M p \\ \J 
 
 TO 
 
 T. H. H., 
 
 WITH A KISS OR TWO. 
 
 CAUF.
 
 MARVEL. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 * Hark ! hark ! deep sounds and deeper still 
 
 Are howling from the mountain's bosom. 
 
 **** 
 
 Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.* 
 
 AROUND the house the wind was crying with a mournful 
 vehemence, every now and again flinging great heavy drops 
 of rain against the window panes. The moon and stars, 
 that half-an-hour ago were shining with an exquisite 
 bruliance, now lay hidden behind banks of sullen clouds, 
 and the fitful gusts of wind that dashed round the corners 
 and moaned through the pine branches spoke of storm 
 before the morning, whilst up from the sea came the sad 
 monotonous roar of the waves as they thundered against 
 the giant rocks. 
 
 The night, however, was full of a sultry heat that made 
 even the small fire burning in the library grate almost 
 oppressive. The casements were closed, but the curtains 
 were not drawn, and the sad sounds of the rising storm 
 penetrated through everything. 
 
 " There is thunder in the air," said Lady Mary, looking 
 up thoughtfully. She spoke in a subdued tone, as if a 
 little awed by the majesty of the elements without, and 
 she let her hands fall idly on her knees as she listened 
 gravely to the ever-growing tumult. 
 
 She was a woman who looked older than she really was, 
 with a face beautiful still, in spite of many years of much 
 trouble and settled ill-health. A tall, stately woman, with 
 severely aristocratic features and a bearing not to be ac- 
 quired. She was knitting placidly, the fine red silk she was 
 using throwing out the pallor of her small hands. Occasion- 
 
 2130480
 
 2 MAKVEL. 
 
 ally she lifted her head to cast a glance of unaffected tender- 
 ness upon a lad of about fifteen, who was bending over a 
 book at a small table near. A reading lamp stood on this 
 table, and the boy's face betokened rather the earnestness 
 of study than the enjoyment to be had of ordinary light 
 reading. 
 
 He was her nephew, the son of her dead brother, the 
 last of his name. In him this youthful earl all her hopes 
 were centred, and she lavished upon him a mother's love 
 she who had never been a mother. 
 
 A sensitive change passed over her face as the storm 
 swelled and grew. On just such a night as this her brother, 
 Lord Wriothesley, the father of the lad over there, had 
 been thrown from his horse and brought home to The 
 Towers lifeless. On such a night long years ago her 
 true love, to whom she was to have been married on that 
 day week, was drowned off St. David's Head. Alas, for 
 such storms as these ! they boded no good to that old race 
 to which she belonged, and which was now fast drawing to 
 its close. She sighed heavily and leant back in her chair. 
 Once more, mechanically, her fingers took up and con- 
 tinued the knitting, whilst her eyes travelled with an absent 
 gaze dedicated not to the living but to the dead round 
 the octagon room in which she was sitting. 
 
 It was a charming room, lofty and very carefully treated 
 in its arrangements. There was no overcrowding, no 
 pressure of furniture. One could stretch one's arms in it. 
 The bookcases reached from floor to ceiling in the goou 
 old-fashioned style, and there was no glass to hide their 
 treasures. There was, perhaps, too palpable a suspicion of 
 an age now exploded, in the solidity of the central table 
 and in some of the chairs, but this was rectified by the 
 presence of the low soft satin-lined couches pushed here 
 and there, very nests of comfort, and in the dainty tables 
 that stood in every corner. Exquisite curtains, too, with 
 threads of gold running through them, hung before the 
 windows, and from the olive green walls priceless statuettes 
 stood out prominently on carved brackets. 
 
 Another burst of wind, full of a greater ferocity than any 
 gone before, now swept round that side of the house where
 
 MARVEL. 3 
 
 the library was, driving a heavy shower of rain against the 
 windows. 
 
 " What a night ! " said Lady Mary with a nervous 
 start. The lad slowly withdrew his attention from the 
 page before him, and looked at her. 
 
 " I like it," he said. He threw up his head as though 
 drawing in and enjoying the warfare without. " What a 
 sea there must be on to-night." He pushed back his chair 
 and walked towards the window nearest him. Half-way 
 across the room, however, he came to a standstill. His 
 face paled, and his eyes took an eager strained expression. 
 He was evidently listening for something. At the same 
 moment Lady Mary cried out abruptly : 
 
 " What was that ? " She, too, had risen, and now 
 moved nearer to the boy. Her tall figure was drawn up 
 to its full height ; her fine eyes were alight ; all the 
 petty tremours that had shaken her a while agone now 
 left her and gave place to a sudden courage. She stood 
 calm and self-possessed, yet filled with a strange fear. 
 
 Through the storm a shrill wild cry was ringing, a faint 
 and wailing cry, yet strong enough to pierce the riotous 
 roar of the gale, and the dashing of the rain-drops on the 
 gravel without. It was the cry of a child in sore distress 
 a miserable despairing scream. 
 
 Again it reached them. Nearer now, it seemed, yet so 
 tossed hither and thither by the tempest that one scarce 
 knew from what point it came. It was more plaintive, 
 more exhausted now, and was horrible in its hopelessness, 
 because youth and hope should go ever hand in hand. It 
 was a wail that knew no cessation, and every moment 
 brought it closer. 
 
 " Summon the servants some creature in distress " 
 cried Lady Mary. She made a rapid movement towards 
 the bell. 
 
 "No, no. I will go myself," said the boy, walking to 
 the window that opened on to a long balcony. 
 
 " In this storm, Fulke ! In this rain ! Oh ! no dar- 
 ling," entreated she, but he was not listening to her. 
 With eager fingers he undid the fastenings of the casement, 
 and as he stood thus, with arms uplifted, in an attitude that 
 
 I 2
 
 4 MARVEL. 
 
 to one outside might look protective, there came a sharp 
 tapping at the glass below him. It was rapid, continuous, 
 and full of the passionate vehemence of a terrified child. 
 All through this tapping the cry rang ceaselessly. 
 
 Lord Wriothesley pulled open the casement with a 
 vigorous hand, and there shivering in the vast wild 
 darkness stood such a little forlorn thing as made their 
 blood run cold. 
 
 It was a child a mere baby. The cloak that had been 
 wrapt round it had fallen back, and now the pretty, 
 rounded, uplifted arms were dripping with the rain. 
 The soft yellow locks, that should have been some mother's 
 tenderest pride, were tangled, dark, and saturated with 
 wet. The small face looked ghastly. Tears fell from the 
 eyes, and gasping sobs from the red lips. 
 
 At this instant another violent gust arose, and rushing 
 past the poor little thing caught her, and dashed her against 
 the side of the open window. The tiny baby hands 
 clutched convulsively at the wood-work, in a vague, 
 instinctive fashion. No cry escaped her now. Her 
 strength seemed gone. 
 
 " It is a child. A child ! " cried Lady Mary in a horri- 
 fied tone. She hurried towards her, but the little one had 
 caught sight of Wriothesley, and held out her arms to him, 
 and as he ran eagerly to her, and caught her, and lifted her 
 into the warmth within, she clung to him with such a sense 
 of sudden safety, as made itself felt, and went to the boy's 
 heart. 
 
 The little wet arms clasped his neck. The frightened 
 face was pressed against his shoulder. She was too young 
 to argue, but she knew that she was safe. She was with 
 friends. The rain no longer made her cold. The howling 
 wind was not in here. And better than all else the awful 
 darkness could be no longer felt. 
 
 Lady Mary took her now, and placed her on the hearth- 
 rug close to the cheery fire, and shook out her dripping 
 hair. She was drenched through and through. A maid 
 was hastily summoned, and presently, in a miraculous way, 
 clothes were produced fit for the tiny visitor's use 
 borrowed no doubt from the good woman at the lodge,
 
 MAEVEL. $ 
 
 whose babies swarmed all over the place. In these 
 the little stranger was dressed. Her pretty hair was 
 dried, and shone now in the lamp-light like threads of 
 gold ; and her large, grave, wistful eyes melancholy eyes 
 for a creature barely four years old lit up a singularly 
 pretty face. 
 
 When Lady Mary questioned her as to her name, she 
 would say nothing beyond a quaint monosyllable that no 
 one could understand. "Mg" it sounded like, but the 
 most enlightened English folk could make little of that. 
 
 " I confess it is too much for me," said Lady Mary, who, 
 with the child on her lap, was feeding it with tea and cake, 
 with a culpable disregard of quantity. " It hardly matters, 
 however. She has strayed, no doubt, poor little thing, and 
 to-morrow we shall be able to find and restore it to its 
 parents. Dear, dear, how unhappy her poor mother must 
 be to-night." 
 
 " I think she must be a stranger's child," said the boy, 
 who was kneeling on the hearthrug and staring at the baby, 
 who delighted him by her solemn gaze. "The servants 
 know every soul in the village, but they don't know 
 her." 
 
 "Nan na?" said the child, glancing inquiringly round 
 her and then up into Lady Mary's face. The latter laughed 
 and kissed the earnest eyes. 
 
 " That doesn't tell us much," she said. " See how she 
 laughs now ! "What a pretty rogue it is. I wish I could 
 make out her name." 
 
 " Perhaps she hasn't an earthly one. Perhaps she has 
 dropped from the skies," said Fulke laughing. " If so we 
 shall have to give her one." 
 
 " Scarcely worth while for one night, is it ? " 
 
 " Why yes. We must have some way of addressing her 
 whilst she is our guest." 
 
 " It should be a marvellously pretty name to suit her," 
 said Lady Mary, gazing tenderly into the little one's 
 charming face. 
 
 " Why, there ! you have christened her," cried Wriothesley 
 gaily. " She shall be called Marvel, even though it be for 
 this night only. Marvel," bending towards the child, " do
 
 6 MARVEL. 
 
 you like your new name, baby ? " The child nodded her 
 head sagely, and then wriggled down off Lady Muy's lap 
 and toddled up to him. As he took her in his arms 
 the door was opened, and the maid, who had undressed 
 the little wanderer a while since, again entered the 
 room. 
 
 " If you please, my lady, we found this locket pinned 
 inside the child's dress," she said. As she spoke she 
 held out a flat gold locket, very plain, and rather 
 battered. 
 
 There was surprise in Lady Mary's face as she took it 
 She looked at it seriously for a moment, as if hesitating, 
 and then opened it. Inside was the picture of a young 
 man, with a handsome aristocratic face, but reckless, and 
 with a touch of displeasing mockery in the light blue eyes. 
 The mouth, however, was beautifully formed, and the brow 
 broad and open. 
 
 Having dismissed the maid Lady Marv glanced thought- 
 fully from the picture to the child and back again. No, 
 there was no likeness. 
 
 " It is strange," she said to the boy, who had come to 
 lean over her shoulder and look at the portrait. " It is not 
 an ordinary face, is it ? It is, too, the face of a gentleman." 
 She paused and looked towards the child, who was now 
 curled up in the centre of a huge white rug, and slowly, but 
 surely giving herself up an unwilling prey to sleep. " And 
 that poor baby," she went on speaking to herself, " out in 
 that storm alone forsaken. What can be the meaning of 
 this ? " She spoke vaguely, and the boy only caught a word 
 here and there. She was evidently very much perplexed, 
 and a little sad. She viewed the sleeping child with 
 an altered expression one even kinder, tenderer than 
 before. 
 
 " We shall know all about it to-morrow," said Fulke, who 
 felt she was disturbed 
 
 "To-morrow, perhaps. And now go to bed, darling." 
 She drew his head down to her and kissed him warmly. 
 
 "And the baby?" 
 
 " Somers will take charge of it to-night." 
 
 " Good-night, little Marvel," said the boy, stooping over
 
 MARVEL. 7 
 
 the child and pressing his lips to her cheek. " To-morrow 
 will tell us your real name." 
 
 But it was many years before the real name was learned. 
 The morning broke, bright with sunlight, and as calm and 
 clear as though last night's storm had never been, but it 
 brought to The Towers no anxious mother crying for her 
 child. Day after day went by, week after week they waited, 
 but still the child remained as alone in the world, as though 
 she had indeed, as Fulke had said, " dropped from the 
 sky." Advertisements were put in all the papers, and 
 private inquiry was made, but with no result. And at last 
 Lady Mary's secret belief that the child had been purposely 
 abandoned became a public one. Not cruelly abandoned, 
 perhaps, in spite of that terrible storm, but flung within 
 Lady Mary's reach, trusting to the tales of clemency and 
 love that grew like blossoms through her life, and endeared 
 her to all the villagers. 
 
 But no village child was this ! The regular features, the 
 fine hair, the delicately formed nails on tiny hands and feet, 
 all precluded the idea. That she had been deserted was 
 beyond doubt, but by whom ? and by what class ? Lady 
 Mary felt a touch of indignation, that grew even stronger 
 as her eyes fell upon the little one dancing gaily in the 
 sunlight on the terrace walk, hugging to her breast a horrible 
 doll noiseless, eyeless, hairless. She was such a lovely 
 bit of Nature's best work that it seemed to Lady Mary a 
 wanton waste of one of Heaven's sweetest gifts to let her 
 go thus cruelly adrift. 
 
 Her kind eyes moistened as she looked at the little 
 forsaken being, a tender unsullied thing, a young pure 
 soul for whom her Lord had died. Of what could that one 
 have been made who could send her floating upon the cold 
 sea of this world's charity ? She was still meditating mourn- 
 fully on the strange story, the bare commencement of 
 which lay in her hands, when the child saw her, ran to her, 
 and with a fond certainty of welcome flung herself into her 
 arms. After that Lady Mary forgot to pursue her painful 
 thoughts. She caught the child to her heart, and from that 
 hour accepted her as her own child.
 
 8 MAEVEIh 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE years fled swiftly, and as by degrees servants left, died, 
 or got married, and others, strangers to that part of the 
 country, took their places, that wild night's work fell into 
 the background, and the child came to be considered as 
 part of the family. 
 
 She was at first an amusement, then a joy, and at last a 
 comfort to Lady Mary, whose health did not improve as 
 time wore on. She took the little one into her inmost 
 heart, and cherished her there without detriment to the 
 love she bore Fulke. In but a little while, as it seemed to 
 her, the boy sprang into early manhood, got his commission 
 in the Hussars, and quitted the home nest. But the child 
 remained. Of course, Wriothesley turned up at the old 
 quarters every now and then, very frequently in fact, but 
 naturally he had ceased to be part of the quiet life there, 
 and his coming was an event in spite of their efforts to 
 think it otherwise. 
 
 Lady Mary missed him more than she confessed, even 
 to herself, and clung to the child with an eager fondness, 
 that grew stronger each time Fulke came and went. She 
 was such a pretty creature ! Day by day she expanded 
 into a fairer beauty, into rarer charms of mind and body. 
 Fulke, who always declared he and Lady Mary had 
 christened her, and who insisted on calling himself her 
 godfather, held stoutly to the name given her on that 
 eventful night, and so Marvel she had remained. It suited 
 her, he said, as time transformed the pretty baby into a 
 charming little girl, whose hair was the colour of copper, 
 with the sun shining on it, and whose unfathomable grey 
 eyes were grave and serene as a summer lake. 
 
 Lady Mary took great pains with her education. A 
 governess beat into her fertile brain all the English that a 
 girl should know, and three times a week masters came 
 from town. Marvel accepted them all, and was docile 
 and obedient, and imbibed their knowledge with little 
 trouble to herself ; but the delight she felt in learning she 
 reserved for such Irssons as the rector gave her, with whom
 
 MARVEL. 9 
 
 she was a special favourite. He was unmarried, a student, 
 a book-worm ; a strange man, self-centred up to this ; but 
 the child took hold of him and dragged him, whether he 
 would or not, into the warm sunlight of her own young life. 
 By degrees he grew to love her, and coaxed her into read- 
 ing with him at such odd hours as he could give her ; and 
 with him she wandered hand in hand, o'er flood and fell, 
 and into the mystic sweetness of the woods, learning at 
 every step a great fresh truth the ways of birds, the 
 music of the insect world, the tender growth of the tiny 
 flowers that thronged around their footsteps, and all the 
 giad, mysterious joys of Nature. 
 
 It was an isolated life she lived, but one hedged in by 
 love. There was only auntie, as she called Lady Mary, 
 and her governess, and the rector, and Fulke. Only 
 sometimes Fulke, which gave him, perhaps, a charm in her 
 eyes the others did not possess. He came so seldom. 
 Each time his stay seemed shorter than the last. He was 
 so good to her, and in her eyes he was so brave, so tall, 
 so handsome, that all her tender childish affection went 
 out to him, and she gave him out of the warm treasure of 
 her heart an innocent, faithful love. 
 
 The first knowledge of the world's pain, the first touch 
 of anguish came to her, through him. He sailed for India, 
 and suddenly it seemed to her as if the whole earth had 
 grown empty. What a void his going left ! He started, 
 full of hope and pride as a young soldier should, leaving 
 behind him a sad old woman whose every desire was 
 bound up in him, and a slender, mournful child who was 
 hardly to be consoled. It was a poignant grief, but time 
 softened it. And, indeed, time was given it to die alto- 
 gether before Wriothesley again set foot on English soil. 
 
 Through the half-closed curtains the warm June sun 
 was pouring its blinding rays. From the garden beneath 
 uprose a perfume, straight from the hearts of the flowers 
 that floated gently into the room. Marvel, with a little 
 sigh of ecstasy, flung wider the window and leaned oui
 
 io MAEVEL, 
 
 until her pretty head became entangled \vith the roses 
 that drooped from the wall next her. 
 
 She was dressed in a simple white cambric, made rather 
 loosely at the throat, from which some deep old lace fell 
 softly. She moved her head rapturously from side to side, 
 as if drinking in the beauty of the scene, which was as 
 perfect a one as fair England could boast. Beyond the 
 rising hills, with the patches of pale green verdure, on 
 which the sun rested lovingly, and with here and there a 
 monster fir to catch the eye ; there the glimpse of undu- 
 lating park with, in the far west, a sparkle of lake water, 
 and here, beneath her, the swelling woods, the velvet lawn, 
 the brilliant pasture and the merry, chattering, babbling 
 stream. It was all so full of life, so calm, so satisfying, 
 and the girl herself seemed a fitting part of it. She looked 
 the very incarnation of youth in her white dress, a creature 
 halfchild, half-woman, with a still s'umbering heart. 
 Smiles came readily to her lips. Her eyes had forgotten 
 their tears. She lived in the present and took no thought for 
 the future, so happy was the life she led. The child's hair 
 had been copper, the girl's was an exquisite chestnut, soft, 
 wavy, crowning a forehead that was both broad and pure. 
 The baby mouth had expanded and changed, as the mouth 
 of a child must, but the deep gray earnest eyes remained 
 the same. They were very tender, very true, and, some- 
 how, they held one. The rector, who loved her, said once 
 that they made him unhappy for her. They were the eyes 
 of a dog, solemn, faithful 
 
 It was early yet ; nine o'clock had only just been struck, 
 with quite a reprehensible waste of time, by the slow, old 
 clock on the corridor. Marvel had come upstairs with her 
 auntie's breakfast and "the post," and was now waiting 
 whilst Lady Mary sipped her chocolate and dipped into 
 her correspondence. There were many maids at "The 
 Towers," but one sweet maiden only brought Lady Mary's 
 tray to her bedside every morning. No other hands but 
 Marvel's should touch it, no other face but hers introduce 
 it between the satin curtains of the ancient, if elaborately 
 beautiful old poster, that Lady Mary would not resign for 
 the handsomest " modern " in the universe. She was very
 
 MARVEL. II 
 
 feeble now, dear thing, and quite unequal to rising before 
 noon. 
 
 The girl was still luxuriating in the delicious view when 
 an agitated voice from within roused her from her musing. 
 
 "Marvel, come to me. He is to be here on the ipth. 
 I have had a definite line from him. The ipth," cried 
 Lady Mary in her eager, feeble way. 
 
 She laid down the foreign letter she was holding and 
 looked at the girl, who stood transfixed as if hardly be- 
 lieving. 
 
 "Yes. It is true. The igth; I thank God for it. My 
 dear, dear boy." 
 
 As she leant back upon her pillows she looked so frail, 
 so languid, as she reclined there that one almost wondered 
 how life still dwelt in her. A little flush, however, born of 
 the glad news, made her face bright. 
 
 "I shall see him again," she said, extreme gratitude 
 in her tone, as she took up the letter and began to read it 
 aloud to Marvel. " He writes from 'Gib,' as he calls it," 
 with a soft, little laugh ; " and in such spirits, dear fellow." 
 
 "The i gth," said the girl. "Why, it is quite close! 
 It sounds like to-morrow. And after all these long years. 
 Oh, it is incredible." 
 
 " Nonsense, dear child. Why, we have been looking 
 forward to it for the last six months." 
 
 " I know. And yet it never seemed impossible until 
 now, when it draws so near. I wonder," she hesitated, 
 and then went on, *' I wonder if he will be changed ? 
 Greatly, I mean. It all seems so long ago. When he 
 went I was only twelve, now I am seventeen, and he must 
 be twenty-eight. Quite old, it sounds. Doesn't it ? " 
 
 " Quite young, dearest," said Lady Mary a little sadly. 
 
 One of the servants at this moment opened the door, 
 and with a little courtesy to Lady Mary, addressed Marvel : 
 
 " Mrs. Bunch desired me to sa% Miss Craven, that she 
 would be very much obliged if you could come to her to 
 the still-room. She would have come to you, but " 
 
 " I shall be there in a few minutes," said Marvel. Mrs. 
 Bunch was the housekeeper, and of late Marvel had given 
 all the household directions. The servants, indeed, every
 
 12 MARVEL. 
 
 one, called her Miss Craven, that being the Wriothesley 
 family name. The poor child had no name of her own, so 
 Lady Mary had lent her one. 
 
 Marvel made a sign to the girl, who withdrew. 
 
 "Would you like me to speak now to Bunch of his 
 rooms Fulke's ? " she asked. " The old suite, I suppose. 
 But years make things look dingy, and I think the rooms 
 would require " 
 
 " Everything," cried Lady Mary with a touch of her old 
 impulsiveness. "I would have nothing less than perfec- 
 tion. What ! is it not his home-coming ? What then 
 should we spare ? See to it, dearest. It is his own house, 
 
 remember, and why should he . Now that I think of 
 
 it, Marvel, now that he has come to man's estate, surely a 
 better suite should be assigned him. The west wing has 
 some nice rooms, eh ? " 
 
 "They would be strange to him," objected the girl 
 tenderly. "Let him have the old ones those he has 
 been picturing to himself when first he comes ; they will 
 seem more like home. Afterwards he can arrange as he 
 likes." She came nearer to Lady Mary, and stooping over 
 her, kissed her. " Do you know," she said slowly, with a 
 pretty childish regret in her tone, " I don't like those 
 words of yours, ' Man's estate.' Oh, auntie, I wish he was 
 a boy again." 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 **At whose sight all the stars 
 Hide their diminished heads." 
 
 THE conservatories were admirably cool, although the re- 
 ception rooms outside were warm to languor, in spite of all 
 the efforts made to insure a bearable temperature. The 
 lights were brilliant, and the heavy sleepy odour of in- 
 numerable Dijon roses filled the air. Now and then " the 
 voice of one that singeth" was uplifted, and the rising and 
 falling of liquid notes travelled in a dreamy fashion to
 
 MAKVEL. 13 
 
 those who were not happy enough to have secured a place 
 near to the singer. 
 
 It was one of the Hon. Mrs. Verulam's musical evenings, 
 and nearly every one worth knowing in town was present. 
 It was very much overcrowded, and the heat was stifling, 
 but people like a crowd ; and women especially, in spite of 
 their protests to the contrary, think nothing of any affair 
 that does not half squeeze them to death. There were a 
 good many dim recesses and suggestive ante-chambers, 
 but these were given up to the sentimental few, and every 
 one for the most part was in the glare of the lamp-light. 
 
 It was considerably after midnight when a young man 
 entering an ante-chamber added yet another unit to the 
 ^..-i.^y too numerous guests. He made his way to where 
 he saw Mrs. Verulam standing in a cloud of corn-coloured 
 net, with here and there in it a gleam of yellow topaz. 
 
 " At last," she said, giving him her hand. " I had 
 ceased to hope. I had quite given you up." 
 
 " I had given myself up for the matter of that," returned 
 Lord Wriothesley. " But I knew how to wait, and, as you 
 see, all things have come to me." 
 
 " So embarrassed as all that ? " said she, arching her 
 pretty brows. " A man so rich is singularly ungrateful 
 to wear a countenance dissatisfied as yours." She laughed 
 maliciously, and leaning towards him said with an affecta- 
 tion of sympathy, " Who is she, then ? Can I help you to 
 iok for her ? " 
 
 "Who should I be looking for? Have not I found 
 you?" 
 
 " That suffices, my good cousin ; I shall let you off the 
 rest," retorted she, making him a little moue. " We have 
 loved each other too well and too long for that. Yet one 
 more question. Why are you not at The Towers just now? 
 You were due there on the igih. Eh?" 
 
 " Business, business, business ; that most hateful of all 
 things. I fancied myself sure of my leave, or I shouldn't 
 have named the igih when writing to Lady Mary; but the 
 fact is the colonel can't let me off until the day after 
 to-morrow." 
 
 " Metal more attractive," said she, just the vaguest sus-
 
 I 4 MARVEL. 
 
 picion of reproach in her tone. They were cousins, and 
 the very best friends, and she had not liked to believe this 
 of him disrespect to the dear old Craven woman, who 
 was her aunt as well as his, and the being she admired 
 most on earth ! 
 
 " It isn't like you to wrong me," he said gravely. " The 
 metal is not forged, attractive enough to keep me from my 
 allegiance to that dearest of women. Believe me, I feel 
 
 the hours long that keep me from her and from " with 
 
 a little laugh "her baby. You will not misjudge me 
 now ? " 
 
 " Oh no ! Your word was ever as good as your bond. 
 And I was wrong to doubt, of course ; but one hears so 
 
 many things in this gossiping Babylon, and " She 
 
 checked herself abruptly. " As to auntie," she went on, 
 "you will find her as charming as ever, but rather more 
 frail. A mind as heavenly as hers could hardly inhabit 
 a robust body. And her baby ! She has grown out of 
 your knowledge, I doubt, into a tall, slim, willowy thing, 
 straight as a wand, but for all else, she is a baby still." 
 
 She seemed a little enthusiastic on this subject, and 
 might have said a good deal more on it, but she stopped 
 abruptly, seeing something in Wriothesley's face that 
 puzzled her. For one thing he was not attending, and he 
 was looking over her shoulder at some object behind her. 
 He did not actually start, but an undefinable light sprang 
 into his eyes. It was a light not to be mistaken by so 
 clever a student of human nature as she, and it betrayed 
 him to her. 
 
 " Ah ! so she is here to-night, after all," she said slowly. 
 She turned her head and looked to where, at the end of 
 the room, stood a small group of four or five persons. 
 They had only just entered the ante-chamber, which was 
 larger than most, and the central figure stood out from the 
 others rather prominently. She was a tall woman, ex- 
 tremely slight without being lean, clad in an exquisite 
 brocade of an aqua-marine shade. The others of the 
 group were men, and they seemed to follow her, and bend 
 over her with an assiduity that bespoke an eager desire to 
 please. Her face was peculiar, and certainly would not
 
 MARVEL. 15 
 
 strike one at the first glance as being handsome, yet after 
 even a short study of it, one found it difficult to forget. 
 It was a haunting face, the more so that it was inscrutable, 
 and without vivacity. There was not even a suspicion of 
 colour in it, and the eyes, remarkably large and deep, gave 
 it the appearance of even greater pallor than it possessed. 
 Her hair was chestnut, of so ripe a tint that it very 
 narrowly escaped being red, but it and the unfathomable 
 eyes were the things that refused to quit the memory when 
 she herself had gone by. 
 
 The aqua-marine brocade gave no warmth to her pale 
 face, but was meant perhaps to throw out the brilliancy of 
 the hair and eyes. If so, the idea was an immense success. 
 Fragile sprays of clematis formed her shoulder-straps, and 
 her long arms, though -slender, were exquisitely formed, 
 and shone against the vague green of her gown with a 
 dazzling fairness. 
 
 The little throng of courtiers pushed towards her a 
 fauteuil, and she sank into it with a languid grace; the long 
 white arms fell across her knees. 
 
 " So it is, Mrs. Scarlett," said Mrs. Verulam, turning 
 again to her cousin, and speaking with some excitement in 
 her tone. "My dear Fulke, I can hardly congratulate 
 you." 
 
 " Certainly not. It is far too soon," parried he with a 
 laugh and a purposed misunderstanding of her words. 
 She felt, however, there was meaning in his answer, and 
 that he wished her to learn even at this early hour that it 
 would be wise to refrain from uncivil mention of the lady 
 in question. 
 
 " Ah, so / " she said a little coldly. " It is, of course, 
 well to understand things. You knew Mrs. Scarlett in 
 India?" 
 
 " For a month or six weeks a mere moment out of 
 one's life. I made her acquaintance just before leaving, 
 in fact." 
 
 " She returned to England in your ship, did she not ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Another six weeks ! Why, you are quite old friends. 
 I have heard that a sea voyage ripens friendship as swiftly
 
 16 MAKVEL. 
 
 as an Italian sun." She spoke now in the usual indifferent 
 society tone, and without any of the playful kindliness of a 
 moment since. 
 
 " So have I. It has, however, hardly ripened the friend- 
 ship you speak of. As yet, Lady Scarlett and I are mere 
 acquaintances." 
 
 " She does not look like any man's acquaintance," said 
 Mrs. Verulam vaguely. " He should be all in all or not at 
 all to her, I should fancy. Her slave or nothing." 
 
 Wriothesley glanced quickly at her. 
 
 "You dislike her ? " he said. 
 
 " Dislike her. No. Why should I dislike her ? * 
 
 " I wonder why you asked her here." 
 
 " As to that, one must follow the fashion, and she is the 
 fashion now. Her fame travelled from India faster than 
 she, and though we know she was originally only the 
 daughter of a petty country squire, still we are all cnragecs 
 to get her to come to our houses." 
 
 " Her fame ? " questioned he. It seemed to be all that 
 he had heard. 
 
 " As the cleverest beauty of her time ! By-the-by, who 
 is that with her now ? " 
 
 An old man had joined the group round Mrs. Scarlett 
 and was shaking hands with her. 
 
 " The Duke of Dawtry," said Wriothesley. 
 
 "Naturally; I should have known." Mrs. Verulam was 
 silent for a moment, and then " Considering who she was, 
 I must do her the justice to say she has made very con- 
 siderable running in a short time," she said. " Alone too ! 
 Very little help was given her." 
 
 " You forget she married well," said Wriothesley, who 
 was keeping his brow clear by a superhuman effort. 
 
 "Oh! That poor old Mr. Scarlett!" returned Mrs. 
 Verulam, with a contemptuous shrug. " He was useful, no 
 doubt as the stepping-stone to the society beyond. 
 By his means she was enabled to make her bow to the 
 world. He took the theatre for her, as it were ; the 
 bell rang, the curtain went up, and lo ! there she was before, 
 it must be confessed, a very appreciative audience. She has 
 proved herself a huge success, but to aspire to a duke ! "
 
 MARVEL. 17 
 
 She paused to look at him, and it seemed to her that 
 though he kept his face impassive, he drew his breath 
 somewhat sharply. 
 
 " You mean ? " he said. 
 
 "Just that," with an eloquent little nod. "It is rather 
 a flight, isn't it? but true for all that. She has him at hei 
 
 feet morning, noon, and Well, I expect morning and 
 
 noon is good enough, we need not follow it farther. He 
 too, you see, made her acquaintance in India, whither he 
 went last year for pig-sticking, as he said, though, poor old 
 gentleman, I should have said the pigs would have stuck 
 him had they come to close quarters." 
 
 " You regard the duke as an aspirant to her hand ? " 
 asked Wriothesley. 
 
 She could not fail to remark that his face had grown 
 remarkably pale. 
 
 " Ah ! That is going so far," she said. She smiled 
 curiously and looked down at the fan she was slowly moving 
 too and fro. " To her hand ? Oh ! it is impossible to say 
 as much as that. But as an aspirant to her favour " 
 
 She broke off calmly, and left her speech to be continued 
 by any one that chose. 
 
 "You are charming always, dear cousin,"said Wriothesley, 
 who was very pale. " But one small point you forget, the 
 forbearance that a hostess owes to her guest." 
 
 He bowed very low to her and crossed the room to where 
 Mrs. Scarlett sat enthroned amidst her courtiers. He 
 stood on the outskirts of her kingdom, until presently it 
 melted away sufficiently to let him feel himself almost alone 
 with her. His Grace of Dawtry still remained with a few 
 others, but he stood now apart, conversing with a minister 
 who had made himself famous over the Irish question. 
 
 As Wriothesley approached her, Mrs. Scarlett, who very 
 seldom gave any man her hand in greeting, received him 
 with a smile. 
 
 " You are late," she said. Her voice was low, clear, 
 trainante. Her curious eyes dwelt on him for a second or 
 so, as if in study, and then, apparently satisfied with what- 
 ever knowledge she had gained, she let them fall again. 
 
 Wriothesley's eyes flashed. 
 
 a
 
 i8 MARVEL, 
 
 " That is a kinder thing than you have said to me for 
 many a day. It at least permits me a faint hope that you 
 have missed me," he said. 
 
 There was some surprise in the glance she turned upon 
 him, but in a moment it changed to one of veiled amuse- 
 ment, and she leaned back in her chair and smiled. At 
 all times her smile was uncommon, and difficult of com- 
 prehension. It was here and gone almost in a breath, 
 almost, before one was aware of it, and yet it made itself 
 felt, and clung to one's memory in a cruelly persistent 
 fashion. There was an instant lighting of the strange eyes, 
 swift too, as ever lightning was a veritable electric flash 
 a sudden parting of the lips, and then it was all over. 
 The pale face caught back its calm again, and one might 
 almost believe the smile had never been. 
 
 "It is you who have missed something," she said. 
 " More than you know." 
 
 " Not more than I know." He looked at her very 
 earnestly. " You I miss always," he said, " and these last 
 interminable hours in which I have been kept from you in 
 spite of all my efforts have been worse than death." 
 
 His face precluded the idea of exaggeration that his 
 words might suggest. That he was fatally honest in what 
 he said was hardly to be mistaken. Again that flickering 
 smile swept her lips. 
 
 " That, perhaps," she said. "But I hardly alluded to 
 so poor a loss as you would suggest. What you indeed 
 did lose was one of Riccolo's happiest efforts; he sang just 
 now sweeter than any nightingale." 
 
 He made an impatient gesture and a slight frown settled 
 on his forehead. His eyes met hers with a passionate 
 reproach in them that seemed to afford her once again some 
 small amusement. 
 
 " How you give yourself away," she said. " Have you 
 no thought for the morrow ? If you expend your entire 
 stock of sentiment now, what will you have in the future ?" 
 
 " You I hope," returned he promptly. 
 
 She had not expected such a daring answer, and for a 
 moment was silenced by it. 
 
 " You are bold," she said, yet the boldness of his wooing
 
 MAUVE!*, 19 
 
 seemed to please her. She drew her skirts aside as if to 
 grant him a seat beside her. 
 
 " No. Do not let us stay here," he entreated. " Let 
 me take you to a place where one can breathe. The 
 conservatories are comparatively speaking, cool." 
 
 " So I have been told ever since I came. It is the cry 
 on every lip. The rooms are purgatory, the conservatories 
 paradise, come, let us enter therein." 
 
 "Well? you went, you proved it true?" There is a 
 jealous ring in his voice that does not escape her. 
 
 " I proved nothing. Because I withstood all blandish- 
 ments, and up to this have clung to my purgatory. No, I 
 did not go." 
 
 " But you will now," said Wriothesley impetuously. He 
 bent over her. His eyes sought and met hers. He was 
 very handsome, and suddenly, almost without her know- 
 ledge as it were, she found she had risen and was moving 
 with him across the room. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 u My heart is not to be moulded as she pleases ! " 
 
 THIS singular abandonment of herself, this volition which 
 was hardly of her own doing, astonished her, and gave 
 quite a zest to the movement. She could have laughed 
 aloud at herself, so strange seemed to her this swift surren- 
 der of her will. 
 
 As she passed by the Duke of Dawtry the old man 
 started and came to her. 
 
 " What ! going ? " he said. 
 
 She smiled her pretty evanescent smile, but said 
 nothing. 
 
 " So soon ? You leave us indeed desolate," went on the 
 old beau with that air of courteous gallantry that had dis- 
 tinguished him thirty years ago. "A cruel resolution to 
 come to." 
 
 "I am not perhaps so cruel. as you believe me," saia 
 
 2 2
 
 20 MAKVEL. 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett in a low tone. She spoke very softly, and 
 the glance that accompanied her words was lingering and 
 replete with reproachful meaning, and the old man 
 coloured beneath it as though he were a lad of eighteen. 
 " I am not going home as you I think imagined. I am 
 merely about to test the differences of certain temperatures 
 with Lord Wriothesley, who, I believe, is learned on such 
 matters." 
 
 She had gone on a step or two when the duke overtook 
 her. 
 
 " You will be at home to morrow ? " he asked hurriedly 
 in a whisper that was yet not low enough to be unheard by 
 Wriothesley for 
 
 u Lovers' ears are sharp to hear." 
 
 " From one to three," returned she calmly. 
 
 She went on again, and Wriothesley who accompanied 
 her felt that his heart was beating with a very unpleasant 
 force and that a sudden miserable suspicion was weighing 
 down his heart. He made no attempt to break the silence 
 that had fallen upon them, and Mrs. Scarlett, who was 
 naturally quiet, did not help him to make conversation. 
 
 They entered a long conservatory on the south side of 
 the house and walked up one of its fragrant green sides 
 without encountering any one. The place seemed deserted. 
 Tiny coloured lamps, infinite in number, swung from the 
 roof, and, from amongst the branches of the taller shrubs, 
 giving a rather Eastern air to the scene, and the sweet odour 
 of tube-roses and heliotropes mingled and blended into 
 one delicious whole all round them. 
 
 From the tall drooping shrubs fell showers of fragile 
 blossoms that strewed the floor and floated in the marble 
 basins of the fountains, whose scented waters dropped, with 
 a rhythmical chant, into their bosoms. 
 
 " Will you sit here ? " said Wriothesley, indicating a low 
 lounge that gave room for two. But Mrs. Scarlett gliding 
 by it seated herself upon a little frail spindle-legged 
 chair. 
 
 "You spoke the truth," she said. "It is cool after that 
 furnace beyond. Well ," looking straight at him and
 
 MARVEL. 21 
 
 speaking quickly, "how is it you are not down in the 
 country with those old people of yours ? " 
 
 " There is but one old person," said Wriothesley gravely. 
 "My aunt, Lady Mary Craven. She," gently, "is my more 
 than mother." 
 
 " One ! But you told me of two who expected you." 
 
 " The other is my aunt's ward. A girl. A mere child." 
 
 " A child. Of what age then ? " 
 
 " Seventeen perhaps. I am not sure," said Wriothesley 
 carelessly. 
 
 " There is no such thing as a child of seventeen," said 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett rather brusquely. "At that age, I ." 
 
 She paused abruptly, and her face darkened ; she grew 
 suddenly rigid as one might who was dwelling on some 
 long past but ever hateful remembrance, and suddenly a 
 bursting sigh broke from her lips. Her fingers closed 
 spasmodically upon her fan, and her nostrils dilated. A 
 moment was sufficient to contain all this, and Wriothesley, 
 whose thoughts were still filled with his jealous fears, saw 
 nothing of it. It was all over very quickly. By the help 
 of her powerful will she conquered the momentary weak- 
 ness, and the face she now turned to him was as calm and 
 immovable as usual. 
 
 " Tell me," she said, " when is it you go to see this 
 child?" 
 
 " To-morrow I go to see my aunt. As for her ward, 
 she was a remarkably sweet 1'ttle soul when last I saw her, 
 and, I confess, it will be a pleasure to me to see her too 
 again, as it will be to gaze upon the parks and woodlands 
 of my home, and all things that association have made 
 dear." 
 
 He spoke simply and with sincerity. Mrs. Scarlett bit 
 her lips, and opened and shut her fan with a little crashing, 
 noise. His whole manner raised within her a very demon 
 of envy. Great heaven ! how long it was since she felt like 
 that ! If she could only feel it again ! The cruellest part 
 of it all was the memory of the time when she had felt it 1 
 She drew her breath sharply. 
 
 "And how long do you intend to remain in your 
 Arcadia?" she asked with a slight sneer. "For ever?
 
 Once imbued with its charms the world no doubt will cry 
 to you in vain. Am I to give you to-night an eternal 
 farewell. Have you brought me here to receive it ?" 
 
 She spoke jestingly, but there was something in her large 
 violet eyes that roused him. 
 
 " Bid me return," he said. " Say but one word, and you 
 "know the disposal of me lies with you." 
 
 " To return ! But how if I bid you stay ! " 
 
 " I know you too well for that," returned he with a 
 tender smile. " Even even if I could be of any use to 
 you, you would not grudge me to the dear old woman for 
 awhile." 
 
 She was clever enough to understand that it would be 
 unwise to press the subject. 
 
 "And what of the little one?" she said still lightly, 
 though her strange eyes were full of fire. 
 
 " Why will you dwell on her ? I tell you she is of no 
 account," said Wriothesley impatiently. " What is she to 
 you or me ? " 
 
 " I hardly know . And yet ." With a sudden 
 
 shaking off of the languor habitual to her she rose to her 
 feet. " This I do know," she said, " that I hate her ! " 
 
 There was something terrible in the intensity of her tone 
 and the expression of her face, which had grown ghastly. 
 She stood there drawn up to her fullest height, shivering, 
 trembling as if with some unknown dread. He was almost 
 frightened by the change in her, but presently with a little 
 sigh she recovered herself, and dropped back again into her 
 chair. 
 
 " Who should imagine me so absurd ?" she said, with 
 a touch of angry self-contempt. "It is to you, to you 
 alone I so betray myself. And that poor innocent, that 
 cousin of yours, why should I dread her ? " 
 
 Wriothesley, who had taken little heed of the last part of 
 her speech, did not contradict her as to the relationship. 
 A vague, sweet, wild hope that she was jealous of this girl 
 liad worked a very madness of joy within his breast. To 
 be jealous is to love ! Did she love him ? The very 
 thought was intoxication. He pressed her back upon her 
 seat, and fell at her knees and clasped them.
 
 " My beloved ! " he said in a choked voice, and then, 
 " Leonie, hear me. Let me speak at last. That I love you 
 is understood ; but my anguish of to-night, who shall under- 
 stand that ? " He lifted a face that had grown suddenly 
 haggard, to hers. " It is not true what they say, is it ? 
 That you you let that old man follow you about, make 
 
 love to you, and that you " He bent his head upon 
 
 her knees, and she could feel his whole frame trembling 
 " encourage him. My darling ! My soul ! say it is not 
 so. . . See now, Leonie, I am young. I am rich. Oh ! 
 how thankful I am for that ! Why should he be preferred 
 before me ? " 
 
 " Why indeed. And who told you that he was ? " Her 
 voice was singularly soft and low. It was meant for his 
 soothing, and it fulfilled its task. She was a little upset by 
 his vehemence, and a little unnerved. What if any one 
 should come in, and see him kneeling here at her feet, and 
 so disturbed. What if Dawtry should hear of it ? Better 
 to quiet him at once, and so get rid of him. 
 
 But not altogether. It would be folly to break with him 
 entirely until the old man should have declared himself. 
 When that happened it would be time enough to cast 
 Wriothesley adrift. And and suppose the duke should 
 fail her, what parti of the season, except the duke, was as 
 desirable as Wriothesley? Truly, it would be folly to 
 discard him so soon. 
 
 The fertile brain of her drags in and threshes out all 
 this, even whilst he kneels at her feet, with all his heart 
 laid open to her. 
 
 " What is that old man to me ? " she said treacherously. 
 " Do not say anything you do not mean," cried Wriothes- 
 ley fiercely. He caught her hands and pressed them to his 
 lips. "I beseech you, above all things, be honest with 
 me." 
 
 He was honest enough himself at all events. His large 
 eloquent eyes burning into hers bespoke a world of unadul- 
 terated affection. 
 
 " Why should you suspect me ? " said she gently. She 
 did not chide him for his violence, or seek to disengage her 
 hands from his embrace. She took in the beauty of him as
 
 he knelt there before her, pale and earnest, and was for the 
 moment, so far womanly, that she cursed fate that Daw try 
 was not such an one as he. 
 
 " Give me one word of hope," entreated he vehemently. 
 
 He might have said more, but luck was on her side, and 
 circumstances so fell out that she was saved the necessity 
 of a reply. The musical dropping of the waters was broken 
 by the sound of approaching footsteps. Wriothesley rose to 
 his feet and stood beside her, as two or three people, talk- 
 ing, laughing, advanced towards them, and seated them- 
 selves on an ottoman near. All hope of a continued tete-&- 
 tetc was at an end. He could not speak, but his eyes were 
 eloquent as they rested on hers. She plucked a flower from 
 the bouquet she held and gave it to him. To him it seemed 
 a kindly answer to his prayer. In reality it was given with 
 a view to calming him. He thrust it hurriedly into his 
 breast. 
 
 " You go to your home to-morrow," she said softly. " I 
 shall see you the day after." 
 
 " What an eternity lies between now and then ! " he re- 
 plied passionately. " Oh ! that one could annihilate those 
 empty hours." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Her birth was of the wombe of morning dew, 
 And her conception of the joyous prime." 
 
 HE had elected to walk from the station to his old home, 
 which was but a mile or so from the village. All his way 
 lay through a glorious stretch of woodland and meadow, 
 full to overflowing with old, sweet memories to him. Each 
 footstep awoke in him a strange sense of the unreality of 
 the present of the undying vitality of the past. As he 
 came within view of the house, and whilst he was yet a 
 long way from it, he saw the tall, shaggy deerhound, that 
 had been but a baby when he left, stalk leisurely through
 
 MARVEL, 25 
 
 the open hall door and stand looking meditatively southward 
 to where the ocean lay. He was evidently waiting for 
 some one, and presently, as if tired of his inaction, he 
 planted his forefeet firmly on the upper step, and drawing 
 himself backwards gave himself a mighty shake. 
 
 A moment later a tall slight figure joined the dog, and 
 stooping patted it fondly. The deerhound rose in answer 
 to that loving greeting and placed its huge paws upon the 
 girl's shoulders. Wriothesley could see it all as he ap- 
 proached through the shrubberies ; the girlish form clothed 
 in white, with the splendid brute standing upright, gazing 
 rapturously into her face and wagging his tail. The whole 
 scene might have been wrought in marble. The shrubs 
 grew thicker there and he lost sight of the perfect picture, 
 and when he emerged again into a larger light he was very 
 close to the house. The girl was still there, however, with 
 the dog now crouching at her feet. Wriothesley gazed at 
 her intently. Could that be Marvel ? the child he had left. 
 How altogether changed, if she indeed it were. And what 
 was it in her face that reminded him of of whom ? He 
 could not remember. 
 
 She too had seen him ; their eyes had met, and first she 
 paled and then a sudden lovely crimson flew to her cheeks, 
 and then, with a faint glad cry, she sprang down the steps 
 and threw her arms around his neck : 
 
 " It is you. You have come at last. Oh, Fulke ! Oh, 
 dear, dear Fulke ! " 
 
 She kissed him warmly, without a touch of bashful- 
 ness. Why should she be shy with him? was he not 
 her brother? 
 
 "And to think," she went on presently with a little tear- 
 ful laugh, "that for quite a minute I did not know you. 
 Oh ! that was horrid of me. But come in come at once. 
 Auntie will be so glad, so happy." 
 
 " A moment," entreated Wriothesley. He held her 
 gently by both arms and looked at her. This girl who had 
 kissed him so frankly and now stood smiling straight into 
 his eyes without a suspicion of embarrassment, verily, she 
 was a revelation. 
 
 " So you are Marvel," he said at length. His tone was so
 
 26 MARVEI* 
 
 full of unfeigned amazement that she fairly bubbled over 
 with mirth and gladness. 
 
 " I really believe you didn't know me either," she said 
 " Yes, haven't I grown. Auntie says she will put a weight 
 on my head if I go on doing it any more ; and when I am 
 just seventeen too. But don't let us stop talking here. 
 Come in to Auntie ; she has been oh so longing for you." 
 
 She slipped her hand into his and dragged him eagerly 
 up the steps and into the grand old hall. Through the dim 
 beauty of it she hurried him, each moment her light step 
 growing swifter until at last she began to run. Her excite- 
 ment communicating itself to Wriothesley he too found 
 himself running presently up the broad oaken staircase, 
 along the waxed corridors. All the time he was tormented 
 by a desire to know who it was she so much resembled. 
 Where lay the resemblance? Was it in her eyes, her hair, 
 her mouth ? When they drew near the end of the corri- 
 dor that led to Lady Mary's rooms he, rather the worse for 
 his rapid movement ; she, fresh as a young fawn as though 
 she could no longer retain her joyful news she began 
 to call aloud : 
 
 " I have found him, auntie ! It is Fulke indeed. He is 
 coming. I am bringing him to you." 
 
 Thus announced, and laughing gaily at her childish 
 enthusiasm, he was ushered into Lady Mary's presence. 
 
 She was lying back in a large armchair, and he went to 
 her quickly and knelt down beside her. When he saw her, 
 he was thankful that nothing had had power to keep him 
 from her once duty had lifted its heavy finger she was so 
 frail, so ethereal, so close to the border-land. A lovely 
 smile lay upon her lips, but it was a smile that awed him ; 
 frail indeed he knew was the thread that kept her soul from 
 heaven. 
 
 " My darling ! " she whispered. " My own boy ! " She 
 pressed his head down against her breast and ran her 
 fingers with a lingering love through his short locks ; two 
 large tears fell down her cheeks. 
 
 " I was so afraid I should not wait to see you," she said; 
 and then " it was such a long, long time." After a little 
 while, however, the old cheefulness that had ever charac-
 
 MARVEL, VJ 
 
 terized her came back with a rush, and having kissed him 
 again she pushed him playfully from her. 
 
 " And now stand up, Wriothesley," she said, " and let me 
 see how my boy looks as a man." 
 
 Wriothesley got on his feet, and with an affectation of 
 showing himself off to the best advantage stood well back 
 from her, folded his arms across his chest, and drew himself 
 up to his full height, which was nothing off six feet. Lady 
 Mary regarded with delight the tall, bronzed, handsome 
 soldier before her, but the tall soldier himself felt that he 
 was growing momentarily uneasy beneath the steady glance 
 of two luminous eyes that did not belong to Lady Mary. 
 The tall, white child ; this strange, new Marvel ; was staring 
 at him openly, innocently. 
 
 " Auntie," said she suddenly. " How very brown he is." 
 
 " My dear," said Lady Mary in the exact tone one would 
 use to a little girl of twelve, " It is not in good taste to 
 speak to one person of another when that other happens to 
 be present." 
 
 "I know. I should have remembered," said Marvel 
 contritely. Then she corrected her breach of etiquette by 
 looking sweetly at Wriothesley and saying to him direct : 
 
 " You are extremely brown." 
 
 "Well," said Lady Mary pleasantly. "What would you 
 have, you silly child ? The sun of India would not hide its 
 face to please you and me." 
 
 " You quite misunderstand. I didn't want it to," said 
 Marvel arching her brows. " I like him, that is, I mean I 
 like you, Fulke, brown, like that ; but what I wonder at, 
 and what I find fault with, is that his neck below his collar 
 is white. That spoils the effect. Why didn't you make 
 yourself brown all over, Fulke ? " 
 
 This was embarrassing. Both Lady Mary and Wrio- 
 thesley, after a second's pause, laughed unrestrainedly, and 
 Marvel smiled with them in sympathy as it were, though it 
 was very evident that she didn't know why. 
 
 " I suppose it would be too much trouble," she said in the 
 tone of one searching after truth. 
 
 " That was the reason," said Wriothesley. " That and 
 one or two other absurd reasons hardly worth mentioning."
 
 28 MARVEL. 
 
 Then he turned to Lady Mary. " Don't imagine I haven't 
 taken your lesson to heart," he said gaily. " But I must 
 speak to you of Marvel, although she is present. How 
 changed she is how different in every way I" 
 
 " Yes. She persuaded me to let her put up her hair 
 last month," returned Lady Mary with a rather troubled 
 air, her eyes on Marvel. " That has made such a 
 difference. And such a child as she is it was too soon, 
 I think." 
 
 " But seventeen, auntie ! And so tall as I am. You 
 know I told you how Miss Netterville laughed about it 
 to her sister that Sunday. I heard the word ' tail ' dis- 
 tinctly. You wouldn't like to hear your hair called a 
 tail, Fulke, would you? And then, auntie, you remember 
 what the rector said " 
 
 "Yes, yes," interrupted Lady Mary. "We all know 
 that what you say, the rector says. But, for my own part, 
 I think it absurd for a little girl like you to ape the habits 
 of grown up people." 
 
 Wriothesley listened to this with amazement mingled 
 with amusement. It was plain to him that Lady Mary 
 still regarded Marvel as quite a child, the child she had 
 taken to her heart so many years ago and reared and loved, 
 and that Marvel herself had not yet waked to the fact that 
 her feet stood within that brook that divides the child from 
 the woman. It all arose, no doubt, from the isolated life 
 she had led, with only the loving companionship of one 
 old woman and one old man to fill her days. There 
 was some curiosity in the glance he now turned upon 
 Marvel, and as he looked he told himself she was inex- 
 pressibly lovely, with that calm serenity that sat on lip and 
 brow, and that spoke of utter and entire innocence and 
 peace. 
 
 He felt it was all beautiful, but it did not touch him as 
 it might have done had his heart been cleansed of the wild 
 passion that was consuming it. He understood vaguely 
 the purity that filled his home the old woman mak ng 
 a joyful preparation for the life beyond the grave, the 
 young girl standing on the threshold of this life, ignorant 
 of evil, with large calm eyes soft with trust and dulled
 
 MARVEL. 29 
 
 by no suspicion. Yet, after the first joy at meeting again 
 with her who had been more than mother to him had 
 subsided, a sense of impatience grew on Wriothesley, and 
 a longing to get back to her who held his heart in her cool, 
 calculating hand. 
 
 His promise to return to her kept him alive. He got 
 through his day and his evening in the old home very 
 creditably, but all through the gentle babble of those two 
 who had so longed for his return he heard that other low 
 seductive voice, and felt the touch of the soft clinging 
 fingers. 
 
 He made an excuse next morning, ran up to town, and 
 arrived at Mrs. Scarlett's house in Park Lane only to 
 find her surrounded by a fashionable crowd. She was in 
 fact " at home," and he only managed to get a word or two 
 from her, a glance, and a faint pressure from her hand. 
 He returned to The Towers disappointed, yet in a 
 degree satisfied in that he had at least seen her, and that 
 her eyes had looked kindly into his. 
 
 After that visit he gave himself up for a whole week 
 to the home life. He told himself he liked it, and he grew 
 dreamy, idle, taking no notice of how the days went ; 
 one was so like the other, indeed, in that still calm 
 household that hardly one knew if it were to-day or 
 yesterday. On the seventh day Lady Mary sent him a 
 message to say she would be glad to see him in her own 
 room after luncheon, a meal she rarely attended. When 
 he obeyed her summons he was surprised to find her 
 alone ; it was a most unusual thing, as Marvel was almost 
 always in attendance on her. 
 
 " I want to speak to you," she said when he had seated 
 himself beside her. " Don't be frightened, it is only 
 a word or two I have to say, and it has nothing to do with 
 that hateful thing, business. It is something, nevertheless, 
 that lies heavy on my mind the fear that my poor child 
 will have too great cause to miss me when I go." 
 
 " You mean ? " questioned he gravely. 
 
 " That I would have your promise to befriend her. I 
 know your heart, Fulke no kinder one could be but 
 young men, my darling," here she laid her pretty withered
 
 30 MAKVEL. 
 
 hand on his as a little apology, " are sometimes careless, 
 and you might not think always. But if you will give 
 me your word to protect and cherish her I shall know she 
 has no cause for fear when I am gone." 
 
 " Why should you talk like this ? There may yet be 
 many days before you." 
 
 " Not many. It is this troublesome heart of mine 
 that warns me," said she, laying her hand upon it with 
 a faint smile. " It is tired fairly worn out it fain would 
 be at rest. It has found the day too long already it is 
 weary of sounding out the hours. Very gladly would 
 it run down, and indeed I feel the final tick is at hand. 
 We grow impatient for the calm of endless sleep, my heart 
 and I. But Marvel, how will it be with her when that 
 hour comes ? There is only you, Wriothesley. You will 
 accept this trust you will be true to lur?" 
 
 "Any request of yours, believe me, would be sacred 
 to me," said Wriothesley earnestly. " But, even had you 
 not spoken, I should have been faithful to the little friend 
 of my boyhood. Rest assured Marvel shall always be as a 
 sister to me." 
 
 " She is a sweet girl Hers is a very lovely nature," said 
 the old lady dreamily. "Wrapt in mystery as is her birth 
 I should nevertheless esteem the man who wins her heart 
 more than usually happy. That night, that storm how it 
 all rushes back upon me to-day ! The charming, tearful 
 face, the cry of rapture when she saw us, and the discovery 
 of that locket. You remember it, Fulke ? She wears it 
 round her neck always. I have a foolish, romantic fancy 
 that some day it will be the means of proving her 
 parentage." 
 
 " But have you never feared," said Wriothesley in a low 
 tone, " that such proving might be only to her sorrow ? " 
 
 " Nay," said Lady Mary mournfully, " I would not 
 willingly think that. And, even so, I would not take it on 
 me to bid her destroy it. God grant it bring no evil to 
 her, she is too young, too sweet, for such sore grief. Yet I 
 confess at times my heart is heavy for her." 
 
 " Do you know," said Wriothesley smiling brightly, with 
 a view to lifting these gloomy thoughts from her breast.
 
 MAKVEL. 31 
 
 "you make me feel a'little jealous of your Marvel ? All your 
 thoughts seem given to her. Is there not even one for me ?" 
 
 " Thought, dear child, but no fear. There lies the 
 difference between you. As a boy you were honest, true, 
 kindhearted, why should I fear for the man ? And as for 
 this world's goods, one need wish you no more than you 
 have. There is, therefore, nothing to dread for you save 
 perhaps life's disappointments, that no man may elude : 
 the failing of a friendship, the waking from a dream or 
 two, the loss of earthly love." 
 
 Wriothesley dropped her hand abruptly and rose to his 
 feet. Something in her last words a touch of prophecy, 
 unmeant by her, yet felt by him smote on his heart. A 
 sharp pang of agonized fear rushed through him. 
 
 " Oh, not that ! " he cried to himself. " Wealth, fame, 
 anything but that ! " 
 
 He went over to the window and pressed his brow 
 against the cool glass. In an instant he awoke from 
 the lethargy that had bound him to the monotony of this 
 quiet country life for seven long days. What an intermin- 
 able time it seemed since last he had seen her! Seven 
 days only, yet what an aeon it seemed. Well, he would 
 not add to it ; he would see her again, now, at once, 
 to-day. A mad desire to start took possession of him. 
 He felt stifled down there in that pure, dull, exquisite 
 country. Where she was, there only was life. He turned 
 hurriedly to Lady Mary, who was leaning back in her chair 
 looking pale and exhausted, and with her eyes fixed 
 thoughtfully on space. 
 
 " I shall have to run up to town this evening," he said. 
 "The next train leaves at six, 1 think." 
 
 " So soon, dear ? And must you go again ? It seems 
 to me as though I had only just found you, and now to 
 lose you again." 
 
 " But not for six years this time," returned he, en- 
 deavouring to speak lightly. " For a few hours only. If 
 I do not return to-night I shall certainly be here in the 
 morning." 
 
 "The morning." She looked at him wistfully. "I 
 would you could have stayed with me," she said.
 
 3* MAJBVEL. 
 
 Her reproach was so gentle, her whole presence so frail, 
 that remorse seized him. By a supreme effort he con- 
 quered himself so far as to tell her that if she so willed it he 
 would put off his going till the morrow ; but always sweetly 
 unselfish, she now at the last denied herself. She would 
 not, she said, have him disarrange his plans for the vagaries 
 of an old woman ; and, easily persuaded, he left her. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 * The worst thing an old man can be is a lover." 
 
 " What see you there 
 
 That hath so cowarded and chased your blood 
 Out of appearance ? " 
 
 IT was about half-past ten when he drove up to the door. 
 He sprang from the hansom and knocked impatiently at 
 the door. 
 
 " Mrs. Scarlett at home ? " It was past the bounds of 
 all probability that she should be, in the height of the 
 season ; yet in a vague unreasoning way he knew he should 
 find her. He did not feel even passing surprise at the 
 servant's answer : 
 
 " Yes, my lord." The man spoke with a certain hesita- 
 tion, and as if there was more to add ; but Wriothesley 
 took no notice of this. 
 
 " Upstairs ?" he asked " in the morning room?" 
 
 " Yes, my lord ; but " 
 
 Wriothesley motioned him to one side. 
 
 " You needn't announce me," he said, and before the 
 man could remonstrate or explain he was halfway up the 
 staircase. He went lightly, his heart, winged, seemed to 
 have flown into his feet ; he had his hand upon the door 
 of the pretty room that Mrs. Scarlett so much affected 
 before another could have mounted more than the first few 
 steps of the stairs : and now he opened it, and entered. 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett was half sitting, half reclining, upon a
 
 MAKVEL. 33 
 
 crimson lounge, and beside her, very close to her, on a low 
 chair, sat the Duke of Dawtry. 
 
 A sudden chill fell on Wriothesley. There was really no 
 reason for it. Why should not the duke make an evening 
 call on Mrs. Scarlett ; why should she not receive him ? 
 
 It was a simple, a very ordinary matter, and yet ! He 
 
 advanced into the room with a more careful step than that 
 with which he had run upstairs, and his face, in spite of 
 himself, looked grave. 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett made a little clever movement that brought 
 her into a more studied position than the one she had been 
 using, and a swift change swept across her face. Was it 
 surprise, or annoyance? Wriothesley could not decide 
 which, it came and went so suddenly. 
 
 " You," she said sweetly, holding out to him a jewelled 
 hand. 
 
 The two men saluted each other with cold courtesy. It 
 was impossible not to see the duke's evident irritation at 
 the interruption, even through the veneer of his breeding, 
 which indeed was excellent, and Wriothesley only barely 
 suppressed a frown. It was altogether a bad moment, but 
 it passed, and found them conversing as amicably as though 
 no unfriendly feelings filled their breasts. 
 
 After a rather short five minutes, the duke rose and 
 made his adieux, lingering a little over Mrs. Scarlett's hand 
 as he did so. Wriothesley could not avoid hearing that a 
 few words passed between them. Then the door closed 
 on the elder man, and the coast so far was clear. A 
 rather prolonged silence followed his exit a silence that 
 Wriothesley made no effort to break. A sense of un- 
 reality was oppressing him, and his heart seemed on fire. 
 Orthodox as he persuaded himself a few moments ago to 
 consider his presence in this room, he was now tormented 
 by the question, Why had that old man been there, and 
 alone with her ? When driving to her a while since through 
 the lighted streets he had felt positively certain in some 
 vague, unreasoning way that he should find her at home; 
 yet now there seemed to him something sinister in the fact 
 that she was so. That she, who so courted society and was 
 so courted by it, should deliberately elect to set aside all 
 
 3
 
 34 MAKVEL. 
 
 invitations for this evening was strange indeed. And that 
 
 old time-worn roue ! He flushed crimson and turned 
 
 abruptly towards her to find her gaze a rather penetrating 
 one fixed on him. 
 
 As their eyes met her whole expression altered, and that 
 pretty, sweet, swift smile of hers parted her lips. 
 
 " That you should have come here like this ! " she said. 
 "Without a word a line ! What a boy you are. Come 
 nearer " holding out to him a slim white hand " and tell 
 me how you knew I should be at home to-night." 
 
 " I knew nothing. I came here on the merest chance 
 of finding you." 
 
 " Well, you were gratified." 
 
 " Hardly." 
 
 " What ! You wanted more than that ? Was not I 
 alone then sufficient for you ? " 
 
 " You alone yes," he answered slowly. 
 
 She laughed, and leant back amongst her cushions ; the 
 soft light from one of the rose-shaded lamps fell on her 
 face. 
 
 " Is that it ? " she said. " So you would isolate me. A 
 little selfish, isn't it ? And as for that poor old duke, you 
 flatter him indeed when you condescend to be jealous of 
 him. He is very prosy, I grant you ; but he so likes a 
 gossip with a pretty woman who is good enough not to 
 show she is bored, that when he called, by chance like your- 
 self, to-night, I had not the heart to deny myself to him ; 
 though my Indian friends will lose a letter or two by it. 
 You see I am not so selfish as you are." 
 
 She said all this very artlessly, and smiled again. She 
 had slipped her hand into his whilst speaking, and now, as 
 if unconsciously, she tightened her fingers round his, softly, 
 bewitchingly. He turned more towards her, the angry 
 flash was dying from his eyes, he was relenting, he 
 was almost won ; another effort and he would be hers 
 again. 
 
 " A word ! " said she in a gay little whisper, leaning 
 towards him. " You won't betray me ? Well, I am not so 
 unselfish perhaps as I would show myself. That old man 
 is useful to me in many small ways ; it may be that that
 
 MAEVEL, 35 
 
 fact enables me to endure his prosings with the fortitude 
 I do." 
 
 " It is nothing more than that ? " asked Wriothesley. 
 " You swear to me it is only that ? " 
 
 " By what shall I swear ? By my troth, or my halidorn, 
 whatever that may be ? Dear Wriothesley, I am afraid the 
 little ingenue has been teaching you naughty ways." 
 
 He knelt down beside her and laid her palm against his 
 lips. 
 
 " My beloved ! " he said, " tell me again that the Duke 
 of Dawtry is nothing to you." 
 
 " Pouf ! less than nothing. A summer wind could 
 scatter my regard for him so," making a dainty pre- 
 tence of blowing something away from the tips of her 
 fingers. "Fossils, I would have you know, however 
 priceless, are not much in my line. I think " with a 
 reproachful glance at him " you might have known that. 
 They do not commend themselves to me; they fail to 
 enchain my fancy." 
 
 " Your fancy ! That is a thing light as air. Oh ! that 
 /might enchain it." 
 
 " Why, so you do," said she. Her voice fell to a soft 
 undertone. " Do you think I would let another kneel 
 where you are kneeling now ? Is it a small privilege, think 
 
 you, to be allowed to ." She bent her head, and 
 
 Wriothesley's lips met hers in a passionate embrace. After 
 a long pause : 
 
 " That little girl has not won you from me then," she 
 went on in a low wooing whisper. " You are still mine ? " 
 
 " Now as ever." 
 
 " It is a love worth having," she said as if to herself. 
 Her tone was subdued as of one musing. " I do believe 
 you," she went on presently; "and yet, a young girl, 
 Wriothesley : there is a great charm in youth, and that 
 little thing is, I hear, lovely." 
 
 " Who told you that ? " 
 
 " Your cousin Mrs. Verulam. Her feeling towards me 
 can hardly be called love, and she thought to amuse her- 
 self by telling me that yesterday. She is not after all as 
 clever as she looks. She told me Miss Craven is it you 
 
 33
 
 36 MAEVEL. 
 
 call her ? was sufficiently out of the common to bring all 
 London to her feet." 
 
 " I don't know, I'm sure. To me she seemed a pretty 
 child, no more, no less. How you dwell upon her ! " He 
 spoke impatiently. " She is a mere baby beautiful pos- 
 sibly, h"t uninteresting. Dismiss her from your mind." 
 
 " That I cannot. Regard it as absurd if you will, but 
 I have thought of nothing but her all day." 
 
 " How could you think all day of one so entirely a 
 stranger to you ? 
 
 " She will not be always that. Some day I shall meet the 
 child whom you call Marvel and don't ask how because 
 I don't know myself but I feel that she will bear a direct 
 influence upon my life. Will she make it, or mar it ? that 
 is what lies hidden from me." She sighed quickly. 
 
 " Willingly, I am sure she would injure no one," said 
 Wriothesley thoughtfully. 
 
 She cast a swift sidelong glance at him from under her 
 long lashes. 
 
 " Already she has found grace in your sight," she said. 
 " The spell begins to work, you see. I tell you that girl 
 will have much to do with your life and mine." 
 
 "Naturally," said Wriothesley gravely. "A child like 
 that, cast so strangely into our family, must always be 
 regarded by me as a sacred charge. So much I have 
 promised Lady Mary, although, indeed, as I told her, such 
 a promise was unnecessary. And as " regarding her 
 earnestly " I hope your life will be closely interwoven 
 with mine it is probable that, as you say, she " 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett put all that aside with a movement of her 
 fan. 
 
 "You are going too wide of the mark," she said. "I 
 am talking of that girl's influence over my destiny. Some 
 warning tells me it will not be a beneficent one." 
 
 " Have you been consulting the spirits again ? How 
 many seances have you been attending this week ? " 
 questioned Wriothesley laughing. " You seem to have my 
 aunt's little friend on the brain. Come, tell me why you 
 think so much of her." 
 
 A fond hope that she was growing jealous of Marvel was
 
 MABVEL. 57 
 
 making his heart glad; but this illusion Mrs. Scarlett 
 ruthlessly dispelled. 
 
 " Last night I dreamt of her," she said slowly. " A 
 vision rather than a dream it was. There was no leading 
 ap to it, no beginning, no end. All suddenly, as it were, 
 I found myself in the midst of a terrible darkness, a very 
 blackness of night. There were mutterings and hoarse 
 cryings all around, and sounds of trouble and woe. And 
 then, even as I gazed affrighted into this impenetrable 
 shade, lo ! it parted, as though two sable curtains had 
 been pulled aside, and there appeared a vague tremulous 
 glimmer of light, opaque, silvery, that grew and grew, until 
 almost it was too bright to look upon. It formed itself 
 into a complete oval, a perfect frame, and in it stood a 
 radiant figure, a tall slender creature, half child, half girl, 
 with soft floating locks and gleaming innocent eyes, and a 
 face that was purity embodied. Long I thought I gazed 
 on it. There it stood immovable, smiling tranquilly, 
 though surrounded by the awful darkness that held me ; 
 standing out from the hideous gloom with an insolence of 
 youth and innocence that held me even whilst I hated it ! 
 The cries and the mutterings did not touch her. The 
 gloom awoke in her no fear. The calm serenity never left 
 the perfect face. I see it now," said she in a low condensed 
 tone, rising slowly to her feet and gazing straight before 
 her. "The face beautiful, angelic, and yet so like like 
 
 " She broke off shuddering, a sharp shiver ran through 
 
 her frame ; her face grew ghastly. " Great Heaven ! what 
 a thought ! " she gasped, and tottered and would have 
 fallen but that Wriothesley caught her. 
 
 " Like whom ? " he asked. 
 
 " One dead. Dead and forgotten," she said faintly. 
 
 He soothed her tenderly, and after a little while she 
 shook off the feverish -horror that had seized her, and even 
 laughed aloud at the absurd scene she had made him. 
 
 " But I hate to dream," she said, " it spoils a good 
 night, and my nerves, though they tell me I am made of 
 steel, are more troublesome than I care to say. Only to 
 you," with a gentle glance, " I betray myself." 
 
 " All that you say only makes me love you the more,"
 
 38 MARVEL. 
 
 said Wriothesley. "And you, do you too love me?" It 
 was not an assertion, it was an anxious question. 
 
 " Have you no faith ? " 
 
 " A great deal, but yet I would have you say it." 
 
 " Yet what are words ? " 
 
 " True," cried he springing to his feet. " Give me then 
 pi oof." 
 
 She knew what this would lead to and tried to parry it. 
 
 " Have I not ? " she said. 
 
 " Sweet proof indeed ; but I would have more all. 
 Leonie, tell me you will marry me." 
 
 " If I did should I be wise for either you or me ? 
 Does marriage mean happiness or misery? That is a 
 question that still puzzles the world, after centuries of 
 honest trial." 
 
 " It does not puzzle me. If you love me, say you will 
 be my wife." 
 
 " Are we not very well as we are ? Why will you tempt 
 Fate further? As for me," she threw a charming serious- 
 ness into her tone, " I dread to lose my lover." 
 
 " It would be rather to gain one for ever." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " she shook her head. " A lover is one 
 thing, a husband quite another. Once I was yours, half 
 my value would be gone in your sight." 
 
 " You trifle with me," he said impatiently. His brow 
 darkened, and she saw at once (for she was quick to see) 
 that his mood was not one that would admit of further 
 dallying. " I cannot say to you, take time to think this 
 over, for you have had plenty of time in which to weigh 
 me and find me wanting or otherwise, as the case may be. 
 Give me, then, my answer now." 
 
 She rose slowly to her feet and stood back from him ; a 
 curious expression came into her eyes. 
 
 " You command," she said coldly. 
 
 "I entreat, I implore," returned he vehemently. 
 "Leonie, answer me." 
 
 " I might indeed do that," said she with her flickering 
 smile. " But would that answer please you ? No, in spite 
 of all you have said, I demand yet a little more time." 
 
 " At least, put a limit to my probation ? "
 
 MARVEL. 39 
 
 She paused and looked down. Her fertile mind ran 
 through the chances for and against the ambitious design 
 on which she had set her heart, and decided, hurriedly, 
 that she might safely promise to give Wriothesley his 
 answer in a week. She could so arrange that the duke 
 should within that time declare himself one way or the 
 other ; as her suitor openly accepted, or as the mere admirer 
 of a fashionable beauty. In a week, then, she should be 
 either an embryo duchess, or (a very bearable alternative) 
 the affianced of an earl. In the brief minute in which she 
 held silence, she carefully balanced the strawberry leaves 
 together with the miserable old life attached to them, with 
 the fresh, ardent, honest love standing there before her, 
 and mercilessly decided in favour of the former. 
 
 " Come to me this day week," she said, " then I shall 
 know." 
 
 " It seems a long time to make up your mind about me," 
 said he wistfully, "still as you will." 
 
 " And now, good-night, you have startled me more 
 than you know. I want to be alone, to think it all over." 
 She held out to him her hand. 
 
 "I know what your answer will be," he whispered 
 with all a lover's fond trust. The certainty in his tone 
 did not anger her it only hurt her for the moment like 
 the thrust of a sharp knife. "Why, then, will you con- 
 demn me to this seven days' misery ? why not make me 
 happy now ? " 
 
 "You assume a great deal," she said playfully, "yet you 
 must remember I have promised nothing." 
 
 " Yet I trust I believe in you," replied he with passion- 
 ate earnestness ; " those last words I leave with you. 
 Good-night, my love; good-night." 
 
 She sat there long after he was gone, deliberately making 
 out a programme for the coming week that should bring 
 the duke finally to her feet. At length the weary drooping 
 of her eyelids warned her that the night was far advanced, 
 and that sleep was taking her into his welcome custody. 
 She rose and stretched her long white arms, and a sigh of 
 weariness escaped her. Yes, the whole evening had been a 
 failure ; it had been singularly fatiguing; she would go to bed.
 
 40 MAKVEL. 
 
 There was one thing, however, she should do first. She 
 rang the bell sharply, and dismissed from her service the 
 footman who had admitted Wriothesley. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 " Virtue alone has majesty in death." 
 
 " That eating canker, grief, with wasteful spite 
 Preys on the rosy bloom of youth and beauty." 
 
 THE man who woke Wriothesley at his club next morning 
 brought him a telegram. He opened it idly, in a dilatory 
 fashion, feeling no apprehension about its contents, but 
 as he read it the colour forsook his face. It was from 
 the housekeeper at The Towers, and it told him that 
 Lady Mary was dead. She had died quite suddenly the 
 night before. There was nothing more in it, the message 
 was as brief as it was terrible. 
 
 It was such a shock to Wriothesley that at first he felt 
 stunned. Then he sprang out of bed and began with 
 eager haste to dress himself. All through the time this 
 took him, he was tormented by a sense of poignant regret 
 that mingled with his grief and was even stronger than it. 
 Why had he not stayed with her last night her last 
 night indeed ? He remembered each word she had said, 
 he saw again her kind old eyes as they rested lovingly upon 
 him, he heard the gentle tone in which she expressed her 
 sorrow that he should leave her then, and he recalled how 
 sweetly she had refused to accept his offer to remain. 
 
 A little spark of comfort lay in the remembrance that 
 he had offered, and that he would have stayed had she 
 pressed the point ; but then he knew he should not have 
 lAft the decision with her. 
 
 The next train was due in half-an-hour. He gave no 
 thought to breakfast, but rushed off to the station, caught 
 the train just as it was slowly steaming out of it, and in 
 about three hours found himself at The Towers. The hall
 
 MAKVEL. 41 
 
 door was wide open, and he entered the house with a 
 hesitating step. There was no sound of a footfall any- 
 where, no touch of life. A melancholy silence lay on 
 everything. " Death, the all eloquent," alone spoke. 
 
 As he paused, half doubting where to go or what to do, 
 a slender figure emerged from the library on his right and 
 came towards him through the dim religious light of the 
 grand old hall, with dejected steps. It was Marvel but 
 what a changed Marvel ! The happy childish smile was 
 gone, the mobile mouth was given up to melancholy. 
 Grief lay beneath the lids that were downcast, as if to hide 
 the misery of the all-sorrowing eyes. She came to him 
 like a little wounded bird, and crept into his arms, and laid 
 her cheek against his. 
 
 " When was it ? " he asked presently, with a heavy heart. 
 
 " Last night ; quite early ; we think she must have left 
 us in her sleep." She spoke with deep dejection : there 
 was indeed a despair in the young voice too great for tears 
 to give relief. " You will like to see her," she said. 
 
 Wriothesley bowed his head, and once again they 
 ascended the staircase together. Now, with lagging steps 
 and saddened mien she went, holding his hand tightly, as 
 though she feared to lose him too, and with a thrill of 
 emotion he recalled that other day when like a fawn she 
 had sprung from step to step, and, laughing gaily, had 
 conducted him to her who never more would welcome 
 them in this life. 
 
 In the chamber of death all was exquisitely sweet and 
 fresh. Great bunches of delicately-perfumed flowers lay 
 on all the tables, and roses freshly cut were strewn upon 
 the bed, not profusely, but one here and there. In her 
 life she had loved her roses well. 
 
 Wriothesley knelt by the bed and buried his face in his 
 hands, but Marvel went up to the still figure and bending 
 over it gazed long and lovingly upon the peaceful features, 
 that looked as though they were but sunk in a calm slumber. 
 Thus had she gone from them, without a sigh or a 
 struggle : 
 
 "A death-like sleep, 
 A gentle wafting to immortal life ; "
 
 42 MAEVEL. 
 
 such had been her ending ; a fit one truly for a lovely life 
 like hers. 
 
 " Sure, 'tis a serious thing to die, my soul ! " but looking 
 on Lady Mary's face, half the terrors of it seemed to fade. 
 It was very happy, and younger far younger than Marvel 
 could ever remember it. " All people," says Jeremy Collier, 
 " are young in the other world," and truly it seemed as if 
 Lady Mary had already entered into her heritage of eternal 
 youth. 
 
 Marvel stood watching her with thoughtful eyes. There 
 was no dismay, no fear in them, rather a great comfort. If 
 she could only be beside her thus always, if she could always 
 have her body near, even though the soul were absent, it 
 would not be so hard to bear the cruel sense of loneliness 
 would be less acute. She felt soothed by the divine 
 majesty of death, but when Wriothesley arose and took her 
 hand and led her from the room, the expression of comfort 
 died from her face, giving place once more to one of 
 unassuageable grief. 
 
 The mournful day passed slowly ; a brilliant day, warm 
 with sunshine and glad with the songs of many birds ; a 
 very living fay, that spoke to them of that glorious eternal 
 life beyond the grave, to which our brief existence here is 
 but as an hour. 
 
 Although it was seven o'clock, the June sun was still 
 hot in the heavens as Wriothesley with a grave face 
 traversed the gardens. Some one had told him Marvel 
 had gone out alone into that smaller rose garden that had 
 been her auntie's special care. Poor lonely child ! A 
 great compassion for her led him to follow her footsteps, 
 and presently he found her, standing forlorn, miserable, in 
 the centre of the green sward where stood a fountain whose 
 waters played upon and helped to clothe a laughing naiad. 
 She was dressed in a simple little white frock (such as Lady 
 Mary had loved to clothe her in) that reached her throat, 
 but left her arms bare to the shoulder. With a sad desire 
 to put on mourning of some sort, she had found a wide 
 black sash and had wound it round her slim young waist. 
 
 She was standing, mute and miserable, with her arms 
 hanging loosely before her, the hands clasped, as Wriothes-
 
 MARVEL. 43 
 
 ley came up. They were long arms, and slender as a 
 child's, but he could not help noticing how exquisitely they 
 were moulded and how dazzlingly white their colour. He 
 was anxious to say something that should rouse her from 
 the stupor of grief into which she seemed sunk, but his 
 imagination played him false just then and no satisfactory 
 commonplace remark occurred to him. At last a happy 
 thought struck him : he would appeal to her vanity all 
 women were vain. 
 
 " Marvel ! " he said gently. At the sound of his voice 
 she started perceptibly : she had been so lost in her medi- 
 tations as to have been deaf to his approach, but she now 
 looked at him. " My dear child !" he went on; "don't 
 you think your arms will get sunburnt if you stand there 
 with them thus uncovered." 
 
 This brilliant essay did not meet with the success it 
 deserved ; she glanced first at him with indignant reproach, 
 then down at the arms in question, and then again at him, 
 this time piteously. 
 
 " And if they do," she said, " what does it matter ? 
 There is no one now to see them no one ! " She threw 
 her hands abroad with a little desolate air that went to his 
 heart. 
 
 "Don't say that," he entreated earnestly; "am / no 
 one?" 
 
 " Oh yes," she said, her eyes filling with tears, " no one 
 at all." 
 
 " At least I am your friend," he persisted, though rather 
 taken aback, " and surely friendship should count with you. 
 And," gravely, " do you think she would like you to be 
 careless, just because she was not here to see ? " 
 
 In a vague way it occurred to him that he too was treating 
 her as a child, and the thought puzzled him. Yet how 
 else was he to treat her. Those large solemn eyes were still 
 within the realms of childhood ; the whole face, that was 
 lovely as a dream, held not one secret. She seemed im- 
 pressed by his words, and glad that he had touched her in 
 some way for her good, he was about to continue in the 
 same strain when she interrupted him. 
 
 " Ah ! but that is it," she said, " that is what hurts me.
 
 44 MARVEL." 
 
 I do not know now whether she cares at all. She is gone 
 from me." 
 
 " But is she so altogether gone from us," argued he gently. 
 " Would it not be a happier thing, Marvel, for you and me 
 to try to think of her as though she had not entirely left 
 us, but that her presence still dwelt in the old house she 
 loved so well." 
 
 She was looking at him very seriously as he finished. 
 He could see the idea soothed and pleased her. 
 
 "And again," he went on, "you must not think that 
 with her went all the love in your life. There is the rector, 
 a real friend, you have not forgotten him, have you ? And, 
 besides, there is a still older friend who cares very much for 
 you, and who will always grieve with your unhappiness and 
 sympathize with your joys." 
 
 Her eyes searched his anxiously. 
 
 " Is it you ? " she asked " Oh ! if you could only love 
 me. If you were given to me to fill her place. But no," 
 despondently, " it could never be the same." She broke 
 down and covered her face with her hands. 
 
 Wriothesley drew her gently towards him, and with a sob 
 she laid her head against him, and with all the abandon- 
 ment of a child threw one arm over his shoulder. She was 
 crying softly but bitterly, and Wriothesley scarcely knew 
 what to say to comfort her. He smoothed back her hair, 
 which was unbound and hung in loose rippling masses to her 
 waist, and waited in patience until she should have recovered 
 herself. 
 
 " You, too, will go ! " she said at last " Every one goes. 
 I shall always be alone." 
 
 " I am not going," declared he cheerfully. " I shall send 
 in my papers and resign my commission at once. I am 
 tired of barrack life, and indeed, such a passion for home 
 has grown upon me that I shall probably be always some- 
 where that will enable me to get to you just whenever you 
 choose. Now, that doesn't sound like being alone, does it ? 
 And, do you know, I don't like being alone either, so I 
 want you to come in and have dinner with me, and how 
 can you do that if you keep on crying so. And why is youi 
 pretty hair all loose like this ? "
 
 MAKVEL. 45 
 
 " She liked it so," mournfully. " Oh, how sorry I am 
 now that I ever teased her about letting me twist it round 
 my head. What did it matter if all the horrid girls in the 
 world called it a tail, if it pleased her. How selfish," 
 vehemently, " how unkind of me !" 
 
 " Nonsense ! It was the most natural thing in the world. 
 And as for your auntie, I firmly believe she agreed with 
 you about it in the end. What is the good of having a 
 head so charmingly classic as yours if you don't show it ? 
 I am sure if she could see you now she would not admire 
 your hair like that, and certainly I do not ; and as I am 
 your guardian now, I hope you will try to be as good to me 
 as you were to her." 
 
 " My guardian ! You ? Are you " repeating herself 
 in her astonishment "my guardian? Are you, really?" 
 She seemed lost in wonder. And then, " Was it her 
 wish ? " 
 
 " Almost her last." 
 
 " Oh ! I am glad of that ! Thankful and glad. How 
 she thought of everything that would please me!" with a 
 profound sigh. " Then now you can't go away from me," 
 she cried, and laid her other arm round his neck and kissed 
 his cheek. " You will never leave me. I shall always be 
 with you as I was with her. " 
 
 She seemed so overjoyed at this thought that he had not 
 the heart just then to dispel a dream that was evidently so 
 full of sweetness to her, but he persuaded her to come in 
 to dinner with him, and made her sit next to him, and 
 coaxed her to eat one or two things, bidding the men place 
 the entrees on the corner of the table near him, until he 
 should have helped her with his own hands. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " Then said this lady with her maiden mouth, 
 Shame-faced, and something paler in the cheek." 
 
 THE last sad formalities had come to an end. The body 
 was consigned to the family vault. Once again all the
 
 46 MAEVEL. 
 
 windows at The Towers were flung wide open, and the 
 merry, dancing summer sunshine streamed into, and lit up 
 the rooms that never again would know the gentle presence 
 of Lady Mary Craven. 
 
 Marvel went dreamily about all day, wandering from 
 place to place, visiting the favourite haunts and living over 
 again the happy tranquil hours she had spent with her first 
 and best friend. Once or twice she walked sadly down to the 
 rectory, and sat there hand in hand with the rector, who 
 truly mourned with her for one whose loss seemed to him 
 irreparable. Fulke, who should have been a companion to 
 her now that the first severe strain was lifted, and Lady 
 Mary's death had grown to be a thing realized was so 
 filled with a nervous longing for the moment that should 
 permit him again to seek the presence of Mrs. Scarlett and 
 hear from her lips his fate, that he was practically useless. 
 
 He grew silent, almost irritable. It angered him that he 
 could not endure the suspense with greater calmness, but he 
 could not. He told himself, and indeed he was absolutely 
 certain, that he had but to wait for the day named by her, 
 to learn that his beloved was really his, but it was so hard 
 to wait. The hours were leaden, the days intolerably long ; 
 he fretted and fumed secretly, but when at last the morning 
 dawned that permitted him to seek her, a great peace, a 
 sense of rest perfected fell on him. It was the last he was 
 to know for many a day ! 
 
 Marvel and he breakfasted together, and he told her 
 that he should be obliged to leave her and go up to town 
 for the day. 
 
 " In all probability I shall not return until to-morrow," 
 he said. Fond visions of spending the evening with Leonie 
 floated before him as he spoke. An evening with her as 
 her affianced husband, as the one she held dearest on earth 
 as he held her. "But you must not be lonely. You must 
 not let one of your sad little fits of depression take posses- 
 sion of you in my absence. It is for the day only, re- 
 member, and the hours will be short." Too short, he 
 thought. 
 
 " Oh ! so long," corrected she. He had induced her to 
 take the head of the table, and now she was pouring out
 
 MAKVEL. 47 
 
 his coffee for him in a nervous, childish fashion. As she 
 spoke she looked sorrowfully at him. 
 
 " Why are you going ? " she asked. 
 
 " Business," promptly. 
 
 " I wish I could go with you. I suppose," with hopeful 
 doubt, " I couldn't ? " 
 
 " My dear girl, no. And you wouldn't like it if you 
 could." 
 
 " Oh ! If I should be in the way ! " said she. 
 
 " It isn't that. But just fancy how dull you would find 
 it all by yourself in an hotel. I should be too occupied to 
 take you about and amuse you." 
 
 "I shouldn't mind that. And as to being dull in an 
 hotel, I shouldn't, indeed. I was never in one, and I could 
 walk about it all day, and examine it, and peep into the 
 rooms, and enjoy myself very well that is, as well as I 
 could without you." 
 
 " You couldn't do anything of the kind," said Wriothes- 
 ley, divided between a desire to laugh and to enlarge her 
 mind on the subject. " Young ladies can't walk about 
 hotels or peep into rooms that belong to other people with- 
 out being considered at least peculiar. You don't want to 
 be considered peculiar, do you ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," said Marvel, who was plainly too 
 disappointed to be argued with effectually. " I suppose I 
 could stay in my own room at all events," she said pre- 
 sently, as though indignantly defying the hotel people to 
 turn her out of that at all events. " And afterwards, when 
 your business was over, you would come back and " 
 
 "My business will take up ail my time and in fact, I 
 can't take you," said he with some impatience. 
 
 She put down the toast she had been eating, and two 
 large tears gathering in her eyes fell down her cheeks. 
 
 "What's the matter now?" demanded he in despair. 
 
 "It isn't true," she sobbed angrily from behind her 
 black-bordered handkerchief. " You said you would be 
 the same to me as auntie was ; and and there isn't a word 
 of truth in it. She wouldn't have left me behind. She 
 would have taken me with her wherever she went." 
 
 " Can't you understand, Marvel, that there may be reasons
 
 48 MAEVEL. 
 
 why I cannot," he said. To talk to her about such things 
 as propriety or les convenances seemed to him a hopeless 
 task, and one that might be prolonged for an eternity. No 
 child bred within the four walls of a convent was ever so 
 unsophisticated as she. He was not altogether sure that 
 Lady Mary's training had been a judicious one, as he sat 
 there, feeling how impossible it was to put the case clearly 
 before her. At all events, it was a very troublesome train- 
 ing, for those who came after. And yet, if troublesome, 
 how sweet ! Through all, he acknowledged that. 
 
 " Do try to understand that," he said. 
 
 " Well, I will," tearfully and with an effort ; then, " Will 
 you be back soon ? " 
 
 " Yes. Soon, I hope." 
 
 " But at once, I mean," eagerly, and with a beseeching 
 look at him from behind the urn. " By the very first train 
 in the morning." 
 
 " Well, no ; not by the first train, that goes at about 
 3 a.m. And, perhaps I think it better to tell you, 
 Marvel, because disappointment would be worse to you 
 I think there is a possibility that I may not be able to 
 return until the day after to-morrow." He spoke quite 
 steadily, telling what he believed to be the truth, more for 
 her sake than his own, and rather against his will, as he 
 feared another outburst of grief when she should hear it. 
 But he was mistaken. She made so sign of being sunk in 
 deeper depths of woe, save a small sigh of resignation. Her 
 crestfallen air incensed him. Good heavens, what was it she 
 expected ! 
 
 "My dear child," he said raising his brows, "you didn't 
 suppose I was going to spend the rest of my natural life 
 here, did you, walking up and down the garden path ? " 
 
 "No," forlornly. "But how I wish you -would/" She 
 said it with such heartfelt longing that, after a struggle with 
 his better feelings, he burst out laughing. He laughed long 
 and heartily in spite of his desire to suppress himself, 
 whilst Marvel sat opposite and stared at him. He could 
 see that she was distinctly offended, though she sought hard 
 to conceal that fact and quite believed she had effectually 
 done so when she had asked him, in what she fondly, but
 
 MARVEL. 49 
 
 erroneously, supposed to be her natural tone, to have some 
 more coffee. It was bathos upon pathos ! He repressed him- 
 self then and said, " No, thank you," with such a contrite 
 air that she relented, and finally made it up with him by 
 coming from behind the ponderous urn and slipping into a 
 chair close to his elbow. Thus placed, she made an excellent 
 breakfast, and was rather more cheerful than he had seen 
 her since her auntie's death. 
 
 She walked down to the gate with him presently, past 
 the flowering rhododendrons and through the sweet avenue 
 of limes, the dogcart having been sent on before at her 
 particular request. During that hateful minute when he 
 had laughed at her she had made up her mind not to be 
 dismal again, at least, before him, and she chattered inces- 
 santly all down the drive, throwing in even a laugh here and 
 there to show him how gay she was, until the tall iron gates 
 were in view. They were open, and the dogcart stood 
 outside, a little turned up the road, so that it and the groom 
 were not to be seen. She felt that she could go no farther 
 and stopped short. All at once her courage forsook her, 
 and finally she took leave of him as if he were going to 
 New Zealand. 
 
 " It will be a terrible time," she said ; " a sort of a 
 small year, but I shall try not to mind it much" 
 
 " And if I should not return the day after to-morrow," 
 he ventured in a rather nervous tone. He felt he was 
 growing quite afraid of her. " There is a bare possibility ; 
 that is, perhaps I may be detained." 
 
 He paused, wondering how she would take this, and 
 was at last quite surprised by her manner of acceptance. 
 It was altogether so ' different from what he had ex- 
 pected. 
 
 "You won't," she said confidently. "You said 'per- 
 haps ' to it, and that always means a doubt, and I know 
 things could not happen so unkindly as to keep you away 
 longer than the day after to-morrow." She clung to the 
 words he himself had used. 
 
 " What shall I bring you from town," he asked laughing, 
 "a doll?" 
 
 " Nonsense 1 Don't you see that I'm grown up. Now 
 
 4
 
 jo MAEVEL. 
 
 go g quickly ;" giving him a little push, "the sooner you 
 go, the sooner you will come back to me." 
 
 The horse was growing restive, and had now backed into 
 full view of the two standing in the avenue. Wriothesley 
 jumped into the cart and gathered up the reins, and Marvel 
 turned disconsolately away and went towards the house. 
 Wriothesley cast a glance at her and saw she had come to 
 a standstill and that her eyes were full of tears. He 
 waved an adieu to her which she returned, and then 
 walked quickly away. Poor little lonely girl ! Through 
 his heart there rushed a pang of sincerest pity for her. 
 
 All through his drive to the station his mind was more 
 or less occupied by her, and he came to the conclusion 
 that it was a distinctly troublesome, if very sweet, legacy,, 
 that Lady Mary had left him. What a dear little thing 
 she was, but how impracticable. What on earth was he to 
 do with her? His marriage with Leonie would not in all 
 probability come off for some time, and meanwhile where 
 was Marvel to be placed. She was too old for school, 
 unfortunately, but not old enough to live on with him at 
 The Towers without unkind comment from the world. 
 He might, of course, give up The Towers to her, but 
 that too would create attention, and already Leonie's mind 
 was strangely exercised about her. A bright thought 
 struck him. He would consult Leonie on the matter. And 
 perhaps, she was so charming, she would arrange for Marvel 
 to stay with her until by their marriage they should make 
 a settled home for her. He dwelt on this all the way to 
 town, and only lost sight of it as he drew near Mrs. 
 Scarlett's house in Park Lane. Then a sense of nervous 
 happiness took possession of him, blotting out all lesser 
 thoughts. It seemed to him that he could see her awaiting 
 him, with softened eyes and hands outstretched, and a little 
 tremulous murmur of words sweet and loving. Her face 
 rose before him, unusual in its loveliness, and therefore to 
 be prized the more : 
 
 " Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure, 
 The sence of man and all his minde possese, 
 As beautie's lovely baite." 
 
 His mind was fixed on her, and a very rapture of joy
 
 MAKVEL. 51 
 
 filled him as he told himself that never man yet was surer 
 of being loved in kind tnan he was unworthy though he 
 must be deemed 1 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ** O, all fair lovers about the world, 
 
 There is none of you, none, that shall comfort me. 
 My thoughts are as dead things, wrecked and whirled 
 
 Round and round in a gulf of the sea : 
 * * * # * 
 
 The bright fine lips so cruelly curled." 
 
 MRS. SCARLETT was alone. She was very simply, but very 
 exquisitely and expensively dressed, and she was as calm 
 and softly smiling as though love's tumults were unknown 
 to her. Perhaps they were. She rose as Wriothesley 
 entered, and greeted him with precisely the proper amount 
 of gravity suitable to an occasion where a young man had 
 lost his mother, for Lady Mary, she knew, had been quite 
 that to him. 
 
 " I have so wondered when you would come," she said. 
 He looked at her quickly. When he should come ? How 
 strange her tone was! Had she forgotten ! Oh, no, no, 
 that was impossible. " Did you get my note ? No ? Oh ! 
 I am so sorry about that. You must have thought me so 
 
 cold, so unfeeling ; but nowadays ; don't you think the 
 
 postal arrangements are very defective ? I wish you had 
 had that note ; but even without it, dear Wriothesley, you 
 know you had all through my sincerest sympathy." 
 
 " Did you think I ought to have come ? " said he, cling- 
 ing in a dull sort of way to her first sentence. Perhaps he 
 had offended her by obliging her too closely and keeping 
 away until the day named. He hoped so, with a passion 
 of which he himself was hardly aware. He had heard 
 nothing more that she had said, but only those first words. 
 
 "Oh no. Under the circumstances, I could not have 
 expected, or desired, that you should call. I hope I am 
 too much your friend not to know when to efface myself." 
 
 42
 
 5* MARVEL. 
 
 She smiled, her brilliant rapid smile. " Indeed I did not 
 dare to think I should have the pleasure of seeing you 
 again for quite a long time to come. But you have been 
 very good to me. Do you know " leaning towards 
 him " the very last thing I expected was to see you 
 to-day." 
 
 What did it all mean? Why did she speak to him 
 like that ? His friend ! How strange it all was ! He felt 
 dazed and confused, and a surging sound came into his ears 
 and tormented him. " The very last thing she had ex- 
 pected." Then the surging sound died away from him, 
 and he found himself quite calm, and cold. She was still 
 talking in her soft tratnantc voice, that was so subtly sweet. 
 
 " Though personally unknown to me, I feel from all I 
 have heard that Lady Mary Craven was a friend not to be 
 replaced" 
 
 This tribute was very gracefully uttered, but Wriothesley 
 could find no words to reply to it. He wished vaguely 
 that she would not speak about that good dead woman, yet 
 he did not know at the moment why he wished it. He 
 was occupied with this curious change in her, that he could 
 not fathom. 
 
 " You are right," he said gravely ; " Lady Mary's was a 
 singularly perfect nature." 
 
 " All her acquaintances say that. And the little girl 
 the protegee what of her ? " 
 
 She spoke more rapidly than was her wont, as though 
 she feared a silence, and he felt that she was warding him 
 off, and unconsciously his manner became colder towards 
 her. 
 
 " That is a matter that has been troubling me," he said ; 
 "she is such a child that it is impossible to make her under- 
 stand certain things. Yet, of course, she cannot go on 
 living at The Towers in the old way. I hardly know what 
 to do with her." 
 
 " Why, marry her, of course," said Mrs. Scarlett laugh- 
 ing. " That is the best and readiest way to solve such a 
 problem as that." 
 
 " You are jesting, of course ? " he said very slowly. 
 
 " Indeed not Why should you think so ? If all that
 
 MARVEL. 53 
 
 we outsiders hear is true, she was well named Marvel by 
 you. She is a very vision of loveliness, is she not ? Why, 
 how conscious you look ! I do believe that that marriage 
 scheme has already suggested itself to you." 
 
 " Your usual clear-sightedness is at fault there," said 
 Wriothesley with a pale smile. " The only thing that has 
 suggested itself to me in that line has been my marriage 
 with yourself." 
 
 " Ah ! by-the-by, as to that," she said, as if suddenly 
 remembering something of trivial importance, " I have 
 been thinking it over, and I have come to the conclusion 
 that it wouldn't do. It wouldn't do at all ! Was this the 
 day I told you to call ? But of course ! how stupid of me 
 to let it slip my memory. " Well " smiling " you have 
 had an escape. Much reflection has revealed to me the 
 fact that you were born for a better woman than I am." 
 
 Wriothesley was staring at her, pale and very still. She 
 cast a swift glance at him, and saw something in his eyes 
 that so far affected her that she did not care, or else feared, 
 to look again. 
 
 " You don't mean a word of all that," he said at last, 
 with suppressed violence in his tone. " You shan't mean 
 it ! Do you hear ? " 
 
 " Perfectly ! " She made an attempt at laughter. " But, 
 after all, I do mean it." 
 
 " You do / You dare to say that to me ! that you 
 mean it after all. Do you remember that " 
 
 "That I made you no promise," interrupted she hur- 
 riedly. She shut up her fan with an impatient click and 
 threw it from her. " I hope you are not going to be un- 
 reasonable," she said. " I do hope you are not going to 
 make me a scene." 
 
 "Is that all? Is that the end of it? I am to be 
 reasonable and not to make you uncomfortable by telling 
 you a few home truths. Is that what I came here to-day 
 to hear ? " Then his voice changed and grew quiet but 
 harsh. " What has happened ? " he said. " Who is it ? " 
 
 She waived the question : 
 
 "I said I should have time," she explained, speaking 
 quickly. " I asked for a week, and now at the end of it I
 
 54 MARVEL. 
 
 beg to decline the honour you would do me. There is 
 nothing in all that to reproach me with." 
 
 The blood seemed to rush in a torrent to his heart, and 
 then flowed back again, leaving him pulseless and chilled 
 as marble. Again that odd surging sound beat on his 
 brain, and his lips felt parched and dry. 
 
 " Something has happened," he persisted. " What is it ? 
 I do not entreat you to change your mind about all this ; 
 but I must know " 
 
 " If you really expected a different answer, I can only 
 say" icily "that I deeply regret it." 
 
 " Do you ? That is very good of you. It is more than 
 
 one should hope for, that you should feel regret for 
 
 Great Heaven !" he burst out with a passion that shook her, 
 hard as she was, "to think that the earth should hold 
 such women as you ! You, who have lain in my arms and 
 let me kiss you, and have kissed me back again ; who have 
 fooled me to the top of your bent, only to feel regret for 
 the victim when the moment comes to cast him aside." 
 
 She looked at him through half-closed lids. 
 
 " I am not fond of amateur performances," said she with 
 a curl of her lip. " And to remind me of of anything 
 that may have occurred between us is hardly what I should 
 have accused you of. May I be permitted to say that 
 it is scarcely in good taste ? However, I am grateful tc 
 you for this revelation this glimpse into your inner self 
 as it has helped me to kill that regret to which you so 
 vehemently object." 
 
 " Who is it ? " demanded he again abruptly. Her in- 
 solent scorn had not touched him. He thought only of an 
 answer to this question that should, tell him all. She 
 regarded him steadily for a moment. 
 
 " I think there had better be an end of this," she said. 
 
 " So there shall be when I know who has taken my place." 
 
 " Your place ? What place ? What is it you mean ? " 
 . "I mean to know the name of the man you intend to 
 marry before I leave this house," retorted he doggedly. 
 
 His tone angered her even more than 'his persistence. 
 
 " Know it then ! " she cried, flashing round at him 
 ''The Duke of Dawtry!"
 
 MAEVEL. 55 
 
 Wriothesley started as -if shot. He grew deadly pale, 
 and such a strange light grew within his eyes that for the 
 moment she was frightened ; then it all passed away, and sud- 
 denly he was upon his knees before her, clasping her gown. 
 The perfume of violets came to him as he knelt there 
 (those flowers that she always wore) and seemed to enfold 
 him in a dull, misty sweetness. 
 
 " My darling, not that," he cried wildly, " not that old 
 man ! Oh, the shame, the horror of it ! Leonie ! listen 
 to me be patient. You think that rank, money, those 
 tawdry benefits that he can bestow on you, will suffice you. 
 will make you happy. I tell you, no. Hear me before it 
 is too late. Is love such love as I can offer my whole 
 
 heart and life, as nothing to you when compared with " 
 
 He would have gone on, but something in her face checked 
 him. She lay back in her chair and laughed aloud. It was 
 a clear ringing laugh, not forced or strained, but free and 
 replete with amusement. She drew her gown from his 
 fingers, and motioned to him to rise. 
 
 " You think a good deal of that love of yours," she said 
 mockingly "certainly more than I do!" 
 
 That sobered him. He rose to his feet, pale still, but 
 quite composed. 
 
 "Are you going? " she said. " It is a pity our friendship 
 should end like this, but it is your own fault. As I told 
 you," shrugging her shoulders, " you are not reasonable. 
 
 You believed I don't know," petulantly, " what you 
 
 believed." 
 
 " I believed myself your lover," replied he steadily. 
 " I believed that as such I was regarded by you." 
 
 " If you did, you have only yourself to blame." Again 
 that quick anger flamed into her eyes. How did he dare 
 to stand there and coldly condemn her ! " But //you did, 
 there is still one thing left for me to do." 
 
 She swept out of the room into the boudoir beyond, and 
 presently returning, flung upon a table before him a mass 
 of glittering gems rings, bracelets, necklets, and such- 
 like baubles. 
 
 " Will you take them with you, or shall I send them f " 
 she said.
 
 56 MARVEL. 
 
 It was all so horrible, so unexpected, so second-rate, that 
 for a while Wriothesley stood there motionless, as one 
 stunned and unable to realize. Then, still a little un- 
 consciously, he took up his hat, bowed to her, and left the 
 room. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 tt Give me a look, give me a face, 
 That makes simplicity a grace." 
 * * 
 
 M Beneath her eyelids deep, 
 Love lying, seems asleep, 
 Love swift to wake, to weep, 
 To laugh, to gaze." 
 
 THE air outside beat on his forehead and in a measure 
 revived him. He understood, at last, though as yet 
 vaguely, that his idol had fallen from its pedestal, that it 
 had been smashed, and that what he had deemed gold un- 
 alloyed had been after all only vilest clay. He sauntered 
 on, not heeding the crowd as it went by him, and finally 
 he turned into St. James' Park, and there gave himself up 
 a prey to the bitter waking recollections of a sweet dead 
 dream. 
 
 Well ! it was all over. He had thought himself young 
 a while ago. How long ago ? Only this morning. And 
 now he knew that he was old. For what are years ? Not 
 they but the cruel disappointments of life kill youth. And 
 who could have thought she would have been like that ? 
 So cold, so bloodless, so cruel ! All at once a great con* 
 tempt for her awoke in his mind. He left the park and 
 bent his steps towards his club. In Pall Mall he met a 
 man he knew, and stayed to speak to him for a moment 
 or two. It was the usual thing, Mr. Gladstone's last speech, 
 the touch of irritability he had shown in the House last 
 night. He felt impatient, and with a quick word parted 
 from his friend and crossed the street.
 
 MAEVEL. 
 
 57 
 
 In his club he settled down into a chair, and taking up 
 The Times affected to busy himself in its contents. He 
 saw nothing more than the fact that so many columns went 
 to the sheet, but it sufficed him. He hardly cared to 
 know what the debate was about last night. He could see 
 nothing but her mocking face as she laughed at his love, 
 and drew back disdainfully her skirts from his giasp. 
 Even then he had seen how beautiful she was through the 
 treachery that enfolded her. 
 
 " Was ever book, containing such vile matter, 
 So fairly bound ? O, that deceit should dwell 
 In such a gorgeous palace 1 " 
 
 Some men strolled into the room and one accosted him. 
 
 " Puzzling over that Irish question ? " asked he, leaning 
 over the top of the paper to say it. " Give it up if you 
 don't want your brain to turn. Blake came from Ireland 
 last night and says the Kerry boys have made up their 
 minds to crush England. The Horse Guards, I hear, are in 
 an awful pucker, and the Admiralty have issued orders to 
 man the fleet." 
 
 Wriothesley managed to smile at this facetious person, 
 and then throwing the paper aside left the room. He 
 could not stay there without having to listen and make 
 replies, and that was beyond him just then. He was a 
 popular man, people were always glad to see him, but he 
 felt he could not be sociable to-day. 
 
 It was close on evening as he left the club. He walked 
 on aimlessly until he came to Waterloo Place, at the corner 
 of which a carriage passed him. He lifted his eyes 
 mechanically to look at its occupant. 
 
 He saw an old man, half buried in furs on this sultry 
 day. The withered face was ghastly with paint and such 
 pigments as aged fools use with intent to keep with them the 
 youth they have had well-nigh time to forget. An eyeglass 
 was squeezed into the bleared eyes, an automatic smirk 
 widened the carefully coloured lips, that were red enough to 
 suit a Hebe, as he bent for \vard to salute a pretty woman, 
 who flashed by in her Victoria, It was the Duke of 
 Daw try 1
 
 58 MARVEL. 
 
 Wriothesley's heart grew sick within him. He had seen 
 him twice before, but on both times at night, when even 
 beneath the kindly light of the subdued lamps he had 
 seemed to him a fit object for passing scorn. But now in 
 the broad daylight, with its truthfully cruel sun lighting 
 up each wrinkle and furrow, how inexpressibly loathsome 
 he appeared. And to this pitiful object she was about to 
 surrender herself, body and soul, for the sake of a false 
 ambition. 
 
 The knowledge struck him as being full of sorrow. Such 
 a careless flinging away of life's best gifts ! Such a paltry 
 gain. And then he told himself that if she could do this 
 thing of her own free will, she was not worthy the poorest 
 compassion, for she was past all feeling. 
 
 He had walked quite a long way all up the Strand and 
 through Fleet Street, and was in the very heart of the City 
 when suddenly a craving for the sweet cool country came 
 upon him. There he might bury himself, and " dree his 
 weird " without this maddening hum, this flavour of 
 hideous life, that pressed him in on every side. Oh ! for 
 the green fields, the silence, the farness from the "hum, 
 the shock of men." 
 
 He stepped into a hansom, then into the train, and as the 
 light began to fade he reached The Towers. 
 
 The sun was sinking. Again he had walked through the 
 wooded uplands as on the first day of his return, and all 
 the beauty of a perfect summer's evening was around him. 
 
 a An odour of hay o'er the woodlands blown " 
 
 was wafted by him, and the fresh warm resinous perfume of 
 the firs met and mingled with it. He opened the postern 
 gate, all overhung with ivy, that led into the pleasaunce, and 
 went on slowly towards the house. 
 
 He could see it now, and the long straight walk that led 
 to the gardens beyond that were hedged in by walls of yew. 
 He went towards them, thinking always in a dull unin- 
 terested way. 
 
 "Hope is a lover's staff: " 
 that he had lost, and henceforth there was nothing left to
 
 MARVEL. 59 
 
 him on which to lean. He had gone abroad at a time when 
 friendships warm and lasting are most likely to be made, 
 and those he had made were now behind him in that bright 
 oriental land. As for relations, he had none. Lady Mary 
 was the last of them, and she now too was numbered with 
 the dead, that love not, neither do they remember. 
 
 As he went through one of the openings in the yew wall 
 he caught a glimpse of something slender and shadowy 
 standing upon the balcony that ran outside the library 
 windows He paused to look up at it, himself half hidden. 
 The tall childish form in its sombre dinner-gown of black 
 crape he recognized presently as Marvel, and with a start 
 he suddenly remembered that he had altogether forgotten 
 her. Her dress was made in the old-fashioned style that 
 Lady Mary had always chosen for her close fastened round 
 the snowy throat, but sleeveless; her arms, white as that 
 matchless throat, gleamed against the darkness of her gown. 
 A broad black sash encircled her waist ; her bright hair 
 was gathered up and fastened into a knot on the top of 
 her head by a little pearl comb, Lady Mary's last gift, 
 and therefore doubly precious. There was something dis- 
 consolate in her attitude as she leant against a marble pillar 
 and looked out over the sea ; but all traces of sorrow, or 
 whatever it was, left her as she chanced to turn her head 
 and her eyes fell upon Wriothesley. 
 
 A low cry broke from her a cry of triumph mixed with 
 happy joy. In less than a minute she had run down the 
 steps, had rushed across the path and placed her hands one 
 on each of his arms. 
 
 " Didn't I say so," she cried ; " didn't I know it ? Only 
 not quite perhaps, because it is even a little better than I 
 knew. I felt that that horrid business would be kind and 
 finish itself off in a hurry, and let you come back to me 
 sooner than you imagined. Oh, how glad I am to have you 
 here again ; but," arching her brows with a sudden expres- 
 sion of self contempt, "what an amount of self-pity I did 
 waste over my lonely evening, and after all it isn't lonely 
 at all. And March says the Pekin duckling would take a 
 prize at any show. And Molly the setter has had pups 
 such beauties. And Ashtaroth the foal ran away with
 
 60 MARVEL. 
 
 Peters. And and aren't you glad to be home 
 again ? " 
 
 " Yes, very," he said, and smiled at her. But there was 
 something so curious about the smile that she looked at him 
 more intently and turned him with both her hands so that 
 she could see his face more clearly, and then at once her joy 
 died away. 
 
 " What has given you that strange look in your eyes ? " 
 she asked with all a child's directness. " It was not there 
 when you left." 
 
 " No ? I acquired it while on my travels then. One 
 must purchase such things sooner or later on one's way 
 through life. By-the-by, talking of purchases, I forgot to 
 bring you that doll I promised." 
 
 " Don't talk to me like that," she said with quaint 
 seriousness, " but tell me this thing truly. Did you 
 learn to look like that up there in London ? " 
 
 " I suppose so, though I don't exactly know how I 
 look. You see I have no looking-glass but your eyes at 
 present, and they tell me nothing but that you are at this 
 moment at all events a very grave little girl." His 
 attempt at lightness did not deceive her, and he saw it. 
 "There, do not worry yourself about me," he went on 
 hastily, " I have a bad headache dyspepsia neuralgia 
 what you will." 
 
 " I know," she said sorrowfully, drawing back a little, 
 " I know quite well about that. It means that I am not to 
 ask you questions 'little girls should be seen and not 
 heard ' sort of thing. Auntie had another way of doing it. 
 She used to ask me to pick her a bunch of flowers in the 
 far garden whenever she wanted to speak to the rector 
 about anything I was not to hear. But is it to go on for 
 ever like that ? Am I never to be grown up, really ? And 
 besides, when one knows why one is sent away to pick 
 flowers, where is the use of it? Now if you were to say 
 to me, 'Marvel, do not please ask me any questions,' I 
 should understand quite, and it would be far better than 
 saying, ' Marvel, I have neuralgia,' 'when you haven't, and," 
 gravely, " truer" Then with quick remorse, " But I am 
 teazing you and you are unhappy. I wish," wistfully, " I
 
 MARVEL. Gi 
 
 knew what had happened to you, that I might try to make 
 you forget it." Then coaxingly, " Tell me." 
 
 She was standing on tiptoe, and with the slender fingers 
 of her right hand she touched his face and turned it 
 towards hers. She looked so fair, so sweet, so " unspotted 
 from the world," that he had not the heart to rebuke her ; 
 and presently there grew on him a great desire to speak 
 his tiouble aloud to some one. He hesitated still for a 
 moment, and then : 
 
 " I am ruined," he said simply. 
 
 " Ruined ! " She repeated the word, gazing blankly at him 
 and then half-unconsciously round upon the glowing garden, 
 the cool verdures beyond, the distant pine-clad hills, al' 
 standing calm, serene, in the dewy flower-scented evening. 
 " Not so far as fortune is concerned," he explained with 
 a bitter laugh. " My lands, my home, are still my own, 
 as much mine as they were yesterday ; but," with a sudden 
 dull sense of pain, " with what different eyes I gaze upon 
 them to-day." He ceased speaking, and it appeared as 
 though he had forgotten she was still there, so absent grew 
 his look. 
 
 "Some one has been unkind to you?" she said timidly, 
 speaking her question very low. 
 
 " Some one has broken my heart," replied he slowly. 
 " Ah ! " She pondered over this for a while, and then 
 " Was that why you came home so soon ? " 
 " Yes." 
 
 She was silent for a few minutes. She was deeply 
 grieved for him, stirred indeed to her heart, and it was a 
 most tender heart too ; yet far down in the depths of it was 
 a little proud delight that in his sore trouble and dis- 
 appointment, whatever it was, and she was far from 
 knowing, his first thought had been to hasten home to her. 
 Poor child ! she little guessed how small a part she had 
 held in his vexed mind throughout that long terrible day. 
 " Was it in London it happened ? " 
 " In town ? Yes." 
 
 "Ah! auntie often told me it was a most unrighteous 
 place," making an evident quotation with almost Lady 
 Mary's look and tone and with a doleful shake of her
 
 M MARVEL. 
 
 graceful head. " That business of yours went wrong then ? 
 You did not succeed ? " 
 
 "Perhaps I did, who knows," said he with a frown. 
 Then he sighed. " Oh ! yes, it went abominably wrong ; I 
 came to signal grief over it." 
 
 " You lost your suit ? " 
 
 " I lost everything. My case was dismissed without a 
 hearing." 
 
 " It was a bad business then ? " 
 
 He smiled at that involuntarily. 
 
 " Very bad. Hopeless." 
 
 " And who was your enemy ? A man or a woman ? n 
 
 " I could not call her an enemy," said he absently ; 
 " hardly that in any fairness. She had every right to 
 choose as she did." 
 
 " It was a woman then," triumphantly. " I knew it. 
 Look, I will tell you something," said she confidentially. 
 " I don't like women so well as men ; they are less honest, 
 I think." This piece of wisdom, evolved apparently from 
 her inner consciousness for what did she know of men and 
 women she delivered with a profound air. " Don't you 
 think so ? " 
 
 " Not when I look at you," returned he kindly, patting 
 her shoulder. " I am not so blinded by prejudice that I 
 can't see the truth that shines in your eyes ; and don't 
 mind what I have been saying, child. It would be a sin 
 to burden your young mind with troubles such as mine. 
 Forget them, and remember only that I shall in all proba- 
 bility outlive them." 
 
 There was a cynical bitterness in his tone now that she 
 liked even less than the grief he had shown before. The 
 hot tears rushed to her eyes. 
 
 " It is a shame a shame ! " she cried indignantly. 
 "This morning you were so happy, and now in a few 
 short hours you are wretched, and all because of some 
 wicked creature in that big hateful city. Ah ! wait until 
 I am old enough to go there and find her, and charge her 
 with her cruelty to you, and then she shall see ! " 
 
 This awful threat was delivered with a stamp on the 
 ground from the tinv satin slipper, and she threw up her
 
 MAEVEL. 63 
 
 head with the air of an offended queen. There was quite 
 a combative look in her soft eyes. It was a charming 
 picture she made, standing there in the gloaming, with all 
 her affection for him in arms to do battle for him. 
 
 " Thank you, my little champion," said Wriothesley with 
 a faint smile. " If you look like that when you lead the 
 attack, all must go down before you." Then he sighed 
 wearily and turned away from her and went moodily down 
 the garden path, with his arms folded behind him, as though 
 she had never been. 
 
 But she was too faithful to take offence at that. 
 
 " Where are you going? " she cried eagerly, running after 
 him. " Not away by yourself, to think of that odious 
 business. Oh, don't I Are you not hungry ? Will you 
 not come in and " she paused suddenly, and con- 
 sternation lit her eyes. " What shall I do ? " she said in 
 deep distress. "I told Mrs. Bunch (housekeeper) not to 
 have any late dinner for me, as you would dine in town. 
 And now what is to become of you ?" 
 
 " Don't trouble yourself about that, I want nothing." 
 
 " What have you eaten all day ? " asked she, regarding 
 him keenly. "Had you any luncheon? No? An early 
 dinner, perhaps ? No ! Why," severely, " I do believe 
 you have had nothing I " 
 
 11 The best meal sometimes," said he ; " but you are 
 wrong. I had something. My breakfast this morning 
 with you." 
 
 " And nothing else since ! How foolish of you. Why, 
 I should die of hunger if I eat nothing all day but m 
 breakfast. Now, come in with me, I am going to hav 
 high tea, and I shall tell Bolton that you are starving. 
 Yes, you are; and he will see that there is something 
 substantial for you, and champagne and things. Come 
 now, do." 
 
 It was impossible to refuse her, and indeed he began to 
 be uncomfortably conscious that he had lived on nothing 
 but his bitter reflections for many hours. He went with 
 her into the house and there let her minister to him to 
 her heart's content.
 
 MAEVEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 44 Set not thy heart to follow after fate.* 
 * * * 
 
 " It will not grow again, this fruit of my heart, 
 Smitten with sunbeams, ruined with rain." 
 
 " A MARRIAGE has been arranged to take place between his 
 Grace the Duke of Dawtry and Mrs. Scarlett, widow of 
 the late George Scarlett, Esq., of Chowton Hall, Surrey, and 
 Middleton Park, Shropshire." 
 
 Wriothesley having read so far in the society paper he 
 held, clenched his hand with a spasmodic gesture upon the 
 sheet, and rising to his feet, left the room and his half- 
 finished breakfast and made his way to the library. 
 
 Here he paced up and down in strong excitement, until 
 the first shock of the news, as seen in print, had worn off. 
 There was an end of it all now indeed ! Hope at last was 
 dead ! He had given room to it, in spite of that scene 
 with her, every word of which was clearly imprinted on his 
 brain ; he had still clung to the belief that she would relent, 
 would at last, through sheer pity for herself, break that 
 fatal bond. But now ! no, she would not draw back now ; 
 she had blazoned abroad her engagement. The whole 
 world knew of it by this time. She meant it. 
 
 His step grew slower, but his impatience quickened. A 
 longing for action of some sort possessed him. Yet where 
 could he go, what could he do ? The world of town was 
 closed to him. He felt he could not show himself there ; 
 that he had not the hardihood sufficient to view with 
 equanimity the spectacle she would make dragging that old 
 man at her chariot-wheels. And to stay down here, in 
 this utter stagnation that way madness lay ! He had 
 thought with longing only yesterday of the cool shades, 
 the silence, the eternal calm, but now he knew he could 
 not endure it, that this simple country life that left him so 
 free to follow out his thoughts from -their birth to their 
 death, Vas too cruel a thing to bear. He wanted the stir, 
 the bustle of living, and here there was no one nothing ; 
 not a soul to exchange an idea with.
 
 MARVEL. 65 
 
 A clear soft voice rang through the old hall : 
 
 " In Scarlet town where I was born, 
 There was a fair maid dwellin', 
 Made all the lads cry well-a-day, 
 Her name was Barb'ra Allen." 
 
 The quaint sad little ditty smote in his ears. Yes, there 
 was Marvel certainly. A pretty child, but only that. He 
 should have to arrange about her, of course, before leaving. 
 He comprehended in this moment that he had made up 
 his mind to go abroad. 
 
 The sweet girlish voice came nearer, rising and falling 
 on the way : 
 
 "Young man, I think you're dying." 
 
 She opened the door, and seeing him, stopped short. 
 
 "You here? I thought you had gone out. And do you 
 know you left your breakfast behind you ? You are busy ? 
 I am disturbing you, perhaps ? Well I can go away again." 
 
 "Stay," said Wriothesley ; "perhaps it is I who am 
 disturbing you, and all places are alike to me. What 
 brings you here at this hour ? " 
 
 " To study. From ten to eleven I read my French, or 
 German, or my Latin. The rector," with a quaintly learned 
 air, " says Latin is the root of all learning." 
 
 " And, of course, the rector knows. Has he forbidden 
 such frivolous studies as music, drawing " 
 
 " My music I practise from one to two. My drawing 
 later, when I go out walking. The woods, the lake, the sea, 
 give me ever varying views." 
 
 " Such a well regulated day ! Why, you are still in the 
 schoolroom, then ? " said he in some surprise. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " with a light touch of offence. " I have no 
 governess now. I am seventeen I am grown up ! But I 
 do all this because because I have always done it, and 
 because auntie would be vexed, I think, if she knew I was 
 idling away my time." 
 
 " Faithful little soul ! " said Wriothesley. And then after 
 a while, "Well, I am glad you can so happily fill your 
 days, as work that is not irksome to you will keep you 
 from ennui, and and loneliness, and that. I should not 
 
 5
 
 66 MARVEL, 
 
 like to think, when I was far from you, that you had that 
 mournful little expression of yours always on your face." 
 
 " When you are -far from me ? " She glanced at him 
 nervously. He paused, and then said abruptly : 
 
 " I am going abroad." 
 
 " Abroad ! " She echoed the word faintly ; her hand 
 fell down from the table on which it had been resting and 
 hung loosely by her side. Wriothesley was not looking at 
 her, so he did not see the expression on her face, and her 
 voice only sounded a little low to him, no more. 
 
 " Yes, away from this place from England to any- 
 where I I find I cannot stand it. That ' business ' yester- 
 day has shown me that life here would be intolerable. I 
 shall remain away for years, I daresay for ever, / hope. 
 Of course, I shall see about you before going. There is 
 my cousin, Mrs. Verulam." He was speaking dreamily now, 
 as if more to himself than to her. " She is young. A widow. 
 She has few ties, beyond that child of hers. She would 
 be a suitable person if it can be arranged. And " 
 
 The girl walked over to the window and pressed her 
 forehead hard against the cool glass. 
 
 "For ever!" she said. It was all she had heard. 
 Wriothesley was still talking always rather disconnectedly 
 but she was not listening. Quite at once, as it were, she 
 faced him with a vehement air, her eyes flashing, her 
 lips deadly white, her nostrils dilated. 
 
 "Your promise! " she cried, "your promise, Fulke, have 
 you forgotten that ? " 
 
 " My promise !" For the first time he looked at her, 
 and marked the agitation that filled her, "what promise ?" 
 
 "That you would never leave me that you would stay 
 with me that you would be to me what auntie was. Oh, 
 auntie, auntie I You told me I should never be lonely 
 again and now ! > " 
 
 " If you will only listen " 
 
 " My guardian you said you were. A guardian is one 
 who guards, and how can you guard me if you go abroad 
 -for ever. Oh, who could think you -would be so cruel ! " 
 
 She sank down upon a chair, overcome by the intensity 
 of her emotion. Wriothesley was considerably put out,
 
 MARVEL, 67 
 
 and, indeed, sorry for her, but he felt, too, that it would 
 have given him pleasure to shake her. 
 
 " My dear child," he said, " people often make rash 
 promises that cannot be kept. When I said all that you 
 have so correctly quoted I quite believed my home would 
 be, for the future, here in England ; but fate, chance, cir- 
 cumstance, what you will, has ordained it otherwise. I 
 would keep my promise if I could but how can I?" 
 
 She started to her feet. 
 
 " You can," she cried, in an anguished tone, " don't you 
 see how you can ? Take me with you ! " 
 
 He looked at her sharply, and instantly came to the con- 
 clusion that so audacious a proposal could only, in her 
 case, come from one supremely innocent. 
 
 " I didn't promise to do that," said he, hardly knowing 
 what to say. 
 
 " I know," her tone was full of sore distress, "but your 
 real promise ; you can fulfil it so. I don't want you to 
 live in England ! I don't care where you live, I only want 
 to be with you." 
 
 " Look here, Marvel," said he with some asperity, " you 
 are very young, I know, but that is no reason why you 
 should be a er so utterly absurd. A moment ago you 
 were rather annoyed with me because I imagined you to 
 be still in the schoolroom ; you wished me to regard you 
 as a woman grown, yet here you are behaving like the 
 veriest baby. It is time you should learn that a girl of 
 your age cannot roam about the world with a man of mine, 
 unless he were to marry her ! " 
 
 He thought this a conclusive argument, but there he 
 was mistaken. 
 
 " Well, why don't you marry me then," said she, resentful 
 tears filling her eyes. 
 
 He stared at her in undisguised amazement, hardly 
 knowing what to say, or think ; and then, all suddenly, the 
 meaning of her words struck him. If he were to marry 
 her ! The immediate past spread itself out before him, 
 and he saw again, and once more heard, scenes and words 
 that were over and done. The old sweet woman with her 
 pale beautiful face, calm with the approach of death un- 
 
 52
 
 68 MARVEL. 
 
 feared he saw her first, and heard her entreating him, in 
 gentle accents, to befriend the lonely child she had lo^ed 
 
 and reared. Her eyes besought him And then, that 
 
 other, with a devilry of mockery in her beautiful face, 
 showing him that solution of the problem that perplexed 
 him. " Marry her," such was her advice. Well, how if he 
 obeyed her in this, as he had in all things during their brief, 
 too fatally sweet acquaintance ! With a fierce joy, he 
 thought of how she would look when first she heard of it. 
 To be so soon forgotten that would touch her. And she 
 had always been jealous of the child ; it would be a re- 
 venge, satisfying and sure, if she cared. If I Why, if 
 he hastened matters he might so manage as to be married 
 before her. She should not think of him for long as a 
 despondent lover, wounded to death ; she should see the 
 announcement of his marriage, the actual accomplished 
 fact in all the papers, as he had seen that cursed on dit 
 about hers this morning. 
 
 Then his thoughts grew calmer and better as they went 
 back to Lady Mary ; his promise to her returned to him. 
 A promise to the dead should be sacred; they cannot 
 reproach or accuse. And how better could he fulfil his 
 than in this strange way that Marvel, in her ignorance, 
 had presented to him ? She would have his name, a sure 
 protection, and at his death (a thing, he considered with a 
 thrill of hope, that might happen to him at any time, as it 
 does to all), everything of which he was possessed. As 
 for the child herself it was her own wish, and she would 
 certainly pine if left here alone, in this huge, silent house, 
 with those dead or gone who had been all in all to her. 
 And he would be her friend for life, that he swore to him- 
 self. She should be first with him in all things at least, 
 such things over which he had power. To love again as 
 he had as he did love (he was at all events, honest with 
 himself) was beyond him. In this wise, fears for her 
 future would be ended. It helped him, too, to his growing 
 decision, to know that Lady Mary, .if living, would have 
 given her sanction to the match. Some words of her* 
 recurred to him, and repeated themselves over and over 
 again in his brain : " Wrapt in mystery as is her birth I
 
 MAKVEL. 69 
 
 should yet esteem the man who wins her heart as more 
 than usually happy." 
 
 He looked suddenly to where Marvel was, and what 
 he saw there hastened his decision. She was sitting on a 
 low seat, her head drooping, her fingers interlaced ; deepest 
 melancholy lay round her childish lips. 
 
 He went over to her, and leaning on the back of a chair, 
 said deliberately : 
 
 " You think if I were to that is, if you were to 
 marry me it would arrange matters, and make you happier ? 
 So be it, then." 
 
 She drew her breath quickly, but said nothing. 
 
 " Will you ? " he said. 
 
 "Would it " lifting her large anxious eyes to his 
 " would it mean that you would take me with you when 
 you go abroad for ever ? " 
 
 " Certainly. That is exactly what it would mean." No 
 more, he thought. 
 
 " Then I will," she said solemnly. 
 
 She looked at him earnestly, and as she looked the 
 gravity died from her, and her face changed, and a smile 
 began to tremble on it. A moment later and the last 
 remnant of her grief and fear had vanished as a cloud 
 melts before the embrace of the sun. 
 
 " Is it true ? Is it real ? " she cried. " Shall I indeed 
 go with you? Oh Fulkr when you spoke of going for 
 ever my heart felt as if it must break ! And it would have 
 broken; I could not have lived on here alone; I should 
 have died." She gave a,sigh to that past misery. "I have 
 no one. No one but you," she murmured. " And now I 
 shall have you always always. Oh ! " She ran to him in 
 a little ecstasy of delight and threw her arms round him, 
 and gave him a grateful hug. " And there is one thing," 
 she went on presently, leaning back from him, so as the 
 better to look into his face and mark the effect of her 
 words, " I shan't be a bit of trouble to you. Not a bit. 
 You shall see ! I shall be as good as gold and never in 
 the way." 
 
 " Do you think you can be ready in a hurry ? " asked he, 
 filled now with his own desire to quit England and the
 
 jo MARVEL. 
 
 woman who had deceived him, in hot haste. " At once, 
 I mean. In a real hurry. Could you " with some 
 hesitation, feeling uncertain as to how she would take it, or 
 rather certain " could you marry me say to-morrow ? " 
 
 " This minute if you like," she said heartily. " What is to 
 prevent it ? " a joyous accession to his wishes that fairly 
 took his breath away. He regarded her strangely. In such 
 a hurry to be made a countess ! But as he looked he knew 
 he wronged her, and that not so much as one mercenary or 
 ambitious thought dwelt in her pretty, loving head. 
 
 " What, indeed ! " he said. And then suddenly he burst 
 out laughing ; it was impossible to help it. Was there ever 
 such a strange wooing ; such a strange child ? A child of 
 seventeen. The people of his world would laugh if he 
 described her to them. She had laughed 1 His brow 
 darkened as he remembered that. 
 
 " Still we may as well give ourselves time to look about 
 us," he said, " and arrange our affairs and put them in 
 order ; and whether we like it or not," with another smile, 
 " we shall have to wait for the yacht to come round here 
 before we can start on our voyage round the world." 
 
 " Is it in the yacht we shall go ? " asked she, opening 
 wide her delighted eyes. 
 
 " Yes, there is nothing like the sea. And once you are 
 accustomed to it, and have had time to forget the first un- 
 pleasant feeling, you " 
 
 " Oh ! I know all about it," interrupted she contemp- 
 tuously, throwing up a most disdainful face. " Did you 
 think I was a land crab entirely ? I know everything about 
 the sea, except," with emphasis, " the unpleasantness. / 
 am never sea-sick," with a glance that implied her belief 
 that he was sometimes, or else he could not know so much 
 about it. " The rector and I used to go out together very 
 often last autumn, and one day, when there was a terrible 
 sea on, and when every one, even the sailors, were squea- 
 mish a bit, and the poor rector was quite dreadfully ill, 
 I ! " proudly, " felt nothing but the grand sweet touch of 
 the salt spray on my face, as the water washed right over 
 me." 
 
 " That's right. Then you will enjoy yourself."
 
 MAKVEL. 71 
 
 < " And what clothes shall I take, Fulke ? My winter ones, 
 or my summer ? If winter I shall have to buy some, 
 because I have nothing warm, that is," with a sudden 
 change to gravity, "for mourning. Shall we be going to 
 cold places or to hot ones ? " 
 
 " Both, in all probability ; so bring all you can, and we 
 can buy the others on our journey. I don't myself know 
 where we are bound for. We shall wander away out into 
 the unknown world, like two outcasts, anywhere, every- 
 where." 
 
 " It is like a fairy tale," she said in a little hushed tone. 
 " Oh dear, darling Fulke, how kind of you to take me with 
 you. And where shall we go ? " 
 
 " Wherever our fancy guides us." 
 
 '' Our ? shall I have a choice then ? " 
 
 " The first, if you wish it ; so now decide." 
 
 " Athens ? " questioned she, with an eager glance at him. 
 " Would that please you ? I have all my life so longed to 
 see Athens." 
 
 " Like all longings," said he slowly, " it will end in dis- 
 appointment. The Athens of your dreams is, I imagine, 
 a widely different thing from the Athens you will see when 
 broad awake. However, one must be disillusioned sooner 
 or later. Begin with Athens. It will hurt you less, believe 
 me, than the awakenings farther on in your life's voyage." 
 
 " You speak sadly," said she. " I shall not like to go to 
 Athens if you don't. Name some other place." 
 
 " All places are alike to me. No, Athens let it remain. 
 At all events the Mediterranean will not disappoint you. 
 And now run away. There is much to be done. A special 
 licence to be procured " 
 
 " What's that ? " said she. 
 
 " Eh ? Oh ! A permit from her Majesty for our espou- 
 sals ! " She did not see he was laughing, and grew quite 
 solemn over the thought of the nuptials. It occurred to 
 her en passant, that the Queen must have a busy time of it 
 if she had to give leave to everybody to get married. " You 
 see it is a very important step you are about to take," went 
 on Wriothesley, whose humour this morning was a degree 
 saturnine, so it was no wonder she did not grasp it. " I
 
 7 MARVEL. 
 
 have to wrte an order to the skipper to bring round the* 
 yacht and see that it is properly victualled. There are 
 several ladies' cabins on board tolerably comfortable, so 
 you need not be uneasy about that" She had not given it 
 a thought. " There will be, too, a word to the rector, a little 
 packing I suppose, and then, hey ! for your dilapidated 
 Athens." 
 
 He spoke as lightly as he could. His brain seemed 
 burning. She ran off to the door bent on obeying him, 
 though she would have dearly liked to stay with him and 
 discuss the details of their voyage, bit by bit ; but when she 
 got to the door she paused, hesitated, and finally came back 
 to him, very slowly, and rubbing her forefinger in a pretty 
 embarrassed fashion across, and across again, her rosy lips : 
 
 " Fulke," she said shamefacedly, not daring to look at 
 him, " you you won't change your mind when I am gone, 
 will you ? If " She came to a dead stop. 
 
 " I shall not change my mind," said he, " but go on ; 
 what was that ' if ' about ? " 
 
 " If I thought you would I should stay here," said she 
 naively. 
 
 " Be happy. I sha'n't," said he. 
 
 She went once more towards the door, and having 
 reached it, once more turned back. This time she came 
 quite up to him, and slipped her cool slender fingers into 
 his. 
 
 "Tell me," she said, "do husbands ever leave their 
 wives ? Can they ? " 
 
 Was there ever so perplexing a child. Again he felt that 
 strong inclination to laugh, but this time he suppressed it. 
 She was looking too serious. 
 
 " Never I " he said, with such a weight of positiveness in 
 his tone that she was satisfied. She pondered over it, 
 however, for a moment or two, and then made a little 
 sound of perfect content, and stirred her fingers in his as 
 if to remove them and go ; but Wriothesley, however, 
 tightened his grasp on them, and so detained her. 
 
 " But," said he, " wives have been known to leave their 
 husbands ! " 
 
 He hardly knew why he said this, but he could not
 
 MARVEL. 73 
 
 resist the desire to see how she would look when she heard 
 it. If he expected an indignant disclaimer, however, he 
 was disappointed. 
 
 " Have they ? Why ? " demanded she, with the utmost 
 astonishment, but quite calmly, accepting what he had just 
 said as loyally as she had the answer before it. 
 
 " Who shall say ? " returned Wriothesley, not feeling 
 equal to an explanation, and therefore carefully avoiding 
 it. 
 
 " Oh ! it is too foolish," said she at last. " I'm sure you 
 mean what you say, Fulke ; but I think somebody has 
 been deceiving you. After all I don't believe a word of it. 
 'Tis a story. Just fancy my leaving you 1 " 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 "Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn ; 
 And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born." 
 
 MR. BAINBRIDGE, the rector, was a tall, gaunt old man, 
 much stooped, and with a handsome head, which was plenti- 
 fully sprinkled with grey hair. He had keen eyes and a 
 strong mouth a trifle stern, and he walked with a staff. 
 He was older even than he looked, and he had served his 
 Master faithfully so long a time in this world that he 
 believed himself to be standing almost on the brink of the 
 next. He was tall and strpng, however, in body, if rather 
 tired in soul The turmoils of life had wearied him, and 
 the loss of many friends, and this last irreparable loss 
 the death of Lady Mary, who had been more to him than 
 most, had given him an ever-growing desire to wing his 
 way to that land where partings are unknown. 
 
 As Lord Wriothesley entered the cool study where he 
 sat the rector looked up at him with a gaze that was a trifle 
 prolonged. 
 
 " Home again," he said, when he had shaken hands with 
 him. " I believed you far from this, and was pleased to 
 so believe, I heard yesterday that you had returned to
 
 74 MARVEL. 
 
 town, and I thought you would have remained there. The 
 monotony of this calm country life can hardly be to the 
 taste of any young man." 
 
 "You are thinking about Marvel," said Wriothesley, 
 simply, brushing aside the veil the elder man would have 
 held before his real meaning. "So am I. She is a 
 question that has vexed me for many a day, but now I 
 think I have found an answer to it. I am going abroad 
 for a considerable time, and I am going to marry Marvel, 
 and take her with me." 
 
 Mr. Bainbridge made no immediate reply. He leaned 
 back in his chair, put the tips of his fingers together with 
 methodical precision, and took an exhaustive survey of 
 Wriothesley, who bore the studied inspection with the ut- 
 most indifference. Finally he said : 
 
 " You really mean it, then ? " 
 
 "Certainly I mean it. I was never more in earnest 
 about anything in my life. Why should you doubt it ? I 
 have spoken to Marvel, and she has agreed to throw in her 
 lot with mine." 
 
 There was no touch of tenderness in either tone or 
 words, as the old man, who was a keen student of human 
 nature, noted. 
 
 " Marvel is but a baby," he said. 
 
 " A very determined one, at all events. She made up 
 her mind yesterday not to be left behind when I started, 
 and you see she has carried her point." He laughed as if 
 at some recollection that amused him. " I have run down 
 to you," he went on, " to arrange about the bell, book and 
 candle part of the transaction. A special licence will be 
 necessary, as I am rather in a hurry to quit my native shores. 
 Could it be managed by Thursday ? " 
 
 "What? Your going?" 
 
 " No. My marriage." 
 
 He spoke in a careless way that vexed the rector, whose 
 affection for Marvel was deep and genuine. 
 
 " Why this extraordinary haste ? " he asked. 
 
 " Well, it suits me ; " replied Wriothesley, as if further 
 explanation was unnecessary. He did not notice that Mr. 
 Bainbridge was growing disturbed.
 
 MAKVEL. 75 
 
 " And Marvel ? " said the latter, sharply. " Does it suit 
 her ? " 
 
 "Even more than me." He turned away from the 
 window here, and looked straight at the rector, and look- 
 ing smiled. " Why, my dear old friend, you need not be 
 uneasy about that," he said. " I assure you I consulted her." 
 
 " I was wrong to doubt you. You were always a kind 
 lad," said Mr. Bainbridge slowly ; " but one thing I must 
 say to you, WYiothesley your heart is not in this." 
 
 " There you are at fault. My heart is unquestionably in 
 it. I long, like the veriest schoolboy, for the moment in 
 which I shall set sail." 
 
 " You avoid my real meaning. You heart is not in this 
 marriage, I should have said." 
 
 " You were always a croaker," retorted the younger man, 
 with affectionate lightness ; " but all your evil surmisings 
 will not serve you here. I am not to be daunted by them. 
 Do you know," dropping into a more confidential tone, 
 " that it was Lady Mary's wish, and I myself think it to be 
 the best way of settling everything. Marvel has no home, 
 no name. I have no relations to call me to account 
 for a marriage that in all probability would be called by the 
 world a mesalliance you see how plainly I speak to you 
 or, to say the least of it, a trifle rash. I have looked 
 everything in the face, have weighed everything, and I te'l 
 you honestly, I have no fears for myself, and few for 
 her." 
 
 " I would you had more," said the rector. 
 
 "You think I do wrong in this matter," said Wriothesley 
 quickly. 
 
 " I think you do not love her. Hear me patiently, 
 Wriothesley ; 'tis an old man that speaks, and surely I 
 have the right of an early friendship with you and that 
 good woman, that saint that now is Lady Mary to speak 
 my mind freely, and warn you when I see you bent on 
 driving your life's bark upon the rocks. Just now you used 
 the word homeless with regard to Marvel. Do not marry 
 her because you dread that for her. A home awaits her 
 here. I am an old man. I love the child. I would gladly 
 have such a daughter to tend my declining days. At my
 
 76 MARVEL. 
 
 death all that I have shall be hers a not very inconsider- 
 able portion. Do not therefore sacrifice her youth for that 
 reason." 
 
 "You speak as though I were about to do her some 
 mortal injury," said Wriothesley hotly. " Nay, speak to her 
 then ; has she, do you think, no voice in this decision ? " 
 
 "That she loves you is plain. Who runs may read that 
 simple tale," said the old man calmly ; " but, do you love 
 her?" ^ 
 
 "Twice you have asked me that question. Hear my 
 answer, then : such love as you speak of is not mine to give. 
 It is all over, gone past recalling." 
 
 " Dead ? " asked his inquisitor. 
 
 " Not dead. Worse than that : hopelessly alive. You 
 see I am honest with you." He had grown very pale. 
 
 " But not with her, I see. And this love you speak of. 
 It still lives eh ? " 
 
 "Even so, it cannot harm Marvel." 
 
 " There is another woman ? " 
 
 " You go very far," said Wriothesley, his brow darkening. 
 He bit his lips, then as his eyes met the full, clear, beautiful 
 eyes of the old man his anger died away from him as an 
 unworthy thing. " Say what you will to me," he said 
 impetuously, " I will endure it. Yes, there is another, who 
 spurned this love about which you so cruelly probe me. I 
 offered it to her, full, entire, but she rejected it There is, 
 therefore, as I said, no danger for Marvel." 
 
 " This other woman may change her mind," said Mr. 
 Bainbridge slowly, and looking at the handsome high- 
 bred face before him, he could hardly believe that any 
 woman born could be unkind to the owner of it, "and 
 then ? " 
 
 " She will not do that. She is to be married shortly. 
 Her marriage is arranged." 
 
 He turned abruptly away and stood looking out into, 
 but not seeing, the brilliant little garden outside that was 
 the rector's pride. The latter remained silent, saddened by 
 the younger man's story, and for a few minutes no sound 
 broke the soft stillness of the room. Presently Wriothesley 
 spoke again, his voice harsh and strained.
 
 MARVEL. 77 
 
 " Now you know all, and that I am over and done with 
 such follies for ever." 
 
 " You are too young a man to speak like that. Some 
 day your love will wake again ; and how if it should not 
 awaken for your wife ? " 
 
 " Hah ! old Raven ! what would you say more ? " cried 
 Wriothesley, catching him by both arms and laughing 
 grimly into his face. " Why not prognosticate rather that 
 some day it will awaken for my wife ? " 
 
 " Because I have lived long, too long," said the old 
 man sadly, " and I have learned in my dreary pilgrimage 
 that no man wakens to love for the thing he has a woman 
 might, a man never ! " 
 
 " You have forgotten one thing that there are excep- 
 tions to all rules. Let my case be one, or rather believe, 
 what is indeed the most likely thing, that I have done 
 with that foolish fever called love, and that I shall be faith- 
 ful to Marvel for ever. Come, trust me. I shall be her 
 friend always." 
 
 " Her husband you mean," drily. " Well, as you have 
 so arranged it between you, so let it be. Providence 
 ordains all things, and who am I, that I should dare to step 
 in and seek to turn aside this brilliant destiny you offer 
 her. Yet, one last word." He drew nearer, and laid his 
 thin right hand upon Wriothesley's shoulder. " Remember, 
 she is as ignorant of all things evil as a child should be. 
 Guard her, cherish her. The sin, the sorrow, the suffer- 
 ing of the world are alike unknown to her. You are taking 
 a pure sweet soul into your keeping, Wriothesley ; see that 
 you preserve it so." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " Love ! I will tell thee what it is to love ! 
 
 It is to build with human thoughts a shiine, 
 Where hope sits brooding like a beauteous dove 
 Where life seems young, and like a thing divine." 
 
 As for Marvel, she was intensely happy during those few 
 days before her marriage. She was enchanted with every
 
 78 MARVEL. 
 
 arrangement made for the strange voyage, and ran hither 
 and thither doing needless little messages for Wriothesley, 
 whom she drove to the verge of irritability twenty times a 
 day. 
 
 She laughed for almost the first time since her auntie's 
 death, and chattered incessantly. Of course somebody 
 shou'.d be told the glad news that she was not to be lonely 
 any more, and that she was to go away with Lord 
 Wriothesley in the pretty white-winged yacht. First she 
 ran down to the Rectory. It was after Wriothesley's visit 
 there, and she was so full of her own story that she hardly 
 noticed how gravely her old friend listened and how few 
 raptures he displayed. Then she told her nurse, and soon 
 all the servants knew it. Extreme was their astonishment. 
 Yet it was a proof of the sweetness of her nature that no 
 one grudged her her luck, so greatly had she endeared 
 herself to them all during her young life at The Towers. 
 
 Then came the wedding morning. She rose early and 
 went for a solitary wander through the gardens and those 
 parts of the ground that had grown more especially dear 
 through fond associations. The clear ringing of a bell 
 within the house warned her that time was flying, so with 
 many a farewell glance and sigh, and not without a few 
 tears, she returned to her room. 
 
 There breakfast was served to her, and there she dressed 
 herself in one of the simple white gowns her auntie had so 
 loved. After a long, long hesitation she decided on put- 
 ting aside even the black sash for this one day and wearing 
 a white one. A faint recollection of having been told many 
 years ago that white in some countries was mourning 
 returned to her and gave her some little consolation, but 
 in spite of all that, the discarding of the black sash troubled 
 her. 
 
 Her mind was full of Lady Mary on this her marriage 
 day. In some strange occult way she seemed to be very 
 near to her. When her toilette was quite completed she 
 dismissed her maid and knelt down before a tall oaken 
 chair and prayed fervently for a little while that Fulke 
 might be happy always and she too and good and that 
 he might always love her.
 
 MAKVEL. 79 
 
 Tears trembled on her long lashes as she finished her 
 earnest supplication, though she was neither nervous nor 
 distrustful, and it appeared to her as if her auntie were 
 waiting close beside her to carry her simple prayer to 
 Heaven. 
 
 In the hall Fulke met her. She smiled at him and gave 
 him her hand ; and he who was accustomed to her 
 impetuous actions felt some surprise as she made no 
 movement to offer him the customary morning kiss. Per- 
 haps she forgot it. Certainly it was no new shyness, 
 because it did not occur to her to be shy. 
 
 Together they walked through the glowing woods to 
 the private chapel, whither Mrs. Bunch, the housekeeper, 
 in her " best bib and tucker," had gone on before, that 
 Marvel should not find herself without one of her own sex 
 to support her there " and that upon her weddin'-mornin' 
 too pore dear little pretty ! " 
 
 Mr. Bainbridge, in full canonicals, met the bride and 
 bridegroom at the church-porch. It was most irregular, 
 and scarcely orthodox ; but he was so uneasy about Marvel 
 that he could not refrain from getting a glimpse of her 
 before the commencement of the ceremony. He felt in a 
 measure conscience-stricken. Had he done his duty ? 
 Should he not have put forth all his power to prevent 
 this marriage that instinct warned him would not be for 
 her good ? Yet, when he saw her clad all in her bridal 
 white, and when she raised her head and showed the sweet, 
 unworldly, peaceful smile upon her lips, his fears and 
 his remorse alike vanished; and it was in a clear and 
 hopeful tone that he presently read the marriage-service. 
 
 Mrs. Bunch, in the family pew, shed many tears behind 
 her lavender cotton gloves, and all the maids who had 
 gained permission to attend sniffed audibly. Wriothesley 
 himself looked pale, and there was a strange unnatural 
 gleam in his eyes; but Marvel stood calm and earnest, 
 making the responses in a soft distinct voice and listening 
 to all that the rector said with an air of solemnity and awe, 
 not doubting or fearing, but simply, as one learning he* 
 duty. 
 
 In the vestry room she signed her name, " Marvel
 
 So MARVEL. 
 
 Craven," in her firm beautiful handwriting, and afterwards 
 she kissed the rector and then her husband. 
 
 " God bless you ! " said Mr. Bain bridge fervently. He 
 appeared agitated, and wrung Wriothesley's hand, whisper- 
 ing to him in a low tone to " Be good to her " not so low 
 however but that Marvel heard it ; and she laughed gaily, 
 and, patting his arm, asked him if he thought Fulke was 
 an ogre. 
 
 Then Wriothesley asked the old man to return with 
 them to The Towers, but he excused himself; and indeed 
 little time was left to the bride and bridegroom to linger 
 over breakfast, as they were to go on board the yacht early 
 in the afternoon, and there were yet those usual terrible 
 last things to be seen to. 
 
 So Marvel and he went back alone to the house, walking 
 through the woods as they had come, and into the hall, 
 where Mrs. Bunch and most of the servants, men and 
 women, were assembled to greet them. 
 
 " I wish you joy, my lady," said Mrs. Bunch, coming 
 a little forward and dropping a low respectful courtesy. 
 
 " Eh ? " said Marvel softly, as if not understanding; and 
 then " ' My lady ! ' How strange it sounds ! " She 
 laughed rather nervously, and then tears came into her 
 eyes. That had been her auntie's name ! " Thank you," 
 she said sweetly to good old Mrs. Bunch, who loved her 
 and comprehended that last thought as indeed did all 
 the servants. She placed both hands on the old woman's 
 shoulders, and bent to her and pressed her fresh young 
 
 cheek to the withered old face. 
 
 ****** 
 
 They were standing in the library, almost ready to start, 
 when Wriothesley noticed the locket that Marvel wore 
 round her neck. It was the same old battered ornament 
 she had had on her on the night she had been rescued 
 by him from the storm. 
 
 " How many years it is since I saw that," he said, 
 touching it ; " and what a mite you were then ! You 
 remember ? " 
 
 " I remember that you saved me. Auntie told me 
 always to keep this locket, as it might help me to find to
 
 MARVEL. 8 1 
 
 trace some one belonging to me. You know I have neither 
 father, brother, nor sister," she said simply. " I have 
 indeed no one no one " in a low tone " but you ! " 
 
 " Well, I shall be father and brother to you," he said 
 kindly. He thanked Heaven she did not ask for his love. 
 That would have meant a thorough explanation, and 
 one that now would be of no avail 
 
 He felt as though he were in a dream, standing there 
 with the girl little more than a child beside him, who in 
 reality was his wife. For a moment he was almost over- 
 come by a horrible longing to undo it all to escape from 
 her to be free once more ; but it was too late ! He drew 
 a deep breath, and compelled himself to return to the 
 listless indifferent tone and manner which he had adopted 
 ever since he had arranged his marriage. He despised 
 himself for his new mood. He doubly despised himself 
 for the thought that had sprung to life with her last words, 
 that he had indeed given the good old name to a woman 
 who was herself nameless ! 
 
 It was still in the white gown that Marvel went on board 
 the yacht. She had elected to wear it all through this 
 day, and then to set it apart and keep it ever sacred, as her 
 wedding-gown. So much she thought about her marriage, 
 but little more. The real thing was that she was going 
 to sail away, away, away with Fulke to summer seas and 
 sunny lands. 
 
 She found her own cabin an exquisite little affair, and 
 that for her maid was scarcely less so. The captain, a bluff 
 old sailor, received her as though she were a slim little 
 princess, and before the sun sank behind the hills of 
 her old home, up went the anchor, and with many a 
 musical yo-ho the " Merry Maid " bent to the evening 
 bieeze and faded away into the gathering mist like a 
 winged spirit*
 
 MABVEU 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " That some weighty grief 
 O'erhangs thy soul, thy ev'ry look proclaims : 
 Why then refuse it words ? " 
 
 IT was a charming morning, bright with sunshine, as 
 they sighted Gibraltar. The world was three weeks older 
 then than on that eventful day when Marvel for the 
 first time possessed a name. It had been a three weeks of 
 unalloyed enjoyment to her, not a shadow having darkened 
 the days that sped all too swiftly. She was with Fulke, 
 and she was happy. Not that she saw much of him, 
 but she was quite content with the knowledge that he was 
 somewhere near, and she had early learned that she was 
 not to be a "trouble to him," which meant that she 
 was not to break in upon his moods when he appeared 
 silent and distrait. And this was often. 
 
 Each day found him more self-contained, and, if 
 disturbed, more irritable. At first he had conscientiously 
 done his best to make her comfortable on board the yacht, 
 and to entertain her : he treated her always as an 
 honoured guest. And there were days of delicious sight 
 seeing for her who had never until then seen anything 
 but an English village, when they had stopped here and 
 there on their way, putting into certain ports and 
 " doing " such sights as were to be seen. At each place he 
 loaded her with trinkets, or bric-ci-brac of the choicest 
 kinds, and she, like a delighted child, forgot, or did not 
 notice, that the enjoyment was all on her side. 
 
 At Gibraltar they expected to receive any letters or 
 papers that might be forwarded to them, and Wriothesley 
 for two days before they reached it could hardly restrain 
 the cruel impatience with which he looked forward to 
 the news that the society journals especially might contain. 
 He could see the paragraphs describing how Leonie looked 
 as a bride, each dainty detail of her wedding gown, the 
 list of guests, the false flattering mention of the ancient 
 groom.
 
 MAEVEL. 83 
 
 It was all terrible to him, and the constant strain, the 
 perpetual dwelling on the one subject, injured him both 
 in mind and body. He grew pale and thin, filled as 
 he was with an undying love for one woman and an 
 undying remorse for that love when he remembered another, 
 until at last the pretty laughing presence of Marvel grew 
 insupportable to him. 
 
 Instinctively she felt this, but so vaguely that it hardly 
 rendered her uneasy ; but a desire to do something that 
 should please him, that should win her a smile, incited her 
 to be the first to receive the post when it arrived and 
 to carry it herself to him. 
 
 Wriothesley, who happened to be engaged at the 
 moment, seeing her enter with a large packet and several 
 letters and papers, changed colour and went quickly to her 
 with eagerly-extended hands. She gave him what she 
 brought, looking shyly at him for a word of thanks, but 
 none came. One last paper remained in her grasp. 
 
 " Here," she said playfully, holding it out, " and how 
 much for this, my lord ? " 
 
 But he did not hear her, did not even see her. He had 
 turned aside, and flinging himself into a chair had torn the 
 wrapper from the paper she had last given him. It was 
 the one he had been waiting for so long. 
 
 Marvel turned away with a sense of having been 
 forgotten, and with a heightened colour. She was only 
 a child at heart, and she was in a degree offended. He 
 might have thanked her, she thought, for being the one to 
 bring him that post for which he had so wearied ! But he 
 had thought of nothing but that stupid paper. She hoped 
 she should never see a number of it again. She should 
 recollect always the colour of its cover.. 
 
 Meantime, Wriothesley with a rapid hand turned the 
 pages. Here, there, he looked for the dreaded announce- 
 ment, but as yet saw nothing. The small society paragraphs 
 gave no mention of any fashionable wedding in which her 
 name stood prominent. He had drawn a breath of curious 
 relief and had just turned a fresh page half-carelessly when 
 a heading in large letters caught his eye : 
 
 " Sudden death of the Duke of Dawtry." 
 
 62
 
 84 MARVEL. 
 
 He read it three or four times, and having mastered it 
 (rather a trouble to him, because of the shock to his brain) 
 he went quietly on with the rest of the article. Only a few 
 words of it clung to him. On the eve of his marriage ! On 
 the eve ! She had not married him then i And now she 
 was free ! Free ! He half-started from his seat, forgetting 
 all things but that, and that he must go to her. Then 
 memory returned in its full power; Marvel's face stood out 
 before him, and with a groan he sank back again, and lean- 
 ing his arms upon the table let his head fall forwards on 
 them. 
 
 It was thus that Marvel found him an hour later. She- 
 had repented her short-lived anger, and in a sweet, peni- 
 tent mood had come back to him. She saw at a glance that 
 it was the paper she had given him that was lying open 
 on the table before him. Something in his attitude, that 
 had a good deal to do with despair, frightened her and she 
 came quickly to his side. 
 
 " Fulke, what is it ? " she asked nervously, laying her 
 hand upon his shoulder. He started and looked up, with- 
 drawing sharply from her touch as he did so, and she saw 
 that his face was ghastly. 
 
 "Nothing," he said. "I beg you will not worry me 
 now. It is nothing." 
 
 " Do not speak to me like that," she entreated trembling. 
 " Tell me your trouble let mt try to comfort you." 
 
 He pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. There 
 was a terrible expression in his eyes as they rested on her. 
 
 " You I " he said. " You, to comfort me ! You, who 
 have been my undoing ! Go, I tell you. Leave me. I 
 must be alone." 
 
 "You mean ?" she said. She was trembling from 
 
 head to foot. His manner was so strange, so wild, that she 
 was quite unnerved. " Fulke, speak to me." 
 
 " What have I to say ? What have you to hear ? 
 Except that I would I had never seen you." There was 
 the bitter savagery of truth in his tone. He had lost all 
 control over himself, but when he had dealt the death-blow 
 he felt sobered. " There forgive me, I hardly know what 
 I say. I told you to go," he said, and then he waited,
 
 MARVEL. 85 
 
 knowing, yet hardly caring for her pain, so great was his 
 own. 
 
 She paused for a moment as if turned into stone, and 
 then went softly out of the saloon. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " Before our lives divide for ever, 
 While time is with us 
 
 M Time, swift to fasten and swift to sever 
 Hand from hand, as we stand by the sea." 
 
 SHE felt stunned, terrified. She crept slowly up the stairs 
 to the deck where the salt breeze blew upon her face, and 
 in a strange, vague way created in her a desire for tears. 
 But she repressed them, and seeing a wicker chair on her , 
 right hand, went to it and sank down wearily amongst the 
 cushions. 
 
 Her hands fell listlessly upon her lap, and she stared out 
 seaward with hot strained eyes, to see nothing but a limitless 
 ocean all around her and above a cloudless sky. For the 
 first time the exquisite smiling beauty of nature seemed to 
 her repellant. Oh, for clouds, for rain, for tempest ! for 
 anything save this heartless brilliance. 
 
 How had she offended him that he should look at her 
 like that? What fault committed that he should say those 
 dreadful words. He had said she was his " undoing ! " 
 There was something surely, and it was in that paper, the 
 paper she had given him last. Oh, how unfortunate she 
 was, that hers should have been the hand to deal him a 
 fatal wound. She knew instinctively that he was hurt past 
 healing, but what was it? 
 
 She had never thought very seriously of her marriage. It 
 had been to her only a delightful, a very lucky arrangement 
 that had enabled her to go with him wheresoever he went, 
 as it seemed she could not have done unless those few 
 solemn words had been read over them by the rector. But
 
 86 MAEVEL. 
 
 now, to-day, as she sat there in sore distress there came to 
 her the knowledge that marriage with her meant that he 
 could not marry another, and, perhaps, there was another 
 some one who 
 
 She felt as though she were suffocated. She grew very 
 pale, and her fingers began to pluck nervously at her gown. 
 If that was it if she was in his way ! The choking sensa- 
 tion rose stHl higher in her throat, and instinctively she put 
 up one slender hand to it. Surely, surely there must be 
 some way of undoing a marriage such as hers; loveless, 
 undesired, nay, now detested ! It should be done. Why, 
 what was it after all ? a few words, no more ! 
 
 She would go to Fulke and passionately appeal to him. 
 She would let him at once know he should be free, free as 
 air to go to that other. She rose hurriedly, and then as 
 suddenly reseated herself. No; it would not do to go 
 now. He would think she was hurt, or angry, or offended. 
 She would let a day or two go by, so that he should not 
 guess all that was in her heart, and then she would entreat 
 him to let her return home, to annul this marriage that 
 was so distasteful to him. It was her first little bit of dis- 
 simulation, and somehow it hurt her. 
 
 But how if it could not be undone ! This thought was 
 terrible to her. It must ; it should ! And at all events, 
 there was one thing positive, she would not stay with him 
 now she had grown hateful to him. She would not wait 
 to see again that look that had darkened his face to-day. 
 She could not. She assured herself that it would kill her. 
 
 She was trembling all over now and feeling really ill. 
 The captain had placed a shawl around her a while ago, 
 because there was a sharp wind blowing, that carried a 
 little chill with it, and one of the sailors had silently pushed 
 a footstool beneath her feet. They were all devoted to her, 
 from the captain down to the cabin boy, and ready at any 
 moment to do her loyal service. 
 
 She was so young, so merry, so joyous. She would run 
 about amongst them all day, like an overgrown child, 
 talking to them as if they were her eq'uals, though yet with 
 a certain sweet dignity that commanded their admiration. 
 She found out all about the men from themselves ; as to
 
 MAKVEL. 87 
 
 who were married and how many little children they had 
 awaiting them at home, and she knew too of the sweethearts, 
 and what each lad was going to bring his lass from foreign 
 parts. And there wasn't a man amongst them who didn't 
 follow her every movement on board the " Merry Maid" with 
 a sense of honest pleasure and a simple worship of her. 
 
 To-day they saw that " some'at ailed my lady." And, 
 indeed, her poor little ladyship looked sad enough to pro- 
 voke sympathy in even the hardest heart. 
 
 -^ "What a rich feast the canker grief has made ; 
 How has it sucked the roses of thy cheeks 1 
 And drunk the liquid crystal of thy eyes." 
 
 When the tears rose to her eyes, however, she blinked 
 them back again. No, she would not cry ; such misery as 
 hers was not to be consoled by a few drops) wrung from 
 her heart. Tears could not ease her. And then all sud- 
 denly anger grew within her gentle breast, and she told 
 herself it was unjust, unfair. Because sorrow had come to 
 him was no reason why he should look at her as if as 
 though he loathed her ! Oh, yes, that was the word. 
 The very sight of her had grown hideous to him. It was a 
 shame a shame ! 
 
 Then all at once her anger died from her. No, no ; it 
 was all her own fault. 
 
 She had asked him to take her with him, and out of the 
 goodness of his heart he had not found it possible to refuse; 
 and now he was wretched and it was all her fault. She 
 who loved him, had made him so. Oh ! if her auntie had 
 but lived. 
 
 She went down to her cabin and threw herself on her 
 bed, and cried herself into a severe headache. 
 
 It was a long day. Very slowly the early autumn shadows 
 crept across the sea and evening descended. She had 
 refused any luncheon from her maid, and when at the 
 usual dinner-hour Wriothesley himself knocked at her door, 
 although she sprang into a sitting posture and the nervous 
 colour flamed into her cheeks, she still said "No" to his 
 inquiry, called from outside, whether she would not dine 
 with him.
 
 Kg MARVEL, 
 
 " Shall I send you in something ?" 
 
 "No, thank you, nothing." There was a note of remorse 
 in his tone that brought on her tears afresh, but she felt 
 comfort in the knowledge that they were hidden from 
 him. 
 
 "I am so sorry you have a headache. Do try to eat 
 something, it will do you more good than anything," he 
 still entreated her, and when she again declined he said, 
 with some slight authority of tone : 
 
 " Come here to the door, Marvel ; I want to see you." 
 
 Accustomed to obey, she got up, gave a hasty glance into 
 her mirror, brushed back her lovely wavy hair, and seeing 
 that she was pale, but not exactly repulsive because of her 
 weeping, went reluctantly to the door. It was not locked, 
 but it not being his custom to do so, Wriothesley had not 
 entered the room. 
 
 When he saw her standing there, so pale and unhappy, 
 his heart smote him. Was this Lady Mary's merry child ? 
 He could not call to mind the words he had spoken in his 
 anguish, but he supposed they had been sufficiently hasty 
 to hurt her. He did not dream they had been so cruel as 
 they were. 
 
 " I have been unkind to you, Marvel," he said remorse- 
 fully. " But a hasty word or two you should not take so 
 much to heart." 
 
 She regarded him in a sort of wonderment. "You who 
 have been my undoing 1" " I would I had never seen you ! " 
 Were these mere hasty words ? Truly, he did not love her 
 if he could think so. 
 
 " Do not be distressed about it," she said sweetly ; 
 "after a while I shall not care much not much. And 
 besides," hastily, "I believe it is this tiresome headache 
 that is troubling me most." 
 
 "Try some champagne. That may set you up again. 
 Let me bring you some ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, thank you." 
 
 " I wish you would. You look very pale, and it would 
 make me feel easier about you." 
 
 " Would it ? " She was thoughtful for a moment, and 
 then, with thorough unselfishness, "Very well, you may
 
 MAEVEL. 89 
 
 bring me some." Why should she make him uneasy? 
 She had surely been trouble enough to him already. Ay ! 
 and grief, too. Her heart swelled with misery within her 
 as she thought of it all ; but his new kindliness did not for 
 an instant shake her determination to rid him of her 
 presence as soon as it should be possible. 
 
 She took the wine from him when he brought it, but she 
 did not drink it, and she still persisted in her refusal to go 
 to dinner, and Wriothesley departed a little puzzled by some 
 subtle change in her that had been born within the last few 
 hours. He consoled himself with the thought that a child 
 like that only wanted a good night's rest to forget even a 
 poignant grief, and at heart indeed he was considerably 
 relieved at her persistent disinclination to dine with him. 
 
 In his present mood he shrank from a tete-d-tete with 
 her. He had roused himself from his stupor to speak to 
 her, a sense of duty driving him to make amends for those 
 angry words he half recollected having spoken. But he 
 was glad to be able to go back again to his miserable regrets 
 without any one to study him with large clear child-like eyes. 
 His mind was unsettled ; yesterday he knew that his idol 
 was still loved by him with a deep but unpardoning love ; 
 to-day there was no thought of pardon, only a wild longing 
 to reach her, to kneel at her feet, to implore her grace once 
 more ; and with this the knowledge that he was powerless 
 to stir ! 
 
 And something more, too! A cold, curious sense of 
 revenge gratified 1 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low.* 
 
 THE next day she found the paper and deliberately searched 
 it. She felt no dishonour attached itself to her for thus 
 endeavouring to fathom his secret ; she meant only to know 
 for certain this thing that stood between him and her. She 
 would make no mistake ; she would try fully to understand
 
 90 MARVEL. 
 
 everything, that afterwards she might be assured that she 
 had done him no wrong in act or thought by leaving 
 him. 
 
 The paper was considerably crumpled on one page, as 
 though a hand had involuntarily clutched it, and this she felt 
 was where the mystery lay. She scanned the page hurriedly, 
 and the large startling print of the first heading entered into 
 her : " Sudden death of the Duke of Dawtry." She read 
 and re-read it, in silent wonderment, and then the paragraph 
 beneath. But Mrs. Scarlett's name was not mentioned 
 there, and she scarcely knew what to think when she had 
 come to the end of it. She knew this, however, that the 
 reading of that article had caused him to look at her with 
 eyes full of hatred, and in a sorrowful silent way she began 
 to ponder on the best way of removing herself for ever from 
 his sight. 
 
 All through the week she sought for some excuse to offer 
 him, but none came, and at last she determined upon 
 telling him that she wished to return home. This was 
 partly the truth, though to return to the old home, to her 
 beloved Towers, was more, she thought, than she could 
 endure. And if the marriage could be set aside, as she 
 hoped and believed with a passionate misery that it could 
 be, he would be the last to wish her there. 
 
 At length, one day towards evening, she summoned all 
 her courage to her aid, and went to where he was, and 
 standing at some little distance from him with folded hands 
 tightly clasped, said tremulously : 
 
 " Fulke, may I go home ? " 
 
 " What ? " he said, thoroughly amazed. His face 
 changed, and he regarded her with a searching scrutiny. 
 " What is it you want ? " 
 
 " To go home," she repeated, with a slight increase of 
 nervousness this time. 
 
 He said nothing for a minute or two, spent principally 
 in thinking out her words, and then with a half smile : 
 
 " Tired of it so soon ? " 
 
 "Yes, I am tired," she said in a low voice. Her head 
 was bent, and she was running her werlding-ring round and 
 round her finger in a little sad, aimLas way. The action
 
 MAEVEL. 91 
 
 struck Wriothesley as being terribly significant. She was 
 tired of the yacht, and tired of her marriage, and tired of 
 her life. No wonder, too, poor child ! She had made a 
 sorry business of it from first to last ! He felt heavy at 
 heart because of his remorse. What right had he, in a 
 mad freak, to wed this unthinking child and imagine she 
 would be content to sail the silent seas with him, without a 
 word of love from him, from day to day ? Yet how soon she 
 had tired ! He could not help thinking her in a degree fickle. 
 
 " Well, you know I warned you," he said. " I told you 
 a yachting expedition was the stupidest thing going for 
 any one not devoted to a sea life, and for a young thing like 
 you. Well, I can put in at Marseilles, you know, and 
 put up the yacht there, and take you back, and " 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! I don't want to be any trouble to you, 
 I have been that enough already. Burton will be able to 
 take care of me." She looked at him eagerly for the first 
 time since her entrance. " Then I may go ? " she said. 
 
 " Of course you can do as you wish." 
 
 "And and you will let me go alone with Burton?" 
 
 He laughed shortly. 
 
 " As I am such a bugbear to you, I certainly shall not 
 add to your apparent unhappiness by thrusting myself 
 upon you. Let Burton be your escort by all means ; she 
 is, beyond doubt, old enough to know how to take care of 
 herself and you." 
 
 She seemed relieved at this, in spite of his sneering tone, 
 and turned as if to leave him, then stopped, irresolute. 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " asked he, not unkindly, though 
 some sense of disappointment was irritating him. " There 
 is something else you want to say ? " 
 
 " There is." 
 
 She came back again softly, and drew her breath with 
 some undue haste. Her eyes were not lowered now, how- 
 ever, but were fixed on his, with a glance that was piercing 
 in its anxiety. 
 
 " I wish I had not married you," she said. 
 
 The words came so quietly and with such calm distinct- 
 ness that at first he could hardly believe his ears. Then 
 his brow contracted.
 
 92 MARVEL. 
 
 " That is a terrible thing to say. Are you quite sure you 
 mean it ? " 
 
 " Quite, quite sure." She drew closer to him. " Why 
 should it be terrible ? " she asked. " The our marriage can 
 be undone, can't it ? " 
 
 It was impossible not to see with what overpowering 
 anxiety she hung upon his answer. It seemed to be a 
 matter of life or death to her, this question, as to whether 
 she should or should not have to live the rest of her life 
 as his wife. It was a scarcely flattering thought, and he 
 resented it sorely. And could she indeed be so foolish, so 
 ignorant as to have a doubt on the subject ? He looked 
 at the pale childish face uplifted to his, and saw that it was 
 indeed so, but as he looked he misjudged the fear in the 
 large eyes and failed to understand the misery that sad- 
 dened the young lips. 
 
 " I am afraid I must tell you something you will not like 
 to hear," he said very gently. " Our marriage cannot be 
 undone. My wife you must remain until kindly death 
 releases you from me, or me from you." 
 
 To her there seemed a world of regret in his voice 
 regret for that freedom he would fain have, but could not 
 grasp, because of her. The sharp pain that stabbed her 
 heart like a knife rose to her lips. 
 
 " Oh no ! That can't be true," she cried in an agonized 
 tone. " Oh, Fulke ! dear Fulke, let me go. Why, think 
 of it ; it was only such a very, very little time ago. Only 
 four weeks -four. And how shall I live all the long years 
 before me ? Oh, I will not believe it 1 See now," extend- 
 ing her hands passionately, " send me home anywhere 
 away from you, and forget that wedding-day, and let all 
 things be as they were four weeks ago." 
 
 " My dear child, you dream of impossibilities. I would 
 gladly, for your own sake, tell you otherwise, if I could, but 
 I cannot. The most secret marriage on earth is binding, 
 and ours was done before all the world. The law will 
 not permit us to separate at least, so entirely as you 
 desire." 
 
 " How can there be such a wicked law ? It is unjust, 
 horrible." She clasped her slender hands upon her breast.
 
 MAKVEL. 93 
 
 
 
 " How am I to live," she cried, " with this weight for ever 
 on my heart ? " 
 
 " You, too, are unjust," said Wriothesley coldly. "I did 
 not compel you to this marriage." 
 
 "No. That is it," said she quickly, lifting her lovely 
 haggard eyes to his. " It was I who made you marry me. 
 I entreated you; I begged you (oh ! how could I have done 
 it ?) not to leave me behind alone. And now now," with 
 such a depth of misery in the young voice as struck coldly 
 to his heart, " I am doubly alone." 
 
 Remorse grew strong within him. A sudden awakening 
 to the fact that he had sacrificed her to his own revenge, 
 troubled him ; and though justice had followed hard upon 
 the heels of that deed and his revenge had recoiled upon 
 himself, yet he could not hold himself free of blame in the 
 matter. She had asked for meat, and he had given her a 
 stone. How could he have thought that a child so reared 
 and encompassed with love as she had been, would have 
 rested satisfied with the barren existence he had given her ? 
 
 " I cannot hear you speak like that," he said. " I, only, 
 am in fault. I have done you so great a wrong that I know 
 not how to ask your forgiveness. You were, you are, but 
 a mere child, yet I took you at your word. I permitted you 
 to marry a man nearly twelve years your senior. I feel I 
 have spoiled your life." 
 
 " Is that how it seems to you ? " she asked with in- 
 describable sadness in look and tone. 
 
 "That is how it must seem." 
 
 " And your life?" 
 
 " As for that " he said, and paused. Then hurriedly, 
 
 " Feel no compuncUon about that. It is not in your power 
 to spoil it." 
 
 No, truly ; for it was a waste and ruined thing before 
 ever he gave it into her possession. 
 
 " Are you sure quite sure," she said, " that things 
 could not be as they were before ? That I could not be 
 your friend again, instead of your wife." 
 
 " You are my friend still, I hope," said he rather sharply ; 
 " or am I to understand that the love you once professed 
 for me has turned to hatred ? "
 
 94 MARVEL. 
 
 "Do not think that. It would not be the truth." She 
 spoke slowly and painfully. It was with great difficulty she 
 kept back her tears. How strange his manner was ; almost 
 it might seem as though he were pleading with her. But 
 no no : she would be foolish indeed to let herself imagine 
 that. 
 
 " So you say. Yet you would gladly annul our marriage ; 
 and you are bent on leaving me ? " 
 
 His tone was a question. 
 
 " I cannot bear to stay here," she said, nervously clasping 
 and unclasping her fingers. 
 
 " Then you shall go," he decided abruptly. " The only 
 question that now remains between us is where ? To The 
 Towers ? " 
 
 " Not there ! Do not send me there, Fulke, T entreat 
 you ; be good to me about this. I could not live there, 
 
 thinking, remembering " She broke down at the very 
 
 thought of it, and covered her face with her hands. 
 
 " Pray be composed," said he icily. " I am not sending 
 you anywhere. You will be good enough to recollect, both 
 now and in the future, that it is of your own express wish 
 that you are leaving me." 
 
 " It is my own wish," she echoed faintly. 
 
 " If not to The Towers, to what other place ? There 
 is " 
 
 " Could I not go somewhere where nobody would know 
 me where I could be quite alone ? " 
 
 " Certainly not." 
 
 "But why? You need not," eagerly, "be uneasy 
 about me. I should not mind being quite by myself. I 
 should," with a quick sigh, " like it." 
 
 " But I shouldn't. However distasteful the fact may be 
 to you, it still remains that you are my wife. I shall not 
 permit you to live in any way unsuited to the name and 
 rank you bear. Put all romantic silly thoughts out of your 
 head. The world knows you as Lady Wriothesley ; and as 
 Lady Wriothesley you will have to comport yourself." His 
 voice was stern ; his eyes flashed. 
 
 " I meant to do that wherever I was," replied she with 
 a simple dignity that disarmed him, in spite of the anger
 
 MAKVEL. 95 
 
 that was growing in his heart towards her. For such a way- 
 ward, incomprehensible girl, he had ruined every hope of 
 happiness he knew. 
 
 " You are too young to live alone ; but if you do not 
 wish to go to The Towers, there is that place in Yorkshire. 
 It is handsome and carelessly picturesque, they say, and, at 
 all events, it is well kept up and ready for you at any 
 moment. Will it suit you ? " His manner was con- 
 temptuous, and she resented it. 
 
 " It will be better than this, I daresay," she said calmly, 
 and with some spirit. 
 
 "So would that uncomfortable cottage you hinted at 
 just now, I have no doubt ; or anything, even worse. Any 
 discomfort would be preferable to life with me. I have 
 quite grasped the situation, I assure you, so you need not 
 give me any more lessons in it. Well, shall it be the 
 Yorkshire place, or " 
 
 " Make no more plans. Yorkshire will do very well. 
 It is all the same to me where I go," interrupted she 
 wearily. She was longing to escape, to be by herself, that 
 she might try to realize the fact that the end had indeed 
 come. There had been, perhaps, underlying everything, 
 a wild hope that he would forbid her leaving him, but how 
 delusive it had proved! Far from forbidding, he was 
 making speedy arrangements for her departure. 
 
 "Very good, I shall telegraph to-day to Ringwood, the 
 name of your future home, and also to my cousin, Mrs. 
 Verulam ; you know her ? " 
 
 "I have met her twice." 
 
 " Then you like her ; every one does. I shall write to 
 her to go up there and stay with you, and see to you 
 generally." 
 
 " Oh don't do that," she entreated feverishly. " Indeed, 
 I shall not want her ; I shall not want any one. All I 
 desire is to be alone." Poor child, how passionately she 
 had fought against that loneliness that now she courted, 
 only a month ago ! 
 
 " I have told you that is impossible. Don't be silly, 
 Marvel," he said impatiently, " you are too young, you have, 
 indeed, proved yourself too childish, to be left to your own
 
 96 MAKVEI* 
 
 devices ; you do not know your own mind yet, even in 
 your likes and dislikes." He spoke with meaning, and she 
 cast one long reproachful glance at him. It was all she 
 could trust herself to do. " If you do not like this plan of 
 mine, suggest another. Will you go and stay with Mr. 
 Bainbridge for awhile ? " 
 
 " No ; he would ask me questions," said she miserably. 
 
 " Then you see we must fall back on Mrs. Verulam. 
 She is young, a widow, with no ties except a little girl of 
 five or so, and she will, I know, be all that is kind to you. 
 I should not suggest her, otherwise. What objection have 
 you to her, as a friend, a chaperone, if, indeed, she will be 
 good enough to give up her own arrangements for awhile? " 
 
 " She is a stranger," said Marvel, in a tone that was 
 almost a whisper. Her poor little face grew white with 
 agonized distress. 
 
 " My dear child, if I were to consider that" said he 
 gently, " why, all the world is a stranger to you." 
 
 He paused, his own words fell back upon him, they 
 were so fatally true. She was in the world and yet not of 
 it; she understood it not at all. She was a stranger in a 
 strange land ! The wretchedness of it all touched him 
 closely, though he was still curiously angry with her for 
 her abandonment of him. How solitary, how forlorn she 
 was. All were strangers to her, save him, her husband, 
 and he could not doubt but that she would willingly part 
 from him for ever. 
 
 "See here, Marvel," said he, putting out his own and 
 taking her hand. " In this matter, at least, defer to my 
 opinion. I believe I know what is best for you. Try 
 Mrs. Verulam, and I think, in a very little while, you will 
 learn to love her. In all other respects I have given you 
 your own way. As you are not happy with me, I accede 
 to your desire to try and seek happiness where I am not. 
 1 am going abroad, for years perhaps, but from time to 
 time I shall let you or Mrs. Verulam hear of me. If by 
 chance I get my quietus, so much the better for you \ if 
 not I daresay I shall get home some day. I shall so 
 arrange with my agents that any money you may require 
 over and above your allowance shall always be awaiting
 
 MAiiVEL. 97 
 
 you. That will do, I think ; but if there is anything else, 
 you can let me know or if you would rather not write, 
 tell Cicely Verulam. And now, child, do not distress 
 yourself any more about it ; it was an unfortunate piece of 
 folly from the beginning, but you must promise me to try 
 and make the best of it." 
 
 He was speaking very seriously. When he stopped, 
 Marvel looked up at him, with her large eyes full of tears. 
 
 " I hope_>'0 will try," she said. There was something in 
 her expression 1'hat puzzled him then and dwelt in his 
 memory long afterwards. She drew her fingers out of his 
 grasp and went quickly away. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 M But still her lips refused to say ' Farewell, 1 
 For in that word that fatal word howe'er 
 We promise hope believe there breathes despair." 
 
 THERE was little more said between them as to this strange 
 parting, and the arrangements connected with it were 
 completed in a week or so. Marvel continued to avoid 
 him as much as possible, a matter in which he silently 
 helped her, being in no wise desirous of seeing her; but 
 when they did meet, it was to all outward seeming with as 
 friendly a feeling as usual. At length the day arrived on 
 which Marvel was to set out on her homeward journey, and 
 just before leaving the yacht she went into the saloon, 
 ostensibly to regain a book she had left there, but in 
 reality to bid a silent farewell to a spot in which she had 
 been for a few weeks, at least, comparatively happy. It 
 was with an irrepressible start that she saw Wriothesley 
 at the end of it. He came quickly forward ; and by a 
 supreme effort she recovered her self-possession. She was 
 dressed in her travelling-gown, with a little soft becoming 
 hat upon her head, and if rather paler than her wont, still 
 showed no sign of the anguish she was suffering. 
 
 " The last moment has come, I suppose," said Wriothesley,
 
 98 MARVEL. 
 
 trying, but failing, to speak in his natural tone. "While 
 you are away from me, you must tiy to get me back into 
 the good graces, out of which, it seems, I have so wofully 
 fallen. You will promise that, won't you ? " 
 
 She was silent. She did not know how to answer him, 
 and, besides, she was afraid that if she spoke she would 
 also burst out crying. That was to be avoided at all 
 hazards. 
 
 " What, not even that poor comfort is to be accorded 
 me?" said he; "I am in greater disgrace, it seems, even 
 than I thought." He was smiling, but there was no real 
 amusement in the smile, and, in spite of himself, he was 
 feeling singularly downhearted. Even by this child he was 
 being abandoned. He had failed at all points. The world 
 was out of joint with him, and the best of life was denied 
 him. Love flew very near, circling round and round, yet 
 though he stretched out his hands to it and called aloud, 
 it would not come nigh him. 
 
 " And you, Marvel," he said, " who would have thought a 
 baby like you could be so hard ? But perhaps it is because 
 you are one. Yet it is unlike you, too, to bear malice 
 (whatever it may be about, which is a mystery to me) for 
 so long. And, after all, / should be the one to bear it." 
 
 " You," she said suddenly, looking at him \ " oh no." 
 
 " Why not ? You remember how you once asked me, if 
 husbands ever forsook their wives, and I told you no, but 
 that wives sometimes had been known to leave their hus- 
 bands? You did not believe me then, perhaps, but you 
 will have to now. You see I spoke only the barren truth 
 It isyvu who are leaving me." 
 
 "That is better," she said slowly, "than if I had waited 
 for you to leave me." 
 
 " Was that so sure a thing? " He began to regard her 
 curiously. What wild thoughts were running in her youth- 
 ful head ? He had not grasped the truth, that sorrow was 
 quickly changing the child into the woman ; and he was 
 only doubtful as to whether it was pure fickleness or a 
 childish whim that had formed her. decision to return to 
 England. " Come," he said, " tell me why you anticipated 
 that."
 
 MAEVEL. 99 
 
 " I cannot ; I don't know," she said with nervous hesi- 
 tation. At this moment of confusion it appeared to her 
 as though she could not give a real reason for what she 
 said. 
 
 " Then I may not know my crime ? " said he, still in the 
 half-jesting tone he had used all through. 
 
 " There is no crime, and I wish you would not talk of 
 it," she said in a fit of desperation. " This is the end of it 
 all ; and why talk of it ? " 
 
 " True," he said ; " it is the end." He had grown quite 
 grave, which indeed suited more his real feeling. " Besides, 
 I do not think, after all, that there is any malice on your 
 part, or any cause for it on mire, but only that you are tired 
 of the dreary farce, you poor child ! " 
 
 This entered her heart like a sharp thrust. Tired } 
 That she was tired of him ! An angry passion of regret, 
 a terrible longing to tell him all, welled up within her, but 
 she knew that she could not do it, and rebelliously enough, 
 the longing died. No, she could not open her heart to 
 one who considered her a burden and who had looked at 
 her with hatred in his eyes. 
 
 " It is growing late," she said restlessly. 
 
 " In such mad haste to depart ? Well, come then." Yet 
 he hesitated for a moment then, " Shall we say the real 
 good-bye here," he said, " rather than at the railway 
 station ? It will be for a long time, remember and we 
 have been fri ends." 
 
 But Marvel was still vehemently if silently angry, and 
 with the anger was a numb pain that seemed to crush all 
 the life out of her. She could not respond to the gentle 
 reminder as she must have done had her mind been in a 
 happier state. She felt frozen dead to all kindly impulse, 
 and with only the living remembrance that there was " that 
 other " somewhere in some unknown place, where he fain 
 would be. 
 
 " Good-bye," she answered in a low strained tone. Her 
 eyes were on the ground. Still without looking at him, she 
 extended one small hand. He took it, and drew her a 
 little closer to him. 
 
 " Will you not kiss me, Marvel ? *
 
 loo MAKVEU 
 
 She hesitated perceptibly, and then remembering all the 
 near past, she felt that she could not do it. 
 
 " No," she said, " I do not want to kiss you ever 
 again." 
 
 He changed colour, but he said nothing more. He 
 pressed her hand very kindly and warmly, and then dropped 
 it. Burton, the maid, came in fussily with a number of 
 small parcels in her arms, and it was all over. 
 
 Presently they went ashore and he saw her into the 
 train. He had tried to procure a private carriage for her, 
 but she had not seemed to care about it, and indeed as 
 some little foreign royalties had taken most of the carriages 
 it would have been impossible. The station was quite 
 blocked by them and their noisy attendants, but he managed 
 to get Marvel very comfortably settled in spite of it all. 
 She had her books, her basket of fruit, some lovely flowers, 
 and the redoubtable Burton, who owned to six-and-thirty 
 and looked fifty, which only shows how mistaken one 
 might be in the age of any one. 
 
 There was an old lady on the opposite seat, and at the 
 very farthest end of the carriage, comfortably nestled into 
 the corner, a dark young man with a heavy moustache and 
 eager piercing black eyes that secerned to take in Marvel, 
 Wriothesley, and the old lady in one glance. An instant 
 later, he had taken in Burton also, and, an instant later 
 still, the situation. That is in so far as it meant a parting 
 between the lovely girl at the window and the tall tired- 
 looking fellow on the platform. 
 
 Marvel did not notice him at all, and Wriothesley but 
 indifferently; but Burton, who prided herself on being 
 always wide-awake and never missing anything, decided 
 immediately that he was English and a gentleman, and 
 might be useful to them in little ways on their journey. 
 Not that Lurton required assistance either for herself or her 
 mistress, as she was an old soldier and had " done the 
 Continong " as she was fond of reminding her fellow- 
 servants many a time and oft from " Boolong to Monty 
 Carlo." 
 
 Wriothesley was taking a last survey round the carriage ; 
 -hat is, Marvel's portion of it.
 
 MAKVEI* lot 
 
 "They haven't put in your rugs," he said hurriedly, 
 and rushed off to see about them. Burton was at that 
 moment struggling valiantly with a small bag that was being 
 considerably sat upon by the other numerous valises and 
 packages, and the dark young man, after following her 
 efforts for some time with open interest, rose languidly and 
 came to her assistance. Burton, pleased with the perspi- 
 cuity of a while since that had assured her he was a gentle- 
 man, and which was now confirmed beyond a doubt, said, 
 " Thank you, sir," very gratefully, and with as elaborate a 
 curtsey as the catching of her knees by the opposite cushion 
 would permit. Marvel, hearing her voice, raised her head, 
 and thus met full the penetrating gaze that the dark young 
 man was bestowing upon her whilst hastening to the help 
 of her maid. 
 
 Burton having had the bag extricated for her was 
 anxious to pass it on to her mistress, whose handkerchiefs 
 and perfumes it held, and the stranger being the nearest to 
 Marvel, and being the one standing up, naturally did it for 
 her. 
 
 "Thank you," said Marvel in her turn, and the stranger, 
 as if satisfied, bowed low and returned to his seat. He 
 was satisfied. That low, sweet, melancholy voice exactly 
 suited the exquisitely sweet and melancholy beauty of the 
 girl before him. That she was married to the rather stern- 
 looking man on the platform did not occur to him for a 
 second. 
 
 Wriothesley came hurrying back, a porter carrying the 
 rugs. The train was on the point of starting, and he 
 glanced at Marvel to see if any sign of regret showed upon 
 her passive features. She was calm and cold as ever. He 
 could hardly believe it was the merry loving child of a 
 month ago who sat there, apparently indifferent to the 
 fact that she was bidding him a farewell that might be 
 eternal. He was bitterly disappointed. He had not un- 
 derstood, of course, this freak of hers, but however brought 
 about she might, he thought, at the very last have shown 
 some feeling. 
 
 Well, good-bye," he said, pressing her hand. *' You 
 are sure you are quite comfortable ? Enough rugs ? Take
 
 108 MAEVEL. 
 
 care you make use of them, the night will be chilly 
 Good-bye ! Good-bye ! " 
 
 The train moved off. She had said nothing. Almost at 
 the last he glanced round and looked for her again. She 
 was leaning out of the carriage window, her eyes fixed on 
 him : there was a terrible despair on her young face, and 
 he could see that the tears were running down her cheeks. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " To act with common sense, according to the moment, is the 
 best wisdom I know ; and the best philosophy, to do one's 
 duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's 
 lot, and despise affectation." 
 
 " MY good child, I wish, at all events, that you would not 
 study to be absurd. Sooner or later you will have to show 
 yourself to people, and why not sooner ? You couldn't 
 possibly have a more excellent opportunity than the present, 
 yet you are bent on shirking it." 
 
 " That is scarcely it ; I " 
 
 " It is precisely it ' It,' in a nutshell. You haven't a 
 solitary good excuse for your refusal to attend my dance. 
 It is downright ungrateful of you after all the trouble I have 
 taken to make your story good during tjie past twelve 
 months. Oh ! the tarradiddles I have told, the gentle 
 hints I have flung abroad ! I have been chanting your 
 praises ceaselessly, and giving all sorts of pretty little 
 reasons for your separation from your husband, though I 
 confess it went desperately hard with me to avoid downright 
 personal abuse of that precious Fulke of yours. Cousin or 
 no cousin, in my opinion he deserves nothing short of the 
 bastinado ! However, I did abstain, and if only as a reward 
 for so unexpected a mildness, you might promise me to be 
 present on the loth." 
 
 " Dearest Cicely, if you would only not ask me," said 
 Marvel in a soft distressed tone, as she came out from 
 behind the lace curtains of the window, where she had 
 been sitting, to glance imploringly at Mrs. Verulam ; and
 
 MARVEI* 103 
 
 as she now stood with the full glory of the autumn 
 sunshine streaming down upon her, it was marvellous 
 to mark the change that a hare year had wrought in her. 
 
 Then she was a child ; now she was a woman. A girlish 
 creature still, but with a face so earnest, so intelligent, so 
 beautiful in the strictest sense of that word, that it was 
 an exquisite pleasure only to look upon her. 
 
 Yet there were lines of sadness about the mobile mouth, 
 and a mournful light in the large sweet eyes. She had 
 thought out many things and learned much that was 
 sorrowful, because inevitable, since her parting with 
 Wriothesley, although the world, as represented by society, 
 was as yet a sealed book to her. 
 
 She had gone straight to Ringwood, according to her 
 husband's desire, where Mrs. Verulam had received her, 
 having, indeed, thrown over several engagements to do so. 
 She was charmed with the pretty desolate little bride, 
 the poor little returned goods as she called her, and as she 
 learned to like her better and better, indignant with 
 Wriothesley because of his treatment of her. She had a 
 pretty accurate guess of how matters stood from the 
 beginning, and a little judicious questioning had extracted 
 enough from Marvel to make her half knowledge a whole. 
 She wrote Wriothesley a long letter, that was a perfect 
 masterpiece of elegant vituperation, and took to petting 
 Marvel as though she were an invalid of a very advanced 
 stage. 
 
 But she had her own duties to perform, and guests, 
 previously invited, to entertain, so that most of the months 
 spent in that cold northern home were solitary ones to 
 Marvel ; and sad as solitary. Now and again they were 
 broken into by Mrs. Verulam's flying visits, who was always 
 very good to her, and of whom the girl was wonderfully 
 fond ; but for all that, too much time was given her in 
 which to brood ceaselessly over her wrongs, and her 
 undying regrets. 
 
 So thought Mrs. Verulam on her last visit, and at the 
 beginning of the spring she had asserted her authority as 
 being somewhat of a guardian to the young countess, and 
 carried her away nolens volens from that bleak castle of
 
 104 MAliVEL, 
 
 sighs, down southward to her own smaller but far cosier 
 home. And after awhile Marvel had learned to be grate- 
 ful for the change. Here little time was given her for 
 morbid reflections, and after a bit some of the cruel 
 shrinking from contact with those around her wore 
 away. 
 
 Still, the world, with her, was always out of gear. There 
 was something wrong always. Her sun was ever under 
 a cloud. Each morning she awoke with a sense of dull 
 pain, and a vague knowledge that her life was wanting in 
 those fuller rounds of grief and joy that to others made 
 existence tolerable. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam would fain have carried her off with her 
 for a season in town, eager to exhibit her fresh uncommon 
 beauty to an admiring crowd, but Marvel would not listen 
 to such a proposition. She grew so pale, so distressed, at 
 the very thought of it, that Mrs. Verulam, though always 
 unwilling to give up a point, abstained from further press- 
 ing, and enjoyed her two months in town without her. 
 
 And Marvel missed her; not only her but the little 
 daughter, the saucy, merry, thoughtful child, who was Mrs. 
 Verulam's sole happy gain from a most distasteful marriage. 
 Her husband, the Hon. Moore Verulam, was dead, how- 
 ever, and the child Lulu was left, so there was a good deal 
 to be thankful for, as his wife would say sometimes, in a 
 soft plaintive way; and Verulam, whose prefix was the sole 
 honourable thing about him, had left her, without intending 
 it, a rich woman. She was a pretty woman too, of about 
 seven-and-twenty, with merry gray eyes, a rather mutinous 
 mouth, and a nose that had the faintest, sauciest inclination 
 upwards. The child Lulu was the very image of her, and 
 the idol of her rather impulsive heart. 
 
 She was now seriously ambitious of carrying a point to 
 which she had almost pledged herself. When in town she 
 had spoken so much of Lady Wriothesley's personal charms, 
 and so mysteriously of her separation from her husband, 
 that every one was eagerly desirous of being made more 
 immediately acquainted with her. Mrs. Verulam had asked 
 down a good many for the twelfth. Her brother-in-law, 
 Lord Verulam, who was an enthusiastic sportsman, and his
 
 JIAEVEL. 105 
 
 wife, amongst others, and she had half promised them that 
 this Marvel of marvels should also be one of the guests. 
 All were to arrive about the ninth, and as there was an 
 occasion to entertain a newly-made bride, Mrs. Verulam 
 had arranged to give a ball on the tenth. This would give 
 the sportsmen the whole of the eleventh on which to rest, 
 and after that the deluge for the birds. But just now her 
 programme was a little spoiled, because of the fact that 
 Marvel had steadily declined to show herself either at the 
 dance or in the house during the stay of her party. She 
 would go back to Ringwood, she said gently, until Mrs. 
 Verulam was alone again, or wanted her. But Mrs. Veru- 
 lam this time, in spite of pale looks and distressed tones, 
 pressed her sore. 
 
 " If you would only not ask me," said Marvel. 
 
 " But I shall ask you ; always, and all day long, until I 
 make your life a burden to you. Come, now, Marvel, you 
 are such a very good child that I think you ought to consider 
 how wrong it is of you to fight against those in authority. 
 And really if you come to look into it, I stand as a mother 
 to you." 
 
 Marvel laughed. 
 
 " A pretty mother you'd make me," she said, with mock 
 contempt. " Why, I could put you in my pocket ! " Mrs. 
 Verulam was a little thing, fairy-like, and mischievous; 
 Marvel, tall and slender. 
 
 " Is that a deferential speech ? I shall have to send 
 Lulu away. Go, darling, into the garden, until Marvel 
 ceases to be naughty. Now, a word with you, Madame 
 Wriothesley. You scoff at the thought of my treating you 
 as a child, yet I firmly believe that that baby who has just 
 gone out has twice your common sense." 
 
 "And all this," said Marvel, throwing out her hands 
 expressively, " because " 
 
 "You must let me give you your proper position in 
 society. Dearest girl, be reasonable. You are not a 
 nobody ; you are a countess. Do you think it is your duty 
 to hide yourself, as though as though well, as though 
 you were ashamed of something ? " 
 
 She said this rather quickly, as if a trifle ashamed of
 
 106 MAEVEL. 
 
 herself for thus working on the other's tenderest point ; yet 
 she meant well by Marvel always. 
 
 " That is it," said Marvel in a low voice. " I am 
 ashamed. What woman amongst them all is situated as I 
 am ? A wife, yet no wife. Uncared for, unloved. A burden 
 in her husband's sight. No. I cannot meet your friends." 
 
 " If you are unloved and oh, Marvel, looking at you it 
 is hard to realize that ! do not imagine you are the only 
 one in the world in that predicament." 
 
 " But how account for a separation five weeks after our 
 marriage ? Marriage ! what a mockery it all was," she said 
 with a sudden indrawing of her breath. 
 
 "I have accounted for everything. You were not well. 
 Sea-air disagreed with you. Wriothesley had to go on 
 business to Jamaica. I hope to goodness he will go to 
 Jamaica before he comes back or it will be rather awkward 
 for me. Nigger rising ; any amount of property there to be 
 looked after. He has an acre or two, I believe a corner 
 somewhere. Still detained in spite of longing to return, 
 &c. I've written it all to Wriothesley, so if he doesn't act 
 up to my manifesto, he's a worse man than I think him, 
 which is saying a lot." 
 
 " I wish you wouldn't speak of him like that," said 
 Marvel flushing and then paling. 
 
 " Well, I won't. I'll speak of him as being the possessor 
 of all the cardinal virtues if you will only consent to be one 
 of my guests on the loth. Hide yourself, up to that if you 
 will (there is always influenza and the useful headache, the 
 gods be thanked !), but do say you will appear afterwards." 
 
 "You make it very hard for me," said Marvel, tears 
 filling her eyes. " You know how I hate to disappoint you 
 in any way ; you, who have been so good to me." 
 
 " Yes, haven't I," said she laughing, " and this is for your 
 good too, you brainless person. Pull yourself together now, 
 and say ' yes ' to me." 
 
 " I shouldn't know what to say to them," nervously, " or 
 they to me. It would be but a poor experiment, and you 
 would regret it afterwards. I have not been accustomed to 
 fashionable people, and," mournfully, " you know I am not 
 happy."
 
 MARVEL. 107 
 
 " I know that you are naturally as merry as a cricket and 
 that you only want a little rousing to return to your normal 
 state. As to your behaviour, all you have to do is to talk 
 to them as you talk to me ; to look your loveliest ; to con- 
 descend a little to those of lower estate (in the way of 
 beauty), and the day is yours." 
 
 " A simple sounding thing, but oh ! how difficult ! I 
 should fail, Cicely, and then again, I have never been at a 
 ball." 
 
 Was there a relenting in this speech, a sudden youthful 
 longing for the fleshly joys hitherto unknown to her. Mrs. 
 Verulam's heart leaped in her side with a sudden access of 
 hope. 
 
 " As to that," she said, " the rules are simpler still. You 
 order a decent gown from Worth. You put on the 
 Wriothesley diamonds, and there you are. Speak, or be 
 silent ; dance, or look on as you will, I still promise you, 
 with such a face as yours, you will astonish the natives. Is 
 that enough flattery for one day ? " Then changing her 
 tone to one of earnest entreaty : " Darling Marvel ! It is 
 because I love you I thus adjure you. When Fulke comes 
 home do you think he will like to find you unknown, 
 unthought of of no account ? Rather, I think, would he 
 be pleased to know you esteemed and admired. And have 
 you no pride ? or if so, where is it ? Is it nothing to you 
 that he should find /ter, whom he had treated as an insigni- 
 ficant child, a leader, an acknowledged centre in the 
 crowd ? " 
 
 Her words seemed to burn into Marvel. She was far too 
 simple-minded, too pure, for them to do her any harm, but 
 a longing to distinguish herself, to raise herself in his eyes, to 
 show him that she was in reality more than the "insignificant 
 child " took possession of her. Her colour changed. Her 
 eyes took a deeper shade. She turned suddenly to Mrs. 
 Verulam and said in a soft but agitated tone : 
 
 " It shall be as you wish. You shall order me a gown, 
 and I will appear at your dance ; but not until then. I 
 could not. Will that satisfy you? " 
 
 " Quite. Entirely. Oh ! Marvel, I am so glad." She 
 threw her arme round Marvel's neck and kissed her. To do
 
 io8 MARVEL, 
 
 her justice she was far more sincerely glad for Marvel's sake 
 than for her own that the girl had at last consented to come 
 out of her shell Then a sudden thought struck her and 
 frightened her : 
 
 " I hope you will like the people I have asked," she said, 
 " but of course you need not talk to everybody ; and I un- 
 fortunately gave carte blanche to my sister-in-law, Lady 
 Lucy, to bring any one she chose, and she is bringing 
 Mrs. Scarlett." 
 
 " Yes," said Marvel. She waited, unaware that Mrs. 
 Verulam's steady gaze at her meant anything, and then : 
 " Who is Mrs. Scarlett, and why shouldn't she bring her ? " 
 
 " Well, because I don't happen to care for her," said 
 Mrs. Verulam somewhat confusedly. " But she has been 
 invited in my name, and there is no getting out of it. But 
 I must say I think Lady Lucy is the most troublesome 
 woman I know." 
 
 " Except me," said Marvel smiling. u But this poor 
 Mrs. Scarlett, whom you so detest. What of her ? Who 
 is she?" 
 
 " The fashionable beauty even now, though a year has 
 elapsed since she first dawned upon an appreciative London 
 audience, and a wretch" said Mrs. Verulam, quite carried 
 away by such a paltry thing as honest feeling, as she looked 
 at Marvel's gentle, spiritual face. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 "Shall not thy vision vex me alive and dead?" 
 * * # * 
 
 " Every spirit as it is most pure, 
 And hath in it the more of heavenly light, 
 So it the fairer body doth procure, 
 To habit in ; * . . . . " 
 
 THE riddles had been tuned to their most correct 
 pitch, and were playing away valiantly. The rooms were 
 growing every moment more and more crowded. Through
 
 MAKVEL. 109 
 
 all the open windows came the sweet perfume of the living 
 flowers without, to mingle with that of the dying ones 
 within. Through the close velvety darkness one's eyes 
 could pierce to where starlike lights hung suspended on 
 tree and shrub. 
 
 The lord-lieutenant of the county, who was a real live 
 duke and a bachelor to boot (though an old one) had 
 arrived half-an-hour ago, yet still the house party more 
 particularly Lady Lucy Verulam openly, and Mrs. Scarlett 
 secretly were on the very tiptoe of expectation. 
 
 Would she come ? Would she not come ? That was 
 the enthralling question of the hour. Lady Lucy almost 
 lost her place in her conversation with the duke, so absorbed 
 was she in it. She dearly loved excitement in any form, and 
 here was a chance of seeing the downfall of her dear friend 
 Mrs. Scarlett, who, up to this had reigned queen-paramount 
 of beauty. If all that Cicely had said was true ! But who 
 could be depended upon ? She rather feared that Marvel 
 would fall far below the standard raised. 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett, in an exquisite gown of cardinal brocade, 
 looked like a spot of blood in the assembly. She was 
 sitting as usual she seldom stood surrounded by a group 
 of admirers. She was as handsome as ever in her own pecu- 
 liar style, yet one could not fail to see that the year that had 
 gone by had told upon her. Her colour was a little higher, 
 her lashes blacker, but all the art in the world could not 
 hide the lines that physical pain had drawn round the thin 
 but exquisitely formed lips. She had been threatened by 
 half-a-dozen young beauties during the past season, all 
 lovely enough (said rumour) to put her in the shade, yet, 
 when confronted with her though charming girls in every 
 way it had been seen that they were nowhere, when 
 foolishly brought beneath the glare of her charms, and had 
 dropped out of notice after a while. 
 
 But to-night some strange foreboding made her heart chill. 
 All along her instinct had warned her against that protegee 
 of Lady Mary Craven's. She half dreaded this girl as a 
 possible rival, and wholly hated her as the being who had 
 stepped in and won from her her lawful prey. If that old 
 man Dawtry had not been gathered, when even over-ripe,
 
 HO MARVEL. 
 
 to his fathers, Wriothesley could easily have been let go, 
 but as he had joined the majority, it was a bitter thing to 
 her that Wriothesley her pis-aller had been put out of 
 her reach by a child, a mere chit of a thing of whom he 
 had proved himself tired in five or six weeks. She had 
 heard all Mrs. Verulam's kindly explanations of course, as 
 to the cause of Wriothesley's separation from his wife, but 
 she had carefully believed none of them. 
 
 She lay back in her chair as she thought of it now, and 
 smiled to herself insolently. She I afraid of a fool, a failure 
 such as that ! The boasted beauty of her must be a poor 
 thing, indeed, if a man could tire of it in five short weeks. 
 All through her meditations she was throwing a word here 
 and there to her courtiers, but her mind was with the 
 girl who had stolen Wriothesley from her, and spoiled her 
 chance of being a countess, and she was glad in her soul 
 that Marvel had been openly slighted by the man she had 
 married, and made of no account by him. She told herself 
 she scoffed at and derided such charms as hers charms 
 that could take and yet not hold a man, and 
 
 Marvel had entered the room ! A tall, slender, stately 
 creature, clad all in purest white, with diamonds glittering 
 on neck and arms, and gleaming warmly amongst the soft 
 masses of her lovely hair. Mrs. Verulam stood beside her, 
 and together they advanced up the room ; stopping now and 
 again as the former paused to introduce Lady Wriothesley 
 to one or two people of importance. 
 
 Marvel was looking intensely lovely, and showed the 
 terrible nervousness that was consuming her only by the 
 increasing pallor that marked her face. She was drawing 
 near the corner where Mrs. Scarlett sat, and a little hush 
 had fallen upon the people there. Mrs. Scarlett herself 
 was leaning forward, forgetful of everything but her anxiety 
 to get a nearer view of the girl, of whose face she had 
 caught a faint glimpse between the moving forms of the 
 dancers. Then there was a moment when she stood clearly 
 revealed, and Mrs. Scarlett, as she saw her, grew curiously 
 still, her breath coming from her like- a long-drawn sigh. 
 
 Some awful fascination kept her eyes fixed on Marvel 
 and then what was it ? Was she going to faint ? She
 
 MARVEL. Ill 
 
 swayed a little and then recovered herself with a sharp 
 effort. That lovely face over there. What other face did 
 it resemble? What horrible thing was this that rcse before 
 her, and cried aloud, "At last at last at last !' ;n tones 
 that would not be stifled. Was all this madness ? cr what ? 
 
 She leaned farther forward and positively glared at the 
 girl standing, pale and tranquil, and unconscious, until 
 one near her remarked the intensity of her gaze, and lightly 
 touched her on the arm with a lighter jest. She recovered 
 herself then, but her face remained pallid as the dead. 
 Thus fair and tranquil had that figure stood out from the 
 surrounding darkness in her dream. It all came back to 
 her now ! and with it a strange sense that fate was crushing 
 down upon her, that seemed to paralyze her limbs ; she 
 made a vehement struggle to overcome her emotion, and 
 after a while succeeded. But the weary pain in her side that 
 was beginning to torment her day and night grew stronger 
 because of this effort, and she leant languidly back in her 
 chair, hardly deigning to answer those who spoke to her. 
 
 Marvel unconsciously was creating a sensation. Her 
 strange romantic wedding was, of course, town-talk, and 
 now everybody, more or less, was discussing her merits and 
 demerits. So this was the little waif, the stray that 
 Wriothesley had married ! No one knew who she was. A 
 mere nobody, nay, in all probability, worse than a nobody. 
 Of course, that sort of thing never did. Here was she now 
 irretrievably bound to him, but where was he ? It was one 
 of the most unfortunate things that had happened to a 
 young man of position for a very long time. All this from 
 the women. The men were more lenient ; they could see, 
 and acknowledge, that at all events she was unspeakably 
 beautiful, and allowed there was every excuse for even so 
 rash a marriage. But how account for his long absence ? 
 That puzzled them, even more than the women, who were 
 not so willing to admit her charms. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam was faithful to Marvel, and kept her beside 
 her without appearing to do so, knowing well how unstrung 
 she was, and how unequal to the carrying on of light con- 
 versation with those around her in her present mood. But 
 after a while she began to be besieged with entreaties for
 
 H2 MAEVEL. 
 
 an introduction to Lady Wriothesley, who already, even at 
 this early stage of her appearance in public, was becoming 
 the rage. Lady Lucy Verulam, too, was delighted with 
 her. This was not one of Cicely's absurd swans who in- 
 variably turned out geese, but a real, bond, fide rara avis. 
 Unquestionably she would be the new beauty, and as it is* 
 always politic to be on good terms with a rising star, she 
 made herself amazingly civil. 
 
 But presently Marvel moved away to get through a square 
 dance with the duke, feeling secretly shy and uncertain, 
 and yet half longing to join the gay dancing circle without, 
 and Mrs. Verulam, finding herself alone, turned instantly 
 upon her sister-in-law, whom she had not had the chance 
 of scolding before. 
 
 " My dear Lucy, how could 'you have asked Mrs. Scarlett," 
 she said in a highly aggrieved tone. 
 
 " My dear creature, why not ? " returned Lady Lucy, a 
 large handsome florid woman of about forty-five, whose 
 manners, although she was the third daughter of a marquis, 
 could scarcely be termed her strong point. She was not 
 exactly ill-natured, but she was capable of doing or saying 
 a hurtful thing now and again. 
 
 " When I gave you leave to ask here whom you would to 
 please yourself, I certainly did think you would have re- 
 membered that Lady Wriothesley was likely to be one of 
 my party." 
 
 " Well, so I did. I recollected it perfectly ; that was 
 why I asked Leonie. In the dull season, when the men 
 think of nothing but their bags, any little excitement be- 
 comes desirable ; and a meeting between those two ought 
 to have something of the tragic in it. By-the-by, it hasn't 
 come off yet, has it ? I should be sorry to miss it." 
 
 " I wish you would arrange for your little excitements to 
 come off in somebody else's house. I shall not have 
 Marvel subjected to anything of the kind. She is not of 
 the common clay one meets always, and I don't care to see 
 her annoyed. Considering all that has occurred between 
 Mrs. Scarlett and Wriothesley, her being here now is awk- 
 ward, to say the least of it." 
 
 " Nonsense. If every woman of vour acquaintance
 
 MAEVEL. 113 
 
 objected to meet the other woman with whom her husband 
 is, or was, in love, there would be precious little visiting 
 going on anywhere, I take it. And, besides, Lady 
 Wriothesley, so far as I can judge, is far from stupid." 
 
 "You judge very correctly. She is, on the contrary, 
 cleverer than most, and has been educated to quite a pitch. 
 She has an exquisite voice not powerful, but purest music 
 all through. With regard to Mrs. Scarlett, however, your 
 argument about others' feelings is nothing to me. I care 
 only that Marvel should not be hurt, and that woman is 
 capable of anything." 
 
 " Short of suicide," said Lady Lucy laughing. " She'll 
 never hurt herself. I say, did you see the glance she cast 
 at the little one as she came up the room ? It was a play 
 in itself a play of feature certainly. Already she could 
 eat her, seeing herself virtually dethroned. Rawdon told 
 me she was frantic when she first heard of Wriothesley's 
 marriage. It appears she knew nothing of it until after the 
 old duke's death, which must have piled up the agony a 
 bit To be a countess would have been a come down, but 
 it would have been better than the nothing that it now is." 
 She chuckled to herself again, and then : " I wonder how 
 she escaped hearing of it ? " 
 
 " Nobody heard of it until weeks had gone by. It was a 
 hurried affair, and their starting in the yacht directly after 
 the very afternoon of the wedding in fact made 
 Wriothesley forget to put it in the papers. It must have 
 been rather a shock to her ; but I really grudge her nothing. 
 She behaved shamefully to him." 
 
 " Kindly, / think," said Lady Lucy, with a faint yawn. 
 " She would have made a truly odious cousin, though a 
 possible companion. I for one should never have forgiven 
 her," with a shrug of her ample shoulders that signified dis- 
 taste for Mrs. Scarlett, though she professed herself to be 
 the latter's bosom friend. " She can be as nasty as any 
 one I know when the moment suits her. By-the-by, does 
 Marvel know about her and Wriothesley ? " 
 
 " I am quite certain she does not." 
 
 " That is bad for your friend," said Lady Lucy. " Leonie 
 is not likely to let her go without a sting or two."
 
 II 4 MARVEL. 
 
 " That is why I am so distressed at her being here. Now 
 she has come I am of course bound to be civil, but I warn 
 you I shall defend Marvel at all risks ; and I agree with 
 you that that woman is not to be trusted ; she will not 
 respect that poor child's innocence, but will say something 
 that will explain the whole unhappy story to her." 
 
 " And so put her in ' a tender taking ' ? Well, I 
 shouldn't wonder ; " said Lady Lucy. " I know the languid 
 Leonie as well as most, and it seems to me a likelj^ thing 
 that she should seek to make that child's life a burden to 
 her, if only for the sake of dear revenge. Therefore, a 
 word to you, Cicely ; forestall Mrs. Scarlett in her com- 
 munication I mean, have the first of it ; in that way you 
 will take the edge off the knife. Tell Marvel yourself ot 
 that old attachment of Wriothesley's which I rather fancy 
 is still alive and put her on her guard. That is the truest 
 friendship you can show her. And positively I begin to 
 think she has bewitched even me, case-hardened as I am, 
 with those pretty looks of hers, or I should not be now 
 lecturing you as to her defence. You will tell her ? " 
 
 "I really I that is Well, I really don't believe I 
 
 could," said Mrs. Verulam, as if half ashamed of this 
 sudden weakness. 
 
 " Well, if you can't, I warn you that presently there will 
 be a most unlovely row somewhere," said her sister-in-law 
 with lazy warmth. " To be as old as you, Cicely, and so 
 wanting in strength of mind, is deplorable." 
 
 " I'm not so very old, if it comes to that," said Mrs. 
 Verulam ; " and I need not be put on the shelf altogether 
 simply because I am the widow of a man whom " 
 
 "You detested, even as heartily as I did," concluded 
 Lady Lucy agreeably. " Quite so. You are not on the 
 shelf at all, my dear, and I shall probably hear of your 
 second marriage some day ; but in the meantime do your 
 duty and warn your pretty friend of what lies in her path. 
 I d do it ; but Leonie might take it badly if she heard of it, 
 and as yet she is useful to me : she fills my rooms. By- 
 and-by Marvel will fill them better and then " 
 
 " You are the most candidly false person I ever met,' 
 said Cicely, looking at her with something akin to admira.
 
 MARVEL. 115 
 
 tion. "When thinking of you, I always feel you would sell 
 me for sixpence, if the gaining of that small coin would do 
 you any good." 
 
 "You are candidly frank" said Lady Lucy smiling 
 she was quite unmoved by the other's outburst " which is 
 another way of saying you are abominably rude; but I 
 prefer that sort of thing to the other. Sweets pall, espe- 
 cially when you know they are hollow. And after all I 
 wouldn't sell you, Cicely, for anything less than a crown." 
 She laughed in the soft fat way that belongs to fat women. 
 " A sixpence is a paltry thing, and fetches very little. You 
 will speak to Marvel ? " 
 
 " I shall have to think about it first." 
 
 " Think hard, then, until you come to my view of the 
 case ; though one shouldn't be quite down on Leonie at 
 present. Did you hear that she is ill suffering ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " She is. Something internal. I worried that much out 
 of old Grainger when he came to see if the pimple on the 
 baby's nose meant scarlatina or small pox. It was neither, 
 as it happened. Yes, she is really ill ; but she won't give 
 in to it. Something about the heart, I imagine, that may 
 carry her off at any moment." 
 
 " How dreadful ! " said Mrs. Verulam ; but she did not 
 seem to care much. She had begun to think again of 
 Marvel. Was she alone, or distressed, or in want of her ? 
 She was astonished at her own affection for the girl, and 
 started off in search of her. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 **Of dreams now dwelling where dead roses dwell. * 
 
 AT one of the doorways she encountered a tall, lanky man 
 of about thirty-five, with a thoughtful, kindly face, who 
 ventured to lay his hand upon her lovely naked arm. 
 
 " Whither away so fast ? " said he. He looked at her. 
 He had a most genial smile. " Surely you can spare me a 
 second to bid me welcome, though late in the day ? " 
 
 8 a
 
 n6 MAKVEL. 
 
 " Nay, early," retorted she, pointing to a clock in the 
 hall outside, whose hands stood at two ; " but you are 
 welcome, nevertheless, at any hour, any time." 
 
 Her expressive face had grown very bright, and a little 
 gleam had come into her eyes. 
 
 " I never thought you could have come ; that card I sent 
 anticipated no such reply as your presence here." 
 
 " I should have stayed away, it seems to me. Yet it 
 is unlike you to be so chary of gracious words. How have 
 I offended your majesty ? " 
 
 " How have you gratified me, rather ! I believed you in 
 Rotterdam, yet here you are, and you know all old friends 
 are dear to me." 
 
 " A detestable remark ! What am I among so many ? 
 Rotterdam is not a spot to hanker after, yet truly I would 
 wish myself there now." 
 
 " Great men must be forgiven their little fibs," said Mrs. 
 Verulam saucily, " and since the papers have been adminis- 
 tering to you doses of flattery on your scientific researches, 
 one hardly dares to question any word of yours ; yet I am 
 loath to believe you would rather be in Rotterdam than 
 here." 
 
 " Yet you know why I went to Rotterdam ? " 
 
 " You can be dull as well as the most of them, in spite of 
 your learning," said she pettishly, and turned away ; but he 
 followed her. 
 
 " There, I was wrong. If we can't be more, let us at 
 least be friends," said he with a resignation of himself to 
 circumstances that somehow nettled her. Just at this 
 moment, however, a little man with a bald appearance and 
 a humorous eye came up to her. 
 
 " I've been looking for you everywhere," he 11' d. " How 
 d'ye do, Townshend. I thought you had gom off to ihe 
 happy hunting grounds of Northern America with Wriothes- 
 ley and that lot. Oh ! by the way, Mrs. Verulam, what did 
 you mean by hiding away Lady Wriothesley from us all this 
 time, and then letting her burst upon us without a word of 
 warning. I daresay it is actionable. ' Fellows like me, with 
 weak action of the heart, might go off at any moment if 
 subjected to a sudden shock, ..and such charms as hers !
 
 MAKVEL. 117 
 
 Have you seen her, Townshend ? This new beauty who will 
 eclipse all other lights ? No? Steel your heart, then, for 
 there is something very special about her I can tell you." 
 
 " My heart is cased with iron bands," said Sir George, 
 and with a slight salutation to Mrs. Verulam he turned 
 aside. So did Mrs. Verulam instantly, in the other direc- 
 tion. 
 
 " I say, don't all go at once," exclaimed Mr. Kitts in an 
 aggrieved tone. " Here I thought I was surely in for a little 
 sensible conversation with you two, and just as I begin you 
 both give me the cold shoulder. It isn't nice, you know. 
 'Tisn't kind. You are a very Solomon amongst men, we all 
 know, Townshend, but to turn your back on a friend, how- 
 ever great a poor fool he may be, shows no wisdom. And 
 you, Mrs. Verulam, are you looking for anything ? " 
 
 " I'm looking for my new baby," said Mrs. Verulam 
 laughing, " that same paragon of beauty you were lauding 
 to the skies just now. She doesn't know her way about 
 quite yet, and I'm bound to look after her. She is only 
 just out of her long clothes, and can't run alone without my 
 help. Hitherto she has resided on an immaculate solitude, 
 in the bosom of a deserted village. This is her first insight 
 into a frivolous society such as we live and breathe, and 
 have our being in ; her first glimpse at the ' lights o' 
 London,' as represented by you and Sir George." 
 
 " Consider me withered ! " said Mr. Kitts in a low des 
 pendent tone. " And yet how have I deserved this ! And 
 to put me before Sir George ! There was a depth of cruelty 
 in that hardly to be fathomed." 
 
 " Never mind," said Sir George, who was annoyed by the 
 little mocking glance she had cast at him, " I believe, of we 
 two, you are by far the cleverer man." 
 
 He pointed this remark by a look at Mrs. Verulam, warm 
 with reproach, and then left her. 
 
 " It's such a mistake to eat things that don't agree with 
 one, isn't it ? " said Mr. Kitts, a propos of nothing appa- 
 rently, but Mrs. Verulam wisely refrained from asking his 
 meaning. 
 
 Meantime Marvel, who had been dancing with other and 
 younger people than the duke, had stopped near a conser-
 
 ii8 MARVEL. 
 
 vatory door to collect her breath and her thoughts. She 
 was amazed at her own sensations. Only that morning she 
 had looked with horror on the thought of being dragged 
 from her dear seclusion to the warm lights of notoriety. 
 Yet now, she was yes, she could not deny it, enjoying 
 herself intensely. She had let herself go, as it were, and 
 with all the ardour of youth was entering into her dances 
 with a verve, a delight, that lit her lovely eyes and made 
 her ten times more charming than when she entered the 
 room an hour ago. 
 
 Now, every one was talking of her. Lady Lucy was going 
 about making noisy sonnets in her praise, and many of the 
 women, following her lead, some from prudential motives 
 and some from honest conviction, were saying all sorts 
 of pretty things about her. 
 
 The heroine of all this admiration was at the present 
 moment feeling a little pleasant fatigue. She moved back- 
 wards into the conservatory near, and listened with an 
 appreciative ear to the suggestion of her partner that he 
 should go and get her an ice. He sped swiftly on his 
 errand, and Marvel moved a little farther inland to find 
 some seat whereon to rest herself. 
 
 A soft and downy couch attracted her eye ; she went 
 quickly towards it, but half way there she saw something 
 that attracted her even more. This was a tall dark young 
 man with eager eyes, who was leaning against a wall. 
 
 As she saw him she started slightly, but perceptibly. 
 Where had she last seen him ? What past picture did his 
 presence conjure up ? She was here, it was true, in sober 
 England, and yet she was there too, far away in the sunny 
 south, gazing out of the window of a railway carriage with 
 all her heart in her eyes. Once again Wriothesley stood 
 before her, as on that day when they had parted. He was 
 talking to her kindly words that showed her how real was 
 his anxiety for her comfort on the journey that would 
 separate her from him, perhaps for ever. All round her 
 were the flowers, the fruit, the books he had procured for 
 her to beguile the time ; evidences, each of them of the 
 care he had lavished on her. She could hear once more 
 his words of gentle inquiry, could see his friendly smile ;
 
 MARVEL. 119 
 
 all these indeed he had given her all, save that one thing 
 which she alone craved his love ! 
 
 Tears dimmed her eyes as she looked at the stranger,- 
 who had called to life these remembrances that were better 
 dead. Surely, it was he who had been in the carriage with 
 her on that eventful day, and who, during the short time he 
 had travelled with her, had been so courteously desirous ot 
 saving her from every small discomfort. An impulsive desire 
 to speak to him was strong within her, but she controlled it, 
 why she hardly knew, and with a rather nervous bearing 
 seated herself on the lounge she had first looked at As 
 she did so her fan fell from her hand, and rattled upon the 
 stone flooring. The young man came swiftly, yet leisurely, 
 forward, picked it up, and with a low bow presented it to 
 her. As she took it their eyes met. and there was so much 
 humble entreaty, mingled with so flattering a deference in 
 his whole air, that Marvel gave room to the natural gracious- 
 ness within her, and determined at all risks to give him a 
 gentle word. 
 
 " Thank you. It is not the first service you have done 
 me, I think," she said very shyly and very sweetly. 
 
 His whole manner changed at once, and the dark beauty 
 of his face brightened with a smile. 
 
 " How good of you," he exclaimed softly, yet eagerly, 
 " to remember me to acknowledge me ! It is more than 
 I dared hope for. I have dreamt of such a moment as 
 this in all the past measureless year, but how seldom dreams 
 so bright are realized." 
 
 There was a suppressed vehemence in his manner that 
 should have warned her, but she was so ignorant of love- 
 making in all its variations that she missed the core of his 
 speech. So he seemed only kind. A little extravagantly 
 so, considering how small had been her acquaintance wilh 
 him, but still kind. 
 
 " I wonder you remembered me," she said smiling at him, 
 though still somewhat shy in look and tone. " They tell 
 me this last year has greatly changed me." 
 
 " They tell you true. Yet I should have known you any- 
 where. You are changed in so far, that " He hesitated 
 
 as if finding a difficulty in going on with those large limpid
 
 [20 MAKVEL. 
 
 eyes fixed on his. A florid compliment to the owner of 
 those clear orbs would be almost a cruelty. " You are stay- 
 ing here ? " he asked with some abruptness. 
 
 " Yes, for a time at least. Mrs. Verulam is my cousin." 
 By marriage she did not say. She never thought of her in 
 that wise. 
 
 " And my very good friend. We have known each other 
 for years, as my home is only two miles from this. If you 
 ask her about me," smiling, " she will vouch for me." 
 
 " Not if I do not give her your name," with a swift 
 glance. 
 
 " A thousand pardons," said he. " My name is Savage." 
 
 " Mr. Savage ? " 
 
 " Yes. I've a father still somewhere," said he carelessly. 
 She was a little shocked by his tone, which contained a 
 distinct sneer, and she wondered vaguely if he wished his 
 father dead because of the title he would evidently inherit, 
 or if he and his father were on such bad terms that no love 
 was to be felt or expressed between them. Oh ! if only 
 she had had a father ! Instinctively she raised her hand 
 and felt for the battered locket she always wore, hidden in 
 her breast, and wondered in a vague sad manner if such a 
 tender name could be given by her to the handsome face 
 within it. Lost in this waking dream she half forgot the 
 man beside her until a direct question from him recalled 
 her to the present. 
 
 " I can recollect how sorry you were to leave your friend 
 
 that day " he was saying, with deliberate intent to learn. 
 
 " He was a friend ? " 
 
 He asked the question with as much unconcern as he 
 could muster, yet he was curiously anxious to learn if the 
 man who had parted from her so easily, and for whom she 
 had felt so sincere a regret, was her friend or her brother 
 or what. That he could be the husband of the childish 
 creature who sat weeping on the opposite seat had never 
 entered his. head. 
 
 " A friend ? I hope so, " replied she slowly. The ques- 
 tion startled her a little. Was Wriothesley her friend ? In 
 the old sweet days he had been her best, her truest friend, 
 but after that sad mistaken marriage She didn't
 
 MARVEL. 121 
 
 know. She could only " hope " so now she was no longer 
 sure. 
 
 " Have you seen him since ? " asked Savage in the same 
 deliberate way. He knew he was unpardonably rude, but 
 he could not conquer his devouring longing to know. 
 
 " Lord Wriothesley ? No. He has been abroad ever 
 since," said she simply, if a little curtly. It was always an 
 embarrassment to her to speak of him, though the mention 
 of his name suggested nothing to Savage, who had been 
 too long out of England himself to be au fait with any of 
 the current gossip ; and had in fact only returned to it 
 about a week ago. 
 
 " It was a strange fancy, perhaps, of mine," said he, 
 looking straight at her, and with a rather regulated smile, 
 " but on that day when I saw the parting between you, I 
 imagined he was your brother. One forms ideas of that 
 sort, you know, almost unconsciously. I was wrong ? " 
 
 "Yes. I am not his sister." She hesitated, as if she 
 would have said more, but hardly knew how to frame her 
 sentence. He was too much absorbed with the bafflement 
 to notice the shade of trouble that crossed her face. Was 
 he never to know ? 
 
 " I should of course have known that. No faintest like- 
 ness was there, to help me to my false belief. Yet, though 
 older than you in a great degree, he was yet not old enough 
 to be your father or your uncle. That was how the mistake 
 arose I daresay. I fixed on brother, very elder brother 
 of course, as the real thing ; but it seems he was not 
 that ? " 
 
 He felt that he was daring a good deal, even her con- 
 tempt, but the overpowering desire to settle this matter 
 once for all, drove him on. 
 
 "Lord Wriothesley is my husband !" replied she, with 
 a certain gentle dignity, though her face grew white. 
 
 Savage stared at her, forgetful of all decorum. Her hus- 
 band ! She was married ! This innocent-eyed child ! Good 
 heavens, what a blank ending to as real a romance as was 
 ever commenced ! A sense of general loss, a vacuum 
 everywhere, oppressed him for one deadly moment, and 
 then he knew he should have to rouse himself and take
 
 122 MAEVEL. 
 
 things as they were, not as they should be if he had 
 had the regulating of circumstances. 
 
 " He is to be envied," he said with a little society smile 
 and bow, and then Lady Wriothesley's partner arriving 
 with the promised ice, he bowed again, and slipped away 
 into an adjoining room, where he came face to face with 
 his hostess. 
 
 "Seen a ghost, Nigel?" asked she somewhat caustic- 
 ally ; she was not in her prettiest mood. " You look dazed 
 enough for anything. But I'm sorry to spoil the idea 
 there isn't anything half so respectable as a ' walking gentle- 
 man' in this house." 
 
 " It was a lady," said he with a partially developed smile. 
 . " Mrs. Scarlett ? She is the nearest thing I know to it, 
 to-night." 
 
 " Wrong. My spirit is of a more heavenly type. I did 
 not know you had a cousin, and such a cousin, as Lady 
 Wriothesley ! " 
 
 " Is that it ? " said she. " But I forbid raptures. She 
 is forbidden goods, you know sour grapes. And she is 
 not my cousin after all." 
 
 " She said she was " 
 
 " And such lips could utter no untruth ! Well, you are 
 only just there," relenting as she thought of Marvel; 
 "they could not. Her husband is my cousin, not she, 
 worse luck for me. But I suppose she regards it as being 
 all the same thing ; it is, I feel, very good of her. No 
 one could object to her as a cousin, could they ? You 
 wouldn't ? " 
 
 " Yes, I should. I should object to her in any light but 
 one," said he. His laugh was so curious that Mrs. Verulam 
 looked closely at him. 
 
 " I hope you aren't going to be nonsensical," she said. 
 " If you are, I may as well say at once that Marvel is not 
 a person to be regarded in that light. You had better go 
 abroad again, or fling yourself into the nearest river, if you 
 think you have lost your heart to her." 
 
 " Well, to tell you the truth, I was thinking of the river 
 just now," said he. " But I am such an unfortunately good 
 swiramer, and one might strike out perhaps, one doesn't
 
 MARVEL. 123 
 
 know. As to the going abroad theory, that never holds 
 water. One's thoughts and memories can go abroad too," 
 " What am I to understand by all that ? " 
 "That I am coming to see you to-morrow." 
 " Well, your blood be on your own head," said she. 
 " When you are as miserable as man can be, don't blame 
 me." 
 
 " What am I to understand by that 9 " demanded he in 
 turn. 
 
 "That Lady Wriothesley is that foolish thing, a woman 
 in love with her own husband ! " 
 
 But Savage had seen the sudden pallor that had 
 overspread the young face when Marvel had spoken of 
 Wriothesley as her husband, and had drawn therefrom his 
 own conclusions. Later on, too, he dropped a casual 
 question to an old acquaintance of his, a colonel of 
 dragoons and an inveterate gossip, who in reply put him 
 in possession of a highly-coloured version of the " Wrio- 
 thesley affair," as he, the colonel, called it a version that 
 proved those already formed conclusions only too correct 1 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 "When grief about me clings 
 Through fortune's fit or fume of jealousy, 
 Your sweet kind eye beats down her threatening! 
 As wind doth smoke." 
 
 IT was very late that night, or rather early in the morning, 
 when Mrs. Verulam pushed open the door of Marvel's 
 room, and with a soft little apology entered it. 
 
 " Not in bed yet, I hope ? No ? Then I am in luck. I 
 have so many things to think about that I cannot do it all 
 by myself, and so I have come to you. I was so afraid I 
 should find you in the middle of your beauty sleep not 
 that you vant it, you should make over such unnecessary 
 things to those who really require them a sort of national 
 bequest ! I tried my best to come sooner, sparing neither
 
 124 MARVEL. 
 
 hints nor yawns, but Lucy is a person not to be easily 
 routed. She stayed until she had finished her last dull 
 word. She is in love with you, however, so I forgive her 
 her many sins." 
 
 " Lady Lucy ? " said Marvel, opening her eyes. 
 
 " Actually Lady Lucy ! You are a little witch, I think, 
 Marvel ; you have cast a spell over most of us, but you must 
 be careful there is a certain class of people whom it is 
 always awkward to bring to one's feet." She spoke mean- 
 ingly, watching Marvel as she spoke, but the girl remained 
 supremely unconscious. 
 
 " Is Lady Lucy one of them ? " she asked. 
 
 " Far from it. It is wisdom to captivate her. A woman 
 with a tongue is a bad foe, and one hard to beat." 
 
 " Is it Mrs. Scarlett, then ? " 
 
 " After all, I don't believe I meant anything," said Cicely, 
 sitting down upon the hearth-rug and proceeding to build 
 up the already brilliant fire with bits of wood and coal. She 
 was looking very sweet and dainty in her loose gown of 
 white lace and cachemire, and made a contrast to Marvel, 
 who was still in her 'satin gown and diamonds, and who had 
 not even taken off her long wrinkled gloves. 
 
 " Why, you are not undressed," said Mrs. Verulam sud- 
 denly. " What have you been thinking about ? Now that 
 I look at you I can see that you have been at your dreams 
 again. I wish you wouldn't. I know he isn't worth it." 
 
 " I haven't been thinking so much of Fulke," said Marvel 
 mournfully, "as of Mrs. Scarlett." Cicely started; the 
 conjunction of names was, to say the least of it, a 
 singular one. Had she heard anything? She looked at 
 Marvel searchingly, to find the girl was looking at her with 
 a very troubled expression in her eyes. "Cicely," she 
 said, " Mrs. Scarlett hates me 1 " 
 
 Cicely laughed. 
 
 "Well, what did you expect?" she said ; " you should have 
 been prepared for that." 
 
 " But why ? What have I done to her ? Do you know ? 
 It is foolish, perhaps, but I can't bear people to dislike 
 me, and no one has ever hated me before. At least I I 
 hope, I think not." She sighed deeply. " When a person
 
 MAKVEL. 125 
 
 was in another person's way, did that other person hate 
 one ? " This lucid conundrum she proposed to herself, but 
 found no answer to it. Perhaps it was too deep ! " How 
 have I injured her?" she went on out aloud, alluding 
 again to Mrs. Scarlett. 
 
 "You have committed the unpardonable sin you have 
 
 outshone her. That for one thing, and for another "She 
 
 checked herself. " You see Mrs. Scarlett has been far too 
 long the acknowledged beauty of our world, to look with 
 loving eyes upon a rival. Years do not always bring sense, 
 and you have supplanted her." 
 
 " But it is all such nonsense," said Marvel, with fine con- 
 tempt. " You say that, merely as an excuse for the strange 
 and open aversion she has shown me. But there is some- 
 thing more." 
 
 " Modesty is a charming quality," said Mrs. Verulam, 
 rather alarmed by her last words, " but on me it has a 
 nauseating effect. One should be blind, not to see how all 
 eyes followed you to-night. You are a success, my pretty 
 maiden. So much is assured to you. Your triumph over 
 that green-eyed belle is as complete as it is desirable." Her 
 own eyes shone in the firelight as she spoke, and she 
 caught Marvel and gave her a little hug. It was delightful 
 to her that the girl should thus innocently have trodden her 
 foe beneath her foot. " After all," she continued presently, 
 "there is nothing like youth; and between you and me, 
 well as she undoubtedly wears, the charming Leonie is no 
 chicken. Why, she might be your mother ! :? 
 
 Marvel was silent. She had not heard one half of Mrs. 
 Verulam's babble, as that astute young woman knew. 
 
 " There ! After all my eloquence ! To think I should 
 have discoursed so agreeably only to bare walls. You 
 haven't heard a word of it, have you ? " She began to 
 laugh as she caught Marvel's contrite glance. " Don't try 
 to look a lie," she said ; " one should never essay to do any- 
 thing out of their own province. And besides I can forgive 
 you, as your punishment consists in your having been deaf 
 to a really good thing." 
 
 " Say it again," entreated Marvel, " and I promise you I 
 shall listen."
 
 126 MAEVEL. 
 
 " Impossible. Bursts of genius cannot be done to order 
 The gist of the matter lay, however, in the fact that I 
 said Mrs. Scarlett was old enough to be your mother." 
 
 Marvel cast a faintly reproachful glance at her. 
 
 " Oh no," she said, and then with terrible wistfulness, 
 "My mother! Have you forgotten, Cicely, that I am in 
 reality nameless, that you talk so lightly ? It is a strange 
 thought, is it not, that I may not, and yet may, have a 
 mother. If she be living I know not where she is, and if 
 she be dead why I know not that either." 
 
 " You always speak of a mother, why not of a possible 
 father," said Cicely, stroking her hand. " He, too, may be 
 living ; you may meet him some day." In her soul she 
 hoped not, for the girl's sweet sake. 
 
 " I am sure he is dead," said Marvel dreamily. " I 
 don't know why, but I am sure of it. Did I ever show you 
 his likeness ? " As she spoke she drew from her bosom that 
 old battered locket and opened and held it out to her friend. 
 
 " I didn't know you had a picture of your father," said 
 Cicely startled. " Why this is a clue, and yet I have been 
 always told that no one knew of " 
 
 " No one does, for certain ; yet I feel that this picture 
 which hung round my neck on the night that Fulke that 
 Lady Mary took me into her house out of that terrible 
 storm and wind and rain," she shuddered, " was the por- 
 tiait of my father !" 
 
 " Let me see it," said Mrs. Verulam eagerly. Long and 
 earnestly she gazed at it, and then at Marvel. " It is 
 strangely like you. and yet unlike," she said. " Do you 
 know, when first I met you I thought you singularly re- 
 sembled some one I knew, but try as I would I could not 
 fit the resemblance ? " 
 
 " My father this portrait perhaps you know // / " said 
 Marvel, with strong emotion, bending towards her so as to 
 study her features. But Mrs. Verulam shook her head. 
 
 " I do not know it," she said. " This face," looking at 
 the portrait " is entirely strange to me, although it is so 
 marvellously like you. What a handsome man, what a 
 chiselled nose and mouth ! Yes, keep this picture safely, 
 Marvel, it may yet be of great value to you."
 
 MAKVEL. 127 
 
 " I doubt it," despondently. " Too much time has now 
 gone by to hope for proofs of my birth." 
 
 " In effect you are a mystery a beautiful, an interesting 
 one," cried Mrs. Verulam brightly. " Don't be down- 
 hearted about that, it adds to you somehow. It suits you. 
 To return once more to Mrs. Scarlett, however, I must say 
 I wish " 
 
 " /wish," interrupted Marvel, with a touch of vehemence, 
 " that she had not betrayed such a deep animosity towards 
 me. I would that she liked me." 
 
 " Well, do you know you fascinated her as much as you 
 repelled her," said Mrs. Verulam thoughtfully, as she sank 
 down again upon the white fur rug and took her knees into 
 her embrace. " I could see that she could not take her 
 eyes off you ; they followed you persistently in whatever 
 room you might be in, and she grew positively restless when 
 you were out of her sight. When you left a room, almost 
 instantly she made some excuse and left it too, I am almost 
 sure to follow you. It was the most exaggerated case ot 
 jealousy I ever saw, or else " 
 
 She hesitated unmistakably, and Marvel awoke to the fact 
 that there was something hidden from her that it were well 
 she knew. 
 
 " Go on," she said gently, though a deep pink spot had 
 come into either cheek. " You were going to say some- 
 thing ; say it ! You know more than you would willingly 
 tell me, yet I entreat you, dear Cicely, to be frank with me." 
 She spoke so vehemently that Mrs. Verulam's usual finesse 
 f jrsook her. 
 
 " Why should you imagine things ? " she said confusedly. 
 
 " You will tell me ? " persisted Marvel in a low tone, 
 bending over her and turning her face to hers. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 11 And they laugh well who laugh the last. 
 Is it not past ? " 
 
 STILL Mrs. Verulam hesitated. Then she began to con- 
 sider a little. After all, if she refused to explain the
 
 128 MAKVEL. 
 
 matter to Marvel, so many others knew of it that it must 
 infallibly come to her ears sooner or later. And those 
 others, would they put it as gently to her as she, Cicely, 
 who loved her ? 
 
 Yet how to hurt that tender heart ! She shrank from 
 the task, and cowardwise had almost made up her mind to 
 deny everything, when she remembered Lady Lucy's some- 
 what bold advice, given early in the evening. She had 
 more than hinted her belief that Mrs. Scarlett would herself 
 seek to wound the beautiful Lady Wriothesley, by letting 
 her know the terms on which she and Lord Wriothesley 
 had been when the latter had married Marvel. Lady 
 Lucy, who knew Leonie Scarlett well, had given this as her 
 sure opinion of what would happen unless she, Cicely, 
 would speak a word of warning to the poor pretty child, 
 who, the most concerned in it all, was yet the most 
 ignorant. 
 
 Oh, to think of that woman in her low, soft, cruel voice, 
 laying bare to Marvel so fatal a truth as Wriothesley's love 
 for another ! The thought was not to be borne. So Mrs. 
 Verulam, with a little inward gasp of fear, girded up her 
 loins and rushed into the breach. 
 
 " Well, if you must know The fact is " she 
 
 began with a stammer that was far from reassuring. 
 
 " Don't make a beginning a preface ! Leave all that 
 out," said Marvel, whose face was very pale. " Tell me at 
 once whatever it is." 
 
 " You shouldn't look like that. It is really nothing. 
 Nothing more than happens to most women. You must 
 be sensible about it," said Mrs. Verulam, who was frightened. 
 
 " Can't you speak ? It is about Mrs. Scarlett, I know. 
 Well, if I must question you, what of her ? " 
 
 " Only that there was once a a flirtation between her 
 and Wriothesley." 
 
 " Once 1 How long ago ? " 
 
 " Eh ? Oh, quite a long while now." 
 
 " I beseech you to tell me no lies," cried Marvel, rising 
 to her feet and pushing back her 'chair. "I can bear 
 it, whatever ic is. I am no child, no fool. And to be 
 trifled with is not to be endured. Tell me all. By ' once '
 
 MARVEL. 129 
 
 you mean that that he loved that woman when he married 
 me?" 
 
 She looked so pale, so determined, that Mrs. Verulam 
 gave in. 
 
 " That is the truth," she said in a low tone ; " though 
 how how he could " 
 
 "Not a word not just yet," breathed Marvel, raising 
 her hand as if to enjoin silence. She moved to the 
 window, and flinging it wide, as one might who was 
 suffocating, she leaned out into the velvet darkness beyond. 
 
 What thoughts were hers just then ! What despair ! 
 What passionate reproach ! Night was near its death, and 
 already the first faint streaks of dawn illumined the fir-clad 
 hills. The stars were " burnt out in the pale blue air ; " 
 there was a rustling amongst the leaves as the early-waking 
 breeze stirred them to life. Up from the garden beneath 
 came the delicate perfume of opening roses. Each thing 
 bespoke the dawn of another day. There was a trembling 
 silence, a stir, a sigh, a pause, and then: 
 
 " Morn, in the white wake of the morning star, 
 Came furrowing all the orient into gold." 
 
 But what would a new-born day bring her ? Naught but 
 new-born doubts, and sickening fears, and heart-felt pains. 
 She leaned against the window, and tightening one hand 
 upon the other, strove to restrain the wild rebellion against 
 her fate that was oppressing her. 
 
 " So it was her he loved ? " she said at last, turning back 
 to Mrs. Verulam, who still sat in a stricken attitude upon 
 the rug. " I knew I guessed there was some one, but 
 that it should be that one woman of all others." 
 
 " There is nothing remarkable in it," exclaimed Cicely, 
 growing voluble and scrambling to her feet. " Every man 
 of my acquaintance (with an exception or two just to prove 
 the rule) thinks her divine why, I don't know: unless 
 angels have green eyes and a most repellant manner. But 
 that's just like men. Treat them vilely and they worship 
 you ; fall at their feet, and they will scarcely trouble them- 
 selves to pick you up. Poufl I have no patience with 
 
 9
 
 I 3 o MAKVEL. 
 
 them. And Wriothesley, of all men, who really has a mind 
 of his own ! " 
 
 "Was it going on long?" 
 
 "What? That hateful infatuation of his? No not 
 long. Three months at most." 
 
 " But why didn't he marry her, then ? " demanded 
 Wriothesley's wife, coming away from the window and 
 moving impetuously into the fuller glare of the lamps 
 where Cicely could see her more plainly. As she saw her 
 she felt a sudden shock. The childish trust in Marvel's 
 eyes was no longer there the lingering touch of childhood 
 that had up to this stayed with her, was gone. She 
 stood there, a woman, young, lovely, but embittered by 
 a knowledge of the world's ways that hitherto had been 
 unknown to her. 
 
 As Mrs. Verulam gazed at her she grew sad at heart, and 
 remorseful too. It was she who had dragged this delicate 
 retiring flower into the fuller glare, as it were, and lo ! as 
 the hot scorching sun touched its leaves, the frail, sensitive, 
 pretty thing had withered. She would she could have 
 undone her deed now, but it was too late. Marvel's ques- 
 tion still remained unanswered, and the girl drew a little 
 nearer and touched her upon the shoulder. 
 
 " Speak ! " she said imperatively. " You know all. 
 Answer me ! Why did he not marry her ? " 
 
 " For the simple reason that she declined to marry him." 
 
 " She declined ! " It seemed impossible ; but if true 
 it only made the case even harder to bear. With a heart 
 crushed, wounded, rejected, yet filled with love disappointed, 
 he had made her his wife. It was cruel, ignoble of him ! 
 
 " Yes. If revenge would do you any good (which it 
 wouldn't) you might find it in that thought. She actually 
 rejected him. Led him on to the very last moment, till 
 he laid his heart at her feet, and then threw him over." 
 
 " But why why ? " 
 
 " She flew at higher game. Fulke is an earl, it is true, 
 but there are bigger titles in the market. And there 
 was an old man a creature too poor to name, a miserable, 
 contemptible thing, a very wreck of what had once been 
 human but a duke ! There lay the magic charm that
 
 MARVEL, 131 
 
 made him young and lovely. A very elixir. What were 
 Wriothesley's love and youth when laid in the balance with 
 that ? Why, nothing. The duke proposed the very day 
 before Wriothesley came for the answer to his proposal, 
 and madam made a swift discovery, that marriage with 
 Wriothesley would not tend to her happiness. So that 
 story ended." 
 
 " And mine began. It is an iniquitous thing. I have 
 been vilely treated." She began to walk rapidly up and 
 down the room. She was dry-eyed, and she held her head 
 high. There was a world of angry contempt upon her lips. 
 She had taken it so altogether differently from what Mrs. 
 Verulam had expected, who had anticipated tears and 
 sobs, and gentle misery of that sort, that the latter still sat 
 on the white rug not knowing exactly what to say or do. 
 
 " Your story is not complete," said Marvel, turning to her 
 sharply. " Where is that old man you spoke of ? She is 
 as yet only Mrs. Scarlett." 
 
 " He died. If, as I said before, revenge would comfort 
 such as you, there it is ready to your hand. But you will 
 extract nothing from it. I know you. Yes, on the very eve 
 of the consummation of her proudest hopes, death stepped 
 in and shattered them. The old man was gathered to the 
 fathers who had had ample time to forget him, and madam's 
 chance of being a duchess was knocked on the head." 
 
 Marvel was scarcely listening. That quaint habit of 
 hers of giving herself up to the moment and letting it carry 
 her whithersoever it would, had taken her now back to the 
 yacht. Once more she stood in the saloon and had caught 
 up the paper on which he had lain prone some days before, 
 heartbroken. Again she eagerly scanned its contents 
 and saw the paragraph with the heading in huge letters, 
 " Sudden death of the Duke of Dawtry." She knew all 
 about it now quite well. No explanation could make it 
 clearer. The old man was dead and she was free, but he, 
 Fulke, was tied and bound to one whom 
 
 She lifted both her hands and pushed back her hair 
 from her forehead. Once again that terrible sense of 
 suffocation was bearing down upon her. She would not 
 endure it She turned quickly to Cicely. 
 
 92
 
 I3 MARVEL, 
 
 "All this has to do with her, and Lord Wriothesley." It 
 was the first time she had ever called her husband by his title, 
 and Mrs. Verulam marked it with some anxiety. " But 
 what have I to do with it ? Why does she dislike me, the 
 innocent victim ? " 
 
 " My dear girl, think ! She had set her heart upon 
 being a duchess, but had Dawtry failed her she would very 
 willingly have consented to be a countess. Dukes and 
 earls don't grow on every bush, but she was fortunate 
 enough to have so far netted both as to be sure of one 
 if the other escaped her. Well, as I tell you, that old 
 duke died, and she was fully resigned, after a decent hour 
 or so of mourning, to fall back upon the earl. But you had 
 stepped in meanwhile and the earl was not to be had. You 
 had dared to interfere with her arrangements. V'ld tout" 
 
 " It was an unpardonable rudeness, I feel I should 
 apologize," said Marvel with a short laugh. " If I could 
 undo my fault, believe me, I would." 
 
 She spoke carelessly, though her eyes were burning. 
 Mrs. Verulam, who was fond of studying people, regarded 
 her curiously. 
 
 " Well, you can't," she said ; " and lucky it is for 
 Wriothesley that it is so, though hardly so for you. It is a 
 shame you should be so thrown away, but if ever he returns, 
 Marvel, and should see you both in the same room, she, 
 middle-aged," spitefully, " as she really is, and you at your 
 youngest and best, why, that will be a bad quarter of an 
 hour for her at all events ! It was an unpleasant story from 
 start to finish," speaking earnestly, " and I daresay you 
 will not love me the better for being the teller of it, but yet 
 it is better you should know it, if only as a means of guard- 
 ing yourself against that woman." 
 
 " I shall be guarded. I shall know what to do." She 
 stopped short and looked at Mrs. Verulam, still sitting on 
 the rug : " I do not love you the less," she said. 
 
 " Come here, darling ! " cried Mrs. Verulam impulsively ; 
 " here, quite close. There is one thing ; it is this, I am 
 afraid you care more than you say. But that is folly. 
 Many men most men have been in love before their 
 marriage, but it has not prevented their "
 
 MARVEL. 133 
 
 " Now, no more," said Marvel with a. strained smile. 
 " We will forget it all for awhile at least, and whenever 
 I am unhappy about it, as you think I am now, I shall 
 come to you for comfort. There, is not that a concession 
 and a promise?" She stopped speaking suddenly and 
 looked a little blankly at Mrs. Verulam. " I do believe it 
 is I who am lecturing you to-night," she said. " How 
 the tables have turned ! " She paused, and then, " How 
 old I have grown ! " 
 
 " My dearest girl, if you would " 
 
 " Never mind. One must grow old sooner or later, and 
 I have been a baby for quite a ridiculous time. Let us 
 forget all this. Let us talk of to-night's triumphs. I was 
 a success, eh ? " 
 
 " A tremendous one. One unprecedented. But you 
 must not let that fact turn your head," a little uneasily. 
 " Come, tell me now whom you most liked of all your 
 partners ? " 
 
 " A question easily answered Sir George Townshend." 
 She seemed to have entered completely into the present 
 question and to put all deeper considerations behind her. 
 Her manner was a little feverish, yet hardly forced. She 
 puzzled Mrs. Verulam more than she liked to confess. 
 
 " Sir George ? I should have thought you would have 
 found him dry dry as the bones he is for ever digging up 
 and examining. Did he breathe many of his scientific 
 secrets into your ear ? " 
 
 " No. On the contrary, his conversation was of the 
 airiest matter imaginable, and the most charming." Mrs. 
 Verulam looked at her sharply. 
 
 " Sir George ? " she said again. u Any other man on 
 earth you like ; but that he should talk of anything airy, 
 or charming " 
 
 " He talked of you," said Marvel ; "and so incessantly 
 that I quite enjoyed my short time with him." 
 
 " How absurd ! " Mrs. Verulam tiied to frown, but failed 
 dismally. " If he has tried to convince you that he is of 
 the usual butterfly order, made to amuse and be amused," 
 she said, " he is an impostor. He is heavy, I tell you, 
 heavy as lead. Don't let him impose upon you. But he
 
 134 MAKVEL. 
 
 was not the only one you talked with to-night. What," she 
 changed colour in spite of herself as she put the question, 
 " did you think of Mr. Savage, for example ? " 
 
 "It was odd about him ; he proved an old acquaintance. 
 On that day when," bitterly, " I rid Fulke of my presence, 
 he was in my carriage and was kind to me in many little 
 ways on the journey. I like him, I think, though his man- 
 ner Did it ever strike you that it was a trifle empresse ? " 
 
 " He is always rather too pronounced to be pleasant," 
 said Mrs. Verulam carefully. "You shouldn't mind what 
 he says. He has always some new fad or other. Believes 
 himself five fathoms deep in love here, or mad about a 
 picture there, or enslaved by a new opera round the corner. 
 But he is a nice boy enough if one agrees to take him 
 au naturel, and pay no heed to his eccentricities." 
 
 It was as near as she could go to a warning, and she 
 herself thought it very neat. There was, indeed, only one 
 fault Marvel did not understand one word of it. 
 
 " He is coming here to-morrow," she said, " or rather to- 
 day," pointing to the window, through which the pale grey 
 morning light was stealing. 
 
 " To call on you ? " 
 
 " Or you ; I hardly know which both, most probably." 
 She yawned slightly, and Mrs. Verulam rose to her feet. 
 " We have run our time for sleeping rather fine," she said. 
 " I must get me gone. Good-night, you pretty heart, and 
 happy dreams to you. They shoidd be happy," she caught 
 the girl affectionately by the arms and looked at her earnestly; 
 " but will they be ? You will not let that old story torment 
 you ? It really is not worth it." 
 
 "It is not, indeed," said Marvel very evenly. "Theie, 
 go to bed. One should think of nothing now but rest." 
 
 Then she kissed Mrs. Verulam and led her to the door, and 
 stood there with a light held high above her head, smiling 
 at that dainty matron as she sped swiftly and noiselessly up 
 the corridor to her own room. She gained a corner, turned 
 to wave her hand to Marvel, looking. so pale and slim and 
 ethereal in her shimmering robes with the diamonds flash- 
 ing here and there and her eyes like stars, and then was 
 gone.
 
 MAEVEL. 135 
 
 Marvel went back into her room. Extinguishing the 
 lamps, she drew aside the curtains, and watched the waking 
 day. Slowly it came up, and slowly too, although tumul- 
 tuously, her thoughts gathered and arranged themselves. 
 That woman her rival ! She shuddered, as Mrs. Scarlett's 
 pale handsome face rose before her. Oh ! any one but 
 her ! And he it seemed to her the cruellest thing she 
 had ever heard of. With a curious intuition she knew that 
 he had married her out of a wild longing for revenge a 
 desire to prove to her he loved that he was not inconsolable. 
 But how poor a thing it was ! And she had so believed 
 and trusted in him as the one man on earth worthy of all 
 loving belief and trust ! It was hard hard ! 
 
 She felt as some poor wild thing might, when trapped and 
 caged. There was no escape for her and no way of crying 
 aloud her grievance. He to whom alone she could declare 
 it had forsaken her, and was she hardly knew where just 
 then. A sense of desertion of misery too acute to be 
 borne, fell on her, and she sank upon her knees before the 
 open window, and, leaning her head against the casement, 
 gave herself up to despair. The cold, early dews of the 
 morn settled on her, and clung to her soft hair ; but she 
 heeded nothing, save her own sad thoughts. 
 
 M Oh grief beyond all griefs, when fate 
 First leaves the young heart lone and desolate 
 In the wide world, without that only tie 
 For which it loved to live, or fear'd to die." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 "Almost erery one listens with eagerness to extemporary 
 history. " 
 
 " Chaucer's silence was more agreeable than his conversation." 
 
 THERE were a good many people, certainly, but very few of 
 them to be seen. Large white umbrellas of a prodigious 
 growth hid most of them. The sun was ninety in the shade, 
 and all Mrs. Verulam's guests had given way beneath the
 
 I 3 6 MABVEL. 
 
 abnormal heat, and were sitting or lying about in any avail- 
 able spot where a breeze might be expected. 
 
 The tennis players, however, nothing daunted, still held 
 out. One could hear the triumphant shouts of the winners 
 and the groans of the vanquished, mingled with sharp alter- 
 cations now and then, when somebody's partner had missed 
 a ball that was, as all the world had seen, the simplest thing 
 to take. There was a huge tent to the left of the courts, 
 and in it a few limp people had taken refuge with the soda 
 water and the seltzer and the other things. The tea was in 
 a solemn corner all by itself. 
 
 Outside, the white umbrellas looked like so many tiny 
 tents set up on their hook as if in defiance of the real one 
 over yonder. There were always two people under each 
 umbrella, sometimes three infrequently four. Mr. Kitts, 
 who was an alarmingly social young man, kept skipping 
 about from " Brolly " to " Brolly " (as he called the proper 
 umbrellas) with an agility that did him credit, considering 
 the condition of the thermometer. 
 
 " Come and have a game do ! " he said, popping his 
 head inside one of the impromptu tents that held, at the 
 moment, four. " It isn't half bad when you get used to it." 
 
 "A game! What d'ye take me for?" cried Sydney 
 Dameron, a rather popular novelist, waving him aside. " Go 
 away ! Go away ! We are far too clever to condescend to 
 games. We have brains. Isn't it so, Mrs. Geraint ? " 
 
 He appealed to a little stout lady at his side, who had 
 dressed herself in white, as stout women will, with an effect 
 that was fatal. She was fat and forty, without being fair, 
 and -had a vivacious manner that caught the unwise passer- 
 by and nailed him to her side. She believed herself a poet 
 born, and posed as such. Not the die-away aesthetic poet 
 of our latter days, but a good solid, downright, bona fide 
 rhymer of rhymes such as the healthy soul should de- 
 light in. 
 
 She had a small circle of her own somewhere, wherever 
 she went who were, presumably, healthy, because they 
 did delight in her to the extent of drawing her out ; 
 which gave them no trouble whatsoever, as she loved 
 nothing so dearly as her own voice. Of herself and her
 
 MARVEL. 137 
 
 poems did you unluckily " bid her discourse " she would 
 hold forth until the sun died down ; and till it rose again 
 would you but lend your ear. Some of her " sonnets," as 
 she loved to call them, had been written at the early age ot 
 seven, and these even in their raw state she would tell you 
 were far above those given daily to an intelligent, yet so 
 far as her breathings were concerned unenlightened public. 
 
 Next to the would-be poetess sat her husband, a hand- 
 some man of a rather music-hall type, to whom she appealed 
 every now and then to confirm her assertions. She was 
 gratified now by Dameron's allusion to her brains, and 
 threw up her hands with an expressive gesture. 
 
 " Tennis ! no ! " she said. " I have no time for it. No 
 inclination. You should not tempt me ! " She shook her 
 head archly at Mr. Kitts, to whom there appeared on the 
 instant a vision of a fat feather pillow endowed with legs 
 and arms, making a wild stroke at a ball flying miles above 
 its head. But he kept this extraordinary optical delusion 
 to himself. " Work work," she declared, " is all I desire. 
 I have no time for play. I have just as I have been 
 explaining to Mr. Dameron been arranging my poems into 
 volumes seven I think they will make when printed and 
 I am only embarrassed now as to whom I shall intrust them. 
 Eh, dear ? " to her husband, who started into more 
 intelligent life. 
 
 " Quite so. That is all that now remains," he said 
 decisively. 
 
 "It is most interesting, is it not?" said Dameron, 
 addressing Sir George Townshend, who was fourth occupier 
 of this particular umbrella. " Mrs. Geraint has everything 
 prepared. Her charming poem to ' A dead mouse,' written 
 at the innocent age of seven, and which I have read (so you 
 see I may honestly speak of it), now only awaits a printing 
 machine to carry joy to the hearts of thousands ! It is the 
 most sportive, the most extraordinary, the most genuinely 
 mirth-provoking bit of creative genius on which my eyes 
 have ever lit." 
 
 " Did it strike you as being comical ? " said she medi- 
 tatively. "At the time perhaps I thought I meant 
 But it only shows how one's natural inclination towards wit
 
 138 MARVEL. 
 
 will break forth. I assure you at the time I wrote \ * ^ ?.e 
 believed myself pathetic." 
 
 " Well, so it is, so it is, intensely pathetic," said iJameron. 
 " I asure you there were moments when, as I read it, I felt 
 inclined to cry for er that is with you ! " 
 
 " Those little things thrown off at that tender age there 
 is something curious about them. Didn't thac occur to you 
 as you read them, eh ? " 
 
 " Nothing occurred to me so strongly," said Dameron. 
 
 " And now there is just the one last thing, to choose a 
 publisher," said Mrs. Geraint seriously, to whom it did not 
 occur that the principal difficulty might lie in getting a pub- 
 lisher who would choose her. "You have had of course 
 considerable experience, dear Mr. Dameron. Whom would 
 you recommend to me ? " 
 
 Whereupon Dameron rather unkindly mentioned the 
 name of the leading firm in the poetry line, hardly expecting 
 she would take him seriously. But he didn't know. 
 
 " Ah ! yes. They are good people," she said thought- 
 fully, placing her finger to her forehead as if to help her 
 memory. " But are they trustworthy ? Might I depend 
 upon them not to eliminate bits, or to touch up, or to alter 
 a word or phrase ? That is so important. One likes to keep 
 one's little gems intact. No artificial fining ; no false 
 elaboration. You honestly believe they will not meddle 
 with my poems." 
 
 " I would stake my reputation on it," declared Dameron 
 gravely. 
 
 " Such a comfort to hear you speak so decidedly, isn't it, 
 Sir George? And so you really and truly believe these 
 darlings of my brain will be a success ? To tell you the 
 truth," leaning coquettishly towards him, " I have dared to 
 believe as much myself. There is such diversity in them : 
 
 ' From grave to gay, from lively to severe/ 
 
 that line always seems to me so appropriate to my genius. 
 One might imagine that poor dear Pope had written it 
 expressly for me." 
 
 "Perhaps he did," said Dameron. "Though," doubt-
 
 MARVEI* 139 
 
 fully, "even when you were seven he couldn't have been 
 alive, could he ? " 
 
 " Tut ! of course not, you silly man," said Mrs. Geraint 
 rather tartly. " I'm not the Wandering Jewess, I assure 
 you. I haven't lived for centuries." 
 
 " Oh ! that you might ! " said Dameron devoutly. 
 " Think what a number of your ' little things ' you could 
 knock off if time were permitted to roll by unheeded by 
 you. By-the-by, have you ever read anything of yours to 
 Sir George ? " 
 
 " What I am anxious to know," interrupted Sir George 
 with suspicious haste, and an angry glance at Dameron, 
 who seemed delighted with it, "is where your talent 
 principally lies? In tragic subjects or in lighter veins?" 
 
 " That is what you will learn if Mrs. Geraint will be 
 good enough to read you the first volume of her intended 
 series." 
 
 " Really," said Mrs. Geraint simpering modestly, " every 
 emotion seems to come to me with equal readiness. I 
 have written merry verses and melancholy verses. I have 
 been tender, I have been cruel. I have been pointed and 
 inconsequent " 
 
 " Oh, so inconsequent ! " murmured Dameron admiringly. 
 
 " And I have been well, really, I think I might say 
 satirical. Eh, Dickory?" to her husband "don't you 
 think I might say I have been even satirical ? " 
 
 " Oh ! certainly satirical ! " said he, as though a little 
 shocked with her for having a doubt on the subject. 
 
 " So you see, Sir George, you could not well judge of me 
 without a lengthened reading. But as you have expressed 
 such a flattering desire to know, I shall be charmed to give 
 you some of my choicest efforts as soon as we can arrange 
 an hour. What do you say to now, by-the-by ; this very 
 moment ? In this languorous heat what could be more 
 enchanting than the soft liquid rhymings of " 
 
 At this opportune instant Mrs. Verulam popped her 
 charming head under the umbrella. 
 
 " I say, you good people, don't you want your tea ? " she 
 cried. 
 
 Sir George rose with alacrity, and so in a slower measure
 
 140 MAEVEL. 
 
 did the others, and all moved in a body to the tent. Lady 
 Wriothesley stood in the entrance to it, clad in a severely 
 simple gown of white linen, with a heavy gold band clasp- 
 ing the mechlin frilling at the throat. The opening of the 
 tent seemed to frame her in, and make the picture, if 
 possible, more perfect. 
 
 " What a face ! It is a dream," said the novelist in a 
 low tone. He was making mental notes, as he looked at 
 her, for his next heroine. Mrs. Scarlett, who heard him, 
 smiled superciliously. As she entered the tent she said a 
 gracious word or two to Marvel, and as she seated herself, 
 drew her skirts aside and beckoned to the girl to come and 
 sit beside her. Something curious and premeditated in the 
 smile that accompanied this invitation predisposed Marvel 
 to refuse it, but Mrs. Scarlett's strange, cold eyes were on 
 hers, and, as if compelled to it against her will, she obeyed 
 the summons. 
 
 " Is it victory that has paled your cheek ? " asked Mrs. 
 Scarlett in her slow indifferent way. She was scanning 
 Lady Wriothesley's face as she spoke in a leisurely fashion, 
 that was as embarrassing as it was impertinent. Marvel 
 grew warm beneath her gaze. Almost it seemed to her as 
 though this woman knew why her cheek was white, her lips 
 dumb, and gloried in the knowledge. It was terrible to her 
 to have to sit here side by side with her who held her 
 husband's heart, who was all in all to him, whilst she, his 
 wife, who should have had first place in his affection, was 
 as nothing. She writhed in spirit, and then all at once a 
 little chill fell on her, and she raised her head and looked 
 defiantly before her. Why should she feel nervous in her 
 presence? What hateful fascination was it that was stealing 
 over her ? She drew her breath sharply and flung it from 
 it. She remembered how Cicely had warned her. Mrs. 
 Scarlett was still talking in that low monotone that was like 
 distant music : 
 
 " Of course it charmed you. Success always does, and 
 your triumph of last night was so complete. I was only 
 sorry that Wriothesley was not here to witness it. You 
 know, don't you, that he is an old and dear friend of mine ? 
 He has, of course, often spoken to you of me ? "
 
 MAEVEL. HT 
 
 " No. Never," said Marvel, regarding her steadily. 
 
 " No ? He was always a little taciturn, dear fellow. 
 But that is carrying reserve to an extreme, eh ? As I was 
 saying, it was a pity he did not see how you were admired 
 last night. It was your first appearance ? " 
 
 " My first yes ? " 
 
 " How cruel to hide yourself from us for so long. But I 
 do not wonder at your husband's wishing to keep you to 
 himself. When one loves a thing, one is jealous of the 
 very eyes that look upon it. Wriothesley was naturally, 
 though," playfully, "you will permit me to say selfishly 
 desirous of keeping you as long as he could all to himself. 
 You see," with her swift smile, " though I have no lover 
 myself I understand love's ways." 
 
 There was a subdued meaning in her tone and glance 
 that maddened Marvel. 
 
 " Do you mean me to believe that you understand Lord 
 Wriothesley's ways ? " she asked icily, though her heart 
 was beating so loudly that she half feared it must be 
 heard. 
 
 " Well we were friends," replied Mrs. Scarlett slowly. 
 " Where is he now ? " 
 
 " In Brazil." 
 
 " So far ? Mrs. Verulam tells me you were not strong 
 enough to accompany him. What a sad parting it must 
 have been for two so wrapped up in each other as you were ! 
 Were you long married at the time ? " 
 
 " What time ? " 
 
 " When you separated." 
 
 "Not very long. The subject seems to have a keen 
 interest for you," said Marvel very directly. 
 
 " So it has," with an air friendly to a degree, and perfectly 
 unmoved. " You must know I felt myself rather aggrieved 
 when I heard of your husband's marriage." 
 
 " So I have heard," quietly. 
 
 For an instant Mrs. Scarlett's eyes flashed. Then she 
 leant back in her seat and slowly unfurled the big crimson 
 fan she was holding, and moved it indolently to and fro. 
 A low insolent laugh broke from her. 
 
 " That so old a friend should have sent me no word of
 
 142 MARVEL. 
 
 so important an event naturally offended me. By the 
 merest chance I knew of it at all. And where was the 
 reason for such secrecy ? " She paused as if seeking infor- 
 mation from Marvel, but in reality to enjoy the expression 
 of anguish, of passionate shame, that stole over the young 
 and beautiful face. " Even at this moment I am ignorant of 
 when his marriage really did take place. Was it last year, 
 or " 
 
 " You know," said Marvel in a clear voice. " Lord 
 Wriothesley married me the week after you rejected him. 
 Is your examination at an end ? Have you said all you 
 wished to say ? Is there any other question I can answer 
 for you ? " 
 
 She was standing now, tall and firm, and was looking 
 down at Mrs. Scarlett with eyes that flamed with vehement 
 indignation. With that righteous anger in them they were 
 not altogether unlike Mrs. Scarlett's own eyes. 
 
 " Well, just one ! " said Mrs. Scarlett sweetly, " when do 
 you expect him home ? " 
 
 " Never ! " said Marvel with a strange emphasis. What 
 was the use of concealment with this woman who knew all, 
 who gloried in the thought that for her sake the husband 
 was false to the wife. She felt tired, desperate. Something 
 was rising in her throat that seemed to choke her. She 
 looked round her with a little wild appealing glance in her 
 lovely eyes. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam came quickly up to her and laid her hand 
 on her arm. 
 
 " Talk of India's sun," she said lightly. " It would hold 
 down its head before ours. You will get one of your old 
 headaches, Marvel, if you persist in braving it." Then in 
 a hurried whisper, "Be brave, collect yourself, don't let her 
 notice you." 
 
 She drew Marvel away with her, still talking in her pretty 
 clear treble, until just outside the tent she came upon Sir 
 George Townshend standing alone. 
 
 " Will you do something for me ? " she said. 
 
 " Anything, in reason," gravely. 
 
 "Then take Lady Wriothesley somewhere out of this 
 hurly-burly. The sun is a little too much for her. She is
 
 MARVEL. 143 
 
 pale and tired. Don't talk to her ; meditate on your latest 
 bone, and give her five minutes or so to recover herself." 
 
 " Dear me, Lady Wriothesley, you do look white ! " said 
 Sir George with such evident concern that Mrs. Verulam 
 raised her eyes quickly to his. He did not seem to see her; 
 he placed Lady Wriothesley's hand in his arm, and took her 
 instantly away towards a secluded walk. Mrs. Verulam 
 stood still and stared after them, until they were out of sight. 
 Then she gave way to her feelings. 
 
 " Well ! " she said, and that was all. But there was a good 
 deal of meaning in it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ** I have seen the desire of mine eyes, 
 The beginning of love." 
 
 MARVEL and Sir George had, however, gone only thirty 
 yards or so when they encountered Savage coming towards 
 them at a rapid pace. His face lit up so unmistakably on 
 seeing Lady Wriothesley that Sir George rightly conjectured 
 it was to see her that he was there. This gave him a chance 
 of seeking that solitude he craved for, as he indeed was not 
 in his best conversational mood. 
 
 " So fortunate, to meet you so soon," said Savage, directly 
 to Marvel, lifting his hat and letting his dark face brighten 
 into a smile. " How d'ye do, Townshend ? Going anywhere 
 in particular ? " 
 
 This was an open hint that he would like to accompany 
 them. 
 
 " No," said Townshend ; " Lady Wriothesley is feeling a 
 little overdone by the heat, and I have been given directions 
 that she is to go to some shady spot, and when there to main- 
 tain a settled silence. The present spot seems admirably 
 arranged for the purpose, but if we all three keep together, 
 talk we undoubtedly shall, so as you are an older friend 
 than I am, I think I shall leave Lady Wriothesley in your 
 care, and take myself away."
 
 144 MAEVEL. 
 
 " If she will permit it," said Savage, looking earnestly at 
 her. 
 
 " As you will, Sir George," said she smiling faintly. She 
 gave him a little kindly glance of comprehension, and then 
 walked on with Savage to where the coveted garden seat 
 might be found. 
 
 As for Sir George, he stood a moment hesitating as if un- 
 certain whether to go back to the merry party on the lawn, 
 which evidently seemed to him the preferable thing; or to 
 quit the field altogether, for the day at least. This hesitation 
 was of short duration. He settled his hat firmly on his brow, 
 and with an air of stern determination sought the stables, 
 found his horse and rode away homewards. 
 
 As Marvel sank weariedly upon the rustic bench, she 
 glanced at Savage. 
 
 " It will be very dull for you," she said. " If you will leave 
 me I shall be quite content here, and you might join the 
 others." 
 
 " Don't send me away," entreated he quietly. " If I may 
 only stay here, I too shall be content." 
 
 " You look as if you meant that," said Marvel. " I should 
 be happier than I am I have so many friends. But to 
 sacrifice yourself like this, and on such a lovely day ! " 
 
 " I don't think I look at it in that light," said he gravely. 
 "But tell me what brought you here away from the others." 
 
 " Sir George told you I was tired." 
 
 " I think you are more unhappy than tired," said he 
 gently. 
 
 " Is it so plainly to be seen ? " She looked at him very 
 sadly. " Well, I don't seem to mind your knowing it, some- 
 how. But it is nothing really. I was feeling a little unstrung 
 a little distressed, and so I came here to get away from 
 it all." 
 
 " That you should be unhappy ! " he said. There was 
 passion in his tone, but she, who up to this had stood out- 
 side love's kingdom, heard it, unheeding. " It is almost a 
 crime," he went on in a low voice. " One is tempted to 
 doubt the justice of it. You, so young, so sinless, should 
 be without care, or pain, or troubling thought." 
 
 " I would not be so altogether exempt from the general
 
 MARVEL. 145 
 
 doom," said she smiling. " In that too would lie injustice. 
 But indeed," laying her hand pathetically upon her breast, 
 " I wish that I had less in here to think of. There is 
 memory, the cruellest foe ; who can escape it ! Can I, can 
 you ? "' 
 
 " I cannot," he replied, " but memory is not always mer- 
 ciless." 
 
 " To some perhaps it relents. But as a rule we all fear 
 it more than we love it. And as for me, young as you deem 
 me, I have already lived long enough to know how to be 
 deadly tired of life. Indeed, sometimes," said she dreamily, 
 " I wish very heartily that I were dead." 
 
 " Don't speak like that," said he, greatly shocked in spite 
 of the calm, emotionless manner in which she had said it. 
 
 " But why not ? A great many people, I think, have 
 honestly wished that. But perhaps it is a wrong wish, and 
 perhaps too, if brought face to face with the fu'filment of it, 
 one would shrink." She sighed heavily, as if tired, and leaned 
 backwards. 
 
 " You are talking too much," said he anxiously. " You are 
 worn out from one cause or another, and you should rest, 
 not argue about such a sorrowful point." 
 
 " It rests me to talk, I am so often silent ; and do you 
 know," said she turning to him with a charming smile, " that 
 I like talking to you, you seem to comprehend, as it were ; 
 and you do not tell me I am fanciful, or call me a silly 
 goose, as Cicely does." 
 
 " The gods forbid ! " said Mr. Savage piously. 
 
 " I hope they always will. I should not like you to change 
 in that respect. Though they tell me you do change in 
 most ways." 
 
 " Do they ? And who are they ? " 
 
 " Never mind. It has nothing to do with it." He thought 
 it had, but he held his peace on that score. 
 
 "True," he said, "what really matters is, that you have 
 told me that you think so far well of me as to care to con- 
 verse with me, that pleases me far more than I dare say." 
 
 " Perhaps it arises out of the fact that our first meeting 
 occurred so long ago. So very long ago," said she slowly, 
 absently, as if dwelling on some thought or scene in the re- 
 
 10
 
 1 4 6 JUAKVTEL. 
 
 mote past. " But, indeed, always when I think of you, it is 
 as a friend." 
 
 "Then you do, sometimes, think of me," said he in a 
 low tone, bending forward to look into her eyes such 
 serene eyes, clear and candid as the day. 
 
 " Very often. Everything," mournfully, " connected with 
 that fay comes back to me with such a strange persistency." 
 
 She shivered slightly as she spoke, as at some dread 
 remembrance, and a cloud crossed her face. "How she 
 detests the very thought of him ! " said Savage to himself, 
 mistaking the cloud and the sorrowful manner of her. 
 
 " I am glad you regard me as a friend," he said gently. 
 " Though, indeed, I am hardly worthy to " 
 
 " Do not say that," interrupted she sweetly. " For 
 indeed I need friends, and I would believe you true, 
 though," with a sudden calm glance at him, " I have been 
 told that you love nothing long; this thing to-day and that 
 to-morrow, but * constant to one thing never 1 ' That 
 argues badly for a lasting friendship. I would have my 
 friends ever the same to me, through storm and shine, even 
 as I should be to them." 
 
 He turned a penetrating glance upon her, and met her 
 eyes full. All at once he dismissed from him his suspicions 
 as unworthy. That face, so calm, so pure, belonged only 
 to a soul unblemished. No hidden meaning, he was 
 assured, lay behind the words that yet might have been 
 those of a practised coquette. The lovely features before 
 him forbade all speculative thought. 
 
 " I do not ask you who has given me such a bad charac- 
 ter," he said. " I will only ask you to suspend judgment 
 until you yourself have had time to form an opinion ; and 
 in the meantime I would entreat you to believe that you 
 have on earth no truer friend than I am." Some colour 
 came into his face as he spoke, and his dark, eager eyes 
 flashed. Nothing warned Marvel at that moment, and she 
 held out her hand to him. To her he was only that dear 
 thing, a real friend, gained by one who was indeed pooi in 
 the possession of them. Oh that Fulke had been as kind 
 to her as this man was I She was thinking of Wriothesley 
 rather than of him when he next spoke.
 
 MARVEL. 147 
 
 "If I could help you," he said. "Something has 
 annoyed you, I know, and sometimes to speak of an 
 annoyance kills it." 
 
 " I could not speak of it," said she in a troubled tone, 
 " and indeed perhaps I made too much of it. It was only 
 
 that I was questioned, tormented " She broke off. 
 
 " It is rude to ask questions," she said presently, with a 
 slight frown, " certain questions, I mean ; isn't it ? " 
 
 " More than that ; ill-bred would be a civil word for it." 
 Then suddenly, " Who was your tormentor ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Scarlett." 
 
 "Ah! she would be." 
 
 "Why?" asked she, with a sickening fear that he, too, 
 knew all. Her face grew very pale, and probably he 
 divined her dread, because he laughed very cleverly, and 
 with a carelessness that disarmed her. 
 
 "'Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,'" he 
 quoted lightly. " And I have known Mrs. Scarlett quite 
 long enough to be sure that she would be no friend of 
 yours. She is a very er clever woman, but that is no 
 reason " gaily " why you should be afraid of her. There 
 is no earthly reason why any one should ever regard 
 another with dread." 
 
 " You think I am afraid ? " 
 
 "I think you are nervous, and very naturally so. A 
 woman of the world, and especially one of Mrs. Scarlett's 
 calibre, is no mean foe." 
 
 " That is it," said Marvel, turning suddenly to him. " A 
 foe ! Oh, I wish she were not that ! What have I done to 
 her that she should hate me so ? It was not my fault that 
 
 I " She checked herself, and coloured crimson. 
 
 " You have known her a long time, then ? " she went on 
 confusedly. " Did did she ever refuse you 1 " 
 
 The question was so naive, the reason for it so childishly 
 transparent that Savage, though touched by the expression 
 in her face, could not refrain from laughing aloud. 
 
 " I did not give her the chance," he said. " I cried ofl 
 at the last moment, more by luck than by good manage- 
 ment, I allow. I will confess to you, though, that at one 
 time she might have done what she chose with me. I was 
 
 10 2
 
 - 4 8 MARVEL. 
 
 so infatuated by her that Well, never mind ! I haunted 
 
 her I was her shadow (how awfully absurd it sounds now !). 
 I have often gone about for days with an abominable faded 
 flower stuck in my breast just because her hand had touched 
 it. It went on for ever so long she is artful about keep- 
 ing you in line putting off the denouement until her own 
 time arrives for getting rid of you. She put it off a little 
 too long, however, in my case. She played with me as if 
 I were a trout, but, as I tell you, she overdid it, and one 
 day I made a violent effort and broke clean away, carrying 
 the hook in me. I acknowledge that that hurt me for a 
 considerable time, but after a while I got rid of that too, 
 and, as you see, I am a sound fish still. Instead of throw- 
 ing myself at her feet I took the tidal train to Dover and 
 went to Paris. But I'm afraid she has never forgiven me." 
 
 " I think she has," said Marvel. " I saw how kindly she 
 smiled at you to-day." 
 
 " Did you ? Oh, then you may be sure she hasn't. And 
 by jove ! talk of er here she comes, you know ! " 
 
 Indeed, quite a little party of people came round the 
 corner. Mrs. Scarlett, Mrs. Verulam, Dameron, Kitts and 
 one or two others. They all gave way to small expressions 
 or glances of mild surprise when they saw Savage, whose 
 home was some miles away, and who on the present occa- 
 sion had omitted to say " How d'ye do ? " to his hostess. 
 
 " I say, Savage, this is very artful of you," cried Mr. Kitts 
 in high good humour, who spent the best portion of his life 
 in going about and saying such things as he ought not to 
 say. Savage looked darkly on him, but the rest laughed. 
 
 "Where is Sir George?" asked Mrs. Verulam im 
 pulsively. 
 
 " He was not in good spirits, I think," said Marvel, with 
 a soft, intelligent smile at her. " I am sure he wanted to 
 be alone, because the moment he and I met Mr. Savage he 
 made a little inconsequent excuse and went away." 
 
 Mr. Dameron stooped and brushed an infinitesimal speck 
 of dust off his boot. Really she was too delicious ! 
 
 " Dear Sir George ! He is so go'od, so obliging," said 
 Mrs. Scarlett in her indolent way; "the best-hearted person 
 I know."
 
 MAKVEL. 149 
 
 " I entirely agree with you so far, but I really fail to 
 understand where his good-nature came in here," said Mrs. 
 Verulam frigidly. 
 
 " No ! Do you ? " cried Mr. Kitts gaily. " Why, ' three 
 is trumpery,' don't you see, eh ? " 
 
 " In the present case I do not see," said Mrs. Verulam, 
 directing a glance at him that would have withered any 
 one else, but bounded off him harmless. 
 
 " Why, look here," he was beginning, secure in the fact 
 that Marvel's attention was engaged, when Dameron pro- 
 videntially struck in, and saved him. 
 
 " The situation grows serious," he said. " Let us forget 
 everything but this mysterious disappearance of the real 
 live baronet. An hour ago, Sir George was amongst us, 
 hale and hearty ; at this moment who shall say where 
 he is ? " 
 
 "/ know," piped a shrill little voice from apparently 
 nowhere ; Mr. Kitts gave a dramatic start, and Dameron 
 glanced with much emotion at Mrs. Verulam. 
 
 " He did not speak so small when in the flesh," he said 
 in a subdued whisper. Mrs. Verulam laughed. 
 
 "Is that you, my ducky ?" cried she laughing, and then 
 a small, rather dishevelled, but lovely little creature pushed 
 her way through a hole to the tall evergreen hedge near to 
 which they were standing. It was Mrs. Verulam's daughter, 
 as one need only look at her to know. She ran to her 
 mother, as children always will who are sure of a welcome 
 and God help those who are not and twined her arms 
 round her waist. 
 
 " I saw him," she said. " And I told him he mustn't go. 
 But he said he must. And he kissed me, and asked me if 
 I loved him, and I said yes, but not so much as I loved 
 my mammy. He was sorry about something, I think. 
 What was it, mammy ? " 
 
 " Because you couldn't love him enough, perhaps," paid 
 Mrs. Verulam laughing. " Oh, you bad mouse ! see now 
 what you have done to poor Sir George ! " She blushed a 
 little as she spoke, but that was the only sign of grace 
 about her. " I should think we ought to be thinking of 
 changing our gowns," she said presently, with a faint yawn.
 
 150 MARVEL. 
 
 " Dinner will have to be gone through, I suppose. You 
 will stay and dine, Nigel ? " 
 
 " Thank you. It did suggest itself to me that you might 
 ask me, so I brought my things," replied he. " I look for 
 a welcome from you somehow." 
 
 " Take care you don't look in vain some day," said she 
 in a low tone, with a meaning glance at Marvel. " You 
 must not carry that too far. I could," with a slight smile, 
 " be unforgiving." 
 
 " You mean n 
 
 " Yes. That is exactly what I do mean," interrupted she 
 impatiently. " I am not going to have matters made 
 unpleasant for her." 
 
 " Believe me, you credit me with more power than I 
 possess," said he. " I could not make things pleasant or 
 unpleasant for her. She is supremely indifferent. That is 
 perhaps at least, I have been supposing so her principal 
 charm." 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 " It is said that jealousy is love 1" 
 
 YET perhaps he haidly believed that honestly, or else the 
 charm of indifference he had ascribed to her was so strong 
 as to draw him to her side day after day. There was 
 always the excuse of a house full of guests, as an attraction, 
 but when he did come to Grangemore it was as though no 
 one was there but Marvel. He at least appeared to see no 
 one else, and Marvel, for her part, seemed very content to 
 accept the trifling, and apparently harmless, attentions he 
 showered on her. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam was secretly uneasy about it, Marvel being 
 in a measure in her charge ; her sister-in-law openly 
 amused; and Mrs. Scarlett now and then dropped a little 
 caustic word or two, and was plainly watching, with a rather 
 malicious delight, the turn events were taking. As for all 
 the others, they took it as part of the general amusement 
 and Marvel alone was supremely unconscious.
 
 MAEVEL, 151 
 
 Several times Mrs. Verulam had made up her mind to 
 speak to her, but somehow had always shrunk from it. For 
 one thing, the girl herself was so utterly ignorant of any 
 thought of wrong doing, and for another there was always 
 the possibility that she might be accused of jealousy ! All 
 the men in the house were very attentive to Marvel, as well 
 as those out of it, who were in the habit of calling notice- 
 ably Savage and Sir George Townshend ! Few of her 
 guests had forgotten that old tale of Sir George's rejection, 
 two years ago, and as no woman likes to be forsaken, even 
 by a rejected lover, they might easily attribute an attempt 
 on her part to check Marvel's so-called flirtation with 
 Savage to a determination to check her in other quarters as 
 well. It was cowardly, she felt, but she could not as yet 
 bring herself to warn Marvel of the sure chance she was 
 running of getting into the merciless mouth of society. 
 
 It was rather a dull afternoon, and rain had been falling 
 off and on all day. There was a suspicion of thunder in 
 the air, and the heat was of that oppressive kind that affects 
 the nerves. Savage and Sir George had ridden over early 
 in the morning, and had stayed to luncheon, and there had 
 been an attempt at billiard-playing afterwards. Mrs. 
 Verulam, with her mind full of unsolved puzzles, had tired 
 a little of all the chatter, and had stolen away from her 
 guests to try and get an hour's quiet, and a touch of that 
 faint breeze that the evening was bringing in its train. 
 
 She went into the smaller drawing-room, that also opened 
 on to the balcony, and seating herself on the broad window 
 sill, leant her head against the woodwork next her. 
 
 It was horrid weather, she told herself, and she was 
 feeling out of sorts. They had been making such a row in 
 that billiard-room. Really Lucy ought to have been a 
 barmaid rather than a countess. And as for Mrs. Geraint ! 
 Call her a poetess. Marvel was the only lady amongst 
 them. Which of them was it had said Sir George was 
 decidedly tpris there ? Mrs. Scarlett, of course. She was 
 mad with jealousy, that woman. Well, thank goodness, no 
 one could accuse her of that petty vice. 
 
 She was growing decidedly self-righteous, when some- 
 thing occurred that knocked virtue and everything else out
 
 iSi MAKVEL. 
 
 of her head. It was the flying of some heavy body through 
 the window, and apparently just past her nose. It 
 skimmed, in fact, that Grecian feature. When she had 
 sufficiently recovered from the shock it caused her to ook 
 up again, she made the discovery that it was Sir Geoige 
 Townshend who had thus been shot through the window to 
 her feet. 
 
 " I beg ten thousand pardons," cried he, evidently in a 
 terrible fright. " But it was all that confounded curtain. 
 I caught my foot in it. I haven't hurt you, have I ? " 
 
 There was such unmistakable solicitude in his tone that 
 her spirits rose. 
 
 "No, by a lucky chance. The eighth part of an inch 
 nearer, and I should have been exterminated. No great 
 harm, I daresay you think ! Well, now you have come, sit 
 down and talk to me for a little bit." 
 
 " So sorry, but really I haven't a moment to lose." 
 
 " Not even one to me ? What nonsense ! Here," 
 patting the seat beside her, " I am so old a friend that 
 it is your duty to stay with me when I desire your 
 company." 
 
 " Once before you desired it. It was on just such a day 
 as this," looking out at the murky clouds that dulled the 
 heavens. "'Stay,' you said; but afterwards I found I had 
 stayed too long." 
 
 This remembrance of his pleased her. He did recollect 
 then ! He sometimes looked back ! 
 
 " What's the good of having a parson," she said saucily, 
 " if you won't take to heart his preachings. You know 
 it is wicked to bear malice, don't you? Come, sit down 
 here and let us gossip awhile." 
 
 " Quarrel, rather that would be the old story. No, 
 I can't." He drew himself up with such a Spartan deter- 
 mination as revealed to her all he fondly believed he had 
 concealed. " I've dawdled away all my afternoon, and I 
 shall miss the post if I stay longer. There is just one 
 word I wish to say to Lady Wriothesley, and then " 
 
 " Oh, if that is it ! " said she petulantly, " why, go ! I 
 do believe you are in love with Lady Wriothesley, like all 
 the rest of the world."
 
 MAKVEL, 153 
 
 This burst of ill-temper seemed to give Sir George in- 
 tense satisfaction. 
 
 " She is very charming," he said pensively. 
 
 " So I hear, morning, noon, and night, on all sides. I 
 am quite tired of listening to that, and every other lau- 
 datory word in the vocabulary, applied to her. But don't 
 flatter yourself that she cares for your opinion, good or ilL 
 She is a cold little thing. She thinks of none of you." 
 
 " Other people are cold, too ; and she, at least, is kind." 
 
 " Have you considered, my good friend," exclaimed she 
 sharply, " that the coast is not clear for you ? She is al- 
 ready appropriated, this marvellous creature ! She has 
 attached to her that awkward impediment a husband." 
 
 " You speak only the distasteful truth," said he 
 gloomily. 
 
 " And when he returns and finds you dangling after her, 
 how then ? " 
 
 " He may never come back," said Sir George in a sepul- 
 chral tone, though his heart was beating more merrily than 
 it had done for many a day. 
 
 " Ah ! so that is what you hope for ! Is that your little 
 game ? You think he will be killed murdered, perhaps," 
 she cried scornfully. 
 
 "Truly, from all I have read and heard, life is not 
 held of much account where he now is," returned Sir 
 George mildly. 
 
 " Talk of savages," said she in high disgust ; "one need 
 not, it seems to me, go far from home to find them." 
 
 " One needn't go at all. The last representative of that 
 illustrious race is at present in your drawing-room." 
 
 "Pouh ! You know what I mean. It was a most cold- 
 blooded speech, to wish a man murdered. I wouldn't 
 have believed it of you. It only shows how one may be 
 deceived even in one's most intimate acquaintances." 
 
 " One may, indeed," with a steady glance at her that 
 made her lower her eyes for the moment. 
 
 "Your pretence at misunderstanding me," she said 
 presently, " has recalled to my mind Nigel Savage. Have 
 you considered that you have a formidable rival there ? " 
 " No ; for, as you say, she is cold to all alike."
 
 154 MARVEL. 
 
 "Well, I am at my wits' end about him ! " she exclaimed, 
 forgetting everything else in the real anxiety about Marvel. 
 " He follows her about all day as if he were her lap-dog, 
 and she never seems to think it necessary to give him a 
 hint that it won't do. She is either very foolish or 
 very " 
 
 " Innocent," suggested Townshend. 
 
 " You support her, of course," pettishly. "Well, and 
 you are right, too. She is innocent. The very incarna- 
 tion of innocence. But all that will not prevent a regular 
 imbroglio when Wriothesley comes home." 
 
 " Is he thinking of coming ? " 
 
 " Who can ever tell what a man is thinking about ! Just 
 the last thing he says, you may be sure. Oh, you may 
 rest tranquil so far. He is not coming ygt, at all events. 
 When he is, I am so far your friend that I shall give you 
 timely warning of that unwished for event." 
 
 " You were never my friend," said he ; " it is unlikely 
 you will become so in the future." 
 
 " Stranger things have happened ; and," with a swift 
 glance at him, " perhaps I was your kindest friend, who 
 knows ? But to return to certainties and Nigel, I may as 
 well tell you I am growing seriously uneasy about his mis- 
 guided attentions. They are so open, so undisguised, that 
 one feels quite a difficulty about taking notice of them ; 
 and yet I must do something. There is Mrs. Scarlett she 
 will make mischief if ever she can, and I suppose she will 
 be able to get at Wriothesley's ear when he does return, 
 unless she is gathered to her fathers, if she ever had any. 
 And there is no such luck in store for us, I fear. She 
 hates Marvel very honestly, and you know how simple a thing 
 it is to whisper away a reputation, and how impossible to 
 whistle one back ; but besides " 
 
 " In heaven's name, then, why don't you write to your 
 cousin to Wriothesley ? " exclaimed Sir George, in much 
 agitation. He dropped his pince-nez, a sure sign of men- 
 tal disturbance with him, and began, to pace excitedly up 
 and down the balcony. " What the deuce ! " he said in- 
 dignantly. " The fellow should be commanded to come 
 home. It is disgraceful that he should leave that poor
 
 MARVEL. 155 
 
 child without protection of any sort. He must be mad to 
 do it. Write to him without delay, and point out to him 
 his duty if he doesn't know it." 
 
 " And so spoil your chance of marrying his widow ! Oh, 
 no, I couldn't do it," said Mrs. Verulam, with mournful 
 conviction. Then she caught his eye, and burst out laugh- 
 ing. " After all, you were foolish to attempt it," she said. 
 " You are but a very inferior actor when all is told. Was 
 ever lover yet desirous of the husband's return ? Go study 
 your part afresh ; you have not caught the spirit of it." 
 
 " The spirit of what ? A part to study ! Why should I 
 act a part ? " 
 
 " To make me jealous," said she audaciously. 
 
 She was a little sorry when she had said it. His face 
 changed. 
 
 " You go too far," he said, in a tone that assured her he 
 was now seriously angry. " A coquette you are, I know ; 
 but that you should be altogether heartless ! Leave me at 
 least my respect for you." 
 
 Mrs. Verulam grew angry in her turn. 
 
 " I don't want people to respect me when they hate me," 
 she said, with a pretty petulance. 
 
 She was indeed, as he had said, a born coquette, and 
 through all her anger she knew that this was the sort of a 
 speech to subdue and soften him, and allay his just wrath. 
 
 " / hate you / 1 " he began vehemently ; but she cut 
 him short. 
 
 " What does it matter ! It is not of my wrongs I wish 
 to speak," she said, sighing heavily, as though remembering, 
 even whilst she forgave him, the cruel manner in which he 
 had just maligned her ; " it is of Marvel. I hardly know 
 what to do about her. In the end it is on my shoulders the 
 blame will fall if there is any, and I greatly doubt me there 
 will be fire to this smoke. Yet how can I forbid my house 
 to Nigel or," with a reproachful glance at him, " to you ? " 
 
 " To me you certainly can," said he abruptly. " You 
 have only to say the word and I leave it now, and for ever. 
 I was mad to return to it." 
 
 She hesitated, having lost her composure in a degree, and 
 he held out his hand to her.
 
 5 6 MAKVEI* 
 
 " Good-bye," he said. 
 
 " Oh, but not just yet. Consider ; how am I to get on 
 with my ' Sketches in Spain ' without you ? You would 
 not desert me at the most critical moment, would you ? 
 And I shall never give them the final touch unless you are 
 near me now and then to compel me to work. Besides 
 bless hie ! " cried she suddenly, as a little clock somewhere 
 in the distance tinkled out the hour. "Who would have 
 believed it so late ? I am afraid tea has been awaiting me 
 in the library for the last half hour. Come with me, do I 
 if only to protect me from the vials of wrath that will 
 be surely poured on my head." 
 
 She slipped her hand through his arm, and led him 
 towards the door, once more her captive. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 "And innocence hath privilege in her 
 To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes." 
 
 THEY were not accosted by reproaches on their entrance 
 into the library however. No withering glances met their 
 eye. Far from it. It did even occur to Mrs. Verulam 
 that if she had never come in, they would scarcely have 
 found it out. There was no pining for the longed-for tea, 
 but rather a relishing of it. Lady Lucy was wielding one 
 teapot and Mrs. Geraint another. Talk ran high. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam stood in the doorway and looked round 
 her. 
 
 " So glad you waited for me," she said at last, with an 
 irrepressible laugh. 
 
 " Oh ! is that you ? Come in," cried Lady Lucy gra- 
 ciously. " I think there is some left," cautiously shaking 
 the lovely little teapot she held from side to side, as if 
 listening for a sound within, " if so, you are in luck. The 
 last cup's always the strongest." 
 
 " We waited, you know," explained Mrs. Dameron, the 
 novelist's wife, a charmingly pretty little woman, without an 
 ounce of brains, " until until *
 
 MAEVEL. 157 
 
 "The tea proved too many for us," said Mr. Kitts, 
 coming to the rescue. " Mrs. Verulam, I haven't had any 
 yet. I couldn't, as you were not here to pour it out for 
 me." 
 
 " Well, I'm not going to do it now," said Mrs. Verulam, 
 settling herself cosily into a huge chair. " As the reins ot 
 government have slipped through my fingers as I am de- 
 throned I shall expect to be waited upon, and taken care 
 of for this night, at all events." 
 
 " Am I to do all the waiting and caring ? " asked Kitts. 
 "All by myself? What joy! What triumph !" He tripped 
 over a stool as he spoke, and fell into her lap. " Dear me ! 
 Bless me ! What the dooce !" ejaculated he, as he scrambled 
 up again. 
 
 " Thanks. I don't believe I'd enjoy being cared for, or 
 waited upon," said Mrs. Verulam rather indignantly, "if 
 that's a specimen of your style. Get me my tea, please, and 
 stand far away when you are handing it to me." Then sud- 
 denly : "Where is Marvel?" She addressed the question 
 generally, and Mrs. Scarlett took upon herself to answer it. 
 She made a little graceful motion with her shoulders, pointed 
 her fan towards the large curtained inclosure of the bay 
 window, and said with a soft laugh : 
 
 "As usual." 
 
 Mrs. \ erulam grew on the instant furiously angry, but 
 she managed a smile. It was impossible to mistake Mrs. 
 Scarlett's meaning. Behind the curtains two forms could 
 be seen ; one was, of course, that of Savage. 
 
 " She is always such a quiet child," she said. " One 
 doesn't know where to look for her." 
 
 " No ? " said Mrs. Scarlett. " / should." She laughed 
 again, and Mrs. Dameron joined her, not seeing the freezing 
 glance directed at her by her husband. 
 
 " Lady Wriothesley, may I get you some more tea?" said 
 Sir George, going over to the window, and deliberately 
 putting back the curtains. 
 
 "Oh ! have you come and Cicely?" said Marvel, with 
 the prettiest smile of utter friendliness. She betrayed no 
 confusion, and made no attempt at leaving the nook she 
 was in, but sat looking up at him with her clear lovely eyes,
 
 ISS MARVEL, 
 
 her hands folded on her lap in a little peaceful fashion that 
 became her, and had something of resignation in it. Her 
 whole air disarmed Sir George, who had felt inclined to be 
 angry with her, for nothing more, however, than mere folly. 
 " Not any more tea, thank, you," she said, and he dropped 
 the curtains and went away. 
 
 "Do you know," said Savage, when he had gone, "I have 
 never got accustomed to hear you called Lady Wriothesley. 
 I thought of you as unmarried for so long, that I find a 
 difficulty in changing your state now in my own mind." 
 
 " I suppose I didn't look much like a well, a matron, 
 on that day," said Marvel, who always alluded to her part- 
 ing with her husband as having happened on "that day." 
 It was the most momentous occasion of her young life. 
 
 " No. I wish you had," said he thoughtfully. "But I was 
 kept quite in the dark. It didn't occur tome fora moment 
 that you were anything so severe as a married lady. It was 
 a little unkind of you, wasn't it, to look so peculiarly un- 
 attached ? " 
 
 " If I meant it." 
 
 " That is no excuse. You should have guarded against 
 mistakes of the kind. Now that hat you wore. It was 
 specially misguiding." 
 
 " Well, I'm glad you didn't know," said she, "because if 
 you had, I think you wouldn't ever have thought about me 
 again." 
 
 The naivete of this remark entered into him. He was 
 hard put to it not to indulge in the desire for laughter it 
 awoke; but he did not dare to do it, with that innocent 
 face smiling at him. 
 
 " I don't see how that would have harmed you," he said 
 moodily. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Savage ! What an unkind thing to say. Have 
 I so many friends that I could afford to lose one ? " She 
 leaned a little towards him with the sweetest reproach upon 
 her face. He smiled. 
 
 " I wish you wouldn't call me that," he said tenderly. 
 
 "Call you what?" 
 
 " By my surname. You talk of being my friend, but 
 there is something horribly unfriendly about that. Now
 
 MAEVEL. 159 
 
 Nigel sounds so different. And, really, considering we have 
 known each other for considerably over a year " 
 
 She laughed gaily. 
 
 " A very barren year, however," she said. " I see you, 
 to-day, let us say, for the first time, and I don't see you 
 again for twelve months, and you then call me an old 
 friend." 
 
 " Why not ! " said he boldly. " And, at all events, why 
 argue about it; I hate going into things, it commoriizes 
 them so; the fact remains that you are an old friend, 
 whether our acquaintance began yesterday or in the Middle 
 Ages. I don't trouble myself about the time I didn't know 
 you. I don't seem to remember it. I only learned to live, 
 
 when " He broke off somewhat abruptly, alarmed by 
 
 the somewhat astonished expression that was growing on 
 her face. " Let us return to our first subject," he said. " It 
 I tell you, you make me hate my surname, what then? 
 Will it teach you to be merciful ? Mr, Savage ! Pah ! It 
 puts my teeth on edge. And you say it so coldly too ! Why 
 not Nigel ? " 
 
 " If you wish it so very much," with a glance of open 
 surprise, "of course I shall call you so. I would please 
 you, if I could, in a greater matter than that. You believe 
 me, Nigel ? " 
 
 She looked at him so sweetly as she said this ; so softly 
 his name fell from her lips, that a terrible longing to take 
 her in his arms and tell her how he loved her to carry her 
 away from all her dismal past, almost overpowered him. 
 But there is a difficulty about doing such things nowadays 
 in a crowded room, however thick may be the curtains of 
 the window, with the delicate tinkling sound of the china 
 and silver, and the merry laughter of the many out there 
 beyond, within a foot or two of one's life's tragedy. 
 
 " Marvel ! " cried Mrs. Verulam. Her voice came some- 
 what sharply. 
 
 " Yes," cried Marvel, parting the silken curtains to look 
 into the room. 
 
 " Where is Lulu ? Do you know ? You have been so 
 long in that window, that if she passed through the gardens 
 you must have seen her."
 
 160 MARVEL. 
 
 It was a gentle hint, but there is nothing so obtuse *s 
 perfect innocence. 
 
 " I think she did run by this window awhile ago," said 
 Marvel. " She had some bread in her hand ; I think she 
 was going to feed something. I called to her, but she would 
 not listen." 
 
 " Wise child ! Three is trumpery," said Mrs. Scarlett, 
 lazily rubbing down the tiny terrier lying in her lap. 
 
 " Lulu is hardly old enough to be as wise as you would 
 have her," said Mrs. Verulam, with a movement of her 
 lips that meant mischief. Mrs. Scarlett knew that twitch 
 well and rose to the occasion. 
 
 " You should know," she said, with a slight accession 
 of insolence. " We must only conclude then, that Lady 
 Wriothesley's summons was very carefully weak." She 
 tweaked the little terrier's ears as she spoke, and it squeaked 
 noisily. 
 
 All this was unheard by Marvel, who was still looking 
 into the room ; but the window was at a considerable 
 distance from the fire, round which the rest were grouped, 
 and only the murmur of the rather subdued tones reached 
 her ears. She saw, however, Mrs. Verulam's frown, and, 
 not being in the common secret, put it down to anxiety on 
 the child's account. 
 
 "Are you uneasy, Cicely?" she asked in her clear 
 voice. 
 
 " Yes, I am uneasy ! " said Mrs. Verulam, with a mean- 
 ing glance at her, that, alas ! was thrown away. 
 
 " Then let some one go and look for her," cried Marvel, 
 starting to her feet. She glanced round uncertainly, and 
 her eyes fell on Savage. " Nigel, will you go ? " she said. 
 
 An electric thrill ran through the assembly. Every one 
 tried to look as though it were the usual thing to call a 
 young man of a few weeks' acquaintance by his Christian 
 name, but every one failed ; Mrs. Scarlett half closed her 
 eyes, and turned herself, with a slow, disgusted gesture, 
 rather away from the window. Mrs. Verulam felt as if she 
 would have given a good deal to be able to burst out cry- 
 ing ; but she was worth more than to give way to such 
 damning folly as that.
 
 MARVEL. 161 
 
 "With bread in her hand," she said, as if musing. 
 "That would mean the fish. Well, we must only hope 
 she won't fall into the carp pond, or otherwise distinguish 
 herself!" 
 
 " Nigel, I really think you had better go," said Marvel 
 again, in a distressed tone, whereon the general conster- 
 nation waxed greater. 
 
 " I really think he had ! " said Mrs. Scarlett, in a mild 
 tone, that made most present smile, and reduced Mrs. 
 Verulam to despair. Then began what would have been 
 a deadly silence, but that providentially at this moment the 
 door was flung wide, and no less a person than Miss Verulam 
 herself was placed inside the doorway by the long-suffering 
 woman who called herself her nurse. 
 
 She was dressed in a little white lace frock, and had a 
 big pink sash tied round her waist. She was evidently at 
 enmity with her clothes, but she looked for all that, a very 
 angel. She skipped past Mr. Kitts, who would fain have 
 caught her, and flinging herself bodily upon Sir George, 
 clambered boldly into his arms. Even whilst she clambered 
 she talked at Kitts over her friend's shoulder. 
 
 " No, I won't," she said, " I won't go to you. I'll go to 
 my Georgie boy." Nothing would induce [her to call the 
 dignified Sir George by any other name but this. " And I 
 won't kiss you, either. No, not for sweeties, nor for dolls, 
 nor for anything. But I'll kiss my Georgie boy." She 
 suited the action to the word ; and then slipped down on 
 his knee, and pulled out his watch. But, unfortunately, 
 the fact that Sir George had not smiled when he returned 
 her kiss had attracted her attention. "Why don't you 
 laugh," she said, trying to dig up his cheeks into a risible 
 expression with her fat little finger. " Are you sorry about 
 something? You're always sorry now, and mammy says 
 it is because you aren't loved enough. Is that true ? " 
 
 " Fatally true ! " said Sir George, with a rather con- 
 strained laugh. He knew that he had changed colour, and 
 drew the child closer to him that he might hide his chagrin. 
 He did not dare look at Cicely with all the curious eyes 
 in the room upon him, but even if he had, he could not 
 have seen her. She had pushed back her chair into a 
 
 ii
 
 162 MARVEL. 
 
 shadowed corner, and with the help of a huge Japanese fan, 
 was hiding her crimson cheeks from observation. 
 
 "Very well, then, /'// love you," said the little one 
 fondly. She threw her arms round his neck and kissed 
 him. " Are you better n DW ? " asked she anxiously. It 
 was impossible to be serious after that. Mr. Kitts led the 
 way and every one roared. Marvel came from behind her 
 curtains, and the child seeing her, ran to her, and claimed 
 her for her own. 
 
 " Very well, Miss Lulu, all right," said Mr. Kitts, shaking 
 his fist at her, as she stood nestled into Marvel's side. 
 " You can behave as you think proper, of course, and so 
 can I. You can- bestow all your good gifts upon people 
 utterly worthless," indicating Sir George by a wave of the 
 hand, "upon a ghoul a feeder on human bones a " 
 
 " My dear Kitts ! " protested Sir George mildly. 
 
 " But I can do something, too ! Christmas is approach- 
 ing, and I know of a doll with the bluest eyes and the 
 yellowest hair, and the queenliest robes, that I ska' n't give 
 you!" 
 
 " I don't care !" said Miss Verulam stoutly, but she did 
 for all that. By degrees she edged away from Marvel, and 
 towards Kitts, skirting ever nearer and nearer to him, and 
 glancing at him through her sunny hair, until at last she was 
 close enough to permit of his seizing upon her bodily, when, 
 with a great pretence at reluctance, she let herself willingly 
 be caught. 
 
 " Do you think it is quite right to speak to a child in that 
 fashion ? " piped Mrs. Geraint volubly. " Even at that tender 
 age their perception is so clear. When I was little more 
 than Lulu's age I wrote my ' Ode to Mortality,' but of 
 course all children could not be expected to be so advanced. 
 They used to say I was one in a thousand." 
 
 " One in ten thousand," said Dameron politely, adding 
 in a tone that reached Mrs. Verulam only, " for that, at 
 least, let us be duly grateful." 
 
 "Oh, to be earnest," gasped Mrs. Geraint, "that is 
 everything ! to be intense ; to th nk always ! I hope you 
 are earnest." 
 
 She addressed Mrs. Dameron, whereon that ridiculous
 
 MAKVEL. 163 
 
 person giggled merrily, and shook her pretty head so hard, 
 that one readily guessed there was nothing in it. 
 
 " What for ? " she asked, " to be earnest means to grow 
 grey hairs in a hurry. They will come soon enough without 
 beseeching them. There is Lady Wriothesley, why don't 
 you ask her, she looks intense enough for anything. Are 
 you earnest, Lady Wriothesley ? " 
 
 Marvel had not been attending. 
 
 " In earnest about what ? " she asked, mistaking the 
 question. 
 
 " Anything and everything." 
 
 "Everything oh, let us hope not," said Mrs. Scarlett 
 significantly. She cast a swift glance at Savage, as if to 
 accentuate her words. 
 
 " But that is how it should be," persisted Mrs. Dameron. 
 " I assure you, Lady Wriothesley, there is trouble in store 
 for you, if you won't attend to Mrs. Geraint's advice. She 
 has undertaken a mission, and she desires you as a convert. 
 She is growing quite unhappy about you: you must try to 
 be earnest if only to comfort her." 
 
 " Unhappy ? surely there is no occasion to be unhappy 
 about Lady Wriothesley yet I" said Mrs. Scarlett, with a 
 faint yawn. 
 
 "True," said Savage nonchalantly, who had come over to 
 take her cup from her. " It would be folly to pity a being 
 so favoured." He spoke very low. 
 
 " By you ? " she asked, as if finishing his sentence. " It 
 is an honour, no doubt, to have you at one's feet !" She 
 did not seek to hide the sneer that accompanied her words. 
 Looking at her, he wondered how it was he had ever been 
 at her feet. 
 
 " By nature, I meant," he said. 
 
 "You do not however deny that you are her slave." 
 
 " Why should I ? Alas, that I am only one amongst so 
 many ! " He spoke lightly, but he had a shaft in his quiver 
 for her still. " She only wants a season in town," he said, 
 " to have all men at her feet ! " He bowed, and turned 
 aside, smiling not so much at his prediction, as at the 
 look of passionate mortification it had brought into her 
 face. 
 
 II 2
 
 164 MARVEL. 
 
 "There sits a dethroned queen," he thought to himself, 
 as he crossed the room to where Marvel, the new queen, 
 stood. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 " The world with calumny abounds, 
 The whitest virtue, slander wounds : 
 There are those whose joy is night and day 
 To talk a character away." 
 
 " Is he coming again this afternoon ? " asked Mrs. 
 Verulam with an entirely false astonishment. Considering 
 Mr. Savage had come every afternoon for the past three 
 weeks without comment, it was quite a remarkable thing 
 that she should now betray surprise at his frequent visiting. 
 
 " This afternoon ? " said Marvel (the astonishment was 
 honest this time). " I think it would be far more remark- 
 able if he didn't come, than if he did. Pie is always here, 
 isn't he?" 
 
 Mrs. Verulam looked at her. If she understood she was 
 the calmest young woman she had ever met ; if not, the 
 sooner she did the better. It was quite early, directly after 
 breakfast, and she had Marvel all to herself for a wonder. 
 The others were scattered all over the place, amusing them- 
 selves as best suited them. 
 
 " Yes. He is," said Cicely a little tartly. " He lives 
 here, it seems to me." 
 
 " I thought you liked him." 
 
 " So I do. But not enough to make me blind to your 
 interests." This was a bold stroke, and Marvel followed 
 it up. 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " she asked. She came 
 over and sat down on the ottoman close by Cicely, and 
 took her hand. "You want to say something to me," 
 she said. " Why don't you do it ? " 
 
 " Because it is so hard to say things," said Mrs. Verulam, 
 feeling rather inclined to cry. " And to you of all people, 
 because look here, darling, it's horrid of me to put it 
 into words, I know, but don't carry it too far. "
 
 MAEVEL. 165 
 
 "Carry what?" asked Marvel with the sinccrest be- 
 wilderment. 
 
 " Oh ! I don't think you ought to meet me like that. 
 With me, at least, you might be open. If / am not your 
 friend, Marvel, who is ? " 
 
 " Who indeed ! " said Lady Wriothesley, with some 
 distress. " And if I only knew what it was all about 
 why you were scolding me I mean I should " 
 
 "Tell me this," said Mrs. Verulam sharply. "Or 
 rather," nervously, "dorit tell me, that that you have 
 any foolish fancy for Nigel Savage." 
 
 " For Mr. Savage ! Of course not," said Marvel. She 
 was almost too surprised to blush. " What on earth made 
 you think that ? " 
 
 "Why on earth shouldn't I think it, you mean," said 
 Mrs. Verulam with a touch of impatience. " One should be 
 blind and deaf and dumb not to think it. So you aren't 
 in love with him ? " 
 
 " Do you forget ? " said Marvel in a little hushed way, 
 that made Mrs. Verulam rather angry. 
 
 " Well, all I can say is," she exclaimed, " that if you are 
 as indifferent as you declare yourself, you oughtn't to flirt 
 with him as you do." The murder was out now, and she 
 waited somewhat anxiously for what Marvel should say or 
 do next. 
 
 " Flirt with him ! " she said. She grew very pale, and 
 her large eyes looked out at Mrs. Verulam with a certain 
 horror in their calm depths. 
 
 " I don't know, of course, what you call it," said Cicely. 
 " I suppose you have a more poetic or aesthetic name 
 for it; but if / were to let a man sit in my pocket all 
 day, as you do, and look at me as if he longed to devour 
 me, I know what all my dear friends and relatives would 
 call it." 
 
 " Cicely ! Do you know what you are saying ? " 
 
 "And who should, if I shouldn't? " said the fair Cicely, 
 driven to pertness through fear of those injured eyes fastened 
 on hers. " I believe you, of course. I believe you as inno- 
 cent as the babe unborn of any suspicion of coquetry, or 
 spooning, or anything. I'll even believe you don't know
 
 166 MARVEL. 
 
 the man is madly in love with you. But I tell you what, 
 my good child, when that Savage of yours, that fire eater 
 (they're all half-mad, the Savages; perhaps I should have 
 told you that at first) discovers, one of these days, that you 
 have been meaning nothing all this while, in spite of your 
 rapt looks and your baby poses, he will slay you alive ! 
 When that hour comes, I honestly confess I wouldn't be 
 you for a round crown. He won't leave so much as a bone 
 of you to tell the tale." 
 
 " I wish you wouldn't speak to me like that," said 
 Marvel. " It is hateful of you. It is wicked." 
 
 " Fiddle-de-dee," said Mrs. Verulam. " /';;/ not Nigel, 
 so you need not waste powder on me. You are angelic 
 
 with those tears in your eyes, I know, but " Here she 
 
 paused and changed her tone completely. "Well! you 
 are the prettiest thing," she said, with heartfelt admiration. 
 " I declare I don't blame any man for making a thorough 
 fool of himself about you. It is the greatest pity, / know, 
 that you are tied to that abominable cousin of mine, or you 
 might make the biggest match of the year." 
 
 " I don't want to make any match, and I don't wish to 
 be accused of of encouraging any one," said Marvel, still 
 very white. "I know you mean that Mr. Savage is in 
 love with me but it is not true. It is false -false ! " 
 with a little irrepressible stamp of her foot. " Oh ! how 
 could you think that, Cicely? You, my friend! It was the 
 cruellest thing of you." 
 
 " It was not," said Cicely quickly. " It was the most 
 natural thing, you mean. And of course if you don't care 
 for -him no more need be said about it. But it was my 
 duty to warn you. Bad as Fulke is proving himself to be, 
 careless as he is, I should not like, when he left you in my 
 care, to to be told by him on his return that I had failed 
 in the trust he had reposed in me. I have been very 
 unhappy for a long time, and I only spoke now for your 
 good. If you are going to be angry with me for speaking, 
 it will be very unjust and ungenerous. of you." 
 
 " I would not be that," said Marvel, large drops standing 
 warm within her eyes. 
 
 " Tell me," said Mrs. Verulam, taking her hand. " In
 
 MARVEL, 167 
 
 spite of all that has happened, all that you know, do you 
 still love your husband ? " 
 
 " How can I answer you ? " said Marvel tremulously. 
 " Of love, the love of which you speak, I knew nothing 
 until I came to you and mixed with your world. Now I 
 know that something more is required to make life perfect 
 than the calm, childish, unreasoning affection I had for 
 Fulke when I married him." She stopped, and Mrs. 
 Verulam pressed her hand. 
 
 " Tell me all," she entreated. " Have you ever thought 
 whether this stronger affection that you speak of is also 
 given to Wriothesley ? " 
 
 " How can I be sure ? " said the girl mournfully. " I don't 
 know whether I love Fulke as I should love him, but this I 
 do know, that I love no other man." 
 
 " Well, that's a satisfaction, at all events," said Mrs. 
 Verulam briskly. " But for all that, and, indeed, specially 
 because of that, you should be careful. When Fulke returns, 
 you would not like him to hear little ill-natured tales of you, 
 and there are so many evil tongues in the world." 
 
 " You mean Mrs. Scarlett," said Marvel, who was al- 
 ways terribly downright. " Yes, I know I must expect 
 only enmity from her." 
 
 " I hope you are not angry with me for speaking to you, 
 Marvel." 
 
 "Angry, no. I am glad you told me. It is well, I 
 suppose, to know the evil things that are being said of one." 
 
 " Don't speak like that, and don't look so down on your 
 luck. Just be a little careful, and no one can dare say a 
 word, not even that viper in petticoats, Leonie Scarlett. 
 Come, cheer up, or they will all think I have been scolding 
 you." 
 
 " Well, so you have." 
 
 " Not a bit of it. I would not dare to scold your lady- 
 ship. And I want you to look your loveliest to-day, as 
 half the county is coming to tennis in the afternoon." 
 
 " There is one thing," said Marvel nervously. " I don't 
 know how I shall ever look Mr. Savage in the face again. 
 Oh, Cicely ! " with growing distress, " do you think he 
 knows, has he heard, what people have been saying ? "
 
 i68 MARVEL. 
 
 " How you run away with things ! I have heard nobody 
 say anything, and, of course, neither has Nigel. I merely 
 wished to give you a hint as to what might be said, and 
 you are making a regular mountain out of it. If you 
 intend to change your manner to Nigel now, you will 
 only cause double comment. For goodness' sake do be 
 rational and sensible, and don't act like a mere baby. 
 Now look here ! " said Mrs. Verulam, who had by this 
 time worked herself into a fine frenzy, " if you are going 
 to cry, I shall go to my bed and leave you to entertain 
 the county. You won't like that. I'm downright sorry 
 I spoke at all and didn't let you give yourself over bodily 
 
 a prey to the sharks of society ! Oh ! no, I dont" with 
 
 swift contrition. "Darling child, don't believe a word I 
 have said." 
 
 " I shall try to be just the same to Mr. Savage to-day 
 as usual. But I know I couldn't keep it up, Cicely, so 
 I shall go away up to the place in the north, to Ringwood 
 Abbey. And, perhaps, when you have got rid of your 
 guests here, you will come and stay with me for a while ? " 
 
 " Oh ! Marvel, 1 have driven you away from me." 
 
 " You are the only person on earth who is really kind 
 to me. Mr. Savage has been ; but it seems I must not 
 accept friendship at his hands. And you know yourself 
 it is. better I should go." 
 
 "Well, perhaps so," said Mrs. Verulam with a sigh. 
 
 She felt as though some impending misfortune was 
 hanging over her, as, indeed, the loss of Marvel, who had 
 grown wonderfully dear to her, might be called. She went 
 about all the morning in a pining fashion, and at luncheon 
 sent away plate after plate untasted. Sir George, who was 
 present, noticed this in his silent way, and was harassed 
 with doubts and fears as to what was the cause of her 
 evident dejection. 
 
 As the afternoon deepened all the terraces and lawns 
 grew gay with the many-coloured garments of the guests, 
 who drove over in skittish coaches and solemn barouches, 
 respectable landaus and modest T-carts to attend on Mrs. 
 Verulam. There was quite a small regiment of men from 
 the barracks in the next town, and a very large regiment of
 
 MAEVEL. 169 
 
 girls of all sizes and ages from the neighbourhood around. 
 Lord Castlerock drove over quite a bevy of his own people, 
 and Michael Davenant, the new M.P. in the Conservative 
 interest, who was just then being brought a good deal into 
 notice on account of his oratorical powers, brought his wife 
 ad three daughters. Mrs. Davenant had all the remains 
 of great beauty, but the daughters were all like their father, 
 blond, freckled, impossible. 
 
 " Are those the Davenants ? " asked Sir George, putting 
 up his glass. 
 
 " So I'm told," answered Dameron. " It's well to know, 
 isn't it ? I feel as if I'd had as much of an introduction to 
 them as I shall ever want." 
 
 " Beauty don't run riot amongst 'em, it must be con- 
 fessed," said Kitts mournfully. " If they were my offspring 
 I should put their heads in bags." 
 
 " Yet their mother, when Dora Forsyth, was an acknow- 
 ledged belle," said Lady Lucy. " I remember her well when 
 I was in the schoolroom ; she had the imprudence to marry 
 a man without a feature, and," with a shrug of her ample 
 shoulders, "what will you? Those hopelessly ugly girls 
 are the result. But the featureless man had golden charms, 
 and besides that, he is clever. Fossbrooke says he will 
 carry all before him now." 
 
 " I'm glad he thought of it in time," said Mrs. Dameron 
 disdainfully, who, though she quarrelled with him inces- 
 santly, could not endure hearing any other man accredited 
 with clever qualities except her husband. " Is he so won- 
 derfully clever ? He has a head like a wooden horse." 
 
 "Clever! it's no name for it," said Kitts, "he is that 
 sharp he could tell what you were writing if he only heard 
 the scratch of your pen. He is going to play Old Harry 
 with the new bill." 
 
 At this moment Mrs. Verulam passed by them, and Sir 
 George went to meet her. She was looking very pensive 
 for tier, and though walking with a tall angular man, was 
 hardly listening to what he was saying. As Sir George 
 reached her, she was giving some message to the tall man 
 who hurried off to deliver it. 
 
 " I have so wanted to speak to you," said Sir George in
 
 170 MARVEL. 
 
 his deliberate way. " I am anxious to know what has 
 occurred to trouble you." 
 
 "You presuppose a good deal; in the first place, how do 
 you know I am troubled at all ? " 
 
 " I haven't studied you for four years for nothing," said 
 he calmly. " And besides your face is a tell-tale : and 
 another thing, you ate such a bad luncheon." 
 
 " Was it bad ? " said she. " Oh ! I am so sorry. And 
 I was beginning to hope that this cook " 
 
 " Pshaw ! " interrupted he. " You know very well what 
 I mean ; but if I am not to be allowed to help you why, 
 that is of course all about it." 
 
 " You help me," said she with indignant reproach, 
 " when the whole thing is all your fault ! No, thank you." 
 
 " Good heavens ! what have I done now ? " said that 
 injured man. 
 
 "Well, I hope you are satisfied at the result of your 
 advice. I took it, and I am now the most miserable 
 woman alive. I knew I should be. I knew if I listened 
 to anything you could say, I should be wretched ever 
 after." 
 
 " Cicely, do you know what you are saying ? What on 
 earth has happened ? " 
 
 " It is all very well for you to look so virtuously innocent, 
 but the fact remains that you have turned Marvel out of 
 my house." 
 
 " My dear girl, I haven't said a word to Lady Wriothesley 
 for days beyond ' how d'ye do.' You have got some absurd 
 notions mixed up in your head." 
 
 " I shall trouble you not to call me absurd. Do you 
 deny that you advised me to speak to Marvel about the 
 attentions of that odious Nigel ? Come now, do you deny 
 that ? Do you ? " 
 
 " I have a vague remembrance of having said it would be 
 a good thing if Lady Wriothesley was more on her guard 
 but as to having advis " 
 
 " Equivocation ! " interposed Mrs. Verulam with fine 
 contempt. 
 
 " Abuse me as you will," said he with a resigned shrug. 
 " I am accustomed to it ; but at the same time tell me
 
 MARVEL. 171 
 
 how all this has come to pass; I conclude you spoke 
 to Lady Wriothesley, and she resented your interference, 
 and " 
 
 " Wrong, entirely wrong ; Marvel has the temper of an 
 angel, and resented nothing. But she thinks it wiser to go, 
 and," sighing, " perhaps it is. After a little while I shall 
 follow her." 
 
 "Whereto?" 
 
 " Ringwood Abbey." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Sir George. He appeared sunk in un- 
 pleasant thought for a minute or two, and then brightened. 
 "There is capital shooting in the north," he said. Mrs. 
 Verulam gave way to mirth. 
 
 " If you expect Marvel to give you an invitation to her 
 house you are entirely out of it," she said. " I shan't give 
 her a hint, I assure you." 
 
 " Who is making me out so inhospitable ? " said Marvel 
 herself at this instant. " So you know of my intended 
 flight, Sir George," with a shy glance at him and a blush. 
 "And you want to test my covers ? Come then ; I at least 
 will promise you the heartiest of welcomes." 
 
 " There ! " said Sir George with a triumphant glance at 
 Cicely, who made him a saucy little moue in return. " Lady 
 Wriothesley, a thousand thanks. I accept your kindest of 
 invitations with all my heart." 
 
 They had joined some of the house party, and Mrs. 
 Scarlett, who was amongst them, looked at Marvel. 
 
 " Issuing invitations. Are you leaving, then ?" she asked. 
 
 " Almost directly. I am anxious for many reasons to go 
 back to my northern home." She tried to speak lightly, 
 but Mrs. Scarlett possessed some strange influence over 
 her, an influence almost mesmeric, that showed itself in 
 an access of nervousness whenever directly addressed by 
 her. 
 
 " You go north ? Why not south to The Towers ? " 
 
 " I prefer to go to Ringwood," said Marvel, feeling sud- 
 denly very sad and lonely. That old first home ! So dear ! 
 so beloved. To go to it again ? Oh ! never, never ! It 
 would break her heart, she thought, to roam once more 
 amongst its rooms and gardens, and let memory bring back,
 
 17* MARVEL. 
 
 with its too cruel fidelity, all the sweet dead past, with its 
 hopes and beliefs, born only to be ruthlessly destroyed. 
 
 " And yet I should have thought that The Towers would 
 have won the day in your esteem," said Mrs. Scarlett in her 
 soft tramantc voice. " It was there, was it not, that you 
 were wooed and won ? " 
 
 " It was there I was married," said Marvel in the stony 
 way she had acquired to hide her pain. Her colour faded ; 
 she knew with an agony disproportionate to the occasion 
 indeed, but yet not to be repressed, that the elder woman 
 was looking at her, and marking, and exulting in, the 
 sorrowful confusion that was overpowering her. She would 
 have given worlds to escape, but knew not how. She sat 
 there, silent, wretched, until a voice broke in her ears that 
 was as music to her in her present distress. 
 
 " Lady Wriothesley ! What ! Buried alive in this stifling 
 tent ? Come forth, I pray you, and seek with me the sylvan 
 shades and groves." 
 
 What a kind voice it was ! Had he guessed of her 
 extremity, and come to her aid? She raised her eyes, 
 and returned the smile that Savage gave her with a little 
 sad one of her own. She rose too and went to him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 u Grief has measures 
 
 Soft as pleasures, 
 Fear has moods that hope lies deep in, 
 
 Songs to sing him, 
 
 Dreams to bring him, 
 And a red-rose bed to sleep in." 
 
 " HAS she been amusing herself again ? " asked Savage, 
 looking intently into Marvel's white face as they moved 
 away. " Why* do you submit to it ? " he said with some 
 heat. " Why not give her a Roland . for her Oliver, or if 
 you can't do that I believe," tenderly, " you couldn't why 
 not keep out of her way ? She's a perfect devil, that woman, 
 when she likes,"
 
 MAKVEL. 173 
 
 "I am going to keep out of everybody's way," said 
 Marvel with a slight indrawing of her breath. " I am 
 going back to where I came from. To the north." 
 
 " To that prison ! That isolation ! Oh ! surely not," 
 cried he. "You are not in earnest? It is but the im- 
 pulsive thought of an offended moment?" He looked 
 eagerly at her for confirmation of his words, but she shook 
 her head. 
 
 " I am indeed going," she said. " And soon at once." 
 
 " You cannot go at once. Next week perhaps " 
 
 "To-morrow," she said. "But do not speak of it to 
 any one. I shall rise early and catch the seven o'clock 
 train, and be far away before breakfast. I am very anxious 
 to be gone, and except to you and Mrs. Verulam, and, 
 perhaps yes Lady Lucy, I shall have no farewells to 
 make." 
 
 " But this is such a terribly sudden determination you 
 have come to. To leave us all without a word of warning 
 almost. You," he looked at her keenly, "you must have 
 some reason for it." 
 
 "Why should there be a reason?" said she blushing 
 faintly. "Have you never longed to get away to fresh 
 fields ? And that old place up there in the north is very 
 lovely, I can tell you, in the autumn, and besides " 
 
 " You needn't go on," said he gloomily. " You do it 
 very badly. Of course it was not to be expected that you 
 would do it well you to whom truth is as the breath you 
 breathe. No. It is for some reason that hurts you that 
 you are leaving us." She grew a little paler. 
 
 " If such a reason exists," she said, " I pray you do not 
 ask to learn it." 
 
 "I have no right to ask. I know that. But if you 
 could only trust me as your friend, I might " 
 
 "Ah! my friend. That is what you must not be," said 
 she, catching at the word. When she had spoken she 
 knew she had made a fatal slip, but she did not know how 
 to correct it, or explain it away, and could only stand 
 before him confused and miserable. 
 
 " I see," said he. He was silent for awhile, and then 
 " So the gossiping tongues of those infer those women
 
 174 MARVEL. 
 
 have driven you into exile? May I ask what was the 
 exact charge ? " 
 
 " I was told I heard what I mean is," said she desper- 
 ately, " that every one is saying you are in love with me ! " 
 
 " Well ? " said he. The colour had forsaken his cheek, 
 and he looked so deadly white that she grew frightened. 
 Was he angry ? No wonder, too, if he was ! 
 
 " It is absurd," she said hastily. " I know that as well 
 as you do. I could have laughed at Cicely when she told 
 me only only I was too upset by it. It is the most 
 ridiculous story ever invented, but you see people insist 
 on thinking it." 
 
 "And you?" said he. He could hardly frame the 
 words, yet he felt as if he should ask the question. 
 
 " I ? " she said as if hardly understanding, and then she 
 knew, and the blood rushed in a tumult to her face, and 
 her eyes filled with tears of shame. " Oh surely, surely" 
 she said, " you cannot think that / ever believed so false a 
 tale. I, who know you so well. Oh ! indeed I am not 
 surprised that you are angry about it. But not with me ; 
 you should not blame me ; it is not my fault at all. I can 
 quite understand how it vexes you. To be accused of 
 being in love with a woman when you are not, and that 
 woman married, too ! Oh, it is shameful ! But I have 
 done all I could for you. I have assured Cicely that you 
 only like me, as you like many others, and she will explain 
 to the rest, I hope. I'm so sorry about it. I feel as if it were 
 all my fault," she said, laying her hand gently on his arm. 
 
 A desire to laugh took hold of him ; a desire nearly 
 akin to tears. Did she know nothing? How sweet she 
 was, how dear, how far from him. He took the pretty 
 slender hand upon his arm, and bending his head kissed it 
 reverently. 
 
 " Ah, yes. It was not my fault, was it ? " said she, 
 believing herself absolved from share in this dark con- 
 spiracy against his peace. 
 
 " It is the fault of evil minds," said he. " You could 
 have nothing to do with it. But will'you give in so tamely 
 to a few spiteful women ? Why not stay and brave it out 
 and cast their scandal back in their teeth ? "
 
 MARVEL. 175 
 
 "I could not," she said slowly. "It is very foolish of 
 me, I suppose, but I have not the courage for it. The very 
 thought of it terrifies me. And is it not cruel," she said 
 with a little childish trembling of her lovely lips, " that I 
 may not have you for my friend because because " 
 
 " Your husband chooses to live at the other end of the 
 world," supplied he. " They are all ready to fall upon 
 you and rend you in pieces, but what of him ? Is he doing 
 his duty ? Is he " 
 
 " I cannot let you speak of Lord Wriothesley," said she 
 gently. " You do not know him. You cannot therefore judge 
 him. And, in this matter, he is not to be blamed at all." 
 
 " I will regard him as a suffering saint, if you wish it," 
 said he impatiently ; he thought it a trifle overdrawn, her 
 defence of the man she did not love.' "Or rather, with 
 your permission, I shall let him fade from my mind. The 
 one thing that I must remember now is that you are going 
 away, and who could replace you?" He spoke with deep 
 feeling. 
 
 " You are sorry that I am going," said she sweetly. " I 
 am so glad of that. I should not have liked you to be 
 indifferent. Ever since auntie's death, those who liked me 
 have been very few. You and Cicely only : that is, of those 
 outside," she corrected herself confusedly. "Of course, 
 Lord Wriothesley " 
 
 " Of course," said Savage courteously. 
 
 " But it is strange, is it not, how alone I remain ? Do 
 you know," gazing at him earnestly, " there was a time 
 when I began to fear I was a person whom no one could 
 like ; and that thought was terrible. Then came you, 
 and " with a lovely, trustful smile at him " I knew I 
 was mistaken." 
 
 Oh ! to tell her how he loved her ! There arose within 
 him a reckless determination to do it. To lay bare to her 
 the passionate longings of his soul. To compel those 
 innocent eyes to fall and hide themselves away from his. 
 To kill for ever the childish blessed unconsciousness of evil 
 (so near, yet so undreamt of) that tormented whilst it 
 charmed him, as he had never in all his careless life been 
 charmed before. But the serenity of that smile, still
 
 176 MARVEL. 
 
 lingering on her perfect face, conquered him. He did not 
 dare destroy it. 
 
 He did not speak for a long time, watching her in his 
 silence, and trying to fathom the calm depths of her eyes 
 What lay hidden beneath ? Would she always be calm as 
 this? And if not, for whom would she awake? The 
 serenity of her sank into him and calmed him in spite of 
 himself. What peace lay upon her brow ! She was far 
 apart from the world in which she moved. Her lips, so 
 loving, yet so cold ; her stainless brow ; her eyes. . . . 
 *' And her eyes are as eyes of a dove." 
 
 " Mistaken, indeed," he said, in answer to her. But it 
 was rather of himself he spoke. To have given his heart 
 in this irrevocable way to an object so unattainable was, 
 indeed, the very madness of folly. But it was too late to 
 think of that now. 
 
 " I shall steal away," she said presently, thinking of her 
 journey on the morrow. " I shall say good-bye to-night, to 
 Cicely, and to Lady Lucy and you, and I shall think on 
 my way of how they, the others, will wonder when they 
 hear of my flight." She laughed as she said this, and 
 though her laugh was sorrowful it angered him. 
 
 " You, at least, are not sorry to leave us," he said. "We 
 are all nothing to you. You have a heart of ice." 
 
 " You often wrong me," she said reproachfully. " But 
 never more than now. I am going only because I must. 
 If I could I would gladly stay. If I were not married, for 
 instance, I " 
 
 " Do not talk of that," exclaimed he with some agitation. 
 Then, as if he could no longer restrain himself, "To make 
 that possible I would give half my life." 
 
 " Why ? " said she, and then, " I know, yes. To save 
 me from the unkind comment that now annoys me. But 
 that will pass away. Indeed, it is all so strange that I 
 hardly think I understand." 
 
 " No," said he, " you do not understand at all ! " He 
 stood looking moodi'.y upon the ground. He hardly knew 
 if he wished her to understand. If she did she would, he 
 felt, cease to be the Marvel he adored. " When shall I see 
 you again ? " he asked presently.
 
 MAEVEIX 177 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Or care, it seems to me. Well, all the cackling of all 
 the old women in Europe shall not prevent my seeing you 
 again. Of that I warn you. If you are silly enough to 
 give way to them I am not. You are not going to spend 
 the rest of your life at Ringwood Abbey, I suppose ? " 
 
 " I shall stay there for some time," said she hesitating. 
 
 "Until it pleases your lord and master to return, do you 
 mean? Are you going to bury yourself alive until then? 
 If so, I may as well bid you an eternal farewell at once, 
 and be done with it." 
 
 " I don't know why you should speak like that. Lord 
 Wriothesley may return at any moment. He is just the 
 sort of person to come when least expected. Why did you 
 say it ? Do you think I am so hateful to him that the 
 very fact of my being here keeps him from his home ? Is 
 that what you think ? " She was evidently deeply offended 
 and wounded by a suggestion that was all the more hurtful 
 because it had so often forced itself upon her as a miserable 
 truth. 
 
 " If I told you all I think about your husband," said 
 Savage recklessly, " I should offend you even more than I 
 have already done." 
 
 She sighed deeply. After all this, these were the things 
 she had to submit to. He, Fulke, had placed her in such 
 a position as laid her open to painful sneers and innuendoes. 
 She looked so sad that Savage's heart smote him. 
 
 " Forgive me. It is presumption on my part to be angry 
 for you," he said. " I shall try to still my heart, and lay a 
 watch upon my tongue in future. So, are we never to meet 
 again ? " 
 
 "I have half promised Lady Lucy to go to her at Christ- 
 mas," said she doubtfully. " But I believe, once the spell 
 of utter loneliness grows on me again, I shall not care to 
 break its charm." 
 
 " I shall get myself invited by Lady Lucy for next 
 December, in spite of that," said he. " By-the-by, you 
 wouldn't like to give me an invitation to Ringwood, in the 
 meantime, would you ? " 
 
 " Oh, no," declared she, and then she burst out laughing. 
 
 12
 
 17* MAKVEL. 
 
 "Nothing would induce me," she said, "so it is no use your 
 hinting." He laughed too. 
 
 " I expect, even though you do call me your friend, you 
 will be very glad to see the last of me for some time," he 
 said. " I have a vague idea that I have been making myself 
 more than ordinarily disagreeable ; you should forgive me, 
 however. I have heard sufficient to make me unhappy 
 enough for anything." 
 
 " Oh, yes, that horrid story ! But as it isn't true, I don't 
 think you ought to care so much." 
 
 They were now again in sight of one of the tennis courts, 
 and came upon a party of lookers-on, who sat on garden 
 seats, or anything else handy, and made merry over the 
 mistakes of the players. 
 
 "Is that you, Marvel?" said Lady Lucy Verulam. " Come 
 over here and sit down beside me. It is as good a thing 
 as you are likely to see, Lord Castlerock's attempt at 
 tennis." 
 
 Marvel went over and sat down beside her. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 " As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have 
 the least wit are the greatest babblers." 
 
 " HE'S ever so much thinner than when he began," said Mr. 
 Kitts, who in white flannels was himself a sight to behold. 
 He pointed to where Lord Castlerock stood racket in hand, 
 bounding now and again towards a ball, but never by any 
 chance hitting one. That he was thoroughly enjoying him- 
 self, however, was evident, as he beamed through his glasses 
 at hib irate partner after every miss, and laughed his jolly 
 laugh, whilst his brow bedewed the ground. His face was 
 crimson, his mouth wide open, his hair damp. 
 
 " Isn't he a beauty? " said Mr. Kitts. 
 
 "There are few things so well calculated to throw out 
 the delicate tints of one's complexion as tennis on a broiling
 
 MARVEI* 179 
 
 afternoon," said Dameron sententiously. He was rolling 
 the inevitable cigarette between his fingers, and spoke with 
 the slow air of one who has gone thoroughly into a subject, 
 digested, and mastered it. 
 
 " Yes, how horribly red he is. Do you think it will be 
 apoplexy ? " asked Lady Lucy. 
 
 " His complexion certainly leaves a great deal to be 
 desired," said Kitts. " But I do hope if he is going to 
 'bust up' he won't do it here. I hate a scene of that 
 sort" 
 
 " Seen it often ? " asked Savage, who had thrown himself 
 on the ground midway between Marvel and Lady Lucy. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Poyntree is pale enough, at all events," said 
 the latter, alluding to the unfortunate young man who was 
 Lord Castlerock's partner. 
 
 " That's rage. There will be murder if Castlerock misses 
 his ball again." 
 
 " Not at all. He was born so. He is always called Sally 
 by the other fellows, he is so very much the lady. His pay 
 didn't run to the amount of razors he wore out trying to 
 raise a whisker (rumour says he would be content with even 
 one), and now he pumice stones his cheeks every morning, 
 but as yet no hair appeareth." 
 
 " Look at Mrs. Pelham ! Isn't it absurd to see a woman 
 with eyes like hers pretending to play tennis ? For my part, 
 I wonder how she ever appears without a veil," said Mrs. 
 Dameron, with a little shrug of affected horror. 
 
 " Didn't you know? " said Mr. Kitts, leaning confidentially 
 over her. "Is it possible ! Why, it was her passion for 
 tennis that er disarranged her orbs. Fact, I give you my 
 word ! She would go at it, you know, morning, noon, and 
 night ; and the perpetual looking from side to side for her 
 balls gave her that rolling eye ! " 
 
 " Oh ! do try to learn some common sense ! " said Mrs. 
 Dameron, giving him a smart little push. 
 
 " There goes Erasmus Vine," said Mrs. Dameron, 
 craning her neck to catch a glimpse of a stout man dressed 
 to almost a painful pitch of fashion, who was strolling 
 jauntily by. " Have you seen him, Lady Wriothesley ? " 
 
 " Yes. What a strange looking person. Who is he ? " 
 
 12 2
 
 iSo MAKVEL. 
 
 " Mrs. Geraint's brother. Talent runs wild in that family, 
 you see. I asked him one day about it, and he said the 
 germ of the matter lay in the fact that they were all ' soul/ 
 She has a talent for jingling together execrable rhymes 
 he used to have a talent for making himself remarkable for 
 his folly. He was the aesthete of the aesthetes ; but "with 
 a little airy wave of her fingers, " Nous avons change tout 
 #/<*/" 
 
 " Even to the cut of our hair and our coat," said Mr. 
 Kitts. " He has been reconverted of late ; has got back 
 into the old barren groove with a vengeance. No lilies now, 
 I thank you foolish washed-out things ! No sunflowers 
 gaudy bits of vulgarity ! Nothing now satisfies him but the 
 rankest, the most ultra-philistinism. He goes about with 
 no clothes worth speaking about, and 
 
 " Dear Kitts ! consider ! " ventured Dameron mildly. 
 
 "Well. Are they worth speaking about? Any fellow 
 could wear 'em, though I confess many wouldn't. They 
 are just the little bit too good to be anything but bad. I 
 hate a man got up like a tailor's advertisement !" 
 
 " Oh ! is that it," said Dameron, with evident relief. 
 " I quite thought you meant that he wore none at all." 
 
 " That would have been the other way round. Would 
 have brought him back to his standing point of last year. 
 No clothes would have been so faithfully pre-adamite, so 
 deliciously pre-everything, that it certainly would have 
 counted as an advanced stage of culture. No ; he has so 
 much clothes now that he dresses himself eight times a day, 
 to give each suit an airing." 
 
 Lady Lucy laughed. 
 
 " He used to go in heavily for Swinburne, Burne Jones, 
 Browning and that lot. Pictures and poems of the new 
 era he alike worshipped. But now he eschews anything 
 more pronounced than Millais, and states with a noble 
 boldness that there is only one line in all that Browning 
 wrote worthy of mention." 
 
 " One ! That is indeed reckless ! " 
 
 "It occurs in his ' Men and Women,' I think. You all 
 know it : ' Crowded with culture.' Vine says he is so 
 crowded that he couldn't take any more, thanks. No, Lady
 
 MARVEL. iSl 
 
 Lucy, not a word I I wouldn't give way to a ' vile Ameri- 
 canism,' as you call it, for the world." 
 
 The day came to an end at last, as all days will. When 
 bedtime arrived, and all the women were trooping upstairs 
 to their respective rooms, Marvel lingered a little behind to 
 say good-night to Lady Lucy Verulam. That loud and 
 strong-minded person had begun by being civil to her for 
 policy's sake, and had ended by liking her for her own. 
 
 " Good-night," said Marvel in a low earnest voice, hold- 
 ing out her hand. 
 
 "The same to you and many of them," said Lady Lucy. 
 " I conclude, by the tragical tone of you, that it was not a 
 mere canard of Cicely's when she told me you were going 
 away in the morning. Yes ; I know it is a secret. I am 
 speaking as low as nature will permit ; and I can quite 
 appreciate your abhorrence of explaining matters, and bid- 
 ding senseless adieux to people whom you heartily pray you 
 never may meet again." 
 
 " At all events I did not feel like that towards you," said 
 Marvel with a smile. " I was quite determined to give you 
 a good-bye, whatever befel." She paused for a moment, 
 and then said gravely " You have been very kind to me." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said Lady Lucy, " I know a lovely answer I 
 could make to that, but soft speeches are not in my line. 
 Of course I know why you are going ; I wormed that out 
 of Cicely, though I guessed beforehand, as there is always 
 sure to be some idiotic man at the bottom of everything ; 
 and as for Nigel Savage, he isn't by any means good enough ! 
 I hope," sharply, " you don't think of him." 
 
 "I do, indeed, very often, said Marvel loyally. "But 
 not as you mean. All that is absurd " she said with some 
 impatience " How could I, when I am married ! " 
 
 " Quite so," said Lady Lucy, who felt she wouldn't have 
 laughed for anything. " Well, don't stay in the north for 
 ever. You should divide your favours. And remember, I 
 hold you bound to me for Christmas." 
 
 " I remember," said Marvel, who didn't know how to say 
 she would rather be released from that engagement. Her tone 
 was rather faint, and she consoled herself by thinking that 
 time sometimes solves all difficulties. Lady Lucy laughed.
 
 182 MABVEI*. 
 
 " You mean to try to get out of it," she said, " but you 
 shan't. Don't attempt such a hopeless task with me. I 
 warn you not to plead indisposition as an excuse, as I shall 
 neither take it nor believe it. And now, good-night, child, 
 and good-bye for a month or two." 
 
 Marvel held out her hand, but Lady Lucy drew her to her 
 and pressed a kiss upon her forehead. 
 
 " Put your faith in Cicely," she said very kindly, " she 
 is your friend and she will advise you well. She is a really 
 good little thing." 
 
 So they parted with a eulogism upon Mrs. Verulam which 
 Marvel cordially indorsed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 "Adieu ! I have too grieved a heart 
 
 To take a tedious leave." 
 # * * * 
 
 " Heaven knows how loath I am to part from thee/ 1 
 
 THROUGH all the sweet freshness of the early morn, the 
 music of the many birds rang loudly. Marvel, who had 
 risen soon after the day was fully born, stood at her open 
 window listening to them. She felt a deep regret that she 
 was leaving Cicely ; a lesser one, but still a regret, that she 
 was taking herself voluntarily away from the gay life into 
 which Cicely had introduced her. It had been pleasant to 
 her, she acknowledged, with a sigh ; but it was at an end. 
 
 She leaned out to gather some late roses that had climbed 
 so high, and in doing so became aware of a figure standing 
 motionless in the shrubberies over there, just opposite the 
 window. She had only time to see that it was a man, and 
 that the face was upturned to where she stood, when the 
 figure turned abruptly away and disappeared into a thick 
 bit of greenery. She thought the man resembled Savage in 
 form, but hardly believed he had been so disinterested as 
 to quit his bed to bid her a second farewell. She hardly 
 waited indeed to argue out the chances for and against his
 
 MAKVEL. 183 
 
 so doing, but gathering her roses went down to the break- 
 fast room. 
 
 Cicely was there awaiting her. She had got up, in spite 
 of all Marvel's remonstrances, to pour her out the "stirrup 
 cup," as she insisted on calling the coffee. She was evi- 
 dently very much depressed, and made Marvel promise over 
 and over again that she would write a line to her the very 
 moment of her arrival. " And don't let Nigel ask himself 
 to Ringwood," she said. " He is equal to anything, I 
 know ; but if he hints at such a thing be stone deaf." She 
 put in two or three words of wisdom whilst the dull break- 
 fast that Marvel didn't enjoy was in course of not being 
 consumed, and at the last, when she had Marvel in her arms, 
 began to cry. 
 
 " I shan't go to the door with you," she said, " because I 
 can't bear servants to see me crying ; they are such a 
 supercilious lot ; and even if they did believe I was as truly 
 sorry as I am to lose you, their sympathy would be worse 
 than their contempt. Now, Marvel, if you don't write I 
 shall know you have been smashed up in some horrid rail- 
 way accident, and I shall go and look for your remains, and 
 when found shall give them a scolding, to which all my 
 other tirades shall be as the simple cooings of the dove." 
 
 Thus between laughing and crying she bid her friend 
 good-bye, and in spite of her horror of the servants' prying 
 eyes followed her to the hall door, and saw her and the 
 faithful Burton buried in the depths of the family 
 brougham. 
 
 The horses started, the carriage went quickly up the 
 avenue. Just at the corner, even as Mrs. Verulam stood 
 taking a last look at it, holding up her hand to her forehead 
 to shade her eyes from the now glowing sun, she saw a 
 young man dart out of the side walk and precipitate him- 
 self, as it seemed to her, upon the front wheels. The horses 
 drew up once more, and she saw that it was Savage, armed 
 with roses. These he flung into the carriage, and, leaning 
 through the window, addressed some eager words to one 
 of the occupants. Even Mrs. Verulam, who tried to imagine 
 the best always, felt it was hopeless to think those words 
 were addressed to the discreet Burton.
 
 iS4 MARVEL, 
 
 The words were short, however, and indeed the whole 
 scene was over in a moment. A pretty slender hand was 
 extended through' the window, and Savage, lifting his hat, 
 stooped and kissed it. Then the carriage rolled on again, 
 and Savage disappeared. Nothing remained but the 
 memory of it, which was strong within Mrs. Verulam. 
 
 " Just as well she has gone, after all," she mused, " if that 
 was going to be the sort of thing ! It wouldn't have done 
 at all ; Nigel is so hopelessly imprudent. Fancy kissing her 
 hand beneath the eyes of seventeen windows ! Want of 
 brains I call it." 
 
 The loneliness of her northern home sank deep into 
 Marvel. She missed the brightness, the laughter of the 
 days she had left behind her, marred though they were by 
 the studied impertinence of the woman her husband loved. 
 Mrs. Verulam was prevented coming to her until the last 
 week in November, so that much time was given her to grow 
 sad, and disappointed with the monotony of her surround- 
 ings. ^ 
 
 With Mrs. Verulam or at least the day after her arrival 
 came Sir George, to the former's real or affected chagrin. 
 She had taken honest measures to prevent his knowing the 
 date of her visit to Marvel, yet it appeared he had been 
 aware of it from the first. She found some faint consola- 
 tion in dubbing him scornfully a private detective. 
 
 Cicely brought her child with her who was enchanted 
 at finding herself alone with her mammy and the two friends 
 her childish heart had elected to honour and, indeed, for 
 the quartette there began a time that was fraught with only 
 peace and a rare content. Sir George shot all the day, and 
 in the evening was made much of by the women, whilst the 
 mouse kept him from being utterly spoiled by keeping up a 
 running scolding anent his destruction of "those poor 
 lovely birdies." 
 
 Almost Marvel's first question had been as to Savage's 
 whereabouts. She asked about him and discussed him with 
 such a healthy openness as went farther to convince Mrs. 
 Verulam of her indifference, to him than all the protestations
 
 MARVEL. 185 
 
 in the world. However Nigel himself might have been 
 singed in that fire through which they both had passed, 
 Marvel at least had remained untouched and heart-whole. 
 
 " He has gone south somewhere," she said, in answer to 
 Lady Wriothesley's questions. " To Italy he told me ; but 
 I firmly believe he has wandered away to Marseilles to see 
 again that musty railway station where first his eyes fell on 
 you." 
 
 At this Marvel laughed, treating it as a mere joke, though 
 Mrs. Verulam was more than half in earnest. In her 
 opinion he was infatuated enough for anything. 
 
 She stayed until the second week in December, and then 
 told Marvel she had been commissioned by Lady Lucy to 
 bring her down with her to Verulam Court. 
 
 " No refusal will be accepted," she said, " and your word 
 is given ; so get Burton to see to your things at once. Did 
 you really believe I should let you vegetate here ? Oh ! And 
 Marvel, on our way through town you must come with me 
 to a ball that is to be given by the Marchioness of Elaine 
 Lucy's mother. It is to be a very special affair, and only 
 very special people will be present. It is to be given in 
 honour of a foreign prince who is being pretty well toadied 
 now in the inner circles of all, and two if not three of our 
 own royalties will also be present. Lady Elaine said she 
 would be only too charmed to receive you, and Lucy has 
 set her heart on your being there." 
 
 " I think, really, considering all things, I would rather 
 not," said Marvel shyly. The separation from her husband 
 always weighed heavily upon her. 
 
 " Nonsense. What things ? It is an occasion not to be 
 missed and I shall tease you into coming. Every one 
 worth seeing will be there ; and in fact they are making a 
 tremendous fuss about it." 
 
 "Make up your mind to go to it, Lady Wriothesley," 
 said Sir George ; " if you don't she will leave you without 
 a mind to make up. Besides, really, it will give you 
 pleasure ; and as we are all going, you will have a party of 
 friends around you. I knuw you fear a crowd," he ended, 
 with a kindly laugh. 
 
 " Very well," said Marvel, laughing too. " If I am to be
 
 1 86 MAEVEL. 
 
 taken bodily possession of, a ball more or less makes little 
 difference." 
 
 So it was decided, and on the eighth they all travelled 
 southwards. Marvel had insisted on Cicely's being her 
 guest in the home in Grosvenor Square, which she herself 
 had as yet never seen; there they would stay for Lady 
 Elaine's ball, which was to be on the seventeenth, and after 
 that go down to Verulain Court. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 B A white star made of memory long ago 
 Lit in the heaven of dear times dead to me." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 "Just now I met him : at my sight he started." 
 
 THE rooms were crowded to excess, and to get up the 
 broad marble staircases was now become quite a labour of 
 love. The tall bronze lamps fastened to the balusters shed 
 down a warm rose-coloured glow upon the brilliant forms 
 that made a perpetual if slow motion up and down the 
 stair, and the perfume of hothouse flowers made the air 
 heavy. 
 
 It was long past midnight. The foreign prince and the 
 home royalties had arrived some time since, and the 
 Marchioness of Elaine, a very old woman of about eighty, 
 with the carriage and air of a queen, had given up receiving 
 her guests and was devoting herself with a sort of regal 
 graciousness to his serene mightiness the stranger prince. 
 
 There was a murmur everywhere as of many hives let 
 loose, a ripple of laughter sometimes, a burst of harmony as 
 the band broke into a musical rapture. Every one worth 
 knowing was present, a few who were on the road to be 
 known, and for the matter of that, a good many, who, if they 
 got their deserts, shouldn't be known at all. 
 
 Some of the gowns were marvels of ingenious beauty, but 
 it was unanimously carried that Mrs. Scarlett was, as usual, 
 the best-dressed woman theru, yet oae could hardly tell
 
 MAKVEL. 187 
 
 what it was she wore. As she walked in that slow, graceful, 
 sinuous fashion that distinguished her, she seemed to emit 
 little sapphires sparks, and there was a priceless band of 
 those stones around her neck fit for a king's ransom. All 
 the world there remarked that the foreign prince was 
 greatly struck with her. He was nothing very much to 
 look at as he stood, but then he was of blood royal, which 
 covers a multitude of ugly features. Mrs. Scarlett roused 
 herself sufficiently to be calmly civil to him. 
 
 " How lovely she looks to-night," said Marvel, who was 
 gazing at her in a fascinated way. " Who said she was no 
 longer young ? " 
 
 "Some horrid low person, of course," said Dameron with 
 a little eloquent sniff. 
 
 " By Jove ! isn't she clever ? " said Mr. Kitts, who was 
 always everywhere. He spoke in a tone of rapturous 
 admiration. " She has been going it with the pigments 
 and no mistake ! Saw her a week ago at Chatterton's, and 
 you'd have given her about a week to live, no more. What 
 a maid is hers ! Like that good lady we read of, her price 
 must be above rubies." 
 
 " The prince seems taken with her." 
 
 "If he'd take her with him it would be a relief to some 
 people," said Dameron, who hated Mrs. Scarlett for reasons 
 unknown. " But no such luck I suppose. ' Put not your 
 faith in princes ! ' See the adoring look on his fat face. I 
 wonder how she manages to call it up ? " 
 
 * * She wreathed her head with roses, 
 She wreathed her face in smiles, 
 Her artificial poses 
 That simple man beguiles.' " 
 
 Impromptu ! quite impromptu, I assure you, Lady Wriothes- 
 ley," said Mr. Kitts with a modest smile. 
 
 " We can readily believe it. It is bad enough for any- 
 thing," said Dameron. 
 
 " You're jealous," said Kitts. " Oh ! why isn't Mrs. 
 Geraint, the modern Sappho, here, to applaud and under- 
 stand me?"
 
 188 MAEVEL. 
 
 " By-the-by, what of her?" asked Lord Rockcastle, who 
 was dancing attendance on Marvel at this time. 
 
 " Not much. The poems still hang on her hands ; it 
 would be invidious to say heavily, but certainly they hang. 
 I hear she has not even yet quite made up her mind about 
 her publisher." 
 
 "She never will," growled Lord Rockcastle. "Never 
 read such rot in my life ! She's about the stupidest woman 
 I know." 
 
 "Well, I don't know," said Lady Lucy. "When she 
 first comes in, as it were, I grant you she is really nothing, 
 too orthodox by half, but when she warms up a bit, and 
 lets herself go, she is worth a good deal ; on the subject of 
 her own genius, for example, she is superb." 
 
 Lady Wriothesley at this moment made a sudden move- 
 ment, and a rose-flush mounted to her face. 
 
 " Nigel, you ! " she said. She held out her hand to him. 
 She looked unfeignedly glad to see him again. So ingenuous 
 was the warmth of her reception, that Dameron who might 
 have had his doubts before had none now. It was the 
 simple pleasure of a child she showed ; all her feeling was 
 laid bare, one might be sure there was nothing behind. 
 
 Savage, on the contrary, seemed constrained and, if it 
 could be said of so thorough a man of the world, nervous. 
 He took her hand and held it fast, whilst a dark red colour 
 dyed his brow. 
 
 "I did not know. I had not heard," he stammered 
 foolishly, and then all at once he recovered himself and 
 drew his breath sharply and flung up his head as if in 
 derision of his own weakness. " I believed you still in the 
 north," he said. 
 
 " I could almost believe myself there, the determination 
 to leave it has been such a recent one," she said laughing. 
 
 " You ought to give us warning, Lady Wriothesley. You 
 should not take us by storm like this. It is ruin to our 
 nerves," said Kitts, who as a rule always said the wrong 
 thing. He had indeed a talent for it. Marvel smiled, not 
 comprehending, but Savage scowled, and Dameron came to 
 the rescue. 
 The whole of this little scene, the start, the welcome, had
 
 MARVEL. 189 
 
 been witnessed by a man who had come in through the 
 doorway at the farthest end of the room. A tall man, with 
 a distinctly military air, and a face browned by other suns 
 than ours. He appeared to know no one and not to regret 
 that fact, as he stood well apart from every fresh incomei, 
 and at last edged his way into a remote corner where a 
 magnificent majolica jar filled with pampas grasses formed 
 an effectual hiding-place. There he stood at ease and 
 looked around him. 
 
 It was from this coign of vantage that he caught his 
 first glimpse of Marvel ; it was only a glimpse, and an 
 imperfect one, as she was so standing that he could only see 
 her by flashes as the people round her moved this way or 
 that, but the view he did get, held him. 
 
 The lights were shining directly on the bronze of her soft 
 hair, and on the rich white folds of the velvet gown she 
 wore ; a gown too old for her perhaps, yet it seemed to suit 
 the gentle dignity that belonged to her, and it sat exquisitely 
 upon her svelte girlish figure. Her face, as usual, was colour- 
 less save for the red lips and the dark gleam of the lustrous 
 eyes. Diamonds flashed whenever she moved, and high up 
 in her hair shone the famous Wriothesley star. But the 
 man watching her from his secret corner was too attracted 
 by the indistinct glimpses he caught of her face to take any 
 notice of such minor details as diamonds. 
 
 Once again she turned in his direction, and again he saw 
 her, for a moment only. Those marvellous eyes, they 
 seemed to sink into his soul. So true ! so deep ! so 
 tender ! Where before had he seen eyes like them, yet 
 unlike? He had a vague idea that those dimly-remem- 
 bered eyes had belonged to a child, whereas these were 
 full of the sweet earnest beauty of pure womanhood. 
 
 What a lovely face! One that might well haunt the 
 beholder. It was haunting him just now, as Marvel had 
 laid her hand upon Lord Castlerock's arm and had 
 vanished out of his sight. He stirred himself then, and 
 came from behind the majolica jar with a vague notion 
 of following that lovely vision in white velvet. As he 
 moved a voice spoke in his ear, a hand clutched his arm. 
 
 ' Why, Wriothesley ! you, old man, after all these cen-
 
 loo MAEVEL. 
 
 turies ? When did you come home ? And from where ? 
 Bless my stars, what a bomb you are, exploding under one's 
 feet when least expected. I say, I must go on with old 
 Lady Tattersall now, but I must have a talk with you by- 
 and-by." He was swept onward by the crowd, and 
 Wriothesley, with a sense of impatience, felt that his 
 chances of remaining here unnoticed were smaller than 
 ever. He had come for a purpose ; had come unin- 
 vited, though sure of his welcome, as old Lady Elaine was 
 his godmother and adored him ; but the purpose was not 
 yet fulfilled, and though disinclined to re-enter society in 
 such a melo-dramatic fashion, he found he could not leave 
 until he had seen her whom he had come to see. 
 
 He was idly threading his way through a music-room 
 densely crowded, when once again his progress was 
 arrested. This time the voice was low and soft, so mere 
 a whisper that he could Jnot distinguish the tone, and the 
 one word uttered was : 
 
 ' Fulke ! " 
 
 He could hardly bring himself to turn. He knew it 
 could not be Cicely Verulam or or his wife ; they were 
 both safe away up in the north in that old castle of his, and 
 he was conscious of a sense of thankfulness that it was so. 
 But who was this ? He slowly moved round so as to meet 
 the speaker, and looked into the warm eyes of Leonie 
 Scarlett. 
 
 He felt the colour recede from his lips and brow. In 
 one moment there was an upheaval of the studied calm 
 of eighteen months ; and all things things he had honestly 
 sought to forget rushed back upon him in an overwhelm- 
 ing flood. He stood staring at her as if fascinated. He felt 
 chilled to his heart's core crushed by the memory of all 
 that past misery the passion, the terrible awaking, the 
 despair ! 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett, watching him, noticed the emotion he 
 could not suppress and a thrill of triumph sent a sudden 
 flush to her beautiful face. He was hers still, then ! Her 
 own ! That baby, that pale little fool, was nothing to him; 
 she was all. Oh, the sweetness of it ! She would reign still 
 in a heart for which that other would give all her conquests
 
 MARVEL. 191 
 
 willingly; her revenge she felt was ready to her. Her 
 power had been greater that even she deemed it. That 
 long year and a half of absence had failed to vanquish it. 
 
 " Home !" she said in a low seductive voice. " In town, 
 and never to tell me ? How cruel ! Had you then quite 
 forgotten ? " 
 
 " I only arrived yesterday," replied he in a dull sort of 
 
 way. " There was little time I came here to-night 
 
 to " He was speaking disconnectedly, and now he 
 
 stopped. 
 
 " To see me ? " asked she softly. 
 
 " Yes; to see you." 
 
 The old evanescent smile (how well he remembered it 
 and yet, was it quite like that ?) flitted across her face. 
 
 " There is no chance of getting a quiet moment here," 
 
 said she hurriedly. " But if Your dance, Sir Wilmot ? 
 
 But if to-morrow. You know the old address ? If you 
 can come to-morrow ? " 
 
 " To-morrow ? Yes," replied he quickly. He was longing 
 to be gone, to find himself alone, that he might think, and 
 in a measure recover himself. 
 
 He made his way through the throng to an open doorway 
 that commanded a view of the ball-room. He wanted to 
 see her again, when she was not there to compel him to 
 listen and answer, to see the woman to whom he had given 
 room in his heart all this long weary time. 
 
 She had stopped dancing and was standing in the recess 
 with her partner, who seemed decidedly epris, and was slowly 
 waving her fan from side to side. Her eyes gleamed large 
 and brilliant, her red lips were parted as if with the pleasure- 
 able fatigue of dancing, and as Wriothesley looked she 
 laughed lightly, seemingly at some remark of her com- 
 panion's. There was a feverish gaiety about her that en 
 hanced her charms and was born of that late triumph she 
 believed she had achieved over the man who had loved 
 her and whom she had betrayed. She felt young again, 
 buoyant, equal to the defiance of a world of foolish women 
 who, in spite of all thai kindly nature had dealt out to them, 
 were so poverty-stricken that they could not hold the very 
 men to whom they were bound 1
 
 192 MARVEL. 
 
 There was a languid lustre in her eyes, a warmth in her 
 whole air, that contrasted favourably with her usual icy cold- 
 ness. One felt that there was a certain danger in the 
 beauty of her on that night. 
 
 She was so supremely lovely ! Far lovelier than when in 
 those bygone days she had lured him to her feet. He 
 thought again of that past wild agony how he had knelt, 
 and prayed and entreated to a stone ! Yes, she had grown 
 more beautiful since, and yet What was it ? 
 
 A curious change passed over him as he looked at her. 
 It was indeed a moment in his life not to be lightly regarded. 
 All on a sudden the old order changed, the past cast its 
 skin, as it were, and in an instant the old glamour had 
 slipped from him and he stood there emancipated free 
 the poorer yet the richer for his loss ! It struck him as 
 being almost terrible, this quick sense of freedom. The 
 love he had been hugging to his breast, cherishing it against 
 his sternest resolves to keep it warm, was, now that he 
 threw back the coverings that hid it, found to be stone 
 dead within his arms ! 
 
 He pondered over this thing that had come to him ; and 
 it was at last with a sense of shame that he acknowledged 
 to himself the truth he was of that kind that must be 
 termed fickle ! He was unstable in all things, yet in spite 
 of his self-abasement he could not control the happiness 
 that surged within him. He had been so long in thrall to 
 a fruitless passion, that now to be free set his pulses throb- 
 bing in a quick delight. 
 
 He leant against a friendly wall, and a heavy sigh escaped 
 him. A sigh of rapture. Next him were two men, also 
 propped against this friendly wall that seemed made for the 
 reception of waifs and strays, and presently Wriothesley 
 became aware that they were talking. One or two words 
 they used caught his ear.
 
 MAKVEI* 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 " Last year, a brief while since, an age ago, 
 A whole year past, with bud and bloom and snow, 
 O moon that wast in heaven, what friends were we.* 
 
 " MRS. SCARLETT is cut out at last," said one of them, a tall 
 military-looking man with a fat gossipy face. Nobody like 
 an elderly officer of the mild type for " Did you hear ? " and 
 " They say," and " Is it true that ? " &c. 
 
 "Yes," said his companion sharply, a considerably 
 younger man, " the new beauty has eclipsed her quite. Well, 
 she couldn't hold on for ever, you know. Very much the 
 wrong side of thirty close on forty, I'm told ; but one 
 takes that cum grano salis ! By Jove ! if it's true, she ought 
 to sell the secret. It would fetch a good deal now-a-days." 
 
 " Did you hear that ? " said the other. " Well, forty has 
 it ; she's that, they say, and they always know somehow. 
 But forty or not, she's the handsomest woman I know, by 
 many." 
 
 "I suppose she won't take kindly to the usurper? It's 
 rough on her after such a long and undisputed reign. I 
 often think how cruel a moment it must be for a woman 
 who has held the sceptre so triumphantly when she finds 
 she must relinquish it, not so much to superior beauty that 
 would be bad enough but to youth. There lies the sting ! " 
 
 " The oddest part of this affair is that the two women are 
 so alike. Did you hear that there was a relationship there ? " 
 with a knowing glance. 
 
 " No ; nor did you either," said the other with a good- 
 natured laugh. " Don't let us run riot in romance. As to 
 the resemblance you speak of, it is there, I allow, but 
 transient, hardly worthy of comment. I myself have 
 scarcely ever noticed it." 
 
 " My dear fellow, why the colouring, or rather the very 
 novel want of colouring, the eyes, the very shape of the 
 face, all correspond." 
 
 " So would the features of half-a-dozen other women I 
 know, flut the expression, where is that ? So totally different 
 
 13
 
 194 MAKVEL. 
 
 that they might be two beings out of different spheres. 
 
 One is like an angel the other " he shrugged his 
 
 shoulders. 
 
 " Severe too severe by half." 
 
 " So far from it, that I will confess to you that of the two 
 types I prefer the latter that is, Mrs. Scarlett's." 
 
 " She still has her worshippers, then," said the elder man 
 laughing ; " you and me. Pray the gods we prove not 
 rivals ! " 
 
 " She has more life, more grace. One, as I have said, 
 is an angel, but angels pall on one after awhile. I prefer 
 the diablerie that distinguishes Mrs. Scarlett." 
 
 " You will find yourself alone in that preference," said a 
 third man drily, who had just joined them. 
 
 Wriothesley had listened deliberately, hoping to hear 
 the name of the fresh beauty who had evidently (as he 
 gathered by their conversation) taken the world of London 
 by storm and threatened to destroy Mrs. Scarlett's prestige. 
 He knew it was the girl in white velvet upon whom his eyes 
 had fastened when first he entered the rooms, and he felt 
 a certain anxiety to know her name. He did not account 
 to himself for this anxiety, which was a vague one, and had 
 nothing to do with the admiration with which she had in- 
 spired him. He was conscious only of the fact that he 
 feared as much as he longed to learn her name. 
 
 He was not to hear it then, however. The trio moved 
 away, talking now of something entirely foreign to either 
 beau y or rivalry, and Wriothesley, with a sense of disap- 
 pointment fully on him, disappeared through a door on his 
 left and made his way to a tiny boudoir well known to him, 
 that being rather apart from the rest of the rooms lefi him 
 a faint hope that it might be untenanted. 
 
 It was a charming little apartment, hung with amber 
 satin and half-smothered in hot-house flowers. For the 
 moment he found his desire gratified ; it was, indeed, 
 deserted, and with a sigh of relief he flung himself upon a 
 couch and let his brow fall forward into his palm. 
 
 He was thinking deeply compelling himself to go back 
 on those old scenes in which Leonie had played so strong 
 a part and when he had .believed no time could impair
 
 MAKVEL. 195 
 
 the passion he then felt for rrr. He was still dreaming 
 thus, when the sound of approaching voices roused him. 
 He changed his position, withdrawing into the shadow 
 of a window as the thick satin curtain that guarded the 
 entrance was pushed aside to permit the entrance cf two 
 people. 
 
 "If she said t/iaf, I certainly should not lose heart. 
 Cicely is difficult, I grant you, but some time there always 
 comes a lucky moment ! Wait for yours. Yes, leave me 
 now. It is your dance with her, I know, and I shall be 
 quite glad to have a quiet five minutes here all to myself. 
 A little unsocial, isn't it ? But such a crush, such a crowd, 
 it is intolerable. Oh, Sir George, if you should see my 
 partner it is Lord Castlerock do not, I command you," 
 laughing, " divulge my hiding-place." 
 
 " Madam, your word is law," said Sir George bowing 
 low. 
 
 He went away, and Marvel, with a little comfortable sigh, 
 leant back amongst her cushions. 
 
 At the sound of her voice Wriothesley had started and 
 now lifted his head to find himself looking at the girl who 
 had so attracted him on his first entrance. Who was she ? 
 What was there about her to make his heart beat so con- 
 vulsively ? He felt as though he were on the verge of some 
 mystery, and dreaded the discovery of it. What an exqui- 
 site face she had ! She held herself like a young queen ; 
 there was indeed a lovely distinction about her to which 
 few could lay claim. 
 
 He pushed aside the curtain of the window, and the 
 rings that held it ran together with a slight but sharp noise. 
 It induced her to turn her head, and their eyes met ! 
 
 Marvel rose to her feet without removing her gaze from 
 his, and presently her face grew ghastly. It occurred to 
 Wriothesley that, believing h?rs( If :o be alone, the sudden 
 knowledge of his presence (standing too, as he did, half 
 enshrouded by the curtains) had unnerved her. It was an 
 absurd idea, but nothing better suggested itself at a moment 
 \vhen his brain seemed on fire with conflicting emotions. 
 
 What wild fancy was this, that new had arisen and was 
 crying aloud to him for credence ? 
 
 132
 
 196 MARVEL. 
 
 Marvel still stood staring at him, like a frozen thing, but 
 all at once she swayed a little, and but that he sprang to 
 her assistance, she would have fallen. Impulsively he sup- 
 ported her with an arm that trembled very palpably. 
 
 " I am afraid I startled you. You are faint. Will you 
 permit me to get you a glass of wine some water? " He 
 spoke hurriedly, anxiously indeed, but in the tone one 
 would use to an utter stranger. He had not had time to 
 belive that it could indeed be she. A feeling as of death 
 came over Marvel. He was there, speaking to her, looking 
 at her, and he did not know her I Oh, the bitterness of 
 it! 
 
 She tried to speak, but she could not. She was shivering 
 as if with cold, and an awful fear that she was going to cry 
 carne over her. She felt, too, as if she could not bear his 
 touch, and placing her hand upon his breast, pushed him 
 nervously from her. Of course he obeyed the gesture and 
 stepped back. 
 
 " You are better ? " he said, trying to speak naturally, but 
 not succeeding. 
 
 "Is it so long a time? Have you quite forgotten?" 
 said she mournfully. She raised her hand to her throat 
 as though suffocating 
 
 " Marvel ! " cried he with a burst of passionate astonish- 
 ment, and he would have gone to her, but she waved him 
 back. It was her last effort, however. The agitation, the 
 surprise, the sound of his voice as it spoke her name all 
 were too much for her. Once again but for his arm she 
 would have fallen; and this time she was indeed insen- 
 sible. 
 
 As he stood there holding her, and gazing with mixed 
 feelings into her face, four people came into the room. The 
 first was Mrs. Scarlett, and she stopped short on the thres- 
 hold, as though struck motionless by the scene before her. 
 Wriothesley, pale impassioned with his wife in his arms ! 
 The sight was unutterably hateful to her. There had been 
 a scene would a reconciliation follow on it? No. She 
 would take care to prevent that. 
 
 So much thought took up but a moment of time, so swift 
 runs the brain, and she was roused into a sense of the
 
 MARVEL. 197 
 
 present by the fact of Savage's rushing quickly by her. 
 He hurried to where Marvel lay, still unconscious in this 
 stranger's arms, and made a movement as if to take her 
 from him ; but Wriothesley motioned him back with one 
 hand. 
 
 " This is presumptuous, sir," said Savage, in a low tone. 
 His face was as white as Marvel's own ; his manner ex- 
 tremely agitated. Great Heaven ! was she alive, or did that 
 awful pallor mean death itself! "You had better surrender 
 this lady to her friends. You have yet to account to me 
 for the state in which I find her." 
 
 He hardly knew what he was saying, but Wriothesley 
 remembered every word ! It was the most absurd attack 
 in the world, born evidently of a moment fraught with fear 
 and anxiety, but it was impossible not to recognize the tone 
 of possession the agony of love alarmed, that lay under- 
 neath it and betrayed itself in every glance directed at the 
 senseless form. 
 
 "Account to you!" said Wriothesley. 
 
 " To me yes. Who are you, who dare to stand there, 
 holding her against the wishes of her friends?" 
 
 " Her husband !" said Wriothesley calmly. "And you?" 
 
 Savage drew back as if stunned. He knew it then. Like 
 a flash it all came back to him. That was the man who had 
 stood at the door of the railway carriage the man who 
 Marvel had told him was Lord Wriothesley. He had made 
 a fool of himself, but he hardly thought of that in the bitter- 
 ness of the moment that found him face to face with her 
 husband. There had always been that vague latent hope 
 that he would never return ; and now he was facing him, 
 holding from him the one woman whom alone he desired. 
 Thus would he hold her from him for ever ! 
 
 Marvel stirred, moved a little in Wriothesley's arms, and 
 sighed faintly. Mrs. Verulam (who, with Sir George, had 
 also come in) was bending over her, gently but vigorously 
 chafing her hand. She was, therefore, the first thing that 
 Marvel saw as she opened her eyes, and a gleam of pas- 
 sionate relief came into her face. She caught her hand ; 
 she seemed, indeed, to cling to her, throwing off Wriothes- 
 ley's support with an ill-concealed shudder.
 
 198 MARVEL. 
 
 " He did not know me !" she said to Mrs. Verulam, in a 
 heart-broken whisper, that yet was loud enough to be heard 
 by all. This was the last straw ! the one thing too much 
 for the already too cruelly-burdened heart ! 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett broke into a low, silvery laugh : 
 
 " It is charming ! It is a little comedy," she said, turn- 
 ing to Savage, who was standing with moody eyes fixed on 
 Marvel. " Now, why is not Mr. Dameron here ? He who 
 writes plays ; it would be quite a little suggestion for him. 
 ' The husband who did not know his own wife ! ' What a 
 captivating title ? Very French and very effective !" 
 
 " And anything but new," said Savage icily. " It has 
 been done about a hundred times, I should say. It has not 
 even the element of freshness ; and, for my part, I see 
 nothing extraordinary about it. People young as Lady 
 Wriothesley grow out of recognition in a few months, to 
 say nothing of a period bordering on two years. Mrs. 
 Verulam, who knew her before her marriage, tells me too 
 that she has grown very much more beautiful since then 
 since her husband last saw her in fact." 
 
 This was a telling thrust, and Mrs. Scarlett cast at him a 
 glance full of the deadliest hatred. 
 
 "You are a prejudiced person; you will not see the 
 humour of it," she said sweetly. " I shall, however, keep 
 in mind this little scene for Mr. Dameron ; he, no doubt, 
 will be able to make use of it." 
 
 " I wouldn't if I were you," said Savage, with meaning. 
 " If you begin to spread stories about her, they will say you 
 are jealous That is always a poor thing, and means 
 defeat. Besides, I shall take very good care that Dameron 
 does not make use of your little tale, however daintily spiced 
 it may be." 
 
 " It strikes me you go a little far," said she, patting the 
 palm of one hand with her fan in a curiously suppressed 
 fashion that meant mischief. "You are very careful of 
 Lady Wriothesley ; so careful that her husband will not 
 have to trouble himself at all ; or must we read it the 
 other way ? Dear Nigel ! you are amusing always, but 
 never so much so as when you are in love ! You will allow 
 that I should be a judge?"
 
 MARVEL. 199 
 
 She laughed again airily, as at some exquisitely amusing 
 memory. He had been in love with her once it was true, 
 and he grew hot and embarrassed beneath her deliberate 
 gaze. He thought her a fiend now, but there was a time 
 when he had deemed her an angel. Had she found in 
 him a butt for her laughter even then? She enjoyed her 
 revenge for awhile, and then : 
 
 " I am not so nice as I was then, am I ? " she said 
 mockingly. "People are as we behold them. Yonder 
 is your beau ideal now. See that she brings you as little 
 harm as I did. What makes you so trenchant to-night? 
 Has Monsieur's unexpected return put out your calcula- 
 tions ? " She looked at him keenly, and leaned a little 
 towards him. "They need not," she said in a soft, 
 seductive whisper. 
 
 But if she thought to gain over Savage as a partner 
 in the plans she was already forming, she was for once 
 out in her calculations. 
 
 "A compact with you? Pas si bte!" he said with a 
 sneer. " Look to others to join you in your unrighteous 
 work. As for me, I thank you for the hint you have given 
 me. An insight into your plan of warfare will enable me to 
 put Lady Wriothesley upon her guard." 
 
 "As you will," she said with a shrug. "There have 
 been very many fools who have thought themselves as 
 clever as me." 
 
 " This fool will do his best at all events," said Savage 
 with a bow and a slight smile. 
 
 Here Mrs. Scarlett's partner for the dance then begun, 
 arrived upon the scene, and she went away with him. 
 Marvel had expressed a wish to go home at once, and 
 Mrs. Verulam was anxious to get her away as soon as 
 possible. She was quite herself again, but looked worn 
 and pallid to an alarming degree. She turned away from 
 Wriothesley, however, when he would have offered her his 
 arm to escort her to her carriage, and looked directly at 
 Savage, who stood at a distance. 
 
 " Nigel, you will take me down ? " she said distinctly, 
 before Mrs. Verulam who would have prevented her if 
 she could had divined her intention ; and Nigel of course
 
 200 MAKVEL. 
 
 came forward, and she laid her hand on his arm and left tl ..c 
 room. Wriothesley would have followed, but Mrs. Verulam 
 called to him in a voice that was very low, but, that Sir 
 George had learned, meant much. He was, indeed, so sure 
 of its meaning that he discreetly went towards the curtained 
 entrance, and even slipped on to the corridor outside. 
 
 " A word, Fulke," said Mrs. Verulam ; " you will come 
 home with us to-night." 
 
 " Oh, thank you," said Wriothesley rather uncertainly, 
 being divided between surprise at the anger in her eyes and 
 gratitude for the hospitality she was evidently so eager to 
 bestow. " You are very good indeed, but " 
 
 " There is no goodness about it, and no need of thanks. 
 The house to which I wish you to come is yours, not mine. 
 I am staying with your wife for the few days we remain in 
 town." 
 
 " Indeed. It makes it then the easier to refuse," said 
 Wriothesley. 
 
 " I shall take no refusal. You must accompany me and 
 Marvel home to-night." 
 
 " Impossible ! I have my rooms engaged at Claridge's j 
 and besides " 
 
 " I don't care whether you have rooms engaged in 
 every capital in Europe ! I insist upon your putting up 
 at your own house, where your wife is and where I am. 
 What ! do you think that poor child has not suffered 
 enough at your hands that you would give the world more 
 food for scandal ? You have made her town-talk so far, by 
 your most reprehensible neglect and persistent absence, 
 and now you will have all your horrid clubs teeming with 
 the fact that she lives in her town-house whilst you live en 
 garfon in your hotel. If you are a man, Wriothesley, you 
 will at least prevent that." 
 
 " You speak very harshly," said he, with a certain cold- 
 ness; "but if you put matters in that light, I cannot of 
 course any longer refuse to accede to your request. I shall 
 be my wife's guest with pleasure." . 
 
 There was little pleasure, however, in his voice. 
 
 " I am glad you have seen the reason in what I have 
 said," replied she with equal coldness ; and still with her
 
 MARVEL. . 201 
 
 eyes alight with indignant anger, she joined Sir George 
 outside the door. - 
 
 " I say," said he, after a swift but true reading of her 
 countenance, " don't go amongst the others looking like 
 that You're in a regular rage still, you know. They'll 
 notice it." 
 
 " Oh, don't bother me," said Mrs. Verulam, with more 
 force than elegance it must be admitted. 
 
 She went on a step or two, and then paused and burst 
 out laughing: 
 
 " In a rage, am I ? I have always given you the credit 
 of being the most courageous man of my acquaintance, 
 however far short you may fall in other matters. In a 
 rage ! Well, I shouldn't be, as I've carried my point." 
 
 " I wish I could carry mine," said Sir George, " and I 
 should be the happiest man alive." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIIL 
 
 " Live and let live, as I will do, 
 
 Love and let love, and so will I- 
 But, sweet, for me no more with you s 
 Not while I live, not though I die. 
 Good-night ! good-bye 1 " 
 
 NEXT morning Wriothesley and his wife met at breakfast 
 Marvel looked a little pale and tired ; but this only made 
 the soft brilliancy of her eyes more apparent She greeted 
 him with friendliness, though she hardly looked at him, 
 and at first seemed disinclined for conversation. She sat 
 behind the massive urn and poured out tea as though her 
 whole soul were concentrated on the proper proportions of 
 the sugar and the cream, which made it a trifle hard for 
 Mrs. Verulam, upon whom was flung the onus of the con- 
 versation. 
 
 After a while she appealed directly to Marvel, and on the 
 instant the girl's manner changed. She flung from her, 
 with quite an extraordinary ease, the silence in which she 
 had enveloped herself, and began to speak of the last
 
 202 
 
 night's ball with a fluency a brilliancy, indeed that as- 
 tonished even Mrs. Verulam. It was to her only she ad- 
 dressed herself. 
 
 Wriothesley sat dumb, listening and feeling as though 
 he should awake suddenly and find it all a mere crank of 
 his brain. Was this lovely, animated, self-possessed girl 
 the pretty, shy child of some eighteen months ago? No 
 wonder he had not known her ! 
 
 Marvel was rattling on, with a soft laugh here, and a 
 little air of triumph there. She made no secret of what 
 H.R.H. had said to her, which was complimentary to a 
 very high degree, if uttered with a clumsiness that seems 
 to belong to royalty. In the middle of her lively recital 
 she half rose from her chair : 
 
 " My programme," she said ; " you will like to see "that. 
 It is the most interesting of unintelligible things ; but the 
 autographs on it are positively priceless. I must bring it 
 to you." 
 
 She ran quickly to the door and up the stairs to her 
 room, but not for the card. On the contrary, when there 
 she seemed to have forgotten all about it, and remem- 
 bered only to fall on her knees by her bed and burst into a 
 passion of weeping. It was all too cruel ! How was she 
 to live this life day after day ? Oh that it might end that 
 she could die ! Alas for that fatal marriage ! Her short 
 sojourn in the world had taught her, amongst other things, 
 the folly of hoping that it could be set aside. She won- 
 dered whether Cicely would expect her to go back; but 
 breakfast was over when she left the room, and Cicely was 
 always so good, she would understand. She had left them 
 only bar-ely in time ; another moment and the tears that 
 were choking her would have fallen, to her eternal dis- 
 grace. 
 
 She did not appear again until late in the afternoon, 
 pleading fatigue as her excuse. But when she did creep 
 down to the smaller drawing-room, hoping to find it un- 
 tenanted, she found Wriothesley as well as Cicely there. 
 They had evidently been in full discussion of a rather un- 
 amicable nature, but they ceased speaking as she entered. 
 Wriothesley drew a lounging chair to the fire for her, and
 
 MARVEL. 203 
 
 looked at her with an increased regard that might have 
 been born of that stormy discourse just interrupted. 
 
 " I hope you feel your fatigue less now," he said solici- 
 tously. 
 
 " Very much less, thank you." 
 
 If he had been the veriest stranger on earth her tone 
 could not have been colder. 
 
 "A little foolish to come downstairs at all, was it not? 
 Talking is so bad for a headache." 
 
 " I need not talk." 
 
 " No, that is true. But it is so difficult to keep silence 
 when people are present. I shall relieve you of my pre- 
 sence, however, as I am going. You " 
 
 " Are you ? Where ? " asked Mrs. Verulam, in defiance 
 of all respectable rules. 
 
 " To call on Mrs. Scarlett. I promised her last night to 
 pay her a visit to-day." 
 
 "Do you think it demands an apology ?" said Mrs. Veru- 
 lam, with a little peculiar laugh ; and then he went away. 
 
 Marvel sat quite still. She said nothing, and neither 
 did Mrs. Verulam, who was, indeed, compulsorily silent, as 
 she was doing battle with her feelings. She was longing 
 to break forth into a torrent of abuse against Wriothesley, 
 Mrs. Scarlett, and the general ordering of things in this 
 life ; but she could not do this without giving Marvel pain, 
 and that she shrank from. At length the latter grew rest- 
 less, as though the silence was becoming unbearable, and, 
 getting up, began to move nervously about the room, 
 changing a flower in a vase here, and altering the position 
 of a quaint little Wedgwood bowl on a cabinet there. 
 
 At the end she went up to Cicely, and said mournfully : 
 
 " He has gone to see her." 
 
 "So it appears," said Mrs. Verulam, affecting an air of 
 indifference she was far from feeling. 
 
 " I shall not be able to bear it," said Marvel, whose lips 
 had grown white. 
 
 "Don't lay too much stress on this visit. See here, 
 Marvel, I will tell you one thing. The very fact that he 
 openly declared his intention should show you that there is 
 little in it."
 
 204 MAEVEL. 
 
 "A very little would be too much," said Marvel 
 coldly. 
 
 Meantime Wriothesley had stepped into a hansom and 
 was being driven to Mrs. Scarlett's town house. All the 
 way there memories were thronging thickly upon him, and 
 it was with a sigh of absolute relief that he got out 
 and went into the hall. He would get it over soon, this 
 visit, which he felt it necessary to make, if only to explain 
 to himself and her what terms they should be on for 
 the future. The old love was dead. He felt unspeakably 
 thankful for that ; it now remained to see whether friend- 
 ship could take its place. 
 
 He went up the thickly-carpeted staircase, noting as he 
 went all the old landmarks. The same statue of Venus 
 stood in the same corner ; the rose-shaded lamps that used 
 to shed such a tender glow on the passers-by, stood out 
 from the walls ; there was the hush, the quiet, the air of 
 expectancy, the warm, scented breath of flowers. He 
 thought it just now a little oppressive. Then the door of 
 her boudoir was flung wide, and a second later he found 
 himself in her presence. 
 
 It was a room charming in every respect, and therefore 
 well suited to its mistress. Crimson lace curtains shrouded 
 the windows, so that the cold forbidding aspect of the 
 December day was excluded and a soft twilight reigned. 
 A delicious fire burned upon the hearth, and a large Persian 
 cat, snow-white, lay in a luxuriant slumber upon the rug. 
 The walls were very delicately tinted in a flesh colour, and 
 over a buhl cabinet a woman of Burne Jones's looked out 
 moodily from a plain gilt frame. On the opposite wall was 
 an exquisite thing of Birkett Foster's, an innocent idyllic 
 bit of perfection, with a child or two in the foreground, 
 and a gleam of scarlet, and a subdued sunlight. 
 
 There was a perfume of scented woods, rare and strange 
 fragrances, mingled with the sweetness of hot-house flowers, 
 and big bunches of heliotrope and daphne that lay hidden in 
 priceless bowls behind curtains and spindle-legged tables, 
 their presence suggested rather than seen. There was a 
 five-fold screen of Japanese work at the far end of the room, 
 with tall pots filled with palms standing in each fold, and a
 
 MAEVEL. 205 
 
 few prayer rugs from India lay here and there upon the 
 polished portion of the floor. 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett rose as he entered and advanced a little to 
 welcome him. She was dressed in a gown of olive green 
 velvet that suited her d merveille. It threw out the 
 delicate pallor of her skin and cast a shade into her hand- 
 some eyes. A woman would have seen at once that she had 
 taken elaborate care with her toilette, but Wriothesley being 
 a man only knew that she was looking exceptionally lovely. 
 It was a knowledge, however, that had no power to move 
 him. 
 
 " You have come at last ! " said she, with the softest, the 
 most flattering touch of reproach. " I have waited for you 
 until I believed you almost false. But " with a little swift, 
 fond smile " but not quite /" 
 
 " I am sorry if I have kept you waiting," said he, more 
 gravely than the occasion required. He was feeling the 
 situation keenly, and his manner in spite of himself was 
 strained. "I intended to be earlier, but I could not 
 manage it." 
 
 " Had to find an opportunity ! " thought she exultantly. 
 The little touch of intrigue delighted her. She felt quite 
 elated, and her eyes gleamed as she turned them on him. 
 
 " An apology to a real friend is the unfriendliest thing 
 I know," she said with a charming glance. " Believe me, I 
 forgive you without explanation. That" with a sudden 
 sad lowering of her head, " is more than you could honestly 
 say with regard to me." 
 
 " You are wrong. That is what principally brought me 
 here to-day. To tell you that I entirely honestly as you 
 say forgive you all the past." 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett moved a little into the shadow and bit her 
 lips sharply. She hardly liked this generous condonement 
 of her offence. She would have preferred the old anger 
 the unmeasured scorn. As a rule, when one forgives, it 
 means that one has ceased to care. 
 
 " How good you are," she said very softly. " Though if 
 you knew all there might not perhaps be so much left to 
 pardon. But as you don't know, it is indeed good of you. 
 Fulke, if I dared explain "
 
 zo6 MARVEL, 
 
 " I think it will be better not," said he steadily. " No 
 good ever yet came of explanations such as that. ' Let the 
 dead past bury its dead.' The present may contain other 
 things, that I have you as a friend for instance." 
 
 " I am always your friend," said she gently, though a 
 little glitter had come into her eyes. " Whether you are 
 mine is the question." 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Scarlett ! Surely a very unnecessary 
 one ! " 
 
 She startled visibly as he addressed her by her surname. 
 
 " Is it to be no longer Leonie then ? " she asked. 
 
 " I think," slowly, "it will be better not." 
 
 " And you. Are you to be Lord Wriothesley to me in 
 the future ? " 
 
 " I think that, too, will be wise," replied he in the same 
 measured tone. 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett accepted her defeat with a courage that did 
 her credit. Not a glance, not a movement, betrayed her. 
 Perhaps she had caught at that word " wise " and saw light 
 through it. 
 
 " Wisdom ! That cold thing ! " she said with a low 
 laugh. " But if it is better safer so be it then. Don't 
 stand so far over there, you will be frozen. Come nearer 
 to the fire." She herself drew her chair a little closer to 
 where the fragrant pine logs were blazing cheerily. But 
 Wriothesley did not alter his position. " That ball last 
 night was a success," she went on. " All the best people 
 in Europe were at it, I think, to say nothing of celebrities. 
 By-the-by, talking of celebrities, what a lovely woman Lady 
 Wriothesley is ; she took us all very much by surprise. How 
 came it :hat you did not recognize her last night ? " 
 
 " It was unpardonably stupid of me I must allow. But 
 she was so changed." 
 
 " I can quite believe that. Even sinc / first made her 
 acquaintance she has altered to quite a remarkable degree, 
 not only in appearance, but in manners. In what does 
 this change of which you speak consist ? " 
 
 " When I married her," said Wriothesley in a musing 
 tone, his eyes fixed on the glowing fire, "she was a little 
 simple country girl."
 
 MARVEL. 207 
 
 " Ah ! well, she has left all that behind her ; a fact on 
 which you may be congratulated. Little simple country 
 maidens grow wearisome on a lengthened acquaintance. 
 Lady Wriothesley found that out, I suppose, because she 
 adopted the ways of the world in quite a marvellously short 
 time. She is quick to learn. Still, for a husband not to 
 know his wife ! You will pardon me if I say it was almost 
 too strange to be true." 
 
 " It was true, nevertheless. I suppose the fact that I 
 believed her and Mrs. Verulam to be up in the north may 
 partially account for my failing to recognize her. Another 
 thing, I had never before seen her en grande toilette. And 
 was not her hair done in some strange way ? " 
 
 " It was done in the very height of the fashion a new style 
 that suits the ingenue" said Mrs. Scarlett rather bitterly. 
 " Being the fashion herself she is right to adopt all its modes 
 of adding to one's popularity. Your wife is quite the rage 
 now ; duchesses run after her, princes vie with each other 
 for the honour of a dance, and she can count her levers by 
 the score." 
 
 Wriothesley flushed a dark red. Through all the scanda- 
 lous exaggeration of her words might there not be a grain 
 of truth ? He managed a laugh however. 
 
 "There is safety in a multitude," he said with an effort 
 at carelessness that did not escape her. Few things did. 
 
 " But there is always the one flawless jewel in the string/' 
 she said, " however poor it be." 
 
 Wriothesley made a sudden movement expressive of dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 " I must beg you will not discuss Lady Wriothesley," he 
 said a little formally. 
 
 " As you will, of course," said Mrs. Scarlett, in whom the 
 devil was now fully roused. " But if I were you I should 
 try to get accustomed to it. You will hear her very minutely 
 discussed on all hands. Nigel Savage's infatuation for her 
 is in the mouth of every one." 
 
 For the space of a minute Wriothesley was silent. He 
 was occupied with a picture that had risen before him. 
 Once again he held his wife's inanimate body in his arms, 
 and looked across it at a man, pale, stunned, who looked back
 
 208 MARVEL. 
 
 again at him with a murderous hatred in his eyes. Then it 
 all faded, and he turned to Mrs. Scarlett with a touch of 
 hauteur. 
 
 " We will leave Lady Wriothesley's name out of our con- 
 versation," he said with determination. Then, as though 
 with a view to give the desired change to the discourse, 
 he went on quickly, " Do you remain long in town ? " 
 
 " A day or two only. Then we all go down to Verulam 
 Court." 
 
 " Indeed ! And who do you mean by ' we ? ' n 
 
 " The usual set, with an addition here and there, thrown 
 in to prevent our wearying one of the other. I am going, 
 and the Mainwarings, and Sir George and Mrs. Verulam 
 you know there is an old affaire there and Mr. Savage 
 and your wife, but of course you know that," with a 
 malicious emphasis, " and the Damerons and a few others. 
 You are going, too, I presume ? " 
 
 " I have not been asked." 
 
 " But you will be, naturally." 
 
 " I do not think I shall go, even so." 
 
 " I should, if I were you. It amounts almost to a duty. 
 You have been so very long separated from your wife, and 
 Lady Wriothesley is so young and so singularly thought- 
 less." 
 
 She had returned to the charge, even against his expressed 
 desire, with a daring unequalled. Wriothesley frowned. 
 
 " Lady Wriothesley should be grateful for the interest 
 you take in her," he said stiffly. 
 
 " I take none. The interest I feel is all centred in you. 
 She is your wife, Wriothesley ; and I shall always feel the 
 keenest interest in you and your honour." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 "'Tis the eternal law, 
 That first in beauty should be first in might." 
 
 THE word rang in his ears as he left the house. His honour ! 
 He breathed more freely as he got out of that heated
 
 MARVEIX 209 
 
 atmosphere with the enervating perfume of the many 
 flowers, but he carried away with him, as she meant he 
 should, a deadly fear at his heart. All through, her insinua- 
 tions had tended towards one point, and that was a terrible 
 one. Their honour had always been a precious thing in 
 the sight of all his house, and now even to have it breathed 
 upon seemed an accursed thing. 
 
 And it was all his own fault. He acknowledged that as 
 he strolled idly along the pavement, his head bent down- 
 wards. He had most cruelly neglected her. that child who 
 was his wife, and flung her as it were defenceless, innocent, 
 ignorant into the jaws of a merciless world. What wonder 
 if, finding herself lonely and deserted, she had turned to 
 the first tender word offered her, and like a flower had 
 opened and expanded beneath the warmth and sunshine of 
 a passionate love. 
 
 Yet had he been so altogether to blame ? It was she 
 who of her own free will had abandoned him. He alone 
 knew the wildness, the strength of the temptation that then 
 had assailed him, to return with her to England and see, if 
 only once again, the woman he then loved with such an 
 absorbing devotion. He had conquered that desire, had 
 wandered far afield into places unknown of men, untravelled, 
 quick with danger, to try and kill a passion that he felt was 
 a base wrong to the woman he had married. 
 
 Still he knew he was in fault. He did not try to shirk 
 that ; only, there were surely extenuating circumstances. The 
 question now was, what was to be done ? He could only 
 hope the mischief was not already so deeply rooted that it 
 could not be eradicated. That Savage was in love with his 
 wife he could not doubt after that scene last night, but what 
 of her ? Unconsciously he began to walk faster, and a fear 
 that was akin to despair fell on him. 
 
 He \vould not believe it yet. That woman might have 
 spoken falsely. A -word exaggerated has often created 
 material for a lifelong quarrel, and with what viperish 
 bitterness she had spoken of Marvel. He would speak to 
 Cicely. She had evidently great influence over Marvel, and 
 if she had the deuce of a temper, still her head and her 
 heart were sound. As for this visit to Verulam, he would 
 
 14
 
 210 MAEVEL. 
 
 prevent that at all hazards. This new Marvel was of course 
 a little strange to him, but the old Marvel had been so 
 willing to obey, to comply with any request of those older 
 than her, that he felt the habit could not have entirely worn 
 off, and she would give in to him when he showed her how 
 he objected to her acceptance of Lady Lucy's invitation. 
 
 " Those older than her !" It suddenly returned to him 
 that she was but eighteen, and he was twenty-nine. A 
 terrible disparity. She was a child still ; he a man worn 
 and tired of the buffetings of fortune. Eleven years 
 stood between them as an inseparable barrier. He smiled 
 grimly to himself as he remembered it was a little too late 
 to lament over that. Then the smile faded. Good 
 heavens ! what a mess he had made of his life. He had 
 sowed, he had reaped, and the sowing and the reaping were 
 alike bitter. And now, to crown all, he felt that he had de- 
 stroyed that poor child's life as well as his own ; had dragged 
 her down into the dull monotony that alone was left to him. 
 If her " auntie " could but have foreseen ! And to him she 
 had left her child to guard, to cherish. 
 
 Well, he would save her from herself, at least, if that 
 might be. He would positively forbid this visit to Lady 
 Lucy, but not this evening. She was tired ; her head 
 ached. He would put off any unpleasant topic until the 
 morning. 
 
 He had reached his own house by this, and crept very 
 quietly up the staircase, lest she might have fallen asleep in 
 one of the rooms, and his footstep should rouse her. He 
 was going with special carefulness past the cosy small 
 drawing-room that she seemed to affect, when the sound of 
 gay laughter and the tinkling of silver against dainty china 
 caught his ear. 
 
 He pulled up as if taken by surprise, and turning the 
 handle of the door entered the room. 
 
 Twilight was here, too, but it was of a more orthodox 
 sort than lit Mrs. Scarlett's apartment. It came straight 
 from the sky. t Here, too, a glorious fire shone brilliantly, 
 and the perfume of flowers was not absent. The laughter 
 and the tinkling arose from the lips and the spoons of quite 
 a number of people who were scattered about the room.
 
 MAEVEL. 211 
 
 and who were all apparently enjoying themselves immensely 
 without let or hindrance. 
 
 Marvel was the centre of a little group that surrounded 
 the tea-tray. She was dressed in an exquisite tea-gown of 
 old gold satin half smothered in lace. Lord Castlerock was 
 eating unlimited lumps of sugar out of her delicate little 
 silver bowl, and Savage was leaning over her chair telling 
 her of something absurdly comic that had occurred at last 
 night's rout. Three or four lamps had been lit in the 
 background, but they conduced more to the softening of 
 the scene than to the actual giving of light. 
 
 The \vhole made an exquisite picture. Mrs. Verulam 
 was the first to see him, and she rustled towards him in 
 her wonderful new gown that combined all the blues in 
 creation, harmoniously blended together, and addressed 
 him with quite a gracious air. Since last she had seen him 
 she had come to the conclusion that harsh words seldom 
 win, and that to catch him with guile would be the easier 
 plan. 
 
 " Come and speak to Lady Lucy, she is so anxious to 
 see you. It appears her mother will never forgive you for 
 not making yourself known to her last night. But if nicely 
 managed Lucy will smooth all that." 
 
 Wriothesley suffered himself to be led up to Lady Lucy, 
 who welcomed him exactly as if she had seen him yesterday, 
 and then gave him a sound rating into the bargain. He 
 only got off by promising to call on Lady Elaine next day, 
 and proffering in person his homage and his apologies. 
 
 " A godmother is at least somebody I " said Lady Lucy, 
 still a little indignant. " And to slight mamma, who has 
 always adored you though why " 
 
 " My godmother is more than that," said Wriothesley, 
 wisely breaking into what promised to be a very unsatisfac- 
 tory speech. " She is the most charming of her sex. No, 
 I shall not make a single exception." 
 
 " Well, mind you come to-morrow. We have had quite 
 a time with her to-day, after Markham had most in- 
 judiciously told her of your being actually seen last night 
 by reliable witnesses." 
 
 " I shall certainly not forget."
 
 212 MARVEL. 
 
 He made his escape then and went deliberately across 
 the room to where Marvel was standing looking at the first 
 proof of a poem that was not written by Mrs. Geraint. 
 
 " It is charming ! What a gift ! " she was saying. " I 
 hear Cregan and Peters think so well of it. Will you tell 
 Mr. Morland that I am indebted to him for ever for having 
 given me this early glimpse of it ? May I keep it, do you 
 think until to-morrow? I should so like to read it when 
 I am alone, and can more fully appreciate it." 
 
 " Oh, certainly. And The fact is, Lady Wriothes- 
 
 ley, I am sent to you as an envoy from Morland to ask if 
 you will permit him to dedicate this volume to you. Do 
 not refuse him, I beseech you. His very heart is set on 
 it." 
 
 " Refuse him no ! " she replied very sweetly. " Tell 
 him from me I shall be not only pleased, but proud. 
 Recognition from such talent as his is indeed an honour." 
 
 Her companion bowed. 
 
 " If you will permit me I shall take my leave at once," 
 he said ; " such news as I have to convey to Morland 
 should not, I think, be delayed a moment." 
 
 She gave him her hand and he withdrew. As he did so, 
 Wriothesley, who had heard all, took his place. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 " When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets 
 angry." 
 
 " You seem to sway the world in which you move," said he 
 with a smile that was rather forced. " Poets and princes 
 alike offer you homage. I have almost forgotten the old 
 Marvel." 
 
 " You have had time," said she calmly. 
 
 " True," said he, changing colour. " I hope, too, I shall 
 have time granted me to learn the new one." 
 
 " That is in your own power. By what you say, how- 
 ever, I suppose you do not mean to go abroad again 
 immediately,"
 
 MARVEL. 213 
 
 " Not at all possibly. Conscience, though tardy, had 
 hinted to me at last that where one has large estates one 
 has many poor, and that it is my duty to look after them. 
 So I have come home for good." 
 
 A little bitter smile flitted across her face. 
 
 " I am glad you remembered your poor," she said ; 
 " perhaps they are not as forsaken as you imagine. I have 
 made inquiries about them ; I have done what I could." 
 
 " You ! " he looked at her in surprise. 
 
 " Don't let that so astonish you," she said coldly. " One 
 must do something, or else die or go mad. And you 
 forget, or perhaps you do not know, that I was auntie's 
 almoner for several years, young as I was ; her accountant 
 too her helper in many ways. Alas ! Those happy days ! " 
 She sighed heavily and clasped her hands before her. 
 After a little while she lifted her head and for the first 
 time looked full at him. 
 
 " You have sought me," she said. " You have something 
 to say to me ? " 
 
 " You have guessed rightly. I have been told that you 
 are going to Verulam this month." 
 
 "When Mrs. Scarlett told you that, she told you the 
 truth." 
 
 He flushed again, though his conscience was surely 
 guiltless, but she, seeing the flush, did not believe it. 
 
 " I want you to cancel your engagement to Lady Lucy," 
 he said, trying to speak lightly, naturally, but failing because 
 of the steady gaze of those two large lovely eyes. " I do 
 not want you to go to Verulam." 
 
 "No! And why?" 
 
 " For many reasons. But one of them will suffice. I 
 am not going to Verulam and we have been too long 
 separated as it is. It will be better for your sake that 
 we give the world no longer food for ta'k. Let us for the 
 future try, at least publicly, to be on friendly terms. The 
 slightest whisper hurts a woman's reputation." 
 
 " Ah ! You have thought of that," she said with a pale 
 smile. He saw it and it angered him. 
 
 " You compel me to think of it now," he said somewhat 
 hastily.
 
 214 MARVEL. 
 
 " Is there a meaning in what you say ? Why should not 
 all this have been considered a year ago ? Eighteen 
 months ago ? " 
 
 " I know you have every right to upbraid me on that 
 score. But an evil, however long in practice, may be 
 stopped. I would stop this with your assistance," courte- 
 ously. " Will you give up this visit and spend the winter 
 with me instead ? " 
 
 " And where ? Have you arranged that too ? 
 
 "At The Towers, I suppose." 
 
 " The Towers ! Oh, no ! Never never ! " she shrank 
 from him as though he had dealt her a blow. 
 
 "Ringwood then or Cranston. I don't think you have 
 ever seen Cranston." 
 
 " No," she answered indifferently, and as though she 
 would have said <l I do not care if I never do." He waited 
 for her to speak again, but she said nothing, standing there 
 before him, tall and slender, with her eyes fixed upon the 
 pot of forced narcissi near her, and the light from the distant 
 lamps falling across the golden shimmer of her gown ; she 
 stood quite motionless ; the laces on her bosom rose and 
 fell quickly, but she showed no other sign of emotion. 
 
 " Well ? " he said at last, with a touch of impatience. 
 " You will give me an answer ? " 
 
 "You ask me to give up this month at Verulam which 
 
 I should enjoy, to go with you you " she paused as 
 
 though to conquer some rising words "to the dulness 
 of isolation. Is that it ? " 
 
 "It need not be isolation," coldly. "You can ask as 
 many friends as you wish." 
 
 " Your friends ? " 
 
 " No. Yours, of course." 
 
 " If I did, I should ask precisely those whom I shall 
 meet at Verulam ; therefore, why not go to Verulam ? " 
 
 " I have told you. I shall not be there." 
 
 " I am sure Lady Lucy will be charmed to give you an 
 invitation," said she carelessly. She threw up her head and 
 sighed a little, as if weary of the subject. 
 
 " That is not the question. I do not desire to go, and I 
 strongly object to your going. You do not understand me."
 
 MARVEL. 215 
 
 " I do, entirely. You wish, now it has pleased you to 
 rome home after nearly two years, to play the tyrant and 
 deprive me of a pleasure to which I have been looking for- 
 ward." It really did seem to her at this moment that she 
 had been thus anticipating it with a longing heart, yet how 
 heartily at one time she had prayed against it. 
 
 " There you wrong me," said he quickly. " I would not 
 thwart, I would be of use to you, believe me or not as you 
 will. That, however, is a matter that can be discussed later 
 on. You will make up your mind to do what I think is wise 
 in this matter ? " 
 
 " I know so little of you. Your wisdom is so hid from me 
 that I may perhaps deem it folly. And at all events, I shall 
 not break my word with Lady Lucy." 
 
 She had grown very pale, and so had he. He looked at 
 her. 
 
 " Am I to understand that you refuse to accede to my 
 request ? " 
 
 " You are to understand that I have given my word, and 
 I shall keep to it." 
 
 "In spite of all I have said that I believe it necessary that 
 you should accompany me ? " 
 
 " Your reasons ? " she asked with a little frown. " You 
 speak many words, but you give no solid reason. Why should 
 1 give in to you ? " There was a sudden flash in her eyes 
 that should have warned him that her patience was wellnigh 
 spent. 
 
 " Because I am your husband ! " he said with some heat. 
 "You have not forgotten that fact, I suppose, and that as 
 such I have some small right to control your actions." 
 
 " I deny it ! " she cried, losing the calmness she had culti- 
 vated so long, and now breaking out into a passion of 
 indignation. " You, who neglected, abandoned me to the 
 comments of the world whose cruelty you yourself profess 
 so well to know, what right have you to come now and take 
 possession of me, my friendships, my very movements, and 
 control and order them as though I were a very puppet? 
 Oh ! no, Lord Wriothesley, that would be impossible." 
 
 She made a little eloquent gesture, as though to empha- 
 size her words. Wriothesley stood gazing at her, silenced,
 
 216 MAKVEL. 
 
 amazed by this vehemence, for which he had not been pre- 
 pared. The sense of neglect of trust betrayed that had 
 burned itself into the girl's heart here found some small out- 
 let, and she seized eagerly upon it. It was so little to say, so 
 little out of all the bitterness, the misery that she had felt, 
 and yet it eased in a measure her aching heart, that longed 
 so piteously for some return of the love it felt. But with 
 her love there was mingled an honest pride that cased her 
 heart with bands of steel and forbid her to give to any man 
 a gift so priceless, to be despised, perchance rejected. 
 
 " You have decided then," said he sternly ; " you will 
 go to Verulam ? " 
 
 " Certainly," with cold distinctness. 
 
 " There is but one thing more then that I can do," replied 
 he. He cast at her a glance full of displeasure, and crossed 
 the room to where Lady Lucy Verulam was sitting. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 " Surely where there is plenty, charity is a duty, not a courtesy. 
 It is a tribute imposed by Heaven upon us, and he is not a good 
 subject who refuses to pay it." 
 
 " So you are going to carry off Lady Wriothesley," he 
 said, dropping into a chair beside her. His smile was rather 
 a forced one, though his tone was easy. 
 
 " Yes, that stroke of fortune has fallen to me. You must 
 not interfere with that arrangement, Fullce," she said hastily, 
 catching sight of his face. " It is a promise of old standing, 
 and I am bent on taking her to Verulam." 
 
 " Oh, I shall not interfere ; be happy about that," said 
 he with ill-suppressed bitterness. "But hav^e you considered 
 what is to be done with me ? " 
 
 " I shall take you too, of course," she said laughing. " Is 
 that it ? How absurd you are, pretending to beg for invita- 
 tions as if you did not know you would be welcome as the 
 flowers in May. Mamma will be of my party and will be 
 in the seventh heaven when she knows you are coming. 
 My father is down there already."
 
 MARVEL. 317 
 
 " The marquis ? I am glad to hear he is able to move 
 about." 
 
 " In his bath chair only. But he quite misses the children 
 now, so that he often comes to us, as they cannot altogether 
 live with their grannies. He is much stronger, and fortu- 
 nately his mind is as clear as ever." 
 
 They had some more desultory talk about the old people 
 and the family generally, not worth recording. Marvel, who 
 had seated herself somewhere near, had heard all, and was 
 surprised at his sudden determination to goto Verulam. It 
 did not displease her. It seemed indeed the one sensible 
 thing to do. Why he had not decided on it sooner was what 
 puzzled her. He had said there were reasons why she should 
 not go to Verulam, but he had in a way declined to give 
 them, and indeed what reason could there be ? ( Suddenly 
 she remembered the old foolish story about Nigel Savage. 
 Could he have heard that ? Could Mrs. Scarlett have made 
 mischief about it ? She blushed vividly as this thought oc- 
 curred to her, but in a moment she had decided that it was 
 but foolishness. From first to last it had been but an idle 
 tale without an atom of foundation, and now she could s^e 
 that people had forgotten all about it. 
 
 She looked over to where Savage was sitting listening to 
 pretty Mrs. Dameron's lispings as though his heart was set 
 upon them, and she smiled to herself. Yes, it was only a 
 mischievous bit of gossip when all was said, expelled by the 
 mind almost as quickly as it entered it. 
 
 He did, indeed, at the moment seem attracted by Mrs. 
 Dameron, who was very well content to have him by her. 
 She had not an ounce of brains, but she could talk prettily a 
 certain jabber of her own that kept men, even clever ones 
 sometimes, by her side. She was so far original that her 
 " little ways," as they were called, were all her own, and by 
 her admirers were voted charming. Yet if she could have seen 
 into Savage's breast as he sat beside her, to all open seem- 
 ing, hanging on her words, the- weariness, the eager longing 
 to be elsewhere that reigned there, would have been a fatal 
 blow to her vanity. 
 
 After a while, Lady Lucy rose to say good-bye, and pre- 
 sently they all rustled away, leaving only Wriothesley.
 
 2i3 MAEVEL. 
 
 " You will dine with us ? " asked Mrs. Verulam, seeing 
 Marvel remain silent. 
 
 " I think not, " he said, after a moment's glance at his 
 wife. 
 
 "Your club?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "A mere excuse," thought Mrs. Verulam ; "he has evi- 
 dently made an appointment to dine with her. Oh ! for 
 the days of the Medicis." 
 
 Wriothesley was now looking at Marvel. 
 
 " I am glad your headache is so much better," said he 
 with a touch of sarcasm. He had not forgotten how she 
 had been laughing when he entered the room an hour ago, 
 and how she had not so much as smiled ever since. 
 
 " It is gone," said Marvel quickly. She turned to him 
 and smiled now, at all events. She was a little repentant 
 for the part she had acted during their late conversation, 
 and wished in somewise to prove to him that though they 
 could never be the good old friends they once had been, 
 still they might be on kindly terms for all that. " I think 
 the fact of their all dropping in like that took it away." 
 This was a rather unfortunate speech, but he was so 
 astonished by that unexpected smile that he forgot to take 
 any notice of it then. 
 
 "Whatever the cause of its removal, I am glad it is 
 gone," he said. 
 
 " If you have nothing better to do," said she, still anxious 
 to establish an amicable footing between them, " I think 
 you had better change your mind and dine here." 
 
 Mrs. Verulam looked up in some trepidation. How 
 would she take his refusal ? To her astonishment, however, 
 no refusal came, 
 
 " Thank you, yes ; if you will allow me," he said simply, 
 and stayed. 
 
 The following week they all went down to Verulam. They 
 met Kitts at the station, bound on the same journey, and 
 found him a valuable acquisition, as there was always a strain 
 in their relation to each other, no matter how hard Marvel 
 fought to be specially civil, if studiously cold, and conversa- 
 tion as a rule was of the languishing order. Mr. Kitts, on the
 
 MAKVEL. 219 
 
 contrary, was troubled by no strain, and as he dearly loved 
 his own voice, chattered ceaselessly by rail and road and 
 even up the stone steps leading to the hall door ot 
 Verulam, where a servant seizing upon him, bore him away 
 from the others and so put a stop to the animated and 
 scientific discussion on fireworks he had only just begun 
 with Mrs. Verulam. 
 
 Hard and cold weather followed on their arrival. A 
 deadly, biting wintry weather, severe enough to freeze 
 one's warmest affections. The sportsmen of the party had 
 an excellent time of it for the first four days, but on the 
 fifth they came downstairs to find a white world outside 
 the windows and the snow descending with a soft vigour 
 that threatened to imprison them should it continue. 
 
 The children, Lulu Verulam and her cousins, Lady 
 Lucy's younger boys, were enchanted, and rushed about 
 from room to room to see how high upon each window sill 
 the lovely snow was mounting. They were enraptured by 
 the hint thrown out by Mr. Kitts that soon the windows 
 would all be blocked up and the lamps lit in the morning. 
 They were not even cast down by further hints to the effect 
 that the doors would also be barricaded, and that as the 
 slender stock of provisions then in the house could not hold 
 out long the pooi besieged would be driven to devour each 
 other. The children, being the tenderest, would go first, 
 said Mr. Kitts cheerfully. 
 
 " And grandpapa last," said the youngest Verulam boy, 
 looking at the old marquis in his skull-cap, who certainly 
 did suggest the idea of being a tough morsel. Lady Lucy, 
 who had a Christmas tree on hand for the poor of the 
 parish, was not sorry for a day that kept all indoors, and 
 towards the afternoon marshalled the entire force of guests 
 into the library an immense room where two enormous 
 fires roared, and sat them down to the dressing of dolls and 
 such-like innocent amusements. There was to be no time 
 lost over the putting on of teagowns, she told them sternly ; 
 they were to work steadily on until the first dressing bell 
 rang ; and if they got time even to get through one cup of 
 tea each, they were to be duly grateful. 
 
 It was a terribly dark afternoon, and all the lamps had to
 
 2JO MAKVEL. 
 
 be lit at an abnormally early hour. A large conservatory, 
 heated by pipes, opened off the library, and this too was lit 
 by coloured lamps that shone brilliantly in the distance. 
 The blinds had not been pulled down, the day was still so 
 ridiculously young, and the effect of the silent, swiftly 
 falling snow gave one a little pleasurable delight in the cosy 
 warmth of the life within doors. 
 
 All sorts of glistening scraps of satins, silks, and laces 
 lay strewn about. Here was the glitter of tinsel ; there the 
 gleam of many-coloured beads. The sparkling of the 
 jewels on the white fingers as -they drew the deft needle 
 through the gaudy stuffs, the tints of the exquisite dresses 
 as the lamps shone on them, and beyond and above all the 
 pretty faces, bright with an honest zeal to turn out such 
 handiwork as should delight the innocent soul of the little 
 rustic, all made a charming picture. 
 
 Mrs. Dameron indeed had developed a perfect talent for 
 the dressing of dolls. Beneath her touch they grew from 
 mere bags of sawdust into perfect visions of beauty. She 
 was to be congratulated, said her husband, as he bent over 
 the last fairy princess she had produced ; it was the first 
 symptom of cleverness she had ever shown. After her came 
 Marvel, who really did wonders with her dolls and after 
 Marvel came Mr. Kitts. He was found out presently, 
 principally on account of the silence that had marked him 
 for its own during the past ten minutes. OM Lady Elaine, 
 who walked up and down amongst the workers at this 
 fashionable Dorcas meeting like a queen of the grand old 
 order we are accustomed to dream of when we fall into 
 reminiscences of our childhood, was the first to discover 
 him. 
 
 He was sitting in a deserted corner with a basket of 
 naked dolls before him, ready to be dressed. Lulu and 
 her cousin Horace were evidently delighted with the work 
 on which he was engaged, and sat like little mice at his feet, 
 so absorbed that they did not notice the approach of the 
 old marchioness. Lady Elaine drew near, looked over the 
 unconscious Kitts' shoulder, and grew instantly severe. 
 
 Indeed, the sight that met her gaze was quite sufficient to 
 freeze with horror the mind of any well-regulated woman.
 
 MAKVEL. 221 
 
 Beside this wicked young man this betfayer of women's 
 secrets was a bundle of cotton-wool, out of which innocent 
 material he was fashioning Bustles! and attaching them 
 to the simple dolls, whether they would or no. 
 
 " Samuel ! " said Lady Elaine, with a sternness that made 
 him jump. (Mr. Kitts was the proud possessor of this 
 euphonious name.) "Really, Samuel, I do think you 
 might find something better to do ! " 
 
 "I might," acknowledged Mr. Kitts, who was closely 
 related to her, with profound melancholy; "or," with a 
 sudden accession of cheerfulness, " worse ! " 
 
 " Lulu, come here," said Lady Elaine, drawing the child 
 away from such pernicious teachings. Miss Verulam 
 followed her but slowly. 
 
 " But what's the harm, grannie?" She always called the 
 old lady by this endearing title, though indeed she was 
 nothing to her. " Don't you wear one yourself?" 
 
 "My dear, that is not the question." 
 
 " But don't you, though ? " persisted Lulu, who had quite 
 a genius for running her prey to earth. 
 
 "You speak too much, Lulu," said Lady Elaine cor- 
 rectively, with a view to self-defence. " Have you never 
 heard that ' little girls should be ' " 
 
 "I know that!" said Miss Verulam contemptuously; 
 " I can say that myself. ' Little girls should be seen and 
 not heard.' But Mr. Kitts says that is all wrong. He has 
 a copybook in which it goes quite different like ; it is 
 'Little girls should be heard and not seen.' I like that 
 better. We wouldn't ever have to be dressed then, would 
 we?" 
 
 " Oh, Samuel ! " said Lady Elaine to the stricken Kitts, 
 who was bending over his bustles and shaking with some 
 thing that resembled palsy. Then she returned to Lulu. 
 " Never to be dressed ! " she said mournfully. She 
 pointed to a row of ghastly dolls, naked, hideous, that 
 lay on a table near. " Would you be like that ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " I couldn't be like that," said Lulu, with much indigna- 
 tion, and then, overcome by the comic side of the affair, 
 " it would be lovely in summer," she said, with a burst of
 
 22 MARVEL. 
 
 laughter. Her eyes having wandered to the table where 
 the melancholy dolls lay, went still further afield, and 
 looked with a growing wonderment on all these dainty ladies 
 poring over their work as though their lives depended upon 
 the accomplishment of it. A sudden thought seemed to 
 strike her. "Grannie," said she, turning to Lady Elaine 
 with a perplexed air, " why do they do it ? Why do they 
 work like that, dressing those dolls? Couldn't they buy 
 them dressed, as I do ? " 
 
 " Certainly, my dear. But these friends of ours think 
 they would like to do something for the poor besides buying 
 them things. They want to work for them. You know 
 there is far a greater sweetness in being actively kind than 
 passively so." 
 
 " I shouldn't like Mrs. Geraint to be kind to me," said 
 Miss Verulam promptly, pointing the finger of scorn at the 
 doll that soulful woman had just ruined. 
 
 " Hush, my dear," said Lady Elaine, rather in a hurry. 
 " But do you know, Lulu, ugly as you think that doll, there 
 are many hundreds of little girls who would think it beauti- 
 ful, because they have never had one at all." 
 
 " What/ Never any doll ?" 
 
 " No, my dear, never. I could tell you a story about one 
 little girl, at all events, who " 
 
 "A story? Take me up quick," said Miss Verulam, 
 scrambling into the old lady's lap at full speed. A story 
 was her dear delight. " Now, go on," said she, when she 
 had tucked herself comfortably into Lady Elaine's arm. 
 
 " Well, it was not in this village it happened, but in a 
 village very like the one near which I live. And one day 
 a lady she was an old lady, and she was something like me 
 walked through this village out to the road beyond, and 
 on the edge of this she came to a small house nay, a hovel 
 rather and she stopped before it, and paused and thought 
 how poor and sad the people must be who lived in it, and 
 at last she went in, to well, to see if she could do anything 
 for them." 
 
 " I think she might have done it sooner," said Lulu in- 
 dignantly. " She was a horrid old woman, I think." 
 
 " Oh no, my child ; I hope she was not that. They were
 
 MARVEL. 223 
 
 not her people, you see her tenants, I mean and she 
 could not always walk about, because she was old and some- 
 times very ill, and besides " 
 
 " Well, never mind about that. If she was ill I'm sorry 
 for her ; but did she go in ? " asked Lulu impatiently. ' 
 
 " Yes ; and the first thing she saw was a little child, about 
 your age, sitting in the middle of the floor nursing tenderly 
 a small dark bundle. At first the old lady could not make 
 out what it was ; but by degrees she went closer without 
 frightening the little girl, and she found out it was a bundle ot 
 dirty rags tied up together without face, or shape, or form. 
 It had no lovely yellow locks, no big blue eyes. It could not 
 squeak to save its life ; there wasn't, indeed, a squeak in it. 
 It could not say mamma or papa, and it hadn't a leg or an 
 arm, yet that poor little child called it Dolly. It was all she 
 had ; all she had seen in the way of playthings, and she 
 seemed so much as though a doll were a necessity to her, 
 that I felt quite sorry." 
 
 "Oh, where is she? where is she?" cried Lulu, with 
 tears in her eyes. " She shall have my new dolly. Grannie, 
 tell me where she is." 
 
 " Evidently you have not much faith in that old lady," 
 said the marchioness smiling. "Why all that happened 
 three years ago." 
 
 " Did it ? " in a tone of distinct disappointment. " Oh, 
 I see. And did the old lady give her a doll, then ? " 
 
 " Yes, a very big doll, as beautifully dressed as yours. She 
 sent it to her on Christmas Eve ; and soon afterwards she 
 .valked again through that village and to that very same 
 house." 
 
 " She saw the child ? " 
 
 " She did. She was sitting on the floor this time, too, 
 and beside her was spread a large clean check handker- 
 chief that I think her mother must have washed specially for 
 the purpose, and on it was the doll, lying out in state. The 
 little one sat looking at it with quite a rapture in her eyes, 
 and, do you know, though that old lady had tried to do a 
 few kind deeds in her lifetime though far too few she 
 seldom, I think, felt more pleasure for the doing of them 
 than when she saw that child's glad little face."
 
 224 MAKVEI* 
 
 " Was it you, grannie ? Ah ! yes, I'm sure it was. Put 
 down your face this minute till I give you a kiss for that. 
 I wonder if there's any little child here that I could give 
 my doll to ? " 
 
 " You could give it to the Christmas tree, and then it 
 would go to i.nme little girl who would, I am sure, be over- 
 joyed to get it. That will be serving God, my dear, in a 
 small way. You remember the Bible tells us how, when on 
 earth, children especially were very precious to Him." t 
 
 " But perhaps they aren't so precious now ? " 
 
 " Yes, quite as dear in His sight." 
 
 " Well, if so, and if they want dolls, why doesn't He let 
 them down through the roof to them at night ? He might 
 put them in their stockings." 
 
 This was rather puzzling. Miss Verulam had evidently, 
 in her astute mind, mixed up the man with the palsy, Santa 
 Glaus, and the Divine power, in an inextricable confusion. 
 
 " Because that would not be good for us," said Lady 
 Elaine, blundering out of it as best she could. " If He did 
 all, we could do nothing ; and it is our sacred duty to look 
 after the poor, whom we have always with us." She spoke 
 with simple piety. 
 
 " Is that it ? " said the child. She pondered for a while, 
 and then : "And only for that He would love to shower 
 down toys upon the little poor children ? " 
 
 She looked at Lady Elaine with a keen inquiry. 
 
 " Yes," said that old lady, feeling herself brought to bay. 
 
 " Then I think it is very self-denying of God," said the 
 child solemnly. 
 
 Lady Elaine kissed her and put her down, whereupon 
 she instantly returned to Mr. Kitts and the bustles.
 
 AJ.AUV.C.U 22$ 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIL 
 
 "What is love worth, pray? 
 
 Worth a tear ? " 
 
 * * * 
 
 " How precious to me have been the prattlings of little children." 
 
 " WELL, you have all done so wonderfully well, been so 
 strictly industrious, that I think you deserve a cup of tea," 
 said Lady Lucy. The men had brought in the tea a few 
 minutes before, with the tiny steaming cakes on their brass 
 tripods, and the little American doug-hnuts after which the 
 soul of Mr. Kitts hankered ceaselessly. 
 
 A short spell of idleness followed. Down went the 
 needles, off went the thimbles ; each fair worker threw up 
 her head and sighed profoundly, as though worn out by 
 labour severe and prolonged. Mrs. Scarlett put aside het 
 work for good and all, and carried off her tea and Lord 
 Wriothesley to the distant end of the conservatory, and 
 there kept them. All the world had seen him go ; no one 
 had known why he went. It was willingly, at all events ; 
 and for the matter of that, it was easy to guess the attraction 
 too. Not one there but remembered his old infatuation for 
 her; and so they all kept the conversational ball rolling 
 with a kindly desire to prove to his wife that they saw 
 nothing of what was going on in the conservatory. 
 
 It was impossible, however, not to see. Mrs. Scarlett 
 was talking in a very impressive manner, and Wriothesley 
 was listening with evident interest. Mrs. Verulam's heart 
 grew hot within her with wrath suppressed, and Nigel Savage 
 with a quick indrawing of his breath looked at Marvel. 
 
 He had honestly tried to keep away from her all this 
 past week. He had seen her avoidance of him, an avoid- 
 ance that distressed her, and that she tried to atone for by 
 kind and friendly glances thrown to him now and then. 
 But it had hurt him nevertheless, and he had rather helped 
 her to a continuance of it than sought to overcome it. 
 But now, as he saw her sitting somewhat apart from the 
 others with drooping head and a sad melancholy in all her
 
 826 MAKVEL. 
 
 bearing, he could no longer succumb to his pride, but 
 broke its bond with one effort and went straight to her. 
 
 " What have I done to you ? " he began. " How have 
 I offended you, that you will not look at me or speak to 
 me?" 
 
 " Has it seemed to you like that ? I did not mean it 
 so," replied she, with gentle sorrow. " But that old foolish 
 story returns to me always, and I fear that " 
 
 " Shall I go away ? " said he. " Would that make you 
 happier? Out of the country, I mean?" 
 
 " Oh, no ; do not," said she, with such evident earnest- 
 ness that his heart began to beat faster. She looked at 
 him with open entreaty in her large eyes. "I have so few 
 friends," she said a moment later, with a forlorn little smile. 
 
 " You have one at least who would do much for you," 
 he said. He had it on his lips to say " who would die for 
 you," but he was afraid to risk that sweet old assurance. 
 
 " I know it," she said softly. " I rely upon you so much 
 that I know you will not be angry with me because I seem 
 to shun you. But Cicely told me I could not be too 
 cautious, and that I was not to talk exclusively to you. 
 Not that I ever did that, I think," looking at him anxiously. 
 
 " Mrs. Verulam is a woman of unbounded wisdom," 
 said Savage a little bitterly. " I suppose we must abide by 
 her decision ; but, after all, is there such great need ? Do 
 you think Lord Wriothesley would object to your treating 
 me as, say, an ordinary acquaintance ? To please him and 
 satisfy his mind is it absolutely necessary that I should be 
 denied a word, a glance now and again that I should be 
 put aside as something actually unworthy ? " 
 
 "You are offended with me," said Marvel in a low tone. 
 She trifled nervously with the spoon in her saucer, and he 
 could see that her hand was trembling, yet, because of a 
 sort of anger against her in his heart he would not come 
 to her rescue. 
 
 " I think I am the most unhappy person alive," she said 
 at last, lifting her eyes to his they were full of tears. 
 " My life is a ruined life. Hope I have none ; such things 
 as should be mine I have lost, through no fault, I think, of 
 my own. And now I shall lose you too."
 
 MARVEL. 227 
 
 " Never ! " said Savage, with a little outburst of feeling. 
 He could not subdue that, but he did subdue what might 
 have followed on it. " What I mean only is this you give 
 me a chance, you see, to speak, when you say your life is 
 ruined if your life is lonely, why should you increase 
 the desolation of it ? Why cast from you those who might 
 help to brighten it? If if he who should be the one to 
 fill your existence leaves it empty, I think that you " 
 
 " I cannot be angry with you," interrupted she gently. 
 " But if you would only not speak about it. You blame 
 him, but if you think of all, everything, you will see that 
 there is much to be said on his side of the question. When 
 
 I remember " She paused, and then broke out 
 
 miserably, "And that is always always I think, I feel 
 as though I could forgive him all." 
 
 "Even that?' 1 asked Savage quickly, with a meaning 
 glance at the open conservatory, where sat Wriothesley and 
 Mrs. Scarlett. When he had said it he would have given 
 the world to recall it, but it was too late then. A sudden 
 flood of crimson rushed to her face, lingered a moment and 
 receded, leaving her white as the snow falling so steadily 
 outside. She cast one wounded look at him, no more, but 
 it drove him frantic. 
 
 " Do not take it like that, I beseech you," he said, turn- 
 ing his back completely on the room and standing so as to 
 shield her from observation. " I would far rather die than 
 hurt you. Lady Wriothesley, I entreat, I implore you to 
 forgive that brutal question." 
 
 " You speak of death very lightly," said she, " you who 
 
 do not mean what you say. But I " Her lips were 
 
 trembling, there was not a vestige of colour in her face 
 " I do mean it, and I wish to Heaven now that I were dead 
 and cold within my grave." 
 
 She grew so pale that he thought she was going to faint. 
 He thought of the gossip, the whispering, the insulting 
 pity that would follow a scene of any kind, and he 
 stooped over her on pretence of taking her cup, and 
 pressed her hand warningly. 
 
 " Don't give way, whatever you do," he said. " Think 
 of her her triumph ! And they will talk, these others. 
 
 152
 
 128 MAHVEL, 
 
 Do you think you could manage to come with me to 
 the drawing-room anywhere ? " 
 
 " You are wrong," she said, forcing herself to speak and 
 look up ; "I shall not betray myself as you fear. " What ! " 
 with a tremulous smile, " will you not grant me any pride ? 
 I should not have spoken as I did ; it was wrong, absurd 
 of me, but there are moments when one loses oneself, and, 
 though I regret it, it has been a relief to me." 
 
 " From my soul / regret it," said he remorsefully. 
 
 " Do not," said she, with a sigh. " But since you have 
 driven me to speech, hear me. That which you hinted 
 at," with a slight shudder "all, should, I think, be for- 
 given by me, had I the magnanimity to do it. He does 
 not care for me, and yet but for me 
 
 " Not care for you ! " 
 
 " Is that to be so greatly wondered at ? Think of what 
 I am. I, unknown, a woman without position with- 
 out," her voice sank, and so did her eyes, poor child, "a 
 name ! Oh ! " she turned to him, a very agony of shame 
 and regret in her expression, with her lips compressed and 
 her ringers so tightly interlaced that the blood receded 
 from them, " would any man care to marry such an one as 
 I am ? " 
 
 " Any man ? Marvel ! Marvel ! Are you mad to tempt 
 me like this ? " cried he beneath his breath, his eyes aflame. 
 He bent over her. 
 
 " Tempt ! " she repeated breathlessly, a sudden terror 
 creeping into her face. She drew back, and this impulsive 
 shrinking from him woke him to a sense of the danger he 
 was incurring more than all else she could have said or 
 done. 
 
 " Tempt me to anger you again by censuring him whom 
 you so nobly defend," he said with a heavy sigh. 
 
 He was bending over her, his face agitated, whilst hers 
 was white and full of melancholy, when Lord Wriothesley 
 came out of the conservatory. His brow was clouded as 
 he appeared on the threshold, but it grew positively black, 
 as if with evil doubts confirmed, as his glance fell on 
 Marvel and Savage. The latter protected Marvel from 
 the observation of the rest of the people in the room by
 
 MARVEL. 229 
 
 standing before her, but from where Wriothesley stood she 
 was distinctly visible ; and the glance he fixed on her was 
 full of passionate anger. 
 
 " She evidently didn't agree with him," said Mr. Kitts to 
 himself sotto voce, alluding not to Marvel but to Mrs. 
 Scarlett. He was sitting near the entrance to the con- 
 servatory with Miss Verulam on his knee, and a humming- 
 top in process of being wound in his hands, and had caught 
 the first glimpse of Wriothesley's wrathful expression. 
 
 " Eh ! " said Lulu pricking up her ears. She had, as I 
 have said, a fatal talent for pursuing any subject that 
 interested her, to the bitter end. 
 
 "I was merely observing," said Mr. Kitts, "that the 
 air of that conservatory doesn't seem to have agreed with 
 Lord Wriothesley." 
 
 " Nonsense ! " declared Miss Verulam flatly. " The air 
 in there is as sweet as sugar. It smells of nothing but the 
 most lovely things." 
 
 " Which only goes to prove an unpleasant but undeniable 
 truth, that lovely things are, as a rule, bad for us. See how 
 ill he looks." 
 
 " I don't believe it. I won't," said Lulu, struggling down 
 off his knee. " It isn't one bit true. I'll go and ask him 
 myself." 
 
 "Ask him what?" said Mr. Kitts softly; holding hei, 
 however, lightly but firmly, as an awful suspicion crossed 
 his mind. 
 
 " If the air of that nice conservatory made him ill, and 
 if it is true that lovely things are bad for him." 
 
 "My good child, you can't do that ! " exclaimed 
 Mr. Kitts, holding her now with a frenzied grasp. " It 
 would mean a moral earthquake. Battle, murder and 
 sudden death would follow upon it Lulu, be advised, be 
 warned " 
 
 " I won't. I don't care," cried Miss Verulam valiantly, 
 kicking hard now to regain dear liberty. She scented 
 battle in the breeze, and rose to the occasion. She felt 
 herself forcibly detained, and that, as all little children 
 know, sets the blood a-boiling. " Let me go ! Let me go ! " 
 said she indignantly, and then with the fatal instinct of
 
 30 MARVEL. 
 
 childhood, that told her now where her strength lay, " If 
 you don't I'll scream it out loud to him." 
 
 " But not if I give you a knife. A grand large knife, 
 with a corkscrew and four blades. Sharp ; will cut you ; 
 cut your friends ; cut anything everything / Think of 
 that knife." Mr. Kitts poured out all this volubly in the 
 very desperation of fear. 
 
 " Eh ! " said Miss Verulam, visibly relenting. She had 
 ceased to struggle ; she was regarding him with a judicial eye. 
 
 "Such a knife as you never yet saw. A very prince 
 amongst knives," went on the unfortunate Kitts, afraid to 
 draw breath. " Is it a bargain ? Will that knife purchase 
 your silence ? " 
 
 "Will you give me that one the one with the four 
 blades ? " 
 
 " Certainly. I'll swear it, madam, an' you will. But you 
 must promise me in turn that you will not say a word of 
 what I said just now about the conservatory to Lord 
 Wriothesley or to Lady Wriothesley either, specially to Lady 
 Wriothesley. You promise ? " 
 
 " Yes, to be sure," said she with fine contempt. " Why, 
 what a fuss about nothing. And now where's the knife ? " 
 
 "You shall have it. I'll write to town for it in the 
 morning. It will be a most appropriate Christmas present," 
 said Mr. Kitts, with a poor attempt at jocularity. " I only 
 hope it will be half as sharp as you are, and it will be a 
 knife beyond price." 
 
 "That was a near shave !" he gasped to himself presently 
 as he mopped his heated brow. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 " My life is a fault at last, I fear 
 
 It seems too much like a fate, indeed ! 
 Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed, 
 But what if I fail of my purpose here ? " 
 
 " THAT fellow is in love with her ! " said Wriothesley sud- 
 denly. He faced Mrs. Verulam as he spoke, and looked
 
 MARVEL. 231 
 
 at her with a frowning brow, as though daring her to deny 
 it. He had made his way, the morning after the idealized 
 Dorcas meeting, to the pretty private room always set apart 
 for Cicely on her visits to her sister-in-law, and now stood 
 glowering at her from the admirable elevation of six foot 
 one. Glowering, however, had never very much effect on 
 Mrs. Verulam, and to-day, as administered by Wriothesley, 
 it gave her only a meek joy. 
 
 " What fellow ? " she asked, wrinkling her pretty brows 
 as if in perplexity. 
 
 " You know : Savage." 
 
 " Oh ! " long drawn out. " That of course." 
 
 " Why of course," hotly. 
 
 " Because she is so charming," coldly. " If you go into 
 it I could name you at least three or four others who would 
 be only too happy to lay themselves and their very con- 
 siderable fortunes at her feet to-morrow." 
 
 " You talk of her as though she were an unmarried girl." 
 
 " That is how they talk of her too. You see she was so 
 little married ! She was en evidence if you like, but where 
 were you ? " 
 
 " I was in South America," stiffly, giving a direct answer, 
 as if to show he scorned apology. 
 
 " Quite so," said she cheerfully. " And they knew it, 
 most of them. They quite clung to that knowledge. Your 
 coming home was a terrible blow, as unexpected as it was 
 undesired." 
 
 " By her ? " 
 
 " We are talking of those foolish people who have lost 
 their hearts to her, if, indeed, men have hearts," said she 
 with a little shrug. " I assure you, your return was a 
 distinct betise ; you should have surrendered yourself to a 
 grizzly over there, wherever you were, in that delightfully 
 enthralling place that kept you from her for nearly two 
 years." 
 
 " You think, then, that I am in her way ? " 
 
 " I think there are men who would treat her better than 
 you have done." 
 
 " You are, at all events, very plain spoken. A charm, no 
 doubt, but an unpalatable one. I do not quarrel with you
 
 33* MAEVEI* 
 
 about that, however, it would be useless, as I can see your 
 sympathies are enlisted on my wife's side." 
 
 " Your what ? Oh ! Marvel ! Positively, one is so un- 
 accustomed to think of her as a woman with a husband, 
 that I hardly understood." 
 
 " You have grown bitter, Cicely. A gain on which I can 
 scarcely congratulate you. Of course, as I have said, you 
 have adopted Marvel's cause, and I cannot hope for a fair 
 hearing from you. You believe me altogether to blame in 
 this matter that lies that at least should lie between her 
 and me alone. Yet you should remember, in all common 
 honesty, that it was she who first tired of me." 
 
 "Nonsense. I suppose you didn't imagine she was 
 going to stay with you, to watch you, day after day, moping, 
 and sulking, and regretting another woman every hour of 
 the day. Allow her some little spirit ! " 
 
 "She is hardly deficient in that line, I think," said he 
 with a sneer that enraged her champion. 
 
 " She is the gentlest creature alive, and the most lov- 
 able. If you cannot see that, I pity you ; but her, more. 
 What would you have ? An angel ? She is almost that, I 
 believe. Would any one but her have received you with 
 the exquisite forgiveness that she showed ? " 
 
 " Forgiveness ! Why, she has treated me ever since as 
 though I were the dust beneath her feet. Call that for- 
 giveness ! " 
 
 " You are not able to appreciate her, because she is too 
 good for you. I would have you take care, however other 
 people can I " She grew quite terrible in her denunciation 
 of him, and in this hint, that drove him to deeper anger 
 than he already felt. 
 
 " To talk like that," he said, " is a simple thing ; any one 
 could do it. But there is always the other side to be con- 
 sidered. And I have / nothing to forgive ? " 
 
 " Nothing that I know of. I wonder you can even 
 pretend to it ! " said she scornfully. She turned more 
 directly towards him and lifted indignant eyes to his. 
 "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she said. "I 
 really do think you might give up that old flirtation now" 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " asked he quickly.
 
 MARVEL. 133 
 
 " As you remarked a moment since, I am plain spoken. 
 What I mean then is, your most ill-advised flirtation with 
 Mrs. Scarlett." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said he. " I thought you clever enough to 
 see that that old affair is over and done with. If once I 
 did love her, I have lived to wonder at it ! " 
 
 " Denial is a simple thing. Words are no doubt in- 
 valuable, but deeds are beyond them. If you wish me 
 to believe what you have just said you should act up to 
 yours." 
 
 " Why, what do you want, then ? Am I to swear it 
 publicly that I have got rid of that ancient infatuation ? " 
 
 " Never lose your temper ! " said Mrs. Verulam mildly. 
 " It gains one nothing, and so is valueless. ' Deeds not 
 words ' is a good old motto belonging to some one or 
 other ; I would have you bear it in mind. If you wish me 
 to believe you in this matter of Mrs. Scarlett, tell me why 
 you devoted yourself to her all last evening in the con- 
 servatory, withdrawing yourself from all the others, and 
 making yourself as conspicuous with her as you very well 
 could." 
 
 " There were certain things that had be to said to her, 
 and it was as well I should say them at once. I wished 
 her to understand." 
 
 "Well, I hope you obtained your wish," said Cicely 
 drily, "and that it will not be necessary to make her 
 ' understand ' again." 
 
 "I hope not also. But at all events," gloomily, "she 
 made me understand." 
 
 "Did she? She is certainly capable of a good deal," 
 said Mrs. Verulam, regarding him keenly. " Did she tell 
 you that Marvel was in love with Nigel Savage ? " 
 
 " I did not require her assistance to learn that. As I 
 came out of the conservatory I saw her with him 
 Savage ! If she hates me, as she does," said he vehemently, 
 "and if she tells him so, I think she might have the 
 decency to do it in private ! Her look the dejection 
 that marked her face ! Shall I ever forget it ! " 
 
 "I hope you won't," said Mrs. Verulam wrathfully. "I 
 hope it will haunt you, for it is all your doing. You can
 
 34 MAJIVEL. 
 
 traduce that sweet girl that child, as you will, but all your 
 foolish disbelief, and all that woman's villainy, will not be 
 able to lay her beautiful head in the dust. Oh, Fulke ! 
 That you should be so blinded to all that is good and 
 true ! " 
 
 " You condemn me without a hearing. You accuse me 
 of being unfair to Marvel, and of being unduly civil to 
 Mrs. Scarlett ; but as I tell you there were certain things 
 that should be said to the latter." 
 
 "And how to the former? I don't see why anything 
 should be said to Mrs. Scarlett; though I think there is a 
 great deal that should be said to Marvel. You can fling 
 away your own chances of happiness, of course, as recklessly 
 as you will, but in the dead flatness that will follow on it, 
 remember how I warned you." 
 
 " Those chances are no longer mine," said he gloomily ; 
 so gloomily that she believed his thoughts ran on the 
 woman he had loved two years ago. 
 
 " So much the better for you," said she. 
 
 " You acknowledge that it is so, then ? " 
 
 " I am certainly not going to discuss it with you," said 
 she indignantly. "What I alone desire to impress upon 
 you is, that Marvel noticed your devotion to Mrs. Scarlett 
 last night, and was both annoyed and offended by it 
 Very naturally." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said he contemptuously. " I don't believe 
 she would care if I devoted myself to Mrs. Scarlett all day 
 long. She treats me with absolute indifference." 
 
 "Pity she doesn't bow down to you and solicit your 
 love ! " said Mrs. Verulam hotly, who was now in fine 
 scolding order, and prepared to say a great many things 
 that she called "wholesome truths," but which certainly 
 would have disagreed terribly with Wriothesley. 
 
 Providence, however, in the solid shape of Lady Lucy, 
 entered the room, and put an end to Wriotheslev's mauvais 
 quart d'heurc.
 
 MARVEL. 835 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 "And my eyes hold her ! What is worth 
 The rest of heaven, the rest of earth ? " 
 
 "WHY not send back the carriages, and let us all walk 
 home through the woods ? " said Savage with some anima- 
 tion, addressing Mrs. Dameron. " I should think we've 
 got all the birds we are likely to get to-day." 
 
 " Yes ; cover's used up," said Lord Verulam in his lazy 
 way. He was a man who very seldom spoke : a trick, as you 
 will notice, acquired by men who have very talkative wives. 
 
 The snow that fell last week was now almost forgotten. 
 It ceased as suddenly as it began ; sharp rains followed 
 upon it ; and they in turn gave place to a severe but whole- 
 some frost that had left the ground as hard as iron. All 
 the men of the party had been out since dawn shooting one 
 of the home covers, and at two o'clock had been joined by 
 the gentler members, who had driven to a keeper's lodge 
 armed with numerous baskets and hampers, wherewith to 
 allay the pangs of hunger of the mighty hunters. 
 
 Luncheon was over now, and indeed the day was de- 
 clining. The footmen were going about putting up the 
 plates and dishes, and the keeper's wife was carrying off 
 the fragments that remained for the delectation of her 
 numerous offspring, who were huddled out of sight in 
 some of the other rooms. The luncheon party had long 
 ago emerged into the sombre twilight that awaited them 
 outside, and were looking with evident half-heartedness at 
 their guns. 
 
 " Charming evening for a walk," said Mr. Kitts brighten- 
 ing visibly under Savage's suggestion. " Lady Lucy, head 
 our list of patrons, and our procession too, through the 
 melancholy twilight of the lonely wood." 
 
 " / can't," said she laughing. " I have got these chicks 
 to see to," pointing to a couple of her smaller fry who were 
 fighting valiantly in the background. " But if the others 
 
 wish to Cicely, what of you? How goes your vote 
 
 a drive home or a walk ? "
 
 236 MARVEL. 
 
 " A walk by all means," said Mrs. Verulam, " it is barely 
 half-past three, and it is troubling me how to kill time till 
 tea is due." 
 
 " You can have it now," said Lord Verulam. " Mrs. 
 Machell (the keeper's wife) will get it ready for you in no 
 time." 
 
 " No, thanks, no ; no senna for me," said Mrs. Verulam. 
 " But a walk in the gloaming, by all means. It is only a 
 three-mile trot from this to Verulam, I think ? " She looked 
 round for confirmation of -her words to Savage, who stood 
 near. 
 
 " Hopeless looking to me," he said, shaking his head, " I 
 don't know the ropes round here. Ask Kitts, he is a 
 perfect encyclopaedia of learning." 
 
 " Three miles and a half as the crow flies, and if you 
 follow me," he said. "About ten, if you follow your own 
 vagaries O ! and take an unguarded turn to your left or 
 right." 
 
 " I'll follow you," said Mrs. Verulam with decision. 
 
 " So will I," said Sir George ; " in your company, if I 
 may ; " this in a lower tone to Cicely. 
 
 They all paired off presently, except unfortunately, Mar- 
 vel, who had stayed to say a word or two to Lady Lucy 
 and help the children into the carriage, the youngest of 
 whom had conceived a violent fancy for her, and could 
 only be induced to enter the waiting landau through a mis- 
 taken and carefully fostered idea that she was to enter it 
 with him. When this latest of her devoted adherents was 
 safely locked up she turned to find all the others of the 
 party had already started and were quite a long way ahead, 
 and that Nigel Savage alone remained to accompany her. 
 She flushed vividly, and Savage at once came to the con- 
 clusion that she was annoyed at being thus irremediably 
 thrown upon his hands. He was wrong, however. She 
 gave him no thought, all her girlish jealous heart being 
 oppressed with the fear that Wriothesley was with Mrs. 
 Scarlett. She caught Savage's eye and smiled kindly at 
 him. 
 
 " We shall have to run," she said, pointing to the group 
 just disappearing round the corner in the distance, " if
 
 MAEVEL. 137 
 
 we mean to catch them up. If we don't we shall probably 
 lose ourselves like the babes in the wood, as neither of us 
 know much about the country here." 
 
 " We are too near home to get very much lost," said he, 
 " and as long as they give us a lead, even at so great a dis- 
 tance, we shall, at all events, be sure to come in at last, if 
 only as a bad third." 
 
 When they reached the corner, however, there was no 
 sign of the others. Two paths lay before them, one run- 
 ning a little to the left, where Verulam ought to lie, and in 
 both there was a sharp bend a good deal farther on, that 
 would hide the advance party if they had gained it. Savage 
 stood still and looked perplexed. 
 
 " Rapid people ! " he said at last, with a rather amused 
 laugh. " I think they might at least have given us a passing 
 thought." 
 
 " I wish I had not delayed so long," said Marvel, " but 
 Lady Lucy is such a chatterbox, and little Leslie so terribly 
 exigeant. After all," laughing, " there are certain drawbacks 
 about having so hopelessly devoted a lover." 
 
 Savage looked suddenly into her clear eyes. The words 
 were tinged by coquetry, and would have meant a challenge 
 from another woman, but Marvel's soft laugh and uncon- 
 scious gaze acquitted her of any arrilre pensee. 
 
 " This must be the path," she said, pointing to the left, 
 " I am sure Verulam lies over there." 
 
 " We may as well take it, at all events, until we meet a 
 rustic to set us right," said Savage, and they walked briskly 
 through the bare deserted wood, the dry and frozen leaves 
 crackling beneath their feet as they went. The short brown 
 grasses and yellowing moss that edged each side of the 
 pathway were tipped with frost and sparkled coldly in the 
 dying light. Some rooks were cawing in a half-hearted 
 fashion above their heads amongst the leafless boughs of 
 the elms ; and far away in the distance could be heard the 
 loud angry roar of a cascade as it dashed down the sides of 
 the granite rocks. 
 
 It was a cold sharp evening, but dry and crisp, and the 
 quick pace at which they moved set Marvel's blood aglow. 
 A warm flush sprang into her cheeks, her eyes gleamed ;
 
 238 MAEVEL. 
 
 she looked the very essence of youth and health and beauty 
 as she walked beside him, straight and upright as a young 
 ash sapling. "White as a white rose," with soft sweet 
 mouth and earnest eyes, and pretty ruffled hair blowing about 
 the broad pure brow. The dark rich furs she wore, and 
 dainty laces, enhanced the clear beauty of her perfect skin, 
 and the little fur cap she wore sat closely to her small head. 
 She looked indeed specially lovely on this dull wintry even- 
 ing (in spite of the faintly troubled expression that always 
 now lay in her eyes), and contrasted brilliantly with the 
 general air of greyness that pervaded everything. 
 
 Savage walked beside her silently. He was very well 
 content to be with her, though she never broke the silence, 
 content to see her, to feel her near. Yet sometimes he 
 wondered how it would all end. Was she to live her life 
 unloved, unloving ; chained to a man who did not value 
 her, who had spent his first best passion on a woman as 
 false, as worthless as any of the modern Delilahs he had 
 ever met. It seemed to him that there was cruelty in such 
 a decision. How long would she rest contented with a 
 life so empty ? Oh, that he had met her two years ago, 
 with a clear chance before him ! He felt that the very 
 strength of the love he bore her would have compelled her 
 love in return ! 
 
 Even now, seeing her so forlorn, so neglected, a passion- 
 ate longing to declare that love was always pressing upon 
 him. If she knew, would she care would she turn to him ? 
 There was a terrible temptation in the doubt that surrounded 
 the answer to this question. He believed her heart un- 
 touched. He desired beyond all other good to awaken it 
 to thoughts of him ! and yet he dared not. Passion was 
 unknown to her. What then, if she shrank from him in 
 fear and loathing ! He told himself that he could not sur- 
 vive that ; better this calm, exquisite, unsatisfying friendship, 
 than eternal banishment from all the earth held dear for 
 him. 
 
 No ; she would not understand. She was not as those 
 other women of his world, women who would, perhaps, have 
 held him at arm's length too, but would not have rated his 
 sin as a very unpardonable offence. With her, he knew it
 
 MAKVEL. 239 
 
 would mean banishment. He glanced at her pure soft 
 profile in the growing dusk, and read his fate there. 
 
 " Thou whose peerless 
 
 Eyes are tearless, 
 And thy thoughts as cold sweet lilies." 
 
 No, she would not understand. Thick and fast the shadows 
 grew, and there before them,looming in their path, rose, all on 
 a sudden as it were, a tall old tower, ivy-covered, moss-grown, 
 picturesque as a mediaeval dream. The grey mists of the 
 coming night seemed already to have caught it, and bathed 
 its ancient walls in a tremulous haze that gave it a touch of 
 weird and rather unreal beauty. 
 
 " How lovely," said Marvel. " How is it we have not 
 seen it before ? Was there ever so quaint an old tower ! 
 I wonder if we could get into it. Oh, do let us try? See, it 
 is quite close to us, it won't take us more than a yard or two 
 out of our way." 
 
 " It is growing late," said he, with stern virtue. It flashed 
 across his mind that this divergence from his duty and his 
 path would be both desirable and pleasant, considering it 
 would give him so much more of her undivided society, but 
 he suppressed the thought with a determination that did 
 him credit. 
 
 " It isn't late, really ! It is only because it is December," 
 said she, still bent on exploring the old ruin that had taken 
 her fancy. " Come, let us just look into it. We can make 
 up for the delay by a good run afterwards, that will warm 
 us." 
 
 Thus tempted, he fell. 
 
 " So we can," said he, with very suspicious alacrity, 
 taking into account his hesitation of a moment since. After 
 all it would only take them a minute or two to look into 
 
 the mouldy old place, and if it pleased her . They ran 
 
 across the grass and presently found themselves opposite a 
 worm-eaten old door, studded with huge iron nails, and with 
 a rusty key in the lock. After using considerable force this 
 key was induced to turn. The door opened with astonish- 
 ing suddenness as if loose on its hinges, and they stepped
 
 4 o MARVLL. 
 
 inside into a dark passage that smelled of mouldering 
 leaves and the dust of a century gone by. 
 
 It was very dark. No light came from any ground-floor 
 windows, for the simple reason that there were none, but a 
 faint ray or two stole down the circular staircase that led to 
 a chamber above lit by some long narrow openings in the 
 walls barely wide enough to let a man's body slip sideways 
 through them. 
 
 " Isn't it funny ! " said Marvel, who was plainly delighted 
 with it : "I wonder what is upstairs ? " She ran lightly up 
 the worn stone steps and stood at the top, looking round 
 her in the uncertain light. It was a semi- circular apart- 
 ment, with a stone floor and a huge wide fireplace facing the 
 stairs. It was a small hall rather than a room, as there was 
 no door to it, and only a broken rudely formed stone 
 parapet ran from the top of the stairs to the wall behind, 
 to prevent the unwary from falling over into the abyss 
 beneath. 
 
 " One feels as though one had just stepped into another 
 age," said Marvel, looking eagerly round her. 
 
 "A dark one," said Savage. 
 
 " What a shame to take no notice of so interesting a 
 place. A very little thought and trouble would transform 
 it into something quite unique ; an oak chair there, a table 
 here, a roaring fire, a " 
 
 "A few window panes," suggested Savage. 
 
 " Tut, you are too prosaic ! Well, in the summer, then, 
 could you fancy a cooler, a more calm retreat ? Not a fly 
 to aggravate one, not a sound to disturb " 
 
 At this moment there came a sound from below loud 
 enough to awaken the Seven Sleepers. It was a regular 
 bang that seemed to shake the tower to its foundations 
 and made both its occupants start. 
 
 " So much for your calm retreat," said Savage with a 
 rather nervous laugh. He had good reason to feel nervous.
 
 MAEVEL. 341 
 
 CHAPTER XL, 
 
 Worth how well those dark grey eyes, 
 That hair so dark and dear, how worth 
 
 That a man should strive and agonize. 
 And taste a very hell on earth 
 
 For the hope of such a prize ! " 
 
 " WHAT was that ? " exclaimed Marvel. 
 
 " Sounded like a door, didn't it ? " said he with a carefully 
 careless air. 
 
 " Why, that's what it was," cried she laughing. " How 
 stupid of me not to guess it at once. That solid old piece 
 of oak downstairs was just the sort of thing to shut to, with 
 a noise like a thunder-clap." 
 
 " I'll run down and see if I was right in my conjecture," 
 said he, suiting the action to the word. When he got 
 below he found his worst fears confirmed. The heavy old 
 door had swung back, obedient to some gust of wind, and, 
 shutting with considerable force, had shot the lock into its 
 place. The key was on the outside, and there was there- 
 fore no earthly means of getting out of this unlucky tower, 
 unless by chance some passer-by might come this way. 
 
 And what a chance was that ! Savage felt the blood 
 mount to his brow in the dark passage. He noted how 
 the dying day was already dead, and that the coming 
 darkness was even now beginning to cover all the land. 
 Good heavens ! what was to be done ? 
 
 " Well ! " cried the sweet clear voice above ; " are you 
 going to spend the rest of our short time below there ? See, 
 here is such a cupboard." 
 
 He mounted the steps very slowly. He knew he was 
 afraid to tell her, yet it had to be done. 
 
 " Such a delicious little hiding-hole," cried she, standing 
 near the tiny recess she had discovered in the wall. " Just 
 large enough to hold a few choice cups and saucers, 
 
 and Oh, by-the-by, talking of cups, I expect we 
 
 shall lose our tea if we don't make haste. Come let us 
 go." 
 
 "Well, that's just it," said he slowly, his eyes on the
 
 242 MAEVEL. 
 
 ground, his manner really wonderfully unconcerned ; " the 
 fact is we can't ! " 
 
 " What ! " 
 
 " That solid old oak door you admired so much a few 
 minutes ago has played us a rather unkind trick. It has 
 shut itself up so tight that, like Sterne's starling, we can't get 
 out." 
 
 He spoke calmly, yet with secret trepidation, not knowing 
 how she would take it. He was a good deal surprised 
 when he did know. She sat down on one of the stone 
 benches that were built into the walls and laughed. 
 
 " How absurd ! " she said. " Do you mean that we are 
 prisoners ? " 
 
 " It really amounts to that," said he gravely, a little of? 
 his guard because of his astonishment at her evident un- 
 concern. She noticed the gravity at once, and her laughter 
 forsook her. Still, for all that, one could see that she did 
 not entirely realize the exact meaning of the situation. 
 
 " Oh, it can't be true ; " she said hastily. " There must 
 be some way of inducing it to open. A sudden shake may 
 do it. Did you try ? " 
 
 "I did with all my might, but nothing came of it." 
 He. was now disheartened by her sudden change of manner. 
 How was he to allay the fears that each passing five 
 minutes was sure to bring ? " After all, it is of no real con- 
 sequence," he said ; " it is early yet, and somebody going 
 through the wood will let us out in time to scamper home 
 for tea. You are one of the few people who can run, I 
 know." 
 
 " Well, I hope your somebody will come soon," said she 
 after a very slight pause. There was so evident an effort to 
 treat the matter lightly that his heart died within him. 
 He knew that already she was afraid ! 
 
 A shrill wind was rising. Now, in its babyhood, it 
 merely sighed amongst the trees, but gave brave promise of 
 a strength in age. Savage, leaning against the wall near 
 one of the openings, looked out gloomily into the growing 
 night and tried in vain to think of something light, casual, 
 to say, that would persuade her he at least was under no 
 apprehension.
 
 MARVEL. 243 
 
 " I am glad we are in so public a part of the grounds," he 
 said at last ; " it would have been a little awkward if we had 
 been shut up in a more isolated spot." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said she so cheerfully that his spirits rose ; 
 " I was just now thinking about that. Some one is sure to 
 come now at any moment." 
 
 Yet many moments went by and no one came. No 
 sound broke upon their ear save the hoarse croaking of the 
 rooks as they quarrelled with the empty branches now 
 swaying wildly to and fro in the angry vehemence of the 
 growing storm. 
 
 " What o'clock is it now ? " asked she after a pause, that 
 to him had seemed an eternity, yet he could not have 
 broken it. He knew, if she did not, the danger of the 
 gossip that already attached his name to hers, and he loved 
 her too well and too sincerely not to dread the first edge 
 to it that this unfortunate imprisonment would give. 
 
 " I can hardly see," he said taking out his watch and 
 pretending to examine it by a light now almost gone ; " but 
 about half-past four I make it. Quite early yet, as I 
 have said." 
 
 " It is five," said she very gently. She too had a watch 
 and was looking at it, as he found to his dismay. " Oh ! 
 Nigel, do you think it will be very much longer before any 
 one comes ? " 
 
 " Why, any second may bring some one," said he brightly, 
 stretching his head out of the opening beside him as if it 
 was quite a sure thing that peasants would be walking 
 about the wood in the cold chill evening, and that he might 
 as well therefore be on the look-out to hail them. 
 
 He was glad to be able Jo thrust out his head somewhere 
 that would prevent her reading his face, even in this de- 
 clining light. A sickening certainty that no one will come 
 is rendering him so miserable, that he hardly dares to glance 
 in the direction where she sits so curiously quiet. What 
 terrible fate threw them into this fatal situation ! 
 
 He looked far and wide, but saw nothing save the endless 
 masses of trees. After awhile he drew himself in, and sank 
 upon the stone bench near him. He waited breathlessly 
 for her to ask him if he had seen anything, but when the 
 
 1 6 2
 
 244 MAKVEL. 
 
 minutes passed and she still kept silence he was unspeak 
 ably thankful. 
 
 The storm had come at last, and now a great wind rose 
 and shook the pines. Like thunder it rolled amongst the 
 hills, and swept with an eager fury round the old tower 
 wherein they sat, speechless, expectant. Faint flashes of 
 light glanced through the darkling woods and stone bay 
 now and then with a lurid brilliance upon the projecting 
 masonry of one of the walls. All nature seemed alive ; the 
 sea itself was stirred. Moans heavy and sorrow-laden came 
 from it and rushed inland, as it darted itself with each 
 wild, incoming wave against the adamantine breasts of the 
 eternal rocks. 
 
 Minute followed upon minute, until all the weary mass 
 of them grew into an hour. Twice Marvel had spoken to 
 him with a would-be hopeful tone, but with a cruel trembling 
 of the beloved voice that drove him almost mad. The 
 awful thought that no one would ever come or come too 
 late began to render him wretched. What if they should be 
 left here alone, until the morning dawned ! 
 
 He sprang to his feet and began to walk feverishly up 
 and down. 
 
 The open agitation he thus betrayed communicated itself 
 to her. She roused herself from the lethargy into which 
 she had apparently fallen, and in her turn rose to her feet. 
 
 " Nigel," she said in a piercing voice, " where are you, I 
 can't see you." She held out her hands to him. " Oh ! 
 Nigel, what is to be done ? Dear, dear Nigel, think of some- 
 thing ! " 
 
 He went to her and caught her hands. 
 
 " Above all things don't give way," he said. " After all 
 what is it but an accident ; a mere fiasco, that a word or two 
 will set right. You are trembling, sit down again and let 
 us think what is best to be done." 
 
 He had no knowledge whatever of how to improve their 
 sorry plight, but he would have said anything just then to 
 soothe and comfort her, as he felt the desperate clinging of 
 her slender fingers. What would be -the end of it if no one 
 came? 
 
 An answer came to that thought, swift, stinging as sharply
 
 MAEVEL. 245 
 
 with pleasure as with pain. It almost overpowered him, 
 holding him enthralled by the seductive power of it. Thus 
 he might gain her ! She would be his, cast into his arms 
 by a disbelieving world, though she stood innocent in word 
 and deed before its tribunal. He trembled as the idea 
 grew upon him, and then, in a second as it were, he 
 shrunk and cowered away from it. With her fair name 
 sullied ; her fair fame soiled ! Would he win her so ? He 
 knew her too well, had gauged her lovely soul too closely, 
 not to be sure that honour lost there would follow a broken 
 heart. Oh ! not at that price. No ! 
 
 He had not been a good man perhaps ; there had been 
 passages in his life that would not bear looking into, and 
 upon which he hated to look ever since his eyes first fell on 
 Marvel. But there were germs of goodness in him that 
 that first sight of her, too, had brought to light, and he cast 
 behind him now, in this his hour of temptation, the evil 
 spirit that would have led him to his destruction. 
 
 She sat down as he had told her to do, shrinking back 
 out of the ken of his eyes, so that he might not see her, and 
 began to cry, silently but in a deplorable manner. No 
 matter how silently you cry you are sure to be found out 
 in time. Savage woke to the fact that she was in tears in 
 about a minute and a half and despair took possession of 
 him. 
 
 " Don't do that ! " he said roughly, but with such a passion 
 of regret in his voice that the roughness went for nothing. 
 " There isn't a single thing to be gained by it, and ; 
 Marvel don't cry ! I," angrily, " I can't stand it. Come, be 
 sensible and listen to what I am going to say." 
 
 She roused herself somewhat, and leant towards him 
 with an eager expectancy that touched him. 
 
 " If they find you here alone," he went on, " nothing can 
 be said." He paused and as she still remained silent, lie 
 believed she did not understand. " By they, I mean the 
 women Mrs. Scarlett and Co.," he explained. "Now 
 supposing are you listening ? suppose I were to drop from 
 that opening there," pointing to the slit in the thick wall 
 nearest to her, " I might reach the ground beneath without 
 much injury to life or limb; so little injury indeed that 1
 
 246 MAEVEL. 
 
 might even be able to get round to the door and open it 
 and set you free ; and at all events, even if I failed in that 
 last hope, no one could say a word to you if I were out of 
 the way." 
 
 " If you were killed, you mean ! I may be a coward,'* 
 said she quietly, " but I am not so altogether craven that I 
 would purchase my immunity from scandal with your life." 
 
 He could not see her dear face because of the blackness 
 of the night that now had fallen upon them in its might, 
 but he could guess at the generous scorn that marked it. 
 
 " You ! my best, my truest friend," she said. Again she 
 held out to him her hands, and he caught and clasped them 
 close ; love lent him sight. " Do you think I shall ever 
 forget what you and Cicely have been to me against the 
 world, as it were ! But oh, Nigel ! what is to be done 
 about this ; and you know how she, Mrs. Scarlett, will talk, 
 
 and " Once more she broke down. " Oh, can you do 
 
 nothing, nothing!" she cried feverishly. " Think, think! 
 Am I to go mad with fear, sitting here through all these 
 terrible hours ; and what will the morning bring ? " She 
 dragged her hands out of his and began to pace wildly up 
 and down, as it overcome by this last awful thought. 
 " Nothing but ruin," she said at last, in a tone that meant 
 only despair. 
 
 Despair, too, was his. He drew back a little out of her 
 way, and as he did so his eyes fell upon his gun. He ran 
 to it, quickly loaded it and fired off, with only a short time 
 between each detonation, the two cartridges that remained 
 to him, through one of the openings. It was a last resource, 
 and he wished to heaven he had thought of it before. 
 Better late, however, than never, so he tried to think ; but as 
 time went on and no answering shout came from the woods 
 he began to believe they were indeed forsaken by all things, 
 human and divine. 
 
 The storm still raged, but with a milder fury, and 
 through a rent in the clouds a dull, pale watery moon 
 showed with a gloomy brilliance. There was still a sobbing 
 amongst the leafless trees, as though it rained, and though 
 the lightning indeed was dead, the whole earth seemed to 
 groan as if beneath a heavy load.
 
 MARVEL. 247 
 
 Marvel's thoughts had flown to her husband ; careless and 
 indifferent as he was, devoted as she believed him to be 
 to another woman, she had still, in the earlier moments of 
 her incarceration, firmly believed in his ability, no less than 
 his willingness, to come to her rescue. But now she 
 believed in nothing. All hope had gone from her, and she 
 waited in a deadly silence for the passage of a time that 
 should only end with her awaking to a knowledge that a 
 reputation unsullied was no longer hers. Innocent those 
 who knew her best would undoubtedly deem her; but 
 those others ! And to be talked about ; to be glanced at 
 with the smile, half amused, half severe, that she had seen 
 so often directed at others ! No, she could not outlive 
 that. 
 
 It was all past bearing indeed ; but the bitterest thing 
 was, that he, Fulke, had not so far troubled himself as to 
 come to her succour. Perhaps he hoped for a deliverance 
 that might arise out of this luckless night. She grew cold ; she 
 shivered as she let this evil idea take possession of her. How 
 earnestly she had prayed at one time to have her miserable 
 marriage set aside, and yet now, when the chance came, 
 how she shrank from it, how she cowered against the ice- 
 cold wall there in the darkness, and pressed her hands 
 against her frozen face, and entreated with a fervour she 
 had never yet known that she might be saved from this 
 horrible fate that seemed to hang over her. 
 
 She pictured them all to herself sitting in the cosy fire-lit 
 room drinking their tea, and wondering with prettily up- 
 lifted brows where she and Nigel Savage had gone ! She 
 could hear Mrs. Scarlett's low satirical little speech, could 
 see Cicely's angry flush and glance of embarrassment, 
 Cicely, who had always hinted that Nigel loved her with a 
 passion undue and undesirable. She could see, too, how 
 Fulke sat beside Mrs. Scarlett in the delicate flickering 
 flames of the fire, and whispered to her, and glanced into 
 her eyes, and so glancing forgot that she his wife I was 
 here imprisoned, desperate, beyond all hope. 
 
 A hand touched hers in the darkness ; two lips were 
 pressed to it. She felt by the intensity of the pressure 
 that it was a farewell, but she seemed hardly to care
 
 248 MAEVEL. 
 
 enough for anything to demand an explanation. Through 
 the opening in the wall near her a ray of sullen moonlight 
 entered, that enabled her to see Nigel walk across the room 
 to the window at the other side. It was plain that he had 
 at last decided on dropping from the window. She knew 
 that a lingering death would be the result of this, and rising 
 quickly from her seat she went to him. 
 
 " You will kill yourself and it will be of no use," she said. 
 
 " I see no reason why I should be killed," said he lying. 
 " I may break an arm, a leg, but even if so " 
 
 " It will do no good, I tell you," said she in the same low, 
 calm, hopeless tone. " They would not believe. No. Risk 
 nothing in so forlorn a cause. I was born to misfortune ; I 
 must fulfil my destiny." 
 
 " Such talk is only morbid folly," said he sharply. " You 
 should not encourage it. Unhappy as you may be now, there 
 is always hope in the future." 
 
 " In the immediate future ? I think not," said she with 
 a calmness that betrayed the depth of her misery. " I have 
 a presentiment that no one will come to release us that 
 no one cares to come." Her voice quivered. " That is it," 
 she repeated mournfully. " No one cares." 
 
 Almost as the last word left her lips a shout reached them 
 a shout that rang through the stormy wind without. As they 
 stood trembling, uncertain, it came again, clear and full of 
 vehement anxiety. It sounded nearer this time, and nearer 
 still the next and the next, as it rose incessantly. Savage 
 answered it with all his might, whilst Marvel stood rigid, 
 frightened, yet full of a wild hope. 
 
 Suddenly it ceased, that glad sound from without, and 
 both their hearts sank once more. Were they, when help 
 seemed so near, to be again plunged in an ocean of despair. 
 
 " Oh ! what can have happened ! " cried Marvel in terrible 
 distress. Her answer to this was a loud knocking on the 
 door beneath, and the sound of a voice that thrilled through 
 every nerve. 
 
 " It is Fulke," said she in a whisper that reached no one. 
 She felt as though she were going to faint, and sank down 
 upon the stone seat near her.
 
 MARVE.U 249 
 
 CHAPTER XLI 
 
 " Silent we went an hour together, 
 
 Under grey skies by waters white, 
 Our hearts were full of windy weather, 
 Clouds and blown stars and broken light" 
 
 SAVAGE, however, thought of nothing. His one prevailing 
 feeling was that of unutterable relief. He ran down the 
 stone steps, and hammered his hand in turn against the 
 door. 
 
 " Is that you, Wriothesley ? " he cried. " Thank Heaven 
 you have come. Feel for the key; it is at your side, and 
 let us out." 
 
 He spoke with such heartfelt joy that Wriothesley could 
 not but believe he was sincere. He hardly dared to dwell 
 upon the doubts that had haunted him as he ran through 
 the woods, but that they had been of the darkest hue he 
 knew now because of the intensity of the reaction he was 
 enduring. He turned the key in the door as desired, and 
 stood silent upon the threshold. 
 
 " Lady Wriothesley, it is your husband ; come down," 
 cried Savage, in a quick eager tone that trembled with 
 excitement. It had not occurred to him to explain any- 
 thing to Wriothesley ; he thought only of the comfort her 
 release would be to her. She came down almost imme- 
 diately, and as she emerged into the windy night, and the 
 few straggling moonbeams betrayed her to him, Wriothes- 
 ley caught her hand and drew it within his arm. 
 
 " I am afraid I must ask you to hurry," he said with icy 
 politeness. " You have spent so much time over that old 
 ruin that I fear we shall be late for dinner." 
 
 " For dinner ! Is it not over ? " asked Marvel quaking. 
 " It seemed I mean What time is it, then ? " 
 
 " Seven. We have a mile to walk, and half-an-hour to do 
 it in, the other half I leave for dressing," said he grimly ; 
 " so you see you will have to step out." 
 
 They did step out in a silence that weighed upon Marvel 
 like lead. Once in its commencement she broke it
 
 250 MAEVEL. 
 
 " Seven ! I thought it was midnight ! " she said with a 
 little bursting sigh. All her tears seemed gone from her 
 now, when she would have given a good deal for the relief 
 of them in the cold and dark of the night when no man 
 could see her ; but though her heart seemed bursting, she 
 found no means to ease it. 
 
 Wriothesley took no notice of her words. He trudged on 
 in an impenetrable dumbness that frightened her more than 
 all the cutting speeches in the world could have done. The 
 wind still roared around them ; the cold was intense ; the 
 way through the rough unused pathways almost unbear- 
 able, but he took no notice of anything, save that when 
 once she stumbled he clutched her arm more tightly. He 
 asked no questions whatsoever, and appeared quite dead to 
 the fact that Savage walked beside them. 
 
 At last the latter could stand it no longer. 
 
 " I think it is as well," said he as indifferently as he could, 
 " that you should know how this unhappy delay occurred." 
 
 Wriothesley made no reply; he walked on in fact as 
 though he neither heard nor saw the speaker. 
 
 " I have no doubt you are annoyed," said Savage quietly, 
 keeping his temper (which was by no means a good one) 
 by a superhuman effort, " but for Lady Wriothesley's sake 
 it is just as well that you should know what happened. 
 We went to look at that tower, found the door open and 
 went in, very naturally, to see what was there. Whilst up- 
 stairs the door, driven by a gust of wind, clapped to, the 
 bolt shot into its place, and left us prisoners, Had you not 
 come we should have been prisoners still." 
 
 Not a word from Wriothesley. 
 
 " You understand ? " from Savage, who began to feel that 
 he would like to murder him. 
 
 " Entirely," said Wriothesley slowly. 
 
 " I regret very much that I have been the cause of con- 
 siderable anxiety to Lady Wriothesley. It was quite my 
 fault that we entered the tower at all. I hope," stiffly, 
 " that you will believe how very much I reproach myself in 
 this matter." 
 
 "I understand that too, and also that your feelings on 
 the subject are not of the slightest consequence."
 
 MARVEL. 251 
 
 " It was not Mr. Savage's fault so much as he says," put 
 in Marvel hurriedly in a frightened, nervous tone. "I was 
 the first to express a wish to see that old ruin, and though he 
 dissuaded me and said how late it was, I persisted, and * 
 
 " Nevertheless it was my fault," persisted Savage, defend 
 ing her from herself rather unwisely ; " I knew better than 
 you did the time it would take to reach home, and I should 
 have prevented any deviation from our path." 
 
 "Are you apologizing for Lady Wriothesley ? " asked 
 Fulke suddenly, in a slow condensed tone that made 
 Marvel's blood run cold. Even Savage seemed impressed 
 by it to an uncomfortable degree. 
 
 "Certainly not," he said, however, with considerable 
 spirit. " Apology would be out of place for either her or 
 me. An accident is an accident, no more, no less. I was 
 only afraid you would not be able to grasp the real meaning 
 of a very awkward situation without a word from me. Lady 
 Wriothesley too was afraid her absence might cause remark, 
 and and of course I think it well you should know exactly 
 how it was that she and I were " 
 
 " Sir ! " interrupted Wriothesley with indescribable hau- 
 teur ; " pray spare yourself further explanation. The door 
 shut to without asking Lady Wriothesley's permission and 
 so kept her prisoner sorely against her will, as I am quite 
 assured. It is quite unnecessary that you should enter into 
 details of any sort. The story begins and ends there. I 
 am perfectly aware, without your seeking to impress it upon 
 me, that Lady Wriothesley of her own accord would never 
 cause her friends anxiety." 
 
 Nothing more was said after this. Wriothesley quickened 
 his pace, and Marvel's hand being drawn through his arm 
 she was compelled to hasten hers also. She walked quickly, 
 sometimes almost running, and stumbling over roots of trees 
 that came in her way ; sometimes after a little shock of this 
 kind gasping for breath, but Wriothesley never seemed to 
 mind. He strode on in a violent determined fashion, and 
 only once made her a speech that was hardly conciliatory 
 upon the haste he used. 
 
 " I am sorry to make you walk at such a rate," he said ; 
 "but you see when you squander time you must regain it
 
 25* MARVEL. 
 
 one way or another. This is rather a hard way, but it can- 
 not be helped." 
 
 At last the lights of Verulam came to her through the 
 trees, and frightened though she was at all that would 
 inevitably await her within doors, she hailed their appear- 
 ance with delight. She was tired out, cold, almost frozen, 
 nd besides once there she could get away from this terrible 
 arm that held her tightly bound to the man she feared and, 
 alas ! loved more than any other creature upon earth. How 
 cruel he was to her, yet too, how kind ! He had come to 
 her rescue after all, and though it was as she believed only 
 a sense of duty sent him forth, still duty is a noble thing, 
 and those who regard it should be held in honourable 
 account. 
 
 They all three reached the steps and entered the hall, the 
 door lying wide open, without encountering any one. Savage 
 turned aside in the direction of the library, where he knew 
 all would be assembled at this hour, and Marvel made direct 
 for the staircase, hoping to escape to her room without a 
 further lecture. Wriothesley forestalled her. 
 
 " I should like to speak to you for a moment," he said, 
 "if you will come in here." He did not leave it to her, 
 however, to reject or accept his proposal, because he caught 
 her hand as she hesitated and drew her into the empty 
 morning-room. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 " I would that you were all to me, 
 
 You that are just so much, no more, 
 Nor yours, nor mine nor slave, nor free 1 
 Where does the fault lie ? what the core 
 Of the wound, since wound must be ? " 
 
 MARVEL, with a little chill at her heart and feeling utterly 
 unstrung, followed him. When he had brought her into the 
 room he let her hand go, and closing the door looked hard 
 at her. 
 
 " How long is this to go on ? " he said in a cold uncom- 
 promising tone.
 
 MARVEL. 353 
 
 "This? What?" asked she rather confounded. She 
 expected a regular scolding for her misdemeanour of the 
 afternoon, and this question coming so suddenly puzzled her. 
 
 " Your friendship with Mr. Savage." 
 
 " Don't be angry with Nigel," she said earnestly but 
 timidly. " It was not his fault at all. Oh ! yes," putting up 
 her hand as she saw him about to speak with a terrible 
 accession of wrath upon his brow, " I know he said it was, 
 but, indeed, I assure you it was I alone who wanted to see 
 that old tower. He tried even to keep me from going there, 
 but it looked so quaint, so lovely in the twilight, that I 
 could not resist it, and then the door closed, as you know, 
 and then," growing agitated, " I thought we should be left 
 there for ever, and and the time went on until I thought 
 
 all hope was over, and then you came and That was 
 
 all, indeed. It wasn't that I forgot the time ; it was only 
 that I couldn't get home, and I knew you would be angry ; 
 but if you had been there yourself you would have been in 
 just the same plight, and and " 
 
 She stopped dead short, as if choking. She was almost 
 sobbing. She was frightened, terrified in fact, and her 
 breath came quickly through her parted lips. She had 
 clasped her little slender hands upon her bosom as though 
 to still its beatings, and was so altogether and openly afraid 
 of him that Wriothesley was cut to the heart. 
 
 " You need not look at me like that," he said. " 1 
 believe every word you say. There is no need for you to 
 so excuse yourself. The whole thing was unfortunate no 
 more." He paused for a moment and then : " I regret 
 very much," he said, " that my presence causes you to feel 
 such extreme nervousness." 
 
 He spoke so gently, if coldly, that Marvel, whose nerves 
 were strung to the last pitch by all she had undergone 
 during the afternoon, broke down and burst into tears. 
 
 " It is very good of you," she said, sobbing rather wildly. 
 u I am frightened because I thought you would be angry 
 about it, and at one time there seemed no chance of ever 
 getting out of that horrid place, and it was not my fault at 
 all. It was nobody's fault. It was only Nigel and I wanted 
 to "
 
 254 MARVEL. 
 
 "I know" interrupted he, with a sudden stamp of his 
 foot that was involuntary and full of ill- suppressed passion. 
 " Do not talk any more about it. And, if I were you, I 
 shouldn't cry about it either. There is dinner before you, 
 remember, and all those women will be watching you." 
 
 " Oh ! I can't come down to dinner," cried she miserably, 
 " to be stared at, wondered at. I will not ! It would be 
 quite different if you and I were as other married people 
 good friends and that but they all know how it is with 
 us. And they will be talking of it ; they have been talking, 
 haven't they ? " turning round to him with wide unhappy 
 eyes. 
 
 "Whether they have or not is of little consequence. 
 You must certainly come down to dinner," said he with 
 cold authority in his tone. " You have placed yourself in 
 a false position, and all that is left to you now is to face and 
 overcome it." 
 
 " If Cicely She might perhaps make an excuse for 
 
 me," faltered she. 
 
 " Why should any excuse be made ? Are you not well 
 strong ? " coldly. " No, it is quite out of the question." 
 
 " I am tired, unnerved ; surely " 
 
 "For one who professes strongly to dread public discus- 
 sion, I must say you have an odd way of showing it. If 
 you absent yourself from dinner to-night there will be 
 more of that ' talk ' you seem to fear so greatly than any 
 that has gone before. I should advise you at all incon- 
 venience to show yourself to-night. In this one matter at 
 least," said he bitterly, " permit me to judge for you." 
 
 She sighed submissively, and moved towards the door. 
 She owed him obedience in this, she thought, if only on 
 account of the way in which he had condoned her offence, 
 that, however really innocent, had nevertheless caused him 
 a good deal of annoyance. When she got to the door, 
 however, she paused and looked back at him. 
 
 " Do you think," she asked shyly, " that they will speak 
 of it ? Will ask me to explain, I mean ? " 
 
 " I have no doubt," calmly, " that your friend Mr. 
 Savage having got you into this scrape will now do his best 
 to get you out of it again. Probably he is doing the ' ex-
 
 MARVEL. ass 
 
 plaining ' at this moment. You had better leave it all to 
 him." 
 
 " But if anything should be said ; and she " stammer- 
 ing " Mrs. Scarlett she " 
 
 "No one shall make you unhappy about it, if that is 
 what you mean," said he shortly. He frowned, yet in 
 spite of the anger he was feeling a great pity for her arose 
 in his heart. She looked so pale, so childish, standing there 
 with that forlorn frightened look on her lovely face. He 
 remembered how she had seemed to him on that night at 
 Lady Elaine's ball, a tall, slender, haughty creature, who 
 moved and looked as though the world was at her feet, 
 that night when he had not known her. But now it was all 
 different, she stood there nervous, helpless. She seemed 
 to have grown very young again through her fear, almost 
 like the Marvel of long ago ! How long ago it seemed 
 now ! 
 
 She was still trifling uncertainly with the handle of the 
 door, as if eager to be gone, yet more eager still to say 
 something before going, that required a little courage in the 
 utterance. 
 
 " Would you very much mind," she said at last, " being 
 near, close to the drawing-room door, when I come down ? 
 I could pretend to say something to you when I entered 
 it would take away some of the awkwardness." 
 
 " Not in the least. And I don't see why you need pre- 
 tend either. You can " with a faint sneer " make up a 
 nice little speech for the occasion, something conjugal, 
 loving, to deliver as your eyes meet mine." 
 
 " Well, so I could," said she, sighing disconsolately. The 
 sneer had passed her by. 
 
 "Though I think you have hit on rather a bad plan. 
 My presence is so plainly distasteful to you, and has so 
 much the unfortunate effect of increasing your natural 
 nervousness, that I would suggest your stationing somebody 
 else beside the door, Savage for example. You are evidently 
 quite at home with him." 
 
 " Does that mean that you will not help me ? " asked she, 
 turning very pale. 
 
 " On the contrary, that I wish to help you."
 
 256 MARVEL* 
 
 " Do you know that you are very cruel, very unjust," said 
 she with quivering lips. " And," in a low tone, " what I 
 did not believe you ungenerous." 
 
 " Ungenerous ? " repeated he, as if stung. 
 
 " Yes, I am a little perplexed just now a little at your 
 mercy, and you make me feel it." 
 
 " Look here," said he impulsively, making a step towards 
 her, until he saw that she shrank backwards, when he 
 stopped ; " don't you think you have had enough of this 
 sort of thing ? You can't go on playing with fire for ever 
 without being scorched. To-night has awakened you to 
 that fact. Will you give it up and come away with me to 
 the North, to Ringwood, anywhere ? I shan't be much in 
 your way I'll promise to keep out of it as far as I can. I 
 would indeed do a good deal to put an end to this state of 
 affairs." 
 
 " To go to that lonely place alone with you. Oh no ! 
 Do not ask it," entreated she, in a low but vehement tone. 
 " Knowing all I do, it would be insupportable to me. You 
 too, you would not be able to endure it. If if there was 
 love it would be different. But do not insist upon this, 
 Fulke, I implore you. If you do," with a miserable glance 
 at him, "I shall break my heart." 
 
 " Well, don't do it just now at all events," said he roughly, 
 and with a touch of open scorn. " There isn't any time for 
 an exhibition of that sort. If you mean to change your 
 gown for dinner, I'd advise you to do it at once." He 
 turned upon his heels and left her. 
 
 Marvel ran up the stairs quickly, fearful of being stopped 
 and questioned. She had never in all her young life felt 
 so utterly alone as at this moment. She longed, yet feared, 
 to see Cicety, knowing she would scold her, and indeed 
 there was no one upon whom she could depend to sym- 
 pathize with her and condole without the hateful preliminary 
 lecture. 
 
 Oh, if he had but loved her ! If she could omy have 
 thrown herself fearlessly upon his breast and told him all, 
 with tears and caresses ! Tears ? 'Why there would have 
 been no tears had that been so, only a laughing explanation 
 of a ridiculous dilemma. So strongly do circumstances
 
 MARVEL. 237 
 
 colour cases, that what would have been a matter for Jesting 
 with one, was now for her a subject bordering upon the 
 infringement of the decencies of society. 
 
 She sat in her room, cold and disconsolate, shrinking 
 from the thought that presently she should have to summon 
 her maid, although now barely a quarter-of-an-hour remained 
 for her in which to change her gown. Again and again 
 there returned to her that longing to fling herself into his 
 embrace, to feel his dear arms round her, to be sure of 
 a welcome there. If she was sure of that she would care 
 for nothing. No one would have the power to frighten 
 her. But this sad feeling of utter loneliness I His last 
 scornful words, his last look remained with her, and chilled 
 her to her very soul. And with it was the miserable know- 
 ledge that she had to go downstairs presently and face 
 them all. Cicely would greet her with a vivid reproach in 
 her dark eyes. Lady Lucy would probably show her dis- 
 pleasure by a marked coldness. And there would be no 
 one to help her. By Fulke's last words she felt certain he 
 would not be at the door to help her to get over the almost 
 childish nervousness she was sure to betray. 
 
 She rose with a little start and rang her bell, and Burton 
 came hurrying in. Burton was a comfort, certainly. She 
 loved her honestly, neither for wage nor for favour, but be 
 cause she had served her ever since she was a little girl and 
 openly believed her to be the sweetest thing on earth. How- 
 ever it was, she was the apple of Burton's eye, who was 
 herself an unspoilable old maid and very apt to regard with 
 that greenish orb all other people with a stern disfavout 
 
 "Law, my lady, you'll be late," she said now, bustling 
 about amongst Marvel's many gowns. " Ten minutes ! and 
 not even your walking gown off. Which dress shall I lay 
 out, my lady ? " 
 
 " The prettiest, Burton, the most becoming," said Marvel, 
 with sudden energy, beginning to pull off the damp gown 
 she still wore. It occurred to her that when going to exe- 
 cution it is a point of etiquette to don one's Sunday clothes ; 
 and besides, thought the poor child, feverishly, as he is 
 angry it may make him a little less angry if I look my best. 
 So a white gown was chosen and a few priceless pearls were 
 
 17
 
 258 MARVEL. 
 
 twisted in her hair and round her soft firm lovely throat, 
 and with a brilliant gleam, born of excitement, in her large 
 eyes, and a face as pale as a snowdrop, she went downstairs 
 to encounter the sneers and smothered smiles that she felt 
 were awaiting her. Oh ! if she could only manage to keep 
 out of Mrs. Scarlett's way for after all it was of her she 
 was really afraid. 
 
 She was wrong, however, in her belief that Wriothesley 
 would not come to her assistance. He stood exactly inside 
 the door as she entered it, and as she glanced at him and 
 paused in her surprise and agitation, he went up to her and 
 pushed aside a chair that stood a little in her way. 
 
 "After all, you forgot to make up that speech," he said, 
 with a half-amused smile. She smiled back at him with the 
 tears in her eyes. She was at that moment passionately 
 grateful to him. But there was not any time to say anything, 
 because just then Lady Lucy laid her hand upon her arm, 
 and Marvel, looking up apprehensively, saw that she was 
 smiling. 
 
 " You're a happy young woman," she said, with her usual 
 carelessness of effect, but with a friendly glance. " Half the 
 world spend a lifetime in trying to get themselves talked 
 about, and you accomplish it in a few hours. Well a nice 
 fright you gave me. I was about to have the duck pond 
 dragged for your liveless corse when Fulke brought you 
 home. How pale you look, child ; I hope you have not 
 caught cold. Nigel has been giving us a thrilling account 
 of your incarceration, and I'm sure you must both have been 
 frozen in that wretched old tower. Henry " (Lord Verulam) 
 " is so annoyed about it. He is going to have that treacher- 
 ous lock taken off to-morrow." 
 
 At this Marvel plucked up courage and began to find out 
 that she had been exaggerating her own offence, and that no 
 one regarded it half so seriously as she did. Even Cicely, 
 who always disapproved of her friendship for Nigel, only 
 told her she was " incorrigible," with a little loving laugh, 
 when she found herself near. 
 
 " Are you sure you felt no chill ? What a miserable plight 
 to be in," she said. 
 
 There had been a good deal of talk about it over the tea
 
 MAKVEL. 259 
 
 cups a while ago, and later when the truth was discovered. 
 Savage, who had sauntered in amongst them with an uncon- 
 cerned air, had told his tale in an unvarnished fashion, and 
 many had been the comments thereon. Mrs. Dameron had 
 been flippantly slanderous about it, Mr. Kitts a trifle 
 amusing, though in a good-natured way. To Dameron it 
 had been merely a situation that might be worked up into a 
 chapter in the novel that was soon to electrify the world. 
 Mrs. Scarlett had been eloquently silent, and Mrs. Geraint 
 had grown suddenly intense, and had wondered in an 
 emotional manner how the stars had looked as seen through 
 those aesthetic openings in those grand old medireval walls, 
 whilst the storm rode high and the heavens were afire with 
 electric light ! 
 
 Dinner passed over without the slightest allusion to the 
 event of the afternoon, and afterwards there was a good 
 deal of music and some chess and baccarat, and Marvel, 
 who had recovered herself and was feeling happier than usual 
 in spite of all that had happened, began to think she had heard 
 the last of what had been to her so sore an experience. 
 
 She had been talking to Mr. Kitts, and had just turned 
 aside from him, meaning to cross the room to where Cicely 
 stood with Sir George as usual leaning over her chair, when a 
 soft languid voice smote on her ears. 
 
 " So glad you have not suffered in any way through your 
 little adventure of this evening," said Mrs. Scarlett, smiling 
 at her with the slow insolent smile that Marvel so well knew, 
 and so much dreaded. There was meaning in the smooth 
 tones. " We missed you," she went on, and then paused, 
 " for hours, I think. Were you locked up in that romantir 
 old place with Mr. Savage for hours ? " 
 
 " It seemed an eternity," replied Marvel, as calmly as she 
 could, though her heart began to beat with unpleasant force. 
 Why did this woman hate her so ? Some instinct taught 
 her that the answer to that question lay hidden deeper down 
 than could be found in that popular one of jealousy. 
 
 "So long? and in such congenial society?" with the 
 same cruel flickering smile. Marvel looked round for escape, 
 but could see none ; and she had sufficient pride to decline 
 to run from her foe. She turned her large earnest eye* 
 
 172
 
 26o MAEVEL. 
 
 upon her with a glance full of melancholy entreaty, but she 
 said nothing. There was always something about this 
 woman, who never spared her taunt or gibe, that attracted 
 and fascinated her as much as it repulsed her. " It was 
 your husband who unearthed you, was it not ? Well, and 
 how did he take it ? Did he care ? " 
 
 " Was there any reason why he should ?" with a suspicion 
 of hauteur. " He regretted the inconvenience to which I 
 had been put, but further than that Lord Wriothesley did 
 not, as you call it, ' care.' " 
 
 " No ? How amiable of him ! " She leant back a little 
 and looked straight at Marvel over the top of her huge 
 feather fan. " That," she said deliberately, " is the comfort 
 of having a husband who is entirely indifferent." 
 
 Lady Wriothesley grew pale to her very lips, and her clear 
 eyes shone. 
 
 "There are moments when you forget yourself," she said, 
 very gently, but with unspeakable dignity. Mrs. Scarlett 
 stared at her coolly for full a minute, and then smiled in her 
 swift languid way. 
 
 " Never ! There you wrong me," she said, with perfect 
 unconcern ; "I never forget anything myself least of all. 
 Don't get incorrect notions about me into your head. And 
 please don't stand there, dear Lady Wriothesley, looking as 
 though you were quite eager for a pretext to leave me. 
 Spare me a minute or two to amuse me with your little 
 fiasco of this afternoon." 
 
 Marvel rejected her offer of a seat on the lounge beside 
 her by a gracefully disdainful gesture of the hand, and was 
 thinking eagerly of some last word to say before leaving, 
 when Wriothesley came quickly up to where she stood and 
 laid his hand carelessly, but with all the appearance of good 
 fellowship, upon her shoulder. 
 
 " You have been waiting for me, perhaps," he said, look- 
 ing earnestly into her eyes, " but I assure you I could not 
 come sooner." She understood him, and flashed back at him 
 an answering glance full of warmest gratitude. She did not 
 shrink from him, there was no access of nervousness in her 
 manner because of his presence at this moment, at all 
 events, as he noticed with a little throb of relief.
 
 MARVEL. 261 
 
 " And what have you two been talking about ? " he went 
 on pleasantly, glancing keenly from Mrs. Scarlett's impene- 
 trable face, which yet was alight with mocking fire, to 
 Marvel's, which was extremely pale. That one glance 
 enabled him to take in the situation. 
 
 " I was just entreating Lady Wriothesley to sit by me for 
 a little, and give me an account of her adventure," said 
 Mrs. Scarlett suavely. 
 
 " What ! a second edition ! Surely you must be hard up 
 for conversation," said he laughing. "Why just before 
 dinner I saw you listening attentively to Savage's description 
 of it, which really was well worth the hearing. He should 
 be congratulated on his style so terse, so graphic. I 
 assure you anything Lady Wriothesley could say would be 
 tame in comparison. You will forgive me that detestable 
 speech ? " with a courteous smile at his wife. 
 
 " Anything ! " replied Marvel gratefully ; and with a 
 slight salutation to Mrs. Scarlett, she crossed the room to 
 where Cicely sat. 
 
 Lord Wriothesley found a chair and seated himself beside 
 Mrs. Scarlett, with all the bearing of one who meant to stay 
 where he was for quite an indefinite period. Mrs. Scarlett 
 drew her skirts a little to one side to admit of his coming 
 closer, and leant towards him with her most fascinating 
 smile. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 a Let this be said between us here, 
 
 One love grows green when one turns grey ; 
 This year knows nothing of last year ; 
 To-morrow has no more to say 
 To yesterday." 
 
 "AFTER all, Nigel Savage is not so clever as I believed 
 him," she said, with & faint updrawing of her pencilled 
 brows and a little shrug. " That sudden devotion to Mrs. 
 Dameron, that open avoidance of the other, is very 
 poor indeed." 
 
 " Is it ? I haven't studied it," said Wriothesley with a
 
 262 MARVEL. 
 
 rather amused smile. " Savage, however, appears to me tu 
 be rather poor all through. At the same time I wouldn't 
 if I were you try to make a romance out of a ludicrous 
 incident. There doesn't seem to me to be the material for 
 it." 
 
 " No ? It is charming to see you so free from that 
 vulgar vice called jealousy," said she, with a lingering glance 
 at him ; " though one does hear that there can be no true 
 love without it. You are changed, my friend ; there was a 
 time when you would not have looked with such lenient 
 eyes upon a rival." 
 
 " What a dark saying ! Must I unravel it ? " said 
 VVriothesley gaily. " I am not good at guessing, and I 
 confess that bit about the rival throws me out altogether. 
 Where does he come in ? For the rest, were you alluding 
 to those old days when I was so desperately in love with 
 you ? Jolly old days they were, weren't they ? " 
 
 She was quite equal to the task of hiding from him the 
 bitter chagrin she was feeling, but he intercepted and caught 
 the one swift dart of vindictive anger that flashed from her 
 eyes to his, and that she was unable to control. 
 
 "By-the-by," he went on presently, "I have often 
 wondered why you never married." 
 
 " It is kind of you to have wasted so many thoughts on 
 me. / have wondered at that too, perhaps," with a rather 
 bitter little laugh. " I was so very nearly a duchess that I 
 did not care to accept a lesser part to ' decline on a range 
 of lower feelings.' " 
 
 " I daresay there is a good deal in that," said he care- 
 lessly; "and after all, too, marriage is not always the 
 happiest of estates." 
 
 " True," said she grimly ; and then : " You speak from 
 experience ? " 
 
 "Well, no," with a rather amused air. "I am so very 
 little married you see that my experience would go for 
 naught. You are different ; and in those old days we were 
 just now discussing you used to tell me that " 
 
 " I think perhaps it would be more graceful of you," she 
 said, "to forget all that happy past." Her tone was 
 peculiar.
 
 MARVEL. 263 
 
 " Why should one forget what was so happy ? " replied 
 he with the utmost cheerfulness. "No; I like to re- 
 member it. It was pleasant whilst it lasted, and it taught 
 me many things." 
 
 " Even how to tolerate the foolish flirtations of a frivolous 
 child!" exclaimed she in a low tone, with an undisguised 
 sneer. He laughed, although a sullen dark red mounted to 
 his brow. 
 
 " That is unworthy of you ! " he said. " You are too 
 lovely a woman to descend to such speeches as that." 
 
 " Never mind me," said she with a frown. " We were 
 talking a while since of Lady Wriothesley." 
 
 " So we were. She is so charming a study that I do not 
 wonder at your returning to it" 
 
 "You are not the only one who finds her charming." 
 
 " Naturally. To look at her is to admire her." 
 
 " If she is so precious in your sight " with a curl of her 
 lips " I wonder you do not guard her more carefully." 
 
 "Am I remiss in my duty? Just think how I ran 
 through all the storm and wind this evening to her rescue." 
 
 " To get small thanks for your pains, I expect." 
 
 " I got very pretty thanks, on the contrary. I don't 
 believe," airily, " she was ever so glad to see me in her life 
 before." 
 
 " She is not so stupid then as her as Mr. Savage. She, 
 it appears, can act her part," said she with a cold disdain. 
 
 " A word," said Wriothesley, leaning towards her, with an 
 ominous light in his eyes that startled her. "You have 
 given me a good deal of advice up to this; take a little 
 from me now. Do not go too far /" 
 
 " One cannot in friendship's cause," replied she coolly. 
 " Why should I not speak I, who see most of the game. 
 I warn you, in spite of that last warning of yours, that 
 unless you change your tactics you will lose this paragon of 
 yours." Her calm audacity restored him to his former 
 careful indifference, more than all the apologies in the world 
 could have done. 
 
 " I do not think so," he said with a smile. " She is 
 mine, and I shall keep her." 
 
 " If you can I "
 
 264 MARVEL. 
 
 " Another sibylline speech ! You know I told you you 
 were in a rather exalted mood to-night. By-the-by, it is 
 rather a bad compliment, isn't it, to tell me I cannot hold 
 my own as well as another." 
 
 " No man can fight against too heavy odds." She raised 
 her head and looked him fair in the face. " Put a stop to 
 your wife's intimacy with Nigel Savage," she said. There 
 \vas something diabolical in the measured way in which she 
 dealt this open thrust. Wriothesley regarded her curiously 
 for a second, and then, taking up her fan which lay on her 
 knee, tapped the back of her hand lightly with it. 
 
 " Oh, no ; I shan't do that" he said, in the friendliest 
 manner possible. " I have the most perfect confidence in 
 Lady Wriothesley's taste, and I should not dream of inter- 
 fering with any of her friendships." 
 
 " Ah ! Is that your role ? " said she, looking at him 
 through insolent, half-closed lids. " Have you ever thought 
 that people may misconstrue your motives ? " 
 
 " That is of little moment to me so long as they are not 
 misconstrued by her." 
 
 " It is amazing, this wonderful affection that has sprung 
 up in your breast for this girl, this wife, who only a month 
 ago was so great a stranger that you did not even know her. 
 Am I to understand that you are wisely going to make a 
 virtue of necessity, and pretend to be in love with her?" 
 
 " I will tell you a secret," said Wriothesley gaily, lower- 
 ing his tone to one of a mysterious softness. " I have only 
 just discovered it myself, so you are the very first to hear 
 it. It is all about Lady Wriothesley, and it means that I 
 adore her / " 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 " A strange perplexity 
 Creeps coldly on me like a fear to die. 
 Courage uncertain dangers may abate ; 
 But who can bear th' approach of certain fate?" 
 
 IT was an intense relief to Marvel when the evening came 
 to an end, and she was able to retire to the solitude of her
 
 MARVEL. 265 
 
 own room. She dismissed the faithful Burton almost im- 
 mediately, under the plea of being especially fatigued ; and 
 then she took her head into her hands and began to think. 
 The fire was blazing cheerfully, and Burton, before being 
 driven forth, had put her into a pretty loose robe of white 
 cashmere and swansdown, so that she was quite free to 
 do her meditations as comfortably as possible. 
 
 There was a sense of satisfaction that was almost 
 luxurious in the thought that she was at last alone, that 
 she could think matters out to their end without having to 
 make civil answers to dull remarks in the very middle of a 
 tormenting query made to her own heart. She felt a 
 lassitude both of mind and body, born of the afternoon's 
 misadventure, and all the nervous doubts and fears conse- 
 quent on it. One thing, however, sent a little refreshing 
 thrill through her it was the certainty that Fulke had 
 taken her part against Mrs. Scarlett ! 
 
 Yes, there could be no doubt about that. With what a 
 smile he came up to her then, when she was feeling 
 depressed, unstrung by that woman's cruel insolence ! He 
 had made a little pretence of being bound to come to her 
 through an arrangement made on some former occasion, 
 and there was something anxious in the expression of his 
 eyes that showed her how he dreaded the thought that he 
 was late in saving her from annoyance. Mrs. Scarlett, of 
 course, had not understood all that. Marvel threw up her 
 head, and the soft warm blood dyed her cheek, and a pretty 
 triumphant smile parted her lips as she told herself there 
 had been quite a secret understanding between her and 
 Fulke to-night, into which Mrs. Scarlett had not entered. 
 
 Perhaps his old love for her was dead ! Oh ! if that 
 might be ! Its death would not, of course, bring any 
 nearer the birth of a love for her, and yet there was comfort 
 in the thought of it ; not only comfort, but absolute relief. 
 Involuntarily she lifted her hand to press it against her 
 bosom, as if in repression of a sudden sigh, and there her 
 fingers came in contact with something. 
 
 Only an old locket, worn, damaged. Yet the sight of it 
 drove the smile from her face, the light from her eyes. No, 
 she was mad to dream of comfort anywhere ; there was none !
 
 266 MARVEL. 
 
 She rose and went over to where the lamps stood on her 
 dressing-table, and looked at the locket ; at this one frail 
 thing that connected her with an unknown past. Slowly she 
 opened it and gazed at the face within ; so like yet so 
 unlike her own. She glanced from it to the mirror, where 
 her own face looked out at her cold and sorrowful, and 
 caught the resemblance. There was something, however, 
 about the hair in the picture that struck her as pecu- 
 liar. It was brushed very closely back at either side 
 so that the shaven cheeks looked thin and gaunt. How 
 would she look if she brushed her hair like that ? Would 
 the resemblance be more striking than it now was, between 
 her and this pale, cynical looking man, whom she hardly 
 dared to call father. 
 
 She pulled the hairpins out of the carefully brushed hair 
 that Burton had but just now coiled so smoothly round her 
 shapely head, and rolled it up again into a loose, soft, high 
 knot, that would admit of the severe brushing back of the 
 soft tresses into a severely Greek fashion, so as to accen- 
 tuate the likeness to the picture that she already saw. 
 
 When she had so brushed it, she found the effect was 
 startling. She was so like that faded face lying in her hand 
 that she could not longer doubt the relationship in which 
 he stood to her. She siood looking down upon it, wonder- 
 ing vaguely, in an awe-stricken way, about many things, when 
 the sudden opening of her door roused her to more active 
 thought. 
 
 She turned abruptly, standing now with her back to the 
 lamps, as Mrs. Scarlett advanced across the threshold. She 
 hardly knew her, the cold supercilious beauty of an hour 
 ago. She looked now so wild and haggard. Her lips were 
 blue, her hand was pressed convulsively to her side. 
 
 " Have you any chloral ?" she asked in a fierce impatient 
 tone, that bespoke a very agony of pain. " My maid 
 belongs to this part of the world, and I gave her leave to 
 go home to-night, and she has forgotten to put out the 
 bottle, or mislaid it, or something. Have you any ? " 
 
 " No but " began Marvel, who was a little frightened, 
 
 not only at her sudden entrance, but by the ghastiiness of 
 her appearance.
 
 MAKVEL. 267 
 
 " Do you mean that you can get some ? w feverishly. 
 "If so, do, and at once." 
 
 " I think, perhaps, if I went to Mrs. Verulam she might 
 get it from the housekeeper," said Marvel. She came 
 forward as she spoke in a quick eager way until she stood 
 beneath the full glare of a bracket lamp. So standing, Mrs. 
 Scarlett raised her eyes and saw her. 
 
 An extraordinary change swept over her face. An awful 
 fear, mingled with a curious disbelief, distorted her features. 
 She staggered away from Marvel with a sharp cry, and 
 leant against the wall behind her, panting, shuddering. 
 
 "Who are you, girl? Speak!" she cried hoarsely. 
 " Great Heaven ! what horrible thing is this ! The dead ! 
 the dead ! where are they ! " She grew suddenly convulsed 
 and reeled backwards, clutching wildly at the empty air. 
 Marvel sprang forward and caught her just .as she fell. 
 
 She supported her tenderly, and being tall, and, though 
 slender, strong, she lifted her in her arms, and half drew, half 
 carried her to a low lounge at the other side of the firepiace. 
 
 The doing of all this, however, created a rather unusual 
 disturbance, and following as it did on that short but 
 piercing cry that came from Mrs. Scarlett, had reached 
 Wriothesley's ears, whose room adjoined Marvel's. He was 
 just in the act of knocking to demand the meaning of it, 
 when Marvel herself unlocked the door between them and 
 entered his room. She found him in his shirt and trousers 
 with the end of a cigarette between his lips, but she hardly 
 took any notice of that, she was so glad to find him awake 
 and able to be of service to her. 
 
 " Oh ! come in," she said. She was looking very much 
 upset, and indeed, the sight of that rigid form and ghastly 
 face within, stretched in a seemingly lifeless state upon the 
 lounge, had unnerved her to a very unusual degree. Coming 
 upon all that had gone before it, it was the veritable last 
 straw, and threatened to break, if not her back, at least her 
 courage. It was an unspeakable relief to find that she was 
 not to be left alone with this new burden. 
 
 "Come quickly," she said, holding out her hand to 
 Wriothesley, and flinging his cigarette into the fire, he 
 followed her into her own room.
 
 268 MARVEL. 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked, and then he saw the prostrate 
 insensible figure upon the couch, and went quickly up to it. 
 
 " She is not dead!" he exclaimed with great anxiety, an 
 anxiety that seemed exaggerated to his wife, who could not 
 help watching him closely. 
 
 " Not that, I hope," she said. She had got some cologne 
 water, and was busily bathing Mrs. Scarlett's forehead, 
 whilst Wriothesley in a rather helpless fashion was chafing 
 her hands. 
 
 " If one had a little brandy," he said, brightening as this 
 idea occurred to him, and dropping the inanimate hands he 
 rushed off to his own room. 
 
 " Oh ! don't be long," entreated Marvel as he passed by 
 her. He returned almost immediately, and between them 
 they forced a little of the spirit within Mrs. Scarlett's pallid 
 lips. It seemed to revive her, and presently she opened 
 her eyes and gazed without intelligence around her. She 
 sighed faintly ; memory seemed to come back to her in a 
 flash, and as it did so her glance fell on Wriothesley, who 
 was bending solicitously over her. 
 
 " You ! " she said. 
 
 " I hope you are feeling better now," said he kindly. 
 B-it she was still somewhat dazed by her late attack, and 
 d.J not seem to hear him. 
 
 " You ! " she said again, in a low, anxious tone, and with 
 a smile that Marvel had never seen upon her lips before ; 
 and yet, soft though it was, and suggestive of unlimited 
 tenderness, there was more of gratified vanity, of exulting 
 triumph in it than honest affection. She raised her hand 
 feebly and held it out to him. He grew extremely red, but 
 of course he had to take it. 
 
 " Lady Wriothesley is here, and is very anxious about 
 you," he said as collectedly as he could, though he knew 
 the very fact of his warning her of Marvel's presence would 
 be rather damnatory in the latter's eyes. 
 
 Marvel came quickly forward, a rather indignant light in 
 her eyes ; she came close up to where Mrs. Scarlett lay, so 
 that she could distinctly see her. 
 
 " I am glad you are better," she said coldly. " Do you 
 think you will still require the chloral, or "
 
 MARVEL. 269 
 
 Mrs. Scarlett started violently when first she spoke, and 
 then grew suddenly quiescent after one long glance at her. 
 
 " I had forgotten about it," she murmured feebly. 
 
 She made an effort to rise, but Marvel entreated her to 
 remain still. 
 
 " Your maid is away ; you are still very weak," she said j 
 " I beg you will make this room your own for the night." 
 
 " Oh no, thank you," said Mrs. Scarlett, now rising with 
 determination to a sitting posture. " I have already given 
 you far too much trouble I," she laughed faintly, " I don't 
 know what happened to me ; but I felt curiously unstrung 
 all the evening, and I suppose the climax came as I entered 
 your room." 
 
 She had studiously avoided looking at Marvel ever since 
 that first glance ; and now, as she rose very slowly, and with 
 evident difficulty, to her feet, and as Marvel put out her 
 hand to help her, she shrank from her touch with a visible 
 shudder. 
 
 " Good-night. I thank you very much," she said, with a 
 striving after graciousness that proved a failure. She took 
 no notice of Wriothesley, who was deeply grateful for the 
 rudeness, and moved towards the door in a dull, heavy 
 fashion. 
 
 " I really think you are not well enough to remain by 
 yourself," said Marvel hastily, deep compassion awaking 
 in her gentle breast. " As your maid is absent, will you 
 permit me to sit with you, at all events until you are 
 asleep ? " 
 
 " You quite crush me with kindness," said Mrs. Scarlett, 
 with a rather bitter intonation ; " but, no." 
 
 " Then may I wake one of the servants, and send her 
 to " 
 
 " I require, no one, thank you," curtly. " Good-night. 
 Pray do not make yourself so very unhappy about me." 
 
 She took the candlestick that Marvel put into her hand, 
 still without looking at her, and then went out of the room 
 and up the corridor to her own apartment. 
 
 Marvel stood looking after her, oppressed always by a 
 vague sense of uneasiness, until she saw her cross her own 
 threshold, when, with a little sigh, she turned inwards
 
 270 MARVEL. 
 
 again and closed her door. Wriothesley, still without his 
 cvat or waistcoat, stood on the hearthrug, his hands clasped 
 behind his back, as is the manner of men when they feel a 
 fire even from ai'ar. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 " We two stood there with never a third, 
 But each by each, as each knew well." 
 
 " WELL ! " said he, " I call that about the coolest thing 
 that ever I saw! Next time she is going to have one of 
 her fits or her faints, or whatever it was, I hope she will 
 choose somebody else's room for her stage."! 
 
 Marvel said nothing ; she felt a little angry. She could 
 not forget the assured way Mrs. Scarlett held out her hand 
 to him ; and that subtle smile also lingered in her memory. 
 It was all very fine for him to appear disgusted with her 
 
 now, but there had been a time when . Yet in her soul 
 
 she was glad, because of the slighting tone he used. He 
 was watching her attentively, and as she seated herself 
 upon an ottoman, he noticed the languor that seemed to 
 fill all her limbs. 
 
 " She has frightened you," he said. 
 
 " It was a little shock. And I am afraid she is really 
 very ill, she looked so pale." 
 
 " Not paler than you are. Why on earth aren't you in 
 bed at this hour of the night ? Do you know what o'clock 
 it is ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Half-past two a most ridiculous hour for you to be 
 up!" 
 
 " I might say that to you," said she with a faint smile. 
 
 " Eh ? Oh I / was smoking, and er reading. But 
 you ? " 
 
 She made him no answer, but sat silent, twirling her 
 wedding ring round and round her finger. 
 
 " What a fire you have, too 1 Enough to freeze one to 
 look at it."
 
 MARVEL. 7I 
 
 He settled it up for her as well as he could, and, after a 
 considerable amount of noise and dust, made it rather 
 presentable. She sat quite quiet all the time, and was 
 indeed so white and still that he grew uneasy. 
 
 "You are looking awfully ill," he said at last, going'over 
 to her and laying his hand upon her shoulder. " What is 
 the matter with you ? " 
 
 " Nothing," she said with a heavy sigh. 
 
 She got up as if to escape from his hand, and moved 
 languidly to the toilet table, where she stood pushing idly 
 to and fro the bottles and caskets and pots with which it 
 was littered. She looked so unlike herself that he was 
 really anxious about her, and followed her to the table, 
 determined to accept no repulse. 
 
 " Tell me what you were doing during all these long, 
 lonely hours," he said. 
 
 " Thinking," replied she briefly. 
 
 "Thinking !" He repeated her words with rather undue 
 force. A dark red mounted to his brow. " Of Savage?" 
 he asked involuntarily. He was horrified when the ques- 
 tion passed his lips ; but it was too late then to look for 
 anything but the way in which she should receive it. That 
 was with the utmost indifference. Evidently she had not 
 understood the real meaning of it 
 
 " Oh no," she said. 
 
 " Of what, then ? " persisted he. 
 
 " Of the past the old dead days. Of Lady Mary, and 
 of " 
 
 She had averted her face, and now her eyes fell upon 
 the locket she had dropped upon the table, and with a 
 little quick sighing breath she laid her hand upon it, as 
 if to conceal it, and closed her trembling fingers round it. 
 It was her badge of shame her disgrace the thing that 
 perpetually reminded her that she was a Pariah, a thing 
 apart from the world, in which for a season she moved. 
 But the little white hand had been too slow to do its 
 work. Wriothesley, too, had seen that old trinket and had 
 remembered it. A pang shot through his heart. With all 
 her other griefs and regrets, had she to battle too with 
 this?
 
 t7* MARVEL, 
 
 " My dear girl," he said very gently, " why permit your- 
 self such morbid meditations ? Why think of what cannot 
 now be helped, and of what is really of so little conse- 
 quence ? " 
 
 " I think of it always," she said. " I never forget it 
 how can I ? " 
 
 "Why cannot you? you mean. Here you are respected, 
 loved by many, and the very centre of attraction, as it were, 
 by right of your grace and beauty, and yet you would still 
 pull caps with fortune." 
 
 "You will tell me next, as Cicely does, that the very 
 mystery that surrounds me adds to that attraction. But 
 oh ! to solve that mystery, even at the cost of the attraction. 
 You cannot understand what it is to feel like me. I 
 am different from all those with whom I move. They 
 have parents, homes ; they know at least from where they 
 sprung ; but as for me," she drew her breath sharply and 
 looked at him with miserable, lovely eyes. " Oh, the cruel 
 pain of it ! " she said. 
 
 "You yourself create that pain," he was beginning 
 warmly ; but she stopped him. 
 
 " Do I ? " she said sadly. " You are kind, but there is 
 no real truth in what you say, and you know it. Would 
 any man willingly choose me for his wife, do you think? 
 No hear me," checking the interruption he would have 
 made. " Would you, do you think, have ever married me 
 had I not in my mad childish ignorance asked you to do so, 
 and had not you in a moment of pique, a moment when 
 you were broken-hearted, and felt the world no longer 
 contained any good for you consented. Fulke," laying a 
 burning hand upon his, " whatever else is between us, let 
 there at least be honesty. Do not seek to contradict what 
 1 have said." 
 
 There was indeed so much that was true in what she had 
 said, that he could not answer her reassuringly as he would 
 fain have done. He stood therefore silent before her, for 
 which she honoured him the more. Yet her head drooped 
 during that sad silence, and the mournful lines about her 
 mouth .grew more pronounced. 
 
 " I am in outcast," she said.
 
 MABVEL. 273 
 
 "Don't talk like that,'] said he angrily. "There is 
 neither sense nor meaning in it. And as to what you say 
 about no man caring to marry you, are you prepared to say 
 that amongst all those men you now know, there is not one 
 who would willingly call you wife ? " He regarded her 
 with a keen scrutiny as he asked this. 
 
 " Not one," replied she slowly. 
 
 Did she mean it, or was she playing with perfect aplomb, 
 a very difficult part ? His eyes were still fixed upon the 
 pale beautiful face, with its downcast eyes, and he was 
 obliged to admit to himself that a brow so pure could hide 
 behind it no smallest deceit. 
 
 "You are wrong," he said gently. "Although you so 
 distrust me, and although our marriage had little of romance 
 about it, I still am pleased with the thought that / can call 
 you wife." 
 
 She smiled in a rather abstracted fashion. 
 
 " You were always kind," she said. And then, with a 
 singular abruptness that quite disarranged the speech he 
 was about to make, " It is late. Good-night." 
 
 "Good-night," said he in turn, startled into that 
 commonplace response. " As you say, it is time we 
 thought of our beauty sleep." He looked down as he 
 spoke, and by chance saw that her hand was still clasped 
 nervously round that unlucky locket. He went closer to 
 her, took the hand and with gentle force opened it. 
 
 " We have had enough of this for one night at least," he 
 said. " Better give it into my keeping for the future." As 
 he spoke he tried to possess himself of the locket, but with 
 a sudden vehemence she clung to it. 
 
 " Do not take it ! I promised her auntie that I 
 would never part with it. Oh ! Fulke, do not deprive me 
 of it." There was so much fear in the glance she raised to 
 his, that of course he resigned all idea of taking possession 
 of the locket. 
 
 " As you will," he said. " But at least promise me that 
 you will sit up no longer. These small, dark, uncanny 
 hours are not meant for children like you. Come, promise 
 me before I go, that you will be a good little girl and say 
 your prayers and go to sleep at once." 
 
 18
 
 274 MARVEL. 
 
 He laughed as he said this, and taking up the locket 
 dropped it into her dressing-case. 
 
 "There let it lie," he said tragically. And then, "Well, 
 have I that promise ? " 
 
 " You have," said she smiling. " Good-night, then." 
 
 " Good-night." He had moved away from her towards 
 his own door, when some sudden impulse swayed her. 
 She went quickly up to him, and laying her hand upon his 
 breast lifted her cheek to his, as a child or a young girl 
 might do, asking a caress. Wriothesley taken so unawares 
 flushed crimson. He placed his hand beneath her chin 
 and turning her face more towards him, kissed her with 
 exceeding gentleness upon the lips. 
 
 " Good-night," he said again. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVL 
 
 * Escape me ? 
 
 Never 
 
 Beloved ! 
 
 While I am I and you are you, 
 
 So long as the world contains us both- 
 Me the loving and you the loth, 
 While the one eludes, must the other pursue." 
 
 THE pleasant informal dance was almost at an end : the 
 word " Carriages " had been mentioned once or twice, the 
 young people pretending not to hear it. Early in the 
 evening the Christmas tree had been lit in the great hall, 
 and round it quite a hundred and fifty children of all 
 sizes and ages and stations, from the cotter's son to the 
 little lordling, had stood in speechless delight. It was 
 allowed on all sides, indeed, to have been a gigantic 
 success, and happy were the little children of all ranks who 
 went home that night literally covered with toys and 
 bonbons, satiated with excitement, and with every prospect 
 of being extremely unwell in the morning. 
 
 It ought by right to have been called a New Year's tree, 
 as it was kept back until the second week in January to
 
 MARVEL. 275 
 
 accommodate the vicar, who was absent unavoidably, and 
 who would have broken his heart, according to Lady Lucy, 
 if he had not been able to see the delight on his children's 
 faces when the unaccustomed dainties were placed in their 
 little arms. Poor children, coming out of their cabins and 
 hovels and unlovely homes to gain this sweet glimpse of 
 paradise. 
 
 After the tree, and the dispersion of the humbler guests, 
 dancing had been got up amongst the house party and 
 those invited from the country round to witness the annual 
 bestowing of pretty gifts upon the peasantry connected 
 with the estate, and those poorer ones who lived on the 
 confines of it. It was a fare veil dance, said Lady Lucy 
 regretfully to Marvel, who had really done wonders with 
 the children all the evening, anl had developed a perfect 
 talent for understanding exactly what toy would best suit 
 each child. 
 
 " A horrid farewell dance ! " said Lady Lucy. " I really 
 wish you would change your mind at the eleventh hour and 
 put off going to-morrow. Cicely can't want you much, 
 until her own party is in full swing." 
 
 But Cicely coming up at the moment and hearing this 
 was exceeding wroth, and declared she had Marvel's word 
 to come south with her to her own home and that she 
 would not let her off it for any sister-in-law in the world. 
 
 The dancing was kept up very briskly, and was all the 
 more enjoyed in that the dance itself was a rather 
 impromptu affair. Nigel Savage, as every one remarked, 
 was in specially high spirits, and made himself absolutely 
 charming to even the old and ugly ones, who, as a rule, sat 
 in swooning attitudes along the walls, in tall straight rows 
 as unbroken as a line of holly hocks. But those high 
 spirits of his bordered closely on despair. It was the last 
 evening he would spend with her. He might see her again, 
 indeed, his home was situated but a short distance from 
 Mrs. Verulam's, but he knew intuitively that Cicely 
 would not make him welcome at Grangemore, and even if 
 she did, he felt that once broken the threads of this one 
 short perfect month could never be united again. 
 
 The very thought of this made him reckless. He asked 
 
 1 8 2
 
 276 MARVEL. 
 
 Marvel to dance with him far oftener than he usually 
 permitted himself to do, and she did not refuse him. She 
 was looking more than ordinarily lovely, because she was 
 looking happy ; she had found a very deep gladness 
 in the joy of those little children, and a solace in the 
 clinging of their eager arms. She was the one indeed 
 amongst all the grand ladies whom they had singled out as 
 their best friend, and the one of whom they were least 
 afraid. 
 
 She had not yet lost the flush and the smiling lips that 
 their open devotion had given her ; she was dressed in 
 white as usual, but she wore no diamonds to-night only 
 some scented roses that lay upon her breast, and one white 
 rose in her hair. There were roses, too, amongst the folds 
 of her gown, and a bunch of them were attached to her fan 
 all white. 
 
 She was standing now against the mantel-shelf a tall, 
 sweet, slender thing 
 
 " A maid so sweet that her mere sight made glad 
 Men sorrowing " 
 
 when Savage once more made his way to her to ask her to 
 give him the dance then just beginning. Wriothesley, who 
 saw him coming, and who stood near to Marvel, with a 
 quick frown went up to her, and 
 
 " Will you give me this dance ? " said he. 
 
 " I will give it," said she with some surprise. " But for 
 married people to dance together " 
 
 " I know. It is an abomination in my sight also ; but if 
 you will waltz with me from this down to the door opposite, 
 it is all I shall ask." 
 
 " I should be ungenerous, indeed, were I to refuse so 
 slight a request," said she smiling. She placed her hand 
 on his arm almost as Savage came up to her. 
 
 " You are engaged ? " said he, his tone an astonished 
 question. 
 
 " Yes ! Did you, too, wish to dance this with me ? The 
 next, if you will then," returned she sweetly. 
 
 Wriothesley coughed sharply in a little way he had when 
 annoyed, but he said nothing, and presently his arm was
 
 MAEVEL, 77 
 
 round her waist ; and, when they came to the prescribed 
 door, he seemed to forget all about his compact with her, 
 and went on dancing until they came to it the second time. 
 
 "You dance exquisitely," he said then. "Will you come 
 into the conseivatory and rest awhile?" 
 
 " No, thank you," said she, with a certain hasty determi- 
 nation. 
 
 " It seems strange, does it not," he went on, presently, 
 " that though I have known you all my life, and though we 
 have been married how long ? " 
 
 " You know. A year and a half," replied she coldly. 
 
 " That still this is the first time we have ever danced 
 together." 
 
 " Is it so strange ? Science has made wonderful strides 
 certainly, but it has not yet arranged for the waltzing of 
 two people together when one is in England and the other 
 in the Rocky Mountains." 
 
 " Do you know," said he, looking full at her, " you are 
 the biggest deception I know. A person with your eyes 
 and mouth should not know what it is to be severe." 
 
 " I suppose even a person with my lips and eyes can be 
 taught severity by life's cruelties. Yet I hate myself in 
 such a mood as this ! " said she with frank regret, turning 
 her beautiful pathetic face to his. " I should not make 
 heartless speeches on a night when I have been so happy. 
 Those little children ! did you notice how glad they looked ; 
 how their eyes sparkled ; how their little hands trembled 
 with delight ! Oh ! it was lovely to see them ! Yes, I have 
 been quite happy " She paused. 
 
 " Until now ?" gloomily. She turned her eyes on him, as 
 if not understanding, then : 
 
 " Oh, no ! your thought is wrong. My mind ran upon 
 another subject altogether ; I did not think of you," said she 
 simply. " I was only wondering if you would let me give a 
 Christmas tree next year to the little ones on the Ringwood 
 estate." 
 
 "Z^/ you ! Oh ! Marvel, have I proved myself so stern a 
 taskmaster that you must grow so red, and grow so nervous, 
 when making a little request like that Is not all that I have 
 yours ? "
 
 278 MARVEL. 
 
 " Not all," she said in a low, tremulous tone ; and then 
 suddenly she put up her hand as if to prevent his reply. 
 " Not a word," she entreated. " I don't know why I said 
 that there was no meaning in it. None ! I don't want 
 anything ! " Then, with painful shyness, stammering over 
 each word she uttered in her endeavour to get back into the 
 safe harbour of commonplace converse, " 1 may then give 
 the poor your poor a Christmas tree next year." 
 
 " You may do precisely what you like," replied he icily, 
 chilled by her evident shrinking from anything deeper than 
 mere surface friendliness with him. " That stress upon the 
 pronoun was scarcely necessary, I think. Surely they are 
 your poor also ; you may repudiate me if you will, but you 
 have to acknowledge their claims upon you." 
 
 She stood silent, her eyes cast down distressed, not 
 knowing what to say. 
 
 " It seems to me that your charity is boundless to all the 
 world save me," he went on, with a supercilious smile. 
 " Even to Savage just now you granted grace, seeing how 
 deplorably he regretted the loss of this dance. By-the-by, 
 you have danced a good deal with him to-night. I have never 
 thought of asking the question before, but is he a very in- 
 teresting sort of person ?" 
 
 He spoke as one athirst for knowledge ; and Marvel 
 resented his tone, feeling instinctively the falseness of it. 
 
 " I have always found him so," she said calmly. 
 
 " The truth, the truth, and nothing but the truth." Such 
 words should be framed and glazed, and hung in all men's 
 houses. This rejoinder of Marvel's, coming honestly from 
 her heart, disconcerted Wriothesley (had she only known 
 it) more than all the elaborated answers that she could have 
 invented. 
 
 " So it seems." At this moment the person under dis- 
 cussion could be plainly seen by both making his way to 
 them. Wriothesley had barely time to say another word 
 before he would be within hearing, so, his temper not being 
 at its best, he made that word as pungent as he could. 
 
 " Don't let him become too interesting ! " he said, with a 
 rather unpleasant intonation, having given himself barely 
 time to bow and retire as Savage joined her.
 
 MARVEL. 475 
 
 Mrs. Verulam, from afar, had watched all this ; and, 
 though their conversation was denied her, their counte- 
 nances were not, and she drew a very correct account of 
 what had passed from the lights and shades of feeling that 
 marked them. 
 
 " I wish Marvel had not been educated in so severely 
 simple a school," she said to Sir George, who had followed 
 her to her retreat behind the curtains of a window, without 
 invitation of any sort. 
 
 " Why ? " said he vaguely, being busy polishing his glasses 
 at the moment. 
 
 " Why ? How stupid you are ! Because, of course, if a 
 little more alive to the general run of things, she would 
 know how not to ruffle Wriothesley's feelings at every step." 
 
 " Ruffling will do him good," said Sir George. 
 
 " That is your opinion. It doesn't follow that it is a 
 correct one." 
 
 "Far from it!" said Sir George, spreading abroad his 
 hands in the meekest self-abnegation. 
 
 "And yet I don't know perhaps you are right !" said 
 she thoughtfully, touched perhaps by his humility. " Well, 
 never mind Wriothesley. He is really, in my estimation, 
 hardly worth an argument." 
 
 " Who is ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Dameron, for example," said she in a tone of 
 withering disgust. " Was there ever so lamentable a 
 person ? Look at her ! What on earth has she done to 
 her hair to-night ? Really, with a straw or two thrown in 
 she would be excellent as Ophelia at her maddest ! For my 
 part I don't think she looks proper, eh ? " 
 
 "That's an awful question," said Sir George, staring hard 
 at the despised Mrs. Dameron, who stood quite opposite 
 to him at the other side of the room and who in truth 
 was very marvellously attired. 
 
 " Which means that you are afraid to answer it," said 
 Mrs. Verulam with a shrug. " I'm positive there is a latent 
 fear within you that some day you will be hanged, and you 
 are always providing against that unpleasant possibility. 
 You live in a determination not to commit yourself." 
 
 " What a thing for you to say ! " exclaimed he with deep
 
 z8o MAIIVEL, 
 
 reproach. " Why, I do nothing else whenever fortune gives 
 me five minutes alone with you. Even now I followed you 
 here to " 
 
 " Yes what brought you here ? " demanded she briskly, 
 " Who asked you to come and sit here with me ? " 
 
 " No one ; I saw you alone and I came to you. You sent 
 your partner for a shawl, I think, and I knowing where it 
 was, despatched him in an expressly opposite direction. 
 He," mildly, " will be a good while finding it, I think." 
 
 Mrs. Verulam was silent, from reasons untold. 
 
 " I thought it an excellent opportunity," went on Sir 
 George in his studiously even way, " to ask you once more 
 to " 
 
 " I do hope you are not going to begin that all over 
 again," interrupted she with some indignation. 
 
 " I am beginning nothing. I am only going on with it." 
 
 "Am I to understand," exclaimed she, wrath gi owing 
 warm within her at this persistence, " that you intend pro- 
 posing to me in every corner of every room of every house 
 we may chance to enter, and behind every available curtain," 
 with a glance at her present surroundings, "until happy 
 death steps in to save me from you ? " 
 
 " You have indeed discovered my fixed determination ! n 
 
 " After all that happened years ago ! After all you pro- 
 mised then ! I shall know how to believe you next time." 
 
 " So long as there is a next time," imperturbably, " I can 
 be happy about that." 
 
 " You hope to torment me into saying ' yes,' " with an 
 angry little laugh ; " but you don't know me if you think 
 so. I can endure a great deal. I am quite proof against 
 persecution of that sort. And besides, if the worst comes 
 to the worst, I have a remedy. There is one thing that 
 remains to me." 
 
 "And that?" 
 
 " I shall marry some other man." 
 
 " Impossible ! " 
 
 " Impossible ! But how then ? " 
 
 "Because I shall always assassinate that man upon his 
 wedding morning ! " 
 
 Mrs. Verulam for a moment stared, sternly at the pattern
 
 MARVEL. a&i 
 
 in the lace curtain before her and then burst out laughing. 
 She was still indignant, however. 
 
 "To think that you, our scientific friend," she said 
 scornfully, " should give place to such folly 1 " 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIL 
 
 * To have the power to forgive 
 Is empire and prerogative, 
 And 'tis in crowns a nobler gem, 
 To grant a pardon than condemn." 
 
 " MARVEL, don't stand on ceremony with me," began Mrs. 
 Verulam, herself standing on the threshold of Lady 
 Wriothesley's bedroom ; " the fact is, I am not sleepy, and 
 I should dearly love a little gossip with you, so if you are 
 not too tired ? " 
 
 The pause, eloquent 
 
 " Not too tired, but " 
 
 "I see," making a little chagrined moue; "that 'but' is 
 fraught with meaning. If not tired, you would still be 
 alone, to dwell on your latest triumphs." 
 
 " You are not such a Solon as you believe yourself, after 
 all. That ' but ' of which you complain was the com- 
 mencement of a much more mundane speech. I was 
 going to make the confession, pur et Dimple, that I am 
 dreadfully hungry ! " 
 
 " Never say it again," cried Mrs. Verulam gaily ; " come, 
 those cormorants of this evening have no doubt left us 
 something still upon the supper-table. Let us go a-forag- 
 ing." 
 
 " Well, I've been thinking," said Marvel glancing down- 
 wards at the loose white robe heavily trimmed with duchesse 
 lace that she was wearing, and then up again at Mrs. 
 Verulam, radiant in an exquisite negligee of pale blue cache 
 mire, " that perhaps we had better wait a bit. They may 
 not all have gone to bed yet, and to meet them like this ! " 
 
 " Would they faint ? " asked Mrs. Verulam, who knew 
 how well she looked in that ethereal blue and would not
 
 282 MAKVEL. 
 
 have objected to an accidental rencontre. She laughed a 
 little. " Better they should faint than that you should die 
 of starvation." 
 
 " Better neither. I daresay I shall live on your conver- 
 sation for another half-hour or so until we hear the click of 
 the smoking-room door and the tramp, tramp, tramp up- 
 stairs. Come ; now for your gossip." She stirred the 
 fire vigorously, pushed Cicely into a huge armchair, and 
 flung herself on the rug at her feet. 
 
 "It is small. It is unworthy of the name. No big 
 scandal ornaments it. It is only a word or two about Mrs. 
 Scarlett, and " 
 
 "Then I won't hear it," exclaimed Marvel sharply, 
 putting up her hands to her ears. " I can't bear to hear her 
 name mentioned. It it hurts me somehow." 
 
 "There, don't be a goose," said Mrs.Verulam, patting her 
 head ; " you needn't feel all that now ; she can no longer 
 do you any harm, her day is past. Still, I don't wonder 
 at your dislike to her. I should feel it myself; and for 
 that reason I have decided on not asking her to Grange- 
 more next month." 
 
 Marvel got upon to her knees and looked anxiously at 
 her. 
 
 " Why have you come to that decision ? " she said ; " you 
 asked her last year, why should you exclude her from your 
 party now ? I hope you will not, Cicely. It will look as 
 
 if They will all say it is because of Fulke, and and I 
 
 really do not think he is in love with her now." 
 
 "Oh, no. One can see that. As I have just been 
 saying, her star is set. We were rather mistaken about 
 that at first. But yet I do not like to ask her, Marvel, 
 when I see how abominably she treats you." 
 
 " It does not touch me now. It used to, I confess, but 
 not now." It seemed to her that it was a very recent 
 " now." " Do not leave her out because of me. She will 
 be an addition to your party ; for one thing she is so beau- 
 tiful and so much the fashion, and I have reason to think 
 she expects and hopes for an invitation from you." 
 
 " From me ? For Heaven's sake why ? I could name 
 you five different houses at this moment, very much more
 
 MAKVEL. 28? 
 
 important than mine, where she would be received with 
 open arms." 
 
 " Nevertheless, I know she would accept your invitation 
 before any of the others." 
 
 " Still hankering after Wriothesley ? I must say, Marvel, 
 you are either the soul of generosity, or else," with a 
 keen glance at her, " you have made the discovery that 
 Wriothesley at a distance is more desirable than Wriothesley 
 near." 
 
 " You mean ? " asked Marvel, a little cold, a little 
 
 puzzled. She drew back from her. 
 
 " Nothing," said Cicely with a pang of remorse. " Don't 
 mind me ; it is only that when that woman's name is men- 
 tioned I always lose my temper." 
 
 " Well, don't mind that. Don't mind anything. Do not 
 thwart her in this matter. Do you know," laying her arms 
 on Cicely's knees and looking up at her with lovely solemn 
 eyes, " I do not think it is Fulke she thinks of so much as 
 me!" 
 
 " You ! What a conceited child ! " Mrs. Verul am burst 
 out laughing. " After all I daresay you are right," she 
 said. " The deposed queen must naturally follow, with a 
 feverish hope of a breakdown, the fortunes of the usurper. 
 Well, your majesty shall be obeyed ; I shall give her the 
 desired invitation to-morrow." 
 
 " Thank you," said Marvel simply. " I am glad you 
 have arranged it so. Cicely," regarding her earnestly, 
 " has it ever occurred to you that she is very ill ? " 
 
 " Never. She is too insolent for that. Lucy once hinted 
 something of the kind to me, but I don't believe it." 
 
 " I do, then. Sometimes in the very middle of her most 
 brilliant moments she seems to shrink into herself, and a 
 curious and almost cruel light grows within her eyes. I 
 know it. I have watched it, and I think it is born of pain. 
 Oh ! Cicely, I am sure that she is suffering secretly 
 silently ; that she tries to hide the knowledge of her 
 suffering from the world." 
 
 " Well, so be it. It would be a pity to spoil a lomance 
 that interests you so deeply. But even if true, I confess 
 I shouldn't cry about it. What are you so solemn about
 
 284 MAEVEL. 
 
 now, Marvel? I do believe," severely, "you would do 
 that false creature a good turn if you could ! " 
 
 Marvel pondered a while. 
 
 " I would," she said at last bravely ; " call me poor- 
 spirited if you will, but I only wish I had the chance of 
 doing it." 
 
 " Spirit ! You haven't a particle of it," said Mrs. Verulam 
 indignantly. 
 
 " Not an atom, I often think. It is strange, is it not, 
 that I should so desire her friendship ? I can't explain it 
 even to myself, and yet I know I would do anything to kill 
 this hatred with which I have so evidently inspired her. 
 That curious fascination I felt on first seeing her, you 
 remember ? and which I believed to be a mere passing 
 emotion that would die away on acquaintance, has strength- 
 ened rather than decreased." 
 
 "You are a dreamer of dreams," said Mrs. Verulam, 
 trying hard to be contemptuous and failing. "And yet is 
 it wise to strive so hard against one's natural workings ? 
 You would be a saint, but can you ? Is it possible to ' love 
 mine enemy ? ' We all know ' The world and life's too big 
 to pass for a dream,' yet you would make yourself a mere 
 puppet in it the world I mean to be tossed to and fro 
 at the whim of a worthless worldling, consoling yourself 
 perchance with the thought that it is all for your soul's 
 benefit ! Or else, perhaps, is it that you would say : 
 
 ' I do these wild things in sheer despite, 
 And play the fooleries you catch me at, 
 In pure rage ! ' 
 
 For fooleries they are, darling, if you think it your duty to 
 act the Good Samaritan to Leonie Scarlett" 
 
 " I never knew you so severe before. I have told you 
 how I feel towards her, dear Cicely, and whatever motives 
 you may impute to me I cannot alter now. I am no saint, 
 no angel ; no hypocrite either ! " She spoke the three last 
 words in a very low tone, and tears gathered in her eyes. 
 
 "Oh, Marvel! What a word to use! If I have hurt 
 you, how shall I forgive myself ? " 
 
 Marvel laughed and blinked back the tears.
 
 MAKVEL. 285 
 
 " You have not hurt me, you could not," she said. " I 
 understand you too well for that. But Mrs. Scarlett, I 
 confess, is a troublesome subject. Let us forget her and 
 take to something else. Sir George, for example. What 
 of him ? I duly noted the fact that you lost yourself with 
 him for a considerable time behind the curtains, but I 
 could not discover by mere scrutiny if anything or nothing 
 came of it." 
 
 " Something, certainly. An unlimited supply of abuse, 
 as applied by me to him ! Oh," with a sigh of angry im- 
 patience, " I don't believe there is under heaven so annoy- 
 ing a man." 
 
 "I believe at all events that there is no man so well 
 suited to you, or who loves you as well. I believe also that 
 you love him." 
 
 " Nobody can prevent you, of course. This is a free 
 country. Believe away as hard as you can." 
 
 " Well, now honestly, what do you think yourself? " 
 
 " If you put it so, I shall feel myself compelled to lie. 
 When any one says to you, ' Now, to tell you the honest 
 truth,' or ' Well, to be honest with you,' grasp at once the 
 fact that a tremendous tarradiddle is about to be poured 
 into your ears." 
 
 " Nonsense, Cicely ! I don't want to listen to such put- 
 up trash as that. But there is Sir George, and I do think," 
 softly pressing Cicely's face in her own direction with her 
 little velvet palm, so that the fire-flames fell upon it, " that 
 sometimes you feel that he that he is " 
 
 " Not at all. Not a bit of it," interrupted Mrs. Verulam 
 with great aplomb. " You give me credit for too much. 
 Some day I shall seem to you a disgraceful defaulter. Yet, 
 with regard to Sir George, I don't mind admitting to you, 
 and you only, that he is the main wall of the biggest enigma 
 I know. Do I like him ? Do I dislike him ? Is he the 
 most uncompromising bore I know, or the most entertain- 
 ing companion ? Do I wish him dead ? or would his death 
 be a calamity ? To all these questions I perpetually tell 
 myself I have no answer ready. Yet there is one thing ; " 
 she drew herself up into a more likely posture, and smiled 
 as if amused at herself. " if at any time I miss him at my
 
 286 MARVEL. 
 
 elbow, I confess I feel deeply wronged ! Now, how account 
 for that ? It is the more difficult, because when he is there 
 I invariably feel indignant. Now what would you make 
 out of all that ? " 
 
 " A conundrum, of course, as you suggested ; and one 
 too to which Sir George alone will find the answer. Give 
 him the chance ! " Her last suggestion was uttered in a 
 sweet voice, and one full of entreaty. 
 
 " Has he enlisted you in his service ? If so, a most 
 sweet emissary," said Mrs. Verulam, stooping to kiss her 
 brow. " But," gaily, " surely he has chances enough. He 
 is coming to me next month." 
 
 " He has stayed with you often before. That means 
 nothing." 
 
 " Say you so, fair prophetess ? Well, time works wonders, 
 as they tell us. Let us see what this month may bring 
 forth ! " 
 
 " There goes the click of the smoking-room door," cried 
 Marvel suddenly. " Did you hear it ? No ? You must 
 be deaf then. Now listen." 
 
 And slowly, surely, one after one came the measured 
 tramp of men's feet up the staircase. They could hear how 
 Geraint turned off there, and how Dameron went on past 
 their door. How Wriothesley entered the next room and 
 there went fussing about a good deal, and did quite a tre 
 mendous business with the poker, so that it might reason- 
 ably be supposed that his fire was now aglow. And then 
 suddenly all sound died away and the house was as calm 
 as though death alone instead of eager life reigned in it. 
 
 " Come now," said Marvel, who was standing at the 
 open door to make sure that the last footsteps had indeed 
 died away. " Now we may venture." 
 
 They stole downstairs on tiptoe and entered the supper- 
 room, gaunt and deserted and lampless, but it was only the 
 work of a moment to transform it once more into a chamber 
 of light. They lit the lamps in fact and drew their chairs 
 up to the table, and in spite of the depredations of the 
 former visitants made themselves out an excellent supper. 
 They were still laughing and chatting over it when the door 
 opened and Nigel Savage came in.
 
 MARVEL. 087 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 * I shall go my ways, tread out my measure, 
 
 Fill the days of my daily breath 
 With fugitive things not good to treasure, 
 
 Do as the world doth, say as it saith ; 
 But if we had loved each other O sweet, 
 Had you felt, lying under the palms of your feet, 
 The heart of my heart, beating harder with pleasure 
 To feel you tread it to dust and death." 
 
 HE looked pale, haggard and altogether as miserable as a 
 man might be. The smile he conjured up, when with a 
 start he awoke to a sense of their presence, was both strained 
 and unhappy. 
 
 u Why. I thought you were all in bed," cried Mrs. Verulam, 
 half rising from her chair. 
 
 " The rest may be, I am not," returned he lightly. " I 
 am a wakeful soul at all times. Sleep is coy with me 
 and eludes me, many a night and oft. So oft indeed that I 
 sometimes dread to woo her ; so to-night, a happy fear, as 
 it has once more brought me into your company." He 
 smiled more naturally as he said this, yet as he concluded 
 what ought to have been the most cheerful portion of the 
 speech, he sighed heavily. 
 
 " That most unlovely of all passions, hunger, brought us," 
 said Mrs. Verulam gaily ; " but what, may I ask, drove you 
 at such an hour to the ' deserted banquet hall ? ' ' 
 
 He looked in a degree embarrassed, and hesitated, as one 
 might who was about to arrange an answer that would be 
 far from the truth, when kindly fate, in the shape of Mrs. 
 V srulam's maid, saved him from " ye readie lie " that was 
 now prepared to trip with lightness from his tongue. 
 
 " Madam," whispered the maid," a note from Sir George ;" 
 he said it was to be delivered immediately. It is in your 
 room. I " 
 
 " Very good," whispered her mistress sedately, " you can 
 go." But then she went too, leaving Marvel and Nigel 
 Savage alone in the half-lit oak-panelled dining-room. 
 
 " Well," said Marvel lazily, looking up at him, " what did 
 bring you ? " She had come over to the resuscitated fire
 
 288 MAKVEL. 
 
 and was leaning back in the depths of a huge armchair, eat 
 ing slowly and with evident pleasure some crystallized fruit 
 she had carried away from the table. Her pretty loose gown 
 clung softly to her figure, and half her rounded arms were 
 bare. She was a little fatigued after the dancing and genera! 
 exertions of the evening, and this had thrown a suspicion of 
 languor into her beautiful eyes. To Savage she had nevei 
 before looked so lovely, and a very passion of despair and 
 regret awoke within him. For himself, in that the love of 
 his life was bound to wither and die without hope of fruition, 
 without touch of gladness; for her, because, he believed her 
 unbeloved, uncared for, a pearl thrown to one who knew 
 not the value of gems. It seemed to him a cruelty that 
 cried aloud for vengeance and redress, that this priceless 
 thing should be for ever tied to one who saw not her per- 
 fections, whilst there was another who would have thought 
 himself only too blessed if permitted to lay his very life at 
 her feet. 
 
 There was a very keen sense of the hopelessness of all 
 things as he stood now looking down upon her with the 
 knowledge full upon him that perhaps, indeed in all human 
 probability, it was for the last time. He had known for a 
 good while that he must go, and to-night had decided him. 
 He would leave, and at once. He could no longer trust 
 himself to stay with her and be silent. He had quite 
 determined to guard his secret to the last to take it away 
 with him so that she might never know, although there was 
 a vehement desire within him to tell her to let her know 
 the strength of the love with which she had inspired him. 
 
 And now now, as he gazed on her, lo ! all his good 
 resolutions faded and died from him, and only his wild 
 sorrow and his craving to speak aloud the love that was con- 
 suming him remained. 
 
 "Well," said she again, as she finished the last of her 
 sweetmeats and cast a little side glance at the table as if to 
 see if there were any more, " you don't tell me how it was 
 you came in here ? " 
 
 Her innocent persistence and the lovely playful smile 
 she gave him did away with the last remnant of righteous 
 determination left to him.
 
 MARVEL. 289 
 
 " Must I tell you, really?" he asked, -in a tone that was 
 slightly unsteady. Something in his manner warned her, 
 and she glanced up quickly. 
 
 " Not if you don't wish it," she said, with a soup f on of 
 haste in her air. 
 
 " I do wish it," said he defiantly. " I came for this ! " 
 
 He went over to a chair that was pushed back against the 
 wall, pulled it out, and picked up from the floor behind it a 
 white rose, faded now, but sweet still and exhaling a per- 
 fume that seemed to be part of Marvel herself. And so 
 indeed it was, a part she had let fall during a minute or two 
 when she had paused in the supper-room. 
 
 " You dropped this," he said ; " it was difficult to pick it 
 up when all the rest were looking on, but I threw it there 
 and watched and waited until the house slept, as I believed, 
 to come and rescue it." 
 
 He spoke with a certain carefulness even yet, but the fire 
 in his eyes and voice broke through all bonds and betrayed 
 him to her. She rose abruptly to her feet, her face whiten- 
 ing. 
 
 " Nigel I " she said. Her voice trembled ; it was such a 
 disastrous, such a terrible discovery to her, that words failed 
 her ; a sense of loss too was with it. His friendship, upon 
 which she had so fondly relied, where was it now ? Gone ; 
 swallowed up in the fierce torrent of this overwhelming 
 passion. 
 
 " You are surprised," he said with a short laugh that was 
 miserable enough to bring tears to her eyes. " I have 
 successfully deceived you all along, have I not ? You 
 have trusted in me as the calm, agreeable friend to whom 
 you could turn when troubles assailed you. You were 
 almost sorry for me when paltry gossip as shortsighted as 
 it was contemptible insisted that my mild friendship was 
 but another name for love, but now you know ! " 
 
 He spoke with an open' defiance, as though glorying in 
 her blindness ; his black eyes gleamed and his nostrils were 
 slightly dilated. 
 
 " What do you call me now ? " he went on, as though 
 passion, long repressed, drove him hither and thither as it 
 willed. " A traitor ? One who purposely misled and deceived 
 
 iq
 
 290 MAKVEL. 
 
 you ! " He had been speaking with a fierce impetus, but 
 now it failed him suddenly, and his voice sank. " Is this 
 to be the end of it," he said, " that you are to remember me 
 only with scorn and hatred ? Oh, Marvel ! " He fell at 
 her feet and took a fold of her gown in his hands and 
 pressed his lips to it convulsively. 
 
 The girl stood motionless as if turned into stone, shocked, 
 horrified, hardly yet believing ! It was a hateful revelation, 
 that left her bare of one good friend upon whom she would 
 have staked much, and she was unable for the moment to 
 realize the anguish that lay crouching at her feet. 
 
 " Marvel ! " he said again, in a low stifled tone ; and still 
 no word of comfort, no hope of pardon, came from her. A 
 long awful minute swept by in absolute silence, and then 
 again he spoke : 
 
 " You have judged me, and condemned /" he said faintly, 
 still with his face hidden in her gown. " It is just, perhaps, 
 
 but " A heavy sigh escaped him, that rose and reached 
 
 her ears. Suddenly the floods of pity that always lay close 
 to her gentle heart broke loose ; she bent down over him 
 and with her slender hands tried to raise him to his feet. 
 
 "Oh! no, no!" she whispered brokenly. "Oh, Nigel! 
 it is a miserable thing, but perhaps you could not help it." 
 
 The simplicity of this little speech went to his very soul. 
 No, he could not have helped it. 
 
 " Darling, beloved ! " he said with a wild sob or two, and 
 caught the tender healing hands and pressed them to his 
 lips. 
 
 " You must not speak like that," she said anxiously, bend- 
 ing over him and releasing, after a moment, one of her hands 
 from his, the other he clung to with a desperate longing. 
 "You forget. Do not kneel there, dear Nigel, but get up 
 and listen to me." 
 
 He rose, obedient to her word, and stood before her, with 
 his head down-bent, as if ashamed of the emotion it betrayed. 
 He still held her right hand, as though he could not bear 
 to part with it, and she, of her goodness, did not seek to 
 withdraw it after that one first effort. -He held those pretty 
 fingers pressed close within his own, as though by means of 
 them he might still keep near to her who seemed to him
 
 MAEVEL. 291 
 
 an angel sent down from the blue sky above him, nor for 
 his joy but his undoing. 
 
 She began to speak again, this time more slowly, and with 
 a tremulous accent. 
 
 " Surely you do not remember," she said, " how it is with 
 me?" 
 
 " That is what I do remember ! that is what has driven 
 me to this ! You would tell me that you are a woman with a 
 husband, to whom, therefore, all other spoken love save his 
 is but an insult ; but are there no exceptions 10 a cold rule 
 like that ? If I, loving you as I do, and if he, loving you 
 not at all " 
 
 "Oh! hush!" she breathed faintly, but he would not 
 listen; the storm of his desire had caught him now in all 
 its fury, and was hurling him along. 
 
 " Do you still believe, in such days as these, that however 
 a man may neglect a woman she should still be loyal to him, 
 because a few most senseless words have been read over their 
 heads ? that she should, for that cause too, cast aside as 
 unworthy all other love, however sacred, however earnest 
 it might be?" 
 
 He paused and looked at her eagerly. 
 
 " Yes," said Marvel, in a soft sweet voice, " that is what 
 I do believe." 
 
 "You cling to the traditions of your ch : ldhood," cried 
 he impatiently ; " what you then learned seems to you still 
 to be all that is best and right. Have you never a fuller 
 vision? Is it not possible to you to imagine something 
 broader, more lifelike, than this dull programme you have 
 arranged for yourself ? " 
 
 He looked at her eagerly, with an impassioned air and a 
 vague touch of impatience. Marvel stood, hesitating as it 
 seemed to him, as he hoped but in truth her silence had 
 only to do with a desire to answer him as her heart and 
 honest sense of right dictated. She lifted her head presently 
 and looked fair at him, no embarrassment in her lovely eyes. 
 
 " I think," she said gently, " that a woman should respect 
 herself. That when a name is given into her keeping, no 
 matter in what circumstances " with a sad flushing of the 
 earnest brow " she should guard it as a sacred trust." 
 
 IQ 2
 
 92 MARVEL. 
 
 " You mean that it is your duty to respect and guard the 
 honour of a man who deliberately and wilfully neglects 
 you ? " 
 
 " You grow too personal," she said, still very gently, but 
 with some dignity. " I have said that a woman should re- 
 spect, not her husband so much as herself" 
 
 "And at the same time break her heart, and that of the 
 man who truly loves her ! and all for what ? Is life so long 
 that we can let the best of it go by, for the sake of a mere 
 empty shell called respectability; must we be ever 'the 
 galley-slaves of dreary forms ? ' Here, on this hand, is one 
 who hardly cares whether you live or die, and here " he 
 drew closer to her " is one who Marvel ! you know what I 
 would say ! There are other lands, other " 
 
 " Stay, do not speak ; do not, I entreat you," cried she 
 sharply, as if in bitter fear. She raised her hands to cover 
 her ears, and then, as if unable longer to control herself, she 
 burst into tears. " Ah ! was it indeed true that HE cared 
 not whether she lived or died ? how terrible a thought ! 
 Alas ! why could not she die if that was all he wanted ? " 
 
 At this moment Mrs. Verulam re-entered the room. She 
 glanced first at Marvel in tears and then at Savage, white 
 and wretched, and a rather dismayed expression came into 
 her eyes. 
 
 " What is this ? What has happened ? " she asked, turn 
 ing indignantly to Savage. 
 
 " It is nothing, nothing indeed ! " said Marvel miserably ; 
 " it is only my own folly." 
 
 "On the contrary, my fault," interrupted Savage gloomily. 
 " I said something to Lady Wriothesley that annoyed her- 
 I am not, however," doggedly, " sorry that I said it." 
 
 " Then you ought to be," said Mrs. Verulam angrily. 
 " What on earth could it have been, to reduce her to this 
 state ? " 
 
 " I told her I loved her," said he sullenly. Then he went 
 up to Marvel "I wish you wouldn't cry like that," he 
 said angrily "I wish I were dead rather than have made 
 you cry, and you know it I If you have any humanity in you 
 stop/" 
 
 He was indeed as white as death as he spoke, and even
 
 MARVEL. 293 
 
 Mrs. Verulam, who was very angry with him, could not 
 doubt but that it was honest emotion, born of however 
 wrong a cause, that made him so. 
 
 " I think you had better make up your quarrel as quickly 
 as you can," she said impatiently. " A little more of this, 
 and the day will begin to break. Marvel, say good-night to 
 Mr. Savage, and come upstairs with me. You can punish 
 him in the morning, if you will." 
 
 " There will be no morning for that sort of thing," said 
 he mournfully. " I shall have left this by dawn. I was 
 about to bid Lady Wriothesley farewell when you came in." 
 
 " You are going ? " said Marvel. 
 
 " Yes, for ever ! " He looked with haggard entreaty into 
 Mrs. Verulam's eyes. " If I might if you would let me 
 be alone with her for even three minutes," he said. 
 
 Cicely hesitated, and then gave in. After all three 
 minutes out of the rest of his lifetime was not much to 
 grant. She went silently out of the room and closed the 
 door behind her. 
 
 " You are really going ? I shall lose my friend," said 
 Marvel, deep sadness in her tone. All things seemed to 
 be deserting her. 
 
 " Not if you wish it otherwise, if " She put up her 
 
 hand. 
 
 " Let our last words be such as I shall care to remember," 
 she said brokenly. 
 
 " Tell me," said he, taking her hand and speaking as if 
 with difficulty. "I know it already, yet cruel as the 
 longing is I do long to hear it from your own lips. You 
 have never loved me ? " 
 
 She hesitated, and grew so miserable, that he certainly 
 knew it then, if not before. 
 
 " Dear Nigel, as a friend, I do indeed dearly love you," 
 she said nervously. " But " 
 
 " No ; no more. It is needless," he checked her ab- 
 ruptly. " Good-bye," he said, taking both her hands in his ; 
 " God bless you." He bent over them, and kissed them 
 vehemently. He seemed lost in grief, and the tears were 
 running down her cheeks, when a sound behind them made 
 both start.
 
 294 MAEVEL. 
 
 Wriothesley was standing in the middle of the room 
 gazing at them, profound disgust in his expression ! 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 u My first thought was, he lied in every word." 
 
 u Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eye, 
 Despising what they look on." 
 
 THE disgust gave way presently to a curiously unpleasant 
 smile. 
 
 " Are you going ? " he said to Savage, who came towards 
 him. " Pray don't let me " 
 
 "Can you give me a few moments ?" said Savage, some 
 agitation in his tone. 
 
 "Certainly; though if you could make it one I should 
 feel grateful." 
 
 They were outside in the hall now, and closed the door 
 of the supper room, so that Marvel might not hear. 
 
 " Well," he said harshly. He found a strange difficulty 
 in speaking at all, as passion was fast getting the mastery of 
 him. He was conscious of a dangerous longing to take 
 this man by the throat and shake the very life out of him. 
 But he knew that it would hardly do to make a scene here 
 and at this hour, and strove hard to control himself. He 
 would save from blighting touch of scandal if he could, not 
 her indeed she was not worth it but the old good name. 
 
 ".I am leaving England Europe for an indefinite time. 
 I start to-morrow," began Savage hurriedly. " Just now you 
 witnessed my farewell to her. You know I love her. 
 But," he was speaking very disconnectedly, " I feared from 
 what you saw that you might misinterpret might think - 
 that Lady Wriothesley entertained for me anything warmer 
 than the most ordinary friendship." 
 
 He stopped, hopelessly embarrassed. It was indeed the 
 clumsiest thing, and Wriothesley put it from him, as it 
 were, with an insulting gesture, and a short laugh. 
 
 " Not I," said he. " That Lady Wriothesley should do
 
 MARVEL. 995 
 
 you the honour to esteem you above the crowd? No! 
 Believe me, you flatter yourself, sir, most vainly." 
 
 He ran his eye contemptuously over Savage from his 
 head to his heel. His whole air was so studiously insolent 
 that Savage in turn felt his wrath grow hot within him. His 
 eyes flashed, and the colour forsook his lips, but Wriothesley, 
 as though disdaining further converse with him, went back 
 into the supper room and deliberately shut the door in his 
 face. 
 
 Marvel was still standing on the hearthrug, her hand- 
 kerchief to her eyes, crying softly but miserably. The sight 
 of her, so, maddened Wriothesley. A very demon of rage, 
 and shame, and disappointment shook him. He leant over 
 the back of a chair and stared at her with eager gloomy 
 eyes, and a cruel little sneering smile curled his lip. 
 
 " Quite right, my dear," he said slowly. " Better cry 
 now than later on. I congratulate you on the common 
 sense that kept you from running away with him." 
 
 Marvel's hand trembled a little, but she did not look up 
 or change her position in any way. 
 
 " I have no doubt you think now you have reached the 
 very lowest depths of grief," he went on in the same 
 sneering tone. " But is it really necessary you should shed 
 such torrents of tears ? Is it good enough ? The loss 
 of that rather brigand-like lover of yours is of course a 
 severe one, but you'll get over it. And let me assure you, 
 that humdrum and prosaic as a respectable life with me 
 must appear after the brilliant career he offered you, still it 
 will be a life that will pay you better in the long run than 
 er that other ! " 
 
 If he thought to see her shrink from him after this 
 abominable speech, hurt, angry, wounded, he found himself 
 immensely mistaken. She came from behind her hand 
 kerchief indeed, and threw up her head with a pretty proud 
 movement. She came a few steps closer to him and looked 
 him full in the face with large indignant eyes. 
 
 " You are a very vulgar person," she said, in her clear 
 distinct voice. 
 
 He was quite as surprised as though she had given him 
 a little blow. The sneering demon vanished from his face,
 
 296 MAEVEL. 
 
 and a great weariness took its place. He looked suddenly 
 older, worried, and hopeless, and coming from the back of 
 the chair, dropped languidly into the seat of it. 
 
 " I'm tired of it all," he said. 
 
 "Tired of me, you mean," said she with some spirit. 
 
 " Be that as it may, I confess I want now to be done 
 with the whole thing. You are unhappy with me ; I am 
 not happy with you." He made the little subtle difference 
 in the two meanings apparent to her by the slight pause. 
 " Let us come to some decision." 
 
 "You mean a separation." She pressed her lips hard, 
 and hated herself passionately at the moment because of 
 the tears she fought so wildly to subdue. She stood before 
 him trembling, angry, in a miserable despairing yet so 
 lovely, so sweet a thing 
 
 " That was whiter than thistle-down," 
 
 that he hardly dared trust himself to look at her, lest his 
 righteous rage should cool within him. 
 
 " Not a formal one," he said. " For Heaven's sake let 
 us not be town-talk for the amusement of our friends. 
 Vulgar as you deem me," with a slight frown, "I would 
 carefully avoid that. But I see no reason why we should 
 annoy each other with these perpetual scenes, and with the 
 presence of each other." 
 
 "I don't see how you are going to manage it just at 
 present, at all events. You are coming with me to Cicely's, 
 are you not ? " 
 
 "Certainly not. I shall cancel that engagement. You 
 can go your way for the future, and I shall go mine. I have 
 had quite enough of this sort of thing. I don't care about 
 spending the rest of my life watching you weeping over your 
 farewells to your lovers." 
 
 " Take care ! " said she in a low voice. 
 
 " Why ? Can you deny he loves you ? That he told you 
 so, and more more" His brow grew black again. 
 
 "If he does love me, is no reason why you should 
 address me in such a tone. I could not prevent that 
 misfortune. It was no fault of mine. I had nothing to do 
 with it"
 
 MARVEL. 297 
 
 " Of course not No woman ever yet had. It is the 
 regulation answer. However, let that pass. The real 
 matter at issue is, that I shall cease to worry you with my 
 presence. I shall accompany you and Cicely as far as town 
 to-morrow, and then run across to Paris or somewhere." 
 
 " A charming arrangement for you, no doubt, but what of 
 me?" 
 
 " You can go where you will. You have apparently hosts 
 of dear friends who will gladly welcome the new fashionable 
 beauty " with a bitter smile " to their houses. Whenever 
 you tire of them, or whenever you want me to get you out 
 of another dilemma, such as that ' lock-up ' affair, you can 
 drop me a line." He was as good as his word. In the 
 morning he accompanied them to town, saw them into the 
 train that would take them down to Grangemore, and bid 
 them a calm farewell upon the platform. It was all a 
 surprise to Cicely, and, at the first knowledge of it, a regret ; 
 but after a while she began to regard it as a salutary move- 
 ment, and consoled herself with the reflection that absence 
 has been very often proved the most beneficial of medicines. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 "If you loved me ever so little, 
 
 I could bear the bonds that gall, 
 I could dream the bonds were brittle : 
 You do not love me at alL" 
 
 Six weeks of silence between them followed. Whether 
 Wriothesley was in Paris or Timbuctoo was unknown to 
 Marvel. February had come and gone, bringing its sweet 
 promise of opening buds, and leaving that promise ful- 
 filled. March had come in, in the orthodox way, with the 
 roar of a lion enraged, but after a day or two had subsided 
 into the tamest of animals, and was now all smiles and sweet- 
 ness, to Mrs. Verulam's deep satisfaction, as her house party 
 had arrived, and it is difficult to know what to do with the 
 women portion of it when wintry winds do blow. 
 
 Marvel, who had a positive talent for slipping into her
 
 298 MARVEL. 
 
 clothes and looking lovely in an incredibly short space ot 
 time, had just finished her dinner toilette, and going down- 
 stairs in the rather joyless, emotionless manner that had 
 characterized her of late, made her way into the inner draw- 
 ing-room that communicated with the larger reception-room 
 by means of hanging curtains. It was a smaller room, and 
 cosier, and to-night she felt chilled and disinclined for the 
 lively chatter in which she usually held a high place. She 
 was indeed fast developing into a brilliant creature made to 
 be copied and admired, though at heart she was still the 
 tender loving child who held affection for and from the 
 beloved object the supremest good on earth. 
 
 She sank with a thankful sigh into a low lounging chair, 
 and, in the soft twilight of a glorious fire, gave herself up to 
 thought. She was dressed as usual in a white clinging gown 
 of lace and satin, that rose close to her throat, but left all 
 her lovely arms naked to the shoulder. She had raised 
 them and thrown them behind her, so that her head could 
 rest upon the palms of her joined hands. 
 
 The firelight shone upon her thoughtful face and played 
 amongst the soft locks that grew in a riotous confusion on 
 her forehead. She had stretched herself in happy antici- 
 pation of no disturbance, and one daintily-shod foot was 
 lying crossed over the other, and both were peeping from 
 beneath the ivory satin of her skirt, that the rays from the 
 glowing pine logs set gleaming. She made an exquisite 
 picture lying thus in her white robes with her shining eyes 
 filled with a certain melancholy. White was the colour she 
 loved best, the colour her auntie had ever chosen for her. 
 
 " Do you always wear white ? " Wriothesley had said to 
 her once. " One would think you had vowed yourself to 
 some saint, some order." 
 
 She remembered those words now, and was dwelling upon 
 them with a half-regretful feeling that she had not so been 
 vowed in her earlier infancy, when she looked up and saw 
 Wriothesley push aside the heavy velvet curtains and come 
 towards her. 
 
 " Well, you see I have come back ! " he said with a 
 rather awkward laugh. 
 
 She sprang to her feet, and stood looking at him with
 
 MARVEL. 299 
 
 parted lips and breath that came and went with a glad 
 haste. The melancholy disappeared from her eyes, and 
 with a movement of frank and childish pleasure she held out 
 both hands to him. 
 
 " Why" she said, " why" and that was all. There 
 was no real meaning in the foolish word, and yet a world of 
 meaning. He did not dare to read it as it was, or he would 
 have clasped her to his heart and prevented many an after 
 sorrowful hour ; he only took her hands and bent over them 
 and kissed them warmly twice. 
 
 He was in his hunting things, and was rather splashed 
 about the boots, but he looked very big and strong and 
 handsome, and a little small sense of possessive gladness 
 warmed her. He was hers at least, no matter how things 
 went. No other woman could call him husband. He was 
 smiling, as if pleased with his reception, and the well-sized 
 patch of mud that adorned the tip of his left ear did not in 
 her opinion detract from his appearance. She would have 
 given anything to be able to stand on tiptoe and rub it off, 
 however, but she felt that she could not do it without a 
 consciousness that would have rendered the act unpardon- 
 ably awkward. 
 
 She withdrew her hands and sat down once more in her 
 chair. Wriothesley drew up another and seated himself 
 opposite to her on the hearthrug ; both looked hard at the 
 fire, as though intent on warming themselves, and altogether 
 it was a veritable Darby and Joan sort of a picture, taken 
 from a superficial glance at it. But already that awkward- 
 ness she so dreaded was descending upon them ; and that 
 first kind touch of nature was dying beneath an irrepressible 
 restraint. 
 
 " I did not know you were here in the country," she 
 said at last in a rather uncertain tone. 
 
 " I suppose not. I ran down to the Carringtons yesterday, 
 and after a capital run to-day found myself close to the 
 Grange, so I thought I'd look in for a moment to see how 
 you and Cicely were getting on." 
 
 He spoke with quite a severe assumption of indifference, 
 and naturally it angered her. 
 
 " It was so good of you," she said with a little icy smile.
 
 300 MARVEL. 
 
 " But how foolish to come so late. How will you be back 
 in time for their dinner ? It is quite a quarter past eight, I 
 should think, now." 
 
 He pulled out his watch and looked at it. 
 
 " By Jove ! so it is. I expect I had better be on the move 
 again," he said; but he did not rise from his seat. 
 
 " If you will dine here " she began coldly. 
 
 " Oh no, thanks not for the world. They will be expect- 
 ing me at Carringtons. It er isn't much of a ride there, 
 and they don't dine to-night till nine." 
 
 " It is quite six miles," she said severely. 
 
 " I suppose you want to get rid of me," rising at last with 
 a short laugh. " Well, I'm glad to have seen you looking 
 so well, and," emphatically, " so happy I Good-night." 
 
 He held out his hand. 
 
 " You are wrong. I shouldn't mind if you sat there all 
 night," she said quickly, " and at least you will let me give 
 you a cup of tea." She touched the bell near her, and as a 
 servant entered gave him some directions. "As to my 
 looking well and happy," she said resentfully, " did you wish 
 it otherwise ? And don't you think you are looking very 
 well yourself?" 
 
 Too well ! she told herself as she watched him through 
 the shadows. If he had looked even a little pulled down, 
 she could have felt more amiably disposed towards him ; 
 but to sneer at her for her good looks when he himself was 
 the very personification of health and spirits, was just a 
 little too bad. 
 
 " I never felt better, certainly," replied he coolly. 
 
 After this there was a considerable pause. Wriothesley 
 leaning forward on his seat, with his elbow on his knee and 
 his hand stroking his moustache, stared moodily into the 
 fire. Marvel, finding a tray placed ready to her, busied 
 herself pouring out a cup of tea. 
 
 " Do you take sugar ? " she asked, more as a means of 
 breaking the unpleasant silence than from a want of know- 
 ledge. 
 
 " Good heavens ! We have been married for a year and 
 a half, and don't you know that yet ? " said he, with un^ 
 reasonable irritation.
 
 MARVEL. 501 
 
 " You do ? " waiting with sugar-tongs upraised. 
 
 " I do." 
 
 "Here is your tea," she said a second later, standing 
 beside him, tall, pale, and slender, in the fire-beams. 
 
 "Thank you." He started slightly, not knowing she 
 was so near, and took the cup from her, and laid it on the 
 rug at his feet. " How strange you look in that white 
 gown," he said ; " like a bride or a dead girl. Did I speak 
 roughly to you ? I don't know why it is that one so soft 
 and young and pale as you can have such power to irritate 
 me. I am always hurting you, it seems to me. That 
 night we were last together, you remember ? I have been 
 sorry about that many times. I would have written, saying 
 so, but I could not be sure that you would care. Would 
 you ? " 
 
 He took the little slim hand that hung by her side, and 
 that was covered with rings she loved them for their beauty 
 as a child might and pressed it gently. He waited eagerly 
 for her answer, with such a decided eagerness indeed that 
 it awoke in her one of those strange perverse moods that 
 poor human nature is ever heir to. 
 
 " Not much," she said with a mutinous, if lovely, glance 
 at him sideways out of her expressive eyes. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he. He let her hand go, took up his cup 
 and drank his tea hurriedly. He was bitterly offended. 
 
 " See a word, how it severeth 1 
 Oh, power of life and death 
 In the tongue, as the Preacher saith I " 
 
 He took no more notice of her, as she stood, frightened 
 now, and grieved for her hardness ; but pushing back his 
 chair, he straightened himself as a man will before taking 
 his departure. 
 
 " Please tell Cicely I am sorry not to have seen her ; but 
 I fear I cannot afford another moment. Good-night, good- 
 bye." 
 
 "Not good-bye," faltered she penitently; "you are so 
 close to us, and Fulke," in a very small voice, " I didn't 
 mean that. I I would have cared." 
 
 " Is that the truth, my dear ? " said he very sadly, " or
 
 302 MAKVEI* 
 
 was that other answer it ? Who shall say ? " He lifted her 
 face with his hand, and looked earnestly at it in the firelight. 
 
 " Oh, do believe what I now say," entreated she in a 
 choked tone. "I don't know why I said " 
 
 "Well, I'll try," said he. He stooped and kissed her 
 cheek, and a moment later was gone. 
 
 Almost as he left, Cicely entered the room by another 
 door. 
 
 " What are you doing here, you foolish person, in the dark, 
 and all by yourself? I've sought you 'upstairs and down- 
 stairs and in my lady's chamber,' all to no avail. Come 
 out of this Cimmerian gloom into the ' higher lights ; ' the 
 others are all in the rose room." 
 
 " I have not been so alone as I seem. I have been giving 
 Fulke his tea." 
 
 " Fulke ! " She feigned her surprise very well, the fact 
 being that she knew of Wriothesley's intended visit to the 
 Carnngtons, and was only now a little amused that he 
 should have put in an appearance here quite so soon. It 
 augured well, she thought, for Marvel's future. 
 
 " Bad halfpennies are always safe to turn up again," she 
 said, with a tilt of her pretty nose. She had taken to 
 abusing Wriothesley of late. " One might have known he 
 would not leave us long in peace undisturbed. Did you 
 have tea with him ? " peering into the second cup. " Pouf ! 
 what a madness, to chance the spoiling of a good dinner 
 
 for the sake of showing courtesy to one who Well, at 
 
 all events, I hope you had a long spoon ; when one sups 
 with the devil, one " 
 
 " Fulke is not exactly a devil," said Marvel, with a touch 
 of reproach in her manner. 
 
 " True. He'd be more endurable if he were ! The luke- 
 warm ones of the earth, the half and halfs, are the truly 
 contemptible. As he happens to be in the neighbourhood, 
 however, I suppose I had better write and ask him to recon- 
 sider his refusal to lend us the light of his countenance for 
 a week or two. Eh ? " 
 
 " As you will," said Marvel, with studious indifference. 
 
 "As you will, rather. I thought you were anxious to 
 prove to your friends that you felt no emotion at seeing him
 
 MARVEL. 303 
 
 and Mrs. Scarlett en tete-a-tete every day and all day long. 
 However, if you object to his coming, why say so, dearest 
 child, and your wish shall be law. Not for worlds would I 
 ask him here, if his coming were to cause you any unpleasant- 
 ness." Her eyes were laughing, and Marvel knew she was 
 insincere in her sympathetic protestations. 
 
 " It will not cause me unpleasantness," she said demurely, 
 whereupon Cicely laughed aloud. 
 
 " You are a hypocrite," she said. "Take care lest I punish 
 you by withholding that invitation I spoke of." 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 " When I take the humour of a thing once, I am like your 
 tailor's needle, I go through." 
 
 EVEN now, well into the middle of boisterous March as it 
 was, the weather still maintained a smiling face. To-day 
 was almost warm, if one contrasted it with those of a fort- 
 night ago. There was a perfume of primroses in the air, 
 and delicate fern fronds were beginning to peep in shaded 
 corners of the shady woods. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam, who had disposed of most of her guests by 
 sending the women to look after the men who had gone 
 shooting in the early part of the morning, stood at the 
 window of her summer parlour, and at last, emboldened by 
 the sweetness of the view without, flung the casements 
 wide, and leant out to enjoy the keen flower-scented air. 
 
 The wind that had howled all night was now dead. It 
 had dropped perhaps behind the great purple-tinted hills 
 beyond that overhung the placid ocean, and 
 
 " Only there sighed from the pine-tops 
 A music of sea far away." 
 
 It was a delicious day, she told herself, and the sense that 
 she was alone to enjoy it rather added to its charm. She 
 was tired of entertaining people, she thought ; and for on*e 
 to be able to sit silently and drink in the cool freshness 
 of this king of days was a real joy.
 
 304 MARVEL. 
 
 Just as she had come to this conclusion she heard a step 
 behind her. She turned impatiently to find herself face to 
 face with Sir George Townshend. Good heavens ! Was 
 she never to escape this man ? She threw up her hands 
 with quite a pathetic appeal. 
 
 " You ? Is it to be always you ? " she said in a tone of 
 despair. 
 
 " Well, I hope so," replied he. " What did you expect ? 
 That I should turn into somebody else ? You wouldn't 
 like me to do a low trick like that, would you ? A conjuror 
 may be a most agreeable person, I've no doubt, but not the 
 sort of creature with whom you would like to link your 
 fate, eh ? " 
 
 "That is quite a remarkable speech," coldly. "You 
 surely don't expect me to follow it. What I want to know 
 only, is why you are not at Lydon Spinney with the 
 others." 
 
 " I was afraid to trust myself with a gun when Castle- 
 rock was of the party. I felt it would be certain to go off 
 of its own accord the moment the muzzle was pointed in 
 his direction. And I'm not sure the time for such an act 
 is ripe. By-the-by, as we are on the subject, you may as 
 well tell me now when I am to blossom into the full-blown 
 murderer ? " 
 
 Lord Castlerock, who was staying at Grangemore, had 
 been very assiduous in his attentions to its pretty mistress 
 for the past ten days ; and though Sir George was by no 
 means jealous of him, he thought it as well to let her know 
 he was not blind to his meaning, and that, in fact, he quite 
 understood all about it. 
 
 Never, I hope," she said, looking back at him from the 
 open window that led to the verandah without a window 
 that framed her in and made a pretty picture of her in her 
 furs and laces. " You are quite obnoxious enough as you 
 are." 
 
 "Nevertheless, I only wait to hear you name your 
 wedding-day with Castlerock, to fall upon him and hack 
 him in pieces." 
 
 " You will be free from crime of that sort for a long time 
 if you wait to hear that"
 
 JIAEVEL. 305 
 
 " You cannot deny, however, that he intends prostrating 
 himself at your feet at the earliest opportunity. I can see 
 it in his eye all to-day and yesterday. And there is 
 Bellingham also. He is going the same road." 
 
 " I shouldn't care if there were twenty of them all 
 travelling together. At least they will have the grace to 
 take their ' No,' and be done with it." This with a glance 
 of scorn. "It is very foolish of them, no doubt, but it 
 will not make me uncomfortable." 
 
 " It will, I think. To turn away twenty broken-hearted 
 men, one after the other, will be a wearying of the flesh to 
 you. Now if you would marry me, you see there would be 
 an end of all that sort of thing." 
 
 " And the commencement of a worse ! Besides," im- 
 patiently, " have I not just told you (only you never will 
 listen to a word I say) that I have no objection to men 
 making themselves ridiculous about me. They are sure to 
 do it about something or other, so it may just as well be 
 me. And it adds a little zest to one's life. Now if I were 
 mad enough to marry you, or any one, all that would be 
 at an end." 
 
 " Why should it ? I'll bind myself in the settlements to 
 propose to you regularly the first Monday in every month, 
 and then you won't have anything to regret." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said she, rising abruptly, as if disgusted with 
 his frivolity. 
 
 "Won't it do? Every Monday in every week then. 
 There, that's a noble offer, if you like ! " 
 
 She stepped out on to the verandah. 
 
 " When people cannot talk sense they should not talk at 
 all," she said, and moved away from him, past the creepers 
 that clung to the balustrades, to the most distant seat that 
 the sheltered verandah held. He instantly picked up a 
 low American cane chair, and dragging it leisurely behind 
 him, came up to her with the little creaking noise it made, 
 and seated himself as close to her as circumstances would 
 permit with all the air of one who was settling down for a 
 nice long cosy chat. 
 
 " Now that is one of the many points on which we are 
 both so entirely agreed," he said comfortably ; " and that 
 
 20
 
 3^6 MAEVEL. 
 
 is why I am always so careful to talk nothing but the 
 severest sense." 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " Well, and when am I to polish off Castlerock ? " he 
 asked presently. 
 
 " My dear friend, if you must talk your usual inanities, 
 please let them be in English that may be ' understanded 
 of the people.' " 
 
 " As you despise my flowers of speech, so be it. When, 
 then, are you to marry Castlerock ? " 
 
 " Nonsense ! You should know me a little too well for 
 that. What on earth should I do with Castlerock ? Why 
 should I (who have determined not to risk my happiness a 
 second time) marry a great, stupid er podgy sort of man ! " 
 
 " Podgy ! That is "an excellent word," said he reflec- 
 tively, " for Castlerock. Now if you object to podginess, 
 why not marry me ? I am long, and lank, and lean enough 
 in all conscience to suit the most aesthetic taste. And as 
 for stupidity, if you really have an aversion to that which 
 raises you far above your fellows, why there you are ! " 
 throwing out his hands expansively. "All the world knows 
 what a brilliant creature I am ! " 
 
 " It is sufficient for me, what I know of you," replied she 
 coolly. And then she murmured some little speech that 
 had the word " obstinate " in it, and another word too. " I 
 am not going to marry you either," she said presently. 
 
 " Well perhaps not just this moment," said he plea- 
 santly, " the day is rather far advanced." He drew a 
 little nearer to her and watched t he rapid movement of her 
 fingers for a minute or so. " What are you doing ? " he 
 asked curiously. 
 
 "Knitting or at least trying to," impatiently. "But 
 how can I remember the stitches when you talk so much ? 
 It is a new pattern, and still puzzles me. Do do try to be 
 silent, if only for a little while." 
 
 " I shall be silent for ever after if you will only have me. 
 But so long as you keep on refusing me, I must of course 
 go on asking you." 
 
 " I wonder you aren't ashamed ! " exclaimed she sud- 
 denly, laying down her work to gaze at him with open scorn.
 
 MAUVEI* 307 
 
 "Of what?" 
 
 " Of going on like that." 
 
 " Like what ? " 
 
 "A spoiled child asking for a sugar plum he mustn't 
 have ! " 
 
 " I am glad you regard yourself in such a pleasant light 
 though ' sugar plum,' I confess, is not the word / should 
 have applied to you." 
 
 " I did not mean it for myself," blushing faintly ; "I 
 was merely " 
 
 " Drawing a little figure for my instruction, I know. But 
 bitters now would be nearer to it, eh? That name would 
 suit you better. And, at all events, it would suit me 
 better; more stimulating, not so nauseating. And why 
 can't I have my bitters?" 
 
 Here Mrs. Verulam maintaining a dignified silence, Sir 
 George edged a little nearer to her still. 
 
 " That is abominable work you are doing," he said, fixing 
 his eyeglass firmly in his eye and staring at the work, in 
 question over her shoulder with a critical gaze. "One, 
 two, three ; one, two, three ; one, two, three, four. Why, 
 any one would think you were learning the piano all over 
 again." 
 
 " I am learning nothing," cried she in despair, laying 
 down the hopeless knitting on her knee and turning on him 
 a wrathful countenance. "You have put me out now 
 irretrievably with your silly counting. I really wish you 
 would either go away altogether (that would be far the best 
 plan), or else be quiet for even a short while." 
 
 " I have just told you," seienely, " that you have only to 
 say one little word and I will be quiet for ever." 
 
 Mrs. Verulam pushed back her chair and rose majesti- 
 cally to her feet. There was the light of a stern resolve 
 upon her brow. 
 
 " George, you have conquered ! " she said in a low, 
 but awe-inspiring voice, " I shall marry you, if only to be 
 revenged upon you." 
 
 Sir George got up instantly. He stretched out his long, 
 sinewy arms and gave himself a mighty shake. A smile 
 illumined his melanchely countenance. 
 
 2O 2
 
 308 MARVEL. 
 
 "It would have saved a considerable deal of valuable 
 time and argument if you had come to that wise decision 
 two years ago," he said. 
 
 " Mark my words, however, you will live to rue this day." 
 
 " If I do I'll tell you about it. In the meantime, I have 
 your promise ? " 
 
 " Yes. I hope," petulantly, whilst trying not to smile, 
 "you are satisfied now?" 
 
 " I am the happiest man on earth. Come," tucking his 
 arm within hers, " let us go for a stroll round the garden." 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 
 In one brief sentence all my sorrows dwell." 
 
 THEY were dragged from their garden of Eden about an 
 hour later by the early return of some of the shooting 
 party. She went to meet them in the charming inner hall, 
 where they stood talking and laughing and warming them- 
 selves by the great fires in the stoves whilst tea was being 
 brought to them. Cicely came upon them, accompanied 
 by Sir George, and with a little radiant air ; and Marvel, who 
 was quick to read the signs of joy or grief in the eyes of 
 those she loved, saw at once that something had happened 
 to her. 
 
 She took advantage of a moment when Mrs. Verulam 
 stood rather apart from the rest to go up to her and whis- 
 per softly : 
 
 " Is it so, then ? " 
 
 " Who shall guard a secret from thee, oh thou marvellous 
 one ! " returned Cicely gaily, but with a little tremor in 
 her voice that meant much. Then some of the others drew 
 near again, and Marvel, with a smile of tenderest sympathy, 
 moved away. 
 
 She was sincerely glad at heart, joyful indeed for her 
 friend's sake, yet never as at this moment had she felt so 
 entirely lonely. She escaped after awhile from the merry 
 crowd and wandered aimlessly into one of the smaller 
 that opened off the library.
 
 MAKVEL. 309 
 
 Here despair seized upon her. The happiness of another, 
 though it had her warmest sympathy, yet opened up to her 
 the wretched poverty of her own existence. She was no- 
 thing, nobody, an unloved wife, a creature without known 
 parentage. She stood in the window, gazing mutely out 
 on the fast darkening gardens and gave herself up to the 
 gloomy misery of the moment. 
 
 All the world was happy ; she alone was debarred life's 
 choicest gifts. What hope could there be for such as she ? 
 Even oh, most improbable of suppositions even were she 
 to gain her husband's love, the mournful fact that the story 
 of her birth was wrapped in mystery that in all probability 
 it contained all the elements of the most shameful shame 
 would come between them always. 
 
 In their very sweetest moments, when his lips lay on 
 hers, would he not still remember that the woman who bore 
 his old and honoured name was herself nameless, that the 
 mother of his children was herself far worse than mother- 
 less ? Then then he would shrink from her. Oh, the 
 bitterness of it ! Only a week ago that pale, smiling 
 enemy of hers that woman whom once he had so loved 
 had whispered such a hint into her ears had in subtle 
 words warned her that so, and for such reasons, in their 
 very fondest hours, he would shrink from her as from a 
 creature loathed. 
 
 Instinctively she put up her hand and drew the locket 
 from her neck and gazed as if fascinated upon the pale, 
 cynical features hidden within it. At this moment she 
 believed she would have bartered all her wildest hopes, nay, 
 life itself, to learn the secret those dead lips could tell, to 
 know the truth as it was, bare and undisguised. For what 
 cruel thing can be deadlier cruel than suspense ? 
 
 A long, long sigh rose from her burdened heart. It 
 seemed to her so little a thing that she desired. Not 
 wealth, not fame, not a high and honourable ancestry ; 
 only a name. And the very lowest, the very poorest 
 had that ! And the very lowest, the very poorest name 
 would do for her ; she craved no more. Not position, or 
 a high sounding title ; nothing but the assurance that she 
 was honestly born. Yet this small boon was denied her !
 
 jio MARVEL. 
 
 Alas ! was she never to know content ? Cicely had 
 gained all; she could not doubt, having once looked into 
 her radiant eyes, that having given in and broken down the 
 wall of determination she had built against a second mar 
 riage that now she was roaming in a realm where perfect 
 bliss held sway. A great envy rose within her, envy that 
 did not hurt her friend, but that rebelled against the differ- 
 ence betwixt Cicely's fate and hers. She would not have 
 had Cicely descend to her poor level, but she would fain 
 have risen to hers. It was all so unequal. Where was 
 justice, or mercy, or that hope that keeps our souls alive ? 
 
 She started violently as a hand was laid upon her shoul- 
 der, and another hand seized upon that fatal locket and took 
 it forcibly from her. 
 
 " Brooding, as usual, over the irrevocable," said Wriothes- 
 ley angrily. " Good gracious ! what a senseless woman 
 you are. Can you not grasp the fact that what is is, 
 and that not all the protestations and bemoanings in the 
 world can alter it. I shall destroy that talisman of yours 
 some day ; it works you only evil." He flung the locket 
 from him as he spoke on to the middle of the table nearest 
 him. " So let your forebodings go," he said. 
 
 " They cling too fast for that," returned she with a sad 
 smile. 
 
 " Come out of this cold, uncomfortable room. See, the 
 fire is quite dead. No wonder you have worked yourself 
 into a fit of the blues." He led her through the folding doors 
 into the library beyond, which was empty, but rich in the 
 possession of a glorious fire. He closed the folding doors 
 again, and pressed her gently into the depths of a huge 
 armchair that adorned one side of the hearth. " Now 
 confess you are looking through spectacles a little less 
 grey," he said. He looked at her as he spoke, and the 
 fact that she was compelling herself to smile became 
 apparent to him. 
 
 " If by going from one room to another we could leave 
 our griefs behind us, how incessantly we should be on the 
 move, what a restless people we should become," she said. 
 " We should learn at last the meaning of perpetual motion." 
 
 " What a melancholy view to take of life ! what a face,
 
 MARVEL. 311 
 
 a tone ! What has so changed you, Marvel ? You were a 
 merry child when when I married you. You are now sad 
 and grave to an excess. Am I to believe," remorsefully, 
 " that it is I who have spoiled your life ? " 
 
 "You! oh no." 
 
 " Your marriage with me, then ? n 
 
 "That in part," said she with a gentle truthfulness, 
 " because it is harder than you know to live unloved ; but 
 that other thing," she paled and turned away from him, 
 " the knowledge that shame rests upon my birth, that is 
 the thing that hurts and galls, and kills each happy 
 moment." 
 
 " Why can you not learn to forget, as others do ? " 
 
 " Do they ? Who can be sure of that ? And, at all events, 
 it is not possible to me. Even in my dreams that shame 
 lives with me ! " She lifted her shining, miserable eyes to 
 his. " When I see all these people, when I mix with them ; 
 when you see me laughing, and apparently as light-hearted 
 as they, do you ever know how it is with me ? I am not 
 so deaf that I cannot hear a word there, a whisper here. 
 They admire, yes, if you will, but as a thing apart. I am 
 not one of them." 
 
 " A charm in itself," lightly. 
 
 " One I do not appreciate," bitterly. " I would willingly 
 forget that I am nameless." 
 
 " You are not that, certainly." 
 
 " But Marvel ! What a name ! One given me by you 
 in a moment's freak ! A name not blessed by church or 
 priest." 
 
 " You have another, however. I beg you will not put 
 that out of remembrance Craven. That at least was blessed 
 by church and priest. You cannot deny it." 
 
 " I would, indeed, that I could," said she with such a 
 solemn melancholy, and with such deep sincerity of tone, 
 that he glanced at her keenly. 
 
 " An ungracious speech," he said. 
 
 " Oh, no," quickly. " I did not mean it so, it was for 
 your sake alone I made it. Do you know," regarding him 
 wistfully, " I sometimes wonder at you. You have been so 
 very good to me, so kind." She broke off unsteadily and
 
 312 MARVEL. 
 
 lifted her hand to her round girlish throat, as if to still the 
 throbbing there. " Sometimes, too, I ask myself why it is 
 you do not curse me." 
 
 " Marvel ! " he spoke in a quick, shocked tone, and drew 
 away her hand from her throat and held it firmly. 
 
 " I do," she went on rapidly, passionately. " I will speak 
 now, if for the last time. But for my folly, our marriage 
 would never have been. It is all my fault all ! I should 
 never have married you ! My unknown birth, nay, my 
 birth that may be worse than unknown, because known to 
 be dishonourable at any moment, should have been a 
 barrier between us. She told me that." 
 
 "She? Who?" 
 
 " Mrs. Scarlett. She has," bitterly, " your interests very 
 much at heart. She told me very frankly that she hated 
 me because I had ruined your life that my unhappy posi- 
 tion, as a mere stray flung up out of the mire of the world 
 at your feet, was the one thing you cannot forgive that 
 I am the solitary blot upon the old name so dear to you. 
 She said so much, so much ! Oh ! " the tears starting to 
 her eyes, " she should not have said it. I knew it, I felt it all, 
 long ago ! " She covered her eyes with her hands. " It was 
 cruel ! " she said breathlessly. 
 
 " Damnably so ! " said Wriothesley, who had turned 
 rather white. " And a lie into the bargain. Were you this 
 instant proved to be " 
 
 " Oh, don't ! " she cried with fierce pain, putting up her 
 hands to check him. " Don't put it into words. I cannot 
 bear it ! " Then she grew calmer. " And why, too, shoulc 
 you forswear yourself for me ? I am nothing, I need be 
 nothing to you. That I trouble, that I fetter you, I know, 
 but what,"l with a miserable appealing glance, " can I do ? 
 You must only wait for death to set you free from me. 
 Day by day I pray for it, yet it never comes. What else 
 can I do ? " She was trembling. Suddenly she looked up 
 at him. " There is one thing that hurts me," she said with 
 the nervous abruptness of a child, " that you should have 
 loved her." 
 
 " What one of us but bears the scars of some past folly," 
 exclaimed he quickly. "At least you do me justice ir
 
 MAKVEL. 313 
 
 acknowledging that such a love is dead. Once, I admit, I 
 loved her, wildly, unreasonably, yet I have lived to bless 
 Heaven that my wishes then (in that mad past) were denied 
 me. I swear to you that now she is hateful in my sight." 
 
 At this moment the doors communicating with the room 
 they had just left were again flung open t violently this time, 
 and Mrs. Scarlett stood on the threshold. She looked old, 
 haggard, wild. She held something clutched in her right 
 hand, and as she advanced into the room she held it out 
 to Marvel. It was the battered old locket that Wriothesley 
 had taken from his wife and flung upon the table. 
 
 " Where did you get this ? " she cried hoarsely. " Is it 
 yours ? Speak, girl." 
 
 " It is mine, yes," said Marvel, going forward quickly as 
 if to take it, but Mrs. Scarlett waved her back. 
 
 " Where did you get it ? " she demanded again. " Why 
 do you hesitate ? Answer me, I command you! " 
 
 Marvel drew back and glanced at Wriothesley as if 
 frightened, as if imploring his support. 
 
 "Pray try to control yourself, when addressing Lady 
 Wriothesley," he said with a look full of ill-suppressed anger 
 directed at Mrs. Scarlett. " If, indeed," coldly, " it be 
 necessary that you should speak to her at all." 
 
 " Do you hear me ? Answer," said she, precisely as 
 though she had not heard him, which, indeed, she had not. 
 " Where did you get this thing ? " 
 
 " I cannot tell you that. I do not know," said Marvel, 
 speaking as though compelled to it by some superior force. 
 " All I know is that it was round my neck on that night 
 when I was abandoned to the fury of the storm, and was 
 
 rescued from it by " She turned with a rather dreamy 
 
 confused air, and held out her hand to Wriothesley. Once 
 again that pitiless storm seemed to break above her head. 
 
 " You ! you ! " cried Mrs. Scarlett, in a low piercing tone 
 that was barely above a whisper. " That, of all others, it 
 should be you J Sweet Heaven, what a revenge for you." 
 She paused and gasped as if for breath. "All along the 
 truth was bare to me, and 1 would not see ; but when this 
 picture," crushing the locket between her fingers, " looked 
 back at me as I gazed on it, I knew."
 
 314 MARVEL. 
 
 " Knew what ? " demanded Marvel, leaning forward with 
 parted lips. 
 
 " That the face within this trinket is that of your father." 
 
 "My father !" the words fell from her in a little hushed 
 tone. At last, at last was she to learn the mystery of her 
 life ; and through this woman. Her heart sank within her. 
 " It is he, then," she said faintly. " But you what do you 
 know of him ? You " 
 
 All at once an awful expression grew within her eyes. 
 Her face blanched to a deathly pallor. Sometimes like 
 lightning- strokes the undreamt-of truth descends upon us, 
 but still she made a last faint struggle against it. " You are 
 
 not " she faltered and shrank back shivering. " Oh no ! 
 
 Oh no ! " she cried in wildest protestation. 
 
 " You have guessed it, I am your mother" said Mrs. 
 Scarlett. 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 " Was life worth living then ? and now is life worth sin ? " 
 
 MARVEL did not move. She stood pale, motionless, as one 
 smitten into marble. A great wave of emotion, strong, 
 terrible, swept over her face, leaving it as colourless as a 
 spent lily. There was horror in it, mingled with a wild 
 hope, and there was dread and a curious longing. 
 
 As for Mrs. Scarlett she seemed all at once to have fallen 
 into the grasp of relentless age. Her mouth had grown 
 thin and drawn, her eyes sunken. She stood staring at 
 Marvel with a gaze that was terrible because of the intensity 
 of it. So this girl, whose life she had been slowly poisoning 
 for the past four months, was her own daughter. Her own 
 child ! She had brought together all her ingenuity, all the 
 subtle forces of her teeming brain, to compass what ? the 
 destruction, body and soul, of this creature who by all rights, 
 human and divine, should be the most sacred thing to her 
 on earth. She had hated her with a-bitter relentless hatred, 
 yet all through it seemed to her now that she had known f 
 The truth had pressed itself upon her, at certain moments
 
 MARVEL. 315 
 
 had stood out boldly before her, daring her to disbelieve ; 
 yet she had thrust it from her. But not for a minute now 
 did she attempt to deceive herself. That pale slender child 
 over there, Wriothesley's wife, was the link between her and 
 the dead past that she had so loathed, and feared to find. 
 
 A silence that was full of a strange fascination had fallen 
 upon all three ; but Wriothesley after awhile broke it. 
 
 " You have created an admirable situation," he said, un- 
 pleasantly " a very dramatic denouement, but you will 
 pa rdon me if I say I should like to hear something about 
 the commencement of your plot." 
 
 " You would hear ? " she said slowly, turning upon him 
 the old enigmatical smile that now was tinged with cruelty. 
 " Well, you shall." 
 
 She had overheard that last remark of his, uttered just 
 as she entered the room, and the flavour of it still rankled 
 in her mouth. Much as she had hated Marvel, more by a 
 thousandfold did she detest this man who now stood before 
 her, sneering, sceptical, contemptuous who had once been 
 her lover ! 
 
 "But first a question or two." She turned to Marvel. 
 " This locket, you say it was found on you the night Lady 
 Mary Craven took you into her house. That night tell 
 me of it." 
 
 " There was a storm," said Marvel confusedly ; " it was a 
 wild tempestuous night. Often and often it all comes back 
 to me. The roaring as of many winds; the dense dark- 
 ness ; the crashing of the branches overhead ; the screaming 
 of some seabirds from the shore below ; and then the step- 
 ping out of the blackness of death, as it were, into the full 
 sweet glare of life."jj 
 
 " A storm ! Yes. And how many years ago was it ? 
 How old were you then ? " 
 
 "Three. More perhaps. I cannot tell." 
 
 " Four," curtly. " Now, do you remember anything of 
 the woman who abandoned you on that night ? " 
 
 " It is such a vague memory, I cannot describe her," said 
 Marvel in a distressed tone, that contrasted oddly with 
 the suppressed vehemence of the other ; " she was old 
 worn "
 
 316 MARVEL. 
 
 " It seems to me," said Wriothesley, breaking brusquely 
 in upon her speech but addressing Mrs. Scarlett, " it is our 
 own tale we are hearing and not yours. You have made a 
 most extraordinary assertion, and I must ask you to verify 
 it without help from us." 
 
 He identified himself so persistently with his wife that 
 the latter looked up at him with shining luminous eyes, and 
 moved involuntarily nearer to him. 
 
 " Do you think I am trying to make up a story ? " said 
 she with a short laugh. " Why, how would it serve me 
 to cumber myself now with a daughter grown ? And are 
 you indeed in such mad haste to hear what I have got to 
 tell? Well, hear it." There was defiance in the glance 
 she cast at him, but there was exhaustion in the air with 
 which she sank into a chair near her. 
 
 " When I was her age," she began, indicating Marvel by 
 a slight gesture, " there came to the dull secluded village, 
 where I lived alone with my father, a young man. My 
 father was well born but poor, and therefore of small 
 account ; the young man was rich. A very orthodox be- 
 ginning to a romance, eh ? " with a cold sneering laugh. 
 " There was good hunting in the neighbourhood and he 
 took a house for the season about three miles from where 
 we lived. He saw me, met me, loved me. It sounds like 
 the famous Csesarean speech, but has even more truth in it. 
 I was lovable then I assume," with a swift and bitter glance 
 at Wriothesley " I was like her." She waved her hand 
 towards Marvel. 
 
 " His name ? " asked Wriothesley shortly. 
 
 " Must you know that too ? Well, it hardly matters. 
 Brandreth Brandreth Boileau." She moistened her lips 
 as though they were parched and dry, and a long breath 
 came from her white lips. " It is so long since I have 
 uttered that name, that almost I find a difficulty in speaking 
 it," she said heavily, with a vain attempt at lightness that 
 failed to hide the agony that shone within her sombre eyes. 
 " He loved me, as I have said, but marriage with me would 
 have been ruin to every worldly hope he had. There was 
 the inevitable uncle, rich, childless, titled ; the title would 
 pass to Brandreth, but very little of the estates were en
 
 MARVEL. 317 
 
 tailed, and the barren honour of calling himself a lord 
 would not have sufficed him, would hardly indeed have kept 
 body and soul together in that state of life to which we 
 have been called. And the old man, the uncle, had other 
 views for him. To disappoint them meant disinheritance. 
 So we loved in silence, in secrecy, and then " 
 
 She raised her hand to her throat as if suffocating. 
 
 " Then five months after we had met he died ! " 
 
 She paused and pressed the palm of her hand upon the 
 locket lying on the table as if she would have crushed it in 
 her pain. 
 
 " It was a railway accident. It was useless to do any- 
 thing ; he was a whole day dead before I heard of it 
 Still cold the beauty frozen on his face. Oh ! " 
 
 Her voice died away in a long gasping sigh and she smote 
 her hands together. 
 
 " There was nothing but him for me. All the world was 
 only him, and he was dead ! " There was intolerable 
 anguish in her tone, anguish fresh as though the story of 
 her woe had been first told an hour agone. " Yet / lived 1 " 
 she said. 
 
 She swayed a little. It became evident to Wriothesley 
 that apart from the excitement of the moment and the 
 cruelty of the memories she had evoked, she was extremely 
 ill. But as he stepped forward to help her, she roused her- 
 self and drove him back from her with an imperious gesture. 
 
 " Don't touch me ! Do you think I am such a feeble 
 thing," she said, " that even such memories will kill me ! 
 Pah ! you do not understand ; you could not love like that. 
 Well, he was dead. It was all over, and then, just then, I 
 found that she," pointing to Marvel, who stood with head 
 down-bent, and face ashen pale, " was to be born ; that 
 was the cruellest sting of all ! " 
 
 A slight sound broke from Marvel ; Wriothesley held up 
 an entreating hand. 
 
 " Spare her what you can," he begged. 
 
 " Why should I spare her even one pang ? " said she 
 coldly, in the low even tone she had employed all through. 
 " Was I spared ? did 2 not suffer ? Who came to my assist- 
 ance when I knew not what to do, or where to turn to hide
 
 318 MAKVEL. 
 
 my head ? At that time too my father died ; I thanked 
 God for that." 
 
 For the first time a soft, a human light grew within her 
 eyes. 
 
 " He never knew" she said. 
 
 Somehow as those words passed her lips, Marvel's soul 
 died within her. She drew herself away from Wriothesley's 
 protecting arm, and a low moan broke from her. 
 
 "You have heard enough for to-day. Wait; hear the 
 rest another time," said he anxiously. 
 
 "No, no," feverishly. "Do you think I could wait? 
 Let me have it all at once ; is suspense a light burden ? " 
 
 " There was a woman," went on Mrs. Scarlett in her low 
 monotone, that now had no emotion in it, "an elderly 
 woman, my own nurse she had been, and in her I confided. 
 Together we left home and sought a remote village on the 
 Cornwall coast, and there you were born." She lifted her 
 eyes to Marvel's with a reluctant dislike. " Even then," she 
 said, " as you lay helpless, powerless, within my arms, I 
 hated you ! " 
 
 She pushed back the hair from her forehead and drew a 
 long breath. She laughed a little. 
 
 " It is true," she said ; " the very brute beast will love 
 its offspring, but I I loathed mine ! As soon as I dared 
 stir, I forsook you, and left you with my nurse. An aunt 
 of mine with whom I had kept up a desultory sort of corre- 
 spondence, and who was well married and living in the 
 world, wrote asking me to go and live with her. I gladly 
 consented ; I even grasped at the chance. It opened out to 
 me a way of retrieving my folly and making myself such 
 a place in the world as I had ever hoped for. But you you" 
 looking at Marvel, " you destroyed all you, and this." 
 
 Again she laid her hand upon the locket wherein lay the 
 dead man's face. The man who alone had ever touched 
 her worldly heart, for whose sake she had been deaf and 
 blind evermore to the attractions of all others. It was the 
 one saving clause in her cold, calculating ambitious nature 
 that one wild absorbing passion of her youth. 
 
 " I feared the discovery of you you hung like a millstone 
 round my neck," she said, still with her reluctant gaze fixed
 
 MAKVEL. 319 
 
 on Marvel, who shrank and shivered before her. "And 
 the woman who kept you grew greedy for her claims. She 
 wrote always for money, and I had none to give. Though 
 living in affluence with that rich woman curse her ! " said 
 she suddenly with an awful bitterness, " I had not one 
 penny ever that I could call my own. I had dresses, 
 trinkets, but no pocket money to speak of. Once she dis- 
 covered me trying to pawn a ring, and after that there was 
 no single moment that I could call my own. Perhaps she 
 suspected something, I never knew, but at all events the 
 woman the nurse though importunate was faithful ; she 
 never betrayed me. Still, when she found she could get no 
 money from me, she tired of you," turning cold cruel eyes 
 on Marvel, " tired, as have all the others ! " 
 
 " Oh ! no. Oh ! have pity," said the girl in a slow pain- 
 ful tone that went to Wriothesley's heart. 
 
 " You would have the truth. Now bear it," said she re- 
 lentlessly. " Yes, even that woman who nursed you would 
 fain be rid of you when she discovered that I could not 
 supply her with the money needful for your wants and her 
 extortionate demands. Your birth was a horror to me," 
 slowly ; " the thought of you a constant, never-dying fear. 
 When, at the end of four years, the woman wrote to me to 
 say you were dead I rejoiced" 
 
 She spoke with such deliberate malignancy that Wri- 
 othesley's blood rose to his face. He glanced compassion- 
 ately at Marvel. She was pale, an icy chill seemed to have 
 passed over her ; she shuddered. 
 
 " Then at last I felt free : the hateful chain that bound 
 me was loosed. I blessed death from my very heart. An 
 old man, rich, pliable a hideous old man had been my 
 suitor for some time ; just then he offered himself to me for 
 the third time and I accepted him. I married Mr. Scarlett, 
 and for the first time for five years a sense of rest stole over 
 me. It lasted for seven years ; then I had a letter from 
 the nurse to say she was dying ; that she was indeed at 
 the very point of death ; that I should come to her, and 
 quickly if I would see her alive and hear from her own lips 
 that which would influence my entire life." She was silent 
 for a moment as if thinking.
 
 320 MARVEL. 
 
 " I arrived at her house a day after the summons reached 
 me. A day too late ! I found her at the very portals of 
 that city we all so fear to enter. She had barely sufficient 
 strength left to tell me that the child whom she had taken 
 from me and whom she had sworn was dead, was still living ! " 
 Perhaps she lied," said Wriothesley hoarsely. 
 
 '* No ; the dying seldom lie, and there was that on her 
 face which forbids the thought of it. She said she had 
 found it impossible to support herself and the child on the 
 small and uncertain sums I was able to send to her from 
 time to time, so that at last she became determined to rid 
 herself of her nursling by leaving her secretly at some work- 
 house where she was unknown. One evening, with this 
 purpose in her mind, she set out with the child, and for 
 many days wandered vaguely inland, not knowing how or 
 fearing to accomplish it. Her heart, she said, failed her as 
 each occasion presented itself; but for myself I don't be- 
 lieve in hearts had she said her courage failed I should 
 have understood." 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders slightly and a faint sneer 
 curled her lips. 
 
 "At last there came a night when, as they trudged 
 wearily, aimlessly along the highway, a storm burst above 
 their heads ; it drove them to the gate of a long dark avenue. 
 On the instant a thought came to the woman ; she pushed 
 open the gate and sped quickly with the child between the 
 rows of stately limes until the white lights of the house 
 gleaming on the awful darkness told her the fulfilment of 
 her desire was at hand. 
 
 " In the pitch blackness who could see her lowering the 
 baby to the ground? She fought her way through the 
 roaring winds and blinding rain to the steps of a stone stair- 
 case that evidently led to a room above, from which shone 
 out the yellow glare of lamps. There she abandoned the 
 child, and with a last parting command to her to climb the 
 steps, desened her for ever." 
 
 "A vcrt.'ty accomplice of a worthy mother," said 
 Wriothr rcy bitterly. 
 
 "Na* cr ! your hatred runs away with you. She was 
 no accc t p! ce of mine. You have paid but ill heed to my
 
 MAKVKL. jai 
 
 words or you would remember that all this that she breathed 
 to me on her dying bed was new and most unwelcome tidings." 
 
 " Do not speak do not interrupt let me hear it all 
 all! " entreated Marvel, turning upon him a look of anguish. 
 
 " Well, there is more to tell ? " questioned he, in answer 
 to her appeal, addressing Mrs. Scarlett. 
 
 "No. No more. So far she had got in her narrative 
 when she lifted herself high upon her pallet, stared wildly at 
 me, made a last fearful effort to speak, and then dropped 
 back like a stone upon her pillow. I seized her. I called 
 aloud to her to name the village near which the child had 
 been left, but all in vain. I even shook her violently, the 
 disappointing, dying thing, hoping thus to recall her, if only 
 for one moment, to a sense of this life, but I failed. I even 
 think," angrily, " that my violence frustrated my own hopes, 
 that that last shake hurried her entrance into oblivion ! At 
 all events she was dead, and with her went every chance 
 of learning the truth." 
 
 " What was the child's name ? " asked Wriothesley 
 abruptly. 
 
 " Margaret she had been christened. Meg, the woman 
 called her. For me, I called her nothing." 
 
 " Meg." As a long past dream suddenly recurs to one's 
 memory, bringing with it a train of thought that had seemed 
 dead and buried this many a day, so now there rushed upon 
 the minds of Marvel and Wriothesley a remembrance of 
 that past, wild, yet happy hour \vhen a little child had been 
 drawn in by loving hands from the damp and death of 
 night to the warmth of a fireside shelter a little child, so 
 small, so cold, that her white lips could scarcely tell them 
 that her name was " M'g." They had not known what it 
 meant then the boy who was now a man, the woman who 
 now was dead but the man remembered and turned his 
 eyes on Marvel with even a gentler tenderness than he had 
 betrayed before. 
 
 That little vague sound " M'g " had meant " Meg " 
 Margaret. Alas ! for the sorrow of it, thought he, dwelling 
 on her grief alone, giving no thought to his own natural 
 regret. 
 
 At this moment Marvel lifted her head. 
 
 21
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 "Even ev'ry ray of hope destroy 'd, 
 And not a wish to gild the gloom.* 
 
 SHE was deadly pale. Her eyes gleamed. She came righ: 
 up to Mrs. Scarlett and laid a burning hand on hers. 
 
 " I have heard all," she said. " But there is one thing 
 
 yet. There was a marriage between you and ." She 
 
 pointed to the open locket. " Say so / " There was silence. 
 Her face now was ghastly, and mechanically she laid both 
 her slender palms on Mrs. Scarlett's arms and shook her 
 to and fro. " Say ;'/ / " she said, her voice being almost a 
 command. 
 
 A malignant smile lit up the other's face. She flung the 
 girl from her with a little swift gesture and turned her eyes 
 full on Wriothesley. 
 
 " There was no marriage ! " she said. " Why should I 
 lie to please you ? " slowly glancing round at Marvel. " No, 
 there was no marriage. He lived; he loved; he died; 
 that was all." 
 
 She broke into a wild laugh. 
 
 " Does it hurt you ? " she cried, and then in a slow, 
 venomous way, " I am glad of it. Ah ! how often you hav? 
 hurt me." 
 
 A quiver ran through . Marvel's slender frame. She 
 caught hold suddenly of one of the curtains near her as if 
 to steady herself, and then with a deplorable gesture turned 
 her face to the wall. 
 
 She leant her arms against it, and her head on them ; if 
 she could have hidden herself away, and shut out from her 
 the world's light for ever, she would have done so. Where 
 indeed was rest, or peace, or light, to be found for her ever 
 again? How should she endure the glare of this earth's 
 scrutiny in all the years to come ? 
 
 There was something so forlorn in her attitude, there wai 
 such an abandonment in it to an eternal despair, that it 
 maddened Wriothesley. He went up to her and tried 
 eagerly to draw her to him, but she resisted him with
 
 MARVEL. 323 
 
 such a passionate vehemence that he did not dare to 
 insist. 
 
 He turned from her and directed all the grief and sorrow 
 and indignation in him, that made his heart sore, on her 
 who was the author of it. 
 
 "You see!" he said, indicating Marvel by a gesture. 
 " Are you satisfied ? Your devilish acts have brought her 
 to this. It should be enough almost for you, I think." 
 
 " Almost ! " coolly. She turned a calm smileless face to 
 his. "You think I should feel regret," she said. "You 
 will deem me a devil when I tell you that I feel only 
 satisfaction." 
 
 Then her tone changed to a sudden fierceness that 
 seemed to sweep all before it. 
 
 "See you!" cried she in a voice vindictive terrible. 
 " I hated her always ! I knew her on that first cursed night 
 when in all her beauty she entered the room and stood be- 
 fore me. I knew her as well as though, in black and white, 
 her story was writ upon the wall that faced me. There 
 stood my sin before me living ! inexorable ! Oh ! " She 
 put out her hands as though she would have crushed that 
 slight stricken figure near her. "If I could have killed 
 her, I would ! " 
 
 " Be silent, woman," said Wriothesley with authority. 
 
 "What a tone from you to me," said she, a mocking 
 inflection in her voice. " Have you forgotten a time when 
 you only piped or sang, wept or laughed, at my command ? 
 Truly men's memories are short, but women's long-lived, 
 and revenge is mine this day ! " 
 
 A low cruel laugh fell from her lips. 
 
 " I have the best of it now" she said pointing to Marvel, 
 a crushed, mournful figure. "You think me inhuman," 
 she went on turning lightly to Wriothesley. " Perhaps you 
 are right, but if so, the world has been the cause of it 
 What ! Shall I suffer all things at its hands and show no 
 fight ; make no sign ? A cruei fate blighted my best days ; 
 the same cruel fate pursues me to this day, and shall I when 
 my hour comes forbear to strike? All my life long my 
 dearest hopes have been blasted, almost as fruition seemed 
 near, within my grasp. The one creature whom I loved 
 
 21 2
 
 324 MAKVJSi* 
 
 was taken from me when as yet I was but a child ; the one 
 great ambition of my existence, a chance that would have 
 raised me high above even my fondest aspirations, slipped 
 from my hold almost as my fingers closed upon it. Death 
 once again stepped in and slew my ambition as it had slain 
 my love. And to have been a duchess ! That would have 
 compensated for all." 
 
 She closed and unclosed her fingers rapidly, and an 
 expression of baffled desire, of a disappointment too great 
 almost to be borne, darkened her face. 
 
 " That old man ! Had he but lived but one short day," 
 she said between her teeth. " The malignancy of fate ! " 
 
 She drew her breath sharply and recovered herself; as 
 she did so she caught Wriothesley's glance fixed on her, and 
 a derisive smile parted her lips. 
 
 " And you you poor fool ! " she said with a bitter sneer, 
 " throughout all that time you believed that I loved you. 
 You could not see that you were the simple tool kept ever 
 near me to urge that old man to lay his title at my feet. 
 You could not realize that even as you knelt at my feet 
 and poured out there all the treasures of your love, that you 
 were less than nothing to me, and mere means to an end in 
 which you would have no part. And what a lover you 
 made ! " she laughed aloud. " An ideal one ! What 
 raptures ! What ecstasies ! What protestations ! And how 
 inexpressibly they bored me at all times." 
 
 "I thank heaven they did!" said Wriothesley vehemently. 
 The hot blood mounted to his brow and shame covered 
 him. That she that poor stricken child should hear all 
 this now, at a moment when so terrible a sorrow was crush- 
 ing the very life out of her, seemed a very refinement of 
 cruelty. " Have you no shame in you that you talk so 
 now ; when all that past madness is over and done ; when 
 you know " 
 
 " That you love her now and not me ? That you love 
 her perhaps as you never loved me even in your best days ? 
 Oh, yes, I know all that. But I know too that the memory 
 of that past will rankle in her future and spoil whatever 
 happy hours the future may give her." 
 
 Wriothesley did not hear her last words, he was watching
 
 MAEVEI* 345 
 
 Marvel. Had she heard this woman's own assurance that 
 his old fierce passion for her was indeed dead ? that his 
 love for her his wife burned warmly, purely, as that first 
 had never done ? Oh, if she could but hear ! He looked 
 at the tall, childlike, motionless form with its face buried 
 against the wall and his heart died within him. What could 
 compensate to her for such misery as was hers to-day ? 
 
 Still, had she heard ? And if so, did she believe ? It 
 might at least (even if she did not care) be some slight 
 reparation. But he could not judge, by her, if one word had 
 entered into her. She stood silent, in an attitude that 
 spoke only of despair. 
 
 Presently, however, as if she felt the magnetism of his 
 gaze, she slowly lifted her head and turned her face 
 towards him. There was a terrible self-reproach upon it, a 
 remorse that was painful. 
 
 "How can I ever hope that you will forgive me ? " she 
 said. " The disgrace the shame what could wash it 
 out ! Ah," sighing heavily and turning weary eyes on Mrs. 
 Scarlett, "you were right indeed when you said I had 
 ruined his life ! " 
 
 " I am glad of it," said Mrs. Scarlett brusquely. 
 
 " Oh, mother ! Oh, mother ! " cried the girl in a sharp 
 tone of passionate reproach of unutterable misery. She let 
 her face fall forward into her hands. There was a moment's 
 dead pause, after that wild, strange cry, and then 
 
 Something dreadful had happened, as it seemed to them, 
 all at once and without an instant's warning. There had 
 been a little rustle of Mrs. Scarlett's gown, and instinctively 
 Marvel and VVriothesley had looked towards her. She was 
 livid, ghastly ; her hands were clutching the back of a chair 
 near her, and she was swaying from side to side as one in 
 mortal agony. 
 
 Marvel rushed to her and caught her in her arms. She 
 had been quicker than Wriothesley. Mrs. Scarlett's grasp 
 upon the chair relaxed, and she pressed her right hand con- 
 vulsively to her side. 
 
 " Oh, this pain ! this anguish ! " she moaned. Broken 
 words fell from her lips the sweat stood out upon her 
 brow, and then presently there came a great silence.
 
 326 MARVEL. 
 
 Ste was still lying senseless in Marvel's arms when at 
 last h e servants came in answer to Wriothesley's continued 
 ringing, and lifted her from where she was half stretched 
 upon the ground. 
 
 They bore her away and carried her upstairs to her 
 chamber and laid her on her bed, where she lay inert, uncon- 
 scious even long after the arrival of the doctor who had 
 been summoned with all haste. Another was telegraphed 
 for to town and the whole house was in a commotion. 
 
 She recovered consciousness a little later on, but was by 
 the physicians declared to be in a very critical state. She 
 went from one fit of insensibility into another, and only as the 
 chill cold morning broke, rallied slightly. Marvel was with 
 her then, and she appeared to know and put out her hand 
 feebly towards her. It was the first sign that she had given 
 of knowing any one of those who stood around her. 
 
 The guests staying at Grangemore faded away as swiftly 
 as shadows; the presence of death scared them, and 
 besides their visits had drawn to an end. At last no one 
 was left in the house save Sir George Townshend who 
 would not go in spite of all his lady-love's hints, who was 
 put out by Mrs. Scarlett's bad taste in choosing her house 
 as a hospital Wriothesley, Marvel, and the invalid. 
 
 The condition of the latter varied from day to day. A 
 nurse had been sent down from town, but when the 
 paroxysms of pain, which now followed one upon another 
 with startling and distressing frequency, seized upon the 
 patient, it was found that Marvel only had power to soothe 
 and calm her. So much so that the physicians looked 
 round instinctively for Lady Wriothesley's pale, sad face 
 and slight girlish figure when the pains caught the wasted 
 figure in the bed and rent her sore. 
 
 And Marvel answered to their call. She clung, with a 
 persistency that annoyed Cicely beyond measure, to the 
 sick room, devoting herself with an eagerness that puzzled 
 every one but Wriothesley to the irritable creature whom 
 disease had brought from high estate to be low as any 
 peasant-born. 
 
 Cicely remonstrated with Marvel now mildly, now angrily. 
 Was she going to throw away her health, her beauty, for a
 
 MARVEL. 337 
 
 woman who had scorned and insulted her unceasingly so 
 long as opportunity was given, and who was safe to do it 
 again if ever she rose from her sick couch ? Humanity 
 was a charming thing, no doubt the forgiveness of 
 trespasses a duty, but there was always a limit to all things. 
 One should draw the line at a certain point, or overwhelm- 
 ing ruin would be the consequence. 
 
 And Marvel would shake her head and smile her little 
 pale spiritless smile that always made Cicely long to shake 
 her and then cry over her, but not for word or scolding or 
 coaxing would she forsake that chamber where the stricken 
 woman lay. 
 
 Only this, she begged of Cicely that she would keep 
 Wriothesley out of it ! His presence might disturb the 
 sick woman she said ; but there was such violent, if sup- 
 pressed, anxiety in her tone as she pressed the matter on 
 her, that Cicely could not help wondering afterwards if it 
 were possible that jealousy still reigned in that gentle 
 bosom. 
 
 She was so far troubled by Marvel's vehemence about 
 this thing that she even mentioned it to Wriothesley, being 
 of opinion that much reticence on certain delicate points 
 had led to a great deal of the world's disorder. She 
 watched him keenly as she spoke and noted how his colour 
 changed. 
 
 In truth, he had guessed, long before, the reason why she 
 so secluded herself, why she so shrank from meeting him. 
 That horrible revelation which had been poured with such 
 venom into her ears on that luckless afternoon stood now 
 between him and her like a black cloud, impenetrable, un- 
 pierceable. She would not meet him. She feared to look 
 into his eyes. It hurt him indescribably to feel how small 
 was the trust she placed in him, how entirely dead she was 
 to the real and very honest affection he entertained for her. 
 Were all the world before him to choose therefrom the one 
 he loved, she, and she alone, would be his choice. 
 
 He said very gently to Cicely that Marvel was right, that 
 no doubt the presence of any stranger beyond the physi- 
 cians and her servants would distress Mrs. Scarlett in her 
 present low condition; that he sympathized, too, with
 
 328 JIAEViiU 
 
 Marvel's desire to attend upon her. Doctor Bland had 
 told him that Marvel's voice alone soothed her, and he 
 could well believe that. She, Marvel, as Cicely no doubt 
 had noted, had a voice wonderfully low and sweet, an 
 excellent thing in any woman. 
 
 But to himself he said that he would combat this 
 determination of his wife's to avoid him. He would see 
 her at all risks, and compel her to look into his eyes and 
 read there the love for her that filled him. 
 
 For this purpose he waited, and watched the corridor 
 that led from her own chamber to the sick-room and back 
 again, and at last one night, when day was dead and all 
 the lamps made bright the winding passages and stairs, he 
 met her face to face close to her own door. 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 "Just when I seemed about to learn! 
 
 Where is the thread now ? Off again! 
 The old trick ! Only I discern 
 
 Infinite passion and the pain 
 Of finite hearts that yearn." 
 # * * # 
 
 "And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears." 
 
 IT was the first time they had been face to face, en tete-A-tete, 
 since the miserable hour when she had been declared that 
 most mournful of all things one basely born. The hot 
 blood mounted to her cheek, and she stepped back quickly, 
 as though she would have retreated into the doorway 
 behind her, but he caught her hand and held her fast. 
 
 "What is the meaning of it ?" he said. "Why do you 
 avoid me like this ? There is a great deal of folly in it all, 
 is there not ? " 
 
 He held her hand closely, and tried to draw her to him, 
 but she resisted passionately. 
 
 " Do not," she said. " Ah ! let me go. It is such pain 
 to see you, such a humiliation. If you only understood 
 you would not try to keep me."
 
 MARVEL. 329 
 
 "It is because I understand that I do keep you. 
 Marvel, is your own grief the only thing that touches you ? 
 Am I nothing ? Can I not feel, too ? " 
 
 She shrank from him. 
 
 " Do you think I don't know it ? " she said. " Bad as 
 it is for me, how far, far worse it must be for you. And 
 now it is hopeless ! Oh ! if that first time on the yacht, 
 when I found out that you loved her, if then I had only 
 had the courage to drown myself, how well it would have 
 been. But even now, I cannot ; I haven't the strength of 
 mind; I am afraid; and afterwards, that would be so terrible." 
 
 " What are you saying ? " cried he angrily. " Are you out 
 of your mind that you say such wicked things? Good 
 heavens ! what a fool a child like you can be ! And this 
 great misfortune of yours, what does it come to? Why 
 nothing. Things are very much as they were a week ago. 
 We anticipated always what we now know, and for my part 
 I care not one jot." 
 
 " Is that true ? " Her melancholy eyes sought his, and 
 seemed to burn into them. " Ah ! do not lie to me," she 
 said. 
 
 " My de'ar girl," said Wriothesley with very great tender- 
 ness, " why should I do that ? I have lied to no man ever, 
 why should I lie to you ? The fact is you have dwelt so 
 long in the unhealthy atmosphere of that sick-room that 
 you grow morbid. Give yourself some relaxation. You 
 want air and the warm sunshine to give a wholesome 
 colour to your thoughts." 
 
 " That sounds so easy," she said with a little mournful 
 smile. " You do not understand how could you ? You 
 would help me, I know," with a swift warm glance at him. 
 " Do it then. Forget me. Cease to let the remembrance 
 of me trouble you. Blot me out of your life in so far as 
 you can." 
 
 "I shall not do that certainly," said he cheerfully. 
 " You are part of my life, and as such I shall hold you. 
 We are bound to each other, you and I, by all the laws of 
 man and God, and I shall not be the one to sever the link 
 You distrust, you spurn me, but I shall wait. Time, 1 
 believe, will help me."
 
 330 MARVEL. 
 
 " Time ! Ah, that is what I fear," said she with a quick 
 shudder. " The long, long loveless years before me. And 
 I am so young, so terribly young. All my life lies before 
 me, and in it there is no hope none. Death comes to 
 the happy, the well-beloved it will not come to me." 
 
 " You are well-beloved, if you would only know it," said 
 he with emotion. 
 
 " Ah, yes ; there is Cicely, and " she paused. 
 
 The vision of Savage rose up before him as he had last 
 been seen. A man impassioned, half desperate with a love 
 he hardly dared reveal. 
 
 "You still think of him," he said coldly. 
 
 "I think always of the very few who really love me. 
 Are you angry about that ? " simply. " Do not ; I felt no 
 love for him ever." It was impossible to disbelieve her. 
 She turned to him feverishly : " I have forgotten him, all, 
 everything," she said impetuously. "There is but one 
 thing that I dream of day and night. I cannot sleep, I 
 cannot eat because of it. Oh ! " with a passion of despair, 
 " I cannot bear it." 
 
 " Endure what ? " asked he, made anxious by her 
 manner. 
 
 She paused, and then came nearer to him on tiptoe, as 
 though fearing she might be heard. 
 
 " That she should be my mother ! " she said at last in a 
 panting whisper. " She, of all others ! Oh, it is horrible ! 
 That she should be my mother, so ! It is killing me ! If 
 I could only wake up and find it all a hideous nightmare ; 
 if I could blot out all these past terrible days, and feel 
 again the glorious uncertainty about my history that I once 
 so madly fought against, how happy I should deem myself. 
 But I cannot!" with a burst of misery. "It is all true, 
 true, TRUE ! " 
 
 " Marvel, have courage. Even if it be so " 
 
 " Always, it seems to me, I felt, I knew it, but only as a 
 child might who could not reason. Oh, to be dead ! " 
 said she in a little cold still way that frightened him. 
 
 " I tell you," said he angrily, " that you stay too long in 
 that close sick-room. It depresses you, and with all the 
 other ills you have to bear is more than you have strength
 
 MARVEL. 331 
 
 for. If I could, I would forbid you to enter that woman's 
 room again ; but thou ^h I am your husband, I know you 
 will not submit to me in even the smallest n atter. Still, 
 for the sake of old times " 
 
 " Don't ! " she put up her hands to her head and pushed 
 back her hair in a little distracted fashion. " Don't speak 
 like that. Oh, if I could only undo my wretched marriage, 
 if only I could feel once more that you were not bound to 
 me ! that you were not my husband ! " 
 
 He bit his lip, and a frown settled on his brow. With 
 gloomy eyes he regarded her. 
 
 " You may not think it," he said at last, "but pardon 
 me for saying it you are uncommonly rude ! " 
 
 " I am not, and you know it. I am only miserable," 
 protested she, great tears standing in her eyes. 
 
 " You make yourself so. This this unfortunate story 
 that was so remorselessly made known to you, is a secret 
 between me and you. Why should it not remain so ? 
 You have not told Cicely ? " His gaze was anxious as 
 he asked her this, and she saw it, and told herself he feared 
 the world's comments on the woman who bore his name 
 on the luckless creature whose history, if once known, 
 would bring down upon her the scorn and contempt of all 
 those amongst whom she now moved as a young and 
 radiant queen. The thought was agony to her. 
 
 "Do not fear. I have told no one," she said coldly. 
 And then, holding out to him her hand, "Good-night." 
 
 He bent over it and kissed it. 
 
 'You will not promise me then to go to your own room 
 to-night ? to cease, for even a few hours, your attendance 
 in that enervating atmosphere ? " 
 
 " I cannot. My duty lies there," she said, coldly still. 
 
 He watched her as she moved away from him up the 
 lighted corridor. The step that once was light and buoyant 
 as a young fawn's was now slow and spiritless, her head 
 had taken a little dejected bend. She went heavily, as one 
 oppressed with a grief that knew no assuagement. She 
 puzzled him almost as much as she distressed him. What 
 if there was yet another and a worse sorrow gnawing 
 at her heart 1 If it were only the misfortune of her birth
 
 332 MAKVEL. 
 
 he thought he should have been able to comfort and sustain 
 her. What if she did in reality lament her marriage with 
 him not because of the shame attached to her, and that 
 prompted her to fly from all men and bury her face out 
 of sight but because she was remembering the words and 
 looks of another of Savage ! 
 
 He drew a sharp breath and threw up his head as this 
 suspicion crossed his mind. Then he flung it from him 
 with a passionate denial of the truth of it, and turned and 
 went away. 
 
 Meantime, Marvel sitting by the sick bed was wearily 
 recalling that anxious look upon his face, and torturing 
 herself with the belief that already the horror, the fear of 
 discovery, had entered into him. Already he was beginning 
 to learn that his life was spoiled, and that lesson once 
 learnt, with what regard would he look on her the 
 despoiler? And yet, in all these thoughts she wronged 
 him. The anxiety he had felt and shown had been for 
 her alone. Naturally enough, there were moments when 
 his pride shrank from the cruel fact that his wife she who 
 had taken a place beside all the great and stainless names 
 that had made up the lengthy roll of his ancestry should 
 stand beneath a shameful cloud; but all his sympathy, 
 his love, were with her, and it was to shield her from cruel 
 comment, from the bitter stings and wounds of the world, 
 that he had enjo ; ned on her a necessity for secresy. 
 
 All through the lonely silent watches of the night she sat 
 there brooding beside the half dead woman, ministering to 
 her now and then, but always with her mind embittered, 
 despairing. The nurse once or twice expostulated with 
 her, entreating her even to lie down upon the couch at the 
 end of the room, but Marvel had refused all entreaties, 
 and sat there speechless, wakeful, with pale set face and 
 haggard eyes. 
 
 Now and then a moan came from the bed. And then 
 she would rise and bend over the sick woman, and with 
 gentle arms raise her, pressing the pillows into such shape 
 as seemed best to suit her. Very seldom as she did this 
 did she glance at her some strong repulsion with- 
 holding her gaze but once or twice when compelled
 
 MARVEL. 333 
 
 to look she met the strange piercing eyes of Mrs. Scarlett 
 fixed on her. 
 
 "Is there anything you want?" she would say then, 
 kindly if coldly, and the answer was always the same 
 " Nothing." 
 
 Yet, if Marvel stirred from the bedside she would grow 
 instantly restless, the moans grew louder, and the poor 
 tired head would move ceaselessly from side to side with 
 a terrible impatience, and the face changed from a death- 
 like calm to a miserable forgetfulness. A face lovely still, 
 in spite of all the anguish and the strange sleeplessness 
 that not all the doctors' skill could combat. Great hollows 
 now lay beneath the wonderful eyes ; the lovely cruel lips 
 were bloodless ; the soft luxuriant hair was gone. But the 
 beauty that had lured many men could not even by these 
 means be altogether killed, and the wreck that lay upon 
 the pillows, silent, motionless, was yet a beautiful one. 
 
 For hours she had not spoken, and at last the day broke 
 Marvel stood up and drew aside the curtains, and gazed 
 out upon the slow, unwilling dawning of this wild March 
 morning. She opened the window softly and leaned out. 
 From the south there came to her a grand refreshing 
 breeze, a breath from the sweetly-smelling wind-blown 
 fields that seemed to catch her, and cling to her. It was 
 heavenly breath, and she sighed deeply as if to drink it in. 
 Her sad heart was comforted by it for the moment, and 
 her dreamy sensitive nature revived beneath its influence. 
 
 The spring, " the winter's overthrow," was slowly but 
 surely " coming up this way," and there was a sense of life 
 young, fresh, vigorous in all the air. 
 
 Yet, even as she drew in that sweet refreshing draught, 
 grief lay in her heart. She could not shake it from her. 
 The humiliation, the sense of being not as others are 
 weighed her down. Of all : 
 
 " Life's sad mistakes 
 That sad lives see," 
 
 it seemed to her that hers was the saddest. 
 
 A slight sound from the bed startled her. She closed 
 the window swiftly but noiselessly, and went back to her
 
 334 MARVEi* 
 
 post. She leant over the invalid and lifted her head 
 as usual, shaking up the pillows and then laying her 
 tenderly down on them. But when, having done this, she 
 would have gone again, Mrs. Scarlett caught her gown and 
 by a feeble hand detained her. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Marvel, compelling herself to look 
 at her, though a strong shudder shook her as she did so. 
 She might be nay, she was her mother, but it was too 
 late for love of any kind to blossom for her in her breast. 
 " Can I do anything for you ? " 
 
 " Nearer," breathed the sick woman faintly. Marvel 
 bent over her until her face almost touched hers. 
 
 "There is something I must say to you " The 
 
 words came faintly, with a terrible effort, from between the 
 pale parched lips. 
 
 "When you are stronger, better," urged Marvel, who 
 shrank with a sick loathing from the thought of discussion 
 of any kind of confidences or regrets, or sick bed repent- 
 ances about the terrible story that had ruined her life. 
 
 " No ; there is no time. I must speak now or never. 
 Nearer, nearer still. I want to tell you," raising her eyes 
 that burned like living coals in her wan face, to Marvel's, 
 " that I lied to you ! " 
 
 She half lifted herself in the bed, and clutched the girl 
 by the arm. 
 
 " There was a marriage ! I lied about it to revenge 
 myself upon him, Wriothesley ; but now, with death staring 
 
 me in the face, I I haven't the courage to Yes, we 
 
 were married secretly, but surely. There is no doubt 
 " She broke off, exhausted. 
 
 "Is this the truth ? " asked Marvel. Her face had grown 
 colourless, her voice was co!d and stern. She did not 
 believe this last statement. She knew that she did not dare 
 believe it. Were she to do so, only to find herself deceived, 
 she felt that it would kill her. No, there was no truth in it 
 Such joy, such an almost terrible relief, could not be for her. 
 
 " The truth, yes. Will you not believe ? Why should I 
 say this now?" 
 
 "The proofs," said Marvel in a strange frozen tone. 
 She would compel her to end this cruel farce.
 
 MAKVEL. 
 
 335 
 
 The feeble hands made a movement towards her pillows. 
 "Underneath," she whispered faintly; and Marvel, 
 always as in a dream, ran her hand under the pillows and 
 drew out a tiny bunch of keys. In one of her calmer 
 moments Mrs. Scarlett had asked for them, and had placed 
 them herself beneath her head; now she had not strength 
 to draw them out again. 
 
 " My dressing-case," she said. She pointed out one of 
 the keys. " The second tray." 
 
 Marvel crossed the room mechanically, opened the 
 dressing-case, and lifted the tiay she had named. Some 
 papers folded in it met her eye ; she took them out, and ap- 
 proached the bed. Her heart was beating now to suffoca- 
 tion. She lifted one hand to her throat to stifle the sob of 
 Dainful excitement that rose in it. 
 
 " Open read," said the dying woman. "It is my mar- 
 riage certificate and the certificate of your birth. Keep 
 them. If I have injured you living, you will remember 
 when I am gone that I served you dying. Go. Take 
 them to him." 
 
 Marvel had fallen on her knees beside the bed. She was 
 trembling violently. When presently a cold, beautiful 
 hand stole towards her and touched her she caught it and 
 drew it beneath her bent head, and pressed her lips to it in 
 a passion of gratitude. She felt faint, uncertain, frightened ; 
 but above and through all she was conscious of a great and 
 glorious freedom a breaking of the vile bonds that had 
 chained her to the earth and turned the very light of day 
 into a sullen gloom. To go to him ; to tell him : that was 
 her first thought. 
 
 Through the tumult of her conflicting emotions the slow, 
 broken voice came to her, as it were, the touch of sorrow 
 that ever accompanies our joy : 
 
 " You said it once that strange word to me. It killed 
 me, I think ; yet I would hear it again." 
 
 She spoke with difficulty, and very indistinctly; but 
 Marvel understood. 
 
 "Mother!" she whispered, and pressed the hand she 
 held, and stooping forward kissed the pale mouth. She 
 felt that the kiss was returned, and could see that an ex-
 
 336 MAKVEL. 
 
 pression of rest, of peace, fell on the beautiful face. Sh 
 rose to her feet and bent more closely over her. Mrs. 
 Scarlett had evidently sunk into a calm sleep, worn out, as 
 Marvel thought, by the excitement of the moment. 
 
 She summoned the nurse hurriedly. 
 
 " Is she sleeping ? Will it be safe to leave her for a little 
 while ? " she asked eagerly. " If you think she will wake 
 soon I should rather stay; but if not " 
 
 She paused for an answer. The woman was looking at 
 the senseless face. She knew the dread sign that lay on it, 
 the last seal of all. 
 
 " She will not wake soon, my lady ; you may safely leave 
 her for awhile," she said, knowing that her patient would 
 never wake again from the exhausted swoon into which she 
 had fallen. But she had been given strict orders by 
 Wriothesley and the doctors to get Lady Wriothesley out 
 of the way by any means in her power before the last dread 
 summons came, and she was glad of this chance that came 
 to her. 
 
 " Call me if you see any change," said Marvel, lingering 
 still, though in such mad haste to be gone. She had the 
 papers clasped to her bosom, and with one last glance at 
 the sleeping face she left the room, and sped down the 
 corridor to where she knew Wriothesley's apartments were. 
 
 It was still very early, and only a few of the servants were 
 moving here and there through the halls and passages. As 
 she reached her husband's room she tapped impatiently, 
 hurriedly upon the panel of the door. 
 
 " Who is there ? " cried he in a rather sleepy lone. 
 
 " It is I, Marvel," she said. She could have cried a^ud 
 to him, but she compelled herself to a calmness that almost 
 hurt her. 
 
 "You!" His voice sounded startled, and she could 
 hear how he sprang out of his bed. The minutes that 
 followed seemed to her like so many interminable hours. 
 
 " Oh ! hurry, hurry ! " she cried at last. " How long, 
 how terribly long you are ! " 
 
 He flung open the door at last, and looked at her 
 anxiously. She was so white, and was trembling so much 
 that he went to her and placed his arm round her.
 
 MARVEL. 337 
 
 " She is dead ? " he said, thinking, fearing that she had 
 witnessed her mother's death. 
 
 " No. Oh, no. It is not that. Let me in and I will 
 tell you all," she said. He drew her into the room, and 
 closed the door. She held out to him her precious papers 
 with hands that shook. 
 
 " Oh ! read, read ! " she cried. " Oh ! Fulke ! after all 
 she was married. I am not such a disgrace to you. She 
 was really married." 
 
 She broke down then, overcome by the nervous excite- 
 ment of the past half-hour, and, sinking into an armchair, 
 burst into a passion of tears. 
 
 " My dear child, what is it ? What has happened ? " 
 said he, apprehensively terrified by her tears; but she 
 pushed him away from her. 
 
 " Don't mind me," she sobbed ; " mind nothing but 
 that" pointing to the papers, "and read, read, READ ! Oh ! 
 I am so happy" 
 
 " Oh 1 are you ? " said he a little lamely. Then, as 
 though giving up the situation, he let her cry on con- 
 tentedly, and addressed himself to an examination of the 
 papers she had given him. 
 
 His colour changed as he read them. Thank Heaven 
 for her I was his first thought. As he saw her vehement 
 abandonment to her relief and joy he realized more r 
 thoroughly than he had done before the overwhelming 
 despair that had been hers. 
 
 "Thank God, my dear," he said simply, but earnestly. 
 He bent over her and gravely kissed her cheek. " I 
 thought it must be some great misfortune that had driven 
 you to me. I am glad to know you would come to me in 
 your joy too." 
 
 " It was not so much that," said she, flushing faintly, "as 
 the knowledge that it was due to you to let you hear at once 
 that the disgrace you you felt so heavily was no longer 
 yours." 
 
 Some soft reproach in the tone, some little undercurrent,' 
 betrayed to him her meaning. 
 
 " Did you think it was only myself I pitied?" he said; 
 " that I did not feel for vou far more deeply than for any 
 
 22
 
 338 MARVEL. 
 
 annoyance it could cause me? Why, what a selfish fellow 
 you must think me. Perhaps," with a regretful remem- 
 brance of all those months in which he had virtually de- 
 serted her, " you have had reason. However, I shall not 
 scold you to-day," smiling ; " you are too happy to heed 
 me." 
 
 She laughed in return. He was dressed only in his shirt 
 and trousers, but he was looking very handsome, she 
 thought, and very friendly. She accepted the hour as it 
 was, though she had small dependence on the constancy of 
 it ; and besides, how could she look on anything save with 
 rose-hued glasses with all this wealth of new-born gladness 
 in her heart ? 
 
 "If I had known you were coming," said he, looking 
 round at the rather disorderly room, " I should have fur- 
 bished up my belongings a bit, and put my best foot fore- 
 most ; but as it is " 
 
 " Well, certainly you are untidy," said she, with a pretty 
 air of contempt, giving a dainty glance here and there to 
 where books lay upon the floor, and to where, on a distant 
 table, a box of cigars were strewn about. " You want some 
 one to look after you more than anybody I know." 
 
 " Well, that's what / think," agreed he cordially. 
 
 He caught her hand and drew her towards him. A little 
 soft blush rose and dyed her cheek. 
 
 At this moment there came a sharp, hurried knocking 
 at the door. Wriothesley opened it, and one of Marvel's 
 women, not seeing her, came quickly in and spoke to 
 him : 
 
 " The nurse bid me come to you, my lord. Mrs. Scar- 
 lett is dead. It was quite sudden ; she " 
 
 Wriothesley was too late in putting up the warning hand 
 Marvel had heard. A low, gasping cry broke from her, 
 and, overcome by the long, painful vigil of the night gone 
 by, and all the conflicting emotions that had followed so 
 hard upon it, she sank back in a dead faint upon the otto- 
 man behind her.
 
 MAEVEL. 339 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 "What they could my words expressed, 
 O my love, my all, my one ! " 
 
 ** Time shall die, and Love shall be 
 Lord, as Time was over Death." 
 
 MRS. SCARLETT was buried with all pomp and ceremony 
 in the Scarlett vault, somewhere in the heart of Surrey. 
 Marvel was too prostrated to accompany her to the tomb, 
 though some morbid desire to show her every respect 
 urged her to do it ; and Mrs. Verulam would not permit 
 VVriothesley to go. There had been enough of gossip 
 about her and him, she said, in the past. Why revive it 
 again ? It was only a boyish infatuation, of course, when 
 all was told ; but the world was an insatiable monster where 
 scandal was concerned, and would be sure to say all sorts 
 of witty and wicked things if they heard he had gone (as 
 "chief mourner" they would have called it) to her funeral 
 Why should he betray a deeper interest in her than all 
 those other thousand and one acquaintances who were too 
 overburdened by the cares of society to attend to her last 
 resting-place the queen to whom they had paid such slavish 
 court when she was living ? 
 
 There was a sense of disgust and hatred towards the 
 dead woman in Wriothesley's breast that would not be 
 subdued, and that helped him to acquiesce in Mrs. Veru- 
 lam's decision. Her treatment of the poor child who now 
 in her darkened chamber was lying, suffering horribly from 
 nervous headache, angered him against her, harmless now 
 for ever though she was, and made him bitterly self-con- 
 temptuous as he remembered how, for her worthless sake, 
 he had once cruelly hurt and offended the sweet nature of 
 his wife. 
 
 When the nervous attack wore itself off in due time, 
 Marvel insisted on going into deep mourning, and then of 
 course it was necessary to take Cicely into their confi- 
 dence. She had a theory that to be astonished at anything 
 this age could show, argued a weakening intellect ; but for
 
 340 MARVEL. 
 
 once in her life she had to acknowledge herself as entirely 
 and stupidly amazed on hearing of Marvel's parentage. 
 
 She it was, however, who at once saw the necessity of 
 enlightening the world about it. It was impossible that 
 Marvel should be allowed to live for ever with a stigma 
 resting on her name a cloud of mystery surrounding her. 
 Immediate steps should be taken to declare her real origin, 
 which, if it had a rather unpleasant flavour of secrecy about 
 it, was nevertheless honourable. It would be a nine-days' 
 wonder, nothing more. Something else would crop up 
 even whilst the public gaped and laughed and whispered 
 over it, something that would be probably more piquante 
 and would therefore obliterate it. 
 
 But where should Marvel and he go for those "nine 
 days?" That was a question that troubled Wriothesley. 
 It was out of the question that she should receive and be 
 received whilst the storm burst and lasted. He would not 
 have her subjected to unkind comment or impertinent 
 curiosity ; and good birth does not give good manners, and 
 there were many in their own world who would be sure to 
 insult and annoy her. 
 
 To take her away for an indefinite time abroad, any- 
 where out of the hurley-burley of society, was his strong 
 desire ; but how to compass it troubled him. She had 
 shown such a passionate determination to go nowhere with 
 him on his first return, that he hardly dared make mention 
 of the idea again, or, at least, did not dare hope that a 
 second request would receive a different answer. 
 
 And time proved his fear true. She shrank openly from 
 his suggestion, and turned coldly from him when he made 
 it, with a distressed expression in her great sorrowful eyes. 
 
 " But it is so necessary," he urged gently, battling against 
 the sense of angry disappointment that was filling him. 
 " The truth must be made known, for your sake, and ho\t 
 can you stay here to face it, to be asked questions by the 
 many vulgar people who yet belong to our set ? They will 
 not spare you. They would spare nothing to satisfy their 
 " curiosity." 
 
 " If Cicely could come. If we might make up a party," 
 she said faintly. He could see how terrible it would be to
 
 MARVEL. 341 
 
 her to be en tete-a-tete with him. He bit his lip and looked 
 down. How could he argue with her how persuade ? 
 Pride stood up in arms and forbade it. 
 
 He explained to her, however, that Cicely could not 
 come. Cicely whose hands were so full of her own affairs, 
 whose coming marriage occupied all her time. 
 
 " Could I not go to the north, then ? " she asked timidly. 
 "And you, anywhere you will; time would pass all the 
 same. And when, as you think, the world would have 
 forgotten, we could meet again " 
 
 " Oh, no ! I entreat you do not incline to that plan," 
 he said earnestly. "When, during those first months of 
 our married life I kept away from you, I did wrong. I 
 did you an unspeakable injury ! Let us not repeat that 
 fault. Do not give farther food for talk. It would be 
 madness to let that word separation be so much as named 
 between us again." 
 
 She sighed wearily. It was indeed terrible to her to 
 think of long months spent alone with him. Months in 
 which she would feel each hour of the day that he was 
 isolating himself for her sake, that he was growing every 
 moment more bored, more ennuye, more inclined to curse 
 the fate that had bound him to her. The whole thing 
 would be an annoyance, a gene to him, and she felt she 
 could not endure it. If he loved her she could, she 
 thought, have let him make any sacrifice for her sake, but 
 this friendly indifference that she believed he alone felt 
 for her would not permit of her doing so. 
 
 And yet he had already done so much for her. He 
 was so kind, so thoughtful there was no one like him on 
 earth she thought that she knew she should not have the 
 courage to combat any wish of his. 
 
 " It shall be as you like," she said hopelessly. Her tone 
 cut him to the heart. 
 
 "Why do you speak like that?" he said very gently. 
 " Does it make you so very miserable to think you must 
 have my companionship only for a few months ? My dear ! 
 what a sad thought that must be for both of us. We are 
 bound together for life, and yet you shrink from a few 
 continuous days spent together. Marvel, look at me ! You
 
 34* MARVEL. 
 
 have made friends of others. Why not accept me as a 
 friend too ? Surely I am not beyond the pale of mere 
 friendship in your eyes? If it were not for your own good 
 I should abandon the idea altogether, but you know it 
 would not do for you to stay here just at present. You 
 hate the idea of going anywhere with me I know, but yet 1 
 beg you to consent to the plan for your own sake." 
 
 " If I hate it," said she tremulously, turning away her 
 head, " surely you hate it doubly." 
 
 " I ? No, indeed. If if I could be assured that you 
 loved me," hastily, and trying to read her averted face, " I 
 should find my chiefest happiness in being with you for 
 ever ! Surely you must know that ! " Moved by some 
 sudden inspiration he went to her, and drew her closely to 
 him, and stooping, pressed his cheek to hers. " Darling ! 
 Darling heart ! " he said, " why can't we try to be better 
 friends than we are ? " 
 
 His tone was low, unsteady, but warm with the deathless 
 breath of love ! 
 
 She felt it ! She turned to him, and in a moment was 
 in his arms. 
 
 " Oh, to be friends again ! " she cried. She was sobbing 
 wildly, passionately. " In the dead, dear days the friends 
 we were ! Oh ! do, do try to love me again." 
 
 " My sweetheart ! my darling, I love you now, as I 
 never loved you then." 
 
 " You say it. But is it really so? Really ? Is it true f 
 Oh ! Fulke, if I thought you really loved me " 
 
 " I do with all my soul ! " 
 
 " You are not saying it because you think it will please 
 or comfort me?" 
 
 " My darling no. Because it is the only truth ; because 
 it comforts myself and you too ; say that, Marvel ! " 
 
 He raised her face to his. 
 
 " Oh ! if you only knew ! " she said. She clung to him 
 with all her young strength in a very passion of happiness. 
 
 " Well, I don't know you forget how you have starved 
 me on such matters," said he, as glad as she was, holding 
 her to his heart. " Tell me now ; say you love me." 
 
 She said it very sweetly, and returned his kiss as she did so.
 
 MARVEL. 343 
 
 "And you forgive me everything?" 
 
 "If there is anything, I have forgotten. And you," 
 bending back from him to watch his face, "you don't 
 really think I was in love with Nigel Savage ? " 
 
 " Oh no, no< now I " laughing. 
 
 " Or ever ? >; 
 
 " Or ever ;> But that wasn't quite true. 
 
 At this propitious mstant Mrs. Verulam burst into the 
 room, evidently full of important tidings. 
 
 "See here, you two," she was beginning when she 
 stopped dead short. "Eh? what? Anything happened?" 
 she asked, looking from one guilty countenance to the 
 other. 
 
 There was a considerable pause. Marvel looked down 
 and played nervously with her rings. Wriothesley, who 
 '-eked decidedly awkward, at last broke into an irresistible 
 -a ugh. 
 
 " We've only been making it up," he said, rather boyishly. 
 
 **Ar.d a good thing too," cried Mrs. Verulam brightly. 
 " Sut you'll have to rehearse the second edition of it some- 
 where else. I see Lucy's carriage coming down the avenue ; 
 she has heard all; she will have you both in to cross- 
 examine you about Marvel's romantic story if you don't 
 clear out without a second's delay. No, don't go into the 
 library, she is capable of searching the house, and as for 
 locked doors, why the breaking open of them would be 
 mere child's play to her ! Be wise, therefore, whilst yet 
 there is time, and there's very little of it," craning her neck 
 round the corner of the window, " for here she comes. Make 
 for the orchard, children, and hide there until this danger 
 is past ! " 
 
 There was evidently not a moment to be lost. Wriothes- 
 ley threw a fur cloak over Marvel's shoulders and Cicely 
 pushed into her hand a little fur cap, and thus equipped 
 she followed Wriothesley out through the window into the 
 brilliant April afternoon, and together, like a pair of children, 
 they ran hand in hand to the orchard.
 
 344 MARVEL, 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 " Love, if you knew the light 
 That your soul casts in my sight, 
 How I look to you 
 For the pure and true. 
 And the beauteous and the right 
 
 Bear with a moment's spite 
 When a mere mote threats the white I* 
 
 ARRIVED there, however, a sudden unaccountable fit of 
 shyness took possession of Marvel. Her words grew into 
 monosyllables, and she walked beside him demurely down 
 the shady pathways, hedged on either side by espaliered 
 apple trees and sweet with the thousand perfumes that 
 rise to greet the spring. 
 
 The warm buzzing of many bees came from the Mediter- 
 ranean heath in the corner, and the barberry bushes too 
 seemed full of them. There was a delicious sense of growth 
 everywhere. The day was very still and almost warm ; one 
 of those lovely capricious afternoons that come as a fore- 
 runner of the summer travelling towards us. 
 
 Yet Marvel walked with head down-bent and eyes averted 
 from her companion, who fain would looked love into eyes 
 that spoke again. But hers said nothing ; and it seemed 
 to him that she scarcely answered him, that she seemed 
 dead to the strange beauty of this day, that to him ap- 
 appeared so high above its fellows. Why should this fanciful, 
 cold little mood have caught her now of all times? In 
 this, wonderfully happy hour, in this sweetest of all seasons, 
 in 
 
 " The soft awakening springtime 
 When 'tis hard to live alone ? " 
 
 He let a silence fall between them after a bit, and then 
 he looked at her again, and then he laughed. It had dawned 
 upon him at last that the coldness was only shyness. What 
 a child she still was ! 
 
 " I believe you are afraid of me," he said teazingly. 
 
 " I am not ! " she denied with haste, colouring vividly.
 
 MARVEL. 345 
 
 "Why should you think so? It isn't that, only " she 
 
 hesitated and came to a standstill opposite to him, and 
 began to roll a pebble beneath her foot slowly, thoughtfully, 
 "only there is something!" she said. 
 
 " Well, let's hear it," said he, thinking how lovely she 
 looked with that half childish, half petulant air, that sat so 
 sweetly on her. 
 
 " Oh, no ! I couldn't say it. But " 
 
 " You can think it, whatever it is. Now, Marvel, are you 
 already beginning to doubt me again ? What is there worth 
 thinking about or saying, darling, except that you love me, 
 and that I love you ? " 
 
 "Ah," said she, with a reproachful glance at him, "but 
 you loved her too ! " 
 
 " Well, so I did," regretfully. He felt now ashamed of 
 that old passion and wished with all his soul he could have 
 blotted it out of his memory and hers. " You must have 
 seen and heard, Marvel, that most men fancy themselves 
 in love once at all events in their lives before they meet 
 the woman they really do love." 
 
 " You didn't fancy it," remorselessly. 
 
 M No," abandoning that weak corner, " I did not." A 
 pause. " That's true ! " A second, longer pause. Evi- 
 dently she was not going to help him out ; and he felt he 
 was hardly getting on with his defence or acquitting himself 
 in any manner that could be called satisfactory. " But as 
 I love you now," he went on hurriedly, " and you only, I 
 think you might try to forget it." 
 
 " I suppose so," dejectedly, drooping her lovely head and 
 declining altogether to look at him. "And yet I can't 
 bear to think that once you thought of nothing but 
 her." 
 
 " My darling girl, why won't you try to look deeper into 
 it " 
 
 " Deeper t Oh, if I did that," eloquently. 
 
 "You would find," eagerly, " that it was a mere boyish 
 attachment. Nothing in it nothing, I assure you." Had 
 he indeed forgotten ? " She was ever so much older than 
 I was. Old enough to be my mother." 
 
 " She was not" indignantly. " She was only about thirty-
 
 346 MARVEL. 
 
 five then, and you were twenty-eight or so she couldn't be 
 your mother at seven, I suppose ? " 
 
 " No, of course not," with abject surrender. " But yet if 
 you come to think of it, and if she were alive now, she would 
 be my mother, eh ? " 
 
 " That has nothing to do with it," severely. She turned 
 aside from him and plucked petulantly a budding leaf off 
 a raspberry bush at her elbow. He still held one of her 
 hands, and would have drawn her to him, but she resisted. 
 
 " No ! I won't I can't ! I can never get that horrid 
 past out of my head. I can quite fancy it all," she went on 
 with a little frown ; " I can positively see you ; following her 
 
 about all day, and sitting at her feet, and Oh!" 
 
 breaking off suddenly and blushing scarlet, as she pulled 
 her hand out of his, and glanced at him with a touch of 
 indignant anguish in her eyes. " You needn't deny it," she 
 said with agitation ; " it would be useless. I shouldn't be- 
 lieve you if you did, because you know you used to kiss her." 
 
 "Only once! Once only, I give you my honjur," de- 
 clared he earnestly. 
 
 "Once!" 
 
 " I'll swear to it, if you like ! It was one evening 
 when " 
 
 " Please reserve all the horrid details ; I don't want to 
 hear them," interrupted she scornfully, though there was a 
 sense of decided relief in her breast. 
 
 If he had only kissed her on one occasion there could 
 not, after all, have been so very much between them as she 
 had been led to believe. Why, he had only just told her 
 (Marvel) that he loved her, and already he had kissed her 
 four times ! Take one from four and three remains ! She 
 was, therefore, the richer by three. There was immense 
 comfort to be deduced from this sum. She only hoped he 
 was telling her the exact truth. She cast a severe glance 
 at him. 
 
 " Are you sure ? " she asked sternly. 
 
 " Positive. I remember it," impressively, being very 
 anxious to convince her, "as if it only happened yester- 
 day. I assure you," with growing warmth, " I'm not at all 
 likely to forget it ! "
 
 MARVEL. 347 
 
 " Oh ! " The clearly pronounced monosyllable showed 
 him his mistake in no time. " Are you not indeed ! " she 
 went on with a withering intonation. " It must have been 
 quite a remarkable thing of its kind to have made so lasting 
 an impression." 
 
 " I don't see why you need take it like that," said he 
 miserably. "And, considering how well you know that I 
 arn now entirely yours, I think you ought not to mind so 
 much about it." 
 
 " You minded a great deal when you thought, or pretended 
 to think, that I was in love with poor Nigel Savage ! " 
 
 " That was a different affair entirely. You were married 
 to me then ! " 
 
 "And were you not married to me that day on board the 
 yacht when I found you in such depths of grief over that 
 newspaper ? " 
 
 " Well, but so very little married," said he. 
 
 She struggled with herself for a moment, and then broke 
 into sudden laughter, sweet and fresh as the rippling of 
 mountain streamlets. Such a laugh ! merry, delicious, and, 
 above all things, young! He started as he heard it Tc 
 him it seemed new, yet old; a revelation, yet sounding lik: 
 something long remembered but lost for time uncountable. 
 Never, during all these late months, had he heard it, but it 
 brought back to him now, on the instant, the old days- 
 calm and untroubled at The Towers ; and once again he 
 saw her, as the child she then was, running down the marble 
 steps and welcoming him home with all a child's joyous 
 abandon. Again he seemed to feel the clinging of her soft 
 arm around his neck, and the innocent kiss she had pressed 
 upon his lips ! If then he had but known ! 
 
 How was it he had then never noticed the exquisite 
 gaiety of the laugh that now thrilled him through and 
 through? now, when she stood a little aloof from him, 
 and kept the loving arms discreetly by her sides, and when 
 her dainty lips looked more made to mock than kiss. Well, 
 he hadn't loved her then ! In that the secret lay. 
 
 Truly, love of all magicians is the most wonderful ! 
 
 He was glad to hear those merry sounds come from her 
 parted lips. They assured him that the old free happy
 
 348 MARVEL. 
 
 spirit that used to be hers was not altogether as dead within 
 her as he had begun to fear during these past mournful 
 weeks. She had not once laughed so since their marriage 
 morning, but now he knew that she only wanted love and 
 sympathy, and tender care from him, to bring back the 
 dimpling smiles to her cheeks and brightness to her lips. 
 It was with a quick sense of delight that he knew now that 
 on this, the first day of their acknowledged attachment each 
 for each the old sweet laughter had re-arisen to her lips. 
 
 He caught both her hands, and lifting them, pressed his 
 lips caressingly to the pretty pink palms. 
 
 " Marvel, tell me," he pleaded, " when you will come 
 away with me when you will trust yourself to me. I 
 shall not believe you have forgiven that luckless past till 
 then." 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. 
 
 " Sweet for a little even to fear, and sweet, 
 O love, to lay down fear at love's fair feet." 
 
 " SURELY there is plenty of time to think of that," said 
 she, blushing softly and smiling more softly still. 
 
 " Not so much, if you would escape several severe cross- 
 examinations. And besides, why not come at once ? To- 
 morrow we might start. Eh ? " 
 
 "Why not say now, this instant?" retorted she saucily. 
 " Have I nothing to do, think you, kind sir, but to follow you 
 at a second's notice, barefooted through the world." 
 
 " Not barefooted, surely." 
 
 "Very nearly so, at all events. I have clothes to get 
 to pack. No, I could not be ready for some days to come." 
 
 " That," reproachfully, " was not how you answered me 
 when first I asked you to marry me." 
 
 " Things are different now," said she, with a pretty arch 
 glance at him. 
 
 " They are, indeed," cried he. He caught her suddenly 
 and drew her into his embrace, and kissed her with all the 
 tender passion of a lover. "You are mine indeed, now, 
 because you love me. Don't you, Marvel ? Say it again."
 
 MAKVEL. 
 
 349 
 
 " You know it," she said sweetly. 
 
 " My darling ! I wish I were younger, for your sake. To 
 be eleven years older than you is a terrible thing. It does 
 sound badly, doesn't it now ? I daresay you regard me as 
 quite an old fellow if the truth were known. Come, con- 
 fess now." 
 
 " I don't know how I regard you. I only know I would 
 not have you a day older or a day younger than you are. 
 I would not have you changed in any way. Does that 
 content you ? " 
 
 "If I were not contented to-day, I should indeed be a 
 hopeless case. My pretty darling, you give too much to 
 gain, I fear, so very little." 
 
 " Oh, well, if you think I had better consider about it," 
 said she, standing back from him with a little provoking air. 
 They both laughed. 
 
 " Now name the day," said he. 
 
 " One would think you were proposing all over again." 
 
 " Over again ? " mischievously. " I think it was you 
 who " 
 
 She laid her hand upon his lips and flushed hotly. 
 
 "You are unkind, you are " 
 
 " A brute ! I acknowledge it humbly. But see how you 
 drive me to it, by your persistent cruelty." 
 
 " Is it so very necessary that we should leave so soon ? " 
 
 "Can't you see that for yourself? Are you willing to 
 run the gauntlet of a thousand inquisitive eyes ? Could 
 you not be ready on Wednesday, fo; instance ? " 
 
 " Well, if you insist, I suppose so." 
 
 "Only because I insist? Will it always be that way? 
 Have I only to insist to get my own will in all things ? " 
 
 " Yes, until," with a little nod, " I want to insist too." 
 
 He laughed. He smoothed down her hair with both 
 his hands, and told himself with fond self gratulation that 
 she was the very dearest thing, and she was his ! 
 
 " Does your youthful fancy still point towards Athens ? " 
 he asked her after a pause. " Or is there any other spot 
 you would prefer towards which to steer your course ? " 
 
 " No, I am still faithful to Greece. But, one word, Fulke, 
 it is now my turn to insist, and I warn you, once for all, that
 
 350 MARVEL. 
 
 on board that yacht of yours I will not set my foot. I hate it 1 
 In my opinion it" she lowered her voice "is unlucky." 
 
 " You couldn't set your foot there even if you would. 
 I, too, took such a hatred to it that I sold it the instant I 
 touched English ground. But I have another now a bigger, 
 finer one ; a smart sailer, a regular beauty, which " 
 
 " No, no, no : they are all alike, and they would remind 
 me of " she paused " what I wish forgotten. I will go 
 with you to Greece, to the North Pole if you will, by train or 
 sledge or anything else you like, but not by sea." 
 
 " As you will, sweetheart. And on Wednesday, then, you 
 will be ready ? " 
 
 " Ready " she hesitated and looked away from him a 
 little shyly, " and willing," she murmured in a low voice. 
 
 This assurance, so sweet, so exquisitely satisfactory, 
 received its just reward. 
 
 " When we have done Greece we can go farther and " 
 
 " Fare worse, perhaps." 
 
 " Hardly that. It is evident you know little of that 
 classic land. What I mean is that there will be no need 
 for us to return home in a hurry." 
 
 " There will be Cicely's marriage ? " 
 
 " That comes off in May. You could not possibly be 
 back in time for that, you silly child." 
 
 " She will be quite an old married woman then," with a 
 sigh, " before I see her again." 
 
 "Well, so will you; console yourself with that thought." 
 
 " And you" said she, with a charming impertinence, 
 " when I'm old what will you be I should like to know ? " 
 
 " Older," undauntedly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, by a month or so perhaps. I like that." 
 
 " If you are going to throw my years in my teeth, if you 
 are going to mock my hoary locks, I warn you betimes, Lady 
 Wriothesiey, that there will be " 
 
 " Battle, murder and sudden death ! Go to, you foolish 
 old man, do you think you would have strength to fight with 
 me ? Oh, Fulke ! do you remember when you used to teach 
 me cricket, and how horribly frightened I used to be about 
 the balls ? What a long time ago it seems now," she sighed 
 " and what a happy time it was."
 
 MAKVKL 351 
 
 " Do you regret it ? " asked he with such evident anxiety 
 that she turned to him and smiled. 
 
 " Oh, no. Happy as it was this is still happier," she said, 
 " only I wish auntie could see us now." 
 
 What a faithful soul, thought he, as he looked with ever- 
 increasing love into the large wistful eyes upraised to his. 
 
 " Do you know," she went on, " when I am very miserable 
 or very happy my mind always runs back to my earliest 
 days. You will say it is impossible I should remembei 
 that first strange awful night when I entered your home, 
 yet it seems to me always as if I did recollect, as if I could 
 see myself, dreamwise, standing wet, cold, disconsolate, out- 
 side the window." 
 
 " I at least can recollect," said he. " I am glad now to 
 think that it was / who heard you, who found you as it were, 
 and drew you in and rescued you from that cruel storm." 
 
 " Afterwards you rescued me from a worse storm still 
 the storm of life." Heavy tears rose to her eyes. " How 
 could I, nameless, have battled with it, had not you given 
 me your name ? Oh ! I have much to be thankful for." 
 
 " So have I, to-day. I confess I didn't think so yesterday. 
 But if you keep that little mournful look on your lovely 
 face I shan't believe that you are thankful Marvel, darling, 
 don't dwell so much on the past." 
 
 " Marvel ! That is not my name. Did you not see 
 by one of the papers that I was christened Margaret ? That 
 must have degenerated into Meg, because you remember 
 how I would say only ' M'g ' when first I came to you ? That 
 must have been baby language for Meg." 
 
 " I don't care," said he decisively. " Marvel you have 
 been to me and as Marvel I have thought of you for so 
 many years that Marvel you shall remain to me for ever." 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. 
 
 " Mine own heart's lady with no gainsay ings, 
 You shall be always wholly till I die.' f 
 
 THE world was indeed smitten with amazement when the 
 truth was made public. Her birth being proved, and the
 
 35* MABVEL. 
 
 fact established beyond dispute that she was lin reality 
 the daughter of Leonie Scarlett, made Marvel one of the 
 greatest heiresses in England. All her mother's money (an 
 enormous fortune left by Mr. Scarlett unreservedly to his 
 wife) fell to her, and helped in a great measure to stem the 
 torrent of scandal that is always only too eager to rise, rush 
 onward, and crush whatever conies in its way. 
 
 It seemed to the world that it was a rather amusing 
 thing that Wriothesley should have first loved the mother, 
 then married the daughter; but the knowledge that he and 
 his wife were richer than most bowed low the heads of 
 Mammon's worshippers. After all it was but a young 
 man's folly ; there had been nothing on which to look back 
 with shame in that first wild impulsive passion ; and when 
 it had died it had left no sting behind it. 
 
 Cicely's marriage was a small astonishment to her friends. 
 She had been so determined never again to enter into the 
 bonds of matrimony that when she gave herself to Sir 
 George, " the last man likely to suit her," according to her 
 intimates, everybody lifted his and her brows in mute 
 amazement. 
 
 It was a keen disappointment to her that Marvel could 
 not be at her wedding, and she proposed once or twice to 
 put off that important event until she should have returned 
 home. But Wriothesley negatived the proposal ; and indeed 
 if she had postponed her marriage until the Wriothesleys 
 came back, she would have had to wait a considerable time. 
 
 It was quite twelve months from the day of their departure 
 before they returned to The Towers. It was once again the 
 merry spring time, and all the village was decorated with 
 flags and wreaths in honour of their home-coming. The sun 
 was shining with a brilliancy that lit up the grand old house, 
 and threw tender gleams athwart the budding branches in 
 the silent, sweetly-smelling woods, as they drove through 
 them by the private carriage-way that led direct to the house 
 from the station. 
 
 Marvel, as she drew near, gazed. intently at the first home 
 she could remember, and a sense of passionate gladness rose 
 within her. As she looked, a tall gaunt form came out upon 
 the doorsteps and waved a welcome to her. It was the
 
 MARVEL 
 
 353 
 
 rector, Mr. Bainbridge, her old, true friend. Tears started 
 to her eyes, and she scarcely waited for the carriage to draw 
 up before she sprang to the ground and hastened to him. 
 With a little loving cry, that changed in a moment the beauti- 
 ful woman he looked at into the child he had known and 
 adored, she threw her arms round his neck and embraced 
 him fondly. 
 
 " My dear child ! My dear girl ! " said he with some 
 agitation. He held her back from him. "So it is well 
 with you ? " he said softly. 
 
 " So well ! " she answered him, her clear eyes fixed on 
 his, and then, " How long it seems since last we met ! But 
 I would not come to you when I was in trouble and per- 
 plexed. I waited, and now, when I am so happy that I 
 almost fear to think of it, now I come back to you, and all 
 that has my first and warmest love. And I do not come 
 alone ! " she turned and beckoned to a woman who stood 
 behind her with something, apparently very precious, in her 
 arms " see, see what I have brought you ! " She lifted the 
 precious something from the woman's hold and laid it in 
 Mr. Bainbridge's arms. 
 
 It was a baby. But something more than that too, as 
 one could see by her eyes a treasure, a jewel beyond all 
 price. It seemed strange to the old man watching her to 
 see the great motherly love that shone on the face that 
 was still so full of childhood's grace. 
 
 "You knew of it, of course," she was going on gaily. 
 "You saw it in the papers. But what you do not know 
 perhaps is, that I have brought him home to be baptized 
 by you. Oh yes, it was very wrong, I know. He is quite 
 six weeks; you can scold me by-and-by. But you had 
 married me, and no one else I said should give my boy his 
 name. And I hurried, too ; I came as soon as ever I could." 
 
 " Too soon," said Wriothesley anxiously, who had come 
 up to them. " See how flushed you are." 
 
 "With joy only. I feel no fatigue. How sweet, how 
 lovely it is to be in our old dear home again." 
 
 "Mr. Bainbridge, my authority is a poor thing. Per- 
 suade her to come in and lie down." 
 
 She laughed and went up the steps. In the hall, where 
 
 2 ~
 
 354 MARVEL. 
 
 all the servants were drawn up to bid her welcome, old 
 Bunch, the housekeeper, who had been her one friend on 
 her strange lonely wedding morn, came away from the other 
 servants and up to her. 
 
 " Oh, my lady, this is a joyful day for me," she said. 
 
 "For me, too, Bunch," said Marvel, with the sweet 
 graciousness that marked her, stooping -to kiss the old 
 woman's withered cheek. 
 
 Indeed, she had a word for every servant she knew there, 
 and even a smile for the strangers. It was with difficulty 
 Wriothesley at last persuaded her to take some little rest, 
 so happy, so bright she felt and looked. 
 
 " Remember, Cicely Townshend and Sir George will be 
 here to-morrow," he said ; " and do not tax your strength 
 too far." 
 
 Presently, when he came back to her, he found her 
 lying on a couch, with the baby asleep in a little bassinette 
 beside her. They were alone, those two, who were dearer 
 to him than all the earth besides. 
 
 " How contented you look," he said, drawing a chair close 
 to her. " More so, I think, than when we were travelling 
 about alone, you and I." 
 
 "Why, naturally," with a glance at the sleeping child. 
 " Isn't it strange," she said ; " when we were alone I thought 
 it was impossible earth could hold for me happiness more 
 complete, and yet now " She paused. 
 
 "Go on," said he laughing. "I have been preparing 
 myself for it. I know that in the days to come I shall be 
 cut out in your good graces by that small person over there, 
 and am trying already how to abdicate my throne without 
 loss of dignity." 
 
 " Oh, Fulke ! " she said reproachfully. She held out to 
 him one lovely slender hand, which he imprisoned in both 
 his own. He was her lover always. "If I thought you 
 meant it I should be wretched. But you don't. You are 
 first, you shall be first with me always. Believe that, my 
 dearest. Nothing could dethrone you." 
 
 She took her hand from his and laid it round his throat. 
 
 THE END.
 
 By C. F. Keary. 
 
 Herbert Vanlennert. 
 
 Author of " The Dawn of History," etc. I2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 
 
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