UNIVERSITY OF 
 AT LOS
 
 Roy's Wife
 
 "Face to face with her husband." (page 313) 
 
 Roy's Wife.'] 
 
 {Frontispiece
 
 Roy's Wife 
 
 By 
 
 G. J. Whyte-Melville 
 
 Author of "Market Harborough," " Katerfelto," "Cerise," 
 " Satanella," etc., etc. 
 
 Illustrated by G. P. Jacomb-Hood 
 
 London 
 Ward, Lock & Co., Limited 
 
 New York and Melbourne. 
 
 t • 
 

 
 c « «
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 fro* 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. A Pint of Port .... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9 
 
 II. A Pair of Boots 
 
 . 20 
 
 m. No. 46 . 
 
 . 25 
 
 IV. Deeper and Deeper 
 
 . 33 
 
 V. A Woman's Eeason 
 
 . 40 
 
 VI. So Like a Man ! . . . 
 
 . 48 
 
 VII. Warden Towers 
 
 . 56 
 
 I'lii. Eoyston Grange 
 
 . 64 
 
 IX. Strangers Yet .... 
 
 . 73 
 
 X. Mrs. Mopus .... 
 
 . 80 
 
 XI. A Walking Dictionary 
 
 . 88 
 
 XII. Burton Brake .... 
 
 . 97 

 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OHAP 
 
 XIII. Sweet Sympathy 
 
 XIV. So Far Away 
 XV. The Little Eift 
 
 XVI. The Music Mute 
 XVII. Baffled 
 xviii. Do You Eemember? . 
 
 XIX. In the Wilderness 
 
 XX. A Blue-Jacket 
 XXI. The Girl he Left Behind him 
 
 XXII. Circe . 
 
 XXIII. Arachne 
 
 XXIV. Out of Soundings 
 XXV. Standing Off-and-On 
 
 XXVI. Counsel's Opinion . 
 XXVII. The Irrepressible 
 xxvni. Champing the Bit 
 
 xxn. The Weather- Gauge 
 
 XXX. Watch and Watch . 
 
 XXXI. Worn to a Thread 
 xsxii. The Stalled Ox 
 
 PAGE 
 106 
 
 113 
 
 123 
 
 130 
 
 141 
 
 147 
 
 156 
 
 165 
 
 174 
 
 183 
 
 193 
 
 202 
 
 212 
 
 219 
 
 228 
 
 240 
 
 247 
 
 256 
 
 264 
 
 274
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 vii 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 A Word with the Dead- Alive 
 
 . 281 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Ebb and Flow .... 
 
 . 292 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Hampton Court .... 
 
 . 298 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 Far Above Eubies .... 
 
 . 306 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Post-Dated ..... 
 
 . 315 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 \Ymow! Willow! .... 
 
 . 323 
 
 XXSIX. 
 
 Yard-Arm to Yard-Arm 
 
 . 330 
 
 XL. 
 
 Welcome Home . < . . 
 
 . 338
 
 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A PINT OF PORT 
 
 None of ycur Scotch pints, dear to hard-headed North 
 Britons of the hist century, not even an imperial pint, 
 containing only one-fourth of the former measure, but an 
 hotel pint, in hotel limits, of hotel vintage, at hotel price. 
 Sound, no doubt, though rough and fruity; strong, full- 
 flavoured, and exceedingly restorative to body and mind. 
 
 An open wine-book j)ropped against an uncorked bottle 
 offers the produce of many European vineyards at the 
 highest possible tariff. In its first page alone the 
 varieties of champagne and claret might stock the cellar 
 of a duke. But he is a man of unusually trustful nature 
 who drinks wine in a coffee-room at the rate of one hundred 
 and twenty shillings per dozen, and experienced travellers 
 wisely content themselves with pale ale, brandy-and-water, 
 a glass of brown sheriy, or a pint of port. 
 
 Neither wine nor wine-card have yet attracted attention 
 from the visitor who ordered both. A waiter, banging hot 
 plates down under his nose, to serve " a bit of fish," notices 
 nothing remarkable in this unit among many guests. His 
 manners are quiet, he wears a good coat, and drinks wine 
 with his dinner ; the waiter, therefore, considers him a 
 
 9
 
 10 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 gentleman. That his face should be weary, his air 
 abstracted, seems but the natural result of a journey by 
 rail from London to the seaside ; and if he thinks of him 
 at all, it is as " a gent fi-om town," good for a shilling or 
 two when he takes his departure, notwithstanding that 
 " attendance " is charged in the bill. 
 
 The fish has been to London and back since leaving its 
 native shore, and is sent away uneaten ; but the port is 
 sipped, tasted, and approved. The first glass permeates 
 through his tired frame till it tingles at his finger-ends; 
 with the second, there rises a sensation of renewed vigour 
 and vitality in the whole man ; ere he is half-way to the 
 bottom of the third, a change has come over himself, his 
 surroundings, his past, his present — above all, his future — 
 that futm'e which looked so blank and uninteresting ten 
 minutes ago. The carpet seems no longer faded, the coffee- 
 room dingy and ill-ventilated. A stout lady at the corner 
 table, dining in solemn silence with two shy daughters and 
 an ungainly son, ceases to be an object of aversion and 
 disgust. Even the old gentleman by the window, who 
 gasps and snorts dming the process of deglutition, now 
 excites no stronger feeling than a mild hope that he will 
 presently be seized with some kind of fit, such as shall 
 necessitate his removal up-stairs. The drinker is surprised 
 at his own benevolence, and wonders, not without contempt, 
 how such an alteration should have been wi'ought in his 
 nature by warmth, food, and a pint of port ! 
 
 Reflection has been forced on him in the contrast between 
 present inactivity and the stir of his former life. With 
 nothing to do, plenty of time to do it, and nobody to help 
 him, he has become a philosopher in spite of himself. 
 He has acquired the habit of analysing his own character 
 and motives, examining them, as it were, fi-om an outside 
 point of view, in a spirit of cynicism, half-scornful, half- 
 indulgent, but wholly without result, his speculations
 
 A PINT OF PORT 11 
 
 only leading him farther and farther into that labyrinth of 
 
 which cui bono is the centre and the goal. He is easily 
 
 depressed : no wonder. But his hopes rise quickly as 
 
 they fall. When he sat down to dinner he felt a hundred 
 
 years old, yet ere the most odorous of Cheddar cheeses can 
 
 be thrust in his face, the world we live in has acquired 
 
 a new lustre, a fresh interest; society seems no longer an 
 
 infliction nor life a mistake. It is his nature to accept the 
 
 metamorphosis with amusement, curiosity, and mistrust. 
 
 "What an absurdity," he reflects, "is this action and 
 
 reaction of body and mind, this irregular and spontaneous 
 
 oscillation that governs the machine called man — a machine 
 
 in some respects constructed with such elaborate care and 
 
 precision, in others lamentably ill-suited to the purposes of 
 
 life ! A steam-engine is not thrown out of gear because we 
 
 feed its fires with inferior coal, or lubricate its hinges with 
 
 a cheaper oil than the best by sixpence a gallon ; but the 
 
 man who invented the steam-engine can be driven into 
 
 madness in three minutes with as many glasses of brandy, 
 
 and only half-a-pound of such cheese as that, for instance, 
 
 would weigh him down with a depression wanting but a few 
 
 gi-ains of actual despair. If the masterpiece of nature, the 
 
 lord of creation, had been made with a gizzard rather than 
 
 a liver, would he not oftener be lord of himself? which is 
 
 more to the purpose ; and would not that self more seldom 
 
 prove ' a heritage of woe ' ? I have sat here but five-and- 
 
 twenty minutes by the coffee-room clock. The waiter thinks 
 
 I am the same person whose orders he took for dinner, and 
 
 who told him to remove the fish at once. How little he 
 
 knows ! That man and I are as different as chalk itself 
 
 fi-om the very cheese that still pervades the room. He was 
 
 a pessimist — almost a dcvil-worshippcr ; I am an optimist, 
 
 and in so far a good Cliristian that I am at peace with all 
 
 mankind ! Wlien I drew my chair to this table I felt, 
 
 to use the expression of an Irish friend, as if * the back-
 
 12 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 bone was out of nic' No interest, no energy, no concern 
 for my luggage, no British susceptibility to imposition, 
 scarcely enough spirit available to have resented an insult 
 or returned a blow. Now I have become curious about the 
 locality, the neighbourhood, the shops, the Lchurch, the 
 circulating library, the new pier, and the state of the tide. 
 I ascertain by personal inquiry that my portmanteau is 
 safe in No. 5. I cannot be overcharged at present, inas- 
 much as I have scarcely yet laid the foundation of a bill, 
 but I am prepared to expend guineas rather than be cheated 
 out of shillings ; while as for blows and insults, my arm has 
 kept my head ere now. Let the aggressor look out ; I am 
 well able to take care of myself. And all this has been 
 brought about by the consumption of a pint of port. Great 
 heavens ! can it be possible that my intellect, my sagacity, 
 my nobler qualities, even my courage, are thus dependent 
 on drink ! Life was a very dull business half an hour ago. 
 The journey, though smooth and easy, had become so 
 slow and tiresome ; the road was exceedingly uninteresting, 
 leading nowhere in particular after all. For me and for my 
 neighbom's the way made, like that of an unskilful swimmer, 
 was so out of proportion to the energy expended, the 
 puffing and blowing, the hurry, the effort, and the splash ! 
 We were all, like iElies on the window-pane, buzzing to and 
 fro, backwards and forwards, round and round, never 
 relaxing our efforts, yet never penetrating an impassable 
 transparency that kept us fi-om the reality outside. I have 
 envied a man breaking stones on the road, because with a 
 daily duty and a definite purpose he seemed in some 
 measm-e to fulfil the object of existence, and to be less 
 of a sham and mountebank than myself. I am satisfied 
 now that such reflections were but results of a languid 
 circulation. My pulse — for I felt it when the waiter 
 wasn't looking — beats full and regular, seventy to the 
 minute ; I seem still to have duties, pleasures, perhaps
 
 A PINT OF POET 13 
 
 even lir.ppiness, in store for one whose scalp is not yet bare, 
 and who can count the gi-ey hairs in his whiskers. Waiter, 
 a toothpick ! " 
 
 " Beg your pardon, sir ; we don't keep them in the coffee- 
 room now, sir." 
 
 "Indeed! Why not ? " 
 
 " We found it didn't answer, sir. The gentlemen took 
 them away." 
 
 Lost in the field of reflection opened up by such an 
 admission, our visitor might have relapsed into something 
 of his pre\4ous despondency, but that his attention was 
 diverted to the lying of a table at the other end of the 
 room with rather more preparation and nicety of arrange- 
 ment than had been accorded in his own case, though 
 his sense of smell caused him to suspect that the fish 
 he had discarded was brought to the front once more. 
 Spoons and forks, however, had been polished to a dazzling 
 lustre, the tablecloth was very white, and in its centre stood 
 a handful of flowers in a dull glass vase. Surveying, 
 this effort, the waiter smiled satisfaction, while our 
 philosopher threw himself back in his chair to see what 
 would come of it with the good-humoured indifference of a 
 man who has dined. 
 
 What came of it was nothing unusual to the waiter, to 
 the old gentleman, to the mother and daughters, even to 
 the ungainly son — simply a single lady dining later than 
 other inmates of the hotel ; but to the port-drinker, in 
 regular gi-adations, at a startling rate of progi'ession, a 
 distraction, an amusement, a mystery, an engrossing 
 interest, and an irresistible attraction. 
 
 The veiy rustle of her dress, as it swept the dingy 
 coffee-room carpet, was suggestive of gi'ace and dignity, 
 of a smooth, easy gait, springing from symmetry of 
 form and vigorous elasticity of limb. That horses can 
 go in all shapes is an established maxim of the stable.
 
 14 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 but when women are good movers it needs no anatomist 
 to assure us that in external structure at least they have 
 been "nobly planned." Even the waiter seemed impressed, 
 smirking and flourishing his napkin with unusual emphasis 
 while interposing his person between the object of his 
 assiduities and the observer who wanted to see her face. 
 It vexed him that this should be completely averted. 
 As the lady seated herself, he could only detect the turn of 
 a full and shapely figure, a delicate little ear, and a white 
 neck from which the hair was scrupulously lifted and 
 arranged, dark and lustrous, tight and trim, in a fashion 
 exceedingly becoming to the beautiful, but trying to the 
 more ordinary of womankind. 
 
 Many a romance has been built on slighter scaffolding ; 
 and no young man of half his age and a quarter his 
 experience was more likely to make a fool of himself about 
 a woman than the gentleman in question — John Roy, 
 Esquire, of Royston, a deputy-lieutenant for his county, 
 and a magistrate who had never qualified in the Commission 
 of the Peace. There was nothing uncommon in his history. 
 Eton and the ten-oar — Oxford and the drag — upper division, 
 fifth form, at school, and a degree at college — woodcocks in 
 Albania, lansquenet at St. Petersburg, Hanover for German, 
 Paris for fencing, and home again for real enjoyment 
 of life — then a little Melton, a little Newmarket, a little 
 London, with the prospect of completing this conventional 
 course in a pradent marriage, and such rural vegetation as 
 would tend to the increase of personal weight and pro- 
 longation of the family tree. 
 
 Not the best training, perhaps, even for the level path he 
 seemed likely to tread in the journey of life. Not the 
 wisest preparation, certainly, for a time when there must 
 be an end of business and pleasure ; when tobacco shall 
 cease to soothe, and wine to exhilarate ; when dancing 
 waters and June sunshine are to be exchanged for drawn
 
 A PINT OF PORT 15 
 
 cui'tains and beef-tea ; when it will need neither the 
 doctor's grave face nor the nurse's vapid smile to tell us 
 that we have done with our accustomed habits, pursuits, 
 and interests ; never to greet our guests, ride our horses, 
 nor balance our accounts again ; no more to cherish a 
 grudge, nor indulge a prejudice, nor kindle in a glow of a 
 kindly action on behalf of our fellow-man ! The journey 
 is compulsory, the destination inevitable, yet how little 
 thought we seem to take for here or hereafter! 
 
 In Eastern nations every male, whatever may be his 
 rank, is brought up to some kind of handicraft, and so far 
 is made independent of external fortune. In England, we 
 pride ourselves on teaching our sons a smattering of many 
 things, and a thorough knowledge of none. This we call 
 the education of a gentleman ; but surely, in such loose, 
 discm'sive culture of the mind, we fail to stimulate that 
 power of concentration which can alone remove gigantic 
 obstacles, to encourage that habit of persistency which forms 
 the very backbone of success. 
 
 John Roy received " the education of a gentleman," and 
 did credit to his nurture as well as another; but there 
 came a time, before he was turned thirty, when he wished 
 he had been bred a shoemaker or a stonemason, because of 
 the dull dead pain for which there is no anodyne like the 
 pressure of daily want and the fatigue of daily work. 
 
 The lives of most of us in so far resemble a skein of 
 silk, that they unwind freely and readily enough until they 
 arrive at a knot. Patient, even pleased, we sit in a 
 ludicrous attitude, stiffened by the voluntaiy fetters that a 
 pair of white hands have fitted deftly round our wrists, and 
 while we smile and look foolish, lo! there is a jerk, a quiver, 
 a stop ; the pretty lips tighten, the pencilled eyebrows 
 frown, and presently the mcrry-go-round that went so swim- 
 mingly comes to a dead-lock. So she brings out her scissors 
 to solve the whole difficulty with a vicious little snip, 
 obsei-ving calmly, " I began at the wrong end."
 
 16 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 There was a Lady Jane in Roy's life who also began at 
 the wi-ong end. She chose to fall in love with him because 
 she was idle, because her younger sister was engaged, 
 because he always stood at the same place in the park 
 when she rode there, perhaps because the London season 
 is so insutferably tedious without some definite attraction. 
 Having decided that she would "like him a little," sl«3 made 
 up her mind that he should like her a great deal. There 
 was no difficulty in the capture. Handsome and high-bred, 
 asked everywhere, and sufficiently admii-ed even in London, 
 she had but to look her wishes ; in three days the man was 
 at her beck and call. Such stories have been told so often 
 they are hardly worth repeating. He had never really 
 cared for a woman before, he never cared quite in the same 
 way for a woman again. 
 
 Men, lilie animals, take their punishment differently 
 according to their dispositions. Some fret and chafe, and 
 forget all about it ; others turn cowardly and despondent, 
 or sullen and savage ; but all lose something of that fire 
 and dash which prompts untried natures to achieve the 
 maiTellous in aiming at the impossible. 
 
 Lady Jane, with her new distraction, was very happy for 
 a fortnight, a month, six weeks ! It seemed so nice to be 
 petted, to be worshipped, to have some twelve stone of 
 manhood all to one's self. She felt quite sorry for the 
 other girls, plodding along, dismounted as it were, while 
 she rode her hobby in triumph with her delicate nose in 
 the air. Mr. Roy — she wished he had a prettier name 
 than John — was so devoted, so amiable, above all so true. 
 He never gave her the slightest twinge of jealousy (she 
 would have liked him all the better if he had), but told her 
 every hour that she was too good for him — a princess stoop- 
 ing to a squire, Beauty smiling on the Beast — and that he 
 considered himself unworthy to wipe the very dust from 
 her feet. After a while she believed him, as a woman will
 
 A PINT OF PORT 17 
 
 believe anj-thing, if it is only repeated often enough ; and 
 when she overheard Aunt Julia whisper to mamma that 
 "Jane might do so much better," began to think perhaps 
 Aunt Julia was right. 
 
 " She stopped it before they were regularly engaged. 
 Nobody could accuse Jane of behaving badly " — so said her 
 family — '' and if Mr. Eoy had presumed on the high spirits 
 and fascinating manners of a girl who was popular with 
 evei-ybody, he might thank his own folly for his disappoint- 
 ment." 
 
 They allowed, however, that he " behaved beautifully," 
 as did Jane, who returned everything he had given her, 
 except some music ; and on one occasion when they met in 
 society after their rupture, shook hands v/ith him as kindly 
 and calmly as if he had been her grandfather. 
 
 He saw a fresh admirer, with a large rent-roll, put his 
 ann round her waist for a waltz, and stepped into the street 
 with a strange numb feeling, like a patient whose leg has 
 been cut off — the sensation was akin to relief, yet in some 
 respects worse to bear than pain. It was characteristic of 
 the man that he never blamed her. " I suppose they are 
 all alike," he said to his cigar, and so, walking home in 
 the rain, made up his mind that this also was vanity ! 
 
 Lady Jane rode in the park pretty regularly till the end 
 of the season, sometimes with, sometimes without, the 
 eligible admirer ; but she looked in vain for Mr. Key's 
 figure at the accustomed spot ; missing it none the less, 
 perhaps, that she wondered what had become of him, and 
 whether he did not sometimes think of her still. 
 
 John Ptoy was the last man to howl. Nobody else should 
 know how hard he was hit. His stronger nature told him 
 that he was meant for something better than to be the 
 puppet of a woman's smile, and, though they smarted 
 intolerably, he had the grace to be ashamed of his wounds. 
 By the time Lady Jane went to Cowes, he was whirling a 
 
 2
 
 18 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 lasso at wild horses iu South America, living on beef and 
 water, burning quantities of tobacco, and spending sixteen 
 hours out of the four-and-twenty on a Mexican saddle in 
 the open air. Smoking and riding combined soon modified 
 the symptoms of his malady ; its cure, though slow, was 
 progressive. In twelve months he felt resigned, and in 
 eighteen comfortable. After two or three years he came 
 back to Europe, having travelled over a great part of the 
 world, with nothing left to remind him of his pangs but 
 a cynical resolve never to be caught in such a trap again. 
 ** Not if I know it ! " says he who has once burned his 
 fingers ; but the spark kindles when he does not know it, 
 and the flame consumes him none the less greedily that he 
 had been dried and seasoned in the heat of a former fire. 
 
 Koyston was got ready for its owner ; but he only lived 
 there at intervals, trying to do his duty as a landlord for a 
 time, then flying ofi" at a tangent to seek some distraction, 
 in however mild a change, from the weariness of his every- 
 day life. 
 
 Thus it was that a September evening found him in a 
 quiet watering-place on the southern coast, speculating, 
 after a coffee-room dinner, on the beauty of features and 
 sweetness of disposition suggested by the back of a lady's 
 head. Watch as he would, she never turned it so much as 
 an inch. There was the beautiful ear, the white skin, the 
 trim, dark hair, but nothing more. How if the rest of her 
 person should in no way correspond with this exquisite 
 sample ? She might squint, she might have lost her teeth, 
 she might wear a wooden leg ! He had heard or read of 
 such disillusions, such disappointments. The uncertainty 
 began to get irksome, annoying, intolerable. Could he not 
 make some excuse to walk across the room yonder, to the 
 chimney-piece, where he would be full in front of her? To 
 look at the clock, for instance ; the dial of that time-piece 
 being a foot in diameter, and calculated for short-sighted
 
 A PINT OF POBT 19 
 
 inquirers at ten paces off. He had already moved his chair, 
 when she rose. " Forty-six, if you please," she said to the 
 v/aiter in a low, sweet voice, as indicating the number of 
 her apartment, for proper registry of her bill, and so 
 walked smoothly and gracefully to the door. 
 
 Disappointment ! disillusion ! Not a bit of it ! As 
 lovely a face as a man could wish to look at, set on as 
 shapely a form ! Features not quite classical, only because 
 so soft and womanly; deep grey eyes, fringed with long 
 black lashes; a mouth too large, a chin too prominent, but 
 for the white teeth and perfect curves of the one, the firm 
 and well-cut outline of the other. A complexion delicate 
 rather than pale, a figiu-e somewhat full and tall, a graceful 
 head carried nobly on neck and shoulders ; last, not least, 
 an abundance of dark and silky hau-, growing low on the 
 brow, square at the temples, and drawn tight off the fore- 
 head to wind in thick shining coils round the skull. 
 
 Mr. Koy had a habit of talking to himself, " You 
 darling ! " he whispered, as the door closed. " That is the 
 nicest woman I ever saw in my life ! "
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS 
 
 The smoke-room, as the waiter called it, was empty. Our 
 friend felt pleased to find that uncomfortahle apartment at 
 his sole disposal. Devoid of drapery, floored with oil-cloth, 
 bare of all furniture but wooden chairs, horse-hair sofas, 
 and spittoons, this retreat offered few temptations to a 
 smoker, and such guests as were devoted to the practice 
 usually chose to consume their tobacco out of doors. It 
 was a bright night, with a clear sky and a rising tide, yet 
 Roy seemed to prefer the flicker of gas in this dim, desolate 
 apartment to the fresh briny air and a moon-lit sea. To be 
 under the same roof with her was a strong point ; it would 
 be his own fault if he could not, in some way, make the 
 acquaintance of this fascinating stranger before slie left the 
 hotel. He was a man of the world, but he had seen a great 
 deal of that world with his own eyes, and travel, no doubt, 
 tends to simplify the character while it enlarges the mind. 
 He did not at once suspect evil of her because journeying 
 unprotected and alone ; nor did he feel that so attractive a 
 woman must be in a false position without a companion of 
 her own sex. Again and again he rehearsed the little scene 
 that he hoped to bring about next day. The meeting on 
 the stairs, the profound and deferential bow, repeated on the 
 Pier, so unobstrusively, that to offer a newspaper, a novel, 
 a handful of fresh flowers, would seem a tribute of homage 
 rather than an unauthorised impertinence ; then, by slow 
 
 20
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS 21 
 
 degrees, morning gi-eetings, afternoon conversations, perhaps 
 at last a wallc by the sea, an explanation of motives, a hint 
 at covert admiration fi'om the first, and so on — and so on — 
 to the end — 
 
 Here a memory of Lady Jane made him catch his breath 
 like the shock of a cold bath. There was something of 
 triumph, nevertheless, in the consciousness that he had 
 hoisted the flag of freedom at last, and found, perhaj)s to- 
 night by the merest accident, far more than he looked for 
 in those young days of weakness, folly, and despaii'. How 
 delightful it would be to instal her at Koyston, to take her 
 to London, to introduce her to Lady Jane ? No. Already 
 he had so far forgotten the ghost of his departed love, that 
 he felt perfectly indifterent whether Lady Jane grudged him 
 his happiness or not ! 
 
 A man must marry some time, he decided. Would he 
 ever see a woman so likely to suit him, supposing, of 
 course, that she proved as charming as she looked ? And 
 why not ? The face was surely an index to the character. 
 Such soft and beautiful hair, too, must necessarily accom- 
 pany an amiable disposition and well-stored mind. His 
 thoughts were running away with him, galloping headlong 
 down-hill, and had reached altar and honeymoon, when 
 they were suddenly pulled up by a consideration that ought 
 to have presented itself sooner. " What if she were 
 married already? " How he cm'sed his stupidity not to 
 have scrutinised her left hand for the plain gold ring that 
 tells its respectable tale. Yes, of course, she must be 
 married ; that accounted for her travelling by herself, her 
 quiet independence of manner, her dining alone in the 
 coffee-room of an hotel. She came to meet her husband, 
 who would probably arrive by the last train, and there was 
 an end of the whole thing ! As he dashed the stump of 
 his cigar into the fireless grate, he could not help laughing 
 aluud to think how quickly he had planned, built, furnished,
 
 28 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 and annihilated his castle in the air ! Yet passing 
 46 in the passage on his way to bed he could not help 
 looking -wistfully at the closed door, with its painted 
 numerals, wondering the while how he could he such a 
 fool! 
 
 Roy was an early riser. The habit, acquired in warmer 
 climates than our own, is got rid of with difficulty, even in 
 England, where many of us lose something like fourteen 
 hours, or one working day, in the week, by persistently 
 lying in bed till eight o'clock. On his dreams it is needless 
 to speculate, sleep does not always continue the thread of 
 our waking thoughts ; but he turned out at seven, and by 
 half-past was shaking the cold salt water from eyes, ears, 
 and nostrils, as he came up after a glorious " header," and 
 struck out for the open sea. 
 
 He was a fair swimmer, but distances are deceiving for a 
 naked man in the Channel, so that a few hundred yards 
 out and in again were as much as he cared to accomplish 
 before breakfast. Climbing into his machine, he experi- 
 enced that sensation of renewed vigour in body and mind, 
 which is never so delightful as after the first of our morning 
 dips, if we are prudent enough not to stay in the sea too 
 long ! 
 
 Walking home, through the market, with a furious 
 appetite for breakfast, all the despondency of yesterday had 
 vanished, and even the infatuation of last night seemed but 
 a dream. 
 
 Royston was no longer a dull and moated Grange, in 
 which life meant stagnation ; a country gentleman's duties 
 and occupations assumed the imjiortance which everything 
 really possesses that is done heartily and for a good motive. 
 John Roy himself had become an enviable person, with far 
 better luck than he deserved ; and this fresh, quiet Beach- 
 mouth a charming little watering-place where he would 
 remain just long enough to enjoy his holiday, and return to
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS 23 
 
 homely duties refreshed, invigorated, altogether a new 
 man. If No. 46 crossed his mind, it was only that he 
 might pictm-e her to himself eating prawns with her legal 
 mate at a coffee-room breakfast, smiling and comely, no 
 doubt, but not half so pretty as she looked the night 
 befure. 
 
 Proceeding up-stairs to his own apartment he necessarily 
 passed her door. On its threshold rested a dear little pair 
 of boots, left out last night to be cleaned, and brought back 
 this morning, in company with a can of warm water. It 
 was obvious they belonged to a very pretty foot, slim and 
 supple, hollow and arched, that trod, light and even, on a 
 thin sole and a low heel. For a man who admired pretty 
 feet it was impossible to pass these boots without further 
 examination. John Roy could not resist the temptation, 
 and stooped to pick one up. 
 
 Now the chambermaid, not wishing to go more errands 
 than necessary, had left a letter for No. 46, cunningly 
 balanced on that lady's chaussure : was it quite inexcusable 
 that Mr. Roy should have turned it over in his hand, or 
 that his heart should have made a great leap when he read 
 the address — 
 
 " Miss Burton, 
 
 Imperial Hotel, 
 
 Beachmouth," 
 
 written legibly enough in a plain, clerk-like, current hand ? 
 Miss Burton ! She was free then, this goddess, unmarried 
 at any rate, though it would be too much to suppose that 
 she could be without suitors. Still, give him a fair field 
 and no favom*, why should his chance be worse than 
 another's ? All the folly of last night, that he thought had 
 been washed out by sea-water, came back with a rush ; he 
 lifted one of the little boots in a tender almost a reverend
 
 24 rxOY'S WIFE 
 
 hand ; but for footsteps in the passage he would have defied 
 blacking, and pressed it to his lips. 
 
 Instead of kissing, he dropped it like a hot potato, and 
 hurried off to complete his toilet, with a light tread and a 
 bounding pulse, but the fine appetite for breakfast com- 
 pletely gone.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 NO. 46 
 
 He was just in time. His own scarcely closed, before the 
 door of 46 opened, and a bright, handsome face peeped out, 
 followed by a round white arm, that drew letter, boots, and 
 water-can into the room. Miss Burton then desisted from 
 the sleeking of her dark locks, and proceeded to read the 
 following communication : — 
 
 " Monday evening, 
 " Corner Hotel, Corner Street, Strand. 
 
 " My dear Nelly, — 
 
 " You were disappointed. In course you must 
 
 have been disappointed, though I make no account of 
 
 disappointments myself, being well used to them. But you 
 
 are young, which makes it different. Well, my dear, the 
 
 cabman was sulky, and his poor horse lame, and I had very 
 
 little time to spare, there's no denying it, so we missed the 
 
 train. "Why didn't I come by the next? I'll tell you. 
 
 The moment I got home, meaning to take a cup of tea and 
 
 a fresh start, what should I find at the door, but four 
 
 arrivals, and one of them a family of eight, with a baby not 
 
 short-coated, bless it, as hungry as a little hawk. Nothing 
 
 ready, not so much as a mouthful of toast for tlie lot. 
 
 Maria is no more use than a post ; and when I think of 
 
 how you would have helped me, my dear, in such a muddle, 
 
 I could sit down and cry. Why, in ijour time, a queen 
 
 25
 
 26 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 might have eaten olF tlie kitclien floor, and now, I dechire, 
 I am ashamed for the strange servants to go into the 
 offices. Even them foreign couriers turn up their noses 
 when they pass in and out ; and to he untidy, as well you 
 know, is the one thing that makes me mad. However, I 
 am such a one to bustle when I'm really put to it, that I 
 had them all settled and comfortable before the gas was 
 turned on ; but it was too late to start for Beachmouth 
 then. I never believed much in telegraphs since the 
 Government took them in hand, so I thought I'd drop you 
 a line by post, my dear, to tell you all, how and about it. 
 
 " I made sure of being off first thing in the morning, but 
 we're poor blind creatm'es, the sharpest of us, and half an 
 hour back, Fanny, that's the new under-housemaid, and a 
 precious lazy one she is, comes tapping at the door, and ' If 
 you please, ma'am,' says she, ' Miss Collins is took bad,' 
 says she, and will you believe it, my dear, there was Maria 
 fainted dead away on the stairs, and forced to be put to bed 
 at once, and a doctor sent for and all ! Till he has been, 
 I don't know what's the matter, nor how long a job it will 
 be, nor when I shall get down and join you, no more than 
 the dead. That's why I'm writing in such a hurry to save 
 the post, so please excuse mistakes and always believe me, 
 
 ' ' Your aflectionate aunt, 
 
 *' Matilda Phipps. 
 
 *' P.S. My head isn't worth twopence, I'm that worried 
 and put about. Now I've forgot to say, you'd better keep 
 your mind easy, and stay where you are — the change will 
 do you good. If things go well, I might be with you as 
 Satm'day, at soonest. I can tell you these fine autumn 
 days make me long for a blow of the sea-breezes and a 
 walk by the seaside; goodbye." 
 
 After reading the above production more than once. Miss
 
 NO. 46 27 
 
 Burton pulled her purse from under the pillow, and counted 
 her money, gold, silver, copper, and a bank-note. She 
 then completed her toilet, took in a breakfast tray left at 
 the door, disposed of its contents with a healthy appetite, 
 arranged her wi'iting-case on the lid of a trunk, and, in a 
 most uncomfortable attitude, produced the following reply : — 
 
 " Tuesday morning, 
 " No. 46, Imperial Hotel, Beachmouth. 
 
 " Dear Aunt Matilda, — 
 
 " Mind you ask for No. 46 when you arrive. 
 It means me. I'm like a con\dct, only without a brass ring, 
 and the people of the hotel wouldn't know me by any other 
 name. I hope you will be here soon ; you would enjoy it. 
 From my window I have such a lovely view of the sea, and 
 this morning I was woke by the tide coming in. It sounded 
 so fi-esh and healthy. I wonder anybody lives away from 
 the seaside ; not but I was very happy with you in 
 Corner Street. I like to think I am of use, and one is 
 very useful, I suppose, managing an hotel. If poor Miss 
 Collins keeps bad, I will come back whenever you wish. I 
 don't want to be independent, dear auntie, and the money 
 left me by Cousin William I would willingly join to yours, 
 if you thought it a good plan, as I told you from the first. 
 However, in the meantime, we will hope to enjoy ourselves 
 for a fortnight at the least in this beautiful and romantic 
 place. Not that I have seen much of it yet ; but directly 
 I have posted this I mean to be off for a long walk by the 
 sea. It seems lilce another world, and yet I am sm'e I 
 don't know why. This hotel is comfortable enough, but I 
 could teach them a few things, I dare say, though to be 
 sure we Londoners are apt to expect too much. Country- 
 folks must be a little behindhand, I suppose. How you 
 would laugh if you were to find mc settled in the bar, 
 taking the orders and posting the books. Wouldn't it seem 
 like old times ?
 
 28 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 " I was glad you told me to travel first-class, as I had a 
 carriage all to myself, except for two gentlemen, who got 
 out half-way. I never was much of a one to take notice of 
 the men, and, though they stared more than was polite, 
 we scarcely exchanged a word. I dined in the coffee-room, 
 where there were very few people. If it wasn't for the sea 
 I should be dull enough ; hut I hope to have you here in a 
 day or tAvo, when we will take some famous Avalks, and 
 perhaps, if it is very smooth, go out for a sail. In the 
 meantime I shall stay where I am, dear auntie, till I hear 
 from you again, and remain always, 
 
 " Your grateful and affectionate niece, 
 
 " Elinor Burton." 
 
 Having stamped her letter. Miss Burton put on a killing 
 little straw hat, armed herself with an umbrella, and sallied 
 forth to the post-office, light of step and blithe of heart, 
 little knowing, like the rest of us, what a day might bring 
 forth. 
 
 It must not be supposed that this lady, though filling a 
 social position no higher than the management of an hotel 
 owned and superintended by her aunt, was therefore deficient 
 in education or unrefined in feelings. Her father was a 
 bookseller, her mother a governess. Such a combination 
 inferred a moderate share of education and accomplishments. 
 She could play the pianoforte, speak French, calculate 
 figui'es, order dinner, see that it was properly cooked, check 
 tradespeople, manage servants, and wrote, moreover, the 
 most beautiful Italian hand imaginable — clear, precise, and 
 fluent, it seemed no unworthy index of her character. 
 
 She was now near thirty, and had of course received a fair 
 amount of attention. She might have counted her offers, 
 as tumblers of punch are counted in Ireland, on the fingers 
 of both hands. Hitherto she had escaped without a wound, 
 almost without a scratch. Well-to-do tradesmen sued in
 
 NO. 46 29 
 
 vain. A rising artist, a popular actor, were rejected, 
 kindly but firmly, and Nelly, in the prime of womanhood, 
 could as yet find nobody exactly to her taste. Mrs. Phipps, 
 the aunt who had taken care of her since her mother's 
 death, began to fear that she was destined for an old maid. 
 Recalling her own youth, and its comparative scarcity of 
 suitors, she wondered how her niece could be so impene- 
 trable, and when, under the will of a cousin deceased, Miss 
 Bm-ton became possessed of a small independent fortune, 
 the elder lady, arguing against her own interests and con- 
 venience, m'ged on the younger the propriety of at last 
 settling in life. 
 
 Nelly did not seem to see it. Wlien she could find 
 leisure, and occasion oftered, she was a reader of novels and 
 a dreamer of dreams, though clear-headed and firm of pur- 
 pose. She was also a thorough woman, and cherished deep 
 in her heart those generous impulses of affection and 
 romance which make much of a woman's pleasure in life, and 
 all her pain. She had formed her ideal hero, who in no 
 way resembled the men she was in the habit of meeting in 
 her aunt's private sitting-room, or at the bar of the Corner 
 Hotel, Corner Street, Strand. She had not settled exactly 
 what he icas, but had made up her mind what he was 7iot. 
 
 In business ? No. A mere idler ? No. Young, slim, 
 and genteel ? No. Short, stout, and well-to-do ? A 
 thousand times no. Rather, a man of a certain age, a 
 certain standing, who had seen the world, and thought 
 things out, and been unhappy — perhaps about some other 
 woman. She wouldn't mind that, a sore heart was better 
 than none at all ; and — and — she felt if she really loved 
 him, she could console him for anything ! 
 
 When we tliink of woman's nature — excitable, imagina- 
 tive, and in its afiections wholly unreasonable ; when we 
 think of a girl's dreams — tender, unselfish, and thoroughly 
 unattainable — the wonder is, not that here and tliere we
 
 30 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 shall fmtl an unhappy marriage, but that any two people, 
 thoroughly disappointed and undeceived, should be able to 
 tolerate each other kindly and comfortably to the end. 
 Even for men there is an awakening from the rosy dream, 
 usually within two years ; but they have so many interests 
 and occupations into which the affections do not enter, 
 that they prosper well enough without these superfluities, 
 and prefer, I believe, the bracing air and enforced activity 
 of the working world, to an o^ipressive atmosphere and irk- 
 some repose in a fool's paradise. But it is far different 
 with their wives. Piece by piece the woman sees her 
 knight stripped of his golden armour ; feather by feather 
 does her love-bird moult its painted plumes ; and the lower 
 he falls in her estimation, the higher this disappointing 
 mate seems to rise in his omi. He kissed her feet while 
 she thought him a prince, he tramples on her now she 
 knows him a clown. After taming an eagle, it does seem 
 humiliating to be coerced by an owl. 
 
 And there is no salvage ; all her cargo is gone down in 
 one ship. Is it wonderful that she looks abroad over the 
 dreary waters with a blank face and a troubled eye ? 
 Women are deceived over and over again. They like it ; 
 but even the pure gold never rings quite true in their ears 
 when they have once been cheated by the counterfeit 
 coin. 
 
 It seems an ungenerous sentiment, but I think that man 
 is wise who does not allow his wife to know him thoroughly ; 
 who keeps back a reserve of strength, of authority, even of 
 affection, for the hour of need, causing her to feel that 
 there are depths in his character she has not yet sounded, 
 heights she has not scaled. Thus can he indulge and 
 keep alive her feline propensity to prowl, and pounce, and 
 capture ; thus will he remain an object of interest, of 
 anxiety, of devotion ; thus will she continue to see him 
 through the coloured glass of her own imagination ; and it
 
 NU. 46 " 31 
 
 will be the happier for both, because wheu affection goes to 
 sleep in security it is apt to forget all about waking, and 
 those are the most enduring attachments in which the 
 woman loves best of the two. 
 
 In the meantime Nelly has posted her letter, and paid 
 the penny that entitled her to inhale sea-breezes on the 
 Pier. 
 
 It is an autumn day^ delightful at the seaside — with a 
 bright sun, a crisp air, and a curl on the shining waters. 
 All the visitors at Beachmouth seem to have turned out, 
 though it is hardly eleven o'clock ; but in the hundred or 
 so of strangers who constitute this accidental population 
 there are none to be compared with Miss Burton. 
 
 Even the ladies stare at her as she walks on, and admit, 
 fi'ankly enough, that she " has a fine figure for people who 
 admire that style. What a pity she must become coarse, 
 even blowsy, in a year or two ; and after all, it's very easy 
 to be good-lookiug, with dark eyes, and all that quantity of 
 hair, probably false ! " 
 
 The approval of the men, however, is unanimous. One 
 youth, wearing a complete shooting-suit that will never go 
 out shooting, passes, rej)asses, looks, leers, and seems about 
 to speak ; but Nelly is used to admiration, considering it, 
 like beef or mutton, unpalatable unless properly cooked, 
 and, looking straight before her, gives him to understand by 
 her bearing that she is the last person with whom he may 
 presmne to take a liberty. 
 
 Then she establishes herself at the extreme end of the 
 jetty, as far out at sea as she can get, perhaps three hundred 
 feet, and, pulling some work from her pocket, gives herself 
 up to the full enjoyment of air and scenery, with no more 
 self-consciousness than the gi-ey gull flapping and fishing 
 not a cable's length from where she sits. Meanwhile, 
 John Roy, deceived by a dress and chignon, has walked two 
 miles along the beach in pursuit of a figure that sets
 
 32 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 liis lieai't beating while he overtakes it, but on nearer in- 
 spection turns out to be an cklcrly hidy, ordered strong 
 exercise for her health, who meets his disappointed stare 
 with a perfectly unmeaning smile, and a face shining in 
 perspiration under the noon-day sun.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER 
 
 Events seldom come off exactly as people anticipate ; yet 
 the odds are longer than we think on the success of a man 
 who expends all his energies in pursuit of any one object, 
 gi'eat or small. 
 
 The old foxhunter's advice, " Keep your temper and stick 
 to the line," is a golden rule for the conduct of more 
 serious affairs than bringing " the little red rover " to hand 
 after all the delights and uncertainties of a run. If we 
 carry on the metaphor into a love-chase, we shall find it 
 even more appropriate to the gardens of Venus than the 
 woodlands of Diana. Command of temper is everything in 
 dealing with a woman's caprice ; and that undeviating 
 persistency which men call pigheadedness, and gods per- 
 severance, seldom fails, sooner or later, to come up with 
 and capture its prey. John Roy resolved to keep his 
 temper, though he had overrun the line ; and like a 
 thorough woodsman, adapting his tactics to the habits of 
 his game, he determined to " try back " without loss of 
 time. But the Pier was deserted when he arrived there, 
 and he sat down to consider his next move, disappointed 
 rather than disheartened. As he told himself, with 
 something of sarcasm, " He was only hotter on it than 
 before." 
 
 The tide would be out in the afternoon. He reflected 
 that no woman, on her first day at the seaside, could resist 
 
 3 33
 
 34 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 the temptation of wetting her feet in the little pools of salt 
 water left, as if on pm-pose, by its ebb. 
 
 So after luncheon he watched, patiently enough, and 
 having seen his friend of the morning packed into a 
 watering-place fly, felt confident he would be deceived by 
 that staunch pedestrian no more. 
 
 Presently he was rewarded. Not ten paces from the rock 
 where he had settled himself Forty- Six came stei)ping 
 jauntily by, looking steadfastly seaward, while she drank in 
 the fresh briny air with a thirst engendered by long months 
 of London smoke and gas. 
 
 He could.. not but observe how true were the lines of her 
 undulating figure, how firmly she planted her foot, how 
 nobly she carried her head, how smooth and level was her 
 gait, as she stepped bravely out across the sand. 
 
 " Watch, and your chance comes ! " muttered Roy, 
 throwing away the cigar he was in the act of lighting ; for 
 an occasion ofiered itself when least expected, and he seized 
 it without difiidence or hesitation. Two children, enjoying, 
 as only children can, the delight of wooden spades and low 
 water, had wandered, I need hardly say, to the extreme 
 verge of safety, and far beyond dry rocks in pursuit of the 
 receding waves. Bare-footed and kilted high above their 
 fat little knees, they shouted, screamed, and splashed to 
 their hearts' content, while the nurse, seated under an 
 umbrella with her back to them, was lost in the pages of a 
 novel. They were boy and girl, the latter being the 
 younger, and, if possible, the wilder of the two. In her 
 frolics she found herself parted from her brother, and to her 
 young perceptions cut off from society in general by a 
 runlet of water nearly two feet deep. Becoming gradually 
 alive to the horrors of her situation, she gi*asped her frock 
 tight in both hands and roared with all her might. The 
 boy, who, perhaps, was turned four, made some slight offer 
 at a rescue, but the intervening gulf seemed too much for
 
 "Hugging the frightened child in her arms." 
 
 Rofs Wife.} 
 
 [Page 33.
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER 35 
 
 him, and lie also set up a hideous outcry, while the nurse 
 read calmly on. 
 
 Nelly loved children. Glancing on each side to make 
 sure she was unobserved, but neglecting in her hurry to 
 look back, she pulled her boots and stockings off in a few 
 seconds, caught up her garments as best she might, and was 
 wading knee-deep to the rescue before John Roy could 
 interfere. 
 
 How handsome she looked, hugging the frightened child 
 in her arms, and soothing it with that beautiful instinct 
 of maternity which pervades her whole sex from the first 
 moment they are big enough to handle a doll. 
 
 With hurried apologies and some blushing on both sides 
 — for Roy was already hard hit, and Nelly had certainly 
 been caught in deshabille — he took possession of the little 
 girl, now completely reassm-ed, and carried her safe to the 
 nurse, studiously turning his back on Miss Bm-ton while 
 she resumed her stockings. "He is a gentleman," thought 
 Nelly, " every inch of him. I dare say he's a good fellow 
 too, he seems so fond of childi'en." 
 
 Such an introduction was equivalent to a week's acquaint- 
 ance. With a little shyness, a little hesitation and in- 
 coherence of speech, the gentleman and lady managed 
 to commmiicate their respective names, and to digest the 
 startling intelligence that they were staying at the same 
 hotel, that it was comfortable but might be cleaner, that 
 the sea-air made one hungry, and the roar of the tide kept 
 one awake — all which facts were self-evident, and in no 
 way accounted for the low tones, grave accents, or downcast 
 glances with which they were propounded and received. 
 
 It seemed imprudent, too, for people with wet feet to 
 walk home at an exceedingly slow pace, and halt so 
 repeatedly on the way. 
 
 Each thought the distance had been much longer, and 
 both said so at the same moment. Then came more bow-
 
 36 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 ing, more blushing, an abortive attempt at shaking hands, 
 and an imbecile, unmeaning kind of parting, that left John 
 Roy standing in the entrance-hall with his mouth open and 
 his heart in it, while Nelly hurried up-stairs to take refuge 
 in 46. 
 
 Her first impulse, though by no means a vain person, 
 was to look in the glass. What she saw there caused her 
 to smile, sigh, and shake her head. Then she sat down on 
 the bed to think. 
 
 Mr. Roy, on the other hand, turned into the coffee-room, 
 and ordered dinner for seven o'clock, with an indifference 
 to the bill of fare that disgusted and a positiveness that 
 surprised the waiter — securing also a table near the clock, 
 at one end of the room. 
 
 For the next two or three days everything " went upon 
 wheels." If people are inclined to like each other and live 
 in the same hotel at a small watering-place it is probable 
 they will meet many times in the twenty-four hours. 
 Twice, at least, between breakfast and dinner on the Pier, 
 without counting accidental encounters on the stairs, in the 
 streets, under the portico of the Circulating Library, by the 
 ebb and flow of the soothing tide, or at sunset on the 
 beach. It is surprising how soon an idea, canvassed, 
 cherished, and combated by turns, takes entire possession 
 of the mind. The first day of their acquaintance Mr. Roy 
 and Miss Burton felt that a new element of interest had 
 entered into life. The second, they were perfectly happy 
 — quiet, contented, asking nothing better than to remain 
 undisturbed. The third, both had grown restless, fidgety, 
 dissatisfied, and a crisis was near. 
 
 It had become an established custom that they should 
 meet in their walks — they had even started together from 
 the hotel. On one occasion, however. Miss Burton went 
 out by herself, and took up a position at the extreme end 
 of the Pier. As she stated openly that this was her
 
 DEEPEB AND DEEPER. 87 
 
 favourite resort, it is not surprising Mr. Koy should have 
 followed ■sntli no more delay than was required to run up- 
 staii's and get his hat. 
 
 The band had ceased playing, children and nurses were 
 gone home to dinner, these two had the Pier to themselves. 
 Perhaps that was why they became so silent, so preoccupied, 
 believing they were perfectly happy, yet feeling somewhat 
 ill at ease. 
 
 After the first meeting, a hypocritical " good morning," 
 that had already been exchanged in tlie hotel corridor, 
 neither spoke for two or three minutes, which seemed like 
 two or three hours. Nelly had forgotten her work, Eoy did 
 not even attempt to smoke, and they sat side by side 
 staring at a gi'ey gull who stuck diligently to his fishing, 
 without noticing a feather of his wings. 
 
 " Miss Burton, shouldn't you like to be a gull ? " asked 
 Roy presently, with a much more serious face than the 
 question seemed to require. 
 
 "Mr. Roy, shouldn't you like to be a goose?" was 
 the reply that naturally presented itself, but Nelly only 
 answered in rather a shaking voice, "Yes, I should, because 
 it can stay at the seaside as long as it likes." 
 
 " And can't you ? " said Roy, taking the alarm. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 ** I don't live here, you know. I only came down for a 
 \'isit ; and I have dawdled on, expecting my aunt to fetch 
 me home. I am afraid now she will be prevented. And — 
 and — I think I ought to go back to London at once ; " 
 the last in a low tone, looking steadfastly out to sea. 
 
 " Don't you like Beachmouth ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ; very much." 
 
 " Haven't you been happy since you came here ? " 
 
 " Yes ; veiy liappy. I am so fond of the sea-air, and tho 
 bathing, and the walks on the sands. I have enjoyed it 
 extremely ; I shall be quite sorry to go away."
 
 38 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 " Only for that ? " 
 
 Her head was averted. She felt her heart heating fast, 
 and the colour rising scarlet to her face. 
 
 " Miss Burton." 
 
 No answer. 
 
 ** Miss Burton," he repeated, clearing his voice with a 
 husky little cough, " I hope, I say I /wj^e, there is some- 
 thing here you will be sorry to leave besides the bathing 
 and the sands. I cannot expect you to feel about it as I 
 do ; but — but— whether you go or stay, I must tell you the 
 truth. Ever since the first night I saw you at dinner, — I 
 — I have thought you the handsomest, and the dearest, and 
 the nicest woman in the world." 
 
 " Lor ! " 
 
 Was it a disillusion ? He hardly knew. Lady Jane, he 
 remembered, under similar circumstances, exclaimed, "How 
 can you be so foolish ? " But at any rate he had got the 
 steam on, and it was too late to stop now. 
 
 " I have not much to offer," he continued. " I am 
 many years older than you. I am asking a great deal, 
 with little to give in return. You will say we hardly know 
 each other ; but I should not be the least afi-aid for the 
 future if you thought you could learn to like me after a 
 while. Perhaps I ought to have waited longer before 
 speaking, but when you said you were going away it put me 
 off my guard. I could not bear to lose my second chance 
 in life. It is only right to tell you. I know what dis- 
 appointment is ; I loved another woman once." 
 
 "Only once?" 
 
 He knew he was winning now, and stole his hand into 
 hers. " Only once," he repeated ; " and it was many years 
 ago. If you would be my wife, I would try to make you 
 happy. Do you think, dori't you think. Miss Burton, if I 
 tried very hard I might succeed ? " 
 
 "Don't call me Miss Burton. People I like call me Nelly."
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER 39 
 
 " Aiid you like me } " 
 
 "Yes, I do." 
 
 " And you will learn to love me in time ? " His arm 
 was round her waist now, and her head rested on his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " I've learned it already. I've loved you ever so long. 
 Ever since the day hefore yesterday. Let go of mc, please, 
 there's somebody coming on the Pier ! "
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A woman's TvEASON 
 
 For the last fev/ days Miss Burton had sadly neglected her 
 only correspondent. It was so difficult to write without 
 alluding to the subject that filled her heart, and she had 
 never kejit anything from Aunt Llatilda in her life. Now 
 she could tell triumphantly and without reserve what a lucky 
 woman she was, and how happy. Dear Auntie would be so 
 l^leased and so proud when she learned that her niece was 
 going to be a real lady. I am afraid Nelly called it " a 
 lady of position." How Auntie would admire Mr. Roy ! 
 his well-cut clothes, his upright figure, his white hands, and 
 his gallant bearing. She would declare he looked like a 
 lord ; and so he did, as there was no earthly reason v/hy he 
 should not. It seemed impossible to realise the fact that 
 she, Nelly Burton, was going to belong to this paragon, 
 this phoenix, this king of men ! How she loved him, how 
 she doted on him, now that it was no longer humiliating nor 
 unwomanly to admit her affection ! Every line of his worn 
 face, every turn of his manly figure, every tone of his quiet, 
 decided voice, suggested the breeding, the education, and 
 the unconscious self-respect of a gentleman. Yes, to tlie 
 bookseller's daughter, in this consisted his irresistible 
 attraction. He was the embodiment of her ideal, and that 
 ideal had always presented itself as identified with a higher 
 social class than her own. He was the realisations of her 
 dreams, and if she might belong to him, nay, as she must 
 
 40
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON 41 
 
 belong to him, how couki she worship him enough? What 
 an exquisite and subtle flattery was conveyed in his confes- 
 sion that she had fascinated him at once ; that he, who 
 might take his choice, as she implicitly believed, of all the 
 ladies at her Majesty's drawing-room, should have fallen in 
 love with her, so he declared, from the moment he saw the 
 back of her head. This was surely love at first sight, of 
 which she had read, and heard, and pondered, but never 
 hoped to experience the charm. It seemed as if nobodj^ 
 had a right to be so happy, and she walked up and down 
 the room in a transport that was only modified by those 
 vague misgivings, that shadowy sense of uncertainty, with 
 which, from the very constitution of our nature, must be 
 tempered all extremes of earthly joy. Then she fell on her 
 Imees to thank God, with wet eyes, for her exceeding 
 happiness, and so, in a more composed frame of mind, took 
 out her blotting-book and wrote a letter to her Aunt. 
 
 " Dearest Auntie, 
 
 " I have such a piece of news ! You will never 
 guess, not if you try for a month. You must have 
 wondered why I wrote so seldom, and thought me the 
 most ungrateful minx in the world. No ; you would never 
 think that. But you may have fancied I was ill. If so, 
 forgive me for having caused you a moment's anxiety. 
 Dear Auntie, I feel as if I should never be ill again. I am 
 so happy ; so happy ! Do you remember the American 
 gentleman who declared the whole of out-of-doors wasn't 
 big enough to contain his disgust ? Well, I feel exactly 
 tljo same about my happiness. I certainly am the 
 luckiest girl, or rather the luckiest woman, in the 
 universe ! 
 
 " You have often told me I ought to marry, and I 
 always said, No. It used to seem such an easy word. 
 But I couldn't have got it out to-day if my life depended
 
 42 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 on it, and that little syllabic once spoken would have made 
 two people miserable for ever. Anyhow, I can answer for 
 one/ But I am keeping you on tenterhooks when I 
 ought to make my confession. Dearest Auntie, I am going 
 to be married ! There ! Now the cat is out of the bag ! 
 And to the noblest, the dearest, the kindest, the handsomest 
 of men. To explain it all I must begin at the beginning. 
 " The night I came here — it seems such a long time 
 ago now, and it isn't really more than a week — I asked to 
 have some tea up-stairs, but I saw they didn't want to send 
 it, so I ordered dinner in the coflee-room, smoothed my 
 hair, and went down, not best pleased to think I should find 
 myself alone amongst a lot of strangers. Would you 
 believe it, only three other tables were laid, and I sat with 
 my back to them all, so I had my dinner comfortable 
 without noticing anybody. There was one gentleman I 
 couldn't help seeing when I got up to go away, and I 
 won't deny that I thought hiin a fine, straight-made fellow, 
 with white hands, dark eyes, and hair just turning grey ; 
 but I didn't notice him much, as you may suppose. How- 
 ever, I do believe there is a fate in these things. The very 
 next day I had an adventure, and Mr. Roy — that's his name, 
 Auntie, you'll know it better soon — appeared as the hero. 
 I was down on the sands, you may be sure, and I happened 
 to see a child hemmed in by streams of salt water that 
 would have reached to its poor little neck. Such a darling. 
 Auntie, with great blue eyes and beautiful fair haii- ! 
 Well, I don't like to think of it even now, but I whipped 
 my boots and stockings ofl", and waded in at once to this 
 poor little Eobinson Crusoe, thinking nobody was looking, 
 or, perhaps, not thinking at all, for the child seemed so 
 frightened there was no time to lose. I soon had it in my 
 arms, hiding its dear little face on my shoulder, and there 
 was Mr. Roy, splashing through the water, clothes and all, 
 to take it from me and carry it to the nurse. I thought I
 
 A WOMAN'S BEASON 43 
 
 slioiild have dropped, only one never docs drop, I felt so 
 put out and ashamed that a gentleman should have caught 
 me without shoes and stockings, like a barefooted gipsy 
 s^^inging on a gate. Dear fellow ! He has confessed since 
 he watched me all the way from the hotel. I didn't know 
 it then. I suppose I should have been very angiy, but I 
 am not angi-y the least. I shall never be angry with him 
 all my life now. 
 
 " We walked home together, and though he was very 
 kind and polite, hoping I would not take cold with my 
 wetting, he didn't say much. I never supposed that 
 he thought of me for a moment, at least in that way, 
 till to-day. 
 
 " I'm not going to deny that I admired him, and was 
 foolish enough to "wash sometimes there could be a chance 
 of our meeting after I left Beachmouth ; but I kept my 
 wishes to myself, and didn't even tell you, dear Auntie, 
 what a silly I could be when I am old enough to know 
 better. And yet, as things have turned out, I wasn't such 
 a great silly after all. 
 
 " You have been married yourself, Auntie, and had lots 
 of followers, I dare say, before you changed your name, so 
 you know how it all comes about. At first it only seemed 
 strange and rather pleasant to meet IMr. Roy by accident 
 wherever I went ; then I began to think he did it on 
 purpose, and I felt I ought not to encourage him. One 
 day I walked right away into the country, but I couldn't 
 resist turning back at the first milestone when I thought 
 of his disappointed face hunting for me all over the 
 beach and the Pier. Then I knew I was beginning to 
 care for him, and I determined to go away from here at 
 once. 
 
 " That was only yesterday ; and to-day everything is 
 different. I went to the window after breakfast, and 
 watched him out of the house, as I said to myself for
 
 44 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 the last time, meaning,' directly his hack was turned to take 
 my walk in an opposite direction. 
 
 " I cried a little ; I'm not ashamed to confess it now. 
 Wasn't it stupid ? And I shall be thirty next birthday. 
 When he was fairly started I bathed my eyes, put on my 
 hat, and trudp^ed oft" to the Pier. There was no harm in 
 taking a last look at everything, but I felt very down, though 
 I had quite made up my mind to go. 
 
 " I wonder how he knew ! I hadn't been there ten 
 minutes before I heard his step. I didn't need to turn my 
 head ; I can tell his walk among a thousand ; and it 
 seemed so natural for him to sit down by me and look at 
 the sea, that I could have burst out crying again when I 
 thought it was for the last time. 
 
 " I don't know how he come to say it. Auntie, but he 
 did say it. I don't know exactly what he said, and if I 
 could repeat it I shouldn't, even to you ; but he confessed 
 he cared very much for me, and asked me to be his wife. 
 That's enough, and more than enough, for me ! 
 
 "Nothing is settled. Most likely it's too gi'eat hap- 
 piness and will never be — that won't influence my 
 feelings. I promised him faithful, and if I am not to 
 belong to him I'll belong to nobody, and die an old 
 maid. 
 
 " So now I have told you all about it. There is little 
 more to be said. I think I ought to leave this at once. 
 It will be too late to get an answer, or I vvould ask your 
 advice, though a woman don't want anybody to advise her 
 in such a matter as this. I shall be off by the early train 
 to-morrow morning ; you will not be taken by surprise, as 
 this ought to reach you first post. If Mr. Roy means fair 
 he wdll soon follow. When I say 'if,' don't suppose I have 
 any doubts. Could I believe he was false, I think I should 
 just pay my penny once more, walk to the end of the Pier, 
 and never come back again !
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON 45 
 
 " What a long letter ! Wish me joy when I see you 
 to-morrow, and believe me 
 
 " Always yom' loving niece, 
 
 " Elinor Burton." 
 
 No date of com'se, but crossed, and re-crossed, and filled 
 to the edges. When Miss Bm-ton had slijiped it into the 
 hotel letter-box she returned to her room, and spent the 
 rest of the evening packing up her clothes. 
 
 John Roy, wandering to and fi-o like a disturbed spirit, 
 felt giievously hurt and discomposed that, after an interview 
 which had such decided results, he should see no more of 
 his promised wife dming the rest of the day. Though a 
 man cultivates less subtle feeling of delicacy than a woman, 
 his better nature told him she was right. Nevertheless, 
 like the rest of us when we are dissatisfied with our gourd, 
 he followed the example of Jonah, and thought he " did 
 well to be angry." 
 
 His MTath, however, was mollified and the reaction 
 made him more in love than ever when, going to his 
 room before dinner, he found a pretty little note pinned 
 on his toilet-cover, the address of which was written in 
 the clearest and most beautiful characters ever beheld. 
 He kissed it once hcfoi'e reading it, I should be afraid to 
 say how often after. 
 
 " My dear Sir, or 
 
 " My dear Mr. Roy, or 
 
 " My dear Friend, — W^hat am I to call you ? Do not 
 be surprised that I write a few lines, instead of seeing you 
 before I go, to say good-bye. I cannot explain why, but I 
 feel that after what took place to-day I ought to return 
 home at once. I hope you will not be hurt, and I am 
 sure you will not be offended. I think, on reflection, it is 
 what you would like me to do yourself. I shall not go
 
 46 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 down to dinner, and I shall leave to-morrow morning for 
 my aunt's house, Corner Hotel, Corner Street, Strand. I 
 wonder whether you will remember the address. Even if 
 you do not, even if I am never to see you again, believe me 
 always so long as I live, 
 
 " Your own 
 
 " Nelly. 
 
 " P.S. It is rather an early start. I must be at the 
 station by 7.30." 
 
 She was at the station by 7.30, and so was Mr. Eoy. 
 Having ascertained, we need not inquire how, that Miss 
 Burton drank tea with the landlady the previous evening, 
 who afterwards assisted in finishing her packing and saw 
 her safe to bed, he had the good taste to anticipate her at 
 the station instead of accompanying her from the hotel, and 
 made his farewell on the platform, where indeed at that 
 early hour there were but few lookers-on. 
 
 "And when shall I see you again?" said he, after a 
 warm though hm-ried renewal of certain protestations that 
 he felt had been unjustly cm-tailed. 
 
 "It depends on yourself," was the reply, while she gave 
 him both hands with a look of confidence and afiection that 
 made her handsomer than ever. " I shall wait for you at 
 my aunt's — waiting — always waiting ; if you never come, 
 I shall wait for you just the same." 
 
 " I Jiate waiting," said he. " If I had my own way, you 
 shouldn't wait a minute. Why can't I get my ticket and 
 go with you now?" 
 
 She smiled and shook her head. " Why ? " she repeated. 
 "I am sure I don't know whi/. And yet I feel it would 
 j)ut me in a false position ; you see it would not be 
 right." 
 
 " I don't see. Why wouldn't it ? "
 
 A WOMAN'S EEASON 47 
 
 *' Because it wouldn't ! " And though this was a woman's 
 reason, it seemed to him convincing and unanswerable, as 
 based on some instinct of truth deeper and more infallible 
 than all the inductions of philosoiihy and all the wisdom of 
 the schools.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 so LIKE A MAN 
 
 I 
 
 Storm and calm, rain and sunshine, bitter and sweet, 
 action and reaction, arc not these the conditions of life ? 
 If the wind is fair to-day, look for it in your teeth to- 
 morrow ; what is earned by the right hand you are bound 
 to sjjend with the left ; and never expect to be four by 
 honours in two deals running ! 
 
 Who so happy as an accepted lover? He treads on air, 
 he mounts to the skies, and he soars on the wings of a 
 dove, believing firmly that he has abjured the wisdom of 
 the serpent for evermore. Yet, after the first access of 
 transport, every succeeding moment brings him down, 
 nearer and nearer the ground, till at last he walks about 
 again on two legs, like a husband, or a goose, or any other 
 biped, having neither energy nor inclination to fly. 
 
 I need not say that John Roy bade adieu to Beachmouth, 
 betook himself to Charing Cross Station, and proceeded 
 thence to the Corner Hotel, Corner Street, Strand, without 
 loss of time. The distance was short. He could almost 
 have wished it longer, that he might gain more time to 
 realise the step he had taken. 
 
 Like most English gentlemen, he was a bold fellow 
 enough on a horse, in a row, under any circumstances of 
 risk to life or limb, but he was also sensitive and shy, 
 particularly v/ith inferiors, shrinking from their approaches 
 
 48
 
 aO LIKE A MAN ! 49 
 
 as a timid woman shrinks from observation and personal 
 addi'Bss. 
 
 It was not reassming to find the hotel door blocked up 
 by an arrival, or to be told without hesitation, by a super- 
 cilious waiter in yesterday's white neckcloth, that they were 
 full to the garrets, and hadn't a bed unoccupied ; while he 
 volunteered, with something of reproof, the further informa- 
 tion that this was a private hotel, and if the gentleman 
 expected to find accommodation he should have written to 
 Mrs. Phipps at least a week ago. 
 
 "But I don't want a room," said John Roy, out of 
 
 patience; "I came here to call on Miss I mean, is 
 
 Miss Phipps at home?" 
 
 "Mrs. Phipps is engaged." 
 
 *' Go and tell her that a gentleman wishes to see her 
 particularly, and will not detain her five minutes." 
 
 John Roy was peremptory, not to say stern ; but the 
 waiter stood to his guns. 
 
 " Any name, su* ? " as if a man without a portmanteau 
 must also be without a name. 
 
 The visitor wished he had brought a card-case. 
 
 " Mr. Roy," said he ; " and be so good as to go at once. 
 I don't choose to be kept waiting half an hour on the door- 
 step." 
 
 But Nelly, who was already in the passage, flew to the 
 threshold, and welcomed him with such warmth and 
 cordiality as completely reassured the waiter. 
 
 "I knew you would come!" she whispered. "I have 
 been expecting you all the morning. This way. Mind the 
 step. Don't run against the coal-box. We're so full, we 
 have been driven down- stairs. We generally live in the 
 front dining-room. Now, I'll bring you in, and show you 
 to Auntie." 
 
 The charm was working again, and at high pressure. 
 So lovely, so loving, so bright, so beautiful, above all, so 
 
 4
 
 50 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 glad to see him. Who would not have followed such a 
 guide down the darkest passages, the most inconvenient 
 stairs that ever smelt of mould, soap, sawdust, stale coffee, 
 and early dinner ? 
 
 Mrs. Phipps was an excellent woman, no doubt — clear- 
 headed, bustling, full of energy, a capital accountant, 
 sincere, sensible, with a heart of gold — but she was not 
 exactly the sort of person John Roy would have selected for 
 his wife's aunt. 
 
 He had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and as she came 
 forward, rubbing one hand over the other, to stop in front 
 of him, with a profound curtsey, he took in her exterior at 
 a glance. The dark dress, looking dingier in the obscurity 
 of a room on the basement, lighted from a gi-ating in the 
 pavement outside ; the portliness of figure, increasing as it 
 travelled upward to the chin ; the large brooch, the bright 
 gold chain, the jet ornaments twinkling in a solemn head- 
 gear, black, pompous, and fimereal as the artificial tresses 
 it surmounted, and the plain oblong fiice, with just so much 
 resemblance to Nelly as might create a vague and morbid 
 fear lest her bright young beauty should ever turn to this ! 
 
 He made the best of it, and put out both hands. " You 
 are to be my aunt, too," said he. " Miss Burton has told 
 you everything, of course. I am always going to call her 
 Nelly for the futvire, and you must learn to look upon me 
 as a relation of your own." 
 
 He was not prepared for the result. Mrs. Phipps burst 
 out crying, and put her arms round his neck. 
 
 After this little ebullition she became practical enough. 
 "I'm sure it's a great honour," said she, "and a great 
 happiness to us all. It's what I never expected, and yet 
 Nelly do deserve the best that ever wore shoe-leather, and 
 I always said so. She was a good daughter, Mr. Roy, was 
 Nelly, and a good niece. I'm sure I've reason to know it, 
 and she'll make a good wife to the man who will be kind to
 
 so LIKE A MAN ! 51 
 
 her. I can see in yonr face as yon're one of that sort. I'm 
 a plain-spoken woman, Mr. Roy ; I never had the manners 
 of my niece there, nor yet the education. I've my bread to 
 get, as I may say, by hard and honest work ; but you won't 
 think the worse of us, I hope ; and you won't take it as a 
 liberty if I say, ' God bless you both ! ' and I should like to 
 shake you by the hand, Mr. Boy, once more." 
 
 So this ceremony was repeated, and Roy acknowledged 
 to himself that the good old woman who had educated his 
 betrothed wife was a thorough lady at heart, although she 
 spoke second-class English and kept an hotel. 
 
 " You'll take a glass of wine, Mr. Roy," continued his 
 hostess, relapsing into her common-place mood. "I wish 
 I could ask you to stop to dinner, but Nelly and me has had 
 GUI* dinner, and you couldn't hardly see to eat it neither in 
 so dark a place as this. I wish I wasn't so put about for 
 room. But what am I to do? You can't turn people 
 away from the doors if you keep an hotel." 
 
 "Mr. Roy never takes wine in the daytime. Auntie," 
 said Nelly, assuming entire charge of his habits, as became 
 a woman engaged for more than twenty-four hom's. " We 
 can give him a cup of tea in five minutes, and I'll make it 
 myself; I know what he likes better than you do." 
 
 But Mr. Roy preferred a walk with Nelly to refreshment 
 of any kind, and the pair were soon strolling arm-in-arm 
 along that romantic thoroughfare the Strand, discussing 
 trousseaux, wedding, honeymoon, theii' eventual future. 
 What do I know ? What do people tallc about when they 
 are going to be married and lead a new life ? 
 
 So the weeks went on. John Roy found himself waking 
 morning after morning with a strange, anxious feeling that 
 he was yet a day nearer his fate, sometimes impatient to 
 get it over, sometimes thinking he could wait as long as he 
 pleased, but never wavering in his loyalty to Nelly, nor 
 allowing for one second that he z-egrctted his choice.
 
 62 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 It was the dead time of year. " Not a soul in 
 London," said the souls who met the other souls in the 
 street ; yet is the Great City seldom so empty, even of rich 
 and idle, but that ten or twelve can be got together for a 
 dinner-party at short notice. There are people who profess 
 they like these little gatherings better than the crowd and 
 hurry of the season, declaring that they never enjoy the 
 society of their friends so thoroughly as when " there is 
 nobody in town ! " 
 
 In St. James's Street and Pall Mall might be found a 
 few lingerers, dull and torpid as the winter flies on a 
 window-pane, but the Park seemed unusually deserted. 
 Perhaps for that reason it was the chosen resort of Mr. 
 Roy and Miss Burton, who would turn in at Albert Gate, 
 having arrived there, as became a regularly engaged couple, 
 in a hansom cab, to walk in the Ride, or sit down and 
 make plans for the future, while she looked in his face with 
 adoring eyes, and he — well — he smoked, and let her look. 
 
 " I like this," whispered Nelly, pressing closer to his side 
 as they returned one day from an hour or two of the above 
 engrossing occupation. " You and me have got it all to 
 ourselves ! ' ' 
 
 "It," meant that stretch of rugged bricks and rubbish, 
 with a surface of mud just thick enough to splash, which 
 the Government then in office had provided for its tax- 
 payers on horseback, and seemed in so far a solitude when 
 Nelly spoke that its only other occupants were a fat 
 man on a cob and a doubtful-looking lady riding a lame 
 horse. 
 
 "It's very nice," answered John Roy, rather preoccupied, 
 for just then a figure turned into the Ride on a hunting- 
 looking chestnut, at a pace that promised soon to bring 
 him alongside our pedestrians. The easy seat and general 
 outline were not to be mistaken. Roy wished at the 
 moment he had some other lady on his aim.
 
 so LIKE A MAN ! 58 
 
 The chestnut, though going fast, must have been well 
 in hand, it was pulled up so quickly at the rails, while a 
 familiar voice exclaimed, " HuUoh, Koy ! In to^^^^ at this 
 time of year ! Come and dine to-day. I'm off to-morrow 
 morning for Newmarket." Then, as if catching sight of 
 Nelly for the first time, the speaker bowed to his stirrup- 
 iron, and added, " 1 beg your pardon. I was so glad to see 
 my friend ! " 
 
 It stung Koy to feel there should be an absolute necessity 
 for introducing her on the spot as " Miss Burton — a lady 
 who is going to do me the honom" of becoming my wife." 
 It stung him still more to notice an instantaneous change 
 of manner, that only a sensitive natm'e would have detected, 
 while, with a second bow, not quite so low, yet somehow 
 more respectful, the other observed, " Then it's no use 
 hoping for you at dinner. Allow me to congratulate you 
 both ! " and cantered off. 
 
 " What a pretty fellow ! " said Nelly, in a tone of un- 
 disguised admiration. 
 
 "Most women agree with you," answered Koy, wonder- 
 ing he was not more nettled. " They used to call him the 
 lady-killer in his regiment." 
 
 Her grey eyes opened wide. 
 
 " Did he really kill a lady ? How horrible ! He ought 
 never to be saddled again ! " 
 
 John Koy laughed. " You mean the horse, dear," said 
 he. "I thought it was the man." 
 
 " Oh ! I never looked at the gentleman," answered 
 Nelly. "Who is he? What's his name?" 
 
 " Lord Fitzoweu — commonly called Fitz ! " 
 
 " A lord, is he ? Well, he don't look half so like a lord 
 as you ! What is he going to Newmarket for ? " 
 
 John Koy did not answer. He was thinking it would be 
 rather up-hill work to teach his wife all the ins-and-outs, 
 the little technicalities, the very language of that artificial
 
 64 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 world into wliicli he was bringing her. They would live in 
 the country, he determined, and come but little to London 
 for the present. A man might be very happy in the country 
 with some hunting, shooting, farming, and such a beautiful 
 creature to keep his house. One couldn't have everything. 
 It was a great piece of good fortune that he didn't marry 
 Lady Jane ! 
 
 And Nelly, clinging to his arm, wondered how she could 
 ever have lived without him. His presence was paradise, 
 his absence a blank. All places were alike if she only had 
 him by her side. 
 
 So they were married in due course of time — exactly one 
 month from the day that he proposed to her on Beachmouth 
 Pier. The wedding was quiet enough. No bishop, no 
 bridesmaids, and a cake of small dimensions from the con- 
 fectioner's round the corner. The happy couple walked 
 quietly out of the hotel to a neighbouring church. Nelly 
 was given away by her nearest male relation, a retired dry- 
 salter residing at Clapham, who felt and looked in a false 
 position throughout. Mrs. Phipps wept plentifully in the 
 rector's pew (absent with his family in Switzerland), and 
 the ceremony was performed by an ecclesiastic somewhat 
 in-everently mentioned as " a clergyman on a job." One 
 very old shoe was thrown by the upper housemaid when 
 the happy couple left the hotel in a cab, and the waiter 
 remained drunk all day. These were the only festivities. 
 The servants agreed that though Miss Burton had done well 
 for herself the bridegi'oom looked old enough to be her 
 father, and the wedding was a tame affair ! 
 
 Nevertheless it was over, and they were married as 
 irrevocably and completely as if a primate had officiated 
 and the whole House of Lords had signed the register. 
 
 Nelly was supremely happy ; so, in a calmer degi'ee, was 
 her husband. Both had obtained that to which most people 
 look forward as the crowning joy of life, yet it seemed like
 
 so LIKE A MAN ! 55 
 
 a dream to read in next day's Times the simple and unpre- 
 tending notice — 
 
 " Yesterday, at St Withold's, by the Eev. Joseph Makeshift, John Eoy, 
 Esq., of Eoyston Grange and 907, Piccadilly, to Elinor, sole surviving 
 daughter of Jacob Burton, Esq., late of High Holborn, London." 
 
 " John Eoy ? " said one or two friends, gleaning the 
 morning papers with cigars in their mouths. " I have 
 often wondered what had become of him. Used to be 
 rather a good fellow. Only sm'viving child, too ; looks as 
 if he had picked up an heiress. Great absm-dity marrying 
 after forty, and infernal mistake to get caught before ! " 
 
 But Nelly's history only began in reality on the day when 
 she felt she was the happiest woman in the world because 
 she stood at the altar as Koy's wife.
 
 CHAPTER Vn 
 
 WARDEN TOWERS 
 
 " And you know her, Lord Fitzowcn ? What an odd person 
 you are ! I believe you know everybody in the world." 
 
 " I thought you said she was out of the world, Miss 
 Bruce. Therefore you were surprised I should have made 
 her acquaintance." 
 
 " That's not the question. Where can you have met 
 her?" 
 
 " Nothing more simple ; walking in the Park with her 
 husband." 
 
 " Before they were married? " 
 
 " Of com'se. People don't walk together in the Park 
 after they're married unless they've had a row." 
 
 ' ' And he introduced you ? ' ' 
 
 " Why shouldn't he ? Won't you introduce me to your 
 husband, Miss Bruce, when the time comes and the man ? " 
 
 She smiled rather wistfully. " Perhaps you know him 
 already," said she. " And if you don't, I am not sure you 
 are a desirable acquaintance. You might lead him into 
 mischief." 
 
 " Somebody has been maligning me, and to you of all 
 people, in whose good opinion I want so much to stand 
 high. An enemy has done this." 
 
 " Not Mrs. Ptoy, at any rate. She couldn't remember 
 having seen you. I said you were here, and asked her. 
 There, Lord Fitz ! There's a come-down ! " 
 
 66
 
 WAEDEN TOWEES 67 
 
 " Not a bit. Say a see-saw, if j^ou please ; for it's a 
 go-up at the other end. If she had forgotten me, you 
 hadn't ! " 
 
 " How can I forget you when you're stajdng in the house ? 
 Besides, don't flatter yourself that I ever try ! " 
 
 " Then I'll wait for a more favourable opportunity, and 
 we'll talk about something else. What did you think of 
 your new neighbour ? " 
 
 •' ^Vhat did you ? " 
 
 " I thought her — charming ! " 
 
 " How like a man ! As if that conveyed anything. 
 Now I will do you justice. Lord Fitz. I believe you pre- 
 tend to be stupider than you are, so I wonder you didn't 
 find out something." 
 
 " AVhat was there to find out ? I could see with my 
 own eyes she hadn't a wooden leg." 
 
 " Indeed ! Well, you'll say I am ill-natured, and that 
 one woman always tries to disparage another ; did it not 
 strike you she is hardly quite a lady ? I don't mean to say 
 she drops her h's, but something very like it. She has 
 never lived amongst the people you and I are accustomed to 
 meet, and I think Mr. Koy feels it. He looked very black 
 at her more than once." 
 
 " What a shame ! They haven't been married six weeks. 
 If I had a wife now — never mind — I'm not going to commit 
 myself. Miss Bruce. I might say too much." 
 
 " If you had a Avife of course you would be just as trying 
 as other husbands, but that's no business of mine. I was 
 going to tell you — when we called, papa and I, as we were 
 bound to do at once, being such near neighbours, we found 
 them at home, and I know she was got-up to receive 
 visitors. In fact, she told me so. She called it * seeing 
 company.' She was well dressed, I must say, not too well, 
 and as handsome as a picture. You seldom see such eyes 
 and hair. But for all that there's a something. I'm con-
 
 68 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 vinced she is not what I call thoroughhred, and yet papa 
 wouldn't allow it. He was completely fascinated, and you 
 know how particular he is." 
 
 " Naturally. If I were your papa, I should he very 
 particular indeed." 
 
 " Nonsense. Don't interrupt. I watched Mr. Roy, and 
 I'm sure he wasn't at his ease. He looked in a fidget 
 every time she opened her mouth. I was sorry for him, 
 and we didn't stay long, though she pressed me to take 
 luncheon, and to take tea, and hoped I wouldn't take cold 
 in the open carriage, and all the rest of it, as kindly as 
 possible." 
 
 " And have you taken cold — I beg your pardon — caught 
 cold ? for, if so, you had better not stand here any longer. 
 I shouldn't like your death to lie at my door." 
 
 "You haven't got a door, only a latch-key. But for 
 once you talk sense. So draw my skates a little tighter, 
 and we'll practise the Dutchman's Roll round the island and 
 back again. Are you ready ? Go ! " 
 
 During the performance of this exhibition, which is but 
 a succession of outside edges, neither very speedy nor very 
 gi'aceful, I may take the opportunity of explaining how 
 these young people came to be disporting themselves on 
 some five acres of ice, which milder weather would dissolve 
 into a pretty little lake, forming a principal ornament in the 
 grounds of Warden Towers. 
 
 Sir Hector and Miss Bruce, a widower and an only 
 daughter, had come to reside here, as their ncighbom'S 
 hoped, for a permanence, having taken a long lease of the 
 place, which, notwithstanding its somewhat feudal name, 
 had been hitherto the home of a retired tradesman, whose 
 asthma compelled him to fight for breath in a warmer 
 climate elsewhere. The house, though built with a turret 
 at each end, was handsome and comfortable, the park roomy 
 enough for a gallop, but not so extensive as to admit of
 
 WARDEN TOWERS 59 
 
 feeding deer, and the gardens were exceedingly well laid 
 out. As Sir Hector observed, " It was a nice gentleman- 
 like place in which to drivel away the rest of one's life. 
 If Hester liked it, he would never ask to sleep out of the 
 chiQtz room in the east tower again." 
 
 Hester lilved whatever suited papa — that is to say, she 
 turned him round her white fingers as an only daughter 
 does turn the father who has learned to believe her a 
 prodigy of infancy, a j^aragon of girlhood, and in all respects 
 a pearl among womanhood. Sir Hector, though his 
 Christian and sm'names sounded so warlike, was a mild old 
 gentleman of rather convivial habits and an easy temper, 
 even when tortm'ed by gout. He accepted its pains and 
 penalties with a good humour that roused the admiration of 
 his friends ; and the moment he resumed the use of his 
 hands, or could put his lame feet to the gi'ound, returned to 
 those indulgences that sustained and strengthened his 
 enemy with a zest only sharper for remembrance of past 
 discipline and prospect of future pain. 
 
 To be sure, as he used to declare, " It was a pleasure to 
 be Ul when one could have Hester for a nurse ; " and it is 
 but justice to say that no temptation could lure this yomig 
 lady fi'om her post if papa was either threatened or laid up. 
 Many a time she stripped off riding-habit or ball-dress and 
 sent the carriage back from tlie very door at the first of 
 those symptoms that her experience told her were fore- 
 rmmers of an attack. Many an hour did she pass in 
 darkened rooms, measuring draughts, smoothing pillows, 
 reading to him, talking to him, soothing the sufi'crer with 
 her presence and the touch of her hand, while other girls 
 were sunning themselves in the looks of their admirers at 
 archery meeting and picnic, or, more delightful still, enjoy- 
 ing a stirring galloj^ under soft November skies, over lush 
 November pastures, after the hounds ! 
 
 For in such amusements and pastimes did Miss Bruce
 
 60 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 take more than a masculine delight. Lithe, straight, and 
 agile, she was a proficient in all those bodily exercises at 
 which ladies are now able to compete on eqnal terms with 
 the stronger sex. A practised whip, she drove her ponies 
 to an inch ; a capital horsewoman, she rode to hounds (with 
 a good pilot) in the first flight. She danced like a fairy ; 
 could run a quarter of a mile or walk half-a-dozen without 
 the slightest inconvenience ; and even professed, though of 
 this she afforded no actual proof, that she was able to jump 
 a gate or a stile. At any rate, for all her softness of 
 manner and grace of bearing, she seemed tough as whale- 
 bone and nimble as a wild deer. 
 
 In these days of high-pressure education she would not 
 but be full of accomplishments, playing scientific music at 
 sight, singing a second, speaking three or four languages 
 idiomatically, ungi'ammatically, and with a fair accent. 
 She knew how to work embroidery, knit shooting-hose, and 
 send people in to dinner according to their rank without 
 fear of a mistake. On the other hand, she was but a 
 moderate historian, sacred or profane, believed our version 
 of the Bible a direct translation from the Hebrew, re- 
 membered the Wars of the Roses only because of their 
 pretty name, and suffered hopeless confusion about the 
 Ligue and the Fronde. She could not read Shakspeare, 
 she honestly confessed, nor understand Tennyson, had tried 
 to wade through "Corinne" and found it stupid, believed 
 she would have liked Sir Walter but for the Scotch dialect, 
 and thought in her heart " Vanity Fair " and the '* Loves 
 of the Angels " the two finest works in the language. Of 
 household affairs she had some vague glimmerings, the 
 result of experience in ordering dinner, and even believed, 
 because she never tried, that she could do her own market- 
 ing. Every Christmas she spent a cheque from papa in 
 soup and blankets, which she gave away with a great deal 
 of method and very little judgment. To sum up all, she
 
 WARDEN TOWERS 61 
 
 was a staunch Protestant, a regular church-goer, and skated 
 to admh'ation. 
 
 Her cavalier, also, perfonned handsomely over ice or 
 asphalte, on skates or rollers. Both were members of 
 Prince's Club ; nor does it necessarily follow, as nameless 
 slanderers would have us believe, that they were therefore 
 utterly lost to all considerations of honourable feeling and 
 even outward decency. It is difficult to understand why a 
 pastime that brings young people together in a glare of 
 light under the eyes of countless spectators should have 
 been held up to obloquy as a recognised means of the vilest 
 intrigue ; or why a healthy exercise, exacting close atten- 
 tion under considerable effort, should be supposed to cloak 
 overtures and advances that might be made far less con- 
 spicuously in the crash of a concert or the confusion 
 of a ball-room. 
 
 It seems to me that the black sheep of both sexes must 
 be at a disadvantage when the slightest inclination to either 
 side from a just and equal balance cannot but result in 
 physical downfall. The admirer deposited on his seat 
 rather than his knees may scarcely hope to excite sjonpathy 
 in his idol, and the idol herself must be well aware that she 
 can never mount her pedestal again if she comes down from 
 it with a sprawl ! That Miss Bruce was as wicked a young 
 lady as she was a good skater I emphatically deny. For 
 her companion's virtues I will not take upon me to answer 
 with the same certainty. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen, as Mr. Boy said, ** commonly called 
 Fitz," had been about the world for more years than 
 people thought, or, indeed, than he ^\dshed them to 
 think. 
 
 He was one of those men, happily not very numerous in 
 his order, who, after the first blush of youth, seem to have 
 no object in the world but to amuse theinsclves. For this 
 levity of disposition, and indifference to the real purposes of
 
 69 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 life he was, perhaps, indebted to the joyous temperament 
 that accompanies perfect bodily health. A famous writer of 
 our o^vn day has expressed the startling opinion that if 
 people never found their livers out of order, no great works 
 would be accomplished. This is, perhaps, another way of 
 saying that discontent is the origin of progress. 
 
 As Fitz, from the time he pounded strawberry messes at 
 Eton till he mixed Hussar-broth (a compound of which the 
 substratum used to be red-herrings fried in gin) for his 
 brother subalterns at Hounslow, never knew he had a liver, 
 and hated, besides, every kind of mental exertion, we may 
 presume that nature did not intend him for one of those 
 "weary brothers" who either imprint or appreciate " foot- 
 prints on the sands of time." What he did — rather what 
 he did not do, if we may be allowed such a contradiction in 
 terms — seemed done remarkably well. He was the best 
 idler in society, and this is saying a good deal in London 
 life, where the art is cultivated with a diligence that cannot 
 but ensure success. 
 
 Having a title, though an Irish one, a sufficient income, 
 an agreeable person, imperturbable good-humour, and 
 spirits, as he said himself, " forty above proof," it is no 
 wonder that Lord Fitzowen was welcome everywhere, and 
 an especial favourite amongst women. 
 
 Nevertheless, with an intuitive perception of the fitness of 
 things, denied to the duller sex, they never expected him to 
 marry. "He's delightful, I know, dear," Miss Brace 
 observed on one occasion in the confidence of five o'clock 
 tea, "but as for anything serious, I should as soon expect a 
 proposal from the beadle at St. George's. It's entirely out 
 of Fitz's line ! " So he made love to them all round with- 
 out bm'ning his fingers, and persuaded himself that, with 
 many faults, he was yet a man of strong feelings and sincere 
 affections. 
 
 Somehow Fitz always seemed to belong to the prettiest
 
 WAEDEN TOWEES 63 
 
 vroman present. Although there were other guests at 
 Warden Towers, it was characteristic that he aloue should 
 be gazing at a winter sunset with his host's handsome 
 daughter after completing the Dutchman's Roll to the 
 unboimdcd satisfaction of both. 
 
 •■' It is time to go in," said Hester, rosy and breathless, 
 looking intently at the red streaks fading into a frosty film 
 behind the island. "How I love this cold, clear weather ! 
 I wish it would last all the year through." 
 
 " You ought to have been an Ai-ctic explorer," laughed 
 Fitz. 
 
 Miss Bruce made no answer, but her eye deepened and 
 the smile faded from her face.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ROYSTON GRANGE 
 
 The cold, clear weather soon began to change. The sun 
 went down red and frosty, but Fitz, looking out of his 
 bedroom window at midnight, observed a halo round the 
 moon, which he described as "her wig," and by breakfast- 
 time a thaw was proclaimed. Spouts trickled, eaves 
 dripped, birds chirped in the laurels, the distant downs 
 melted into grey, and a soft wind blew gently through the 
 fir plantations on the south of Warden Towers. 
 
 In such a country house as that over which Miss Bruce 
 presided, the change to "hunting weather" was greeted 
 with a hearty welcome, but at a few miles' distance it 
 produced no little anxiety and discomfiture. The Eoys 
 were about to give a dinner-party, the first since they came 
 to Kve at Royston Grange. They had consulted the 
 almanac, made, as Nelly said, " a proper arrangement with 
 the moon," and now, if her light should be obscured by 
 clouds, if the roads were axle-deep in soft white mud, if the 
 floods were out, if the rain came down, if everything 
 conspired to baffle their guests and spoil their party, 
 husband and wife agreed " it would be reaUy too pro- 
 voldng." 
 
 They were together in the breakfast-room of Nelly's new 
 home. She locked the tea-caddy, and fitted its key on a 
 steel ring among many others, with a certain housewifely 
 care that seemed her second nature ; he paced up and down 
 
 61
 
 BOYS TON GBANGE 65 
 
 between window and fire-place with an impatience that 
 bordered on disgust. 
 
 "If the frost had only lasted over this confounded dinner 
 party," said he, " it might have rained torrents to-morrow 
 and welcome ! I want to get some hunting next week. 
 Now I wish we hadn't asked the Grantons. She's delicate 
 — very. They'll send an excuse, and not come — or they'll 
 come and not go away. If she catches a bad cold, she'll 
 very likely die in the house ! " 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Roy!" exclaimed Nelly (she could not yet 
 bring herself to call her paragon by so simple a name as 
 John). " She can have the pink room, poor dear! It is 
 the warmest in the house. And I'm sure I'll nurse her 
 night and day." 
 
 "Nonsense, Nelly!" was the marital rejoinder. "I 
 wish I could teach you not to take everything one says au 
 pied de la lettre." 
 
 "That's French," she answered good-humouredly ; " but 
 even in French it saves trouble to say what you mean." 
 
 "What I mean is this. If the Grantons throw us over, 
 you must send all yom* people in differently. Are you 
 quite sure you won't make a mess of the whole thing? " 
 
 She pulled a list from her apron pocket, written in her 
 own clear, firm hand, and looked wistfully over its contents. 
 "I dread that part most of all," she whispered, with a 
 loving look at him from her deep grey eyes. " The dinner 
 I can superintend well enough, and arranging the furniture 
 and lighting the company rooms. It's what I'm used to. 
 But I am afraid of the county gentry ; and if once I begm 
 WTong, and march them ofl" out of their proper places, I 
 know I shall get as red as a turkey-cock, and think every- 
 body is looking at me. You see I never had to do with 
 great folks, dear, till I knew you." 
 
 He bit his lip. How could he be angry with this kind 
 and handsome woman, who loved him so well ? Yet it 
 
 5
 
 66 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 was provoking to be obliged to drill her for these little 
 exigencies of every-day life, it was tiresome to be always in 
 hot water lest she should say or do something contrary to 
 that unwritten code which it is so impossible to classify 
 or define. Lady Jane would have given him no anxiety 
 on this score. And yet he could not bring himself to wish 
 he had married Lady Jane ! 
 
 "Remember, dear," he continued kindly enough,"! 
 take Miss Granton, because she is a Viscount's daughter, 
 and Fitzowen takes you." 
 
 " Not Sir Hector Bruce ? " said Nelly. " He's a much 
 older man. I was always taught to reverence grey hairs. I 
 wish you had more of them." 
 
 " Certainly woi," he insisted. " Sir Hector is a baronet, 
 and of early creation; but Fitzowen is an Irish peer " 
 
 " What's an Lish peer ? " asked Mrs. Roy. " I shall 
 never take it all in. I thought one lord was as good as 
 another lord, and I still think a baronet of sixty ought to 
 be of more account than a young whipper-snapper not six- 
 and-twenty. But you know best, of course." 
 
 **I suppose I do," he answered drily, and deferred for 
 the present his intention of piloting his wife through the 
 intricacies of Debrett. 
 
 But while he smoked a cigar in the stable and consulted 
 his groom on such inexhaustible topics as the grey's fetlock 
 and the chestnut's cough, he felt that Nelly's ignorance of 
 conventionalities would be a continual source of irritation 
 to his shy and sensitive natm'e ; that notwithstanding her 
 beauty, her sweet temper, her entire devotion to himself, a 
 woman might have suited him better who was more con- 
 versant mth his own artificial state of society, that he might 
 even have been wiser not to have married at all. It is but 
 justice to add that he had the grace to be ashamed of such 
 reflections, and dismissed them with a jerk, just as he 
 threw away the stump of his cigar.
 
 BOYS TON GBANGE 67 
 
 Half an hour later, while bent on her household avoca- 
 tions, he saw her pause as she passed through the 
 conservatory to tie up a pretty little nosegay prepared for 
 his own button-hole when he should go out. Something 
 of the old thrill he felt on the pier at Beachmouth stirred 
 his heart once more. Her attitudes were so graceful, the 
 cui-ves of her figure so true to the line of beauty, her eyes 
 so deep and soft, her features so exquisitely cut, her locks 
 so dark and glossy, he could not but admit that his wife, in 
 appearance at least, was the most bewitching woman he 
 had ever seen. 
 
 "As far as looks go," thought John Roy, "she will 
 hold her own with the best, and I can trust her to be nicely 
 di-essed. While dinner lasts it will do well enough, but 
 I know what women are. They'll find her out in the 
 di-awing-room, and they'll let her see they've found her out. 
 Nelly will lose her head, and say or do something that will 
 make me feel hot all over. I wish she hadn't asked them ! 
 I wish the cook would get drunk, or the kitchen chimney 
 catch fire, or something frightful would happen to get one 
 out of the whole d d thing ! " 
 
 But the cook and the kitchen chimney remained staunch 
 to their respective duties. Delicate Mrs. Granton did not 
 send an excuse ; on the contrary, she was one of the first 
 arrivals, in a remarkably low dress. Sir Hector, Miss 
 Bruce, and Lord Fitzowen, turned up in due course. By 
 eight o'clock the whole party were assembled in the drawing- 
 room. Nelly received them in turn, with exactly the right 
 amount of cordiality, neither too cold nor too gushing, 
 paired them off", and sent them to dinner, with a sinking 
 heart indeed, but a perfect imitation of high-bred com- 
 posure, followed them on Lord Fitzowen's arm with 
 gracious dignity, and Mr. Roy began to breathe freely 
 again. 
 
 " After al]," he thouglit, " D'Orsay was right. A good
 
 68 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 heart is good manners ready made. Nelly couldn't have 
 done it better if she had been born a duke's daughter ! " 
 
 Soup and fish came and went with the usual soup and 
 fish conversation. Mrs. Granton asked her host how the 
 new stoves answered in his hot-houses, and whether he 
 should take Mrs. Koy to the hunt ball ? The rest told each 
 other that " it was really a thaw, that the frost had been 
 enjoyable enough for skaters, that the change was welcome 
 to those who hunt, and — and — champagne, if you please," 
 after which the talli became more general and more 
 discursive, not without a few agreeable personalities and 
 remarks occasionally much to the point. The whole afiair 
 seemed to go ofl' smoothly, and, though the company were 
 chiefly composed of country neighbours, the entertainment 
 promised to be a success. 
 
 People were well paired, and this was the more fortunate 
 as our table of precedence regulating English society leaves 
 nothing to chance. Mrs. Granton, a pleasant little woman, 
 with a tendency to mild flirtation, liked both her host and 
 her neighbour on the other side, a young guardsman, with 
 good spirits, good appetite, and good looks. Two squires, 
 fast friends of thirty years' standing, whose talk was of 
 shorthorns, sat together. The venerable clergyman of the 
 parish placed himself next Miss Bruce, a young lady for 
 whom he professed the deepest regard, to which she 
 warmly responded, consulting him on his many charities, 
 and speaking of him in all societies as " a dear old thing ! " 
 An unmarried damsel of a certain age, not yet on the 
 retired list, was mated with a veteran admiral, who made 
 up for his weather-worn face and grizzled hair by that 
 frank and kindly gallantry which women find so irresistible, 
 and which, combined Avith hardy habits and a reputation 
 for personal daring, renders officers of the Royal Navy such 
 universal favourites with the sex. Sir Hector, who sat 
 on the same side of the table as his daughter, sheltered
 
 EOYSTON GEANGE 69 
 
 therefore from the warning glances with which she was 
 accustomed to check such imprudences, laimched out 
 freely in the matter of savours and sauces, did not refuse 
 champagne, and even asked for a glass of old ale after 
 cheese, though, as Hester observed, " Papa knew it was 
 poison to him. Absolutely poison ! " Finally, Lord Fitz- 
 owen, who took in his hostess, found himself completely 
 fascinated and enthralled. Her beauty, her good-humour, 
 above all, her simple manners, charmed him exceedingly. 
 They were so wholly different from the artificial graces he 
 was accustomed to in general society. 
 
 Fitz, though a gentleman, had, I fear, promised himself 
 more mirth than interest in studying the character of John 
 Roy's new wife. He expected her to furnish amusement 
 during the evening, food for laughter with Hester on the 
 morrow, and was surprised to find how completely he had 
 been mistaken. 
 
 Quiet and unobtrusive, she seemed yet to take her own 
 place as mistress of the liouse with a serene and conscious 
 dignity. While paying courteous attention to her guests, 
 no movement of the seiTants escaped her vigilance. Those 
 deep grey eyes seemed to observe the requirements of all, 
 and the trainings of her early life, the habit of close atten- 
 tion to trifles, of looking into everything herself, now stood 
 her in good stead. 
 
 Nelly was at high pressure, nevertheless. She had no 
 fear, indeed, of the cook's failures, nor of shortcomings on 
 the part of her well-paid and well-ordered establishment, 
 but she sadly mistnistcd herself. 
 
 She had already learned to stand in awe of her husband's 
 fastidious taste ; she dreaded at every moment to ofi'end it 
 by something she might say or do, and she glanced at him 
 from time to time with an obvious timidity that was not 
 lost on her sharp-sighted neighbour. " Does he bully her ? " 
 thought Fitz. " She seems afraid of him. She's not quite
 
 70 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 at lier ease. Good heavens ! If I had such a wife as that 
 I shoukl worship the very ground beneath her feet ! " 
 
 Like many of his class, our friend was an enthusiast, 
 and at least believed himself capable of romance and self- 
 sacrifice. Some of the greatest follies on behalf of women 
 have been perpetrated by men of the world, at whom that 
 world invariably expresses a well-bred surprise, wondering 
 they should " not have known better," ignoring the reckless- 
 ness that stands for generosity, and forgetting how its own 
 treadmill becomes at last so wearisome that any change is 
 accepted for an improvement. 
 
 It is a sad reflection, but, as the practised angler well 
 knows, to capture fishes of all kinds there is nothing like a 
 change of bait. So for the human gudgeon novelty has a 
 keen and dangerous attraction. A bit of sweet-briar in the 
 cottager's hedge never seems so fragrant as after a walli 
 through the duke's conservatories. His grace himself, 
 when he can get away from his French cook, loves to dine 
 on a simple mutton-chop, and I have always been satisfied 
 that queens and princesses wore the willow for King 
 Cophetua when he placed his crown at the feet of a 
 beggar-maid. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen had necessarily been thrown into the 
 society of ladies of high rank — had been refused by the 
 great heiress of one season, smiled on by the great beauty 
 of the next, been a little in love, like everybody else, with 
 the handsomest of duchesses, and had neither lost flesh nor 
 spirits nor appetite from the strength of his attachments. 
 But here was a new experience altogether. Apart from 
 her good looks, he had never met any other woman the 
 least lilvc Mrs. Roy, and he studied her with the 
 feeling of admiration and curiosity that a man experiences 
 who, after a night's sleep on a railway, wakes in the streets 
 of a foreign capital that he has never seen before. 
 
 The interest, I must admit, was all on one side. Nelly
 
 BOYS TON OBANGE 71 
 
 seemed much too preoccupied to think of anything but her 
 female guests — how she was to get them into the drawing- 
 room, what to do with them when there, whether tea and 
 coffee should be served separately or together, once or twice 
 each, and if she ought or ought not to press everybody to 
 stay a little longer after the welcome moment when their 
 carriages were proclaimed to be waiting at the door ? 
 
 Fitz could see that his attentions left no impression, and 
 this indifference only made him the more desirous of stand- 
 ing well in her good opinion. 
 
 " I have been presented to you before to-day, Mrs. Roy," 
 said he, stimulated to exertion by a glass of ChartreuKe 
 after ice. " You have forgotten me, but I have not for- 
 gotten you." 
 
 " Indeed ! " answered Nelly. " It's very stupid of me ; 
 I hope you'll excuse it. I was never good at remembering 
 faces." 
 
 " You were walking with Roy in the Park. It must 
 have been just before you were married. I was riding and 
 he introduced me. Do you remember now ? " 
 
 " I remember your horse ; such a beautiful chestnut. I 
 was always fond of animals. Have you brought it with 
 you to Warden Towers ? " 
 
 A little piqued, and feeling rather at a disadvantage, 
 Fitz j)ulled himself together before answering. 
 
 " He is in a stable at the village. I rather agi-ee with 
 you, Mrs. Roy ; I like beasts on four feet better than on 
 two. May I bring him over some day to renew his 
 acquaintance ? " 
 
 " Thank you," said Nelly absently. He suspected she 
 had not paid attention to a word. Her faculties were now 
 concentrated on the responsibility of " making the move" 
 to marshal her ladies into the drawing-room. After all she 
 signalled the wrong one, and, observing a cloud on her 
 husband's brows as she passed out, followed the nistling
 
 72 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 squadron in their retreat with heightened colour and 
 rather a heavy heart. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen, though he filled a humper of INIr. Roy's 
 excellent claret, leaned back in his chair less talkative than 
 usual. His evening's entertainment had not tm-ned out 
 as he expected, and lie found himself thinking a good deal 
 more of his friend's wife than his friend's wine.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 STRANGERS YET 
 
 When they had talked enough about poor's-rates, short- 
 horns, the scarcity of foxes, and unpopularity of their Lord- 
 Lieutenant, John Roy sent his brown sherry round for the 
 last time, and suggested coffee in the drawing-room. 
 Entering behind his guests, he stole an eager glance at 
 Nelly, to see how she was getting on. 
 
 Yes — it was just as he feared. He had told her particularly 
 to cultivate Mrs. Grantou, and there was Mrs. Granton on 
 a sofa with Miss Bruce, at the far end of the room. The 
 two other ladies of consideration were in close conference 
 over the fire, and his wife sat at a distant table, showing 
 photogi-aphs to the mature spinster, who looked more than 
 half asleep. 
 
 Roy's anxious, jealous temperament was up in arms on 
 the instant. " D — n it ! Nelly," he whispered, over her 
 shoulder, " don't let them send you to Coventry in your 
 own house! " His glance was unkind, and even angry; 
 she had never before heard him swear. With a chill, sick 
 feeling at her heart she realised, for tlie first time, how 
 wide a diff'erence there is between marriage and love. 
 
 " How can he look at me like that ? " thought Nelly, 
 "and at Mrs. Granton as if he could fall down and worship 
 her? If this is good society, I've had enough of it! I 
 wish I had never seen Beachmouth. I wish I had never 
 left Auntie and the hotel. I wish — I wish I was dead 
 
 73
 
 74 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 and biiried, and done with once for all, and he'd got another 
 wife, a real lady born, who would suit him better, but could 
 never love him half as well ! " 
 
 If anybody had said a kind word to her she must have 
 burst out crying, but the sei-vants were moving about with 
 tea and coflfee, there was an adjournment to the card-tables, 
 and by the time eight of the party had settled to whist and 
 two to bezique, she recovered her equanimity, feeling only 
 unreasonably tired and depressed. 
 
 Nelly disliked cards. Lord Fitzowen had "cut out" 
 at the nearest whist table. I will not take upon me to say 
 that he was disappointed when he found his hostess the 
 only other unoccupied person in the room. 
 
 A pianoforte stood near the door into the conservatory, 
 which was well lighted, and looked very pretty with its 
 exotics, rock-work, and fountain in the midst. He asked 
 her to play, and Nelly was too shy to refuse, but her courage 
 failed when she sat down, so they opened music-books and 
 talked about them instead. 
 
 John Roy, sorting a handful of trumps, turned round to 
 see that his guests were amused. " If you like to smoke, 
 Fitzowen," said he, " nobody minds it in the conservatory, 
 — only shut the glass door. Take him, Nelly, and show 
 him how." 
 
 Lord Fitzowen, thus invited, professed great eagerness 
 to see the conservatory, and was careful to close the door 
 of communication with the drawing-room, though nothing 
 would induce him to light a cigar in the presence of his 
 hostess. 
 
 So they walked up and down inhaling the heavy 
 perfume of hot-house flowers, reading their Latin names, 
 and hanging over the gold fish in their basin under the 
 fountain. Finally, they seated themselves at the extreme 
 end, and Mrs. Roy, who felt she ought to say something, 
 obsei-ved, " It was very quiet and pleasant, after the heat
 
 STBANGEBS YET 75 
 
 in the other rooms. She often brought her work here, and 
 sat listening to the fountain till she fancied she was miles 
 and miles away." 
 
 Fitzowen glanced sharply in her face. No, she was 
 not speaking for effect, and seemed simply to state a 
 fact that led to nothing more. She looked as if she 
 was thinking, deeply too, but of what — of whom ? She 
 baffled him, she puzzled him. This was the most interest- 
 ing woman he had ever met in his life! 
 
 He had penetration enough to see that she was shy, 
 and ill at ease. Diffident people have usually a keen 
 sense of the ludicrous. If he could make her laugh, she 
 would feci more at home ^\dth him, and he might hope to 
 obtain her good^vill and friendship — perhaps, in time, her 
 confidence and regard. 
 
 *' I quite agi'ee with you, Mrs. Roy," said he. " I have 
 the same sensations myself; all this wealth of green 
 vegetables seems to raise me into another phase of exist- 
 ence. I feel like a catei*pillar, for instance, in a cabbage- 
 leaf, or a sweep on May-day." 
 
 "I don't know about the caterpillar," she answered, with 
 rather a sad smile; "but I dare say the sweeps are very 
 happy on May-day. I often think that you gi-eat people, 
 who do nothing but amuse yourselves, are not half so 
 contented as those who work for their bread." 
 
 " Every man to his trade, Mrs. Roy. I couldn't earn a 
 shilling a day at any employment you can name. I was 
 brought up to amuse myself." 
 
 " And I to work. Yes, you may laugh ; but I was 
 taught from a child to gain an honest livelihood. I'm not 
 ashamed of it. I wouldn't change places with one of those 
 ladies in the next room. Only, I sometimes wish Mr. Roy 
 had been a poor man. He would have felt how hard I 
 tried to make him comfortable." 
 
 " He does not feel it now," thought Lord Fitzowen —
 
 76 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " and this is nnother of the many wives who consider 
 themselves miapprcciated and misunderstood ;" hut he was 
 too discreet to put his sentiments into words, and only 
 answered by a look of sympathy and expectation. 
 
 She remained silent for a minute, then broke oflf a sprig 
 of geranium, and continued, more to herself than to her 
 companion — 
 
 ' ' I wonder if people get on better for being exactly alike 
 in character, or in all respects different. I often puzzle 
 over it for hours when I'm sitting here listening to the drip 
 of the fountain, and watching the gold fish. I dare say 
 they're sometimes unhappy too, poor things ! " 
 
 " Fish are ahvays discontented," he answered gravely — 
 " but, with regard to the previous question, I am convinced 
 that husbands and wives ought to be as different as — as — 
 chalk from cheese. The man is the chalk, of course, and 
 the woman the cheese." 
 
 "I'm glad to hear you say that," replied Mrs. Roy. 
 " Only, perhaps you are not the best judge, being a 
 bachelor." 
 
 " How do you know I'm a bachelor ? " 
 
 She blushed in some trepidation, lest she should have 
 stumbled into another solecism. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," she faltered. " I — I was not 
 aware — I had not heard of your being married. I hope I 
 have said nothing WTong." 
 
 He laughed merrily. " Don't be alarmed, Mrs. Roy. 
 I am still a beast untamed, a gentleman at large, a 
 virgin page, whatever you choose to call it. When my 
 time does come, I hope the lady will be most unlike 
 myself." 
 
 " I dare say she will be very nice," observed Nelly simply. 
 " But, whatever you do. Lord Fitzowen, don't marry a 
 woman below your rank in life ; partly for your own sake, 
 but a great deal more for hers."
 
 STBANGEBS YET 77 
 
 His tone was much graver, and he looked in the face of 
 his hostess with an expression of sincere respect and 
 regard, while he answered — 
 
 " Pardon me, Mrs. Roy. There I cannot agree with 
 you. A man is seldom fortunate enough to marry his 
 ideal, hut, at least, he should try. Shall I tell you mine ? 
 A woman of character, a woman of energy — not afraid to 
 take her part in the husiness of life, nor ashamed to 
 acknowledge it ; despising only what is base, and hating 
 only what is wrong. The less she knows of that artificial 
 game we call society, with its unworthy interests and petty 
 artifices, the better. Frank, natural, and simple, I should 
 like her all the more for utter ignorance of the great world, 
 and a complete indifierence to its ways. Now I've told you 
 my notion of a vdie, Mrs. Roy. Of course she must be 
 handsome, and have black hau", like yours — but that has 
 nothing to do vnth. it." 
 
 Her heart beat faster. He had described a character 
 the very counterpart of her own, and he was an acknow- 
 ledged judge of human nature, a thorough man of the 
 world, occupying even a higher position than her own 
 husband. Perhaps she had deceived herself, after all, 
 and magnified mole-hills into mountains, from sheer 
 anxiety lest she should fall short of the standard retpiired 
 by that paragon. She looked in Fitzowen's frank, hand- 
 some face, and felt that here was a friend in whom she 
 coidd confide, a counsellor on whom she could rely. 
 Versed in worldly ways, but untainted by worldly 
 duplicity ; wise, good-natured, and experienced, he would 
 point out the path to follow, the difficulties to be avoided; 
 in a word, would teach her to retain her hold on the 
 affections of Mr. Roy. 
 
 She pulled to pieces the bit of geranium in her hand, 
 as if absorbed in that occupation, but stole an anxious 
 look at him from under her long e^^elashes the while.
 
 78 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 ** You — you are an old friend of my husband's, are 
 you not?" she asked in a low, uncertain voice. 
 
 He had a scale of friendship, regulated on a tariff of 
 his own. "I would lend him a fiver," he thought, "if 
 he wanted it; perhaps a pony. Certainly not a monkey." 
 But though there is a wide margin between twenty-five 
 pounds and five hundred, he felt justified in answering, 
 " Yes, a very old friend," bravely enough. 
 
 " Lord Fitzowen," she continued, *' if I tell you some- 
 thing in confidence, will you promise not to repeat it to 
 a soul?" 
 
 " Honour among thieves, Mrs. Roy. You and I are 
 not thieves, and you may trust me as you would your 
 solicitor." 
 
 " I would rather trust you as my husband's friend, 
 and I will. You know, or perhaps you do not know, 
 that till we married I never lived among the sort of 
 people I meet now every day. I was respectably brought 
 up and well educated, Lord Fitzowen, but my father was 
 a tradesman and my mother a governess. I am not 
 ashamed of them, far from it, only in such a station it 
 was not to be expected, of com-se, that I could acquire 
 the manners and habits of the class I have to mix with 
 now. I try to learn day by day, but it is such uphill 
 work, and I have nobody to teach me ! " 
 
 ** They had much better learn of you. I beg pardon 
 for interrupting." 
 
 "If I ask Mr. Roy, he is vexed, and I cannot bear 
 to see him cross. He seems to expect one to know 
 things by instinct. I am dreadfully put about by little 
 difficulties that you would think the merest trifles. But 
 they are no trifles to me ! It's like not knowing how 
 to spell a word when you write a letter, and having no 
 dictionary." 
 
 " Shall I be your dictionary ? "
 
 STBANGEBS YET 79 
 
 "Will you? It's what I wanted to ask, only I didn't 
 quite know how. It would be a great relief, for some- 
 times, I do assure you, I feel at my wits' end. Now I 
 will consult you, if you don't mind." 
 
 " Mind ! I would do anything in the world for you — 
 and for him." 
 
 " Thank you. Lord Fitzowen. Don't think me un- 
 gi-ateful because I say little about it. I feel your kindness 
 deeply all the same. Now we'll go back to the drawiug- 
 room. The whist-players will be wondering what can 
 have kept us so long." 
 
 *' One moment, Mrs. Roy. Have you any reason to 
 believe there's a ghost somewhere loose about the 
 garden ? " 
 
 "A ghost! Good gracious! Why?" 
 
 " Simply, that for the last ten minutes I have seen a 
 pale, unearthly face pressed against the glass, glaring at 
 us from outside. Square, flat, hard-featured, and not a 
 pretty face by any means." 
 
 Nelly's spirits were rising. " Square, flat, hard-featured," 
 she repeated with a laugh, " and not a pretty face by any 
 means. Oh ! then I shouldn't wonder if it was Mrs. 
 Mopus ! "
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 MRS. MOPUS 
 
 "Who is Mrs. Moims ? " but there came no answer to 
 his question, lor already the rubbers had been lost and 
 won ; the carriages were announced. A table was set 
 out with brandy, seltzer, ice, lemons and cold water, 
 the modern substitute for stuTup-cups of former days ; 
 and Lord Fitzowen's hostess was too much engrossed 
 with the ceremonies of leave-taking to spare him any 
 further attention. Nevertheless, when it came to his turn 
 to wish her good-night, she gave him her hand with such 
 marked cordiality as to excite the observation even of 
 Mr. Roy. 
 
 " How do you like our friend Fitz, Nelly? " asked her 
 husband, yawning his way up-stairs. " You had every 
 opportunity to-night of forming an opinion." 
 
 " I think him very nice," answered Nelly, mth a bright 
 smile. 
 
 " Most women do," he replied drily, and shut his door. 
 
 Almost at the same moment, in the obscurity of a 
 closed landau. Miss Bruce asked Lord Fitzowen the same 
 question about Mrs. Roy. Fitz did not respond quite so 
 frankly. 
 
 "Wants knowing, I should say," was his verdict. 
 "Very quiet, very reserved. A character like my own, I 
 think. Born to blush unseen; and bloom brightest in 
 the shade." 
 
 80
 
 MBS. MO PUS 81 
 
 " You ought to blush unseen in that corner," laughed 
 Hester, " for being such a humbug ! If you're both so shy 
 and reserved, Lord Fitz, perhaps you will tell me what you 
 found to talk about for a good hour in the conservatory ? ' ' 
 
 But Lord Fitz made no answer. He was still rumi- 
 nating on the last question he asked his hostess, " Who is 
 Mrs. Mopus?" 
 
 Mrs Mopus was neither more nor less than the house- 
 keeper at Royston Grange, and in that capacity regarded 
 John Roy's new wife with no small amount of jealousy and 
 ill-will. So long as her master remained a bachelor, visit- 
 ing his home at long intervals, to bring with him a houseful 
 of bachelors lilvo himself, with their valets, she found the 
 selection exceedingly to her taste. Li his absence, she 
 was an independent sovereign ; when he came back, a lady 
 patroness, presiding over an agreeable little circle of gentle- 
 men's gentlemen, with whom her word was law, particularly 
 at supper-time. 
 
 She had great opportunities for peculation, of which she 
 availed herself moderately, but with scrupulous regularity ; 
 could engage or discharge housemaids, laundry-maids, and 
 kitchen-maids at will, won a series of triumphs over the 
 successive cooks who came and went like the slides of a 
 magic-lantern ; and after a protracted contest with the 
 Scotch gardener, found herself unquestioned mistress of 
 Royston Grange. 
 
 She was a widow, with one good-for-nothing son, alive or 
 dead in Australia, of whom she possessed no other memento 
 than an ill-looking photograph. Energetic, resolute, and 
 persevering, had she been ten years younger, she would 
 surely have tried to marry Mr. Roy : but the looking-glass 
 told her such a scheme was hopeless, and she gave it up 
 almost as soon as it crossed her mind. 
 
 When she learned he was going to take a wife, she re- 
 spectfully tendered her resignation, knowing well it would 
 
 6
 
 82 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 not bo accepted. John Roy (so like a man ! ) hating all 
 trouble of a domestic nature, begged her, of course, to 
 remain, and for a time she speculated on the chance of his 
 bride being a young, inexperienced woman, whom with her 
 cunning and audacity she might turn round her finger like 
 the rest of the household. It was a serious blow to discover 
 that the new Mrs. Roy seemed as practised an adept in the 
 science of housekeeping as herself, knowing the due con- 
 sumption of butcher's meat to a pound, of coals and sugar 
 to a lump, that she would no more submit to stealthy pilfer- 
 ing than to open robbery, and was resolved, in accordance 
 with one of the first instincts of womanhood, to be mistress 
 in her oAvn house. 
 
 Mrs. Mopus did not yield without a struggle, but in 
 the very first trial of strength found herself so ignobly 
 defeated, less by Nelly's quiet dignity of manner than her 
 intimate knowledge of the subject in question (a supply of 
 sandpaper and soap for the housemaid's closet), that she 
 determined in future to avoid coming to conclusions with 
 her new mistress, preferring rather to watch and wait till 
 opportunity offered, and then do her the worst tmii that 
 lay in her power. 
 
 She had no little Imowledge of the world and its ways. 
 John Roy, who took her from a recommendation, and not a 
 character, was quite satisfied with her own account of how 
 the intervening time — some seven or eight years — had been 
 spent since she left her last situation. She professed to 
 have been in business as a fancy stationer, and to have failed 
 — of course through the rascality of an agent ; but the 
 valet of one of Mr. Roy's shooting friends could have told 
 him a different story. She had been keeping a small 
 public-house of no good repute near Croydon, which this 
 worthy frequented when attending certain suburban steeple- 
 chases, where he was in the habit of wagering freely with 
 his late master's money. He prided himself, however, on
 
 MES. MOPUS 83 
 
 beino' no less a man of lionoui- tlian a man of the world, and 
 
 O 
 
 gave her to miderstand, doubtless for some practical equiva- 
 lent, that he had no intention of showing her up. Still, 
 she felt that her position was insecm-e, her tenure uncertain 
 — more so than ever since the arrival of Mrs. Roy, and 
 she cherished for her new mistress that good-will which 
 animates the bosom of one woman for another who has 
 thwarted, supplanted, and found her out. 
 
 After their supper in " the room," as it was called — an 
 elaborate meal, of wliich every upper servant felt bound in 
 honour to promote the hilarity and comfort — Mrs. Mopus 
 had contracted a habit of walking out of doors for half an 
 horn* or so in all weathers and under all circumstances, pro- 
 testing that she could not get to sleep without this taste of 
 fi-esh air after the labours of the day. Her real reasons were, 
 perhaps, not entirely sanitary. It might be convenient 
 thus to withdraw for a stated portion of time daily from 
 the observation of the household, and no questions asked. 
 When first she established the practice she was narrowly 
 watched, no doubt, by her fellow-servants, but in the course 
 of a few months, when nothing came of these nightly 
 wanderings, they ceased to regard them, and Mrs. Mopus 
 found herself free to steal about the gardens and shrubberies 
 wherever she pleased, unnoticed in the dark. 
 
 It was thus she held private interviews with the butcher 
 to accommodate certain serious differences concerning the 
 heavy overcharges on which he tried to put her off with a 
 shabby ten per cent., and it was thus, too, that she clandes- 
 tinely met a neighboming farmer, sixty years of age and 
 given to inebriety, who made honourable proposals of 
 marriage, broken off prematurely by his being sold up on 
 quarter day. 
 
 When there was company at Royston Grange, it was her 
 habit in these nightly prowlings to peer through its panes 
 into the conseiwatory. It amused her to watch the young
 
 84 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 men who adjourned there for coffee and tobacco, moving 
 about among the flowers, like tropical birds, in their gor- 
 geous smoking-costumes. She was edified, too, by the 
 freedom of their conversation, picking up occasional scraps 
 of scandal concerning great people in London, or country 
 neighbom-s nearer home, of which she would otherwise have 
 remained ignorant. Collating their version of such affairs 
 with that of their valets, she formed her own conclusions, 
 and revolved them in her mind for future use. It was one 
 of her maxims that the knowledge of a fellow-creature's 
 secret (for evil) was as good as a bank-note. The time was 
 sure to come when either he would pay to keep it quiet, or 
 somebody else to find it out. 
 
 But her observations had hitherto been confined to the 
 male sex. It seemed a great piece of luck to detect, on this 
 night of the dinner-party, a lady sitting alone with a gentle- 
 man in the conservatory ; a greater, to discover that lady 
 was Mrs. Roy. Their conversation, indeed, might have 
 been published in the first column of the Times ; but there 
 is no dialogue so innocent that it will not bear miscon- 
 struction, and the listening housekeeper overheard enough 
 to lay the foundation of such a plot as she hoped would 
 undermine the life's happiness of her mistress, estrange 
 her from her husband, and drive her at last ignominiously 
 from her home. If she had any scruples of pity, they were 
 blown into au' by Nelly's last remark while she entered the 
 drawing-room — " Not a pretty face, by any means. Oh ! 
 then I shouldn't wonder if it was Mrs. Mopus ! " 
 
 *'And Mrs. Mopus will be even with you yet, before 
 she's done ! " muttered the housekeeper, as she crept back 
 through the lam-els, shaking with suppressed passion. 
 "What are you, my fine lady, I should lilce to know, for 
 all your stylish looks and yom* black hair ? Why, you're 
 no better born than myself, and no better brought up ! 
 If you'd been a real lady, a lady of quality, you'd have kept
 
 MBS. MOPUS 85 
 
 your own place iu the drawing-room, like a lady, and not 
 come poking yom- nose into the linen-closets and the store- 
 room with me. Lady, indeed ! If that young gentleman, 
 and he is a gentleman, and a lord into the bargain, knew 
 what I do, he wouldn't be so keen to follow up and down, 
 like a dog at your heels. And Mr. Roy, too, I'd like to 
 hear what he would say to such goings on. He shall know 
 them, too, that he shall, before he's twenty-four hom-s 
 older. I've been a faithful servant to him and his for 
 many a long year, and I'm not going to see him put upon 
 now. Not a pretty face, and you wouldn't wonder if it was 
 Mrs. Mopus ! Yes, it is Mrs. Mopus, and that you shall 
 find out, my fine madam, to your cost ! " 
 
 She was so angry that she went straight to her bedroom, 
 and sat by the light of a single tallow- candle cogitating her 
 plans far into the night. 
 
 Mrs. Roy, meanwhile, unconscious of coming evil, con- 
 gratulated herself on the success of her dinner-party, and 
 her own observance of those formalities she had so dreaded 
 for more than a week. 
 
 "I never made a single mistake, did I?" she asked 
 next morning at breakfast, peeping triumphantly round 
 the tea-m'n at her husband. 
 
 "Not many," he answered. ** You made the move after 
 dinner to the rector's wife instead of Mrs. Granton, and 
 you didn't half take notice of that tiresome old Lady 
 Meadowbank." 
 
 Nelly's face fell. "I'm so sorry, dear," said she. "It's 
 nice of you to want to be kind to her, poor woman, for she's 
 a widow." 
 
 " Oh ! it's not for that," he answered sharply. " You 
 never seem to understand things, Nelly. She owns the 
 best covert in the country." 
 
 Mrs. Roy looked rather sad, and held her tongue. 
 
 A few such conjugal amenities, a few lectures on the
 
 86 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 proprietieH from INIr. Roy, followed by silent tears, the 
 bitterer that she -svas heartily ashamed of them, and Nelly 
 bop^an to lose confidence in herself, to dread the very 
 tingle of the door-bell that announced visitors, and to make 
 more conventional mistakes than ever in sheer nervousness, 
 and anxiety lest she should do wrong. 
 
 If, as has been said, the great secret of oratory is to 
 entertain a thorough contempt for one's audience, so the 
 art of shining in society cannot be successfully cultivated 
 under feelings of diffidence, and mistrust of one's ovvii posi- 
 tion or one's own powers. Mrs. Roy would glance anxiously 
 at her husband before she spoke, say the wrong thing when 
 she did speak, or stop short in the middle of a sentence, as 
 if conscious of her blunders, and waiting his instructions to 
 go on — then he would shoot angry glances at her, which 
 made matters worse ; and once, after a certain luncheon to 
 which some neighbours arrived unexpectedly, he reproached 
 her for her awkwardness, her timidity, above all her silence, 
 and told her — positively told her — "he couldn't bear to 
 see her sitting at the top of his table, mum like a fool ! " 
 
 The last feather fairly broke the back of her self-respect. 
 She began to long for sympathy, for help, instruction, and 
 advice. If Lord Fitzowen would only come, she thought 
 he might tell her what to do ; he was so kind, so considerate, 
 so ready to share with her his experience and knowledge of 
 the world. That very afternoon Lord Fitzowen did come. 
 She saw him ride past the windows while she was sitting 
 disconsolately at tea, and ran to the glass before he was 
 announced, to smooth her hair and make sure her eyes did 
 not look as if she had been crying. 
 
 John Roy, marking trees for thinning, met his visitor in 
 the park. " I'd come back with you," said he, wij)ing his 
 bill-hook on the hedger's gloves he wore, " only I've got 
 so wet amongst all this underwood. But go i\]) to the 
 house ; you'll find Nelly at home. She'll be glad to see
 
 MRS. MO PUS 87 
 
 you : she's rather iu the dumps, it will do her good." And 
 he retm-ned to that most engrossing of all occupations, 
 chopping in one's o^vn plantations, while Lord Fitzowen 
 cantered over the grass to pass his visit of ceremony to Mrs. 
 Roy.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY 
 
 She received him with a bright smile, that faded to a 
 look of womanly concern when he gave her his left hand. 
 
 " Why, you've got your arm in a sling," said she. 
 "What is it? Nothing serious, I hope. You've had a 
 tumble from your horse." 
 
 John Roy would have told her she used the wrong ex- 
 pression. A good rider falls tvith his horse, a bad one 
 tumbles off. Fitzowen answered carelessly, " It serves 
 me right for hunting before the frost was quite gone. I've 
 put my shoulder out. It's nothing to signify, and luckily I 
 didn't hurt your friend, the chestnut." 
 
 " If you had not hurt yourself it would be more to the 
 purpose. Did you ride him here? " 
 
 " How could I, Mrs. Roy? He was out hunting yester- 
 day. No. I came over on one of Miss Bruce's ponies." 
 
 She jumped to conclusions, like a very woman. Of 
 course, she ought to have seen it long ago. How 
 stupid she had been ! Mr. Roy was quite right when he 
 said she was not fit to find her way about in general society. 
 Miss Bruce and this young nobleman were lovers, and in 
 all probability engaged. She might confide in Lord Fitz- 
 owen now without the slightest reserve or afterthought. It 
 was fortunate — providential ; and yet she could not help 
 reflecting that Hester seemed unlike the sort of person he 
 had described as his ideal of a wife.
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY 89 
 
 "I see," slie observed after a pause. *' Of course you 
 would." 
 
 "What do you see ? " he asked ; " and of course I would 
 what? " 
 
 " Of coui'se you will have some tea. Shall I make it 
 for you ? Not so well as Miss Bruce, but the best I 
 can." 
 
 " I didn't come here to talk about Miss Bruce," said he, 
 subsiding into a low chair while she handed him his tea. 
 " I am more interested at this moment in Mrs. Roy. Has 
 she had many visitors ? Has she given any more dinner- 
 parties ? And what has become of the ghost ? " 
 
 "The ghost?" 
 
 " Yes. Don't you remember the ghost I saw looking 
 into the conseiTatory ? " 
 
 " Do you believe in ghosts ? " 
 
 "Implicitly." 
 
 " And in spirit-rapping ? " 
 
 " I think so, though they never come to rap at my door. 
 I believe in everything, Mrs. Roy. That is to say, I 
 believe in one thing as much as another." 
 
 She looked grave. 
 
 " I don't like to hear you speak so, and you don't mean 
 it, I know. Lord Fitzowen, do you remember what I told 
 you the other night about the ways of society ? I cannot 
 understand them. Have people no lildngs, no affections, 
 no feelings, above all, no standard of right and wrong? or 
 do they simply make a point of never saying what they 
 mean ? You have lived in the gi-eat world ; you belong to 
 it yourself. Perhaps you will explain." 
 
 " I will if I can," he answered. " You know I promised 
 to be your dictionary." 
 
 " It was kind of you, if you meant it. I have thought so 
 very often. I do indeed require a dictionary more than 
 most people."
 
 90 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 "Then being yours, I shall at once turn over a new 
 leaf." 
 
 '* Most men in your j)osition ought to do that," she 
 answered, still thinking of Miss Bruce. " But will you be 
 serious for a moment, if I ask you a question ? " 
 
 " To please you, I will. For no other consideration on 
 earth." 
 
 " Then tell me why it is that only poor people and 
 servants are ever in earnest about anything. Mr. Eoy is as 
 bad as the others. You are all alike, and it seems to me 
 you don't speak English. If it pours with rain, you call it 
 ' moistish ; ' if the sun shines, you admit ' it's not half a 
 bad day.' When young Mr. Slowman's horse ran away, 
 and I said it was a great mercy he wasn't killed, Mrs. 
 Granton added, 'and a great pity, too,' and all the company 
 laughed. The Bro^vns have lost every shilling they 
 possessed, but Mr. Roy only thinks ' it's rather a bore for 
 Brown ! ' Even when that horrid woman left her husband 
 the other day, and it got into all the newspapers, nobody 
 seemed to consider the wickedness, but everybody exclaimed, 
 ' How could she be such a fool ! ' Arc you really without 
 heart and principles, do you think it good manners to 
 appear so ? " 
 
 " There is affectation in every class, Mrs. Roy," 
 answered Fitz, plunging boldly into the question, as know- 
 ing he must soon be out of his depth; " and all affectation 
 is vulgarity more or less. In our horror of one extreme, we 
 fall into the other; and for fear we should seem dramatic, 
 we cease to be real. So we are vulgar, too, in our way. 
 And yet what would you have ? It would never do for us 
 to go about proclaiming our likes and dislikes — our hopes, 
 feelings, and opinions. We should be ridiculous ; worse 
 than that — tiresome. So we agree to play with counters 
 instead of money, and it comes to the same thing when 
 you are used to the game. Why, if I was to tell you what
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY 91 
 
 1 am really thinking at this moment, how do I Imow you 
 wouldn't ring the hell and have me turned out of the house?" 
 
 She drew herself up, and looked quite capable of 
 acting precisely as he described; but before her pride 
 could take offence he rattled on into smooth water 
 again. 
 
 " I don't care — I'll risk it with yoii, and run my chance. 
 I was thinking what a flat my friend Roy is to be working 
 like a slave up to his middle in dripping underwood when 
 he might be sitting warm and dry by this comfortable fire 
 in the best of company, over an excellent cup of tea. You 
 haven't rung the bell yet, so I would go on, only I have 
 nothing more to say." 
 
 " You have said quite enough," she answered laughing, 
 " when you presume to call Mr. Roy ' a flat.' But he 
 never takes tea now, as he used ; and gentlemen seem 
 to find a charm that is perfectly unaccountable in chopping 
 their own trees." 
 
 " I am so glad I never had any trees. Not that it 
 matters, for I suppose I should have cut them all down. 
 But you are making me forget everything it is my duty to 
 remember. Now what do you think brought me here this 
 afternoon ?" 
 
 Nobody so good-looking as Nelly could be less of a 
 coquette. Still it was not in woman's nature to sujjpress 
 the obvious rejoinder — 
 
 " I suppose it was in order to pay me a visit." 
 
 "Not a bit. You like people to be rude and sincere, so 
 now I am going to tell you the tru.th. I made it an excuse 
 to pay you a visit, that I freely admit, but I came charged 
 with a message from Miss Bruce. The hounds meet to- 
 morrow tliree miles from this house. She is not going to 
 ride, and would call for y(Hi in the carriage if you choose to 
 come. It is a favourite place, and I think I can promise 
 you will be amused."
 
 92 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 Nelly's grey eyes si)arklcd. " I sliould like it of all 
 things," she answered. " Do you know I have never seen 
 a hunt in my life ? Only I'm afraid it's cruel," she added 
 as an afterthought. 
 
 " You must not say, * seeing a hunt.' Your dictionary 
 tells you to call it * going out hunting ; ' and as for heing 
 cruel, it's — it's — in fact, quite the reverse. Then I may 
 tell Miss Bruce you will drive with her ? " 
 
 " I must ask Mr. Roy. I will, most certainly, if he has 
 no ohjection." 
 
 " What ohjection could he have ? I suppose he's not 
 afraid to trust you with Miss Bruce." 
 
 " If you are not, I don't see why he should be," 
 answered Nelly, still harping on her own erroneous 
 conclusion. 
 
 He looked mystified, but proceeded to the practical 
 details of their expedition. 
 
 " Then she will be at your door at half-past ten. Don't 
 ask her to get out, because she will be wrapped up for all 
 day ; and if you take my advice, you will put on your 
 warmest clothes too. It's sure to be cold crossing the 
 do-svns. You must go by the old Roman Road. I dare say 
 you don't know the shortest way out of yoiu' own woods. 
 Where's the Ordnance Map ? I can show you in five 
 seconds." 
 
 Now the Ordnance Map, notwithstanding that it was 
 referred to three or four times every day, hung, for greater 
 convenience, in the most remote corner of the library ; so 
 Mrs. Roy and her visitor adjourned there forthwith; the 
 latter, as his hostess piloted him across the darkening 
 hall, professing grave apprehensions lest they should meet 
 the ghost ! 
 
 It was already dusk. John Roy, in his wet clothes, 
 made the best of his way home, following a narrow path 
 through some thick-growing evergreens that led direct
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY 93 
 
 to the house. Here he came into collision with an 
 advancing form, shadowy and indistinct enough, but far too 
 substantial in its proportions for a disembodied spirit of any 
 kind. 
 
 On one side a scream was suppressed, on the other an 
 oath was not ; but Mrs. Mopus, perhaps because she 
 expected him, recognised her master before the familiar 
 voice broke out with — 
 
 " Who the devil are you ? And what are you doing 
 here?" 
 
 " It's only me, sir," she answered softly. " I thought 
 you would be coming home this way, and I slipped out to 
 meet you, Mr. Roy; that's the truth. It's right that some- 
 body should be careful of your health, you that never thinks 
 of yourself. I said you'd be as wet as a sop, and so you 
 are ; but you wouldn't go and change, not if it was ever 
 so, unless I begged and prayed it of you, as I always used. 
 I've done my duty by you Mr. Eoy, for a many years, and 
 I'll do it still ; whether others does or doesn't, it won't alter 
 me." 
 
 " I believe you have a regard for me, Mopus," he 
 answered kindly. " But you are always over-anxious, and 
 make a fuss about nothing." 
 
 " Old servants will, sir," she replied. " We know when 
 we've got a good master, Mr. Roy. I've laid down dry 
 things to air at your dressing-room fire, sir. That valet of 
 yom's is no more use than a post. No doubt Mrs. Roy 
 would have seen to it herself, but she's engaged in the 
 drawing-room with a visitor." 
 
 " Is he not gone yet ? " escaped from John Roy's lips, 
 \vith an involuntary expression of surprise. 
 
 "I don't know, I'm sm'e," answered the housekeeper. 
 " It's no business of mine, sir, to watch the gentlemen as 
 comes to visit your lady. I keep to my place, I hope, Mr. 
 Roy, though, of course, my thoughts are my own."
 
 94 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " Thoughts ! ^Vhat do you mean hy your thoughts ? " 
 
 "Well, sir, you mustn't pay much attention to what I 
 say ; I'm a little upset this afternoon with one thing and 
 another, and I can't forget you've heen a kind master to me 
 for many a long day. Get into the house, sir, as quick as 
 you can, and change from head to foot." 
 
 Now the shortest way into the house was hy the drawing- 
 room windows, of which the shutters had not yet heen 
 closed for the night ; and past these windows Mrs. Mopus 
 thought well to follow in her master's wake, though her own 
 dominions lay in another wing. Suddenly she came along- 
 side, and addressed him in a trouhled whisper. ' ' I ask 
 your pardon," said she — " I've deceived you, sir, regarding 
 the gentleman who came to visit Mrs. Roy. He must be 
 gone long ago. See, there's nobody left in the drawing- 
 room, and the fire is nearly out." 
 
 "All right, Mopus," he answered, shutting the house- 
 door ; but he muttered to himself as he tramped up-stairs, 
 " That woman must be going out of her senses. What can 
 it signify to me whether there's anybody in the drawing- 
 room or not ? " 
 
 Nevertheless, during the process of undressing her 
 words and manner recurred to him more than once, 
 always vvitli increasing uneasiness and a vague feeling of 
 suspicion. 
 
 Did she mean anything ? If she meant anything, why 
 couldn't she speak out ? Was there anything to mean ? 
 Anything wrong going on in the household that he ought to 
 know ? She seemed to imply as much. No doubt it would 
 come out in good time — to-morrow or next day. He need 
 not worry himself. Nelly would see to it, and put every- 
 thing right. Then he started in his slippers, and rushed to 
 the window. The clatter of hoofs could be heard from the 
 stable-yard, and Fitzowen's good-humoured voice conversing 
 with the helper who led his pony out.
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY 95 
 
 For one moment the room seemed to tm-u romid, the 
 next, he muttered, " It's impossible ! " and resumed his 
 dressing calmly and methodically as before. But the " it " 
 was not so easily shaken off; and after attending him 
 through the successive stages of his toilet, accompanied 
 him down-stairs to assist at a tete-d-tete dinner with his 
 wife. 
 
 Nelly was brilliant, and seemed in better spirits than 
 usual. She looked forward with pleasure to her expedition 
 on the morrow, and felt gratified by Lord Fitzowen's kind- 
 ness in coming to suggest it to-day. John Koy, on the 
 other hand, ate little and spoke less ; but, contrary to his 
 usual habits, which were strictly temperate, drank two or 
 three glasses of wine in quick succession. 
 
 It is one of the drawbacks to matrimony, that two people 
 are seldom precisely in the same humour at the same time. 
 Should the husband be helped twice to mutton, the wife is 
 pretty sure to send her plate away untouched. If he is 
 inclined to talk, she probably has a headache, and the lady 
 is prone to broach subjects involving personal discussion 
 when the gentleman wants to go to sleep. While the 
 servants were in the room, Nelly did her best, but it is hard 
 to keep the shuttlecock of conversation going with only one 
 battledore, and, as she originated topic after topic, they fell 
 successively to the ground. At last, when dessert was 
 placed on the table and the door shut for the last time, she 
 made a great effort and asked her husband point-blank, 
 "AATiatisthe matter?" 
 "Wliy?" 
 
 It was a discouraging reply, and she continued timidly — 
 " You seem out of spirits, dear, and you scarcely ate a 
 morsel. Either you didn't like your dinner, or else you're 
 not well." 
 
 " The dinner was no worse than usual," he answered 
 ungraciously; "and I don't see why you should say I'm
 
 96 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 not well, because I can't jabber about nothing with three 
 seiTants in the room. A man needn't ask his wife to excuse 
 him, I suppose, whenever he feels tired?" 
 
 " Or cross," she replied hastily, for his tone cut her to the 
 quick. 
 
 " Or bored," was the unkind rejoinder. *' I think that's 
 nearer the mark ! " 
 
 Her eyes filled with tears, and after five minutes of 
 painful silence she left the room. 
 
 But in less than half an hour her sweet and generous 
 temper reasserted itself. When tea came she gave him his 
 cup with as bright a smile as usual, drew his arm-chair to 
 the fire, and handed him the newsj)aper as if no cloud had 
 ever come between them. Even bent her beautiful head 
 over him to whisper softly that she " had spoken in 
 haste, and begged his pardon, because she was in the 
 wrong." 
 
 John Ptoy's heart smote him, and for a moment he 
 esteemed her as " excellent a wench " as ever Othello 
 thought Desdemona : but again there came between them 
 the vague and unacknowledged shadow cast by the in- 
 explicable bearing of his housekeeper, and he could not 
 refrain from asking himself over and over again, though not 
 without a certain bitter self-contempt, "What could Mrs. 
 Mopus mean ? "
 
 CHAPTEK XII 
 
 BURTON BRAKE 
 
 " Not going to ride ! " exclaimed Miss Bruce, who was 
 presiding over half-a-dozen guests at the breakfast table, as 
 Lord Fitzowen appeared in his usual morning dress, with 
 one arm still disabled and in a sling. *' I thought your 
 shoulder was better ; this is a disappointment. Consider, 
 Lord Fitz, yom' new friend Mrs. Roy won't see you in a red 
 coat." 
 
 "Don't hit a fellow when he's down. Miss Bruce," 
 answered his lordship, walking to a well-covered side-table. 
 " I'm hardly man enough to ride my brown horse with both 
 hands ; he would have it all his own way if I tried to steer 
 with one. No ; if you'll have me, I'm going to drive with 
 you." 
 
 ** I understand," replied Hester. " Yes, you shall come 
 with us if you feel equal to taking care of two ladies. It's 
 very touching, I must say, when I think of all you are 
 giving up. Burton Brake's the only good place on that side 
 of our country." 
 
 " I would give up anything for the pleasure of driving 
 with you, Miss Bruce." 
 
 " And Mrs. Boy, Lord Fitz. Your memory is very 
 short, you seem to have forgotten Mrs. Roy." 
 
 " John Roy's new wife ! " exclaimed one of the red-coats, 
 
 stretching a scarlet arm out for toast. " Is she going with 
 
 you, Miss Bruce ? They tell me she is as handsome as 
 
 7 y?
 
 98 nOY'S WIFE 
 
 paiut ; but nobody knows where she came from. Wasn't 
 she an actress, or a shop-woman, or somethmg? " 
 " Ask Lord Fitzowen," said Hester. 
 "Actress! shopwoman ! Nothmg of the kmd," replied 
 that nobleman, provoked to feel, for the first time since he 
 left Eton, as if he was going to blush. " She is as ladylike 
 a person as ever you saw. Amiable, accomplished, well- 
 mannered, and — and— that's all I know about her." 
 
 It seemed a lame conclusion, provoking general laughter, 
 dm-iug which the carriage was announced, and, as a couple 
 of hacks had been trampling the gi-avcl before the windows 
 for the last ten minutes, it was voted time to be off. 
 
 So early a start did not seem necessary from Eoyston 
 Grange, which was some miles nearer the place of meeting. 
 Its master could therefore enjoy two rather unusual luxuries 
 on a hunting morning, a leisurely toilet and an unhurried 
 breakfast. In his red coat, white leathers, top-boots, and 
 bright spurs, all well-cleaned and well put on, John Ptoy 
 looked no unfavourable specimen of the English gentleman, 
 and we may be sure Nelly thought so too. She had not 
 yet seen him often enough in this striking attire for the 
 admiration, mixed with wonder, v/hich it produced to have 
 palled on her unaccustomed eyes, though she was less 
 impressed than a certain damsel totally unused to the 
 society of sportsmen who married a friend of my own many 
 years ago. 
 
 If this lady ever heard of fox-hunting, she had no idea 
 that any special dress was required for that amusement. 
 Hitherto she had only seen a scarlet coat on the back of a 
 British soldier or a royal footman. Language is powerless 
 to convey her feeling of terror and dismay when in the third 
 week of their honeymoon, on the first Monday in November, 
 her husband came down to breakfast gorgeous from head to 
 foot in full hunting costume. 
 
 She felt she was bound for life to a madman ; an illusion
 
 "She pinned a hot-house ilower in his button-hole." 
 Roy's Wife ] [Page 99
 
 BUBTON BEAKE 99 
 
 that the experience of many succeeding Novembers failed 
 entirely to dispel. 
 
 "I like you so much in your red coat," said Nelly, with 
 her frank bright smile, as Mr. Roy, moving more stiffly than 
 usual, took his place at the breakfast tabic. " Only I wish, 
 I do wish hunting was not so dangerous ! " Every man in 
 his heart would be thought " prodigal of his person," but he 
 was too honest not to admit, though he vrcnt straight 
 enough when the hounds ran, that with good horses, well- 
 ridden, he reduced the risk of crossing a country to a 
 minimum. 
 
 " Wait till you've been out and seen us ride, Nelly," he 
 answered pleasantly, "you'll never think it dangerous again." 
 
 Last night's ill-humour had vanished ; coming clouds 
 were as yet below the horizon. He felt in high spirits, 
 anticipating no little enjoyment from the day's sport. If 
 he was pleased, she was hap2:>y, and while she pinned a hot- 
 house flower in his button-hole and gave him a parting kiss, 
 she felt as if the old days had come back once more. The 
 old days ! how old were they, after all ? She could count 
 the intervening time by weeks, and yet there seemed a 
 break, a gap, a gulf between then and now. 
 
 As his distance from the meet was but three miles, Mr. 
 Eoy rode from the door on the hunter he intended to keep 
 out all day. Nelly watched man and horse till they 
 disappeared with a swelling heart. How she admired her 
 husband, how she loved him ! Surely she had everything 
 she wanted in the world — what was this vague misgiving ? 
 this shadowy foreboding of evil, that haunted her at every 
 turn ? 
 
 There was no time for such speculations. Already an 
 open carriage might be seen bowling along the avenue, and 
 Mrs. Roy, with innate good-breeding, flew up-stairs to put 
 on her things, that she might not keep Hester waiting at 
 the door.
 
 100 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 It was no unpleasant surprise to find Lord Fitzowen 
 buttoned up in an Ulster coat, occupying the front seat of 
 the barouche. With her usual frankness, Nelly told him 
 so, and wondered why Miss Bruce should look more amused, 
 and his lordship more pleased, than the occasion seemed to 
 warrant. 
 
 But she had never been out hunting- before, even on 
 wheels, and all other feelings were soon lost in the novelty 
 and excitement of the situation. 
 
 "It was like taking a child about," said Hester, de- 
 scribing their drive the same afternoon to Sir Hector at 
 tea. " I mean to be fonder of Mrs. Roy than anybody in the 
 county. She is a dear thing, papa — so fresh, so honest, 
 and so charmingly unsophisticated ! When we overtook 
 the hounds in the Fosse Road, she actually clapped her 
 hands with delight. We couldn't helj) laughing, and she 
 did look perfectly beautiful when she blushed. I am sure 
 Lord Fitz thought so too." 
 
 Miss Bruce was right, his lordship enjoyed his day's 
 hunting even more than his companions, though it must be 
 confessed that some of Mrs. Roy's questions on the noble 
 science puzzled him exceedingly. 
 
 Like most ladies, she seemed interested in riding rather 
 than hunting, in horses rather than hounds. It was no 
 easy matter to satisfy her shrewd and inquiring mind as to 
 the powers of a good hunter, and what fences should or 
 should not be attempted in the hurry of the chase. Did 
 not Mr. Roy's bodily safety depend on the solution of such 
 problems ? 
 
 Pointing to some strong ash rails nearly five feet high, 
 with a vdde ditch on the landing side into the road, along 
 which they were driving — " Could your horse leap that, 
 Lord Fitzowen," she asked, "or would it be impossible? 
 I hope it would! " 
 
 He felt constrained to admit, however forbidding this
 
 BUBTON BRAKE 101 
 
 obstacle might appear, there were many good hunters that, 
 properly ridden, could clear it without a mistake. 
 
 " Then if you came to it, you would go over, of com'se ? " 
 she continued, looking anxiously in his face. 
 
 Hester's mirthful eyes were on him, and he was obliged 
 to tell the truth. 
 
 "I would rather go round by Warden Towers," said he. 
 "I would rather lose the best run that ever was seen. I 
 would rather never go out hunting again ! " 
 
 " But why, if it's not impossible ? " 
 
 *' Why? Mrs. Eoy — why ? Well, I suppose, because I 
 am afraid ! ' ' 
 
 She looked immensely relieved, and seemed able now to 
 tm-n her attention with unalloyed enjoyment to the business 
 of the hour. 
 
 This commenced from the moment they arrived at the 
 place of meeting. Such of the county gentlemen as had 
 not yet been introduced reined in their horses and made 
 their bows as gracefully as bridles and hat- strings would 
 permit. Miss Bruce was a general favourite, but her 
 companion seemed, to-day, the centre of attraction ; and 
 many glances of vmqualified admiration, from sportsmen of 
 all ages and sizes, were launched at the open carriage where 
 sat " Roy's new wife." 
 
 She looked about for her husband in vain. He came by 
 a shorter way than the party in the carriage, and, as he 
 rode slowly, arrived only when the hounds moved off for the 
 covert. He quickened his pace then, and stole quietly 
 down to a certain corner which experience taught him was 
 the likeliest place for a good start. 
 
 Burton Brake, a straggling covert of brushwood and 
 black-thorn, on the side of a hill, lay immediately under a 
 wide tract of downs. It was a favourite resort of foxes ; 
 and, for some unexplained reason, they usually went away 
 from it at the low side, to make a distant point across the
 
 102 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 Vale. This was a flat, strongly-fenced district, consisting 
 chiefly of grass, without a canal, or a river, or a railroad, or 
 even an impracticable brook. Its farm-houses were few 
 and far between ; its enclosures large, and Avire was 
 unknown. In good scenting weather, it aff"orded almost 
 the certainty of a run, and, if he had a choice, a man did 
 not bring his ivo7'st horse to Burton Brake. 
 
 " He's away! " exclaimed Miss Bruce, as the quick notes 
 of a horn came wafted up the hill on the light easterly 
 breeze. 
 
 " Who ? " asked Nelly, shaking with excitement. 
 
 "The fox, my dear, of course. Look! I can see the 
 leading hounds. There, to the left of the tall ash. Three 
 or four specks of white in that large green field. They're 
 all coming though, and the huntsman, and a black coat, 
 and four, five, six, red ! Now they're at the fence. 
 Capital ! One doAvn, I'm afraid ; and he's let his horse 
 go ! Oh ! I wish I was on Safeguard ! They're going to 
 have the best run that ever was seen ! " 
 
 Fortunately for Nelly's peace of mind, the fallen sports- 
 man wore a dark coat, and therefore could not be her 
 husband. She fancied, indeed, that she made him out 
 amongst the half-dozen riders who were nearest the 
 hounds. 
 
 Somehow it seemed less dangerous than she had supposed, 
 and infinitely better fun. Her companions, too, were as 
 eager for the sport as if they had never been out hunting 
 before. Already they were consulting as to the best line 
 for a carriage to travel in the direction of the chase. 
 
 "Into the Fosse again, Peter," said Lord Fitzowen to 
 the coachman. " Then to the right and keep on the high 
 ground. If they turn to the downs, we shall command 
 them all the time." 
 
 "No, no. Lord Fitz," jn-otested Hester. "He went 
 away like a good fox, and with this wind he'll make his
 
 BUBTON BRAKE 103 
 
 poiut for Brierley Bottoms. We had a nice gallop over the 
 same line three weeks ago. There — I can see them bend- 
 ing to the left. Into Marigold Lane, Peter ! down to 
 Bm-ton-Hayes, and if we don't come up with them at the 
 Pm'lieus, make for Brierley Steeple as fast as you can ! " 
 
 So Peter started his horses at so smart a trot as soon 
 became a canter ; using such dispatch, indeed, in Marigold 
 Lane, notwithstanding its ruts and inequalities, as to over- 
 take divers second-horsemen, a colt-breaker, a boy on a 
 pony, and several more laggards of the chase. 
 
 "Do you think we shall ever see them again?" asked 
 Nelly, straining her eyes to scan the extreme distance, 
 eight or nine miles off. "I should like to know what 
 becomes of the fox ; only I hope they won't kill it, poor 
 thing!" 
 
 "I hope they icill!" replied Miss Bruce. " "Wliy, my 
 dear Mrs. Ptoy, that's the one thing that makes a good run 
 perfect. Look out ! Lord Fitz. If they're coming to the 
 Pm-lieus you ought to see something of them at the next 
 turn." 
 
 " By Jove ! there they are ! Miss Bruce, you're a witch. 
 No. You're a capital judge of hunting. They're checked, 
 I do believe. They're all standing still in the lane. 
 Bravo ! they've hit it off again. Look ! Mrs. Roy. Do 
 you see the sheep running? That's the line of the fox. 
 The hounds are right ! he's crossed the brook. Now we 
 shall have some fun ! " 
 
 "It's practicable enough," said Hester. "I jumped it 
 on Gondolier last season." 
 
 " They don't seem to think so. Hurrah ! three fellows 
 are going to have it — four ! five ! Well done ! There are 
 two over, and one, I think, in for all day ! " 
 
 Even at so long a distance Nelly's loving eyes had 
 recognised her husband. He was safely landed on the 
 right side, yet she turned pale to realise the risk ho had run.
 
 104 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 "One of those is Mr. Roy," she observed softly. "How 
 beautifully he rides ! " 
 
 "I didn't know he was out," commented Lord Fitzowen; 
 " I never saw him at the meet. You're quite right, Mrs. 
 Roy, he ca7i ride when he likes. He's going like a bird 
 to-day." 
 
 He iras going well. A skilful horseman, experienced in 
 sport, riding a practised hunter that answered every turn of 
 his hand, every pressure of his limbs, he found no difficulty 
 in keeping close to the pack. Fence after fence, and field 
 after field, were disposed of with the ease and confidence 
 attained by a combination of good nerves, good riding, 
 good condition, and good blood. 
 
 He went in and out of the lane not twenty yards from 
 his wife, but so intent was he on the hounds and the 
 management of his horse that he saw neither the carriage 
 nor its occupants. 
 
 Nelly watched him with her heart in her eyes. The 
 others, under pressure of that mysterious law which compels 
 everybody out hunting to get somewhere else in a tremen- 
 dous hurry, were giving Peter many contrary directions, 
 that caused him, however, to put his horses into a gallop, 
 and make for a turnpike road with the utmost dispatch. 
 
 Over its harder surface, those who hunted on wheels 
 were able to hold their own with the riders. They over- 
 took, indeed, more than one defeated sportsman, dis- 
 appointed that his horse could not gallop on for ever, or so 
 far behind, that he had pulled up in disgust; but, in either 
 case, plunged in the lowest depths of misery, just as the 
 first flight were raised to the seventh heaven of enjoyment. 
 
 "There's Brierley Steeple ! " exclaimed Hester, pointing 
 to the distant spire with a taper gloved hand. "It's down- 
 hill all the way to the village, and a capital road. I'll 
 never pilot anybody again, if we don't come up with them 
 now ! "
 
 BURTON BRAKE 105 
 
 But though Miss Bruce was right, and her knowledge of 
 fox-hunting did not mislead her when she named Brierley 
 Bottoms as the probable conclusion of the chase, it had 
 come to a triumphant termination long before she could 
 arrive at the rough and broken ravine. The fox had been 
 eaten, the huntsman praised, the chosen few had exchanged 
 enthusiastic compliments and congratulations. When the 
 carriage stopped amongst them, they were already lighting 
 their cigars and preparing to go home.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY 
 
 After a storm comes a calm ; after keen excitement, a 
 reaction, partly welcome for its repose, partly saddening 
 for its depression. He who lias been so fortunate as to go 
 from end to end of a rmi with fox-hounds, to his own 
 satisfaction, feels, strange to say, as if he had performed a 
 good action. The past, which is perhaps capable of afford- 
 ing more definite pleasure than either the present or the 
 future, seems truly delightful, till his blood cools down. 
 Then he comes back into the world of reality, somewhat 
 chilled and dispirited, as everybody, after childhood, must 
 be, on first waking up from a dream. 
 
 John Roy caught sight of the carriage containing Nelly 
 and her friends as he put his horse into a trot on the firm 
 surface of the high road — pleased to find that, after standing 
 about for a quarter of an hour, the good animal, notwith- 
 standing its exertions, was neither stiiT nor lame. He was 
 disposed to be praised, and, so to speak, patted on the 
 back for his prowess, considering with reason that he had 
 acquitted himself more than creditably in a manly exercise. 
 It was as if cold water had been poured down his back to 
 observe Lord Fitzowen gesticulating on the front seat of 
 the barouche, opposite his wife. He had not once thought 
 of Fitz all the morning, nor, truth to tell, of Nelly, for 
 more than fifty minutes. A wife's image is the last that 
 occurs to a man while hounds are running hard — the juxta- 
 
 106
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY 107 
 
 position of these two reminded liim of them in the most 
 unwelcome manner. He felt cross and put out — all the 
 more that he was unable to explain why — and did not care 
 if one of the offenders, or both, should be made aware of 
 his ill-humour. 
 
 Hester, in a high state of excitement, was the first to 
 accost him. 
 
 " What a good gallop, Mr. Roy ! How I've been envy- 
 ing you ! We went very well, considering we were in a 
 carriage, and kept you in sight all the time ! " 
 
 Of com-se the ruder he meant to be to his wife, the more 
 politeness he showed Miss Bruce. 
 
 "You ought to have been on Safeguard or Gondolier," 
 said he, with a most amiable smile. "It would have suited 
 you exactly. Five-and-forty minutes, only one check, lots 
 of jumping, and not above half-a-dozen fellows with the 
 hounds." 
 
 Nelly tried in vain to catch his eye. 
 
 " We saw you," she exclaimed eagerly. " I was so 
 frightened when you came to the river — the brook, I mean 
 — Lord Fitzowen won't let me call it a river. How brave 
 of you to leap it ! I shut my eyes for fear you should be 
 drowned, and when I opened them, there you were, safe 
 over — the dear horse ! I'm not afraid of horses. I should 
 like to stroke his nose ! " 
 
 Pained, disappointed, she looked imploringly in her 
 husband's face, while he left her unnoticed to continue his 
 conversation with Miss Bruce. 
 
 " We never touched the Purlieus. He was too hot to 
 go in, and he left Bm-ton Hayes half-a-mile to the right, 
 so that it was almost straight, and grass every yard. From 
 Bui'ton Brake to Brierley can't be less than nine miles on 
 the map — we must have come fully eight as the crow flies. 
 It has been a real good thing. As far as I can make out, 
 it's the same line you went three weeks ago, before the
 
 108 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 frost. No donbt it was the same fox ; but he'll never show 
 you a run, Miss Bruce, any more." 
 
 " I'm sorry they killed it ! " exclaimed Nelly, addressing 
 herself to Lord Fitzowen, as nobody else seemed inclined 
 to listen. "The poor fox! Think how happy he was this 
 morning before we came. Curled up, fast asleep, among 
 the bushes, like one's own dog on the hearth-rug. It does 
 seem hard. Why must the pleasure of one creature be the 
 pain of another '? Why is there so much misery in the 
 world?" 
 
 Such questions involved a train of deeper thought than 
 Lord Fitzowen was in the habit of following out, and he 
 answered vaguely — 
 
 "Yes, of course. It's a gi-eat pity, and all that. Still, 
 you know, Mrs. Koy, when you go to find a fox, you must 
 let the hounds hunt him, you know, and kill him if they 
 can. It's wonderful how often they can't ! " 
 
 She was trying to catch her husband's eye. What was 
 there wrong ? Why wouldn't he speak to her ? She made 
 one last despairing attempt. 
 
 " Mr. Koy," she said timidly, " couldn't — couldn't the 
 servant take your horse, and you ride home in the carriage 
 
 with us? " 
 
 He turned hot all over, feeling also that " he did well to 
 be angry" now. These solecisms were intolerable! To 
 offer him a seat in another lady's carriage was bad enough, 
 but to propose he should ride in it ! The woman would 
 drive him mad ! 
 
 Drawing his horse out of reach, for she was trying to pat 
 its neck, he disposed of her ill-timed suggestion with the 
 coldest of looks and in the unkindest of tones. 
 
 " I need not thank you for an invitation," said he, "that 
 is not yours to give, and as I am rather wet, I prefer riding 
 my horse to the drive you are good enough to offer me in 
 a carriage that is not your own ! " Then he took off his hat 
 to Miss Bruce and disappeared.
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY 109 
 
 Nelly was cut to the heart. Her eyes filled with tears. 
 She had some difficulty in preventing their falling on her 
 hands, and she was truly grateful to Lord Fitzowen when 
 he diverted Hester's atieutiou with an announcement that 
 one of the horses was going lame. By the time the 
 carriage could be stopped, and a pair of legs and feet 
 carefully examined to account for an infirmity that did 
 not exist, Mrs. Koy had recovered her composm-e, and 
 Fitz had earned an eternal claim to her gratitude and 
 good^'ill. 
 
 People are never so susceptible of kindness as when 
 wounded by their nearest and dearest ; nor is any gleam 
 of smishine so pale and watery, but that we welcome it 
 on a wet day. 
 
 Nelly seemed sadly out of spirits during the rest of 
 the drive. Miss Bruce, with a woman's quickness of 
 perception, did not fail to detect something wi-ong. Lord 
 Fitzowen accounted for feminine uneasiness of mind and 
 body on a theory of his own. It originated, he believed, 
 in a disorder peculiar to the sex, called " nerves," of 
 which the seat, causes, and remedy were as yet undis- 
 covered by science, and with Avhich all the resources of 
 medicine were powerless to contend. 
 
 But when they had dropped Nelly at her o^vn door, 
 declining the refreshment of tea, which she nearly omitted 
 to offer, his anxiety prompted him to ask Hester whether 
 she thought Mrs. Roy was as strong as she looked. 
 "People ought not to tire so easily, Miss Bruce," he 
 obseiTcd gravely. " No lady can be well who is completely 
 exhausted after a few hours' drive in an open carriage. 
 Why, she hardly spoke a word all the way back ; and did 
 you observe how pale she was? Depend upon it she's 
 got nerves ; nothing else punishes them like that. It's 
 a most distressing malady, worse than measles, and they 
 don't get over it for weeks."
 
 110 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 " Very likely," answered Hester. "You seem to know 
 all about it. I never had them myself, and I hope I 
 never shall. Now you are to go on with the carriage, 
 Lord Fitz, and tell papa I shall be home in half an hour. 
 No, I rather like the walk, and I'm not afraid of crossing 
 our own park by myself at any hour of the day or night. 
 Besides, I shall be back long before dark." 
 
 "Mayn't I come with you?" 
 
 "Certainly not; you turn my dear old ladies into 
 ridicule, and I won't have it." 
 
 " But if I promise to be on my best behaviour ? " 
 
 " Your best behaviour is anybody else's worst ! I 
 can't trust you directly my back is turned. You're capable 
 of making faces at them, or any other enormity, if you're 
 not v/atched every moment. No, Lord Fitz, do as I bid 
 you, and mind and tell papa I shall not be late." 
 
 So Miss Bruce got out of the carriage, to the great 
 delight of such villagers of Nether- Warden as chanced to 
 be at their doors or in the street, and passing through 
 a spacious walled garden, disappeared on the threshold 
 of an old red-brick house that professed to have been 
 built in the reign of George II., and looked as if it had 
 never been repaired nor altered since. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen proceeded homewards in the carriage ; 
 but he, too, preferred to alight and walk the last half 
 mile of his journey, finding himself, for the first time in 
 his life, so perplexed in mind as to feel disposed for solitary 
 reflection. 
 
 This young nobleman's course had been hitherto 
 shaped over smooth water and before a fair breeze. He 
 had scarcely yet had any nut to crack harder than the 
 lameness of a horse. The world had been a pleasant 
 place enough ; several people seemed to be put in it on 
 purpose to serve, and a few to amuse him. There 
 might be a certain sameness and want of excitement
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY 111 
 
 about life, but if the roses offered little fragrance, the 
 thorns were by no means sharp, and altogether it did 
 very well. What had come to him now, that thus had 
 altered the whole trim and bearings of his character. 
 Oldening his eyes, as it were, to the knowledge of good 
 and evil, scattering his Epicm-ean philosophy to the 
 winds ? Things to which he had attached a high value 
 seemed all at once of no importance, and illusions that 
 he used to consider the wildest and emptiest of dreams 
 sprang into glowing life and reality, as at the touch of 
 a magic wand. "Is it my mind," he thought, "that is 
 affected, or — or is it my heart? Let me light a cigar, 
 and look at the case fairly as it stands. Have I not 
 everything a man can reasonabty requu'e to make him 
 happy? Good health, good digestion, good manners, 
 ■s\'ithout vanity, a good appearance, and good horses, if they 
 were only sound ? What more can a fellow want, in such 
 a position as mine, and amongst the people with Vv-liom 
 I live ? Is this strange sense of longing, half sweet, half 
 bitter, and wholly inexplicable, only a craving for some 
 new excitement, or is it an effort of the spirit, the soul, 
 the divince particula aura;, the higher part of one's nature, 
 to assert its individuality, and free itself from the material 
 surroundings with which we encumber it too much ? It is 
 not enough for the happiness of a thinking being to eat, 
 drink, and smoke, ride a run, shoot a covert, play a 
 cricket-match, and talk about it afterwards, from day to 
 day, and year to year, till some fine morning the clock 
 stops, the doctor can't wind it up, the umpire gives one 
 'out,' and so ^Bonsoir, la compagnic !' Why do I feel 
 at this moment as if the finish would be less unwelcome, 
 while yet life seems sweeter than usual? I know why, 
 but I cannot bear to confess it even to myself. I never 
 thought I should come to this ! — that I, of all people, 
 should be haunted by tags and ends of verses, should
 
 112 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 be able to understand what a fellow means when ho 
 says — 
 
 ' A livelier emerald twinkles in the grass, 
 A softer sapphire melts upou the sea ' ! 
 
 I shall be writing poetry myself next. Already I can make 
 * ass' rhyme to 'grass,' and *me' to *sea.' 
 
 " A sensible man would slip his cables, would cut and 
 run, while there was a chance of escape. I am not a 
 sensible man ; I doubt very much if I ivant to be saved 
 from my own destruction. I think I'd rather not. My 
 visit comes to an end to-morrow, but Sir Hector is sure to 
 ask me to stay another week. I shall stay another week, 
 I know, and I shall see Mrs. Roy again — perhaps once, 
 certainly not more than twice. Never mind, once is better 
 than nothing. It's no use trying to deceive one's self. I 
 love the very ground that woman walks on — but in all 
 honour, and respect, and regard. I shall never let her find 
 it out, though women are very quick to see things. At any 
 rate, I shall never tell her so. It would be an insult — an 
 outrage. But I am sure she is not happy. He does not 
 half appreciate her. There can be no harm in my thinking 
 of her, watching over her, serving her, and worshipping her 
 in secret, as a true knight worshipped his mistress in 
 the olden time ! " 
 
 Arriving at this wise conclusion and the hall-door in 
 the same moment, our modern Sir Galahad threw away 
 his cigar, and stalked into the house perfectly satisfied 
 with his own special pleading, and the integrity of his 
 relations towards Mrs. Roy.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 so FAR AWAY 
 
 Two gaunt women, so like each other that Lord Fitzowen 
 christened them Gog and Magog, rose simultaneously when 
 Hester entered the room. It was pleasant to see the 
 smile of affection that brightened those grim faces while 
 they kissed her forehead, and offered their own brown, 
 leathery cheeks to be saluted in return. 
 
 The Miss Brails, or rather the Misses Brail, as they 
 preferred to be called, were two spinsters long resident 
 in Nether Warden, of whom Miss Bruce had made an 
 easy conquest from the first week she had come to live 
 at the Towers. Unlike most old ladies, they owned no 
 pets, never having possessed anything of the kind indeed 
 but a bullfinch that moulted and died ten days after 
 purchase. Their new neighbour, therefore, seemed to infuse 
 an element of affection, mirth, and gladness in their 
 lives, of which, having little experience, they valued the 
 novelty no less than the intrinsic delight. Said Gog to 
 Magog, " We couldn't love that dear girl better if she was 
 a daughter of our own." Answered Magog, unequal to 
 realise the supposed relationship, " Not half so well, my 
 dear. Hester seems like a daughter and a niece and a 
 sister all in one." 
 
 Miss Bruce returned their attachment with a warmth and 
 
 cordiality that puzzled even Sir Hector, who knew his 
 
 child's character better than anybody. 
 
 8 113
 
 114 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 n 
 
 I don't wonder at the old ladies," said lie to Lord 
 Fitzowen one day after dinner — "that's not sui'prising ; 
 everybody likes Hester ; one might as well say one didn't 
 like this 'G4 claret ; but what she can see in them, that 
 beats me, I own. And I used to think I understood women 
 as Avell as most people." 
 
 A gi'eat many men think the same : always the more 
 persistently the less they know of the gentler and subtler 
 sex. 
 
 Perhaps only Hester could have told him why she loved 
 Gog and Magog so dearly. It is my opinion, however, that 
 she admitted her reasons even to herself with gi'eat reser- 
 vation, and would have died a hundred deaths rather than 
 confide them to another. 
 
 "No, I've not come to tea," explained the visitor, as 
 one hostess felt for her keys, and the other bustled into 
 the passage with the words "Hot buttered toast" on her 
 lips. " It's hours too early. Besides, I must go back and 
 make his for papa. I can't stay a moment. I only rushed 
 in, on my way home, to see that you were both alive. I 
 haven't been here for two whole days." 
 
 " Take ofi" your hat and warm your feet," said Gog, 
 while Magog wheeled an arm-chair to the hearth-rug. 
 "It does our very hearts good to see you," continued both 
 spinsters in a breath. " Don't stay a moment more than 
 you ought, but as long as ever you can." 
 
 After they had settled her comfortably before the fire, 
 there was a pause in the conversation, borne somewhat 
 impatiently by the young lady, who broke it at last with 
 the single monosyllable, — 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 Gog and Magog looked in each other's faces, and began 
 simultaneously, " Good news, my dear. The best of news. 
 You tell her, sister. No, I will. Dear, dear, it seems lil^e 
 a dream."
 
 so FAR AWAY 115 
 
 "Not both at once," protested Hester, trying bravely to 
 smile, though her face was very pale, and her heart beat fast. 
 
 " We've seen a letter," said Gog. 
 
 "A ship-lettei', my dear," interrupted Magog. 
 
 "A letter is a letter," observed Miss Bruce, "whether 
 it comes by land or sea. Is the expedition on its way 
 home, and — and — are they all safe? " 
 
 She was a brave gu-1 ; but, do what she would, her 
 voice trembled and her very lips turned white. 
 
 "We have scarcely thought about all of them," 
 answered Magog, blowing her nose because tears were 
 in her eyes. "It's enough for us that Coll. has been 
 preserved." 
 
 "We are selfish creatures," added Gog. "But we have 
 only one nephew left on earth, and he can't be the same 
 thing to other people that he is to us." 
 
 Miss Bruce seemed to doubt the position, but this was 
 no time to dispute it, and she could only exclaim, " Then 
 he has got back alive. Thank God ! " 
 
 " Thank God ! " repeated the spinsters reverently, and 
 all three women kept silence for the space of nearly thirty 
 seconds ! 
 
 "^Vhen — when is he coming to see you?" faltered 
 Hester, whose feminine imagination had akeady overleaj)t 
 weeks and months, leagues of blue water, duty on board 
 ship. Admiralty leave, and all other practical obstacles at 
 a boimd. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, we mustn't think of such a treat yet," 
 answered Magog. "He writes from Spitzbergeu — you know, 
 that's some place in the arctic regions, but it's nothing to 
 do with the North Pole. You understand, my sister found 
 it on the map, and it looks a long way off even there. But 
 it is always a stage on the homeward journey ; and, as I 
 told her this morning, it does not seem so presumptuous to 
 hope we shall see him back now."
 
 116 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 " In a month or six weeks at farthest," said Gog, 
 whose late geograj^hical researches gave her opinion 
 considerable weight. " They have put in to refit, as he 
 calls it, for it seems they couldn't get good butcher's 
 meat nor vegetables, nor anything wholesome to eat up 
 there. I fancy it's a wild, dismal kind of place ; but 
 Coll. never complains, put him where you will, never 
 did from a boy. There's his letter, my dear young lady. 
 You can read it for yourself. Doesn't he write a fine 
 clear, bold hand for a sailor? I began to teach him 
 before he could speak plain. What a to-do he made 
 with his pen ! His mother said she never saw so many 
 blots on one page in her life before. Ah ! she was glad 
 enough to get that dirty piece of paper you have in your 
 hand : but I daresay she never thought who set him his 
 first copy, and in my opinion she ought to have sent it 
 on to my sister and me without losing a post." 
 
 Hester did not answer. She was far away among 
 floes and icebergs and eternal snow, with the writer of 
 those flimsy, close-written pages, that had reached her 
 from regions which to us who sit at home at ease are 
 as another world. The very paper seemed redolent of 
 tar, tobacco, salt water, perilous adventure, and the 
 discipline of a man-of-war, as she held it near her face, 
 partly to conceal her agitation, partly to decipher the 
 clear, fine characters, faded somewhat in their transmission 
 through so many climates, over so wide an expanse of sea. 
 She made it all out, nevertheless, though her own brimming 
 eyes failed her more than once ere she came to an end of 
 the following sketch fi-om a sailor's life in search of the 
 North Pole :— 
 
 " H.M.S. Aurora, off Spitzbergen. 
 
 " Dearest Mother, — I wrote you at some length 
 nearly a year ago. You will be expecting another
 
 so FAB AWAY 117 
 
 letter soou, but when yon get this, the Expedition will 
 be well on its way home. I shall hope to see you and all 
 my kind friends in old England once again before next 
 spring. We shall come back with flying colours. If we 
 have failed in our great object (and between you and me, 
 I don't think the plank will ever be sawn that shall 
 float our flag under the North Pole), still we have made 
 many important discoveries, and smoothed the way for 
 all who wish to follow in our wake, and fetch the extreme 
 point at which we were tiu-ned back. If they can make 
 more northing, let 'em ! I for one will give them three 
 cheers. 
 
 " Oiu- skipper has proved himself a trump. I always 
 told you he would, and I should be afraid to say whether 
 officers or men have done their duty most thoroughly and 
 ungrudgingly. I never heard a wry word nor a complaint, 
 and that is something to say, mother, when you are boxed 
 up with your mates, and nothing but your mates, for eleven 
 months at a spell. Jolly cold, too, I can tell you, more 
 than half your time. Our ship's surgeon is as good a chap 
 as ever broke a biscuit. I showed him to you at Ports- 
 mouth when you came on board the Scorpion, and I 
 remember you thought him very young. He looks older 
 now, and so do I ; but ours has been a roughish job, and if 
 he hadn't been wiser than he looked, some of us must have 
 been disrated that time when the lime-juice gave out. 
 We've had no sickness since, and, thank God ! we hope to 
 land the whole ship's company, man for man, with a clean 
 bill of health, able and willing as when they came on board. 
 But it was close shaving with some of us, now and again ; 
 for it's not easy, you know, in these high latitudes to make 
 fair weather of it all your time. A pleasure tri}) is one 
 thing, and a voyage of discovery another. I had ratlier a 
 squeak for it myself, and I thought my mate — as fine a 
 young fellow as ever stepped — must have left his bones, for
 
 118 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 he had very little else to leave, many a league witliin the 
 Ai'ctic Circle. It's a long story, what we call a yarn at sea, 
 but you would like to know, and I will tell you all about it. 
 "After we had taken up a warm berth, and made the 
 ship snug for the winter amongst the ice, we were told off 
 in exploring parties, well found in dogs, sledges, and rations 
 to cruise about here, there, and everywhere, by compass, 
 you understand, but always creeping inch by inch, towards 
 the north. When it came to my turn of duly I had the 
 command of one of these — six in number, all told — three 
 fore-top-men, a gunner's mate, the ship's carpenter, and 
 myself. I need not tell you how many days we were 
 absent, nor how little way we made in proportion to the 
 labour and the hardship, and at last the bodily suffering we 
 had to undergo. Our blue-jackets don't sing out before 
 they're hui't, nor yet for some little time after, I fancy ; and 
 mine were as smart a lot of men as you could pick from the 
 whole ship's company. But flesh and blood can't make it 
 out in such stress of weather as we had to face, when the 
 stores get low, and at last- we were forced to separate. I 
 sent three of the men back to the ship, carrying with them 
 the fourth, who was disabled, on the only sledge left. The 
 other had been burned for firewood, and the dogs — don't 
 turn sick, mother — killed and eaten, long ago. I pushed 
 on one more day's march with the carpenter, however, to 
 take the bearings of a long, low spit of land that wasn't 
 down in any of our charts, and I thought, God forgive me ! 
 what a fine thing it would be for this unknown promontory to 
 be called ever after by my own name. Cape Collingwood, we'll 
 say, or, perhaps. Cape Brail ! Well, if this was vanity I 
 took my punishment for it smart and soon. We never 
 made it out after all. There were great fissures in the ice 
 to be weathered, and for every cable's length ahead we 
 were bound to walk, or, I shall say to roll and tumble, like 
 a brace of black fish, for a league.
 
 so FAB AWAY 119 
 
 " The third day it came on to blow a whirlwind, — of snow, 
 mind you. We lost our bearings ; we lost our own back- 
 ward track ; we knew that of our mates must have been 
 covered long ago. There was nothing for it but to steer by 
 compass, in hope of making the ship before our strength 
 gave out completely from fatigue and starvation. 
 
 " Till I overhauled the ship's log afterwards, I could not 
 have told you how many days we were out, drifting over the 
 ice, mthout a morsel of food. We lost count of them, for 
 as we got weaker in our bodies we turned queer in our 
 heads. Giddy and snow-blind, one of us would fall now 
 and again, unable to see w^here he set his feet, and it was a 
 job for his mate to put him back on his pins. Had both 
 been do'^ni at once, we should never have got up any 
 more. 
 
 " At last the carpenter turned silly altogether. He 
 plodded on soberly enough, but wandered in his talk, jawing 
 incessantly of the garden at home, and the beehives. 
 What should make a man think of beehives at the North 
 Pole? — and running water? — he heard it behind him, he 
 declared, and must go back to see for himself. Then I had 
 to pinion his arms and force him to keep with me. It 
 wasn't much of a struggle, we were as weak as two cats ; 
 still we kept walking on, like men in a dream. 
 
 ** It seemed lonely enough, but we didn't ask for 
 company ; at least, not for the company that droj)ped in on 
 us when we Avere at our lowest and worst. I've heard of a 
 man being followed step for step by a ghost. I don't know 
 how he lilvcd it, but I think no ghost could have followed 
 quieter, softer, with a more stealthy, even noiseless foot, 
 than the creature that was waiting on us, sometimes forty, 
 sometimes twenty, sometimes not more than ten paces in 
 our wake. There is no animal so patient, so wary, so 
 sagacious, and so persevering as the white arctic bear, when 
 he has made up his mind for a meal.
 
 120 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 "I couklu't hear liim, he stepped so smooth and silent, 
 pace for pace with ourselves ; but somehow, before I turned 
 and saw him, I felt he was there ! 
 
 " The brute knew well enough we must soon sink from 
 fatigue, lie could finish us off then without risk or 
 trouble, so was quite content to wait, and eat us up at his 
 leism-e. 
 
 " I don't think the carpenter knew anything about this 
 ugly consort. He kept rambling on with his beehives and 
 his running water. When he spoke loud, the bear would 
 fall back a little ; when his voice sank, it came on with 
 longer strides. At last I fancied I could hear its breathing, 
 and the fall of its flat, soft paws on the snow. 
 
 " My mate stumbled and came down. We were both so 
 weak that ■with all my exertions I could not get him up 
 again. Faint and breathless I rested for a minute by his 
 side. The bear reared itself on end, as if to see what it 
 could make of us, and, finding both motionless, came on 
 steadier than before. 
 
 "I had a single-barrelled gun, loaded with slugs. I 
 kept them for the chance of a seal. It would have been 
 sheer madness to use such a charge except at close quarters, 
 and I lay quiet like a dead man behind my mate's body, 
 with my finger on the trigger. 
 
 " How I cursed the creature's cunning, and the time it 
 kept me in suspense while it stopped and snuffed and 
 walked in cu-cles round us, as if it had some suspicion of 
 the trick. My mate was very drowsy, and I knew well 
 that if once he went to sleep it would all be over. Forty 
 winks in such a cold as that means never unbuttoning your 
 eye-lids again ! 
 
 " But the beast was hungry — famished. I could see 
 threads of slaver waving over its breast and paws. After a 
 minute or two it could resist no longer, and stole softly on 
 to us, stirring the carpenter with its nose, as if to make 
 sure he was really dead.
 
 so FAB AWAY 121 
 
 " Then I pulled. The muzzle of my gun was close under 
 its shoulder, and the charge passed through its heart like a 
 bullet. I jumped up among the smoke, and used all the 
 strength I had left to haul my mate out of reach, lest it 
 should strike him in the death-flm-ry ; but the creatm-e 
 made a decent end enough, going off quiet and easy, like a 
 Christian. 
 
 " ' Turn and tmii about,' says I ; ' you meant to eat us, 
 but I think we shall more likely eat you ! ' Don't call me 
 a cannibal, mother : I was forced to drink some of the 
 blood warm, to put strength in me, before I could tm'n to 
 and recover my mate. He was nearly gone ; five minutes 
 more would have done his business ; but he came to, and 
 he pulled through, even at this moment I could hardly tell 
 you how or why. 
 
 " We camped out by the carcass, and fed on it till our 
 strength came back. I don't know how long. We had 
 been seventeen days out, when we returned to the ship. I 
 was proud of what the skipper said to me, and the men 
 gave us three cheers as we came up the side. 
 
 " This is a long story, mother ; but I've plenty like it in 
 store for you when we meet. I will say no more now, for I 
 have come to the end of my paper, and it won't be many 
 weeks before you will welcome back, like a bad shilling, 
 yom- affectionate son, Collingwood Brail. 
 
 "P.S. Please send this on, for my good aunts to read. 
 If it saves trouble, they need not mind showing it to any- 
 body they please." 
 
 9 
 
 She would have liked to go over it all again, particularly 
 the postscript, which, by some strange intuition taught her, 
 contained an exceedingly roundabout message for herself; 
 but a woman's first impulse in such cases is to conceal the 
 truth, and she returned the precious sheets with the utmost 
 calmness she could assume.
 
 122 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " I was siire you would be pleased to hear," said Magog, 
 pocketing the document. " You have always interested 
 youi'self in him for our sake ; and, indeed, if you knew Coll. 
 better, I believe you would like him for his own." 
 
 Many things might be less improbable ; for which reason, 
 perhaps. Miss Bruce did not think it worth while to pursue 
 the subject, but bade the old ladies a hasty farewell, kissing 
 each of them with even gi-eater cordiality than before. 
 
 As Gog observed to her sister, when the door closed on 
 their charming visitor, " That girl grows handsomer every 
 day. Did you see what a beautiful colour she had just 
 now, as she went out ? " 
 
 " It's unwholesome for people to sit over the fire," 
 answered practical Magog ; "I only hope she may not take 
 cold on her way home." 
 
 Sir Hector, too, thought his daughter seemed in unusual 
 spirits when she gave him his tea. The day's doings, the 
 drive out, the drive back, above all the run from Bm'ton 
 Brake, were detailed with more than her customary gaiety 
 and playfulness. Lord Fitzowen, sitting alone with his 
 host after dinner, found his own account completely fore- 
 stalled. Even the abruptness with which Mr. Roy 
 "snubbed his poor wife," seemed to have been duly 
 reported, and if Fitz grew somewhat prolix over this 
 unpleasant episode, it was more for his own satisfaction 
 than the information of his friend. 
 
 Before they adjourned to the drawing-room, however. Sir 
 Hector changed the conversation by warmly pressing his 
 guest to defer the departure fixed for next day, and remain 
 at least a week longer at Warden Towers, an invitation 
 Lord Fitzowen accepted gratefully. " It would be rude to 
 decline," he thought, " when they make such a point of it, 
 and, after all, I should be just as gi-eat a fool about her 
 anywhere else as here ! "
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 THE LITTLE RIFT 
 
 John Roy, like most men who can commaud a choice of 
 apartiueuts, had selected the most uncomfortable room in 
 the house for his own. Here he smoked, sulked, wrote his 
 letters, and brooded over his wife's " want of manner " in 
 complete privacy, for even Nelly had been made to under- 
 stand that, unless by special invitation, her presence was 
 unwelcome in this retreat. It saddened her to reflect for 
 how many hours in the day her husband preferred to be 
 alone. She was beginning to wonder whether he had done 
 msely in maiTyiug her ; to feel, with much bitter heart- 
 searching and humiliation, that she was a clog round his 
 neck ; and, indeed, though he ought to have been ashamed 
 to confess it, John Roy told himself the same story over and 
 over again. He compared her with the women he used to 
 meet in London society dm-ing his early life, and was so bad 
 a judge as to rate her their inferior because her natm-e was 
 different from theirs. Yet he would have felt indignant to 
 be told he was the sort of man who could prefer a camelia 
 to a garden-rose. 
 
 Though one tried hard to conceal it from herself, and the 
 other from the world, both were conscious of a breach 
 between them that widened day by day, rendering the 
 husband irritable, captious, and aggi'essive, the wife 
 nervous, silent, and depressed. 
 
 He could not but observe her fading colour and weary, 
 
 123
 
 124 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 heavy eyes, that seemed afraid to meet his own. When 
 people oame to call, she would hrighten up ; which provoked 
 him exceedingly, although this improvement in her spirits 
 was partly the result of a wish to please him hy taking her 
 share in general conversation, partly the natural protest of 
 youth and health against despondency. With none of her 
 visitors did she seem so much at ease as with Lord 
 Fitzowen, and Mr. Roy had already asked himself why, 
 more than once. " Hang him ! he's never out of the 
 house ! " was the form into which he put his reflections, 
 seeing that ere the rim from Bm-ton Brake was a week old 
 his lordship had already called twice. 
 
 So John Roy sat after breakfast in his own den, revolving 
 these unpleasant thoughts behind the Field, or Country 
 Gentleman s Newspaper, making believe to read its 
 innumerable columns Avith their miscellaneous contents. 
 " Come in ! " he exclaimed impatiently, as a hesitating 
 knock announced an interruption. He thought it was 
 Nelly, and felt so vexed with her that he determined to let 
 her see that he would rather be alone. 
 
 It was not his wife, but Mrs. Mopus, who shut the door 
 carefully, set her back to it, and stood there, pale, panting, 
 with one hand pressed against her side. 
 
 He was prepared to be angry, yet he showed no irritation 
 towards his housekeeper as he laid down the newspaper and 
 asked quietly " What he could do for her ? " 
 
 " Can I speak a word with you, sir ? " said Mrs. Mopus, 
 advancing to the middle of the room and looking about, as 
 if for a soft place to faint away. " I'm sm-e I beg your 
 pardon, sir. You'll forgive me, Mr. Roy. It's not of my 
 own free will I come here to-day." 
 
 " Then why are you standing there? " was the natural 
 rejoinder, but certain catchings of the breath, which his 
 experience of women had taught him to mistrust, prevented 
 its utterance, and he was content to observe, courteously —
 
 THE LITTLE EIFT 125 
 
 " Compose yourself, Mrs. Mopus. You have generally 
 a good reason for everything you do." 
 
 To heg of a lady that she will "compose herself" seldom 
 produces the desired effect until after many repetitions and 
 much soothing, by implication no less than in set terms. 
 Mrs. Mopus thought well to gasp, roll her eyes, and wrap 
 both hands in her black silk apron till a shower of tears 
 came to her relief, and she found voice to explain between 
 the sobs — 
 
 " Oh ! sir, you won't judge hardly of me for my attach- 
 ment to you and yours. Indeed, Mr. Roy, when I think of 
 harm that's likely to overtake you, I'm that upset I can 
 hardly look in your face and warn of you in time, if 
 indeed it's not too late already ; but they do say fore-warned 
 is fore-armed, and though you was to turn me out of doors 
 this moment, without a character or a mouth's notice, you 
 should never be left in ignorance by me. No, not if I was 
 to die for it the next minute. There ! " 
 
 *' I have assured you very often, Mopus, that I am con- 
 vinced of your regard," he answered kindly. " But if you 
 and I are to understand each other, I must beg you to 
 speak out and tell me what is the matter." 
 
 " Mr. Roy, do you never think of the times when you 
 was unmarried? A free, well-spoken, handsome young 
 gentleman as any lady might be happy to call her own, if 
 she was the highest in the land? " 
 
 " Well, what of that ? I made my choice and married 
 once for all — good or bad, it's too late to repent now." 
 
 ** Good or bad, sir. You never said a truer word. 
 When I think of them as would have been proud to take 
 your name, and her as has it this day, but doesn't seem to 
 value it not one halfpenny, it makes me that mad, that — 
 well — that it sets me on to come into this room, though I 
 am only a seiwant, and speak with you, fair and equal, Mr. 
 Roy, like a friend."
 
 126 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 " You are a friend, Mopus. I am ready to hear all you 
 have to communicate." 
 
 " Mr. Koy, you'll excuse me : the lady that you have 
 made my mistress and your wife didn't ought to be neither 
 the one nor the other." 
 
 " Take care what you say, Mrs. Moj)us. Is this only an 
 expression of opinion, or is it an accusation to which you 
 can bring proof? " 
 
 His voice shook, and he was fain to turn his head, that 
 she might not see how his countenance changed. A hundred 
 conflicting feelings were at work in his heart. Could this 
 woman show him a way to the freedom he had of late 
 desired too earnestly ? and if so, would he consent to pay 
 the price ? To give up Nelly did not seem so diflicult, but 
 that she should cease to care for him was another matter 
 altogether. The bare suspicion struck him with a sense of 
 keen and numbing pain. Release might be bought too 
 dear. What if the blow were so roughly dealt that in 
 striking away the fetter it should break the bone ! 
 
 Mrs. Mopus eyed him narrowly. She had studied his 
 temper all those years to little purpose if she could not play 
 on it now, like an instrument of music, to wake whatever 
 chord she pleased. 
 
 " Mr. Roy," she said, coming a step nearer, " I wish to 
 give up my situation." 
 
 "Why, Mrs. Mopus?" he asked, with some discom- 
 posure, surprised, no doubt, by the unexpected nature of 
 her attack. 
 
 "Because, sir, it is not my place as a servant to speak 
 so free as I could wish. When you have discharged me, 
 Mr. Roy, I cease to be a servant, and my words will come 
 easier, as I said before, from the lips of a humble friend." 
 
 " Nonsense ! I am not going to lose you for any such 
 foolish fancies. You don't want to leave, my good woman, 
 and I don't want to part with you ; I am tired of assuring
 
 THE LITTLE RIFT 127 
 
 you that I feel you have my interest at heart. If you know 
 anything that affects my welfare, it is your duty to inform 
 me frankly and without reserve." 
 
 " You'll promise not to be angry with me, sir. I 
 wouldn't oflend you for more than I can say." 
 
 " I promise." 
 
 " And you'll never disclose who it was as told you, nor 
 mention my name, nor let anybody know that you and me 
 has been talking secrets together on such a matter as this? " 
 
 He nodded impatiently. 
 
 Mrs. Mopus seemed well accustomed to plotting. She 
 peered cautiously into the passage to make sure nobody 
 was listening, shut the door softly, and came close to her 
 master's chair. 
 
 "It's about your lady, sir," she whispered. " Have I 
 yom- good leave, Mr. Roy, to speak my mind ? " 
 
 "Goon." 
 
 " She's not a lady as ought to be at the head of your 
 house, sir. I pass over her interference with the upper 
 servants and the tradespeople, her pryings about in the 
 kitchen, the scullery, the offices, even to the soft-water 
 pump in the back yard, I am willing to believe it's the 
 faults of her bringing-up ; that's neither here nor there. 
 But she doesn't respect you, Mr. Roy ; she doesn't think 
 as much of you as she ought. She has a free way with the 
 gentlemen that isn't becoming in your lady, and with one 
 in particular. I don't name no names, but I've seen it 
 from the time he came here first. I've kept it down, Mr. 
 Roy, till I thought I should have suffocated, but now you've 
 asked me, sir, and it's come out at last plump and plain ! " 
 
 Vexation, perhaps, would express the nature of her 
 listener's feelings better than sm-prise; yet with the 
 common impulse of humanity to be convinced of its own 
 worst suspicions, he came to the point at once and spoke 
 out peremptorily enough.
 
 128 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 "Let us understand each other, Mrs. Mopus. You have 
 said too much or too little. You have observed freedom of 
 conduct on the part of my — of Mrs. Roy, in respect to a 
 certain person. I insist on knowing who this person is." 
 
 "Well, sir, if I must speak out, it's that there lord. 
 He's in the house now." 
 
 John Roy glanced at the clock on his chimney-piece. 
 Half-past eleven — this was a morning visit with a 
 vengeance ! If the woman spoke truth in the present 
 instance she was probably right all through. 
 
 " You are sure of what you say ? " he asked, rising from 
 his chair with some vague idea of immediate action. 
 
 " Satisfy yourself, Mr. Roy," was the answer. "They're 
 in the conservatory feeding the gold fish at this moment. 
 I see them through the back-staircase window as I come 
 down to you." 
 
 He was so angry he could hardly trust himself to speak. 
 
 "Enough, Mrs. Mopus," he muttered, "I shall not 
 forget your services ;" and, regardless of her entreaties that 
 he would calm himself, would do nothing rash, he hurried 
 out of the room and up the back-staircase aforesaid to 
 confront the culprits in the conservatory, and — and — ^what 
 further steps was he to take when he got there ? 
 
 This consideration caused him to pause ere he had 
 threaded two dark passages on the way to his destination. 
 He could neither kick, nor shoot, nor tm-n a gentleman out 
 of the house for paying his wife a visit after breakfast 
 rather than after luncheon, nor would any social code hold 
 him justified in making two persons responsible for a serious 
 oJffence because they gave his gold fish their dinners before 
 twelve o'clock in the day ! 
 
 He stopped — he hesitated — he went on again, still 
 towards the conservatory, but much slower than before. 
 It would be rather tame, he thought, to walk in with out- 
 stretched hand and say, " How d'ye do, Fitzowen? Won't
 
 THE LITTLE BIFT 129 
 
 you stay to luucheon? " but there seemed uothiug else for 
 it, so irresistible are our bonds of custom, oui* usages of 
 society. The verdict of the world is dead against a man 
 who " puts himself in the wrong," and it is amusing to 
 watch how, even as two practical fighters shift and traverse 
 to get their backs to the sun, so in a personal difference, or an 
 augi-y correspondence, the belligerents by dint of argument, 
 reply, and rejoinder, find at last the position completely 
 inverted, and each occupying his adversary's ground. 
 
 " I had better seem to suspect nothing," said John Koy 
 to himself. " I must watch them, and draw my own con- 
 clusions unobserved." 
 
 His hand was on the conservatory door; he had no 
 intention of eavesdropping; nothing would have induced 
 him so far to lower himself in his own esteem ; but he 
 paused an instant to compose his features and pull him- 
 self together, as it were, for the ordeal. In that instant 
 his wife's low sweet voice, deepened and softened by 
 emotion, struck on his ear. 
 
 "I am horribly afi-aid of offending Mr. Roy," she said ; 
 " but I can trust you unreservedly, and will always do 
 whatever you think best." 
 

 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE 
 
 It was the old story. Neither in conversation nor in 
 literature can you rightly interpret a sentence without the 
 context. Mrs. Roy's compromising words did but conclude 
 a conference of which, as far as she was concerned, loyalty 
 to her husband had been the one predominant motive. 
 
 Sir Hector was confined to his room by gout, the other 
 guests had departed ; it was impossible for Lord Fitzowen 
 to remain at Warden Towers alone with Miss Bruce, and, 
 sorely against his inclinations, he felt that in common 
 decency he must return to London by the afternoon train. 
 All this he explained at great length, while excusing him- 
 self for paying Mrs. Roy so early a visit to wish her 
 goodbye. Perhaps he cherished some vague hope of an 
 invitation to Royston Grange. If so, it was speedily dis- 
 pelled ; for though Nelly assured him frankly enough that she 
 was sorry he must go away, she added in the same breath, 
 " We shall all be better for a little rest. I am a very quiet 
 person, Lord Fitzowen, and we've had so much dining out 
 lately and so many visitors, it will seem quite a relief to be 
 alone." 
 
 This was a damper, and he felt it. She spoke as if she 
 would be glad to get rid of him. Fitz rather lost his head, 
 and became so earnest that she took the alarm. 
 
 "I shall be wretched to go, Mrs. Roy. I never was so 
 happy in my life as for this last fortnight, and I have you 
 
 130
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE 131 
 
 to thank for it." His voice trembled with that suppressed 
 feeling which no woman is too inexperienced to under- 
 stand. 
 
 " You have already thanked me by coming to say good- 
 bj-e," she answered rather stiffly. "Besides, I don't like 
 to be thanked, Lord Fitzowen, when I have done nothing 
 to deserve it." 
 
 She meant him to " keep his distance," and spoke more 
 gravely than usual, but the warmest expressions of good- 
 will would not have been calculated to rivet his fetters so 
 securely. It is in these ups and downs, these sudden 
 changes, that men become malleable, as the glowing iron 
 is plunged in cold water that it may be tempered into 
 steel. 
 
 He skipped back to safe ground with praiseworthy 
 agility. " I like this country so much," he said, " and the 
 hunting and my host and hostess. Don't you think Miss 
 Bruce a very nice girl, Mrs. Roy ? " 
 
 " I do indeed," she answered, wondering how she could 
 have been so stupid as to forget that, of course, this was 
 the cause of Lord Fitzowen's unwillingness to depart, and 
 resolved to make him amends for her previous misconception. 
 "I like her exceedingly. Not so well as yoit do, I dare say, 
 but veiy much indeed. She must be sorry to lose you, 
 though I suppose we shall have you back before long." 
 
 He stared. Did she want him back? It was but a 
 moment since she had seemed glad he must go away. He 
 would have given a good deal to read her thoughts, and 
 after all she was only hoping he wouldn't stay to luncheon, 
 and wondering whether she ought to ask him or not ! 
 
 " One hates saying goodbye," he continued, " and yet 
 there is a melancholy satisfaction in it, too. Let us go and 
 look at the gold fish, Mrs. Roy. I should not be easy if I 
 went away without taking leave of my earliest friends." 
 
 So they strolled into the conservatory, where his lordship,
 
 182 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 who was not usually so diffident, debated iu his own mind 
 whether he dared ask her to give him a sprig of geranium. 
 Had he done so, she would have complied with a readiness 
 that showed how little importance she attached to the gift, 
 but his courage failed him, and he preferred not to run the 
 chance of a refusal, perhaps of another rebuff. 
 
 He was sinking deeper and deeper at every step. Had 
 Fitz been wise, he would never have risked this last 
 interview, but would have started for London with his valet 
 and portmanteaus by the twelve o'clock train. 
 
 He looked at the gold fish in silence, almost wishing he 
 was one of them that he might not be going away, then 
 turned to Mrs. Eoy and said, with something of a sigh — 
 
 " You will miss your dictionary a little, won't you, when 
 it is out of reach on the shelf? " 
 
 ** I shall indeed," she answered kindly. " I am bad at 
 thanking people, Lord Fitzowen, but I am not ungrateful. 
 I shall never forget how friendly and considerate you have 
 been with me. Though I don't say much, I feel things, I 
 can tell you." 
 
 " Whenever you are in any way at a loss, Mrs. Koy, you 
 have only got to speak the word. I would come from the 
 other end of the world to be of the slightest use. You may 
 want advice now and then about those absurd trifles in 
 which my whole life has been spent." 
 
 *' I feel dreadfully ignorant sometimes, Lord Fitzowen, 
 I confess. I don't mind for myself, but it vexes my 
 husband. He seems so annoyed with things that I should 
 not have thought of the slightest importance." 
 
 He took her hand. " Then we will make a bargain," 
 said he. " You shall be the conjuror and I'll be the Jack- 
 in-the-box. Touch a spring and up he comes ! When 
 you've done with him, shut down the lid. Seriously, make 
 any use of me you please when you don't want to trouble 
 our friend. I dare say he hates being bothered. Most
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE 133 
 
 men do. I like it. Suppose you are in a dilemma, a social 
 difficulty of any kind, consult me as if I was your cousin, 
 or your brother, or your solicitor. I don't manage my own 
 matters well, but I can give other people better advice than 
 anybody in the world." 
 
 There was no resisting the hearty oif-hand manner, the 
 fi-ank genial tone. Nelly thought she had discovered a 
 wise counsellor, a true friend, and accepted his somewhat 
 vague offer with the grateful little speech that so offended 
 her husband's ears as he came in. 
 
 There was an awkward silence. Mrs. Roy looked and 
 felt in a false position, though she could not have explained 
 why. The master of the house seemed by no means 
 master of the situation. Even his lordship, though 
 more used to the kind of thing, was obviously ill at ease. 
 He took the initiative, however, by putting out his hand 
 and informing his host he had ridden over to say " Good- 
 bye." 
 
 " Among the flowers," answered John Roy, looking 
 round him with something of sarcasm, while he ex- 
 changed a farewell with his visitor readily enough. It 
 was no prolonged ceremony, and before Nelly's flushed 
 cheeks had faded to their usual tint. Lord Fitzowen 
 vanished, leaving husband and wife alone with the gold 
 fish. 
 
 These could not be more mute than John Roy. He 
 shrugged his shoulders, put on that expression of contempt 
 she most dreaded, and would have retired without a word, 
 but that Nelly's heart was full to overflowing, and the 
 appeal rose spontaneously to her lips — 
 
 " What have I done to deserve this ? Why are you so 
 cross with me, Mr. Roy ? " 
 " Ask yourself." 
 
 " No. I ask you. Wo liave not been married a year — 
 nothing like it — and already you are tired of me, and you
 
 134 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 wish I was dead. You do — you do — and so do I. Any- 
 thing would be better than this. You hate me, you avoid 
 me. I never see you from day's end to day's end, and 
 when we are alone together — which we never are — you 
 won't speak to me. I am a clog, an incumbrance, a wet 
 blanket ! I can't imagine what it is I have done, or not 
 done. Where are mine accusers ? You ought to tell me ; 
 I've a right to know." 
 
 " When you can talk sense," he answered, " perhaps we 
 may come to some understanding. I confess it seems 
 hopeless now." 
 
 " You used to think different. You told me at Beach- 
 mouth I was the most sensible woman you ever met." 
 
 " That was not saying much. I never had a high 
 opinion of yom* sex. It does not improve on acquaint- 
 ance." 
 
 " If you think that, it's cruel to tell me. If you don't 
 think it, you oughtn't to say so. You can be all smiles 
 and good-humour with other ladies. You don't call them 
 a pack of fools to their faces. I used to believe you cared 
 for me, or else why did you make me an offer ? It would 
 have been a long time before I asked you, and now you seem 
 to like other people so much better than me ! " 
 
 " Two can play at that game." 
 
 "What do you mean?" she flashed out. "Mr. Roy, 
 I require you to explain yourself." 
 
 He set his lips tight, and spoke in cold, cutting 
 syllables. 
 
 " Then I will explain myself. When a lady receives 
 one of her husband's friends day after day, and at all 
 hours, as you receive Lord Fitzowen, it is rather too good 
 a joke that she should reproach that husband with want of 
 attention to herself." 
 
 The tears came to her eyes ; he must care for her a 
 little, she reflected, or it would not matter to him how
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE 135 
 
 often Lord Fitz chose to call, or how long he stayed, 
 but womanly pride and what is called "proper feeling" 
 prompted her to affect a deeper indignation than she 
 felt. 
 
 " Mr. Eoy," she said, looldng him full in the face, 
 " do you assert what you know, or are you making these 
 accusations against me to put yourself in the right ? " 
 
 " I make no accusations," he replied in the same hard 
 tone ; " it's not worth while ; I simply use my own 
 faculties like other people. Things are not likely to 
 escape my observation that have become the talk of my 
 servants in the kitchen and the hall." 
 
 She tm-ned pale to her lips. " The servants ! " she 
 repeated. " Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Roy, that you 
 have been discussing with your servants the conduct of 
 your wife ? " 
 
 He was getting very angry, he felt so completely in the 
 wrong ; therefore he affected to take high ground. 
 
 " I decline to enter into that subject," said he. 
 " Though you may choose to disregard both, there ai'e 
 people who respect my character and value my happiness. 
 It is all very well, Mrs. Roy, to carry things with a high 
 hand, to affect injured innocence, virtuous indignation, 
 and so forth, but nobody shall make me believe that 
 lady's conduct is iiTeproachable on whom her very 
 domestics cry shame. Even if I had not eyes and ears 
 of my own, I can trust my informant, and what I say I 
 mean ! " 
 
 Her sweet and gentle temper was roused at last. She 
 moved to tlie door. 
 
 " Then if that is the position I occupy in your house," 
 she exclaimed, "the sooner I leave it the better!" 
 
 " I wish you had never come into it ! " 
 
 The action was over. Completely disabled by this 
 last shot, poor Nelly struck her flag and went down.
 
 186 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 She made no attempt at rcpl3\ She did not burst into 
 tears, nor go off in hysterica, nor faint dead away, 
 which is the best resource of all, as placing the adversary 
 in such a position that he can neither run nor fight. She 
 only paced slowly out of the conservatory, across the hall, 
 and up the staircase to her own room, faltering and 
 stumbling, though it was broad daylight, like a blind 
 woman, or one who walks in a dream. 
 
 John Pioy turned to the gold fish, and made them a 
 little speech. " I have given her a piece of my mind 
 at last," said he, somewhat ashamed of himself, yet with 
 a certain amount of relief at having blown off the steam. 
 " A man should begin as he means to go on, and she 
 will be none the worse for the lesson. That it may take 
 proper effect, I shall not see her again till dinner-time. 
 My horse is at the door. I may as well have luncheon 
 with the Grantons, and ride round by Warden Towers 
 afterwards, to find out if this young lord is really gone." 
 
 Nelly, kneeling by her bedside, crying bitterly with her 
 face smothered in the counterpane, heard his horses' hoofs 
 crunching the gravel, and the click of the gate as he turned 
 into the park. 
 
 She went to her window and watched him, hiding 
 behind the curtain. She had often seen him ride away 
 in the same direction, but never so indistinctly as now, 
 through a mist of tears. 
 
 Then she bathed her eyes, smoothed her hair, looked at 
 a time-table, rang the bell, and ordered the carriage to be 
 at the door in twenty minutes. 
 
 "If I had a baby," thought Nelly, "I couldn't go. 
 I should neither have the heart to leave it, nor to take 
 it away from Mr. Roy. How lucky for him. He will 
 be happy at last. He won't miss me one bit. He can 
 live among the people he likes without a wife that he 
 is ashamed of at every turn. And yet I did try hard
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE 137 
 
 to be all he wished ! Oh ! my darling, my darling ! I 
 do believe my heart is breaking, but I will never see you 
 again ! " 
 
 INIr. Roy did not enjoy his luncheon. The Grantons 
 were pleasant, as usual. Her two pretty sisters, lately 
 imported by the hostess, did the agi-eeable with the 
 vivacity sho^vn by young ladies at that most cheerful of 
 meals. But, somehow, it was all flat and insipid. When 
 his horse was brought round, he departed in worse spirits 
 than he arrived, conscious he had made no favourable 
 impression on the strangers, but utterly careless of their 
 opinion, good or bad. 
 
 " Talking him over " ere he was fairly in the saddle, 
 these did not scruple to express unqualified disappoint- 
 ment. Mr. Roy was older, greyer, stupider than they 
 had been led to expect, yet each told herself there was 
 something interesting about the man, something strange, 
 mysterious, peculiar, that she would like to fathom and 
 find out. 
 
 At "Warden Towers, Sir Hector was in his room and 
 Miss Bruce in the village, so he did not get off. " Was 
 Lord Fitzowen still with them ? " he asked carelessly, 
 turning to go away. 
 
 " No ; his lordship left after luncheon. His lordship's 
 letters were to be forwarded to London. He (the butler) 
 did not think his lordship would be back again during the 
 hunting season." 
 
 Riding home in the fading twilight, John Roy began 
 to wonder if he had not judged Nelly too hastily in one 
 particular, perhaps too harshly in all. There is something 
 in the action of a good horse under a man, especially at a 
 gallop, that, possibly through its effect on the liver, seems 
 to clear and stimulate his brain. Ere he rode into his own 
 stable-yard, our friend had resolved to be forgiving and 
 magnanimous, to read his wife a long lecture on that
 
 138 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 ignorance of conventionalities to which he was willing 
 to attribute her late misdeeds, and graciously to overlook 
 the past in consideration of the amendment she was sure 
 to promise for the future. Then he would proceed comfort- 
 ably to dinner, and slumber placidly afterwards, having 
 dismissed the whole subject from his mind. 
 
 Wet and muddy, he went to dress at once, relicarsing 
 during his toilet the discourse he intended to deliver, and 
 descending in half an hour or so to the drawing-room, 
 where he expected to find his wife at her needlework, 
 bright with her usual welcome, and ready to offer the 
 cup of tea she had kept hot in case it should be wanted. 
 But here were neither wife nor tea. The fire had 
 burned low and only one lamp was lit. His drawing- 
 room had never looked so cheerless. Nelly must be 
 up-stairs, of course. How tiresome ! Perhaps, though, 
 she had taken his displeasure to heart and was really 
 unwell. Poor dear ! she certainly seemed fond of him 
 — he would go to her room and make it all right with- 
 out delay. Once, twice he tapped at the door. No 
 answer. So he opened it without ceremony, and walked 
 in. Here, too, the fire was low and the room nearly 
 dark, but he could make out that it was unoccupied. 
 More, an empty wardi'obe stood open, and though several 
 trinkets remained on the dressing-table, Nelly's ivory 
 hair-brushes, with her monogram, his own gift, were 
 gone. 
 
 He turned sick at heart, though he told himself there 
 was no cause for discomposm-e ; but he ran down-stairs 
 again, nimbly enough, to ring the drawing-room bell 
 with considerable violence. 
 
 The butler had gone to dress, and it was answered by 
 a footman. 
 
 "Where is Mrs. Roy?" he asked, trying to speak in 
 his ordinary voice.
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE 139 
 
 "Mrs. Roy, sir? Mrs. Roy is gone, sir." 
 " Gone ! What do you mean ? Gone where ? ' 
 The man looked sm-prised. " Mrs. Roy ordered the 
 carriage at half-past two, sir. It took her to the station, 
 and I miderstand she went to London hy the afternoon 
 train." 
 
 He fairly gasped. But in whatever attitude he goes 
 down, a man is bound to fall decently, like Julius Cnesar, 
 before his own household ; so he muttered something 
 incoherent about " bad news," and " he thought she would 
 have waited for a later train," but his manner was sorely 
 troubled, his voice came thick and indistinct. The footman 
 retired calmly, less concerned than might be supposed. I 
 imagine om- domestics are not easily affected by such 
 symptoms of mental disorder. Judging from analogy, they 
 account for them in the charitable supposition that " Master 
 is a little the worse for drink." 
 
 Put him face to face with an emergency, Jolm Roy had 
 courage and presence of mind enough. Both were now 
 supplemented by a strong sense of indignation and ill- 
 usage. 
 
 " Gone to London by the afternoon train ! " he muttered, 
 walking up and down his deserted drawing-room, in momen- 
 tary expectation that dinner would be announced. " Of 
 course ! I see it all ! And that scoundrel, too. They 
 were found out too soon, and she did not dare face me 
 again. But he shall, and pretty close too, if we have to 
 travel a thousand miles for it. Steady now ! I must look 
 at this business as if I were acting for some one else. The 
 first point is to avoid anything like a show-up before the 
 servants. I can do nothing to-morrow till the post comes 
 in, then I shall go to London by the twelve o'clock train, 
 and find a friend at once. Who is there I can ask to see 
 me through such a three-cornered business ? for I mean to 
 shoot Fitzowen as sure as he stands there."
 
 140 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 This was a Imotty problem, involving some consideration. 
 He had not settled it when he went to dinner, and resolved 
 during the progress of that ceremony, which he sat through 
 with praiseworthy endm-ance, to decide nothing till he had 
 visited his club, and seen which of his old friends were in 
 town. 
 
 But with all his anger, all his resolution, there were 
 moments during that long cheerless evening when his 
 heart smote him sore. The image of Nelly would pass 
 before him, as he used to watch her moving about the very 
 room in which he sat, busy with some little arrangement 
 for his comfort and convenience, or dearer still, as he 
 remembered her at Beachmouth dm-ing that brief courtship, 
 when she had seemed to him a very paragon of womankind, 
 no less for beauty of character and person than for the 
 adoration she lavished on himself. 
 
 Of all blessings, a wife is, perhaps, that of which a man 
 becomes most sensible in its loss. John Eoy could not 
 help suspecting that he had not himself been entirely with- 
 out blame ; that a little patience, a little consideration, a 
 little forbearance might have preserved to him the affections 
 of her fond and gentle nature, true and tender as when they 
 watched the sea-gulls together on the southern coast, and 
 thought nothing could ever come between them this side of 
 the grave.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 BAFFLED 
 
 Fob one who has ever lived long enough in Loudon to make 
 it a home, there is something in the stir and bustle of its 
 streets, the shifting variety of its faces, the very tread of 
 busy feet on its pavement, that brings his mind, as it were, 
 to its proper bearings, causing him to appraise himself, his 
 affairs, and his interests at their real value, and reminding 
 him that any one individual, though the centre of his own 
 circle, is but an insignificant unit in the great scheme. 
 
 Before John Roy had rattled through half-a-dozen 
 streets, and shaved as many lamp-posts, in a hansom cab, 
 he began to take a clearer view of his position, and to 
 suspect that he might have been in a gi-eater hurry than 
 behoved a man of his experience, who had seen so much of 
 life. It was unwise thus to jump, without inquiry, to 
 conclusions. It would have been better to put his pride in 
 his pocket, and get what information he could from the 
 railway officials at his own station concerning his wife and 
 her supposed travelling-companion, before he rushed up to 
 London, breathing blood and gunpowder, on an expedition 
 that might turn out a fool's errand after all ! 
 
 Such reflections came too late. He had arrived in town 
 by the early train for a particular purpose, and he must 
 carry it through. Ob\dously, the first thing to be done was 
 to dress at an hotel and go down at once to his club. 
 
 Yet for all his knowledge of the world, it seemed strange 
 
 141
 
 142 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 to this man, whose mind was preoccupied with matters of 
 life and death, that half-a-dozen acquaintances Avhom he 
 had not seen for years should greet him, as if they were in 
 the habit of meeting every day, with a careless nod and a 
 growl at the east wind. Truly, yom* London welcome is 
 the reverse of gushing, and an earthquake would hardly 
 affect the well-bred placidity of St. James's Street if it took 
 place east of Temple Bar. 
 
 Club usages and club manners are of themselves. In 
 other phases of life men may seem pleased with the society 
 of their friends, and even interested in their welfare ; but 
 as soon as they have passed the hall-porter and received 
 their letters, such exuberance of natural feeling is at once 
 discarded. As a huntsman puts on his kennel-coat when 
 he goes amongst his hounds, so the members of these social 
 institutions think well to clothe themselves from head to 
 foot in an indifference which, but for its exceeding careless- 
 ness, would not be far removed from disgust. 
 
 Like most reserved people, John Roy was somewhat 
 impressionable. It is not too much to say that he felt 
 both discouraged and disheartened as, entering the morning 
 room of the Junior Amalgamated, he scanned nervously the 
 array of hats and newspapers representing the members of 
 that exclusive association. Where all faces were hidden it 
 was difficult to identify a friend, and his spirit sank while 
 he reflected how severely he must put that friend's attach- 
 ment to the test. Shy, awkward, and perplexed, he wallced 
 stiffly to the fireplace, feeling, like a thorough Englishman, 
 that his present ordeal was the most unpleasant part of the 
 whole business. A true Briton stands fire better than 
 inspection, quailing pitifully before a battery that consists 
 of impassible faces and calm, inquiring eyes. 
 
 On the hearthrug he brushed against a gentleman in 
 an easy chair, completely hidden behind the broad sheet 
 of the Times. Turning to apologise, he found himself
 
 BAFFLED 143 
 
 face to face, of all people in the Avorld, with Lord Fitz- 
 owen. 
 
 It would feebly express John Roy's discomfiture to say 
 you might have knocked him do^vn with a feather. He 
 stood with his mouth open in dumb surprise. 
 
 The other nodded, yawned, rose and stretched himself. 
 
 "How d'ye do, Roy?" said he. "Why didn't you 
 come up yesterday with me and St. George there ? I found 
 him at the station. I suppose you won't go away again 
 now. Have you brought Mrs. Roy? " 
 
 No man could put on this assumption of complete 
 innocence had he been the cleverest actor that ever wore 
 paint ; besides, " St. George there," who was in the room, 
 could have attested the veracity of Fitzowen's statement, 
 and John Roy felt utterly at a loss. There was nothing 
 for it but to regain his composure as best he might, and 
 shake by the hand the man he had meant to shoot through 
 the head, with such overdone cordiality as should serve to 
 cover his own confusion. 
 
 " It's only a flying visit," he stammered. " Business 
 and that kind of thing. Going down again this even- 
 ing. Town rather empty still. Nothing to keep one 
 here just now." 
 
 "Nonsense! Stay till to-morrow. Dine with me quietly 
 — en garc^on. Nobody but St. George. I've a box at the 
 Deucalion. We'll see the ' Ugly Duck.' It's rather a 
 good burlesque, and bring What's-her-name back to supper. 
 It wouldn't be bad fun." 
 
 Such evidence being circumstantial, and therefore of the 
 best kind, became more conclusive with every word. It 
 was beyond all bounds of probability that a gentleman who 
 had run away with his friend's wife less than twenty-four 
 hours ago, should be entertaining bachelors at dinner, 
 asking actresses to supper, and otherwise partaking of those 
 amusements on which feminine influence of any kind puts
 
 144 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 an immediate extinguisher ; nor was it credible that he 
 should calmly invite the injured husband to participate in 
 such demonstrations of independence and self-government 
 at a moment's notice, without any hesitation or embarrass- 
 ment whatsoever. Again John Roy excused himself, 
 though in his heart half tempted to accept, so completely 
 had the atmosphere of London changed his sentiments in 
 the space of two hours. 
 
 "I see," said Fitz, laughing good-humouredly ; "Mrs. 
 Roy won't stand it ! Quite right. Give her my kind 
 regards. After all, you have the best of it. There is 
 something very superior and respectable in being a married 
 man." 
 
 With whomsoever Nelly had run away, the culprit was 
 clearly not Lord Fitzowen. 
 
 John Roy walked out of the Junior Amalgamated a good 
 deal easier of mind than he walked in ; yet, strange to say, 
 conscious that his displeasure against his wife was stronger 
 now than while he believed her criminal conduct had 
 estranged her from him for ever. She seemed a belligerent 
 then, declaring open war, now she was only a vassal who 
 had rebelled. 
 
 Turning matters over in his mind, he made sure she had 
 taken refuge with her aunt. He would go to Corner Street 
 at once, and bring her back, but in such a manner as to 
 make her feel the whole weight of his dissatisfaction, and 
 prevent her from ever having recourse to such refractory 
 measures again. 
 
 He was soon at the Corner Hotel : it had never appeared 
 so close, dirty, and uncomfortable before. Again came over 
 him the unworthy feeling that he had descended too low in 
 his choice, and that from the very beginning his marriage 
 was a mistake. 
 
 This untoward mood seemed only aggravated by his 
 reception. Mrs. Phipps, in the dingiest of caps, no sooner
 
 BAFFLED 145 
 
 heard his name than she rushed at hini open-armed, then 
 cm-tsied and looked foolish, seeing that he eluded her 
 emhrace. 
 
 This good lady's face was browner and more oblong 
 than ever, her dress more faded, her forehead more shiny, 
 her general appearance, he thought, had changed sadly for 
 the worse. 
 
 " Why, you're quite a stranger, Mr. Roy," she 
 exclaimed : " now do set down and rest yom-self. You'll 
 take a glass of wine, I hope. But first and foremost, how's 
 Nelly ? You've brought her with you, in course ? " 
 
 He was taken aback, and looked it. "Nelly! " he re- 
 peated. "Is she not with you } I came here to look for her." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps dropped into an arm-chair, with a plump 
 that spoke volumes for her confidence in its strength. 
 
 " You come here to look for her ! " she gasped. " Oh, 
 Mr. Roy, whatever do you mean ? " 
 
 He was vexed beyond measure. " Mrs. Roy has chosen 
 to leave her home, madam," he answered harshly, " and 
 were she not dead to all proper feeling she would have 
 come straight here. Had I found her under yom- protection, 
 I might have been prevailed upon to look over such conduct 
 in consideration of promised amendment for the future. 
 But she has taken her own line, and I shall now feel 
 justified in taking mine." 
 
 " Mr. Roy, you drove her to it ! " 
 
 "I have no wish to exchange recriminations, Mrs. 
 Phipps. If you choose to support your niece in her 
 outrageous defiance of all social laws, of the customs, even 
 the decencies of life, that is yom* aftair. I shall decline to 
 communicate with either of you, except through a solicitor." 
 
 " You drove her to it, Mr. Roy ! If it was my last 
 breath, I'd say it. When she left this house to get 
 manied — and a black day it seems to have been — there 
 wasn't a better behaved young woman in all London than 
 
 10
 
 146 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 Nelly, nor a better principled, nor a better bronght-np. 
 There may be faults on both sides. I'm not a-going to say 
 as there isn't. But when yon come to leaving a home like 
 yom's, and going out alone into the wide world, nobody 
 shall persuade me but what I told you before is gospel 
 truth, and you drove her to it, Mr. Roy. You did, as sure 
 as you stand there ! " 
 
 Mrs. Phipps, Avho loved her niece, seemed a thorough 
 woman, insensible to argument, but staunch in her affec- 
 tions. It was no use disputing the point, and John Roy was 
 forced to content himself with as dignified a retreat as could 
 be made under the circumstances, for his hostess followed 
 him, even to the street-door, with a volley of reproaches 
 that gathered violence and incoherence at each successive 
 discharge. The storm no doubt was succeeded by a torrent 
 of tears, and the poor woman herself, in the midst of her 
 dismay and anxiety, regretted bitterly that she had " spoke 
 up," as she called it, with so much freedom, but her visitor 
 had placed a quarter of a mile between them before this 
 inevitable reaction, and it was too late to call him back. 
 
 He felt sadly perplexed. Nelly was gone, there could 
 be no doubt, but where? If she had fled with Lord 
 Fitzowen, he would have known how to act. If she had 
 taken sanctuary in her aunt's hotel, he could have extri- 
 cated her fi'om that unsavom'y refuge, with a certain loss of 
 dignity, perhaps, but an undoubted accession of authority 
 for the future. In either case his course would have been 
 clear. But now she had baffled him completely. How 
 could he return to Royston Grange without his wife? How 
 reply to the inqumes of a whole neighbourhood that she 
 had gone away from him, he didn't know where ! He must 
 have time for consideration ; he ought not to be in a hurry ; 
 to-morrow or next day something might turn up. He had 
 better stop in London, he thought, wishing heartily that he 
 had never left it.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER? 
 
 What should he do with himself in the meantime ? He 
 looked at his watch : it was a little after four. The 
 Academy had not yet opened, Hurlingham was too far off, 
 Prince's was sure to be empty at this hour, and with the 
 thermometer scarcely ten degrees above freezing, nobody 
 would be in the Park. There was still a long blank to fill 
 up before the earliest possible dinner, and the only choice of 
 pastime lay between a Adsit to Christie and Manson's and a 
 Turkish bath. 
 
 He had almost decided in favom* of the latter, when a 
 Victoria pulled up with a jerk so close to the kerb-stone 
 that its stiff leathern wing brushed his elbow, while a lady 
 bent on shopping, and enveloped in furs, landed on the 
 pavement under his very nose. 
 
 " Good gi'acious, Mr. Roy ! " exclaimed a voice that had 
 haunted him for many a weary day since he heard it last, 
 that he had not quite forgotten even now. "Is it you or 
 yom- ghost ? What ages since we met ? I can't say how 
 glad I am to see you again ! " 
 
 It was Lady Jane, and nobody else ! The Lady Jane of 
 whom he had taken leave long years ago, under the elms in 
 Kensington Gardens, with a few hurried words of sorrowing 
 kindness and good- will, sorely curtailed because of that 
 matron's proximity to whom Jane had been temporarily 
 intrusted, and who " stood in " with the lovers, but only to 
 a limited extent. 
 
 147
 
 148 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 Now, tlie one was a prosperous widow, already out of 
 black, the other a husband whom we may term unattached, 
 smarting under a sense of conjugal ill-usage, and disposed 
 to separate himself conclusively from his wife. 
 
 Lady Jane could not but feel gratified by the confusion 
 of his manner while he returned her greeting. Though a 
 woman's empire have been swept away ever so completely, 
 she likes to think that its glories are not wholly forgotten . 
 What is it all but a dream? an illusion, of which, perhaps, 
 memory is the sweetest and most substantial charm ! " 
 
 " I — I hope you're quite well, " stammered the gentle- 
 man ; " I didn't know you were in town. " 
 
 *'How should you?" she answered kindly and with 
 perfect self-possession. "It is a century since you and I 
 have forgotten each other — or tried to, at any rate." 
 
 The last very faintly, and with a downward look that 
 used to be most effective. " AVhen at close quarters, aim 
 low," was her maxim, and Lady Jane's fire could do execu- 
 tion still. 
 
 "Do not say forgotten," he replied, trying to recover 
 himself as behoved a man of the world. " It's not so very 
 long, after all ; and, to look at you, it seems as if we had 
 been walking together only last week ! " 
 
 "You always used to flatter one," she answered coquet- 
 tishly. " Now, will you come and see me ? Don't say no, 
 for the sake of old times." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " Any day. To-day, if you like. I am always in at five. 
 I am on my way home now. Twenty-seven in the next 
 street. I shall expect you in a quarter of an hour." 
 
 There were but a few minutes to talk, and they passed 
 quickly enough. He walked like a man in a dream. He 
 felt as if his Mexican life, his return home, his vegetation 
 at Ptoyston Grange, even his marriage to Miss Burton, were 
 fancies of the sleeper that had disappeared with morning
 
 DO YOU EEMEMBEEi 149 
 
 light. Yes, he was awake now, and nothing seemed real 
 but Ladv Jane. 
 
 Very real, too, and more substantial than of old. Face 
 and figure were both rounder and fuller than when last they 
 parted, all those years ago ; but, like many English beauties, 
 his first love's maturity was handsomer than her girlhood, 
 and, had it been otherwise, what matter ? The charm was 
 in her eyes and voice, still it woke up feelings that had only 
 slept while he believed them dead. John Roy began to 
 think that, without knowing it, he might have been in love 
 with two women at once all the time. 
 
 " Lady Jane at home ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir," and mounting a dark staircase, pervaded 
 by a heavy odour of hot-house plants, he found himself 
 bowing over her ladyship's white hand, with more of defer- 
 ence and even devotion than is absolutely essential to 
 politeness in a mere morning call. 
 
 But he began to talk about the weather nevertheless, 
 forgetting, in his perturbation, that when conversing with a 
 lady, it is only good manners, and saves a deal of trouble 
 besides, to let her " make the running " fi-om end to end. 
 
 She wasted little of her energies on the east wind. 
 Before his tea was cool enough to drink, she asked him 
 pointedly whether he found her much altered, and wondered 
 that he recognised her at once ! 
 
 "I should have known you anywhere," he answered. 
 " Do you think I forget so easily ? " 
 
 The cream-jug in her hand shook a little, perhaps by 
 accident. 
 
 "What is all one's life," she returned, "but trying to 
 forget ? It's the lesson everybody has to learn. I fancy 
 it comes harder to women than men." 
 
 " You succeeded pretty easily. You didn't want much 
 teaching — perhaps you've a natural talent independent of 
 education."
 
 150 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 " Why do you say that? It's unkind. If I wanted to 
 he rude, I should say, it's untrue. How can you tell what 
 I have thought, or not thought, done, or not done, since — 
 since we hoth were young and foolish. You've not taken 
 much trouhle to find out." 
 
 She had ingeniously tui-ned the tables, and put him 
 on his defence. He looked foolish, and replied vaguely, 
 " Did you ever expect to see me again ? " 
 
 "No. But I hoped it \" 
 
 "Lady Jane, were you rcaUij glad to meet me? Do 
 you mean that you still — that you still " 
 
 " Let me give you some more tea. No ? Well, sit down 
 again, don't go away yet. I want you to tell me all 
 about your wife." 
 
 His face fell, and he fidgeted in his chair. With a 
 woman's tact she saw there was something wrong, and 
 continued in the same easy confidential tone — 
 
 "I was pleased — yes, I think I was really pleased to 
 hear of your marriage. I had a great mind to write and 
 congratulate you." 
 
 " Why didn't you ? " 
 
 "Weil, there Avere reasons. If my poor husband had 
 been alive I should have done it frankly enough. 
 Matrimony is the best and happiest state for people, 
 
 after all." 
 
 "I am glad you found it so. It is not everybody's 
 experience. I am rather of Dr. Johnson's opinion, that 
 marriages would turn out better if they were arranged by 
 the Lord Chancellor." 
 
 " Mine 7cas. At least he could do nothing without his 
 consent. My poor husband did not come of age till he 
 was five-and-twenty. It made a great many complications, 
 and at one time I very nearly changed my mind." 
 
 "But it answered? You were happy together, I 
 suppose."
 
 DO YOU REMEMBEB? 151 
 
 " We got ou very Avell. Yes — I can't say it answered 
 badly. He did everything I told — I mean, I asked him. 
 Still, Mr. Roy, when people are to pass their whole lives 
 together, it's a fearful risk. However little one expects, 
 one is sure to be disappointed." 
 
 " But you married a man in youi* own station ; that is 
 a gi'eat point. You never could have borne with somebody 
 3'ou were ashamed of. Mr. de Banier came of a very old 
 family, I believe ? " 
 
 "Very. But — but his father was in trade all the 
 same. No ; I shouldn't say the De Baniers were 
 exactly in om* own set. Do you think that matters so 
 much? " 
 
 *' I think it is the most important consideration of all." 
 
 " What ? more important than that people should like 
 each other ? You used not to be so practical. Do you 
 remember our argument on that very subject at Lady 
 Yorkminster's ball? " 
 
 " Do 2/our' 
 
 " Every word of it. I could tell you the very names of 
 the couples that passed us on their way to the tea-room. 
 I could tell you the number of the dance we sat out. I 
 believe I've got my card still. You had a white flower in 
 your button-hole, and I wondered whether it was given you 
 by my cousin Blanche." 
 
 "What a memory you have! Is it of the head or the 
 heart?" 
 
 "Nonsense. Tell me about yourself. When did you 
 come to town ? Where are you staying ? I am dying to 
 know Mrs. Roy." 
 
 He hesitated ; but she looked so kind, so sympathising, 
 and withal so handsome, that he took the plunge. 
 
 " Lady Jane," said he, " I don't mind your knowing 
 the truth. The fact is we — we — don't get on very well 
 together, and Mrs. Roy is not with me at present."
 
 152 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 She tried to seem sorrowful and commiserating, but 
 there was a latent sparkle in her blue eyes, a something 
 of satisfaction in her tone, while she answered, " I am 
 so grieved to hear it. Don't you think, Mr. Roy, if 
 you tried patience and kindness, she might be brought 
 to reason? I can't understand anybody quarrelling with 
 you!" 
 
 There is an esprit de corps in the sex which prompts 
 every w^oman ostensibly to stand up for another. It takes 
 but little persuasion, however, to satisfy her that the erring 
 sister is wholly in the wrong. 
 
 "I have my faults," he answ^ered, "but I don't think 
 I am inclined to be hasty or unreasonable. Lady Jane, 
 I will trust you entirely, and I feel sure you will not abuse 
 my confidence. In the first place, were you surprised to 
 hear of my marriage ? ' ' 
 
 " A little. I thought— I thought — never mind what I 
 thought." 
 
 " Well, it seems to be one's fate to make some great 
 mistake in life sooner or later. I wonder whether the lady 
 I chose was the least the sort of person you would have 
 expected me to marry. I did a foolish thing, and now I 
 have to pay for it." 
 
 Sympathy and curiosity, two very strong motives, 
 prompted her ladyship to discharge a volley of inquiries, 
 but she possessed a large share of that discretion which 
 is only acquired in the uninterrupted training of society, 
 and contented herself with a kindly glance and a sigh of 
 commiseration. 
 
 "My wife," he continued, "though well-born and well- 
 educated, is not — is not exactly one of the people you are 
 accustomed to meet. In short, she don't quite understand 
 the ways of society. You see, she has never lived much in 
 the gTeat world." 
 
 ' ' Has she been presented at Court ? ' ' interrupted Lady
 
 DO YOU BEMEMBEB? 153 
 
 Jane earnestly, " That is where the line should always 
 be drawn. I heard she had not.'' 
 
 " Then you did hear about my marriage ? " 
 
 " Of course. I was interested, and I asked. Can you 
 wonder? " 
 
 ** I never wonder. Still, there is such a thing as an 
 agi'eeable sm-prise. I thought I had passed out of 
 your life, and that even my name never came into your 
 head." 
 
 " You thought nothing of the kind. Do you suppose a 
 woman gives up her — her friendships in that way, even 
 imder the hardest pressure, without scruple or regret? 
 How little vou understand us! Well, well — that's over 
 and done with now ! Let me hear all about it, Mr. Roy. 
 Were you very much in love ? ' ' 
 
 " With Lady Jane ? Yes ; I am sure I told her so often 
 enough." 
 
 " And she believed you. One need not be ashamed 
 of the truth now. But you understand what I mean. 
 "Were you very much in love with your wife when you 
 proposed to her — let me see, only the end of last 
 summer? or was it one of those scrapes men get into 
 from sheer laziness, and want of moral courage to say, 
 Xo?" 
 
 He had chivalry enough to scorn the loophole she left 
 for his escape. 
 
 "Yes, I was in love with her," he answered rathei 
 sadly. " I thought she would have made me happy. 
 Never mind, I can do without her. I dare say it's all for 
 the best." 
 
 " Poor Mr. Roy ! " murmured her ladyship, " I am sorry. 
 You know I am, don't you ? " 
 
 " I know you have a kind and sympathising nature. 
 Lady Jane," he answered, putting on his gloves as with 
 intention of prc^:cntly taking leave : " that is why I
 
 154 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 am inllictiiig my troubles on you now. It's not a long 
 story, and I will begin at the beginning. Last summer 
 I went to Beachmouth, simply because I was bored at 
 home, meaning to have a dip in the sea, spend Sunday, 
 and go back. Lady Jane, I stayed there three weeks." 
 
 " You found the Sundays so amusing, I conclude." 
 
 " Every day was a holiday. Each seemed brighter than 
 the last. I never was so happy in my life. Never — but 
 once." 
 
 " I am not going to ask you when that was. Go on." 
 
 " The very first evening I was struck by the appearance 
 of a lady staying at the hotel ; and next day, through the 
 merest accident, I succeeded in making her actjuaintance. 
 I found her frank, pleasant, unaffected, and handsomer even 
 than I thought." 
 
 "Dark or fair?" 
 
 "Dark, with beautiful black hair." 
 
 "How odd! you never used to admire dark women. 
 Well, how long did this seaside romance go on before — ex- 
 cuse me, Mr. Roy — before you made a fool of yourself '? " 
 
 "Not long. We met half-a-dozen times a day. I 
 thought she seemed to like me, and soon hardened my 
 heart to ask whether she really did or not. Then she told 
 me all about herself, making no secret of her birth and 
 bringing up. Her father was a bookseller, and her aunt 
 kej)t an hotel." 
 
 " Mr. Boy, how could you ? " 
 
 "I coidd and I did. We were married in London, and 
 I can-ied her off to Eoyston Grange, firmly persuaded that 
 with a few hints, and a little practice among our country 
 neighbours, she would make as good a lady as if she had 
 been registered in the Stud-book — I beg yom* pardon, I mean 
 the Peerage." 
 
 " They never do. You see it didn't answer." 
 
 " That was no fault of mine. I took the greatest pains
 
 DO YOU BEMEMBEIi? 155 
 
 — explained everything, rehearsed everything. She wasn't 
 obstinate, slie wasn't exactly stupid ; but somehow she 
 seemed unable to take it in. After a time she lost her 
 spirits, grew pale and silent ; but declared there was 
 nothing the matter, even while she looked up from her 
 ■work with eyes full of tears." 
 
 " Poor thing ! Perhaps she was unhappy." 
 
 ** She was unhappy. Lady Jane, but not about 7ne. 
 Yesterday, at a moment's notice, she left her home during 
 my absence, as far as I can learn, without a companion of 
 any kind." 
 
 Lady Jane pondered. " Have you reason to suspect that 
 she — that she cares for anybody in particular? " 
 
 " I had, and now I have not. I am puzzled — I am at 
 my wits' end. She left no letter, no message. I am not 
 even sure that she is in London. A man can't well 
 advertise for his wife — can't have her cried like a lost dog. 
 Lady Jane, what would you advise me to do ? " 
 
 " Nothing ! " answered her ladyship with decision. 
 " That is always safe. Go about among your friends 
 — show yourself everywhere. If people ask after Mrs. 
 Roy, say you have come up to take a house, and she 
 is to join you in London. Thou they will insist on 
 their owni favourite situation, and that changes the subject. 
 In the meantime confide in nobody but me. You may 
 be sure I have your welfare at heart. When shall I 
 see you again? Come and dine here to-morrow. My 
 sister is in town ; I'll ask her to meet you, and we will 
 go to the French Play. Good-bye, Mr. Roy, but not 
 for quite so long as last time. To-morrow, at half-past 
 seven. Don't forget." 
 
 He bent over the hand she gave him till his lips almost 
 touched her rings, and walked down-stairs, thinking the 
 world a much better place to live in than it seemed an hour 
 or two ago.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS 
 
 Like Hcagar in her banishment, Nelly felt utterly deso- 
 late and forlorn when she turned her back on the home 
 that had once seemed such a paradise, in which but a 
 few weeks ago she had promised herself long years of 
 wedded happiness and love. Like Hagar, too, she was 
 faint and weary from physical exhaustion. Mr. Roy's 
 displeasure had taken away her appetite for breakfast, 
 and she forgot all about luncheon, though it was ready 
 on the table when she went away. It cost her a painful 
 effort to preserve composure before the servants at the 
 hall-door, and she parried with difficulty the curiosity of 
 her maid, who could not understand why Mrs. Roy had 
 packed a trunk with her own hands, or how that lady 
 could possibly dispense with her ministrations for a single 
 night. 
 
 At the station, too, where she arrived long before the 
 train, her footman seemed exceedingly loth to be dis- 
 missed with the carriage as ordered, and proposed, 
 though hardly in good faith, to return on foot the whole 
 way, rather than not see Mrs. Roy's luggage into the guard's 
 van with his own eyes. When these objections had 
 been overruled, and the trot of the dear horses died out 
 on the far high road, our outcast felt very forlorn indeed. 
 Behind her was the still fondly beloved patriarch on 
 whom she could not bear to think : before her a future 
 
 106
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS 157 
 
 too vague and gloomy to contemplate ; while about her 
 brooded the desolate silence of an unfrequented railway 
 station. 
 
 Poor Hagar turned into the ladies' waiting-room to 
 cry. No doubt it did her good, but looking in the glass 
 over the fireplace, she could not but observe that her eyes 
 were swollen and her nose red. 
 
 Presently a spectral arm, shot out from the signal- 
 post, denoted the arrival of her train. It was time to 
 emerge and take a ticket. She shrank back to her 
 hiding-place, nevertheless, in considerable vexation and 
 dismay when she caught sight of Lord Fitzowen on the 
 platform, laughing and talking with a young man of his 
 own age, in dress, manners, and appearance an exact 
 counterpart of himself. 
 
 " Of all people on earth," thought Nelly, ''this is the 
 last I wanted to meet. How can I explain to him why 
 I am here and where I am going ? Besides, I look per- 
 fectly hideous. He is sure to see I have been crying. 
 Good gi-acious ! if he was to ask me the reason, and I 
 couldn't keep fi'om bursting out again ! AVhat would his 
 friend think? What would he think himself ? No. Here 
 I shall stay till I've seen them safe off. After all that 
 has passed, rather than travel by the same train with 
 Lord Fitzowen, perhaps in the same carriage, I would 
 never go near London again! " 
 
 So she flattened her face against the window, and 
 watched the two gentlemen into a first-class compartment 
 labelled " Smoking" with eager eyes and a beating heart, 
 waiting impatiently enough, till the train panted on and 
 disappeared. 
 
 Then she drank some water from a dusty carafe, sat 
 down, and collected her energies to think out the whole 
 situation. Once, in momentary weakness, she half re- 
 solved to walk back on foot to Royston Grange, and be
 
 158 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 reconciled with its master ; but her heart was still too 
 sore, and she dismissed the idea almost as soon as it arose. 
 
 Consulting a time-table, aided by a sympathising railway 
 porter, she made up her mind to go down the line to a 
 certain junction some thirty miles distant, where she could 
 meet a late express, that, from inability to keep its time, 
 was called in contumely The Flying Dutchman, and so 
 proceeding to London, arrive there in the middle of the 
 night ; but this intricate plan of operations she was unable 
 to carry out. At the hour when she should have been 
 taking her seat in The Dutchman she was in bed at an 
 hotel, where she had resorted to get some tea, with a head- 
 ache that incapacitated her from standing or even sitting 
 upright. 
 
 "AVhat docs it matter? " thought poor Nelly. "Nobody 
 expects me ; nobody cares if I am alive or dead ! Auntie 
 has got accustomed to do without me, and nothing would 
 please Mr. Roy better than to be r^uite sure he would never 
 hear of me again." 
 
 She did them both injustice. Mr. Roy was seeking her 
 in London before her headache allowed her to get out of 
 bed ; and when, on the second day after her departure 
 fi'om Royston Grange, she arrived at the Corner Hotel, it 
 needed but one look in her relative's face to be assured 
 of Auntie's overpowering anxiety and her delight at the 
 wanderer's return. 
 
 " So he came here to find me? " repeated Nelly for the 
 twentieth time, when she had taken her bonnet off and 
 settled down in her own old place. " Did he look dis- 
 appointed ? Did he seem sorry. Auntie, or what ? " 
 
 "Sorry?" returned Mrs. Phipps — a practical person, 
 who calls spades and everything else by their right names. 
 " Not a bit ! Angry, if you like. There was a precious 
 blow-up, I can tell you. I gave him a piece of my mind, 
 and he went away in a huff."
 
 IN THE WILDEBNESS 159 
 
 " He'll come again," said Nelly. " He must, if he's in 
 earnest. Don't you think, Auntie, he is sm-e to come 
 again ? 
 
 "I hope not," replied her aunt. " You're better with- 
 out him, my dear. I never thought much of them con- 
 sequential, stuck-up ways of his. When he made you a 
 lady, why didn't he treat you as such ? No, no, you're 
 better without him, Nelly, depend upon it. You've got a 
 comfortable home here as long as you like to stay, and, for 
 my part, I hope he will never darken our doors again." 
 
 Nelly did not quite agree, yet she often asked herself 
 how she would decide if her husband were to propose that 
 she should come back and live with him once more. Hurt, 
 vexed, humiliated, she could yet have forgiven him only 
 too readily; but, because she loved him so dearly, it 
 seemed better that she should never see him again. As 
 the nightingale is said to lean her breast against a thorn ; 
 as the horse, most assuredly, in his gallant generous 
 nature, presses down and crouches on the stake that drains 
 his life-blood away — so does woman seem to derive some 
 mysterious and morbid gratification while hugging her 
 keenest sorrows tight to her bosom, and immolating herself 
 at the altar of an unworthy idol, that looks down on the 
 sacrifice calm, pitiless, and imperturbable, with a stony 
 smile. But whatever might have been her decision, she 
 would have liked at least the option of refusing. And day 
 by day Nelly's step became heavier, the colour faded from 
 her cheek, as visitor after visitor poured into the hotel, but 
 no Mr. Roy. 
 
 He was differently employed. Putting off from week to 
 week his intention of going back, he left Mrs. Mopus, much 
 to her contentment, in sole command at Royston Grange, 
 while he amused himself with the gaieties of early spring 
 in London, and devoted his spare time to the dangerous 
 society of Lady Jane.
 
 160 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 It was not long before people begun to talk. " So sorry 
 we could not come to you, my dear, we dined with Lady Jane 
 de Banier. Who had you ? ]\Ir, Roy, of course ! It's 
 really getting too barefaced. She has not been a widow 
 eighteen months, and there she is, flaunting about in 
 colours, and I don't know what all, with a married man ! 
 It's true, my dear, I assure you. There's a wife hidden 
 away somewhere in the country. Lord Fitzowen has seen 
 her, and declares she is perfectly beautiful. Jane ought 
 really to be spoken to. One must draw a line ; and if 
 nobody else has courage to give her a hint, I will do it 
 myself." 
 
 So Jane was spoken to, with the usual result. She 
 resented such interference warmly, and became only the more 
 engrossed with her present fancy, that it was represented 
 as injurious to the future of her children, and hazardous to 
 her own good name. *' I suppose you would have me go 
 about in a yash-mak, with a guard of what-d'you-call-'ems," 
 protested her ladyship, tossing her head in high dudgeon. 
 " Thank you, I'd rather not ! I am a Christian woman in 
 a Christian country, and I think I am the best judge of my 
 own conduct." 
 
 Then she had a quiet little cry, and sat down to write 
 an incoherent note to Mr. Roy, entreating him not to come 
 near her again, which brought him to her door in a violent 
 hm-ry within half an hour of its delivery. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that although her friends 
 expressed great dissalisfaction among themselves, they 
 dined with her readily enough, notwithstanding the ob- 
 noxious Mr. Roy, issuing their own invitations to the 
 imprudent couple freely in return, so as to afford them 
 every opportunity of meeting at home and abroad. 
 
 Ere long the one was never asked to anything without 
 the other, and an easy-going world made up its mind to 
 recognise this indiscreet renewal of former intimacy as " an 
 established thing."
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS 161 
 
 Society has compiled a code of its own for Avhich it is 
 answerable to itself, aud has ruled that "one person may 
 steal a horse while another must not look at a halter." 
 The principle is sufficiently elastic, and it has been so 
 liberally extended of late that the horse-stealers are in- 
 creasing every day. I do not mean to infer Lady Jane was 
 one of these. Her conduct, though imprudent, originated 
 in the only natm*al and healthy impulse of her artificial life. 
 In girlhood she had liked John Koy honestly enough — had 
 loved him, indeed, in so far as she was capable of that 
 unworldly sentiment. She gave him up perhaps too readily, 
 but who knows what amount of pressure was put on her in 
 her own family? The female department has its secrets in 
 the households of Mayfair as of Stamboul. I dare say she 
 often lay awake crying, and envied the sweeps or the milk- 
 man when her mamma thought she was sound asleep. I 
 dare say, while she stood at the altar in that love of a 
 wedding-dress {corsage Louis Quatorze), she glanced ap- 
 provingly at her bridegroom, who was as spruce as a new 
 pin, and admitted that she liked him better than anybody 
 in the world — " bar one ! " 
 
 So she made Mr. de Bauier a good wife enough, 
 managing his house, ordering his dinner, and contradicting 
 biTn no more than was absolutely necessary before his 
 servants or his guests. She nursed him, too, kindly and 
 tenderly through his last illness, and, perhaps, never felt so 
 attached to him in her life, as the day the doctor gave him 
 over. 
 
 For weeks after the funeral she refused to see a soul, 
 going softly about the house with a pale face and red eyes ; 
 so that the very maids declared they *' never thought her 
 ladyship had been one to take on like that ! " And she put 
 up a monument to his memory, unequalled in hideousness, 
 that cost the best part of a thousand pounds. 
 
 When_she found herself a rich widow, still handsome, in 
 
 11
 
 162 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 the prime of life, was she to be wholly debarred from those 
 pleasui-es of the heart, she had given up so dutifully to 
 obey papa and mamma? Lady Jane thought not. She 
 saw men in society every day on whom she might have set 
 her affections with the certainty of a return ; but she had 
 always been fastidious, and now seemed more than ever 
 hard to please. This one was vulgar, the other over- 
 bearing, a third hunted, a fourth smoked, and the vacant 
 situation had not yet been filled on the afternoon when she 
 went out shopping in her Victoria, and met Mr. lioy. 
 
 She experienced a want in life, which the society of her 
 childi-en — two slips of girls and a fat-headed little boy — 
 proved quite inadequate to supply. There are women for 
 whom the interests of a nursery can be the end and aim 
 of existence ; but Lady Jane, though a kind, even an 
 indulgent mother, was not one of these. She had dreamed 
 her dreams, as the most practical of us will ; had even 
 imagined an ideal of her own, an impossible person, full of 
 antagonistic qualities, good and bad ; which misty phantom 
 she dressed in the remnants of her old, worn-out attach- 
 ment, and believed that it reminded her of Mr. Eoy — was 
 it likely that she should let him go, when he came once 
 more within range of her attractions, — a lonely man, ill- 
 used, disappointed, with a history, and, perhaps, none the 
 less desirable that he hung just out of reach, and was not 
 exactly free. 
 
 I am a little surprised, for one, that she should have 
 asked him to tea, and then to dinner, and afterwards to 
 come and see her whenever he liked. Finally, that she 
 made her servants understand she was always at home to 
 Mr. Koy, and to nobody else when he called. 
 
 " Love is of man's life a thing apart," says Byron. I 
 fear that with the ruder and less sensitive half of our 
 species, this delightful fallacy required certain favourable 
 conditions, both of body and mind, to become the one
 
 IN THE WILDEBNESS 163 
 
 eiigi'ossing occupation of both. Love-in-idleuess, however, 
 is a plant that needs but little care or culture to arrive at 
 rich matui-ity. Like the young trees of the thrifty Scots- 
 man, it is growing while we are sleeping ; and a man who 
 has nothing to do finds plenty of time for folly when the 
 occasion ofiers. 
 
 John Roy, neglecting his duties as a country gentleman 
 and landowner, living vaguely from hand to mouth, as it 
 were, at a London hotel, undecided how to act, with no 
 certain task for to-day, no definite intentions for to-morrow, 
 was of all people in the world the most likely to drift into 
 some egregious absurdity, from a mere sense of helpless- 
 ness and discouragement, a morbid conviction that it was 
 impossible for him to keep straight, and even if he did, by 
 painful self-denial, succeed in following the right road after 
 all, what was the good ! 
 
 But he was by no means happy ; his self-love had been 
 grievously wounded ; and Lady Jane's continued prefer- 
 ence, however flattering, could not heal the sore. It was 
 pleasant, no doubt, and not very expensive, to send her 
 bouquets, and paper-cutters, and stalls at the French Play. 
 He experienced a certain excitement in watching for her 
 appearance at a party, in catching her eye across a room, 
 with the consciousness that there was a something between 
 them in which the bystanders had no share ; and in putting 
 her aff"ectionHtely into her carriage when she went away. 
 Still there was also a sense of sameness about the whole 
 aftair, he was going over the old ground that had been 
 traversed often enough before ; and a path even of roses may 
 become wearisome when it has to be trodden again and again. 
 We catch ourselves saying precisely the same things to Mary 
 that we said to Jane ; Susan's pressure of the hand is 
 exactly lilcc poor Henrietta's ; and how can we send cut 
 flowers to Margaret without repeating the message that used 
 to be forwarded with her posies to Kate ? Sometimes ho
 
 164 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 admitted that, even if he Itad married Lady Jane, he might 
 have got tired of her. Did he ever feel tired of Nelly? 
 No ! a thousand times no ! Annoyed, irritated, provoked, 
 fancying he wished he had never seen her — but weary of 
 her, certainly not. In his married life there had been 
 notliing irksome, nothing out of character, nothing of that 
 continued sense of effort which is so exhausting to a man 
 in a false position, and which made him feel something 
 akin to relief, rather than disappointed, on those rare 
 occasions when he passed an afternoon without dancing 
 attendance on Lady Jane. 
 
 How could he be happy while continually at war with 
 himself? Now he would seek Nelly out, no matter where 
 she was hiding, humble himself at her feet, and entreat 
 her to return to a home that should never be entered but 
 by their own two selves. Anon he resolved to take legal 
 measures for a separation, — nay, move heaven and earth 
 for a divorce, that he might put an end to this unsatis- 
 factory state of things by a marriage with Lady Jane. And 
 still he lived on from day to day, settling nothing, doing 
 nothing, alternately making and breaking resolutions of 
 amendment, but calling, nevertheless, at No. 27 as per- 
 sistently and nearly as often as the penny post.
 
 CHAPTEB XX 
 
 A BLUE-JACKET 
 
 In the meantime Nelly settled down to her former habits 
 at the Corner Hotel, much to the gain of that establish- 
 ment in matters of cleanliness and comfort. Mrs. Phipps, 
 who had missed her sadly, while protesting against her 
 own selfishness, could not but rejoice to have her back, 
 estimating at its real value her ueice's supervision of a 
 continually changing household. Mrs. Roy, who now chose 
 to call herself Mrs. John, as a compromise between the 
 assertions of a married woman's dignity and the indepen- 
 dence of an alias, resumed without a murmur the old 
 leathern stool on its three high legs, the folio volumes 
 ruled in red ink, the long quills, the bunches of keys, and 
 other appliances of that authority which was exercised 
 from her seat of government, a glass cage off the entrance- 
 hall, secluded from the light of day. 
 
 Servants and tradespeople saw little difference in her 
 demeanour. Punctual, exact, methodical, always decided, 
 while always courteous, she might be graver in manner and 
 slower in gesture than of old, but that was all. " Mrs. 
 John had known trouble," they observed, "along of a good- 
 for-nothing 'usband," Such a calamity, being in no way 
 remarkable, demanded little pity and less surprise. Only 
 her aunt looked below the surface. Mrs. Phipps, vexed 
 and saddened, told herself that Nelly was breaking her 
 heart for an unworthy object, as she phrased it, "out of 
 sheer nonsensical trumpery and trash." 
 
 Ifi5
 
 166 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 It was not long before the good woman boiled over and 
 spoke out. 
 
 " You'll do yourself a mischief, my dear," she expos- 
 tulated, when, coming down to breakfast earlier than usual 
 one morning, she found Nelly reading the Bible, bathed in 
 tears. "I wonder as you haven't more pride, I do. If it 
 was me, I'd never so much as waste a thought on a man 
 who could conduct himself like Mr. Roy, except to thank 
 my stars I was well rid of him . I've no patience with you, 
 nor him neither. A haughty, arbitrary, unfeeling, unprin- 
 cipled Herod. That's what he is, and I wish he may be 
 punished like Herod, and worse ! " 
 
 "Why should you blame him. Auntie," answered Nelly, 
 "if I don't? Didn't he come here after me, and couldn't 
 I go back to him any moment if I chose ? But I don't 
 choose. It would only be misery for him and for me. 
 Think what a dreadful thing for a man to be ashamed of 
 his wife." 
 
 "Ashamed, Nelly! How can you speak so random? 
 There's shame enough, I'll not deny it, but none on our 
 side. In my opinion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the 
 Queen, or tlie Lord Mayor, or somebody shoiild have the 
 power of undoing such a marriage as yours, just as if you 
 had never been asked in church at all." 
 
 " Suppose I don't wish it undone ? " 
 
 " Suppose the moon was made of gi-een cheese ! You 
 ought to wish it, you ought to insist on it ; and if I had to 
 pay twenty lawyers, twenty times over, I'd spend my last 
 shilling, but I'd see you righted. You've no spirit, Nelly ; 
 no more hadn't your poor mother. I only wish it was me. 
 If they could keep me down like that, I'd let 'em." 
 
 "It's no use worrying. Auntie. People think so 
 different. Why are both of us to be miserable ? Surely 
 one's enough. I dare say I expected too much. I have 
 been disappointed, and must bear it the best I can. I've
 
 A BLUE -JACKET 167 
 
 always got you left, and a liappy home here, haven't I, as 
 long as I like ? " 
 
 "Happy home, indeed! Yes, it ivas a happy home 
 before I let you go to that sinful place Beachmouth, and I 
 wish the sea would rise to-night and wash clean over it, I 
 do ! Forgive and forget, says they, but I am one of them 
 that can't forgive, and won't, even though I might forgot. 
 Nelly, Nelly, how can yon look me in the face and mention 
 the word happy, with your eyes as red as a chimney- 
 sweep's, and all your beautiful colour gone? " 
 
 " Nobody is quite unhappy who is doing right. Auntie. 
 I may be a little low, and out of spirits now, I don't deny 
 it ; but perhaps it's my own fault, thinking too much of 
 things that cannot be helped. It will wear off after a time. 
 Don't distress yourself about me. And, Auntie dear, if 
 Mr. Roy should come and ask to see us, don't you fly in 
 his face and be so short with him as you were last time, for 
 my sake." 
 
 " Why, Nelly, you are not going to say you'd go 
 back?" 
 
 "No, dear. I hardly think I should if he asked me ever 
 so. But we won't speak of that. Who can tell what is 
 going to happen, or where we may all be this day week? I 
 don't care to look forward much. I'm quite content to stay 
 as I am ; only if you see me rather down sometimes don't 
 you take notice. I'm such a silly that a word of kindness 
 sets me off crying in a moment, and I can't stop." 
 
 " Crying, indeed ! " concluded Mrs. Phipps ; "I'd set 
 some folks crying to a pretty tune if I had my way. 
 There, Nelly, you could always coax your old aunt to do 
 whatever you asked, from the time you was in short frocks. 
 I'll say no more ; and if I could only see you look a little 
 brighter, with a bit of colour in your cheek, there wouldn't 
 be a happier woman than me between here and St. Paul's! " 
 
 So the good lady retired to the basement, where she
 
 ICS nOY'S WIFE 
 
 could forget her vexation among those domestic implements 
 she delighted to sec in use ; while Nelly ruled another 
 column in the ledger, and made out their week's bill for a 
 family on the second floor, with unfailing accuracy of mind 
 and finger, but with a heavy heart longing to be far 
 away. 
 
 " Quite a superior person that Mrs. John," said the 
 ostensible head of the family on the second floor to its 
 actual ruler — "so quiet, so ladylike, and — handsome, I 
 should say, my dear ; shouldn't you? " 
 
 " I hardly looked at her," replied his wife, whose 
 feminine eye had scanned every feature of Nelly's face, 
 every article of her clothing, with critical inspection. 
 " Possibly she may be attractive to people who admire 
 that style. I confess I cannot interest myself about a bar- 
 maid ! " 
 
 *' Of course not, my dear," was the meek rejoinder, 
 equally sincere. "I only caught a glimpse of her by 
 accident. I dare say I was mistaken. Can I do anything 
 for you in the Haymarkct ? I thought of going as far as 
 the Club." 
 
 Must I admit that he lingered in the passage, asking for 
 letters he had no reason to expect, so as to have another 
 look at Mrs. John, if only through the blurred and dingy 
 panes of her glass cage ? 
 
 Nor was this worthy gentleman, a roundabout person of 
 mature age, under strict control of his wife, the only visitor 
 who appreciated her attractions. Every stranger of the 
 male sex coming to engage rooms, whether he went away 
 disappointed or remained rejoicing, paid his tribute of 
 respectful tones and admiring glances to the pale, sad, 
 handsome woman who seemed to superintend this estab- 
 lishment. Friends of INIrs. Phipps, suddenly remembering 
 they had been shamefully negligent, began to make after- 
 noon calls with increasing frequency, lingering and loitering
 
 A BLUE-JACKET 169 
 
 in liopes of being invited to tea, until some of the more 
 persistent discovered that the aunt presided alone over this 
 agreeable refi'eshment, and the niece was satisfied with a 
 solitary cup and plate in her glass house. She kept them 
 at a distance all alike, and if not unconscious of their 
 admiration, accepted it with calm disgust, as a necessary 
 adjunct to the situation, like blacks in a milk-jug or beetles 
 on the kitchen floor. 
 
 So the weeks dragged on. Easter set in, as usual, with 
 sleet and snow ; the sweeps were too cold to dance with 
 any attempt at merriment on May-day ; and her Majesty's 
 drawing-room was held in a pouring rain, that ladies clothed 
 in vii'tue and loyalty, but otherwise most insufficiently clad, 
 only hoped might be the forerunner of a thaw. 
 
 Everything seemed dismal enough. Tradesmen "sup- 
 posed we should have a dull season," there was no news at 
 the clubs, and those who make dinner-conversation asserted 
 incredible statistics of houses to let and coachmen out of 
 place. 
 
 But people thronged into town, nevertheless. The 
 authorities seized this opportunity to pick up the principal 
 thoroughfares, so that London, in its main streets, became 
 impassable for many hours of the day. Only by exercise of 
 exceeding patience and dexterity could the driver of a four- 
 wheeled cal) thread his way along the Strand, and when one 
 of these vehicles stopped at the door of the Corner Hotel, 
 Corner Street, the cabman grinned his thanks for an extra 
 shilling, as ha^dng obeyed his fare's injunctions to " steer 
 small." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps happened to meet this fresh arrival in the 
 entrance. At the first glance she made a bounce that 
 seemed to lift her a foot from the gTound, and it is no 
 reflection on her sense of propriety to affirm that she 
 resisted with difficulty a strong impulse to fling her arms 
 round his ncclc and hu» him to her breast.
 
 170 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 "What cliecr, Mr. Brail!" she exclaimed, between 
 laughing and crying, in the exuberance of her welcome. 
 "What cheer ! as you taught us to say before you sailed ; 
 and now I can't believe my eyes to see you back, and you 
 looking so well and hearty, not a pin the worse ! " 
 
 "The worse!" he repeated, taking both her hands; 
 " why should I be the worse? Such a welcome as a man 
 seems to get from all hands when ho sets his foot on shore 
 might bring him into port again though he had cleared out 
 for the other world. England, homo, and beauty, Mrs. 
 Phipps — that's the ticket I This is home, and you are 
 beauty. Now can you give me a bed ? " 
 
 "Ah! you're the same man still! I'm sure I wonder 
 how you keep your head on without somebody to hold it 
 down ! It wouldn't have been you, of course, to have 
 thought of writing beforehand." 
 
 " I knew you would like a pleasant surprise, my dear 
 lady. I must have a bed here in the old shop, and that's 
 all about it ! " 
 
 She looked affectionately in his frank, open face, tanned 
 by exj)osure to the colour of mahogany, contrasting well 
 with his short, crisp, light-brown hair, bearing sailor 
 written on every line, and in thorough keeping witli his 
 square, sinewy figure, his loose, powerful limbs. 
 
 "I'm full," she said, "up to the attics. I sent away a 
 French family not an hour ago, but I would rather turn out 
 myself, and sleep on the kitchen-dresser, than not make 
 room for you. Where is your luggage — your traps, as you 
 call them ? Leave them there in the passage, while I go 
 and ask Nelly what's to be done." 
 
 " Nelly ! Miss Burton ! Is she here still ? Not spliced 
 yet, nor you neither, ]\Irs. Phipps ! That's even more ex- 
 traordinary ! If I'd known you were going to keep single 
 for my sake, I would never have staid away all this time, 
 cruising after the North Pole ! "
 
 A BLUE-JACKET 171 
 
 " Go along with you ! " she answered, pushing him into 
 her sitting-room. " You're no better than you always was, 
 and you'll never mend your ways now ; but bad as you are, 
 I've lain awake many a stormy night thinking of you, and 
 I am more than pleased, young man, I am humbly thankful 
 to see you back at home once more ! " 
 
 Collingwood Brail, Esq., Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, 
 lately of her Majesty's ship Aurora, paid off after the 
 Ai'ctic Expedition, liad frequented this Corner Street 
 Hotel since the time when he used to run up from 
 Portsmouth on a week's leave, as mischievous a mid- 
 shipman as ever nibbled a biscuit, or cut a brother 
 reefer's hammock down by the head. His frank boyish 
 manners and kindly disposition wound themselves round 
 the heart of his landlady, who darned his stockings, 
 mended his shirts, and overhauled his kit generally on 
 so many occasions that she began to consider him almost 
 as a son. Once when, after a long stare at the monument 
 to Sir John Franklin near the Duke of York's column, he 
 found his pocket picked of every shilling he possessed, she 
 insisted on keeping him till his leave expired, without 
 sending in her bill, and then lent him a five-pound note 
 to take him back to his ship. She was fond of relating 
 how, in process of time, he returned the amount of his 
 debt in full, not forgetting gratuities to the servants, by the 
 hand of a staid messmate, who did not conceal, perhaps, 
 that the scraping of such a sum together out of dail}' pay 
 was indeed, as young Brail described it, "a tight fit." 
 After he was " made " he wrote to her from the Tagus, — 
 she had not an idea where it was, but prized her ship-letter 
 all the more, producing it with great importance at tea- 
 parties and such occasions of festivity, where it formed the 
 principal topic of conversation. 
 
 " It's not out of siglit out of mind with tlie blue-jackets," 
 she would say, wiping her eyes ; " and tlio warmest hearts
 
 172 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 you will find in this world of ours, take my word for it, aro 
 the hearts of oak ! " 
 
 Many a time when a gale of wind swept over London, 
 bringing showers of soot and dirt, with here and there a 
 chimney-pot crashing into the street, her blood ran cold to 
 realise the dangers her young sailor-friend must encounter 
 ten thousand miles off, where, perhaps, he was pacing the 
 deck impatient, in a dead calm, whistling for the breeze. 
 
 She could never be brought to understand this, enter- 
 taining a profound conviction that day and night a seaman 
 was always battling for life, and regarded every member 
 of the profession as a hero and martyr, with a turn for 
 conviviality and light comedy, that rendered him the plea- 
 santest companion in the world. 
 
 Next to her niece there was nobody for whom she 
 entertained so strong a personal regard as Collingwood 
 Brail. 
 
 And the man deserved it. Every inch of him was 
 gentleman and sailor — the finest combination in the 
 world. Plain and downright in conversation, but of a 
 pleasant good-nature that made it impossible to be rude, 
 he would differ with you frankly, but never put you in the 
 ^^Tong; utterly devoid of affectation in dress, manner, 
 and sentiments, he was scrupulously courteous and polite, 
 without yielding a jot of his own independence or self- 
 respect. Exceedingly deferential to women, he did not 
 seem to infer that they belonged to a different order of 
 beings either above or below his own, and to offend one by 
 word or deed would have appeared to him no less unmanly 
 than to hurt a child. As in person he was strong without 
 being clumsy, active without being restless ; so, morally, 
 he possessed good sense without pomposity, and courage 
 without bravado. 
 
 Then, besides these solid qualities, Mr. Brail had a 
 hundred trifling accomplishments, duo to his nautical
 
 A BLUE- JACKET 173 
 
 training, invaluable in social life. Nobody organised a 
 picnic, even to the tying-up of tbe bamj)ers, witb sucb 
 facility and sucb success. It seemed as if be could turn 
 his baud to anything, wbetber it were picketing tbe borses, 
 lighting a fire in the copsewood, or washing plates and 
 dishes when all was done, and he had danced a hornpipe 
 in and out tbe crockery without damage to a single article. 
 In a country bouse, too, be was never late for breakfast, 
 never sleepy at night, dressed quicker, and turned out 
 neater, than any dandy in the company' ; shot well if he 
 was asked, fished if they wanted him, rode to hounds witb 
 unbounded nerve, if little judgment, and under any con- 
 ditions would have thought it as disgraceful to confess be 
 was a pickpocket as to admit he was bored ! 
 
 "With the success he achieved in his own profession we 
 have nothing to do, but it is easy to understand how such a 
 character would be welcome everywhere to men, and exceed- 
 ingly popular with women. When Mr. Brail paid one of 
 bis visits to Corner Street as a lieutenant of a year's 
 standing, he found no diificulty in obtaining bis share of 
 those gaieties which are supposed to enliven the London 
 season. It was at a flower-show in the Horticultural 
 Gardens that our light-hearted sailor lost his liberty for 
 good in a casual introduction to Miss Bruce. Never 
 before had he found himself unequal to such social occa- 
 sions, or utterly undone and consumed by a pair of bright 
 eyes that only meant to enliven and to "warm. It was all 
 up with him in less than ten minutes. A handsome girl 
 bending over tbe azaleas, a crafty old lady enjoying his 
 discomfiture, an introduction, a bow, a walk to the next 
 tent, and he was a free man no longer. To use bis own 
 words, "He hauled down his colours at tbe first shot, and 
 for that kind of service never had the heart to hoist them 
 
 again 
 
 I "
 
 CHAPTEK XXI 
 
 THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM 
 
 A LIEUTENANT in tlie Eoyal Navy, by no means laid on the 
 shelf, could have but few opportunities of ingratiating 
 himself with a young lady in that class for which the 
 amusements of a London season constitute the great 
 business of life, during four months of every year. The 
 fact of her being an heiress, and only daughter, seemed 
 but to place her more completely out of reach ; and 
 CoUingwood Brail, walking pensively home to Corner 
 Street, had the good sense to tell himself that, for all its 
 romance, this late vision of love in the azaleas must 
 henceforth be looked back to as a dream. 
 
 The image of that handsome high-bred girl in her light 
 summer dress, herself so like a flower, would haunt him for 
 years. That could not be helped. He would think of her 
 when he walked the deck, keeping his watches in the 
 golden tropical nights, while topsails and courses were 
 bleached in the moonlight, and the ship almost steered 
 herself, smooth and easy, on an even keel. Yes, there 
 could be no harm in thinking of her at all times and 
 seasons, in harbom- or at sea, always the last thing before 
 going to sleep when he turned in. She would never know 
 it. What matter ? A man must do his duty according to 
 his rating, fore and aft, below and aloft. It was no use 
 whining ! As for getting spliced to such an angel, he 
 might as well expect to be a rear-admiral in next week's 
 
 171
 
 THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM 175 
 
 Gazette. No ; be must stick to his profession, and make 
 up bis mind not to see Miss Bruce again. 
 
 But on bis table lay a smootb, glazed card, such as be 
 disrespectfully termed an "invite to a bop," setting forth, 
 in polite language, that Mrs. Lightfoot would be at home 
 the same evening at ten o'clock, with the word " dancing " 
 added in fine Italian characters, lest visitors should be 
 taken unawares. He bad no earthly reason to suppose 
 that this hospitable lady numbered Miss Bruce among her 
 acquaintance ; but, after " holding on," as he called it, 
 in profound reflection for five minutes, he rang the bell, 
 ordered his pumps to be polished up to the nines, and 
 hardened his heart to go. 
 
 Mrs. Phipps, who had herself starched and folded his white 
 neckcloth, inspected him critically before she let him out, 
 observing, with her usual fi-eedom, that " if the young 
 ladies didn't flock round this handsome sailor, like flies 
 to a jam-pot, they was a good deal changed since her day, 
 and changed moreover for the worse ! " 
 
 Fortune, while captious and uncertain, is so far a woman 
 that she favours those who trust her without reserve. 
 Before yomig Brail had been five minutes in the dancing- 
 room, Miss Bruce entered it with her chaperone, and, to 
 the credit of our blue-jacket be it said, that he hesitated 
 not one moment, but, like the gallant tar iunnortalised in 
 verse, — 
 
 " He stepped up unto hor, and made a congee, 
 And axed of her pardon, for makin' of so free : " 
 
 leading her off in triumph to a quadrille, which, on first 
 acquaintance, is perhaps a more eligible dance than a 
 waltz. 
 
 Modest and unassuming, Collingwood Brail was by no 
 means shy. Like most of his profession, he had plenty 
 of self-confidence, of self-consciousness none at all. Miss
 
 176 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 Bruce, rather tired of the conventional dandy, who may 
 or may not, be amusing, but is invariably egotistical, 
 found her new admirer a most agreeable partner ; so 
 much so that she consented to accompany him to the 
 tea-room, unconsciously riveting his fetters with the slim 
 white hand she ungloved while giving him a bunch of 
 film and gossamer, that represented fan and handker- 
 chief, to hold in his own. These little graces completely 
 finished him. She had made him fast now with a 
 double turn, and from that moment Mrs. Lightfoot's 
 ball, its lustres, music, and decorations, with all his 
 other partners, ceased to have any intrinsic value 
 whatever, rendered precious only as contributing to the 
 greater glorification of Miss Bruce. 
 
 She danced with him once more after supper, and in 
 that blissful measure he contrived to make himself 
 acquainted with her tastes and usual haunts ; but his 
 leave was nearly out, eand he only met her again, by 
 one of those accidents which happen so often, at the 
 Royal Academy, after pervading that exhibition for three 
 mortal hom-s, till his head swam and his eyes ached, 
 while hat and boots felt so tight he could hardly bear to 
 keep them on. Here she gave him a moment of intense 
 happiness by stopping before a sea-piece, ordering him to 
 explain its details, and professing an interest in everything 
 pertaining to ships or sailors that set his pulses tingluig 
 with delight. Such confidential interviews fleet only too 
 fast, but he managed to hint that those who went to sea 
 carried with them many sweet memories from the shore ; 
 and though she looked down and made no answer, she 
 seemed to think they left behind them pleasing recollec- 
 tions in their turn. 
 
 While he walked along Piccadilly, he felt as if he had 
 hazarded a declaration in form ; but catching sight of her 
 sweet face half an hour later, in an open carriage bowling
 
 THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM 177 
 
 through the Park, a chill crept round his heart with 
 the conviction that after all they lived in separate worlds, 
 and that when out of sight he was no more to her than the 
 crossing-sweeper in the street. 
 
 There are hot and cold fits in these maladies both 
 equally unreasonable. It is strange that the more 
 experience men acquire in such matters, the less subject 
 are they to attacks of diffidence and despondency, esti- 
 mating their chances of winning in an inverse ratio to 
 their own value and appreciation of the prize. In the 
 first flush of manhood, they believe no woman thinks them 
 worth looking at ; in the decline of middle age, they fancy 
 themselves objects of interest and admiration to all. My 
 own observation leads me to conclude that in love-making, 
 as in other hazardous amusements, confidence is a prime 
 element of success. A rider should leap without misgiving 
 to the saddle, a swimmer trust himself fearlessly to the wave ; 
 and he who would advance in the good graces of a lady, old 
 or young, must be persuaded of his eventual success — above 
 all, must spare her the exertion of meeting him half-way. 
 However premature the advances of an admirer, no woman 
 is quite taken so much by surprise as she would have him 
 think. 
 
 But Mr. Brail's captain was one of those smart officers 
 who insist on the duty being done ; and within twenty-fom- 
 hours of our young lieutenant's visit to the Academy he 
 had touched his hat to Her Majesty's quarter-deck, and 
 reported himself come on board, with little chance of 
 setting foot on English ground again till the ship was 
 paid off. He might not have revisited London during the 
 whole time she remained in commission, but that he was 
 allowed to volunteer for the Ai-ctic Expedition ; and on 
 being transferred to the Aurora, made another trip to the 
 metropolis for completion of his kit. Of course he put 
 up in Corner Street, and equally of course he so disposed 
 
 12
 
 178 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 his leisure as to meet Miss Bruce more than once, perhaps 
 two or three times, always iii rooms full of people, and 
 vigilantly guarded by her friends. It was love-making 
 under difficulties, I admit. "A cat," they say, " may look 
 at a king," but she must not stare too often or too long: 
 and j)oor pussy would soon be made to know her place if 
 her eyes expressed half the affectionate admiration she felt. 
 I protest these two young people never exchanged a word 
 that might not have been entered on the ship's log, and yet 
 each was conscious of some mysterious interest in common, 
 some vague and delightful illusion shared by the other, and 
 forming the happiness of both. 
 
 Once he plucked up courage to ask for a flower — forty 
 people were looking on — and she refused. " I should like 
 to give you something better," she murmured, with a 
 glance over her bouquet that was well worth all the posies 
 ever gathered in a garden ! and from that moment a faint 
 ray of hope began to tremble in the darkness, like the false 
 dawn he had so often welcomed in his morning watch, 
 because he knew it was a sure forerunner of day. Their 
 farewell, half an hour later, somided common-place enough. 
 
 " Good-bye, Miss Bruce ! I shall not see you again 
 before I sail." 
 
 " No, indeed ! I am so sorry for you, Mr. Brail ! How 
 cold you will be ! Grood-bye ! " 
 
 But, cold as it was in latitude 84°, he contrived to keep 
 that farewell warm in his heart because of the wistful look 
 that accompanied it, and a little tremble in its accents 
 detected by no ear but his own. 
 
 And now he was back in England, hearty, safe, and 
 warm, pointed at wherever he went as one of a handful 
 of heroes, proudly conscious that he had done his duty, 
 and delighted to look in the homely, honest face of 
 his hostess once again. 
 
 " So you come to see me Jirst ! " said Mrs. Phipps in a
 
 THE QIBL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM 179 
 
 tone of exceeding triumph, when she had pushed her 
 visitor by main force into her own particular chair. 
 "Not before your mother? — now don't say it. I know 
 you better than that." 
 
 "My mother was on the jetty when I came ashore," he 
 answered laughing. " I had the greatest difficulty in 
 preventing her from treating the boat's crew with new 
 rum, and making every man-jack of them beastly drunk ! " 
 
 " Have you brought her to London ? Why didn't she 
 come here? " 
 
 " Because I left her at home. I am going back in a day 
 or two, but I was bound to get to London at once. I didn't 
 even go round by Nether-Warden to see the old ladies, I 
 was in such a precious hurry to shake you by the hand." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps wiped her eyes. So conclusive a mark of 
 friendship could not but be gratifying, and no doubt the 
 lieutenant was sincere, not in the least suspecting that he 
 hankered after London because he learned from his aunt's 
 letters that the usual inmates of Warden- Towers had gone 
 to to\Mi for the season. 
 
 "You'll take some tea, my dear ? " continued Mrs. Phipps, 
 full of affectionate hospitality. " It will be made directly the 
 kettle boils. Nelly! Nelly! " she continued, throwing up 
 the window of the glass case in which Mrs. John sat 
 over her accounts, " you're wanted in the parlour this 
 minute. Never mind the washing-book just now. 
 Here's somebody come to see you that's dropped from 
 the clouds!" 
 
 Mrs. John's heart made a great jump, and then stood 
 still. She was white to the lips as she emerged from her 
 hiding-place, and her knees so shook she could with 
 difficulty stand upright. It was wonderful how quickly she 
 recovered her composure, when, on entering her aunt's 
 sitting-room, the Arctic navigator grasped her cordially by 
 the hand. Even to herself the greeting she offered seemed
 
 180 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 cold aud restrained. It needed a strong effort to conceal 
 her disappointment and infuse a little heartiness into 
 her tone. 
 
 She had expected something so different ! — a sad, 
 forgiving face, loving, reproachful, yet more in sorrow 
 than in anger, and a hushand's arms open to take her 
 back in silent welcome to his heart and home. 
 
 The sailor only thought she looked worn, worried, and in 
 weak health, attributing her pale cheeks to a London 
 atmosphere, and deciding that she wanted nothing to set 
 her up again but a good long cruise in the country for 
 change of air. 
 
 "Why, Miss Burton!" he exclaimed, with friendly 
 interest and concern, "you've not been ill, have you? 
 Handsome you always were, and always will be, but, 
 my dear young lady, what have you done to lose all your 
 roses since I saw you last ? " 
 
 "You must not call me Miss Burton," she replied, with 
 the ghost of a smile. " I go by the name of John now — 
 Mrs. John — do you think it pretty ? Hasn't auntie told 
 you I've got married while you were at sea?" 
 
 "Married!" he repeated. "Spliced! You take away 
 my breath! And yet," he added gallantly, "I don't 
 know why I should be sm-prised, except at your finding 
 anybody good enough. Well, I hope you are very happy, 
 and I'm sure I wish you joy with all my heart ! " 
 
 He took both her hands, and wondered to feel them lie 
 so cold and listless in his own. 
 
 Nelly had plenty of courage. Her frank, open disposi- 
 tion made her only too ready to take the bull by the horns, 
 and it was her nature to trust a friend without reserve. 
 
 " Mr. Brail," said she, "joy does not come by wishing, 
 and whether it's our own fault or not, very few of us seem 
 meant to be happy in this world. I am married, as I told 
 you. I can't bring myself to wish it undone, and yet I
 
 THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM I8i 
 
 know it would have been better to remain as I was. I had 
 rather hear your adventures than talk of myself. Now sit 
 down again in that easy-chair, till aunt comes back with 
 the tea, and tell me about the North Pole — wasn't it very 
 cold?" 
 
 He could not help laughing. " Cold ! yes, of course it 
 was cold, else there wouldn't be such a lot of ice. It's 
 very odd, since I came ashore everybody has asked me 
 the same question. I feel sure my aunts will want to know 
 if I wore flannel next my skin, and had my bed warmed 
 evei-y night ! Cold and lime-juice, lime-juice and cold, 
 that's all a landsman can make of the expedition. Good 
 things in their way, but a man may have a surfeit of 
 both." 
 
 "We heard you had too much of one and too little of 
 the other," said Nelly, who sometimes read a morning 
 paper ; chiefly, I believe, to see if Mr. Roy was mentioned 
 in the fashionable intelligence. 
 
 " Ah ! now you want me to tell tales out of school ! 
 Don't believe what you see in the newspapers, Miss Burton 
 — I beg your pardon, Mrs. John. There's many a lubber 
 sits in a warm room with a pen in his hand professing to 
 teach me my duty two thousand miles off in a gale of wind 
 on a lee-shore, and all the while it would puzzle him to 
 take a Thames wherry from London to Southwark ! 
 When I see a statement in print, my first impression 
 is not to believe a word of it." 
 
 Nelly stared, never having considered the great invention 
 of civilisation from this point of view, but felt inclined to 
 agree with the out-spoken seaman nevertheless. 
 
 "I'll believe all you tell me," she observed; "only begin 
 at once. Aunt will be here with the tea in five minutes, 
 and I've heard nothing yet." 
 
 " First, will you answer me a question ? " 
 
 " Of course, if I can."
 
 182 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 " Is there much going on just now in the way of — in the 
 way of — well, gaiety, I suppose you call it, Mrs. John. 
 Dances and parties, and that kind of thing? " 
 
 " I am the last person to ask," she answered, half 
 surprised, half amused. " I can give you the Morning 
 Post, if you like, and you can see for yourself. You 
 may believe the fashionable column, though it is in 
 print," 
 
 "All right," he said. "Now I'll be as good as my 
 word. I am ready to tell you everything you want to 
 know." 
 
 While he spoke INIrs. Phipps entered the room, followed 
 by a maid with a well- spread tray, and the account of the 
 Arctic Expedition was deferred till after tea.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 CIRCE 
 
 The Royston butcher, a prosperous person who generally 
 owns a trotter, has driven away from the back premises of 
 the Grange with a well-pleased smile. The baker also, 
 a chm'ch-warden and man of mark in the parish, has 
 shouldered his basket, and returned to his ovens at peace 
 with all mankind. One or two shop-keepers from the 
 neighbouring market-town have been paid their bills 
 in full, finding, much to their contentment, that the 
 housekeeper is satisfied with a smaller douceur than 
 they were prepared to give. Mrs. Mopus, they opine, 
 is an excellent woman of business, methodical, clear- 
 headed : quite the lady in dress and manners, with a 
 proper sense of that live-and-let-live system which seems 
 so advantageous to the profits of their respective trades. 
 Mr. Roy leaves everything to her management : she under- 
 stands economy thoroughly, and is not above the duties of 
 her place. 
 
 These would seem more onerous than might be supposed 
 in the absence of the family, and consequent diminution of 
 weekly expenditure. They confine Mrs. INIopus for hours 
 together in her own private apartment, where she sits over 
 her desk in the attitude of a child learning to write, trying 
 steel-pens one after another with a degree of care and 
 precision that appears superfluous for so easy a task as 
 the adding up a column of figures in a book. " It's a 
 
 183
 
 184 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 difficult job," says she, stretching her fingers, cramped 
 with long-continued effort, "but I have mastered it at 
 last. I don't think you would know one writing from 
 the other yourself, my fine madam, and I'm sure Mr. Koy 
 wouldn't, even if he should take it into his simple head to 
 audit his own accounts — a thing he has never done but 
 twice since I've been with him. That man was born to be 
 put upon. If I didn't make my profit of liim, another 
 would ! " 
 
 Then she drew from a drawer a sheet of note-paper 
 on which were a few lines of directions for the repair 
 of table-linen, written in Mrs. Roy's clear running hand, 
 and compared it with her own imitation. The latter 
 was an exact counterpart of its original : and so well 
 had Mrs. Mopus succeeded in her dishonest undertaking, 
 that she had taught herself to falsify, without fear of 
 detection, entries and figures in the house-books, which 
 Mrs. Roy, till the day of her departure, had scrupulously 
 kept with her own hand. She expected to reap no small 
 harvest from her ingenuity when her master came to settle 
 these ; and was enabled, therefore, to discharge the 
 tradesmen's bills with a liberality that astonished them, 
 both on Mr. Roy's account and her own. 
 
 She had received a letter from him to say that he would 
 be home on the morrow, but only for a few hours, to look 
 round the place, pay bills, and leave her some money to go 
 on with. Business in town, he wrote, obliged him to 
 return by the evening train, and Mrs. Mopus, keen-sighted 
 enough when her own interests were concerned, trembled 
 lest this business should mean overtures of reconciliation 
 with his wife. 
 
 "Not if I know it ! " she muttered, shutting her desk 
 with a vicious snap. " It has been ' pull devil, pull 
 baker ' ever since she first came into our house, with her 
 cool commanding airs and mean prying ways. It will
 
 CIBCE 185 
 
 be strange if I can't pull hardest yet. I am up to your 
 tricks, my lady. I can see through you as if you was 
 made of glass ; and the day you walk in at the fi-ont 
 door, I walk out at the back ! But that day will never 
 come — don't think it ! Other people can turn gentle- 
 men round their fingers besides you; and it's strange 
 if Mr. Eoy don't believe just whatever I please. Dear, 
 dear, if I had only been ten years younger, I could 
 have made a fool of him, as well as any lady in the 
 land!" 
 
 He was making a fool of himself, at present, without 
 even the excuse of downright earnest for his extrava- 
 gancies. Resolving every morning to break off his 
 intimacy with Lady Jane, and calling on her every 
 afternoon, he was yet tortured by a hankering after the 
 wife who had left his house, while pride and indecision 
 alike forbade his aiming at a better understanding, and 
 he scorned even to inquire whether she was in London or 
 not. 
 
 Her ladyship, too, had become captious and exacting. 
 There is nothing a woman accepts so readily as a false 
 position ; nothing that, after she has tried it, irritates her 
 so much. " What do I care for the world's opinion, if 
 I have only got you!" Though somewhat reckless, does 
 not the sentiment seem noble, generous, self-sacrificing ? 
 How much less sweet is the same voice in a month or 
 two, when it protests, "You have no consideration — 
 no proper feeling. One cannot be too careful, when 
 everybody is watching, and you have no right to show 
 me up ! " 
 
 AVhat Lady Jane wanted, as she told herself, was that 
 Mr. Roy should put away his wife and marry her out of 
 hand. To talk of its being impossible, was all nonsense. 
 Did not people, we all knew, get divorces every day ? 
 This she was justified in expecting, and with less than
 
 186 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 this she would not be satisfied. If Mr. Roy had neither 
 courage nor ability to take so decided a part, there was but 
 one alternative : she must give him up, brave the covert 
 sarcasm of her friends, who, while applauding her prudence, 
 would infer that he had got tired of her, and resolve never 
 to see him again ! She did not half like the notion. How 
 dull her afternoons would be without him ; and if she 
 wanted to be taken to the play, she must be taken by 
 somebody else ! Her ladyship rather prided herself on 
 constancy, and was beginning to fancy, Avith admirable 
 self-deception, that she had been in love with Mr. Roy all 
 her life. 
 
 These conflicting feelings, this consciousness of in- 
 sincerity, or rather what we may term half-heartedness, 
 was bad for the tempers of both. The one thought the 
 other exacting, the other not only thought, but said, she 
 was ill-used. The gentleman grew silent, the lady spiteful. 
 On a certain evening, while shivering together in a chilly 
 cloak-room, they almost came to open rupture : and 
 though the Latin poet tells us that lovers' quarrels are a 
 renewal of love, Cupid in London is exceedingly im- 
 patient of punishment. If you whip this little unbreeched 
 boy too smartly, he is apt to run away and take refuge 
 with somebody else ! 
 
 The most permanent attachments are those of which 
 the stream glides smooth and silent. Custom sits com- 
 fortably by the drawing-room fire, long after sentiment 
 had been turned out of doors into the street. If I 
 wanted a lady to care for me, she should hear of me 
 very much, and see me very little; for you must keep 
 your hawk hungry, when you would have her stoop 
 freely to the lure. I should never come near her 
 unless prepared to be agi'eeable ; and though true as 
 steel, of course, would not let her feel too certain of 
 her dominion while I was out of sight. Above all, I
 
 CIBCE 187 
 
 should avoid such scenes as the following, which were 
 now enacted by Lady Jane and her old admirer, almost 
 every day. 
 
 "Where did you go last night when you left here? 
 Straight home?" 
 
 " No. It was too early for bed, and I went on to smoke a 
 cigar at my club." 
 
 " Nowhere between? " 
 
 "Well, I just looked in at Lady Pandora's; but I 
 don't think I stayed five minutes." 
 
 " Lady Pandora ! That odious woman ! When you 
 know I detest her ! Tlie only person in our own set that 
 I positively refuse to visit. And it was miles out of your 
 way. You must have had some attraction ? " 
 
 "What attraction could I have? She has asked me 
 regularly for every one of her Tuesdays, so I walked 
 in, made my bow, and walked out again. Why shouldn't 
 I?" 
 
 " Oh ! of course, I have no right to object, neither 
 can it matter to me, one way or the other. I dare say 
 you found it very pleasant. Who was there?" 
 
 " The Morning Post will tell you that. All London, 
 I should think, except yourself. A thousand women, each 
 with a train seven feet long. There wasn't much standing- 
 room." 
 
 " Was the Sphinx one of them ? I don't care about the 
 other nine hundred and ninety-nine." 
 
 Now the Sphinx, so called from her magnificent bust, 
 classical features, and exceeding taciturnity, was a 
 young lady recently arrived in London from the United 
 States. 
 
 For more than a year it had been the fashion to admire 
 ever}'thing American ; and the S])hinx found a series of 
 triumphs waiting for lier in Belgravia that she never 
 could have achieved in New York. Lady Jane, with
 
 188 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 considerable ingenuity of self-torment, had chosen to 
 fancy this lately-imported beauty wanted to captivate Mr. 
 Roy. 
 
 " Of course she was," answered that gentleman rather 
 nervously, for, like the rest of his sex, he dreaded the 
 commencement of a row. " I defy you to go anywhere 
 without meeting the Sphinx — as large as life, in a new 
 dress from Paris, just unpacked, worth ever so many 
 thousand dollars, and cut down to low-water mark, at 
 least!" 
 
 "You can't turn it off like that! You may as well 
 admit that you went to Lady Pandora's on purpose to meet 
 her. Don't flatter yourself I care. It's only of a piece 
 with everything else." 
 
 They were sitting as usual in Lady Jane's boudoir. 
 The visitor stretched bodily in an easy chair, mentally 
 laid out to be broken on the wheel ; his hostess placed 
 opposite, on a sofa, with her back to the light, and some 
 embroidery in her lap, that progressed but slowly stitch 
 by stitch. 
 
 " Lady Jane," said Mr. Roy, with a solemnity that 
 seemed ludicrous even to himself, " how often must I 
 assure you, that I care no more for the Sphinx, as you call 
 her, than I do for — for " 
 
 " Than you do for me ! Or for any of us ! " interrupted 
 her ladyship with asperity. " That only makes it worse. 
 That only shows you have no feelings, no heart. I ought 
 to have seen it long ago, when you broke off with me at 
 first ! " 
 
 This, from a lady by whom he had been outrageously 
 jilted, was " rather too good." It roused him to assert 
 himself as he should have done from the beginning. 
 
 "If you think that Lady Jane," said he, rising as 
 about to take leave, "you have done a life's injustice 
 to both of us. When we were young I loved you so
 
 CIRCE 189 
 
 dearly that to lose you drove me out of England and 
 nearly broke my heart. I think you knew this as well 
 as I did. If you had been my wife, and it was your 
 own choice that you were not, I would have tried to 
 make you happy. I see it would be impossible to do so 
 now. Perhaps it is my fault. Perhaps I am changed. 
 I have had my share of troubles, and I dare say they 
 have soured me. I may be incapable of that exagge- 
 rated devotion which women seem to expect ; but I 
 can only tell you, believe it or not as you like, that to 
 this day I go round any distance to pass the old elm 
 where you and I parted in Kensington Gardens all those 
 years ago. I had heart and feelings then. I knew it to 
 my cost ! " 
 
 His voice shook, and there was a ring of truth in its 
 tone. She bent over her work to hide the tear that 
 tvould steal over her nose and fall on the embroidery in her 
 lap. 
 
 " Sit down again," she murmured. " Are you qidte sure 
 you don't care for the Sphinx — not the least little bit in 
 the world ? ' ' 
 
 " The Sphinx ! " His tone must have carried con- 
 viction to the most suspicious of rivals, it expressed 
 so profound a contempt for the suggestion, perhaps 
 because of its extreme improbability; the young lady 
 in question, who was only half his age, being at pre- 
 sent much sought after by the highest magnates in the 
 land. 
 
 "If I could only believe it!" sighed Lady Jane, 
 smiling through her tears with an upward look that made 
 her beauty more alluring than ever. " You cannot under- 
 stand. A woman's happiness is so wholly dependent on 
 the affection of the man she — the man she — I won't be 
 afraid to say it — the man she loves ! " 
 
 Then down dropped her work on the cai-pet, and,
 
 190 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 hiding her face in her hands, she burst out crying in 
 good earnest. 
 
 To use Lord Fitzowen's expression, " the coach was 
 getting the better of the horses ; " and it was time to 
 stop now, if John Roy ever meant to stop at all. He 
 wondered what made him think of Fitz at such a 
 moment. The image of his lordship, which was some- 
 what unwelcome, and the necessity of picking up the 
 embroidery, afforded an interval of reflection, and he 
 resisted with laudable discretion his first impulse to 
 take Tjjidy Jane in his arms and console her as best he 
 might. 
 
 How she did, or did not, expect him to act, must be 
 matter of conjecture ; for at this interesting juncture, 
 the bump of a tray against the door announced the 
 arrival of a footman with tea. The lady, in spite of her 
 deeper agitation, recovered composure far quicker than the 
 gentleman ; while the well-drilled servant, whose manners 
 and figure had recommended him to several first-rate 
 situations, neither betrayed nor indeed felt the slightest 
 symptoms of surprise. 
 
 By the time a spider-table could be drawn from its 
 corner, and the tea-things arranged thereon, visitor and 
 hostess had retm-ned to their senses, the status ante was 
 re-established, and they were ready for a fresh subject of 
 dispute on which to fall out again. 
 
 "You dine here to-night, of course," said her ladyship, 
 as the footman left the room. " I have two or three men 
 coming, and I want you to be host. Don't say you have 
 ' a previous engagement,' or I'll never speak to you 
 ! " 
 If I had, I should throw it over ; and I will do my best 
 to help you with your men." 
 
 " You don't ask who they are ! IMr. Roy, I can't quite 
 make you out. I sometimes wonder, if other people paid 
 
 again
 
 "The ai"ri\al of a ioolman willi lua." 
 Roy's Wife.] [Piifir 190
 
 CIECE 191 
 
 me attention and that kind of thing, whether you would 
 mind it or not." 
 
 " Why should I mind it ? I can't expect you to shut 
 yourself up in a box ; and, of course, you must meet with 
 admu-atiou wherever you go." 
 
 "I don't want their admiration! I don't want people 
 to think me nice. At least, only one ! I wish I was as 
 sm-e of somebody else. What are you going to do to- 
 morrow ? Will you take me to the Aquarium in the 
 afternoon? " 
 
 " To-morrow I shall be out of town. I must go down to 
 Koyston Grange." 
 
 " To Ptoyston Grange ! You never told me a word about 
 it. Mr. Roy, that means that you have heard something 
 of yom* wife." 
 
 He laughed carelessly, but winced a little nevertheless. 
 " It means," he replied, " that a man with a house in the 
 country must go and look at it sometimes, if only to make 
 sure that it hasn't run away. There's a steward to see, 
 and a butler, and some horses, to say nothing of butcher 
 and baker, and such small tradesmen, who are only to 
 be convinced I haven't fled the country, by payment of 
 their accounts. Why, Lady Jane, how many weeks do 
 you suppose it is since I have seen my own home ? ' ' 
 
 "I don't know. It seems like a dream. That day 
 I met you, my brocade velvet was quite new — the first 
 time on — and I gave it to my maid this morning. Yes ! 
 it must be a good many weeks. I wish they were to 
 come over again. How long do you mean to stay away? " 
 
 " Shall you miss me ? " 
 
 "Not the least in the world! I shall only watch the 
 clock, and every time it strikes, think there is another 
 hour gone ! I shall only puzzle over Bradshaw, and 
 learn by heart all the trains that can bring you back. 
 I shall only listen to every ring at the bell, every step
 
 192 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 on the pavement, every cab in the street, till I see you 
 again. That's all ! Don't flatter yourself I shall miss 
 you! 
 
 " Then it's just possible I may not return till to-morrow 
 night." 
 
 She gave him a bright look of gratitude and affection. 
 " How nice ! I shall see you the day after. Come to 
 luncheon. As early as you can. Mr. Roy, I believe you 
 do care for me a little, after all." 
 
 Mr. Roy thought so too, wondering how this ill-fated, 
 untoward tanglement was to end.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 ARACHNB 
 
 " "Will you come into my parlour ? said the spider to the 
 fly." On the present occasion Mrs. Mopus had determined 
 to be the spider, and settled in her own mind that Mr. Roy 
 should enact the part of the fly. Her web must be thin 
 and impalpable as gossamer, but tough and holding as 
 the strongest rabbit-proof wire-netting that ever brought a 
 hunter on his nose. With a jealous temperament, covetous 
 of money, covetous of power, covetous of influence, she yet 
 entertained a half-contemptuous regard for her master, like 
 that of a schoolmistress for one of her stupid pupils, as a 
 creature to be pitied and taken care of, but punished and 
 coerced without scruple till it should do as it was bid. He 
 must come under no petticoat government but her own. 
 She had made her mind up on that point, and, above all, 
 she must keep him apart from his wife. So long as 
 Mrs. Roy was banished, so long would Mrs. Mopus rule the 
 household, retaining all the emoluments of office, and she 
 would stick at nothing to fortify so desirable a position, as 
 events sufiiciently proved. 
 
 Mr. Roy was as good as his word. After doing the 
 honours of Lady Jane's dinner-party in a constrained, un- 
 comfortable manner, no less embarrassing to the guests than 
 compromising to the hostess, he started next morning by 
 an early train, arriving at his own place in good time for 
 luncheon. That meal he found prepared with exceeding 
 
 13 193
 
 194 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 care. His favourite dishes were dressed to a nicety ; his 
 claret, cool, not cold, had been nursed to the right tempera- 
 ture, and a nosegay of garden flowers, standing in the centre 
 of the table, fresh and fragrant, scented the whole room. 
 
 "I gathered them niysolf, sir," said Mrs. Mopus, "the 
 first thing this morning, while the dew was on. You was 
 always used to flowers with your meals, sir, in old times. 
 It's well that somebody should remember your likes and 
 dislikes, Mr. Eoy, for I think you have not had fair play, 
 sir, with them that has been about you of late." 
 
 " Thank you, Mopus," answered her master, who was 
 hungry after his journey. "I'm sure you never forget 
 anything. Yes, it's all very nice, and the roses are beau- 
 tiful, and — and — when I want you I'll ring." 
 
 So she left him to discuss his meal in solitude, rightly 
 conjecturing that when his appetite was satisfied he would 
 send for her again. 
 
 After a cutlet and a glass of claret, Mr. Ptoy became 
 more at ease. The well-known carpet, the old furniture, 
 the family pictures, the freedom from restraint and general 
 sense of comfort, above all the country hush and quiet, so 
 refreshing after the ceaseless roar of London streets, made 
 him feel he was really at home. And presently, when a soft 
 breeze wafted its summer scents through the open window, 
 the force of association brought back to him his wife's 
 image, with a reality so vivid that he could almost fancy he 
 heard her light step and the rustle of her dress in the next 
 room. 
 
 Why had he not been more patient, more forgiving? 
 When she left his house, it might be only because of 
 wounded love and pride, why had he not taken more pains 
 to trace, follow, and bring her back ? Perhaps he had no 
 rival in her affections, after all. Perhaps she was at that 
 very moment pining in her hiding-place, thinking of him, 
 wishing for him, longing only to be forgiven and to come
 
 ARACHNE 196 
 
 home. If this were so, lie had done her cruel injustice, and 
 ought to repair it without loss of time. But again, why 
 had she made no advances towards reconciliation ? Why 
 had she never so much as reminded him of her existence 
 by an advertisement, an anonymous letter, a message, or 
 token of any kind ? Would a guiltless woman be content 
 thus to remain subject to the gravest suspicions ? Above 
 all, would a guiltless woman leave a home like this — and 
 he looked round with complacency — in a mere fit of un- 
 reasoning temper and caprice ! He would give a great deal 
 to find out the truth. Mopus, from various hints she had 
 dropped, seemed a likely person to afford such information 
 as he required. He would ring for Mopus, and satisfy 
 himself at once how much she did or did not profess to know. 
 
 His housekeeper answered the bell readily enough, 
 arriving with an armful of account-books, which she 
 deposited on the table at his elbow. 
 
 " I've got the bills down-stairs," said she cheerfully, 
 " and the receipts, all correct. I hope you will run your eye 
 over them, Mr. Roy. It's a sad trouble, I'm afi-aid, sir, to 
 you, but it's a satisfaction to me." 
 
 He looked askance at the pile, as a dog looks at the 
 spot where he has been punished. ''Presently, Mopus, 
 presently," he replied. "In the meantime, sit down. I 
 have one or two questions I want to ask? " 
 
 " Now it's coming ! " she thought, and nerved herself to 
 answer, right or wrong, with a steadfast regard to her own 
 interests, and nothing else. 
 
 "In the first place," he resumed, emptying his glass, 
 " do you remember coming to my room before luncheon the 
 day ray — the day Mrs. Roy left this house. 
 
 "I do, sir. It isn't likely as I should forget." 
 
 " Do you remember wliat you told me ? " 
 
 " Every mortal word, Mr. Roy. It were the truth, the 
 whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
 
 196 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 " Your Buspicions seemed excited by the frequency of a 
 certain person's visits to Mrs, Roy, and the pleasure she 
 took in his society. Was that person Lord Fitzowen ? " 
 
 " Mr. Roy, it were." 
 
 " And your observation led you to believe that there was 
 some secret understanding between them, discreditable to 
 both?" 
 
 " I won't deny it, sir. The day as you come home so 
 wet, and his lordship staid so long, I watched him and my 
 mistress, when they thought as nobody could see them, for 
 the best part of an hour, Mr. Roy ; I couldn't help it ! " 
 
 " From mere curiosity, or because you suspected some- 
 thing wrong? " 
 
 She knew that he put the question to gain time, as 
 dreading further revelations, for his lips were dry, and, 
 while he poured himself another glass of wine, the bottle 
 shook in his hand. 
 
 " Curiosity, sir ! You can't think so bad of me, I'm 
 sure. Oh, Mr. Roy, do you suppose that because I am a 
 servant I have no gratitude, no affection, no self-respect, 
 nor knowledge of right and wrong ? Was I going to see 
 you put upon, the best of masters, the kindest of gentlemen, 
 and hold my tongue ? Curiosity ! says you. I wonder at 
 you, sir. I never had no curiosity, but I can tell you I see 
 some curious things ! " 
 
 The suspense was intolerable. " What did you see ? " 
 he exclaimed. " Speak out, my good woman, in the devil's 
 name, and have done with it ! " 
 
 *' Well, sir, I see your lady walk his lordship oft' into the 
 library, where there was no j&re, and as little light as might 
 be nigh sunset on a winter's evening. It's not my place to 
 take notice, sir, but I couldn't be off noticing that. They 
 must have something very particular to say, thinks I, if it 
 can only be said in the dark. If you will believe me, Mr. 
 Roy, I was that upset I could hardly trust my own eyes ! "
 
 ABACHNE ' 197 
 
 " Why didn't you follow them '? It was your duty to 
 
 we/" 
 
 " I've done my duty hy you, Mr. Koy, fair and square, 
 ever since I come into yom* house, but there's things that 
 is in a servant's place, and things that is out of a servant's 
 place. Mr. Koy, I hope I know mine. No, sir. I ran up 
 to my room, locked my door — there's Sophy up-stairs can 
 prove it if you ask her — and cried till it was time to put 
 the dessert out, because I felt so vexed." 
 
 He rose and paced the floor, muttering and gesticulating 
 as if he were alone. Mrs. Mopus, watching him carefully, 
 resolved on giving the poison time to work. 
 
 "I can't believe it!" said he. "I won't believe it! 
 After all, there is nothing tangible, no positive evidence, no 
 actual proof. I shouldn't have a leg to stand on in a court 
 of law. Oh ! what would I not give to be quite sure one 
 way or the other ! " 
 
 "Will you please cast your eye over the accounts?" 
 continued Mrs. Mopus, in a matter-of-fact, business-like 
 tone, as wholly ignoring all this by-play. " There's an 
 overcharge of one-and-ninepence in the ironmonger's bill, 
 but I have placed it to your credit, sir, on the next page ; 
 and Sarah's wages is paid up to the day she left, and the 
 new maid begins on the 24th. I think you will find every- 
 thing correct." 
 
 So Mrs. Mopus glided softly out of the room, rightly 
 concluding that she would be left undisturbed for the next 
 hour at least. 
 
 A good deal, she reflected, might be accomplished in an 
 hour with skill, courage, ingenuity, and, above all, a steady 
 hand. 
 
 John Roy sat over his house-books without moving a 
 finger, scarcely an eyelash, staring hard at the straight- 
 ruled columns, yet taking little note of their homely details 
 as to expenditure of pounds, shillings, and pence.
 
 198 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 He was back in the wet spring weather once more, bran- 
 dishing his billhook among the dripping laurels, cheerful, 
 contented. Yes, he was contented then, he told himself, 
 with a happy home and a wife he loved. After all, what 
 mattered her little shortcomings in manner and knowledge 
 of the world ? They only made her seem more charming, 
 more unsophisticated, more entirely his own ! When Lord 
 Fitzowen cantered up the park to pay his visit, Nelly 
 had been more precious than rubies, a treasure beyond 
 price. 
 
 Then with that fatal evening rose the rankling doubt. 
 Could such gold be dross, such a diamond only paste after 
 all ? He had been forbearing, he thought, and patient, 
 had not judged hastily nor in anger, had used his own 
 faculties, calm and temperate, like a rational being. Could 
 he have arrived at any other conclusion but that his wife 
 was false ? Good, faithful Mopus seemed to entertain no 
 doubt, and for these matters women had far quicker eyes 
 than men. Well, it simplified everything to be satisfied of 
 her guilt. There tvas a heart left that could console even 
 such a calamity as his ; a heart that had ached for him 
 through long years of separation, and that wished no better 
 than to make its home on his breast at last ! Could he 
 obtain actual proof of his wife's infidelity, he might do 
 Lady Jane justice, and ask her to marry him as soon as 
 the Court of Probate and Divorce would allow. 
 
 It was characteristic of the man, that when he came to 
 this determination he could so far abstract his mind from 
 his grievances, as to add up column after column in Mrs. 
 Mopus's books with the attention of a lawyer's clerk. The 
 mistress, no doubt, would have detected seven-and-sixpence 
 charged for oil that ought to have cost five shillings, half-a- 
 crown for soap and candles instead of eighteenpence, and a 
 consumption of cheese below- stairs that might have supplied 
 the county ; but master, in happy ignorance, passed swim-
 
 ARACHNE 199 
 
 miiigly over all such trifles, congratulating himself on the 
 accuracy of his o^vu arithmetic, which tallied with his 
 housekeeper's to the uttermost farthing. 
 
 " I will send j'ou a cheque by to-morrow's post," said 
 he, meeting her in the passage. "Don't mention it, sir ! " 
 answered Mrs. Mopus in her blandest manner, but con- 
 tinuing to interpose her person, which was tolerably sub- 
 stantial, between Mr. Roy and the hall-door. He knew he 
 had not done with her yet. " What is it, Mopus? " he 
 asked, with less impatience than he would have shown to 
 any other servant in his household, because of all she 
 knew. " There was one thing more, sir," said she, looking 
 paler and speaking quicker than usual. " Only one thing 
 as I wanted to ask about particular. But I wouldn't trouble 
 you to-day, Mr. Roy, not if you was likely to be soon here 
 again." 
 
 " Soon here again, my good woman ! Certainly not. Do 
 you suppose I have nothing else to do but travel up and 
 down our hateful railway in trains that never keep their 
 time ? Out with it once for all and have done ! I hope 
 you won't see me again for six months." 
 
 What a white face was that of which the features 
 twitched so uneasily and the eyes could not be brought to 
 meet his own ! He did not fail to notice her changed 
 appearance ; and before she could speak a word in reply, 
 asked anxiously if she was ill. 
 
 "I have not been quite myself, sir, for the last day or 
 two," answered Mrs. Mopus ; " and it's such a pleasure to 
 see you back in your own home, Mr. Roy, that it has upset 
 me a bit, that's all. What I wanted to speak about was a 
 jewel-case as yom* lady left on her table unlocked. I should 
 wish to give it over into your hands, sir, just as it was 
 when she went away." 
 
 " All right, IMopus. Let us go and have a look at it." 
 
 So they went up-stairs to poor Nelly's room, the husband
 
 200 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 hardening himself at every step against a host of memories 
 and associations painfully connected with his wife. 
 
 Mrs. Mopus, pointing out a shallow, oblong box, observed 
 that, having found it unsecured, she had neither touched it 
 herself, except to dust, of course, nor suffered the maid to 
 do so, till her master should come home. " And now, sir," 
 she added, " it's only fair for you to open it this minute 
 and see what it contains with your own eyes." 
 
 He complied languidly enough, as taking little interest 
 in the matter. There were but a few chains and bracelets 
 of trifling value coiled in their velvet resting-places, and he 
 was wondering vaguely what he should do with them when 
 Mrs. Mopus, who watched every movement, called his 
 attention to the tray on which these trinkets were disposed, 
 obsemng there might be bank-notes or what-not, as she 
 expressed it, put away in the vacant space beneath. He 
 lifted it, accordingly, to find a sheet of letter-paper bear- 
 ing his wife's monogram, (how well he remembered that 
 morning in the library when they invented this hideous 
 device between them), inscribed with a few sentences 
 WTitten in her clear, fine running hand ! The first line 
 sent the blood to his head, and but that he caught the 
 edge of the dressing-table to steady himself, he must have 
 staggered against the wall. With the British instinct, 
 however, that forbids a man acknowledging a hurt, and 
 prompts him to get on his feet again directly he has been 
 knocked down, John Roy folded the paper, and coolly 
 putting it in his pocket, thanked his housekeeper for the 
 care she had taken of his property, and desired her to 
 lock the jewel-case away in one of her store-closets, as he 
 felt confident it would be even safer in her hands than his 
 own. 
 
 While she curtsied her acknowledgments he passed out, 
 muttering something about the "stable," and that "he 
 should see her again before he went." But his voice was
 
 ARACHNE 201 
 
 hoarse and indistinct, his face drawn and white, like that 
 of a man who has sustained some mortal hurt. 
 
 It was half an hour before he visited his horses ; an 
 interval of time he spent pacing a walk skirted by thick 
 Portugal laurels, that screened it from observation of prying 
 eyes, either in the house or ofBces. During this half-hour 
 he resolved on his future course. There seemed no more 
 room for doubt, no further plea for compunction or delay. 
 He had substantial proof in his pocket at last, and the 
 woman who had deceived him need be his wife no longer, 
 by the laws of earth or heaven. 
 
 It was a relief to see his way clear before him ; it was a 
 satisfaction to know he could do a loving heart justice after 
 all ; but it was a torment and a puzzle to feel at this most 
 untoward juncture that he could not resist instituting many 
 comparisons between Nelly and Lady Jane.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 OUT OF SOUNDINGS 
 
 "Is Mr. Brail going to live with us altogether, Auntie? " 
 asked Mrs. John from the recesses of her glass-house, 
 while she made out that naval officer's frugal account under 
 a date that showed how many weeks he had hecu in the 
 occupation of his hedroom. " He's a credit and a comfort, 
 I won't deny ; but don't you think, Auntie, he ought not 
 to waste his time in London ? And I fancy he's unhappy 
 too, which seems so strange in a man." 
 
 Nelly's own experience led her to overrate the advantages 
 of the other sex ; she did not understand how masculine 
 spu-its could be affected by anything short of positive mis- 
 fortune or ill-health. 
 
 "He won't wear out his welcome here in a hurry," 
 answered Mrs. Phipps with a beaming smile. " It's like 
 old times to have both of you back at once ; and if I could 
 see one look a little merrier, Nelly, I wouldn't trouble about 
 the other. However, he must be on the move again soon, 
 he says. He's not been down to visit those aunts of his 
 in the country yet, and he was never one to forget old 
 fi-iends. But I don't think he takes so much pleasure in 
 things as he used, and I've seen him looking out of spirits 
 sometimes myself, what I call "down," when I've met 
 him going in and out. I wonder what's the matter with 
 him." 
 
 " I can tell you, Auntie — Mr. Brail is in love ! "
 
 OUT OF SOUNDINGS 203 
 
 "Lor, Nelly! Not with you, my dear? — don't say it. 
 Well, I should have thouo-ht he was the last to trouble 
 about the women. You surprise me, my dear! And I 
 remember him a slip of a lad in a jacket and turn-over 
 collars ! Are you sure, Nelly ? How can you tell ? " 
 
 The niece knew the symptoms. So, perhaps, did her 
 aunt long ago, though the good lady had forgotten such 
 frivolities now. 
 
 "I'm certain of it," said the former, " Don't you see 
 that he wears kid gloves, and a flower in his button-hole ? 
 The flower I think little of, but clean gloves mean they are 
 vei-y far gone. It's the worst sign of all ! " 
 
 "And you don't know who it can be, Nelly?" asked 
 Mrs. Phipps, keenly interested. " I should think as the 
 best lady in the land would never deny Mr. Brail, not 
 unless she had given her heart to somebody else, of 
 course." 
 
 "Why, Auntie," laughed Nelly. "I believe you're in 
 love with him yourself. What a pity you don't encourage 
 him ! He might live with us for good and all, and give no 
 more trouble making out his bill." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps, pleased to see her niece so cheerful, 
 laughed hearlily — " If I was j^our age, Nelly," said she, 
 " and he made bold to ask, don't you be too sure I should 
 say No ! Well, my dear, if the young man must have 
 an attachment, I can only pray it may be a happy one. 
 There's ups-and-downs in most things, 'specially in keeping 
 an hotel ; but of all uncertain business in the world matri- 
 mony is the most risky. Sometimes you make fifty per 
 cent, profit without so much as moving in j^our chair, and 
 sometimes 3'ou find you are broke before you can turn 
 round ! My dear, I'm not sure but that for us women it 
 isn't better let alone." 
 
 Nelly pondered. Hers had indeed been a ruinous specu- 
 lation, yet she could scarcely bring herself to wish she had
 
 204 nOY'S WIFE 
 
 never tfikcn her chance. It was something to have enjoyed 
 that one fortnight of happiness at Beachmouth, something 
 to feel assured it had been shared by the man she loved, to 
 know that he could never again all his life long see a strip 
 of tawny sand, a sea-gull on the wing, or the white curl of 
 a wave without thinking of the wife he misunderstood so 
 cruelly, though she prized his happiness far above her own. 
 
 "It's weary work, Auntie," said she with a sigh. 
 " Sometimes I wish I had never been born, and then I 
 hate myself for being so ungrateful and so wicked. After 
 all, there's a good time coming, if we can only keep 
 straight. Everybody has reason to be thankful, and I 
 often feel ashamed to feel so dismal and out-of-sorts 
 just because I can't make the world over again in my 
 own way." 
 
 "Nonsense! Nelly. You're too good for any of us. 
 You're a sight too good for him. But we won't speak of 
 that, for I tell you it gives me the cold creeps right down 
 my back. Happily we are not all made alike — gentlemen 
 especially. There's as much difference in men as there is 
 in your boots, my dear. Some will let the water through 
 the first time on, and others will last you, rough and smooth, 
 wet and dry, till they're worn into holes. If our Mr. Brail 
 is not sound leather, Nelly, I'll go about in my stocking- 
 feet for the rest of my life ! " 
 
 Mrs. Phipps was no bad judge. The gallant lieutenant 
 knew his own mind, and was prepared to encounter any 
 difficulties on the chance of winning the girl he loved, just 
 as he would have faced a battery, or an ironclad, or the 
 surf on a dangerous reef, with a quiet, cool resolution that 
 was discouraged by no obstacles, wliile it never threw a 
 chance away. If the enemy were to baffle his attack, or 
 the broken water to swamp his boat, he would at least 
 perish like a gentleman true to the death, and go down 
 with all the honours of war !
 
 OUT OF SOUNDINGS 205 
 
 But the pursuit of a young lady through fashionable 
 circles, by an admirer whose position affords him no pre- 
 scriptive right of entrance, is up-hill work, involving much 
 expenditm'c of time, much exercise of ingenuity, much 
 anxiety, heart-bui-ning, and consumption of that dirt which 
 frank and generous natures eat with exceeding difficulty 
 and disgust. It is bad enough to undergo the daily torture 
 of uncertainty as to her engagements, an uncertainty as she 
 cannot be altogether a fi-ee agent, that is shared by herself, 
 to fret and fume when she misses an appointment, or, keep- 
 ing it, is monopolised b}^ a score of rivals, with all the odds 
 of wind and tide, tonnage, and weight of metal on their side ; 
 but it is worse to feel at a disadvantage, even when she has 
 done her best to bridge over the gulf of an irrational and 
 offensive conventionalism, because of the illiberal free- 
 masonry that excludes outsiders from exchanging the 
 passwords of the craft ; and, worst of all, to detect in her 
 constrained manner, her wandering attention, that she, too, 
 admits certain deficiencies in her adorer, and pays him so 
 doubtful a compliment as to wish him other than he is. 
 
 Though the world we live in, from increasing numbers, 
 becomes less artificial every day, there is yet room for 
 improvement in our manners, as regards that genial 
 com'tesy which extends the same privileges to all who 
 have been favoured with the same invitation. A true 
 gentleman desires to place his companions on his own 
 level, and, following the example of the highest gentle- 
 man in the land, raises his society without lowering himself, 
 sharing with each the interest or amusement of the hour, 
 and, to use a familiar expression, allowing nobody " to be 
 left out in the cold ! " 
 
 "I have been hunting you about like a dog that has 
 lost its master," whispered Brail, in a certain ball-room to 
 which he had obtained access, at the cost of two afternoon 
 teas, attended from five till seven, a box at the French
 
 206 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 Plaj', and a dinner to a young cub aged sixteen at his club. 
 " Will you give me a dance at once, or must I be put on 
 the black list, and wait till after supper ? Miss Bruce, I 
 scarcely ever see you now." 
 
 Such whispers are usually answered out loud when any- 
 body is listening, whereas young ladies prefer to speak very 
 low, if sure of not being overheard. 
 
 "Do you know my chaperone?" was Hester's incon- 
 sequent reply — " Lady Pandora, Mr. Brail." 
 
 " Who is he, my dear? and what ? " asked her ladyship, 
 who had no compunction in treading on the tenderest of 
 feet, and spoke in a fine sonorous voice through her nose. 
 "I never heard the man's name before." 
 
 "A friend of papa's," answered Miss Bruce readily, and 
 passing her arm through the sailor's, permitted him to lead 
 her off to a quadrille. 
 
 How his honest heart thrilled as he felt that hand lie so 
 lightly on his sleeve. What would he have done could he 
 have known what I know, that Hester had discovered him 
 ten minutes ago, and kept this dance disengaged on 
 purpose ? I think he would have gone down on his knees 
 to her before the whole quadrille, taking his chance of 
 removal to a mad-house or a police-station then and there. 
 
 She was not going to confess how much she liked him 
 for a partner, but she did whisper, with a pretty little blush 
 — " Lady Pandora takes me out, you know, wlien papa is 
 engaged. She gives a ball of her own on the 13th." 
 
 He had not served so short an apprenticeship but that 
 he could accept the hint, and turned his mind at once to 
 the problem of how he should get an invitation. On reflec- 
 tion, he determined he would ask Lady Pandora to go down 
 to supper, and ply her with champagne. 
 
 Miss Bruce did not fail to notice his abstraction and 
 express her disapproval. 
 
 "Have you anything to tell me about your travels?"
 
 OUT OF SOUNDINGS 207 
 
 said she, with a toss of her handsome little head. " You 
 might have been no farther than Putney, for all I have 
 heard vet." 
 
 " Do you care to know? " he asked, feeling exceedingly 
 foolish, and trying not to look too much in love. " Haven't 
 you forgotten all about ships and sailors in that long eight- 
 teen months? " 
 
 "Why should you think I have so short a memory? Is it 
 out of sight out of mind with you directly you get into blue 
 water ? That is what I ought to say, if I remember right. 
 Your vis-d-vis is dancing alone. Why don't you attend to 
 the figure?" 
 
 So he was compelled to break off at this interesting 
 junctm'e and go cruising about, as he called it, over the 
 well-planked floor. Before he could bring to, again, Miss 
 Bruce's mood had changed. 
 
 "I wonder you don't write a book," said she; "an 
 account of your Arctic adventures. I am sure it would 
 be very funny." 
 
 "Funny!" 
 
 " Well, I mean very interesting. My cousin Frank 
 wrote a narrative of his voyage to the Scilly Islands. I 
 didn't read it, but everybody said it was capital." 
 
 " Everybody is interested in the Scilly Islands ; nobody 
 would buy a book about the North Pole." 
 
 " Nonsense ! It would bring you in loads of money. I 
 will take half-a-dozen copies myself." 
 
 " Wliy need you ? Don't you know that I should like 
 nothing better than to sit and spin yarns to you from 
 morning till night? Don't you know " 
 
 " Don't you know that you are cavalier seul } Really, 
 Mr. Brail, I have danced with a great many inattentive 
 partners, but you are quite the most careless of all ! " 
 
 " You would make any partner inattentive. And it's 
 just the same when you are leagues and leagues away. Do
 
 208 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 you know, Miss Bruce, one night when it was my middle 
 watch, and I was thinking of you " 
 
 " What's a middle watch ? You can't wear three watches 
 at a time ! I never heard of more than two, and then only 
 on Dick Turpin or Claud Duval — grand rond. Give that 
 lady your other hand. Now make me a sea-bow, and take 
 me back to Lady Pandora. Perhaps she will ask you to 
 her ball." 
 
 Surely this was encouragement enough. Surely he need 
 not have felt disappointed that he could make no more 
 of the opportunities afforded by their dance, and that the 
 sentiments he would fain have expressed were cut short by 
 the exigencies of the figure. Whether or no, his life had 
 at least taught him at all times to improve the occasion, 
 and when Miss Bruce was carried off in the gyrations of a 
 waltz by a long-legged gentleman with a glass in his eye, 
 Mr. Brail did his best to ingratiate himself with the for- 
 midable lady who had his treasure in charge. 
 
 This was a less difficult task than he expected, for the 
 girl had whispered to her chaperone that he was " the 
 famous Mr. Brail, the great Arctic explorer," and her 
 ladyship, who dearly loved anything in the shape of a 
 celebrity, was prepared to afford him the more homage 
 that she had not the remotest idea where, or why, or how 
 he had earned his claim. 
 
 When a lady has become, I will not say too old, but too 
 hea\7 to dance, it is touching to observe how unselfishly 
 she resigns that wild excitement, those tm-bulent pastimes, 
 for which the majesty of her figure is now unfitted, and 
 contents herself with the many pleasures she has left. 
 Because obliged to sit on a chair against the wall, it does 
 not therefore follow that she has become wholly unattractive 
 to the simpler sex. While lighter limbs are bouncing and 
 darting and getting hot in the turmoil of the dancing-room, 
 she may while away many pleasant moments in the cooler
 
 OUT OF SOUNDINGS 209 
 
 atmosphere of gallery, conservatory, or staircase, with that 
 interchange of sentiment and opinion which is just too 
 earnest for small talk, too conventional for flirtation. 
 Should it overleap the bounds of the latter, is it the 
 less welcome? Should it foil short of the former, is 
 there not the unfailing resource of the supper-rooms? 
 And can anything be more delightful than a judicious 
 combination of all three ? It is a closer race than we 
 might imagine at first sight, between the matron with 
 her champagne-glass, and the maiden with her teacup ; a 
 trifling individual superiority will balance the attraction 
 either way, and taking mamma to supper is in many 
 instances a much lighter penance than young ladies are 
 apt to suppose. 
 
 Brail, as became his profession, was chivalrously courteous 
 to all women, irrespective of weight or age. His genial 
 nature and manly bearing made an exceedingly favourable 
 impression on Lady Pandora, though I fear he did not 
 return her good opinion, confiding subsequently to Hester 
 that she reminded him of the figure-head of a ship. 
 
 Meanwhile, he plied her ladyship fi.-eely with refreshments 
 and information about the Arctic Circle, storing her mind 
 with many remarkable facts, to become still more remark- 
 able as she reproduced them in her crowded dinner-parties. 
 
 " That's an agreeable man, my dear," observed Lady 
 Pandora to her charge, while they drove home in the calm, 
 clear morning. " How polite he was about the carriage, 
 and he got it in five minutes. Sailors are always so ready. 
 He liked my di-ess too, and thought the trimming very 
 pretty. Sailors always have such good taste. I suppose 
 because they see so much variety. I like him better than 
 the young whipper-snappers you generally dance with. 
 Wliat did you tell me his name was?" 
 
 " Brail," answered the young lady, with rather a tender 
 accent on the simple monosyllable. 
 
 14
 
 210 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 "I'm sure to forget it, my dear. Never mind. Send 
 him a card for the 13th. We shall have done the civil at 
 any rate, though I dare say he won't come." 
 
 Miss Bruce was of a different opinion, and it is needless 
 to say that Collingwood Brail, Esq., Royal Navy, received 
 his invitation in due form. 
 
 Alas for Gog and Magog ! Their beloved nephew again 
 put oif his visit ; but they comforted each other, good, 
 simple souls, with the conviction that he was detained for 
 approbation of the Admiralty, would be examined before 
 both Houses of Parliament, and in all probability sent for 
 to Balmoral by the Queen. 
 
 How he looked forward to this particular festivity, and 
 what a disappointment it was after all ! In vain he arrived 
 before the very music, a solecism which would have been 
 unpardonable in a landsman, and remained to the last, 
 even till Gunter's merry-men began to take away. Hester 
 was engaged ten deep. He only danced with her once, 
 when she seemed colder than usual, silent, and even 
 depressed. Our nautical friend was quite taken aback. 
 He could read, nobody better, the signs of mischief brewing 
 on the horizon ; the stooping cloud, the rising sea, the 
 tokens that warned him to shorten sail and look out for 
 squalls, but he had yet to learn how a woman's fair face 
 may be no certain index of her mind, and how the shadow 
 on her brow does not always mean displeasure at her heart. 
 Greater experience would have taught him that Hester's 
 pale cheeks and guarded tones augured suspicions of her 
 own indifference, mistrust of her own firmness, a mutiny, 
 so to speak, between decks, that must be kept down by the 
 stern rule of discipline and self-restraint. He was winning, 
 had he only known it, hand over hand, while he believed 
 himself di'ifting hopelessly to leeward, a mere water-logged 
 wreck that could never come into port again. 
 
 He watched for a kind word, a kind look — but the girl's
 
 OUT OF SOUNDINGS 211 
 
 eyes, thongli he felt tliem on him more than once, were 
 always averted ere they met his own, and the few words 
 she vouchsafed would have been considered, from other 
 lijis, intolerably commonplace and inane ! Too loyal to 
 revenge himself by embarking on a series of flirtations, 
 too dispirited to attack in force, boldly and at once, 
 which would have ensured victory, he was content to 
 stand mute in a doorway, and watch her figure as it 
 floated by, with the humble fidelity of a dog, and some- 
 thing of the creature's wistful expression, half surprised, 
 half rejH-oachful, when it has been punished without 
 cause. 
 
 How the kind face haunted Hester that night, or, I 
 should say, that morning, while she laid her weary head 
 against the pillow. She was dreaming of it at ten when 
 her maid woke her with coffee, and looked for it that 
 afternoon in a score of places, actually bidding the 
 coachman drive down Whitehall past the Admiralty, on 
 the vague chance that Mr. Brail might be going in or 
 out. 
 
 That night she went to the French Play ; no Mr. Brail ! 
 He was not much of a linguist, but would have attended a 
 comedy in Sanscrit had he known Miss Bruce was to be 
 amongst the audience ! Next day she visited the Botanical, 
 and even the Zoological Gardens, with the same result. 
 "Those dear white bears," as she called them, nearly 
 made her burst out crying. At the end of a week, she 
 had decided she was the most miserable girl in the world, 
 and must give up all hope of ever seeing him again ; but 
 before a fortnight elapsed came the inevitable reaction, 
 certain as the back-water from an in-flowing tide. She 
 told herself she loved him dearly. There was nothing 
 to be ashamed of, and, come high, come low, she would 
 many no man on earth but Colliugwood Brail.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 STANDING OFF-AND-ON 
 
 The lieutenant, too, was having what he called " a 
 roughish time of it." He took himself seriously to task 
 for his own self-conceit, and came to the conclusion that 
 it was madness for a man in his position to aim at such a 
 prize as Miss Bruce. He had too much respect for her to 
 conclude that she was only amusing herself at his expense, 
 and indeed knew his own value too well to encourage a 
 suspicion so uncomplimentary to hoth. What he did think 
 was, that she had begun to care for him a little, and, 
 feeling such an attachment would not be for her future 
 welfare, had resolved to stop while there was yet time. 
 If this was the case, how ought he to act? Our friend 
 had been brought up in a school that lays great stress 
 on duty, making it, indeed, the first of all earthly 
 considerations, and Brail's duty, he told himself, was to 
 secure Hester's happiness at any cost. Could it be 
 ensured by his absence, he would not hesitate to get 
 afloat again, were he offered the worst berth in the 
 worst ship that carried the royal ensign, and he wandered 
 more than once down to the Admiralty with the intention 
 of applying for immediate employment, on the farthest 
 possible station from home. But he paused when he 
 reflected that, with his claims, there was little chance 
 of such a request being denied ; and if Hester should 
 change her mind in the meantime, should really want 
 
 212
 
 STANDING OFF -AND. ON 213 
 
 him back when he couldu't come, the position would be 
 even more disheartening than at present. With all his 
 courage and self-denial, to sacrifice her, as well as 
 himself, seemed beyond his strength. It was not for lack 
 of consideration that he arrived at no definite conclusion. 
 Hours and days were passed in debating the one subject 
 that engrossed his thoughts as he walked on foot through 
 the parks, squares, and principal thoroughfares of the 
 West-end, perhaps in the vague hope of an accidental 
 meeting, arguing the point again and again, with a 
 difi'erent result at every tm-n. 
 
 Sometimes the waft of a southern breeze, a wave of 
 lilacs overhead, the voice of childi-en playing in a garden, 
 would change the whole aspect of his future, and he would 
 tell himself that even in this life there were higher and 
 happier aims than the giving of dinners, the keeping of 
 carriages, or the holding one's own in general society, 
 with something very like the effect, rotatory, but not 
 progressive, of a squirrel in its cage. Then he would 
 paint for himself a little cabinet picture of a snug villa, 
 a trim lawn, perhaps a nurse with a perambulator, and 
 Hester's figure in the foregi-ound, as he had once seen 
 her, rigged for a garden-party in a white chip bonnet 
 trimm.ed with forget-me-nots, and blue ribbons about her 
 dress. 
 
 Oh ! if she were only a penniless beauty like so many of 
 the others ! If Sir Hector would but invest his all in an 
 explosive speculation and be ruined ! Gladly would he take 
 them both to his happy little home, and share with them, 
 oh, how freely ! the modest pittance of a lieutenant's 
 half-pay. 
 
 Having persuaded himself such a romance was possible, 
 he would walk on witli a clearer brow and lighter tread, till 
 his dream was dispelled by some commonplace incident 
 that tumbled him down to the realms of reality once more
 
 214 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 — such as the giving of a shilling to a crossing-sweeper 
 that he wanted for a cab, or the denying himself a cigar 
 because of the washing-bill on his dressing-table, and that 
 his month's pay was ebbing fast in the daily necessities of 
 London life. Those kid gloves, from which Nelly drew 
 such alarming conclusions, formed no inconsiderable item 
 of weekly expenditure ; but I think he would rather have 
 gone without his dinner than abated one article of personal 
 adornment, so long as there was the remotest likelihood of 
 meeting Miss Bruce. 
 
 And this was a man who could shin up the rigging as 
 deftly, or pull as strong an oar in the gig as any able 
 seaman under his command ! 
 
 But in these walks abroad, that which dispirited him 
 most was one continually recurring disappointment. 
 London carriage-horses, particularly bays with good 
 action, are very much alike. It requires a practised 
 eye to distinguish brass harness and dark liveries, one 
 set from another ; while all ladies in summer dress, 
 bowling quickly through the air, resemble garden flowers 
 stirred by a breeze. Ten, twenty times in an afternoon 
 would he be startled by the approach of some well-hung 
 barouche that he fondly hoped bore Sir Hector Bruce's 
 crest on its panels, his daughter within ; and as often 
 would the smile of welcome freeze round his lips, the 
 hand snatching at his hat fall awkwardly to his side. 
 
 But oh ! the scorn with which contemptuous beauties, 
 well-known to others, unknown to him, ignored while they 
 detected the abortive homage thus checked ere it could be 
 offered at their shrine ! No man can long tread London 
 pavement without observing, shall I not say admiring, 
 the inscrutable demeanour of these high-born, high-bred 
 ladies — 
 
 " Who in Corinthian mirrors their own proud smiles behold, 
 And breathe of Capuan odours, and shine in Spanish gold."
 
 STANDING OFF-AND-ON 215 
 
 The eager look, the pretty bend, the flattering greeting to 
 those gentlemen who have the honour of their acquaintance, 
 as contrasted to the cold, cruel indifference bestowed on all 
 the world beside ; the haughty bearing, the implied disgust, 
 and the abstracted glance beneath half-closed lids, that 
 seems to say, " It does not matter the least, but I wonder 
 you presume to be alive." 
 
 Mr. Brail, who felt on such occasions that he was by no 
 means " the right man in the right place," would then 
 blame himself severely for "humbugging about," as he 
 called it, when he ought to be shouting his orders from 
 Her Majesty's quarter-deck in a monkey-jacket, with three 
 feet of ship's telescope under his arm. 
 
 But going to the Levee, as in duty bound, presented by 
 his captain, and kindly welcomed home from an arduous 
 service in a few cordial words by the best judge of manly 
 merits in the kingdom, to whom he made his bow. Brail 
 began to rise again in his own esteem. It could not hurt 
 a man much, he thought, to be ignored by a few fine ladies, 
 who felt that he had done his duty to his country, and who 
 found the value of his services heartily acknowledged by 
 his Prince. When he backed out of that presence-chamber, 
 through which he had passed with more trepidation than 
 he would have felt under the fire of a harbour-battery, he 
 could not but reflect that he was somebody after all. 
 Officers of high standing in both services, covered with 
 medals and decorations, earned in that deadly peril which 
 proves the genuine steel, gi'eeted him as one of themselves. 
 A colonel of the Guards, with an empty sleeve, put out his 
 remaining hand ; a vice-admiral of the red, bravest among 
 the brave, noted for his hilarity of spirits at the most 
 critical moments, patted him kindly on the back ; while a 
 dashing hussar, maimed, shattered, tanned to the bronze of 
 his own Victoria Cross, asked him to dinner that very day. 
 He stood among the men who make history, and he was
 
 216 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 one of them. Cabinet ministers desired his acquaintance ; 
 the most aftable of bishops greeted him with a benignity 
 that seemed tantamount to a blessing ; while the handsome 
 sailor-prince vouched for him with professional cordiality, 
 observing that "he was not only a smart officer on deck, 
 but as good a fellow and pleasant messmate as ever broke a 
 biscuit below." 
 
 It would have been a proud day for Gog and Magog 
 could they have witnessed their nephew's triumph. It 
 tvas a proud day for Mrs. Phipps when she received to 
 luncheon in her own parlour this handsome young sailor 
 fresh from his presentation, in the uniform he kept on at 
 her particidar desire, looking, as she declared with a 
 redundancy of aspirates on which she laid the lightest 
 possible stress, " Happy, handsome, and hearty, and a 
 hero every inch ! " 
 
 Nelly was summoned from her book-keeping to hear the 
 whole account of the Levee ; waiters lingered and loitered 
 unrebuked ; housemaids pervaded the passage to catch the 
 gleam of his epaulettes ; the dirty face of a charwoman 
 peeped above the kitchen stairs ; and the work of the 
 whole establishment came to a standstill in honour of 
 Mr. Brail's late appearance at St. James's Palace in 
 appropriate costume. 
 
 But all this brought him no nearer Miss Bruce. The 
 veterans were not in her set; she was little acquainted 
 with differences of rank, military or naval ; and it seemed 
 unlikely that she would so much as read the list of 
 presentations in the Morning Post next day. Our gallant 
 lieutenant could not but reflect with a sigh how willingly 
 he would exchange this bushel of glory for a grain of love 
 or hope. Men who allow themselves to become unhaj^py 
 about the other sex have various ways of betraying their 
 discomfort. Some take to cards, some to drink, a few 
 abjure the society of their natural enemies, scrupulously
 
 STANDING OFF -AND -ON 217 
 
 avoidiug a petticoat, as a bird avoids a scarecrow ; but 
 the majority incline to seek solace in such gentle company 
 as reminds them, not unpleasantly, of her who has done 
 all the mischief; and on some strange principle of homoeo- 
 pathy, derive considerable benefit from the soothing smiles 
 and kindly glances women are always ready to bestow on 
 real objects of compassion. About this time Brail began 
 much to affect the quiet conversation of Mrs. John, to 
 peiTade the entrance-hall in which stood her glass-case; 
 nay, even on occasion to invade that sanctuary and mend 
 the pens, or hold the ruler while she posted her books. 
 Though she tolerated rather than encouraged these intru- 
 sions, there sprang up between the two a firm and lasting 
 friendship, originating in interests and experiences common 
 to both ; none the less staunch and consoling that such 
 interests and experiences were less akin to pleasure than to 
 pain. 
 
 Each had a grief of the same nature, a wound in the 
 affections that required the salve of sympathy and com- 
 miseration. That of the man was a mere scratch, of the 
 woman a deep and deadly hurt. Of course, the latter bore 
 her pangs in silence, while the former cried aloud for help. 
 
 It was not long before Brail confided to Mrs. John, as he 
 had learned to call her, the whole story of his attachment, 
 and Nelly, in the pitiful kindness of her nature, could not 
 conceal from him that she had made the acquaintance of 
 Miss Bruce during the previous winter, that she highly 
 appreciated her charms, both of body and mind, and that 
 her intuitive tact as a woman had led her to detect some 
 symptoms of a lurking preference in Hester's manner and 
 conversation, though she had been egregiously mistaken as 
 to the object. By degrees it came out that they both knew 
 Lord Fitzowen, Brail having met that young nobleman 
 more than once in the maze of London society, and Nelly 
 was sorely tempted to give the sailor her entire confidence,
 
 218 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 iu the hope that she might leani something definite about 
 Mr. Eoy. 
 
 She checked herself in time ; nor, indeed, was Brail 
 disposed to take much interest in any matters but his own. 
 To find some one who knew Miss Bruce, who admired her, 
 who understood her, who had a suspicion she liked him, 
 and who would listen while he talked about her, was such 
 a piece of good fortune as could not be too much aj^pre- 
 ciated and enjoyed. He missed no opportunity of visiting 
 Mrs. John in her sanctum, and attending her on her 
 affairs, so that even Auntie lost patience, declaring almost 
 with ill-humoiu', " You two seem never to be apart. I'm 
 sm'e whatever you've got to say to each other must have 
 been said over and over again ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 counsel's opinion 
 
 John Eoy returned to London with his freedom, he firmly 
 believed, in his pocket. On that sheet of note-paper his 
 wife had inscribed in her own hand such expressions as 
 were tantamount to an avov^^al of guilt, as would sm'ely 
 be held conclusive in a court of law. He dreaded the 
 exposure, he winced from the shame, he even pitied the 
 culprit; but while he sat in the train, reading this 
 document over and over again, his heart grew harder with 
 every perusal, prompting him to carry out his merciless 
 intention to the bitter end. 
 
 " This," he thought, "comes of not marrying a lady! 
 Vfhj, she cannot even express herself in good English, 
 and though I ought to have expected it, there is a vulgar 
 tone about the whole production, not much less offensive 
 than its actual depravity ! No doubt Fitzowen's rank 
 constituted the attraction — she could not resist the glitter 
 of his coronet — she was glad to take me because I was a 
 gentleman. She has deserted the gentleman for a lord ; 
 
 d me, she'd throw him over for a duke ! C'cst ce que 
 
 c'est que la femme ! I ought to have known better from 
 the first ! I ought never to have believed in one of them. 
 And yet they cannot all be so bad. There must be some, 
 surely, who are to be trusted when one's back is turned, 
 and who mean what they say ! " 
 
 Is it not so with the rest of us ? We holloa loudly when 
 
 219
 
 220 nOY'S WIFE 
 
 we are hurt, but we lose no time in applying plaster to 
 the wound. ** Women are all alike ! " cries the indicfnant 
 hushand, the despairing lover. "Women are so different ! " 
 reasons the former, with a second-hand consolation, the 
 latter with a bran-new fancy, while the cynic laughs at 
 both, and agrees with neither. "So far from women being 
 alike," says he, " they are not even the same for two hours 
 together. So far from being different, their noblest senti- 
 ments, their most pitiful weaknesses, their best and worst 
 qualities, are common to the whole sex." And the wise 
 
 man . My friend, there is no wise man where women 
 
 are concerned, neither in fact nor fiction ! Was not Merlin 
 made a fool of in romance and Solomon in history ? Vivien 
 is no less real than the Shunammitc, and both are of all 
 degrees, all nations, and all times. 
 
 Let us peep over John Roy's shoulder while he reads his 
 wife's letter once again. 
 
 " My very dear Lord, — I will look for you as usual on 
 Tuesday, and expect as you will not disappoint me like you 
 did last time. Mr. Eoy is sure to be out a-hunting, so no 
 doubt but the coast will be clear, and nobody will notice if 
 you come right up to the front door and ring the bell — 
 that is better than the garden-way ; for servants have such 
 sharp eyes, and always suspect something. I write because 
 you said you was not sure you would come ; but if you fail, 
 I shall begin to think you do not care for me as I feel 
 to care for you, my dear. I may be interrupted at any 
 moment ; so no more at present from your loving sweet- 
 heart, — Elinor Roy." 
 
 No date — women are very vague about dates — but her 
 name — oh ! unutterable disgrace, his name, signed in full. 
 Every stroke of the well-known autograph correct to a hair 
 • — the very flourish with which she loved to adorn it.
 
 COUNSEL'S OPINION 221 
 
 finished ofi' to a scratch ! There coiild be no mistake as 
 to the whole meaning and intention of this shameless 
 production. It had obviously been written at leisure, and 
 kept back for a convenient opportunity to be posted 
 unobserved. Tuesday ! Yes, he remembered how he 
 intended to hunt on that very Tuesday, when he 
 came to an open ruptiu-e with his wife, but changed his 
 mind on the previous Sunday because of lame horses in the 
 stable. It was clear enough. The letter had not, therefore, 
 been sent, and in the hurry of departure she forgot to destroy 
 it. No doubt there had been many such exchanged, and 
 this one left little impression on her mind. How could 
 such a woman write that clear, firm, Italian hand ? How 
 could she look so guileless, so fond, so handsome '? He felt 
 he must have loved her dearly once to hate her so bitterly 
 now ! But this was no time for remembrance or regret. 
 He would act for himself, and carry the whole business 
 through without compunction or remorse. 
 
 He did not take Lady Jane to the Aquarium, but wrote 
 instead so affectionate a note as caused her very heart to 
 glow with a sense of satisfaction and triumph. While she 
 put it away in some safer hiding-place than the bosom of a 
 dress changed three times a-day, Mr. Roy was driving into 
 Lincoln's-Inn for a personal interview with that unerring 
 adviser, that unimpeachable authority, that unquestionable 
 institution, the family solicitor. 
 
 I suppose nobody ever crossed the threshold of his " own 
 man of business " without a painful consciousness of mental 
 inferiority ; less the result of professional inexperience, of 
 pitiful ignorance concerning the wonderful ways of the law, 
 than of a strange sense that he has been suddenly shifted, 
 as it were, to the stage side of the footlights, and begins 
 to see evei^thing in life from an entirely novel point of 
 view. 
 
 That which appeared an hour ago as clear as the sun
 
 222 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 at noon, seems now to require corroboration by a mass of 
 evidence. The statement, prepared with so much thought 
 and study, that carried conviction in every sentence, is 
 found to be loose, garbled, incapable of holding water, and 
 in some respects tending to furnish arguments for the other 
 side. Facts are no longer stubborn, except in the one 
 sense that they stubbornly elude substantiation, and the 
 litigant is surprised to find how much he has been in the 
 habit of taking things for granted that have no legal exist- 
 ence till fortified by actual proof. He doubts his own senses, 
 memory, and reasoning powers, vaguely conscious of a 
 beninnl)ing imbecility, and approaches the shrine of his 
 oracle with as little self-dependence as the most ignorant of 
 savages asldng help from his god. 
 
 A clerk in the outer ofiice — pale, inky, but of a self- 
 important demeanour as being brimful of law — took the 
 client's name to his employer, and returned with " Mr. 
 Sharpe's compliments, he was engaged at present, but would 
 see Mr. Eoy in a quarter of an hour." There was nothing 
 for it but to wait in the office, and make the most of yester- 
 day's Times, as perused in an uncomfortable attitude on a 
 shiny high-backed chair. 
 
 " Mr. Sharpe will see you now, sir," said the clerk, when 
 the stated time had expired, ushering out an old lady in 
 black, smelling of peppermint and dissolved in tears. ' ' This 
 way, sir. Allow me, ma'am, if you please," to the lady 
 who was fumbling helplessly at the door handle, and John 
 Koy found hhnself fairly committed to make his statement 
 under the critical observation of Mr. Sharpe. 
 
 " Take a seat, sir. A fine day, sir ; warm, but seasonable 
 for the time of year," were the reassuring words of that 
 gentleman, as he scanned his client from under a pair of 
 bushy eyebrows, that gave character to a countenance in 
 other respects commonplace enough. " We have not met for 
 a considerable time, Mr. Roy, and I hope I see you well."
 
 COUNSEL'S OPINION 223 
 
 His client's month was dry, and his answer wholly 
 unintelligible. 
 
 Mr. Sharpe, fitting the tips of his fingers together with 
 the utmost nicety, afiorded no more assistance, but waited 
 for the other to begin. 
 
 It was no easy job. " Mr. Sharpe," he stammered, " I 
 have come to consult you professionally — professionally — 
 you understand ; of course in the strictest confidence, 
 entirely between ourselves, and to go no farther." 
 
 INIr. Sharpe bowed. He was used to these preliminaries, 
 accej^ting them with mild contempt. 
 
 "My business," continued John Roy, sadly discomposed, 
 "is of a very disagreeable kind ! " 
 
 "Nothing remarkable in tliat, sir!" returned his 
 solicitor. "If business were not usually disagreeable, we 
 lawyers would have nothing to do. 
 
 " The fact is, Mr. Sharpe, that I — that I — I have reason 
 to be much dissatisfied with my wife." 
 
 " Nothing remarkable in that, sir ! " returned his adviser. 
 "Forgive me for saying so, it is a commune malum, for 
 which there is no remedy at common law. May I ask, 
 sir, is the lady residing at present under your roof? " 
 
 "Not the least! That is what I came to talk about. 
 She has left her home for several weeks, and I have no 
 means of ascertaining where she is." 
 
 Mr. Sharpe gi-ew more attentive, but waited for his 
 client to go on. 
 
 " I have reason to believe she came to London," resumed 
 the visitor, " and perhaps I might be able to trace her 
 movements if I chose to take the trouble, but having quitted 
 my house at her own caprice, she shall not re-enter it with 
 my consent. I mean to state my case fairly, and ask your 
 assistance to set me free." 
 
 " One word, Mr. Roy. Is there no prospect of recon- 
 ciliation? Ladies are apt to be hasty — inconsiderate,
 
 224 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 and repent when it is too late. I should be willing to 
 mediate between you, not professionally, you understand, 
 but as a private friend." 
 
 "It is no question of anything of the kind," rciilied 
 the other in gi-eat heat and excitement. "Matters are 
 so bad, that I am justified, morally, and, I believe, 
 legally, in cutting myself adrift from a woman who has 
 dishonoured me." 
 
 " That is a grave accusation," replied Mr. Sharpe with 
 some solemnity. " May I ask, sir, if you have any 
 proofs ? ' ' 
 
 "Judge for yourself!" returned the other, placing 
 Nelly's letter on the table. "If that is not proof, I 
 don't know what they require. I'll have a divorce, Mr. 
 Sharpe, as sure as you sit there, if it costs me ten thousand 
 pounds." 
 
 The lawyer perused it attentively, twice over, took 
 a sheet of paper, made a memorandum or two, and 
 returned the important document to its owner without a 
 word. 
 
 "Well? " asked the latter, expecting, no doubt, an out- 
 break of virtuous indignation, 
 
 " That letter, sir, is compromising, very compromising, 
 no doubt," admitted the solicitor. " Primd facie, it 
 argues a degree of intimacy with the person to whom it is 
 addressed, that a husband would be justified in disallowing. 
 I cannot, however, advise you, Mr. Koy, that this, and this 
 alone, would be held proof sufficient to justify the taking 
 of our case into court. I assume you have consulted me 
 with a view to ulterior proceedings. May I ask how you 
 propose to act? " 
 
 " That is what I want you to tell me. I mean to have a 
 divorce ! How am I to set about it." 
 
 The lawyer pondered. "In matters of so delicate a 
 nature," said he, " direct proof is of course difficult to
 
 COUNSEL'S OPINION 225 
 
 obtain. At the same time, the presumptive evidence 
 must be very conclusive, not a link must be wanting in 
 the chain ; there must be motive, intention, opportunity, 
 and the injured party must come for redress with clean 
 hands, or it is my duty to advise you the court will not 
 grant a rule." 
 
 " Do you mean they won't give me a divorce ? Then 
 all I can say is, that the laws of this country are a 
 fallacy, and its justice a sliam ! " 
 
 "I do not go so far as that, my good sir. I only 
 point out to you certain difficulties you must be prepared 
 to encounter, certain conditions indispensable to success. 
 This letter carries with it a large amount of indirect 
 testimony. I have seldom seen so much in so few lines, 
 and its very shortness argues a probability that it is one 
 of many others similar in character ; for a correspondence 
 of this nature, if at all limited in opportunity, is usually 
 exceedingly diffuse. I assume, of course, that there 
 is no difficulty in proving your wife's handwriting?" 
 
 " None whatever. Besides, my housekeeper found the 
 letter hidden away in Mrs. Roy's jewel-case." 
 
 " What is your housekeeper's name ? " 
 
 "Mopus — Mrs. Mopus. She has been with me for 
 years. I can trust her. I have trusted her with untold 
 gold." 
 
 *' Before your marriage ? " 
 
 "Before and after. Nobody in the world can have ray 
 interest more at heart." 
 
 Mr. Sharpe made another memorandum, and continued 
 his rjuestions in the same low, equable tone. 
 
 " Your wife left her home on the 13 th ? " 
 
 ** On the 13th." 
 
 " Alone, do I understand ? and without your consent ? " 
 
 " She never asked it. I remonstrated with her on the 
 frequency of a certain person's visits, and she went off in a 
 
 15
 
 226 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 hiifl". "My carriage and servants took her to the station, 
 where she dismissed them, and I have heard nothing of 
 her since." 
 
 " Till you obtained possession of this letter ? How did 
 it fall into your hands ? " 
 
 " Very simply. I went home lately to pay bills and 
 wages. Hearing from my housekeeper that a jewel-case 
 had been left in Mrs. Roy's room unlocked, I went to 
 examine its contents. By mere accident I lifted the tray, 
 and found that letter concealed beneath." 
 
 " Had you any previous suspicions of your wife ? Had 
 you occasion to reason with her, or to express your 
 disapproval of her conduct, at any time before the difference 
 that led to her sudden departure? " 
 
 Mr. Roy now entered into a long and rambling state- 
 ment, detailing many matters already narrated, and on 
 which it is unnecessary to dwell, the more so that 
 Mr. Sharpe, though closely attentive, seemed to think 
 them of little importance, and never put pen to paper 
 once during the recital. When his client finished, how- 
 ever, he rose as if to conclude the interview, observing 
 in the matter-of-course tone he had preserved through- 
 out — 
 
 " There appear at least sufficient grounds for further 
 inquiry. I presume you would wish mc to submit the 
 case to counsel, and take the best opinion I can get." 
 
 " Go to the sharpest fellow out ! I don't care what it 
 costs. And let me know as soon as you can, for this 
 suspense is more than I can bear ! ' ' 
 
 Then Mr. Roy seized his hat and made his escape, 
 driving straight off to visit Lady Jane, that he might 
 give her a detailed account of his proceedings, and be 
 soothed by the sympathy that he felt he had a right 
 to expect, that she was now more than ever willing to 
 afi"ord. Both seemed to believe the chief obstacle to
 
 COUNSEL'S OPINION 227 
 
 theii' union was removed, and to consider the expected 
 counsel's opinion almost tantamount to a license from 
 Doctors' Commons for immediate wedlock. After con- 
 siderable delay, it arrived in due course — sound, practical, 
 sensible, and carefully exj)ressed, balancing pros and cons, 
 the chances for and against, with a nicety and exactitude 
 that left the matter at precisely the same degree of un- 
 certainty as before.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE IKREPRESSIBLE 
 
 " Where have you been hiding all this time? I thought 
 you had quite forgotten us. One never sees you now." 
 
 Miss Bruce shaded her eyes with a pink-tinted parasol 
 from the sun-glint off the water. Her carriage had been 
 drawn up by the Serpentine, and Lord Fitzowen was 
 leaning against the door. 
 
 " I am flattered to think I have been missed," answered 
 that young nobleman, who did not seem quite in his usual 
 spirits. " I hardly suppose you are pining for me ; but 
 without wishing to be rude. Miss Bruce, I cannot help 
 observing you look pale and tired. I hope there is nothing 
 the matter." 
 
 She smiled, not without a little blush that denied 
 the charge of pallor for itself. "London dissipation, I 
 conclude," she answered wearily. " But you need not 
 have told me I am hideous. We go out night after night, 
 you know, the same round, like horses in a mill, and what's 
 the use ? ' ' 
 
 " Exactly the question I was asking myself when I 
 caught sight of your carriage. I was meditating, you 
 understand, by the ' sad sea- wave.' That is all very well 
 for me. But, Miss Bruce, why do you come here?" 
 
 The blush that had faded rose again a shade deeper. 
 She was not going to tell him or anybody why, but for 
 some reason of her own the Serpentine reminded her of 
 Mr. Brail.
 
 THE IRREPBESSIBLE 229 
 
 "Do you suppose I can't meditate too?" she re- 
 turned, lowering her parasol. "I was reflecting just 
 now what useless lives we lead, you and I and the rest 
 of us, wasting our time in amusements that dont amuse 
 us after all ! " 
 
 " That's the grieyance ! I never used to be bored. 
 Never knew what fellows meant by the word. And — 
 now ! " The yawn with which he pointed this disheart- 
 ening confession sulftciently attested its truth. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen had insensibly passed one of the land- 
 marks set up to remind us that in this world of change 
 we must be carried with the cm-rent, rest on our oars 
 as idly as we may. There comes a time for most men, 
 usually before they are thirty, when boots, coats, horses, 
 and cigars seem stripped of their engrossing fascina- 
 tions. To have seen a favourite tried at Newmarket, 
 to be on visiting terms with a popular actress, are ex- 
 periences that no longer raise them in their own esteem, 
 and they wake up, as it were, to a new world, of which 
 they seem no less ignorant than the chicken bursting 
 from its shell. This is the period at which men take 
 to work in good earnest; and, strangely enough, the 
 idlest in youth often becomes busiest in after life. This 
 is the period, too, at which they bitterly regret the 
 time hitherto lost, the bad start that prevents their being 
 more forward in the race, realising in chances neglected 
 and advantages thrown away Lord Lytton's touching lines 
 of him who 
 
 "Paltered with pleasures that pleased not, and fame where no fame 
 could be. 
 And how shall I look, do you think, Will ? with the angels looking 
 at me." 
 
 How shall the best of us look in sucli company ? And 
 how the angels must wonder we can be such fools ?
 
 •230 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 " A man has no right to he hoi-ed," said Miss Hester, 
 with a curl of her lip. " You have so many pursuits, so 
 much excitement. Not like us. When a woman is really 
 unhappy, what resource has she in the world? " 
 
 " She can always sit down and cry." 
 
 " As ?/ow would sit down and smoke. Nonsense. Some 
 of us have too much spirit to cry. We get cross though, 
 I don't deny it, and then mo make the people about us as 
 uncomfortable as ourselves." 
 
 " Men have not that consolation." 
 
 " Haven't they ! There we differ. It seems to me that 
 a man's troubles react on the women who are about him, 
 even to his aches and pains. We bear your burdens and 
 our own too." 
 
 " I wish you would lend me a hand with mine." 
 
 " So I will if I can. We are old friends. Lord Fitzowen, 
 and may trust one another. You know, you need only ask 
 for my poor little help. It is not much, but would be 
 freely given." 
 
 Now in this cordial profession Miss Bruce was not 
 quite so sincere as she persuaded herself. No doubt she 
 felt pleased to meet his lordship again, and would have 
 made any commonplace social exertion to do him a 
 favour, but her principal reason for retaining him at 
 her side with such an appearance of interest was the 
 excuse thus afforded for a delay that would otlierwise 
 seem strange in the eyes of the coachman and footman 
 who had her in charge. After dropping papa at his 
 club, to return for him in an hour, she caused herself 
 to be driven to the Serpentine, avowedly for " a breath 
 of air." In the distance, at least half a mile off, she 
 had spied a figure very like Mr. Brail walking towards 
 her in company mth a lady while she was conversing 
 with Lord Fitzowen. So long as she remained in the 
 same place, this interesting couple could not but pass
 
 THE IRREPRESSIBLE 231 
 
 under her nose, so she must keep his lortlshii) a few 
 more minutes at the carriage-door as an excuse for 
 standing still. Hester's eyes did not deceive her. Col- 
 lingwood Brail and Nelly were indeed taking a walk 
 together in the Park. The kind young sailor, unhappy 
 himself, had noticed the constant depression of Mrs. 
 John's spirits, and recommended his favourite remedy, 
 a "good long cruise in the fresh air." Nelly, who 
 j^earned in her heart for something more rural than the 
 Strand, consented, nothing loth, and the pair wandered 
 socially into the Park up the ride, over the bridge, past 
 the Powder Magazine, and along the water's edge. 
 Nelly caring little where she went, and Brail choosing 
 this particular walk because he had once heard Miss Bruce 
 admit that she thought it " rather nice." 
 
 But keen as was Hester's sight we may be sure the 
 sailor's practised eye made out the carriage and its occu- 
 pant, even before he was himself recognised. Nelly marked 
 his bronze cheek turn pale, and he stopped short in the 
 middle of a sentence, " Mrs. John," said he, with rather 
 a foolish laugh, and the gulp of a man who is making a 
 clean breast of it, "you know about Miss Brace. I've 
 often mentioned her. That's her carriage ! There she 
 is!" 
 
 If he liked Mrs. John before, she earned his eternal 
 gi-atitude now. For sufficient reasons Nelly had no desire 
 to be recognised by any neighbour who remembered her at 
 Royston Grange, least of all by the handsome, happy girl 
 whom she had received under such different circumstances 
 as a guest in her own house. It was with no consideration 
 for her companion, but in a sheer instinct of self-defence 
 that she exclaimed — 
 
 " Walk on, Mr. Brail ! go and speak to her! I know 
 you won't be happy if you miss such a chance. I'll wait 
 here : or, better still, I'll find my way home alone. No,
 
 232 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 don't apologise. I should really prefer it, and if I'm tired, 
 I can take a cab." 
 
 He felt bound to remonstrate, but not "with a will," 
 and, it is needless to add, went on by himself with a 
 heightened colour and a beating heart. 
 
 Miss Bruce, who saw him coming, grew absent and rest- 
 less. To Lord Fitzowen's conversation, which conveyed 
 indeed nothing particularly new or interesting, she made 
 the most inconsequent remarks ; and Fitz, who was not 
 without the social instinct called "tact," felt he was 
 actually "in the way." 
 
 " No doubt," he reflected humbly, and with resignation, 
 " this is part of the whole thing. I bore myself intensely, 
 and am becoming a bore to other people. Even Miss Bruce 
 can't stand me for more than ten minutes, and would rather 
 sit here deserted in the wilderness than undergo my plati- 
 tude any longer. I accept the omen. I have become a 
 fogey. I must make up my mind to be rubbed out, and 
 content myself like other fogeys with the evening paper and 
 the club." 
 
 So his lordship bowed himself off, and, without once 
 looking behind him, strolled leisurely away. 
 
 Our business is not at present with Collingwood Brail, 
 but if he was the man we take him for, it seems improbable 
 that he would suffer so auspicious an occasion to pass un- 
 improved. Rather will we follow Lord Fitzowen, who, 
 placidly coasting that straight and mathematical piece of 
 water called by Londoners the Serpentine, drifted into the 
 least frequented part of the Ride, just in time to meet 
 Nelly pacing calmly home. 
 
 She knew him a hundred yards off. There was no mis- 
 taking the light easy gait of that unforgotten figure, the 
 well-cut clothes, the high-bred air, and the hat worn 
 jauntily aslant, in virtue, as he used to protest, of his Irish 
 title. She half stopped and half turned aside, but thought
 
 THE IRREPRESSIBLE 233 
 
 better of it, and walked on. After all, why should she not 
 meet him? He was a link with the past life, that now 
 seemed like a dream. He lived in the world fi'om which 
 she had been shut out. He must know, perhaps he would 
 tell her, something of her husband, and it was doing him 
 only justice to admit he ought to be welcome for his own 
 sake. He had always been kind, considerate, and agree- 
 able. She was glad to see him, and would not pretend to 
 be anything else. Had she cared for him ever so little, she 
 could not but have been gratified by his manner, while he 
 accosted her. He was not shy. It had been proverbial in 
 his old regiment, that " what would make Fitz blush would 
 make another man fly the kingdom." Nevertheless, the 
 woman he admired and regarded more than any other in 
 the world, came upon him so unexpectedly, that she put 
 him utterly to rout. He was disarmed, unmanned, colour- 
 ing and cowering like a schoolboy, suspecting he looked, 
 and satisfied he felt, like a fool. 
 
 Two people in such a position are seldom equally con- 
 fused, or what a world of cross-purposes we should have ! 
 One gathers confidence from the disorder of the other, and 
 women, I verily believe, for all their assumed timidity, have 
 more social courage than men. 
 
 Nelly put out her hand heartily enough, and he took it 
 with the homage a subject renders to his queen. 
 
 In such a crisis, our compatriots, who have seldom much 
 to say at a moment's notice, take refuge in the most minute 
 inquiries as to each other's health, only stopping short of 
 feeling pulses, and looking at tongues, in the engrossing 
 interest they profess for mutual salubrity. When Lord 
 Fitzowen and Nelly had satisfied themselves in turn that 
 neither was a sufferer from organic disease, there ensued 
 an awkward and protracted pause, broken by the lady, of 
 course. 
 
 "I wonder you knew me," said she. "It is so long
 
 234 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 since we met, and you cannot have expected to see me 
 here." 
 
 "Knew you!" replied his lordship, finding speech 
 restored as by a miracle. " Don't you think I should know 
 you anywhere ? Do you suppose there is another Mrs. 
 Roy in the world, or if there were a hundred, that I 
 could mistake any woman alive for you ! Have you for- 
 gotten " 
 
 " But, my lord." 
 
 He held up his hand. " You are not to say ' my lord,' " 
 he interrupted. "I am sure you must remember our 
 compact, and you may trust your dictionary as frankly now 
 as you did then." 
 
 The playful manner, the kind, protecting, yet wholly 
 courteous, tone, took her back to the happy times of love, 
 and wedlock, and Royston Grange. She had been living a 
 life of complete seclusion, at her own choice, indeed, but 
 none the less dreary for that, of daily duties, business-like, 
 irksome, affording little scope for variety, none for interest ; 
 she had gone into no society whatever, and had scarcely 
 stood face to face with a gentleman, except Collingwood 
 Brail, for many weeks. Can we wonder she felt unable to 
 resist the charm of Fitzowen's pleasant companionship, 
 and accorded freely his humble request, that he might see 
 her to the end of the Park, and put her into a cab to take 
 her home ? 
 
 He had too much experience to startle her by asking 
 point-blank what he wanted to know, and had tried in vain 
 for some weeks to find out, viz., where she lived, what she 
 was doing, and whether he might call on her in her own 
 house ? His code of morals was one of which we cannot 
 approve, the result of a false system of education, and 
 adopted in common with other young men of his kind, 
 less from innate depravity than an utter absence of that 
 religious principle which alone defines the border of right 
 and wrong.
 
 THE IBBEPEESSIBLE 235 
 
 It would have been difficult to make Fitz understand 
 why a woman separated from her husband should not be 
 as completely a free agent as a man who had never been 
 married at all. He could see that it was wrong to disturb 
 wedded happiness and the peace of families, to blight a 
 girl's hopes or taint a woman's reputation before the world 
 with the lightest breath of shame. Such injuries he would 
 no more have inflicted than he would have made fun of the 
 deaf, tripped up the blind, or struck a man when he was 
 down. To his own code of social morality, as it may be 
 called, he adhered strictly ; but this left a wide range 
 wherein he felt at liberty to disport himself as he 
 pleased. 
 
 That he was doing injury either to herself or Mr. Roy 
 in trying to win Nelly's affections now that she had 
 voluntarily left her home, he would have stoutly denied ; 
 and had you told him his intentions were evil, simply and 
 solely because opposed to the law of God, he would have 
 admired your sincerity, pitied your bigotry, and declined to 
 argue the subject vnth one who saw it from so different a 
 point of view. 
 
 The passions are bad enough ; but if we have to battle 
 with the affections, we want all the help we can get. The 
 devil had no worldly experience when he took the form 
 of a serpent. He knows better now, and comes in the 
 shape of an angel, appealing to our higher feelings, oin- 
 better nature ; arguing, plausibly enough, that those senti- 
 ments cannot be unworthy which elevate us above our kind. 
 We have but one answer: "I may not, and therefore I 
 7i-ill not ! " Nobody ever yet regretted its enunciation; and 
 there are many reasons, notwithstanding the well-known 
 argument of the French princess, why " No " is a more 
 valuable expression than " Yes." 
 
 "I have never seen you about anywhere, Mrs. Roy," 
 continued his lordship in a light, easy tone, at which she
 
 236 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 could not take alarm. " I have wondered, and fidgeted, 
 and feared you were ill, and tried in all sorts of ways to 
 learn what had heconie of you ; but I am so discreet I have 
 never asked one of our mutual acquaintances to help me in 
 my search." 
 
 " Do you see many of them ? " she returned, quivering 
 all over to think that this man might have dined only last 
 night in company with Mr. Roy. " I am always pleased 
 to hear of old friends, to be reminded of anybody or any- 
 thing connected witli Royston Grange." 
 
 "Have you not been there since the winter? " he asked, 
 in the hope of drawing an avowal of some sort. 
 
 " Lord Fitzowen, you know I have not ! " 
 
 " Forgive me, Mrs. Roy, I did know it. I am such a 
 coward I only put the question to gain time. Of course I 
 knew. Of course I have heard all sorts of stories. Of 
 course I believe nothing but that you are wholly right, and 
 everybody else grossly in the wrong." 
 
 " "VVTiat have you heard ? " 
 
 " Only the common gossip of the world ; the handfuls 
 of mud with which it likes to pelt those it envies for their 
 superiority. People talked of a quarrel, a separation, in- 
 compatibility of temper, unworthy accusations. I was 
 only convinced you had been shamefully ill-used." 
 
 " Why should you think that ? " 
 
 " Wliy ! Because I know it instinctively in my heart ot 
 hearts. Because you are unlike most women, and better 
 than all. I do not pelt you with compliments, or throw 
 your personal attractions, charm of manner, and so on in 
 your teeth. You are above that kind of thing. But if 
 you were as plain as you are — well, as you are not, I should 
 still quote you as the person of all others most likely to 
 make a happy home for any man in his senses. Good 
 heavens ! what more can a fellow want ? " 
 
 " I was not born a lady," she said, with a thoughtful
 
 THE IRREPBESSIBLE 237 
 
 far-away look that denoted some engrossing interest wholly 
 unconnected with the flatterer at her side. 
 
 ** A lady ! Then what in the name of prejudice is a 
 lady? I know a good many — I think I ought to be a 
 judge. My dear Mrs. Roy, quite the most wiladylike 
 woman of my acquaintance goes in to dinner before half 
 the peeresses in London. She is rude, yet exacting; shy, 
 but overbearing ; awkward, ill-dressed, and as ugly as sin ; 
 in all respects a complete contrast to yourself, and, except 
 for her rank, has no more claim to be called a lady than 
 yom- cook ! Now, will you tell me that birth or station 
 have anything to do with it, and that there are not natural 
 gentlewomen, really gentle, and — and loveable, in every 
 class of life ? " 
 
 They were pleasant words, they salved her wounded 
 spirit like drops of balm. Fitz, always enthusiastic — a 
 quality to which, in these lack-a-daisical times, he owed 
 much of his popularity — had worked himself into a great 
 heat and excitement, fully convinced for the moment that 
 society demanded complete reconstruction from a new 
 basis, at the level — wherever that might be — of this 
 beautiful Mrs. Roy. 
 
 "Unequal marriages never answer," she replied softly. 
 " Mine was only another example of the rule." 
 
 " Because you married a man who did not understand 
 you, did not appreciate you ; and whom, therefore, it is im- 
 possible you can have really loved." 
 
 "Lord Fitzowcu, you do not think so badly of me as 
 that!" 
 
 " Think badly of you ! I, who believe in you as 
 the pattern of everything a woman should be ! Who 
 esteem and honour you more than any other creature 
 upon earth ; who, if you had only been free, would 
 
 have " 
 
 "Lord Fitzowcn, will you kindly call mo a cab? We
 
 238 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 are at the end of our walk. I am glad to have seen you 
 again. Good-bye." 
 
 She put out her hand, which he held for a moment, while 
 he asked, " Where shall I tell him to drive '? " 
 
 " I can give him his orders when I get in." 
 
 He felt hurt, and showed it. " Will you not even trust 
 me with your address?" said he reproachfully. "What 
 have I done that I am never to see you again ? " 
 
 She looked him full in the face with those deep, clear, 
 honest eyes. 
 
 "My lord, you are a gentleman, you are a man of honour, 
 and you profess to be my friend. Can you not see that, 
 situated as I am, you could inflict no greater injury than 
 by seeking my company at home or abroad ? I will not 
 deny I was glad to see you to-day, and when my misfortunes 
 permit, I shall be glad to see you again ; but in the mean- 
 time I do not intend that we shall meet, and I require you 
 on no account to follow me home. It must be so, believe 
 me, and I know you will be, as you always were, kind and 
 considerate and unselfish for my sake." 
 
 " By Jove ! you're the best Avoman in the world," 
 answered Fitz, completely subdued, and helping her into a 
 hansom cab, with tears in his eyes. " I'll do anything 
 you ask me, now and always. God bless you Mrs. Roy, 
 and good-bye ! " 
 
 But he could not give her up so entirely, all the same. 
 Before he had walked twenty yards along the pavement he 
 spied a limber fellow in a red waistcoat, who had held his 
 horse and done his errands on many occasions, and he could 
 not resist the opportunity. 
 
 " Do you see that hansom with a grey horse ? " 
 
 " And a white 'at, my lord ? Yes, my lord," 
 
 " There is a lady in it ; follow her wherever she 
 goes, and bring me her address. Do you want any 
 
 " 
 
 money /
 
 THE IRREPBESSIBLE 239 
 
 " No, my lord — yes, my lord — all right, my lord ! " and 
 the man vanished like a sprite. 
 
 It is thus we travel to om* inevitable destination. One 
 step forward, and two back ; such is the pilgrim's unassisted 
 progress along the narrow way.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 CHAMPING THE BIT 
 
 John Roy, like the rest of us, seeing every prospect of 
 attaining his wishes, began to think that, after all, he was 
 not much better off than before. He seemed, indeed, less 
 a free agent than ever, hampered by an actual wife, and a 
 possible, at the same time. Lady Jane, too, whose former 
 husband could have attested that she was not remarkably 
 temperate in single harness, bounced and fretted, and made 
 herself exceedingly disagreeable as one of a pair. Since 
 Roy confided his intention of obtaining a divorce, her lady- 
 ship had assumed many airs and graces, less becoming to a 
 widow than a bride. 
 
 Her friends, finding them useless, discontinued their ex- 
 postulations, and her intimacy with Mr. Roy, which had 
 ceased to be a nine days' wonder, seemed now accepted as 
 a matter of personal convenience, creating no interest and 
 little surprise. A woman never likes an admirer so much 
 as while she has to stand up for him, and Lady Jane, 
 missing the excitement of fighting Jiis battles with her 
 friends, was fain to substitute that of fighting her own 
 with him. He belonged to her now, she argued — might 
 be considered, to a certain extent, in the liglit of a husband, 
 and must be treated accordingly. 
 
 During this period of probation, our injudicious friend 
 often found cause to regret the mild and equable rule of 
 the wife he had abandoned. Lady Jane seemed to expect 
 
 240
 
 CHAMPING THE BIT 241 
 
 from him the read}' docility of courtship, combined with the 
 good-humoured indifference of matrimony. He was to do 
 exactly what she liked. She was to do exactly what she 
 pleased. He must be in waiting to attend her at all hours, to 
 all places, while not objecting to be shunted, at a moment's 
 notice, for such of her less advanced acquaintances as still 
 disapproved of the connection. She paraded him at church, 
 of course, and at all the theatres ; nay, she once went so 
 far as to take him out shopping, and kept him by her chair, 
 at Marshall and Snelgrove's, a Avhole mortal hour ! 
 
 He kicked freely that time, and it is only fair to say she 
 never tried him so high again. 
 
 But they were growing a little out of love with each 
 other day by day. Somehow the bloom was off the thing, 
 and both began to experience an uncomfortable sense of 
 thraldom, though neither could have explained why. Her 
 heart beat no faster now when she heard his knock, and he 
 had ceased to follow it up-stau's, two steps at a time. But 
 a link is none the less secure because for gold has been 
 substituted iron, and although they often quarrelled, nay, 
 sometimes yawned, they seemed to affect each other's 
 company more than ever. 
 
 That jealousy may exist without love, is a position only 
 seeming untenable to those who have not studied the more 
 paradoxical sex, in the rise, progress, and inevitable decay 
 of their affections. With a man, indeed, the sense of pro- 
 prietorship seldom survives an attachment, and it is only 
 justice to admit that when a woman is once out of his heart 
 she never enters his head ; whereas, perhaps, from deeper 
 tenderness, perhaps from more insatiable rapacity, perhaps 
 — how can I tell ? — from a mere instinct of acquisitiveness, 
 common in all animals to tlie female, a lady never wholly 
 abdicates of her own free will, but like a dethroned sovereign 
 clings to the empty forms of a lost royalty, closing her baffled 
 fingers on the fading shadow of a substance that has passed 
 away. 
 
 16
 
 242 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 Lady Jane's jealousy seemed to increase rather than 
 diminish with her waning aflfections. If Mr. Roy was five 
 minutes later than the time specified for an engagement, 
 she told herself, and him too, that she was sure he had 
 some other attraction ; that he felt his present connection 
 a servitude and a clog ; that he was naturally inconstant, 
 as she had bitter reason to know ! else, why was their 
 youthful attachment nipped in the hud? and why, after 
 deserting his first love, had he now deserted his wife ? 
 
 The manifest injustice of such a reproach stung him to 
 the quick, and he spoke out, " Hang it ! Lady Jane," said 
 he, "you and I had better understand each other before it 
 is too late ! I do not underrate the sacrifices you are 
 making on my behalf. No, and I don't forget them. I 
 am sure you remind me of them often enough. But I, too, 
 am in a false position, and a very uncomfortable one besides. 
 Look at my future. It is dependent on lawyers, and 
 servants, and evidence, and an uncertain tribunal, of which 
 I dread the publicity. Yes, I dread it, though I know that 
 justice is on my side. Now you are all right. You have 
 nothing to consult but your own wishes. If you want to 
 dismiss me, you need only say the word, and you are 
 free!" 
 
 "What nonsense you talk! Suppose I should say the 
 word?" 
 
 " I must take my hat and go ! It would not be my first 
 disappointment in life. I could get over it, no doubt, like 
 the others." 
 
 " I dare say you would not mind it one bit? " 
 
 "Ask yourself that question, not me. I am tired of 
 protestations, recriminations, botherations of all sorts. 
 Either you trust me, or you don't trust me. Say which ? " 
 
 She gave him one of the old looks. " I do trust you," 
 said she, earnestly ; but added, with a sparkle in the blue 
 eyes, " as far as I can see you — not an inch beyond."
 
 CHAMPING THE BIT 243 
 
 " Then 3-011 judge of me by yourself ! " 
 
 " Mr. Eoy, if you came here to insult me, I must remind 
 you there is a cab-stand in the next street." 
 
 " That is a broad hint, Lady Jane, and one I cannot 
 refuse to take. I wish j^ou good morning." 
 
 His hat was in his hand, he had already made two 
 strides, in high dudgeon, towards the door ; but as he 
 fired up she cooled down, and it was the Lady Jane of 
 former days, of Kensington Gardens, and Hyde-Park 
 Corner, whose soft voice called him back with a plain- 
 tive little outcry. 
 
 '' Mr. Roy, don't go ! " 
 
 " What would you have? " he asked, with his hand on the 
 door. " You attack me, you irritate me, you drive me mad 
 with reproaches, you order me out of your house, and then 
 you say, Mr. Roy, don't go ! " 
 
 " And Mr. Roy has pity, and stays ! " 
 
 *' Mr. Roy was always a fool, about somebody, and gets 
 no wiser, it appears, as he gi-ows older. But it is really 
 time to put an end to this kind of thing between you and 
 me. It does seem such utter folly for people situated as 
 we are ! " 
 
 " But we are not situated, — that is what makes me irri- 
 table, and anxious, and perhaps a little unreasonable. Admit, 
 now, I have good reasons for being unreasonable? " 
 
 " Because I can't drive a coach and six through the Laws 
 of England ! Because I can't set aside a hundred-and-fifty 
 prior cases to bring forward my own grievance, and get it 
 settled to-morrow — never mind it's being Sunday — out of 
 hand ! Yes, perhaps, from a lady's point of view, you are 
 justified in being, as you say, unreasonable ! " 
 
 " Now you are a good boy, and talk more like yourself, 
 so I am beginning not to hate you quite so much. There- 
 fore, I don't mind asking how we are getting on ? Out of 
 mere curiosity, of course."
 
 244 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " The veiy question I put to Sliarpe yesterday. Out of 
 mere cui-iosity, of course." 
 
 " Don't repeat my words, like a wicked parrot. It is 
 nice of you to be anxious, and — and — impatient. What 
 did Sharpe say ? " 
 
 " The old story, * More evidence.' These fellows never 
 think they have evidence enough." 
 
 " Such nonsense ! If a thing is jet-black you can't 
 make it any blacker by inking it. They ought to set 
 you free at once. I've always said so, and I am sure I 
 am not prejudiced one way or the other ! " 
 
 " Not the least, I should say — nobody less so ! Well, 
 they are going on, that is all I could get out of him ; but 
 the thing moves so slowly that it docs put me out very 
 much." 
 
 " Why ? " with another of the looks. 
 
 "For many reasons. In the first place I abominate 
 uncertainty ; in the next, lawyers contrive to get through 
 a great deal of money ; and lastly, I am like a man in 
 prison, I hunger and thirst to be free." 
 
 She seemed disappointed. "Free !" she repeated. "Is 
 that all ? And shall you be free, Mr. Koy, when this tire- 
 some marriage of yours has been annulled? " 
 
 " I hope so. You don't think I have got another wife 
 hidden away in a basket somewhere ? Surely one has been 
 trouble enough ! " 
 
 She looked hurt, and her temper began to rise. The 
 love-making of these two was seldom without such passages 
 of arms, not always of courtesy, for sometimes they fought 
 with point and edge a outrance. 
 
 " I should not be surprised even at that! I am learning 
 some strange lessons. One of them teaches me that a 
 woman only receives a stone in exchange when she gives 
 her heart to a man. You had better have your stone back 
 again. I don't want it any more."
 
 CHAMPING THE BIT 245 
 
 " Then why did you tell me to stop just now when I was 
 going away?" 
 
 " Why? Because I am a lady. Because I do not choose 
 to turn a visitor out of my house. Because I am unmasking 
 you every moment as you sit opposite me in that chair — 
 you used always to sit on the sofa, but you hate to be near 
 me now. Because, oh ! Mr. Roy, because I am not a man 
 to forget the memories of a lifetime in five minutes, to 
 sacrifice justice, honour, and — and — and a loving woman's 
 affection at a day's notice for a fresh fancy and a new 
 face!" 
 
 Then her ladyship began to cry, and so scored several 
 points in the game. 
 
 It was his tm'n to play, but she seemed to have left him 
 very little on the table, and what are science, execution, 
 and chalk into the bargain, without a break ? 
 
 " The fancy is old, though the face is not," he answered 
 recklessly, and, so to speak, taking his chance of a fluke, 
 "You have no right to tax me with infidelity, and I hope 
 you only do it to prove my truth. Suppose I were to tm-n 
 round and say all these reproaches were a blind, a pretext 
 for a quarrel, an excuse to get rid of me and take up with 
 somebody else ? What should you answer to that ? ' ' 
 
 "I should not answer at all ! I should tell you it was 
 absurd, impossible ; that you were mad and bad, too, or 
 such an idea could never have entered your head ! " 
 
 " Lady Jane, I give in. Your logic beats one out of the 
 field. Good heavens ! how wonderful is the mechanism of 
 a woman's mind ! Let us make a compact. Nothing shall 
 ever tempt us into an argument after we are married ! " 
 
 She turned her head away to hide the blush that mounted 
 to her temples. " How do you know I shall marry you? 
 I never said I ivould ! 
 
 " Do you mean that after all I have gone through, my 
 sacrifices, my anxiety, my distress, and wear and tear of
 
 246 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 mind and body, you will throw me over at last ? This is, 
 indeed, a new experience of women and their ways ! Well, 
 Lady Jane, it is for you to decide. Be it so. I accept, 
 
 and for the future " 
 
 " Stop a moment Mr. Eoy. I never said I icouldn't ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE WEATHER-GAUGE 
 
 We left Brail alongside of Miss Bruce's barouche, sum- 
 moning to his manly heart the courage he felt oozing, 
 notwithstanding their smart gloves, through the palms of 
 his brawny hands. While he approached the charmer, he 
 felt dissatisfied with his hatter, tailor, and bootmaker, 
 discovered that the weather had suddenly become several 
 degrees warmer, and even experienced an ignoble desire to 
 cut and run, all which unpleasant sensations vanished 
 under the first glance of her loving eyes, that absorbed 
 every feeling of self in a delightful consciousness of the 
 presence that was life and sunshine and everything else to 
 hivi. 
 
 How many times in the last fortnight had he rehearsed 
 just such a scene, with questions, replies, rejoinders, the 
 whole imaginary encounter in which one disputant has it 
 all his own way. Yet he could find nothing better to say, 
 while they shook hands, than, "How do you do Miss 
 Bruce ? You are the last person I expected to find here ! ' ' 
 
 " Was that the reason you walked in tliis direction?" 
 retui'ned Hester, whose coolness returned with his obvious 
 discomfiture. " I hope, Mr. Brail, there is such a thing as 
 an agreeable surprise." 
 
 He coloured, he coughed, he shifted from one foot to the 
 other. " Oh yes — ver}- — of course," he stammered, but 
 said to his own heart the while, " What has come to you? 
 
 247
 
 246 BOY'S WIFJ^ 
 
 Here's a following wind, and a flood-tide, and I'm d d 
 
 if you can make any way at all ! " 
 
 She marked liis confusion, not without a little thrill 
 of trimnph, such as Pussy feels, no douht, when the 
 foolish mouse strays into reach. Then, shutting her 
 parasol only to open it again, asked quickly, " Who was 
 that you were walking with ? I mean the lady you left to 
 come to me." 
 
 "Mrs. John," he answered more boldly, as regaining 
 confidence on neutral gi'ound; "that is to say, her real 
 name is Roy — Mrs. Roy. I think you must have known 
 her at Warden Towers." 
 
 "Mrs. Roy!" repeated Hester, in shrill accents of 
 delight. " Then I have lit on her at last. Know her ! I 
 should think I did know her ! The sweetest, the kindest, 
 the dearest thing alive, and the most beautiful too. Oh, 
 Mr. Brail ! Mr. Brail ! I have found you out. No wonder 
 your friends never see you, with such an attraction as that 
 to keep you away. I suppose you walk together every day 
 in the Park." 
 
 "I'll take my solemn oath I never went out with 
 her in my life before," replied Brail in great confusion 
 and dismay. "We are at the same hotel, Miss Bruce; 
 the fact is, she — well, she keeps it, one may say, and, 
 seeing her pining for fresh air, I proposed a cruise here- 
 away. Miss Bruce, and " 
 
 "Keeps an hotel!" interrupted Hester. " What do 
 you mean by an hotel? Why she is a lady. We 
 have dined with her in her own house at Royston 
 Grange ! " 
 
 "A lady she is, and first-class, too!" exclaimed the 
 sailor. "But she keeps an hotel. Miss Bruce, all the 
 same— you may take my word for it. Hold on a minute. 
 You don't know her history, and I don't know that I've a 
 right to tell it."
 
 THE WEATHEB-GAUGE 249 
 
 " I know more than you think. She has been maligned, 
 and ill-used, too, unless I'm very much mistaken. I 
 never believed evil of that woman. Nobody could, who 
 looked in her face." 
 
 " It's not your way to think evil of anybody," said 
 Brail, with honest admiration. "And if you come to talk 
 effaces, you Imow, why " 
 
 " Tell me all about her, Mr. Brail. I am really inte- 
 rested. Is she an old friend ? Do you see much of her 
 and — and don't you think she is the most beautiful creatm'e 
 you ever beheld?" 
 
 ** No, I don't ! I can't help it. Miss Bruce ; but there 
 are plenty of ladies, that is to say, there is one lady, I 
 admire ten times more than Mrs. John. What's the good? 
 I'm only a poor lieutenant in the navy, and she is fit to be 
 a queen. I wish " 
 
 "What do you wish?" 
 
 " I wish I might tell her so, right off. Do you think, 
 Miss Bruce, a girl has a right to be offended with a plain, 
 honest fellow, because he looks up at her with the same 
 sort of admiration a man has for the moon, as something 
 belonging to heaven, unspeakably bright and glorious, but 
 far out of reach ? " 
 
 "Offended!" 
 
 " Because he would give an arm or a leg freely to do her 
 the smallest service, or his head, for that matter, and thank 
 her for taking it off his shoulders ? " 
 
 " His head ! Well, his head might be some use. 
 What could she do with his arms and legs, if she 
 had them ? No, Mr. Brail ; when you talk about heads, 
 you come to the point, and I begin to see my way." 
 
 " Will you have mine? I'd cut it off this moment, and 
 give it you freely." 
 
 " No, I will only ask you to lend it me. In plain 
 English, Mr. Brail, you can do me a great kindness by 
 simply using your wits."
 
 250 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " You know 3'ou're welcome to them, such as they are. 
 Go ahead, Miss Bruce. Only you give the orders, I'll take 
 care they are obeyed. " 
 
 " I want you to find out all you can about this unfortunate 
 couple. I have set my heart on bringing them together 
 again. Perhaps you don't know that Mr. Roy is actually 
 trying to get a divorce." 
 
 "The swab!" 
 
 " What's a swab ? " 
 
 "I beg your pardon, Miss Bruce. I mean it's cruel, 
 disgi-aceful, infamous ! It will break that poor lady's 
 heart." 
 
 *' Do you think she cares for him so much ? " 
 
 "I am sure she has some deep and bitter sorrow 
 that she bears with the pluck of — of an angel, you 
 know. I have observed it ever since we were paid 
 off this last time. She is a different creature from what 
 she used to be. I've never asked her plump, of course, 
 but I can see she is as unhappy as she can stick." 
 
 " How oddly you talk when you're in earnest. Never 
 mind, I like it. Now tell me exactly who she is, and 
 what she is. We never knew for certain at Warden 
 Towers." 
 
 " It's soon told. She is the niece of a dear old lady 
 who keeps an hotel near the Strand. She has lived 
 there ever since I went afloat as a boy, helping her aunt 
 with the accounts and housekeeping. She is there now, 
 back in her old ways, working like a nigger, but so altered 
 I cannot bear to see it. So sad, so tired, so pale. She 
 has hauled down her colours. Miss Bruce, as if she never 
 meant to hoist them again." 
 
 " Poor dear ! But she is staying with her aunt, you 
 say. I was sure she would never do anything wrong, or 
 even imprudent, and I hope, from my heart, Mr. Roy will 
 be punished as he deserves. He gives out that she ran
 
 THS WEATHEB-GAUGE 251 
 
 away from him, that she left her home with — with another 
 gentleman. iMr. Brail, I'm ashamed to speak of such 
 things, but if I was a man, I wouldn't rest till I had 
 seen justice done." 
 
 *' You are not a man, Miss Bruce, happily for the 
 credit of the ladies, but I am — at least I'm a pretty 
 good imitation, and, as I said before, there is nothing 
 you can tell me to do I won't have a try at, blow high, 
 blow low." 
 
 " Do you know Lord Fitzowen ? " 
 
 Mr. Brail stared. The question seemed irrelevant, 
 and in his heart of hearts he rather mistrusted the 
 influence of that voluble nobleman with the young lady 
 he adored. ** Yes," he said, " I know him well enough. 
 Why?" 
 
 " Do you consider him a what-d'ye-call-it ? — a swab ? " 
 
 " Certainly not. I believe he is a very good fellow, and 
 I know he is a gentleman." 
 
 " Then you don't believe him a likely person to have 
 placed Mrs. Roy in a false position by his attentions? 
 You will wonder, Mr. Brail, at my entering on such a 
 topic, but I am no longer a girl. I shall be twenty-four my 
 next birthday, and one can't help hearing people talk. I 
 dare say you think I ought to sit with my mouth screwed 
 up, and pretend to know nothing!" 
 
 " I am not the best judge in your case," answered the 
 wily lieutenant. " You would have to be a long way out 
 of your reckoning. Miss Bruce, before I could admit you 
 were wrong." 
 
 " Thank you ! I like people to believe in me. "Well, 
 then, about Lord Fitzowen ? Does he often call on Mrs. 
 Boy at this hotel where you all seem to be living together 
 in one family ? " 
 
 "Never by the remotest chance. I am sure of it, for I 
 must have seen him."
 
 252 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 " Thcu if it is nut Lord Fitzowen, do you think there 
 can be anybody else ? " 
 
 "Who should there be? Mrs. John — we always call 
 her Mrs. John — never sees a soul except on business. 
 She sits in a glass-case like the cook's galley, with a 
 pen in her hand, from morning till night. I had to 
 ask a dozen times before I could get her out for a walk 
 to-day." 
 
 " And you could swear to this ? " 
 
 "If I tell you so, of course I could swear to it. My 
 word is as good as my bond — better, for that matter — 
 and I don't know why it should be worse than my oath ? " 
 
 Hester clapped her hands so gaily as to startle her 
 coachman on the box out of his peaceful doze. " Then 
 we shall beat them!" she exclaimed. "We shall take 
 the wind out of their sails. We have got the — the " 
 
 " Weather-gauge ? " 
 
 " The weather-gauge ! Exactly ! Just what I meant. 
 Mr. Brail, I wish you would teach me some more 
 of your sea-terms, they always express what I want to 
 say." 
 
 He looked immensely delighted, but our friend had 
 learned navigation as well as seamanship, and saw his 
 way to a successful voyage from a fresh departure, as it 
 were, and on a different course. There was more credit 
 to be obtained, he thought, by doing her bidding while 
 still a fr-ee agent ; after accomplishing her orders to the 
 letter, he could come confidently for a reward, that in the 
 meantime must be rather less than promised, rather more 
 than understood. 
 
 " It is very good of you not to laugh at me," said he 
 humbly. " A man cannot get rid of his seafaring ways 
 and expressions so easily as he slips out of uniform to 
 go ashore. Well, Miss Bruce, when you want me, sing 
 out. I shall soon be alongside."
 
 THE WEATHEB-GAUGE 253 
 
 " Then I'll sing out now; but not loud enough for the 
 servants to hear. This is a delicate business to undertake, 
 and a difficult, but I think you have a good head on your 
 shoulders, and a good heart in youi- — well, wherever a 
 man's heart is supposed to be." 
 
 *' I know where mine is. Never mind. Go ahead." 
 
 " You shall have your sailing instructions. That is 
 right, is it not ? But of course they must be modified 
 by circumstances, and a good deal is left to your dis- 
 cretion." 
 
 " I understand, a sort of roving commission." 
 
 " Call it what you like. I don't think I shall be very 
 hard upon you, so long as you do yom* duty. In the 
 first place, you must get introduced to Mr. Roy. I can 
 help you so far. Then you must make fi-iends with him. 
 You will have to manage that for yourself." 
 
 " Can't you let me off the making friends ? I couldn't 
 shake hands with a man who has behaved so like a 
 scoundrel." 
 
 " You may trust to me. He is not such a — what is it? 
 — not such a swab as you seem to think. He will listen 
 to reason if he hears it from an unprejudiced person 
 who leans to neither side. You are that unprejudiced 
 person. What earthly reason can you have for interesting 
 yourself in Mrs. Roy?" 
 
 " Does he not know she is a friend oi yours ? " 
 
 Miss Bruce blushed crimson. The sailor was not sure 
 whether he had made a point or a blunder. 
 
 " That need not enlighten him," proceeded the young 
 lady. " You, are a friend of mine, and of papa's, but 
 how should Mr. Roy have learned that interesting fact ? 
 People in London only make themselves acquainted with 
 things which are not. Do as I tell you, and all will come 
 riglit." 
 
 " Then toll mo what to do."
 
 254 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " When Mr. Eoy and j'ou have dined together once or 
 twice and smoked a dozen cigars, you will become what 
 gentlemen call great friends. Then you will say to him, 
 ' My dear fellow, I hope you believe I would do you a turn 
 if I could.' " 
 
 Brail stared. Was there nothing she didn't know, 
 nothing she couldn't do ? Why, she would learn to 
 command an iron-clad in a week ! 
 
 " He will answer, ' I am sure you would. One expects 
 no less from a true friend,' " continued Hester, with a 
 comical imitation of the male voice and manner that 
 plunged her victim fathoms deeper in love than ever. 
 "* When I want you I'll look you up.' Then you must 
 say, ' You want me now. You are getting into an awful 
 mess. Have another cigar. I am going to tell you some- 
 thing you ought to know — it's about Mrs. Roy ! ' He will 
 probably look and feel very angry, but he won't have any- 
 thing to say at a moment's notice, and while he is trying 
 to think of an ansAver you can go on. 'I happen to have 
 heard a great deal of that lady since your differences. She 
 lias been living with her aunt in the strictest seclusion. 
 She is never visited by a soul, and you have no more chance 
 of getting a divorce than I have of being Archbishop of 
 Canterbm-y.' That's strong enough, I think! " concluded 
 Miss Hester, opening her parasol with a jerk to point this 
 triumphant peroration. 
 
 " And if I can get so far before he heaves a glass of grog 
 in my face, I shall have done a day's duty and earned a 
 day's pay," said the sailor, contemplating his teacher with 
 an expression of blended adoration and amusement. 
 
 " A day's duty," repeated Hester, " deserves a day's pay. 
 Good gi-acious, Mr. Brail ! how long do you think we 
 have been chattering here ? " 
 
 " Five minutes." 
 
 "Five-and-forty, more likely! Look at my watch. Papa 
 will think I am lost. I must go now — Mr. Brail, good-bye."
 
 THE WEATHER GAUGE 255 
 
 " And when shall I see you again? " 
 
 " Oh ! not for a long time." (His face fell.) " Not to- 
 morrow, certainly." (It brightened again.) 
 
 " The day after, then." 
 
 " No, I think not, unless we go to the Horticultui-al." 
 
 " You will go to the Horticultm'al ? " 
 
 " Not before five o'clock. Please tell them to drive on, 
 Mr. Brail. Once more, good-bye." 
 
 The horses were already in motion, the servants' backs 
 were turned, nobody was looking ; he bent over the slender 
 gloved hand she gave him, and pressed it to his lips. 
 
 His heart was stout, but it thrilled ; his brain steady, 
 but it swam. When he awoke out of his ecstasy, the car- 
 riage was a quarter of a mile off, and she turned her head, 
 for the smallest fi-action of a second, to give him a last look. 
 
 "I've done it!" said Brail, walking raj)turously off 
 towards Kensington Gardens, for in his supreme delight he 
 had lost " his bearings," as he called them, and all know- 
 ledge of where he was. " She can't make any mistake 
 now, and if it didn't seem impossible, I should say she 
 meant me to try. She's not a girl to play fast and loose 
 with a man. Quite different ! I've seen them with their 
 heads all round the compass, so as no seamanship could 
 bring them to, but she's not one of that sort. I believe in 
 her like my Bible. The weather-gauge, indeed ! How 
 prettily she said it ! Perhaps I'll have the weather-gauge 
 myself one of these days, and tow you into port, my beauty, 
 with a ring and a parson, and a whole fleet of bride's-maids, 
 as happy as a king. Ah ! there's nothing like it, when 
 you're spliced to such a duck as that ! Talk of money, 
 rank, fashion ! Rubbish ! They're not worth a hank ot 
 rotten yarn ! Give me a merry heart, a good conscience, 
 
 " And the wind that blows, 
 And the ship that goes, 
 And the lass that loves a sailor ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 WATCH AND WATCH 
 
 It is not to be supposed that Lord Fitzowen's red-waist- 
 coated emissary failed in the task assigned him. He came 
 to demand his recompense, fm*nishing Nelly's full name and 
 address within an hour of his first start, and hung about 
 Lord Fitzowen's residence till that nobleman should retmn 
 to dress for dinner, contentedly enough ; wishing, indeed, 
 that all the jobs he took in hand were as easy of accom- 
 plishment, and as sure to be well paid. 
 
 Corner Hotel, Corner Street, Strand. Surely no locality 
 could be less calculated to screen a lady from pursuit ! 
 Why not take a room there at once, disguised as a bagman — 
 with such a red wig and sample of hardware as should defy 
 recognition, not to resume his real character until assured 
 of forgiveness and success ? The idea, though tempting, 
 was too theatrical, and he dismissed it with regret. Such 
 an adventure would have suited his versatile genius, no 
 doubt, but seemed repugnant to good taste. Moreover, 
 Fitz felt conscious not only of admiration for Mrs. Roy, but 
 also of profound respect. This it was that distinguished 
 the present from all his past attachments, and caused him 
 to fear that he must be very far gone indeed. 
 
 So he was content to wait a day or two, and then dis- 
 patched a bouquet of liberal dimensions, addressed to Mrs. 
 Roy. Nelly, believing simply enough that this floral offer- 
 ing was a gallantry from Brail, thanked him accordingly, 
 
 256
 
 WATCH AND WATCH 257 
 
 and it was only after the sailor's energetic disavowal, she 
 suspected the real offender. But what was the use ? she 
 could not send them back ; the flowers were very beautiful, 
 bringing with them odours of summer, almost gleams of 
 sunshine, into the cook's galley, as the lieutenant called it, 
 where she cast up her bills. 
 
 " They're lovely, my dear, whoever sent them," protested 
 her aunt. ** Flowers isn't like oraments, Nelly, they're to 
 be had for the gathering. A young woman needn't be 
 ashamed to accept of flowers, come from where they will, 
 and a young man wouldn't offer flowers as didn't mean 
 honest and honourable. If it was a bracelet now, or a pair 
 of gold earrings, they'd have to go back next post. I've 
 done it myself, scores of times ; but when they come with a 
 nosegay, thank ye kindly, says I, and you're welcome to a 
 nosegay fi-om me, if you look for anything in return ! " 
 
 Thus it fell out that when Lord Fitzowen summoned 
 courage to call in person at the Corner Hotel, he found his 
 bouquet set in a jug of water, propped by two ledgers on her 
 wi-iting-table, under Nelly's very nose. Any encouragement 
 thus afforded seemed, however, sufficiently counteracted by 
 that lady's greeting, which was of the coldest and most 
 reserved. Putting her lips to an orifice in the wall that 
 communicated by some myterious pipe with the basement, 
 she summoned a flippant waiter to assist at the inter- 
 view, ignoring sternly the possibility that his lordship could 
 have called for any purpose less business-like than that of 
 securing rooms. Fitz was not easily defeated ; but it must 
 be confessed this masterly mancEuvre placed him at consider- 
 able disadvantage. His frank, open nature did him better 
 service than any amount of artifice. 
 
 " Forgive me," he said, lifting his hat : ** I only ventm-ed 
 to intrude because, having discovered your address by acci- 
 dent, I wanted to finish something I forgot to say the last 
 time we met." 
 
 17
 
 258 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 Nelly had turned very pale, but licr lip was steady and 
 her voice firm while she answered: "I require no apology. 
 I thought my wishes would have had greater weight. I am 
 sorry to find I am mistaken. I conclude there is nothing 
 more to be said." 
 
 The waiter stared, and whisked his napkin. Lord Fitz- 
 owen, trying to intimate with his eye that it would be well 
 if this functionary were dismissed, preserved an awkward 
 silence ; while Mrs. John did a sum in addition, and did it 
 wrong. 
 
 "Do you wish to see my aunt?" she said at last, 
 looking up with a gravity which proved too much for her 
 visitor. 
 
 For all his romance, volatile Fitz was keenly alive to the 
 ludicrous, and he fairly burst into a laugh. 
 
 His mirth seemed contagious ; Nelly could not forbear 
 smiling, though resolved none the less to remain on her 
 defence. 
 
 " Will you introduce me to your aunt?" he exclaimed. 
 "I should be so delighted. I want to know the whole 
 family." 
 
 "It is all very well to laugh," replied Mrs. John, re- 
 suming her gi-avity; "but I should have thought you the 
 last person in -the world to take unfair advantage of any 
 one — particularly of the unhappy. Do not force me to 
 confess I was mistaken." 
 
 " You don't mean I must never come and see you at all," 
 said his lordship ruefully. " I only ask to be of service : 
 I had no time to tell you so the other day. I would run 
 your errands, fetch and carry for you like a dog ! " 
 
 "I don't want a dog," she answered; "and I have 
 nothing to fetch and carry." 
 
 "But I may send you some more flowers, at any rate? 
 After all, they are only vegetables. There can be no objec- 
 tion to flowers."
 
 WATCH AND WATCH 259 
 
 " Neither flowers nor vegetables. I ought to have thanked 
 you for these. But no more ; and good-bye ! " 
 
 So his lordship had nothing for it but to walk out, baffled, 
 defeated, more enthralled than ever, and gathering what 
 consolation he could from his late rebuff. 
 
 " At least," he thought, " she seemed to like the flowers. 
 That must mean she will forgive me for sending more. 
 What on earth made her have the waiter up ? I don't know 
 why one should mind waiters ; they must hear and see all 
 sorts of things. A waiter is really no more protection than 
 a toothpick ! Yes, I must be patient. In a week, or 
 perhaps less, I might call again. I can excuse myself by 
 urging that she would not listen to me to-day. By degi'ees 
 she will get used to it, and in time she will let me sit in 
 that glass-case with her ; of course under surveillance of the 
 aunt, and eventually, perhaps, only of the waiter. I can 
 square him. It v/ill be a long business, but I shouldn't 
 mind that, if I thought she would care for me at last. It's 
 up-hill work — I have made lamentably slow progress ; yet 
 I cannot help flattering myself I got the thin end of the 
 wedge in to-day ! " 
 
 Thus ruminated his lordship, under the erroneous impres- 
 sion that it is possible to judge of one woman by another, 
 or that experience and analogy are of the slightest assistance 
 in predicating the turns of the female mind ; and while so 
 ruminating, returned, instinctively, the salute of that rcd- 
 waistcoated messenger whom ho so often employed. As 
 Red-waistcoat looked after the nobleman with an adiuiiiug 
 shake of the head, he was accosted by a person wearing a 
 shabby suit of black, like an undertaker in difficulties, who 
 pressed a sixpence into his willing palm. 
 
 " What's this for? " asked the recipient, at once suspect- 
 ing " something up." 
 
 " ^V^ly, you sec, my man, I'm from the country." 
 
 " You looks like it," interpolated Red-waistcoat.
 
 260 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 "From the country," continued the other, indifferent to 
 irony. " Corned up for the Horse Show; and I want to 
 know some of the tip-toppers, if it's only by sight, so as 
 to talk of them when I gets home." 
 
 ''Yell?" 
 
 "Now, that is a real, natural swell, I'm sure of it, as 
 you touched your hat to just now. "Would you mind 
 obliging me with his name?" 
 
 "Vich?" 
 
 " The young gentleman in a blue surtout, with his hat 
 a one side." 
 
 " Wot ! don't you Imow 'im ? " 
 
 "No. Who is he?" 
 
 " Who is he? Why, Captain Bull. That's who he is ! 
 I thought as everybody knowed Captain Bull ! " 
 
 And Red-waistcoat, true to his salt, having mistrusted 
 this country-bred inquirer from the first, disappeared down 
 a by-street to melt his late gratuity in gin. 
 
 The shabby man smiled, shook his head, and walked on. 
 "It's a good name," he said to himself, "a very good 
 travelling name, is Captain Bull. I might find it handy 
 some of these days in my own way of business. So his 
 lordship calls himself Captain Bull, does he, when he takes 
 his little walks and plays his little game at this here end of 
 the Strand ? Let's see now. The day before yesterday a 
 nosegay of flowers, not far short of a guinea's worth, I'll 
 wager ; to-day a visit under a false name ; to-morrow ? — 
 to-morrow will be an off-day, I guess. Spell of work, 
 spell of rest — that's about the size of it with these here 
 upper-crusts. And next week, maybe, she'll drive out 
 with him in a hired brougham, or what-not. I think I see 
 my way to put the puzzle together, piecing it in, bit by bit, 
 till every joint fits exact, smooth, and even as the palm of 
 your hand. Then I goes to my employer and draws my 
 ten quid, and perhaps a couple more for luck. Yes, I don't
 
 WATCH AND WATCH 261 
 
 think I laid out that sixpence so badly. For a Londoner, 
 and a gutter-bred one, this chap in a red weskit seems 
 what I call a trifle soft." 
 
 Not so soft as the shabby person supposed. Eed-waist- 
 coat, who had swept a crossing in St. James's Street, hung 
 about Tattersall's yard, held their horses for Members of 
 both houses at "Westminster, and when Parliament was not 
 sitting, had spent one recess on plain fare and regular 
 exercise at Brixton, was about as sharp a blade as can be 
 turned out by the hard grindstone of lower London life. 
 He saw through the would-be countryman at a glance, 
 detected the detective by his boots — ex pcde Herciilem — 
 and making sure he was not followed, ran like a lamp- 
 lighter through certain by-streets to Lord Fitzowen's house, 
 where his knowledge of human nature told him his lord- 
 ship would retm-n for revisal of his toilet after a visit to his 
 lady-love in the Strand. 
 
 He arrived simultaneously with that nobleman, and 
 passed into the hall by aid of the owner's latch-key. 
 
 " Well, Jack, what's up now ? " asked Fitzowen, flinging 
 his umbrella with a clatter into the stand. 
 
 "You're watched, my lord!" was the answer. "I 
 made bold to come on here at once, and give your lord- 
 ship the office. When a man knoios as he's watched 
 there ain't no danger, like when a man knows as he's 
 drunk ! " 
 
 " How did you find it out. Jack? " 
 
 " Bless ye, my lord ! I hadn't no call to go a-finding of 
 it out ; the cove jumped slap into my mouth. ' Who's 
 that gent? ' says he, when I lifted my 'at to your lordship, 
 which you returned polite. I warn't a-goin' to give him 
 the tip, my lord, not if I know'd it. I'm not such a 
 flat." 
 
 " Do you think he had been following me long ? " 
 
 "Best part of an hour, my lord. I see him before,
 
 262 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 when your lordship passed down Pall Mall. I couldn't he 
 mistaken, a-cause of his hoots. He ain't a bobhy, my lord 
 — you've no call to be afraid of that ; but he's as bad, if not 
 worse." 
 
 ** You'd know him again, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Anywheres, my lord. He couldn't deceive me, not if 
 I was to drop on to him in a church." 
 
 " Then keep a sharp look-out. If you see that he tracks 
 me regularly, get into conversation Avith him and find out 
 his employer, if you can." 
 
 *' Let me alone, my lord. I'll soon know wot he's up 
 to. Good day, my lord. It's uncommon hot this after- 
 noon." 
 
 " Are you thirsty. Jack ? " 
 
 " Always dry, my lord, begging j'our lordship's pardon." 
 
 " Then go and wet your whistle with that, and don't 
 come here again till you've got something to tell me I 
 didn't know before." 
 
 Red-waistcoat, pocketing a handsome gratuity, went his 
 way rejoicing, while Lord Fitzowen, dressing leisurely for 
 an afternoon ride, meditated on Mrs. Roy's deep grey eyes, 
 and the false position in which he had placed both her and 
 himself. 
 
 Watched ! Had it indeed come to this ? He could 
 depend on Red-waistcoat ; the fellow was sharp as a 
 needle, and familiar with every kind of intrigue, even in 
 phases of life far higher than his own. There was no 
 likelihood of his being mistaken, and it seemed probable 
 that, for some reason as yet unexplained, the attachment 
 he had allowed himself to cherish for this deserted wife was 
 now suspected by her husband. There would be an action 
 at law, a show-up, a general row, and he was to be made 
 the scapegoat ! What then ? Why, Mr. Roy was playing 
 into his very hands. He desired nothing better. Out- 
 raged, insulted, compromised by the man who ought to
 
 WATCH AND WATCH 263 
 
 liavG protected her, found guilty by the verdict of society, 
 before trial and without evidence, her good name irre- 
 trievably tarnished as thus connected with his own, Nelly 
 would be more or less than woman if she refused the only 
 shelter left, his love, his protection, and his home. They 
 would go abroad at once. How delightful ! " The world 
 forgetting, by the world forgot." Would find some 
 beautiful nook in Germany, Switzerland, the Italian Alps, 
 no matter wliere, to furnish the first example of a pair who, 
 having set the decencies of life at defiance, could make 
 each other happy as the day is long ! Would he tire of 
 her at last ? No, no ; a thousand times no. And all the 
 while, with masculine self-sufficiency, he never dreamed of 
 speculating, would she tire of him ? 
 
 Pending this final catastrophe, distant enou.gh as yet, 
 except in Lord Fitzowen's vivid imagination, Mr. Roy paid 
 fi'equent visits to Lincoln's Lm, returning therefrom, day 
 by day, with an increasing depression of spirits that Lady 
 Jane taxed all her energies to dispel. It vexed her not a 
 little to see the man whom she now began to consider 
 personal property in no way elevated by his prospects — 
 grave, silent, even morose, showing unaccountable dislike 
 to the payment or acceptance of those little attentions by 
 which women set such store. 
 
 " I can't think what's the matter with you ! " exclaimed 
 her ladyship, fairly out of patience with his continued 
 despondency. "If it wasn't so bad a compliment to 
 myself, and I didn't know it must be impossible, I should 
 say you were in love with that odious wife of yours all the 
 time!"
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 WORN TO A THREAD 
 
 Who has not syiupatbiserl witli Madame de Maintenon 
 when, contrasting the solemn splendom* of her matmity 
 with the poverty, dependence, and light-heartedness of 
 former days, she deplored her dreary task — "to amuse 
 a king no longer capable of amusement?" There was 
 probably as little resemblance between Louis the Great 
 and Scarron as between the late Mr. de Banier and John 
 Roy, yet could Lady Jane at this period of her widowhood 
 fully appreciate the up-hill work imposed on that discreet 
 personage who succeeded so skilfully in combining the 
 influence of a king's favourite with the authority of a king's 
 wife. Madame Scarron endured the penance a good many 
 years. Lady Jane found it irksome in a very few weeks. 
 Nevertheless, women will make great sacrifices rather than 
 abate one inch of dominion, and her ladyship, though 
 she hated both, was more averse to being baffled than 
 bored. 
 
 The last conquest, too, when it comes at the end of a 
 long list, seems only more valuable because it is the last. 
 There is a gi-eat rush for tickets when the lottery is about 
 to close, and with all its uncertainty, all its variety, all its 
 whirl of chance and change, no doubt the finish seems the 
 most exciting part of a race. 
 
 It is when youth is slipping away that women cling to it 
 with most tenacious grasp ; and oh ! ye fickle swains, who 
 
 261
 
 WOBN TO A THREAD 265 
 
 pass like the bee from flower to flower, I beseech you have 
 some consideration for those over-blowu roses, from which 
 the petals already begin to fall. Tempting are they, and 
 fragrant in their rich matm-ity, but remember, if you gather 
 you are bound to wear them till nothing is left but the 
 stalk ! 
 
 A damsel's broken heart can be put together again by 
 your successor as good as new — or very nearly — and is 
 sometimes, indeed, all the sounder and healthier for its 
 ordeal. The chances of the table are still open to a player 
 who has but lost her first venture in the game. Far 
 different is it with the matron burning to retrieve a ruined 
 fortune on this, her last bold stake. If luck fails her, 
 there is no recovery, neither re fait nor ajjves can avail, 
 she must walk out beggared and desperate into the night. 
 Can we blame her that she summons all her energy, all 
 her artifice, all her courage, and would fain supplement 
 skill mth something like cheating to counteract the 
 adverse chances of the deal ? That inexorable rien 
 ne va plus must always be a sentence of doom to the 
 sanguine, impulsive, and insatiable sex, who enter life 
 persuaded they have a prescriptive right to its richest 
 prizes, and if they must leave it without attaining the 
 objects of their ambition, declare loudly they have suffered 
 injustice from gods and men. 
 
 Lady Jane, insofar a Juliet that she would have her 
 Romeo stray — 
 
 " No farther tlian a wanton's bird, 
 Who lets it hop a little from her hand, 
 Like a poor prisoner in its twisted gyves, 
 And with a silk thread plucks it back again, 
 So loving-jealous of its liberty " — 
 
 did by no means approve of the change that day by day 
 was making a turbulent vassal out of an obedient slave. 
 Mr. Roy seemed adamant to smiles and tears alike.
 
 266 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 Voluble reproaches and silent sulks were etiually unavailinpf. 
 As a last resource she tried hysterics, once only, and never 
 again, since they nearly drove him away for good and all. 
 "I must leave off," thought her ladyship, " where I ought 
 to have begiin. To keep him amused is the only chance of 
 tiding over this dreadful interval, and retaining my hold 
 on his affections. He must he made to feel he cannot 
 do without me. Men are sad cowards in their dread of 
 being bored. If I can find him a fresh distraction every 
 day, and the days do not outlast the distractions, I shall 
 win. After we are married, my friend, it will be my turn, 
 and you will find yourself nicely mistaken, if you think you 
 are to go on as you do now ! " So she sought out every 
 diversion she could think of — plays, operas, concerts, 
 flower-shows, and bazaars, till from Alexandra Park to the 
 Crystal Palace there was hardly a place of amusement, 
 frequented by the respectable classes, at which she had not 
 yawned out her money's worth in company with Mr. Ptoy. 
 
 She was hard put to it for a pastime, when she made the 
 following proposal over her usual afternoon tea. 
 
 " Will you take me somewhere to-night? " 
 
 His face expressed no inordinate gratification. She felt 
 vexed with herself and him to feel that he would rather 
 stay and smoke peacefully at his club. 
 
 "How can you go anywhere to-night?" was the 
 uncourteous rejoinder. "I thought you dined with your 
 micle, the bishop? " 
 
 " So I do ; and he ought to be burnt for not asking you 
 to meet me. Never mind, I shall get away early. And 
 you?" 
 
 " I am engaged to dine with a man-party." 
 
 " You're sure it's a man-party? " 
 
 "Quite sure. A house-dinner at a club, to meet rather 
 a distinguished individual — one of the fellows who went to 
 look for the North Pole."
 
 WOBN TO A THREAD 267 
 
 " How nice ! I declare I envy you ! Can't you bring 
 liim here ? Do you know him well ? " 
 
 "I didn't know him at all two days ago, but we are 
 rather allies already. I like him very much. He seems a 
 straightforward, sensible fellow, without the slightest self- 
 conceit." 
 
 " What's his name ? " 
 
 " Brail. A lieutenant in the navy." 
 
 " I can tell you all about him. He's perpetually 
 dangling after that pert, forward Miss Bruce — the girl you 
 think so good-looking. I wonder how poor old twaddling 
 Sir Hector allows it ! " 
 
 "Miss Bruce! How you ladies pick up gossip! 
 Now I should have thought Brail had more sense than to 
 dangle after any woman, if she was as beautiful as an 
 angel." 
 
 " Say as wicked as a iiend ! That is what you gentlemen 
 like. I declare it almost puts one out of conceit with 
 being good, to see the sort of people that get on in this 
 modern Babylon." 
 
 " Then why don't you leave off ? " 
 
 She looked at him reproachfully. Nor, I am bound to 
 admit, was such a remark, addressed to a lady with whom 
 he had contracted a tacit engagement, in the best taste ; 
 but Roy, placed in a false position and goaded by the 
 stings of conscience, had become of late like a baited bull, 
 pushing and goring on all sides without scruple or 
 remorse. 
 
 Lady Jane swallowed down the lump that rose in her 
 throat, and, being a skilful debater, moved the previous 
 question with assumed calmness — " Shall you get away 
 from your dinner by eleven ? " 
 
 "How can I tell? V/hat do you want me to do at 
 eleven?" 
 
 " What I want you to do every hour of the day. Give
 
 268 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 me the pleasure of your society. Now do be a dear old 
 thing for once. Limit yourself to a cigarette after dinner, 
 and at eleven exactly I will call for you in the brougliam — 
 there ! " 
 
 "I'll take you to a sSance." 
 
 " What's a seance ? " 
 
 "I haven't an idea. I never went to one. But I think 
 it must be rather nice. We sit in the dark, you know, and 
 hold each other's hands. I believe you must on no account 
 let go." 
 
 " Why ? What would happen ? " 
 
 " Oh ! something very dreadful. Somebody would come 
 up, I fancy, and insist on joining the circle — perhaps take 
 the youngest lady in the company down with him. No, you 
 must promise not to let go ! " 
 
 " It sounds great nonsense, but I've no objection to 
 holding on. Is that all we do ? " 
 
 " That's only a beginning. If we preserve the circle 
 unbroken, and keep on wishing — (it's not like our own 
 world, you know : there's gi-eat virtue in wishing) — we 
 shall get — what did Lady Pandora call it? — a manifes- 
 tation ! " 
 
 " That ought to be something startling. Did she explain 
 what it means ? " 
 
 " Not exactly. But she said the spirits would come into 
 the room and answer questions. I should like to ask a 
 good many." 
 
 " Lady Jane, have you ever read ' Swedenberg? ' " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Did 3'ou ever hear of him ? " 
 
 "I think I remember the name. Wasn't he a quack 
 doctor or something? " 
 
 "He was a man of deep thought and powerful imagi- 
 nation. A hundred years ago he founded the religion, or
 
 WOBN TO A THBEAD 269 
 
 belief, or whatever you like to call it, that idle people are 
 taking up to-day." 
 
 " Only think ! " 
 
 '* He saw visions, and di'eamed dreams ; heard the music 
 of the spheres played in good time and tune, ascended to 
 the seventh heaven in a trance, and — and came down again 
 not much wiser than he went up." 
 
 *' How clever of you to know ! And what became of him? 
 Of course he's dead." 
 
 "Yes, he's dead, like anybody else. One says of him 
 now, that he was * a very remarkable man ! ' It commits 
 one to nothing." 
 
 " But what do 7jou think ? " 
 
 " The many consider him a madman, the few a prophet. 
 It does not follow that because the minority is ridiculously 
 small, it must therefore be in the wrong." 
 
 " Mr. Eoy, I believe you are a spiritualist ! Now you 
 must come to-night." 
 
 " Lady Jane, I am neither spiritualist nor materialist. 
 I cannot judge off-hand, when matters lie so completely 
 beyond the range of ordinary experience and our normal 
 reasoning powers. The man who tells me such and such 
 things are impossible, has usually no better argument, 
 when you press him hard, than because they are impossible, 
 and I find cannot explain much of the ordinary process of 
 physical nature, far less the mysterious operations of the 
 mind. We have still a great deal to learn about mes- 
 merism, magnetism, miracles, scrij)tural and historical, 
 our misgivings, presentiments, hopes, and fears — above 
 all, our sympathies, aversions, and personal influence on 
 each other." 
 
 ** I know I couldn't sleep with a cat in the room, and 
 I'm afraid of a blackbeetle," observed Lady Jane, who 
 found some difficulty in keeping her mind fixed on any 
 one subject for five consecutive minutes.
 
 270 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 "Exactly; but why?" 
 
 "Because I cau't bear them! Surely that's reason 
 enough." 
 
 " And do you believe in ghosts? " 
 
 " Of com*se I don't! I wouldn't live in a haunted house, 
 though, for any money you could offer." 
 
 " That's very plucky ! But again, why ? " 
 
 "Oh! I've heard such stories. Somebody I met at 
 dinner only the other day — I think it was Lord Fitz- 
 owen — told me he slept in the Gallery at Shadelands, one 
 Ascot week, and nothing would tempt him to pass a night 
 there again." 
 
 "Ecally! What did he see ? " 
 
 "Oh! I don't know that he saw anything. You can't 
 see ghosts, I fancy, but there were all sorts of strange 
 noises ; his pillow was j)ulled from under his head, the 
 chairs and tables moved about the room, and his water- 
 jug was upset — but he thinks he did that himself. I assure 
 you, his account of it made my blood run cold." 
 
 " Shadelands I Is that the house where a man stami)ed 
 a baby into the fire with his boots ? " 
 
 " No, no. The horrors you are thinking of happened the 
 other side of the county. I believe, though, they are quite 
 true. Shadelands is the place where an old man in a chintz 
 dressing-gown comes into your room just before daybreak, 
 pokes his face through the curtains at the foot of your bed, 
 and tries to confess something, but nobody has yet made 
 out what." 
 
 " You say Fitzowen didn't see him." 
 
 " No, he didn't see him, but he felt sure the old man 
 was in the room ! " 
 
 " Did he see anybody who had seen him." 
 
 " Oh ! if you don't believe it, of course it's no use dis- 
 cussing the subject. I can't suppose Lord Fitzowen would 
 assert what wasn't true ! "
 
 WOBN TO A THREAD 271 
 
 " I'm not so sure of that. There is such a thing as 
 poking fun, even at the lady you take dovrn to dinner. 
 But I am more credulous than you think. I don't see 
 why I should not helieve in your old man." 
 
 " I am glad you haven't said I tell stories too. Then 
 you think the ghost in the chintz di-essing-gown " 
 
 " Stop ! I draAV the line at dressing-gowns. Ghosts as 
 many as you please — I can swallow them by scores ; but 
 where do they get their clothes? " 
 
 " That's not at all a nice joke. Of course, even ghosts 
 have a sense of decency. They couldn't meet one without 
 — without something on. Now I see you are turning the 
 whole subject into ridicule, and I think it very unkind." 
 
 "But you don't believe in them yourself; you said so at 
 first." 
 
 " That has nothing to do with it. One ought not to 
 make light of such serious topics. It's like turning religion 
 into ridicule. Besides, there must be something strange 
 about this spirit-rapping, if all Lady Pandora tells me is 
 true." 
 
 " Then in your creed the ghosts and the spirits are 
 separate articles of belief? " 
 
 " Of com*se; they have nothing whatever to do with each 
 other. Ghosts are — well, I don't exactly know what ghosts 
 are. At least, I can't explain ; but the spirits give a 
 very clear account of themselves — they seem to conceal 
 nothing." 
 
 " Still, I hope they are dressed ! " 
 
 " Beautifully dressed, and in the most expensive things. 
 Of course, you can't see their dresses in the dark." 
 
 " Then how do you know ? " 
 
 " That is what I asked Lady Pandora, because it does 
 seem most interesting to learn what one wears in the other 
 world, and she said, that in a good manifestation, with a 
 powerful medium Do you know what a medium is? "
 
 272 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 " Not in the least, do you ? " 
 
 " Never inind, it would take too long to explain. Well, 
 with a powerful medium and under favourable conditions 
 (for the spirits are very capricious, she tells me — worse 
 than men and women — at least, worse than women), when 
 you have sat and wished hard for an hour or so, there comes 
 a faint gleam of light — very pretty pale violet colour, and 
 it dances about the room like a will-o'-the-wisp, or the corpse- 
 lights in a churchyard. Then, if you are not too frightened, 
 you must keep your eyes fixed on it till you see something." 
 
 "Has Lady Pandora seen something?" 
 
 "No, but Mrs. Eccleston has. She's almost a medium, 
 and knows the names of nearly half-a-dozen spirits." 
 
 " And what did Mrs. Eccleston see ? " 
 
 "Well, she told Lady Pandora that the light grew so 
 vivid, it dazzled her eyes ; but after a few minutes, she 
 made out a woman's face, pale, and rather pretty, only sad, 
 floating about, as she described it, in the rise and fall of 
 the flame. Its hair was dark, and round its forehead it 
 had bound a transparent gauze veil Avith spangles of gold. 
 The rest of the figure was invisible, all but a thin white 
 hand that held a flower. The medium knew this spirit 
 quite well, and held a long conversation with it." 
 
 " Did Lady Pandora tell you what they talked about ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! The medium asked her if she was haj)py, 
 and she answered, through the medium, of course, that she 
 was not, but she hoped to be much happier after a little 
 while, as she was going to be transferred to another sphere. 
 Did she feel uncomfortable where she was placed at pre- 
 sent? No; but she didn't like it, and would be glad when 
 removed. Mrs. Eccleston says she always gives the same 
 answer, and is a very unsatisfactory spirit to converse with. 
 She wouldn't tell them any more, but faded gradually away, 
 after dropping the flower gently on the table — that is the 
 most extraordinary part of the whole thing ! "
 
 WOBN TO A THREAD 273 
 
 " And what became of the flower ? I should like to have 
 had it to keep." 
 
 " So would Lady Pandora. But when she asked for it, 
 unfortunately the medium had taken it away. Now, Mr. 
 Eoy, how do you get over such testimony as this ? But 
 I won't ask you to take my word. Seeing is believing. 
 Come with me to-night, and judge for yourself. 
 
 He looked grave and pondered. "I, too," said he, 
 "should like to ask the spirits a few questions. Yes, 
 Lady Jane, if you are good enough to call for me, I will 
 be ready at eleven to-night." 
 
 He took himself off to dress for dinner, and Lady Jane 
 looked at the clock — half-past six. He couldn't be going 
 to dine till eight, and, so far as her experience served her, 
 a man's toilet ought not to take more than five-and-twenty 
 minutes — poor De Banier accomplished his in ten. On 
 these matters of domestic detail, a widow is not to be 
 deceived. Young ladies may be put off with excuses, 
 but the matron knows her rights, and exacts her claim 
 in full. Could he be going to see somebody else ? The 
 thought so stung Lady Jane that she started from her 
 chair and laid her hand on the bell. A vague idea crossed 
 her mind of following in a cab to make sure of the worst, 
 but it faded quickly as it rose, and she resolved to bear and 
 forbear patiently, stubbornly if necessary, for the next few 
 weeks, smothering reproaches and postponing refusals, till 
 a crowning victory should bring him into subjection for 
 life. The cord that secured her captive was sadly worn 
 and frayed, it seemed only to hold by a thread, requiring 
 the lightest finger, the nicest skill, lest it should part and 
 set him free. 
 
 There was no question of coercion ; she must turn and 
 lead, and coax him in the right direction, as a skilful angler 
 guides the gudgeon ashore, in spite of weeds and obstruc- 
 tions, wind and weather, light tackle, and a heavy fish.
 
 CHAPTEK XXXII 
 
 THE STALLED OX 
 
 A HOUSE-DINNER at a good club ! The very words carry a 
 flavour of clear turtle and dry champague, still hock, forced 
 strawberries, and the utmost efforts of a cook who knows 
 that his skill will be appreciated by a judicious committee 
 of his own sex, unalloyed with that mixture of ladies which 
 diverts attention from the serious business of mankind, 
 about nine p.m. Mr. Roy, having lately had a benefit of 
 feminine society, thought he should very much enjoy a jolly 
 little party composed exclusively of men, and discharged his 
 hansom cab at the club steps with something of a boy's 
 feelings who resolves to make the most of his play-time 
 between the hours of school. With the originator of this 
 feast we have nothing to do, save to accord him the tribute 
 of admiration due to one whose primary object in life is to 
 feed his friends plentifully and well. He was, perhaps, the 
 best judge of good-living in London ; could tell you where 
 the most perfect dinners were to be had in every capital of 
 Europe, discriminating between the dishes to order at a 
 restaurant, and those to partake of at an ambassador's ; 
 was cunning in wines, experienced in sauces, and might be 
 trusted with a bill of fare in any part of the civilised world. 
 It is only justice to add that this gentleman was also 
 skilled in the art of sending out his invitations, bringing 
 people together who lilted to meet, and was seldom guilty of 
 such a solecism as to ask men to the same table who were 
 not on cordial terms. 
 
 274
 
 THE STALLED OX 275 
 
 However familiar he may be with its banks and surlace, 
 I am told that it takes a waterman many long years 
 thoroughly to know the eddies and under-currents of the 
 Thames. It is the same in that great City which is washed, 
 wdthout being cleaned, by the fine old river. You may have 
 the latest gossip, jests, and scandal at your fingers' ends, 
 yet find it impossible to keep pace with the shifting ramifica- 
 tions of London life. Births, deaths, or marriages make 
 bitter enemies to-day of those who were fast fiiends last 
 week, and in a society like ours, of which the female element 
 forms so important a part, it is impossible to foretell what 
 an hour may bring forth. Mr. Roy, arriving as a waiter 
 announced dinner, did not calculate on finding that one of 
 the party assembled in honour of his new friend, Mr. Brail, 
 was his old friend, Lord Fitzowen ! 
 
 Tu those melo-dramatic times painted by romance, which 
 I firmly believe never existed in reality, such meetings are 
 described as replete with action and event. " Ha ! traitor ! " 
 exclaims one gallant, baring his blade. " Have I found 
 thee, mine enemy ! " replies the other, throwing away his 
 scabbard. The wicked rapiers glide, and grate, and gleam, 
 and all the rest of it, till after a fixed number of stamps 
 and passes down goes Mercutio, with a sufficient hole in his 
 side, and oS" swaggers Tybalt, calling for a stoup of wine 
 in such reprehensible language as seems aj)propriate to a 
 costume of doublet and hose. 
 
 We who wear coats and pantaloons can have no such ex- 
 peditious redress. We bite our thumbs in a lawyer's office 
 rather than in the open street, and must needs extort repara- 
 tion — not so speedy, but perhaps more secure — in those 
 Inns of Court which were really fields when oui- fathers 
 sought them to salve wounded honour with hot lead or cold 
 steel. But in the meantime, if our bitterest enemy has the 
 face to accost us politely in public we feel compelled to 
 return his greeting, value for value, and ask after his health
 
 276 . ROY'S WIFE 
 
 with assumed interest, wliile in our secret hearts we wish 
 he was dead, and worse ! 
 
 The last time they met in a dub, Lord Fitzowen ad- 
 dressed Mr. Ptoy with an open frankness that could not but 
 disarm suspicion. Things had changed since then, in fact, 
 if not in intention, and what ought he to do now ? It was a 
 difficult question. " I have no right to cut a man because 
 I am in love with his wife," thought his lordshij), " and yet 
 one can't be cordial with a fellow who has behaved so badly 
 to the sweetest woman in the universe ! Hang it ! I wish I 
 hadn't come ; but as I am here, I suppose I had better say 
 How d'ye do? without sliaking hands! " So he adopted a 
 middle course, which is seldom a good plan, and the two 
 men exchanged a cold, constrained salute, almost tanta- 
 mount to a declaration of war. 
 
 It relieved Mr. Roy, nevertheless, from a dilemma of his 
 own. He too had been wondering whether he ought to 
 destroy the whole hilarity of the party by cutting Lord 
 Fitzowen dead, or whether, under protest as it were, and 
 for one night only, he should meet him like any other friend, 
 and leave the world to be enlightened by such ulterior pro- 
 ceedings as would make it impossible for them ever to speak 
 again. His lordship's curt greeting, therefore, gave him his 
 cue, and nobody perhaps except Brail, whose perceptions 
 were sharpened by self-interest, observed anything peculiar 
 in the manner of these two men, sitting in apparent amity, 
 with three feet of tablecloth between them, which one, if 
 not both, would fain have exchanged for twelve paces of 
 level ground near a frontier town. 
 
 But hostility, however rancorous, is seldom quite proof 
 against the effects of good cheer. Before dinner was half 
 through, and when the champagne had been round thrice. 
 Brail felt satisfied there would be no difficulty in keeping 
 the peace — nay, by the time chartreuse had succeeded a 
 macedoine flavom-ed with maraschino, Fitz became so
 
 THE STALLED OX 277 
 
 placable that lie began to thiuk " Roy wasn't half a bad 
 fellow after all, and what a pity the whole lot couldn't live 
 amicably together, while he made love to Mrs. Roy just 
 the same ! " Such ethics, however, only belong to that period 
 of complete satisfaction which precedes the arrival of cheese. 
 After helping himself to claret his lordship grew more 
 practical, and returned to the regions of common-sense. 
 
 The lieutenant was the only person who felt glad when 
 dinner came to an end. The rest had been happy enough, 
 and even the two enemies seemed far less occupied with 
 each other than with the good fare ; but Brail, having an 
 object of his own in view, found himself acting a part rather 
 than speaking out in his proper character, a process most dis- 
 tasteful to the frank-hearted sailor. Conversation dm-ing 
 the repast naturally tm-ned on his recent expedition, and the 
 explorer was compelled to accept as courteously as he might 
 much startling information on the arctic regions from lands- 
 men who had never reached a higher latitude than Caithness. 
 The sons of the sea — partly, I imagine, from a good- 
 humoured contempt — are exceedingly tolerant of shore-going 
 ignorance, and Brail, hopeless of teaching them any better, 
 assented to the most preposterous opinions with a freedom 
 that delighted the company, one and all declaring him 
 " wholly free from professional prejudice, and an exceedingly 
 intelligent man! " There is as much truth as satire in 
 the saying of the French wit who attributed his social 
 popularity to a polite readiness in alloAving people who knew 
 nothing about them to instruct him on subjects with which 
 he was perfectly conversant ! 
 
 Roy, who had crossed the xUlantic in a Cunard steamer, 
 and had sighted a real iceberg on one occasion some three 
 leagues to leeward, came out quite as an authority. The 
 whole table listened to him, and Brail, much amused, 
 backed him stoutly in every position he advanced. By the 
 tiiuo repletion had produced its usual craving for tobacco.
 
 278 HOY'S WIFE 
 
 there must have arisen a strange confusion in the brains of 
 the guests as to ice, floating and hummocky, lime-juice, 
 scurvy, wah-us-bulls, white bears, the aurora borealis, and, 
 above all, the iierihelion — a word everybody insisted on 
 pronouncing with a vague understanding that it implied the 
 visible presence of four suns at once. 
 
 The bare idea of such a phenomenon produced an adjourn- 
 ment to the smoking-room in somewhat loose formation, 
 during which movement John Koy found himself gi-appling 
 his new friend by the arm as they crossed the hall. 
 
 "It will be very hot upstairs," said Brail, taking his 
 overcoat from its peg. ' ' What say you to having our 
 baccy outside? " 
 
 "Outside it is!" assented the other, who would have 
 agreed to any far more independent proposition. "And 
 I tell you what, my dear fellow : if you'll come with me 
 afterwards, I'll show you something rather curious ! Very 
 queer indeed, queerer than anything you saw at the North 
 Pole. A regular up-and-down exhibition of spirit-rapping 
 — complete circle — pretty woman saying the alphabet — 
 question and answer — mediums, miracles, manifestations — 
 blue lights, and blue-blazes ! Will you come? " 
 
 "No collusion?" asked Brail. "No wires, pulleys, 
 nor magic-lanterns ? Nothing of that kind ? " 
 
 "Nothing whatever," answered Roy, with more confi- 
 dence, perhaps, than he felt. 
 
 "A lady is going to call for me at eleven — Lady Jane 
 de Banier. Very nice woman. Got a very nice brougham. 
 I'll introduce you. In the meantime let us have a smoke 
 till she comes." 
 
 It was a cool star-lit night, the streets seemed at their 
 emptiest, theatres and music-halls had not yet disgorged 
 their contents, and, but for a policeman looking down an 
 area, the tAvo smokers were alone. Brail saw his oppor- 
 tunity, and resolved to make the most of it.
 
 THE STALLED OX 279 
 
 "Mr. Koy," said he, kuocldng the ash off his cigar, 
 " you and I are almost strangers, hut if it wasn't taking a 
 liberty, I should like to do you a good tui*n." 
 
 "You're very kind," rej^lied the other, with whom wine 
 brought out all his best qualities ; "do it, and I'll say 
 thank ye. I'm likely to want all the friends I can muster 
 before long." 
 
 This was so far encom-aging. 
 
 " You allude, I suppose, to rather a black job that I 
 hear on all sides you are taking in hand," returned the 
 sailor. "You'll likely say what business is it of mine? 
 Mr. Roy, when a good fellow has gone overboard, it's 
 everybody's business to heave him a rope." 
 
 " To hang himself with ? " 
 
 " The devil a bit. To save himself with ! Mr. Roy, 
 what should you say if I was to tell you that your compass 
 does not act, that your charts are ftilse, that you have no 
 instruments to take an observation, and that your dead- 
 reckoning is all wTong?" 
 
 " I should say, speak plain English, my good fellow, 
 and I shall know what you mean." 
 
 " Then, in plain English, you are steering a course 
 which ■Rill never bring you up in the port you want to 
 fetch. Mr. Roy, you won't be offended if I tell you what 
 I know, and what you ought to know too. The lady 
 against Avhom you are taking proceedings is as innocent as 
 the day." 
 
 " Who is to answer for it ? " 
 
 " I can answer for it. Her aunt can answer for it. All 
 hands can answer for it ! We live in the same house ; I 
 see her every day, and half-a-dozen times a day. She 
 works like a black slave, twelve hours at a spell ; she 
 receives no visitors ; she hasn't been a cable's length from 
 the street-door but once in the last month, and that was 
 for a cruise in tlie Park with mc. Mr. Roy, that lady is 
 an injured, ill-used woman, and as good as gold ! "
 
 280 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 Such intclligcuce, delivered iu such good fiiith, wholly 
 dissipated the fumes of wine, and John Koy's brain grew 
 as clear as if he had drunk nothing but tea for a week. 
 He was surprised to feel how delighted he would be to 
 believe the good news, but with his restored powers of 
 judgment he could not but remember the accusations of 
 Mrs. Mopus, and the damning evidence of Nelly's own 
 wTiting, now in his desk under lock and key. 
 
 "If you could prove this," he said, with a cordial grasp 
 of the sailor's hand, "you would be the best friend I ever 
 had ! I thank you for your good intentions. The truth 
 must come out, soon or late, and if I am wrong, nobody 
 knows how happy I shall be to acknowledge it. In the 
 meantime this is a sacred subject between you and me. 
 Not a word more now, I beg of you — here comes Lady 
 Jane ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXXin 
 
 A WOED WITH THE DEAD-ALIVE 
 
 An iutroductiou at lier brougham door was soon accom- 
 plished, and the sailor, hailing a hausom cab, desired the 
 driver to follow in the wake of her ladyship's carriage, 
 thinking that but for Miss Bruce he would rather have 
 envied his new friend, thus taking a passage in so narrow 
 a craft -^-ith so pleasant a shipmate. Whether John Roy 
 equally appreciated the position, it is not for me to say ; 
 but I imagine the well-lit streets of London never appear 
 to more advantage than when seen after dinner on a cool, 
 still summer's night from the dark interior of a carriage, 
 in company with a white di-ess, a soft gloved hand, a wave 
 of fragi-ant hair, and a pair of kind eyes, that dance in the 
 shifting gleams as we pass from lamp to lamp, now bright 
 and mirthful, now dim and tender, now seeking, now afraid 
 to meet our own. 
 
 The butt-end of a strongish cigar, thought Brail, was 
 a poor substitute for such company ; nevertheless, it served 
 him well enough till his cab stopped with a jerk at the 
 door of a good-sized house in a quiet street no farther off 
 than a shilling fare from the club where he had dined. 
 
 He followed Mr. Roy, who followed Lady Jane, and was 
 speedily introduced to his hostess, a pale, languid woman, 
 small, delicate, and pretty, with rather an affectionate 
 manner and a very sweet voice. 
 
 *' I have often heard of you, Mr. Brail," said she 
 
 2bi
 
 282 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 graciously; " as who has not? " to which the sailor, look- 
 ing exceedingly foolish under the compliment, muttered 
 some confused acknowledgment that he trusted was un- 
 intelligible and he felt was absurd. 
 
 "You know Lady Pandora, I think," continued this 
 charming personage, " and most of the others. My 
 husband is not here to-night. Mr. Eccleston remains an 
 unbeliever, and these evenings of mine bore him so dread- 
 fully, that I beg him to keep away." 
 
 So she turned placidly to another arrival, observing they 
 might begin now as soon as they liked, for her party was 
 comjilete. 
 
 Though Mr. Eccleston had the bad taste to absent 
 himself from his wife's researches after the supernatm-al, 
 it was apparent both to sight and smell, that he allovred 
 her guests to assemble in his own peculiar retreat. The 
 book-cases against the wall, the plain, solid wi-iting-table, 
 the gloomy effect of the furniture, and generally dispmting 
 influence of the place, stamped it as " master's room," 
 even without certain odom's of stale tobacco that per- 
 vaded the whole. Brail, looking shyly round, made out 
 the party to consist of ten or a dozen, including a formid- 
 able old maid in spectacles, a girl with laughing eyes and 
 a tight waist, two officers in the Guards, and an elderly 
 unwashed person, shaggy of beard and hau", accused on 
 insufficient evidence of having written, of writing, or of 
 being about to write, a book. The sailor made up his 
 mind to feel interested, though wondering a little that 
 spirits should think it worth while to take long journeys 
 for a small party like this. Not that he grudged his 
 shilling fare, but as yet it did seem that the entertainment 
 would be dear at eighteen pence ! 
 
 The room was dimly lighted. A ground-plan of the 
 Eccleston mausolemn lay spread out under the lamp ; 
 Lady Jane looked fiightened. Lady Pandora bored, and
 
 A WOBD WITH THE DEAD-ALIVE 283 
 
 the otliers conversed iu suppressed voices, as if they were 
 at church. 
 
 " It's quite still and star-light," observed Mrs. Eccleston, 
 iu her calm, clear tones. " I think they won't mind 
 coming any distance to-night. If you're all ready, why 
 shouldn't we go up-stairs and begin?" 
 
 So they trooped off rather unwillingly, Lady Jane keep- 
 ing a sharp eye on Eoy, who seemed disposed to take 
 charge of the tight- waist, but "came to heel" when 
 cautioned readily enough, like a well-broke dog reproved 
 for running sheep, and left his shapely companion for the 
 two guardsmen to take care of — an arrangement that 
 seemed agi'eeable to all three. 
 
 " Keep near me," whispered her ladyship, as she 
 travelled up-stairs with her intended, towards the drawing- 
 room. " Mind you don't let go my hand, I know I shall 
 be so fiightened in the dark." 
 
 Her misgivings were prematm-e, as a small lamp, which 
 served to reveal the surrounding obscurity, stood on a 
 mahogany table in the middle of the room, round which 
 the party were at once invited to take their seats. When 
 all were placed, Eoy found himself between Lady Jane and 
 the bearded man ; Brail, who was opposite, having for his 
 supporters the virgin in spectacles and one of the guards- 
 men ; while tight-waist, as bold as brass, separated this 
 last fi-om his brother officer. Mrs. Eccleston, having given 
 her directions with gi-oat coolness, sat down to complete 
 the circle. Then they all joined hands and looked foolish. 
 
 " Now attend to me," said their hostess in her low, 
 sweet, languid voice. " The charm will not work unless 
 we are careful to preserve our chain ; therefore, let nothing 
 induce you to let go of each other's hands." (" Nothing 
 whatever!" exclaimed both guardsmen, while tight-waist 
 faintly giggled her assent.) " Moreover, if you're not 
 really in earnest, it's no use. The spirits can't bear
 
 284 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 ridicule, and if they think we're laughing at them they 
 won't come near us at all. Don't forget, too, that there 
 is immense virtue in wishing " — (" I'm very good at that ! " 
 whispered a guardsman) — " so you must keep on wishing 
 for them, as hard as you can. If they seem a little rude 
 and boisterous, you needn't mind. They never mean any 
 harm, and I am not sure they could do much, even if they 
 would. Besides, they profess benevolence to the human 
 race, and I myself believe implicitly in their good faith. 
 Now don't be frightened, Lady Jane — I am going to put 
 out the light." 
 
 Lady Jane was frightened, for John Eoy felt her grasp 
 tighten on his hand ; but she scorned to admit it, and sat 
 in complete darkness with her heart beating fast, and all 
 her faculties concentrated in her ears, wishing she hadn't 
 come ! 
 
 The minutes were very long ; at the expiration of five, 
 which seemed like fifty, one of the guardsmen sneezed, 
 causing the whole circle to start simultaneously, as if they 
 had sustained an electric shock. 
 
 " Don't ! " exclaimed a voice out of the dark, that Brail 
 thought he recognised as belonging to tight-waist. 
 " Don't M'hat?" 
 " Don't do that ! " 
 '* I can't help it." 
 
 " Very likely ; but don't do it again ! " 
 Brail concluded he d'uhit, as no more sneezes were 
 heard, and the silence became oppressive as before. 
 
 " You may talk a little, if you like," suggested Mrs. 
 Eccleston, in so clear and sweet a tone that to the strained 
 nerves of her listeners it seemed as if a spirit were already 
 in the room. " They enjoy mirth and good-humour, they 
 adore harmony. Mr. Brail, can't you sing us a song? " 
 
 No, he couldn't. It was not one of his accomplishments. 
 He cuuld dance a hornpipe, even in the dark, if she wished ;
 
 A WORD WITH THE DEAD-ALIVE 285 
 
 but Mrs. Eecleston ruled it would be quite out of order, 
 and might frighten away then- expected visitors beyond 
 recall. 
 
 One of the guardsmen had a good voice, but knew 
 nothing by heart except " The Two Obadiahs," and tight- 
 waist declared she was too frightened to sing, so Mrs. 
 Eecleston was entreated to carry out her own suggestion, 
 which she did ■udth exceeding sweetness, in the following 
 incantation, given from end to end : — 
 
 " Will you come to the trusting, the tender, the true, 
 The longing, the loving, that come not to you, 
 With tidings of comfort our circle to glad. 
 
 With rest for the weary, and hope for the sad ? 
 Oh ! steal to our aid, on your fairy-like tread, 
 From the land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, that's thronged with the Dead ! 
 
 What ? sUent, stiU silent ? Oh ! grant, we implore, 
 
 But the faintest of touches on table and floor. 
 But the lowest of whispers to lurk in our ears. 
 
 Or the lightest of airs, in a breath from the spheres. 
 Nay, grudge not to cheer us, or why be ye fled 
 From the land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, that's thronged with the Dead ? 
 
 Are ye willing ? Oh ! say, shall we call you by name ? 
 
 Shall we watch for the dawn of your pale-coloured flame, 
 Till the skirts of a shadow are touched in the gleam. 
 
 And the face of a phantom escapes like a dream. 
 Ere the mourners can learn how their lost one hath sped 
 In the land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, that's thronged with the Dead ? 
 
 Hush, hush 1 they have heard us — they pass through the gloom. 
 
 They wave to and fro — they are here in the room I 
 By the virtue of Will, to our bidding controlled, 
 
 And the clasp of our hands — so we loose not the hold, 
 For our link at the best is no more than a thread 
 To the land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, 
 The land of the Living, that's thronged with the Dead ! " 
 
 And now a silence that could be felt. Even Brail
 
 286 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 tliouglit well to pull himself together, as it were, like a 
 man on duty, and John Roy, though his nerves were ahove 
 the average, began to suspect it possible his imagination 
 might play him a trick. 
 
 So they all sat without speaking. Some hands tmnied 
 hot, others cold, but nobody thought of letting go. The old 
 maid in particular clung, Avith a drowning clutch, to her 
 supporters on either side. Courage is but a question of 
 custom after all. None of us feel afraid of the danger we 
 are accustomed to encounter, and many a man who has 
 won his Victoria Cross, would be exceedingly loth to inter- 
 fere with a bull that a little girl in a pinafore turns out of 
 a farmyard unmoved. If there were no fear, there would 
 be no bravery ; and his is the truest valour who can coolly 
 face an unforseen peril in the dark ! The unknown, too, 
 seems always terrible ; but that cm'iosity is a stronger 
 instinct than self-preservation. Lord Soulis would have 
 remained staunch to his kirk, Michael Scott been content 
 to leave the Eildon Hills as he found them, and Faust 
 declined to make so ineligible an acquaintance as Mephis- 
 topheles. 
 
 Nevertheless, poor humanity, notwithstanding its long- 
 ings after the supernatm-al, shrinks back from that which 
 it is most anxious to learn. Man's flesh creeps and his 
 blood freezes at the threatened proximity of something 
 alive, but not material, and even the most courageous find 
 themselves passing into the shadow of a nameless dread 
 akin to that which, in the horror of a nightmare, palsies 
 limbs and voice and will. 
 
 Presently, on Roy's attentive ear there came a faint 
 rustling, accompanied by certain weak scratchings and 
 scrapings, as if a rat in muslin petticoats were stealing 
 across the floor. At the same moment he distinctly felt a 
 stream of cold air pass over his hands. Lady Jane, 
 whispering "Didn't you hear something?" twined her
 
 A WOBD WITH THE DEAD-ALIVE 287 
 
 trembling fingers closer iu his own, while he strained his 
 eyes to distinguish such darker shapes and shadows as 
 seemed to grow out of the darkness itself. — " I hope they 
 won't come," whispered tight- waist. — " Stand to your 
 guns, and keep on wishing ! " answered one of her sup- 
 porters, and as she declared subsequently she *' wasn't the 
 least bit frightened," we may infer she derived confidence 
 from the security of her position, guarded by these men-of- 
 war on both flanks, not in the least suspecting there could 
 arise misgivings even in their military minds. Gloom and 
 silence had afready begun to tell on valour, and they both 
 admitted, next day when they talked it over at guard- 
 mounting, that "if it wasn't cats or machinery, there was 
 something deuced queer in the whole thing ! " 
 
 *' Come ! spirits, come ! " said Mrs. Eccleston in her 
 calm treble. " Don't be unkind, sullen, silent, disappoint- 
 ing ! Have you nothing to say to us ? Come, gentle 
 spirits, come ! Hush ! There is one in the room now ! " 
 John Eoy breathed fast, and his hands tm-ned cold, the 
 maiden in spectacles uttered a stifled shriek, and a gentle 
 snore announced that the literary man had fallen asleep. 
 
 A chair was heard to move across the floor, at least 
 fifteen feet from the circle, and on the table itself two or 
 three taps, as of a finger-nail, followed each other in quick 
 succession. 
 
 Great suspense — tension of the nerves so keen as to be 
 painful. Lady Jane trembled life a leaf, and John Koy 
 began to think there must be " something in it." 
 
 " They are not in the best of humour," observed Mrs. 
 Eccleston coolly, as a lady might speak of her children or 
 her ponies. " Still, if we had a good Medium, we might 
 get a Manifestation. "Wait a moment. They will tap out 
 their answers directly. Spirits, are you there? " 
 
 Three faint touches, just audible, meaning " Yes." 
 
 " Do I know you ? Have I ever spoken to you before? "
 
 288 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 A single rap, very distinct, obviously signifying " No." 
 
 " Dear me ! " murmured the lady. "I wonder who it 
 is. Neither Carrie, nor Helen, nor Augustus. Certainly 
 not Dr. Syntax. Can it be poor Merrylegs ? " 
 
 Again a decided " No." 
 
 " Are you interested in any one here '? " 
 
 ''Yes." 
 
 " Will you speak to him or her? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Shall I go over the alphabet ? " 
 
 Three distinct taps, succeeded by a dozen faint, little 
 flourishes, as though the spirit were capering with delight 
 at so opportune a suggestion. 
 
 Mrs. Eccleston then began her A, B, C, going through 
 it with admirable patience and self-possession till she came 
 to the letter R, when an mimistakable rap, smartly delivered, 
 brought her up, to use Brail's expression, " all standing." 
 
 She began again, to get no farther than 0, but nearly 
 exhausted the whole twenty-six letters the third time, till 
 stopped by the last but one. 
 
 "R, 0, Y," said Mrs. Eccleston triumphantly. "Mr. 
 Roy, you had better speak for yourself." 
 
 Our friend found himself fairly committed to a conversa- 
 tion with the Shades of the Departed ; and notwithstanding 
 certain misgivings concerning his catechism, profession of 
 faith, and baptismal vow, felt rather proud of their selection. 
 He was getting accustomed, moreover, to the situation, and 
 his nerves reasserted themselves now that he required their 
 services. 
 
 " Are you a friend ? " he asked. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 *' Do you know my past and present ? " 
 
 *' Yes — yes — yes," followed by many confirmatory little 
 scratches. 
 
 " My future ? "
 
 A WOBD WITH THE DEAD-ALIVE 289 
 
 ** Yes," doubtfully, and with hesitation. 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 Dead silence ; then a few faint taps that seemed outside 
 the window, and the march of another chair across a 
 difierent part of the room. 
 
 "I don't like it," murmured Lady Jane. "I feel so 
 faint and strange. Dear Mrs. Eccleston, won't you stop 
 them if I get worse ? " 
 
 " Of com'se I will, dear. But try and keep up a little 
 longer. I am sure they want to tell Mr. Eoy something 
 particular, and will answer any questions he likes to 
 ask." 
 
 "Don't be frightened, Lady Jane," added tight-waist, 
 though her own shaking accents rather belied the en- 
 com-agement. " Nothing can happen if you keep fast hold 
 on both sides." 
 
 It is to be presumed this young lady suited the action to 
 the word. But who is to vouch for the unseen ? Some of 
 the party, too, under the combined injfluence of fear and 
 obscurity, were beginning to lose their heads. 
 
 "Go on, Mr. Roy," m-ged his hostess, still perfectly cool 
 and calm. " Don't keep them waiting. They're very 
 fussy and impatient to-night." 
 
 " I ask you," continued Roy, in slow, impressive accents, 
 like a man reading prayers, " am I destined to succeed in 
 my undertaking ? ' ' 
 
 "No." 
 
 This seemed a damper, and he thought well to put the 
 question in an amended form. 
 
 " Shall 1 obtain the dearest wish of my heart ? " Here 
 Lady Jane tightened her clasp. She was so frightened, 
 poor woman ! and the spirits seemed to know too much. 
 
 An answer came in the aflBrmative, with endless repeti- 
 tions and more triumphant kicking up of heels, so to speak, 
 in weird, unholy mirth. 
 
 19
 
 290 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " Explain ! " rang out from Brail's deep chest, loud and 
 sonorous, as if he were hailing the maintop. 
 
 Dire confusion ensued. Two or three chairs fairly 
 stampeded about the room ; a distant sofa began to plunge ; 
 there came a rush of wind, a rustling of dresses, a scraping 
 of feet ; tight-waist proclaimed that something was pulling 
 at her skirts ; and the table, after a few preparatory sways 
 and Im'ches, reared straight on end. 
 
 " Stop it, please ! " exclaimed John Koy. " This is 
 getting serious. Lady Jane has fainted." 
 
 " Give me the match-box," said Mrs. Eccleston calmly. 
 " Lady Pandora, you ought to have it in yom* lap. Spirits ! 
 you are rude and noisy," she added in a tone of grave 
 displeasm-e. " You must behave better another time, or I 
 shall not ask you to come again." 
 
 Then she struck a light, with great deliberation ; and the 
 bearded man, waking up in a start, observed how — except 
 for pale faces, blinking eyes, and that they sat closer than 
 at first — the circle seemed much in the same relative 
 position as before the lamp was put out, and he went to 
 sleep. 
 
 Lady Jane, pale, but not wholly unconscious, leaned her 
 head on Roy's shoulder ; and one of the guardsmen asked 
 tight-waist whether there was not yet time for her to faint 
 too ? Her ladyship's supporter, however, occuj)ied himself 
 less with the fail" sufferer than with the disarrangement of 
 Mrs. Eccleston's furniture, much of which seemed to have 
 moved, by its own volition, about the room. While his 
 hostess proffered eau-de-cologue and smelling-salts he 
 revolved these matters in his mind, and, like most of his 
 companions, came to the conclusion that there was " some- 
 thing in it." 
 
 " We've not had much of a seance," said Mrs. Eccleston, 
 looking calmly round ; " and I am afraid you are all dis- 
 appointed. The conditions were favourable, too, and the
 
 A WORD WITH THE DEAD-ALIVE 291 
 
 weather exactly what they like. But they are capricious, 
 there's no deuyiug, and I don't think they will do anything 
 more for us to-night. Dear me ! it's almost one o'clock. 
 I am sm-e everybody must be hungry, and we really deserve 
 some supper after our exertions ! " 
 
 So she led the way down-staii-s to a pretty breakfast- 
 room, where a table was laid with fruit, flowers, coffee, ices, 
 cold chicken, sandwiches, and champagne. 
 
 " What do you think of it ? " asked Roy of the lieutenant, 
 as they brought up the rear of the procession. " It's more 
 than strange — it's wonderful. I wish Lady Jane hadn't 
 fainted. Did you hear hov/ they were beginning to answer 
 my questions? " 
 
 " They know more than we give them credit for," 
 answered Brail mysteriously, and with something approach- 
 ing a winli. But he kept his weather-eye open, that which 
 was next his friend.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 EBB AND FLOW 
 
 " The dearest wisli of his heart." John Eoy coukl not get 
 the words out of his ears. And he was to obtain it ; the 
 spirits had told him so. What was the dearest wish of his 
 heart ? — to be divorced fi-om Nelly, and to spend the rest of 
 his life with Lady Jane ? Hardly ! Was it not rather to 
 be reconciled with the woman whom he began to think he 
 might have suspected and injm-ed without cause, to be 
 assm-ed of her innocence, to know she loved him still, and 
 to read forgiveness in the true grey eyes that he forced him- 
 self to forget by daylight, but that haunted him nightly in 
 his dreams ? Could the spirits have fathomed his inmost 
 thoughts, and was this the boon they promised in their mis- 
 chievous impish glee ? Oh ! why would they not explain, 
 when so adjured by the frank-hearted sailor ? They might 
 have accounted for everything, even the letter in Nelly's 
 handwriting, which offered such conclusive evidence of her 
 guilt. 
 
 But for that letter, he would stop proceedings, even now 
 at the eleventh hour. The detective whom he employed 
 had little to report. Lord Fitzowen, indeed, seemed to 
 have called more than once of late at the Corner Hotel, but 
 penetrated no farther than the threshold, and the gifts of 
 flowers had ceased altogether. Plunged in uncertainty, 
 tossed and torn by conflicting emotions, he longed for a 
 friend on whom to lean, and began, at this period, much to 
 
 292
 
 EBB AND FLOW 293 
 
 effect the society of Lieutenant Brail. Meanwhile, the 
 Cleopatra of om- vacillating Antony could not fail to observe 
 his gi'owing absence of mind, uncertainty of temper, and 
 general despondency. In vain she racked her pretty head 
 to find him fresh amusements, and steered her galley aim- 
 lessly to and fro, in search of some enchanted isle wherein 
 to imprison him, if onl}^ for an horn-. Alas ! there was 
 neither "youth at the prow, nor pleasure at the helm." 
 No soft zephyrs, nor laughing mornings ; nothing of the 
 poets' glowing imagery, but the coming whirlwind, " that 
 hushed in giim repose, expects his evening prey." 
 
 Of com'se, Cleopatra became the more exacting, the more 
 captious, and pulled all the harder at her string because it 
 looked like breaking. Equall}^, of com-se, Antony grew 
 impatient and morose, missed his appointments, absented 
 himself "without accounting for his time, sulked, swore, and 
 on one occasion even quitted her with brutal indifference 
 when bathed in a flood of tears ! 
 
 Was this another of the worthless games for Avhich 
 women burn such costly candles ? Lady Jane asked her- 
 self the question, and answered it, too, more than once ! 
 But must she therefore submit to defeat '? No, a thousand 
 limes, no ! If you want a thing, what matter that the 
 article is only shoddy, tinsel, pinchbeck ? Buy it at any 
 cost. Does the seller refuse shillings ? Offer pounds, 
 hmidreds, thousands. Never stop to calculate, sell your 
 present, mortgage your future, and take possession, that 
 you may crow in triumph — over what ? an egg addled, a 
 bubble burst, a fancy exploded, and a disappointment bitter 
 as gall ! 
 
 Then will you have gone through a woman's experience, 
 and, for the rest of your life, if you have any grace, may 
 thank yom' mother that you were born a man ! 
 
 Perseverance, obstinacy, call it what you will, is a great 
 feminine quality, and in nine cases out of ten meets with
 
 294 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 the success it deserves. Lady Jane, without the least 
 intention of discontinuing the siege should she fail, resolved 
 on a coup de main, and the attack, she reflected, could best 
 be made under cover of a water-party, or some such junket- 
 ing, which might lead to a dinner out of town, and a drive 
 home by moonlight. People who know what London life 
 is, for those whose business consists solely of amusement, 
 will appreciate her ladyship's exertions in trying to collect 
 some twenty friends wanted on the same day in the middle 
 of June. After all, the wit of the company, the man who 
 was to make the whole thing "go off," disaj)pointed her 
 at the last moment, and she was obliged to put a raw youth, 
 studying at Cambridge, and doing that badly, in his 
 place. 
 
 Lastly, the person for whom so much trouble must be 
 taken became restive, and declared he didn't want to go 
 " The party would bore him," he thought. " Besides, he 
 hated the river. It was nothing but a cesspool now, and 
 it made him sick ! " When a woman " stoops to conquer," 
 how low will she not descend ! I have seen curtsies made 
 to her Majesty — God bless her ! — so abject in their grace, 
 that the beautiful subject seemed to sink through the palace 
 floor, and one almost wondered whether she wouldn't come 
 up again, like a diving duck, half a gun-shot farther off". 
 A lady's weight can never be calculated till slie has got her 
 foot on your neck. But again, nobody knows her extreme 
 docility, unless the position is reversed, and, if you have 
 the heart to do it, you crush the flower under your heel 
 that would fain be blooming next your heart. Lady Jane 
 must have had some sharp twinges ere she brought herself 
 to offer the following bribe. 
 
 " We needn't go on the river if you don't like ; and as 
 for the party boring you, I mean to have the prettiest 
 women and the pleasantest men in London. What do 
 you say to that flirting girl with the tight waist? The
 
 EBB AND FLOW 295 
 
 one we met at Mrs. Eccleston's. I am sure she would 
 come if I asked lier." 
 
 " She's rather nice," answered Roy, suddenly discovermg 
 that a day in the country would be no unpleasant variety 
 for the hot weather. 
 
 "Anything but that!" returned her ladyship. "I 
 should certainly not describe her as nice/ Loud in her 
 dress, bold in her manner, and always on the look-out for 
 admiration, which don't arrive." 
 
 " AVhy, you said yourself she was pretty ! " 
 
 " Not exactly. Fresh-looking, but bad style. However, 
 she goes down with gentlemen, and imless one invites 
 these sort of damsels-errant, the very young men won't 
 come." 
 
 This was as much as to say, " Don't suppose I am going 
 to let you philander about with tight-waist, instead of 
 attending on me. If she is invited, it must be on the 
 express understanding that you confine yourself to looking, 
 and nothing more ! " 
 
 "Who else?" continued the gentleman in a careless 
 tone, not unmarked by Lady Jane, that sufficiently indicated 
 his indifference to the other guests, 
 
 " There's the list. You can look it over for yourself. I 
 told Lady Pandora to bring two or three men." 
 
 " You had better have said two or three hundred. Lady 
 Pandora is perfectly ridiculous. She can't move without 
 an escort of cavalry! At her age she ought to know 
 better." 
 
 " You don't like Lady Pandora now that she has become 
 a friend of mine, and I only made up to her on your 
 account. She is a good-natured woman, after all, and as 
 
 for her age " Here Lady Jane stopped, remembering 
 
 that on the pages of Burke her new friend and herself were 
 recorded as in the same year. 
 
 Perhaps this is the one disadvantage under which ladies
 
 296 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 labour wlio are "born in the purple," There is no uncer- 
 tainty in the Peerage or the Stud-book. When both are 
 thorough-bred, a man cannot blind himself to the fact that 
 his mistress is five-and-thirty, and his mare fifteen. 
 
 " She is a very worldly woman," continued Mr. Roy, 
 who professed of late a dislilvo to fine ladies and their ways. 
 " I don't believe she has an idea beyond her dress and her 
 visiting-list. I'll be bound to say she couldn't add up three 
 figures, or order dinner for half-a-dozen jieople, without a 
 mistake ! " 
 
 " Or do plain sewing, or make a rice-pudding," sneered 
 her ladyship, wincing from the implied taunt, and feeling, 
 with a woman's jealous instinct, that he must be thinking 
 of his wife. " She was not brought up to it, Mr. Roy. 
 You don't expect a lady to have the training of a house- 
 maid — or a cook." 
 
 " I'm tired of ladies ! It's the same story over and over 
 again. Have you seen the So-and-so's? Are you going 
 to such-and-such a ball ? Wlio are these people ? Do 
 they give things ? I suppose we shall be obliged to know 
 them ! That is all one gets out of the sort of women one 
 takes down to dinner seven nights in the week. I should 
 like to meet natm*e sometimes, heart and brains, flesh and 
 blood, truth, sympathy, and a little common-sense ! " 
 
 " Should you ! " thought my lady, who, to do her justice, 
 had in her composition more flesh and blood, perhaps even 
 more common-sense, than he gave her credit for. " You'll 
 know better some day, and certainly you shall not speak 
 like that when I've got you safe in hand and firmly broken 
 in ! " but she only looked kindly in his face and answered 
 with a spice of covert satire, " I'm sm-prised you should say 
 that. I think a woman is always agreeable with a pleasant 
 man at her elbow. We don't want much encouragement 
 to talk, and if there are long intervals of silence during 
 dinner, it's generally your fault, not ours. At least that is
 
 EBB AND FLOW 297 
 
 my experience, and I used to dine out a great deal before 
 you came to London." 
 
 He could not but be mollified by the loving glance and 
 the flattering inference. " Any fellow would make himself 
 agi-eeable who sat by you," he answered. " I was thinking 
 of very different people, like Lady Pandora and her lot. 
 Never mind. Let us hear the plan of the camjjaign. 
 ^Tiere arc you going to take us, and what shall you do to 
 us when we get there ? " 
 
 ' ' I meant to go down by water, but you say you hate 
 the river, and it docs look melancholy with the tide out. 
 My plan is to drive to Bushy, where we can all meet and 
 admire the chestnuts. They must look beautiful now." 
 
 " They did a week ago. People take care to miss them 
 at their best. Ajjrh ? " 
 
 " Then let us go on to Hampton Court, make our bows 
 to bluff King Hal, ask some of om- poor relations to give us 
 tea, walk in that quaint old garden, and perhaps lose our- 
 selves in the ]\Iaze. Young people delight in the Maze." 
 
 Visions of tight-waist flitting to and fro like a hunted 
 hind through alleys of evergreens crossed John Pioy's brain, 
 and he signified a cordial assent. 
 
 " "\Mien we've had enough of it," continued her ladyship, 
 "let us go on to Eichmond, dine at The Castle — I've 
 arranged all that — and drive home by moonlight. Do you 
 approve ? ' ' 
 
 "I shall like the driving back," answered Roy, who 
 could not well say less, and who, indeed, was never loth to 
 return liome from such festivities. " I think it sounds 
 pleasant enough." 
 
 " Then you won't throw me over ? " returned Lady Jane 
 affectionately. " You couldn't be so cruel ! I have got to 
 depend upon you so for everything, because I feel you have 
 too good a heart to play me false."
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 HAMPTON COURT 
 
 " Then take Auntie. She likes it, and it will do her 
 good." 
 
 The speaker was Nelly, sitting in her glass-case as usual, 
 pen in hand. 
 
 *' Steady ! I mean to take you both. You'll never be 
 yourself again till you get some fresh air. When I knew 
 you first you carried a red ensign ; now you have hauled it 
 down and hoisted the white. Look out, Mrs. John, that 
 you don't run up the yellow flag before you've done!" 
 
 The honest seaman was right ; though her smile seemed 
 cheerful enough, it could not conceal from Brail, nor any 
 one else, the ravages deep sorrow and bitter injustice had 
 made on that fair fresh face. Her eyes were sunk, her 
 cheeks fallen, and though her beauty had gained something 
 in refinement, it had lost the delicacy of tint which made 
 it so attractive in the old happy days long ago. 
 
 Even her aunt deplored the change, and held many a 
 consultation with their firm friend the lieutenant as to what 
 should be done. The one called her "out of sorts," the 
 other "out of gear," but neither could devise better 
 remedies than amusement, variety, and fresh air. 
 
 "You ought to go, Nelly — you ought indeed," argued 
 Mrs. Phipps, taking part in these deliberations. " I am 
 sure at your age I would have jumped at such an offer, like 
 a cock at a gooseberry ! June weather, my dear ; a day 
 
 298
 
 HAMPTON COURT 299 
 
 in the country ; a pleasure-trip on board a steamboat ; and 
 a sailor beau to look after you — what more can a young 
 woman want ? And it's strange if such an old-established 
 business as oiu's can't take care of itself for a summer's 
 afternoon. You seem to expect you will find the hotel 
 vanished when you come back ! " 
 
 So Nelly was over-persuaded, and, accompanied by her 
 aimt — who, having an attraction of her own in the shape of 
 a female fi'iend at Hampton Court, required little pressing 
 for so agi'eeable a jaunt — put on, with her best bonnet and 
 a new pair of gloves, as cheerful a face as she could com- 
 mand, to do credit to their gallant escort, the enterprising 
 Brail. 
 
 Auntie's get-up was not quite so successful. Black and 
 gold, as much as possible of both, had always been her 
 conception of full dress. But for the one she was gay and 
 glittering as a jeweller's shop, but for the other, sombre 
 and imposing as a six-plumed hearse. Her face, though, 
 shone with good-humom', and that well-pleased smirk which 
 nobody can call up at will, and which is, indeed, the very 
 trade-mark of a Londoner out for a brief, rare holiday. 
 
 So these three took shipping in a penny boat at a com- 
 modious place of embarkation, no longer called Hungerford 
 Stairs, and, except that the elder lady showed much interest 
 in a mechanical contrivance for lowering the funnel of the 
 steamer under Putney Bridge, while she compared its 
 captain, invidiously, with her o^vn nautical hero Brail, 
 nothing worthy of remark occurred during the entire 
 passage. The lieutenant, who, with a certain bluffness 
 of manner, possessed much of that tact which comes from 
 a kind heart, devoted himself to Auntie's amusement, 
 leaving Nelly to the quiet enjoyment of air, sunshine, green 
 trees, shining water, and the soothing monotony of con- 
 tinuous motion against the stream. If people only knew 
 the kindness they can sometimes confer by leaving us
 
 300 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 alone ! This is no place to enter on the higher consola- 
 tions of religion, the gracious words spoken expressly for 
 the hruised reed and the hroken heart, that raise the fallen 
 far above the level of earthly shame and earthly care : but 
 such holy considerations apart, do we sufficiently appreciate 
 the mere material repose of mind and body, that we never 
 fail to find within the walls of a church ? For an hour 
 and three quarters no mortal can molest us with greeting, 
 narrative, or repartee. No post invades the sacred pre- 
 cincts, nor note requiring an immediate answer ; the most 
 enthusiastic acquaintance neither dare smile, nor nod, nor 
 insist on shaking hands, and however dull, nay, drowsy, 
 may be the sermon, how can we think it tedious when it 
 prolongs, if but by minutes, this grateful interval of soli- 
 tude, that comes but on one day in the whole busy week ? 
 Nelly, leaning against the side to watch the water as it 
 flowed by, did not so much think as dream. Sorrows, 
 cares, regrets, and injuries seemed to float down with the 
 ebb towards the sea, and hope, the offspring of memory, as 
 skill is the child of experience, beckoned her on to shape 
 her true course against wind and tide, not entirely despair- 
 ing of a change here, and confident in a better time here- 
 after. 
 
 She had struggled to do right, as women alone do 
 struggle, against a flood of difficulties under which a man 
 would long ago have yielded and gone down. It is not the 
 so-called stronger sex that fights hardest with privation, 
 sorrow, the tempter's lures, and its own overpowering 
 affections, for the bare reward of an approving conscience. 
 In London alone how many thousands are there of an 
 undefeated Legion, who work their fingers to the bone on a 
 dry crust and a sip of tea, rather than lose an atom of self- 
 respect, or suffer a breath of suspicion to dim their spotless 
 shields ! AVhat are the boasts of chivalry to courage such 
 as this ? And for us gentlemen, who assume to hold
 
 HAMPTON COURT 301 
 
 honour as the very air we breathe, do we help or hinder 
 them in their path ? No. We look on such things too 
 lightly, and in spite of a dishonest proverb, believe me, 
 "All is not fair in love and war! " 
 
 " Why, you're better eveiy moment, my dear," exclaimed 
 Mrs. Phipps, as the steamer touched its landing-place. 
 " By the time we get to Hampton Court you'll look like 
 yourself again, and do us credit — won't she, Mr. Brail ? 
 As for me, I declare the river and the breeze and the swans, 
 and one thing and another, have set me up so, that if the 
 fiddler would only go on with his scraping, I do believe I 
 should begin to dance. I feel like five-and-twenty, Mr. 
 Brail, and I've you to thank for it ; but I should relish a 
 glass of gingerbeer ! " 
 
 That refreshment was easily obtained, and the three 
 soon found themselves at Hampton Court Palace, where 
 Mrs. Phipps went to visit her friend, maid and house- 
 keeper to a peer's daughter, living rent-free as the lodger 
 of her Sovereign, while Nelly and Brail walked on to wait 
 in the gardens, where they met a crowd of both sexes, 
 chiefly Londoners of the lower class, about to return home 
 by the train, happy, hilarious, and, seeing that it was 
 thirsty, hay-making weather, not quite so well-behaved as 
 usual. 
 
 "Excuse me for a minute!" exclaimed Brail, whose 
 quick eye caught sight of an old shipmate in the throng. 
 " Don't go farther than the lawn. I shall be back directly. 
 I can't help myself. It's a case of man-overboard. There's 
 nothing else to be done." 
 
 His face expressed stern disgust, and, indeed, not without 
 cause. In the midst of some half-dozen roughs, who 
 looked perhaps worse than they really were, but could only 
 be classed as the least desirable society for an officer and a 
 gentleman, he spied an old friend holding forth with such 
 thickened volubility of speech and grotesque vehemence of
 
 302 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 gesture, as declared him to be pleasantly drunk at six i» 
 the afternoon. 
 
 His face shone, his eyes wandered, he swayed and 
 lui'ched on uncertain feet with idiotic smiles, while his 
 hat was pushed back on his head at the angle that denotes 
 hopeless imbecility or irretrievable defeat. 
 
 Alas ! can such things be ? Sober, this man was a 
 smart officer, a consmnmate seaman, a hearty messmate, 
 and a sterling friend. Drunk, he seemed simply a butt, 
 a laughing-stock, a tom-fool for the rabble to hoot and jeer. 
 
 He knew it too, nobody better, in his lucid intervals ; 
 knew that his professional prosj)ects, the bread he ate, his 
 standmg as an officer, his character as a gentleman, his 
 soundness of mind and body, the very welfare of his soul, 
 depended on resistance to that vicious craving which had 
 grown to be his cm-se, and yet he gave way, hobnobbing, as 
 it were, with the demon who pressed the poison to his lips, 
 and priding himself on such good-fellowship as must con- 
 stitute the conviviality of hell. 
 
 Not broke yet, strange to say, but wearing the Queen's 
 uniform still, and drawing the Queen's pay. Never a week 
 in port without many a " squeak for it ; " sometimes, even 
 in blue water, gTiilty of that offence which is justly unpar- 
 donable by our Articles of "War. Who shall say how often 
 his messmates screened him by taking his duty on them- 
 selves — how the very topmen anticipated his orders, moved 
 by pity, not without contempt, or the master-at-arms turned 
 away his lantern in mingled sorrow and disgust? The 
 sm'geon's mate tried in vain to make him a teetotaler, as 
 the one indispensable step towards becoming hereafter an 
 admiral. 
 
 Catching sight of Brail, he recognised his old shipmate, 
 and staggered to meet him with a cordiality that must have 
 seemed truly gratifying, had it not been the offspring of 
 
 gi-og.
 
 HAMPTON COUBT 303 
 
 " Come aboard at last, my hearty ! " said he, holding ou 
 to his friend, aud hiccoughing his greetings in strange 
 confusion of time and place. " An old messmate, my 
 lads," looldng angrily romid. "Make him welcome, all 
 hands, and don't stand grinning there like a ship-load of 
 monkeys ! He's an explorer my sons, this is — a North 
 Pole man ! Excuse me, old chap ; we'd have had the 
 yards squared, and the side manned, if you'd only warned 
 us. Give us your flipper — there's mine ! Look at it ! I 
 tell ye, as honest a fist as ever broke a biscuit ! Hold on 
 now ! Let's go below and liquor up ! " 
 
 With a view of carrying out this hospitable suggestion, 
 he suffered Brail to lead him out of the gardens, closely 
 watched by one of the caretakers of the place, and dis- 
 missed with three cheers from the rabble, for whom this 
 agreeable little interlude had provided a laughable enter- 
 tainment, tragic, comic, and bm-lesque, with nothing to 
 pay. 
 
 Our friend felt in a false position, and winced sorely ; 
 but he was the last man to shkk a job, however unpleasant, 
 that came in the shape of duty ; so he steered his drunken 
 companion towards the inn as best he could, resolving, 
 when safely housed, to put him in charge of the landlord, 
 lock him up in a bedroom, and return for him after auntie 
 and Mrs. John had concluded their day's amusement, the 
 last thing at night. 
 
 It was most inconvenient, and Brail believed nothing 
 could have added to his discomfiture ; but even in the 
 lowest depths there is a lower deej) still, and as no man 
 should presume to declare he has spent a happy day till 
 it i? time to go to bed, so there is no social complication 
 so pei-plexing but that it may be enhanced by the inoppor- 
 tune arrival of fresh actors on the scene. 
 
 At the gate that offered egi-ess and escape, the sober 
 sailor, grappling stoutly to his drunken messmate, found
 
 304 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 himself in the very centre of Lady Jane's party, comprising 
 some of the smartest people in London, who had yawned 
 theu' way through Bushy Park, under the chestnuts, to seek 
 new distraction, or, at least, something fresh to weary 
 them, in the Palace Gardens. 
 
 Lords and ladies, chaperons and their charges, old men 
 and maidens, wives without their husbands, husbands with- 
 out their wives, such a gathering as constitutes a pleasant 
 picnic, all in the freshest attire, and all more or less wishing 
 for dinner-time — some to exchange secrets, some partners, 
 some because they were hungry, and some because they 
 were bored. 
 
 So much beauty, rigged so tastefully, was too much for a 
 British sailor in his cups, and nothing but Brail's personal 
 strength prevented his charge from staggering up to Lady 
 Jane herself, and asking her to dance with him then and 
 there. 
 
 Covered with confusion, but holding on to his man like 
 one of the old-fashioned press-gang, our lieutenant had 
 nearly extricated himself from the well-dressed, well-bred, 
 wondering throng, when, of all people in the world, he 
 came face to face with Lord Fitzowen and Miss Bruce ! 
 Even at such a crisis he did not lose his head. Boy and 
 man, his training had gifted him with a second nature, that 
 only grew the calmer and more quick-sighted for increasing 
 emergency. He marked Hester turn red and i)ale ; nor 
 were the truth and corn-age lost on him that prompted the 
 girl to defy criticism and give him a kindly greeting as she 
 went by. 
 
 Good-natured Fitz, who seemed in lower spirits than 
 usual, made no comments whatever, but others of the com- 
 pany were neither so courteous nor so discreet. 
 
 " Who is your friend. Miss Bruce ? " asked one ; " Jack's 
 alive ! " laughed another, recognising the Arctic explorer, 
 and pleased to have a fling, like the world in general, at a
 
 HAMPTON COUBT 305 
 
 man who bad made his mark. *' The grog has been served 
 out early to-day, and these two have taken their allowance; " 
 while Lady Jane whispered in her ear, "My dear Hester, 
 what a disgusting sight ! How could you notice him ? I 
 hope you will never speak to the man again ! " 
 
 Partly for the pleasm-e of contradicting her ladyship, 
 more, we will hope, fi'om an honest instinct of manhood, 
 John Roy took up the cudgels for his ally. 
 
 " How like Brail ! " he exclaimed, " always first to help 
 in a difficulty. He is hauling a drunken man out of the 
 gardens. I'll go and see him through the job ! " 
 
 So without waiting for Hester's bright glance of gi'atitude, 
 or the scowl with which her ladyship — who wanted him 
 to-day, of all days, at her apron-strings — reproved his 
 desertion, he tm-ned his steps towards the inn, leaving the 
 rest to roam through the cool stone passages of the Palace, 
 and — delightful pastime — shout to each other how com- 
 pletely they were bewildered in the maze. 
 
 20
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 FAR ABOVE RUBIES 
 
 Disappointment, thy name is pleasure-hunting ! Amongst 
 all Lady Jane's company, how few were fortunate enough 
 to find the gi-atification they came so far to seek. Hester, 
 who left home in the highest spirits, with a vague hope 
 that Brail might he invited, felt a greater depression than 
 she chose to acknowledge when she discovered her mistake, 
 but it vexed her still more to reflect that under such 
 unfavourable conditions it would have been far better not 
 to have met at all. Lady Jane, in spite of endless trouble, 
 countless notes, complicated arrangements of all kinds, and 
 a new dress from Paris, composed for the occasion, saw her 
 own especial admirer, the captive of her bow and spear, fly 
 off at a tangent on the first opportunity. Lady Pandora, 
 who had taken advantage of her friend's permission to 
 bring, with half a dozen other followers, Lord Fitzowen for 
 her particular benefit, chafed to find that volatile nobleman 
 out-of-sorts, out-of-spirits, and, to use her own words, "just 
 as dull as anybody else ! " 
 
 Fitz himself, having come on the off-chance of being 
 amused, tried tight-waist only to find her wanting, flitted 
 like a butterfly from flower to flower without settling on 
 any one specimen, and, finally, when the others began to 
 explore the maze in pairs, sauntered off to smoke by him- 
 self, revolving in his own mind whether or not the whole 
 system of modern society was a mistake, and women rather 
 a bore after all ! 
 
 306
 
 FAR ABOVE EUBIES 807 
 
 It may be doubted if Nelly, sitting unconscious, with her 
 back to a gi-aud old tree, scarce a bow-shot off, did not 
 really enjoy the hush and quiet of a summer's evening in 
 these beautiful gardens more than any of them. The trim 
 lawns, the luxuriant roses, drooping, but not overblown, 
 the scented pinks, never so sweet as at sun-down, the red- 
 brick wall, the dark clear-cut cypresses, and, beyond all, 
 the wealth of gTass, foliage, and forest trees, shutting her, 
 as it were, into a June paradise, seemed so delightful a 
 contrast to Corner Street and the Strand ! As her eyes 
 wandered from the pure blue sky above, laced with its 
 streaks of white, to the daisies, drowsily closing their cups 
 at her feet, she felt such thoughts rising fi-om heart to brain 
 as lips can never clothe in language — indefinite longings, 
 vague aspii'ations, a thousand gentle wandering fancies, too 
 high for words, "too deep for tears," and realised, j)erhaps, 
 with ^^'istful consciousness, the paradox of the French 
 sentimentalist, that solitude, to be enjoyed, must be shared 
 with another to whom one can say, " How sweet is 
 solitude ! " 
 
 Such a companion was nearer than she supposed, and, 
 dreamily as she sat there, a crisis was impending on which 
 her whole futui'e life should tm*n. 
 
 There came a whiff of tobacco, a light step on the turf, 
 an exclamation of surprise, and the next moment Lord 
 Fitzowen stood before her, his cheek flushed, his eyes 
 sparkling, his face radiant with delight. 
 
 Nelly, on the contrary, turned paler than ever, rose as if 
 to walk away, and sank helplessly back to her seat, because 
 limbs and com-age failed her in a breath. 
 
 He dashed the cigar from his lips — a conti-aband article, 
 forbidden to be consumed in these royal precincts — while, 
 with a homage the more flattering that it seemed wholly in- 
 voluntary, he took his hat off as if in the presence of his 
 queen.
 
 308 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 Neither spoke, and one hated herself for the blush that 
 she felt would not be kept down. 
 
 " Mrs. Eoy ! " he stammered, too much in earnest to be 
 conscious of the ludicrous ; " you here of all people in the 
 world ! I thought I was never to set eyes on you again ! " 
 
 " I came with my aunt," answered Nelly, trying to 
 regain composure. " I expect her back every minute. 
 I am only waiting here till she returns." 
 
 To his ear her voice sounded cold, formal, constrained ; 
 to her own it seemed as if somebody else was speaking, 
 mechanically, and a long way off. 
 
 His lordshij), glancing from right to left, and observing 
 no tokens of " my aunt," took courage to proceed. 
 
 " I have never called for weeks, Mrs. Roy. I have kept 
 away, though — though I was anxious about you, and most 
 unhappy. I would not even send any more flowers, because 
 you seemed not to lilie it." 
 
 " You were right ; I did not like it." 
 
 " But why? Surely people may be friends. When you 
 were at the Grange I might ride over three times a week, 
 and you always looked glad to see me then." 
 
 " That was different." 
 
 ** Of course it was — very different. I suppose you 
 tolerated me in compliance with the laws of hospitality. 
 Now that you can do as you please, you shut the door 
 in my face." 
 
 " Oh ! no, no ! " 
 
 " It looks like it. I am sure you are unhappy. That is 
 what makes me miserable. I hear you spoken of unkindly, 
 and I have not even the right to stand up for you. I feel 
 that I could be a help, a comfort — to a certain extent a 
 defence — and you refuse to let me see your face, as if I 
 were your bitterest enemy — I, who would give my life 
 willingly to spare you an hour of pain ! It seems so 
 hard, so cruel, so unjust ! "
 
 FAB ABOVE BUBIES 309 
 
 The tears were in her eyes. " Dou't say that, Lord 
 Fitzoweu ; don't say that — you make me wretched too ! " 
 
 " Then I won't ! No word or deed of mme shall add an 
 ounce to your bm-den. I only wish to share it. We could 
 carry it so much easier between us. Mrs. Roy (how much 
 longer must I call you by that hateful name ?) we have met 
 here by the merest accident. It's a thousand to one against 
 such a chance occm-ring again — mil you not listen for five 
 minutes ? I am like a man pleading for his life ! " 
 
 She could not but pity him. He seemed so tender, 
 so considerate, so respectful, and withal so very sad. 
 " It will break his heart, poor fellow ! " thought Nelly, 
 " but I suppose I shall have to tell him the truth. How I 
 wish Auntie would come, or Mr. Brail ! " 
 
 The latter was nearer than she thought, and somebody 
 else too, who had arrived at this opportune moment to hear 
 a declaration of love made to his own wife. 
 
 John Roy's assistance had been of the utmost service in 
 helping om- friend the lieutenant to pacify his drunken 
 messmate. Able-bodied men and sober, partly by moral 
 persuasion, partly by exercise of physical strength, these 
 two got their charge housed in the inn, where they dosed 
 him with soda-water and induced him to lie down on a 
 black horsehair sofa, the more readily that above it hung a 
 picture of an old-fashioned three-decker under press of sail. 
 When fairly asleep. Brail locked the door and put the key 
 in his pocket, observing calmly that the window was too 
 high for their prisoner to jump out, while if he should 
 attempt it and break his neck there would be no gi-eat loss ! 
 Returning from their joint exploit, a happy thought struck 
 the lieutenant — that this was the moment to bring about an 
 interview between his friend and the wife he had so mis- 
 judged ; that by his intervention a reconciliation might 
 take place here, this very afternoon, for the clearing up of 
 all misunderstanding and to the complete satisfaction of
 
 310 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 both. It speaks avcII for the sailor's unselfishness, and 
 manly sense of right, that he should have postponed to 
 such an immediate duty his intention of seeking Miss 
 Bruce, to hold her hand in his, if only for half a minute, 
 and entreat her not to judge him too harshly by Avliat she 
 had seen. 
 
 " Let us take a turn up and down, to cool ourselves," 
 suggested this diplomatist, wiping his brown face ; " that 
 fellow is as strong as a bull ! A round or two more would 
 have given me a wet shirt." 
 
 " AVith all my heart," assented Roy, who rather enjoyed 
 the tussle. " I suppose they wouldn't stand one's smoking 
 a cigar here ? " 
 
 "I suppose not," answered the other. "You see, to 
 a certain extent, it's Her Majesty's quarter-deck. You 
 don't want to go cruising after your party, for ten 
 minutes or so ? " 
 
 " Not I ! they're all over the place by now, and I don't 
 much care if I never see them again. I should have kept 
 away if I had known of one or two that are here." 
 
 " One or two " meant really " one," viz., Lord Fitzowen, 
 brought by Lady Pandora at the last moment, much against 
 his will. 
 
 " There seems to be a whole fleet of muslin," continued 
 the sailor, " and some very pretty girls amongst them. I 
 think I saw Miss Bruce." 
 
 " Of course you did ! The pick of the basket, too, in 
 my opinion. Except one, perhaps — a girl with a tight 
 waist." 
 
 " A tight waist," repeated the other musingly, for he 
 was thinking of his coup de theatre, and wondering how 
 far Mrs. John could have wandered by herself. " Ah ! 
 wants taking out of stays very likely. Lively enough, 
 too, I daresay, and as trim as a Sunday in port. What 
 are they all up to now ? "
 
 FAB ABOVE BUBIES 311 
 
 " What are women always up to ? Fool-catching — 
 fool-matching, and fool-hatching — that seems ahout the 
 sum-total of a lady's life. They're at the catching by this 
 time, romping and laughing in the maze." 
 
 Brail winced. In his mind's eye he beheld some auda- 
 cious buccaneer steering his adored craft through those 
 intricate channels, guiding her steps, pressing her hand, 
 whispering in her ear, looking under her bonnet, perhaps. 
 No, hang him ! he wouldn't think of it any more ! 
 
 ** Have you ever explored the maze ? " asked the sailor, 
 peering about on all sides in search of the lady he required. 
 They tell me it's a safe berth enough, but once in, you can't 
 get out again ! " 
 
 " Like marriage," replied the other cynically. " We do 
 lose om' way while we're looking for it, and make fools of 
 ourselves in order to be satisfied there is nothing to find out! " 
 
 " Marriages might be happy enough," answered Bruil, 
 " if people only put more confidence in each other. A 
 fi-ank word or two would clear up most misunderstandings. 
 We've a saying in the Service, that it is well to let the ship 
 steer herself, and a man ought to trust his wife when she is 
 out of sight, just the same as if " 
 
 " The scoundrel ! " exclaimed Roy, choking in ungovern- 
 able anger, and discharging an oath he ought to have been 
 ashamed of. " I'll have it out with him now, once for 
 all ! How lucky I brought a stick with me instead of an 
 umbrella ! " 
 
 But the sailor's grasp was on his arm like a vice, pinning 
 him to the spot. " Hold on ! " he whispered. " Keep 
 steady, only for two minutes, and when you want me, I'll 
 stand by you through thick and thin ! " 
 
 They were not six yards from the tree under which Nelly 
 had taken her seat. Behind its mighty girth they heard 
 the well-known voice of Lord Fitzowen pleading with 
 fervour and devotion worthy of a better cause.
 
 312 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 " Don't hate me, Mrs. Roy," urged the impassioned 
 speaker. *' Don't say that I am wicked, unprincipled, 
 and taking advantage of your unhappy position, I have 
 anticipated all that. I have thought it over till it has 
 nearly driven me mad ! Try and look at the matter from 
 my point of view. Put yourself in my place, and say 
 whether one can risk too much, when the whole happiness 
 of life is at stake. Nobody ever cared for you as I have, 
 from the day I first took you in to dinner at the Grange, 
 when you seemed as much out of my reach as an angel in 
 heaven. Do you remember ? " 
 
 John Roy held his breath to catch her answer. It never 
 came : but his wife must have betrayed some token of 
 pity or assent, that encouraged her admirer to proceed 
 swimmingly with his suit. 
 
 " It is different now. I cannot bear to speak of such 
 things ; but you ought to know that even the laws of man 
 are about to set you free, Mr. Roy is every day occupied 
 in procuring his divorce." 
 
 " How can he ? " murmured Nelly ; " how can he ? If 
 he only knew ! " 
 
 Lord Fitzowen, looking in her face, believed that her 
 eyes were dry, but the listeners were not so deceived, for 
 they heard the tears in her voice. 
 
 " When freedom comes," answered Fitz, with an idea 
 that he was winning, " why are you not to avail yourself 
 of it ? I would have waited patiently for that happy time, 
 and never spoken a word, had we not met here to-day. 
 Can you wonder that I, too, lose my head now ? Think 
 what it is to be near you again, to sec the dear face, paler, 
 sadder, but more beautiful, more lovable than ever. Oh ! 
 Mrs. Roy, have pity on me ! I'll wait a hundred years, 
 only give me a hope that at some future time you will be 
 mine." 
 
 " Your wife ? "
 
 FAR ABOVE BUSIES 313 
 
 " My wife." 
 
 " Lord Fitzowen, are you in earnest ? " 
 
 One of the listeners bounced forward. But for that 
 grasp on his ann he would have spoilt it all. 
 
 " As I hope for heaven," answered his lordship, who did 
 not seem to take in that he was wandering far out of the 
 straight path. 
 
 "And you would marry a divorced woman? would give 
 your name to one whose own had been dragged through the 
 dirt, and take to your home a wretch your family would be 
 ashamed to own ? " 
 
 " Eeadily ! gladly ! thankfully ! I love you, and that is 
 enough ! " 
 
 " I think you do," she returned, gently and sadly. 
 " Therefore you deserve that I should tell you the truth. 
 Now listen to me, Lord Fitzowen. Even if I had never 
 known hi?n, if I had seen you first, you must not be too 
 Bm'e that I should have cared for you. Many women — 
 most women — might, and hereafter you will find somebody 
 who will make you far happier than you would ever have 
 been with me. That is not the question. There are such 
 things to consider as right and wrong. I hope to get to 
 that heaven of which you speak so lightly, and I hope you 
 will get there too. How could I kneel down and say my 
 prayers at night after committing so grievous a sin as to 
 promise you the affection I swore to cherish until death 
 for another ? I know nothing of the laws of men. Lord 
 Fitzowen, but I try to obey the laws of God. You and I 
 must meet no more. I mean wbat I say — not because the 
 good would shun, and the bad laugh at us, not even because 
 I cannot feel for you as you seem to wish, nor because our 
 friendship is an imprudence and an impossibility, but simply 
 because it is a sin." 
 
 Then she rose aiul walked round the tree, to find 
 herself face to face with her husband, who had heard 
 every word !
 
 314 ROyS WIFE 
 
 One moment she seemed rooted to the spot, her sweet 
 face quiveiing as if she must bm-st into a passion of 
 tears — the next, with a quiet dignity that could not have 
 been outdone by the noblest lady in the land, she placed 
 her arm in the sailor's, and walked him off towards 
 the Palace, observing gently, "I am so glad to have 
 found you, Mr. Brail. Take me back to Auntie, and take 
 me home." 
 
 The situation was almost grotesque. Husband and 
 lover stood confronting each other, speechless and aghast. 
 The latter spoke first — 
 
 "I am foully in the wrong," said he, "and I don't 
 know what reparation I can make. But this I do know, 
 
 Mr. Koy. By your wife is the best woman that ever 
 
 walked on earth ! " 
 
 Then raising his hat, with a courtesy that had in it 
 something of defiance, he stalked gravely away in one 
 direction, while John Eoy, not knowing exactly what to 
 do, took himself off in another. 
 
 Let us hope that tight-waist, her captives and rivals, 
 enjoyed their Richmond dinner. Some of the older guests 
 assm-edly did not. Lord Fitzowen was absent in body — 
 Lady Pandora in mind. Mr. Roy, grave and preoccupied, 
 never spoke a word during the whole entertainment ; and 
 Lady Jane, with a fixed red spot on either cheek, un- 
 usually stately, and laboriously polite, was obviously as 
 cross as two sticks.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 POST-DATED 
 
 Beail slept longer than usual after the day's work recorded 
 in oiu' last chapter. Handing his two ladies into another 
 compartment, he retm-ned to London by the same train, 
 in charge of his drunken messmate, whom he saw safe 
 home to his lodgings, where he helped to put him to bed. 
 He had not yet " turned out," as he called it, when a 
 laconic note arrived from John Roy to the following effect. 
 
 " Dear Brail, — You are the best of friends ! Come 
 and see me here as soon as possible. You will understand 
 why I do not go to you. 
 
 " Gratefully yours, 
 
 "J. R." 
 
 In a very short space of time the ready sailor was at 
 his con-espondent's door, fresh, clean-shaved, and well- 
 dressed, as if he had devoted hours instead of minutes to 
 his careful toilet. 
 
 Roy, who was drinking tea, jumped up and gi-asped 
 him by the hand. Then the two looked sheepish and 
 awkward, as only Englishmen can, each waiting for the 
 other to begin. 
 
 " Have some breakfast ? " said the host. 
 
 " Thanks," answered the guest, sitting down. 
 
 Not a word for nearly five minutes, only a great clatter 
 of plates and munching of dry toast. 
 
 315
 
 316 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 Presently Roy looked up. "That was touch-and-go, 
 yesterday," said he. "I should have put my foot in it, if 
 it hadn't been for you." 
 
 " I think you just would ! " 
 
 More munching and another application to the teapot, 
 a box of cigarettes pushed across the table, a light struck, 
 and at last they found their tongues, conversation pro- 
 ceeding smoothly under the influence of tobacco, like 
 machinery that has been oiled." 
 
 " I want very much to speak to you, this morning." 
 
 " I knew you would . That's why I came." 
 
 " After what we heard yesterday, I begin to think I am 
 in the wrong." 
 
 " You have been in the wrong all through." 
 
 "Thanks! I hate a fellow not to say what he means. 
 If you must have your leg off, it's no use the sawbones 
 pretending it won't hurt. Now I want to show you 
 something that will prove I am not such a brute as you 
 think." 
 
 " I should like to be satisfied of that. Fire away ! " 
 
 Roy walked to his writing-table, unlocked a drawer, and 
 drew from it the letter to Lord Fitzowen which had caused 
 him so much bitterness. " Read," said he, placing it in 
 the sailor's hands. "I would give ten years of my life to 
 find any excuse, any palliation, any crevice of escape from 
 the conclusion I am forced to draw." 
 
 Brail read it attentively more than once, and his face fell 
 with every line. At the end of his last perusal, it expressed 
 no less astonishment than concern. 
 
 "How did this fall into your hands? " he asked, after 
 a long pause V)f consideration. 
 
 " My housekeeper brought it me the last time I went 
 down to Royston Grange. She found it hidden away, and 
 no doubt forgotten, in Mrs. Roy's jewel-case." 
 
 " Your housekeeper ? Has she been with you long? "
 
 POST-DATED 317 
 
 " Years. Before I married she was almost mistress 
 of the place — ordered everything, paid for everything, and 
 kept the whole establishment going. I could trust her like 
 myself." 
 
 Again the sailor pondered. " It must have been rather 
 a come-down," said he, " when Mrs. Roy took the command 
 over her head ; or did she still continue to serve out the 
 stores and all that ? " 
 
 "No. Mrs. Roy was an excellent manager, and looked 
 to everything herself." 
 
 "Did she turn discontented under fresh regulations? I 
 don't mean mutinous, but slack with the duty, and dis- 
 respectful to her new mistress ? ' ' 
 
 *' Not exactly. But she certainly seemed to dislike her." 
 
 Again Brail went over the letter, apparently more 
 puzzled than before. 
 
 " Are you satisfied this is yom- wife's handwriting? " 
 
 " I can swear to it ! Besides, there's the very monogram 
 we devised together not a week before she went away. 
 How can women be so false ! She seemed fond enough of 
 me then." 
 
 " Only a week before ? They must have been very quick 
 with the die. Wlio engraved it ? " 
 
 "Pattern and Press, in Oxford Street. I've employed 
 them ever since I was a boy." 
 
 *' Did you write to them with the order? " 
 
 " No ; but she did. I posted the letter myself ! " 
 
 " Do you remember when? " 
 
 " On the 19tli of March. I am certain of the date, 
 because we were stopped hunting by frost." 
 
 " And when did your wife leave Royston Grange for 
 good? " 
 
 " On the 27th." 
 
 " Mr. Roy, I think I see daylight. Will you put on 
 your shore-going togs, and come in a cab with me? "
 
 318 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 The " shore-goiug togs " were speedily assumed, and our 
 energetic lieutenant, hurrying his friend into a hansom, 
 desired its driver to make all sail for Oxford Street, and 
 hring up at the well-known firm of Pattern and Press. 
 
 Pulling John Koy after him, he strode hastily into the 
 hack-shop and requested to see Mr. Press. 
 
 A smiling person, who made as if he were washing his 
 hands, " regretted Mr. Press had that moment stej^ped 
 out." 
 
 "Mr. Pattern then ? " 
 
 The smiling person, not without bowing an apology 
 for his own existence, intimated that he was Mr. Pattern. 
 " What could he do for the gentlemen in the absence of his 
 partner? " 
 
 " Do you know who tlds is ? " asked Brail. 
 "Mr. Koy, I believe," was the deferential answer. 
 "Excuse me if I am mistaken. My sight is not so good 
 as it used to be." 
 
 " Has he paid his account ? " 
 
 " I believe not. I hope not. Most unusual to send it 
 in before Christmas. Sorry to trouble Mr. Koy with 
 any account, however long standing. One of our oldest 
 customers." 
 
 " Never mind that ! Can you let us have it now ? " 
 " Certainly — certainly. Our book-keeper shall make 
 it out in five minutes. Will the gentlemen take chairs and 
 wait?" 
 
 " What are you driving at ? " whispered Roy. " In the 
 first place I have only a few shillings in my pocket. How 
 can I pay the bill when they bring it me ? " 
 
 "Easy!" answered the other; while Mr. Pattern, 
 regarding the speaker in mute astonishment, proffered the 
 wished-for document, which Brail possessed himself of at 
 once and slapped down with exceeding energy on the 
 counter, exclaiming — " I was sure of it ! Lower away
 
 POST-DATED 319 
 
 now, my hearty ! We're wimiing liaud-over-haud. It's as 
 plain as a pikestaff"! No man alive can dispute sucli a 
 fact as this, regularly entered on the ship's log ! See here : 
 * March the 28th. To six quires of letter-paper, cream- 
 laid, with new monogram and envelopes to match, 12s. 6d.' 
 March the 28th — do you ohserve the date ? Mr. Pattern, 
 can you verify this entry of yom's ? When was the packet 
 of letter-paper posted? " 
 
 "On the 28th, sir. Here it is in the day-book. 
 Addressed — Mrs. Eoy, Koyston Grange." 
 
 " That's enough. There's something below the water- 
 line here, that must and shall see light. It's lucky we 
 thought of overhauling that big book. Mr. Eoy, the sooner 
 you and I clear out of this the better ! " 
 
 In the street Brail could express himself with greater 
 freedom. " Don't you see," he continued, " that letter 
 carries /or^gri/ on the face of it. Mrs. Eoy left the Grange 
 on the 27th, This paper with the new monogram was 
 never delivered there till the 28th. Somebody has tried 
 to ruin her by imitating her handwriting, and I have my 
 o"«Ti suspicions who that somebody is. Let us hail another 
 cab and drive to yom- la^vyers." 
 
 Eoy suffered himself to be led like a child b}^ his 
 energetic friend. "lam in your hands," said he; "do 
 with me what you like." 
 
 Mr. Sharpe, who seemed much less of a "land-shark" 
 than Brail expected, and was indeed an honom-able, right- 
 thinking gentleman, coincided with the sailor in his opinion 
 that Mr. Eoy should proceed home at once, there to leave 
 no stone unturned till he had discovered the author of this 
 foul conspiracy. 
 
 " I'll go there too, and see him through it," added the 
 sailor, with characteristic decision. " Will you lend us a 
 purser's-mate, or a clerk, or an idler of some kind, to over- 
 haul the accounts ? It might be a gi-eat help ; for if we
 
 320 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 have to hold a Court of Inquiiy, there will he some hard 
 swearing, I fancy, all round ! " 
 
 *' I don't know what a purser's-mate is," answered the 
 lawyer laughing, "and we have no idlers in our service, hut 
 you shall take one of my clerks, and welcome! He can go 
 down hy the next train." 
 
 So at six o'clock in the afternoon Mrs. Mopus, sitting 
 comfortahly over her tea, was startled by a ring at the hall- 
 door, and the appearance of her master, with two strange 
 gentlemen, standing on the steps. 
 
 " It's lucky I had my little card party yesterday ! " she 
 thought, reflecting how awkward it would have been to 
 conceal, or get rid of, certain guests who occasionally re- 
 freshed themselves by her invitation at Mr. Eoy's expense. 
 " What can they want, coming unbeknownst like this ? 
 Three of them, and nothing in the house but a cold cherry- 
 tart and a sparerib of pork ! " 
 
 She was soon to be undeceived as to their motives. In vain 
 she dressed her countenance in smiles, affecting extreme 
 cordiality of welcome for her master, and concern for the 
 comfortable lodging of his friends. John Roy's face was 
 dark and inscrutable, his words brief, his bearing stern. 
 She had never seen him like this but once, when he dis- 
 charged a butler at an hour's notice who had been robbing 
 him with impunity for six or seven years. 
 
 " We do not intend to sleep here, Mrs. Mopus," said he. 
 *' I have only come down to settle your accounts. Be good 
 enough to bring the books into my library at once." 
 
 Her face changed from drab to grey. 
 
 " They're not made up, sir," she answered, dropping a 
 curtsy on trembling knees. " It's too much trouble to ask 
 you to wait — I have plenty of money to go on with. I 
 could send them up to town, Mr. Roy, in the course of 
 to-morrow." 
 
 He only answered " I want to see them now," and there
 
 POST-DATED 821 
 
 was nothing for it but to bring them in as they were and 
 stand the shot. 
 
 The lawyer's clerk, more at home with figures than either 
 of the others, and acknowledged by Brail to be "a very 
 smart fellow," saw through it all at a glance. Over- 
 charges, false entries, a general cooking of balances at the 
 foot of each page, and Elinor Koy's name signed in full to 
 verify certain columns that would have thrilled her house- 
 wifely soul vdth. indignation and dismay. 
 
 " This old catamaran must be disrated at once," said 
 Brail, " and she ought to be put in irons before sundown. 
 But if we can get her to confess the truth, it's worth all the 
 money. I should pay her oJEF, and cut her adrift without 
 another word." 
 
 Mrs. Mopus, subsequently explaining matters in her own 
 circle, asked, " What was a poor woman to do with three 
 great strong fellows browbeating and bully-ragging of her, 
 and taking down of all she said in pen-and-ink, as if they 
 was judge and jury, and what-not ? She was that upset 
 and put about she couldn't have told you whether she stood 
 on her head or her heels, and confessed to everythink in 
 com-se. But as to the questions these v/icked men asked, 
 and how she answered them, she couldn't call to mind now 
 no more than the dead ! " 
 
 Brail's account, for the satisfaction of a young lady who 
 afterwards cross-examined him pretty sharply on that and 
 other matters, told a very different story. 
 
 " She fell on her knees. Miss Bruce," said he, " and im- 
 plored mercy from us all. Particularly the lawyer's clerk, 
 whom I think she took for Jack Ketch under a foreign flag. 
 Then she acknowledged to having purloined the stores, 
 falsified the accounts, and generally robbed her employer 
 through thick and thin. Lastly, she would not deny that 
 she had practised copying Mrs. Roy's handwriting till she 
 became so smart at it as to forge that letter to Lord 
 
 21
 
 322 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 Fitzowen, which so nearly blew all hands into the air. 
 She did it because she hated her, and she hated her because 
 she thought her mistress would never make a good wife to 
 Mr. Roy. It was all done for her master's sake, even the 
 false entries in the chandler's book ! She was firmly 
 attached to him, had been so from the first — a devoted 
 seiTant and a faithful friend. Though he drove her out of 
 doors at the end of ten years, without a roof to cover her, 
 she would always pray for his welfare, and if he would only 
 spare her now this once, he might some day find out she 
 had neither been so ungrateful nor so unprincipled as he 
 supposed ! " 
 
 "Was Mr. Roy satisfied?" asked the young lady, 
 receiving this report with much condescension. 
 
 "Mr. Roy ivas satisfied ; and, I fancy, is more attached 
 to his wife than ever. He told me so, coming back by the 
 train. He confessed, too, that he had behaved like a brute, 
 and I agreed with him. But he is not in smooth water yet. 
 From what he let out, I believe he is under a solemn 
 promise to another lady, and is fighting with a rope round 
 his neck. It's a very awkward business, but it serves him 
 right ! A man should stick to his colours like a man, and 
 go down with them flying, when he can't float any longer! " 
 
 "You would ! " 
 
 " If somebody only made signals, wouldn't I ! I would 
 run up my ensign sooner than she thinks. I " 
 
 " But you haven't finished about Mr. Roy." 
 
 " There's not much more to tell. He knows he is in a 
 mess, and he asked me how he was to get out of it." 
 
 " What did you advise ? " 
 
 " He had better slip his cables, I told him. 'You're in 
 bad anchorage,' I said, ' and under the enemy's guns. 
 The only chance for you, is to cut and run.' "
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 WILLOW ! WILLOW ! 
 
 A WOMAN cannot be a dove, and all dove. There is neces- 
 sarily something of a serpent's wisdom in the very sweetest 
 of the sex, and just enough ferocity to turn and sting his 
 heel who gi-inds her to the dust. Only the accident of a wind 
 off shore, I imagine, preserved Eneas fi'om a most un- 
 pleasant quarter of an hour with his deserted Dido ; and 
 I have no doubt the flame of anger bui'ned itself out, 
 unslaked, in that ill-used lady's heart before she gave way 
 to utter depression and despair. Wrath is an excellent 
 styptic ; it saves many a victim fi'om bleeding to death, at 
 the first intention. Hereafter, when immediate danger is 
 past, her wounds must have their course — the dull, dead 
 pain, the intermittent throb, the accustomed ache, the 
 smart that tingles while it heals. Then the salve, the cure, 
 renewed health, strength, vitality, and a strong inclination 
 to go down into the battle once more. 
 
 Lady Jane slept but little on the night after her Rich- 
 mond dinner-party ; and such broken slumbers as she did 
 achieve were unblest by oblivion or repose. About her was 
 the foreboding that never deceives — the shadow of coming 
 evil, that is as surely followed by its substance as evening 
 by night. I have known trouble — who has not? — have 
 seen the faithless waters smiling smooth and void, fathom- 
 high above my precious cargo that was floating even now so 
 fair and so secure ; but with all its bitterness, all its despair, 
 
 323
 
 324 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 the apathy of bereavement was not half so pamful as that 
 sickening moment -when, owner and master still, I became 
 conscious that the ship was going down under my very feet. 
 If life, as certain dreamers tell us, must be measured by 
 sensations rather than results, can we wonder that the 
 hearts of so many are withered before their heads turn 
 grey ! 
 
 At five o'clock a.m. Lady Jane, tossing and tumbling, 
 with a red cheek laid on a round white arm, and a breadth 
 of soft brown hair scattered over a laced pillow, gave herself 
 up to despair ; at seven there came a reaction ; at eight a 
 relapse, and by ten minutes past she was out of bed, writing 
 a note to be taken round at once to Mr. Roy's lodgings, by 
 a footman who was still fast asleep. As it never reached 
 him for whom it was intended, no confidence, perhaps, is 
 outraged by quoting this document in full, observing en 
 passant, that notwithstanding the lady's agitation it was 
 written in a beautifully clear sloping hand, nor betrayed the 
 least sign of emotion, save in the scoring of certain adjectives 
 and other forcible expressions underneath. 
 
 " I have never closed an eye. What is the meaning of 
 it all •? What has ha^jpened ? Why is one to be outraged, 
 humiliated, made TM-etched and ridiculous for nothing? 
 What an afternoon ! What a dinner-party ! and oh ! what 
 a night ! I had rather die than endure such tortures again. 
 Even Lady Pandora noticed it, and wanted to know if I 
 suffered from the heat, I looked so ill ! I did suffer, but 
 not from heat. Anything but that. Ask yourself if you 
 were not more than cold, distant, cruel, pointedly rude and 
 unkind. Before all those people too ! Even that odious, 
 overdressed, tight-laced gu'l, observed it. I caught her 
 simpering and ogling. No doubt she understood every- 
 thing, and wanted you for herself. If you go on like this, 
 she is ivelcome to you, for all I care. No. I don't mean
 
 WILLOW! WILLOW! 325 
 
 it. Bat I am writing with an aching head, and oh ! such 
 a sore, sore heart. I wonder whether you care. I coukl 
 understand it if I had done anything to vex you, but I 
 hadn't. I never do. Why are you not equally considerate ? 
 After all, I made the party to please you. I asked every 
 one of the people, even that horrid detestable girl, that I 
 thought you would like to meet, and what was my reward ? 
 You never said a kind word from first to last, you wouldn't 
 walk with me, you wouldn't talk to me, you wouldn't even 
 look at me, and you wished me good-night as if I had been 
 a perfect stranger ! Do you think I will bear it ? No. 
 Even a worm tm-ns when trodden on, but I am not a worm, 
 and it breaks my heart to be trodden on by you. Nobody 
 
 else ever dared to try. Oh ! I loondcr if that is wh}' 
 
 Nevermind. Come round the very instant you get this. 
 Don't fuss about hom-s, or appearances, or what the 
 servants will think. I don't mind, and I am sure you 
 need not. If you are very good, and I see you in an hour, 
 perhaps I won't quarrel with you after all, but remain as 
 ever, 
 
 " too truly yours, 
 
 " Jane de Baniee." 
 
 They wi-ite themselves into good-humour, over and over 
 again. There is no such safety-valve for a woman as her 
 blotting-book, and the compositions that do them most good 
 are those which expect but do not require answers. While 
 her footman dressed himself, went to Mr. Roy's lodgings, 
 not a quarter of a mile, and returned therefrom, which took 
 him the best part of an hour. Lady Jane cooled down to a 
 reasonable state of mind, and began to contemplate the 
 future from a more hopeful point of view. It was not her 
 nature to despond, and since her girlhood she was accus- 
 tomed to place great reliance on the only person she could 
 thoroughly trust to farther her own interests, to wit, Lady
 
 826 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 Jane. The footman, feeling in so far a free agent tliat he 
 was not yet powdered for the day, returned leisurely 
 enough, and her ladyship's maid, likewise with great 
 deliberation, took up her ladyship's note to her lady- 
 ship's room. 
 
 ** What is this ? " exclaimed the mistress, turning pale. 
 
 " If you please, my ladj'-," answered the maid, " Mr. Roy 
 was gone." 
 
 "Gone!" 
 
 " Yes, my lady. The people of the house said he left no 
 addi-ess, so Charles thought he had better bring the note 
 back." 
 
 " Charles was right. That will do, Flounce. I'll ring 
 when I want you." 
 
 She tried to steady her voice, and thought she had suc- 
 ceeded, but Flounce, a romantic person not much fettered 
 by an uncertain engagement to a distant butler, glanced in 
 her face, and knew as well as we do that her lady had 
 received a grievous hurt in those regions her maid con- 
 sidered most susceptible to Avhat she was pleased to call 
 "a disappointment of the afifections." 
 
 "I never thought much of Mr. Roy," she confided to 
 her housekeeper, over their strong black tea. " He's not 
 at all the sort of gentleman as I should have chose, not for 
 my lady. No hardour, no devotion. Why, I've known him 
 keep of her waiting to walk out with him a quarter of an 
 hour and more. That's not a true-'arted attachment Mrs. 
 Rolle — never think it ! I've had men, and so have yon, I 
 dare say, that distracted if you went and said a wry word ; 
 they'd be off to strap their razors, or pay their penny at 
 Waterloo Bridge, a'most before you'd time to turn round 
 and make it up ! " 
 
 " It's best to kiss and be friends, when you come to 
 that," returned Mrs. Rolle, an elderly woman of ample 
 proportions. " If my lady seems down-hearted-like, Miss
 
 WILLOW! WILLOW! 827 
 
 Flounce, hadu'fc you better take her up anotlier cup of 
 tea?" 
 
 "Down-hearted" is no word to express her ladyship's 
 discomfiture. Before luncheon she had gone through more 
 vexation than falls to the lot of many people in a twelve- 
 month. With a certain wilfulness that formed part of her 
 character, she put on her bonnet, the prettiest she had, 
 and went unattended to make inquiries at Mr. Roy's 
 domicile for herself. These were most unsatisfactory. 
 He was gone, of that there seemed no question. But 
 where ? Could she have foimd out, she might have been 
 tempted to follow ; but even then, to what good result ? 
 He had deceived and compromised her, nobody ever 
 behaved worse, he was a villain and a traitor, yet she 
 could get no redress ! The world, her world, would 
 protest it served her right. She should have waited for 
 his divorce, and kept him off till he was really free. The 
 woman ought never to be in the greatest hurry of the two. 
 With her experience she might have known better, and in 
 her childish delight at finding something to care for, should 
 have curbed her feelings before they were allowed to carry 
 her too far. 
 
 " I should like to lie downi and die," thought Lady Jane, 
 " or at least to go to bed and not get up till the day after 
 to-morrow ; but I am engaged to dinner this very evening, 
 and what will people think, what will people say, when they 
 learn that he is gone out of town, if I don't show myself 
 everywhere ? No ; for the children's sake I must make 
 an effort. That is only half a defeat which is concealed 
 from the world, and rather than see myself pitied by Lady 
 Pandora, I would be broken on the wheel with a smiling 
 face ! " 
 
 So her ladyship went to dinner-parties as usual, in a 
 selection of square-cut dresses that did justice to all her 
 attractions, parrying inquiries as to Mr. Boy's absence with
 
 328 EOY'S WIFE 
 
 an affected knowledge of his movements and a cool audacity 
 that did not the least imjiose on her friends. She looked 
 handsomer than ever, people said — an improvement Lady 
 Pandora kindly attributed to paint, hut which we are in- 
 clined to believe resulted from a subdued restlessness, that 
 brought a deeper flush to her cheek and a brighter sparkle 
 to her eye. She laughed louder, too, it was observed, and 
 she spoke in a higher voice than she used, while, to quote 
 Lady Pandora once more, " she flirted worse than ever, 
 getting men about her of all sorts and ages. Dreadful, 
 my dear, really ! So noisy, so manieree, and such bad 
 style,! " 
 
 But a square dinner-dress, however low it may be cut, 
 and however liberal a view it may offer of that sno-wj 
 surface, affords no clue whatever to the secrets burnino- 
 within a lady's breast. 
 
 There is a story, verified, I have been told, by medical 
 records, of a man who wore a glass pane substituted for the 
 skin and outer coatings of his stomach, through which the 
 inquisitive might observe — not, I should think, without 
 apprehension for their own interiors — the curious process 
 of digestion. Such a window I can believe most startling 
 in the stomach — but imagine one in the breast ! What 
 wonders would the bystanders behold ! what contradic- 
 tions, giving the lie direct to the smooth brow and the 
 smiling cheek ! what envy, hatred, malice, and contempt, 
 where the well-drilled face expressed sympathy, good- 
 humour, cordiality, and subservience ! No ! Under such 
 conditions society would fall to pieces in a day. We had 
 better remain as we are, digest our food as best we can, 
 without revealing how sadly it disagrees with us, and hate 
 an enemy — or, for that matter, a friend — without flourishing 
 our feelings for the edification and amusement of the town. 
 
 Nobody kept her own council more resolutely than Lady 
 Jane. Soldiers have been decorated with medals and clasps
 
 WILLOW.' WILLOW! 329 
 
 for less coiu'age than she displaj-ed, night after night, 
 under a galling fire from the adversary, and a random 
 shot every now and then from some treacherous ally. 
 There are martyi-s in the worst of causes ; and for those 
 who admire endurance and self-command, her ladyship was 
 a goodly sight as she moved in or out of a drawing-room, 
 cool, stately, unahashed — like a frigate sailing majestically 
 through the fire of a battery, that has not quite succeeded 
 in getting her range. 
 
 The men fiocked round her by scores, more importunate, 
 more attentive than ever. Only a woman — and a woman 
 who had been slighted — could have detected in their 
 manner a shade more of interest, a shade less of respect, 
 than she had heretofore considered her due. After a while 
 she got used to it, perhaps even liked it; but at first it was 
 galling in the extreme. She carried her head high, though, 
 even under this new degradation, and allowed nobody to 
 see by her manner that she was not marching proudly to 
 victory, rather than retii'ing steadily under defeat. 
 
 Yes, she could not disguise it fi*om herself: like every 
 woman smarting for an imprudence shared between them, 
 she had to bear all the man's punishment in addition to 
 her own.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 YARD-ARM TO YARD-ARJI 
 
 Moved by the advice of his nautical friend, nautically 
 expressed, Mr. Roy's first impulse was to "cut and run " 
 beyond the bounds of Britain, putting some ten leagues of 
 salt water between himself and one of the ladies he had so 
 cruelly wronged. But such expatriation would in no way 
 have furthered his reconciliation with the other ; and the 
 dearest wish of his heart, as the spirits at Mrs. Eccleston's 
 seemed to have guessed, was again to pay his addresses, in 
 hope of a favourable hearing, to his own wife. Under these 
 circumstances he bethought himself that no hiding-place 
 could be so secure as the heart of London, and removed 
 accordingly, with his valet and effects, to a monster hotel, 
 whence he took a fi*esh departure for lodgings on a second- 
 floor, situated considerably to the east of Temple Bar. 
 Here he was no sooner established than he proceeded to 
 write an exceedingly penitent letter, imploring Nelly's for- 
 giveness for past injustice, and promising, as Othello always 
 does when he is ashamed of himself, never to suspect her 
 again. This done, he felt assm-ed that by return of post 
 he would receive a full and free pardon, with a cordial 
 invitation to the Corner Hotel, Strand. 
 
 But his letter, perhaps because it came straight from 
 the heart, was so stiffly and even clumsily worded that 
 Nelly's pride took fire at some of the very phrases intended 
 to convey extreme contrition and remorse, prompting her to 
 
 330
 
 YARD-ABM TO YARD-ARM 331 
 
 write back such an answer as filled him with dismay. He 
 had never calculated on her taking the higher ground, and 
 demurring to a reconciliation vnth. him. It was like the 
 " I banish you ! " of Coriolanus ; and he felt it even more 
 richly deserved. 
 
 She ^Tote temperately, nay, kindly ; abjured all feelings 
 of malice and irritation, laying great stress on her 
 disinclination to enter into the subject of her own sufferings, 
 or her own wrongs. But how was she ever to trust him 
 again ? How could she run the chance of seeing her life's 
 happiness once more shattered at a blow, without a hope of 
 defending herself? — nay, her reputation blasted by the very 
 man who ought to protect it from the slightest breath of 
 shame ? There were certain illusions that, once dispelled, 
 could never be restored. A woman's love must not be put 
 off like an old dress, or changed for a newer at the fancy of 
 the wearer. No man, probably, could be made to under- 
 stand how precious it was, how unchanging, and how 
 eternal. She felt no shame in confessing that she would 
 always care for him to whom she had pliglited her faith at 
 the altar, but (underlined with vigorous emphasis) nothing 
 could undo the past, and it would be better for them never 
 to meet again. Though she had been insufficient for his 
 happiness, she would pray for it night and day. Though 
 she would never more look in his dear face, she would ask 
 his permission (underlined again) to sign herself, now and 
 always, his true and loving wife, Elinor Roy. 
 
 That our fiiend was no great judge of the other sex I 
 need hardly observe at this stage of my narrative. Few 
 men could be less capable of reading between the lines, in 
 such a letter as has been quoted above ; and when he sent 
 for his adviser Brail post-haste to come and counsel him 
 under this crushing defeat, the sailor fairly lauglicd in his 
 face. 
 
 " I can't make out their signals," said he, " in a general
 
 332 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 way, for I've not served my time with the women yet, and 
 I hope I never may ; but if this doesn't mean ' clear for 
 action ! ' I'm a Dutchman. Wliy, man, you should never 
 have written at all. What's the use of a letter when you 
 can go and speak for yourself? No, no. I'm a green hand 
 enough, hut I think I've learned this much, that, wife or 
 no wife, manoeuvring is only so much time wasted. Yard- 
 arm to yard-arm — that's the way to do it, and let the best 
 man win ! " 
 
 " Then I'll call this very afternoon ; but how if the 
 waiter won't let me in?" 
 
 " Knock him into next Aveek. It shows energy, and 
 she'll see you're in earnest ! " 
 
 "I suppose I had better," answered Eoy; reflecting, 
 however, that it would be rather hard on the waiter, 
 
 "And now," continued he, with the stiff, reserved 
 manner it was his nature to assume when deeply moved, 
 "I have never had an opportunity of thanking you for 
 all your kindness. Is there anything I can do in retm-n ? " 
 "Yes, there is ! " answered the other. "I'll be frank 
 with you. I'm in shoal water myself. And yet I don't 
 know : she's far too good for me — I suppose I ought to give 
 it up ! " 
 
 "Don't do that," said Roy kindly. "At least, not if 
 it's Miss Bruce." 
 
 " Miss Bruce it is ! " replied the sailor, with a blush on 
 his brown face that, had it overtaken him in the ward- 
 room, he would never have heard the last of from his 
 messmates. " If you could put in a good word for me with 
 Sir Hector, do you think I should have a chance ? " 
 
 John Roy, for all answer, scanned this comely suitor 
 from top to toe with a meaning smile. 
 
 "What are you laughing at? " asked the latter. 
 " I was thinknig of your own advice. Nobody can put 
 it in practice better than yourself. I will do all I can for
 
 YABD-ABM TO YABD-ABM 333 
 
 you, of coui'se, but go to the young lady's house, try to 
 see her alone, and then yard-arm to yard-arm ! I have no 
 doubt the best man will win." 
 
 In pui'suance of this sage counsel, Mr. Brail, >vho had 
 got himself up splendidly for the occasion, proceeded with 
 a beating heart towards the town residence of Sir Hector 
 Bruce, devoutly hoping that Roy had been as good as his 
 word, and that he would have no stronger resistance to 
 encounter than might be offered by the young lady herself. 
 
 Even Hester's scruples, however, he grew less and less 
 sanguine of conquering the nearer he approached her 
 domicile, for, with the customary perversity of true love 
 he overrated the value of his idol in proportion as he 
 depreciated his own. 
 
 Can we wonder that he '* stood off and on," as he called 
 it, walking up and down, and traversing the street 
 several times, before he found com'age to knock at the well- 
 kno'ttTi door ? or that, when it was opened, he felt for one 
 cowardly moment it would be a relief to learn Miss Bruce 
 was not at home ? 
 
 Following the servant up-stairs like a man in a dream, 
 he was conscious of a vague, stupid wonder how he should 
 come down again. ^Vhether as the happiest man that ever 
 stepped, or as a poor, unlucky devil, without a hope or a 
 fear left in the world ! 
 
 Notwithstanding its romance, the sensation reminded 
 him a little of his first visit to a dentist. 
 
 But no sooner was he through the drawing-room door 
 and fairly in her presence, than the sight of the girl he 
 loved dispelled, as it always did, the forebodings and mis- 
 givings that had haunted him so cruelly. Even diffidence 
 became absorbed in admiration, and all other feelings were 
 lost in a sense of ii-rational delight only to be near her once 
 more. When she rose — a radiant vision with blue ribbons 
 in her dress — and gave him her slim white hand he felt
 
 334 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 perfectly composed and happy, even while admitting it was 
 impossible such an angel could ever be his own ! 
 
 He hardly dared look her in the face, she seemed so 
 beautiful. Perhaps that was why he failed to notice the 
 shifting colour, the deepened eyes, the trembling of the 
 delicate mouth and chin, that told their own tale. 
 
 Neither of them could subsequently have given an account 
 of theu' conversation. I imagine they talked about the 
 weather, and the opera, and somebody's ball, unconsciously 
 and without attaching the slightest meaning to any one 
 word they said. Presently, the shuttlecock fell dead 
 between two such preoccupied players, and an awkv/ard 
 silence ensued that neither found courage to break. The 
 ship was becalmed, as it were, and lay such a log on the 
 water she had not even steerage-way ! 
 
 Brail's pulses were beating hard, his lip twitched, and 
 his strong nerves thrilled like a girl's ! If Miss Bruce 
 betrayed less discomposure, it was because she kept her 
 head bent over some embroidery, stitching with an industry 
 beyond praise; but I believe she unpicked most of the 
 work next day. 
 
 In such cases, though undoubtedly he ought, the gentle- 
 man does not always speak first. 
 
 "Have you — have you chanced to see anything of Mr. 
 Roy lately? " asked Hester, turning to sort the silks in her 
 work-basket, with a transparent affectation of unconcern. 
 The question brought him two feet nearer at once, and it is 
 but justice to state that when fairly yard-arm to yard-arm, 
 he opened fire without delay. 
 
 " Seen Mr. Roy? " he repeated — "I have seen nothing 
 else ! I never left him, Miss Bruce, till he returned to his 
 duty. I did everything you told me. I ask nothing better 
 than to do everything you tell me for the rest of my life ! " 
 
 "Are you so obedient? I had no idea you were so 
 much afraid of me."
 
 YABD-ABM TO YARD-ABM 335 
 
 " You must have seen it. I've been the biggest coward 
 in that way ever since the first time I met you at the 
 Horticultural Gardens. I dare say you have forgotten all 
 about it ? " 
 
 No answer. 
 
 "I haven't. I never shall! You were rigged out in a 
 white dress and had hoisted your favom'ite colours. You 
 told me they were ! Sailor's blue — deep and true ! " 
 
 " I think I remember. You said you liked blue." 
 
 " I said no more than the truth, and not half so much as 
 I thought. Somehow I never can say as much as I want 
 to you." 
 
 " That dress was rather a favourite of mine. Do you 
 know I've got it still ? Directly we were introduced, I felt 
 Bm-e you would admu-e it, being a sailor." 
 
 " How did you know I was a sailor ? " 
 
 " By the way you carried your hands dangling outwards — 
 so — as if they were ready to do anything. Able and 
 willing, you know. I always liked sailors ! " 
 
 They were willing enough now, those brown, able hands. 
 They caught one of hers in their manly grasp, with infinite 
 tenderness and delicacy, but yet so firmly as to claim it for 
 then* own, and when they had captured their prisoner, 
 lifted it, resisting faintly, to a pair of eager lips. 
 
 Need I go on ? Surely a lady thus fettered considers 
 herself no longer a free agent, and must make the best 
 terms she can. How Miss Bruce expressed submission — 
 whether she hauled her flag down, or sheered off to leeward, 
 or practised any such manoeuvres of the vanquished — I 
 decline to say, but, for the next half-hour or so, tlicre is 
 no doubt she carried a red ensign at the fore ! Had the 
 weather necessitated coals, and had the footman brought 
 them in with stealthy footfall, he would have seen his 
 young mistress sitting contentedly on the sofa, wiili her 
 head against a broad, honest shoulder, and a strong, honest
 
 336 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 arm encircling her waist. The work-hasket, ckimsily 
 enough, had contrived to get itself upset, and the em- 
 broidery, with a needle sticking upright, lay tumbled on 
 the floor. 
 
 What do people talk about when they have just become 
 engaged. Happily nobody knows. They cannot remember 
 themselves, and are seldom overheard, as such conversations 
 are invariably carried on in whispers. I fancy that even 
 in these moments of rapture, as in most earthly enjoyment, 
 much of the pleasure consists in retrospection. "When 
 did you first begin to think yoit liked me ? " " When did 
 you first begin to think Hiked you. ? " " Do you remember 
 when I danced with the captain ? " " Have you forgotten 
 how vexed I was about the flower? " — and so on — and so 
 on. There is not much sense in it. The faculty man calls 
 Reason has totally absented itself, the power man calls 
 Folly reigns supreme, and yet, I ask each and all of you 
 who have waged the common venture, who have " gelebt 
 und gelieht," whether these are not the moments when 
 weak mortality is most convinced it possesses an immortal 
 soul? 
 
 To " see papa in the library " seems rather a come- 
 do-rni after flights like these ; yet, for suitors of such girls 
 as Miss Bruce, it is an inevitable sequel. Brail, agitated 
 and anxious, while supremely happy, wondered how Sir 
 Hector could be so composed. The old man's hand was 
 cool, his brow serene, and he bowed his visitor into a chair 
 without the slightest symptom of emotion. But then, 
 though very fond of Hester, he was not in love with her, 
 and it seemed, moreover, that he had not been taken 
 wholly unawares. 
 
 Roy having fulfilled his jjromise, the father had found 
 time to consider the pretensions and general character of 
 the man who was going to ask his daughter of him as 
 a wife. In the library they were closeted for more than
 
 YARD-ABM TO YAED-ABM 837 
 
 an hour, and at the end of that time Brail scarcely knew 
 whether he was accepted or not. The pros and cons 
 seemed so many, and must he so exhaustively treated. 
 The want of fortune, the hazardous profession, were such 
 grave ohjections. But, on the other hand, Hester's haj^pi- 
 ness should be the first consideration, though young people 
 did not always know their own minds, and Mr. Brail's 
 personal character was so wholly unimpeachable, that — 
 in short, there was a great deal to be said on both sides, 
 and nothing must be done in a hurry. Sir Hector was 
 getting infirm and felt fatigued, he would not detain his 
 visitor any longer, but, perhaps, if Mr. Brail had no better 
 engagement, he would dine with them to-day at eight 
 sharp. A little family party of three — nobody but them- 
 selves ! how could Mr. Brail have a better engagement ? 
 He had no fears now. The very footman who let him out 
 seemed to look on him as one of themselves. 
 
 22
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 WELCOME HOI\IE 
 
 " What a rum fellow Fitzowen is ! He promised to come 
 to Norway with us, and now that the yacht is ready, sails 
 bent, and stores on board — hang him ! he throws me over 
 at the last moment ! " 
 
 The speaker, a ruddy, square-built personage, wearing 
 his hat very much aslant, who stood in his club-window 
 looking thoroughly aggrieved, threw out the above remark 
 as a bait for general sympathy. 
 
 "Fitz was always slippery," observed one of the circle. 
 " But it isn't his fault this time, poor devil ! He's gone 
 a-mucker, I always said he would, and noAv he is forced 
 to bolt!" 
 
 "Money?" 
 
 "Money — or rather bills. No fellow can stand sixty 
 per cent. It would break the Rothschilds." 
 
 "You're all wrong," inteiTupted a third gossip, who 
 prided himself on the accuracy of his information. "It 
 has nothing to do with money. It's the other thing. 
 Fitz has been refused, and is so astonished, he has fled 
 the country." 
 
 " Refused ! Then women are not all such fools as I 
 thought. Who is the wise virgin?" 
 
 "Miss Bruce. Rather a good-looking virgin, and an 
 heiress. No wonder Fitz feels it. He was getting deuced 
 hard-up." 
 
 338
 
 WELCOME HOME 339 
 
 " I thought no English girl with money ever refused an 
 Irishman without ! " 
 
 " Fitz isn't an L-ishman — only an Irish peer." 
 
 " Then that accounts for it. I suppose he'll sell his 
 horses. I shouldn't mind having the bay mare. Where 
 is he off to?" 
 
 " Sicily — Kamtschatka — Madagascar — the Levant — 
 wherever fellows do go when they can't pay up." 
 
 He couldn't have started for all these places, and was, 
 indeed, no farther off than County Galway, where he owned 
 a property that as yet he had never seen, but now deter- 
 mined to visit with certain vague ideas of becoming a 
 judicious landlord, a respectable country gentleman, and 
 doing some little good in his generation. 
 
 Morally, our friend had sustained what we may call " a 
 shake." All his preconceived notions as to the ends and 
 aims of life seemed to have changed. It was beginning to 
 dawn on him that a human being, even a good-looking 
 5'oung nobleman, with an Irish peerage, might have been 
 put into this world for more useful purposes than to eat a 
 certain number of dinners, wear out a certain number of 
 boots, and lay siege to a certain number of hearts, not very 
 well worth winning after all ! 
 
 Like Byron's sample-peer, he had 
 
 •' Loved his love and gained his gaming," 
 
 BO it occurred to him he would stop at that point without 
 fulfilling the remainder of the programme. He had been 
 more than startled, he had been put to utter shame and 
 confusion when he found that one of the weak and frivolous 
 sex he had been accustomed to count as alternately tyrants 
 and victims, was capable of shaping her conduct, not by 
 expediency and caprice, but on high moral principles of 
 abstract right and wrong. The man had a fund of chivaliy
 
 340 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 aud genei'osity in his nature, if one could only get at it, and 
 when Mrs. Roy ajjpealed to his sense of honour and duty, 
 she touched the right chord. For the first time he ex- 
 perienced a purer and nobler sentiment than the longing 
 he had hitherto mistaken for Love, and was proud to feel 
 capable of self-denial and self-sacrifice on behalf of a woman 
 he resolved never to see again. " She is in a false position," 
 he said to himself, "and so am I. While we live in the 
 same town, large as it is, there must always be an ofi'-chance 
 of our meeting, and I cannot answer for myself if I am to 
 see those deep grey eyes again ! No. I will not thwart 
 her on the path of right. She is so good ; she deserves to 
 be happy, and happy I pray that she may be, even if she 
 must needs go back to the husband who never was half 
 worthy of her, who could suspect her without cause, desert 
 her without scruple, and console himself with such a bundle 
 of affectation as Lady Jane ! " 
 
 So he sought distraction from Nelly's haunting image in 
 the volubility of his L-ish tenants, or the prolixity of his 
 Scotch agent, and while perched on a seven-foot bank, 
 watching his plausible labourers working as if the tools 
 burned their fingers, he little dreamed how happy she 
 really was in her old home. 
 
 The yard-arm to yard-arm tactics had succeeded with 
 Mrs. Roy as with Miss Bruce. After a sharp encounter on 
 the stairs, during which Mrs. Phipps told him some home- 
 truths, and was only disarmed by his humble acknowledg- 
 ment that he had been wrong from first to last, the penitent 
 husband obtained access to his wife, and was allowed to 
 plead his cause, with a success that can never be doubtful 
 when judge and jury are predisposed in favour of the defen- 
 dant. His arguments, even if not logical, must have been 
 convincing, for scarce twenty-four hours elapsed before Mr. 
 and Mrs. Roy were established, as for a second honeymoon, 
 in the happy shelter of Royston Grange.
 
 WELCOME HOME 341 
 
 And here I think Nelly showed that tact which consti- 
 tutes so important an element of government, and in which 
 women are so seldom deficient. " If you please, dear," she 
 murmured, while her hushand gave her a kiss of welcome, 
 the instant she re-entered her own drawing-room, "I have 
 a great favour to ask." 
 
 "Favour," he repeated. "How can I refuse you any- 
 thing? I shall never be able to make amends for being 
 such a brute ! ' ' 
 
 " Hush ! you are never to say that again. And you 
 promise? " 
 
 " Of course I promise ! I'll swear to do it now, before I 
 know what it is ! " 
 
 " You're a darling ! Well then, I'm going to ask you. 
 Never, never under any provocation allude to the misery and 
 misunderstandings of the last few months ! It kills me to 
 think of them. I was in the wrong, and I cannot bear to 
 be reminded of it ! " 
 
 " You ! In the wrong ! " 
 
 " Yes, I was ! I ought not to have been so hard, so 
 hasty. I ought never to have quarrelled without giving 
 you an opportunity of making up." 
 
 "Nelly, you are simply an angel ! There is no more to 
 be said." 
 
 But he turned and walked to the window, whence he 
 looked out on the flower-beds running their colours into 
 each other \\dth strange confusion, as seen through his 
 rising tears. 
 
 Mrs. Eoy occupied herself with her furniture, passing 
 from this article to that with almost childish delight, whilo 
 she inspected one thing to be sure tliat it had been dusted, 
 and another that it had not been broken. As liis young 
 trees to a landed proprietor, so are the ornaments of her 
 drawing-room to a lady who loves home. She can detect 
 at a glance the least speck of dust, the most trifling change
 
 342 BOY'S WIFE 
 
 of position, the slightest tampering with these her domestic 
 treasures, and is no less intolerant of a careless housemaid 
 than her husband would be of an inexperienced forester too 
 ready with the axe. 
 
 "They've taken pretty good care of my things," said 
 Nelly, in the calm, pleasant tones he remembered so well. 
 " That is Susan's doing, I'm sure. You were quite right 
 to keep her on, for the girl understands her business. Now 
 I must go and look round up-stairs. I shall not feel 
 thoroughly at home till I've put my bonnet straight 
 before my own glass ! " 
 
 But here a surprise awaited her, and of a very pleasant 
 nature. John Roy, following to the door of her bedroom, 
 felt his heart thrill to hear the exclamation she was unable 
 to suppress. Everything, even to the pins in the pin- 
 cushion, was exactly as she had left it on that ill-omened 
 day in March, when she took her last look of the dear 
 chamber she never hoped to see again. It seemed like a 
 di-eam ; she could not believe she had been absent more 
 than an hour, and she turned her sweet face on her husband 
 with a ludicrous expression of astonishment and delight. 
 
 Then she flung herself into his arms, half laughing, half 
 crying, and sobbed out — 
 
 " This can't be Susan's doing too. My darling, my 
 darling, you have been kinder to me than I deserve." 
 
 "That would be impossible, Nelly," he answered gravely, 
 "but I am glad you are pleased with this little fancy of 
 mine. Before I left home I gave strict orders that nothing 
 should be changed here on any pretence. I wanted it to 
 look like home for you if you came back." 
 
 " And suppose I had never come back ? " 
 
 "I left orders in that case too. The room was to be 
 locked up, and nobody should have used it again till another 
 proprietor came to live at Royston Grange." 
 
 Nelly was perfectly happy now, for she knew that way-
 
 WELCOME HOME 343 
 
 ward, unjust as he had been, he must have loved her in 
 spite of all. 
 
 She pressed her forehead hard against his breast, and 
 then looked fondly up in his face. 
 
 "But you didn't marry a lady, you know," she murmm-ed. 
 " "Will you never be sorry for that again ? " 
 
 "A lady! " he repeated, and she could not doubt the 
 answer came straight from his heart. " Why, Nelly, you 
 are the best and highest of ladies — a true, loving woman, 
 far above rubies, and more precious than the finest gold ! " 
 
 THE END. 
 
 CNWIN BBOTHEKB, THE QREBHAM PREB8, WOElNa AND LONDON.
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 RECO 
 
 i MAY 
 
 NOV I 9 
 
 U'URE 
 
 Form Ti-9-20/i(-8,'37 
 
 f)T985 
 J984 
 
 UKiV. 
 
 ,.?r.ATJFO«SllA
 
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 5802 
 
 R81 
 
 Whyte- 
 
 Roy's wife 
 
 PR 
 
 5802 
 
 R81 
 
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 Al library FACILITf 
 
 AA 000 385 902 2