the tarnished pictures that hung high on the walls; 
 peeped out of the window into the empty courtyard ; 
 tried to decipher the components of the ancient coat 
 carved on the high mantelpiece, then halted wistfully 
 once more before the table, and wondered why he 
 was there, and what his next step should be. 
 
 The empty place suggested the answer; he was 
 hungry ; he was tired ; he was thirsty. Here stood a 
 chair, here were but incompletely demolished dishes ; 
 best of all, here was wine. 
 
 He bent forward and critically inspected the long 
 bottle, yellow, slender, nearly full, that hobnobbed with 
 a tall rummer of seagreen glass, beaded and shapely. 
 
 " A diamond iu mount of brass, 
 An Emperor in rags ; 
 A noble wine from Rhenish crags, 
 In coarse or clumsy glass," 
 
 sang he under his breath. " The wine is golden, the 
 beaker worthy of the liquor. Our Castellan, whoever 
 he be, is, at all events, apparently no Philistine. 
 But he tarries overmuch. Sir Student," said Kaspar 
 suddenly aloud, raising the glass and gripping the 
 bottle neck, " Sweet Master, a glass of wine ? Prosit ! " 
 
 The rummer was forthwith filled and gravely 
 emptied. Smacking his lips, he sat down. 
 
 " 'Twere a sin," he argued, filling a new brimmer,
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 61 
 
 " to let such a generous bottle languish longer un- 
 finished. Pace Gambrinus the Great, but this is 
 even better than the tankard in the green arbour. 
 Upon my cerevies it is ! " 
 
 He was in the act of drawing a plate before him 
 when the door-lock grated, and a woman, whose cap 
 and apron betokened the position of a housekeeper, 
 halted on the threshold, blocking the entrance with 
 goodly proportions. She gazed a while, with anxious 
 scrutiny, at the student and his comfortable appear- 
 ance at table. 
 
 "Now," thought Kaspar, "now at last for expla- 
 nations, on both sides." And, already stimulated by 
 his double libation, he cocked a merry eye on the 
 old dame, and stretched his long boots under, his 
 arms over, the table, ready to defend his excellent 
 if irregular position. 
 
 But with an ejaculation, "God in Heaven! it is 
 true, then ? " the old woman merely dropped a trem- 
 bling curtsey, and with precipitation withdrew. 
 
 " A slight mistake somewhere, evidently," said 
 Kaspar philosophically, and helped himself with no 
 niggardly hand to the viands before him; "unless, 
 indeed, the humble Studiosus has been transmogrified 
 during his passage through the mysterious forest into 
 some noble lordling. Well, carpe diem, gather the 
 roses, enjoy the fleeting hour it is sound, ancient 
 wisdom." 
 
 The hour fleeted ; Kaspar's hunger diminished 
 with the size of the pasty. The golden soul had 
 long fled from the bottle, and yet the self-invited 
 guest lingered undisturbed. 
 
 The song of a blackbird floated in through
 
 62 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 the open window from a neighbouring coppice. 
 The mysterious notes of that prince of songsters, 
 the fumes of the wine, the fatigue of the long 
 march, the heat of the hour, combined to evoke a 
 pleasing dreaminess in the student's mind. He 
 laid his elbows on the table, his forehead in his 
 hands, and in a short while lost, in profound sleep, 
 all consciousness of his strange situation. 
 
 He had a thirst-tormented dream, throughout 
 which he became the Emperor Barbarossa, in his 
 silent abode under majestic Burgrwinen, calling, 
 between bouts of prolonged oblivion, for yet another 
 tankard of Rhenish, and conjuring one of those 
 troublesome bodies, who would from time to time 
 curiously peep in upon him, to stop their bobbing 
 curtseys, and inform him whether the blackbirds 
 were still singing on the outer hillsides. 
 
 From this he suddenly awoke, in some anguish, to 
 see the door in front of him open and an old gentle- 
 man, of the most singular appearance, advance towards 
 the table and sit down at the high end. 
 
 The new-comer, though of no commanding stature, 
 had yet an unmistakable presence. He was thin, bony, 
 and maimed (one arm was replaced by a glittering 
 steel hook), and had a nose, the high bridge of which 
 rose, falcon-like, almost level with the deep-set, wide 
 open, grey eyes. A white moustache, short and 
 bristly, helped to give an incongruous appearance to 
 the bagwig, with long tail and flash after a fashion 
 thirty years dead, that covered his square massive 
 head. Yet there was no mistaking the old soldier, 
 despite the antiquated civilian attire. 
 
 "A hussar of Ziethen," vaguely thought Kaspar
 
 THE "EENOMM1ST." 63 
 
 (he hardly knew why, and for the moment too much 
 dazed to distinguish reality from fancy), as he met the 
 severe gaze of the grey eyes. 
 
 Then, realising suddenly that he might be in the 
 presence of the master of the Castle, he rose to his 
 feet, made his best bow, and began an apology, 
 elaborate, if somewhat confused. 
 
 The extreme severity of the old man's gaze re- 
 laxed, but it was with much imperiousness of ges- 
 ture and with a stern voice that he interrupted Kaspar. 
 
 " Thou hast come. It is enough. Hush, I say ! 
 I forgive. Be dutiful in future." 
 
 The words were snapped out like military com- 
 mands. The next instant, however, the speaker's 
 rigid demeanour seemed all at once to forsake him ; 
 he interrupted himself with a low, inarticulate murmur 
 of much tenderness, and the student, to his inexpres- 
 sible dismay, found himself clasped by one strong arm 
 to a wildly beating heart. 
 
 " Indeed, sir," he gasped, as soon as he could draw 
 breath, " indeed, this is some strange delusion," but 
 the words died away on his lips under the yearning 
 joy of the old man's eyes, and courage failed him for 
 the necessary explanation. 
 
 He stood, with downcast look, nervously fingering 
 the tobacco-pouch that dangled at his belt, vainly cast- 
 ing about in his mind for an issue to his perplexity. 
 
 The old man, after some coughing and hesitation, 
 broke the silence once more, with a resumption of 
 his former harsh voice, though it failed now and then 
 with a quavering note. 
 
 " Thou seest," pointing to the table, " thy place has 
 ever been ready. Thy room is waiting. Go thou now
 
 64 THE " RENOMMIST." 
 
 and kiss Elsa. She was right; she announced thy 
 return. Go, I say ! " 
 
 Obeying the impulsion of the arbitrary hand that 
 was laid heavily on his shoulder, Kaspar took a few 
 steps in the direction of a door to the left. With his 
 fingers on the handle he halted again in uncertainty, 
 and looked back. But once more the rapture he saw 
 in the old eyes cut into the lad's soft heart, and, in 
 silence, he went forth. 
 
 " Perhaps Elsa may prove of good counsel, who- 
 ever she be," thought he, striving to shake off a guilty 
 feeling that lay unreasonably heavy on his mind. 
 And then, being young, and the wine still tingling 
 in his blood, his spirits rose up with a bound at the 
 sudden thought of the task enjoined upon him. " Go 
 and kiss Elsa." Elsa must be young, beautiful, as 
 behoves a chatelaine, and were she as willing to 
 welcome the unknown guest as was the head of this 
 singular household, why, then 
 
 The everlasting romance which fills such madcap 
 heads drove all hesitation to the winds. 
 
 With light steps he traversed the long, flagged, 
 sonorous corridor, looking, as he passed along, into 
 sundry bare and darkened rooms, ascended a winding 
 stair that offered itself in the way, and was finally 
 brought to a halt before a closed door, where, sud- 
 denly, despite himself, a curious shyness seized 
 him. 
 
 But the intense fascination of a closed door, behind 
 which lurks a mystery, and the radiant image of the 
 unknown Elsa which now filled his fancy, drove him 
 irresistibly onwards ; he knocked very gently, and 
 receiving no answer, with renewed boldness entered.
 
 THE "RBNOMMT8T." 65 
 
 The room was empty, but his eye brightened with 
 triumph as he looked around. 
 
 " Here is the casket at last," said he, " but where is 
 the jewel?" 
 
 It was a very bower, fresh with roses, feminine 
 with dainty odds and ends. By one of the windows 
 stood a tall gilded harp ; against the wall a white 
 and pink wood spinet ; in a corner a tapestry frame 
 showing pleasant design and blend of colour. 
 
 "Yes," repeated Kaspar, "here is the nest, but 
 where is the bird ? " 
 
 He looked around once more, and then became 
 aware of an inner apartment curtained off from the 
 room in which he stood by quaint hangings of tapestry, 
 and approached by a couple of steps. 
 
 With pulses throbbing at his own temerity, the 
 young man stole towards what he guessed to be 
 indeed the sanctum sanctorum. The curtains were 
 slightly parted. 
 
 " Stay, Kaspar, before it is too late," conscience 
 whispered; but the indiscretion was too easy to be 
 resisted. 
 
 There was Elsa ; Elsa in the flesh surpassing the 
 Elsa of the young man's summer fancy, surpassing it 
 as high as the fragrant mountain breeze surpasses the 
 hot breath of a fan. 
 
 She lay asleep on a couch ; her fair cheek, gilded 
 by the sun's kisses, resting on one round white arm 
 bared to a puffy sleeve. On the floor, with flustered 
 leaves, stood on end the book that obviously had 
 fallen from her hand. The thin white dress, high 
 waisted and clinging, revealed in the twilight of the 
 blinded window a divinely young and lithe figure ; 
 E
 
 66 THE "JIENOMMIST." 
 
 a. few curls, black and glossy, escaping deliciously, 
 in the abandonment of the hot hour's siesta, from 
 the high knot of hair, strayed as far as the throat, 
 and there rose and fell softly under the quiet pulse 
 of the sleeper's breath. 
 
 Blood mounted to Kaspar's young head from 
 which the quintessence of the long bottle had not 
 yet all evaporated. For a minute of world-oblivion 
 he feasted his eyes; then, slowly fascinated, bent 
 forward to kiss the lips so temptingly parted; but, 
 smitten with manly shame, recoiled in time, and 
 barely grazed with his breath the hand that hung 
 listlessly over the side of the couch. 
 
 Slight as it was, the touch caused the long eye- 
 lashes, black even as the heavy curls, to part fluttering 
 and reveal deep blue orbs that fixed themselves for 
 one moment with quiet surprise on the intruder, and 
 the next flashed in an ecstasy of joy. Then, before he 
 could realise what happened, she had half-sprung from 
 her cushions and thrown herself upon his shoulder. 
 
 He felt the warm greeting on his cheek, the cool, 
 soft, bare arms round his neck, and his soul rose with 
 stormy gust to his throat. He dropped on his 
 knees, enfolded her in his arms, and returned the 
 kiss passionately, upon her lips. 
 
 But in such fashion, apparently, the girl had not 
 expected her welcome to be answered. She quickly 
 drew back, and holding him by the shoulders at arm's 
 length, peered keenly with dilating pupils into his face. 
 
 Then into those eyes, beneath the scrutiny of 
 Avhich his own guilty glances were fain to sink, there 
 flashed in quick succession, first, a sudden terror, 
 next, a very blaze of anger.
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 67 
 
 She sprang to her feet and thrust him from her 
 Avith such vigour that, kneeling as he was, he well 
 nigh measured his length upon the floor. 
 
 " Who are you ? " she cried, aflame, with strangled 
 voice, " how dare you be here, whoever you be ! " 
 
 Kaspar hastily rose, and retreated in conscious 
 shame before her. 
 
 " Who are you ? " she repeated, stamping her little 
 laced sandal, " who presume to enter my room and 
 trick me so ? " 
 
 He drew back yet another step. 
 
 " Gracious lady," faltered he, in agonising per- 
 plexity, " Lady Elsa, I crave your forgiveness. I 
 indeed no discourtesy was meant. God forefend ! " 
 
 Here he halted, inexpressibly abashed. His gaUant 
 exploit seemed indeed to sink poorly before the girl's 
 indignation. 
 
 She measured him with a glance, now contemptu- 
 ously relenting; at least, she had nothing more to 
 fear from the invader. It seemed even as if her 
 wealth of anger were somewhat wasted upon this 
 trembling penitent. 
 
 " Your name, sir, who know mine so glibly ; your 
 purpose here ? " she said in calmer tones, and half 
 turned away to look over her shoulder with a scorn 
 that robbed the poor student of the remnant of 
 his self-possession. Mechanically he murmured the 
 customary chain of his denominations. 
 
 " Kaspar Walther, from Wiemar, student in Jena, 
 Thuringer Nation." 
 
 There sprang the shadow of a dimple into Elsa's 
 cheek, and then upon her quieter wits the word 
 " student " seemed to work a sudden enlightenment. 
 
 E 2
 
 68 THE "RKNOMmST." 
 
 With a swift change of countenance she glanced at 
 the befrogged green tunic, the parti-coloured pouch, 
 the peaked cap, the cavalier boots. 
 
 " Student, said you ? " she said, and stopped awhile, 
 thinking. Then looking at him wistfully, " I think, 
 perhaps, I understand now," she went on ; " you have 
 met my father ? " 
 
 " Yes," cried Kaspar, recovering power of speech in 
 his relief at the turn matters seemed to take ; " that is, 
 if the same be an old gentleman in odd pigtail and 
 flash, .... and with a hook." 
 
 " And he, too, sir, took you for someone near and 
 dear to him ? " 
 
 " That most evidently, gracious lady. Indeed, I, the 
 merest passer-by, have been here received by everyone 
 as a long-expected guest. It was your father himself 
 who ordered me masterfully, as seems to be his way 
 in the direction of your room. ' Go and kiss Elsa,' said 
 he. I had drunk wine, I had been asleep was still 
 half as in a dream. I know not how to excuse myself." 
 
 This time, as his words failed him, the maiden 
 seemed to view his embarrassment without disfavour ; 
 a faint smile even quivered for an instant on her lips. 
 
 " I must speak with you," she said, after a reflec- 
 tive pause, burying her dimple in a sigh. " Wait for 
 me yonder," and with one hand she pointed to the 
 outer room, while she mechanically raised the other to 
 her head to pat her curls, blushing to find them in 
 such disorder. 
 
 Kaspar retired with a lingering look, glowing again 
 with the recollection of that delirious moment which 
 the fair Elsa's now softer mood allowed him to look 
 back upon with renewed rapture. In a little while
 
 THE " RENOMMI8T." 69 
 
 she joined him, having restored unimpeachable order 
 to the riot ringlets. Motioning him to a seat, she 
 took one herself at some little distance. 
 
 " Now," said she, " tell me exactly how this strange 
 mischance has come about." 
 
 The anxiety of her expression sobered him on 
 the instant. With a simplicity that more than once 
 brought a smile to her face, he obeyed the injunction. 
 
 " You see," he concluded, eager to excuse himself 
 in her eyes, " and you understand, I hope, that I did 
 not wantonly allow your father to remain in his 
 delusion ; but, in very truth, I was afraid to explain ; 
 he was in such joy, so agitated 
 
 She interrupted him with a heavy sigh. 
 
 " My poor father ! " 
 
 He looked at her inquiringly, his whole soul in 
 his eyes. 
 
 " My father is mad, sir," she said, answering the 
 mute query with grave directness. "A quiet mad- 
 ness," she went on, unheeding his quick movement 
 of horror, " very melancholy, yet perhaps who knows ? 
 a blessing for him. I fear his sufferings would be 
 greater were his poor wits less unhinged." 
 
 She paused, and choked down a rising sigh with a 
 resolution that spoke of long habits of self-control, 
 and meeting once more the young man's look of 
 sympathy, said gently : 
 
 " And I owe you, too, an explanation all this must 
 seem evidently strange to you, sir. But you have 
 already guessed that you have been taken, by the 
 servants, for their unknown young master, by my 
 father for his repentant son, and by my half- 
 awakened eyes, in the dim light, for my brother."
 
 70 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 An exquisite carmine rose to her cheek, for all her 
 deliberation, as she spoke the last words. 
 
 " Am I, then, so like him ? " asked Kaspar, 
 colouring, too, under a delicious shiver. 
 
 Her eyes rested observantly upon his keen face. 
 
 " Indeed there is no great likeness," she said, after 
 a moment, "save that you, too, are young, dark, and tall, 
 even as he was alas ! none of us know what his looks 
 may be now and that you wear the same dress, more 
 or less, that he did when we last saw him : yet enough 
 to have misled my poor father, who remembers little, 
 and sees all things through the eyes of sick fancy." 
 
 " But the servants ? " timidly asked Kaspar, to 
 whom the net of misapprehension in which he had 
 been encompassed was yet inexplicable. 
 
 She smiled upon him sadly, yet with a friendliness 
 that made his soul rejoice. 
 
 " Nay," she said, " I see you must needs have the 
 whole pitiful story." And then, folding her hands 
 upon her knee, she began not without eagerness, as 
 one who has long been silent to tell her tale. 
 
 '' Although living now in this southern state," she 
 said, " we belong to a Brandenburg family, and dwelt 
 formerly in Prussia. My father, who till then seemed 
 to have iron strength, was first broken down by the 
 horrible reverses, and the untold outrages that befell 
 our poor country after the year 'seven. He fought in 
 the rear-guard at Jena ; and after our defeat there 
 (you know, of course, how mercilessly the invader 
 hunted down our men), he lost his right arm, and was 
 otherwise wounded. He recovered bodily power, it is 
 true, but the constant thought of the yoke that 
 crushed our people was too much for his pride.
 
 THE "REXOMMIST." 71 
 
 Mutilated as he was, he thought he never could fight 
 the enemy more though, indeed, I believe he could 
 still have led his men, had there been men to lend, 
 with more fire than anyone and ever brooded 
 bitterly upon our misfortunes, till we saw his mind 
 daily losing more of its balance. My two brothers 
 were then with us. Konrad, the elder, light of heart, 
 and brimful of energy, found diversion enough in the 
 occupations of youth to keep him much away from 
 his melancholy home. The younger, like my father, 
 refused to make merry while our country was bleeding 
 and humiliated. Then, one day he, Otto, brought us 
 great news: the English, he said, were raising a 
 German legion to help them fight the French in 
 Spain ! 
 
 "Full of ardour, he left us to join them. My 
 father although he did not, I think, quite understand 
 the scheme knew that his son had gone to meet our 
 arrogant foe, and exulted over it. And from that 
 moment he looked with disfavour upon the eldest 
 who scornfully refused to go and fight as a mercenary 
 of the English king. It was then that Konrad first 
 showed that beneath his levity of disposition there 
 was a will as strong as niy father's. 
 
 " ' Let Prussians remain on their land,' he used to 
 say roughly ; ' the time will come.' But the time 
 never came, as you know ! Meanwhile he left us 
 indeed, it was more or less against my father's will 
 to go to the University; and shortly afterwards, we 
 received the terrible tidings of Otto's fate. ' Killed in 
 the first engagement.' " 
 
 She ceased for a moment, bending her head, her 
 pretty face quivering at the recollection, and tears
 
 72 THE "REXOlimST." 
 
 glinting between her black lashes. Kaspar longed to 
 throw himself on his knees, to gather the precious 
 pearls with adoring lips. 
 
 " Oh, that was a cruel time," she resumed, with an 
 effort. " My father, roused from the state of apathy 
 he had fallen into, was in a very frenzy of despairing 
 rage. Hatred and the longing for revenge were again 
 uppermost in his mind. ' I have another son,' he 
 cried, cursing his own impotence ; ' where is he, what 
 is he doing when there is fighting to be done against 
 the accursed Welsch ? ' 
 
 "It was only with the utmost difficulty that I 
 prevented him starting off, at haphazard, to seek 
 Konrad. If 1 had dared leave him, I would have 
 gone myself to bring my brother home ; I wrote many 
 letters, but knew not if they reached him, for he was 
 wont, I know, to go every six months from one 
 University to another, only writing to me at odd 
 times, to request money. I have managed you must 
 know business, as well as household matters ever 
 since my father's illness, and although Konrad has an 
 independent fortune of his own, it seems you students 
 can make away with terrible quantities of gold. It 
 turned out, however, that my letters were delayed. 
 As soon as he received them for at heart he is good 
 Konrad came home at once. 
 
 " Well do I remember the meeting. It was a hot 
 July day, even as now. I had coaxed my father out, 
 thinking the air might do him good. But I could 
 not get him to leave the garden ; we lived near the 
 town, and he shunned the chance sight of a French- 
 man. We were pacing to and fro in silence, when 
 there came a great clangour of spurs and sword, and
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 73 
 
 the tread of heavy feet up the flags of the alley. My 
 father pricked up his ears and caught my arm : ' Thy 
 brother!' he cried exultantly. How he knew I cannot 
 imagine, and for a moment I deemed him wandering 
 indeed. The next instant, however, Konrad himself 
 stood before us. As soon as he laid eyes upon him, 
 my father's face grew black as thunder: he had 
 thought to see a soldier. 
 
 " The poor boy advanced, with what struck even 
 me as an insolent gait ; I am sure he did not mean it, 
 he seemed to have . taken upon himself strange man- 
 ners and habits during his course of University life. 
 
 " He was dressed in some ways like you, but with 
 inconceivable extravagance ; canon boots reaching half- 
 way up to his hips, weighted with enormous gilded 
 spurs, his sword trailing arrogantly on the ground, his 
 hair flowing over his neck. He had let his beard 
 grow ; in his hand was a pipe as long as a messenger's 
 staff, from which, before saluting my father, he 
 actually blew a last cloud, striking as he did so an 
 easy attitude. . . . 
 
 " I have no heart to tell you in detail what 
 followed ; some servants had gathered in the doorway 
 to see the clanking new-comer, but, in his sudden 
 passion, my father was blind to their presence. 
 There was a horrible scene. Poor Konrad ! he had 
 come back to us with the kindest motives, I know. 
 He was not callous to our loss ; I saw his lips quiver 
 when my father hurled the name of Otto at him. All 
 his fantastic affectation was harmless enough, God 
 knows. But my father it was then that I fully 
 realised to what extent his mind was affected, for, 
 if before he had been always stern and somewhat
 
 74 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 tyrannical, I had never known him unjust taxed his 
 son before the gaping household with cowardice, and 
 ordered him in furious language to go and take his 
 brother's vacant place in the ranks. 
 
 " Konrad, flaming under the insult, indignantly 
 refused. I have told you he had a stubborn spirit, 
 and he did not understand my father's condition. I 
 should have warned him in my letter, but there are 
 things that seem too cruel to write, and, as I said, I 
 did not know myself to what extent the evil had in- 
 creased. 
 
 "Then nay father's fury broke forth indeed a 
 very frenzy seized him. 
 
 " ' You you a son of mine ! ' he shrieked, 
 ' you wear cavalier spurs ! You cur you craven 
 traitor ! ' 
 
 "And, casting himself upon him, he stamped 
 upon Konrad's spurs, wrenching them from his heels, 
 tore his tunic into shreds with the hook, snatched the 
 long pipe from his hand and struck him across the 
 face with the stem. It all happened in a moment, 
 before anyone could interfere, and the next my father 
 and his unhappy son stood motionless in front of 
 each other. My brother was disfigured, his face was 
 bleeding and distorted, his fine clothes were in ribbons. 
 He never raised a hand to defend himself, but I saw 
 something terrible in his eyes. Then he suddenly 
 cursed him cursed his own father in frightful 
 words, and walked away. We have never seen him 
 since." 
 
 She broke down sobbing. Kaspar looked askance, 
 vainly seeking for words of consolation. After a 
 while she pursued, clenching her little hand :
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 75 
 
 " There is scarcely any more to tell. I had in my 
 terror no power to move, and so let my brother go with- 
 out a word. The servants led my father back into the 
 house, and for hours after this scene he paced the hall, 
 talking to himself. He never heard me when I tried 
 to speak to him, but his eyes, when they fell on me, 
 struck fear into my heart. His fever seemed to grow, 
 instead of abating, as the day wore on. At last he 
 ceased his restless walk and became strangely still. 
 It was dusk already, but I could see his eyes fixed 
 with a kind of smile right in front of him. Then, all 
 of a sudden, he gave a blood-curdling cry, and, raising 
 his maimed arm aloft, dashed himself blindly against 
 the wall. In his frenzy he fancied himself, I imagine, 
 once more hurling his troopers against the French. He 
 fell down, stunned, with his head cut open. For a long 
 time he lay without consciousness, and some of us 
 thought he was dead ; but we Prussians are made of 
 strong fibre, we are hard to kill ! 
 
 " When he was a little better, we moved him here 
 happily this legacy came at the most opportune 
 moment hoping much for him of the quiet, the 
 fresh surroundings, and especially of the fact that he 
 never would meet a French cockade in this district. 
 We broke up the old home with its painful asso- 
 ciations entirely, not even taking with us a single one 
 of our faithful servants. 
 
 " But as my father grew stronger we found that 
 his mania had but taken another turn. Although 
 always melancholy, he was now as gentle, as affec- 
 tionate as I remember him in the old, old days of our 
 happy childhood, before the national misfortunes 
 which brought on his morose and irascible humours,
 
 76 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 and he had lost not only all connected memory of 
 recent events, but also all sense of time. 
 
 " The day he was first able to come to the dining- 
 hall once more, he noticed, he who noticed so little, 
 that there was a third seat prepared at our table 
 (it had been laid, as usual, for the surgeon, who, how- 
 ever, had left us that same day). The empty place 
 seemed to distress him strangely, and he looked at 
 me in a troubled, dreamy way. 
 
 " ' Where is Konrad ? ' he said, coniplainingly, at 
 last ; ' why did he leave me yesterday, when I was ill ? ' 
 
 " It was the first time I had heard him speak in 
 such a voice, and it brought tears to my eyes. Yes- 
 terday ! Alas, it was more than a month since I had 
 seen my father almost tearing his son to pieces ! 
 
 " I answered soothingly it was the first thing 
 that came to my mind that Konrad had to return 
 to the University and work. The answer satisfied 
 him, and he was able to eat. But the next day, when 
 we again came to table and he saw this tune that 
 preparation was only made for two, he became once 
 more greatly distressed. 
 
 " ' Where is Konrad's seat ? ' he cried, quite an- 
 grily. ' Is my son not to have his seat in my house ? ' 
 
 " ' Konrad will come, dear father,' I said ; ' he will 
 come, later.' God forgive me, but I could not bear to 
 see that look on his face. 
 
 " ' Ah yes, ah yes,' he said, and like a child con- 
 soling himself, went on, ' he is a student, but he will 
 come soon.' 
 
 "And thus it has been, with but trifling difference, 
 ever since. Day after day the same pitiful scene, till 
 it has become recognised in the household that the
 
 THE "KENOMMIST." 77 
 
 master will not eat his dinner unless this unknown 
 son's place is also laid in front of him ; all must be 
 ready for the absent one, and my father watches for 
 him with confident hope, ever disappointed, through- 
 out the livelong day. 
 
 " This, sir, is my poor father's madness a harmless 
 one, as you see. It is for this reason that the postern 
 on the vineyard side is kept open from sunrise to 
 dusk; and it is now known throughout the country 
 round that the lord of Leutsen expects his son, a 
 student from the north." 
 
 There was a silence. "Now," concluded Elsa, 
 "you know much of our family history. Distress 
 yourself no more about what has happened. It is 
 just possible that my father may have forgotten all 
 about it already, though, of course, it is difficult to 
 foresee how a mind so afflicted will act at any con- 
 juncture." 
 
 She looked at Kaspar with a mournful smile, and 
 he felt that the hour for his departure had struck 
 felt it with a strange ache at his heart. He had 
 known her but an hour's length, it was true, but his 
 arms had held her, his lips had kissed her ; she was 
 very fair and he but one-and-twenty. 
 
 He rose, and spoke as bravely as he might, and, 
 bowing, took her hand in his, where unresistingly she 
 let it lie. 
 
 " I thank you," he said, " from my soul, gracious 
 lady, for the confidence you have reposed in me, for 
 the goodness wherewith you have forgiven my folly. 
 I shall never forget this day in my life. Would to 
 God I could be of service to you could in some way 
 lighten your heavy burden ! But my very presence
 
 78 THE " RENOMMIST." 
 
 here has brought you fresh trouble ; all I can do now 
 is to go." 
 
 He bent to kiss her hand, but the little fingers 
 closed round his with sudden tightness, and he looked 
 up again in hopeful surprise. 
 
 " Stay, sir," she cried ; " there is yet something I 
 fain would ask you. Have you not in your wander- 
 ings for I suppose all students wander come upon 
 some traces of, perchance actually met my brother ? " 
 
 " You forget," he said, with a smile he could not re- 
 strain, " that, despite my warm reception here, the very 
 name of my entertainers is as yet unknown to me." 
 
 Elsa gave a little laugh, then, passing her hand 
 over her forehead as though to brush away for the 
 nonce distressing thought, she straightened her pretty 
 figure, and imitating in subdued mockery the stu- 
 dent's ceremonious tones when he had been shamed 
 into declaring his names and qualities : 
 
 " I introduce myself," said she. " Elsa, daughter 
 of Major von Leutsen-Auersleben, late of the Branden- 
 burg Hussars. This is Schloss Leutsen, which has 
 come to us, by collateral descent, from the family of 
 that name." 
 
 Kaspar started. 
 
 " Auersleben ! " he cried eagerly ; " and yet it seems 
 impossible. No, I have never met him," he added, in 
 answer to her expectant look. "Nevertheless, the name 
 is familiar to us students ; not," he explained diffi- 
 dently, "in our Professor's discourses, but in our taverns 
 and fencing-rooms. There is a certain Renommist 
 as we call such roysterers oh, a Renommist of the first 
 water ! whose fame has already travelled far and wide. 
 From him we have a new so-called 'Auersleben' beer
 
 THE "RENOMM1ST." 79 
 
 ceremonial, also the 'Auersleben Hinter-Haken-Terz,' 
 a cunning sabre throw. He is the king of drinkers, and 
 a reckless duellist. But such a man cannot be your 
 brother." 
 
 Elsa mused for some time. At last, with a melan- 
 choly shake of the head: "On the contrary," she 
 replied, " it is more than likely that he you speak of 
 is indeed our Konrad." 
 
 A low knock at the door broke in upon her words, 
 and there entered the same saucy wench whom 
 Kaspar had met on the uphill road. With a markedly 
 subdued appearance, she announced : " The master de- 
 sires the gracious lady to come to him on the instant." 
 
 Elsa sprang up with a startled countenance. 
 
 " The Herr Major is making great preparations for 
 supper in honour of the young master," pursued the 
 handmaid, pointing a dimple at Kaspar and instantly 
 relapsing into great demureness as she curtseyed and 
 withdrew. 
 
 " My God ! " cried Elsa, clasping her hands in great 
 perplexity. Then hurriedly to Kaspar : " Wait here," 
 she said, almost imploringly ; " I must see for myself 
 how this may be." And she flew from the room. 
 
 The patter of the little sandals died away in the 
 distance and the young man sat down again, looking 
 around him with a smile. Despite a certain sense of 
 anxiety, almost of guiltiness, he could not help re- 
 joicing at the reprieve. And there he Avas, still in her 
 maiden sanctuary, of her own free will, instead of tramp- 
 ing forth into the dusty afternoon. She had forgiven 
 him, confided in him, smiled upon him who could 
 tell what the future still held in store? The poor 
 student's heart swelled with gloriously unformed hopes.
 
 80 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 In a little while she came back ; he heard her 
 light step lag in the echoing passages : "Now we must 
 part," he thought again, feeling a great stab of pain. 
 
 When she entered, he saw that her face was bathed 
 in tears. She stood looking at him in silence, and for a 
 moment joy overs wept his pain, for he thought she 
 wept with a kindred pang to his. But then she spoke : 
 
 " What am I to do?" she murmured. " Things are 
 even worse than I anticipated. My father is beside 
 himself with joy, with happiness at your advent his 
 fancied son's return. I found him directing the pre- 
 parations for a great feast to celebrate it: all the 
 villagers around, all the servants are to sup in the 
 hall and drink their young master's health in the best 
 of the cellars. I tried to explain, to break it to him ; 
 he turned upon me suddenly, livid with fury, and 
 accused me of wishing to oust his son, my own and 
 only brother, from his proper place. He frightened 
 me ; he looked then as he did when he struck Kon- 
 rad. To pacify him I said I know not what. . . 
 Oh, sir, my poor father ! I dare not risk telling him 
 the truth. Will you not have a little pity on him 
 on me ? " 
 
 She clasped her hands beseechingly. " I ! What 
 can I do ? " cried Kaspar, trembling. " Gracious lady, 
 only tell me, that I may obey." 
 
 "If you could remain, remain only a few days; 
 give in to his delusion for a while," she faltered, 
 " only for a little while, till the mood passes away, or 
 till he grows calmer and you can find some excuse to 
 leave. My dear father need never know he has been 
 tricked. Stay, be his son : be my brother, just for a 
 little while."
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 81 
 
 It seemed to Kaspar as if the heavens opened to 
 him. He fell upon his knees and again kissed her 
 hand. 
 
 " You will stay, then ? " said Elsa, and wiped her 
 tears away. 
 
 The days flew by short, golden, glamorous, and 
 Kaspar, the Studiosus, the son of the simple Weimar 
 burgess, with no status beyond that hypothetical 
 " nobility of learning " which entitled him to sword- 
 bearing and academic immunities, became for the 
 time being the young lord of the great if stricken 
 house of Leutsen-Auersleben, and, in the eyes of most, 
 second in importance only to the stern master thereof. 
 
 It was a simple, regular, almost patriarchal life 
 that they led, this strange trio, in that archaic dwell- 
 ing : but to the wandering student, smitten to the 
 core by Elsa's sweet eyes, a life brimful of enthralling 
 impressions. He held no count of days past, nor did 
 he dare to reckon how much longer he would be 
 allowed to act brother to his fair young mistress, 
 whilst in his breast quivered a lover's heart. 
 
 To the old lord of Leutsen, too, did these days 
 seemingly bring content. A new placidity had come 
 over his anxious face : whereas at first his eyes had 
 at times rested with a sort of painful uncertainty upon 
 his guest, and a heavy sigh had been wont to check 
 his speech as if the disordered mind were now and 
 again uneasily conscious of a wrong it knew not how 
 to right, as days went by, the deferential presence ol 
 the youth seemed to lull all doubts. And then it was 
 
 F
 
 82 THE " RENOMMIST." 
 
 as if new life had come to him : with a jealous love, 
 he would scarce allow Kaspar out of his presence. 
 He himself talked but little, never adverted to the 
 past, nor asked more than the simplest question, 
 content to rest his eyes in long, dreamy silence 
 upon the face of his supposed son, happiest of all to 
 watch and listen to the happy intercourse of brother 
 and sister. 
 
 In this wise it was easy for Kaspar to act his part ; 
 there was no direct deceit to practise, and he had but 
 to follow his own instinct of respect for white locks. 
 
 At first Elsa rejoiced in the success of her pious 
 fraud: but presently she began, womanlike, to fret 
 again, and wonder what would happen when the false 
 Konrad had again to leave his father, and whether the 
 delusion would not work greater mischief in the end. 
 
 " I fear," she would say to the student. 
 
 " Shall I go, then ? " he would bravely ask in 
 return. 
 
 " God forbid not yet ! " she would cry ; " what 
 would become of him, of us, if you did ? " 
 
 And thus the hour of the terrible decision was 
 ever put off, and days slipped by in the same fan- 
 tastic situation. After a couple of weeks, however, 
 the awakening came. 
 
 There had been new rumours in the household of 
 Castle Leutsen ; those relentless, familiar spies, the 
 underlings, had soon elucidated a secret which no 
 very extraordinary precautions were taken to pre- 
 serve, and among them started scandalous talk which 
 soon spread to the village folks. One had said it was 
 easy to deceive a madman; another surmised the Herr 
 Student seemed an over-devoted brother. The saucy
 
 THE " RENOMMI8T." 83 
 
 maiden, who was Elsa's more particular attendant, 
 had a biting lash of the tongue for one who was so en- 
 grossed by a sister's charms as to be blind to her own. 
 
 This playing, moreover, at brother and sister, be- 
 tween man and maid, so loyal as Kaspar, so pure as 
 Elsa, could not of its own nature continue long. One 
 evening they met each other alone on the terrace 
 walk, and paced for a while together the beaten track, 
 talking in desultory fashion, with their real thoughts 
 far away in the blue, till a languor of sadness overtook 
 them both, and they fell into sympathetic silence. 
 Then leaning, side by side, over the ivy-grown para- 
 pet, they lost their gaze in the slowly rising purple 
 darkness of the rocky precipice sheer beneath them, 
 drinking in unconsciously deep of the heady, hot 
 scent of honeysuckle, and of the thousand wild 
 summer herbs which rose through the cooling air. 
 In this wise twilight found and encompassed them. 
 
 " And even this, too, must end," murmured Elsa ; 
 and as she spoke an unwitting movement brought the 
 round white arm she had rested on the still heated 
 stone against her companion's hand. Instantly the 
 hidden fire within him burst forth uncontrollably ; he 
 seized her fingers and covered them with kisses. 
 
 For a moment she yielded them to his passion, and 
 then softly drew them back. 
 
 " You have," she said with a sigh, " now yourself 
 proved how necessary is your departure. God help 
 me ! I will continue alone to face my father's 
 troubles do the best I can with false explanations ; 
 but you must go, Kaspar, and that speedily. I 
 thought, for a time, that I might have found a help 
 in you to bear my heavy task Oh, I make you no 
 F 2
 
 84 THE "RENOUMIST." 
 
 reproach, dear friend; you have done all that could 
 be done. But such deceit as ours could not prosper. 
 Slanderers are already busy." 
 
 She paused, and even hi the semi-darkness he saw 
 how her cheek grew hot. "That indeed were little 
 to me," she resumed, " but you yourself have let me 
 fathom the extent of my folly." 
 
 "It is true, I love you," said the young man 
 bitterly, "and that is a good reason why I should 
 be dismissed." 
 
 There was a long silence, and then his heart smote 
 him, for he saw she was hard set to restrain her tears. 
 
 " Forgive ine," he said at last, " I am wrong and 
 you are right. It would be base indeed of me to 
 profit of your father's madness, and remain here with 
 all the privileges of a brother now that you know my 
 love. But, Elsa, to leave you thus, without a hope of 
 seeing you again ! Oh, I know I am myself mad to 
 aspire to your love ! A poor man like me has nought 
 hi common with the Lady of Leutsen ; all this has 
 been a trick of fate. And yet I love you, I love you, 
 and I am never to see you again. . . . Have these 
 beautiful days meant nothing after all ? " 
 
 " Alas!" said Elsa sadly, " I could not bid you hope 
 were you the highest and richest in the land. And, 
 of a truth," and her voice melted to an accent of 
 tender reproach, which well nigh undid all his forti- 
 tude, " have I been sister to you so long, yet do you 
 know me so ill to believe that it is for position I care ! 
 Ah ! you yourself know best why I must bid you for- 
 get me. How could I even think of marriage with 
 you whom my father looks upon as his son ! And 
 my father is still strong ; for many long years he will
 
 THE "RENOMMTST." 85 
 
 be sole arbiter of my destiny. Long years during 
 which you will have time," she strove to speak lightly 
 and to force a smile, " to forget this quaint episode of 
 your life. It will be like a dream, without rational 
 beginning or end. You will write a poem, perchance^ 
 on the old Ritterburg and the sister Elsa you found 
 there, and I I shall live here the reality of your 
 poetry, and die here too, no doubt, unless . . . ." 
 
 " Unless ! " cried the lover with a sudden up- 
 springing of hope. 
 
 " Unless my brother were to return to us, to his 
 duty by his father's side," she said ; and her clear eyes 
 looked at him steadily through the gloom. "Then 
 indeed might my life be different but I fear that 
 will never be." 
 
 His thought leapt to her meaning. 
 
 " It shall be," he cried eagerly. " I will seek your 
 brother ; if he be indeed the man whose name I know 
 so well pray Heaven for it! I cannot fail to find him 
 in the end. And when I have found him, it will go 
 hard with me if I do not bring him back to you and 
 his father. I will go, Elsa ; thanks be to God you did 
 not send me away before this blessed thought came to 
 you. I will go, but I will return. With such a hope 
 before me I cannot fail, shall not fail, unless Death 
 prove too strong for me." 
 
 That night was " white " for Kaspar. Up in his 
 stately chamber, Konrad's chamber in the keep over- 
 looking the rocky scarp, the hours dropping slowly 
 from the clock-turret in the yard found him ever at 
 his window, gazing forth, first at the distant light that 
 shone from the North Tower room that room where
 
 86 THE " ItENOMMIST." 
 
 he had known a minute of such glorious life then, 
 when that went out, watching the darkness till the 
 stars faded ; now glowing with triumphant hopes and 
 feverish plans, now faint at heart with the difficulties 
 ahead, and heavy with the coming separation. 
 
 Dawn peered betimes into his small world of hopes 
 and fears, and stirred him from futile dreaminess to a 
 bustling thirst for action. A last glance of longing 
 towards the tower lattice window, now tinged with 
 the rose of the rising sun's salutation, and he rapidly 
 packed his scanty baggage, hastily plucked some of 
 the maidenhair fern that had grown unmolested on the 
 window-sill of his hitherto deserted chamber, pressed 
 it in his tablets, and descended to the courtyard. 
 
 The place was still sombre and cold under the 
 high surrounding walls ; the gates were not yet 
 opened, and Kaspar knocked lustily, fearing that 
 delay might bring failure to his plans, for it was all- 
 important that he who deemed himself his father 
 should not see the false son depart. 
 
 Presently the oaken shutters of the gate windows 
 flew back, revealing the unkempt grey head of the 
 old servant who had first greeted him on his entrance 
 in Leutsen. 
 
 " Oh, it is you," said the man, with a yawn ; " you 
 are early, young sir." 
 
 " How do you know whether I am early or late, 
 and what is that to you ? " retorted Kaspar, who 
 resented a tinge of familiarity in the servant's voice, 
 and besides willingly seized an outlet for his soreness 
 of spirit at this hard hour. " I have to go out ; open 
 the bridge gate at once." 
 
 " Oh, I knew you had to go, worthy sir," answered
 
 THE " TtENOVlflST" 87 
 
 the other with insolent emphasis, " only I did not 
 think that the passage-bird that had found so com- 
 fortable a nest here would wish to take flight in such 
 hurry at the end. However, since you are in such 
 hurry, you will be pleased to hear, perhaps, that you 
 may have the means of travelling back faster than 
 you came." And, leisurely, he shambled towards the 
 stables, to return presently leading a grey horse, ready 
 saddled. 
 
 " My gracious mistress," said he again " much 
 against my humble advice ordered that you should 
 be given her old Schimmel, when you left. I must 
 obey. He is yours. And now, sir, mount." 
 
 Kaspar swung himself into the saddle, ignoring the 
 servant's ill-humour in the gush of tenderness which 
 this new proof of Elsa's favour awakened within him. 
 
 The great gates of the Ritterburg were thrown 
 creaking and sighing back, and as the horse's hoofs 
 rang forth on the baulks of the wooden bridge, the old 
 man's voice came, calling grudgingly after the rider : 
 
 " The Lad} 7 Elsa ordered me also to give you 
 God-speed. I do ; and may you really send us the 
 true young master."' 
 
 At the foot of the hill Kaspar halted, to look 
 back for a last time on the house of Leutsen. It 
 stood grey, tipped with gold against the young rising 
 sun, solemn and still, seemingly asleep, for no banner 
 yet waved at the flagstaff head. 
 
 Yet on the terrace, just below the North Tower, 
 there moved a small white figure. As Kaspar turned 
 round in the saddle the flutter of a handkerchief, 
 hovering like a dove over the dark parapet, sent a 
 farewell message after him, which he acknowledged
 
 88 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 by lustily waving his cap, and bravely pricking 
 onwards. 
 
 " And is this the end of an idyll ? " asked Kaspar 
 of his heavy heart, when, at a smart trot of the grey, 
 he had fairly started on his pilgrimage, " or merely 
 the beginning of an epic canto ? " 
 
 A moon had waxed and waned ; upon one Sunday 
 afternoon Kaspar and his grey, both sadly betokening 
 the wear and tear of a prolonged journey, arrived 
 in sight of Wittemberg. 
 
 The rider pulled up his steed upon some rising 
 ground, and fell to contemplating the ancient city 
 an irregular mass of brown pointed roofs nestling 
 within its green ramparts and darting the slender 
 spires of its churches into a fiery sky. 
 
 "Here," thought he, wearily dropping the reins 
 to let the jaded horse stretch his neck towards some 
 tempting tufts by the road-side, "here must the 
 book of dreams be closed should fortune escape me 
 once more. One more failure, and here must Kaspar, 
 now the beggar student, own himself beaten and 
 turn back. Turn back ? Ay where ? To his father's 
 house, there to crave from those who have pinched 
 themselves so sorely that he might do great things, for 
 the means of a fresh start in his academical career ; 
 to explain his degraded appearance, who left them 
 in such pride of hope; to recount his circuitous 
 iourney from one high seat of learning to another; 
 from Leipzig, the mother of our Universities, to 
 caducous Helmstaedt ; from Helmstaedt to Halle
 
 THE "RENOMMIST:' 89 
 
 the theological; from Halle to Wittemberg! In 
 search of much-needed knowledge ? No, dear 
 father, but to trace a notorious ruffler, to appeal 
 to his unknown feelings ; to beg the same, on a mys- 
 terious plea, to leave forthwith his life of easy glory 
 and return to a home out of which he was once 
 thrashed by a demented parent. A pretty tale to 
 tell, thou fond and foolish lover and yet no help 
 for thee ; fail here once more, and back thou must, 
 ay, and tramp the way afoot, for beggars may not sit 
 on horseback." 
 
 Instinctively, while with one hand he affectionately 
 patted the lean neck of his patient companion, with 
 the other Kaspar sought a deplorably flat purse. 
 
 "If this Konrad, contrary to the Halle reports," con- 
 tinued he, with a sinking heart, " be not in Wittem- 
 berg after all ay, if this same Konrad take me not 
 from the first for as good as the tale I have to bring 
 him, and befriend me to-day in this strange town (a 
 likely event, by the Muse !), thou, my poor Schimmel, 
 whose once round loins, so bony now, alas, have long 
 carried naught but Elsa's sweet weight, Schimmel, 
 my friend, thou must be sold to some accursed 
 Philistine, else thy poor master starve. Dum mea 
 bursa vacat (wert thou a dog, good horse, thou 
 wouldst understand such Latin), hospes mihi ostia 
 monstrat." And in his two open palms the student 
 slapped the purse, between the lean leathern cheeks 
 of which resided but one, and a small coin. 
 
 Yet the thought of Elsa came again to give a 
 fillip to his lagging courage. Elsa ! 
 
 "Come, old grey," he said aloud, gently raising 
 the poor brute's head once more, " perhaps we have
 
 90 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 reached our goal after all. Come, friend, we may 
 yet find ourselves travelling back, in greater comfort 
 than we have ever known, to our old Ritterburg. 
 There you will live your remnant and die in peace, 
 and I Forward, old grey ! " 
 
 The dilapidated pair approached the outer walls 
 of ancient Wittemberg at a solemn walk, for the 
 grey's trot, after the last ten days of dire penury, 
 had become only a thing to think back on ; and 
 they were objects of mild astonishment to the scat- 
 tered Sunday strollers that had pushed outside the 
 city gates. 
 
 As they drew in sight of the first crumbling, ruin- 
 ous sallyport, a pig or two ran between the horse's 
 legs, and almost at the same instant there burst upon 
 the afternoon air unmistakable if not inharmonious 
 sounds of revelry. 
 
 " Konimxt zu Wittemberg in' s Thor 
 So begegnet dir Schwein, Stiidcnt oder 
 
 muttered Kaspar. " The proverb seems true, in 
 faith; here are the swine, and yonder undoubtedly 
 the students and the rest." 
 
 Louder on the wings of the breeze rose presently 
 a rousing chorus of raucous voices sustained by a well- 
 known rhythmic rumbling of pots on wooden board. 
 Kaspar, of course, knew the song well : 
 
 " Tarn pro papa quam pro rege 
 Bibunt omnes sine lege : 
 Bibit hera, bibit herus, 
 Bibit miles, bibit clerus, 
 Bibit ille, bibit ilia, 
 Bibit serviis cum ancilla."
 
 THE "RENOMHTIST." 91 
 
 The words in many voices seemed to proceed from 
 behind a screen of verdure to the right, uplifted on 
 tall poles and bearing in eye-flattering combination the 
 scarlet of bean-flowers and the fallow cones of hops. 
 
 "Plus student in ccdicibus quam in codicibus," 
 thought Kaspar, now in vein of proverbial observation, 
 and turned in the direction of the sound. " If my 
 Konrad be in this neighbourhood I must either see or 
 hear of him in this rousing company." 
 
 The hymn to bibulousness ceased suddenly, but 
 now, on nearer approach, there was a steady indistinct 
 murmur that might have evoked a suggestion of 
 Sunday preaching, but for intermittent bursts of 
 laughter and a discordant clang, at intervals punctua- 
 ting a sentence, which Kaspar well knew to be caused 
 by the flat of a sword-blade in contact with the coin- 
 potation table. 
 
 He turned the corner of the road, and the scene of 
 the convivial meeting lay before his view. It was no 
 tavern, as he had at first surmised, but the working 
 place of a flourishing cooper a fact heralded by an 
 artistic device over the tall gateway, giving admit- 
 tance to a vast covered yard which, on working days, 
 must have offered a stirring sight of activity. 
 
 This yard was surrounded partly by walls, partly 
 by high palings, but from his seat in the saddle 
 Kaspar, as he drew close, could easily survey the 
 proceedings within. 
 
 In the middle of the court, towering among the 
 crowd of smaller products of the cooper's craft, and 
 scotched up on its side between stout trestles, stood a 
 newly turned-out tun of truly Pantagruelian propor- 
 tions.
 
 92 THE "RENOHMIST." 
 
 It was from the gaping mouth of this appropriate 
 dwelling that had poured forth the bacchanalian song, 
 and from it were now trickling the emphasised ex- 
 hortations of some long-winded text-expounder, for 
 the instant undiscernible within its sombre recess. 
 
 A beer-cask stood broached at no great distance, 
 between which and the great tun, sundry assistants, 
 running diligently, kept up the necessary supply ot 
 liquid. 
 
 Excepting these, the yard was empty. Outside 
 the closed gate, a few loafers lingered, smoking their 
 heavy china pipes, and listening with no great sym- 
 pathy ; for, contrary to hypothetical tradition, the 
 student is no favourite among sober University town 
 citizens, but rather a necessary evil in their orderly 
 centre. 
 
 Kaspar halted to consider a moment, before ad- 
 vancing further, what he guessed to be some ponder- 
 ous form of academic jocularity hitherto unknown to 
 him. But almost as soon as his green tunic and his 
 limp cap had become visible over the wall there issued 
 from the tun the sound of a formidable rap of the 
 sword. A significant silence fell suddenly over the 
 potting company, and Kaspar knew that his intrusion 
 had been noticed. 
 
 Presently there emerged from the wooden cavern 
 two brothers of the ruffling fraternity, unkempt and 
 long-haired as Alemans of the great Karl's days, and 
 accoutred with more outrageous exaggeration than 
 Kaspar had ever witnessed before. These gentry 
 solemnly, though with some lurking tendency to 
 unsteadiness, drew their portentous rapiers, obtru- 
 sively adorned with enormous white and black tassels,
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 93 
 
 whilst a third, a youth callow and unarmed, holding 
 between his hands a phenomenal tankard, presently 
 appeared and joined them. 
 
 The gate of the yard was then thrown open ; with- 
 out a word the triumvir advanced in procession towards 
 the horseman, and ceremoniously proffered the cup. 
 
 " Aut bibe," pronounced one of the swordsmen, in 
 solemn adjuration. 
 
 " Aut abi," antiphoned the other ; and they 
 crossed their blades over the horse's head. 
 
 Kaspar was athirst, and moreover foresaw in the 
 incident a promise of information. He took the pro- 
 pitiatory draught, and drank it from the saddle. 
 
 The last gulp of amber beer, followed by an ortho- 
 dox jerking down of the lid, was greeted from the tun 
 by a thundering volley of pot thumps. After this 
 libation, the new-comer was conducted into the yard, 
 where he dismounted, the doors were jealously closed 
 behind him, and he was escorted to the mouth of the 
 tun, where he was greeted by a most honorific reception 
 
 A dozen young men, most of them armed with the 
 academic spadroon, and each provided with a tall 
 covered glass and an immense pipe, sat on either side 
 of a long board erected on trestles, at the end of which 
 & presses, somewhat older than the majority, was en- 
 throned. The latter's face, against the custom of the 
 age, was all but covered by a close and curly dark red 
 beard, doubtless adopted as a form of opposition to a 
 Philistine spirit. There was about him an air of great 
 command, justified by the deference shown him, in 
 the midst of their hilariousness, by the assembled 
 merrymakers. 
 
 From the moment (his eyes having grown accus-
 
 94 THE " RENOMMIST." 
 
 tomed to the semi-darkness of the tun) Kaspar was 
 able to discern this man's features, he wondered 
 whether he had indeed run his quarry to ground at 
 last. And when the president, after courteously wait- 
 ing a moment to see the new guest suited with all the 
 requisites for scientific couipotation, rapped the order 
 for silence, and proceeded with his ex cathedra exhoi t- 
 ations, the wandering Saxon felt almost certain, from 
 all he had heard, that none but Konrad von Auers- 
 leben himself could carry out with such a high hand 
 the complicated fooling now in course of progress. 
 
 But to question his neighbours then, as, with every 
 sign of that easy amusement appertaining to the 
 early stage of intoxication, they listened in rapt 
 attention to the ponderously humorous improvising 
 of their leader, was a breach of student etiquette too 
 impolitic to be thought about, so he was fain to 
 listen, too, with what patience he could muster. 
 
 " In deference," the speaker was saying, in rich 
 unctuous voice, "to the valuable recruit we have just 
 made, I will now retrace one step. 
 
 " In these degenerate times it behoves all good 
 Germans to look back on the great example of their 
 ancients. I, as I was saying, during my profound 
 searches through the records of the great national 
 Swilling-art, have brought to light an antique codex, 
 perhaps the most ancient, of our jus potandi, and one 
 which goes deeper than our modern, meagre, new- 
 fangled bibulous theories in the important question. 
 This precious table of laws has too long lain buried 
 under the ruins of our old traditions ; read, brothers ; 
 I repeat, learn and profit." 
 
 And he pointed with his sword-poniniel to a
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 95 
 
 sacrilegious parody of the Ten Commandments chalked 
 in broad characters on the bottom, or what in its present 
 position was the end wall, of the tun ; an imbecile 
 farrago, revived from the paraphernalia of a certain 
 drunken initiatory ceremonial much appreciated byroy- 
 stering Burschen in the days of the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 " Its philosophy," continued the speaker, com- 
 placently mimicking, to the exquisite delight of his 
 disciples, the manner of a well-known Wittenibergian 
 professor, " is universal, but esoteric ; in other words, 
 its sublime truths are veiled in cryptic language re- 
 quiring proper elucidation elucidation, gentlemen 
 which I alone can offer, be it said to the shame of 
 this age. I will now proceed. The second law, 77 Tn'di 
 r\ arrnQi, in its power of appeal to the most recondite 
 yearnings of the human soul, was, as you witnessed 
 yourselves, illustrated by the philosophical submission, 
 and that instanter, of the new brother whose fortune 
 it was to come, at the right hour, in the way of en- 
 lightenment. 
 
 " To him we shall attend anon. For the present 
 let him hearken w r hilst I unfold the abstract bearings 
 of the third of these sublime commandments: Cj*!D- 
 Massaquidit : Tappet ing ue!" 
 
 Kaspar sat and marvelled, partly at the glibness 
 and the imaginative power of the man who could find 
 some fresh form of philosophical parody, each more 
 burlesque than the last, for every fresh stage in the 
 exposition of his table of nonsense ; partly also at the 
 extraordinary amusement the inane entertainment 
 seemed to afford the assembled company. Between 
 each allocution a verse of the ancient hymn to uni- 
 versal toping would burst forth from throats ever more
 
 96 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 vigorous if less tuneful, and a deep draught be 
 emptied with due ceremony and unanimity. 
 
 Kaspar knew this life too well to attempt any 
 resistance to the sacred drinking laws ; but as the 
 minutes dragged their weary length along, measured 
 by potation upon potation, he felt himself with dis- 
 may albeit by his late arrival he had escaped many 
 rounds rapidly falling into giddiness. 
 
 When at last, the tenth law having been duly pro- 
 claimed, in its accordance everyone became free to 
 follow his own devices, and the conclave began to dis- 
 perse itself over the yard in various unsteady and 
 hilarious groups, Kaspar, finding himself to his in- 
 tense relief alone, leant his throbbing head upon his 
 hand, and fell, amid fumes of beer and tobacco that 
 confused his thoughts, to vainly endeavouring to piece 
 his plans together, and decide upon his next move. 
 
 An uncomfortable sensation of being watched 
 startled him presently from his abstraction, and 
 looking up, he beheld, standing in front of him, no less 
 a person than the red-bearded prceses himself, who, 
 with some few of the elder students, seemed to have 
 preserved a marvellously unfuddled head. 
 
 After finishing a coolly inquisitive survey of the 
 young man, this dignitary saluted him with semi- 
 courtly, semi-patronising graciousness, and thus ad- 
 dressed him: 
 
 " Why, new-found brother, thou seemest strangely 
 meditative. Thou shouldst be gay, proud, exultant, to 
 have become one of the Borussian fraternity. Come, 
 although de facto one of ours already, at thy own 
 craving, thou hast still to be formally admitted. We 
 must yet drink ' brotherhood ' together."
 
 THE " RENOMMIST." 97 
 
 Somewhat alarmed at the turn affairs seemed to be 
 taking, Kaspar, anxious to dispel the illusion his in- 
 discretion had created, hastened to explain his position. 
 
 "Honoured sir," he answered, saluting in return with 
 the utmost academic correctitude, " much as I should 
 feel the honour, my purpose here is not, as you seem 
 to think, to crav.e admittance to your order, I " 
 
 " How came you here among us ? " interrupted the 
 Prussian, with a sudden and threatening change of 
 countenance, drawing himself up arrogantly as he 
 spoke ; then his eyes accidentally falling on the 
 Saxon's pouch, " Ah ! do I see green among your 
 colours ? Sir, what is the meaning of this ? " and 
 glaring at his interlocutor. " From your appearance," 
 he pursued, " you are no tyro, and should have known 
 better than to mix with us on false pretences. Your 
 name ? " 
 
 Kaspar with difficulty repressed the anger roused 
 in his already heated blood by the speaker's over- 
 bearing tone, but he had sufficient self-control left to 
 be aware of the danger he stood in. In pacific voice, 
 yet with fitting dignity, he recited his name and cre- 
 dentials. " Being," he added, gently, " by Landsmann- 
 schaft a Thiiringer, I am, as you know, bound hand 
 and foot in such matters." 
 
 " More's the pity," retorted the other with scornful 
 dryness, " for all who consort with us have to wear 
 the black and white." 
 
 Again did Kaspar bear down upon his irritation 
 with a hard won prudence. 
 
 " I came here, sir," he resumed, " to seek one, a 
 student like you and me, and I would entreat you 
 
 " Once for all," interrupted the Prussian, turning 
 a
 
 98 THE " RBNOMMIST" 
 
 upon his heel, and coldly looking over his shoulder at 
 him, " we hold no intercourse with those who will not 
 wear our colours. If your business be urgent you 
 have your remedy. We have little reason to love pro- 
 fessed Saxons here." And making a sign to his two 
 coadjutors, Avho stood awaiting him at a little distance, 
 the Prussian stalked away, clanking his spurs and steel 
 scabbard, and left Kaspar once more free to meditate 
 on the unfavourable turn his affairs were taking. 
 
 Emerging from the tun, he retired to a remote 
 corner of the yard, and sitting upon a cask in the 
 shade, resolved to wait till the fresh air should have 
 sobered some of the younger merrymakers, among 
 whom he might reasonably expect more good-nature, 
 and relieved his own heavy head, before attempting 
 to pursue his inquiries. Here he sat, falling again 
 into vague dreaminess, when the sound of impatient 
 neighing struck upon his ear. Glancing around him, 
 he saw that all the students, even the two working- 
 assistants, had vanished from sight ; but loud guftaws, 
 following upon a prolonged whinny that seemed sud- 
 denly to him to have a ring of pain through it, left no 
 doubt as to their close proximity. Like a flash it 
 burst upon him that, since he was now regarded as an 
 interloper, he would, of course, be held a proper butt 
 for that practical joking at which the student is such 
 an adept, and that he had abandoned his poor 
 Schimmel to the tender mercies of his whilom enter- 
 tainers. 
 
 In a few bounds he had rounded the gigantic 
 tun, and was upon the scene of action, just in time to 
 notice one of the students, whose back was turned to 
 him, impatiently snatch a thick brush from the hands
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 99 
 
 of another, and crying out, " Give, thou art no pain- 
 ter," proceed, with some liquid pitch (a couple of 
 buckets of which, about the yard, had probably sug- 
 gested the jest) to daub black streaks upon the 
 horse's white flanks. 
 
 The poor brute at the sound of his master's 
 approach turned to look at him, and the young man 
 read he knew not what dumb reproach and piteous 
 pleading in the dim eyes of that faithful friend, 
 patient sharer of so many heavy journeys, hard straits, 
 and recurrent disappointments. 
 
 Fairly frenzied, more by the stupid cruelty of the 
 trick than by the insult aimed at himself, though 
 that, too, helped to set his young blood a-boiling, 
 Kaspar flung himself into the throng and elbowed his 
 way to the front, furiously calling out as he went : 
 
 " Hold, fools ! hold there, you msolent apes ! " 
 
 The man with the brush faced quickly round, and 
 Kaspar found himself once more confronting the red 
 beard and grey eyes of the presses. 
 
 " I told you, sir," said the bully, with a sneer that 
 to the Thuringian seemed unbearable, " that those 
 who consort with us must needs wear our colours. 
 When your steed is suitably caparisoned we will 
 further condescend to devote our attention to you. 
 Have but a little patience ; your turn will come 
 presently." 
 
 And swirling the brush in the pitch, the speaker, 
 again presenting his broad back to the company, pre- 
 pared with elaborate ease to resume his task while a 
 loud titter ran through the admiring circle. 
 
 But instantly Kaspar was upon him, and with a 
 brief strength born of his rage, seized him fiercely by 
 G 2
 
 100 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 the collar and twisted him round again. The atten- 
 dant titters changed to deep murmurs of disapproval, 
 though at the same time the circle widened as if to 
 leave a fair field for the fray. 
 
 But the Prussian was too powerful a man to be 
 dealt with in such manner. And the first surprise of 
 the attack over, he disengaged himself by an irresistible 
 wrench of the shoulders from the younger man's grasp, 
 and slowly steppod back a pace or two. His face had 
 grown ashen white, and his eyes with dilated pupils 
 shone so black as to make him scarcely recognisable. 
 
 " My name," he said, after a protracted pause, in a 
 low but clear and measured voice, " is Konrad von 
 Auersleben. I have never yet brooked a slight. As 
 for a blow, sir, it means death to him that gave it." 
 
 "Auersleben!" exclaimed Kaspar, suddenly brought 
 back to himself by the actual sound of the word. 
 
 "Auersleben," repeated the other with cold em- 
 phasis, and proceeded methodically to unclasp his 
 belt, draw his rapier and, with a magnificent air, 
 throw the scabbard behind him. " And now that you 
 have heard my name, be good enough," resting the 
 point of his weapon on his toe, " to get ready I am 
 waiting."* 
 
 * Great changes have taken place since those pre-independence 
 days. Not the least is the present all but complete unity of the Ger- 
 man Fatherland ; the old enmity between provinces, the true interests 
 of which were identical, is now, indeed, a thing of the past. But few- 
 things have changed more, and so much for the better, than the man- 
 ners and customs of " fighting students." Indeed, it was no doubt the 
 constant recurrence of affrays, such as I now describe, that led ulti- 
 mately to the establishment of the more decorous and systematic 
 " fight and honour laws," and the general adoption of that com- 
 paratively harmless academic weapon, the so-called " Schlager." 
 Witteinberg has now long ceased tojrank as a University town.
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 101 
 
 One of the elder students ceremoniously presented 
 a sword to Kaspar, who pushed it aside with a gesture 
 of horror. 
 
 "Konrad von Auersleben," he cried with an- 
 guished voice, " I cannot fight you. At least you must 
 listen to me first. I come from your father " 
 
 At the last words Konrad's face became suddenly 
 a mask of fury. 
 
 " From my father hast thou come ! Then hast 
 thou the more to pay for. Not fight me, sayest thou 
 swine-hound ! " he snarled, making his blade, with 
 two vicious flips, hiss about Kaspar's head. " Not 
 fight me ? Must I then slit thine ears to arouse 
 some fighting pluck in thee ? " 
 
 Seized with cold despair, Kaspar now recklessly 
 prepared to meet his fate. 
 
 " I will I will fight you, Konrad the Renommist," 
 he retorted bitterly, undoing his ragged tunic and 
 snatching the weapon that was a second time prof- 
 fered, " though my blade, as you no doubt well reck, 
 is no match for yours. But I fight on one condition," 
 he went on, raising his voice louder as the other im- 
 patiently endeavoured to cut him short, " and that is, 
 if I have any breath left in me after this encounter, 
 you shall listen to what I came to tell you." 
 
 " Nay," said Conrad, smiling with sinister mean- 
 ing, " wert thou not already doomed, 'twere a pity 
 thou shouldst make this condition ; for, mark me well, 
 I have sworn never to hear either such a messenger as 
 thou professest to be, or him who, thou sayest, sent 
 thee." 
 
 As he spoke he fell on guard, engaging the Saxon's 
 awkward blade with masterful vigour. A few seconds
 
 102 THE "RENOMMIST." 
 
 later Kaspar saw a blue flash of steel dart by his face, 
 and at the same instant felt a faint pressure at the end 
 of his own sword. And next happened something 
 that he could not understand. 
 
 For a moment his adversary remained stock still, 
 with the arm that had apparently failed in the deadly 
 thrust still extended, as if paralysed ; then he slowly 
 dropped it by his side, and pressing his left hand 
 against his breast, stepped back without a word and 
 sat down on the beer cask that stood nearest. 
 
 A dead silence had fallen over the astounded as- 
 sembly. Kaspar, utterly bewildered, remained on 
 guard, until his glance lighted by chance upon the 
 point of his own weapon, to which a couple of crim- 
 son drops still adhered to tell their tale. Then, 
 trembling with a horrible fear, he turned to his ad- 
 versary of a moment ago, and met his eyes eyes 
 once more grey, no longer glinting Avith scorn and 
 anger, but fixed on his with an incomprehensible, 
 earnest look the eyes of the old man at Leutsen ! 
 
 Doubled up, as if in atrocious pain, but without 
 shifting his gaze, the wounded man once attempted to 
 speak, but seemed unable to part his compressed lips. 
 Two of his companions had drawn close to support 
 him. His face gradually became very red ; in a few 
 minutes it grew purple, and the steadfast eyes, still 
 fixed on Kaspar, became hideously bloodshot. 
 
 Unmanned by the awfulness of this silent staring, 
 Kaspar broke out incoherently : 
 
 " Speak, Konrad speak, for heaven's sake. Elsa, 
 it was Elsa sent me. I loved her, and came for her 
 sake and you it was that forced this cursed quarrel 
 on me."
 
 THE "RENOMMIST." 103 
 
 Still there was silence silence ever more dread. 
 Suddenly one of the spectators, with an eager move- 
 ment, bent down to peer into his leader's face, and 
 gave a low cry of dismay. And, turning slowly 
 towards the stranger, he said, in a subdued, won- 
 dering way : 
 
 " Sir, you have killed Konrad von Auersleben, the 
 best swordsman of Studentdom." 
 
 Kaspar, stricken dumb in his turn, answered him 
 nothing, but stood staring stupidly at the result of his 
 handiwork a blind, chance stroke in self-defence, an 
 incomprehensibly mortal wound dealt unwittingly by 
 one who had come as a negotiator of peace and hap- 
 piness ! 
 
 Then, blindly, he made for his horse. Two men 
 carne forward and helped him, without a word, scrape 
 off and wash in beer the acrid pitch from the animal's 
 Hanks. After which he mounted and rode away from 
 Wittemberg. 
 
 Here would my fathers narrative end. To those 
 who have had patience to follow it so far, and who 
 would feel some curiosity to hear ivhat became of the 
 unlucky student, I will supplement what folloivs 
 from my own knoiuledge of the past. 
 
 Kaspar rode forth from the accursed town that 
 had seen the failure of all his hopes as if pursued by 
 a thousand furies. Plying spur and whip he urged 
 his horse forward till the poor brute fell dead on the 
 road, and there were mqny miles between 1dm and 
 Wittemberg ; for the old grey had had good blood in 
 his veins, and made a generous spurt in his masters 
 need. After that, utterly destitute, the beggared
 
 io4 THE " RENOMMIST:* 
 
 student wandered from place to place, subsisting 
 on the charity of peasant folks, intent only on ever 
 drawing further away from Wittemberg. 
 
 A liberator from this wretched and aimless situ- 
 ation came at length across his path in the shape of a 
 recruiting agent for the British service. There ivas a 
 kind of weird consolation in the idea that the old 
 Lord of Leutsens fictitious son might, after all, Jill 
 the place of the slain Otto before their country's foe. 
 Under an assumed name he signed an engagement 
 for foreign service. 
 
 It is the patronymic, thus adopted in a moment of 
 despair, ivhich I now bear. And I maintain it with 
 just pride, for (as many well know) there are no few 
 honours attached to it, gathered by my dear father on 
 Iberian and French battlefields during the great 
 ivar, and aho later on, through oilier ivalks of life, 
 while serving this gmtefid English country. 
 
 Thus the catastrophe ivhich well nigh blighted all 
 joy in his younger years came to be the starting 
 point of a glorious and otherwise successful career. 
 
 As to Elsa, I fain would tell more of her, but all 
 I know is that my father remained faithful to his 
 first avowal of love until late in life. He never saw 
 her again, and, though I cannot imagine in what 
 manner he ever contrived to get news of her, I am 
 convinced that it was not till after her death that he 
 manned the beautiful creature who was my mother.
 
 Silhouettes.
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 " OH no, I assure you, you are not boring Mr. Marsh- 
 field," protested that personage himself, in his gentle 
 voice, that curious voice that could flow on for hours, 
 promulgating profound and startling theories on 
 every department of human knowledge or con- 
 ducting paradoxical arguments, without a single in- 
 flection or pause of hesitation ; " I am, on the con- 
 trary, much interested in your hunting talk. To 
 paraphrase a well-worn quotation somewhat widely, 
 human i niliil a me cdienum puto. Even hunting 
 stories may have their point of biological interest ; 
 the philologist sometimes pricks his ear to the jar- 
 gon of the chase. But, moreover, I am not incapable 
 of appreciating the subject-matter itself. This seems 
 to excite some derision. I admit I am not much of 
 a sportsman to look at, nor indeed by instinct ; yet I 
 have had some out-of-the-way experience in that line 
 generally when intent on other pursuits. I doubt, 
 for instance, if even you, Major Travers, notwith- 
 standing your well-known exploits against man and 
 beast, notwithstanding that doubtful smile of yours, 
 could match the strangeness of a certain hunt ad- 
 venture in which I played an important part." 
 
 The speaker's small, deep-set, black eyes, which 
 never warmed to anything more "human" than a 
 purely speculative scientific interest in his surround- 
 ings, here wandered round the sceptical, yet expectant 
 circle with bland amusement. He stretched out his
 
 108 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 bloodless fingers for another of his host's superfine 
 cigars, and proceeded, with only such interruptions as 
 were occasioned by the lighting and careful smoking 
 of the latter : 
 
 " I was returning home after a prolonged stay in 
 St. Petersburg, int3nding to linger on my way and test 
 with mine own ears certain among the many dialects 
 of eastern Europe (anent which there is a symmetrical 
 little cluster of philological knotty points it is my 
 modest intention one day to unravel ; however, that is 
 neither here nor there). On the road from Ukraine to 
 Hungary I bethought myself opportunely of proving 
 ths once pressingly offered hospitality of the Baron 
 Kossowski. 
 
 "You may have met the man, Major Travers; he 
 was a tremendous sportsman, if you like. I tirst 
 came across him at McNeil's place in remote Ireland. 
 Now, being in Bukowina, within measurable distance 
 of his Carpathian abode, and curious to see a Polish 
 lord at home, I remembered his invitation. It was 
 already of long standing, but it had been warm, born 
 in fact of a sudden tit of enthusiasm," here a half mock- 
 ing smile quivered an instant under the speaker's 
 black moustache, " which, as it was characteristic, I 
 may as well tell you about. 
 
 " It was on the day of, or rather, to be accurate, on 
 the day after my arrival, towards the small hours of 
 the morning, in the smoking-room at Rathdrum, our 
 host was peacefully snoring over his empty pipe and 
 his seventh glass of whisky, also empty. The rest of 
 the men had slunk off to bed. The Baron, who, all 
 unknown to himself, had been a subject of most in- 
 teresting observation to me the whole evening, being
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 109 
 
 now practically alone with me, condescended to turn 
 an eye as wide awake as a fox's, albeit slightly blood- 
 shot, upon the contemptible white-faced person who 
 had preferred spending the raAv hours over his papers, 
 within the radius of a glorious fire's warmth, to 
 creeping slily over treacherous quagmires in the 
 pursuit of timid bog creatures (snipe shooting had 
 been the order of the day) the Baron, I say, became 
 aware of my existence, and entered into conversation 
 with me. 
 
 "He would no doubt have been much surprised 
 could he have known that he was already mapped 
 out, craniologically and physiognomically, catalogued 
 with care, and neatly laid by in his proper ethnological 
 box, in my private type museum ; that, as I had sat 
 and examined him from my different coigns of van- 
 tage in library, dining and smoking rooms, that 
 evening, not a look of his, not a gesture went forth, 
 but had had significance for me. 
 
 " You (I had thought), with your broad shoulders 
 and deep chest ; your massive head that should have 
 gone with a tall stature, not with those short, sturdy 
 limbs ; with your thick red hair, that should have 
 been black, as, for that matter, should your wide-set 
 yellow eyes you would be a real puzzle to one who 
 did not recognise in you equal mixtures of the fair, 
 stalwart and muscular Slav with the bilious-sanguine, 
 thick set, wiry Turanian. Your pedigree would no 
 doubt bear me out ; there is as much of the Mag- 
 yar as of the Pole in your anatomy. Athlete, and 
 yet a tangle of nerves ; a ferocious brute at bot- 
 tom, I dare say, for your broad forehead inclines to 
 flatness ; under your bristling beard your jaw must
 
 110 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 protrude, and the base of your skull is enormously 
 thick. And, with all that, capable of ideal trans- 
 ports ; when that girl played and sang to-night I saw 
 the swelling of your eyelid veins, and how that small, 
 tenacious, claw-like hand of yours twitched. You 
 would be a fine leader of men, but God help the 
 wretches in your power! 
 
 " So had I mused upon him. Yet I confess, that 
 when we came into close contact with each other, even 
 I was not proof against the singular courtesy of his 
 manner and his unaccountable personal charm. 
 
 " Our conversation soon grew interesting, to me as 
 a matter of course, and evidently to him also. A few 
 general words led to interchange of remarks upon the 
 country we were both visitors in, and so to national 
 characteristics Pole and Irishman, be it remarked, 
 have not a few in common, both in their nature and 
 history. An observation which he made not without 
 a certain flash in his light eyes and a transient un- 
 covering of the teeth on the Irish type of female 
 beauty, suddenly suggested to me a stanza of an ancient 
 Polish ballad, very full of milk and blood imagery, 
 of alternating ferocity and voluptuousness. This I 
 quoted to the astounded foreigner in the vernacular, 
 and this it was that metamorphosed his mere per- 
 fection of civility into sudden warmth, and, in fact, 
 procured me the invitation in question. 
 
 " AYhen I left Rathdrum the Baron's last words to 
 me were that if I ever thought of visiting his country 
 otherwise than in books he held me bound to make 
 Yany, his Galician seat, my headquarters of study. 
 
 "Therefore from Czernowiez, where I stopped, I 
 wrote, received in due time a few lines of prettily-
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. Ill 
 
 worded reply, and ultimately entered my sled in the 
 nearest town to, yet at a most forbidding distance 
 from, Yany, and started upon my journey thither. 
 
 " The undertaking meant many long hours of un- 
 dulation and skidding over the November snow to 
 the somniferous bell jangle of my dirty little horses ; 
 the only impression of interest being a weird gipsy 
 concert I came in for at a miserable drinking booth 
 half buried in the snow where we halted for the re- 
 freshment of man and beast. Here, I remember, I 
 discovered a very definite connection between the 
 characteristic run of the tsimbol, the peculiar bite of 
 the Zigeuner's bow on his fiddle string and some dis- 
 tinctive points of Turanian tongues ; your Spanish 
 gipsy speaks differently on his instrument. But oddly 
 enough when I later attempted to put this observation 
 on paper I could find no word to express it." 
 
 A few of our company evinced signs of sleepi- 
 ness, but most of us who knew Marshfield, and that he 
 could, unless he had something novel to say, be as 
 silent and retiring as he now evinced signs of being 
 copious, awaited further with patience. He has his 
 own deliberate way of speaking, which he evidently 
 enjoys greatly, though it be occasionally trying to his 
 listeners. 
 
 " On the afternoon of my second day's drive, the 
 snow, which had till then fallen fine and continuous, 
 ceased, and my Jehu, suddenly interrupting himself 
 in the midst of some exciting wolf story quite in keep- 
 ing with the time of year and the wild surroundings, 
 pointed to a distant spot against the grey sky to the
 
 112 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 north-west, between two wood-covered folds of ground, 
 the first eastern spurs of the great Carpathian chain. 
 
 " ' There is Yany,' said he. 
 
 " I looked at my far-off goal with interest. As we 
 drew nearer, the sinking sun, just dipping behind the 
 hills, tinged the now distinct frontage with a cold 
 copperlike gleam, but it was only for a minute ; the 
 next the building became nothing more to the eye 
 than a black irregular silhouette against the crimson 
 sky. 
 
 "Before we entered the steep avenue of poplars 
 the early winter darkness was upon us, rendered all 
 the more depressing by grey mists which gave a 
 ghostly aspect to such objects as the sheen of the 
 snow rendered visible. Once or twice there were 
 feeble flashes of light looming in iridescent halos as 
 we passed little clusters of cottages, but for which 
 I should have been induced to fancy that the great 
 Hof stood alone in the wilderness, such was the 
 deathly stillness around. But even as the tall, square 
 building rose before us above the vapour, yellow 
 lighted in various storeys, and mighty in height and 
 breadth, there broke upon my ear a deep-mouthed, 
 menacing bay, which gave at once almost alarming 
 reality to the eerie surroundings. 
 
 " ' His lordship's boar and wolf hounds,' quoth 
 my charioteer calmly, unmindful of the hideous con- 
 cert of barks and howls which ensued as he skilfully 
 turned his horses through the narrow gateway and 
 flogged the tired beasts into a sort of shambling canter 
 that we might land with glory before the house door 
 a weakness common, I believe, to drivers of all nations. 
 
 " I alighted in the court of honour, and while
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 113 
 
 awaiting an answer to my tug at the bell, stood, 
 broken with fatigue, depressed, chilled and aching, 
 questioning the wisdom of my proceedings and the 
 amount of comfort, physical and moral, that was 
 likely to await me in a tete-d-tete visit with a well- 
 mannered savage in his own home. 
 
 " The unkempt tribe of stable retainers who began 
 to gather round me and my rough vehicle in the gloom, 
 with their evil-smelling sheepskins and their resigned, 
 battered visages, were not calculated to reassure me. 
 Yet when the door opened there stood a smart chas- 
 seur, and a solemn majordomo, who might but just 
 have stepped out of May fair, and there was displayed a 
 spreading vista of warm deep-coloured halls with here 
 a statue and there a stuffed bear, and, under-foot, pile, 
 carpets strewn with rarest skins. 
 
 " Marvelling, yet comforted withal, I followed the 
 solemn butler, who received me with the deference 
 due to an expected guest, and expressed the master's 
 regret for his enforced absence till dinner-time. I 
 traversed vast rooms, each more sumptuous than the 
 last, feeling the strangeness of the contrast between 
 the outer desolation and this sybaritic excess of 
 luxury grow ever more strongly upon me ; caught a 
 glimpse of a picture gallery where peculiar yet ad- 
 mirably-executed latter-day French pictures hung 
 side by side with ferocious boar hunts of Snyders and 
 such kin; and at length was ushered into a most cheer- 
 ful room, modern to excess in its comfortable promise, 
 where, in addition to the tall stove necessary for 
 warmth, there burned on an open hearth a vastly 
 pleasant fire of resinous logs, and where, on a low table, 
 awaited me a dainty service of fragrant Russian tea. 
 H
 
 114 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 " My impression of utter novelty seemed somehow 
 enhanced by this unexpected refinement in the heart 
 of the solitudes and in such a nigged shell, and yet, 
 when I came to reflect, it was only characteristic of 
 my cosmopolitan host. But another surprise was in 
 store for me. 
 
 "When I had recovered bodily rest and mental 
 equilibrium in my downy armchair before the roaring 
 logs, and during the delicious absorption of my second 
 glass of tea, I turned my attention to the French valet, 
 evidently the Baron's own man, then deftly unpacking 
 my portmanteau, who, unless my practised eye deceived 
 me, asked for nothing better than to entertain me with 
 agreeable conversation the while. 
 
 " ' Your master is out, then,' quoth I, knowing that 
 the most trivial remark would suffice to start him. 
 
 " True, Monseigneur was out ; he was desolated, in 
 despair (this with the national amiable and im- 
 aginative instinct), but it was doubtless important 
 business. M. le Baron had the visit of his factor 
 during the midday meal ; had left the table hurriedly, 
 and had not been seen since. Madame la Baronne had 
 been a little suffering, but she would receive Monsieur. 
 
 " ' Madame . . . ! ' exclaimed I, astounded. ' Is 
 your master then married ? since when ? ' visions of 
 a fair Tartar, fit mate for my Baron, immediately 
 springing somewhat alluringly before my mental 
 vision. But the answer dispelled the pleasing fancy. 
 
 " ' Oh yes,' said the man, with a somewhat peculiar 
 expression. ' Yes, Monseigneur is married. Did Mon- 
 sieur not know ? And yet it was from England that 
 Monseigneur brought back his wife.' 
 
 " ' An Englishwoman ! '
 
 THE BARON' 8 QUARRY. 115 
 
 " My first thought was one of pity an English- 
 woman alone in this wilderness, two days' drive from 
 even a railway station, . . . and at the mercy of Kos- 
 sowski ! But the next minute I reversed my judgment. 
 Probably she adored her rufous lord, took his veneer 
 of courtesy a veneer of the most exquisite polish I 
 grant you, but perilously thin for the very perfection 
 of chivalry ; or perchance it was his inner savageness 
 itself that charmed her ; the most refined women 
 often amaze one by the fascination which the prepon- 
 derance of the brute in the opposite sex seems to 
 have for them. I was anxious to hear more. 
 
 " ' Is it not dull for the lady here at this time of 
 year ? ' 
 
 " The valet raised his shoulders with a gesture of 
 despair that was almost passionate. 
 
 " ' Dull ! Ah, Monsieur could not conceive to him- 
 self the dulness of it. That poor Madame la 
 Baronne ! not even a little child to keep her com- 
 pany on the long, long days when there was nothing 
 but snow in the heaven and on the earth, and the 
 howling of the wind and the dogs to cheer her. At 
 the beginning, indeed, it had been different; when 
 the master first brought home his bride the house 
 was gay enough. It was all re-decorated and re- 
 furnished to receive her (Monsieur should have seen 
 it before a mere rendezvous de ckasse, for the 
 matter of that so are all the country houses in these 
 parts). Ah ! that was the good time ! There were 
 visits month after month, parties, sleighing, dancing, 
 trips to St. Petersburg and to Vienna ; but this year it 
 seemed that they were to have nothing but boars and 
 wolves how Madame could stand it well, it was not 
 H 2
 
 116 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 for him to speak . . . .' And heaving a deep sigh 
 he delicately inserted my white tie round my collar, 
 and with a flourish twisted it into* an irreproachable 
 bow beneath my chin. 
 
 " I did not think it right to cross-examine the 
 willing talker any further, especially as, despite his 
 asseveration, there were evidently volumes he still 
 wished to pour forth, but I confess that as I made 
 my way slowly out of my room along the noiseless 
 length of passage, I was conscious of an unwonted, not 
 to say vulgar, curiosity concerning the woman who 
 had captivated such a man as the Baron Kossowski. 
 
 " In a fit of speculative abstraction I must have 
 taken the wrong turning, for I presently found myself 
 in a long and narrow passage I did not remember. I 
 was retracing my steps when there came the sound of 
 rapid footfalls upon stone flags ; a little door flew open 
 in the wall close to me, and a small, thick-set man, 
 huddled in the rough skeepskin of the Galician 
 peasant, with a mangy fur cap on his head, nearly 
 ran headlong into my arms. I was about con- 
 descendingly to interpellate him in my best Polish, 
 when I caught the gleam of an angry yellow eye and 
 noted the bristle of a red beard Kossowski ! 
 
 "Amazed, I fell back a step in silence; with a 
 growl like an uncouth animal disturbed he drew his 
 filthy cap over his brow with a savage gesture, and 
 pursued his way down the corridor at a sort of wild- 
 boar trot. 
 
 " This first meeting between host and guest was so 
 odd, so incongruous, that it afforded me plenty of 
 food for a fresh line of conjecture as I traced my way 
 back to the picture gallery, and from thence success-
 
 THE BARON'S 'QUARRY. 117 
 
 fully to the drawing-room, which, as the door was 
 ajar, I could not this time mistake. 
 
 " It was large and lofty and dimly lit by shaded 
 lamps. Through the rosy gloom I could at first only 
 just make out a slender ligure by the hearth, but as 1 
 advanced this was resolved into a singularly graceful 
 woman in a clinging fur-trimmed velvet gown, who, 
 with one hand resting on the "high mantelpiece, the 
 other hanging listlessly by her side, stood gazing down 
 at the crumbling wood fire as if in a dream. 
 
 " My friends are kind enough to say I have a cat- 
 like tread ; I know not how that may be, at any rate 
 the carpet I was walking upon was thick enough to 
 smother a heavier footfall ; not until I was quite close 
 to her did my hostess become aware of my presence. 
 Then she started violently and looked over her shoul- 
 der at me with dilating eyes. Evidently a nervous 
 creature ; I saw the pulse in her throat, strained by 
 her attitude, nutter like a terrified bird. 
 
 " The next instant she had stretched out her hand 
 with sweet English words of welcome, and the face, 
 which I had been comparing in my mind to that of 
 Guide's Cenci, became transformed by the arch and 
 exquisite smile of a Greuse. For more than two years 
 I had had no intercourse with any of my nationality. 
 I could conceive the sound of his native tongue under 
 such circumstances moving a man in a curious, un- 
 expected fashion. 
 
 " I babbled some commonplace reply, after which 
 there was silence while we stood opposite each other, 
 she looking at me expectantly. At length, with a 
 sigh checked by a smile and an overtone of sadness 
 in a voice that yet tried to be sprightly :
 
 118 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 " ' Am I then so changed, Mr. Marshfield ? ' she 
 asked. And all at once I knew her the girl whose 
 nightingale voice had redeemed the desolation of the 
 evenings at Rathdrum, whose sunny beauty had 
 seemed even to my celebrated cold-blooded sesthe- 
 ticism worthy to haunt a man's dreams. Yes, there 
 was the subtle curve of waist, the warm line of throat, 
 the dainty foot, the slender tip-tilted fingers witty 
 fingers, as I had classified them which I now shook 
 like a true Briton, instead of availing myself of the 
 privilege the country gave me, and kissing her slender 
 wrist. 
 
 " But she was changed, and I told her so with un- 
 conventional frankness, studying her closely as I spoke. 
 
 " ' I am afraid,' I said, gravely, ' that this place 
 does not agree with you.' 
 
 " She flushed to the roots of her red-brown hair. 
 Then she answered, coldly, that I was wrong, that she 
 was in excellent health, but that she could not expect, 
 any more than other people, to preserve perennial 
 youth (I rapidly calculated she might be two-and- 
 twenty), though, indeed, with a little forced laugh, it 
 was scarcely flattering to hear one had altered out of 
 all recognition. Then without allowing me time to 
 reply, she plunged into a general topic of conversation 
 which, as I should have been obtuse indeed not to 
 take the hint, I did my best to keep up. 
 
 " But while she talked of Vienna and Warsaw, of 
 her distant neighbours and last year's visitors, it was 
 evident that her mind was elsewhere, her eye wan- 
 dered, she lost the thread of her discourse, answered 
 me at random, and smiled her piteous smile incon- 
 gruously. However lonely she might be in her soli-
 
 THE BARON'S QUAltltY. 119 
 
 tary splendour, the company of a countryman was 
 evidently no such welcome diversion. 
 
 " After a little while she seemed to feel, herself, 
 that she was lacking in cordiality, and, bringing her 
 absent gaze to bear upon me with a puzzled, strained 
 look: 
 
 " ' I fear you will find it very dull,' she said, ' my 
 husband is so wrapped up this winter in his country 
 life and his sport; you are the first visitor we have 
 had. There is nothing but guns and horses here, and 
 you do not care for these things.' 
 
 "The door creaked behind us, and the Baron en- 
 tered, in faultless evening dress. Before she turned 
 towards him I was sharp enough to catch again the 
 upleaping of a quick dread in her eyes not even so 
 much dread, perhaps, I thought afterwards, as horror, 
 the horror we notice in some animals at the nearing 
 of a beast of prey. It was gone in a second, and she 
 was smiling ; but it was a revelation. 
 
 " Perhaps he beat her in Russian fashion, and she, 
 as an Englishwoman, was narrow-minded enough to 
 resent this, or perhaps merely I had the misfortune to 
 arrive during a matrimonial misunderstanding. 
 
 " The Baron would not give me leisure to reflect, 
 he was so very effusive in his greeting not a hint of 
 our previous meeting unlike my hostess, all in all to 
 me, eager to listen, to reply, almost affectionate, full 
 of references to old times and genial allusions. No 
 doubt when he chose he could be the most charming 
 of men ; there were moments when, looking at him, 
 in his correct attire, hearkening to his cultured voice, 
 marking his quiet smile and restrained gesture, the 
 almost exaggerated politeness of his manner to his
 
 120 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 wife, whose fingers he had kissed with pretty, old- 
 fashioned gallantry upon his entrance, I asked myself 
 could that encounter in the passage have been a 
 dream ? could that savage in the sheepskin be my 
 courteous entertainer ? 
 
 " ' Just as I came in, did I hear my wife say there 
 was nothing for you to do in this place ? ' he said 
 presently to me. Then turning to her : 
 
 "'You do not seem to know Mr. Marshfield. 
 Wherever he can open his eyes, there is for him 
 something to see which might not interest other men. 
 He will find things in my library, for instance, which 
 I have no notion of. He will discover objects for 
 scientific observation in all the members of my 
 household, not only in the good-looking maids, 
 though he could tell their points as I could those of a 
 horse. We have maidens here of several distinct 
 races, Marshfield ; we have also witches, and Jew 
 leeches, and holy daft people. In any case, Yany, 
 with all its dependencies, material, male and female, are 
 at your disposal, for what you can make out of them.' 
 
 " ' It is good,' he went on gaily, ' that you should 
 happen to have this happy disposition, for I fear that, 
 no later than to-morrow, I may have to absent myself 
 from home. I have heard that there are more news of 
 wolves they menace to be a greater pest than usual 
 this winter but I am going to diive them on quite 
 a new plan, and it will go hard with me if I don't ex- 
 terminate them. Well for you, by the way, Marsh- 
 field, that you did not come within their scent to- 
 day.' Then, musingly : ' I should not give much for 
 the life of a traveller who happened to wander in 
 these parts just now ' Here he interrupted him-
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 121 
 
 self hastily, and went over to his wife, who had sunk 
 back on her chair, livid, seemingly on the point of 
 swooning. 
 
 " His gaze was devouring ; so might a man look at 
 the woman he adored in his anxiety. 
 
 " ' What faint, Violet alarmed ? ' His voice was 
 subdued, yet there was an unmistakable thrill of 
 emotion in it. 
 
 " ' Pshaw ! ' thought I to myself, ' the man is a 
 model husband.' 
 
 "She clenched her hands, and, by sheer force of 
 will, seemed to pull herself together. These nervous 
 women have often an unexpected fund of strength. 
 
 " ' Come, that is well/ said the Baron, with a 
 flickering smile, 'Mr. Marshfield will think you but 
 badly acclimatised to Poland if a little wolf scare can 
 upset you. My dear wife is so soft-hearted/ he went 
 on to me, ' that she is capable of making herself 
 quite ill over the sad fate that might have, but has 
 not, overcome you. Or, perhaps/ he added, in a still 
 gentler voice, ' her fear is that I may expose myself to 
 danger for the public weal.' 
 
 " She turned her head away, but I saw her set her 
 teeth as if to choke a sob. The Baron chuckled in 
 his throat and seemed to luxuriate in the pleasant 
 thought. 
 
 " At this moment folding-doors were thrown open 
 and supper was announced. I offered my arm, she 
 rose and took it in silence. This silence she main- 
 tained during the first part of the meal, despite her 
 husband's brilliant conversation and almost up- 
 roarious spirits. But by-and-by a bright colour 
 mounted to her cheeks and lustre to her eyes. I
 
 122 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 suppose you will all think me horribly impoetical if I 
 add that she drank several glasses of champagne one 
 after the other, a fact which, perhaps, may account for 
 the change. 
 
 "At any rate she spoke and laughed and looked 
 lovely, and I did not wonder that the Baron could 
 hardly keep his eyes off her. But, whether it was her 
 wifely anxiety or not, it was evident her mind was not 
 at ease through it all, and I fancied that her bright- 
 ness was feverish, her merriment slightly hysterical 
 
 " After supper an exquisite one it was we ad- 
 journed together, in foreign fashion, to the drawing- 
 room ; the Baron threw himself into a chair, and, 
 somewhat with the air of a pacha, demanded music. 
 He was flushed : the veins of his forehead were 
 swollen and stood out like cords. The wine drunk at 
 the table was potent even through my phlegmatic 
 frame it ran hotly. 
 
 " She hesitated a moment or two, then docilely 
 sat down to the piano. That she could sing I have 
 already made clear; how she could sing, with what 
 pathos, passion, as well as perfect art, I had never 
 so fully realised before. 
 
 " When the song was ended she remained for a 
 while, with eyes lost in distance, very still, save for 
 her quick breathing. It was clear she Avas moved by 
 the music ; indeed, she must have thrown her whole 
 soul into it. 
 
 " At first we, the audience, paid her the rare com- 
 pliment of silence. Then the Baron broke forth into 
 loud applause. 
 
 " ' Brava, brava ! that was really said con amore. 
 A delicious love song delicious but French ! You
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 123 
 
 must sing one of our Slav melodies for Marshfield 
 before you allow us to go and smoke.' 
 
 "She started from her reverie with a flush, and 
 after a pause struck slowly a few simple chords, then 
 began one of those strangely sweet, yet intensely 
 pathetic Eussian airs, which give one a curious reve- 
 lation of the profound endless melancholy lurking in 
 the national mind. 
 
 " ' What do you think of it V asked the Baron of 
 me when it had ceased. 
 
 " ' What I have always thought of such music it 
 is that of a hopeless people poetical, crushed, and 
 resigned.' 
 
 " He gave a loud laugh. ' Hear the analyst, the 
 psychologue ! Why, man, it is a love song ! Is it 
 possible that we, uncivilised, are truer realists than 
 our hypercultured Western neighbours ; have we gone 
 to the root of the matter, in our simple way ? ' 
 
 " The Baroness got up abruptly. She looked white 
 and spent ; there were bistre circles round her eyes. 
 
 " ' I am tired,' she said, with dry lips ; ' you will 
 excuse me, Mr. Marshfield, I must really go to bed.' 
 
 " ' Go to bed, go to bed,' cried her husband, gaily. 
 Then, quoting in Russian from the song she had just 
 sung, ' Sleep my little soft, white dove, my little in- 
 nocent, tender lamb ! ' 
 
 " She hurried from the room. The Baron laughed 
 again, and, taking me familiarly by the arm, led me 
 to his own set of apartments for the promised smoke. 
 He ensconced me in an armchair, placed cigars of 
 every description and a Turkish pipe ready to my 
 hand and a little table on which stood cut glass flasks 
 and beakers in tempting array.
 
 124 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 "After I had selected my cigar with some pre- 
 cautions, I glanced at him over a careless remark, and 
 was startled to see a sudden alteration in his whole 
 look and attitude. 
 
 " ' You will forgive me, Marshfield,' he said, as 
 he caught my eye, speaking with spasmodic polite- 
 ness. ' It is more than probable that I shall have to 
 set out upon this chase I spoke of to-night, and I must 
 now go and change my clothes that I may be ready to 
 start at any moment ; this is the hour when it is most 
 likely these hell beasts are to be got at. ... You 
 have all you want, I hope,' interrupting an outbreak of 
 ferocity by an effort after his former courtesy. 
 
 "It was curious to watch the man of the world 
 struggling with the primitive man. 
 
 " ' But, Baron,' said I, - 1 do not at all see the fun 
 of sticking at home like this. You know my passion 
 for witnessing everything new, strange, and outlandish. 
 You will surely not refuse me such an opportunity 
 for observation as a midnight wolf-raid. I will do my 
 best not to be hi the way if you will take me with you.' 
 
 " At first it seemed as if he had some difficulty in 
 realising the drift of my words, he was so engrossed 
 by some inner thought, but as I repeated them he 
 gave vent to a loud cachinnation. 
 
 " ' By Heaven, I like your spirit ! ' he exclaimed, 
 clapping me strongly on the shoulder. ' Of course 
 you shall come. You shall,' he repeated, 'and I 
 promise you a sight, a hunt such as you never heard or 
 dreamt of; you will be able to tell them in England 
 the sort of thing we can do here in that line. Such 
 wolves are rare quarry,' he added, looking slily at me, 
 ' and 1 have a new plan for getting at them.'
 
 TEE BARON'S QUARRY. 125 
 
 "There was a long pause, and then there rose in 
 the stillness the unearthly bowlings of the Baron's 
 hounds, a cheerful sound which only their owner's 
 somewhat loud converse of the evening had kept from 
 becoming excessively obtrusive. 
 
 " ' Hark at them .... the beauties ! ' cried he, 
 showing his short, strong teeth, pointed like a dog's, 
 in a wide grin of anticipative delight. ' They have 
 been kept on pretty short commons, poor things. 
 They are hungry. By the way, Marshrield, you can 
 sit tight on a horse, I trust ? If you were to roll off, 
 you know, these splendid fellows they would chop 
 you up in a second ; they would chop you up,' he re- 
 peated unctuously ' snap, crunch, gobble, and there 
 would be an end of you ! ' 
 
 " ' If I could not ride a decent horse without 
 being thrown,' I retorted, a little stung by his manner, 
 ' after my recent three months' torture with the Guard 
 Cossacks, I should indeed be a hopeless subject. Do 
 not think of frightening me from the exploit but say, 
 frankly, if my company would be displeasing.' 
 
 " ' Tut ! ' he said, waving his hand impatiently. 
 ' It is your affair. I have warned you. Go and get 
 ready if you want to come. Time presses.' 
 
 " I was determined to be of the fray ; my blood was 
 up. I have hinted that the Baron's Tokay had stirred it. 
 
 " I went to my room and hurriedly donned 
 clothes more suitable for rough night work. My 
 last care was to slip into my pockets a brace of 
 double-barrelled pistols which formed part of my 
 travelling kit. 
 
 "When I returned I found the Baron already 
 booted and spurred ; this without metaphor. He
 
 128 THE BARON 1 S QUARRY. 
 
 was stretched full length on the divan, and did not 
 speak as I came in, nor even look at me. Chewing 
 an unlit cigar, with eyes fixed on the ceiling, he was 
 evidently following some absorbing train of ideas. 
 
 " The silence was profound ; much time went by ; it 
 grew oppressive ; at length, wearied out, I fell, over 
 my chibouque, into a doze, filled with puzzling 
 visions, out of which I was awakened with a start. 
 My companion had sprung up, very lightly, to his 
 feet ; in his throat was an odd, half-suppressed cry, 
 gruesome to hear. He stood on tiptoe, his eyes fixed, 
 as though looking through the wall, and I distinctly 
 saw his ears point in the intensity of his listening. 
 
 "After a moment, with hasty, noiseless energy, and 
 without the slightest ceremony, he blew the lamps 
 out, drew back the heavy curtains, and threw the 
 tall window wide open. 
 
 "A rush of icy air, and the bright rays of the 
 moon gibbous, I remember, in her third quarter 
 filled the room. Outside, the mist had condensed, 
 and the view was unrestricted over the white plains 
 at the foot of the hill. 
 
 " The Baron stood motionless in the open window, 
 callous to the cold in which, after a minute, I could 
 hardly keep my teeth from chattering, his head 
 bent forward, still listening. I listened too, with 
 ' all my ears,' but could not catch a sound ; indeed, 
 the silence over the great expanse of snow might 
 have been called awful ; even the dogs were mute. 
 
 " Presently, far, far away, came the faint tinkle 
 of bells so faint, at first, that I thought it was but 
 fancy, and then distincter. It was even more eerie 
 than the silence, I thought, though I knew it could
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 127 
 
 come but from some passing sleigh. All at once 
 that ceased, and again my duller senses could per- 
 ceive nothing, though I saw by my host's craning 
 neck that he was more on the alert than ever. 
 But at last I, too, heard once more, as it were, the 
 tread of horses muffled by the snow, and unac- 
 companied by any jangling of bells, intermittent and 
 dull, yet drawing nearer. And then in the inner 
 silence of the great house it seemed to me I caught 
 the noise of closing doors. But here the hounds, 
 as if suddenly becoming alive to some disturbance, 
 raised the same fearsome concert of yells and barks 
 with which they had greeted my arrival, and listening 
 became useless. 
 
 " I had risen to my feet. My host turning from 
 the window seized my shoulder with a fierce grip 
 and bade me hold niy noise ; for a second or two 
 I stood motionless under his iron talons, then he 
 released me with an exultant whisper: 
 
 " ' Now for our chase ! ' and made for the door 
 with a spring. Hastily gulping down a mouthful of 
 arak from one of the bottles on the table I followed 
 him, and, guided by the sound of his footsteps before 
 me, groped my way through passages black as Erebus. 
 
 " After a time, which seemed a long one, a small 
 door was flung open in front, and I saw Kossowski 
 glide into the moonlit courtyard and cross the 
 square. When I, too, came out he was disappearing 
 into the gaping darkness of the open door of the 
 stables ; and there I overtook him. 
 
 "A man who seemed to have been sleeping in 
 a corner jumped up at our entrance and led out 
 a horse ready saddled. In obedience to a gruff order
 
 128 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 from his master, as the latter mounted, he then 
 brought forward another which he had evidently 
 thought to ride himself, and held the stirrup for me. 
 
 " We came delicately forth, and the Cossack hurriedly 
 barred the great door behind us. I caught a glimpse 
 of his worn scarred face by the moonlight as he 
 peeped after us for a second before shutting himself 
 in it was stricken with terror. 
 
 " The Baron trotted briskly towards the- kennels, 
 from whence there was now issuing a truly infernal 
 clangour, and, as my steed followed suit of its own 
 accord, I could see how he proceeded dexterously to 
 unbolt the gates without dismounting, while the beasts 
 within dashed themselves against them and tore the 
 ground in their fury of impatience. 
 
 " He smiled as he swung back the barriers at last, 
 and his ' beauties ' came forth. Seven or eight 
 monstrous brutes, hounds of a kind unknown to me : 
 fulvous and sleek of coat, tall on their legs, square- 
 headed, long-tailed, deep-chested, with terrible jaws 
 slobbering with eagerness. They leaped around and 
 up at us, much to our horses' distaste. Kossowski, 
 still smiling, lashed at them unsparingly Avith his 
 hunting-whip, and they responded, not with yells of 
 pain, but with snarls of fury. 
 
 "Managing his restless steed and his cruel whip 
 with consummate ease, my host drove his unruly 
 crew before him, out of the precincts, then halted 
 and bent down from his saddle to examine some 
 slight prints in the snow which led, not the way I 
 had come, but towards what seemed another avenue. 
 In a second or two the hounds were gathered round 
 this spot, their great snake-like tails quivering, nose
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 129 
 
 to earth, yelping with excitement. I had some ado 
 to manage my horse, and my eyesight was far from 
 being as keen as the Baron's, but I had then no doubt 
 he had come already upon wolf tracks, and I 
 shuddered mentally, thinking of the sleigh bells. 
 
 "Suddenly, Kossowski raised himself from his 
 precarious position; under his low fur cap his face 
 looked scarcely human in the white light ; and then 
 we broke into a hand-canter just as the hounds 
 dashed, in a compact body, along the trail. 
 
 " But we had not gone more than a few hundred 
 yards before they began to falter, then straggled, 
 stopped and ran back and about with dismal cries 
 It was clear to me they had lost the scent. My 
 companion reined in his horse, and mine, luckily a 
 well-trained brute, halted of itself. 
 
 " We had reached a bend in a broad avenue of firs 
 and larches, and just where we stood, and where the 
 hounds ever returned and met nose to nose in frantic 
 conclave, the snow was trampled and soiled and, a 
 little further on, planed in a great sweep as if by a 
 turning sleigh. Beyond was a double-furrowed track 
 of skates and regular hoof-prints leading far away. 
 
 " Before I had time to reflect upon the bearing of 
 this unexpected interruption Kossowski, as if sud- 
 denly possessed by a devil, fell upon the hounds with 
 his whip, flogging them upon the new track, uttering 
 the while the most savage cries I have ever heard 
 issue from human throat. The disappointed beasts 
 were nothing loth to seize upon another trail ; after a 
 second of hesitation they had understood and were off 
 upon it at a tearing pace, and we after them at the 
 best speed of our horses, 
 I
 
 130 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 " Some unfounded idea that we were going to 
 escort or rescue benighted travellers flickered dimly 
 in my mind as I galloped through the night air ; but 
 when I managed to approach my companion and 
 called out to him for explanation, he only turned half 
 round and grinned at me. 
 
 " Before us lay now the white plain, scintillating 
 under the high moon's rays. That light is deceptive : 
 I could be sure of nothing upon the wide expanse but 
 of the dark, leaping figures of the hounds already 
 spread out in a straggling line, some right ahead, others 
 only just in front of us. In a short time, also, the icy 
 wind, cutting my face mercilessly as we increased our 
 pace, well nigh blinded my eyes with tears of cold. 
 
 " I can hardly realise how long this pursuit after an 
 unknown prey lasted ; I can only remember that I was 
 getting rather faint with fatigue, and ignominiously 
 held on to my pommel, when all of a sudden the black 
 outline of a sleigh merged into sight in front of us. 
 
 "I rubbed my smarting eyes with my benumbed 
 hand ; we were gaining upon it second by second ; 
 two of those hell-hounds of the Baron's were already 
 within a few leaps of it. 
 
 " Soon I was able to make out two figures, one 
 standing up and urging the horses on with whip and 
 voice ; the other clinging to the back seat, and 
 looking towards us in an attitude of terror. A great 
 fear crept into my half-frozen brain were we not 
 bringing deadly danger, instead of help to these 
 travellers ? Great God ! did the Baron mean to use 
 them as a bait for his new method of wolf hunting ? 
 
 " I would have turned upon Kossowski with a cry 
 of expostulation or warning, but he, urging on his
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 131 
 
 hounds as he galloped on their flank, howling and 
 gesticulating like a veritable Hun, passed me like a 
 flash. And all at once I knew." 
 
 Marshfield paused for a moment and sent his pale 
 smile round upon his listeners, who now showed no 
 signs of sleepiness ; he knocked the ash from his cigar, 
 twisted the latter round in his mouth and added, drily : 
 
 " And I confess it seemed to me a little strong, 
 even for a Baron in the Carpathians. The travellers 
 were our quarry ! But the reason why the Lord of 
 Yany had turned man-hunter I was yet to learn just 
 then 1 had to direct my energies to frustrating his 
 plans. I used my spurs mercilessly. Whilst I drew 
 up even with him, I saw the two figures in the sleigh 
 change places: he who had hitherto driven now sat 
 back. There was the pale blue sheen of a revolver 
 barrel under the moonlight, followed by a yellow flash, 
 and the nearest hound rolled over in the snow. 
 
 "With an oath the Baron twisted round in his 
 saddle to urge on the remainder. My horse had 
 taken fright at the report, and dashed irresistibly 
 forward, bringing me at once almost level with the 
 fugitives, and the next instant the revolver was 
 turned menacingly towards me. There was no time 
 to explain ; my pistol was already drawn, and as 
 another of the brutes bounded up, almost under my 
 horse's feet, I loosed it upon him I must have let off 
 both barrels at once, for the weapon flew out of iny 
 hand ; but the hound's back was broken. I presume 
 the traveller understood ; at any rate he did not fire 
 at me! 
 
 "In moments of intense excitement like these, 
 strangely enough the mind is extraordinarily open 
 i 2
 
 132 THE BARON'S QUAEPY. 
 
 to impressions. I shall never forget that man's 
 countenance, in the sledge, as he stood upright and 
 defied us in his mortal danger; it was young, very 
 handsome, the features not distorted, but set into a 
 sort of desperate, stony calm, and I knew it, beyond 
 all doubt, for the face of an Englishman. And then I 
 saw his companion : it was the Baron's wife. And I 
 understood why the bells had been removed. 
 
 " It takes a long time to say all this ; it only 
 required an instant to see it. The loud explosion of 
 my pistol had hardly ceased to ring before the Baron, 
 with a fearful imprecation, was upon me. First he 
 lashed at me with his whip as we tore along side by 
 side, and then I saw him wind the reins round his off 
 arm, and bend over, and I felt his angry fingers close 
 on my right foot. The next instant I should have 
 been thrown out of my saddle ; but there came 
 another shot from the sledge. The Baron's horse 
 plunged and stumbled, and the Baron himself, hanging 
 on to my foot with a fierce grip, was wrenched from his 
 seat. His horse, however, was up again immediately, 
 and I was released, and then I caught a confused 
 glimpse of the frightened and wounded animal 
 plunging and drawing wildly away to the right, leaving 
 a black track of blood behind him in the snow ; his 
 master, entangled in the reins, running with incredible 
 swiftness by his side and endeavouring to vault back 
 into the saddle. 
 
 " And now came to pass a thing which, in his savage 
 plans, my host had doubtless never anticipated. 
 
 " One of the hounds that had during this short 
 check recovered lost ground, coming across this hot 
 trail of blood, turned away from his course, and with a
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 133 
 
 joyous yell darted after the running man. In another 
 instant the rest of the pack was upon the new scent. 
 
 " As soon as I could stop my horse I tried to turn 
 him in the direction the hounds had taken, but just 
 then, through the night air, over the receding sound 
 of the horse's scamper and the sobbing of the pack in 
 full cry, there came a long scream and, after that, 
 a sickening silence. And I knew that somewhere 
 yonder, under the beautiful moonlight, the Baron 
 Kossowski was being devoured by his starving dogs. 
 
 "I looked round, with the sweat on nay face, 
 vaguely, for some human being to share the horror 
 of the moment and I saw, gliding away, far away, 
 and silently in the white distance, the black sil- 
 houette of the sledge." 
 
 " Well " said we, in divers tones of impatience, 
 curiosity, or horror, according to our divers tempera- 
 ments, as the speaker uncrossed his legs and gazed 
 at us in mild triumph, with all the air of having said 
 his say, and satisfactorily proved his point. 
 
 " Well," repeated he, " what more do you want to 
 know ? It will interest you but slightly, I am sure, 
 to hear how I found my way back to the Hof, or how 
 I told as much as I deemed prudent of the evening's 
 gruesome work to the Baron's servants, who, by the 
 way, to my amazement, displayed the profoundest 
 and most unmistakable sorrow at the tidings, and 
 sallied forth (at their head the Cossack who had seen 
 us depart) to seek for his remains. Excuse the 
 unpleasantness of the remark : I fear the dogs must 
 have left very little of him, he had dieted them so 
 carefully. However, since it was to have been a case 
 of ' chop, crunch, and gobble,' as the Baron had it, I
 
 lai THE BARON'S QUARRY. 
 
 preferred that that particular fate should have over- 
 taken him than me or, for that matter, either of 
 those two country people of ours in the sledge. Nor 
 am I going to inflict upon you," continued Marshtield, 
 after moistening his clay, " a full account of the im- 
 pressions I received when I found myself once more 
 in that immense, deserted, and stricken house so 
 luxuriously prepared for the mistress who had fled 
 from it, how I philosophised over all this, according 
 to my way, the conjectures I made as to the first 
 acts of the drama, as to the untold sufferings my 
 countrywoman must have endured from the moment 
 her husband grew jealous till she determined on this 
 desperate step, as to how and when she had met her 
 lover, how they communicated and how the Baron 
 had discovered the intended flitting in time to con- 
 coct his characteristic revenge. 
 
 " One thing you may be sure of I had no mind 
 to remain at Yany an hour longer than necessary, and 
 even contrived to get well clear of the neighbourhood 
 before the lady's absence was discovered. Luckily for 
 me, or I might have been taxed with connivance ; 
 though indeed the simple household did not seem 
 to know what suspicion was, and accepted my account 
 with childlike credence, very typical and very con- 
 venient to me at the same time. " 
 
 " But how do you know," said someone, "that he was 
 her lover he might have been her brother, her 
 
 " That," said Marshfield, interrupting with his 
 little flat laugh, " I happen to have ascertained and, 
 curiously enough, only a few weeks ago. 
 
 " It was at the play ; between the acts ; from my 
 comfortable seat (first row of the pit). I was looking
 
 THE BARON'S QUARRY. 135 
 
 leisurely round the house when I caught sight of a 
 woman, in a box close by, whose head was turned from 
 me, and who presented the somewhat unusual spectacle 
 of a young neck and shoulders of the most exquisite 
 contour and perfectly grey hair ; and not dull grey 
 but rather of a pleasing tint like frosted silver. 
 This aroused my curiosity, I brought my glasses to a 
 focus on her, and waited patiently till she turned 
 round. Then I recognised the Baroness Kossowski, and 
 I no longer wondered at the young hair being white. 
 
 " She looked placid and happy ; strangely so, 
 it seemed to me, under the sudden reviving in my 
 memory of such scenes as I have now described. But 
 presently I understood further; beside her, in close 
 attendance, was the man of the sledge a handsome 
 fellow with much of a military air about him. 
 
 " During the course of the evening, as I watched, 
 I saw a friend of mine come into the box, and at the 
 end I slipped out into the passage to catch him as he 
 came out. 
 
 " ' Who is the woman with the white hair ? ' I 
 asked. Then, in the fragmentary style approved of 
 by ultra-fashionable young men (this earnest languid 
 mode of speech presents curious similarities in all 
 languages) he told me : most charming couple in 
 London awfully pretty, wasn't she ? He had been 
 in the Guards attach^ at Vienna once, he believed 
 they adored each other. White hair, devilish queer, 
 wasn't it? Suited her, somehow. And then she had been 
 married to a Russian, or something, somewhere in the 
 
 wilds and their names were But do you know," 
 
 said Marshfield, interrupting himself, " I think I had 
 better let you find that out for yourselves if you care."
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 DURING the early summer months I was in Paris, 
 miserably depressed both in mind and body. The 
 cause of this unhappy mood concerns in no way this 
 account ; but for very many days before the particular 
 morning when I saw the things I now wish to relate 
 I had tasted no sleep. 
 
 It was, I believe, the 10th of June. I had risen at 
 dawn from my bed of unrest, in utter despair of ever 
 knowing again the balm of oblivion, and had set forth to 
 tramp the deserted streets before the day's great heat 
 
 Obsession-dogged wanderings in time brought me 
 to that quarter, on the left bank of the river, where, 
 in haughty silent retirement from the gay heart of 
 the city, looms the Paris Observatory above granite 
 paved roads and poverty-stricken lanes. 
 
 In those unknown and depressing purlieus I 
 roamed, wearily fighting the protean apparitions of 
 my misery, losing my way ever more, and longing for 
 something to distract at least my eyes among the 
 dusty surroundings. Presently, as I gazed about me 
 to seek the same, I became aware of the approach 
 of another early rambler in the dreary avenue I 
 tramped. It was the only living creature I had met, 
 save some melancholy public guardians and a few 
 four-footed prowling wretches ; and I made a languid 
 effort to become interested. I studiously noted that 
 the fellow was tall of figure, and gaunt ; that he 
 walked with outstretched steps, but pensively, his head
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 137 
 
 bent on his breast ; and I calculated that, although 
 his direction seemed unsettled, his irregular path 
 might cross mine in a moment or two. But he sud- 
 denly diverged towards the nettle-grown heaps of 
 some unoccupied ground (terrains vac/ lies, such plots 
 are expressively termed there), fallow since many years, 
 to judge l by the rankness of the vegetation it nurtured. 
 
 The next instant, like a flash, I thought I recog- 
 nised, under the deambulist's negligent attire, the 
 loose long frame and the unmistakable auburn mane 
 of one I knew well of old Rob Brodie a whilom 
 college chum. 
 
 I halted, and called out in English. He was at 
 that moment bending, apparently to grub at the root 
 of some broad-leaved weeds, and sprang up again, 
 rigid, to his full height, examining me under his palm. 
 
 " Meldrum ! by all that is odd ! " he exclaimed, 
 after a moment, adding, as he advanced in three 
 immense strides, " and by all that is welcome ! But 
 where from," he went on, shaking my hand heartily, 
 " and what make you here, at such an hour ? " (The 
 last of six strokes was vibrating away from the Pan- 
 theon hill.) 
 
 " Trying to cure insomnia," I answered, reservedly, 
 dreading explanations. 
 
 He looked at me keenly, but kindly, for two 
 seconds, and my heart warmed towards our old 
 friendship. 
 
 " Yes. You are not as happy as I remember you," 
 he said, simply, and, forbearing further inquiry, bent 
 over once more, like a stork, to examine the mould, 
 which he stirred with a knife. Having apparently 
 found what he sought, he heaped some of the black
 
 138 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 earth on a spread handkerchief, which he tied up at 
 the corners. 
 
 " But you ? " I asked ; " why such an early bird ? " 
 
 He looked up, and in a broad smile showed his 
 white teeth, splendid under his orange moustache. 
 
 " A good trope," he cried, merrily ; " the right one, 
 too, as usual with you. I am, in fact, ' catching the 
 worm.' " 
 
 " For fishing to-day ? " I suggested. 
 
 " No, my dear Meldrum," he returned, rising and 
 towering over me afresh. " No ; have you ever 
 known me w T aste my tune in such wise ? " Then, 
 quite gravely, but with that odd blinking in his eyes 
 I remembered of old as premonitory of some astound- 
 ing statement, " I am selecting light and likely food 
 for my Son of Chaos," he explained. 
 
 I must have looked the interrogation I felt un- 
 equal to formulate, for, after fixing me in an abstracted 
 manner, he pursued of his own accord 
 
 "I will tell you ah 1 about this, though it may 
 be premature. It may," he repeated, thoughtfully. 
 " But no ; the victory is as good as won, and you shall 
 be my first witness." 
 
 Then, with a sudden warmth, he took my arm and 
 marched me away by his side. 
 
 " You, Meldrum, old friend," said he, after a pause, 
 " were one of the few who ever believed in my so- 
 called subversive assertions. Ah ! I could wish we 
 had here to-day one or two of our sceptics ! But it 
 little matters now ; they shall hear of it, all in tune." 
 
 He lapsed suddenly into silence. With his head 
 again bent on his breast, smilingly looking through 
 the earth, as it were, and still absently retaining his
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 139 
 
 strong grip of my arm, he walked along rapidly, and 
 quite unconscious of the absurd fact that I had to 
 hop at least three steps to his two. 
 
 In this manner I was trotted into a narrow, silent 
 bye-street of small whitewashed houses. The place 
 was so out of the way of all traffic, that, I recollect, 
 green blades and fruiting moss could live undisturbed 
 between the paving pebbles. 
 
 I had then time to examine my friendly captor more 
 closely. He had grown thinner than ever, and his 
 grey eyes were deeper sunk than I remembered them. 
 Under his unconventional Parisian attire he had 
 retained, I was dimly glad to notice, a certain British 
 neatness of person and linen which seemed to pre- 
 clude the idea of poverty. 
 
 We halted in front of a humble-looking, one- 
 storeyed building, withal very neat, and, with its 
 narrow door, looking pleasantly private. Over the 
 low roof, red-tiled like a country house, could be seen 
 the projecting boughs of tolerably well-grown trees. 
 
 " By the way," said Brodie, at length breaking his 
 silence, after he had pulled the beh 1 , and as a rapid 
 patter of feet was heard approaching from within, 
 " you do not know, I suppose, I am married ? There 
 she comes." 
 
 Some months before I might, perhaps, have pitied 
 him, mentally, and with lofty bachelor cynicism ; but 
 in my then frame of mind the one thing that oc- 
 curred was the sadness sadness ever present, but 
 here under yet another form that no one would ever, 
 now, thus hasten to welcome James Meldrum home. 
 
 Violent astonishment, however, as soon as the 
 door was drawn back, drove away on the spot the
 
 140 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 haunting burden of my thoughts. I looked up at 
 Brodie in bewilderment. 
 
 " My wife," said he, in the most natural manner 
 possible, and with hospitable gesture motioned me in. 
 
 I looked down again on the little body a Japanese ! 
 the prettiest specimen I had ever seen ; indeed, 
 very pretty, as a second glance discovered beyond 
 doubt ; but, with her side-tilted eyes, her blue-black 
 hair, profuse and stiff, her small row of teeth gleam- 
 ing, black as polished jet, behind her queer little 
 geranium-red mouth, quite the most unmistakably 
 outlandish wife to a Scot that, I should imagine, was 
 yet known. 
 
 She approached her giant lord with caressing 
 ways, and took hat and parcel from his hands, casting 
 occasional curious glances on me. 
 
 He said two words ; these, I surmise, must have 
 meant, " A friend, dear," for she immediately turned 
 and attended to me in the same cosy style. 
 
 At the end of the passage, through an open back 
 door, lay a piece of garden-land, brilliantly verdant, 
 both above and under foot, in the sunshine that 
 already beat the earth fiercely from a cloudless 
 heaven. Brodie looked wistfully in that direction. 
 
 " She will give you breakfast," he said, after a 
 moment's hesitation, beginning to move away as if 
 irresistibly attracted thither; "she will see to you. 
 You are at home, you know." 
 
 The little woman, who was dressed, no doubt for 
 indoor purposes only, in her native silks, smiled a 
 confident baby smile at me, and led the way to a 
 ground-floor room, large and cool, and one of the 
 most peculiar dens conceivable.
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." Ul 
 
 It was quite bare in the middle, but for a table 
 and two small chairs. On the other hand, the walls, 
 from the red-tiled floor to the beamed ceiling, abso- 
 lutely disappeared under an astounding motley of 
 chattels, spread on broad rough shelves. Books there 
 were, of course, in great numbers, but piled up with 
 absolute disregard of the conventional methods of mar- 
 shalling those friends. Besides these, philosophical 
 instruments, most of them of shapes and for pur- 
 poses unknown, phials and glass jars containing grue- 
 some anatomical preparations, bundles of dried plants 
 and stuffed animals, a collection of odd-looking 
 musical instruments, eastern statuettes of Buddhistic 
 physiognomy, and a thousand odds and ends of kinds 
 utterly meaningless to me, filled up every nook that 
 was suitable as to space. 
 
 In contrast with this medley stood, at the lighter 
 end of the room, a tidily-appointed analytical bench, 
 on which I recognised the microscope and the balance 
 of modern straight sailing science. 
 
 Brodie's wife waited patiently till my astonished 
 eye again rested upon her. 
 
 " Breakfast ? " then lisped the incredible little Jap 
 in pretty, broken English. " What ? Tea, yes ? 
 Bread, fruit, yes ? " and on my assent left me seated 
 and pondering in the middle of my friend's Capernaum. 
 
 I am not of those who write down a man mad, as 
 it were a matter of course, because he does not frame 
 his mind (being otherwise well gifted) after the 
 average intellectual pattern of his social peers. And, 
 therefore, concerning Brodie, although I am bound to 
 admit that I have always heard him quoted an
 
 U2 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 obvious lunatic, I have always reserved my opinion. 
 I am fain to do so still, even with the recollection on 
 me of the last day I spent in his company. Whether, 
 on that occasion, he was only under a delusion typical 
 of the dangers attendant on too finite knowledge, or 
 whether he really succeeded in bringing to issue an 
 experiment calculated to upset the most venerable of 
 our cosmogonic tenets, I am not, either by training or 
 intellect, competent to decide. If he have sufficiently 
 recovered from the effects of the same to publish his 
 own version of an extraordinary discovery, we may 
 certainly expect some stir in that section of the 
 scientific world which gropes through biological re- 
 searches. My narrative is addressed to readers lay 
 and otherwise unprejudiced like myself. 
 
 To refer once more to Brodie's repute for extreme 
 eccentricity, I may state that, although he was an 
 ardent devourer of books, and always vastly enthused 
 about a chosen subject for a time, he never at any 
 time adhered long to any particular course of study. 
 I believe he never even graduated at any of the 
 numerous universities whither he flitted from time 
 to time. But all this, to my mind, is no damaging 
 proof against his mental equilibrium. My opinion 
 would, of course, be different had he been dependent 
 for welfare on sustained exertions. But if a young 
 man, singularly gifted for the accumulation of 
 knowledge, and drawn by his tastes towards cryptic 
 speculation, be satisfied with a modest settled income, 
 I can but envy his philosophical happiness. 
 
 I first knew Brodie in Glasgow, the sombre dank 
 college halls of which we both helped to warm with 
 our red undergraduates' gowns. That was in the old
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 143 
 
 days, when that seat of learning still dwelt in the 
 heart of the city slums ; when the aspiring belfry and 
 the neo-gothic lecture rooms on Billhead existed yet 
 not even hi their designer's imagination. I was 
 fascinated from the first by his odd physiognomy, his 
 immense height and absurd thinness, his phenom- 
 enally red hair ; by the owl-like appearance of his 
 nose, high-bridged, but rather small, between enor- 
 mously wide open grey eyes, which he would 
 characteristically close when reflecting, and open of 
 a sudden with a fantastically profound expression. 
 This attraction at first sight ripened soon into ad- 
 miring friendship under successive revelations of 
 original personality for, with such an extraordinary 
 presence, there was something curiously taking in the 
 fellow's utter lack of self-consciousness. 
 
 The queerness of Brodie's outer man was well 
 balanced by an irresistibly paradoxical turn of mind, 
 a deep-set bias which ever led him to select an utterly 
 novel line in the cross-country of reasoning. Even 
 then, in those good now, alack, far-off days of our 
 young twenties, he was always in full pursuit of some 
 magnificent conceptions, objects of distant wonder 
 for me. 
 
 I know I am something of a dullard, and fear I 
 was considered as such by many of our set among 
 whom Rob's elevated notions were a standing subject 
 of jest. But there can be no doubt that he more than 
 held his own in that circle of brilliant young scholarly 
 wits, or of very positive scientists (as they acknow- 
 ledged themselves to be) that met weekly at our 
 nodes in his rooms; for Brodie was the best to do 
 among us, and hospitable in proportion. Many a
 
 144 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 time, at those Saturday symposia, when twitted 
 about the fad of the moment, have I heard him. 
 quietly, between a sip at his toddy and a puff at his 
 yard of clay, propound a prodigious speculative conun- 
 drum in terse, direct manner, which invariably and 
 instanter nonplussed even his superiors in standing 
 and knowledge. 
 
 He left Glasgow one fine morning quite suddenly. 
 He was disgusted, said he, with the humdrum courses 
 of our professors. But some years later I again met 
 him, still a mere student, in Leyden. He was as 
 pleasant and simple as ever, but seemed (only in a 
 temporary freak, I trust) to have relinquished, as 
 "unsatisfactory," the religion he was born in. I believe 
 he inclined then to Buddhism ; at any rate, I found 
 him full of feeling on the topic of Dhammapada. As 
 for science, he followed the world-renowned medical 
 lectures at that seat of learning, but with a dreary, 
 critical kind of interest ; all his enthusiasm was now, 
 it seemed, centred in Basil Valentine, Paracelsus, and 
 thinkers of similar mould. 
 
 After that I lost sight of him altogether, though I 
 heard that, having indulged in a spell at Bologna, he 
 had been seen making his way, as it was supposed, to 
 Japan. And from what I had just seen the rumour 
 was likely to have been true. It struck me as on the 
 whole not incongruous that I should meet him at 
 length, as happy as ever as ever hi the midst of a 
 scientific wild-goose chase, and mated to a quaint 
 little Buddhist. 
 
 Presently this same small heathen returned softly 
 to the room, and busied herself laying a cloth on 
 the table, and thereon the morning refection. Then
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 145 
 
 very quietly she went out, to return bearing in her 
 arms an infant with beady-black eyes and stiff rust- 
 coloured hair, with which she retired to a distant 
 corner. 
 
 Soon after, Rob himself came in, with a radiant 
 look on his face, as if he would have immense things 
 to tell after he had sacrificed a little more to the 
 rites of hospitality. 
 
 I remember he poured some pale, amber-coloured 
 liquid into my cup. 
 
 "Japanese tea," he said, and excused himself on 
 having no Chinese to give me. There was besides a 
 fishy conserve he called katse-busse, which I was 
 advised to eat, moistened with olive oil on bread ; also 
 oranges and other fruit. 
 
 And between the influence of these novel tastes 
 (pleasant, I am bound to admit) and the hypnotic 
 effect produced on me by the monotonous balancing 
 movement of Brodie's wife who, in her corner, 
 suckled her babe conspicuously, and in perfect inno- 
 cence, at a very white bosom a dreamy state stole 
 over me which, in the midst of my bodily fatigue, was 
 curiously grateful. 
 
 I heard much voluble talk from my entertainer, 
 but followed it with little attention. He explained to 
 me the story of his life and schemes, how and why he 
 had chosen such a companion, such an abode ; and I 
 dimly thought : " If you have found happiness on 
 your way, what need to explain why you clutched at 
 it ? " And with latent but soft bitterness I wondered 
 whether there could be a more beautiful sight in a 
 man's eyes than that of his mate be she but a small 
 savage from distant isles bending her head with that 
 J
 
 146 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 world-old, ever-new grace, to gaze tenderly on the 
 child that is his own 
 
 And through such thoughts Brodie continued his 
 exposition, unconscious, in his own eagerness, of my 
 day-dreaming. 
 
 " All these experiments, and their classified 
 results," he said at last, touching me lightly on the 
 arm in a way that made me start, " are embodied in 
 this little MS." there was a fat pocket-book in his 
 hand "but the last, almost concluded, will eclipse 
 them all" 
 
 He paused an instant, fondly looking into futurity. 
 " How those very men, who scoffed so lightly at my 
 everlasting objections, will bite their lips when they 
 hear of it, to be sure ! " he added, pensively. 
 
 I made an effort to seem interested, and half 
 turned to look inquiringly at the working table by 
 the window. 
 
 " No, not there," he cried. " It is in the garden, 
 out in the free air, under the blue sky, under the 
 glorious sun-pour. My tank of light is the crucible 
 Isis, Sol, the pivot of our system, the universal 
 creator, the unremitting life-giver, my furnace ; water, 
 the ubiquitous menstruum, the blood that courses 
 this world's body (but water in the chaotic condition), 
 my- Osiris, the matrix for this transmutation of inert 
 matter into living. Chaotic condition, and waiting /or 
 ordered forms, Meldrum there is the whole secret. 
 And they, the lofty science men who ever talk of the 
 " modern," the " experimental," method for the eluci- 
 dation of Nature's laws, and yet never do experiment 
 except in their holes and corners, and who rest content 
 with ratiocinating on possibilities "
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS:' 147 
 
 Here Brodie, who had by degrees waxed passion- 
 ately emphatic, suddenly abruptly checked himself. 
 After a moment's silence he added, with impressive 
 simplicity 
 
 " I have made the experiment, that is all." Then 
 recollecting himself still further 
 
 " But you eat no more," he remarked, in friendly 
 solicitude. " You will now smoke, no doubt ; nothing 
 like smoke for a man in your condition. What shall 
 it be ? I have cutties and clays of home production ; 
 but this French herb is real sorry stuff. Better try 
 also some of our Japanese tobacco. I myself now 
 smoke no other." 
 
 In obedience to an imperative though not unkind 
 word, the little matron swung her puppet over her 
 shoulder, and came forward to wait on us with small 
 reed-stemmed, metal-bowled pipes. Two of these she 
 carefully filled with fine-cut, fawn-coloured weed, and 
 lighted for us from a spill. 
 
 "Nothing like smoking for one in your con- 
 dition," repeated Brodie, blowing down a double cloud 
 himself from his nostrils. "Bless me, but you do 
 not look your old self at ah 1 , man. Oh ! I know I 
 know," he went on, as though deprecating an ex- 
 planation which I had, in truth, no mind to give. 
 "I have been so myself," and he blinked his grey 
 eyes sagely ; what he meant I could not understand 
 but it mattered little. " Put your feet up and be 
 comfortable," he went on, dragging his own chair for- 
 ward for my use, and sitting down on a corner of the 
 table where he towered over me. 
 
 I made myself as easy as I might on two hard 
 chairs, and puffed at the odd-flavoured pipe. After 
 J 2
 
 148 THE "SUN OF CHAOS." 
 
 looking down upon ine for a time with profound intro- 
 spective gaze, he presently reverted to his theme. 
 
 " The old priests, over there," pursued he, signifi- 
 cantly pointing eastwards with his thumb over his 
 shoulder, " who so furiously forbade me certain experi- 
 ments under threat of complicated tortures, they it was 
 that gave me this idea unwittingly, no doubt. They 
 are some thousands of years behind us, we say. Maybe. 
 Or shall we have it, so many thousands of years nearer 
 to unbiassed reasoning ? Ah ! I always thought, my- 
 self, there was something in their esoteric tenets 
 which might well put some of our great men nearer 
 the scent. With these latter, sometimes, like a rift 
 in a black cloud Old Darwin himself, now . . . well, 
 never mind, you would not understand ; but the great 
 man came burningly close, I promise you, to a new 
 germ of ideas in one of his ' fool's experiments ' (as 
 he apologetically called them, afraid of Philistine 
 judgment and lacking the pluck to pursue). Fool's 
 experiments ! Bah ! It was his transcendental genius 
 that once alas ! only once urged him to break 
 through the shackles of conventional science. You 
 may have heard how he tried the effect of a bassoon's 
 searching music on a germinating cotyledon ? No ? 
 Of course you have not ; it is not your subject. But 
 to come back to mine it \vas, as I said, the pro- 
 hibition of those old devils, by the Sacred Mountain 
 yonder, that gave me the idea I am now carrying out. 
 A revelation, Meldrum ! Like a flash of lightning, I 
 saw the reason why, in the unscientific days of old, 
 the priest class anathematised the very idea of an 
 incantation. So I packed at once, you see. It was 
 not so much the fear of being ' boned alive ' that
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS" 149 
 
 made me run, but the frenzy to see this out. Their 
 distress was so obvious that I knew for sure there 
 must be even more than I surmised at first in what I 
 I suggested ; there were arcana capable of being 
 brought to light, and on the lines I then tentatively 
 followed. So we flitted, and ultimately, on various 
 considerations, elected to take our perch here. She 
 left with me, not only because we loved," he half 
 turned round to cast a thoughtful look at the woman, 
 who, with head bent and again rapt in maternal 
 contemplation, was very softly humming to the babe 
 what sounded like the intermittent drone of a bumble- 
 bee round a flower, "but also," continued Brodie, 
 " because she knows the suitable music." 
 
 He brought back his wide-open gaze, which now 
 began really to fascinate me, upon my face. 
 
 " I do not claim to be a genius myself," he re- 
 sumed, with serious modesty ; " I only claim common 
 sense : your man of genius invariably lacks equi- 
 librium. He can deduct, or induct, never can or 
 dares to do both at the same stretch. He can prove 
 to you that all our so-called elements only differ really 
 in the swing of their atom vibration, and yet he will 
 blindly deny the possibility of transmutation and re- 
 juvenescence. I ask you, is it logical ? Having un- 
 ravelled so much of Nature's tangle, he dares maintain 
 that the nisus formativus of life itself is not within 
 man's ken, and terrified, harks back to the old saw 
 omne vivum ex ovo and there the matter is to rest, 
 forsooth ! No one dares consider the question of the 
 first vivum, eh ? the vivum out of chaos ! Now, 
 those untrammelled minds of old alchemists, astro- 
 logers, call them what you will, though they did
 
 150 TEE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 grope in the dark (through lack of the experimental 
 means we now at last possess) for such things as ' the 
 stone ' and the ' life elixir,' were actually nearer the 
 broad truths of this material world. But they, too, 
 were afraid of the powers, and hid their discovered 
 truths under their hocus-pocus jargon. Yet we will 
 have to go back but, man, why do you stare at me 
 like that ; are ye ailing ? " 
 
 Here Brodie, interrupting himself, bent slowly 
 forward to look more closely at me. I believe now 
 that I never understood a single word of all he said at 
 the time, though it has since come back to me ; but 
 that I sat there, open-mouthed, staring upwards at 
 him with palsied eyelids. 
 
 " No," I managed with an effort to say, " only 
 tired, as you know." 
 
 " Why, I declare you are asleep, and with your 
 eyes open," he went on, bending lower till his grey 
 orbs seemed to grow so enormous as to fill the room. 
 "Maybe I weary you, old man. I shall leave you 
 alone to rest. You are at home so I said before. I 
 have my work. When you care to, you will find me 
 in the yard." 
 
 And I was left in silence. I remained, mistily 
 cogitating. It must have been sleep, as he said, for I 
 certainly woke up later, and that in a heart-freezing 
 anguish, with the blood hissing through my ears and 
 every individual joint aching in distressing vibration. 
 
 All this (I have thought since) was, of course, the 
 result of sinking into exhausted torpor, in a cramped 
 and choking position on two small chairs. But at the 
 time it seemed as though every fibre of flesh was 
 quivering, and my blood spurting under the pulse of
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 151 
 
 some throbbing outer roar. And in fact the room 
 was filled with a deep sound, the like of which I had 
 never heard. 
 
 This presently died away, to be, however, im- 
 mediately followed by the most impish music con- 
 ceivable a perfect charivari it fell on my still un- 
 settled wits ; an undulating caterwaul, with now and 
 then a grating, shivering, sistrum-like clangour that 
 set tooth and nail furious. 
 
 Poised on tiptoe in my first startled attitude I 
 listened, vaguely thinking of Macabre's uncanny 
 Rebec. Then, again, the cacophony subsided, merging 
 into sounds not inharmonious although devoid of con- 
 ventionally musical sense, and I was able to breathe 
 again, to sink once more on my heels, and to realise 
 that all this strangeness proceeded from the garden 
 through the open, flower-screened window. But in a 
 very short time, however, there mixed itself with the 
 music, which had grown luring, almost caressing, an 
 increasing chorus of unmistakable bird voices, and 
 after a while the whistles, twitters, chirrups became 
 deafening. It seemed as though all the feathered 
 clans had gathered from Parisian trees and housetops 
 into Brodie's secluded garden, and like an excitable 
 human mob, vociferated, quarrelled, and applauded 
 until the mysterious fiddle notes were drowned under 
 the clamour. 
 
 Fairly maddened this time, I rushed out, rudely 
 pushed the inner door, and found myself in a little 
 orchard. It was enclosed, on one side by the house 
 itself, on the others by high stone walls ; utterly 
 uncultivated but with a neglected wealth of wild 
 vegetation, and carpeted with grass ankle-deep.
 
 152 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 On my irruption, most of the birds for the place 
 was, as I had surmised, full of them flew up like a 
 swarm, and took their perch in the neighbourhood, 
 darkening eaves and wall-crest and higher boughs, 
 where they kept up their excited concert. 
 
 I then noticed Brodie and his wife; she held in 
 her hands a tall monochord instrument ; he was 
 armed with what seemed a double-bass fiddlestick. 
 His countenance was illuminated. 
 
 "Come, Meldrum," he cried, in a loud exultant 
 voice, "see for yourself; come and watch my palin- 
 genesic crucible." 
 
 I advanced through the wild weeds, and there 
 before me stood what at first flush seemed a large 
 self-luminous sphere, a phenomenal pearl, poised in 
 space. This resolved itself, however, into a crystal 
 bowl with wide trumpet-shaped mouth, filled with 
 opalescent liquid, through which rapidly ascended 
 and disappeared a constant flow of iridescent 
 bubbles. The surface of the water was dotted with 
 small floating islands of a moss-like substance, 
 emerald-hued, with here and there blood-red specks. 
 This, to me incomprehensible, machine was supported 
 on what seemed a bronze pillar from which ran into 
 the house, snake-like in and out of the grass, a sort of 
 twisted brown cable. 
 
 "Here," said Brodie, gazing upon it with fond, 
 expectant eyes, and raising his voice to make it 
 audible above the piping din, whilst his wife gravely 
 went on with her weird performance ; " here is my 
 crucible, heated, as you see, by pure ethereal sun-rays, 
 which permeate and vivify the innermost free mole- 
 cules it contains. These life-rays are concentrated on
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 153 
 
 it, dive and work into it, not only from the free heaven 
 above,but on every side : from this system of mirrors;" 
 and as he spoke and I approached still nearer, I had 
 noticed, with further bewilderment, various glasses, 
 set up in what as Brodie explained is called cata- 
 dioptric system. To me they glowed, at the time, 
 like so many basilisk eyes, peering from grass, and 
 leaves, and stone fissures, and their effect was dis- 
 tracting. 
 
 " Furthermore," Brodie pursued, " not one of the 
 molecules in the matrix (and it contains all the 
 elements not so many, after all of the living clay) 
 swings in there, but is free to change as it lists 
 under new impulses ; for I keep them in that 
 necessary primordial chaotic state, with this pile," 
 jerking his head in the direction of the cable; "they 
 are perpetually decomposing and reuniting, and so 
 ready to be rearranged in sympathy with what their 
 master lists. Now they are harmonising with the 
 concert you hear. Have you never felt even your- 
 self, high organism as you are, changed to your inner- 
 most fibre, from placid to tender, or fierce, by a few 
 musical vibrations ? . . . . But I have no time now ; 
 you see that they are rearranging themselves, and not 
 blindly, not inertly there must be, there is some- 
 thing living there ; not only that moss, those con- 
 fervoe ; they live, 'tis true, but that is not enough. 
 There must be life with movement and feeling ; life 
 sentient of pain and pleasure we shall see ! " 
 
 He stopped, pushed me aside, and motioning to 
 his wife to desist, applied his bow to the edge of the 
 basin. There rose again on the ear, slowly, but ever 
 waxing in strength, the mighty gong-like roar that
 
 154 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 had awakened me a short time ago in such innermost- 
 felt anguish. The water rose into geometrical forms, 
 and its inner light broke into shimmering prismatic 
 colours ; its surface leaped up into changing ridged 
 designs, and at last burst upwards into showers of 
 scintillating droplets. 
 
 And now the little Japanese began again on her 
 rebec, and one by one, as the roar subsided, and her 
 music was heard, the birds came back to the call till 
 the trees and the ground were black with them ; some 
 even impudently perching on the lips of the uncanny 
 bowl. 
 
 Scarcely believing my senses, I stood and watched 
 Brodie, who, pale and fierce with expectation, peered 
 into the milky liquid. Suddenly I saw the sweat 
 burst upon his forehead. A shadow, a sort of cloud, 
 became visible in the middle of the bowl. Presently 
 amidst the ever-developing pandemonium of bird 
 whistles and hisses round us, this shadow began to 
 move ; it seemed to grow compact, then more rapidly 
 it flitted to and fro, and once or twice passed near 
 to the glass sides. 
 
 Brodie gave a stifled cry, and, as if losing all self- 
 control, plunged his hand into the bowl After a 
 frantic search, the hand reappeared, holding some 
 horrible object which struggled in uncouth and flabby 
 agony. I cannot describe it otherwise than as a jelly- 
 fish-like creature, yet to some extent bird-shaped ; 
 a molluscous monster, possessed of rudimentary, use- 
 less limbs, legs, and wings, as of some callow fowl, 
 translucent and viscid. 
 
 A very storm of nausea seized me as soon as I had 
 fully seen the Thing. But on Brodie himself the
 
 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 155 
 
 impression was one I cannot recall without revulsion. 
 There may have been a moment of triumph, but what 
 I saw in hte face was what I have only seen in the 
 most fearful dreams of fever. He remained a 
 moment, open-mouthed, fascinated by the object he 
 held at arm's length, babbling faintly between quick 
 breaths : 
 
 " It's living living living." 
 
 Then, as the thing curled what seemed to be its 
 head round, the horror of it appeared at one wave, to 
 overreach him, and he gave a choking cry : 
 
 " Mercy it has eyes ! It looks at me, faugh ! " and 
 shrieking, with a wild gesture of loathing, he at- 
 tempted to throw the creature from him. But the 
 viscous abomination clung to his fingers ; and his hair 
 rose on his head. 
 
 Through the high pitch of the birds that now 
 gave forth their clamour with incomprehensible fury, 
 his groans, betrayed by tremulous lips, were inaudible. 
 But at last with a howl of despair, he succeeded in 
 tearing the clammy creature from his hand, and 
 throwing it upon the earth. 
 
 For an instant only I could see this grizzly gosling, 
 this unspeakable liquid fowl, writhe and seemingly 
 attempt to crawl back as if for protection towards its 
 creator; but the clean birds of the air would have 
 none of it. In their numbers they clustered round 
 the beast, angrily feU to work with claws and beak, 
 and the next minute, of Brodie's vivum out of chaos, 
 there was no trace left. 
 
 The deed done, the birds rose simultaneously, and 
 with a great whirr and hurtling of wings fluttered 
 away into the sunny air. Silence reigned once more
 
 156 THE "SON OF CHAOS." 
 
 in the green well I looked at Rob. He stood 
 leaning against a tree, trembling and staring stupidly 
 at his hand. His little wife, with her fiddle at her 
 feet, gazed up at the discomposed face of her master 
 with sorrowful eyes that presently filled with quiet 
 welling tears. 
 
 And here the abject, unexplainable fear en- 
 compassing this man who had, or thought to have, 
 made life out of matter, suddenly in the oppressive 
 stillness infected me also, body and soul, with panic. 
 
 As one tries to escape from the unutterable, all- 
 shadowing anguish of nightmare, without a word, and 
 no doubt unnoticed, I turned and flew from the house 
 and ran through endless tangles of street, away, away, 
 till at last, exhausted and bathed in grimy sweat, but 
 somewhat relieved of my incubus, I found myself once 
 more in familiar surroundings. 
 
 I tried the following day, being myself again, and 
 stung by remorse for having thus deserted an old 
 friend in his distress, to find my way back to his 
 retired abode. But my search was vain. And now 
 nothing but another accidental meeting, or a com- 
 munication from him to some science periodical, can, 
 I fear, put me in the way of learning the further 
 fortunes of Brodie's cosmogonic experiments.
 
 temptations,
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 "FANCY possessing two such houses as the Palazzo 
 Borgognone and the Villa Castelcapaccio ! I do not 
 know which I envy you the most I almost think it 
 is this little paradise." 
 
 "As you say, the villa is charming, the air 
 salubrious, the gardens a dream, and the situation all 
 that could be desired. The apartments, too, which I 
 have reserved for myself in the Palace, will no doubt 
 prove convenient." 
 
 "Spoilt child of fortune, your tone -belies your 
 words ! " 
 
 " Do you know me so little as to expect enthusiasm 
 of me ? If ever I did possess a capacity for that 
 fatiguing emotion, I am glad to say it exists no 
 longer." 
 
 " And you can tell me that in front of one of the 
 most beautiful views in Rome ! " 
 
 The Duchess rose from her seat with a short 
 laugh, and, walking over to the window, looked coldly 
 forth. 
 
 "The beauties of nature," she answered, "never 
 did appeal to me very strongly. In so far as I dislike 
 ugly things, I like a fine prospect; but beyond 
 that . . ." 
 
 She completed the sentence by a slight shrug of 
 her shoulders, and passed onwards towards the end of 
 the room, where she remained for a few moments
 
 160 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 stationary before a long Empire mirror contemplating 
 her own lovely image with the same pleasureless 
 countenance. 
 
 The Baronne du Chatelet watched her friend 
 keenly through her eyeglass, her little dark plain face 
 alive with interest and curiosity. 
 
 " What is the matter with you ? " she asked. " It 
 is not grief for the dear departed, surely ? " 
 
 The Duchessa Castelcapaccio turned round and 
 looked at the questioner with a slow smile of such 
 peculiar import that the latter burst out laughing : 
 
 "Well no, I did not really make the suggestion 
 seriously. You have reached the pearl-grey period in 
 your mourning, I see ; I have no doubt your feelings 
 have arrived at the same soothing stage. That is as 
 it should be, after eighteen months." 
 
 " Castelcapaccio was an estimable man," remarked 
 his widow, gravely. 
 
 " Of course, of course ! " 
 
 " He was the most perfect gentleman I ever knew. 
 At the very point where he was becoming a little too 
 decrepit to be quite pleasant company, he had the 
 good taste to retire." 
 
 " You can flatter yourself on your luck, my dear," 
 observed the Baronne feelingly ; " those things do not 
 happen to everybody, and to be a penniless beauty, 
 of family so old, so proud, that anything in all 
 Austria under blood-royal would have been considered 
 a 'mesalliance, while a marriage out of your own rank 
 was not to be thought of, is not as a rule a promising 
 prospect. When we were girls together at Vienna, I 
 remember how you used to say you would cheerfully 
 sell your looks for my money, because to have
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 161 
 
 one's face for one's fortune did not pay, in this 
 century ; and yet I had to content myself with an 
 attache de legation a Belgian, my dear, of all men ! 
 and only conseiller now, notwithstanding all my 
 efforts. Whereas you ! Reflect one moment on your 
 good fortune ! To meet at the age of twenty with a 
 childless widowed duke of fabulous wealth, descended 
 from the ancient kings of Rome, who is possessed of 
 everything that is delightful in the way of palaces 
 and jewels, who adds to his merits the one of falling 
 really in love with you, and who, to make up for the 
 trifling drawback of being some fifty years your elder, 
 has the delicacy to withdraw from existence within 
 reasonable time. Thus at twenty-five, rich, beautiful 
 free as air, and everywhere sought after, I assure you, 
 my dear, if you were not my best friend, I should hate 
 you ! " 
 
 " My good Marie, I shall confide to you a little 
 secret I am bored." 
 
 "With your money, your face," cried her com- 
 panion, in a shrill crescendo, " with that tea-gown ! 
 It's sinful." 
 
 The Duchess swept her pale draperies back across 
 the room, and sank once more into the arm-chair she 
 had vacated. 
 
 " I am bored," she repeated. " Dress, when one has 
 as many gowns as there are days in the year, is apt to 
 lose its charm ; admiration and adulation have ceased 
 to excite me I have too much of it ; I have left 
 behind me in Florence some score of adoring lovers 
 who are ah 1 ready to die for me and for les beaux 
 yeux de ma cassette ; no doubt they will most of them 
 follow me here. They all bore me; there is not a 
 K
 
 162 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 spark of amusement to be struck from any one of 
 them. Need I say the feminine part of my ac- 
 quaintance is not more exhilarating ? " 
 
 " It cannot be your liver," murmured Madame du 
 Chatelet, pensively; "your complexion is too trium- 
 phant for that. I fear you are in love, my poor Anna." 
 
 " Love ! " repeated the other, fixing her inter- 
 locutor with a look so cold, so insolent, so hard, 
 that the little woman's sallow cheek crimsoned 
 beneath it ; " in our world, ma chere, that is a 
 word which I am glad to say is becoming obsolete. 
 Let us leave such vulgarity to occupy the little 
 middle classes ; to me the platitude is as wearisome as 
 the bourgeois cant about virtue. Virtue! what an 
 absurdity ! The virtuous woman is merely the clever 
 woman she who loses her reputation a fool, neither 
 more nor less. Luckily, as I have said, these vulgar, 
 popular ideas are dying out among us." 
 
 Madame du Chatelet tossed her head, opened her 
 lips for several biting retorts, and prudently closed 
 them again in silence. The Duchess looked at her, 
 serene once more, from under her drooping lids, and 
 then broke into a soft laugh. 
 
 "And talking of virtue, have you heard about 
 Virginie dell' Orinea and Prince Schwarzenheim ? 
 You do not know of it ? Why, how you live, you 
 good Romans ! At least you have met our com- 
 patriot Prince Schwarzenheim you are acquainted 
 with him by reputation anyhow ? Ah, that is well ! 
 it would be a difficult, not to say delicate task to 
 have to give you a sketch ot his career. This grande 
 Marquise then happened to be the one woman re- 
 markable for highly moral conduct hi our sinful
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 163 
 
 Florence ; it is a distinction like another. A party 
 became very respectable by her very presence ; to be 
 dropped by la dell' Ormea was to lose one's repu- 
 tation ; her propriety was intolerable. With that 
 ugly to frighten one. Now our Austrian, the gallant, 
 the irresistible, was naturally much in request 
 among the fair ones, despite the rumour of his Blue- 
 beard-like propensities; they say he has a wife in 
 each of his castles, you know ; these easy conquests 
 were beginning to bore him too ; the model Virginie 
 began to look more and more askance at him when 
 they met. One day he said he would stand her airs 
 no longer, and a week after behold what a joke, 
 what a triumph, what a scandal ! la dell' Orrnea and 
 Schwarzenheiin have disappeared together. His suc- 
 cess is more tremendous than ever, need I say; as 
 to the poor Marquise, he planted her hi Perugia. 
 There is one that will brag no more. Ah ! it makes 
 me laugh still! Where that delicious Schwarzen- 
 heiin is I do not know." 
 
 " He is here," said the Baronne, drily, " I am sorry 
 to say." 
 
 " Here in Rome ! Schwarzenheirn here ! " cried her 
 friend, with more eagerness than she had yet dis- 
 played ; " the only amusing man hi Europe, the only 
 man that ever amuses me ; my good Marie, this is 
 excellent news." 
 
 " People's tastes differ strangely," said Madame du 
 Chatelet, snappishly ; " I call him an odious man, and 
 one that certainly should not be received by any one, 
 young, beautiful, and unprotected, such as you " 
 
 The Duchess gave a good-humoured, mirthless 
 
 laugh. 
 
 K 2
 
 164 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 " Did you ever know rne do anything detrimental 
 to myself?" 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " Have you ever known any one get the better of 
 me ? have I ever lost my head or my heart over any 
 circumstance ? " 
 
 " Never, never ! " 
 
 " Then, believe me, I run no risk with Schwarzen- 
 heim. He amuses me, as I said ; and oh, my 
 good friend, if you knew what a boon it is to me to 
 be amused now and again ! There are times, I 
 assure you, when I would give hah my fortune for a 
 new sensation." 
 
 " Why, then, be grateful to me, for I can give you 
 one for nothing," cried the Baronne, rising briskly 
 from her chair, too much a woman of the world to 
 pursue a subject on which she and her companion 
 seemed bound to take divergent views. "Change 
 your things and come with me to Steven Munro's 
 studio, and you shall see my portrait. (He lives in 
 your own Palazzo, by the way ; it is rather piquant 
 of course you have never even heard of his existence !) 
 He is quite a young man, English, and he paints 
 . . . "kissing her hand ecstatically in mid-air 
 " my portrait is a dream ; you, even you, cannot see it 
 without envy." 
 
 " Let us go, then," said the Duchess, yawning, and 
 rang for her maid. 
 
 Steven Munro sat in his studio up five flights of 
 stairs in the Palazzo Borgognone, dreaming in a bath of 
 sunshine. His windows, wide open, admitted little 
 gusts of balmy wind blowing straight and fresh from
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 165 
 
 the Cauipagna. A ceaseless babel of voices, nasal 
 street cries, the clattering of horses' hoofs, the rattling 
 of vehicles on the ill-paved streets, the laughter of 
 little children in a word, all the strange medley of 
 sounds that characterise the Roman thoroughfare was 
 borne in upon him in a ceaseless stream. 
 
 On the easel before him lay the sketch of a girlish 
 head, a child's face, one would have thought, save for 
 a certain sharpness of outline more suggestive of the 
 awkward growing stage of life than that of the round 
 graces of childhood. 
 
 It was a bold study of light and shade, incomplete, 
 scarcely more than an indication of a singularly 
 refined and original type ; the features irregular but 
 not insignificant ; the eyes looking straight out of the 
 canvas with an earnest, guileless, eager look that one 
 felt to be very characteristic ; the whole set in a wild 
 mass of auburn hair, the colour of which was given 
 with the uncompromising hand of the young artist 
 who revels in its glowing tints. 
 
 At this, his work, Steven Munro sat gazing in such 
 abstraction as to have become quite detached from his 
 surroundings. It was not the warmth of the southern 
 sun, but the cold, damp air of the winter time of his 
 own native land, that seemed to encircle him ; not the 
 perfume of the narcissus flowers from the Venetian 
 vases on his table, combined with the all-pervading 
 indescribable odours of garlic and kindred bulbs, fried 
 oil and cheap cigars, floating in from a Roman street 
 through his open windows which filled his nostrils ; 
 but the aroma of the crushed heather, the wild thyme, 
 the peat and the moorlands of his " ain countrie." 
 And the breath of home was passing sweet to him, the
 
 166 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 vision of grey lands not gloomy, for the memory of 
 a loving face and of a young head that carried its own 
 sunshine. 
 
 There came steps on the stone stairs, and the 
 cracked bell at the outer door of his apartments was 
 pulled with a violence that made the loose wires 
 jangle and jar again. With a start and a muttered 
 execration on the intruder, Steven Munro awoke from 
 his dream ; in a trice the sketch was deposited out of 
 sight, and a heavy easel bearing a large portrait rolled 
 into prominence ; apostrophising which as he passed, 
 the artist strolled towards the door. 
 
 " It's you again, I'll be bound, you miserable little 
 creature ; you have given me more trouble than the 
 rest of my sitters put together ! . . . Ah ! good after- 
 noon, madame an unexpected pleasure indeed." 
 
 " Good afternoon, Mr. Munro ; I have brought a 
 friend to see my portrait." 
 
 " The twentieth within the week ! " groaned the 
 young man internally. 
 
 A slow rustle of heavy silks, a wave of violet 
 perfume, and with languid steps a tall fur-enveloped 
 figure passed into the studio in the wake of the 
 Baronne's bustling little person, reminding Steven 
 of a slender white-sailed yacht in tow of a steam-tug. 
 
 "Now, my painter, let me present you to the 
 Duchessa Castelcapaccio your landlady, by the way. 
 My dear, this is my portrait painter, the nineteenth- 
 century Van Dyck ; you will be ravished by his work. 
 See, here is my picture ; wheel it into the light, my 
 good sir, that we may contemplate it from its best 
 point of view." 
 
 " Pray, a moment's breathing time," murmured the
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 167 
 
 Duchess in a tone of exhaustion, scarcely acknow- 
 ledging further than by a droop of her eyelids the 
 young man's profound bow, and sinking into the 
 first chair in her way. " How have you had the 
 courage to face those stairs day after day ? . . . Ah ! 
 this is the work in question ? " 
 
 Loosening her wraps, she drew out an occasional 
 eyeglass, and gave a careless glance at the portrait. 
 
 " Is this your portrait ? " she repeated, with superb 
 impertinence. " Ah ! yes, I recognise the emeralds 
 really quite pretty" with a condescending nod in 
 the direction where Steven Munro stood, surveying 
 her in silence. 
 
 Beautiful though she was so beautiful that it 
 rested and rejoiced his artist eye merely to look on 
 her, beautiful not only in line and curve but also 
 with the rare conjunction of delicately brilliant and 
 harmonious colouring he was youthful and hot- 
 tempered enough to feel intense irritation at her 
 tine-lady airs and contemptuous manner, and was 
 hard set to restrain himself in his desire to show 
 her forth with all possible despatch. 
 
 The Baronne, meanwhile, after contemplating her 
 painted self with serene satisfaction, turned briskly to 
 her friend. 
 
 "Well, have I not given you the new sensation 
 you demanded ? Have I not made you envious for 
 the first time in your life ? Confess you have never 
 seen such a portrait ! that black dress, the bunch 
 of chrysanthemums just loosely falling from the film 
 of lace, my emeralds how clever of you to note them 
 at once flashing green fire, and the cloudy indefinite 
 background ! It is all of a simplicity, yet of a chic
 
 168 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 which can never be surpassed or even attained 
 again!" 
 
 " Very pretty, very pretty," drawled the Duchess, 
 while her glance roamed deliberately on every detail 
 of the room but the picture in question. " As you 
 say, I burn with jealousy. Pray what else have you 
 to show me ? " 
 
 The last remark was levelled at the artist, who 
 stood, the image of resignation, with his eyes fixed 
 on the ground. Failing to engage his attention, 
 the lady again addressed him, this time somewhat 
 impatiently. 
 
 " Mr. ah, how does he call himself, Marie ? Mr. 
 Munro ! " 
 
 " Madame." 
 
 " What else have you to show me ? " 
 
 Steven's cheek coloured. 
 
 " Nothing," he answered shortly, moving, as he 
 spoke, towards the door with unmistakable sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 " Ah, but my painter, we do not intend to leave 
 yet," cried Madame du Chatelet, in shrill remon- 
 strance ; " the Duchess must see your group of la 
 Bruno and her little ones ; and there is that splendid 
 head of the Turkish Ambassador a true Bluebeard, 
 my dear ; you will be delighted with him." 
 
 The Duchess had dropped her eyeglass ; stretching 
 out her slender, exquisitely gloved hand in the 
 direction of the Baronne's portrait, she now turned 
 to Steven with a smile which illumined her counten- 
 ance like a ray of light, and changed the whole per- 
 sonality of the woman in a strange and charming way. 
 
 " That is a chef d'oeuvre," she said, hi the soft,
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 169 
 
 lingering voice habitual to her, which had a sort of 
 penetrating sweetness when she wished (she spoke 
 very fluent English, with a little accent that was 
 not without its attractiveness). " I do not need to 
 see any other work to confirm me in my opinion ot 
 the painter's genuis. Mr. Munro, will you paint my 
 portrait ? " 
 
 He looked up defiantly ; this change of mood was 
 too sudden to be flattering. He felt he was being 
 played with, and words declining the proposal 
 trembled on his lips. 
 
 " I promise to be very good and quiet," she went 
 on, and once more smiled upon him. 
 
 " Madame," said the painter, colouring to the roots 
 of his hair, " it will be an honour and a privilege." 
 
 Madame du Chatelet made a grimace behind her 
 friend's stately back. 
 
 " Why did I bring her here ? " she reflected too 
 late, with internal disquietude. "She will turn my 
 poor painter's head and take all shine out of my poor 
 portrait. It is not fair to one's sex to be beautiful 
 like that, and with her unscrupulous greed for ad- 
 miration, her raging vanity, her heartlessness. . . . 
 Yes, yes, ma cherie, I am coming. Monsieur 
 Steven, I congratulate you on your good fortune." 
 
 " On my good fortune," echoed the young man, as 
 he once more stood alone in his studio "good 
 fortune, is it ? I wish I had had the pluck to say no, 
 but I could not, in the teeth of that smile. What a 
 smile ! If I could only immortalise it, that would be 
 a picture indeed. . . . Pah ! what a smell of scent ; 
 it's suffocating; I must have a smoke to clear the 
 air,"
 
 170 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 He drew a cutty pipe from his pocket, rubbed it 
 tenderly, surveyed its grimy perfections from various 
 points of view, and finally began to fill it with due 
 deliberation. 
 
 " Ah, Maimie, my darling, I wish you were here 
 to do this for me. What an interest you took in 
 its colouring process ! how we sandpapered it, and 
 waxed it, and nursed it ! " His whole face softened, 
 he stretched out his arm towards the cabinet for the 
 sketch he had so hastily hidden away on the approach 
 of his visitors ; checked himself midway, however, and 
 diving his hands into his pockets, took a couple of 
 turns up and down the room. " What a woman that 
 is ! what an extraordinary completeness of beauty ! 
 what a perfectly odious creature ! I shall make a fine 
 picture of her, though .... in white, with dark fur 
 somewhere and smiling. I must have that smile and 
 that look in her eyes." 
 
 Twelve o'clock by Saint Peter's ; twelve by all the 
 church clocks of church-studded Rome ; the angelus 
 bell was sounding, and pious people were crossing 
 themselves ; but the muttered ejaculation that came 
 from Mr. Munro's lips was the reverse of pious. 
 
 " An hour late," he went on, angrily kicking a 
 chair into place. " If she gives me much more of 
 this sort of work, I shall chuck up the concern 
 altogether." 
 
 He bent his ear to listen not a sound to announce 
 her arrival, nothing but the ceaseless street clamour 
 with the faint echo of panting bugles from the Campo 
 Pretorio floating on the breeze above it, now and 
 again.
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 171 
 
 " I shall wait no more," said Steven to himself 
 decidedly and even as he thought the words there 
 came a tremendous clatter in the well of the palace 
 courtyard, and he knew it was the Duchess's carriage. 
 
 She, however, took a long tune in making her ap- 
 pearance, and his impatient irritation had reached 
 fever point before he heard her long sweet tones 
 echoing on the stairs. Biting his lips, passing nervous 
 fingers through his hair, the artist turned with a black 
 look to greet his new sitter ; but his scowl was thrown 
 away, for as she swept into the room, followed by a 
 squat female figure and an immense Hungarian 
 Chasseur bearing a minute fluffy dog, she did not 
 even appear aware of his presence, and continued 
 blandly to give directions to her servant in Hun- 
 garian. 
 
 " Place her here, Miklos, on the sofa, put the 
 cushion under her, it is softer ; have you brought the 
 biscuits ? good and my cloak ? very well, now you 
 can go." 
 
 The man, who looked as smart and unmitigated a 
 ruffian as can well be imagined, disappeared with a 
 guttural salute, and his mistress now addressed her 
 unprepossessing female attendant (who had a peculiar 
 appearance of having been mangled flat by mistake) 
 in German. 
 
 " Sit down, Speck. You can knit if you like ; we 
 shall probably have a couple of hours of it." 
 
 "Tis good, gracious lady," answered the Teuton 
 stolidly, plumping down, as she spoke, on the sofa, 
 and drawing a gigantic roll of knitting from her 
 pocket, on which she forthwith began operations. 
 
 Languidly the Duchess next bestowed her
 
 172 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 attentions on the old Venetian mirror, before which she 
 began to undo her velvet mantle ; then taking oft' her 
 plumed hat and driving the long gold pin with which 
 it had been fastened, into its crown with a slow de- 
 liberate stab, she wheeled round and seemed to per- 
 ceive the artist for the first time. 
 
 "Good morning," she drawled, and extended her 
 left hand carelessly in his direction. Without noticing 
 the proffered favour, Steven, masking his anger as 
 best he could, under an assumption of coolness, said 
 shortly : 
 
 " It is late ; will you kindly be seated that I may 
 begin work ? " 
 
 Here the little dog, who had been uneasily sniffing 
 its surroundings, crawled to the edge of the sofa and 
 let itself flop heavily to the ground. 
 
 " My Fifine, my angel," murmured the lady, 
 picking up the beast and kissing it; then across its 
 tangled back : 
 
 " I want her in the picture too," she said : " will 
 you please begin with her ? " 
 
 Steven turned scarlet. 
 
 " It is impossible," he answered hastily ; " I must 
 beg you to sit down that I may begin." 
 
 " I am not accustomed to be hurried, sir, and I 
 wish my dog to be painted." 
 
 The painter and his patroness stood facing each 
 other for a minute in silence. His keen, clean-shorn 
 young face, now pallid again, looking like marble 
 against the ardent hue of his hair, his bold eyes 
 defiantly fixing her beauty. She, with softly tinted 
 countenance and drooping eyelid, a very imperson- 
 ation of lazy insolence.
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 173 
 
 Click click click, went the Fraulein's needles. 
 
 The feeling of the latter's impassive presence, 
 the restless motion of her hands, the irritating and 
 ceaseless noise produced by their activity, broke 
 down the last straw of Steven's already sorely tried 
 patience. 
 
 " It is best we should understand each other," he 
 said, laying down his charcoal Avith a meaning gesture ; 
 " it is not my purpose to paint your dog ; and unless I 
 have absolute freedom to paint your portrait according 
 to my own ideas, I will not undertake it at ah 1 " then, 
 with a sort of explosion of exasperation " and unless 
 that knitting is stopped 1 can do nothing ; it is in- 
 supportable." 
 
 On this the Duchess seemed to reflect ; then, half 
 shutting her eyes, " Speck," said she, over her shoulder* 
 " you can go." 
 
 " Tis good, gracious lady," answered Speck, who 
 pocketed her knitting and placidly retreated. The 
 Duchess watched the departing figure till the closing 
 door concealed it, then she suddenly rolled Fitine on 
 to the floor, where the little creature fell with a sharp 
 squeak, proceeded to the chair awaiting her on the 
 dais, and subsiding into it, turned smiling toward the 
 artist, her whole attitude fuh 1 of careless grace, her 
 look of languorous sweetness. 
 
 " Like this," she said" is it well ? " 
 
 Never did woman yield more becomingly, more 
 bewitchingly. Steven's cheeks glowed again, this 
 time from very different feelings. 
 
 "Perfect," he cried in a low voice, and fell to 
 sketching in the harmonious outline with trembling 
 fingers, in a frenzy of haste to immortalise her upon
 
 174 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 canvas in the adorable grace of that smile and 
 attitude. 
 
 For full three minutes his new model posed as 
 well as any professional young lady at seven-and- 
 sixpence a day ; but just as Steven, who had thrown 
 himself into his work with the complete abstraction 
 from other things which characterises the true artist, 
 was beginning to convey a glimmering outline of his 
 conception to the blank canvas, he was not a little 
 dismayed to see the Duchess rise with a yawn, 
 declaring she was tired to death. 
 
 " But, inadame ! " he cried aghast. 
 
 " But, monsieur ! " she mimicked gaily, coming up 
 to him, laughing and contracting her eyelids as she 
 did so in a way that made him smile, despite himself, 
 as he would on a child. 
 
 "Come, come," she went on, "you are not to 
 prove a tyrant, sir; five minutes' law to look about 
 your delightful studio, and unstiffen my limbs." 
 
 She stretched herself daintily with that incom- 
 parable harmony movement of the perfectly well-made 
 woman, and humming an air from Carmen, began 
 picking her way about the crowded room, in and out 
 among the old furniture, as softly as a cat. 
 
 " L'amo-nr est enfant de Boheme; how dusty your 
 books are, Mr. Munro ! are you not ashamed ? Ah ! 
 what lovely colours you artists do pick up ; those 
 curtains are a dream, and that bit of brocade over the 
 door, I <3ould commit a crime for it ! . . . and 
 there is my dear friend Marie with her face to the 
 wall. What a trial it must have been to you, poor 
 young man, to endeavour to make a picture of that 
 common little personality ! You should have painted
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 175 
 
 her de profil perdu, in a big cloak . . . Tra la la 
 la, Tra la la la . . . An old Nuremberg credence. 
 Inside what do I see ? Chocolates ! oh, the greedy ! 
 It was for the children, you say I do not believe you. 
 As for me, I adore them ; so does Fifine." 
 
 She inserted her slender lingers, and drew forth a 
 handful with a little chromatic laugh. 
 
 " One for you, one for me, two for me, three for 
 me," crunching them with white strong teeth, " one 
 for Fifine, poor love. Mr. Munro, if you won't have 
 yours, I shall eat it." 
 
 Steven, following her in her erratic peregrinations 
 with a sort of dog-like docility, was too much ab- 
 sorbed in wonder over this gracious presentment of 
 happy youth and almost childish gaiety, so strange 
 as compared to the haughty blasee woman of only a 
 few moments ago, to find words wherewith to answer 
 her chatter. But, as if stimulated by his bewilder- 
 ment, she continued her rummaging, bubbling over 
 with laughter the while. 
 
 " What ! volumes of portfolios in that queer old 
 cabinet ! I must see them ! Oh, Mr. Munro, what 
 have we here ? Sketches ! this becomes interesting. 
 Voyons ! Young woman with red hair, profile ; I 
 don't know that I quite care for red hair ... in 
 a woman ; young woman with red hair, three-quarters ; 
 red head, full face, back view. Ah, ?a! it rams, 
 then, red heads in your island. Who is the little 
 laideron f " 
 
 She held up the sketch to her own face, the same 
 sketch that he had mused so lovingly over only 
 yesterday morning. Poor Maimie, how cruel a con- 
 trast ! what a sharp, irregular little visage it was ; how.
 
 176 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 full of defects, how almost plain it looked against that 
 living dream of beauty ! Steven's heart smote him 
 fiercely ; with a hot impulse of shame and loyalty he 
 cried in a loud voice : 
 
 " That laidercni, as you are pleased to call her, is 
 the most beautiful woman in the world to me." 
 
 Then he could have bitten his tongue out for its 
 foUy in speaking the words. 
 
 " Really," said the Duchess, with a hard gleam in 
 her eyes, dropping the sketch with a gesture of such 
 contemptuous indifference that the man felt his 
 cheeks tingle, " one must respect all tastes, says the 
 proverb. Fifine, my only treasure, thou hast not yet 
 lunched, sweet one." 
 
 Turning to the dog, she began to feed it with 
 the biscuits left by her servant. This process she 
 continued for some time, teasing the little animal 
 almost to frenzy one minute, and lavishing the most 
 outrageously tender epithets and caresses upon it 
 the next, without so much as a glance in Steven's 
 direction. Beginning, however, to anticipate these 
 sudden and apparently causeless changes of mood, 
 Steven, gradually cooling down to his usual self- 
 possession, stepped quietly to his easel, where he 
 occupied himself' in silence, till it pleased his trouble- 
 some sitter to favour him once more with her 
 attention. 
 
 This she finally condescended to do, sailing back 
 sublimely indifferent to her post, where, however, with 
 a steadiness apd patience Steven had given her little 
 credit for, she kept strictly to the business on hand 
 for the space of almost an hour. This lucky freak 
 produced a most satisfactory result. As she rose to
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 177 
 
 depart, a very promising sketch adorned the large 
 expanse of canvas. 
 
 Pulling on her long, scented gloves, the Duchess 
 nodded her fair head in approval. 
 
 " Good-bye," she said, and pressed his hand with a 
 little discreet, insinuating squeeze, " till to-morrow." 
 
 Then pausing on the threshold 
 
 " And to-morrow, sir, you shall tell me all about 
 the little red-haired one." 
 
 II. 
 " MY Owx DEAR LITTLE MAIMIE, I have been a long 
 
 O 
 
 time answering you. Will you forgive your wicked 
 boy ? I have been very busy in the first place ; out 
 of sorts, dissatisfied, in the second. Not in tune with 
 your sweetness, my darling, and unable to reply, as I 
 ought, to your letters. I am painting the portrait of 
 a fine lady a very fine lady a duchess, in fact. It 
 ought to be a beautiful picture, for she is a beautiful 
 creature, but, as I said, I am not satisfied either with 
 it or with myself. At times it would seem as if I saw 
 it through some fiendish spectacles like little Kay in 
 the dear old Andersen book you were so fond of each 
 feature seems distorted, the colours glaring, every 
 semblance of resemblance gone, and yet I sit at it 
 and paint, paint, paint, all day long, for the fever of 
 work is on me, and I can do nothing else. The sitter 
 herself is utterly antipathetic to me, for all her loveli- 
 ness. I think she has an evil influence over me 
 pretty nearly as upsetting, discomfiting, and deteri- 
 orating as yours, my white heather-bell, is the reverse. 
 With this, she is insolent, too treats ine one day as if 
 L
 
 178 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 I were the dirt under her feet, the next with an un- 
 limited familiarity that is quite as uncomplimentary. 
 In fact, I am made to feel that I am a person so 
 insignificant, so far beneath her, that it does not 
 matter in the least how I am dealt with. I ought 
 to be above minding this, Maimie, but I am not ; it 
 puts me out horribly. I have not seen her now for 
 more than a week, for after posing with tolerable 
 regularity for three weeks in fact, coming rather 
 oftener than I wanted she has suddenly ceased her 
 visits. This I am not sorry for, as there is much I 
 have to work at by myself, and my lady duchess will 
 no doubt make her appearance before long that is, 
 when the caprice takes her. I am longing to be rid 
 of the woman, I am longing to leave this place, I am 
 longing for the old folk, the moors, for home, for you, 
 you, my little one, my better self, my wife that is 
 to be." 
 
 Steven was out ; it was dusk, the logs were sinking 
 to white ash on the hearth, the letter he had but just 
 now dashed off, in a sudden reaction of tenderness to 
 his absent sweetheart, lay in loose sheets on his open 
 blotter, its clear bold characters seeming to invite 
 perusal, even in the gathering gloom. It was un- 
 finished, for at the very height of the passionate 
 yearning with which his thoughts were returning for 
 his little sweetheart, the nameless disgust of all 
 things, which for the past three weeks had been 
 dogging his healthy young life, had overcome him 
 with sudden loathing, and dashing down his pen, he 
 had fled into the open air feeling the restraint of wall 
 and roof intolerable. The studio was quite deserted,
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 179 
 
 for the olive-faced youth, whose duties brought him 
 daily to attend to the artist, had lost no time in 
 profiting by his master's absence to seek amusement 
 elsewhere. There was a cold* ghostly air in the vast 
 room, to which the dying tire lent the last touch of 
 desolateness. 
 
 " Out, every one out," said the Duchess, looking 
 round composedly ; " doors open to the world at large. 
 How confiding these young men are ! Speck, light 
 the candles ; since there is no one to leave a message 
 with, I shall write a note." 
 
 After much fumbling, much knocking of her shins 
 against obtruding corners, and many undertone 
 ejaculations of " Oh iveh ! " the docile and useful 
 German managed to comply with the demand, and a 
 pair of lighted candles, in quaint brass candlesticks, 
 were placed on the rather dilapidated Buhl writing- 
 table at which the Duchess seated herself. 
 
 " That will do ; you can sit down and wait till I 
 have done." 
 
 Fraulein Speck, never loath to seek her creature 
 comfort, pulled Steven's best cordova leather arm- 
 chair to the hearth, piled some logs cunningly on the 
 red embers, and, extracting the knitting from her 
 pocket, installed herself as if for life. Her needles 
 clicked persistently, while the Duchess's taper fingers 
 rustled among the papers that littered the artist's 
 writing pad. Then for some minutes the clock and 
 the knitting-needles had a duet all to themselves, and 
 finally the Duchess rose with a laugh and came over 
 to the fireplace. She stretched out her arched and 
 slender foot to the tiny flame and laughed again. 
 
 " On second thoughts, good Speck," she said, " I 
 L 2
 
 180 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 will send a note to Mr. Mimro by-and-by ; he might 
 overlook it if I were to leave it haphazard in his 
 room." 
 
 Her eyes danced ; she seemed in high spirits. 
 
 ""Come, Speck, come," she cried, "this is highly 
 improper ; we must blow out the lights and fly, or we 
 shall be caught." 
 
 An hour later, Steven returned with lagging steps. 
 His fire was burning brightly, Beppo had lit the lamp, 
 and drawn the curtains ; everything was in unim- 
 peachable order. 
 
 On the threshold the artist paused ; a vague but 
 exquisite breath of violet seemed to greet his nostrils. 
 
 " Has any one been here ? " he asked sharply of 
 his attendant. 
 
 " No, signore, not a cat." 
 
 " I am mad," said the man to himself; strode over 
 to the writing table, crumpled up the closely written 
 sheets and dashed them into the fire. 
 
 " Maimie, forgive me, I cannot write to you now." 
 
 As he threw himself moodily into a chair, scowling 
 on the fussy ministrations of his obsequious little 
 servant, a single knock of portentous sound was 
 struck at the door of his studio, and then entered the 
 well-known form of Giovanni, the porter. 
 
 " A letter from the Eccellenza." 
 
 Steven opened it, paling and flushing. 
 
 " DEAR MR. MUNRO," wrote the Duchess, " I am 
 established beneath you for a few days. (Did you 
 know that I am your landlady, and that I come back- 
 wards and forwards to my pied-a-terre, here when I
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 181 
 
 feel so inclined ? ) I am dull and tired this evening, 
 and am not going out; will you be charitable and 
 descend to have a cup of coftee with me at nine 
 o'clock ? We can arrange our next sitting. Je sitis 
 au premier, " ANNA." 
 
 " What does she want with me ? I wish to 
 Heaven she would leave me alone. I won't go. One 
 moment, Giovanni ; I will write a note." 
 
 But as he bent his head over the blotter, a whift' of 
 the same delicate perfume that had met him on his 
 return that evening rose from the coronetted missive 
 he had thrown down beside him. He seized it, 
 almost unconsciously, and inhaled its fragrance with a 
 deep breath. Then noisily shoving his chair away 
 from the table : 
 
 " Tell the Duchess," he cried, " that I shall be very 
 glad to come to-night." 
 
 The old man looked at him with friendly curiosity. 
 
 " His face was as red as his hair," he told his wife, 
 when he went down-stairs they took an interest in 
 the young Englishman who had generally a nod and 
 smile for them as he passed in and out, and a true 
 artist liberality of small coin " his eyes were like hot 
 coals ; I hope he may not be going to have the fever." 
 
 From the proportions of the small part of the 
 Palazzo allotted to himself, the artist knew that the 
 first-floor apartments must be something very magni- 
 ficent. But the long perspective of tapestry-hung 
 rooms, opening one into the other, came upon him, 
 accustomed though he was to the spacious grandeur 
 of a Roman palace, quite as a revelation.
 
 182 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 Through these vast and gorgeous solitudes Steven 
 followed the old major-domo with feelings that were 
 the reverse of agreeable. Never before, in the proud 
 independence of his art, poverty, and gentle breeding, 
 had he realised the immense gulf which lay between 
 the wealthy Duchess and her fifth-floor tenant ; but 
 the extraordinary display of nineteenth-century luxury 
 grafted somewhat incongruously on priceless and 
 unique relics of antiquity, the state, the pomp, the 
 opulence, coupled with the accumulated splendour of 
 ages through which he was marshalled, opened his 
 eyes to a better knowledge of what his true position 
 must be in the eyes of his beautiful sitter. 
 
 In the reaction of wounded self-esteem, evoked by 
 these reflections, he entered the Duchess's warm, 
 flower-tilled, scented boudoir with so haughty a 
 bearing, and such deliberate self-possession, that the 
 conversation, which was brisk between the few guests 
 then present, was abruptly interrupted, and all eyes 
 were turned towards the tall, pallid, red-haired young 
 man who came in upon them as if he were lord of all 
 and disdained his possessions. 
 
 The Baronne du Chatelet, carrying on a laborious 
 flirtation with an ancient beau, tried in vain to attract 
 his attention as he passed, but he made his way 
 straight to his hostess without wasting a glance. 
 
 The Duchess was sitting at a small table near the 
 end of the room, playing chess with a dark, portly, 
 handsome man a little past the prime of life, whose 
 prominent, openly admiring gaze was scarcely ever 
 withdrawn from her face, and whose capacious chest 
 gleamed with stars and orders, the magnificence of 
 which seemed, somehow, to have found a fitting place
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 183 
 
 there. She was all in white, a loose flowing gown of 
 some clinging, silken stuff' which, with consummate 
 art, threw into greater relief all those rounded graces 
 it feigned to conceal. Her voluminous sleeves, 
 fashioned after some mediaeval freak of fancy, were 
 slit up to the shoulder, and her bare arms shone forth 
 in all their pearl-like beauty at every movement. 
 
 Silently she stretched out her left hand to the 
 new-comer, while with the right she slowly shifted 
 her last remaining rook along the board. The soft 
 hand remained in his cold clasp as if unconsciously. 
 
 " Check to your king," said her antagonist, quietly 
 removing the rook with firm, plump fingers, "and 
 mate, I think." 
 
 With an inexpressible pang Steven felt her with- 
 draw her lingering touch. 
 
 " Alas ! " she cried, " I can do nothing but confess 
 that you have vanquished me, Prince ! " 
 
 " Nay, do not complain," replied the victor, smiling 
 on her with bold intentness, " it is fair that once in a 
 way our poor sex should have its turn, be it only in a 
 game." 
 
 With this he rose from his seat. 
 
 " Are you going ? " she asked, surprised. 
 
 " I infinitely regret, but I am due at the Quirinal." 
 
 The Duchess shrugged her shoulders slightly, and 
 placed her hand in his. He bent low over it ; Steven 
 saw that he had a round bald spot at the top of his 
 head, and was savagely glad ; and then, as the other 
 straightened himself and their eyes met, he felt the 
 blood rush to his cheeks under the full, curious stare 
 which was so strangely yet so intangibly insulting to 
 him that every atom of his being rose in antagonism
 
 184 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 to the handsome, commanding personality before 
 him. His hands unconsciously closed ; oh, to feel his 
 list against that smiling, that sickening face ! 
 
 " Prince Schwarzenheim, you must make the ac- 
 quaintance of my portrait painter, Mr. Steven Munro. 
 You will, I know, be glad some day to look at the 
 works of his genius. I am not saying too much in 
 saying genius," said the Duchess sweetly ; " it is a 
 word often misused, but not in this case." 
 
 The bow, the few sentences addressed to him by 
 the Prince, the final gesture at parting, were full of 
 courtliest bonhomie, but to Steven there seemed an 
 odious familiarity in the manner of their delivery, and 
 he could scarcely connect two civil words in reply. 
 
 "Good-bye, good-bye, Prince," said the Duchess, 
 then turned to the artist and motioned him to the 
 vacated chair with one of her caressing smiles. 
 
 " Do you play chess ? Will you have a game with 
 me ? I wonder if I could beat you ? " 
 
 The corners of her mouth were quivering upwards; 
 their eyes met and melted into each other. Steven 
 felt his heart contract ; with a sudden fierce passion 
 he realised how he 1 -ved her. 
 
 Mechanically he sat down and began to help her 
 in the rearrangement of the pieces, conscious of 
 nothing save the tumult within, the madness, the 
 misery, the shame. 
 
 He was so close to her that he could see the silken 
 threads of her bronze hair, as fine as gossamer, 
 shining against the light ; the sweep of her long dark 
 lashes as they rose and fell ; the grain of her white 
 cheek as smooth and close as ivory; her arm gleamed 
 in and out of her sleeve as with round gestures of
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 185 
 
 exquisite grace she replaced the chessmen on the 
 board ; once her taper fingers touched his as softly as 
 a butterfly's wing. He thought of Maimie's thin, red, 
 child's hands, and could have found it in him to have 
 wept aloud. 
 
 How he played that game he never knew ; had 
 not the Duchess been even below the average of the 
 usual feminine chess-player, she could easily have 
 beaten him in a couple of moves ; as it was, however, 
 he instinctively did the right thing, now and again, 
 which sufficed to keep the game on indefinitely. One 
 by one the other guests retired, until none were left 
 but the Baronne and her aged diplomat. At length 
 she, too, apparently wearied of the task of endeavour- 
 ing to devote one eye and both ears to the chess- 
 players and bestow at the same time a semblance of 
 attention on her gallant if somewhat drivelling com- 
 panion, arose from her seat and made her way over 
 to them, volubly expatiating on the sad necessity of 
 her immediate departure. 
 
 " We must be going, Bimbo and I ; it is desolating 
 to be forced to tear oneself away from thee, thus early, 
 but thou knowest, ma chere, when it is to the Quirinal 
 for us diplomatic people it is no longer an invitation 
 but a command. Would thou wert coming also ; but 
 of course to thee, thou black of blacks, it seems an 
 impropriety even to say such a thing ; I must own I 
 regret thy loss to-night." 
 
 " Regret nothing for me," said the Duchess calmly ; 
 " I am very happy here." 
 
 " Well, adieu, au revo-ir; I must fly the hour 
 advances. Count Bimbo, you have promised to profit 
 of my carriage. Till to-morrow, ma toute belle."
 
 186 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 But although Madame du Chatelet again repeated 
 several times each time with as much freshness and 
 energy as if she had never said it before " We must 
 fly, Bimbo, we must fly," she showed no signs of 
 spreading her wings, but remained wriggling her 
 sallow shoulders and rolling her round black eyes 
 furtively in Steven's direction. 
 
 " Mr. Munro is thinking of moving on too, 
 perhaps," she remarked at length, in a tone of 
 obviously assumed airiness ; " there is room in my 
 carriage for him also, if I can set him down any- 
 where." 
 
 The Duchess shot a glance at the little lady that 
 was not altogether pleasant. 
 
 "You forget that Mr. Munro lodges here," she 
 said, with an accentuated drawl, showing a fine array 
 of white teeth in a slow smile ; " I keep Mr. Munro to 
 amuse me with chess. Good-night." 
 
 The Baronne shrugged her shoulders significantly. 
 
 "Good-night," she said drily, whisked round, 
 caught her cavalier by the arm, and, ruthlessly 
 cutting short a most flowery and intricate speech, hur- 
 ried him out of the room. 
 
 The Duchess listened till the sound of closing 
 doors announced their safe departure, then swept all 
 the chess-men off the board, threw her white arms 
 above her head, leant back in her chair, and laughed 
 aloud. 
 
 " At last," she said, and looked at Steven through 
 half-closed lids, after a way she had, and laughed 
 again with delicious, careless abandonment. 
 
 " Do you know what I want to do ? " she said, 
 bending forward with her finger on her lips and
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 187 
 
 speaking in a mischievous whisper ; " I want to go to 
 your studio and see my picture by lamp-light." 
 
 He stood up stiffly, a thrill of mingled delight 
 and fear running through his frame. 
 
 " What folly ! " he exclaimed through his teeth. 
 
 " Folly ! " she echoed with a scornful toss of her 
 head ; " no, trust me, I am in the humour for a little 
 adventure, but I do not mean to expose myself with 
 you." The look that she cast on him as she said 
 these words, half good-humoured, half-contemptuous, 
 brought an angry flush to his cheek. " Now listen 
 to me : I shall go up by the back stairs, having first 
 donned Eulalia's cloak. She is my maid, you know ; 
 I can trust her, for she is in my power ; she and I are 
 much of a height, and I can easily pass for her. If 
 any one should see me then it is not probable 
 people will say that you have an intrigue with her. 
 What more natural ? " Again the glare, with its gay 
 insolence, that was so hard to bear. " Unless, there- 
 fore, you betray me, sir, I am safe." 
 
 " So be it, then," muttered Steven, with a pale 
 look, retreating towards the door ; " how soon may I 
 hope to see you ? " 
 
 She pointed with her finger laughingly, to the 
 figure of twelve on the little Capo di Monte clock on 
 the mantelshelf it wanted then some twenty-five 
 minutes of that hour and rang the bell for the 
 servant to show him out. 
 
 With a maddening vision of her face before him, a 
 horrible sense of treachery and disgrace upon him, 
 and a perfect fury of contending emotions within him, 
 Steven mounted with wild speed to his apartment 
 and attended instantly to the few precautions against
 
 188 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 discovery it was in his power to take. He satisfied 
 himself that Beppo had retired to his own home; 
 secured the ordinary entrance, and set ajar the seldom 
 used door that opened on to the back stairs. He was 
 the only tenant of that floor, there was, therefore, 
 luckily nothing to fear from curious neighbours ; but 
 Steven, lighting his lamp, went through the empty 
 rooms one after another, to make " assurance doubly 
 sure " that nothing should be wanting on his side to 
 protect his visitor from intrusion. 
 
 Then he returned to the studio, lit the candles, 
 built up the tire, hastily put a little order into the 
 surroundings, and throwing himself into a chair, 
 awaited the nocturnal guest. 
 
 Consecutive, reasonable thought was quite out of 
 the question ; his brain seemed on fire ; he scarce knew 
 which it was, love or hate for this woman that most 
 raged in his heart ; but one thing was certain for the 
 moment his whole being was centred on her with 
 a passion no one had ever aroused within him before. 
 
 A door creaked, there was the sound of a light 
 step, and a woman quickly entered the room, en- 
 veloped in a dark cloak, the hood of which was 
 drawn over her head. 
 
 " Her Excellency the Duchessa has sent me," said 
 a voice in sibilant Venetian sing-song, at the accents 
 of which the young man's pulses almost ceased to 
 beat in a paroxysm of anger. What infernal trick 
 was this ? 
 
 " Ah, ah, mon Dieii ! " cried the Duchess, throwing 
 back her hood and disclosing her laughing face full of 
 mischievous enjoyment. " How murderous you look ! 
 It seems I am a good mimic, then ! "
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 189 
 
 She unclasped her cloak, and threw it off. " Now, 
 sir, do me the honours of your studio. Stay, I am 
 cold, let me sit and warm myself a little." 
 
 He took her hand with daring pressure, and led 
 her to the arm-chair by the fire. It was after all a 
 chance that would come to a man but once in a life- 
 time ; it was none of his seeking, and she was adorably 
 beautiful. "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for 
 to-morrow we die ; " why not enjoy the hour without 
 retrospection or forecast ? 
 
 Leaning his back against the mantelpiece, he 
 allowed his gaze to rest on her with unconcealed 
 admiration. She had changed her white robes for a 
 plain short black gown ; but hers were looks that 
 needed no adventitious adornment. 
 
 " Why did I not paint you as you are now ? " he 
 cried. " In that simple dress you are a million times 
 more lovely than in all your silks and satins." 
 
 She shot a swift inquiring look at him, then 
 smiled ; she seemed not displeased. 
 
 " Do you know," said she, bending her pliant figure 
 forward and stretching out her hands to the blaze, 
 " that you are a very strange young man. I have had 
 my portrait painted, one, two, three, four times " 
 (checking the numbers on her fingers), " and every 
 artist sang a litany to my perfections from beginning 
 to end of the business. Now this is the first compli- 
 ment you ever have paid me." 
 
 An ardent flood of words rose to Steven's lips, but 
 were arrested unspoken by the Duchess's sudden 
 rising from her seat and the half-laughing, half-coy 
 manner in which she turned away from the glowing 
 fixity of his eyes.
 
 190 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 " The portrait, my friend, the portrait ! Ah ! here 
 it is, I see ; if you would be so kind as to hold the 
 light." Then her whole countenance transfigured by 
 one of those smiles which were so peculiarly be- 
 witching and so peculiarly her own. " Ah, Mr. 
 Munro, am I really like that ? I crave your pardon, 
 sir, for that I accused you just now of lacking 
 gallantry. None of my painters has ever paid me 
 such a compliment as this," indicating her own fair 
 likeness with a wave of her hand. 
 
 " I am glad you like it," said he simply, while his 
 heart beat high with elation. 
 
 " Like it ? " she echoed, with a soft laugh. " Tell 
 me truly, are you sure you have not flattered me ? " 
 
 " Ask your mirror." 
 
 " No, no, I prefer what the picture says ; in the 
 mirror I can see myself with my own eyes, there with 
 yours I prefer that." 
 
 The last words came after a slight pause, with 
 a hesitating modulation and a look which Steven 
 would have been more than human to be proof 
 against. Setting down the candle he held, he turned 
 quickly to her with a face suddenly white, lips 
 quivering, eyes ablaze; but again the Duchess, 
 feigning not to perceive his movement, eluded him 
 by a swift step aside and one of her elfish changes of 
 mood. 
 
 " Mr. Munro, Mr. Munro," with a little peal of 
 laughter, " I am so hungry, I am so hungry ! Do 
 you think you could give me something to eat ? . . . 
 Now, your old oak press over there looks to me as if 
 it contained good things. I must see." She slipped 
 through the encumbering furniture and went down
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 191 
 
 on her knees before the great Niirnberg cabinet, still 
 chattering like a child, and laughing till every ivory 
 tooth gleamed between the expanded crimson lips ; 
 Steven passed his hand over his damp brow and 
 followed her with a sombre look. 
 
 " Ah ! I knew I was right, a fiaschetto, a salame, 
 some bread ; so far, so good. Mr. Munro," stretching 
 out her hand, " come and help me up ; you and I 
 will lay the table together, and we shall have a little 
 supper. Allans, mon ami,' be quick Oh, how cold 
 your hands are ! " 
 
 She pulled her fingers from his passionate hold 
 with a petulant gesture. 
 
 " The table-cloth, sir, the table-cloth ! " 
 
 With a sort of desperation he tried to throw 
 himself into her mood. 
 
 " Will this do ? " drawing forth an old piece of 
 Eastern, yellow-embroidered linen from some hidden 
 recess and holding it up to her gaze with hands that 
 shook despite all his efforts to control them. 
 
 " Delightful ! Help me to move this old mar- 
 queterie table nearer the fire .... The candelabras, 
 please, both of course ; what are you thinking of to 
 put three candles down together ! don't you know 
 how unlucky it is ? One each side, that's it. Now 
 this Venetian jug with the jonquils for the mid- 
 dle, how festive they look! Mr. Munro, do bustle 
 a little ; why do you stand staring like that ? I want 
 plates, knives, forks, glasses, the bread, the wine, and 
 the sausage. Oh ! " with a ripple of laughter " I 
 hold to the sausage. Come, that is right ; I was be- 
 ginning to fear you were threatened with the fate 
 of Lot's wife. What Venetian glasses, old Delft
 
 192 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 plates, a Perigord pie too ! Ah, you bachelors refuse 
 yourselves nothing. Encore, figs, grapes, and bananas 
 on a real majolica dish. Nothing is wanting it 
 seems. Man Dieu, this is gay, this is amusing ! " 
 
 She extended her quaint beaker to be filled, held 
 it up, and toasted him with a gesture of the most 
 coquettish joviality, and sipped the rough red wine 
 between little gusts of musical laughter. 
 
 The man watched her as if in a dream. How 
 lovely she looked when she laughed like that ! what 
 white teeth she had ! what dimples at the corners of 
 her lips ! what a liquid shine had those grey-green 
 eyes of hers between the dark lashes and the con- 
 tracted eyelids ! A sensation of unreality, as if this 
 strange midnight feast were nothing but the fanciful 
 creation of his brain, began to grow upon him, in- 
 creasing in its intensity every minute. The control 
 of his own conduct seemed to have completely passed 
 out of his keeping; he let himself go, as if it were 
 indeed but a dream, to the current of events, with 
 a curious feeling that whatever awaited him it could 
 cause him no surprise. 
 
 " A little of that cream cheese, if you please," said 
 the Duchess. " Mr. Munro, you are not conversational, 
 and only that you do not eat, I should say you were 
 famishing by the way you watch me gobbling. Ah, 
 ha, ha, ha " drawing in and exhaling her breath with 
 a long, laughing sigh " I have not amused myself 
 like this since I was sixteen, when I went to the ' bal 
 de I'opera ' in Paris with a naughty cousin. Oh, the 
 husband was there it was quite proper, at least in 
 the way of chaperonage. How I laughed, and how 
 I was scolded ! Since then I have rarely had a frolic ;
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 193 
 
 my life has been ruled by strict propriety and dulness 
 ennui, ennui, ennui has been my daily bread. 
 But I do not mean to sacrifice any longer to the 
 proprieties. Vogue la galere! I said the other 
 morning I would give worlds for a new sensation. 
 Sir Painter, how shall I reward you for affording me 
 one ? I have been amused for once I am amused." 
 
 She looked at him with a wide smile, in which 
 her beauty seemed to reach its triumph. 
 
 " What reward dare I ask for ? " said the man 
 hoarsely. 
 
 "You can peel me a banana, if you like, Mr. 
 Munro. No, don't get up, if you please. Mr. Munro, 
 there is something I wish to draw your attention to, 
 a little contrast I am desirous of showing you. I 
 love contrasts and incongruities. Remain seated, 
 sir, I say, or I shall go I know exactly where to 
 lind what I want. Oh, how dusty your portfolio is ! 
 ' Pfui ! ' as Speck says ; I believe it has not been 
 touched since I did so myself. Ah, here she is, la 
 belle rousse! Now we shall stand her there beside 
 my portrait ; I am anxious to know what effect my 
 face makes beside that of the most beautiful woman 
 in the world. Come now, sir, look what is your 
 opinion ? " 
 
 She turned and mocked with little dancing 
 demons in each eye. 
 
 He did not look towards the portraits ; what need 
 had he to do so ? Was not the contrast stamped 
 deep enough on his heart, cut into it, Heaven help 
 him, with lines that would leave their mark for ever ? 
 Without removing his glaring eyes from her lovely, 
 taunting face, he remained speechless, confronting 
 M
 
 194 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 her for a minute which seemed an age, measured by 
 his laboured heart-beats. 
 
 Then in the stillness some church clock close by 
 sent forth one resonant note. 
 
 The Duchess simulated a start of surprise. 
 
 " So late ! " she whispered, with a pretty as- 
 sumption of alarm, contradicted by the eyes that 
 would sparkle, the mouth that would quiver into 
 that irrepressible smile. " Heavens, if my good 
 Marie only knew, she would die of jealousy ! Good- 
 bye, monsieur, good-night " throwing her cloak over 
 her shoulders " good-night, and thank you." 
 
 The man's last straw of self-possession here gave 
 way. 
 
 With a desperate spring he made for the door to 
 intercept her exit, knocking over a chair in his way, 
 that in its turn fell heavily against the rickety supper- 
 table, and upset it, candles, supper, pottery and all, 
 in one great crash. 
 
 The Duchess gave a scream which ended in a 
 high-pitched note of laughter. They were plunged 
 in darkness, through which filtered gradually the 
 glowing firelight. Picking up her skirts, the lady 
 daintily sought her way through the fragments of 
 ware, the wine-sopped remnants of food, across the 
 floor. 
 
 "Good-night, Mr. Munro," she said to the dark 
 figure that barred her passage, looming hugely on 
 her in the uncertain glimmer. His passion broke 
 forth wildly 
 
 "By Heaven, you shall not go. You think you 
 can fool me as you like, play with me as a cat with a 
 mouse, pick me up and drop me. You have not
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 195 
 
 rested till you drove me mad, till you made me false 
 to my troth ; now we must understand each other ; 
 you shall hear me and answer me. I will be treated 
 thus no more. I have had enough of it ! I am 
 master here, and you do not go." 
 
 The Duchess threw the wings of her cloak back 
 over her shoulder, her face looked palely forth from 
 the dark shadow of her hood ; in a voice through 
 which ran a little tremor was it merriment or 
 fear ? 
 
 " Eh bien," she murmured, " I am at your mercy." 
 
 In the leaping firelight her beauty shone with 
 marvellous radiance. 
 
 "At the mercy of one who loves you to dis- 
 traction ! " cried Steven hoarsely, and stretched out 
 his arms to clasp her to him. But slowly she re- 
 treated from him, and deftly, inch by inch, drawing 
 him after her in a blind, foolish way by the glamour 
 of her eyes. 
 
 " What was it you said ? that you loved me ? " 
 she was saying in her languorous drawl. "Let us 
 sit down since you will it absolutely then a few 
 minutes more. So you fancy that you love me, fool- 
 ish boy ? " 
 
 They reached the sofa, he still a little behind her, 
 spellbound by her look. But his last step had taken 
 him out of the line with the door ; and even as the 
 tender accents of her voice still lingered in the air, 
 the Duchess seized her opportunity, and with a 
 movement as noiseless and agile as a cat's darted 
 across the room. She had gained the door, had 
 opened it and was gone with a rush of flying feet 
 and a trail of eldritch laughter before the man 
 M 2
 
 196 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 bewildered, frenzied had even time to realise her 
 intention. 
 
 Then with a curse, deep and loud, he dashed in 
 pursuit. The sight of the last flutter of her cloak 
 disappearing down the little stairs at the end of the 
 passage lent wings to his feet. At headlong speed 
 he nearly flung himself down the turning wooden 
 steps, plunging recklessly into almost total darkness, 
 maddened by the sound of the pattering feet before 
 him. But, just as he was gaining upon her, just as 
 he could almost feel the flapping of her garments and 
 hear her panting breath, there came a flash of light 
 upon his eyes, which a door swinging back instantly 
 extinguished, and after this the sharp sound of the 
 shooting of a bolt, and again a rippling laugh, 
 growing fainter and fainter in the distance. 
 
 III. 
 
 " Do you not mean to come any more to the studio ? 
 What can be your object in treating me like this ? 
 It is now ten days since that night that night when 
 you were so kind and so cruel. I have called at the 
 Villa ; you are never at home. My only glimpse of 
 you has been last Thursday, when I saw you driving 
 in the Borghese with Prince Schwarzenheim that 
 man ! Did you not see me ? You turned your head 
 away. I cannot stand it. I am desperate. You 
 know that you have made me mad with love for you ; 
 you did so deliberately, with set purpose, Heaven 
 knows why ; it certainly was none of my seeking ; and 
 now, this avoidance of me, this silence. I will not 
 stand it. As I have said, I am desperate. My
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 197 
 
 patience is at an end. I will keep the whole of to- 
 morrow free from visitors, in case you should come in 
 answer to this. I must have an explanation with 
 you ; you must come to me, or I to you ! Duchess, 
 you will come ! God help me, what have I sunk to ? 
 I implore you to come." 
 
 With his very heart's blood he seemed to have 
 written it in short, sharp sentences wrung from the 
 seething anguish of his humiliation, love, and rage. 
 For ten days he had not slept, nor worked, nor 
 scarcely taken food. Wild-eyed, haggard, he had 
 haunted the gates of the palace, the gardens, the road 
 to the Villa, in the vain hope of encountering the 
 Duchess. Worn out, at length, he summoned all his 
 manhood for a last effort. 
 
 The letter written, he brought it himself to the 
 Villa, and gave the servant a gold piece to deliver it 
 into her hands. And then he came back to his studio 
 and passed another terrible night in restless pacing 
 up and down the room, in red-eyed watching the 
 mocking serene beauty of her portrait, in sinister 
 brooding over a pistol, weighing in the disordered 
 balance of his mind if that were not the best way out 
 of it after aD. 
 
 At length came blessed dawn, and, in his arm-chair, 
 he fell asleep, the dreamless lethargy of exhaustion, 
 to awaken again only when the broad sun streaming 
 into his room announced the fulness of day. The rest 
 had done him good, short as it was, relieved the 
 tension of his brain, and strengthened his exhausted 
 nerves. After artificially bracing himself by a cold 
 bath and a cup of strong coffee, he wiled the time
 
 198 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 away by an elaborate rearrangement of the studio, 
 and the disposing of a wealth of white lilies which he 
 had despatched Beppo to purchase with a reckless 
 disregard of economy. Then he dismissed the curious 
 little attendant, and there came a weary period of 
 anxious waiting, and alternations of hope and de- 
 spondency that shook his soul like an ague. When 
 at length an impatient hand sent the old bell- wires 
 jangling, the excitement of his anticipation was 
 actually physically painful, and his heart seemed to 
 beat suffocatingly in his throat he felt his face grow 
 drawn and livid as he hastened to open the door. 
 
 Yes, it was she. His ear seized upon those well- 
 known, trailing tones outside with a rapture of joy 
 that drove the blood once more to his cheeks. If 
 only she had come alone well, it was but right that 
 she should think of her reputation. She had come, 
 that was the great thing. It would go hard with him 
 if, on some pretext or other, he did not get rid of the 
 unwelcome chaperon by-and-by. 
 
 With hands that shook with eagerness he lifted 
 the latch to admit her. 
 
 " How good of you, my dear Prince, to come up 
 these appalling stairs with me. I shall not keep you 
 long, however, only the time to transact this little 
 business." 
 
 Every word rang out with fatal clearness as she 
 entered, with an insolence of bearing, an insolence of 
 look, impossible to describe. She was speaking 
 German, with an accentuated length of utterance that 
 had its insolence too, sweetly, coldly cruel. 
 
 In the revulsion of feeling that convulsed his 
 whole being, Steven for an instant nearly lost
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 199 
 
 consciousness, and groped at the door for support ; but 
 the sight of Prince Schwarzenheim, large, genial, 
 patronising, the amused curious glance of those 
 prominent eyes, aroused all the pride within him to 
 cloak his agony from their odious gaze. With an 
 immense effort he regained outward composure, and 
 followed the Duchess and her cavalier to the studio 
 with a rigid coldness of demeanour. 
 
 But the sickly pallor of his face he could not hide, 
 nor the beads of perspiration that stood on his 
 forehead. 
 
 " I fear we have come at a wrong moment," said 
 Prince Schwarzenheim in courteous tones, turning to 
 the young man with a well-bred gesture of concern 
 " Mr. Munro seems ill." 
 
 The Duchess directed her eyes towards Steven. 
 From under drooping lids, what a glance that was 
 how crude, how brutal ! Steven meeting it, saw in 
 that instant, as if a mask had fallen from her face, all 
 the moral distortion of the woman, and his passion 
 for her died within him with a great spasm of 
 loathing. 
 
 With a smile, the smile that had wrought Steven's 
 undoing, she turned to the Prince. 
 
 " It Avill not be long," she murmured, and tossed 
 him her sable muff, from which she had previously 
 drawn a letter-case ; and then addressing the painter : 
 
 " Mr. Munro," she said, with marked deliberation, 
 while a narrow line of pupil glittered on him from 
 between her eyelids, " my portrait pleases me as it is ; 
 I shall come no more. Here is your money. Ten 
 thousand lire is the price agreed upon, I believe ; to 
 which however, I have added another thousand for
 
 200 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 extra trouble caused by my bad posing. You will 
 find it correct, I trust." 
 
 Steven shuddered from head to foot. His fingers 
 twiched convulsively with the insensate desire to 
 clutch and crush the life out of the round white 
 throat that dared to breathe forth such insults ; a red 
 intangible mist rose before his eyes. 
 
 She stood triumphantly fixing him with her in- 
 sufferable gaze, and holding out towards him, with the 
 tips of her fingers, the crisp bundle of bank-notes. 
 
 Scenting some little unpleasantness, Prince 
 Schwarzenheim, in his easy way, walked humming to 
 the Duchess's picture, which he feigned to examine 
 with absorbing interest 
 
 After a few moments she turned away, shrugging 
 her shoulders, deposited the notes on the nearest table, 
 carelessly throwing across them, to keep them in their 
 places, the first thing that came to hand a battered 
 dagger of curious antiquity and saying briefly, in the 
 direction of the artist's stony, staring figure, "You 
 will have the kindness to send the portrait to the 
 Villa," once more renewed conversation in German 
 with Prince Schwarzenheim. 
 
 " It is a pity, is it not, that I should have to take 
 it thus unfinished ? " 
 
 " I do not know that I should regret it, if I v. ere 
 you, Duchess," replied he, straightening himself from 
 his bent posture of scrutiny and retreating a few steps 
 to take a comprehensive view of the object in ques- 
 tion. " It has talent undoubtedly, even a touch of 
 genius; but the work is young, the novice hand 
 vigorous, feeling though it be is visible in ever} 7 
 stroke. This being the case, the work has a charm,
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 201 
 
 a chic, in its present sketchy state, that it would 
 completely lose were it elaborated and finished. 
 Nature, we know, that great and unerring artist, gives 
 us all that is young in a sort of undeveloped condition, 
 which, though incomplete, has a peculiar beauty of its 
 own : a girl in her teens, a kitten, a blossom are 
 ebauches if you will, but delicious : now your portrait, 
 only indicated as it is - the bud, as it Avere, of the 
 spring-time of genius 
 
 "Ah, for pity's sake," interrupted the lady ruth- 
 lessly, " spare me, mon ami, the rest of this disserta- 
 tion on art. Remember I have been perforce in the 
 company of one of its votaries day after day, for hours 
 at a time ; I have had it over my ears " yawning 
 widely " but, thank God, that is done with." 
 
 " Allow me at least to say, in justice to the poor 
 youth, that in this picture of you he has shown a 
 wonderful comprehension of your ideal beauty, meine 
 Schdne. I must make him my compliment." 
 
 And smiling benevolently, Prince Schwarzenheim 
 took a step towards Steven. 
 
 " The work does you great credit," he said, in his 
 fat, pleasant voice, and somewhat broken yet dauntless 
 English. " It is really clever more than clever." 
 
 Grinding his teeth, Steven bowed low in disdainful 
 acknowledgment. 
 
 " You have achieved a success," pursued the older 
 man, with increased affability. "A few more years' 
 study and practice, my young friend, and I can 
 promise you a brilliant career." 
 
 " Come, come, Prince," cried the Duchess, tapping 
 him sharply on the arm with her pocket-book, " that 
 is enough. One smothers here with all these flowers."
 
 202 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 She cast a sneering glance around on those white 
 lilies Steven had arranged with such lavish love in 
 every corner of the old room. 
 
 " We lose time in this attic ; I am due at Marie 
 Braunhof s, and I have to pass by my dressmaker's to 
 speak about my costume for to-night. Apropos, this 
 fancy ball at the English Embassy : you are coming, 
 of course ? Oh, see there," interrupting her languid 
 movements towards the door with a petulant ex- 
 clamation, " my shoe is untied ; on your knees, Prince, 
 on your knees, and repair the disaster." 
 
 "Disaster, call you it?" smiled the other, fatuously, 
 while with some slight difficulty he brought his portly 
 person into the required position, "say rather the 
 rapturous opportunity." 
 
 "Always gallant," retorted the Duchess, in a 
 mocking tone, while her look sought Steven's white, 
 disgusted face with a furtive inquiring look, and again 
 a smile lifted the corners of her lips. Then, with an 
 impatient little jerk which necessitated a fresh start in 
 her cavalier's task, she once more addressed him, 
 continuing to speak in her native language, ap- 
 parently for the purpose of excluding the artist from 
 their conversation, though from the first moment of 
 her entrance it was plain he understood her every 
 word. 
 
 " Well, what of the ball are you going ? Answer 
 me that. I have a reason for asking." 
 
 " Is the question necessary, when you are expected 
 there ? " 
 
 " Ah, that is weU, for I have a project : what say 
 you to a' little souper intime with me at the Villa 
 afterwards ? You and I tete-a-tete will you ? "
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 203 
 
 Gazing up at her with a look that gave Steven 
 whose fierce watchful eyes not an iota of this little 
 scene escaped a positive feeling of nausea : 
 
 " Will I ? " echoed the Prince, in a tone of jesting 
 stage declamation; "will the sunflower follow her 
 god ? will the moth seek the light ? will a starving 
 man refuse bread ? My dear Duchess, you have 
 sketched a programme the temptingness of which 
 baffles words to define." 
 
 He sat back on his heels and blew a kiss into 
 space. Steven itched with a good healthy longing, 
 that for the moment well-nigh shook him out of his 
 unnatural state of tension, to raise the elderly Adonis 
 by a Avell-applied kick. 
 
 " So then it is arranged," laughed the lady 
 " (what not finished yet ? make haste, my Prince) 
 we meet first at the ball, and then chez moi. I shall 
 leave before you, of course, for the sake of propriety 
 for this is between you and uie, you know, my good 
 friend," with a sweet, taunting look. " By the way, 
 what do you wear in the way of costume, that I may 
 recognise you ? " 
 
 " Oh, I ! " with a fat laugh, rising laboriously to his 
 feet. " a man of my dimensions, you understand, dear- 
 est Duchess, does not put vanity into these displays ; 
 I shall wear the uniform of my regiment, tout 
 l>&tement" 
 
 " But what could you wear more gorgeous, or more 
 romantic, all impregnated as it must be with the 
 reminiscences of your gallant exploits, Prince ! And 
 very gallant they were by all accounts." 
 
 " Ah, I was a sad dog ! do not remind me of the 
 follies of my stormy youth, so long done away with."
 
 204 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 Thereupon he wagged his head with much 
 humour, and, laughing meaningly and in concert, they 
 gained the door. 
 
 But as the Prince stood back to let his fair 
 companion pass out, Steven, suddenly awakening into 
 angry vivacity, stepped quickly forward, and barred 
 his exit Avith outstretched arms. 
 
 "A word with you," he cried, in a passionate 
 whisper. 
 
 Blandly the Austrian strove to wave him aside. 
 
 "Believe me, my friend, you are not well. You 
 should go and rest." 
 
 " Curse your grinning face and your patronising 
 insolence ! " broke from the young man under his 
 breath, with uncontrollable fury. " You came here 
 with that woman to-day Avith the set purpose of 
 insulting me. You mistake your man if you 
 think I mean tamely to pocket your infamous 
 behaviour. Things cannot end here ; you under- 
 stand me ? " 
 
 Prince SchAvarzenheim shrugged his shoulders 
 with the air of one Avho deems it useless to argue 
 with a maniac. 
 
 " We shall talk of this again," he said soothingly ; 
 " this is not the moment for such a conversation. 
 Moreover, you are ill, I am sure ; you have a touch 
 of fever; you are really not fit to discuss anything 
 now." 
 
 And profiting of his opportunity, he slipped 
 through the door and folloAved the Duchess down- 
 stairs, not Avithout a certain alacrity. With a mur- 
 derous look Steven let him depart. It was not the 
 moment, as his enemy had said ; and besides, the
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 205 
 
 Duchess would but have found another triumph in 
 the open scandal of an assault then and there. 
 
 " What was he saying to you, that creature ? " 
 came her cadenced notes echoing up the vaulted 
 staircase. 
 
 "Only a little compliment at parting. You 
 were a trifle hard on the budding genius, were you 
 not ? " 
 
 " He was becoming intolerable, not to be borne. 
 If I gave you twenty guesses you would never divine 
 the extent of his audacity." 
 
 A murmured answer, a trilling laugh, and then 
 the voices commingled confusedly, and died away 
 in the distance. 
 
 Steven locked the outer door of his apartment, 
 went back into his studio, and sat down. 
 
 The white, innocent flowers, the sweet and ex- 
 quisite head of his painted Duchess, stared at him, 
 and mocked him in the shrieking solitude. He 
 clutched his curly red hair, with desperate, frenzied 
 fingers. . . . What ignominy, what pollution, what 
 dishonour to him, to Steven Munro, who had ever 
 kept himself so proudly dignified ! Fooled by a 
 worthless woman, fooled by her white and crimson 
 smile, her long soft looks, her womanly, unwomanly, 
 taunting ways ! Untrue to his word, faithless to- 
 his trust, and then insulted, mocked, betrayed, dis- 
 graced ! . . . What remained to him ? what was 
 to be done ? 
 
 His eyes wandered vaguely round the room, till 
 they rested suddenly on the old dagger lying across 
 the bundle of bank-notes. 
 
 There lay the shameful money, the palpable
 
 206 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 insult, and, in strange juxtaposition, the very weapon 
 which his Highland forefathers had used to such 
 stern purpose to drown in blood the rankling memory 
 of an affront. 
 
 He slowly crossed the room, and taking up the 
 skene, rude, black, imbued with the associations of 
 centuries of wild deeds, lingered it with a loving 
 touch. 
 
 One thing yet remained to him, after all- 
 revenge ! 
 
 He grasped the ancient arm by the handle with 
 quick, fierce elation, and forced the flimsy notes on 
 its blade till they rested on the guard, savagely, as if 
 they were living things to slay. Then he turned to 
 the portrait, and, after gazing for a moment mur- 
 derously at its beauty, slashed its smiling face across 
 twice with a clean, swift, dreadful gash. 
 
 The sweet face smiled on in ghastly contrast to 
 its disfigurement. Steven drew forth the dagger again, 
 and gazed at it wildly, as if expecting to find it wet 
 with blood. 
 
 He laughed with fierce exultation. Yes, there 
 was something still left for him to do. 
 
 To-night, after the ball, at her Villa, she would be 
 waiting for her lover, that vilest of creatures, who de- 
 filed humanity by calling himself man. . . . Till 
 then, patience ! 
 
 He placed the dagger in his bosom and went forth 
 into the streets.
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 207 
 
 IT. 
 
 A TROPICAL deluge of rain had swept over the face of 
 Rome ; the rare shrubs in the Villa garden drooped, 
 their luxuriant branches heavy with hanging drops ; 
 the uncouth fragments of ancient statuary, rugged 
 headless trunks and trunkless heads, twisted torsos 
 and disjointed limbs, which studded the avenue, 
 shone from the uncertain gloom of their surroundings 
 with goblin-like distinctness. The ground beneath 
 Steven's feet exuded moisture like a full sponge ; a 
 wild, fitful wind came soughing at intervals through 
 the ilex trees, dashing spray into his face and 
 moaning off into the distance. Nature, like a pas- 
 sionate child, was subsiding into tranquillity after the 
 storm, shaken now and then by a tremulous re- 
 miniscence. But her calmer mood had no effect, this 
 night, on Steven's burning blood ; absorbed in his 
 own resolve, he stood in the shadow of a huge ilex 
 towards the middle of the drive, half leaning on a 
 couple of slender sabres, whose hilts he clasped with 
 one hand, waiting, as he had been waiting ever since 
 midnight, for the moment of action. 
 
 It was now nearly two in the morning; the clouds were 
 breaking athwart the moon's disc, and her light pour- 
 ing down with ever-increasing steadiness from the clear- 
 ing vault above. The colonnades of the Villa loomed 
 whitely forth from the surrounding foliage, with here 
 and there a leaf gleaming like burnished silver. A 
 rosy light, filtered from behind one window, crossed 
 occasionally by a flitting shadow. There, no doubt,
 
 208 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 the faithful Eulalia, whom the Duchess trusted, was 
 putting the last touches to that little supper which 
 awaited her and her cavalier. . . . Oh, it should be 
 a merry feast to-night, he would see to that ! 
 
 Hark ! the rolling of carriage wheels ; the rhythm 
 of horses' hoofs on the road ; now the sharp, sucking 
 sound of their tread on the soaking avenue. A flash 
 of light across his watching eyes, the vision of a white 
 face at the window, and she had passed. He heard 
 the horses draw up before the entrance, the slamming 
 of doors; and the carriage crunched away to the 
 stables at the back. 
 
 His time was coming patience still. He fingered 
 the dagger in his breast with a smile, and shifted 
 once more the weapons on which he leant. Swiftly 
 the clouds, flying from the moon's fair countenance, 
 massed themselves in rolling gloom on the eastern 
 horizon. The artist looked up at the heavens, and 
 once more smiled. Before that pure light began to 
 wane, he should need it no longer, for the Prince was 
 too gaUant a courtier to keep a lady lingering. 
 
 And now, what was this ? Steps behind him on 
 the short turf; so stealthy, so measured as scarcely 
 to have been audible to ears less keenly on the alert, 
 less intensely strung to listen. 
 
 The snapping of a twig beneath a heavy foot, and 
 a dark, bulky form moved swiftly along towards the 
 house, keeping carefully in the shade of the azaleas 
 and rhododendrons. 
 
 Turning sharply, Steven saw it, and with a loud 
 laugh, half of triumph, half of scoffing contempt at 
 his own simplicity, he leaped into the centre of the 
 moonlit space that divided him from the new-comer.
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 209 
 
 He had nearly missed his vengeance, after all ; for, 
 while he was watching the avenue, through a private 
 entrance the Duchess's guest was creeping towards 
 his rendezvous. 
 
 As the wild lithe figure sprang out into the light 
 and hailed him, the Prince stopped, and came forward 
 with a gesture of surprise, doubt, and alarm. 
 
 Steven flung off his hat, and bowed low with a 
 mockery that was almost joyous. 
 
 " Will you favour me with your attention for five 
 minutes, Prince ? " he cried gaily. The wind blew 
 his hair from his forehead, which shone in the moon- 
 light with a strange brightness. "We have still to 
 finish that little conversation begun at my studio 
 door this morning ; but I trust it will not take too 
 much of your valuable time." 
 
 " Mr. Munro ! " ejaculated the Prince amazedly ; 
 then with a dark frown, which altered the whole 
 character of his handsome, contented, sensual face, 
 into something inexpressibly arrogant, " what comedy 
 is this ? " he said. 
 
 Again Steven laughed aloud. Never had he felt 
 more curiously elated, more sure of himself, more 
 master of the situation. 
 
 " Only the last act of a little comedy in which 
 you have had the beau r6le, Prince," he answered, 
 with the same indescribable mixture of underlying 
 ferocity and surface playfulness which had charac- 
 terised his former utterance. " Oh ! " as the Aus- 
 trian made an impatient movement towards the 
 Villa " I know whither you are bound, and, believe 
 me, I have too much sympathy with your ardour 
 to wish to detain you an instant longer than the 
 N
 
 210 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 time to settle this trifling matter. With your leave 
 we shall proceed to business at once." 
 
 He threw his cloak away as he spoke, and 
 holding out the two sabres towards his companion 
 
 " Be so kind as to choose." 
 
 " He is mad ! " exclaimed Prince Schwarzenheim, 
 addressing the trees with a despairing shrug of his 
 shoulders "raging mad! My good sir, I told you 
 this afternoon that you were ill ; this, allow me to 
 remark, is the veriest delirium." 
 
 " Prince Schwarzenheim," said Steven, with great 
 deliberation, coming close up to him and putting 
 his young, determined face on a level with the other's 
 heavy, sin- worn countenance "Prince Schwarzen- 
 heim, you are a scoundrel" 
 
 Under this assault the elder man seemed sud- 
 denly to recover his usual urbane self-possession. 
 
 " My young friend," he said, in that good-tempered 
 tone of condescending familiarity that was so galling 
 to the artist's quick blood, " you are pleased to be 
 complimentary, but I have seen too much of these 
 matters to bear you malice. Take the advice of my 
 experience ; pocket your little grievance and go home 
 to bed. Do not commit the absurdity of trying to 
 turn what you aptly term a little comedy into high 
 tragedy. Everything is pardonable in these episodes 
 save the ridiculous." 
 
 " Come, come, defend yourself," cried the artist, 
 flinging one of the swords on the ground and hand- 
 ling the other himself with a fierce menacing grip ; 
 " I will bandy words no longer." 
 
 "Do you suppose, for a moment, that you can frighten 
 me into this nonsense ? " said Prince Schwarzenheim,
 
 A NEW SEXSATIOX. 211 
 
 surveying the shining blade turned on him, with 
 a quiet smile ; " I am not afraid of your mur- 
 dering me, neither have I the least intention of 
 crossing swords with you. Put down your weapon, 
 sir," he added, in a tone of dignified command, 
 striking aside with his gloved hand the point that 
 quivered within three inches of his breast, " and let 
 this foolish scene come to an end." 
 
 He once more turned to go, but Steven, extending 
 his left arm, gripped his wrist fiercely. 
 
 "No, by Heaven, you do not leave me till the 
 indignity I have suffered at your hands be atoned 
 for." 
 
 " But, my good young man," cried the Austrian, 
 half-laughing, " what have / to say to your injuries ? 
 the delinquent is one of a sex we all regard too 
 tenderly to dream of taking vengeance upon. Con- 
 sult the past you will see that I am perfectly in- 
 nocent in the matter. It is getting late, or rather 
 early ; a fair lady awaits my coming, also a supper. 
 To-morrow, when you are more calm, we can talk 
 this over again." 
 
 "Not to-morrow, nor any other time, but now, 
 now, this instant. Understand me, Prince, you must 
 fight me to-night I am determined." 
 
 There was a desperate resolve in the artist's whole 
 attitude, in the white fixity of his face, in the watch- 
 ful glare of his eye, that gave full weight to his 
 words. The Prince surveyed him with a glance 
 that was not without a comical appreciation of the 
 dilemma, and again shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "You shall fight me," said Steven passionately, 
 thrusting his pallid face close to him with the 
 N 2
 
 '21.2 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 determined insolence of one bent on provocation ; 
 " scoundrel, coward, destroyer of peaceful homes, foul 
 beast preying upon innocence and weakness, if to- 
 night 1 am destined to revenge with my own wrong 
 that of the many poor trusting souls that owe their 
 rum to you, I shall leave this accursed place feel- 
 ing that I have done a good deed by mankind in 
 ridding the world of such a brute ; and if my 
 arm should falter, the thought of that little country- 
 woman of mine, miserable, ignorant, foolish child, 
 driven from her place in disgrace, sick to death of 
 her shame within those walls yonder, who, not a 
 month ago, before she kneAv you, was a happy, 
 honest girl the thought of this lost creature, I say, 
 would lend me strength to strike." 
 
 A low whistle broke from the Prince's lips ; a new 
 light seemed to dawn upon him. 
 
 " Donnemuetter ! " he ejaculated, with soft, amused 
 amazement, " it's about the little miss after all ! Mais 
 commient done, my friend ? I have been at cross pur- 
 poses with you, then, all this time. Ah ! if it's on 
 account of the little miss, it's quite another affair. 
 Desolated, I beg you to believe, to have interfered 
 with you, but it was quite ignorantly, I assure you. 
 Of course, I do not for a moment dispute your 
 right to resent my attentions in that quarter, but, 
 with due allowance for your feelings, my good sir, 
 this midnight ambush, your informal little pro- 
 gramme, au clair de la lune, is very picturesque 
 no doubt, and would make an excellent effect in a 
 comic opera, but is hardly practical in real life. In 
 any case, it is not how we are accustomed to act in 
 civilised countries. We place these matters hi the
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 213 
 
 hands of friends, and leave it to them to decide 
 whether it be for our honour that a meeting should 
 take place. You will permit me the observation 
 that, beyond your undoubted gift for painting, I 
 know nothing of you. Nevertheless, if you will 
 appoint a fit person to call on ine to-morrow, I 
 shall direct him to my second, and trust we shall be 
 able to arrange for the little performance you so 
 ardently desire ; believe me, if it be possible, I shall 
 put no obstacle in the way. By my faith, it was in 
 all probability a very nice little idyll destined to end 
 in respectable hymen that I thus unwittingly dis- 
 turbed. Tut, tut ! I regret, I regret ; yet she was a 
 pretty child, the little mees. ..." 
 
 "Hold your foul tongue!" cried Steven violently. 
 " I have never laid eyes on the wretched being ; I 
 have no interest in her, no more reason to espouse 
 her cause than any other honest man in Rome. 
 But for all that, you shall not escape my vengeance 
 to-night. It has added tenfold to the ignominy of 
 the insults heaped on me that they should come 
 through such a degraded being as you. Once more, 
 sir, you shall fight me, or submit to be treated as 
 we in England treat those who have deserved such 
 chastisement at our hands." 
 
 He dropped his sword, balled his strong hands, 
 and disengaged them from the sleeves with a ges- 
 ture as meaning as it was instinct with science and 
 power. This time the Prince momentarily displayed 
 both anger and perturbation. He divested himself 
 of his ponderous cloak, picked up one of the 
 weapons, and placed himself in an attitude of defence 
 with extraordinary agility.
 
 214 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 " Your behaviour is infamous ! " he exclaimed, in 
 a brutal voice, very different from the ordinary bland 
 perfection of his address ; " you force me to inform 
 you in so many words that people of my class do 
 not as a rule fight duels with people of yours, and 
 if I fight you it is in mere self-defence." 
 
 " If that be your last objection," retorted Steven, 
 laughing aloud, returning, as he saw the moment 
 of his vengeance at hand, to his first state of ex- 
 cited hilarity, " I am glad to be able to remove it. 
 On no throne in Europe, at this moment, is there a 
 man who can boast of better blood than mine. Come 
 on, sir ! you perchance brag of your sixteen quar- 
 terings ; may it comfort you now to know that you 
 oppose them to one who can trace back his race 
 as chiefs of their land for over twelve centuries ? " 
 
 The Prince interrupted the young man's im- 
 petuous speech with a frank burst of laughter. 
 " Pray, pray," he interposed, " do not overwhelm 
 me, or the thought of the augustness of your per- 
 son and the honour you are conferring upon me 
 will quite unnerve me. Why, then, since it must 
 
 be let it be Come on, young chief, I am 
 
 ready." 
 
 His loss of self-control was past; he was once 
 more the same courteous, dignified personality 
 as ever. With a noble bearing and a cool deter- 
 mined air, he took his stand, betraying in every 
 movement as much the practised swordsman as 
 Steven's first headlong assault gave testimony of 
 the reverse. 
 
 For a few seconds the tranquil garden resounded 
 to the sharp beating of the combatants' blades. Prince
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 215 
 
 Schwarzenheim, firm on his feet and admirably com- 
 posed, kept himself strictly on the defensive, parrying 
 with precision his adversary's furious slashes and 
 thrusts, warily anticipative of the moment when the 
 young man's untutored attack would leave him open 
 to some disabling but not too dangerous cut. 
 
 But Steven's violence, his absolute recklessness 
 of personal danger, his total ignorance itself of the 
 experience-born conventionalities of fence, carried the 
 field as it often happens in such cases even against 
 the skill and deliberation of his opponent. A sud- 
 den vicious thrust from the shoulder (in direct de- 
 fiance of all the canons of the art, but so powerful 
 as to break through the elder man's guard as though 
 it had been of straw) and Steven beheld his enemy, 
 all at once, roll over like a sack on his back, his legs 
 stretched out, his weapon falling away from his 
 nerveless clasp. 
 
 At the sight of the prostrate form, the sort of obses- 
 sion of rage and vengeance vanished from the artist's 
 mind, leaving him deadly cold, both physically 
 and mentally. It must be remembered that Steven 
 Munro was very young. For a second or two he 
 stood blankly staring at his victim. What had he 
 done ? had he killed the man ? He could not tell, 
 but in his heart he dreaded it with a great dis- 
 may. He was not of the stuff of which duellists are 
 made, after all. 
 
 A reflective voice issuing from the recumbent 
 figure, and apparently directed to the sky, here fell 
 upon his ear, bringing so great a relief that, in his 
 gratitude to the Prince for not being killed, he well- 
 nigh lost sight of his hatred of him.
 
 216 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 " The Italians are right, I see," said the supposed 
 corpse contentedly; "in fighting, Chi para busca; 
 chi tira tocca! Had I attacked, this would not 
 have happened." Then the speaker raised himself to 
 a sitting posture, and began gingerly to feel his right 
 arm. "H'rn, clean through the fleshy part un- 
 pleasant, but nothing serious. Diable ! young man, 
 you are the most disgusting swordsman I have ever 
 come across. Are you not ashamed you, a man of 
 such chivalrous blood to know so little of the gen- 
 tlemanly science ? " 
 
 With an effort he regained his feet as he spoke, 
 holding out his right hand dripping darkly in the 
 moonlight with the blood that ran down his arm. 
 " May this innocent fluid have had at least the desired 
 effect and washed away your injuries according to 
 your amiable wish," he went on cheerfully ; "in 
 any case, you will observe that it is out of the 
 question I could hold a weapon again for some time. 
 Allans, Mr. Munro ! the end of this foolish episode 
 is to be quite in keeping with the rest of it, it seems ; 
 I am bleeding like a pig, you see, and must beg 
 for your assistance as far as the lodge yonder, where 
 I shall have my arm bound up, be able to get a 
 glass of wine, and despatch some one first with a 
 little note to my fair hostess who by this time, I 
 dare say, has wisely given me up and then for my 
 carriage. I am not much hurt, but this loss of 
 blood always makes one a little queer. Thanks ; 
 my arm across your shoulder thus it is perfect. 
 The porter has an extremely handsome daughter, 
 as perhaps you know, a fine specimen of the large, 
 ox-eyed, Madonna-faced Roman type ; we are on
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 217 
 
 fairly good terms, la Maria and I, and it will not 
 be altogether a hardship to find myself under her 
 care for a couple of hours. A thousand thanks ; 
 may I trouble you to complete your good services 
 y hammering at the door and ringing the bell 
 until you have aroused the inmates ? They cannot 
 yet be very sound asleep, as the Duchessa returned 
 but an hour or so ago. Hold, there is a light moving ; 
 the beautiful Maria, I make no doubt. Now, my 
 good friend, w T e must concoct some little story of 
 an accident ; needless to rack our brains to explain 
 too much a few gold pieces will fill up aU seeming 
 discrepancies. Ah (lapsing into Italian), my fair 
 child ! do not be frightened, it is I, Prince Schwarzen- 
 heiin ; I have conae to beg for your hospitality and 
 kind offices for a little while ; I am wounded an acci- 
 dent which I will tell you about by-and-by ; you will 
 succour me, will you not ? you could not turn me 
 from your doors to bleed to death on the road ? 
 No, I will not so misjudge your tender heart ! 
 Receive the expression of my eternal gratitude, my 
 dear Mr. Munro, for your timely ministrations ; 
 without you, what would have become of me ? 
 No, you need not fear to leave me in the keeping 
 of my gentle friend here : I will trespass on your 
 courtesy no longer. Au revoir, Signer Painter. 
 My dear Maria, your help. Ah ! who would have 
 thought this pretty arm combined such beauty with 
 such strength. . . ." 
 
 The remainder of his sentence was lost to Steven 
 as the speaker tottered into the house with some 
 exaggeration of weakness, leaning affectionately on the 
 shoulder of the startled girl, in whom bewilderment,
 
 218 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 however, was soon lost in a tide of feminine com- 
 passion. 
 
 "And this," said the artist, as he turned away, 
 " is the being whose life I first thirsted for and 
 afterwards trembled to have taken ! Let him live 
 or die, he is not worth a moment's thought. Faugh, 
 I am covered with his blood ! " And he went 
 back to the fighting ground to fetch his antagonist's 
 cloak. 
 
 The Duchess was walking up and down her 
 boudoir in a very decided bad temper. She had 
 exchanged the gorgeous costume, in which she had 
 been the very queen of the night's revels, for one 
 of her favourite loose wrappers of silk and lace. 
 She had spent sufficient time over her toilet to feel 
 sure that art had done its utmost to throw into 
 proper relief all the loveliness of which Nature had 
 been so unwontedly lavish. She had satisfied her- 
 self that nothing was wanting to the exquisite little 
 supper- table that stood just at the proper distance 
 from the merry wood fire, flanked by two inviting 
 elbow-chairs ; she had dismissed all the servants 
 save Eulalia, and then she had sat down to wait 
 to be amused. 
 
 And she had waited : with patience a quarter of an 
 hour, with impatience twenty minutes, with fury 
 three-quarters of an hour. What impertinence, 
 what insulting presumption ! He should smart for 
 this ! Fat, bald, odious wretch, he should pay for 
 it as dearly as all those who dared to offend Anna
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 219 
 
 Castelcapaccio sooner or later paid for their folly ! 
 For to other attributes the Duchess added a long 
 memory, a determined will, and a conscience well 
 under control. 
 
 Ah ! at length sounds of a man's tread on the 
 stairs, now in the passage, preceded by Eulalia's 
 genteel tiptoe advance. 
 
 " How loud and assuredly he steps, this sleek 
 and insinuating personage so much tender thought 
 for my reputation to tramp thus into my house, 
 at dawn, like a dragoon. Bah ! what role other 
 than that of court buffoon does the fool think I 
 meant to assign to him by this night's freak ? And 
 yet he walks as if he were master here." 
 
 The door opened gently, was gently closed, and 
 the firm feet strode a little way into the room and 
 stopped short. 
 
 Without deigning to look in his direction, the 
 Duchess spoke in a brief, strident voice, curiously 
 unlike her usual dulcet drawl. 
 
 " You are too late ; I am tired ; go away." 
 
 Silence for the space of some twenty seconds. 
 
 " Do you hear me, Prince ? " said the lady sharply, 
 rising as she spoke, and turning vehemently round 
 upon her visitor. 
 
 With haggard, triumphant face, with eyes red 
 and fierce ; dark, slender, menacing, stood a very 
 different presence from that of the comely, handsome 
 figure she had expected to see. 
 
 " My God, what is this ? " she screamed, and 
 fell back white and trembling on her chair. 
 
 Still with the same awful dumbness, the intruder 
 now threw off the heavy cloak that enveloped him.
 
 220 A NEW SEXSATTOX. 
 
 The Duchess turned faint and sick. She had few 
 weaknesses. But a nameless, nervous horror of blood, 
 and an abject dread of physical pain, were among 
 these ; she put her hand to her throat. 
 
 " There is blood upon you," she whimpered ; " oh, 
 this is horrible ! " 
 
 " It is not mine," said Steven, corning close to 
 her, and looking down at her with pitiless eyes and 
 pitiless smile. " This blood is not mine," thrusting 
 out his red hand towards her so brutally that, had 
 it not been for her disgusted recoil, it must have 
 touched her ; " these drops flowed from a far more 
 elegant source than the poor artist can boast of. 
 You look frightened ; reassure yourself ; your lover 
 is not dead ; to slay vermin is not my vocation." 
 
 Anger came to the woman's assistance. Gathering 
 her shaking limbs together, the colour returning with 
 a rush to her face : 
 
 - " This is monstrous, this is of the last infamy," 
 she cried. " Whatever brings you here, Mr. Munro, 
 I have not the smallest desire to discover, but" 
 stepping agitatedly across the room " thank God, 
 it will not take long to rid me of your presence my 
 servants are strong." 
 
 She reached for the bell, but Steven in a stride 
 had followed her, and she was once more forced to 
 draw back from the abomination of his outstretched 
 bloody hand. 
 
 " No," arresting the shriek on her wide-open 
 mouth by the intensity of his low-voiced passion, 
 " you shall not call for help either ; you are in my 
 power now take heed how you provoke me. I am 
 not in a mood to be patient with you. You will
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 221 
 
 do well, therefore, to submit quietly to the in- 
 evitable." 
 
 Obedient to his gesture, she cowered into a chair, 
 watching him as he sat down in front of her, with 
 staring, terror-stricken eyes, and a face, suddenly old, 
 and lined, and unbeautiful with the stamp of her 
 cringing fear upon it. 
 
 " Every dog has his day," he went on, in a banter- 
 ing tone, placing himself in such a position that 
 she could not move without touching him, while 
 the steady glare of his eyes never wavered in its 
 command of her magnetised gaze. "You have had 
 yours excuse the ungallantry of the simile it is 
 my turn now. You have had your sport, madame, 
 and exquisitely humorous it was, no doubt. You 
 made a fool of a poor devil of a painter, went out of 
 your way even risked what women call their reputa- 
 tion to do so. Anyhow you took a good deal of 
 trouble to turn my head. It is almost flattering 
 to reflect upon, really. You saw that at first I was 
 untouched by your charms, heard my faith was 
 elsewhere pledged ; this it was which probably gave 
 the zest to the proceedings for you ; it is such a 
 delightful joke to make a man behave dishonourably 
 and break his word ! Having attained your end, 
 you insulted me, using as your witness a degraded 
 roue, one whose name is associated with deeds so 
 shameful that it is an ill thing for an honest man 
 even to mention it. So far so good that is your 
 part of the game. Now comes mine." 
 
 He moved his chair an inch nearer, and paused 
 for a moment, then continued, with a fresh assumption 
 of light-heartedness, which could not, however, conceal
 
 222 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 the increase of his anger, the ferocity of his bitter- 
 ness : 
 
 " Shall I tell you what happened when you came 
 and taunted me to-day in my own room ? My first 
 impulse was to strangle you both. You first, the 
 Prince afterwards. I had the strength of ten men. 
 I could have done it there and then. What kept me 
 back I cannot tell ; an Englishman's innate mauvaise 
 honte, I suppose. My next thought was suggested 
 by this. You made a mistake when you placed it on 
 your money to-day." He drew the dagger from 
 his bosom, its sharp point gleaming as he balanced 
 it in his hand, a bunch of wet papers, stained of a 
 sinister hue, hanging limply over its hilt. " You 
 look pale, madame. These late hours are trying. I 
 will not keep you much longer. This weapon which 
 I now hold was handed down to me from my fore- 
 fathers. It has been used many and many a time, 
 but never without accomplishing its purpose. There 
 is a tradition that a pleasant old ancestor of mine 
 having unwittingly wedded the daughter of a clan with 
 which he was at deadly feud, therewith cut the throats 
 of both wife and child, when, somewhat late hi the 
 day, he discovered his mistake. Yes, we come of a 
 vindictive race. Such is the blood that flows in my 
 veins: you can readily understand that the sight of 
 this heirloom did not tend to make it floAv more 
 calmly. ... I took it up in my hand, so ; I stabbed 
 the bank-notes through and through, so those notes, 
 just payment for honest toil, but with which you con- 
 trived to offer insult to the honour of Steven Munro ! " 
 
 His voice broke off hoarsely ; he rose and towered 
 above her, and looked down on her with a terrible
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 223 
 
 threat in his eyes. " Then, madame, I went over to 
 that picture of you, which I had wrought so like to 
 you that I could have almost sworn you were there 
 in flesh and blood before me, and then I cut you 
 across the face- like this that your beauty should 
 fool no man again." 
 
 The steel blade flashed blindingly before her, as, in 
 fearful proximity to her face, it described a rapid cross 
 in the air. 
 
 With a yell of fear she flung herself at his feet, 
 and clasped them with frenzied hands : 
 
 " Ah, not that ! not that ! mercy, mercy ! " 
 He pushed her from him violently. 
 " Get up," he cried. 
 
 But she crawled back to him, as you may see a 
 beaten hound cower to his master's knee, and kissed 
 his feet, and twined her arms round him, pouring 
 forth her anguished pleading in a voice which terror 
 had robbed of all sound save a ghastly whisper. 
 
 " Oh, my God ! what shall I do ? oh, have pity 
 spare me ! I sinned against you ! I ask your pardon 
 humbly, humbly ! In the name of God, don't do 
 that ! Are you not revenged enough ? Spare a 
 wretched woman at your mercy ! I will be your 
 slave, I will do what you will, but spare me ! Do not 
 do that ! " 
 
 What an abject heap of quaking flesh it was ! 
 what a poor white face ! what white, dry lips 
 futilely moistened by that babbling, stammering 
 tongue ! what a spectacle of womanhood degraded ! 
 
 The murderous glare suddenly faded from 
 Steven's eyes, the unholy craving for revenge from 
 his face.
 
 224 A NEW SENSATIOK 
 
 "Get up," he said once more, and threw his 
 dagger on the table. 
 
 He felt sharne of her shame, shame of his own 
 manhood for its revenge on a woman, shame for the 
 fearful temptation he had so nearly yielded to. 
 
 " It is time this ridiculous scene should end," he 
 said wearily. " I thought to kill your lover, and 
 when he lay helpless at my feet I could not, despic- 
 able though he be. I thought to punish you as you 
 deserve, and again I cannot ! Get up, for God's sake, 
 and control yourself. You have nothing to fear from 
 me. It is not in me, after all, to kill a fallen enemy 
 or strike a woman." 
 
 She stumbled to her feet, and looked at him, 
 bewildered : then, reading in his countenance that 
 all danger was indeed over, tottered to a chair and 
 burst into a passion of tears. 
 
 He waited in mute, scornful, unpitying patience 
 till the first paroxysm was over, gradually resuming 
 possession of himself ; then, in an icy tone : 
 
 "Pray try and command yourself sufficiently to 
 listen to me," he said ; " I shall be glad to relieve you 
 of my presence, and doubtless you as ardently desire 
 my departure ; there is but one little formality neces- 
 sary before we reach this satisfactory consummation. 
 It is that you take back these notes." 
 
 She screamed faintly, and started in dismay from 
 the dagger he once more held out to her. But the 
 silent command of eye and hand was too stern to be 
 disregarded. Shuddering with horror, with nerveless 
 fingers that scarce could accomplish the task, she 
 drew the blood-marked notes from the blade. Then 
 dropping them with a convulsion of loathing, crushed
 
 A NEW SENSATION. 225 
 
 her hands into her draperies to hide their hideous 
 stains from view, and throwing her head back on the 
 cushions of her chair, sobbed helplessly like a child. 
 
 " During that little supper you did rue the honour 
 to partake of at my rooms some weeks ago, madame," 
 said the man quietly, taking up his hat as he spoke, 
 and spurning the Prince's cloak from his path, " I 
 recollect your telling me that you were at a loss for a 
 new sensation, adding, in a very complimentary 
 manner, that I had furnished you with one. Your 
 subsequent behaviour has led me to believe that you 
 were still on the research for novelty in that par- 
 ticular. I flatter myself I have again supplied the 
 want this time in a manner that will last you for 
 some time." 
 
 He turned to go, and had taken two steps towards 
 the door when an inarticulate cry from the Duchess 
 arrested him. She had half risen from her seat. Her 
 tears had stopped ; there was a singular wistful look in 
 her eyes ; she stretched out her arms : 
 
 " Steven ! " she cried, in a strange tone of pleading. 
 
 He wheeled round and looked at her. And under 
 the ineffable contempt of that glance even her shame- 
 less eyes fell. 
 
 Outside, dawn was bursting into beautiful day. 
 The sun was rising in crimson and purple, amber and 
 gold and silver; indescribable was the wealth of 
 colours stretching across the wide skies. And in the 
 west there were translucent greens and exquisite opal 
 tints melting into the sapphire blue of the vault above. 
 Every dewdrop in the garden reflected a little glory
 
 226 A NEW SENSATION. 
 
 of many-hued light. There rose from the flower- 
 starred space a medley of rich perfumes. The ilex 
 trees stood out black against the brilliant horizon, the 
 hills were all radiant, Rome lay like a transfigured 
 dream-city under the glamorous rays. 
 
 Yet, as Steven stood still a moment, and gazed 
 around him, his soul sickened with a deadly nausea. 
 
 Oh, for the mists, the moors, the heather, the pure, 
 healthy, honest, cold breath of his native land ! His 
 heart bounded with a sudden yearning that brought 
 the tears to his eyes. 
 
 " I have passed through the fire," he murmured ; 
 " but I can still look my child-bride in the eyes. 
 Home, home and Maimie ! Yes, yes, my darling, I 
 am coming ! "
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 I. 
 From Edward Chaloner to Colonel Hythe. 
 
 Lutcombe, Devon, Dec. 10. 
 
 DEAR OLD GERRY, Don't roar ! I am going to be 
 married ; and that to the nicest girl under the sun, 
 and the prettiest into the bargain. Of course you are 
 groaning over me, and swearing at me, and calling me 
 a fool and a victim, and all the rest of it. I can see 
 you at it from here, old fellow. But, for all your 
 rooted ideas on the subject, you may believe me when 
 I tell you that I am the luckiest man alive, and would 
 not change places with anyone in the world. 
 
 And now, if you have not already guessed who the 
 young lady is, you are not so sharp as I take you to 
 be ; for though you never met Miss Prade, it is not my 
 fault if her name is not pretty familiar to you by this 
 time. You know I have loved her for years ever 
 since I first saw her. You know she is the only girl I 
 ever really cared for. 
 
 Congratulate me, old boy ; I can scarcely believe 
 my own good fortune. I dare say you will laugh at 
 me, but I must tell you we have been engaged nearly 
 three months already, and I never dared write to any- 
 one about it before, lest something should happen to 
 prevent the marriage. Noiv, however, it is fixed for 
 the 21st, so there can be no mistake about it, thank 
 goodness ! though it seems too good to be true. We 
 2
 
 223 .CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 are to be married from here, her brother-in-law's 
 house ; Marie lives with them, you know, being an 
 orphan. He is the best fellow in the world, and has 
 splendid shooting. 
 
 And now I am coming to the point of my letter. 
 Will you be my best man ? There is not anot'her 
 fellow in England or anywhere else, for the matter of 
 that I'd sooner have than you, old chappie. You 
 have always been the dearest chum I ever had. 
 Ever yours, most sincerely, 
 
 EDWARD DUFFUS CHALONER. 
 
 P.S. Holmes, her brother-in-law, you know, will 
 put you up. Come as soon as yon can. 
 
 From Colonel Hythe to Edward Chaloner. 
 
 Guards' Club, 15th. 
 
 DEAR OLD DUFFER, I accept invitation to ac- 
 company you to execution, and feel a painful pleasure 
 in being able to render you the last service in my 
 power. I am rejoiced everything appears to you in so 
 superlative a light. Hope it will last out the honey- 
 moon. Glad, anyhow, the young lady is an orphan ; 
 glad also of brother-in-law's good shooting. I shall 
 turn up on the 19th to assist in tying up the noose. 
 Shall I bring my gun ? Best wishes to you, and pray 
 give my congratulations to the young lady on having 
 succeeded in potting the ' best fellow in the world.' 
 
 Yours, 
 
 GERALD. 
 
 P.S. Wasn't Miss Prade's mother a Russian, and 
 isn't there a proverb about Russians and Tartars ? 
 This is merely a suggestion.
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 229 
 
 " Confound the fellow ! " said Colonel Hythe to 
 himself, as the train sped along through the raw 
 evening air. "Couldn't he be married at another 
 time of year ; couldn't he have got another fellow to 
 play the fool behind him in church ; couldn't he 
 remain a bachelor ? I do hate a man who doesn't 
 know when he is well off. I really am the most good- 
 natured creature to think of my taking this infernal 
 journey in such weather all to satisfy a sentimental 
 feeling about that old ass, Ned. Poor Ned! the 
 Duffer, as we used to call him I believe I have a soft 
 corner in my heart for him, after all. He was always 
 the same always the greatest noodle from the time 
 he could walk alone, perpetually in some scrape or 
 other. I suppose I have helped to pull him out of a 
 dozen at least. Ah, well ! he's been and gone and 
 done it this time. Can't pull him out of this, and 
 more's the pity. Another good man gone wrong. 
 She has nabbed him, of course. Those girls have the 
 talent of scenting the tin, and running it down, too 
 15,000. a year and the finest place in Hampshire are 
 not to be picked up every day. She has played her 
 cards well, too, by Jove ! The poor devil thinks she 
 has done him the greatest favour in life by consenting 
 to spend his money for him. Poor Ned! Poor old 
 Duffer! He was always a good creature at heart 
 better than any of us but that is the way of the 
 world ; it's the best that go first." 
 
 Colonel Hythe was growing vague; his cigar 
 slipped from his fingers, his eyelids drooped over his 
 handsome eyes, his head began to bob Avith placid 
 non-resistance to the jerking and jolting of the 
 carriage. Presently a gentle snort escaped at
 
 230 GffALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 intervals from his well-shaped nose, and Colonel 
 Hythe slept. 
 
 With a despairing yell the train slackened speed ; 
 a hideous grating of brakes ensued, lights flashed into 
 the window, houses leaped up on each side like a 
 legion of Jack-in-the-boxes, the engine halted with a 
 great spou ting-out of steam before a little red-brick 
 station, and an aged porter emitted several totally un- 
 intelligible shouts. Yet Colonel Hythe slept on. 
 
 A dark, agitated countenance appeared at the 
 window of his carriage, the door was opened with 
 frenzied haste, a voice called on him in tones of 
 anguish 
 
 " Monsieur, monsieur ! Our station, monsieur ! 
 For the love of God, awake I " 
 
 And Gerald Hythe, thus abjured, opened two 
 wrathful eyes in time to see his French valet, nearly 
 black in the face an already sufficiently dusky one 
 with the combined efforts of shrieking at him and 
 struggling to pull the portmanteau over the barrier of 
 his outstretched legs, in time to feel its sharpest 
 corner land on his favourite toe, and to become aware 
 beneath him of the first faint outward movement ot 
 the again departing train. 
 
 With one energetic sweep of his arm he sent 
 Leclerc spinning on to the platform, in another instant 
 the portmanteau followed suit, and the third saw the 
 gallant Colonel emerge with more haste than dignity 
 from the carriage ; escaping, at the imminent peril of 
 life and limb, the fate of being carried away into the 
 heart of Cornwall. 
 
 " Confound your fussiness ! " exclaimed he, with 
 great indignation and a sublime disregard of justice,
 
 CHALONER'8 BEST MAN. 231 
 
 scowling at his discomfited attendant ; " I've lost my 
 best stick now. Really, Leclerc, you get worse and 
 worse every day." 
 
 After which outburst he felt sufficiently relieved 
 to be able to make inquiries of the station-master as 
 to the possibilities of a conveyance with a tolerable 
 amount of civility. His long-suffering valet mean- 
 while murmured abject apologies, readjusted his dis- 
 ordered attire, and the instant his master's broad 
 back was turned, sent a murderous look and an 
 inward malediction of the most sulphurous descrip- 
 tion after him, thereby deriving much moral satis- 
 faction at having re-established the equilibrium of 
 things. 
 
 Then a loud cheery voice rang out from the un- 
 savoury little waiting-room : 
 
 "Gerry, old man, this is jolly!" and a shortish, 
 stoutish, pinkish young man, of the retreating-chin, 
 prominent-eye type, came running forward with great 
 impetuosity, two tightly yellow-gloved hands out- 
 stretched, and a beaming smile broadly distending his 
 ingenuous countenance. 
 
 Colonel Hythe smiled in return, but spasmodically. 
 He was not up to " gush " just then. 
 
 " Ah ! Chaloner ! " he remarked, with a distinct 
 absence of enthusiasm, and delivered one limp hand 
 to the other's rapturous grasp. 
 
 " I've got the dogcart for you, old chappie ; your 
 fellow can go behind, and I'll bowl you over the 
 ground in double-quick time. I hope you're well 
 wrapped up ; it's the bitterest night we have had yet." 
 
 The Colonel groaned. 
 
 Anyone with a grain of sense would have a
 
 232 C H ALONE R'S BEST MAX. 
 
 brougham for him a covered fly even in such 
 weather and at such an hour. But what could one 
 expect ? It was the " Duffer " all over. 
 
 He entered the vehicle provided for him in 
 Spartan silence, Leclerc scrambled up behind, their 
 luggage was hauled in, and off they went, the mare 
 scrambling and sprawling on the slippery road. 
 
 " The fastest goer," said Ned, " in all the country." 
 
 The Colonel grunted. The wind was blowing up 
 his sleeves and down his neck, and finding out every 
 weak corner of his anatomy. At any rate, it should 
 not have the chance of penetrating to his lungs. 
 
 Ned, nothing abashed, babbled on garrulously of 
 his happiness, his bride, his prospects. 
 
 Lights appeared in the far distance. 
 
 "The village," said Ned, interrupting his discourse 
 and pointing at their glimmering with his whip. 
 
 " Hang the village ! " thought Colonel Hythe. 
 
 They turned a corner so sharply as seriously to 
 imperil the triumvir's equilibrium. The mare was un- 
 doubtedly fast, but she had likewise an unpleasant 
 tendency to take every corner at a rush, and graze 
 it if possible. The Colonel could hear Leclerc's teeth 
 chattering with cold, and feel him squirming in un- 
 conscious and futile efforts to ease the swaying cart. 
 
 Two great gates suddenly broke the monotony of 
 the high bleak wall they were skirting. Ned pulled 
 up before them and hulloaed wildly, at the same time 
 elaborately explaining : " The Lodge ! " 
 
 Of course the mare went for it with a bounce, and 
 did her best to catch the off-wheel on the kerbstone. 
 A broken prayer escaped Leclerc's lips. They whirled 
 past close-growing trees, silhouettes of cattle, and
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 233 
 
 hanging mists that wreathed over dim hollows ; there 
 was a homely, pleasant sound of crunching of gravel 
 after the ring of the hard road ; a great square 
 building, studded with lights, loomed all at once 
 before them, as if risen out of the night. 
 
 " The house," said Ned. And, " Thank God ! " said 
 Colonel Hythe. 
 
 " I say, Gerry," here observed Mr. Chaloner, rather 
 nervously, and moderating the pace of the mare to 
 allow him time to say his say before arriving, a pro- 
 cedure which infinitely disgusted the half-frozen 
 Colonel ; " I say, Gerry, you mustn't mind if Marie " 
 (he pronounced it Ma wry) " seems to you just a little 
 odd in her manner at first. She is apt to strike 
 strangers so, sometimes, you know, so ah I thought 
 I'd just tell you, don't you know, lest you shouldn't 
 understand it. I like her all the better for it myself," 
 Xed went on hurriedly. (" Nothing when you are 
 used to it, I suppose," murmured Gerald, in a none too 
 amiable sotto voce.) "But just in the beginning, 
 when you don't know her, you might get a wrong 
 impression of her. She is really the best-tempered 
 girl in the world." 
 
 "Really," said Colonel Hythe. Now there was 
 something in his tone which Ned did not relish. For 
 he coloured very much in the darkness, and relapsing 
 suddenly into silence, gathered up the reins so sharply 
 that the mare landed them with a rush and a scuttle 
 before the hall door. 
 
 It opened on the instant, as if by magic. A solemn 
 butler appeared on the threshold ; a brisk young foot- 
 man precipitated himself on the travellers. A pale, 
 brown-bearded man received the Colonel, as Ned
 
 234 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 ushered him noisily into the hall, with a solemn 
 handshake. 
 
 Then a great laughing and chattering in a high 
 feminine key was heard rapidly approaching from a 
 little distance, and a short, plump, fair woman 
 waddled out to them a ceaseless stream of voluble 
 inquiries and ecstatic giggles flowing from her lips 
 and seized the Colonel's hand with fervour in her own 
 two fat white ones. 
 
 " How do you do, Colonel Hy the ? So glad to see 
 you. Was it very cold ? Are you dreadfully tired ? 
 Isn't it an awful night ? Won't you come into the 
 library and have a cup of tea ? " 
 
 This was Mrs. Holmes: the tall, silent man was 
 Mr. Holmes ; the small flat-faced boy peeping at him 
 from between the latter's legs was Master Holmes. 
 
 Colonel Hythe took a violent dislike to the whole 
 family on the spot. He hated people who hadn't a 
 word to throw to a fellow; he hated people who 
 rushed at one and talked nineteen to the dozen and 
 italicised their words ; he hated small boys with round 
 staring eyes. 
 
 He felt his nose was flaming after the cold drive, 
 he knew he was grimy, unkempt, not fit for ladies' 
 society, and he was glad the unknown Miss Prade was 
 not there to see him in such plight. 
 
 Mrs. Holmes's offers of refreshment he declined 
 with elaborate courtesy, wondering in his own mind if 
 "Mawry" were like her, and at his request was 
 ushered to his room by the devoted and ever-ready 
 Ned. The latter was bubbling all over with such 
 superfluous affection and rapture, and was altogether 
 so irrepressible and trying to the Colonel in his then
 
 CBALONER'S BEST MAN. 235 
 
 condition of irritation, that he was forced to expel him 
 from his presence with a severity which would have 
 been calculated to cast a damper over anyone but the 
 "Duffer." 
 
 A hot bath, a luxurious shave under Leclerc's 
 skilled fingers (who, as he was wont to say himself, 
 had the true instinct of the art), the consciousness 
 that the colour had retreated from the tip of his fine 
 straight nose, and that there could not be two opinions 
 about the cut of his clothes that, altogether, he was 
 not looking his worst went a fair way to restore the 
 Colonel's equanimity. Leclerc had also imparted to 
 him his impression that the cook would prove 
 passable, and Leclerc's impressions on such matters 
 were apt to turn out correct. This was a more 
 cheering prospect than he had allowed himself to 
 indulge in. Gerald Hythe was thirty-four, an age 
 when a man's dinner begins to assume a considerable 
 amount of importance in everyday life. 
 
 The gong clamoured through the house just as 
 the dapper little Frenchman withdrew his hands with 
 a flourish from under his master's chin, and con- 
 templated the irreproachable bow of cambric he had 
 just completed with a glow of triumph irradiating his 
 countenance. He had surpassed himself to-night. 
 
 The hungry Colonel ran down-stairs, nothing loth 
 to obey the Avelcome summons. Pulling up his collar 
 and pulling down his cuffs, after the approved style, 
 he entered the library to which the sedate butler 
 motioned him with a majestic wave of his arm. Here 
 were assembled, awaiting him, his host gloomy and 
 gentlemanly, his hostess as plump as a quail in her 
 tight grey satin gown, and Ned red and uneasy,
 
 236 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 though obviously struggling to be cheerful and con- 
 ceal the anxious glances he kept throwing from side 
 to side in the vain search for someone who was no- 
 where to be seen. 
 
 " We shall not wait for my sister-in-law," said Mr. 
 Holmes severely. " Colonel Hythe, will you give your 
 arm to my wife ? " 
 
 Colonel Hythe obeyed, wondering why so trifling a 
 matter as a young lady's inexactitude should cast 
 such a gloom over the little party. He was beginning 
 to feel curious about the person in question, and 
 unconsciously fell into Ned's way of watching the 
 door the while he partook of excellent soup and 
 answered somewhat at random Mrs. Holmes's inces- 
 sant babble. 
 
 The fish had just been placed before his host, a 
 cod's head and shoulders of gigantic size, reposing on 
 a very stiff white napkin, when the door was opened 
 petulantly, and, with a good deal of rustle and bustle, 
 a very small and slender girl came into the room. 
 
 Ned grew purple, and sprang up to meet her, Mrs. 
 Holmes poured forth a volume of queries, laments, 
 and reproaches, intermingled with perfectly irrelevant 
 bursts of laughter ; Miss Prade did not pay the least 
 attention to either of them. 
 
 " Soup, please," she cried, in a ringing voice to the 
 butler, who was hovering behind Mr. Holmes plate in 
 hand, awaiting fish and sat down calmly in the place 
 reserved for her, beside her lover. 
 
 On Colonel Hythe she did not bestow even a glance ; 
 a treatment, however, he did not regret, as it enabled 
 him to examine her critically, unobserved himself. 
 
 What a quaint, original little face it was, and how
 
 GHALONER'S BEST MAN. 237 
 
 bewitchingly wicked ! Nothing of the regular statu- 
 esque style of beauty about her far from it. There 
 was a certain flatness of cheekbone Calmuck, as he 
 told himself the eyes were too long and narrow, the 
 nose too short, the lips too full. But what colouring, 
 what hair, how bright the grey-green eyes, how 
 attractive the strange and intense mobility of the 
 whole countenance ! 
 
 " That little girl," he thought, " is just the sort to 
 drive a man mad." 
 
 And the more he watched her, the stronger there 
 came upon him an indescribable feeling which seemed 
 to partake both of fascination and antipathy. 
 
 "Marie," suddenly interposed Mrs. Holmes, mind- 
 ful of her duties, " let me introduce Colonel Hythe." 
 
 The Colonel bowed low and ceremoniously over 
 his plate. The girl gave him a direct bold look from 
 her narrow e} r es, and a little abrupt nod that was full 
 of impudence. 
 
 " No doubt," said Gerald, in his most graceful way 
 "you are aware of the responsible duty I have pro- 
 mised to undertake for Ned yonder." 
 
 " Oh yes, I know," answered Miss Marie promptly ; 
 " you promised to attend his execution, and have the 
 painful pleasure of rendering him the. last service in 
 your power." 
 
 Colonel Hythe positively gaped, while to say that 
 Ned blushed would be totally inadequate language to 
 describe the series of hues his countenance assumed ; 
 Mr. Holmes stared straight before him with the look 
 of a man who is determined not to be surprised at 
 anything ; Mrs. Holmes gave one of her extraordin- 
 ary crows of laughter to hide the confusion she felt.
 
 233 CHALOXER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 Gerald was the first to recover from the effects of 
 the shock. 
 
 " It was not fair of Ned," he said reproachfully, 
 gazing at the unfortunate young man, now choking in 
 his champagne glass, " to show you my poor con- 
 fidential scrawl ; I am quite at your mercy, but I trust 
 you will remember I had not yet seen you." 
 
 To his amused chagrin, the subtle and delicate 
 compliment intended to be conveyed by these words 
 was totally lost on Miss Prade, who immediately 
 rejoined carelessly, " He did not show it to me ; he left 
 it about, and I read it. I wanted to see if his friends 
 were like himself." 
 
 To the dullest among them save, indeed, the 
 bridegroom elect himself it was most embarrassingly 
 obvious that the young lady's opinion of the gallant 
 officer would not have been a high one had she 
 discovered the resemblance in question. 
 
 " Mary," said Mr. Holmes, in a warning bass, and 
 holding the fish-slice aloft in a threatening manner, 
 " will you have some cod ? " 
 
 Marie glanced at the boiled denizen of the sea, and 
 for a moment her eyes remained glued to its melan- 
 choly jowl as if attracted by some horrible fascination. 
 Then a gleam of wicked amusement lit up the whole 
 piquant little face; she looked swiftly at Chaloner, 
 and from his amiable inane countenance, with goggle 
 eyes just now staring dully before him, and receding 
 chin dropping back from the gaping mouth, once 
 again to the flabby head on the dish. 
 
 Colonel Hythe was watching her manoeuvres with 
 some curiosity; the meaning of them now flashed 
 across him. Great heavens! yes, he saw it too.
 
 CHALONEP'S BEST MAN. 239 
 
 There was undoubtedly an absurd, grotesque resem- 
 blance between the cod's head and Ned's. He always 
 was deucedly ugly, poor old chap. 
 
 Marie gave an affected shiver. " No, thank you," 
 she said, with emphasis, and curled up her little nose 
 with an irresistibly humorous expression. 
 
 Gerald could not repress a smile; he alone had 
 followed her little by-play; involuntarily their eyes 
 met with mutual understanding. Then instantly 
 feeling hideously disloyal, he endeavoured to compose 
 his features into an expression of rigid severity, and 
 to look as if he did not understand what she 
 meant. 
 
 " What a pity," said Mrs. Holmes, in the pause 
 that ensued on this incident, to cover the delay which 
 as usual preceded the appearance of the first entree, 
 " that Ned is no longer in the army. It would have 
 been quite charming if he could have worn his 
 uniform on Wednesday, and had his men all up 
 the church, and all that sort of thing, wouldn't 
 it? I always think it makes a wedding look so 
 pretty." 
 
 " Yes," cried Ned, with good-humoured acquies- 
 cence, " and then Gerry could have sported his V.C. 
 and all the rest of it, and I should have felt so proud 
 of the dear old boy." 
 
 Miss Prade pricked up her ears with sudden 
 sparkling interest, and looked hard at the Colonel. 
 
 " Has he got the Victoria Cross ? " she asked 
 quickly. 
 
 " Rather," cried Chaloner, with generous enthu- 
 siasm, and forthwith launched into a most gushing 
 account of his friend's prodigies of valour, not only
 
 240 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 dwelling on the especial feat which won him that 
 most distinguished of all distinctions, but likewise all 
 his other exploits which deserved quite as much 
 notice but did not get it. 
 
 With all an Englishman's horror of such a 
 situation, the Colonel pished and pshawed and poohed, 
 and telegraphed frantic signals across the table in 
 the vain endeavour of silencing his indiscreet eu- 
 logist. 
 
 His confusion was increased by the unwinking 
 stare Mr. Holmes fixed on him during the whole 
 narrative, and the imbecile encomiums with which 
 Mrs. Holmes interlarded it, and in which, at its con- 
 clusion, she positively wallowed. 
 
 Miss Prade listened to her lover in attentive 
 silence, and abstained from making any comment on 
 his eloquent account, beyond the sharp query she 
 addressed to him, as he stopped quite breathless 
 
 " How is it you haven't got any medals ? " To 
 which Ned, somewhat taken aback, answered depre- 
 catingly that he had never been into action. He had 
 come into his property only two years after he had 
 joined, and was thus obliged to resign before having a 
 chance of seeing any service. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Miss Prade, with biting scorn and 
 truly feminine inconsistency. And then she turned 
 her eyes once more on the Colonel, and once more 
 their looks met. 
 
 Now, he was not a vain man, nor an imaginative 
 one, but it was apparent to him that the young lady's 
 reseda-coloured orbs betrayed a great deal more 
 warmth than he was entitled to ; and, though it was 
 undeniably pleasant, he would not allow himself to
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 241 
 
 return the compliment, for, as he remarked internally, 
 if he were Ned he certainly wouldn't like to catch her 
 looking at another fellow like that. 
 
 He tried to think it was a relief when she left the 
 dining-room ; but for all that, Ned's platitudes seemed 
 more intolerable than ever, and the great oak dining- 
 room to have grown quite dark without the bright, 
 mischievous face. 
 
 " What a little devil it is," he soliloquised over his 
 wine, " and what a fate lies in store for Ned. The 
 girl hates him already, as anyone can see ; Heaven 
 only knows how it will turn out. Poor, dull fellow, 
 one can't help feeling sorry for him. The idea of his 
 attempting to chain that brilliant butterfly creature 
 to his side ! I fear me," thought the Colonel in a 
 high moral strain, " it is destined to be one of those 
 unhappy unions alas ! too common which end so 
 fatally after a few years of conjugal misery. When a 
 girl sells herself for money, how can anyone expect 
 her to keep straight as a wife ? It is a criminal state 
 of society." 
 
 The three were not very sociable as they sat 
 sipping their claret round the board. Their host 
 never talked, Colonel Hythe was not inclined for 
 conversation, even Ned could not discourse for ever 
 unencouraged. A deep silence fell on them, and no 
 one was sorry when, after a due interval, a move to 
 the drawing-room was originated. 
 
 Now, it was a very strange thing that, the instant 
 he entered the room, the Colonel became aware 
 of Miss Prade's absence, and still stranger the feeling 
 of keen disappointment that came over him in con- 
 sequence. Ned looked round forlornly, and then in 
 P
 
 2tt CHALOXER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 piteous inquiry at Mrs. Holmes, who shrugged her 
 plump shoulders and rolled her eyes in cheerful 
 deprecation. 
 
 " How dare she behave like that to her future 
 husband ? " said Gerald to himself in an unreasonable 
 outburst of righteous indignation. " It's a burning 
 shame ! it is more than rude, it's insulting to the 
 poor fellow." 
 
 He stood, aimlessly looking at the pictures and 
 inveighing against the girl in his own mind, when 
 Ned came up to him and said in a whisper 
 
 " I am awfully sorry I left that letter about ; I am 
 afraid she will never forgive you. She is so proud 
 and sensitive, poor little thing ! Of course you 
 noticed how strange she was to-night ; I believe 
 she is really hurt, and I don't know where to look for 
 her." 
 
 Gerald met his friend's eyes with a pang of pity 
 and an inexplicable feeling of remorse. They might 
 be fishy, but they were honest, true eyes for all that, 
 and were now tilled with a timid wistfulness that went 
 to his heart 
 
 He clapped his hand suddenly on Ned's shoulder 
 and said cheerily, " My dear fellow, it's not your fault ; 
 it's mine, for making such a confounded ass of mysell 
 when I wrote. Never mind her not liking me. What's 
 the odds, so long as she's fond of the right person ? 
 She's a lovely little thing, and I consider you emi- 
 nently to be congratulated." It was touching to see 
 how the "Duffer" revived under these words. Up 
 went his spirits again to exultation point, where they 
 remained stationary for the rest of the evening for all 
 his wilful little mistress's persistent absence.
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 243 
 
 Mrs. Holmes retired early, to the infinite relief of 
 Gerald, who could not accustom himself to her extra- 
 ordinary volubility nor her ceaseless peals of laughter; 
 and after a cigar her lord and master followed her 
 example. It was a primitive household, to which 
 eleven p.m. was the height of dissipation. Ned had 
 evidently fallen into their ways, for, despite all his 
 efforts and his general pleasure in the Colonel's com- 
 pany, he went from one yawn into another till the 
 latter could stand it no longer and literally drove 
 him from the field. He himself was just beginning 
 to feel lively, and declined to move from his comfort- 
 able quarters, a decision which greatly disgusted the 
 butler, who, having too much idea of the con- 
 venances to put out the gas and leave the trouble- 
 some guest to his own devices, saw himself debarred 
 from a part of his legitimate slumbers. The Colonel 
 never felt less inclined for his couch. A curious 
 restlessness had taken possession of him, and for 
 nearly an hour he wandered aimlessly about the 
 room, unable to occupy himself with anything. 
 
 He lit one of his host's excellent cigars only to 
 throw it away ; mixed a stiff bumper of whisky and 
 soda and left the inviting beverage untouched ; 
 turned over all the magazines and could not make 
 up his mind which to open. He must go out for 
 a turn, he thought at length, or he would not be 
 able to get a wink of sleep that night. 
 
 It was very odd, but that little girl was always 
 before his mind's eye. "It showed what slaves we 
 are to our senses," moralised the guardsman, as he 
 threw a cloak of Mr. Holmes's over his stalwart 
 shoulders. " If she had been ugly, now, he would 
 p 2
 
 244 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 not have thought twice of her she certainly was 
 the last girl in the world for Ned; a creature 
 like that should be married to a man with a firm 
 will, a man who could tame her. It would not be 
 altogether unpleasant either to have the taming of 
 the lovely little shrew." 
 
 He caught sight of his own face in the glass as he 
 turned to leave the room. What did that absurdly 
 determined setting of your face mean, Gerald Hythe, 
 and that fiercely elated gleam of your eye ? 
 
 " Pshaw ! What a fool a man gets at this time of 
 night ! " 
 
 He laughed angrily to himself as he hurried into 
 the hall, seized a cap and made for a side-door 
 which his bump of locality informed him would prob- 
 ably lead out of the house. It was unlocked and 
 yielded noiselessly to the pressure of his hand. 
 
 A gush of warm air enveloped him, heavy with 
 the intoxicating perfume of many flowers. He found 
 himself before a vast vista of towering palms and deli- 
 cate, sprawling ferns, a murmur of flowing waters fell 
 upon his ear, the tesselated pavement under his feet 
 was strewn with gorgeous rugs, with here and there 
 a quaint-shaped, deep-cushioned bamboo lounge ; the 
 whole place w^as lighted in some cunning, invisible 
 way from the great gas-lamps in the hall; it was 
 beautified by every rare and exquisite exotic that can 
 be imagined. A paradise of colouring, sweetness, 
 and artistic construction : it seemed to the astonished 
 Colonel like fairyland. 
 
 This was the great Lutcombe conservatory, the 
 one interest in life of its taciturn master, and through 
 which he had intended to marshal his guest with
 
 CHALONER'8 BEST MAN. 245 
 
 due solemnity on the morrow, when the day was 
 brightest. 
 
 " There ought to be an enchanted princess some- 
 where," thought Gerald, with vague reminiscence of 
 his childish days of fairy tales, and then, advancing, 
 he looked around involuntarily as if to seek her. 
 
 And there she was, in very truth, under the 
 blossoming gardenia bush that sent forth such delirious 
 gusts of fragrance into the warm, moist air. 
 
 The Colonel started and then nearly laughed 
 aloud at himself as he saw the little white figure 
 stretched luxuriously on the settee, the fair tossed 
 head supported on two round white arms that 
 gleamed at him from the green gloom, the full white 
 lids closed in apparent slumber. 
 
 On tiptoe he crept over to her and bent down to gaze. 
 
 " The little humbug ! She was foxing." 
 
 He could distinctly see the quivering shadow of 
 the dark eyelashes on the glowing cheek, the dawning 
 symptoms of a mischievous dimple, instantly sup- 
 pressed ; nay, he could hear the catch of an irre- 
 sistible titter breaking the exaggerated regularity of 
 her breathing. 
 
 He was not going to stand this. We all know the 
 fate of sleeping princesses in fairyland. 
 
 The Colonel did not pause to think about the 
 duties honour and friendship alike imposed on him, 
 did not even hear his conscience warning him against 
 staining his spotless shield by an act of flagrant 
 disloyalty. He forgot Ned altogether in the fas- 
 cination of Ned's bride, and, stooping still lower, 
 implanted a very fervent kiss on the roguishly com- 
 pressed lips so temptingly at his disposal.
 
 246 CKALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 But the sin was no sooner committed than swift 
 retribution came upon him. His heart stirred within 
 him as, in all his years of life, in all his experience of 
 love and adventure, it had never stirred before. Good 
 Heavens ! AVhat woman was this ? Was she really 
 enchanted, and had she cast her spell over him ? 
 And then he remembered Ned. She was to be 
 married to Ned on the morrow yes, the morrow, 
 for even at that instant the last strokes of midnight 
 were dying on the air Ned, who had been his friend 
 ever since they were boys together: poor, foolish, 
 trusting, innocent Ned ! 
 
 The perspiration started to the Colonel's brow, 
 in the space of a minute a tumult of thoughts rushed 
 through his mind. 
 
 How was it that the memory of those days at 
 Eton so long ago should have come upon him now so 
 vividly ? That time when Ned took a switching for 
 a fault of which he, Gerald, was guilty, and had 
 the heroism not to reveal his devotion, even when 
 the real culprit, with the brutality only one boy can 
 show to another, taunted him with milksoppishness 
 for crying over his punishment. 
 
 How distinctly the Colonel remembered the gush 
 of generous feeling which had filled his heart towards 
 the faithful little fellow when the truth was by chance 
 revealed, and the ardent friendship they swore for 
 each other over a bottle of ginger-beer. 
 
 His face grew very black, his conscience very 
 reproachful, and Miss Prade, peeping at him from 
 under her long eyelashes, thought it was getting 
 about time to wake up. 
 
 This she did with an admirably simulated start
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 247 
 
 and look of surprise, with the most bewitching 
 blinking of very wide-awake and watchful eyes, and 
 stretching of the pretty bare arms aforesaid. Then 
 she looked up at the Colonel, who was standing over 
 her as stiff as a poker, and withal a general appearance 
 as if he were on parade. 
 
 "I believe I have been asleep," she said, with a 
 little, rippling laugh. 
 
 " I believe you have," answered the Colonel drily ; 
 " it's lucky I came in, or you might have slept here 
 all night, perhaps." 
 
 " I had such lovely dreams," said Miss Prade, in a 
 soft, low voice. After which remark there was a pause, 
 and they went out of the dangerous fairy palace into 
 the glaring light of the hall. 
 
 "Good-night," murmured the girl, lingeringly, 
 extending her soft little hand, and raising her lovely 
 eyes, filled with caressing expectancy, to his. 
 
 "Good-night," cried he precipitatety, shook her 
 loosely by the hand, and retreated a few steps. 
 
 She waited a second, watching him with ever- 
 growing wonder and impatience ; then turned on 
 her heel petulantly, and walked upstairs with a loud 
 tapping of small, decided feet. 
 
 The discomfited Colonel sought his own cham- 
 ber so soon as Miss Prade's door, closing with a sound 
 which closely resembled a bang, announced to the 
 world at large that she had retired to her room. 
 He was not at all easy in his own mind, and for a 
 long time could not compose himself to sleep. When 
 at length he succeeded in doing so, matters were not 
 much improved thereby, for it was only to fall into 
 a succession of distressing nightmares, during which
 
 248 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 he was for ever trying to kiss a beautiful mer- 
 maid, who invariably changed into a codfish with 
 tight yellow kid gloves so soon as his lips touched 
 hers. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE sun was high in the heavens next morning, and 
 the inhabitants of Lutcombe Manor had been astir 
 for many hours, before Gerald Hythe awoke to the 
 consciousness of a new day, and the presence of his 
 valet standing motionless beside his bed with the 
 matutinal cup of tea. 
 
 " A note for Monsieur," said Leclerc, in a subdued 
 voice that could not have offended the sensibilities 
 of the lightest sleeper. 
 
 " Pull the curtain then," growled the Colonel with 
 muffled ferocity from his pillows. " How can I read 
 a letter in the dark ? " 
 
 In a trice the shutters were thrown back, and 
 under Leclerc's obedient hand up flew the blinds, 
 and a glorious flood of sunshine streamed into the 
 room. A day to make the sorriest heart glad, one 
 would have thought, but decidedly the Colonel was far 
 from amenable to soothing influences this morning. 
 
 " There, there, that will do ; you are blinding me 
 with that glare ! " he cried, irritably, and demanded 
 his tea and his letter in the tone of one who is 
 determined to have no trifling. 
 
 He took a gulp ; it was very hot and burned him, 
 and it was with some little effort he restrained the 
 impulse to fling it at the valet's sleek head ; then 
 he seized his letter and tore it open.
 
 .CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 249 
 
 It was only a sheet of paper clumsily folded ; 
 surely he knew that sprawling hand in which the 
 few hurried lines it contained were penned. It was 
 blotted, smudged, crumpled, and the familiar writing 
 bore witness to as intense agitation as the words 
 themselves. 
 
 "For heaven's sake, dear old man, let me come 
 and speak to you. I am in terrible trouble, and 
 don't know who to turn to. NED." 
 
 " Monsieur Chaloner wished to come in to Mon- 
 sieur more than an hour ago," here interposed 
 Leclerc, in his cheerful way, " but I informed him 
 that nothing short of an incendie or a telegram from 
 the War Office would induce me to allow Monsieur 
 to be disturbed before his usual time." 
 
 " Dolt ! fool ! idiot ! " cried Monsieur, in a fury. 
 " Bring Mr. Chaloner here instantly." 
 
 Mr. Chaloner was evidently not far off, for before 
 Colonel Hythe had time even to examine the fore- 
 boding in his mind, the gentleman in question was 
 pompously ushered into the room, and Leclerc, every 
 nerve alive with curiosity, vanished with a great 
 appearance of discretion, to listen behind the door. 
 
 Haggard, wild-eyed, bloodshot, dishevelled, poor 
 Ned was indeed a doleful spectacle, and the Colonel 
 stared at him in amazement as he rushed to the 
 bedside, seized his hand, and cried out in tones of 
 anguish : 
 
 " Oh, Gerry, old man, what shall I do ? what 
 shall I do ? She says she won't marry me at all ! " 
 
 " Who what ? " gasped Gerald, while his heart 
 gave a great bound, and then seemed to turn to 
 stone.
 
 250 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 " It is Mawry," answered the other, piteously ; " this 
 morning at seven o'clock she came to me in the 
 smoking-room, and told me she was determined to 
 break it all off." 
 
 " She said," Ned went on, too full of his woes to 
 heed his friend's strange countenance, "she said she 
 never cared for me ; but she had told me that so 
 often before that I had got not to mind it much. 
 And so I thought it was only a sort of scruple at 
 the last, and tried to reason with her and tell her 
 that I Avas willing to risk it; seeing I loved her so 
 much, she would have to love me in the end, too. 
 But then then," said the unhappy lover, with a 
 break in his voice, " she answered quite coolly that 
 that was not the case in point at all, as she was 
 about to explain to me when I interrupted her : 
 but that she had discovered that she was in love 
 with somebody else, and, under such circumstances, 
 no consideration on earth would induce her to be- 
 come my wife. And you know, Gerry," added he, 
 after a pause, to allow his confidant to grasp the 
 whole horror of the situation, "you know it can't 
 be true, because you are the only man except her 
 relations and myself she has seen for the last three 
 months, ever since we were engaged, in fact, so she 
 couldn't have fallen in love since as she says she 
 has." 
 
 He sat down on the foot of the bed and looked 
 at his friend with a world of anguish in his honest 
 goggle eyes, while for the first time in his life the 
 Colonel felt those very unpleasant symptoms pro- 
 duced by an uneasy conscience. 
 
 For the first time, too, he had a difficulty in
 
 CHALONER'8 BEST MAN. 251 
 
 looking at a fellow straight in the face. He had 
 rather not meet the eyes of " The Duffer," some- 
 how. 
 
 "I'll not survive it," cried Ned, with a startling 
 outburst of passion. " If I can't have her, I'll chuck 
 up the whole thing altogether, I swear I will ! I'll 
 cut my throat." 
 
 Poor old Ned. Who ever would have thought 
 he had it in him to feel so deeply ? 
 
 " Come, come, old boy," said Gerald, in a strangled, 
 feeble voice ; " it's only a little caprice of your lady- 
 love's, I dare say ; you must not take it au tragique, 
 like that. It's just a last fling before she settles 
 down to love, honour, and obey you. You'll probably 
 find her as mild as milk by this time." 
 
 This very lame suggestion met with the fate it 
 deserved. Ned looked with melancholy reproach at 
 his friend and did not deign to answer. 
 
 " Well, perhaps, after all," remarked Gerald, after 
 a pause, speaking in a very small voice, and uneasily 
 surveying the movements of his own restless toes 
 under the bed-clothes, " perhaps, you knoAv, old man, 
 if she is that sort of girl, it's better to find it out 
 before marriage than afterwards." 
 
 " Shut up ! " said Ned fiercely ; " you don't know 
 what you're saying. She'd have made the best and 
 truest wife man ever had. I know her heart. She's 
 as true as steel and as straight as a die." 
 
 Once more there was an awkward pause, then 
 Ned broke forth again with a fresh explosion of 
 woe 
 
 " Oh, Gerry, Gerry, to think it should come to 
 this! I know I'm not fit to tie her shoe-strings;
 
 252 CHALONEE'3 BEST MAN. 
 
 I know I am ugly and stupid, and all the rest of it. 
 But she would have loved me, she miist have loved 
 me in the end." 
 
 He brought his hand down on the bed-post with 
 a blow that shook the whole frame. The Colonel sat 
 up with a jerk, and stared blankly at him, inanely 
 vibrating to the commotion of the springs beneath 
 him. 
 
 " Hasn't Mr. Holmes any influence over her ? " 
 
 " The worst," returned Ned gloomily ; " she hates 
 him. And at the first word of reproach he said to 
 her this morning she flew at him and told him she 
 knew he wanted to get rid of her, and that she 
 would leave his house that day. And she means it, 
 too. I believe she's packing now," concluded Chaloner 
 with a groan. 
 
 " Ned, old boy. I'm heartily sorry for you. I'd 
 give anything in the world to help you." 
 
 The genuine emotion in Gerald's voice went 
 straight to the poor fellow's heart, and swept away 
 his last straw of self-control. 
 
 " I knew you would, Gerry ! Oh, Gerry, don't 
 laugh at me ! " 
 
 And with that the " Duffer " gave way altogether 
 and burst into tears. 
 
 The Colonel was greatly distressed. Hang it all ! 
 why couldn't he forget that day at Eton when Ned 
 got flogged for him ? Such a little shrimp of a 
 fellow as he was, too. He flung his long legs out 
 of bed with a desperate resolution, and coming up 
 to Ned, slapped him on the shoulder with an energy 
 that nearly startled him out of his weeping. 
 
 "There, don't do that, old chap. I'll speak to
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 253 
 
 her. She shall marry you, or my name's not Gerald 
 Hy the. You'll trust to me ? Come, that is right. And 
 now clear away and let me dress, for there's not a 
 moment to lose." 
 
 Never in all his rich experience had Leclerc seen 
 his master in so very bad a temper as on that 
 memorable morning, and never had the gallant 
 officer's toilet been so agitating a piece of work. 
 Nevertheless, it was accomplished with unusual 
 celerity, and in the space of barely three-quarters 
 of an hour Gerald found himself pacing the library 
 from end to end, every fibre on the strain to catch the 
 sound of approaching footsteps, wondering whether 
 the somewhat curt note he had sent Miss Prade 
 would bring her to the rendezvous, hoping, if truth 
 be told, that it might not. 
 
 At last there came a patter of high-heeled shoes, 
 a rustle of silken skirts, a tempestuous bursting open 
 of the door. What made the wilful maiden so 
 fatally docile that day of all days in the year ? 
 Alack ! Gerald knew only too well, and the know- 
 ledge did not tend to make him more comfortable. 
 
 She stood before him, radiant, smiling, expectant, 
 her bright, bold eyes making no effort to conceal the 
 tenderness with which they regarded him ; and, for 
 sure, those crimson lips would have expressed no 
 disapproval of a repetition of his last night's audacity. 
 
 Gerald felt mean. How near he was at that 
 moment to finally and altogether betraying his 
 friend he himself never fully realised. But it was, 
 perhaps, the very fierceness of the temptation which 
 drove him along the path of virtue in so violent and 
 pitiless a manner.
 
 254 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 "Miss Prade," said he, without giving himself 
 time to dally with the tempter, and speaking very 
 drily, in what may be caUed his orderly-room voice, 
 " for the sake of our old friendship, I have promised 
 Ned to speak to you, to represent to you the folly 
 and cruelty of your proceeding, and beg you to re- 
 consider your extraordinary decision of this morning. 
 I say extraordinary," said the Colonel, growing fiery 
 red all of a sudden, and looking very hard at the 
 young lady, "extraordinary, inexplicable." 
 
 Miss Prade grew just a little white as he spoke, 
 the love-light in her eyes changed to an expression 
 quite as warm but not quite so tender, and the smile 
 on her lips became rather too much like a grin to 
 be very pleasant, but otherwise she never " turned a 
 hair." 
 
 " Let us sit down," she said very quietly, " and 
 I will hear anything you have to say." 
 
 Now the Colonel had been bracing himself for 
 a scene, for tears, reproaches more perilous still, 
 appeals but this composure he had not calcu- 
 lated on. It took the wind out of his sails ; he 
 did not know how to meet it. Miss Prade sat 
 down and motioned him to a chair only separated 
 from hers by a little table. The perspiration was 
 starting to the Colonel's brow ; he obeyed her 
 meekly, wishing himself a hundred miles away. 
 
 "Well?" asked the girl, leaning her two arms 
 on the table and looking at him fixedly across it. 
 
 Gerald ground his teeth. He was not going to 
 turn back at the cannon's mouth and lose his reputa- 
 tion for ever. Not he. He took the lead once 
 more, boldly.
 
 OHALONER'S BEST MAN. 255 
 
 " You see, Miss Prade," lie said, " you are treating 
 poor Ned in a way that is downright dishonourable." 
 
 Here a smile of so peculiar and disagreeable an 
 import crept over her countenance that the Colonel 
 again lost the thread of his discourse, and after 
 vainly struggling to recover it, relapsed hopelessly 
 into an agony of blushing silence. 
 
 " I think," observed Miss Marie, in a delicately 
 modulated voice, "the less is said on that point 
 the better. There is some proverb about not 
 throwing stones in glass houses, is there not ? I 
 know you are fond of proverbs, Colonel Hythe; 
 and, do tell me ! are glass houses the same as con- 
 servatories ? " 
 
 The unfortunate Colonel turned an apoplectic 
 purple, got up, and walked to the other end of the 
 room. I grieve to say there trembled on the tip of 
 his tongue some very tempestuous language indeed. 
 
 Miss Prade followed his movements with an eye 
 of shrewdest observation, then smiled to herself and 
 lay back in her arm-chair with great placidity. 
 
 She had not a doubt of the result of the inter- 
 view ; and perhaps the undisguised expression of 
 triumph, which nevertheless sat so well on the 
 young lady's slightly defiant style of beauty, piqued 
 her adversary into sterner opposition. However that 
 might be, certain it is, that when he returned to 
 his seat once more, he bore an appearance of pale, 
 rigid determination he had not hitherto shown. Few 
 men, above all those who themselves possess any 
 force of character, are likely to be gained over to 
 her will by the display of a similar quality in a 
 woman.
 
 256 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 " My dear girl," said Gerald, with paternal man- 
 suetude, " I have no desire to waste my time or 
 yours in unprofitable discussion, so, if you will allow 
 me, I shall just say what I have to say as briefly 
 as I can. I cannot really believe that it is your 
 intention to throw over poor Chaloner in the heart- 
 less manner you threaten. You are either amusing 
 yourself at his expense, or putting his affection to 
 a very bitter test. If it be only a joke, it is a cruel 
 one, Miss Prade ; if it be a trial, in all conscience 
 it has gone far enough, and I appeal to you not to 
 prolong the poor fellow's misery any more. On the 
 other hand, if it can be possible you are in earnest, 
 in the name of common humanity I trust you will 
 reconsider your decision. For God's sake, reflect 
 before it is too late ; do not bring yourself to break 
 your plighted troth and wreck a man's life in cold 
 blood for the gratification of a perfectly foolish and 
 groundless caprice." 
 
 Here the Colonel stopped, feeling that he had 
 spoken very well indeed, and that, whatever the 
 result, he had nobly redeemed his momentary for- 
 getfulness of the claims of friendship. 
 
 Miss Prade, who had listened to him the while 
 with the same quiet attention, paused a few seconds 
 before replying. A shade had come over the bright 
 triumph of her face, but it vanished so soon as she 
 began to speak again. 
 
 " Bravo, Colonel ! " she cried, with a mischievous 
 laugh, while two mocking little demons leapt into 
 her eyes. " Well, now you have said your say and 
 done your duty nobly, and your conscience is cmite 
 clear again, I hope."
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 257 
 
 r 
 
 Here she paused and looked at him, enjoying 
 his confusion at having his thoughts thus calmly 
 interpreted to him ; and then, with one of her abrupt 
 changes of mood 
 
 " That being settled," she said, in a voice so soft 
 it fell on his ear like a caress, " let us talk of some- 
 thing else." 
 
 She was perilously lovely, perilously sweet. 
 
 " Don't fret for Ned," she went on ; " he knew I 
 did not love him. I never deceived him, and, for all 
 we were engaged, sir, I never allowed him, to to 
 kiss me." 
 
 Her voice sank to a whisper, and then there was 
 a dead silence. 
 
 Miss Prade got red, and then Miss Prade got 
 white, and then she tapped her foot, and then she 
 bit her lip. And yet Gerald spoke not. Poor fellow, 
 it was a hard tussle. He was no more than mortal, 
 after all, and she was passing fair, and she loved 
 him. She loved him ; the thought set the blood 
 coursing like wild-fire in his veins, every chivalrous 
 tendency in his nature stirred by the frankness of 
 her avowal ; truly, if he had sinned he was punished, 
 for it was a cruel thing for a man to have to do, 
 and it hurt him through and through. 
 
 In a dumb frenzy of impatient longing he looked 
 at her. Oh, if she would only understand how it 
 was he could not speak, could not in the face of the 
 world publish his treachery to Ned ! How, if she 
 would but wait a little while, all might yet come 
 right between them, and that without scandal. 
 
 " Well ? " said Miss Prade, in a hard, dry voice, 
 rising stiffly as she spoke. 
 Q
 
 258 CH ALONE R'S BEST MAN. 
 
 " I have no more to say," muttered the wretched 
 man, almost inaudibly. 
 
 They stood facing each other, both white to the 
 lips ; his eyes sought her face timidly, deprecatingly, 
 appealingly, but she met his glance with one of 
 scorching contempt. 
 
 "Coward!" 
 
 She hissed the word from between her little, short 
 teeth hurled it at him, so to speak with such con- 
 centrated passion that he felt as if she had struck 
 him full in the face, and actually staggered as though 
 under a blow. 
 
 Then she laughed, a hard, jarring, almost brutal 
 laugh, that seemed hideously incongruous coming 
 from her soft young lips. 
 
 " Congratulate yourself," she said, in a deadly cahn 
 voice which gave the Colonel an impression of a 
 white heat of fury which was none too reassuring ; 
 "you have thoroughly succeeded in your mission. 
 Thanks to you, I am now able to appreciate Xed, 
 and I shall cheerfully marry him to-morrow. You 
 have shown me too clearly the beauty of honourable 
 behaviour, Colonel Hythe, for me to hesitate any 
 more. I am sure you must be gratified by the ex- 
 cellent results of your disinterested conduct to me 
 and to your friend." 
 
 Flashing on him another withering look, she 
 sprang to the door and screamed wildly for Ned. 
 He could not have been far off, for he appeared 
 almost instantly at the other end of the hall. 
 The poor fellow had been enduring a perfect 
 agony of suspense, as his ashen face and trembling 
 lips bore painful witness to, and seemed scarcely
 
 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 259 
 
 able to speak with fright for what he might have 
 to hear. 
 
 " Ned," cried Miss Prade, with another ugly laugh ; 
 " be happy. I shall marry you to-morrow, after all ! 
 Thank Colonel Hythe," she added, with savage em- 
 phasis, " for he has been a true friend to you." 
 
 " Oh, my darling ! " gasped Ned, and made a 
 clumsy lurch to seize her in his arms ; she, however, 
 deftly eluded his embrace, and fled from him up the 
 broad stairs with the swiftness of some wild, hunted 
 thing. 
 
 Foiled in his first legitimate outburst, Ned sought 
 a vent for his overcharged feelings in another direc- 
 tion. Staggering into the library, he called his friend's 
 name in tones that quavered with grateful emotion 
 
 " Gerry Gerry Gerry ! " 
 
 But no Gerry answered. No Gerry was there to 
 receive the well-earned reward of merit. Contrary to 
 all the traditions of the Guards, contrary to all the 
 precedents of his name and race, the thought of 
 another encounter was too much for the gallant 
 officer, and he had fled before the enemy's ap- 
 proach. 
 
 Once more the happy party were assembled in the 
 oak dining-room, for the weary day had at length 
 worn away to evening, and it was dinner-time again 
 at Lutcombe Manor. To-morrow, before three o'clock, 
 all would be over. 
 
 " How glad he would be to leave the cursed place ! " 
 so mused the Colonel as he sat beside his irre- 
 proachable hostess. Truth to say, it had been a hard 
 day for him, and though he had borne himself well, 
 he was none the less sorely tried. He had done his 
 Q 2
 
 260 OH ALONE R'S BEST MAN. 
 
 duty at eminent trouble to himself ; he had restored 
 the ill-gotten goods he had unwittingly stolen; but 
 where is it, save in Sunday School books, that such 
 virtue is its own reward ? The Colonel was all-de- 
 voured with jealous pain ; under his cold and smooth 
 exterior his heart was tempest-tossed, his pride was 
 bleeding ; and opposite to him sat Marie Prade, and 
 through her purple eyelids, all swollen with crying, 
 she looked at him as if she longed to kill him -, and 
 the glorious crimson lips into which she now and 
 then thrust the savage little white teeth, as though to 
 punish them for their quivering, uttered no word that 
 night that was not full of covert insult to him. 
 
 Poor little girl ! It hurt him, but he was not 
 angry with her. Angry ? he was yearning over her ; 
 yearning with a mad desire. To take the little up- 
 right form into his close embrace, to kiss the angry 
 eyes and the dear tear-stained cheeks, to kiss the pas- 
 sionate mouth, and stop the cruel words with kisses, 
 Great heavens ! what would he not give for this ? 
 Would not his whole life be little in the balance ? 
 And then, Oh heavens ! to have to see Ned gloating 
 over her, to know that she was Ned's that to- 
 morrow she would be his wife that he, fool that he 
 was, had worked and strive n for it, was it not enough 
 to drive a man mad ? And there he had to sit, and 
 smirk, and talk, and joke with the best of them ; to 
 turn away his poor fierce little love's arrows with a 
 well-bred jest or a good-humoured laugh, to respond 
 to Ned's burdensome gratitude ; to play the hypocrite, 
 in fine, to them all 
 
 No one could have guessed at the volcano raging 
 under his outward cheerfulness. Never had the
 
 C HAWKER'S BEST MAN. 261 
 
 Colonel been so brilliant. He was what is popularly 
 called the " life of the table." Even Mr. Holmes was 
 cheated by his genial humour into laughter and 
 applause. The poor girl opposite to him felt, as the 
 time advanced, more and more wild in her fury, more 
 black in her despair. Could nothing, she said, make 
 an impression on him ? There was a perfect frenzy 
 of rage towards him in her heart, and this gaiety and 
 indifference was more than she could endure. 
 
 The dessert was laid on the table, the servants 
 had withdrawn. For a few moments the Colonel 
 relapsed into silence, and allowed his weary face to 
 rest from smiles. Nobody noticed how worn and 
 drawn he looked, nor how sadly he responded to the 
 insolent look Miss Prade now fixed on him. He was 
 thinking to himself, with infinite heart-sickness, 
 " Thank God ! the farce is nearly over now." 
 
 She, with two flaming spots on each cheek, con- 
 tinued to fix him with her insulting eyes. At last she 
 spoke, and there was Luch strange emphasis in her 
 clear, bell-like voice that all looked at her amazed. 
 
 " Did anyone ever hear of a coward getting the 
 Victoria Cross ? " 
 
 This said Miss Prade, still looking directly at the 
 Colonel as she did so, that no one might mistake the 
 import of her challenge. Ned grew lobster-like in 
 hue, the Colonel grew very white, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Holmes exchanged glances of utter despair. 
 
 " Did you ? " said Miss Prade, with a laugh of 
 scorn, addressing Gerald in the most personal 
 manner. 
 
 " Miss Prade," answered he, very slowly, " I can 
 only speak for myself. I know I have not the
 
 262 CHALONER'S BEST MAN. 
 
 courage to do a base thing in the face of the world. 
 Thus you may reckon me a coward if you will." 
 
 Under his steady gaze her eyes fell. She tried to 
 laugh, to rally, to retort with burning words, but 
 instead only brought forth a strangled sob, and finally 
 burst into a fit of hysterical weeping. 
 
 The spectators of this little drama were lost in be- 
 wilderment, but its denouement was such as precluded 
 all attempts at explanation, and the sobbing girl was 
 hustled from the room with all speed by her excitable 
 sister, to reappear no more that night. 
 
 The wedding passed off next day with a smooth- 
 ness and decorum which its stormy preludes had 
 hardly allowed one to expect. Everyone agreed that 
 Marie was a lovely bride, though too self-assertive for 
 the character; that Ned made a very silly-looking 
 bridegroom, and seemed quite too sickeningly in love 
 and too preposterously happy for anything ; as for 
 the best man, there could be no two opinions, he was 
 simply perfection. And so the general verdict pro- 
 nounced it a very jolly wedding, and it all went off 
 splendidly. 
 
 As Mr. and Mrs. Chaloner at length drove away, 
 amidst the showers of rice and general acclamation, 
 no one thought of noting that, alone of all the com- 
 pany, the Colonel uttered no sound to swell the 
 cheering, nor what his countenance had been like 
 when he had to shake hands with the happy pair and 
 wish them " God speed."
 
 CH A LONER' 8 &EST MA&. 263 
 
 III. 
 
 ALL this has been past and gone for five years now. 
 Colonel Hythe has " seen service " again, and now 
 commands his regiment ; he has a few more medals 
 to hang on his broad expanse of chest, the ribbon 
 of the Bath besides. People talk of him as a dis- 
 tinguished man, and are proud if he condescends to 
 go to their parties. But this he seldom does. 
 
 He was wounded in the last campaign, and is 
 terribly changed. His raven hair has grown grey on 
 the temples ; that gun-shot in the knee has lamed 
 him for life and marred that stately height of his 
 most sadly. He looks gaunt and old and careworn, 
 and, worse than all; the inner man is even more 
 changed than the external. He has lost that boyish 
 laugh of his, that jovial spirit that made him so 
 popular; he is an embittered, soured old cynic, and 
 not half the fellow he used to be. 
 
 One day I came to know what it was had done 
 the mischief with him. 
 
 Of course, when he related to me the little episode 
 which I have just had the honour of laying before 
 you, he never pretended it was anything but a mere 
 picturesque experience in his very varied life, nor did 
 I let him see how clearly I could read between the 
 lines. It is always a marvel to me how a man can 
 allow the love for any woman to make him unhappy 
 even for a day, not to speak of his whole life. There 
 are so many women in the world, and all so very 
 much alike.
 
 264 CH ALONE R'S BEST MAN. 
 
 However, that is neither here nor there, and I 
 return to my story. 
 
 It happened in this wise. Dear old Gerry and I 
 were walking down Bond Street one afternoon last 
 June, I think it was he with one hand on my arm, 
 the other on his ebony cane, and limping very much. 
 Some days his poor knee seemed worse than others, 
 and this day I knew he was in pain. 
 
 We had just reached that dreadfully unwhole- 
 some, delicious French bonbon shop, and were paus- 
 ing before the window to look and laugh at the 
 new extravagances in " bonbonnieres," when a very 
 gorgeous carriage, drawn by two very gorgeous bays, 
 drew up with a great clatter beside us, and a very 
 gorgeous footman in powder leaped down to open the 
 door. 
 
 Of course we transferred our attention from the 
 " goodies " to the equipage. 
 
 A very little lady, dressed in the most marvellous 
 combination of lace and jet, descended with great 
 alacrity, and a little, very ugly boy, with goggle eyes 
 and a gaping mouth, looking all the uglier for his 
 splendid blue velvet attire, was carefully lifted out 
 after her. 
 
 The little lady looked full at us. She was very 
 pretty, and I was placidly admiring her original 
 countenance when I felt the Colonel give a most 
 violent start. 
 
 He dropped his stick and hobbled forward, two 
 hands outstretched, his face suffused with crimson. 
 
 "Marie Miss Prade Mrs. Chaloner," he stam- 
 mered, " is it really you ? " 
 
 I never saw the old boy so moved before. You
 
 CHALONEKS BEST MAN. 265 
 
 may be sure I scented a romance, and was all agog to 
 see what would follow. 
 
 The splendid little lady cocked her head, and 
 looked at him with an inquisitive, bird-like glance, 
 to all appearance devoid of any kindred recog- 
 nition. 
 
 " How do you do ? " she cried, in a clear, ringing- 
 voice, which, however, was completely marred in my 
 ears by the horrid way she italicised her words. 
 " So stupid of me, I don't quite remember your 
 name ; I have such a bad memory." 
 
 Poor Gerald drew back, all the glow fading from 
 his face. He looked very weary, and old, and hag- 
 gard : a striking contrast to the plump, blooming, 
 prosperous little matron before him. 
 
 "It is long, of course, since we met," he said, 
 stiffly, "and I dare say I am much changed. But 
 perhaps even the name of Gerald Hythe has faded 
 from your memory." 
 
 " Hythe ! " cried Mrs. Chaloner. A keen glance 
 flashed for a moment into her eyes ; it was not 
 a pleasant one, but it was gone so quickly it 
 could scarcely make an impression. " Of course, 
 Mr. Hythe, how stupid of me ! " she went on, with 
 neat blandness ; " we met last year at the Selbornes, 
 didn't we ? How is Mrs. Hythe ? Are you in town ? 
 (Neddie, darling, don't pull your hat, my pet.) What 
 a lovely day -just going to have a cup of chocolate 
 good-bye ; pray forgive my stupid memory. (Come 
 along, love.) " 
 
 And off' she flounced into the shop, dragging her 
 hideous little boy, who fondly clung to her, and whom 
 she surveyed with the proudest maternal affection.
 
 266 CHALONER'8 BEST MAN. 
 
 The Colonel spoke not a word. He stood staring 
 after her through the glass door until he beheld her 
 installed at a little marble table, before an overflowing 
 cup of chocolate and a heaped-up plate of cakes. 
 
 Then he turned away with an expression of 
 humiliation and disgust on his countenance I have 
 never seen equalled, and took my arm again in 
 silence. We went into my nearest club, and I gave 
 him a large bumper of brandy and soda, for he looked 
 quite sick. And it was then he told me the story of 
 Chaloner's Wedding.
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 I HAD comfortably installed myself in his deepest 
 arm-chair, had filled his best pipe and blown the first 
 luxurious puff, when Fraser's silence struck me as 
 obtrusive. Peering at him through the cumulus of 
 Virginian vapour, I saw at once that something 
 startling had come across the path of his existence 
 since I had entered his rooms. 
 
 He was still sitting on a corner of the table, but, 
 gazing out of the rain-bespattered window, his eyes 
 were lost in unfathomable distance. The pink sheets 
 of the evening paper I had brought in with me lay 
 limply on his knee. 
 
 This particular afternoon, with the privilege of an 
 old college chum, I had sought him in the hope of 
 recovering some mental elasticity after a long spell of 
 work ; for there is no place where I feel under more 
 beneficial conditions than in his quiet chambers, no 
 man whose company I find more congenial than the 
 master thereof. An anomaly to many the barrister 
 who never seeks a brief, the handsome man who 
 avoids society, the travelled man of more than in- 
 dependent means who looks upon Temple chambers 
 as a modern Theleme, the most complete of solitaries 
 in the heart of a multitude I have sufficient tastes 
 in common with him to appreciate his choice of 
 existence, though belonging myself, of necessity, to 
 that class for which there is no lotus- eating. Hence, 
 perhaps, our long and rare friendship.
 
 268 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 Anyhow, we understand each other. Therefore, 
 finding him gone for " travels in the blue," I respected 
 his mood and did not resent his prolonged mutism. 
 After a while, however, the silence, marked by my 
 regular puffs and the dry ticking of his old brass 
 clock, seemed to oppress him in his turn. He roused 
 himself and brought down his eyes from their distant 
 contemplation to meet mine ; then, mechanically, he 
 again referred to the paper, and, with a curious, 
 melancholy look, put it on one side. 
 
 " Excuse me, old man," he said, in answer to my 
 mute inquiry, " but I have just stumbled across 
 something which has suddenly brought me back to 
 an event I have tried to forget." 
 
 He rose and paced his room thoughtfully. By- 
 and-by, leaning against the mantelpiece, and musingly 
 filling a long-bowled Hungarian pipe which he selected 
 from his rack, he again looked down upon me from 
 his great height, with the same unwonted expression 
 in his eyes. 
 
 " It is a strange thing," he said, " to read here, 
 casually, in the depths of prosy, grimy London, of the 
 last scene of a drama, somewhere on the banks of the 
 old Danube, in which I myself played an early part." 
 
 I stretched out my hand for the paper. 
 
 " Wait a moment," he went on, with a half smile ; 
 " if I give you the benefit of certain reminiscences of 
 mine first, it will enable you better to understand the 
 bearing of the little paragraph in question. You will 
 see what a curious story can lurk behind a few lines 
 of print." He paused, and I nodded in token of 
 attention. Then, after a certain hesitation : 
 
 " You know," he said gravely, " I am not given to
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE " GLOBE." 269 
 
 romancing ; and you are perhaps the only person to 
 whom I should make this confession of an episode 
 which has weighed heavily on my mind, because you 
 will take it exactly as I tell it, without seeing either 
 exaggeration or extenuation in my words It is a tale 
 of witchcraft," he added, with a short laugh, "for 
 all that it took place in this enlightened century. 
 You remember Herzfeldt in our old days at Cam- 
 bridge ? " 
 
 " Herzfeldt of Trinity ? " 
 
 "The same. I believe he went down soon after 
 you came up, without taking a degree, and though he 
 and I were great friends, I then lost sight of him 
 completely. A handsome, clever fellow, mad on 
 athletics and popular in proportion ; looked like an 
 Englishman too, as so many Austrians do. Well, 
 three years ago, I met him again, quite by accident, 
 during that long continental ramble I indulged in 
 after being called. It was in Vienna. Feeling rather 
 seedy, I had gone to consult a famous doctor, when 
 who should walk into the waiting-room after ine but 
 Herzfeldt. I never should have recognised him, he 
 was so incredibly changed : thin, worn, feeble, an old 
 man before his time ; but he knew me instantly and 
 seemed delighted at the meeting. We were deep in 
 conversation at once, and, of course, as my personal 
 news could be epitomised in few words, he did most 
 of the talking. 
 
 " He had come into his mother's property some- 
 where in the Theiss district of Hungary, and he was 
 married. That was the great event, especially as it 
 was comparatively recent ; no doubt about its having 
 been a love match : his haggard face flushed like a
 
 270 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 boy's over it ; and it seemed a romantic affair enough 
 from his account : a chance meeting on the other side 
 of the Carpathians, while on a sporting expedition, 
 with a child of those wild solitudes ; love at first sight 
 anyhow, on his side a madness of love, which 
 never rested till he had carried her off as his bride. 
 He dwelt a good deal on her extraordinary beauty 
 and attractiveness, but not a word about her family : 
 a silence which I thought ominous in one of his 
 proud race, and from which I drew my own con- 
 clusions. 
 
 " ' Only the necessity of seeking advice about some 
 strange symptoms which of late have grown frequent 
 brings me so far from her to-day/ he concluded, 
 smiling; 'we are still in our honeymoon though full 
 three months married ! ' 
 
 " On my summons to the consulting-room, which 
 here interrupted us, I agreed to wait for him till he, 
 too, should be dismissed. This was not, however, until 
 so prolonged a delay that I began to lose patience ; 
 but the look on his face as he emerged at length froze 
 remonstrance and even inquiry on my lips. He took 
 my arm mechanically and walked out of the house 
 like a man in a dream. After we had paced half the 
 length of the street he suddenly halted and looked 
 at me. 
 
 " ' He gives me a year,' he said quietly. 
 
 " I stared at him : ' Good God ! what do you 
 mean ? ' 
 
 "'A year, with great care and avoiding all 
 emotions ; ' he spoke smilingly but his mouth twitched. 
 ' This is a curious piece of news for a bridegroom, is it 
 not ? No emotions, no violent exercise : to vegetate,
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 271 
 
 hardly to move what a prescription ! ' He took my 
 arm again and on we went a little in renewed silence. 
 What had I to say to such an announcement that 
 would not seem the paltriest platitude ! 
 
 "'It is the heart, of course,' he pursued after a 
 while, in a more natural tone. ' Let us go down this 
 way ; I am bound for the chemist's, for the making up 
 of a certain receipt which Dr. B - says may save 
 my life for the moment, be it understood when the 
 symptoms reappear, and which, in consequence, he 
 says, I am never to be without. I am sorry to have 
 victimised you with this business, Fraser; yet I am 
 selfishly glad to think some friendly soul knows my 
 secret. Of course/ half to himself, ' I cannot tell her.' 
 
 " ' Why not ? ' I exclaimed, impulsively. ' It is 
 surely her right to know, her duty 
 
 " ' You cannot conceive what nonsense you are 
 talking,' he interrupted me with a curious outburst of 
 irritation. ' You Englishmen would judge all women 
 
 by your own wives and mothers ' He checked 
 
 himself abruptly, as he caught sight of my amazed 
 countenance, bade me a hurried and careless good-bye, 
 and left me. 
 
 " Wondering, and not a little chafed, I stood and 
 watched him. Half-way across the street he paused, 
 hesitated, and finally came back. 
 
 " ' We are at Csendlak, my country place,' he said, 
 with some constraint. ' Do you think you could, 
 shortly, spare a few days to visit a man with one foot 
 in the grave ? ' 
 
 " The invitation was not pressing ; but I saw in his 
 eyes that he would like me to accept, though there 
 was something in the background which made him
 
 272 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 doubtful At once I jumped at the conclusion that 
 he was jealous of his young wife, and I confess I 
 thought it unworthy of him. Yet, under the circum- 
 stances, I could not refuse, and was glad of it, for his 
 mysterious manner had piqued my curiosity. He 
 wrote all the necessary directions on his card. 
 
 " ' You will come, then,' he said ; ' that is well. 
 Our first visitor.' But there was still the doubt and 
 wistfulness on his face. Then we again shook hands 
 and parted. 
 
 "Well, to cut a long story short, after a week I 
 landed at Szolnok, the station Herzfeldt had in- 
 dicated, late in the afternoon. There I found a mail 
 phaeton, two splendid horses, and a villainous-looking 
 Hungarian hi picturesque attire, waiting to convey 
 me across the remaining fifteen miles of that un- 
 kempt, desolate, yet rich country. The autumnal 
 ah* was hot and damp, my conductor taciturn. We 
 had gone some two-thirds of the way under these 
 cheerful circumstances, and I had fallen into a 
 somnolent state, when I was suddenly aroused by the 
 sound of what seemed a mad gallop behind us. We 
 were traversing a wide plain absolutely denuded of 
 habitation, wreathed with rising mists and strangely 
 dreary under the fading sky. There was still a broad 
 belt of orange light in the west, and as I looked back 
 I saw, blackly defined against it, the image of a 
 woman on horseback. She was urging her steed with 
 weird little cries as of some wild bird ; in a flash she 
 was upon us, and in another flash was gone. 
 
 " As she passed she looked back at me over her 
 shoulder, and I caught a glimpse of a perfectly white 
 face, heavy yellow hair, and extraordinarily luminous
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 273 
 
 eyes. You may believe ine or not, but her look 
 struck me I can use no other word like a blow. 
 
 " My driver gazed after her, imperturbably, as if 
 Valkyries on the rampage were an accustomed sight, 
 but my curious questions he could not, or would not, 
 understand. So, with the strange image printed on 
 my brain and passing and repassing before me in the 
 gathering gloom, I was forced to reserve my curiosity 
 for Herzfeldt. 
 
 " It was quite dark when we reached the house. 
 My host was at the gate awaiting me and his welcome 
 was of the warmest. 
 
 " ' I was grieved not to be able to meet you and 
 drive you back myself,' he said, as he brought me to 
 my room, ' but I could not risk it.' The grey pallor 
 of his face, the marked change for the worse in the 
 whole man, even in the short time since we had met, 
 gave melancholy weight to his words. 
 
 "'Now do not trouble to dress,' he went on 
 rapidly, with determined cheerfulness ; 'my wife is 
 already expecting us in the dining-room.' 
 
 " He conducted me through the house typically 
 Hungarian : sumptuous, vast, comfortless, and un- 
 homelike to the dining-room, which was as large as 
 a church ; there, standing under the full light of the 
 lamps, I beheld of course you guess, Hughes, I see it 
 in your superior smile but I had not a suspicion of 
 it, and when Herzfeldt's wife turned out to be jny 
 Valkyrie of the road, I felt a disagreeable shock at 
 the discovery. Why ? I should have been puzzled to 
 explain. 
 
 "Herzfeldt addressed her in German, the only 
 language in which we could all three meet. 
 
 R
 
 274 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 " ' Hedwig, this is iny old friend. Bid him 
 welcome.' 
 
 " She favoured me with a hard stare and 
 stretched out her hand with the one word : ' W ill- 
 kommen.' 
 
 " As we sat down and the meal began, I could not 
 help examining her with a curiosity nearly as open as 
 her own. She was not by any means the extra- 
 ordinary beauty I had expected, yet hers was a 
 strange personality and one which I could not meet 
 with indifference, which from the first affected me to 
 the most inexplicable extremes. Strongly built but 
 perfectly proportioned ; a skin of opaque, changeless 
 pallor, on which the scarlet lips made almost too 
 vivid a spot of colour ; light grey-green eyes, that 
 each time gave me a fresh surprise when I fell under 
 their scintillating glance; coils and coils of dead- 
 yellow hair wound round a curiously flattened head. 
 
 " Perhaps the most striking character was an air 
 of intense but repressed vitality, of being ready to 
 spring, behind movements of languorous softness, that 
 reminded me indifferently, or rather collectively, of a 
 cat and a snake. She spoke in a low drawl, broken 
 now and then with loud, inharmonious resonances. 
 
 " That night, however, for the most part she was 
 silent ; Herzfeldt, on the contrary, talked a great deal, 
 with a forced joviality, unlike the real man and in 
 painful contrast with his state. At dessert the con- 
 versation turned on riding. 
 
 " ' It is almost our whole life here,' said Herzfeldt, 
 ' but just now my rheumatism obliges me to abstain, 
 or we should have had some lengthy expeditions 
 together.' He gave me a sad look of warning as he
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 275 
 
 spoke. ' We shall enjoy our gallops again, shall we 
 not, Hedwig ? It was horrible to have to let you go 
 alone to-day ! ' 
 
 " Her answer was a curious one. She first leaned 
 her elbows on the table and looked at him with a 
 broad, incomprehensible smile ; then taking a cake in 
 both hands, tore a piece oft' with her teeth, flung the 
 remainder to the great slate-coloured hound that sat 
 beside her, struck him sharply across the muzzle the 
 next instant, and laughed with loud, quick delight at 
 the brute's sharp howls of pain. Throughout the 
 whole incident hers were the actions of a savage. 
 
 "Revolted, I glanced at Herzfeldt the soul of 
 refinement, as you no doubt remember him ; his eyes 
 were bent on his plate and his face was set as if in 
 some mental or physical struggle. Noisily pushing 
 her chair away, my hostess rose. She looked at me, 
 when I opened the door, as if expecting me to accom- 
 pany her, but Herzfeldt showed no sign of moving, 
 and I took it for granted that we were to adopt 
 the English custom. With an angry movement, she 
 passed out alone, swaying her body from side to side 
 in a way that again made me think of some unknown 
 animal combination. 
 
 " When I came back to my friend, I saw with 
 alarm that he was evidently suffering from one of his 
 heart attacks. His face was ghastly pale and he 
 struggled for breath ; hi his shaking hand he held a 
 phial which he was endeavouring to uncork. Quickly, 
 as I gathered the sense of the scarcely articulate 
 directions he strove to give me, I measured out and 
 mixed the drops, which were strong of some powerful 
 ethers, and poured them down his throat. The 
 R 2
 
 276 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 medicine seemed to have an almost magic effect ; in 
 another couple of minutes the paroxysm began to 
 pass ; colour returned to his face and the perspiration 
 broke out on his forehead the danger was over for 
 the nonce. He lay down on the divan, exhausted. 
 
 "'This is the second in three days,' he said 
 presently ; ' they are becoming much more frequent. 
 I generally contrive to dose myself at the beginning, 
 but to-night I could not before Hedwig.' Then, with 
 a smile, pointing to the bottle : ' You have spilt some, 
 I think. I see there is but a third left : I must write 
 for more ; it is literally the elixir of life to me. Life ! 
 such as it is I wish to prolong it.' And suddenly 
 breaking out with a subdued concentration of passion : 
 ' A pretty figure I must cut before my young wife ! 
 What can she think, she who was convinced she had 
 wedded the most dashing of men, of this pitiful 
 hypochondriac ? She loved me for my cavalier parts, 
 you know,' he went on with a bitter laugh. ' Ah, 
 Fraser, what a wooing that was, and what a piteous 
 ending to it all ! If I could but have broken my neck 
 in one of our wild rides. . . . But no ! ' interrupting 
 himself fiercely, ' by every means I am determined to 
 prolong an existence in which at least I can call her 
 mine. Hedwig loves me still' This was said after a 
 pause, with a sort of defiance, as if in answer to some 
 inner suggestion, and, rising, he put an end to the 
 interview. 
 
 " Of course I am not going to describe my whole 
 stay at Csendlak, but will merely touch on such 
 scenes as form, so to speak, the stages of that episode. 
 The next, then, was on the third day of my visit ; we 
 were all three on the terrace, whiling away a hot hour
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE " GLOHE." 277 
 
 with pistol-shooting. Herzfeldt's wife, a cigar be- 
 tween her lips, lying back in a wicker chair, her 
 shapely feet in their untanned boots resting on a high 
 cushion, was basking after the mid-day meal in her 
 cat-like way and watching us with lazy intentness. I 
 made a brilliant score you know I happen to be 
 rather a good hand at a carton ; pistol-shooting is a 
 lost art among us, but I have had opportunity to 
 cultivate it in Paris but Herzfeldt shot wretchedly, 
 and that after long aims. Once or twice he had to 
 lower his hand, which trembled visibly. After a few 
 attempts, with a look of discouragement, he gave it 
 up ; it was dreadful to see that he felt humiliated 
 before his wife. 
 
 " ' A complete break up, my boy,' he said in 
 English, with a sad smile. On her face there was a 
 light of amusement. Not wishing to prolong the 
 scene, I was replacing the weapons in their box, when 
 she got up. 
 
 " ' One more ! ' she said ; ' I like to see you aim so 
 quickly and shoot so straight.' 
 
 " Obediently I lifted my hand and this time care- 
 lessly missed. 
 
 " ' All luck, you see,' I urged, anxious to cover 
 Herzfeldt's vexation. ' Won't you let me rest on my 
 laurels ? As for Herzfeldt, he is out of condition ; 
 when he is himself he can beat me.' 
 
 " But the latter here interposed, irritably bidding 
 me talk no nonsense and go on shooting without 
 further mock modesty. 
 
 " ' Yes ; one more for me,' repeated my hostess, 
 musingly. ' What shall it be ? ' Then, with her 
 broad smile : ' I know,' she said, unfastened the gold
 
 278 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 brooch at her throat, and, in her swinging, swaggering 
 way, stepped up to an old tree and fixed the pin in 
 the bark. 
 
 " Herzfeldt frowned. ' My last present ! ' he 
 muttered. ' Never mind, Fraser ; bring it down, 
 shiver it ! ' 
 
 "I felt her eyes on me as I raised the pistol 
 towards the tiny, glinting spot. To my own astonish- 
 ment for I had fired almost unconsciously the 
 ball grazed the trinket and sent it spinning upwards. 
 
 " Without a word, Herzfeldt went to look for it, 
 and, laughing, I turned round to his wife, to meet her 
 eyes still fixed upon me with a gaze that suddenly 
 appalled me. 
 
 " That blood-red smile, that glass-green glance, 
 were full of an odious, wicked, satisfied significance, 
 which I could not dared not put into shape, even 
 hi my most secret mind, for the horror of seeming 
 privy to it. 
 
 " ' Thank you/ she said to me, after a moment ; 
 then she took her brooch from her husband's hand 
 and walked away. Half angrily, half sadly, he looked 
 after her, whilst I, in vain, endeavoured to shake oiT 
 the strange obsession, the unreasoning dread, left upon 
 me by the sorcery of her eyes. 
 
 " I was beginning dimly to understand the nature 
 of Herzfeldt's infatuation for her, since I myself 
 cool-headed Briton though I be was unable to escape 
 her strange influence. For the rest of the day and 
 the whole night afterwards, sleeping or waking, I was 
 haunted by her image ; though when away from the 
 inexplicable attraction of her actual presence the spell 
 immediately changed its character and my unwilling
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 279 
 
 mind dwelt on her with no other feelings but those of 
 horror, of disgust. 
 
 " Under these circumstances, finding all my reason 
 and philosophy of no avail, I rose the next morning 
 with the intention of curtailing my visit as much as I 
 could without hurting Herzfeldt's feelings. But fate 
 itself intervened that next day was destined to be 
 the last I spent within those gates. A ride had been 
 arranged for the purpose of showing me the pride 
 of the estate, an imprudence which I feared for 
 Herzfeldt, who daily looked more shattered. But a 
 certain irritability he had of late displayed with 
 me kept me from remonstrating. At the appointed 
 hour, however, two horses only made their appearance, 
 and the groom handed me a note. ' I dare not go out 
 to-day you understand yet would not disappoint 
 her,' it said. ' Invent some excuse for me and have 
 your ride.' 
 
 " Even as I finished reading, his wife came out of 
 the house. In a sort of abstraction, and totally un- 
 heeding my explanations, she walked up to her black 
 Bessarabian and planted a kiss in each fiery nostril. 
 Then, accepting my ministration with seeming un- 
 consciousness, her arched foot with its glittering spur 
 scarcely pressing my palm, she sprang into the saddle 
 with some wild eastern exclamation. Immediately 
 the animal reared and plunged, while, in fear for her, 
 I held its head as firmly as I might and now an 
 ecstatic look came on her face ; the lazy eyes shot 
 brilliancy, the red lips parted. Suddenly, with a rage 
 of impatience, she cut at me with her whip, ' Let him 
 go let him go ! ' she panted. 
 
 " In an instant the brute broke away, shot across
 
 280 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 the courtyard, rose like a bird to the stone wall and 
 disappeared. Hurriedly I mounted, and, in his turn, 
 my horse, quivering with fury at being left behind, 
 darted after his companion. I gave him his head, 
 and before long had rejoined her ; she had settled 
 down to a canter, awaiting me. As I drew near she 
 looked round with a silent smile, but no sooner were 
 we abreast than, with another weird cry, she spurred 
 on again, and away we flew at a tearing gallop. 
 
 " What an experience that was ! How can I de- 
 scribe it without your thinking me the veriest mad- 
 man ? Cleaving through the sunny air by the side 
 of that strange woman who seemed to live only 
 through her senses, infected by her ecstasy, was 
 like one of those voluptuous, fantastic dreams which 
 sometimes arouse in us an unknown, untamed nature. 
 As if I had quaffed deeply of its fiery wine, I felt as 
 if the old spirit of that land had entered into me ; I 
 was drunk with exultation ; ever and anon her glance 
 sank into mine ; her transfigured, bloodless face grew 
 minute by minute more beautiful to me. Our minds 
 were at unison ; it was her savage, sensual soul that 
 animated me. I thought of Herzfeldt, mortally 
 diseased, with hatred and repulsion ; I thought of 
 her, in her young, strong vitality, with passionate 
 rapture. 
 
 " How long the enchantment lasted I can hardly 
 say ; gradually our supernatural steeds slackened 
 pace : panting, covered with foam, they at length 
 fell into a walk. 
 
 " ' This is life/ said one of us, whether she or I, I 
 never knew. I looked at her. She was breathless ; 
 the heaviness of exhaustion lay round her eyes ; then
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE" 281 
 
 I too felt unaccountably broken with fatigue, a chill 
 crept over me, and, in that second, as if a chasm had 
 opened before me, I saw my danger. 
 
 " ' We must go back,' I cried in a toneless voice ; 
 trembling like a craven, conscious of but one clear 
 thought the imperative necessity of my instant de- 
 parture I turned my horse's head homewards. She 
 followed me, she spoke to me ; I cannot remember 
 what I answered or if I answered at all. The spell 
 was broken, the glamour had faded. In silence we 
 reached the house. I dared not glance at her. I 
 was afraid to help her to dismount ; I sprang from 
 my horse and rushed indoors. As luck would have 
 it, in the hall I found a letter awaiting me, which I 
 seized upon as a pretext and straightway sought my 
 host. 
 
 " ' I have had news which necessitates my leaving 
 you,' I said ; ' can you send me to the station to-day ? ' 
 
 " He looked at me with a sudden awful suspicion ; 
 but when our eyes met, his face cleared. 
 
 " ' There is a train at ten o'clock,' he answered 
 simply, ' I shall order Gregor to be round after 
 dinner.' Then, moved by the same impulse, we 
 clasped hands.' 
 
 Here Fraser stopped. It was evident that the 
 memories crowding upon him were painful in the 
 extreme. He took a few turns up and down the 
 room, and, after a while, resumed with an effort. 
 
 " How great a difference would it have made to 
 my whole future existence had I left then and there ! 
 though, for what happened that evening, I try to 
 console myself with the knowledge that nothing
 
 282 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 could have saved Herzfeldt from his doom ; that 
 the very springs of his being were broken by that 
 fatal union ; that I myself was more victim than 
 culprit. My share in what occurred is a memory 
 which must for ever darken my life. 
 
 " The early hour of the Hungarian dinner came. 
 She was dressed with greater elaborateness than 
 usual ; at her throat gleamed the little brooch dinted 
 by my bullet; her face seemed more weirdly white, 
 her lips more fearfully red, her eyes glassier. Beset 
 as I was by conflicting emotions, her presence tortured 
 me. I scarcely looked towards her, partly, perhaps, 
 because her manners at table were far from pleasant, 
 partly because I dreaded to meet the strange, meaning 
 smile which, by the very side of my dying friend, 
 appeared to claim my complicity in the terrible 
 thought that prompted it. 
 
 "A feeble conversation lingered a while between 
 Herzfeldt and me. He plied me with his best wine, 
 he talked, not without emotion, of our old college 
 days and the love he cherished still for England and 
 Englishmen ; but I found it hard to respond, and so 
 we fell into silence. By a tacit though almost un- 
 conscious understanding neither he nor I alluded to 
 my impending departure. After the meal I took an 
 early opportunity to escape to my room and don my 
 travelling gear. When I came down again the great 
 hall and the adjoining apartments were deserted ; 
 thinking the husband and wife were together, I for- 
 bore to seek Herzfeldt, and fell to pacing the length 
 of the ill-lighted dining-room from end to end. 
 Presently the valet, carrying my portmanteau, paused 
 at the door to tell me the carriage would soon be
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE " GLOBE." 283 
 
 round. With an impatient sigh, I resumed my 
 march. 
 
 " Then, in the gloom and chilling silence, an un- 
 comfortable impression of being watched stole over 
 me, and, gradually, as if drawn to it, I met the gaze 
 of two shining eyes fixed on me from the darkest 
 corner. It was the woman again. 
 
 " She advanced softly into the light. 
 
 " ' You dare to go faint-heart, you are running 
 away ! ' She spat the words at me in a fierce 
 Avhisper. I felt giddily that I was falling into her 
 power again. My mind I cannot express it other- 
 wise was seized with trembling. As to what followed 
 I have myself but a vague knowledge, and must again 
 refer you to your dreams if practical men such as 
 you ever dream. Her hand fell on mine mine must 
 have been icy cold, for her touch was burning her 
 gaze encompassed my whole being, and, before I could 
 grasp at my intelligence and save my honour, the 
 lithe, gorgeous form was in my arms. As in a dream, 
 I could not measure time, but the madness cannot 
 have lasted a second. My arms had barely closed 
 round her when, with an angry movement, like a 
 snake disturbed, she had glided from me, and at the 
 sound of a voice the thrall fell away, with a rush like 
 that of a torrent, from my brain. I came to an awful 
 awakening. 
 
 " Yet the voice was neither loud nor menacing. 
 ' Could you not have waited ? ' it said quietly ; ' it 
 would not have been for long.' 
 
 " Thrilled to the marrow, I looked and saw Herz- 
 feldt my friend, my host ! . . . His face was 
 ashen, his eyes shone with phosphorescent light, he
 
 284 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 was smiling. It was horrible. Then, sloAvly, he went 
 away. I could have roared, like the psalmist, for the 
 groaning of my heart ; there are no words to express 
 what I felt. 
 
 "At that moment came the sound of carriage- 
 wheels at the door, and my first impulse was to fly 
 at once from the accursed place ; but I am glad I was 
 saved at any rate that baseness. As I turned into 
 the hall, the hateful vision of Hedwig arrested me on 
 the threshold ; silently, with a significant gesture, 
 she fingered the broken trinket at her throat and 
 vanished. 
 
 " My mind leaped to her evil meaning, but with a 
 widely different conclusion the thought of seeking 
 death before Herzfeldt's pistol came almost as a relief. 
 
 " Like a madman, I rushed down the passage 
 and burst into his study. From the very door the 
 pungent smell of the drug seized me by the throat. 
 He was sitting alone, panting, with his nails dug in 
 his breast ; when he saw me he smiled an awful 
 smile of contempt through the agony of his seizure. 
 
 " ' You see,' he said in broken words that ended 
 in a hiss, ' I have spared you even the trouble of 
 shooting me.' And Avith palsied hand he pointed to 
 the phial shattered at his feet, from which the life 
 elixir was spreading, in a wide, blackening, hideous 
 stain on the white hearth. 
 
 " The awful determination of that suicide, to be 
 consummated before my eyes, for a moment nearly 
 turned my brain. Some wild cry of self-exculpation 
 escaped me in the impotence of my distress words 
 of madness, for what could I say ? but the fearful 
 irony of his fast-glazing eye withered me to silence.
 
 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 285 
 
 I threw myself on my knees beside him ; with a 
 supreme effort of anger, he recoiled from my touch, 
 rose to his full height, and showed me the door. 
 
 " Then, gasping convulsively, with the grey circle 
 of death already round his open mouth, he fell 
 forward on his face. 
 
 " As, with frenzy, I sought to restore the dead to 
 life, light footfalls fell upon my ear, and she who was 
 as truly her husband's murderess as she was the 
 murderess of my honour, came into the room. I 
 sprang to my feet. Once more I looked upon her, 
 saw the flash of satisfaction behind her first glance 
 of mere curiosity, met the infamy of those eyes as 
 they sought mine, and my head reeled. But the spell 
 was now one of pure horror. She barred my way and 
 would have spoken. I struck her from me and fled. 
 I heard her cry out, in strident tones. ' Bambd. . . . 
 Bambd I ' And the cry pursued me even as I leaped 
 into the carriage and was whirled away into the 
 nigfht." 
 
 o 
 
 Fraser broke oft'. He had grown a little pale and 
 his eyes again sought trie grey depth of rain outside. 
 In a moment or two he resumed. 
 
 " Some time after, haunted by that unknown word, 
 I asked its meaning. It seems its English equivalent 
 is dolt fool. ... I thought it had been coward." 
 
 We remained silent for a while. I paid Eraser's 
 curious narrative the compliment of refraining from 
 trivial comments. 
 
 " That was three years ago," he said at length ; 
 "what may have been her dealings with the world 
 during her young widowhood I have had neither
 
 286 A PARAGRAPH IN THE "GLOBE." 
 
 occasion nor wish to learn. But this, no doubt, was 
 a fitting end to it all." 
 
 He handed me the paper. " Now you may realise 
 the true import of this paragraph," pointing to the 
 place with the stem of his stih 1 unlighted pipe. 
 
 I read the following : 
 
 "A terrible tragedy is reported from Pesth, where it is creating 
 great sensation. The Grafin Paul von Herzfeldt was found yesterday 
 murdered in her own house under circumstances of horrible barbarity. 
 No robbery was attempted and the wildest rumours are afloat as to 
 the motive of the crime. The lady, who was a widow and only two- 
 and-twenty years of age, is slated to have been possessed of great 
 wealth and considerable personal attractions."
 
 IRococo.
 
 '289 
 
 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 BY AGNES CASTLE. 
 
 THERE was no one in the whole Resident? we Sachs- 
 Langweiligers were prouder of than our Court Capell- 
 meister, Court Professor, Town Music Director and 
 Composer, Master Huldebrand ; and this showed, once 
 more, how liberal and large-minded we had become 
 in the enlightened reign of Ludwig Wilhelm III., our 
 hereditary prince and ruler, and how infinitely 
 superior to the general prejudices of the age ; for 
 what was Master Huldebrand, after all, but a poor 
 charity boy, of unknown and probably disreputable 
 parentage, and without even a surname of his own ? 
 
 But then he was a genius, and we Sachs-Lang- 
 weiligers knew what we were about ; we were not 
 going to drive the best star out of our sky to shine on 
 another land. Ah ! it's a wise nation that knows its 
 own geniuses ; and that's as true a proverb as ever I 
 heard, though I made it myself. 
 
 Thus we took some pride to ourselves, and justly, 
 for the penetration we had displayed in discovering 
 our artist's talent in spite of his humble position ; 
 and, moreover, we had reason to be truly satisfied 
 with the result, for under our generous encourage- 
 ment he became a great man. 
 
 Heavens, how he played ! Such a musician was 
 never heard either before or since. 
 
 " He is greater than Handel," said the Court Doctor 
 to me after our last State Concert ; and I made answer ; 
 8
 
 290 MASTER HULDEBEAND. 
 
 " Handel ! pfui ! Shame yourself, doctor, to men- 
 tion even his name with our master's." 
 
 Not that I ever heard Handel, you know ; but 
 then, I heard our master, and that was enough for 
 me. One knows when a thing is so good that it 
 cannot be better. Such was his playing, and more 
 than that surpassing the unsurpassable as it were. 
 Na ! I wish you had been there to listen to him. 
 
 In his hands, whatever instrument he chose be- 
 came like a speaking creature. A living stream of 
 melody flowed from beneath his fingers, sometimes so 
 sad that the heart would swell in one's bosom ; or yet 
 so gay, it was as if the very spirit of spring took pos- 
 session of one ; or yet again so yearning, so unspeak- 
 ably tender, pathetic, and wild, that it verily seemed 
 as if one's life were ebbing away on the strain, as though 
 one's soul were being drawn from one's bod}*, inch 
 by inch, so that one felt inclined to cry aloud : 
 " Stop, master, stop, or I shall die," were it not 
 that, for the beauty of it, one would not have lost a 
 note for kingdoms. And then at times he would 
 change his mood, and send grand bursts of full 
 harmony crashing down into the saal a triumphal 
 march or a battle-song growing ever louder and 
 louder, higher and higher, faster and faster, filling one 
 with noble and heroic aspirations, exciting, glorious, 
 magnificent ! I have seen on such occasions the 
 whole audience rise like one man and join in with 
 a sonorous chorus as if the master's genius had en- 
 kindled in them all a spark of the same divine fire. 
 
 Well, as you perceive, Master Huldebrand was 
 duly appreciated in Sachs-Langweiligen, not only by 
 us enlightened and well-to-do townsfolk, who liked to
 
 MASTER JIULDEBEAND. 291 
 
 encourage art and culture for the good of the country, 
 but likewise by the people soldiers, mechanics, 
 labourers, down to the very street boys, who would 
 Avhistle no other airs but his, swarm around him, 
 when he passed, to salute and cheer him, and hang 
 by dozens round the concert-room to catch a few 
 notes of his playing each time the door was opened. 
 Yea, the very Prince himself treated him with dis- 
 tinguished favour and a condescension even amount- 
 ing to affectionate familiarity ; and so highly did our 
 discriminating Sovereign think of him that, young as 
 he was, he appointed him to no less a position than 
 that of Professor of Music to her Serene Highness 
 the Princess Seraphina Sophia, his only daughter. 
 
 Ah ! she was a sweet creature, and as popular as 
 the master himself. It was a great honour ; but you 
 see and so it must be genius has its privileges. 
 
 I doubt if there were any one of them the artist 
 appreciated so keenly as his constant intercourse with 
 that lovely and gracious being. None knew the real 
 reason why he so persistently and generously refused 
 all the grand offers which other Courts frequently 
 made to lure him from our Residenz ; offers of emolu- 
 ments far greater, and of patronage far more powerful, 
 than he could hope for in our country ; so that the 
 disinterestedness with which he refused them all 
 added not a little to his popularity. But it was not 
 altogether exclusive devotion to Sachs- Langweiligen 
 that prompted his conduct. And if you are so 
 curious as to want to hear how I come to have known 
 what nobody else knew, I can only tell you it is 
 because I am the story-teller, and that story-tellers 
 have a way of finding out everything, no matter how. 
 s 2
 
 292 MASTER 
 
 And as for the reason itself the reason that kept 
 our ambitious, romantic artist, who shared with all 
 those of his class the love of roving and adventure, 
 tied to one spot like a parrot to his perch. Ah, well, 
 well, our Princess was lovely to see ! 
 
 Graceful as a willow, and slender, and yet develop- 
 ing day by day into the generous, delicate fulness of 
 womanly perfection : with eyes blue as summer seas, 
 eyes which the more you looked at them the deeper 
 and darker they seemed, and the more you wanted 
 to look, all Princess as she was with a face fair as a 
 white flower, and features straight and fine, of a 
 beauty inherited from the dead Princess her mother 
 of the true Austrian type ; the mouth, with its pure 
 proud lines, its short curving upper lip and exquisite 
 passionate, swelling under one, would have seemed 
 haughty, perchance, had it not been for the tender- 
 ness and candour of its smile. All this was our 
 Princess, all this and a thousand times more, for she 
 was a woman whose charm was felt to the very 
 heart's core, and 'tis not for any to describe her in 
 cold black and white. 
 
 Master Huldebrand gave her lessons twice a week 
 on the clavier. Seraphina Sophia had a soul which 
 vibrated to music : indeed, she had a dreamy, en- 
 thusiastic nature which found pleasure in every- 
 thing poetic, romantic, or heroic, and almost too 
 susceptible to each passing emotion. 
 
 Every Tuesday and Friday in the year save 
 state feasts and holidays of obligation the master 
 hied him to the palace and for one hour had the 
 supreme happiness and distinction of speaking to 
 her, listening to her, basking in her presence.
 
 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 293 
 
 On these two days the master lived the rest of 
 the week, the memory of the past and the longing 
 for the coming, from each Friday to Tuesday and 
 each Tuesday to Friday, forming as it were a golden 
 bridge which bore him across the dull stream of life. 
 
 Yet it was a very formal affair, after all, strictly 
 regulated by court etiquette, and carried on through- 
 out under the lynx eyes of the Baroness von Grafel- 
 heuer, the Princess's once grim governess and then 
 grim lady-in-waiting. 
 
 Tuesdays and Fridays it was always the same, 
 and had been for three years, even as to the royal 
 pupil's progress ; for, though her musical aspirations 
 were great, her execution was limited. The only 
 variety to the entertainment was furnished by the 
 Baroness' temper if the ever-increasing beauty and 
 the softly maturing charms of Seraphina, the lovely 
 development from fifteen to eighteen, be left out of the 
 question which was of different degrees of sharpness 
 and contradictoriness, according to the condition of 
 her stomach, she being addicted to acidity in that 
 region ; and likewise according to the peculiar phase 
 her hatred of the professor (which for no reason 
 had flourished in her bosom ever since she first laid 
 eyes on him) happened to take that day. 
 
 After such fashion, as follows, did the lesson take 
 place at the palace on the days appointed. At five 
 minutes to twelve you might behold the professor 
 in his long black coat hurrying into the Court 
 gardens, a roll of music under his arms, a little, 
 scarcely visible cloud of scented powder floating about 
 his head, and his fine slim legs in their well-drawn 
 silk stockings twinkling up the gravelled paths with
 
 294 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 marvellous celerity. Three minutes before noon would 
 see him in the music saal a great yellow room with 
 polished inlaid floor standing by the long clavier 
 which had been made expressly for Seraphina, 
 straightening his rolls of music on the desk. There 
 were three great windows hung with damask curtains, 
 behind him and before him two long mirror-framed 
 walls that seemed to stretch forth ad infinitum with 
 sedate rows of yellow and gilt chairs on either side. 
 
 Just as the clock finished striking the twelfth 
 hour, the door at the far end would open, and enter 
 the Princess and her attendant. And Master Hulde- 
 brand could watch her as she came the whole length 
 of the room towards him with that inexpressible un- 
 dulating grace of hers which the Baroness' waddling 
 accompaniment threw into still stronger relief. 
 
 And as she passed each mirror, a vision of her 
 exquisite profile would flit across it like a sunbeam, 
 and stir the heart of the poor musician with extra- 
 ordinary yearning. Then came bows and curtseys, 
 after which the lesson began. 
 
 The Princess sitting down to play, the master 
 standing by her side listening with great intentness, 
 one nervous hand propping his lean cheek, and his 
 great haunting dark eyes fixed on the keys. He 
 seldom raised them to her face during the whole 
 hour they were together, so that even the Grafel- 
 heuer could find little fault with his bearing. 
 
 The Princess made many false notes. She oft- 
 times seemed to be playing as in a dream, and then, 
 though her blue gaze would be fixed on the music, it 
 looked as if she saw very different things from 
 crotchets and quavers, bars and rests. Now and
 
 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 295 
 
 again came Master Huldebrand's grave, tender voice 
 breaking the sweet discords in this manner : 
 
 " Her Highness is wrong. Her Highness forgets 
 to count. Will her Highness please to begin that 
 bar again ? " 
 
 All of which her Highness would obey. Some- 
 times with a placid docility occasionally with a soft 
 protesting pout which made her look as if she were 
 thrusting out her red lips for a kiss. Oh, those were 
 moments especially when the professor had to keep 
 his tell-tale eyes most rigidly cast down ! Else, God 
 knows what might not have happened. It makes me 
 tremble to think of it. 
 
 But it had come to pass, and more frequently of 
 late, that when she had played a little while, the 
 Princess would push her chair away from the key- 
 board and cry that she could not go on with the piece 
 till she heard the Herr Professor's rendering of it. 
 
 And as Princesses' wishes are law, at least to their 
 loyal subjects, the master would silently take her seat 
 and let his fingers stray over the notes. 
 
 Never did he play with a tenderer grace, a more 
 insidious charm or a sublimer passion, than while his 
 royal pupil listened to him. And she, gracious 
 maiden, would be so absorbed in his music, her full 
 eyes so wrapt in admiration on his face, her very 
 being seemingly so lost in dreamy pleasure, that, all 
 august Princess as she was, the Baroness Grafelheuer 
 would be seized with a sort of itching impatience to 
 shake her, and never failed to put an end to the 
 proceeding by some ill-natured remonstrance or sour 
 interposition. 
 
 One day, as the musician was playing to her thus,
 
 296 MASTER HULDEBttANt). 
 
 Seraphina murmured, in a voice which seemed but an 
 echo of, and to harmonise with, the melody in some 
 strange way : 
 
 " Oh, master, the divine thing to be able to play 
 like that ! Oh, what would I not give to be an artist 
 too ! " 
 
 " What childish nonsense, your Highness ! " 
 croaked the Baroness, who had somehow intercepted 
 the floating words which the Princess had yet more 
 breathed than spoken. She was like an evil old witch, 
 that Grafelheuer. "You an artist, a poor creature 
 that earns his bread and plays for money ! Heaven 
 preserve us ! if any one had heard you say that but 
 me. A princess is a princess, and can never be any- 
 thing less." 
 
 Master Huldebrand broke off' in his accords with a 
 little abrupt note as of anger, and rose from the piano. 
 
 " Have you never heard that an artist was some- 
 times a man, Baroness ? " said he ; and his lips curved 
 into a fine cold smile ; " or that a princess might be a 
 woman, sometimes ? " 
 
 Then the clock struck one ; he took the music- 
 roll and placed it under his arm, pressed his hat to 
 his heart, bowed IOAV, and left the room ; all this before 
 the Baroness, who was struck quite breathless by the 
 outrageousness of the proposition, could find a word 
 wherewith to answer him. 
 
 That was what came of setting such Lumpen 
 into society so much above them, said she : any one 
 could see he was nothing but a charity boy ; and as 
 for his playing, she could not conceive what people 
 found in it. It was all up and down and every way ; 
 there was nothing settled about it.
 
 MASTER HULDEBBAND. 297 
 
 But the Princess went to her room alone, and sat 
 by the window dreaming. 
 
 It was a Tuesday in early March ; in our sheltered 
 southern valley-land spring comes to us when else- 
 where it is yet winter ; and the chestnut trees were 
 already covered with sticky buds, and there was a 
 gracious green powdering of twinkling leaves all over 
 the hedges and hawthorn trees ; the air was full of 
 balmy breezes and growing scents, and the master's 
 heart was full of spring longings and strivings as he 
 wended his way to the palace. 
 
 Now, he lived so shut up in his art, and so 
 secluded in his own dreamy life, that none of the 
 rumours, which for the last two days had been 
 creating such a stir in our peaceful town, had yet 
 reached his ears. Neither did he know of the sudden 
 arrival of the Archduke Adolphus Frederick from 
 his splendid Archduchy in the north, nor of the extra- 
 ordinary entertainment at the palace in consequence ; 
 nor of the excitement in the whole Residenz. 
 
 You must know that the Archduke of Hassan 
 who had but lately succeeded his brother on the 
 throne was a great man, cousin to the King of 
 Prussia himself, and of fabulous wealth and influence 
 in the land ; and we Sachs-Langweiligers were too 
 shrewd not to divine he had come with a purpose, 
 even before the state announcement was made. 
 
 But artists are queer folk ; and in all innocence 
 our master hurried to the palace on this eventful 
 Tuesday to hear the Princess play her false notes. 
 
 The first strange thing that happened and it was
 
 298 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 to be a day replete with strange things to Master 
 Huklebrand was that he was kept waiting over half 
 an hour. For three years the Princess had never 
 failed to make her appearance as the clock struck, 
 so it was not surprising that the master should 
 enter into a state of some uneasiness at the ir- 
 regularity. 
 
 At twenty-three minutes to one, however, the door 
 opened as usual and in came Seraphina and her 
 attendant. Now no sooner had he laid eyes on her 
 than the musician became aware that something had 
 happened, for though the Princess advanced towards 
 him with the same gentle, dignified courtesy as ever, 
 there was a subtle change in her face, which per- 
 chance he alone would have noticed ; an awakened, 
 deepened look of life, a heightened colour on her 
 placid cheek, a curious depression and compression 
 of the soft, proud lips. As to the Baroness, she 
 was all agog : her whole body seemed quivering Avith 
 malicious anticipation, an extraordinary rapture of 
 triumphant spite gleamed in the depths of her green 
 eyes. 
 
 " Good-morning, master," said Seraphina Sophia, 
 in that full-toned voice of hers that satisfied the 
 artist's fastidious ear to its utmost craving as no other 
 music did in all the world. Yet to-day there was a 
 tone the less in that cherished sound ; a joy was want- 
 ing ; and the master turned pale. 
 
 He saluted, but did not speak ; in silence and with 
 trembling hands he smoothed the music sheets on 
 their stand. 
 
 The Princess sat down and struck a listless note, 
 theli let her hands fall inertly from the keys.
 
 MASTER HULDE BRAND. 299 
 
 " He, he ! " cried the Grafelheuer in her sawing, 
 rasping way, " will her Highness not tell the Herr 
 Professor the good tidings ? I would not that even a 
 scullion in the palace kitchen be ignorant of our joy 
 to-day and the Herr Professor is so loyal, he will be 
 out of himself with gladness, I make no doubt." 
 
 The master looked across at the little sharp eyes 
 twinkling so malignantly on him from the bilious 
 wrinkled face, and trembled with a strange appre- 
 hension. 
 
 " Why, 'tis glorious news, Herr Professor," pursued 
 the Baroness. " What think you ? Our Serene High- 
 ness is betrothed, actually betrothed ; and a grand 
 match it is too, and to so tine a man ! Na ! I knew 
 you would be overcome with joy." 
 
 The look which held him, here became so fiendish 
 in its spite that the master felt his soul withering 
 within him. How had this hag read its inmost 
 yearning ? How had she learned his secret of secrets; 
 that which was buried in the holiest and deepest 
 recess of his heart; what he had not even told his 
 music yet ? And then the bearing of her words came 
 in upon him, and he looked, struck with mortal agony, 
 over to the Princess, as if blindly seeking one blessed 
 ray of light to save him. 
 
 But she sat with her head turned away, and he, 
 knowing that the truth had been spoken, was over- 
 come by a great desolation. Rigid he stood, never- 
 theless, with his nails clenched into his flesh, fighting 
 with his madness that he might not betray it and be 
 shamed for ever ; and the Baroness watched him as a 
 cat watches her prey. 
 
 Now this day was, as I have told you, a day of
 
 300 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 strange occurrences. The palace was full of bustle 
 and hurry-scurry, in striking contrast to its usual staid 
 routine ; and just then a thing unprecedented came 
 to pass a message from the Prince himself desiring 
 the instant attendance of the Baroness Grafelheuer. 
 Never was woman so loth to obey, so foiled in her 
 plans, so perturbed, so irritated, so helpless, as the 
 worthy duenna. To have to leave the Princess alone 
 with Master Huldebrand at such a time ! To lose 
 thus all the savour of the day's proceeding ! 
 
 But even for the sake of Court etiquette, a royal 
 summons is not to be lightly thwarted ; a gracious 
 Prince who does not like being kept waiting, must be 
 instantly obeyed the Grafelheuer was fain to waddle 
 forth after the lackey, and leave the professor and 
 the Princess alone together. 
 
 As soon as she was gone, the master turned to the 
 motionless figure by his side, and said but one word : 
 
 " Princess." 
 
 She slowly raised her face to look at him ; she had 
 grown pale to the lips. 
 
 " Master," she cried, " ah, master ! " 
 
 And then, with a movement, which was all 
 maidenly in its modest reserve, moved a little away 
 from him, that he might not see the crimson glow 
 of passion that tired cheek and eye. 
 
 But Master Huldebrand, as motionless he gazed 
 on the pure averted head, saw the love-tide colour 
 the white neck ; and he stood with his hands hanging 
 down at his side, aching all over with a searing, burn- 
 ing pain, battling with the yearning which boiled in 
 his young blood, and which every instinct of honour 
 and generosity bade him suppress.
 
 MASTER HULVEBKAND. 301 
 
 Then he sat down to the piano and told his secret 
 to the music. 
 
 He opened the floodgates of his heart in melody ; 
 never but once again in all his life did the master 
 play like that. It was as if nothing human held the 
 keys : it would have been as an angel's music but for 
 its wail of despair ; it might have been the chant of 
 a lost soul who sees amidst unutterable torments the 
 fair, cool gardens of Elysium. What the master 
 played then was never written, but as it burst from 
 the seething anguish of his beautiful artist's spirit, 
 so it escaped from his fingers, too exquisite, too 
 passionate, too wild to be imprisoned in bars and 
 measures. What he dared not say, what he must 
 never reveal, he poured forth now in language no 
 mortal could forbid, no stern conventionalist take 
 exception to. Praise be to the God who made Art 
 free and independent of men's narrowness ! 
 
 Now the servants passing heard the storm of 
 sound driven as it were from the music-room in great 
 throbbing gusts, and paused to listen astounded. 
 Beneath the open window a little knot of courtiers 
 gathered one by one, nodding to each other : 
 
 " Ei, the master is great to-day." 
 
 The Prince heard the wordless song in his cabinet, 
 and paused in his grave conference with the Grafel- 
 heuer to beat time to his favourite's playing ; and the 
 Archduke who was sitting at draughts with the 
 Prime Minister nodded his powdered head in a con- 
 descending kind of way, and said it was a pretty 
 tune. 
 
 The Princess sat and listened as one spellbound 
 hand and foot. And of a sudden the master stopped
 
 302 MASTER HULDBBJtAND. 
 
 with a broken crashing chord, like a lyre of which 
 one had snapped the strings all across, and the music 
 was mute. He rose, then, all white and quivering 
 and spent, and the Princess rose likewise, and they 
 faced each other. She, too, was white. She pressed 
 her hands to her heart as if in pain. 
 
 "You have hurt me here" she said, and sighed. 
 " Oh, master, you have hurt me." 
 
 But"[he groped blindly for his hat and fled 
 away : and the tears poured down his cheeks as he 
 
 went. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 It was a fine thing for Sachs-Langweiligen, was 
 the Princess' betrothal. Heida ! what rejoicings there 
 were. One night illuminations : little pink and green 
 lamps hanging from all the trees, and festooning all 
 the houses, and besides this a candle in every window . 
 then, a band of trumpeters and a torchlight pro- 
 cession. Oh ! that was grand. Another night there 
 Avas a Court ball, to which all the nobility and the 
 chief burghers were invited ; and the next evening 
 a ball at the Mayor's, where ah 1 the tradespeople and 
 those of the middle class were right splendidly enter- 
 tained, and capered to their hearts' content, and at 
 which, moreover, the Court deigned to appear. The 
 feature of the feast was a minuet danced by the royal 
 betrothed, and a stately pair they made, I warrant 
 you. 
 
 The Archduke was in the very prime of man- 
 hood, a fine, portly, handsome Prince, with a beautiful 
 powdered wig and a pink and white complexion that 
 all our maids and matrons went mad about. He had 
 a way of bowing, with his lips fashioned into a little
 
 MASTER HULDEBJtANJ). 303 
 
 heart-shaped smile, that was above everything 
 fascinating; and it became quite the thing among 
 fashionable young men to screw up their mouths 
 and cock their little fingers for many months after 
 his visit. He wore very rich clothes, too, and his 
 legs were superb ; moreover, he had just that am- 
 plitude which shows off the pattern of a waistcoat, 
 and which, to my mind, gives a man a human, com- 
 fortable kind of look, which your lamp-posts never 
 have. 
 
 It seems he was a Prince of excellent good sense, 
 and the way in which he set about looking for a wife 
 amply demonstrated it. 
 
 " It is not so much a wife that I require," he 
 said to our Chancellor with much astuteness and 
 practicality, " as an Archduchess I have not so 
 much my own interests as those of my nation to 
 consider." 
 
 Therefore in the Princess selected to fill this 
 happy post he required one indispensable quality 
 above all others dowry, good temper, pleasing man- 
 ners, beauty, all these things were to be desired, of 
 course, but before everything he must have an ab- 
 solute guarantee of healthiness. The future Arch- 
 duchess must be a healthy young woman, likely to 
 bear him in time at least three healthy sons. Before 
 engaging himself, he must be morally convinced that 
 the person in question would be likely to suit on 
 this point, Three sons and no less would content 
 him, for and here his forethought and wisdom will 
 strike you at once he most justly remarked that it 
 is indispensable for the happiness of a people to 
 have all doubts about the succession set at rest as
 
 304 MASTER HPLVEBKANl). 
 
 speedily as possible. With three sons he considered 
 the nation need have no fear as to their interests 
 being happily secured in the right line. 
 
 Now, our Princess had never had a day's sickness 
 in her life : except, indeed, the measles at three years, 
 and that only lightly: so there could be no doubt 
 about her on that score. She had three brothers, 
 too, fine, strong lads, and that was a good omen. 
 Such things, they say, go in families. Our august 
 Ludwig Wilhelm was the picture of health and 
 vigour, and knew no ache, despite his sixty years, 
 save now and again one in his big toe: and his 
 blessed spouse, Amelia of sainted memory, would be 
 now alive had it not been that in the upsetting of her 
 carriage, ten summers ago, she was killed on the spot. 
 
 " Accidents will happen," said the Archduke, after 
 reflecting profoundly on the fate of her who might 
 have been his mother-in-law and its bearing on the 
 case in point. 
 
 "Some, indeed," he added, with that remarkable 
 good sense which was one of his characteristics, " one 
 . cannot provide against." 
 
 And then he looked out of the window at Sera- 
 phina's peachlike cheeks she was in the garden 
 with her ladies, where the cunning old Prince had 
 sent her in full view of the Archduke's apartments 
 and after due deliberation with his private secretary 
 and Court Physician he finally came to the conclusion 
 that he could not do better than offer his august 
 hand and heart for her acceptance. 
 
 The marriage was fixed to take place in his own 
 Grand Duchy in a month's time. The Duke would 
 hear of no postponement, for, he said, it was all-
 
 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 305 
 
 important there should be an heir to his throne with 
 as little delay as possible. 
 
 Now, as I said, there were rejoicings of all sorts 
 to celebrate the great event, but the only entertain- 
 ment that was wanting happened to be just the 
 one we Sachs-Landweiligers flattered ourselves we 
 could best provide. And that was a grand concert. 
 The reason of this grievous omission was that Master 
 Huldebrand was ill. Ill in bed, poor man, of a sort 
 of low fever which, though not in itself dangerous, 
 threatened to become so in consequence of the 
 patient's persistent depression and languor. The 
 Prince was greatly put out at this untoward sick- 
 ness. He was so proud of his Court Musician, so 
 anxious to show him off to his grand future son-in- 
 law, that, to make up for the disappointment, he 
 formed a plan in his head to bring the artist 
 with him to the Princess' wedding ; and actually 
 made arrangements with the Archduke to give, for 
 that purpose, a great concert at Hassan Stadt the 
 evening before the ceremony. Seraphina's subjects 
 should learn, thought he, what sort of art we have in 
 Sachs-Langweiligen, and let them match it if they 
 can ; for he knew there was none like it in the world. 
 
 As soon as the Archduke had taken his leave, 
 full of this plan our gracious benignant Prince did 
 a thing the like of which was never known in the 
 Residenz before. Having ascertained there was 
 nothing infectious in the complaint, being provided, 
 moreover, with the Hof doctor's own stick, and 
 holding the great gold knob with its pungent es- 
 sences right under his royal nose, accompanied 
 only by his chamberlain, Ludwig Wilhelin actually
 
 300 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 paid a visit in person to the sick artist. Sitting 
 down beside the bed, and speaking a little indis- 
 tinctly, it is true, on account of the gold ball before 
 his mouth, but quite intelligibly for all that, he told 
 the Capellmeister to hurry and get well, that he might 
 play at the Princess' wedding ; it would give great 
 pleasure to his daughter, said our ever-to-be-revered 
 Sovereign, in the graciousness of his heart, to hear 
 her old master on such an occasion. 
 
 The poor musician, lying gaunt and haggard on 
 his narrow couch, and seeming, as I have heard, 
 rather distressed than overjoyed at the immense 
 honour vouchsafed to him, here grew so white that 
 his Serene Highness got up to leave in some alarm. 
 
 But even as he reached the door, a feeble voice 
 from the bed arrested him. 
 
 " Your Highness' commands shall be obeyed." 
 
 " Na, na. 'tis good, 'tis good," said our Prince ; " you 
 have a whole month before you, you know." 
 
 And nodding his benevolent and venerable head 
 at the sufferer, he withdrew with his attendant. 
 
 The next thing that happened was that Master 
 Huldebrand began to recover from that day forth, 
 which many held to be owing to the visit of the 
 Sovereign, who had wrought a miracle on him by his 
 very presence. 
 
 But the doctor who was ever sceptical said it 
 was nought but sheer strength of will that raised the 
 master from his illness, where before he had made no 
 effort. 
 
 And as luck would have it, Master Huldebrand, 
 though looking but a ghost of his former self, was up 
 and about, and ready to go with the rest of us, when
 
 MASTER UULDEB11AND. 307 
 
 the time, had come for the departure of the Court. 
 And that was in the third week in April, when the 
 whole land was green. 
 
 Have you ever been in the North ? Ah ! what a 
 country that is, to be sure ! What steeples there are 
 there, what shops, what towns ! Yes, and for all that, 
 I tell you, I would rather our valleys of the Langweil, 
 our bright cheerful Residenz, our easy, sociable, out- 
 of-door lives. Up there all is cold and gloomy and 
 stiff, and the men have no thought but for business 
 and money-making ; and as for the women, behute ! 
 I never saw such a lack of grace and beauty in my 
 life. No wonder the Archduke came to us for a wife ; 
 our Princess looked a very angel of light among them. 
 At the palace, moreover, all was conducted in the 
 French fashion, which the Archduke said was the 
 only endurable one ; and I heard that to win his 
 favour out and out, one had only to tell him his 
 Court was another Versailles. To us honest 
 southerners, it was a little bewildering at first, 
 and even our great Ludwig Wilhelm himself would 
 look askance at all the sliding, bowing, and curtseying 
 that went on ardund him ; and when they spoke to 
 him in their jargon, in which, I assure you, there were 
 more French words than anything else, as if their own 
 good native tongue were not grand enough for them, 
 I knewGod forgive me in saying such a thing of niy 
 venerable Sovereign ! that he did not understand one 
 whit of all they were saying. 
 
 Though I did not take to it, there was no denying 
 that Hassan Stadt was a fine town, and the palace was 
 T 2
 
 308 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 magnificent. Part of it they said was built by 
 Otho I., and its walls looked weather-beaten and 
 ancient enough to have been built by Adain himself 
 Besides, it was so large that it would have swallowed 
 up our Residenz, Theatre and all, and was surrounded 
 by such acres of garden that it made me quite giddy. 
 But it was gloomy, and my heart ached to think of 
 our sweet royal flower being shut up in those bare 
 gaunt walls for the rest of her life ; though, to be 
 sure, the Archduke was a fine man, and of a dignity 
 most admirable to see. To watch him point his toes 
 and arch his instep, swell his splendid chest and 
 crook his little finger, I vow would fill any wife's heart 
 with joy and pride at being espoused to so truly 
 elegant a Prince. 
 
 Now, what do you think the Hof Doctor said to 
 me, as I was dilating to him on that very subject ? 
 
 " Ya, ya," said he holding a pinch of snuft' to his 
 long thin nose and looking at me with his head on 
 one side after a way he had. " The Archduke is 
 dignified beyond words. Have you ever seen a goose 
 walk across the road ? " 
 
 Of course this was extremely wrong of the doctor, 
 and I could not see how an animal that is all body 
 and no legs, like a goose, could be "compared to any 
 one who had such calves under his silk stockings as 
 the exalted person in question; but the doctor was 
 an admirer of V 7 oltaire, a sceptic, and altogether a 
 man of dangerous tendencies, and I have only told 
 you this that you may see how differently two people 
 can view the same question. 
 
 Well, on the Wednesday evening we arrived at 
 Hassan Stadt, and on the Friday the wedding was to
 
 MASTER HULDEBEAND. 309 
 
 take place. Our Prince, our lovely Princess, and their 
 suite, were lodged with great pomp at the Sommer- 
 schloss, which was no separate residence, but a part of 
 the royal palace itself, of very great antiquity, and 
 united to the main and more modern building by a 
 huge columned gallery. 
 
 But, though there was room here to put up a 
 whole regiment, our master refused the rooms as- 
 signed to him, and chose to stop instead at a wretched 
 little inn in a back street, preferring, he said, to be 
 independent. 
 
 No one ventured to remonstrate with him on the 
 folly and strangeness of this proceeding, for, since his 
 illness, he had become so moody and odd in his 
 manner that people had grown a little afraid of him. 
 
 And he kept himself away from us, so that from 
 the night of our arrival till the evening of the concert, 
 which was fixed for the next day, the eve of the wed- 
 ding, we saw no more of him. 
 
 The concert-room in the palace was a very fine 
 place, all florid gilding and painting, and on the night 
 in question it was crammed to overflowing ; all the 
 Court was present, and those of the townsfolk import- 
 ant enough to have received invitations, together with 
 the nobles of the land who had travelled from far and 
 wide to see their Prince married, every one in his very 
 best clothes, and as ugly a lot as you could see. 
 
 In the front row of all, on three gold and velvet 
 arm-chairs, sat, first, our benign Prince, then Adolphus 
 Frederick, resplendent hi all his orders, and his wig in 
 such beautiful big curls that it was fine to see ; and on 
 his left Seraphina Sophia, in a robe of pale green satin 
 sewn with pearls, and her hair powdered high above
 
 310 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 her head, and two such red cheeks that the Arch- 
 duke could not take his eyes off them, so highly did 
 he approve of their healthy appearance. But for all 
 that, they came from the rouge-pot, as any one who 
 knew our Princess in her simple home-life could have 
 told him at a glance. 
 
 Punctually as the clock struck eight, the Royal 
 party made its appearance, and at the selfsame mo- 
 ment Master Huldebrand stepped on to the platform. 
 He looked paler than ever in his sombre purple velvet 
 suit, and his eyes burned like live embers under his 
 beetling brows. He came forward and made his bow, 
 looked straight at the Princess, w r ho cast down her eyes j 
 and then seating himself at the clavier began to play. 
 
 On the programme it was said that he would begin 
 by a sonata of Gltick's, but even as he struck the first 
 few notes I knew that no composer living or dead had 
 written them, but that they came straight from our 
 master's broken heart. As he once played to his 
 Princess the day he heard the news of her betrothal, 
 so he now played to her again for the last time. And 
 we hung on his fingers, breathless, for he ravished us 
 into a very ecstasy of melody such as was never heard 
 before, save once, or will be again in this world. 
 
 How long it lasted I never knew, whether one 
 hour or more, or whether it was less. It seemed like 
 a minute, and yet as if one had been listening to it for 
 centuries, and that it must go on eternally, so beau- 
 tiful was it. It was sad, sad as life and sad as death, 
 with such an unutterable wail of miser} 7 and yearning 
 that I thought my heartstrings were cracking with 
 the pity of it; it was sweet as the song of the 
 nightingale in the moonlight, and the scent of the
 
 MASTER HULDEBRANI). 311 
 
 honeysuckle in the heat of the day; it was stormy, 
 it rose and fell in ever-recurring waves of sound as 
 the ocean beats against the rocks in a tempest. 
 
 And there was no end to the changes in it. Now 
 a song of love so seductive and tender as to stir even 
 my withered old heart, now a lament so piteous and 
 keen that the tears ran down my cheeks before I 
 knew my folly. Once the master's fingers, speeding 
 like a hurricane over the keys, drew from them a sort 
 of savage dance of inexpressible weirdness, broken by 
 a battery of short strange chords like bursts of de- 
 moniac laughter. 
 
 Surely never was instrument in the hands of 
 such a fiend of inspiration before. In truth our 
 master was like one possessed ; as he played he 
 swayed from side to side, his long, lank hair, half 
 unpowdered, escaped from its ribbon, and hung 
 grey ai-ound his countenance. Every second he 
 grew whiter and whiter, more wan, more wild, more 
 haggard, and now and then one would almost have 
 thought that he was battling in desperate frenzy Avith 
 some ghastly, invisible spirit that drove him on 
 despite himself. 
 
 But all at once a happier mood seemed to come 
 over him, a series of tender modulations replaced the 
 madness of his improvisation, and he gradually broke 
 into a glorious strain, full of such solemn triumph 
 and extraordinary gladness that all knew it could be 
 nothing but a wedding inarch. And the Prince and 
 the Archduke and all the audience, who had been 
 not a little disturbed and astounded by the foregoing, 
 now began to nod their heads and smile to each other, 
 relieved to be free from the uncomfortable tension
 
 312 MASTER HULDEBBAXD. 
 
 which had held them ; this they could understand ; 
 this was something like. 
 
 " Ya, ya, so it goes ! " 
 
 But as the wedding march went on, gathering, as 
 it were, more joy and more grandeur bar by bar, there 
 crept, in some amazing and bewildering way, into its 
 harmonies, one solemn note of woe, ever the same 
 and ever recurring like the toll of a funeral bell. 
 And I cannot tell you the weird and depressing effect 
 of that note in the midst of the gladness, nor the 
 gloom it seemed to cast over us all And the gay 
 strains grew faint and perplexed, with an increasing 
 plaintiveness about them, hurried, uncertain, groping 
 and the mournful note tolled on, louder and louder, 
 till it drowned all else with its frightful persistent, 
 melancholy warning, and I felt a shiver run down my 
 spine, and only that I was sitting amongst those dolts 
 of Hassauers, should have stretched out my hand for 
 a grasp of something warm and human. 
 
 Now, as I looked around, I saw nothing but white 
 faces, eyes goggling and mouths gaping, so that it was 
 clear to me I was not singular in my impressions. 
 Only the Archduke went on beating time and nod- 
 ding his head as he had done at the beginning of the 
 march, and I do not think he noticed how his wed- 
 ding music had grown into a funeral dirge. 
 
 Well, suddenly the Princess stood up from her 
 seat, straight and rigid, pressed her hands to her left 
 side, and calling out with a wild cry of pain : 
 
 "My heart, my heart!" fell fainting into her 
 father's arms. 
 
 Oh, there was a hurry-scurry ! Everybody stand- 
 ing up and pressing forward, advising, condoling,
 
 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 313 
 
 discussing, one louder than the other. A great breach 
 of Court etiquette, to be sure, but then they were all 
 delighted with the sound of their own voices again after 
 the spell our master's wild genius had laid on them. 
 (And yet I heard those Hassauers declare that there 
 was nothing admirable about our artist at all, and his 
 playing but a scrimmage over the notes. No,, so they 
 are made in the north.) 
 
 Our sweet Princess was carried to her room, and 
 the doctors were in instant attendance. The Arch- 
 duke was put out extremely so ; he feared he might 
 have been taken in after all, and that her health was 
 not what an Archduchess's should be. But the doc- 
 tors were able to reassure him completely. It was 
 nothing a mere passing weakness ; the emotion, the 
 music, the natural feelings of a maiden on such an 
 occasion, aU this explained the accident most satis- 
 factorily. Why, a bride-elect who did not faint 
 before the wedding would be something quite in- 
 correct, after all. 
 
 And the master ? The master had slipped away 
 in all the bustle, and was back in his little room alone. 
 He was only half-conscious of what he was doing, and 
 some think he was then already in a fever, and that 
 what he had played was a very delirium of music. 
 And this, they say, further explains the surpassingly 
 curious events that followed, and which, according to 
 them, never happened at all, and were merely the 
 phantasies of his disordered brain. 
 
 But it is a free world, and one need agree with no 
 one ; that is the comfort of it ; so, as for me, I keep 
 my opinion. But this, whether dream or reality, 
 was what happened to Master Huldebrand that night.
 
 314 MASTER HULDEBtiAND. 
 
 It was towards midnight; all the town was quiet, 
 and he was sitting still at his window in the little 
 inn room thinking ; whether awake or asleep none 
 can say for certain. A tallow candle with a great long 
 wick was burning on a table behind him, so that 
 I suppose he could have been seen from the street. 
 The wind was wild and cold, and the rain was falling. 
 
 Now he heard some one call him from beneath 
 his window. It was a woman's voice, pitched in a low 
 and cautious key, and yet with such urgency in its 
 tones that it struck on the master's ear as loud as a 
 brazen trumpet. 
 
 "Master Huldebrand, Master Huldebrand!" 
 
 The master arose in haste, and opening the case- 
 ment, put forth his head into the driving rain. 
 
 A slim figure, whose face looked up at him white 
 and anxious from the dark wrappings about her head, 
 and which he vaguely saw was that of a young 
 woman, stood just before the house. 
 
 " For God's sake," she cried, in the same subdued 
 yet passionate manner, "come with me; come at 
 once ; the Princess has sent for you." 
 
 Now how the master got down the stairs and out 
 of the door, who knows ? but all I can tell you is, 
 that at the sound of his mistress' name he felt a 
 sudden madness. And the next minute found him 
 in the wet, cold street, hurrying over the slimy stones, 
 slipping, stumbling, but ever rushing onward by the 
 side of the veiled figure, who skimmed along like the 
 wind, pulling impatiently at his sleeve, as if she 
 would have him speed yet faster. 
 
 Presently he knew that they turned through a 
 naiTow gate into a gravelled walk, where dripping
 
 MASTER HULDEHEAND. 315 
 
 tendrils of creeping plants splashed across his face as 
 he passed ; that from this they came to a place where 
 his guide stopped him and bade him, in a fierce 
 whisper, tread cautiously or they were lost, and then 
 they went down steps into the ground. 
 
 Down they went, some dozen steps or so, into a 
 level flagged passage, where they groped their way 
 onwards by the damp clammy walls ; and, again, up 
 steps of stairs so narrow, so abrupt, so winding, that 
 as the master mounted, he grew quite giddy and 
 exhausted, and thought they would never stop. 
 
 All at once a tiny ray of light filtered through the 
 gloom, and then the mysterious messenger stopped him. 
 
 " Go in, in God's name," she said, and he thought 
 she was weeping ; " and may no evil come of this 
 night's work." 
 
 The wall gave way under her touch, and the 
 master found himself in a vast and spacious room ; 
 full of gentle light, fragrance, and warmth. And 
 there oh merciful Heaven ! on a couch, looking at 
 him with sweet, eager, longing eyes, lay the Princess 
 his Princess and she was all in white, like an 
 angel, and her hands were pressed to her heart. 
 
 Slowly she stretched out her arms to him ; then 
 surely it must have been a dream the poor musician 
 found himself upon his knees beside her, and she was 
 clasping him by the neck. 
 
 " Oh, master," she said, over and over again, " you 
 have broken my heart ; oh, master, tell me the music." 
 
 And as he was silent in his bewilderment, and 
 faint from awe and rapture, and did not answer, not 
 knowing what she meant, she cried again, piteously, 
 with a wail :
 
 316 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 " Tell me the music, tell me the music ! " 
 
 There came a sort of blank over him from which 
 he awoke to find himself in a strange and exquisite 
 maze of happiness. 
 
 His arms were round his Princess, her head was 
 on his shoulder, his eyes were drowned in hers in an 
 unutterable ecstasy of passion. And he was telling 
 her though he knew not how, nor what words he 
 spoke, no more than he had known the notes he had 
 played the master was telling her his love. 
 
 And presently he felt her sweet arms flag and flag 
 as they clasped him ; and her fair head slip away from 
 his shoulder ; the exquisite burden of her form grew 
 heavier and heavier in his embrace ; and then some- 
 thing drew his head down, and his lips to meet hers, 
 and all was oblivion save that he thought he was 
 floating away on the music of heaven. 
 
 How long it lasted he could not count, when a sigh 
 from the lips beneath his aroused him, and all at once 
 those lips struck him with a siidden chill ; laying her 
 gently down on the couch, he raised himself to look. 
 
 What was this ? What was this ? How cold, and 
 still, and white ! Help, help ! the Princess ! Ah, my 
 God ! What was this ? 
 
 Someone shrieked wildly behind him ; there came 
 a veil before his eyes, a surging in his ears, and a 
 swaying of the ground on which he stood. And 
 loudly the tolling note that had haunted his wedding 
 march began to boom and boom in his head. Then 
 grasping hands dragged him into darkness, and there 
 came a nightmare of steps, down and down in frightful 
 dizzy descent, a hideous vista of interminable streets, 
 and a fiend that drove him ever onwards ; and again
 
 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 317 
 
 the tolling note in his head, so that he felt his brain 
 bursting with the noise of it, and ran wildly to escape- 
 After this unconsciousness. 
 
 AVhen Master Huldebrand returned once more to 
 sentient being, he was lying on his narrow bed in his 
 little inn room, to which he had retire'd after the 
 concert. And it was already late in the morning, for 
 the sun was streaming in through the window in 
 broad level rays, and the whole air was filled with the 
 hum of the busy working town. The master lay for a 
 moment or two wondering what was this weight of 
 sorrow at his heart. Then he remembered it was the 
 morning of the Princess' wedding-day ; and as it was 
 borne in upon him, the master turned over'on^his side, 
 away from the light, that he might sleep to his misery. 
 
 But there was something irritating, something 
 disturbing that would not let him rest. A monoton- 
 ous mournful sound coming at slow intervals with 
 maddening, hateful regularity. 
 
 The bell, the bell, that doleful, dreadful bell strik- 
 ing the air, vibrating, lingering, dying away, then again, 
 and again, and again. Oh, God, he was going mad ! 
 
 This knell that rang in his music last night, that 
 haunted his dreams, that was inextricably mixed up 
 with the wild, sweet, fearful memories now confusedly 
 crowding back on him with each moment of fuller 
 wakefulness ; this knell that seemed to fall on a raw 
 nerve, to send a quivering shoot of pain through his 
 frame at every stroke, would it never be silent ? 
 
 Yes, yes, he had gone mad, there could be no 
 doubt of that.
 
 318 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 He sat up in bed bathed in a cold sweat, and 
 drove in frenzy his fingers into his ears. Behold ! the 
 bell ceased. With a new terror on him, he drew 
 them out and listened, and there was the tolling again. 
 
 It was reality, then ; his anguish redoubled, and 
 though he knew not why, he shook with a great fear. 
 
 Now, as he sat and strained his ear to the hollow 
 sound, there came a bustling and stirring in the next 
 room, and looking he saw his door was ajar. 
 
 " God-a-mercy ! " cried a woman's voice from the 
 room within, fat and jovial, " I have not yet recovered 
 from the turn I got this morning. Figure to thyself, 
 Trude I go to the door for the milk, and there lies 
 the Herr just as if he were dead, sopping and soaking 
 with the rain, his face turned up to the sky as white 
 as a cream cheese. You could have knocked me over 
 with a breath." 
 
 " Herr je ! " carne another voice in thinner accents, 
 in a pause emphasised by a clatter of crockery, " and 
 was he dead then ? " 
 
 " God preserve ! " cried the first with a shriek, " no, 
 no, the poor gentleman was but in a faint ! I think 
 he had a little bit of fever in the night, and wandered 
 out not knowing what he was doing. My man and I 
 we carried him in and laid him in bed, and when last 
 I looked in he was sleeping like a lamb. So long as 
 he does not fall ill on my hands ! . . . But as I was 
 saying, it quite upset me, and now this bell with its 
 tolling instead of the joybells for the wedding just 
 as I was about to start for the procession too. Na, 
 knowest thou ? I like it not. It is to me as if some- 
 thing had happened." 
 
 Master Huldebrand still sat up listening, and that
 
 MASTER HULDESRAND. 319 
 
 so intently, it seemed as if all his strength and will 
 had passed into the one faculty. 
 
 There came a tramp, tramp on the wooden stairs, 
 and a call in a man's rough voice : 
 
 " Fralichen, Fraiichen, hast heard the news ? The 
 Princess Seraphina was found dead in her bed this 
 morning." 
 
 The musician fell back on his pillow, and lay 
 staring straight up at the ceiling. 
 
 " Well well, 'tis all for the best perchance ; you 
 see, our Archduke had need of a healthy wife ! " 
 
 " So somebody was saying." 
 
 The master began to laugh and hug himself. The 
 Princess was dead; she would never be the Arch- 
 duke's bride oh, that was grand ! 
 
 But then came the bell again. How sad it was, 
 how terrible in its unchangeable note ! "Dead, dead 
 dead ! " it seemed to say. 
 
 Dead ! 
 
 He saw her cold and white and straight, her 
 young face set in the eternal age of death, and ban- 
 daged with an awful white bandage ; and she had one 
 stiff hand on her broken heart. That's what she 
 died of, of course the master knew all about it ; he 
 had broken it, and he ought to know. 
 
 " Dead, dead, dead ! " shrieked the bell, and 
 
 " Dead, dead, dead," shrieked the master ; and 
 louder and louder came the tolling, till it filled the 
 whole room with a mighty clamour, till the air 
 became alive with the ringing, and the whole world 
 was one great sound. Master Huldebrand rolled on 
 the bed, and drew the pillows over his ears ; in vain 
 he could not shut it out. He fell on his knees and
 
 320 MASTER HULDEBRAND. 
 
 prayed ; he fought with it, and tried to beat it away, 
 but all to no avail. 
 
 Then he found out something so terrible that the 
 hair stood up on his head with the horror of it. And 
 this was that he was the bell, he himself, unhappy 
 man, and that he would have to toll on for ever. This 
 was the Princess' wish because the music had killed 
 her. 
 
 And howling he ran out into the street 
 
 Ah, well ! our poor master he was a great genius, 
 but that was the end of it all The Hof Doctor 
 says he was always a little mad, and that even his 
 music was against all reason ; but he never said that to 
 me twice, for it was more than I would hear from any 
 man. 
 
 Ah, he is a loss to us indeed ! No one ever played 
 as he did. 
 
 They tell me he is a hopeless lunatic, and keeps on 
 fancying himself a bell, which is an odd fancy ; if he 
 had thought himself a clavier, you know, 'twould have 
 seemed more natural. His sufferings have been ter- 
 rible, but now he is quieter and more contented. Of 
 late he has begun to believe that he is ringing for a 
 wedding, which somehow appears to please him. I 
 am told, however, he cannot live another year. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 By Edward S. Ellis. 
 Red Feather: a Tale of the 
 
 American Frontier. By 
 
 Edward S. Ellis. 
 Seeking a City. 
 
 Rhoda's Reward; or, 
 Wishes were Horses." 
 
 ' If 
 
 Jack Marston's Anchor. 
 
 Frank's Life-Battie; or, The 
 Three Friends. 
 
 Fritters, liy Sarah Pitt. 
 
 The Two H ivdcastles. By Made- 
 line lif.nuvia Hunt. 
 
 Ursula's Stumbling-Block. Byji 
 
 Goddard. 
 Ruth's l.ife-Work. By the K 
 
 Joseph Johnson. 
 Cassell's Two-Shilling Story Books. Illustrated. 
 
 Major Monk's Motto. By the Rev. 
 
 F. Langbridge. 
 
 Trixy. by Maggie Symington. 
 Rags and Rainbows: A Story of 
 
 Thanksgiving. 
 Uncle William's Charges; or, Tho 
 
 Broken Trust. 
 Pretty Pink's Purpose; or, Tho 
 
 Little Street Merchants. 
 Tim Thomson's Trial. By Georg : 
 
 Weathc 
 
 Stories of the Tower. 
 
 Mr. Burke's Nieces. 
 
 May Cunningham's Trial. 
 
 The Top of the Ladder : How to 
 
 Little Flotsam. [Reach it. 
 
 Madge and Her Friends. 
 
 The Children of the Court. 
 
 A Moonbeam Tangle. 
 
 Maid Marjory. 
 
 Peggy, and other Tales. 
 
 The Four Cats of the Tipperto.u. 
 
 Marion's Two Homes. 
 
 Little Folks' Sunday Book. 
 
 Two Fourpenny Bits. 
 
 Poor Nelly. 
 
 Tom Her:ot. 
 
 Through Peril to Fortune. 
 
 Aunt Tabitha's Waifs. 
 
 In Mischief Again. 
 
 School Oii-ls.
 
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 For Queen and King. | Three Homes. 
 
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 Esther West. 
 
 Perils Afloa 
 
 land 
 
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 The Hunters of the Ozark. | The Camp in the Mountains. 
 Ihe Last War Trail. 
 
 The "Log Cabin" Series. By EDWARD S.ELLIS. With Four Full- 
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 Footprints in the Forest. 
 
 EDWARD S. ELLIS. Illustrated. 
 
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 Ned in the Woods. A Tale of I Ned on the Biver. A Tale of Indian 
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 Ned in the Block House. A Story of Pioneer Life in Kentucky. 
 
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 A Bumble Bound France. 
 All the Kussins. 
 Chats about Germany. 
 The Land of the Pyramids 
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 Peeps into China. 
 
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 Bound Africa, 
 
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 The Isles of the Pacific. 
 
 Half-Crown Story Books. 
 Little Hinges. 
 Margaret's Enemy. 
 Pen's Perplexities. 
 Notable Shipwrecks. 
 Golden Days. 
 
 'Wonders of Common Things. 
 Truth will Out. 
 
 Soldier and Patriot (George Wash- 
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 The Young Man in the Battle of 
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 The True Glory of Woman. By the 
 Rev. Dr. Uandels. 
 
 At the South Pole. 
 
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 Peggy Oglivie's Inheritance. 
 
 Fairy Tales. 
 
 Books for the Little Ones. 
 Rhymes for the Young Folk. 
 
 By William Allineham. Beautifully 
 
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 The Pilgrim's Progress. With 
 
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 The History Scrap Book; With 
 
 nearly 1,000 Engravings. 5s.; 
 
 cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 The Family Honour. 
 By Prof. Morley. 
 
 The Old Fairy Tales. With Original 
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 My Diary. With 12 Coloured Plates 
 
 and 366 Woodcuts. Is. 
 The Sunday Scrap Book. With 
 
 One Thousand Scripture Pictures. 
 
 Boards, 5s.; cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 Cassell & Company's Complete Catalogue will be sent post 
 free on application to 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, Lud S ate Hill, London.
 
 A 000032928 4