Honor among Thieves 
 
Honor among Thieves 
 
 BY 
 
 GABRIELLE FESTING 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'WHEN KINGS RODE TO DELHI,' 'STRANGERS 
 WITHIN THE GATES,' ETC. 
 
 »', ; » % _ * » > '-t *K-i 
 
 William Blackwood and Sons 
 
 Edinburgh and London 
 
 1917 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
TO 
 
 QA. t. 
 
 458086 
 
PART I. 
 
CHAPTER 1. 
 
 A LONG line of carriages stood at the blue door of Mr 
 George Rivers's house in Brunswick Square, on a Sept- 
 ember morning. The heavy rain of the night had 
 changed into a dull drizzle which dimmed the bright- 
 ness of harness and buttons. The footmen's stockings 
 were covered with splashes of mud, as they opened the 
 carriage doors ; their mistresses hurried under the awn- 
 ing and into the house, giving little opportunity for 
 the crowd gathered on the pavement to admire their 
 wedding clothes. 
 
 What the newspapers of the day styled " a marriage 
 in high life " was attracting a number of guests, chiefly 
 ladies. The throng increased at every moment, till it 
 began to appear doubtful whether late arrivals would 
 be able to get in at the door. 
 
 "Did you ever see such a crush in your life, my 
 dear?" sighed a thin vapid- looking lady in a lilac 
 pelisse, to a friend with yellow plumes in her bonnet. 
 " (Test affreuse — ga m'dtouffe." (In those days in which 
 England was standing alone against the might of 
 Napoleon, it was necessary for every Englishwoman 
 who wished to be in the fashion to besprinkle her con- 
 versation with French words and phrases, pronounced 
 as much like English as possible.) 
 
4 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " La ! Amelia," called a stout matron in puce to her 
 daughter in royal blue, " hold on to me, whatever you 
 do, or we shall be lost in this crowd." 
 
 The wearer of the yellow plumes looked round her, 
 on the confusion of ruffs, fans, feathers nodding on 
 bright -coloured bonnets, floating scarves which only 
 half hid bare necks. 
 
 "What a mob! what can have brought them all 
 here?" 
 
 u I haven't an idea," answered her friend languidly, 
 "unless it is to see what sort of a wife Sir Charles 
 is taking to himself." 
 
 " Amelia ! Amelia ! where's Mr Patten ? " 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know, mamma. He was just 
 behind me when we came in at the door." 
 
 "We'll wait for him at the top of the stairs; it 
 won't do to lose him, and him a stranger in Town. 
 Here's the banister: I'll hold on to it, and you hold 
 on to me, and we'll get on famously." 
 
 " What extraordinary creatures ! Where do you 
 think they come from ? " lisped the lilac pelisse to 
 the yellow plumes. 
 
 "Friends of Mr Rivers, I should say, or perhaps 
 relations." 
 
 " I suppose attorneys have relations," said the lilac 
 pelisse as she entered the drawing-room. " There is 
 Gardiner, I declare ! Now we shall hear all 
 about it." 
 
 "Ladies, ladies, I have been waiting for you this 
 hour past ! " cried a small thin man in a blue coat. 
 " Did I not warn you to be in time ? " 
 
 "It's not my fault your attorney friend has 
 such a narrow staircase that it won't take more 
 than three persons abreast," said the lilac pelisse. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 5 
 
 "Do find us chairs, for we're dropping with 
 fatigue." 
 
 "I assure you, dear madam, there would be none 
 to be found if I had not kept two for you. Here 
 they are. Permit me, ladies" — to a group sitting 
 half-way up the room, — "if you would kindly allow 
 these ladies to pass — perhaps if you would let me 
 draw your chairs a leetle to one side " 
 
 The passage was accomplished, with much flutter- 
 ing of scarves — the only article of dress at that time 
 that could flutter, owing to the scantiness of all other 
 feminine draperies. The lilac pelisse sank upon a gilt 
 chair in an attitude of dejection, opened a fringed 
 reticule and took out a smelling-bottle, at which she 
 sniffed with half-closed eyes ; the lady of the yellow 
 plumes sat upright, looked round her, and observed : 
 "Those are better places over there." 
 
 " But they are on the side intended for the bride's 
 relations and friends," said Mr Gardiner, settling his 
 coat-tails, "and I did not think that either of you 
 ladies would care to assume the part of a relation 
 of our host even for an hour." 
 
 "Has the bride any friends?" asked the yellow 
 plumes. 
 
 " None that ever I heard of, except Mr Rivers." 
 
 " Tant pis pour elle : he is an expensive friend, as 
 we know to our cost, some of us." 
 
 "Not I," said Mr Gardiner, flicking a speck of 
 powder from his sleeve. "I have had nothing to do 
 with him in the way of my own affairs, I am thankful 
 to say. We sit upon a Committee together, and I 
 am bound to own he is a good man of business — 
 yes, a good man of business, undoubtedly." 
 
 "I suppose he has made a coup in marrying his 
 
6 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 niece to Sir Charles, though I can't imagine how it 
 benefits him." 
 
 "The young lady is not his niece, strictly speak- 
 ing," corrected Mr Gardiner; "she is a distant 
 cousin of his wife's. But her marriage with Sir 
 Charles is a good stroke of business for Mr Rivers, 
 as you say." 
 
 "Tell us the story, and make haste about it, or 
 they will be beginning the service before we know 
 why they are going to be married," commanded the 
 yellow plumes. 
 
 "Can't you see that he is positively dying to tell 
 you ? " said the lilac pelisse, opening her eyes. " Leave 
 him to himself for a few minutes, and it is bound to 
 come out or he will burst." 
 
 Mr Gardiner pretended to glance round him. " I 
 must be sure that we are not overheard — you know 
 that discretion " 
 
 " Pooh, man ! they're all too busy telling scandals 
 to each other to listen to you," said the lady with 
 the plumes. " Sit between us, and I will hold up 
 my fan if you will be easier for it ; but we must 
 have the story." 
 
 Mr Gardiner threw another look over his shoulder, 
 this time in earnest, and saw that no one " who 
 counted " was within earshot. It was as the lady 
 said — all the assembly was too busy to listen, those 
 who were so lucky as to have found chairs talking 
 with all their might, and the rest absorbed in look- 
 ing for places. The room was full of the heavy 
 sound like the falling of water into a shallow tank, 
 which is made by many voices in different keys and 
 varying intonations. Every now and then above all 
 rose the shrill call of the lady in puce-coloured satin, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 7 
 
 demanding whether Amelia saw Mr Patten yet, or 
 the deep bass of a white-headed old gentleman in the 
 far corner, who wanted to know what his neighbour 
 had to say about the news from Germany. 
 
 " Of course you are aware," began Mr Gardiner, with 
 a preliminary clearing of his throat, " that our friend 
 here has been trying for many years to get himself 
 and his wife received into society. For many years 
 he has laboured without much success, his wife being, 
 entre nous, partly an invalid and entirely a goose. But 
 last winter they brought out a paragon of a daughter, 
 who plays the harp quite well, and is as good and 
 sensible as she is lovely." 
 
 " I declare, Gardiner, you seem epris with her your- 
 self," said the lilac pelisse. "Have you made your 
 proposals in form to M. le Papa?" 
 
 * Your ladyship is pleased to mock an old bachelor 
 who lost his heart to all your adorable sex too long 
 ago for Miss Jane Rivers to be able to wound it. 
 But she has worked sad havoc among the younger 
 generation. Lady Dunster happened to notice her 
 one day, made acquaintance, and took up the young 
 beauty with that charming enthusiasm which we 
 all know. She carried her to many places where 
 Papa and Mamma would not have been received. 
 Young Egerton saw Miss Jane at Lady Dunster's 
 house " 
 
 " Young Egerton ? What ! Lady Maria's granr 1 - 
 son?" 
 
 "The good one, who plays the flute and goes to 
 church on Sundays ? " 
 
 "Precisely, ladies. He fell head over ears in love 
 with her " 
 
 " Then she must be a miracle," said the lady in the 
 
8 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 lilac pelisse. "I could as soon imagine a codfish the 
 victim of a grande passion as Mr Egerton." 
 
 Mr Gardiner waved his hand a little impatiently. 
 "He swears he will marry her; Lady Maria swears 
 her grandson shall not marry an attorney's daughter. 
 As you know, his private income is not enough to 
 keep him in shoe-strings; and though he had been 
 promised the reversion of a snug little place in a 
 Government office, Lady Maria sets to work to pre- 
 vent its going to him if he persists in marrying his 
 innamorata. Love in a cottage does not suit Egerton ; 
 he writes a beautiful letter of farewell to Miss Jane, 
 who is preparing to languish in a decline, when Fate 
 
 puts a trump card into her papa's hand " 
 
 " I'll be bound he had it up his sleeve," said the lady 
 with the plumes. 
 
 At this point there was a stir at the entrance to 
 the room, and a man-servant announced " Lady Maria 
 Vane." A moment before, it might have been thought 
 impossible for another person to walk up the crowded 
 gangway between the rows of gilt chairs, but at the 
 sight of the lady who stood in the doorway the com- 
 pany appeared to shrink together, leaving ample space 
 for her progress. For many years Lady Maria had been 
 used to obtaining what she wanted, whether it were the 
 best place in the room or some more solid advantage, 
 and no one would have disputed it with her twice. 
 There was no need for young Mr Rivers to turn round 
 upon the bevy of ladies for whom he was endeavouring 
 to find places and wave his arms to and fro, as if he 
 were driving a flock of geese, in order to sweep the 
 passage clear. The passage was clear, and all that 
 remained for him to do was to stand out of the way. 
 Little Mr Patten having with much difficulty climbed 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 9 
 
 up the stairs and rejoined Amelia and her mother, stood 
 huddled with them on one side of the door, waiting 
 until Lady Maria should pass on. The two ladies could 
 not imagine why such a stir was made over a gaunt 
 old woman, with thick eyebrows, wearing an ermine 
 cloak that dated from the reign of George II. They 
 were not of the society which trembled before Lady 
 Maria Vane, and never having been further into the 
 country than to Barnes, they were not struck, as some 
 outsiders might have been, by the likeness to an old hawk 
 watching its prey, as she glanced to right and left. 
 
 Having advanced three steps into the room, she stood 
 surveying the company through a long-handled glass, 
 ignoring young Mr Rivers, who was bowing with as 
 much grace as is possible to a very stout youth in 
 a very tight neckcloth, with the ends of a very large 
 wedding favour sticking almost into his eyes. 
 
 Down the lane between the gilt chairs hurried the 
 master of the house, a florid, good-looking man with 
 powdered hair and a bunch of seals at his fob, followed 
 by a stout lady in grey satin, with a short neck and 
 an immense bouquet. 
 
 " Lady Maria ! it distresses me inexpressibly to see 
 your ladyship standing. Allow me to conduct you to 
 your place." 
 
 * Ah, Rivers, you there ? Quite the gentleman, as 
 usual." The harsh tones of Lady Maria's voice were 
 audible all over the room, as she swept up the gang- 
 way with a nod to host and hostess. 
 
 " See him putting her into the arm-chair," murmured 
 the lilac pelisse ; " see how she handles her fan as if she 
 were dying to lay it about his knuckles. As I live, 
 she is making him kneel down to slide the footstool 
 under her feet." 
 
10 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Various late-comers, who had not succeeded in find- 
 ing places near the door, followed in Lady Maria's wake 
 up the gangway. Among these were an elderly lady 
 with an ear-trumpet, and a small dainty creature in 
 white, with rose-coloured ribbons in her turban, who 
 insinuated themselves into chairs just in front of Mr 
 Qardiner and his party. 
 
 " Charlotte Winslow ! " said the lilac pelisse to her 
 friend, in a tone that did not suggest pleasure. " She 
 always contrives to get into a good place, wherever 
 you meet her." 
 
 The girl turned round, with a little affected laugh. 
 " You here, dear Lady Ramsay ! and Mrs Clifford too ! 
 This is delightful. And Mr Gardiner — I was hoping 
 to see you, sir. It is an age since I have been any- 
 where, and I want you to tell me all about everybody. 
 Mamma is so deaf, she never hears any news, and I feel 
 as if I had been buried alive." 
 
 " Always at Miss Winslow's service, but there is one 
 item of fashionable intelligence that I must learn from 
 her. When is the wedding to be ? " 
 
 Charlotte held up her white muff to hide an imaginary 
 blush. 
 
 " The date is not fixed. Perhaps in the spring — but 
 Mr Daniels is very impatient." 
 
 " Who could blame him ? " asked the old beau 
 gallantly ; but Lady Ramsay brought him back to his 
 duty with a peremptory "Pray explain what you 
 meant by a trump card, Mr Gardiner ; we are waiting 
 for the conclusion of the story." 
 
 Mr Gardiner, who would have preferred a flirtation 
 with Miss Charlotte, tried to recall himself to the 
 business in hand. 
 
 " Er — yes, it was, as you say, a trump card. Some 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 11 
 
 wealthy old woman died who was a distant relation of 
 our hostess. Of course, it was hoped that her money- 
 would go to that quarter, but when they came to read 
 the will, it was found that every penny was left to 
 some third or fourth cousin, a little country girl whose 
 existence every one had forgotten." 
 
 " And how was that a trump card for the attorney ? " 
 " Because the old woman appointed him guardian 
 and trustee, thinking, I suppose, that it would render 
 his chagrin more acute. But little did she know the 
 resourcefulness of our friend. Off he goes to Lady 
 Maria, says that he heard she is looking out for a bride 
 with a fortune for Sir Charles Mendip, and that if he 
 consents to his ward marrying one of her grandsons, he 
 presumes that she will have no objection to his daughter 
 marrying the other. So it is all settled, after a good 
 deal of haggling. Sir Charles marries Miss Honor 
 Basset to-day. Mr Egerton marries Miss Jane Rivers 
 next month." 
 
 " I thought Sir Charles was vowed against matri- 
 mony; Lady Maria has been au dtsespoir for the 
 last two years because she could not settle him in 
 life." 
 
 " It was not only he who objected ; heiresses were 
 not inclined for a bridegroom who spends half his time 
 in a stable, and the rest at Elystan House." 
 
 "Sir Charles knows by now that he must have 
 money, and that his lawyer and his agent can squeeze 
 out no more for him, and that a girl of fifteen is likely 
 to be less exacting than a maturer bride." 
 
 " Less likely to make difficulties with la Belle 
 Amazone," said Charlotte, who was leaning over the 
 back of her chair listening. " What is it ? " in a pettish 
 tone to the lady in puce, who after standing beside her 
 
12 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 for some moments, trying to attract her attention, had 
 ventured to touch her elbow. 
 
 "Excuse me, ma'am, but there's some empty seats 
 beyond you. If you were to let us pass " 
 
 Charlotte, with an air of annoyance, pulled her scarf 
 round her, but made no other effort to facilitate the 
 lady's passage. 
 
 "You come next me, Mr Patten," bade the puce 
 satin, " and then Amelia. Lord ! I wish I was as slim 
 as you, ma'am " — with an effort to conciliate Charlotte, 
 who was ostentatiously shaking out the ribbons on her 
 dress. 
 
 Between fear of entangling himself in those ribbons, 
 and shame at what he saw in passing, — for Charlotte's 
 dress was in the height of fashion, which is to say that 
 there was as little of it as could be, — poor Mr Patten 
 would have given much to be allowed to retreat to the 
 back of the room. But with the lady in puce satin 
 keeping her eye fixed upon him over her shoulder as 
 she struggled past Charlotte and her mother, and Miss 
 Amelia urging him from behind, there was no chance 
 of escape. He was crimson in the face by the time 
 that he was pushed and pulled into a gilt chair, and 
 the puce satin, leaning across him, was explaining 
 to Charlotte's mother, "I hope we're not crowding 
 you, ma'am, but these are the only seats I could 
 spy, and I wished most particularly for my cousin 
 here to have a good view. He lives down at 
 Osmundsbury, which is as quiet as a cemetery, and 
 he's never seen a fashionable wedding in his life." 
 
 Charlotte's mother, being deaf, replied only with a 
 smile. 
 
 " Not but what he's so near-sighted, I'm afraid he'll 
 see nothing as it is," went on the lady. " It's a plaguy 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 13 
 
 inconvenient affliction not to be able to see beyond the 
 tip of your nose, and " 
 
 Lady Maria's harsh voice rose above the clack of 
 tongues. 
 
 " What are we waiting for ? I am here." 
 
 " Lady Maria won't endure being kept waiting," said 
 Lady Ramsay, standing up to look round her. " She 
 will make the bride pay for this." 
 
 " The bride is ready and waiting behind that door," 
 Mr Gardiner assured her. " I caught a glimpse of her 
 and her bridesmaids, ten minutes ago, when Mrs 
 Rivers went out, that way, to get another cushion for 
 Lady Maria." 
 
 " Do tell us something about the bride," cried Char- 
 lotte. "Is it true that she ran about barefoot, and 
 milked cows, and drove pigs to market?" 
 
 " Sir Charles and she should live in harmony, their 
 tastes being similar," said Lady Ramsay. " While he 
 is in the stable, she can be in the cowshed." 
 
 " Will he continue to keep racehorses ? " asked Mrs 
 Clifford. 
 
 Mr Gardiner solemnly shook his head. 
 
 "I doubt it. I believe the settlements were very 
 carefully drawn." 
 
 " Then the bride and her fortune are not absolutely 
 at Sir Charles's mercy ? " 
 
 "If she dies without an heir, by the old woman's 
 will the money is to pass to Mrs Rivers. Our friend 
 had every reason to watch over his ward's interests. 
 He met his match, however. I am told that he vows 
 he has transacted business with all sorts and condi- 
 tions of men, from Jews to King's Counsel, and that 
 he found a Duke's daughter the wariest of all at driv- 
 ing a bargain." 
 
14 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " I wonder he did not marry the girl to his son, and 
 make sure of the money. A healthy country girl is not 
 likely to die without heirs." 
 
 " Our friend is too clever for that," said Mr Gardiner. 
 " People would have said — what you may easily imagine 
 — if he had married his ward at fifteen to Young 
 Hopeful, and some busybody might have stirred up 
 the Court of Chancery to interfere. If he had waited 
 a year or two, Miss might have discovered her own 
 value, and insisted upon choosing for herself. Now, 
 whatever may be said of Sir Charles, he comes of good 
 family and has a title ; if he does not break his neck 
 his wife may be a Viscountess in a year or two, for it 
 seems certain that Lord Dunster can have no children, 
 and he is heir-presumptive, as the title goes in the 
 female line." 
 
 "Can you tell me, ma'am, why the scarlet rope is 
 stretched along the end of the room ? " the lady in puce 
 satin asked of Charlotte's mother, who smiled again and 
 shook her head. Charlotte, who had been playing 
 with the fringe of her sash, affronted because the other 
 two ladies were engaging all Mr Gardiner's attention, 
 leaned across her to answer — 
 
 " Some say it is to keep off the bridegroom's creditors, 
 ma'am, but others believe that it is to prevent him from 
 being overwhelmed by the embraces of the bride's 
 family." 
 
 " Here he comes." There was a general whisper and 
 movement as two gentlemen came in at the farther 
 door. The one, a man of six or seven and twenty, who 
 looked steadily in front of him, with an air in which 
 severe disapproval was blent with a deprecation of all 
 responsibility for the condition of his charge, was evi- 
 dently the good Mr Egerton. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 15 
 
 The other, some two or three years younger, was tall 
 and unusually well made. His face might have been 
 handsome but for its lowering, sullen look, and for a 
 redness for which hunting was not alone responsible. 
 As he passed up the room his unsteady walk was 
 noticeable. 
 
 " Now we know why the red cord was put," whispered 
 Lady Ramsay to Mr Gardiner; "the bridegroom will 
 never be able to get off his knees without its help." 
 
 "A bridegroom is apt to overdo it," said Mr Gar- 
 diner ; " you remember the Prince at his wedding " 
 
 " Here's the bride, popped in by the other door. She 
 has not kept him waiting long, at any rate," interrupted 
 Lady Ramsay. " The parson is evidently as anxious 
 as any of them to get it over. He is taking the service 
 at a hand-gallop." 
 
 " I thought the bride had a strong Somersetshire 
 accent," observed Charlotte. " I can't hear a word — 
 can you, Mr Gardiner ? " 
 
 " It would take a strong voice to be heard above all 
 the chatter," said Lady Ramsay, with a curl of her 
 lip. " Pray, where do they spend the honeymoon, Mr 
 Gardiner ? " 
 
 " A friend of Lady Maria's has lent them a house in 
 the wilds of Sussex." 
 
 "I wonder Sir Charles did not kick at that. 
 Brighton or Tunbridge Wells " 
 
 "If your ladyship looks at the map, you will see 
 that Flamington Park is not far from the country seat 
 to which, according to a paragraph in ' The Morning 
 Post,' a certain beautiful leader of fashion went down 
 with her lord at the beginning of last week." 
 
 Lady Ramsay nodded her head significantly. 
 
 * So that is it." 
 
16 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " I'm thankful to the clergyman for making haste," 
 yawned Mrs Clifford, who, half -asleep, had missed the 
 last part of the conversation. "The heat is stifling. 
 Why did they fix upon the drawing-room as the place 
 for the ceremony ? " 
 
 "I really can't say," replied Mr Gardiner, taking 
 snuff under cover of his handkerchief. "It may be 
 that our friend wished to get all the advantages he 
 could from the special licence ; or it may have been a 
 delicate attention to Lady Maria, who is supposed not 
 to have entered a church for fifty years. But you may 
 remember that a young lady of fashion was married 
 in her mother's drawing-room the other day, because 
 the Duchess was confined to the house, and, I am told, 
 on hearing of it, our friend discovered that his wife's 
 health prevents her from going out unless the wind is 
 absolutely in the right quarter. One must be in the 
 fashion, you know." 
 
 " You satirical creature ! " 
 
 " I declare the girl must be positively half-witted," 
 cried Miss Charlotte. " She never gave her hand till 
 the clergyman pulled it out from under that ridiculous 
 thick veil." 
 
 "Mechlin at twenty guineas the yard," murmured 
 Mrs Clifford sleepily. "I wonder where she got 
 it?" 
 
 " A little bashf ulness is not unbecoming in a bride, 
 even if it is out of date," said Lady Ramsay, with a 
 repressive look at Miss Charlotte. "I wonder how 
 much will be left of it before she comes back to town." 
 
 " If she takes lessons from la Belle Amazone " 
 
 " Now they're coming down the room ! " cried the 
 matron in puce. " Hold your head to one side, Amelia, 
 or those thingumbobs in your bonnet will get in the 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 17 
 
 way of Mr Patten seeing anything — or let him step 
 past you. You take a good look at 'em, Mr Patten." 
 
 But Mr Patten, good man, with one hand over his 
 dim eyes and large round spectacles, was unaffectedly 
 praying for the child now turned into a wife, and saw 
 nothing of the bridal procession. "I hope no one 
 noticed him," said the matron to her husband after- 
 wards ; " Mrs Rivers would think it so odd of him to 
 be saying his prayers in her drawing-room — she might 
 take him for a Methodist. People are so particular 
 about what you do in the drawing-room, though to be 
 sure 'twas she who began it, you might say, by having 
 a wedding there." 
 
 * Oh, I can't see anything," complained Miss Char- 
 lotte, as some of the gentlemen who had been standing 
 in the gangway crowded back on either side to let the 
 procession pass. " What a plague it is to be so short ! 
 Do give me your hand, Mr Gardiner." 
 
 " What, is it you, Miss Winslow ? " One of the blue- 
 coated gentlemen turned round. 
 
 " Oh, Mr Wood ! let me hold by your shoulder." 
 
 " Charlotte ! Pray don't ! " sighed her mother, but 
 without hope of being obeyed ; Charlotte was accus- 
 tomed to take her own way. With the help of the 
 two gentlemen, she scrambled in a moment on to the 
 seat of her gilt chair and stood there, like a Dresden 
 china figure on a pedestal, so pretty and dainty that 
 most of the masculine eyes in the company turned 
 from the bride to gaze at her. 
 
 The matron in puce in a loud whisper bade Amelia 
 look the other way. 
 
 A long murmur of comments and exclamations fol- 
 lowed the bridal pair as they went down the room, 
 like the wave that follows a ship. 
 
 B 
 
18 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " Yes, real Mechlin." 
 
 " And French satin." 
 
 " There's Miss Rivers " 
 
 " The bridesmaid with the big brown eyes and fair 
 curls?" 
 
 " Yes ; I remember seeing her with Lady Dunster. 
 She really is a pretty creature." 
 
 " Rather hard on the bride to set such a beauty close 
 to her." 
 
 " Harder still on Mendip, eh ? " 
 
 " Did you see le beau cousin keeping his eye on 
 him?" 
 
 " Could you see the bride ? " 
 
 " Impossible to see anything under that veil, except 
 that her hair is red." 
 
 " Poor thing ! no wonder that she wore a thick veil, 
 with that hair," said Charlotte kindly, giving a little 
 toss to her own black ringlets. " It must be terrible 
 to have red hair." 
 
 " Not so terrible as to have large feet," said a harsh 
 voice. Charlotte, turning round with a start that 
 nearly precipitated her from her chair, beheld Lady 
 Maria, who had stopped close beside her on her way 
 down the room. 
 
 "I thought it was Lady Ramsay's brat, and was 
 about to beg her mother to teach her that young ladies 
 do not climb upon chairs before she brought her out 
 again, but now I see it is you. Your muff will fall 
 
 on the ground No, I beg your pardon, I see that 
 
 white lump is one of your feet." 
 
 " Indeed, ma'am, my feet are none too large." Char- 
 lotte's narrow face flushed red with mortification, and 
 the tears rose to her eyes. 
 
 " You think so ? " Lady Maria turned to the host, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 19 
 
 standing by her side, with an arm extended until it 
 should please her ladyship to take it. " Rivers, undo 
 my shoe." 
 
 Mr Rivers coloured, gasped, stammered, but bent 
 down and unfastened the button of a velvet slipper. 
 Without another word, Lady Maria set her foot on the 
 chair for all who would to see. Charlotte's plump 
 sandalled foot, not unduly large, but not small for one 
 of her height, did not bear comparison with the foot in 
 Lady Maria's shabby black silk stocking, so small that 
 like that of a Spanish woman, it might have been 
 measured against a cigar. 
 
 " A little kitten could hide under my instep," said 
 Lady Maria, setting her foot down again. " That is 
 the sort of foot to exhibit if you wish to make a show 
 of yourself, child. But I recommend you to try modesty 
 for a change, if you can ; you have not enough looks 
 to be worth setting on a pedestal. Yes, you can put 
 my shoe on, Rivers." 
 
 " La ! is this the way the quality behave ? " gasped 
 the matron in puce. 
 
 " Yes, sometimes," said Lady Maria over her shoulder 
 as she went on. "But I should recommend you 
 madam, to remain as you are, franchement canaille. 
 
20 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A LARGE yellow travelling carriage was waiting at 
 Mr Rivers's door ; upstairs, the bride was being stripped 
 of her white satin and lace ; downstairs, in the hall, 
 Sir Charles, with a gloomy countenance, was enduring 
 the congratulations and the mockery of his friends. 
 All, whether they spoke from experience or not, were 
 
 convinced that he would find matrimony " a d d 
 
 bore M ; the only difference of opinion was whether or 
 not the bride's fortune were enough to atone for the 
 inevitable inconvenience. 
 
 " Cheer up ! " said a tall youth with his hair dressed 
 so as to suggest a porcupine. "After all, there is 
 one consolation — you'll have no relations-in-law except 
 old Rivers." 
 
 " Gad ! he's quite equal to costing you as much as 
 father and mother and brothers and sisters-in-law," 
 said another. 
 
 "If Lady Mendip was brought up by him, you'll 
 find her keeping a tight hand on the purse-strings, my 
 boy." 
 
 " She never saw him till three months ago," said Sir 
 Charles. " She was brought up by two old women — 
 her nurse and some sort of a gouvemante — and she 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 21 
 
 was pleased to make^ it one of the conditions of marry- 
 ing me that I should take her back to Somersetshire 
 to see them again." 
 
 " Not a bad place to leave a wife when you're tired 
 of her, eh, Mendip ? " 
 
 " , if she keeps me waiting much longer, I shall 
 
 start without her," fumed Sir Charles, pulling out his 
 watch. "You — there," — to a footman who was pass- 
 ing, — " go up and tell Lady Mendip that if she does not 
 come down soon, we shall not get to Flamington Park 
 before dark." 
 
 Mr Wood began to tell a good story about a bride- 
 groom whose bride kept him waiting; and broke off, 
 just as he reached the climax, with a suppressed oath, 
 in dismay at finding a young lady was standing at his 
 elbow. He need not have disturbed himself; Jane 
 Rivers, as good as she was beautiful, did not under- 
 stand a word of what she overheard, and was wonder- 
 ing innocently what there could be in it to send the 
 whole party into guffaws of laughter. Sir Charles 
 was leaning against the banisters, Mr Gardiner was 
 wiping his eyes; the only person who did not share 
 in the general amusement was Mr Egerton, who, 
 having begun to laugh before he caught sight of her, 
 was now looking as severe as none can do but a man 
 who has been caught in the act. 
 
 " Lady Mendip is very sorry to have detained you 
 so long, sir," Jane said, addressing the bridegroom; 
 "she will be down in a very few minutes." 
 
 Sir Charles muttered something meant for civility, 
 and Mr Egerton came forward. 
 
 "Let me take you back to your mother, Jane." 
 
 But Jane, usually quick to respond to a look or a 
 sign from her lover, stood her ground. 
 
22 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " She is in distress over a letter she has just received, 
 saying that old Miss Lester is dead. She was looking 
 forward so much to going back to Witham and seeing 
 her and the old nurse again. Otherwise, I am sure she 
 would have been dressed long ago." 
 
 "It doesn't matter, ma'am — plenty of time — don't 
 trouble yourself," mumbled Sir Charles, flushing a 
 deeper red under the gaze of the soft brown eyes. 
 
 Jane stepped back, as if to go upstairs — then, with 
 a great effort, turned away from the arm that Mr 
 Egerton had been extending, and confronted Sir 
 Charles once more. 
 
 " You will be kind to her, sir ? she is so young, and 
 so lonely. Indeed she has a most sweet disposition." 
 
 " I'll — I'll do my best," faltered the bridegroom, and, 
 for the moment, he intended it. 
 
 " Jane ! what are you doing down here ? " and Mr 
 Rivers, coming out of the drawing-room, seized upon 
 his daughter. " I am surprised at you. Here is Lady 
 Maria asking for you, and I told her you were assist- 
 ing at your cousin's toilette. Is she ready ? " 
 
 "She was getting into her gown when I left her, 
 sir. It took longer than you had expected, as Dawson 
 is ill." 
 
 Mr Rivers's frown deepened. He liked everything 
 to be done according to his arrangements, and it was 
 a serious annoyance that the maid engaged for the 
 bride had been taken so ill, on the previous night, that 
 the apothecary declared it would be as much as her 
 life was worth to send her down to Sussex with Lady 
 Mendip. 
 
 " They will find plenty of servants in the house, and 
 one of them can act as lady's-maid," said Lady Maria, 
 who was enthroned in an arm-chair beside the draw- 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 23 
 
 ing-room door, where she could see and hear all that 
 went on. " I have no patience with these young ladies 
 who are so helpless that they can do nothing for them- 
 selves. Much better not to take an Abigail on the 
 journey — either she will be sick, or she will get into 
 mischief." 
 
 " I assure your ladyship that my cousin is not help- 
 less," cried Jane's soft voice. " She is not used to the 
 prevailing fashion in dress, but she can do many 
 things " 
 
 "That are not part of a young lady's accomplish- 
 ments," finished Lady Maria, "just as my grandson can 
 perform many tricks not usually included in a gentle- 
 man's education." 
 
 " I assure your ladyship that you will find my dear 
 niece the most dutiful of grandchildren." Mr Rivers 
 had planted himself beside the arm - chair, snuff- box 
 in hand. 
 
 " Niece, you said ? " Two small keen grey eyes, cold 
 and hard as agates, looked up at him from among a 
 network of wrinkles. " She may be my grandson's 
 wife, and therefore my granddaughter, but how do 
 you make her your niece? She's your wife's second 
 cousin once removed." 
 
 " My niece in affection, I might say, dear madam — 
 almost my daughter." 
 
 " An affection that allowed you to leave her to the 
 charity of her grandfather's old servants, till you found 
 out that she was Miss Hussey's heiress." The old lady 
 spoke without a touch of any emotion, as if stating 
 some fact to which she and every one else must be 
 indifferent. 
 
 " Madam ! " he protested, reddening, " Lady Mendip's 
 health as a child was so delicate that it was the best 
 
24 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 chance for her to be left in the country air. A poor 
 man with a large family cannot afford to journey up 
 and down between London and Somersetshire. I had 
 every reason to believe she was well and happy." 
 
 " And as the governess and the nurse shared what 
 they had with her, she did not starve or go 
 naked." 
 
 " Your ladyship misconceives. It was impossible for 
 me, with Mrs Rivers's weak health, and so large a 
 family of my own, to give her such advantages as 
 Jane has had, for instance. But indeed I doubt 
 whether they would not have been wasted upon her, 
 so far," pursued Mr Rivers, who, finding himself al- 
 lowed to say so much without interruption, began to 
 think that he was making an impression. "She is 
 very childlike and unformed. She will give Sir 
 Charles no trouble by taking a line of her own. She 
 will see with his eyes, be guided by his wishes. She 
 has no taste for the gay world, to endanger their hap- 
 piness. While she was under my roof, she preferred 
 a game of play with my children in the nursery to the 
 society of our friends in the drawing-room. You will 
 be able to mould her as you please, but I question 
 whether she will ever have any capacity for any- 
 thing beyond the sphere of the nursery — when Heaven 
 has been pleased to bless her and Sir Charles with 
 children." 
 
 The grey eyes contracted to the size of beads, the 
 fierce black eyebrows were drawn down over them. 
 " Don't prate to me about Heaven, man, after the work 
 you and I have done to-day." 
 
 " I am at a loss for your Ladyship's meaning." 
 
 " They call you a good man — you're no gay Lothario 
 — you don't keep a mistress at Richmond or Twicken- 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 25 
 
 ham, or any of those places where men keep such 
 treasures, and you go to church every Sunday " 
 
 "Madam, I — I " Mr Rivers was purple and 
 
 choking with indignation. 
 
 " I was divorced from my first husband before I was 
 twenty, and I never go to church. If I did, I should 
 go there no more, after helping you to deliver that inno- 
 cent child, tied and bound, to my grandson. No, man, 
 I don't want moral sentiments. If an attorney can 
 have a soul, you've damned yours by this marriage. 
 Mine was damned long ago, and I was bound to do all 
 I could for my grandson." 
 
 Mr Rivers's outraged delicacy might have overcome 
 his respect for a Duke's daughter sufficiently for him 
 to have made some reply to Lady Maria, if a stir and 
 bustle on the stairs had not caused a diversion. Jane 
 was leading down a little figure in a very large bonnet 
 with white ostrich plumes, and a white velvet coat, 
 followed by tearful farewells from a little group of 
 children and servants on the landing above. 
 
 " Dear Honor, write every day, and tell us how you 
 like being married." 
 
 " Come back soon, and we'll dance ' Lavender 
 Bunches.' " 
 
 " Oh, Miss, I would say your Ladyship, we all do 
 hope as how you'll live happy for ever." 
 
 " My dear Lady Mendip, you positively must come 
 and ask for Lady Maria's blessing before you hurry 
 away with Sir Charles." Mr Rivers had recovered 
 himself, having decided that Lady Maria's extraordi- 
 nary language must be due to over-excitement. 
 
 For a moment the old woman stared at the little 
 three-cornered face under the wedding plumes as if she 
 had never seen it before. 
 
26 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " Not pretty," she murmured, * but I was not pretty." 
 
 The hazel eyes looked steadfastly back into the grey, 
 and Lady Maria shivered and turned away. 
 
 " Good luck to you, child. Your guardian has done 
 his best for you. It remains to be seen what your hus- 
 band will do." 
 
 When Mr Rivers came back from putting the bride 
 into the carriage, with all due ceremony, Lady Maria 
 was standing at the head of the stairs. 
 
 "Let me assist your Ladyship. Your carriage is 
 waiting." 
 
 The old lady burst into a shrill laugh. 
 
 " Wrong again, my worthy friend. I don't need 
 your support to walk downstairs. It was not wine 
 that made me tell you the truth, a few minutes ago, 
 though I had been drinking the health of the happy 
 pair in your excellent Burgundy." 
 
 " Your Ladyship need not be afraid of it. I am told 
 by connoisseurs that it is good, but I drink very little 
 of it myself — the doctor tells me that my gout " 
 
 " Gout ? What business has the like of you with 
 gout ? That's for your betters. But if the wine upsets 
 your stomach, you can spare me a few bottles — just put 
 them in the carriage next time you send it round. Are 
 you there, Egerton ? If Mr Rivers can marry his niece 
 in this style, he can make a good settlement on his 
 daughter, so it may not be long before you are the 
 happiest of men — like your cousin." 
 
27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Some twenty years before the wedding guests came to 
 the house in Brunswick Square, two foolish young 
 people had made a love-match. 
 
 Adrian Basset was the last male of an old family 
 whose estates had been drunk and gambled away when 
 he was a child in his mother's arms. What matter ? 
 He meant to be a great painter, and win fame, and 
 perhaps, incidentally, enough money to buy back the 
 old house and some of the green fields and rolling hills 
 about it. In the meantime, having scarcely two half- 
 crowns to jingle one against the other in his pocket, he 
 had married an orphan girl with as long a pedigree and 
 as empty a purse as his own. 
 
 They were impossibly and unreasonably happy for 
 a few years, during which sometimes they had not 
 enough to eat. Then Honor's baby was born, and she 
 died. So long as she lived, Adrian never dared to 
 make the venture of which he had dreamed since boy- 
 hood, and go to seek his fortune in London ; she would 
 have pined for green lanes and spreading trees amid the 
 wilderness of streets. Now that happiness was gone 
 for ever, ambition revived. 
 
 In a little cottage on the property that once belonged 
 
28 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 to his grandfather, lived two old women, the governess 
 who had taught his father his letters and the nurse 
 who nursed him as a baby. A very small pension had 
 been secured to each, before the Basset estates were 
 eaten up by creditors, great and small. These two 
 faithful friends were ready to take charge of the baby 
 Honor. So far as he knew, Adrian had no kin left to 
 him, and his wife's only living relative was a^cousin 
 married to a lawyer in London. 
 
 Honor never saw her father from the day when he 
 put her into the motherly crook of Nurse Tanner's 
 arms, and Miss Lester, through her tears, pronounced 
 her a true Basset. The remittances which he promised 
 to send from London came more and more irregularly, 
 and ceased altogether after Honor was about five years 
 old. A long interval of silence was followed by a 
 formal intimation to Miss Lester that Adrian Basset 
 had died of typhus fever in a London hospital, and 
 that what effects he had were sold to pay the expenses 
 of his funeral. 
 
 Miss Lester, acting on instructions received from 
 Adrian before he went away, wrote to the lawyer in 
 London. His reply, when it came, contained much 
 good advice on the subject of imprudent marriages, 
 but no help of any kind. 
 
 So the two women brought up the child at their own 
 expense. What is barely enough for two can be made 
 to suffice for three if the two "have learned to con- 
 trive," as Miss Lester put it — which in this case meant 
 learning how to do without every comfort and many 
 necessities. 
 
 For herself Miss Lester regretted nothing, but she 
 often sighed over her powerlessness to give the last of 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 29 
 
 the Bassets such an education as befitted a young lady. 
 It was useless to think of teaching her " the use of the 
 globes " or to play upon the spinet, when neither a pair 
 of globes not a spinet was to be found within ten miles 
 of Witham. As for the elaborate devices in fancy-work 
 which Adrian's aunts — dead for over thirty years — had 
 performed under her direction, there was no money to 
 buy the materials. 
 
 What she could give to her pupil, she did : Honor 
 learned to read, write, and cipher, to spin and to sew 
 with exquisite neatness, and to hold herself upright as 
 a dart. " A lady is known by her carriage," said Miss 
 Lester, "rather than by her attire." It was a con- 
 venient theory, since Honor wore homespun in winter 
 and cotton in summer, like the village girls ; but she 
 wore it with a difference, thanks to Miss Lester's train- 
 ing and the long line of ancestors behind her. She 
 sang naturally, with no more art than a blackbird. 
 
 Nurse Tanner taught her to wash and mend lace; 
 there were still some rags and scraps that had belonged 
 to Madam Basset, who used to buy a hundred pounds' 
 Worth of it whenever the pedlar's friend made a good 
 run to France. The wife of a neighbouring farmer, 
 whose family for several generations had lived on 
 Basset land, taught her to milk, and to make butter 
 and cheese. Miss Lester tolerated this, remembering 
 that old Madam Basset would be in her dairy at five 
 o'clock every morning till she was past seventy. But- 
 on one point she stood firm : there must be no intimacy 
 between Honor and any of the young girls of the 
 neighbourhood. If Miss Basset could not have friends 
 in what should have been her own rank, she should not 
 stoop to any others. 
 
30 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 So the child grew up, happily enough because she 
 was naturally light-hearted, and had withal to keep her 
 busy all day long. 
 
 When she was fifteen, a gentleman with a wig and 
 a gold snuff-box drove out from Frome in a gig, and 
 told her that he was her cousin's husband, and she 
 must come to London to live with them, because an 
 old lady whom she had never seen had left her a great 
 deal of money. 
 
 Honor felt as if her head had been a little dizzy ever 
 since hearing the news. For a girl who did not go into 
 Frome once a year, the long journey to London, the 
 meeting more strange people in a day than she had 
 ever seen in her whole life, was so overwhelming that 
 the grief of parting with her two old friends was 
 deadened. She had been as it were half-alive, her 
 senses dulled, her brain torpid, for some weeks after 
 being brought to Brunswick Square. Mr Rivers, seeing 
 her sit silent at his table or in his drawing-room, never 
 speaking of her own accord, often replying at random 
 or not at all to what was said to her, jumped to the 
 conclusion that she was little better than half-witted. 
 Well, it mattered little ; she seemed good-natured, the 
 children were very fond of her — she would make Sir 
 Charles an excellent wife. 
 
 He was quite prepared for what he called " a little 
 childishness " when he had to explain to her that she 
 must marry Sir Charles. But there had been no tears, 
 no blushes, no "girlish flutterings" such as were ex- 
 pected of every well-bred young lady in her situation. 
 She was so dense that it took a long time to make her 
 understand him. Then she asked simply — 
 
 " Why must I marry ? " 
 
 " My dear Honor ! every young lady should marry, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 31 
 
 of course. What would become of the world if we all 
 lived in single blessedness ? " 
 
 * Miss Lester has not married," said Honor, with a 
 curious sidelong look of her hazel eyes that made her 
 guardian vaguely uncomfortable. " Nor has Jane, and 
 she is older than I am." 
 
 '•Jane's turn will come, my dear, after she has been 
 your bridesmaid — and Miss Lester is in a very different 
 position from you. You would not like to live in 
 poverty and loneliness." 
 
 " I don't think she is lonely, because she had me and 
 Nurse. She is poor — but she can't be as poor as you 
 were, when my father died, because you said you were 
 too poor to take care of me." 
 
 Mr Rivers coughed violently. "My dear Honor! 
 you don't understand — but there I how could I expect 
 it at your age ? But perhaps you can understand this. 
 Miss Lester has been very good to you ; you would like 
 to give her and your nurse something to make their 
 old age comfortable. When you marry, you will have 
 money of your own to spend, and you will be able to 
 do something for them." 
 
 " I thought I had money of my own." 
 
 " Not to spend, my dear, not to spend — not until you 
 are of age, at any rate, and you know how long that 
 will be." 
 
 " If I marry, shall I have it ? " 
 
 " Certainly, my dear. As your guardian, of course, I 
 shall take care that a proper yearly income is settled 
 on you, so that you can buy pretty things for yourself, 
 and do what your generous heart dictates for your 
 friends." 
 
 Mr Rivers patted the small brown hand on the arm 
 of the big chair that he had set for her when she came 
 
32 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 into his study. Honor put both hands up to her head 
 to adjust a ribbon. 
 
 * If I may go down to Witham when I am married, 
 to see them again, I will marry Sir Charles," she said, 
 and she said no more, sitting with eyes fixed on her 
 shoe-buckles while Mr Rivers painted her future in the 
 brightest colours. 
 
 Having obtained the bride's consent, it was advisable 
 to hurry on the wedding as much as possible. Honor 
 submitted to all the requirements of dressmakers and 
 milliners without appearing to be interested in any of 
 the preparations. Only once did she make any com- 
 ment upon what was arranged for her, and that was 
 when she heard that the wedding was to take place in 
 the drawing-room. 
 
 " I thought people were always married in church," 
 she said. 
 
 Mrs Rivers was horrified at the idea ; a church was 
 all very well for the servants and the poor, but every 
 one knew that le bon ton required people of fashion 
 to be married by special licence. 
 
 Sir Charles on his side was quite as indifferent, 
 though not so amenable. If there were no other way 
 of getting money, as his grandmother was so anxious 
 to tie him up, she might see to the whole business ; he 
 did not mean to sit for hours in a stuffy office listening 
 to lawyers' gibberish, or to kick his heels in the 
 attorney's drawing-room making pretty speeches to 
 a freckled-faced chit from the country. 
 
 Mr Rivers felt he was doing his duty nobly by his 
 ward, in battles fought with Lady Maria and her 
 lawyer over the marriage settlements. His conscience 
 was clear, therefore, and he took it as a man of the 
 world when friends and acquaintance on all sides told 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 33 
 
 him that Sir Charles's " affair " with a married lady- 
 was being flaunted without a pretence of disguise. So 
 long as Honor's husband was unable to squander her 
 fortune, it could matter nothing if he broke her heart. 
 
 Yet the attorney experienced what was almost a 
 qualm, one day, when his own daughter Jane gathered 
 courage to ask him whether the wedding could not be 
 postponed until Honor were a little older. " She seems 
 not to understand what — what it means — and Sir 
 Charles " 
 
 " My dear Jane, I should hope that no right-minded 
 young woman would understand what matrimony- 
 means before she is married. The suggestion is most 
 unbecoming." 
 
 Then, appeased by seeing how Jane's blushes en- 
 hanced her beauty, he added in a kindly tone — 
 
 " I am sure, however, that my Jane could never mean 
 to insinuate anything inconsistent with female delicacy. 
 My love, you must realise that your cousin is very 
 different from yourself — an amiable girl, but with no 
 intellectual powers. No delay could give her more 
 intelligence." 
 
 For the first time in her life, Jane Rivers ventured 
 to argue with her father. 
 
 " She is not sixteen, sir, and has lived very retired, 
 but it is surprising what she notices. She is shy before 
 you, but when she talks to us of what she sees and 
 hears in a drive with Mamma, she makes us laugh and 
 cr y by turns." 
 
 "I can quite understand," said Mr Rivers, in his 
 most pompous manner, "that we must make allowances 
 for a little country girl who has never spoken to 
 a gentleman in her life except the parson and the 
 apothecary." 
 
 c 
 
34 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "Not even those, sir," said Jane simply, "for she 
 was never ill, and so never needed the apothecary, and 
 the parson rode over once a fortnight to read service in 
 the church, and then rode away again. It seems " — 
 Jane caught her breath, but went on bravely — " cruel 
 to marry her to Sir Charles next week." 
 
 She dared not look in her father's face, but to her 
 relief his voice was smooth and bland as before. 
 
 " Has my Jane been reading silly novels, and learned 
 from them that a father must be a tyrant ? She knows 
 that he has done his utmost to secure a happy marriage 
 for her, and can she think that he would be cruel to an 
 orphan left in his charge ? " 
 
 Poor Jane melted into tears, and Mr Rivers pursued 
 his advantage. 
 
 " If you do not trust me, my child, ask your mother : 
 she should understand what goes to make a wife happy. 
 Has she ever attempted one word of remonstrance on 
 this marriage ? " 
 
 It was as undeniable that Mrs Rivers was a very 
 happy wife as that she would never have attempted 
 a remonstrance with her husband on any subject 
 whatever. 
 
 " Dry your tears, my love. Too much sensibility and 
 romance is natural at your age, but you must learn to 
 be reasonable. I promise you that I will watch your 
 cousin most carefully, and that if her manner alters, if 
 her spirits seem affected, I will not attempt to force 
 her inclination." 
 
 " Oh, sir, your goodness ! I beg your pardon ! I 
 have been very wrong ! " Jane's tears would not allow 
 her to speak coherently. 
 
 " Where is your cousin now ? Let us go and find 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 35 
 
 her, and if we find her in tears, we will make sure that 
 Sir Charles has not caused them." 
 
 When a surprise visit to the nursery found Honor 
 teaching the children an old-fashioned country dance 
 " Lavender Bunches," stepping gaily to the tune of her 
 own whistling, and laughing as merrily as any, Jane 
 could have begged her father's pardon on her knees. 
 His magnanimity in never referring again to their con- 
 versation was esteemed by her almost as highly as by 
 himself. 
 
36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The yellow carriage swung heavily along the muddy 
 roads. It was one of Sir Charles's grievances that 
 Lady Maria had insisted upon the carriage for the 
 wedding journey and scouted his suggestion of driving 
 the bride in his curricle. 
 
 " After being married, you'll be in no fit state to take 
 her over those Sussex roads." 
 
 Sir Charles muttered something about being able to 
 carry his liquor like a gentleman. 
 
 " Liquor ? who said anything about liquor ? It was 
 the raptures of love that I was thinking of — they fly 
 to the steadiest head. It won't look well for you to 
 break your wife's neck on the wedding day, even 
 though you don't gain much by her death." 
 
 The one person of whom Sir Charles stood in awe 
 was his grandmother, and he submitted sulkily, men- 
 tally scoring all the boredom of the journey against the 
 wife who was forced upon him. 
 
 After the door was shut upon them, and they had 
 driven away from Brunswick Square, Sir Charles had 
 not embarrassed his wife by any attentions. He 
 
 had made her my Lady, and d me, that was 
 
 enough and more than enough for an attorney's 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 37 
 
 cousin ; he had never promised to make love to her, 
 and he was not going to begin now ; it was tiring 
 work getting married, and his head was going round 
 with it. So he rolled himself round in one corner, and 
 was soon asleep. 
 
 When he woke, streets and houses for some time had 
 given place to country roads and green trees. The 
 carriage was standing before an inn, and his man 
 Markham was at the carriage door. 
 
 " Beg pardon, Sir Charles, but you told me to let you 
 know when we came to the Jolly Farmer." 
 
 "Urn — yes — I remember — they say there's deuced 
 
 good ale " Sir Charles emerged from the carriage 
 
 and went into the bar. 
 
 When he came back, a few minutes later, he was in 
 a better humour. The ale had proved equal to its 
 reputation, and his head was not so uncomfortable as 
 it had been. After all, it was something to have got 
 away from those hot rooms and that crowd stinking of 
 scents and essences, into the fresh air. Why, the girl 
 was asleep too, in her corner — no wonder, after having 
 to go through all that flummery. 
 
 " Will her ladyship choose anything ? " It was the 
 discreet voice of Sir Charles's man. 
 
 "No, she's asleep — pity to wake her," said Sir 
 Charles, getting into the carriage more quietly than 
 before. "Shut the door gently — don't bang it, you 
 fool — and tell him to drive on." 
 
 Honor had moved in her sleep so that her face was 
 turned towards him, and for the first time he scrutin- 
 ised it attentively, feature by feature. Not pretty, he 
 agreed with Lady Maria, but at the same time some- 
 thing might be made of her. The mouth was too 
 large, the colouring too brown ; but there were washes 
 
38 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 and powders that women used for their skins which 
 might give her something of the conventional red and 
 white. The head was small — nearly buried in that 
 ridiculous bonnet. Some people objected to red hair, 
 but with a dash of powder it would look well enough, 
 provided that the eyes were dark. They should be 
 dark, to match the eyebrows ; those curling eyelashes 
 would make them look dark at any rate. She had her 
 points, and her cousin said she was of a sweet disposi- 
 tion. Jane Rivers ought to know ; women were gener- 
 ally keen to pick faults in each other. 
 
 Egad, she was a pretty creature, that girl, too good 
 to be an attorney's daughter or Egerton's wife. It was 
 devilish hard that the smug dull fellows like Egerton 
 should have all the luck ; he was going to marry a 
 charming wife, and Lady Maria probably would leave 
 him all her savings. Well, Egerton might have to wait 
 many years before touching a penny ; the old lady was 
 as tough as a bag of nails, and would not part with a 
 farthing while she lived. " She'd not leave it to any- 
 one if she could help herself, but she knows it would 
 melt if she took it with her," chuckled her undutiful 
 grandson. 
 
 Cheered by his own wit, he thought once more of 
 his bride. He had promised Jane Rivers to be kind to 
 her, and he was a man of his word. She would be 
 quite contented living in the country if he gave her a 
 pony carriage, and he would take her up to Town 
 sometimes to buy new clothes. 
 
 At this stage of his reflections Honor slowly opened 
 her eyes and gazed up at him. 
 
 * So you're awake at last, my lady." Sir Charles 
 bent over her with a hoarse laugh. "How do you 
 feel ? are you beginning to get over it ? No, you need 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 39 
 
 not twist away — why, d me, child, you've not mar- 
 ried an ogre ! You couldn't look more scared if you 
 saw Bony sitting beside you in the carriage instead of 
 your lawful husband. Here, give me a kiss, and we'll 
 be good friends." 
 
 Honor's dreams had carried her far away to the 
 West Country, and in the first shock of waking she 
 could not remember where she was. She saw a flushed 
 face bending down to hers, she felt the reek of a hot 
 breath upon her cheeks, and knew that a strong arm 
 was penning her into the corner, and she struck at the 
 face with both hands. 
 
 " ! you vixen ! " swore Sir Charles, flinging 
 
 himself down upon the seat. "I'll teach you a 
 lesson ! " 
 
 Honor made no answer, but she clenched her strong 
 brown fingers till the white kid gloves split. 
 
 " I'll show you who is master when we get to Flam- 
 ington Park. If you don't choose to be friends — 
 have it the other way. If I've married a wild cat, I'll 
 cut her claws before I'm much older." 
 
 He threw himself back in his corner and stared out 
 of the window, thrusting his hands into his breeches 
 pockets and humming a tune. The carriage laboured 
 on over the roads, and Honor, upright and motionless, 
 struggling with all her might against a sickening 
 terror, kept her face turned from him. 
 
 It was true that the girl, who had scarcely spoken 
 to a man with any claims to gentle birth until she 
 came to London, was ignorant, as Jane Rivers said, of 
 what marriage would mean for her. But if there was 
 one fear that had been strongly impressed upon her, in 
 her almost cloistral upbringing, it was that of a drunken 
 husband. It was a fear that would not have been 
 
40 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 understood in the society of her day, where it was so 
 common for a gentleman to take more than he ought 
 that it excited remark only when, like Mr Sheridan, 
 he came very drunk among the ladies and made violent 
 love to one or other of them. But in the Somerset 
 village the wife of a drunken husband had more to 
 bear than the inconvenience of driving home with him 
 in the carriage after a dinner-party. Nurse Tanner's 
 husband caused the death of her only child before he 
 drank himself into his coffin. In the cottage near Miss 
 Lester's lived a woman who had fallen into the fire 
 when her husband knocked her down. As long as she 
 could remember anything, Honor could remember that 
 scarred, distorted face ; the recollection of it came across 
 her now, making her turn white and drive her nails 
 into the palms of her hands. She had never fainted 
 in her life, and did not know what the sick, crawling 
 sensation meant ; but whatever it might be, she was 
 not going to let Sir Charles see her terror. 
 
 She need not have feared ; for all his sins, her hus- 
 band would never have used bodily violence to his 
 wife. Though he would neglect her, spend her money 
 — if he could get it, — ignore her, even swear at her, 
 without a qualm of conscience, it would have been 
 against his code to strike her. Nor was there any risk 
 of other demonstrations. He had meant his advances 
 for kindness, and was far too angry to repeat them. 
 
 But Honor, still tingling from the rough grip of his 
 arm, and remembering the flushed sulky face and the 
 glaring eyes, wondered how long it would be before 
 she was knocked down. At least, there would be 
 servants at Flamington Park ; she would not have to 
 stand over the fire cooking his dinner, like poor Molly 
 Cuff that night when her husband came home. She 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 41 
 
 would be careful to keep away from the fireplace when- 
 ever Sir Charles was in the room. 
 
 At the thought of being alone in a strange house 
 with him, a fresh wave of terror swept over her. If 
 only she could have with her some woman that she 
 knew! Even Dawson, the maid, would have been 
 some protection, though Dawson made very evident 
 her contempt for a mistress who had been brought up 
 in the country. If Jane were there — or even Mrs 
 Rivers, who was like nothing in the world so much 
 as a plump and fussy Dorking hen, and had about 
 as many ideas. 
 
 She could not bear it, she would not be left at his 
 mercy, she must escape. No one would help her. 
 Little as she knew of marriage, she understood all 
 authorities, from Nurse Tanner to Mr Rivers, to pro- 
 nounce that a wife was absolutely in the power of 
 her husband. "Why didn't you run away from 
 him ? " she asked once, when Nurse Tanner let fall 
 something about her married life. " Reckon I'd have 
 been brought back again," answered the old woman, 
 with a grim smile distending her toothless mouth. 
 "The woman do belong to the man, my dear, when 
 you're lawfully married in church." 
 
 As Honor's memory returned to this point a sudden 
 thought flashed into her mind, so that she started and 
 almost cried out. Nurse Tanner was always insistent 
 upon the form of being married in church. She was 
 furious on discovering that Honor had made friends 
 with a family of gipsies who camped every year 
 in the hollow of the hill beyond the church. "Low, 
 thieving varmints, that bring the smallpox, and the 
 women married across the tongs." 
 
 "How do they do that?" Honor had asked, 
 
42 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 delighted with the notion. "I should like to 
 see it." 
 
 "Reckon you'll do no such thing," was Nurse's 
 stern reply. "Marriage be no marriage unless 'tis 
 in church." 
 
 Mrs Rivers had not been successful in explaining 
 the nature of a special licence to Honor; it is to be 
 doubted whether the good lady had any clear notion 
 of it herself, except that it was a necessity for persons 
 of fashion. Honor knew no more than that she had 
 not been married in church ; therefore it could not 
 have been a marriage. And on the top of this 
 thought came another: she, at any rate, could not 
 be married, for she had never " said the words." On 
 coming into the room and seeing her bridegroom, 
 sullen, scowling, red -faced, pushed forward by his 
 best man, disgust and dismay had overpowered all 
 other feelings. In a confusion of womanly revolt 
 and childish ill -temper, she had made up her mind 
 that she would not pledge herself to be his wife; 
 when prompted by the clergyman, she murmured 
 something inaudible. The clergyman had been warned 
 by Mr Rivers that the bride was very shy ; he was in 
 a hurry to keep some other engagement, and annoyed 
 at having lost much time waiting for the bridegroom. 
 So he took no trouble to make Honor repeat the words 
 after him, according to the rubric, and never knew 
 that what she was saying to herself, over and over 
 again, was, " I will not ! I will not ! " 
 
 No; it could not be a real marriage, and Honor's 
 childish elementary conscience felt free to disregard 
 it. She might escape from her bridegroom, if she 
 could. 
 
 If she could — there lay the difficulty. How was 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 43 
 
 she to escape? And if she escaped, where should 
 she go ? A day earlier, she would have bent her 
 mind to finding the way back to Withani, confident 
 that Miss Lester and Nurse Tanner would hide their 
 darling from all the powers of Church and State. In 
 the reticule at her side, to-day, was the ill-folded, ill- 
 written letter, the composition of the Parish Clerk, 
 which was brought to her while she changed her 
 bridal gown, to say that old Miss Lester had dropped 
 down dead beside the bee-hives in her little garden, 
 and that Nurse Tanner, feeble and broken, was to be 
 taken to live with a nephew beyond Taunton, and 
 was not expected to survive the removal. The nephew 
 might not be willing to shelter Honor. 
 
 It would be useless to appeal to her guardian. Mr 
 Rivers's smooth complacence might have been shaken 
 had he known how accurately his selfishness and un- 
 scrupulousness were divined by the girl whom he 
 thought little better than half-witted. Lady Maria's 
 contempt and distrust for him were no greater than 
 Honor's, though the girl could not express her feel- 
 ings in words. Mrs Rivers — as well make butter 
 out of skim-milk as expect any help from her. Jane, 
 though not clever, was not a fool like her mother, 
 and had shown herself the kindest of friends to a 
 forlorn little cousin; but Jane would be afraid to 
 run counter to her father. In all her world there 
 was no one to save the poor little bride from the 
 husband whom she dreaded unspeakably. 
 
44 
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 Sir Charles, with his face turned obstinately to the 
 window, had been staring for some time at the 
 hedges, and had whistled through most of his 
 repertoire of tunes, when the carriage came to a 
 sudden stop. 
 
 To thrust his head out and demand, with suitable 
 oaths, what the coachman meant by it, and whether 
 he intended to reach Flamington Park that night, was 
 the natural thing to do; and he did it. Markham 
 came to the door. Honor, shrinking back in her 
 corner, heard more oaths, angry questions, abuse, and 
 through it all Markham's precise utterance. Some- 
 thing had happened to one of the carriage wheels ; 
 the roads were very heavy — worse than any that 
 coachman had ever driven upon ; it must have rained 
 here for days and nights. No, it would not be 
 possible to go on; the wheel would not stand 
 another ten minutes. 
 
 Sir Charles got out to look at the wheel, and was 
 obliged to agree with the coachman. "What was 
 to be done?" he demanded, after a hearty and com- 
 prehensive curse, in which he included every one 
 with any part in that day's doings, from the carriage- 
 maker to the Archbishop of Canterbury. . 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 45 
 
 The coachman inserted the end of his whip beneath 
 his wig and scratched his head, having no suggestions 
 to make, or thinking it not worth while to make 
 them. Markham, who, after several years' service 
 with Sir Charles, was expert in finding expedients in 
 a difficulty, had a proposal on his tongue. When they 
 passed through a village, ten minutes ago, he had 
 noticed a blacksmith's shop at the far end. There 
 was sure to be some sort of an inn, where Sir 
 Charles and My Lady might rest while the wheel 
 was mended. 
 
 "I'll be bound you damaged the wheel yourself 
 when we changed horses last, so as to have another 
 chance of drinking at my charges. Find the inn, 
 in the devil's name; and if you keep me waiting 
 five minutes longer than you need, I'll break every 
 one of your bones." 
 
 Markham came back, after an interval, with a 
 report that an inn there was at the turn of the 
 village street, and that it seemed a clean, respectable 
 place, but that, unfortunately, some local society of 
 Oddfellows had chosen to hold festival there that 
 day, and were taking up the only parlour. 
 
 "Drive to the inn, then, and be quick about it. 
 What do I want with a parlour ? " 
 
 «My Lady " 
 
 "They can find her a bedroom, and she can sit 
 
 there. Make haste, it all, and don't stand there 
 
 chattering. Do you want me to sleep upon the 
 road?" 
 
 The carriage was turned in the narrow road with 
 difficulty, and laboured, with jerks and strains, up 
 the village street, and round a corner to the door of 
 the inn, where a sign represented " The Good 
 
46 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Woman" as a petticoated figure without a head. 
 Through the windows of parlour and bar came 
 snatches of song, loud talk, and laughter. In the 
 porch the landlady, a mountain of a woman, blocked 
 the entry with her bulk, and seemed in no way dis- 
 posed to receive more guests when she heard that 
 these had no intention of stopping for the night. 
 No, she had no place for the lady to sit. Some of 
 the Oddfellows had come from a distance, and would 
 sleep in the house; there was no bedroom vacant. 
 
 Honor, peeping timidly through the window, saw 
 Sir Charles striding up and down, flicking his riding- 
 boots with his cane, blustering and swearing, and bit 
 her lips to keep down the dumb terror within her. 
 The discreet Markham, meanwhile, had slipped past his 
 master to the landlady's side, and was trying persua- 
 sion. Whatever he said or did, it was so far successful 
 that the landlady suddenly called to remembrance a 
 little bedroom at the top of the house; it belonged 
 to her daughter, who was away from home, and if the 
 lady chose to sit in it, she would send her up some 
 refreshment. 
 
 Markham opened the carriage door, and Honor 
 descended before Sir Charles, awakening to a tardy 
 sense of duty, was there to hand her out. 
 
 " Well, you'll have some place to sit in, my lady, and 
 you can tell the woman to bring you whatever you like 
 — unless you would rather sit with me in the garden ? " 
 
 It was meant for a joke, perhaps with a clumsy 
 notion of atoning for his roughness, but the effect 
 upon Honor was to make her gather her cloak 
 about her and dart into the porch, out of reach of 
 his hand. 
 
 Sir Charles laughed sulkily. " Have your own way, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 47 
 
 madam. I've no more wish for your company than you 
 have for mine." 
 
 Stepping back with an ironical bow, he stumbled 
 and nearly fell over a white-headed boy of about seven 
 years old, who had stolen up behind him, to gape at 
 " the quality." There followed more oaths, and two 
 or three smart cuts with the cane. Honor, trembling 
 behind the landlady, saw and heard this much, and felt 
 her terror harden into deadly loathing. She did not 
 see, as she went upstairs, that Sir Charles, having re- 
 lieved his feelings, demanded whether the boy were 
 hurt, and tossed him a shilling, " to teach him to keep 
 his eyes in the right place in future." 
 
 A bold-looking girl, with such a quantity of ribbons 
 about her as showed that the Sussex smugglers did 
 good business with France, took Lady Mendip to a 
 tiny low room under the roof, and wanted to know 
 whether Madam chose a glass of wine or a dish of tea. 
 
 Honor, who had tasted no wine and very little tea 
 until she came to London, asked for a cup of milk. 
 The girl tossed her head, and could not tell whether 
 there was any milk in the house ; she would go and 
 ask downstairs. This promise was never fulfilled, for 
 on going down she found enough to do in attending to 
 Sir Charles. He was inclined to amuse himself with 
 her after the fashion of gentlemen of his period, and 
 by the time that he became too drunk for flirtation, 
 she had forgotten about the lady upstairs. 
 
 Meanwhile Honor was alone in the little hot room, 
 which reeked of apples and badly cured feathers. 
 
 There was no lock to the door ; she pushed the only 
 chair against it, threw off her bonnet and cloak, and 
 lay down on the uncurtained bed to think over her 
 action. 
 
48 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 She would not and could not live with Sir Charles. 
 If she could succeed in hiding herself for a few weeks, 
 until Jane was married to Mr Egerton, it was possible 
 that, in the event of her being discovered, they might 
 protect her. Honor divined the mutual dislike of the 
 cousins, which Mr Egerton strove to dignify in his case 
 by calling it disapproval : what Jane's husband would 
 not do for compassion or for generosity, he might do 
 for spite. 
 
 She lay there, thinking, thinking, while the flies 
 buzzed above her head, meeting in the centre of the 
 low whitewashed ceiling, circling round each other as 
 if they were taking part in some elaborate dance, and 
 then breaking away to the corners of the room, to return 
 again to the central point. The steady buzzing and 
 the rhythmic movement wound her senses into a 
 dream. Her eyelids closed, and, in spite of the 
 closeness of the room and the odour of the feather- 
 bed and the weight of her troubles, Honor once more 
 fell asleep. 
 
 She woke in a few moments with a start and a 
 stifled cry. Surely that face was glaring down again 
 upon her. No, she was still alone, and the chair 
 was before the door. What a fool she had been to 
 waste in sleep any part of the time left her before the 
 carriage came back. 
 
 She could not face the thought of being alone with 
 Sir Charles at Flamington Park. She must escape 
 before they reached the house. But how ? She looked 
 down on the white cloak, the plumed bonnet, the silk 
 stockings and satin shoes, and realised it would be 
 impossible to go far in such array. The staircase led 
 down into the hall, from which both bar and parlour 
 opened. Even if she could get out of the house 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 49 
 
 without being noticed, Sir Charles might be in the 
 garden. 
 
 There was a little door behind the bed, and she opened 
 it, in a desperate hope of finding some other way out. 
 
 Obviously it was the door of a garret, a lumber- 
 room, where the landlady or her daughter stowed 
 various possessions not in daily use. Overhead were 
 the bare rafters. On the floor was a litter of boxes, 
 rags, brooms, and other lumber, which Honor could not 
 discern clearly. By this time it was growing dusk, 
 and the only light came through the door, from a 
 tiny window in the bedroom ; the garret window had 
 been stuffed up with a bundle of rags to avoid the 
 tax. There was no other door to the garret. She 
 could not play hide-and-seek among the rubbish. Here 
 ended, then, her last hope of escape before reaching 
 Flamington Park. 
 
 She was about to shut the door and turn away, when 
 a white figure in the corner made her heart leap with 
 fear. One of Nurse's most appalling stories had been 
 of a beautiful Miss Basset, who hanged herself in 
 a garret after she lost all her looks in the small- 
 pox. Next moment Honor was scolding herself for 
 being frightened at an old sheet thrown over a peg. 
 She never knew why she took the trouble to lift the 
 sheet in order to see what was beneath it. 
 
 There, on the peg, hung a woollen petticoat, the coarse 
 cotton garment called a " bedgown," to be worn over 
 it, and a coarse homespun handkerchief. It was the 
 working dress of a country girl — such a dress as Honor 
 herself used to wear when milking or butter-making 
 As she stared at it she seemed to hear the old farmer's 
 words, often repeated, when she spent a morning in his 
 wife's dairy — 
 
 D 
 
50 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "Eh, missy, but it's a pity you were born a lady, 
 surely. You've a cool hand and a quick — you'd make 
 a rare fine dairywoman." 
 
 Next moment she had torn off the embroidered silk 
 gown, the chef-d'oeuvre of her dressmaker, which was 
 to figure in every account of the wedding given in 
 next day's papers, rolled it up tightly, and thrust it 
 under the heap of rubbish. As she made a place for it, 
 she discovered a pair of thick shoes, with some wear 
 still left in them — too large, but she could put some- 
 thing to fill the toes. She carried her spoil into the 
 bedroom, and had a further piece of luck in discover- 
 ing a pair of stout woollen stockings in the chest of 
 drawers, which was the only piece of furniture except 
 the chair and the bed. 
 
 In this disguise she might slip out of the house and 
 perhaps make her way to some farm where they 
 wanted a dairywoman. The petticoat was put on — too 
 large, like the shoes, but its strings would prevent it 
 from falling off. Over it went the bedgown ; Honor 
 was just pulling its tail through the pocket-holes, in 
 the approved style, when a pair of creaking shoes came 
 up the stairs, and a sharp rap fell upon the door. 
 
 " The carriage is waiting, my lady." 
 
 There had been just time for Honor to huddle the 
 cloak about her, and to push the thick shoes and 
 stockings under the bed. 
 
 The maid, in a hurry to return to more congenial 
 work at the bar, noticed nothing, and flounced down- 
 stairs again as soon as her unwilling offer of help had 
 been refused. Honor tied on the big bonnet, and 
 having rolled shoes and stockings in the coarse hand- 
 kerchief, carried them down, under her cloak. 
 
 The carriage was waiting, but Sir Charles was not 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 51 
 
 there to hand her into it ; Markham seemed to have 
 difficulty in finding the handle of the door. She sat 
 in her corner for some minutes before Sir Charles 
 reeled out of the bar, muttering something about it 
 being hard that a fellow could not be left in peace on 
 his wedding-day. He took no notice of Honor, but put 
 up his legs on the opposite seat, and was snoring 
 before they were a mile out of the village. 
 
 Honor waited, her hands clenched over the little 
 bundle beneath her cloak. Come what might, she 
 would break free from him. She knew not how to do 
 it, but she had noticed that the coachman on the box 
 had hat and wig awry, and his head drooping over the 
 reins, and that Markham walked unsteadily. They 
 would probably fall asleep like their master, and she 
 might elude them, or they might upset the carriage 
 and kill herself or Sir Charles. In one way or the 
 other there was still a chance for her. 
 
 The road began to wind up a steep hill, and the 
 horses dropped into a walk. Getting no touch of the 
 whip to hurry them, they went more slowly still. 
 
 On the one side of the road was a quickset hedge 
 and beyond it, a copse. Looking out of the window 
 Honor saw a gap in the hedge, half-way up the hill. 
 
 Bonnet and cloak were dropped noiselessly upon the 
 seat, the door-handle turned without a sound, and 
 Honor was on the carriage step. 
 
 A rush of cool air blowing upon him made Sir 
 Charles shift his position uneasily, and grunt, " What 
 are you about, Markham, you fool ? " without opening 
 his eyes. There was no answer, the door shut with a 
 little click, the draught ceased, and Sir Charles dropped 
 back into sleep. 
 
 Behind the quickset hedge, under the shadow of a 
 
52 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 great elm-tree, to whose trunk was nailed a board with 
 the warning, " Beware of mantraps and spring-guns," 
 among the yellow stems of bracken and the dull green 
 shoots of dog-mercury, a girl crouched, trembling. 
 
 At that moment, in Brunswick Square, the apothe- 
 cary had just pronounced Dawson to be sickening with 
 measles. Had the maid developed the complaint a 
 little earlier, her mistress might have caught it from 
 her, and the wedding must have been postponed. Mr 
 Rivers felt justified in his belief that an overruling 
 Providence approved his virtuous life, whatever Lady 
 Maria might say, and gave it thanks after his fashion. 
 
53 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The yellow coach had disappeared over the top of the 
 hill for some time before Honor ventured to creep from 
 under the bracken and peer through the gap in the 
 hedge. Up and down the road there was nothing to 
 be seen ; not a sound came on the still evening air, save 
 the persistent lowing of a cow that had lost her calf, 
 from the field opposite to the wood. 
 
 A gleam of gold shot over the ragged edges of the 
 black clouds piled in the west. " More rain coming," 
 thought Honor ; " I must make haste to find shelter." 
 
 She stripped off satin slippers and silk stockings, 
 breaking the stitches that had been run into them in 
 the morning, after they were on her feet, to make 
 them sit more closely. Then she tore pieces from the 
 stockings to fill up the toes of the shoes carried away 
 from the inn, which threatened to drop off at every 
 step. Under the bracken she dug a hole in which to 
 bury the slippers, and the reticule which hung upon her 
 arm. The gold-topped smelling-bottle and gold-bound 
 pocket-book could not belong rightfully to a dairy- 
 woman. In the white silk purse with gold tassels was 
 the first instalment of her pin-money, solemnly handed 
 to her, that morning, by Mr Rivers — fifteen guineas 
 
54 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 and some loose silver, which she hid in her stays. She 
 would fain have kept the purse, as a remembrance of 
 Jane, who netted it, but if it were seen it would be sure 
 to cause trouble, so she laid it tenderly in the ground. 
 On the top of all she flung the gold ring from her left 
 hand, and then put back the earth, stamping hard upon 
 it as if each stroke of her foot killed some evil thing. 
 
 The last yellow gleam was fading out of the west 
 when the little figure stole through the gap and began 
 to walk down the hill. She was all alone, in a strange 
 country, with no more than the clothes on her back 
 and the guineas hidden in her stays ; she knew not 
 where she should spend the night, or how she should 
 find her next meal, and she was overflowingly happy. 
 She had escaped from Mr Rivers, with his snuff-box 
 and his bunch of seals, from Mrs Rivers, with her knit- 
 ting bag and her fan, from Sir Charles, with his cane 
 and his shirt-frill, and she was going into the wide world 
 to seek her fortune, like the princess in a fairy tale. 
 
 But for her big shoes, Honor would have danced 
 along the road. Even when she began to remember 
 that she had eaten nothing since an early hour that 
 morning, having had no appetite after her wedding, 
 her spirits did not fail her. There were blackberries 
 in the hedge, large and juicy, and there were clusters 
 of nuts hanging not too high to be pulled down if she 
 climbed the bank. So she walked on, filling her hands 
 and eating as she went. Bats skimmed over her head, 
 huge cockchafers boomed into her face. A watery 
 moon rode in the sky, not yet covered by the storm- 
 clouds. The air was heavy with the scent of honey- 
 suckle. Honor pulled a spray from the hedge and 
 thrust it into her handkerchief. 
 
 She came to a place where the road forked. It was 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 55 
 
 too dark to read the inscription on a battered signpost, 
 and she took the turning to the right because the other 
 seemed to be the highroad. Before long the way was 
 closed by a gate ; beyond, Honor could see a low dark 
 building, evidently a farm. She would go there and 
 ask whether the farmer's wife wanted a dairy woman ; 
 perhaps they would give her a lodging for the night ; 
 if not, she would ask them to sell her food, and there 
 were outhouses and barns into one of which she might 
 creep for a few hours, and be off and away before any 
 one was up in the morning. 
 
 She was feeling for the latch of the gate in the 
 darkness, when a dog in the farmyard began to bark 
 violently. The door of the farmhouse opened, and a 
 huge figure strode towards her, swinging a lantern. 
 
 " Hold your noise, Nelson ! Who's there ? Is it the 
 maid from Mrs Cope ? " 
 
 " I don't know where I am — I lost my way in the 
 dark." Honor could see nothing but a great black 
 outline, and did not venture to declare herself. 
 
 "You're at Bingletts farm, right enough. I'm Mr 
 Lapworth. Mrs Cope, she promised to send some one 
 if she could. I did not know if you would get here 
 to-night — it's a good step. I would have gone on the 
 road to meet you, but the mistress was terrible uneasy, 
 and I could not leave her." 
 
 The voice was very deep, and at the same time 
 curiously soft, the utterance so clear that Honor had 
 no difficulty in understanding him, in spite of the 
 Sussex drawl. As he spoke, he unfastened the gate, 
 and she passed inside it, with an instinct that there 
 was no danger. 
 
 "Did Mrs Cope tell you what was wanted?" the 
 deep voice asked, as they crossed the farmyard. 
 
56 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "No," said Honor truthfully. 
 
 "She promised me she would — but you'll see for 
 yourself now. Here be the maid from Mrs Cope's, 
 mother; now you'll be comfortable." 
 
 He led her through a flagged porch into a large 
 kitchen with a stone floor, and great beams overhead 
 from which hung flitches of bacon, bunches of herbs, 
 and other things whose nature was not apparent at the 
 first glance by the light of the fire. On the table were 
 the remains of a meal, half cleared away. The room 
 was clean, but looked as if an unpractised hand had 
 been at work in it; plates, dishes, cooking utensils 
 were set in unexpected places. A settle was drawn 
 close to the fire, and on it, propped with pillows, 
 sat a woman. 
 
 Once she had been stout and sturdy, now she was 
 so wasted by illness as to look smaller than Honor. 
 Her face, shrunken and wrinkled, was yellow as wax ; 
 from under the close frilled cap fell elf-locks of grizzled 
 hair, nearly hiding the sunken black eyes. The thin 
 yellow fingers wound and unwound a ball of yarn. 
 
 "Here she be, mother," said Mr Lap worth, gently 
 pushing Honor towards the settle; "she's had a long 
 way to come in the dark." 
 
 The restless fingers still continued their play, but 
 the black eyes stared up at Honor, and something 
 seemed to pass over the death-like face, as a breeze 
 passes over a stagnant pool. She stretched out one 
 hand, and pulled the girl down beside her. 
 
 " That's right ! she's taken to you ! " cried the farmer, 
 delighted. " She can't speak to you — she's not spoken 
 for ten years — but she wants you to stay with her. I 
 never saw her do that for Susan." 
 
 " Is she your mother ? " Honor was sitting close to 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 57 
 
 the old woman, and the yellow fingers had dropped the 
 ball and were playing with the honeysuckle in the 
 girl's kerchief. 
 
 " My mother ? No, my wife, and when we went to 
 church, thirty years ago, she was as pretty a maid as 
 ever came to be married there." The farmer's great 
 hand stroked the wrinkled cheeks. M Aye, you were a 
 pretty maid — parson, he said so." 
 
 For the first time, Honor looked at the farmer. To 
 anybody who had read of the Vikings, it would have 
 seemed that one of them was standing in the red glow 
 of the fire. The unlettered girl knew only that here 
 was the tallest and biggest man she had ever seen. 
 His head, covered with thick fair hair with a ripple in 
 it as of a sea wave, nearly touched the rafters ; a long 
 fair beard fell half-way down his great chest. His large 
 blue-grey eyes looked down at his wife, with the half 
 sorrowful and all tender look of a mother on a sick 
 child. 
 
 "There's the shepherd's wife — she comes in every- 
 day to do the cooking, but she can't stay no longer, 
 and the mistress can't be left without some one to be 
 with her when the lads and I are at work. Susan — 
 that's my niece — she lived here, and was company to 
 her, and looked after the dairy, but yesterday she hears 
 that her father tumbled off the corn rick and broke his 
 thigh, and they say he'll not be walkin' again till the 
 winter be come. So she set off to go back to Arundel, 
 as soon as 'twas light, this morning, and she'll not be 
 comin' back here till Christmas." 
 
 "Then you want me to — to wait upon Mrs Lap- 
 worth?" Honor felt like the wanderer in a dream 
 who suddenly finds himself at home in the most un- 
 familiar places. 
 
58 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "Just so. I met Mrs Cope in the road yesterday, 
 and she said she was going into the hiring fair to find 
 a servant for herself, and she promised to find one for 
 us, if she could. But I've never asked you if you have 
 a mouth, and you must be mortial tired after your 
 walk. Draw up your chair to the table, and have 
 your supper." 
 
 Honor was thankful enough to obey, for nuts and 
 blackberries had done little to appease a very healthy 
 appetite. There was cold bacon, a coarse brown loaf, 
 and a piece of cheese on the table, and as she ate, she 
 wondered what Mrs Rivers would have said to see her 
 — Mrs Rivers, who thought that a young lady should 
 have little more substantial than tea and toast. 
 
 "There's skim-milk in the jug; maybe you'd rather 
 drink water. I asked Mrs Cope to tell you you'll get 
 no ale. I'll have no strong drink in my house, like 
 my father before me." 
 
 A huge black cat, who had been asleep in front of 
 the fire, on a rug made of scraps of bright-coloured 
 rags, woke with an instinct that there was food to be 
 had for the asking, stretched himself with claws fixed 
 in the rug, and then rubbed his back against Honor's 
 chair. For the sake of a scrap from her plate, he was 
 good enough to allow her to stroke his sleek head. 
 
 " You're fond of animals ? " the farmer asked, watch- 
 ing her from the settle beside his wife. "So is the 
 mistress. She used to tame the birds out of the wood 
 — she'd have the house full of them in a cold winter. 
 Once she had a badger that the boys dug out of 
 the hill — a swarly beast, he was. What do they 
 call you?" 
 
 Honor stared, puzzled. 
 
 " You have got a name, surely ? " 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 59 
 
 " My name ! " Honor had never thought of this, and, 
 taken by surprise, could not think of anything but 
 * Lester — Honor Lester." 
 
 "'Tis not a name in these parts. Where's your 
 native ? " 
 
 " I have no home," said Honor, guessing at his mean- 
 ing. u I used to live — far away from here, but all my 
 friends are dead, and my cousins did not want me." 
 
 The farmer was about to ask another question, when 
 his wife slowly and painfully began to rise from the 
 settle. Helping herself by his shoulder and a chair, 
 she dragged herself to Honor, and put one arm round 
 the girl, looking round at her husband. His face was 
 beautiful to see in its pride and tenderness. 
 
 " There now ! she's been listenin' all the while, and 
 she's understood. She was living with an uncle when 
 I met her first, and he made her none too welcome. 
 She was thinkin' of going out to service, but she 
 married me instead, just to get away from him — that 
 was the way of it, wasn't it, mother ? Don't you fear 
 now, my dear; if you've taken to her, and she be a 
 good maid, I'll not turn her out — not if she breaks 
 the Toby mug." 
 
 The invalid dropped down again upon the settle and 
 lay back on her pillows with half -closed eyes. 
 
 " She's wantin' to go to sleep — mortial tired she be, 
 what wi' one thing and what wi' the other. You'll be 
 ready to go to bed too, for you'll have to be up early 
 to-morrow. Where's your bundle ? " 
 
 Honor looked blank. 
 
 " Your clothes, I mean. Did you leave them to come 
 out by the carrier ? He'll not be here till next Mon- 
 day. Well, you'll find some old things that Susan left 
 to be given away in the room above." 
 
60 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "Can I help her to bed?" asked Honor. 
 
 "No, she'll let none help her but me. There's a 
 rushlight for you. It's the door at the top of the 
 staircase. Good -night to you, my maid. You'll find 
 the bed comfer'ble — the mistress stuffed it herself, 
 afore she was taken ill." 
 
61 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Sir Charles was still sound asleep in his corner when 
 a sudden jerk broke upon his dream of skimming over 
 the Channel on his brown mare, to ride a race against 
 Bonaparte, with Lady Maria and Mr Rivers to hold 
 the stakes. Too sleepy to swear, he stretched out his 
 legs and pulled his coat round him ; it was chilly, and 
 his bedroom door must have burst open, there was 
 such an infernal draught. Where was that idiot 
 Markham ? What did the fellow mean by not seeing 
 that the door was properly fastened. He must have 
 made a night of it ; what had Markham been about, to 
 let him go to bed in his coat and boots? Well, he 
 supposed it was time to get dressed, if he was going 
 to be married that morning. 
 
 " Markham ! Markham ! Curse the fool ! where is 
 he?" 
 
 " I beg pardon, Sir Charles," came Markham's voice 
 at his elbow, discreet as ever, if the tones were a little 
 thick, " but Lady Elystan particularly desires to speak 
 to you." 
 
 The name roused Sir Charles as few other sounds 
 would have had the power to do.. He opened his eyes 
 and stared out into the darkness. 
 
62 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 At first he could see nothing; all round was the 
 night, soft, still, laden with the scent of flowers in 
 hedge and meadow, and the moon was hidden. 
 Gradually, as his wits began to come back to him 
 and his eyes to grow accustomed to the gloom, he 
 made out that the carriage was at a standstill in the 
 middle of a lane, and that Markham, himself three 
 parts asleep, was holding the door open. 
 
 " What do you mean ? where are we ? " he demanded, 
 pulling himself up ; " this isn't Flamington Park, you 
 fool." 
 
 There was a burst of laughter from a corner of the 
 lane close by, where a clump of beech-trees cast a deep 
 shade. No woman but one in the whole earth could 
 laugh that laugh ; Sir Charles was out of the carriage 
 in a moment, narrowly escaping a fall in the mud, 
 while Markham rubbed his eyes with one hand and 
 shut the door with the other. 
 
 "You here, my lady?" 
 
 "At your service, sir." The voice was clear and 
 ringing, but without the mellow sound which might 
 have been expected from such a laugh. 
 
 " It's too late for you to be out riding," muttered Sir 
 Charles, as yet only half awake. " It's not safe " 
 
 " Why not ? I have a groom with me to protect me 
 from footpads, and drunken sailors, and gentlemen of 
 fashion like yourself, and I know my way, which is 
 more than your people did." 
 
 By this time Sir Charles was standing under the 
 beech-trees by the horse's head ; the groom pulled back 
 to give him more room, and the lady's horse began to 
 dance upon three legs. 
 
 " Steady, steady, Selim ! Don't come too near him ; 
 he can't bear strangers." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 63 
 
 " Since when have I been a stranger ? " demanded 
 Sir Charles. 
 
 Lady Elystan made a pretence of combing out 
 Selim's mane with the handle of her whip before 
 answering. 
 
 " Since — your marriage " 
 
 ■ What difference does that make ? " Sir Charles 
 dropped his voice more from instinct than from any 
 fear of being overheard ; if he had been sufficiently 
 clear-headed to remember appearances, Selim's antics 
 were keeping the groom beyond earshot. Lady 
 Elystan, whose seat showed how she came by her 
 nickname of " La Belle Amazone," stirring up the horse 
 to a fresh display rather than making any attempt to 
 check him, answered coolly — 
 
 " Difference ? Last week you were dashing along the 
 roads in a curricle or going across country on Sabina ; 
 this evening you are lumbering along in a ponderous 
 old coach, fit for your grandmother, like some octo- 
 genarian dowager out for her afternoon airing with 
 the maid and the pug-dog, the coachman asleep on the 
 box and you asleep inside — your man just sufficiently 
 awake to bawl to my groom to ask him the way to 
 Flamington Park." 
 
 " I'll teach them to go to sleep another time," vowed 
 Sir Charles, making play with his cane. 
 
 "Be quiet, pray, you're frightening my poor Selim. 
 Do you want to see me thrown ? " 
 
 " The horse has got to be foaled that would throw 
 you, my lady." 
 
 " Merci bien ! but I want none of your compliments ; 
 keep them for Lady Mendip. Is she asleep too ? " 
 
 The bridegroom made no answer except to say some- 
 thing under his breath, at which Lady Elystan burst 
 
64 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 into another peal of laughter. Knowing that her 
 admirers were right when they likened her laugh to 
 a chime of golden bells, she did not stale it by too 
 frequent use, and like everything else she did, it was 
 intended to produce a calculated effect. 
 
 " Oh, fie ! you must reform your evil ways now that 
 you are married. Go to bed sober, never gamble and 
 swear, rise at five in the morning and go out with your 
 bride to watch the young lambkins frisking in the 
 meadows." 
 
 "I don't know where we should look for young 
 lambkins in September, my lady." 
 
 " TouchAe ! touchfa ! " cried Lady Elystan, throwing 
 out her hand with a mocking little bow. " That was a 
 fair hit, sir ; now, as you have had the better of me, be 
 magnanimous and let me go on." 
 
 "I was not fencing with you," said Sir Charles 
 doggedly. " It's too late at night to be standing here 
 talking nonsense. What I want to know is, what are 
 you doing here ? " 
 
 " I might ask the same of you, sir. Why are you 
 not at Flamington Park by this time, and your bride 
 safely tucked up in the four-post bed with the hang- 
 ings that Queen Elizabeth embroidered, instead of 
 wandering about the lanes at least two miles off your 
 right road?" 
 
 "Because of that accursed wheel," grumbled Sir 
 Charles; "we had to stop for over an hour while 
 
 it was being mended, in some d d alehouse, 
 
 with the bumpkins clattering their mugs and sing- 
 ing at the top of their voices, most confoundedly out 
 of tune." 
 
 " Poor man ! but you should have chosen your con- 
 veyance better. You can't expect your grandmother's 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 65 
 
 coach to stand these Sussex roads. Good-night ; you 
 must be in haste to get home, and as for your poor 
 bride, she must be wondering whether you have eloped 
 already. When you have turned the coach — if your 
 coachman can do it without upsetting you into the 
 ditch — take the second turn to your left, and that will 
 bring you back to the highroad. Follow it till you 
 get into Pulborough; going down the hill past the 
 church will probably wake you up sufficiently to ask 
 the way on to Flamington Park." 
 
 " And where are you going ? " 
 
 " I ? home, to be sure, like a dutiful wife. My lord 
 had such a sad fit of gout this morning that he could 
 do nothing but roar, and if I played the harp or sang, 
 went from one room to another, or sat at my embroid- 
 ery, it was all the same — it made him worse whatever 
 I did. Even the sight of me stringing my bow on the 
 lawn caused him such excruciating agonies that I was 
 forced to throw down bow, arrows, gauntlet, and all, 
 and take shelter in the arbour for fear that his oaths 
 would bring the house down. But the arbour was full 
 of frogs which had come in from the garden, which is 
 like a swamp after all this rain. If I had stayed there 
 another five minutes, I should have begun to croak too. 
 So as there was no place for me in the house, I rode off 
 on Selim, thinking that if I could find some one to 
 take a hand at cards this evening it would do my lord 
 good to have some one else to swear at." Sir Charles 
 again muttered something to which she paid no heed. 
 "But I scoured the country in vain — not a soul to 
 be had who could say on his oath that he knew the ace 
 of spades from the queen of diamonds. Even our own 
 rector won't leave his own fireside and his fat wife, 
 though I vowed upon my honour that we would play 
 
66 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 nothing more exciting than whist if he came, and he 
 should have every penny I won to buy a box where 
 his cat may kitten, as my housekeeper complains of 
 her using our pew on these occasions. So I am going 
 home, having had all my trouble for nothing, to sit up 
 till morning playing picquet or double dummy with my 
 lord. When he has one of these bouts, he will never 
 go to bed before daylight. What are you doing, Sir 
 Charles ? There lies your way." 
 
 " My way lies with you ; I shall escort you home " 
 
 " Nonsense ! I am close to my own gates, and the 
 groom is quite sober, which perhaps is more than can 
 be said of you." 
 
 " And then I am coming in to play with Lord Elystan, 
 if you and he will excuse my dress." 
 
 " On your wedding night ? You must be crazy, Sir 
 Charles ! Lady Mendip will never allow it." 
 
 " Markham ! " shouted Sir Charles, turning back to 
 the coach, " take Lady Mendip on to Flamington Park, 
 and see that she is properly attended to when you get 
 there. I shall not come till to-morrow. No stopping 
 to drink by the way, mind, or I'll make you both 
 sorry for it." 
 
 He swung round on his heel and came back to Lady 
 Elystan, who had brought Selim out from the shade of 
 the beech- trees, and was in the middle of the road. 
 The moon which struggled from behind the clouds 
 shone full upon her oval face and perfect figure as she 
 waited, smiling and scornful. 
 
 Sir Charles's look showed that he could be another 
 man than the sot from whom Honor had fled. 
 
 " Sir Charles, how absurd you are ! Do climb into 
 the family coach and go home with your bride — she'll 
 need to hold your hand when you go down Pul- 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 67 
 
 borough hill." Lady Elystan turned her horse and 
 began walking him slowly along the road. " You can't 
 leave her alone on your wedding night." 
 
 " I can't leave you alone to be sworn at by Lord 
 Elystan." 
 
 " He is my husband," she said, with a pathetic droop 
 of her head, " and, after all, I am used to it — and he 
 always cries and begs my pardon when the fit goes off." 
 
 " He shall have no need to beg your pardon to-night. 
 If he wants to swear, he shall swear at me." 
 
 For some moments there was no sound but the click 
 of Selim's hoofs as he paced along the road, with Sir 
 Charles walking beside him and patting his neck. 
 Sir Charles was never a man of many words ; if he had 
 anything to say, he said it ; if not, he kept silence. He 
 could not abide women who pestered you to talk ; he 
 would have been content to walk on at Lady Elystan's 
 side, all through the night, looking up at her. She 
 seemed deep in thought, gazing straight before her. 
 The groom kept at such a convenient distance in the 
 rear that it felt as if they were alone together. 
 
 When at last she spoke, it was carelessly, almost in- 
 differently, without looking at him — 
 
 " Selim does not read the fashionable intelligence, so 
 he does not know that he must look on you as a 
 stranger from to-day. He much prefers you to the 
 last gentleman who was walking beside me this 
 afternoon." 
 
 " Who was he ? " 
 
 " Oh, you need not bristle up and lay back your ears ! 
 It was quite proper, sir, seeing that the groom was just 
 behind me, and it was some one of whom your grand- 
 mother thinks highly. I have often heard her say that 
 he is the only man in London who can bow like a 
 
68 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 gentleman. I wonder she has not sent you to take 
 lessons of him." 
 
 " Who was he ? " repeated Sir Charles. 
 
 " What impertinent curiosity ! what is it to you 
 how many beaux I choose to have ? You should not 
 grudge me a little amusement when I am en province." 
 
 " Who was he ? " 
 
 " You'll set Selim off again if you touch my reins. 
 Well, if you must know, it was that queer misanthropic 
 cousin of mine, Claud Fen wick." 
 
 " Is he staying with you ? " 
 
 " Not he ! I tell you, he is a complete misanthrope ; 
 he sleeps all day, and goes wandering about, star-gazing, 
 all night." 
 
 "I thought he had been hanged or shot — caught 
 corresponding with the French, or something of the 
 kind." 
 
 " How absurd ! Just because old Mr Harbord is in 
 his dotage and ready to believe anything that his wife 
 tells him, every one must needs believe it too. Fen- 
 wick is no more a traitor than you are — though, I 
 admit, he has the wits for it, if he chose, which is more 
 than could be said for most of the people who talk 
 about him." 
 
 "But didn't he get Bony to clap his cousin into 
 prison ? " 
 
 " Nothing of the sort. I will tell you the story from 
 the beginning, so that you may be able to contradict 
 all these geese. A propos, did you know that it is 
 really dangerous to say ' Bo ! ' to a goose, or at any 
 rate to a gander ? I met one near the lodge yesterday, 
 and it flew at me when I tried to drive it away. 
 Luckily I had my riding- whip in my hand, and could 
 defend myself till the woman from the lodge came up, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 69 
 
 otherwise, I believe it would have forced me to re- 
 treat — not the first gander that has been too many for 
 me. My lord was furious, for fear the gander should 
 have been injured in the fray ; it was a most valuable 
 bird, and he must needs have it brought up into the 
 hall that he might hobble out in dressing-gown and 
 slippers to make sure that it was none the worse." 
 
 A very ugly word flew from Sir Charles's lips. 
 
 " What is the matter ? Did one of these huge beetles 
 fly into your eye ? If so, you have my sympathy ; the 
 country might be endurable if it were not for the insects 
 — and the natives. But try to control your feelings 
 when the next comes bump into your face, as if I 
 hear such coarse expressions again, I shall be obliged 
 to spur Selim and ride away, leaving you to find your 
 way back to your bride, supperless, in the dark." 
 
 " You know it was not a beetle ! " he burst out 
 savagely. "You know that I can't endure to see 
 you " 
 
 "You promised me not to talk in that way." 
 
 Sir Charles hung his head, like a repentant school- 
 boy. 
 
 "Which of my friends can I trust, if you fail to 
 keep your word?" 
 
 " Beg pardon — y' know I never meant to annoy 
 you," he muttered. 
 
 " Well, we'll talk no more about ganders, as it 
 seems to excite you ; I will tell you Fen wick's story. 
 You have heard of old Mr Harbord, who is my first 
 cousin at least three times removed. He is very 
 wealthy and very old and has no children, so for the 
 last thirty years all his cousins — he has no nearer 
 kin — have been toadying him, in the hope of being 
 remembered. The only one who has held aloof is 
 
70 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 myself. When first we married, my lord wanted me 
 to invite the Harbords to stay with us, but I said 
 I would not, and that's poz ! it was no use to bore 
 myself to death for the chance of getting some of 
 their money, when every one knew that the two old 
 quizzes spent all their time coddling themselves, and 
 that I might break my neck across country any day, 
 in which case I should have been bored for nothing. 
 My lord persisted, till I had to tell him that if they 
 came to the house I should go away. He had no 
 mind to be left alone with Mrs Harbord, who is a 
 Methodist, and would have read prayers three times 
 a day, and catechised the servants while dinner was 
 spoiling; so I heard no more of them, except that 
 she sends me a tract whenever she sees my name in 
 the 'Morning Post.'" 
 
 " What do you do with the tracts ? Curl your hair 
 with 'em ? " asked Sir Charles, staring at the thick coils. 
 " There's a leaf from a beech-tree tangled in it, just at 
 the nape of your neck." 
 
 " That's a sign of sorrow, so the old housekeeper told 
 me, when I came in from the lime walk this morning, 
 with my head all over dead leaves. No, I give the 
 tracts to my lord, who loves to make spills in the 
 winter evenings. Don't you know that my hair curls 
 of itself ? " 
 
 " You promised me a lock of it once." 
 
 " Before you were married. Now you must wear 
 one of Lady Mendip's red curls over your heart — 
 What, you can't bear to hear me talk of her, either ? 
 You're hard to please to-night." 
 
 " Why can't you leave her alone ? " 
 
 The golden laugh rang out once more. " If you are 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 71 
 
 so angry I shall be afraid to say another word. Why, 
 it is beginning to rain ; that may cool you down, and 
 I'll tell you more about Claud Fenwick, if you will 
 graciously permit it." 
 
 There was a mollified grunt from Sir Charles. 
 
 " Fenwick is no more of a toady than I, but old Har- 
 bord had taken a violent fancy to him when he was a 
 boy, and took more notice of him than Claud's own 
 father did. Claud's father, you must know, fell in 
 love with a French lady and insisted on marrying her. 
 She came of a good family ; nearly all were put to 
 death by the Jacobins. At least she escaped the 
 guillotine by being married in England, but they say 
 it was not a happy marriage. She died when Claud 
 was a boy, and his father cared for nothing after her 
 death, so Claud was left to himself or to old Harbord. 
 Mrs Harbord was sure that he was bound to eternal 
 perdition, being half French, and suspected of being a 
 Papist." 
 
 " Papists and Frenchies — d d bad cattle ! " mur- 
 mured Sir Charles, feeling it his duty to make some 
 remark. "I remember Fenwick, a black- visaged 
 fellow, who jabbered French like one of the 
 frog-eaters, and no one ever saw him the worse 
 for liquor. He could fence well — I'll say that for 
 him." 
 
 "His cousin is much obliged to you, sir, for you** 
 testimony. Besides his other accomplishments, he is 
 an astronomer. Old Harbord has some turn himself 
 for science, and he and Fenwick would be scratching 
 cabalistic signs on bits of paper, and concocting evil- 
 smelling messes, quite content, in spite of Madam. But 
 one day the old woman's dog lapped up one of their 
 
Ml HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 brews, and that was the ruin of Master Claud. Are 
 you attending to me ? " 
 
 " I was wondering what that was in the ditch." Sir 
 Charles bent down and plucked a handful of meadow- 
 sweet. " Smells good, doesn't it ? Better than all the 
 stenches that the London ladies sprinkle over their 
 clothes." 
 
 ' Lady Elystan's fine nostrils curled disdainfully. " If 
 you prefer rooting weeds out of the ditch to my con- 
 versation- " 
 
 " I don't. I've listened to all you told me," protested 
 Sir Charles, flinging away the meadow-sweet. "I 
 thought you would like the stuff to smell at." 
 
 " Thanks ; you shall have a bouquet of rue and tansy 
 from the kitchen garden in return." 
 
 • What about Fen wick ? " asked Sir Charles. " How 
 did poisoning the old woman's lap-dog get him into 
 trouble ? " 
 
 " What, you really were listening ? As you elegantly 
 put it, he can jabber French, which is suspicious, and 
 he is in correspondence with various savants on the 
 Continent — two facts which are enough to damn any 
 man in these days. His cousin, John Champneys, a 
 real stolid Briton, was engaged to Miss Charlotte 
 Winslow. You know the minx ? Pink lips, red coral 
 necklace, black ringlets, and a simper " 
 
 Sir Charles nodded. 
 
 "The parents thought her too young to marry at 
 once, so Champneys, instead of staying at home and 
 saving up his money to provide for the baker's dozen 
 of daughters that such a goose would have been certain 
 to bless him with, rushed over to the Continent with a 
 party of friends. While they were at Rouen, the First 
 
 / 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 73 
 
 Consul declared war with England, and arrested all the 
 English that he could lay his hands upon. Some of 
 the party managed to escape by boat ; Champneys was 
 arrested half a day before any one else. He had carried 
 a packet from Fenwick to a correspondent at Rouen — 
 some smoke-dried astronomer or spectacled botanist, no 
 doubt. The Harbord woman would have it that Fen- 
 wick was in correspondence with the French Govern- 
 ment, and contrived Champneys's arrest out of 
 jealousy." 
 
 " It was a dirty trick," remarked Sir Charles 
 sagely, "but you never can tell what these half- 
 foreigners will do." 
 
 Lady Elystan's movement of impatience made Selim 
 start half across the road. 
 
 " Steady there ! where are you going ? " 
 
 " If he did knock you into the ditch it would serve 
 you right. Claud Fenwick is incapable of playing 
 such a trick." 
 
 " They say all's fair in love." 
 
 " But he was never for an instant in love with 
 Charlotte. The girl is one of those misses who think 
 that every man is in love with them, and that only 
 their chaste severity keeps them from being run away 
 with, twice a week. She was quite ready to back the 
 old woman up, and depose that Fenwick had been one 
 of her soupirants. Now Claud has two natures within 
 him, English and French ; sometimes one comes upper- 
 most, sometimes the other, but it is always the wrong 
 side for the moment. When old Harbord appealed to 
 him to answer for himself, the Englishman happened 
 to be on top, and, instead of protesting, he would only 
 stand rigid as a poker and bow to all that was said, 
 
74 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 and then tell them, in his coolest manner, ' If that is 
 what you believe of me, sir, your house is no longer 
 the place for me ■ — and with that out he walked." 
 
 " What else could a man do ? " 
 
 "Do? why, make speeches about his honour, and 
 appeals to friendship, vow that he was incapable of 
 grieving his benefactor — in short, turn the French 
 side, which was what Mr Harbord wanted. Not content 
 with this betise, when he found his friends and ac- 
 quaintances were looking coldly on him, and whispering 
 to each other that there must be some grave reason for 
 Mr Harbord to give him the cut, instead of facing it and 
 living it down, he went off in the sulks and planted 
 himself in a house about four miles from here. It was 
 only by chance that I met him this evening, striding 
 across the common, and I had to ride after him before 
 I could make him stop. He will see none of his old 
 friends, and he will make no new ones. He has no 
 neighbours near him, except a convent of some of those 
 nuns that escaped from France at the time of the 
 Revolution and have never gone back again." 
 
 " I wonder at his taste," was Sir Charles's comment, 
 " the youngest of them must be a bit long in the tooth 
 by this time." 
 
 Lady Elystan pulled up Selim before a pair of gates 
 in wrought iron, surmounted with an E and a Viscount's 
 coronet. " Here is the lodge. Good-night." 
 
 " I am coming to the house with you " 
 
 " You had better borrow the cob and ride after the 
 coach. You can make your peace with your bride by 
 telling her that you were engaged in a work of mercy, 
 holding a decrepit old woman on her horse." 
 
 " I am coming with you." When Sir Charles's lower 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 75 
 
 lip was thrust out at that angle, even Lady Maria 
 recognised the impossibility of altering his purpose. 
 " Have your way, then, but don't say that I invited 
 you. And please to remember that if you don't know 
 a good man when you see him, owing to the company 
 you keep, Fenwick is one." 
 
76 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Except for the pleasure of being where he ought not, 
 and staying away from where he should have been, 
 Sir Charles gained nothing by spending the night at 
 Elystan House. There was no excitement in sitting 
 in a room from which every breath of air had been 
 shut out for the last month, playing dummy whist 
 for penny points. Only two candles — and those care- 
 fully screened — were allowed in the room, on account 
 of the inflammation in Lord Elystan's eyes ; the play 
 was of the slowest, on account of the gout in Lord 
 Elystan's hands, which made it almost impossible for 
 him to pick up the cards or to hold them. When tired 
 of staring at his own cards by the dim light, Sir 
 Charles had not the consolation of gazing at Lady 
 Elystan: she sat close beside him a little way back 
 from the table, so that he could not look at her 
 without turning round. She scarcely spoke, for Lord 
 Elystan would not allow any conversation during the 
 game; her face was indifferent and smiling; she 
 seemed in no way irritated by the trifles which 
 fretted Sir Charles to the last verge of endurance — 
 her husband's incessant clearing of his throat, his 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 77 
 
 long hesitation over the choice of a card, his fault- 
 finding whether she won or lost a trick. 
 
 At one time Lord Elystan had been something of 
 a viveur, something of a scholar, and something of a 
 traveller. With lost health, he had lost also his in- 
 terest in everything that did not concern his maladies. 
 He was so busy in impressing upon Lady Elystan 
 that, by leaving the hall door open when she went 
 out in the morning, she had caused a draught through 
 the house which might have given him a chill and 
 counteracted the effects of the medicine he was 
 taking, that he quite forgot to wonder why Sir 
 Charles was spending his wedding night at Elystan 
 House. 
 
 They played on till the candles flared in their 
 sockets, and a grey haggard light trickled through 
 the cracks of the shutters. Then Lord Elystan con- 
 sidered that he might be able to sleep if they would 
 leave him at once, and not stand there talking and 
 laughing. 
 
 There was little temptation to laugh or to linger 
 in the same room with Lord Elystan. His wife dis- 
 appeared through one doorway as a very sleepy man- 
 servant entered by another to take Sir Charles to his 
 bedroom. 
 
 Tired as he was, the guest could not sleep. He 
 tossed and tumbled, and rolled from one side of the 
 bed to the other. There was something wrong, he felt 
 drowsily, though he could not tell what it was. 
 
 The sun roused him, and with a growl he dressed 
 himself and came downstairs. He must go on to 
 Flamington Park, he supposed. Plague take it! the 
 servants were sure to be all agape, wondering why he 
 had not come home with his bride. Some one would be 
 
78 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 sure to tell his grandmother, and the old lady was 
 quite capable of coming down to Flamington Park to 
 bully him. What a cursed nuisance women were 
 when they grew old ! If that fellow Pitt wanted to 
 raise more money for the war, why didn't he put a 
 tax on every woman over forty ? He almost wished 
 he had gone to Flamington Park last night, seeing 
 how little he had gained by stopping at Elystan House. 
 
 No, he did not wish anything of the kind. Through 
 the open door he could see Lady Elystan on the lawn, 
 and anything was worth while to see a woman look as 
 she did of a morning. 
 
 He would be ready to lay any sum that nowhere 
 would you find another woman who, after riding 
 about the country till after dark, and playing whist 
 with Lord Elystan till dawn, would show no sign 
 of weariness. In her linen gown, the sun beating 
 fiercely upon her uncovered chestnut hair, she was 
 as triumphantly and supremely beautiful as when he 
 saw her for the first time, in hoops and feathers and 
 jewels, going to Court on the Birthday. 
 
 Who was that old fellow who had come up to speak 
 to her ? He seemed to have a monstrous long story to 
 tell. What was it all about? She had started, and 
 her face had turned pale. Was the old scoundrel 
 annoying her ? If so, he should be taught a lesson. 
 Sir Charles was just about to hurl himself out of the 
 door upon the culprit, when Lady Elystan, with a 
 sudden gesture of dismissal, waved the man to one 
 side and swept up the steps into the hall, shutting 
 the door quickly. 
 
 "I forgot his Lordship's chill," said Sir Charles, 
 coming forward. He would have said more, but the 
 words died away at the look on her face. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 79 
 
 "Stand back! keep back!" she gasped under her 
 breath. "No, it is too late; the servants know it — 
 every one will know it before nightfall." 
 
 " What is the matter ? " He wondered if his beau- 
 tiful lady, who was always doing unaccountable 
 things, could be play-acting to amuse herself and 
 startle him. 
 
 Surely no fear on earth could make her shiver and 
 tremble as she was doing now. 
 
 " That was the man from the lodge," she answered, 
 her breath coming in little short gasps as if she had 
 been running hard. He came to tell me that there 
 has been a fearful accident. Every one thinks you 
 are killed. Your carriage was overturned into the 
 river last night." 
 
 " How did it happen ? " was all Sir Charles said. 
 
 " Your coachman must have been drunk. He went 
 full tilt down the Pulborough hill. It was dark, and 
 by that time the rain was coming down fast. The 
 parapet of the bridge was broken by a heavy waggon 
 last week, and it has never been mended. The horses 
 slipped against it, and went crash into the river." 
 
 Sir Charles twisted a button on his waistcoat with- 
 out looking up. There was silence, while the clock in 
 the hall ticked heavily. 
 
 " A farm lad was passing and ran to get help. Your 
 man was thrown off, and they picked him up — they 
 say he won't live. The coachman was tangled up with 
 the reins; they found his body this morning. They 
 are dragging the river now for you and Lady Mendip. 
 The man says they have pulled out her cloak. The 
 river was running very high last night after all the 
 rain." 
 
 Silence again, except for the ticking of the clock. 
 
80 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Sir Charles stared out on to the lawn, where a little 
 red squirrel was burying acorns in a flower-bed. 
 
 * Now that's a d d queer little fellow," he mur- 
 mured thoughtfully ; " he'll forget that he put 'em in 
 there, and you'll have that flower-bed full of little 
 oak-trees when the spring comes." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " asked Lady Elystan 
 hoarsely. 
 
 Sir Charles made a great effort, and twisted the 
 button the other way round. 
 
 "They will say that you arranged to murder your 
 wife — that you made the men drunk — that it was 
 all planned. What will you do ? " 
 
 "Go down to the river and stop the fools dragging 
 for my body," said Sir Charles. 
 
81 
 
 CHAPTER, IX. 
 
 " Tes the maid wi' the red head/' said Isaac, the little 
 man who had worked upon Ringlett's farm all his life. 
 He looked like the malignant dwarf of some Norse 
 fairy tale as he threw back his head to watch his 
 masters face. "'Tes well known — they never bring 
 no luck." 
 
 "None of that nonsense/' said the farmer sharply. 
 " Go about your work, and if you talk like that again, 
 I'll dock your wage." 
 
 His brow was clouded as he strode back to the farm 
 in the dusk. He never meant to leave his wife alone 
 from morning to night on her first day with the strange 
 girl ; but from the time of his getting up in the morn- 
 ing, one mishap had followed upon another in a way 
 that was some excuse for Isaac's black looks and hints. 
 One of the horses fell lame, for no reason that was 
 evident ; the sick cow, who had seemed on the road to 
 recovery, was much worse ; one of the scythes could not 
 be found; a man engaged to help with the thrashing 
 failed to arrive ; the sheep had been worried by a dog 
 whom no one had seen before, who appeared suddenly 
 and vanished as soon as he was discovered. There had 
 been no time for the farmer to go back to the house 
 
 F 
 
82 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 for the midday dinner, and he was very uneasy as to 
 what he might find on his return. His wife had taken 
 to Honor on her arrival, but there was no saying 
 whether the fancy would last, or how the girl would 
 behave with no one to keep an eye on her. 
 
 He came in by a gate at the back, and as he went 
 past the kitchen window, he looked in. Supper was 
 ready on the table. 
 
 Honor had not lighted the candles made by dipping 
 rushes into mutton fat ; she was spinning by the glow 
 of the fire, and singing softly as she span — 
 
 " The twelvemonth and the day was past, 
 The ghost began to speak, 
 What make you sitting upon my grave, 
 And will not let me weep ? " 
 
 Mrs Lapworth was lying on the settle, with a patch- 
 work quilt flung over her. Honor's finger went up as 
 the farmer entered. 
 
 "Asleep? there's a good maid! You needn't be 
 afraid of my waking her. When she sleeps, she 
 sleeps." 
 
 He stood by the settle looking down at her, while 
 Honor kindled a light, and set the chairs to the 
 table. 
 
 " She never closed an eye last night, nor the night 
 before. I couldn't get her to sleep." 
 
 " She was very restless all day," said Honor. " Then 
 I found out that the hum of the wheel seemed to make 
 her drowsy." 
 
 "We'll leave her to sleep and have our supper. 
 'Tis the best way for her," said the farmer. "She 
 is happy while she is asleep; when she wakes, she 
 may begin to skreel, and then nothing can stop her." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 83 
 
 " Was it an illness that made her like this ? * asked 
 Honor. 
 
 "No, no illness; 'twas an accident. She fell down 
 those stairs, wi' the child in her arms. 'Twas a maid 
 child, and our only one, born when both our sons were 
 big lads. I came in here to my dinner and found a 
 heap on the floor." 
 
 " Was the child hurt too ? " 
 
 "Dead — stark dead. I thought they were both 
 dead." 
 
 " And Mrs Lapworth has been ill ever since then ? " 
 
 " Ever since. I took her all the way to Portsmouth 
 to a doctor. He said the fall had harmed her back and 
 her head, and he could do nothing for her, not if King 
 George himself was to ask it. So I brought her home. 
 She sits there, wisht, most of the time, but sometimes 
 'tis as if she remembered and then she'll cry for hours 
 together." 
 
 " Is she in pain ? " 
 
 " I don't know ; the doctor couldn't tell me. He 
 said he had never heard of anything like it. He 
 thought she didn't know one from another, and that's 
 not true. She knows me always, though I don't think 
 she knows the lads, and some folk she can't bear near 
 her. It took a terrible time for her to settle down wi' 
 Susan. I've never seen her take to any one as she has 
 taken to you." 
 
 Supper was finished in silence. Honor was begin- 
 ning to clear away the plates, when the farmer 
 suddenly asked — 
 
 "Do you think you will be able to stay? Is the 
 work too hard ? " 
 
 " There is very little work to do," said Honor. 
 
 " Aye, Mrs South does the cooking and a good deal 
 
84 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 else; she's a terrible one for work. But she's only 
 here for part of the day, and she's no time for talk, she 
 says " 
 
 " She says so," echoed Honor demurely, and then the 
 recollection of Mrs South's unending flow of words set 
 her off laughing. The farmer's eyes twinkled in sym- 
 pathy, though all he said was — 
 
 " Poor old body ! she's so deaf, she can't hear any one 
 speak, so she must do the talking herself. But it's 
 lonesome for you, with no other young maid to speak 
 to, and you'll find that no one comes up to the farm. 
 They think my poor mistress is bewitched, and 'tis 
 unlucky to come nigh her." 
 
 " I shall do very well," Honor assured him, thinking 
 that if she had looked all over the country for a hiding- 
 place from Sir Charles, she scarcely could have found a 
 better one. 
 
 In two or three days, it felt as though she had been 
 at the farm for a twelvemonth. As the farmer had said, 
 it was " lonesome " for a girl not yet sixteen. In the 
 morning she rose, before it was light, to get the break- 
 fast, and to make a cup of tea for the sick woman, who 
 very often did not get out of bed till nearly dinner- 
 time. Mrs South came in to cook the dinner and to 
 do the greater part of the cleaning. Sometimes the 
 farmer and Isaac came in to dinner, sometimes they 
 took their dinner out with them, to Honor's great 
 relief ; besides the natural disgust caused by his primi- 
 tive table manners, the dwarf caused her more fear 
 than any one except the husband from whom she had 
 run away. He never looked her fairly in the face, but 
 an unexpected turn of the head would give her a 
 moment's glimpse of a venomous scowl; if he saw 
 that she noticed it, and the farmer were looking the 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 85 
 
 other way, he would twist his face into horrible con- 
 tortions in the hope of making her start and turn 
 pale. After the first, he never had this pleasure; 
 Honor forced herself to gaze at him without 
 flinching. 
 
 On the fourth day of Honor's visit, the farmer, 
 suddenly turning round, caught Isaac making mouths 
 at her, rose from table, and picking up the dwarf by 
 the scruff of the neck, carried him out of the house 
 and quietly dropped him upon a heap of straw in 
 the barn. 
 
 " You'll feed here ! " he said shortly, and went back 
 to the kitchen. 
 
 That evening, Honor, going out to the dairy with 
 a jug, brushed against a dark shadow seated on the 
 fence. It was Isaac cutting notches in a long stick, 
 and as she passed him he spat after her viciously. 
 
 " Red head ! red head ! " croaked his harsh voice. 
 " Ten notches on the tally ! ten days to drive ill-luck 
 away. Red head ! never bring no good." 
 
 Honor tried to laugh, and put the dwarf out of her 
 mind, but her spirits and strength alike were flagging. 
 It was not that the work expected of her was hard ; 
 in the last few months at Witham she had often more 
 to do, if both Miss Lester and Nurse Tanner were ill 
 in bed, the one with her cough, the other with her 
 rheumatism. It was the isolation that weighed upon 
 her; even in London, where everything was strange 
 and many things were repugnant to her, there had 
 been Jane and the children. Here there was no one 
 to speak half a dozen words to her in the day. The 
 farmer, in the little time that he spent in the house, 
 would sit silent gazing at his wife. Mrs South's 
 tongue never stopped, from the moment when she 
 
86 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 entered the house in the morning, to the moment 
 when she left it, towards evening, but the Sussex 
 dialect in which she spoke prevented Honor from 
 understanding one word in ten of what she said, 
 and she was so deaf as to miss three-quarters of 
 what was said to her, and to mistake the rest. 
 
 Mrs Lapworth had subsided into the stillness and 
 apathy which, according to her husband, was her 
 normal condition. She seemed not to notice Honor, 
 generally sitting with half -closed eyes and restless 
 fingers, picking at the strings of her apron, or fidget- 
 ing with a ball of yarn which was kept as her 
 plaything. If Honor was out of the room for more 
 than a few moments, however, there would come low 
 whimpers, which changed shortly into long wailing 
 cries, and persisted until Honor came hurrying back. 
 The girl's only chance of doing any work outside the 
 kitchen was when Mrs Lapworth was in bed, or, at odd 
 times, when she drowsed upon the settle. 
 
 Luckily for Honor, her predecessor, Susan, had been 
 what Mrs South called H a gentleman " — that is to say, 
 she had done no hard work, making the excuse of 
 waiting upon her aunt, although Mrs Lapworth never 
 fretted after her in her absence. Mrs South lived up 
 to her reputation as "a terrible worker," and most 
 of Honor's time was spent in nothing more laborious 
 than mending or spinning. 
 
 This made it all the stranger that she grew daily 
 more weary and languid. Every morning it was more 
 of an exertion to drag herself out of bed, and yet her 
 nights were broken and restless, disturbed by evil 
 dreams and feverish thoughts. 
 
 It was a week after her arrival at the farm that 
 Honor, coming downstairs into the kitchen, noticed a 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 87 
 
 strange pattern of interwoven bars stained in dark 
 purple-red upon the hearthstone. How did it come 
 there ? There was none of it last night when she went 
 to bed. Perhaps it was done by Mr Lapworth, whom 
 she had left sitting over the fire ; he had an odd fancy 
 for tracing on the hearthstone with a piece of charcoal, 
 but he rubbed out whatever he drew before going to 
 rest. Whoever did it, she had no time to trouble her- 
 self about it, for she was late already, and the farmer 
 might be coming in to his breakfast at any moment. 
 
 When he came he was even more silent and pre- 
 occupied than usual, returning her " Good-morning " 
 and sitting down without another word. She was 
 sipping her cup of skim-milk, feeling strangely dis- 
 inclined for food, and the farmer had bitten a large 
 mouthful from a hunk of bread-and-butter, when he 
 suddenly started up and went to the hearth. 
 
 " What's this ? Who put this here ? " 
 
 There was such a blaze of anger in the light-coloured 
 eyes that Honor shrank back for the moment. 
 
 " Don't be frightened, my maid : I'm not angry with 
 you," he said in a gentler tone. " Do you know who 
 put this here ? " 
 
 " I found it when I came downstairs." 
 
 " Have you ever found anything like it before ? " 
 
 Honor shook her head, wondering what there could 
 be in a lattice-pattern on the hearthstone to make him 
 angry. 
 
 " Tell that woman to wash it off as soon as she comes," 
 he said, and strode out of the room, leaving his break- 
 fast unfinished. 
 
 Honor was in the little room on the other side of the 
 porch where Mrs Lapworth slept, helping the invalid 
 into her clothes, when the clashing of a saucepan and 
 
88 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 the tread of a heavy foot, followed by a steady murmur, 
 proclaimed Mrs South's arrival. Immediately after- 
 wards came a loud crash, and close upon it several 
 smaller crashes, as if Mrs South had dropped crockery. 
 Honor hurried back to the kitchen, and beheld the 
 shepherd's wife staring at the hearthstone with that 
 expression of horror blended with delight usually worn 
 by her class when confronted with some unpleasant 
 disease or accident. 
 
 "What is that?" called Honor, pointing to the 
 hearthstone. 
 
 Mrs South looked up to the bacon swinging from the 
 rafters, and shook her head, then looked round the 
 walls, and finally down to the ground, when, with a 
 dramatic start, she suddenly appeared to be aware of 
 two broken willow-pattern plates at her feet. 
 
 " Well, now ! to think o' that ! " she exclaimed, stoop- 
 ing to pick them up. 
 
 Honor grasped her arm, and pointed again to the 
 hearthstone. 
 
 "Who did that?" 
 
 " They slipped out of my hands, and went on to the 
 floor," replied Mrs South, still obstinately regarding the 
 broken plates. " 'Tis footy stuff." (Three generations 
 later a connoisseur would have bought those plates for 
 their weight in gold.) 
 
 " The master says it is to be washed off at once," said 
 Honor, still indicating the hearthstone. 
 
 Mrs South, with great show of zeal, fetched a broom, 
 and began to sweep up the pieces. 
 
 " Ef you'd not left 'em so near the edge of the table, 
 they'd never ha' gone through my hands so quick," she 
 remarked inconsequently. " But there ! footy stuff I 
 say they be." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 89 
 
 Not even when Honor brought water and a cloth, 
 and made signs of rubbing the hearthstone, could Mrs 
 South be driven from her attitude of persistent mis- 
 understanding. 
 
 " Bain't the day for washing the kitchen floor," she 
 remarked severely, and clattered out to the farmyard. 
 
 It was near to dinner-time when Honor, in despair, 
 caught up the cloth and brick and began to scour the 
 hearthstone herself. 
 
 The reddish pattern seemed fast dyed upon it ; as she 
 knelt, the heat of the fire burned into her brain. She 
 turned giddy, and would have rolled over, if the 
 farmer, coming in, had not snatched her away, just 
 in time. 
 
 " What be you doin' ? " he asked angrily. " Who told 
 you to touch it ? " 
 
 " I could not make Mrs South understand," gasped 
 Honor, from the settle where he had put her down. 
 
 " We'll see about that," he said curtly. " Where's the 
 mistress ? " 
 
 " One of her sleepy fits came on, just when I had 
 dressed her, so I left her lying on her bed." 
 
 " She'll sleep till night then. If dinner's ready we'll 
 sit down to it." 
 
 Mrs South coming in at that moment, and about to 
 draw her chair up to the table, was stopped by her 
 master, who set the chair back against the wall. 
 
 "You'll not sit down to your victuals till you've 
 cleaned that hearthstone." 
 
 Mrs South glared at him sulkily for a moment, then 
 muttering u Ef you will hev they comin' down the 
 chimney you will," set to work. 
 
 " You're looking very flue," said the farmer to Honor 
 as he finished dinner. 
 
90 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " My head aches," Honor confessed. 
 
 " Tis the heat ! Go out into the air, get some black- 
 berries, there's plenty, and the mistress likes them. 
 She won't wake before evening, and Mrs South can 
 stay by her." 
 
 It was a cool, fine afternoon, with a bright sun, and 
 a brisk wind blowing the little clouds over the sky. 
 Everything seemed fresh and sweet after the heat of 
 the kitchen and the strong smell of the beans and 
 bacon which Mrs South had boiled for dinner. The 
 throbbing pain in Honor's temples grew less as she 
 wandered up and down the fields. 
 
 Blackberries still hung on the bushes, though many, 
 over-ripe, had dropped into the tangles of grass and 
 leaves beneath. The greedy birds, with the usual con- 
 tempt for the popular belief that berries are sent to 
 save them from starving in the winter, were picking 
 the hips and haws to pieces, marring their crimson 
 splendour. Children and squirrels had left some of the 
 nuts to dangle overhead, and in hedges, and on the 
 commons, the sloes were purpling, having felt the touch 
 of frost that is supposed to mellow their flavour. On 
 the hillside a bare patch showed where the bracken 
 had been cut; further on, it still displayed its yellow 
 stems and hard brown foliage. A great elm -tree, half- 
 way down the hill, caught by the wind and the sun, 
 flared pure gold. 
 
 Honor's basket was heavy when she came to a little 
 wood. Though she had never crossed it, she knew 
 that on the other side were fields belonging to the 
 farm. She went along a narrow track among the trees. 
 In the spring the ground beneath her feet would be 
 starred with white anemones where it was not misty 
 with bluebells; in autumn it was covered with dead 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 91 
 
 leaves, through which she went with a child's pleasure 
 in the rustling, hushing sound. One of her earliest 
 memories was of running through dead leaves on the 
 pathway leading to the church at Witham and falling 
 down among them, to be picked up by Nurse Tanner, 
 with a reproof for running in the churchyard. 
 
 There was no one to lift her now if she fell. Yes, 
 the farmer had picked her up that morning or her head 
 would have gone into the fire. He was stronger than 
 a woman and more gentle. Honor was beginning to 
 see that there might be men in the world of another 
 type from Sir Charles Mendip or Mr Rivers. 
 
 She saw Farmer Lapworth, at the close of a long 
 day's work, come back with a smile for the wife who 
 could do nothing for his comfort, could not give him so 
 much as a cheerful word. She knew how, night after 
 night, he would sit beside a restless, fretful invalid 
 until she fell asleep, and often had no sleep himself. 
 Whatever happened, his first thought was for her, and 
 he thought himself rewarded if he could fancy that 
 she smiled. After a week spent in his house, Honor 
 wondered whether perhaps there could be marriages 
 which were not merely a question of settlements and 
 Mechlin lace. " But they must have been married in 
 church," she said to herself. 
 
 By this time the trees were growing thin ; she was 
 on the outskirts of the wood. She struggled through 
 a thicket of guelder rose bushes and found herself in a 
 bare field on the hillside. A little brook ran past her, 
 almost hidden beneath huge burdock leaves. At one 
 end of the field a space had been cleared as for a 
 flower-bed ; there was a bush of sweet-briar, a bush of 
 lavender, clumps of southernwood and Michaelmas 
 daisies, and among them knelt Farmer Lapworth, busily 
 
92 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 weeding. Something in his look and attitude struck 
 Honor with a sense of awe, and she was about to steal 
 back into the wood when the farmer's dog, who was 
 watching his master with a kindly air of patronage, 
 saw her and gave a short sharp bark. 
 
 " You're there, Honor ? " said the farmer, turning 
 round. "Come and look at my garden." 
 
 Honor came up to him and saw that he was pulling 
 up weeds from around a square block of stone. 
 
 " You've never come here before ? No, no one comes 
 here but me and Nelson " (Nelson wagged a brindled 
 tail with great vigour and tried to see if there were 
 any scraps in Honor's basket). " 'Tis where I buried 
 our maid." 
 
 Honor, who had stooped to set down her basket, 
 looked up startled. 
 
 "You've a mortial load there. Sit down and rest 
 awhile ; there's no need for you to be getting back yet. 
 I'll tell you how it was. It was before we could take 
 her to church to be christened that the mistress fell 
 with her down the stairs ; 'tis a long way to church, 
 and the roads in the winter are very ornary. Parson 
 he said she could not be buried by the side of my 
 father and mother because she was dead before she 
 could be christened, and he wanted to put her on the 
 north side of the churchyard, away from all our own 
 folk. She was so little, she'd have been lonesome at 
 nights with none to speak to. So I brought her here 
 where the sun shines, and I planted flowers to make it 
 bright for her. If she can't hear the church bells ring, 
 she can hear me going up and down. It's not so gay 
 now as it is earlier in the year, but it smells sweet." 
 
 " You have two sons, haven't you ? " asked Honor 
 shyly. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 93 
 
 " I hope I have, but I don't rightly know. Jack, he 
 was taken by the pressgang last year when he'd gone 
 down to see his aunt and uncle, near ArundeL I've 
 had one letter from him since then. He said his ship 
 was going out to the Spanish Main, where we used to 
 fight in old days. If he isn't dead or drownded, maybe 
 he'll be coming home some day. Jem is down on the 
 marshes with the sheep; he's coming over here in a 
 day or two. Tis a dull house for the lads now that 
 their mother can't speak to them. If our maid had 
 lived it would have been different. A child about the 
 place brightens it up. She'd have been old enough by 
 now to be a comfort to her brothers." 
 
 He gently scraped a little moss from the stone with 
 his clasp-knife and pulled up a tuft of grass. 
 
 " The weeds grow quicker than the flowers almost. 
 I put primroses here for the spring, and take 'em up 
 when they've done flowering. That's a rare place for 
 violets, that bank ; you'll find one or two hidden away 
 under the leaves all the year round. Then, in winter, 
 there's that little holly bush on the top of the bank, 
 covered with red berries ; there's always a bit of colour 
 for her." 
 
 " It is beautiful," said Honor, suddenly finding tears 
 coming to her eyes. The farmer looked at her with 
 a quiet puzzled surprise. "Don't cry, my maid; 
 there's nothing to cry for. I've done my best for her, 
 but if I'd been a rich man, she should have had some- 
 thing better." 
 
 " A monument ? " asked Honor, with a vision of the 
 ponderous slabs adorned with jolter-headed cherubim, 
 skulls, scythes, hour-glasses, and moral sentiments with 
 which the mourners of her day honoured their dead. 
 
 " No, not exactly a monument : a big church would 
 
94 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 be what I would build. When I was a boy my father's 
 brother, who was in the trade, took me over to France 
 for a run. We went to a town on a river in Nor- 
 mandy. I can't rightly remember its name, but long 
 ago it belonged to the English, and they burned a 
 young woman there that was helping the French to 
 drive them out." 
 
 A recollection of Miss Lester's teaching flashed across 
 Honor's mind. " Joan of Arc ? Was it Rouen ? " 
 
 " You've got it ! that's the name. It was full of 
 churches, and each of them more won'nerful than 
 the other. There was one that was the pick of them 
 all. Tall, tall pillars, springing out of the ground as if 
 they grew like the trees, and rising up and up ; and 
 when your head was quite giddy staring up after them, 
 you could look down and see them reflected, pillars, 
 arches, and all, in a big basin of water by the door. I 
 was always making off to that church, and my uncle 
 he used to laugh at me. It was like tearing something 
 up by the roots when I had to come back to England." 
 
 " You have never seen it again ? " 
 
 " No, never. There's none of it left, 'tis likely, for 
 they tell me that when the Frenchies chopped the 
 heads off their king and queen, they broke down the 
 churches and shut 'em up. But I can see it all still, 
 every line of it. If I were a rich man, I'd build it up 
 here in this field over our maid. There was a gentle- 
 man told me once that long ago there were men that 
 used to go from place to place building up churches. 
 They must have been happy. I'd have liked to be one 
 of them." 
 
 He fell silent, looking up at the sky, and Honor did 
 not venture another question. 
 
 " Well," he said at last, rousing himself, " I must go 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 95 
 
 about my work and you must go to yours. Don't you 
 go to do that woman's work another day." 
 
 " What did it mean ? " asked Honor, curiosity over- 
 powering her shyness. " Why was that pattern on 
 the hearthstone ? Did Mrs South put it there ? " 
 
 " If she didn't put it there, she knew who did, the 
 old fool ! 'Twas to keep away the witches, most likely, 
 or the Pharisees." 
 
 " The Pharisees ? Mrs South said that if she did not 
 get home before dark the Pharisees would interrupt 
 her, and I did not know what she meant." 
 
 " Pack o' nonsense," said the farmer shortly. " Take 
 the mistress her blackberries and never mind a tire- 
 some old woman's chatter. There's no such thing as 
 witches or Pharisees, and I've told her so more times 
 than you could count." 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 On the following morning the farmer did not come in 
 to breakfast at his usual time. Honor drank a cupful 
 of milk, and was about to go to Mrs Lap worth's room, 
 when she heard his step in the hall. 
 
 " I'm late," he said, dropping into the big chair by 
 the fireplace. " I don't want nothing to eat. You can 
 clear away the breakfast." 
 
 Honor stared at him aghast. His eyes were dull 
 and deep-sunk in their sockets, his face was pinched, 
 its colour as yellow as that of his wife. 
 
 "What is it? Are you ill?" 
 
 "I'll be better some day," he managed to say be- 
 tween the chattering of his teeth. " Stir up the fire, 
 will you ? It's terrible cold." 
 
 Mrs South, coming to her day's work, stopped short 
 in the middle of the floor, and regarded her master 
 critically, her arms akimbo. Her head bent forward 
 to one side and her black-and-white shawl gave her 
 something of the appearance of an elderly magpie. 
 
 " I telled you so ! " was her remark when she had 
 surveyed him all over. " Now perhaps you'll be sorry 
 that you made me scour the hearthstone." 
 
 " What is it ? " shouted Honor in her ear. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 97 
 
 "Tis the axey," replied Mrs South, scratching her 
 head with such an air of subdued triumph as might 
 have been worn by the legendary cats who saw 
 Harriet burned down to her little scarlet shoes, " and 
 he best knows how he got it. If they bain't kept 
 off " 
 
 "If you talk any more nonsense, woman, I'll take 
 you by the shoulders and put you out of the door," 
 interrupted Lapworth. "I get these ague fits every 
 autumn, as you know well enough." 
 
 " Oo'man, indeed ! " snorted Mrs South. " Who be 
 you callin' a oo'man ? D'you want me to make you 
 some cobweb pills ? " 
 
 The growl that came from the big chair could not 
 be ignored even by ears as dull as Mrs South's, and 
 she retreated to the back kitchen to make as much 
 clatter as possible over the washing-up, while Honor 
 tried to find out whether anything could be done to 
 relieve Lapworth. 
 
 Apparently there was nothing, or else he was too 
 sick and miserable to think of it. He would sit quietly 
 over the fire, he said, and maybe the fit would pass 
 off. Isaac must do as best he could, without his 
 master's help. He gave a smile and nod of thanks 
 when Honor put one of the settle cushions behind his 
 head, and wrapped the quilt about his knees, and then 
 lay back in the chair, either dozing, or pretending to 
 doze. Honor was inclined to think the latter, for she 
 saw his brows frowning continually over the closed 
 eyelids, and caught little sighs of pain or weariness. 
 
 She wondered whether Mrs Lapworth would be 
 much affected by her husband's illness, and it was a 
 relief to find her in her most apathetic state, taking 
 no notice of anything. The poor girl felt as if all the 
 
 G 
 
98 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 cares of the world were upon her shoulders that morn- 
 ing, with two invalids to nurse, and herself strangely- 
 ill and languid. Was she going to have the ague ? she 
 wondered, as she dragged herself about the kitchen, 
 which was as hot as a furnace, the farmer rousing 
 himself at intervals to pile more wood on the fire. 
 Mrs South was no help to any one, breaking every- 
 thing she touched, and keeping up such a fusilade of 
 bangs, crashes, and thumps as sent little quivering 
 shafts of pain through Honor's head, and must have 
 been torture to the farmer, though he neither moved 
 nor spoke. If Honor tried to make her understand 
 that she must be quiet, the old woman stared at her 
 insolently, and kept up a muttering below her breath. 
 
 The midday dinner was an empty ceremony for all 
 except Mrs South, who carried off the dishes into the 
 back kitchen, and apparently ate for four persons ; 
 there was nothing left when Honor passed out on her 
 way to the dairy. 
 
 In the days when Mrs Lapworth was in good health 
 her dairy had been one of the best in the county. 
 Since her accident no more butter and cheese were 
 made than were used by the farmer's household. 
 Honor looked round at the bare shelves, the huge 
 empty crocks piled one on another, and again thought 
 of Lapworth's wonderful patience and tenderness with 
 the wife who was nothing but a burden in every 
 way. 
 
 It was cool and quiet in the dairy ; Honor sighed 
 with relief as she bent over the churn. To be alone, 
 to be able to look round her with no fear of meeting 
 Isaac's malignant scowl, Mrs South's sullen defiance, 
 or even poor Mrs Lapworth's vacant stare, was such 
 relief that she prolonged the work as much as possible, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 99 
 
 reluctant to go back. If Mrs Lapworth began to fret 
 her husband could soothe her. 
 
 Meanwhile in the kitchen, driven at last beyond his 
 patience by Mrs South's din, the farmer bade her 
 " wisht " in a tone that took no denial. In the follow- 
 ing silence he fell into a real sleep, from which he was 
 disturbed all too soon by a rapping at the door of 
 the porch. 
 
 With a great effort he dragged himself away from 
 the fire, and peeped out cautiously through a side 
 window. An elderly footman in livery with a basket 
 upon his arm was knocking upon the door with his 
 cane; behind him, filling the porch lengthways and 
 breadthways, stood a majestic figure in a black satin 
 cloak and large black bonnet. 
 
 " 'Tis Madam herself ! " groaned poor Lapworth in 
 dismay. "Well, if this doesn't beat everything." 
 
 For the last five-and -thirty years the Squire's wife 
 had been to her own class an example of practical 
 piety, to her husband's tenants and poorer neighbours, 
 and to young people of every degree, an active em- 
 bodiment of the Nemesis attending on their acts. 
 Every morning saw her busy in the village school, 
 built and maintained at her own expense, where 
 several successive generations learned much that was 
 of use to them in after life, besides the three R's and 
 the Church Catechism. When the scholars were old 
 enough to leave school, she took some into her own 
 establishment for training, and found situations for 
 others; those who went out into the world were at 
 all times sure of a welcome at Dykelands, if they came 
 back to the village. There were few afternoons when 
 the pony carriage was not to be met in the lanes 
 taking Madam Marsh on her rounds to admonish the 
 
100 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 erring, to advise the ill - counselled, to bring little 
 comforts to the old and ailing, to read to the sick, and 
 to prescribe for every ailment or disaster, from a love- 
 crossed girl's hysterics to a smoking chimney, or a leg 
 cut off by a scythe. 
 
 The awe of her was all over the countryside, in a 
 circuit of many miles. Nearly every man, woman, and 
 child, from her own husband to the poacher committed 
 for trial at the next assizes, had taken her medicines 
 and listened to her admonitions, and it would be diffi- 
 cult to say which were regarded with more terror. 
 The worst that could be said by the village patriarch 
 to illustrate Napoleon's defiance of the Powers of 
 Europe, was the assurance that " if that there Bony 
 were to land, he wouldn't care the snap of his fingers 
 for any man, not even for Madam Marsh." 
 
 Popular opinion inclined to believe that if " Bony " 
 once permitted Madam to dose him, his attitude would 
 change. " Anyway, I'll never hev to take no more of 
 her stuff," said an abandoned character, when Madam 
 declared that she should not enter his cottage again 
 unless he reformed in some particulars, and his audience, 
 though shocked, felt a secret thrill of sympathy. 
 
 The farmer did not feel equal to encountering 
 Madam, when in the grip of the ague. He was 
 wondering whether he could effect his escape by the 
 back door, and send Honor to meet the attack, when 
 round the corner of the house came Mrs South, who, 
 on perceiving Madam, began to dip curtsies. 
 
 " Good morning, Mrs South," said the great lady in 
 a rounded deliberate voice. " I came to see Mrs Lap- 
 worth. Is she in the kitchen?" 
 
 "Yes, ma'am, and the master too. He was took 
 mortial bad with the axey." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 101 
 
 " How very fortunate that I should have come to- 
 day ! I have some medicine that will soon put him to 
 rights. Tobias, you can give me the basket ; go on to 
 Mrs Marston to get the eggs, and be sure to come back 
 within half an hour." 
 
 In Mr Lapworth's opinion, this encounter was any- 
 thing but fortunate. But there was no retreat ; Madam 
 was upon him. 
 
 " How's this, Mr Lapworth ? I hear you have the 
 ague again. Sit down — no, not there — there might be 
 a draught from the window." The farmer was waved 
 into a chair in what he considered the most unsuitable 
 situation. " How is Mrs Lapworth ? Still the same, 
 I see. They told me that your niece had gone home, 
 because her father met with an accident. So I came 
 round to see what you were doing without her." 
 
 "I take it very kindly of you, ma'am," answered 
 Lapworth, fidgeting uneasily as he saw the lady place 
 her basket on the table under the window. "We're 
 doing well enough." 
 
 Madam began to draw off her gloves, with the de- 
 liberate and capable air which accompanied every act 
 of her life. M And how long have you had this ague ? " 
 
 "It was never bad at all till this morning," said 
 Lapworth hastily, with one eye upon the basket, " and 
 it will be better to-morrow, perhaps." 
 
 " No perhaps about it, if you do as I tell you," said 
 Madam, turning over the contents of the basket. 
 " That's the emulsion for Mrs Tigg's baby — that — no, 
 that's the Bible for Jane Wood, she's going to service 
 in Petworth, a very good situation, and I hope she'll 
 keep it. It must be at the bottom of the basket. I 
 shall have to turn all the things out." 
 
 " Don't trouble yourself, ma'am, pray," was the far- 
 
102 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 mer's entreaty. " I never take no notice of these fits — 
 they come and they go. There'd never be an end of it 
 if I was to take physic for them." 
 
 " I made it for old David, but he won't have finished 
 what I gave him until this evening, and I can send up 
 some more to-morrow morning," pursued the lady in- 
 flexibly. " If you continue to refuse physic, you will 
 probably find yourself in the grave before long." 
 
 " My sister's husband near Arundel, he's had the ague 
 for years, and he says just the same, and he's an older 
 man than me," said Lapworth hastily. 
 
 " I suppose that is the reason why he is so ill that he 
 has been obliged to send for Susan to come home." 
 
 "No, indeed, ma'am, begging your pardon, 'twas 
 nothing of the sort. He fell off the corn-stack and 
 broke his hip." 
 
 " What are they doing for him ? Is the doctor 
 attending him ? " 
 
 Seeing Madam Marsh turn round in her chair and 
 cease to hunt through her basket, the farmer hoped 
 that her attention might be diverted from himself to 
 another sufferer. He gave such particulars as he knew 
 of his brother-in-law's accident, deeply regretting that 
 the parish clerk who wrote the letter for Susan's 
 mother had filled up the sheet with religious consola- 
 tions and moral sentiments rather than with medical 
 details, so that he was unable to spin out the story until 
 the return of the footman and the pony carriage. 
 
 Madam Marsh listened with compressed mouth 
 and thoughtful eye, nodding or shaking her head at 
 intervals. 
 
 " He must be bled again, of course ; and then " 
 
 There followed minute instructions, concluding with 
 a promise to write them all down for Susan, as Madam 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 103 
 
 did not suppose that Mr Lapworth would be able to 
 remember them. 
 
 "Now for some medicine," she continued, turning 
 back to the table. " Yes, this is it. To be taken in 
 the morning, fasting, and again when you go to bed. 
 There's enough here for three days, and I shall come 
 again, the day after to-morrow, to see how far you 
 have benefited by it. Who in the world is that young 
 person with the curls ? " 
 
 Lapworth looked over Madam's shoulder, and follow- 
 ing the direction of her large forefinger, saw Honor 
 crossing the yard at the back of the farmhouse. 
 
 " 'Tis a maid that's come to take Susan's place till 
 her father be well enough for her to come back. A 
 good young maid she be, nicely spoken, very wisht, 
 and the mistress took to her from the first." 
 
 " I don't know her by sight," said the old lady, 
 putting up her glass. "What is her name? Honor 
 Lester ? There's no such name anywhere in this 
 neighbourhood." 
 
 " No, she's a foreigner — from the Shires, I think. 
 Mrs Cope promised to find some one for me at the 
 hiring fair last week, and she sent me this maid." 
 
 "I do not understand this in the least." Madam 
 Marsh put down her glass, and spoke with more than 
 her usual deliberation. " I saw Mrs Cope in Petworth 
 last night, and she told me that Susan had been obliged 
 to go home, and that she had been unable to find a girl 
 for you at the hiring fair. Did this girl tell you that 
 Mrs Cope had sent her ? " 
 
 " I thought so." Lapworth's head was too dizzy for 
 him to remember anything very clearly. 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me that you took her into your 
 house without knowing anything about her ? " 
 
104 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " I thought Mrs Cope knew all about her," said the 
 farmer helplessly. " She came here that evening, and 
 she never said she didn't come from Mrs Cope." 
 
 "I don't understand it," repeated Madam. "What 
 has she told you about herself ? " 
 
 " Nothing. I never asked her." 
 
 Honor came back across the courtyard to the dairy, 
 walking slowly and wearily, unaware of the eyes that 
 were upon her. 
 
 With her petticoat tucked up high, and her curls in 
 disorder after her buttermaking, she looked more of 
 a child than usual. 
 
 " When does your son come up from the Marshes ? " 
 asked Madam, suddenly turning upon the farmer. 
 
 * Maybe to-morrow, maybe next day." 
 
 " Then you'll send that child out of your house to- 
 morrow at latest," pronounced Madam. 
 
 " I can't promise to do that, ma'am, unless you can 
 give me some good reason. She's a good maid, and I 
 can't turn her away for nothing." The farmer spoke 
 respectfully, but very decidedly. 
 
 "I should not expect you to turn her away, Mr 
 Lapworth. But for her own sake, as well as yours, 
 you must see that you cannot keep such a young 
 girl here with no older woman to keep her in order. 
 It is not as if Mrs Lapworth were able to look after 
 her. When I came down here this afternoon, it was 
 to propose an arrangement which should answer very 
 well. Jenny Taylor has come home : her master died 
 suddenly, and her mistress is going to live with a 
 brother at Rye. I don't approve of young persons 
 loitering about at home in idleness, or gadding up 
 and down the lanes. So she can come here for the 
 present. She's a strong, healthy young woman, and 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 105 
 
 far fitter for hard work than that girl in the 
 dairy." 
 
 "There's been no need for Honor to do any hard 
 work," interposed the farmer. " There's Mrs South 
 to do that. Honor was to wait on the mistress, and 
 she does it very well." 
 
 "That brings me to another point," pursued the 
 lady, going on without haste or stay inflexibly as a 
 steam-roller. "I do not consider Mrs South at all 
 a good associate for a young girl. She chatters and 
 gossips, she is never seen at church, she is very un- 
 tidy in her person. Jenny is of an age to take 
 warning by her ; but the other girl is much younger, 
 and might be led into bad habits. Jenny will come 
 down here to-morrow morning, when I am send- 
 ing Anson with the taxed cart into Petworth. On 
 the way back, about twelve o'clock, he will call 
 for the girl and bring her up to Dykelands. Mrs 
 Carrage tells me she wants more help in the still- 
 room ; and if the girl is clean, handy, and obliging, 
 I may keep her for a little time and give her 
 some training before sending her out to another 
 situation." 
 
 "That's very kind of you, ma'am, I'll not deny," 
 said the farmer weakly. Another shivering fit was 
 coming on, and he would have agreed to any arrange- 
 ment provided that Madam Marsh would leave the house 
 before his teeth were chattering audibly. While she 
 unfolded her plan she had been repacking her basket 
 and absently had put in David's medicine with the other 
 things ; if she could be hurried away at once she might 
 not notice her mistake. 
 
 " It feels heavy," he remarked, turning his swimming 
 eyes to the window. " I should not wonder if we had 
 
106 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 thunder before dark." He knew that Madam's stout 
 little pony had only one fault — that of becoming un- 
 manageable in a thunderstorm. 
 
 "I must hasten back," said Madam, rising with as 
 much haste as was possible for a lady of her size 
 wearing a coal-scuttle bonnet. "I thank you, Mr 
 Lapworth, but I am quite able to carry my basket 
 to the gate. You must not think of coming to the 
 door, for fear of catching cold. Good - day, Mr 
 Lapworth. , I hope your son will return in good 
 health." 
 
 The door closed upon the rustling black figure, to 
 open again in another moment. 
 
 "I had forgotten one thing, Mr Lapworth. You 
 had better warn the young girl that I shall expect 
 her to cut off those curls when she comes into 
 my house. They are not at all suitable to her 
 position." 
 
 The latch fell with a sharp click. The farmer, 
 thinking all danger was over, collapsed into the chair 
 out of which Madam had routed him, and was wrap- 
 ping the quilt once more round his knees when the 
 porch resounded to a heavy tread. Tobias pushed 
 the kitchen door open and deposited a large green 
 bottle upon the table. 
 
 " Madam sent this, and you be to take two spoonfuls 
 at night and two in the morning ; and don't you take 
 nothing else but a little gruel, made very thin, until 
 she come to see you again." 
 
107 
 
 CHAPTEB XL 
 
 Whether Madam Marsh's draught had really a whole- 
 some effect, or whether it merely compelled the patient 
 to exert himself in order to escape from taking more 
 of it, after spending the evening alternately shivering 
 and burning, Mr Lapworth found himself better next 
 morning. He was very weak and shaky, which he 
 ungratefully attributed to the medicine rather than 
 to the ague, so he decided to lie in bed till near 
 breakfast-time. After breakfast he thought he might 
 be able to go out and see what Isaac had been 
 doing. 
 
 As he dressed himself, he remembered that Honor 
 must be told that she was going to Dykelands. His 
 conscience troubled him : he ought not to have agreed 
 to the arrangement without sending for the girl 
 and hearing what she had to say about it. She 
 might not wish to go to Dykelands. (There was a 
 button come off his waistcoat. What fools women 
 were ! 'Twas their job to sew on buttons, and they 
 never did it so that the things could stand no manner 
 of strain.) If she did not wish to go, that showed 
 that she did not know what was for her good. How 
 could he send for her when she was out in the 
 
108 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 dairy, and he was feeling too bad to walk across 
 the floor, and Madam's voice going through his 
 head ? He had done the best he could for her, as 
 he would for a maid of his own; besides, every one 
 knew 'twas no manner of use to contradict old Madam. 
 She had her way with every one, from the Squire to 
 the schoolmistress; and if she said Honor was to go 
 to Dykelands, to Dykelands she would have to go. 
 
 (That last tug had pulled two buttons off his gaiters ; 
 he could not think what thread they used, to have so 
 little hold.) At any rate, he ought to have told Honor 
 what had been settled for her good when she came in 
 from the dairy. No, that was nonsense too. How 
 could he be expected to talk when he was all of a 
 shake and his brains felt as if they were fizzling in 
 his skull? There might have been a score of little 
 devils knocking red-hot nails into the back of his head 
 and over his eyes, and just along the parting of his 
 hair. Suppose she had set to work to argue, as women 
 would, that would have brought another score of them. 
 The recollection of his sufferings was so vivid that 
 Mr Lapworth dismissed all further thought of Honor 
 and her affairs for the present, determining to have his 
 breakfast before giving his mind to the subject. 
 
 It was all the more annoying when he came down- 
 stairs, a full quarter of an hour after the proper time 
 for breakfast, to find nothing ready and Honor trying 
 to light the fire. 
 
 " Hey, now ! what's this ? Where's my breakfast ? " 
 
 " I was late this morning," said Honor, rising from 
 her knees, after thrusting a twig into a suitable 
 crevice. "I overslept myself." 
 
 Her pale cheeks and heavy eyes did not look as if 
 the sleep had done her any good. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 109 
 
 "Those sticks are damp," said the farmer, picking 
 up one from the hearth. "Looks as if you never 
 put them to dry last night." 
 
 "I forgot." In her hurry to lay the table Honor 
 upset the milk -jug. 
 
 "Lucky there was nothing in it," her master said 
 drily as he picked it up. "More haste, less speed. 
 It's no use trying to overtake the time you've lost 
 lying in bed; I'd rather wait a few minutes for 
 breakfast than have all the china broken." 
 
 It did not tend to help the process of getting break- 
 fast that the farmer was sitting in the chair by the 
 fire. It was partly because he felt too weak to go 
 out into the air without food, partly that he might 
 be able to blow up the fire which was unwilling to 
 burn; but to Honor it seemed that he was there 
 on purpose to watch all that she did, and to find 
 fault with it. Everything went wrong under his 
 eye: she broke a mug, she burned a cloth, and up- 
 set most of the contents of the kettle over the fire, 
 which at once gave up the struggle and went out. 
 
 " What's the matter with you ? " cried Lap worth 
 irritably. "Your fingers are all thumbs this morn- 
 ing! You've no hard work to do, — you might set 
 breakfast before dinner-time." 
 
 "What's got everybody this morning?" asked Mrs 
 South, slipping out of her clogs at the back door. 
 "You be mortial late — and the fire out, too. Well, 
 I niver! And how be you to-day, master? How 
 did the physic work ? " 
 
 " Get the fire to burn and hold your tongue," was 
 Lapworth's reply. 
 
 Whether by good luck or good management, Mrs 
 South had the fire burning in a few minutes. Honor 
 
110 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 made Mrs Lapworth's cup of tea, while the farmer 
 began upon his breakfast. 
 
 " She's not drunk a drop of it," he observed, when 
 Honor came back with the cup. "What was wrong 
 with it ? Hadn't you got the water to boil ? " 
 
 " She was sleeping, and I couldn't wake her, so I left 
 her to sleep," said Honor wearily, dropping into a chair. 
 " If she wakes before dinner, I'll make her another cup." 
 
 " Drink it up yourself, then, it will do you'good," said 
 the farmer in a more kindly tone. "You're looking 
 flue again. Madam was right ; this isn't a good place 
 for you." 
 
 Honor put down the tea untasted. " What do you 
 mean ? " 
 
 Before answering, the farmer went across the room 
 and shut the door into the back kitchen, where Mrs 
 South was clattering saucepans. 
 
 " Madam Marsh was here yesterday," he said, coming 
 back to his seat, " and she was saying that you were — 
 well, you were — you were too young for this sort of 
 place, it's too hard work for such a young maid." 
 
 Honor shot one of the sidelong glances with which 
 she had achieved making Mr Rivers uncomfortable, 
 and the farmer found himself suddenly in agreement 
 with Isaac and Mrs South, that there was something 
 unnatural about her. 
 
 " You're — you're too young," he repeated, glad to fall 
 back upon something that did not admit of argument. 
 " Madam, she knew of a young woman that's just come 
 home from her situation, and she'll be coming here to- 
 day to do for us for a bit.'' 
 
 " How will Mrs Lapworth like her ? " Honor was 
 rolling a scrap of bread into little crumbs on the table- 
 cloth, and did not look up as she asked. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 111 
 
 " Eat your victuals or leave 'em, but don't you waste 
 'em that way," he said sharply. " Good bread is none 
 too plentiful. Jane was here once before for a week, 
 when Susan wanted to go home, and the mistress 
 never seemed to dislike her." 
 
 " You say she is coming here to-day ? " Something 
 in Honor's tone provoked the good man. Though he 
 did not know it, it was the tone of a great lady in dis- 
 pleasure with her inferior, and to him it vaguely sug- 
 gested " airs." 
 
 " She may be here any minute, so it would be as well 
 if you were to tidy the place up a bit. The bailiff is 
 bringing her in the taxed cart, and on his way back 
 from Petworth he'll call for you, and take you up to 
 Dykelands.'' 
 
 " To Dykelands ? " Honor's eyes widened, and she 
 drew back her head with a gesture of dignified sur- 
 prise that added to Lapworth's irritation. " I am not 
 going to Dykelands." 
 
 " Aye, but you are. Madam was so good as to say 
 that she would take you into the house for a few days, 
 until she could find another place that would be fitting 
 for you." 
 
 " Do you mean to say that you and she arranged 
 this yesterday afternoon without asking me ? " 
 
 " 'Twas the best thing for you, my maid. You're 
 lucky to get the chance. Madam has a rule to take 
 none into her house that don't live on the estate. 
 There's some would give a good deal to be in your 
 
 " They are welcome to them," said Honor, getting up 
 from the table and going over to the window. 
 
 Then her dignity suddenly collapsed, and she was no 
 more than a frightened child. " Why must I go ? Why 
 
112 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 can't I stay here ? I'll never be late again in the 
 mornings. Mrs Lapworth is quiet when I am with 
 her. Why should you send me to strangers ? " 
 
 The short upper lip was quivering, and there were 
 tears in the hazel eyes. Although not yet recovered 
 from the annoyance of being kept waiting for his 
 breakfast, the farmer's heart began to melt. 
 
 " Come now, you'll be happy enough in a day or two. 
 You'll find plenty of mates there ; Madam has the house 
 full of young maids. Madam is strict, but that's as well, 
 and she's as kind as any can be. She told me that if 
 you behaved well she would keep you on for some time, 
 and give you a good training, the same as she does for 
 the maids out of the village school. 'Twould be a 
 fine thing for you to learn clear-starching, and how to 
 mend lace, and all that, from Madam's own woman." 
 
 " I knew how to mend lace, long ago," cried Honor 
 indignantly, and then burst into a violent fit of crying. 
 
 " Come, come — none of that," quoth the farmer, in a 
 tone between anger and compassion. She looked so 
 small and childish, sobbing into a pocket-handkerchief, 
 which Mrs South's sharp eyes had noticed as finer than 
 Madam's, that compassion gained the day, and he patted 
 her kindly on the shoulder, as if she had been his own 
 daughter. " Cheer up, my maid, you'll spoil your eyes 
 with crying." 
 
 At the touch of his hand Honor turned round upon 
 him, eyes flashing, hands clenched. " How dare you ! 
 How dare you touch me ? " 
 
 " That's a pretty way to behave," exclaimed Lap- 
 worth, honestly aghast. " 'Tis quite time you did go 
 to Madam, to learn how to govern your temper. You 
 need a tight hand over you. 'Tis no wonder that Mrs 
 South is afraid to come to work while you're here." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 113 
 
 Honor turned from him, and began to clear away 
 breakfast. He was going to the door when a sudden 
 recollection of Madam's visit made him stop to say — 
 
 " I'll have to pay you your wages before you go. 
 What did Mrs Cope tell you I was giving ? " 
 
 " I don't know," said Honor indifferently, giving all 
 her attention to folding the tablecloth exactly in its 
 former creases. 
 
 " You don't know ? " echoed the farmer, bringing his 
 hand down on the table with a mighty slap. "You 
 don't know ; why don't you know ? I'll tell you why, 
 my maid — 'tis because Mrs Cope never sent you here. 
 You've been deceiving me." 
 
 Standing over her, with that grim look in his steel- 
 blue eyes and his mouth set hard, Farmer Lapworth 
 would have terrified any ordinary village girl out of 
 her wits. Even Susan, who had the advantage of being 
 his niece, broke into noisy sobs and flung her apron 
 over her head if he exhibited a far smaller degree of 
 displeasure, and Mrs South fled out of the room. 
 
 Honor came of those whose pulses beat more steadily 
 in danger. Without moving an inch, she looked up 
 with eyes from which the tears had dried. 
 
 " I did not deceive you. I never told you that I 
 came from Mrs Cope." 
 
 " You let me think she'd sent you. You never said 
 a word to make me think different." 
 
 " It was no concern of mine what you thought," said 
 Honor carelessly. With just such a look and voice 
 had old Madam Basset, her grandmother, spoken to a 
 defaulting man-servant. 
 
 "Of all the " broke out the farmer, and then 
 
 restrained himself. "'Tis no use talking," he said 
 quietly, and with a certain dignity, " there's something 
 
 H 
 
114 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 come over you, and I can do nothing with you. Maybe 
 you were too young to be here without a woman over 
 you ; you'll do better with Madam. But if you're wise, 
 you'll tell her the truth at once, whoever you are and 
 wherever you come from. If there's one thing she 
 can't abide, 'tis deceit, the same as myself. And 
 you'll not be able to lie in bed of a morning. And 
 you'll have to learn to be pleasant with your fellow- 
 servants." 
 
 Honor sank down to the floor in the deep curtsey 
 which Miss Lester had taught her as soon as she could 
 walk, turned slowly on her heel and slowly walked 
 upstairs, leaving the farmer without power to speak. 
 
 " Well, if this doesn't beat everything," he said when 
 he had recovered his breath, taking refuge in his 
 favourite phrase; what else he said need not be 
 repeated. 
 
 After he had relieved his feelings in some degree, a 
 glance at the old clock with blue and red cherubs 
 painted on its face set him hurrying out at the back 
 door. 
 
 "Jenny will be here in half a minute; it will be 
 better for them to fight it out among themselves." 
 
 It is to be noted that in advising Honor for her 
 good, he had not said one word about her curls. A 
 man may look like a Viking, but for all that may 
 lack courage to deal with a woman. 
 
115 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 Honor sat on her little truckle-bed, aflame with 
 indignation. 
 
 Up to that moment, amid much that was repugnant 
 to her, there had always been the feeling that this was 
 only a play in which she was taking part, not a real 
 portion of her life. She was the princess of a fairy 
 tale, hiding in disguise from her enemies, or set to work 
 among the servants by her cruel stepmother. Some 
 day she would come to her kingdom ; how this was to 
 be, Honor's dreams left vague, for in none of them was 
 there any thought of a prince. 
 
 To the faithful old woman who had brought her up 
 she was ever the princess. 
 
 To the one or two farmers and their wives with 
 whom she was allowed to have anything to do, she was 
 " little Missy," the old Squire's granddaughter, who by 
 rights should have been mistress of Basset Court and 
 Lady of the Manor. Lapworth's distant gentleness, 
 his curious blending of reserve and confidence, were so 
 unlike what might be expected from a man in his 
 position, that she thought herself still the princess with 
 him. Surely he guessed the royal robe under the 
 beggar's rags, even though he seemed not to heed it. 
 
 It would have been difficult to find another such 
 
116 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 man as Lapworth among the English farmers of his 
 day. In earlier times he might have fulfilled his am- 
 bition and become one of the masons whom he envied ; 
 if he had been born a hundred years later, poetry and 
 mysticism would have been ground out of him by 
 " education " according to the lights of Whitehall, and 
 in some ways he might have been a happier man. In 
 the Georgian era his characteristics were neither de- 
 veloped nor entirely crushed. 
 
 Honor saw only that he was unlike the farmers 
 around Witham, and took for something personal to 
 herself the consideration and kindliness which the 
 daughterless man showed to a young girl. 
 
 She was sore with anger and humiliation. She had 
 brought herself to ask this man to let her stay as his 
 servant, and he refused. He had dared to clap her 
 upon the shoulder as if she had been a common village 
 girl, and he had lectured her upon her behaviour to 
 her " fellow -servants," thereby evening her to Mrs 
 South and Isaac. 
 
 After this she would not stay another hour at the 
 farm, even were he to ask it. 
 
 How her head ached ! It was always aching. She 
 remembered that she had eaten no breakfast, and half 
 thought of going downstairs, now that the farmer was 
 out of the way, to cut herself a piece of bread and 
 butter. No, she would not eat his food again; she 
 would take nothing from him. She would leave pay- 
 ment for what she had eaten, so that he should know 
 that she owed him nothing. She would write what 
 she had to say, for she would not speak to him again. 
 She remembered that the farmer kept pen and ink in 
 his wife's room, and ran downstairs, meeting no one by 
 the way. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 117 
 
 Mrs Lapworth was lying in the deathlike stupor 
 which was her equivalent for sleep. Honor stroked 
 back the loose locks of hair from the wrinkled face 
 and pulled the bedclothes more closely round her, with 
 a touch of regret. " I hope Jenny won't be cruel to 
 you, poor woman," she whispered. "Mrs South is 
 frightened of coming near you, so she won't ill-treat 
 you." 
 
 The pen and ink were on the chimneypiece. Honor 
 tore a corner from a piece of rough brown paper that 
 had been used to wrap up the farmer's new beaver hat 
 when it came home, and wrote — 
 
 " To pay you for what I have eaten and broken." 
 
 Steps sounded on the flags outside, and Honor fled 
 up to her own room before she could be seen by the 
 new arrival. It must be Jenny ; she could hear talk- 
 ing in the kitchen, Mrs South's persistent flow of words 
 broken by a louder, shriller voice. Evidently Jenny 
 had good lungs. 
 
 Honor wrapped the brown paper round one of her 
 guineas and laid it in a conspicuous position on the 
 window-sill, the only substitute for a table in the bed- 
 room. It might be evidence against her, it might lead 
 to her being traced by Mr Rivers and Sir Charles, but 
 in her bitterness of feeling nothing could stay her from 
 leaving that guinea. 
 
 What was to be done now ? she asked herself, sitting 
 down again on the edge of the bed. Ill and weary as 
 she felt, she was not fit to take the road again; it 
 would be easier for the moment to let the bailiff drive 
 her to Dykelands in the taxed cart, and wait what 
 might befall her there. But Honor knew that to 
 go to Dykelands would mean resigning the struggle 
 and surrendering herself to Sir Charles. She could 
 
118 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 not hope to keep her secret there for a single day. If 
 Madam Marsh were too busy or too dignified to notice 
 such an insignificant person, there were the "young 
 maids " of whom Lapworth spoke — they would sleep 
 three or four of them in the same room, and Honor 
 would have to share a bed with one or other. They 
 would find out at once that she had no clothes except 
 those on her back, and that while on the outside she 
 was dressed as a village girl, her under-linen was fine 
 and soft as silk. She had torn off the lace from it, 
 but nothing could disguise its texture. 
 
 The farmer once let fall something about a pedlar 
 who came round every month, and Honor had intended 
 to purchase materials from him, and make them up 
 when sitting with Mrs Lapworth. Meanwhile she 
 had been driven to make use of some of the things 
 discarded by Susan ; these she could not take with her 
 to Dykelands. 
 
 She must go out into the world again. There was 
 no time to think of a plan. Already the bailiff had 
 fulfilled the first part of his errand, and he would soon 
 return to fetch her ; she must be well out of the way 
 before he arrived. 
 
 As quietly as she could go in her ill-fitting shoes, 
 she slipped downstairs and out through the porch. 
 The kitchen door was shut, and the women within saw 
 and heard nothing. Mrs South was pinching the 
 skirt of Jenny's wincey gown between finger and 
 thumb, and Jenny was trying to make her understand 
 that though it had belonged to Jenny's former mistress, 
 it was perfectly new and had never been worn. They 
 were good friends by this time, and although hereafter 
 they would quarrel like cat and dog, Jenny would never 
 offend by greater refinement in mind and ways than 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 119 
 
 the old woman, and so all her other faults could be 
 forgiven. 
 
 Outside, on the grass plot, the black cat, his claws 
 tucked primly beneath his chest, was gazing with a 
 wistful and dreamy look at a robin on the bough far 
 above his head. 
 
 "Good-bye, Tim," said Honor, stooping to rub his 
 ears ; " keep out of Mrs South's way when I am gone, 
 or she'll upset the saucepan over you, and pretend that 
 she did it by accident." 
 
 Tim purred disdainfully ; he had taken care of him- 
 self for many years before Honor came on the scene, 
 and he intended to do so when she went away. She 
 was useful when he wanted his chest tickled or his head 
 scratched, but she need not think herself of any import- 
 ance to him. 
 
 A bitter wind was blowing from behind dark-grey 
 clouds. Honor thought regretfully of Susan's old blue 
 shawl, hanging on a peg in her room. Had she known 
 it, the shawl was one of Mrs South's grievances against 
 her, the old woman having meant to appropriate it 
 after Susan's departure. 
 
 It was senseless to stand there shivering; if she 
 walked quickly she might keep herself warm. With 
 a last caress to Tim's sleek head she went through the 
 gate, making a circuit to the back of the farm, and took 
 the path leading across the wood. 
 
 Coming in at midday to his dinner, the farmer he^rd 
 a cheerful voice uplifted in a ballad at that time 
 popular with the Royal Navy. There was no harm in 
 it, for all its coarseness, as there was no harm in Jenny, 
 who was singing it lustily. She was a well-behaved 
 young woman, according to Madam Marsh's severe 
 standard, and no man, gentle or simple, would have 
 
120 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 taken a liberty with her twice. But the farmer 
 frowned and sighed, as the ditty caught his ear, in- 
 sensibly contrasting the nasal drawl, broken by sudden 
 gasps for breath, with the low clear voice that he used 
 to hear crooning to Mrs South. 
 
 " When shall we meet again, sweetheart ? 
 When shall we meet again ? " 
 
 It was as great a contrast as there was between the 
 slim brown elf, with the tangle of red curls all over her 
 head, and buxom, red-armed, apple-cheeked Jenny, who 
 grinned broadly and dipped to him as he entered the 
 kitchen. 
 
 The occasion required him to make inquiries after 
 the health of her family, as he sat at the head of the 
 table, waiting for Mrs South to dish up the dinner. 
 Jenny, who was one of eleven children, was in the 
 midst of a minute description of the swelling on 
 her fourth sister's throat, when he suddenly inter- 
 rupted her — 
 
 " What are you doing there ? " 
 
 Jenny paused, open-mouthed. In her hand was an 
 autumn bouquet of bright - coloured autumn leaves, 
 long trails of blackberry and tufts of marsh ragwort. 
 
 " I was throwin' away them nasty weeds, sir." 
 
 " Leave them alone," he ordered curtly. Two nights 
 ago he had watched the slender brown fingers arrang- 
 ing the posy, while Mrs Lapworth looked on and 
 seemed to be pleased. 
 
 " Where is Honor ? " he asked, when Mrs South set 
 the dish in front of him. " She had better get her 
 dinner quick before Mr Anson calls for her." 
 
 Jenny had not set eyes on her ; Mrs South thought 
 she was in her room. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 121 
 
 " Go up and tell her dinner's ready," said the farmer, 
 and Mrs South very reluctantly obeyed. 
 
 She was absent for longer than seemed necessary, 
 and when she came back it was to report that Honor 
 had gone. 
 
 " Gone where ? Did you see her go ? " 
 
 No, Mrs South had seen and heard nothing; she 
 only knew that the room was empty. There was a 
 shortness in Mrs South's breath, and a curious look in 
 her eyes, which the farmer interpreted to mean that she 
 was feeling her age, and should not have been sent up- 
 stairs just before her dinner. 
 
 " Where's she gone ? Is she in the dairy ? " 
 
 Jenny was certain that she was not, having just 
 come from thence herself. Perhaps she had walked 
 a bit down the road to save Mr Anson from coming 
 up the lane. 
 
 " She can't have gone off without her wages. Besides, 
 it's raining hard ; she'd be drenched to the skin, waiting 
 about in the lane." 
 
 At this moment came a loud thump upon the door, 
 and through the window might be seen the portly 
 figure of Mr Anson, who did not wait for the door to 
 be opened to him before giving his opinion of young 
 maids in general and this one in particular. Here had 
 he been waiting for her in the lane for good ten 
 minutes by his watch, and because he could wait no 
 longer, and it was raining, he had been obliged to bring 
 the cart up to the gate, and if the paint had been 
 scratched in the lane, he would not answer for what 
 Madam might say. 
 
 When he had expressed himself sufficiently, he 
 yielded to force of circumstances, which in this case 
 meant Mrs South's " toad in a hole " combined with a 
 
122 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 heavy downpour of rain, and took his bit of dinner at 
 the farm, although, as he was careful to point out, he 
 was used to wash down his victuals with something 
 better than butter-milk. 
 
 Nothing could persuade him to stay a moment after 
 he had finished. The rain was ceasing, and he had 
 other things to do besides waiting about all day for 
 ungrateful young hussies. She might walk to Dyke- 
 lands on her ten toes. 
 
 Mr Lapworth sent his duty to Madam, and promised 
 to send Honor up to the house on her reappearance. 
 " Though whether Madam will choose to take her after 
 behavin' to me in this way," said the bailiff with 
 dignity, "is another pair of shoes, as the common 
 people say." 
 
 Madam undoubtedly was much displeased, and 
 would have said and done something in the matter 
 but for the deplorable weakness of the Squire. Con- 
 tinually immersed in the study of heraldry, he never 
 had the chance or the wish to do anything wrong, 
 except in the way of over-eating himself, and from 
 that danger his wife's continual watchfulness preserved 
 him. Unfortunately upon that very day Madam was 
 detained in the village by the arrival of the black- 
 smith's wife's baby, without any warning and long 
 before its time, and the cook sent in a goose-pie for 
 the Squire's dinner. Having for once a chance of en- 
 joying himself whole-heartedly, the good man yielded 
 to it. When Madam came home, late that night, worn 
 out with a hand-to-hand fight with death, in which 
 her coolness and common-sense gained the victory, she 
 found retribution already fallen. The apothecary was 
 fetched in haste, and Madam sat up with the Squire 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 123 
 
 all night. For several days he was so ill that she 
 could spare no time to think of any one else. When 
 convalescence was fairly established, no more having 
 been heard of Honor, Madam concluded that the young 
 woman had gone back to her own neighbourhood. 
 
 A small village boy on his way home from school, 
 on the afternoon of Honor's disappearance from the 
 farm, was stopped by Mrs South, who wanted to know 
 whether he could read writing. 
 
 " Depends on the writing," was his cautious reply. 
 
 " 'Tis somethin' I found on a parcel from the shop," 
 explained Mrs South, displaying a scrap of brown 
 paper. The boy spelled it through. " To pay for what 
 I hev' ea-eaten and broken." 
 
 " You're sure that's all ? " 
 
 He nodded, and ran off whistling in the middle of 
 her explanation that she was no scholar, and didn't 
 think right to throw away a bit of writing, in case 
 it meant something. 
 
 When the pedlar came on his round next week Mrs 
 South changed a guinea and bought herself a new 
 petticoat, in spite of the fact that South had taken 
 all her last month's wages to spend at the alehouse. 
 
 Isaac, with hoarse chuckles, counted over the notches 
 on the tally, and thrust it into the kitchen fire on the 
 evening of Honor's disappearance. 
 
 Mrs Lapworth was very restless for two or three 
 nights. Her husband would have owned to no one 
 that he left the door unfastened, and listened as he sat 
 by his wife's bed for a step on the flags and a hand on 
 the latch. The step never came; Honor had danced 
 across their life as the Will-o'-the-Wisp danced across 
 the ague - haunted meadows, without their knowing 
 
124 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 whence she came or whither she went. Only in 
 dreams before he woke at dawn, or in fancy as he 
 came home in the dusk, did he still hear her sing — 
 
 " When shall we meet again ? 
 When the oaken leaves that fall from the trees 
 Are green and spring again." 
 
125 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 While the bailiff in the lane was wondering what 
 could have come to the baggage, Honor was almost as 
 uncomfortable as in his opinion such a graceless young 
 maid deserved to be. 
 
 She started from the farm with no definite aim, 
 except to keep away from the Petworth road. Having 
 crossed the wood and the field where the child lay 
 buried, she came out into a narrow lane which ap- 
 peared to lead in the opposite direction, and wandered 
 along it, trying to determine whither she should go. 
 
 This was different from the evening when she had 
 escaped from Sir Charles, little more than a week ago. 
 The blackberries, shrivelled or fly-blown, were nearly 
 all fallen from the bushes ; the day was past on which, 
 according to West Country belief, the devil spits upon 
 them and makes them unfit to eat. The honeysuckle, 
 weighed down by cold rains, gave out no scent, and the 
 odour hanging upon the damp air was that of a carrion 
 fungus growing behind the hedge. Instead of speed- 
 ing lightly along the road, she scarcely could drag her 
 feet out of the heavy mire. 
 
 She had gone for about a mile when a big drop of 
 rain dashed into her face, followed by another and 
 
126 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 another. Overhead the sky was black all round, the 
 wind made sudden rushes. She looked on all sides for 
 shelter, and saw in the distance, sticking up like a 
 gigantic pair of ears, the chimneys of a hop oast. 
 
 Before she could reach it the storm burst, and in a 
 few minutes she was wet to the skin. Panting, worn 
 out with the struggle against wind and rain, she could 
 not have reached the oast had it been a score of 
 yards further off; as it was, she fell against the door, 
 which yielded to her weight, and dropped within the 
 threshold. 
 
 The place was deserted and half ruinous. The rain 
 and the wind came in through countless holes in the 
 roof. Honor found a dry patch of floor in one corner 
 and crouched there, her arms clasping her knees in 
 a vain hope of keeping a little warmth in her body. 
 
 She was so tired that if it had not been for the cold 
 she would have fallen asleep. As it was, the dampness 
 of her clothes, and the puffs of wind that came through 
 every crevice, effectually kept her awake to puzzle over 
 the question of her next hiding-place. She could not 
 hope to chance upon another farm where a girl was 
 expected. Those who wanted servants would have 
 found them at the hiring fair. Moreover, she knew 
 that even if she could prevail upon some employer to 
 take her, without a character and without clothes, she 
 could not do the work usually expected of a farm 
 servant. She felt worn out, her body ached from 
 head to heel. 
 
 Rack her brain as she might, she could think of 
 nothing that would help her. This was no longer a 
 fairy-tale adventure; it was a part of human life in 
 all its grimness. 
 
 Should she confess herself beaten ? The farm was 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 127 
 
 only a little way off, and the rain was passing over. 
 She might go back, and if the bailiff were not there, 
 ask Mr Lapworth to take her to Dykelands. At least 
 it must be warm in Madam's house ; they would give 
 her food to eat, dry clothes to put on, a bed on which 
 she might lie down and close her eyes, and forget all 
 her troubles, perhaps, for a few hours. But it would 
 mean that she was once more at Sir Charles's mercy. 
 "And I'd rather be at the bottom of the river than 
 where he could touch me again," said Honor to herself, 
 little guessing that the bottom of the river was exactly 
 the place where her friends believed her to be at that 
 moment. 
 
 Somehow, the thought of a river brought back mem- 
 ories of an afternoon in London when she went out 
 in the carriage with Jane and the children's governess, 
 Mrs Rivers being kept at home by a migraine. They 
 drove to Hammersmith, Jane explaining that Mamma 
 wished her to leave cards upon an old lady, living in 
 the convent, whom she had known for many years. 
 No, she was not exactly a nun, but she was a Papist. 
 Mamma did not wish them to go into the convent ; the 
 cards were to be left at the gate. Jane had never been 
 taken inside when her mother visited the old lady, 
 as Mrs Rivers said that Papists always tried to kidnap 
 young girls, but she believed it was a very old convent. 
 Some one told her that it was founded by Catharine of 
 Braganza, who was the wife of Charles II. ("Quite 
 right, my dear Miss Rivers, I am glad to see that the 
 gay world has not put your history out of your mind," 
 from the governess.) What did they do in a convent ? 
 Jane really did not know. She supposed they wor- 
 shipped the Pope; she knew that they cut off your 
 hair if you became a nun, but not if you were only a 
 
128 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 boarder; the old lady had plenty of hair. Jane did 
 not think that all Papists could be wicked, as people 
 said; when the old lady came to call in Brunswick 
 Square, she often told them how kind the nuns were, 
 and how much they did for the poor ; they were very 
 good to ladies staying at the convent who were ill or 
 in trouble. It was very quiet there ; very pleasant for 
 the sad and the weary — and very cheap, for the nuns 
 did not want to make money ; they were not allowed 
 to have any of their own. Jane thought it a pity that 
 there could be no such place for Protestant ladies. 
 
 As she sat huddled against the wall, with eyes half- 
 closed, Honor could hear Jane's placid voice flowing on, 
 and see the river running away under a still grey sky. 
 
 The thought came to her that she might go to the 
 convent and ask them to take her in. She had the 
 guineas in her stays; they might last her until Jane 
 was married to Mr Egerton, and she could be asked for 
 help. She did not know the name of the convent, 
 but she remembered that it was at Hammersmith, 
 and Hammersmith was near London; she must get 
 back to London. 
 
 The idea of a coach passed through her mind, only 
 to be rejected; she was afraid to encounter the other 
 passengers, and besides, the fare would swallow up too 
 many of her guineas. She must walk, unless she could 
 fall in with some kindly soul who would give her a 
 lift, as some of the farmers near Witham would do for 
 a tired wayfarer. 
 
 The rain ceased as she went out of the door, no 
 longer a princess-errant, but a forlorn and draggled 
 little waif, drifting she knew not where, like the 
 yellow and brown oak -leaves which the wind was 
 sweeping into rings at her feet. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 129 
 
 Of what happened after this she never had any 
 clear recollection. There were impressions of stum- 
 bling along the road, of leaving one shoe or the other 
 in the mud, and having to pick it out, of climbing 
 uphill until her breath was gone and there was a 
 sharp pain in her side — whether it were a real hill, 
 or one of the dream-range which most of us try to 
 ascend at one time or another, she never knew. Then 
 she was slipping down the other side, till her knees 
 gave way, and then she found herself upon a tract of 
 moor, with plovers mewing all round her. 
 
 She thought that she wandered over that moor 
 during several days; it may have been several hours, 
 for the next impression that came clearly upon her was 
 that there were no more plovers to be seen, and the 
 stars were coming out overhead. Not far away shone 
 a light that seemed to be in the window of a house. 
 She thought she would go there and ask for a night's 
 lodging ; she had forgotten that she ever wanted food. 
 If she offered to pay for it, she might get leave to 
 sleep in some out-building, supposing that they would 
 not actually admit her into the house. 
 
 The house stood on a corner of the moor with a 
 garden at the front and the back. All round it were 
 tall laurel bushes from which the drops were falling 
 heavily upon the sodden ground. A little wicket-gate 
 at the back was unfastened ; Honor went up the gravel 
 path to the house. Once at the back door, she hesi- 
 tated to knock. What sort of people were they who 
 lived alone upon the moor ? What reception would 
 they give her ? There was a mysterious sinister air 
 about the house; all the lower windows were tightly 
 shuttered ; there was no sound from within. The light 
 
 I 
 
130 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 which must have shone from a window of the upper 
 storey had disappeared. 
 
 As she stood there, dreading alike to knock or to 
 wait alone in the darkness and silence, she heard a 
 man's step coming up the gravel path, and in a spasm 
 of unreasoning terror, thrust herself into a great laurel 
 bush that grew beside the door. 
 
 The newcomer stopped within a couple of yards of 
 her, and began to whistle, at first softly, then louder. 
 She could hear some one moving within the house, 
 steps came along the passage, and the door opened. 
 
 From where she cowered, within her bush, Honor 
 could see nothing, and she dared not make the least 
 movement for fear of attracting attention. The person 
 at the door was evidently a woman; she began to 
 abuse the man for coming so late. He need not think 
 she had waited for him ; she had been doing a bit of 
 cleaning in the house, and she was not going to let him 
 in to muck about with his dirty boots. She had no 
 time to stay there talking to him ; she had to make up 
 the fire, so that it would last till morning. 
 
 The man answered sulkily that he had been kept 
 late at work and couldn't get away no sooner; was 
 he in the house ? 
 
 No, he had gone out when the rain stopped and was 
 wandering about the place, staring himself silly at 
 the stars. 
 
 More likely to be spying for the Frenchies. They 
 were saying down village that it was time he was 
 cleared out of the place, and it was not fit that any one 
 should work for him — if he wasn't a spy, he was a 
 conjurer. 
 
 To which the woman snappishly rejoined that she'd 
 thank the village to mind their own business, and not 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 131 
 
 come interfering with a decent woman that was earn- 
 ing her own living. He paid better wages that any one 
 around, and she had less to do for it, and no mistress 
 to worry the life out of her. It was no affair of hers 
 how he came by the money. Were they going home 
 that night, or did William mean to keep her on the 
 doorstep till morning ? 
 
 William thought she might offer a man a mouthful 
 of something to eat and drink, after coming all that 
 way. 
 
 " I niver asked you to come, and there's nothin' fit 
 for a Christian to eat. The old French woman was 
 down here to-day, making her messes ; she won't let me 
 see what she puts in them, but 'tes sure to be frogs and 
 snails and inwards. It's set ready for him by the fire, 
 and there's not a drop of beer in the house." 
 
 In that case, William thought they might as well be 
 going ; when would he be coming back ? 
 
 Not till daylight, very likely; she nearly always 
 found him in bed when she came in the morning. 
 
 What did she do with the key ? Why, she hid it, 
 to be sure, in a place where nobody would ever think 
 of looking for it. 
 
 The door shut with a bang, and then, to Honor's 
 dismay, a great hand was thrust into the laurel. Nearer 
 and nearer it came, till the fingers all but touched her 
 face ; she would have screamed if her throat had not 
 been so dry that no sound could come from it. They 
 had seen her and were going to drag her out of the 
 bush. Then came a little scraping noise, and a clink, 
 and the hand disappeared. 
 
 " I couldn't think where that nail had gotten to," said 
 the woman's voice. 
 
 The steps went down the path, the little iron gate 
 
132 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 clicked behind them. Honor strained her ears, but 
 she could hear no more. They were gone, whoever 
 they were, and she was safe. 
 
 She had gathered enough from their talk, in spite of 
 the dialect, to realise that the house was empty until 
 a certain mysterious " he " came home, that there was 
 food and a fire within, and that the key hung on a nail 
 on the wall close to her head. What should hinder her 
 from going in, warming herself and drying her clothes ? 
 Out she crept, a pale and shivering little Daphne, her 
 curls soaked with the drops from the laurel bush. The 
 key turned easily in the lock. In a moment, she was 
 standing in a little dark hall or lobby. The light com- 
 ing in through the open door was enough to show her 
 another door in front of her, and one on either hand. 
 
 She opened that at the right, and found herself in 
 what was evidently the kitchen. A few embers were 
 dying in the grate, the mice were holding high revels, 
 as was apparent from scamperings and squeaks. Honor 
 shuddered with disgust, and drew back. She tried the 
 door to the left. 
 
 A rushlight set in a bowl of water showed her a little 
 room hung round with coats, whips, sticks, and other 
 masculine possessions. In one corner was a basin and 
 a tap, close to a door that gaped ajar and let a glow of 
 firelight through the crack. Very gently Honor stole 
 across the floor, afraid that all might be a dream, 
 afraid that some one might be lurking there beside 
 the fire to pounce upon her, and crept into the inner 
 room. 
 
 If it were a dream, it was not terrible or fantastic. 
 The atmosphere of the fairy tales was coming round 
 her once more. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 133 
 
 The room was long and low, panelled with a dark 
 wood that seemed to swallow up the rays of the fire, 
 which, after all, the unknown woman had forgotten to 
 make up before she went. That was all the better for 
 Honor ; instead of smouldering quietly beneath layers 
 of coal-dust, it was burning merrily, the dancing flames 
 seeming to laugh at her in encouragement. The same 
 goblin faces that she used to see as a child sitting on 
 Nurse's lap before the fire, were here to welcome her to 
 this strange place. 
 
 At one end of the room stood a large carved chair 
 before a heavy old - fashioned bureau covered with 
 papers, and near it was a table covered with a thick 
 brocade woven in some Eastern loom. No Western 
 craftsman would have had the courage to throw 
 together greens and blues and yellows and browns 
 and oranges, so as to produce something that was 
 not any of these colours, and that suggested deep 
 water in sunlight. Another and smaller table was set 
 near the fire, and on it was laid supper — a cold chicken, 
 a loaf of bread, a salad mixed as only a Frenchman can 
 mix it, a tall bottle of wine, and a silver jug. 
 
 At the sight of this Honor forgot everything except 
 that her mouth was agape with thirst. She tilted the 
 jug against a large dull green glass, poured, and drank, 
 not caring what she drank. The liquor was cool and 
 not unpleasing, with a clean bitter taste. Honor 
 emptied the glass and poured again, amused like 
 a child, to see the marigold petals floating on 
 the top. 
 
 Already she was less cold, her head was clearer. 
 Here was everything that she wanted ; she would rest 
 and dry her clothes. There would be plenty of time 
 
134 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 before " he " arrived if he was not expected in the 
 house until daylight; the big clock on the chimney- 
 piece told her that it was only half-past seven. 
 
 What unspeakable relief it was to strip off the soaked 
 gown and petticoat, the clumsy shoes and coarse stock- 
 ings stiff with mud I Then, remembering the basin in 
 the other room, she bathed face and hands, and came 
 back refreshed. That what she was doing was little 
 better than burglary, and that burglary at that time 
 was a capital offence never occurred to her ; it seemed 
 quite natural to find this refuge in her need, and having 
 found it, to take what she wanted. 
 
 The chicken looked tempting and she tried to eat, 
 but found she could not swallow it ; her throat was 
 too sore. After all, she did not feel hungry. She 
 emptied the silver jug. 
 
 " I hope the ogre will not be very thirsty when he 
 comes back to his house," she thought, half laughing at 
 herself, half in earnest. 
 
 Now, while her clothes were drying, she might rest 
 before the fire. There were two cushions on one of the 
 chairs, and she spread them in the blaze and lay down, 
 to start up again in a few moments. It was chilly on 
 the floor ; she must have something to throw over her. 
 The Eastern brocade offered itself to her hand, and was 
 tucked over bare neck and arms and feet. Honor 
 cuddled luxuriously beneath it, and watched the flames 
 glittering upon the heavy brass fire-guard. The ache 
 in limbs and head was growing less, the shivers of 
 deadly cold were no longer running through her ; she 
 would soon be fit to take the road for London. 
 
 Her hand, pulling the cushion a little lower beneath 
 her head, came in contact with something hard upon 
 the floor. She held it up to the light ; it was a neck- 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 135 
 
 lace, apparently, but such a necklace as she had never 
 seen— a chaplet of little brown seeds with here and 
 there a silver bead among them, and a silver medal 
 hanging from it. 
 
 She was too sleepy to make out what was engraved 
 upon the medal; her eyelids would keep apart no 
 longer. The firelight hurt her eyes ; there was no 
 harm in closing them for a few moments. Of course 
 she was not going to sleep for fear that the ogre 
 might — come — home — 
 
 The curly head nestled down into the cushions, and 
 Honor fell asleep. 
 
136 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Some five miles from the lonely house among the rain- 
 sodden laurels, along the road leading past the farther 
 end of the heath, there was a stretch of ground that by 
 comparison with its surroundings might be considered 
 dry, a straggling fir-wood having sheltered it from 
 most part of the storms. 
 
 About five o'clock on the afternoon of the day on 
 which Honor left the farm, Lady Elystan was walking 
 Selim up and down in the lee of the wood. It may 
 have been that she chose it as the only place where 
 she could be sure of not being bogged in the mud, or 
 she may have had other reasons. The clay spat- 
 tered over horse and rider showed that the road by 
 which she came had been neither easy nor pleasant 
 for riding. 
 
 After several turns up and down, she slipped from 
 the horse's back and stood beside him, looking away 
 across woods and fields to the west, where the clouds 
 were parting for the sunset. No longer the reckless 
 " belle Amazone " who teased Selim for the amusement 
 of quieting his antics and plaguing Sir Charles, she 
 might have been the heroine of one of the sentimental 
 poems of the day, waiting for her lover, as she stood 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 137 
 
 there with one arm through the bridle and one hand 
 caressing Selim's neck. No artist could have devised 
 a more becoming pose, and yet, like every one of her 
 attitudes, it seemed not the result of deliberate arrange- 
 ment, but the most natural and most graceful expres- 
 sion of her feeling at the moment. 
 
 So thought the gentleman who came out of the 
 wood at her back and stood watching her, apparently 
 in no hurry to make his presence known. To judge 
 by the deep lines in his olive face, and the grey threads 
 in his unpowdered hair, he might be of any age from 
 thirty to forty, while his slight supple figure was that of 
 a much younger man. He wore the ordinary morning 
 dress of an English country gentleman at that period, 
 but with an air and a distinction that were most un- 
 English. 
 
 Leaning against a tree-trunk, his arms folded, he 
 surveyed Lady Elystan and thought, as he had often 
 thought before, of the cruelty of those who married 
 her at eighteen to a wretched hypochondriac, before 
 she had developed into the most beautiful woman in 
 London. If allowed to wait for a few years, she might 
 have found a more suitable husband, one way or the 
 other, than old Lord Elystan ; she might have been a 
 happy woman or a very great lady, perhaps both. As 
 it was, there could be little wonder if she amused her- 
 self with any man who took her fancy, from wits and 
 Cabinet Ministers down to a good-looking oaf, such as 
 Sir Charles Mendip. 
 
 Selim suddenly threw up his head and sniffed im- 
 patiently; his mistress turned, and saw Claud Fen- 
 wick standing behind her. 
 
 " I was waiting for you. I thought you might come 
 by this way." 
 
138 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 She spoke simply, directly, without a touch of 
 coquetry or of the mockery that she used with other 
 men. 
 
 " It is fortunate that my hair is grey or my head 
 might be turned. To hear that a beautiful lady — 
 though she is my cousin — has done me the honour 
 to wait for my passing " 
 
 Lady Elystan interrupted him, speaking sharply — 
 
 " Have you time to spare ? Are you on your way to 
 any appointment ? " 
 
 " I have no appointment except with the stars, and 
 they, like myself, can wait your ladyship's pleasure. 
 I was on the way to my observatory, as usual." 
 
 Without another word, she turned and walked slowly 
 into a little clearing in the wood, leading Selim with 
 her. Following her, he thought idly how perfect was 
 every little detail, the turn of the hand that held up 
 the skirt of her riding-habit, the droop of the long 
 feather over the coils of hair. 
 
 She sat down upon a fallen tree-trunk. He stood 
 beside her, taking no notice of the gesture that invited 
 him to sit. Selim, with a gentlemanly air of resigna- 
 tion to the dulness of his surroundings, cropped at 
 the tufts of grass round her feet. 
 
 For once in her life, Lady Elystan seemed to have 
 difficulty in finding words. She played with her 
 riding- whip for some minutes before saying abruptly — 
 
 " We go back to town to-morrow." 
 
 " So soon ? That is unexpected ; I thought you were 
 settled in the country till the New Year." 
 
 " My lord has changed his mind ; he means to spend 
 the winter in St James's Square. He cannot endure 
 the attentions of the aborigines. Young and old, fat 
 and lean, ill and well, they all come to leave their 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 139 
 
 tickets and to inquire after his health, and the draughts 
 caused by the constant opening and shutting of the 
 front door brought on a catarrh which might have 
 affected his lungs. He gave orders that intending 
 callers should be stopped at the lodge, but this only 
 made matters worse. They were sure that there must 
 be something interesting and mysterious at the house 
 — either he had set up a seraglio, or I must have grown 
 a beard — and they swarmed in by the back way till 
 there were twenty draughts instead of ten. So he is 
 sick of the country." 
 
 She kept her eyes fixed on her cousin's face while 
 she spoke, and saw that it expressed nothing beyond 
 half-contemptuous amusement. 
 
 " I congratulate you on escaping so soon from your 
 villeggiatura." 
 
 Then he did not know the real reason why the 
 neighbours thronged to make inquiries for Lord Ely- 
 stan. She drew a quick breath of relief. 
 
 " There are advantages in obscurity and bad reputa- 
 tion," said Fenwick indifferently. " I am not troubled 
 by tickets or visitors at any hour. No one crosses my 
 threshold except the woman from the village who 
 comes in every day to clean and cook, and she has 
 found out at last that it is useless to talk to me." 
 
 " Her cooking has not poisoned you yet ? " 
 
 " No ; so long as she keeps to what she can do it ifl 
 not uneatable. Besides, I am not altogether dependent 
 upon her ; there is a dear old lady living in a room 
 near the convent who was in the service of the Rev- 
 erend Mother's family, and came over to England with 
 the nuns and has never left them, though she will take 
 no vows. She knew some of my mother's relations, 
 and is very kind to me for their sake. Whenever she 
 
140 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 has a little time to spare and is not too rheumatic for 
 the walk, she comes over to the house and cooks some 
 dainties for me. I believe she is busy there at this 
 moment ; she told me that I had Vair affamd, and that 
 she intended to make me a nourishing bouillon and a 
 tisane that would invigorate the brain." 
 
 There was silence again until Lady Elystan asked, 
 with eyes fixed upon a purple scabious growing at her 
 feet — 
 
 " Did you know that old Harbord was dead ? " 
 
 " I heard it this morning from his lawyer." 
 
 The beautiful face looked up, aglow with excitement. 
 
 " Then he has left you " 
 
 " Five pounds to buy a mourning ring." 
 « The devil take the canting, miserly old Methodist ! " 
 Lady Elystan's maxim, on which she usually acted, 
 was that strong emotion of any kind was not worth 
 the premature wrinkles which it would trace round 
 eyes and mouth. Few of her acquaintances would 
 have recognised her even tones in the voice thrilling 
 with indignation. 
 
 Fenwick's long fine hand was held up to check her. 
 " It was his own money. He had a right to leave it 
 to whom he pleased." 
 
 " He promised to make you his heir." 
 " When he thought me worthy of the position. He 
 saw reason to change his mind." 
 
 " Old fool ! " muttered Lady Elystan between her 
 teeth. 
 
 " And as you very well know, most of my friends 
 agreed with him." 
 
 " They did not ! You chose to think that they did." 
 
 " Can you deny that a year ago, when I came back 
 
 to London, I suddenly found myself given the cold 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 141 
 
 shoulder wherever I went, because I was supposed to 
 have contrived Champneys's arrest ? " 
 
 " You would not explain " 
 
 ■ One does not explain in such a case," he said, with 
 a look and a movement of the head that made Lady 
 Elystan ejaculate, " Le voilh ! your illustrious cousin 
 the Marquis must have looked like that when they 
 brought him before the Revolutionary Tribunal." 
 
 " And the Tribunal was kinder to him than public 
 opinion has been to me ; they took his estates, his 
 money, his friends, and his head. I have lost every- 
 thing except my head." 
 
 "And for all the use you make of it, it might as 
 well have rolled into the basket with your cousin's. 
 Claud, listen to me ; your friends have not been taken 
 from you. Come to Town with us to-morrow." 
 
 "To endure the stares and the whispers and the 
 innuendoes once more ? Or is there hope that some 
 one might condescend to a meeting with a spy ? If so, 
 a bullet may do the business for me as well as the 
 guillotine did it for the Marquis." 
 
 " Don't be absurd ! As if any one had thought of 
 you for at least ten months ! we have had fifty other 
 scandals, all vastly more distressing, since you dis- 
 appeared. If you were to come back to-morrow, you 
 would be asked what had kept you away." 
 
 For once, Lady Elystan's skill in dealing with men 
 forsook her, when she was most anxious to succeed; 
 the least conceited man on earth does not like to hear 
 that his friends have found something to think of, 
 more interesting than his real or imaginary crimes. 
 She was quick to note the set of his mouth, and 
 hurried on, hoping to efface the slip. 
 
 " My lord has interest, when he can be stirred up to 
 
142 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 use it. He could get you a good place under Govern- 
 ment. If you would agree to go abroad for a year or 
 two, it could be managed easily. There is something 
 that Lady Maria Vane wanted for her grandson, Mr 
 Egerton, but he can speak no language but his own, 
 and his flute-playing was no recommendation, although 
 it is most gentlemanlike and out of tune. In one way 
 and another, it would not take you long to lay by 
 enough to be able to live at Guesthwaite when you 
 came home." 
 
 He interrupted her decisively. 
 
 " Guesthwaite was sold six months ago." 
 
 " Sold ? " she echoed blankly. 
 
 " Sold to the tenant. I knew that I should never 
 afford to live there again." 
 
 " And it had been in your family for generations." 
 
 " Yes. We kept it in spite of fines and sequestra- 
 tions and imprisonments, so long as we held to the old 
 faith, though the lands dwindled with every genera- 
 tion. My father was tired of finding himself shut out 
 from everything, hampered at every turn, because he 
 worshipped as all England used to worship, and made 
 up his mind that his son should not be fettered. When 
 I was born he conformed." 
 
 " But your mother was a Catholic ? " 
 
 " She came of a family where it was always under- 
 stood that religion was for women. So I was the first 
 Protestant to inherit Guesthwaite, and I have not kept 
 it long." 
 
 " Forget about it — you will buy it back some day. 
 After all, it was a grim old place, and out of the world. 
 Begin again. Come up to London with us to-morrow, 
 instead of dawdling away your time here in idleness." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 143 
 
 " You think a tame astronomer would be an addition 
 to your menagerie, even though he is under a cloud ? 
 But there is no need of your kind patronage to find me 
 occupation, now that my landlord has given me leave 
 to use the old tower his brother built " 
 
 "They have changed its name to Fenwick's Folly 
 instead of Branwell's Folly," she finished for him, in 
 her coolest and most insolent tone. 
 
 He replied with a little bow, a shrug of the shoulders, 
 and outspread hands, as if deprecating her wrath while 
 he inflamed it by the suggestion of a mocking smile 
 twisting the corners of his mouth. 
 
 11 What are you going to do ? " It was the same 
 question that she had put to Sir Charles, and the 
 recollection brought a flush to her cheeks. 
 
 " When I take leave of you, I shall go on to Fen- 
 wick's Folly. I shall probably return home by day- 
 light. I shall eat the excellent supper Mme. Barbeau 
 will have left for me ; then I shall go to bed and sleep 
 till noon." 
 
 " And after that ? " 
 
 "After that, I shall dress, breakfast, and go for a 
 walk." 
 
 " And you will continue this existence until you die 
 of old age ? " 
 
 " I cannot say ; I fear I may scarcely be left so long 
 in peace. The friendly and intelligent rustics have 
 made up their minds that I am a wizard or a French- 
 man — they are not sure which, but in order that there 
 may be no doubt about their sentiments, they intend 
 to burn my effigy on Guy Fawkes' night. If the bon- 
 fire is a success, they may choose my house or myself 
 as the subject of their next experiment." 
 
144 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " Let us have done with nonsense/' said Lady Ely- 
 stan coldly, pulling off her glove to rub Selim's nose, 
 which was thrust into her hand in an entreaty to keep 
 him waiting no longer. " You know that you cannot 
 go on living among barbarians, sinking to their level, 
 shut off from your friends." 
 
 " I repeat that I have no friends left." 
 
 " Shut off from your own class, from those who are 
 asking to be your friends, if you would not hold 
 them off." 
 
 " Ma chere cousine, I have sunk below the rustic level 
 already, as you see. I have shown myself an un- 
 grateful brute; but you must forgive a broken man 
 for being peevish." 
 
 " Broken, indeed ? Why let any t one break you ? 
 You are young enough and clever enough to begin 
 again and^make your way in the world. If I were 
 a man I would not sit down at two-and -thirty and 
 pretend that I could not get up again." 
 
 " And suppose that your world was in ruins ? " 
 
 " What would that matter, so long as I were strong 
 enough to struggle from under the ruins ? " 
 
 "Si fractus illabitur orbis impavidum ferient 
 ruince, as we used to say at school. But there are 
 some fragments that cannot be put together, even by 
 your skilful hands." 
 
 "If you mean that little fool, Charlotte Winslow, 
 there is no time to be wasted in mending a china 
 toy. Sweep up the pieces and throw them out on the 
 dust-heap." 
 
 He bowed again, not in mockery this time, but with 
 an air that made her silent for a moment. 
 
 "It is getting dark," he said after a pause, "and 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 145 
 
 you have no groom with you. May I suggest that it 
 would be wiser to let me put you on Selim, and to 
 ride home ? " 
 
 "You are making a fatal mistake," she urged. 
 " You are not a mummy or a monk ; you are a man, 
 and flesh and blood will have its way. Some day you 
 will want a woman — and where will you find her ? Do 
 you think you can settle down for life with some rustic 
 beauty — the parson's daughter or the farmer's ? Can 
 you see yourself living with her when she has grown 
 fat and scarlet-faced, and has brought you six daughters 
 with long legs and purple elbows ? " 
 
 "To avoid such a consummation, I might imitate 
 many a better man and marry my cook when I feel 
 unable to do without female companionship; Mme. 
 Barbeau, at least, could be trusted to feed me well. 
 Her omelettes are perfection; and at her age there 
 would be no reason for you to distress yourself about 
 other consequences." 
 
 " Good-evening, Mr Fen wick," said Lady Elystan, 
 rising to her feet, cold and dignified. " No, thanks, I 
 can mount from here without your help." 
 
 Nevertheless she made no further protest when he 
 bent down and took her foot into his hand. 
 
 "No one ever mounted me as well as you do," 
 she said, almost wistfully, when she was in the 
 saddle. 
 
 "We had some good rides together, before I grew 
 old — Adieu, chkre et belle; forgive me if you can. 
 If I choose to go my own way, it is not that I am 
 ungrateful to a very generous kinswoman." 
 
 He bent down and kissed her hand before giving her 
 the reins. 
 
 K 
 
146 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Selim, impatient to be off, was checked in the 
 middle of a curvet that his lady might turn round 
 and ask — 
 
 "Who gets old Harbord's money?" 
 
 "His wife, for her life; after her, the Bible 
 Society." 
 
 "A creature like that shows what an intolerably 
 bourgeois habit it is to read the Bible," were Lady 
 Elystan's parting words as Selim cantered away over 
 the heath. 
 
 She went home, mortified and disappointed, though 
 she could not have defined how far her regrets were 
 for her cousin and how far for herself. As an ugly 
 unwanted child, neglected and repressed, her only 
 pleasure came from the big cousin who alternately 
 petted and teased her. Now that she was admittedly 
 an influence in her world, she had it in her power to 
 make the fortune of almost any man. If she chose to 
 work for Claud, she knew that the stories against him 
 would be forgotten or disregarded. 
 
 It was the more provoking that he should reject 
 the hand held out to him, since he was clever enough 
 to climb far when once his feet were set upon the 
 ladder. 
 
 Fenwick, standing bareheaded to watch her out of 
 sight, felt a sudden qualm of repentance before she 
 disappeared ; he made a step forward, as if to run after 
 her, then drew back. Since justice was denied him, he 
 would accept no one's kindness. 
 
 Her pride had kept her from telling him frankly 
 that she needed his help. The scandal caused by Sir 
 Charles's passing his wedding-night at Elystan Court, 
 while his wife was drowned through his servants' 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 147 
 
 carelessness, was rising to such a height that she craved 
 for advice and support from the only kinsman for 
 whom she knew any respect. At the word, Fenwick 
 would have gone to London with her. But she was 
 too proud to say the word, and he too proud to go 
 without it, and neither guessed that the destinies of 
 both were fixed when he let her ride alone into the 
 dusk that afternoon. 
 
148 
 
 CHAPTEK XV. 
 
 "No use to waste time here any longer on a night 
 like this. Diantre/ What a climate they have in 
 Sussex." 
 
 Accustomed to talk both in English and in French 
 ever since he had the power of speech, Claud Fenwick's 
 thoughts passed indifferently from the one language 
 to the other. That, when he gave himself the pleas- 
 ure of swearing, it was usually in French, was one of 
 the indications proving him to be a spy in the minds 
 of his acquaintances. 
 
 He was locking up the door of " the Folly " before 
 going home. Though the night was fine, a mist began 
 to creep up soon after his arrival, preventing any star- 
 gazing, and he could not force himself to do any of the 
 other work that lay ready to his hand. Though he 
 took up a pen to work out some calculations, he sat 
 twisting it between his fingers, or scratching little 
 sketches of a woman in riding-dress, a tall woman, 
 who rode away across the heath and out of his life. 
 
 He felt that he was fool as well as churl to let her 
 go, and yet he spoke no more than the truth when he 
 told her that his world was in ruins, and he could not 
 build it up again. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 149 
 
 His father had counted for very little in his life. 
 Mr Fenwick, a soured and disappointed man, began by- 
 attributing all the misfortunes and inconveniences of 
 his own youth to having been reared in the faith of his 
 fathers, and as English law then stood he had some 
 just grounds for the belief. After the birth of a son 
 decided him to conform to the Established Church, he 
 expected a full tide of prosperity, and was half- 
 annoyed, half-frightened to discover that externally 
 everything remained very much as it used to be. The 
 sudden death of the French wife who had accepted his 
 apostacy with a careless shrug of her shoulders — 
 (" What would you have ? They are made comme ga, 
 these men ! ") — confirmed his dread that Heaven was 
 set against him. He shut himself up in his rooms at 
 Guesthwaite, seeing little of the boy for whose sake he 
 believed he had damned his soul. He was too proud 
 to seek reconciliation to his old faith, or rather, he put 
 off doing it from time to time, until death surprised 
 him on a night when snow lay thick over the fells and 
 the priest could not be brought from Kendal. 
 
 Claud's chief friend and consoler, after the loss of 
 his mother, was the wrinkled, snuffy old gentleman 
 in the round wig and puce -coloured coat, who came 
 one day to Sedbergh School to ask for him, and car- 
 ried him off to a big house near Enfield. That house 
 henceforth was Clauds home in the holidays, before 
 and after his father's death. He was sent to Eton 
 and to Cambridge, and, as he grew older, developed 
 scientific tastes that were the delight of Mr Harbord. 
 
 Some of his relations were scandalised. Science was 
 all very well for a snuffy old quiz, but it was not the 
 thing for a young gentleman of good family; they 
 supposed that he made pretence with it in order to 
 
150 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 keep on the right side of old Harbord. Others, like Mrs 
 Harbord, were shocked at his consorting with French 
 emigres, and could not see that his mother was any 
 excuse for it. By her death she had made the only 
 atonement in her power for being a Frenchwoman and 
 a Papist, and the less said of her the better. 
 
 Claud knew from the first that Mrs Harbord dis- 
 liked him, and troubled very little about it except to 
 avoid her as far as possible. He never understood 
 what was involved until he returned from a long ab- 
 sence at Guesthwaite to find Mr Harbord feeble and 
 almost childish in consequence of a severe illness, and 
 completely under the thumb of the narrow-minded, 
 underbred woman who up to this time had not been 
 allowed to meddle in anything beyond her house- 
 keeping. Even then, it was a paralysing shock to 
 Claud to find her accusing him of the betrayal of 
 Mr Champneys to the French police. 
 
 That she should say such a thing was natural ; that 
 she should believe it was quite possible. Women of 
 her type make it almost a religious duty to believe 
 ill of those in any way superior to themselves, 
 especially if there should be any tie of kindred or 
 affinity between them. He could afford to laugh at 
 it ; no one would listen to her. Although Champneys 
 and he had nothing in common except a great-grand- 
 father, and either jarred upon the other whenever 
 they came together, no rational human being could 
 believe that Fenwick wanted to put him out of the 
 way. He said this to himself, feeling the while that 
 no one who knew him would believe him capable of 
 such a dirty trick, whether he wished to rid himself 
 of his cousin or not. He would have laughed at the 
 suggestion that Mrs Harbord could make her hus- 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 151 
 
 band believe it, until he saw the poor old man sitting 
 huddled in his arm-chair, picking at his lips with a 
 tremulous hand and refusing to answer his appeal by- 
 word or look. 
 
 It was true, as Lady Elystan said, that Claud 
 Fen wick was both Englishman and Frenchman, and 
 that the side which he turned at a crisis was usually 
 not the side most likely to serve his interests. The 
 dour North Country blood was working in him when 
 he left the house without attempting explanation or 
 contradiction, and it kept him from making the first 
 move to a reconciliation until it was too late. 
 
 He told himself, from the day of their parting, that 
 all hope was gone of being his cousin's heir, and that 
 he would never be able to live at Guesthwaite, or to 
 carry on the researches of which he and Mr Harbord 
 often talked together. He did not know that hope 
 was not driven out, but lurking in a corner, until the 
 lawyer's letter came. 
 
 The bitterest pang of all was not for blighted 
 prospects and years wasted in attendance upon an 
 old man. It was for the friend and companion who 
 had gone into the unknown believing the worst of 
 him. 
 
 " And I never thanked him for what he did for me," 
 mused Claud, tramping over the heath. 
 
 Charlotte Winslow was almost forgotten. For a 
 time he admired her, idealised her, as a very clever 
 man often will idealise a silly woman. Luckier than 
 some clever men, he began to find out the real 
 woman before he had fallen deeply in love with 
 her. 
 
 If anything could make the whole bewildering story 
 more like a fantastic nightmare, it was that he should 
 
152 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 be supposed to have betrayed poor old Champneys for 
 the love of Charlotte. 
 
 Well, it was useless to cry over spilt milk. He must 
 put Guesthwaite and Enfield out of his mind from this 
 time forth. (There was that little copse by the water- 
 fall, where his mother used to gather mealy primroses ; 
 would the new owner cut down all the trees and leave 
 the force bare to the sun ?) He must think of some- 
 thing else. 
 
 Again he tried to fix his mind upon his calculations, 
 and again he failed. The mist was all round him. He 
 remembered how the mists used to roll down the hills 
 at Guesthwaite, and how once as a boy, hunting for a 
 raven's nest, he lost the track and, unable to see a step 
 in front of him, wandered to the very edge of a cliff — 
 a slip of the foot sent a loose stone spinning over, to 
 crash down upon the heap of shale far below. But for 
 that slip he might have stepped over the edge. If the 
 fall had killed him at once it would have been the best 
 thing for him; but you never know how long you 
 might lie among the crags with broken bones, like a 
 moribund sheep, the ravens watching you. Did the 
 same pair of ravens still build their nest above the 
 cleft where the parsley fern hung, cool and green 
 and damp? 
 
 He must not think of Guesthwaite. What else was 
 there to think of ? There was his cousin. She called 
 Guesthwaite " a grim old place." It was very different 
 from her white-and-gold drawing-room in St James's 
 Square, and yet it would have set off her beauty after 
 its fashion. 
 
 It was strange that he had never fallen in love with 
 his cousin ; no other woman was to be compared with 
 her. But when first he knew her she was a pale-faced 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 153 
 
 child, with long legs and thin arms ; they did not meet, 
 after she passed out of childhood, until she was the wife 
 of Lord Elystan. 
 
 Every year since then added to her beauty. He 
 never knew it greater than when she pleaded with 
 him that afternoon. Her voice was never shrill, never 
 strained ; a blind man might fall in love with her for 
 that alone. 
 
 " The time will come when you will want a woman." 
 He could hear her say the words, and stopped 
 dead with the shock of the thought that followed. 
 The time was come already. Claud suddenly knew 
 that the dull aching and the dumb longing were not 
 alone for lost friend or for lost home. Exiled for 
 more than a year from his kind, he was craving — 
 not for the woman, but for a woman. He thought of 
 the ladies whom he used to meet in Lady Elystan's 
 drawing-room, with their silken robes and gleaming 
 jewels; he could hear the sound of their laughter, 
 he could smell the cloud of scent and powder that 
 hung about them. 
 
 No, it was useless to think of them. He walked on 
 faster in the darkness. He had cut himself off from 
 all hope of marriage in his own class. There was 
 nothing left for him, as Lady Elystan foretold, but 
 the parson's bouncing daughter. 
 
 Two figures, man and woman, came out of the mi, c o 
 towards him and vanished into the mist again. As 
 they passed, almost touching him, he recognised the 
 woman who did the work of his house, and a groom 
 from the Manor. The man's arm was round her plump 
 waist; she was giggling, but making no attempt at 
 escape. 
 
 There were other women besides the parson's 
 
154 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 daughter, women who would be satisfied with less 
 than the ring. Why not ? If a man could not afford 
 to buy a lady — and marriage, as he had seen it, was 
 generally a matter of buying and selling, — he must 
 put up with something cheaper and less exacting. 
 
 He was nearly at home by this time; though the 
 mists hid it, he knew that the house was not a quarter 
 of a mile away. Why was he such a fool as to come 
 back to darkness and silence, and such meagre comfort 
 as that slatternly wench might leave for him, when he 
 could have some one waiting for his return, some one 
 who would make it her business to have everything 
 as he liked it? 
 
 Only Methodists and such cattle took life seriously. 
 It was a farce, a dance. The only question that really 
 mattered was whether you could succeed in making 
 other people dance to your tune. 
 
 What was that running in his ears ? — 
 
 "Sur le pont oV Avignon, on y danse, on y danse" 
 
 He remembered how, long ago, his mother used to 
 sing and dance for him; he could see her little red- 
 heeled shoes moving under her skirt, as she mimicked 
 the passers on the bridge of Avignon : — 
 
 " Les capucins font comme ga; 
 Et puis encore comme ca." 
 
 " You are not a mummy or a monk," his cousin had 
 told him. 
 
 " Sur le pont d; Avignon, tout le monde y danse, en ronde" 
 
 He was tired of dancing by himself ; he would find a 
 partner, one that he could dismiss as soon as he was 
 tired of her. 
 
 Of course he would never have brought such a 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 155 
 
 woman to the home where his mother had reigned. 
 But Guesthwaite was lost, and here in Sussex there 
 was no home, no holy place to be denied. 
 
 His mother used to dance to him in the evenings 
 before his father came in, and the diamond buckles on 
 her shoes used to twinkle red and blue and green in • 
 the firelight. After his father's death, he found them 
 in her dressing-case, wrapped up in a piece of paper on 
 which was written, in her hand, " For my Son's wife/' 
 No one would wear those buckles again. 
 
 " Les belles dames font comme ca — 
 Sur le pont d' Avignon" 
 
 And yet, if fate, that had treated him so unkindly, 
 would relent and send him such a wife as his mother 
 intended, not a fine lady to be bought, but a true 
 woman to give ? Long ago, when newly promoted to 
 breeches, he remembered how his father found him 
 kneeling on the floor of his mother's dressing-room 
 and lisping a rhyming prayer to "Bonne Vierge 
 Marie," because he wanted a horse for his birthday, 
 not a hobby-horse, but a real horse with four legs 
 and a mane and a tail. His father had said he was 
 too old to say baby prayers in French, and gave him 
 a book of Common Prayer. So far as Claud dis- 
 covered, it never prayed for anything you really 
 wanted, so he did not trouble to use it, except under 
 compulsion and in church ; but he left off saying the 
 little rhyme to "Bonne Vierge Marie," because his 
 father said it was babyish. 
 
 Nevertheless, there was a pony on his next birthday. 
 
 It would be his birthday to-morrow ; should he ask 
 " Bonne Vierge Marie " to send him a wife to wear his 
 mother's buckles? 
 
156 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 What folly ! a poor man, disgraced and half an alien, 
 he might as well ask her to turn those dismal laurels 
 dripping all round him into the Scotch firs on the hill 
 above Guesthwaite. 
 
 " Nous rt irons plus aux bois 
 Les lauriers sont coupes." 
 
 It was strange how these snatches of song kept 
 running in his head. He wished those laurels were 
 cut down. 
 
 He strode up the path and into the house. That 
 girl had left the door open. She was as careless as 
 she was stupid ; he must get rid of her. She was in 
 such haste to meet the Manor groom that she left the 
 house at the mercy of any tramp. 
 
 In the little anteroom the rushlight was flickering. 
 A strange feeling came over him that he also was on 
 his way to a tryst, that some one was waiting for him. 
 He swore at himself for an imbecile, he whistled care- 
 lessly while he took off coat and boots, but the very 
 tune which came to his lips was that of an old French 
 song, and it seemed as though some one were singing 
 the words in his ear : — 
 
 " Derriere, chez mon pere, 
 II est un bois taillis ; 
 Le rossignol y chante 
 Et le jour et la nuit." 
 
 He flung the door of the parlour open, furious 
 because he could not shake off the fancy that some 
 one waited for him on its other side: — 
 
 " II chante pour les filles 
 Qui n'ont pas d'ami." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 157 
 
 The fire was burning very low. Peste ! the jade had 
 forgotten to build it up before she went. 
 
 He thrust the table to one side. A piece of wood 
 fell and flared high, gleaming upon the covered sauce- 
 pan with the bouillon of Mme. Barbeau, at the side of 
 the grate, on a heap of mud-stained garments in the 
 corner, and upon something that glimmered blue in 
 front of the fireplace. 
 
 " II ne chante pas pour moi." 
 
 It was the brocade that his grandfather brought from 
 Persia, and it covered his visitor. 
 
 She lay there, one small brown foot thrust from 
 under the shimmering silk, which left bare her neck 
 and arms. The firelight showed the vivid curls, the 
 slender neck, the pale cheeks to which sleep had 
 brought no flush, and wound about hand and arm, 
 the brown chaplet. 
 
 " II ne chante pas pour moi — 
 J'en ai un, Dieu merci." 
 
PART II. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Mme. Barbeau had finished dressing, and was about to 
 go out and feed her chickens, early next morning, when 
 she missed her chaplet. 
 
 Where was it ? Not hanging on the nail over her 
 bed, nor in any of her pockets. Madame's nut-brown 
 forehead puckered into countless wrinkles as she con- 
 sidered the problem. When did she use it last ? Did 
 she say her rosary before getting into bed ? 
 
 No, she remembered clearly now ; Monsieur Claud's 
 tisane took an eternity in the making, and she pulled 
 her beads out of her pocket and said two decades while 
 she was waiting, so as not to waste time. Just as she 
 came to her last Gloria Patri the tisane began to boil, 
 and she lifted the saucepan off the fire and put it into 
 a basin of cold water, that it might cool the faster. 
 
 If the beads were left in M. Claud's house there was 
 a chance that she might find them again if that hussy, 
 his bonne, were not beforehand with her. She would 
 go down there as soon as the fowls were fed. She 
 might meet M. Claud corning home. He kept shocking 
 hours, that poor man, and if he were already in bed she 
 knew where to find the key. She hoped she would 
 meet M. Claud ; he owed her something for what she 
 had cooked for him last night and the week before. 
 
 L 
 
162 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 For good Mme. Barbeau's ministrations to Claud 
 were by no means disinterested, though they were not 
 entirely selfish. 
 
 It was nearly forty years since, as a fine healthy 
 young woman, she was chosen for iiourrice to Mme. la 
 Marquise's first baby, and neither of her own strapping 
 boys was ever so dear to her as this delicate girl. 
 Contrary to all predictions of doctors and neighbours, 
 "notre demoiselle" lived to grow up, and when she 
 insisted on entering the convent founded seven hundred 
 years before her time by a member of her family, Mme. 
 Barbeau, with many grumblings at the whimsies of " la 
 jeunesse," went to live in a cottage at the gate. When 
 the nuns fled to England, at the outbreak of the Revo- 
 lution, Mme. Barbeau went with them, and found 
 another little cottage close to their new home. 
 
 " Notre demoiselle " was now the Reverend Mother, 
 with all the cares of the community upon her shoulders. 
 The English benefactor who gave them a house on his 
 property on their arrival, and maintained them for 
 nearly fourteen years, was dead, and his heir at the 
 Manor did not find it possible to continue his support 
 upon the same scale. It was easy for the nuns to keep 
 the fasts of the Church, but keeping the feasts was 
 now another matter. When a festival was at hand, 
 and the convent larder empty, Mme. Barbeau would be 
 seized with a sudden anxiety for M. Claud's health and 
 insist upon cooking for him. What with a penny here 
 and a halfpenny there added to the price of the mate- 
 rials, and the douceur which M. Claud bestowed upon 
 her, Mme. Barbeau made something to eke out the 
 convent rations. It was a great deal of trouble for a 
 very pitiful sum, but as she herself said, " The little 
 brooks make the big rivers." As for conscientious 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 163 
 
 scruples, she considered that she was doing a good work 
 twice over, since M. Claud was a heretic, and it might 
 avail him some day that his money had gone to help 
 the good sisters. For the matter of that, he already 
 gave to them of his own free will, so that he could 
 have no possible objection to giving a little more under 
 Mme. Barbeau's management. 
 
 In her way the good woman was attached to Claud ; 
 he spoke French, which was an unspeakable comfort 
 to poor souls in a barbarous place where no one 
 had the wits to understand you. In spite of fifteen 
 years in England, Mme. Barbeau had not demeaned 
 herself to learn English ; as soon would she have laid 
 aside her short grey skirt, blue apron, and large white 
 cap with its finely embroidered crown, for the dress of 
 the village matrons. 
 
 The key of the lonely house was not hanging behind 
 the laurel bush as usual. Then that animal must have 
 come early, out of sheer perversity and wickedness, 
 and the chaplet would be in her pocket at this moment. 
 No use to tax her with it ; she would deny everything, 
 deny that she had fingers to pick it up, or a pocket to 
 put it in, the viper. But, all the same, Mme. Barbeau 
 was going to ask her whether she had seen the chaplet, 
 just to show that she was not to be deceived. 
 
 In she stumped, composing in her mind the most 
 witty sarcasms, which, as they needs must be delivered 
 in French, were not likely to have all the effect that 
 could be wished upon the delinquent, when M. Claud 
 himself " sprang at her from behind the door like a 
 wolf," as she mentally phrased it ; the good lady, albeit 
 one of the toughest of sheep, was so startled that she 
 gave a shrill scream. 
 
 " Madame Barbeau ! A la honhewr ! " 
 
164 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " Pardon, Monsieur," gasped the visitor. " I did not 
 know Monsieur would be here. "When I was cooking 
 for him last night " 
 
 "I have been looking out, this hour, hoping that 
 some one would pass. I never thought to see anything 
 so good as your white cap." 
 
 " Monsieur flatters an old woman. Once, it is true, 
 I was worth looking at, but what is beauty ? A flower 
 that withers as soon as it expands, as Soeur Amelie 
 says — though she cannot speak from her own know- 
 ledge, having been of a truly remarkable ugliness all 
 her life. But Monsieur knows that those who are not 
 good enough for men are always given to le bon Dieu, 
 just as, if there are rotten apples in the orchard at the 
 Manor, they always find their way into the sack for 
 the convent." 
 
 " You are not afraid of sickness, Mme. Barbeau ? " 
 
 "Why should I be afraid? Does Monsieur think 
 that I should not be eating apples at my age ? Tenez, 
 I have all my teeth but one, and that broke thirty 
 years ago, at the f6te for the birth of the son and heir 
 to M. le Marquis. M. le Marquis himself cut the cake 
 and brought me a slice, and I bit into it, and there is a 
 crack enough to split my head — the imbecile of a cook 
 had never sifted the flour, and my poor tooth was 
 broken on a little stone." 
 
 "I mean, you would not be afraid of going near 
 any one who was ill ? " 
 
 " That depends," returned Mme. Barbeau, somewhat 
 huffed at being cut short in a story that she loved to 
 tell with every detail. "I prefer my fellow -creatures 
 when they are in good health. I have taken no vow 
 to nurse every one who comes to me, ill or pretending 
 to be ill, like the poor good sisters. Not that they 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 165 
 
 have any one to nurse in these days, which is indeed 
 fortunate, since there is not so much in the larder as 
 you could put into your eye, and those who have any- 
 thing to give seem to have forgotten the convent." , 
 
 " There is a — a young lady here, who is very ill." 
 
 "Here?" The shrill voice grew shriller. "In 
 Monsieur's house ? " 
 
 " In Monsieur's parlour, as you will see if you will 
 go in and stay with her while I go up to the convent." 
 
 " Monsieur must hold me excused," said Mme. Bar- 
 beau, her shapeless figure suddenly becoming rigid. 
 " If he chooses to have such under his roof it is his own 
 affair, but I have nothing to do with it, seeing that I 
 came up to fetch my chaplet, which I dropped last 
 night; I do not imagine that Monsieur and the — 
 the demoiselle have been saying the rosary." 
 
 " You old fool, will you listen to me ? " cried Fen wick, 
 driven beyond his patience. "You are absolutely 
 wrong. The young lady was going up to the convent, 
 and was too ill to go any farther. I have been look- 
 ing out ever since the dawn for some one to stay with 
 her, while I went to ask the Reverend Mother to 
 receive her, and I thought you would have sufficient 
 humanity for that, especially if you are paid for it." 
 
 " Enough, Monsieur ! No good Christian would ask 
 payment for a service to a fellow-creature, and for the 
 matter of that, we are all sinners," returned Mme. 
 Barbeau with dignity, and, truth to tell, much im- 
 pressed by seeing M. Claud lose his temper. "I am 
 at Monsieur's service, as he knows, and if the fowls 
 stray and the room is not swept, and I have not time 
 to wash my cap for the Mass to-morrow, after all I 
 have the knowledge of doing right, and a clean con- 
 science is worth more than clean linen." 
 
166 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Fenwick's reply to this noble sentiment was a curt 
 — "Then come in softly; she may be asleep." 
 
 The shutters in the parlour were thrown back, and 
 the chill light of morning struggled in upon an im- 
 provised couch of pillows and rugs on which the 
 wanderer lay, the Persian brocade still thrown over 
 her. 
 
 " Hein — a young lady? She is no more than a 
 child," commented Mme. Barbeau standing over the 
 sleeper. " How does she come straying about alone ? " 
 
 " What is the matter with her, do you think ? " asked 
 Claud, helpless as most men in the face of illness, and 
 driven to rely upon Mme. Barbeau in spite of her not 
 very sympathetic attitude. u I tried to make her eat, 
 but she said it hurt her throat ; she swallowed a little 
 of your bouillon, though she would not touch any 
 wine ; she has more colour — surely that is a good sign ? 
 When I first saw her she was as white as a pocket- 
 handkerchief." His English blood stopped him from 
 saying "as white as a lily," which was what came 
 to his tongue. 
 
 " She is as red as a tomato now ; she has fever," said 
 Mme. Barbeau decidedly, " she is breathing strangely. 
 No doubt it is her lungs. I remember when Mme. the 
 late Marquise " 
 
 Honor stirred on her pillows with a little moan. 
 
 " My side ! It hurts me ! " Her eyes opened gradu- 
 ally, and turned from Claud to Mme. Barbeau. "A 
 nun — the convent " 
 
 " Mme. Barbeau has come to take care of you while 
 I go to the convent. I will come back soon and take 
 you there." 
 
 She smiled up in the face of Mme. Barbeau, who 
 was kneeling by her side rearranging the pillows. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 167 
 
 "Thank you very much. I have money, I can 
 
 pay " The voice died away, and the heavy eyelids 
 
 fell once more. 
 
 Although Mme. Barbeau professed to know no 
 English, she understood the meaning of the verb 
 "to pay." 
 
 "Monsieur had better go up to the convent," she 
 said briskly, " and see what the Reverend Mother will 
 do for la pauvrette. I will stay till he returns. He 
 must bring something to carry her, for she will never 
 be able to walk." 
 
 " You think it will be safe for me to leave her ? " 
 
 "What could Monsieur do if he stayed? He is 
 neither priest nor doctor, and unless something is done 
 for the demoiselle very soon, she will have no need 
 of any one but the priest." 
 
 "Be sure to let no one in till I return, not even 
 Polly," was Claud's last injunction as the door closed 
 behind him. 
 
 Mme. Barbeau snorted. " Is it likely that- she would 
 be here for another two hours? My fine lady likes 
 her bed of a morning, Monsieur ! No use to call him. 
 Why, he is in such haste, he has gone in his slippers. 
 His feet will be sore before he gets to the convent. 
 Lucky for him that la Mhre is in bed with rheu- 
 matism, and that he will see Soeur Amelie, who is 
 imbecile enough to believe any tale that a man tells 
 her — she has heard few enough, having been so ugly 
 that her family were bound to make a saint of her." 
 
 The old woman began to tidy the room, keeping up 
 a muttered commentary all the while. " What is here ? 
 Mademoiselle's skirt, it would seem. Fi done ! it is so 
 covered with mud that no one could say of what it 
 is made. And her shoes ? I would give a good deal 
 
168 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 to know how M. Claud will explain that a demoiselle 
 is found in the mud all alone, wearing such a skirt, 
 and such shoes and stockings. Well, we will make 
 them into a neat little bundle — so — no need for Mdlle. 
 Pollee to find them. What is that?" — catching up 
 something that lay on the edge of the brocade — 
 "My chaplet." 
 
 Mme. Barbeau regarded the beads thoughtfully, and 
 her shrewd face puckered with amusement. 
 
 "It would seem, after all, that Monsieur and his 
 demoiselle were saying the rosary together," she 
 chuckled. "I apologise. Now let us see if there is 
 any coffee in the cupboard. Monsieur will want his 
 breakfast when he returns, as he has eaten no supper." 
 
 Before the coffee was simmering over the fire 
 Fenwick's long legs had carried him up to the con- 
 vent gate. As he pulled the little rusty bell he 
 wondered whether he were awake or dreaming. After 
 the wild thoughts that were surging through his brain 
 on the walk home from " the Folly," it was a stupefy- 
 ing surprise to find what waited for him in the 
 firelight. 
 
 From the first moment when he set eyes upon her 
 he felt that that was the lady of his dream. He knew 
 not whence she came, he knew not how she came there, 
 he only knew her for the bride who should dance in 
 the diamond buckles. Like the Prince beside the 
 Princess in the wild-rose wood, he knelt down before 
 her and looked into the sleeping face. 
 
 How long he knelt he could not tell, before he bent 
 down and kissed the pale cheeks. 
 
 Honor was dreaming of the dead father whom she 
 knew only through the description of the two old 
 women who loved him, and when she opened her eyes 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 169 
 
 to see a tall dark man bending over her, she took him 
 for Adrian Basset. 
 
 "Oh, you have come," she whispered, holding out 
 both her hands; "I was so lonely, so frightened." 
 
 Claud took the hands in his. " There is nothing to 
 fear ; you are safe. I will take care of you." Were 
 these banal words all he could find for the lady of his 
 love ? he asked himself. His heart was beating so 
 wildly that he could scarcely speak. 
 
 "They are dead — all dead — Miss Lester died long 
 ago, and Nurse must be dead by now — she was ill and 
 very old. There was nowhere for me to go, and they 
 would not let me stay with Jane, or at the farm. It 
 was cold and wet, and I was so tired." 
 
 " You shall stay here, by the fire — I will bring you 
 food and wine. Lie still and rest." 
 
 " If you are here I shall be safe. I used to envy the 
 girls who had fathers. I thought I had none. I 
 wanted to get to the convent. Jane said that ladies 
 might go and stay there, when they were ill, or sad, or 
 very tired." 
 
 " The convent is not far from here. I will take you 
 to it in the morning." 
 
 "I thought it was far away at Hammersmith. I 
 walked, a long, long journey, and the mud was very 
 deep, and I was cold." 
 
 He chafed her hands tenderly. "What is your 
 name ? " 
 
 She laughed as if at a joke. " Honor Lester. Could 
 you not guess that ? " 
 
 Then came a violent fit of shivering, which inspired 
 Claud, still dizzy and half -stunned, to heap more wood 
 on the fire, and to collect pillows and coverings from 
 the other rooms. 
 
170 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 She allowed him to build her a nest in the warmest 
 corner, and appeared to be in less discomfort when she 
 was settled within it. All his persuasions could not 
 bring her to touch food or wine, and though he warmed 
 the bouillon, he was not able to coax more than a 
 spoonful of it down her throat. She lay among the 
 pillows, half -asleep, sometimes moaning, sometimes 
 breathing heavily, and Claud watched her with grow- 
 ing fear, wondering whether he should leave her to 
 fetch help, or wait until Polly's arrival. He had just 
 made up his mind to lock the house door, put the key 
 in his pocket and run at full speed to the convent, 
 when he heard Mme. Barbeau's step in the lobby. 
 
 He pulled again at the convent bell and heard it 
 jangle gradually into silence, before any other sound 
 broke the hush. Visitors never came to the house of 
 the Bienheureuse Elisabeth from one week's end to 
 another in these days, and the portress was old and 
 very rheumatic. She was full of apologies when at 
 last she peeped through the judas and saw who was 
 waiting. 
 
 " M. Claud," as the nuns all called him, finding his 
 surname too hard for French tongues, was a friend 
 and a benefactor, and both were needed in these 
 hard times. 
 
 The Reverend Mother was too unwell to receive 
 visits to-day, but doubtless Soeur Amelie would see 
 him if he came to the parlour. 
 
 Claud, accustomed to think himself the most unlucky 
 of men, found everything arranging itself with incred- 
 ible ease. Soeur Amelie was as stupid as she was 
 kindly, and more deaf than she would allow. What 
 she could not hear, she supplied from her imagination. 
 
 On no account would he have told a lie to any of the 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 171 
 
 good sisters ; it was no fault of his that the tale Soeur 
 Amelie carried to the Reverend Mother's sick-bed was 
 of a ward of his, young, devout, and beautiful, who had 
 been overtaken by illness as she was making a pilgrim- 
 age, and begged for shelter at the convent. Like Mme. 
 Barbeau, the one point she clearly grasped was that a 
 handsome payment would be made for hospitality ; on 
 this head M. Claud was most emphatic. 
 
 The Reverend Mother was too ill, and still too ignor- 
 ant of English manners and customs, to realise the 
 improbabilities of the story, even if she had been 
 disposed to look for them. Her chief emotion was 
 one of gratitude to La Bienheureuse Elisabeth, their 
 foundress, who thus sent help at a desperate strait. 
 Some time ago, the Mother had received a hint from 
 certain quarters that as the number of her sisters was 
 dwindling, and as her resources were almost at an end, 
 it would be wiser to join with some other community. 
 Of late the hints had been repeated, with insistence, 
 and the Mother saw herself unable to disregard them 
 much longer. Though a nun may be vowed to poverty 
 and humility, she may still be proud of belonging to a 
 community founded by a saint of her own blood, and 
 she prayed day and night that their foundress would 
 plead for her children to be spared this humiliation. 
 
 The payment named by M. Claud would be more 
 than enough to cover expenses, and if the patient 
 were devout, she might bestow a thankoffering on 
 the community, after her recovery. Perhaps — who 
 knows — she might even feel impelled to join them. 
 
 So the Soeur Infirmiere was bidden to prepare a 
 disused room which, being beyond the enclosed part 
 of the house, might lawfully be used for visitors. 
 Claud seized upon the old horse and cart given by the 
 
172 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 former owner of the Manor for the use of the convent, 
 and his luck still holding, managed to convey Honor 
 and Mme. Barbeau from the lonely house without 
 encountering Polly, or any curious passer-by, and, 
 which was almost a miracle, without the poor beast 
 dropping dead by the way. Before the Angelus rang 
 at noon, Mme. Barbeau's Sunday cap was pinned out 
 to dry, and the sisters were busy with a very bad case 
 of measles. 
 
173 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 By the time that she reached the convent, Honor was 
 unconscious, and for many days afterwards she lived in 
 a debateable land between dreaming and waking. 
 
 Sometimes she was contented, believing herself to 
 be in safety beyond the reach of her guardian or of 
 the man whom even in delirium she would not call her 
 husband. She lay drowsing among her pillows on the 
 little white bed, under the ■ blue and white statue of Our 
 Lady, lulled by the click of Soeur Agathe's beads, or 
 the soft whisper of Soeur Eulalie's prayers. At other 
 times the fever would run high, so that it seemed as 
 if the blood would burst from the ends of her fingers, 
 the pain in her side would stab her with every breath 
 she drew. Then the bed would turn to a steep hill, 
 up which she was climbing, a hill so high that it hid 
 the sun and moon. The stars all came out to dance 
 " Lavender Bunches," and she would have danced with 
 them if her shoes would have kept on her feet ; but they 
 grew bigger and bigger till one of them fell off, and 
 she could not find it again because Farmer Lapworth 
 had taken it for a coffin for his dead baby. Then she 
 thought : " If one shoe is large enough for a coffin the 
 other is large enough for a boat," and at the word she 
 
174 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 found herself floating in it, down a wide grey river ; 
 Miss Lester and Nurse were on the bank, and she tried 
 to turn the boat, but it drifted on, and they would not 
 look at her. Then Jane was there with the nuns all 
 round her, and they were cutting off her hair, and as 
 each long golden ringlet fell upon the ground, Isaac 
 picked it up, squeaking " Redhead ! Redhead ! " and 
 flung it into the water. Honor would have tried to 
 pull out the ringlets as they floated towards her, but 
 the boat swept on faster and faster, and no one on the 
 bank would hear the cry. Then she would struggle 
 and gasp till she woke, and the sister by the bed, hear- 
 ing a piteous little moan, would lift her, rearrange the 
 pillows, and pour something down her throat, some- 
 thing which always tasted nasty, though it did not 
 always look the same. When it was about a table- 
 spoonful of thick liquid, Honor knew it to be medicine ; 
 something warm out of a bowl was broth, and there 
 was a cool clear draught which relieved her terrible 
 thirst for the moment, but everything tasted alike to 
 the fevered mouth. 
 
 The nuns fought for her life with every weapon in 
 their power. Those who had no part in nursing her 
 gave themselves the more to prayer. To lose the first 
 patient who had come to them from the outer world 
 for many years would have been grievous in any case, 
 and moreover the patient was the ward of M. Claud, 
 to whom they owed much. The Reverend Mother 
 herself arose from her sick-bed to help the nurses. As 
 for Fenwick, he was at the convent gate at dawn and 
 at dusk, for news of her. Soeur Marthe, the portress, 
 knew when to expect him, and her shaking hand would 
 be fumbling with the little shutter before he had time 
 to ring the bell. With every wish to make the best 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 175 
 
 of it/ her cheerful, "Eh bien, Monsieur! she must be 
 worse before she can be better," soon changed into 
 "There is always hope for the young, Monsieur." 
 
 He would have been distracted but for an obstinate 
 conviction that his lady had not been sent to him, as 
 by miracle or by fairy favour, to be lost before he had 
 won her. The days were terribly long; he had no 
 heart for any scientific work, and no distractions of 
 any sort except an occasional visit from Mme. Barbeau, 
 who was always optimistic. " La rougeole ? Ht, Mon- 
 sieur knows it is a nothing. The children have it, and 
 to-day they are half-way to Paradise, to-morrow or the 
 day after they are back again, more troublesome than 
 ever. I remember when our demoiselle had it." The 
 details that followed were so intimate that Fenwick 
 hurriedly escaped, and wandered up and down upon 
 the heath until it was time for his evening visit to 
 the convent. 
 
 Soeur Marthe's eyes were red and swollen when they 
 peered at him through the judas that evening. The 
 poor angel was very ill indeed ; Reverend Mother begged 
 M. Claud to come to the parlour and speak with her. 
 
 The parlour, cold and bare and terribly clean, struck 
 a chill into his heart. He knew every detail in it, 
 from the plaster group of La Bienheureuse Elisabeth 
 kneeling at the feet of Our Lady on the chimney piece, 
 to the vase filled with paper roses, and the little books 
 of devotion on the round table in the middle. Only 
 two days before his lady came to him, he had spent 
 over an hour in that parlour, mending the invalid leg 
 of one of the wooden chairs set stiffly against the wall. 
 
 The Mother was standing near the door leading to 
 the inner part of the convent, a tall gaunt woman with 
 more than a suggestion of a moustache upon her upper 
 
176 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 lip. She did not seem formidable to Claud, who knew 
 her well, and knew that the frown meant anxiety, not 
 displeasure. 
 
 "I asked you to come here, Monsieur, because we 
 fear Mademoiselle Lester is very ill. We heard that 
 the doctor was visiting the Manor again to-day, and I 
 was able to send word to ask him to come here. He 
 says that she is much worse than when he saw her 
 last week." 
 
 " Last week, he thought it might be smallpox, and he 
 was wrong. He may be mistaken again." 
 
 "I fear not, Monsieur. Even we can see a change 
 for the worse. He advises that we should send for her 
 relations if there are any living near here." 
 
 " There are none. She has none left alive." Honor 
 had assured him on that night of their meeting that 
 they were " all dead." Even if he had known of any, 
 he would not send for them to come between his lady 
 and himself. 
 
 " You will pardon me, Monsieur, but I did not under- 
 stand from Soeur Amelie exactly what was the re- 
 lationship between you and Mademoiselle." 
 
 "If she lives she is to be my wife." 
 
 "Your wife?" The Mother shot a keen glance at 
 Fenwick from under her white coif. "Then" — she 
 hesitated uneasily — " it is of the most serious, Monsieur ; 
 the doctor scarcely expects her to live through the 
 night." 
 
 "Do you think that I am not serious, Reverend 
 Mother?" cried Fenwick, losing his self-control for 
 the moment. "If she is to die, I must see her once 
 again." 
 
 "She would not know you; when she is not un- 
 conscious, she is delirious." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 177 
 
 " She will know me at the gates of death. For pity's 
 sake, Reverend Mother, let me see her." 
 
 " Wait here for an instant ; I will return," said the 
 Mother, suddenly yielding to her own kind heart. 
 " After all," she reflected, as she rustled along the damp, 
 cold passage, " La Bienheureuse Elisabeth was married 
 and loved her husband ; she will understand." 
 
 Tossing on her bed, Honor thought herself caught 
 among the laurel bushes, struggling to escape, while 
 the raindrops pattered down upon her head (" but they 
 can't be real raindrops," she said to herself, " they are 
 red-hot.") She made a violent effort to break away 
 and found herself on her knees, trying to wash the 
 purple lattice pattern from the hearthstone, with the 
 fire beating upon her head till she could feel and hear 
 her brains boiling, and all the while she was held by 
 the train of her wedding gown, which was wound round 
 and round the fender. She pulled at it, and discovered 
 that she was churning for dear life in the middle of 
 the drawing-room in Brunswick Square, with Mr Rivers 
 rattling his seals and telling her that Sir Charles was 
 coming to throw her into the fire if there was no butter 
 for his breakfast. And how could she make butter 
 when there was nothing in the churn but marigold 
 petals and silver beads ? 
 
 The long meagre clock in the corner of the parlour 
 ticked away ten minutes before the Mother came back. 
 
 " Will you follow me, Monsieur ? Our Soeur Infir- 
 miere thinks that it can do no harm for you to stand 
 in the doorway and look in." 
 
 As he climbed a narrow staircase in the wake of the 
 Reverend Mother's grey robe, an acrid odour of burning 
 came to his nostrils; Sceur Eulalie, anxious to lessen 
 the risk for him, had set light to a handful of brown 
 
178 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 paper, and was waving it up and down just outside the 
 door. Through the reek he saw Soeur Agathe stooping 
 over the bed, trying to hold down a little white-robed 
 creature with a small face framed in a soft white cap. 
 The red curls were no more to be seen ; by the doctor's 
 orders they had been shorn from her head. 
 
 "Mon cceur, ma mie, my little lady." The words 
 came, half-French, half-English, as was his wont in 
 excitement, but he could not tell whether actually he 
 spoke them. In his heart he was beseeching her not 
 to leave him lonely and hopeless in his broken world. 
 " You can mend it if you stay with me. Why did you 
 come if you are to go at once ? If you shut this door 
 of hope, no, other will open for me but the door that 
 leads into darkness." 
 
 It was useless; he could find no words to speak. 
 She was slipping away from him, and he could not 
 reach her. All his soul went into a voiceless prayer, 
 he knew not' whether to "Bonne Vierge Marie," to his 
 dead mother, or to the living girl who moaned and 
 struggled on the bed. He made a step forward, and 
 reaching past Soeur Eulalie, laid his hand upon Honor's 
 hand. 
 
 The burning grey eyes turned to him, and the hard 
 stare went out of them. A smile flickered on the 
 quivering lips. Honor knew the tall dark man who 
 comforted her by the fireside in the lonely house, and 
 understood, in some strange way, that he was not her 
 father, and yet that she was safe with him. The 
 fever-imps melted back into the darkness whence they 
 came. She ceased to fight against the kind arms that 
 held her. Her thin hot hands fell down upon the blue 
 cross on the coverlet, and she lay still. 
 
 The Mother, standing motionless behind Fenwick, her 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 179 
 
 hands hidden in her long sleeves, thanked Bienheureuse 
 Elisabeth from her heart. Her momentary suspicion 
 of " M. Claud " was gone, never to revive. Though she 
 had left the world without more than a glimpse at its 
 ways, she knew that a man who had succeeded in 
 forcing his mistress upon the shelter of a convent would 
 not look as Fenwick looked at that moment. 
 
180 
 
 CHAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 It was such a mild calm day as sometimes brightens 
 the month of November, when a pale sun makes pre- 
 tence of forgetting that winter is drawing nearer 
 every hour. The leaves were nearly all gone from the 
 trees, under the bare hedges was a tangled mass of 
 dead stems and dry seed-vessels, and the feathers of 
 the Traveller's Joy had lost their whiteness and soft- 
 ness in the wind and rain of autumn. At the edge of 
 the common, the berries on a row of little holly bushes 
 glowed smooth and scarlet. Mr Gore, the apothecary, 
 jogging along upon his grey cob, cast his eye over 
 them, and thought that it was going to be a hard 
 winter; the sight of the few orange-yellow blossoms 
 still thrusting themselves here and there from among 
 the brown needles of the gorse reminded him pleasantly 
 that kissing was not yet out of fashion. (He was on 
 his way to a plump and comely widow, who had pro- 
 mised to marry him after Christmas, if Bony did not 
 land by that time.) 
 
 Across the common a figure was striding towards 
 him. Mr Gore recognised Mr Fenwick, and pulled up 
 the cob. 
 
 * A fine day, a very fine day, sir — a day like this 
 shortens the winter, as one might say." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 181 
 
 Claud bowed gravely, in rejection of the snuff-box 
 that was held out to him. " The Reverend Mother at 
 the convent told, me yesterday that you pronounced 
 Miss Lester recovered." 
 
 "Convalescence is fairly established, my dear sir, 
 fairly established. Those were my very words. The 
 good ladies may congratulate themselves upon their 
 intelligent following of my directions. Really, for 
 foreigners, they are quite intelligent," allowed Mr Gore 
 with an air of making a generous admission. " I was 
 obliged to leave a good deal in their hands, as on ac- 
 count of the distance, and my very extensive practice, I 
 could not come over to see the young lady as often as 
 I should have wished," said the worthy man, quite un- 
 suspecting that if he had been able to bleed Honor as 
 frequently as he thought advisable, she would not have 
 required any medical attendance for very long. 
 
 "And you think that there will be no permanent 
 injury to her health?" 
 
 " None whatever, my dear sir, none whatever. Miss 
 Lester will need care for some time, but that is the 
 way with most charming young ladies at her age. 
 Light and wholesome diet, change of air, cheerful 
 society — I presume you don't intend to make a nun 
 of her?" 
 
 " A nun ? " Claud was visibly perturbed. " On no 
 account ! She came to the convent merely to be 
 nursed, not to take the vows." 
 
 " All the better ; I never could approve of shutting 
 up pretty young girls between four walls, and tying up 
 their heads in bandages as if they had the toothache. 
 Shut up the old and ugly, that's all very well, eh, sir ? 
 But if you will pardon me for saying so, in view of my 
 position," — Mr Gore cleared his throat and looked 
 
182 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 proudly round him — " another time if your ward seems 
 indisposed, don't run the risk of moving her, even to a 
 convent. Let her stay wherever she happens to 
 be; she as nearly as possible slipped through my 
 fingers. By the way " — Mr Gore put his head on one 
 side and looked at Claud with an inquisitive eye — " I 
 have not yet made out from those good nuns where 
 Miss Lester was when she was taken ill." 
 
 "They speak very little English," said Claud im- 
 perturbably, " and I suppose you do not often have an 
 opportunity of practising French." 
 
 " French ? Lord bless you, sir, what business has 
 any decent man to be speaking French in these days ? " 
 demanded Mr Gore. " It would ruin my character ; 
 every one would ask what sort of company I had been 
 keeping to learn it." (" That's one for my gentleman," 
 he reflected with mild triumph. The little apothecary 
 was the kindest-hearted of men, who could and did for- 
 give any injury except a check to his curiosity.) 
 
 " Perhaps the nuns may be excused for speaking 
 their mother tongue," suggested Claud, without betray- 
 ing his amusement. " At any rate they must under- 
 stand English fairly well to follow out your directions." 
 
 " I took great pains to make myself understood, sir. 
 I flatter myself that even a dolt might have compre- 
 hended me, and those good ladies are far from being 
 dolts — very far from it, I assure you. When they 
 caught my meaning, they carried it out implicitly — 
 implicitly. I could find it in my heart to wish that some 
 other people were as reasonable as these poor Papists." 
 Mr Gore took a little snuff, and sneezed pensively. 
 " Speaking quite confidentially, I could tell you of a 
 lady living not many miles from here who thinks herself 
 competent to prescribe for the whole neighbourhood — 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 183 
 
 it is only by the mercy of Heaven, as one might say, 
 that she has not killed half of them. There was my 
 predecessor, Dr Chilcote — he and she were at daggers 
 drawn. If she heard of any one who was ill, on the 
 property or in the village, she'd be there, at the bed- 
 side, and get some poison of her own decoction down the 
 patient's throat long before he could be sent for. But 
 he taught her a lesson one day. He was asked to 
 sign a death certificate of an old man who died after 
 taking her nostrums for a week, and what do you think 
 he gave as the ' cause of death ' ? " asked Mr Gore, 
 leaning down to poke Fenwick in the ribs with an 
 emphatic forefinger. 
 
 " I have no idea," said Fenwick, telling the untruth 
 that the occasion demanded. 
 
 It was Mr Gore's favourite story, and none of his 
 acquaintances escaped hearing it frequently. 
 
 " ' Madam Marsh, with the best intentions.' He put 
 'the best intentions' to save himself from an action 
 for libel, but Squire Marsh was furious, and it was a 
 good thing for Mr Chilcote that he was retiring from 
 practice." 
 
 Mr Gore took a triumphant pinch of snuff, which 
 made him sneeze so violently that it disturbed the grey 
 cob, which had been standing in a half -doze, and now 
 suddenly started off at the top of its speed. Luckily 
 for the apothecary, this was no very alarming rate. 
 Fenwick watched him bumping along the road, until it 
 was evident that he had recovered the reins, and then 
 turned to walk up the way that led to the convent. 
 
 He was going to his lady. He had been allowed 
 momentary glimpses of her through a window. He 
 had even been allowed to wish her good-day, and to 
 hope that she was feeling better, but this afternoon, 
 
184 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 for the first time, he was to be allowed to pay her 
 a visit. 
 
 He supposed that if she were fit to be questioned, he 
 must find out something more about her. For himself, 
 he wanted to know no more than he knew already — 
 that her name was Honor, that there were no relations 
 who might set up a claim to her, and that she had 
 come to him in the moment of his blackest despair, 
 when all else failed him. But it might be as well to 
 have something more to tell the Reverend Mother. 
 Though Honor knew no French, and the nuns could 
 speak only a few words of English, there had been 
 some awkwardness in their finding out, when she began 
 to recover, that she was not of their faith. The 
 Reverend Mother remarked to him, in a very dry tone, 
 that when arranging to nurse Miss Lester in the con- 
 vent, she had understood her to be a Catholic. 
 
 " I did not know or care what her creed might be," 
 returned Fen wick. "I saw a child at the gates of 
 death, with no one to care for her, and thought this 
 would be sufficient claim to your hospitality." 
 
 " Sceur Amelie told me that Miss Lester was making 
 a pilgrimage." 
 
 " It is the first I have heard of it," said Fenwick. 
 The Mother sighed, having spent great part of that 
 morning trying to establish that she did not tell Soeur 
 Amelie that the sisters must put on clean coifs because 
 the Bishop was expected, when her actual words were 
 that the wood must be stowed away in the shed before 
 more rain fell. 
 
 " Our poor Soeur Amelie is much troubled with her 
 ears," she admitted ; " but, Monsieur, if Miss Lester was 
 not on a pilgrimage, what was she doing ? " 
 
 Luckily for Claud, the interview was interrupted 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 185 
 
 here by one of the sisters, who was obliged to ask for 
 instructions upon some matter of business, and the 
 Mother did not repeat her question at the next inter- 
 view. Honor by this time was the pet and plaything 
 of the whole convent, and the Mother must have pos- 
 sessed a much harder heart than beat under her black 
 scapulary if she had insisted upon turning her out 
 while it was still a fresh pleasure to dress her up in 
 her new clothes. 
 
 In the first alarm that Honor's illness might be small- 
 pox, Soeur Agathe, whose notions of hygiene were supe- 
 rior to those of her day, burned everything which she 
 wore when she was brought to the convent. When the 
 patient was thought to have turned the corner, Soeur 
 Agathe asked whether Monsieur Claud could arrange 
 for some of Mademoiselle's clothes to be sent from 
 wherever she had left them. Monsieur Claud, after 
 much racking of his brain, remembered an old maid of 
 his mother's who had married a stage coachman. He 
 went up to London, found her at the old address, and 
 easily persuaded her to come with him and buy what 
 was required for the outfit of his ward, a young lady 
 whose clothes had all been destroyed by the doctor's 
 orders. He was very uneasy lest some old acquaintance 
 might recognise him in the street, but as luck would 
 have it, he met no one whom he knew, and was spared 
 inconvenient questions or studied coldness. Once, in 
 coming out of a milliner's shop, where they had been 
 buying dainty caps of lace and India muslin for the 
 shorn head, a stout lady, with a black pug in her arms, 
 stared very hard at him, and seemed about to speak. 
 He walked on, and turning round at the corner of the 
 street, saw her still standing in the doorway, staring 
 after him. It must have been some mistake ; the old 
 
186 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 lady was evidently short-sighted from the way in which 
 she screwed up her eyes. He could not remember hav- 
 ing seen her before. 
 
 The contents of the parcels that he brought down 
 with him afforded the sisters more pleasure than any 
 one can realise who does not remember the joy of 
 dressing up a doll. It took quite half an hour's con- 
 sultation between Soeur Agathe, Soeur Eulalie, and 
 Sceur Monique, who was regarded as an oracle on the 
 subject of dress, her sister having been one of Made- 
 moiselle Bertin's best customers, before they could de- 
 cide which cap and neglige' should first be put on for 
 Reverend Mother to see. In honour of Monsieur 
 Claud's visit, they would have tried every article of 
 dress in turn, to be sure of finding the most becoming, 
 but for their fears of tiring out their patient. 
 
 Claud had no fault to find with their work when he 
 was admitted into the parlour, where Honor sat in the 
 large arm-chair that he had sent up from his own house, 
 with Soeur Amelie standing on guard behind her. 
 Now that he was in her presence, he had not courage 
 to look at her ; his first glance was at the sister's broad 
 countenance, beaming with satisfaction and goodwill. 
 ** A benevolent dragon with a swollen nose," he thought, 
 and the absurdity made him smile as he bowed. The 
 pale-blue and white draperies in front of him slowly 
 bent and swayed. He found courage to raise his eyes 
 gradually until they left Honor's negligd for her face 
 as she swept one of the elaborate old-world curtseys 
 which Miss Lester used to consider part of the whole 
 duty of a gentlewoman, and at which Brunswick Square 
 had laughed. Yes, it was the same face that looked at 
 him with a glance, half-shy, half -dignified, from the 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 187 
 
 hazel eyes. The little curls were beginning to show 
 once more at the edge of the filmy cap with the blue 
 ribbon. Only the thin white fingers veined with 
 blue, that held the back of the chair to steady her, 
 did not seem to belong to the strong brown hand that 
 he remembered clasping Mme. Barbeau's rosary. 
 
 " It is very good of you to consent to receive me, dear 
 Madam." 
 
 " You are very good in wishing to see me, sir." 
 
 There was silence. 
 
 Soeur Amelie smiled encouragingly upon them, and 
 observed that it was a fine day. 
 
 " Have you been in the garden to-day ? " asked Fen- 
 wick, catching at a subject of conversation. 
 
 " I walked all round it by myself this morning," said 
 Honor proudly. 
 
 " You grow better every day. You will soon be able 
 to go beyond the convent grounds." 
 
 Honor looked startled. " I am very happy here. It 
 is beautiful in the garden." 
 
 "Do you know this part of the country?" asked 
 Fenwick carelessly. 
 
 Honour frowned with the effort of thinking. 
 
 "No, it was dark — and the birds were crying all 
 round." 
 
 " You have never lived in Sussex ? " 
 
 " No, I lived in Somerset." Honor's tone was con- 
 fident and easy now. " Have you been there ? " In 
 Prunswick Square, she had always been interested to 
 find out whether her cousin's visitors knew Somerset, 
 and was generally disappointed by their denying all 
 acquaintance with such a barbarous part of the world, 
 where no one went but the good folk like Mrs More 
 
188 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 and Mr Wilberforce, who wanted to turn the people 
 into Methodists. 
 
 "I was taken to Bristol Hot Wells when I was a 
 boy, with my mother, who was drinking the waters." 
 
 " Bristol ? Oh ! " said Honor, disappointed. Bristol 
 was as remote from her world as Sussex itself. 
 
 " You lived with your father and mother in 
 Somerset ? " 
 
 " No ; my mother died when I was born. I cannot 
 remember my father. He left me with Miss Lester 
 and Nurse." 
 
 "My mother died when I was a boy," said Claud, 
 venturing to draw his chair a little nearer, as Soeur 
 Amelie was looking out of the window. A conversa- 
 tion in English gave no scope to her imagination, as 
 she could not make out enough of it to embroider. 
 " I suppose Miss Lester was your aunt — or your 
 great-aunt ? " 
 
 Honor put her hand up to her forehead. "No — 
 she — she said she was not related to me, but she 
 loved me very much. She kept me when my father 
 died, and my cousins said they were too poor to do 
 anything for me. My name is not Lester, really," she 
 added, with such a look of distress and puzzlement 
 that Fenwick leaped at once to a conclusion. 
 
 " What does that matter ? I am sure the nuns 
 never call you anything but chdrie — unless it is mon 
 ange." 
 
 Soeur Amelie suddenly looked round with a sus- 
 picious air. 
 
 " I am beginning to teach Mademoiselle French, so 
 that she may understand all the amiable things you 
 say to her," he had the presence of mind to explain. 
 
 " Bien, monsieur! but she will understand very 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 189 
 
 quickly of herself. She already begins to speak to 
 us," said Soeur Amelie, not altogether satisfied. 
 
 " What will your doctor say if you become a French 
 scholar ? " Fenwick asked Honor. " I met him on my 
 way here this afternoon. Has he told you his 
 favourite story ? " 
 
 He repeated the tale of Dr Chilcote's death certifi- 
 cate, hoping to drive away the anxious weary look on 
 Honor's face, as if she were searching for something 
 that she could not find. At the climax she gave a 
 little cry of distress. 
 
 " Madam Marsh ? it was to her that they wanted 
 to send me." 
 
 " To send you " 
 
 " She said that she would train me. I do not need 
 to be trained. I can do clear-starching and mend lace. 
 I mended my cousin's Brussels lappets, so that Jane 
 could not see the stitches. I can bake, and I can 
 make butter and cheese," pleaded Honor, putting 
 together all the accomplishments she could remember, 
 with her hand on her aching forehead. " Oh, do not 
 say that I am to go to her ! " 
 
 Claud bent forward, speaking quietly and tenderly 
 as to a child. " You shall not go to her ; you shall 
 not go anywhere unless you like. Are you happy 
 here ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed I am. Every one is so good to me ; it 
 is so clean and so peaceful — and I am so tired." 
 
 " My little one, you are fatiguing yourself," inter- 
 posed Soeur Amelie, catching the look rather than 
 the words. " Monsieur must not talk to you any 
 more to-day." 
 
 " But there is one thing I must say," begged Honor, 
 laying her cheek against Sceur Am&ie's red hand, 
 
190 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 with a little rubbing caress, like that of a sleepy 
 kitten. " How long have I been here ? It feels as 
 if it had been a very long time ? " 
 
 " It must be about six weeks," Fen wick decided 
 after a hasty calculation. He could not have told, 
 at a guess, whether it were weeks or months. 
 
 " It must have cost money for the sisters to keep 
 me. I had some money — I think it was fourteen 
 guineas." 
 
 " The money is quite safe ; the Reverend Mother 
 asked me to take charge of it for you. There will 
 be no difficulty about paying for your board so long 
 as you are here, and you must not think about any- 
 thing else till you are quite strong again." 
 
 " Every one is so good," said Honor gratefully. 
 "Jane told me that at the convent at Hammersmith 
 the nuns would take in any one who was in trouble 
 and had very little money. Miss Lester was dead, and 
 I had nowhere to go ; I thought Nurse Tanner must be 
 dead too, as she was old and very ill. So I tried to go 
 to the convent, but it was dark and I was very wet 
 and thirsty, and I went into a house because some one 
 said the master was out." 
 
 " And the master came in, and found that the fairies 
 had sent him a visitor." 
 
 Honor laughed, the childlike happy laugh that 
 enabled Mr Rivers to maintain that she was incapable 
 of deep feeling. " The fairies ought to send him some- 
 thing very good, to reward him for his kindness." 
 
 " Perhaps they will — perhaps they have already," 
 said Fenwick, overcome by impulse, and thankful the 
 next moment that Soeur Amelie had broken in upon 
 him with protests that " la petite " was as white as a 
 chestnut flower, and must not say another word. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 191 
 
 Fenwick was given scarcely time to make his bow, 
 before being hurried to the door, and his last glimpse 
 of Honor showed her held down in her chair by the 
 sister, to prevent her trying to make her curtsey. 
 
 Another smile, another trustful look, and he would 
 have been unable to keep himself from telling her 
 what was in his heart. The time was too early as 
 yet for such avowals; it was like taming a wild 
 bird to sit upon your hand — a sudden movement, a 
 hasty word, might undo all his work. 
 
 Meanwhile, from to-day's conversation with her, he 
 had gathered the outlines of a pathetic little story. 
 He had no doubt that Honor was one of the many 
 children for whose existence there was no legal 
 warrant. The morals of the day made it very likely 
 that she came on both sides of gentle blood. This 
 would explain her undeniable air of breeding, and 
 also the curious position which she held with Miss 
 Lester, not acknowledged as a relative, without any 
 right to bear the name, trained to make herself useful, 
 and yet fondly loved and protected. No doubt the old 
 lady endeavoured thus to atone for the thoughtlessness 
 of a scapegrace nephew. Like many old women, she 
 must have neglected to make a will, or perhaps it was 
 not in her power to leave any provision for Honor; 
 after her death, other members of the family repudi- 
 ated any responsibility for the girl, and thought their 
 duty done when they arranged for her to be received 
 into Madam Marsh's household. 
 
 The story fitted with what he had observed in every 
 detail. It completely satisfied Fenwick, leaving him 
 free to believe what he wanted most, that no one 
 could claim the fairies' gift from him. As rendered 
 by him the story drew tears from the Reverend 
 
192 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Mother, whose conscience was henceforth quite at 
 rest about allowing Honor to remain beneath the 
 sheltering arm of Bienheureuse Elisabeth. 
 
 As if to show that Heaven approved, one small 
 piece of good luck after another fell upon the convent 
 from the date when the waif was brought to its door. 
 The village mason mended the hole in the roof for 
 nothing ; their cow had two calves, one of which they 
 sold at a price beyond their hopes. One of the Manor 
 gardeners gave them a day's work, and in the course 
 of digging a bed, came upon Reverend Mother's ring 
 of profession, which had been lost unaccountably three 
 years ago, and mourned every day since then. 
 
 " For me, I cannot see that it matters whether 
 Mademoiselle is a heretic," pronounced Mme. Barbeau, 
 " so long as Reverend Mother remembers that it is her 
 duty to charge twice as much for her board as for a 
 good Catholic. The good father told us in his sermon 
 last week, that while we are bound to show charity to 
 others, we must not forget our religion — and what else 
 could he mean ? " 
 
193 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Through the winter of that year, while all England 
 waited in suspense for the descent of a French invasion 
 upon her coasts, the household of the Bienheureuse 
 Elisabeth scarcely remembered that there was such a 
 thing as war. In Sussex and other districts where the 
 invader might be expected, ladies were at work quilting 
 guineas into petticoats, as the easiest means of carrying 
 money if they were obliged to flee from home, and 
 contriving hiding-places in house or garden for the 
 plate and jewellery too heavy to be carried away. 
 Their fathers, brothers, and sons drilled by day and 
 night. Even Squire Marsh came out of his library 
 and changed his wig and dressing-gown for a scarlet 
 uniform, in which he delivered a stirring harangue to 
 the local militia, beginning with the words, "Gentle- 
 men, I'm an old man, but a young soldier," which was 
 generally considered equal to anything hitherto inspired 
 by the war. 
 
 The nuns owned no property. If once more they 
 were to be driven forth into the world, they had 
 nothing to take with them except the clothes on their 
 backs, and the sacred vessels of the chapel, which were 
 easily carried, so there was no reason for them to waste 
 
 N 
 
194 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 labour or thought on preparations for flight, and in 
 recreation time they might concern themselves with 
 really important matters, such as the robin with the 
 broken leg which Soeur Marthe was nursing into con- 
 valescence, and the home-spun which Soeur Catherine 
 was making into aprons for the community, and the 
 uncertainty as to whether Soeur Marie Josephe would 
 be able to finish the new set of altar linen in time 
 for use on the twenty-first anniversary of Reverend 
 Mother's profession. 
 
 Fenwick, a little more in touch with the world than 
 they were, and not forbidden to read newspapers, 
 nevertheless had preoccupations of his own which 
 often made him forget that he lived at a time when 
 history was being made. A phrase in a book that he 
 studied, a chance recollection of the talk of one of the 
 savants whom Lady Elystan derided, had set him 
 upon some scientific work that promised to be of deep 
 interest, even if he did not achieve the result for which 
 he hoped ; and for his recreation, there were the visits 
 to his "ward." It was understood that he did not 
 come more than three times a week, unless for some 
 urgent reason, one or other of the sisters having always 
 to be present as a chaperon; but, in spite of these 
 restrictions, he succeeded in making Honor more at 
 her ease with him than she had been with any one 
 since leaving Witham, and in talking to her as he could 
 have talked to no other creature on earth. 
 
 She was always ready to listen, whether he spoke 
 of his boyhood at Guesthwaite, of his mother, or of his 
 work, her shrewdness and quick sympathies preventing 
 her ignorance from becoming tiresome or stupid. Once 
 he told her how his mother used to dance for him " sur 
 le pont d'Avignon"; Soeur Catherine, who happened 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 195 
 
 to be the chaperon for that afternoon, was overheard 
 humming the tune afterwards, as she kneaded bread, 
 and was rebuked for levity. 
 
 When Honor talked to him it was usually of the 
 everyday happenings of the convent, or of something 
 of which he had talked to her. The events of her life 
 in Brunswick Square and at the farm were so confused 
 with the delirium of her illness that she could not 
 be sure how much was a fever dream, how much 
 reality. Even her life in Somerset had grown vague 
 and far-away. If she made any allusion to it, Fen- 
 wick always contrived to suggest some other topic ; he 
 honestly believed that the less she thought of the past, 
 the better it was for both her mind and her body, and 
 like many men, he was not greatly interested in his 
 lady's everyday life before he came into it. As soon 
 as he established to his own satisfaction that there was 
 no one with any claim to interfere between them, he 
 was not anxious to hear more. It was right and 
 natural that she should listen eagerly to all he chose 
 to tell of his past life, but what could she have that 
 was worth remembering, before the day when they met 
 for the first time ? 
 
 So the short December days slipped away, with more 
 quiet happiness in them than he had known since his 
 boyhood, and the New Year began. On a day in 
 January, going up to the convent, he found the Mother 
 in the parlour, radiant with joy. He must figure to 
 himself that two, veritably two ladies had applied to 
 be admitted into the community. In all the years 
 since they left France they had received only four new 
 sisters, and two of these were boarders in the convent 
 who shared their flight. Was not this a fine way to 
 begin their year? She was in such exultation that 
 
196 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 she must needs describe to him, not for the first time, 
 all the sufferings of the community from the day when 
 the troubles in France began, and all this, with her 
 comments and moralisings upon it, scarcely allowed 
 him any opportunity for speech. As for Honor, she 
 sat busy with a piece of fine needlework, following 
 the Mother's story as far as she could. If it had not 
 been that she once or twice looked silently to Fenwick 
 for an explanation of some word that puzzled her, she 
 would have seemed unconscious of his presence. 
 
 When he rose to go she made a request: Sceur 
 Agathe had broken the rivet of her spectacles, and 
 if she sent them into Petworth by the carrier to be 
 mended, she would have to wait several days before 
 getting them back, and she was almost helpless without 
 them. " Monsieur Claud mended them for her last year, 
 but she was ashamed to ask him again, so I told her 
 that I should ask M. Claud," said Honor, looking up 
 entreatingly. " She walked against the chapel door 
 this morning, and there is a terrible bump on her 
 forehead. Soeur Eulalie says that the winter is the 
 worst time of the year for Soeur Agathe to break her 
 spectacles, because there are no lily leaves to steep in 
 vinegar and put upon the bruises that she gives to 
 herself." 
 
 When Honor went out of the room to fetch the 
 spectacles, the Mother turned to Fenwick. 
 
 " A sweet child, truly, monsieur, and one whom we 
 all love. Indeed, we have asked ourselves whether 
 there could not be three postulants instead of two. 
 She is happy here, and seems to have brought blessings 
 to us." 
 
 " But she is not a Catholic ! " exclaimed Fenwick in 
 dismay. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 197 
 
 The Mother coughed. "Not absolutely, perhaps, 
 monsieur, but I think she is with us in heart, and after 
 a little instruction " 
 
 " She has no vocation ! I never intended " 
 
 "As to the vocation, monsieur, that is not always 
 apparent at first. From what you have told me she 
 has no name and no home. It is true that you spoke 
 of making her your wife; but is it not possible that 
 taking these things into consideration, she would be 
 safer and happier with us ? " 
 
 "She shall not be a nun " 
 
 "That must be as you please," said the Mother, 
 looking him straight in the face, from under the 
 shadow of her stiff white frill ; " but I would ask you, 
 monsieur, to consider whether it would not be better to 
 let her understand, when you make your proposal in 
 form, that, if she will become a Catholic, there is always 
 a home for her with us. We would receive her without 
 a dowry rather than see her driven into marriage 
 because there was no other refuge for her." 
 
 At that moment Honor returned, and Fenwick was 
 obliged to pocket the spectacles and go away, without 
 another word beyond a ceremonial leave-taking. 
 
 He reached his house in a fervour of wrath. He 
 had shown many kindnesses to these old women. 
 He had given them alms more disinterested than any 
 which they received, since he put no faith in the 
 efficacy of the prayers which they offered daily for 
 their benefactors. He had trusted them with what he 
 valued most in the world, and they requited him by 
 trying to steal the treasure for themselves. He would 
 save her from their clutches. Rather than have that 
 sweet face muffled with coif and wimple till nothing 
 was left uncovered save eyes, nose, and mouth, he would 
 
198 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 burn the convent over their heads one frosty night, 
 and carry her off with the strong hand, as his far- 
 away ancestor " Dick-o'-th'-Gill " carried off a nun from 
 Kendal in the old times. 
 
 As soon as he had lighted his lamp, he fell to work 
 upon Soeur Eulalie's spectacles; he would take them 
 back next day and speak to Honor, though the Mother 
 and the whole community stood round to guard her. 
 
 As his fine dexterous fingers set the new rivet into 
 place, a thought came that made him put down rivet 
 and spectacles on the table, and stare blankly in front 
 of him. 
 
 What right had he, a man under a cloud, to take 
 advantage of a child's innocence ? She was too young, 
 too unused to the world, to know what she would do 
 in marrying him. She had no friend or kinsman who 
 could hear all his story and judge whether what he 
 had to offer was fit for her. 
 
 He could ask her to share his poverty, knowing from 
 what little he allowed her to tell him of her past life, 
 that to her it would seem wealth. But the name 
 handed down through generations in the North Country 
 was stained to the eyes of the world, and he might not 
 ask her to share it. 
 
 Knowing his own integrity, he had rejected all 
 thought of clearing himself, proudly convinced that 
 the friends who would not believe him on his un- 
 supported word were not worth keeping. There is 
 a mocking imp who sits in some corner of the brain, 
 waiting for the moment when he can make us see our 
 fatal errors after it is too late to alter or amend ; some 
 few of us are strong enough to answer him with 
 " What then ? " and go on ; these are the successful 
 people. Many are too deaf to hear him, so that he 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 199 
 
 withers away and dies, stifled in his cell ; these are the 
 happy. Those like Fenwick who are clever enough to 
 understand his lightest hint, and yet have not the 
 strength to put him on one side and go on, quand 
 meme, are bound to suffer cruelly. 
 
 There was no help for it, as the imp told Fenwick 
 repeatedly in the course of that night ; his reputation 
 was gone, and his life wrecked, in great measure by his 
 own perversity and obstinacy. If Champneys were to 
 come back from France to-morrow, and could show 
 that Fenwick had no part in his arrest, the world 
 would always be of opinion that " there must be some- 
 thing wrong about Fenwick, or old Harbord would 
 never have cut him out of his will." He threw away 
 this one remaining chance of retrieving his fortunes 
 when he rejected Lady Elystan's help. "A broken 
 man " he had chosen to be ; a broken man henceforth he 
 must remain, and Honor must not be asked to pick 
 up the pieces, for fear of cutting her fingers. 
 
 Yet she should not be driven to marry him as a 
 refuge from Madam Marsh ; she should not be driven 
 into a nunnery as a refuge from him. On this he was 
 determined, although he could see no other way of 
 deliverance for a nameless, penniless girl. 
 
 After a sleepless night, he was no wiser than before. 
 It was diversion, as welcome as it was unexpected, 
 when the post brought him a letter written on very 
 stiff paper with a gilt edge, and sealed with a large 
 red seal. His family lawyers had the honour of ac- 
 quainting him that various documents were awaiting 
 his signature. If he expected to be in London shortly, 
 they would be much obliged if he could make it con- 
 venient to call at the office. If not, they would take 
 the necessary steps to forward the documents to any 
 
200 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 address that he might give them, and they remained 
 his obedient servants. 
 
 Any excuse for two or three days' absence was 
 welcome ; Fen wick felt that he could not bear to see 
 his lady again at the moment; before he returned, 
 some plan for the future might occur to him. Soeur 
 Eulalie's spectacles were delivered at the convent, with 
 a note to the Reverend Mother to say that Fenwick 
 was called away on business to London, and was un- 
 certain of the day of his return. 
 
 " It is easy enough to shake off a man, — as easy as 
 shaking an onion paring from the lap," said Mme. 
 Barbeau, who was engaged in the convent kitchen, 
 suiting the action to the word when she heard this 
 piece of news, " but to get him back when you want 
 him again is quite another pair of sleeves. If monsieur 
 does not come back, and mademoiselle is left plantee la, 
 what is to become of her, hein ? " 
 
 The lay sister, who was cutting up the onions for 
 potato soup, was too conscious of her own inferiority 
 in Mme. Barbeau's eyes to attempt answering the 
 question. 
 
 At the lawyer's office in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
 Fenwick was made sensible of the change in his 
 position. On former visits he used to be shown at 
 once into the room of one or other of the senior 
 partners, who received him with all the deference due 
 to the owner of Guesthwaite and the heir presump- 
 tive to the Harbord fortune. Now he was kept 
 waiting for some time in the outer office, among clerks 
 and messengers, before being taken to a condescending 
 young gentleman, who informed him that both the 
 partners were engaged, but that it was not necessary 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 201 
 
 for him to wait until they would be at leisure ; such 
 a trifling business could be done without their presence. 
 
 Fenwick having suppressed his desire to kick the 
 young puppy, and signed his name as required, was on 
 his way downstairs, when from a door on the first 
 floor appeared the Senior Partner, wearing the bland 
 smile that his kind usually put on for the reassurance 
 of the well-to-do female clients. Behind him came a 
 stout lady in a sea-green pelisse, with a pug dog under 
 her arm. 
 
 " Be careful, my dear madam. Here is a dark corner 
 of the stairs. If you were to miss your footing, we 
 should never forgive ourselves. Will you take my 
 arm?" 
 
 The lady had stopped dead upon the landing, and 
 was staring hard at Fenwick, who stood on one side to 
 let her pass, a ray of light from a window-slit above 
 him falling across his face. 
 
 " The stairs are not really steep. How do you do, 
 Mr Fenwick. A fine day for January. My dear 
 madam, do you feel unwell ? What is the matter ? " 
 
 The Senior Partner's inquiries were cut short by 
 receiving a black and somnolent pug thrust suddenly 
 into his arms, and the lady flung herself upon 
 Fenwick. 
 
 " Claud ! it must be Claud ! don't you remember me?" 
 
 Claud stared for a moment, and then with a flash of 
 recollection, cried joyfully, "It's the lady with the 
 monkey ! " 
 
 There was an exclamation from the step where the 
 Senior Partner was struggling with the pug, followed 
 by his observing in a tone of deep offence, " Pardon me, 
 Mr Fenwick, the animal is not a monkey, but a pug 
 
202 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 dog, and as far as appears to me, of a most unfortunate 
 disposition." 
 
 " What, has he bitten you ? Dear me, sir, I am so 
 sorry!" cried the lady, turning round, still holding 
 Fenwick with one hand while she stretched out the 
 other for the dog. " Give him to me, the sweet angel ! 
 Yes, Pug, it was very wrong of you to bite that kind 
 gentleman. But he can't really have hurt you very 
 much, his teeth are so small, though they are sharp. 
 As a matter of fact, do you know, it is much less 
 painful to be bitten by a dog if he has sharp teeth. 
 Oh, there now, I've dropped my reticule — do be quiet, 
 Pug ! Will you hold him, Claud ! A sweet little dog, 
 my dear ; you'll not be afraid of him." 
 
 "Mr Fenwick no doubt is too gallant to object to 
 sacrificing his fingers in a lady's service, Mrs Joad," 
 said the Senior Partner with some dryness. The lady 
 was already half-way downstairs, sweeping Fenwick 
 after her. 
 
 "You must come back and dine with me, Claud ; I'm 
 staying in my cousin's house in Bedford Square for a 
 few weeks. She will not get in your way ; she is down 
 at Cheltenham, drinking the waters, and I came up to 
 Town to buy some things I wanted for the house at 
 Osmundsbury. I live at Osmundsbury, you know. 
 Get into the carriage. Good-day, Mr Pringle, I hope 
 your finger will soon be well. I am sorry that my 
 naughty Pug forgot himself — a sweet little dog, my 
 dear Claud, but hasty. He really meant nothing by 
 it, you know, — he bit the Dean of Osmundsbury on 
 Christmas Day. He is very sensitive, poor darling, 
 and I think he was upset by something — perhaps the 
 Dean's gaiters. But anyhow, a fine strong man like 
 you can't feel being bitten by a little tiny dog. Yes, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 203 
 
 tell the coachman to drive home, please; good-day — 
 and if your finger is sore, put some of that new oint- 
 ment upon it — I forget its name, but it is advertised in 
 all the newspapers. It makes some people come out in 
 a rash, so perhaps you had better try it on one of your 
 clerks first. What a fuss men do make about trifles ! 
 I'm sure Pug has bitten me twenty times, and I never 
 give it a thought. I hope he won't charge for it in his 
 account ; I tried to soothe him down by calling him a 
 fine strong man, because I thought it would please 
 him ; did you ever see such a queer little fellow as he 
 is ? just like a goldfish ! My dear Claud, how glad I 
 am to see you again ! To think of your remembering 
 me and poor Jacko, after all these years ! " 
 
 "They have not altered you," said Fen wick, disen- 
 tangling one end of the lady's scarf from the buttons 
 on his sleeve. 
 
 She laughed a jolly laugh. " I had no looks to lose. 
 When you have a face like a turnip, and a figure like a 
 Dutch cheese, there is nothing to spoil. Now, your 
 dear mother, — but she would never have grown old if 
 she had lived to the age of Methuselah. Wrinkles and 
 grey hairs would have made no difference to her, 
 though I cannot fancy her with them." 
 
 " She went before they came to her." 
 
 " Better so," said Mrs Joad, drawing out her pocket- 
 handkerchief unaffectedly and wiping her eyes. " Tho^e 
 like her ought to go when they are at the best. But 
 what a loss it was ! Even now, I can't believe that I 
 shall never see her at her wheel under the window in 
 the hall. Mr Pringle tells me you have sold Guesth- 
 waite. Well, no wonder that you could not bear it 
 without her." 
 
 "It was nothing of the kind," said Fen wick 
 
204 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 doggedly ; " she died when I was a boy. I did not sell 
 Guesthwaite till last year. If Mr Pringle told you 
 of my affairs, he probably told you that I am not 
 Mr Harbord's heir, and that I'm supposed to be a 
 French spy." 
 
 " He did not tell me about Mr Harbord's will," said 
 Mrs Joad, without betraying any surprise. " I read it 
 in the paper. He must have been out of his mind." 
 
 " Public opinion agreed with him." 
 
 " What does that matter ? " demanded Mrs Joad, 
 looking at him through a pair of gold-rimmed spec- 
 tacles set on the tip of such a very small nose that it 
 was difficult to understand how they stayed in their 
 place. " Of course it is very tiresome and very unjust 
 that you have lost all that money, but there is no sense 
 in making yourself unhappy about what stupid people 
 think, when they never knew your father and mother, 
 and so can't know that you never could be a spy or 
 anything dishonourable." 
 
 Something rose in Claud's throat, and he turned his 
 head away and stared out of the window, while Mrs 
 Joad chattered on, seemingly indifferent as to whether 
 he were listening to her or not. 
 
 " There was that silly old Pringle, licking his lips and 
 backbiting, like an old pussy-cat. I never could abide 
 cats, and my poor Jacko hated them too. Do you 
 remember how he used to shiver at Guesthwaite, and 
 roll himself up in my boa? He always liked you, 
 because you never teased him. He died ten years ago 
 — before I married my second husband. I was Mrs 
 Woodhead then — a perfectly odious name, my dear, but 
 after all, quite between ourselves, he was rather an 
 
 odious man " Fen wick made a sound that might 
 
 have passed for a laugh. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 205 
 
 " The only happy times in my life used to be when 
 he went shooting partridges in Norfolk, and I came to 
 your mother at Guesthwaite. Dear, dear! it's not 
 many wives that would be as good to their husband's 
 distant cousin as she was to me. You might say that I 
 was a safe visitor, for there was nothing about me to 
 make women jealous, but your mother could have held 
 her own against the handsomest. There I used to come, 
 year after year, from the time you were a baby, and 
 such a pretty baby as you were. Just that one month 
 helped me through the whole year, and to think that 
 she died before she got the letter telling her Mr Wood- 
 head was dead of a quinzy ! She would have liked to 
 know that I was going to be happy at last. Here we 
 are at cousin Arnott's front door, and if you are as 
 hungry as I am, you will be glad to think it is close on 
 dinner-time. There is nothing mfakes one so famished 
 as going to see a lawyer, for you never know but that 
 he'll tell you that all your money's gone, in one way or 
 another, and if it is, you may as well have a good 
 dinner, as it will be your last, and if it isn't, you're so 
 relieved that you'd be ready to eat an ox. Not that 
 you'll get an ox for dinner here ; poor cousin Arnott is 
 so weakly that she can't digest good victuals, and her 
 cook has never learned to make anything but gruel and 
 panada." 
 
206 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 Honor sat in the corner of the recreation-room working 
 with a thread as fine as a cobweb while the sisters 
 stood by, advising and admiring, careful not to get 
 between her and the dim light that struggled through 
 a very badly glazed window. 
 
 Strictly speaking, by convent rules Honor, who was 
 not even a postulant, had no business in the sisters' 
 recreation-room. But then, as Soeur Catherine said, 
 where was the poor little one to sit ? In the old times 
 in France, when the convent was full of boarders, 
 childless widows of good birth and narrow means, 
 young wives whose husbands were on duty with their 
 regiments, there was a sitting-room for guests. But 
 now it would mean keeping up a fire merely for Honor 
 alone, which would be a sinful extravagance, and the 
 child was not yet recovered from her illness, and might 
 mope if she were left to herself, which would be to 
 undo all the effect of their nursing. Moreover, she 
 was mending a chalice veil which was one of the few 
 treasures saved from their old chapel, and it was 
 absolutely necessary for some of them to be at hand to 
 advise and direct. 
 
 " Be sure you do not strain your eyes, dear child. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 207 
 
 I have never been able to see anything properly since 
 last I tried to mend that veil." 
 
 "You will be very careful when you come to the 
 shield ; it is the blazon of the grandfather of Reverend 
 Mother's grandfather, who gave us the veil." 
 
 " Argent, on a chief azure, a fleur de lis of the first," 
 said Sceur Monique, " but Reverend Mother's grand- 
 father quartered the arms of his wife." 
 
 " Which he had no right to do," said Soeur Eulalie 
 promptly ; " my grand uncle married the elder sister." 
 
 All the sisters knew Soeur Eulalie's one lingering 
 human weakness to be her family tree, and Sceur 
 Catherine hastily interposed. 
 
 " Our little Honor ought to study the art of blazon. 
 Every demoiselle should know something of it." 
 
 From where she stood behind the girl, Soeur Monique 
 frowned a rebuke at Sceur Catherine, who at once 
 remembered the version of Honor's story for which 
 Fenwick was responsible, and was overcome with con- 
 fusion at her blunder. 
 
 Luckily at this moment entered Sceur Marthe, who 
 had been called away from the rest by a ring at the 
 bell. 
 
 " I bring news, mes sceurs. M. Claud is here." 
 
 There was a general flutter of white coifs, and 
 murmuring of low voices. 
 
 " Here ? Did he ask to come in ? When did he 
 return ? " 
 
 " He returned only this morning," said Sceur Marthe, 
 dropping on to one of the hard wooden chairs with a 
 little grimace of pain at the twinging of her rheumatic 
 knee, " and he asked to see Reverend Mother at once. 
 He has important business with her." 
 
 There was another murmur. 
 
208 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " He has been a long time in London." 
 
 " It must be ten days." 
 
 " He has never been away for so long since he came 
 to live near us. He must be glad to return ; they say 
 that London is all smoke and dirt. Perhaps he was 
 not in London all the time." 
 
 " In his letter to Reverend Mother he said that he 
 had met an old friend." 
 
 u Ah, these old friends ! they lead us into trouble," 
 murmured Marie Josephe, who, as the eldest of the 
 community, took more freedom of speech than was 
 allowed to the rest. " Doubtless she is a widow." 
 
 The bell rang to recall the sisters to their occupations, 
 and they hurried away, each with a word or a look for 
 Honor as she went. 
 
 As the door closed behind Soeur Marthe, hobbling 
 last of all, Honor gave an involuntary sigh of relief. 
 The convent was peaceful, the sisters were kindly as 
 on the day when she was brought to their door, but 
 the continual hush and repression, grateful to worn 
 body and strained nerves, now began to be irksome. 
 She called herself ungrateful, told herself that the 
 affection of these good women was more than she 
 deserved, and contrasted the peace and quietness of 
 the haven in which she was resting with what she 
 suffered in her few hours with Sir Charles, or in her 
 ten days at the farm. Nevertheless, she was weary of 
 it fall; the soft subdued voices, the restrained gestures, 
 fretted her ; the long intervals of silence had lost their 
 healing power, and made her feel as if she were half 
 asleep or half dead. In the midst of assuring herself 
 that this was far better than Brunswick Square, even 
 on the fortunate days when Mr Rivers was away from 
 home, she was seized with a wild craving to romp 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 209 
 
 once more in the nursery with the children. The 
 sisters were too old ; nearly all half blind, or deaf, or 
 decrepit, they would never understand how she longed 
 to run and dance and play. 
 
 It was only since M. Claud went to London that 
 the restless fit came over her. That half-hour in the 
 parlour every two days seemed to fill up her thoughts 
 and prevent her from chafing in her cage. She thought 
 of that September evening when she went out to seek 
 her fortune, of the golden streak of sunlight on the 
 edges of the clouds, and the warm scent of the honey- 
 suckle nodding at her from the hedges. Then she 
 looked round the bare room with the whitewashed 
 walls, cold and dank in spite of the fire smouldering 
 ill-temperedly upon the hearth. The winter sun had 
 not strength to pierce through the panes of thick green 
 glass. A few sickly snowdrops, gathered by herself 
 in the garden that morning, hung their heads in a 
 little glass cup below the image of Our Lady ; the cold 
 seemed to have taken away what little scent they had. 
 There was no spirit of high adventure in the air ; all 
 was quiet and passionless as a churchyard. 
 
 " Must I stay here always, and be dead too ? " 
 thought Honor. "It is worse than the churchyard ; 
 the live people never come to walk here — except 
 M. Claud." 
 
 A rustle of garments came along the passage, and 
 the Mother entered the room. 
 
 " Ah, you have ceased to work, ma petite. You are 
 quite right ; it is dark, and it would be a pity to spoil 
 the best pair of eyes in the convent. But was it 
 necessary to leave the thread upon the floor?" 
 
 Honor flushed crimson as she picked up the skein 
 from the floor, whence it had slipped from her lap, 
 
 o 
 
210 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 forgotten, as she sat with idle fingers and wandering 
 thoughts. 
 
 " I did not know who would mend that veil when 
 Soeur Monique could no longer see how to do it. We 
 all grow old here." 
 
 The Mother sat down upon one of the high-backed 
 chairs and looked wistfully at the girl standing beside 
 her. 
 
 " But we grow all together — is that how one says it 
 in English ? — so that we do not comprehend how old 
 we are, unless we see some one who is young. Then 
 it is happiness for us to have a young creature among 
 us ; but we must not forget, as M. Claud says, that the 
 young seek to the young." 
 
 The crimson flushed again in Honor's cheeks. 
 
 " Doubtless it seems to you, my child, that M. Claud 
 he is old also." 
 
 " No, indeed ! " protested Honor. " How can he 
 be old?" 
 
 " He has grey hairs and wrinkles." 
 
 " He is not old at all," said Honor stoutly. 
 
 The Reverend Mother looked thoughtfully at the 
 beads hanging from her girdle. 
 
 "Sit down, chtrie" she said, after a brief pause. 
 "We will talk a little, you and I. You are happy 
 here?" 
 
 The question was so sudden, so unexpected, that 
 Honor, her fit of restlessness not gone completely from 
 her, could not make her assent sound as hearty as she 
 wished it to be. 
 
 "M. Claud was here this afternoon. He says that 
 you are too young to renounce the world before you 
 have seen it. He tells me that his cousin, who has no 
 children, has need of a young girl to live in her house. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 211 
 
 She asks you to stay with her for a few weeks. If you 
 please her, and she pleases you, it might be that you 
 remained with her." 
 
 "To stay with her? Not in London?" Honor's 
 cheeks were white instead of crimson. 
 
 " No, not in London. She is in London now, but the 
 day after to-morrow she goes down to her house at 
 Osmundsbury. She will stop here on the way and 
 take you with her." 
 
 "Then I am to go?" 
 
 " But of course you are to go, my child." 
 
 " M. Claud's cousin does not know me, she has never 
 seen me. How can she wish me to stay with her ? " 
 
 " If M. Claud wishes it, that suffices for her, no doubt. 
 She has known him since he was a little boy, and has 
 always had for him a friendship of the most sincere." 
 
 Honor considered, pulling her thimble on and off her 
 finger. " Is the cousin old ? " 
 
 " She is of the age of the most part of us, my child. 
 For you she would be old, for me she would still be 
 young. She used to visit the mother of M. Claud 
 when he was a little boy. But though she cannot be 
 young, M. Claud says that she loves young people; 
 you will not find the house triste." 
 
 In the dark the shadow of the coif concealed the 
 Mother's face, but a dispassionate observer might 
 have noted something in her tone which suggested 
 a smile. 
 
 " You have been so good to me. I can never thank 
 you — what can I say ? What can I do ? " Honor's 
 face was hidden on the grey lap. 
 
 " You must not cry. You have nothing for which 
 to cry. You will go with Mme. la cousine and be 
 happy." 
 
212 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " And if I am not happy ? " Honor's hand, still thin 
 and white, clasped that of the Mother, laid upon her 
 hair. 
 
 " But you must be happy." 
 
 " On my obedience ? " asked the girl, with something 
 between a sob and a laugh, repeating a phrase caught 
 from the sisters. 
 
 "On your obedience, chdrie. But if veritably you 
 cannot be happy at Osmundsbury, after you have tried 
 all that is possible, you can remember that we have 
 always a place for you here. Now we must think of 
 preparing for your journey." 
 
 It was as well that the interval allowed for pre- 
 paration was not long, for, in spite of convent discip- 
 line, the laments of the good sisters were piteous. 
 Their patient was to be taken from them before she 
 had recovered her strength completely, and handed 
 over to a stranger of whom they knew nothing. It 
 was true that she was the cousin of M. Claud, but 
 voyez-vous, ma sceur, there are cousins and cousins. 
 And then, there was the question of her religion. 
 Proselytising in form was out of the question with a 
 minor whose guardian was nominally a Protestant, 
 but no one could help showing the poor child how to 
 cross herself, and how to say the Hail Mary, and so 
 forth. Now she would be among heretics, and would 
 forget it all. Soeur Eulalie could not sleep at night 
 for thinking of it; Soeur Monique, for the first time 
 in her life, forgot the oil for the sanctuary lamp. 
 
 Honor knew not what to think, whether to be glad 
 or to be in terror. There was a grotesque reminiscence 
 of her last journey, when the sisters thronged about 
 her to dress her in the cloak and bonnet M. Claud had 
 broughtMown from London, and mingled tears and 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 213 
 
 wishes for her happiness, with hopes that she would 
 come back to them one day. 
 
 "Dark green is the right colour for the child, un- 
 doubtedly," murmured Soeur Marie Josephe. 
 
 "Decidedly, Mme. la cousine has good taste," re- 
 sponded Soeur Agathe, all unaware that Mrs Joad's 
 original choice for Honor's travelling dress had been 
 a bright salmon - coloured pelisse with a sky - blue 
 turban, and that it had taken all M. Claud's diplomacy 
 to substitute the green. 
 
 At the convent gate Fenwick was looking out for 
 Mrs Joad's carriage, with a load off his heart. Mrs 
 Joad's persistence in taking up their friendship exactly 
 where it was left in happier times had won him to 
 confidences before he knew what he was doing. She 
 was one of those women who at first appear silly, yet 
 have somewhere about them a strong vein of practical 
 good sense, and she dealt straightforwardly with his 
 fears and scruples. 
 
 "You say there is no one to judge for her, and she 
 is too young to judge for herself whether she prefers 
 you to a convent. Well, then, let her come and stay 
 with me till she is older. She may see other beaux, 
 though it is not very likely; there is not a man in 
 Osmundsbury Close except the Dean and Chapter, and 
 all of them have been married at least twice. But it 
 will give her time to grow older." 
 
 Claud did not know that when he had gone away, 
 after trying vainly to thank her, Mrs Joad had looked 
 over the top of her spectacles and remarked, as if she 
 were addressing the ball of wool in her lap, " At any 
 rate it will give you time to be sure whether a Fenwick 
 of Guesthwaite can marry a love-child." 
 
 After making this arrangement, Mrs Joad found that 
 
214 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Fenwick would have no difficulty in coming down with 
 her to Osmundsbury. It was only fair that he should ; 
 she must go considerably out of her way in order to 
 pick up Honor, and would be obliged to sleep upon 
 the road. Her coachman was newly engaged, and, 
 although he came with a flaming character, she could 
 not feel certain that he would remain sober throughout 
 the journey, and there were sure to be difficulties at 
 the inns, even for a lady travelling in her own 
 carriage. 
 
 Fenwick began to think that the coachman must 
 have yielded at once to temptation, when more than 
 an hour passed after the time settled for Mrs Joad's 
 arrival, and nothing was to be seen of the plum- 
 coloured carriage. To add to his discomfort, heavy 
 rain began to fall. He was driven to ring the bell 
 and ask whether he might wait in the parlour. 
 
 Honor, at the far end of the room, beside Soeur 
 Amelie, greeted him with a formal curtsey, but with- 
 out the smile to which he was used. She looked pale 
 and heavy-eyed; was she unhappy at leaving the 
 convent, or was she merely tired of sitting bolt upright 
 in her travelling dress ? Whichever it was he was 
 resolved to know; she should not be dragged away 
 from the convent against her will, whatever that old 
 woman advised. (Claud for the moment forgot the 
 gratitude that he professed and really felt for Mrs 
 Joad's inspiration.) 
 
 After a few commonplaces upon the inconvenience 
 of the rain and the tedium of waiting, he boldly made 
 his venture. 
 
 " Ma sorut, Miss Lester looks very pale. I am afraid 
 as Mrs Joad is so late in coming that it may be very 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 215 
 
 late before we get to the end of to-day's journey. Do 
 you not think that Reverend Mother would permit 
 her to take a little refreshment? A glass of milk, 
 perhaps." 
 
 Soeur Monique, whose temper was quick, once 
 did penance for saying that Soeur Amelie might as 
 well have had a dandelion clock as the head on her 
 shoulders. Soeur Amelie now proved her right by 
 jumping up and hurrying off as soon as she understood 
 what M. Claud wanted, forgetful of the glaring im- 
 propriety of leaving him alone with Honor. 
 
 "Reverend Mother explained to you where we are 
 going?" he asked, disregarding Honor's protest that 
 she was not tired, and did not want milk or any- 
 thing else. "You are sure that you are willing 
 to go?" 
 
 "I am very grateful for — for the lady's kindness," 
 said Honor with the ghost of a smile. " But I do not 
 know her name, because Reverend Mother never calls 
 her anything but Mme. la cousine." 
 
 " She used to be Mrs Woodhead when I was a boy ; 
 now she is Mrs Joad. She is kindness itself. You 
 are sure to be happy with her." 
 
 "But there is one thing — I thought that I told 
 you when I was ill, but I cannot be sure. It is so 
 hard to know what I dreamed and what I really 
 remember." 
 
 "Do not try to remember anything. There is no 
 need." 
 
 " But I must remember this," persisted Honor, look- 
 ing up with troubled eyes. " Did I tell you — did you 
 know — who I was ? It is not as if I could be like — 
 like every one else. Mrs Joad ought to know, if she 
 
216 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 is taking me into her house. I could not help it — but 
 she might think that it made a difference, though I had 
 nothing to do with it." 
 
 "You must never think of that again," he said, 
 standing over her and speaking with authority. 
 "Yes, I knew all about it; you told me when you 
 began to get better. You are quite right; my cousin 
 ought to know it, and she does know it, and knows 
 that it makes no difference to you." 
 
 Honor leaned back in her chair with a long-drawn 
 sigh. " Oh, I am so glad ! " 
 
 "Forget rt, as I have done. There is nothing for 
 which you need trouble yourself." 
 
 Then into the parlour hurried Soeur Amelie, to say 
 that Reverend Mother had given leave for the milk to 
 be brought, followed by Soeur Monique with the milk, 
 which was not drunk to the last drop when Soeur 
 Marthe hobbled in to say that a magnificent equipage 
 was at the gate to fetch Miss Lester. On her heels 
 came the rest of the community to say good-bye. The 
 Mother cut the farewells short, and no one saw the 
 tears in her eyes as the green cloak went out at the 
 door, followed by Claud. 
 
 " Ah, my dear, I've kept you waiting a little," said 
 the voice from within the carriage. " It was too bad 
 of me, but I could not help it. I had the toothache for 
 three days and nights, and not a wink of sleep did I 
 get last night — turned round and round in my bed like 
 a pig roasting at the fire. So this morning I sent 
 for a surgeon to draw it, and that made me late in 
 setting out. But if you'll believe me, my dear, it was 
 worth while. I've not felt such a relief since my first 
 husband died. Are you quite comfortable? Put this 
 cushion at your back. Do you like the window up 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 217 
 
 or down ? If you undo that basket on the seat, Claud, 
 you will find sandwiches and some of the old brown 
 sherry Mr Joad used to be so fond of. Poor dear ! he 
 would drink it, and it always gave him gout." 
 
 The carriage rolled away from the convent gate. 
 
 Honor believed that she had confessed the story of 
 her marriage, and that Fenwick had pronounced it to 
 make no difference. Fenwick never dreamed that she 
 meant to tell him anything more than that she was 
 born out of wedlock. 
 
PART III. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 In an afternoon in July the thrush in the rose-tree 
 was very busy with the large striped snail -shells that 
 he found under the garden wall. He was one of the 
 old-established residents in Osmundsbury Close; he 
 built his first nest in the garden some years before 
 Mrs Joad thought of taking the red-tiled house. On 
 her arrival he was distant; at his age he did not 
 care to make new acquaintances. At the same time, 
 he did not wish to move into the garden next door, 
 although it was larger and he had many friends 
 there. Nothing could be more to his taste than the 
 climbing rose - bush trained to arch over the little 
 stone-paved walk in his own garden; in fact, when 
 he came to think of it, the thrush was inclined to 
 believe that the path had been flagged because the 
 Dean and Chapter knew how convenient he found it 
 for cracking snail-shells. 
 
 So at first he did not commit himself, though he 
 was disposed to think well of Mrs Joad when he 
 found that she did not bring a cat with her. Mrs 
 Joad on her side made no advances. 
 
 One day, however, there came into the garden an- 
 other human being, petticoated, like the greater part 
 of the dwellers in the Close, but with an air about her 
 
222 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 as if, like the thrush, she belonged to the open air 
 and the green fields, not to streets and houses. She 
 took notice of the thrush at once, throwing him 
 bread-crumbs and setting a red earthen saucer full 
 of water for him by the old sun-dial. The sparrows 
 had the impudence to bathe in it too, as was only 
 to be expected from such upstarts ; but the thrush 
 knew that it was filled every morning on his 
 account. 
 
 Honor gave the impression to others besides the 
 thrush that she did not belong to the life of the 
 Close. She seemed aloof and remote from the little 
 world of Church dignitaries with their comfortable 
 houses, their wives and their large families; of old 
 scholars, who sat late at night reading and writing 
 very dull books; of old ladies, who came to enjoy 
 such meagre facilities for devotion as were given in 
 English cathedrals at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Mrs Joad fitted very well into the picture: her 
 worldliness gave delightful opportunities for being 
 scandalised to those of her neighbours who con- 
 sidered it their duty to be "serious," while it was 
 a welcome relief to others who liked good wine, a 
 good dinner, and a good laugh. 
 
 Honor looked as if she had strayed from another 
 world, as if a pixie were to be found among the 
 illustrations to one of Mrs Trimmer's Sunday books. 
 Yet there was no question as to her being at home 
 in the red -tiled house. Before a week was over, 
 Mrs Joad had forgotten that the girl was no fitting 
 match for a Fenwick of Guesthwaite, and taken her 
 to her heart as if she were the young cousin who 
 she was supposed to be. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 223 
 
 " My dear Claud, we are all descended from Adam, 
 so it is not an untruth, and it is the best way to 
 stop people talking. It would be quite as untrue 
 to say that she is your ward, and not nearly so 
 convenient." 
 
 If the Close were not satisfied with this explana- 
 tion, Mrs Joad was always ready to answer any 
 questions with a cheerfulness and volubility which 
 prevented the inquirers from realising at the time 
 that they knew no more of Honor for anything she 
 told them. Her finest achievement, perhaps, was 
 when she took twenty minutes, without appearing 
 to draw breath, in replying to the Dean's wife, who 
 wanted to know whether Miss Lester were connected 
 with the Lesters of Buckinghamshire, and left that 
 formidable lady as wise as she had been. 
 
 Watching Claud intently through her gold-rimmed 
 spectacles, Mrs Joad soon came to the conclusion that 
 his feeling for Honor was no passing impulse born 
 of chagrin and boredom, but a resolute determination 
 such as possessed his father when he insisted upon 
 marrying Mdlle. de Harlay, in spite of the opposition 
 of the families on both sides, and in spite of the 
 bride's own want of enthusiasm. To combat the 
 resolve would make it only the more obstinate, and 
 there was no hope of its dying a natural death ; 
 there remained one service for a devoted friend to 
 do him, and that was to make Honor less unlike the 
 young ladies from whom a Fenwick of Guesthwaite 
 would be expected to choose his bride. 
 
 So Mrs Joad found a master who condescended to 
 instruct Honor in singing and playing on the piano- 
 forte. (" He had made it a rule not to take beginners ; 
 but, as Mrs Joad pointed out, the circumstances were 
 
224 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 exceptional, Miss Lester having been prevented by ill- 
 ness from applying herself until now, and having, one 
 might say, an exceptional talent " — which was almost 
 exactly what the good man had said in turn of each of 
 the Bishop's six daughters and the Dean's three nieces.) 
 In Honor's case, at least, there was a correct ear and 
 a sweet voice to justify him. Another master came 
 twice a week to show Miss Lester how to copy 
 " studies " and " landscapes," of his own composition, 
 in lead pencil, with elaborate shading, holding out to 
 her the prospect of being promoted to the use of water- 
 colours by-and-by. Honor, sitting at her desk in the 
 window, her fingers blackened with the soft lead pencil, 
 and grimy bread-crumbs strewn round her, sometimes 
 felt as if it were scarcely worth while to take so much 
 trouble, even to attain the honour of reproducing Mr 
 Webb's masterpiece — a ruined Gothic archway, shaded 
 by a cypress-tree, with a lake in the foreground. It 
 was nearly as uninteresting as the Cathedral services, 
 to which she was taken on three days in the week ; 
 for herself, Mrs Joad would have been contented with 
 the two hours and a half in the morning and two hours 
 in the afternoon, which made Sunday a weariness of 
 the flesh to her generation ; but she felt it right to take 
 Honor to the services on Wednesday and Friday morn- 
 ings, in order to counteract any taint of " Popery " that 
 might have been acquired among the nuns. She suffered 
 less than the girl, as she always crossed her feet upon 
 the very lofty hassock in front of her, and slept pro- 
 foundly, excepting at the times when the congrega- 
 tion stood up. Honor endured passively, with a good 
 child's submission to what its elders think right. 
 
 Far more to Honor's taste was the dancing-class to 
 which she went twice a week,, when a lean, shrivelled 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 225 
 
 Frenchman, with a big wig and a little fiddle, instructed 
 the young ladies of the Close, and of the neighbouring 
 county families, in the fashionable steps. The romantic 
 misses were quite sure that he had been a Marquis, if 
 not a Duke, and that he had danced with Marie Antoi- 
 nette at Versailles. Honor noticed that he spoke French 
 like the Reverend Mother. There was little in common 
 between her and the misses, and she did not make 
 friends with any of them, as Mrs Joad would have 
 wished. With the children it was different. A children's 
 class was taught by the Frenchman's daughter, at the 
 other end of the long room, and in the intervals for 
 sitting down Honor was never without at least half a 
 dozen of them, the smallest on her lap and the rest 
 clustering round her. 
 
 At the beginning of her visit, Honor once or twice de- 
 murred at receiving masters, clothes, and other expen- 
 sive presents from Mrs Joad, but that lady would hear 
 no remonstrance. " My dear, if you were not here I 
 should have to have a companion to make tea, and sort 
 out my wools and read to me, because it is the right 
 thing at my age, and she would be sure to bore me 
 horribly, or else to bully me, and I should have to pay 
 her something for making my life miserable: now I 
 don't pay you anything, so you must let me give you 
 that new bonnet as a reward for saving me from her ; 
 and besides, I like something pretty to look at. And 
 as for the music lessons, they are pure selfishness, 
 because I like to hear you singing. Music is all very 
 well if one knows what it is about, but when people 
 sing in Italian you never can tell whether you are 
 meant to cry or not." 
 
 As she grew stronger and busier, her past life became 
 more and more shadowy to Honor. She was told to 
 
 P 
 
226 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 forget, both by Claud and Mrs Joad, who discouraged 
 all allusions to the time before her illness. Sometimes 
 she thought tenderly of Miss Lester and of Nurse ; 
 more rarely, she supposed that Jane might be married 
 by this time to Mr Egerton, but all of them seemed 
 alike to belong to the dead. Once or twice it crossed 
 her mind to wonder what had become of Sir Charles ; 
 the thought was driven away upon the instant. If ever 
 he had troubled to look for her, he must have given it 
 up long ago. He would understand that it was not a 
 real marriage, for Mr Fenwick said that it could make 
 no difference to her. 
 
 The July sun streamed fiercely upon the rose-bush, and 
 the thrush began to think he had eaten nearly enough 
 snails. Perhaps he would fly over the wall to the next 
 garden, and call upon some old friends there. No, it 
 was too hot ; in the corner, under the shadow of the 
 laurestinus, was the best place for the present. What 
 was that? As he lived, it was the Precentor's 
 cat. Of course he was not afraid, but he could not 
 endure the impudence of the beast slinking about his 
 garden. That was Honor's fault; she petted it and 
 talked to it when she met it straying about the Close. 
 Such creatures could not stand being noticed — it made 
 them forget their place. Where was Honor ? She 
 ought to come and drive it away. 
 
 The garden gate clicked, but only to admit a tall 
 man in spurs and riding-boots, who, instead of walking 
 along the path, went across the grass plot in two or 
 three steps, taking one of the little flower-beds in his 
 stride, and walked into the house without stopping to 
 ring the bell. The thrush recognised him as the man 
 who came every three or four weeks, and was not 
 interested, except inasmuch as his entry sent the Pre- 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 227 
 
 centor's cat up the ivy over the wall, from which it 
 dropped down into the Close just in the nick of time to 
 swear at the King Charles spaniel which the Bishop's 
 second daughter was leading by a string. The spaniel 
 whined distressfully to his mistress, who was looking 
 after Mr Fenwick, and had forgotten her pet for the 
 moment ; in a place where nine men out of every ten 
 were connected with the Cathedral, a good-looking bach- 
 elor, with the reputation of being somewhat advanced 
 in his opinions, excites more attention than is his due. 
 
 In the panelled room upstairs sat Mrs Joad, bending 
 over a large frame, with which she had been too busy 
 to look out of the bow- window over the Close to see 
 who went by, as was her custom. Fenwick's entrance 
 took her by surprise, and she pulled herself out of the 
 large arm-chair, scattering scissors, thimble, and bundles 
 of coloured wools all over the floor. 
 
 " My dear Claud ! I was not sure whether to expect 
 you to-day or to-morrow, but I am so glad it is to- 
 day, because I wanted your advice on a most difficult 
 matter. Did you leave your horse at the White 
 Hart ? Just pull the bell — you'll like a glass of 
 wine after your ride. Now, my dear, I was going to 
 ask you " 
 
 At this instant a grey parrot in the window over- 
 looking the garden set up an ear-piercing screech. 
 
 " Oh dear me ! I am so sorry," cried Mrs Joad, trying 
 to raise her voice above the din. " I quite forgot, he 
 can't bear me to ring the bell. I think we had better 
 wait till he has finished, dear Claud; it only excites 
 him to hear talking." 
 
 With a set mouth Fenwick devoted himself to pick- 
 ing up the odds and ends that lay strewn about the 
 carpet, Mrs Joad trying to dissuade him in dumb show. 
 
228 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "You'll only heat yourself after your ride," she told 
 him at last, in a compromise between a shriek and a 
 whisper ; " and he dislikes to see any one moving about 
 the room when he is as nervous as this." 
 
 " Then he shall not see it any longer," said Fenwick 
 with grim determination, catching up a newspaper and 
 enveloping cage and bird in it. 
 
 " He'll tear ' The Porcupine ' to bits," sighed Mrs Jo ad 
 resignedly, as the parrot's shrieks died down into 
 croaks; "but the Dean says it ought to be burned 
 by the hangman. Take the keys, Stubbs, and bring 
 the Madeira and the biscuits. It really was too 
 bad of him to behave like this, but it is lucky Pug 
 was not here ; the poor darling can't bear to hear Poll 
 scream." 
 
 "That is the first sign of intelligence I have ever 
 noticed in Pug," said Fenwick drily. 
 
 " And so he barks, and that makes Poll worse, and 
 they go on sometimes for twenty minutes between 
 them, unless Honor is here. She is the only person 
 who can do anything with Poll. But Pug has gone 
 out. Honor took him ; she was going in a boat with 
 the Bishop's grandchildren, so I said we would put 
 off dinner for an hour, but if you would like it 
 earlier " 
 
 "Don't make any change for me, Cousin Louisa, I 
 beg. You were saying that you wished to talk to me 
 about — was it business ? " 
 
 " So I did — how clever of you to remember it ! " ex- 
 claimed Mrs Joad, stopping in the midst of counting her 
 bundles of wool. "Now, I declare, Poll's screeching 
 has quite put it out of my head ; what could it have 
 been?" 
 
 From his knowledge of his cousin's affairs, Claud was 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 229 
 
 able to suggest one or two points, but she shook her 
 head at each. 
 
 "No, it was not about the man who wanted five 
 shillings because he fought in the Seven Years' War, 
 because he was taken up as an impostor the other day, 
 and he turned out to be a woman after all. He — I 
 mean she — wrote to the Dean's nephew to ask for a loan 
 because she — no, he — had been drowned falling over 
 Hardham Bridge and left a widow and six children 
 under three years of age, and the Dean's nephew hoped 
 some of them were triplets, because he had often heard 
 of triplets, and never seen any, so he went to look for 
 them, and found out that she was a single woman with 
 only one leg, and quite respectable, so she couldn't have 
 even the usual kind of children. I thought he might 
 have dealt kindly with her, but he is a magistrate, and 
 he was very much disappointed about the triplets, so 
 he has sent her to jail." 
 
 Claud sipped his Madeira, and wisely refrained from 
 further suggestions. 
 
 " How kind of you to pick up all those wools ! " went 
 on his cousin. "I have pulled this skein into a sad 
 tangle. I must wait until Honor comes home to put it 
 right for me. No, it was not the gentleman who kindly 
 ottered to lend me money — or the other, who said he 
 could show me how to double my income in six months. 
 Where did I put the red wool ? Oh, of course, I know 
 what I had to ask you — my dear Claud, did you ever 
 see an elephant ? " 
 
 " Are you meaning to set up one as a pet ? " 
 
 "No, my dear boy, how can you talk such non- 
 sense ? It was because the Dean said that a scientific 
 friend told him an elephant was the same thing as 
 a pig." 
 
230 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Fen wick could subdue his feelings no longer, and Mrs 
 Joad laughed with him, quite contented. 
 
 " You are so like your mother when you laugh," she 
 said, when he began to apologise, " it does me good to 
 look at you. Of course, I did not begin to explain at 
 the right end. It's this piece of woolwork, my dear ; 
 I worked it for a fire-screen for Mr Woodhead long ago, 
 thinking he would be pleased, with his crest, which was 
 a wild boar — but he was not pleased at all, because he 
 hated fire-screens ; in fact, he broke up one that Miss 
 Woodhead made for him, and used it to mend the fire, 
 and he said that it was the only use that a sensible man 
 could make of such flummery. So I put it away and 
 forgot all about it, and then I found it the other day, 
 rolled up with some odds and ends at the bottom of an 
 old trunk, so I wondered whether I could make it up 
 for a seat for the dining-room chair that is getting 
 worn out, only it did not seem quite right for me to use 
 Mr Woodhead's crest after marrying Mr Joad. Then I 
 remembered that the Dean's friend had said a pig and 
 an elephant were the same sort of animal, so I thought 
 perhaps I could turn it into an elephant ; you see it has 
 tusks already." 
 
 With one of Honor's drawing-pencils Claud executed 
 a design which, if not very much like an elephant, was 
 still more unlike a wild boar. Mrs Joad was delighted 
 with it. 
 
 "What a comfort you are, my dear! whatever one 
 asks, you are sure to be able to do it. And now it is 
 nearly dinner-time, and Betty will have your room 
 ready for you. How long will you be able to stay 
 with us ? " 
 
 "I — I have not quite made up my mind." Claud 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 231 
 
 threw down the pencil and rose from the chair before 
 the desk. "It seems to me that I am no farther on 
 than I was five months ago." 
 
 " Is your work very troublesome ? " asked Mrs Joad 
 sympathetically. " It is good of you to slave at it as 
 you do. When I see young men loitering away their 
 time in idleness — not that we see many young men 
 here." 
 
 " My work is going on as well as it possibly can. I 
 begin to see the end of it. It is my suit that gets no 
 farther." 
 
 " But, my dear Claud, have you ever begun it ? You 
 said it was not fair to declare yourself to Honor until 
 she had seen other men." 
 
 " And you agreed with me, Cousin Louisa." 
 
 " Of course I did, my dear ; I always do. You always 
 should agree with a gentleman, and hope he may be 
 more sensible later on. I learned that much very soon 
 after I was married to Mr Woodhead." 
 
 Claud bent down over her chair and kissed her 
 forehead. " You are not married to me. Tell me what 
 you think." 
 
 Mrs Joad took off her spectacles and shut her eyes 
 for a moment, as if she were in church. " How long 
 did you say it would be before you had finished this 
 piece of work ? " 
 
 " I did not specify any time," Claud answered in an 
 aggrieved tone. It was hard, he told himself, that the 
 old lady could never keep to the point. " With luck, 
 I should have done it by Christmas." 
 
 " Then suppose," suggested Mrs Joad, with eyes still 
 shut, " that after you leave us, this time, you do not 
 come back until you come to spend Christmas." 
 
232 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Fen wick uttered such an ejaculation of astonishment 
 that Mrs Joad's eyes opened suddenly, as if with a 
 spring. 
 
 " My dear, it is not that I want you to keep away. 
 But I think that it may be the wisest course for you 
 both. Honor is such a child that I think she is living 
 happily from day to day without thinking of the 
 future. She knows that if you are not here this week, 
 you will be in another fortnight or ten days, and so she 
 cannot be said really to miss you. Now if you were 
 to stay away for a longer period, she would begin to 
 miss you." 
 
 " Or to forget me altogether." 
 
 "If I anticipated that result, I should not suggest 
 your staying away," said Cousin Louisa with great 
 dignity. " I may tell you, Claud, that she always puts 
 on her best gown if she knows that you are expected." 
 
 " Probably she would do as much for any company 
 that you chose to invite." 
 
 " She is always fit to be seen, at all hours of the day, 
 which is more than can be said for some of the young 
 ladies here — crumpled negliges, my dear, and torn caps 
 — but I have never known her bestow particular pains 
 for any one but yourself." 
 
 " And she is not — no one else is paying her 
 attentions ? " 
 
 "One of the canons wants to teach her Hebrew, 
 because he says it will be the language of heaven, but 
 he has a wife with a squint. (Besides, he offered to 
 teach me too, but I said that I must take my chance 
 of picking it up from the angels, which I am afraid 
 I shall never do, for I was always stupid at learning, 
 but the angels won't rap my knuckles with a gold 
 pencil-case as my governess used to do.) Wherever 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 233 
 
 she goes the gentlemen are sure to notice her, but she 
 behaves as if they were not there ; they might as well 
 be so many cabbages — though, if you come to think of 
 it, it would be odder still to see a row of cabbages in a 
 drawing-room than a row of gentlemen." 
 
 With this reflection Mrs Joad waddled out of the 
 room, and Claud stood in the bow-window meditating 
 over her advice. 
 
 Was he strong enough to stay away from Osmunds- 
 bury for over four months ? And if he were, was there 
 no risk that some one might not step in when his back 
 was turned and carry off his lady ? Cousin Louisa 
 seemed to think there was no chance of it, but she was 
 infatuated about his mother's son. 
 
 As he gazed vacantly out of the window he saw 
 Honor. She had said good-bye to a party of children 
 at the corner, and they were going down the path that 
 led to the Bishops palace, while she came across the 
 greensward under the elm-trees. Her hair and bonnet 
 were disordered by the parting embraces of her little 
 friends ; with one hand she held the string fastened to 
 Pug's collar, and in the other carried a tuft of pink 
 flowering rush. She did not look up as she passed 
 under the window, and he watched her push open the 
 garden gate. Pug wheezed asthmatically and she 
 stooped to catch him up. 
 
 " You know you are doing that on purpose, to pretend 
 to your mistress that you are tired. You have had a 
 most agreeable morning, and they gave you the most 
 comfortable cushion in the boat." 
 
 " Honor ! Honor, my love ! " called Mrs Joad from 
 her window. "You will be late unless you make 
 haste; Mr Fenwick is here, and you must not keep 
 him waiting for his dinner." 
 
234 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "Indeed, ma'am, I will not be a minute. It was 
 delicious upon the water, and we saw a kingfisher, but 
 Pug barked at him and he flew away." 
 
 As he changed his riding-clothes in the best bedroom, 
 which was always reserved for him, Fenwick could 
 hear Honor's voice from her little room at the end of 
 the passage, singing a canzonet of Haydn — 
 
 " Come with me, and we will go, 
 Where the rocks of coral grow." 
 
 The mermaid's song might have been written for the 
 clear young voice, free as a boy's from any touch of 
 human passions. 
 
 On the stroke of the hour he went into the drawing- 
 room. Honor was sitting on a low stool beside Mrs 
 Joad's arm-chair, giving an account of the morning's 
 adventures. 
 
 "And then Tommy pulled it away from her and 
 overbalanced himself, and fell into the bottom of the 
 boat and cut his knees. Miss Cope says that when the 
 children went out with their grandfather the other day, 
 Tommy nearly fell into the water, and the Bishop said 
 it would have served him right if he had been drowned. 
 But the children are always naughty with the Bishop. 
 How do you do, Mr Fenwick ? You must have had 
 a hot ride." 
 
 " Dinner is served, ma'am." 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad ! " cried Honor. " I am so hungry ! * 
 
 "I will certainly not come back till Christmas," 
 thought Fenwick, as he gave his arm to Cousin Louisa 
 and conducted her downstairs to the dining-room. 
 
235 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 "I AM sure his breathing is more oppressed this 
 evening, Honor." 
 
 " I really don't think he is snoring more than usual, 
 ma'am." 
 
 " Snoring, indeed, child ! You know nothing about 
 it ! I tell you the complaint is on his lungs." 
 
 " Shall I desire Stubbs to go for Mr Cantlie, ma'am ? " 
 
 Mrs Joad and Honor were contemplating the pug, 
 who lay in a basket close to the fire, and blinked his 
 staring eyes with a sleepy pride in having asserted his 
 right to being the most important person in the house. 
 That odious Poll was banished to the servants' hall, 
 because its screeching was bad for the invalid. His 
 appetite was tempted with all manner of delicacies 
 usually withheld from him. When he executed an 
 ostentatious shiver, Mrs Joad went herself to fetch an 
 Indian shawl to wrap round him ; it smelt horribly of 
 camphor, which Pug disliked, but he felt dimly that it 
 was an honour, and after he had scratched and fidgeted 
 it away from his nose the odour was not unbearable. 
 
 Honor was kneeling beside him, stroking his smooth 
 black head with a cool firm hand. Pug put on an air 
 of languid endurance, intended to disguise from her 
 
236 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 that a slight cold in the head was the worst of his 
 ailments. 
 
 " Stubbs will be sure to be tiresome if I expect him 
 to go out after dark," sighed Mrs Joad. "I really 
 don't know what is to be done." 
 
 " Shall I go ? " Honor sprang to her feet in a single 
 bound. 
 
 "You, my dear Honor? Don't be absurd. How 
 could you go out alone after dark and in the rain? 
 And if I have to send Stubbs with you he will be just 
 as cross as if I ask him to go by himself." 
 
 " But I would put on an old cloak and hood and run 
 very fast, and no one would recognise me in the dark. 
 It has stopped raining — I should not get wet. Pray let 
 me go, ma'am." 
 
 " You must be beside yourself to talk such nonsense," 
 said Mrs Joad sharply. "As if a young lady could go 
 running through the streets alone at this hour of the 
 night ! What can you be thinking of ? Besides, if he 
 were to see you going out, you know Pug would want 
 to go with you, and that was the way in which he 
 caught his cold, poor love, running after you on 
 Sunday on the wet grass." 
 
 Pug opened one blood-shot eye to see why Honor 
 was not stroking him. She was sitting on the low 
 chair beside the little table, where stood the silver 
 candlestick, pulling her needle in and out of a piece of 
 fine muslin. Mrs Joad was sitting at the end of the 
 sofa, close to the fireplace. Both had forsaken him; 
 Pug felt neglected, but too sleepy for more than a 
 whimper of protest as he turned in his basket. 
 
 After all, it was a comfortable situation, for a pug 
 or for his mistress. Thick red velvet curtains were 
 drawn across the bow to keep out the cold of the 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 237 
 
 autumn evening. The candle and the firelight made 
 broken rainbows in the glass lustres of the chandelier 
 and of the tall candlesticks on the chimneypiece. On 
 the round table beneath the chandelier were two or 
 three books which Honor had fetched from the library 
 that morning, a vase of flowers, and Mrs Joad's work- 
 basket. From the white-panelled walls looked down 
 the portraits of Mrs Joad's mother and other female 
 relatives ; the males were hanging in the dining-room, 
 which she considered the most proper arrangement. 
 " They were so ugly, my dear, that no one would care 
 to look at them, and you don't gape at pictures if you 
 have a good dinner in front of you." 
 
 Comfort was all very well for a pug, but the pug's 
 mistress required something else besides comfort ; Mrs 
 Joad was bored, and being bored, was inclined to be 
 peevish. It had been raining all the afternoon, which 
 prevented her from going out, and it was dismal indeed 
 to sit at home and hear the bells ringing muffled peals 
 for Lord Nelson. We had beaten the French, which 
 was the main point, but should we beat them again 
 now that he lay dead ? It was all very distressing, 
 and the Dean had put off his dinner-party, which 
 annoyed her very much; as Mrs Joad said frankly, 
 there could be no great pleasure in dining with the 
 Dean as long as he was married to his present wife, 
 but she meant to wear her velvet gown and the turban 
 ordered on purpose from London, and was disappointed. 
 Then it was between three and four months since 
 Claud's last visit to Osmundsbury, and Mrs Joad, who 
 missed him sorely, began to think that she was paying 
 too much for the pleasure of forwarding young people's 
 love affairs. She was angry with him for acting on 
 the advice to stay away, although it was her own, 
 
238 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 — angry with herself for giving it, and angry with 
 Honor on whose account it was given. If it were not 
 for Honor, Claud might have been with her at that 
 moment. Mrs Joad was fully alive to the prestige she 
 derived from the visits of a young unmarried man, and 
 fancied that she saw signs of its waning as week after 
 week passed, and Claud did not appear. She knew 
 it for a fact that Mrs Wellman received her invitation 
 to the Dean's dinner-party quite two days before her- 
 self, although Mrs Joad's claim to be asked before 
 Mrs Wellman was undoubted, whether you went by 
 the table of precedence or by the alphabet. 
 
 And all this, because a silly chit could not make up 
 her own mind. She had a good mind to send her 
 away. . . . 
 
 Mrs Joad knitted furiously for some ten minutes, 
 nodding her head with a little angry jerk at the end 
 of each round, and then discovered that she had for- 
 gotten to decrease after turning the heel, and dropped 
 three stitches by the way. A hasty attempt to unpick 
 made matters worse, and Mrs Joad pushed her cap 
 crooked in her annoyance, and dropped her knitting 
 needle. 
 
 "May I have it for a moment, ma'am?" Honor 
 picked up the needle before Mrs Joad could make up 
 her mind whether to look for it under the sofa or on 
 the hearthrug. 
 
 It was difficult to be angry with her, the old lady 
 decided, watching the dexterous fingers set the tangle 
 in order. She was a sweet girl, amiable, unselfish, 
 always ready, always smiling. No ; when she came to 
 think of it, Honor's smile was not so often to be seen 
 as it used to be ; it came in response to a word or a 
 look, but it did not hover about her lips when she sat 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 239 
 
 silent over her work or her drawing. She practised 
 dutifully for her music master, but Mrs Joad could not 
 remember to have heard scraps of song, as at other 
 times, floating in through the windows from the 
 garden, or echoing from the big room where the linen 
 was kept. By the candle-light the young face looked 
 paler and older; no tinge of red had come to replace 
 the brown colouring washed away in her illness. 
 Honor was changed ; was it merely that she was grow- 
 ing into a woman ? Though she could not express it 
 in words, Mrs Joad felt the strange elusive quality in 
 the girl that had baffled every one from Mr Rivers to 
 Farmer Lapworth. Dutiful, affectionate, transparently 
 simple as she appeared to be, there was something 
 about Honor that was still as unknown to the kind 
 old woman as on the day when first they met. 
 
 " Did you have an agreeable walk with the children 
 this morning, my love ? " 
 
 "Not so agreeable as usual, ma'am. We met Miss 
 Atwood " 
 
 " And she made herself uncivil to you, no doubt ? " 
 
 " She seemed to be attempting it. ma'am," said Honor 
 with a look of frank puzzlement into Mrs Joad's face, 
 "and Miss Cope evidently thought so, and asked me 
 what I had done to offend her; I could not imagine 
 what it was." 
 
 "La, child, you're as innocent as a baby!" cried 
 Mrs Joad. " She knows her brother wants to marry 
 
 you." 
 
 " Mr Atwood ? Oh no, ma'am." Honor dropped the 
 knitting in her dismay. 
 
 "Of course he does. Any one can see it, if Miss 
 Atwood can. Has he never said anything to you ? " 
 
 "No, ma'am." Honor was visibly searching her 
 
240 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 memory. "He never speaks to me unless you are 
 by." 
 
 " What was he saying to you at Mrs Wellman's card- 
 party last week, when he sat by you for upwards of 
 half an hour ? " demanded Mrs Joad. 
 
 "Nothing, ma'am, that was at all interesting. He 
 wanted to know whether I was like all young ladies, 
 and thought that no coat but a scarlet one went well 
 with my gown." 
 
 "And what did you say to that?" 
 
 " I said that a scarlet coat would not go well with 
 my red hair, however it might suit my gown ! " 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 " Then he asked me what were my favourite colours, 
 and he wanted to know whether I thought he should 
 have his new dinner service blue or pink. I told him 
 that blue would be prettier for summer, and pink for 
 winter, and he said in that case he would have both, 
 though it was a sad extravagance. Then Miss Well- 
 man came up to ask me to sing." 
 
 "And you mean to say that you never caught his 
 meaning ? If he had gone half so far with either of 
 the Miss Wellmans, or the Dean's nieces, their banns 
 would have been cried by now." 
 
 "Oh, ma'am, I could not marry him. I could not 
 marry any one ! " There was a note in the voice that 
 Mrs Joad uneasily recognised as something more than 
 girlish protest, though she would not acknowledge it. 
 
 " Fiddlesticks, my dear ! all young misses say the 
 same, till their time comes. What is it, Stubbs ? " 
 
 "Mrs Dalton to wait upon you, ma'am." 
 
 " Shall I go down to her ? " 
 
 " No, my love, hers is not a business for a young 
 lady. She has had her troubles, poor thing, and — I 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 241 
 
 daresay I should have done the same myself. I will 
 see her in the servants' hall, Stubbs, and pray make 
 up the fire before you go down; unless the room is 
 kept warm, Pug will feel it." 
 
 When Stubbs closed the door behind his mistress, 
 Honor slipped between the red velvet curtains and 
 stood in the bow- window looking out upon the night. 
 The atmosphere of the room, shut up all day and 
 heated almost to the pitch of a furnace by continually 
 stoking the fire, was stifling her ; beyond the curtains 
 little breaths of fresh air came through the ill-fitting 
 window frames, and she drew it into her lungs with 
 relief. She was restless and uneasy, more restless than 
 at the convent, for with returning strength had come 
 the power to think and feel. 
 
 Though much of the past was a dream, the future 
 was beginning to trouble her. At any moment Mrs 
 Joad might weary of her company, and then where 
 should she go ? Mr Atwood might offer a solution of 
 the difficulty, but though she believed herself to be 
 free, Honor could not face marriage with him. What 
 was she to do ? Should she find some other old lady, 
 and sort her wools, pick up her stitches, run her 
 errands, and care for her pets, in exchange for food 
 and a roof over her head? 
 
 The rain was gone, the clouds were parted, and the 
 red-tiled pointed roofs of the opposite house sparkled 
 on their various levels with the coming frost under the 
 starlight. Honor looked out and longed to be away 
 from the hot room in the keen cold air. 
 
 Often and often before her birth did Adrian Basset 
 torment his wife by telling her that once upon a time 
 a Basset married a gipsy lass, and that the wandering 
 blood would run in their descendants until the end of 
 
242 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 the world. It might be the gipsy blood that stirred 
 within Honor as she leaned against the window-frame, 
 giving her a wild longing for open spaces, for the 
 hollow sounds of the night, for the cry of the wind 
 in the pine-trees. 
 
 The Close lay hushed, with a sort of deliberate self- 
 conscious stillness, like that of the cathedral congrega- 
 tion when the sermon began. Society in Osmundsbury 
 retired early, unless there were some reason for sitting 
 up, such as a dinner or a card-party. All the Close 
 gates were locked and barred, and no one could go in 
 or out except by that in the north-west corner, where 
 a deaf and surly old janitor sat in his little room under 
 the archway. 
 
 A step was ringing along the flagstones; Honor 
 looked out of the west side of the bow-window, saw a 
 tall figure wrapped in a long coat, and suddenly felt 
 her heart leap. No, it could not be he ; Mrs Joad had 
 said nothing of expecting him, and it always took her 
 at least three days of happy fussiness to prepare for 
 his visits. He always trod with the firm, light step of 
 a man who was bred among hills and crags ; he would 
 never drag one foot after the other as this man did, as 
 if he were almost too weary and heart- sick to move at 
 all. Besides, this man carried one arm in a sling. Yet 
 the figure was strangely like that which she had not 
 seen for over three months. As he was about to pass 
 under the bow-window a light fell on his face from the 
 lantern over the gate of the opposite house, and Honor 
 saw that it was Claud Fenwick. 
 
 At the sight she forgot everything, except that 
 Stubbs was used to lock the garden doors as nine 
 o'clock struck, and if any one should knock, would wait 
 to the last moment in the hope that the visitor might 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 243 
 
 go away and save him the trouble of opening. Down 
 the narrow staircase she ran into the hall, out into the 
 garden. Claud, who had nerved himself to await 
 Stubbs' convenience, was surprised by hearing the 
 bolts creak in their hinges before the last echo of the 
 bell ceased quivering. The door was flung open, and 
 there, on the flagged path, was the lady of his dream. 
 
 " You here ? " It was all that he could say. Once 
 more, as when she came to him in his darkest hour, he 
 was tongue-tied and could only look. He dared not 
 touch her with so much as a finger lest she should 
 prove indeed a dream and melt away before his eyes. 
 
 " You are hurt, you are ill " 
 
 "It is nothing." If he stretched out his hand he 
 might touch a fold of her dress without her know- 
 ing it. 
 
 "What it it? Ah!" 
 
 As, like one spellbound, he moved forward, shutting 
 the heavy wooden door behind him, his foot slipped 
 on the step leading down to the path, and Honor with 
 a little cry put out her hands as if to shield the 
 wounded arm from contact with a rose-bush. 
 
 " My dear, my dear " His one hand was clasp- 
 ing both hers. " You came to me then, when I was in 
 despair — you have come to me again. Promise me 
 that you will never go away. I cannot live without 
 you." 
 
 " I do not think I want to go away," Honor con- 
 fessed, making no attempt to free herself. 
 
244 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 " I don't understand at all how your arm came to be 
 broken," said Mrs Joad. She was sitting opposite to 
 Claud, who was established in the big arm-chair by the 
 dining-room fire, with a little table at his side, sub- 
 mitting to eat his supper on condition that Honor cut 
 it up for him. " Was it because you had finished your 
 work?" 
 
 " Not exactly," said Claud, with a twist of the mouth ; 
 " my work has been finished for me." 
 
 " Dear me ! my dear Claud, that sounds just as if 
 you were an old woman like me. There's Honor has 
 finished the elephant since you were here. You will 
 see how well it looks to-morrow. I am having it made 
 into a footstool after all, not a chair." 
 
 " I am afraid that even Honor would not be able to 
 make anything so useful out of my unfinished work. 
 The Sussex yokels who took upon themselves to inter- 
 fere in it were very thorough in their operations." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 "It was my own fault," said Claud, in the hard, 
 light tone that covers bitterness of soul ; " I knew that 
 the country people had some idea in their thick skulls 
 that I was a Frenchman, and therefore in league with 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 245 
 
 Bonaparte ; but I never troubled my head about what 
 the canaille thought of me. Unhappily, a week ago, 
 there were false alarms of a landing, and when the 
 brutes had drowned what little wits they had in 
 muddy beer, some tavern orator gave them the idea 
 that I used the Folly as a store for arms and ammu- 
 nition for the French. Forthwith, off they go, batter 
 down the door " 
 
 " Were you there ? " 
 
 "I was," said Claud grimly, "and, thick as their 
 skulls are, I managed to break several before my arm 
 was broken. But their skulls will mend, I fear, and 
 my instruments are past mending, so they have the 
 laugh of me after all. They destroyed all my notes 
 and papers, some that I shall never be able to 
 replace." 
 
 M The wretches ! I hope they will be hanged ! " cried 
 Mrs Joad vindictively. Honor, saying nothing, stroked 
 the clenched hand on his knee. 
 
 "I can hold out no hope of that, Cousin Louisa. 
 So far the village constables have found themselves 
 unable to arrest any one but the village idiot, who was 
 found sleeping among the ruins next day. I have 
 received a friendly caution that in the present state of 
 public feeling it is not wise for me to show myself too 
 much in the neighbourhood. So I came to ask my 
 kind cousin whether she was brave enough to give 
 me shelter. Perhaps the good folk of Sussex may be 
 less nervous when they realise that Bonaparte has no 
 longer a fleet to bring him over here." 
 
 " It would serve them right if he came," said Cousin 
 Louisa, pouring out another glass of port. " Yes, my 
 dear, you must drink it, and then you must go to bed 
 and stay there, and Mr Cantlie can come round and 
 
246 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 see you in the morning, and then perhaps he wont 
 be affronted if I ask him to take a look at Pug." 
 
 " Pug is welcome to all his attention so far as I am 
 concerned," said Claud in a more natural tone, "or 
 perhaps Honor will see Mr Cantlie. If she is going to 
 be responsible for me, she may as well begin at once." 
 
 "I did think Honor was looking pale," said Mrs 
 Joad, peering through her spectacles, "but she has 
 quite a colour to-night. Here is Stubbs ; he will help 
 you get into bed, and I shall come in the morning to 
 see how you are." 
 
 All Mrs Joad's efforts next day could do no more 
 than keep Fenwick in bed for the early part of the 
 morning ; after breakfast he insisted upon getting up. 
 Mr Cantlie found his patient in considerable pain and 
 a certain amount of fever, and interdicted all visitors 
 or excitement of any kind, greatly to the disappoint- 
 ment of the ladies of the Close, young and old, who 
 all heard some version of his accident before dinner- 
 time, and came to inquire for Mrs Joad. They were 
 obliged to go away again no wiser than they came, 
 for Stubbs did not encourage curiosity, and would 
 vouchsafe only the information that his mistress was 
 too busy with Mr Fenwick to be able to see any com- 
 pany. The second of the Dean's nieces, as she walked 
 home, caught a glimpse of Honor's curls through the 
 bow-window, and supposed that the red-headed crea- 
 ture — what was her name ? — was helping Mrs Joad 
 to nurse the invalid. 
 
 Claud, lying on the sofa, with Honor to sit by him, 
 read to him, sing to him, was happier than he could 
 have thought possible, even with his life's work 
 destroyed past hope of recovery. 
 
 "You will begin again when you are stronger," 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 247 
 
 Honor told him. " It is not as if you had lost all your 
 time ; you have found out a great deal since you began." 
 
 " You will bring me luck," he vowed, and it seemed 
 that he spoke truly when the post brought a letter 
 from Mr Pringle. Coal had bden discovered on some 
 land inherited by Fenwick from his grandmother, and 
 supposed to be of so little value that no purchaser 
 could be found for it when Guesthwaite was sold. 
 
 "At least you will not have to wash your own 
 dishes and cook your own dinner," said Fenwick, after 
 reading the letter to Honor. "I was ashamed when 
 I remembered how little I had to offer you." 
 
 " But what does that matter ? " asked Honor. " It 
 is not as if I were used to being rich. They would 
 never let me have any money, even when they said 
 that it was mine." 
 
 Claud, puzzled, might have asked for an explanation, 
 but at this moment Mrs Joad, who had been counting 
 her stitches perseveringly for the last five minutes, and 
 making the number vary with each repetition, lifted 
 her head from her stocking to ask a question. Had 
 Claud made up his mind where they were going to 
 live ? She supposed that he would not care to buy 
 back Guesthwaite, even if it turned out that he could 
 afford it. Warned by his sudden frown and tighten- 
 ing of his lips, she hurried on — what did he think of 
 buying quite a small property near Osmundsbury ? 
 She understood that one or two were coming into 
 the market. The people here were not so stupid, and 
 would never dream of taking him for a Frenchman ; 
 they had only to look at him to see that he was not 
 yellow and wrinkled like poor Monsieur Lafitte. 
 
 " Very true," said Claud solemnly ; " neither do I 
 carry a fiddle under my arm." 
 
248 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " But you do play the fiddle," said Mrs Joad, shaking 
 her head sadly ; " at least you used to play it, I remem- 
 ber. Perhaps you had better not say anything about 
 that for the present." 
 
 " Not unless I am reduced to play it for a livelihood, 
 Cousin Louisa. If this coal deceives our hopes, I can 
 always tramp the roads with my fiddle. How would 
 you like it, Honor?" 
 
 Honor clapped her hands. " To wander all over the 
 world with you — to sleep in a different place every 
 night — to follow the sun " 
 
 " My dear, how can you say such a thing ! " cried 
 Mrs Joad, thoroughly roused. "Sleep in a different 
 place every night, indeed ! pray, how are you to be 
 sure that the sheets are aired ? " 
 
 " Sheets ! what could we do with sheets ? " asked 
 Claud, stretching himself out on the sofa with a lazy 
 smile of amusement. "Freshly pulled heather, or 
 young bracken tops, for a bed, and the running stream 
 to sing a lullaby, and the moon and stars overhead 
 instead of a chandelier." 
 
 " Oh, let us go ! " cried Honor with shining eyes. 
 
 " Much good will the moon do you when you have 
 caught your death of cold," said Mrs Joad indignantly. 
 " It really is not right to talk such nonsense, Claud." 
 
 Claud shut his eyes and languidly observed that if 
 he were contradicted he should probably be much more 
 feverish by nightfall. Then, seeing Mrs Joad really 
 distressed, he kissed her hand, and promised to inter- 
 view the house-agent as soon as Mr Cantlie would 
 allow him. 
 
 The wedding was to take place in a month's time. 
 Claud was impatient, and Mrs Joad's first idea, that he 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 249 
 
 might wait until his arm healed, proved to be out of the 
 question. " A fracture like that will not heal in seven 
 days, nor yet in seven weeks," said Mr Cantlie severely. 
 "I assure you, madam, that Mr Fenwick may think 
 himself very fortunate in keeping his arm after it had 
 sustained such injuries, and after travelling down here 
 when he was in a high fever." 
 
 "Do you think it will excite him too much to be 
 married ? " asked Mrs Joad. 
 
 "Provided that — er — the marriage ceremony is not 
 made — er — too fatiguing," replied Mr Cantlie, rubbing 
 the gold head of his cane with his forefinger, " we need 
 not anticipate any harm to my patient." Then, with 
 a twinkle in his eye that showed him to be human, he 
 added, " It is quite evident that he needs some one to 
 take care of him, and Miss Lester, if I may say so, 
 strikes me as a young lady of great good sense and a 
 cheerful disposition — exactly what he requires to make 
 him healthy and happy." 
 
 " If Honor does not make me happy, I shall always 
 have the consolation of knowing that I took her in 
 obedience to your doctor's prescription," said Claud 
 when Mrs Joad repeated these remarks. 
 
 " My dear Claud, I don't think you need be afraid 
 of that," remonstrated his cousin. " After living with 
 her for nine months I should be sure to have noticed 
 her faults, if she had any — and really she has none, 
 except to run out in the garden in her thin satin 
 slippers, and I am sure she will never let you do that. 
 Of course, I looked for you to make a good match, I 
 don't deny it; but after all, if you had married a 
 young lady of fortune and family, she might not have 
 troubled herself about a silly old woman, and I know 
 
250 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 that the dear child will always be good to me. No 
 Claud, my dear, you really must not get up, not even 
 to kiss me, though I love you to do it. Besides, any 
 one can see that she comes of good family ; I wonder — 
 but perhaps it is wiser to ask her no questions." 
 
 " Certainly not," said Claud with decision. " Honor 
 is Honor, whoever her parents may have been, and that 
 is enough for me." 
 
 Thanks to Mr Cantlie's advice, Mrs Joad was able 
 to tell the Close that the wedding was to be absolutely 
 private, owing to the bridegroom's accident, and that 
 no invitations at all would be issued. " Really, it is 
 not altogether unlucky that poor Claud's arm was 
 broken, if he gets the use of it again," she said to 
 herself. "It would have been so difficult to explain 
 why none of Honor's relations were present at the 
 ceremony." 
 
 Mr Cantlie proved useful in another way, by having 
 a mother-in-law who was going to spend the winter 
 with her daughter at Cheltenham, and would be very 
 glad to let her house, about two miles out of Osmunds- 
 bury, to a careful tenant. Mrs Joad went to examine 
 the house, and pronounced it clean and comfortable, 
 quite a possible abode until Claud would be able to 
 find a property in the neighbourhood. A long journey 
 in winter was not agreeable, and it would be better 
 for Claud to spend his honeymoon in a warm, well- 
 furnished house, within reach of surgeon and apothe- 
 cary, than wandering about the country. " And as for 
 your sleeping in cold water, or any nonsense of that 
 kind " 
 
 "Dear Cousin Louisa, all I said was that I would 
 pitch my tent beside a running stream " 
 
 " And suppose it rained in the night, and the stream 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 251 
 
 overflowed," said Mrs Joad triumphantly. " You 
 would be in cold water, and Mr Cantlie says it is 
 positively a suicidal notion." 
 
 " Very well," said Claud with affected meekness. " I 
 have a few shillings in my pocket, and Honor may be 
 able to make them last, so that we need not go tramp- 
 ing before the summer." 
 
 "My dear boy, I wish I could do more for you," 
 sighed Mrs Joad ; " I should like to make you my heir, 
 but Mr Woodhead tied up all his money, so that I 
 can't spend a shilling beyond the income, and after 
 my death it all goes back to his family ; and poor Mr 
 Joad was not nearly so well off as he thought himself — 
 though I am sure I have nothing to complain of, and 
 he did leave some of it in my power." 
 
 "If you talk like that you will make me very 
 unhappy, Cousin Louisa. You know -" 
 
 "My dear, of course I know you're not after my 
 money, but I wish there was more that you could 
 have. The difficulty is to get you to take anything." 
 
 "I am sure we are kindly allowing you to give 
 us everything we want, from house linen to Honor's 
 trousseau." 
 
 " Well, my dear, I owe it to her. I only wish I were 
 going to give her a wedding-dress ; but perhaps, as no 
 one will be there to see, it is better for her to be 
 married in her riding-habit — I was married to Mr Joad 
 in my riding-habit, I remember, and a great waste of 
 money it was, for I never got on horseback again 
 after I married him; but you are going to teach 
 Honor to ride, so she will have a chance of wearing 
 out hers." 
 
 "There is only one thing," pursued Mrs Joad, set- 
 tling down in her chair after an interlude spent in 
 
252 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 trying to induce Pug not to lie on the sofa cushions, 
 " it is a pity that Honor has not been married before." 
 
 Claud sat bolt upright in his astonishment. 
 
 " Do lie down again, my dear ; you may stare at me, 
 but it is quite true. Young ladies are apt to be 
 romantic and fanciful, and they don't really know 
 what to expect of a man; now when once you have 
 been married you know that you can't have what you 
 would like. Mr Woodhead was very trying, but I 
 shall always be thankful for the years I lived with 
 him ; if it were not for him I dare say I should have 
 turned up my nose at my dear old Mr Joad, who was 
 kindness itself, just because he had — well, a waistcoat, 
 my dear, and suffered from asthma. And perhaps, if 
 I had been married to some one else before Mr Wood- 
 head married me, I should have understood better 
 what would be likely to tease him." 
 
 " I am afraid I can't wait until some one breaks in 
 Honor for me," said Claud, getting off the sofa. " He 
 might not be so obliging as to die as soon as her 
 education was finished. So I shall go and see Mr 
 Patten." 
 
 " And be sure to say that the fires must be lighted 
 the day before," called Mrs Joad after him, " or we shall 
 all catch cold." 
 
 As it would be difficult for the Close to ignore a 
 wedding that took place in front of their windows, it 
 had been decided that Claud and Honor should be 
 married, not in the Cathedral, but in St Thomas's 
 Church, in the town. 
 
 As Claud went out Honor was coming in from a visit 
 to the dressmaker. The maid who had gone with her 
 discreetly hurried to the back door when she saw Mr 
 Fenwick at the gate. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 253 
 
 "Are your gowns nearly done? Cousin Louisa is 
 breaking her heart because she cannot dress you out 
 in white satin and lace." 
 
 " I detest white satin," said Honor quite sharply. 
 
 " You gipsy ! do you want a scarlet petticoat and a 
 string of gold coins round your neck ? " 
 
 " No, I should like a brown petticoat, the colour of 
 the bracken in autumn, and a purple gown." 
 
 " And I should like to marry you in them before the 
 face of the Bishop, the Dean and the Chapter. I must 
 go now, but I will be back very shortly ; it will not 
 take long to settle with Mr Patten." 
 
 He had passed through the wicket -gate before 
 turning back to ask — 
 
 " You have no other Christian name but Honor ? " 
 
 " No ; and " — Honor, standing in the gateway, spoke 
 without looking up — "my name is not really Lester. 
 My father's name was Basset — Adrian Basset." 
 
 A flood of pity and tenderness came over him for 
 the child who seemed overcome with shame for her 
 parents' sin. 
 
 " You will have to be married as Miss Lester, as you 
 have always been called Miss Lester here." It would 
 be too brutal for him to tell her that an unlawful 
 child could not claim her father's name. " But I will 
 explain everything to Mr Patten if there is any diffi- 
 culty. Unless he gives out the banns more distinctly 
 than is usual in the Cathedral, you might call yourself 
 by any name and none of the congregation would be 
 the wiser." 
 
 "Claud," — Honor still looked down at a broken 
 snail-shell on the path — " I did tell you — you know — 
 it would not prevent your marrying me ? " 
 
 " My heart's dearest, you must_ never speak of that 
 
254 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 again. How could it prevent our marriage? You 
 are mine, and I am yours, and that is all that matters." 
 
 " You are sure ? " 
 
 " So sure that I shall be angry if ever you say another 
 word about it." 
 
 He saw the smile come back into her eyes before he 
 left her to keep his appointment with Mr Patten. 
 
 On the way he puzzled over a half -lost memory; 
 the name of Basset recalled something, but he could 
 not tell when or where he had heard it before. It 
 was not until the interview was nearly at an end that 
 he was given the clue. 
 
 " All shall be as you wish, my dear sir," said little 
 Mr Patten, blinking amiably through his large spec- 
 tacles. " I understand you have rented a room in the 
 parish — quite right. I need not tell you how I feel 
 honoured by being chosen to perform the ceremony. 
 Damp ? Mrs Joad's solicitude does credit to her head 
 and heart, but pray assure her that she will find the 
 church quite warm if the marriage takes place on a 
 Tuesday ; the church will have been open for Sunday, 
 and we will keep the fires going through the Monday. 
 I always recommend the beginning of the week for 
 weddings on that account. I think that is all — you 
 have given me the particulars in this paper? Yes — 
 most thoughtful. I note that your bride has the same 
 remarkable Christian name as a young lady at whose 
 wedding I had the honour of being present, rather 
 more than a year ago — Miss Honor Basset. I was 
 staying in London with some relatives who received 
 an invitation, and they were so good as to take me 
 with them. I remember the name ; it struck me par- 
 ticularly at the time." 
 
 " A fashionable wedding ? " 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 255 
 
 " Yes ; a fine sight, so every one said, though I was 
 not able to judge. I am miserably short-sighted, and 
 could distinguish nothing. The bride was covered 
 with such a thick veil that she was invisible to most 
 of the company, as well as myself. Poor young lady ! 
 I fear the prospect in front of her was not what could 
 be wished." 
 
 "Indeed?" 
 
 " She was no more than a child, and it was said, I 
 hope unjustly, that her guardian forced her into the 
 marriage. The bridegroom, I deeply regret to say, 
 was not in a state befitting the occasion. Distressing 
 — most distressing." 
 
 " Who was the bridegroom ? " 
 
 " His name ? I shall have it in a moment — not 
 Mender — no — Mending — I remember — Mendip, it was. 
 I hope he has learnt better. Good day, sir, I think I 
 may promise that all the arrangements will be to your 
 satisfaction." 
 
 As he went back to the Close, Fenwick fitted the 
 pieces of the puzzle together in his mind. He remem- 
 bered an afternoon in Sussex, in the September of the 
 previous year, when Lady Elystan, newly arrived from 
 London, had ridden over the heath and made him 
 walk at her side, saying, " I am losing all my beaux, 
 so I cannot afford to let you off ; Yetholm goes abroad 
 next week, and Sir Charles Mendip is marrying Miss 
 Basset to-day." 
 
 The unfortunate bride must be akin to Honor; it 
 was not possible that there could be two girls with the 
 same uncommon Christian name, one a Miss Basset, 
 the other the daughter of a Basset, who were not 
 related to each other. Perhaps it was on account of 
 the other Honor that his Honor had been cast out 
 
256 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 upon the world by her kinsfolk. He felt a momentary 
 pang of jealousy for her, then laughed at himself ; 
 without conceit or presumption, he might be sure that 
 his Honor would be happier with him than her half- 
 sister or cousin could be with Sir Charles Mendip. 
 
 Should he say anything about the matter to Honor ? 
 Fenwick decided that it was unnecessary. Lady 
 Mendip and his wife would move in such different 
 spheres that they very likely might never meet. If 
 ever there seemed to be any chance of an encounter, 
 he might speak, but for the present it would be wiser 
 not to revive old memories. 
 
 The cold was bitter, and his left hand and arm were 
 numb in the sling. As he rubbed the dead fingers 
 with his other hand, he looked down at the signed 
 ring, worn by his father and grandfather before him. 
 The Fenwicks of Guesthwaite, for generation after 
 generation, had prided themselves upon their unstained 
 faith and their unstained coat. His father had for- 
 saken the faith; Guesthwaite had passed into other 
 hands ; nothing was left to him save the blazon of his 
 house, and he was about to deface it by marrying a 
 bastard. 
 
 What did it matter ? As he came into the garden 
 he could hear a voice ringing through the open hall 
 door — 
 
 " Serai-je nonnette ? Je crois que non ! 
 Derriere chez mon pere, 
 II est un bois taillis." 
 
 Honor was pouring out her heart in the song he had 
 taught her. Claud, listening, knew that he spoke 
 truly that morning when he told her that her birth 
 made no difference. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 257 
 
 She, on her side, was at last confident that no ghost 
 from her past need trouble their joy. His assurance 
 ended all fears and misgivings. She felt none during 
 the three following weeks, spent by Mrs Joad in inco- 
 herent preparations, and by Claud in asserting all his 
 privileges as lover and invalid. 
 
 The morning of the wedding-day was dull and 
 lowering ; the washing hung to dry from the windows 
 of the tumble-down houses overlooking St Thomas's 
 Churchyard flapped to and fro in a gusty wind. 
 
 Within, the church was dank in spite of the warming 
 influences of Sunday, and so dark that Claud was 
 unable to beguile his time of waiting by a study of 
 the grotesque little figures emerging from cocoon -like 
 winding-sheets in the fresco of the Last Judgment 
 over the chancel arch. 
 
 But the sun broke through grey rain-clouds for a 
 moment, to cast a gleam upon Honor's curls as she 
 came into the church ; and when Claud set the ring 
 upon her finger, there was no thought of that other 
 gold ring which lay buried at the foot of a beech-tree 
 in a Sussex wood. 
 
 R 
 
258 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Looking back in after life upon the fortnight which 
 followed his marriage, Claud Fen wick felt as if he must 
 have known, even then, that those days were too good 
 to last, that their dreamlike happiness must dissolve, 
 like a dream, at the instant when it was most exquisite. 
 Yet, search his memory as he would, he could recall no 
 forebodings. The honeymoon was unclouded ; the two 
 forgot the past, and took no thought for the future, 
 living in the present moment as whole-heartedly as 
 two children. Although there was really nothing to 
 do, the days passed all too swiftly. Honor's riding 
 lessons were not to begin till Claud fully recovered the 
 use of his arm, but they walked out whenever the 
 wintry weather was favourable. They went to look 
 at the houses recommended by the agent. They walked 
 into Osmundsbury one morning, to show themselves to 
 Mrs Joad, putting her into great perplexity as to 
 whether she ought to be more scandalised than de- 
 lighted, or more delighted than scandalised. 
 
 " My dears, you really ought not to be seen in public, 
 you know, for the present. Next week, perhaps, 
 Honor may be at home to receive visits, and after that 
 you might drive here, and return some of them ; but 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 259 
 
 to-day — I really hope nobody saw you come in, it 
 might give rise to remark. My love, I was longing 
 for you to come ; the house does not seem the same 
 without you, and Pug has been moping sadly. My 
 dear Claud, pray don't sit in the window, — any one 
 going through the Close could see you ! — let me draw 
 your chair up to the fire. No, you really must not do 
 it with that arm." 
 
 Claud wanted to know how they were to get home, 
 and Mrs Joad seriously balanced whether they should 
 go at once in a chaise from the " White Hart," with 
 the blinds drawn, or wait until dusk and go out by the 
 back door on foot. 
 
 " As your back door merely opens into the Close, 
 a few yards below the front door, it is not very useful 
 for purposes of evasion, Cousin Louisa. I am sur- 
 prised you did not arrange something better when you 
 took the house." 
 
 " Well, my dear, I never thought of it," said Mrs 
 Joad, wrinkling her forehead over her spectacles, " but, 
 as you say, it is not a convenient arrangement. Of 
 course, no one would look for you to come out by the 
 back door, but you never know what your neighbours 
 may happen to see, especially in the dark." 
 
 " True," said Claud very gravely. " Perhaps it would 
 be better if we were to put on some disguise. If Honor 
 wore my coat, and I borrowed your velvet pelisse, we 
 could improvise masks — cut them out of the tablecloth 
 
 perhaps, or 
 
 ■ My dear Claud, I'll have no such things going in 
 or out of my house," exclaimed Mrs Joad indignantly. 
 " Masks, indeed ! It was only last Sunday that the 
 Dean was preaching on the licentious manners of our 
 time, especially those introduced from France, and he 
 
260 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 said some very severe things about masked balls. There 
 
 is to be a masked ball at the Castle, you know " 
 
 Here Mrs Joad was taken with a violent fit of sneezing. 
 
 " Would you like to go to a masked ball ? " Claud 
 asked of Honor, while his cousin tried to find her 
 handkerchief. 
 
 " I don't know," said Honor thoughtfully ; " they were 
 asked to a masked ball when I was in Brunswick 
 Square, but Mr Rivers said it was quite impossible for 
 a young lady in my situation to go, and I must wait 
 until I was married. But he said that about every- 
 thing. It seems odd that being married should make 
 so much difference. He used to say that as there was 
 so little time — I think you put it behind the cushion, 
 Cousin Louisa." 
 
 " I'm sure you would have no wish to go to any such 
 thing, if you had heard the Dean," pursued Mrs Joad, 
 regaining utterance. " The ball at the Castle is to be 
 next week, as I say, and no one from the Close has 
 been invited, — not that the Dean would have gone in 
 any case, but I suppose no one likes to be denied the 
 chance of saying no, to show they are better than other 
 people. If he saw masks coming out of my house he 
 might think I was going to the ball, and his feelings 
 would be hurt." 
 
 When she discovered that both Claud and Honor 
 were laughing, Mrs Joad laughed too, and she even 
 gained courage to come down to the gate and wave to 
 them as they walked away in the starlight, after dining 
 with her. Claud was so busy teaching Honor to look 
 at the stars that he forgot to ask her any questions 
 about Mr Rivers, as he half intended to do. 
 
 There was little room in his thoughts for anything 
 save Honor herself. At every moment he seemed to 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 261 
 
 discover something new in her. A look, a turn of the 
 head, a chance word, a note in her voice, would suggest 
 a side of her nature as yet unknown to him. Now 
 grave, now bubbling over with merriment, at one 
 moment a woman looked out of the hazel eyes, at 
 another a child or an elf. He sometimes thought of 
 the story his mother used to tell him in the winter 
 evenings at Guesthwaite of the knight who found a 
 fay asleep in the wild wood, and brought her home. 
 
 Like the knight, he set himself to learn the fairy 
 ways and the fairy speech, believing that he knew the 
 spell to keep her with him. As he watched Honor 
 flitting about the house and garden, or as they sat side 
 by side in the firelight, he fancied that the knight's 
 fairy bride must have had just that smile, half shy, 
 half tender, that very gleam in her hazel eyes, that 
 same trick of suddenly gliding out of his reach when 
 he thought to hold her. 
 
 No fear or misgiving touched him, even when he re- 
 membered the end of the story, how the knight offended 
 his bride, so that she vanished from him, and how he 
 wandered over hills and through forests for many 
 years seeking her, but never to behold her till he 
 grew old and thin as a withered leaf, and one morn- 
 ing his dead body was found lying beneath a hawthorn 
 tree, and none could say whether the drops upon his 
 face were dew or the tears of his lost bride. 
 
 The only flaw in the honeymoon was the state of 
 Claud's arm, which did not mend as quickly as it 
 ought. Sometimes it gave him acute pain; more 
 often it was troublesome enough to make an excuse 
 for demanding something that he wanted of Honor. 
 
 It was a dull wet day, with occasional gusts of 
 wind, and Honor pronounced it too bad for walking. 
 
262 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Claud bade her not talk nonsense, after running into 
 the garden to hang up a cocoanut for the birds, and 
 coming in with the raindrops sparkling on her bare 
 head. She reminded him of Dr Cantlie's warning 
 that he was not to go out in the damp and risk 
 setting up rheumatism in the injured arm, and Claud 
 argued for some time, for the pleasure of being coaxed 
 and petted into reasonableness. At last he yielded, 
 on condition that he was to be amused ; Honor must 
 put on the shoes with his mother's diamond buckles 
 and dance for him. 
 
 Sitting by the piano in the drawing-room, thrum- 
 ming a few chords with his one hand, he could look 
 through the open doorway into the hall and watch 
 her stepping, solemn and stately as a peacock, in the 
 Menuet de la cour learned at her dancing - class, 
 bowing, sliding, sinking down on the polished boards 
 with a sweep that suggested hoops and a train. A 
 moment afterwards, her feet were moving quickly up 
 and down in a morris dance, the diamond buckles 
 twinkling in time to the tune that she whistled. 
 Faster and faster went the feet, brighter and brighter 
 flashed the diamonds, till with a last twirl of arms 
 and skirts, she was in the drawing-room and sank 
 on a low stool at Claud's side. 
 
 " Thank you, sweetheart. Some day you shall have 
 a satin gown, and a hoop, and a powdered head, and a 
 whole forest of feathers in it, and dance at Court." 
 
 "I do not wish to dance at Court," said Honor, 
 fanning herself with a sheet of music. " The best place 
 of all for dancing that I have ever known was a fairy 
 ring in the meadow by the church at Witham. I used 
 to dance there, whenever I could, just as it was growing 
 dusk ; I always hoped that the fairies would come out 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 263 
 
 and dance with me. Once a squirrel sat in the tree 
 and looked at me ; I was quite sure that it was a fairy. 
 It began to come down the tree, and I waited to see it 
 come into the ring and call the others — and then, all 
 at once, it scampered away, and there were Miss Lester 
 and Nurse, who had come to look for me ! Nurse said 
 I must never go into the ring again, or the fairies 
 would carry me off: I should have liked that. But 
 Miss Lester said that it was most unseemly for a young 
 gentlewoman to be capering about for all eyes to see, 
 and next day she made me write a copy ten times over, 
 1 Want of Decency is Want of Sense/ and said that I 
 should write it twenty times if I danced in the field 
 again." 
 
 " Poor little Ariel ! Was that her way of shutting 
 you up in the split pine ? " 
 
 " Are you going to read me more about Ariel and the 
 island," asked Honor eagerly. 
 
 " If you are very good, perhaps I will. Did you 
 never read about him before ? " 
 
 " Miss Lester had only one volume of Shakespeare, 
 and she would not let me read all of that." 
 
 " You must learn Ariel's songs. Did your music- 
 master ever give them to you ? " 
 
 As he struck the opening chords of " Full Fathoms 
 Five," the servant came in with a letter for Mrs 
 Fenwick. 
 
 " From Reverend Mother," she announced, displaying 
 the sheet with the " Vive J^sus ! " written in large 
 characters at the top, and the cross before the signa- 
 ture. " I wrote to tell her, and she hopes we may be 
 happy. Sceur Marie Josephe has been in bed ever 
 since le jour des morts, and Soeur Agathe sprained her 
 knee going into the laundry, and is still lame. The 
 
264 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 robin is quite well, and brought up a family in the 
 garden in the summer. Soeur Eulalie has had much 
 trouble with her eyes. Soeur Monique has lost two of 
 her teeth — what a pity ! she had so few, — and the cat 
 was caught in a trap, and is getting well again. Part 
 of the chimney in the parlour fell down last month, but 
 it has been mended without their having to pay any- 
 thing for it. Reverend Mother hopes you will not let 
 me forget my French or my French friends. It is not 
 easy to read ; she says her hand was so covered with 
 engelures that she could hardly hold the pen. I 
 wonder whether they can afford to have more fires now 
 that they have more sisters." 
 
 Claud began to feel himself neglected, and contrived 
 an uneasy movement of the arm and a slight murmur 
 which did not fail of their effect. 
 
 " Oh, my dear, is the pain coming on again ? is it the 
 cramp in your hand ? " 
 
 " It is nothing," said Claud, speaking the truth with 
 such skill as to make her believe it a heroic fiction. " It 
 is only a little discomfort. Perhaps if you did not 
 
 mind rubbing my hand, very gently " 
 
 Before the words were out of his mouth, he had what 
 he wanted ; Reverend Mother's letter fell on the carpet, 
 unheeded ; both Honor's hands were very busy with his. 
 and Honor's eyes were looking up at him, full of com- 
 passion and tenderness. " The poor hand is so cold ; 
 do you think these bandages are pulled too tightly ? " 
 
 " If it would not trouble you to alter them," sug- 
 gested Claud, with a pathetic sigh. 
 
 "If you talk about trouble, I shall send you into 
 Osmundsbury to have them altered by Dr Cantlie," 
 said Honor, winding the bandages with her light, firm 
 touch. " Did you hear him say yesterday that I was 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 265 
 
 getting quite a pretty notion of bandaging for a young 
 lady — ■ I should say, a young matron, madam/ " 
 
 " What a mimic you are ! " Claud allowed himself 
 to smile. " Yes, that is better. Thank you, ma mie" 
 
 " Your fingers are swollen ; do you think you ought 
 to wear that ring. It looks as if it were hindering the 
 circulation." 
 
 " I know where you learned that, madam ; you 
 heard that pompous prig say so on his last visit." 
 
 "But, Claud, I am sure the ring is too tight. Do 
 pray take it off and put it on your other hand." 
 
 Claud pulled at the heavy signet-ring on his little 
 finger. "It is tighter than I thought — it must be a 
 good pull. Stop your ears, my sweet, if you do not 
 want to hear what I shall say when it comes off! 
 There ! " 
 
 " It was hurting you." Honor's soft lips touched 
 his hand. 
 
 " But what am I to do with it ? " asked Claud after 
 an interlude. " I can't wear it on my right hand. It 
 will not go upon any finger." 
 
 " What makes your right hand so much larger than 
 your left ? " 
 
 " Fencing, I suppose. At one time I had always a 
 foil in my hand at odd moments. Well, then, you 
 must keep the ring for me, till I can wear it again, 
 though it is a world too wide for your little fingers." 
 
 " I am afraid it may fall off." Honor displayed her 
 hand with the ring twirling upon the middle finger. 
 " I will put it on my chain." 
 
 " Safer so. Your wedding-ring is too large, too ; you 
 will lose that unless you are very careful." 
 
 " Cousin Louisa was particularly anxious that I 
 should have it much larger than I needed. She said 
 
266 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 she found it so inconvenient when she outgrew her 
 wedding-ring." 
 
 " We will look in my mother's jewel-case for a ring 
 that you can wear as a guard." 
 
 " I like this ring better than any ; I wish my hand 
 were big enough to fit it," said Honor, making the 
 signet-ring run up and down her chain. "Is this 
 your coat of arms ? " 
 
 "Azure, a moon decrescent, proper — argent, five 
 crosses gules. One of my ancestors was in the rising 
 in the north in Queen Elizabeth's time, whereby he 
 lost his property and nearly lost his head, but gave 
 his descendants the right to quarter five crosses in 
 memory of the Five Wounds on his banner. The line 
 ended in a daughter who married my grandfather." 
 
 Honor sat silent, playing with the ring. Claud was 
 struck by the serious look on her face. 
 
 " What is it, tywu cceur ? Are you thinking how you 
 may get rid of your wedding-ring, and fly back to 
 your Somersetshire fairies ? " 
 
 " I was wondering " — the words came very slowly ; 
 Honor ceased to play with the ring, and sat with hands 
 folded one over the other, looking down on the ground, 
 — " I was wondering whether any one has found my 
 old wedding-ring." 
 
 " Your old wedding-ring ? " Claud was lazily sur- 
 prised. " Was it an old family ring ? Did it belong to 
 your mother — to one of your relatives ? " 
 
 "No, it was really quite a new wedding-ring. I 
 think it came from Bond Street," said Honor, with the 
 strained looked that generally passed over her face 
 when she tried to recall anything that happened after 
 she left Witham. "Yes, I am sure that when Mr 
 Rivers was driving out with Jane and me, the week 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 267 
 
 before the wedding, he pointed to a shop and said, 
 1 That is where the happy bridegroom will go to-morrow 
 to buy the wedding-ring.' " 
 
 " What bridegroom ? What wedding ? I do not 
 understand." Claud suddenly rose to his feet. 
 
 " My wedding with Sir Charles Mendip," answered 
 Honor, picking Reverend Mother's letter off the carpet 
 and folding it neatly. 
 
 Surprised by his exclamation, she looked up to 
 see bewilderment and dismay struggling together in 
 his face. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " she asked, springing up in 
 her turn. " Is it the pain again ? Will you lie down 
 and let me send for Dr Cantlie ? " 
 
 " D n Dr Cantlie ! " escaped from Claud, and 
 
 then he mastered himself. " It is not my arm — it 
 is that I do not understand about — your wedding- 
 ring." 
 
 " I took it off and buried it under a tree in the wood 
 when I ran away from him," said Honor in a matter-of- 
 fact voice, " and I wonder whether any one has found 
 •it. Of course, as it was not a real marriage " 
 
 She broke off as Claud's one hand gripped her arm. 
 But for her pride she could have screamed with fear 
 and bewilderment. Claud's face was deadly pale, his 
 eyes burning, and he spoke very fast, under his breath, 
 as if he could not trust his own voice. 
 
 "Honor, tell me what you mean. What was this 
 marriage ? " 
 
 " But I told you of it, long ago," she pleaded, trying 
 to smile up in his face in spite of the awful dread that 
 he must be mad. " I told you when first — you found 
 me. I was married to Sir Charles Mendip, and I ran 
 away from him on the wedding-day, when we were 
 
268 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 going down into Sussex. I told you about it, and you 
 said it made no difference." 
 
 Claud staggered back against the wall, and drew his 
 breath quickly two or three times. Then he came back to 
 her side, and spoke gently and soothingly, as to a child 
 or a sick person. " Forgive me, my sweet. You are 
 tired, and I made you dance too long. Lie down here 
 on the sofa and rest ; do not try to talk. Shut your 
 eyes, and sleep if you can." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " asked Honor, yielding 
 to him out of sheer inability to understand what was in 
 his mind. 
 
 "I will not go away. I shall sit at the writing- 
 table, close to you, and write a note to Cousin Louisa. 
 Do you think she would come out and stay with us for 
 a few days ? She must be very lonely without you, 
 and it is some time to Christmas. If she came here she 
 might see for herself whether she would prefer the 
 guest-room in the old Manor-house, or the one at Lawn- 
 field. Yes, lie still, my sweet ; I will put this cushion 
 under your head. Are your feet cold ? Shall I ring 
 for a shawl to put over them ? No ? Then go to 
 sleep, and don't let the scratching of my pen disturb 
 you." 
 
 Honor lay rigid, scarcely breathing, while the little 
 gilt shepherdess on the clock on the mantelpiece went 
 to and fro in her gilt swing for ten long minutes. At 
 first she obediently shut her eyes ; when she heard the 
 pen at work she opened them and looked at Fenwick 
 bending over his writing. His pale set face seemed 
 not to belong to the happy lover who watched her 
 dancing, and there were lines upon it that she vaguely 
 remembered seeing when he came to the door of her 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 269 
 
 room at the convent, on the night when she was sup- 
 posed to be dying. 
 
 " Claud, do you think I am going to be ill again ? " 
 
 He was at her side in an instant. 
 
 " My sweet, no ; I have tired you, and some of the 
 bad dreams that you had when you were ill have 
 come back. You must not think of them. They 
 will go away. Cousin Louisa will come to take care 
 of you." 
 
 " They are not dreams." Honor swung her feet off 
 the sofa and sat up. " Claud, you must let me speak. 
 See, my hands are quite cool, and so is my head; it 
 is not the fever coming back. There is a question I 
 must ask you." 
 
 Claud sat down on the sofa beside her. " What can 
 be the need of that, my dear ? " 
 
 " Before we were married, did I not ask you whether 
 I had told you about myself when I was ill ? and did 
 you not tell me that you knew everything, and that it 
 made no difference to us ? " 
 
 "I did," he said, with the same air of trying to 
 soothe her. " You told me who you were on that first 
 day when I was allowed to see you in the parlour." 
 
 * I could not remember when I did it." The drawn, 
 suffering look came back to Honor's face. • I tried to 
 tell you and tell the sisters when I was ill, but I was 
 never sure whether the words came right. One day, 
 when I began to speak of it to Reverend Mother, she 
 said that she knew — you had told her." 
 
 " Yes, I told her as soon as I knew it from you." 
 
 " What did you tell her ? " asked Honor, looking him 
 full in the face. 
 
 Claud hesitated. " My dear child, is it necessary for 
 
270 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 me to repeat it ? I told her that you were alone 
 in the world — that Miss Lester's death had left you 
 friendless " 
 
 "Was that all?" 
 
 "That you — that there had been some informality 
 about your parents' marriage, so that you could not 
 claim relationship with any one " 
 
 " But there was not." Honor rose up from the sofa, 
 flushed and indignant. " Was that what I said when 
 I was ill ? Claud, it is untrue — they were married in 
 church " 
 
 "Hush, my darling, you must not excite yourself. 
 I must have misunderstood. I am very sorry. Lie 
 down again and " 
 
 " It was I who was not married in church." 
 
 " Honor ! " His cry rang through the room, making 
 the strings of the piano and the glass panes of the 
 little cabinet against the wall vibrate to a quivering 
 echo. 
 
 " Mrs Rivers said that people of fashion were never 
 married in church, and so they married me to Sir 
 Charles in her drawing-room," the girl went on, look- 
 ing bravely into the white distorted face. " I was sure 
 that it could not be a real marriage unless it was in 
 church, and I never said ■ I will ' or anything else in 
 the service, and I pulled off the ring as soon as I was 
 out of the carriage." 
 
 Claud paced up and down the room with bent head, 
 then turned upon her with a relief so sudden that it 
 made his tone rough. " Do not talk nonsense, Honor ; 
 try to collect yourself. Sir Charles Mendip married 
 Honor Basset, an heiress, who may have been some 
 relation of yours. His servants upset the carriage into 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 271 
 
 the river at Pul borough on the wedding-day, and she 
 was drowned." 
 
 Honor almost smiled, like a child who finds a puzzle 
 solved to its satisfaction. "So that was the reason 
 why they never looked for me. I wondered. I was 
 always afraid at first that Mr Rivers would send some 
 one to find me and take me back." 
 
 " You mean that you have been telling me the truth 
 — you are not mad ? " Fen wick's tone was as hard as 
 his words. 
 
 "I am not mad." Honor faced him, pale as he. 
 
 "Then when I thought that you meant to tell me 
 that you were an illegitimate child you were trying to 
 tell me that " 
 
 " I thought I had told you that I had been married 
 to Sir Charles, and had run away from him." 
 
 Fenwick stared at her despairingly, appealingly, 
 then turned away his head. " You must excuse me," 
 he said at last, formally, as if he were speaking to a 
 stranger; "I must have air. I will come back." 
 
 With an abrupt movement he flung out of the room, 
 and Honor heard the hall door shut behind him. 
 
272 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Honor stood in the middle of the room, and the little 
 gilt shepherdess swung to and fro, marking the flight 
 of time that went unheeded. 
 
 She could neither think nor move. Something terrible 
 had happened to her, and she could not understand 
 what it was. Had she fallen down and hurt herself, 
 and was that the reason why she felt stupefied ? She 
 could not tell ; she was afraid to move hand or foot, 
 lest she should find it out to be broken. 
 
 She stood there, drawing in her breath with long 
 gasps. The exertion of breathing seemed to absorb her 
 so that she was dead to all other sensations save that 
 of watching her lace tucker rise and fall in a slow 
 rhythm. After a while, she found herself counting the 
 breaths — " One, two ! one two ! " — then she began to 
 hear the tick of the gilt swing, and was disturbed to find 
 that her breathing was not in time with it. She ought 
 to breathe faster, but that made her feel giddy. She 
 was afraid she might fall down. If it were a fall that 
 had made her so stupid and helpless, she must be 
 careful not to fall again. She would like to sit down, 
 but the sofa was a terribly long way off; she did not 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 273 
 
 think she could reach it with the ends of her fingers, 
 if she could make up her mind to stretch out one arm. 
 
 Something very dreadful had happened, and she could 
 not understand what it was. She moved her eyes — all 
 that she dared to move — very slowly round the room. 
 Everything in it looked natural and harmless, from the 
 Liverpool cups and saucers in the cabinet to the bunch 
 of roses, an offering from Mr Patten, in the tall glass 
 on the table. Yet over all lay the sense of some terror 
 lurking in the background, ready to pounce upon her. 
 
 It brought back memories of her childhood when she 
 used to dream that she was lying in her little bed 
 beside the old walnut press which held Miss Lester's 
 two gowns, and all at once a hideous face with some 
 resemblance to the she- wolf in the big book of 'A 
 Gentleman's Peregrinations in Rome ' looked in at her 
 through the little square window. Honor remembered 
 how in her dream she would tell herself that she was 
 asleep, and how she would strive and struggle to shut 
 her eyes tightly and make the sign of the cross, knowing 
 that if she could do this before the horror leaped in at 
 the window she would break the dream and wake. 
 
 Perhaps she was dreaming now. She shut her eyes 
 very tightly, and her fingers moved in the old familiar 
 gesture learned from Nurse Tanner, to whom it had 
 been handed down from forefathers who " sained them- 
 selves," despite the Reformation. 
 
 There was no change when she looked round her 
 once more. Claud said something about bad dreams 
 coming back ; she wished she could be sure either that 
 she was awake or that she was dreaming. 
 
 She twisted her fingers in the long gold watch-chain 
 that had been one of Claud's presents to his bride, and 
 
274 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 touched something heavy and gold ; it was the signet- 
 ring. 
 
 With it in her hand, memory began to come back, 
 slowly, dimly, at first. In all innocence of deceit, she 
 had deceived Claud, deceived Reverend Mother, deceived 
 Cousin Louisa. She thought they knew everything, 
 and they knew nothing after all. It was not true that 
 her marriage made no difference to them. Claud had 
 never dreamed of it, and he thought she was out of 
 her mind when she spoke of her wedding-day. 
 
 Perhaps the sisters would not have taken her into 
 the convent if they had known her for a runaway. 
 Yes, she believed they would, for they were bound to 
 help all who were in trouble. But perhaps Cousin 
 Louisa would not have kept her in the house for nine 
 months ; perhaps Claud would not have married her. 
 
 The last thought came as a blow, and yet she saw 
 confusedly she had been getting nearer to it at every 
 stage, and that every other thought had led her to it. 
 This was the horror that was lying in wait. She 
 stared through the window, half expecting to see it in 
 visible form gazing in upon her ; but there was nothing 
 to be seen save the heavy rain falling on the sodden 
 flower-beds. 
 
 The hall door opened, and Fenwick came into the 
 house. Honor could not make her throat utter a sound 
 to call him, could not make her feet carry her to the 
 door to beckon him to her. She stood motionless with 
 eyes fixed on the doorway, and heard him go across 
 the hall, upstairs to his room ; then she turned back to 
 the window. 
 
 It was there that Fenwick found her, some twenty 
 minutes later, when he came into the drawing-room, 
 dressed as for a journey. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 275 
 
 " You must excuse my boots," he said, in a low even 
 voice, with all the tone gone from it. " I did not like 
 to ask you to come into the hall to speak to me ; it is 
 too cold." 
 
 Honor assented with a bend of her head, to all 
 appearances calm and self-contained. 
 
 " I am obliged to go up to London immediately ; I 
 cannot tell how long I shall be away. You will find 
 money in this pocket-book for the present ; I will make 
 arrangements to send you more if I am unable to return 
 within a few days." 
 
 He laid the pocket-book on the table beside the vase 
 of roses, Honor making no movement to receive it. 
 
 " Before I go, there are one or two points on which I 
 must ask you to give me information." Then with a 
 slight change in the tone, " Surely you had better sit 
 down." 
 
 Honor shook her head. " I will tell you all I can." 
 
 " You were married, you say, to Sir Charles Mendip 
 in Mrs Rivers's drawing-room. Who is this Mrs Rivers, 
 and where does she live ? " 
 
 " She was my father's cousin. She married a lawyer 
 who lives in Brunswick Square. He was my guardian 
 after the old lady left me her money." 
 
 " Did you make any protest against the marriage ? " 
 
 " I told Mr Rivers that I did not want to marry any 
 one, and he said I must be married. I said I did not 
 want to marry Sir Charles, and he said that all had 
 been arranged, and it was most suitable." Even at 
 that moment, Fenwick could catch the echo of the 
 lawyer's pompous tones in the girl's voice. " He said 
 that if I were married he could allow me to have some 
 of my own money, and I wanted money to send to 
 Miss Lester" 
 
276 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Fenwick said something between his teeth which she 
 did not understand. Though he stood opposite to her 
 he never once looked at her face, but spoke with his 
 eyes fixed at the level of the sofa between them. 
 
 " You left him on your wedding-day. How did you 
 manage to do that ? " 
 
 "He was drunk and asleep in the carriage, the 
 servants were drunk, and I think asleep too. I got 
 out of the carriage when it was going very slowly 
 uphill, and hid behind a hedge." 
 
 " Then where did you go ? " 
 
 " I walked along the road till I came to a farm, where 
 they took me as a servant." 
 
 " In your wedding finery ? " Something in his tone 
 cut through the clouds in Honor's brain. She made a 
 step forward from the window, her head uplifted, her 
 eyes bright. 
 
 "The carriage broke down when we were passing 
 through a village. We had to wait at the Inn. In the 
 bedroom where they took me I found a bedgown and a 
 petticoat. I put them on under my cloak. I wonder, 
 was that stealing ? " she added half to herself. " I never 
 thought of that." 
 
 " How long did you stay at the farm ? " 
 
 "I do not know — I can't remember. Do you re- 
 member when it was that you found me ? " 
 
 Claud made no answer. He was breathing very 
 quickly. 
 
 " It was on the morning of that day I left the farm. 
 Madam Marsh wanted me to come to her house, and I 
 would not go; she would have found out that I was 
 not a village girl. I meant to walk to London, but it 
 rained and I was wet and tired. I heard your servant 
 go away, and I thought I would rest for a little while 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 277 
 
 beside your fire, and go on when my clothes were dry 
 before you came back." 
 
 She spoke simply, quietly, without a trace of self- 
 pity or of any other emotion. At first she had looked 
 in Claud's face, but getting no response, she looked 
 down at her own hands, hanging clasped against the 
 skirt of her violet-coloured gown. 
 
 "I think that is all that I wished to know," said 
 Fenwick slowly. "Thank you." 
 
 With a formal bow he turned to the door. 
 
 " You are not going out in this rain ! " exclaimed 
 Honor, forgetting everything but her anxiety for his 
 health. 
 
 " I am afraid I cannot wait until it stops ; it looks as 
 if it meant to rain till nightfall, and I must get to 
 London at once." 
 , "Your arm •-" 
 
 " I shall have no time to think of that at present. 
 It will do very well." Then his voice softened for a 
 moment. " You know there are excellent surgeons in 
 London, of whom even Dr Cantlie would approve." 
 
 His hand was on the latch of the hall door when 
 Honor, with a sudden impulse, hurried after him, hold- 
 ing out the signet with a mute question in eyes and 
 gesture. 
 
 " What is it ? My ring ? did you not promise to 
 keep it for me ? " 
 
 " You wish me to keep it still ? " 
 
 She thought he meant to take back the ring, but 
 instead he took the hand that held it, and kissed it, 
 once, twice, without a word. Then he opened the door 
 and hurried out into the wind and the rain. Honor 
 stood looking after him, until he was out of sight, but 
 never once did he turn to wave her a farewell. Was it 
 
278 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 fancy, or did she hear him say " Adieu, mon cceur/" as 
 he went down the steps. 
 
 She stood at the open door, the wind ruffling her 
 curls, the rain driving into her face, until one of the 
 prim and elderly maids left by Dr Cantlie's mother-in- 
 law came up to her. 
 
 "Excuse me, ma'am, but cook wishes to know 
 whether she shall serve both the pheasants for dinner, 
 or only one." 
 
 " Tell her she need not serve dinner. Mr Fen wick 
 has gone to London." 
 
 " Lord, ma'am, you don't say so. But you'll be dining 
 at home." 
 
 " I shall not want dinner." 
 
 " You'll let cook send you up something on a tray, 
 surely, ma'am," began the woman, burning with 
 curiosity. " Aren't you feeling well, ma'am ? Dear* 
 dear, but they do say that the weather " 
 
 Honor turned away from her and wandered back 
 into the drawing-room. She sat down on the sofa and 
 drearily tried to think out the position. She had hurt 
 Claud so grievously that he was going away from her. 
 She did not know why he went; perhaps it was 
 because he was so angry with her that he could not 
 stay in the same house. Was it her fault ? She meant 
 to tell the truth; she thought he knew it. Had she 
 been too ready to take it for granted that he under- 
 stood ? Or was this a punishment for having allowed 
 Farmer Lapworth to believe her the girl sent by 
 Mrs Cope? 
 
 Though Honor had learned much in the last fourteen 
 months, still it did not occur to her that any punish- 
 ment could be due for running away from Sir Charles 
 Mendip. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 279 
 
 Her fingers, moving aimlessly up and down, touched 
 the knot of lace in the front of her dress. Pinned 
 among the lace was a bunch of violets given to her by 
 Claud in the morning. She wondered, dully, to find 
 them not dead yet ; she would have expected them to 
 be withered and dry. 
 
 Everything seemed to have come to an end for her ; 
 she had nowhere to go, no friend to help her, no hope 
 left. Claud was gone ; it was no comfort to remember 
 that he talked of coming back. He thought she had 
 deceived him. 
 
 The winter afternoon closed in, and it was twilight 
 in the drawing-room, where Honor lay with her face 
 hidden against the end of the sofa. 
 
 There was a sound of wheels on the gravel outside, 
 a double knock at the hall door. Honor sat up and 
 pushed back the tangled curls from her white cheeks. 
 This must be visitors come to pay the threatened call 
 on the bride, though she could not imagine why they 
 should chose an hour when every one in Osmundsbury 
 would be at dinner. 
 
 " Honor, my love ! Sitting in the dark ! Poor child, 
 you wanted to hide your eyes, but you'll have the 
 candles lighted now. You won't mind an old woman 
 seeing that you have been crying. I'm sure I don't 
 blame you ; it is too provoking that Claud should have 
 to go up to town on business and leave you on your 
 honeymoon. It's those rascally lawyers or that coal. 
 Perhaps they have set something on fire with it. I 
 thought he looked very uneasy when he ran in to ask 
 me to go to you. I was so astonished I could hardly 
 find a word to say to him. I can't think what you 
 were at, Honor, to let him walk all the way into 
 Osmundsbury in the pouring rain, with that arm. 
 
280 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 I'd no time to say anything to him about it, but, as 
 I was putting up my night- cap, I thought to myself 
 I should have a word to say to you. Why, my dear, 
 what is the matter ? " 
 
 Honor was in Mrs Joad's arms, and the tears that 
 would not come all day were flowing freely. 
 
281 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Postilions along the road from Osmundsbury to 
 London that night had stories to tell of a tall dark 
 gentleman who seemed in a desperate hurry to reach 
 the end of his journey. They were willing enough to 
 do their best for one so liberal with his money, but 
 luck was against him the whole way. One unaccount- 
 able disaster after another came to hinder him, until 
 you would have sworn that he was bewitched. A 
 spring broke, a horse cast a shoe, another suddenly 
 went lame, a wheel came off, all these accidents 
 occurring at the longest possible distances from any 
 stage where fresh horses or another chaise could be 
 procured. The post-boys began to shake their heads 
 and wonder darkly "what was wrong with him"; 
 their opinions differed as to whether the mysterious 
 traveller were a murderer or an informer, or had robbed 
 a church and was flying with the proceeds. 
 
 It confirmed their suspicions that the traveller was 
 some dangerous criminal when none of these successive 
 mishaps drew a single oath from him. Having inquired 
 what was the matter, and what could be done to remedy 
 it with the utmost speed, he said not another word. 
 After the breaking of a shaft had delayed them for 
 over an hour, he always stood by whenever they 
 
282 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 changed horses and examined the harness; he would 
 take neither food nor rest at any of the inns. For 
 mile after mile, as the chaise went on through the 
 night, he sat in a corner, wrapped in his travelling 
 cloak, never moving except to take out his watch or to 
 put his hand in his pocket when they came to a turnpike 
 gate. Glancing furtively at the white face and hollow 
 eyes, post-boys, ostlers, and landlords were convinced 
 that he must have something terrible upon his mind. 
 "Feels the rope round his neck a'ready," said the 
 wife of a blacksmith living about thirty miles from 
 London, who was roused out of sleep by a violent 
 knocking at his door in the middle of the night. The 
 blacksmith, spitting on the coin for luck, rejoined that 
 if he were to get half a guinea for every shoe he put on 
 for them, he wished the rest of his customers might be 
 in danger of hanging. 
 
 Fenwick was barely conscious of all these interrup- 
 tions ; they were like the sticks and rubbish that fall 
 into a stream and disturb its surface, while beneath the 
 deep tide is sweeping on. 
 
 When his journey began only one thought was clear 
 in his mind : he must find Sir Charles Mendip as 
 speedily as he could, and he must kill him. It would 
 be quite easy; no vulgar assassination, but a duel. 
 Fenwick pictured it as the post-chaise bumped and 
 rattled along the road. It should be with cold steel, 
 not with pistols ; Sir Charles fenced indifferently well, 
 but Fenwick knew himself for one of the best fencers 
 in England, perhaps in France. It was lucky for him 
 that it was his left arm which the rioters broke; it 
 might hamper him a little, but it could make no differ- 
 ence in the end. 
 
 He gloated over the thought of how he would play 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 283 
 
 with his adversary. He would not kill him too 
 quickly; he would pretend to be holding his own 
 with difficulty, he would even give ground a little, to 
 flatter Sir Charles with hopes of an easy victory ; then 
 he would alter his tactics, and gradually Sir Charles 
 would discover that he was being hard pressed. He 
 would drive him to and fro, up and down. Fen wick's 
 imagination saw the heavy red face turning grey, saw 
 the beads of sweat starting out round the brow, and 
 saw the dry lips part in the gasp which means that a 
 man has come to the end of his powers. Once let 
 a fencer open his mouth to breathe and there is no hope 
 for him ; that maxim was knocked into Fenwick as 
 soon as he was big enough to grasp a foil. Sir Charles 
 might strike and thrust as he pleased ; those heavy, 
 ox-like men were often wild at the last, but Fenwick 
 knew that he could hold him. When he was tired of 
 the sport it would be just a flicker of steel and one 
 thrust, no more. There was no fear that Sir Charles 
 would be able to counter. 
 
 Then, when Honor's husband lay dead at his feet, he 
 would go back to Honor. With the thoughts of her as 
 Sir Charles's wife his face quivered, then grew hard 
 again. He remembered Mr Patten's description of the 
 wedding, and he had seen Sir Charles in his cups. He 
 remembered the night of a ball at Elystan House, when 
 the Prince of Wales came with Fox and Sheridan, all 
 three in a state of intoxication, and the horse-laugh 
 with which Sir Charles himself, not more than half 
 sober, called the attention of the company to Fenwick's 
 
 disgust. "D me, look at the fellow, he's half a 
 
 Frenchy, and if he has no head for liquor, what the devil 
 right has he to look down his nose at those who can 
 drink like men ? " 
 
2k HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 There was a commotion, quelled on the instant by 
 Lady Elystan moving among her guests like Circe 
 among the swine. Without speaking a word to Sir 
 Charles, she looked at him coldly and steadily until 
 the red face flushed redder, and he mumbled some- 
 thing that might be an apology. What must Honor 
 have felt on finding herself in the power of this sullen 
 brute ? It showed her rare courage that she was able, 
 alone and unfriended, to contrive her escape from 
 him. 
 
 She should never go back ; the red mist came over 
 Fen wick's eyes at the thought, and he was no longer 
 a polished gentleman on his way to an affair of 
 honour, but something more akin to the animal. If 
 
 he could kill Sir Charles in no other way, he would 
 
 He pulled himself up. It was useless to think such 
 thoughts, and might unsteady him. For the sake of 
 Honor, as well as for the sake of honour — his genera- 
 tion saw nothing unseemly in a pun — he must kill Sir 
 Charles like a gentleman, and he had no real doubt of 
 being able to do it. 
 
 What a fool he had been never to guess at the 
 truth ! Now that he looked back, he could remember 
 a score of indications that might have enabled him to 
 learn Honor's real story, if he had not chosen obstin- 
 ately to know nothing but the story he invented for 
 her. There had been hints, clues, a word here, an 
 allusion there, as when she spoke of not being allowed 
 any money, or of the invitation to the masked ball. 
 Any one of these, followed up, would have set him on 
 the right track. A single question from him would 
 have brought out the whole truth; it seemed incred- 
 ible that he should have failed to see what now was 
 fatally clear. He remembered that once or twice, when 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 285 
 
 Honor had begun the story of her own accord, he 
 checked her. He had forbidden her to think or to 
 speak of the past, partly from an honest belief that 
 it was bad for her mind and body — partly, he told 
 himself with bitterness, because he was jealous of 
 everything in her life in which he could claim no 
 share. 
 
 He was paying dearly for his jealousy. Would the 
 payment end when his enemy was cleared out of the 
 way ? Would Honor forgive him, or would she shrink 
 from him ? He was cruel to her a few hours ago. He 
 had spoken to her as if he doubted her, never uttered 
 one word of sympathy for all she had endured, gone 
 from her without one prayer for forgiveness. She 
 must think him worse than Sir Charles ; he dared not 
 look at her for fear of losing his self-control, dared not 
 take her in his arms again until she was free. When 
 she came after him into the hall, holding out the 
 signet-ring, he was obliged to fling away from her, 
 like a churl or a madman, without saying farewell, 
 or he must have broken down. 
 
 " Fool, fool that I have been," ran in his head. The 
 hoofs of the horses, thudding on the miry road, beat 
 "fool! fool!" — the crazy springs of the post-chaise 
 creaked " fool ! " in answer ; the postilion whistled 
 " fool ! " as he plied whip and spur ; the turnpike 
 gates echoed " fool ! " as they clanged behind him. 
 
 So the night wore on, and mile after mile of the 
 London road went by; and at last, stiff and weary, 
 Fenwick was set down in Jermyn Street, in the grey 
 light of a winter's morning. 
 
 In Jermyn Street lived his mother's old servant 
 who married a coachman; they let rooms, and he 
 knew that they would take him in if it were pos- 
 
286 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 sible. It would be quieter than a hotel, and he had 
 no mind to see more of his fellow-creatures than could 
 be helped. If he succeeded in killing Sir Charles, he 
 would have to keep out of the way for some little time, 
 and Mrs Wix could be trusted to return discreet 
 answers to Bow Street runners, or any other undesir- 
 able inquirers after his whereabouts. 
 
 In all his forecasts, he never took into consideration 
 the possibility that he might be killed or wounded in 
 the encounter, and Sir Charles get off scot-free. With- 
 out knowing it, he was trusting to the Judgment of 
 Heaven as devoutly as any consecrated champion of 
 a righteous cause in the Middle Ages. 
 
 Mrs Wix received him in a confusion of joy and 
 distress — joy at seeing her mistress's son again, and 
 distress at his broken arm and his altered looks. Of 
 course her best rooms were at his service for a day or 
 a night or a week, as long as he might want them ; as 
 a matter of fact, they were empty at the moment, but 
 she would have turned out the Prince himself to make 
 room for Master Claud; she bobbed a curtsey and 
 begged pardon, but the old name would come to her 
 tongue. Not but what she would scarcely have known 
 him for Master Claud, looking so ill as he did — and 
 what had he done to himself, to be carrying his arm 
 in a sling ? Had she not better send the boy for the 
 Scotch doctor, who lived just round the corner, and 
 made such a good cure of her husband's wrist when 
 he was thrown off the box, the night they had the 
 illuminations for the Peace, four years ago ? And 
 while the doctor was attending to him, she would 
 get breakfast ready, for she was sure that Master 
 Claud — another bob and another apologetic murmur 
 — must need it, after travelling all night. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 287 
 
 Claud would not see the doctor, and did not desire 
 any breakfast. 
 
 Mrs Wix was much perturbed. If he would lie 
 down and take a little rest on his bed she would 
 say nothing, for a good sound sleep was equal to a 
 dinner any day ; but if he were going abroad, it was 
 another thing. He had only to look out of the 
 window and see for himself that a fog was coming 
 up; no one in his senses would go out on an empty 
 stomach in a London fog. 
 
 Claud submitted to drink a cup of coffee as the 
 quickest way of getting Mrs Wix to give orders for 
 his clothes to be brushed and his boots cleaned. As 
 soon as this was done he went out into the fog un- 
 heeding her remonstrances. 
 
 His plan of action, arranged on the journey, was 
 clear before him. The encounter with Sir Charles 
 must be no disorderly brawl, but a duel with all the 
 correct accompaniments and ceremonies. 
 
 Sir Charles was sure to have friends willing to act 
 for him ; Fen wick had determined that his own second 
 should be a Colonel Duggan — a quiet elderly man 
 about Town, who, since retiring from the service, 
 divided his time between playing piquet and arrang- 
 ing affairs of honour. 
 
 In the days before Claud went to live in Sussex 
 he had been on as intimate terms with the Colonel 
 as any man was admitted to be, and, from what he 
 saw of his conduct of other affairs, he could be certain 
 that his second would not annoy him with officious - 
 ness or curiosity. Honor's name would be kept out 
 of it, and everything would be managed in a quiet 
 and businesslike fashion. 
 
 There would be no difficulty in finding the Colonel, 
 
288 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 who was a man of methodical habits. On every day 
 of the week except Sundays and Wednesdays, if in 
 Town, he was to be found in the window of his 
 Club, overlooking the Green Park, until three o'clock 
 in the afternoon. This was a Wednesday morning; 
 therefore, soon after midday, he would probably walk 
 over to St James's Square to wait upon his cousin, 
 Lord Elystan, with whom he spent several hours 
 every week. No one except themselves knew what 
 they did in that time; Lady Elystan used to declare 
 that her lord made the Colonel taste all the medi- 
 cines which his doctor or his hypochondriac fancy 
 had prescribed for him in the past week. 
 
 Fen wick looked at his watch ; it wanted nearly two 
 hours to noon. He would intercept the Colonel as 
 he came up to the house. He did not want to kick 
 his heels walking up and down St James's Square 
 from twenty minutes past ten till some time after 
 twelve o'clock. How should he pass the time ? 
 
 He almost laughed when the thought leapt into 
 his mind that he would call upon Mr Rivers; he 
 would see for himself the hypocritical old scoundrel 
 who had betrayed his trust and sold his ward. What 
 he should do when he saw him, Fenwick had no 
 fixed idea; one could not call out an attorney, and 
 he had no horsewhip with him. Perhaps he might 
 find one ready to his hand in the hall. 
 
 It was a day upon which most reasonable beings 
 would welcome an excuse for staying at home with 
 closed doors and windows to shut out as much as 
 possible of the fog. As Fenwick walked northwards, 
 the yellowish-brown curtain wrapped itself more and 
 more thickly round his path, stinging his eyes and 
 making breathing difficult. In spite of the heat of 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 289 
 
 his indignation, his steps began to flag before he 
 found himself in Brunswick Square. 
 
 He did not know the number, but an errand-boy 
 with a basket on his arm was able to tell him that 
 it was the house with the blue door. He strode up 
 the steps and rapped sharply. Scarcely had he let 
 the knocker fall than the door was opened, and out 
 came a young lady in walking dress, followed by a 
 footman. As he drew aside to let her pass, he saw 
 a look of compassion come into the large brown 
 eyes when they glanced at his sling. She hesitated, 
 paused, and turned back to ask — 
 
 " Did you wish to see any one in this house, sir ? " 
 
 " I came to see Mr Rivers, madam." 
 
 " If it is my brother that you mean, you would find 
 him in his office in Lincoln's Inn Fields." 
 
 "I think, madam, it must be your father with 
 whom I have business." This lovely creature must 
 be the kind " Jane " of whom Honor sometimes spoke. 
 
 "I am sorry that it would be quite impossible for 
 you to see my father, sir. You probably have not 
 heard that he was seized with a paralytic stroke 
 about a year ago. His health since then has not 
 allowed him to attend to business, and he sees no 
 one but members of his own family." 
 
 Claud stood mute, his head bowed. Vengeance 
 was taken out of his hands in this case. What 
 use to denounce a helpless invalid, who probably 
 was incapable of understanding what was said to 
 him? 
 
 "Will you not leave your name, sir?" pleaded the 
 gentle voice. "Sometimes he is brighter than usual, 
 and seems to like being told that his friends have 
 made inquiries for him." 
 
 T 
 
290 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "He would not know my name." 
 
 Jane hesitated again before speaking. "I am sure 
 my brother would be glad " 
 
 "It has nothing to do with him," said Claud 
 brusquely. " The business is at an end. I thank 
 you, madam." 
 
 He went down the steps, and the fog swallowed 
 him up before he reached the corner of the 
 square. 
 
 One of those against whom he had promised him- 
 self to pay off the score was beyond his reach. 
 Honor's guardian was as good as dead. What if 
 Honor's husband were actually dead ? It would be 
 a solution of the difficulty, but to Fenwick at that 
 moment it appeared as if it would be a crowning 
 touch of mockery. 
 
 Dragging himself on through the heavy fog that 
 obscured sights and deadened sounds, it seemed to 
 him that he was a ghost moving through a world 
 of ghosts, no longer a living man. The fierce rage 
 in his heart had died down into a steady determina- 
 tion to fulfil his purpose, with no excitement or 
 exaltation to gild it. He no longer felt that it 
 would be a supreme joy to kill the man who had 
 married Honor; he only knew that he must do it, 
 and that nothing else concerned him until it was 
 done. 
 
 As he came into St James's Square, he found him- 
 self in a clearer atmosphere. The fog was rolling 
 away to the north-east, and a copper -coloured sun 
 was making feeble attempts to shine upon the sooty 
 sparrows who were quarrelling over a handful of 
 crumbs at the foot of the statue of King William III. 
 in the garden. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 291 
 
 Fenwick began pacing slowly round the square, 
 keeping an eye on the house on the north side; 
 noon struck from St James's Church. 
 
 He became aware that he was very tired — unreason- 
 ably and unaccountably tired, he said to himself, hav- 
 ing forgotten his long fast and his all-night journey. 
 If the Colonel did not come soon, he was doubtful 
 whether he could wait much longer. Perhaps it would 
 be better to go back to Jermyn Street and send him 
 a letter. A few hours' rest might not be loss of time, 
 after all ; he did not want his hand to be unsteady. 
 
 The hall -porter at Elystan House would be sure to 
 know whether Colonel Duggan was in town ; he might 
 ask him that much, and if it were repeated to Lord 
 or Lady Elystan it could do no harm. 
 
 He rang the bell and knocked for several moments 
 before the door was opened, not by the affable old 
 porter who knew him well, but by a pasty-faced young 
 footman, who gaped at him with a mouth that seemed 
 incapable of shutting. 
 
 " Can you tell me whether Colonel Duggan is coming 
 here to-day ? " asked Fenwick. 
 
 " Dunno, I'm sure, sir." 
 
 "Is he in town?" 
 
 " Dunno, sir." 
 
 " Is Lord Elystan in town ? " 
 
 The youth's goggle eyes had wandered to a carriage 
 with two ladies in it that was stopping next door. 
 The question was repeated before he answered : " His 
 lordship is in Norfolk, sir, staying with Mr Coke." 
 
 Fenwick could not believe his ears, having heard 
 Lord Elystan declare many a time that if there were 
 one part of England more likely to be fatal to him than 
 another, it was the Eastern counties. 
 
292 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " And Lady Elystan ? where is she ? " 
 
 " Her ladyship went down to Bath after her confine- 
 ment." 
 
 Her confinement ! Fen wick's head was reeling. He 
 leaned against a pillar to steady himself. "Do you 
 mean that she has a baby ? " 
 
 " A boy, sir, and a great satisfaction to his lordship 
 and the family, on account of the rest being girls." 
 
 He must be insane or dreaming. 
 
 " I never knew she had any children," he muttered 
 confusedly, fumbling in his pockets. " I have been out 
 of London for over two years." 
 
 The chinking sound appeared to quicken the youth's 
 intelligence. "Did you mean to inquire for the 
 Dowager, sir ? for Emilia, Lady Elystan ? " 
 
 " Is old Lord Elystan dead ? " 
 
 " The late Lord Elystan died a twelvemonth ago last 
 October, sir." 
 
 " And where is his widow living ? " 
 
 " Her ladyship is not his widow any more, sir. She 
 contracted a second alliance with Sir Charles Mendip 
 last May." 
 
 Fenwick staggered and dropped down upon the 
 steps. 
 
293 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 The fog that swirled round the head of Claud Fen- 
 wick on his way to Brunswick Square was thick in 
 Harley Street, where Lady Maria Vane occupied a suite 
 of rooms in one of the gloomiest of the drearily respect- 
 able houses on the east side. 
 
 She was too old, she said, and too poor to be troubled 
 with all the cares of a householder. She ate little 
 herself — which was true so long as it was at her 
 own expense — and she did not see why she should pay 
 half a dozen idle servants to eat their heads off at her 
 charges. She could not struggle with rates and taxes 
 and tradesmen's weekly accounts. In her rooms she 
 knew exactly what she was paying ; she had a maid 
 and a companion to wait upon her, and there was no 
 sense in her keeping a man-servant, since the man 
 belonging to the house could do what she wanted. 
 
 So Lady Maria lived in the drawing-room suite and 
 drew her dividends and her jointure every quarter, and 
 yearly acquired greater skill in the art of making other 
 people provide her with what she wanted. To the 
 audacity of a Turkish corsair she added the shameless- 
 ness of an Irish beggar or a collector for deserving 
 charities. Society laughed, frowned, said " Pshaw ! " 
 
294 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 or " Hang the old woman ! " but Society knew better 
 than to resist her exactions; whether she wanted 
 tickets for a concert from the Duchess or a place for a 
 proUgt from a Minister, Lady Maria obtained her object 
 sooner or later, and those who denied her were sure to 
 regret it. 
 
 It was eleven o'clock in the morning, and Lady 
 Maria's maid, having finished dressing her mistress, 
 had gone out to take her ladyship's best wig to the hair- 
 dresser for a few touches ; there was to be a soiree at a 
 house in St James's Square that night, and though 
 Lady Maria had not received an invitation, she intended 
 to be present. Her companion, a pale depressed female, 
 with red-rimmed eyes and wisps of straw-coloured hair 
 starting out at all points of a large head, having arrived 
 an hour ago, was bidden to spend the time in the 
 drawing-room, dusting, till Lady Maria should make 
 her appearance. 
 
 In the drawing-room the fog seemed thicker and 
 darker than in the street outside ; it clung to the heavy 
 blue rep curtains, to the Brussels carpet, to the piles of 
 miscellaneous objects, some fruits of Lady Maria's long 
 course of thieving and extorting. What she could not 
 obtain on demand, she not infrequently carried off 
 under the name of a loan. The results were to be seen 
 in the litter huddled on tables and chairs, behind the 
 glass doors of the cupboard intended to hold books, and 
 on the shelves beside the fireplace. Here was an ivory 
 fan, painted with rose-wreaths and gilt ribbons ; beside 
 it was a worked apron, wrapped up in an old number 
 of the ' Anti -Jacobin,' which Lady Maria had borrowed 
 to read and forgotten to return. She did not forget to 
 return the opera-glasses lying beside it, but told the 
 rightful owner that he could not object to her keeping 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 295 
 
 them, since she had never found any others to suit her 
 old eyes so well, and she would promise never to look 
 through them at him when he went past her window 
 to call on his mistress. An open biscuit-box disclosed 
 a faded green veil, an$ odds and ends of ribbon ; the 
 spikes of a broken silk parasol were tangled in the 
 fringe of a torn Indian shawl. The room might have 
 been a pawnbroker's den, except that it was too untidy 
 for any trade to be carried on with success. Poor Miss 
 Case, blinking and peering among the gloom, succeeded 
 in making worse confusion by upsetting a box of 
 papers from a chair in the corner, just as Lady Maria, 
 in bonnet and cloak, opened the door. 
 
 " Lord, Miss Case, what are you doing ? Throwing 
 my memoirs about on the carpet ? " 
 
 Lady Maria's memoirs were her latest device for 
 obtaining stationery and annoying her acquaintance. 
 As she knew all the scandals of three or four genera- 
 tions, and was not likely to spoil any of them in the 
 telling from considerations of decency or of other per- 
 sons' feelings, every one with relatives known in the 
 society of the last seventy years was on thorns as to 
 what those memoirs might contain. 
 
 Miss Case flushed pink to the tip of her long nose, 
 and began picking up the sheets of paper. 
 
 " There's nothing written on these, my lady." 
 
 " Of course there is not," retorted Lady Maria. " Do 
 you think I would leave my memoirs about so that 
 you or Cottle might sell odd sheets to the newspapers ? " 
 
 " I do assure your ladyship " 
 
 " Put them back into the box, and be quick about it, 
 child, and then put on that bonnet that makes you look 
 like an ill-cooked mince-pie, and come with me." 
 
 " Your ladyship is never going out in this weather." 
 
296 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " Why not, I should like to know ? Lady Dunster 
 promised me her carriage this morning, and there it is, 
 at the door. Hurry, child! was your grandfather a 
 snail, or your grandmother a dormouse?" 
 
 Two subdued tears dropped from Miss Case's faded 
 eyes upon the strings of the bonnet which Lady Maria 
 derided, and she wiped them away furtively with her 
 glove as she followed her patroness downstairs. 
 
 Lady Maria had a long list of errands for that 
 morning, and Lady Dunster's coachman and footman, 
 knowing by experience that they would get no vails 
 for their pains, were heartily sick of their job long 
 before, by her direction, they turned into St James's 
 Square and stopped one door off from Elystan House. 
 
 "Robinson is such a fool, it is no use telling him 
 what to say," announced Lady Maria in tones fully 
 audible to the unwilling Robinson, standing at the 
 carriage door, "so you can just get out, child, — take 
 care not to show your ankles, for they're monstrous 
 thick, — and say ' Lady Maria Vane's compliments, and 
 the Marchioness's footman must have left her ticket 
 for the soiree to-night at the wrong house, so she has 
 come herself to fetch another to prevent mistakes in 
 delivery.' Make haste — there's the man waiting at 
 the door." 
 
 Poor Miss Case looked despairingly from the 
 Marchioness's hall-porter in the doorway to Lady 
 Maria in the carriage. Formidable as both were, there 
 was no doubt as to which she feared the more, and 
 she tumbled out of the carriage with an awkwardness 
 which would have drawn fresh criticism from her 
 patroness if Lady Maria's attention had not been 
 caught by something else. 
 
 " Who is that at the door of Elystan House ? " Lady 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 297 
 
 Maria fumbled among the fringes of her cloak for her 
 glass. "I'll be hanged if it isn't Claud Fenwick. 
 What is he doing up here ? I thought he had turned 
 hermit, or Methodist, or left the country. What has 
 he done to his arm ? Out of the way, you fool," — 
 to Robinson. " He can't be drunk at this hour ! Let 
 me see to him ! " 
 
 Miss Case, having delivered Lady Maria's message, 
 turned and fled without waiting for a reply. In her 
 scurry across the pavement she nearly ran into Lady 
 Maria, who was at work loosing the cravat of the 
 unconscious Fenwick. 
 
 "Good Lord, child, can't you look where you're 
 going," demanded her Ladyship. "I never saw any- 
 thing run about like you, unless it was a guinea-pig. 
 Give me your muff to put under his head." 
 
 " Dear Lady Maria, had you not better come back to 
 the carriage ? " 
 
 " Why ? What are you afraid of, dolt ! He's not 
 drunk, and he'll not bite you. If he did, he would spit 
 it out again fast enough." 
 
 The pasty-faced footman here exploded in a guffaw. 
 Lady Maria turned upon him as quickly as a snake 
 whose tail has been trodden upon. 
 
 " What are you about, fellow ? If this gentleman is 
 sober, that is more than can be said for you. What 
 have you been doing to make him drop down in front 
 of you ? " 
 
 Foolish as he was, the young footman had sense 
 enough to recognise Lady Maria. 
 
 " I was doing nothing at all to him, my lady," he 
 protested, almost blubbering at the suggestion. " The 
 gentleman came and asked me for Colonel Duggan and 
 then for Lady Elystan, and seemed all taken aback to 
 
298 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 hear she was in Bath, and it turned out that it was the 
 Dowager that he wanted, and when I told him she 
 was married, he goes down like — like an ox, my lady, 
 asking your pardon." 
 
 "And you stand there like an ass," said Lady Maria 
 crisply. "So he wanted Duggan," she muttered be- 
 tween her teeth, looking down at the closed eyes. 
 "That must be stopped. If he were to kill Mendip 
 everything may be ruined." 
 
 " My muff will be ruined," whimpered Miss Case. 
 
 "Hold your tongue," commanded her patroness. 
 " You can make yourself another quite as good out of 
 the cat when she dies. I wonder whether Fenwick is 
 going to be very ill ; if there is any risk of it, he had 
 better be carried at once into the house. Lord Elystan 
 is a rich man, and can afford to pay for a surgeon if 
 one has to be sent for. If I were to take him into the 
 carriage, they might expect me to pay." 
 
 As she stood regarding him uncertainly, Fenwick 
 opened his eyes and struggled to rise from the 
 pavement. 
 
 "So you're better — that's right," pronounced Lady 
 Maria, with an encouraging nod. " Do you two great 
 men mean to stand there staring like gabies and do 
 nothing to help Mr Fenwick on to his feet ? Put him 
 into the carriage — I'll take the chance," she concluded 
 recklessly, her love of excitement overcoming her 
 anxiety lest she might be made responsible for any 
 expense. 
 
 Fenwick made an effort to collect himself. "I do 
 not like to trouble your ladyship. If your footman 
 would call a hackney-coach to take me back to my 
 rooms " 
 
 " Where are your rooms ? in Jermyn Street ? Pooh, 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 299 
 
 man, that's no distance ! I'll take you there. Get in, 
 and put your feet up on the seat opposite ; it don't 
 matter crowding Miss Case, she's as thin as a thread- 
 paper, and can sit on a pin's head." 
 
 Fenwick had sufficient strength to resist the latter 
 part of her directions, but no more. He submitted to 
 be helped into the carriage, and leaned back against 
 the cushions, too weary to speak or even to think, 
 while Lady Maria's keen old eyes watched him from 
 under their shaggy brows. He had always been 
 a favourite with her, recalling, as he did in some 
 mysterious way, an actor in her past about whom Lady 
 Maria's memoirs would be silent. 
 
 When the carriage stopped at Fenwick's door in 
 Jermyn Street, she insisted upon coming in with him, 
 to the indignation of Mrs Wix, who was on the watch 
 for his return, and fussed out into the hall to know 
 what he would take for dinner. 
 
 "Dinner? My good woman, Mr Fenwick will not 
 be taking any dinner after his faint. The surgeon 
 must come round and let him blood, by and by, after 
 I have gone. I must have a few words with him 
 before I go, so you need not wait. Miss Case can sit 
 in the carriage till I come down." 
 
 It was not easy to get up the single flight of stairs, 
 and by the time that he reached his sitting-room 
 Fenwick was obliged to sink into the nearest chair, 
 quite incapable of paying any attention to the lady. 
 Everything was reeling about him, his limbs were 
 numb, there was a sound of rushing water in his ears. 
 Gradually the dizziness lessened, he was conscious of 
 a stinging sensation in the nostrils, and when the 
 blackness cleared away from before his eyes he found 
 Lady Maria beside him, holding a smelling-bottle to his 
 
300 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 nose, and stroking his forehead. " Poor fellow ! poor 
 fellow ! " she was saying under her breath, in a tone 
 that no one had heard from her for over fifty years. 
 
 Once upon a time, it struck him, Lady Maria must 
 have been very attractive, if not regularly beautiful 
 like Lady Elystan. Her hand was still perfect in 
 shape, though the skin was yellow. It was with- 
 drawn from his head as soon as he noticed it, and the 
 voice changed to Lady Maria's well-known incisive 
 accents. 
 
 " So you're coming to yourself, young man. It was 
 lucky for you I happened to be passing ; that footman 
 would have let you die on the pavement sooner than 
 loosen your collar." 
 
 " He told me something," said Claud, trying to recall 
 his memory. " What was it ? " 
 
 " Take another whiff of the salts. Case is not such 
 a fool as I thought ; she came running and squawking 
 upstairs after me with the bottle; I could not think 
 what she was about. Take care ! don't drop them ! 
 the chemist has the impudence to charge me half-a- 
 crown every time he refills my salts bottle, though he 
 ought to do it reasonably, as my maid is his wife's 
 first cousin. I always recommend my friends to go 
 to him." 
 
 " Is it true ? " asked Claud, letting the smelling-salts 
 drop into her hand. Lady Maria deliberately seated 
 herself on a chair opposite to him. 
 
 " Of course it is, if by ' it ' you mean Lady Elystan's 
 second marriage. She married my hopeful grandson 
 in May — more fool she, for she loses nearly all her 
 fortune, and he is not worth it. If you wanted her 
 yourself, why did you stay buried down in Sussex 
 after the old lord died ? " 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 301 
 
 " I never heard of his death/' 
 
 "Lord love you, man, that comes of living in the 
 country ! Jekyll is quite right when he says that 
 every day you spend in the country is a day given to 
 the grave before your decease." 
 
 " How did it happen ? " 
 
 " If you want the story you shall have it, before I 
 go home to dinner. Did you hear that I and Rivers, 
 the attorney, married my grandson, Sir Charles Mendip, 
 to Rivers's ward, Honor Basset ? It was a scoundrelly 
 job, and I never pretended it could be anything else. 
 Rivers maundered about his dear ward ; but then he 
 is a churchwarden. Mendip was up to his neck in 
 debts, and the girl's fortune gave him a chance of 
 starting afresh. She was only fifteen, and had lived 
 with two old women in Somersetshire ever since she 
 was born — too innocent to make trouble. What's the 
 matter with you, man ? You're paler than ever. If 
 you are going to drop on the floor, I'll call to the 
 women downstairs to fetch a surgeon, and go home." 
 
 " I entreat your ladyship to go on." 
 
 " On the way down to Sussex to spend the honey- 
 moon, Mendip meets Lady Elystan — they both swear 
 it was accidental, and they may be speaking the truth, 
 though she has had little practice in it. He prefers 
 to go home with her and spend the evening yawning 
 over cards with the old lord, rather than yawning with 
 his bride. The servants are told to drive Lady Mendip 
 on to Flamington Park ; they get drunk and upset the 
 carriage into the river. Next day the yokels fish out 
 Lady Mendip's cloak. No need to sigh, man ; if nine 
 brides out of ten were drowned on their wedding-day 
 it would be the best thing that could happen for them 
 — or for their husbands." 
 
302 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Lady Maria shut the gold top of her smelling-bottle 
 with a sharp click. 
 
 "You can imagine the to-do. Some people went 
 so far as to say it was all arranged beforehand, and 
 the servants bribed to upset the carriage. Old Lord 
 Elystan was so vexed with all the cackle and fuss, he 
 insisted on going back to London, in vile weather, and 
 caught a chill. It flew to his stomach, which must 
 have been quite rotten with all the drugs he put into 
 it. So he died." 
 
 So this was why Lady Elystan came to beg him to 
 go up to London with them. If he had gone, Honor 
 would have found no shelter at his house that dismal 
 night, and Sir Charles would indeed have been rid of 
 his bride. 
 
 " There was no other scoundrel in particular to clack 
 about just then, and every one enjoyed it. It was 
 quite decided that Mendip was a murderer — as if he 
 would have had the wit to work out such a plan ! He 
 was given the cut wherever he went. So he drank 
 hard to pass away the time and took it into his silly 
 noddle that he was really the poor girl's murderer, 
 through having left her to his servants when he knew 
 they were in liquor. Then he drank harder still to 
 drown thought, and made matters worse — took to 
 groaning about the next world. I told him that 
 nothing would persuade me there was any such place, 
 but if there was, at least he might be sure of meeting 
 most of his relations and friends where he thought he 
 was going. Well, that did no good, so I asked the 
 Bishop to send him some cheerful books on religion to 
 make his mind easier. But they would not work," 
 said Lady Maria, in the same tone of just annoyance 
 in which she would have spoken of the failure of a 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 303 
 
 hair-dye to do all that its advertisements claimed. " Re- 
 ligion is never of any use when you really need it, 
 except that it is an advantage to be able to tell the 
 servants they will go to hell if they rob you, when you 
 have not enough evidence to call in a constable." 
 
 " And Lady Elystan married him ? " 
 
 " I thought there was nothing left for Mendip but a 
 padded cell and a strait waistcoat, and private asylums 
 are so monstrously dear, I don't know who could have 
 paid for keeping him there. All his wife's money 
 went to Mrs Rivers, and old Rivers was so overcome 
 with sensibility when he was told Lady Mendip was 
 at the bottom of the river that he was taken with the 
 palsy, and he has never spoken a word of sense since 
 then. Egerton gets something for marrying Jane 
 Rivers." 
 
 "Then how " 
 
 "Lady Elystan went round to Mendip's rooms one 
 day, and insisted on his marrying her. It was his 
 best chance, and he had the wit to take it. She has 
 brought him down to a reasonable allowance of liquor 
 already. They are living very quietly in a little house 
 in Brompton, and paying off his debts by instalments." 
 
 Claud bent his head down on his hands. 
 
 " She knows how to get her own way. But if you 
 wanted her, why didn't you speak sooner ? You might 
 have had her if you chose ; it was easy to see that if 
 she cared for any one besides herself, it was you. But 
 you're better without her." 
 
 * If she does not love him why did she marry him ? " 
 asked Claud dully. The dizziness was beginning to 
 sweep over him again, but he would hold it back until 
 he knew all there was to know. 
 
 "Because she saw him drinking himself into his 
 
304 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 grave or into an asylum, and she felt she owed him 
 something for carrying him off on his wedding-night, 
 and causing all the trouble. She knew she could save 
 him if any one could. I detest the woman/' said Lady 
 Maria, getting up from her chair, "but she has wits 
 and courage, and if he lives to be sixty, thanks to her, 
 he'll end as a respectable man and an ornament to the 
 Peerage. That reminds me — I can't have you chal- 
 lenging him to a duel. You need not deny that was 
 what you were after when you went to Elystan House 
 and asked for Colonel Duggan." 
 
 Claud looked down on the ground without answer- 
 ing. 
 
 " It can't be, and I tell you why. Lord Dunster is 
 paralysed all down one side, and can't live till next 
 summer. If you kill Mendip you'll spoil his chance 
 of being a Viscount, and you may kill the child that 
 Lady Elystan has been going with for six months!" 
 
 Claud sat silent. 
 
 "At least you must wait till March. The peerage 
 goes in the female line, and be the brat boy or girl, 
 it is bound to succeed if it lives." 
 
 " I shall not fight with Sir Charles." His wits were 
 slipping from him, but Claud could still realise that 
 the one man in the world who must be safe from him 
 was Lady Elystan's husband. 
 
 What was he to do ? He did not know, he was too 
 tired to care. His strongest emotion was a longing for 
 Lady Maria to go away ; her voice hurt him. He shut 
 his eyes and turned away his head, as if trying to 
 escape from her. 
 
 There was a bustle in the hall downstairs, and a 
 sound of voices and footsteps. 
 
 " We thought he might be here — I know he used to 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 305 
 
 stay here when he was in London." It was an elderly- 
 voice, with its usual placid smoothness somewhat 
 fretted by fatigue and anxiety. 
 
 " He is in the rooms on the first floor, ma'am, but 
 I don't know whether he can receive visitors. He was 
 taken ill, I understand, and a lady brought him here 
 in her carriage." 
 
 There was an exclamation from the other voice, the 
 sound of light young feet upon the staircase, the door 
 was opened, and there stood Honor. 
 
 Claud's first thought was that the fairy bride had 
 not forsaken him. An instant later he remembered 
 Lady Maria, and struggled to get out of the chair and 
 throw himself between the two ; Mendip's grandmother 
 must not know that Mendip's bride still lived. 
 
 Honor, checked from rushing to him by the sight 
 of Lady Maria, paused on the threshold, and for an 
 instant the old woman and the girl looked into each 
 other's eyes, as on Honor's wedding-day at Brunswick 
 Square. 
 
 Then the haggard face changed, softened, lit up with 
 a glow that momentarily brought back its youth. 
 " Honor Basset ! " she cried in a voice which was 
 that of a girl, "if the dead come back to life, tell 
 me when my dead is coming to me." 
 
306 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 There was silence in the room while one might have 
 counted twenty, both Lady Maria and Fenwick gazing 
 at Honor until the girl spoke. 
 
 " I never was dead. I got out of the coach while Sir 
 Charles was asleep, and I hid from him. I did not 
 know the coach had gone into the river until 
 yesterday." 
 
 " Come nearer and let me look at you," said Lady 
 Maria hoarsely. 
 
 She pulled Honor beneath the window, and looked 
 her over from head to foot without speaking ; then 
 she thrust her away, and burst into a short bitter 
 laugh. 
 
 " Yes, you're flesh and blood, though there's not 
 much flesh about you. Lord, what fools we are, and I 
 am a very old woman." 
 
 She looked it as she stood there under the light, her 
 eyes dim, her hand at her trembling mouth. To those 
 who had seen her, young and radiant, a moment before, 
 the change was alarming. 
 
 Honor pulled forward a chair, but Lady Maria 
 waved her away with an impatient gesture. 
 
 " Leave me alone, child." Her hand, groping, found 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 307 
 
 the back of the chair, and she leaned upon it, swaying 
 gently to and fro. 
 
 Claud and Honor waited, expecting to see her fall, 
 but to their astonishment the swaying movement 
 gradually ceased, and Lady Maria took her hand off the 
 chair and looked round her defiantly. 
 
 " What brought you here ? " she asked of Honor. 
 
 " I came to find Claud," Honor answered, turning to 
 him with a half -smile. " Cousin Louisa was afraid 
 that you might be going to fight a duel. I persuaded 
 her to bring me to London. She remembered the 
 address of the rooms where you used to go." 
 
 " Tell me, what are you to him, child ? " demanded 
 Lady Maria. " Are you his mistress or his wife ? " 
 
 Claud, having at length succeeded in pulling himself 
 out of the chair, turned furiously upon Lady Maria; 
 but Honor smiled at him and answered with perfect 
 calmness — 
 
 " I am his wife." 
 
 " How can you be his wife when you were married 
 to my grandson ? " Lady Maria's eyes were gleaming 
 fiercely. 
 
 " It was my fault ! " Claud thrust himself between 
 them. " I told her that the first marriage made no 
 difference to us." 
 
 " It was not his fault," said Honor quietly, still look- 
 ing at the old woman. " I was ill and not in my right 
 mind when he found me and took me to the French 
 nuns to be nursed. I thought I had told him about Sir 
 Charles, but I was mistaken. I never wished to think 
 of it or speak of it again, and I let him marry me 
 without trying to tell him more." 
 
 " It was not so," Claud began, but Lady Maria cut 
 him short. 
 
308 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " When did you go through the ceremony ? " 
 
 "A fortnight ago yesterday," answered Honor' 
 promptly. 
 
 " A fortnight ago ! Good Lord ! why, 'tis Mendip 
 has committed bigamy, not you." 
 
 The old woman leaned once more against the chair, 
 her head bent, her lips working. Fenwick, suddenly 
 realising all that was involved, gave a short exclama- 
 tion. 
 
 " Aye," said Lady Maria, looking round at him, 
 1 you've had your revenge on my grandson, better than 
 if you'd spit him through the body. The marriage is 
 void, and the child that is coming, instead of being heir 
 to Lord Dunster, will be a nameless bastard." 
 
 There was another silence, until Lady Maria pulled 
 at her cloak, and began to move across the room with 
 shuffling steps. 
 
 " I must go home. Where's Case ? I've kept the 
 carriage waiting too long, and those sharks will expect 
 me to give them something to drink my health, and 
 I'm a poor old woman." 
 
 " Will you take my arm downstairs ? " asked Honor. 
 1 Claud, as you see, is not fit to wait upon you." 
 
 Lady Maria clutched the arm without another word, 
 and leaned upon it heavily. Half-way downstairs, she 
 stopped and again looked intently at Honor. 
 
 " Yes, you're Honor Basset ; but you're a woman, 
 not a child, though by the same token, you're only 
 sixteen." 
 
 " Seventeen in February," said Honor, with a touch 
 of dignity. 
 
 Lady Maria went on down the stairs. "I was 
 seventeen when I met " She stopped again in 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 309 
 
 the hall. " Do you love Fen wick ? " she asked, turn- 
 ing a piercing look on the girl. 
 
 Honor neither blushed nor faltered. "I do." 
 
 " Then stick to him, child, no matter whether they 
 call you his wife or his mistress. There's the carriage, 
 and I suppose the men are in the public-house. Look 
 at Case, half asleep, with her bonnet to one side — did 
 you ever see such a quiz ? She was a love-child. If 
 she is like her mother, her father must have been 
 sorry for his mistake." 
 
 A ragged boy, standing at the horse's head, was 
 sent to extricate coachman and footman from the 
 public-house, and Lady Maria was packed into the 
 carriage, which was on the point of driving off when 
 the old lady's hand was thrust through the window, 
 beckoning to Honor on the steps. 
 
 " I must have time to think, child. I'm old. I 
 can't be hurried. Promise me that you and Fenwick 
 will not leave town without seeing me again." 
 
 "I promise," Honor called back as the carriage 
 started with a jerk that completed the displacement 
 of Case's bonnet. Going back to the sitting-room, 
 Honor found Claud in the charge of Mrs Joad, who 
 with great self-denial had been keeping out of the 
 way until now. 
 
 " I knew you would have a world of things to say 
 to each other, so I stayed below till I saw Honor 
 going to the door with that old lady, and then I 
 knew an invalid ought never to be left alone, so I 
 came up to him. But if you'll forgive an old woman, 
 that's nursed two husbands, for interfering, Honor, my 
 dear, I think he would be better in bed." 
 
 Honor agreed, and Claud made no resistance. All 
 
310 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 that he wished was to lie still and to have Honor 
 sitting at his side, or where he could see her. 
 
 Thanks to a North Country constitution, after two 
 days' rest he was able to get up, very little the worse 
 for his experiences. In those two days he and Honor 
 had much talk of what was to be done. Mrs Joad was 
 called into consultation, and gave advice with her usual 
 mixture of shrewdness and simplicity, without thought 
 of self. 
 
 The result was that Fenwick recalled himself to the 
 memory of a personage who in former days had ex- 
 pressed a readiness to befriend him, and much to his 
 own surprise found that the great man had not for- 
 gotten his existence, and would be as good as his word. 
 
 " If that is the sort of thing you want, I can do 
 something for you, Mr Fenwick ; you can go in place 
 of young Tufton. He was to have been sent out as 
 the best chance of breaking off an undesirable con- 
 nection, at his mother's desire; but his father made 
 such a deuce of a commotion that I heard, two hours 
 ago, young Hopeful was going to stay at home. But 
 if you could wait, we might do something better for 
 you. The country owes you something for not mak- 
 ing any agitation when your observatory was wrecked 
 a little while ago." 
 
 " The observatory belonged to my landlord, sir, and 
 no agitation would restore the papers and instruments 
 that were destroyed." 
 
 " I can tell you in confidence that for certain reasons 
 it would have been very inconvenient to have too much 
 attention drawn to the business just then, but it was 
 never intended that you should suffer." 
 
 Fenwick bowed. " If I may take Mr Tuf ton's place, 
 sir, I shall be satisfied." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 311 
 
 Having been bowed out of the great man's presence, 
 and received his instructions from one of the great 
 man's clerks, Fenwick was walking back across St 
 James's Park, so much absorbed in thinking of what 
 he had to tell Honor that he never noticed a little 
 group standing close to the water until he was hailed 
 by name. 
 
 " Upon my word, here comes Fenwick. We expected 
 to see you with a long beard and a grey robe, after 
 living all this age as a hermit." 
 
 The speaker was Mr Gardiner ; with him were two 
 young bucks whom Fenwick used to meet at Elystan 
 House and two ladies. At a glance he knew one of 
 them for Charlotte, still looking like a Watteau shep- 
 herdess, disguised in furs; the other was standing 
 turned away from him, her plumed hat and long thick 
 cloak hiding every outline of head and figure. It was 
 not until she turned slowly back that he recognised 
 Lady Elystan. 
 
 She was changed, and the most remarkable feature 
 of the change was that he could not say in what it lay. 
 Something, perhaps, was due to her dress, though with 
 masculine ignorance he could not have defined in 
 what respect the simple walking dress she wore that 
 morning differed from the equally simple walking 
 dresses which she used to wear. Only a woman 
 could have told him that there is all the distance of 
 the poles between the simplicity of deliberate choice 
 and selection and the simplicity of narrow means. 
 
 " You here, cousin ? I did not know you were in 
 Town." She gave him her hand, with an indifference 
 which only a very acute observer would have detected 
 to be a shade overdone. " Have you come here to see 
 how the ducks are bearing this cold weather ? " 
 
312 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "How do you do, Mr Fen wick? I expect you have 
 forgotten who I am." Charlotte giggled coquettishly, 
 and tried to blush. " I'm Mrs Daniels now, and, you 
 know — quite an old married woman." 
 
 " If I could forget, Mr Gardiner would be able to tell 
 me all particulars," said Fenwick, rousing himself to 
 make a suitable response. 
 
 " Naughty man ! " cried Charlotte, shaking her curls 
 under her beaver bonnet. 
 
 He stood for a few moments chatting idly with 
 them, and observing his cousin. It was as if some 
 influence had coarsened everything about her, from 
 the outlines of her face to the tones of her voice. 
 She was still what the men of her generation called 
 "a monstrous fine woman," and would continue to be 
 one, even when advancing years made her stout and 
 heavy, but the charm that marked her as the one 
 woman in a crowd — something above and apart from 
 all others — was gone. 
 
 Only a saint could have lived for eight months as 
 Charles Mendip's wife without losing anything of her 
 finer self. Lady Elystan was no saint, but she was 
 doing for him what few saints could have effected, and 
 was paying the price. To get her own way with a man 
 of his calibre meant that to some extent his way must 
 be hers, and feelings, perceptions, tastes, and instincts 
 were daily blunted in the process. 
 
 In many respects Lady Elystan was a better woman 
 than when she carried off Charles Mendip on his wed- 
 ding evening, from sheer wilfulness and desire to annoy 
 Lady Maria ; but she had lost her attraction for Claud 
 Fenwick. 
 
 He was not long in escaping from the party; Mr 
 Gardiner and his friends did not find the diversion 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 313 
 
 they expected in quizzing him ; Charlotte vowed, with 
 a pout, that her feet were turning into ice, and that if 
 they stayed there any longer she should be frozen hard 
 to the ground. Lady Elystan stood a little apart from 
 the rest, and gave her hand without speaking. 
 
 "I am leaving London next week," he said, under 
 cover of the noise made by Charlotte's little white 
 woolly dog, who was yapping furiously at a passing 
 greyhound. " We may not meet again for a long time. 
 Good luck to you always." 
 
 The hard laugh which answered him had lost all its 
 mellow golden notes. "I must be intended for good 
 luck, I have known so much of it in my life. Are you 
 going back to your Folly ? " 
 
 " No, I go back to my wisdom," said Claud gently. 
 " I was married a little while ago." 
 
 " You have my congratulations. Is the lady the 
 parson's daughter or the milkmaid ? " 
 
 " Neither the one or the other ; I have not fulfilled 
 your prophecy. Good-bye, ma cousine." 
 
 He could say no more. Charlotte was at his elbow, 
 hugging the dog in her arms, and inviting Mr Gardiner 
 and the other men to feel how the poor darling was 
 panting, after nearly being eaten up by that nasty 
 monster. In his heart, as he turned away, he added, 
 "And God help you." 
 
 As he looked round for the last time at his cousin 
 she was still standing motionless, gazing down into the 
 ice-covered pool. 
 
314 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 An eminent King's Counsel, well known in the London 
 Society of his time, has left it on record in his diary 
 for a day in December 1805, that " Lady Maria Vane 
 came to see me, and tried to get an opinion without 
 paying for it, finding nothing else that she could carry 
 away with her." 
 
 Both professionally and as man of the world he was 
 accustomed to hear many strange stories, some of which 
 he was able to repeat for the amusement of his friends. 
 The story confided by Lady Maria was among those 
 which no one ever heard from him. 
 
 It was a cold winter's morning when she came, and 
 he was sitting in his library in dressing-gown and 
 slippers, with feet on the fender and a novel in his 
 hand, having given instructions that he was not at 
 home to any one. But it was useless, as every one 
 knew, to say " Not at home " to Lady Maria, and he 
 submitted to his fate. There was always some amuse- 
 ment to be got out of her visit, as a set-off against the 
 inconvenience and expense, and he had an unwilling 
 respect for her audacity. Lady Maria, on the other 
 hand, appreciated his good qualities, and would have 
 trusted no other man in the world with her story. 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 315 
 
 At first sight of her an unreasonable feeling of 
 regret came over him. Lady Maria's eyes were sunken, 
 her hands shaking, her figure was bent ; she had grown 
 ten years older in the last month. A break-up was in- 
 evitable, sooner or later, after coming to her age, and 
 she would leave none to mourn her ; yet he felt that 
 this undesirable old woman would leave a gap which 
 none of the really estimable ladies of his acquaintance 
 was capable of filling. 
 
 He hurried to pull another arm-chair to the fire, and 
 rang for wine and biscuits. 
 
 "It is a cold day for a drive, and your Ladyship 
 must not refuse such refreshment as a bachelor can 
 offer." 
 
 "I'll take a glass of the '94 sherry," said Lady 
 Maria, unfastening her tippet ; " but I must keep my 
 head clear, for I've come for advice upon a difficult 
 case, and I've a long story to tell you." 
 
 "You should have warned me beforehand that I 
 was to be honoured with your confidence; my dress 
 is not suitable for a consultation." (He never gave the 
 '94 sherry to ladies ; he said it was too dry for them.) 
 
 " Pooh, man ! if a wig and a block were what I 
 wanted, I have both at home. You can listen more 
 comfortably as you are. I came to you because you 
 hear more odd stories that you don't repeat than 
 any man in London. Listen to me." 
 
 Whatever Lady Maria's bodily weakness might be, 
 her mind was clear and strong as ever : the story of 
 her grandson's two marriages was told without con- 
 fusion or waste of words. 
 
 When she came to the end, she looked inquiringly 
 at the counsel, whose face as usual betrayed none of 
 his thoughts. 
 
316 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 "Well?" she demanded sharply. 
 
 " Well," he repeated, getting up from his chair, " it 
 is a very ingenious story; but if you intend it for 
 the plot of a novel, I should advise you to choose 
 something less improbable." 
 
 " As if I should write a novel ! " snorted Lady 
 Maria, greatly incensed. "Do you take me for a 
 governess or a lady's-maid?" 
 
 "It is a curious position, certainly," he went on, 
 standing with his back to the fire. ("Won't you 
 try another biscuit?) Let me see whether I have it 
 right. You gave me no names; so let us call the 
 two husbands A. and B., and your heroine X. A. 
 supposes X. to have been drowned on their wedding- 
 day ; she has run away, however, and lived in retire- 
 ment. A few weeks ago she marries B., who knows 
 nothing of her story. When he discovers the truth 
 he rushes up to London in search of A., and finds 
 that he married another lady seven months ago." 
 
 Lady Maria nodded assent. "What are they 
 to do?" 
 
 " I fear I must leave the solution to your ingenuity. 
 My dull masculine brain can think of none but a 
 meeting on Hampstead Heath; and that must be 
 carefully arranged, as though all might go well if 
 B. were to kill A., which would enable him to marry 
 X. without any legal impediment, yet if A. were 
 to kill B., A. would be left in a sad position — the 
 husband of two wives." 
 
 " But whose husband is he ? Was the first marriage 
 legal?" 
 
 " Ah, Lady Maria, there you put me in a difficulty ; 
 it is impossible for a man to solve such problems in 
 his dressing-gown and slippers. I can only tell you 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 317 
 
 what would occur to the ordinary man. It is true 
 that if X. was forced into the match as a child, and 
 left her husband on the wedding-day, she might 
 apply to have her marriage declared null and void. 
 Or she might take the line that he had committed 
 bigamy, and apply to be released from him on that 
 ground. On the other hand, people might ask what 
 she was doing after she ran away, and how any man 
 could be such a fool as to marry her without know- 
 ing anything of her story." 
 
 "What the devil do I care about what people say 
 at my age!" demanded Lady Maria, dropping half 
 an arrowroot biscuit on the Turkey carpet. " What 
 I want to know is, how do they stand in law ? (If 
 you put the biscuit back on the plate your servants 
 will eat it, never fear.) Whose husband is the 
 
 The counsel shook his head sadly. "Impossible to 
 say. The law has strange quirks, and all the marriages 
 might be found void — or valid." 
 
 "All the marriages cannot possibly be valid," cried 
 Lady Maria irritably. "It's a serious matter, I 
 tell you, and the story is true from beginning to 
 end." 
 
 "In that case, I should certainly recommend Mr 
 A. and Mr B. to take legal advice upon their 
 positions," said the counsel drily. "You must ex- 
 cuse me, Lady Maria; I have to be in Court ; u 
 half an hour. Pray sit by the fire till you are 
 rested. I'll call my housekeeper to wait upon you." 
 
 Lady Maria had not lived for over eighty years 
 without knowing when she was worsted. She rose 
 slowly from the arm-chair, and pulled her ermine 
 boa round her neck. 
 
318 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 " No, I'll not trouble you any further to-day, thank 
 you. Tis a pity you have no more of the '94," she 
 sighed, as he opened the door. "That is poor stuff," 
 with a nod to the decanter on the table; "but no 
 doubt it tastes the same to you. Some people lose 
 their palate sadly when they advance in years. 
 Well, you and I have a great deal to be thankful 
 for, if we are able to drink sherry at all at our age." 
 
 She knew that his one weakness was to think of 
 himself as a young man. Before he could think of a 
 retort she was in the carriage calling out " Home ! " 
 to the footman. 
 
 "At least she got nothing out of me," reflected 
 the counsel, going back into the house. " Our age, 
 indeed ! Why, the old harridan can remember look- 
 ing out of a window to see King George the 
 Second go to his coronation! She must be a good 
 quarter of a century older than I am." A comfort- 
 ing thought reawakened the twinkle in his eye as 
 he settled once more over the fire. "I wonder what 
 she would have said if she had known that B. came 
 to me last week." 
 
 Lady Maria drove away, gloomy and thoughtful. 
 She said not a word, even to abuse Miss Case, till 
 they reached Harley Street. At dinner she revived 
 sufficiently to reduce the companion to tears, twice over, 
 but afterwards relapsed into a brooding silence. 
 
 When she lay down on the sofa for her usual half- 
 hour's rest, she sent Miss Case into the next room. 
 She was falling into the habit of talking to herself, 
 like many old persons, when anxious or upset, and 
 retained enough self-control to yield to it only when 
 alone. 
 
 Miss Case, trying to clean a pair of Lady Maria's 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 319 
 
 white gloves, heard mutterings through the wall, and 
 broken exclamations. Then followed a stillness which 
 made her hope that Lady Maria had fallen asleep, until 
 a sharp call brought her to her feet, and run to see 
 what was wanted. 
 
 " You can take the paper and read to me. Not the 
 foreign news — I know that — nor the speeches — lies, 
 every word of them — something that will send me 
 to sleep." 
 
 With shaking hands Miss Case unfolded the sheet 
 and was hesitating between a description of a new 
 invention for curling the hair and a notice of some- 
 body's travels in Asia Minor, when the man-servant 
 brought in cards. 
 
 "A lady and gentleman to see your ladyship on 
 business." 
 
 " I can't see any one," declared Lady Maria peevishly. 
 
 " I'm resting — don't you know I always rest at this 
 time? And I won't have visitors in winter — their 
 thick boots wear out my carpet. Who are they ? 
 What do they want ? Read me the names, Case — I 
 can't find my glass " 
 
 " Mr Fen wick," read Miss Case, taking the cards from 
 her hand, " Mrs Fen wick." 
 
 " Why didn't you say before, you dolt ! " cried her 
 patroness, starting up. " Show them in at once. Case, 
 you can sit in the bedroom till they are gone. Let me 
 hear you put the key in the lock outside, and close the 
 door. I'll not have you listening at the keyhole. If 
 you get cold in your ear, you'll be deaf and stupider 
 than ever, if that is possible. Be off with you ! " 
 
 Miss Case, with an inarticulate bleat of protest, 
 pattered out of the room, almost running into Claud 
 Fenwick and Honor as she went. 
 
320 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 Lady Maria stood by the table in the middle of the 
 room without word or gesture of greeting, while the 
 man set chairs. The keen look was again on her face. 
 Once more she was the old hawk, scenting danger, 
 uncertain how to meet it, ready to strike or to turn 
 as she might find need. Her tired sunken eyes scanned 
 the two faces. 
 
 Claud was thin and worn, and the grey threads were 
 thick in the hair above his temples, but there was a 
 quiet cheerfulness in his eyes, the look of a man who 
 has faced some great crisis and made his decision for 
 good and ill. 
 
 Over Honor, who stood beside him, her hand on his 
 sound arm, some indefinable change had passed. The 
 elusive air that made her appear to belong to another 
 world was gone; the elfin bride had turned into a 
 woman of middle earth. 
 
 No one spoke or moved until the man-servant's foot- 
 steps died away upon the stairs; then Lady Maria 
 flung out one word — 
 
 " Well ? " It was not peremptorily or impatiently 
 spoken, as in the morning to the counsel, but wearily, 
 almost despairingly. She sat down on the sofa as she 
 spoke, signing to them to sit opposite to her. 
 
 " We have come to take leave of your ladyship," said 
 Fenwick, paying no heed to the gesture. 
 
 " You are going into the country ? " 
 
 " We are going to India ? " 
 
 " To India ? " Lady Maria's faced quivered, and the 
 long hands lying on her knees clenched upon the edge 
 of her shawl. " You are going to India — in Tufton's 
 place ? " 
 
 " In Tufton's place." 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 321 
 
 " I heard his fool of a father had begged him off at 
 the last moment. They offered it to another young 
 fellow who could not be ready to sail at once, and they 
 were much annoyed and did not know where to put 
 their hand on a likely man. I thought — but you are 
 going of your own accord." 
 
 Lady Maria covered her eyes with her hand, leaning 
 her elbow on the table, then suddenly looked up at 
 Fenwick with a sharp " Why ? " 
 
 " We have been thinking and talking together," said 
 Fenwick, answering Lady Maria, but without taking 
 his eyes off Honor, " and we think the best way is for 
 Honor to remain dead. If we tried to obtain a legal 
 decision about our marriage, there seems great un- 
 certainty as to what it would be, and Honor agrees 
 with me in not wishing to do anything that may injure 
 Lady Elystan or her child." 
 
 " How about your own children ? " asked Lady Maria 
 hoarsely. 
 
 " It would be to no one's interest to prove them ille- 
 gitimate ; there is no chance of their inheriting properties 
 or titles, and they will always be able to show the 
 certificate of our marriage." 
 
 " And in what name was she married to you, eh ? " 
 The harsh tones grew harsher. A light flush spread 
 over Honor's face. 
 
 " I believed Lester to be her real name," said Fen- 
 wick shortly. "She told me that her father's name 
 was Basset, and I stupidly misunderstood " 
 
 The cackling laugh echoed through the dusk. " So 
 you thought her a love-child, and were too decent to 
 say anything about it ? You're a bigger fool than I 
 thought you, if that's possible." 
 
 x 
 
322 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 u I called myself Honor Lester when I ran away 
 from Sir Charles," said Honor quickly. " It was my 
 fault that Claud did not understand " 
 
 "Stop gabbling, child," said Lady Maria fretfully. 
 "Let me think how it is " 
 
 She leaned her head again on her hand for some 
 moments, her lips moving, but no words audible. 
 
 "You are taking a great risk," she said at last, 
 shivering as if she were cold. 
 
 " Not so great a risk as it seems. It would be to 
 no one's interest to identify Honor Fenwick with 
 Honor Basset. Sir Charles, for his own sake, will 
 do nothing that might cast a doubt upon his marriage 
 with Lady Elystan. Honor has no relations to give 
 her a thought except the Rivers, and for their own 
 sakes they would not wish her to be proved alive 
 after they had inherited her fortune." 
 
 "Ay, the fortune," broke in Lady Maria; "do you 
 mean to leave it for that scoundrelly attorney to 
 enjoy?" 
 
 " From all I can hear, he has not much capacity for 
 enjoying it," said Fenwick grimly. " We do not pro- 
 pose to go to law with him for it." 
 
 " There's nothing like making a virtue of necessity," 
 observed Lady Maria ; " by the time the lawyers had 
 decided who was to have it, every penny would be 
 gone in legal expenses." 
 
 She fumbled among the sofa cushions for her snuff- 
 box, and having taken a long pinch, sat erect and 
 looked as she had not looked since the day when she 
 brought Fenwick from St James's Square. " What do 
 you say, child ? " she asked, turning upon Honor. " He 
 speaks for you as well as for himself do you agree, or 
 is it only that you cannot help yourself ? " 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 323 
 
 " I agree with all that he says." The answer came 
 quietly and steadfastly. "Honor Basset is dead and 
 buried." 
 
 " And you are going with him to India ? " 
 
 "I am." 
 
 Lady Maria's eyes narrowed to two slits, almost 
 disappearing among her wrinkles. "Do you realise 
 that if you grow sickly and ugly in that climate, 
 and he sees something that he fancies better, he can 
 prove you were married in a false name, and turn 
 you adrift ? " 
 
 " Since you take such a kindly interest in our 
 concerns, madam," broke in Fenwick, "you may be 
 glad to know that I have made a settlement upon 
 Honor which, I am told, cannot be set aside in any 
 circumstances." 
 
 Honor smiled at him with a look of perfect con- 
 fidence. "Claud has given up so much for me that 
 I do not think he will want to cast me adrift. 
 'Dearest is dearest/ my old nurse used to say." 
 
 Claud smiled down on her in answer, forgetting 
 Lady Maria, who sat grim and mute. 
 
 "And if I grow old and changed, there is the less 
 risk of my being recognised, ten or fifteen years 
 hence, when we come home." 
 
 " When you come home — if you come home, you 
 mean," interrupted Lady Maria with a strange defiant 
 fierceness. " They die like flies in India. That is why 
 I was thinking of getting Tufton's appointment for 
 you. If you were both to die " 
 
 " We are much obliged to your ladyship, but as you 
 have heard, I have anticipated your kind offices. Good- 
 day to you." Fenwick turned to the door. 
 
 " It's easy to blame an old woman," said Lady Maria 
 
324 HONOR AMONG THIEVES 
 
 querulously. " I don't want you to die, so long as you 
 will keep out of the way. I always liked you much 
 better than Mendip, but he is my grandson, and I was 
 bound to do my best for my own flesh and blood. 
 Well, well, it's all settled now, and it was none of my 
 doing. Honor Mendip is dead, as you say, and if any 
 one questions it, you can tell him to go and look at her 
 memorial tablet in the church — what is its name ? — 
 where the attorney used to carry round the plate on 
 Sundays. Egerton and Jane Rivers put it up, and it 
 was done from Egerton's design. He told me they 
 could not make up their minds upon a text. ' 111 give 
 you one,' I told him — ' Honor among thieves.' It took 
 ten minutes for him to break it to me that there was 
 no such text in the Bible. He sent me a Bible with 
 texts marked next day, and a letter to say I should 
 find it a comfort when I came to lie upon my death- 
 bed. I told him I was much obliged, but I meant to 
 drive in his carriage for many years, and to die stand- 
 ing, as the men of my house did. But there's the 
 Bible, and I make Case read it to herself for a quarter 
 of an hour when she's been telling me lies." 
 
 " Honor, it is time for us to go back to Jermyn 
 Street," said Claud decisively. "Cousin Louisa will 
 be waiting." 
 
 Lady Maria stood up, gaunt and haggard. In spite 
 of all, there was something of dignity about her. 
 
 " When do you sail ? " 
 
 " We go down to Southampton to-morrow ; the ship 
 may not sail until Christmas Day." 
 
 " I suppose a good woman would say ' God bless 
 you'; it's not for me to say it. Good-bye to you; 
 you both have had your share of trouble and ill- 
 usage. Perhaps there may be good luck waiting for 
 
HONOR AMONG THIEVES 325 
 
 you in India." She curtseyed to them as they went 
 out. "You're a brace of fools, and fools sometimes 
 prosper, in spite of their best efforts; so there is 
 hope for you." 
 
 On the afternoon of Christmas Day, Lady Maria 
 sat alone by her fire, having sent Miss Case to 
 church. 
 
 " I wonder what will become of those two ? They 
 must be cold and miserable enough by now." She 
 shivered and stretched out her hands to the flicker 
 in the grate. " That child said it — ' dearest is dearest' 
 What would I not have given if I could have gone out 
 into the world to seek my fortune with the one man 
 seventy years ago?" 
 
 Her chin dropped upon her breast, and she stared 
 blindly at the fire. 
 
 On the deck of their ship Fenwick and Honor 
 watched the shore of England receding, until mist 
 and darkness hid it from their sight. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 Author of ' When Kings rode to Delhi,' &c 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF WASTE LANDS. 
 
 By SYDNEY C. GRIER. 
 Crown 8vo. 5s. net. 
 
 WALTER GREENWAY, SPY AND 
 HERO. 
 
 By ROBERT HOLMES. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
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 OVERDUE. 
 
 OCT 7 1932 
 OCT 2 1933 
 JUH 24*946 
 
45S086 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY