SINGULARLY DELUDED 
 
 A ROMANCE 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 IDEALA, THE HEAVENLY TWINS, ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE FEDERAL BOOK COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THE fusty old gods of antiquity, still so useful 
 by way of illustration, are said to have envied 
 happy mortals with hatred and malice if ever 
 their felicity remained unbroken and was extreme. 
 Jealousy was one of the many bad attributes of 
 those malign impostors ; and the way they made 
 misery for men, whose only offense was the pos- 
 session of the power to enjoy, would have been 
 thought mean in these days, and was certainly 
 low. But now that their reign is over, one would 
 like to know how it is that their bad old tricks 
 continue ? Did they knowingly and willingly 
 perpetuate that idea of theirs, that it was possible 
 for men to be too happy, and the thing must be 
 prevented ? And did they, with their usual dia- 
 bolical ingenuity, find means to endow the fallacy 
 with everlasting motive-power to keep it going 
 through all eternity with dire effect ? One might 
 almost think so. For certain it is that no life 
 ever goes on smoothly to the end ; and when 
 
 3 
 
 2136S12 '
 
 4 SINGULARL Y DEL UDEll. 
 
 things are at the best, as well as at the worst, 
 there is sure to be a change. 
 
 Mrs. Leslie Somers was a case in point. Her 
 parents were rich and in a good position. She 
 had several brothers and sisters, to whom she 
 was devotedly attached. All her intimate friends 
 were refined and cultivated people, and her girl- 
 hood had been one unbroken chain of happy 
 events, such as form part of the every-day life of 
 a young English gentlewoman with ample means 
 at her command, and health and strength to en- 
 joy them ; the crowning event in her case being 
 her marriage at eighteen with a man ten years 
 older than herself, but in every respect apparently 
 a suitable husband for her. 
 
 At the time of which I am now speaking she 
 had been married four years. She had a lovely 
 little boy, just able to toddle and talk, and she 
 was staying with her husband at a quiet sea- 
 side place where he had taken a house for the 
 summer for the benefit of his own health, which 
 had latterly not been so good as at his age he 
 had every right to expect it to be. What the 
 nature of his disease was, however, nobody seemed 
 to know exactly. The symptoms were neither 
 peculiar nor decided, being such, in fact, as 
 might have denoted the beginning of half a dozen 
 different disorders. At times he was feverish and 
 headachy ; at times he was chilly and felt weak ; 
 and sometimes he had an abnormally large appe-
 
 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. g 
 
 tite, which nothing seemed to satisfy, while at 
 others he went for days together without touch- 
 ing food unless it was forced upon him. But the 
 most trying part of his disorder to his wife were 
 the long periods of depression from which nothing 
 would rouse him, and the succeeding fits of irri- 
 tability when it was not only impossible to please 
 him, but to move without making him angry. 
 He was a very clever man, a barrister with a large 
 practise ; and his own doctor thought the nerv- 
 ous irritability, which made his life a burden to 
 himself and his friends, was due to overwork and 
 consequent loss of nerve-power, and had there- 
 fore ordered him absolute rest, and recommended 
 him to go away from his worries for a time to 
 some quiet place to recruit. 
 
 It was a charming spot to which they had 
 come, a little place remote from the world, and 
 inhabited by unsophisticated and friendly people, 
 who made their admiration and kindly interest in 
 the young couple and their beautiful baby boy 
 sufficiently apparent in an unobtrusive way to add 
 the attraction of good-fellowship to the advan- 
 tages of lovely scenery which surrounded them, 
 and did so much to make their existence delight- 
 ful. It was the sort of life, in harmony with 
 nature and charity with all men, which makes it a 
 pleasure just to be alive. They had had enchant- 
 ing summer weather the whole time. Sky and 
 sea -and shore throbbing with the light and
 
 6 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 warmth of tbe sun, with the song of the birds, 
 with the scent of flowers, with the lap of waves, 
 with the rustle and murmur of leaves, made the 
 days delicious. And then there were the nights ! 
 when, after the sunset flush a feast of color, all 
 crimson and burnished gold, trembling to daffodil, 
 softening to green, deepening to purple, silvering 
 to gray, and clearing again the moon would rise 
 triumphant and alone in a clear cool, indigo sky, 
 and the nightingales would sing from the woods, 
 would gurgle and trill and call, till the air seemed 
 faint with the pleasure of their song. If the 
 mornings were delicious, I say, what must the 
 evenings have been ? Ecstatic, I think ; and so 
 those two young people found them. 
 
 After the boy had been put to bed, and hus- 
 band and wife had dined among the flowers in 
 their garden overlooking the sea, they would stroll 
 along the cliffs arm in arm, or down on the hard 
 sand by the water's edge, without any such re- 
 straints of commonplace civilization as hats and 
 gloves ; and at these times the two were wont to 
 be happy with that full and perfect happiness 
 which can render an account to itself, at the mo- 
 ment, of its own bliss ; and this, we know, is the 
 only happiness that has any real existence, all 
 other forms being mere tricks of the imagination. 
 For who can call that real of which we know noth- 
 ing until it is over and past beyond recall ? Like 
 the joys of youth of which we hear so much, and
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. } 
 
 feel so little until they appear to us in retrospect, 
 and become a melancholy pleasure at best, but 
 oftener still a subject of regret, because we did 
 not heed them while they were with us. 
 
 Well, it was not long before the bright salt air, 
 rich with iodine and ozone, and fresh from its 
 race over leagues of ocean, the simple and whole- 
 some food, and all the happy circumstances of the 
 time, began apparently to restore the invalid. 
 His appetite was more constant, his spirits rose, 
 his temper was less variable, and the power to en- 
 joy, of which he had been deprived to a great 
 extent, began to return to him by fits and starts, 
 it is true, but still it came ; and his wife was 
 happy about him again in a calm and steadfast 
 way which was natural to her. 
 
 One morning after their early breakfast they 
 strolled out of their garden on to the beach with 
 their boy. Leslie Somers had a book, his wife a 
 piece of work, and they sat on the shingle, giving 
 as much attention to each other and to the sturdy 
 child as they did to book or work. The boy 
 would paddle at first, and his mother took off his 
 ghoes and socks ; but finding the water warm and 
 pleasant, the young rascal was not content to have 
 no more of it than would cover his feet, and so, 
 when his parents' attention was otherwise engaged, 
 he quietly divested himself of his scanty summer 
 clothing, and when they looked again, behold him 
 Standing, a very Cupid with golden curls, crowing
 
 8 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 with delight, and saying, "Mind! mind!" to 
 the little waves that splashed up against his mot- 
 tled legs, while he motioned them back with out- 
 spread dimpled hands. His father took a rope 
 that was trailing from a fishing-boat drawn up on 
 the beach close by, and playfully threw it round 
 him, making believe that he was a ship, and must 
 be made fast to the capstan, his mother the boy 
 entering into the joke, and making the beach 
 resound with peals of laughter, spontaneous, 
 rippling, and delicious as the lap and murmur of 
 the little waves that burst about his feet. 
 
 This game ended, and the child dressed again, 
 the three wandered off into the village to buy 
 fruit, and having obtained what they wanted, they 
 continued their walk, passing through a narrow 
 gorge between the hills at the back of the village 
 on to the heath. These hills curved round the 
 houses like a protecting arm, sheltering them in 
 a warm embrace from the world beyond, and keep- 
 ing them safe from all storms but such as were 
 caused by the restless variable temper of the wind 
 on the bosom of its slave, the sea. From the vil- 
 lage street it would have been impossible to sus- 
 pect the existence of a great wide heath on the 
 other side of the hills, or even to catch a glimpse 
 of any road by which this sheltered nook could 
 keep up communication with the outer world ; 
 and when, having passed through that narrow 
 gorge, you found yourself on the heath, it was so
 
 S1NGULARL Y DEL UDED. 9 
 
 unlike every other feature of the place, except, 
 perhaps, the sea* which was not visible from any 
 part of it, and to which, in the long swell and 
 sweep of it, and its billowy undulations, it bore 
 some resemblance, that you might easily have 
 imagined yourself conveyed by a powerful spell 
 from an Eden of flowers and sunshine to the cold 
 of a wind-swept desert, dreary, disconsolate, aban- 
 doned the beginning of that world without end 
 where all life ceases, and the consciousness of 
 what must follow does not yet begin. 
 
 But this would only be your first impression 
 as you stood a little above the heath, looking down 
 on what would then seem to you a wide, unlovely, 
 level, monotonous expanse. Like people who are 
 really worth knowing, the heath improved on ac- 
 quaintance ; and the more intimate you were with 
 it, and the nearer you came to it, the better you 
 liked it. First you perceive with awe the vast 
 unusual height of the vault of heaven above it ; 
 and next you were conscious of the indefinable 
 charm of level distance, apparently unbounded ; 
 and then there came to you that sense of freedom, 
 born of pure air and open space, which gives wings 
 to the spirit, and exhilarates unspeakably. And 
 once you were down upon the heath, you found 
 it no longer a dreary monotonous expanse. Even 
 the sameness of color vanished then : the heather 
 mixture of purple and white, brown, yellow, and 
 green, so insignificant in the distance, but 99
 
 10 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 beautiful when you found yourself surrounded by 
 its component parts the purple heather, the 
 creamy meadow-sweet, the tall foxglove, and the 
 feathery green of ferns and bracken through which 
 you might then be wading breast-high. All these 
 were specks in a conglomerate whole, when see>n 
 from above, with no more character visible than 
 is shown by a crowd of one's fellow-creatures in 
 parti-colored clothes. But once among them, and 
 you found that, like those same fellow-creatures, 
 each had a separate existence, large, and more or 
 less lonely, of its own, a local habitation and a 
 name. And when you would find, too, that all 
 that seemingly dry barren level was in reality 
 nothing of the kind, but a rugged surface, varied 
 with heights and hollows, and full of life and 
 cheery voices, the babble of numberless streams, 
 the merry chirp and twitter of restless birds, the 
 hum of busy bees, and the voice of myriads of in- 
 sects the dominant chord, made of numberless 
 notes, of the whole melody sinking as they 
 settled in showers upon the leaves, swelling as 
 they rose again to pursue their gambols in the air, 
 and sinking once more as they again subsided, 
 fatigued by their aerial dances, for another mo- 
 ment's rest. And on a day like this, too, every- 
 thing was throbbing with an answering throb to 
 the heat of the summer sun, glowing responsive 
 to his ardent kiss ; the whole broad bosom of the 
 heath outspread, as it were, a thymy couch for
 
 3INGULARL Y DEL UDBD. 1 1 
 
 him to rest upon, warmed into life and rapture by 
 his rays, and uttering, in the joy of his caress, a 
 low, varied, blissful, inarticulate sob of deep 
 ecstatic pleasure. 
 
 When they found themselves out on the scented 
 heather, away from all human habitation, the 
 young man set his boy on his shoulder that he 
 might see far over this strange new laud, and on 
 they walked, choosing haphazard to follow a 
 narrow path that wound among the bracken, not 
 paying much heed to whither they were going, 
 but happy as the birds and brooks are, and as free 
 from care as the empty sky above them, as un- 
 conscious for the moment of anything beyond as 
 the heath on which they trod. Leslie Somers 
 held his boy on his shoulder with one strong hand, 
 while with the other he carelessly swung the rope 
 he had taken from the fishing-boat on the beach, 
 and had forgotten to replace. His wife walked 
 behind him, singing softly to herself, and laugh- 
 ingly putting ripe strawberries, from a bag she 
 carried on her arm, into the child's mouth, when 
 that crimson orifice was every now and then pre- 
 sented to her for fresh supplies. They had 
 scarcely exchanged a word since they left the 
 beach, there being no need to interrupt their glad- 
 ness with unnecessary exertions of the voice. 
 But now, descending one of the purple billows 
 that rolled from end to end of the heath, they 
 &me upon a sign of civilization which astonished
 
 j 2 SIXGULAKL y DEL UDED. 
 
 them in such a place. This was nothing less than 
 a double line of rails, quite invisible till you were 
 close upon them, and which you would scarcely 
 have expected to find there, even if you had noticed 
 the telegraph wires that accompanied them, as 
 usual, on the hither side. The line seemed to 
 be hiding itself as much as it could beneath the 
 luxuriant herbage that fringed it thickly on either 
 hand, as if it knew it had no business there, and 
 was ashamed to be seen. It cut across the heath 
 from side to side, dividing it, and seeming to 
 spring from the heart of the distant hills on the 
 right, to be absorbed again into the hot haze of 
 the low-lying horizon on the left, as if it flashed 
 into a brief and purposeless existence which ex- 
 tended only as far in either direction as the eye 
 could reach. Arrived at this spot, Leslie Somers 
 put the boy down, and that sturdy youth, rein- 
 yigorated by rest and refreshment, no sooner 
 touched the ground than he snatched off his hat, 
 and began to deal death and destruction to every 
 winged creature within his reach. His mother 
 stood leaning against a telegraph-post watching 
 him, smiling, tranquil, and happy. Presently her 
 husband came up behind her with that piece of 
 rope, and playfully wound it round and round 
 her and the telegraph-post, till she stood pin- 
 ioned like a victim tied to the stake. 
 
 " See, Boykins ! "she cried, laughing, " mother's 
 a prisoner I "
 
 SSJVG ULARL Y DEL UDED. 13 
 
 But the child was too busy either to hear or 
 heed, and she stood there a while longer con- 
 templating his pretty gambols, inother-like, with 
 every faculty absorbed in the delightful occu- 
 pation. 
 
 But all at once she could not tell why or 
 wherefore a little breeze had arisen, and the 
 day was changing, perhaps, though the birds 
 still sang, the bees buzzed, and the sun shone ; 
 but all at once she felt a shiver, not of cold, but 
 of loneliness and helplessness, come over her, and 
 she called to her husband, " Leslie! Leslie!*' 
 and then was frightened by the fear in her own 
 voice, and called again, " Leslie ! Leslie ! " 
 
 She waited a moment for an answer after that, 
 looking about her the while ; but she looked in 
 vain. Her husband had disappeared !
 
 14 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 WHAT had become of him ? she asked herself, 
 thinking at the same time that he must return in 
 a moment to release her, and ready to reproach 
 him for leaving her alone at all, tied up in that 
 ridiculous manner. 
 
 But where had he gone ? She looked out over 
 the line, but at first he was nowhere to be seen. 
 Then suddenly she spied him coming up out of a 
 hollow, out of earshot already, and walking on 
 steadily, but walking, alas oh ! most inexplicable 
 fact walking away from her! "Leslie! Les- 
 lie ! " she called again, though she knew he could 
 not hear. 
 
 A swarm of flies buzzed up into the air from 
 the warm leaves about her, startled by the shrill 
 and sudden cry. 
 
 "Leslie! Leslie !" she reiterated, struggling 
 frantically to disengage herself, though she knew 
 that the one effort was as futile as the other. 
 Then the impulse to struggle and cry was over, 
 and she drew herself up against the post, and 
 looked about her, a changed woman in these few 
 minutes, in a changed world ! 
 
 The child had just caught another butterfly.
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 15 
 
 It was under his hat on the grass, and he was 
 sitting beside the hat, holding it down with both 
 dimpled hands in a determined way, calculated to 
 give a spectator a vast idea of the strength of the 
 creature beneath. Every now and then he tilted 
 the hat up a little bit, and craned down his neck, 
 so as to peep under, till at last, catching a glimpse 
 of his prize in a moment of oblivious excitement, 
 he lifted the hat entirely, when the pretty prisoner 
 immediately spread its painted wings and flut- 
 tered off. The child watched it for a moment 
 with a ludicrous expression of dismay on his coun- 
 tenance, and then scrambled up and toddled 
 on in pursuit, losing his balance often on the 
 unequal ground, and performing as much of the 
 distance on his hands and knees as on his feet ; 
 while his mother in turn watched him, if watch- 
 ing it can be called when the eyes involuntarily 
 convey a record of what is passing to the brain, 
 and write it there for the use of recollection by 
 and by, the mind being absent at the moment, 
 and all unconscious of the process. 
 
 The child had crept and toddled by this time to 
 the nearest line of rails, on the polished surface 
 of one of which he now sat. He had forgotten 
 the butterfly in the exertion of following it, and 
 was looking about for some new object of interest 
 when his mother called him. She did it by force 
 of habit and mechanically " Boykins, come 
 to mama 1 " The boy turned to her with the
 
 16 S1NGULARL Y DEL UDE>. 
 
 beauty aud innocence of an angel and the merry 
 mischief of a healthy little mortal on his face, 
 and laughed. " Boykinths no go to mummy," 
 he lisped. " Mummy naughty. Mummy put in 
 the corner." " Yes, Boykius, come to mummy," 
 she urged. " Boyldns, come and untie mummy. 
 Poor mummy a prisoner. " But the boy only 
 laughed again, throwing himself back on the 
 rail, and kicking his plump legs about. It was 
 too good a joke this ! Mama a prisoner, papa 
 gone, and Mr. Baby a gentleman at large ! He 
 couldn't enjoy it half enough. 
 
 His mother had called him mechanically, as we 
 have said. Her mind was for the moment para- 
 lyzed by the shock of the situation in which she 
 found herself. She felt that something had gorre 
 wrong; she knew she was in trouble; but what 
 was wrong, and wherefore the trouble, she had 
 not yet been able to think. Another shock was 
 requisite to adjust the balance of her disordered 
 thoughts. And presently it came. Glancing 
 away from the child for a moment, her eye was 
 caught by a dark body that was rising up into the 
 empty sky from the heath far away, low down, close 
 to the verge of the horizon on the left. She saw it 
 at first as we constantly see things which bear no 
 reference to ourselves, and offer at a glance no 
 feature of special interest to fix our attention. 
 She looked at it, and she looked away ; but the 
 heavy opacity of the thing had impressed itself on
 
 SltiGULARL Y DEL t/DJSD. i ) 
 
 her retina, and glance in what direction she would, 
 it was that she saw darkening all other objects. 
 Something unusual in this phenomenon made her 
 look back to ascertain the cause of it, and the 
 slight effort of the will this act necessitated was 
 sufficient to rearouse her dormant mental energy. 
 
 What was the thing ? A pillar ? A cloud ? 
 Why, both, of course 1 A pillar of soot ! A 
 cloud of smoke ! But how did so dense a cloud 
 of smoke happen to be there ? Coal-smoke too, 
 far from any human habitation, and rising ap- 
 parently from the bare brown heath. Another 
 sense helped her to answer the question for her- 
 self the sense of hearing, upon which there now 
 smote a rumbling sound as dull and heavy to the 
 ear as the massive pillar of smoke had been to 
 the eye, a sound to which she had been accus- 
 tomed all her life, a familiar rush and roar, the 
 cause of which she had not even to ask herself ; 
 but its very familiarity made it strange to her 
 now, because of a certain new significance, and 
 also the time and place. It was as if she had ac- 
 quired another sense, which enabled her to per- 
 ceive for herself something she had only hitherto 
 heard of ; and the new feature in this familiar 
 object was that of danger. 
 
 She was little more than a girl herself, finely 
 nurtured, delicately bred, full of youth and 
 health and strength, but unaccustomed to hor- 
 rors, and untried. She was bound fast to that 
 f
 
 i8 SINGULAR!. Y DEL UDED. 
 
 telegraph-post, so fast that the agony of the 
 strongest impulse in life would not have availed 
 to loose her. She was a mother, and her little 
 child was rolling his sturdy limbs on the iron rail 
 not half a dozen yards away from her, and filling 
 the air with gurgles of happy laughter. She 
 was a sensitive, delicate, feminine thing, who 
 could not have borne to see the least little crea- 
 ture suffer ; and she knew that what she saw 
 there, that long, sinuous, oscillating object, thun- 
 dering on relentlessly with rush and roar and 
 grinding weight of hardest metal, making the 
 earth tremble, was a train, which in another 
 minute must mangle her tiny human blossom be- 
 fore her eyes, unless there was a God in heaven 
 or any power on earth to be summoned by her 
 shrieks, and moved to pity by her frantic strug- 
 gles. " Leslie, Leslie ! Baby, baby ! God ! 
 
 God ! My child ! " 
 
 But neither God nor man heard her ; and the 
 child, frightened by her cries, sat up and looked 
 at her, but would not move, while the long train 
 came on at a terrific rate, rushing toward him. 
 Shriek upon shriek, shriek upon shriek, the 
 wretched mother sent up to heaven ; and the solid 
 post to which she was tied rocked again with the 
 fury of her struggles, but the cord did not give an, 
 inch. It had cut through the sleeves of her sum- 
 mer gown and into the delicate flesh of her arms, 
 but she felt no physical pain. The awful torment
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. ig 
 
 of terror was upon her, and all other forms of suf- 
 fering are as nothing to it. 
 
 As it approached, the train uttered a shriek 
 like a hideous mockery of her own, which it 
 drowned, so that she could not hear herself. It 
 seemed as if its speed increased as it neared her, 
 rushing along in a cloud of dust. It was coming 
 it had come it had passed it had vanished. 
 And the poor tortured mother, a sorry dishev- 
 elled figure, a ghastly caricature of herself as she 
 had been only an hour before, was still enough 
 now. Her head had sunk on her breast ; her eyes 
 were shut. She was conscious, but she could not 
 stand ; and it was the cruel cord, eating further 
 into her flesh as her weight sank upon it, which 
 for the moment supported her.
 
 20 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IT was a little laugh, a tentative little laugh, 
 only wanting an excuse to become a cry, that 
 roused her. " Mummy frightened by the 
 puff-puff ! Mummy frightened by the puff- 
 puff ! " 
 
 She raised her haggard eyes, dully at first, with- 
 out intelligence ; but on a sudden a great light of 
 joy flashed into them, a joy which was as sharp a 
 pain for .an instant as the fear had been. The 
 child was still sitting on the rail unharmed. The 
 train had gone by on the other line ! But the 
 relief was little more than momentary. She only 
 recovered from the first access of terror in order 
 to fall into another agony of mind, a horrible 
 agony of suspense. The boy would not leave the 
 line, and the same danger threatened always while 
 he remained there. The emergency was develop- 
 ing a hitherto unsuspected strength of character 
 in her. There was little enough she could do, 
 but what was possible under the circumstances 
 she did with admirable presence of mind. She 
 tried coaxing first of all " Dear Boykins, come 
 to mama ! "
 
 SlfrGULARL Y DEL &&&>. * t 
 
 He only looked at her. 
 
 " See, mummy has hurt her arm. Come and 
 kiss it, and make it well. " 
 
 He looked at the arm, but seeing it was bleed- 
 ing, drew the corners of his mouth down into an 
 expression of disgust, but moved not. 
 
 "Mummy will cry if baby won't come to her." 
 But baby turned his resolute little head away, and 
 pretended not to hear. " I know such a nice 
 atory," the poor mother began again. The little 
 fellow looked out over the heath intently, but she 
 could see he had pricked up his ears. " It is all 
 about a little boy who went for a walk one day with 
 his father and mother " 
 
 " Like me, mummy ? " the child exclaimed, for- 
 getting his pretended preoccupation in the inter- 
 est of this great discovery. 
 
 "Yes, just like you. And it was a beautiful 
 warm day, and the sun was shining, and the birds 
 sang little songs to each other, and there were 
 butterflies " 
 
 " And what did he do ? " the boy demanded, 
 his interest fully aroused by this time. He was 
 sprawling on his stomach now between the rails, 
 with his hands folded under his chin to raise it 
 that he might look up at his mother, after the 
 manner of the cherub in the picture known as 
 the Sistine Madonna. 
 
 " I can't tell you what he did if you stay there. 
 You are too far away."
 
 22 SINGULAR L Y DEL UDED. 
 
 " No, me not/' was the decided reply. " Me 
 hear oo." 
 
 Then she answered in a very low voice, only 
 allowing him to catch enough of what she said to 
 tantalize him. He turned one ear, making a great 
 attempt to hear at first, but presently he tired of 
 the effort. 
 
 "Boy know that story/' he interrupted con- 
 temptuously. " Boy tell it oo." 
 
 It was evident she must change her tactics. 
 " Did Boykins see the big puff-puff ?" she began 
 afresh. "Another big puff-puff is coming di- 
 rectly. Boykius must get up at once, this very 
 moment, and come to mummy, else it will kill him 
 dead, and mummy will have no little boy, and 
 then what will she do ? " 
 
 The child looked at her dreamily, but did not 
 move ; and now she saw something in his eyes 
 that made her redouble her efforts to entice him 
 to her. The young rascal had nestled himself in- 
 to an easy position. The warmth and stillness, 
 with the day's fatigue, were telling upon him. A 
 gentle languor appeared in his eyes, a gathering 
 unconsciousness of all external things, partial at 
 first and intermittent, but presently descending 
 like a dark curtain, veiling the distance, and then 
 the nearer glimpse of gorse and fern, the bottom 
 of his mother's dress, the bright shining rails be- 
 side him, till all the world was blotted out by the 
 grateful impenetrable blackness, the voice that
 
 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 23) 
 
 called him trembling away at the same time into 
 a more and more immeasurable past, from which 
 at last it ceased to come at all. The child slept. 
 But, alas for the mother ! 
 
 Again and again she called him. Her throat 
 was parched and sore ; her yoice came hoarser 
 and hoarser ; articulation grew gradually impos- 
 sible, and at last sound failed, but the child never 
 moved. His rosy face was turned to her, still 
 resting on his chubby arms. He was slightly 
 flushed with sleep. His bright lips were parted, 
 showing the little white teeth between. His long 
 dark eyelashes flickered a little now and then as a fly 
 lit on his forehead or glossy clustering curls. A 
 lovelier child it would be impossible to imagine, 
 such a child as only comes to young and happy 
 parents ; and the mother, in a worn-out interval, 
 when the desire as well as the power to struggle and 
 cry were both exhausted, found herself perusing 
 the details of his beauty as if it were all new to her. 
 While so engaged she forgot her own position 
 and his for a little ; but the rush of recollection 
 caught her again inevitably, and then her frantic 
 struggles were redoubled, until it seemed that if 
 deliverance were not at hand, death must come and 
 release her. And it was strange that during all 
 this time she never once thought of her husband. 
 It was evidently not a busy time on the line. 
 Only that one train had passed as yet. She had 
 fancied a hundred times that another was coming ;
 
 24 STNGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 but as none ever came, by degrees the danger 
 grew less urgently present to her mind, and when 
 at last the unmistakable sound smote upon her ears, 
 coming in the opposite direction this time, she 
 started into full consciousness again for a dull 
 torpor had been stealing over her as if the pos- 
 sibility were new to her. 
 
 The train came in sight, but she deluded her- 
 self with the idea that this one also must be on 
 the other line. She was so sure of it that she 
 watched it corning, and collected her strength to 
 make a desperate effort to attract attention to her 
 strange position. She watched it until it was 
 within a few yards of the sleeping child, and then 
 she saw her mistake, and it was the last thing she 
 did see. For in the same instant, and before she 
 could utter a sound, her senses left her. The 
 train swept on as the other had done, crowded 
 with people, many of whom must have seen her 
 standing, apparently leaning at ease against the 
 post, and any one of whom would doubtless have 
 flown to her assistance could they have guessed 
 her need ; but in the dust raised by their rapid 
 progress, and the rush and whirl of it, nothing 
 was visible long enough to attract particular 
 attention. The engine-driver saw her as he ap- 
 proached, and saw also a speck which he supposed 
 to be a summer wrap of hers lying on the line, 
 but forgot the circumstance before he was well 
 out of sight,
 
 SINGULARL Y DELUDED, i 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHEN consciousness returned, Gertrude Somers 
 felt as if she had only shut her eyes and opened 
 them again. That there had been any interval 
 between the acts it was not, of course, possible for 
 her to conceive, there being no incidents discern- 
 ible by which to measure the time in the black- 
 ness of the heavy insensibility that had come upon 
 her. She recollected her own position the moment 
 she recovered, but she did not remember the im- 
 mediate cause of her fainting-fit ; and now, feel- 
 ing a warm soft something caressing her hand, 
 and hearing a little whimpering voice calling her 
 in heart-broken accents, she looked down in a 
 dazed sort of way, wondering what it was she 
 could not recollect. The little soft warm lips 
 kissed her cold hand again and again, and the 
 baby voice lisped out with baby pertinacity, 
 " Mummy, wake up ! Mummy, wake up ! Mum- 
 my, wake up !" and then, finding mummy deaf, 
 explained, " Boykins come to mummy, 'ike good 
 boy." 
 
 Then she recollected, and grasping his little 
 hand, held on to it, and would have held on till 
 heaven and earth had passed away, had that even.t
 
 26 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 occurred before rescue reached her. But happily 
 her tenacity was not put to the test. 
 
 The rush of happy relief which the sight of her 
 boy, safe and sound, and within reach, had caused 
 her, had greatly revived her. She was able to 
 murmur fervent ejaculations of gratitude to 
 heaven, while she wondered how the miracle had 
 been wrought. It was no such mighty miracle 
 after all, as she must have known had she kept 
 her consciousness a moment longer. The child 
 was lying down flat between the rails, and 
 the train passed safely over him. The wind of it 
 fluttered his skirts, aiid the noise awoke him, but 
 he was too frightened to move while it would have 
 been dangerous to do so. When all was quiet 
 again, however, he made for his mother's side, and 
 nestled close up to her with lamb-like docility. 
 It seemed as if he could realize the danger now 
 it was past, and was subdued by the thought 
 of it. 
 
 " Mummy, come away," he pleaded. 
 
 " Mummy tied, mummy can't come away," she 
 answered, desperately. " Baby ask God to untie 
 mummy." 
 
 Then the child hid his little face in her dress, 
 and was still. 
 
 Presently there came a sound which made her 
 heart leap for joy. It was the ring of a clear voice 
 singing, a man's voice singing a careless song of 
 love and peace, but it did n^t jar on her, though
 
 SINGULARL y DEL UDED. 27 
 
 the theme was little suited to her mood, for it 
 meant help. The singer was coming toward her, 
 * /which was fortunate, for she could not have made 
 him hear at any distance, her voice was so hoarse. 
 He approached nearer and nearer, still singing, 
 till he was close to her, then the song broke off 
 abruptly. He was coming from behind, and she 
 could net see him ; but he had just seen her, and 
 had stopped amazed. Only for a moment, though, 
 and then he came up hastily. 
 
 " Good heavens ! " he exclaimed. " How did 
 this happen ? " 
 
 " I don't know at least oh, something must 
 have happened," she cried. " But for pity's sake 
 undo the cord, sir. It is cutting me to the bone, 
 I think." 
 
 But he had undone it even while she was speak- 
 ing, and putting his arm round her with the busi- 
 ness-like air of a man accustomed to succor the 
 sick and sorry, he sat her gently down upon the 
 turf, and, kneeling on one knee, supported her 
 with the other, while he took a flask of wine from 
 his pocket and made her drink. He did not 
 trouble her with any more questions, but dil 
 tfhat he could to restore her, in a manly unaffected 
 way that made the endeavor natural and accept- 
 able. He was a man of thirty, rather over the 
 middle height, well made, with bright fair hair, 
 a broad high forehead, deep gray eyes, small non- 
 descript nose, strong teeth, and a Cupid's bow of
 
 8 SlfrGttLARL Y DELUDED. 
 
 a mustache. It was a strong expressive face, 
 though not exactly a handsome one. The expres- 
 sion in it now, of deep sympathy jand interest, in- 
 spired confidence, and Mrs. Leslie Somers began 
 of her own accord, as soon as she was sufficiently 
 recovered, to tell him as much as she knew herself 
 of the circumstances which had led to his finding 
 her in such a strange predicament. 
 
 "Something must have happened to my hus- 
 band," she added. " Something must have hap- 
 pened to him/' 
 
 " You had no quarrel with him ? Pardon me, 
 I must ask the question. The whole affair is so 
 extraordinary/' 
 
 " Quarrel with my husband ! " Gertrude ex- 
 claimed. " How could I ? " 
 
 The young man smiled. " Well, such things 
 do happen, you know," he answered, depre- 
 catingly. "But te lime, what were you talking 
 about before he bound you to the post, and at the 
 time?" 
 
 ' ' Nothing. "We spoke very little to each other 
 after leaving the beach, and I can't remember 
 anything / said ; but once or twice he exclaimed, 
 'Take care, Gertrude !' or 'Mind that- stone ! ' 
 for I was following him, you know, and the road 
 is rough." 
 
 " You do not live here ? " 
 
 " Oh, no. We came to Trewport on my hus- 
 Sand's account. He has been suffering from the
 
 SINGULAR L Y DEL UDED. 2 9 
 
 effects of overwork, and was very much out of 
 health." 
 
 " Ah .' " the stranger exclaimed, as if this last 
 observation threw some light on the subject. 
 
 " Had he been depressed ? " 
 
 " Yes, he had long fits of depression at times ; 
 but he has been wonderfully better since we came 
 here/' 
 
 " Did he show any sign of depression this morn- 
 Ing?" 
 
 " No, at least now I think of it he was very 
 quiet. Bnt I really noticed nothing unusual." 
 
 The young man was thoughtful for a little time 
 after this. Then he said: "Perhaps I had 
 better tell you that I am a doctor. My name is 
 Jeffrey Mansell. And as a medical man, may I 
 give you my opinion ? " 
 
 " Oh, I wish you would." 
 
 " Shortly, then, I think I may be wrong, you 
 know but I think that your husband, suffering 
 as yon say from the effects of over- work, has be- 
 come suddenly deranged temporarily, of course 
 and that he has wandered away under the in- 
 fluence of some delusion. There are some such 
 cases on record, and they have almost invariably 
 occurred to men suffering, as so many do now, 
 from the over-pressure of brain-work. Your hus- 
 band's doctor will, however, know at once if 
 such a thing was probable in his case, and in the 
 mean time we must find him."
 
 30 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 " I saw him over there a long way off," Mrs. 
 Somers said, indicating the direction. "And 
 here come some workmen, who may have met 
 him. Will you kindly inquire ? " 
 
 Dr. Mansell did so, but at first they said they 
 had not seen any one all day. 
 
 "Would he be going toward the station, 
 though ? " one of them turned back to ask. 
 
 " What like was he, tall ? I did see a tall gentle- 
 man, walking in a hurry, as if he was going to 
 catch a train down yonder at the station. But 
 that was before dinner-time." 
 
 The doctor returned to Mrs. Somers. " They 
 did see him/' he told her ' ' that is, if he is tall ? " 
 She nodded. " But now, if you can walk, you 
 must try and get home," he went on. " Come, 
 young man," and he picked up the boy, and set 
 him on his shoulder. " Can you walk ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," she answered bravely. " I am quite 
 strong now. Do not let us lose any more precious 
 time. I am afraid of being seen, too," she 
 added, glancing down at her torn sleeves, and 
 putting her hands up to her tumbled hair. ' ' But 
 we can get to our house without going through 
 the village."
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE Leslie Somers had taken a furnished house 
 for the reason, and had brought down their own 
 servants. The house stood, surrounded by a 
 beautiful garden, just outside the village, close to 
 the sea, and Dr. Mansell left Mrs. Somers and the 
 boy at the garden gate, which they had reached, 
 fortunately, without encountering any one. 
 
 "I am private physician to Lord Wartlebury 
 at present," he had explained by the way. "He 
 has just purchased a large steam-yacht, in which 
 I am bound to accompany him to the ends of the 
 earth, which is to be our destination, I believe ! 
 You may have noticed the yacht this morning, 
 anchored out in the bay. We put in here for 
 water, and I came on shore to stretch my legs, 
 which were somewhat cramped by the close quarters 
 on board." 
 
 " Thank heaven for sending you !" Mrs. Somers 
 ejaculated.- 
 
 When they reached the gate, Dr. Mansell said, 
 " I will leave you here. Do pray go and rest, 
 and eat if you can. You must keep up your 
 strength and spirits. I see you don't want to 
 think about yourself, but it is very necessary, and
 
 32 S/NGULA RL Y D&L UDE>. 
 
 you most. Excuse my authoritative manner," 
 he added, with a frank and genial smile. " It is 
 part of my profession, you know, and really there 
 will be no time lost, for I am going straight off 
 to the yacht at once to tell Lord "Wartlebury what 
 has happened, and get men to search the heatlt. 
 I will go to the station also, and make inquiries 
 there myself. And I know Lord Wartlebuiy 
 will do what he can. He's the kindest old man 
 alive." 
 
 Mrs. Somers accepted this kind offer of further 
 assistance without any affectation of reluctance. 
 Her need was too great to think of such a thing, 
 and besides, there was something in Dr. Mansell's 
 way of taking the responsibility on his own 
 shoulders, which made his doing so seem less 
 a favor to herself than a duty to society at large. 
 Very thankfully then she confided in his strength, 
 and prepared to obey him. She did all that he 
 had suggested to keep up her own strength, but 
 the all was not sufficient to distract her attention 
 during the interval that necessarily elapsed before 
 he could return to report progress, and the tor- 
 ment of those long moments of suspense and 
 inaction was such as she had not hitherto thought 
 it possible for mortals to endure. She had read 
 often enough though, in sensational stories, of 
 the sufferings of heroes and heroines under the 
 influence of poignant anxiety, and had even 
 sympathized with what they felt to a certain ex-
 
 S1NGULARL Y DEL UDEb. 3 3 
 
 tent ; but such sympathy had merely caused her 
 a thrill of pleasurable interest, very different from 
 the ache, ache, ache of the terrible dread that now 
 beset her. She wondered how she could ever have 
 read of such things to enjoy them ; and really, 
 when one comes to think of it, the want of imag- 
 ination, which enables us, by way of relaxation, 
 to contemplate our fellow-creatures in the most 
 painful positions, is extraordinary. Were we 
 ourselves placed in circumstances which, in a book, 
 just suffice to fix our attention, they would prob- 
 ably land us in a lunatic asylum. Optimists 
 would argue that it is a wise provision of nature, 
 this inability to realize ; but pessimists might 
 quote it triumphantly to show how close to the 
 surface the savage in us is, and how we delight, 
 so far as we dare, in most of the barbarities which 
 civilization lias proscribed as a disgrace to our 
 common humanity. 
 
 But Mrs. Leslie Somers did not weakly give 
 way to anxiety. She suspended her suspense, as 
 it were, and lessened it by a determined effort to 
 keep her mind fixed on the happiest possible ex- 
 planation of what had occurred. She told her serv- 
 ants that she was afraid her husband had lost 
 himself on the heath, but that another gentleman 
 had gone to look for him in case some accident 
 had occurred, which, however, she did not think 
 likely, though he might, of course, have sprained 
 his ankle it was very rough walking out there, 
 I
 
 34 SMGULARL Y DEL UDSD. 
 
 as they knew, and in that case it would take him 
 some time to get home an explanation so natural 
 and plausible that it imposed upon herself, 
 although it only occurred to her when the neces- 
 sity to say something arose. From that moment 
 she waited, with hope in her heart, and some 
 show of patience ,' but still the time dragged by 
 on feet of lead, and every now and then the rec- 
 ollection of the bright and happy morning re- 
 curred to her with a pang and who could have 
 dreamed that in so short a time all would be 
 changed ! but still, of course, she caught herself 
 up, there was nothing really to fear. In fact she 
 quite expected Dr. Mansell and Leslie would be 
 laughing with her over the incidents of the day at 
 dinner that very evening, and while she thought 
 of it, she would go and tell the cook to prepare 
 for a guest. But it was four o'clock and they 
 had not come ; what could be keeping them ? 
 
 With all possible despatch, however, Dr. Man- 
 sell did return, but not with Leslie, and not 
 alone either, for Lord Wartlebury accompanied 
 him. Lord Wartlebnry was a man of seventy, 
 fresh for his age, and vigorous, with a large well- 
 ahaped head, betokening a finely balanced brain, 
 and bald save for a fringe of gray hair at the 
 back ; piercing dark eyes, regular features, clear 
 cut still in spite of his age ; a gray mustache 
 waxed at the ends, good teeth, though somewhat 
 discolored, and the air and carriage of a soldier
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 35 
 
 accustomed to command. His whole appearance 
 suggested health both of mind and body ; you 
 would have said a man with twenty years of life 
 before him, and power to enjoy every one of them ; 
 and the expression of his countenance, while it 
 must have commanded respect, even had you not 
 known who he was, would also have inspired con- 
 fidence, and that liking at first sight which 
 rapidly ripens into affection. This was the ef- 
 fect produced on Mrs. Somers, whom he further 
 fascinated by a mixture of courtly grace of man- 
 ners and kindly deference which was irresistible. 
 The two gentlemen found her dressed in a 
 plain dark traveling costume, ready for any 
 emergency. Her hair was bound round her head 
 in thick dark glossy coils, which looked as if they 
 had been arranged less for ornament than for 
 neatness, which would last out a long journey 
 should she be obliged to take one. Her manner 
 was cool, composed, and resolute ; her face, pale ; 
 her eyes unnaturally bright but steady. Under 
 ordinary circumstances she would not have at- 
 tracted much attention. She had good hair, good 
 eyes, a good figure, small hands and feet, strong 
 teeth, and was altogether good-looking, but not 
 beautiful. Yet she was interesting in appearance, 
 and intellectual, two lasting charms which a man 
 like Lord Wartlebury would appreciate at once, 
 and prefer to mere animal beauty, however strik- 
 ing. She was refined, too, both in mind and
 
 36 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 manner, another charm rarer than any, and as 
 powerful, and apparent in her whole person and 
 dress, in every look and gesture. Lord Wartle- 
 bury understood her at once. He saw the slim 
 grace of a girl in her appearance, but the strength 
 and confidence of a woman of the world in her 
 character, and a something beyond in her deport- 
 ment generally, which promised a depth of passion- 
 ate earnestness which would stand her in good 
 stead in trying circumstances. 
 
 " I ventured to call," he said, when Dr. Man- 
 sell had presented him, " and hope you will not 
 think me officious. If there is anything at all I 
 can do to help you, I should be really glad." 
 
 " You are very kind/' she answered, simply. 
 Then turning to Dr. Mansell, she said : " You 
 have not found my husband ? " speaking in a steady, 
 self-contained, almost business-like tone, which 
 betrayed strong feeling enough, but without a 
 symptom of tears or hysterics. 
 
 " No," was the doctor's direct reply. " Lord 
 "Wartlebury's men have scoured the heath in all 
 directions, but they found no trace of him there. 
 I heard, however, at the station that a gentleman 
 did leave by the mid-day train for London. He 
 was a tall man, clean shaven, regular features, 
 thick brown hair, with a tinge of red in it, cut 
 short behind, but curling on the forehead ; pale- 
 blue eyes, deep-set ; and he wore a suit of summer 
 tweed, light gray, and a white tie."
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL t7DD. 37 
 
 "That is my husband," she said quite quietly. 
 
 " The fellow from whom you got your informa- 
 tion must have had a nice faculty for observation, 
 I should think/' Lord Wartlebury observed. 
 
 " Yes, apparently," Dr. Mansell answered. 
 " But he had a reason for noticing this gentle- 
 man particularly, and that made me think that 
 perhaps I was on the right track. It was the 
 ticket-collector that gave me the information, and 
 he said he couldn't help noticing the gentleman, 
 because his manner was so peculiar. He walked 
 up and down the station while he was waiting for 
 the train, flourishing his stick, and talking at the 
 top of his voice to everybody, and he would insist 
 upon getting into a third-class carriage, although 
 he had taken a first-class ticket. He had no lug- 
 gage with him either. And the man thought he 
 had been drinking." 
 
 A painful spasm contracted the young wife's, 
 face for a moment. " That is very unlike my 
 husband," she said. " It must be as you say, 
 doctor, he has lost his senses" and then, turning 
 to Lord Wartlebury, and speaking with more 
 emotion than she had yet shown, she exclaimed 
 " Oh, sir, help me to find my husband ! " 
 
 " My dear young lady," the old gentleman an- 
 iwered, " nothing would give me greater pleasure. 
 I can assure you that nothing would give me 
 greater pleasure." 
 
 Then there was a pause.
 
 38 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 " I must follow him," she said at last. 
 
 " That is what Dr. Mansell thought you would 
 wish to do," Lord Wartlebury replied. " He 
 has inquired about the trains, and finds there are 
 none until eight oclock this evening, and that is 
 a slow one ; but there is a fast one about ten, 
 which arrives at the same time, and it would 
 doubtless suit you better to go later. You will 
 probably have arrangements to make, friends to 
 communicate with, and that sort of thing." 
 
 " I am ready," she answered. " I packed my 
 things while I was waiting for Dr. Mansell. We 
 heard, you know, from a laborer that a gentleman 
 had been seen going to the station, and so I pre- 
 pared to follow him, if he had indeed gone. But 
 about communicating with our friends ; what 
 would you advise ? He may only have gone to 
 our house in London, or to his own chambers, in 
 which case I shall find him easily. And I have 
 been thinking that the fewer people who know 
 about this this this his going away like this, 
 the better. If it were made public, it might in- 
 jure him in his profession. I do not know where 
 my own people are at this moment. They have 
 gone abroad, and are moving from one place to 
 another, so that I am never sure of their address ; 
 and my husband has no near relations except a 
 sister, who lives in London, and whom I shall go 
 to, or send for, as soon as I arrive, to ask her to 
 come here and look after my boy, in case 1 have
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 39 
 
 to be away any time. She is a very discreet per- 
 son, and I can trust her. Our own servants are 
 all here, and I shall tell them, that their master 
 has been obliged to go to London suddenly on 
 business of importance, and that I mean to run 
 up and do some shopping while he is busy. They 
 know he likes me to be with him always/' This 
 last thought brought a dry sob to her throat. 
 Were the happy, happy days all over ? "Was her 
 husband to be hers no more ? If she found him, 
 would ho look at her strangely, not knowing, not 
 remembering ? God ! She straightened her- 
 self on her seat as she uttered this bitter inward 
 cry, renewing her strength with the effort, and 
 casting the distressing thought far from her. But 
 how should she bear the hours of suspense that 
 must elapse while she waited for the train ? For 
 the first time in all her healthy, happy life, the 
 fear of being left alone with her own thoughts 
 appalled her. 
 
 " Indeed I think you scarcely need advice," 
 Lord Wartlebury answered. " What you propose 
 seems to me in every way the proper thing to do ; 
 what do you say, Mansell ? " 
 
 A hot flush came and went on the young man's 
 clear skin. It was a peculiarity, this flush, in the 
 way it came and went whenever he was moved. 
 It was eloquent now of the sincere admiration he 
 felt for this young creature, so cruelly placed, and 
 yet so strong and wise in the midst of her calamity.
 
 40 SING ULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 "It seems to me," he said, "that there is 
 only one thing Mrs. Somers has not thought 
 of the eh awkwardness, for a lady, of ar- 
 riving in. London alone in the middle of the 
 night." 
 
 " / had thought of that," his lordship an- 
 swered, with a benign smile on his kind old face ; 
 "and as I have to go up about eh that business 
 you know, Mausell, I told you of, I hope Mrs. 
 Somers will allow me to be her escort." He 
 looked very dignified, very much indeed a noble- 
 man, as he spoke, but the young lady smiled in 
 his face, and the smile was infections. 
 
 "Thank you," was all she said, but the words 
 were a real expression of gratitude. "What she 
 thought, however, was : He shouldn't tell stories. 
 He doesn't do it at all well. It is my business 
 that is his business, I know ; and he knows I 
 know it, so where was the use ? I suppose, 
 though, I should have refused to let him come if 
 he had put it in any other way. Well, his deli- 
 cacy, at all events, makes up for his little fib. 
 
 The two gentlemen rose, and as they did so 
 the horror of being left alone recurred to her. 
 " Oh, do not leave me ! " she said, so earnestly 
 that they hesitated ; " at least I mean," she 
 faltered " if you have nothing better to do, will 
 you stay and dine with me ? " And she wrung 
 her hands, and then she laughed ; it was such a 
 funny way to ask any one to dinner. " You will
 
 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 41 
 
 think me very weak-minded," she explained. ''I 
 can't help it ; I am afraid to be alone. If I have 
 leisure to think, I shall break down before the 
 servants, and then they will know that something 
 must be wrong." 
 
 There was now an end of all ceremony between 
 them. Dr. Mansell sent a boat off to the yacht, 
 with orders to send what Lord Wartlebury re- 
 quired to meet him at the station, and then the 
 three spent the evening together a quiet evening 
 certainly, but not unpleasant for the gentlemen , 
 for their brave little hostess put off her sadness as 
 a duty, and talked enough to have deceived them, 
 let alone the servants, had they not known of the 
 cruel anxiety which was gnawing at her heart. 
 And even they never suspected the sharp physical 
 pain, caused by those cutting cords and her frantic 
 struggles, which was adding the fear of being 
 disabled to her other miseries, though she strove 
 not to admit the possibility of such a thing even 
 to herself. Her wounded arms might burn, and 
 her wrenched body might stiffen, but be with her 
 husband before morning she would, if she kept 
 her consciousness at all.
 
 42 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THERE being no sleeping-cars on that line, they 
 were obliged to make the journey in an ordinary 
 first-class carriage. The train was somewhat 
 crowded, and Mrs. Somers thought their having 
 a whole compartment to themselves was a fortu- 
 nate accident. She never suspected that it had 
 been secured with some trouble for her special 
 comfort and convenience. Indeed everything was 
 being done that could be done by the most 
 thoughtful kindness to make her position easier 
 for her, and one of the proofs of the delicate tact 
 with which she was being cared for and protected 
 was the fact that no sense of obligation oppressed 
 her. All this attention came as naturally to her 
 from these two strange gentlemen as it would have 
 done from her own father and brother. 
 
 But the journey did seem interminable, parts 
 of it especially those long stretches of time be- 
 tween the rare stoppages, when the world beyond 
 the narrow limits of the carriage was blotted 'out 
 by the impenetrable darkness, and nothing oc- 
 curred to mark the rate of progress, or even to 
 assure the anxious weary one that they were pro- 
 gressing at all, but rather the contrary ; for by a
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 43 
 
 curious trick of the senses she found herself fancy- 
 ing that they were not moving, in spite of the rush 
 of the grinding steel, or else that they were going 
 back, which was worse. 
 
 Lord Wartlebury sat opposite, and patiently 
 dozed the greater part of the time, waking up, 
 however, whenever the train stopped, and talking 
 to her with that unfailing cheerfulness which is 
 one of the characteristics of his class, or maybe 
 a part of their creed. Doubtless in many cases 
 their manners are idle ; but in Lord Wartlebury's 
 they were certainly a proof of loyal nature and of 
 lofty mind, and he would not have forgotten them 
 at death's door. But at seventy years of age even 
 the most vigorous man must show signs of fatigue 
 after extra exertion ; and during his uneasy sleep 
 Mrs. Somers noticed how worn he was, and her 
 heart brimmed with gratitude, and smote her with 
 remorse. 
 
 But on, and on, and on, rattle, and clatter, and 
 rumble, shriek of whistle and rush of steam, the 
 mighty crank and the quivering wheel, conscious 
 of the dreadful noise at times, and conscious also 
 of the appalling silence caused by the absence of 
 human voices, rendering an account to herself of 
 all this, and then slipping away from it, as it were, 
 into the outer darkness of a doze, into the sweet 
 oblivion of snatches of sleep from which the in- 
 clination of the train as it swept round a curve 
 would rouse her with a start, and rouse her com-
 
 44 SMG ULA RL Y DEL UDE&. 
 
 panlon too, whose eyes met hers as they opened, 
 making it appear as if he had been watching her 
 in her sleep. 
 
 " I am afraid you are very tired," he said more 
 than once, but quietly ignored his own fatigue 
 when she ventured to observe it. After one of 
 these momentary awakenings into full conscious- 
 ness, it always seemed as if some important inci- 
 dent had occurred refreshing them both. Mrs. 
 Somers would straighten herself then and look 
 about her, and it would seem as if the flickering 
 yellow light of the lamp burnt brighter. But she 
 would sink back inevitably into her old attitude, 
 the light would fade into sickly dimness, Lord 
 Wartlebury's head would nod, and his whole body 
 sway to one side, little by little, down, down, 
 down, till she almost started from her seat to save 
 him from falling against the glass, and it seemed 
 a miracle that he should have recovered himself 
 with no more sign of waking than the half open- 
 ing of his eyes that saw not, the perfect inward 
 vision of the soul having for the time being re- 
 placed the uncertain feeble outlook of the body. 
 Then the regular beat of the machinery would 
 affect her mind, shaping itself into a rhythmic 
 measure which presently took words to itself and 
 became a silent song "When the day breaks, 
 and the shadows flee away," it said ; " when the 
 day breaks, and the shadows flee," but nothing 
 else. Over and over again, her mi^3 involuntarily
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 45 
 
 repeated it, at first finding rest and relaxation in 
 the mechanical formula, and then being wearied 
 by it because it was mechanical, then banishing 
 it for an instant by an effort of will, but glad to 
 have it back again when it returned of its own 
 accord, replacing painful thoughts with a monot- 
 ony which was soothing once more in comparison, 
 and then benumbing, the cause of more moments 
 of blissful unconsciousness. " "When the day 
 breaks, and the shadows flee away ; when the day 
 breaks, and the shadows flee." It was with her 
 still, and seemed to rouse her, as the train glided 
 into the London terminus at two o'clock in the 
 morning, and they found themselves at their 
 journey's end at last. 
 
 But a few minutes sufficed after that for Lord 
 Wartlebury to see her and her luggage safely into 
 a cab. 
 
 " God bless you, my dear child !" the old gen- 
 tleman said, as he shook hands with her ; " and 
 may you find matters much better than you have 
 dared to hope when you arrive. There is a card 
 with my address. I shall be anxious to hear from 
 you, and shall wait in London until I find that I 
 can be of no more use." 
 
 Then all at once she was overcome by his great 
 goodness. She could not speak to thank him, 
 but she did a better thing. She grasped his 
 withered hand in both of hers and kissed it fer- 
 vently, and Vw deed was more eloquent than any
 
 4.6 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 word. As the cab drove off, Lord Wartlebury 
 stood in the damp chill morning air, an indistinct 
 figure in the murky fog-bedimmed gas-light, 
 looking after it, and then he looked at his hand, 
 which still had the sensation of the grateful im- 
 press of her fresh young lips upon it, and sighed. 
 And he sighed, not because he was weary, though 
 weary enough he was in all conscience, but be- 
 cause, with all his wealth and greatness, he did 
 no, find it possible to do a good deed every day 
 and reap the reward of it. 
 
 As she rattled away in the cab, Gertrude 
 Sorners found herself entering upon a new phase 
 of emotion. So far she had /<?/ keenly, but she 
 had scarcely thought at all, or anticipated any- 
 thing that might yet happen, or speculated 
 about what had occurred already, except to the 
 extent necessary to form the few practical meas- 
 ures she had adopted, and to carry them out. 
 Now, however, her mind suddenly awoke. She 
 began to think and wonder, and particularly to 
 notice every object she saw, as if any one of 
 them might unexpectedly prove of use to her 
 by furthering her search. She had never seen 
 the streets of London at such an hour before, 
 and now she was struck by the strangeness of 
 their appearance, even the most familiar having 
 lost character and identity by reason of the un- 
 wonted solitude and silence which reigned su- 
 preme. Here and there she passed a policeman,
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. ' 47 
 
 here and there a man and woman standing close 
 together in drunken degraded intimacy ; once 
 the light from the cab-lamp flashed for a mo- 
 ment on the figure of a young girl, cowering in 
 the deep shadow of a doorway, in the attitude of 
 a breathless hunted creature awaiting its doom in 
 helpless terror. Gertrude saw the face distinctly : 
 it haunted her afterward for many a day ; and 
 even at the time, with such a weight of anxious 
 doubt and dread oppressing her, she was forced 
 to acknowledge that what she felt herself was as 
 nothing to the misery that she saw. But in the 
 more decorous parts of the city through which 
 ghe passed, where the sameness of the architec- 
 ture suggested a monotonous propriety, as if the 
 people had hit upon one pattern for their man- 
 sions and their manners, from which they dared 
 not trust themselves to diverge an inch, because 
 they knew that unless they bound themselves 
 down by iron rules there would be no depending 
 on them in these solitudes there were no living 
 creatures abroad save the occasional policeman 
 and the universal cat, something machine-like 
 in the steady gait of the former making him 
 seem less like a human being than a part of the 
 constructive force of the city ; and something 
 uncanny and not accounted for in the presence 
 of the cats, in their Sittings to and fro, in the 
 way they peered up through area railings, or 
 dropped on velvet paws, unshaken, from incre4-
 
 4 & StNG ULARL Y DEL UDE&. 
 
 ible heights, or wandered with confidence round 
 ledges so narrow that, when such small space 
 sufficed, it would scarcely have been marvelous 
 if they had gone on without any foothold at all ; 
 their gambols, too, their demoniac disagreements, 
 and the wails with which they announced the 
 success of some of their enterprises, as if, like 
 man himself, they were doomed to disappoint- 
 ment even in the gratification of their fondest 
 hopes, realization falling so far short of anticipa- 
 tion as to be a punishment in itself all this, seen 
 and suggested to Gertrude as she passed, made 
 their presence another sign of solitude, an addi- 
 tion to the strangeness in which the night and 
 stillness had already muffled the well-known 
 world past recognition. 
 
 But still, curiously enough, she had not ex- 
 pected to find anything unusual at home. Her 
 thoughts were quite busy with what she saw ; her 
 imagination had not at all outrun her rate of 
 progress ; and now, when the cab pulled up at her 
 own door, it was with quite a shock that she rec- 
 ognized the strangeness here also. Her own home 
 had lost the individuality that made it home. It 
 was one of a row of tall houses with large porti- 
 coes, and looked now exactly like the rest, with 
 close-drawn blinds, hiding curtain or flower-stand 
 or other trifle that might have been familiar, 
 without a light even in the hall, with nothing to 
 distinguish it, in fact, except the number. She
 
 SJNG ULARL Y DEL UDED. 49 
 
 got out of the cab and stood for a moment look- 
 ing up at the windows, and felt that they in turn 
 looked down at her with a sort of answer in every 
 pane, and in the blank, the unresponsive, the un- 
 welcoming silence. "He has not come." 
 
 She knew it in her heart before she rang, and yet 
 she rang, and rang again, and fancied she heard 
 a footfall in the empty house, was sure he was 
 there, was coming, would open the door, and all 
 would be right again directly. But oh ! the 
 change of such a return to her happy home ! the 
 contrast between this cruel uncertainty, this cold 
 repulse, and the tender love with which she had 
 been received at other times ; it made her feel 
 like an outcast. 
 
 " Leslie ! Leslie I" she cried, and it seemed to 
 her as if she had not until that moment at all 
 realized the full extent of her trouble. The cab- 
 man, a stout old fellow in multitudinous wrap- 
 pings, with a face which had apparently assumed 
 fat as a disguise, so completely were the features 
 obliterated by it, and a voice that resembled the 
 squeak,, and rumble of his own cab-wheels, had 
 stood on the pavement watching her, and now he 
 observed, " It seems "they're all from home." 
 
 'Gertrude turned to him. "He may be at his 
 chambers/' she said. "Drive me there," and 
 gave him the address. 
 4
 
 50 SfATG UL ARL Y DEL I'D ED. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE old man scrambled on to his box with 
 cheerful alacrity, rot tlif-liliing (lie job apparently, 
 and the cab rumbled off again with its anxious 
 occupant. 
 
 Her thoughts lui,l takou a uo-.v departure now. 
 She no longer noted the aspects of the streets as 
 the e;;b crauioJ ou. ''He must be at his cham- 
 bers," she insisted to herself, " because, where else 
 can he be ? " and then the desire to find him there 
 became a fervent prayer that she might. There, 
 at least, this terrible uncertainty would be over, 
 and she knew she could bear anything better than 
 suspense. The present trouble generally seems 
 harder to bear than any we can think of, and we 
 are ever ready to change it. 
 
 The cab pulled up at last at the door of a great 
 dingy abode in that quarter of the city where 
 barristers most do congregate, and here again 
 something unfamiliar in the aspect of the place 
 struck her at once, causing her heart to sink, 
 though it was some seconds before she knew what 
 the trifling change was that made as great a dif- 
 ference in the appearance of the house as a wholly 
 new expression would on a well-known face. It
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 5 1 
 
 was a very trifle after all, being merely the fact 
 that the door was shut, and she had always been 
 accustomed to see it open. The house was dark 
 too. Her husband's chambers were on the second 
 floor, looking into the street. The blinds were 
 close drawn, and the whole house looked ghostlier 
 and more deserted than the other had done. 
 There was a row of bell-knobs on the right-hand 
 door-post, with different names above, and she 
 pulled the one beneath her husband's name. It 
 was a forlorn hope, he might be there ; but still, 
 when she had waited a certain time, she gave up 
 the attempt without any feeling of surprise. He 
 was not there, and now, because she scarcely felt 
 disappointed, she thought she could not really 
 have expected to find him. 
 
 " But what shall I do ? " she said, turning in 
 her perplexity to the cabman, who gazed at her 
 in turn, out of his indistinct moon-like vagueness 
 of features, with a calm neutrality that was at 
 first exasperating ; but there was a human being 
 behind that mask of flesh, a slow-thinking ma- 
 chine, that could feel for a fellow-creature on 
 occasion, although he recognized no difference of 
 degree, and habitually confounded age, sex, and 
 rank, classing them all as fares, good or bad, in a 
 common category according to the way they paid. 
 " We left a woman in charge of the house," Ger- 
 trude further explained. "She ought to have 
 been there to let me in."
 
 52 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 " Well, there was no one there, Til take my 
 dick/' the cabman said. " I know the sound of a 
 bell in an empty house. One human bein' makes 
 all the difference, and there's nobody here 
 neither." 
 
 Then they both looked up at the house for 
 some seconds. 
 
 " But what shall I do ? " Gertrude repeated. 
 
 " Hev you no friends ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes, plenty." 
 
 " Then go to them as lives nearest," the cab- 
 man disinterestedly growled forth. 
 
 " What ! at this time of night ! " Gertrude ex- 
 claimed. We seem to have so many friends, and 
 yet in great emergencies how few there are to 
 whom we feel entitled to apply for special help 1 
 " I couldn't possibly disturb any one so late. And 
 besides, how should I explain ? " Then she re- 
 membered that she must not explain, which would 
 in any case have settled the question. 
 
 " Well, Miss, I should say then that a respect- 
 able hothell would be the place for yew," the 
 cabman further advised, with grave deliberation, 
 " if you can get in ; but I very much misdoubt 
 it, though you hey a tidy bit of luggage. But 
 you see, it being the season, every place is chock- 
 full. Howsumever, yew can but try." 
 
 Gertrude looked up at the dingy house again. 
 
 " I suppose I can do no more till daylight," she 
 said, thinking of her husband. " Drive me then,
 
 SftfG ULA&LY DEL UDED. 53 
 
 please, to some respectable place the nearer the 
 better. I am very tired." 
 
 So away they rumbled again, first to a large 
 hotel close by, then to another a little further off, 
 then to three, one after another, that seemed quite 
 close together ; then on, and on, and on, again, 
 till it seemed to Gertrude as if she had been driv- 
 ing for ages in that cab, and would go on so for- 
 ever ; but nowhere could she get a room, or even 
 a sofa to rest upon till morning. The cabman's 
 patience seemed unending, but he stopped at last 
 in despair, and came to the door. The darkness was 
 paling by this time, the morning air was fresh but 
 keen ; day was at hand, and the gas in the streets 
 looked belated already, and yet was missed when 
 suddenly the lamps went out. The cabman looked 
 at his pale fare, and felt a fatherly compassion. 
 
 " It's no use go'in' on," he said ; " but if you'd 
 take a nap in the cab now ? " 
 
 Gertrude answered him with the ghost of a 
 smile. " How do you manage yourself ? " she 
 said. " Do you go on all night long like this, and 
 every night ? " 
 
 " Aye," was the unusually quick response. 
 Probably the fact, as seen from her point of view, 
 surprised him. " Only sometimes it rains," he 
 added, " and sometimes I don't make a breakfast 
 for the old hoss out of all I get." 
 
 " Ah, then this is a good night's work ? " she 
 said.
 
 5 4 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 " "Well, yes," he answered, as if that too had 
 never occurred to him. 
 
 " Where are we ? " 
 
 He named the locality. 
 
 " Why," she exclaimed, "my sister-in-law lives 
 here, at No. 34. How can I have been so stupid ! 
 I never thought of her. Drive me there, please, 
 at once." 
 
 Some one opened an upper widow, and looked 
 out in answer to the cabman's ring. 
 
 " Let me in, Annie ! It is I, Gertrude," she 
 called. 
 
 " Good heavens ! what has happened ? " she 
 heard her sister-in-law exclaim as she left the win- 
 dow. In a few seconds she opened the door herself, 
 and embraced her brother's wife, but asked no ques- 
 tion until they were alone together. "You are a 
 good old man," Gertrude said to the cabman as she 
 paid him. " Come for me to-morrow morning 
 this morning at nine o'clock. I may have many 
 places to go to. Bring afresh horse." Then she 
 turned to enter the house, but stumbled, and fell 
 fainting on the threshold. The cabman helped 
 Miss Somers to carry her into the dining-room. 
 They laid her on the sofa, and then Miss Somers 
 showed the man out. She had not questioned him 
 either, and one glance at her plain, but pleasant, 
 resolute face would have accounted for her silence. 
 She was a woman who could bide her time, and 
 one not given to crying ovet spilt milk when she
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 55 
 
 saw it was spilt, and certainly not before she knew 
 that there was any occasion. 
 
 " You were quite right to come to me, dear 
 Gertie/' she said, when the latter was sensible 
 again. " If there is any trouble if I can help 
 you in any way it was kind of you to come to 
 me ; " and Gertrude knew that she had never prop- 
 erly appreciated her sister-in-law till now. She 
 had thought her strong ; she had known she was 
 good, but anything like this large unquestioning 
 charity, this readiness to relieve trouble without 
 seeking or apparently suspecting cause for blame, 
 she had been quite unprepared to find in her or 
 in anybody, perhaps. So far, however, she had 
 met with nothing but kindness in her trouble ; 
 the very cabman even was good to her ; but it 
 does so happen sometimes in cases of great mis- 
 fortune all the little worries cease, the business 
 of life arranges itself to perfection, and everything 
 comes right but the one thing needful. 
 
 Yet a reason for her sister-in-law's abstinence 
 occurred to her. Perhaps she knew already he 
 might even be here. " Is he ? " Gertrude ex- 
 claimed, jumping up from the sofa at the happy 
 thought. 
 
 " Is who ? what ? " the elder lady asked. 
 
 " Leslie is he here ? Oh, I hope he is here ! " 
 
 " Leslie is not here," was the decisive re- 
 sponse. 
 
 Gertrude sank back on the sofa.
 
 56 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 " And you must come to bed at once." 
 
 " 0, but I must tell you first," Gertrude pro- 
 tested, making an effort to rouse herself. 
 
 " On the way, then come ! " 
 
 And while she helped her to undress Gertrude 
 told the story. Miss Somers heard it almost in si- 
 lence. She was one of those women who are born 
 to be nurses, and instinctively knew better than 
 to excite one who had borne so much already with 
 useless comments and conjectures. When Ger- 
 trude was in bed, -she made her drink a glass of 
 wine, and then she spoke decisively. 
 
 " You must not puzzle your brain any more to- 
 night," she said. " Go to sleep, and trust me to 
 worry and surmise enough for both of us, until 
 you awake refreshed. Poor child, what a state 
 your arms are in ! " 
 
 " Oh, do let me talk ! " Gertrude exclaimed. 
 " I am in pain all over. Every muscle in my body 
 is wrenched, and I am a mass of bruises. You 
 cannot expect me to sleep in such a state. And 
 .besides, I may think of something if Hie awake." 
 
 But even as she spoke her eyelids drooped, and 
 in a few minutes she slumbered peacefully under 
 the influence of the opiate Miss Somers had 
 wisely given her. 
 
 " We won't have any brain fever here at all 
 events," that lady said to herself, as she quietly 
 drew down the blind, and went to her dressing- 
 room, where, as she carefully dressed herself for
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. ff 
 
 the day, she certainly worried and surmised enough 
 for both of them. 
 
 Moon, the cabman, duly arrived at nine o'clock, 
 and Miss Somers thought she might, under the 
 circumstances, venture to write to Lord Wartle- 
 bury herself to tell him where Gertrude was, as 
 she had promised to let him know. She sent 
 Moon with the note, to save time, and was not 
 exactly surprised when, an hour later, her butler 
 announced, " The Earl of Wartlebury," and 
 showed that nobleman into the breakfast room. 
 
 " How kind of you ! " Miss Somers exclaimed. 
 " I dare say you have not even breakfasted ? 
 But breakfast is just coming up. Do, pray, have 
 some," and so they sat down together, to the most 
 intimate meal of the day, these two people, who 
 had never seen each other in their lives before ; 
 and in ten minutes the courtly old gentleman, 
 with his bald head, piercing eyes, and waxed 
 mustache, had conceived a regard for this un- 
 affected, straightforward, middle-aged gentle- 
 woman which lasted for life. She was tall and 
 thin and large-boned, with an uncertain complex- 
 ion, and much gray in her coarse abundant dark 
 hair, and her face was plain, as we have said, 
 but pleasant, especially when she smiled and 
 showed her teeth, which were white and regular ; 
 yet with all her disadvantages she was a more at- 
 tractive woman than many better-looking ones, 
 here being something in the scrupulous neatness
 
 58 SINGULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 of her dress, and in the way she looked you in 
 the face, which made you know without a doubt 
 that she was an honest, pure-minded woman, with- 
 out arrierepensee, or any thought of evil a gentle- 
 woman, in fact. 
 
 "And you tell me she only arrived at five 
 o'clock ! " Lord Wartlebury said. " I never 
 dreamt of her not being able to get into her 
 own house, or I certainly should not have left her 
 at the station. " 
 
 "Indeed I think she feels she has imposed 
 too much on your good-nature as it is," Miss 
 Somers said. ' ' We can never thank you enough 
 for your kindness." 
 
 " Oh pooh ! that is nothing. I wish I could 
 feel that I had been of some use." 
 
 " She has been sleeping soundly since six 
 o'clock," Miss Somers pursued, " and, of course, 
 she must have her sleep out ; but is there noth- 
 ing I can do in the mean time ? " 
 
 Before Lord Wartlebury could answer, the door 
 opened, and Gertrude herself appeared, with a 
 pale face, and big black circles round her eyes, 
 but neat and composed, as she had been the 
 day before. 
 
 "I feel quite fresh," she said, "and shall be 
 glad of some breakfast, and some strong hot 
 colToo, Annie, please. I am not in the least sur- 
 prhod to see you, Lord Wartlebury I suppose 
 Annie told you I-fras here, and it .was just like
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 59 
 
 yon to come. But do you know, I think I have 
 made a mistake. I don't think I ought to have 
 left the cottage. I fancy he must have returned 
 by this time, and is probably anxious about 
 me." 
 
 Lord Wartlebury took a telegram out of his 
 pocket. 
 
 "It is perhaps better not to encourage false 
 hopes," he said. "Dr. Mansell telegraphed to 
 me this morning to tell me that they- had con- 
 tinued their search, but had found no further 
 trace." 
 
 "He may have gone to consult his doctor/' 
 Gertrude suggested, after some moments' thought. 
 " I will go at once and see." 
 
 It was a well-known consulting physician to 
 whom she went, and by a fortunate accident she 
 found him disengaged, and able to see her. 
 
 " Doctor, has my husband been here ? " she 
 began abruptly. 
 
 " Your husband ? " 
 
 "Leslie Somers," she explained. 
 
 " Oh, yes, of course. I have not had the 
 pleasure of seeing you before, you know." He 
 unlocked a case-book, and found what he wanted. 
 " Oh, yes, he was here exactly six weeks ago to- 
 day." 
 
 Her countenance fell. "And yon have not 
 seen him since ? " 
 
 "No."
 
 6$ SINGVLARL Y >J5L UDED. 
 
 " Perhaps I had better tell you why I ask," and 
 she proceeded to explain. 
 
 The doctor listened with grave attention. "It 
 is a curious affair," he observed, "but not un- 
 precedented. Your husband was suffering from 
 the effects of overwork. I certainly did not ap- 
 prehend any serious trouble, but such a thing 
 was quite possible, and I advised him to be 
 most careful. Had he any fancy, any morbid 
 notion any persistent idea, in a word, which 
 amounted to a delusion ?" 
 
 " No, nothing that I know of and I think I 
 should have known. He seemed to have bene- 
 fited very much by the change, and was in ex- 
 cellent spirits." 
 
 " I had a somewhat similar case some years 
 ago," the doctor said, "and I tell you about it 
 in order to show you that there is no real cause 
 for alarm. It was also a case of overwork, that 
 of a clergyman with a "large parish a con- 
 scientious man, who had toiled day and night 
 during an epidemic of typhus fever. He came 
 to me complaining of great depression, and I ad- 
 vised rest and change of scene, and also pre- 
 scribed for his general health, which was quite 
 below par. Well, he went to a seaside place with 
 his wife and family, just as your husband seems 
 to have done, and the next thing I heard of him 
 was that he had disappeared. Of course his 
 friends were in a terrible state of anxiety about
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 6l 
 
 him, detectives were employed, and the case got 
 into the papers. They traced him to London, 
 but further than that they could obtain no clew 
 to his whereabouts, and after eighteen months' 
 search, they began to fear that he must be dead. 
 But about that time a friend of his, an animal 
 painter, went to the Highlands of Scotland to 
 make studies of cattle, and one day, while he 
 was so engaged, he happened to get into con- 
 versation with the drover, and to his great sur- 
 prise he recognized the man at once as the miss- 
 ing parson. 'Why, you're So-and-so!' he ex- 
 claimed. ' Am I indeed ? ' the poor fellow replied. 
 ' "Well I am deeply grateful to you for telling me, 
 for I could not remember who on earth I was, or 
 where I had intended to go, one day when I set 
 out on a journey, and I have been obliged to be- 
 come a drover in order to earn my living.' He 
 was of course restored to his friends immediately, 
 and with proper treatment he soon recovered, and 
 is as right as I am at the present moment. 
 Now it seems to me that your husbands is a 
 very similar case, and I have no doubt it will 
 end as happily." 
 
 Gertrude put two guineas on the table, and left 
 the house greatly relieved. The doctor's cheery, 
 confident manner had perhaps never raised any 
 poor patient's spirits higher than hers went up 
 under the influence of the hope he held out to 
 her. She felt she had a clew to the whole enigma
 
 62 SING ULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 now ; and the rest the finding of her husband 
 seemed easy after that. She knew he had come 
 to London, she knew which station he must have 
 arrived at, and she would go there at once and 
 inquire. Somebody must have seen him. When 
 she arrived at the great crowded terminus, she 
 found that the task was easier in anticipation 
 than in reality. She had come to inquire ; but 
 how should she begin ? to whom should she ap- 
 ply ? She must first find out the platform at which 
 the midday train stopped yesterday. Perhaps 
 she would find the same staff of officials there to- 
 day, and she would ask every one of them to make 
 sure. 
 
 " Guard, did you happen to notice if a tall 
 gentleman, clean-shaved, with reddish hair,dressed 
 in a light tweed suit, came by the midday train 
 from Trewport yesterday ? " 
 
 " Yesterday ! " the man answered, with scant 
 courtesy. " Bless you, Miss, dozens of such gen- 
 tleman arrive every day." Another guard came 
 up at the moment, and he appealed to him. 
 " Here, Dawlish ! you were on duty here yester- 
 day." 
 
 " No, I wasn't," the man answered. " I 
 brought up the midday train from Trewport." 
 
 " Oh, then ! " Gertrude exclaimed, taking out 
 her purse, "you can surely tell me if my husband 
 was among the passengers;" and she described 
 him.
 
 SING ULARLY DEL VDED. 63 
 
 The guard scratched his head. " "Would he be 
 a bit queer ? " he said. 
 
 " I don't know what you mean by queer." 
 
 " No offense, ma'am. Only if he talked loud, 
 and didn't seem to be particular about where he 
 was going ? " 
 
 " That might have been the case," she an- 
 swered ; " and what I want to know is, where he 
 went ? " 
 
 Several porters had/joined the group by this 
 time. " I say, Bill," one of them now interposed, 
 " wasn't that gentleman you sent to St. Pan- 
 eras yesterday, when he asked which was the 
 station for Southampton, dressed in a light tweed 
 suit?" 
 
 " He were," said Bill. 
 
 "And do you mean to say you sent him to 
 St. Pancras for Southampton, you blessed block- 
 head ? " the surly guard demanded. 
 
 "Ah did," was the calm reply, "and ah saw 
 him off in a hansom on his way to St. Pancras, 
 and ah hope he got there safe." 
 
 There was a laugh at this sally. 
 
 " Did you happen to notice the number of the 
 hansom ? " Gertrude asked. 
 
 "Noa, but ah noticed the man as druv it ; and 
 here he comes by the same betoken," the porter 
 concluded, pointing to a hansom that was just re- 
 turning to the stand. 
 
 Gertrude went to the driver and repeated her
 
 64 SINGULARL Y DEL UDEt). 
 
 inquiries. Yes, he had taken the gentleman she 
 described to St. Pancras yesterday morning. The 
 gentleman got down and asked a porter what time 
 the next fast train left for Southampton, and the 
 porter sorter grinned at him, and told him he was in 
 the wrong box for Southampton, and had better 
 try Waterloo. The gentleman seemed put out, but 
 after standing 011 the pavement, and cussing heav- 
 en and earth for five minutes, he was able to get 
 into the hansom again and go to Waterloo. He 
 didn't get out there, however ; he only inquired 
 about the trains, and -then he told the driver to 
 take him to the nearest hotel, and there the man 
 left him. He had no luggage with him, unless it 
 was a handbag, but the driver wasn't sure of that 
 even ; he hadn't taken particular notice, and 
 couldn't remember. 
 
 Gertrude got into the hansom, and told the 
 man to take her to that hotel. The faithful 
 Moon had brought her so far, and was waiting for 
 her, but she had forgotten him. He had assisted 
 at these inquiries, however, and, making allowance 
 for the lady's preoccupation, tumbled on to his 
 box and followed the hansom, rightly conjectur- 
 ing that she would think of him in time. 
 
 Gertrude's anxiety had given way now to a 
 state of excitement that was almost pleasurable. 
 She was on the right track sure enough, and this 
 detective business was easier, after all, than she 
 could have believed possible. She could ^nder-
 
 StNG ULARLY DEL UDED. '65 
 
 stand, too, that it must be a very fascinating pur- 
 suit when the object of it did not concern you 
 personally. She thought, if she ever had to work 
 for herself, she would be a detective, it was quite 
 interesting to talk to so many queer characters. 
 
 But now the hansom stopped at the door of a 
 large hotel, and, alighting quickly, she ran lightly 
 up the steps, and into the great bare comfortless 
 hall. 
 5
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Ax unctuous official came forward immediately, 
 and asked her if she wanted rooms. 
 
 " No," she answered. " I am looking for my 
 husband. I have reason to believe that he is here 
 or at least, that he came here yesterday about 
 this time of the day." 
 
 " Oh ah mum ! " the official observed 
 quickly. " Does the gentleman expect you ? " 
 
 " Yes," Gertrude answered boldly ; and then, 
 to save her conscience, she added : " He is most 
 probably looking for me, because 1 was not sure 
 which hotel he would come to." 
 
 " What name did you say ? " the man asked, 
 less suspiciously. 
 
 " Mr. Leslie Somers." 
 
 " Pray be seated, madam, and 1*11 go and in- 
 quire." He returned presently. " No one of 
 that name,madam, has ever been here," he told her. 
 
 Gertrude's heart sank. " But do people al- 
 ways give their names when they stay so short a 
 time ?" she asked. 
 
 " Did you only expect the gentleman to stay a 
 short time ? " 
 
 "It is just possible that he only stayed the
 
 S1NGULARL Y DELUDED. 67 
 
 night," she answered, desperately. " He was 
 anxious to go to Southampton. But stay, I will 
 tell you exactly what he was like, and you will 
 perhaps know whether he came or not." 
 
 The hall-porter came up while she was describ- 
 ing him, and now interrupted 
 
 " Oh, yes, he came here yesterday, that gen- 
 tleman did. I noticed him particular, because 
 there's so few gents comes as is clean-shaved 
 nowadays, only priests. Reddish hair, didn't you 
 say, ma'am ? and a rowdy, rollicking, free-and- 
 easy sort o* happy-go-lucky manner ? Drank 
 brandies-and-sodas all the time, and was sweet on. 
 the barmaid." 
 
 Poor Gertrude's heart sank lower. Was it pos- 
 sible even for disease to change any one so per- 
 fectly refined as Leslie, and so generally respected 
 wherever he went by high and low, into a crea- 
 ture such as this, with manners and tastes which 
 lowered him to the level of the commonest peo- 
 ple ? It seemed impossible, and yet from the time 
 he appeared at the station at Trewport, every ac- 
 count she heard of his conduct agreed in this re- 
 spect. It must be true. 
 
 '* If that was the gentleman," the unctuous 
 person said, " he did come here about this time 
 yesterday ; but Somers wasn't the name he gave." 
 
 " Can you tell me what name he gave ? " Ger- 
 trude asked. 
 
 The man hesitated. " Well, madam," he an-
 
 68 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 swered, " we do not generally give the names of 
 people who stay here to unknown parties. You 
 Bee, we don't know what use they might make of 
 them." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed poor Gertrude, " this is 
 wasting precious time. Can you not see, sir, that 
 I am a lady ? My husband is not right in his 
 mind. He has escaped from his friends, and it is 
 of the utmost consequence that I should find him 
 before he does any mischief to himself or others." 
 Then turning to the hall-porter: "I think you 
 noticed how queer his manner was ? " 
 
 " I did," the man answered ; " but I thought 
 he was the worse for liquor." 
 
 The manager, or whatever he was, now lowered 
 his tone. " Of course, madam," he said, " in a 
 case of this kind we shall consider it our duty to 
 give you every help in our power. I will go and 
 make further inquiries about the gentleman." 
 
 When he was out of hearing, Gertrude ad- 
 dressed herself to the hall-porter, speaking rap- 
 idly : " I will give you a sovereign," she said, 
 "for every separate piece of information you can 
 give me about that gentleman. What did he call 
 himself ? " 
 
 " I don't know, ma'am, but he had a bag with 
 L. S. on it." 
 
 "His own initials." She put a sovereign in 
 the man's hand. " Go on/' she said. " Did he 
 say where he was going ? "
 
 S2NG ULARLY DEL UDED. 69 
 
 He said he was going out as first consul to San 
 Francisco, and meant to see all he could of the 
 world on the way, as he wasn't due there for three 
 months." 
 
 She gave him another sovereign. 
 
 " He left here," the man continued, " about 
 ten minutes before you came. He said his lug- 
 gage was at Southampton, and he meant to go out 
 by P. & O. I put his bag into a hansom myself, 
 ma'am, and told the driver to go to Waterloo. 
 It's not half an hour since," the man "concluded, 
 glancing at the clock. 
 
 " Good heavens ! " Gertrude exclaimed, putting 
 two more sovereigns into his hand, " I may have 
 missed him." 
 
 The manager now came back. " Mr. Lawrence 
 Soames " he began. 
 
 She caught the name, but had jumped into the 
 hansom, and was on her way back to Waterloo, 
 before he could add another word. 
 
 Arrived there, she threw half a sovereign at the 
 driver, and rushed on to the platform. It was 
 crowded with passengers, porters, and luggage, a 
 confused mass of things animate and inanimate, all 
 alike struggling, or being moved in every direction 
 a human hash with shouts and laughter : here 
 a merry family party off for a change of air , there 
 a young couple, with maid-servant and man-serv- 
 ant in attendance, evidently somebodies, but 
 treated with little ceremony by five romping
 
 70 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 schoolgirls who rushed by, separating them and 
 the whole multitude to boot, on their way to a 
 second-class carriage, at the windows of which 
 they stood, eating buns, and enjoying the noise 
 and bustle. 
 
 " Is this the Southampton train ? Is this the 
 Southampton train ? " Gertrude asked every one, 
 but could get no answer at first. Then one man, 
 whose arm she grasped in her eagerness, said 
 " Yes/' as he shook her off, and she made for a 
 carriage ; but another said " No " to her on the 
 way, and she stopped when another declared he 
 didn't know, but thought it was, which made the 
 matter doubtful once more, and again she began 
 "Is this the Southampton train? "but before 
 she received an answer she was almost lifted off 
 her feet by the sudden swaying of the crowd to 
 make room for a porter with a mountain of lug- 
 gage on a truck, and was carried from the door 
 of the carriage, beside which she had been stand- 
 ing, over to the book-stall, against which she was 
 pinned for some seconds. The swaying of the 
 crowd in the opposite direction released her, only, 
 however, to force her back the next moment, back, 
 back, struggle as she would, through the nearest 
 entrance this time, to the place where the booking- 
 offices are. Here the pressure relaxed, the crowd 
 thinned, she could move again of her own ac- 
 cord. A porter hurried past her, gumming a 
 printed label on a new-looking Gladstone bag aa
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 71 
 
 he went. There were two black letters on the bag. 
 She looked away after seeing them, before the 
 fact struck her as significant. Then she looked 
 again, hurrying forward to read them, and just 
 succeeded as the porter handed the bag into a 
 first-class carriage. The doors were shut by this 
 time : she could not see through the window ; but 
 the letters on the bag were L. S., and she made 
 a frantic dash for that carriage. The bell rang ; 
 the whistle shrieked ; a voice shouted " All in ! " 
 the buzz of the crowd became a roar ; there was 
 a rush of rough men from the refreshment- room ; 
 they elbowed her to one side " The weak must 
 go to the wall " and gained their own seats ; the 
 train began to move. Conscious of nothing but 
 her object, she pressed forward again any car- 
 riage would do now she tried to catch the 
 handle of a door : it passed her. 
 
 "Look out there!" "Stand back!" "She'll be 
 killed ! " a dozen voices roared, yet she tried again. 
 But now her arms were grasped on either side. 
 She put forth all her strength to release herself, 
 but was held as if in a vice. Then, woman-like, 
 ehe sent up an exceeding great and bitter cry, and 
 then was still. The train had slipped from sight ; 
 the crowd had melted away ; a strange hush had 
 fallen, a lack of life, where all had been uproar 
 and hurry a moment before. Her captors dropped 
 her arms. She pressed her handkerchief to her 
 lips ; her mouth was full of blood. The guard
 
 72 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 who had held her on one side looked at her pity- 
 ingly, while the gentleman who had caught her 
 on the other spoke severely 
 
 " You've nearly killed yourself, young lady. 
 Couldn't you let the train go when you saw you 
 had missed it ? " 
 
 " That's the way they do, sir ! " the guard ex- 
 claimed, " and we gets blamed when accidents 
 happen. " 
 
 " Oh, sir ! " Gertrude, moaned, clasping her 
 blood-stained handkerchief convulsively to her 
 breast, " if you only knew how much depended 
 on my catching that train ! " 
 
 The gentleman took her hand, and drew it 
 through his arm. "Come," he said, "before a 
 crowd collects. Allow me to see you into a cab. 
 And forgive me if you think I am taking too much 
 on myself, being a stranger to you. I have a 
 daughter about your age. I am afraid, though, 
 you have had a severe shock. You can hardly 
 walk. Try and get as far as the refreshment- 
 room, at all events, an ; d lean on me as much as 
 you like. A glass of wine will revive you." 
 
 With her usual good luck, Gertrude had found 
 another kind friend to help her in her need, and 
 she resigned herself to his ministrations with per- 
 fect confidence, as she sank exhausted into the 
 deep luxurious plush armchair to which he led 
 her in an inner room behind the bar.
 
 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 73 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WHAT with the strength of the railway wine, 
 and the refreshing quiet of the room in which 
 she found herself after the hideous nightmare of 
 turmoil and trouble through which she had just 
 passed, Gertrude rapidly revived. Her new pro- 
 tector only waited, however, till he saw that she 
 was able to take care of herself again, and then 
 he left her. He had a train to catch himself, 
 and had waited till the last moment on her ac- 
 count. And surely it was a heart of gold that 
 thus befriended an unknown girl, because he had 
 forsooth a daughter of his own at home about her 
 age ! Gertrude had not the faintest recollection 
 of his face. She would not have known him again 
 had she met him anywhere. She would not even 
 have recognized his voice. Yet she remembered"" 
 him always gratefully, but always with a pang 
 for two reasons. In her preoccupation she had 
 allowed him to pay for that glass of wine for her, 
 and she feared she had let him go without one 
 word of thanks. She never knew, and she could 
 only hope that if she had, he, in his haste, would 
 not notice the omission ; but still, when she re- 
 membered the incident, the dread was a source of
 
 74 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 discomfort to her as long as she lived. It was not 
 at the moment, however, that this fear began to 
 trouble her. Just then she could think of nothing 
 but her one object, and how to accomplish it ; feel 
 nothing but the bitter disappointment caused by 
 having missed that train. The thought of having 
 been so near to him without even seeing him was 
 very grievous, but the feeling that every moment 
 was taking him further and further away from her, 
 and whither she knew not, was simply maddening. 
 Yet it was the right thought to arouse her. She 
 had little or no imagination. Her mind was pre- 
 eminently active and practical, and consequently, 
 instead of following her husband in fancy, as nine 
 out of ten women would have done under the cir- 
 cumstances, she began at once to consider how, 
 ehe could follow him in fact. It seemed easy 
 enough at the first glance. She had only to take 
 the next train, and behold her ! But then came 
 the question, When she arrived, where in South- 
 ampton would she find him, if he stayed there, 
 which was not at all likely ? What was it they 
 told her at the hotel ? Oh, that he had said he 
 was going out as English consul to San Francisco. 
 Poor fellow ! That, then, was his delusion, and 
 was it not also her clew ? A man bound for San 
 Francisco vid Southampton they had mentioned 
 the P. & 0. too would surely be easily found. 
 And then there was the name he was traveling 
 under, Lawrence Soames it recurred to her th
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 75 
 
 moment she wanted it L. S., his own initials. 
 They were on the purse he had in his pocket that 
 fatal morning, and probably, like that poor clergy- 
 man, he had forgotten what they stood for, or was 
 under the impression that the first two names that 
 occurred to him beginning with those letters were 
 really his. That new Gladstone bag, too, he must 
 have bought it in London ; and what a lucky 
 chance ! for without it, she must have lost all 
 trace of him here. No, though, now she thought 
 of it, for she knew he was going to Southampton, 
 and wherefore. And accordingly to Southampton 
 she must go with all possible despatch. She there- 
 fore left the quiet little parlor behind the bar, and 
 returned to the station, half expecting to find her- 
 self in pandemonium again ; but it was quiet 
 enough there now. The principal trains of the 
 day had gone. There was a lull in the traffic, 
 scarcely a passenger hung about the station. 
 The officials sat on trucks or stood in groups chat- 
 ting with coarse laughter, or else they loitered 
 about, as if loitering were their business, like the 
 police. Gertrude applied to the first she met, and 
 found that the next train for Southampton a 
 fast one left in one hour's time exactly. She 
 had, therefore, leisure to loiter too, and she strolled 
 on down the station, finding the next few seconds 
 interminably long, and wondering how she could 
 endure to wait. But happily she had others to 
 think of as well as herself. There was her sister-
 
 76 S1NCULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 in-law also in suspense, and doubtless wondering 
 uneasily what was keeping her so long. There 
 would not be time to go and return, so she must 
 send her a note. She procured pen, ink, and 
 paper from the man at the bookstall, and was 
 allowed as a favor to write at his desk. He also 
 advised her to send a cabman with it who would 
 be paid on delivery, and she went to find one. 
 As she approached the stand she saw a crowd, of 
 porters principally, round one of the cabs, the 
 driver of which was standing up on his box talk- 
 ing at the top of his voice. 
 
 " What's up now ? " one greaser called to an- 
 other just behind her. 
 
 " It's old Moon/' the other answered. " He 
 ses he's bin deceived by a lady. Ah ! them 
 wimmin ! " 
 
 " He's a tender-'arted one, is Moon," the first 
 man laughed. 
 
 " He's a full Moon now, or I'm much mistaken," 
 the other one rejoined. 
 
 And indeed it was only too true. Poor Moon 
 had been indulging in gin to beguile the weary 
 time of waiting, and also to keep up his strength, 
 for he had not had an hour's rest in the last twenty- 
 four, nor a single regular meal ; but the treacher- 
 ous spirit, instead of comforting him, had only 
 sufficed to distort his view of things in general, 
 and of what, in his right mind, he had considered 
 a great piece of luck, in particular this " en-
 
 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. ft 
 
 gagement by the day to parties to whom money 
 was no object." The evil spirit showed him to 
 himself as an ill-used man, and prompted him to 
 proclaim his woes, moreover, with a loud voice 
 from the box of his own cab. Poor Gertrude ar- 
 rived in time for the peroration. She had forgot- 
 ten the man's existence, and could hardly believe 
 her ears when she heard him now, and found her 
 own adventures of the previous night, much mis- 
 represented, the subject of his discourse, he him- 
 self appearing in them to the best advantage, his 
 own conduct being described, in fact, as little less 
 than heroic. The crowd was delighted. Cheers, 
 " Hear, hears ! " and loud applause greeted him 
 at every pause ; and under the influence of this 
 genial sympathy, and the exhilarating effects of 
 gin, the good man Moon, ordinarily so taciturn, 
 so unimaginative, waxed eloquent, and glowed 
 with a poet's fancy. 
 
 " "What do you suppose ud 'a become uf 'er," 
 he wanted to know, " alone i' Lunnon town at 
 night, deserted by that wagabond, with ne'er a 
 place to go to, ef it 'adn't a bin for Moon ? She 
 ses, ' Drive me 'ere, Moon,' an' I drnv 'er 'ere. 
 An' she ses, 'Drive me there,' an' I druv 'er 
 there ; an' wot's more, I druv 'er back again when 
 she told me, cos why, it didn't 'urt me, an' 
 knowed it was a comfort to 'er, for she keps on 
 thinkin' ef he's not 'ere Vll be there. But I 
 know'd what the old wagabond meant when 'e
 
 78 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 'ailed me in that there station at two o'clock this 
 werry morning, an' I goes to 'im an' I ses, ' You're 
 the h Earl of Wartlebury, ain't you ? ' sez I, ' and 
 I'm Moon the cabman ; but ef you don't come at 
 once and do wot's right and honorable/ I ses, ' by 
 that young thing/ I ses, ' which 'er bright smile 
 haunts me still,' I ses, * I'll advertise you on my 
 own cab all over Lunnon town/ I ses, ' you old 
 villan/ I ses. And his lordship up at that, an* 
 'e ses, 'Moon, you're an 'onest man/ 'e ses, 'an* 
 I'll take your advice/ 'e ses, ' an* 'ere's a sovereign/ 
 'e ses. ' Now, go your ways/ 'e ses ; ' wot man 
 could do fur 'er you've done/ 'e ses. But < No ! 
 my lord/ ses I. ' I'll not leave these premisses,' 
 ses I, ' till you sits yourself down in that there cab 
 of mine/ ses I ; ' fur when I goes to see a wrong 
 righted, I sees it righted, and my name's Moon/ 
 ses I." Here he was interrupted by vociferous 
 cheers, and it was some minutes before he could 
 make himself heard again. " It's no use telling 
 me they're a warm family," he went on. " Do ye 
 suppose I've lived my life in Lunnon town an' 
 don't know that ? It's not me pocket, it's me 
 'art that's touched. She brought me 'ere an' she 
 left me without a word, an' arter what I'd done 
 for 'er, and all to be deserted to be left to die 
 like a dog in a ditch." (" Oh, you'll not die this 
 time!" and "Cheer up, old bloke!" various 
 voices shouted in the crowd.) "And she's all my 
 fancy painted her ; she's lovely, she's divine ! "
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDRD. ft 
 
 the old vagabond was proceeding, when, to 
 Gertrude's horror, his wandering watery eye 
 rested on herself with an instant gleam of recog- 
 nition. She had been rooted to the spot by the 
 subject of his discourse, and now, not knowing 
 what the consequences of the recognition would 
 be, she wished that the ground might open and 
 swallow her. She need not have been alarmed, 
 however, for the sight of her, or perhaps of a po- 
 liceman coming up behind her, had a curiously 
 sobering effect upon Moon ; and all he did when 
 he saw her was instinctively to make the sign of 
 his calling with his whip while he gathered up 
 the reins and sank on his seat, looking, because 
 his great featureless face was too fat for expres- 
 sion, as if nothing had happened. 
 
 The crowd hooted and jeered, and called to 
 him to go on, bat he was deaf to their entreaties, 
 and presently they began to disperse. Then Ger- 
 trude went up to him, and after reading him a 
 severe lecture, to which he listened in solemn 
 silence, somewhat rashly despatched him with a 
 note. 
 
 " Do you think you're sensible enough to be 
 trusted with it ? " she asked. " It's of great im- 
 portance. You'll be well paid when you arrive." 
 "Trusted!" he answered, scornfully. 
 " Why, Miss, I've druv this cab when I've been 
 BO drunk I couldn't hev stood on the ground ; 
 an* I'm not so drunk as that now," he added
 
 So S1NGULARL Y DEL UDE&. 
 
 regretfully. " Oh I I niver went wrong in me 
 life." 
 
 " Well, I suppose it's better to trust to a half- 
 drunk man I know something of," she said, dubi- 
 ously, " than to a sober one of whom I know 
 nothing. Here, Moon, take this note to Miss 
 Somers. And, Moon," she added, solemnly, 
 " mark my words : if that note goes wrong, you'll 
 have no more luck as long as you live." 
 
 " Now the saints preserve us ! " Moon ex- 
 claimed, crossing himself devoutly, an act BO ut- 
 terly inconsistent with all she knew of London 
 cabmen as to make Gertrude smile. 
 
 But she perceived that the last adjuration was 
 a lucky hit, and returned to the station much re- 
 lieved. 
 
 On arriving in Southampton, she drove straight 
 to the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Com- 
 pany's office, and asked if Mr. Lawrence Soames 
 had been there that day. " Oh, yes," the clerk 
 told her. He had taken a passage to Yokohama, 
 and was bound for San Francisco ; but the next 
 mail did not leave till that day week, and Mr. 
 Soames had said he would go and do the Channel 
 Islands, St. Malo, St. Helier, and the country 
 round about them while he waited. 
 
 ' 'Did he say which boat he would go by ? " 
 
 " No, but he asked when the next boat for Jer- 
 sey left, and went off in a hurry when I told 
 him."
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 8l 
 
 " When does it leave ? " Gertrude asked. 
 
 "At three o'clock," the man replied. "It's 
 well on its way by this time." 
 
 Her heart sank at this. "What a misfortune 
 the missing of that train had been 1 
 6
 
 82 SINGULAHL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 "How did he seem ?" Gertrude could not help 
 asking before she left the office. 
 
 " He seemed a bit fresh," the clerk answered 
 bluntly. 
 
 Gertrude winced. It was the second time to- 
 day that she had heard this insulting insinuation 
 made against the husband whom she had not only 
 loved but reverenced, and it goaded her so that 
 she would have liked to have hurried from the 
 place, as if by flight she could escape from the 
 horrid thought ; but she bravely checked the im- 
 pulse, and waited, without any external sign of 
 suffering, until she had decided or what she had 
 better do next. 
 
 There seemed to be three courses open to her. 
 She could await her husband's return at South- 
 ampton ; or she could follow him to Jersey ; or 
 she could go straight to St. Malo, and meet him 
 when he arrived there. 
 
 Each of these plans seemed good at the first 
 glance ; but when she came to consider, she found 
 an objection to each. 
 
 If she waited at Southampton, it was just pos- 
 sible that her husband might become the victim
 
 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 83 
 
 of some new delusion, and never return, in which 
 case she would probably lose all trace of him. 
 
 And if she followed him to Jersey, judging by 
 her experience so far, she feared her chance of 
 overtaking him was very small. And then again, 
 if she went to meet him at St. Malo, she would 
 run the same risk as if she waited at Southampton : 
 he might change his mind, and not go there at 
 all. 
 
 She was very much puzzled at first by these 
 three alternatives ; but it appeared to her at last, 
 that by a little management she might make one 
 of them, at all events, the least of three evils. 
 She thought that if she went to St. Malo herself, 
 and Miss Sorners came to wait at Southampton, it 
 would scarcely be possible for Leslie to escape 
 them both ; for if he did not remain in the Chan- 
 nel Islands, where he would be safe enough, he 
 must either go on to St. Malo or return to South- 
 ampton. Accordingly she decided upon this last 
 course ; and finding that the mail-steamer did not 
 leave for St. Malo until ten o'clock that night, 
 she proceeded, without flurry, to make the neces- 
 sary arrangements. She drove first to a shop to 
 buy some toilet requisites, for she had nothing 
 with her. Then she went to the steamer which was 
 alongside the dock, and chose her berth. There 
 was nothing going on in the saloon at the time, so 
 she sat down there, and wrote Miss Somers a 
 rapid but clear account of all she had done so far ?
 
 84 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 and all she proposed. This Miss Somers would 
 receive by the first post next morning ; but in 
 case Moon had proved faithless, Gertrude thought 
 it right to send her sister-in-law a telegram at 
 once, to make sure that she would not be left a 
 whole night in suspense. Gertrude took these 
 missives to the post-office herself, and despatched 
 them, and then she returned to the steamer. 
 There she found the stewards laying the tables 
 for the six o'clock dinner, and for the first time 
 since breakfast she remembered that she ought to 
 eat. She had little enough appetite in all con- 
 science, but she tried to refresh herself by going 
 to the ladies' cabin to take off her dress, and get- 
 ting the stewardess to brush it and all her things 
 thoroughly, to get rid of the feeling of dust, 
 which is one of the most fatiguing additions to 
 the discomfort of traveling ; and after taking 
 down and rearranging her hair, and having a good 
 splash in cold water, she felt so strong and com- 
 posed that she was surprised at herself. 
 
 But she could not eat, and steamer viands are 
 not tempting to coy appetites. She had heard, 
 however, of a desperate remedy in cases like hers, 
 where so much depended on the strength of one 
 frail person, and now she did not hesitate to try 
 it. She ordered a small bottle of champagne, and 
 drank more than half a tumbler of it right off. 
 Two ladies on the other side of the table looked as 
 if they thought her an abandoned woman ; but in
 
 SlNGttLAkt Y DEL VDED. 85 
 
 a very few minutes her spirits rose to their nsnal 
 level, she was conscions of a delicious glow all 
 over, and, better still, she became so hungry, that 
 the leg of a gigantic fowl, with tepid ham and 
 cold potatoes, not only satisfied but pleased her. 
 She began to feel some interest too in her fellow- 
 passengers, and, perceiving what the ladies oppo- 
 site thought of her, was amused. She had found 
 the true use of wine. It was a rest and a relief 
 to her at the moment, and when she went to her 
 berth a little later, she slept under its genial in- 
 fluence, instead of lying awake, as she must other- 
 wise have done, tossing herself into a fever, and 
 wearing her already overwrought mind by foolish 
 fears and worry worse than useless. 
 
 She must have had some hours' refreshing sleep 
 before she awoke suddenly with a start, as unhappy 
 people do. The awakening, however, was not ac* 
 compauied by an immediate recognition of her 
 strange surroundings. Her first conscious thought 
 was wonder that her husband was not near her ; 
 her first voluntary effort was to turn not to him, 
 alas ! but to the full recollection of her position, 
 which was brought home to her by what she saw. 
 
 She was in an upper berth of the ladies' cabin. 
 Several of the other berths were occupied, and 
 two French Sisters of Charity sat together on a 
 sofa, their hands clasped before them, their eyes 
 fixed on the floor, their sweet and patient faces 
 composed, as if their minds were absorbed in med-
 
 86 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 itation or prayer. The cabin was lighted by a 
 lamp which hung from the center of the ceiling. 
 It swayed with the motion of the vessel and 
 flickered, casting uncertain shadows, now to one 
 side, now to the other, but giving light enough 
 for the stewardess to attend to the passengers. 
 
 The steamer had left the smooth Southampton 
 Water, and was nearing the Needles by this time. 
 The regular thump of the screw vibrated from 
 stem to stern, cordage creaked, doors rattled, 
 hoarse voices shouted, chains clanked, and every 
 now and then there was a rush of footsteps over- 
 head, which sounded like an exaggerated patter of 
 heavy raindrops on autumn leaves in a fierce little 
 squall. The vessel was making splendid way, 
 with a spanking breeze in her favor, and the night 
 was fine and clear ; but as she approached the 
 Needles she got into a chopping sea, and began to 
 pitch in a lively way, that suffice in five min- 
 utes to make most of the Britons believe that 
 it was better to be beside the sea boasting, than 
 upon it without the slightest inclination to rule. 
 It was probably the motion that had awakened 
 Gertrude, and as she turned and recollected where 
 she was, she uttered a low moan. 
 
 The stewardess went to her immediately. 
 
 "Are you sick, Miss ?" she said. 
 
 "Yes, stewardess," Gertrude answered; "but 
 it is sick at heart I am." 
 
 The stewardess looked at her as if she were
 
 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 87 
 
 searching inwardly for some remedy for this com- 
 plaint, but she was called to one of the other 
 ladies before anything occurred to her ; and then 
 Gertrude noticed that the two gentle Sisters of 
 Charity, whose sofa was close to her berth, were 
 looking pale and distressed. She raised herself 
 on her elbow, " Pardon, mesdames," she said. 
 But they did not perceive that she was addressing 
 them. " Excusez-moi, mes scaurs," she began 
 again. Then they looked up, and smiled at her. 
 " I would suggest," she said in French, " that it 
 is better to lie down." 
 
 " Madame est bien bonne/' was the soft re- 
 sponse ; " but that would be too much of self-in- 
 dulgence : and at any rate it is not for long." 
 
 " Then, if you breathe with the motion of the 
 vessel," Gertrude answered, "you will not be 
 sick." 
 
 " Oh, show me how you do it ! " one in extrem- 
 ity demanded. 
 
 It was the cold propriety who had scorned Ger- 
 trude earlier in the evening, when she saw her 
 drinking champagne out of a tumbler ; but Ger- 
 trude bore her no ill-will, and did her best to help 
 her now. Then some of the other ladies roused 
 themselves to try the novel experiment, and, while 
 making an effort to help themselves, forgot how 
 dreadfully ill they were. The stewardess disap- 
 peared at intervals, but always returned with com- 
 forting assurances. " "We're at the Needles now.*
 
 88 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 "We've passed the Needles." "If the wind 
 doesn't drop, we'll do it in eleven hours instead 
 of twelve. " " Many a time I've been sixteen hours 
 crossing, and sometimes, twenty-four. And often 
 and often we've had to put back three times before 
 we could get past the Needles. Ah ! we dp 
 have some seas occasionally. I'm sick myself 
 sometimes, and then yon might complain. But 
 this is only a fine passage. We haven't made such 
 a run for months." 
 
 Just then there came one of the periodic out- 
 bursts of hoarse shouting, followed by the clatter 
 of hurrying footsteps overhead. " What are they 
 doing, stewardess ?" Gertrude asked. 
 
 " Getting up sail or changing her course," the 
 stewardess answered, with the indifference of one 
 familiar with either incident. 
 
 " I should have thought they would have got 
 the sails up at starting with such a breeze," Ger- 
 trude observed, not without malice. 
 
 The noise above increased to a racket. The 
 stewardess disappeared. 
 
 " Oh, dear, I hope there is nothing wrong ! " 
 Gertrude's whilom enemy exclaimed, nervously. 
 . " The night is clear," Gertrude answered sen- 
 tentiously, no thought of a catastrophe entering 
 her head. 
 
 "Prions, ma scaur," one of the French sisters 
 whispered. 
 " Pour eux," the other softly suggested. " Caj
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 89 
 
 pour nous le danger serait peut-e'tre le martyre, 
 et alors nous irions droites au ciel. Bieu soit 
 loue ! " 
 
 The face of the other beamed at the hope of 
 martyrdom, and both relapsed into silent prayer 
 for their sinful fellow-passengers. 
 
 After an unusually long absence, the stewardess 
 returned. In a casual way Gertrude looked at 
 her, but something in the woman's face riveted 
 her attention. It was neither fear nor flurry, but 
 the look of one with a hard task before her, anx- 
 ious to act, but hardly knowing how to begin. 
 The noise on deck redoubled. She glanced round 
 desperately at the different ladies, then meeting 
 Gertrude's inquiring glance, she recognized what 
 she required coolness and courage to match her 
 own. With one step she was beside the berth. 
 "We must get them up on deck at once," she 
 whispered, and the next moment Gertrude was 
 standing beside her. She made no noise, she 
 asked no question, and only the French sisters 
 noticed the sudden movement, and rising also, 
 stood unsteadily, as if awaiting orders. Once 
 on her feet Gertrude felt giddy herself with the 
 motion of the vessel, but the physical discomfort 
 in no way hindered her. Repeating what the 
 stewarduess had said in French, she went herself 
 to the nearest berth, and taking its occupant by 
 the hand, she said authoritatively : " You must 
 get up at once, We have all to go on deck. Let
 
 90 SINGVLARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 me help you." It was a girl or sixteen or seven- 
 teen to whom she spoke, and the young creature, 
 although dreadfully sick, bravely responded. Like 
 Gertrude, she had not undressed, and although 
 she could hardly stand when she got out of her 
 berth, she asked at once : " Can I do any- 
 thing ? " " Help me to lift this lady/' Gertrude 
 rejoined, as she unceremoniously pulled up the 
 limp remains of her late enemy into a sitting 
 position. The poor lady looked like a badly 
 stuffed sack, and begged to be let alone or merci- 
 fully thrown overboard. 
 
 " That sort of nonsense is all well enough," 
 the stewardess said, roughly, " when there's noth- 
 ing else in the wind ; but when you stand a good 
 chance to get your request, or at all events to be 
 roasted like a rat in a trap " 
 
 With a piercing shriek another lady sprang 
 from her berth. ' ' What do you say ? " she cried, 
 frantically. " Stewardess ! stewardess ! come to 
 me directly ! Are we in danger ? You must 
 help me." 
 
 *' 'Deed, then, you seem well able to help your- 
 self, judging by the noise," was the cool rejoin- 
 der. The grim insolence of this courageous 
 woman at the moment was undoubtedly a happy 
 inspiration, which did much to prevent a helpless 
 state of panic in the ladies' cabin. She was ably 
 assisted by Gertrude, the two Sisters of Charity, 
 find Mary Burt, the young English girl. But
 
 SIXG ULARL Y DEL UDED. 9! 
 
 still, with all the authority of self-possession and 
 courage to help them, they found it hard enough 
 to get the other ladies up, owing to the abject 
 terror which paralyzed some, and the aimless rush- 
 ing hither and thither of others, whom fear had 
 made too frantic either to order or obey. 
 
 " Have we got in, my dear ? or is something 
 the matter ? " an elderly lady with a sweet anx- 
 ious face asked Gertrude, speaking quietly, how- 
 ever, when the latter came to her berth to beg 
 her to get up. 
 
 "Something is the matter," Gertrude an- 
 swered, without haste or flurry. "Let me help 
 you to get some things on. The ship is on fire."
 
 ga SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE old lady sat up immediately. She was 
 in an upper berth, and had gone regularly to 
 bed. 
 
 " I am rather stiff/' she said to Gertrude. 
 '' Could you kindly help me to get down ? " 
 
 Then Mary Burt came, and the two together 
 dressed her completely in a few seconds. Just as 
 they had finished, the cabin door was burst open 
 impetuously, and a sandy-haired young man, 
 much freckled, with a wide mouth, flat nose, and 
 laughing blue eyes, dressed in shirt and trousers 
 only, barefooted, and with his braces hanging 
 down behind, rushed in. He had a life-belt on 
 his shoulder. 
 
 " Oh, mama, there yon are ! " he said, cheer- 
 fully, to the sweet little elderly lady. "You 
 really do look nice, but you just want this to 
 complete your costoom," and he carefully put the 
 life-belt round her. "Now, old lady, just take 
 my arm and let me escort you." 
 
 " But these two young ladies ?" she said, smil- 
 ing up at him, but hanging back. 
 
 " Duty first," he said, puffing himself out 
 with a fine affectation of importance, and hurrying
 
 SINGULARL V DEL U)ED. 93 
 
 her out as he spoke. " I'll just see you safe on 
 deck, and then I'll look after the girls." 
 
 Now that the door was open, those below could 
 hear what was said by the hoarse voices shouting 
 incessantly to each other above, and just at this 
 moment they heard the order bawled : " Bring up 
 the women ! There's not a moment to be lost ! " 
 and as if to emphasize it, the atmosphere of the 
 ladies' cabin began to grow thick with smoke. 
 Several of the ladies shrieked hysterically, which 
 made the stewardess more irascible than ever. 
 She said it was just the kind of thing she could 
 not stand, and beginning with the nearest, she 
 was apparently going all round to shake them 
 one by one into their senses methodically. But 
 several gentlemen now came to the rescue, and in 
 a few seconds, by dint of pulling, hauling, driv- 
 ing, and coaxing, the more helpless were safely hud- 
 dled up on deck, the others following as they were 
 able. Gertrude was the last to leave the cabin, 
 having been obliged to return for a lovely little 
 child who was lame. His mother had gone her- 
 self and forgotten him ! The scene on deck for 
 those who had courage and leisure lo observe it 
 was at once grand and appalling. The fire was 
 in the fore-part of the ship. The engines had 
 stopped, and the vessel had headed up to the wind, 
 which now blew the smoke and flame aft in scorch- 
 ing, suffocating volumes. The pumps were still 
 going frantically, and besides these a chain of men,
 
 94 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. } 
 
 mostly passengers, in motley garb night-shirts, 
 day-shirts, many-hued flannel or cotton shirts, no 
 ghirts at all, but drawers or trousers, often and 
 evidently not belonging to the wearer, judging 
 by the fit and all more or less scorched and be- 
 grimed, passed buckets full of water to the fire, 
 and back again empty to the side of the vessel, 
 where two men with ropes and hooks at the end 
 of them, with almost rhythmical regularity, con- 
 tinually filled them afresh in the sea. There was 
 silence save for the shouting of directions, which 
 was repeated from one to the other, and such 
 perfect order prevailed that had it not been for 
 the sight of fire, which is always terrific, no cause 
 for alarm would have been apparent. The cap- 
 tain was as cool as when he left port that night, 
 and his officers supported him manfully, while 
 the conduct of the crew and most of the passengers 
 left nothing to be desired. Some, in fact, of the 
 latter behaved heroically. But all their efforts 
 only sufficed to check the fire for a time, never for 
 a moment were they able to control it. There were 
 a hundred and fifty passengers on board, over 
 sixty of whom were women ; and there were about 
 fifteen children, nearly all babies in arms. The 
 greater number of women and children were 
 second-class passengers ; but all were huddled to- 
 gether now in the after-part of the ship, the work- 
 ing-women generally setting an example of patient 
 fortitude which might have made many of their
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 95 
 
 so-called betters blush. As usual, however, in 
 times of great excitement, the best as well as the 
 worst traits of character were freely exhibited. 
 Many a brave kind word was spoken, many a gen- 
 erous act performed in those few awful minutes, 
 and much of the finest, most self-sacrificing devo- 
 tion was displayed, side by side with craven terror 
 and despair of the selfish, abject kind which is des- 
 picable. 
 
 " They want more hands there to help with the 
 buckets," a brawny working-woman remarked. 
 " If some one would hold my baby " 
 
 " Give him to me ! " exclaimed a young gentle- 
 woman, stepping forward, a delicate-looking crea- 
 ture, only half-dressed. " I can't lift a bucket, 
 I'm ashamed to say, but I can mind a baby." 
 
 "Well done for you, Miss!" another woman 
 exclaimed fervently. " I've got a broken arm, 
 more's the pity, or I'd go myself. But my man's 
 there. That's him, that big fine chap close up to 
 the fire," she added, with pardonable pride. 
 
 Just then a lady broke from the group, and 
 rushing up to the captain, seized his arm : " I'll 
 give you twenty thousand pounds if you'll put m 
 into a boat," she cried. 
 
 " We'll find a seat for you in one of them, if 
 there's room, by and by," the captain said. "' But 
 all the money in the Bank of England wouldn't 
 buy you a boat just now, madam," and he put her 
 aside with more force than feeling.
 
 96 SINGULARLY DELt7DE&. 
 
 The men raised a derisive cheer. The wretched 
 creature sank on the deck paralyzed with terror, 
 and the two French sisters, themselves as calm 
 and unruffled as when they sat in the cabin, went 
 forward and charitably lifted her out of the way. 
 
 " Steady, my men ! Quick there with the 
 water ! " the captain shouted. 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir ! " was the cheerful response. 
 
 " Hold on there ! you're too near," a warning 
 voice exclaimed. 
 
 " Ah, he's down, poor fellow ! " 
 
 " Drag him out of that, he'll be burnt." 
 
 " He is burnt. 
 
 "No, only scorched and suffocated. Lend a 
 hand to drag him abaft the capstan." 
 
 " It's my man ! Ah knowed he'd do his best ! " 
 the woman with the broken arm declared, trium- 
 phantly. 
 
 " Eh, ma'am, he has indeed," another woman 
 commented. " Ef he never does a hand's turn 
 again, you'll have your comfort." 
 
 The women had brought the poor fellow aft by 
 this time. 
 
 " He's only fainted," Mrs. Eedmond said. 
 She was the gentle little elderly lady whom Ger- 
 trude had helped to dress. " He'll recover pres- 
 ently." 
 
 " Or know no more about it," her son observed, 
 in the cheerfullest way. . 
 
 Gertrude was standing beside him ; and just at
 
 ftfG ULARLY DEL tfDED. ft 
 
 the moment, her lately seasick enemy, quite mad 
 with terror now, apparently, her eyes flaring, her 
 gray hair streaming, sprang up among them, 
 shrieking "Fire ! fire! " and before any one could 
 prevent her, or even guess her intention, sprang to 
 the gap in the bulwark, where the men stood draw- 
 ing up water, and plunged headlong into the sea. 
 
 " That's the first," Arthur Redmond remarked 
 to Gertrude, in his curiously cheerful way. 
 
 " Oh, can't she be saved ? " the latter cried 
 horror-stricken, as she vainly peered over the 
 vessel's side into the darkness. 
 
 " Impossible 1 " was the answer. " There's 
 too many of you for that. You cheapen your- 
 selves by being so plentiful. Here, madam," he 
 said to a lady, who was beginning to show symp- 
 toms of hysterics. " Here's yesterday's paper, 
 and there's plenty of light. Just make yourself 
 agreeable by reading it aloud to us. It will help 
 to beguile the time." Then, turning to Gertrude, 
 he observed, admiringly, " You don't seem to be 
 in much of a way about yourself. You're a rifht 
 one, you are ! " 
 
 " I can't return the compliment," she retorted 
 severely. " I think you ought to be helping, a 
 great fellow liko you. Why, I believe your en joy- 
 ing it." 
 
 " So I am," he said, " so I am ; and I'm not 
 idle either," he proceeded, in a leisurely way. 
 " Look at our hysterical friend with the news-
 
 9& StNGULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 paper. She isn't reading it, but she's as good aa 
 gold now. I'll put you in the Times to-morrow," 
 he told her, encouragingly, " ' Disastrous fire on 
 board a passenger steamer I Heroic conduct of a 
 lady \> 
 
 The other women laughed at this, and the 
 young fellow strayed off again in an apparently 
 purposeless manner ; but Gertrude noticed that 
 he lent a hand here and there by the way, and 
 whenever he spoke the flagging spirits of the men 
 revived, and wherever he went he left some sign 
 of his genial influence. 
 
 " He's always like that," his mother said fondly 
 " always doing something for somebody ; and, 
 my dear, the best and kindest son alive." 
 
 * A wise son maketh a glad mother," an elderly 
 working- woman responded ; and the familiar copy- 
 book phrase sounded strangely pathetic, as did 
 also the many touching little confidences they made 
 to each other from time to time. Gertrude spoke 
 of her own baby boy, and of the dreadful mys- 
 tery of her husband's disappearance, and those 
 about her listened, commented, suggested, forget- 
 ting their own position for the moment in the 
 curious interest of the story. The two French 
 sisters knelt on the deck and prayed, with serenely 
 beautiful upturned faces, and by degrees many of 
 the other women joined them, and grew calm. 
 
 And ever the terrible fire raged higher and 
 hotter. Gertrude could not pray ; but her
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 99 
 
 courage never forsook her, and she noticed every- 
 thing the darkness of the night beyond the blaze, 
 the upheaval of the vessel on the waves, the sway- 
 ing and balancing of the men as they stood, with 
 legs apart, and feet firm planted on the deck, keep- 
 ing their places with difficulty, as the vessel rolled 
 in the trough of the sea, or rose to a wave and 
 pitched, but working always. And the silence, too, 
 she noticed, and then the constant breaking of 
 the same by an order, a pious ejaculation, or an 
 oath. Seeing every detail of the scene as she did 
 in her quiet clear-headed way, made it appear as if 
 she had been watching it for hours ; but, in truth, 
 little more than half of one sufficed to show that 
 the fire would conquer its foes. The handful of 
 brave and resoiute men were beaten back step by 
 step, fighting for every inch of solid plank, and 
 fighting to the last, even after the most sanguine 
 had ceased to hope. But the struggle was worse 
 than useless a mere waste of most precious time, 
 as it seemed at last, and now the order came : 
 twenty men, picked out by name, and the two 
 chief officers, to lower away the boats and see the 
 women safe on board them, the rest to stick to 
 their posts and fight with the fire to the last. 
 The ranks were considerably thinned by the 
 twenty-two men told off for duty with the boats 
 stepping out from them ; but the others showed 
 no sign of wavering, beyond the inevitable re- 
 treat before the flames, which raged more and
 
 I oo SING ULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 more fiercely every minute. " Well done, my 
 men ! " the captain cried. " All the world will 
 be speaking of your pluck by this time to-morrow. 
 And there's a chance for us all yet. We're 
 making light enough to be seen ten miles off ! 
 There'll be something come to the rescue pres- 
 ently. But off with the women ! " 
 
 The boats were lowered by this time only 
 three, alas ! and one of these a mere dingey. The 
 sea was rough enough to make even the burning 
 ship seem safer than those little tossing atoms of 
 wood beside it, and the women held back. The 
 companion-ladder had been let down, but it was 
 difficult to keep a boat alongside it, and a horrible 
 gulf of shining black water continually yawned 
 between. In the little pause that ensued, Ger- 
 trude looked round for young Redmond. He was 
 at the other side of the deck, trying to cut a life- 
 belt loose that was fastened by wire to the bul- 
 wark, as if, when it was made fast, the end and 
 object of its existence was accomplished ; and as he 
 pulled and tugged at it he cheered himself in an 
 absent way by whistling a plaintive tune. When 
 at last he had succeeded in disengaging it, Ger- 
 trude was a little curious to know what he would 
 do with it wear it himself, she supposed ; but 
 somewhat to her surprise, he brought it to her in 
 his leisurely way, remarking, " Mama looks quite 
 nice in hers, doesn't she ? " and he nodded his 
 head over his shoulder toward the little gentle-
 
 StNGULARL y DEL UDED. i&i 
 
 woman who stood clinging to the bulwark to steady 
 herself. Her face was very pale, but she was quite 
 calm, and a little smile of motherly pride and 
 affection hovered about her lips as she watched 
 her son, from whom she never moved her eyes. 
 " Chirrupy old girl, ain't she ? " that youth went 
 on. "Now you may guess which side of the 
 family I take after. I thought it my duty to fix 
 her up first with a life-belt. Duty first, pleasure 
 afterward. Eh ? This is for you," and he 
 fastened the belt round Gertrude carefully. But 
 now the moment had come fora move to he made, 
 and the women still hung back from the boats. 
 .Gertrude handed Mrs. Redmond the little lame 
 child. "Go first/' she said, "to encourage 
 them." 
 
 " She's right, mama," her son exclaimed. 
 "Somebody must go first." 
 
 " But you, my son ? " 
 
 " mother I you would not take me away when 
 I'm so useful ? " 
 
 A painful spasm contracted her placid face for 
 a moment ; but in that moment she had made the 
 sacrifice, and like a true gentlewoman she made 
 it cheerfully. " God be with you and bless you, my 
 only child," she said, reaching up to kiss him. 
 
 The laughing blue eyes grew deep and tender 
 for an instant. ''Into His hands I commend my 
 spirit," the young man answered with a reverent 
 gesture, and so they parted.
 
 102 STNG ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 All the men who were not engaged in getting 
 the women into the boats were still hard at work 
 battling with the fire not that there was any hope 
 of subduing it, or even of checking it perceptibly 
 now ; but the captain saw the wisdom of keeping 
 them to it till the last, in order to divert their 
 attention from their own position. The men were 
 hidden entirely from the women, who were 
 now all huddled about the gangway, by dense vol- 
 umes of smoke, which would lift at intervals and 
 clear, allowing them to appear again, looking like 
 demons, with the red glare of the fire behind them. 
 The captain had stood on the bridge so far, direct- 
 ing them, but now the blinding scorching smoke 
 drove him from thence ; and his presence would 
 have been required on the deck at any rate, for 
 ominous looks were being cast at the boats, and 
 the natural instinct of self-preservation was evi- 
 dently threatening to get the better of the disci- 
 pline which had hitherto been so admirably main- 
 tained. Oaths were being freely bandied about, 
 shouts and howls would be heard above the fire at 
 times, making it seem as if all pandemonium were 
 let loose on deck ; but insubordination was mot at 
 once by the rough-and-ready condign punishment 
 of a knock-down blow, and the captain had leveled 
 his revolver at a fellow who had made a move for 
 the gangway. But every moment it became ap* 
 parent that a fight for the boats was imminent, 
 and now the word was quietly passed from on?
 
 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 103 
 
 to the other : " Gentlemen, close up round the 
 gangway ;" and it was understood at once that the 
 object was to defend it. There was a confused 
 movement among the men. All were in rags 
 alike, with the exception of the ship's officers, who 
 had not turned in at all, and some few passengers 
 who had not undressed, and these were begrimed 
 with smoke and drenched with water till they 
 looked as bad as the mob of tatterdemalions by 
 whom they were surrounded. No eye could have 
 told a gentleman from a navvy when the order 
 was given ; but during the few seconds of confusion 
 which followed, a separation of classes as distinct 
 as first and third took place, and the gentlemen 
 in tatters, with some few who would not have been 
 recognized as gentlemen elsewhere, but who now 
 proved their right to the appellation by being 
 there, had formed a semicircle, within which was 
 the group of frightened women, round the gang- 
 way, and turned a bold front to the men who had 
 worked with them shoulder to shoulder so gal- 
 lantly, suffering the torture of scorching fire, and 
 scalding steam, and blinding, suffocating smoke, 
 and the risk of a horrid death for more than an 
 honr, but were now, such is the uncertainty of 
 poor weak human nature, suddenly transformed 
 into ferocious savages, expressing with threatening 
 gestures their determination to save themselves, 
 no matter who might perish. And so far as many 
 of them were concerned, a very few minutes de-
 
 1 04 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. 
 
 cided it. But all that Gertrude knew of it was, 
 that on a sudden there arose a great uproar, un- 
 like anything that had preceded it, then men 
 hurled each other to the deck, falling with great 
 thuds, and lying there while others trampled over 
 them, and pressed each other backward into the 
 fire also, and swarmed up the rigging, and dropped 
 from thence again, falling into the black and shin- 
 ing water like wingless insects, seen for a mo- 
 ment by the light, of the burning ship, and then 
 gone beyond its radius, gone to eternity many of 
 them, sacrificed, with help at hand, to the blind 
 fury of that senseless panic. A shot or two was 
 fired, the order was given for the boats to shove 
 off, and then all at once there seemed to be a great 
 silence, accentuated, as it were, by the roar of 
 the fire and the crackle of the spars as it devoured 
 them. 
 
 " You'd better step into the water now," young 
 Redmond suggested to Gertrude politely, at the 
 same time handing her to the gangway. But she 
 hung back with unconquerable aversion. The 
 dark water appalled her. " Oh, I see," he went 
 on. " You don't like to leave the ship until they 
 collect the tickets like to do everything in order, 
 eh ? Well, there's the captain, trying to deprive 
 that Sister of Charity of her martyrdom, do 
 and take leave of him, and thank him for a 
 pleasant passage. By Jove ! " in an another tone 
 "if you don't leave the ship, she'll leave you,"
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 105 
 
 The vessel had given an unaccountable lurch. 
 Gertrude looked round iu a frightened way. The 
 two Sisters of Charity were still kneeling on the 
 deck, side by side, in rapt devotion. Every per- 
 suasion had failed to move them. They had 
 determined to be martyrs, and were enjoying the 
 position thoroughly in their own way. The cap- 
 tain left them now and came to Gertrude. She 
 had refused to take her place in the boats while 
 she had a chance, making way for more terrified 
 women, and staying till the last to encourage the 
 timid ; and now there was nothing for it but to 
 take to the water or go down with the ship. 
 
 " Come ! " the captain and young Redmond 
 both exclaimed in a breath, each taking a hand. 
 They stood in the breach between the bulwarks 
 fora moment. "A long jump now," said the 
 captain, "and we're clear of the ship. One, two, 
 three " and at the word they jumped, still hold- 
 ing each other's hands. The captain let go as 
 they touched the water, which splashed cold 
 round Gertrude, with a painful shock that made 
 her gasp ; but she clung convulsively to young 
 Eedmond, and did not go under because of the 
 life-belt. They must have dropped into a strong 
 current, for they were immediately swept astern 
 of the blazing ship, which loomed for an instant 
 above them, and then fell back, as it were, into 
 the night, which it lit like a beacon. 
 
 " You are pulling me under I " Gertrude ex-
 
 ^jo6 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 claimed. Young Redmond had been clutching 
 her by the arm. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," he gasped politely, at the 
 same time loosening his hold. 
 
 Gertrude could see his face at the moment. 
 The laughing blue eyes, the bright frank smile, 
 the careless air, every characteristic of the brave 
 and happy boy, appeared to her in that instant, 
 ennobled, however, by something beyond all that 
 and then he was a yard away and then she saw 
 that he was sinking and could not swim. With a 
 cry she made a violent effort to reach him, but the 
 life-belt kept her floating on top of the water like 
 a cork, and, struggle as she would, she made no 
 way. She was at the mercy of the winds and 
 waves like any cork ; the water filled her ears and 
 eyes and nose and mouth. Deaf, dumb, and blind, 
 she was conscious of turning over and over, and 
 then in an agony of terror she seemed to shoot 
 down into a black interminable gulf, out of sight, 
 out of mind, a horrid, helpless, suffocating rush, 
 at the end of which she ceased to be.
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 107 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ROCK, rock, rock, rock from side to side, 
 slowly and with every now and then a just per- 
 ceptible pause, as if the monotonous movement 
 caused fatigue ; and the impulse was to rest had 
 rest been permitted, which was apparently not 
 the case, for the rocking never ceased rock, 
 rock, rock, rock, with a sort of running accom- 
 paniment and gurgle and splash of water in re- 
 sponse to the swaying, and the sound of voices, 
 either muffled by distance or subdued so as not to 
 be heard this is what Gertrude's mind awoke to. 
 
 She was lying on her back. Her head rolled 
 holplessly from side to side, and she felt the dis- 
 comfort, but she did not at first think of prevent- 
 ing it by a voluntary effort. In the end, how- 
 ever, it served to arouse her. Instinctively she 
 tried to steady herself, and at- the same time 
 she found strength to open her eyes and look 
 op. Above her shone a world of stars set in the 
 indigo darkness of a clear night sky. "Where was 
 she ? "What had happened ? Ah ! it was pain- 
 ful the rush of recollection. Her husband the 
 ship the fire drowning ! But she was not 
 drowned. She was wet and cold and weak and
 
 1 08 SINGULAR*, y 
 
 miserable, but she was alive ; and this was a 
 fishing-smack, and that was its big brown sail, 
 and those men in blue jerseys over there round 
 the stove were sailors, and the one face among 
 them which struck her as familiar she presently 
 recognized as that of the captain of the steamer. 
 They had been saved, then, and were going on 
 somewhere. Where ? There are so many places 
 one can go to in a ship. She tried to think. She 
 was quite conscious of making the effort. And 
 then, all at once, she found herself lying beside 
 the fire leaning against somebody who was forc- 
 ing her to drink something hot, while the sailors 
 in blue jerseys, with great boots, and canvas 
 trousers tar-besprent, and long sou'- westers painted 
 yellow, lounged or sat around and contemplated 
 her, with a large silent interest that was impres- 
 sive. 
 
 " We'll get her in" in twenty minutes," one of 
 them remarked. He alluded to the boat, but 
 Gertrude thought he meant herself, and tried to 
 thank him. 
 
 Then came another interval of silence, which 
 was broken by trampling feet, clanking blocks, 
 hoarse shouts, and a wild confusion of tongues in 
 the midst of which Gertrude felt herself lifted up 
 carefully and carried off she knew not whither, 
 nor did she trouble to inquire. 
 
 Had she kept her consciousness a few minutes 
 longer when she was in the water, she would have
 
 SING ULA RL y DEL UDED. 1 09 
 
 seen the night become alive with twinkling lights. 
 A ship on fire conld not fail to attract attention 
 in those busy waters. It had been seen at St. 
 Malo, and also at the Channel Islands, and boats 
 were heading toward it from every direction to 
 render assistance, and were close at hand at the 
 very time that the panic broke out among the 
 men and so many lives were lost. They might 
 have expected help, considering their where* 
 abouts ; but they could not have seen it approach- 
 ing, for the blaze of the fire was so fierce that 
 those on board the steamer could see nothing be- 
 yond it. As it was, however, many were saved, 
 among whom were the two French Sisters of 
 Charity in spite of themselves, an intrepid sailor 
 of gigantic stature having ventured on to the 
 burning deck, picked them up, and carried them 
 off, one under each arm, in a scorched condition, 
 without ceremony. It was a serious disappoint- 
 ment to them, which saddened them for the rest 
 of their natural lives. When either of them told 
 the story, she would shake her head at the end of 
 it, and add sorrowfully, " Je n'etais pas digne 1 " 
 She was not worthy to be made a martyr. 
 
 Young Kedmond was not among those who 
 were saved. The captain, himself a strong swim- 
 mer, had been attracted by Gertrude's cries, and 
 come to the rescue ; but the lad sank before he 
 reached him, and had never risen again. There 
 was therefore one martyr made that night not
 
 1 1 o SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 the boy himself, but the mother, who was left to 
 linger on a lonely life for years and mourn him. 
 
 It was back to Southampton that Gertrude had 
 been taken. In her weak, exhausted condition 
 she troubled herself little enough at first about 
 events past, present, or to come. Passively she 
 submitted to be taken to a big hotel, and put to 
 bed by some kindly women folk ; passively she 
 gave her sister-in-law's address, when asked if she 
 wished to telegraph to any friend ; passively she 
 took some restoratives that were brought her, and 
 then she slept. It had been the very luxury of 
 languor, a state of mind to be envied by the angels, 
 who, we infer, suffer still, since it is possible to 
 make them weep. But Gertrude had got beyond 
 all that for the moment. This last calamity was 
 in reality a blessing to her, a relief to her mind, 
 which, when she awoke late in the afternoon, was 
 probably fresher and more vigorous than it would 
 have been had her voyage been uninterrupted, 
 and no such rest been forced upon it. 
 
 She was not surprised when she awoke to see 
 her sister-in-law sitting in the window in her 
 strong, self-contained way, bolt upright, working 
 busily but quietly at a piece of embroidery. 
 
 "Is there any news?" was Gertrude's first 
 question. 
 
 " None," was the laconic response. 
 
 " Have you brought my things ? " 
 
 " Yes ; all that you brought to my house."
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDE&. lit 
 
 " In that case I shall be able to leave by to- 
 night's boat." 
 
 " I thought you would wish to. How do you 
 feel ? " 
 
 "Quite well. I shall get up at once." 
 
 "I dare say you will be in time, in spite of this 
 mishap," Miss Somers said cheerfully, as she rolled 
 up her work. " You will only have missed one 
 Guernsey boat, you know, and it is hardly likely 
 that he would leave by that. It would be just 
 going from one steamer to another if he did, and 
 I rather fancy he will be more in the mood for 
 loitering than for haste." 
 
 It was in the chill gray early morning that the 
 steamer with Gertrude on board touched the pier 
 at St. Malo next day. The passage had been 
 rapid, quiet, and uneventful, as generally happens 
 the day after an accident ; but the few passengers 
 who had ventured to cross had been fidgety, 
 frightened, and troublesome, as is also usually the 
 case on such occasions. The ladies refused to un- 
 dress, and everybody was on the alert all night. 
 The stewardess, who had been rescued from the 
 burning steamer, was being taken across to come 
 back with another of the company's vessels from 
 St. Malo next day ; and Gertrude had the pleasure 
 of finding Mary Burt, the young English girl who 
 had behaved with such coolness and courage the 
 night before, among the passengers. She had 
 left the ship in one of the boats, been picked up
 
 I i 2 StNGULA&L Y DELUDES. 
 
 by a passing steamer, and landed in Southampton, 
 nothing the worse for the experience. Unfor- 
 tunately for the three, the other passengers dis- 
 covered that they were survivors, and besieged 
 them with such attentions as the desire to hear 
 all about it, and to be able to tell afterward how 
 they had talked familiarly with some who had been 
 rescued from deadly peril only so short a time be- 
 fore, suggested. The consequence was, that Ger- 
 trude found herself on arriving somewhat worn ; 
 but she was ready to land at once nevertheless, 
 and stood waiting on deck while the gangway was 
 being got ready. The scene with its strangeness 
 struck her dismally, but more because it was 
 strange, and because she was there alone for the 
 first time in her life, without any one she loved 
 to sympathize with her feeling about it, than be- 
 cause of any unloveliness in what she saw. On 
 the contrary, in spite of the somewhat somber 
 grayness which prevailed, all was passably pictur- 
 esque, and foreign, which is another charm. She 
 had not much time, however, to become ac- 
 quainted with the roadway bordered with trees, 
 the tall gray houses with their small windows, 
 flush with the walls, or seeming so, and the people 
 mostly market-women in white caps and sabots ; 
 and the porteurs, with hair like blacking-brushes, 
 red woolen caps and blue blouses for her atten- 
 sion was almost immediately caught by the deaf- 
 ening noise that a steamer, fastened to the pier
 
 SINGULAR!. Y DEL UDED. 1 13 
 
 just behind the one she was on, was making blow- 
 ing off steam. 
 
 "Do you know what boat that is?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " The Guernsey boat just in," was the answer. 
 
 In a moment Gertrude's active practical mind 
 was on the alert. " Just in ? " Then probably 
 he had not landed. 
 
 She hurried on board, and asked, in her haste, 
 for "Mr. Leslie Somers." 
 
 It was one of the ship's officers to whom she 
 had addressed herself. He did not know the 
 passengers, but went politely to inquire. The 
 people were bustling on shore by this time, and 
 Gertrude eagerly watched them while she waited. 
 Presently the officer returned with the list of pas- 
 sengers, and remarked that "Mr. Leslie Somers" 
 was not among them. 
 
 " Ah ! " Gertrude exclaimed. " Did I say 
 Leslie Somers ? I meant Lawrence Soames." 
 
 The officer looked at her as if he thought her 
 a little demented,- but handed her the list. " Per- 
 haps you'll know the name whan you see it," he 
 remarked. 
 
 "Oh, he has come!" she cried, overjoyed. 
 " Is he below still ? I must go to him at 
 once.** 
 
 "Ill go and see, Miss, if you like," the officer 
 said, with a grin. 
 
 " I should be much obliged if you would," Ger-
 
 X 1 4 SINGULAR!. Y DEL UDED. 
 
 trude rejoined. "He does not expect me " she 
 hesitated awkwardly. " I am his wife will you 
 kindly tell him I am here ? " 
 
 The officer withdrew, leaving Gertrude almost 
 overpowered with the sense of a great relief. 
 Whatever state of mind he might be in, she knew 
 that, so long as she was with him, she could suffer 
 nothing like the anxiety and misery of the last 
 few days. 
 
 But a fresh check awaited her. Mr. Lawrence 
 Soames, it seemed, had gone on shore the mo- 
 ment they got in. He had, however, left some of 
 his luggage, saying he would send for it or fetch 
 it by and by. Nobody knew where he had gone 
 and there was but one thing for Gertrude to do 
 viz., to stay with the luggage. Heart-sick with 
 the disappointment, and faint for want of food 
 for she had not been able to eat that morning 
 she dropped into a seat on deck ; but a man came 
 immediately, having apparently been sent, and 
 shouted about her in a general way, " All who 
 have no business on board must leave the ship at 
 once." 
 
 She got up wearily. " Would they let me 
 wait, I wonder, if they knew ? " she said to her- 
 self. Then, addressing the bawling man, she 
 asked for the captain. 
 
 "The captain's very busy, Miss," he answered, 
 looking hard at her purse, which she was holding 
 in her hand ; " but I think I could manage it,"
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 1 1 5 
 
 he added, with an unmistakable if -yon-make- it- 
 worth-my- while air. 
 
 Gertrude gave him half a crown, and presently 
 he returned, followed by the captain, a tall, dark, 
 thin man, with a worried irritable air. 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " he said, not over-cour- 
 teously. 
 
 " I came to meet my husband/' Gertrude ex- 
 plained ; " but he has gone on shore and left no 
 message, and I don't know where to find him. 
 He has left his luggage, though. May I stay here 
 and wait till he comes for it ? " 
 
 The captain frowned. " It's against the rules," 
 he said roughly. " Passengers must all go ashore 
 as soon as the ship's in. How'd we ever get her 
 cleaned up if we let you hang about the decks all 
 day?" 
 
 Gertrude drew herself up. " I beg your par- 
 don," she said, proudly. "I had no idea of 
 inconveniencing you to such a great extent," 
 and she turned on her heel and immediately 
 left the ship, the captain watching her irreso- 
 lutely. 
 
 " Go after her and tell her I don't mind," he 
 roared at last at the man she had sent to fetch 
 him, as if the latter were responsible for his bad 
 temper. 
 
 " But / do," was Gertrude's answer when the 
 message was delivered to her. 
 
 Human nature will out, and in the midst of all
 
 her anxiety she could not stifle her pride enough 
 to accept the favor of a seat on his ship at the 
 hands of such a boor, so she decided to wait and 
 watch upon the quay.
 
 SIMG ULARL Y DEL UDED. 1 1 ? 
 
 IT was an uncomfortable, not to say a galling, 
 position for a young and delicately nurtured 
 gentlewoman, loitering about on that foreign 
 quay, among the crowd of sailors, porters, and, 
 more offensive still, the idle loungers, with leisure 
 to observe her and become curious about her ob- 
 ject. She was afraid to go far from the gangway r 
 and there was no seat near it, nor even a post to 
 lean against. She was afraid to walk up and 
 down lest her husband's messenger, who might 
 be on board the ship even then for anything she 
 knew, should leave it with the luggage when her 
 back was turned. Providence had favored her 
 search so far she had all but succeeded, and 
 failure at this last moment seemed impossible ; 
 but her anxiety was trebled, nevertheless, and 
 an unbearable feeling of irritation, the conse- 
 quence of over-excitement and the abnormal ten- 
 sion of her nerves, began to oppress her. She 
 would have given anything for a glass of water 
 anything to sit down yet she could not stand 
 still. 
 
 This was the most trying experience she had 
 had yet. It was worse in its way than the burn-
 
 1 1 8 S1NGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 ing ship. Up and and down she paced from the edge 
 of the quay to the road, walking beside the planks 
 down which the cargo from the ship was being 
 wheeled, so as not to lose sight of the gangway; 
 hustled and jostled by men carrying heavy weights, 
 abused with round oaths in the Breton patois for 
 getting in the way, and, worse still, admired and 
 openly complimented on her good points, fortu- 
 nately in terms which she did not understand, 
 though she might, had she been less preoccupied, 
 have guessedsomething of the matter from the man- 
 ner of the speech through it all, and feeling it all 
 in a way, she stuck to her post. Bui her face grew 
 pale, her eyes haggard, her gait uncertain ; and 
 any observer with the least sympathy must have 
 been struck with the terrible anxiety expressed, 
 like Cressida's character to the shrewd old man, 
 in " every joint and motive of her body." 
 
 \nd, meantime, the morning mist had cleared 
 away. The sun came out and dried the roadways. 
 The dust began to blow about. Tourists and 
 summer visitors staying in St. Malo began to ap- 
 pear and pass the ladies in fresh toilets, the men- 
 with sun-umbrellas, light clothing, and blue glasses 
 to keep off the glare. 
 
 Gertrude had not thought of her luggage since 
 she left her own steamer, but seeing a trunk car- 
 ried past that somewhat resembled her own re- 
 minded her of the necessity of getting it passed 
 through the douane, ready to carry off with her
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 1 19 
 
 at a moment's notice. But how should she man- 
 age it ? She could not leave her post, and if she 
 sent a messenger, he would not know her things : 
 besides, whom could she trust ? The douane was 
 close by. . She might perhaps get some one to 
 watch for her, with orders to come and fetch her 
 if her husband or his messenger should arrive. It 
 would take a little time to collect his things he 
 seemed to have more than the bag now and get 
 them off the ship ; he would not come and go in 
 a moment. But no ; it would be a risk, and if 
 she had to travel over Europe till the dress she 
 stood in dropped off, she would not run it. 
 
 While she was standing on the edge of the quay, 
 cogitating, she gradually became aware of a new 
 discomfort. For some time past she had noticed, 
 without much heeding, an elderly Frenchman, 
 evidently a gentleman, loitering near her. She 
 had not wasted a thought upon him, but now, 
 turning round suddenly, she was quite startled 
 to find him standing close beside her, eying her 
 with that bold, admiring glance which is either 
 ridiculous or revolting to a woman, according to 
 her mood at the moment ; and it then occurred to 
 her that she herself was the object of his attentions. 
 For a moment she was afraid he was going to 
 speak to her, and involuntarily she looked round 
 for a protector. The officer to whom she had 
 addressed herself on going on board the steamer 
 was standing just above her, leaning over the bu^
 
 120 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. 
 
 warks, evidently watching the little scene below. 
 Gertrude's wits were sharpened by the emergency. 
 The young man had a pleasant face, and there 
 was something in it at the moment which seemed 
 to indicate all an Englishman's objection to allow 
 a countrywoman to be insulted, especially by a 
 foreigner. 
 
 "Do come to me !" Gertrude exclaimed, and 
 the next instant he had vaulted over the bulwark, 
 and was standing beside her on the quay. 
 
 The Frenchman, probably feeling himself no 
 match for the brawny young Briton, withdrew 
 scowling. 
 
 " I was afraid he was going to speak to me/' 
 Gertrude said. 
 
 " Well, yes, I guess he was," the young man 
 answered, complacently, well pleased with his own 
 prowess, and not inclined to cheapen it by denying 
 the necessity. 
 
 " It is dreadful waiting here," poor Gertrude 
 complained, with a sort of dry sob. 
 
 " Then why do you wait ? " he answered, with 
 the familiar gaucherie of his class. 
 
 " I am waiting for my husband." 
 
 " Yes, but why not wait at a hotel, and leave 
 word where you've gone to ? This is no place for 
 a girl let alone a lady/' he added. 
 
 " My husband might not come to me/' she 
 answered, despondingly.
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 121 
 
 " Have you quarreled ? " he asked, without 
 delicacy. 
 
 "No," she replied, then looked at him. His 
 manners were unpolished, and he was rather 
 common, not at all a gentleman in fact, but he 
 had a good honest English face, and her woman's 
 insight urged her to trust him. She was sorely in 
 need of help, and here probably was just what she 
 wanted. " I am in great trouble, "she said, look- 
 ing up at the young man appealingly. "My hus- 
 band is out of his mind. He imagines he is some- 
 body else, and he went away from home suddenly, 
 and I have followed him, and hope to be able to 
 bring him back without publicity. He is suffer- 
 ing from the effects of overwork, and will soon re- 
 cover, the doctor says ; but he is a well-known man, 
 a London barrister, and it would do him harm in 
 his profession if it got into the papers. He would 
 never be made a judge, you know, and now he has 
 every chance of the next vacancy. That is why 
 we are so anxious to keep this quiet. Oh, if you 
 could help me to find him ! " 
 
 " I'm your man," he asserted, bluntly. " And 
 I'm glad you've told me, for when you weren't 
 sure of his name this morning, I thought it looked 
 fishy. I suppose he's took another ? " 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " Well, I'm off duty till midnight, and I'll do 
 anything I can." 
 
 *' Oh, I cannot tell you how grateful I shall
 
 1 2 2 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 6e ! " poor Gertrude exclaimed. " Would you 
 mind waiting here till I get my own luggage 
 through the custom-house ? And will you send 
 for me at once if he comes or sends a messsenger? " 
 
 "All right. Never fear," was the confident re- 
 sponse, and away she 'went, returning in a very 
 short time with a porter carrying her box and 
 bag. 
 
 The young officer met her at the gangway. 
 "You must come on board," he said. 
 
 " Oh, no, 1 can't," she replied, remembering 
 the captain. 
 
 " It's captain's orders," he explained. " Fve 
 told him." 
 
 " Oh, I hope you did not tell that dreadful 
 man ? " 
 
 " Not such a dreadful man neither," he an- 
 swered, slightly huffed. "You don't know the 
 captain. He's all bark but no bite, I can tell you." 
 
 Just then the captain himself appeared. 
 
 " You've been six hours loitering about that 
 quay alone, and in trouble," he roared at her, 
 " and had nothing to do all the time but to come 
 on board, and be among friends. It's just your 
 bad temper that stands in your way. How 
 do you expect to get on in the world at this rate ? 
 It's childish, that's what it is ; and your little 
 face " waxing angrier " is as pinched as if you'd 
 been in want. And likely enough that's it," he 
 added, in a milder tone, as if bleased by his own
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 123 
 
 sagacity. " I'll stake my mother's love you've not 
 had a morsel to-day." 
 
 Gertrude looked up at him with a wan little 
 smile ; something in the tone of his last remark 
 had caused all that was repulsive in his loudness 
 and lanky grimness to disappear, making plain to 
 her a man ashamed of his own kind nature, and 
 always at war with it, to hide it. She followed 
 him to the saloon quite contentedly, and he 
 ordered breakfast for her, scolding all the time, till 
 at last she said, " It is no use pretending to he 
 cross. I see you have the kindest heart on earth. 
 You can never hide it again from me." His 
 mouth relaxed a little at that, and his kind eyes 
 twinkled. He sat down on the other side of the 
 narrow table, and after an explosion or two at 
 the steward, and at Gertrude's small appetite, 
 lowered his loud tone, and listened to her troubles 
 like a human being. 
 
 She waited comfortably on deck under an awn- 
 ing till about four o'clock in the afternoon. She 
 was not of a worrying disposition ; her mind was 
 strong and placid naturally, and she was accord- 
 ingly able to make the most, by resting from all 
 thought of her troubles, of this brief and precious 
 interval of quiet. She had only to wait now ; there 
 was nothing else to be done, and she recognized 
 that fact, and waited calmly, gathering fresh 
 strength the while for what might yet be in store 
 for her. This blessed renewal of strength in
 
 124 S1NGULARL Y DELUDED. 
 
 exhausting emergencies is the reward of patience. 
 We should bear up better under our troubles if 
 we cultivated a cheerful frame of mind as a matter 
 of habit, and forced ourselves to be serene. 
 Gertrude was almost able to amuse herself as she 
 sat there, watching the porteurs toiling in the 
 heat, and interested in the groups of well-dressed 
 people who appeared and passed, or loitered look- 
 ing at the ships. 
 
 But at last the messenger arrived, a porteur 
 from the H6tel des Bains at Dinard. Gertrude 
 had not dared to hope that her husband would 
 come himself, and was therefore not disappointed. 
 The porteur said, "Monsieur Sommes," had de- 
 clared he had seen more pretty women and pink 
 parasols since he landed in Brittany that morning 
 than it had been his luck to encounter anywhere 
 else in six months and he meant to stay a week. 
 Gertrude sighed. Here again it seemed hard 
 that even disease could make her husband, one 
 of the most fastidiously refined of men, so far 
 forget not only her but himself as to speak in 
 tnat common way. 
 
 Her luggage was given to another porteur, and 
 after taking leave of her kind friends on the 
 steamer, with sincere expressions of gratitude, 
 and the captain's name and address written in a 
 savage hand on a huge piece of paper, as if the 
 size of the writing and the sheet were intended to 
 represent the extent of his anxiety to hear of her
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 125 
 
 welfare, she departed not, however, without a 
 last blowing-up, the worst she had had, the trouble 
 being that there was no carriage to be had to take 
 her round the corner to the other landing stage, 
 where the steam ferry-boats pick up passengers 
 for Dinard. 
 
 It was with a light step and a great sense of re- 
 lief that she followed the porteurs to the quay. 
 The prospect of seeing her husband again made 
 her heart bound. Just to see him again, just to be 
 near him, even if she might not touch him, would 
 be new life to her. And it would not be long 
 now, she thought, looking across the strip of water 
 to Dinard ten or twenty minutes at the most. 
 She fancied she saw the steamer starting for St. 
 Malo at that moment. The porteur put her things 
 down on the quay, and demanded payment. The 
 captain had thoughtfully provided her with some 
 French money, otherwise she would have found 
 herself in a fix ; but as it was, she paid the man 
 what he asked on the spot, and he went off at 
 once. The people near her on the quay looked at 
 each other and grinned she wondered why, but 
 by and by when the steamer arrived she under- 
 stood. The wretch had left her to get her lug- 
 gage on board as best she could. The porteur 
 from the H6tel des Bains, who had charge of her 
 husband's luggage, went on board as soon as the 
 little steamer arrived, also leaving her without 
 ceremony to shift for herself. This she could and
 
 126 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 would have done without hesitation had it been 
 possible ; bat her box was an unwieldy one : lift- 
 ing it was out of the question, and she found when 
 she tried that she could not drag it either. She 
 looked round for help in her dilemma. The peo- 
 ple were all hurrying on their own account, and 
 paid no heed to her ; or, if they happened to have 
 arranged their own affairs, and had leisure to ob- 
 serve her, it was without sympathy, and she dared 
 not ask for help. It was her first experience of 
 the world in all its hardness and cruelty. The 
 people about her professed in church to be her 
 brothers and sisters, and to love her as themselves, 
 yet her forlorn position at the moment, a well- 
 dressed girl, alone and unattended, made them 
 suspicions, and her evident need of help caused 
 them to stand aloof. She began to despair. 
 " What shall I do ! " she exclaimed aloud. A 
 good-natured-looking fat old bourgeois going on 
 board at the moment caught the exclamation, un- 
 derstanding the tone rather than the words, and 
 seeing her fix, suggested " Ces gallons la," and 
 passed on. She looked in the direction he had 
 indicated with a backward toss of his head and a 
 shrug, and saw two lads lounging by with their 
 hands in their pockets. She ran after them and 
 brought them back with her. They carried her 
 box on board in a twinkling, and then returning, 
 placed themselves so that she could not pass them 
 to get on board, and demanded a franc apiece for
 
 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 127 
 
 their trouble. There was nothing for it but to 
 pay them. She ought of course to have followed 
 her box on board, but a number of people, late for 
 the steamer, had come hurrying up at the mo- 
 ment, and she had timidly hung back to avoid the 
 crush. She made a frantic dive for her pocket 
 now ; but as usual in these days it was not to be 
 found, the way of modern dressmakers being to 
 consult their own convenience in the arrangement 
 of the drapery, rather than the comfort of their 
 clients. Nearly a minute was lost in this exasper- 
 ating search ; but at last she succeeded in getting 
 out her purse and, having satisfied the young 
 ruffians, turned to go on board the steamer, only 
 to find, however, that the gangway was up, and 
 it was too far from the wharf already for her even 
 to jump the distance. She fairly stamped with 
 rage, and then felt inclined to laugh at her own 
 vehemence. For after all, as an old apple-woman 
 at a stall close by informed her, it was only a mat- 
 ter of half an hour, or an hour at most, till the 
 boat returned, and it was no great hardship wait- 
 ing there on a warm afternoon, with the sapphire 
 sea sparkling at her feet, Dinard with its green 
 cliffs and white houses rising picturesquely from 
 the water's edge just opposite, and St. Servan on 
 her left, all glowing in the afternoon sunlight. 
 Recovering herself at once, she sat down beside 
 the old apple-woman and began to talk. The old 
 woman complimented her on her French, abused
 
 128 S/NG ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 the yonng voleurs who had done her such an ill 
 turn, and then.began to talk of her own hard life, 
 and the struggle it was, since she lost her own 
 good man, to keep body and soul together. It 
 was not so bad at that time of the year, of course, 
 for the heat was comfort in itself, and then it 
 made the appetite less, so that small quantities 
 of food sufficed, and hunger did not gnaw ; but 
 in the winter, when it froze, ah ! with an ex- 
 pressive catching of the breath and hugging of 
 herself it was indeed "la vie des mis6rables." 
 But mademoiselle must pardon her. What did 
 young ladies know of misery ? Doubtless made- 
 moiselle had all that heart could desire. And the 
 old woman looked at her admiringly and without 
 bitterness out of big brown eyes that had once no 
 doubt been brilliant, and still possessed a certain 
 beauty of their own the beauty and pathos of 
 patient suffering and dead hope, wasting diseases 
 of the soul which have their graces of expression, 
 even as certain forms of bodily decay have 
 theirs. 
 
 " I have a great deal to be thankful for, cer- 
 tainly," Gertrude answered, sadly. " But I 
 have my troubles too, ma mbre" and then she 
 talked of her recent trials till the old woman 
 forgot her own. She was a delightful old wo- 
 man, with cap and kerchief snowy white in spite 
 of her poverty, a blue serge gown just down to 
 her ankles, and neat strong shoes with knitted
 
 SINGULAR!. Y DEL UDED. 129 
 
 stockings. When they parted Gertrude made 
 her rich with half a sovereign, and happy for 
 life with a handsome gold cross, which the old 
 woman refused at first, but afterward accepted 
 when Gertrude demanded in return for it a daily 
 prayer. 
 
 Gertrude hegan to feel tired as she climbed 
 up the steep street from the landing-stage at 
 Dinard into the town. Fortunately the H6tel 
 des Bains was close by, and there she found her 
 luggage, the porteur having consulted the inter- 
 ests of the house by ordering it to be brought up 
 from the steamer when he arrived with what he 
 had been sent for. 
 
 Gertrude noticed a noisy party of gentlemen 
 clambering up a coach-and-four, evidently a some- 
 what ramshackle public conveyance, which was 
 drawnjip on the road jnst beyond the hotel, and 
 after she entered she heard it rattling off. 
 
 " My husband has taken rooms here, I think/' 
 she said to the landlady, who had come out of 
 her own room half bedroom, half sitting-room, 
 store-room, and linen-cupboard to welcome her. 
 "Mr. Lawrence Soames." 
 
 " Ah ! Meester Lawrence Sommes ! " the good 
 woman exclaimed, throwing up her hands. " He 
 came. He was going to stay forever ! And 
 behold him, a I'instant meme, departed by the 
 voiture publique for Dinan. Did he not expect 
 madame ? "
 
 130 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 " No," Gertrude answered, without any show 
 of emotion. It sounds almost absurd to put it 
 so, but the greatness of this last and most un- 
 expected disappointment made her feel it at the 
 moment less than any of the others. " He has 
 been in Guernsey, and I came over from South- 
 ampton, so we missed each other. But I suppose 
 I can get a carriage and follow him ? " 
 
 "Impossible," the good Madame Filippo told 
 her. " Even if the horses for hire were not so 
 miserable, tho drivers were perfect brigands, and 
 it would not be safe for a young lady alone." 
 
 Just then Monsieur Filippo arrived on the 
 scene, in white clothing and a paper hat, which 
 he doffed with affectionate deference to his guest, 
 and the circumstances were explained to him. 
 
 For a few seconds he lent his masculine mind 
 to the problem, with an air of perplexity. 
 
 " Madame wished to overtake her husband at 
 once," he said, pinching his chin thoughtfully. 
 "It was very natural. Attendez! I am there ! 
 r riiere is the serviced, vapeur de St. Malo a Dinan. 
 Stay, voila la carte. LG steamer Ille-et- Ranee 
 heures de depart " running his finger down the 
 table " ce soir dix heures -premieres, two 
 francs fifty aller et retour, premieres, four 
 francs I suppose madame will go first single ? 
 It is beautiful on the river. All the English love 
 it much." 
 
 " But madame a V air fatigue," Madame Filippo
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 131 
 
 suggested ; " perhaps it would suit her better to 
 rest here for the night ? " 
 
 "I should like it," Gertrude said, feeling worn 
 to death, and quite at home with these honest 
 people, who were certainly doing all they could 
 for her without reference to their own profit, 
 " but 1 must rroiii my husband as soon as possible. 
 I will dine here, though, if you please, and I will 
 get you to look after this big box of mine it is 
 in my way till I come back or send for it. I 
 have all I want in my bag.'' A few hours later, 
 Monsieur Filippo, having cooked the most appetiz- 
 ing little dinner in the world for her, escorted 
 her to St. Halo, and saw her safely off on the 
 steamer on her way up the Eanoe to Dinau.
 
 132 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE steamer was a miserable little affair. 
 There was no cabin fit for a lady on board, and 
 Gertrude was therefore obliged to remain on deck ; 
 but this was no hardship. The only discomfort 
 was the night air, which was chilly ; but good 
 Monsieur Filippo had warned her to keep out -a 
 wrap, and she had accordingly taken her white 
 mackintosh, which, with its hood, covered her 
 from head to foot, keeping the heavy dew as well 
 as the breeze off, and the heat in. Sitting there 
 alone in her patient way, motionless, hour after 
 hour, with the long white garment draped iu 
 shadowy folds about her, and the moonlight fall- 
 ing full upon her steady eyes and placid face, she 
 looked like a devotee of some new order, passing 
 from a known present to an unknown" future with 
 confidence if not with joy. 
 
 The river scenery was all beautiful by that 
 light ; parts of it were fairy-like, and it is not too 
 much to say that she enjoyed it at the time, and 
 always afterward the recollection of it was a pleas- 
 ure unaccompanied by any painful association. 
 The shock- of the last disappointment had brought
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 133 
 
 her one blessed relief she had ceased for the 
 time being to expect, ceased to flatter herself with 
 false hopes of immediate success. She did not 
 take it for granted now, as she would have done 
 at first, that she should overtake her husband at 
 Dinan and have- no more trouble ; on the con- 
 trary, she quieted her mind as much as she could, 
 so as to rest it, that she might have the strength 
 to continue her journey without delay should it 
 be necessary. She also arranged her plan of ac- 
 tion. She had found out from Monsieur Filippo 
 where the coach stopped it was at one of the 
 hotels ; and she meant to begin there, and if she 
 did not find her husband, go on from one to an- 
 other till she did. Happily she was spared this 
 trial. Her husband so far had not been difficult 
 to trace. His course had been erratic as a comet's, 
 but everywhere he had made -an impression which 
 helped her to identify him. It was not a very 
 favorable impression, she sometimes feared, and it 
 was certainly very different from the one he had 
 been accustomed to produce ; but still she felt she 
 should be thankful that his madness had not 
 taken a quieter form, which might have enabled 
 him to pass everywhere unobserved, and so made 
 it impossible for her to find him. It was gray 
 morning when she arrived at Dinan. She was 
 stiff with the long hours spent in the night air on 
 the deck of the little steamer, and so weary that, 
 although she did what she had set herself to do,
 
 134 SfAfy ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 she did it mechanically, and without the slightest 
 anxiety as to the result. Yet the landing had 
 made an impression on her which she could always 
 recall ; a curious impression first of looking up 
 from the deck of the steamer doubtless at the 
 great viaduct stretching from cliff to cliff in front 
 of her, and at what seemed a gigantic castle with 
 trees and terraced gardens towering to an immense 
 height above her on the one hand, and on the 
 other great cliffs that seemed to touch the sky. 
 Then she recollected being on the height herself 
 though how she got there she never knew 
 looking down on a ribbon of a river and a nutshell 
 of a boat. 
 
 The people at the hotel where the coach stopped 
 were Tip and preparing breakfast in expectation 
 of arrivals from the steamer. Yes, Monsieur 
 Sommes had dined there the, evening before, and 
 been the life and soul of the party. He had 
 gone out afterward to have a look at the town ; 
 had declared on his return that it was a rotten old 
 hole full of moldy monks and nuns ; had heard 
 that there was to be a high tide at the Mont St. 
 Michel next day, and had gone off at once vid 
 Dol to see it come in. How could she get to the 
 Mont St. Michel ? Gertrude asked in her sleep, 
 as it seemed to herself. The Mont St. Michel was 
 in Normandy, and she was in Brittany surely. 
 She had some sort of vague notion it must be 
 hundreds of miles away.
 
 SJNGULARL Y DEL UDED. 135 
 
 Oh, they told her,, it was easy enough. There 
 was the railway to Dol, and at Dol she could hire 
 a private vehicle and drive the rest of the dis- 
 tance, passing through Pontorson a beautiful 
 country, madam e would certainly enjoy it. Ma- 
 dame did certainly traverse it, but she never knew 
 how she accomplished the feat, for her enjoyment, 
 if any she had, was taken out in sleep. A deadly 
 drowsiness came over her in the hotel at Dinan 
 where she breakfasted. She must have lived and 
 moved through it, and had her being, as people 
 do when wide awake, but the faculty she used was 
 the one we work in dreams. For the first thing 
 of which she was conscious in a natural way, after 
 she had breakfasted at Dinan, was the sudden 
 ceasing of some noise. She straightened herself 
 to see what it was, and then she found that she had 
 been lying hack in a lumbering old carriage which 
 had just been stopped on the edge of a desert of 
 sand. Some tamarisk bushes were growing near 
 her, and on the seat opposite was a branch of 
 beautiful rosy apples set off by their own green 
 leaves a delicate attention of the driver's, doubt- 
 less, plucked by the way, for it was the time of 
 apples there, and all the country was sweet with 
 them. 
 
 Waking slowly to full consciousness, she glanced 
 from these trifling objects to the driver himself, 
 and found him looking at her. He wore a long 
 blue blouse over his clothes to keep off the dust,
 
 136 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 which gave him a juvenile look, as of a school- 
 boy whose whiskers had come too soon. His hair 
 was black and coarse, his skin swarthy, the ex- 
 pression of his face anxious and melancholy, as 
 it often is with the Breton folk, and, for that 
 reason perhaps, attractive. Gertrude felt a lik- 
 ing for him at once. He had stopped to show her 
 that great object of interest, the Mont St. Michel, 
 rising up gaunt and alone out of a wilderness of 
 sand, like a cottage loaf on a bare board, and 
 Avranche over there where the sun was shining ; 
 and the direction from which would come the sea, 
 which not only went out here, but went out of 
 sight, and then came back like a race-horse, a 
 wall of water, sometimes ten feet high, which 
 swept all before it and woe be then to the loi- 
 terer who might have wandered out on the sands ! 
 And there were other dangers too the quick- 
 sands, which were strong enough to swallow man 
 and horse, and always shifting after every tide ; 
 and the rivers yonder, changing their courses 
 often, so that you never knew where you were. 
 What was the road to the Mont to-day, there across 
 the sand, would be obliterated to-morrow, and 
 might be the bed of a river. It was like life, as 
 he often thought, all uncertainty, danger, and 
 difficulty with which he whipped up his horse, 
 and they began to .plunge along the heavy track 
 made by previous vehicles over the sand. 
 
 Gertrude roused herself, and began to
 
 SING ULA RL Y DEL UDED. j 3 7 
 
 think, Was her husband there really, or had his 
 wandering mind led him off in some quite op- 
 posite direction, so that she must miss him after 
 all ? Heartsick at the prospect, she felt her 
 impatience grow every moment, and these last 
 few yards of the journey seemed a never-ending 
 interval of anxiety more tedious than all that had 
 gone before. She was not subject to phases, nor 
 as a rule to periods of exaltation and subsequent 
 periods of reaction and depression. Reason was 
 the pilot that had steered her so far through all 
 her tranquil happy life. Yet now, for a won- 
 der, doubtless because her physical condition 
 was lowered and weakened by fatigue and anx- 
 iety, she suddenly found herself in a state of 
 morbid excitement. She became a prey to the 
 rage to arrive. The desire to find her husband 
 and to be with him again, recalled sensations of 
 extreme agony. She would have taken chloro- 
 form gladly to escape it. The driver, when they 
 reached the Mont St. Michel, stopped at the first 
 hotel they came to, which, as it seemed to Ger- 
 trude, was just within the gate. A beautiful sad- 
 faced woman in a high white cap came to the 
 door, as is the kindly fashion of the country, and 
 welcomed her affectionately, making her feel more 
 like an expected friend than a profitable guest. 
 And perhaps, because this woman's face was sad 
 and affectionate, Gertrude felt her own sad heart 
 go out to her at once, and she longed to take her
 
 138 S7NG ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 into her confidence. For Gertrude, like every 
 woman who truly loves one man and is beloved 
 by him, appreciated her own sex, and when he was 
 away was happiest with other women. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence Soames and party had arrived, 
 and had just at that moment gone up to see the 
 cathedral. They had arrived early and been on 
 the island all day, and they had ordered dinner 
 too, and were going to stay the night. Their 
 rooms were even then being got ready. 
 
 This, then, was the goal gained at last ; and 
 here, Gertrude thought, with a great sigh of re- 
 lief, must end the most cruel part of her trouble, 
 the separation, with all the uncertainty and sus- 
 pense it entailed. Her husband would not rec- 
 ognize her for that she was quite prepared. 
 She had not therefore mentioned the relationship 
 when she asked for him here, for fear of betray- 
 ing his state of mind to the people of the house, 
 or of leading them to think her some impostor, 
 which was just as probable a contingency. What 
 she intended was to sit next him at dinner and 
 scrape acquaintance with him, make him fall in 
 love with her over again, and induce him to let 
 her accompany him. 
 
 " Mr. Soames is the friend of some frfends of 
 mine," she explained to the landlady. " He 
 is also a connection by marriage. He knew me 
 when I was a child, but he probably won't rec- 
 ognize me. You might put me next to him at
 
 SI ATG ULARL Y DEL UDED. \^ 
 
 dinner, though, and I will recall myself to his 
 recollection. He will doubtless help me to over- 
 take my own party when he knows who I am. It 
 is not pleasant for a lady to travel alone in a 
 strange country." 
 
 "Ah," the landlady said, " madame, avait 
 raison, and without doubt her relative would be 
 charmed to be her escort till she should overtake 
 the friends she had so unfortunately missed. Such 
 aa arrangement was quite convendble for the Eng- 
 lish." 
 
 This conversation had taken place in the great 
 raftered kitchen, the landlady's attention being 
 unequally divided at the moment between Ger- 
 trude and some fowls which were roasting in front 
 of the fire for dinner, the fowls receiving the 
 larger share of it, probably as being less able to 
 help themselves. But Gertrude's driver, with his 
 slouch hat under one arm, his whip under the 
 other, and his long blue blouse tucked up at the 
 sides so as to admit of his putting his hands in 
 his trouser-pockets, was standing close by, and 
 had not lost a word of what she was saying. 
 "When the landlady turned away, he remarked in 
 a discreet undertone, fixing his large, melancholy 
 eyes on Gertrude reproachfully : " When ma- 
 dame hired my carriage, she said it was her hus- 
 band whom she sought to overtake, and prayed 
 me to urge my horse and spare him not. And to 
 the mind of madame, who is too young and
 
 1 40 SING ULARLY DEL UDED, 
 
 fair to be allowed to suffer, I drove like the wind. 
 But, alas ! there is no truth anywhere," with a 
 shrug of despair at the appalling duplicity of this 
 weary world. 
 
 Gertrude looked at him with troubled face. " I 
 did tell you so," she said ; " and, moreover, it is 
 the blessed truth. But what would you have? 
 My unhappy husband is mad. He thinks himself 
 another person. He will not know me. Would 
 you have me tell all the world he is my husband, 
 when he will say he is not ? or he is mad, when to 
 those who do not know him he seems quite sane ? 
 They would not believe it, and would think me 
 mad." 
 
 "Ah!" the driver exclaimed, withdrawing 
 his hands from his pockets, and dropping his 
 whip and hat as he held them out toward her 
 clasped, with a quick gesture of sympathy. " I 
 understand well. Madame is right. Madame did 
 well to confide in me. I am discreet, and will be 
 at the service of madame whatever happens. She 
 is too young and fair to be allowed to suffer. I 
 am her humble servant. She may depend upon 
 me," and he tapped his chest earnestly with the fin- 
 gers of both hands. His face had cleared wonder- 
 fully. Gertrude stood even, higher in his esteem 
 than at first, and he had placed her, to begin with, 
 next Our Lady, and treated her with the same af- 
 fectionate respect. 
 
 The landlady now interposed with an omelet
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 14.1 
 
 for Gertrude, which the latter ate standing at the 
 kitchen table, the landlady pressing her hospi- 
 tably the while to finish it all. Then she ordered 
 a substantial meal for her devoted driver, and went 
 to lie down till dinner-time. 
 
 She was worn out, but her mind was at ease, 
 so that it was no wonder if she slept. And she 
 did sleep with a vengeance, although there had 
 been fracas enough in the house to wake one of the 
 seven slept till a great hand was laid on her 
 shoulder, and she was roughly aroused by being 
 shaken. 
 
 "Up, madame!" cried the driver. ^Mon- 
 sieur is mad indeed. He has quarreled with all 
 his friends. He will leave the house this moment. 
 The carriage is even now at the door, and so is 
 mine ready for madame to follow him. He will 
 not dine, no ! He has damned the dinner, the 
 wine, the house, the high tide everything, in 
 fact, and everybody. And he is off ! Hasten, 
 for the love of Our Lady, madame ! " running 
 to the window "even now behold his carriage 
 that sets out ! " 
 
 Pale as death, Gertrude sprang from the bed, 
 caught up her jacket and hat, and rushed down- 
 stairs without waiting to put them on, forgetting 
 her boots, which she had taken off when she went 
 to lie down, and bag. The driver, however, looked 
 round before he left the room, and gathered up 
 all her belongings. Gertrude ran through tha
 
 142 SING ULA KL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 kitchen in her stockings, and jumped into the 
 carriage, which was ready at the door. 
 
 " For God's sake, be quick ! " she cried to the 
 landlady. " Tell me what I owe you. I must 
 overtake him." 
 
 " Oh, del! " cried the landlady, " are you mad 
 too ? " The driver was on the box by this time, 
 all the guests in the house had poured out, and a 
 little crowd of the natives was rapidly collecting. 
 Gertrude threw a handful of francs at her hostess. 
 
 " Madame, it is too much," the latter shrieked. 
 But the driver had whipped up his horse, and her 
 words were lost in the rattle of the old machine 
 as it flew down the narrow street.
 
 SING ULARL Y DEL UDE&. 143 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 GERTRUDE, hatless, jacketless, gloveless, boot- 
 less, entirely forgetful of herself, knelt on the 
 front seat of the old landau, looking over the 
 driver's box at the carriage in front of them. 
 They were both plunging over the heavy sand 
 now, and it was also an old landau, so that the 
 solitary occupant sat with his back to her. She 
 could not, therefore, see his face, but she saw his 
 ruddy brown hair, and he wore the same hat and 
 gray suit as on the morning of his flight. 
 
 " Leslie, Leslie ! " she cried piteously, stretch- 
 ing out her hands to him. 
 
 " Courage, dear lady," the driver cried. e ' With 
 the help of the Blessed Virgin, we'll keep him in 
 sight. 
 
 But it was an unequal race, and all the advan- 
 tage was on his side, for he had two horses, and 
 they had only one, with as heavy a carriage. 
 
 The track over the sand that day wound so as 
 to double the distance, as the crow flies, of the 
 island from the shore. "When they were but half- 
 way across, the carriage in front of them had 
 reached dry land. Here the driver pulled up for
 
 1 44 SIttGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 a moment. Gertrude watched him with straining 
 eyes. He jumped from the box, and went to look 
 at one of the horses* feet. " A stone in its hoof, 
 I suppose/' Gertrude" explained to herself. It 
 took scarcely a second to remove it, and then the 
 driver clambered back to his seat. As he did so, 
 he faced Gertrude's vehicle, and saw it without 
 evincing much interest carriages were common 
 enough in that part of the world but at the same 
 time he seemed to see something beyond, and in 
 an instant his whole demeanor changed. His 
 Norman phlegm became Southern passion. He 
 threw up his hands and yelled. He jumped up 
 on the box of his carriage, and danced and howled 
 till his horses, terrified by the noise, set off down 
 the road at a- gallop, overthrowing him at the 
 start into the body of the coach on to Mr. Lawrence 
 Soames, who was adding his quota in curses to 
 the hubbub, but in curses of remonstrance, with- 
 out troubling himself to look round and ascertain 
 the cause of all the uproar. And Gertrude herself 
 was ignorant -of it. The man had yelled two 
 words over and over again. She had heard them 
 distinctly, and in a way understood them ; but 
 yet they had conveyed no significance to her mind, 
 because she did not in any way apply them to 
 herself. " La maree! la maree f The tide ! the 
 tide ! " 
 
 " God of God ! Light of Light ! " cried her 
 own driver, " we are lost. Saints in heaven,
 
 StNGULARL Y DELUDED. 145 
 
 save ns ! Lord have mercy upon us ! blessed 
 choir of saints and angels, come down and carry 
 us out of this ! You only can ! " 
 
 But the saints and angels were busy, and did 
 not hear. 
 
 " What is it ? " Gertrude demanded, looking 
 about her bewildered, and at first seeing nothing 
 extraordinary. 
 
 The man stood up on his box, lashing the horse 
 with whip and reins, urging it furiously. " La 
 maree ! la marie I " he shouted at it, as if it could 
 understand the danger and be made to go. 
 
 " The tide the tide," Gertrude echoed re- 
 flectively, trying to understand. 
 
 Then all in a moment she knew. For yonder 
 she saw it, surging at the edges but otherwise 
 smooth, a dense body of water, solid and heavy, 
 stealthily, swiftly, silently approaching, "like a 
 race-horse/' She recalled the driver's words, and 
 became quite cold as she realized the danger ; bnt 
 outwardly she showed no sign of excitement, and 
 when she spoke her voice was steady and clear. 
 She seemed to quiet the driver's mad fury with a 
 word. 
 
 " Can you swim ? " she asked, grasping his arm 
 she was still kneeling on the seat behind him. 
 
 He dropped on to the box, and let his head sink 
 on his breast. 
 
 "Yes," he ejaculated. 
 
 " So can I," said Gertrude. " When the wave
 
 1 46 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 overtakes us, we must throw ourselves on to it. 
 We shall only have to keep up. It will wash us 
 ashore/' 
 
 " On to the box, madame I " shrieked the man, 
 pulling her up. 
 
 For a moment they stood there together. For 
 a moment the great wall of water towered over 
 them. Then came an overwhelming rush, and 
 cold, and blindness, and suffocation, and frenzied 
 struggles with great agony of mind. But through 
 it all Gertrude was conscious of the man's strong 
 grasp upon her arm. He had taken hold of her 
 to pull her up on the box-seat beside him, and 
 never let go never at least until he had drawn her 
 out of the water, and laid her safe under the 
 tamarisk bushes, high and dry upon the sand. 
 
 The danger had been extreme, but it had not 
 lasted long, and Gertrude never lost her senses, so 
 that now, when she had got the salt water out of 
 her eyes, she was able to observe. And the first 
 thing that struck her was the altered aspect of the 
 country. The desert had disappeared. The town- 
 clad, church-crowned mount, which had looked 
 before like an outcast fragment of the world, cut 
 off and disinherited, was an island now on the 
 bosom of a l^autiful lake ; and at her feet, in- 
 stead of the heavy road and the blinding dust where 
 the ho'rses had toiled, and her soul had suffered 
 for their sufferings, the little waves lapped and 
 gurgled humorously, in innocent unconsciousness
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 147 
 
 of all the wicked works of the cruel old ocean- 
 or, if you like it better 
 
 " The beautiful ocean, mother of wavelets, 
 Ling'ring, and longing, and loving the shore " 
 
 as it is written by some one who doubtless meant 
 something. 
 
 " But what is that ? " said Gertrude, pointing 
 to an ugly inexplicable black mass, floating at some 
 little distance from the shore. 
 
 " That," said the man despondingly, " is my 
 carriage, and my poor dear horse." 
 
 Gertrude turned to look at him, intending to 
 say something sympathetic. He was sitting under 
 a tamarisk bush at a respectful distance, in a de- 
 jected attitude, looking the picture of misery. 
 But what his appearance suggested more than 
 anything was the fact that he was very wet. 
 
 " It's a good thing it's a warm day," Gertrude 
 said, trying to make the best of it, and meaning 
 that had cold been added to his wetness he must 
 have felt worse. But the man was offended. He 
 thought her flippant and heartless. " It is the 
 way of the world/' he sighed, gazing forward out 
 of large melancholy eyes. " I am ruined, and 
 you laugh. What is it to you if I starve ? " 
 
 Gertrude rose to her feet. " It is a great deal 
 to me," she said ; " you are a good and honest 
 man, I think, and on that account alone it would 
 be of consequence, because there are so few. But
 
 1 48 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 you are a brave man also, and I owe you my life, 
 and on that account too it is of consequence, be- 
 cause I am grateful. And I am rich. See here, 
 I have a diamond ring. I bought it one day be- 
 cause the fancy took me, and it is worth more, 
 probably, than your horse and carriage, or all you 
 ever possessed ; but I will give it to you to keep 
 always if you like, or you may take it as a pledge, 
 and return it when I send you its value in money 
 to redeem it." 
 
 The man had risen when she did, and now she 
 went up to him and put the ring on his little finger. 
 She kept her word, and some months later sent 
 the money to redeem it, having, even in the midst 
 of all her own trouble, taken the precaution to 
 make a note of his name and address for the pur- 
 pose. But the Bre'ton folk are sentimental brig- 
 ands, and the man returned the check, saying he 
 preferred to keep the ring, if he might be per- 
 mitted, as aporte bonlieur and souvenir of madame. 
 Whereupon, as a matter of course, madame begged 
 him to keep the check as well, and they remained 
 fast friends forever after. 
 
 Bnt now thoroughly recovered by this last exer- 
 tion of her mind, Gertrude began to be practical 
 again. 
 
 " What are we to do ? " she exclaimed. "We 
 are losing such precious time ! " 
 
 " The first thing for madame is to be dried," 
 he answered. * ' There is a cottage up the road.
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 149 
 
 But how can madame walk without boots ? " with 
 a gesture of despair. But Gertrude was half-way 
 to the cottage before the words were well out. 
 She would not wait to have her things properly 
 dried, she would only have them wrung out, so 
 that she could walk in them. There was no car- 
 riage to be had nearer than Pontorson. Very well, 
 then, she would walk to Pontorson. Impossible, 
 the driver said, in her stocking-feet ! Why, it 
 was miles ! Nevertheless she would walk, she re- 
 torted, and be there as soon as he was, and save 
 precious, priceless time, instead of waiting here 
 in idle suspense. And she did walk, with the 
 help of a stick, and of her driver's arm also for 
 the last mile or two. Her silk stockings were soon 
 in shreds, her tender feet bruised and bleeding ; 
 but with set face, pale and resolute, jacketless, 
 hatless, her dark hair, which had been washed 
 down by the water, twisted up anyhow, her brows 
 contracted with pain, she persevered, and did the 
 distance without flinching. 
 
 It was after dark when they arrived at Pontor- 
 Bon. Mr. Lawrence Soames had changed horses 
 there, and passed through hours before. He said 
 he was in a devil of a hurry. His driver had told 
 the people at the inn of the accident that must 
 have happened. Mr. Soames would not let him 
 turn back to render assistance. He said it was a 
 providential arrangement. The tide came up 
 and frightened the driver, the driver shouted and
 
 150 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 frightened the horses, the horses ran away and 
 saved time at a gallop, which would just enable him 
 to catch his train at Dol. To have turned back 
 then would have been flying in the face of Prov- 
 idence. And as to the young lady seen in the 
 other carriage why, whom the gods love die 
 young, and she was doubtless happy in heaven by 
 this time. 
 
 All this was told to Gertrude by the good wo- 
 man of the little inn, who was bathing Gertrude's 
 feet and mourning over them while the carriage 
 was being got ready. 
 
 There were several young and comely Xorman 
 women at the inn, and they completed Gertrude's 
 costume in a way which was certainly most be- 
 coming to her. She was wearing a dark-blue 
 serge dress, and they rolled her dark hair up under 
 one of their high white caps, pinned a whitb 
 linen kerchief over her shoulders, and got her 
 some new white cotton stockings and a pair of 
 strong leather shoes sabots, of course, were out 
 of the question. In this dress she looked charm- 
 ing, and all these kindly women kissed her, and 
 told her so, and would hardly be persuaded to ac- 
 cept even a trifle for their property and their 
 trouble. It seemed to be just a pure pleasure to 
 them to comfort her and do what they could for 
 her. They would have neither money nor thanks, 
 if they could help it, to rob them of it, and make 
 it a business. But there was very little time lost
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 151 
 
 here. As quickly as possible a carriage was 
 brought, and Gertrude, much refreshed by kind 
 attentions, strong coffee, eggs, and hot bread, was 
 driven off by a strange man this time, but with 
 her old driver on the box by way of escort.
 
 152 S1NGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 LOLLING back in the carriage, tired to death, 
 her feet like burning coals, her heart aching and 
 anxious, Gertrude was utterly unconscious of any 
 incongruity between her fine-lady attitude and 
 her apparent position, as indicated by her Nor- 
 mandy peasant's dress. But the people in the 
 cottages, whose lights fell on her as the vehicle lum- 
 bered past, perceived it, and many made comments 
 which wore neither kind nor polite. 
 
 They drove at once to the station at Dol, and 
 there she obtained a satisfactory explanation of 
 her husband's sudden flight. It seemed he had 
 been a day out in his reckoning, had accidentally 
 discovered the fact, and had been obliged to hasten 
 back to St. Malo in order to get to Southampton 
 in time for the mail-steamer, on which he had 
 taken his passage for the East. One thing about 
 this piece of news struck Gertrude hopefully. 
 There had certainly been much method in her 
 husband's madness so far. He had carried out 
 his expressed intention with regard to this scam- 
 per ; and it was therefore to be presumed that, if 
 he did not come to his senses, he would travel on
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 153 
 
 ander the same delusion to San Francisco. She 
 *iad heard from Miss Somers that Lord War tie- 
 bury had brought his yacht round to Southamp- 
 ton, and was awaiting events there. Accordingly, 
 on arriving at St. Malo, Gertrude ventured to 
 telegraph to him-. She told him her husband had 
 crossed over by that day's boat, implored him to 
 meet it, to secure Leslie, and prevent the San 
 Francisco project at all hazards. After which 
 she went over to Dinard, and was hospitably en- 
 tertained and cared for by the good Filippos at the 
 H6tel des Bains. It was late next evening when 
 she found herself on board the steamer bound for 
 Southampton. A very awkward and uncomfort- 
 able thing for her had happened in the mean time. 
 Before she took her ticket it occurred to her to 
 count her money, when she found to her conster- 
 nation that she had not enough by some shillings. 
 "What am I to do ?" she ejaculated. 
 
 " Can I be of any use ? can I help you ?" a 
 pleasant voice immediately responded, stammering 
 diffidently. She looked up and saw a tall, good- 
 looking young fellow of about her own age, who 
 met her eyes frankly but apologetically, as if half 
 deprecating the. liberty he had taken. Gertrude 
 liked him at a glance, and her womanly instinct 
 prompted her to set him at his ease at once. 
 
 " I am in an awkward dilemma, to tell you the 
 truth," she said ; " 1 never thought of counting 
 the money in my purse before I came on board,
 
 154 SINGULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 and now I find I have not nearly enough to pay 
 for my ticket. But see, I have plenty of jewelry. 
 Do you think I might offer them that in proof of 
 my honesty till I get to Southampton ? I have 
 friends there who will meet me. And I must 
 cross to-night. It is most important." 
 
 "Oh, yes," he answered. "I am sure there 
 will be no difficulty about it. But, if you will 
 allow rne, I will go and arrange it for you. Never 
 mind the jewels ; I can explain." 
 
 He returned with a ticket, and then naturally 
 they began to chat. 
 
 " I am on my way back to Sandhurst," he told 
 her. 
 
 "Oh, are you?" she answered. "I have a 
 brother there a cadet. " 
 
 " In which Division ? " he wanted to know. 
 
 "I know nothing of Divisions," she rejoined, 
 smiling ; " but his name is Graham Wendell." 
 
 " Why, Wendell is my particular chum 1 " the 
 young man exclaimed. 
 
 "Then your name must be Norton," Gertrude 
 answered. 
 
 " Yes," he said; " I knew Wendell had some sis- 
 ters " but he did not like to ask her which she 
 
 was, and Gertrude never thought of telling him. 
 
 " How singular that we should meet here ! " she 
 said. 
 
 " How very jolly ! " he answered, boyishly. 
 
 It was a lovely night soft, warm, and calm-
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 155 
 
 The moon was at the full. It made a great path 
 of light over the smooth water. There was no 
 wind. The ladies' cabin was close and disagree- 
 able, and Gertrude, after a peep at it, had re- 
 turned to the deck, determined to stay np as long 
 as she could. Young Norton found her a chair, 
 and wrapped a rug round her, and then they sat and 
 resumed their talk. He interested her with anec- 
 dotes of Sandhurst life, made her laugh at Sand- 
 hurst jokes, and beguiled the time for her until 
 the sun rose, and they entered Southampton 
 Water. The night had passed, and she had barely 
 time to go below and make ready for the shore before 
 they were in. When she returned to the deck, she 
 found that a number of people had come on board, 
 but no one she knew was among them. One can- 
 not think of everything, and she remembered now 
 she had not told them when to expect her. True, 
 they might have known she would cross immedi- 
 ately, but at the same time they might not have 
 thought of it. She had recognized Lord Wartle- 
 bury's yacht anchored in the offing as they steamed 
 in, and told young Norton she hoped her husband 
 was on board it, and now, when none of her friends 
 appeared, she consulted him again about what she 
 should do. Before he had time to make a sug- 
 gestion, a policeman and another man probably a 
 detective in plain clothes came up to them, stared 
 hard at them, took out a written paper. * be* 
 gan to con it together
 
 156 SlNGULARL Y DEL UDE&* 
 
 " Rather above the middle height," the police- 
 man read aloud, glancing at Gertrude. " Dark 
 hair, plenty of it, pale face, dark eyes, slight 
 figure, small hands and feet, dark-blue serge dress, 
 felt hat to match, long gloves. I guess that's the 
 ticket." 
 
 "Yes, it's pretty near," the other said, "con- 
 sidering that it's friends as drew it up. And tak- 
 ing the two together, I guess we're on the right 
 track. What do they say about him ? Just read 
 it again/* 
 
 " Stands about six feet in hisbopts," the police- 
 man read. " Gentlemanly appearence, well-cut 
 clothes, suit of small check, gray dust-coat, 
 ring on little finger, probably spats on boots. 
 Brown hair, sunburnt face, blue eyes, slight 
 mustache there's no mistaking him, my boy ! " 
 
 " I must move away from here," Gertrude said, 
 " these men stare so rudely." 
 
 But when they attempted to do so both men 
 approached ; the policeman laid his hand author- 
 itatively on Gertrude's shoulder, and the detective 
 laid hold of young Norton. 
 
 " What the deuce " the latter was begin- 
 ning when the detective'interrupted him. 
 
 " You'd better come quietly, my fine fellow," 
 he said, " and not make a bother. It won't be no 
 use neither if you do, for we've half a dozen men 
 out there on the quay ready to help us." 
 
 "But what on earth is the meaning of this ?"
 
 StNGULARL Y DEL UDED. \ 5 7 
 
 " It means/' drawing out a paper, " that this 
 here is a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Samuel 
 Davidson, clerk, and the young woman yonder, 
 Mrs. Georgina Bannister, for that they did elope 
 together carrying off certain properties." 
 
 He stopped here and stared, for both the young 
 people had burst out laughing. 
 
 " Why," Gertrude exclaimed, " this gentleman 
 is a perfect stranger to me. I never saw him be- 
 fore last night." 
 
 "He took your ticket for you all the same, 
 ma'am, in the assumed name of Norton, and 
 paid for it, as I've just been informed on good 
 authority." 
 
 "You -did not pay for my ticket, did you ? " 
 Gertrude exclaimed. "I thought you had ar- 
 ranged " 
 
 " I can easily explain that," the young man 
 
 hastily interposed. " And besides '' he broke 
 
 off. " Oh, here, now, this is too much of a good 
 thing. -. Here is my card. You will find my lug- 
 gage on board. I am escorting this lady." 
 
 " And we shall find the lady's luggage on board 
 too, I suppose," the detective said, with a signifi- 
 cant look at the policeman. "Just be good 
 enough to give us the lady's name." 
 
 " Miss Wendell," Norton said. 
 
 "Mrs. Leslie Somers," Gertrude corrected. 
 
 The policeman chuckled. " There is some- 
 thing we call a discrepancy, young man," he said,
 
 158 SINGULAR L Y DEL UDED. 
 
 " in these here statements. So just you come off 
 with us to the station quietly. It will be best for 
 you in the long run." 
 
 " Take your hand off that lady's shoulder," 
 Norton exclaimed, losing his temper at the indig- 
 nity that was being put upon Gertrude, "or I'll 
 knock you down." 
 
 "Oh, you will, will you/' the man said inso- 
 lently, making a signal as he spoke, and Norton 
 instantly found himself pinioned. 
 
 " Keep the prisoners apart," the detective or- 
 dered, and they were marched off the steamer 
 through a gazing crowd, and put into two sepa- 
 rate cabs. 
 
 " What's up, governor ?" a man asked. 
 
 " Elopement with robbery. Eeg'ler heartless 
 case," said the officer. " He's a deep 'un, too. 
 Had provided himself with a gent's card, and got 
 the initials painted on his luggage ! " 
 
 Two policemen, great uncouth coarse fellows, 
 got into the cab with Gertrude, and sat opposite 
 to her. Their clothing reeked with the damp, 
 and the blacking on their boots smelt strong. 
 Altogether their propinquity was revolting to her, 
 and she remained drawn back as far as the nar- 
 row space permitted, her eyes flashing, her face 
 crimson with indignation. 
 
 " So you weren't satisfied with yer old man,'* 
 one of them began, with offensive familiarity. 
 "Well, the young spark's more in yer line, I
 
 SING ULA RL Y DEL UDED. 159 
 
 allow, so far as suitability goes. But whatever did 
 you go and rob the old boy for ? It'll be a pity 
 to see a smart 'un like you sent off for six months, 
 won't it, James ? " 
 
 " Aye/' the other man rejoined. " And she is 
 a smart 'un, too. I wouldn't mind runnin' away 
 with you myself, my dear, if you'll have me when 
 you come out." 
 
 Gertrude fixed her steady eyes first on one and 
 then on the other as they spoke, and each in turn 
 lost confidence, and then subsided abashed. 
 
 " You are very stupid men," she said. " You 
 ought to know the difference between a lady and 
 the sort of person you pretend to think I am. 
 You must know my husband's name well enough. 
 I am Mrs. Leslie Somers." 
 
 " Oh, you are ! " jeered one of the men, with a 
 chuckle. " We'll believe that, Brown, won't we ? 
 Mrs. Leslie Somers 'ud be running about the 
 Continent with a young fellow as calls himself a 
 Sandhurst cadet, and doesn't know her name 
 though he says he's escortin' of her. Courtin' of 
 her's what he meant, he ! he ! I tell you, young 
 woman, Mrs. Leslie Somerses don't appear in publio 
 with young fellows as don't even know their names, 
 nor without lady's-maids neither. If you could 
 hold your tongue you might look like a Mrs. Leslie 
 Somers, but when you open your mouth you be- 
 tray yourself. So you'd better play it lower dow 
 a precious sight."
 
 1 60 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 " Let's see your visitin' card/* the other one 
 interposed. He was not so confident as he had 
 been. 
 
 Gertrude, unfortunately, had no card in her 
 pocket. " But see," she said, " my monogram 
 is on my purse, and here again on my handker- 
 chief." The monogram was G. B. S., her second 
 name being Beatrice. The policeman, however, 
 chose to consider that the B. stood for Bannister, 
 and these proofs of her identity served only to 
 make assurance doubly sure. They took posses- 
 sion of the dainty trifles, keeping them doubtless 
 by way of pieces de conviction, and became more 
 insolent if possible than they had been. 
 
 On arriving at the station Gertrude had to sub- 
 mit to the indignity of being searched. It was in 
 vain that she demanded telegraph forms. The 
 police would do nothing without money, and they 
 had taken her purse. She implored them to let 
 her speak with Mr. Norton, but they only jeered 
 at her, and made brutal suggestions about lock- 
 ing him up with her. She knew, of course, that 
 the mistake would be found out sooner or later ; 
 but meanwhile what precious time was being lost! 
 The thought made her furious, and she began to 
 rage ; but she was locked up alone by this time, 
 in a damp closet of a place, a mere passage-like 
 slip between two walls, and if any heard her they 
 did not heed. Hour after hour passed, and her 
 mood changed perpetually, but it was never a
 
 SfJVG ULARLY DEL UDED. \ 6 1 
 
 change for the better. Her utter helplessness 
 dazed her at first. Then she thought she could 
 escape if she tried prisoners did escape ; so she 
 rattled at the door, felt the walls to gauge their 
 thickness, and tried to climb up to the window. 
 This dirtied her hands, and she felt for her hand- 
 kerchief. For the first time in her life she found 
 herself deprived of that necessary article, and ab- 
 surdly enough this trifle was the first thing that 
 brought tears to her eyes tears of bitter morti- 
 fication, the worst she had ever shed. She had 
 a soft Indian muslin kerchief round her neck, 
 edged with lace, and this she turned into a pocket- 
 handkerchief for the time being. Then she sat 
 down and resolved to be patient. She was quite 
 exhausted, and she must remember the cruel need 
 there was for all her strength. This changed the 
 direction of her thoughts, and she ceased to suffer 
 from that worst and most wearing form of worry 
 worry on one's own account and began to think 
 about her husband. Very mournful thoughts 
 they were. She could not help contrasting the 
 present with the past the happy, happy past, 
 when such love and care had been lavished upon 
 her, when it seemed that even a rude glance had 
 never been allowed to fall on her. What would 
 Leslie have said if he had seen her that morning, 
 subject to every kind of insult, or could he see 
 her now, cold, faint for want of food, devoured by 
 anxiety, a prisoner and alone ? Why, it would
 
 162 S1NGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 be enough to drive him inad ! " Mad, mad/' she 
 repeated to herself ; and then she \rondered how 
 people felt when they were going mad, because 
 she feared if they left her there much longer she 
 would go mad herself. 
 
 For six mortal hours she was locked up in that 
 wretched place. The tramp of feet up and down 
 the passage was almost continual, and at first she 
 thought that every one who passed her door was 
 coming to release her. Hence numberless disap- 
 pointments, till at last she ceased to hope and be- 
 came apathetic, sitting there listlessly with her 
 head in her hand, not thinking, hardly conscious 
 of anything but a great overpowering, crushing 
 sense )f. misery.
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 1 63 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 AT last, however, just when she was thinking of 
 it least, and all in a moment, as it seemed to 
 poor Gertrude, the angels descended and unlocked 
 the door of her prison. It was flung wide open 
 suddenly, and she beheld quite a little crowd of 
 people, all with friendly, familiar faces, except 
 her late enemies, the police, who stood " to 
 attention " in the background, looking sullen and 
 abashed. Lord Wartlebury was there, Dr. Man- 
 gell, Mr. Norton, and, greatest joy of all for Ger- 
 trude at the moment, Miss Somers. The ladies 
 rushed into each other's arms. 
 
 " my poor dear Gertrude ! " Miss Somers 
 exclaimed, becoming incoherent from excess of 
 feeling, and a strong desire to say several things 
 at once. " I have only just arrived. What you 
 must have suffered. Lord "Wartlebury wrote to 
 me last night. He is safe on board the yacht." 
 
 " Is my husband safe ? " Gertrude cried. 
 
 " Yes, dear," Miss Somers answered, with a 
 glad little sob. 
 
 Then Gertrude turned to wring Lord Wartle- 
 bury's hand, and Dr. ManselPs, and Mr. Norton's. 
 She felt inclined to embrace them all.
 
 164 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 "It is to this young gentleman's determination 
 and promptitude that you owe your release," Lord 
 Wartlebury explained, alluding to Mr. Norton. 
 Then turning haughtily to the police, he added : 
 " A most unjustifiable mistake. And I hear you 
 have been treated with marked discourtesy/' to 
 Gertrude. " The thing must be represented. 
 And if I can do anything for you, sir, in the 
 future " to Mr. Norton " rely on me." 
 
 After going through some formalities at the 
 police station, they drove to the nearest hotel, 
 where dinner had been ordered. Mr. Norton had 
 been obliged to rejoin at Sandhurst immediately, 
 and accordingly took his leave as soon as they 
 were released ; and then Gertrude was told of all 
 that had occurred since the arrival of her telegram 
 on the previous day. 
 
 The difficulty had been how to secure Leslie 
 Somers, and make him content to stay with his 
 friends instead of wandering off to San Francisco, 
 or wherever else his disordered mind might sug- 
 gest. Dr. Mansell proposed that they should 
 humor his delusion, call him Mr. Lawrence 
 Soames, treat him as an English official with a 
 recognized position, and ask him to lunch on 
 board the yacht with a view to giving Lord War- 
 tlebury some information about San Francisco. 
 This would give them an opportunity of judging 
 exactly what state his mind was in, and that, they 
 hoped, without alarming or irritating him in any
 
 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. 16$ 
 
 way. Then, having once got him on board the 
 yacht, they were determined not to let him go, 
 though how to keep him without his good will 
 and consent was at first a puzzling question. The 
 thing was to obtain his consent. Lord Wartle- 
 bury was going to ask him for information about 
 San Francisco. Why should Lord Wartlebury 
 want this information particularly ? He must 
 give a reason. An answer at once occurred to 
 them. The yacht was built for long voyages. 
 Lord Wartlebury could say that he intended to go 
 to San Francisco ; he could take a sudden fancy 
 to Mr. Lawrence Soames, beg him to bring his 
 luggage on board, show him the yacht would be 
 there as soon as the mail-steamer, and invite him 
 to make one of his party for the voyage. The 
 advantages of such an arrangement must be ob- 
 vious to the poor fellow, they thought, and they 
 therefore anticipated no trouble in the way of a re- 
 fusal. Lord Wartlebury further proposed to ask 
 Gertrude and Miss Somers to accompany them ; 
 and another advantage of the arrangement seemed 
 to be the probability of a few weeks' cruise under 
 such favorable auspices being all that was neces- 
 sary to restore the patient to his right mind. 
 This plan was carried out to the letter. Dr. 
 Mansell met the soi-disant Lawrence Soames on 
 the arrival of the St. Malo boat, with Lord War- 
 tlebury's compliments, and the invitation to lunch 
 and impart information, which was at once ac-
 
 1 66 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 cepted. The further information to become one 
 of the party was skilfully led up to in the course 
 of conversation, and also accepted ; and then 
 Lord "Wartlebury had sent for Miss Somers, who 
 was awaiting Gertrude's arrival to go on board 
 the yacht, when Mr. Norton, to whom Lord War- 
 tlebury had been mentioned as a friend by Ger- 
 trude, sent a note to the latter, explaining the 
 plight the lady was in, and begging for his imme- 
 diate assistance. 
 
 It was Lord Wartlebury himself who gave Ger- 
 trude all this information, with many details be- 
 sides, which he thought it right she should hear. 
 She listened in almost perfect silence, commenting 
 once or twice, or uttering an ejaculation, but 
 never asking a question till Lord Wartlebury 
 stopped. Then she faltered : 
 
 " Has my husband said nothing ? Did he never 
 mention me ? " 
 
 " No/' Dr. Mansell told her. " His memory is 
 a blank. He has no recollection whatever of wife 
 or child, or home or friends. In fact, he declared 
 he expected no letters, because he had no one to 
 write to him. He said he believed he was a found- 
 ling, a self-made man at all events, without a re- 
 lation that he knew of in the world. Lord War- 
 tlebury mentioned Mrs. Leslie Somers, and said 
 he hoped you would make one of the party on 
 board the Star. When he heard the name he 
 knitted his brows in a puzzled sort of way, as if
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED, 167 
 
 trying to recall something, and repeated ' Leslie 
 Somers' several times. I asked him if he knew 
 Leslie Somers, and he said he was sure he knew 
 something about him, the name was so familiar, 
 but he could not for the life of him remember 
 what." 
 
 Gertrude sighed. " How am I to meet him ? " 
 she said. 
 
 Lord Wartlebury and Dr. Mansell exchanged 
 significant glances, and each waited for the other 
 to speak. 
 
 "We have been thinking," Lord Wartlebury 
 began at last with some hesitation, " that perhaps 
 you had better not see him just yet, you know 
 not until we have got well ou t to sea at least. There 
 is plenty of room on board the Star ; you need 
 not meet until it is desirable. And eh the fact 
 is, your husband requires to be kept quiet for a 
 little." 
 
 Gertrude understood that there was something 
 behind this which they were anxious to spare her 
 the pain of knowing, and delicately forbore to ask. 
 It had seemed all along that the separation was the 
 worst thing she could have to bear ; but now her 
 heart sickened at the prospect of being so near her 
 husband, and perhaps of having him look at her day 
 after day with strange eyes, not recognizing her, 
 and it might be with openly expressed aversion to 
 her presence. It was a common thing for mad 
 people to hate those whom, in their senses, they
 
 168 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 had loved best. Oh, she thought, she could bear 
 anything but that. Dr. Mansell left them direct- 
 ly after dinner to go on board the yacht, leaving 
 Lord Wartlebury to follow later with the ladies. 
 
 It was beginning to be dusk when they got on 
 board. Gertrude and Miss Somers were shown 
 at once to their state-rooms, which opened into a 
 small saloon knowo as the boudoir. It was in- 
 tended for the use of any ladies who might be on 
 board, a safe retreat in case of bad weather, and 
 there was an experienced stewardess always in at- 
 tendance. But the yacht was perfect in all its 
 arrangements, luxuriously fitted throughout, a 
 floating palace, in fact, with room enough for a 
 hundred guests, and a host of retainers. 
 
 Steam was up when they arrived, rushing and 
 roaring through the funnels ; there was a great 
 bustle of preparation on deck, and almost before 
 they had time to settle themselves in their new 
 quarters, the anchor was up and they were off. 
 
 On finding the little saloon brilliantly lighted 
 by electricity, Miss Somers got out a piece of 
 work, and busied herself with it placidly. Ger- 
 trude felt envious as she watched her. If she 
 could only occupy herself in some such way, she 
 thought, and await the issue of events calmly, how 
 much better it would be for her ! But she seemed 
 to have got past all that. She could not even sit 
 still for long, but got up and paced about, pre- 
 tending to examine everything in the cabin, yet
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 169 
 
 seeing nothing, and ending by moving restlessly 
 to and fro without even the pretense of an object. 
 Miss Somers said nothing, but she felt for the poor 
 girl deeply, and every now and then raised her 
 kind eyes from her work and watched her, feel- 
 ing rather helpless, because there seemed nothing 
 to be done to relieve the tension of her nerves and 
 take her out of herself. 
 
 " There are four sides to this cabin/' Gertrude 
 exclaimed at last, stopping short in the middle of 
 it, and looking round. " Do you know, I think I 
 should be better if I knew on which side he was." 
 
 The stewardess appeared with coffee just then, 
 and Lord Wartlebury sent a man-servant to beg 
 the ladies' permission to come and take his with 
 them in the boudoir. Miss Somers was glad of 
 the diversion for Gertrude's sake, for the old man's 
 influence evidently soothed her, and her good- 
 breeding made her control herself sufficiently to 
 show no sign of restlessness or dissatisfaction in 
 his presence. It was a great effort, to begin with, 
 to sit still and listen while he talked ; but his 
 conversation was brilliant and varied, and in- 
 sensibly he fixed her attention for a time, and 
 drew her out. Only for a time, however ; for by 
 and by she lapsed into silence, leaving Miss Somers 
 to talk, and by degrees becoming quite absorbed 
 by her own painful reflections. The conversation 
 between the other two rippled on evenly without 
 a pause. The murmur of placid voices disturbed
 
 1 7 O SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 her as little as absolute silence, and was quite aa 
 monotonous. The sound they made was like a 
 transparent veil beneath which many other sounds 
 were distinctly perceptible the steps of the watch 
 on deck, an order given occasionally in a hoarse 
 voice, a snatch of song from one of the crew, the 
 rush of steam and muffled roar of the fires and 
 machinery, the swish of the water against the 
 sides of the yacht as it sped on at nearly fourteen 
 knots an hour, and above all the thud, thud of 
 the screw, beating regularly as time itself, and 
 with just the same effect of inevitableness. Ger- 
 trude was dimly conscious of it all, and of a cer- 
 tain sense of safety which was almost a feeling of 
 peace. Unfortunately, it was only a soothing to 
 false repose, for the shock of a sudden awakening 
 was upon her, before she had at all realized the 
 sense of relief. One moment it seemed as if all 
 must come right, and soon ; but the next a shout 
 of laughter of coarse, unhallowed laughter, 
 sounding at her elbow, as it seemed, and breaking 
 in upon the quiet, without the slightest warning, 
 not even that of an approaching footstep caused 
 her to spring from her seat, and stand, with every 
 nerve quivering, not daring to turn round for 
 fear of what might be behind. 
 
 " What was it ? " she asked, faintly. 
 
 Lord Wartlebury went to her. " It was noth- 
 ing," he said, confusedly. She turned slowly 
 round. There was certainly no one there. " The
 
 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 171 
 
 partitions are thin on board ship," he explained, 
 "and the wood conducts the sound, and eh 
 exaggerates it. It was some one laughing in the 
 saloon ; voices coming from there sound so 
 always." 
 
 She was not attending to him, but listening 
 intently for some repetition of the sound. Pres- 
 ently it came, the same loud laugh, followed by loud 
 words which they could not distinguish ; but 
 they felt by the manner of them they were coarse. 
 
 Gertrude pressed her hands to her breast cou- 
 rulsively. 
 
 " So that is my husband ! " she said, in a strange 
 toneless voice. " Oh, Annie ! tell them not to 
 deceive me any more. It is no use. I know now 
 that my happy days are over." She threw herself 
 into a chair, leaned her head back against the 
 cushion, and sat with pale set face motionless. 
 Miss Somers seized her work, compressed her lips, 
 and toiled at it as if it were a matter of life and 
 death. 
 
 Lord Wartlebury withdrew immediately. He 
 had probably gone to stop the disturbance, for a 
 few minutes later the talk and laughter ceased. 
 Then the thud, thud of the machinery became 
 obtrusive, and the lap of the water and creak of 
 spar emphasized the silence. The moon rose and 
 shone down through the open skylight : a little 
 breeze found its way in also fresh from the shore, 
 and sweet with the scent of flowers. The night
 
 172 SlttGULARt Y DELUDES. 
 
 was charming, but there was one sad heart that 
 could not feel it so could feel nothing, in fact, 
 'but the dread certainty that all charm for it had 
 departed from all things forever.
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 173 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THEY had rough weather in the Bay of Biscay, 
 storm and rain and hail. Miss Soraers was pros- 
 trated by seasickness, and Gertrude had been 
 obliged to keep her berth for days, suffering, how- 
 ever more from languor and listlessness, the loss of 
 the desire to be up and doing, than from any bod- 
 ily ill. Dr. Mansell was anxious about her, and 
 had to insist at last upon her being dressed and 
 made to lie on a sofa in the boudoir, where she could 
 have fresh air, and some small change of scene to 
 rouse her. Old Lord Wartlebury came and talked 
 and read to her, and Miss Somers crawled out of her 
 cabin and did what she could. Gertrude knew 
 they were all very kind, and felt grateful ; and 
 because she was grateful, she felt impelled to make 
 an effort to please them, and therefore summoned 
 some energy, and assumed an interest, though she 
 felt it not, in what they said and did. 
 
 So they glided from the stormy Bay through 
 the narrow Pillars of Hercules into the Medi- 
 terranean, which was sapphire blue and bright for 
 them. And then it was felt that some change 
 must be made, for the ladies had been prisoners 
 below so far, and it was quite impossible for things
 
 ! 74 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 to go on like this much longer. But if they left 
 their retirement they must meet the patient ; 
 and the question was, What effect, good or bad, 
 would the sight of them have upon him ? Dr. 
 Mansell said he seemed quite sane on all but two 
 points hia delusion about the appointment at 
 San Francisco, and his utter oblivion of every- 
 thing relating to his past life. He suffered from a 
 perversion of tastes too, and a radical change of 
 tone, which was also no doubt the direct result of 
 the mental malady, and would disappear when the 
 cause was removed. He had a craving for drink, 
 and would never have been sober could he have got 
 the liquor ; and what he liked best was to gamble 
 all day long. He did not care with whom he 
 played the noble Earl, his host, the steward, or 
 the stoker, it was all one to him, so that they 
 played and staked something anything. He was 
 indifferent about the value of the article, and had 
 triumphantly exhibited a set of bone buttons one 
 day won from off the said stoker's greasy blouse at 
 a game of toss-up, played standing in the stoke- 
 hole in the intervals of mending the fires ; and he 
 was prouder of that victory than of any, because, 
 he said, the stoker was a dodgy chap, and a man 
 had to be all there to beat him. 
 
 This was not the sort of thing that Mr. Leslie 
 Somers, in his right mind, one of the ablest and 
 most polished ornaments of the bar, would have 
 done and boasted about j and Lord Wartlebury was
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 175 
 
 anxious, if possible, to spare Gertrude all knowl- 
 edge of the change in him in this respect. It was 
 hardly possible, however, unless the patient could 
 be persuaded to exercise some self-control. He 
 knew that there were ladies on board the yacht, 
 and had made sundry inquiries regarding their age 
 and social status riot at all complimentary to Lord 
 Wartlebury's character. It was therefore deemed 
 advisable to give him a hint about his conduct, and 
 warn him to be guarded in his language before 
 them ; and Dr. Mansell thought, while they were 
 speaking of ladies, they might sound him again 
 on the subject of his wife, and make an effort to 
 recall all that he had forgotten to his mind. This 
 done, the rest would be easy, for the delusion 
 about Lawrence Soames must disappear before the 
 recognition of his own identity. 
 
 Gertrude heard their plan, and felt almost hope- 
 ful about it, but expressed a wish to remain con- 
 cealed till she knew the result. The confinement 
 was doing her harm, however, and it was therefore 
 arranged that she and Miss Somers should go on 
 deck when Leslie was at dinner, and have their 
 own dinner at a different hour, and also in the 
 morning before he was up. This gave them plenty 
 of time, for. the poor fellow could hardly be per- 
 suaded to leave the table at night, nor his bed in 
 the morning. During this time Gertrude did not 
 catch even a glimpse of him, but Miss Somers 
 saw him once sitting with his back to her play-
 
 176 SINGULAR!. Y DEL UDED. 
 
 ing cards, without necktie or collar, his ruddy 
 brown hair all tossed, and a huge glass of brandy- 
 and-soda beside him. It was after one of these 
 games, when, having won it, he was in a partic- 
 ularly good humor, that Lord Wartlebury of 
 whom he seemed to stand in awe approached 
 the delicate subject upon which it was so neces- 
 sary to fix his attention, by beginning to discuss 
 different phases of mental aberration with Dr. 
 Mansell. The soi-disant Mr. Soames was interest- 
 ed at once. He knew nothing about the sub- 
 ject and seemed fascinated, listening and asking 
 questions with the eagerness of an intelligent 
 schoolboy. Had Dr. Mansell met him casually 
 he would have set him down as an uncultured 
 man of low tastes, with a good brain much weak- 
 ened by dissipation and drink. A certain shrewd- 
 ness was all that remained of the great insight 
 by which he had made his name. He confessed 
 gross sins and ignorances without shame or re- 
 serve, but seemed to know the possibility and rec- 
 ognize the advantages of leading a better life ; 
 he had even times of longing for what might 
 have been, had he conducted himself otherwise. 
 He was weak, however, and sensual, caring for 
 nothing really but constant excitement, and only 
 remorseful when this was not to be obtained, and 
 he became subject to the depression consequent 
 upon its absence. Lord Wartlebury pitied the 
 poor man from the bottom of his heart. He knew
 
 SING ULARL Y DJSL tJDED. 177 
 
 him well by reputation, and thought it sad to see 
 so fine an intellect reduced to such a level by 
 disease. He considered him a wreck, and never 
 forgot to make due allowance for any ravage, 
 caused by the storm, that might appear. But 
 Dr. Mansell was not so charitable. He did not 
 say much about it, but he felt in his own heart 
 that he never could have liked the fellow under 
 any circumstances. Yet he did what he could 
 for him, nevertheless, and on this evening in par- 
 ticular he worked with rare tact, first fixing Mr. 
 Soames' mind on the subject of delusions gener- 
 ally, then gradually showing how any one of the 
 three then present might at that moment be la- 
 boring under a delusion quite patent to the other 
 two, but never suspected by himself, and finally 
 making the application personal by remarking 
 in a casual way : " I suppose, though, nothing 
 would make you believe that you are traveling 
 under a delusion, Mr. Soames ? " "I don't 
 know," he answered, ruffling his hair up from 
 behind, and forcing a laugh, though it was easy 
 to see that the subject affected him seriously for 
 some reason or other. He shook the impression 
 off, however, and asked in a bantering tone, 
 " What form of delusion should you say I was 
 suffering from, doctor?" "Well," Dr. Mansell 
 answered, " I should say that you were under the 
 delusion that you were all alone in the world with 
 no one to care for you, while all the time you are
 
 1 78 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 bound by the nearest and dearest tie a man can 
 have. I should say that you were attacked by 
 this delusion quite suddenly one day, and having 
 lost the sense of your own identity you wandered 
 off under the impression that you were somebody 
 else some friend of yours, say leaving a lady in 
 a horrible state of suspense, not knowing what had 
 become of you, and a little child." 
 
 " Ah, by Jove ! " Mr. Soames exclaimed, slap- 
 ping the table. " Who told you that story, doc- 
 tor ? Was I drunk last night ? I remember hav- 
 ing her in my mind, but I thought I had been 
 dreaming. Was I talking about her ? I do talk 
 sometimes when I'm drunk, but it's taking a mean 
 advantage, you know, to round on a fellow that 
 way." He became thoughtful for a little. " It 
 all happened a long time ago," he pursued ; te but 
 I know now what a fool I was to desert her. I've 
 never come across her like again. And I'll tell 
 you what it is, doctor, if I knew where she was 
 at this moment, and she'd have me, I'd do the 
 right thing by her yet, and by the child ; I would, 
 indeed. And I'm not drunk now. I know what 
 I'm saying." 
 
 " My poor fellow," Lord Wartlebury said, 
 soothingly, "you fancy it was a long time ago 
 then?" 
 
 " And wasn't it ? " Mr. Soames asked, suspi- 
 ciously. 
 
 " Try and recollect."
 
 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. 
 
 I 79 
 
 He puzzled his brains for a little, then gave it 
 up, or came to a conclusion, it was impossible to 
 say which, with a toss of his head and a laugh. 
 
 " Oh, come now," he said, " you are trying to 
 draw me." 
 
 Dr. Mansell smiled. " We were talking about 
 delusions," he said. *' Xow, suppose I told you 
 seriously that you are not Lawrence Soames at all, 
 that your real name is Leslie Somers " 
 
 "Leslie Somers?" he interposed. "I know 
 that name. But" after a pause " I cannot 
 for the life of me remember how I know it or what 
 I know about it. However for the- sake of argu- 
 ment, I'll suppose I'm Leslie Somers. What 
 then ?" 
 
 "Leslie Somers," Dr. Mansell stolidly pursued, 
 " is a barrister, a well-known man, whose name 
 appears continually in the daily papers. At the 
 beginning of this summer he began to suffer from 
 the effects of overwork, and was obliged to take a 
 holiday. He went with his wife and child to a 
 quiet little seaside place to recruit, and seemed to 
 be recovering ; but one day, without any warning, 
 he became the victim of a delusion. He imagined 
 his name was Lawrence Soames, that he was ac- 
 credited British Consul to San Francisco ; and 
 after careering about the Continent a little in an 
 erratic way, and never doubting the reality of his 
 impression, he set off for America quite prepared 
 to enter upon his new duties."
 
 l8o SINGULARLY DELUDED. -^ 
 
 "What would happen then when he got to 
 America and found out his mistake ? " Mr. 
 Soames asked. 
 
 " Ah, that is difficult to say/' the doctor re- 
 joined. " But I haven't finished the first part of 
 the plot yet. I must tell you that his wife had 
 followed him all through his wanderings with 
 great courage and devotion, that she had traced 
 him with rare intelligence, and nearly lost her 
 life on three occasions in her eagerness to over- 
 take him ; and that at last she actually embarked 
 on the same ship that he did for San Francisco, 
 but remained concealed, nervously dreading the 
 shock of seeing him and finding herself forgotten. 
 After a time, however, it was found impossible 
 for matters to remain so, and useless, too, if he 
 was ever to be restored to his right mind ; and it 
 was therefore deemed advisable to prepare him for 
 an interview, and to endeavor, if possible, to rouse 
 his recollection by setting the past before him, so 
 as to enable him to realize his own plight." 
 
 Lord Wartlebury here nodded approval, but 
 Mr. Lawrence Soames remained with shrewd eyes 
 fixed intelligently on the doctor and an enigmat- 
 ical- grin on his face for some seconds longer. It 
 was impossible to guess what was passing through 
 his mind, and just as he was about to speak the 
 unexpected sound of a piano, touched by a light 
 firm hand, diverted his attention. He looked 
 round.
 
 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. i8t 
 
 ** It is one of the ladies," Lord Wartlebnry ex- 
 plained. "Their cabin is just behind you." 
 
 The first few chords, played evidently to try 
 the instrument, gradually resolved themselves into 
 the strong and exquisite yet simple cadence of 
 J. S. Bach's first prelude, set as retournelle and 
 accompanied by Gounod to his Ave Maria. It 
 was played with exquisite feeling ; and at the 
 right moment a lovely contralto voice took up the 
 air : 
 
 " Ave Maria ! 
 Mighty yet lowly, 
 Pure and most holy, 
 
 Hear from thy starry throne our prayer : 
 Though faithless friends may grieve us, 
 Wealth and fortune leave us, 
 Grant to our grief, and to our pain, thy tender care. 
 
 Sancta Maria I 
 When we are tearful, 
 When we are fearful, 
 Give to us thine aid to us thine aid of prayer I " 
 
 Lawrence Soames turned to the side from whence 
 the sound proceeded, and sat listening spell- 
 bound. An unmistakable flash of recognition had 
 come into his face when the first notes were 
 played, and swiftly following it came signs of 
 softening and emotion such as had not yet ap- 
 peared since he came on board the yacht. The 
 whole man was transformed for the moment, ele- 
 vated, undoubtedly, and when he spoke, it wa in a
 
 1 8 2 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 broken voice, from which, for once, all the jarring 
 coarseness had disappeared. "Well, I may be 
 mad," he said, " and I may have a wife and child 
 as yon say, and I mayn't be Lawrence Soames, 
 British Consul at 'Frisco. It is all possible enough, 
 and by Jove ! if she sings again, I shall want to 
 believe it. I shall want to believe that I didn't 
 desert her, that I stood by her like a man, and by 
 the child, and that she is singing that now, as she 
 used to sing it long ago with a thankful heart, as 
 she said, because of the great joy my coming had 
 brought into her miserable life. For it was a 
 miserable existence I took her from, and she was 
 happy with me, but I don't know why she got 
 out of health, and I think it bothered me to see 
 her so at any rate, I deserted her." His head 
 sank on his breast, and he fixed his eyes oil the 
 table before him, then suddenly he looked at Lord 
 Wartlebury. ' ' Are you a sort of prince in a fairy 
 tale, sir ? " he said. " Do you go about righting 
 wronged damsels, and have you brought us to- 
 gether on purpose ? " 
 
 "I am very anxious to see this matter put 
 right," Lord Wartlebury answered, guardedly. 
 
 (< Yes," Lawrence Soames went on again in his 
 strangely altered voice, " I begin to recall her 
 the soft dark hair, the great tender eyes, the little 
 loving ways. Doctor, ask her to sing again no, 
 though ! " suddenly jumping up. " Ask her to 
 eee me ask her to forgive me the misery I have
 
 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 183 
 
 caused her. Tell her I see it all now I am an 
 altered man I repent." 
 
 Lord Wartlebury looked at Dr. Mansell in- 
 quiringly. " Has it come right ? " he asked, in 
 a low tone. 
 
 " Not quite/* was the answer. " You see, 
 he is mistaken about the circumstances. How- 
 ever, he remembers her that is the great thing ; 
 the rest will come by degrees. Stop a minute, 
 Soanies ! " He had been about to leave the saloon. 
 " You don't know your way. Stay here a moment, 
 and I will go and find out if she is prepared to 
 see you." 
 
 During the few minutes the doctor was away 
 Mr. Soames stood motionless with his head up, 
 in the attitude of one straining his attention to 
 hear, and neither spoke. He was very pale, and 
 when the doctor came for him he followed him out 
 nervously. 
 
 Dr. Mansell returned to Lord Wartlebury im- 
 mediately. He was cheerfully rubbing his hands. 
 "I did not see them meet," he said. "They 
 will get over the interview best by themselves. I 
 quite expect he will remember everything dis- 
 tinctly directly he sees her." 
 
 Lord Wartlebury parted his lips to reply, but 
 just at that moment a piercing shriek rang 
 through the ship and made the glasses dance on 
 the table. 
 
 " The madman is murdering her ! " they 
 exclaimed, and rushed to the rescue.
 
 184 SINGULARL Y DEL UDBD. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE scene that presented itself to Lord 'Wartle- 
 bury and Dr. Mansell on entering the ladies' saloon 
 was quite inexplicable. They could see at a glance 
 that something had gone wrong there, but there 
 was no sign of violence, nothing to account for 
 the scream. 
 
 Miss Somers stood in the doorway of her cabin, 
 her plain, benevolent face full of consternation ; 
 Gertrude in evening dress as they all were 
 stood in the middle of the saloon, her hands pressed 
 convulsively to her breast, her eyes staring, her 
 cheeks pale, her lips still parted as when she 
 uttered that one cry, gazing like one horror- 
 stricken at Mr. Lawrence Soames, who had ap- 
 parently staggered up against the woodwork of 
 the ship, and was. leaning there as if for support, 
 with a face no less pale than Gertrude's, and a 
 general appearance and expression of bewilder- 
 ment about him difficult to depict. 
 
 He was, however, the first to recover himself. 
 " It seems," he said, turning to Lord Wartlebury, 
 (< there's been some mistake here." 
 
 Lord Wartlebury looked at Gertrude for an 
 explanation.
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 185 
 
 "That man/' she gasped "is not my hus- 
 band!" 
 
 " What I " Dr. Mansell ejaculated. 
 
 How " Lord Wartlebury faltered. 
 
 " Oh, what does it all mean ? " Miss Somers 
 exclaimed, coming forward as she spoke. 
 
 "Well, it means," Mr. Soames said, sarcas- 
 tically, shaking himself together and lounging 
 away from the woodwork " it means, so far as I 
 can make it out, that I've got among a set of staring 
 lunatics." 
 
 Hereupon Lord Wartlebury instantly recovered 
 himself also. " I am afraid there has been an 
 unfortunate mistake," he said, with his usual 
 dignified precision. "I think, sir, if you have 
 no objection, we had better ask the ladies kindly 
 to excuse us. I have an explanation to offer you, 
 and an apology to make," with which he led the 
 way back to the great saloon. 
 
 The scene that followed is indescribable. Mr. 
 Soames was naturally enraged. At first he 
 thought himself the victim of an elaborate practical 
 joke, and he was not to be mollified even when 
 he found that his host and the doctor were as 
 much sold as himself, as he phrased it. " Why 
 the devil didn't you ask to see my papers ? " he 
 roared at them. 
 
 This very proper precaution had never occurred 
 to them, because no doubt of his identity had ever 
 entered their minds.
 
 1 86 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 To do Mr. Lawrence Soames justice, however, 
 after the first burst of indignation, and after Lord 
 Wartlebnry had sufficiently abased himself, going 
 so far in his anxiety to show contrition and make 
 amends as to swear eternal friendship with Mr. 
 Soames, and promise the use of his interest in the 
 consular service or any other branch of the legisla- 
 ture, to him and to his heirs forever ; also I must 
 mention it after a satisfying share of a bottle of 
 champagne, he began to be genial again. He 
 was even immensely tickled when he thought 
 over all that had occurred the way he had been 
 chased from place to place by a lovely lady, cap- 
 tured by a peer of the realm, carried off in a 
 floating palace and guarded by an eminent physi- 
 cian, without once suspecting the object of all 
 this care and attention ! It was all . too funny, 
 really ; and when the story came to be told, it 
 was evident that the laugh would not be at his 
 expense at all events. And after all, he had lost 
 nothing by the mistake. On the contrary, he 
 had made -a powerful friend, and had had a very 
 good time. And now, if his lordship would be 
 good enough to put him on shore at Malta, he 
 would be able to catch the very steamer on which 
 he had taken his passage from 'Frisco, when she 
 touched there, and might then go on his way 
 rejoicing, certainly none the worse for his novel 
 experience ; which was accordingly done. 
 
 He was a common-looking fellow, without the
 
 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. 187 
 
 faintest resemblance to Leslie Somers in the face ; 
 but he was about the same height ; his hair was 
 the same color, and grew in the same way ; and 
 he happened to have been wearing much the 
 same sort of summer tweed suit : all of which, 
 with the circumstance of his leaving Trewport 
 Station at the time he did, accounted for the 
 mistake. The difficulty now was how to repair 
 it. The Star was of course headed home im- 
 mediately, but what precious time had been lost ! 
 Poor Gertrude sat on deck all day long and half 
 the night, with her hands before her, thinking. 
 She was very quiet and very patient, but seemed 
 to dislike to be spoken to. Dr. Mansell distract- 
 ed her a little by reading to her, while Lord 
 Wartlebury tried to comfort Miss Somers, who 
 was naturally nearly as anxious on her brother's 
 account as his wife was. On arriving in London, 
 the case was at once put into the hands of com- 
 petent detectives, as all now felt it should have 
 been at first. Gertrude went with Miss Somers 
 to see if anything had yet been heard of her hus- 
 band at his home or chambers, but both were still 
 closed and deserted. The house especially looked 
 blank and dreary, like a face without eyes, with 
 all the blinds down ; she wished she had not seen 
 it. Having done all that there was to be done in 
 London, she went at once to Trewport to see her 
 boy. She arrived late one afternoon, and walked 
 down from the station* leaving her luggage to be
 
 i88 SINGVLARL Y DEL UDEJJ. 
 
 sent for, there being no vehicles sent to meet 
 trains from that primitive place unless specially 
 ordered, a precaution she had neglected, wishing 
 to see how her boy had fared in her absence, as 
 she might exactly, if she took the household by 
 surprise, giving them no time for preparation. 
 
 It was a lovely afternoon, but sultry, and she 
 found all the doors and windows wide open, and 
 the sun-blinds still drawn. No one appeared to 
 be about, so she walked into the hall and looked 
 round. It seemed smaller than when she had last 
 seen it, and felt strange. 
 
 The drawing-room door was ajar, and she went 
 in there. A gaunt figure sprang from a couch 
 with a glad cry. 
 
 " Gertrude ! " 
 
 "Leslie!" 
 
 And in a moment they were locked in each 
 other's arms. 
 
 And then they looked at each other, and each 
 found the other so sadly changed, that both 
 wept, and fervently embraced again. Leslie had 
 a foot and hand all bandaged, and could not 
 stand. 
 
 " What is it, dear ? " she asked. 
 
 " The cause of a great deal of misery, I am 
 afraid," he answered, and then he told his story. 
 
 It was Lawrence Soames she had seen in the 
 distance walking away from her, for it seemed 
 that after having tied her up to the telegraph
 
 SINGULARL Y DELUDED. 189 
 
 post that morning, Leslie had only wandered off 
 some two or three hundred yards or so into the 
 bracken behind her. It was a perfect jungle- 
 growth of weed and fern ; he could not see what 
 he was setting his feet on, and all at once, to his 
 horror, he felt himself slip through. He grasped 
 convulsively at the weeds about him, but they 
 came up by the roots, and only served to break 
 his fall which was something, however, as other- 
 wise he must have dropped a dead-weight, some 
 thirty feet or more, into a sort of gully or rift in 
 the heath, the presence of which nothing indi- 
 cated until you were in it. As it was, he fell 
 heavily enough upon stones in the dry bed of a 
 torrent, and became insensible at once. When 
 he came to himself, it was evening. He was 
 lying on some sheepskins on the floor of a rude 
 hut. There was a wood fire in one corner, with 
 a hole in the roof above it for the smoke to go 
 through, but most of it preferred to go out by 
 the door. Over the fire stood a creature scarcely 
 human in appearance stirring something that sim- 
 mered in a large pot, with a stick. It was a man 
 apparently, but he was more like a huge monkey. 
 He had short misshapen legs, long body, broad at 
 the shoulders, with great depth of chest beto- 
 kening strength, abnormally long arms upon which 
 the muscles stood up suggestively, and small griz- 
 zled head looking out of all proportion to the 
 rest of the body, with close- cropped hair stand-
 
 I go SING ULA RL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 ing up on end all over it as a monkey's grows. 
 Leslie expected to see a hideous face when the 
 creature turned, but the face was not hideous. 
 It was animal beyond a doubt, but with a sensi- 
 tive expressive mouth and a pair of soft brown 
 eyes, speaking and pathetic as a stag's. The 
 animal idea was suggested by the short flat nose 
 and long upper lip, while the human being ap- 
 peared in the whole expression of the face, which 
 was gentle and caressing, wanting in something 
 certainly and at first Leslie could not imagine 
 what it was but still intelligent, though the in- 
 telligence was assuredly not of a high order. 
 There was nothing extraordinary about his dress, 
 which was such as was worn by many of the 
 poorer shepherds on the heath ; and this, to- 
 gether with the sheepskin bed, rightly suggested 
 his occupation to Leslie. 
 
 When he came to himself, the shepherd's back 
 was turned to him as he tended the pot, and he 
 did not therefore see that Leslie had recovered. 
 
 "Did you carry me here yourself ?" the latter 
 asked. " I think you could carry an ox in those 
 arms of yours, son of Milo ! " 
 
 But the man took no notice. He had evidently 
 not heard. 
 
 " Hi ! " Leslie called, with the same result. 
 " Stone deaf, I suppose," he muttered to himself, 
 then tried to rise, but fell back again on the skins 
 with a groan. He thought every bone in his body
 
 SlNGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 191 
 
 was broken, and he lay there suffering, not daring 
 to make another effort, for some time. 
 
 At last, however, the mild-eyed monster turned 
 to look at him, and seeing he was sensible, came 
 forward with a pleased smile, flourishing his pot- 
 stick, and making every sort of pantomimic 
 demonstration of delight, but without uttering 
 a syllable. Leslie shouted at him, and he evidently 
 saw that he had done so, for his countenance 
 sobered down to the saddest expression possible, 
 and he shook his head vehemently several times, 
 without, however, opening his mouth, or making 
 any sort of sound. Leslie rolled his head despair- 
 ingly on his sheepskin pillow, and groaned aloud. 
 He had taken in the situation at a glance. The 
 shepherd was a deaf-mute, amiable, ignorant, and 
 semi-imbecile probably, and he himself was at his 
 mercy, a helpless prisoner, unable to communicate 
 with his jailer at present, and, until he could do 
 so, cut off from his friends. Doubtless they would 
 gearch for him, and discover him in time, but the 
 thought of his wife's anxiety and suspense was 
 terrible. He noticed that the day was waning, 
 and for a moment wondered what they were doing 
 not to have found him already, then suddenly he 
 remembered Gertrude's position when he left her. 
 She might remain for days tied up on that lonely 
 spot, and never a soul come by that way to rescue 
 her. True, she might be seen by a passing train. 
 Then he thought of the boy, the trains and the
 
 192 SItfGULARL Y DELUDED. 
 
 boy, and saw all the awful things that might hap- 
 pen, and in an agony of mind struggled to his 
 feet and staggered forward, only, however, to fall 
 fainting at tile first step, and so to lose his one 
 chance of immediate deliverance, for while he was 
 still insensible Lord Wartlebury's men came across 
 the deaf and dumb shepherd standing at the door 
 of his hut, but not being able to make anything 
 of the one, did not think of searching the other, 
 and went their way. For several days Leslie lay 
 on that sheepskin bed, unable to move. He had 
 no bones broken, so it happened, but he was 
 terribly bruised and shaken, and one ankle was 
 badly dislocated. It was from this that he suf- 
 fered most. It became swollen and inflamed for 
 want of proper attention, and the result was fever 
 and delirium doubtless, for time passed, he was. 
 sure, of which he could render no account to him- 
 self. He knew the sun was setting one evening, 
 and almost immediately after he saw it rising 
 again, yet he had not slept, and there were morn- 
 ings when at daylight the shepherd crumbled 
 bread into broth, and gave it to him for breakfast, 
 as was his wont before he went to his work, and 
 made tea in the evening directly afterward, as it 
 seemed to Leslie's imagination. His reason, how- 
 ever, warned him that he must have lost all consci- 
 ousness of time in the interval. During one of his 
 awakenings he found that the shepherd had brought 
 a sick sheep into the hut to be nursed, and Leslie
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. \ 93 
 
 was amused to see the way he divided his atten- 
 tion between the two. He rather thought him- 
 self the favorite patient, but it was difficult to de- 
 cide, for the uncouth nurse was tenderness itself 
 to both too tender, in fact, as far as Leslie was 
 concerned, for the latter began to be sure that 
 the shepherd liked to have him there, and was 
 doing his best to hide him, instead of making Ins- 
 presence known, or doing anything to enable him 
 to communicate with the village. The very first 
 day he wrote to his wife, on a leaf of his pocket- 
 book, and gave the slip to the shepherd with some 
 money, making signs for him to take both. The 
 shepherd looked first at one, then at the 
 other, as he held them in either hand, smiled, 
 and went out. Some hours later he returned with 
 brandy and fresh provisions, proving that he had 
 been to the village and spent the money. Leslie 
 showed him another leaf of his pocketbook, try- 
 ing to find out what he had done with the first. 
 The man seemed to understand, for he made 
 a backward gesture over his shoulder toward the 
 door with his thumb, and nodded several times 
 significantly ; but what the pantomime signified, 
 except that he was satisfied with himself, Leslie 
 could not determine. Eventually, however, he 
 became sure that the note had not been delivered, 
 as no result followed. 
 
 Happily, as it happened, he had soon hit upon 
 an expedient which brought some relief to his 
 13
 
 194 SINGULARLY DELUDED. 
 
 anxiety on his wife's account. He was a good 
 draughtsman, and he did a clever sketch in his 
 pocketbook of the scene as he had left her, the rail- 
 way line and the surroundings, as well as he could 
 recollect them, and the slight girlish figure tied up 
 to the telegraph-post. This he gave to the shep- 
 herd, and pointed to the door. The man looked 
 at the sketch with knitted brows attentively,, then 
 looked at Leslie. The latter took it back, and drew 
 the shepherd himself cutting the ropes with his 
 knife. This the shepherd evidently understood, for 
 he smiled as soon as he saw it. Then Leslie clasped 
 his hands imploringly, and made signs for him to 
 go, and presently he did go out, still studying the 
 sketch. It was a long time before he returned, 
 but when he did appear he brought Leslie a rope, 
 which the latter was quite sure he recognized, and 
 showed him where the two ends had been cut with 
 a knife. Leslie concluded from that moment 
 that his wife had been released, and he was so 
 overcome with relief and gratitude that he seized 
 the monster's hairy hand and kissed it ; where- 
 upon the monster gravely examined the spot, and 
 went and sat over the fire for the rest of the day, 
 keeping it covered with the other hand, but occa- 
 sionally uncovering it, and critically examining the 
 spot again. Leslie also drew a picture of iiis 
 house and himself being carried by the monster 
 thither, but this the latter would not understand ; 
 nor would he show the slightest gleam of interest
 
 SSWG ULARL Y DEL UDED. 195 
 
 in two other pictures one of himself leading Ger- 
 trude from the house, and the other of Gertrude 
 in the hut though he took possession of the 
 sketches and hoarded them up. 
 
 The sheep recovered, and was allowed to join 
 the flock ; but Leslie believed that he himself 
 would not be allowed to go. He therefore deter- 
 mined to effect his escape. He could not walk, so 
 there was nothing for it but to crawl, and, watch- 
 ing his opportunity, he began the painful process 
 when the shepherd had gone to work one morn- 
 ing soon after daylight. 
 
 And a very painful process it was, and also hu- 
 miliating. For man was not meant to go on all- 
 fours, and a distinguished London barrister natu- 
 rally knew every argument that could be urged 
 against such a course. The first difficulty was to 
 find the way ; but this was soon settled by the posi- 
 tion of the hills on the outskirts of the village, and 
 he further determined his route by a track it was 
 scarcely a footpath which led off past the door of 
 the hut in that direction. The next trouble was 
 how to proceed. The injured ankle was intensely 
 painful ; the slightest touch or jar to it was un- 
 bearable. A crutch would have made matters 
 easier ; but he had not even a stick, so there was 
 nothing for it but his hands and knees, and another 
 difficulty was, how to work them whether to 
 move one hand and one leg at a time, or both hands 
 and both legs together, resting on the former
 
 196 SING ULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 while he dragged the latter up to them, and so 
 made a step. He did both alternately, and in an 
 inconceivably short time his trousers were worn 
 through, and he had to make what way he could 
 on his bare knees. A bird's-eye view of him just 
 then, jerking along through the bracken, which 
 towered above him, would have puzzled a nat- 
 uralist. And he certainly looked the strangest 
 creature ! He had neither been washed nor shaved 
 since his accident for the monster did not use 
 water in that way himself, and could never be per- 
 suaded to let his precious prisoner run any. rash 
 risk of the kind, firmly declining to understand, 
 let the latter beg never so hard by every sign he 
 could devise for water to perform the dangerous 
 operation ; his tawny head was tumbled ; he was 
 without collar or tie ; and altogether, with his 
 pale hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, and generally 
 haggard expression, he might easily have been 
 mistaken for a maimed lunatic making his escape. 
 The distance he had to traverse seemed endless, 
 and he could never have performed the feat with- 
 out some such strong incentive as the instinct 
 of self-preservation or love like his own for his 
 wife and child, and anxiety on their account. He 
 did accomplish it, however, at last, arriving at his 
 own door in such a sorry plight that the nurse, 
 who was just coming out with his boy in her arms/ 
 seeing the unkempt tatterdemalion crouched on 
 the step, gathered her little charge up closer, and
 
 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 197 
 
 turning, fled to the farther end of the hall, from 
 which coigne of vantage she eyed him suspiciously. 
 " Don't you know me, Elizabeth ? " he said, in 
 a vreak voice. 
 
 She came a little nearer, with eyes that looked 
 they would start out of her head in amaze- 
 ment, recognizing him, yet notable to believe the 
 evidence of her senses. The boy began to whim- 
 per at the sad sight. 
 
 " Take him away," Leslie said, dragging him- 
 self into the hall, " and bring Porter " his valet 
 " and help me to my room. Be quick ! But, 
 for heaven's sake, don't alarm your mistress. She 
 mustn't see me like this ; it would frighten her 
 to death." 
 
 They carried him up to his dressing-room, 
 brought him restoratives, and, not daring to ask 
 questions, gazed at him, trying to satisfy their 
 curiosity in that way. He sent for a doctor to 
 see his foot, and insisted on being bathed and 
 shaved immediately. While Porter was engaged 
 in this last operation Mr. Somers asked, ** How 
 is your mistress ? " 
 
 " She seemed pretty well, sir, the last time I 
 -saw her," was the answer. " We thought you 
 was up in London with her, sir." 
 
 " Up in London ! " Leslie ejaculated. " "When 
 did she go there ? " 
 
 Porter named the day. 
 
 Leslie reflected. " That was the very day I
 
 r 98 SINGULARL Y DEL UDED. 
 
 broke my ankle/' he said at last. " I fell down 
 a precipice, and was picked up by a deaf and 
 dumb shepherd who carried me to his hut, and 
 has kept me there a sort of prisoner ever since. 
 What time did your mistress get home that day ? " 
 
 " Some time in the afternoon, I think, sir. I 
 didn't see her come in. A gentleman brought her 
 to the gate, I heard, sir." 
 
 " Was she very much alarmed about me ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; she seemed just as usual when I saw 
 her, sir. She said you had gone to London un- 
 expectedly. I asked if I should take your things, 
 sir, but she said you had given no orders about 
 them, and she expected you would write. The- 
 gentleman as brought her home come back later 
 with another old gentleman, the Earl of Wartle- 
 bury, sir. He'd come here yachting, I heard. 
 They stayed dinner, and they all seemed very 
 pleasant together, and the missus went away with 
 them that night. She said she was going to do 
 some shopping in London while you was there, 
 and would come back with you. She didn't take 
 her maid, sir, and only very few things." 
 
 Leslie was speechless. "Are you sure she did 
 not seem alarmed or put out in any way ? " he 
 managed to ask at last. 
 
 " Quite sure, sir," the man rejoined positively. 
 " She seemed jnst as usual, and none of us sus- 
 pected anything was the matter, though we did 
 think it a rum go if you'd excuse the expression,
 
 S1NGULARL Y DEL UDED. 199 
 
 sir the both of you going off like that so sudden, 
 sir." 
 
 "It is ten days since, isn't it ?" Leslie asked. 
 
 " About that, sir/' the mau answered, reflec- 
 tively. 
 
 " And have you heard nothing from her 
 since ? " 
 
 " Yes ; twice, sir. She wrote to Elizabeth, 
 and said Miss Somers was coming down for change 
 of air, and to get a room ready for her ; and then 
 she wrote again, sir, a few days after, and said 
 Miss Somers would not come just yet, but we was 
 to expect her the missus, sir at any time. So 
 we've been expecting you both, sir, every day." 
 
 The doctor ordered Leslie to bed, on pain of 
 being lamed for life, and very kindly sent tele- 
 grams for him to his wife and sister. No answer 
 coming to them, Leslie sent his man to London 
 that night to make inquiries. The latter returned 
 next day with an inexplicable piece of intelligence. 
 He said the servants at Miss Somers' house had 
 declared that their mistress, Mrs. Leslie, and Mr. 
 Somers also, they understood, had all gone yacht- 
 ing with Lord Wartlebury, but nobody knew ex- 
 actly where. There was therefore nothing for 
 Leslie to do but lie there day after day, a prey to 
 the most anxious suspense, and wait. He did not 
 know what to think, but he understobd his wife 
 too well to imagine for a moment that she was 
 amusing herself while there was any doubt about
 
 200 SING ULARLY DEL UDED. 
 
 his safety. Her voyage must bear some referenc* 
 to his disappearance, and it did occur to him that 
 she might have gone off on some wild-goose chase, 
 following a false scent under a delusion. This 
 idea was comforting, because, of course, she must 
 discover her mistake sooner or later, and, not find- 
 ing her husband, would come back to her boy as 
 surely as the magnet turns to the pole. So he 
 waited with what patience he could command, till 
 her well-known step roused him from a doze that 
 happy afternoon, and they found themselves at 
 last, after such a world of suffering, safe in each 
 other's arms. 
 
 THE BND.
 
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